5:30 good evening everyone um I say we get started with this meeting and I'm going to ask our very competent captain to please lead us in the pledge i pledge algiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you very much
marty would you call the role please council member Steve Freriedman here council member Deb Gillis here council member Anna Richards here vice Mayor Don Horton here and Mayor Sharon Mahoney here we have a quorum thank you
okay moving on to the requests for deletions and emergency additions steve I'll start with you anything mic on yours working i think they might have done that on purpose i'm just kidding hit the reset button anna's mic's not
working all right oh she can have mic oh look what a gentleman what a gentleman you don't even have to unplug it let's see in the bus
take this in case they want to go get Okay Anna do you have anything i have it's green one addition okay go ahead uh committee talk about committees okay let's do it in the uh Sheila put it in
the mayor communication is that okay with you yes okay Anna committees deb no nothing don I'd like to pull tab five and I'd like to pull tab six off of the uh consent agenda please refresh my memory
you want to pull them totally or for discussion i want to um well I want to talk about tab five for discussion and then tab six i'm not sure if if we're going to discuss it or I'm going to defer to either our attorney or Sheila on that so Sheila
where would you like me to put that mayor or with you i think um we should just remove it from the agenda for tonight and bring it back uh next month um so we can have some more discussions with the engineer record on that i'm okay with that so we're going to pull just we'll just delete it from the
agenda and that's tab correct we'll bring it back next and then so you want to discuss tab five yes I do and we'll do that mayor Mayor communication beginning of resolutions beginning of resolutions okay don okay and I don't have anything
besides to say congratulations to my Florida Gators go Gators okay uh reports presentations and announcements uh Jamie I believe you want to come on up good evening we did have four candidates
for village manager and uh one of the candidates dropped out this morning so we won't be hearing from uh Mark Sohaney he dropped out this morning so we'll go in order um alphabetical order sorry Jennifer jennifer Debriian will be first
and then Ted Munchmeer and then Ron Saunders thank you how long do they have five minutes i think we decided on the most jennifer would you like to come on up please spin the wheel of fortune good evening mayor vice mayor and
council members for those who don't know me my name is Jennifer Deborrien currently I serve as your vill's planning director i have been with the village since December of 2022 prior to that I worked in several municipalities in Massachusetts in planning and community
development i have been in local government for 27 years i have a bachelor's degree in political science i also have graduated with distinction in the local government and leadership management certificate program for SUFFK University in Boston in conjunction with the Massachusetts Municipal
Association this was a nine-month intensive program covering all aspects of municipal government including municipal finance human resources strategic leadership and municipal law this graduate level program s provides a
solid grounding in public management and prepares candidates for their next step in their careers i know that you as council members know me and know the work that I produce i also know that many people watching know me as well you know that I
am fair and honest and that I listen to all sides before I make a decision i got into public service because I love to help people i enjoy giving back and I knowing and knowing that I helped a community achieve its full potential as an
employee of the village for the last two years I am familiar with many of the issues that the village faces moving forward any transition would be seamless with no added delays these are some of the reasons that I feel I am the best candidate for village manager recently
we have had leadership that has thrived on chaos my goal would be to contain that chaos i would aim to correct misinformation and not weaponize it we need to correct the narrative before it spirals the village needs a public
information officer and a consistent public outreach plan this would be my first objective as village manager i have developed collaborative relationships with the village staff which will allow me to be the conduit between staff and the village council
ensuring that the village's needs are met without operational interruption i would be supportive of staff and set expectations to be met i would push for accountability but also for understanding the village staff works hard and I would be honored to
lead them i know this there has been a question about what happens to the playing department if I'm selected as village manager i can tell you that my staff will continue to operate in the same fashion the department is moving along
effortlessly right now as an example last month I went on a two-eek vacation where I was virtually unreachable everything progressed as it should i came back to no catastrophes very little emails and the department was still standing i am able
to do both jobs for a period of time and we would advertise for once at once for a new planning director and actively recruit for that position not only in our normal spaces but also in local regional and statewide planning groups as
well i am excited about the future of Isa Marada the village is doing several innovative things including the update of our comprehensive plan Alyssa Panzer's work in sustainability and resiliency and the finance team's effort to make the budget more userfriendly and
transparent as manager I would continue to support these efforts and encourage other efforts that keep the village moving forward and at the forefront i would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening and for your consideration for this important position i also look forward
to meeting with the public and staff tomorrow evening thank you thank you Jennifer thank you Jennifer [Applause] i believe Ted's next good evening Mayor Vice Mayor
members of the council members of the village welcome thank you very much for have giving me this opportunity my name is Ted Munchmeer uh I've been around Marada for 14 years long time why simple
the military sent me here they sent me here to take care of the base at Homestead where I was a base civil engineer for three years capping off a 26-year career and retiring as a colonel in the United States Air Force
i loved that job it was a fantastic job and probably my most favorite job and I had a lot of good ones my background is simple i'm an engineer two degrees in engineering an MBA uh strategic studies from the US Army War College and they gave me this opportunity to take care of
a base that sorely was neglected i loved it my unit deployed to Iraq we also ended up saving 3,500 lives coming back from the Haitian earthquake and became the best unit in the Air Force for the first year in a long
time but frankly why I'm here now is I've moved on i have to retire i grew the hair long don't worry two weeks I have to cut it off i have a lieutenant to commission so I have to take it off sadly wife is not happy but what I learned is after seven years
of teaching GR RTC I wanted to go back into engineering so I took a job over here being chief inspector and using my engineering talents again and I've absolutely loved it but I also know this my base civil engineering experience was my most favorite i loved working a small
town where a fire department explosive ordinance emergency management and public works were all under my domain and that base is a gem of the United States Air Force now I come from West Virginia it's a wonderful place to grow up but I just
went back there as a matter of fact my mother-in-law passed away and I went to my hometown which has lost onethird of its population i could walk down I kid you not during rush hour I jaywalked across the street to go meet my wife there were not there was not a car in
sight we have good problems we do i know traffic it's the number one thing i looked at the cheret i agree with you there must be a solution but it's a good problem to have people want to come here
people want to live people want to see people want to spend a week or two let's see if all of us can get together and have a great plan with a new comprehensive plan that shows hey this community is thriving and will continue to thrive
i saw the five basic ideas of walkable and bikable lanes community character affordable housing enhanced green space a big one and then upgraded infrastructure these are problems we can easily tackle if we set our minds to it and work
together we can do this as well as with community outreach as Jennifer said a CIO or public affairs officer would be one of the first things I would I would condone that needs to get the message out and the correct message out but I want to say it is a team
effort that everybody must work together and we have a lot of people with a lot of different requirements a lot of different responsibilities and a lot of different interests and I hope with my leadership I can take this organization to that level
in closing I'd just like to say I really do appreciate the opportunity and I do know that well we have five council members they're leading us but I want to lead the team that make sure that people who have a time in Alamo whether it's
short or long enjoy it thank you very much thank you Dave thank you Ted madame Mayor and council members thank you for the opportunity to speak with you and the residents of Alam Marada like to discuss my background and experience and then talk about why I believe I have the five traits that
you've selected on your matrix for the next village manager i was born and raised here in the Keys after graduating from Kiwis High School I attended the University of Florida go Gators and major in economics and finance i received my bachelor's degree with highest honors from the school of business administration and then received my jurist doctor from the UF
law school i returned to the Keys and served as deputy county attorney back when there were only two attorneys in the office i was the attorney for the county zoning board and I assisted staff with the rewriting of the county's comprehensive land use plan a process that the village is going through right
now when Mun Countyy's only Florida House seat came open I ran for and won my first political office i later served as chair of the House Appropriations Committee in charge of the state's multi-billion dollar budget i supervised the largest committee staff in the legislature and won praise working well
members of both political parties i then served as chair of the House Community Affairs Committee that was responsible for consideration of all bills affecting local governments i sponsored and passed many bills including the Save Our Homes property tax assessment cap uh which has helped many people be able to stay here
in the Keys and I was twice selected by an independent panel as the most effective member of the 120 members of the Florida House after leaving legislature I became a partner statewide law firm that worked with local governments in issuing municipal bonds my former house seat became open again i
filed a run for was reelected my legislative office was right here in Plantation Key underneath the old Tavern restaurant as a ranking member of the appropriations committee I worked to get millions of dollars in state funds for a sewer system here in the Keys especially here in Alam Marada after leaving the
legislature I served as general counsel from county clerk's office i supervised over 50 deputy clerks and court related personnel in Key West Marathon and PlayStation key and I also represent the clerk's office in all litigation i was in a news anchor for six years local
radio station host a news show where I interviewed many local elected officials let me close by addressing why I believe I meet the five traits listed in your matrix leadership i have chaired major committees in the legislature have held many leadership roles in the Keys including serving as chair of the
Florida Keys Community College Board of Trustees and the current president education foundation which oversees take stock and children mentoring and scholarship program fiscal management i chair the House Appropriations Committee in charge of the state's multi-billion dollar budget and my experience with that will help me make sure that village
funds are spent effectively without waste and I'll use my knowledge state budget process to make sure that Alamrada gets its fair share of state funds policy execution i filed the first Everglades Protection Act to resolve water issues in Florida Bay i'll use the
same problem solving skills as your village manager communication as a former state legislator and local news anchor I know how to effectively communicate with both elected officials and the public i have good relationships with almost every elected official and
administrator in the Keys including Sheriff Ramsey county commissioners other city managers and heads of local agencies such as the Florida Keys Aquity and the Kiloga Wastewater District it will take another village manager months or even years to form this kind of relationships and finally citizen
relations i represent the residents of Alamada for 14 years in the state legislature and once again my office is right here in in Plantation Key in Alamada over the years I've attended numerous chamber uh Rotary and other community organization events and during that time I've had the opportunity to
interact with village staff and I believe they are very good if selected as manager I will work to make sure the staff members have the opportunity to do their jobs to the best of their abilities and I will coordinate with staff and the council to ensure the village of Almarada maintains its unique
style and its quality of life i look forward to meeting with the community tomorrow and I thank you for this opportunity thank you Ron jamie do you want to remind everybody or I can do it tomorrow night around the pool from 6:00 to 7 o'clock okay all
