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Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=v3lr0OCRs7M

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Tonight we have the privilege of having Reverend Reed Reverend Reed Thayer from the First Presbyterian Church of Lake Placid to give the invocation. And after that, it's my honor to introduce Army veteran Pete Ruiz, a specialist four,

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and thank you for your service. So, Reverend, please stand. >> [clears throat] >> Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you that you have set all things on earth in order and in its time

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and in its place. We thank you for the town council. We pray that you would bless their families and the work that they do to build a safer and better community here in Lake Placid. We thank you for our first responders. We thank you for those

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that work in our school system and all of the people that work to make Lake Placid a great place to live and grow. Lord, I pray for the decisions and discussions that will take place tonight. Lord, I pray that you would give great wisdom and discernment to the

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town council members and all who will speak. And Lord, may everything that is done tonight, may it be for the good of the people that make up this great town of Lake Placid. And may they do it for your glory and praise. In Jesus' name. Amen. >> [clears throat]

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>> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Now, at this time, I would like to have 30 seconds of silence for our men and

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women that are out there fighting for this freedom, and our veterans, and the ones that made the ultimate sacrifice. >> Thank you. God bless America. >> Okay, clerk, please take the roll. >> Mayor Charles. >> Here. >> Councilmember Royce. >> Here.

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>> Councilmember Hayes. >> Yes, here. >> Councilmember Satt. >> Here. >> Councilmember Eberhart. >> Here. >> Um so, I just want to make a couple comments, please. Um so, I want to begin by giving an update on our leadership transition. Chief Mark Snyder, who's up

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here tonight, has stepped into the interim town administrator role. And he's doing a very impressive job. Asking the right questions and getting up to speed on our operational priorities. After reviewing the structure and the workload, we've determined that he'll

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serve in a dual capacity as both the chief of police and the interim town administrator. This allows us to maintain continuity within the police department and removes the need to appoint an interim chief. I'll be assisting directly in the

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finance area and working with Chief Snyder on additional projects to help balance the workload and keep things moving smoothly. I also want to address a rumor floating around about the 4th of July fireworks has been canceled. The fireworks have

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not been canceled. The Legacy Foundation has taken over the hosting the event, which will take place at 9:00 p.m. on July 4th as normal. And the town has contributed $5,000 in monetary support. They will provide police um services and also public works

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services as they have in the past. We appreciate the Legacy Foundation's partnership in continuing this important community transition. Next, I want to publicly recognize our utilities department for the responsiveness during the recent water

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main breaks. While none of us likes to encounter these issues, it's how we respond to that people remember. I received emails from leaders in two different affected areas praising how respectful, professional, and quick to action our employees were.

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In several cases, staff had already gone home and they were called back to address the problem and make the necessary repairs. So, I want to extend a sincere thank you to Patrick Barrett, Michael Ashberry, Roger Diaz, Bradley Moore,

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and Jason Durbano for their commitment and professionalism. And at Lake June Park, our teams continue to make steady progress. In the upcoming weeks, the soccer goals and nets are being repaired or replaced. We've also received multiple requests to

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bring back the volleyball nets and staff are actively reviewing that as well. And then last, I want to take a moment to highlight something important. We have many unsung heroes in this organization. Now, I've only been here 2 months, but

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I'm getting to know each of them and the important work that they do. These are employees who work diligently for the town every day without seeking formal recognition. Since taking office, I've made it a priority to shine a light on the people

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who keep our operations running and our facilities in good condition. I can already see a renewed sense of motivation and pride across the organization as we work together. Going forward, I'd like to continue to use the mayor's report to share examples

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of great work happening across the departments. Their professionalism, initiative, and commitment to serving our residents deserves to be acknowledged. Thank you. And now we'll move on to the public

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comments. Is there anybody in the public that needs to speak and then please come up, state your name and address for the record, and 3 minutes. >> My name is Bert Harris. My address is 400 Lake Mirror Drive. Business address

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401 Dow Hall Boulevard. Good evening council and mayor and administrator and attorney. It's good to view each and every one of you from this perspective. Um I'd like you to consider waving confidentiality

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um on the matters involving my advice to council back during the um employment of new town attorney. There are letters that I've requested. Eva tells me they'll be on the way. Um but then also my advice to council.

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>> I think that would be Mike something [clears throat] you could advise on. >> Yes, uh Mr. Harris and I talked about this and and for council's benefit um it's an unusual situation. Generally speaking, the records Mr. Harris is talking about that are they're

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all generally our records are public records. The question is is an exemption to the record. Um during the time there were some exemptions taken of these records. Those records were not released. Currently, all those records we're specifically talking about a a

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record from outside council, um the insurance council, that went to the town. I think it was referenced. And then also a letter that Mr. Harris had sent to the town council and the mayor. Those records are public record. They come out. They say what they say. There's a

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little nuance here that if an attorney wants to speak outside the four corners of those records, then they need to have the client it's a privileged communication between you and the attorney. Need to waive that privilege.

