[Music] 7:02 I will now call this commission meeting to order At this time if you have any electronic devices we ask you to please silence them your greeters at the door today is uh Deputy Public Works Director Kevin Gray and Information Technology Manager Chuck Osteen To my far right near far left we have recording secretary Taylor Lochert Then
we have city clerk Susan Dauderis Then deputy mayor zone one commissioner Lori Tolland Good evening everyone and welcome Zone 2 Commissioner Travis Sargent Good evening Welcome Zone 3 Commissioner Kristin Deaton Good evening Zone 4 Commissioner Harold Briley Good evening everyone Welcome city manager Joyce Shanahan Assistant City Manager Shawn Finley
City Attorney Randy Hayes and all the way in my far left and your far right we have police chief Godfrey and Fire Chief Howard Bailey And I'm Mayor Jason Leslie At this time I will call uh Evangelist John Jeyaseelan to do the invocation followed by the uh pledge of allegiance Let's pray
Heavenly Father we are privileged to belong to a nation that says God we trust We thank you for our nation God and we thank you for our city the great city of Ormond Beach and these great leaders that you've given us Father Blessed is the nation that whose God is the Lord and the people whom you have chosen for your own inheritance Father we remember your promise to us If my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek
my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land Father as we humble ourselves as a city a great city of Ormond Beach with these leaders I pray that you would give us your restoration your healing your guidance your protection especially wisdom for these precious leaders that you appointed over us to take godly decisions that'll be beneficial for you and for all of us We love you and we praise you
We give you all the glory and honor and praise In your precious holy name we pray Amen Amen Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Thank you May also be seated Okay we're going to move over to number four audience remarks Oh excuse me one second
Okay Okay Okay Okay Okay Put that in the bottom Okay Oh sorry Okay sorry about that At this time we'll hear from those of you who have signed a card to speak about any item which is not on the printed agenda for this meeting including any items on the consent agenda Each person will be given three minutes And we have our first speaker is Debbie Forrester
Good evening Debbie Kruck Forester Orman Strong Commander Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another That is the motto of our Vietnam veterans who continue to hold their motto um and help everybody Uh their service was celebrated 3 days ago March 29th Vietnam Veterans Day was officially uh declared by President Richard Nixon in 1974 coincided with the one-year anniversary of the withdrawal of US combat forces from Vietnam on March 29th 1973
Today the holiday is officially observed Every March 29th is referred to as National Vietnam War Veterans Day These brave men and women have in their military service sacrificed their time their talent their strength their ambition their health their lives on this earth earth to benefit those known and unknown to them Many carry scars in their hearts as well as their bodies where dark clouds haunt their dreams at night and cloud their waken hours It was once stated by Elmer Davis head of the Office of War Information in World War II "This nation will remain the land of the free."
so long as it is the home of the brave The price of freeding freedom has been high and our Vietnam veterans have never been unwilling to pay that price They're resourceful resilient and trailblazers and catalyst of so many great things in our nation I'm going to name a few Um they created the vet center providing counseling and support services to veterans service members and their families particularly those who have served in combat in the combat zone or experience MST The POW MIA flag that's a national flag building awareness and support
for the nearly 82,000 American service members who remain missing from not just Vietnam but from past uh conflicts our um local hero hero Vietnam veteran judge David Beck created the veterans court in Volusia County offering a jud judicially monitored problem-solving approach for veterans facing criminal charges focusing on treatment and rehabilitation rather than traditional incarceration Uh we all salute Vietnam veterans their families and
for those of you here tonight that do not fully understand the sacrifice the fear and the loss that comes with war please know we can listen with our hearts and welcome our soldiers home To all Vietnam veterans their family members their spouses uh thank you for your service and sacrifice And to all Vietnam veterans welcome home Ormond Strong out Thank you Thank you Debbie also our Goodwill Ambassador Tail We're proud of you Uh next speaker is uh Richard Saw Wiki I might have pronounced that wrong I'm
sorry Good evening Mayor and Council and all of you gentlemen and ladies in the audience I am Richard Sawiki the president of VVA here in Volusia County chapter 1048 I am here to honor you and Lori Tolland and everybody else in reference to supporting us as veterans I wish to present two certificates Vietnam Veterans of America the Welcome Home Chapter 10 1048 Daytona
Beach Florida wishes to honor and recognize the city of Ormond Beach Deputy Mayor Lori Tolland and Mayor Jason Leslie and special recognition of your exceptional in initiative in recognizing supporting honoring and dedication to the Vietnam Veterans of America and all veterans of Volusia County and beyond Therefore the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 1048 bestows upon you the citation for your distinguished leadership and supporting all veterans Signed by
myself Richard W Sawiki president of this chapter Please come forward and accept us if you can Yeah if you can uh give it to the city clerk right there and she'll pass it along Sir okay I really appreciate and you have one for deputy mayor Thank you so much Wow Yeah Thank you Thank you Mr President Thank you Please for Thank you And besides
that sir it's my honor to give you a token of our chapter from Vietnam veterans And every time you look at this never forget us the Vietnam veterans Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Mr President Thank you for your time Thank you for the effort and thank you and and we hope to gather again together and have a good time again Thank you Thank you Next up we have Mike Manis
City Commissioners Mayor I first would like to say thank you for your support for the Riverbend Trust System You have been great in supporting us and I want to take this opportunity to personally say thank you Um our current successes I'd like to go over with you We started this in 2018 with Parks and Rec and Robert has been super to support us We have over 80 volunteers that work with us We've got over $20,000 in donations that have been given to support us We've purchased over 12 loads of shell rock distributed throughout the trail system We've removed over four dump
truck loads of trash homeless debris that was on the trail system including the property that was just recently purchased Uh we have cleanup days trail trim days work days and also remove the beer bottles and the trash that are along the shoulders of the rideway especially after bike week Um we have another thing going on currently right now in progress is called the kid zone That's going to be at the park and that's that's a work in progress right now We currently have six miles of trails on our system Uh we've put logged in over a,000 man hours of time
We're well supported by the local businesses and sponsors This trail is not only known and used by hundreds of local people but it is also known nationally as well Uh if you can look at YouTube and see some videos that have been posted there that recognize the city of Ormond Beach which was very well done Uh future expansion Uh you have a copy of a proposed map that I've given you all And I'd like to talk to you about the Riverbend golf course that's closed down that is currently not of use that um we have laid out a map of two trails One is a proposed trail of
a multi-use path that is dogs walking hiking whatever and the other is an addition to the uh bike trail We currently have six miles With the addition we'll add another six miles which would give us 12 total And that would put us uh well on the map of a highly recognized sought-after uh bike park Um our volunteers take a lot of pride in this system They put a lot of sweat equity into this Um and by doing this expansion it would allow us to meet the objectives that have already been
identified in the um city uh currently the parks and reccks master plan of the addition of more trails Uh so uh I would just like to bring this for to your attention for your recognition and for your blessings and uh ask for your permission to to move forward in the future Thank you Thank you Next uh Ed Babinski Good evening Ed Boinsky 30 Mel Rose Avenue
I'm here to voice a I I don't speak for any group Um but I am here to voice a concern about our neighborhood Um and this is something that we've been trying to address for the last couple of years And I have to thank uh everybody involved in the town in trying to address this issue particularly uh Travis Sargent Mr Mason some of the other folks Um this is in regards to Florida statute [Music] 621.213b Code enforcement officers uh cannot investigate potential violations based
