e e e e e e e e e e e
e okay what about e e e no there not e e now mine's not turning oh mine's
working mine's not turning GRE everybody's can you hear me everybody's off but me test test test test test you can hear you I can always hear you you're like the voice in
the dark test yep Deb Steve Yan yeah testing testing test now my works one
two Jennifer test test yep check one two check John are you good yep I'm good are you good test okay so Marty you want to call the role again since we were talking to
nobody yes ma'am okay council member Steve fredman still here council member Deb Gillis yes council member buddy Pender still here vice mayor Don Horton I'm here and mayor Sharon Mahoney yes we still have a quum okay I would like to ask Henry Rosenthal
to lead us in the pledge please Henry put your hand over your heart please follow me iedge Al 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 thank you thank you very much Henry okay Council requests for deletions emergency additions does anybody have anything please raise your hand if you
do go ahead Steve um is this where I uh asked to pull something can I pull Tab 7 when you say pull you mean pull it from the consent consent agenda and put it on regular yeah you can do it now or or whenever we get to consent agenda it
doesn't doesn't matter okay anything else Steve anything else um no buddy yeah I I just wanted to ask joh this letter that I just asked Ste uh
ifs out to the council and talking about Village businesses is that public o sorry is that public information uh I mean I I don't know what the yeah and if if any council member is sending out anything that has
to do with um your business as a council member then yes that that is a public record and there public information yes okay is that what you're asking yeah I just I just I wanted everybody to know so when I'm talking to Steve that's what I was other than telling him happy New Year what what I was talking to him
about I because I I got phone calls about a letter that some people received from Steve whether they're people that you know contributed or or whatever but and I didn't know with the letter I haven't seen it so I wanted to know where if people are calling me and
asking me questions I want to I want to see the letter I just want it to be public that's all oh yeah just like the I does you know Miss Miller sends a letter out every week but it's you know public to
everybody okay I mean if it related to to Village business um or anything that could conceivably come before you all yes it would be a public record so okay okay Deb do you have anything Don no
ma'am okay um the only thing I'd like to say is to uh council members to please remember that uh we are functioning all together and to please be respectful of each other and for the audience once again I'm going to ask to please show
respect to the council members as they were voted in by this community whether you agree or not they're up here and so I'm going to ask you to please refrain from calling them names they don't do that to you so if that happens again I'm going to have the person removed from
the room I want to have some dignity in these meetings and we don't need to call anybody any names or anything so I would ask you to please uh consider that when you get up to speak okay anything else from anybody are we're good to move on do it okay reports
presentations and announcements Peter frza I see you are the first victim tonight please come on up good evening Council let me move this forward a little bit so as you may be aware The Village
did complete a very detailed roadway vulnerability a roadway elevation mapping project this past year using the mobile liar technology uh the reason we completed that because we did have a significant need to acquire very detailed Road elevations for a number of
uh Capital planning projects we had planned for this year including our roadway vulnerability analysis which is on which is going on right now that's a a sea level rise planning project where we're trying to find the most vulnerable roads low-lying areas for potential Road
elevation projects like the county is doing right now we also needed the data for our storm water Master planning which we're doing right now as well we'll be doing number of storm water projects into the year which require these data and there were a number of other reasons as well road maintenance
Etc now the project is completed it was very successful and we are currently using the data but as part of the deliverable deliverable package from our our contractors they created a digital elevation model it's a a web arcgis web
app uh a very simple online tool you do not need GIS to use this uh really simple tool uh it's open to the public and anyone can use it just a really easy way to see all of the elevations of all the publicly or all the public roads within the village so I'm just going to
give a a brief demonstration of that right now we do have it house on the Village website I'm just going to share my screen hopefully you all will be able to see this second to pop all right great so where we are keeping that is in the the
planning department page so go to departments go to planning we are keeping this in the sustainability and resiliency section we see that we thought that'd be a good spot to keep this map
so if you go to sustainability and resiliency you will see 2024 most upto-date mobile liar roadway elevation data so if you click on that that'll take you to this online tool so Monroe
County we the elevations for Marathon Leighton Key Colony Beach and the village are all housed here I think in the future maybe all the county will be on this but for right now it's those municipalities so if you click on all you have to do is click on it explore right there in the
middle so right away that'll take you to Marathon that's just the way they programmed it right in the middle of the keys but we can start there I'll just show you how to use this over on the left you'll see it's a very simple Legend uh the the range is from Nega 6.7
that's feet up to 18.2 feet that's the navd88 that's the most commonly used datm for elevations right now so all you need to do let me just scroll out a little bit so you can uh oh it's not scrolling okay there we just scroll out you can see we're in
Marathon right now I'll just scroll in and all you have to do is just click anywhere where you see color here and if you want to get the elevations you could look on the left it comes up that's 3.45 ft so this is extremely precise the way
it was explained to me if you have a square foot there's about 15 elevations within each square foot so this is this is extremely high resolution anywhere you want to look just click around uh let me I'll zoom out of here let's go down to Island
marada right as well uh we could zoom in on lower mumbi this what that Port intigo looks like just anywhere you want to go just zoom in Click
2.94 the colors I wouldn't put too much um weight on these colors because the the scales change as you zoom in and out it's really just finding where you want to go and clicking and the elevations popping up there on the left and this is for
every publicly owned Road uh we did not include US1 on this as it's not our responsibility but to maintain if you go you know let's say go to Plantation key all of the old road is included on
this again we could just click on an area that we know is pretty high I think yeah it's high in there 9.7 ft 9.5 ft there were some areas of us one that were included I think that's just where the van drove this is a
mobile lar meaning the sensor was on a van you all may remember there's a wsp van driving around the village for a while the giant sensor off the back it's actually a laser liar is a laser stands for light detection and raising bounces a laser off back into the sensor so they drove all the roads so a little bit of
US1 is included as well so that's really it 9.37 ft there I just wanted to show you all in the public that this is available for the village it's for nothing more this digital elevation model is for nothing more than personal knowledge and information it's not what our contractors are using doing these
other studies this is for the public to use and for your own knowledge and uh to play with so you know have fun and that was it and uh if you have any questions be happy to answer them oh go ahead Don thank you Peter sure you know a lot of people still look at their flood maps
and the flood maps are in gvd and they and they understand you know what flood zone they're in and they understand what elevation their maybe their ground slab is at their house but they may not understand that how you uh transfer an elevation from in gvd to n avd so in
Isam Rada is there a mult mullier that you can use to kind of get a feel for what that actual elevation is there is I don't know it off the top of my head though I don't want to say it right now there is sure yeah there's a there's an equation to and when new FL maps come
out are they going to come out and maybe I ask Sheila this but are they going to come out in ngvd or navd I think they're going to be in navd so we're going to have to get used to figuring out I think what Heights are in a different way yeah cuz that's the standard datm now yeah so
C okay cool thank you sure how about if you take a second and explain the difference between those two because he knows what he's talking about so that's simply ngvd and avd that's just different they're called datums that's just a reference point for elevation an
established reference point um it's a way of making zero right these these values are feet above sea level so navd was just a more recent data that's the new data okay so ngvd was the older one things change
over time uh that's just the most up toate recent uh reference point for elevation across North America so zero is zero go ahead no go ahead finish no that's it so zero is zero across that whole area so both of them are above sea
level not one above sea level and one above ground level it's a vertical data yeah correct correct but we can have elevations in in the negative you know they're below that zero point but I understand that but I the two different
forms it's it's the weather people talk about uh they changed how they were going to predict Surge and they took it above ground level instead of above sea level and we all knew if you were 5T above sea level and they said we're
going to have three foot well okay we still have two feet so that's why I'm asking that question okay so I mean the elevations can be a or below sea level but just think of like zero as average sea level that's mean sea level but both
of those forms are above sea level I mean use the sea level line as their basis correct one's just a newer line yes okay that's right anything else anyone thank you pet thank you so very
very much I think it's a cool tool to have thank you okay uh citizen advisory committees Miss Diane would you please come up thank you Council and welcome to all our new council members and our one C
State as well um my name is Diane Hara I'm the chairman for the Nearshore advisory committee um we met some time ago it was November 12th so a little bit of my information that I'll be giving in the report is dated but I'll update you of what I know as of
recently um the sheriff's department updated the committee on the new boat that's that should arrive in a couple of months they intend to sell one of the old boats they informed us that there's a new marine officer who's trained in actively working patrols they also
reported that eight derel vessels have recently been removed from and one of them was in one of the ones we were talking about on our committee in little Basin the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary was has a new acting super
superintendent the sanctuary blueprint is expected to wrap up in the near future well it has wrapped up and it is going through all the stamping process right now in the federal government it will then be sent to our governor
governor who will have 45 days to veto any portion part or all of it that he may seem fit to do so and then it goes back and so it's not over but it's being stamped right now and hopefully at my
next report which should come shortly after our next meeting I'll have more information about where we are with Sanctuary uh the committee heard an update on Taver Creek slow speed minimum wake extension this is from tavanir Creek the entrance on the Bayside into
tavanir Creek where it is now the extension is imp permitting and we do expect that to happen hopefully this year the committee discussed voting impacts across from Papa Joe's and the prop scars on those Flats lignum state park is planning to put up signs around
the flat in question the committee discussed the possibility of having EPA install bird Stakes if these buoys are not enough of a deterrent and the EPA is actually working with one of our members right now to put up some bird stakes in
that one area where they just leave Papa Jo's and blow across the flat so that is in process the committee discussed the concerns of the residents at the end of Indian Mound Trail who are asking for signage like that the markers that are
at Snake Creek and tavir Creeks for um no no wake slow speed um these signs are Coast Guard markers in Taver Creek and Snake Creek um so we don't have authority to put up anything like that um the possibility may be that a
residents could put up signs like at the end of their dock or um at the corner at the end of the road or something like that but we have put our buoys in there recently and they do say no wake it's
back to that enforcement problem that we have with everything in the world um the committee has received a request from Lig Andy State Park to make Starks wheel ditch which is the wheel ditch back in behind Robbie's um to slow speed minimum
weight the Nearshore water committee has been told in the past that this is not in within our Authority after much discussion Diane will reach out to FWC who told ligy to ask the village and see if we are the regulating body of
that area uh once confirmation of that has been received the committee will discuss it further if further action is warranted it's oh how do I say this politely it's being discussed we'll call it who really that has that Authority um
FWC says now that it might be lignum VY that state park that has it and so nobody really wants to claim it so we are still working on that just so y'all know uh the committee wanted to inform the newly seated Council about our P
recommendation for Sunset Drive Beach the majority of the committee voted in July 30th 2024 to recommend that the council does not consider a new vessel exclusion Zone on Sunset Beach you may be hearing it called the swim Zone but
it is in a vessel exclusion Zone same thing and instead focus on alternatives to vessel exclusion zones and a more holistic approach to long-term planning and management for all Nearshore areas of alam marada because as we stated back
at that meeting we blew up the balloon when we made the at lower mumi on the Bayside we blew up the balloon now the balloon has un SOS and it's popped up over on Sunset Drive as soon as that gets excluded vessel exclusion it's going to get squeezed again and it's
going to pop up somewhere else this our committee would like our new Council to take a step and look at the whole village and see what we need to do to make it so that what's happening doesn't happen in another spot in another year
um and then I will continue to ask that council member attend our meetings um I think it's important that someone from the council be at these meetings um because then they will see it's painful sometimes what we go through to come up
with these decisions just like you sitting there it's painful for you for your decisions so um Sharon I know right now your AR liaison and you weren't able to attend the last meeting because of a conflict with another Village meeting um so I would like to continue to ask
though that a council member attend can you do me a favor and send me a text and remind me when they are just because I am pulled in 50 different places so if you would do that I would love and I think that's very important and um I'm interested in what you guys mean by
holistic approach I think we do need to sit down and have a conversation about the balloon and squeezing it and you know you see it all over now they close one place and everybody goes somewhere else so that is something I think we really do need to uh look into and to
start working on because it's not going to get better it's just going to get worse right you're just going to move it yeah and as far as the bird Stakes go that is phenomenal they should be more of them because we all know when the birds sit on those staks and they go potty it is good for the whole
environment so I don't know does do we have any say in that or is that just the EPA does anybody know the bird Stakes yes so we request that from them and that's what the Nearshore water has done and um the guy at house and I can't think of his name he's new on our
committee um he has worked with some of them in the past and that's why we're where we are now is because he's been talking to them the D is talking to the National Marine Sanctuary because it's inside the sanctuary and so we're going through the
process so yes we're we're actually already on it I think that's something that we should sit down with a large map and look at there's several areas that could use that cuz over by Robbie's that cut there that people fly a 100 miles an hour through there oh I know that's what I'm saying is that all this stuff needs
to be dealt with sooner than later but that's another spot that you're talking about that could use bird staks over there where they cut the corner going into Stars ex exactly so I think this is wonderful I love that you do the presentation for us the way you do so kudos to you and does anybody have any
questions for Miss Diane up here no I'd just like to say thank you for what you guys you do a great job you really do very informative thank you I have a great committee and they're fun to work with okay good thank you very very
much okay so we move to the mayor council communication it says there's none but I want to put two things out there for the council members to uh think about um I do believe and this would be maybe I don't know who's in
charge of our Christmas decorations but I believe our uh 5 years is up and I would like sooner than later for us to have a discussion maybe next month about what we want to do where we want to go if we want to put it out for bid Now's
the Time to do it before it rolls around and it falls upon us so everybody be thinking about what we want to what you want to spend and do we want to go out for Bid And if I I will get that on the agenda next month so we can have that discussion and the other thing I want
you guys if you would think about please is charitable giving how you guys feel about it if we want to continue doing it how we do it and again it's embarrassing when it comes up in front of us and we haven't thought about it or have time to
