the town council meeting, regular town council meeting of Tuesday, February 17, 2026. If uh you could kindly silence all cell phones or even better, turn them off. We will begin with the invocation from
Councilman Carol. We're thankful for this town and its residents. We're grateful for all who work for the benefit of our community and all who serve on its behalf. That those who work here and those who serve here be ever mindful of the town's
vision and mission statement. Grant this council the wisdom to govern amid the conflicting interest and issues of our times. The ability to work together in harmony even when there is honest disagreement, a sense of the welfare and true needs of our people, personal peace
in our lives, and joy in our task. Amen. >> Amen. >> If you'll kindly join us in the pledge of allegiance. 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. >> Okay, thank you everyone for coming today. Uh, beautiful day out. Let's uh start with the roll call, please. >> Mayor Foley >> here. >> Vice Mayor Atwater >> here. >> Council member Carroll >> here. >> Council member Alieri
>> here. Council, Council Member Toedesco here. >> Let the record show all members are present. >> Thank you very much. Uh item two. Are there any requests to reorder the agenda? Any deletions or emergency additions from council? >> If there are none, uh can I have a
motion and a second? >> So move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> All right. We have an agenda. Uh item three, presentation proclamations. We have uh Tim Newton from Florida City Gas here and we have a
proclamation. Uh before I give the proclamation, do you want to say a few words or >> Yeah. >> There we go. Uh good morning, council. It's great to be back here in front of you. It's been a few years since uh Florida City Gas has been here. Um like
to give you a brief update on where we stand in the installation of natural gas service within Indian River Shores. Um though not as uh quickly as we have hoped as things move along throughout the communities on Indian River Shores. What I can tell you is um you know we we
started this project the the main line that was installed on A1A uh was released to us in May of 2023 so we could start getting gas from there. At that point in time, we started to uh install our regulator stations throughout uh Indian River Shores. Uh we
installed one uh up at the Strand in early 2023 and the other one here out at Indian River Shores. Uh was activated in December 2023. We started construction in John's Island, which of course is the largest uh area that we we're going to have to
work in uh here within a town. We started in John's Island in May of 2024 on the beachside uh area of the community and wrapped that up sometime around late August, early September of 24 and then immediately transitioned over onto the Riverside portion uh in
October of 2024. We have the majority of the gas service installed uh by May of 2025. Uh not as quickly as we had hoped. Um, as you can imagine, we're we're used to putting pipe in the ground for new construction development stuff. So, it's much easier
to put pipe in the ground. Uh, in this case, when you start dealing with a a community as large as John's Island, for one, and and two, having to work with driveways and infrastructure that's already in kind of slows the construction process down. Uh, as a sales guy, you hope things go in as
quickly as possible. Unfortunately, when construction begins and engineering goes on, things kind of slow down a little bit. So, as I said, we we completed a majority of the installation around the golf course in May of 2025, but we're still completing some small gas main extensions throughout that
area. As of today, we've installed more than 15 miles of gas main and John's Island. We've got about another six miles to go, and that is the area uh of Sego Palm, Coconut Palm uh on immediate Riverside uh which we're hoping to begin
sometime this later spring, early summer. We do have another project we're getting ready to kick off in mid-March. That's the estuary right down the street here. Um construction informs me that we're looking at a mid-m March time frame to start in the estuary.
And um they're wrapping up their sewer camera inspections and their on-site pre-construction meetings have been done. So hopefully by mid-March, we'll start moving in there and get gas man installed in the estuary. We do have two other smaller projects that are currently awaiting permits for
installation. that's into Village Shores and down at Pebble Lane. And uh once we have permits for those from FDOT and uh the town of Indian River Shores, we'll start on those projects. Two other fairly large projects that we
have uh that are in their final engineering design are Marbice and Indian Trails. Uh when our engineers went into those communities, we found it as as as we knew when we drove through originally very restricted in space, a lot of trees, lot of stuff involved there. So we had to bring in a private
engineering firm to come in and give us a complete survey of the communities. Um, what this allowed us to do is we now know where everything is or we hope we know where everything is as as uh found out by the uh by the engineering firms and our engineers could come in and get
a better engineering design before we could start moving forward with any type of construction. Once we have the final design done, we'll get back with the homeowners associations there and start working out a timeline as to when we're going to be able to get in and run services there.
Um we're in the stages uh development stages right now for the following communities in Indian River Shores. River Club, Ocean Colony, Sea Forest, Beach, Comr Lane, Pebble Bay, and the Carlton. So we still have a lot of work out in front of us just here in the town of Indian River Shores. Um a lot of
things going on with us. Um not only here, but throughout our our project on the island. Um, I can tell you just in the town of Inur Shores, mostly in John's Island, I've signed over a 100 customers already. Um, that's that's pretty good for us. I've probably
engaged with another hundred that we have in process one way or the other between design and engineering and those kinds of things. And I've talked to about 500 uh Indian River Shores residents over the last couple of years since we rolled this project out. So, as we move into other communities, that of
course increases. uh the bulk of the work for me now it's is Indian River Shores uh or in John's Island I should say uh because that's where the bulk of the pipe has gone in uh estuary will start up once uh once we start putting pipe in the ground.
Uh I think that's all I have in my prepared statement. I I'm willing to answer any questions that uh that you may have. >> Any questions from council? >> Uh yes sir. So you mentioned villagores and pebble a
and you're get you're waiting for f dot permits. >> Yes sir. >> So any realistic timeline and when they're going to be completed? >> I would imagine those will probably be in within the next two months. Um FDOT
permit takes us about a month to get to get through that process and river shores is is absolutely much quicker than that. Um but we are we are in that permit process that everything has been submitted to FDOT. There is a process where we have like a we have to provide them with a notification of what we're
going to do and we have to go a couple of weeks before we can then submit the permits and then of course we have to answer uh any questions that they may have about how we're going to impact uh either one of those you know projects are going to impact the FDOT right ofway. In both cases, there's not much
that we have to do because we're just going to tie into the right ofway and our gas man that's already on that side of the street and then come in actually on the Indian River Shores community. So, it's not it's it's not that difficult. And once we have permitting, then the job goes to construction for scheduling.
>> Okay. So, you say the job goes to uh uh the work for schedule. >> Any sense of when gas starts flowing into homes in those communities? the the goal for me as the sales guy, of course, is to get it on as quickly as possible.
Um, and what I all I all I can do with our construction team is notify them of where we are. Both of the both of these projects are going to new construction homes. Um, so they know and they know that we have a target of when these folks want to get in. We want to get them in so they can get their cos for
their home. Uh, so we want to get that project pushed up as quickly as we can. But as of today, uh, They're they're older communities. You said >> cos they are. But the but the the two pro the projects that actually drove
these into these two communities were two new construction homes that are under construction at this point in time. >> Okay. >> So that's what's that's what's driving that's what's driving that. Um we and and those customers actually paid for the have to have those lines installed
um because that's the only way we could we could do that. there wasn't a large um outpouring of of folks wanting gas in those systems, but those homeowners said, "I want natural gas for my home. It's a better deal for me than propane at this point in time." So, they wrote
us a check to get those lines. Of course, we're going to pass other homes in there. We're going to be able to expand once we're in there. It's just a matter of getting those lines in. >> So, we looking at 28, 29, 30. >> No, sir. No, sir. Well, we we as we move forward through this. Yes, it we're
we're probably looking at, you know, several projects in 26, several projects in 27, um several projects in 28 because we have so many that we want to get to. So many communities have expressed interest in getting natural gas. When we get to that point, we you can only, you
know, we can only work, you know, at the pace of what our construction teams can work. Um we we just line them up and fill a funnel and and move on as we can. >> So, you only have one construction team working at a time. We have one contractor that works here. No, we have they have we have several. We have a we
have crews in John's Island. We have crews in Windsor. We have crews everywhere. It just depends on where that work is and where where it needs to be done. >> Okay. And then you mentioned uh developments like River Club and Go Colony. So, we're looking into the next decade then, right?
>> No, I would say probably 2728 um is probably is probably when we're looking. This was more than this is a 10-year project for us. Um, you know, that's how we looked at it. We can only move so quickly as as fast as our engineers can design things and we can
permit things and we can get them on the construction schedule. So, we we you know, the the good news is is we finally have natural gas to the barrier island and we're going to try to serve folks as quickly and you know, as quickly as we can. >> Okay.
Is is Palm Island one of the targets? >> Palm Island is not at this point in time. Um so what we did is when we originally rolled the program out, we we rolled this project out, we uh you know, we sent out mailers, we advertising, all those kinds of things. And a lot of it
was dependent on um what the uh what the demand was within a community. You know, we were requiring that at least 50% of the homeowners within a community would at least express that that interest in switching from propane to natural gas. >> Are you still Are you still requiring
that minimum We still are requiring that. >> But it sounds like there are some communities where individual homeowners can raise their hand. >> And that's that's where those that's where those things will, like I said, when when a customer specifically wants it and says, "I I'm not going to wait for my neighbors. I'm going to write you
a check so I can get gas in my home." And then we'll worry about that. We'll worry about that later. And that's how we we have the ability within our tariff to to help replace some of those funds that that customer is. other folks jump on that line so we have the ability to
to return some of their funds as well. And like I said, I'm I'm I'm out in the community every day talking with neighbors, talking with homeowners associations, just trying to move this. Um, Councilman Tedesco and I have going back and forth on emails for for his
community. So, we have a lot of things in the hopper. Like I said, I I we can just move as quickly as we can to to make that. >> So then when if you move on a community by community basis, let's say the river club, do you then enter into a memorandum of understanding with each community?
>> We what we Yes. What we do is is we sign an easement agreement with the community. Um we don't contract with the community because we don't we don't want to hold the community accountable for that. We leave the contracting part between Forest City Gas and individual
customers. So, we come up with that agreement that says, "Yep, you're going to allow us to come into your community and provide your residents with natural gas service." And we, you know, that's what we've done with John's Island, with Windsor, with the estuary. Every every community we go into, that's what we're that's what we're doing.
