something we are March 182 Council Town council meeting thank you uh and I have I guess let's stand for the first
states to the for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and jusice for all we can just have a moment of silence for those who are suffering in the world around us he I have a roll call please
Valerie council member Shore present council member danowski absent council member manilia pres vice mayor Herzog here mayor Kane present Town manager rala here Town attorney
tvia Public Works director Gant present okay any additions deletions or modifications of the agenda we do have some okay um go ahead we did not include in the agenda the committee appointments because they were
not complete and the direction has been not to include incomplete items however we received all of the nominations as of today and with your Indulgence would like to add the item for the nominations
to the Committees to this agenda Mr tvia are we on solid legal ground to do so you may do so okay everybody in favor of adding I with that mayor this will be item number nine under regular agenda okay um no it'll be it'll be eight 8 a
you mean like right after eight correct n oh correct okay um did you have something you need to say phis no okay Al righty um so this is the time is
there anything else fine how is that being presented it's got to be a resolution or they're being presented as nominations and then they have to be vetted and then they'll be presented at a resolution on April 1 right they're
just being publicized basically for transparency tonight the just as a point of information for everyone the ordinance was changed Last Summer and in the ordinance change there's a nomination then the nominees fill out a
form the form is vetted for any um code violations and also certain committees have required qualifications and then we bring back most likely the same people in a resolution for the official
appointment does that make sense Robert yep okay need a motion to May on a second I think Valerie has something yes Val just for the record I want to state that the approval of the minutes include all of the community uh discussion and the regular um meeting
minutes for the meetings of September 18th October 1st and November 12th thank you you're welcome okay I need a motion to approve the agenda motion approve the agenda as written in adding item 8A second nominations for Town board and
committee appointments oh um excuse me there's a misprint on item 11 or do we do that later if you're accepting the agenda at September 17th it should be saying September 17th
because it got changed to a Wednesday it's actually on page 69 of the agenda it's a scrier error it's the calendar for the Town Council um which we have to modify this time of year because this is when the county announces their budget
dates so the meeting is Wednesday September 17th and we can fix the scrier era there okay so I have a motion in a second all in favor none opposed passes four to
zero okay this is the time for public comments on non-agenda items do we have any public comments Mr Austin to thank you for your service congratulations all
new um I appreciate that the town is starting to crack down on the out of control RV issues but as I stated before year around campers NE grov with a few exceptions like the work at the horse farmer nurer Night Guard is not a good idea you're giving warnings of property owners who are themselves or have people
live in campus for years on their property when they should be getting fined and until they compli we can now apply for a 5year permit and every 6 months claim you have tenant you know they're going to play games or that or they stay six months on C Road and they s with their friend on D Road they just move back and
forth so in the end we have solved little to nothing we have people are complaining about a high-end RV park with about 200 more trips that are going to be on Southern Boulevard of major State Road when we have a probably over 300 plus illegal tenants in the Groves year round driving up down our hometown
Le roads if this new version of the RV program doesn't really change anything we were going to have to have an outright ban on them throughout the Groves just like Wellington again with a few exceptions or we're not going to get straightened out we are still known as a Dumping Ground for trailer storage and big rig parking on Facebook they tell
people to go to the Groves you can do anything out there people are still buying here and expecting to use the property for heavy equipment storage or camping spots running from camping spots to pay for the land a friend overheard a conversation one man tell another man
just buy poery in the Groves to park your trucks and rent storage and by the time they do anything about it you'll made a ton of money and then you just sell it as we see on fome road just South as day property move your large landscaping business right on a residential lot office trailers and all your trucks and employee parking that's
crazy I am probably one of the first people to fill out the affidavit for my personal use not rent a camper and I still received a certified letter along with a gate hanger which tells me there isn't really a good system in place for tracking all this because I probably shouldn't have got that since I'd already filled out the P proper
paperwork and one more thing as Jennifer stated last month if you don't move ahead with the foreclosure on hide Park he'll just keep Breaking All the Rules he still has apartments with whole families living in them and they are currently building another building on the property and supposedly has a pig operation going to I'm not really a big code enforcement person but when we have
so many people moving in who are twisting or love it and leave it alone attitude and something that it wasn't meant to be we can't ignore all these issues that have been building up for years because of little or no enforcement thank thank you that's all we have 22 minutes to meeting should
we start we can you previously decided that you can go straight into the meeting after everybody okay going straight into the meeting Robert you okay Mar yes is Laura on her way she not coming okay not to
come as long as the rest of the council's here okay right I have something a little bit different tonight um so one of the things uh that I wanted to do um as at the end of my term as mayor of my first
Year's mayor is to um give just kind of like a little bit of a summary a little State of the State of the town instead of State of the Union Address so um if you'll bear with me there are printed copies of this available I'm not there's a lot of material here so I'm
summarizing some stuff okay but I want everybody to be aware of all the really great things that we've done so good evening residents business owners and partners of lahache groves today I stand before you with a clear and simple message we're looking for Solutions so we can move forward over the years we
faced many challenges from significant storm activity to the complexities of growth and development through every challenge our community has stood firm in one belief that preserving the rural character of lahi groves is not just a goal it's who we
are we know what we don't want we don't want unchecked growth that erodes our L rural lifestyle we don't want decisions that compromise our unique Landscapes or our community Traditions but simply knowing what we don't want is no longer enough throughout many visioning efforts
and strategic planning initiatives we've heard the same message from our residents and leaders protect our rural character support responsible growth preserve open spaces and invest in our infrastructure but time and again while we've worked towards these goals we've
fallen short on fully bringing these solutions to action or to life Now's the Time to change that it's time to take another look I'm recommending and hoping that we can take a vote either tonight or at the next meeting on having another Ving section perhaps something a little
bit more in-house and not with an outside consultant where we really tap on the talents that we have on Council and here in our community and try to bring the whole Community back to the table revisit what we've committed to so many times before but do it a little bit
differently this time this time Vision it into actionable strategies that tie in with our budget and with timelines and deadlines that people can be held accountable for that we as council members that staff can be held accountable and that you as Citizens can be held accountable
for then we can all stand behind these goals goals as we share them together put them into life and bring them to fruition hopefully despite the challenges we've had we also have made tremendous progress in the last couple of years and I want to touch on a few things um we
have several projects that are actively moving because sometimes it's invisible what we do around here so we have several projects that are moving forward right now and I I want everybody to be aware of them first of all in 2023 we received our rural designation this was key this was key to us being able to
first of all it protects our Agriculture and Rural lifestyle second of all it it allows us to be exempt from matching to any state funding which is also a huge thing um recently when I was in Tallahassee with another council member
um we met with the Department of Commerce and uh who oversees this and to request not just another two-year extension but an extension a five-year extension um and they're actually going to come visit us and uh tour the town and they're very interested what we're
doing here what our successes have been and us as a unique rural community because we're so surrounded by we're not like your standard rural community we're not out in the middle of nowhere Florida we're actually surrounded by development and growth and they want to come see how we're struggling with and achieving our
goals and hopefully help us to achieve them further so I'm very excited for that visit to happen sometime in the near future um we've also updated our water control plan with Comprehensive updates that is going to allow us to uh seek funding to do some repairs and
changes in those areas those updates of those those reports will be the driving force behind our future funding strategies which includes grants cost sharing Partnerships and also um Partnerships with other agencies as well as with land owners in town um we have a
vulnerabil vulnerability assessment that's currently underway um and we did receive a $350,000 no match Grant from resilient Florida to conduct this study um with that we can look at inventory our swes
and our coverts and see what's working and what's not working and try to get an idea of what we need to do moving forward um this grant also lets us apply for more grants it's like a it's like a stepping St once you finish this one it puts you in the right place for the next one so that that's a real key one um
it's helped with um we've also updated our fdas um some things in the ulc drainage requirements there's more work to do but we we have got made some significant progress in this area we're also adopting or trying to a rural
roadway standards um which hopefully will maintain the aesthetic of what we have for our roads and give us some enhanced accessibility for equestrians cyclists pedestrians and balance the long-term sustainability of these
projects um we also have a made a comprehensive update to our rural Vista guide ID lines for those of you who aren't familiar with those were those were guidelines that our for lack of a better term founding fathers came up with of what our community should look like um and while they've been kind of a
um template that people have been asked to use they're now being incorporated into our ulc so they're a requirement it's no longer just a we'd like you to do this it's you have to do this you have to you have to maintain this this Vision that we have with us um we also
implement Ed finally an RV program which is not perfect Mr Austin I agree with you 100% but you got to start somewhere and at least we have something in place and through comments like yours and feedback from the community we can see what's not working with what we have in place and hopefully make some tweaks moving forward to make it a more
sustainable and um userfriendly program um and to have the desired effect um on the for the town um we also are working very hard on connectivity of Trails design um this is something that's near and dear to my
heart um I am pleased to announce that the trail along grouper Lane and the trail along East were open this week um this last P week so that's super exciting I have a vision of this whole connectivity through the whole town of us being able to ride our horses or walk
our dogs or ride our bicycles just anywhere throughout the town and it's super exciting we submitted a $1 million Grant to the TPA to assist in this process and we also have submitted another $350,000 request to the state to connect the EP road trails to the county trails
at North Road so those grants are both in at this time um the trail system is being reviewed by Rec gag I'm pleased to announce to them any I see a couple of them here that I will be bringing to your meeting on Thursday night a um pictures of the new trails because I
have to um nice blown up ones but also um also um a map that that I worked on with public works that has um Trails we have trails that are in progress Trails we'd like to have um so
you guys can take a look at that and see about connectivity for the future um we've also implemented a townwide signage program trying to get control over um improving Road Safety enhancing visibility and uring that our
infrastructure meets needs meet the needs of the growing community and the growing and increased traffic uh it's a whole list of what we've done um ongoing and upcoming projects we've got equestrian safety signs golf cart
ordinance signage speed limit signage 25 miles per hour directional signage all of that is in the works um we adopted and began implementation of a cap of a CIP plan a capital Improvement plan um for known infrastructure
needs you're going to really get kind of shrink at these numbers I know I do every time I see them but we had to put numbers with this stuff so we know what it is that we're asking for and what it is that we're looking at for a complete Canal bank restoration and stabilization the number is $80
million for drainage system and upgrades and storm water improvements $7 million for interior drainage system expansion $2 million for Pump Station modernization two and a half million for retrofitting our existing control
structures a half a million dollars for new installation of needed control structures in the middle of town two $2.1 million uh North Pump Station installation a million dollar scad system improve system implementation a
million3 comprehension drainage system review half a million Public Works building planning and construction for the building that's falling down around our Public Works people $2 million and the fiscal year 2025 through 2030
ra road pavment projects $5 million plus so those are some big numbers you all have them in front of you this is what we're working at this is why we're we're pushing for Grants everywhere we can we currently have five applications totaling $15 million
in um we also have seven more submissions totaling nearly $93 million so we're asking we're asking the town staff is working really hard and we're asking everywhere we can okay um not going to do the individual
improvements there it's all in here I'm not being you I'm not being non-transparent it's all in here itemized for you everything that we had as thoughts but and that I had as thoughts but I'm not going to read it all okay um at the state level we've appropriated $1.5 million in the past
