e e good evening welcome to the Board of Commissioners regular Workshop meeting today is Wednesday Fe February 26 2025 it is 6 PM city clerk would you call the role please Mayor Brooks here vice mayor
tainy here commissioner Kerr here commissioner McAn here commissioner gabay here all are present public comment public participation is encouraged if you are addressing the commission step to the podium and state your name
and address for the record and the organization or group you represent please limit your comments to five minutes and do not include any topic on the agenda public comment on agenda items will be allowed when they come up
if you would like someone at the city to follow up on a comment or question made at the meeting you may fill out a comment card with contact information and give it to the city manager comment cards are are available at the back table in the commission Chambers
completing a comment card is not mandatory do we have any public comment with no public comment we will begin Board of Commissioners flood Awareness Week Proclamation city manager oh do you want me to read
that either either way but Proclamation whereas the city of madira beach has experienced severe weather in the past in the form of extreme rainfall or tropical system events resulting in flooding throughout the city of madira Beach and this flooding has caused
damage and flood losses to the homes and buildings in all areas whether they are high-risk special flood Hazard areas or low to moderate risk flood zones and whereas the city of madira beach is a
voluntary participant in the National flood insurance program that provides residents with the opportunity to protect themselves against flood loss through the purchase of flood insurance at reduced insurance premium rates as well as setting higher regulatory
standards to reduce the flood risk and potential flood damage to their property and whereas the reduction of loss of life and property damage can be achieved when appropriate flood preparedness control and mitig measures are taken
before a flood and whereas public education and awareness of potential weather hazards and methods of protection are critical to the health safety and Welfare of residents the Florida flood plane
Managers Association declared the week of March 3rd through the 9th 2025 as flood Awareness Week to promote awareness and increase knowledge of flood risk the availability of flood insurance flood protection methods and
how to prepare for emergencies now therefore I and Marie Brooks mayor of the city of madira Beach Florida in coordination with FMA and pinelis County do hereby Proclaim March 3rd through the 9th 2025 as flood
awareness week in the city of madira Beach and encourage the citizens of the city of madira beach to increase their knowledge of how to to protect themselves and their property from flooding in witness whereof I have here
unto set my hand and cause the Seal of the city of madira beach to be affixed on this 26th day of February 2025 next on the agenda is key to the city think mayor and commission this was brought up I think by commissioner go
question um about the process for or looking to issue the key to the city to the state representative um in our in our neighborhood and I would love to see if we could um we could en invite them
to this to this chamber and hand them basically the to the city of Madura Beach for job well done Senator deigle Nick deigle and uh Linda chainy state representative have really done an amazing job in promoting and helping our
city so I would love to to see if we could possibly um have those keys dedicated to them at a uh public hearing do we have any public comment Commissioners comments
I don't have any questions I don't know much about the subject be honest with you um what what I mean yes they they've done they both have brought um especially U Senator Cheney
representative Cheney bringing a lot of uh funding to us um but I don't know how to evaluate the key to the city um be a new subject for
me I I think it's a great idea thank you I guess I do have a question have we done this before and if so is there some criteria that's what I was gonna ask it just seemed sorry I'm sorry that was my question have we done it before and if so is there some criteria yeah I think
city clerk uh Clara go ahead in the boc policy handbook of course the the mayor presents the key to the city and there have been several if you go into laser fish and put in maybe quotations key to the city it'll bring up where the bo of
Commissioners have um presented them and I don't think there was a set criteria but I think it would me personally think it would be a good idea because at the workshop stop in March you will have an opportunity to say you know go through
your person your BC policy handbook and recommend any changes so I'll send that to you through email and it also be published where you get it early so and do something like that in uh I remember a few years ago uh we had
Helen um England uh she had just turned 100 and she was she had been one of our long-term citizens and uh sadly she's passed on sense uh she was a mom mother of a good friend of mine so uh she came in here and we gave her City uh key to
this uh City it it's just a token of appreciation it's it's it's you know it's just like like saying thank you for all the wonderful work you're doing and the achievements well in that manner though I would imagine that we would have to have some
sort of Declaration and list their account lishments for the city um who would who would put that together who would research that and put that together I I think that's important to me too I think that having a specific criteria so I'm not saying no I mean key
to the city is a great idea I just want to make sure we have a a at least a discussion about who's gotten it in the past what what would the CR what do they all have in common that we could use to create a criteria so that we can be fair and equal moving forward I'll be more
than happy to come up with the criteria that'd be great both and uh Clara would it be possible to get a list of some a list of some of the people who have received it in the past yes sir yes sir thank we'll research who who and
what the if there was any criteria or what was discussed I think it we would have something in the minutes or certainly videos um but I I know anecdotally it's been communicated to me I haven't looked at the videos or the minutes that prior commissions there
have been some who seemed to give a lot of them it was a much more regular occurrence and then it kind of slowed down considerably but my suggestion as you've discussed set up some sort of criteria or process and how they would
but we'll we can do the research and come up with what I'll do is do the research and I'll send to the city manager of what I locate and then he can pass on to you all what his recommendation would be or whatever you know for the meeting well I just think the next meeting it'd be very important
to say you know if we're presenting this we'd have to list all the reasons why we're presenting why they've gone above and beyond yes to to be awarded an a any award I'll list each person and the purpose almost meaningless I I I look at it as a excuse
me as a two-way street so we can also get some recognition in Tallahasse um you know city nited city of Madura Beach be uh will be up in Tass probably if we have a key to the city they may even hang it on the wall and people that visit them they can see
madira Beach so um it's not just generally not going to be okay well thank you you've done a wonderful job which it will be but we also benefit from you know their name and name recognition I
agree so we can have that information probably tomorrow okay yeah I'll send it to him I'll look it up and um list everyone that I find that that was presented to keita city and list the purpose because like you said you know it's it was a good purpose the criteria
may take a couple weeks though yes so uh probably we would need to then bring this back to discuss at our next Workshop yeah or I mean as one starting point could be when you discuss your your policy handbook as as stated I think that's and
that'll be on March March the workshop reg that would the 26th I'm sorry no isn't it the day March the 26 the 26th thank you so at our next workshop at our next Workshop we could talk about it and okay I I I mean I already know some
of their accomplishments but it would be it would be interesting to have them okay have all that information and do that thank you next on the agenda is Task Force committee I think this was from the commission to commissioner I think that this was
your idea Su you yes um so I think the more citizen involvement we have in our community um the better input we can get from them ideas uh certainly more minds and more
heads put together we can come up with a a a good path in how to address um some of the uh some of the concerns that the citizens might have they can come actually in an open Forum because
somehow right now what I see is that I see a lot of information on Facebook and no one's here in our public hearings to express any opinions and that's sort of concerning I have I have talked to
people residents and I've said if you have any concerns if you have any questions if you have any ideas please come up to the podium please express to us somebody will get back with you it's happened a couple times but it's not happening regularly so if having a task
force group committee to um to basically be out there and let the citizens know how hard this city is trying and this council is trying for for or image and betterment of the city I think um uh
they'll be better informed do we have any public comment Commissioners comments on this I have a bunch of questions who who who chooses the
members of the task force who supervises or wrangles them uh and that that that kind of thing I think I I generally like the idea I think that's good uh there's so much there's so much chatter on next
door which I do not subscribe to uh so much chatter there and Facebook and people are saying things that are simply not true and a task force but they they somebody would have to Wrangle them to and and figure out how they're going to
get the correct news to Residents so I I I appreciate this topic I I think I think we need to sit down we need to put our minds to establishing the the details of how this work o overall I think it's good if it's
going to like bring truth and facts forward education education would this be like a social Med social media committee where they're monitoring and Reporting
and and you know creating a files of of information that is out there and either bring it to the city that the city can prepare rebuttal or no I I I
was basically thinking maybe the group or committee can meet once every quarter and they could possibly meet in this city Chamber and I would certainly would like to volunteer to be a part of that
committee um and um and basically share ideas and opinions and bring it to the board and explain to this board you know what the committee is thinking well as a discussion I mean
that's basically you know it would be the responsibilities to to gather the social whe whether it's Facebook next door or whatever or sitting at the the you know local restaurant Tavern and
collecting being a committee that everybody would go to with their wish list with their comments they're doing this well they're doing that not so well you know what about updates on the the talk of the day but um I
don't know how the we will have set agendas we will set have set agendas and uh we will um you know have citizens input yeah I mean if you wanted to head that up I'll be yeah I'll be more than happy to great I would recommend against
that you can we can have a commission commer to be a liaison but you wouldn't want the commissioner to be actually running a task force committee because that would push uh whoever is going to participate in the direction of wanting to please the commissioner um so I would
I would stay away from that um there's not many committees groups boards that I'm aware of Statewide that that a com acting or sitting commissioner would actually Beyond a subcommittee or a task force unless it's an a liaison effort
other words sitting quietly in the back of the room listening to what's being said and report back to the commission as to what's going on if the task force isn't actually doing that this is just looks to me like it's adding another layer between you and the residents
that's what you're for to to hear their concerns they could come here instead of going out and Gathering them and bringing them back in a different form Leon would be fine I'm you know I just basically would like to get group of citizens together to share their
ideas and you know but but it would be up up to the I guess the general public to form this committee or I mean the city's not really forming the committee well it's just like a regular committee we'll we'll we'll have it uh
put together by certain group of people and we'll pick a chairperson and vice chair you we're looking at maybe a committee of 10 I'm I'm not planning on being a manager of the committee it's it has to
be a a thing not a person a system should be it would be a system because right now and I'm sure you folks see on social media um and and a lot of those things I see those folks don't even live here they just like chatter they like to talk about things
that don't even exist and there are a lot of misinformation out there there are a lot of wrong ideas I hear it and I'm out there talking to them and I'm saying this is not really the way it is you guys need to come out here and talk to the board and no one's showing up so
we all received an email this week from a resident who most of the questions that were asked in the email if they attended these meetings or even watched these meetings they would have had the answers to 90% of the questions that were in the
email I I actually I actually responded you did and he it took me it took me a couple oh yes he did he forwarded it so I saw your answer so I mean I took some time and I asked Mr Gomez to make sure I wasn't giving any bad information and uh and and then
more came right and I said this these are the same questions right but uh I think that is our responsibility correct when we get when somebody direct directly asks us hey address this and and uh first of all I said I I let them know that I did not consider Nextdoor
madira to be an official uh platform for municipality information I would that and then I and then I did the best I could to answer I think that is our responsibility I thought you did a great job answering it but I when I read it so I read the when the email came and I
read the email and as I read it I'm like well we just talked about that we just talked about that we just talked about that so those were all things that we had discussed and before I could reply I got your reply so then I didn't see a need to reply on the reply because it
was well written right so and Mr trass could speak to this that once you've seen his reply if you reply does that become a sunshine correct correct you because you're not allowed to reply in social media no you you should avoid that on any matter that's going to come back before the commission where
official action is going to be taken that doesn't mean that for ex for example the vice mayor talking about the raay having won the game last night and then the mayor said yeah I was there and that type of thing it has to be something that comes back before the commission for ju just to clarify um
vice mayor tagini did not reply to something on social media we received an email from a resident he replied to that Resident he did not copy any of us that resident then replied and I didn't pay attention but I thought we were all
copied on his reply where he asked a additional questions I would not have replied once vice mayor tagini replied because of that that reason once there was a reply and I was aware of that I was not going to reply because then that would have been a conversation that that
Resident could have then shared and would have no yeah you have to worry about that liaison contact as well feeding information from a commissioner to a person back to another commissioner right so that Circle um that's a thing that you should try to avoid on matter
are going to come back before the commission for Action so right be very careful commissioner do you have any comments not at this time so I think the task force idea is an interesting idea um I share some of the same concerns
in how you choose who those people are going to be how do you keep them on topic how do you all of that it would be interesting to know for all of what we hear or see on social media and um I don't do next door I'm on next door
because I registered so that I could figure out if I could see the city's Communications and I couldn't figure that out so um so I am technically on next door but I haven't read anything on there at any rate I am on Facebook and I
do read a lot of the things that come on Facebook and I agree with you commissioner a lot of those comments are from people who do not even live in our city um but I don't know it maybe it it would be interesting to see if the city could put out something to see who would
be interested in participating in a committee like that and then that would help us better understand how to push that forward if we if it's because we can't do it we can't be a part of a task force
right right now being a part of a task force no you're being you're you're here open for the public to come Express their concerns ask their questions so this is just putting another layer of bureaucracy between you and and the
people you're going to gather information have them do something with it and then bring it to you so how do you how would you even manage that I mean it would have to be something specific and I mean historic well in local government historically a
task force is something specific to a task we're going to look at our master plan and we'll have a task force to address the master plan or a firm to H something specific this sounds kind of
General other than sounds like a voice to communicate certain information to avoid Mis information miscommunication in the general I I mean that's kind of what it sounds to me but I think it would need to be something
specific because you need to you would need to have guid headlines as to who you're going to you are they going to apply what you know can they use existing application but what is it going to do what will the purpose be of those members yes I noticed in the past like
for the marina they had a marina ad hoc committee John's Pass they had a marina had ad hoc committee for the library they had uh Marina had hoc committee we got some of those stuff already in laser fish but not all and right now but um
and I think they had their meetings in the chamber and minutes were taken and stuff like that I mean they kept it in the sunshine that way the conversations could be controlled and logged but those were specific to just
like the city manager was saying specific to a task of that they were specifically about something I know the John's P like promoting John's Pass and having events activities having a Business Association
form of the business owners I've I've read some of those minutes and that's what it was called it was the John's Pass adok committee or something like that yes so you would need my suggestion is something specific along that those
lines it's really up to you and and possibly something that would go I mean I don't know it would go under the boc policy handbook you I don't remember CLA if they can create committees created by resolution resolution we would create a resolution it would set all the
specifics how big is the board how many members how many alternate when they're going to meet what their job responsibilities are who do they report to whether they're going to be paid or not how they're going to pick their chairman their Vice chairman it would we would set that all out in a resolution if you wanted to do it that way right
the city clerk U accept it you know put it advertised accepted applications and all that stuff for the Board of Commissioners to go through and they they appointed their members and remember it also now requires taking on another responsibility for the city clerk because someone will have to be
there at the meeting someone will have to take minutes transcribe those minutes bring them back to the next meeting that type of thing so we' have to meet all the sunshine law requirements So currently on our um because currently we only have two
