All right, ladies and gentlemen, it is 5:30. Let's go ahead and call this meeting to order. The first item on the agenda will be the invocation followed by the pledge of allegiance. We have Pastor Ramsey from Harvest Worship Center giving the
invocation tonight. >> Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we're so very thankful for community. We just ask you to lead us and guide us in all our decisions. Help us always consider our neighbor. And we thank you for the blessing of life in Jesus mighty name. Amen.
>> Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. All right, Pastor Ramsey, thank you for your support, sir. All right, with that, next on the agenda, additions, deletions, and modification of agenda. Um, mayor, if we may. >> Yes, sir.
>> Can we add discussion on city manager uh at some with with with an agenda item? >> Say that item one more time. >> Um, discussion on on um the city manager.
>> Okay. City manager discussion, sir. >> That's specific to the selection to the city manager. >> Yes. Selection. Yeah. Perfect. >> All right. I was Go ahead. >> I'd like to add um what I brought up the
last meeting about um discussion about uh public commentary and possibility of having a town hall once a month. >> Right. Public commentary. >> Any other proposed additions? >> May we need to add a discussion on the charter review committee and
deliverables that you all would like to request from them with a timeline. Charter review committee deliverables. All right. So, recounting what I've just heard from the rest of the team. Um, a city manager process update, uh, public
commentary, uh, revisit discussion, and then charter review committee deliverables ahead. Is everyone amable with that? Ber
cool. All right. Um, well, next we have a ARC presentation or do we need to vote on that clarification? Do we need to vote for the amendments? >> All right. Uh, can I have a motion to uh amend the agenda as discussed? >> I'll make the motion. >> Second.
>> Thank you, ma'am. >> Would you call my role, please? >> Commissioner Ward, >> yes. >> Commissioner Tinder? >> Yes. >> Commissioner Peebles? >> Yes. >> Commissioner Pero? >> Yes. >> Mayor Lowry? >> Yes, sir. >> All right. 50 and passes. Thank you for the three deletion or modifications. Uh
fourth on the agenda is an ARC presentation by Mr. Ron Sharp. >> Good evening. >> Good evening, sir. >> Ron Sharp, president and CEO for the Ark of the Bay. Uh hoping to just really just come by and share some good news uh
free services for the uh residents here in the city of Linhaven. Uh we are partnering again with AARP uh Tax A Foundation. We've done it for three years. We're going to be doing it again starting tomorrow. Uh we're located, of
course, on 1804 Carolina Avenue. We're doing it on Wednesdays for 5 hours from 2 uh 2:00 in the afternoon till 700 p.m. starting tomorrow. We'll be going through each Wednesday all the way through April the 8th. Um
reason why I want to come by and just share with you is again is because um the preparers are uh IRS trained uh tax preparers. there's no charge for it and um you know everybody's trying to make
sure that they're uh spending the money wisely, you know, making uh [clears throat] good decisions when it comes to cost and um so your employees here in the city of Linhaven could come by and u get their taxes done free. Uh I
want to run some numbers for you just so you know the economic impact of what we've been able to do over the last three years. Um, again, 5 hours a day, uh, or 5 hours on Wednesdays during the tax season. Um, the average cost to do a
tax return is anywhere between $220 to up to $600. Uh, over the last 5 years, we have processed 446 returns. Um, with the, um, past two years of that 446, we've been averaging about 180. The
total earned income tax credits almost 44,000. The total refund amount, it's going right back into our economy, is $371,000. Uh the total amount saved by the this
service uh would come to about $98,000. Uh we're no heroes, you know, in the nonprofit world. The community gives to us. We just found that this was a way that we could try to give back to the uh the residents here in the city of Linhaven. So again, uh I think you have
the flyers. If you could just share it with your uh with your associates, we'd love to be able to Yes, sir. We'd love to continue to do that. So, thank you guys. >> Thank you, Mr. Sharp, for what y'all are doing. >> All right, with that, we now have move
on to the consent agenda. So, we have three items on the consent agenda. uh and they are number five uh approval of the meetings for our last meeting which is January 29th. We have to the appointment of Johnny Basher to the finance review committee to replace Mr.
McCry uh who resigned and this is uh Commissioner Perno's nominee to the finance review committee and then number seven to declare uh Linhaven Fire Department mobile air unit as surplus and auction off to government deals. So,
those are the three items on the consent agenda. Uh, any concerns or issues about uh approving that unanimous consent? Do we have any comments for these three uh items from the uh public at large
before we move forward? >> I make a motion we approve. >> All right. I'll second. >> Thank you, sir. Thank you, ma'am. Commissioner Tinder, >> yes. >> Commissioner Peebles, >> yes. >> Commissioner Pero,
>> yes. >> Commissioner Warick, >> yes. >> Mayor Lowry, >> yes. >> All right, consent agenda passes. Congratulations, Mr. Basher. Look forward to having you on the finance committee and putting your eagle eyes to good use.
>> All right, with that, uh, old business. So, I'm going to uh turn this over to the city attorney for the Paul Harvey rest of the story here for a moment, but it's a public hearing. Uh it's actually a redo of our first reading. Um we
didn't get the paperwork exactly perfectly right. So, we are going to resubmit to the state and we will have to do a vote tonight, but this is just a formal yes vote by the commission to actually transmit the paperwork to the
state. Uh, this is a redo admin process. So with that, Amy, would you like to explain? >> You did a great job. I'm going to let Chris read the ordinance by title and then if you want to open up the public hearing, I can explain why we're having it again. >> Okay. Fair. An ordinance of the city of Glen Haven, Florida, amending the city's
comprehensive plan to implement the evaluation and appraisal report required by section 163.3191 Florida statutes. amending elements to meet the requirements of section 163.3177 Florida statutes basing the amendments
upon permanent and seasonal population estimates and projections published by the office of economic and demographic research for a 10-year and 20-year planning period. Amending chapter 1, the future land use element goal one, objective two, policy 2-1-04,
adding group homes. Amending objective 10, natural resource protection policy 10-3, develop and maintain a stormwater master plan. Amending chapter 3, housing element to update policies. Amending chapter 4, infrastructure element to
update policies. Continued provision of facilities to meet existing and projected demands. Amending chapter 5, coastal manage management element goal one objective 3 policy 3-6 to include the requirements of the Dear Point Protection Zone and adding goal three
objectives 1-1 through 7 preparing, adapting, mitigating, and managing climate change impacts in compliance with section 380.093 subsection 3 Florida statutes related to sea level rise. Amending chapter 7,
recreation open space element goal one, objective one, to update population projections and facility provision. Amending chapter 9, capital improvements element goal one, objective 8, figure 9-1, schedule of capital improvements for the five and 10-year planning
period, including projected revenue sources to ensure the availability of public facilities needed to maintain adopted level of service standards. providing for sever severability of of provisions, repealing all ordinances in conflict here with and providing for an
effective date. >> Thank you. Catch your breath. So, this is this is a public hearing to dis for for a reading and transmitt um to the state. This is essentially a doover of the exact same hearing we had at your very last meeting. Um but we're doing it
again to correct a notice is a notice issue. The notice required for this public hearing is pretty particular. It's set by the statute and we felt like our first notice had some flaws and so that this didn't get defeated a second time. We thought we'd go get ahead of it, have you do a second reading, bless
the transmitt with under the new notice, we'll send it to the state and in six months it will come back to you um in approximately six months once it's been reviewed by all of the state agencies. It'll come back to you for adoption again. >> So with that being said, uh members of
the audience, y'all heard what we just did. This is administrative in nature. Yes, ma'am. >> You can't hear me? Terribly sorry, ma'am. I did not realize y'all couldn't hear me. Can you hear me now? All right. So, what Miss Meyers
just said, were y'all able to hear Mr. Lightfoot with his reading? Okay. So, what we did is we are doing an official redo of the first reading. Um, and what this is is we are submitting this paperwork in compliance with the state
to the state for review and they will come back in roughly 180 days. uh once the state agencies coordinate on this, they'll come back and re-engage with us. Uh we went over this and we all approved at 50-0 in our last commission meeting.
We did not do proper notice. We only gave 6 days notice instead of seven. So, we did an official redo here to make this right. Uh this isn't a controversial thing. It's more ministerial in nature, but we're we need to do it the right way to check the
boxes and transmit the information to the state. So, that is what this is. If any member of the community wants to step up and discuss, feel free, but I do not anticipate this being controversial at all. It's basic administrative
paperwork. So hearing none, I will ask for a motion to approve. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Got a quick draw in a third there. Good
deal. Uh interim city manager, would you call the role? >> Commissioner Perno, >> yes. >> Commissioner Tinder, >> yes. >> Commissioner Peebles, >> yes. >> Commissioner War, >> yes. >> Mayor Lowry, >> yes. >> All right. passes 50. All right. Can
y'all still hear me? Okay. Now, I've got the microphone literally right under my lips. So, uh short of that, I can start screaming for y'all, but that's about all I can do. All right. Good deal. All right. New business. We're on to number nine for those of you following on the
agenda with us. It's a discussion and possible approval of voting of two new members from the applications received for the planning board. So, mayor, we are trying to get into 2026 and we have opened up the the um applications online to submit the forms and it will come to
me. However, we did have a slight hiccup. We had a person submit an application that went to a spam folder. So, I'm going to ask that you all discuss tableabling this item so that you all can review the one application that was submitted on time. However, was in my spam folder for you all to review and we vote on this at next meeting.
>> So, we can do that. Now, we actually have two seats up for the planning board tonight. Um, I would actually kind of do a Solomon act with you and kind of split the baby down the middle there, so to speak. And what I mean by that is one of those seats, uh, this commission, aside
from myself, the rest of you guys and ladies were here. Um, there were two individuals up for appointment, a Mr. Doolittle and a Mr. Clubs. And Mr. Clubs was, um, recommended by Commissioner War. The other four voted for Mr.
Doolittle. The agreement made and it was reflected in the commission meeting minutes was that uh this commission basically promised the next position we have open on this board, we like you, you're well qualified, you're an active volunteer, we will appoint you to the next available position. Um, so what I'd
like to do since there's two positions and there are five or six applications in total. If you guys and lady are still good with that, I would like to honor this commission's prior promisary note to Mr. Club, appoint him to one seat and
then consider all of the other applicants that applied during the normal time period, including the one that had the technical hiccup um that did apply during the normal time period. and let's consider those five or six applicants for the second seat next meeting.
>> So, I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page with this because as you guys probably know, I was not in agreement of this last time we talked about this. Um, I don't think that we should promise people because you're you got seniority, you're the next in line.
So, is this the last one that we're doing that with? Is that the what we're all understanding? This is the last one we do that with. >> Yeah, that's fine. Except I will caveat that by saying the clubs thing was not a seniority thing. That was different. We all agreed with you that or at least I
agreed with you that we didn't want to do the seniority thing last time. Clubs was someone that put an application in at the same time. He was not been. So, we had two people that we both thought were really qualified and we agreed to go ahead and say that clubs could have
the next one. It wasn't like a seniority thing like you're saying. I agree with what you're saying, but I also will continue to agree with what you're saying right now. >> So, I I thought it was because of the board of adjustments. >> No, he just happened to be on the board of adjustment, but um he he
[clears throat] wanted to be on planning. The only the main reason he applied for board of adjustment is because he was under the impression that that was the stepping stone anyways. >> Okay. >> That's and that's how our former city manager had it set up. She said people went off the board of adjustments to the planning board.
>> Yeah. And >> and that and we didn't like that because we, you know, we didn't we didn't say one board is a board and waiting for another. >> That should have never happened in my opinion. So, I just want to make sure that this is the last one that we do that with. >> Yeah, I'm fine with that.