>> So, using John's Island as an example, of the 1,394 doors in there, what percentage hooked up? We're probably at about a hundred right now or thereabouts. Um, you know, we've been in there and we're probably doing services
every day or or every other day. We've got a crew in there running three, four, five services um between new construction homes, conversions, folks doing all that kind of stuff. So, we're we're moving along. I've, you know, same thing with Windsor. We're getting ready to do Orchid Island. So, there's a lot
of things that, you know, we've we've got going on. It's just, you know, things have to progress the way they do. It's unfortunate that we can't move faster as much as I would love to. Um, it's just, you know, sometimes we just can't do that. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you. Um, just to clarify, you're you're also hooking up commercial, too. So the clubous and that doesn't that's not included in the doors and that's that's a big big part of the >> um the project that you're looking at John's Island clubhouse and orchid and Windsor
>> we've yeah we've we've done we've we've we've got John's Island clubs on we've got Windsor clubs on Orchid Island clubs on we've got all that big commercial stuff on u we've done several of the condos up in John's Island as well um so that's just that's part of it that's the
big gas driver but what keeps me busiest is taking care of those residential customers. >> All right. Thank you. And then one last thing. I >> Yes, sir. >> I'm I'm aware that you're a highly highly regulated industry. But I'm going to ask you to rate us. >> So, in terms of the permitting process
and the cooperation from the town, >> how would you rate us? Things we can improve, things we are doing, right? >> No, I I I you know, I don't get involved so much in that side of the business because that's part of construction. >> That's why I'm asking you, >> but I haven't I haven't. Yeah. But I I
truthfully the the the town has been great. Um as as as sometimes as delayed as we kind of get in in John's Island, the John's Island folks have been outstanding as well. Um so I would say Indian River Shores as a community has
been fantastic for us. Um, you know, if I get a call about needing to get uh a restoration project taken care of that that the resident wasn't wasn't happy with how that stuff was restored in their home, that's one of the first things I jump on is make sure we get that taken care of. I get I'll get a
call from Mr. Harper and say, "Hey, Tim, can you reach out to this customer?" So, I make sure that construction gets that and we get those things taken care of so we can be as responsive as we can. I'm only one person out here for Florida City Gas, so I'm a little stretched thin. Um, but I'm I certainly want to be
responsive. I want to answer my phone. I want to answer to my emails and make sure that um, you know, we're serving a community way the way we should be. >> Thank you. The reason why I asked you uh was because as the guy sitting in the chair responsible for sales, I'm sure it filters up to you. If
>> I I am the I am the face of the company here. So, yes, it's whether it's on a construction side or the sales side or anything like that, those calls come through me. Um, and uh, you know, that's just part of being in this position that I'm in to to be here. So, >> all right. Thank you. Well, anything we can do better, we're always open to to
listen. >> Absolutely. I appreciate it. Thank you. >> Tim, can I ask one more one? >> Yes, sir. >> Very practical level. I hear from a lot of people, uh, I've got propane. It's going to cost me a lot of money to switch over to natural gas. And I've heard the other side of that. It's that
on a house by house basis, it's really not that big a number. Could you just shed some light on that? >> Sure. Um, so in most cases, I'll say 95% of of cases, um, the initial cost to get service to the home, we're going to cover that, right? We use our we use what our tariff allows us to do is is,
um, have an construction allowance based on a customer's gas usage. The only appliance that doesn't fit into that is a generator because it's a standby piece of equipment. But in most cases, we're running a service to the home and setting a gas meter. Conversion costs of
course will look depend a lot on how many appliances you have, how old those appliances are, those kinds of things. Um I've I've seen conversions as low as $1,200. I've seen some up 2500 and plus, right? Depending on those appliances. Um
because we're converting from propane to natural gas, they're both gases. They kind of burn on the same pressure. There's not much difference in that. It just depends on how they get it to the home. Um, so those conversion processes are are usually pretty simple and straightforward. Um,
where we kind of set ourselves apart. Um, right now with thermatural gas for us is about $225. That's 100,000 BTUs of energy. I've talked to a couple customers. Um, lately we kind of give the propane companies
the benefit of the doubt of about 350 to $4 a gallon. Over the last couple of days, I've been told one customer was $4.95 a gallon. Another one was 579 a gallon. Um, so we're we're we're definitely in that ballpark to where we can give a benefit to those customers. I
did a a cost analysis for a homeowner in Windsor yesterday. He's going to get a payback in about 8 months on his investment of his conversion cost based on what his cost for propane was. So, um, you know, and it's it's it's it's the long run. We don't run out. We, you
know, our gas is always on. You don't have to worry about that truck showing up. We get the trucks off the street. Um, you know, it's a benefit. Um, don't get me wrong, propane has a place. Um, I have it at my house, so, you know, it's just it's just part of my business to to go out and try to wrangle some of those
folks away. >> Yeah. I I filled up in November. I won't name the company, but I paid just a little over $5 a gallon. >> Right. So we're we're we're competitive. >> Yes, Peter.
>> And you're giving rebates on appliances. >> We Right. So So we have our our conversion uh rebates from propane and natural gas aren't that robust because the idea of the energy conservation program when it was established was to get electric load off
the grid. So if you're going from electric to gas, we have very robust electric to gas rebates. um tankless water heater, for example, is $675. So, we have those things available. So, when folks want to replace those, we've got money to help offset those costs. Propane's a little bit different on the
other side, but that's when we kind of go back into that cost savings over the the two the two energies. >> All right. Anything else? Thanks very much. We'll look forward to hearing how the progress grows. All right. Uh okay. Next. Um
uh just one question, Madam Clerk. I've got a proclamation for flood awareness week that was part of my materials, but it's not on the agenda. Is that for next month? >> No. Um the town manager was going to bring it up under his report. >> Okay. All right. Fine. Thank you. Um All right. Then we'll move to item number
four, which is comments from the public regarding agenda items. So, any items listed on the agenda that the public wants to comment on, now is your time to do so. Okay. Seeing none, we'll move on to the consent agenda. Uh
we had a very busy looking agenda, but a lot of it is on the consent agenda there. Um fairly routine things. I'm just checking, Mr. Town attorney. I don't see anything that requires a roll call vote. Am I right in concluding that?
>> Um Mr. Mayor, if you chose to on the ILAS, you could do it as a roll call vote. It's not required, but >> um maybe in an abundance of caution. Okay. All right. The ILA is for those >> approval with Yeah, they're they're interlocal agreements. They're
agreements that we have with other other government entities. So, uh I think it's a good idea to uh to have a roll call vote on that. So, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So, move. >> Second. >> All right. Let's have a roll call vote. >> Mayor Foley. >> I.
>> Vice Mayor Outwwater. >> I. >> Council member Carroll. >> I. >> Council member Alieri. >> Hi. >> Council member Tedesco. I >> let the record show the motion passes unanimously. >> All right. And thank you, Mr. Sweeney, for your counsel on that. Um, mayor's report. Uh, didn't want to mention this
to during Mr. Nson's presentation because he was he was so positive, but um, two items that the town manager, um, I'll ask to have him address in his report. They were not huge incidents, but we did have a a gas man incident or
a gas line incident on Friday. Um and then uh uh it was I guess the week for breaks and then we hit a tree fall on a hydrant break a water mane that caused some disruption and uh just have the town manager um give a report on that. Both were repaired relatively quickly
although we did get some comment back from the public uh as to what happened and and why. Uh on water legislation um the uh the broken record from the mayor about water legislation. Uh I have a
print out of just about every water bill that that has been filed, including those without uh companions in the in the other chamber. And I'll give the good news. The good news is, you know, having looked at this issue for the better part of seven years, and I know
uh Councilman Carol, Vice Mayor Elwater, um Councilman Alter, and um I think Mr. Tedesco before he was Councilman Tedesco also followed this issue. Uh we saw a lot of bills floating around the legislature to address some of the
central issues important to us. Um mainly pricing fairness given the fact that we're uh forced to obtain our sewer and water services from the city of Vero Beach. Uh so the good news is of the bills that I'm seeing, many of the bills are moving in the right direction in
terms of truly addressing the problems we have on a statewide basis. Um the bad news is the word is there's not going to really be any action on any of these bills during this legislative session. Uh that could change. Nobody has a crystal ball on this, but uh I'm going to leave the materials I have with Mr.
