our regular town council meeting of Thursday, January 22, 2026. Uh for those of you who weren't here, uh we had our call to order with the invocation and pledge of allegiance. Without objection from council, we'll incorporate the invocation and the pledge of allegiance into this meeting.
Uh, without objection, we'll do it. Uh, roll call, please, for this meeting. Madam clerk, >> Mayor Foley, >> here. >> Vice Mayor Award, >> here. >> Council member Carroll >> here. >> Council member Toedesco >> here. >> Let the record show all members are present with the exception of council member Tedes. Council member Alieri.
>> Thank you. Item two, agenda reordering, deletions, or emergency additions. Are there any requests from council to reorder, delete items, or add items to the agenda? Uh m uh Mr. Mayor, I I think there was a circulation around regarding possibly
changing the council meeting date in June. Do you want me just to cover it under councilman items or do we want to add it to to the agenda? >> Um we can we can um uh we can add it to the agenda under councilman council member items uh and
vote on it at that time as well. >> Okay. Yeah. So >> yes, Mr. Mayor, that would be fine. >> Okay. So they'll make make a motion to add that to uh councilman items. >> All right. Is there a second on that motion? >> Second. >> Um all in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed?
>> All right. Um we'll keep you in suspense until item number seven as to what the date of the uh change will be. Um okay. We have are there any other any other items under number two? There being none, we will move to item three which is presentations and
proclamations. We have no present, we have no proclamations today. We have a presentation on sector 4 and sector 5 of our beaches by Mr. Bergman, the coastal resource manager of Indian River County. Uh, thank you, Mr. Bergman, for coming and enlightening us with the current
state of affairs with our beaches in sector 4 and five. I we've all seen a lot of activity there, so we're interested to see what's been happening. So, the floor is yours. >> Of course. Thank you so much for uh the invitation. glad to come and present to uh town council this morning. Um
obviously the the beaches are near and dear to my heart as as many residents and community members here. So happy to uh explain what's going on out there. U obviously we have have had quite a bit of uh activity on the beach. So I'm here to uh present on that. Uh one thing I
like to do with all my presentations is start with why. Why is the county involved in beach work? Why is the county doing nourishment? So, here at the county, um we we believe that the beach is really important for three major uh areas. That's recreation, the
economy, as well as uh environmental impact. So, those three are those three topics are kind of a guiding force for what we're why we do what we do. Obviously, here in in Peninsula Florida, we get visited by hurricanes unfortunately once in a while. So I
include some photos here like we do that we do have um infrastructure damage once in a while. So the beach reourishment is a strategy that the county pursues ever since 1988 when the county got serious about it beach preservation work. Um we
every every couple five years or 10 years we evaluate all of the strategies to immediate to remediate coastal erosion. So the the coastal erosion is the driving force behind why we're doing a lot of what we
do. Um with if we were to stop managing the beaches, coastal erosion is not going to stop. Um the seas are still going to come after us, hurricanes are still going to occur and then the beaches are going to be more and more deflated. Um there's a a uh theory out
there, it's called the coastal squeeze. when the ocean is coming up and the buildings do not move, the beach gets the experiences a squeeze. So, uh, our program at the natural resources department um, manages this and addresses that. So, um, for today's
presentation, I'm going to go over, uh, review the performance of the previous sector 4 project and then touch upon um, a sector 5 update as we are actively construction. So, just to set the stage, back in 2022, we were visited by
hurricanes Ian and Nicole. Um Nicole or Hurricane Ian gave us 11 foot waves offshore. Hurricane Nicole 19t waves offshore. In our um posttorm engineering report, our engineers um calculated that
we experienced about 19 feet of erosion inside of our sector 4 area. The town of Indian River Shores is unique because you stretch across part of our sector 3 area, our sector 4 area and sector 5. So um just to as a as a timeline for where
we have been and where we are going in regards to sector 4, I put together this timeline to explain after the hurricanes in 22 in May of 23 the board uh directed staff to pursue a project 20 in 24 we
got our permit later that year in 24 we awarded our project to a contractor construction completed in April of 25 Um now over the this recently over the summer of 2025 we completed our immediate post
construction monitoring that is the first stage of the monitoring that is required for these projects. Moving forward through the future years we have the same monitoring is going to be required in the summer of 26 27 28 we
skip a year and then come back in 2030 to look at everything again. In 2030, it's only physical monitoring. I'll get to that in a second. Sector 4 um is about three miles long. It was designed to place 135,000 cubic
yards as well as close to 150,000 plants. Um the main goal of their sector 4 project is a dune repair. So, uh a little bit of anatomy on the beach. We have a a upland dune where the plants are growing where we do not normally
walk. Um we have dune crossovers that go over that area and then what where we walk where we put our umbrellas and our beach towels is what we call the beach burm. So this project was mainly focused at putting sand in the dune where that was majorly affected by hurricanes in
Nicole. Very different than a a beach project where we would actually be placing sand in the water. That's important because a project that places sand in the water comes with even more environmental monitoring like sector 5 which I'll touch upon uh briefly.
Um the entire project of sector 4 over three miles it's not all the same exact design. There are some fluctuations based on the natural um movements of that that coastline. So anywhere between 9 to 20 feet of dune is where we were
able what we were able to place without having any sand go into the water. So like I said um we these projects do not come uh very easily. It took us about in the timeline you saw it took us about one year to acquire the permit.
That is astonishing. These permits are are quite thick. They not only go through DP, FWC, US Army Corps of Engineer, all of that government alphabet soup that has to go through all of these these reviews and iterations and back and forth. So to get this
permit in a year is amazing. Hats off to our our consultant who was able to help us pull this off. These permits are great to cure any amni or uh uh sleep issues you have. They will put you to sleep. Um, but they do call out all of
the monitoring that's required after we finish construction. So, not only does it call out what we can and cannot do during construction, it has all the the specific spa sand specifications that we must put down on the beach. And if we have any fluctuations in there, then we
have uh remediation that we have to go through. Um, so for sector 4, we have shorebird monitoring that we accomplished, sea turtle monitoring that we accomplished and will continue accomplishing in the future years, escarment monitoring, and the physical monitoring. The physical monitoring is
when we send out surveyors and they they measure the beach. They get an XYZ of that beach just like any professional surveyor could do. However, this one's unique is that our beaches are not just what's above water. Majority of the beach is actually underwater. So we have
a boat that surveys the bottom of the ocean floor about a quarter mile out or sorry a half mile out or about 40 feet deep. So it's quite a bit of data that we're gathering. For those that are here during the summer and winter, you will notice your own observations that we
have our beaches move in the summer and winter time. So that is it. In the winter time we have most of our beach goes underwater. it goes offshore and in the summertime those waves bring that beach sand material back onto the dry beach.