two years and we're requesting another $1.5 million this year with no matching again that ryal designation really helps um all right so we've also received
thank to some of our residents perseverance a $7,500 forestry Grant working with a resident um for art it's an artwork Grant and murals we just have to figure out where we want to put it to try to beautify some of the eyesores that we have um around and uh the rec
tag will be working on that um and finally we have three Grant acve Grant applications in PL process through the Treasure Coast Regional planning Council so if you don't think we're out there asking know that we are that there's a lot of hard work going into this this isn't a simple
process okay um we're also elevating our voice and visibility through strategic advocacy so this is important more than ever this year um there are numerous issues being considered in Tallahassee not good ones for us and not
good ones for for any rural community there's one in consideration right now to take away your right to have rural borders which we worked really hard to get our sh up so keep an eye on what's going on up there these things aren't good um and we
have to fight against them um but they could impact us greatly structurally and financially with the help of both our state lobbyist and as he recommended a local lobbyist we've successfully entered conversations that we were previously excluded from
these efforts have not only opened doors for critical funding but have also Amplified our voice in legislative discussions so it's no longer just about seeking funding it's about ensuring that lock aachi grow is being heard our concerns and priorities are now
recognized by legislative and Regulatory Agencies at both the state and local levels for instance our on our recent trip to Tallahassee the visit with the Department of Commerce as I told you about was not only successful but it was a huge success from them requesting to come here that's big guys that's really
big and I'm super excited about taking them around town um through these advocacy e efforts we've positioned ourselves to be more competitive for Grants and other funding opportunities while also advocating for regulations and policies that support our rural lifestyle a major Milestone of our last
year was the adoption of our comprehensive plan which sets the framework for how we preserve our rural character support sustainable development and protect natural resources however adopting a plan is just beginning to fully realize our vision we must now streamline and update
our ulc those of you who got appointed to the ulc committee you got a lot of work ahead of you a lot um to align with the adopted comp plan and reflect the goals and priorities of our town um the Agri
Tourism Committee uh is an ad hoc committee that was created to review those UL sex selections and state statutes those the the Agri Tourism Committee which was an ad hoc committee has now made recommendations those recommendations need to go to ulc then they need to come to council so there's
some still a little bit more work to do there um and along the way we had a committee that met and then it was sunsetted or shut down um and then we reopened it and as we were getting ready to Sunset it again a couple of issues came up with events that were happening
in Agri tourism facilities in the town and you know they had to go back and revisit a couple of the things so um I I'm hoping maybe that that ad hoc committee can be kept sunsetted but kept alive because again this is part of our
growing pains right this is a new thing and as it emerges issues are going to come up where we may need to call on these people um we're also working on making the what we call a uh business Corridor on Southern Boulevard this is
so that those that section can be preserved as a as a buffer as a commercial buffer to our rural community um and so that we we're partnering with treasure coat on that Coast on that um and hopefully we can move that forward in the next eight months to a year
hopefully we can get that in place um that also allows us that that promotes uh sustainability it creates buffers that protect the rest of us um we can introduce branding beautification and safety elements within there historical
murals perhaps with some of Darcy's money um intense connectivity and drainage systems with that modernize safety infrastructure promote utility conversions and support Financial stability by leveraging P public safety and infrastructure improvements to
secure more critical funding um we value the co concept of government light a model that emphasizes efficiency and cost Effectiveness but let me be clear government light doesn't mean understaffing it means having the right people the right expertise and the right
context to get the job done well um in the past year we've switched inh to in-house building and code enforcement which has significantly reduced complaints in town we've revamped Public Works um which is an ongoing process but it's been totally revamped and has
become I believe a lot more transparent um we've published reliable Mowing and Grading schedules um and we've built a very strong and healthy relationship with FEMA in fact our Public Works director was out with them today trying to get our money back from the last storm so hopefully that'll
happen much more quickly than the almost two years that it took last time to get that money back um we really moved the needle here as far as our connections um the Partnerships that we had during the tornado were hurricane tornado ttic
activity that we had here in town were incredible people were amazed at how quickly we were we were one of the first towns to get back on our feet and that's pretty remarkable for a small town like this um the neighbor and this goes to everything like our Partnerships with
Asher and Coastal um our C our lgla and even the neighbors helping neighbors program which was just two citizens who got together and said we're going to make a difference and they did um and they stepped in where Town Town employees couldn't step in and it was really extraordinary if anybody had the
opportunity to take a part of that in that program there's a whole list of other wonderful things we've done but um I'm going to move on to uh our commitment to sound government and our responsible fiscal management
we've identified the need for a comprehensive review and we've updated an update of our planning and zoning and building fees an update that is long overdue our existing fee schedule was developed five years ago by an outside contractor since then the market has
changed significantly as at building codes and regulatory requirements our current fees no longer reflect the true cost of service or align with current market conditions all of that will support Community growth again in a h in a healthy and responsible fashion so my
message tonight is a call to action we've made significant progress but there's more to be done we cannot afford to keep stopping short of action we cannot keep building plans only to leave them on the shelf and we cannot settle for almost any longer Now's the Time to
finalize our strategic vision and put it into action so again I would like to and I'd like to put a deadline on us of June for to have another strategic meeting and to have some have Town people and we had what 125 people there last time I'd like to have that many there this time
and hear where everybody is and in in our new state um revisit previous and that that at that meeting I'd like to revisit previous commitment look at New Perspectives um and ensure that our strategic plan is a collective
Vision um a community meet meeting during June is ideal because that's sort of the very tiptoe beginning of our budgeting process and I really want to tie these things this this visioning moving forward to money to dollars dollars we have dollars we want to have
um and so that they're real because it's not real we can all sit here and say that we want you know unicorns in our backyard but if you don't have the money to buy the unicorns then you can't have them right so have it be a real a real thing um we want action plans that Define measurable
goals and hold ourselves accountable for it and we want transparency and accountability providing regular Community updates so it's not just going to be one one and done it's not going to be just one meeting and done it's going to be some kind of a regular I don't know what they call them huddles where you know h hdle with the Council on
sometime or huddle with the mayor I don't know how we would do it but where you can just come in and and give your feedback how's it going how's it not going um beyond what happens here at these meetings um no surprises no shortcuts super important so the message is my message is very clear tonight it's
time for Action um we have the comprehensive plan we have the rural designation we have the staff and the Partnerships in place and now we need to finish the work that we've started we're not a community that backs away from challenges it's not who we are
and this is a big one we're a community that meets them head on so together I think that we can take the steps necessary to build a stronger a more resilient and a more sustainable oahi grows no more delays no more stopping short it's time to move forward with action with purpose and with a
commitment to Vision to deliver the future that we all have envisioned for so long thank you very much everyone okay we are now on to the approval of the minutes item number two was that P that was that was
actually approved under consent with the rest of it or should we do a I would make a motion to approve let's make a motion to approve the minutes has everybody had a chance to review them Mar you had some questions about it or no good can I have a motion to approve the minutes
motion to approve the minutes second all in favor okay on to the regular agenda item number three acceptance of the March 11 2025 election results thank you mayor uh for well we
had our election on March 11 2025 uh for Town Council seat four we had three candidates Paul T Coleman the second who had um 100 well a total of 227 votes casted
Steve Hoffman 57 votes Brian William zanowski 70 votes and for lockah hatche Groves question one 227 people voted yes 81 people voted no thank you mayor can we have a motion
to accept the official municipal election results yes we can can we can I have a motion to accept the election result I'll make a motion to accept the official election results second all in favor I oppos passes four to zero okay we're on to
item number four which is recognition of our outgoing Town Council Members Miss danowski is not here tonight so Robert it's the Robert sh all right thank you just uh do I just say something or are you doing something
you'd like to say something feel free to say something we have a little something here for you all right it's been it's been a pleasure and honor a privilege to sit up here a lot of great exciting things have happened uh as you know six years ago we
just merged The District in the town three months before we got on Council three of us me Laura and lisel Ry so it was really the first time that we were a town one board one group you know moving
forward in a Direction so it was uh a lot different than it is to day six years later let me tell you that so um but uh it's been an honor it's it's you know I never grew up thinking I'd ever sit up here it just happen that
way um I will say though you know being mayor it's it's a ceremonial position and this is your term limit Marg your last year so I hope March gets to be mayor because when I look at
back at the Vision the people that decided to become a town can you imagine today if we weren't a town all the development that would occur every five acre 10 acre 20 acre
would have 10 houses 15 I mean it would be unrecognizable and you know in 2000 well you all started that in three or four it took a few years to get the ball rolling but uh I hope she has the honor
privilege of serving as mayor because it is a ceremonial position and she does a great job running the LG so um I hope she's afforded that opportunity that's it thank you very much okay you'd like to come up Robert something for
you you like there I don't know up in the front in front of the reads inog of your service and dedication council member in former mayor 2019 through
2025 it's gonna go on my wall tonight I've got the hanger for you right here your box do I get down now yes sir okay here you go let me give you all this so it doesn't get messy sorry everybody for the
housekeeping here all day and Paul you are looking sharp tonight buddy I love it set a high bar so well already scr okay moving on we are ready for item number five to administer the Oaths oath
of office to council member Lisa El Ry seat number two I ryy Solomon swear Solomon swear or affirm affirm that I will protect but I will protect and defend and defend the
Constitution and government Constitution and government of the United States of the United States and the state of and the state and the charter of the town of and the charter of the town of that I am d qualified that I am du qualified to hold under the Constitution to hold office under the constitution in state
of Florida of the State of Florida and the charter of the town without gr and that I will well and Faithfully perform and that I will well and Faithfully perform the duties of council number Lisa ladies first which seat
would you like you want be on the right or go left we may be playing musical chairs in a minut okay you'll go down there okay we're now going to administer the oath of office to Paul Colman the second seat number four
I I second I Paul second do Solly swear or affirm do Solly swear or affirm that I will support protect and defend that I will support protect and defend the Constitution and the government the Constitution and the government of the United States of the United States the State of Florida and the State of
Florida and the charter of the town of LA and the charter of La town of lock statute gr that I am duly qualified that I'm duly qualified to hold office to hold office under the Constitution under the constitution of the State of Florida of the State of Florida and the charter and the charter of the town of loat gr
of the town of loat gr and that I will well and I will well and Faithfully perform and Faithfully perform the duties the duties of council member of council member on which I about to enter on which I'm about to enter only one chair left one
chair digal chair you got the last one okay we're now moving on to item number seven this is neighbor again I know consideration of approval on resolution number 20254 a resolution of the Town Council
of the town of lahache groves Palm Beach County Florida electing a mayor for the ensuing year 2025 2026 and providing an effective date hey we need I would like to make a motion um for resolution
20254 and 20255 um May I Council squash them together I'd like to make a motion for Anita Kane to be mayor and Mar Herzog to remain as vice mayor as they've done a wonderful
job and uh for the past year it's up to the mayor really whether she wants to consider them together or one at a time I think you should consider them separately okay make a motion to um for Anita Kain to be mayor second all in favor I I
oppos okay passes four to one make a mo motion 20255 for Mar Herzog to remain vice mayor second all in favor I I I okay passes
five zero we're on to item eight a appointees that's Jeff right yes ma'am yes it is and I'll try to be very quick because the town manager went over
it I think briefly in her opening comments last year there was an ordinance pass and the nomination and selection process for board members changed a little bit first
of all board members now serve um at the pleasure of uh the individual who appointed them and they therefore serve an indeterminate term uh but it will be no