Sweeney. Uh, and for any of the council people or members of the public who are interested in seeing this, um, you're welcome to have a look at it. I would I would summarize the key issues for us are uh the unfairness of having to pay
um potentially higher costs and potentially higher um fees simply because you know we are slightly out of a geographical boundary which is a matter as a right for the city of Euro Beach to do 25% can be tacked on
basically for any or no reason whatsoever up to 50% where there has to be at least some veneer of um justification for it. Uh I think the vice mayor has pointed out the unfairness of that in that, you know, if you had a house right next door on the
on the town line to um a house in the city of Vero Beach, would it be fair for you to pay more for your electric? Now, utilities really shouldn't operate that way. So there there are a number of these bills that are addressing those issues and also restricting the amount
of money that enterprise funds which are utilities run by municipalities can return to what's called the general fund. So the general fund is the big pot of money that municipalities use to fund their operations. Uh typically that's that's done through taxes, adverum taxes
and revenues that are shared from the state. Um, as it stands now, utilities can basically run a profit on their utility services, charge customers that have to buy the services from that utility more, and then they return the
profits to the general fund, not not back into the infrastructure costs and the capital costs to keep the utility up to date and running. Um, so for for me, that's taxation without representation. It's unfair. Um, I think there's there's
a growing consensus um throughout the state that there needs to be something done about this. Unfortunately, nobody's really had the appetite to really push the issue uh despite many of us up here trying hard and pushing that. So, we'll we'll continue to do what we can and
monitor it. But uh uh as I said, the good news is the the the issues that are reflected in these pending bills seem to be going in the general direction that um that I believe they should. Uh the bad news is I would not hold my breath to see anything uh actually legislated
this uh this session. Um all right. So on that um we have uh uh I have I'm going to I'm going to mention this now as opposed to the Treasure Coast Council of Local Governments um
report but one of the uh commissioners uh gave an update at Treasure Coast Council of Local Governments um which is a meeting monthly for elected representatives from all the municipalities and school boards in the area about a um a beach replenishment
plan that was going on in St. Lucy County. Uh you may have seen due to erosion uh it was getting pretty darn close to some of the properties and and homes in the area and uh an emergency emergency replenishment program was undertaken to dump sand to at least uh
put up a temporary uh barrier to uh to further erosion and keep those homes uh hopefully from falling into the ocean. the um the the issue that caught my my attention. I know we already know how expensive that is. I think it's going to be in the
magnitude of 7 8 $9 million to do that. Um that's a lot of money for a temporary temporary fix. There there was some talk about uh structures being placed offshore that they're looking into to um act as a more permanent break against um
against erosion. Um, at the time a few years ago, Mir Gibbons of Orchid and I were looking into these kinds of things and we were told because of the geology of our area, uh, we were not good candidates for those kinds of breaks. But uh I I've asked the town manager to
follow up and see whether or not um the experts are actually correct on this, whether or not there's a new technology we're not aware of because if um if there is a project that's going to be undertaken um I I think you know we should have a seat at the table as
should all the other municipalities to see whether or not we'd be a candidate for that. So I know in the Maldes and different places throughout the world they have such structures and it's it's showing promising signs of uh amilarating um the effects of the beach
erosion. So uh we're um I'm across A1A and although I'd love to have ocean oceanront property, I don't want it that way. So uh you know I think we need to uh I think we need to really um stay very far ahead of this and we're doing what we can. We're doing plantings on
dunes and we're actually setting a higher standard than the minimum required in order to prevent erosion wherever we can. And so I think if there's if there's a really good technological fix, uh let's talk with our partners in St. Lucy, find out, you know, what they uh St. Lucy County that
is. Find out what uh um what they've been told and whether or not we'd be a candidate for that. Uh we we'd never be able to afford this on our own. we're talking in the magnitude of uh tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars. So that's really a federal state project. But you got to start somewhere. Even the
longest journey starts with a single step, right? Um all right. Lastly, um it's going to be a little bit longer statement on something that I have and um essentially
uh city of Vera Beach Vice Mayor Taylor Dingle uh issued a press release that he's going to ask the city of Vero Beach Council to request a voluntary audit by the Florida Department of Government Efficiency. Um some of us call it Little
Doge or Florida Doge. He's uh doing this for the purpose of quote restoring public confidence following past audit issues end quote. I fully support Vice Mayor Dingle and asked the Indian River Shores Council members to support his endeavor as well.
That is provided. The audit includes a full assessment of the enterprise funds such as the city of Vero Beach water and sewer department to determine how much rateayers are actually subsidizing the city of Vero Beach general fund with profits from water and sewer services.
And that's not just the amount of money that's being transferred over, but uh the vice mayor a few years back gave a um very sobering account of how much of the administrative cost is actually shifted over to u uh to be covered by uh
taxpayers in Indian River Shores that have no direct way of accounting for it by u by voting for u officials in the city of Euro Beach. So, Indian River Shores has an interest in full transparency of the city of Vero Beach
finances given the fact that our residents are forced to buy water and sewer services from the city of Vero Beach. Um, I also think likewise the county residents who were forced into the ser city of Vero Beach water and sewer system by the county
commissioner's vote. Uh, it was a 3 to2 vote a couple of years ago have the same interest in transparency. In the 3 to2 vote, the commissioners agreed to give an exclusive multi-deade franchise agreement requiring those county residents uh particularly the South
Island residents to buy water and sewer services from the city of Vero Beach. Thus, I would expect our county commissioners to support m Vice Mayor Dingle and for the further reason that the city consistently asks the county to share in revenues and subsidies in a
variety of contexts including room taxes and different different monies that uh really belong to the entirety of the county. Um, I think as such the the county should know, you know, where its residents money is going and so I would I would expect that the county commissioners
would uh would be supportive of this audit as well. I would also think that the local taxpayer organizations would support Vice Mayor Dingle if they truly have the best interests of Indian River taxpayers at heart. I mean, what's a taxpayer association for if it's not for
transparency and accountability? So, in closing, I want to thank Vice Mayor Dingle for being a serious and responsible steward of the public trust and the taxpayer funds, and I would ask that all of us support him in in the effort to have this done. So, anyway, that's that's it. I'm happy to answer
any any questions. Uh we're we're not going to take a formal vote on this. Each individual council member can express their support um either today or if they want to think about the issue by email to Vice Mayor uh Taylor Dingle. All right. Thank you. >> Is this an independent audit by an
independent auditing agency or is it done is is it to be done by an agency of the city? >> It No, it's Florida Doge is an agency of you know the Florida state government. So yeah, and there's there's talk about making a a permanent Florida Doge entity
um this legislative session. I don't know where that where that sits uh Mr. Sweeney, but um you know I lost track of the bill. >> Yes, Mr. Mayor. I have not seen any update on it, but I'll certainly look into it more. Um, but to Councilman
Alier's point, Jac, which is the joint legislative uh accounting committee, audit committee, excuse me, um, has done this multiple times in multiple cities up and down throughout the state of Florida. So, >> right. And uh some governments and
particularly counties have through either a minority or majority asked for little doge Florida doge to conduct uh audits and reviews to uh uh to ensure transparency or rectify any issues that they see. So um it's it's it's not an
internal audit, it's an external audit. >> Fair to say? >> Yes. >> Mr. Mayor, uh you made reference to the possibility of council u supporting um uh the statement in effect that you
just read. Um I'd be very much in favor of doing that. I I heard it just now for the first time. I listened carefully. I agree with everything you said and I'd like to know if there is a procedure that we can
follow at this point for council to endorse the mayor's statement. U mayor council uh yes you could um you could take it up as a motion and a second and do that. It wasn't agendaized so I don't know what the time frame is
for Vice Mayor Dingle to send this off. it is arguably an action of council um that would be binding as a fair statement if you did all approve it. So it probably should be agendaized. Um but if you were wanting to do that at this
meeting, you would move to modify the agenda. I think we've already said it, so it would be a lot of complicating factors to do it in this meeting. Um but I don't know the timing. Mr. Mayor, >> I I I appreciate that. Um this happened all relatively quickly. I think the date of his press release was uh February
10th. I didn't see it until the 12th. Uh I think the council meeting where he's going to bring it up is the 28th. Uh I agree that in order for there to be a formal uh resolution, we would have to put it on the agenda. I don't want to call a special meeting to do that and
we've already passed the time to add items to the agenda. >> Yes. But my understanding is that if we individually endorse it here verbally and were to send an email on our own, we would not run a foul of any any sunshine law issue on agendaizing the uh the item. >> Yeah, Mr. Mayor, council, I'm not
worried. Yeah, that would be fine if you wanted to. It's just to whether it was on a town of Indian shores letterhead signs official correspondence by the mayor or if it was individual actions having been made aware of it and whether it was councilman Carol, vice mayor, what whoever were to send those emails that would be fine.
>> Okay. So we can we can verbally give an at a boy if we agree with it today. Um yes and we can send emails to individually to uh Vice Mayor Dingle and action >> if this were to continue. I I would recommend we do have it as a formal agenda item potentially for the next
meeting assuming it goes forward. >> Yes. Okay. All right. >> On the personal email or on our IRS >> I would recommend always on Indian River Shores emails uh sending it and that way the town maintains a copy of it >> as a public record. >> As a public record. Yes, sir. >> All right. Great. And um the clerk has
the um >> clerk has the address for Vice Mayor Dingle. So, uh you know, we can you can work through the through the clerk to send them individually, but we're we're not able to send them as a group email because of the Yeah. Okay.
>> Anything? >> Nothing. >> Nothing. All right. >> All right. Vice Mayor, excuse me, Vice Mayor Alwater has a presentation on PAS strategies, otherwise known as Forever Chemicals. >> Correct. Uh, so I I I backed up
Councilman Alier. He couldn't make the the meeting. So, um, there was a presentation by Rob Bolton, the utilities director. Basically, alls he did, not all he did, but there was a 14-page document that was handed out and
he verbally talked about it. So I created this PowerPoint presentation. So this was the Vero Beach utilities commission. So just uh following up a little bit on the mayor's remarks, when you see Vero Beach utilities commission, you think, "Wow, boy, that's a pretty important uh body under the franchise
agreement with the city. We get one um member uh on that and there's a couple members from outside the city such as South Beach where they serve. The reality is this utility commission has absolutely no teeth to it in spite of
what uh the city manager Monty Falls and mayor uh Kugno say where they indicate we have a a voice has zero voice. It does act as an information uh disseminating uh body but they say it's
advisory. It's not even advisory. All the decisions on the utility are made by the Viro Beach City Council, which we all know we can't vote for. They effectively act as the board of directors like a a private company. So, it's just important for people to know
that. So, so um let's see if you could flip to uh who's who's running these slides? Okay, if you'd flip to the uh next page, I think a lot of people are pretty familiar uh with that uh PAS, as the mayor says. are essentially
compounds that remain have a very long halflife and they're a large group of fluoride containing uh containing compounds that uh are believed to have multiple negative uh human health effects. And the major sources of these
contaminations in drinking water and groundwater are training and fire response sites, industrial sites, landfills. And when bioolids are created in a wastewater treatment process, uh they often times have have these things
as well. Every one of us here from what I I can read in the uh medical uh science uh literature we all have PASES uh in in our uh body. If you flip the next page please.
Okay. So u the EP EPA set up standards for uh different uh various uh uh PAS here and you you can you can see them here. This was finally done under the Biden administration per their 2024
uh final rule. These are very low concentrations. They're not easy to uh uh get out, particularly the ones that are at four. And realistically, the ones that are zero, you're you're you're not going to get them taken care of. So that
was the standard that was set up in uh 2024 at the tail end of the Biden administration. If you flip the next page, please. So, uh, just very recently, the Trump administration said they're going to, uh, the EPA is going to look at this all
over again. And they eliminated, at least temporarily, some of the, uh, standards for the other chemicals. They're going to review them. I'm I'm not saying they're going to eliminate them for forever, but they're going to reconsider them. So basically the two
primary contaminants are the P PFOAs and the PFOS and the standards are the same as what you saw on the previous page in 200 uh 204. You flip the next page. So where are they at in Vero Beach? Well,
they're around the airport. Uh so there were various firefighting training uh locations that that occurred where the chemicals ended up being sprayed on the ground. Uh this one I believe the road on the left hand side is 43rd uh street
there just uh north of uh of uh 26th Avenue. So that's one major location and flip to the next page. Then there was a series of incidents that took place on the airport where there either was a fuel leak, there was an aircraft fire uh
uh aircraft engine uh fire and some other things that occurred. Unfortunately, the field where they get water from uh the more shallow wells are not too far away from uh from these particular sites. Uh next page, please.