right thank you i believe Peter wants to come up and and introduce our next presentation if you would please okay thank you and good evening council yes i just like to give a brief introduction to Cynthia Gara cynthia is
the executive director of the Monroe County Land Authority and we invited Cynthia to come here this evening to give us uh an introduction or a brief overview of Monroe County's less than fee program that the land authority does operate for the county uh the villages
land acquisition advisory committee has been discussing this type of program for about the past year uh as a means or a method to retire development rights uh from vacant parcels it's just another method to do that uh so thank you Cynthia for coming we're lucky to have
her um it's a great opportunity to learn more about the program and have any uh questions uh answered that you might have so with that thank you Cynthia for coming thank you Peter thank you Mayor and Council for having me here tonight u my name is Cynthia Gar i am the executive
director of the land authority i've been with the land authority for about six months um prior to that I was with the Monroe County Planning and Environmental Resources Department working on land acquisition issues on the county side um I think that the last time the land authority visited you was in 2022 when
Christine Hurley was the executive director and she did a presentation about Monroe County land authority programs that had just at that time been consolidated under the land authority uh for more efficient operation and that included the conservation land program
the density reduction program we have a density deduction resell program and we have a lesson fee program all of those programs are basically in response to the growth management regulations like the area of critical state concern uh designation and our
ordinance really focuses on our core mission of acquiring conservation lands but we do lots of other kinds of land acquisition including lands for affordable housing and recreation um with a focus on helping the county implement their land use comprehensive plans and protecting private property
rights by serving as an alternative to a building permit so Pete asked me to come here tonight to talk to you specifically about the county's land uh lesson fee program and that's what I'm going to focus on but first I just want to kind of underscore something that that Pete said um lesson
fee is only one tool in the toolbox that the county has deployed to um deal with the possibility that the inventory of vacant parcels exceeds the number of permit allocations that the county will be able to award and besides less than
fee and density reduction the county's implementing comp plan policies and other things to sort of address the potential takings liability um so lesson fee in June of 2018 the board of county commissioners adopted
its first resolution to establish the lesson fee program i want to be really clear that the lesson fee program is a county program it's not a land authority program it was actually created in the county attorney's office and it was the county attorney staff that would that
administered it when it was new with support from other departments like me and the planning department and the land authority as needed um there have been subsequent resolutions since 2022 to sort of clarify the program we've learned some good lessons along the way we've revised some of our language and
uh it it's working pretty good now um the county also allocated funds from the infrastructure sales tax fund for less than fee and density reduction p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p purchases this is county funding not land authority funding and I think I
mentioned in 2022 the land authority took over administration of the program through an interlocal agreement that we have with Monroe County um I was looking at the presentation that Christine gave you all in 22 and she noted that Isa
Marada does receive a share of the infrastructure sales tax and that she recommended that that could be a potential source for non-conservation land acquisition if the council deemed that was appropriate um regardless of how it's funded we do have an interlocal
between the land authority and the and the village and we could uh potentially amend that interlocal to help you all implement the program if you desire so I'm going to talk a little bit about what what the lesson fee program is and how it works it's for property
owners that own two adjacent pieces of property two or more one with a house and the and the remaining lots being vacant it's a willing seller program and it allows the owner to exchange the development right on the vacant property for single family residence or habitable
space they sell that to us in exchange for being able to retain the ownership and using that property for allowable accessory uses that that aren't involved with a dwelling unit or habitable space um the county commission established the
eligibility criteria uh the the property that is subject to the program has to be in a residential zoning district and we've got several but it's limited to improved subdivision in the and the zoning district that is overlaid uh where there's mobile home communities
there has to be a variable verifiable building right or transferable development right uh the house and the adjacent lot have to be in common ownership it has to be eligible for a potential building permit it has to be free of code compliance leans or code
action and uh the willing seller has to commit to the terms and conditions of the program and the last thing is that the lots may be adjacent and our code says that adjacent is when two parcels touch each other in any way at the boundary we have contemplated uh doing a
lesson fee deal for two parcels that were only connected at a corner we didn't ultimately do it for other reasons but our our code allows for that you all would have to decide how you want to define the program parameters um our program also has
priorities that were established by the board of county commissioners because we got flooded with applications we had to um prioritize those applications and the commission was the appropriate body to make those decisions generally Big Pine and No Name Key for the last several
years have been prioritized especially when the adjacent lot is is truly vacant or has no use and that's just a function of the fact that the um growth management system on Big Pine is so restrictive it's the area where there's the least number of permits that are
available so the process is really simple we have a I I think I hope it's a user-friendly website i want to say it is because we get a lot of applications so an an interested owner would would go to the lesson fee website and they can submit an application online there's no
cost to submitting the application the application is pretty simple it doesn't ask for anything complicated you know information about the owner and how to reach the owner and then information about the properties um and then once we receive the
application we do a very rigorous and detailed analysis of each property to to verify that development right because obviously we don't want to spend money on property that maybe doesn't have a dwell a dwelling in it development right um it's almost like a a mini rogo
exemption review we let the ineligible applicants know why they're ineligible but if we receive an application that is eligible then we provide the owner with a purchase agreement to purchase the lessen fee
interest in the vacant property and when we get that purchase agreement back we do a title search to see if there are any incumbrances on the property and the property owner has to get a joiner or a release from anybody that might have an
interest in that property when the joiner and the title and all the due diligence is done it goes to the board for approval and um then at closing the owner executes a unity of title which is the deed restriction that severs any
development right of a single family residence or a habitable space from the property um the purchase agreement requires the property o owner to also provide us a copy of the application they submit to the Monroe County property appraiser to
unify the properties we want the properties combined under one real estate parcel number once they're uh part of the program um the purchase agreement also very explicitly says the seller covenants to surrender release relinquish transfer
any and all property rights in accordance with the unity of title the unity of title restrictions spelled out very clearly it limits density of the unified parcel to one dwelling unit it retires all other density and prohibits transfer of density from the unified
parcel it prohibits accessory structures with habitable space but it does specifically allow accessory structures with h without habitable space provided it meets other code requirements and it also allows the addition to the lawfully established dwelling unit so it doesn't
confine the property owner for making modifications to the residence after they do lessen fee uh for us we have a a code-based definition of habitable space and it means anything equipped for human habitation and it lists just about every
conceivable room that you can think that a house might have an office a den a kitchen a bathroom all that stuff so those things are not allowed um but garages um external stairs uh sheds open decks pools docks those are typically
allowable under the code on these parcels our offer price is based on the Monroe County property appraisers market land value if you go to the Monroe County uh website a property appraiser website and you pull up a property
record card for any property you'll see a breakdown of the different components that make up the value of the property and one of those line items is market land value so our offer for less than fee is the current market land value as
calculated by the Monroe County Property Appraiser up to $99,999 we do not go above that um and I should also mention that the unity of title and the purchase agreement are non-negotiable these are templates that we use and the sellers either have to
accept them or not not if that's their choice the program is 100% voluntary it's subject to available funding and an application doesn't obligate the owner or the county from doing a lesson fee deal uh there's minimal closing costs
the county pays for title search and recording fees the seller pays for any representation they might have like a lawyer or realtor if they have that so I mentioned our web page we do maintain it the land authority maintains the website it it contains links to the
application the resolution the unity of title the joiner any of those documents that you might want to look at um we started as I mentioned in 2018 we had a pretty good 2019 we did 40 lesson fee deals that year and we started 2020
off really strong we were well funded we were moving forward and then COVID shut us down and kept us shut down um pretty much through 23 we bought 33 lots in 2020 two in 21 three in 22 five in 23 we
were just getting it going going again in 24 we were we did 21 deals and then our funding was restricted again so we've done none in the current year and I can't predict whether or not we will have funding in fiscal year 26 to
continue less in fee like you all the count the county commission is is balancing a lot of priorities and a lot of things that require funding so it's really up to them to decide if they want to fund this or not in total we did buy uh to date 104 lots at about 5.4 million
so that's about 52,000 a lot just to give you an idea of what it is countywide I I couldn't begin to wonder what it was what it might be here in Alamra um so our future in the lesson fee program for Monroe County is not really well defined but we are um
positioned to pick it up the moment that the board of county commissioners decides they wants they want to do it and if we were to replicate the program for you all I don't think it would be that difficult once we uh you know once you all decided what your program priorities and policies were going to be
and I'll entertain any questions council anybody have anything no thank you i just have a comment your presentation's absolutely spot on oh it's very clear and and explains the program very very nicely oh thank you i've been involved
since 2018 so if I can't cover this I'm in trouble thank you very much which I hope you guys have i would I would ask that if we don't already that we have at least a copy of that for our staff to on hand we We have it we do we already do i figured
we did thank you thank you thank you very much thank you Peter i believe it's you again [Laughter] okay thank you so as you are probably aware the village has been in the process of completing a canal
restoration project at canal 147 that's the canal in between Atlantic and Lera lanes on lower Madakumbi we have completed the organic removal and the back filling component of the project and are now moving into the construction phase of establishing an air curtain or
weed barrier across the mouth of the canal uh I have brought this topic up before you in the past but we are getting into a very important stage with this process which is the adoption of an initial rate resolution so we need to establish the rates for this if we're
going to move forward with it uh there's a certain timeline we need to follow in order to get this on the 2026 tax roll so if you all approve of it still uh I will be bringing a resolution before you in May at your May council meeting for the adoption of an an initial rate
resolution so this is just essentially a a reintroduction of this project i don't want there to be any surprises obviously with the sensitivity of a new tax i want you all to be um aware of everything we have done and what we will be doing with this new assessment so we're doing canal
restoration not only to improve our nearshore waters but also because we are required to right now by the state through the area of critical state concern program so the governor and the cabinet did adopt a new rule that was done in 2022 uh amending our