Again, extensive monitoring. Where we're at now is after construction, we were the final volume was about 117,000 cubic yards. Then in over the summer in June of 2025, we collected those
profiles from the surveyor again and then our consultant puts together this permit required um physical monitoring report. I did the did you all the favor of reading it and reviewing myself. The skinny is these three bullets right here. the dune system which if you think
at a contour of 10 feet above sea level at that elevation if we just look at that contour it advanced towards the ocean 23 feet on average that's great we I just told you that the hurricanes took away about 19
feet of dune where on average we put 23 feet of dune back the shoreline at elevation uh half foot advanced six feet like I told you we didn't put any sand in the water on the beach berm. This is this is a good sign that we had a little
bit of of we didn't see a lot of erosion. Um the hurricane itself moved a lot of that sand that was that 20 feet of dune. Where'd that sand go? Well, it's it's it's matter doesn't disappear. It goes somewhere. So that 20 feet of
dune, the hurricanes moved it offshore. It took some outside of our system outside of the 40 feet area of influence and some of it remained in that 40 feet deep of influence. So over the summer we saw some of that sand coming back which
is great as expected. In all the the project had a positive volume volutric change in our project area. Um touch upon our sea turtle season. We had great success this last summer. green sea turtles actually broke the
county record. And then we did have I told you we do monitor for escarments. The the fine folks at um um John's Island Association helped us get onto the beach and address those escarments. Escarments are those sand cliffs that
can occur. We are required to monitor those. If we have a persistent, so there's a certain requirement. If it meets that requirement, we are then to notify FWC D. They then direct us and how they want us to address it. In this case, every um 20 feet, we took some
hand crews out there with shovels and we knocked down the escarment. That allows the sea turtles to access the full area of nesting habitat. Um our final nesting report is not available yet. Um, it does have to go through FWC for final review
and they will be the ones addressing any any data concerns or any um, uh, impacts that the turtles then experienced because of our project. However, anecdotically, we didn't see any alarms. We would have noticed that during the nesting season. So, it's just a matter
of waiting for those the final report at this point. Um, lastly for sector 4, we did install plants. We we got close to 150,000 uh native salt tolerant dune plants. Our projects, our permits, we place majority
of sea oats. We do some sunflower, some panic grass and railroad vine. Those are some florals that we put in there. Add a little bit of color. And diversity is good. We don't want to have a a monoculture of plants out there. Diversity hab diverse habitat is a strong habitat.
Um, in May of 25, we did an inspection and our plants met our permit specifications for survivorship, which is good, meaning that our our subcontractor that provided the plants provided us good plants. Um, for as far as the vegetation goes, I thought it was
important to note that there's no further monitoring required for our dune plants. Any questions on sector 4 before I dive into the next sector? All right. Um, briefly again, our timeline. So,
November of 2025, we started construction in the sector 5 area. We anticipate completion in April of 2026. I'd also like to point out that um a lesson learned that we did from um sector 4 that we carried forth into
sector 5 is that we um in the contract that the biders um went for, we actually worked in no work periods around the holidays. Community members really uh showed a positive response to that. We wanted to carry that forward in the
sector 5 area since we not only are Indian inside working inside of Indian River Shores but the Vero Beach as well. The the tra added traffic during the holidays. Let's just take a break, send the contractor home and it worked out
really well. Um this upcoming summer we're going to have our immediate post construction monitoring and then again just like sector 4 we have all of the outy years of monitoring that is permit required that we'll be um conducting as well. The sector 5 project is a little
over three miles. It does uh include the very southern portion of Indian River Shores, 153 cub thousand cubic yards, very similar to what we placed in sector 4. A little less plants. And then this project is uh designed to place sand in
the beach berm as well. So not only are we doing a dune project, but we are putting sand in the beach berm. Um again, this is to address all the sand that we lost from hurricanes Ian and Nicole. As far as where we're at today, we have
active construction on the north side of tracking station to Mariner Village. And the project will meet up with sector 4 quite nicely. So, we'll marry those two ends of the project together, making a contiguous um dune line, which is going to be great because it'll be over six
miles long. The contractor has opted to work out of two access points simultaneously, which is great for us. Um, just got to split my team in half. That's fine. Um, but so, uh, we're also
working in the heart of Vero Beach at the moment in the hotel and, uh, restaurant district. So, the the southern part of the project will be completed last. Um, what's completed now is there in blue. That's from tracking station down to the end of the Con Beach
boardwalk. >> All right. So, uh permit uh required monitoring is very similar. However, because we are placing sand on the beach which will be interacting with the water, we are required to do nearshore reef monitoring. So, this is an example photo of what our reef looks like.
Surprise, we don't have a coral reef. We're not that quite warm. We're not the Florida Keys. We have what's called a worm rock reef. Still very uh important for fish habitat. It is a protected habitat. If we were to have any sort of impact, we would have to mitigate for those. Um, a lot of algaes. Um, there's
a lot of different animals in here. Again, you want to see that monitoring report. It's quite lengthy but um uh just need to point that out that we also send and for that moni the most important part is for the reef monitoring it's all diver verified. We
have transacts set and divers go out biological scientific divers go out and they monitor all the animals and plants that they can find on the reef and see how the reef is responding to our project. So that will be occurring in the in the future for sector 5. Um, with
that, I I kind of went fast. Save you guys some some time maybe, but with that, I'd love to take any questions you may have. >> All right. Um, starting left to right, any any questions? Uh, Councilman Carol, I know you've got some experience with Beach and Shores, so
>> uh, no questions. Excellent presentation. Uh, thank you very much for the information. >> Of course. >> Thank you, Councilman Carroll. Vice Mayor Outwater. >> Uh, one question regarding sector 5. Are there any properties that because of easement issues chose not to get sand?
>> Yes. Yes. Um our easement map that is uh available online uh indian river.govments you can everyone can see the status of all of the easements that we do have and do not have. Um, we did have on a on a a
silver lining, we did have one individual uh new owner built a house in sector 5 did come forward and we have a a new signed easement that's under review right now. But we still do, to answer your question, yes, we have a handful of properties that have uh
declined signing the easement. Therefore, uh we do not have legal permission to place sand on the property in front of their beach. >> Were they mostly commercial properties? Um, commercial properties or residential? I'd say it's a good mix. >> Okay. >> Yeah.