So there was an analysis done and uh I believe this was done very recently. So what so I did a cut and paste of the table that was in the document that that Mr. Bolton put in. All all these other things are cut are cut and paste. And then what I added was
the 2024 EPA uh standard. And as you can see there, it ain't good news. Uh so there are a lot of these uh uh sitting out here. Even if they resend the other uh standards for some of the some of the
uh ones below the first two, we're were way way above things. at the maximum. I'm not sure how they came up with that, whether they did uh various surveys and then uh looked at the highs and lows. Uh so I I didn't get the detail on that,
but potentially some of the standards were much higher than the uh the 4.0 that was in the 2024 EPA standard. And just remind you, the PFOA and the PFOS standards are still at four even under the current EPA rules. So, Vice Mayor,
are these active wells or are these >> Well, you decommissioned >> I'm I'm I'm not to that page yet. >> I'm sorry. Sorry. >> Okay. So, flip the next page. Okay. So, uh these uh these uh some of the uh some of
the wells uh have amazing numbers to them and uh as Councilman Alieri uh you know point points out, they're way above these standards. These are all currently offline. They're being they're being uh shut down. But uh pretty staggering
numbers that you can you can uh uh see there. Uh not a not a good uh situation. This is unfortunately pretty common around airports who use these
firefighting chemicals. And where this all started, my understanding is with airport in the uh city of Stewart where they first found these things. They went after DuPont and uh 3M and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a second.
So my understanding that's where this got prominence and then has been spread or been discussed all across the uh the country but uh incredible numbers. Uh next page please. So there are a lot of different uh treatment uh technologies.
Obviously I I don't have the expertise. I'm not going to waste everybody's time trying to go go through them. So they look at they looked at a lot of different things. And the ones they decided to test are the ones I put in in the red X to run a a pilot study to see
how they can potentially uh remove these PAS. Now, you you'll see a couple of these very effective uh uh most effective and so forth. I hope that's right. I've been in in meetings other times where they say these are not as
proven as as what they think, but uh uh I don't know. We we'll we'll have have to see. I know this happened down in fort in Fort Pierce and uh the impression I had they were having issues down there as well and uh didn't have the level of optimism that maybe some of
these comments made. Would you agree or disagree with that? I >> I would agree. Uh Mr. Mayor, council, um I'm I'm intimately familiar with PAS. There's national litigation going on. I don't want to jump to the conclusion, I'm sure, but there is literally uh two funds worth billions of dollars that
that quite frankly is available to any municipality or county utility provider that has these types of numbers. I'm I'm working with and representing and so I'm familiar with it and and again, >> none of the technology is perfect yet. A lot of this is very new, but the ability to ameliorate it um with the funding
that's available from these class actions is would go a long ways. And so I think maybe that plays into some of what you described >> unless unless the city opted out >> as you can't you can't opt out >> as did Ver. >> Yes, you're right. You're absolutely right. The city did opt out. Um so
>> based based on these numbers uh that you just showed um minimum thresholds on some of the DuPont numbers would be well into the millions. It's all based on how many gallons per day, what your numbers are, and how much you provide. >> Okay. So uh flip to the next uh next
page. So these are treat uh treatment technologies cost estimates and taken with a huge grain of salt. So this would be in addition to the uh what is it the $160
million cost of the water and sewer plan. I hope I have that right. If if I'm wrong, please tell me. Uh so this would be in addition. So they eliminated looking at the at the RORO because of the expense. The other thing is that my understanding it creates bio uh solid
sludges where the PAS tends to get concentrated and then you have an issue where the hell you going to dump that. So they're going to look at the GAC and uh and ex if you'd flip the next page please. So they're going to do a pilot study comparing these two removal and
then the consultant states that the potential performance is very sight uh specific that you can't make a generalization uh about how these are going to work out and the cost is going to be 250,000 which at least initially will be borne
by the water and and sewer uh customers and as Councilman Alieri you know pointed out that there's been a whole series of uh uh lawsuits on these just Very recently, City of Stewart settled with DuPont. Uh they got a multi-million
dollar one about what $6 million I think, but a third of that goes for uh fees. And to to your your point, Council Me Terry, the city has opted out at this point. I don't know why, but uh I know
if you have any information on that, I' I' I'd welcome your uh comments. uh their the city attorney just said they opted out and but didn't didn't say why. So I just want to alert to everybody uh unfortunately this is what is going on
uh with your uh with your water. So I thought it was important to put it on a public record out there. Uh you can look at it on YouTube and and see the the slides that I put together which was a a
summary of the utilities uh director's uh comments. So, >> so Vice Mayor, my understanding is that the the cost, whatever it winds up to be, whether or not it's the it's going to be $250,000 for this study, but it's either going to be 14 million or 16
million or some some exponential number above those two numbers. But my sense was that what Rob Bolton says was that they were going to carve that out of the bond issuance and funded through some state revolving funds, a 20-year loan, which would be
>> apparently it's a very low interest loan. It gets some funding from the state or the county or both, >> but um I don't think it's going to add to the burden of the um >> Okay. >> the revenue the revenue bonds. >> All right. Thank you. Um
the conclusion I draw is that it's safer to drink uh beer and wine for the time being. Is that um now seriously it's a it's a uh it's an important issue and um the one thing that struck me was the
opt out because I'm trying to search back for my class action uh law primer which I know dangerously little about. But if you opt out, you then have to either join another class
or bring your own suit on your own dime. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Then within a certain time frame, there is a statute of limitations. It's probably running. >> All of those are accurate. >> Um, hesitate to ask this question, but I ask
it anyway. Any indications as to what they plan to do? Anybody? Are they Was there a strategy involved in this or just a reflex to opt out? >> I have not heard anything, Mr. Mayor. I'm sorry. >> Maybe good question to ask at the next uh
>> and um may maybe the vice mayor knows better than I, but if you've got two target defendants, one is DuPont, one is 3M, my guess is that their involvement with PFAS is different. Some of the PFAS
had to do with clothing, like water retardant clothing. Some of it had to do with the PFAS that are part of the firefighting foam. So, it may be that one of the lawsuits that they opted out of had to do with 3M and not Dupont, but we can do the we can do the research on
this and be better informed by the next meeting. >> Yes, sir. >> Right. Yeah. I don't want to give everybody a headache this afternoon or this morning talking about these things, but you know there's like enterprise liability like you know there's a strict li so it seems to me if if it's the same aquifer and the water is coming from the
same aquifer even on the county side um you know the contaminants got there somehow they're not they're not naturally occurring. We know that. All right. Well, thank you for the presentation and thank you for following up on this and you know, we'll uh we'll
have to exercise our own diligence u in what we take. I I did note that in in California, I read an article that the levels were so high in parts of California that under California law, water would be um have to be labeled as
a carcinogenic. >> Amazing. All right. Um, anything else on this? Any council member items other than vice mayor? Okay. Uh, let's move on to item 8, A, ordinance number 587, short-term
vacation rental enforcement. Uh, I'll let Mr. Harping and Mr. Sweeney uh give the explanation on this, but my understanding from reading the materials, it's to basically make the enforcement mechanism part of our special magistrate system, kind of
conforming to the rest of the way we do things with uh uh code enforcement, etc. Mr. Mayor, that's correct. Okay. Um Mr. Sweeney, do you want to read the title and do the magic language as we call it?
>> Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor, thank you. This is ordinance number 587, an ordinance relating to short-term vacation rentals, amending section 161.12, short-term vacation rentals, sub E, enforcement of the code of ordinances of the town of any river shores, providing for applicability and inclusion, providing
for severability, providing for codification, providing for a business impact estimate, providing for scrier, and providing for an effective date. This is the first reading. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. All right. Uh, is there a motion to approve? So move. >> Is there a second? >> Second. Is there any discussion on the
ordinance? If there is no discussion on the ordinance, we can take a roll call vote. >> Mayor Foley, >> I. >> Vice Mayor Alwater, >> I. >> Council member Carroll, >> I. >> Council member Alieri, >> I. >> Council member Teddesco, >> I. >> Let the record show the motion passes unanimously.
>> Thank you very much. Item 8B, ordinance number 588, establishment of departments. Now, despite the title, uh we're not establishing more departments. We're actually streamlining departments. So, it uh it it really is
uh eliminating some departments and consolidating them to make our government more efficient. But I'll let you explain the logic behind uh the recommendation that you made, Mr. Harping, with which I agree. By the way, >> thank you. Excuse me, Mr. Mayor, councel. Um the code as it stands uh
establishes eight departments. Uh from a functional standpoint, operational standpoint, those eight departments are not needed. We're looking to uh shrink that size from 8 to four. Those four departments will accurately reflect the day-to-day uh administration and
operations uh of the town. >> All right, Mr. Sweeney, can you uh read the title and the uh magic language, please? >> Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor, thank you. This is ordinance number 588. An ordinance relating to town administration amending section 30.01 establishment of
departments providing for applicability and inclusion providing for severability providing for scrier's errors providing for codification providing for a an business impact estim statement excuse me and providing for an effective date. This is the first reading. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve?
>> So move. >> All right. A motion by the vice mayor. Second by councilman Altieri. Is there any discussion? Any discussion on on this item? Okay. >> Will Lucy be getting more things to do or less?
>> There will be more. We're counting on more. >> Mayor Foley. >> First of all, it's a good thing Lucy's not here. She She scares me. >> Uh I >> Vice Mayor Harter.