comprehensive plan to include this 10-year canal restoration work program and that program does provide the framework and the accountability for implementing these canal restoration projects and we do have to report annually we have to report the progress we've made and the canals that we have
restored uh every year okay one of the other tasks that we needed to do with the work program was complete this uh evaluation of all the canals in the village we evaluated all 63 canals ranked them according to their need of restoration and also identified
the uh restoration technology that was most appropriate and the costs for each one of those restoration projects and we did publish that document it is on the village website this is just a list of the first 17 most highly ranked canals that were found to be most in need of
restoration at the top is this canal canal 147 i believe that says they're at a cost of about $2.3 million so why was it at the top well for for um water quality reasons these two photos here taken uh within the
canal you can see these the conditions this is common during the spring and summertime especially when we have the sargasm coming in like shown there on the right that sargasm comes in it starts decomposing and sinking it releases the tannins the hydrogen sulfide gas is emitted and and these
people really live in a a bad situation here for a lot of the year starting right now i got an email from a resident in this canal today the sargasm's coming in you know what what are we doing with the air curtain so this is this is a real situation that we're trying to address so as I mentioned we did
complete the organic removal part of this project that's shown on the slide on the left we got rid of all that that nasty muck material at the bottom of the canal we backfilled that photo on the right there we back filled the canal to about 6 to 7 feet with clean uh coral
gravel material and a foot of sand on it there's already seaggrass growing in that canal we did a survey uh in March they found um shrass already um recruiting into the canal so these back filling projects do work this project is being fully funded through a grant from
the through the stewardship program it funds everything through construction including the air curtain the only thing that this grant doesn't fund is the ongoing maintenance and electrical services of the air curtain so that's why we have proposed this
special assessment this is being done by Monroe County they estam established a a plan for this uh using this type of methodology they're doing it in three different canals uh this is a photo of the canal that's just to the south of the one we're talking about today this
is at the Madakumbi Resort the village does operate this air curtain uh so we have a really good idea of the process and this is what we're looking to install at canal 147 so just some steps um where we have been what we've done and then where
we're going with this project i did make a presentation in May of 2024 establishing this idea it was to the previous council they did give the direction to move forward with this assessment we held a neighborhood meeting we informed every resident and I have the contact information for every
resident and have been in communication with them for the past couple years on this so they're well informed we mailed a letter for them to vote using the model that Monroe County established they only were going to move forward if a majority of the residents were in favor of it we have 18 parcels uh 18
property owners we received 17 responses on our vote se uh 10 of those uh property owners voted yes move forward seven voted no so we're moving forward or we moved forward from that point we did publish and ran the notice of intent that was back in October 2024 to
establish this new ad valorum assessment program then the village council adopted that resolution of intent and that was in November of 2024 so here we are this is the next step this is an important one like I said at the May meeting I'll be bringing this initial rate resolution
before you for adoption we need to notice the public hearing following that and that is noticing the final assessment resolution which will be brought to you in June so that's when the the final you your last chance to vote will be in June if we move forward and then following that it's just you
know dealing with the the tax collector and getting in on the assessment role and that'll be in 2026 so here's what you all need to know now the service area is on the right there those are the parcels the 18 parcels surrounding that
canal that are affected by this these rates this is the five-year average annual rate that's how it gets established but these numbers will be very very close the first year to what you see here so those numbers are for the operation and maintenance that's for
the routine maintenance there's a quarterly maintenance it's about $1,300 somewhere right around that for the maintenance it's for the electrical service charges right this is powered by electricity and then also that includes a replacement a sevenyear every seven-year replacement of the entire
unit uh so that comes out to about $17,267 a year the consultant fee Accenture is the firm that we use that manages our assessments including the storm water and the wastewater they have a fee for that uh the other three fees are are tax collector fees the statutory
discount the noticing of the the letters $6 and then a tax collector fee every year so the total that's $20,919 per year to run this air curtain and to maintain it divide that by the 18
parcels we have $1,163 per year per parcel owner that is our pre-established rate so where did that come from that came from our consultants that came from our engineering and architectural firm that has constructed set up all of the air
curtain systems in Monroe County including our other three and the counties uh the other fees come from Accenture the firm that that does our assessments they have a very good understanding of what these uh assessments cost so is that number set i
think those last four numbers are pretty set they're you know those are set we are not going to be able to modify those that operation and maintenance value that's not set in stone right now um it's what is being recommended to us it's very easy to go back and reduce a
task a tax it's almost impossible to go back and to raise it so that's why we have it set at this value now if the council uh wishes to reduce that we can do that we're just responsible you know the the village will be responsible if
we have a deficit from the costs uh and you also have an opportunity tonight to not move forward with this we can you know we can um end this right now and I will would not bring an initial rate resolution so it's up to you um happy to answer any questions you may have
anybody don Peter thank you very much what you're doing in all these canals is is absolutely astounding and I I applaud you for the hard work that you're doing and um and and the money that you're getting you know for us to be able to do
these um the original is is does this 17,000 or the the uh does does that include the original purchase of the bubbler and uh uh and all that or was that part of the grant that was part of
the grant okay is not included and so the grant will the grant cover uh the equipment if uh if the equipment needs to needs to get replaced or repaired or anything or is that on our consultants that's on us yeah they will not cover
replacement that's a one-time cost purchase the equipment install it but after that we don't have grant money to repair that and we have some history in the village of other places that we've got we don't we have three others in the
village that we're currently maintaining that is correct and how long have those been in place since 2017 and and how much have we had to pay the consultants or the management so far on those three since 2017 almost eight
years um good qu I don't have a total number on that i mean I know our fees I know our maintenance fees are roughly what I show right there uh we did have to replace every one of those systems in Irma they all got wrecked and weren't those of covered by FEMA yes they were
they were so we didn't have to pay for the replacement because I think it was reimbursed i remember working this right when I started here with the village right after Irma i remember working with Maria Basset then and I believe it was reimbured through FEMA yes so
What what I just what I just would like to ask and and if council agrees c can we try to fine-tune that number just so that we can explain it to those 18 people on that canal i mean I hopefully they understand that what we're doing is
a really good thing for not just for that canal but but for our nearshore waters but can we just try to fine-tune that $17,267 so that they understand that we've got history at three other canals
uh and that we let the public know from now on when we start continue to do this in these that these other canals are going to bear the responsibility rather than all of the taxpayers of Alamrada bearing one canal after the next so if
we could just further define that 17,000 by the history that we have and and what the consultants are going to charge so that maybe we can come down or maybe we can't but at least everybody will know that we did our homework and
that 20,000 almost $21,000 assessment on those homeowners every year is is a necessity can we do that i mean we can absolutely reduce that i'm not saying reduce it i'm saying let if we're going to if we're going to charge it let's
just justify that absolutely we can so I would say that each system from knowing these systems pretty well and the ones that we operate in the village they're different some of them require far less maintenance than the others and I think that's just by the hydraology of the canals and the residents you know but
it's a small canal it's only 40 or so feet wide small and some of the other canals are much wider that's true so hopefully this is an easier one to maintain the one issue is depth uh the the the neighboring air curtain system
is somewhat shallow it's repeatedly getting hit by boats um so believe it or not the that one even though it's smaller has been more of a maintenance issue than the the one in canal 145 which is a little bigger um but the one at Treasure Harbor here on Plantation
Key which is pretty small has worked almost flawlessly awesome so there's been times when our maintenance fees were really low awesome uh like I I would say that that's the higher end and that's what we were advised to do right um put it towards the higher end i can absolutely go back and select more of a
low range annual operating and maintenance cost does that sound like what you're looking for i'm saying I'm not saying lowball this thing it needs to be a realistic number i just We can get it more realistic okay cool and I'll be happy to do that and we'll justify it
appreciate it and then so but after next May you'll have to vote on it at the meeting in May you will have to vote there's we won't be able to negotiate at that meeting okay understand and so otherwise sounds good i'm fine with it okay our legal has something yeah i just
wanted to chime in to follow up on that you know with working with the consultant um Accenture I think they took over GSG right they um they will come forward with um justifications for for these numbers too so um while we're talking about them generally here when
when this comes back I would expect there to be uh additional detail um justifying the numbers including justifications for how they broke it up by parcel things like that cuz there are a lot of statutory elements to establish special benefit that you need to establish for a special assessment and
the reasonable and fair assessment so I would anticipate there'll be um some of these issues should some if not all should be addressed with them thanks John thank you Pad sure thank you and that is true i actually have the more detailed breakdown i just didn't present it tonight go ahead Deb okay so um so
once we get this established would the consultant fee stay 1,600 or could it come down also i understand that startup there's a lot of extra work as John just explained yes um 1,600 sounds like a
high consultant fee and and in relationship to that if we leave this high you're saying that it some years it could be low some years how is that is it build different every year with a maximum amount being what we have in
front of us right here so we have the ability to change this on an annual basis this has to be adopted and approved every year like our other assessments if we find that this number is too high we can come back the following year and say "Look we over we
overshot this we can reduce this tax." So absolutely we can change this what about the following year when the cost goes up yes we have the ability to change it absolutely it's in our authority you said once you said once you know to to
raise it is more difficult than to reduce it which is always true right that that's just I don't want to back us into theory not not um on paper formally we have the ability to raise it uh it's just I mean for the residents right raising a tax is what I meant that's
much more challenging than reducing it right so we don't want to start low and have to raise it is what I've been advised right right you yeah you want to take the worst case scenario first and and back it off from there is the way I
would practice it right Um so but there wouldn't actually be a a a refund issued if we're off base we would just roll that into a an account and apply it to the next year like we do some of our
other assessments yeah that's correct as far as I know that's absolutely correct okay yep thank you Steve anna no thank you Peter all right thank you okay do you need any kind of approval or
anything no may no yeah we'll we'll a resolution will be brought back in May and that'll be the that will kickstart you don't need a nod tonight okay just not a nod no okay lette do you want me to read this first or do you want to explain yes
ma'am please do okay this is sexual assault awareness month sexual assault aware awareness month is observed nationally each April to promote education and raise awareness of the facts that sexual violence is widespread and affects individuals of