>> All right. Thank you. Um, you covered the easement question that I had and, you know, just expressing an opinion. Um, it's somewhat self-defeating for people not to sign an easement to get free sand replenishment on their property. So, uh, I know there's nothing
we can we can we can do legally as governments, but, uh, you know, hopefully folks will, uh, will see the light. Um just question, we we had backto-back storms and not not every storm needs to be a hurricane category
storm that causes some uh terrible erosion. We had uh a two or three day storm which was relatively mild in terms of you know hurricane strength wasn't even hurricane strength 30 40 mph but the sustained onshore winds created erosion. So, you know, that coupled
with, you know, Ian and the other hurricanes we've had, how many years typically does it take to re for the beach to recover from one storm, you know, not notwithstanding the fact that you may have two or three in a row? >> Great question, Mr. Mayor. Um, and and
you bring up a several really good points. the media and and and the folks, we really latch on to the name storms. So, why I focused on hurricanes Ian, Nicole, those are also declared storms. So, when it comes time for FEMA, there's some implications there. Um, but you're
right, the background erosion just from norers or regular storm events, wind events, um, that still causes coastal erosion. So, it's not just the name storms that are damaging our shoreline. Um, the norasters definitely don't
gather as much uh publicity as the name storms. Um, but it does the in a in a normal situation where we had a storm or an erosion event every few years, the beach very well could respond naturally to it. But we're
we have so many storms occurring so frequently that it doesn't give the the beach enough time to respond. Another aspect of it is and this is what's discussed a lot in the in the coastal engineering field and coastal management
field is that um human developments you know we my you know what in the 70s and 80s maybe in the 60s we started really developing our barrier island systems. We put our roads down. We put our businesses down. We put neighborhoods down. Um, all for that desire to be
closer to the ocean. However, when we did that, our buildings don't move. But the barrier island has been moving before human development. So, when we kind of humans, we draw a line in the sand and say, "Yep, this is my my building. It's not going to move." Well,
that isn't going to jive so well with the mother nature who who is moving that barrier island back and forth. To get to your point though, um the this project we look at erosion rates, so we know how much the beach is eroding about, you
know, layman's terms, easy numbers, call it 1 to two feet a year. We have co that's how much our shoreline is eroding. So average that out all the hurricanes, all the norers, one to two feet a year. we come into with a project and place um we we push that shoreline
out five feet. Well, simple math, it's going to be back to where it was in about five years. So, um this project is is designed between 5 to seven years. Um and then you thank you for bringing this up too because it's really important
that that folks know that um beach reourishment is not a solution. This is a management strategy to deal with coastal erosion. It's not going to solve coastal erosion. Coastal erosion is a a a global issue. Um but what we're doing
is to to manage our our local area in order to make sure that we can retain that recreation value, economic value, and environmental values. >> Thank you. Uh just this is more an observation than than it is a question. So I'll give you a little breather before I have a question for you after
this. Um while while you gave an excellent presentation on the county and its involvement in doing this, you you you tend to let's call it take the lead on this, but it's really a cooperation between the federal, state, county, and our local governments here. And is it
fair to say that, you know, the the laws and regulations that are in place from everything from protecting dunes and crossovers and plantings, those are minimum standards and, you know, towns and county and municipalities throughout the state uh can adopt stricter
standards to um do more plant things, create more um more protection for dunes crossovers in our beaches. >> Yeah, that's that's my understanding of it. Um right we even so a good example is uh what we're doing on our our
nourishment projects the state has um state adopted uh sand qualific uh sand metrics so grain size color silt content carbon content that is set at this level in our beach management plan we can take
a a more refined look at what our local area is our 22 miles not 800 miles of of beach line which or coastline which is the state's doing and we actually adopt a more stringent or more narrow window
of uh specifications for our sand quality. So sand quality it's very important. We wanted to match what we have historically and what we match aesthetically. All of those aspects come into where what sand we're going to get. U but yeah that's that's a very good
point. Good point. Good point. >> All right. Uh last and then we'll let you go. Uh the timing, you touched on it. Uh the timing of uh uh doing these projects and trying to minimize the inconvenience to folks who are here for holidays. Uh occasionally we get inquiries. Why do we why do we do this
at the time? And I I say the collective we um because you know we're involved somewhat in the timing. >> Uh we even got an inquiry recently from a fellow who was not getting uh what he thought were answers from his municipality. So he said, "You guys, you know, seem to be responsive. So why do
we do this at uh why do we do this at the times that seem most inconvenient when we're having people down?" And um you know, I think I think it's uh it's important to note that between turtle nesting season and you know, the the applications for permits and getting this done stuff done before the next
season comes, it is a relatively limited window, is it not to do this stuff? And so you know, ideally, if we could do it within two weeks after the storm, we'd do it. But then we're bumping up against turtle season. Is that fair to say? >> Exactly, Mr. Mayor. Um, we the permits, everything we do is is directed by the
permits. So, the state does not allow us to go into construction in between May to November. That is the the peak nesting season for sea turtles as well as the peak hatching season. Not only are they nesting, those nests have to incubate and then hatch out. If we were
to come in and we had this year roughly about 10 10,000 nests across 22 miles. So quite a substantial of threatened and endangered species nesting on our shoreline. If we were to go and do a construction project while those nests are incubating on there'd be a lot of
lot of issues. So our permits luckily do allow us to do construction in the beginning of sea turtle nesting season as well as right after nesting season. So, with the permission of FWC, we put in place extra precautions for sea turtles. If we um if we have nests,
there's things there's mechanisms in the permit that allow us to continue with construction. Um but that is the the the major point of why are we doing what is a very inconvenient construction project in the bulk of the winter when a lot of visitors are visiting the state of
Florida? It's because of that that seasonality. But you're right. All right. Thank you. Um, that's that's it for me. I'm uh, you know, I think I speak for council when I say we'll do our level best to cooperate and do whatever we can, not just to meet minimum standards, but also to maximize
whatever we can do to um to preserve and protect our valuable shoreline. Um, Councilman Tedesco, the problem with cleaning up is, is there anything left that you have to You're hitting cleanup. So, if you have anything >> I think you hit a hole. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Uh, yes, Vice Mayor Aler.
Uh just want to make council aware in the audience that there is a Senate Bill 636 I think it is which as I read it and it's kind of convoluted language but it appears to make it more difficult for a
beach that gets the critically eroded designation to have it taken away. And that does happen around the state wherea most of the time it's beaches being added to the list but occasionally beaches have been removed but at least
as I interpret it if there is support at the local level financially it makes it much harder for that to be so that's something we should just uh keep an eye on and uh it's it was in a committee that Senator Debbie Mayfield who's been a good friend of Indian River Shores uh
is involved in and it it passed I think 8 nothing in that committee. So, it's one we should keep an eye on. So, >> all right. Excellent point. We will um thank you very much for incredibly enlightening presentation and uh you know, we'll we'll work closely with you to make sure that we're we're doing our
part. >> Yes. And and and thank you to town council. You guys have been wonderful partners in this helping uh acquire easements, helping navigate and coordinate the project. You guys also your staff helped uh get word out about the project. And then um for some of the
other aspects, we've been working with uh your code enforcement staff has also been wonderful to uh coordinate and work with. Um your your town manager is phenomenal in in doing a lot of good work and and a lot of good coordination, a lot of conversations and discussions.
Um was there anything that you wanted to ask or um >> No, I thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just would like like to note uh to follow up on uh Quinton's comment uh the cooperation uh and the uh and the time uh and the dedication of uh of Quinton in
particular on a lot of these issues as specifically as it relates to the uh sector 4 critically eroded piece and a lot of the work up before we were able to secure that uh is greatly appreciated. He's very generous with his time and I think uh all the residents are fortunate that he has the position that we that he does. We're very
fortunate. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Of >> course. appreciate it. Um, following on the vice mayor's comment, I I think we should uh probably think long and hard about supporting the bill uh
since it took so hard to get us to obtain critically eroded status. Um, you know, perhaps council can get a copy of the bill circulated and if deemed appropriate, um, probably the way the legislative session is going, it's not critical that it happen before the February meeting, but probably sooner
rather than later, if we can get, um, consensus from council individually and get a letter out supporting the bill. So, um, if you could just circulate that, Pete or or Jim, that would be great. Thank you. All right. Item number four, comments from the public regarding agenda items. These are comments from
the public regarding any of the published agenda items. All right, seeing none, we move to the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Second. >> Second.
>> Mr. Tedesco. Second. Um, let's see. Do we have any uh we don't have any things requiring a roll call vote, so we can just uh do this by voice vote. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. It's unanimous.