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Um generally in my practice over 25 plus years as board certified, I try to anything I say to counsel or otherwise, to me it's transparent and it may come out. Excuse me? Something's out there.

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So, Mr. Harris is what he's asking town council to do is allow him to speak about those records outside those four corners. That's what he's asking you to do. If you waive that privilege, he can do that freely. Is that essentially what you're asking,

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Mr. Harris? >> And inside the four corners of my letter particularly. >> Outside the four corners of your communication particularly. Yes. >> Inside. Inside. >> Inside. Inside. Definitely inside. >> itself. >> Yeah. Inside and outside. Basically, any communications

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regarding that issue with those two letters. >> Mainly the inside of my letter. I can't think of any others. >> Okay. >> Other than what was stated on the record here. >> So, in order to do so, I would suggest the proper vehicle is a motion to waive

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the communication relative to those letters that have been identified. If there was a motion, second, and was a vote, then it would be waived. >> Madam Mayor, may I ask a question? I just I think this is what you said, Mr. Durham, but I just want to make sure

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on the record that your recommendation is this would be the appropriate manner for us to move forward would be waiving that exemption. >> The advice I'm giving is procedural advice if you want to waive the privilege. I can't recommend whether you

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should waive the privilege or not, but if you want to waive the privilege, that's what it would take to do procedurally. >> Let me ask the question a different way. There are no legal issues associated with us if we choose to waive the privilege. >> Not that I'm aware of, but that's a

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communication that Mr. Harris had with individuals on town council at the time. I don't know of any because they're privileged communications. >> Okay. >> I don't know I don't think anybody confessed about doing anything illegal. Let's put it that [clears throat] way. >> [snorts]

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>> So, there's no downside for we waiting this? >> Not from my view. I mean >> no there's no downside to doing this? >> Well, Mr. Harris would be able to speak about the background of those records. He would have the risk management

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record. I can speak to that. That's a public record. It's from um PRM, public risk management attorneys that opined on that issue at the time. He has not seen Mr. Harris has not seen that letter. He had wrote a letter with which is public at this time to town council

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advising them if they moved in a certain direction that there could possibly be um some litigation or law violations occurring, and that's what he wants to speak to. Now, I'm speaking for Mr. Harris and Mr. Harris is more intimately familiar with it than I am, so he can

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fill in the holes if need be. >> This has There is no beef I have with the town of Lake Placid, contrary to what other people have said. I'd like that to be clear. And that's the reason I want the letters

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released. Deborah sat there one night and said that I'd threatened to sue the town. That was absolutely ludicrous, preposterous. And the letters will show that. >> Yes. >> I never made such a request

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or suggestion. So, that's the reason I'd like those letters to come out because their absence impugns me based on what Deborah and um Charlotte said. >> So, the motion would be simply to wave

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privilege on this issue. >> Yes, counselor. >> I move that we do that. >> Second. >> We have a motion, a second. Any other comments from the dais? Out to the public. Bring it back. Eva, please take the roll.

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>> Council member Saathoff? >> Yes. >> Council member Ross? >> Yes. >> Council member Hayes? >> Yes. >> Council member Everhart? >> Yes. >> Thank you very much. >> Motion passes. And so now we'll move on to approval of the agenda. The chair will take a

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motion. >> I move to approve the agenda. >> I'll second. >> We have a motion, we have a second. Any other comments from the dais? Out to the public. Bring it back. Clerk, take the roll. >> Council member Saathoff?

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>> Yes. >> Council member Hayes? >> Yes. >> Council member Everhart? >> Yes. >> Council member Ross? >> Yes. >> [clears throat] >> Okay. Um thank you and um we have a brief presentation here on the

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Town of Lake Placid and different community planners com- community partners planning a 4th of July celebration. Last meeting I said that there was an interest and since then different people are getting together. So this is just a quick brief

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update of kind of where we are today. Uh the chief and myself will kind of go through this quickly. I mean, do you want me to take it, chief, or you want to grab it? I'll take it and then um so I appreciate the work that you've been doing um and others.

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And so what we're looking at is 10 to 2 at Devane Park. Um we're going to have a DJ and some music in the gazebo and then we're working on um the chief uh the police department's volunteered to barbecue. They've got a grill, so we're looking at, you know, hot dogs,

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sausages, and reaching out to some of the different um uh the different businesses on contributions and that. Um we've actually set up a there's a Gmail account cuz different people are asking if they can help, and

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I believe it's July 4th lp@gmail.com. So, anybody's interested in any type of contributions, and more important, volunteers. You know, some of the ideas that are coming out a cakewalk, a three-legged race, just just back in the

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old days, some of the picnic type of things that we had. Another crazy idea is a dunk tank, but your mayor doesn't do a dunk tank, so whoever recommending that, they can be the first one in. But, there's just it's it's really gaining excitement and momentum, so it would be 10:00 to 2:00 at the Bain Park.