>> Hi. >> Council member Carroll. >> Hi. >> Council member Alieri. >> Hi. Council member Dedesco. >> I let the record show. The motion passes unanimously. >> Thank you. And I I do think it's a testament to the quality of people we have that we can make this seamless uh
consolidation and not skip a beat. Uh we've got people that take on a lot u a lot more things than folks used to and u credit to to our administration for doing that. Thank you. Uh item 8 C ordinance number 589 repeal of section
31.05 05 contract contracts required for services. Um Mr. Hartbring can you kindly give an explanation of this and uh um I would ask you also I had I had one question which was you know council is still going to approve p approve
personal services contracts and management contracts etc. So um uh if you could kindly give our give our council and our public uh uh summary of why we want this ordinance passed. Um, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, again, excuse
me, moving a little bit towards uh efficiency and review of the ordinances. Uh, currently 3105 requires that every contract be approved by, uh, town council notwithstanding, uh, amount or anything like that. And it's really for
any, you know, person to render a service to the town. That does conflict with both our current policy, uh, which has been provided in other areas of the ordinance. It also um helps us administratively so that every single thing that we do doesn't have to wait essentially uh you know four weeks or
five weeks to get approved. >> Right. And just by way of example or clarity, it's not like you can go out um without council approval, formal council approval and hire a new director of public safety or a new treasurer or a new new clerk.
>> Yes, that's correct, Mr. Mayor and Council. These are all uh consistent with really operational matters as opposed to uh personnel matters. >> All right. Thank you. That that was my question. Um are there any other questions before >> Yeah. Uh the question I have is how about large equipment purchases like
fire engines and ambulances and and so forth. Where where does that stand? >> We still have the current threshold levels for council approval in terms of that has to come back to council. That that's completely unchanged. >> Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? Um, is there
a motion to approve? >> Uh, m Mr. Mayor, may I read? >> Oh, I'm sorry. You have to read the title. Yep. Yes. Thank you. This is ordinance number 589, an ordinance of the town of In Shores, Florida, Municipal Corporation, repealing section 31.05, contract required for services, providing for a business impact estimate, providing for severability,
providing for codification, providing for conflicts, providing for scribers errors, providing for an effective date. This is the first reading. Thank you. >> And is there a motion to approve? So move. >> All right, we have a motion by Councilman Carroll and a second by Councilman Tedesco. Uh, roll call vote,
please. >> Mayor Foley, >> I. >> Vice Mayor Outwart, >> hi. >> Council member Carol, >> I. >> Council member Alieri, >> I. >> Council member Tedesco, >> let the record show. The motion passes unanimously. >> All right. Thank you. Moving on to item 8 D is in David. Um, appointment to
finance committee for term expiring November 2026. Uh we had Mr. Tedesco uh resign when he was appointed to council and so we have an opening. Uh my understanding is there are there were
two applications. Yep. Do you want to >> The town received two applications for the position. One was received from Teresa Morgan and one was received from Mr. Robert Stevenson. >> Okay. Is there a motion >> with the discussion, please? >> Discussion. Sure.
>> Okay. Yep. >> Um I asked u the town clerk to look at the current membership. There's there's five. We're we're replacing one. Uh Mike Ouxner is going to be termed out in uh
in November of this year. Uh Robert Moore is going to be termed out as well. So we're going to we're going to have two people that we're going to have to uh look for. And then we have two other gentlemen going there. What my
suggestion would would be on this is to appoint a full member and an alternate and uh I you know I would be willing to make a motion to uh appoint Mr. Stevenson as the full member and Ms.
Morgan as the alderant since we're going to have the situation where we're going to have to fill in and from the time when I was on the uh finance committee sometimes it's difficult in the summer when you're going over budgets to get get a full set of people. So that that
would that would be my suggestion. You know subject to council's concurrence. >> Have we had alternates on finance before? >> Yes. We've had alternates on uh finance in the past. Um and
excuse me as one um uh to the vice mayor's uh point, some of the challenges um had been with um actually getting a quorum for a uh for a physical meeting. Um there are alternatives to um alternates uh as it were in the
ordinance. there's no uh stricture on the number of people that could be on the particular committee. Um the difference in the amount in other words the total number of people as full-time members uh the only thing that that affects is what the
quorum would be. Um, I think what we did was in the past is we did um we we just didn't have the ability to have the volume of people that were interested in in some of those positions which is where we how we landed on uh on five for the finance uh committee which is a
little different in function and structure than say the planning zoning and variance committee which has other statutory you know obligations. Our finance committee has the obligations directed to it by the council. >> Okay, understood. Um, >> could I make a suggestion?
>> Yes. Uh, we're I'm just getting to the point where I'm asking for other people's thoughts before, um, we open the floor for motions. So, by all means, >> thank you. Um, two fantastic candidates. I had a chance this week to spend two
hours with each of them actually and found them both really well spoken and uh, great communicators, quickwitted. I'm not a psychologist, but I think the IQ EQ score would be very high with both of them. Um, they both have dogs, which
is another tie. Uh, one differentiator is the fact that Miss Morgan is here year round. Mr. Stevenson only seasonally. You might want to consider the alternate to be the person that is going to be gone in the off
season. Uh, but I agree with what you're saying to put one on and as the full and the other as the alternate because they both have very good business backgrounds and uh would both do very well serving on this committee. I think
>> I hadn't thought of the proposal that the vice mayor suggested. Um, what I can say is that I've known um Rob Stevenson for years. Um, and I would certainly second his nomination to fill the spot. I don't know Terresa Morgan yet. Um, um,
I'm delighted to see that she's raised her hand on that. We've got such good candidates for for these positions. I think the suggestion of having um, one be the fill a spot and the other be the alternate is makes sense. sub. I don't
think you can fill a quorum with an alternate, but I think that it it um it creates a nice ladder for the future. And as the vice mayor suggested, we're going to have an opening or two in November. In any event, so I would support that proposal.
>> Um I met with Mr. Stevenson. I I have every every confidence that he'll he'll attend the meetings and he'll do what's needed to be done. Um, so, uh, uh, close call, but I I, um, you know, I would I would not have any objection to having,
uh, Theresa Morgan as an alternate. Um, I I agree with Mr. Alteri that I don't know how that would work on, um, quorum issues, but at the end of the day, finance makes recommendations to us. There's nothing binding that they do.
Um, so I think you know more minds, you know, even if an alternate is is weighing in would be fine. Um, those are my thoughts on it. So, Vice Mayor, you've already spoken, Mr. Carol. Uh, yes. I'm on record from the last
meeting, last the special meeting, um, uh, extolling Mr. Stevenson's qualities. Um, so I support him 100%. I met with um um Miss Morgan, had a great conversation
with her. Um she's very wellqualified person. She indicated to me that um uh if she is not appointed to the finance committee um at this meeting uh that she would uh
most definitely uh choose to uh um run in um in October, November when when the when the other openings come up. Um, as for an alternate, um, it seems to me,
and Mr. Town Manager, uh, correct me if I'm wrong, hasn't the trend, uh, been to reduce, if not the trend for this council and your administration has been to reduce, if not eliminate,
alternates. Um and I understand the case statement for it uh that if one is unable to attend another could step in. But u I would also say that if
u the person appointed knows there is an alternate then he or she may not feel as compelled to attend otherwise. So, uh, I I I I I don't
support the idea of having an alternate. I think we ought to step up to the plate, uh, pick who we want to pick and, um, count on our selection showing up for all the meetings. So, I would
support Mr. Stevenson. >> Mr. Mayor, just briefly, uh, that's correct. um council member Carol relative to the u administration direction uh v the alternates and the numbers and and so on that that direction is 100% uh correct as stated
and Mr. Mayor, for the benefit of council, just very briefly, the the finance committee is not a creature of ordinance. We don't have it in our ordinance. It's it's ad hoc in a sense, but I would say this. If somebody is an alternate, they don't count towards the composition. So, if we had five members,
but we had alternates for all of them, we have a five member board with a backup for each. The quorum then has to be three at those meetings, you know. So, but if you I have seen historically more problems with quorum by having alternates for some of the
reasons described. The primary sometimes believes the alternate will automatically back up. The alternate has already made plans there is a primary. What I would suggest is there's really three approaches. You can do alternates certainly. Um but you can simply add more members to the board. As I'm aware
of there's no fixed finite membership for the finance committee. You could have it be 3 5 7 10 12. That certainly could become unwieldy. My point is whatever number you decide on will fix your quorum going forward. So, and a
final part is these are all public meetings. So, if somebody was not a member of the board, they are not handcuffed and could go to the meetings, interact with all of the members of any of the committees. Um, you know, all of you are very well verssed with sunshine. Um, so just things to think about. I
just want to make sure everybody's clear, >> right? But my inarticulate statement about how the quorum works is it's an advisory board. So we we've had finance not have a quorum a couple of years ago and they still sent their recommendations to us and we evaluated them. We take them for what it's worth.
So um quorum is kind of a misnomer, but um I I think it's good to have an odd number because there's always a tiebreaker. And uh uh anyway, that's uh thank you for for your clarification on that. Uh Councilman Tedesco, you wanted
a another shot at the apple or another bite? I would I'd just like to go on record with the fact that number one, I I agree with everything you said, Sam, relative to Mr. Stevenson. Uh I was also very
impressed with uh Miss Morgan uh who also has a very strong desire to to join uh the council at some point. Uh she is a CPA who also has a masters in business administration and went on to uh be
certified also as a internal audit person and also is certified to do fraud detection which of course is not of any importance to us. Uh a big differentiator here was the fact
that she really looks also to this committee uh to be something that she would like to be on in order to really gain more uh understanding of the way this town works and the way this government here works and is would be
willing to commit to a full two-year term as opposed to just waiting until September of this year uh to to take that committee assignment. With that in mind, uh if I were to choose only one, I
like the idea of two at this point, including the alternate, but if I had to choose one, the differentiator to me would be the fact that she would be willing to stay on and have two years that she could serve on this committee. >> All right. But whoever is successful has
six months and then they'd have to run again, right? >> So it doesn't matter, right? >> You know, now or later. So, um All right. Both both strong candidates. We're blessed to have two people that are interested in doing this. >> Absolutely. Um All right. Who wants to make a motion?
>> Um Mr. Mayor, uh I'd like to make one more comment. I I want to get some clarification here because a comment was made that if an alternate uh steps up because a full member is not there that they don't part of count as part of the quorum. That's not my understanding at all.