discuss how we feel so I'm trying to get ahead of the game so if you guys will all put on your thinking caps and I'll get it on for discussion next month is that good with everybody and the last thing is Steve we have to relook at July July's changing other meetings is not
going to work so we'll have to look at that calendar again if that's okay with everybody yep okay Sharon I have one thing if I can go ahead um so um one of the things that we talked about or I talked about at that Podium to the other council is is an
explanation of of um what happened at the seab breeze trailer park and and the three Florida Statutes that intermingle themselves that um has made it to where those modular homes that are there are considered mobile homes and they don't
have to pay real property tax and and I I'd like to have a discussion sometimes in in the near future with with the council and and include our lobbyist so that we can see if we can get on the legislative agenda to discuss the change of Flor statute
553 uh 320 and 319 uh with a bunch of U decimals behind it but but those three statutes intermingle with each other that allow them to have installed all of those modular homes licensed them as mobile
homes and not have to pay real property tax I think it's an important thing that we bring to our lobbyist and maybe they can take it to uh the legislator and have that changed somehow to where that that goes away okay so we can get that on the agenda February or March go ahead
Steve yeah uh can we open a discussion about um Fireworks uh whether they're you know whether we're paying for them or they're being sponsored in Village property there's just been there there's you know it's let me have an example what are you talking about well in the fireworks over
New Year's Eve um a a a tragically a dog got out got so scared and got hit by a car I heard that so anybody who's got pets and has to deal with fireworks I mean I just a discussion is to just kind of hash it out do we need it do we want it is there anything we can do about it
so you're talking about individuals with fireworks and not like there's no fireworks here I don't think we can do anything about individuals on fireworks but uh you know if we have fireworks here if we want to create a policy or anything like that about not doing them you know did did we I didn't think we
had fireworks over New Year's I don't know the village had fir I think marker 88 had some fireworks right yeah that's what you're talking about that in dog yes I heard about that it's horrible it was bad it was bad so yeah we can have a discussion I was just trying to figure
out whether because I'm not sure we can control anything except the village I I don't that may be the case but at least we can John do you know anything about that off the top of my head I don't know if we're preempted from regulating that I between now and and the discussion
time in February that's something that uh look yeah to see and that way Steve will get it to talk about in February is that good yeah and and if we're preempted I can can let you all know if we're not then you all can have a discussion as to uh you know if and how you might want to proceed thank you thank you anybody else have anything and
I assume that would include all holidays not just or year round even well Fourth of July yeah yeah I know we again it's something we can talk about whether we want to do or couple I'll goe anybody else have anything before we move on no okay so Village attorney Village
manager communication and I believe uh John yeah this is uh just a reminder you know as we've got three new council members I wanted to kind of bring forward various um discussions about the different um lawsuits that are out there and I'm trying to spread them out
instead of inundating you guys all with them all on you know one Marathon day so this is just another one that we're going to schedule for for February so I need to read the statutory uh statement uh pursuant to Florida statute 28601 18a governing public meetings I as the
attorney for the ISA marada for Isa marada Village of Island wish to advise The Village during this public meeting that I desire advice concerning the litigation of Daniel J galizio the ISA marata Village of islands at all in the Circuit Court of the 16th judicial circuit in in Monroe County Florida case number 23-
ca-04 4-p I ask that we hold an executive session on February 11th 2025 at 4 P.M attending the session will be the mayor council members Village manager myself um and special Council Brian COI what
time did you just say 400 p.m. killing me it's Valentine's week yeah is you're killing me all right so February 11th 4:00 in this room correct uh yeah well we'll coordinate with Marne either be in this room or at uh the conference room
but most I mean preferably here because then that way we can just flow right into the council meeting and now might be a good time to remind the council 4:00 Thursday th I think the did the notice say 4 or 4:30 no 4:30 on okay so everybody knows 4:30 in this room on
Thursday okay uh John anything else nope not from me okay next I see it's Peter again and this is something that Diane just talked about so it's good timing okay it is thank you so it was
first at the June 2024 last summer Village council meeting that the idea of a proposed new vessel exclusion zone or Swim area off of Sunset Drive Beach was first discussed at the Village council's request this item was placed placed on
the July 2024 agenda where I gave a presentation just uh with a background information on this proposed ideas showed a bunch of photographs uh discussed considerations that would need to be worked through if we were to move forward with this and then also laid out the steps that we would need to take if
we were going to go forward with this so at that meeting the direction from the council was to look into a feasibility study on this which would look into the environmental concerns look into the OR compl the design and permitting looking into Sovereign submerged lands easement
issues and complete all the surveys that would need to be done if we were going to look into installing new buoys uh so it was left at that you know we also took public comment following that so this has kind of been hanging out there a few months for a few months we're getting closer and closer to Summer I've
started to get uh interest in this again so we do have a proposal from wsp a vendor that does has done a lot of the design in permit for us they did the work at the Port Antiga at w Maron Beach Swim zone for us they always do an
excellent job for us so this is a few months old now and they are also asking uh if we're going to move forward with this so I just thought the timing was right and we need to start discussing this at some point that was the direction of the council and it's going to be probably springtime when all the
boats start anchoring up in that area again so here we are with a proposal from wsp we brought this to you not as a resolution to to pass tonight just we thought it was best that you know we discussed this first again raise the idea and then if the council does want
to move forward with this we can bring you know this design and permitting and feasibility study back to you at a future meeting and we can move forward with it you know an ordinance passage of an ordinance would go hand inhand with this uh you do we would have to have an
ordinance passed in order to complete the design and permitting we could complete an ordinance or pass an ordinance without this but without the buoys in place the ordinance would be useless because we wouldn't be able to enforce it so those two would go hand inand if we want to move forward the
first thing we would do is draft an ordinance which we would adopt and then complete the design and permitting uh at the same time so here we are bringing this back to you to see if the council wants to discuss it if you want to move forward if we want to can the idea just
looking for some Direction moving forward well one thing I'll say is Diane uh has brought up a very good point about the balloon effect but I understand the people who live on Sunset I won't want people in front of my house either I I don't know if this needs to
be looked at more or to have a public I don't know how to where we go with this does anybody have a suggestion because it's a very slippery slope when you start doing stuff like this cuz we're just going to shove them down there but the homeowners have a right to their
privacy or you know their quality of life as well does anybody have any thoughts on this besides me the the only thought I had Sheron was this uh wsp is is a contractor of ours yes we do have a
current current continuing Services agreement with them we have any do we have any others in our library besides them we do sure we have other environmental and engineering firms yes cuz the collection and data process at
$3,700 is a lot I I just got through helping with a project down in Marathon of about the same amount of land and it was a heck of a lot less to get a a batham metric and a a benic survey done and and this was a really
good bath bath metric that had to be done in the benic was pretty easy because once we located the death we needed we went there but it's only what six buoy sites well so in fact that's good point it's an extremely
large area we we be looking at I think that's the reason with with a number of different sensitive habitats on them we're going to look at that whole area not just that small section of the southern part of that road we need to evaluate that whole area up to cot's beach because the points were raised
that if we just buoy off that first section say the first 1,000 ft they're just going to move north which is what Diana is saying is once we once we do this then they move somewhere else and we're going to be chasing all the way up the island and all the way back down right so the the major cost to that is
for the Beni and bathroom metric work because it's so much field work and we're looking at such a large area yeah but we could absolutely get more proposals or you know bids if if that's what the council wishes and then there's also a proposal
from the public uh residents on Sunset Drive who have offered to pay I believe I think if we can hear comment on that they have they have offered to pay for the full cost of design and permitting and implementation that's what I was
told wow wow Deb go ahead well the email I received and the information I received said that they'd pay for the installation not necessarily the permitting so it's like half of it in instead of not not this half the other half uh but that hasn't been run by
their board yet either but they're willing to at least talk a a public private partnership on it if we can't find some grant money or something to do um the the the information I got today
was I I did try to call around and check on this is that the majority of the homeowners are in favor of this um and there's only two that the the household was split the
husband said yes the wife said no or vice versa so uh um but most of the people in the area would like us to try to move ahead I do understand the uh how we should try to figure out something as a
whole um but I think I think we need to move ahead with this and work on that simultaneously as something else to do because this is this is what we want to see as a whole in the village and don't
take time and it'll take time this is I I talked to Peter a little bit about it this from beginning to end may take up to two years to get done because it's in the sanctuary and yeah maybe longer who knows um I'd like to see it at least
move ahead um if you want uh another bid I don't have a problem with that at all is this is this in the budget is this in the budget I don't know Peter we did not include this think it's budget in the 2425 FIS year budget we we discussed it and decided to not
put it in for this year this proposal buddy this this would this could fit into the village manager Professional Services account though that's how we left it is that if we were going to try and do it this year that may be an option yeah so Peter does
doesn't Rees res do the same thing yes okay so I I I'm like Don I'd like to see three people three engineering firms to to look at this okay I I will look into that um we have to make sure we don't violate the U CCNA
on that where we are requesting bids from vendors in our um engineering Library which we already have agreements with so I have to be careful with that but I'll look into it we may have to put it out to bid I think that's the way it would work I can't individually request
bids from firms within our it violates so we would have to put it out the bid then well sorry are you done yeah I'm done okay I'm done go ahead so how did you how did you choose the the one that
you said there's others in our library how did you come up with with thep right so we have worked with them for for years and they've always done an excellent job for us for any type of design and permitting in in the Marine
environments I like to go with firms that I like and that have worked well and this is a fair proposal I mean I was in I did bent the I did this type of work prior to this job I know what these costs um and I'm really pleased with the services we get from them I can't say
that for all firms uh that's why this was selected but you know we have a great Rel relationship with res too I know they would do a fine job as well um on the fieldwork side um there's some firms that are a little you know have their own Specialties I know you know wsp does a a great job on the permitting
which this is going to be more of a permitting challenge than anything if we can even do it um we may not get permitted for this just because of the the sensitivity of the hard bottom we would need to drill holes we're not going to be screwing anchors into the bottom there so we're going to be
drilling 6 to 8 inch wide holes you know through the Coral Rock where there's coral and seagrass and sponges so it might not get permitted um we have to also keep in mind prove that this is only for the safety of the public we
can't create a vessel exclusion Zone because people are being loud or because people unfortunately are harming the environment it's the Florida statute this has to be for the safety of the public um and I think that's but it is
we'll see well don't you think we should find out if we can even do it before we go out and get bids I mean so that would be part of the feasibility study oh got it got it yeah so I mean what we could do is break this up I mean I know our vendors would work with us let's just
you know do the first half let's see if we could you know get it permitted you know start some um communication with the the permitting agencies we may need an ordinance though to do that they're going to say where's your ordinance but that could be part of
the the feasibility study so I would suggest that at our next meeting or two whatever that works out the best that we put an ordinance together and that we ordinance or resolution whichever
um and that we maybe we do break this into two but we give them what they need in order to be able to get there um if we need to break this into two and get some other bids I I'm open to whatever
on that but to move this ahead um we need to know what we can do and what we can't do and what we can do here maybe will lead us to some of those decisions uh what we can do other places I talked to you about moing buys and we said that
that was probably even less likely than this right um maybe we can make some kind of uh raft up ordinance where you can't raft more than two boats or something I don't know that but that requires a lot of enforcement out there so that doesn't
work real well either okay but we we just got to get creative and have some of those people that are more talented than me I'm Don's been W to is it a is it a chicken or the egg thing though I mean don't we
need to decide what's going to happen off of that beach and any other Beach first and then and then move on to how are we going to you know control that by putting these buoys and then passing a resolution that you can't raft up or something so aren't we are we putting
the the cart before the horse so to speak maybe we should make a decision on on on on what's going to happen offshore first that would certainly make it easier if there were if there were a firm decision that would make it easier yes that makes that makes sense to me yeah but okay but
we we he was telling me that the buoy idea is really iffy so that one's already out we know that this will work if we can get it through we've seen it it'll work to Mark the area that's all it does it doesn't do anything else so
we're SP it works really well on Port an antia that's because we passed a res an ordinance that didn't allow people to go inside that that booed area swim yeah that's not what this is for this is just to get the okay to go and do the studies to to to see if we can do that that that
doesn't get us to the point to where you can't let boats go in there you got to do one before you can do the other right well have we made a decision on what we're going to do on not allowing boats there he's talking about a feasibility study I mean Don what you're saying is right but Peter why can't you uh call
Matthews and talk to Ryan a little bit about that somebody that deals with these agencies all the time you know and and in in test we're already paying him so yeah that's a good call you know why don't we talk to them and those guys you
know they can talk to the agencies or so use our state and federal lobbyist to have them communicate with the permitting agencies to see if get I mean you got to get maybe John involved that too a little bit but just you know let
these guys that deal with this every day and know the different agencies and have a relationship let them before we you know if we find out whether we can even do it or not if we'd be allowed to I think that's we're already paying them anyways you
know yeah I think that's the smartest way to go okay we could try to work with the lobbyists so who would do that who would spearhead that would you deal with I could definitely do that okay I think we might hit some Road Blocks because of
the number of agencies involved staff turnover the number of Staff involved and the processes that both or there would be four permitting agencies involved with this um FWC D Army Corps Coast Guard can can we do a
pre-application conference with the with the Army Corps and just let and see what their feel is and I've done several of those with them to get a an understanding if they're even got sure work with us on that sure that would be part of the feasibility study
absolutely Steve do you want to say anything um I know it seems painfully obvious but uh what's the definition of a vessel exclusion area that's a good question so every every float float uh any type