longer than the time period that they're pointer is in office for that particular term uh so thetion that are made and I think we
have them all for uh the Committees if you could take a look in there and make sure that we got them correct for your particular appointees agrotourism as was mentioned um has Sunset it but the it is an ad hoc committee at this point in
time um the two new council members have uh decided that they're not ready to to make an appointment or they haven't indicated to us who those appointees would be um but otherwise that's the the list
that you have I would note for example to see understand the system if you look at the the ulc committee we have four members who are the same as
the previous uh addition of the ulc committee yes we do uh that they weren't appointed by those people that was okay God you just jumped way ahead of me you know confused I was confused all right
so um there is one one appointment Jose celano that is an existing appointment um and then there are four new appointments because although these folks have served three of them have
served on the board they are appointed by um new uh council members um and so and then you have the the fourth Mr Johnson um who
is uh appointed by Marge uh council member Herzog vice mayor Herzog I should say um and that's that's considered a new appointment um so Mr Austin he's a new appointment because
even though he was on the committee before it is the first time he's been appointed by Mr Coleman and uh you have a situation in which his term will now coincide with councilman
Coleman's term uh and councilman Coleman decides uh to make a change or Mr Austin decides to make a change so that's the way the system uh will work the Town
Clerk will send out uh an application form review the application and if everything is uh in order we will place that on your April 1 agenda um for confirmation of the new
appointments so what action would you like us to what action would you like us to take tonight if any do we need to make a motion to approve this slate at this point in time you do not need to make a motion individually you should check and make sure that the communications that you
made to staff are accurately reflected here for your particular appointments uh and if you want to talk about or discuss the uh whether agrotourism should be um
brought back into the the sunshine instead of the the sun setting um or wait for another time period that would be something you could discuss and give us Direction on okay bis first then Lisa ahead um so in the past it seems like um
sometimes committees were not full um occasionally because perhaps the council members really didn't see the value in the Committees so I would like to bring back
the ordinance also I think the committee should not be um um anyway steered by the council members I think the whole idea of these committees is that they come back to us with their
own um ideas things they came out up with free of the council and uh that is my idea is to get the opinion of the people um however the Committees that are not um full I think the rest of the
coun council should at least be able to appoint temporary people so this way these committees can move forward um those are two of my suggestions for the next meeting okay Lisa you are
next I do agree with council member manilia on on the fact that these need to be independent committees I would also suggest that Council Works to uh provide guidance and uh assignments for those
committees with deadlines and my question for my fellow council members for discussion is uh what was the status at the time of the sunsetting of the AGR tourism and the issues that were still outstanding that you would like uh feedback on so we've actually never gotten the
feedback even from the first committee it's never come back to council so that's the issue it was the first committee made recommendations and then they Sunset it and then the second committee was brought forth and they reviewed those recommendations and reiterated them and
then there was a subsequent incident in town which had them meet again and review them again to add to add a little bit of teeth to it okay A little bit of difference to it and so now where it stands is there recommendations need to go to ulc then those recommendations
need to come from ulc to us so we can actually vote on them and have them so this is why I'm suggesting that we keep them sunsetted but in the staff them and keep them sunsetted but in the background can can we move forward with um the AGR tourism with a set date like
a 90day date or something to get back to us well I guess that depends on how long it takes for that to get through ulc right that that what they suggested already has to go to UL see first then it comes to us okay I'm I'm sorry I thought you said
they hadn't made any suggestions no they did they made their recommendations they have to go to ulc so why does this committee then need to exist if they've already made recommendations to because if they make the recommendations ulc and ulc then makes those recommendations to us and there's something we don't like
about them or we want to change about them we might want to send it back to that committee that's why I'm suggesting we keep them in our pocket if you know what I mean keep them ready to go necessary but they're sunsetted so they're not an active committee so what's the reality of if they've already
made their suggestions it's already moving forward to ulc we're going to have a ulc committee they have a timeline obviously to bring that forward back us with their suggestions can we still not put a date certain on that I
don't know you'll have to ask staff can we put a date certain on that when the why don't we when we bring back the ordinance on the Committees bring also an outline of what the Committees are working on and suggest some dates for start and finish for instance ulc has
just finished rural Vista and then they also start the sign code I believe in May and then um they would get to AGR tourism after that so I'd hate to say 90 days and put that level of work on you
DC I understand was happy to meet so seems like a reasonable time frame but yeah absolutely yeah we we can put a time frame together and we can modify that too I do have um an appointee that I haven't heard from on that I can make them a suggestion um at this time but I
can't commit them fully well so we've got a couple links to lab first so just try to do oh I thought we wanted it tonight okay we we are using just to clarify for the record we're using your nominations to send out to everyone the
qualifications the application or whatever we call it so that we can follow the ordinance and vet um for qualifications and any outstanding code actions and like I said you know they can come back to us when they get the
form but correct me if I'm wrong the ad hocs have a different qualification anyhow because like with ad hoc they don't have to be residents and things like that so right exactly I think Jeff's memo covers the differ yeah they have to be land in those circumstances but they're they're
broken down slightly yeah they don't have to be so just to clarify we need to bring back the ordinance setting up the Committees so that we can look at um you know any modifications and then for each of the Committees we will bring back the
schedule that they're currently working on um plus the things that we know need to go to them with um a starting point for their schedule okay thank you Paul yeah I I agree with Phyllis um you know
I had the opportunity and the privilege to serve with for these folks on the ulc committee recently and I remember bringing something up and I was instructed that we were by the direction of council and it was actually a good direction to go in but you know it was
kind of like our hands were tied we were trying to kind of push some stuff forward get some stuff done cuz we knew the small time frame crunch that we had cuz we really didn't start meeting till I think October um my qu my question about agrotourism and I I I I just I I what is the purpose
of this committee because what what I'm see what I what I heard was they we had an incident and they made a recommendation and now it's got to go to ulc AGR tourism is governed by the state of Florida so I'm I'm kind of try I'm a little ahead just you know confused with
what we're what we're doing well you're making a really good point um we um have a lot of Agri tourism in town and we also have a lot of existing code that doesn't necessarily fit this town and it
especially doesn't fit some AG tourism folks so our attorneys came forward with a recommendation to clean up the code that would um support the Florida Statutes relative to AGR tourism um
based on discussion and public meetings um the AGR Tourism Committee was com was formed with a Sunset date for them to go through the different sections recommended by our attorney in our ulc and come up with some recommendations
and I may miss one but the group the first group's recommendations were relative to traffic impacts that the whole town needs um a traffic um circulation plan the second thing was
with respect to special events that everybody needed to follow special event rules because the way the state rules are the rules for AGR tourism need to apply to everyone or no special rules
apply for AGR tourism so the other things with regard to light and sound and those type of things in our code right now for instance we have a 50 deel um from the property line require
reement in the evening or after a certain time and during the day it's 55 DB normal farm equipment is much louder than that and right now if we checked my voice out it's probably 75 or 80 DB so
they said we needed to go back and look at that so what their recommendations were were that we need to go back and look at the ulc relative to traffic impacts relative to light noise um
events operating hours those type of things and then the second group looked at those same recommendations they confirmed or you know validated those recommendations and then they decided something different than the first group
what they decided based on an event was that there probably were some standards for how many people can be on certain size properties and how many cars or how many trips can be on our roads in a
certain period of time and so they tasked um the staff to go find what those metrics are and for instance if I recall and I I could be wrong but one of the metrics was no more than a 100 cars
on one acre so let's say you have one acre designated for parking for your event you could not have more than 100 cars on your property so there were a series of small changes
like that to various sections of the ulc so it would be very relevant to bring those changes through the ulc as opposed to agrotourism again now that being said the mayor did mention that there's a lot of stuff going on in Tallahassee this
year and while I don't know which way the pendulum will swing a number of those things could impact Agri tourism in our town which by the way is one of the reasons the Department of Commerce is so interested in us because it's a good thing so so their their mission as
it were is to break down the ulc with as with with regard to what pertains to AGR tourism and they did that right and then review what the state's putting
forward and make a recommendation is that they looked at the Florida Statutes and they looked at RC and and so for instance we're not doing anything to you know conflict conflict so that's what we're doing we're not we're not I guess
my point is is and maybe this is a a question for the attorney but I mean so we're not trying to augment or change to regulate we're not trying to regulate okay make sure everything's Jing okay all right that that's my my my concern was is that this
thing was in place to start you know changing the ulc to increase things that didn't follow with the state and then we'll put us in all right correct it's actually to make sure that there is nothing onerous placed on agrotourism
and to make sure that if there is anything that we need to consider in town that it applies to the whole town I.E as opposed to traffic impacts from agrotourism it's traffic impact throughout the town and if it's noise
it's not noise from agrotourism it's noise throughout the town right so it's just to fix ulc to more properly scale and scope in the words of my predecessor the town's
activities match the town not revise the statutes I answered that perfect thank yeah um one of the frustrations I felt as a council member is that um a lot of time and effort went into uh
picking the right person for the right committee and then all of the work that these committee members did didn't get reported back to uh to the council you
know so it was like hit or miss you know what what's going on and H how can we encourage people to step forward to help the town you know if we're not doing
anything with the help they're offering us so I I I think the Committees need to be on a regular basis you know we went for years with no committees
meeting you know so I if we want these committees and we do need these committies then let's make sure that we make time for them and figure out a way you know that if it's a problem with
staff not being available maybe there's a legal way that we can get around not having staff there and and let's move forward and and stop this you know game playing that we're doing I mean um one
of the the biggest things that was frustrating was the finance committee uh for some reason you know during all of the budgeting period where where I mean the council was counting on help and
direction for uh areas where you know we needed to take action they they weren't meeting so I I think they met with four times last year they met with a fairly frequent schedule throughout the budget process and they
also did meet I think four times prior to the budget and they reviewed the monthly reports never was any question or anything raised this year they have not been meeting um and we are in the process of switching accounting um firms
and they will be making their report I believe it's in May and you are getting a contract for a new accounting company in April um we have had a problem and I am certainly willing to let Mr CTS talk about this but we've had a problem
getting timely reports from the company that we have been using um so once we complete the audit that we are in the process of and it's my understanding we're getting a draft in two weeks once that audit is over we are switching accounting firms so I think that there
were a couple things that happened additionally during the budget is the fact going to get an opportunity to review the audit like of course they are like they have in the past the audit partner has already put the fact meeting or if they're staying with the same type of schedule that they had he's already
put the April um meeting which I don't recall the date on his calendar and he has put the May council meeting on his calendar to come forward um and I know that they're working Fast and Furious because we're supposed to get like I said a draft in the next couple weeks so
when the fact meets in April with the auditor will they have some kind of financials to review they will have the audit report and the financials and it will be my understanding that they should have through March okay yeah and
and the uh at least finance committee should be doing a report to the council like they used to do I mean I haven't heard in years a report from C from fact committee I know an need used to do it
she did I would agree with you and I think last year that's why we did The Joint meetings with Council so that they could make a report so um they have a schedule and again since you've asked us to bring back schedule and assignments we will bring back that schedule as well