>> Okay. >> I I make a motion that we accept, Mr. Clubs. >> Thank you. Do I have a second? >> Second. Call the role, please. >> Commissioner Tinder, >> yes. >> Commissioner Pero, >> yes.
>> Commissioner Peeles, >> yes. >> Commissioner War, >> yes. >> Mayor Lowry, >> yes. >> And mayor, I'm going to pass the um the application of Mr. Evans now just so you all have it to review uh in time, but we will also send it digitally in the packet next time as well. >> Thank you. >> Do we need to make a separate motion on
the second one or was that part of that? >> Well, >> okay. We can just agree to table it. >> All right. >> You can table it by consensus. You don't need a motion and a second on that. >> So, we approved one and we tabled the second appointment until the next
meeting in two weeks. So, that the one person who submitted through the new e application, his uh application actually gets reviewed by the commission along with everyone else who submitted it the oldfashioned way that worked. So, hopefully that was the one kink we'll have with this new board volunteer
system. All right, thank y'all for that. Next, we have number 10 on the agenda item, discussion and possible approval of resolution 26-02-518, agreement with EPSS for replacement
catwalk at digtor 4 at 8 ATW. A resolution of the city of Linhaven, Florida, approving an agreement with EPSS Supply and Fabrication LLC relating to the demol demolition and reconstruction of stairs and catwalk at
the city's wastewater treatment plant in the total amount of $52,250. Mayor, last year we had a a storm roll through and do some damage to the fiberglass catwalk at the at Digtor 4 at the wastewater treatment plant. That catwalk was original from 1996 1998 time
frame. We did receive an insurance check of 48, thou $48,85549. Um staff reached out. They got three quotes and per our procurement policy. This is part of the utilities deal. So it doesn't have to go out to sealed bids. It's just the three quote process since it's under $100,000.
>> Thank you for that. I will tell the uh the audience here with us tonight as well as my fellow commissioners. I went out last week and toured this waste facility with the the interim city manager and the fiberglass is in horrible shape. It's 30 years old, very
sunfaded. Uh I was literally scraping uh fiberglass burrs out of my hands for 3 days. It was that bad. And I only held the the the banister going down like twice and still just got ate up with it. The fiberglass is actually structurally weakening. You can tell it's faded and
it's very wonky. It's unsafe. I wouldn't want my kids climbing on that, much less workers. So, um, we definitely need to get that replaced with metal, rigid, safe steps going up that particular, uh, piece of equipment in bay in the waste
treatment facility. >> Any other comments among the uh, commission? >> Uh, no sir. >> I make a motion we accept. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Uh we'll ask if there are any public comments on
that before we move forward. This is largely a safety thing with 30-year-old fiberglass uh steps that are woefully uh unsafe and need to be replaced at our wastewater uh treatment facility. Before
we vote, I just wanted to make a quick comment because from meeting with city interim city manager, he informed me that this was budgeted for the full amount, but now we since we got insurance. >> Yes, sir. We did we did not anticipate getting insurance uh reimbursement for
this. So, we did budget it this fiscal year. However, the insurance company did wind up paying uh the $48,855 for it. >> Right. So, we're only we're only paying a net, you know, with with the budget, you know, with with with crediting the budget, so to speak. We're only paying a
net >> just under six grand out of the budget. >> Just under six grand. >> So, for those of you in the back, could y'all hear that? Okay, I'm making sure now. Y'all got me paranoid. I want to make sure y'all can hear. Now, if I start singing, you won't want to hear. I
promise. But short of that, we we'll be okay. Make sure y'all hear. All right. So, we've got a resolution in the second or excuse me, a motion in the second. Uh, no public commentary. So, uh, interim city manager, would you call the role? >> Commissioner Tinder? >> Yes. >> Commissioner War? >> Yes. >> Commissioner Peebles?
>> Yes. >> Commissioner Pero? >> Yes. >> Mayor Lowry? >> Yes. All right. Next. Number 11 on the agenda. First reading only of ordinance 1185, amending the code of ordinance to prohibit smoking and vaping in city
parks. Now, we have the city attorney listed as the primary discusser for this, but I also asked Commissioner Peoples if he would like to discuss as well because this was actually his initiative and he said, "Sure." So, Commissioner, I'm going to turn over to you first and then to the city attorney.
>> Mayor, let me read the ordinance real quick. An ordinance of the city commission of Linhaven, Florida, amending the city's code of code of ordinances to prohibit smoking and vaping in city parks, repealing ordinances in conflict, providing for severability, providing for cotification, and providing an effective
date. Okay. >> All right. Thanks. So, I know so I'm at the ballparks all the time. Uh, and I noticed that the sign says no smoking and then it listed an ordinance. So, I dug into it a little bit. I got curious
cuz I'm just a curious person. And I read the ordinance and I believe it was 2019ish was when the the no smoking and no well, I think they amended the ordinance to add no vaping to the no smoking. But the
issue that I saw was that the when it was amended to say no vaping, it said no vaping where you can't smoke, which makes total sense why they did that. However, if you go even further back, it doesn't say where you can't smoke. So, how can you,
in my opinion, if you're going to enforce an ordinance, the ordinance needs to be clearly understandable to the people that are being uh that people that are reading it are getting trouble for not following it. So, I asked that we update this ordinance to actually say where it is that you're not allowed to
smoke just so that it's there's less confusion for the citizens, less confusion for the code enforcement or whoever is enforcing the no smoking. So, that's what this is. Uh, our attorney did a great job of going in there and updating the ordinance to where it
specifically says, uh, where you cannot smoke. got feedback from Tai and and some of the other parks people to make sure that it looked good and I'm happy with it. >> Thank you for that, Miss Myers. >> Um, this ordinance is limited in scope
to city parks because that is all that the state legislature allows you to regulate. The regulation of smoking generally is preempted to the state, but you do have a pass for city parks. So, um, for that reason, it doesn't apply to all city- owned property. It's only limited to city parks.
So, y'all all heard that in the back, right? This is limited just to city parks. The state controls pretty much everything else where you can and can't smoke, but we do have say in city- owned parks. So, um any public commentary regarding
this from the public? Hearing none, we are moving right along tonight. Hearing none, um do we have a motion? A motion to approve. >> First reading. >> My bad. >> My apologies.
So, this was just a first reading. No problem. All right. Any other discussion from the commission on that one? >> No. Hearing none. We'll move on to uh item number 12, discussion only about the city hiring a new building official.
And Commissioner Tander, this is yours, ma'am. >> Thank you. Um, I checked with Kiki last week and found out that we spend approximately $85,000 in one year fiscal year for permitting
and uh building official duties. Um, and then this year, I believe we're in the middle of the year and we're up to 75 or something like that. Oh, okay. 56. Anyway, I would like to have this
commission entertain the idea of having our own building official so that we don't have to depend on Bay County and wait for permits. I've been involved
with a project that waited months for a permit to come out of the city. Um, I do have to say to be totally transparent, I would highly recommend Mike Gordon. Mike was the best building official
we've ever had in my opinion. He's honest. He's quick. And again, in my opinion, the city falsely arrested him, falsely
fired him, cost him a fortune, and Mike does not want to work for the city. He doesn't want to be a city employee. He would like to report to the commission. I I would like him to report to the
commission. Um, but I think it would be a smart way to get our own building official on board and have things done the way they used to be done. And I can tell you from personal experience
after um, Michael, I I will never forget this part because I was at the treasure ship on a Friday night at 8:00, a lady called me. Something had fallen off her roof. I called Mike and he said, "I'll go right
over." And he went over there at 8:00 on a Friday night. And I think he's very dedicated um to the job. And he, like I said, he's not looking for a ton of hours. He's not looking for a ton of pay. Um and I would
just like the commission to entertain the idea because right now we're way behind on we're way behind on um our building official capacities. I don't know how we've been using Bay County for quite some time now, haven't we? >> Mayor, if I may. So, the reason we're
behind on permits is we did have a death in our building department permit family. We do not wait on the county. Um, we are still cutting all the permits and everything. Utilizing the county is not a hold up at all on any of our delays. We have been using the county for the building official and building
inspector role. It is working out great. We're actually been working with the county um building department and the legal team to bring you all an updated agreement. Um, we have had that building official position advertised for a number of months. Uh, Miss Hajes had, I believe, three on board that had used
the the job offer to accept either another position or utilize it for leverage in their current position to to increase their wages. Um, it is working much more efficient to have uh the county take over our building department and and handle everything. Um, if we do
go to a a private vendor, if that's what the commission so desires and Miss Myers can weigh in, but we would have to go out to an RFQ, um, if it was going to be a permanent deal for a company, we would not just be able to hire someone directly unless it was on a temporary basis.
So I remember this was quite a while back I brought this up um because one of the feedbacks I got from some of the developers and that is when they originally submit their applications the initial stage takes a while because
the way the system that we use and from my understanding correct me if I'm wrong but um the the county has a different system and it's all online and that way the contractor can go and submit their stuff and it helps speed up the process. Is that right? >> Yes, sir. So, part of the the
discussions we've been having with Bay County and and hopefully bringing this to you all for approval, um we would if you all accepted uh the updated agreement, we would go on Bay County's online permitting uh service and that would mean everybody could do every submit everything online. It would be a
much more efficient process and everyone through the that utilized the county would be utilizing the same thing. So, it wouldn't be that Len Haven had its own permitting process online. it would be under the counties. We would adopt possibly adopt their building fees um for the inspections and everything would
run seamlessly through that >> because I remember one of the the things I talked to our last building official about is what would it take to go to a different system and the problem was you had to keep the old system as far as um keeping the records and that. So you had
to you didn't pay the full amount but you still had to pay them a certain amount on top of a new system to try to update it. And to me, this is a better avenue as far as utilizing their system cuz it's it's an up-to-date system compared to ours. >> Yes, sir. And Mr. I believe that the
numbers you're you're looking at are a little skewed because last year, part of the fiscal year, we did have a building official and then part of the year we went out to the county. This fiscal year, we have been 100% to Bay County. >> Okay. Thank you. Any uh any other
commission comments or questions? When was the last time we had someone in that role here at the city? >> The last position was Mr. Vanadder. Um, when did he leave? >> Um, 2025. >> Average cost for a building official
because they're quite unique with the certifications exceed over $100,000. An effective rate would be close to $200,000. Um, and for a city our size and the amount of building, we'd need an inspector as well. So, you're talking
about two and a flood plane coordinator and administrator. Um, the county does provide all those services. >> And what was the number you were anticipating it's costing us to by using the county instead?