on anonymous complaints This has been in uh I guess in effect for about two years now and um neighborhoods have deteriorated I have to say my wife and I are going to be soon celebrating our 10th year in the beautiful city of Ormond Beach 10 years Travis it's a long time Um and things have gotten worse There are more storage containers boats cars derelct cars derelct boats
um in my surrounding neighborhood It's a it's just it's horrible It's horrible And the reason behind it is this statute I have seen the response people have gotten after they called and made a complaint I've seen the response of citizens to our civil servants after they try to impose just having
somebody follow a rule a simple rule to keep your property clean to get the garbage out of your yard to move a car to move a storage container that's actually a railroad storage container I think what we need to do is reconsider our town being reactive and become proactive If you consider that I know it's going to be a lot of work There's a lot of things to catch up to but I think we need
to be proactive I think we need to get uh the word out as what the code is I think a lot of people don't know Um I have a couple suggestions My neighbors have had a couple suggestions Uh we've tried to uh meet the suggestions of the town It just hasn't worked I've uh sent an email to all of you I hope you had a chance to read it It has my email address on it Feel free to get in touch with me be happy to meet with any any of you at any time Have a good day Thank you
Next up is Denise Corley Yeah Is it Oh you know what it is yeah Yeah but but it's the consent and it's during audience remarks Yes Yeah it should come up now Yep Sorry you should come up now Yeah because it's during Yeah Okay I'll pass
that because I wanted to hear what was going to be said first before I Okay Yeah I'm sorry about that confusion We need to have the dialogue from the from the from the podium Well she's going to she's going to opt out to uh to not speak so I'll just put that on the record Okay Um next up is John Measel Thank you all for your time My name is John Measel I leave live at 16 Eagle Court and
Tomoka Oaks I want to just reemphasize the need for a statement to keep people from destroying our green spaces when you got a R2 neighborhood that was built that way to include all the green space of the Sam Sneed golf course Just because a group of investors wants to put 317 houses out there we
need to make sure that can't happen All you got to do is drive through that neighborhood at I don't care when you do it during during daylight hours and you can almost any time see somebody almost get injured on those roads because you got cars parked on the streets Kids are shooting in and out of cars There's no sidewalks That area cannot handle the traffic of a development inside that area I won't waste any more of your time That's all I had to say Thank you Thank
you Uh next is Nette McKil Petrella [Music] Okay Mayor Leslie Council City Manager assistant and attorney My name is Nanette McKil Petrella and I am here as the president of Daytona Dog Beach Inc Today Volusia County Council approved the
dog friendly beach in Ormond Beach I want to thank you all for the support you have shown for the dog friendly beach pilot in 2023 and again for your support to make it permanent Our organization was able to deliver significant data to support the county's decision It included letters of support from you the Ormond and Daytona regional chamber of chambers of commerce other nonprofits along with residents and tourists Our petition in support of the dog friendly beach is currently at 3,726
signatures 60% are people from Volusia County 40% from people around the United States As I shared with the coun the council this morning this was about a dream freedom for people to simply take their dog for a walk or a drive along the shore or relax in the beach chair with their dog by their side And we acknowledged that the pursuit of that freedom required significant effort We believe
our grassroots community driven pursuit of the dream strengthened the community bonds promoted health and welfare of people and pets increased environmental stewardship demonstrated enhanced economic impact and inspired people to once again believe in their power and potential to improve their community The vote today to approve this ordinance not only made our dream come true but it also went a long way to restore people's faith that government is listening to the community Both
Ormond Beach City Council and Volusia County Council It serves as an acknowledgement to the many people who were willing to give of their time talents and gifts to bring a dog friendly beach to reality They represent the best among us those who volunteer to step up and take positive action to contribute to the community enhancing the quality of life for all Thank you again Our organization looks forward to continuing financial and volunteer support not only for Ormond
Dog Beach but to work with Ormond Beach on other opportunities to support your certification as a pet friendly city Thank you Thank you Um next up is uh John Bierworth I said that wrong Sorry All right Uh my name is John Bierworth Um I live at 27 Kennallorth A Ormond Beach And
uh first of all I'd like to say thank you to the city staff I've talked to a bunch of you chief uh Travis Herald uh city manager We've met many times over this uh house uh one away from me essentially on Kennillworth It's been a consistent problem Uh I've been a resident there same house for almost 30 years And uh for the past six years we we've been dealing with this um lady who owns the house There's other ownership in Canada Um but to to say the least there's been
a ton of problems and ne things never seem to get straightened out Um but just going to highlight a few things Um she doesn't pay taxes People have bought her tax certificates Um little get a little interest She hasn't paid her own taxes in 10 years She sucks up all the resources the city provides between police fire uh garbage Actually today I watched somebody else put their garbage in her lot and it's still sitting there today Um the city has been there and uh done some things
uh with a couple dumpsters but it's repeat junk and scrapping that's going on there among other things Um the person that owns a house is a convicted uh criminal along with all their other cohorts Um there's been drug overdoses multiple arrests multiple deaths violations Uh somebody shot their finger off Um there's a long history Um now they're renting the house and building a shed
so they can live in the back shed Now if everybody does that I'd love to do that Rebuild my shed live there rent out my house It can't happen and Ormond Beach can't handle it Um so that's one thing hopefully we're working on There's also been um her dogs are loose all the time Some of her dogs attacked some other dogs and killed them So there her dogs were euthanized which is a good thing Um but again there's no code enforcement there's no zoning there's no permits for all the building they're doing in this back shed Uh they're up all night Uh I work for an insurance company my wife's
a nurse Uh many sleepless nights dealing with the people coming and going Uh there was a kid on a motorcycle there coming and going at 4:00 or 5 in the morning consistently And I've had words with all these people almost come to the point of confrontation but I'm not going to jeopardize my life over them But it's a consistent problem and and it's getting really bad And again this has been the past 6 years at least Um and again we have met with the city folks and I want to thank you all for for your time on this and hopefully we can work uh through it Um but I but I'm just
hoping something can get done because she doesn't pay attention to anything Uh she puts on a good um story when everybody comes around but she doesn't comply with anything and it's really um bothersome after all this time But again I'd like to thank you all for um doing what you can All right Thank you Next up is Councilman Troy Kent Honorable mayor and uh honorable city commission it is great to be before you this evening Troy
Kent 130 Magnolia Drive Ormond Beach Couple of things I want to talk to you all about I have a couple of updates for you but the first thing I want to discuss is relationships And I just want to talk about how important they are in my life and how impactful they have been in our community Thank you collectively as a government body for that relationship and individually as well Your county council today directed our county manager and our
county attorney to meet with their county parts with the city of Ormond Beach Miss Shanahan Mr Rectenwald will be reaching out to you Mr Hayes uh Michael Dyier will be reaching out to you as well to discuss next steps with the fuel farm I'm going to leave it at that but uh it's in it's the conversation is now in there and your capable hands I'm sure you heard Nette earlier but I wanted to publicly come and tell you that your Volusia County Council today unanimously
unanimously approved the dog friendly section of the beach in Ormond Beach to be permanent It was not lost on the council that this elected body wrote two letters to our county council stating your support for such a wonderful thing in our community Volusia County is slowly but surely giving the beach back to the residents of Volusia County And I'll just say in my closing here it's
my humble opinion that the relationship between the city of Ormond Beach and the county of Volusia is the best I have ever seen it in the past 22 years And a huge part of that um is because of you individuals As your county councilman I'm here to support and help your agenda and things that you need help with in Ormond Beach I'm just a phone call away Thank you very much Thank you Councilman Next up is Jennifer