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Um Chief, anything you want to add to it? Yeah, July July 4th July 4th lp as in Lake Placid at gmail.com is the email address for anyone interested in helping in any way, contributions,

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volunteers. >> Uh the only thing I would add is that if anyone uh wants to come out, any food trucks or anything, just contact us and we'll find space for you. >> Okay. Um so, it's informational. I don't think

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we need a motion right now. There's really not much town budget except for excitement, enthusiasm of you know, pulling this off as a 250th celebration. And I think Alan, this week are the flags going to be going up?

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Yeah, so we've got um Alan has some 250th anniversary flags that'll go up on four of the big flag poles, and then we'll be putting up other flags and banner to to start the enthusiasm for July 4th coming. >> Madam Mayor, just so the public knows, I

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mean, my understanding is there is no fiscal impact to the town of Lake Placid itself. It's a volunteer >> Just want to make sure we got that out there. >> Yeah. Thank you. Any other comments? >> I just want to make a note that our Lake

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Placid Rotary Club is It's going to the board on Tuesday of uh next week. Uh no, actually, today's Monday, it's going to the board tomorrow morning to see if they would authorize us to bring our truck, our trailer out there, which has all paper products, and

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we're hoping to donate um paper products, etc., for the event and possibly other things, but it does have to go through our board first, but I think it's positive. So. >> And and Amazon has um agreed to donate a thousand dollars of

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Amazon products that we need to supplement. So, you know, as this started getting communicated, we started getting a lot of people on board helping. Any comments from the audience? Okay. Um

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I have another um citizen that's not on the agenda, but Louise England is here from the Caladium Co-op, and she's asking for a letter of support. So, if we can ask her to come up and address the council, I appreciate that.

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>> As the mayor has stated, I'm Louise England, and I'm representing the >> Louise, talk that the microphone. Yeah, try to bring it closer, so. >> Okay. As the mayor said, I'm Louise England. And Doris. And this is Doris Sargent, and she is

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our treasurer. We are asking for a letter of support for the Caladium Arts and Crafts Cooperative for a Florida Division of Arts and Cultural Facilities Grant. The grant is to replace a failing and leaking roof.

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It is leaking and has to cause some damage to the unique arts and crafts within the building. The leaks also impact a mural that's on the side of the building causing water bubbles to form under the paint. Our members and their spouses have

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repaired and patched the roof, but the next powerful hurricane will probably be the end of the roof. We have significant support from the community with donations from individuals and businessmen businesses for our match, and we also continue to

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raise matching funds ourselves. Letters from governmental agencies supporting our project demonstrate our credibility as a known local organization and will help our grant application. Uh I hope you will please honor our

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request. >> Madam Mayor, make a motion to authorize the mayor to offer letter of support to the to the Cladium Co-op. >> Second. >> We have motion has second. Any other comments from the dais?

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>> Oh, um if we were to make a donation check out, do we make it to the Cladium Co-op and a tag on it that it's for a certain thing or >> I'm sorry. I >> If anybody wants to give a donation, how do they make the check out to the Cladium Co-op? >> Yes.

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>> And then do we put on the memo line >> Yeah. >> uh specifically >> for the roof fund or raise the roof. It's The project is called raise the roof, but you can also put it in the roof fund because that's totally separate from our other operating funds. So, we want to make sure it goes

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in the right right fund. Okay? >> Okay. Thank you. >> your question? >> Okay. But that would be secondary to the public, not for this is a letter of support for you to secure your grant. So, no fiscal impact to the town. Any other comments from the dais?

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Out to the public? Seeing none, bring it back. Clerk, please take the roll. >> Council member Royce? >> Yes. >> Council member Eberhardt? >> Yes. >> Council member Hayes? >> Yes. >> Council member Ziad? >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, council members.

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>> Um next up is public hearings and we have the second reading of ordinance 2026-03 annual updates to the capital improvement schedule public hearing. And I'll turn it over to Eva. >> It was presented last week

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[clears throat] for first hearing. I've put in the national gas line was put in and we removed the dog park wording. >> I move to approve this on second reading the ordina- of ordinance 2026-03 LP annual updates to the capital

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improvement schedule public hearing. >> I'll second. >> We have a motion, we have a second. Any comments from the dais? Out to the public? Seeing none, bring it back. Clerk, please take the roll. >> Council member Ziad? >> Yes. >> Council member Hayes?

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>> Yes. >> Council member Eberhardt? >> Yes. >> Council member Royce? >> Yes. >> Motion passed. Um okay, moving on to public hearing B, the resolution number 2026

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-05 annual updates to the capital financial strategy. Back to Eva. >> And again, this is a resolution for the 10-year capital improvement. This is will, along with the 5-year, be brought during budget time. So, it it's going to

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just get updated with the other one. And during budget, you'll go through the 10-year and a 5-year during budget. >> I move to adopt by resolution 2026-05 providing for updates to the 10-year capital financial strategy of the town of Lake Placid 2030 comprehensive plan

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technical support document. >> Second. >> That's yours. Is there anything else? >> I'll second. >> Everybody else's mics are dead. I'm not sure. They're giving me the look. >> So, we have a motion. We have a second.