>> It it varies. They take 80%. So, if we bring in $10,000, they take $8,000. >> I see. Commissioner Perau, do you have any questions, sir? >> I've I spoke uh to interim city manager
about this and and it the the the viewpoint I get is that we're more efficient using the county. Now, if if we if there's a, you know, if there's a need to RFQ and and see if we can do it
a better way, I mean, you know, I'd entertain that. I I don't I don't think I would entertain one individual to consider because it's not the purchasing process. You know what I mean? So, um,
that's that's for us to decide if and and I understand what what Commissioner Tinder is bringing to us. And, you know, I'd consider an RFQ if it was if it was if it was more if it was better than the efficiency that we have right now. So,
we've got to we've got to take a look at that. So, >> Yes, sir. Thank you. I have a quick question. This is a new topic for me, so I'm curious. And Commissioner Tender, I think what you're getting at, ma'am, um, is you're looking for that organic city level responsiveness and capability that
we may or may not get with the county for kind of emergency situations like you're talking about 8:00 on a Friday night kind of thing, right? Would there be any potential for the construct we have now where we basically turn this over to the county? The county does this
for us where we would have some kind of city qualified RFQ kind of I don't know a better term other than a reserveist basically an on call auxiliary or backup or you can keep a couple of skilled city
backup people who can be qualified through the county and and support them kind of on as a surge kind of thing. It would not make any any financial sense to hire a consultant to keep on standby. If we've ran into a situation the county has answered immediately. Um we haven't
had an issue where we were waiting on them. >> And it's not like we only have if we use a county it's only one person. If that person's not there, they have other people that can go. >> Yes, they have a complete staff. >> Right. >> How big is this staff by the way? Like dozen people? A couple dozen
people. >> The county has quite a vast building department. I'm not sure of the number of staff they have. >> Robust capability. >> Yes, sir. We have not ran into an issue with waiting on them >> deadlines once an approved application has been submitted. The problem is there
are a lot of steps set by state stat um statute. So if you feel like it took a long time from when you first applied, but if you didn't complete all the steps the state requires, the time frame starts over. And so that building
official and that in uh inspection process has a has a finite time period, but it's only when an application is submitted properly and completely and the county tracks that to the numbers.
Okay. Well, for the record, um I am not opposed to us getting that organic capability back for our own building custodian or excuse me, building inspector, but if what we have is currently working, if we can augment
that with our own capability, let's look at it. If we can't and it would be expensive and redundant, then we won't. But if we can add value there and have our own folks in the process, I'm more than clear for us to relook at this. Let
me also add I asked Kiki to pull up the last time we had a contract building official. Uh is that a year >> for two years or one year that you're showing me the figure?
>> Okay. Two years um gross was 314,343. >> So expense. >> It's expensive. Any idea how many hours that was or how many inspections that was? Does it say >> his contract was a percentage? Okay.
>> Of of um >> the permit cost. Correct. >> Okay. I I don't I I correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the financial aspect is going to be vastly different if we go to the
county versus if we do it to the city because the building the the the building fund is a fund that you can't make a profit. Right. >> Do I have that right? >> Right. >> Right. >> So I I don't I don't know if it's so much a financial
more financially efficient. I think it's more operationally efficient. That is my am I correct to say that? >> Yes, sir. >> I feel that it has very been operationally efficient of how the county has been handling it. The only issues that we've ran into in the building department have been our own
internal issues. Nothing to do with what the county is doing. >> For the record, Commissioner Tender, I think it's a good idea to look at. We need to continuously be looking at how we can improve our operations and where it makes sense. Um, we certainly need to
discuss and and look at all possible options. Um, I'll dig into this further and we this is something we can revisit in the future, ma'am, if that's okay with you. >> Oh, of course it's okay. Um, my thing when I see 8,000
going, we're giving them 8,000 out of 10. And I keep thinking, well, we could use that 8,000. But, >> but keep in mind, we would be paying someone. So, we wouldn't be keeping that 8,000. we would be paying salary to the people we're hiring. So, it's not that we're losing $8,000. We're just paying
them to do it versus paying our own person to do it. >> Right. So, >> but I would like Oh, go ahead. I would like to look at what the mayor said uh as far as um how do we even know go out with an RFQ, see what a building official will do it for
>> rather than, you know. >> Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off. Didn't you say y'all had done um y'all had three proposals or you had three volunteers? You said you had three looked like some type of advertising.
>> We had we had three applicants when it was the position was advertised. >> Okay. And how long ago was that? >> Few months ago. >> Okay. >> Offer that was accepted and then rejected was the summer. Um, and in it
was in excess of $100,000 to come on board. I >> tell you what, M our commissioner tender, I'm going to get smart on this topic and I'll revisit with revisit it with you and the team here in a future meeting when I get smart on it. Um, and we'll take a look and see if there's any
way we can make that more efficient. But I'm glad to hear the county is helping us and doing right by us now. Um, so we'll revisit that if that's okay with you. >> That's great. Thank you, ma'am. All right. Any more discussion before we move on?
All right. Um, so we're now at 13. We're at public commentary. So, we have >> We have additions. >> Oh, we're going to do those. My apologies. We do have three more. Uh, so the first one is the city manager update.
So, Gerard, you uh mind coming up here, sir? I I can help. Um you have all turned in your ballots to shortlist a city candidate. Um there were four candidates that two or more of you had on your list. Um so
now staff needs direction on what to do next and how you would like to proceed and time interviews. Uh specifically uh we need to reach out to those four candidates. Did everybody get a spreadsheet of the four candidates? Do you even know? >> Okay, the four candidates. >> Give me a minute.
I'll pull up my spreadsheet. >> Well, before you announce any names, I'd actually like for all of us to be able to see the spreadsheet uh kind of the the totals and who every bless you and who voted for, you know, who voted for who to move forward and let's take a look at you're talking about four key
overlaps, but of the others. So, there's five of us that voted. Was there one individual beyond those four? You know, as we're kind of trying to establish a cutline here where three of the five of us or four of the five of us had this other person on there, you know, I want to kind of get a feel for who's who in
the zoo, so to speak, rack and stack. >> Um, and we can provide you a copy of that spreadsheet. Would you like me to still give you the top four >> commission? How do y'all feel about that? Do y'all want to name names tonight or do you want to review the collect consolidated rack and stack and
try to get to an agreeable cut line for interviews? >> Regardless of if whether you decide on the short list tonight, although that would be prefable preferable, I would still like to have you direct staff on once you create your short list. Um, how do we proceed next? Do you want to I
think we need to reach out to all of them and make sure they're still interested because some of them from are from the first trunch. Um and it's been several months, right? >> Um do you want to do Zoom interviews for four or even five if you want to create a short list of that? Um how many do you
want to bring to town um to travel and do inerson interviews and what is what is your timeline to select a city manager? this this is your decision and so I don't want to push you into it, but I since it's never on the agenda, I do feel like I need to nudge you along.
>> Mayor, if I could ask this, I think in the uh spirit of transparency, everybody in this room needs to hear who's on that list. Okay. >> I mean it's Yeah. I mean that's >> top four are
so before names are actually mentioned here. You have a top four list but so we all could submit up to 10 names each. Right. So um you [clears throat] have a top four where you said at least four of the five of us had those names on the list. Is that correct
>> there? Yeah. So I have a ranking of uh alto together you had 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 there were 14 names submitted across all of you. There were four names that at least two or more of you um shared. So that's where you had
overlap. There were uh one candidate that had four of you agreed on. There was another candidate uh that uh three of you agreed on. Um, and then the others, at least two of you agreed on those,
>> but yes, I agree. You should see the spreadsheet. And I'm sorry, I'm speaking in the abstract. Um, shall I You want me to just read the the names of the top four or in order? >> I would say I would say if they got more three or more commissioner support, those were the names you would go with
because just like we're if we were up here voting on something, you know, three commissioners, it passes, right? Is that the right way to look at that? >> So, how many people would we be looking at if you had three commissioners not uh
put that individual on the list, their list? How many would that leave us? >> Phone a friend, but I think the answer is two. There are only two that have three or more of you that three or more of you identified. >> Didn't we talk about doing like a point system?
>> We did points. >> Okay. >> We assigned points. So, I can give you a ranking of the of the top four or five based on the point system, but based on how many of you voted for the same people. Um, you've got two that three or more of you voted on. >> Would y'all be good with the top five?
Let's >> That's fine. >> Let's hear who those are. >> All right, Rod, do you want to you want me to do it or do you feel comfortable doing it? Okay, you tell me if I'm wrong. >> All right. Uh the top five in order of highest points um would be Christopher
Lightoot, Jonathan Rory, Roger Omenheiser, Zach Deweiler, and Rebecca Hart. Did I get that right? >> I can say it one more time. Yes. Chris
Lightfoot, Jonathan Rory, Roger Omenheiser, Zack Deweiler, Rebecca Hart. Okay, thank you for that. Um, Commission Pier
thought initial what I will call first blush thoughts here. Uh, potential Zoom. uh go ahead and have HR call Gerard call and see if they're still confirm they're still interested in availability over the next three to four weeks um to meet
with us, do Zoom calls at least with the top five and try to narrow it down to the top three, assuming all five are still interested. Uh and then um seek to interview the top three in person. Would that be acceptable to y'all?
>> I'm good with that. Yes, that's kind of where I was leaning, so that works. >> Commissioner Poto, >> I have an opinion that's different from everybody, so my mouth shut. >> No, please. >> Um I I'm of the a different opinion, but
um if we're going to go ahead and bring people in and interview him, that's fine. >> Well, that's just What are you thinking? >> I'm thinking that we have a guy down there at the end. I think that you're on it. Your your your term of office is till April of 27.
Um, we have an interim city manager. Whether we want to keep him as interim city manager for a one-year contract to to coincide with the next election. That would be that would be one way of doing it. or give the man a contract for uh
one year and see what's up and leave him leave him at his current salary or however want to do it and then give him a review after a year and and uh let's move forward. We have a new mayor. We have a new police chief. Uh let's let's let's keep keep the city moving the way
it's going and and and and uh and and take a look at things in 12 months. So that's my feeling. Commissioner Tinder Ward, I have any comments to add? >> I'm
I'm of the opinion to look at all of them and I'm going to select whoever I feel is the best one. You know, I I think I'll just say that. >> Ditto. >> I think we should I think we should look
at all of them. Um, for the record, um, Commissioner Perno, I respect your opinion very much, sir, and I don't disagree with you that, um, the inter city manager has done a great job. >> Uh, but I do think in the transparency
and fairness, we need to run the the tape here and we need to go through the top five. Um, I'm not surprised he's in the top five. I'm not surprised he's actually racked and snacked at the top of the list, but we have some other very, very impressive candidates. Um,
and I think we need to do our due diligence, just be transparent and consistent and fair about it. And um, we'll see where see where we land there. But I would not be shocked at all that Mr. Lightoot will be incredibly competitive. He's doing a great job in
the interim. That's a very very tough position to be in. So, um there's really no voting action for that. Uh it was just kind of a discussion tonight. >> I think we just got to determine a date to do Zoom meetings with those five candidates.
>> So, if Jennifer and Gerard can coordinate with you on the timing of those. I think the idea is to uh get the Zoom interviews done in one day and then um I suppose you could we could do that in the next two weeks so that at your next meeting you could determine your top three that
we need to bring in to travel for an in-person interview and that would potentially allow for a selection in March. >> Okay. I do believe there's uh three are local. I think could be wrong >> and maybe no one has to travel if those
are your top three but >> wellfoot and deweiler are local. Um I'm >> heartart >> heart is local that I'm Hower he was in Miami I believe
and Rory is North Carolina. No, Pennsylvania. >> I think it's North Carolina. >> One of the two. >> Pine Pinehurst maybe. >> Okay. Yeah. So, two are definitely out of state. >> I And I would recommend that the commission on the Zoom that all even if
they're local, all applicants should appear by Zoom so that it's equal. >> That's fair. So, I'm new obviously three weeks to the day. So, excuse the new guy question, but how do we do that Zoom in a public transparent way in accordance
with sunshine among the five of us? How does that work? Cuz I haven't seen that done before. >> I've worked a schedule. I've worked a schedule. You all five would probably have to commit a whole day and we'd have to have basically five different Zooms going per hour. Um, so that you're
moving and seeing different ones. You cannot be in the same room and you cannot discuss your interview. Um, in one case, working on that, I logistically would suggest that there's a either Gerard or some
myself or someone else there with you just to make sure you're the key is you're asking the same questions of all five or similar questions of all five applicants. That doesn't mean that Commissioner Tinder has to ask the same questions of as Commissioner Warick, but
Commissioner Tinder will ask the same questions to the five. Um, so that's consistent. So, you're comparing apples to apples. Um, it can be done. >> And what about the public? When do they get to see those interviews?