well and what I'm hearing pretty much unanimously is that everybody wants the council that from people who have served on committees and from people that are serving on Council is that the Committees need more direction from Council they need specific Jeff You're Gonna Hate Me lists of what it is that
you're tasked to do I actually like that well say three things okay hold on a second Lisa had something else to add well I fundamentally agree with your factual statement Francine the I think the council should be aware that the ulc did request additional projects and
information to review to report back to council but they did not receive Council Direction and I don't think that information came to council I don't think I have it either so I apologize and I will go back and I will look at the videos to see what they asked for
right now ulc and RAC have pretty full plates and that's why I think it's best that we bring something to council so that Council can prioritize and if the items that youc raise are more important than the assignments that they received that is
solely at the council Direction wak right now has some grants that they're looking at mostly Trail grants but we also have the mural and art and public places grants we will also have the forestry grant that we need to do public
education on that will probably go back to them um and additionally they have the rural roadway standards and the update of the mreg and for anybody who's listening mreg was the master roadway equestrian and Greenway plan that was
adopted in 2009 so they have all that RAC has all that going on and then when the Trails program starts to get more meat on the bones they have that as well ulc was given Ro Vista which is a
daunting thing by the way because it has never been um codified or official and so we actually have something that's circulating in review um and they were also tasked with the sign code which we expect that draft to come into our
offices and go to ulc very quickly and furthermore there are in numerable changes that need to be made to match the comp plan so that list is somewhat endless and that's why it is
a very good idea to sit with Council and the recommendations of the ulc add request would be uh as you formulate these things that the Committees have brought forward can we get some kind of idea of how much time each one of those
would take yes yeah that might help us prioritize right so yes and clarify for them Absolut maybe on April 1 a list of what they already tasks with an anticipated timeline for that yeah I'm happy to do that happy to
do that and one of the things you'll notice um with the committee members what I what I tried to do was to move my committee members around you know after having discussion with them and seeing if by moving them to a new position it
would generate a new camaraderie or a new a new way of of them functioning better uh to get back to us well I do want to just say for the record if you would indulge me a moment the two groups that worked
on agrotourism were fabulous the first group they went all the way through our code and they met a lot um and they came up with a detailed recommendation um package that came to council that package was then reviewed
by a second group some the same but mostly different um and they added to it based on situations that arose during their tenure so we did have a great package um and now that needs to roll
over to ulc and will take some time so we will do that timeline great great thank you all right so we've got our work cut out for for the next time okay we now are moving on to item number nine a
presentation by Dina from ethics before Gina starts I just wanted to say that it has been an absolute pleasure working with her these last several years and she likes us so well that she
actually did an independent review of all of our financial information that was online on our website and then called and asked for even more so kudos to you Gina I don't think anybody else has looked at it to much thank you thank you
kind of grade did we get an A well I'm an overachiever so I'm working on my Master's Degree it's so far I've got a 4.0 so we got an A exent conratulations and with only one class left so we did try to ask Gina to come work
here when we had our clerk position open but no dice so good evening and thank you for having me my name is Gina LEC and I serve as the intake and compliance manager for the Palm Beach County Commission on ethics today I'd like to share a little
about who we are what we do and how we can be a resource for you the commission on ethics was a established in 2010 following a 2009 grand jury recommendation for ethics reform in Palm Beach
County our mission is simple but crucial to promote integrity and public service build public trust and ensure that private interests do not interfere with public duties what sets our commission apart is
its independence we operate separately from County or Municipal governance and our five volunte members are appointed by independent or excuse me independent organizations this structure ensures fair and impartial oversight we provide
oversight accountability and transparency for more than 12,000 public officials employees and Advisory board members as well as certain vendors and lobbyists throughout Palm Beach County the code of ethics applies not only to
County government but also to all 39 municipalities ensuring that public officials and employees act with Integrity Independence and impartiality and that a public office is
never used for personal gain but our role is not just about enforcement it's about prevention we place a strong emphasis in education because we believe that that's the best way to prevent ethical
violations is to ensure that people understand understand the rules before they make decisions that's why we provide ongoing training and advisory opinions to help officials and employees navigate ethical concerns before they
become an issue in fact we've issued nearly 560 advisory opinions to date while we do have authority to impose penalties such as repr fans and fines up to $500 per violation our
primary goal is to educate guide and prevent violations before they occur we also ensure transparency by making all of our advisory opinions gift forms voting conflict forms and complaints publicly available on our
website at the commission on ethics we encourage everyone to remember one simple phrase ask First Act later if you ever have a question regarding the application of the code of ethics eics please reach out to us before making a
decision or taking an action you can find resources request training or contact us by visiting our our website at Palm Beach County ethics.com or by calling 561 3551
915 thank you for your time and most importantly thank you for your commitment to ethical governance thank you can you absolutely okay while you're here and we're talking about appoin I'm going
to um not point a finger at anybody I'm going to do it in general uh on a fact committee we had a fact member come to a joint budget meeting with the council and suggest to
take out a calming a traffic calming element at no time did she disclose she owns a business on okobi Boulevard which the $100,000 was going to
fund so should she have disclose that let me just stop you for just a minute because a couple of things I'm not an attorney I cannot provide legal advice will not provide legal advice first you should consult with your attorney and
then you should send the questions to us um um we don't make uh General give general advice if you will we only provide advisory opinions based on fact specific information and by reading the code of
ethics if you feel like that there someone has violated the code or did not follow the code as they should please feel free to file a complaint state law has changed recently and we can no longer do um investigations without a formal complaint we no longer can do
inquiries unless there's a formal complaint we can listen to you all day long but there's nothing we can do about it without a formal complaint so as far as what someone should have done or if someone should have done something I can't answer that I couldn't answer it
even if you called the office okay I'll send in the question does anybody else have any questions for Gina there did you guys still do the online course we do still have the online training um and pursuant to you the town's policy it
should be done I believe it's either it's probably within 90 days of taking office within 90 days of today it should be done and I realize that there's a County employee here but since since you now are into a little bit different that my next question was if I've already
taken it and I'm within my two years do I have to take it again you need to do it again because there's a little bit different rules that apply for someone that's on Council and I think Mr would agree with that because you now also have Sunshine law that you need to
follow as well um but yes we do we will also come out and provide live training if you know you need it and I know that the league of cities also does their training every year where they provide their four hours because I believe that you all are required to do four hours of
training per year and part of that four hours is a joint uh Sunshine Law and code of ethics training with um norra from p from West Palm Beach but they didn't do that until I I believe it was October right wasn't it October when
they did that last year is that so so for those of us that are continuing in the second year of their term is it okay to wait for that opportunity in October but it's according to what your policy says but the newly appointed ones have to do it within 90 days which according what your policy says when well I was
gonna do the public service announcement on my presentation okay all right sorry I I beat you to um yeah there there are the online courses are available some of them online there's one that FSU has I know um that are firm did for them um
there's two coming up in a in April um that we're presenting their 4H hour course the only negative for you all on these two is one's in Martin County one's in St Lucy County and it doesn't cover the pom County Code of Ethics right doesn't apply in Martin or St Lucy otherwise it's the 4-Hour required
course from the state uh one is um Monday April 7th at 9:00 am on Jupiter Island they're hosting it for surrounding cities and one on October 21st in Fort Pierce the Treasure Coast League of City so if you're interested in going to either one of those let me know we'll get an invitation out to you
and you can knock out your 4 Hour course then you'll still have to have this short not sure yours is one hour you'll do an hour so you actually take an extra hour if you do it this way or you could do the online courses that are available through the league of sorida League of
City through FSU uh and as you're right uh Christi in our office always does the October Richard rad likes to do it around Halloween for some reason so he usually does uh one in October so is it okay to wait for that one or or well I I think for those of you that took it last
year yes you can wait because you have to do it within a year those of you that are new and I think you have a 90-day policy you'll have to get it done sooner the main difference between the four hours and hours is the Palm Beach County Code of Ethics training will
apply to the state code of ethics training but the state four hours of training does not apply to the county code of ethics training because the C is a little bit more stringent and therefore you have to take that one thank you anybody
else okay thank you so much for being Gina thank you thanks Gina all right Mr tvia would you like to talk a little more about sunshine yeah this is going to be quick because again you're G to be doing these four hour courses um and I'm not this is a celebration night this
isn't a boring I'm not gonna bore you but so basically there is uh I'll talk about the Sunshine Law a little bit um the Sunshine Law applies to all of you and what it essentially means is you cannot talk to each other outside of public meeting Town business so if you
want to talk about your kids playing little league you want to talk about you know the weather you can do all those kind of things but if you're going to talk about anything that could foreseeably come in front of the Town Council resolution ordinance contract anything then you cannot
communicate any way shape or form so verbally text message emails Facebook social media any way that you do that you could be violating the Sunshine Law and uh and when you take the 4our course if if I'm doing it you're going to see pictures of people's in handcuffs
because the uh the State Attorneys do prosecute these cases um I was doing this presentation about three or four years ago uh for children's services Council and one of the members is a local judge and I didn't even realize it I put the slide up on of the people in handcuffs and underneath the caption was
judge so and so and that judge was him and he made a very clear point to his fellow colleagues that I love all of you but if you violate the law I'm sending you to jail so um and that was probably the most effective one I ever had because had a judge sitting in the room who
actually did that so uh and that was for the city of Sebastian and that just happened two or three years ago and they had council members who got arrested and went to jail so Sunshine Law is uh always very serious so if you have a question call me uh just like said we'd rather you call first and ask the
question then do the act and then try to figure out a way oh did I do something wrong so just call you all have my number if not I'm make sure you all have it um that also applies to intermediaries so you can say uh Bobby I'm going to
vote like this ask the May how she's going to vote and then Bobby comes back to you and that person is also now an accessory through the crime and you just help your friend commit a crime so just don't talk about town business outside of a public meeting or communicate in any way public records are pretty easy
this um uh you know slide up here talks about the same thing if if you have any document that relates to town business it's going to be a public record so if someone sends you an email regarding Town business that email becomes a public record um I forget do
you have Town email accounts I believe you do try to always use your town email account because if you use your personal email account and somebody later on makes a public reference request say I want to see all your your personal emails uh on your personal account rela
to town business the easy answer is I don't have any because I don't ever use my personal email for Town business if you do use your personal email or if someone emails you on your person person email you know you didn't invite it they just know your email forward that email to the to the clerk because then she
will have a record of it she'll be the custodian of it and then if there's a public record where she can respond so basically try to um realize that everything that you put in any kind of a communicative written
form whether it's a text an email a letter becomes a public record if it relates to town business text messages are another thing that you know we can't avoid this is the society we live in we text all the time and if you're texting saying can you stop at public publ and pick up
some bread that's not a public record but if you text someone and say uh you know the hotel that's being built do you support it or not that's now a public record because now you're talking about uh Town business so again try not to use your personal text if you do same thing
forward it to the to the clerk because otherwise I've had a case where a council member in a a town on the on the coast um had to actually produce his phone for a TV station after we litigated whether he had to produce his his private phone to see if there were