of vessel that floats in easiest way to describe this kayaks canoes paddle boards are all vessels of course motorboat boats all of those would be considered vessels and would not be allowed in the zone even if there's a tarpon
on white agree with that so that would be a violation if there was someone pulling a boat in there fighting a fish it's like chasing a the right it's not a no motor Zone it's an exclusion zone so it's like
the sanctuary chasing a sailfish into there you can't you know you the fish can go in you can't yeah you know you have to let that fish come back out if you will so yeah so can we maybe I agree with what the bits and pieces I think we need to find out before we jump in
wholeheartedly find out if if they're not going to give us the permits then I don't want to spend the money you know I mean so can you maybe just by now between now and February find out the possibility of trying to communicate with Ryan like Budd said and just see
maybe that'll give us in February come back and that'll give us some guidance on the next step is that agreeable with everybody yep okay yep Deb okay yeah I think that's part of the feasibility study is my problem so I do too but I
you know I mean maybe we should just do the feasibility study and I'm I'm I'm cool with dividing this up the way you suggested so um so what direction are you we giving this poor man who we've pulled now
cors I mean I'd be happy to start I just I think we need to to work at doing something I do too so you want to start with that and we'll talk about start feary talking to Ryan I mean that's okay that can't hurt see what his thoughts are okay I don't know how knowledgeable
he is with FWC or Army Corps permitting but certainly he you know could be helped with the de side he he was the secretary de under Rick Scott so I think he's you know got a little bit of uh connections yeah
and with the federal lobbyist too if we need to right so yes they have go Ahad we can do that thanks so I I know I know you said that f f wsp is is looking for an answer maybe
you should talk to them also about the the strong possibility of dividing this in the future and let us look at it next month um and and depending on how that goes to help move it along uh be prepared with maybe a is it
a resolution or an ordinance well this would to approve this proposal would be a resolution if we were to create the new Zone it would be an ordinance okay but to to do this and divide
it um we'll need a resolution so right we can just not pass the resolution if we decide not to do right yeah yeah I'm just trying to stack it so that we get more done at the same time all right so we'll let you get on
the phone in January I'll start I'll start with Ryan and then we can right work your magic we'll see what we can do and we'll bring this back in February okay that sounds good as um a discussion item would you like this just as a discussion item in the same
location your village manager or you want to move it to a if if we're going to have a resolution to be need to be you do you would like a resolution brought back we we may not accept the resolution but it it depends on how
quickly you want to move it along okay I can move quickly no I know but the longer we delay it the if we don't have the resolution saying okay we need to move ahead then it's another month before we do it that's all I'm just I
can why don't I do this I'll speak with Ryan I'll speak with wsp to see if they're willing to break it up maybe we look into just the you know feasibility side we're just going to do a feasibility analysis let's start the pre-application meetings can we just do that and I could bring up a resolution
if they are amenable to that I can bring that back there you if they want to do that they may not they may not want to do that but we find someone else they may not want to do that and when we hear some of the information you're giving us we may not want to do that either but that sounds good Peter okay thank you
thank Peter appreciate it very much public comment thought we had a discussion about yelling out I've signed up to talk to them well I haven't got just turn the page I'm going to say Marney public comment so that's what I was doing com this
particular discussion again this was why we rearranged he doesn't want it under public comment he wants it on this attack he can speak to it during general public comment if you'd like yeah okay so you to use your public comment for that then again if if you remember this
was why you all had rearranged the schedule to have these come first so that people could if they wanted to speak to it during general public comment they could okay so Marne public comment are we there now yes and and just to just as a reminder uh Madame mayor because I see some faces different
faces in the crowd if anybody wants to speak on any item they need to fill out a comment card and it needs to be into the clerk before the item is called okay everybody understood understand okay Marney okay so I do have um several
folks signed up we'll start with Jo Joe zch sign right I think mayor attorney I know good afternoon Joe zch 25e resident the village of violence probably as old as some of you guys put
together anyway I come out of the engineering world and just for your information in engineering the first 5% of the project determines the last 90% of the project and the reason I'm talking about that is because this is the first 5% of your
term you don't get this right it's going to be screwed up for the next 90% plain words that's the way life is anyway manager Cole thank you for all your work thanks for selling those cars we didn't need okay Also regarding the remark
about the sun properties last summer when you had your lobbyists in here I caught them as they were leaving I said how come you guys don't do anything about the sun properties he says because the village never asked us to well I'm going to and you're going to hooray for
you because they say we do what they tell us to do they didn't tell us to do it so basically remember Pogo you're all old enough remember Pogo he said remember we've met the enemy and it's us okay so the last thing I was going to
mention is the concept of government I think we need to figure out what we're really trying to do and if you go to Wikipedia and I passed out copies here the council management government which is we are and Mr attorney Are We Wrong we are Council
management is a form of local government used for municipalities in the United States blah blah blah it's used in roughly 40% of American C cities the council manager system is similar to a typical governments of publicly traded corporations remember the fast five%
under the form of an elected governing body you guys usually call a city council you guys okay is responsible for the legislative functions as establishing policy passing local ordinances voting Appropriations and
developing an overall Vision anybody want to work on a vision maybe it' be kind of nice okay similar to a COR corporate board of directors the council or commission appoints a city manager to oversee the administrative operations that's you Mr Cole okay Implement its
policies and advise it the manager position is similar to that of a corporate chief executive again back to business appointed by the board of directors you guys the position of Mayor represents the type of legislative body is a largely ceremonial title sorry you're largely ceremonial ceremonial
okay and may be selected by the council for amongst his members are elected an at large uh Council so it's like you remember you're a non-executive chairperson interesting and again Mr attorney if this is wrong then we ought to look at this thing and look at our rules again because this is fairly if
we're doing things that don't go to this we're violating a lot of things so basically remember the manager must be responsible and hired by and dismissed by only by the entire console not one individual such as a mayor or chairperson anyway I brought this up because sometimes got to go back to go
and as I I said before the first 5% screws up the last 90% here we are first 5% the challenge Falls in your court remember the Pogo the the enemy and it's us thank you thank you very much uh Marne I know
we're having problem we having a little issue with the timer so I'm running it you got it okay never mind technology sorry next up is van caded good evening I'm van Caden head and I'm
sorry once again that the public is not being allowed to speak to Sunset Drive uh they were in the previous discussion uh allowed to speak to Sunset Drive and then uh then mayor uh Pender uh decided
that was all the public comment that we were going to get so I guess uh we're in the same place now you just don't want any public comments and my my comment about Sunset Drive is uh semantics because you're talking about a a vessel exclusion Zone when in
my opinion you should be talking about a no anchor Zone and which would allow uh of someone who is in a bone fish skiff with a party to poll that place you're you're cutting out a a large portion of
really good fishing area which is historical uh all along seots Beach and Sunset Drive uh has been historically a good place to fish and this kind of uh U ordinance or resolution is not being
well thought out because it would exclude uh our our fishing guides from from that area which is you know historically a place where Tarpon and Bone Fish have been caught for many many
years um in addition uh just the way that that uh this business is being conducted here uh in the in the village uh it seems to be that that things are being decided before we ever get into
this room it seems to me that there is some kind of a I don't know if you backstage collusion or what you would want to call it but uh we had uh an agreement with with the previous Council for 104 U bass units and and uh because of
the fact the council changed and then we we uh were discussing 250 bass units which we settled on 200 which is double what the First Council said now uh the only reason that happened uh because it
was outside the law you have to wait six months is because you all were able to to vote with three votes for a waiver of that and vote and get the 200 units well I see the same thing happening here with Mr Cole's contract
there's nothing wrong with Mr Cole Mr Cole has been an exemplary uh uh employee and he's uh shown himself to be an an honest broker of of The Village's power that we've given him and and all
of a sudden uh he's being forced to resign yeah and uh I'm going to talk to that in tab7 to a to a greater extent but just the the technique that was used or is used uh he was made to resign and
yet uh it says in his contract that if he resigns he's not going to get a severance package well he's going to get a severance package and I want to know how he came to get that severance package not in front of the public and not with the the discussion among you
people in front of the public okay van I got it time's up yeah yeah you got it but you but what you got is a government that works on moral turpitude okay and this is not worthwhile I guess you're you're just not going to listen are you
about being rude Marne okay next up is Diane Harbaugh hi again everybody Diane Harbaugh resident Alam marada um I just wanted to mention a few things from a few meetings just to kind of voice my
opinion that's why I'm here um I want to commend Sheriff Ramsey for coming up here and speaking to the crosswalks and the red lights and I thank him so much for making it so apparent that we really don't need them and shouldn't have them
they the dot started by saying we're going to get right turn Lanes without asking because things are slow and then they come the next month and tell us we're going to put up red lights to slow things down so maybe they need to spend
a little time together those two talking um I I I it was interesting what you said van because one of the things that I wanted to remind everybody on the council is that we already have an ordinance in place for no Wake Within 300 ft of an improved Shoreline within
the village of alamada and one of our uh committee members came up with the idea that maybe we just include or anchoring on those buoys that are already existing on an ordinance that is already existing
and include that so that you can't anchor within that 300 feet solves a problem holistically for the village but it may not be the answer but just once again there are answers out there and
then Sharon I know you know I love you but the parking in front of the condos so we brought up the parking in front of the condos at the last meeting and you know they want to put parking out in the median between the old road and the new road and they're willing to pay for it
and maintain it and all of that but once again you're blowing up the balloon because now you've blown up the balloon for those people and then pretty soon over here at Legoland they're going to want you to do it for them in the median between the old road and the new road
and so it kind of turns into the same thing we got at near water um so that's that's you know they bought those places knowing how many parking spots they got and I'm sorry but it's just it's a thought I appreciate that's kind of the
way I thought so thank you very much everybody thanks thank you D morning next up is Elizabeth Jolan I want to see a comment after Elizabeth hello Elizabeth Jolan Isam Mara resident uh I want to start by
saying thank you very much for your service I know that this is not an easy job um I wanted to speak briefly about a what I think is uh a perception problem that this council is having having we have an agenda here tonight um with a
lot of quest that that bring brings up a lot of questions um you're going to be receiving a severance or excuse me a resignation from our manager tonight and nowhere on here is there any discussion about what are your next steps you're you're talking about future meetings
like you've got you're giving directions you're planning who's going to be in charge now why isn't that an emergency item that you're that you're that you have on this agenda where where is that um it makes me think maybe you've already have a plan for who's going to
step in for that manager's position um I think it makes a lot of people think that maybe that discussion is already happened and um maybe it hasn't I hope that we speak about that tonight um I know that everyone here is doing their best but
but it looks like a lot of work has been done outside of the sunshine it's it's a foundation of trust that we have with our community and it is alarming to me um in the meantime uh Mr Cole I want to thank you for your service uh again I
I think our town has benefited greatly from your service um it concerns me deeply that that we as a community have no idea what has gone on since our last meeting and um really I hope you all can
shed some light on that um and thank you thanks Elizabeth oh bu wants to say something hey John C can you or Allison help out that I've been talking to you and I've
been talking to Allison for two weeks for a fact and I think every one of us have been called by our attorneys about the situation that she's just talking about okay so help me understand
understand that you know and and I don't know who we're going to put in place yet that what she just said okay so can you shed some light for the public you or Allison that you know you guys are the people that we can talk
to so correct you guys are not allowed to speak with each other which I think you all know that's right and that's what's being insinuated and I got phone calls about that today and I know nothing about what these people are talking about cuz I only talked to Miss
Smith and you and in terms of um next steps um my what I was going to suggest today I mean I think that that um I mean this is a little premature because we haven't gotten into agenda item seven
yet but um uh assuming there is a vacancy in the in the manager position then yes you need to get an interim or an acting manager in place um I would stress stren ously stress that it happened no later than Thursday because
the next time you all meet is not again until February and and uh sometimes getting special meetings together is is difficult but there is uh uh real work that needs to be done and there's a real reason that you need a manager we saw it
the uh the last time um so uh you know in and I mean I would highly suggest that uh you all have that discussion uh I'm not aware of uh of of that discussion taking place yet I anticipated that it would happen um at
least the start of it tonight and maybe have a decision like I said my my recommendation is is to make some sort of decision on an acting or an interim um uh no later than Thursday because we're all going to be back here again on Thursday um but uh uh yeah that that was
going to be my suggestion is because these are pretty strong accusatory things that they're saying about us like Miss jool and just said you know and people are assuming and they're speculating but I just want the truth John I mean I want to know you know
because I know that I've spoke to you and I spoke to Allison so I mean I can say I'm not aware of any any plan in place yet as to uh who would who would fill those shoes I'm not aware of that thank you and I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt but I wanted John to clarify something and hopefully that clarifies
the the the insinuation that there is some some connection between these other things thank you Mary next up is Betsy Bullard hi Betsy Bullard Alam Mara resident and um first I want to say that
I concur 100% with Diane Harbaugh's comments I thought they were very well put together um I would like to address this same thing with the the city manager I was out of town for the holidays and I come
home and I see all the news about oh so many things with our new Council and I really really don't have words you talk about accusations all I can do is make assumptions as in I've
been to this movie before um the majority of the Council of our new Council sorry you know I got nothing for you um there are words in our language that
I can't use with some of this that's going on and that is integrity being forthright and open and honest this is what I am assuming from what I have read in the public
Arena and all I can assume is that our majority of our council is throwing us under the bus again and I don't like it I see no
Integrity I see no honesty here from some of you um and it's come to the point that I don't think I want to live in this community anymore and that's very sad the whole thing is absolutely
heartbreaking to me so take it for whatever you will that's what I've been doing is taking it from what I can gather because there has been no information from you thank you
thank you sorry thanks I I appreciate your job morning thank you man' next is Roland Moore good evening um Roland Moore lower mumi key I've been a resident here for some 30 years and I
want to talk briefly about Sunset Drive which is a very hot issue and as a former chair of the lower mumbi key homeowners association for Sunset Drive and iroy I've represented some 120