>> Well, I think in this one, you're still going through and trying to decide your top candidates. And it would not be at a Zoom. Um, at some point if you go to a in person, uh, there's ways to do it where you bring the public in where you can ask for their input for questions.
Um, you can hold it as a public meeting where they are observing your on bank um, your group interview and I think that um, Amy's also got some recommendations for that as well. So the
public can be involved in will be will absolutely be involved in the process when y'all come together to discuss um your short list and your ultimate selection. Um the public has a right to view that process. The Sunshine Law doesn't cover you on your one-on-one Zoom interviews and so the public would
not be entitled or invited even to attend those Zoom interviews. Um, but they could hear your feedback when you come together to go from five to two or three. Um, when you get to the inerson, as Jennifer said, you can do one-on- ones.
You can schedule a you don't have to do one-on- ones. You could do group interviews as she said, so that the public can be there for the whole process because where two or more of you are together talking about city manager or to an applicant. The sunshine law does apply and we do need to notice that as a meeting. So, there are a couple of
options for how you involve them. You can also do one-on-one interviews. You can have a meet and greet reception. You can invite the applicants to speak and present uh to you for three or five minutes. Whether or not you do a dialogue or any questioning of them in
that meeting, again, it's up to you. This is your process. You get to say, but we can give you lots of options, but we need you to tell us which one you like best and how you'd like to see it executed. >> Okay. >> So, I think the way this is going to happen is
We got the short the list of five. We each do one-on-one Zoom meeting with each applicant and after that we determine our short short list of or or it may only be, you know, one person depending on how those go cuz you could possibly go do the Zoom interviews and
you're like, man, there's only one or maybe it's very competitive and now you got it down to two or three. So when you get down to two or three, I think that's when you do it in a public setting where they might be down here below the dis and it's open to the public and we ask questions and and the public can ask
questions if I understand that right. >> If that is one way you can do it. Yes. >> I'm thinking one thing that we need to discuss in our next meeting after we have the Zoom as well is we need to determine the number of the short list specifically. You know what I'm saying? Cuz like you were saying, it could be
that there's only one, but we could all five of these could be extremely strong, too. So maybe we don't want to set the number to three today. We'd set the number next meeting of the ones that we want to do in person. >> So maybe >> I mean after we do the Zoom meeting, >> correct? Yeah, >> that's fine.
>> So initial round and final round of interviews, how is that in terms of uh terminology? instead of top five and top three. We if all five are amazing, then we need to interview all five. >> Yeah, that that's fine.
>> And just one clarification, Miss Myers, I am not opposed to having a member or two of the public sit in on a Zoom meeting with me as I do the initial interviews. I mean, I'm all about transparency. Um, we obviously need to have a public um, when we get to the
final, the second round, we will obviously have that public interaction. Is there anything that precludes me having a a fly or two on the wall from the public per se as I do the initial interview? Just in the spirit of transparency, as long as they stay with
me for all five, they can't do one interview with me and then run to the others and go, "Hey, Mayor Lowry is asking this. Be ready." Right? But if I have say two people from the public sit in on the Zoom meeting with me and just listen as I do my interviews, is that
acceptable or legally permissible? >> I think it's legally permissible. Your flies on the wall do need to understand that if they were to communicate to any other commissioner what they saw or heard, they would in fact be violating the sunshine um as a liaison. >> Okay.
Okay. I'm I'm all with you, mayor, as far as I want as much transparency to this. >> Yes, ma'am. >> As we can have. >> I'd like to try to do that. And commissioners, I would ask you all consider that. I'm not going to try to
dictate that to the rest of the team, but if it's permissible, I'd like to and I'll seek out volunteers and have a couple and they can report after the fact to the public. I sat through all five, you know, initial Zoom interviews with Major Low or Mayor Lowry and this
is uh this is these were my takeaways and that just improves transparency there. Um and they can say, "Yep, he asked the same questions, the same four or five questions or whatever to all of them and I was really impressed with this person or this person." Then they can kind of give their opinion after the
fact, but they wouldn't be able to interject during the interview. My concern my concern would be this and actually you can probably relate to this when another city manager um was interviewed
that you'd be asking those questions and if you have someone from the public there and if they're a proponent of one of the other uh applicants they could tell them the questions. That would be my concern. And if I'm out of and if I'm out of the line
for thinking that, tell me. But that's that's what I'm thinking. >> But but you know what I'm getting at. >> Yes, we we did actually have people we had the interviewees behind closed doors, but their wives sat
out front and their wives are typing them all the questions that we're asking done. So by the time they came out, they were like pros. They they knew all the questions and and how
everyone else had answered. So I think that's something that in the just to be totally transparent. I mean I think it's important and I've recently heard the saying let's lead the commission from behind. That has to stop
and this is one way to do that. We need to take charge of how it's going to happen >> and happen correctly and in front of the public. >> Well, based on what y'all just said, and I won't belabor the point here, but if we have if I have two members of the
public come and you fly on the wall or peanut gallery, if you will, right, and watch and observe. They literally will have to turn off their cell phones and put them up in plain sight. So, you know, they're literally observers. So they're in a room with me for two, three, four hours and they're watching,
you know, potty breaks aside. Phone stays turned off in sight. So there's no communication. There's nothing to foul. It's they're coming. They're sitting down with me and they're watching the interviews, right? >> It will be your interview and your rules. I don't know that legally as the government we can enforce those things,
but you as the the host, I think, can set some ground rules if you're going to have uh people join you. >> That's the only way I could see something like that working. And just so that way you don't one is not contaminating another and there's no unfair advantages between the five, right? That's the only way you can have
transparency, fairness, and consistency all in the same batch. Okay. So, timing uh the top five. So >> Jennifer will be coordinating with you on a date uh that all of the candidates are available and you also are all
available so that it all happens on the same day ideally in the next two weeks. >> Okay, >> we'll shoot for that. I don't know if it it's possible, but we'll shoot for it. >> And so if we can get these initial five interviews done in the next two weeks, say um how long commission are y'all
thinking for the the second and final round interviews? No need to not strike while the iron's hot, right? So, ideally, we'd like a higher decision in the next month. So, next two weeks, we have down to our final second round interviews and then
I think the tough part's going to be if you have to have people come in town if they're out of the area. But I think a lot of it's going to depend the timeline's going to depend depend on that. >> Okay. I'll also add that might be the time when you have your top candidates that you want to have a background
investigation completed. If so, that's going to take a little bit of time. Um, and the reason to do that is you don't want to go ahead and get all the way to the end and have a selection and then find out something that might not make
this position eligible because there is um some language in the charter specific to the background investigation for the city manager. >> Okay. So, all y'all in the audience, I hope you're taking away some key factoids here. We're trying to be very
transparent and we want the public involvement as much as possible so y'all don't feel like this is an inside deal or an inside job. Uh transparency is one thing that we are trying very very hard in the city to improve upon and to be as
open kimono as humanly possible. Uh we're gonna have five uh our top five applicants going to get zoomed uh interviews set up and we will make sure that they're still interested in in the hunt per se and then once we
do our initial Zoom interviews we will take those out of those same five if all five are equally awesome we will invite all five to come to Linhaven and interview in front of the public and we'll have some public sessions there. If only three of the five hit a home run, well then we'll have three of the
five will be interview or invited to come interview and do a final interview here in Linhaven. But you will get to meet those final people that show up and interview. Uh and y'all will get to see them and hear them and shake their hands if you want to do so uh before the final
hire decision is made. So any questions from the public as far as that goes? Buer. Buer. All right. Thank you, commissioners. Any further discussion there? No. All right.
Next up was uh public commentary um revision discussion. >> So, I brought this up at last meeting. Um, and uh, if you look at how Panama
City does theirs, um, and it was, this was brought up to me after their meeting, um, when I brought this up last at the last meeting. Um, I said they don't have public commentary. It's that's not entirely true. Um, what they have is they call it audience
participation. And so what so every every commission meeting on auditing participation, the only thing the public can talk about in that section is anything that's on the agenda. And then um but then there's no section
where they can talk about anything that's not on the agenda. That's what the town hall is for. And that's kind of what I'm proposing is for because that's one of the complaints I get is you guys don't say anything when we come up and talk during public commentary because
you know and and anything you read will tell you not to do that because if you get in a back and forth it can go south very very quick. And um so um what I would like to do is what Panama City does is do the same thing where they
have audience participation. and they can talk about whatever agenda item on there. And of course, you know, when an agenda item comes up by statute, you still have to allow commentary on that, which which should be. And then once a month, whatever day that we determine is
the best date and time, have a town hall where people come in, you set aside two hours, and once you get to the end of the two hours, it's it's done. And so they have people that come up, they talk for 3 minutes, and then um the commission has time to interact with
them and interact themselves as far as whatever the topic or the issue that they're talking about. And after they go through everyone, if there's still time left and someone wants to come up and talk again, then they can have a second opportunity to talk for another three minutes. But that's once everybody has already gone through. So that's what I'm
proposing. My question on this is more of like procedural. Is this something that the chair just needs to decide or is this something we need to decide as a commission officially? I don't know. >> I think it requires if you're going to have a town hall, um it will be a notice public hearing or notice public meeting,
excuse me. You'll need a quorum of you to be there. So, I think there needs to be buy in from the commission as to the taking this route. Yeah, I asked the same question to Miss Meyers and um now if it was like a just a change on the agenda like like when you change public
commentary to the end that the chair can make that decision on his own. But but since this is something totally different then um we as a commission uh have to decide that. Okay.
>> Commissioner Tinder, any thoughts? >> I have absolutely none right now. Commissioner Perau, >> I'm just um uh what we're doing is we're going to create a a a separate meeting
workshop or town hall just for public commentary, >> collaborative discussion. >> Not that we don't have the opportunity for public commentary and public commentary on every agenda item as we serve the public and do these meetings.