every age race gender and socioeconomic big word uh background and whereas Al Marada Village of Islands recognizes the profound impact that sexual violence has on survivors their family and our community as a whole
includes physical emotional and psychological effects that can last a lifetime and whereas Christina's Courage the only rape crisis center in Monroe County provides survivors with safe confidential environment for service
including forensic examinations victim advocacy law enforcement interviews and counseling and whereas the center operates on donations and the support of volunteers at confidential locations donated by the city of Key
West and has a mental health counselor and sexual assault nurse examiner one of whom single-handedly conducts 95% of all forensic exams in Monroe County every year every member of our community plays
a role in the prevention of sexual violence which is only possible through education intervention and community efforts that empower ini individuals to speak out against harmful behavior and support survivors in their journey towards healing and justice and now
therefore I Sharon Mahoney mayor of Alam Marada village of Islands do hereby proclaim April 25th 20 April 2025 as sexual assault awareness month affirming Monroe County's commitment pres
preventing sexual violence and urging all residents businesses and organizations to join in in this observance by working together towards a safe healthier community for all whereas my hand on the seal of Alam
Marada village of Island for this 8th day of April 2025 thank you very much Miam good evening i'm deeply honored and humbled to stand before you today to accept this proclamation thank you to the village of uh Isa Marada Mayor Mahoney and the
village council for this thoughtful recognition this recognition is not just for Christina's courage but for all of you and your contribution to sexual assault awareness month this proclamation is a powerful symbol of our shared values and the commitment to our community through Christina's courage
who will continue to serve our community with the same passion and purpose we are truly grateful for this moment thank you thank you is everybody coming up [Applause] somebody have a
camera sheila sheila do we have a camera somebody can take a picture all of us water dogs give this still look good [Music]
i was like I feel it pull your chair out from behind you all right ready to move on we are now going to open public comment this is general public comment nothing to do with anything that's on the agenda miss Marne
first up is Van Caden head good evening council i'm Van Caden Head the time has come for the bamboozled citizens of Alam Marada to wake up sit up and pay attention to what has been done and is being done to them they are currently subjected to the
untender mercies of a heavily biased pro-development concrete coalition consisting of greedy short-sighted politicians developers lawyers and real estate agents less concerned with the quality of life of the residents and survival of the environment than the
bottom line defined by Ben Franklin's greenbacks it's disgusting obscene immoral and unsustainable that the carrying capacity study of these fragile islands has been ignored by the powers that be in favor of crass commerciality it is unfortunately that
the state attorney considers this lack of sunshine so perplexing and has better things to do than riding herd at a bunch of brazen bold belligerent blackards who blatantly flaunt their disdain for anything but money perhaps if they had
been under scrutiny from the law for the past several years this situation might not have reached the current critical mass these subpoenas that you were served with must not be allowed by the public to turn into a namby pammy whitewash of corporate criminality the
cruise ship Alam Marada is sinking and resolute government actions must be taken to save it from becoming an exclusive elitist enclave descending from the sport fishing capital of the world to the depths of the horrible whoredom of property
prostitution please uh u be advised that I put that in as a letter to the editor to both newspapers and neither one of them would print it the Keys Weekly in closing the Keys Weekly published an article recently stating uh the appellet
court's decision that the village council did not apply the plain and un ambiguous language of the village code to dep determine whether petitioners were adjacent to the applicant's property and thus affected property owners which constitutes a departure
from the essential requirements of law i would ask the council to please answer the following questions is it true that the village is appealing this decision and did the village council vote to authorize this appeal and if so when and how did the village authorize the the
attorney to appeal this decision what is the anticipated cost of this appeal and finally what is the vital interest of the village not the sandal factory that is at stake so as to justify spending our tax dollars on attorney's fees to
prosecute the appeal rather than allow the private party to appeal if they wish to do so ladies and gentlemen we have a crisis here in Alam Marada um I I really feel that the citizens are being sandbagged and bamboozled at every turn
and I've I've fought for 25 years to to try to do something about it thank you and you're quite welcome madam morning next is Joe Wishmire yes joe Wishmire Plantation Key mayor and Council I would like to take this
opportunity i spoke about it I believe back in February when I was congratulating Councilman Miss Horton on his efforts to try to get what I call Legoland Sun we all know it as Sun
Country to pay their par fair share of taxes seems how we're still supplying all of the services that all of us taxpayers are having to pay for now I understand it might take something in legislature or something but we have
lobbyists it's not just in Isa Marada either they have places up in Keargo and and other places so you can get together with them to find out i haven't heard if there's been any traction going on with that but it's been going on for far too long
next uh I know Thursday we have a few issues coming up uh involving a vacation rental BPASS allocations land use map amendments and zoning map changes again I don't know why we're doing all this
when we're in the middle of a comprehensive plan update and LDR updates where everybody is going to have to play by the same rules so I would hope that we would be able to put that off until at least we get our new comprehensive plan
done lastly when we had this some of these issues come up before I know that council had combined like three issues when it pertained to the islander and creek side three advertised
separate and what you did is when you combined them into all in one you said well we're just going to hear them all at one time that eliminated the public from speaking on each of those individual items so instead of getting
nine minutes to speak on them on each of the individual items which were very very important to a lot of us in the community we were limited to basically one minute a piece so I wish you all would get together and find and decide hey if we're going to combine these
together then we ought to give more time for public comment thank you thank you Joe morning next is Pam Martin hi my name is Pam Martin i live on Plantation Key and I moved to the Keys
in the late 70s so I've seen a lot of changes uh through here and my partner is a conchk okay whose uh dad went through the 35 hurricane so I know a lot of the history here too uh I'm here today to speak on behalf of four Ron
Saunders for our village candidate um manager the village needs Ron Saunders we really do uh there's not a club association a nonprofit an event a chamber meeting or probably a business
in the in the whole keys and even Homestead in Florida City that Ron's not been at your events okay if you got a parade he's been there and he's probably had a float okay he's the most nonpartisan partisan politician in the Keys and as a former head of the
Democratic party I can actually uh attest to that and sometimes that ruffled our fender feathers a lot okay and I will admit to that all right and um he's probably uh I'm gonna say Rick Ramseay's catching up but uh Ron's been
to the most uh places in the Keys than any politician okay he's likable he's a mediator he's an organizer and organized he uh is a compromiser he's a teacher and he's polite he's also very
calm okay his knowledge of politics local state federal how things work whether it's actually the on the surface the public the pieces of words on the papers or the insider and the hard ball
ways to do it he knows how to how it works okay uh I want to tell you one thing i used to work for Senator Plumber so I worked for the Florida Senate and I've been able to watch him inside politics and outside of politics and in
the getting them going trying to recruit uh politicians to run so I kind of know a lot of the different versions of these folks uh when uh um ter term limits came into fact uh there was a lot of Republicans that were elected to the
legislature and because of how soon you have to declare if you're going to be running for a pos uh a leadership position in there you don't get to learn the system of appropriations and how things work yet Ron was on the appropriation uh u committee and he
actually taught the Republicans how to do appropriations for the state of Florida how it worked and one uh year when I was up there Ron actually came in to Studebakers where a place you always used to come after after work where a
lot of work actually gets done and he had the uh state of Florida's budget on the uh pizza box and that was what Ron did he actually did the state of Florida's uh budget right then thank you Pam okay just to say last sentence Ron
uh uh is a great guy great skills but Isa Marada needs the healing of Ron Saunders with the stability connections uh knowledge thank you thank you very much Marne
there are no more speakers okay public comment is now public comment is now closed oh well he didn't she said he wasn't here come on up i don't ever fill those things out
sorry about that um two last really quick items that I'd like to bring to everyone's attention uh first off is this Saturday there is Swim Across America which is going to be happening right here off of the jetty out of the beach at Founders Park it's on the sund deck of the cruise ship Alam Marada so
if you want to come out you can depart your swim from there there's half mile one mile and two-mile swims benefits cancer research and treatment so awesome event please come out it's first thing in the morning check-in and safety brief it's Friday night on the beach um look it up swim across America um the second
event is actually May 3rd you guys won't have another meeting so I'm going to drop it now and that's the fire department's give back barbecue that's May 3rd founders Park Beach it's on the the rear deck of the cruise ship Alamrada down by the beach and uh it is if you're an Alamada resident come on
out um Chef Chief Ael is going to be getting up at 4 in the morning and cooking barbecue baked beans colelaw all the fixings burgers and dogs all that good stuff if you live in the village it's free if you don't please make a donation and uh hopefully I'll see everybody there thank you very much thank you Jerry which swim are you doing
five miles i'm on the boat oh thanks Jerry okay uh let's move to mayor council communication anna I'm going to let you go first regarding committees before we get to the May meeting and we actually have to
pick whoever's applied for these committees I've spoken to the attorney and to the manager about it in section 2333 it calls for each member shall serve a term of 2 years with staggered terms which means every committee should
have some openings and they are in the packets that we were given they're listed all over weird times and everything so I'd like to see if we could get that cleared up before the May meeting and Marty didn't we talk about
this before didn't we i refresh my memory about the stagger terms yes we have uh spoken about this before um I recently um sent out a notice to each member that's currently sitting on a committee
and asked if they were interested in being reappointed uh noting that you know interest is not a guarantee of reappointment so I am compiling that list my deadline was Friday so I've given people a couple of extra days in case anybody wanted to pop in so um this
week you'll be receiving a list of folks who have expressed interest in uh staying on and also a full list of all the people on committees and I can also send you the applications we have received thus far if you want those um
happy to get those out to you as well well now that we you've brought that up does anybody I we do need to get a unified system because we don't it's all over the place so does anybody Yeah there's dates there's September dates May dates everywhere it's it's all over
the map okay so how do we fix that well the when the um new ordinance was adopted in 2023 appointments were made in September of 2023 um for all of the committees um then
moving on to last year in I believe it was May um council made staggered terms for the folks who are on the LPA and haven't u moved on thus far with the rest of the appointments um to stagger
those and council kind of um voted last year to um select which folks would have an extended term to stagger the terms so that's some of the information that I will be sending to council this week
um does anybody Deb I see you hitting your button go ahead i was just going to say I was just going to say does anybody have a suggestion now that we can give to her so this will make this smoother and easier when it does come back up i was just trying to make sure I I'm clear
on this so the only committee we have currently that has spelled out staggered terms is LPA correct yes yes and so the others we we don't have and they weren't
notified that their term may or may not be ending if we vote them back on or off um that would be I notified everyone that council would be ahead of time appointments up until