members important to preserve our homes and our streets starting from the 199 s when we were Incorporated to date my major concern is now protecting Sunset Drive
Beach and Cons considering a new uh vehic vehicle or vessel uh exclusion Zone and establish a safe swim Zone similar to Port Antigua where the village was overwhelmed last year with some as many
as a hundred boats anchoring and destroying the vegetation through damage to the environment birds and uh marine life and Shore protection as previously advised to the Village pursuant to Florida Statutes The Village has the
authority to create certain boating restricted areas in order to protect the dozens of Village residents from the interference of boers anchoring and using our beach thank you very much thank
you morning next is Beth Camin hi my name is Beth cin I'm a resident of is marada I wanted to thank Rob for his service he has been for me
one of the most dynamic Village managers we've ever had somebody who actually was concerned about my voice what I was thinking gave me the time of day and I am
so um really saddened by this abrupt upheaval of our government to me by firing him without public discussion
creates um a distrust in the way our government is supposed to to work and it this action really gives the appearance of a coordinated effort to make profound
changes in without our input it reminds me a lot of when in the early days of our incorporation and the early days of the
village because the only people who were against self-determination and self-government were those who were profiting from the old way of doing
business and I'm not talking about finances here or any of that it's just an appearance of things because it was the garbage men who really put an effort into work working against the efforts of
all of us to make our our village government as it is and it was the arrogance of Mr Carter really who wouldn't even bid on a new contract with
our government because he didn't think he needed to so it's with that that I come to you to say you need to be doing this all in front of us us everything that happens I am so deeply upset that
you are making it impossible for this man who has only done wonderful things for our village to not be able to succeed thank you thank you Beth morning thank you
next up is Joe wishm yes joish Meer Plantation key mayor and Council so far in just three meetings this Council has one listened to an agenda item bought by an ordinary citizen since how council members hadn't
even been sworn in two reheard and reversed a decision made by previous Council against proper protocol of waiting 6 months or council member on The Winning Side bringing the motion agreed to add 56 more Hotel units
to The Islander Resort even though that exceeds the six units per a per acre provided by code and now replacing another Village manager after less than one year during your campaigns you talked
about un uniting our community and renewing confidence in Council Members again on Thursday you will will be hearing more land use issues making more decisions even before our new comp plan and ldrs are completed
what is the big rush why do we have to rush into things now let's take it easy with all of these questionable decisions in only three meetings how is that going to restore confidence and unify our community another example is when you take three separately noticed items and
hearings and combine them into only one and only give 3 minutes of public testimony for all three crucial items that's only one minute per item then we listen to council ramble on and on about all the facts without all the facts
being presented by Witnesses who have some facts due to time restrictions for last 25 years since incorporation there was no time limit on pertinent information until recently why not get all of the facts before you make a
decision you are all elected to represent the entire community and our delicate ecosystem not just a few developers looking to make money it is time for you to start demonstrating your responsibilities now it is my
understanding that the consent agenda is for matters which may be handled and implemented without necessarily for discussion I don't know who is responsible for making and approving the agenda but how in good conscious can you put the replacement of another Village
manager on the Cent agenda do you feel it is not important has it just become so routine or is they is there a backdoor deal already in place you should all pull this item from the consent agenda to give us a chance to talk about it as to have further
discussion all of this remember took place in only three meetings Lord help us Mary who's next please next up is John wace listening my name is John Meers
listening to uh all these comments your job is not an easy job and I congratulate you on your patience and time and work and effort here so I've been a resident of Sunset Drive for over 45 years raising six kids all attended
local schools and presently two of our sons with seven of our 14 Grand kids attend Local Schools the reason I say that is because I'm on Sunset Drive and it has a beach and uh they love to come there every weekend now as far as Peter
saying that it's going to take quite a while or not quite a while unless we start pushing the button now and we cannot please all the people all the time so instead of going into a lot of information uh about what's happened
over the last few years uh you pretty well know that there's a lot more boats coming every year so in order to try to curtail that if we did have a safe swim Zone but we don't need it all year we only need it
certain times on holidays there's designated times when there's more and more boats coming so I'd like to propose that we cre the swim zone or can be removed one does
what's that it's on it's on go ahead turned off for a second now it's back on it's on back on yes okay an alternative suggestion is create a an addendum that marker boys can be
removed because we don't need them there uh all winter and uh in the summertime there's some weekends that uh we don't need them there either to allow kaying and Sport fishermen to fish closer to shore but
the reason people come there is because of the SandBar they go to uh they go to different places where there are sandb bars like Port Antigua has a bit of a beach but then they're intr intruding on those Beach owners but
for us it's a safety swim Zone area that we need so oh the other thing also is um on June I believe it was July 9th it was brought up tax uh let them put their
money where their mouth is commment because they said it's going to cost a lot of money for t taxpayers to pay for it so tax dollars to pay for a swim Zone have been raised in response to that comment I just made to alleviate burden
to taxpayer expenditures resident will cover the cost to purchase and install the swim Zone marker boys necessary to protect the safety of the public also John pisino is on our street he has uh over 70 employees and very well known
with FEMA and all the other agencies so he said as an engineer I will assist my fellow property owners in to apply for permits and designing the necessary marker system that will limit the anchoring of Vates in such close proximity on the
beach so he's going to cover the expense for the uh permitting and drawings so it it helps a bit so it's not going to be a burden on the taxpayer thank you John thank you thank you John thanks John Mar thank Mr
P okay next up is John Wallace I hope you forgive me I want to change the topic a little bit I'd like to talk about taxes specifically my own um for the period of about the last 10 years uh the The Village portion of my
property taxes have gone up 85% and so I was a little dismayed after paying my taxes a couple weeks ago that I got a survey with potentially 35 projects that were going to increase my taxes probably
severely if even only three of them go forward as in the survey and I think that one of the largest responsibilities of a board like yours and and and I was an elected official for 13 years on a similar board
uh up in way up north um so I know what it's like being on your side of it but I think one of your biggest responsib ities to the taxpayer and I'd like to just discuss with you three things that I think that this survey failed to uh take into
account as far as the taxpayers is uh concerned um and the first one is that nowhere in this survey is there a checkbox to do nothing and doing nothing is as valid as doing
anything whether it's three projects two projects one project some people may want to do nothing some people may feel that Founders Park is fine the way it is for 7,000 people right there's 7,000 residents in fact
according to the census estimates the uh uh population uh residents in imard has actually decreased by about 130 people over the last 3 years so is what we have enough I happen to think it is so that's one thing that
I think this survey fa to do was to offer me the opportunity to say do nothing and had that been there I wouldn't have to be here tonight and you wouldn't have to listen to me tonight the U second thing was the issue
of fees um I can't tell you how distasteful I find it that the government would tax me for some new enhancement whatever it is and then consider charging me a fee on top
of that to use it I find that just tasteful and I hope you folks don't ever take that approach if you want to fee non-residents I have no problem with that but I'm a taxpayer I'm a resident I don't expect that to happen to
me and the third thing and the last thing I want I want to bring up is that this survey sought input from uh V non-residents and visitors and I failed to see the the relevance
of what they think they should have at Founders Park it should be up to the taxpayer I don't see that I'm responsible and I don't believe this government is responsible for the entertainment of non-residents and
visitors and so I'd urge you to take all those three things into consideration uh when you finally decide about this m and I understand this is a master plan I understand the whole concept there the only thing is master you know four or five years from now when you folks aren't on the board some
other board is going to hold up the master plan say well this is a master plan this is what we intended this is what they intended so it's very important that you take the really give the taxpayer the most Credence and anything you do with this survey thank you for the opportunity to talk to you
thank you very much go ahead Mr Wallace before you go can you just state your name and address for the record John Wallace Plantation key thanks thank you Marney next up is Joanie fman Joanie Fulmer is Mara resident 42
years before it was a village since it's been a village I want to thank the council for putting some effort here into representing us but I have a I have a big problem and I in the fact that I don't feel like we as Citizens
are represented by the entire Council I knew nothing until today about this thing with uh the village manager and I get emails from him all the time that tell me what's going on in the village I don't know that I'm the brightest light
bulb in the chandelier but it would seem to me I get emails from one council member and I feel like that council member might have an interest in what I have to say or what my needs are as a citizen and the needs of all the other
citizens and some things you may vote on that I don't agree with but I'd like to be represented by all of you and I think we got a lot of business to do here this whole comp plan thing and why are we spending
time and money diverting our attention to yet again fire Ing and hiring another Village manager when you got work to do that represents our community so I would implore you to
consider representing all of us thank you thank you very much Marty next up is Barry Ray good evening Council Barry Ray IA marada 27 years now I thought I'd be here for three to five
uh Isa Marat adopted me so uh thank you all for being up there it's hard Don Steve it's new for you the other people are all old hacks by now right so Debbie thanks for coming back thanks for all of you being up there it is
hard this is an amazing amount of information that just came in here and it's got to be devastating to to try and juggle all those things at once and there's a lot of very important things coming up one
of the most important things that I think about is our comp plan and in that comp plan one of the major priorities in the beginning of that comp plan is about protecting the ecosystems here we did an inclusionary zoning ordinance Debbie uh
and I were part and parcel to that and it's one of the proudest pieces of legislation this Village has ever done and in that uh piece of legislation we did scientific analysis where we equated every square foot that gets built and
expanded and what that means in terms of Demands for service people and essential people to live here and so we account for that residential has a certain price per square foot when you want to expand as well as retail space does or
industrial space and that means I get to hire another percentage of a firefighter or a policeman or whatever and this is important we don't take our ecosystem with the same seriousness and over the years when I first got here uh that was actually 86
when I came down at Spring break I parked the car at mile marker 95 I didn't pull over I just parked it there right in the middle of the highway got out of the car with my two buddies and said yeah can't see a car in either direction you can't cross the street
during spring break now and because of that we've gone from relatively very minimal impact of automobiles going through the keys to the point that we're putting over 500,000 lbs of rubber tire in the water in the Nearshore Waters every year there's a article that came
out about Seattle where the amount of salmon they're killing because of the rubber tire particles going into the water if you don't think we're doing the same thing here you need to think again we're all very sensitive to the ecosystem but we seem to ignore it we really do I I told the story on the
radio a few days ago and few weeks ago uh about a Backwater guide that I've known since he was a child coached him and here he was golf and golf balls into the bay thinking it was harmless having a good time wouldn't stop so I called
the fwp on him or FWC on him said go talk to him inform him you know I didn't want to get a ticket I want him to learn this is bad we all need to take it upon ourselves all right I'm going to end right now but I am going to make one comment I think most of you were on the
council this last year when I got up here and we uh changed out Village managers and I made a comment I said we're the only municipality in the keys that cannot keep a village manager all right orvik resigned Ted you let go
Ted Ted help create this the most popular thing we do in our village regularly and now we're going to lose a guy that I met and I think he's got genuine great technical knowled and general Integrity I really like the guy even though we disagreed on some things
all right so it's hard to keep good people but it's important and it's important to understand it's about people it's not about the instantaneous persuasion we all have to be tolerant all right it's a difficult thing to do
but ask yourself how you would feel in is shoes move down here did this and now we're asking well we're done with you time to go that is not right folks and that's why people Key West has 20-year managers and uh Marathon has George
Garrett for how many years now and so on and so forth so please think about we're do what we're doing this evening take a pause thank you very much thank you thank you morning okay we have one last uh comment it's the person on Zoom give
me just a sec to get in there okay um caller with the last four digit 4844 you've got 3 minutes go ahead hi are you able to hear me yes we can hear you okay thank you very much for taking
the time uh my name is Hugh casano and I live at 257 Sunset Drive that's at the uh last Point um John Meyer uh is my wonderful neighbor that's there and I'm calling you from Scottdale Arizona first
of all I want to thank you for your methodical approach in making decisions there i' I'm I'm a member of several volunteer boards myself and and it's seems like a thankless job uh so it is important to note that that you spending the time is definitely a
necessary uh uh Endeavor right and it is appreciated um there a gentleman with the with the black hat that was commenting earlier uh fishing at the at the uh on that drive at the end of the pier if you look at the map that is the
inclusion area um I believe it does leave an area there where most people go to fish right and and I don't think that you know 10 feet of fishing space uh compared to the entire ocean makes a big difference in in the in the
tours um through the and the other person I was talking about if you close one area they go to another where do they go uh well maybe they go to Papa Joe's maybe they go to the Post card in and maybe go the places where they buy products and create Revenue that
actually helps Our Town rather than uh just uh the alternative in addition to that we have areas like the alligator reef and the phills that we pay for um to to maintain for these types of
they're they're designed for that type of experience uh not the backyard of my house um this year we did not go to the house as a matter of fact after the last holiday uh we hit the shutters and left
uh because uh I can't fight with my wife anymore about keeping my six and nine-year-old kid inside on holidays because boats are speeding by dogs are left without leash human feces is washing up on the beach uh everything
from police being called and irresponsible motoring didn't gamble on that when I spent millions of dollars on a resident by the way my family owns four houses in the area uh and they used to congregate in Sun Beach because I'm
on the water with the beautiful beach and and and I'm I'm not going to apologize for you know I was born and raised in Miami and I I came back to this town because I love Florida and I I wanted my kids to experience what I experienced which is the close contact
with nature when you're a young person not people that are revealing themselves nudity and you know the pardon the language but the the first penis my little girls have seen was a guy who was urinating off the side of a boat um so
so we don't go back there my house is locked up cars are locked up everything's there and John can attest we have not been back because it's just not worth it um I appreciate your consideration and uh and you know everyone having an opinion that doesn't
live there doesn't really have the opinion because they're not there every day and un un fortunately this has become such a problem that it's kept me from coming home so um thank you for your time and thank you for volunteering thank you very much