Not that we don't already have public commentary at every meeting and commentary on every agenda item. >> No, >> we're not giving the public enough opportunity to to come. >> Well, so what I'm proposing is you don't
have public commentary. You have audience participation, >> which is an opportunity for the public to speak >> only on agenda changing the names >> only on agenda items. We're only going to talk on agenda items but not have public commentary at meetings >> at commission meetings. That's what the
town hall would be for. >> Why not give everybody the opportunity to come to these meetings? They come to they come to to to give us their opinions about the city or about how we're doing. Um and then and then let's go on and let's go on and face the
agenda and get their get their opinions as the meeting rolls. I mean, we've had some pretty intense meetings in the time I've been a commissioner and and and you know, when the public wants to talk. So, if we do have hot topic meetings,
we're not going to let these people come and tell us how they feel. >> That's what the town hall is for. That's what >> they're not going to want to wait. They want they want to know what we're going to do when we're voting. Now, if we do if we have a vote on an agenda item and they're going to wait till later in the month to come and tell us how they feel,
I don't think that's Panama City one. >> I've I've seen a town hall on online one one or two where they're they're all together. I haven't watched a an actual meeting, but I've watched a town hall. >> Right. >> Yeah. And they do it they do it they don't even they don't do it in the
chamber. They do it out in the in the lobby kind of. >> Right. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And I envision that we would be sitting down here. >> Yeah. >> And I'm I'm okay with I'm okay with doing a town hall. Okay, Jamie. I'm okay with it. I'm okay with adding it and doing a town hall. I don't mind I don't
mind, but I don't want to take away public commentary at the meetings either. I I think we should keep it that way. >> That's that's what would replace it would be the town hall. I I I just think we have these meetings where we have these topics where we they they want to
they want to let us know how they feel. >> But normally if it's a hot topic, it's on the agenda. >> Yeah. And they'll and but they'll be here to they'll be here both ways. I'd rather I the way I've already been here seven years and I'm I'm willing to take
another take it all the you know I'll take it the way it is and not change it but but add the town hall as well. I'm still I'm I'm I'm of the mindset that we give them every opportunity to talk. >> I have a proposal. So, as many of the
people that are sitting in here today know, uh there are quite a few of you that come to most meetings. And so, I would I think what we should do is for next meeting, put it as an agenda item for discussion so that so that the
public has a twoe notice that of the those that are here that normally come and they can come up here and tell us if they're in favor of the town hall or not. I brought it up last meeting. >> Yeah, but it wasn't on the agenda. You know what I mean? Like it wasn't on the
agenda until >> we'll bring it up on the next meeting then. >> Yeah. >> One other thing I will uh interject here and I was trying to make sure that the whole team got inputs here uh before I said anything is I am not opposed to the concept of a town hall. I kind of like
that. Um, now whether it replaces public commentary or supplements public commentary, I uh to be determined, but I actually like maybe we don't even do it monthly. Maybe we do it quarterly that we have a quarterly town hall where like to your point, Commissioner War, we get
down in chairs and we literally sit kind of in a circle with the community members that show up and we talk about whatever everybody wants to talk about, what's on their mind. And maybe it's not a hot potato issue, but maybe it's important issues. And we come, we listen, they feel heard, they they
honestly get feedback from us. If we have discussions, we kind of go back and forth. And uh >> but you you said the key word feedback. That's the part that I get complaints about that people don't feel like they're getting feedback when they come up there in public commentary. And
that's why I was proposing the town hall because if you have a town hall that's just dedicated to that then they can come up have their three minutes and then if we want to interact back and forth with them we could >> after the 3 minutes. So they have their their time and then we then we can do
Q&A basically. Why do you think that or what do you think about this and kind of back and forth, right? I actually like that concept. I I honestly think folks would the town hall concept not so much to supplement public commentary or replace it but in addition too I think
it's actually not a bad thing uh to at least try we could try one or two guinea pigs and see how everybody likes it. I think coming up with the correct time is very important because we have played around with times since the beginning of
time and uh I think we have to make it available to everybody if we're going to do it. I also think you're reaching for that fame right away. >> [laughter] >> Um I also think that uh a lady out in
the audience when I first got here, she just looked at me and she said, "Just because Panama City does it doesn't mean we have to. Lyn Haven is unique." I want to say that out loud because there is a lot of truth to that. Um
as long as it's not being used as a measure of controlling the public. >> Um, that's important number one. And I think, um, you can always give it a
try and see how the turnout is. I mean, you know, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Um, but then I'm going to ask for a raise. No, I'm kidding. [laughter] So, yeah. I don't know. Um, so Panama
City, I'm not saying we got to do it this way, but they do it on Saturday at 8 in the morning. Um, hold on. Um, I had other thing. Oh, and I remember
when Panama City first brought this, and I'm not saying we got to do it at Saturday in the morning. I'm just saying that's when they do it. um we can come up with whatever time that we want to do it, but I remember when this was first initially proposed at Panama City, when I first heard it, I'm like, that's never
going to work. And then when I go watch them, it's you watch it, it's a lot, they almost have different people every single time and it's very constructive conversation. They interact with each other. They seem to get a lot out of it.
And so if you watch it, I I just think it's very constructive and I think we could do something like that. >> I'm all about trying to uh do a guinea pig and a test run and we'll see how we everybody likes it. 8:00 in the morning on a Saturday's probably not going to do
it for us, but maybe two or two or three in the afternoon on a Saturday probably will work a little better. Folks that can want to sleep in and get their grocery shopping done and whatnot can do so. But then again, if we do it on a Saturday, it would likely be just us commissioners and not the city staff
because it's their day off, >> right? So what >> how much more is it going to cost us? I'm sorry to interrupt. >> So Panama City, they just have the commission, the city manager, and the city attorney. Now, I don't know if we required to have the city attorney there, but if not, maybe we can just
have the commission and city manager. I don't >> It's worth It's seriously worth thinking about and at least doing one guinea pig. That's all trying it. See if we like it. >> Oh, it Oh, an it. Yeah, good point.
>> So, something to think about. Um, are you proposing any kind of specific >> uh We'll put it on the agenda next meeting and discuss it. >> Possible schedule. So, Mr. War, would that discuss be discussion of public commentary town hall?
>> Yes. Okay. >> We all think about that for those of you that will be here next month or next meeting. Think about it and tell us what you think and when might be a good time to do it. Um, Saturday afternoons, maybe uh Friday afternoon, Tuesday afternoon,
or excuse me, Wednesday, Thursday afternoon, I don't know. But when do y'all think might be a good time? And let's try a town hall and see how it goes. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work and we know it and we move forward. But if y'all love it and think this is great, we'll try it again.
So, all right. Uh, any more discussion before we move on to the last item before public commentary hearing? None. >> Charter review committee deliverables and way ahead. >> Yes, sir. uh from the charter review committee. We had discussed uh the last
time they just need some direction from the commission on deliverables. Is it something you all want to to meet to get the clerk position on the referendum by a certain date? What are you requiring from the charter review committee so that they can bring that back to you all and accomplish what you're trying to
accomplish? Um there is a lot of things contingent on there. If the city clerk position does not pass on the referendum, then there are some things in the charter in the that the charter review committee is doing that they don't need to do. Um, if it does pass, there are some other things that they need to look at as well. So, just kind
of need some direction from the commission on what you all want. Miss Myers can go back to the deadlines uh required from the supervisor of elections office if we need to. Um, but just want to hear what you all are expecting out of the committee and when.
Well, I think the first thing we need to determine is when do we want it on the referendum? And I'm a proponent in August, but I think that's the first decision we got to make. >> I'm also an August fan. >> Yeah. Um I'm very much in favor of
August. Now, I do have a question. Uh I don't know if this would be an uh supervisor of elections office question or not, but how Mr. Mr. Lightoot said there's some stuff that is uh dependent upon
the uh if if a clerk is added. I don't know what the question would be. I don't know. Uh Mr. Lightfoot is the stuff that they're talking about that they have to do. Would that be another question that would be on a referendum or is it just
um just some stuff to >> I'm going to defer to Miss Meyer. She has the referendum questions. So primarily primarily and David I see that you're here so you correct me if I'm misspeaking on behalf of the committee but I believe their primary concern is wanting to know uh if the city clerk
passes and if it does that they can make conforming changes to other sections of the charter um because if it doesn't pass there are some changes that don't need to be made to other sections of the city charter. Um the other big issue the charter committee is considering right
now is referendums requiring referendums for non-advalum assessments. That conversation is not fully baked yet. That's still in process. But if you're aiming for an August referendum, it gives them time to have those conversations and even to decide internally if they want to recommend
that that be something that be put to the voters sooner rather than later. So just having some expectations for them so that they know how to prioritize some of the things that are important to them for the committee to consider >> just for the rest of the commission's um uh situational awareness. So uh the day
after I swore in as mayor on the 20th on the 21st I came in the next night and we had the uh charter review committee here [clears throat] and I spoke to them and thanked them for what they did. Um, and then I specifically talked about the city clerk. And for those of you that aren't familiar with the city clerk
deal, that is one piece that I campaigned on. I spoke about it the night I swore in. I firmly believe this is where we need to go as a city. It's kind of an organizational dual authentication where you have the city manager overseas people and operations
and you have the city clerk will handle policy and resources, particularly financial resources, procurement policy, all those things. They work together, but they're separate. And so for a lot of times when you hit certain dollar thresholds, they would both be required
to sign both are direct reports to the commission. They work together, but separate of each other. And that's how you get that two person authentication. And for those military vets in the room, it's a lot like having an ICBM uh two missile officers sitting in a silo. They both got keys. And when if the
authentication code comes in and says launch, they're 30 feet apart from each other. They both have their own keys. they have to turn them at at the exact same time. There's no way one person could physically turn both keys at the same time 30 ft apart, right? It's that kind of trust uh but authenticate and
verify. And so that's why in order to get a city clerk that reports directly to the commission, the charter has to be revised to do this. Uh and then we've got a member of the charter review committee who can speak to this as well. bit in order to get we have to go to the referendum and we
have to ask the voters of Lind Haven please approve this for us please approve us to have a city clerk and I can definitely explain here's why I do not anticipate this not getting less than 80% approval I really don't it makes too much sense and there's no negative to it uh but it still has to go
to the people the people still have to say yes people get the ultimate yay or nay assuming that it does move forward and gets approved then the charter review committee can go through the rest of the complete city charter and add the city clerk wherever it's appropriate.
But if at the end of the day the Linhaven voters go, "No, mayor, we don't want a city clerk." Then they won't put all of the city clerk mentions in the city charter as they revise it. So it makes a lot of sense. My only question was if we're going to take this and put it to a referendum uh anyway and we're
putting it to the people, it's not going to cost us any more money to have one question or two or three questions. And so for the other two or three questions, are there any other major important things? Basically, it's an opportunity to catch a ride on this referendum that we want to put before the people and ask
them a yay or no, yay or nay approval for within the context of charter review. So I on this I will say that they are prepared to bring you ballot language on the city clerk immediately. They're not prepared to bring you ballot language or recommendation on any other items on the city charter at this time.
Now that said, you are the commission. You are the one who call calls for the referendum and you are the one who ultimately approves the form of the ballot question. So if there is a question you want to put on the agenda, even if it has not been recommended by the charter review committee, you have the authority to do that. They now the charter review committee, let me also
say, wants to help you with your mission, which is why they're asking for direction so that they can get you the product you want. But I don't feel like I'm speaking out of turn when I say that right now they only have one recommendation, and that's on the city clerk. >> The city clerk. And so for the August
referendum, we need to have all of our stuff together and consolidated by Juneth. >> June 12th is your deadline. >> June 12th. And so if we back that off a month, at least two meetings for us, that would
put the first of May is when or give or take the first of May, the charter review committee would have to have any other items submitted to us for us to look at and go through. >> And they're working diligently. I mean, they have lots of thoughts and lots of ideas. They're just not fully prepared
to bring you ballot language on anything other than the city clerk right now. Well, and if we >> they can prioritize if you give them direction, too. But >> well, if we even if we say the end of April, you know, or May 1st, that pressurizes the system, right? And that gives them another two and a half months
uh to get through what they need to get through. And David, do y'all meet once a month or twice a month? >> Twice a month. >> Twice. So, two and a half months, that's that's several meetings. I mean, that's six meetings. So >> I I absolutely want to leave space for
the opportunity that they will bring you um future questions to ask just at this moment they don't have that having heard that that's something you would you would be interested in they will be motivated to keep working and if they are prepared they'll bring it to you. >> Yes ma'am. Ma'am,
>> I I have a question and um I don't even know if it's behind or ahead or whatever, but I'm really when it comes to the clerk, the city clerk, I'm really concerned that we have a separation of powers. Uh for example, finance Kiki
reports to Chris. I think the clerk should report to the commission, but I don't think they should be intertwined. I don't think the finance you keep saying clerk slashf finance or whatever. Uh I don't know if that's what you mean
or if you don't mean and then I have one more one more statement to make. Um when you talked about having uh citizens or two or one or whatever um with you during the interviews for city manager um I think they should be the same
citizen for all of the interviews. Do you agree? >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you. >> So, I'll pick on I'm looking right at Gat Parker right now. I'm gonna pick on you for a minute, ma'am. If I invite Gat Parker to sit through the interviews with me. She's literally coming to my house or my office and we're going to
sit there in front of my computer for the entire four or five hours. She can go to the bathroom. I'll gladly give her water and that kind of thing, but she's going to sit there with me with her phone off and she's going to be a fly on the wall and listen to all five of my interviews. And then she can come out and go, "Yep, Mayor Lowry asked the same
three questions to all of them. These one numbers one, three, and five hit it out of the park. Two and three or two and four, not so much." Right? She can come out and you have at least a public observer. Um, who can say, "Yep, legit. Love it." And, you know, that's my
thought for transparency. Um but just to clarify, so it would depend on what we as a commission, the duties of the city clerk, what we define on um the Panama City and Panama City Beach both do it a little different and I think we need to look at both of them.