committees we we have a well Civil Service Commission and we have the Planning Commission we have two commissions other than the boc are they both 100% full they have all their seats filled have vacancy in the civil service right
yes and it's difficult right now to get a member because there's not many people in town it had to be a city resident that that's why I was asking because I'm thinking just thinking about trying to get people to commit we've historically
had had somewhat of trouble filling the commissions I mean three of us R are running unopposed next month right so um I love the idea of having Community input I wish people would come here on
this night because it's the opportunity to come and speak and have your voice heard and I think this commission has done a fantastic job of hearing the residents when they speak and ackn in and and working on whatever topics are brought to
us if one other item we've had over the years array of different events activities even the U the breakfast with the city manager that we're creating we're planning to bring those back we were going to begin the Citizens Academy
in October we've delayed it to this October we had 22 U very interested eager residents looking to participate we're going to do do that again so just to remind you of ongoing of activities and opportunities
when we have had for the master plan meetings regarding the uh the beach the buoys the expanding the swim Zone the parking garage when we've had some of those meetings we've had Fair very good attendance very good attendance to the
master plan meeting we can certainly schedule topic specific meetings I know that's not exactly what commissioner go was mentioning but we do offer an awful lot of opportunities and I can tell you in my 31 years in four cities you have a
handful of dedicated residents that do go to workshops regular meetings not everybody can be like Mr Dylan in the audience and we certainly appreciate him being here but typically we're going to get residents Property Owners business
owners unfort when something may not go their way or something that they have a they may have observed heard and they really have an opinion on it and we we could continue to have events activities the meetings that I mention and just encourage more people to to participate
but certainly I'm open to anything that you would like us to do maybe a um commissioner if the things that you hear in the community if you had specific topics um and then we could plan a town
hall meeting or a um just a so that we could have specific meetings and then the residents would come for that specific meeting I think a town hall meeting is much more casual you or like a Saturday morning when you
do the information informational meeting where people can talk because I do think that sometimes the reason people don't come here is because it's formal and they want to be in a more relaxed setting and the Saturday morning meetings or even the um Thursday meetings in the in the
evening that are not a commission meeting but are more public oriented we do get a lot more people who come and participate in those and and speak out and maybe that would be a good way to you know again the intent is to for the
residents to see this wonderful group of people sitting here and I mean it wholeheartedly I'm really enjoying working with this wonderful team it's a shame that some information is out there misinformation and um it might be out
there because they just don't know they're not connected or maybe they just have other ideas in mind or whatever so so my my intent really is for residents to get to know this commission and or goal better
so so they can understand that we're not their enemy we're they we're here to serve public we're here to serve them yet I I don't think they're viewing it that way well whatever format I'll be fine with so you come up with a bunch of
topics that you see on social media and you share those with Robin and then I mean I do think that that would be do you do you agree do what do you think of that I can see getting that yeah having a list of you know what somebody to monitor social media I'll just say
whether it's good bad misinformed not and maybe be able to put the comments together and put them back out on social media to update the record
on items I I see value in that I just don't you know I don't know I don't know how you would put it together I think that rolls into our next topic well also I believe that we should um possibly follow the trash
Pirates once a month like uh breakfast with the city manager there's so many people involved with the trash Pirates every month once a month and right after that we could have a less formal uh breakfast and um information and uh with
the residents and I think that's a great idea because they have a lot of community involvement and if we could follow that then that might be a great idea are we still having the breakfast once a month
we we will they've been kind of just with everything else hurricane or two you know we'll try to bring back I like the wine and beer in the evenings I mean I thought that but as nice as that was the breakfast ones always had some
bit of formality in the beginning that just gave us updates on on things well because Robin always had a topic t for your breakfast with the manag you had a topic so you would present something at the beginning which would be a fantastic if you see anybody here on the
commission that that sees or hears things that seem to be problematic for residents if we shared those things with Robin and he could incorporate those into his um breakfast or but still have the social aspect afterwards correct and
um if so if we're all individually sharing topics and he's getting the same topic over and over and over then he would probably determine that that's more than just a breakfast with the city manager topic it's a topic that is buzzing so much in the community we
should do a greater presentation or meeting on it and as you said it's less formal right you know so people can come and hang out and have breakfast and have great discussions so I think that's a great idea mayor I appreciate this
discussion I and I as after listening to Mr Trav Mr Gomez and considering the existing uh opportunities we have I'm less interested in forming a specific Commission because as Mr tra said it's just going to put another buffer between
us and the residents I I think using the the breakfast the cocktail hour the trash Pirates those are all good ideas and we as Commissioners just make sure that we're involved in one of those things so that when uh misinformation comes up we can officially set the
record straight and unfortunately sometimes it comes in the form of emails that are mildly hostile but uh I I usually try to take time to give thoughtful responses if there's an actual question it's just a rhetorical
question no but so I mean that's just the way I'm feeling after this whole discussion uh let me ask or attorney this question then um right now there's a group out there
that that are scheduled to meet and could I attend those meetings absolutely okay yeah there are people out there that actually are meeting and talking about the city and I want to be there to
listen and help as much as possible and if there's any misinformation I can state it right there and then to public so I just want to make sure I'm not doing anything wrong no absolutely you can attend those and participate okay okay thank you thank you the next item
on the agenda is information officer again I think this came uh from the commission the city a few years ago did budget for um a public information officer that was out of the manager the city manager's office that was removed
from the Budget prior to my arrival um currently I shared with you previous Workshop of all the methods that the city uses to disseminate information which they are substantial uh and we each department or
the larger main departments from Recreation out of my office the uh parking for example maintain their information on the city's web page um Megan out of my office kind of maintains the the overall of the
website which we're going to look to redesign we're not changing it but changing the look and the feel of it but and also the information that's placed out on Facebook uh we have asked all the Departments to take a look at their web sites and remove information that's
outdated no longer applicable um Etc and make it much more you know easier to find and more relevant clear concise all of that but in terms of an in if we created not sure if the discuss this discussion is to
consider creating a a public information officer Citywide or consolidating areas or however just keep in mind we we currently do not budget for a specific information officer I believe you you were all aware of that so again we'll
take your your direction how you would like to proceed we do again a variety of methods that we utilize and the different departments kind of sending out a variety of information inform do we have any public comment Chuck Dyan your whole audience
um couple of things that used to be very good David was excellent in terms of previously and I know it spent a lot of time putting together minutes of what went on during the meetings that was very very informative and I'm not sure how how much response you got from that
but I believe it's sounds like the information officer could kill two birds with one stone in terms of he would be able to decipher what had happened during the meetings also he would be potentially responsible for gathering information
from people to to express something to specifically you know and like you said their group uh offsetting misinformation the misinformation is terrible I mean you know and the breakfast with the imaginer
were great I mean you know but in the last four or five months it's all been you know crazy but yet I think an information officer could be very good that would take on what David used to do on the emails of the stuff that went on
for the meetings also potentially stuff that went on in our commiss uh planning committee meetings and I'll go back to the thing of where the meetings that we had for the uh City Planning or the the upcoming whole city stuff you know
they're all staying there and and I got up and I said well come to the meetings you want to know what's going on come to the meetings so I think potentially a information officer could be very good and in terms of kind of limited I mean you know in terms of they're not going
to be a full-time person it' be somebody a geek that sits on their computer goes through all the stuff and knows and can po eventually filter out emails or somebody that you if you got a question email email and by the way our website
is down I tried doing some stuff and the website did not work and thank you Robin there was a somebody that had a dumpster in the street and I sent Robin an email and it got taken care of so so once again information officer sounds like a
great idea and it could take the stuff off your hand you could be directly involved with them and say what what what happens David you could be you know as to where you used to take care of all that stuff you know so I see that as a a very good potential possibility thank
you so I'd like to go first on this one just because I think I'm the reason it's on the agenda um and it was commissioner Hudson that used to write the minutes after the meeting and he continued to do that for a while after he was no longer
on the commission actually yes and he would put them on my understanding was next door and say that they were the unofficial minutes and he did a great job um but the reason that I feel like we need an information officer is I do know that
every depart there are different department heads who post on social media and it's not that I don't think they do a good job it is that I think that when you have a person in a position that that is their area of
expertise that's what they do is information one of the things that was very apparent in the hurricane was delivery of information getting information out to the community in a consistent concise
manner y so when you have multiple departments or multiple people within an organization who are posting things every everybody speaks differently so the speak is not consistent and that
creates confusion and people aren't able to learn the method of communication because it's always different I feel I feel like we should explore an information officer what what that would
cost us would it be a part-time job or a full-time job you know what is that we need but I do think we need a professional even in talking with County Representatives they have professional people who do that information delivery and they it's a struggle to get the
information out I think almost every well I think every community that I've spoken with um after the hurricane information delivery was difficult we talked about using text messaging to do information delivery which I 150% believe we should have um because when
your internet's not working your text messages are and if there's something that needs to get out to the community whether it's hurricane related or um just flood related or city related that's an urgent matter um I think that text messaging
would be a great way to put it out there but to me an information officer the city used to have one and he did some things that weren't if I recall correctly he did some things they didn't like or something but there was a person here who did
information you telling me no I mean there Kurt presser wasn't he our information person okay yes and didn't he get let go by the P by a past Commission because of something he did that they didn't like political right I mean regardless of what it was it
doesn't matter what he what happened but I think that that's a role that in my opinion I'm just one of five should be seriously considered we're a large enough City that information matters so that's my opinion yeah mayor I wonder if
there's any other um of the barrier islands that has this position and if so I wonder if and if not could we could we maybe partner with one or two of the others if it's not a full-time job but maybe it would be a full-time job for
two or three barrier islands and that that the advantage to that of course would be there's so much overlap in information right uh but it would be very spec then we but they could also be specific I like the idea of an information officer uh I don't think that we could put that work on somebody
that's already on staff they all have plenty to do uh and that person I think should work very closely with Mr Gomez and uh uh clerk Van van bargan but I I think maybe we should explore the idea of sharing it with another Barrier
Island I know that Treasure Island has one um I don't know about the other um Barrier Islands but I would I would agree with you we probably could partner because I don't know that the like the
Readington I mean they're small so there's probably an opportunity there well we do provide the fire rescue service to the Readington so there's that would be a good some opportunity for that certainly a lot of public information regarding Public Safety and
I we kind of we we have separate contracts for law enforcement but we use the same agency and there is a mutual assistance uh for certain in certain occasion on certain occasions um I don't I think St Pete Beach may have a public info position as
well and fil and clear water does but clear water being significantly larger they have a whole department for public Communications I like the idea of subscribing well to the text you know
when you have important information to share um you know I'm on the website right now there's minutes to you know the minutes to the meetings don't happen overnight but they happen pretty quickly
and I don't know if possibly there's a way for you elect to have those delivered to you via email so you're reading the minutes right as they as they is that
one of the options that we have now I know think so we post them within a couple of days and there where your agenda Center is where your agenda packet and there's some draft minutes but most most people don't come here I know I think I'm on the system where if you're going to send out the email list
email yeah Constant Contact Constant Contact but maybe we just deliver the minutes certainly add that yeah hours takes a couple of days because they're more detailed you know we like to catch especially with the storms and all that and people can get updates out of them but is a good idea for the well commiss
commissioner Hudson he kind of condensed everything and made it you know he gave you the cliff notes I I get that um but you know I'm just trying to think of ways we can improve the misinformation and if you're subscribed
to the constant contact maybe you just get them you get the minutes do that maybe that could be one of the the checks that you could subscribe to just you you elect what you want to get right we'll start using that the clerk's office and start sending those out and
we post them right up on the agenda maybe we can send out an email saying this is coming would you you know you can select what you want you want to see be happy to do that okay I mean I think that would take care of a lot of it
I think it's a great idea if we can partner with another community on the Barrier Islands also anything to alleviate the um false information that's floating around out there um would definitely help the community um so definitely it's a great
idea I wor about text messaging um how do we get everybody's phone numbers are they like they can sign up just like with pelis County with penel County you can sign up for text messaging okay and you get text messaging for we reach out
to our citizens and ask them to join you looked into that yeah I mean we we're looking I think we have the we can certainly utilize a company if we don't um the existing contract may allow us to do that we reviewing that but yeah I
mean it would be as the mayor stated just folks to sign up for it it'd be pretty simple just enter your phone number and you would receive anytime we issue a text alert yeah I would agree with the mayor that uh text messaging is probably one of the best form of
information but getting all those folks on board where you can relay the information to is challenge that you would have to work with and we do encourage folks to sign up for the email that's on our website again through con service is called through Constant Contact and I believe we had over 5,000
emails J Jay I think uses it more than anybody else so we've uh we've actually been collecting emails through the parking passes for the last 10 years so anybody that has signed up for a parking pass and provided their email as a resident
has been added to this list as well as anybody that's done business at the rack Center whether it's a class or anything so we we've got a substantial list it's about might be at like 6,200 whoa um that's good yeah but isn't there
sometimes and maybe I misunderstood a delay in the message going out on when you do those mass emails due to the size I can't remember who told me that I mean it's a somebody told me that that works for the
city I think it's like a 15 like you you send it and it gives you like a 15 minute like a window of make in case you catch a mistake I mean there's plenty of opportunities but there's like a 15 minute delay and then after that it it runs through the list down the list so
it's it's not that that it's within the hour yeah we certainly use it for a lot of the City events project updates just basic reminders for sanitation but I think mostly for events classes activities meetings um and so
again we have thousands that are registered for that but we we'll we will look to add the texting um so could you bring us an update on that because we've talked about that specific topic the text messaging a few times now
and could you bring us back at our next meeting and tell us what that would cost us and how we would go about implementing it yes any further questions next on the agenda is the city
manager I guess we don't have our presenter for the SBA Loans um John's P update on John's past drudging uh we did hear back from Florida Department of Environmental Protection uh they did a site visit in
July uh set requested additional information our contractor aptim replied uh with the additional re information requested and we did hear back from FD last week or the week before aptim is
reviewing that they'll have 30 days to provide that the additional information uh which pertains to a lot of the um having to do with the sample once they they actually where will the sand be
placed what'll be the method of removing it um mainly a lot of technical details um fdp also mentioned that some of their uh partner agencies are also still reviewing and if they had any comments they would share those comments with us