[Music] Bright Good evening Uh Councilman Kent at the county council meeting today mentioned that he would either like to change the zoning to light industrial or outright purchase the fuel hall road fuel farm property Chairman Bower also stated that he had a call from Mayor Leslie who stated he had spoken with our city manager and the city would like to help with the purchase of the land
Chairman Bower stated he took that to mean money Councilman Santiago stated that he would like to see the Ormond Beach City Council step up and take a vote to see if they want to buy the property if there is a willing seller As Councilman Kent stated the county council directed the county manager and the county attorney to reach out to the city manager and the city attorney about an agreement or desire to buy the land I hope this council can give the residents clarification on
the comments made at the county council meeting today Examples being is the city willing or hoping to annex this property is the city looking to be financially involved in the purchase of this land and if so so what amount of the taxpayers money is a city willing to spend thank you Next up is Darla Widnall Mayor Leslie commissioners thank you for all you do I would like to give
a shout out to our city arborist Laura Yorita She is very devoted to her job She has helped me on several occasions when tree companies were cutting native trees down in my neighborhood without a permit It doesn't matter where Laura is when you call her She will either answer your question on the phone or come to where you are if at all possible She spends time educating the tree companies and the residents of Ormond Beach regarding our tree cutting policies
Did you know that if you suspect a tree company may be cutting a native tree without a permit you can ask to see their permit you can also take a picture of the tree and get an address of a home nearby so Laura knows where the tree is located There have been changes to our tree cutting codes recently and I'm not sure that they have been formally put into our codes yet but it still remains that a tree company needs a permit from Laura to cut or seriously trim a native tree
Can I do my other topic about Tomoka Oaks just a quick Okay on the topic of the Tomoka Oaks golf course residents of Ormond Beach are staying on top of the two lawsuits that the builders have brought before our civil court and federal court against our city Thank you Thank you Darla This time I don't have any more cards so we're going to move to line five approval of the minutes The minutes
for the March 4th 2025 city commission meeting have been sent to the commission for review and posted to the city's website Does anyone have any corrections or changes move approval Second Any discussion all right All those in favor say I I I Any object okay The eyes have it Minutes approved Going to move the six Now the consent agenda Items on the consent agenda are deemed deemed routine and non-controversial The action proposed is stated for each item Unless the city commissioner removes an item from the consent agenda no discussion on individual items will
occur and a single motion will approve all items Does any member of the commission wish to pull any items from the consent agenda we approve this cuz that agenda I'm sorry I would like to pull I please I we're going to pull Okay So Deputy Mayor wants to pull I I'd like to pull E please Okay Commissioner Deaton like to pull E Approval minus E and I Say it again I move approval minus E and I
Okay Second Okay Um any discussion okay Call the vote please City clerk Commissioner Tolland Yes Commissioner Sargent yes Commissioner Deaton yes Commissioner Briley yes Mayor Leslie yes Okay now we're going to move to the pulled items So we'll go with six E Okay here we go RESOLUTION NO. 2025-73: A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING A PROPOSAL FROM FREESE AND NICHOLS, INC. FOR PROFESSIONAL SERVICES TO PROVIDE A WATERSHED ANALYSIS OF THE ORMOND TERRACE NEIGHBORHOOD; AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTION OF A WORK AUTHORIZATION THERETO; AND SETTING FORTH AN EFFECTIVE DATE. This is resolution number 2025-73 read by title only Okay Do we have a motion for approval second Okay Any discussion yes please
Um I would like to ask staff to speak to this Um if you don't mind I would like to go on record and say that I am perplexed by the amount that we spend on studies Um I do understand this one is a hydraulic model for water directions which is causing the amount However I would like staff to speak to it but I would like to be on record that I don't love the amount we spend on studies Any other discussion oh there we go Shawn's coming up
Okay Shawn Finley I'm going to bring a quick power Shawn Finley assistant city manager I'm going to bring a quick PowerPoint up that go over a couple things Um just to kind of show you the project area that we're deal that we're working working with This is the area that is essentially north of Granada Boulevard south of Sanchez Park uh between Beach Street and US1
It did Oh it did Are we working here these are uh I think I'm working here These are the conditions This is these are some of the things that are going into this um analysis and it and and I do respect the concern about a study This is really the the first phase of design Um and in order to do that design we need to do a hydraulic analysis What it will do is it will take a look at the existing conditions it will develop those subbasins and taking a look at what's going on there Now um one of the area one of the reasons why we've identified this is really being the next phase of of areas
that we see the most flooding issues in in in the city currently Um the past decade 15 years we've worked in Central Park This is that area that that that was developed in the 50s and 60s We have a lot of undersized pipe um a lot of a lot of broken pipe a lot of uh uh not necessarily as many inlets as we need and we're seeing the impact of the river coming up on us So um we're going to establish the the basins This next one is a big one the hydra the the um the tail water One of the biggest mistakes that we see when people put together design calculations is not
accounting for what's downstream And so that's one of the things that they were going to establish is what that tail water condition is They will then create a hydraulic model um they'll excuse the existing site data a and give and tell tell us to tell what's out there now Then they will put together what we need to do to make it better in that in that area and and using using the the that that existing data they'll propose where we need to have have pipes It will allow us to properly size the pipes Right now as I mentioned there's a lot of areas where we have eight and 10 in
and 12in pipes Our land development code requires new subdivisions to have no less than a 15in pipe Um so it'll tell us where we need to have 15-inch 18in 24in pipe that's sufficient size to make sure that we get the water conveyed out of these areas and have that local flooding eliminated Um it will provide essentially give us give us the basis for for design so that the next phase of design is really more more than not much more than a drafting exercise Um get us so that we'll be able to put together our construction documents put it out to bid and um get us to that next phase Um I I
do respect you know the concern and and and a lot of times the you know studies do do not go very far This is this is a a true analysis of it It's it's engineering calculations that go along with the design of of these areas Helps us to pro it will help us to prioritize those areas It'll help us to get estimates for what we need to do so that we can do our capital planning out 5 10 years and and start working through these areas This is not an area that we are going to solve completely in a year or two It's going to take us number of years of projects five or six years It'll help us also
to go out and and get some grant funding to be able to do it Having having calculations that show what we need having good solid estimates will help us to get get be able to to get some additional funding from from the state from um the water management district from some different agencies that will help us to to move forward Um try to move forward How do you Oh thank you Um I think a question that maybe someone may have is why are we why are we going why did we not put this out for an RFP for to to to select someone we are required as are all entities to follow Florida's
consultant competitive negotiation act Um that was established by the Florida legislature in 1973 to make sure that we select our consultants on qualifications not on price Um so what that that that does is it allows us to go through make sure that we have people who are qualified and having experience in doing these types of things We utilized and and the the proposal we have is from one of our continuing contracts We have um and I'll show you the next sheet about 16 different categories of of of consultants groups that we that we draw from We've gone through a
very robust selection process to make sure that we have these people qualified Does that mean that we ask someone for a proposal and give them a blank check no We we we hold them to it We take a look at their hours based and we look at the rates that they're charging us and the and their number of hours and make sure that it makes sense for what we're we're looking for This is a pretty involved process and I know that that I think this is uh just shy of $300,000 It it you know that's a lot of money Um but but given the area that we're doing here it I think that it's warranted and