Um one of them it makes the city clerk/treasurer. So literally the clerk handles the paperwork and the resources. They are the bean counter and that's totally separate than the city manager who handles the people and the day-to-day
making the machine work, repairing roads, all that kind of stuff, sewers, whatever. >> Would with would this if the city clerk position that you all create is a financial the clerk/treasurer, the finance department would report to the clerk, not the city manager.
>> There be >> that's what takes it. So it's dual but literally let's just say Chris in his role right now he would handle personnel and operations and the city clerk would handle procurement acquisition stuff uh
and also the treasury he or she the clerk would handle the treasurer duties for the for the city which is basically Kiki's job the finance Kiki would be working with that city clerk as the finance director but they also have procurement all the administrative
policies, information requests, all the kind of administrative apparatus, if you will, would be the clerk's domain, not the city manager's domain. And both the city manager and the city clerk would both direct report to us.
>> This would be my recommendation is um go have a sit down with the city clerk at Panama City and then you can go to any other city. I think Panama City is the only one that does it where finance it's also the treasurer. But I sat down
with her and I I was able to learn quite a bit sitting down with her. So that would be my recommendation if you got questions and kind of want to see how it works over there. That would be my recommendation. >> And that that's really a question for August or after the referendum because
the charter isn't that granular as to the job description. The job description will be up to you. The charter is going to establish the position and sort of the guard rails that repo reports to the city commission. It's compensated and appointed by the city commission. It sits as a peer to the city uh attorney
and city manager. What the clerk actually does for the in large part and and specifically will be up to y'all. Um >> right. And to that point, uh, Commissioner Tender, the referendum would be shall the city of Linhaven
establish a city clerk reporting directly to the city commission, you know, because right now it's basically we have the city attorney and we have the city manager and those are the only two by charter direct reports we have. This would establish that formal third
and then we as a commission give based on, you know, we look at Panama City, Panama City Beach, local municipalities, what works and then we kind of come up with our own flavor based on educated, you know, feedback from them. Then we create our own first city clerk. that as
soon as the referendum, assuming it passes and the people give us the thumbs up, then we now have the ability, we have the people's approval, we can bring that person on and the charter committee can go ahead and finalize the charter revisions they'll be proposing to us, but we can put that new city clerk that
the voters authorize for us directly to work. That will help us with that accountability and transparency, right? because and I envision any dollar amounts over a certain threshold, even if it doesn't have to come to the commission for approval, I still anticipate the city clerk and the city
manager both having to sign off on those things. Right. Two senior leader direct reports us even as though we've already authorized the expenditures over a certain threshold, the city manager and the city clerk would have to sign off on that authentication signatures, right? That way you have a buddy system keeping
each other and every process accountable with big dollar items because one's counting the beans and the other one's using it for operations. Any questions? >> I know the way I see this going down is you'll have the one referendum in
August, then we're going to have to have a part two. And when is part two going to happen? Um you got the the election in November. I don't know if that's going to be give them enough time to do the part two and then you so then you probably have to wait for the next
election which would be in April 2027. >> As far as priorities, I I know when this whole thing first came up, I brought up the whole thing about city clerk. I really didn't have any other priorities as far as the charter or anything like that. That was my my big focus area. So
I I I really can't think of, you know, anything particular. You know, >> I haven't, for the record, I haven't tagged them with anything specific. I've said if there are anything specific in the charter review you want to do, bring it to the commission and let's talk about it. But ultimately, we have to
approve that. Um, but it's literally a free ride to the referendum, if you will, if we're going to have it anyway for the city clerk. It's not going to cost us anymore to have one question versus three or four. Yeah. So that that's the prevailing thought, but there is the city clerk is important. The rest
of it would just be gravy. All right. Any uh any more discussion on uh charter review at this point? Y'all have the deliverable you want? And David, you can speak up too as a member of the charter committee here. We're we're looking at August for the the time
to do this with the primaries. That's when we're going to have most voters before the November midterms. Uh we're looking to have that. That would mean y'all, the charter review committee would have to have your stuff us by the end of April, 1st of May. That gives us
6 weeks or so to do what we need to do as a committee, refine the language, and get it to Nina Ward, the supervisor of elections. >> They're they're going to be considering the resolution and ballot language um cementing the city clerk. They've already looked at the ballot language, but I'm putting it all together in legislation for them to consider at
their next meeting. So, they'll be ready on that one piece. >> Did we ever look at cost >> or having at the August? >> I did not follow up to get a specific
price. Um, her email to me indicated it would cost a little less to hold it in August because the county took care of a lot of things already. the cost. The county was already incurring those costs, but I don't have an indication of what the cost would be to the city
specifically for that one. >> Can you follow up on that and let us know at the next meeting? >> Thank you. >> That already being a big primary and you're going to get most voters on either side of the political aisle. It's literally just extra language on the ballots they're already printing, but
for specifically Linhaven voters, right? So, that's the best time to do it. All right. Anything else before we go to public commentary? Been kind of a long one, but we're getting there. All right. So, we
are now at public commentary. We have one, two, three, four, five signed up and then once these five have had their time to speak, if there's anyone else that wants to volunteer, we can certainly uh uh we'll we'll do an all call. So, the first one is uh Mr. George
Hines, come on up, sir. And for the record, I like your Army retired hat. Thank you for your service. >> Thanks, sir. George 963 Rhode Island Avenue, Lynhaven, Florida.
I have come up here at least every other meeting. I've been missing for a couple meetings because I travel a lot. I have told you commissioners many times that you got elected by the citizens to make decisions. All the banter about
decisions, just make them and deal with them. If it's right or wrong, that's up to you. That's not up to the rest of the people in the room. Now, I come up to ask a question about the $13 million loan I heard about before the old leadership was trying to pay off debts
from Hurricane Michael and all that other kind of stuff. And we're not going to go back into debt just to get something done because we paid taxes for the last two years under a referendum they made to add storm water feed that we pay. So the $13 million for storm
water or for sewer. Someone said for sewer, someone said storm water. So I'm trying to figure out what it is and maybe y'all can let me know that. And if it was a regular loan, a revolving loan or whatever that is, you need to explain to the public because you keep talking about being transparent. So if it's out there, you need to make sure everybody
know what's out there, not just you seven people. That's what I mainly came to talk to you about. Now the thing with Panama City and the thing with Lin Haven is two different municipalities, two different sets of people. So I have
said to Jamie more than one time that we don't have to follow other people in the way they do things. We can be the original one and do everything we want to do our way and let them follow us. We had a a water problem I had with your city and the city manager about this fee that you have to pay if you get a bad
water bill and you say my water bill ain't right. They say oh yes it is. So you pay $50 to have your water meter reread and if this problem is on their side they eat the $50 but if it's on the citizen side citizen have to pay $50 and I told them that was too high and someone told me it's this comparison to
other cities. You have more senior citizens over here than they do in the other city and we don't make the money in Bay County they make in Alabama, Georgia and other places. So all that need to be taken in consideration and stop following the people need. Thank you. >> Hey, so Mr. Hines, if I say one thing, I
don't know if you noticed the last meeting we did lower that to $25. >> No, I was out say I travel a lot so I wasn't here last meeting. >> Thanks for uh not thanks for congratulations on your assignment because I wasn't here for that either. >> Thank you. Thank you, sir.
All right. Next. It's a very flowery signature. I think that's this says Michelle Sutton. >> Michelle Smith. I'm sorry, ma'am. >> Come on up, ma'am. Oh, again, I'll reiterate. We are not
the rest of Bay County. I'm glad that we have had the opportunity to change and go forward and the people take control of our city government. We need to stay in control. Um, and let the rest of them follow us. Corruption, corruption,
corruption is everywhere. And I don't I hope we don't have it here. I want to address the flock cameras. I know two people addressed it and looked into it. Um, I advise y'all to look into it because it
violates your Fourth Amendment right. The cases have been upheld by the Supreme Court. Carpenter versus United States because of privacy. It's like the boiling frog. They may not have gotten
your description right, but it's let me put a little bit more. Let me put a little bit more. These cameras are accessible and hackable. They are used to stalk people. So look at your do your research. There's plenty of it on
YouTube of what's going on. It may not be dangerous right now, but it can be. Um, one last point, you know, because we were able to take control of our city government and power
to the people. I'm just going to I guess I'm going to open the door. Mr. Lightfoot is part of the old system and I want y'all to I mean he was intight with the the people of the past.
I want y'all to look at that. I'm not accusing or doing anything, but that is something good old boy politics and things like that. It needs to be a thing of the past and what was needs to stay what was and not be brought forward.
That's all I have to say. >> Thank you, Miss Smith. >> Christy Mroy. >> Good evening. >> Um, I won't go through what I sent y'all today specifically and hand it out to
you. Uh I would like to have a conversation with each and every one of you separately about this. The main thing is it's all about process and your employees are your most valuable asset. I think we all would agree to that and
they deserve respect and that means if you have to do something as far as termination you want to make sure it's done correctly. Now talking about process and solutions, one thing you could set up is another
board. A board that would be a civil service board. And a civil service board if if an employee was terminated would have a right to come to this board and you each would nominate someone from
the community. There's just your average person, maybe a business owner, etc. And if that person was terminated, the next thing that could happen is that person could ask the board to hear their side
of the story. And what that does is it it decreases your opportunities for lawsuits because that board is there to hear the other side of the story, which is your
employee. And then from there they make they render a decision. From that decision you review the information and then you make a decision. You have counsel there as well to make sure that
things stay in order. Now you talk about Panama City. I talked to a city commissioner that was on the city commission for 20 years. This was a good thing.
Have to give your employees safety and an opportunity for them to express themselves. So I don't believe in being a follower. And I will say in Bay County, I went to
the Mexico Beach meeting this morning was very cordial and general comment was encouraged and so because we're all a neighborhood and maybe we have some ideas that you
haven't had and vice versa. I mean, I think about James Finch coming to a meeting and saying he was paid three times. That was during general comment. How many good things have happened that y'all didn't know about
because of general comment? So, I agree. You know, you want to have an efficient meeting, but we're all here, too. We're doing it for free. Thank you.