I included in the packet the timeline of of the dredging the project and again the most recent updates we do follow up with or I'm following up with aptim every week to see what the status is with fdp and also the US Army Corp we
have all we've heard back or all that aptum has heard back is the core still reviewing the the reply that aptum provided in January um so we're waiting to hear back what if any if any additional information is
required I did submit uh as I mentioned before we can have the extension through December 2025 so through the rest of this year I will go ahead and just send that request uh over the next week and
then we'll have the ability through December uh as of now until we hear back from both agencies then we are likely I know I stated we should hear back within the next 30 to 60 days and looking to complet it by June um but we will have
to the end of this year to complete the dredging do we have any public comment Commissioners any comments or questions thanks for keeping us regularly updated and I like that timeline a lot something I can share
when people ask where are we thank you Robin Commissioners uh Army Corp is not involved right yes yeah we have to obtain a permit from them because it involves the adjacent to the federal
navigable Waterway they're the ones that take the longest well and and fdp is we have obtained a permit from the Florida Department of Transportation I'm sorry I admitted that and that is valid through the end of December of this
year thank you so I do have a couple comments um I had the so representative Linda Cheney obtained this grant for us and she's struggling with our city and lack of
communication lack of relationship and at legislation a few weeks ago there were three Appropriations that had been requested through us and our lobbyists to be placed for her to go for and I
received a phone call from her and she's very unhappy that when she and I understand it when she calls the city she doesn't get responses um her frustration is when you look at the
Timeline that she has the connections at the state level to help us and we're not calling on her um when I spoke with her I believe it was now two weeks ago um she had
requested something through the lobbyist didn't receive it received something from the city manager's office it wasn't what she asked for when she did get it she called me and we discussed it I didn't even know what the Appropriations were that we were requesting which I
think is something that we need to get better at communicating to the commission because when you receive a phone call from your state representative and they're talking to you about something and you have no idea what it is and maybe we were told and I
missed it but at any rate the conversation that I had with her was that she had lost trust in our city and she was not going to put forth over $3 million in requests for Appropriations because she didn't feel like she could
get updates in a timely manner from us and the reason I bring it up is because the only place that the five of us can have a discussion or that I can share a convers ation that I have with another elected official is here
and Linda Cheney representative Linda Cheney has been a huge advocate for our city she has gotten us Appropriations she has gone for Appropriations and been knocked down and kept going back for that appr for different Appropriations
until she got them and it is vital that we have a relationship with her office it is just is important that we have a relationship with Nick daigle's office Senator so um before we came here
today I had a meeting with Robin last week and we discussed this so he knows I don't know that he knew I was going to say this but he knows that I had the discussion that I had spoken with representative Cheney and she still is looking for a phone call from the city
manager's office somehow somebody in this city has got a figure out out and understand that the relationship with representative Cheney's office benefits this city we got one appropriation that she put forward we may not get it but
it's only $100,000 and the only reason she put it Forward is because I assured her that I would make sure I provided her with updates on the dredging project and that I would provide her with up updates on that $100,000 appropriation provided we
get it the two appro ation that did not get requested and they had been requested before or one of them had at least my understanding and we didn't get it last time but if you know her she's tenacious she goes and and she's a
middleof the road politician she fights for every community and I want her fighting for us $2 million of the appropriation that she was going to ask for was for a public works bill of which we all just voted to spend the
money to get the drawings and I tried to talk her into putting it Forward even if the governor wouldn't give it but who knows what the governor's going to give this year because this is a year of wild cards we could have gotten everything we asked for a million dollars were was for
infrastructure the 100,000 that she put forward is for valves I mean I want to impress how important it is to build the relationship with her office with Senator daigle's office with
whom ever is elected in this state to represent us we should have a seat at the table and we should be on speed dial both ways and I don't know what the breakdown in communication is but I know that it's
not there from from the city hall to her and we've got to figure that out my my other comment would be um the this timeline I don't see how we can meet a
June July completion because if they requested more information in January in February FD confirmed that they received aptum
replies they've got 30 to 60 days to review that information [Music] so if they don't review and finish until March there is a 45 days to go out to bid once you have the bid put
together does aptum have the bid ready to go is is is because the last update I saw from aptum it did not they did not have it ready to go so if the drawings or whatever is required to put something out to bid isn't ready the day we get
get the permits then we're going to wait longer and then the timeline's going to push and last year this time we were being told we were going to have permits by June of last year so my only concern is factual information and use the
people who we have that are there that will help us I guarantee you she could help us with fde I mean it's Florida it so I'm FR I'm frustrated by that and I'm
not trying to be down on anything but when I sit here I want the information that I get to be the facts and I don't want them changing and and I don't think that I feel like I feel like when I look at it so I
don't understand but I look at it and I go so does aptum know what they're doing do do they not I mean this is what they do so and and maybe they do maybe this is common place for the federal agencies to keep coming back for more information but I looked at the request for some of
the information and thought well why didn't they provide that to begin with so I thought that was important to say may your point a consultant that submits to D or Army Corps if they don't respond
to the comments properly correctly they'll come back with more comments so D or any government agency they're not going to add more comments just because they forgot what they were supposed to do they will respond to the original
comments and um if if we don't properly address those then there'll be more comments in other words they'll come back with the disapproval and this will continue until a consultant gets it right now I'm not sure who or consulting firm is I'm sure they're good they're
probably doing a good job but if if they're not responding properly to those comments you get more and more questions questions I mean I know that because I know that like here in our um planning and permitting Department we used to
have a system and the system was you would put in for a permit and it would go to the planning department and it went to the permit department so planning would do their review but and permit our our um
City official or Frank Dan santis at the time building official thank you I was looking for the word he would do his comments so whoever submitted for the permits they would get comments from two different departments because they weren't talking to each other now we're talking to each other there that was a
change that I was told happened so when thing so that a resident's not getting back multiple things and then you're six or seven times bringing something in so that makes sense to me that if you're not answering it completely you're not going to get yes right and are we going
to be okay with the $1.55 million if we obtain the permit and start construction let's say by December would that um fund still be available no if we're not done by December we lose the
money constructed or it the job has to be done has to be completed by December completed by December or we lose it my concern is here we are 3 years later and we're still and the the can keeps getting kicked down the road and my the
the stress of my what I'm saying is use the people who are sitting in the position I mean she got us the money right yes she want whatever she wants in an update she shouldn't have to ask twice that's just that is my
personal opinion sitting here that that's full within her right she wants an this is the update she wants okay let's give it to her because we want her to go to bat for us again over and over and over and over I know
um when the when John Hendricks was here he had a great relationship and that was a one-on-one relationship I don't believe Linda Cheney actually work with the city manager's office I don't believe you were here at
the time well you may have been at then but at the end yeah at the end at the end D I mean I don't want to put any more time on you but um I do have a relationship with her I know I'm just saying how do we how do we as a city
best nurture that relationship I know we had um the relationship between the city manager and Linda was rough a while back because she
didn't feel that um the city manager was being responsive um so is that is that bridge burned I thought it was that was all taken care of that was all mended it was all fixed
but if it's if you're saying it's not can how much of that can we put on your shoulders to keep keep her updated because I think that may be the easiest best because way to to mend that what does she what does she need I know
you're you're tenacious as well so you can get things you can get her answers um so that is that is I committed to her that I would provide what I want is I want Robin to work on his relationship with her I want Robin to pick the phone up and call her I want
Robin to do that because we need him to have a relationship if he's going to be here long term we're not I want I want I want Robin to Foster that I want to have a relation I will have a relationship with her I will do
everything I can take it may take both correct because right now the re if she's not even going to bat for us and and submitting applications right on on our behalf it's seriously damaged so I had a meeting with I met with our
lobbyist and I met with RJ our previous lobbyist right and um it'd be interesting to understand um how it'd be interesting to understand how Robin feels about our current
lobbyist and and what you know I mean RJ was our lobbyist for a really long time and he went out on his own and um when I met with him I met with him to to try to understand the Dynamics right like
what should the expectation be and those sorts of things and I had a great conversation with him he has um a great relationship with her and um he obviously he had worked for the city for a really long time so he gave me some
pointers on things right and I appreciate and understand the need for the relationship from this from this deis as well as from Robin to her and I mean I'm clearly willing to put the time in and I appreciate the
opportunity but it it has to be we have to be a team when we wrote the letter to Linda and um I don't we sent it to Senor toly or not regarding I can't remember was it wasn't
the impact fees it was I had penned the letter I remember that you it anyway I received an email back months ago from Linda's staff saying that she would not be looking into that and I left it at
that I wasn't going to start a debate back and forth but I don't know if that had had to do with our relationship with the city or if she just had other priorities and that wasn't one of the high priorities because of the hurricane
alen uh she may have had you know you can only put so much on your on your agenda um but that's troubling um but we need to menend that but I think it's G to it's going to take both of
you was it a property tax issue that you were yeah it was a property tax issue that's what it was I couldn't couldn't remember but we we did it as a as a group right thank you um but she her staff said that she's
not she's not gonna go down that path she's upset with us right now well we need to figure out how to amend it I yeah go ahead I'm sorry no I me I'll I'll definitely reach out to her and the request that she made provided her a considerable amount of the a lot of the
data that's on here and even more including copies of emails and reports um those were provided to her to her staff upon the request I will reach out and speak with her directly I did um a couple of times before the storms I know
she's wanting this to have been completed probably more than a year ago uh and we will get this done but that's that's what we will do and our lobbyist has led the majority of all of the work I mean that's one reason why we pay them
but I mean RJ did a great job I think Jim Taylor now does a great great job as well and so they're doing the processing in Tallahassee and make sure that we provide everything that they need I'm confused about that whole relationship when we
before we had the meeting where he came and spoke really nice guy um the meeting before that we kind of got a had a summary of what monies they were able to what assistance they were able to get on
our behalf and it was very limited but then when he actually spoke it was a lot of the same items that representative Cheney was taking credit for so I'm not sure is it just a joint effort and live with it you know they get both
get acknowledged for the same funding that comes through regardless who who put it put the efforts through or is it one or the other well I think our lobbyist completes the all the requirements that are needed by both
Chambers in order for the representative and the senator to to present and the it goes before committees the floor and to be included as a to file the bill the the representative of the senator do that they receive the details behind the
actual projects what were looking to be funded from City staff to the lobbyist to Shoemaker and then that is transferred to the representative and the senator staff to be submitted as part of the bill for the
funding because I mean we're getting off topic but we're really not and I think it's very important discussion you know it'll it'll come up at some point where do we want to continue the relationship with our lobbyists and pay pay the fees to the lobbyist and it's like you know what
have you done for me lately it's you know if we if we are on the bad side of our Representatives that they're not going to submit anything on our behalf have um that's
troubling um I do want to add as I shared when the mayor and I met as she said earlier that some of these Pro I mean we've received funding for a road project that still is in the design and we received that
funding in 20122 as well the dredging we received funding for the beach groins which are approaching 75% thereabouts completion and then last year we received funding for a seaw wall
project which again in compared to the other three that I mentioned this is significantly a smaller project both dollars and actual work done but that should be completed within the next few months we're on a a bit of a pause now but again the larger ones do take a
little bit longer time but but I've I've heard I've discussed with the mayor and we will do everything that that we need to do to to make it work right yeah we just just need to menend that relationship definely take everybody's help excuse me um representative Cheney
is a great Ally for our community great Ally and this goes directly back to the key to the city and how we can show our appreciation and we were talking about specifics earlier well she really is
um a friend to our community and giving her the key to the city as we discussed earlier could show our appreciation and how much we care about her okay
comments next on the agenda is the Honor Court again to give an update on the project we did meet with our engineer of record and we looked at the designs were just finalizing really the the final component to bring back to you and what
the costs would be and we should have that back for the March workshop for you and a final and any other input that you would like and then provide what the cost what the estimates would be the original estimate was a little a little bit higher than we
had anticipated so we're looking at what the what can be done to make it and you have in the packet a proposed design of the court but we're looking for some adjustments again to stay within had
originally a budget of 250,000 for this it is likely going to be higher than that amount do we have any public comment commissioners are you asking from us specific design input or we will bring that back to you
I mean but this is kind of the sample of what we have okay one of the and again because the the estimated cost came in probably about 150,000 higher than what we had budgeted but some of those are adjustments that we can make for example we don't need
electrical um some of the Landscaping I believe and some of the electrical doesn't need to be a part of it but you know for example we had in mind sitting walls um and they're the pricing we received was pretty high we haven't
issued a bid but these are just estimates provided by the engineer and The Architects so we're looking for other options to have possibly benches that are less expensive and those types of but we will bring that back for your
review at the March Workshop much of this funding was was a grant was it we received two donation two contributions of totaling $26,000 okay
comments I I I feel like if we can keep it as close to our budget as possible I mean less expensive benches although I do like the idea that there people have a place to not just will stand they can sit and enjoy it I mean I think the design looks nice I don't have any
issues with that so uh I I'm and I would I'd be in favor of moving forward with uh some more specific bids Etc based on this presentation where do we stand with permitting with do and
swiftmud for we haven't well I don't think we need a permit from either right yes yes we do the it's on city property I don't believe it's a we do not need an fdot permit we will submit for a Swift Mud exemption but we will not need an
fdot permit are you putting a sidewalk in the dot RightWay no sir you going to keep the sidewalk as it exists yes so we have a I think it's an 8ot to 10 foot sidewalk that's
currently um on 150th Avenue that's F doots and then once it goes past that like where our sign is where the Patriot Park sign is past that that sidewalk will stay much the same as what it is so
you would not want to match this the width of that sidewalk that we currently have on 150th it's around the same size I would have to measure it directly but it it would stay within the same foot print with plus or minus a foot or two of what it is that sidewalk over there
is pretty large I thought it was only 5 foot without measuring it exactly I am not sure but it is quite large all right and then also as far as elevation wise since we have um
experienced the hurricane recently would this be could we lift this up a little bit and be sure that uh you know normal no name storms can survive we can't Elevate the seaw wall not the seaw wall it floods over the seaw wall on a
normal tide over there often which is what was detrimental in the design of this so you're raising the court a little bit you have to that was not part of the plan so so any sort of a form this will
be underwater the current Park is often underwater over there right so but we're building something new and we should consider raising this to
a a an acceptable elevation where um you wouldn't have to deal with any sort of a damage I know you're not designing it but I we can recommend that to our designer to uh to raise this to raise the court as much as