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Any more comments from the dais of >> You turned it off? Are yours all off? Is yours working, Chief? Okay. Or you can share this one. >> [clears throat] >> Uh so, we have a motion. We have a second. Any comments from the dais?

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Out to the audience? Seeing none, bring it back. Clerk, please take the roll. >> Council member Sate? >> Yes. >> Council member Hayes? >> Yes. >> Council member Eberhardt? >> Yes. >> Council member Royce? >> Yes. >> Motion passes.

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Okay, moving on to the action agenda. Um Action item A, resumption of executive administrative authority of the mayor, limited reassignment of duties to the interim town administrator, acknowledgement for the record and

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authorization of a transition review by the town's auditor. I'm going to turn this one over to the town attorney. If you want to go ahead and brief us on this one, Mike. >> Um essentially, yes. Basically, what we're trying to do is reset the

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authority of the mayor. We have a resolution out there that essentially created a position of town administrator. That position is not currently filled. It's filled on an interim basis by the police chief.

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And there's also certain duties that come with that. And that's not filled. Um so it's rescinding that authority. And then at some point in time town council may take up how it wants to move forward with another resolution or something of that nature.

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Also, there's a set date of assuming certain financial responsibilities and certain certain things of that nature. Whenever you take over the books from an organization constitutional officer as Miss Hayes knows, in in evidence and all of that stuff, you want a drop dead date

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of when you really assume legal authority for that. And also have an opportunity for individuals to come in and look at discovered things. So that's what this item is about. And there's a recommended motion if council wants to move forward. If council doesn't, then they don't take

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any action. The motion's kind of long. We could have drafted a resolution to that effect. But that's essentially the issues and I'm available for questions. >> Quick question, Madam Mayor. Is it correct to assume that at some future meeting that you will come back

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to us I'm presuming as the chief has assumed additional duties that there's probably some increase in compensation. We'll have to amend some budgets or whatever. I assume you all will come back in the next month or so and

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we'll make budget amendments to to reflect whatever that is so that it's publicly transparent. >> And I'm prepared to have that discussion today because in the end it's a budget amendment. It's like a savings, right?

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Because we we're not going to backfill his position with somebody else. He's going to do dual. I'll pick up responsibility in that. And my recommendation for an increase in salary for the chief Chief and I've talked about it. It's He's picking up a lot

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right now and he knows it. And we don't want in any way the police department to suffer. So, he's going to be playing double duty. I'm going to be picking up some things so it's not carrying two jobs. Uh my recommendation is going to be a hundred nine thousand. So, it's it's

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lower than the hundred twenty thousand we've been paying to a town administrator. So, we don't have that pay. It's so it's a lot less. So, in the end without calculating what it was, it's actually a budget savings because we've got we're we're down a head count even and complete.

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>> So, to be clear the chief's compensation will be based on a hundred nine thousand dollars a year for the period of time he serves in that interim capacity. And then he will presumably return to his whatever his uh

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his compensation was until we get to the next budget year. >> Yes. And And that's common practice what we have been doing when we have interim like the um the utility director that Brandon has stepped up and he's taken

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that. So, when somebody takes on an interim position, we do an interim compensation for that period then it rolls back when the other one's >> I have absolutely no problem with that. I just wanted to kind of have it publicly out there so there wasn't weird speculation. >> I I appreciate that. And I don't think

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we need a motion for that because that's a sal- it's well, it's a it's not really a budget amendment. It's just a head count savings. And we hadn't been doing that when the utility director position wasn't full. It's something we can't do all the time

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going forward, but it's a at what point does it become under the mayor? You know, um versus it needs to come to town council for approval. I mean, I'm fine bringing any salary increase to council to just be transparent if that's the process we want to do.

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>> I'm good with I don't believe you need a motion to do that. That's within the budget. It's within the dollars earmarked for that position. That position is actually vacant. Um you've assumed the duties under the charter and you're carrying out those duties fully responsible for

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those duties. That's why the cutoff date of June the 15th. The police chief is assuming some of the duties that you assigned to him under the charter. The resolution doesn't really affect any of that and I can certainly defer to Ms. Osborne as anything she would need on the record as

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the dollars or motions or money, but I don't believe so. We don't need a budget amendment to do any changes. >> and Rachel I've already as Rachel and the HR role and her finance director role, we already had this discussion on where are

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we with the budget and and is this um fit within and and we agreed. >> But you would like the recommended motion us to vote on the recommended motion in order to put all this into the record, correct? >> And that's fine. It never hurts, right? So let's just do it