we've really taken a look at what the what the firm is is proposing and the amount of time that it's going to take them to do this do this work is is I I feel justified Um so you know when we go through the CCNA process we announce who announce the contract we qualify the the firms we um select firms we negotiate a professional services contract and then if we were to if we were to approach them and not be able to see eye to eye on what we feel is the the the cost we would go to a second one You know it doesn't mean that we we we can't negotiate a price but it means that that's
not the first criteria that we look at Um Susan are you able to go to one last sheet uh one more um these are the continue um contract categories that we have Um there's a number of them It's a very lengthy process that we go through and we go through that process simply to kind of uh do what we we we hear a lot of people say eliminate some of that bureaucracy of of of of that extra step of having to go through and consult select consult So I hope that answered your question Yes that does help I understand the need for watershed and drainage improvements And just for the record this
is not a study we can do in house Correct This is not a study we can do in house Number one um staff time it's very intensive staff time Number two the the the modeling programs are are are quite expensive It wouldn't make sense for us as a city to own that own that program for as often as we use it Those those consultants purchase those In fact today it's it's not it's not purchasing it's licensing And that that licensing of that program is tens of thousands of dollars a year for those So that's why we don't do those things in the house All right Thank you No problem Thank you Shawn Uh one more question So just to summarize this to we there still potentially is going to
be another study after this before we're shovel ready Is that what this what this will do is this will take us to the point where we can start putting together construction plans So it will outline where we need inlets what size pipes we need and and get us to a point where where the that next phase and help us to phase it as well um to to to work our way through you know the logical way maybe from from Granada Boulevard north to to Sanchez Park or maybe the opposite direction where where those priorities are where we need to do those plans and um get give the information so
that when we when they put them together those plans like I said it's essentially a drafting exercise putting putting putting pencil to paper to get construction documents ready to put out the bid Thank you Shawn Anybody has any questions for one mayor i do Oh go ahead Kristin I just said thank you Okay All right So um I think this is a critical analysis and thank you for putting that together Um I just wondering if you can share with me where the Ormond Lakes analysis is in relation to this We had talked about that a few years a year ago maybe and so I know things come
before and we're slow So just the the Ormond Lakes analysis is a separate analysis Um and we are utilizing Volusia Countyy's transform 386 program to fund that That that analysis the and the contract to the consultant was awarded at this morning's blue county council meeting Beautiful Thank you So we're moving along with that one as well Thank you No problem Thank you Shawn Anybody have any questions for Shawn no Okay From there any other discussion before I call a vote here no Uh city
clerk call a vote please Commissioner Sargent yes Commissioner Deaton yes Commissioner Bryley yes Commissioner Tolland yes Mayor Leslie yes Okay we're going to move to consent I RESOLUTION NO. 2025-77: A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING A METHOD FOR REIMBURSEMENT OF LOCAL ROAD IMPACT FEE CREDITS FOR THE RIDGEHAVEN PLANNED RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROPORTIONATE FAIR SHARE AGREEMENT APPROVED BY RESOLUTION 2023-152; AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE REIMBURSEMENT OF SAME; AND SETTING FORTH AN EFFECTIVE DATE. This is the resolution number 2025-77 read by title only Okay Okay At this time do I have a motion for approval so move Second Okay Uh discussion Yeah
So I was hoping I could have Steven come up and explain to me why we are reimbursing this impact fee Good evening Steven Spraker planning director So in 2023 there was a proportionate fair share agreement with the Ridge Haven um subdivision As a result of their traffic study they were required to pay $362,000 for traffic impacts As part of that agreement they're allowed to get impact fee credits as they come in and build homes So you can't charge them both the 362 plus
the impact fees on top That's per our Florida uh land development code and Florida statutes So as the builders come in they'll the original developer will get those impact fees the city keeps the $362,000 that was part of the traffic study and you get it upfront So as they went to infrastructure improvement they were required to pay it So that is how we got to this agreement Okay Thank you I appreciate that All right Excellent Uh any other questions for Steven no Thank you very much Steven Um at this time I will uh ask the city clerk to call a vote Commissioner
Deaton yes Commissioner Briley yes Commissioner Tolland yes Commissioner Sargent yes Mayor Leslie yes Uh any commissioners wish to comment on anything on the consent agenda items yes I'd love to comment on D if I can real quick Sure Um I This is the first project the city of Ormond Beach has done with GPS Civil Construction who specializes in underground utilities They've done a number of projects for neighboring municipalities and Ormond was the last one They came in the most competitively priced bid The project will replace collapsed storm water pipe with a larger diameter
pipe increasing storm water drainage capacity which we definitely need The owner is an Ormond resident I'm happy to say and I look forward to see more utility projects with GPS civil construction Thank you Commissioner Deaton Would any other commissioner like to comment on the consent agenda items at this time before we move on okay we're going to move on to seven now Uh city clerk please read the title 7A ORDINANCE NO. 2025-13: AN ORDINANCE AMENDING SECTION 11-1, FLUORIDATION OF WATER SUPPLY, OF ARTICLE I, IN GENERAL, OF CHAPTER 11, HEALTH SANITATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES; PROVIDING TERMS AND CONDITIONS; AND SETTING FORTH AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
second reading of ordinance number 2025-13 read by title only Okay I have some cards here so I'm just going to go to the public comment first Um the first speaker I have is uh Bruce Man Good evening My name is Bruce Mann I'm a citizen or resident of Orman Beach 1531
Oak Forest Drive I have the privilege and the honor of being an educator and a practitioner I am a professor at the University of Florida We are the largest provider of Medicaid services for children in probably North and Central Florida I do a kind of a blind study with parents as they bring their children in These are kids that are absolutely scared to death I asked them "Are they on city water or wellwater?" 90 to 95% of every parent has
the same answer Wellwater The amount of decay that we see in these children it's rampant the amount of decay that we see in the children that are not that are are on city water where the water is fluidated which happens to be in 72% of the communities in this country It's there's no comparison One of our practitioners did kind of a a gross assay of what it would cost you
for taking fluoride out of the water and he came up with basically the cost of a new car for each parent or each individual when they take Fluoride out of the water And that's how much more we are going to require for dental care And as practitioners we're here saying to you that we don't we're doing this against our pockets per se We don't want the money Our offices are busy
enough without the fluoride without uh seeing patients that are on fluoride Without fluoride we will be swamped Thank you very much Thank you Bruce Um at this time I'd like to call David Brown Uh Mayor Lesley city commissioners Uh my name is David Brown Um 151 Winward Circle I'm a retired
dentist I practiced dentistry in Ormond Beach for 40 years Uh practiced 35 years of that with my dental school classmate and partner Jim Shimalarski uh in our office across from the Trail Shopping Center I'm here to speak to you tonight about the continuing to use fluoride in the water system Uh we know that fluoride works because much research many years ago found that communities with relatively lacking in tooth decay as compared to those communities that did have tooth decay Research found that those communities with less decay had naturally occurring fluoride
You probably all already know that Uh further studies uh determined that one part per million was an appropriate level um to reduce any type of side effects Ormond Beach has a lower level than that which is good Uh fluoridated water does not benefit adults It's used to increase the hardness of tooth enamel in developing children It only helps in developing the teeth of a child It works by including the uh fluoride in the tooth enamel as the tooth develops And it's
especially beneficial to control cavities in between the teeth A child that drinks city water or eats food prepared uh by being cooked in city water like pasta and rice and mac and cheese uh get those benefits While attending dental school at the University of Florida I was involved in a study to determine the effectiveness of sealants Uh students from Gainesville and nearby Elatchua volunt Elatchua uh if you from volunteered to have their teeth sealed on the