now they they were just notified then correct right okay all right um no we just I don't really have a good I know there's a couple committees that have lots of people on it and they all want
to stay um which they they could but we need to determine who gets a one-year term and who gets a two-year term well why don't why don't we put it to the committee chair why don't we have Marne get with the committee chair and speak with the committees and try within
themselves to work something out cuz they call me reappointed if their term is up correct but we would we would need to make the appointments anyway so if we didn't appoint them Yeah but if they have the if they have the chance to reapply and at this point we need to
make it to where if we have the same committee with the same people on it year after year after year you're not giving somebody else the opportunity you have a lot of people in this town that want to have the opportunity to serve and with the two years staggered terms
it gives people the chance i agree i thought I thought we were going to do this you I was just trying to get it cleared up before the next meeting so that when we come in the other thing I think needs to be cleared up is will we receive of everybody um will we
receive even of current committee members that want to stay their applications correct uh the applications have changed a little bit since the beginning but that's that's okay um I just think we ought to have the whole
stack not half the stack and saying "Well these people want to stay in." Oh I agree okay i did offer everyone an opportunity to fill out a new application if there were significant changes and um I did not receive any but um I'm happy to provide all of the
applications that we have for folks who are currently serving um as well as a clear list of who was appointed when and who is interested in staying and if you would
like the other folks who have applied since um we've put out the openings I I'm happy to send those too i'll probably send them under separate cover to keep them you know separate is that helpful
don do you have something you got your mic on i didn't see anything oh I didn't you don't have your mic there we go i'm stealing Jennifer's um Sheila and I have have spoken after we both spoke with
Councilwoman Richards um you we do anticipate we will we will coming back you know there will be a uh recommendations in May in terms of ensuring that they're staggered ensuring that everything is uniform uh the one thing I will point out is your LPA code does specify that the LPA members need
to be appointed in May um the other ones it doesn't have a specific month as to when they need to be appointed should we change that uh we can yeah keep it unified yeah we can either put them all in May or we could change the LPA one to to to whatever so put them all in May go
ahead Deb okay uh I think in the original there was a concern of doing so many all at one time but I think once you get the system started you can do it all at the same time well especially because it's two years so it's it's really would only be like half of each committee so it's really Right yeah
right i think it could move along pretty quickly once the system is established well let's move them all to May then if if the majority wants to do that i mean I don't we can we can put them in thank you Jennifer we can put them in May and bring them everything back i can also if the majority wants to do that can bring
back a code amendment that specifies for the other boards that that appointment is in May as well so um that we can bring back is that good for everybody yeah I think it should all be uniform okay all right anything else Anna that's it all right uh Don I'm going to let you
go with your Do you want to talk about five or do you want to go to your uh lobby firm i want to stay I guess let's stay where we're at here on a mayor council committee yeah that's where I'm at i just want to know uh so you have two of them um you know every year we uh
do a new contract with our our lobby firm and every year seems like we pick the same lobby firm and we just kind of roll it over uh so what I was bringing this forward is to request to talk to council about the possibility of of u
putting out an RFP for our fiscal year 2526 and if we're going to do that then I'd like to at least start the process now i I um because it it like everything else in government takes time right um
so right now we pay uh Gray Robinson about $9,000 a month mhm uh and um and uh I'm not saying that's a a a good number or a bad number but what I'm saying is myself personally every so
many years I uh look at my insurance policies and I call Geico and and and and State Farm or whoever and I price shop to see if my prices are the right way um and and also I got to tell you
that our our visit that we had with u uh during Florida Keys Day I was a little bit well I was a lot of disappointed uh with with uh uh the presentations that we had we uh we didn't have uh direct meetings with commerce we didn't have
direct meetings with DOT uh we had a u a kind of a combo meeting with FWC uh and of course any one of us could pick up the phone any of y'all can pick up the phone and talk to Jim Mooney or or uh AMR and they would they would talk
to us uh so we spent time in their offices and so I don't feel like we got um I I feel like we got a little bit slighted with our lobbyist during Florida Keys Day so and I feel like that our lobbyists really only come to us uh
every year when it's time to renew their contract and uh I you know although they occasionally send us uh an update or or progress report on legislative agenda time I uh I feel like that
uh you know maybe every other month or every third month they could zoom in on and talk to us about that i will tell you that uh we from sitting on this council before a council before that we don't utilize them the way we should we
don't give them let me finish that i know Kargo gives them a wish list we have never done that and that's our fault yes and um so maybe besides going to change them we need to re-establish how how we can utilize them 100% because
I'm I've been talking to Ryan Sheila knows about a project and he's been very good very responsive but maybe we are not utilizing them as much as we can does that make sense and I Yeah it makes sense 100% and I'm not saying that we
necessarily need to go with a different and maybe we can do like Marathon marathon has two lobby firms uh and and they each have specific duties and the county has I think three or four whose responsibility is it for with the Florida Keys days to set up the meetings
is it the council is it the attorney is it the Well I think it's a combination i I think it's a combination of council having um the vision to be able to think forward and say here's our wish list yeah we need to do that uh I I do
believe that um that our you know that our lobbyists should get with us and tell us what the hot topics are going to be agree and and that didn't come to us so let's change and actually would have come to the last council we wouldn't add that let's change the way we work with them we can do that we have the ability
to do that if everybody's interested deb do you have something you want to say i do i know i do i can tell as usual sorry it's okay um yeah uh uh I I think I think our lobby firm is doing a good job they bring us home uh lots of money
every year um I I do think it's more the responsibility of our side that we feel like we got slighted i don't it would have been nice to have had some more individual meetings i think it's it's an illness on our part
that we didn't have that done and I might recommend um um a I don't know how to describe it a a part-time local lobbyist somebody here to help is there such remind Yes there
is there's even a person that I know but I don't want to bring it up tonight okay um but there's that that can uh help do those papers that can help uh say "Oh coun council you need to do this this month and this is some of the hot
topics." And then that local person works with whoever we choose although I think we've got some of the best currently that's my opinion uh so I think we need to think about that and put that in the budget i was just going to say money yeah yeah okay it does and
and which might be well spent whether you liked it or not that's what we were doing with Roger we had given him that responsibility to keep us online on track with things and help set up special meetings on whatever subject to
bring us back oh my goodness you everybody needs to call Tallahassee this week because this is in front of them and we need to uh make our wishes known that's for us for us sitting on council it is our responsibility but we don't
have time to stay that tight to it we need we need somebody to help counsel us or guide us a local lobbyist and that can be part-time it doesn't have to be a full-time position steve yeah what I hear Don saying is is there he's not slighting uh Gray Robinson i think he's
saying by inviting some RFPs we create some competition we may consider getting another firm in addition to that to doing that that would maybe help us get on top of what it is that we might need to do to um to initiate what it is that we're looking for so uh I I like it i
like the idea of a local person yeah we've got one Anna anything from here i I think we're all on the same page and Okay and I think that maybe just a discussion with them they might come back to us with maybe the same ideas so maybe we start there so Sheila where
where do we go from here well is the consensus to reach out to Gay Robinson first or to move forward with the RFP i'd like I'd like an RFP i'd like for us to have some uh discussion with them and
I'd like to see what they have to offer for and I would second that if there needs to be one thank you okay so that's not a resolution so there's no vote right it's just well it's motion we need to at least I need to at least have a consensus i need to have at least three
people say move forward with the RFP so that we staff I'd say move forward with the RFP okay so I guess Marty you need to call the role then so So I need to know what we're roll calling on just an RFP yes ma'am okay go
ahead okay vice Mayor Don Harton yes council member Steve Freriedman yes council member Deb Gillis no council member Anna Richards
yes and Mayor Sharon Mahoney yes motion passes part of one see what's out there okay just to see what's out there okay in that same realm can we start looking at what it would take to put on a um a
local lobbyist a part-time person that's a that's a financial decision it is but that would be our call to start I I'm not talking about now it would be in the next budget cycle oh sure we could then make that decide decision but we need to
start I like that yeah investigating and finding out what that what that means how much that costs what what that entails and that may come out with the in the RFPs is that we assigned uh Gre Robinson to do a a portion of it and
then a local firm or whoever do another portion i'd like to have a local contact though i would love to have a local contact i would love to have those so one could be in the in the RF so you want to wait to see okay all right we good thank you okay don do you want to
go on discussion five before I go or would you You want me You want me to go on yeah I the Marina okay fund is do you want to do the Marina Enterprise we're in Well Marina next aren't we and can can we get a little bit of clarity
are we are we moving forward with the RFP yes are we say do you want us to do two options an option as the Tallahassee lobbyist and then as a second option for I I just we and I were trying to get a
handle on when you say a parttime is it a part-time in-house um person that we would be employing or would it be um somebody else that we would do that we could include as part of this RFP for a second option of a local contact and
then we can spell out um kind of the duties we would expect for that local lobbyist contract I would yeah I would look at it as a separate contract lobbyist yes sir but that that person would be required to work with whoever
our main lobby firm in town so we can should we retain that yes yeah who yeah whoever the main or who That's the reason I tried to leave that open-ended i guess I didn't say quite Are we good you good John yes yeah yeah she and I will get together and I I
think Yeah we understand what you're looking for okay so you all by the way thank you for forwarding the the information that you have from what's going on in Tallahassee to us you've taken on that role thank you okay all right so um Don you want to
hold five and I'll go to the marina i don't know go ahead yeah we were going to put that we were going to put that after our consent agenda anyway so okay cuz five five and six were in the consent agenda oh yeah five will have to go to resolutions because there's a resolution attached to it um I have two
I had something I wanted to add on and I forgot so I'm going to say this real quick um what was that i didn't say that i um uh last council we had talked about naming
the dog park for Mike Forester and then Henry had some issue with Mike and it ended up getting sheld i'd like to for the council to think about bringing that back up again uh Kelargo's done something for Mangrove um other places have and we really haven't done anything
and um we don't have a name for the dog park so I just want you guys to think about it maybe and we could talk about it again how you feel about naming the dog park for me of Mike so go ahead yeah I I think that's a a great idea maybe we can kind of roll
that into the master plan as well or that's why I was bringing it up yeah put it up to the public to see if they have some name suggestions how would we do that put it up to the public i mean we put things out to the public all the time don't we do it in the master plan hey as part of this as your feedback
would you like to name it if so what would be your suggestions and then we could come back to council and discuss that anybody have any thoughts anna any thoughts okay so then Sheila where do we go from here with that