>> Thank you, ma'am. I think this is my Jerry Parker. Ma'am, come on up. >> Good evening. >> Hello, commission. Thank you, mayor, for calling me out. I can adjust my schedule to accommodate your request to sit in on
those interviews and I would be glad to do it. By the way, um, one of the other things that I really want to bring up is first of all, I agree with the no smoking and vaping in city parks. That's a definite. Um,
and also I do agree with us getting a new building official here in Lin Haven and not using Bay County. I really think that is a better thing for us to do. Um, there's building inspectors and building
officials. Mike Gordon is a wonderful building official. He's got many certifications that have been done by the state of Florida. The other thing that I would like to talk about, of course, is I
wholeheartedly disagree with Jaime's opinion to do a town hall once a month to do public commentary. I think we need to be doing public commentary appropriately and it used and it should be done appropriately,
but like I had said before, I would like it to be at seven. you wanted to be towards the end, that's fine. I don't have a problem with that. But I do have a problem with us taking away public commentary and doing it in a different
entity. I I don't think that's a that's a good thing for the city of Glen Haven and the citizens of Linhaven. So, I'm I'm hoping that that is um the appropriate thing to go forward on. Thank you. >> Thank you, ma'am.
And last, but certainly not least, uh, Mr. David Schwitzer. >> Good evening. Evening, commissioners. David Switzer, 323 Alexander Drive. Couple of positive things. I wanted to um, thank you for the tone of this meeting. it's so much
easier to focus um the way that this meeting has been conducted and I I feel like that starts at the top. So, thanks mayor. I appreciate that. Number two is um with the things that I talk about about Flock, I don't want to be painted with the brush that I uh don't support law
enforcement. I I 100% do. I hope with spring break coming up that everyone is safe and hope only the people come here that want to enjoy the beach. the other individuals with firearms and that I hope stay home.
With that being said, there was a social experiment conducted where people are reporting back to you about their flock data and they're saying like, "Oh, we thought this thing was so smart. We thought that it was tracking us." Uh, but in reality, it was showing bad information, showing the wrong make,
model, and color of the vehicle. So, [snorts] here we have people who support Flock saying Flock data can't be trusted. So, I find that pretty ironic. Um, it's found that 10 to 20% of the flock results are have bad information.
What is the risk of that? What is the risk of a flock camera, the data on there showing bad information? Well, let me tell you about a little girl in Colorado who um was just sitting there in her van with her sisters and a cousin and her mother. They're just trying to
figure out where they want to go get their nails done. And all of a sudden, the police department surrounds their vehicle, pulls mom out of the out of the SUV, cuffs her, and put her face down in the parking lot. The other officers usher the children out, all miners, put
them on the ground with weapons drawn on them. And the kids didn't know that mom stole this vehicle. little there was no investigation done prior to this happening. The police trusted the flock information and it was
wrong information. And what did the police do? Oopsie. They're all still they're still working there. The little girl's name was Love. She was wearing she's six years old wearing a pink tiara. She was one negligent
negligent discharge, one accidental discharge, one law enforcement official uh misreading a hand motion from being shot. So, I hope when you see these things, I hope when you hear these things, you're not just thinking, oh,
and discounting that flock is does not have right information. That data ended up in these people's inbox. It was so wrong. So, I hope that you guys will continue to think about Flock. I know I've communicated with uh our future um
sheriff or chief of police about this, Blanchard. And um I want more dem democratic policing because right now there's no guard rails. So that's what I'm hoping for. I appreciate your time. >> Thank you, sir. All right, we'll ask for
uh we'll go open general now. Miss Sandy, I saw your hand first, so come on up, ma'am. Good evening. my first meeting with you as our mayor and you've done great. This like like David said, I love the way it's it's gone. Um what I'm going to speak about
is the uh the the permit department. I agree with Judy 100%. And I'll tell you, it's not just my opinion. My husband was a contractor of a multi-million dollar uh contracting
company in Atlanta. I was his secretary, also his bookkeeper, and I have dealt with permit departments out the yangyang. And I'm telling you, when you get a county versus a city doing it, the
county is absolutely over just overrun with request. I've also dealt with my husband building local here in Bay County. So, I've had to deal with Bay County permit
department. I was also the assistant to the county manager and I sat in on all the different meetings and it was a zoo when it came to the permits. They're
overwhelmed and you know when when it was brought up that there was over $300,000 spent on the person that was the permit uh director or whatever. That was during
Michael and of course it was going to be hundreds of thousands of dollars. But as a normal rule, a local person that is over the permitting of a city, I feel cares about
his city. He's going to do you his residents first. When you're in line at Bay County, you got a long line ahead of you. So, um, I feel like if Michael Gordon wants to do it, why not? I mean, he has years of experience and, you
know, he he loves Lin Haven. He lives in Lyn Haven. Also wanted to say a big thank you to Pat uh, Pero. Thank you for your comments about the public comments versus the town city hall or whatever,
the town hall. Um, also Sam, I appreciate you and Judy coming out about that. Um, I think that both of them are needed and I also am very I I go to a lot of the Panama City things cuz I live in Panama
City and both of those are necessary, but not one over the other. I feel like, you know, we you need to keep things local and doing that helps local people say what what's on their mind and what what you what you're doing. But thank
you to everybody. Y'all, I love this meeting. It's my first one. >> Thank you, ma'am. All right. Next. I saw saw you first and then you, sir. >> Mr. Basher, good evening. >> Good evening. Couple things. Um, I think
you may be over complicating the city clerk thing. You're going to create a a city clerk position and that position reports to the commission as does the city manager. Y'all can set those job descriptions and then review them annually or what, however you want to do it. But if you
say, "Well, the city clerk's going to be the city clerk treasurer. This is their job." If you put all that in the charter, it gets complicated and it ties your hands in the future if you want to change things that aren't working correctly. you may be better off to just say we're going to have a city clerk report to the commission and we the
commission will set the job duties. That that's my comment on the city clerk thing. The public commentary, I'm not a big fan of public commentary to tell you the truth. I get up here and talk a lot too much. But if I have an issue at my house or I want, let's say I wanted to
have chickens, which were not allowed in the city at one point, I don't have the opportunity if I can't talk about that to the commission in a public setting besides the town hall. I want a more formal public setting like a commission meeting to bring that up to everyone and
to the public at the same time because you're going to get a different set of people that go to the town halls than you get at a formal commission meeting. I do think my my question there is how do I as a citizen go about getting something put on the agenda so I can talk about it at the commission
meetings. That's my only concern about allow only allowing the public to speak on agenda items. We already have that option. We speak on each agenda item as it comes up if we need to. Um, the last thing I have is are we able to get a
copy of the voting spreadsheet that's been done thus far so we know who's did what? >> Yes, it's public record. >> Okay. Do I need to do a public records request or >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you and congratulations on your
appointment, sir. Come on up. Good evening, commissioners. My name is Joe Footton. I'm I was the facility maintenance director for the city as of on the 23rd of last month. I was
dismissed based on ability to make a judgment call or judgment calls was the reason I was given for termination. I felt like ever since 2024, I've had a target on my back from Jennifer Hodes
about I had a medical marijuana card and I asked her prior to me having the card in the commission's voting on it, you know, hey, what about the people that have this card already? Was there any Nope. This is the way it's going to be.
Deal with it. Well, I chose not to deal with it. I chose to keep my card and not say anything. Reason being, my pride. I was so proud of this city for the work that I did. I didn't want anybody thinking that I did something that was
stupid or that my character doesn't count because of a medical condition. It's not really fair. Now, I ask for my suspension to be or for my termination to be relooked. I'm
going to tell you why. on 7:22 of 25 commissioners Mr. Warick, Mr. Peebles, and Pat Perno was sitting here and you all talked about what you were going to do with Chris Lightfoot being the interim city manager if he was going to
be able to fire somebody because of retribution from the past. Now, I'm asking the commissioners right now, were you asked about me? Were you told about me? And were you given the full story of why I was let go?
I had somebody clip my vehicle, break my mirror on the truck. I paid $10 for it. But what gets me was I was 67 ft away from the scene of the accident. I had no idea who hit me. The driver goes around the corner, pulls over here in an
RV, and does a police report. I didn't know anything. I waited a half an hour. 67 ft from the intersection to where this guy is 150. So, I'm the one that got hit. It's my fault that I make the accident report. I'm sorry. In the scheme of things, I didn't think it was
that big of a deal. I should have reported it. I get that. But over a $10 mirror that I replaced. I really didn't think that was very fair. But I also paid $450 for no contestant because you know why? I have zero points on my license and I
like to keep it that way. So when we talk about people being victims of the city and the abuse and the power, I'm thinking, you know what, I'm probably one of those people right now. And I'm asking you commissioners from the heart to rethink this decision.
You know, I was three years out maybe from retiring. But what you guys really didn't know, I said, I apologize. Thank you for your time. Thank you, sir. Any other public commentary tonight? Arlene, come on up.
>> Arlene Harrison, I know you guys have gone around and around throughout the years on when and when to do public commentary and whether to do it. Um, I appreciate Pat um bringing that forward
because I agree with that. We we come to this commission to to to see what you're doing and also to a lot of times to bring something forward that you're not talking about if it's not on the agenda.
Like when we came to between 12 and 13, we had at least three or four more agenda items that hadn't been put on the agenda yet, but you saw that that was uh that you needed to do that. So, you went ahead
and did that. But if I was wanting as a public person to comment on one of those things that wasn't on the agenda, where would I be? I wouldn't be able to say anything. Of course, people have brought things up to
the commission that they hadn't even been thinking about or something new that had occurred. So, naturally, I feel like public commentary needs to be there as a general thing. Um, now when we came
down, when I saw the whole agenda and saw where you put public commentary, when we first came to public commentary number 13, I began to think that you put it on as an agenda item because you spent so much time talking about whether
it should be on the agenda. So, I began to think, well, I guess it's just an agenda item. But when I first saw it, and I will bring this up, I will tie it up. is that when I first saw it at at number 13 and then the mayor's report
and all the other reports after it that is I think answers part of the question that public commentary then in your reports you can respond to pe comments that people have made and that's where
um previously we've had all those reports and then public commentary well then you don't have a chance to comment So, um I think that is how the public feels a lot of times left out. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Miss Arleene. All right. Any other public commentary tonight? Mer. All right. Well, if there is none, uh we'll go into item number 14 and I will
be brief. Uh mayor's report. Uh three weeks on the job now. I really appreciate the city staff being very hospitable and hosting to help me get settled in. I'm still drinking through a fire hose. Uh we spent the better part of a week up in Tallahassee, three full
days, uh which was great. Um getting all of the statemandated training squared away um and getting settled in. A lot of issues going on, a lot of moving parts, but a lot of good people here. Uh and I appreciate all the uh kind comments and
feedback as well. uh very proud to be here and be a part of this team. And we've got a great commission team. We all have very diverse views and perspectives, but we come together and we try to do our best for the city of Linhaven. And at the end of the day, that's what we're supposed to be doing, trying to make our community better as a
team, both elected officials as well as the public at large. So, uh special thanks to everybody. I really appreciate y'all and all the help y'all are doing getting me up to speed. Uh and that's all I've got. So, we started last week with Commissioner Perno. So, this week,
Miss Tender, we'll start with you and we'll go this way tonight. [clears throat] >> Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I have a couple things to bring up that have been brought to my attention by the public
and um I'm happy to report that they weren't just given to me, they were given to some private citizens as well. Uh the first item that I want to discuss
because I think it's so important is the fact that we had our cameras disconnected in this office behind us and I feel that the safety of our employees is much more important than
that. I mean, if you know, this building is filled with uh gunshot proof windows everywhere, even up on the second floor. Somebody was thinking about that when they built the building. God forbid. What if somebody just walked through that front door and came in there and
just started shooting? I'd like to at least think we have a camera that we can hold somebody accountable. And I just think for the employees uh safety, I think it's really important and I think it should be reconnected.