biting surface of their teeth Uh Gainesville had fluoride in the city water supply Elatchua did not Uh it was only 30 miles away students from Gainesville continued to be part of the study but the Elatchua students were uh not able to continue because of the badly decayed teeth I saw the difference between that fluoride made between um these children with the water supply including fluoride and water supply not including fluoride Uh there's present uh fluoride present in a number
of over-the-counter products that you brush or paint or or ingest but none of those help a child that might help an adult a little bit but not a child I'd like to thank several dentists who uh pioneered having fluoride added to the Ormond Beach City Supply back in the 60s and 70s Dentists like Tom Cartage and Steve Stamper Leo Rump and others Everyone who can say that they grew up in Ormond Beach can should thank these guys for the fact that they probably have better dental health than they would have if uh they hadn't put chloride in the water My wife Cookie and I have
uh two children ages 51 and 48 who grew up in Norman and have yet to have the single cavity Not because of me but because of the fluoride in the water of Ormond Beach Thank you very much Thank you Okay up next is uh Sean McDonald And by the way I appreciate the the clapping but just try to keep it minimal We do have little scary things Good evening Um my name is uh Dr Sean McDonald I'm a pediatric dentist Um I've been practicing
for over 20 years Three years as a Navy dental officer and over 17 years here in Volusia County Um I I've had an office here in Ormond Beach with my partner Dr Kathy Parsons for 12 years Um I'm here tonight to voice my support for keeping fluoride in Ormond Beach's water Since fluoride was introduced into toothpaste and community water supplies 80 years ago um actually this year it'll be 80 years this year our nation has seen a 60 to 70% drop in dental decay The American Dental Association estimates that 25% of the overall
decrease in decay is due to community water fluidation In 2024 Ormond Beach families spent $291,713 treating their children's dental decay in my Ormond Beach office alone Now the children that I see in my office obviously represent a tiny slice of Ormond Beach's population but with a 25% increase in dental decay if fluoride is removed from the water Ormond Beach families can expect to see an increase of
$72,928 per year in my office alone According to the Ormond Beach Observer the city of Ormond Beach spends $14,800 per year to fluidate the water Um on the micro level uh this vote about fluoride is about a large shift in cost burden from $14,800 a yearly city investment in prevention to in my office alone a
$73,000 increase in cost to the families of Ormond Beach On the macro level this vote is about whether we want to continue to live within a health care system that profits from disease or do we want to hold the line and start to shift to a system that profits from prevention Thank you for your time Thank you Up next is uh Palmer Velagi or Lagi
Okay So you don't want to speak to it Oh I guess we can allow that Can we allow that someone else will speak on his behalf Yeah you have to have a Yeah I mean well we had a card for him right uh I mean uh you guys okay with that the commission going to replace cards okay Okay Okay So Palmer will not be speaking In exchange of Palmer we're going to have Justin Harvey Thank you so much for your time uh mayor and members Um I'm here to speak uh obviously to just encourage you to
continue the good decision that you made about water fluoridation Um there are so many risks that have been brought up I'm actually a little in awe at how many people are willing to fight tooth and nail pun intended I guess to to defend something that has so much potential risk for pregnant women and children I mean it's not just one court case It was a seven-year court case that poured over data There were 50 studies that I brought into a county commission meeting eight years ago So this is not a fluke It's not political And I just liken it to if someone's child was in danger potentially
in danger and you said that they were would you say no prove it to me Well well here okay here's a study Well I don't like that study that's not done in the US Well here's one done in the US Well that that one's high bias low quality How hard are we going to fight to not just air on the side of caution use the precautionary principle I feel like that's what we were all taught to do especially with our most vulnerable We have over 95% of the world does not fluidate their water So how on the earth are we going to be sold the myth that if we stop teeth are going to rot and the sky
is going to fall we don't have a dental crisis in 95% of the world We don't have a dental crisis in 40 of the counties in Florida that don't flidate or have never 30% of the counties on wellwater And personally you know what when I stopped using fluoride I stopped getting cavities but I also got healthy with different food and diet because we know that plays a big part in it So I don't say that to say that fluoride was or was not the cause but there's a lot of things that go into this And it at the end of the day where there is risk there must be choice Um if everything that dentists say
about fluoride being good for teeth maybe it is But there's also 70 plus studies linked to brain health And if one iota if that is true we should at least air on the side of caution Um I know there may have been good intentions when the program started many many years ago but why did it start it's because fluoride was not widely available There weren't fluoridated toothpaste and mouthwash and treatments and on every corner inexpensively and it is today So there truly is no need for city governments to be in the dental business spending tens of thousands of dollars a
year to store and administer a highly corrosive chemical I repeat a chemical It may be said tonight that it is naturally occurring while that is found in the ground at a small amount 2.3 We add a chemical waste from the phosphate industry It does have a skull and crossbones on the bag and I personally do not want to be drinking that in my water This is why 21 cities and counties have removed it from their water Many of the decisions were unanimous 16 of them including yours So I think we made the right decision Um I just I think everyone has good intentions but
with all the evidence of all the communities that don't do it we don't have anything to worry about And let's give freedom of choice the uh is the answer here Thank you so much Thank you Justin Next up is Michelle Edwards [Music] Good evening While fluoride has been widely accepted as a preventative measure for tooth decay the mounting evidence linking it to various health risks demands our attention One of the most concerning effects is its interference with iodine uptake which is critical for healthy thyroid function A properly functioning thyroid regulates metabolism growth and development
especially in children As a community we cannot afford to overlook these risks Now let's consider the broader picture The National Institute of Dental and Cranioacial Research tells us that tooth decay remains the number one chronic disease in children and adults in in the US despite nearly 75% of our water being fluidated according to a report by the CDC in 2022 So I ask you if fluoride truly works as a solution why are these statistics still so alarming historically
the idea behind fluoridating water was that after drinking it it would eventually reach our teeth or children's developing teeth and systemically strengthen the enamel But with this theory it has since been debunked by modern science Despite this institutions like the American Dental Association continue to promote fluorideation I understand that many dental professionals are here tonight in support of fluoride but I believe we need to look beyond the dental perspective and consider the potential harm this practice might be causing to our overall health One key
argument often raised by dental professionals is study showing a correlation between fluoride and lower IQ were based on higher concentrations of fluoride 1.2 to 1.5 mg per liter When our city of water contains only.7 mg per liter while the concentration is lower we must remember that it is the total daily dose of fluoride that leads to its toxicity How can we truly know the exact amount of fluoride we are exposed to each day especially when accumulates from various sources recent studies such as the Cochran collaboration found that fluoride reduces decay by
only a quarter of a cavity per person A quarter of a cavity If fluoride were the miracle solution we've been told why are we still dealing with such high rates of tooth decay we're missing the bigger picture here Poor oral health is largely driven by the foods we eat not a lack of fluoride But instead of addressing the root cause of the problem we continue with this band-aid solution In conclusion I strongly believe that the city's responsibility is to provide clean safe water not medicated water There are no barriers for those who wish to still use fluoride Massmedating the
entire population without informed consent is both a medical and ethical issue This is a risk benefit analysis Yes fluoride may benefit the teeth but can we say that it benefits the whole body as a parent I'd rather risk one quarter of a cavity than risk brain development of my child We can fix a tooth but can we fix a developing brain that's a rhetorical question Ultimately medical professionals are trying to do a risk benefit analysis which evaluates each individual and their risk to said medical intervention We cannot blanket treat everyone the same way Informed consent is a fundamental right and every person in Ormond Beach should