possible okay thank you getting back to what you were saying were you talking about getting rid of the electrical part looking at what we can put in there to keep the lighting cuz the flags have
to be will be lit at night right right all right just following up on what earlier Megan if you don't mind me asking H would this would this design how how would it be impacted if it was covered with water would it be destroyed
no it would be just the same as all of the concrete is over there currently and there's no issues even even four feet like we had no issues with any sinking of any concrete over there due to any of the Hurricanes the only issue we had which
was corrected were the leaks in the seaw wall which had caused the sidewalk to sink but with the seaw wall Corrections that's all been fixed thank you you're welcome could we assume that it'll need to be power washed from time to time and
is it will be able to be constructed so to withstand power washing we pressure wash over there at least one time a year and yes it will be able to withand that next on the agenda is City purchasing so again
from this agenda item uh again brought by the commission um not exactly sure though then there was some comments regarding the city manager spending Authority so this lists our current purchasing of ordinance
processes as I mentioned at at the last meeting we do have the three levels of spending up to 5,000 which are just regular spending a lot of that is done via our purchasing card but any anyone designated
department heads managers Etc their designes can purchase anything up to $5,000 any item between 5,000 should be in one cent to 30,000 are purchased by obtaining at least three quot well it says requesting
quotations um our guidance has been really three quotes to make those purchases anything any item or service costing over 30,000 we issue a competitive bid there are a few exceptions such as Soul
sourcing using an existing uh other government contract uh you in the ter form of piggybacking or or a Cooperative purchase agreement so those are the three categories um I cannot our purchasing Authority goes up to 30,000 then after that as I stated
requires a formal bid do we have any public comment Chuck Dyan once again excuse me um is there any way that we can look at seeing about getting a bid proposal for Tom and kitty Stewart Park to get that
repaired and back open to the public that's in the agenda item later commissioner's comments I've I've looked over this closely and nothing sticks out to me but I I wonder if there's a way we can and I
don't know I I wish I could give you specifics but I can't figure out how to say it that if a project is going to be uh very visible to the public regardless of whether it's um above
30,000 or below 30,000 that it become a discussion uh on our workshop at at the very least so that we don't run a foul I mean maybe we did it absolutely did it correctly in our finance policies but it
didn't uh it had bad PR so if I don't know how that would be worded but I I feel like if it's very public very publicly viewed we might should have a talk about it before we uh move forward
with it are you making reference to like the um the pilings yes or jedy
yeah trying to think of how you would do that I mean I I don't know the exact way to word it but I understand um I understand when the increase went up to the city manager for
$30,000 What I don't think was intended was that that would be used for anything that would be a major change or a um to the community
I don't think that was the intent of increasing the dollar amount um so I don't know how you I I totally understand what uh vice mayor tagini is saying and I agree because if we had Public
Communication I think that the what my my opinion is that if we had had real public conversation about the pilings going in we'd have probably had support well
you got I mean you got that but also you have notification of the discussion right which is another reason to send out or have an opportunity to send out the minutes
but how do you how do you word that what what qualifies is that up to the city manager's discretion do you you um restrict that to the beach area do you you know is
it different zones when you make a major visual change to the community there should be a discussion before it happens but how do you how do you write that as an ordinance or I'm I'm open I like the idea
I'm looking at them because I I understand where you're both going I don't know the words I'm sure Robin would support yeah keep him out out water as well you know let his independent decision the um the pilings when they when that whole
debacle happened I really do wish that it had gotten brought to the commission and we had had some robust discussion here after the fact because I am certain that Megan
did mention it in a meeting there wasn't great conversation but there was a mention and we because I remember it and there was somebody else here that remembered it but I couldn't
find it I don't recall I could not find it until it was a hubub I don't I couldn't we didn't have real discussion but it was mentioned when she came up one night and I don't know how to do that but I
agree that would be Commissioners well it's it's a tough item to discuss in my opinion because you want to give as much flexibility to our city manager and the team as possible um and and then how would you
determine what's really important and needs to be brought before more public I think that would have to be a judgment call by a city manager so um if something has a great magnitude that needs to be heard by this commission and the
public um then we would hope and expect city manager to do that well clearly states uh uh the city manager will secure the Board of Commissioners approval correct with anything over
$330,000 right yes yes okay it as also as the mayor had said earlier and we'll go back to the uh pilings again anything such as that um should go before the board uh and get
the approval uh of the board and uh um I also agree with that also but uh getting back to anything over 30,000 goes in front of the board to get the approval so there is but that's all existing so no what
we're recommending now is no change other than to be aware maybe maybe this discussion is what was needed just so that we're all public big public View publicly viewed areas major impacts let's have a
conversation next on the agenda is the cap government agreement for building department services so we did I think as the commission is aware uh we did our building official um resigned from the city his last day was February the 14th
so we sought um we were we could continue to advertise for a building official we have had a couple of interviews we have at least one uh I believe at least one more scheduled uh probably early next week in the interim
we are we have hired a company cap government um we utilize an existing um agreement with the city of daa beach um but we are using this uh existing government contract in this firm to currently provide a building official
and um inspections as they are needed they do provide a full array of building Permitting Services um should we need to use them as well such as uh plan review or anything else related to our
hurricane recovery and getting structures repaired or new structures built Etc so this is where after looking at three separate companies um we decided we're looking to go with this company they started performing the work
again we are using an existing uh other existing government contract do we have any public comment Commissioners comments just I'm sure this is stating the obvious this two replace Frank to sis yes building yeah mainly performing
building official work lot continue to issue permits perform inspections right I assume if we've had three firms solicit and this is the one the city is recommending you just want to know if we want to move forward continue yeah seems
Seems good yes um I was just looking where Daniel Beach is at down in Fort Lauderdale Broward County yeah not that that matters I'm just um so this is a shortterm longterm
I didn't understand this a longterm well until until we I mean we as long as we need them until we have that position filled until we get a building official and and back to full step right so currently by utilizing that it's strict we just have the one position that we're
looking to use them for well we've been using building official and for inspections as well and her current run rate is 109 9 an hour yes it's
not not inexpensive and we we have um I mean we don't have much of a choice we need to get this city back in back in shape so um but we're currently trying to hire the yes hire
replacement yeah okay a full-time building effici it's as good as interim as we can get I guess yes I just I feel like it gives us a breathing room so that we don't have to rush into hiring someone uh we can find the right person because we have the job is being
done as we look any have we thought about uh promoting from within um we currently do not have anyone with the credentials to be able to serve as a building efficient we hope
to in the future but just not yet could we not engage penel County to review building plans and permits for us in the meantime instead we can we can certainly ask um I it's happened
before but we don't need someone to review building PL it's actually somebody to issue the permits we need to permit somebody to go issue permits they do issue permits with P County they do I mean we can ask if they would if they're building official I know if one building official can issue in two jurisdictions
that I I'm not aware but we can certainly inquire well you know $19 an hour may not you know be a dent in our budget uh as long as it's temporary so but I was just bringing up that idea are you suggesting that the county
wouldn't charge us I'm sure they would but it might be much less however I'm not I'm not saying I'm just giving options yeah is there any prum or anything it's just $19 just the flat the flat rates that are in the contract that
includes yeah I I I love that inquiry idea that's that's wonderful um whatever we just can't I mean we have a a strong need right now we have to have somebody in that
place I mean I think she's doing a great job I have heard nothing that positive feedback from not only our staff and a total shift total shift in [Music]
Attitude from inside walls of City Hall to the community out the people out in our community with her um I do have a question Robin on online I thought we were advertising for a building official and a deputy yes
that's not online because we did interview a person for the deputy building so the only thing listed um for the building department is a building official well I mean Code Compliance but not a um Deputy so I was wondering if you we will add that okay just
curious I would like to also add that I met with her as well last Friday and she was extremely professional and she was very impressed I mean let me just tell you I was writing I think I was with
Megan I think I was with somebody and it was raining and she the building official was out working in the rain at like 3:00 in the afternoon and she had stopped her
vehicle got out of her vehicle and was addressing a code violation I mean that might not mean much to y'all but it sure meant a lot to me I she and she seems to be doing a great job we're
pretty lucky I think that we found somebody as good to fill in um next on the agenda is Community Development updates to the code for C1 and C2 zoning District all right last year we amended
um our Land Development regulations to include the John's Pass Village activity center it's all the zoning um sections in the code so we found three three different sections in the code U that
reference that old C1 and C2 zoning District so there will be three different ordinances just to update those sections the first section um is I'll just scroll through it first section is pretty straightforward
is just this table updating the names so you remember C2 which is the board was the boardwalk area that was removed and everything was under C1 zoning District the second
ordinance touches the accessory structure section in the code so then it's um brought down into the character districts so the commercial core and traditional Village District uh the boardwalk district and
then the Johns Pass Resort transitional and low intensity mixed use districts so that's like the R3 districts um so we tried to keep what was similar to what what they had for accessory
structures in like the the zoning District prior to being rezoned to the C1 zoning District and then removing that C2 since that C2 zoning District does not exist anymore and then this is just a little clean up
to make it a little easier to read and I can pass it to Andrew for the alcohol section in the code let me get to it one of the sections we had the update
after adopting John pass Village Activity Center is the alcohol section um for the most part the the main changes are um adding the reference the new zoning district and the character
districts uh the restrictions are staying the same as what they were with the previous zoning on the beach side the alcohol use is just restricted the restaurants and that has to meet that like 60% uh threshold for the of their sales
have to be for non-alcoholic items uh one change we also did to kind protect the community especially on the beach side was so with have PDS previously we didn't really reference PDS very well in the alcohol section
which wasn't good because if you had a PD next to a residential area you didn't really have any restrictions to limit them to just being a restaurant where they could potentially apply for a more intense alcohol license than what you
you would want near like certain residential areas so one thing we did was uh we with the PD you're still locked to the what the previous alcohol restrictions were for the zoning District so let's say you had an R3 zone property on the beach side and you
rezoned it to a PD to build a new hotel it would still be locked to that the only alcohol use you can do was be the restaurant and and you'd have to meet that 60% attributable to sale of food threshold so they wouldn't be able to get get around that we were trying to
keep that consistent um whenever you see the PD um amend the new PD section in the code um even with like accessory structures and fences they have to meet what the accessory structure was prior to zoning
it to PD so is just kind of similar in that respect and there's some other language cleaning up um related to distance requirements related to uh bars and package stores and just some other um
just clarification because there was some sections where it was kind of like requiring an additional survey but then it it didn't really say what uses it was for so I rearranged it so you know it's just for the beer and
like for the package stores and and clubs and bars which we don't really have any any clubs around here so it's not much of an issue but we and then there was other little changes like instead of his I I changed it to their
to make it gender neutral um because I kept saying his over and over again through here so I I cleaned that up and uh oh and I guess with the expansion of alcohol beverage zoning um there it was kind of vague about that
10% is it a square footage which is that like overall like square like gross square footage is that just a square footage for the seating so I cleaned it up so it now it says 10% over the original approved square
footage or approved seating count so the seating count that would have been on the previous alcohol permit if it's more than 10% of that then it would trigger having to go back to you guys uh for approval um and then um the other thing they need to provide a revised site plan
showing the expansion that it doesn't exceed the that 10% threshold because if it does then it has to go back through as a public hearing so I think that covers most most of the changes that's yep so and uh Ford panels
did review all these ordinances and when it comes to the first reading um that'll be there'll L be attached to it we have any public comment Commissioners thank you mayor the just for my clarity that the the character
districts are like commercial core traditional Village Boardwalk district is that is that what the character yes those are the character and so they each carry their own set of of setbacks limitations Etc so even though we're calling it all C1 those districts are
still protected yes that's correct and all the previous alcohol restrictions car carried over um so matches up to what it's always been got it thank you sounds makes sense we've been going around with this
for years so it doesn't seem like it's anything's really changed it's all good thank you commissioners no comment so my only question is on the um PD zoning
districts properties that are rezoned to the PD zoning District have the same restrictions for alcoholic beverages as the zoning District prior to rezoning to PD zoning district is that going to limit the Commission in approving a plan
development and negotiating with a developer for concessions if they wanted something different so if they were I guess I guess I I don't even know what I'm thinking I'm just I'm just in my head
because of something earlier today that I had missed at a previous meeting when we were talking about it um when we do a plan development the whole idea of a plan development for us
is the opportunity to negotiate with a developer and to get something better bigger more for the city so I'm only and maybe I'm off base on this and you can tell me but I I'm imagining
if they came in for a plan development and they wanted to have a something that they wouldn't have been able to have bar and they wouldn't have been able to have
a bar prior but in the plan development they're asking for approval to have a bar and we're going to dictate the design of the building or we're going to dictate something that's going to keep that type of negotiation from
happening one thing that we could well and Tom May correct me if I'm wrong but maybe we could have another sentence in there like unless specifically um approved in the rezoning
so you don't want to put it in the da the da is void after they received their Co um what we've seen is PD districts you know they were approved in the past things are built and then we're kind of in this gray area of well what can we
approve like with accessory structures and uh fences alcohol you know it the code isn't specific to it so we just trying to cover that but maybe a sentence saying unless if it's specified in in the resoning of PD or if there's a
better way Tom that you can think of I would just say unless otherwise authorized by the Board of Commissioners I like that so the reason is I I like the idea of us having the opportunity to negotiate to the benefit of the city
instead of being restricted and I mean the whole idea of a plan development is so to me in my mind so that the city gets something out of it right yes and at the same time we are we've set a path where we are going to have more control
over dictating the exterior look of a building so that we can keep for instance in John's past we want to keep that vibe that look we want to do the step backs so the buildings might be a little taller if the whatever but we get
that step back look where you don't see it we can require clapboard sighting or whatever you know is the whatever um I do understand though that the how things go away after a period of time which is kind of
stinky I mean that's like shady if we if there was a way to make it where they couldn't do that right I don't know is there a way that you can continue to have more control over a PD long term so in those situations where we're trying to control specific things
after the DA has expired we add Declarations of covenants or restrictions that are recorded and run with the land so we have done that in the past so for example parking requirements or you know something in particular that we want to make sure
that it always exists that's that's how we do it so we we attach it as an exhibit to the DA saying that this will be recorded simultaneously with the da so the da may go away but the restrictions continue on so done that
with with noise before in the past so I think if we could be mindful that would be wonderful moving forward to protect the city right when we do approve a so I would like a sentence that would give us the the will to make an adjustment if we
wanted to we'll definitely put that in we we can add that that that's a good idea seem to recall Mr tras warning us that we can't mandate things