Mayor's report. Um I'll be brief today. We had um a couple of items that I do want to highlight. Uh I passed out a an article which probably council members uh get on their own by doing their own due diligence, but since we're not allowed to talk to each other because of
the sunshine law, I always want to make sure. and and the article was um by a state organization called Tax Watch uh who's trying to do the near herculean task of looking through all the various real estate tax reform proposals and
trying to make sense out of them. Um so Tax Watch came in with uh uh its own recommendation and it gets a little technical so I'm not I'm going to uh pass that. My my broader comment is since the time I asked this to be passed out, I think there were no less than
three additional bills filed to deal with property tax reform in the state. I've lost count how many bills are being filed on this particular issue. And initially the u the process that we thought was going to take for property
tax reform was kind of a smorges board of of proposals that would go on to uh an advisory ballot is the way I looked at it for uh constitutional amendment. Now it looks like there are bills being proposed to address some of these
issues. I think the general tend is that they're they're scaling back and narrowing from, you know, no property taxes whatsoever, um to more tailored relief like based on age, how many years you've been here, um
cutting back the you know the um uh you know the valuations for the home so that the tax rate when multiplied against the tax rate is less. So, um, that's a long-winded way of saying have an interest in it, but, you know, I don't think we're we're anywhere near
any kind of definitive kind of reform. Uh, some of these bills, you know, putting on my old lawyer hat, uh, face really grave constitutional challenges, even if they were to pass. I see our town attorneys kind of nodding. We had a conversation about this. Um, so it's
it's not time to panic. It's not even time to think about how this will affect me until we get more information on it. That's my personal opinion um on tax issues, but we do get some questions about that. Uh ranging from people getting very excited that they're going to have their taxes eliminated to
worrying about how we're going to pay for things. So, um just just keep it keep it going. Uh there is a county planning board meeting. Um I think we figured the date is a week from today. >> It's tonight. Okay. Uh county planning board meeting. You don't have to attend.
um they're supposed to address items of mutual concern for all of us, namely the, you know, kind of the blueprint for the county. Um so, uh for those that are interested, you can tune in or attend in person. Um, and then lastly, I just wanted to, you know, we were, um, given
the privilege, uh, and I was given the privilege on behalf of the town council of swearing in, uh, Ed Forest, who's a local, um, local resident here on the Treasure Coast, who was President Trump's appointee to be the administrator of the General Services Administration. and uh he asked that um
he be sworn in in the town of Indian River Shores on Christmas Eve because he had jury duty in the county and rather than have what's a really legitimate reason, you know, some of us, you know, know folks who say my kids got a soccer game or I have an emergency golf game to
get out of jury duty, um he his civic duty was to was to do it. So, we were uh we were privileged to have that that opportunity to swear in a high level federal official. Uh, with that, um, that's the end of the items I have of interest. If there are any questions from council of me, I'm happy to address
them. >> Uh, Mr. Mayor, you're talking about the, uh, tax, uh, reform, reforming quotes. Are are you hearing what I've been hearing that uh, this is all going to be addressed in a special session, be pushed off there?
>> Uh, absolutely. Um, I don't, you know, and always be careful what you hear, especially from politicians. And, you know, we're in a position where we can say that, uh, cuz we're not politicians. We're citizen volunteers. That's the way we look at it. Um, I've heard that
there's no appetite to uh to really look at this. It's too big an issue to address in a general session. Um, and if it is addressed, it's going to be addressed in a in a in a special sess special session. So, uh, good luck with that. the special session could last longer than the actual session uh with
the number of bills and proposals floating around. So, short answer, yes. Anything else? All right. Thank you. Uh, council member items. Uh, I know Councilman Alwater, I'm sorry, Vice Mayor Alward, you have a date change request. So,
>> uh, yes, please. Sorry. Um the June 25th meeting uh moved to a ear earlier date I believe uh through the town manager. You got some potential dates of either June 15th to
18th to 22nd or or or 20 uh uh 3rd >> 22nd both are fine with me. >> Okay. Uh the council >> those dates are all fine with me. >> Okay. >> 22nd.
>> 22nd. >> Okay. >> All right. So, let's set it at the 22nd. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. >> And you can >> your help. >> Um we'll we'll make a motion in a second, but if you could just let Councilman Alteri know the date change so he can put in his calendar as far in advance as possible. >> All right. So, I'll I'll I'll make the
motion to move the uh scheduled regular town council meeting uh from June 25th to uh June 22nd, 2026. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Thank you. I appreciate it.
>> All right. No worries. None. >> Uh a couple other things. Uh just want to note for the audience and those who may watch this on YouTube uh later your your town takes town council takes
uh it's very important to make sure that our pension funds and our retirey medical benefits funds trust fund is uh are are fully funded. That is a rarity in politics. You take a like for example
city of Chicago, I think they're about 40% uh funded. Most municipalities thinking they get to 80% that they're doing well. I think I think and I I believe our councilman agree that's kind ridiculous. So the we had a meeting on
the general employee uh fund uh this morning before this meeting where we serve as the board of trustees. That fund is 129% uh funded. the public safety pension fund. That board is going to have a meeting on Tuesday. I got
their report. It's 125% funded. And the uh retirey medical benefit fund because we put money in it years ago is 217% funded. By these being funded
properly years ago, that reduces our actuarily required contributions to those funds on a year afteryear basis, which keeps your taxes down. So, just want to note that uh for the uh for the uh record. Uh the other thing I
wanted to mention, I I know uh people uh here on town town council have have gotten this legislative platform from Florida League of Cities. There's two items that just that that hurt us and yet they can and they've done this
before, but I'll just note this to the uh citizens. One is on enterprise fund transfers. So what's an enterprise fund? that is a special accounting fund. The the ones in particular that concern us are for utilities. As everybody knows,
we get s water and sewer uh services from the city of Ver Vero Beach. They take a profit out of that fund to fund their general fund, you know, public safety and so forth. All of us here that
get uh water and sewer, we pay 6% extra to uh fund uh the city of Vero Beach operations. And I argue that that percentage is even higher because what they do is they allocate some of their costs uh that are not legitimate
uh cost that come from the general fund to the utility fund. They add an extra top on that. So it may might be closer to 10%. So that's the the first thing and this is an item which uh everybody here on on council and particularly the
mayor has been fighting something called extrterritorial search charges. So basically what that is is that uh say for say for example uh if you got power electric power from Florida power and
light and it just so happens your neighbor is on the other side of a municipal uh boundary that it's the next city over but otherwise there's no difference. Florida Power and Light is not allowed to charge you 5% more than
your neighbor for getting the same power. Unfortunately, that's not the case on a municipal utility. That that separation line and there's essentially no difference in terms of providing the cost. They can charge a higher rate. Now, at this point, the city of Ver
Beach does not do that and they they promise they have they won't do that. But, uh, you know, that's a that's a concern. And so we've been trying to fight fight fight against that. Unfortunately, the Florida League of Cities, it discriminates against uh the
rateayers in this uh city. It things that would not be allowed out of an investor own utility like Florida Power and Light or Tampa Electric. They uh the uh state of Florida does allows that and Florida League of City supports it. And
I know particularly the mayor has gotten blue in the face uh complaining about that at uh at meetings that uh we uh that we all all attend outside this council meeting. So just want to bring that to the attention of everybody. >> Thank you, Vice Mayor. Yeah, we'll we'll
keep fighting on that and uh I think it's going to be challenging this legislative session to try to get some attention on the issue, but uh it's it's a basic question of fairness and well taxation without representation. So, uh, we'll we'll keep fighting on that. Um, if there's nothing else from council,
all right, we'll move on to item eight, which is discussion with possible or probable action. We have, um, uh, two requests for variances. Um, A and B. Uh, these will have to be a quai judicial hearing since, um, uh,
that's what's required by Florida state law. the um um ask for some legal advice from our town attorney. For the purposes of hearing um I'm going to ask council for a motion to combine the hearing of items A and B. We
will of course make a deliberation on each each request separately. So without objection from our legal council, is that permitted? >> Mr. Mayor, that would be fine. >> All right. Somebody can make a motion to combine the quai judicial hearing for items 8A and 8B into one and then a
second. We can vote on that. >> So move second. >> Okay. Um all in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. All right. So procedurally uh we will now move to a quazi judicial
proceeding. Uh Mr. Sweenie, if you can uh lay out the groundwork for this as required and then we'll swear in the witnesses and have the uh have the applicant come up and make their presentation. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh very briefly, for the benefit of council, uh these
will be quasi judicial hearings. Uh it's not a court hearing, but it's more than a typical public presentation. What will happen, as the mayor just said, we will have our clerk swear in anybody that will be providing any testimony today. That will be very brief. I also request
that each of you do a quick disclosure of any expartate communication that you may or may not have had. If you didn't have any, that's fine. Just simply put it on the record. Once we get into the presentation, Mr. Mayor, uh we would have the applicant come up. The applicant makes their presentation. any
questions for the applicant. Uh and subsequent to that, if there are any comments, there are no interveners uh what typically an adverse party. So instead, it would just be any public comments uh as we typically have limited to three minutes. Once that is done, Mr.