>> No, no, they do count as part I'm sorry. I may have misspoke. What is >> Well, no. I I I think Mr. Tedesco uh made that comment. I just want to be clear because I'm an ordinant on the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council and they count me when I go >> when when an alternate steps into the
shoes. Yeah, >> they're a member. >> So that counts towards right Mr. Actually, Mr. Alteri made the comment. >> I'm sorry. >> I obiscated the comment and then tried to clarify it by saying since they don't have any binding authority, you know, the notion of a quorum really doesn't
matter. And we've had non-quarum uh recommendations made by finance that we've acted on and have not said, well, we can't do it because only two people were present at the meeting. We we take it for what it's worth. That's my only point. >> Okay. Just one other thing. If you look at the next agenda item, we're we're
picking alternates. So, just keep that in mind. Yeah. So, uh Mr. Mayor, I I would make a motion to appoint Mr. Stevens as a full member and Miss Morgan as an alternative as an alternate excuse member of the uh finance commission
finance committee. >> Second. >> All right, we have a motion and a second. Is there another motion or is council comfortable acting on this motion? >> I make a motion that we select Mr. Stevenson as the member of finance
committee. um period in paragraph >> and I'm going to second that motion. So, uh we have two motions. Um we'll have a vote on the first motion because that's what Robert rules
Robert's rules count. So, uh starting from right to left, all in favor, well, actually roll call vote. Are you in favor of Vice Mayor Alward's motion, which is a primary member, Mr. Stevenson and an alternate. Ms. Morgan. Yay or
nay? >> Would you like roll call? >> Yes. >> Mayor Foley. >> Nay. >> Vice Mayor Outwwater. >> I. >> Council member Carol. >> Nay. >> Council member Teddesco. >> I. >> Council member Alieri. >> Nay.
>> All right. The uh first motion fails. The second motion is Councilman Carol's motion. Um, and let's have a roll call vote. >> Mayor Foley >> I. >> Vice Mayor Atwater >> I. >> Council member Carol >> I.
>> Council member >> I. >> Council member Jedesco >> I. >> All right. Interesting. >> Motion passes unanimously. >> Okay. We had a split vote and then a unanimous vote. So what do we take from that? Here's what we take from that. Is
Mrs. Morgan here? >> Uh, no. it was explained that she was um out of the country from months ago. >> Um so what we take from that is we encourage Mrs. Morgan to attend the meetings of the finance committee since it's a public notice meeting participate
in any way she wishes. Um as with any resident, I'm happy to hear whatever comments any resident has, particularly those that attend the meetings and participate in them. And there are going to be plenty of spots open in November. So, um, you know, hopefully she'll keep us in mind and be willing to, um,
willing to dedicate her time at that point in time. Uh, and I, and I would say I, you know, the comments, uh, about alternates, I it's not like Treasure Coast Council, local governments, and other organizations where we, you know, we get people, you know, routinely attending and having schedule conflicts.
I think, uh, you know, I think alternates do create more problems than they solve. So, uh, with that in mind, we'll we'll move on to the next item. Congratulations, Mr. Stevenson. U look forward to having you do some good work on that committee. And thank you for council spending so much uh time and
effort in evaluating the candidates. All right. Item 8E, appointments to county and regional committees. Um, clarifying this, I think we're not reappointing everybody. We're we're just reallocating based upon uh
Mr. Mr. Tedesco's elevation to the spots that Mr. Dayne had. So, do you have uh Madame Clerk, Mr. Dayne's um Mr. Dne's appointments? I believe he was treasure league of cities as primary member on
the Treasure Coast League of Cities. He served as an alternate member to the utilities commission, I believe, and >> also um on portable housing committee and elected official oversight committee. Um so there would be uh the
first three affordable housing city beach utilities commission and elected official oversight are going to be for an alternate um assignment and the treasure coast league of cities is for the full member position. Okay. Because typically we do these
things on seniority. Does anybody want to take another committee that's up? I didn't think so. Okay. So we're all pretty busy on committees. Um uh so so as not to scare Councilman Tedesco, I I
think election oversight meets only once in a blue moon and >> once a year. >> Yeah. And sometimes sometimes the moon isn't even blue that year. Um so it's uh uh it's it's it's not a taxing thing. Uh
>> Okay, good. So you'll you'll have all of the uh all the council appointments. We'll turn that into a motion in a second, but I I just say I think >> and don't forget the ceremonial sword that we give him. >> Absolutely. The ceremonial sword is a very important thing especially to bring to to League of Cities. Um uh Legal
Cities I think you'll really enjoy. That's uh you know where you interact with the uh elected officials that are on that council from from all the other municipalities and um uh not municipalities, cities. Um and and you'll uh you'll you'll find it
interesting to see the diverse and similar perspectives many of us have on on a lot of issues. So uh I have every confidence that you'll enjoy it. Um best part is you're right in time for the annual Okachobee barbecue that's held jointly with the Treasure Coast Regional
League of Cities and the Treasure Coast Council of Local Governments which all council people are invited to. So we'll more about that later. Is there a motion? Let's try to simplify the motion. Is there a motion to appoint Mr. Tedesco to all of the vacancies as a
result of Councilman Dayne's passing? >> So moved. >> Uh all in favor? >> I >> I All right. We'll tell you about the ones we didn't mention after the meeting. >> All right. Item 9A, building official
report and statistics. Um Mr. mayor on the building official and uh code enforcement and public works if I'll be happy to answer any questions on those. There's some uh training uh going on today that had been long scheduled uh for uh for this week early in the week. So um if there's any questions on any of
those three reports or issues, just please let me know. If I can't answer now, I'll get you the answer. >> Anything? No. Okay. Um things look still pretty busy, you know, for for season. So, um, uh, code enforcement item 9B,
>> that's that's the same. >> Okay. Um, and say for public works, >> just just being thorough. Sorry. Item 9 C. >> Ju just one comment on uh, uh, code enforcement. Glad to see we're going after real estate signs. They had start
to populate out. Now I see 23 been taken out and, uh, shows broken windows. Policing theory works. So, I haven't seen I didn't really see any this weekend. So, >> thank you. Um, yes. And just, you know,
so folks know, uh, there there is there is an ordinance that requires neutral content. So, it's time, place, and manner of putting those signs up. And, um, we're we're very pro business, but we're also pro aesthetics. And the broken windows issue is right. We don't want signs all the way up and down A1A.
And so, uh, you know, when somebody's putting oversized signs or those giant characters with their arms floating, that's that's not Indian River Shores, so we won't won't allow that. Um, item 9D, town treasurer report. >> Good morning. You've all received my
report. The only thing I have to report on that's above and beyond is we will be presenting our financial statements at the March 3rd finance committee. that's tech tentatively scheduled and it should be presented to you at the March 20 26th meeting.
>> So that's the audit for the previous fiscal year. >> Yeah, September three years back like some other people did. Okay, great. >> Everything going along though we're Yeah, >> I'm not aware of any comments or anything. >> Thank you very much. We're um we're
always good to hear it and you know, thank you for the periodic reports. Just so the public knows, uh, you know, our our our most sacred trust is being good stewards of your funds. And we are, uh, I'm going to use the word blessed. We're blessed to have, u treasurer and and a
staff that routinely provides us with financial reports that are that are not just thorough and comprehensive, but that are readable even by a lawyer. So, um, you know, it's very it's very com comforting to know that, uh, um, we get
these updates on a frequent basis and the public's entitled to see them. They're, you know, they're public records, but, uh, we are, uh, we're blessed to have that that amount of reporting in our town. So, thank you very much for that. Is there anything else for our town treasurer?
Okay. Um, public safety department chief, >> deputy chief. >> Good morning, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Vice Mayor, members of council, Edward Ryer, assistant chief on behalf of Chief Stone in the public safety department. >> Uh, the only thing I have to add to the
report, um, tomorrow, uh, today the new fire engine will be delivered to the department. And tomorrow morning at 10:30 a.m., there is a, uh, February 18th, there's what's called a push-in ceremony for the new, uh, engine. It's open to everyone, all members of the
community. Um, in addition to that, uh, we recently had four AEDs donated by a group of business leaders in the community. So, a huge thank you for that. Uh, and they'll be replacing four that are at the end of life in some of our patrol vehicles, police patrol vehicles.
>> Just a a question. Um, my understanding is that we stopped using fire the contaminate the contaminant firefighting foam back in 2022 2023. Is that right? Yeah. That's correct. The entire market shift
the way. >> Thanks. >> Um, just just one thing for the push in ceremony. I think the vice mayor was wondering why we bought a fire engine that we actually have to push instead of one with an engine. So, >> I believe it's a figure of speech, not actually.
>> So, it'll be open for everyone to take a look at. >> Thank you for the clarification. >> It is, sir. >> All right. Thank you, >> Mr. Mayor. the assistant chief is here. Um I know you had noted earlier the um issues with the uh gas man and the tree. While he's here, I'd like to have um
assistant chief Ryer address that cuz our public safety personnel were uh were obviously uh very much involved as to the first one. There was a construction company working and they uh broke a gas man and um Assistant Chief Ryer, if you want to uh follow up, mayor, at least in terms of what what the town did and what
it looked like. >> By all means, thank you. >> Absolutely. So, I received a text uh message on Friday. I was uh out for the day uh around 12:33 in the afternoon. Um apparently the construction work that was going out on out on A1A in the
roughly the 5800 block near the fountains um development uh they struck a gas man and uh north and southbound lanes were shut down. Florida City and GA City Gas was on scene relatively
quickly. Um, and I believe it took about 30 minutes before they got it capped and we had traffic moving again. Um, and then yesterday, I'm sorry, Sunday, I'm off because of the holiday. Uh, we received a call that
a tree had fallen uh down on A1A and it took out a fire hydrant. It knocked it over which created that to flood A1A. Um, water needed to be shut down. Uh, traffic needed to be shut down for a little bit to alleviate the flooding.