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to stay in sync and follow >> I'll make a motion to accept and place upon the record the mayor's assumption of the executive, administrative, and fiscal functions of the town as chief executive officer and chief administrator officer under the town charter to effective upon the vacancy of

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the town administrator's position to confirm that the interim town administrator exercises only those duties specifically assigned by the mayor and does not assume the authority of the town administrator position delegated under resolution 2024-29

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to conform confirm that neither the mayor nor the interim town administrator assumes responsibility for any financial or other decisions made under the authority of the town administrator position under resolution 2024-29

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prior to June 15th, 2026 to direct the preservation of all financial and related records of the town and to authorize the town's current auditor to conduct a review beginning with the financial town's financial records and to report any matter

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for referral to council. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any other comments from the dais? Out to the audience? Seeing none, bring it back. Clerk, please take the roll. >> Councilmember Royce?

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>> Yes. >> Councilmember Sapp? >> Yes. >> Councilmember Hayes? >> Yes. >> Councilmember Eberhart? >> Yes. >> Motion passes. Moving on to action item B, this is the town administrator position description. So, at the last meeting, you know, I

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said we'll come forward with a um a job description. And what I did is I took the job description we had previ- previous and then I researched a lot of different counties and kind of pulled a

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collection of uh those responsibilities and also the salary range. You'll see the salary range is a little low. Um it doesn't go up to the 120. Um a lot of the cities that are the same

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size of us, this is pretty much kind of the benchmark comparative. The 120 is like Avon Park, but they've got double the new employee size, double, you know, 10,000 employee um residents, so

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now, unless we want to change it, we can change the um the job range. That'll be settled whenever we decide who to to um to hire, but just to let you know, I did a lot of benchmarking with other job

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town administrator, city manager positions were up there. Um I hadn't had a chance to clear with Rachel on the the benefits, and so there's going to be a couple corrections is we don't under the benefits, we don't offer dental, so we'll scratch that off.

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And she let me know that we have 12 12 paid holidays. I think I put eight, so that was kind of on the other one. So there'll be corrections. Um and somebody had mentioned

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maybe we need to consider also requiring that the future town administrator move within the Highlands County area within so many months, 6 months, or something like that. I just throw that out there for this is a job description.

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Um so I'll take a motion, and then we can discuss what changes you would like to see, if any. >> So Madam Mayor, if I might I have one comment or a couple comments. Under the position summary, the last two

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sentences of first paragraph the administrator's authority is derivative. In fact, it is. The it is exercised under direction of the mayor and may be modified or withdrawn by the mayor. I guess my only comment is

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is that intended to mean on a moment's notice, upon notification? I mean, I I would encourage you to think about if there needs to be some clarity there so that as we hire some new man or woman, they aren't

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thinking on any given moment, you know, that authority may go away. And number two, under minimum qualifications, my only concern is it seems like we're asking

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an awful lot, especially if this person, if he or she is going to be kind of serving sans contract or without any real um security,

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and I'm just wondering if you might want to think about that language that talked more about the ideal candidate would possess instead of having some absolutes in there, so that as you are talking and interviewing candidates,

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if someone had 5 years of of experience instead of 6, you know, they they gave you some wiggle room. Um if someone had a degree in something other than business management, finance,

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accounting, you know, that if they were the the proper you felt they were the good candidate, I just think we need to give ourselves, this is kind of a very unique thing that we've kind of tussled with for a decade or so now. I

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just want to give you latitude as you start to interview people. Just for your consideration. >> Yeah, and that and I appreciate that because I think as it got to the 6 years, it's like, okay, if somebody's got a combination that they've been working, you know, they and they have a

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degree, well, that's the combinations of, you know, they've been doing this, they've got degree, and so versus putting out there 10 years, right? Or 2 years. So, it's trying to do the flexibility. Um and so the just a couple things that you

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had said. So at one point we'll come back with the new delegation of authority resolution, right? That that that will then probably clarify what the mayor's roles is, what the the authority that's being delegated down. Um my first meeting, what I had

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noticed is that delegation 2024-09 was like it over delegated. I mean, as the CEO, it delegated all of the financial down and you typically have the auditor's report up to the CEO del um internal controls, financial. So that

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was like an over delegation. So at one point we will come forward with a resolution on the delegations. On this one we haven't talked about it, but my my expectations and I'll come back at another meeting is, okay, now that we've got everybody applied, how are we going

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to narrow it down and last time we all interviewed, I would expect that that we would set up where we would all interview that. So we can come back at another meeting with this will be the process for the selection and how we collectively will go about the

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interviewing and the decision making. >> I I just I make the comments because our form of government per the charter is a little unique in the sense that most administrators, you know, they have to count to three. They you know, they have four or five bosses and in our form of government,

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basically we're saying you have one boss that you have to satisfy. And I I would think as we are we have people expressing interest, they're just going to want to know what is that process, you know, how does it work? And it at

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least to me, and I'm not saying we need to change it tonight, but as you work on this, I just think we need to have a little more clarity as you start to advertise this cuz I'm assuming that's questions you'll start to get. Thank you.