Marne there's no one else okay public comment is now closed I guess we move to the consent agenda John yes that's correct Madame mayor uh we're into the consent portion of the agenda these items are of a routine nature and council members have reviewed these items in advance and sought the advice
of Staff as they felt necessary there'll be one vote on the consent items which today are items uh tabs 4 through six if anyone would like to pull an item from consent here or she should state so now go ahead tap seven that's he said
four through six okay I got you I caught that too um buddy you good you guys good I'm good okay go ahead John um we would need to uh open it up for public comment on the consent items
anybody have public comment on the consent items four through six not seven I don't have anyone signed up for 4 through six okay so we would just uh need a motion on the consent does council have
anything they want to say 4 through six do I hear a motion I make I make a motion to approve 4 through six is there a second a second Marty call the rooll please please council member de Deb Gillis yes vice mayor Don Horton yes council member
Steve fredman yes council member buddy Pender yes and mayor Sharon Mahoney yes that motion passes 5 to zero okay thank you very much okay John do we go to tab seven now
or yep Tab S is a resolution of the Village Council of is mar Village of Island Florida approving the separation agreement in general release between the village and Robert Cole authorizing the mayor to execute the agreement and providing for an effective date um this is a um uh separation agreement between
the village and Mr Cole as it as it states uh the terms uh of the agreement um are set forth um my office more more specifically Allison uh worked with uh Mr Cole's attorney um uh to uh reach
this agreement and to uh to prepare it with terms that that I understand he's agreeable to um and so it's presented for the council for your consideration uh I know Mr Cole has a um uh does have a resignation letter that he's he said
that he would we if it's the council's pleasure he would be uh uh willing to uh read that as well Rob would you like to read the letter sure thank you mayor I've addressed it to Dear mayor Mahoney and Bill council members as an
international City County management association member and local government professional I am dedicated to the highest ideals of honor and integrity in ethically executing executing my roles and responsibilities as Village manager as each of you are as elected officials
as the idam marata charter recognizes professional management is essential to effective efficient and accountable local government dedicated to serving the best interests of all community members faithfully and with a high degree of public
transparency reflecting on this past year I've enjoyed serving as is marat's Village manager having helped to cultivate a variety of positive organizational and Community outcomes as partially highlighted in my weekly Council update ahead of the holiday
period our exceptional staff have successfully risen to muad challenges amidst many competing claims on their time and energy considering the year ahead however I regret to communicate to you my staff
and the isamara community that I have decided to resign from my position as Village manager subject to the terms and conditions incorporated into the separation agreement on tonight's agenda this was a difficult choice for me to make but it is the right one for me and
my family as I turned the page in my decades long Municipal career I want to thank everyone who warmly welcomed me to the isamara community and organization perhaps our paths in life may cross again finally please know that your
outstanding Village staff will continue working hard every day to make sure your quality of life is commensurate with the reasons you chose to make this island paradise your home thank you rob um do we wait for buddy or uh it's up to
you I mean we do have to take uh public that answer so do we go to public comment now John um yeah you can you can go to public comment now if you'd like or you can discuss but at some point we do need to open it up for public comment yes okay so what's your pleasure you guys I'd like to say something go ahead Steve thank
you ladies and gentlemen when I decided to run for this position I ran on a promise to the voters that I would fight against overdevelopment and attempt to ensure transparency in everything we do as Council a governing body that creates enacts and enforces policy should serve the community's best interests
consistent with The Village's State admission to protect the residents rights to quiet enjoyment of life to plan for enhancing our village character to preserve our community its people natural resources and pride to provide basic services to support our quality of
life I asked to remove item at tab seven from the consent agreement agenda which involves a resolution to approve a severance of employment to Village manager Rob Cole I did so because I'm troubled by how the matter of severing Rob's relationship with the village came
about and because I know that Rob likes his job and was not seeking to resign from everything I've heard before this matter suddenly was presented to me on December 18th I understood that Rob was doing his job well I had no knowledge then and have no knowledge now of any
conduct by Rob that would justify coercing him to resign in return for several weeks of severance I was not in favor of the proposal to offer Rob sever when it was initially presented to me by Village attorney and I'm not in favor of it now for the following reasons the
subject of offering Severance in return for Rob's resignation was first presented to me by Village Attorney John quick in a phone call on December 18th John called me about an email he had previously sent to council members on DEC December 17th the email concerned a written complaint made by a village
employee against Rob because of IT issues and setting up my email account I hadn't received or reviewed John's email with the employees complaint attached prior to his call I explained that to John and he forwarded a copy of his uh email with a complaint to me uh as we were on the call John gave me a brief
summary of the email he then said he was conducting a poll of the council members about whether they were in favor of offering rob a severance package in return for his resignation he said he would be communicating the results of the poll to Rob depending on the vote John then asked if I was in favor of offering rob
a sance package in return for his resignation I told him I was not in favor of such action because I knew of no basis to suggest that Robie forced out of his position and because I believe every employee in the village no matter their position is entitled to due process to address the Merit or lack of
Merit to a complaint against them before being disciplined terminated or coer coerced to resign at the time of John's call on December 18th I had no knowledge or evidence still have no knowledge or evidence that would justify criticizing Rob's job performance much less a
request for his resignation in return for a severance package consequently I was extremely uncomfortable with John's requests to State whether I was in favor of making such an offer and I told him so I was aware of the fact that Rob had responded to a rumor that he had some
responsibility for the decision made in Tallahassee to cancel the funding for the alamada fire department fireboat however Rob submitted a detailed factual response that refuted the rumor in an email dated December 12th 2024 that was provided to council members Rob's
statement completely dispelled to my satisfaction the idea that he had anything to do with the boat funding cancellation among other things Rob pointed out that the Isam Mara boat allocation was not only the only fireboat allocation vetoed another allocation for a fireboat in Marco
Island was also vetoed additionally Rob noted that millions of dollars in Fire and Public Safety funding vetos were part of an overall budget reduction effort during our initial phone conversation on December 18th I told John I objected to being pulled about my position on a matter as important as
terminating another Village manager less than a year after he accepted the position John explained that he had the unenviable task of contacting me and the other council members individually to find out whether there was support for submitting a severance proposal to rob in exchange for his resignation I do not
know and John did not say whether he had been asked to conduct the poll by one of my colleagues on the council or if he decided to initiate the poll himself I do not know why John didn't simply suggest an investigation be conducted into the employee complaint before
suggesting that Robby offered sufferance if the employees complaint was actually the reason for suggesting Severance in the first place I suspect that it is not but that it may be a convenient excuse for the current effort to force Rob to resign in any event however I don't know
why John didn't suggest that there be a meeting of the full Council in public session if permissible and appropriate in an executive session to discuss such a critical matter rather than conduct a poll of the council to offer Severance in return for Rob's resignation assuming that it was the employees comp uh
complaint that pre precipitated the proposal to Rob's Severance in exchange for his resignation I told Rob that I was not in favor of such an offer there hadn't been any investigation of the complaint or discussion among council members about Rob's conduct that would justify such action on its face the employees
complaint did not appear to me to come anywhere near justifying a severance proposal so I told John no to offering Severance John informed me that I was the last council member and that my vote my no vote was in the minority I asked if the minority was 3:2 or 4:1 John told
me it was 4:1 I also expressed my concern to John about how I could trust that information that he was giving me with the same information that he gave was the same information he gave other council members John insisted that he wouldn't jeopardize his law license by not providing the same information to
all council members on December 19th I had a chance to do a thorough review of the email John sent to council members on December 17th regarding the employees complaint I found it interesting in his email John mentioned and I quote this scenario is not addressed in The Village's Personnel manual when not
specifically addressed the normal procedure in these situations is to speak with each of you individually to discuss the village Villages options going forward and provide potential legal recommendations on how to proceed at no time since our initial phone
conversation on December 18th to this date however uh at no time uh however did John provide me with any options or legal recommendations Beyond asking me for my vote in favor or against offering Rob Severance in return for his
resignation I was basically presented with a yay or nay proposition I don't know if John suggested any options or legal recommendations in his conversations with other council members however I do know that other options and legal recommendations were not suggested to me and perhaps more importantly at no
time since December 18 did John or any other Attorney At His firm Express an opinion to me that they considered the employees complaint sufficiently serious to justify an immediate offer of severance in exchange for his resignation John also contacted me by phone again on December 19th this time
it was in connection with conducting another poll of council members I I'm sorry madam mayor this is can I can I oh 100% I didn't expect him to go on for this long so I apologize absolutely inappropriate that this is just an attempt to smear my
name I did not poll anyone in fact council member fredman used specifically asked me to tell you what each of the other council members told me and I told you I cannot do that because that would violate Sunshine there was no polling going on I do not know what the purpose
of this statement is manager Ro uh Cole has tendered his resignation there is a severance agreement that is before you all the statements that you are reading are incorrect they are absolutely incorrect corre I'm sorry pardon me
you'll have time to correct me I I am not going to violate let let him finish to the facts and I will wait for you thank you the real facts in my mind this was a matter that should not have been addressed initially
in a discussion in my mind this was a matter that should have been addressed initially in a discussion among the full council at a public meeting if possible uh or if possible an executive session since I was the only council member opposed to forcing Rob's resignation I
told Rob that I told John that if Rob were to be offered a severance package it should be for the maximum amount which John stated would be 20 weeks pay in a subsequent phone call with John's associate Allison Smith on December 19 she informed me that a decision had apparently been made to offer The
Village manager Severance of approximately 6 weeks I asked how the other four council could possibly have come up with the same number of weeks for the severance offer without speaking to one another Allison told me she could not say because discussing her conversations with other council members would violite Sunshine Law following
these communications with John and Allison I reviewed the Village Council orientation materials provided to me at the orientation meeting of new council members held in November the materials included a memo prepared by we serota law firm with the title summary of Florida Sunshine Law and public records
act the memo contains a bullet point provision with the heading quote no meeting through use of intermediaries unot after reading it I became concerned that the quote polling of council members about Rob offering Rob Severance might violate the intermediaries provision of the Sunshine Law which
reads as follows the Sunshine Law is violated if a person who is not a council member acts as a liaison between council members through which a deao discussion is conducted upon some subject matter on which foreseeable action will be taken by the council
after reviewing this provision I sent John and Allison an email on the evening of December 19th my email reiterated I had no knowledge of any facts that would Merit asking the village manager for his resignation and I informed John and Allison of my concern about a possible violation of intermediary provision contained in the Sunshine Law as a
result of the polling process John had used to determine if there was a majority of council members in favor of offering job Rob Severance in return for his resignation it appeared to me from the language of the intermediary provision of the Sunshine Law that polling council members to find out whether whether they were in favor of
offering rob a severance package in exchange for his res resignation involved a subject matter quote for which foreseeable action would be required by The Village Council close quote obviously taxpayer funds would have to be expended to fund the severance being offered so in my email
to John and Allison I asked the following question is it possible that the decision to offer an employee Severance on behalf of the council without any prior discussion among the council members based on each Council member's conversation with you as an intermediary might violate the Sunshine Law
unquote John responded to me in an email on December 20 informing me that he did not serve as intermediary because he did not convey any discussion between council members John reiterated that he would not risk throwing his career away for anyone or any client that and that
no sunshine laws were violated and in response to my comment about not having any information that would support Rob's termination John informed me that as far as the reasons why other council members might wish to sever the relationship with Rob I would need to ask them for their reasons at an open public meeting
out of concern for that the termination of Rob's employment be addressed by the full Council in a public meeting as soon as possible I also informed John and Allison that I would be asking mayor Mahoney to schedule a special meeting of the council to address the subject of severing Rob's employment with the village the next day December 20th I
sent an email to the Village clerk Marty McGrath my email requested a special meeting of the council for two purposes the first purpose was for a discussion of matters related to The Village manager employment the second per purpose was to discuss making a request to the Village attorney to provide
council with proposed alternative procedures to address investigate and attempt to resolve Village employee complaints including those involved the village manager before requiring the council's involvement my concern was this the village has terminated nearly
20 different village managers in 20 years is the council going to terminate Village managers simply because a village employee May Lodge a complaint that has not been investigated much less verified and for which The Village manager has not been afforded an opportunity to respond and the village
attorney has not provided any opinion to the Council of what would justify a termination Marne sent a blind copy email to council members on December 20 asking about their availability for a special meeting Marne also responded to my email on the same day informing me she had contacted Sharon about my request for her to call a special
meeting about Rob's employment Marne informed me that Sharon expressed concern about the council's availability over the holidays and suggested that the matter be brought up during this meeting therefore as far as I know there was no support for my request for a special meeting on the afternoon of SE Sunday
December 22nd I received another phone call from Allison acting in place of John who was on holiday she called to inform me that the proposal to offer Rob Severance in return for his resignation had been accepted in principle I again expressed my disdain for the process Allison told me that John had consulted
an Ethics expert who advised that the process did not violate Sunshine Law on December 3 Allison sent me a draft separation agreement attached to an email the draft agreement provided that Rob would receive approximately 3 months pay and exchange for his resignation when I asked Allison how the number of
weeks of severance pay had been determined she said she could not answer that question because she could not disclose conversations with council members on December 23 I received an email from HR Director Jamie Terry informing me of the required performance evaluation due for Mr Cole after I made
a request to see all prior evaluations of Rob she sent me two one was from from Mark Greg and the other was from Elizabeth Jolan neither evaluation contained any negative feedback about Rob's work as Village manager there were no written evaluations from Buddy Sharon or Henry Rosenthal I don't know if they