They got the hydrant shut off. And then, um, Vure City Utilities came out. They were on scene for a couple hours. It took a couple hours to restore water to a couple of the communities. That was down in the 5100 block near Ocean Drive, uh, plastic surgery. >> All right. Thank you very much. Just one
one item that occurred to me while I was sitting here, too. Um, we're we're still under a burn ban, right? I mean, we don't do a lot of that here, but, you know, if anybody has, you know, an inkling to go out in their backyard and set a fire or just be careful with your
barbecues and things like that. Correct. >> So, as a matter of fact, Mr. Mayor, while I was sitting here at 10:05, I received an alert from Indian River County. We are under a burn ban. Um, all outdoor fires and burning are prohibited unless permitted by Florida for Forestry Service. However, cooking food
exclusively within a gas or char charcoal grill is authorized. >> Okay. >> I have a question. >> Yes, sir. Go ahead. >> So, how was the town notified on the on the on the gas leak? >> Uh, so I was notified by obviously our
patrol officers that were on duty were the first ones to get the call. We went out there. We had uh most of the shift was out there because we had uh traffic problems. So, they were out there alleviating. But how did Florida City Gas knows? >> They let dispatch know to get them out
once they realize it's a gas leak. >> Great. Thank you. >> Yes, sir. >> All right. Thank you. Anything else for Assistant Chief Ryer? No. Thank you everything for everything you and your department does. Appreciate. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. >> Um, town attorney report. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, not a lot to
report, but I do want to have a very brief update on the legislative session. We've talked about a little bit. Um, so the session started on January 13th. It's the early session year as we know it moves back and forth. U which means that as we sit here February 17th we are more than halfway through. The last day
of the session is March 13th. Um and probably of most important note is the number of bills that have been introduced this session. Um according to floridasenate.gov 1,859
bills. Now that's across the board. That's everything from uh the budget down to um of all of those 26 have passed both houses halfway through. Um and virtually all of those are a version of a recognizing a day the space shuttle
challenger remembrance day um St. John's County Day, Space Day, New College Day, etc. So less than 1% or virtually 1% have gone through. Um which leads me to the second part. The only requirement for every legislative session is the budget be passed. Um that's required to
be provided to the governor three days before so they have a cooling off period. Both budgets were presented uh at the end of last week and as we stand now the governor introduced his budget uh 117 billion and a half back in
January. Uh the house has proposed 113.5 billion so 4 billion less and the senate is in between of 115 billion. Um the fact that the two houses are a billion dollars apart historically leads to there's going to be a lot of discussion over the next four weeks on that. That's
their primary concern. I mention all of that because again this time last year we saw probably a lot more movement on a lot more issues uh being presented. It's just simply not happening. So I will continue to monitor continue to stay in touch with colleagues throughout the state on if something gains momentum it
can happen very quickly. But right now the fundamental focus appears to be on the budget over the next 3 to four weeks. So that's my report. I'm happy to answer any other questions. Can >> I ask questions? >> Anything for the town attorney? Yes. Councilman Alteri. >> Pete, can you just give us a quick quick fly over on this status of legislation
relating to the property tax? >> Uh uh yes, it's dead. Uh as we speak right now, it it has virtually no uh momentum. Uh of the several proposals that began the session, none of them have passed both houses. And um you can
sort of see the difference in the the funding approaches on maybe a couple items when the budget comes out to show you that property tax being as big as it is and the f the primary revenue for almost all local governments um just not getting it. One of the things is Dantis,
the governor had proposed 62 million for the Florida State Guard for next year. Um the House proposed uh nothing and the Senate proposed 33 almost 34 million. So my point being if something in that
finite a space with the Florida State Guard is not getting anywhere and is that far apart um I have not heard any and I have not had any conversations with anybody on these budget property tax reform proposals. They just simply the last I heard is it's every expectation there will be at least one
if not multiple special sessions later going in the summer. So I will just continue to monitor it and if I hear anything gaining traction I certainly will spread the word. >> So it's a loss of momentum but it's not >> nothing's dead. >> The concept is not dead. >> It just keep in mind has to pass both
houses and get to the governor and get his signature unless it comes back for a override veto vote. A lot of hurdles. So with that, I'm happy to answer any other questions and if offline, please contact me. >> Anything for town attorney? In front of
all these witnesses, I'm handing you the collection of water utility bills so you can >> fun night time reading. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Um All right. So, town manager report, Mr. Harper. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Council. I'm going
to start out with a very brief uh turtle nesting season update. Uh, I just want everybody to be aware and remember that our turtle season, turtles, sea turtle nesting season begins March 1st and ends October 31st of each year. As a general proposition, that March 1st uh time
frame uh will result in um stoppage of all work uh on the on the dunes and areas like that, whether they're dune walkovers uh but for some very narrow um uh permitting that would have to be issued by D. Uh so these are some of the sea turtles
that we see in our uh community. Uh the you know the leatherback, the loggerhead and the green. Um and as an aside, we've had very good numbers as you may recall from uh previous um presentations from uh Quinton Bergman. Very very good numbers here in the community. So um the
lighting is a very important thing here. So artificial lights seen from the beach do confuse the baby turtles uh from finding uh the ocean when they do hatch. um exterior amber or red lights have little or no impact on baby turtles and this is the one way that oceanfront property owners can assist in the
recovery. Um so we just this is just a very brief uh example um for those that are scientifically challenged like myself uh red X bad green check good. So next one uh this is a an example of the
um uh lighting surveys uh that we do. We'll have um uh three that are conducted this year. Um the first one will be completed no later than March 15th. The next one's going to be done between uh April and May and then the final one in July and August. We've had
very very good responses in our community once we provide the initial uh notifications about the sea turtle lighting. Uh people are very responsive and uh we see um drastic decreases in any violations or any actions that we
have to take. Okay. Um then general prohibitions uh per our town ordinance uh fish and wildlife and Florida statutes are no exterior uh point source of light shall be directly visible from ground level on any area of the beach. Uh no light shall directly illuminate
any area of the beach seawward the primary dune. Of course we have the um uh prohibition on motorized vehicles except in cases of emergency or as otherwise approved and uh horseback riding and campfire prohibitions. Um, this is a a mailing that we uh send out.
It's our sea turtle nesting season notice. Um, it contains a lot of uh very important information for homeowners and otherwise. But I think conceptually when we're thinking about lighting, uh, one of the biggest things is is these FWC3 golden rules is to keep it low and when
you see this type of lighting, um, you know, those are good things. And then, um, keep it long. And that has to do with, uh, the wavelength, uh, of the light. That's why the amber and redu are are better. And then finally, uh keep it shielded. Uh when you have the covers
around them, uh it avoids the it avoids the uh you know, the diffuse uh light that can confuse the uh the baby sea turtles. So, uh with that, um just please be aware that we're going to be conducting some of those and if you get a notice or you have any questions about
it, just please feel free to contact uh my office or our code enforcement officer, Jake Mikrance, who uh does the work on this. And again, just want to commend our our, you know, our beachfront and other residents uh who are very very tuned into this and the education that we've done the last couple years has been uh has been very
very helpful. Uh >> all right. Anything for the town manager from >> Just a couple more things, Mr. >> You have a couple more things. Okay. Sorry. >> Apologies. I thought you were wrapping it up. >> Well, we can hope to dream. Um just a very
brief uh note on a proclamation uh that I just looked for consensus for uh from the council flood awareness week in uh Indian River Shores March uh 9th. Well, it's kind of misnomer. It's not a week, it's more like 10 days, the 9th through the 19th. Um but we do have a lot of um
awareness programs that will go out for flood. And as you know, we're um doing an adaptation plan for the vulnerability assessments which deals with flooding on both sides. So, um, uh, absent any objection, uh, we'll, uh, publicize our, um, uh, our proclamation of the, uh, uh,
flood awareness week in Indian River Shores. >> Any objection to being aware about floods? >> Okay, I think we're all set on that. So, >> um, I just wanted to circle back uh, Mr. Mayor, very briefly about, uh, on your topic related to offshore work. About 3
years ago, I had some conversations um with a group at University of Miami who was conducting studies and and you may be aware of it because I know we talked about it and and I'm not sure who else may be, but we didn't we weren't able to get the hook into them to come up here. Um but they were looking at large-scale
programs primarily directed initially um at locations where there were uh military bases or sensitive uh government installations um you know Cocoa Beach Patrick uh areas on the west coast. Um that is still going on though
it took a little time to to get those things moving. I'm going to look back into it again. Um, a lot of it had to do with the bottom contour and what could or could not be done as opposed to what um, was or was not particularly approved at the time. But, um, to your point, I
just wanted to mention that that that is out there and we'll we will continue to look at that um, in relation to that St. Lucy project as well and and see what happens there. Um, uh, two things. Finally, I would like to note um that uh very shortly um you'll be seeing uh dune
plantings happen at the end of uh Beach Comr Lane. That's consistent with all of the types of plantings that Indian River County does to preserve uh their dunes and protect their dune walkovers. Uh we've coordinated with the vendor for Indian River County that does all the plantings. They will be completely consistent with all the plantings that
Indian River County did throughout sector 4 and sector 5. Um, finally, I would like to uh emphasize and make sure that anyone listening, anyone here, and um council, if you're available, um please come to the push-in ceremony. It's very uh it's a it's it's a meaningful and important thing for our
uh for our public safety department and and our service and um uh and we again appreciate uh what they do. So, um we hope to see anyone that's uh that's available there uh for that. And that's all I have, Mr. Mayor. >> And that is tomorrow, 10:30.
>> Yes, sir. Right out right out front. public safety department at 10:30. >> All right. Terrific. Thank you. Um now you're done, right? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay, good. Um yeah, and um just to you know, beat this dead horse a little bit more. Um I know you'll be in contact
with uh uh your counterpart at the county of St. Lucy just to see what you know what's up on that. And if there's anything I can do to facilitate by talking to u you know the commissioners, I'm I'm happy to do it. But we'll do you know. Okay. Thank you. All right. Uh, next up is uh any first of all, any
questions for the town manager? No. Okay. Um, call for committee reports. You don't have anything yet, although you will next month. Anything you >> I didn't I didn't go to the utilities committee because I knew my alternate would go.