text messages on there relating to town business and you really don't want to go through that that's uh very invasive um so that's the Sunshine Law Public Records five minute version of each um as you you you scroll through the this list we spent a lot of time here on your
own rules there's probably 18 or 20 pages on your own policies and procedures and it talks about things of how you just a lot of it is aspirational how do you display leadership skills how do you just jump the page
eight thank you because you know this is very aspirational you know you're going to display leadership by doing these different things you know you're being encouraged uh to promote um customer focus and involvement so a lot of this is let's um try to be good citizens
let's try to be leaders in the community let's set a good example um the page 11 talks about what you shall do you shall be dedicated to the highest ideals of honor and dignity now you would think all these things should go without
saying but unfortunately it's easy to fall into the Trap because you get passionate about your issues just try to remember that you're going to disagree disagree agreeably um page 12 how do go to what Gina talked about and what we talked about in terms
of you cannot misuse your officer position you can't accept any gift or uh anything that's going to in order your personal gain to benefit you at the expense of the
town and that's on page 13 WHO not directly or indirectly accept a gift all these things um are potentially troubling not just for you from a criminal standpoint but also from the town in terms of the Town
passes something particularly back to the sun law the town passes an ordinance and this later found out that there was a Sunshine Law violation well that ordinance could be considered void and you have to redo the whole thing all over again so there's an expense involved with it uh page 14 talks about what are your
duties probably one of the most important things to do is set the millage rate because without a millage rate you don't have any funding property tax funding to fund your budget you also have to establish a budget set a capital Improvement plan you are the policy makers for this town you decide the
direction the town is going manager's job is to implement your direction right she's manages our job is to provide you legal advice how how to legally get to where you want to go and make sure you stay within the guard rails of the law um you set policy by doing things like
Ping a purchasing policy purchasing manual a human resource manual you adopt ordinances just about every meeting have ordinances to adopt um resolutions contracts policies so you are making all the big decisions in the town and you
have that obligation to obviously learn about these things I I know several of you meet with Francine on a regular basis we're always available if you have questions we can meet or or by phone um because when you sit up there and make these decisions having a major impact on
your town so do what you can to um you know learn about it feel free to ask questions quas judicial proceedings are a little bit different this is mostly dealing with zoning type issues and there you become U and they call quasi judicial because
you're kind of like a judge you're kind of like a judge and jury you're going to hear evidence when you get to a quas just proceeding usually in zoning someone wants to do something with their property here's what's kind of hard like a judge or a jury you're supposed to only base your decision on the evidence
in front of you at that hearing now let's face as a real life world you are you live in the real world you live in the community you know the community you know the road they're talking about um you know you need to disclose for example that um somebody spoke to me
about this whether it's a developer or or a citizen about it and then you hear testimony and based on that testimony you make a decision and that will that's the basics of aasa judicial proceeding there are certain things like code
enforcement you know um you're a citizen so you certainly have a right to make a code enforcement complaint you can attend and watch a code enforcement hearing But realize that every time any of you attend another committee's hearing whether it's code enforcement
magistrate Planning and Zoning Board fact um you in way influencing them and that's your choice whether you want to or not I think your general sense of of the council is that you shouldn't be influencing others that you should let
them make their decision bring it to you bring their recognition and then you decide um and it's difficult I've been in situations where council members in certain ttimes will get up and actually talk in front of these other committees and that puts the committee members in a very awkward spot because you do have
positions of authority in the town and you don't want people to feel like you're um kind of stepping into their Turf because they've been appointed to be whatever committee it is um again you still have your first amendment rights can't tell you not to do that but I think it's been the town's uh policy and
practice to try and limit that as much as possible I think that's really well then why do we have that ordinance doing the exact opposite of that a couple of months ago you mean the EXP parte ordinance no that no where
council members can speak to all the committee members again you can but you're but generally think about what you're doing when you do that you're you're influencing those committee members now you because you can maybe doesn't mean you should but that's your I think we're bringing that
back right correct okay um and again you have uh your own rules of procedure that you should take a look at have questions ask Franc you have um a physical Quorum requirement during Co
that was kind of waved in a lot of cases where you didn't have to have three members physically present you could meet remotely nowadays we're back to the way it always was which is you have to always have at least three out of five members physically here other members if you can't attend for some emergency
situation or some legitimate reason and if the rest of the council agrees you could call in appear by zoom and other ways and that happens occasionally uh I think council member hog was uh a month or two ago uh called in so that's really it in a nutshell and I
don't want to get on your parade today where you being sworn in and celebrating but we're always here to answer any questions have any questions okay then we're gonna take a little break and eat some cake there's coffee in the kitchen please help
yourself e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e last she's his um
underboss she's the real Captain okay I was bring the meeting back to order please thank you okay you have the next item as a consent item but I'm fairly certain that everybody wants to talk about the meeting
schedule Maybe I'm Wrong does anybody want to talk about item number 11 or do you want to just approve it on consent anybody have any questions about it I looked it over and I have no conflict so I'm fine okay so then let's the only thing is the correction let's
just make a motion to approve it on consent then I'll make a motion second all in favor I oppose passes with the correction September 17th does say sep it should say
Wednesday September 17th all right we're now gonna adjourn as the Town Council and rejourn as the water Control District and we need to consider item number 12 I'm gonna make a motion got my light on oh Lisa go ahead
Lisa yeah I'd like to make a motion uh to nominate Marge for the chair of the water district you want to service the chair of the water district you do such a good job well you need to either accept or not accept the nomination okay thank you
I'm gonna make a motion to make Anita the chair of the water Control District as she has been for a long time okay do I have a second second second all in favor I like like train tuna is that was that
five Zer yes yes okay correct all right item number 13 all right I make a motion anybody else um to make Marge the uh Treasurer second it's got to be
quick in favor okay item number 14 is the schedule is the schedule of those meetings which are the same as the other schedule so can I have a motion to pass it motion okay Paul made the motion Mar second yeah yeah I didn't know there was
a shortcut he said so move just learned that seconded all in favor okay five to zero okay we're gonna adjourn the water Control District and rejourn as the Town
Council for informational item number 15 which is the March calendar the March 2025 calendar we have a recrea meeting on Thursday night and by the way today is National agricultural day so happy
agricultural day we need to get that on our calendar next year thank you anybody have any questions about the calendar for staff no I believe it's a whole week the county has a whole week right did they name it like last year sorry am I out of
turn oh oh my bad nobody else actually had their light on somebody did I forgot about the light my I agree with dim down here well check it out let's do it for the week or the month yeah no I think yeah the P I think
palach County last year adopted the this week as National Agri or agricultureal pom County Agricultural week or whatever to fall in line with national agricultural day so that's so are you suggesting that we do something a little bit more significant next year
to not to note this week since we are an agricultural Community yes did u Lisa has something to say yeah I just uh with this being the new red GAC um is there going to be any adjustment to what's going to be discussed or we're going to forge
on like usual that's what what's on the red GAC what's on red GAC are three items um and most of the people are returning okay super um and the three items are I don't need oh all right um and then what is the Dr M meeting oh
it's development review meeting and we put those in place so whenever we have a significant development review application we hold a review meeting in here so that um that's all staff though right it is also the Consultants
externally and the applicant and we have had members of the public attend okay thank you so it is open to the public right it's in this room okay any other questions about the calendar March calendar no all right
item number 16 we have two proclamations they are the ones that were approved at the beginning of the year to celebrate National flood awareness week and also National Employee Appreciation Day um we need to
think about whether we're going to do the same thing next year we adopted at the beginning of the calendar year government oriented or rural community oriented um recognition
days okay go ahead fell us okay so we're in a drought we're in March and it's flood awareness week so um I know we're like supposed to
prepare for flood but what what is what is flood Awareness Week what do you propose we do we have essentially supported the national proclamation of flood awareness
and we are doing just about everything we could possibly do towards flood awareness almost every single day and this week we celebrated by having two of our staff get that ridiculously sunburned out in the field did you see
our other staff member no yes they've been out in the field trying to mitigate future flooding with FEMA we need to get them hats they disregarded that I will I will tell you though I will I will say with regard to FEMA I know that the
mayor in her Town address I mentioned it but FEMA has really been working with the town on flood mitigation so every time we have a storm or every time we have a possible event um and Richard can attest to it fima really invests the time out here to help us prevent future
flooding right well we could use a little flooding right now it's pretty dry well we certainly could I think they do it in advance to to like you know yeah does anybody else have any questions about item 16 I would like to
know what is being done for Employee Appreciation Day well we don't have anything necessarily scheduled but one of the things we said we wanted to do was a pot luuck lunch with Council um and we had something come up that um didn't allow us to do that so if you
want we can try for that day what what day is Employee Appreciation Day I think it's the 28th of March is everybody available for a potluck lunch on March 28th yes how about we feed staff off the
top of my head yes pot potluck means everybody brings something okay that's but not the oh you're not here that week oh darn well well have to just eat well we'll have it without you we'll save you a plate how's that
yeah we'll put it in the refrigerator over the weekend and you can swing by on the way home and get it you get leftovers yeah let's Jeff for you eat all well let's let's plan that I think that would be nice okay yeah but I'd like them to be here these guys but
they can't they have other commitments so do it on a press we press on whatever Council desires to a different day so they can are you gone for the whole week is that what you did or the week before this is the week
before so the following week April I mean yeah would be April what what day what day of the week is best we have the meeting the first so yeah we don't want to do and it's a real a c a real celebration that day yeah want do it like the third or
something like that whatever you all whatever calendar far as I know April 3D March April 3r okay April 3rd P okay check my calendar I'll make it chil is that okay
with you we actually had a a week scheduled of events if you remember and then we got the storm so we didn't actually yeah okay on to item number 17 future
April 3r future agenda items future agenda items is in every agenda but for our um returning and new council person um please take a look at this and if you see something on here in a spot that you
don't like or you want something moved up or you want something moved down or something's not on here that you want please let us know we could be working on it and it's just not on here um what we were trying to do is look at top 10
priorities for the next two to three meetings out and the way that we try to schedule items is first have discussion then have first reading and then have second reading and a lot of times we do a bunch of discussions before we get to
First reading and a bunch of first readings before we get to second reading but we have been getting through so um take a look and let us know what you'd like us to reconsider or consider if
it's not here there was discussion I want to prep you for um with regard to coming back on a charter Amendment and that Charter amendment is so that there would be um more of a gap between elections so that you don't have an
election every year that was asked for by your past Council um and so we will bring forward um what was requested which are some options on how other cities Do It um when is that coming I
think we said May L yeah so I just wanted to explain what that Charter amendment was for the new and return returning Council and then that has to go in with the election in March unless we want to do a special
election and we will call the S soe and see if she will even be willing to do a special election and if so how much it costs otherwise it would be in March we have our next election Lisa Lisa has her light on so let's let her
go yeah um on couple of these April 1 projected items um I know the rural Vista guidelines are coming out of ulc correct correct are are they not ready to go for a first reading they are
nowhere near ready to go for the first reading so they're projected for the following month they're not necessarily projected for the following month because we have to get them through our attorney's office that's why this needs to have a
little bit of an update can we get a date certain on returning those Rista guidelines for first I am okay to do that I do want you to know that this Friday March 21st we meet with the attorneys and review what will and will not be ready for April 1st and this