do you want that included in the master plan for the park i think it's perfect timing yeah I'll I'll notify the consultants and is everybody okay with mangrove Mike i mean does anybody have a problem with somebody different no oh I thought I thought he just
suggested that we ask the the public if there was somebody else i I agree with that it's not that I disagree with it i just Okay okay how do we go about asking them that that's what the consultant's job is okay or if people are listening
to us if they have something if I don't know how did we name some of the other things that we've named um does anybody have any we can just bring back a resolution to name it and then at that point let's just do that okay you know
vote against our public um comment and so forth let's do that okay thank you okay okay uh moving on uh I want to have a brief discussion about the ramp the second ramp here at Founders Park i talked to Lisa today at
great length about it um I what I don't want to happen is for this to become I want everybody to be able to have input be smart about the decisions we make uh I have some questions that I wanted to ask Lisa about the marina being separate
from the park the reasons why just so we know because I have a lot of backcountry guides who are losing the ability to launch their boats and there was a second ramp here years ago used to bring my little boat
up there and uh um she did mention to me today sent me some pictures that it does flood over there and she does have the storage of trailers over there but I wanted to bring it up to you guys so we could start maybe figuring out a will
this work for a second ramp she also brought up that we own the ramp um next I want to say Frank Kolinsky's house what is that called blackwater blackwood okay yeah Blackwood and how maybe that could be utilized some way by us so I
just wanted you guys to start thinking about it it's something that you know this isn't 1997 when the village first came to be there's harder and harder for these guides to launch their boat they are the main reason a lot of people do come to Al Maradas to go fishing we all
know that and uh I'm just trying to think outside the box on how we could take care of them the residents of Alamada also have to be respected about Lisa's ramp which we talked about today and just for you guys to think about
where we want to see this village go when it comes to utilizing the second ramp that's was a conversation I had been having with Ryan Matthews peter I know has information sheila I asked you to pull everything that you could get on it so they could also know and to send
it to Ryan Matthews who's going to work with D up there so um just some thoughts on what you guys think and would like to see happen and again I want Lisa to be involved because we need to be respectful of what she's done in this
village for 18 years is that as long as it is yeah 18 years so uh what do you think what do you anything i I like it backcountry guides are losing places to launch all over the place this is their
park as much as it is our park and anybody's park and and I think that they should have access here and a second ramp is probably a good idea i've talked to several backcountry guides as well um same thing they're they're willing to
you know pay a monthly fee a yearly fee to be able to have a ramp that they can use and not get locked out of you know at certain times and and uh I think that we can all work together and find a way to make that happen um Deb do you have
something you want to say mhm yes i also talked to some people and that um we we have a lot of decisions with that ramp uh it's it needs to be cost effective for the number of of people that would use it um permitting
alone 150 to 200,000 permitting alone mhm oh excuse me i know you already knew that yeah I do okay i don't think everybody else does and building it we it as a total it could get up to6 or
$700,000 not that much but yeah it's up there but it would I've also talked to them about them and also I discovered that uh the person that I spoke to uh believe that that there's 15 you you may
have better info on this um there's 15 captains out of the 150ish captains that um don't have a home base how would you get that number just I just asked one of the captains that's pretty well involved
in it i'm surprised you could pull that out that's all i'm shocked actually well sorry you don't have to be sorry i I just I I go out and got some information too okay and um I under I I I would cost effective
wise I'd like to see if we could figure out something in using the existing ramp again I understand that there was some issues with um um uh them interfering with the the boats that we have on a permanent basis or the
liverboards or something that maybe we need to set some different rules um cost effective wise uh I like the idea of the Blackwater Sound Ramp being utilized and and upgraded although I have no idea
where you would put any parking down there because it's already a problem it is a huge problem down there um uh we do need to do something but it needs to be cost effective without um
overburdening everybody for it steve yeah first I'd like to thank you for bringing this back up again uh it's very important um a lot of the guides are losing uh water access and uh are very important part of our our economy um and
uh I've been a part of this for a long time um since we had a program going where we just had a key to a padlock and uh um for all intents and purposes it was uh not abused it was well used and I was also on the nearshore water committee when it was kind of um
randomly decided that the program would go away mostly because of lack of use which I believe was a direct result of the guides being busy helping cleaning up from Hurricane Irma and not working and utilizing it i think your number 15 is probably about right in terms of how
many people might use it on a on a normal basis i don't know what it is in terms of the you know the ratio but but that's an important number to know how many people are going to use it um my radical idea though um is that I would like to see it open to other guides that are part of uh association throughout
Monroe County um because uh it is it is very difficult for guides to come up here and launch as much as the local guides don't want other guides coming up here the fact is that we go down there a lot as well so um that's that's my part personally that I would like to see i
knew I knew you would we we figured you'd go that route actually when we met so and again it's nothing set in stone um uh I don't really think them utilizing Lisa's ramp is a good move again that's why I looked at the second
one the second one would be there's ways it can be funded that it wouldn't come out of the taxpayers and some of the guides can uh have some customers who will help sponsor it so before they start doing that I just wanted uh I guess the staff to see you know where
would this would go what where how far I got before because you knew I had done this before tried with the last council and then all the stuff with Ted happened and you know just sort of got put on the back burner so if we could just look into the feasibility of it uh yes Peter
had a presentation ready for council at that time and they decided against it so the presentation was never um sent so maybe we go back to that and maybe revamp it a little bit add some additional um items to it like other um
potential areas or other potential areas for rains um along with it and then bring that with the presentation back to you stone and then you can we can go from there and and nothing set in stone you know what I mean i mean just we it's something we have to start looking at
that's all sure and it can Oh I'm sorry yeah i I like that idea too because that would allow then some of these guides to come in and and give their input and maybe some ideas and thoughts and can we can we try to include uh the
um the I know it's always a a guessing games but the whether or not D and Army Corps because Army Corps if we're actually needing to dredge or something would have to get involved the odds of them approving something before we start
spending lots of money on it we correct he Peter has a whole presentation on this particular area here um but like I said we can we can look into other areas as well if you would and maybe even reach out to some of the guides or
whatever get some of their ideas i think they'd like to have a meeting actually if we could maybe set something up with some people who are concerned and John we talked about the division between the marina and the park the Yeah yes somebody there's a tax reason
right and to to follow up also on was going to say on on Councilwoman Gillis's point this would actually probably be a very good thing to get our lobbyists involved in that's what I already have because I think Yeah and and that and glad that you did because that we're going to need most almost certainly we'll need to work
with with D um and then like like you said there might be Army Corps and others so this would be a good thing to get our lobbyists involved in and um you know I'm I'm happy to meet maybe you know if we meet with the guides I'm I'm happy to sit in if we need to cuz obviously there'll be some language in
terms of you know we need to make sure that however it's set up it's not discriminatory things like that it's not an issue if we want to move forward the biggest stepping stepping stone is going to be can we actually do it and that's what Ryan's looking into because we had almost got there before whatever
happened happened and so I'm trying to pick it back up again okay so you we know what we're doing yes um do you Steve or you have a um list of all the guides do I guide association i can get
you that yeah yeah you guys can just provide that steve you would know this better list is a relative term but yeah you can get a bunch of names and numbers that might work together steve you wouldn't know this better probably are guides require and I I just don't know this answer are guides required to get like a local business tax receipt to be
licensed in the village that might be the best place for us to look because honestly that would be who we would probably consider to be local guides for purposes of use if they have a business tax receipt within the village um then I think they would be considered local steve because we had did discuss you're
going to want the lower guides we suggested that it's all marada the list and then when there's you know depending on how many with the area that we were looking at we can open it up to the lower lower people outside of all Marada to utilize so that's what we had already
tried to cover that yeah as long as there's some consideration 100% we had already talked about it okay great thank you as long as it's not a tarpon fisherman out in West Coast so just just just for history purposes the re the time frame that it got shut down was
during CO I I don't mean during CO during the hurricane or it was it was uh past post Irma yeah because I I I was on council at the time and we were told that you know there was only like one captain using it at the time and so it
wasn't affecting a lot of people so that's Yeah so then why shut it down was kind of my reaction then you know it's I know okay we're good okay moving on uh village manager village attorney
communication this is a followup on the Starks Wheel Ditch um discussion that uh that the mayor had initiated i guess it must have been two meetings ago um I sent you all a um email correspondence which I believe has been put into the council communications so the public has
it as well uh looked into us into it first it is within it does appear to be within the village's jurisdiction so it is something that we could conceivably regulate in terms of the statutes it looked like the most likely thing that we could do would be a slow um a slow
speed minimum uh wake boating area like what we have down in the Whale Harbor Wheel Ditch um there's some pretty high standards to meet for a no wake zone or like a a canoe uh sale only zone pretty high standards that we would have to
work with D on we may still have to work with them on this certainly in terms of getting uh buoys approved and things like that we would need to file an application but this first the first step that we would need to do if the council was interested in turning it into a slow speed minimum wake zone uh
would be getting a consensus tonight um and then we could bring back an ordinance it would be two readings that would be required for Can you give me the definition of a slow speed i mean what is Let me What I consider slow
somebody else might consider slow i'm serious though it's a truth especially when you go through that wheel ditch i've been through there and it's scary let me pull up see if it's defined in the statute which is chapter 327 give me one second i'm pulling it up here i mean
I I didn't mean to put you on the spot i'm just saying though because uh that couldn't be people's definitions can be so different when it comes to that um I'm just pulling up the definitions here and of course I don't see it in the
definitions give me Give me just one second i'm uh Unless Peter you don't happen to know off the top of your head by any chance do you where's that top of that head come on there definitely is a definition it reads something along the lines of a boat that has come off plane
and is under 5 miles an hour that's what I was looking for it's like who's working like that yeah that's that's exactly good job there Peter good job Peter so you know I I'm sit on the nearshore water uh now with them and I
we can talk about this April 22nd cuz they're you know like I said somebody was killed there before and it's just a matter of time till it happens again it really is it's a bad bad area yeah I think we're going to need time to
get input as well um from the community that that go through that um you know anything that we put out there is going to have to be enforceable it's just another thing that's going to be you know uh on on a very heavy uh list of
tasks for law enforcement out there and quite frankly people ignore signs so um so we have to figure out a way if we're going to do something like that to make it effective okay okay so I do have this the definition is actually in the rules the Florida