be given that right when it comes to fluoride in their water Thank you Thank you Michelle Next up is Jack Dr Jack Goldie Little chicken scratch here I'm Jack Goldie Uh I've lived here probably since 1965 in Volusia County Went to Seabreeze High and uh came back and practiced dentistry in Port Orange I' I've studied uh fluoride my whole
career pretty much I'm retired now and there's really no uh discussion that it helps because I've seen it and all the literature we it's been studied for 80 years and it's safe that dentists have studied it and water people have studied it Right now it's uh become a social topic political topic and they're using scare techniques You know sure the uh acid is that they add to make
the harmless fluoride in the water is a hazard but it's treated The people that work with it they're trained The equipment is safe And I I just would continue to uh consider the source of these studies that it causes like low IQ and there's really no standard to any of these studies throughout the world that meet you know our modern science the way we study it
So that's about all just consider the source and if you believe in science uh just one more thing h how many of you people have taken the trouble to get a filter to remove your own fluoride in your own house so I'd like to you to think on that thank you thank you sir next up is Oscar Moran on
Uh my name is Oscar Mod Hong I'm a periodonist uh here in Daytona Beach and in uh Palm Coast Um and I reside here in Ormond Beach uh 166 Riverside Drive Um I'd like to speak in favor of community water fluidation Um you know I don't I'm a periodonist so I don't treat cavities Um so I kind of see a lot of the end stage where you know we're removing teeth and you know those little cavities turned into bigger cavities turned into crowns turned into root
canals turned into fractured teeth and then we're taking them out and we're putting in appliances and we're putting in implants And um and that all becomes very expensive you know and and I think the neediest people really benefit from fluoride because if we can kind of control that early on it's going to it's going to make it so that you know we don't have as many cavities going forward in life I hear what people are saying I mean there's a lot of factors that go into cavities and and and I'm by far I'm not the expert I haven't done
a filling in 35 years But but I know that but I I get adults with cavities and I and they're you know what happens with them is is it's an oral hygiene situation or it's a diet situation Like recently we had gummies I mean you wouldn't think that vitamin gummies are bad for you But I'm here to tell you if you eat gummies all day with for your vitamins you're going to get a ton of cavities And our adult population and their cavities are different than the kids If you look at the kids they're benefiting you know early on and then they're not having to
have as much restorative work down the line And that's really what you're what you're trying to to prevent Um personally I moved here in 1995 and we had a filter in our refrigerator and we were concerned We had a three-year-old and a one-year-old We were concerned about uh their their not getting fluoride because of the filter We pulled the filter and we drank fluoridated water all all through their life and all three kids they're all in their 30s now and and no cavities Um and so that's something that we you know we've benefited from uh from you guys
here in Ormond Beach Um you know I think uh I think if you look at optimal concentrations of fluoride uh I think a lot of the studies that are uh say talking about you know these recent studies talking about neurossychiatric risks a lot of that is based on two times the optimal dose And I know that we control the dose very well here and we don't have two times the optimal dose And and a lot of those studies were were were from other areas that maybe do not have as good of a control of their water systems as we do here in Ormond Beach and our neighboring cities
Um so bottom line I mean I think you know fluoride benefits the neediest people the people that don't have access to care that the people that that maybe uh are not going to be educated about their diet and and and and it just gives them a little bit of a boost up So I thank you for your time Thank you Next next up is um Ays Cometus Bath is gone
Thank you very much for letting me speak My name is Ays Kamdas I am a dentist in Port Orange and I live in Wilbur by the Sea Um I moved here 25 years ago and we rented a house in the Flyin I found out after we were renting it that they don't have fluoride in the water So we bought fluoridated water for our kids and our family We went to Publix you could buy it in a gallon drank two glasses a day Did that for six years before we moved I practiced in the Navy for four
years Um when you look in a recruit's mouth you immediately know who had fluoride and who didn't It's so obvious Fluoride wipes out in between cavities on teeth Not the ones on top but the ones in between Those are the most complex cavities you can get Once you get those you're going to get a crown or a root canal or something more later on Okay every restoration lasts a certain amount of time Um we're here in Ormond Beach and we walk down the road and we see
people that are sunburned Well that's what it looks like in the mouth I see sunburned teeth We can see people that are tourists walking around with their sunburns It's that obvious But the real thing that gets me is um I heard different studies and when you read studies you have to scientifically look at them You look at every factor that can be manipulated When I was in school we were taught that before fluoride if you sampled kids that were 16 and you looked
in their mouth they called it decayed missing and filled teeth If you looked at all the kids out of a hundred you would find two that did not have any decayed missing or filled teeth After fluoride it's 50 And those are the complex cavities But we have 400 years of dental knowledge in this room 400 years And they're arguing for you to keep the fluoride in the water so that we make less money What industry does that only healthcare Only an oncologist would tell you to
stop smoking The tobacco industry they tell you that tobacco isn't bad for you It's not addictive While they were manipulating the product to get people to use more tobacco to kill you dentists aren't like that Healthc care providers are not like that We actually care about our patients I don't want to fix another kid's tooth that doesn't have to be fixed And it costs a lot of money not just to pay us but all the lost time and work And I thank you for letting me speak Thank
you Next up is Steven Oberg I can't write Yeah I know Yeah Okay Can't read the writing Good evening Uh thank you for your time Um and I also want to thank my colleagues for also speaking as well Um the reason I' I'd like to just say is I see fluoride from a a different lens Um my wife and I we try to at least do one mission
trip a year and help the needy And recently you guys probably know we had Mission of Mercy that was here a week ago There was a lot of people that come from situations that they're unable to afford dentistry And fluoride was considered one of the top 10 health um public health uh achievements and since it was established in 1945 in uh Grand Rapids Miss Michigan to introduce um community based uh fluoride Um what we see is in the communities that don't have it
is just rampid rampid decay um especially in the children as some of my colleagues have mentioned especially in the kids you know well one kids aren't exactly the best brushers or um you know they love you know sugary things and whatnot but on top of that fluoride es especially systemically it helps reinforce the teeth and helps reduce the the cavities in those kids so it's the kids it's the needy and it's also the elderly that this tends to impact and so I know that there'd be counter arguments that from a day-to-day or a regular working-class individual they may not
see that difference but you know I think these are the people that we have to look out for in this I I appreciate your time Thank [Applause] you Next up we have Councilman Troy Kent Troy Kent 130 Magnolia Drive These are just my comments I don't represent anybody else but myself I just Googled um percentage of industrial industrialized nations that
fluoridate their water The answer was while the United States has a high percentage of fluoridated water most industrialized nations do not fluoridate their water supply I didn't want to say what percentage of nations because then we'd get the whole third world thing and they don't have access to it and all of that Good leaders make bold decisions and I applaud this commission for making a bold decision a few weeks ago Good leaders aren't afraid to make change You could sit here and
talk about hydrofluosic acid florine known as the promiscuous element Oh I've done a lot of research on this and I'm pleased that you all were able to get something across the finish line that I was unable to get across when I sat in that seat Mr Sargent for 19 years I'm going to try to make this as simple as I can At best fluoride in the water is a medicine At best At worst it's a
poison Let's go with the at best Okay let's not think about poisoning our community with the water Let's not go there Let's go with this is medicine in the water Why aren't you adding statins to the water to help everybody's cholesterol why aren't you adding a little lithium make everybody a little happier You know why because you would have pitchforks at