Mayor, you will close the hearing and collectively the board will decide uh whether to approve or deny uh the two requested variances. Please keep in mind per our code that this decision is solely at uh the town council's
discretion. Thank you. >> So at this time it would be appropriate to swear in anybody that would give testimony. >> Well, let's do disclosure first. So um I'll disclose the only expporte contact I had >> uh was to address some questions I had about
the visual impact of the of the uh of the proposed project. I did a site visit. There was one representative from John's Island on site. Um the town manager accompanied me on the site visit. There was no substantive discussion just uh you know yeah it's
going to go here, it's going to go there and uh I believe we asked for a clarifying drawing on on a height level which was subsequently provided to us that planning and zoning did not have uh the benefit of seeing. So that's that's my exparte contact. Uh did you have any exparte contacts? >> I did not.
>> Right. And you weren't you weren't sworn in as a council member anyway. So, um, Vice Mayor, >> uh, I had a similar exparte contact on June, uh, excuse me, uh, January 15th with Mr. Rex Wilson. I visited the site
just to understand what was going on and did just to ask him, uh, some questions. So, >> Councilman Carol, >> I had a brief conversation about a week and a half ago with Mr. Coclaw from
John's Island about this variance. Okay, thank you very much. Uh, at this point, um, we can do a group swearing in as I recall. So, anybody who plans to testify in favor of the application, please stand and we'll swear you in.
So, we're going to have one representative. >> Mr. Mayor, we can swear at everybody that way. For against >> Yeah. Um, okay. Anybody who plans to be in opposition to it as well. And we have staff, too, that may have
neutral or objective questions to answer on the record. >> Okay. So, anybody who wants to take an oath, stand up and we'll give you an oath. >> All persons wishing to testify would raise their right hand. Do you solemnly affirm that the evidence to be given will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
>> I do. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. >> All right. Thank you very much. Um, please proceed. Come on up, and you can make your case. And if you could just please make sure you speak well into the microphone. >> Had to lower it a little bit after the
last speaker. Um, good morning. My name is Blaine Burkser. I'm with KMA Engineering and Surveying. I'm the engineer of record um for the project and I'm representing the applicant here. So, as we stated, this is the exact location of the proposed parking garage.
So, I wanted to give this to you as a visual. As you can see, it's just south of the main entrance into the club. You have the clubhouse right there to the northwest and then the existing maintenance buildings for the golf course right to the south.
Um, this is a rendering of the east elevation of the parking garage. So, this is when you're coming on Silver Moss through the club. This is what you'll see. As you can see the cars pulling in. This would be them pulling into the what we'll call the main
entrance of the parking garage. >> No, it's okay. >> Oh, it started working again. >> Oh, thank you. Where was it? Okay, perfect. Um, this is actually a rendering from the west elevation. So, this would be kind of like you're in the existing clubhouse
parking lot. This would be looking at the the entrance coming from the west side. I apologize. That was actually the north side. This is a zoomed in version of uh the elevation from the west side coming into the main entrance.
currently where the proposed parking garage is going, it's in an area that's zoned open space and recreation district. As you can see, that's highlighted in the green. Um, just to the south of us is a zoning of R2A,
which is multifamily residential district. And then, as you can see, the other parcel to the north is also zoned open space recreation districts. There we go. So, how the code reads when you're zoned open space, you actually
fall under the criteria for a C1A commercial. So, this is just a quick thing on what the required setbacks are for the front um the side and the rear as well as um what the maximum height
allowed. So with us being in the C1A criteria, we are have to follow two minimum two stories and 30 feet of height with 25 uh front setbacks, rear setbacks and a side setback of 50.
The main reason we're here is we're requesting a variance from that 30 ft to 31.5 ft. This is an exhibit that we've shared with the council that was not available to the PNZ board. So, this shows the north elevation of the building. And as you can see, I
highlighted on here where we're actually measuring the height. Um, so measuring the height per how the code reads, the tallest point of the building would be 31t 6 in. There we go. All right. This is just
another view of the south elevation highlighting the same height here. The top of the wall would be at 31 ft 6 in. And then just quickly the other two elevations, the the red line shows the distinction of where the top of that
wall is. I put this slide in here because I just wanted to point out is the zoning around us for compatibility wise is R2A. And if this parcel was zoned R2A, we would fall under the thing of a code requirement of
three stories, 40 feet. There we go. One of the items that came up in P&Z is as we showed earlier, those renderings were kind of giving you an idea of how the parking garage looked to, you know, people who are on club property. But
there was some concern about how this would actually look to people who were driving along A1A. So we performed a call this kind of a sight study. So what this is depicting is say you're driving in your car southbound on A1A. You're looking out. When you take into account
the existing vegetation buffer you have along the rideway right there in A1A. They're roughly about 20 to 24 ft of height when it comes to those trees. This line shows you the exact angle of view looking up. So, if you're looking up through your car with the existing
vegetations, you will not be able to see the front of this parking garage from A1A. And like I said, that was something that the PNZ board brought up and we wanted to present you guys a an exhibit to show what that actual view would look like.
This is just a kind of to visualize for you what that building would look like. So this is the existing clubhouse that exists out there. So if you're looking at the clubhouse from the south, the top of the roof, which I have highlighted there, is at 38T 6 in or excuse me, just
38 ft as it is. So the parking garage where we have it will actually be lower than where the top of the clubhouse is. And then this is just an east elevation of as well. This is also shown where the highlighted is that it's another height
of 38 feet. Um, since we're combining the both hearings into one, this is just uh exhibit of the setbacks. So, as you can see, this is the footprint of the existing parking garage or excuse me, the proposed parking garage. Um, as you
can see in the front, we're asking for setback of 1.3 ft. And then in the back, we're asking for a um setback of 0.5 ft. As you can see right here, the blue lines are the property lines for this parcel.