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>> And thank you. I mean, our hope is to get this cleaned up, to get it advertised this week. And then there'll be a month out there, and then we'll be able to summarize you know, the the and and as did before, right? You

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have a variety of people that apply. A lot don't have the qualifications at all, and you just narrow it down. Do you Do you want a motion and then discussion or the discussion now? The The proper way is the motion, the

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second, and then we'll discuss. >> So, I make a motion that we um proceed with this and open it up for discussion. >> I'll I'll second the motion, but I I have I have a question or two as well, but I'll second the motion for discussion.

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>> So, so go ahead with your questions, please. >> I'm looking here under uh minimum qualifications, number two, says master's degree in public administration, business administration, finance, or related field preferred.

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Does that mean that a master's degree is preferred or does that mean that a master's degree in one of those areas is preferred or could someone put in for this position without a master's degree?

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>> Yes, that's the the first bullet. >> That's the >> is a bachelor's degree. >> Yeah. >> So, a bachelor's degree, and then if somebody has a master's degree, it's it's preferred. And I think that will get as you start looking at the candidates that came come in.

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If we have some strong bachelor's, but you have some masters, so that's where you just look at it all collectively of the qualifications they have. >> So, it's it's kind of saying that if you have a bachelor obviously you have to have a bachelor bachelor degree

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to start. If you have a master's degree, you're a little bit higher than all the people that have a bachelor's without a master's. >> And it's hard to say that until you look at then the experience that they've had. So, the degree is one thing, what job

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experience they have and what role. So, you have to collectively look at a lot of it. But this will this should screen out those that don't have a bachelor's degree because I think that's a minimum that we would want. >> Yeah, I think that first statement would

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would clear that up. It did to me that you had to have a bachelor's degree before you even decided to try this. Yeah. Okay, thank you. >> My first comment is probably an easy one to say I never mind, don't worry about

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it. But it says that the person must be able to stand and walk. And is that ADA tricky ground? >> Yeah, there's a few there and lift [clears throat] something over 20 lb. So, there gets to be some

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interesting ones that come out as recommendations to put in there. And other cities have it also. So, not being an expert in HR on this, it was I found that was a couple of them were interesting and it was like nope,

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they're just common ones to put in there. >> Okay. And then drawing from the last conversations when we were going over the contract, would you want to put something in the salary range that increases in salary would be adjusted according to COLA with

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the possibility of merit? >> I personally would not because I would just keep that as part of the regular budget approval process for everybody's merits. >> Okay. And then um as far as >> But I mean I I mean I go ahead and then

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we'll open those comments up for further discussion. >> And then um the next one is um that it be like one of the preferred things. Um if they had an hour if they were knowledgeable of the Florida statutes regarding ethics and public records and

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Sunshine Law. >> I'm not clear is this an addition you're saying or is this something that's in here? >> for um uh the preferred things that they might have along with experience. So that and the reason I'm mentioning it is so that when we go through applicants, hopefully

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we'll get a bunch uh a lot of them and if we do a ranking matrix we can uh say well no knowledge of this was uh a preferred quality and then we can rank them and have concrete basis for doing the

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ranking on those matters. >> Okay, so I if you I need to know what your preferred >> Show your recommendations to add for preferred qualifications. >> for preferred qualifications is um knowledge of Florida statutes

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on ethics public records uh Well, you all you already have procurement granting and financials in there, but also um Sunshine Law. So it was um ethics, public records, and

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Sunshine Law. >> Okay. >> And then if you would add um so that they're not blindsided that uh if we have a a town of an emergency such as a hurricane um that you would serve as a lead that person would serve as the the lead for

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emergency management. >> I think that's you though, isn't it? Is that you? >> Yeah. Yeah, it's okay. Sorry. Sorry. Okay. Um let's see what else did we have here. Um Oh, and then the last one um

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oh, also coming from our last discussions with the contract is that they would have a 6-month performance review and an annual review thereafter. I think this going to be in our regular all the employees, but do you need to do you need to put that in here?

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>> So, I think what we've done in the past, and I'll look to um Mike, but this was the job posting, and then there was a separate document on the job and now I mean the job offer, and it had those types of things in

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there. And then that was what we had had in place all along, that these are the qualifications. Later, there is a job It's They didn't say an employment contract, but an employment agreement that was signed when the offer was made

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to the person, and that was in in there about the mayor at the evaluation. And then the third thing, as you recall in January, an employment contract came in, something different. So, I think a lot of what you're suggesting there would be part would be the next step.