that door saying "How dare you medicate us with the water supply?" To me this this is how simple it gets Are you okay medicating everybody that drinks this water with the water supply i heard someone I think it was a doctor earlier say "It only benefits the children Then why am I drinking it why is my wife and everybody else that's not a child drinking it?" No one could answer
for me when they brought that they marched the health department in here to combat me years ago about what happens if someone drinks twice the allotted amount of water every day What about that don't medicate me in my water supply There's way more options They can go to their dentist and get a fluoride treatment for their kids Please don't medicate me with the water supply Thank you Thank Thank you Troy Um at this time I don't have any more cards so I will close the public
comments Um what I'll do though is just ask for a motion and a second just for discussion purposes Move approval Second Okay And what I'll do is I'll go into discussion If you any of you want to say anything we can rotate however you want I'll go first Okay I got a lot to say So this past week we all were up in Tallahassee for the Florida League of Cities And as I pulled down the street to see to park to go into the capital big banner Florida Dental Association I said "Oh great
They're here." So we go into the capital to go up to see our representatives and there was a group of dentists and I got to be careful because Joyce always tells me "Be careful what you ask for." So I walked up to those dentists and I said "Please tell me fluoride in the water or not." Well they end up riding up to the 21st floor with us They handed me lots of paperwork So I am have done a lot of reading and don't make this decision lightly And I appreciate all y'all for coming out Um and I know Dr Carlage couldn't be here tonight He called me and he's a dear friend who I've known
since as a little kid as I know Dr Brown from church And Dr Carlage just so y'all know is is my mentor When I think of someone that I want to be like it's Dr Carlage So it's pretty tough to make a decision like this on fluoride when I know when I first brought this up and he walked by my house after I said it he goes "Travis you got this one wrong." And I said "Doc times have changed." So we can agree to disagree on this So I just like to pull up some as I said I've done a lot of reading
December 4th 1957 is the news article of Ormond Beach when this passed to fluoride put fluoride in the water and it says fluidation squeaked past 777 to 755 Only 75% or more of more than 3,000 eligible voters went to the polls that year Ormond was a little bit smaller than it is now Utah last week just passed to take fluoride out of the water We as elected officials in
in this municipality we fight for home rule We don't want Tallahassee to tell us what to do We want to make those decisions for our residents here I know Port Orange last week or the week before said they were going to wait to see what Tallahassee was going to do I don't want to wait And just so everyone knows fluoride's been out of our water in Ormond Beach for probably 4 weeks now Toothpaste When you look at the back of it it says "If you swallow a certain amount call poison
control." Mind you I'm no medical professional However I've done a lot of reading on different studies and this is a very tough topic because no matter which way you want to sway you can find data to prove certain things I was at CVS a couple days ago and you look in the bottled water for babies and you have an option for florinated water or non-fllorinated baby water If we're putting
this chemical medicine however you want to label it in our water we're not giving our residents an option We're mandating that they have fluoride and they're required to drink it There's no choice there Also our population in Ormond Beach persons under five is 5.7% of our population So we're doing this medicating a whole population for
5.7% Like I said I have lots of information I don't take this lightly Um I'll I'll refer back to Councilman Kent when he sat in this seat and he fought for many years um to to get Fluoride out He said um pardon me I'm just reading through here At the time he sent letters to 47 chemical manufacturers to get a breakdown
of what chemicals were in fluoride Do you know how many responses he got these were certified letters Zero No one responded However when he did get a a list of what was in the chemical being in in introduced into our water system there was traces of arsenic in that So I'd like to ask what levels of arsenic is safe to ingest for a human being i don't think
any We can go on and on And I won't bore you all night long but I just want you all to know I don't take this lightly This is just some of the data that I've read case studies um reasons for it reasons against it I'm not willing to put a medicine in water I think we should be making our water as pure as possible Do you know if you go to the store and you try to get toothpaste that doesn't have fluoride in it you almost have to specially order it
Everything has fluoride in it Foods have fluoride in it And I understand like Councilman Kent said about third world countries We're Ormond Beach We're not a third world country We have access to fluoride Actually in in public schools they still swish once a month or so with fluoride So I like I said I don't take this lightly I appreciate all the medical professionals and all the scientific data but at the end of the day I am here to provide safe water to the residents
of Ormond Beach Therefore I will be voting to yes for this ordinance to continue uh to change it and um I look forward to hearing the rest of you'all but that's where I stand Thank you Thank Thank you Thank you Commissioner Sargent Um oh Commissioner Briley I'll just uh start by asking is there a dentist in the house because we've heard from a lot of them tonight and I want to thank you all for coming and sharing your your expertise with us Um this item for me is is is a difficult one
Um as Commissioner Sargent stated this was voted upon by Ormond Beach's residents in the 1950s And in the 1950s my grandfather was the engineer of record for the city of Ormond Beach And they tasked him with the subject of reviewing or looking into putting fluoride in the water And his recommendation to them was "Yes you can do it." and they I guess made adjustments or what have you to the water treatment plant and began putting fluoride in the water But when you
look at that time in our country's history fluoride was just actually being introduced into toothpastes 1955 or 56 is when Crest first started adding fluoride to toothpaste So you had a lot of people who didn't have access to fluoride because a lot of toothpaste back then didn't have fluoride Fast forward to 2025 and we have most I think as commissioner sergeant said
most most toothpastes do have fluoride We also have fluoride fluoridated mouthwash So I think access to fluoride is not as difficult as it was back when they put the fluoride into the water Um I do support removing the fluoride from the water at this point The beauty is we can always put it back if down the road we find there's an issue So Mr Mayor I'm that's where I stand on the hunt Thank you Thank you Commissioner Riley Uh Commissioner Deaton would you like to speak
okay Yes I would Um I do appreciate everybody coming out I appreciate my orthodontist being here I appreciate my son's dentist being here Um I struggle with this one I grew up in Ormond Beach City Water I've had a number of cavities myself My orthodontist can attest that I am very OCD about my teeth Um I don't consider myself generally unhealthy although I do eat an unhealthy amount of Chick-fil-A I will say that Um my son is nine He grew up in Ormond Beach City water his
entire life He's had a number of cavities He's had sealants He's had a cracked tooth He's had all the things Now he's a boy He's nine but I I really struggle with this one Um I've had an overwhelming amount of constituents reach out and ask for the fluoride to be removed Overwhelming I had a few constituents reach out and say they would be a proponent most in the dental industry Um while I very much respect all of you being here I am in favor of keeping the fluoride out of the
water Thank you Commissioner Deaton Uh Deputy Mayor thank you Oh there you go Mike Thank you Um first of all I want to thank our local advocates and our dental friends um for sharing their experience with fluoride and their personal practices Um I will say before I even talk that I am willing to look at removing the mandate in our code of ordinances regarding fluoride because I
know we have that ability to put fluoride in the water if we choose to Um as I stated the first two times that we talked about this I was fairly neutral about the whole topic Um because I had done all that research as well and I saw flawed studies for and against I think you know studies unless you can replicate them they can be manipulated to show whatever results you want to see So I still feel conflicted with the data and I've heard and I've read um what I've heard and
what I've read about community fluidation Our surgeon general recommends removal The state of Florida is presently moving a bill through the House and the Senate to eliminate community fluidation I've received a few calls from outside advocates thanking us for removing fluoride We've also heard a very strong argument from Mr Valic and his daughter Amy to keep fluoride in the water