afternoon we met for um quite some time trying to readjust some of these dates obviously this went out before those meetings yeah so what's a realistic uh I guess that's a question for legal
and then back to staff so on Rural Vista guidelines um if we wish to have Treasure Coast look at them because you would you would remember Treasure Coast made the recommendation to make them official so I would want to know if you
want us to have them take a look as well otherwise with our attorney's office um and our planners I would say that they need probably two months to review I don't know how long the planners would be um the planners would
be like a couple of days a week I could see a couple of weeks for us okay planners turn around quickly attorney's office is a little bit you have to give a little more lead time so it's reasonable to expect it at the main meeting for a first reading I'll have my
comments yeah typically we do the discussion than the first reading yeah so it would be a discussion the formula discussion in April so yeah okay so it's still reasonable to have it for me I'm just curious because I know it's been in the
works for and kind of chopping around for a long time the washing machine um same on the sign code I know the sign ordinance code has been a again flopping around in the washing machine long time ph's sign
code there you go so discussion and then a date certain to bring that back to the May meeting I made my comments about a year ago so as soon as they get the next stft I'll have them right away all right so when can we expect that out of legal sign code is different than what you've
seen you you saw a sign code about eight nine months ago that you decided to go to ulc but it did not go to DC instead we were directed to develop a brand new sign code so we've started developing a brand new sign code that is uh modeled on some other cities and that's what
you'll be seeing so that is probably I believe that's what Lisa is asking first go to ulc and the projection that we have is that it'll go in the May meeting because they are going to deliver in the beginning of April so that won't happen in time for
our May meeting discussion not if they don't see it right all right um and then I would like to suggest an additional um bringing back of the height ordinance which uh was promised back to Council on for the January
meeting it's actually in the ulc updates part one we have a ulc updates coming forward that takes all the small thing they're not small when added together but the single elements they are all
coming forward in two parts part one which addresses height IT addresses historical Legacy IT addresses where simple majority or super majority is required and so on down the line so
that's part one part two will address um uses in the commercial areas where we have commercial allow and um notification requirements for posting okay so so it's coming down fill filled in
the gaps for me here that two parts is with ulc those two parts are coming straight to council because they have been requested changes by Council so that's why we're doing them so when if it was promised in January will we see the
first phase April 1 is the first one okay it's in here I don't see it for height in here it's in there part one it just says two things historical Legacy vested rights but it actually has a whole list of little
fixes little fixes well when I say little fixes it's a very it's a number of changes in various sections as opposed to rewriting whole sections so depending on feedback on that that'll
come back in May or no yes it can come back for a first reading in May depending on the input in April and has ulc seen that no it is all stuff directed by the council okay they weren't direct ulc takes on projects
that are directed by the council and the council did not direct that everything affecting the ulc go to um the ulc committee they've been directed to do rural Vista guidelines and the sign code
okay so the council can make a this new Council can make its direction known okay super uh and then lastly I would um like to seek input from my fellow council members on the adoption
of the state wildlife lighting standards um and the um agricultural exemptions that FEMA provides for in their uh language regarding flood plane development applications so that's probably not for tonight but maybe getting that on a future discussion item
I just quickly I did bring the state wildlife forward to our um attorneys and asked that it be included when we came forward with tree removal but we can actually put that with when we bring
section 87 and section 85 forward that would be a great thing for us to do if if you agree and then additionally with regard to to the FEMA we did bring that forward last
year and I am more than happy to bring it forward this year the um conversation that was had at the workshop when we had fdm join us um and Richard also did some discussion that night is that um the
materials that could be used are less durable than the materials that are currently um used and again as Council directs we will deliver so happy to bring that back we did discuss it last year I just wanted to share
thatw y thank you that's it okay Mar and pH I'm not sure to went first so I'm just gonna till have Marge go next yeah um when you were talking about things that are going to be coming up um where is the status of uh the increase in the
salaries for a council that would be a charter Amendment and we can include that there okay okay phis you're next who is Mia
Z she's an attorney in our office who is um working a lot with friend to prioritize matters she works on contracts and agenda items how long has she been working on our stuff only the last couple months last
three four months okay and how much has tvia made off our sign ordinance to date because I've asked for that a gazillion times and I still haven't gotten it and I tried to get I think the fact to look
through all your um invoices and that did not happen so I am really annoyed about the sign ordinance because the only one it enforces against seems to be
me every election Okay so say t cvia law says it's unenforcable yet it gets enforced every March or February so and I wasent paying for it I it it's been going on for at least
three years Am I Wrong three years you guys have been saying we're getting a new sign ordinance and every year I get a a Cod Force make complaint on campaign signs which are supposed to be somewhat
exemp so I I would like to know what we've paid you guys to date for the freaking side ordinance including when Elizabeth was doing it because she's the one that started it I can look at how much I'll tell you
this that we do not enforce the codes that's not our responsibility that's staff's responsibility we do not enforce them now the signed ordinance has a section that's on constitutional dealing with the content of signs and we've said repeatedly that the town can enforce
every other part of that sign code for example location and size of signs you can do that that's up to the T you're you're kind of off the subject but I want to get back on the subject because we keep getting accused on the sign code which is a which is a lot of malarkey we've brought the sign code and either
the council or staff has redirected as I just said the sign code was brought to you nine months ago redirected it to saw it it did come to the council and you directed to go to ulc staff decided not to bring it to ulc staff decided to tell
us in January to start a brand new sign code I am not taking responsibility for the fact that the direction changes either from the council or the manager it makes no sense that a side code excuse me please I want finish my thought that if it's coming from our
attorneys why would it go to the ulc it's coming from our attorney's office so please council member manilia Council was provided with a memo with regard to the sign code last year from our attorneys after there
was I would say very unfortunate event trying to um code enforce an unconstitutional part of the sign code the understanding that the staff
had was that the council wanted ulc to look at it we sent over a lot of information to our attorney's office and had many discussions about it with them because we were of the understanding that they were going to rewrite the sign
code in a constitutionally acceptable way for the area that did not work that was not a mutually understood process because I think they believed that the council Wanted the old sign code
modified I personally do not believe the old sign code could be modified I shared that opinion multiple times I sent over sign codes to look at and my comments on the sign code the issue with our sign code is it no longer fits our town if we
drive up and down the street we have more signs out of compliance than we have signs in compliance and by the way agricultural signs are exempt agrotourism signs can be exempt so we
need to do more than just update that last sign code and that is why I made it very plain that there must have been a misunderstanding because the sign code needed to be Rewritten and I provided that information so if there was any
misunderstanding between the different attorneys that looked at it I do apologize for that misunderstanding and I will own it because the council's direction was to redo the sign code okay I then asked Jeff to go ahead and rewrite it so he could bring it directly to the
ulc he was tied up because he was doing other things so I went back to the attorneys in January and said please rewrite the sign code so if there is any disagreement between us it's only in our
understanding of what council's original Direction was and we are bringing forward to council a signed code for discussion just because it's going to ulc doesn't mean Council can't get a copy of it and doesn't mean Council
can't meet with the attorney and I and discuss it along the way so why don't we try to do that my understanding is that we will see we the staff and you all the Town Council will have available to us
by the first week of April a newly drafted sign code that can go to ulc and that we can review so why don't we just go ahead and start reviewing it in tandem at the same time so when you say us do you mean you and us or do you mean
you and the attorneys us the town and the town which is the staff and the council and the committee may all look at it at the same time because we all have a real desire to get that done quickly and that'll
take the heat off of everybody so it's coming the first week of April we will send it out to everybody the same time we will schedule meetings with our attorney and we will review that sign code in tandem with ulc
will it be on the UL DC's next agenda that already has items on it will it bump into that they can get it without a staff review as long as we tell them it's without a staff or Council review okay and what is Palm Beach County can you refer to Palm Beach County's sign
code it would be a mistake to refer to Palm Beach County sign code because they have a whole lot more stuff that we don't have okay and my other question is I thought historical Legacy was gone historical Legacy for all intents and
purposes is gone anybody who had an application in was told that it is no longer available to them and ulc part one has it removed okay well it's here yes it says ul dc1
and that's going to take it out okay it doesn't have everything listed that's in UL dc1 I will be happy to send out UL dc1 there's a couple changes that we asked to have made um for it to be more
easily readable but anything I have is a public record so therefore it's yours or anybody else's And to clarify council's Direction and for the past three years that's the same Council that was weaponizing code enforcement um with the
signed code that's are I don't know was I next um no I I just have so just to keep on the same thing so is it not I mean I understand why we're wanting everybody to review it at the same time but if the five of us
come up with three different four different comments a piece ulc has five people they come up with three or four different comments a piece that are different than our comments I mean isn't that kind of counterproductive it works both ways for a first staff if we have all of your
comments let's say you each have five okay that's 25 comments maybe some of them are the same call it 20 comments when we make your comments and we go to ulc and they have comments there's going to also be some more the same and there'
be some different it's good to get it all at the same time and give everybody a good clean draft but we can do it either way I'm just trying to answer the desire of getting a look at it quickly yeah I got that I I was just I was I just seemed like it would be
counterproductive to have 20 people reviewing at the same time whatever and separate me I mean talk about the sign code the sign code itself I mean I know but yeah I mean I'm sure there's G to be some kind of you know oh and you know we were supposed to you
know it's it's supposed to be at the next meeting to answer your question about when it comes up on the agenda um and one more just for my own edification because I'm new here um staff contracts and stuff like that or what how I mean do we only have one
that's contract and that's you only have a manager with a contct okay and when does that that's up September right it is September 30th no I'm just trying to get up the speed so so we review that in September or how does that work just so
I understand the process no a defer to the mayor we can start reviewing it anytime we want to I made a request earlier and I was going to do it of my comments and come forward in April depending on how many things we have on the April agenda
at this point but in April or May for us to start reviewing her okay yeah because I you know I don't know so generally we make our request for we want in future agendas during our comments and so I was going to make it there but you brought it up earlier so I can make it now if April is like looking like it's going to
be one o'clock in the morning then let's wait till May to bring it forward and make it a priority in May but I already had requested that that it come forward in April or May because that gives us a couple of months to discuss and talk about it but you know you don't want to wait until that's what I figured that's
why I knew I knew was contract up for Renewal while we're talking it's a year from now a year from now so we could probably start that in the next four to five months because it takes a while to go out to bid for something like that if we choose to do that so we it's on the schedule August or
something I honestly could remember FR was this year or next year or whatever I just knew it was coming so well since we brought the topic up and since the mayor did bring it to me I wonder if you um want the mayor and I to start
negotiating because that's normally how it is you all would pick somebody to negotiate with me and I would assume that would be the mayor suggest that before I negotiate we bring the contract before I'll send it to every somebody else before we take a vote on
that that we all have the contract we all have an opportunity to look at the contract and we have an opportunity to have a public discussion where I have everybody's feedback and input before I would negotiate I want to hear what my colleagues have to say before I would do that I would be comfortable doing
Coastal for the manager okay I mean that's that's what I think has to happen I canc I'm just do you have something to add from a I don't have contract in front of me but I do know there's a timeline probably sometime in late May or early June where Francine supposed to
notify you whether she wants to continue or not right it's June June okay so it's part of it so yeah I would like to I or whoever we choose to do it would like to start the negotiation prior to that because I'm sure that's going to be part of your decision is how the