during uh a PD like okay well we're not going to approve your PD unless you put it in that traffic light or unless you called an exaction a prohibited exaction so but but this would be something that would be negotiated we'll
give you the alcohol beverage license that you want in return for you doing this over here kind of thing so you're you can negotiate that you're giving and getting so they have to get something in return that's the great benefit of a
plan of a PD you just can't tell them to do something unless it's required by the currently required by the code okay gift flexibility to us and to the development team but basically you're doing that if
you're not I'm not going to approve this PD unless you do I mean that's a negotiation I'm not going to as a board we're not going to approve your PD unless we get you updating all the sewer in the within the
three block area whatever you know but that I think that doesn't I mean that usually happens before the I don't I don't I think it's negotiating we're talking about alcohol beverage in here right we're not talk talking
in in general we're talking about because I mean in general what they're trying to address PDS and everything we're going to do right so that there's some verbage in there that ties everything together and I totally get that but I also get that a PD is done
the reason somebody does a PD is because they want something that current code wouldn't allow them to have right like the I'm sorry yeah so the benefit for the city is to keep it so that we can
negotiate something give and take a give it's a total give and take it's not saying you got to do this or we won't do that it's saying okay these but that was the whole point of the last two years so that we wouldn't receive PDS how many times do we hear that we want to we want to
expand the height we want to expand the whatever it was the occupancy we want it to expand all these things so that we wouldn't receive any more PDS so if that were the case if we're were getting so much out of a PD why do we go through everything
we just went through over the last two years three years four years I just I don't think that I I just get confused between a development agreement and a PD right okay right there's the distinction the development agreement is the contal relationship uh where you can negotiate something the
plan development um rezoning isn't necessarily they can be tied but they're not necessarily tied okay thank you next on the agenda is post hurricane
update recovery rebuild permitting FEMA and fdm and mayor and commission just a few updates uh we met with uh staff and I met with FEMA earlier today regarding our permitting regulatory
processes um it overall I think it was a very good meeting we went over a lot of the details and how the city's processing certain items um any issues we've encountered Etc I think overall it was a positive meeting and there was the
FEMA staff complemented the city and certainly our staff continues to do a great job and we included in the packet some of the statistics of the permit activity getting folks um starting the process to continuing the process rather to get
back into their homes as of this week uh we're up over 1,600 permits that have been issued uh over 800 for interior demos 420 over
420 for interior remodel um over 1,200 uh substantial damage determination notifications that have been sent out as we mentioned earlier we have a new building official so we
continue to issue permits perform inspections and other programs that continue we continue to promote the Elevate Florida I had mentioned at the last meeting that in the first two days one of the updates
from the county showed that over 12,000 Applications had been received and then later in the same update it said 70% were from pelis County but it showed just about um 750 were penis County so the total was actually 1,00 not 12,000
uh 1,00 applications for Elevate Florida in the first couple of days um Also earlier today the so people can continue to apply for the program for Elevate Florida the earlier today we also heard
at The Big C meeting held here but little overview from the penis County's contractor for the US housing and urb Housing and Urban Development Department Community Development block grants
for disaster recovery and the county has been awarded over $800 million for a variety of issues long-term recovery uh for the most part but more information will be coming out the county has had I think one or two meetings at their
County Commission they'll be having public meetings and more discussions to establish an action plan and how the money can be utilized realistically over the next couple of years um for for the continuing recovery
and the last program before I turned it over to Jenny U we also attended a meeting today with the Florida Division of Emergency Management um and their the contractor Title Basin that performed a
significant number of the damage estimates also a productive meeting um kind of the the takeaway from the meeting is there more kind of cooperation uh collaboration uh between U really kind of legislative
changes in the future that would help the overall process related to the Florida building code and what FEMA requires but uh really what and also how Title Basin provided some of the data and the software that was used um again
as we've explained here Marcy has done a great job in in utilizing the data massaging the data getting it ready to to send out all the determination letters that have been submitted um so there can definitely be enhancements
going into the future hopefully we don't have to do it into the future but we likely will at some point but certainly the coordination collaboration a representative from uh Linda Cheney office was present taking information to share with the representative about
potential you know future legislative reviews and changes that could be made to kind of streamline and just better coordination and usage of the time spent in reviewing data and what really would be
required if I come up with anything else Jenny anything to add you covered oh I think that's about it um another thing to add is that open Office hours um are posted online and that's all the way through March 31st so we have a few
Saturdays up there as well but like Robin was saying today was pretty packed with a lot of meetings with the state um but everything looks like it's going well and C I'm sorry to interrupt M and certainly we along with the open hours I
mean we have folks that just kind of come over to City Hall we'll you know look do everything we can to answer the questions provide them the information but the one I think the biggest takeaway that I take from this is yes it was a very complicated process um and we
appreciate everyone's patience and understanding but we do have to we do have to remind um not just Property Owners but contractors that this is a process and it's yes a little bit different than the normal going and
obtaining a building permit from your local government um however that it does require a a lot more work a little bit more research and we're whatever we can do to help folks along we will continue uh to do that again the goal is to get folks back into their property and I
mean turn you know return madira Beach uh not just how it looked before but likely even an enhanced version of the city and again get every resident back here and get lots of visitors continue to visit our city do we have any public
comment commissioners uh just briefly that update that we just saw answered like five of the questions from that email which is why I forwarded it um it's just amazing to me that a city permit activity we only have two
new residential buildings this was from last week I think we are up to six if um and I'm saying that from this I thought that's what I heard this morning from our staff but it we'll find
out and we can report that but and it's been just a few haven't been very many I remember Marcy saying it was just a few but um yeah I I checked our numbers I think it was yesterday it was two it was still two still two really I mean you drive out on crystal Island you see
starts you know you see block work I'll just say that I guess they were all submitted prior to the storm yes and then uh we do have have 78 full demos so we will be seeing a lot more and the one the data and I don't mean to interrupt
you commissioner the data that we're not presenting here um but we did have to show to FEMA earlier today because they requested it was the compliance side um we've issued I believe it was over 50 stop work orders uh maybe closer to 70 I
didn't bring this the sheet with me um and we have another couple hundred that we are addressing of potentially non-compliance um so that's I believe that could be part of it we have 63 63
stop work orders I overlooked the full the full demo there um sorry I just thought of one more question the the I see that we have 78 full demos but are we keeping a tally of Act of of buildings that have been demolished is
somebody do we have that number or can we well that will be in our software we can we will we can extract that and we will I mean I think that question's been asked and I couldn't answer that and I can tell you just driving and walking around the city I can think of right
now well just single family homes I can think of about 10 there think there's several in my neighborhood that just see by walk 20 there's definitely been some it just be interesting to compare demolition permits uh compared to actual
demolitions so so of the substantial damage determin letters issued is which is 1147 how many of those are 50% damage or more is that does that include both categories
I'll just say that 1147 both let me see if I have that so there's 1700 is that single single family residents or duplexes or whatever in our city yes 1,700
residential structures residential structures so there's still there was about um around 600 that were substantially damaged four a little over 400 that were not substantially damaged of the initial
determinations but then um about 400 were reversed so that gives you any oh okay I think we we didn't mention these these substantial damage determination notifications are preliminary right
right determination so again and in the letter it states if you disagree here's the appeal process so roughly 40% or 35% something like that are actually required to
rebuild or Elevate or I guess that yeah that I think that's a fairly safe inference at this point without going into the numbers yeah I mean just just I'm just spitballing yeah
about 35% after after appeal probably and then we're still waiting um we have more appeals but we haven't gone through the whole process to I think there's over 200 that are under review for
appeal so at the end of the day 1,700 homes if if a quarter of those are required to that's a lot to rebuild that's a lot of homes even just looking at the 78 demos that's quite a lot of demos full demos
yeah be kind to your neighbor comments um what about the people that have come in and bought these properties um pretty much 40 cents on
the dollar you know and they're ignoring the permit the permits and they're doing their own construction what is the consequence for um their actions for not being compliant so we will that's kind of the
next stage of this whole process is we will have to ramp up code enforcement um look to see who pulled a demo permit interior demo permit who has interior remodel permits and go through the entire system
flag all those properties um and we we have a lot of pictures of of homes in the exterior and interior if they were provided to us and we'll be flagging those properties and putting them into code
enforcement and the consequent will they have to say for instance they didn't remove the drywall you know it's still mold and they they just painted over it now will they have
to literally tear that back out again or I mean because that's a health hazard right yeah that would be a hazard um definitely and then if if we catch anybody it would be a stop work order um and then if we don't see any permits um
or remediation then that gets elevated to the special magistrate so that will be a large process I'm sure you'll hear a lot a lot about that and we'll definitely keep the board um informed of everything that's going
on thank you for those people that have requested appeal how long will that take for the appeal period to the over uh for the appeal for the determination uh it it really depends we
are also taking walk-ins during the open Office hours so if somebody comes in even with pictures and we can pull up the initial determination from a Title Basin that's who's been working with the county who initially gives out that
determination we can kind of run the numbers and reverse it based on pictures uh we can also reverse it based on appraisals actual cash value ACV appraisals so there's a few different ways um as well as Property Owners can
go to the pel County property appraiser website um contact the appraisers and get their home reassessed to get that FEMA 50 or that 50% value up um so that then maybe they would become not substantially
damaged so would the review be limited to just a city or would FEMA also be involved uh it's just it's a city the city does the the review and then we also work with a Workforce group um they're an outside consultant so we send
some of our the ACV appraisals to them for review as well as the cost estimat thank you so one of the things that I'd like to bring up um Robin and I talked about it this week when we voted to suspend
permit fees for one year we voted to do that for homeowners Who currently owned the home at the time of the storm so I got a couple of phone calls from people asking about what are we you know what are we
going to do with the houses that have changed hands and I actually one of the one of the um other individuals that started the conversation with me was somebody who works here at City Hall um because as you as people sell their
homes and they're selling them not repaired the new owners are going to repair them or maybe they're going to tear them down and rebuild those individuals do not qualify for zero
permit fees and just um MGO I don't MGO I know that our staff loves it I don't love it because it doesn't extrapolate information true data that you want the numbers these are handk kept numbers a
lot of a lot of it has been and I'd love I can't wait to see when they go for the next training whether or not MGO has the ability to have add-ons that will give us the data that the staff has worked really hard to keep track of um and not
have to work so hard in the event that we have another storm like this but I did want to bring up about the permitting for properties that change hands just to make sure that we get something um in place so that we're capturing those dollars because again
the intent was to help our residents not to help new people who've moved into the community they don't get that benefit yes yes thank you thank you for highlighting that yes next on the agenda is the FY 2025
Financial presentation through January 2025 and I will hand this to our finance director great thank you so I won't spend too much time on this because I think by now you've gotten kind of the format on on the presentation so we just want to give another periodic update I
the last one I gave was last Workshop a month ago so here's just one more month of data but basically the same format that I provided to you all previously so agenda is the same we'll do a little revenue and expense analysis multi-year comparison over three-year period for various revenues to kind of see where
we're at in light of the hurricane Revenue reductions in certain areas um we'll talk through some hurricane related expenses and then just the latest and greatest on where we're at on D Dage assessment so at vorum taxes October
through January collections um looking great so far so increase in 25 again uh to just reiterate my concern will be later in the spring summer um when our future distributions I believe will be
lessened due to the netting of uh refunds to property owners that file the form Dr 465 uh then the next one is non- exchange revenu so other taxes franchise fees State shared revenues uh again nothing
now we're from this is October to December pretty the most of these are October through January given the timing of collections we definitely had collection data through December and then some of them come in like around mid Monon the following month so didn't have everything so uh through January so
just wanted to get make sure we had an Apples to Apples comparison just did October through December so those first three months um 23 24 and 25 some little reductions in some areas the most heavy hit is franchise fees and
utility service Fe it's utility service taxes um that are transaction based on um on utility bills so that's where we're seeing a little bit of loss there in 25 compared to previous years and then building and planning
revenues so our btrs our business tax receipts pretty steady not not much revenue out of those uh impact fees have have slight Creep from creep up from 2024 to 2025 but you see where the the largest hit is in our uh permit
inspection plan review fees uh just to give you a bigger picture uh we got about a million dollars or so in fund balance as of the beginning of this fiscal year we're about $379,000 we'll call it in the whole
where expenses thus far exceeded revenues um but some of that are more one-time Capital related I think we about 112,000 in capital capex expend expenses relating to the building building department and downstairs in the code enforcement day room um but
yeah we are in in a deficit position but we do have a healthy fund balance in the building fund about million or so um as of the beginning of this fiscal year next one is fees for services so uh Fire EMS contractual that's contractual
that's not changing despite the hurricane uh sanitation storm water charges those have have been solid and steady I know we've got uh plans coming up to potentially reduce uh sanitation fees um but thus far those
have been holding steady and then a little decline in our Recreation and marina fees and then parking is obviously taking a hit as well um on definitely on the the fines considerably and then on the parking fees themselves we have been
collecting a some money so over 300,000 in collections year to date about that a a far cry from um 7 to 800,000 over the past two years so less than half and then this next slide just provides just the actual detailed
numbers um first was the the graphical bar chart uh depiction now here's the actual numbers and we see the up ticking revenues to 11% October to January and and then from 23 to 24 but then we're down 9% 24 to
25 not a significant decline again because of the adorm revenue collections that have um been higher and a little bit higher in 2025 compared to 24 and then again just an October through December Revenue comparison for
some other uh intergovernmental um other other types of tax revenues um from 23 2425 and then the budget versus actual analysis we went through this last we uh last meeting where we had some
overages um so we have a bit a midyear budget amendment resolution that'll be forthcoming when we put that that uh that to you for that we'll do for midy year and hopefully we won't have to make another amendment for the rest of the fiscal year for 25 but mainly that
midyear budget amendment will be to account for all the disaster related expenses namely the debris removal is the by far the largest that we'll need to do an amendment for then just on the next slide on Hurricane related expenses um Helen
Milton just that comparison Helen obviously much more significant um so we're real over four million now so that's that now we're starting to get invoice for the debris um collection removal services and the
next slide gives us our largest vendors who they are and what they were spent on so you see we're about 2.8 2.9 Million almost 3 million um in debris removal uh obviously by by far the Lion Share and then you just see some others from Lux
flush the bathroom rentals uh the serve pro on uh flood damage remediation work and write on down the list and that's at the at the uh 3.5 million total um from those largest vendors and then the total
is a little over four million so that's the vast majority is what you see here from these largest vendors and then same thing with Milton um obviously much less damage from Milton but those are the expenses on the Milton side and the last piece is just the damage assessment this
is largely the same as what we presented before but I did want to just highlight the differences so that's why I highlighted those in yellow so you can see anything that's changed from the last presentation I gave you in January so we break that out between just landed infrastructure a lot of you know pocket