And then like I said, this I just wanted to show a zoomedin aerial. The red is roughly the footprint of what the parking garage is going to look like. As you can see, there is an existing parking lot in this location. Um, with the parking garage going there, the
club would go to gain another 160 additional parking spaces in this area. So, I'm just here to answer any questions you guys might have, any specifics. Any questions from council starting left
or right? >> Uh, one question. Um and maybe you were just dealing with a first but um uh I think your presentation dealt with the 1 and 1/2 ft variance request but the setback um can you walk us through that? >> Yeah,
so per the code of the C1A required to have um 25 foot setbacks on the front of the property and 25 setbacks on the rear which is the golf course. So, what we're
requesting is for the 1.5 and the 0.5 on the rear and the front. As you can see, if we were to meet the code requirement of a 25 ft setback for this structure based on the regular shape of how the lot kind of squeezes in right here, you wouldn't really be able to fit any type
of structure in that area. Um, one of the things to think about when it comes to setback variances also is how does that affect your neighbors in close proximity? When you look at like at this where the location of the parking garage
is going, the only neighbors we have is the golf course to the west, which is the same owner. It's owned by the club. And then to the um east is actually the private rideway for the road for Silver Moss. And so that is actually owned by I
believe the POA who has submitted a letter of support for this project. >> Okay. Thank you. And and I take it um I don't know if you're the right person to ask this question too, but um even though it's not a budding, you know,
across when I did the site visit across the golf course there are some homes. There was no objection by any of the neighbors there. >> No, there was no objections and everyone was notified. As you can see, we we looked at this. There's two homes that are to the west.
Um just to the north of them is a parking lot for the clubhouse, but there's vast vegetation between um the two holes because you can see there's the green there and the um the tea box for the next one. So, there is quite a distance between um that house to the
west and the proposed parking garage. >> Okay. All right. Uh so was there any objection received by staff or uh to the project any objection from the public? >> Um no one testified at the PZV hearing.
Um and um other than that staff just presented all the um you know all the information through our agenda item. >> Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Um thank you. I I have no questions. Any anything further? Any anybody change their mind and wish to testify in
opposition? Okay. Um All right. So, I guess we we now move to the point of deliberation. We'll we'll we'll start with item A. Um first uh first off, uh what is staff's uh
position on this, Mr. Harping? >> Well, as noted in the transmissions, the applicants have um uh met all the technical requirements and the and the criteria of the ordinance. they've addressed the uh uh the items and the variance. Uh the question will be the weight that you give to all of those to
include the uh include the testimony. >> All right. Understood. So without objection, we can start deliberation. Yes, sir. >> Um for those of you that were expecting people's court like we adjourn and then come back, that's not how it works here. We're under the sunshine law, so we've got to uh give our thought process to
you publicly. So if uh without objection, I'm happy to kick it off and start. Um okay. Um all right. First of all, I I did note that uh we do note that the planning and zoning which on on these types of requests makes an basically an advisory
recommendation to council, but council still has the statutory responsibility to uh to review the materials and to make an independent determination. Uh in legal parliament, it's called a denovo review. Um, so I don't
uh discount lightly what um what our dedicated people in planning and zoning do. And I note that the vote was 2 to1 um 2:1 uh being um in opposition to the to the u uh petition for the variance. Uh we
had three out of five members there. So, uh, I I will give some discount to the to the fact that we did not have, although we had a quorum, we did not have a full, uh, a full complement of members of the planning and zoning. Um, as I said, I greatly greatly respect the
people that were on it, and I understand also that they did not have the benefit of all the information that we had once we saw the the paperwork come up to us. Uh, in particular, when I first saw the drawings, um, I I will confess I had some
concerns. It looked like it was a fairly substantial project, and I worried what it was going to look like from A1A. Um, it seemed it seemed to me that it was uh, frankly larger than uh than what it what it appeared to be when I did the site visit. I did ask for a drawing that
would show the sight line from the proposed uh garage to the current uh clubhouse and the top of the clubhouse of John's Island uh which shows that it's equal to or less than the view from the road. uh in doing a pedestrian walk
and a uh bicycle ride and also a driveby, uh I came to the conclusion that it would not be visible and even if there was an exfoliation event during a hurricane, there would be minimum visibility for a while until the foliage grew back. Going to the legal criteria,
um that that's applicable here. um the notion whether or not it was self-created. We don't have a statutory definition of self-created in our in our town code. So self-created is uh there's an expression in law called that equity
is as long as the chancellor's foot, meaning you might get a different decision from somebody based upon their shoe size. So we all can come to different conclusions about what a self-created event is. Some are going to be more obvious than others. Uh, this one to me not only is not obvious, I I
don't think I could uh twist the the notion of a self-created hardship um to fit something that was the occurrence of over 40 or 50 years. Uh John was blessed with an increase in number of members, an
increased number of guests. You take a risk when you have a business and it's a club, but it is a business. they could have just as easily had fewer members and fewer guests and not as been as successful and financially responsible. So, the natural occurrence of uh demographic shifts, popularity in
an area, I don't think uh that fits my definition of self-created uh isn't unique to the property. It I think it is unique to the property. Uh we do have uh um you know the uniqueness of um the presentation and the testimony
that was unrebuted that was put forward uh both for the setback and for the height restriction. It is unique to the property because of you know the location of where it is and um the adjacent nature of the property. And I'm not going to say anomaly because these
are all arbitrary lines but as you pointed out if you were in one zone as opposed to another there wouldn't be a problem. We've got plenty of buildings that are 40 ft and higher in in the town of Indian River Shores. Um which surprised me the number of buildings we have 40 ft and higher. Um
lastly on the hardship um personal experience is uh no substitute. So when Mr. Harping and I pulled in uh fairly early in the morning to have a look at the site, we drove around for a few minutes before we could find a parking spot and uh we had to
walk a fairly uncomfortable distance. So, um I think it would be a hardship to the applicant not to have sufficient parking to accommodate its um um more recently found popularity of people attending John's Island function both as
both as members and guests. Uh I also see uh uh don't know that this falls into the hardship category, but it also falls into the effect on the public with the inability to find parking spaces both at events at night and at uh
during the day. Traffic sometimes backs up from um the parking lot where people self park and valet park uh through the security booth back into A1A because there's an inability for that traffic to move smoothly and then park in it. So,
uh, hardship, public convenience, if, um, if I'm creating a new factor, my apologies, but I do think it's, uh, I do think it's important. It puts a strain on our public, um, public safety department as well to have to accommodate, uh, those
kind of traffic patterns which occur. As I said, uh, I'm, and full disclosure, I'm not a member of John's Island, but I'm uh, lucky to attend some events there when invited. And uh you know I've seen the problem of backing up into A1A personally with my own eyes. So for that
reason um on number 8A I would uh I would be in favor of u approving the variance um in terms of 8B. Uh now understanding the setback u I I'm in favor of that as
well. So we will then turn on we'll now turn the discussion over to other members of council. Uh we'll start from left to right working down the deis and then uh we will take a formal vote on this. All right. So Councilman Carol, >> I'll be much more brief um than the
mayor whose presentation was excellent. Thank you very much for that. I've been a member of John's Island for 30 years. I appreciate greatly um the need uh for the parking garage
and um I am in favor of um uh granting a variance uh for both A and B. >> Vice Mayor Order. >> So I I considered a number of the factors you did. you you brought some
other ones up that frankly uh I didn't I didn't think about and I agree with uh Councilman Carol gave a excellent uh re review of it. So I would be in in favor of both variances as well.