administrative rules slow speed or slow speed minimum wake may be used interchangeably and mean that means that a vessel must be fully off plane and completely settled into the water the vessel must then proceed at a speed which is reasonable and pruded under the prevailing circumstances so as to avoid
the creation of an excessive wake or other hazardous conditions which endangers or is likely to endanger other vessels um at no time is any vessel required to proceed so slowly the operator is unable to maintain control over the maintain control over the vessel so um I mean we'll we will be
we'll comply obviously with what the requirements are in the the rule which I know was updated in 2024 u but it it's consistent with what Peter had just indicated so then uh the no wake thing you're saying is very very difficult i
mean the idol the idol is yeah the so there there's if you look at it kind of like a flowchart is when the v when the village can do certain things there um and it's a little confusing in the way the statute is written I tried to lay it out for you for everyone in in the email there's kind of a flowchart of when you
can and when you can't do things um the most likely or the the path that seemed to be the most viable was the um uh slow speed minimum wake zone uh we can certainly speak with the state to see if they would be open to a lobbyist can do that yeah to see if they can would be
open to a um no wake zone and we can bring that back um in terms of to get to Councilman Freeman's point in terms of public comment like I said this would be an ordinance so there would be at least two readings of it okay so we would have at a minimum two uh two public comment
periods um for the ordinance but obviously you all can create more if if you want um but we can if you'd like we can speak with D and see if they would be open to something more restrictive utilize our lobbyist and let them do it too and I'm just saying that you know
again people don't really well they speed on the highways too and there's signs there so at least it's a start you know and there will be some people who will follow it and there's going to be people who don't certainly safety above above all else i was just wondering John
is there a a definition for um slow to oncoming vessels is there anything like that that could be a part of that research i'll check but it but the or maybe that is the slow speed minimum wake that's what that implies yeah cuz the statute
really lays out three different categories one is um let me see i laid it out here one was is the uh slow speed minimum wake one is uh idle speed no wake and the other one is what's called a vessel exclusion for so like kayaks
and and things under sale um uh the uh I would have to check to see I I mean those are really the three categories so I don't think there's a separate one as slow to when other vessels are are coming so I think that would fall within
the slow speed minimum wake zone i think that's what Peter kind of referenced right there well it's I think it's great we're moving forward and I thank you very much John because I know I've been bugging you about that yep yeah it took it took a little time it's not that easy to figure out jurisdiction and waterways
so but you did it so there's not those nice little lines floating out there for us well I appreciate it okay anything else um thank you yeah before we move on just one more thing for for John john in the in the Upper Keys Weekly just to piggy off of a public comment earlier on
the April 4 article um court quashes Alam Marada Council's approved Orange Street abandonment and appeal is expected and that's the last line in this article it says the village 2 will file an appeal is is that in fact the case or uh my recommendation is to file
an appeal because um uh the court used two different standards in its I don't want to get into too much detail because obviously it's active litigation the court got into two different um two different standards neither of which I believe are the correct standard on on the uh the type of appeal we were
on which was first tier sir Shirari um the I think it's it's a little bit moot because the um the the landowner if you reading that article the landowner's attorney indicated that they were going to appeal so if if the landowner is appealing we're in it we can't you know
we we we can't just ignore it and and not participate as the um uh the ultimate authority who made the decision so we'd be in it anyway but my recommendation is to uh to further appeal because the the issue is is what ended up happen what happens in that
case is it's not a ruling for or against any one side it quashes the order remands it back to the village council for further uh consideration and um analysis and decision consistent with that order but the problem is is when
you read the order and it's using two different standards internally which is inconsistent and I believe those standards are incorrect ones I believe were the ones that are incorrect for a first tier when we bring it back I need to be able to advise you all in terms of these are the
standards that you need to meet and when you're looking at the order and there's two different standards used um I it's just really difficult for me to get clarity as to how I can meet that order so that whatever you all decide if it comes back and whatever you all decide when it goes back to that court again if
it goes back to that court again if it gets appealed again that we have now met that one of those two standards because they're both a little internally inconsistent the standards that they used so just to be clear we haven't authorized any sort of appeal yet we're we're going to have that discussion well
I would ask you guys to author if if you feel you need to authorize it I would ask for you guys to authorize it today because it's a um as I put put in mentioned in the email there is a 30 days to file the appeal but it's it's not just a notice of appeal like most
appeals it's a second tier petition for rid oft um so it's it's a full brief that goes in again the property owner indicated that they were going to be appealing so we would have to file um a respon uh a brief as well as a a co-
co-party I guess you know we were a co- appel uh appeal bel but we would need to file something anyway but um I that's my recommendation is that that the village author to the extent it needs to authorize it that the village authorize uh the legal department to uh to file
that do we need to do that now um if yeah you know since we've got it up I would just ask you all to to give me a thumbs up or a thumbs down on on I don't want to spend any more money on this case i would authorize to do that
i would move forward with it don appeal it okay feel it all right we'll do We don't need a formal vote on that or anything well public comment no I mean this there's not really public
comment on defending an appeal uh I don't I don't need a formal vote on it i mean you guys gave me direction there's four of you who have said go for it uh it's not something that needs a formal like resolution or anything like that i mean if you all want to make a motion you can i don't think you need to though
estimate Stark's wheel you what kind of billing this is going to cost us or any of that do you know how much money this has already cost us which is a great point of not continuing and so we're just going to give up when something is clearly wrong just to be clear in your
opinion the village did not initiate this litigation it was initiated by another party so um in terms of when when somebody brings an appeal we have to defend the village's position whether it's uh Whether it's a a valid appeal or
not we have to defend it this was not litigation that was initiated by the village that's right so I I just want to make sure that the public understands that this was initiated by a third party the village has defended it and the property owner has defended it too um
but then wouldn't the property owner take the expense and the brunt of that yes i mean yes and no i mean the village has different um different interests in uh oba in
sustaining their um decisions sometimes the I mean we the village has to take a position we can't we can't simply sit sit aside and say judge we you know we sit this one out we have to fi we had to file an answer brief so um our positions were in support of the uh the decision
and the the process that was was followed and um uh I believe in in the process that was followed if the court says we need to do something different we certainly will um but uh hasn't our position already been established are we just reiterating the same position
no our position on an appeal would be slightly different because we are arguing that there was a uh um the the I don't have the exact standards in front of me but that the court uh uh didn't follow the essential requirements of the
law uh that in terms of proper uh standards things like that um so there it's not exactly the same I mean it's it changes based upon this court's ruling um obviously this this court you know we are in a different position of seeking to overturn the uh lower court's ruling
um whereas in the last court the uh third party Miss Barley was in the position of seeking to overturn the council's decision so it's a slight it's a different position and it's slightly different arguments but there are there obviously is some overlap yes
does that answer everything for you yeah I stand by my um opinion of not moving forward with the appeal okay all right uh John consent agenda yep we are into the consent we're into the consent
portion of the agenda these items are 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 tabs um 7 through 9 if you recall uh six has
been moved to a different agenda and uh tab five has already been pulled if anyone would like to pull an item from consent he or she should state so now go ahead please excuse me move to approve the consent agenda i'll second okay so open public
comment go ahead yes signed up for public comment on this okay come on up van Ked uh I'm just questioning uh Chica
Lodge is is asking for uh over half a million dollars in refunds on their wastewater uh overcharge and I'm just uh thinking that uh they're not hooked up to our system because uh they made a deal with the
village now everybody else in the village that had a package plant uh Chica has a big package plant but uh Islander and Fisher in and all the ones on on Windley Key they all had to lose
their investment in their package plant and hook up to the village and become a client of the villages wastewater uh system chica Lodge did not and and I just question the the fairness of
allowing one business to be excluded from our wastewater collection system which uh if we were collecting fees from them uh and you they're done a lot of uh increasing their water usage by uh
increasing the development on their property and uh I I think it's uh unfair to the people that had to lose the investment they had in their package plants when we were installing the central system um and and Chica does not
uh and now we're going to have to pay them a half a million dollars because they think they were slighted i I really think that uh we should have uh equinimity and equaleness among all the
businesses and all the motel in Isa Marada should all be on the same page and not have uh special deals carved out for special people thank you very much thank you marty anybody else no ma'am okay public comment is closed
we have a first and a second marne would you call the role please i'm sorry can you just remind me which tabs they are tabs consent agendas tabs seven eight and nine good okay go ahead Marty and could you please refresh my memory on who moved and seconded i moved and I seconded
thank you okay vice Mayor Don Horton yes council member Deb Gillis yes council member Steve Freriedman yes council member Anna Richards yes and Mayor Sharon Mahoney yes and I'm going to pass this five to zero okay
we are on to tab five okay okay i asked this to be pulled um uh because it's become obvious to me that uh a certain council member isn't perhaps real well-versed in uh council procedures so I thought I'd go on and
let him correct or clarify the minutes of March 18th and our agenda for tonight specifically it was said that u we use the term applicant and not finalist yet on the agenda it specifically says on
item four alpha A village manager finalist if that's an incorrect statement Steve I would like for you to go on and correct the record on the agenda so that we can fix that isn't that just semantics it's not se apparently it's not you felt it
important to mention in in your newsletter for today so I just wondering should we correct that to uh applicant or should we say finalist however you'd like to do it oh it's not me i'm happy with it i didn't ask it to be pulled i
didn't bring it up very good okay also um you seem to have a problem with our Democratic process as you stated that we would only interview the Florida based applicants as I recall and it's noted on
page four if you'll take a look at our minutes on uh page four it specifically says that council agreed to in-person interviews with the Florida candidates in person at a date to be deter
determined but before April 18th um you felt it necessary to say that as a council uh we agreed and it specifically says there that we agreed which would mean the majority of us did to
uh uh use Florida base but yet you still have a problem with that uh I just think it's worth mentioning that there was a majority on that and that was needs to be clarified I think yeah I think that's a good point uh I think we could just add that I was not in
agreement to that instead of the majority and that'd be fair yeah you didn't agree but the council did absolutely as a majority that's fair the Democratic process i appreciate there were more yeah more than the You also indicated that we violated sunshine law i'd like to point out to you that the
public notice was posted on the clerk and I'll be happy to read that public notice for you if you don't happen to have a copy of that um I I did see that notice it seemed to be a different notice to me than what would be regular notice for a public meeting like this