>> Good point. >> Actually, welcome back and glad to hear you're recovering from here. Um, my only council from the last time here, my only meeting was the Treasure Coast Council of Local Governments. Um,
and uh, other than reminding everybody, you know, we have to pay our dues, which I know you've got underway, and I'm kidding. Don't worry. Uh, there was what I thought was an incredibly informative and interesting presentation about the calling them plans for the airport
expansion in St. Lucy. It really isn't plans. These things are underway and there's going to be a fairly large extension of the runway uh which will accommodate much larger commercial and passenger aircraft. Um
there are the phrase gamecher was tossed around a lot not just because of the runway but because of the um development of uh supporting services for aircrafts and um um pretty much indicated to me
that there's going to be more commercial flights likely coming in and out of St. Lucy in the upcoming years, which those of you know, those of you who travel back and forth may may appreciate the expanded schedule. Um the the number
that stuck in my mind was the airport currently generates about $550 million in direct economic impact. That's now before they uh before they even undertake this uh this program. So the long and the short of it is they're they're expanding the capacity uh to
accommodate aircraft. Uh they're going to expand the capacity for private aircraft. They have a very very large footprint for anybody who's been down there and plenty of room to develop it. Um they're going to expand the passenger
terminal and they also have uh customs uh already there. So um you know they have the direct capacity for international international flights to seamlessly do it. So um haven't heard much from the city of Vero Beach airport authority whether or not you know they
consider it I hate to use the word threat but is it a competitive threat to them. Um there there's going to be a lot of amenities in St. Lucy airport in the upcoming years that uh um that will I think be attractive not just to passengers but to the businesses that
flock there. Um the the town manager is is going to undertake it. We've already approved uh his ability to go out and shop for health insurance not to exceed 15% I believe it was of last year's cost. Uh a lot of the municipalities and in particular the school school boards
are getting sticker shock on the amount of the cost of health insurance. So um there are two points I want to make. First of all, thank you for being you know as diligent shopping this around as we can. um without patting ourselves on the back because kind of who we are and
our demographic assists us in having lower lower premiums, but uh some municipalities and organizations are looking for 200 to 250% increases in healthcare premiums. Um so somebody's going to have to pay for that, either
taxpayers or the employees. So um that's uh that's about it for that. Um and uh we'll be interested to hear back how you do on your shopping around our our employee health health program. So all right um that's it for my report. Vice
Mayor. >> Um, one thing I forgot to mention in councilman uh items is uh I I do this updated spreadsheet with the help of our uh of our town treasurer Heather. And
that is I look at the assessed property values that are in the uh five municipalities in the unincorporated county and compare that to the population of each. And I think it's, you know, it's interesting just to to
see how this is broken out. So, Indian River Shores, uh, the assessed property taxable value, so that's directly linked to the property tax we pay because it takes into account homesteading and things of that nature, uh, is $5.8 billion. That's
$18.1% of the total property value in the entire county. 18.1. We only have 2.6 of the population. Uh, Vero Beach has 15.4% of the assessed property and they have
10.3% of the population. So, you know, maybe we can put this someplace up on on the uh website or something. The point is, and I call this spreadsheet punching above our weight. you know, occasionally, more than occasionally, we're sort of ignored uh in in in this
county, but uh we're really important in terms of the uh value generated to support uh not only our services, but the the counties as well. So, just want to mention that. The other other thing in terms of meetings, there was an MO meeting that stands for Metropolitan
Planning Organization. That's essentially a transportation planning board for the county. Every county has to have one of them in order to get federal highway aid uh money. And that uh board sets the priorities for uh
large projects and uh we approve those and they really haven't changed very much over the last uh couple years. you know, 45th Street uh through Gford. We're doing some improvements there, but the really big ones is uh Route 510, which is important to our community
because it helps us get out of here in the event of a an evacuation for whatever reason. So, that's the the next uh priority, but still, we're probably looking at 2,30. That'll be uh two full lanes in each direction going uh through
uh the uh Wabaso and also a bridge of 510 over US1. So that will facilitate traffic. And in addition, what they're going to do at 66th uh Avenue where there's currently a light and the traffic stacks up, they're going to create a roundabout so if you lose
power, cars will be able to continue to move. Unfortunately, it's going to take a long time to get done. And then then there's various other ones. Uh the other thing I just want to mention to you is the if you uh ride the go line uh that
is subsidized by us as as taxpayers. Uh we get a lot of money for that from the federal government and the state government. So as a result there's no uh fairs on that. Back in 2001 the total uh ridership was about 150,000.
It got up to just before COVID up to 1.2 million and if you look across the country in different transit systems many of them have not recovered their ridership since uh co and the pandemic that is not true here. So I mentioned
that it was just uh in uh uh 2019 it got up to 1.2 million it dropped but now it's up approaching over one a.5 million. advantage to us is that it does take uh a reasonable number of cars off
the road. It helps uh people get to their job. So, it helps uh employment and and so forth. So, I just wanted to bring that to people's uh attention. So, that's it for me. >> Well, thank you, Vice Mayor. >> Nothing to >> nothing. All right. Thank you. One one question and it's it was funny. You go
you go to a party and over the weekend and you get the same question asked by two different people and you wonder were they in collusion or not? But um the crosswalk up by the um on A1A just across from the church. It's not in our jurisdiction and I always pointed that out.
>> The lights were knocked over during the tornado. Are they coming back? People want to know. Uh one was in favor, one was against it. Well, apparently Vero Beach, you know, that's up to them to go make uh have a conversation with FDOT. Uh I don't know
of of those of you driving along uh Beachland uh Boulevard when you make the right-hand turn uh coming Sapphire and A1A for probably 3 or 4 months afterwards, the uh school zone lights were down. It took me making a phone
call to FDOT and they said, "My god, I didn't realize they were there. they were down and they were up within within two weeks. So they have to get off of you know what to to do it and you know >> and I you know >> so >> they they have a member of of they
actually have two members of the MO that that could help out as as well as our uh county commissioner Laura Moss lives in that in that area very closely and apparently none of them feel it's important enough to do anything about.
>> All right. Thank you. So, it's not an MO issue. It's it's a local issue just asking for it to be reinstalled. >> Yeah, but you can you can you you can you do it as an NO member, it tends to get more weight. Uh so, just like the crosswalk, I want to get down uh above
7-Eleven to go across to the beach access, which FDOT has promised me it'll be done uh hopefully by the by the end of the year. Being on the MO helps, you know, just not a random council person calling. >> Understood. Thank you very much. All
right. Um, call to audience. This is the time for audience members to talk about things on their mind. >> Absolutely. Just >> is this a discuss? >> Just please uh state your name and where
you live. Generally, you don't have to give your exact address, but >> Good morning, mayor, council members, and staff. My name is Cindy Diamond. I reside at 4865 Coventry Court in Vero Beach, Florida. I'm here on the behalf of residents across Indian River County
who support implementing trap, neuter, vaccinate for rabies, return or TMVR for community cats and also ultimately to get a letter of support from you to send to the county uh county commissioners.
TNVR is the most effective method in managing the community catferal population. Without this program, these outdoor cats will continue to breed to capacity. I want to focus on what TMVR means for Indian River County as a whole
because this is not just an animal issue. It's a public policy and fiscal issue. TNVR will address community issues and save the county money. The nuisance behaviors residents complain about mating, fighting, spraying, and
kittens being born, will decrease dramatically. Communities that implement TNVR consistently see reductions in shelter intake, euthanasia, and field call services, which translate directly into savings for the local government.
Studies show that TMVR is less expensive than euthanasia. Catching, housing, and euthanas euthanizing cats requires staff time, equipment, shelter space, and medical resources. And importantly, we
are not asking the county or cities to fund this program. We have applied for nonprofit status to build a donationbased model. We have our veterary partners lined up and ready to participate. TMVR addresses the root of the problem
instead of reacting to it. Right now, the primary response to community cats is to trap and euthanize. Decades of data show that the catch and kill does not solve the problem. When cats are removed, new cats quickly move in to use
the same food sources and shelter. This is called the vacuum effect. And it is why catch and kill programs across the county country have failed to reduce populations long term. TNVR is not experimental. There are numerous
documented national studies and data from adjacent counties that show population decreases over time in addition to cat intakes at shelters decreasing. It is supported by animal ware welfare professionals including the
nationwide uh organization Naka which stands for national animal care and control association, Florida animal control and even the American Bar Association. Residents want this program. Without TNVR, the population grows. With TNVR,
the community becomes part of the solution. Indian River County is currently the only county on the east coast of Florida where TMVR is not permitted. While neighboring counties have embraced it because it works, we have letters of support from all the
other towns and cities of Indian River County, including the town of Orchid. We have the plan, we have the partners, and we have the community behind us. What we are asking for is your support so this program can operate legally and responsibly. Thank you for your time and
your service to the community. >> Thank you very much. Um just, you know, I normally don't comment on comments from the audience, but um you know, I I did see the town of Orchid submitted a letter and we're in a similar situation. We really don't have a feral cat
population problem, but uh my recommendation would be to circulate that letter to members of council that haven't seen it. Um I'm I'm fine sending the letter off um in in a similar way to the town of Orchid that uh we we support the initiative. Uh you hit two points
for me uh no taxpayer money's expended. >> Um and u you know the problem will continue if you know exactly there there was some question in my mind whether or not you know by returning the animals back to the environment do we just you know neuter them and put them back in in
the space. But apparently uh apparently that's been thought through by people smarter than us on this issue. So uh I would just encourage my fellow council members to take a look at what Orchid did and if there's no objection um we'll we'll just send out a letter similar to the letter Mayor Gibbons sent. Uh if
there is objection or question we can put it on the agenda to talk about as an action item. But I'm I'm confident after looking at it, we'll we'll have unonymity on sending this letter out. So thank you for the thank you for the work that you're doing. I appreciate your support to the um Indian River County. These are um pamphlets for you.
>> I'm not adopting any cats. I'm just saying. >> All right. Thank you for your support. >> Stopping these cats or slowing down the feral cats uh would have a positive impact on the bird population. This really gets destroyed. So, uh I mean,
I'm I'm all in favor of it. >> It benefits everyone. >> Yeah. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else have a comment? No comments. All right. Thank you. We are adjourned until the March meeting.