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>> Okay, so then along with that, uh as far as the performance review, uh it would be in the agreement after everything is there windowed out uh as far as um mileage, um rather than a set so amount per month, due according to IRS standards on

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actual mileage in the agreement after the fact. >> That would that would be part of the compensation package. >> Yeah, right. But just to just to keep it kind of in mind in the compensation package that we should we should discuss if we want to

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do it that way versus a monthly. >> So the compensation package, okay, so the next step would be after we do the interviews and then we would come back and that would be where the decision of who to appoint and what the compensation package would be. And I think what

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you're saying if there's any additional benefits, I think you're referring to that today we pay the town administrator a car allowance. So you're saying in lieu of a car allow I mean that would be a discussion we'd come back and go over and decide.

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>> Okay, so >> On any I guess any traditional compensation package that the town administrator has previously had. >> Okay, so then for the purposes of this document, the only things I would add then is that um their knowledge of the uh ethics

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sunshine law and um what else I say um Florida statutes Florida ethics and sunshine >> Those are preferred qualities. >> Okay. >> Any other comments from the dais? >> I'm just curious >> [clears throat] >> if you were to find just the greatest

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person in the free world to take this position, this job description would not necessarily preclude you or the council from exceeding the salary range if if we just felt it was in the best interest of

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the town? >> That's a discussion we'll have to have. >> Okay, but it doesn't >> be it I mean and it's interesting, right? Because yeah, it is a Do you have to pay to get the top quality, but at the same time then we have to look at our town,

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our budget, and is it a competitive salary? So that that's going to be the tough one as we go through the process at one point. Are we going to be overpaying for this area? I mean, we've

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got about 52 employees. We've got 2,400 citizens. So, comparing to a Fort Lauderdale and so I mean, 120,000 is pretty healthy in a lot of big

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cities. That's what they get paid. So, it is it's going to be a tough one. And I think we'll just have to play that through with here's the here's the candidates we have, here's the qualification and this is kind of the pay range cuz a lot of them come in with this is what I want.

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>> Yes, these people are going to apply for these jobs knowing what we're offering. So, I don't think we're going to see anything someone's going to come in way over this and apply for a job that's out of the range that we're asking. If it doesn't meet the requirements, they probably won't even apply, would be my guess. So, that's all be a moot point. >> Yeah. And Council member Royce, if you could

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just jot those at the beginning you had a couple things that I needed to change or add if I didn't write them down. If there's some changes I need to do, I have Councilwoman Eberhard. >> No, I think I'm I'm good. >> with it as it stands? I think we're I

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think we're just going to I mean, we're going to work it through. >> I just I just know from being involved in these kinds of things in the past. I [clears throat] just want you to have the flexibility that if the right if you feel it's the

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right candidate that that this document doesn't hold your feet to the exact fire that you can't say, "Hey, let's advance this candidate for consideration." I just want you to have that flexibility. >> Appreciate that.

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Any other comments from the dais? Out to the public? Seeing none, bring it back. Clerk, please take the roll. >> Councilmember Eberhart? >> Yes. >> Councilmember Hayes? >> Yes. >> Councilmember Satt? >> Yes. >> Councilmember Ross? >> Yes.

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>> Motion passes. Thank you. Uh moving on to item C, resolution of 2026-06 state revolving fund loan, project number WW28022,

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resolution designating the office of the mayor as the town's authorized representative. And I think Rachel, you're going to come up and brief us. This one should be relatively fast. It's it's just paperwork to close out the SRF fund.

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The EP said, "Nope, I need a resolution that the mayor's authorized to sign that." >> Yes, so basically the resolution is asking for the mayor, our current mayor, to be able to sign the resolution or to be able to sign any documents to close out

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the loan. Currently, it's looking at the prior mayor, and so they wouldn't let just a form um kind of let her sign the form and then close out. They said, "No, we need a resolution to change the contract to put her on the contract in order to close out."

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So, it's basically just closing out the loan. >> I'll make a motion to adopt resolution 2026-06 designating the office of mayor as a town's authorized representative under the state revolving fund loan agreement for project number WW28022

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and authorize the mayor to execute the authorized representative certif- certification and distribution dis- disbursement request including the final disbursement. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any other

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comments from the dais? Out to the audience. Seeing none, bring it back. Clerk, please take the roll. >> Council member Royce. >> Yes. >> Council member Sapp. >> Yes. >> Council member Hayes. >> Yes. >> Council member Eberhart. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. Thank you.

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Um moving on to action item D, engagement of outside counsel on a contingency basis to file and preserve the town's claim in the 3M and DuPont water system settlements. And I'm going to ask um Attorney Durham

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to go ahead and take this item, please. >> Good evening, Council. The agenda item um briefs the issues. Essentially, we were approached by this law firm. Um they represent numerous individuals

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associated with this type of litigation. There are settlement funds available. They approached the town in writing with their materials. We had a staff meeting um with this particular firm. They gave us a background. There's been no other firms that have approached um the town.