provided oral evaluations I received another email from Allison on December 27th which included a revised separation agreement for Rob she followed up that email with another email on January 3rd 2025 which attached another revised version of the separation agreement and
mentioned she would be contacting me by phone I presumed for the purpose of asking if I had any aits or comments about the agreement I replied by email that there was no need to call my only concern was that Rob be indemnified from any possible litigation brought by a village employee in the future Allison sent me
back an email confirming that such indemnification was provided in the agreement in closing I've laid out in detail the facts as I know them to be about this matter for purposes of full transparency I am truly troubled by how such a critically important decision is serving the employment of our village
manager was made without any discussion among council members and without providing the public the opportunity to weigh in on the advisability of terminating another Village manager who was hired less than a year ago and to my knowledge had done nothing to deserve being forced to resign I am not a lawyer
but I did not believe when Mr Quick uh first contacted me for my vote nor do I believe now that the matter complained of by a village employee justifies the knee-jerk response of coercing our village manager to resign there has been no investigation of the complaint there
has been no opportunity for Rob to provide a response to the complaint when we when did we decide that it was acceptable to terminate Village managers without due process if employees should make complaints about their conduct what kind of precedent does this set and most
importantly from my point of view as a newly elected public official in a village that has experienced a revolving door of Village manager hirings and firings in recent years why is it considered acceptable to follow a process that evades the spirit if not the letter of the Sunshine Law in my opinion what has happened here is
totally unacceptable I know from speaking to him personally Mr Cole likes his job he did not want to resign yet a majority of the council apparently saw fit to force him to resign without due process without any prior discussion of the merits of forcing his termination and without any plan in place for his
replacement is this good governance I don't think so personally I think coercing a village manager to resign without any plan in place to replace him is irresponsible i apolog oliz to the citizens of Isa marada for what I see as the council's dereliction of its duty to the community you deserve better and Mr
Cole I express my sin serious apology for the manner in which this Council has treated you I thank you for your service to our village you too deserved better in closing I return to Mr Quick's advice that if I want to know the other council members reasons for their actions I would have to ask you at the public
session so at this meeting I ask my fellow council members for the courtesy of their responses to the following four questions whose idea was it to ask the village attorney to pull the questions of offering Severance to Rob what are your reasons for wanting to sever the relationship with Rob why do you think
it is prudent to force Rob to resign from his position when there is no plan in place for his replacement what is your plan to replace Rob as a village manager all right before John you speak you have so many facts so wrong and I'm sorry I I'm just sorry so John I'm corre
I'm not going to correct you right now I'm going to let John say what he's been wanting to say so we'll start there I um thank you mayor Mahoney um honestly the a lot of that doesn't even warrant a response it's woven with so many
inaccuracies and factual misleading uh factually misleading statements um the the fact that you would use my name and insinuate on two occasions that I may have just vented this out of thin air
is absurd and Reckless and honestly likely defamatory I would absolutely I am Bound by a code of ethics and I will not throw away my career for you council members Freeman I assure you I will not throw
away a career for anyone I have worked too darn hard to get to where I am I am not going to invent something out of of thin air for no reason at all why because the day before I'm going on vacation I decide that I want to
complicate my life and invent something absolutely not and the fact that you would insinuate that and recklessly throw that out there as though we we had a member of the of the of the public before talk about these are human beings up here and we all are and this is a difficult thing that that that we're
discussing right now with what you brought up but I'm a human being as well and to insinuate that I I invented something I I'll wait for you to finish on your whatever you're doing on your phone for you to insinuate that I invented this is really insulting and I
do not appreciate it at all so I mean I I I'll just I I will leave it at that I I do not want to get into anything more honestly most of it does not warrant a response but it there was clearly intent behind why
those things were said and I do not appreciate it and that was not it was not accurate and and thank you Madame mayor and the rest of the council for for the the the giving me the time to to at least say something go ahead buddy I just want to remind Council that I mean
I know we just had an election but there supposed to be no texting from the Das okay yeah that's true no texting from the Das so I you know it was going on before who's tting okay I'm just saying I'm not
saying anybody in particular but I want it to come out that we know that we're not allowed to text from here okay when we're here we're here if you want if you want go to the bathroom go outside whoever your phone's off when you're Happ yeah yeah and and I want to say something Steve that you're saying you
know what I've been here with Mr Cole I only I voted only once for Mr Cole because I I was going to give him a shot when Mr Greg called him back all right and and I'm going to tell you something I have had employees and employees staff
members that were going to quit so you know uh you know if we're going to I just man and then to accuse somebody of our attorney of the way following the law here that's a big problem and I'm going to tell you
something so many people in this Village have untrue facts when people come after me you know what I went to tasse and took the facts with me and it all got dismissed you know I I mean this what a
thankless position what a thank people got money in this town they got they they they they say things about being able to take a th000 square foot home they try to stop somebody buys a TDR but yet they built take a 900 foot home and
build 5,000 ft that's the that's you know if you live in a glass house you shouldn't throw stones man I I tell you what I am so I can't believe the people of alam marada you know what I see the same people want to get up here and talk and
talk and talk the alamara Community Alliance about how everything tell we we can't do anything right I am serious as a heart attack that we can't do anything right I I I don't understand this I really
don't and then accuse our attorneys okay that this a sunshine you know what I think if people put your facts get the facts but when you're going to lose several employees
that have been here dedicated employees that are going to I mean I I I mean it's still I'd like to know about the fireboat Steve I'd like to know about the fire vat you can say Marco Island but everybody else and I'm going to go a couple steps further you know what our
sheriff's department has had issues here when they can't even talk when they when they have the contract okay we can't tell them how to micromanage the sheriff's department and I've gotten phone calls okay anyways I've said I've said
what I'm saying I I just really can't and and the only two people that I talk to on this is is John and Allison Allison kept every each one of us informed of what she was doing what she that's what we hired our attorneys for
to represent us and I I'm sorry that you know you feel that maybe that they did something violated whatever but you know this this wants me to I I start thinking about Ro and how somebody on a
certain group wrote a letter to Dennis Ward and and and they're going to do a criminal investigation on us I went right to Dennis and said down we didn't sign a non-disclosure agreement we signed a non-disparagement agreement okay sry you know so so wait
wait so and then some of somebody that was the president of that organization is coming and telling us we signed an NDA and I had to have Mr Quick not me but Mr Quick tell him that this we didn't sign a nisp uh a a NBA we signed
a non-disparagement agreement I I just want to see people get their facts right if you got your facts right speak the truth so I I man I'll tell you what this you talk about division there's a certain group of people in this
community that are causing so much division it's crazy okay anyways I've said enough okay mayor thank you so uh do we want to open public comment does anybody want to say anything where do I go from here um we do need to
open public comment um if nobody has anything else to say I mean you obviously can speak after public comment as well you that uh okay okay we're going to go ahead and open public comment now uh do I need a bulletproof Fest
Marne go ahead first up is Van Cen head here we go we got to watch time okay then we will go to sue Miller yeah leave Ziller lower mumi representing the ISA marada Community
Alliance it is all about trust and perception the trust is not there the perception whether it's right or wrong it's our perception according to councilman fredman prior to Christmas
Village attorney of white root pulled the council as to whether you'd agree to offering a seance package to the Village manager and return for his resignation fredman was informed there were four votes in favor this is clearly a violation of the
Florida Sunshine Law I don't care what you say shame on the four of you and shame on our village Attorneys at w serota for their participation less than two months ago the five of you were sworn in into office stating at the swearing in I do
solemnly swear that I will support protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and the government of the State of Florida I will in all respect observe the charter and ordinances of alam marada and will Faithfully perform the duties of
councilman so help me God and yet you ignore the Florida Sunshine Law immediately many of us believe that your effort to remove Mr was a plot that has been ongoing for months that's our perception perhaps the next step in the
plot is to rehire Mr Yates a more development friendly manager in a private executive session planned for Thursday at 4:30 p.m. excluding the public from CR critical decisionmaking I believe we have been
extremely fortunate to have a man of Mr Cole's talent and integrity Mr Cole has demonstrated that that he is a true professional perhaps the best we've had and perhaps better than we deserve Mr
Cole absolutely deserves better with clearly having four members of counil opposed to his leadership of course his resignation should be accepted and the already negotiating negotiated agreement approved so he can move on to a place
where his talents can be appreciated and in the past we've had managers resign Under Pressure but nothing like this with no public discussion even trying to hide this separation in the consent agenda what will you do next yes we
elected you but you pledged to follow the laws of the land including the Florida Sunshine Law Florida attorney general Ashley Moody wrote an introduction to the recent Sunshine law manual our system of open government is
a valued an intrinsic part of the heritage of our state each day Floridians use these laws to inform themselves as Citizens to attend government meetings and to review government records as a result of these efforts government leaders can be held
accountable for their actions and you have conducted your decision making in the dark thank you Mr Cole for all you have done for our community I believe many in the community would join me in wishing you and Olga the best in the
future we'll miss you tremendously I am literally heartbroken Madame mayor can I just just because it's the second time I've heard some discussion about there's there's a connection between the executive session it's purely a coincidence as I mentioned
before I'm trying to bring you all up to speed and that just happened to be the first one I listen I I have always been a supporter of the Community Alliance and I've gotten a lot of crap from people for being friends with them but I
resent the fact that you publish in a letter that this was a plot to bring back Ted Yates do you really think I would bring back Ted Yates absolutely no way and I'm insulted that you think I would go back on a decision I stood with Henry and Elizabeth on and that made me
so upset Sue I have to tell you for you guys to put facts out there that aren't even true that was the first time I realized what he said is correct that's not a true fact there is no way Ted Yates has been in the discussion that I have ever been a part of or would want
to be a part of and I know Don knows that and I know everybody up here knows how I feel how I was treated by Ted so I found that extremely insulting that something was done with Ted Yates so I just said my piece so go ahead Marne let
me have another one okay next up Van Caden head I notic you called me as soon as I went to the bathroom you ain't going to get rid of me quite that easy uh I'm going to put some facts in front of you uh I ran
against buddy Pender for the council the last time and uh I called hundreds of people in this town on the phone and talked to them and I spoke to hundreds of people in the town uh in in the Publix and whatnot and and as a result
of that 1411 of them voted for me and I really appreciate that and I'm not going to lie to you A lot of them told me that one of the points that that buddy Pender and Don Horton and Debbie Gillis were
making was that as soon as they got elected into office and also Anna Richards as soon as they got into office and got a majority they were going to get rid of Rob Cole and bring Ted at back now that is a fact now you can talk to you can talk to dozens of people out
there in the Coconut Telegraph I didn't make this up folks I'm not making any of this up I've never told a lie from this Podium I've never made a nickel off of this Podium and and for for you to uh try to put this man out so maybe it's
not Ted Yates maybe it's somebody else you have in mind who's more more pliable and Li and and viable and malleable that you want to have in in his position but you haven't said his name you haven't put up any uh uh method that we can have
another manager it's totally irresponsible for you to behave this way and and put this man out who's done nothing but exemplary work for this Village and the people here know it the people that are watching this know it
and and uh once again the the the moral uh uh turpitude that's gone into this discussion is Monumental it's immense it's only exceeded by the
grotesque uh gargantuan greed of the of the Deep Pockets uh campaign contributors that put the four of you into office you know I'm I'm really so at least the three of you you just went along for the ride but I'm really sorry
that that we have this particular uh uh quandry here uh in a time it's it's even more irresponsible because we have hired a firm to redo our comp plan we have hired a good firm to to do our ldrs and
why in the name of Heaven would you possibly want to get rid of of the the best village manager we've had at this critical juncture if you didn't have some ulterior motive if you weren't looking to turn this into the village of
alamara construction boom of 2025 and 26 thank you so much wow okay Marty okay next up is Henry Rosenthal well kind of exciting
I think you should all take a break obviously I came to address things other than what you're addressing at the moment I can agree with just about everybody good or
bad I had a discussion with Mr Cole sometime ago and I don't think I had another discussion with him with the exception of the morning this morning maybe I called you might have been yesterday morning and I just play flat out
predicted the outcome of the election and who was going to vote for who in what way so far my prediction is holding true the only person that knows that for
sure is Mr Cole Mr Cole almost was not on the Slate to be selected Mr Cole had a problem with his previous employer I've never discussed
that with him but he called me at my house late one night and he says take me off the list I said sure good luck to you it was either the following night night two nights later he says could I be put back
on the list I've resolved my problems I said certainly why not but what the council did not know at that particular time was that the Florida legislature was about to pass the situation where if we did not choose
somebody by the end of the month we couldn't choose anybody until November was there any discussion about that no I knew it I brought it up I said somebody has to be elected out
of the three I can work with any one of them and I could one person was chosen either in first or second place but it was not Mr Cole but then a motion came up to select
Mr Cole I went along with it why wouldn't I I had no reason not to I've been through a lot of [Music] managers I'm a pretty good judge of
character I've been asked not to talk about myself but for some unknown reason I was the highest employer in Monroe County for years I didn't make too many mistakes when I hir somebody I was recently in a
[Music] hospital and the hospital came by to me and said do you you have any recommendations for the staff good better and [Music] different I said I don't but I'll tell you one [Music] thing these people know how to get
[Music] along at the hospital they know how to talk to each other the doctors the nurses the staff it's remarkable they have 12-hour
shifts if not two in a row which is not not in a row that would be 24 but 12-hour shifts and these people are happy to go to worker to go to work and I said to myself wouldn't it be
nice before any council member took that chair if they were deemed to do 12 hours at the hospital and see what nice people how they talk to each
other the way we conduct this council is ridiculous in fact it's not ridiculous it's damn bad the way we talk to each other I've been on the one end of that for somebody
just to stand up and accuse me of one lie after the other the newspaper called me for a a statement and I said they didn't use it I said you know throughout my
life and I've been in business for I don't know how many years I've been here like 60 years throughout my life I've had Boulders in front of me and when I chose to go against the