Parks parks and related structures that are not related to a facility or equipment or vehicle so that's really everything else that's the landing infrastructure mostly in public works um and then a little bit in the end on here on
Recreation and then uh facilities we see our facilities and then Vehicles is the last and then the second last and then equipment is the final and just to give give you a little update just on insurance proceeds we have thus far
received uh $622,000 in Insurance the largest one is a check that we just received on February 20 oh 25th so that was yesterday we received a check for um payment for 295,000 and that was for the
Elgen street sweeper that got flooded out so we did get um insurance proceeds for that and uh also have uh pending payments of about6 1,000 so total there uh
784 th000 uh insurance proceeds received and then we're expecting in the imminent future any questions do we have any public comment now I see where my original question was so are these estimates that
we should be able to be receiving FEMA money money for because of the Hurricanes commission questions comments oh uh yeah I have one the regarding the reduction in uh the Public Works fees that we were
charging from $38 to $10 have you had an opportunity to see how that will impact and and will we be able to sustain uh that hit so that's on the sanitation side so that'll affect the sanitation fund currently per Performing that analysis
so I don't have that ready for you okay today but we will be providing that just want to make sure it doesn't fall off our plate I just want I I mean want to make sure that we understand what we're what we approved y I believe my plan was to provide that for the second reading of the uh yeah we'll have that at the
March 12 meeting all right thank you so between the um insurance and FEMA The Lion Share of all this is taken care of as far as lost Revenue you have you submitted and has that been approved
for the uh 10-year non-interest bearing loan we're working through that as well so that remember the next step will be going through that process understanding the amount and then coming back to you all with my Pro proposed
amount and then terms of repayment so that is forthcoming okay is there a deadline on that sept September 30 I believe so we do have a while on it but I I'll jumping on it now okay and Mr Dylan has been so gracious to sit here
all night with us or make sure we don't typically answer questions but I want to make sure that that's addressed I don't remember exactly what it was sure I'm happy to I believe his question was just about reimbursement and feem and timing so we did take
advantage of an opportunity to get um Advanced receipts based on projections and so we based that on for cat for certain types of project expenditures for cat a namely which is debris removal which again is the the by far the the
largest uh uh source of our storm related expenditures so I put that uh together submitted that to fdm Department of Emergency Management Services uh and got approval for that and we did receive about $6.5
million and so of so of that we've already you know spent two almost three million in just the debris removal but the good news is that from a cash flow standpoint we did get that money up front the actual reimbursement from FEMA so those that's three sources right well
technically two sources we did receive that money up front that's FEMA money but that came pass through the state and the state was the intermediary to review the documentation I submitted make the approval get the money out so that was to get uh money out for certain eligible
cat a that's not only incurred but expected to be incurred um and so that that's been taken care of the next is the insurance proceeds um that we've received in the process of receiving of 700 $800,000 and then the rest is everything that we will be submitting to FEMA which
includes the hard costs things paid to uh to vendors for goods and services for repair re remediation rebuild and then also other soft costs which will be um emergency pay to employees um certain uh
administrative costs incurred by the city even our own time incurred to help administer the FEMA Grant and and um project planning and and reimbursement submission so all that will be submitted
and that's always also in the process of of uh going through that now the reimbursement Horizon isn't pretty that's uh it's more like years instead of months to be reimbursed by FEMA but we're going to do everything that we need to do to um to try to get to
maximize our reimbursement um two other comments the impact fees being greater in 2025 October through January collections than in any previous
year um that we're not getting any of that or hardly any of that from commercial it's all residential which just like to just keep bringing that up because it's a not a dead
subject um and then uh as far as the ad Borum taxes um we do expect a hit on that but I don't I think between the I think that the
actual increase in aborm taxes to follow within the following year is going to far offset any decreases that we that we see this spring that's just my opinion because you're going to have so many new builds that are going to be of higher
value um but it's more of a comment I mean to interrupt you commissioner but I don't believe they will be taxed at a higher value Mr quiddy gave a yeah you keep if it's homesteaded you will keep your save
our homes going up to 110% of the of the total the gross area however when you raise a home just by raising the home if you finish any of the area below it and put a garage in or whatever that's going
to offset more over the 10 the extra 10% if you finish the garage out that you lifted the home same footprint again that's going to exceed the 10 that extra 10% and all of all that extra space is going to be
taxed out of the homestead so revenues will increase I guarantee it because that's not you know with our impact fee at least it was strictly the air conditions
space you're going to have patios underneath you're going to have all that space is going to have some portion of of assessed value and what they will do is they're going to take the the new just market value on
that space at whatever percentage it is to the base and that it taxes are going going up don't let them kid you well no we'll just wait to see what the property appraiser provides I mean we
just don't know precisely what that might look like sure and yeah many factors to consider like what our single family home ratio be of investor owned properties if that if that changes over time with sales activity and then now you've got investors that they don't
have the homesteaded protection I'm just saying I think there's are some some in our community that are concerned about that shortfalls in AB aborm taxes in the short term next year you know with the with the rebates how are the
rebates the refunds going to impact the city personally I don't have zero concern it may it may be something you can add to the loss and revenue for the for the loan and make sure that that's in your calculations it will be the
Cornerstone calculation yes but overall I think um for many years to come that financially the city's going to benefit from well as we mentioned for the loan for example I mean we we have a loss of parking Revenue several hundred, already
and that's going to continue at least through March we're hoping April where we when we hope to have the archal park parking lot reopen right now we're down that combined with Stuart Park we're down about
114 parking spaces out of 530 so our revenues are doing well for the current month in parking and they do well when the weather is nice U but if we've you know and the few others that Mr Laughlin pointed out so that'll all
be as we've stated part of the loan to recover that lost Revenue mes nope great job no comment if mayor if I just just a couple of quick updates regarding some of the repairs I mentioned archal Park a
contractor was working on wall um today we are we will be milling and resurfacing the lot as well as making some curb repairs um to the lot and then the bathroom building should be completed I think probably middle of
April or end of April Megan when will the bathroom building be completed the bathroom will be completed by April a 1 so we hope to have the new bathrooms and the lot reopened about that time The
Snack Shack um is like will be more time um discussions I had with the our leses the contract that's there um they've requested a longer term agreement um I'll be having another discussion with
them but just wanted to mention to all of you you that that's the request um we've staff and I have been sort of discussing a little bit not exactly sure how what that will look like but we will definitely bring that back to you at the
March Workshop if we um if we choose whatever we choose what we recommend and ultimately the commission uh approves will determine kind of how it gets repaired and who or whether we issue
another um a request for proposals for another concessionaire um we do know that we will not be operating it as a concessionary of the city um that's I mean that would be my recommendation but so that one will take a little bit
longer time of Stuart Park as well is currently being Megan a few similarly put back together in the design phase currently we are working on engineering for the seaw wall so it may
look like nothing is going on there but the original seaw wall that was there was not a structural seaw wall so what we are looking to put there is a actual seaw wall much to the same of what archal is because we know that that held up but with that anything that is over
two feet that is on the west side of Gulf Boulevard has to go through a wave runup analysis to make sure that it can withstand the velocity of a storm so we are in the process of that um I do not have a Time line on the engineering but I can definitely have an update for you
at the next meeting all the other parking lot accesses including some of the ones that only have two spaces like at 131st have reopened um so all those spaces from 136 South to to John's Pass Park
have reopened we still have and Megan you can correct me there's still three or four beach access points north of aund north of Stewart that are still closed I know like the one at 142nd 41st
42nd remains closed and 42nd 48th and 154th are still closed and we'll look to reopen those obvious soon as we can get them repaired we have 142 included in with the archal um because that is quite a
large access um so that is included on the proposal that we will bring back to you for March 12th and then just other um since Krab's here at the marina I think Krabby pretty much finished all the marina repairs we working on the seaw wall as I mentioned
earlier um which is not really storm related but just about everything else has been put back together I think we're missing anything at just oh the sign at the front out in the on 150th for the marina for
recreation U Jay I know that's an item coming up but just to give a quick overview of recreation uh looking to uh begin repairs on Monday so and they said it should about three to four weeks uh should have us back in about April 1 as
well so the park just about everything on at Rock Park has been put back together including the shading I think just a little bit of the fencing is missing near the playground Curbing and fencing those are the two um we were supposed to
have a quote for fencing today but they don't do taller than eight feet so we're having some weird run-ins with random contractors but uh the fencing is the last last piece of the puzzle to let people in the park to repair everything and then we want to get the fencing done
last thank you and then the last one theill building that we're in are downstairs we are having um Jenny I know we talked a little bit about downstairs and having an engineer take a look at it we do found
some I don't know what we would call them when the when the building was built out and originally yes so we are still waiting for a proposal about the buildout um and to see exactly what failed and and what happened downstairs so we're waiting for
proposals for both of those things those were the updates just for structures oh and the I'm sorry in the last one um and to get your input the commission's input the what do we call it the Welcome Center information center
at John's Pass Village um the Tampa Bay Beach's chamber that was operating it is no longer um operating it I think some of their a lot of their materials are in there we notified them they said they could just be disposed of whatever was
in there so we are going to clean it out and take any suggestions that the commission may have but we were contemplating using it as an information center as well but more of an office for our parking staff um out on the village
and as they go and Patrol and just work out of kind of a satellite office in the village but just a uh discussion that we had had nothing final yet and we Sorry is that air conditioned yeah it has a AC
wall unit it has a wall unit yeah we will be removing the contents tomorrow and then you will notice that there is going to be paper up on the Windows because right now it's pretty unsightly so once we kind of spray it with bleach and then we'll do the demolition sometime next
week interior demol yeah no that sounds correct yeah not not tearing the building you're not tearing the building down so sounds reasonable um I 78 demo complete demos those aren't all residential right I
know how many of those are commercial buildings do you know Jenny just got it there was at least five I I don't I'm sorry we could bring that I just wanted to make sure that commissioner C because you fees impact fees no no no on the on our list where it said 78 full demos
they're not all houses okay some of them were res or were commercial buildings just five the last I heard it was five five um so I have some comments and questions the one thing that I noticed
on the update was on a lot of the different parking lots like 130th 131st 32nd 34th 35th and so on they have waiting for Direction so if they're open what are you waiting for direction on Megan the issue with those parking lots
were they were all freshly paved and when the cleanup occurred the new asphalt sustained a lot of damage meaning scrapes um taken out of them eventually down the road that will cause
issues with potholes and water intrusion so we are looking I am looking for direction um do we want to proceed with getting a proposal and trying to submit that to FEMA I'm not really sure how we want to proceeded with that why wouldn't
we we we will definitely submit to FEMA I think the question now is uh really whether I think Megan whether we Mill and resurface them yes do we wait that's the only way really and if you go down if you walk to any of them and even
other parts um I can't remember where I was but there's some significant no I I know so that's what I just I see the waiting for direction and I think no better time than now to have the discussion because the one thing I'm certain of the wheels of government turn
really really really slow and we only get to meet and discuss things once a month and vote on things once a month so timeliness of I mean being able to give you Direction and let you move forward because I know
you don't have enough to do I will proceed with proposals and bring those back I mean I would think that's what we would want to do and especially if September are cut off to submit to femo we would I wouldn't think you'd want to be waiting until the last
minute to then really have to rush and do things great Point um so the chamber building and The Snack Shack I think it's really disappointing that the chamber building was left in
the condition that it was left in and my understanding in asking questions is that the chamber building and The Snack Shack both have triple net leases and although I understand that major damage to from a storm would not
be repaired underneath the Le Lei but um it's disappointing that someone would walk away from a building that they paid how much did the chamber pay to rent that building from us they paid us a dollar a year one whole dollar
and the storm came through and flooded it and they never even bothered to clean it out and I just think that that is horrible terrible my opinion um I I agree I think it'd be a great place to have a satellite office for parking
maybe have somebody in there a volunteer part-time to be able to be an information resource for residents or visitors alike I shared with um a can't remember if I Shar it with Megan or Robin or maybe both that I remember back
when park or maybe even Jamal when parking was really getting going and there was discussion in the chamber about having parking attendance and how a parking attendant walking around John's Pass would be so wonderful
because people would see somebody in a madira beach shirt driving a Madera Beach vehicle and they could ask questions to get directions or where you know to eat or whatever a resident or a visitor would need information for so to
me that's like a no-brainer to put somebody down there that is representing the city and utilize that space because it's a cute little space it's right there on the corner it's so Central that's my opinion but the other question that I wanted to ask is I was over at
Snack Shack it's been I think two weeks ago now so this could have changed that I was walking around and the back porch area where the tiki hut used to be and all there's stuff back there like a
ice machine there's debris all over the deck and that's not ours that's the PE it's owned by the people who lease it so why haven't they cleaned that up have we asked them to clean that up have we pushed them to clean that up yeah when I
met with them though was that remove all the all your equipment out of there but you I mean they haven't removed everything and I think there were still some items inside yeah there was so yeah when I meet with them I'll ask them remove everything or well because I would think that I mean when I went over there that day and I saw it it just
it's I mean the storm came the water came in the water went out and it left all this debris and it's just still sitting there so people are going to walk around there and that's not very safe um so it's a blemish it is a blemish and I
mean if it can't be open it should at least look nice and if they're go if they're going to come and ask us to extend a lease I would like to ask the commission if anyone had eaten there or been there prior to the storm and
noticed the disrepair that was going on I was there one day having lunch and sitting at the outside bar and looking up there was code violations for wiring that they
are responsible for and just you could look around and see disrepair that had was not being taken care of and if we're going to extend a lease I would think that we would want someone who cared enough
about our property to take care of it and it didn't seem to me from where I was sitting that that was something they did um I'm not advocating getting rid of them I'm just saying if if the responsibility is to care for the
property then who's responsible for enforcing to make sure they're taking care of it because we weren't doing a good job and I would presume because I had never noticed it I had never sat there until several months ago I had sat out like
under in the picnic tables and that sort of thing but had never really paid attention up to towards the building so I think that's important to remember when we think about what we want to do there perhaps that needs to be written into the lease agreement it was in the Le well as far as inspections it I think
it was in the I think it is but who was responsible for I don't inspections the city the city and was the city doing inspections I periodically and we would tell them you need you know make sure that it's well maintained I think we need to we would obviously need to be
much more specific and explain exactly I mean what needs to be done but I I think it's important whoever is going to be there and rent that space from us because we own it it's a reflection on the city and if the city doesn't care enough to keep the property that we own
in good repair then what does that say to the resident or other business owners who are being made to to keep their properties in code compliant so um oh so Jenny you touched on the
downstairs so I am interested to just keep it to for us to understand the flood plel failed I did have some discussion with Holden about those and he was telling me talking about the foam