negotiations go I will certainly have a discussion with you um but generally speaking you appoint someone to negotiate and that person negotiates you don't generally have five people talk about it before you negotiate but how do
but how does well when Glenn did the negotiations he contacted each council person but I can't do that can no because it something be voting on so maybe I'm not the best person to negotiate maybe maybe maybe one is the
best one I mean I don't know maybe I I would want everybody to be able to have input I wouldn't want so if I'm the one negotiating it it puts one vote out it just it's just what I think and I don't want it to be what I think I want it to be what all five of
us think I want it to be a conglomeration so is there another another option or is it possible that just for this one thing I can take written comments if from the other council members to take into
consideration during the negotiation is that they can send them to the clerk they can send their written comments for the negotiation to the clerk okay but then the clerk can't share them with you so I'm not sure how that helps you if you're going to be doing the negotiations share them with me while
I'm negotiating because then then you're having Sunshine Law she becomes an accessory well we're not voting on the negotiation of it we're voting on The accepting it or not AC accepting it does that make sense NE the negotiation of it
and the acceptance of it are two separate issues right but but how do you get your colleagues input on what they want to see in the contract there's always been that's always an opportunity to review the contract and then they send written comments of what they'd like to see on the contract and then I take them and I compile them and I try to get everybody's interest addressed
when I'm doing the negotiation as long as there's no name attached to the oh yeah and there could be no name attached to the comments too think about it yeah think about it and we'll make the final decision on April 1 can you think about it and give us a
legal opinion by them of might do that but whether there whether there's a name attached or not you know they're all coming from your colleagues so every comment they're not a need of vote Yes or a need of vote no they're they are I would like to see stand review pro pro
process in the contract I would like to see this in the contract they're not Anita vote Yes or Anita to vote no or I'm gonna vote Yes or I'm gonna vote no they're not that I mean just think about think about it ponder about it
okay Ponder Lisa go ahead you have only one hour of pondering 230 so cycling back to to phyllis's comment and clarification uh Francine you made the decision to have a whole new sing order
ordance written not by direction of council no I thought I followed council's Direction I I felt pretty clear that I was following council's Direction it wasn't get ours up to standard it was
rewrite the whole thing okay and has Council directed um the legal um input or skill set or Services of Mr kurts because you mentioned you had Jeff write
something is that something that y'all are doing I I just need some clarification on that the reason why I asked him to do it is because he has the talents skills and ability as do I to write these things in fact I have sent
over drafted documents to the attorney's office would be very simple for anybody that has as many years of local government experience as we do to draft something for their review I understand but that could be a charter violation
because the town Charter we hire an attorney and the town attorney answers directly to council yes he's not he cannot serve in that role in he not he is not serving in that role because like I said he could draft something or I
could draft something or another staff person could draft something and it goes to legal for their review in fact that's one of the things that does hold us up because because everything that is legal based on the charter must go through the attorney's office so we aren't able to
use template forms without having everything reviewed through legal so you do bring up a good point but he is not acting in a capacity as an attorney he is acting no differently than I or any other staff member is in offering the
knowledge skills and abilities of 30 plus years of local government exper experience right but that cues up nicely to a discussion during my time as council member so I will hold that thought till we get to
that okay okay so in summary on this agenda item any and all comments are more than welcome right now we're going to add the state wildlife um protocols to um bring back
at the same time as 8 section 85 and section 87 because it goes with them and I believe those were scheduled for discussion in June we are also going to bring back the FEMA exemption for Rural communities and get that on um when we
bring back um well I guess we can bring that back when we bring forward section 46 no that's actually going to be in section 130 so we can bring that back do you have a desired time frame for for
that oh I don't know what all is time timely here and what is projected already because I know looking through this there's some duplication so I don't know where necessarily some of these are in their queue um but June seems like a long way out and yet at the
same time not so um you know I think as time allows but no later than June for sure okay so okay time for we're all done right no more lights okay time for staff comments
Francine uh what what you mentioned earlier in your town state of the town was that we were going to have Treasure Coast facilitate an open conversation with um land owners and residents um to talk about the southern
Corridor that meeting is currently scheduled for April 8th it has not yet been advertised the date has just recently been confirmed with Treasure Coast and they will be available from 1: till 6 so the earlier part of the day
we'll focus on um some of the larger um undeveloped land whereas the ler part of the day will be specific to Residents why is it different because we have a number of residents in that area that
have come to the town and asked for water connection and there may be um we need to get it clarified by them and I did raise the question whether their water connection means justess water or whether they wish to do a septic to sewer conversion so
that is the reason for the separate timing the county does have availability for the water and there may or may not be some grants available to do um some underwriting of the um septic but then
again if we learn more about the location of some of the other development some of the infrastructure to either get water or move sewer might be available through some of the other connections so that's why it's important
to begin the discussion with everyone so April 8th 1 till 6 agenda is not prepared yet um there are items that um are not on this future agenda list
because this list goes out before we actually sit down and review the agenda like I said we reviewed a little today we're reviewing in detail on Friday so this will be reviewed based on whatever
the urgencies are and how we can fit them into um the schedule so sometimes things take a lot longer than any of us want them to um and so welcome to our return attorning council member and our
new council member who feels like you've always been here anyway and um I look forward to working with you at least till the end of my contract and um congratulations to the mayor and the
vice mayor and the um Chief and the treasurer and blessedly early so thank you uh Town attorney Mr tvia just again welcome to the new council members and
uh returning council members and look forward to a great year thank you Public Works director congratulations to our incoming council members and to Mayor Kane and vice mayor Herzog um to all of you uh if
you guys have any questions on any of the work that Public Works is doing my office is always open um please talk to the man first though as everything is supposed to go through her but uh she has told me that you know if you guys have any questions or anything and that goes for also any of the Committees um
roadway standards were brought forward to you guys a couple months ago to look at um I have not heard any comments from anybody and I'll get a copies to both of you so you can begin to review those standards and other than that that's all I got so election day was interesting um
got a call at like 5:35 in the morning that there was no power in the building um so at the uh last minute uh thanks to Public Works they were out there immediately to move all of our equipment over uh from one building to another but thank God we had an a successful
election the rest of the day was smooth um congratulations again miss El Remy Mr Coleman uh we look forward to working with you uh Mr Shore Mrs danowski uh sorry we couldn't see Miss danowski today um but it was a pleasure working with you guys over the last year um um
with that being said uh my office has prepared a council member handbook we will be Distributing those hopefully sometime next week and with that we will be scheduling um a full day for Miss ly and Mr Coleman to go ahead and meet with staff ask questions and do a drive
through the town if you so desire so we look forward to working with you and thank you okay you've got it by number this time instead of the name so you're kind of messing me up but hopefully everybody knows what seat what seat they are okay
who's Seat five me okay go you're going first this week this time usually she goes second to last and I go last is this like how you do it after an election because we don't know or who's the mayor who's the vice mayor what's going
on not four because I just like to th throw curve balls I mean that's just what I do good five all right will the um Treasure Coast um study or whatever it's going to be require a committee
person from the council to attend April 8th is a listening session so that they can collect the input so that we can collect the input of the property owners and residents how they feel with regard to a
second how are the residents being notified because it seems to be something that sometimes we fall short on how are the residents being notified about this listening session so for all of the large Property Owners we are going to call as many of them personally
as we can and for the residents they have actually put in a petition and I talked to the leader of their pack um and shared that we would be having the meeting but we will go ahead and use social media our website and a mailer to
do all of it thank you I'm sorry so so this is going to be held locally not in wherever no it's going to be in this room okay um it in the first go around of being um
appointed as a council member we had Representatives attending the Treasure Coast on a regular monthly basis I guess it was we don't need to do that anymore since no we need on the ground we need to make that appointment we haven't
tonight was mayor vice mayor and District um chair and and Treasurer um but we do have appointments that we need to make and they would be to I park which is another planning organization that somebody needs or may wish to go to
and also what they do I park yes I park is essentially a clearing house for local and Regional planning issues um and it does the notifications and um will those be on the April agenda those those things that
need appointments we will do our very best to do that and if not we'll get them on May we also need somebody to attend Treasure Coast Regional planning Council and then there are other appointments that come up um for instance the county has different
appointments and we have here to for had different council members have um appointments to the impact fee committee to various and sunry other committees you know so somebody also needs to
attend TPA you know a representative at TPA so we will put that together and bring It Forward additionally if somebody wishes to attend um correct correct and also the Western
community's chamber or leadership Beach County or leadership Western communities there's a number of different things that are very good ideas for council members to be part of uh do we get a list of that from the we
can do that yes we can do that it around we can do that sorry I zoned out yeah um I I remember very clearly most of these because I was one of the few people who was
retired when we had our first seating and um all of these working gentlemen that I was working with as a council person deferred to me so when we didn't have anybody for years now on a lot of
these committees it was like we're not being heard because we're not part of the activi we actually did have council members going to a lot of those meetings we had um council member Shore attending
um a number of those meetings when he was the mayor and we will go ahead and make sure that you are all aware of the different opportunities to attend and have our regional voice heard our local voice
heard in the region okay because the important thing is if you're going to attend these meetings you have to give some sort of a short report you know whether it's in a written form or a verbal form or or what it is because you
know if it's only on my two ears it doesn't help if I need your support on on these things so we have to have a way of communicating just like with these committees that we have we need to
communicate okay um the next thing is um what is this April 8th Water and Sewer meeting you're talking about on April 8th we're going to have a listening session with regard to any interest in
creating um a rural recreational Andor business district along Southern Boulevard somehow you know since we do have significant empty properties there to see what people are thinking about
for their development and um also residents have prepared residents of lockah hatchee homes which is a platted development south of collecting canal and north of Southern Boulevard
it's about 35 homes they have asked for water and sewer we're not 100% sure that they want water or water and sewer so we are meeting with them to let them know
what's available from the county and also um to better understand what their needs are and if there is going to be any development on Southern Boulevard it would be good to have it designed so that it reduces any cost
burden on existing Residential Properties that are south of collecting Canal so this is not throughout the whole town it is solely along Southern yep like for instance division of Forestry would like to have water and
sewer so we will include them you know to make sure if there's any infrastructure going on along the southern Corridor it contemplates you know some of the properties behind them should they desire to be
connected okay all right and I'd like to um say that um this meeting ran very smoothly it was was um very good the uh State of the State I enjoyed that and um
you know there's lots of skills because two of our members have actively served on some of these committees that uh we're all saying we haven't had feedback from in a long time so now we got your
feedback we've got you right here so welcome on board and uh I'm looking for a lot of progress thank you okay Paul your FL I'll be short sweet um first off I'd like to thank uh everybody who went out
and voted we had like a 177% turnout or 16% turnout over the overall which is a a high turnout for the county itself um so thank you for everybody who participated thank you for those who saw
enough of me to trust me with your vote and I hope I do a good job I'd like to um congratulations Lisa um I know you've been working hard to get back up here and um I hope that we can um move forward like like Anita said move forward a nice positive
direction um with a vision for the future and how we can grow this town the way we need to grow it and the way it reflects our Charter and our rural characteristics and you know I'm excited to get started so glad to be here with