boulder it was not the right thing to do so the last time somebody just stood up and made and called me names and whatever I chose not to complicate this situation with me going against the boulder I just plain
decide to walk around it and I if you can give me 10 more seconds goad I I know you're anxious I don't hold these people responsible for some of the things they say because that they've
been cohorted and I know that but where did it originally start it started when they were little kids and they were influenced by their mother and father believe me
that's where it started once again I was not prepared to speak to this issue but in closing if I could I would have a motion to not accept Mr Cole's
resignation and if that didn't pass I would have another Mo motion to put him back on the list with two or three others if you wish and let's get this job done if you can find somebody better
than Mr Cole and he's made mistakes I've called him on the mistakes right here publicly but not enough to give up the job just not enough with that I support Mr Cole in
anything he wants to do and I sincer hope it's for him to remain here and do the [Music] job that he's capable of doing with that I'm sorry I probably did more than five minutes or whatever I didn't mean to do
that but I know no worries thank you morning next up will be Joe wishm yes Joe wishm Plantation key I would like to take this time to thank Mr Cole for his unrelenting efforts to move
forward on projects it seem to have stalled under previous managers his weekly manager report was very appreciative and informative to keep the public up to date on progress of the many projects being undertaken by
The Village I certainly hope that practice continues with the next Village manager his efforts will be dearly missed putting this item on the consent agenda was inexcusable and yall should be ashamed of this action since in
corporation 26 years ago there have been 12 different managers hired all but one I repeat that all but one have been forced out or asked to leave many in less than one year including Mr Cole what does this say about our council
members and staff if your actions and beliefs seem to benefit the community but not necessarily the council or the planning staff then you're gone this even seems to happen in the planning department a good example Dan galizio I
find it hard to believe that after all the interviews and all the time spent Mr Cole would voluntarily agree to leave after going to all the trouble and inconvenience of moving his entire family to the keys for less than one year another irregularity is that Mr
Cole's contract if he resigns he's do no compensation or severance pay it appears that he's to receive both this seems very unusual seems how the last Village manager Ted Yates neither resigned nor was forced to leave early yet brought
lawsuits against the village Mr yates's contract was simply not renewed by Council due to questionable decisions and inappropriate interactions with certain council members and staff now renewal of a con non-renewal
of a contract does not include any compensation and no basis for a lawsuit I don't understand what this is all about this community will certainly miss the efforts of Mr Cole on Pro projects ignored for years like the sewer problems dealing with kargo Wastewater
the fills Founders Park master plan just to name a few something is not right here and I hope that a full investigation will uncover what's really going on it also seems that we can keep uh an
interm Village attorney much longer than we can keep our managers this doesn't say much for our practices so much for you transparency and confidence thank you
War next up is phis Mitchell that's it that's it uh Phyllis Mitchell um Isa marada citizen for 25 26 years something like that um I am very
very dismayed um about uh Mr Cole uh resigning um I don't know why you didn't talk to him about it I don't know why you didn't investigate uh any problem that uh he
may or may not have been involved in it it seems to me that there was just pressure for him to resign I I personally have never heard any negative thing about Mr Cole I
appreciate his weekly um newsletters uh to the community I'd like to be involved in what's going on and uh I appreciated that very much sir I I I
am I hope you can do something about about this I hope you can um uh come to a a a better conclusion than Mr uh Cole resigning and
leaving um from all comments I'm I think he's been he's done a a fabulous job um I I hope that the rumor going around town is not true that um the
previous uh uh ma Village manager is waiting to come back I want I would like to remind you that he was not objective um uh with uh with all the
council members and we did lose one of the best uh uh land planners that we've ever had I think um due to his uh service with us
um please let's let's do something really civil about this thank you thank you fellas Marty next is Elina Davis Elena Davis Al marada in my opinion Mr Cole has done a
very good job as Village manager and he is always accessible by phone or email to the public I find it interesting that the public is asked to come and meet the candidates for Village manager give our opinion on Who We Believe would be best
suited for the position yet for some reason the village attorney called each Village council member privately regarding the village manager I believe that the process and the reason behind this action should be
public as we have been striving to make the village as transparent as possible Mr Cole has been doing an excellent job in this area with his weekly report transparency brings trust and I believe
this is of utmost importance to our citizens without trust in our government we have nothing Mr Cole I heard a catch in your throat when reading your resignation I would like Mr Cole to give us his
honest answer do you really want to resign or is this the suggested path of least resistance thank you thank you Marney there's no one
else go ahead I'd like to ask you a question if you could uh you know what what happened a while back I think was it before the election when you had an open door I don't want
to go there buddy I I had respect for Mr Cole I'm not I'm not I'm trying to spare all that so I I understand I understand but I just think that I know but you know okay okay go ahead anybody
else Don Deb I'll just make a simple statement that mine was my decision was not based on um the one complaint that was filed that you
referred to that is not my sole decision uh and I did not speak to any of the other Council people I spoke to each of our two lawyers multiple times um I did not break sunshin do you want to say something
does anybody want to tell the public who made the um the uh option to offer a severance I don't even know how to answer that to tell you the truth Steve I think you're digging places that you
don't I Mr Qui very um clearly said that he didn't come up with it so one of the council members must have suggested that to the attorney my knowledge okay so I'm saying I don't know well I can tell you that I didn't do it so I I didn't do it
okay so where would you like to find the answer I mean we don't know we don't know wow all right do you want to answer to any other questions uh reasons wanting to sever the relationship with r well first of all you're you're I feel like you're putting me on the stand and
I find that very inappropriate I'm just trying to let the public know what happened CU I don't know what happened well I know you don't know what happened because you sat there and read something that has nothing to do with what really happened it has nothing to do with the with him and I'm trying to spare people
from hurt feelings and stuff so I I I have no intention on going into what happened I'm sorry I don't so that's me mayor they they want to sit there they want to see you got people that just came here and are saying stuff but I know under in respect to Mr Cole you're
not going to say anything that you you know what I'm saying I I understand but I think that what the public is doing is it's it's it's you know anyhow what would you like to do
Rob I don't know so so none of this this this was this my I can't speak for everybody else uh my decision was not based on one thing it was my decision of knowing uh what what I've learned since
I've been on Council um over over time you you're saying that my decision was based on talking to people that's I didn't say councel that's not
true I didn't talk to anybody except lawyers I I I never implied that you did I'm just trying to figure out no it was implied that we broke Sunshine it was implied that we broke Sunshine we did not break Sunshine no I said that we
talked individually to the attorney about something that was actionable and I didn't understand why we were doing that and why we didn't have a meeting okay and who came up with the idea for severance out of the blue I had what
what do you mean this letter what maybe Allison or John who were you know can answer that I did not I did not I don't I don't know what answer you're looking for I don't I I didn't come up with the figure I'm not sure I
mean is the why the public meeting is happening now I mean there was a request for a special session as I or special meeting as I understand it that that didn't get called we're meeting now uh the request for an executive session
we're not in litigation there there are specific statutory restrictions there are very strict as to when we can meet meeting in the executive session we've talked about this before it's actual active litigation um and collective bargaining um and and this doesn't fit
any of the statutory U exemptions to the public records law which which I had explained to to council member Freedman when we when he asked that before um sorry okay so don do you have anything
to say question I'll make a motion to oops I'll make a motion to accept Mr Cole's resignation is is it a motion to accept or is it a motion to approve the resolution approve the the resolution
sorry at Tab 7 yes what do you want I made a motion we need a second I'll second I'll second ad motion Mar I'm sorry Marney will you call the RO
please council member Deb Gillis yes vice mayor Don Horton yes council member Steve fredman no council member buddy Pender yes and mayor Sharon
Mahoney yes the motion passes 4 to one okay all right so do we want to take a break you'll have a drink or do we want to continue on you want to you going okay good so John we're going tab eight all right Tab 8 is a resolution of the
Village Council alar Village of violence Florida approving the purchase of two uh new tanic server blocks and two Cisco Network switches from Shi International Corp to upgrade The Village's server disaster recovery and uh business Community sorry business continuity infrastructure authorizing The Village
manager to execute necessary documents authorizing Village manager to expend budgeted funds and providing for an effective date good evening mayor council um this is a uh part of a strategic plan that was created many years ago to keep the village running in the event of a
hurricane during Arma we were down for a while um so this is just replacing existing equipment that we have 3 years left of Hardware maintenance on and moving that to a collocation replacing it with new equipment here at our data center so that we can continue
replicating to another part of the country in the event we have a hurricane here or another disaster um we've uh done a lot of research and we looked at a cloud only option and it was very expensive two or three times more than this so we
determined the best option was to do this it'll give us 3 years to plan for our next phase um and that's pretty much where we are if you have any questions I'm here to answer does anybody have any questions for Vince I'm sorry that's all right I
don't have any questions Deb Steve do you have anything you want to ask okay uh so uh public comment does anybody want to say anything I no no public comment no public comment someone who says they want to talk on Tab 8 but I think it
might be Tab 10 um who is it are they in the room uh Dr Dy Granger concerning firefighter compensation so I think that's tab yeah that's not this that's not this tab so I guess there's no public comment so I make a motion to approve as presented
how did you get to close public comment Oh I thought you did I'm sorry no I'm kidding go ahead is do I have a second yeah I'll second okay Marne will you please call the role council member Deb Gillis yes council member excuse me vice mayor um
Don Haron yes council member Steve fredman yes council member buddy Pender yes and mayor Sharon Mahoney yes that Mo Council 5 to Zer on to tab nine John tab nine is a resolution of the Village Council of Al Village of violence Florida amending the village is adopted
budget for the fiscal year 2023 to 2024 in providing for an effective date and uh good evening Council um this is the final budget amendment it's kind of lengthy but um it's pretty simple um it was It's the
final budget amendment for 2324 for last fiscal year we're in the middle of working with our Auditors to get our audit done and uh this is a requirement to get them this information um basically um I can just go through a few of the bullets here um
what you found in your packet you should have the um exhibit a which shows each of the different um items in there and I'll just highlight some of those that are in there um over in the general fund uh the budget overages in there can be
covered by transfers from other accounts in the same department and so the highlights for that uh was our franchise fees we got additional franchise fees for solid waste of 193,000 and the final payment on the safer Grant which is for the
firefighters the six firefighters we hired of 299,000 additional 195,000 in interest in our operating account and the Florida Class Investments um we also moved around some of the items are budget line items that
we just move around within um a department or funds budget and it doesn't really affect the bottom line but it's just some sometimes there's overages and sometimes you're under um the next one is the impact fee fund uh the only thing we did there was to
reflect Revenue received that we was not budgeted um and from additional impact fees for fire rescue transportation and interest totaling 111,000 the transportation fund was just reflecting a 46,000 in revenue from state revenue
sharing uh same thing with affordable housing just reflecting some more um Revenue received and additional impact fees there the building fund was uh it's needed to reflect Revenue received was not budgeted for 26 8,000 for additional
building permit fees interest revenue and the watershed management Grant of 180,000 we did receive that um the capital projects fund basically there um it's not anything that you wouldn't have known about we did have to transfer over for the purchase of the island Community
Church 1.5 million from the general fund um and then we also uh received in interest of $50,000 more doar and a canal restoration Grant of 75,000 uh the only other um strange thing that you might see there on the marina
Enterprise fund it's going to show in the negative if you'll see see the bottom line down there and the only reason for that is that we had that Breakwater uh project going on uh it's just been completed at the very end of the fiscal year and Pete has done the
walk through with um the guys that that needed to have that information and uh all that paperwork has been turned in we're just waiting it's $1.8 million so waiting to get that those funds back in we have already expended the money so that is the only reason that the marina
fund shows in the negative once we get that in we'll be back on the positive side um then the Wastewater fund Let's see we had transfers uh basically yeah and they were good that there wasn't anything else there the
storm water fund was additional revenues in the amount of 9,400 for interest um so we were fine uh everything looked good there um next year what we might want to consider too that the kind of a
surprise to me was on our our increase cost for our health insurance um because we have to some of the line items went over there because we are self-insured partially self-insured where that those funds are uh are charged to each
department or fund and so that's you know their particular claims for their Department department so you know I don't know what you do with the rising cost of healthcare it's not anything and you can't predict what's going to happen so that's you know that's an unfortunate thing but other than that everything
else I think looked pretty good uh if you have any questions um anybody have anything question I'm not going to hold you to it but when do you expect to get the funds for the um the 1.8 for the uh we're working with well we've turned in everything that we've had to turn in what happened is we're going back and
forth they're just asking for additional you know get this get that um that kind of thing so um he just did the walk through um I want to say a week to a week and a half ago got all that turned in that was the final thing that was needed so just it's going back and forth
with the um you know via email with them and so and once they get everything that they need it's pretty quick after that yeah I think so yeah in these State and um federal grants we usually uh Mary never had any trouble getting any of the
funds back she just the the most difficult one is when you have hurricanes so you know like I told yall earlier we just got the final payment for Irma and that was what seven years ago yeah the final Irma payment this year so you know so this one should come
through pretty quick I think anybody else have anything for Miss Lisa thank you Lisa you're welcome great job okay thank all right John that would bring us to Tab 10 okay we had a public comment and then we got it oh can you see where
my brain is I apologize I apolog I'm leaving bye all right public comment yes Sue Miller would like to speak okay I know I know I'm ready going to Su Miller lower mum I just had a couple
questions about the um report um it it seemed odd to me that in the staff report it says that this is the final report to bring the budget in line with what the actual expenses and revenues
are and yet you see in the report that the actual expenses and the final budget request for expenditures is off by $900,000 so I I didn't understand that I thought
there's something about this I don't understand that there would be such a discrepancy between those two columns in your report the column saying this is what the budget request is and this is what the actual numbers are was off by
and on the expenditure side it was off by almost $900,000 and um and I didn't quite understand that I didn't understand how um how the fund balance was calculated we all talk
about the importance of the fund balance at the end of the year and how much money we have for in case of hurricanes and and and yet um we have a discrepancy in the the numbers that we budgeted