Councilman Tedesco, >> my only question which I think the mayor answered was I wondered if there were any implications on precedent here and I gather that's not the case and based on that uh I'm in favor.
>> All right. Thank you. Um in terms of precedent, these are um and you know Mr. Sweeney gets paid to keep me out of trouble, so correct me if I'm wrong. Uh these are all what we call ad hoc. They're all on a case- by case basis.
The the criteria are generally uh designed to be flexible so that you can take a look at each case on its individual merits. And so uh there's there's no precedent that's going to be set that automatically somebody's going to be entitled to a variance because
they want a 31 12T um uh parking garage. >> That's absolutely correct. every single parcel and every single various application ever is a unique application. Consider them like court cases in the sense that each one at trial is evaluated on its own. So that's
absolutely correct. >> I appreciate your explanation. Thank you. >> Yes, sir. >> Great. Thank you. Um all right. If there's um no discussion among council, I'll ask for public comment at this point. Is there any public comment on
this? Either for or against? Yes, I'm against it. >> Okay. Well, you have to approach the podium, tell us your name, um the community where you live if you don't want to give your address, and you know, just let us know what your objection is.
>> Hi, I'm Joanne Sardella. I'm on Pebble Lane, and I think that that thing's too big. >> Yeah, you have to press the microphone. Yeah, >> it's green. >> It's on. >> It's on.
Joanne Sardella, Pebble Lane. I think it's too big. >> Okay. Thank you very much for for your comment. Is there anybody else that wishes to make a comment either for or against? Okay. At this point, u I'm going to uh
close public comment uh close the quai judicial hearing and we will now uh move to a vote on the proposal. So, we'll begin with item 8A, which is the review of the variance request for the um let's call it the 1 and 1/2 ft
variance. And uh is there a motion to approve? >> So, move. >> Is there a second? >> Second, >> Mr. Mayor. Point of order. It's it's technically 1 and 1/2 ft and also a third story. I >> I just want to be absolutely clear that's what the applicant requested.
>> Understood. So, as um as corrected by our town council, can you repeat the uh the motion and second, please? >> So, move. >> Is there a second? >> And a second. >> All right. Thank you very much. Uh we'll take let's take a roll call vote on
this. I know we don't have to, but um uh can you call the role, please? >> Mayor Foley, >> I. >> Vice Mayor Atwater, >> I. >> Council member Carroll, >> I. >> Council member Teddesco, >> I. >> Let the record show. The motion passes 40. Okay. Item 8B.
Um, this would be a motion to approve the setback request. Is there a motion in a second? >> So move. >> Second. >> Can you call the role, please? >> Mayor Foley. >> I. >> Vice Mayor Atwater. >> I. >> Council member Carroll. >> I.
>> Council member Tedesco. Hi. >> Let the record show. Motion passes 40. >> All right. Thank you. And you know, I I know a member of planning and zoning is here. Thank you very much for your hard work on this. Uh, you know, it's what makes a horse race, right? People come to different conclusions on different things. Um, I think we did have the
benefit of seeing some additional information that planning and zoning didn't. Uh, by no means does this mean that we don't value the incredibly good work that you do for us. And in fact, you make our jobs easily, much more easy than uh than they would be by distilling all this information. So, we have
relatively few questions thrown at us. So, thank you very much on behalf of the council to planning and zoning. All right. Uh we are done with item eight. We'll now move to staff updates, building official report and statistics. >> Good morning. >> Good morning, Mr. Held.
>> Good morning. >> Good morning, Vice Mayor and members of council. I don't have anything additional to add for last month's update. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Any questions for Mr. Held? Vice Mayor? >> So, I'm looking at other permits and uh
year to date they're up 40%. Just curious as to what's going on there. The uh regarding the other permits. Uh those are just basically we have had an uptick in
permits outside of the let's say for example um outside of the alteration permits. So, um I'm really unsure of your question. Uh
Vice Mayor, exactly. What do you >> Okay. >> What are you trying to >> Well, I'm just trying to understand. It says other permits miscellaneous. I'm just curious as to what that is relative to new construction and additions and alterations. >> Okay. So, what are other permits
exactly? Okay. Yes, sir. Those would be like the generators, uh gas lines, u anything to do with uh like stucco repairs, uh and things of that nature. Anything out outside of the alteration permits.
>> So, okay. Just I just saw a jump and I was just wondering what was going on because all because the other statistics are are very stable year-over-year. >> Correct. Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Held. Sure. Code enforcement
8 uh excuse me 9B. >> Good morning. Other than what's already on the last month's report, I have no further updates. If you have any questions, be glad to answer them. >> Anything on code enforcement? Um, Councilman Carol,
>> I would like to commend Jake on the u uh timeliness, thoroughess, and explicitness of your responses to recent communications from resident on Beach Comr about the clearing of the lot. Well done.
>> Thank you. >> Yep. Thank you. >> Thank you, sir. >> Anything from anybody else or All right. Thank you, Mr. Mike. Inspector Mike, excuse me. uh public works department council. We have uh Mr. Wilts here who
is uh our doing all the all the hard work in the field. Um you do have the report. Um we do have uh some ongoing items relative to the MS4 NPDES and storm water things uh that we have, you know, compliance responsibilities for.
Just want to appreciate Max's work on a lot of that because he's out in the field checking all of our uh all of our storm water items and there's a pretty fair amount if you ever want to come by and check out the storm water atlas. Um there's a lot going on out there. So we're appreciative of that and I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have. >> None for me. Just thank you. I see you
out there on your handy all flying around doing your doing your job. So thank you for the hard work that you're that you're putting in. Thank you. Any >> anything on public works for questions? No. Okay. Thank you. We'll move on to the town treasurer.
We are in the midst of budget season and audit season, aren't we? So, >> yep. Um, we are hopefully going to be wrapping up. I have to send the finance all the pension information to the auditors this week after the pension meeting on Tuesday. Hopefully, I'll be they'll be presenting the financial
statements at the March meeting. So, that is the that is the goal at the moment. Um, I have no other further updates beyond what's in my report. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Um, so I take it, um, you took some comfort from the fact that at least I don't
think we're going to be seeing any elimination of real real estate property taxes. So you you're not going to have to figure out where we're going to pay our bills from. All right, good. And and and by saying that, I'm I'm in favor of, you know, tax reforms. I think people are always taxed too much, not too little. But, um, we we need to think
about this with a scalpel and not a not an atomic bomb. So, uh, >> we are in we are starting the budget process already, too. So, >> yes. Good. All right. When can we when can we expect that? Is February to, uh, I'm just kidding. All right.
Bud budget typically is uh, late spring, early summer, right? >> We will be presenting the budget to the finance committee in late May >> and we will do the budget hearing in July. >> Terrific. Thank you very much. Anything for Heather? No. All right. Thanks. >> Thank you.