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We apparently fit within the phase, I believe it is two settlement proceeds right now. We don't know for sure. And um there's a closeout date that's quickly approaching here in August, and their closeout date for

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taking new clients is um this week. So, we have a choice. Either we sign up and we at least have an opportunity to participate in these settlement proceeds, or we don't. The city of Sebring has indeed uh hired this law firm as well. It's all

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contingency base. I understand High Springs and North Port, they have confirmed it. I just haven't been able to get a briefing on it. I did talk to Mr. Swain up in Sebring. Recommendation is to at least proceed to see if we um

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can further benefit from the settlement proceeds. They will need some data from us. Um They'll run some tests. They'll pay for all of that and then we'll move forward. >> I move to authorize the mayor to execute the legal service contract and related documents with Bartlett Law

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Offices PC and Grossmann and Kelly LLP engaging outside counsel on a contingency basis at 1/3 of any recovery with no upfront cost to the town to file and preserve the town's claim in the 3M and DuPont public water system settlements

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MDL number 2 18 MN 2873 subject to further review of the engagement documents by the town attorney. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any comments from the dais?

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Out to the audience? Seeing none, bring it back. Clerk, please take the roll. >> Councilmember Sapp? >> Yes. >> Councilmember Eberhart? >> Yes. >> Councilmember Hayes? >> Yes. >> Councilmember Ross? >> Yes. >> Motion passes. Thank you. Um so now we'll just do a quick round

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table of staff if there's any um items for council. I think we'll start in the back. Alan? Thank you. Leanne? Dana? Rachel?

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Eva? Mr. Snyder? Okay, then. >> I don't have anything for the police department but would like to announce that we have begun the repairs on the air conditioning. Uh the air conditioning has been

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estimated to at 10 days per unit for repairs to be completed. So that should be complete before our next council meeting. >> Great. Thank you. Mr. Attorney? >> No comment. Council member Eva Hart.

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I hate to ask for one more thing for Rachel to do, but if you could find time to give us a spreadsheet that shows which what we have in reserves and what's been allocated and unallocated. So, when we're looking at projects, we know where

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we're we know where we had we if we have the funds or not. Yeah, we're going to have all that part of the budget process to the budget worksheet workshops. That's fine. Cuz I will pull that together, absolutely. Thank you.

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Councilman Sapp. Councilwoman Hayes. I just had a question. Um with reference to the bid document for pickleball courts, is it out or where are we with it?

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>> Um we had meetings last week. We're moving forward with that reviewing a lot of the grant documents. Um we have some bid documents, sample bid documents. So, I would hope we get that done within the next 10 days. I'm hoping that we have documents and get those out. Um I think

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we need to at least um make a make a good effort. We weren't planning on coming back to council because of the short timeline, but if council wants to see those bid documents, we could, but there's an issue. We don't want to put them on the street

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unnecessarily uh too soon as well. Um >> No, I I don't have any issue with that. I just wanted to be sure that something was happening, that it is indeed moving forward. >> Yes, Council. Um >> [clears throat] >> Kira Grows and I have talked. Dana

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Verdell is involved along with her um staff as well. And I think about every other day we've talked, she's reached out to the county getting some background. Eva has worked and provided all of her documents the following day last council meeting. So, we're trying to assemble it, put it together. The

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timelines are are a little interesting, so we may have to brief council on that as well when the grants stop and when you have to have the money's in kind of like our our sewer plant. You know, it might back up some construction dates, but we we really need to have this bid out probably

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August, I would suspect if if you want a um contract by >> definitely by August, yes. >> Yes. So, >> we're not going to make it in time. >> to get something out there and see what the money's are, definitely. So, we'll get that done. >> All right, thank you. Council member Royce. >> A couple very quick things. First of

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all, I'd like to thank the Lake Placid Insider for an excellent article on the car wash. I've been getting a few calls or a few comments about it and I thought that that article was expertly done, explained the timelines, blah blah

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blah. So, thank you for that. Number two, Madam Mayor, um if you can just give us a brief update in a minute what's going on in regards to the search for a new utility director. And I would also encourage you, again, we're going to do this meeting in an hour.

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I would again encourage you to start to think about how we go back to having one meeting a month and so we aren't you know, devoting a whole bunch of staff time. Someone Forget our time, there's probably a lot of preparation for a second meeting for staff and doing all this. So, if if you start to feel we

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can accomplish the same thing in an extra hour of one meeting, let's go back to one meeting. Thank you, ma'am. >> Yes. >> Happy 4th of July to everybody. >> And thank And and just on that, that that's kind of the direction I want to go is to get us back to one meeting and

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also not have staff attend the meeting unless there's an item that they're presenting because my feeling is between the town administrator and the mayor, we should be able to answer most of the questions that may come up for the staff member not sitting there. >> [snorts]

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>> Um and if not, we'll say we don't know, we'll get back to you. So, to try to try to respect their time, they've had a long day and they sit through these meetings. So, those are a lot of the improvements that we are looking to put in place. Okay, I don't have anything

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with that. 6:29, meeting adjourned.