versus what we actually spent and yet the fund balance is exactly the same as what we anticipated and I I couldn't figure out how that was calculated and um and I I just have one um
final comment it really really bothers me that we never see a financial report except at budget time when we see budget amendments and then we wait until the next budget and we never see it used to
be years ago five six seven years ago we got a monthly financial report that showed what our Revenue was for the month what our expenditures were for the month so that you could see how taxpayers could see and the council could see how our money is being spent
and whether it's in line with what what you approved as a budget we never see a financial report ever except at budget time and I really would like to go back to the point I always ask for one so the
staff has to create a financial report for me because every month I ask for a detail um of Revenue and expenditures so I can see as a tax payer how how how the money is being spent and I think it's
something that everybody should see I think the council should be aware of it and I think that the public the taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent without waiting until budget session thank you thank you sue go ahead go ahead Su Sue I got a
question for you and I I I know public comment we but do you just ask for a p&l type of report or do you ask for a report very similar to this no I asked for I asked for a detailed report of all revenue and expenditures
for the month and they they and the fund balances it as they go yeah right well it shows it shows what the balance of the account is okay thank you all right uh any more public comment Marty no
ma'am okay uh Council discussion anybody have a question or to have Lisa answer anything no we're good yep okay do I have a motion I make a motion to approve do I have a second I'll second morning council member buddy Pender yes
council member Deb Gillis yes council member Steve fredman yes vice mayor Don Horton yes and mayor Sharon Mahoney yes the motion passes 5 to Z thank you very much on to Tab 10 Tab 10 and and just a reminder I'm going to add something at
the end of this before we go I just want to make out the door yes nobody's running I want to make sure we we discuss the uh the acting Village manager uh uh position U you know at least have some discussion about it tonight I was thank you I was hoping to
do that too um Tab 10 is a resolution of the Village Council viar Village of violence Florida approving the ranking of the RFP 24-18 evaluation committee for Professional Services for a compensation classification and job study authorizing Village manager and Village attorney to negotiate an
agreement authorizing execution of the agreement and providing for an effective date good evening Council um in October we went out for RFP for a compensation and classification job study we had nine
proposals in response to that RFP and the evaluation committee um is uh ranked the highest proposal from paypoint HR you have the information in your packet um we did get approval in the
budget session for $155,000 for the compensation study um none of the proposals came in around that $155,000 range so um cost was kind of not the most important factor in our
decision from the evaluation committee because each of them were higher than what we had budgeted for so if approved um payo HR proposal came in we would need a budget amendment of
17,500 for their cost um proposed for the project and uh we're recommending um approval for us to go forward with an agreement um into an agreement with them paypoint HR can I ask go ahead sorry so how did
we come up with the original budget estimate that it was that the study was going to be 15,000 were it was just a ballpark figure based on experience in the past um you never gone up that much
short ballpark it was a short ballpark yes there was conversation between myself and um Mr Cole about how much we I thought um one of these surve um studies would cost um we did expand the scope a little bit um in discussion um
Mr Cole and I expanded the scope a little bit from what just a general compensation and salary study would typically be so we wanted to include the living wage and we also wanted to include um the benefits portion of it so
it's not just plain salary survey and so a lot of the proposals came back with one of the things that we are in dire need of is a revamp of our job descriptions and that accurately reflect what village employees are doing in their current roles and so they need to
they need to basically come in and study each position and how long has it been since we've had a job study like this a classification um I think the most comprehensive one was done like 2009 really it's um and then beyond that
there's been minor ones that have taken place in between in years um we participate in salary surveys collectively with other municipalities um
every year okay but they don't go into this detail and again a compensation and classification study we have um we have compression issues we also have issues between management positions and Technical positions in which some of
those positions are out of balance so a comp study that would delve into what the responsibilities are we also have issues with flsa which are non-exempt and exempt positions and how classified there have been some changes to the laws
so we do need a a revamp of those and and to have them looked at at a more micro level than a macro level so we're approving this and we're also approving a a budget amendment I'll bring back a budget amendment I I believe when we enter into the contract Lisa went
whenever Lisa needs it I'll I'll bring back that when we um get the final but this is a proposal for us to enter into that agreement awesome okay thank you anyone else Steve yeah it in something like this will the uh consultant um give
us a timeline for how how long the uh amounts are good for because if they if they give us these numbers this year and then three years from now you know compensation changes are they giving us a specific kind of time frame that they'll be willing to consult yes yes
I'm sorry um so part of the project will be to give us a compensation plan which we currently do not have we do not have a comp Compensation Plan that um takes into account cost of living the increases in the area and things like
that so they'll give us a model that we can just plug numbers into every year and keep that plan moving um we currently just have a plan that was from 2018 that we haven't really adjusted for
cost of living inflation things like that so we're our grades our pay grades are out of sync so they're going to give us a model they're out of sync with what inflation cost of living um we have a lot of
people that have worked here for a very long time that don't fit in their pay grade anymore because you get a cost of living increase but the the salary grade doesn't move with the time it's hard to expl does the title have something to do with that as well um that's another
problem but that's part of the job descript yes okay sometimes we titled people to fit them in a Grade that would be commerate with the salary so we just need a whole revamp of this the grade structure the job
classifications and it's it it's very much needed I just seems like a lot to me it is a lot it is a lot John go ahead yeah I just wanted to just to follow up on the question about the budget amendment I did want to point out there in section five of this resolution it does approve a budget amendment of The
17,500 um so whether Lisa needs needs a separate approval of the um spreadsheet or not but this document actually does approve the uh the budget amendment to increase it okay any other questions thanks John anybody have any question I
don't remember putting that in there okay public comment they did that right okay we have uh Sue Miller and Dr Dy Granger Miss Miller would be first Su Miller lower mumi when I read this it
reminded May of what happened when we selected the company to do our comp plan where um we had one company recommended and a second and third company they all were very close as far as the selection
committee um tally was concerned in this case we we have a possible 500 points and the the number one ranked company which uh they've recommended you select
and you've only only in the agenda do you have that one one company um you don't have any others but the number two company was three points out of 500 behind so they were very close there were
actually the number one company that you're being asked to approve had two out of the five members of the selection committee picked them as number one the number two one had two out of five select them as number one so it was
really close and I and I really wonder whether you should um consider two instead of one I think it's a great thing I read the entire um proposal from the company that's recommended and I
thought it was really interesting the one thing that made me a little nervous was that the company um that was selected is from Maryland the company that was number two three points
behind was from Florida and I wonder if that uh you know while they're not a local company so they don't get local benefits points for being a local company they are a Florida company understand Florida employment situations
perhaps better than than they would being from further north um one of the things in the report they suggested that they were doing this for 115 employees I don't know where they got that number we have
139 employees right and so I don't know who they were you know what 24 employees that they eliminated and and whether that affects anything um I just think that that when you have U
two two responses that are so close um that that you should have at least been able to see this second proposal thank you very much great job thank you
s Marne anybody else yes Dr Dy Granger mhm I'm so glad to see all of you anyway I'm a long-term resident of Isa Morada and have lived here for over 30 years and I have a letter that I
would like to read for to you of something that is of concern to me um Dear honorable council members my name is Dr Dy Granger PhD APRN that's nurse practitioner and I'm writing as a
long-term resident of alam marada since 1993 I've been a registered nurse for 67 years of direct patient care in multiple areas of hospital and Community nursing Administration and education including
serving as the founding dean of the School of Nursing at Florida International University in Miami as a psychiatric Advanced register nurse practitioner psychotherapist in for nearly 50 years I can accurately attest
firsthand to the exemplary service provided by station 19's Personnel I know good health care when I see it and this is all about um Emergency Services Personnel
compensation review station 19 paramedics and other professionals have directly saved three lives in emergency situations in our home alone a friend of mine suffered a
stroke while dining at my home and became unconscious I didn't think he was going to make it out the front door um you also saved my husband's life and also saved my life following a stroke in each instance however the response time
was under 5 minutes with precise assessment and decisive actions that resulted in minimal long-term fiscal effects for each of the three of us not everything as you can plainly see um
there rapid response and professional expertise including coordinating helicopter transport to Miami when necessary were crucial to these positive outcomes Beyond emergency response
station 19 also personnel has provided dignified assistance when my legally blind husband and I have experienced Falls in our home arriving promptly and helping us with Grace and compassion I'm
deeply concerned to learn however that these certified licensed professionals earn only $18 an hour to start I can't imagine a long-term seasoned professional making
maybe more than twice than that which is certainly not a living wage this compensation is severely inadequate particularly given the high cost of living in the Florida Keys required certifications and Licensing
mandatory continuing education expenses insurance requirements the critical nature of their life-saving work and the 247 emergency Readiness my husband and I put our money where our mouths are we value their
exemplary service so highly that we have included station 19 in our estate planning however we respectfully request that you act now to adjust salary and benefits to better reflect the crucial
goal of staying alive in order to retain these exceptional professionals before we possibly lose them to better paying jurisdictions I urgently request that the village of a marada Implement an
immediate and substantial increase to both their pay scale and benefit packages for our Emergency Services Personnel this investment in our First Responders is absolutely fundamental to
maintaining our lives and the Safety and Security of of our Paradise in the keys respectfully submitted daily grander thank you for thank you so very much and I have to agree I've gotten to known
Terry very much lately in fact I'm doing a fundraiser in February for our fire department to get a a fire rescue boat and I would love it if you would attend it's going to be in February I'll have the date very soon but I agree with you
100% and I thank you for your comments counil does any I'd like to say thank you very much because we do have an exceptional group of young paramedics here that are dedicated just what you said about the helicopter I mean my
mother went out of here my my they were their response time you know my father I mean I can't say enough about Alam marada how they you know they're there yeah so I you know I know good healthc care when I see it and I applaud it as
much as I possibly can because because I'm I'm afraid that many people who provide Health Care don't get noticed for it but it is it is something that that for instance I'm standing here after having a serious stroke uh a
couple of years ago um partly because of the people at station 19 100% And every single time that they have come for whatever reason to our home they have simply been exemplary that's the word that I would use it's wonderful I think
and they need to be con yes they do yes they do I I I agree thank you so much daily it's yeah awesome and and you're 100% right Terry and his entire crew I I I just like you I owe a debt long-term
debt of gratitude to to Terry when he was much younger and Walter and uh and and Jason when they help my late wife go through some pretty tough signs so these are awesome and we do owe them a more than just the DAT of gratitude so thank
you D you know I know that because I live at my marker 75 um I um I know the people well I know some of the people now there there's always different people coming around and we're going to make some all of them are all of them
are so well Tred and so compassionate ma'am and that goes back to part of the leadership too we owe that to Terry so thank you well I don't I don't know Terry butry come I want to say one thing before you
if you come again you don't have to wait all night say something to the mayor and we'll let you speak I'm sure yeah we'll let you speak so you don't have to stand cuz you've been waiting a long time this is our fire chief Terry able Terry yes
ma'am so the part you guys don't know is 25 years ago I had a really bad call and her mental health is what got my head straight really so I can keep doing this job full circle oh that's cool that's
cool thank you very much you see I have a belief that the universe conspires in our favor yes it does so thank you as we keep that energy we encourage the synchronicity back to us there's nothing better way to end so anyway I have a
copy of my letter that I'd like to give to I would like to have that pleas please yes if you want it if you give it Mar the clerk she can get uh make sure to get distribute them thank you very very much again it was a pleasure it really was it was great being here I
might just come back just for the entertainment and listen if your husband's figured out how to play that banjo yet I want to hear him come play no he has not figured out how to play that but um uh we're we're we're still Rocking Around had a girl well good and
again thank you very much it was a pleasure keep that spirit it up too how you're great thank you I also wanted to say that I think we've got one of the best fire and rescue squads in the country they have done some marvelous
things to approve this so I guess okay we got to this okay let's go back to Jamie as I did I thought she was going to offer to do it I didn't understand the change here so I guess we have public comment for her are we for Jamie are we done with that that was I didn't
know that had I was wondering well indirect oh okay all right anyone else yeah anyone else mney no ma'am that's all right so Council anything else do I have a motion I'll make a motion to approve
I'll second it okay bu Marne would you please call the role council member Deb Gillis yes council member buddy Pender yes council member Steve fredman yes uh vice mayor Don Horton yes and
mayor Sharon Mahoney yes that motion passes 5 to zero thank you very much and I John I believe uh yep um uh the with the passage of Tab 7 um there's a vacancy in the manager position first
I'd like to U thank Rob for the ability to work with him it's it's been a pleasure he's a consumate professional I appreciate the time that we've been able to work together um but we we need to you know make the um uh a
uh we we need to uh obviously ensure that that position is is filled um both in the short term and in the long term um so uh I would stress to you all that um we need to get someone in that
position sooner rather than later um since we're meeting on Thursday I don't think it's a huge deal to wait until Thursday if you all want to do it but I wanted to at least plant that seed in your head because I think that that's it's that we do it at least by Thursday I'd like to wait till Thursday if that's okay as something you know just if
that's okay with everyone or unless you don't I'm good I ready I would like to um and I I have an idea in mind but I would like to invite anybody who who
would like to be um considered to reach out to me that's why I wanted to wait to First yes no I I get it i' would like I I I have a thought but I I really if anybody out there I would like you to
reach out to me please uh really reach out to all our councel out of respect for that I I'll I'll hold off to okay any anybody else have anything to say Can Can we ask that be put at the beginning of the meeting yes we can add that to the agenda and you all control
the agenda so if you want that first um we can we can do that first right we'll put put it right after general public comment yes okay so where do are we the meeting adjourned do I unless you all have anything else that's all from me okay
then I the meeting's adjourned I thank you very much and Rob I thank you very much for your time yeah thank you Rob e e