where we would have minutes there would be public comment that's uh I think what I'm referring to and you weren't you weren't mentioning the process you mentioned there wasn't a notice i'll be happy to read that notice for if you'd like me to i don't recall saying there
wasn't a notice excuse me you know apparently your your problem was that we violated sunshine because there wasn't a there was a meeting and there wasn't public there was a there was a vote that was taken after the interviews and and to me that seemed like that should have
been started off by saying apparently you're not wellversed in the process so that's okay apparently I'm not anyway I just like to clear the record because you like to mail things out and you you're constantly using uh hyperbole and
innuendo and not real fact so I'd just like to bring that out and then lastly uh you had a problem again with the Democratic process as we agreed to allow staff that they agreed that they would incorporate suggesting your ideas into the employee handbook again I'll just
point to you to page three so that we clear the record staff would incorporate a process to address your type of complaints so as a democratic process this body agreed in in in a
majority to allow that to happen so I I just want that due and if you don't agree with those then I'd certainly like for you to ask that these items be pulled from the agenda so that we can have a discussion about that instead of
a one-sided um argument about that that seems fair thank you okay uh we done with that John uh moving on yeah we need a motion to approve the minutes um but it sounds like there the
motion would include an amendment to the last sentence on page four um about the in-person interviews to state that uh council member Freriedman disagreed with this um uh this process is that correct
yes okay so if if anybody's going to make a motion it I would uh recommend that include that amendment in it i would move to make that motion or or to approve the minutes uh as amended do I have a second
yeah sure why not i'll second it hey Marty we call the role please vice Mayor Don Horton yes council member Anna Richards yes council member Steve Freriedman yes council member Deb Gillis yes and Mayor Sharon Mahoney yes that
motion passes five to zero okay thank you okay John moving on i think we're on tab 10 yep tab 10 is a resolution of the village council of Alamar Village Florida repealing resolution number 25-02-13 and approving the second ranked firm for the RFP 24-19 evaluation
committee for selection of a contractor for the lower Madakumbi Canal's Culvert Pro uh restoration project authorize the village manager and village attorney to negotiate an agreement for the project authorizing the village manager to execute the agreement authorize the village manager to expend budgeted funds and providing an effective date
okay thank you so it was at its February 2025 regularly scheduled meeting that the village council did adopt a resolution it was 25213 that approved the recommendation and the ranking and the usage of
Adventure Environmental Incorporated to complete the lower Madakumbi Culver's canals restoration project and that was done through the vill's standard RFP process and according to that process after the adoption of that resolution we did begin contract negotiations with
Adventure Environmental uh it was at that time that we found out from Adventure that they were not able to complete the project uh for their proposed bid which was $5.2 million what is it now excuse me what is it now
so they proposed a different methodology and their cost proposal when we came down to start negotiating was something closer to our second ranked firm LPS so they made it clear they under bid the job um they they understood that and
acknowledged that and then told us that they were unable to do the job for the bid that we voted and approved got it um because of that and I discussed this with John at length we we have to reject their bid and we want to reject that bid
they can't do the job for what they proposed um so that the resolution before you this evening uh that repeals that resolution that was adopted in February and according to our standard village RFP process we then move on to
the second ranked firm in the RFP um and then moving into contract negotiations if the the council you know approves of that so that's what we're doing here we are again approving a recommendation and a ranking of the second ranked firm that is LPS contracting and following that uh
we would move into contract negotiations that's not what we're doing with this you know right this evening we would just be approving the use of LPS uh LPS is extremely qualified to do this job they were more qualified than Adventure Environmental um they have done all of
the culvert projects in Monroe County regarding the canal restoration lots of similar work they're they're based in the Keys um the reason they were ranked lower was simply because of cost adventure put in a cost that was so low it just bumped them above for good
reason um the the cost proposal from LPS is significantly higher it's $ 8.9 million um I'd like to remind you though that we this project is funded through through grant money so we are not doing this without grant work which we do have
to move forward how much is a grant eight so we have $5.7 million through stewardship funding and as of this week we have been notified that we can utilize um F the FQUIP funds Florida
Keys water quality improvement program funds that's an Army Corps of Engineers program we can utilize those funds the remaining funds we have $7 million now to utilize for um for canal projects storm water projects and wastewater projects so we have identified this
canal project specifically for the FQUIP funds as well okay anybody have a question for Peter question go ahead is there a performance bond for adventure environmental or anything that comes to play on this
there would have been we had not got to the bond stage yet it's a good question um during contract negotiations we would have had to gotten the bond but they were not required to provide that at this step in the process which is just
responding to an RFP okay thank you sure i mean I I an adventure is local you know I like them and everything but they under bid it they under bid it and there's nothing we can do we have to get it done so anybody
else have anything for Peter no okay thank you Peter all right thank you okay i guess now Martney we gonna open public comment please okay let me double check on Zoom i don't have any slips for this one uh there's no one signed up for this
item okay council I'll make a motion to approve as presented i second okay marty would you please call the role council member Deb Gillis yes vice Mayor Don Horton yes council member Steve Freriedman yes
council member Anna Richards yes and Mayor Sharon Mahoney yes the motion passes 5 to zero okay thank you much uh John I believe we're on tab 11 yep tab 11 is a resolution of the village council of Marta village of Islands Florida repealing the charitable contribution policy adopted by the
village council and resolutions 040629 050415 060535 and 230213 at all providing for conflicts and for an effective date um this if you all recall at the last council meeting
there was directive given by the majority of council to uh do away with the charitable giving uh policy that the village has um that's what this um this resolution does i I listed all of the resolutions that that I was able to find that um uh related to the charitable
giving policy i believe that's all of them but I I did include just in case there were others i did include language that says any further amendments there too um I which I just I like to do when we're dealing with something that's got at least four resolutions attached to it so let me ask you a question so in other
words this is getting rid of it forever or can another council bring it back or how does that where do they we go from another council could bring it back i mean they could bring a resolution and reestablish it okay um but this it would there is not this would do away with it so we would not have one um from if it
passes today the effective date would be upon passage so but yes it could always you know 5 years from now or whatever yeah another council could bring it i'll throw that out there okay uh any uh council anything before I open public comment nope nope uh anyone on public
comment marne uh yes van Caden head van Caden head i'd like to thank you all for doing this um I've spoken for this and I I have a feeling that there's a majority of people in town that are going to agree with this uh decision and
uh I understand uh the the discussion last time was uh we don't want to completely shut out uh some humanitarian uh necessary uh need that we have and I
think that if something were to come up that the council could consider that we should have at least a supermajority of the council authorize whatever kind of a emergency fund or emergency payment was was uh eligible
for uh whatever uh uh humanitarian um issue that was uh part of the project so thank you for doing this um I applaud your uh tenacity in in keeping with this it's it's a hard one
to say but by the same token uh it's it's taxpayers money and the taxpayers individually should be allowed to assign how much money they want to give to what charity so thank you very much for this and uh I hope you pass it 50 okay thank
you Marne anybody else no ma'am that's it okay council do I have a motion motion to approve do I have a second i'll second okay miss Martney would you call the role please council member Anna Richards yes council
member Don Horton yes excuse me vice Mayor Don Horton council member Steve Freriedman yes for Van Council Member Deb Gillis no the compassionate side of me says I can't and Mayor Sharon Mahoney the sensible
side of me says yes motion passes 4 to one thank you all right John 12 all right the last item of the uh night we're on to ordinances this is an uh ordinance on second reading an ordinance of Alam Marada Village Florida creating chapter 4 animals of the village code to adopt
regulations relating to animals and animal owners providing for the repeal of all code provisions and ordinances inconsistent with this ordinance providing for severability providing for cotification and providing for an effective date uh this if you all recall this was before you all actually back in
February um it had to do with uh the reaffirmation of the um Monroe County Animal Control Ordinance uh which is uh um applicable within the village at le you know pursuant to the recent court ruling um at that meeting uh there were
a number of people who came out um about the chickens and so we we um the directive from the council was to include a carveout for chickens within the village uh based upon the lack of chicken folks here hopefully that means we did I did a a good job you have the main chicken man there were more last
time so the main chicken guy hopefully that means I I did a good job in in in drafting carveout i I worked with the county attorney's office on it they they gave a sign off on this language they were good with it and and enforcability of it through the Monroe County Animal
Control folks that currently enforce here so we've gotten the sign off for this um there were a couple things just to point out uh that we did based on the last discussion um uh chickens meant female chickens it doesn't include roosters it doesn't include turkeys or
ducks or things like that um there's prohibitions about like the slaughtering of chickens hopefully that's moot that doesn't happen but it's one of those things that you know the lawyer goes through and says "What are the worst case scenarios let's address it now." Um
and and also in there I we didn't talk about like if there was a total number of chickens um that the council would be okay with i drafted something i just put five in because it just seemed like an okay number to me i hadn't talked to any of you all but I said "You know what let
me just put a number in and you all can decide if if you want a different number." I mean I did look at other codes and they were all kind of around that number um so again I that's not based on some uh directive it's just I needed to I wanted to have a number for
you all to consider at least so um it's it's in there it also ensures that um uh it also ensures that it's only within certain zoning districts like we talked about as well okay done i'm not going to squawk over five or six no here we go again there we go anybody as long as
Marsh is good with this I'm good with it i I uh I Why don't we just refer to it from now on as the chicken ordinance and I move to approve then just you know that's how I refer to it i do refer to it as the chicken ordinance yeah I know you do uh do we need to do public comment anybody have any Craig you want
to come up and talk about chicken since there's a motion on the table let's uh see if there's a second first okay I'll second it okay and then we have Come on chicken man you want to say anything you don't want to say it okay anybody else
excuse me van Kaden had Oh I'm here to speak i'm here to speak for the roosters don't tell them leave it off yeah right uh no i I applaud you for doing this it's you know a reasonable and logical
uh uh finite uh control of this and I think you're you're wise to leave it with Monroe County as it's been working just fine up to now and I think it'll work just fine in the future uh the way you've got it laid out so thank you very
much Marty anybody else i don't have anyone else signed up for this okay we have a first and a second would you like to call the role please yes ma'am one moment okay vice Mayor Don Horton absolutely
council member Anna Richards yes council member Steve Freriedman yes council member Deb Gillis yes and Mayor Sharon Mahoney yes the motion passes 5 to zero yay for the chickens exactly yeah and again my neighbors have
chickens and I don't I can hear them sometimes cooling but I never see them they're great oh I have a rooster in my neighbor well I didn't say rooster i said chickens i got peacocks and they're I got peacocks too no okay they are anything else any everybody are we move to adjourn okay meeting adjourned thank
you