>> Uh, thank you. public safety. >> Good morning. >> Good morning, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Vice Mayor, members of council. Um the only thing I'd like to update uh or add in addition to the report is now that we're in full season, our officers have taken um
efforts to increase our traffic enforcement. And I'm happy to report that as a result uh in December, we only had two crashes reported. Um both were minor, no injuries and so far this month to date we've had none. >> Terrific. Thank you very much. And u
thank you for the presence. Um it's it's noticeable during this busy season the uh increased presence is palpable and you probably only hear complaints. I I hear um appreciation for slowing down the traffic, making the conditions safer
for pedestrians. So, thank you for ensuring the safety of our of our people in every which way you do it. So, >> of course. Thank you, Mr. >> Anything for public safety? >> Yes. Um, I'd like to commend the public safety department for the presence of the officer early in the morning at the
south gate of John's Island who does an extraordinarily good job of directing traffic. Um, always with a smile on his face. >> Yes, he does. Thank you, Mr. Carol. >> Okay, I think that's it. Thank you again. Thank you.
>> Town attorney, Mr. Sweeney. >> Mr. Mayor, I have no updates, but I'm happy to answer any questions. >> Any questions for the town attorney? No. Um, we just look forward to as things kind of start shaking out. You usually do an excellent job giving us
the synopsis of bills to watch. I think the session is uh still searching for its identity. uh legislative sessions have a certain rhythm to them and some deal with condominium reforms, some deal with taxes, some deal with uh online
restrictions for minors. There's really no identity to this yet and we'll just have to wait and see where it shakes out >> as we continue to move through session. I'll keep council informed and of course if you have any bills that come up, please let me know. >> Uh certainly will. Thank you. Uh town manager, Mr. Harper.
>> Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council. Uh, I don't have anything uh additional outside of what we've discussed. Uh, if there's any questions, I'd be happy to answer them, but I always want to, uh, make haste to thank, uh, the great team that we have here that makes, uh, a lot of really good stuff happen for the residents, uh, known and unknown. So, thank you.
>> Thank you. Uh, we'll move to council committee reports or non- action items. First of all, thank you, Vice Mayor, for um, going to the meeting in mystead. I had a unavoidable conflict, but uh, at least you got a free lunch out of it. So, uh u with that we'll start. Um
Councilman Tedesco uh is newly on council, so I know you don't have u your committees to report, >> right? Um on on that, uh that's the best kind of report, by the way. So, uh especially at the end of a a long meeting. The um the item I guess we
should take up is formally designating uh Councilman Tedesco to assume Councilman Dne's uh positions or have discussion with council as to who's going to fill those roles either um next meeting we should probably do that. So >> uh James, I'll defer to you if you want
to make comment, but we've had uh had discussions with the clerk about the timing and the presentation to council on that. >> So I'll be sending out the list of the appointments that need to be filled. Um we will be putting out um that up for the agenda in February. >> Perfect. Thank you very much. Um so
that's good news for us. Bad news for you. You you get you get more work. >> Okay. >> Okay. Well, if if we're not going to do that today, we have a Treasure Coast Regional League of Cities
uh meeting I think in between. May maybe I'm incorrect on that. So I am I am I should I just >> take that if I'm I'm around as the alternate or or can >> I >> I can I can take it if you we can work it out through
>> I believe the February meeting of is February 17th which is a week earlier and I think that usually takes place the week of our council meeting. So I think it may if we were to a point on the 17th but I can check those dates. >> All right. How about this? Not to overly complicate something that shouldn't be
complicated, but if I'm happy to go to it or if you go to it, but um since it's a public meeting, we can go with Peter and make a uh make an introduction as a new council member. >> All right, we'll we'll we'll figure that out. >> So, we'll figure that out. We have to drive in separate cars, but uh there's a
kabuki dance that we have to do on this, but um you know, at least we can make an introduction to the other u other folks at League of Cities. Um all right. Um, and did you have a report on >> Yeah, I'll just Well, I had I had two meet. Treasure Coast Regional Planning
Council. Unfortunately, very little went on and that's a meeting where you got to drive all the way down to uh uh to Stewart. The Treasure Coast uh council local governments uh I guess the most interesting thing was a discussion about
the uh potential AI data center in St. Lucy County. It's, as I understand it, it's right on the border with Indian River County. So, there was a discussion about uh potential impacts on uh electric rates. In this case, would be a
Florida power, Florida power and light rates that we all pay. Ths issue around the country. Uh, for example, Northern Virginia for some reason is just loaded with AI data centers and rates have skyrocketed uh to
uh residents as a result of that. Now, supposedly what went on uh up in Tallahassee, one of the one of the gentlemen at the uh meeting said that the there is going to be a separate rate tariff for those type of of uh centers
which should in theory not impact our residential rates. But we just something we need to keep an eye on. So other than that, nothing else. So, >> all right. Thank you, uh, Vice Mayor. Um, Mr. Carol. >> Yes. Um, on Tuesday, I attended the
monthly meeting of the economic development council and we heard a follow-up presentation from the consulting group retained by the county uh to um uh encourage economic development. I have nothing specific to
report. um uh in terms of results, but um they're making good headway and making progress, and I think that it'll eventually uh benefit uh the um uh the county. That's it. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Councilman Carol.
Um item 13, we're going to have call to the audience. I understand the there's a small business association. Um Yep, there you are. Please, >> I'll wait and see if anybody else wants to go, please. Does anybody else want to go first? Not on Small Business
Administration, on anything that's on your mind. This is the time for the public to say what's ever on their mind about anything, the annexation of Greenland, uh, parking spaces, whatever you like. >> So, all right, we've got it refined down now to the Small Business Administration presentation and how it impacts us. So, thank you for coming. Yeah,
>> thank you. Hi, everybody. My name is Julie Garrett. I'm a public affairs specialist with the US Small Business Administration's Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience. Having watched Mr. Bergman's presentation, I'm guessing you're well
aware of the disaster loan program from all the hurricanes you've been through. So, I'm not going to give you a lot of details about that. The reason I'm here is there was an unnamed storm like he said you are having and it primarily hit
up in Titusville and Bvard County is primary for this small agency declaration but Indian River County is contiguous to Bard and if any of your residents had damages from that storm sometimes people on low
land or in a particular geographic area will have some damage even if isn't if it isn't widespread throughout the county. That is why I'm here just to let you know about this. Um so the declaration was for October 26. There
was a basically a flash flood up there, severe storms and flooding. Um October 26 of last year, people have until March 6 to apply if they had damage that wasn't covered by their insurance. So, you have that information and I've sent
it to uh Janice. But also, I wanted to just explain that with disaster loans, something that people aren't aware of is that you can add mitigation funding to a disaster loan. In the future, hopefully you won't have more hurricanes, but
let's say you do have a hurricane. If people want to get a disaster loan and add mitigation funding on, it's at 20% of their physical loss and they have up to two years to add
that to their loan. The disaster loan mitigation funding can be used for Elevate Florida. It can be used for engineering studies or elevating a structure or for the 25% cost share. And people are usually really happy to learn about that. Also, if they do wind
mitigation to their homes, they can sometimes get a break on their homeowners insurance. So, basically, that's just what I wanted to share with you. You have the packets and the information. If anybody is interested in applying, they have until March 6th, and
you can apply at sba.gov disaster, and call our 800 number for help, 800659-2955. And thank you for allowing me to speak with you. Well, thank you for um you know for for speaking today and bringing that to our attention. We will include
that in our email blast and uh March 6 will be here before you know it. I don't know that we're going to have, you know, that that many um applicants given kind of the demographic of the community, but it's good to know that uh the folks have that available. So, let's get the word out and we'll take it from there. So,
thank you very much. >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> Great. Anybody else? All right. All right, we are adjourned then until the February meeting. So, and uh February meeting is >> 17th. >> The 17th. Okay.