Um, and I won't say any more about that. But, uh, the other question I have is, uh, it also brought to my attention that Joe Futin had a police officer come to his home on
a day he was off work to tell him he was terminated. And I would like an explanation to that and if that's common. >> Yes, ma'am. He actually was not off work. He actually called in. Actually didn't did not call in. He sent a text
in a group WhatsApp. So I did have uh Deputy Chief Enfinger take a a dismissal letter out to Mr. Futin to make ensure that he received it. Um Chief Enfinger decided to do that himself instead of sending sending an officer. So we did hand deliver that to him.
>> Okay. So it couldn't wait until the next day he came back to work or >> No, ma'am. It was happening that day. Okay. And I just got an email before I got here. Same. It's all the same stuff. And so I
have to ask the hard questions. Um, is it true that Jennifer, you went to all the people that reported to Joe Footin and told them that he had a marijuana medical card? So, no ma'am.
>> I'm asking her, did you go and say that? >> No, ma'am. >> So, that's a lie. That's a lie. >> Exactly. I did not say he had a medical marijuana card. >> You said what? You told him that he had a
>> he was suspended for 30 days for being positive with um testing positive. >> Okay. So, you didn't use the word medical card. You didn't break any kind of HIPPA laws. >> No, ma'am. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> I've gotten emails from his staff and that's what they're telling me. Um, okay. That's the only questions I had, but I really wish you would consider hooking the camera back up. >> So, we have cameras on every door of this building of who goes in and out. There was a camera in the city manager
suite that I did have removed, and that camera will not be going back up. No, ma'am. >> Okay. And why did you have it removed? >> Because the camera can sit there and look right at the city manager's desk and the computer and everything. It was put up by former staff and there is no reason for a camera to be here when it
you can see everybody that comes in and out of the office. >> Okay. Just for clarification so that I'm being transparent. I received an email that you had it removed because you were tired of um public requests on what was on the video. the same one that caught
Vicki in going in and out. That's not true. You didn't say that. >> Sure. I don't know what I said. No, ma'am. But we took the camera down. >> Okay. Thank you. That's my report. >> Commissioner Ward. [clears throat]
>> I don't have a whole lot. Um, this one's mainly for the commission. Um, just a reminder, I think, um, almost everyone's going. 9 March, the Bay County League of Cities is uh having their quarterly dinner at uh Uncle Ernie's. Uh we'll have our uh guest speaker, Andrew Star,
who is the one that's overseeing the uh the design and build of the uh hospital over in Panama City Beach. So, it should be good some good information even though it's not in London Haven, but it's something that does affect us. Um and that's all I have. Thank you.
>> Thank you, sir. Commissioner Peebles. Don't have much to report. I was uh you know spent time looking at the the city manager applications, doing research online and all that stuff. Um I enjoy doing that kind of thing. And I was uh
out of town this past week, so I wasn't able to, you know, meet with citizens like I like to do. So I apologize for that. But um I've tried to stay uh in touch via email and phone call as best I can. So, I appreciate everyone that
reached out to me and uh that's all I have this week. I do want to say um thank you Mr. Bashiers for volunteering for that board. Thank you Mr. Clubs for volunteering for the planning commission. Um I I greatly appreciate
the time that you all put into that. It's the information that you all bring to us is invaluable. Um I really do appreciate it. So, thank you. >> Thank you, sir. And did I hear you say even though you're kind of a cyber
ninja, you're getting a taste of HR? [laughter] >> Commissioner Pero. >> Um, >> last but certainly not. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I just, um, um, wanted to thank everybody for being here. Uh, I appreciate the positive
comments um, based on my comments about public commentary and I'm I'm all for all of it. Um, and I would like to expound on on on, you know, earlier in the meeting when I did say my feelings about our selection process for the city
manager. Now, I'm all I'm all for interviewing our finalist and whatnot, but you know, you asked my feelings and I gave them to you and and uh um I I I feel like uh you know um that that's how
that's how I feel. Um, I do know that um uh from comments that were just recently made, I've I've had several meetings with the interim city manager and he's been nothing but upfront about his
decisions and and where where he's going. So, I feel like I'm informed um when he when he makes uh what what what he's done recently and uh his his he's uh told me of of certain personnel
changes or whatever. And you know, um sometimes you you got to support someone who is making is in that seat making those make making those quote unquote hard decisions. So um and and uh well
not trying to say I I you know I will go through with the process. It's just that you know I you just see us spending time and spending money on something that might might end up being being you know
not foreseeable. So we'll see where everything shakes out. Um, with that being said, I'd like to thank all of our city employees, all of our staff. Um, thank you for your service, Joe. I appreciate everything that you've done over the years. Um, and um, um, thank
you, David, serving on the board. And, uh, thank you to our new board members, um, Chris Clubs, Johnny Basher. Appreciate it. Thanks y'all. >> Thank you and Commissioner Pero. Um, and for the [clears throat] whole commission, I will always shoot straight with y'all and be very respectful.
Golden rule, treat others the way you want to be treated. I always ask you to shoot straight and Pat, you you talk straight from the heart. Yes, >> sir. >> And that's all we can ever ask, you know. Um, I appreciate you being honest and going, look, this is what I'm thinking. >> I don't have a PhD, but I could tell you
what I'm thinking. You know, >> absolutely. >> I appreciate your >> sometimes not in the best way. I don't articulate well. So, >> I appreciate your cander more than you know, sir. >> With that, we now have our interim city manager report. >> Yes, sir. I see Mr. Hines has left, but
an answer to his question, the $13 million is the resolution that you all approved at the December, I believe that was the 12th or 13th meeting uh to for the city to submit the application for the SRF loan for the headworks. Um, so that is for the sewer department. That
is just to approve the resol the resolution for us to submit the application. that is not accepting the loan dollars. That still has to come back before the commission if that's what we decide to do. Um I'm going to defer to Miss Roman during the finance report to answer the comment that was made about during
Hurricane Michael and the $300,000, but that was not during Hurricane Michael. Um we talked about the camera. Um Miss Tender, this is Mr. Putin's personnel policy. We can talk about it after the meeting. U but I stand besi behind the decision. Would stand behind it again. I
was the one that signed the letter, not Miss Hodgees. and whatever questions you have, we can get together after the meeting for that. We've had lots of leaks and broken pipes due to the freeze. Um, so the utilities guys have been out running around turning water off for for busted pipes. Uh, been
getting a lot of calls on that. The Cane playground is nearing completion. It looks great over there. We can't wait to debut that. Another shout out to Justin Ward. He's done another great season. We've got 80 teams with,300 participants, which includes players and coaches uh for baseball and softball for
the spring season. Opening day is going to be March 7th. So, talked to the mayor this morning about mcing that event. Um make sure you all mark your calendars and come out for that. It'll be another great opening day. We are hosting a UTSA tournament uh February 14th at the sports complex. For
those of you that know know baseball and softball, UTSA is one of the big ones. So, we're glad that we're attracting that to our complex. We did receive an EMS grant for some new AEDs. Uh we will be bringing that to the commission once we get the grant agreement to accept that grant. Um that is to put all the
AEDs throughout the city, especially at the sports complex and the gym so that we can get the proper size ones uh for kids as well. Um and that's going to be about a $6,000 match for the city. So, very lucky to get that grant. We did have it first aid kits installed throughout the city. Um they're in break
rooms throughout city facilities, um the gym and everything where we need them. So we contract with Unif. They will come do an inventory on those kits and keep them filled as items are depleted out of there. So we now have the the sign the proper signage up and all all of that for um those. Chief Blanchard started
Monday. He is actually his transition course out at GF Coast. He's got Monday through Thursday of getting that done and then he will take his transition test to get Florida certified. Uh but he will be here in the office starting next week. Um in in the chief role, we've got the community health fair Thursday,
February 19th from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the senior center. Uh so come out for that. The art will start being displayed next week for Black History Month. Uh the awards will be presented 4:30 on Tuesday, February 24th before the commission meeting. So make sure you
come by, see the artwork, and and do the uh judging for all of that. And then a shout out to one of our animal control officers, Matt Phillips. He actually was invited to Tallahassee to the FWC um by FWC to the capital to speak on behalf of the Florida Animal
Protection and Advocacy Association. Um Matt represented the city. Well, he had a lot of great things to say. I talked to him this afternoon. He said it felt like he was making a change with what they said. It was a very positive meeting. And for those of you that haven't got to meet Matt, you would know exactly why he was speaking on trapping.
If you met him, um the guy will go jump in a storm water pond to retrieve a snake. He'll jump on the roof over here to get a duck out of a pond that or that got out of a pond. Um he's a great asset to our animal control team. And if you get the chance to definitely speak to him, he will keep you entertained. Um
but we will have that in the newsletter as well. >> Awesome. Thank you, sir. And uh by the way, the animal control team, Courtney and the two Mats, they do an amazing job. Can't say enough good things about them.
>> All right, Miss Kiki, you are up with the finance report. >> Yes, sir. Let me clarify a little bit about the comment about $300,000. That was for an outside contractor who helped us during 21 and 22. and their
payment arrangement was very similar to what we have with the county currently. So they received a percentage of the permits that were issued during that time. So $314,000 to an outside contractor. It was not a
city employee. You have questions about that? Um questions about the checklist. I've also included a number of reports. These are preliminary having to do with the end of the fiscal year. I would like
to give you a couple of highlights. Um I think I mentioned last time that we will have a surplus in general fund. That is great news. I'm I'm thrilled to death about that and it is because of primarily because of vacant positions that were not filled during the year.
Approximately $48,000 is attributed to the police department. um $100,000 in for the building department because we haven't filled those positions. Um on the counter side
of this, as you've heard me state several times before, general fund is going to have to make the debt service payment on the 2019 bond. That's 200 $2,700,000 a year. So, while we have a surplus in
25, that money will have to go to help pay that bond down. Currently, fund 101, Hurricane Michael disaster recovery fund is um in a negative cash position of just about a million dollars.
So, well, great news in general fund. That money is going to have to go into reimburse the hurricane Michael fund $5 million. Do you have questions about that? >> Thank you.
>> Thank you, ma'am. [clears throat] Uh, two quick follow-ups. Uh, city manager. Um, I want to give a special shout out to Deputy Police Chief Steve Enfingangering. I think he's still back there in the back hiding. There he is. Uh, sir, thank you for your transition with, uh, Chief, incoming Chief
Blanchard coming in. uh you as the deputy chief had to basically wear two hats and keep the team running and uh moving the ball down the field, responding, taking care of citizens. Uh you did so seamlessly and I want to publicly thank you. Uh you're now working to uh ensure that Chief
Blanchard's transition onto the team is going as smooth as possible and I just want to say thank you sincerely for doing that. Uh my hats off to you and very glad you're part you're still part a big part of the police leadership team, city leadership team. uh keep it going. Get your new boss up
to speed. And uh we've got a lot of TLC we need to do to take care of our boys and girls in blue, our men and women in blue. And uh we'll be looking for the two of y'all to help us do that the right way. So, thank you, sir. And one other quick thing. Um Chris,
would you email Mr. Hines? Do you have an email for him? >> Mr. Hines does not do email, but I will I'll reach out to him. >> Okay. If you would, and just follow up with him since he asked for that during public commentary, I wanted to be respectful of that and make sure we got >> I'll make I'll get up with him.
>> Thank you, sir. All right. Uh and last, but certainly not least, Miss Myers with the city attorney report. >> I have no report. >> You have no report. Probably the best report any of these folks have heard all night. Um with that, if there are no other saved rounds or hail Marys, this
meeting's adjourned.