that went around that um could have been crimped or something to let it in so I'm very interested to know why it failed was it that the foam crimped was it that they weren't tied it enough is it that when we store those panels we should
remove that foam and then put it on when it's time to put it up so that there is no Kinks or folds or anything in it and it gets a good seal um and last week or the week before last I
was here at City Hall and it was raining and I went down and got a chance to look at the downstairs the way it looks now and you know they only got like this much of water downstairs so it did not
get a ton of water but you lost this much drywall because of the standard cutout but while I was down there I had not been into the new area that's just built out and when I went into that area it was
flooding there was water coming in the door flowing right in it was flowing all the way down to the back wall and the water was over to the cabinets so when I W now when I looked at it so
when you walk out the door from the existing building department area that we've had for several years and you walk out into the new area there it's the floor is completely the same so when this building was built those floors were built down there on a slope so that
when it rained the water would slope away so somehow when we designed that area down there I don't know if I don't know I would like to know which is why I'm asking was it the architect was it the engineer was it our building official who's the person who decided
that we could just throw up some walls not level any floors off and that would be okay because it rains in there at that space you can't put Furniture in there and um so you could see all the sloping
you walk out the door and there's a um it like when you walk out of the door and there's a slope down to kind of walk down so when you walk out because the whole floor is painted gray you don't I don't I did not recognize that it's that way you would if you just walked out you
would just lose your feet out from under you because it there's you just don't notice it I did not anyhow but so the flooring is the original concrete and I would like for us to understand how that happened how the and the reason I think
we need to understand that is because moving forward when the city's doing projects who's overseeing it who's signing off on I guess we didn't have to have permits because our building department
did it or I don't know but there's a quarter of a million dollars been spent down there and you cannot use that space as it sits currently we will have to spend more money to use that space if that is even
possible to repair it to be able to I think I'm done let me just check my notes well I mean those things I see and I want to share because I want you guys I want all of us to understand that and
and if whatever the issue is I think that however that got down there got approved to be built I mean the money was approved here but when it was approved to be built I think that we should understand how that process happened so that it doesn't happen again
in the future isn't that in litigation with the insurance company or something or with the flood no that's for the fire and the recreation building I'm talking about the area under the stairs right built
out underneath this brand new area that we just enclosed for the you're talking about no it's the one right down here where the sheriff's department is going to it's where was the water coming from right through the front door from the
rain right yep because it's built on a slope so when you open the front door the the lip is here it's like I don't know like this to the door and the water just is there and come and it's coming right through the cracks right into the
and I don't believe that we did a flood planel flood panel for that door and how did we do that the whole premise of building that downstairs the original was that it was flood proofed so that it wouldn't get wet which it did and we all know and there's some sort of issue
which they'll figure out but then we build in a whole new section and spend a quarter of a million dollars and you can't even use it for storage unless you're willing to let the stuff in it be in a humid environment because it's
going to have wetness in it great so that that is all I had thank you very much thanks for bringing that to our attention mayor we are still looking obviously for
what how to correct repair Etc and we will bring that back to you obviously at the each Workshop until we get some resolution if we could just understand the process of how it got approved like who were the people who reviewed the
plans and approved it is my question so that we don't have that happen again any more comments next on the wa wait I did have one more comment had nothing to do with that I was waiting um the seaw wall
crabby um so that's that's coming up they're going to be doing that soon the the construction started already but we had to take a pause and Krabby can provide some details and
so the they started driving the uh the vinyl panel panels down the wall and then they got to a point with the grant that we received that the manor raay which is like a tieback for the seaw wall was not us-made steel okay so in
that build back America better Grant it was it has to be made there so they had to reorder it so they okay it's going to be four to six weeks but it'll be well within the timeline completed and I kind of told him well let's just kind of put a hold on it because we got grun hunt coming up and everything so let's not
just tear everything up we'll just leave it as it is if you're not going to be able to complete it or start working on it so just put a hold and we'll get it done after grun hunt all right well my question is related to the seaw wall but the um you have a launch area there that
uh do you do you use the that second um the second the ramp that's out in front of the ship store there yeah we do not use we can't use it because of the grant that we received from FWC to build the other okay so why don't we take this
opportunity to have the seaw wall extend it to close that off that is in the plans uh for next year to go from there down to that seaw wall the one issue that I kind of have is my neighbor there he just likes to tie stuff up to that
seaw wall and it's a very it's very very so that part of the seaw wall is not part of the grant that we got to to do we're not doing that part of the seaw wall no not that part okay yeah but go ahead but the uh the submerged land lease that he has runs
all the way out and out to our fuel dock okay so technically that's submerged land at his end now he can't access that submerged Land by using our property but I just know that if I extend that out right now as it goes if you've been back there in Mar and look at how many boats
that that is back there there is they're piled on top of each other I understand and they're just going to work their way our direction if I close that in right now that 16 foot Gap where launch is I was just wondering if that when you're putting that putting in the new seaw wall if you
just go yeah the the plan is we're going to close that in make that the new wash down area Okay and then that way we can put in proper drainage and matting and things like that that's D approved and then go ahead and make more parking where the wash current wash down areas at right now we have a we have a mind
meld that's good thank you welcome thank you next on the agenda is Public Works John's Pass North Jetty update good evening mayor and Commissioners what I bring before you is just an update um from the last time we
met and I don't remember I think that was in the January Workshop the only changes that you will see to this are just some dates um from which um penel County had after our initial discussion with army Corp and Army Corps telling us that we
did not need a 408 permit penis County once we had had that conversation with them then reached out to the 408 and now we will have to apply for a 408 application which we don't really foresee as being a big issue um we have
we are in the proc process of doing the design but we just have to get some surveying together and then submit that to FD penel County Army Corps and the 408 section so once we receive all of that which we're pretty sure from the
discussions that we had we will be exempt from fdp penelas County and Army Corps but not the 408 but we don't foresee a big issue with that because we will be above the mean high tieline and then you will also see in this that there was another company that
reached out to us um that Supply much like a moi mat but it's a different um fabric so you'll see in this that that is cheaper so I'm just looking to see if you would like to proceed with that temporary Moby mat that we had talked
about I believe it's the pictures that you see in here are still the same as they were the last time if you would like me to go ahead and proceed with um the permitting which is not a problem I just literally permitted a moi mat for1 136 spee access with a matter of sending
an aerial and sending dimensions and received them the permit within 24 hours so I don't foresee that being an issue whatsoever there's no one here for public comment Commissioners I'm I'm okay with you
moving forward I thought this was approved wasn't this approved already approved for the purchase of the mobility mat I don't I think yeah the Mobi Mat I don't I think we were just it was a discussion oh was that a workshop
I believe so I Robin and I had talked about it and we wanted to ensure that okay I I was under the impression that we have approved it if you were if you had a need for it in another place we had discussed that that we can once we are completed with it there it is
movable to move it to a different section and you had a need for it at another place I wouldn't necessarily say a need but we have a use for it yeah you have other Beach entries that could use it right yeah it's a it's a n very nice
feature to have yes right it is now the cheaper version of the Mobi Mat have you seen that have you tested it is it I have not um I he he just reached out between the last meeting and within the
last couple weeks um I believe he's supposed to be sending me locations that do have this mat so I will go check it out it's not a significant savings so um we do have now we have four Moby mats and I've knock on wood not had any
issues with any of them and our oldest one was at archbald and I think we've had it for two or three years is there a relationship benefit to not even if it's not that much difference to just continue since you have all your other M mats with the
same I mean that's a that's aure of whatever the decision is you are I would lead that to your judgment in my opinion you're you live you're living it but if it's you know not significant less than 10% difference or whatever I don't know
how much they cost but I believe the the one M mat was 6200 I'm looking at the pictures I'm sorry yeah it's 6205 for the regular and so it's another $1,200 difference yes approximately
well that is significant I check it out personally don't like to spend residents money when we don't need to and of course are their grants I will look into grants for this we did receive a grant for our original
Moby mat I can reach out to HUD to see if they would like to fund the grant the the price but I'm I didn't have the exact dire Direction so I didn't want to put that out there correct I couldn't think of that terminology yes all right
please do thank you absolutely yeah I think it's a great idea thank you Megan when would you think we'll be building the concrete book I would love to give you an exact date but I don't have that because I not
applied for a 408 permit um and as we've known from the past Army Corps permitting can be lengthy um I'm hoping that that process would only be a few months but I don't want to give you incorrect information and we would need to bring
you back I mean interrupt but we would need to bring you back all the details the the proposed design the engineering everything including a cost which we do not know at this time but I think we're estimating it would be a couple
hundred, um to place back yes yeah I mean we're talking just the design is probably going to be a few months the bid is definitely a three to four month so we're looking at a minimum
of eight months just with that roughly and then permitting without however long that may be I'm thinking that more be met is generally for Ada accessibility but what I see out there
mostly fishermen and a lot of young people that just like to access the water and enjoy the Rocks um I'm not for it I'm sorry I think we should
concentrate on building the uh actual concrete walk and I had recommend it for it to be8 foot wide and you know build it so that a lot more people can enjoy it and it would it would not be
damaged by um excessive use of fishing and casting a n you know casting a I guess a um trying to catch fish so I'm sorry
I'm not for it but also we have to make it excess ible or the handicap also correct if someone's in a wheelchair and wants to go out there and can't get out there because there's no mat there correct and there
are a lot of handicap disabled people that do visit John's Pass park with wheelchairs and Walkers Walkers yes and currently they've been using the beach access the the wooden walk over as we're
limited right now also corre we are yes okay thank you you're welcome I have one more question Y is the mimat uh made in the US and is the access wreck made in the US as I stated this is a new company
uh that I've not worked with before so I can research that yeah I am not sure sure I think that makes a difference um so I think it'd be interesting for you to go see and see if I mean maybe it's the exact same one um I haven't received any
complaints about the um John's Pass fishing The Jetty since the debris since the since you finished the removal of all the rocks and the um rebar and all of that and when I've been down there
there's always quite a number of people fishing um to commissioner Kerr if HUD would pay or help pay that would be awesome I'd be interested to know if they were doing that
um and two whether or not these are just the same products because you know how sometimes somebody sells the same thing but what I noticed in the quote when I looked at it is the new company is giving you even though the the original company gives you a discount the new company's giv you almost a $1,300
discount so if they're giving you that this time would they give that to you next time and I do believe that relationships are a big deal when you're purchasing and doing things so be
interesting it would be interesting for that information but you could probably have that by a voting meeting right you think absolutely I mean is would it be easy to determine whether or not HUD had money to pay for that or if they were had
anything out there that not not that you can come in and say I've got it but you could come in and say yes I can apply for it they've got it out there and they're usually pretty responsive so I would think that if I reach out tomorrow I should have a response by Friday that would be awesome sometime
that would be awesome anything else next on the agenda is approval of purchase oh no it's not sorry it's the ITB 2502 purchase rearload replacement
containers contract approval hello again so as we all know um Helen did a tremendous amount of damage to our dumpsters we lost several uh we don't we still don't know where
they are uh many ended up in in people's backyards and their pools um some are still popping up in the inter Coastal in places um and the ones that were not lost were completely submerged so what we're finding with those because they
are metal um that they are resting out very very quickly and or the casters are failing um so every year we purchase around $30,000 worth the dumpsters um with the substantial needs that we need this year Robin and I discussed just
placing a bit out to ensure that we get the best price so with that um Iron container which is our current vendor came in at the lowest price so what I am proposing is that we proceed with awarding a three-year contract with iron
container and that will allow that the current containers that we do have that we can salvage that we can swap parts out and not have multiple different pieces of equipment out there there's no one here for public
comment Commissioners thought I saw gonna change your ways are you were you commenting I should be fair it's really not fair of me is it to always look to the right first well we we could use their [Laughter]
wisdom it has actually given me a chance to learn and educate myself with the sport and all the questions you're in the hot seat yes I am so um have we is this something we can apply FEMA for reimbursement I mean I know we need it
and we have to purchase them but is it something that we could probably recuit the money from FEMA we will submit the invoices to FEMA for reimbursement but I don't know that we would have an answer back on that for as Robin stated or Andrew it can take quite some time yeah
every Everything storm related we as we've stated multiple times will be submitted to FEMA for reimbursement it's on the schedules that we have provided so everything that is Storm related that you will likely hear some of them all the way until September we will submit
to to be reimbursed if our insurance does not for those amounts that our insurance has not or will not cover and of course since we've lost them they believe that we had them right we've Lo do they I guess they
believe that we've had these um dumpsters yeah I don't think that matters what matters is that we've stated uh We've Lo these are damaged and misplaced due to the storm and as we provide the invoices and a narrative as
to what happened that's what FEMA has requested of us to do for reimbursement for storm damage thank you yeah I definitely think it's a great necessity and we have a great
relationship so you know the three-year term with the uh iron container I think it's a great idea yeah that's all I was just looking through I thought this was a line item already oh on the
um what what was going in for uh FEMA but it doesn't matter um I mean it does but we we'll submit that um yeah I mean you you you bit them out and um it worked out to be the same vendor great let's move
forward it also saved us money previously to me getting a quote from them before I had issued the bid so so the new new price is lower than the old price correct and we don't pay for Freight they are just down in South Florida but still we were paying for Freight which covers a couple dumpsters
with amount of that's big yeah yeah okay perfect thank you thanks for sorting this all out uh I would approve the contract iron container for three years thank you I would also Megan thank you thank you next on the agenda is approval
of purchase for rearload contain containers so to follow with that um this is two replace dumpsters that we do need um we have a lot of restaurants that are reopening and we have a lot of containers that are in very rough shape
so they are falling apart and or will be very soon and the lead time on these dumpsters is probably six to eight weeks so the sooner we get them the better and anything that we have as a backup goes over to 594 Street to our Blue Barn
extra store storage whatever you want to call it there's no one here for public comment Commissioners so it's a necessity I'm for it thank you I also agree
definitely MERS no comment it's the same company iron container correct yeah I'm all I'm all for it me too thank you next on the agenda is City street ends project update so this is just to give you all
an update um as we know the storm uh wrecked havoc on all of the city so a couple of these project areas look a little bit different um and I think that we are maybe seeking or need to discuss
um one of them in particular um you as you see through going through the plans um number two 34th Avenue East that has a red X through it and the reason for that being is because that home that shared the driveway with that that park
has now been demolished so we will no longer need to provide a driveway through the street end into that that parcel so we will when that new plan comes in we will make them connect
directly to bokaa Avenue um the other location would be 134th in bokaa Drive um changing tides does have a application end for a
complete demolition so with that same street end we were providing or we were put putting in parking vehicular pavers for parking we will no longer need to do that either because I've received clarification that once the new
development comes in they will then have to to provide ample parking so those two areas will look a little bit different um but still match the idea I'll just have to figure out a way to incorporate on the um this one that Robin has up on