you guys and thanks again to the guys for uh all the help the morning o no I'm okay C3 is me I I can go in B order um
so yeah my first thing I want to say is welcome to you both um I've worked with you both in other capacities and I'm looking forward to a really productive year I think that it's going to be great um us working on Council together um
and the other thing I wanted to say is well I kind of already did that the trails are open on grber and East Citrus super proud of those you want to see pictures of them Craig has them on his phone he can send them to you um they're six feet wide so you can't take a her of horses down them but you can certainly ride to a stride on it or a couple of
bicycles or walk your dog um Everybody most people know that Phyllis and I attended Palm Beach County days a couple of weeks ago um and were highly successful up there I think um it's hard during Palm Beach County days probably were more productive the time
when we went up like three weeks before then and had some real good one on one time it's kind of like speed legislating during Palm Beach County days for anybody who's been up there you only get like you know a couple minutes of their time because everybody's super busy because it's the opening day of session but I still think that it was good that
we went um and the last thing I want to talk about is that I attended the mayor's ball on Saturday night um and was super proud of the three baskets that we had that were auctioned off um I have a picture of it if anybody wants to
see it um but you know that it's for the benefit of the Homeless Coalition and uh you know C certainly a worthy cause um and uh all all three of our baskets sold so um that was really good news and I
think that's probably about all I have to say so we'll move on to seat two Lisa all right um I probably won't be as short and sweet but um I do want to say um I I am so proud of uh serving
up here with everybody that I've supported in their elections in the past I think we've got a great opportunity here and um Anita you've uh really provided good leadership in the last year and look forward to that um I think that uh in your state of the Town
address you really laid it out as far as some of the steps that we can continue to take um to hold accountability and transparency at the Forefront and so in my comments I would like to suggest that we have a couple things that we try to
adhere to in the future which is uh agenda deadlines 100% very strict uh not just for Council but also for committees to give them the the lead in time that we all really need to be prepared when we get up here um and uh also uh
creating consequences when those are not met um to hold the accountability there um I'd like to uh also set for future discussion uh perhaps three uh realizable and measurable goals as the
executive board that uh we bring forward so that uh we're making sure that the focus of the the staff and and everything that we're producing from here is in support of those goals so I would I'd like to to maybe Circle back
to that um by next month in our next meeting and then lastly guess I was pretty fast I meant to mention as we were talking about not to beat a dead horse sadly um the sign ordinance I noticed um reviewing the quarterly
reports um in preparation for the meeting that a sign uh permit was given for an internal uh illuminated sign to a property on okachobee that doesn't meet our own current
criteria and that we gave a permit for that and I'm really curious how that happens um that uh might need some explanation for us in the future so yeah how are we issuing sign permits when we
don't have a sign code We are following the existing signed code that we can um well I read what's currently on M and they don't qualify even remotely for an internal illuminated sign I do not know what
property it is but I will certainly look into it if you want to share the address it's so the tractor trailers can find the church in the middle of the night I don't disagree have the spotlight it's truckers for
Jesus thank you what Lisa are you done with your com uh I also would propose that we work very diligently to bring forth the fire uh fireworks ordinance um before the Fourth of July holiday um and I do have
strong we talked about that before didn't you say we can't right that we missed it I have some strong feelings and done some research on positions I think we can be very realistically successful in that and I think Glenn can provide some insight into that too we can try I know we've talked about it
before and the state has preempted a lot of this but you know I know it's important I remember last year you sent an email or video of the horses that was so upset and trying to figure out a way that not just the horses animals people with but your video particular
commissioner and fire danger with our and fire danger so uh you know we've been internally racking our brains to figure out how can we get something on the books um so I'm all for it but but I just want to just let me just piggyback
something here the huge problem I have with things like this is enforceability I mean this is what I have is enforceability and consequences so if we're going to put something on the books sure while you consider it I want
I want part of it to be how are we going to enforce it like are we gonna pay staff over time to be on duty that night looking for these these transgressions and if they happen the consequences have to have teeth or else people are just
going to be like oh I mean so I I want I want whatever we put forward to have how it's going to be implemented and some teeth agreed I also would point out that we have a BTR that you have to get for renting a room in your house so unless we have the pajama police that's
kind of in the same boat right correct 100% um 100% not not not one not 100% if it's advertised we can enforce it but no there's no pajama police just like we don't audit exemptions and so on and so
forth but if you're advertising online we do enfor and I think we'll find that if we pass it and we create signage around the town on those holidays that um you're you're I think you're only going to have a few people that really want to go out there it has to be
enforced agreed and there has to be% yeah has to be because otherwise we're just spinning our Wheels paying for legal for something that once again is not is not GNA happen so that's I mean we back you on it 100% that we have to do something about it but we have to do
something about it maybe one question is is to talk to PBSO because realistically 11 o'clock at night at midnight they're going to be the enforcers and gonna be here caring about our fireworks we have to have some kind of internal I'm against sending these guys out those
guys are aggressive they've spent a lot of money on those fireworks and they have guns okay you're not sending staff out for that no I I don't agree well then it then it won't be needs you can pay you can pay hourly for PBSO
coverage we need them on board that's Poss so I appreciate the support on that though we got a lot of bad feedback this year fired off okay phis your last but not least uh
so I'm uh very glad that you guys are talking about not having an election every year it's insane it's dividing the town every year it's getting worse so I think we
definitely looking forward to some reprieve of not having freaking election every single year because for four months of the year this council is like this because if you do you're darned if
you don't you're darned you know and so it's ridiculous I think that not a lot gets done during those four months so so um looking forward to seeing that change um we talked about the sign ordinance and I want to mention with what Lisa and
Anita just brought up and I've said it a million times Wellington did it okay they did it in their equestrian overlay they are not permitted to have fireworks what did Wellington do
Francine you were there and God we lost a very precious person Cynthia Gardener who I think led the charge on that they got a local bill and when we brought our local Bill to the legislature I believe
it went up twice we did not we were not successful there's no reason that we can't bring a local Bill back in front of the legislative delegation for next year and also anyone who is friends with Ann Gerwig or any of the folks that are up there can certainly try to get her to
sponsor that I've already mentioned it to her and so that is probably for this year our best bet because again I'm not an attorney except that I don't believe that a city can adopt anything that can
effectively be enforced to stop that can stop the fireworks stop something that's state approved well and that is um Zone it's a zone that I think I think our strong strongest position is we have a
forestry Department here and you know I don't know if you've ever burned an oak tree branch that's freshly cut that thing goes like a torch so right so I think where we could be successful is maybe setbacks of fireworks from wooded areas and everything else um good than
so so yeah I again I don't really understand all the the uh logic behind sorry to take your time phis um the logic behind why the state made that ruling and basically exempts even illegal fireworks in it it's it's almost
insane shoting cannons CU most of the fireworks are illegal corre that are being blown off in this town so I would like to see the sheriff do more about that maybe Glen you can talk to our lobbyist about this because when he was here speaking he had some very firm
beliefs on this some very strong opinions on this so yeah maybe you could reach out to Mr book and and consult with him about that I'm sure Ann would sponsor we had a lovely visit right and I did talk to her about sponsoring it and she was willing I
believe that Mr book um represents three of the legal fireworks companies in the state so he's not in a position to bring that issue forward for us right so Mary did bring It Forward before so perhaps Mary can work with an and bring It
Forward okay sounds good to me would you like me to talk to her about it yes yeah okay we got to get it started now if we're going to if we have to now wait next year because it's too late to get it on this year no if we can get somebody to sponsor it and stick it in some other Bill we could get something
all right a little late get it going we'll try is that do we need a vote on that or you got I think I know what you want me to do I think Town Council rules don't allow us to vote on anything at this point for for sure yeah yeah we can give a
consensus yes yes yes so yes is the consensus actually the protocol was that if Council wanted to see something on a coming agenda then getting a consensus during comments was the way they should do it
so okay but we don't need to put that on the agenda we need cor consens take yes yes okay so I wan to um so a couple of meetings ago uh it was brought to our attention that um Palm Beach County was
looking to run water up D road down collecting canal and Out b Road and Mr up D road down collecting canal and down B road that was brought up and you were gonna look into
it Foresters trying to get right well that's what I'm thinking maybe they started that conversation yeah they only wanted to go to their building I don't think they care about any all right but we had brought that up a few meetings ago that that somebody was had brought
that up from Palm Beach County second um really concerned about this you know I'm sure some people are going to go oh this is awesome no property tax but we survive on property
tax so can I ask what is being done is there anything our lobbyists are doing right now to counteract this because very concerned for every small town and League of cities is I was on the legislative committee for League of
cities for taxation Taxation and so League of cities is of course fighting it because here's the here's the stance that they're taking which is a really valid stance they are the state state League of cities is a
they're actively lobing against this and here's the stance they're taking which is really valid okay so they're saying that this tax relief is supposed to help the more the people that need help the most right the lower the lowest economic
status people but the fact of the matter is most of those people don't own properties so if you take away property tax that money is going to have to be recouped somewhere else so where it's going to be recouped somewhere else is by putting taxes on everything which
those people who don't own property and don't pay property tax anyhow will then have to pay increased taxes on other things so they will actually inadvertently be taxed be punished and be taxed by some something that's supposed to be providing relief for them so that's kind of the stance that the
lobbyist for the league of city is taking that you're you're counter doing what you say say you're doing um so that's the stance they're taking on it so I know that they are strongly um fighting it and I think a lot of other people are this thing um has reared its
head this is the third time it's reared its head this is not the first time well how do we to well unfortunately somebody can bring it up any 60% referendum hurdle to clear right I don't think you're going to get that well but it's the State of Florida
are they going to give us the choice to vote on it it has to it's a referendum vote required it's it's a Statewide vote this this is posturing by state didn't didn't one pass the last election to get rid of homestead exemption which was
stely raiseed taxes so right yeah and that we're all going to go to Tallahassee with our handout after this I mean it makes no sense right it's it doesn't make any sense at all so I think it's I think like Lisa said that it it is being treated a little bit not seriously but seriously at the same time
and and there is again to phyllis's point some effort to try to put it to bed because this isn't the first time it's weared its head this is like the third time in the last five years it's weared its head up there so um you know somebody thinks it's a good idea and I know many people
that some people don't care about some people ask for water and County Water and it's usually more the new folks than the folks that that have been living out here for a while but I'm very concerned
about sewer if they they try to put sewer in through our tow I'm maybe it's because I don't know um but sewer has to be paid for by residents There is almost no way that
anyone here could afford sewer if there is development and there are grants available for it and so on and so forth but if there is ever going to be any septic to sewer conversion it would be in the Southern Corridor where there
were already facilities available I understand that but my concern some on North Road as well isn't there yeah it's we prented from being forced to sign up correct yeah that would be my concern
people being forced to sign up you know that there is a state legisl put push for that as that is the concern is well we have a memorandum of understanding with um water utilities department at the county and nobody is forcing anybody
and in fact if they sign anybody up it's supposed to come through our offices so and is it well I only see the new development stuff on Southern coming through really don't see anything else because it's
required for commercial right yeah I saw something on North Road I saw these black um pipes coming out of the ground on North Road when I was cruising through that's from fpnl when they were doing their undergrounding oh that's
where they stopped okay and then have something else to say no And So Lisa and Paul welcome to the death job well done and uh Paul in your
election and job well done not having to be in an election freaking awesome I never get the last word crazy can I have a motion motion to adjourn second