the screen because we didn't have any Planters in that location because of the vehicular pavers and just the short area that we had to work with there so I am working with um Planning and Zoning to help um I'm not
if I'm not great at filling out the ISR worksheets and working through the permit but they are going to help me with that and we will place it out to bid and then bring that back before you for your approval or Direction on how we proceed there's no one here for public
comment Commissioners comments were there any easement associated with these properties that um spe specifically maybe access for the driveways no sir they're they're specifically deed as Street
ends meaning that and tras can help me if I if I butcher this they're actually platted they're platted right away platted streets they're right away I see so we have to provide access to neighboring which we will they will still have access if
needed but no easements required would we have to build the driveway for them or they'll do themselves we will not allow them to have a driveway through the street end they will connect they have to reroute their driveway right they will have to reroute their driveway
with their new plan pay for it yes that will be in their development see okay thank you are you talking about a the new property or the existing I think there's I believe are you are you referring to which property is it the
first property that 134th Avenue so uh you're basically cutting off their access there's no the house has been demolished the house no longer they will no longer need access through the street end because the house is now gone they
will have to have access from Boa B that street that from boaa not 134th previously their access was through 134th for some reason Street and then as well over on the
other side side of 134th on the west side we were going to put pavement we were going to add four parking spaces to accommodate the adjacent structure the changing tides um changing
ties um Motel motel but now they've submitted for a demolition permit so that structure will be demolished we will no longer be asphalting Paving that area and supplying the four parking
spaces those are no longer needed whatever new structure goes into where the changing tides is located will have to have their own parking they will not utilize the street end for parking and there's no easement that we have was
that another right it's a RightWay away yeah it's just a it's a continuation of 134 on Street on street parking yes no comment comments I do because I'm very excited about this this is something that I've
been pushing for since I was elected uh these all of these parks are in district one and for our new newest Commissioners uh we have one park that's gorgeous and then somehow the funding dropped and this has been a big request from
residents in the area that they were in they were ugly before the hurricane and we had problems with the access from that one house that and the parking now all of those barriers are gone and I'm GL I'm thrilled to see that we're moving forward with this I love the plans I
think it looks great I would like to make one mention that I did make a whoopsy uh during the Hurricanes um it I when I was looking to see what my funding was I forgot to do a budget amendment to roll this project into 25
so you will see that before you Andrew will bring that back so I apologize for that whoopsie whoopsie um but initially we started planning
this with arpa funds right and that was so it just got put in our general fund but now we're going to budget it back into 2025 so this this we you know some how many million I think we got from uh I wrote that
down uh 2, $54,000 and that this and and it was e marks because this course F fits the requirements for those funds so indirectly we're not paying for it awesome much music to my
ears can any of these and I I've always been against the additional parking except for 20 feet or 25 feet from the curb so that I mean disaster I don't want to say I'm excited about
that but it's it's a nice change as far as I'm concerned but can any of these Street ends be used somehow designed for additional dog
parks they already are utilized as dog parks um are you on a Le I'm just saying are there any of them that basically have fencing on two sides already that you may be put a little Pi white picket fence and it's you can take them off
leash technically we are not allowed to restrict access to any of those because they are deeded as Street ends well you're not restricting well if you put in a fence you're restricting access you're talking about vehicular access I am going to
refer to tr one it's it's a plaed street so it's dedicated to the public and so we can't put an enclosure around to close it off because of the requirements of the plat so I I I would not suggest that you
close it off that doesn't mean that you can't have something on the sides for example I just want to be able to use it as a dog park we go out here the dog park needs maintenance on a consistent basis we need to replace the side that
means it's down or half of it's down we had two or three of these let's we could at Le Le least alternate okay this dog parks down for period of time or maybe just alternate
that so that the turf stays fresh always have have three dog parks and you have two open and one down so I'm just trying to do what's a gain for the
neighborhoods that's all you can still have the dog park there you just can't en close it in other words they can walk their dogs in a leash on the on the park which which they already do so yeah very they just can't let them run that's the whole point of a dog bark but could we vacate
that right away and make it City owned still public obviously you can vacate it and do what you want to do just like so if it was vacated it would be split down the middle the property owner to the right would own half of it and the property owner to the left would own half of it
the city would own none of it it in other words I don't think we're allowed to vacate to ourselves right it it' be vacated to the adjoining property owners you yeah I can understand that doesn't help the situ all complications thank you thank you thank
you thank you next on the agenda is Recreation RFP 25-3 madira Beach Recreation Center interior hurricane repairs um good evening mayor
Commissioners um so for the recreation center repairs uh we initially uh got a a quote from one of the uh continuing Services contractor that we had on on uh had previously bid out and I received a bid
that was uh five times the amount of what I got from this bid so I kicked it out to RFP and we received eight bids the most responsive bid came from grow it's a grz
construction company uh at an amount of 57,7 uh that's the flooring drywall paint basically everything but the Cabinetry that we want to put back in the building um we did that intentionally because we want to get back in the building and see uh things
that we liked and didn't like about it but the um basically puts us at a point we we scored those I I've attached the five top ones um for you for you all to and by top it was the highest scoring most
of which was scored by uh the pricing and then uh based on the responsive responsiveness of the bids as well as many of their references and uh contracts that they had so overall theirs was was the most complete uh the highest was myself and uh staff member
Max mahalski that reviewed this uh and we came to this this conclusion so our recommendation would be to uh approve a Construction contract with grow construction company uh and get this moving as quickly as possible and that we'll have to come back to at a regular
meeting for your approval yes did you say state that you've used you've worked with these people before I have not worked with them uh from our conversations though we've and from their their application uh they do have continuing service agreements with
numerous cities within the county uh and then many of the letters are recommendation of folks that we talk to one of which is uh trans systems uh which is an organization that we've used in the past uh so they've come highly recommended and uh we're excited about
it so great job um looking over this uh all the paperwork definitely um they've also done work with the city of St Pete city of Clearwater Hernando County 23 years in business
business um so great job compiling all the information it's it's very important we get that re Center going you know absolutely and that just reminded me so within that so the 57,7 and then we were looking at two types of flooring uh if you've been in this room or the rec
center U there's a a wood plank flooring that was in there uh I didn't much care for the initial it was like a builder's flooring uh I was looking at trying to do this wider rollout stuff and they essentially came back with the quote that we asked for but also in our
discussions leading up to this recommended that we don't use that uh they found a better flooring that does have some more thickness that is more durable and it's got a better coating on it uh so it's going to be a similar flooring to what was there before but a much more durable and much easier to place should a chunk be taken out from
furniture or whatever else but it also has a little more padding to it uh you know for Falls and random stuff like that so have any questions thanks for sorting it out I approved to move forward are they insured yes yes the
insurance oh yeah thank you Jay thank you next on the agenda is facility use agreement okay um so yeah this topic
facility use agreement we've uh in the past uh since I've been here we've staff has been in charge of uh renting the facility out for weddings birthday parties special events all that stuff uh this group it's Burton miring and they operate as simple weddings uh over the
course of the years we've we've worked with them quite a bit they're very familiar with our facility uh but Mo most recently uh have expressed interest in essentially partnering with us for a facility use agreement where they would advertise uh I'm trying to simplify this
but they would advertise our facility as essentially an opportunity for uh it wouldn't be be their facility that they run but it would be one that they could utilize for weddings special events and all that stuff so essentially they would be on their own doing their own thing they would rent the facility through us
as a normal renter would um but it would be uh relationships where if we were approached for an event like that we would direct them to these folks to talk to them so uh in doing so we were looking to offer a 25% discount on the fees for them to rent it but in
the case of this partnership it would allow the facility to be rented more often they've got a staff that specializes in weddings and events of these kind uh whereas you know for us and as City staff if we' minimize staff plus we've got other events going on you
know for example the softball tournament that was this past weekend as well as the upcoming two we typically wouldn't rent the facility because of those constraints this would allow us to work with them and open the facility up so they could rent it as well so um they're very excited about it they see the the
opportunity to do it so essentially we would charge them the rental fee at the discounted rate as well as the cleaning fee which cover the costs for um for the the cleaning contract that exists and then the last thing would be to have an
escro damage deposit for the year and should any damages take place we would pull from that and then as far as their services they offer uh Linens and all sorts of wedding specific stuff that you know I can't even think of at the moment but that's
what they do they're very good at it um so we would we think this would actually increase the utilization of facilities and help advertise it quite a bit more so um it's just a little bit of uh utilizing a local resource that is interested in doing it so we you know we
we want to make it work and see how it goes and yeah there's no public comment and I'd like to say I think this is awesome you and I talked about this a couple months ago so you won't have to do anything if
they're handling the rental your staff won't have to set up or tear down right yeah yeah well essentially well each time we use it and each time they use it we'll leave it like we found it and that way it's a you know instead you having to manage a wedding and have
staff there to set the tables up and tear the tables down and do all that they will take care of that and we're only giving them a 25% discount correct I think I think it's a no-brainer a total no-brainer so if I could ask just
for I just want to make sure I understand we don't really advertise that space from the city right I mean we we do I mean it's on our website we do um but this this business this company would actively uh advertise the space and then they would manage it yeah I
think it's a it's a great idea so is there a active calendar that you would both use that if you needed it you would place yes that's part of the discussion we've uh we've got multiple calendars we've got a City calendar that
we use internally we've got the websites calendar um and then different things but we're looking at most likely probably a shared Google Calendar of some kind that we'll put City events on and they'll um you know anything that they have and then there's always going
to be the we're still going to have a liaison on staff that works with them and if they've got a question and they're worried that maybe something wasn't input it'll just pick up the phone give us a call and we'll make sure it's communicated so there'll be a written contract there's a cancellation Clause
if things aren't working out there's a absolutely um it's in here the contract's in there okay so we've got an end for a two-year contract and my my initial thought is after a year we're gonna have it sit down and say how's this working
because especially in the wedding business we're already getting 2026 and one or two crazy 2027 requests yeah but it's uh okay especially with graduation season coming up and the building opening back up soon it's we're getting
a lot of phone calls comments will there be alcohol use yes you can't have a wedding without alcohol so there well it it depends depending on the event but there is there is Insurance Clauses and there's
okay that leads me to other questions MH so um I guess we are allowed to consume alcohol on the premises yes okay and insurance and as far as any schedule conflict conflict being in schedule I
think you address that maybe months ahead of time with conflict yeah I mean stuff occasionally gets overlooked but they're them being a private business and and again with the city it's it's we want to make sure that we've we're providing the best service and keeping
the image of the city and their organization up so you know stuff will come up nine times out of 10 we can work it out we figure it out but most of the time it's it's a lot of the conflicts too are the uses for our fitness classes that take place and then uh sometimes
games outside and weddings in a building but those are just that's just a a Parking Challenge which we typically work through as well so thank you y yeah I think it's a great idea um excuse me also um it's going to help our our
community large weddings and uh receptions and uh the hotels our restaurants you know we're going to get a lot more exposure for madir beach and I think it's a great idea good job thank I agree thank
you next on the agenda is facility rental fee updates okay so in uh discussions with this organization and and staff review as well well as for the fees um we took a look at the existing fee structure and made some adjustments um most of it was
simplifying it uh there were a couple of fees that were raised slightly um but the biggest thing uh if just a quick run through but if you rent this room over here uh the city center room we're not going to rent the patio out at the same time so we
basically made that that those fees are combined you're getting you know raise the fee I think it was $50 and then they got the combined thing uh same with the rec center if we rent the larger room at the rec center there's a good chance that somebody's going to go outside and use the patio vice versa so we paired
those up simplified it um and you know if you're using the patio the restrooms inside we're not going to rent multiple venues at the same place at the same time and we just wanted to make sure it was clear plus it made sense that if we were doing a 25% discount that there was still some room wiggle room for the city
so makes sense yep that's pretty much B and we can run through to guys want to but overall it's it's pretty simplified there's no public comment Commissioners comments straightforward I thought so
the one the one addition was was this room I saw that so the their big need they said that we do a lot of beach weddings we I probably approve 10 or 15 a week months out um looking at that there's need for an indoor facility in
case of rain so what they said is set a price fee for this I forget what it was off the top of my head but um most likely this room will get rented and then it won't get used so if it rains or if it rains they'll be in here if it doesn't rain they will have paid to
reserve this room and not used it so you took it from 200 to 100 yes per hour yes they they're going to Max it out at two hours is not going to be one of those rooms that we do food and drinks in it's just a come in they'll set up chairs
they'll get married and then take offe so hopefully utilize that room over there for reception do they get that money refunded if they don't have to use the room or is that they they don't and that's I guess in the wedding world that's that's a cost of doing business
so got it thanks thank you Jay next on the agenda is City sponsored fireworks all right so this is uh the final oneyear extension request for the master power LLC who we utilize for our
fireworks the excuse me the recommended dates for this would be uh March 15 May 3rd which is the city event July 3rd and November 8th um I did discuss July 4th with him this
year uh being a Friday is a very popular one for their company and based on the size of our show compared to many of the other ones he recommended July 3 as the the date preferred um it's possible to switch to the fourth he just said it might not be
him it would be somebody else doing the show which again that's who who liks it is not really the concerning thing but I know he's very focused on supporting us and our endeavors when he uh signs this contract so that's open for discussion
but those my recommendations were the 15th to third the third and the eth so there's no public comment Commission I'd say July 3rd is good because it gives us an opportunity to actually check out July 4th and other
cities had a lot of uh public comment about uh July 3rd they didn't have a problem with it they thought it was a great idea less traffic less congestion you know our deputies do like it as well the thirds on a Thursday yes
Thursday evening you're going to get the push back but I think I guess everybody's getting used to it I think Jay this will be our third consecutive if we have them on July 3rd this would be the third or the fourth this is this is my thought we're
developing a tradition people people know madir Beach is a day early and I I personally as a commissioner have never had any negative feedback and I've gone to them all and they're well attended yes yes the only negative feedback I've
ever heard was one year the it was not I don't think it was last year it was the year before and when there there was some sort of malfunction remember that to be here and all everybody was watching and we were waiting for the
finale and it didn't happen that's the but that was a total I mean and then he did some he did some more fireworks to make up for for us at the next he did so he made up for
the I'm I'm good with the dates and and I can say for the first time in February um and in my time doing this that we have a barge already for the yeah I was ask that yeah spielers already offered is it that one sitting out here now it is ready they call him 30 days before
he'll clear it it'll be ready to go that's awesome really excited about that that's awesome good well thank you for the record I do get pushed back on on the third that it's not the worth but it you
know so I love what um vice mayor tagini said it's a tradition creating our own tradition it's a tradition creating our own tradition yeah yeah Al righty thank you if there is nothing
further it is 9:31 we are adjourned