And we heard tonight from our local dentists the importance of fluoride in their practice locally and their experience with our residents I too have received calls just like you all but I've also received calls from my constituents wanting fluoride back in the water I'm not an expert and I actually was wondering when I was thinking about this this morning why fluoride why only fluoride is considered the bad guy the medicine or the poison and not
any of the other numerous chemicals or forever chemicals that are found in our drinking water My personal opinion is I choose to use fluoride and my dentist and orthodontist is in this room as well and I've had I grew up in DC where fluoride was part of the the water system and continued it here and my children had have had very good success with their cavity with their lack of cavities So what I want to say is I was elected to serve the residents and represent them These
residents shared their local experiences tonight compelling us to reconsider community fluidation There is a strong possibility that Tallahassee will pass a ban on fluoride and there will not even be an option to discuss But in the meantime I would like us I I think it would make sense for us to consider placing at least the choice to choose fluoride on the next ballot for the residents to decide So that's kind of where I'm at with that I know I I've heard you all tonight that you want to
take fluoride out but I think that you know this is a local issue for us It's not a political issue And I would I think would make sense for us to consider putting it on a ballot and we don't have to make that decision tonight but if you want to weigh in feel free Mr Mayor thank you Deputy Mayor Uh Commissioner Briley you want to say something i would just concur with Commissioner Tolland I think that's a grand idea Okay Well I I think that like we know though that we have to also
maybe see what the legislator is going to do too also cuz that might hinder that whole idea too Um but thank you though for that and thank you all my colleagues for everything you guys said Um and I'm going to go Do you have a do you have an opinion about all of um I mean uh I would be open to the idea um of a you know a public vote um you know open but you know not not 100% but I'd have to look at cost and all that You know I know you said that you had two residents in your oh in your family dentist in your family Have they changed their mind on this or have you had
any discussions further i just think it's great that we have medical professionals guiding us and I appreciate all y'all I just No So I'll give you a little background I actually had to the I wasn't sure if the town I grew up in had fluoride so I had to backtrack a friend of a friend that was worked for the water plant and they actually did have fluoride Um something I didn't know until this whole conversation came up and I could tell you that I lived at the dentist you know with cavities and everything else Um and I went pretty often too I think we I'd go twice a year So um the uh the the effectiveness of fluoride didn't work for me for some reason I know you
know just because like I said I was a dentist several times Even today as an adult I have to go uh twice a year Um I will echo Are you done with your closing comments by the way Deputy Mayor yes Okay Sorry I didn't want to jump over you You're done though I do have one more I'm sorry Go ahead Finish Okay So um I would just say that I I would echo my colleagues here on everything that they've they've said Um you know uh Commissioner Sargent and uh Commissioner Deaton and all of you is that you know I'm on the same page here And we could also you know reverse this thing at some point
too I mean you know what we just did here can can be reversed right back you know pretty quickly um without legislation of course um you know state legislator getting involved Um but you know I've had a lot of calls and emails and I had more people actually giving me information in favor of removing the fluoride Um this is the first time that I've seen a bigger group of people speak against it Um and I know many of you work in the industry so that that's probably the reason why Um but I got to tell you that you know just just how I feel about it And this is
a hard decision I mean cuz you know I mean our jobs as elected officials here is to you know is public safety always priority and um you know but I'm going to have to go with yes on you know the ordinance here Um and like I said once we get some data back and and we know some other things maybe that could change But right now I just that's where I'm weighing on right now Um with that Commissioner Sargent just like the one comment is fluoride is in our water to treat humans The other chemicals are in there to treat water Just to put that out there and that's all
I have Thank you Yep Yeah And then lastly uh one of the doctors said something about dose and dosage and I'm thinking dosage you know that sounds like medicine right i mean so to have a dosage and something in water that we drink I I don't know I'm just not a big fan of it but I'm I'm going to stay with um with yes on the ordinance right now With that said if the commission doesn't have any more thing to anything else to say uh we do have a motion right now in a second so I can call a vote here Oh you can call a vote I'm sorry Commissioner Briley yes
Commissioner Tolland yes Commissioner Sargent yes Commissioner Deaton yes Mayor Leslie [Music] yes Okay we're going to move on to 7B Uh city clerk please read uh title ORDINANCE NO. 2025-14: AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 2, DISTRICT AND GENERAL REGULATIONS, ARTICLE VI, OVERLAY DISTRICTS, SECTION 2-71, HISTORIC DISTRICTS AND LANDMARKS, OF THE CITY OF ORMOND BEACH LAND DEVELOPMENT CODE BY REMOVING THE PROPERTY LOCATED AT 63 SEVILLE STREET (“THE BARBIE HOUSE”) FROM THE ORMOND BEACH HISTORIC LANDMARKS LIST; REPEALING ALL INCONSISTENT ORDINANCES OR PARTS THEREOF; PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY; AND SETTING FORTH AN EFFECTIVE DATE. number 2025-14 read by title only I don't have any cards for this Um do we need the
uh Steven Spreaker to speak on this move approval Second approval ordinance 2025-14 Uh is there a second second Any discussion yes Mr Mayor Okay Um and Steven I think I read through this The reason this is coming off is because they're doing some renovations to the property which may alter its historical character Um you know I know in our our ordinance for historical structures and I you know I hate to keep seeing these structures come off the list
because that's part of who we you know our historical buildings are part of who we are Um I know that in the past these structures had to come off for significant interior alterations even if the outside didn't change And I'm wondering if we can make it so to keep because they do still have historical perhaps a historical architectural significance on the exterior if we couldn't change that to where you know whatever they do on the inside That's
one thing I do I do know some of these have been added on to the backside in the past Some of that stuff you don't see from the street It's just a thought and I know that would be a policy coming from us to staff if we want to change that In 2010 there were some amendments to uh what is required for certificate appropriateness So changing like material to like material like re- roof windows The thing that that that code amendment didn't do is when they're doing a major addition it still requires review by the Historic Landmark Preservation Board So this applicant is doing an
addition it would have required that review from this from the Historic Landmark Preservation Board The applicant in this case is not substantially changing the characteristics They just don't want to go through that review So the the structure still is historic It's just not on our list It's still historic by age So if a demolition were to occur it would still have that review right so um it's a balancing act Okay Thanks Joe Absolutely Does anyone have any other questions for Steven
no Uh we have a motion for approval So uh call the vote please Commissioner Tolland yes Commissioner Sargent yes Commissioner Deaton yes Commissioner Briley yes Mayor Leslie yes 7 C City clerk please read the title ORDINANCE NO. 2025-15: AN ORDINANCE ANNEXING ONE PARCEL OF REAL PROPERTY INTO THE CITY OF ORMOND BEACH, SAID PROPERTY LOCATED AT 1005 NORTH U.S. HIGHWAY 1, VOLUSIA COUNTY PARCEL NUMBER 4238-01-29-0020; SETTING FORTH ZONING PRIVILEGES AND OBLIGATIONS REGARDING THE PROPERTY; REDEFINING THE TERRITORIAL BOUNDARIES OF THE CITY OF ORMOND BEACH TO INCLUDE THE PROPERTY; REDESIGNATING THE BOUNDARIES OF ZONE 1 OF THE CITY OF ORMOND BEACH TO INCLUDE THE PROPERTY; PROVIDING FOR TRANSMISSION; PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY; AND SETTING FORTH AN EFFECTIVE DATE. 2025-15 read by title only Okay I don't have any cards here So a motion for approval Move approval Second uh discussion No I see none Uh city clerk please call the vote Commissioner Sargent yes
Commissioner Deaton yes Commissioner Briley yes Commissioner Tolland yes Mayor Leslie yes I will now close the public hearings and we're going to move to 8A City clerk please read the title ORDINANCE NO. 2025-16: AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF ORMOND BEACH, BY AMENDING SECTION 2-300, METHODS OF SOURCE SELECTION, OF DIVISION 3, PURCHASING, OF ARTICLE IX, FINANCIAL MATTERS, OF CHAPTER 2, ADMINISTRATION, BY AMENDING THE PURCHASING THRESHOLD FOR FORMAL BIDDING AND APPROVAL; AND AMENDING SECTION 2-313, PAYMENT OF CLAIMS, OF DIVISION 4, RISK MANAGEMENT PROGRAM, OF ARTICLE IX, FINANCIAL MATTERS, OF CHAPTER 2, ADMINISTRATION, BY INCREASING THE CLAIMS COMMITTEE AUTHORIZATION LIMIT TO SETTLE CLAIMS; REPEALING ALL INCONSISTENT ORDINANCES OR PARTS THEREOF; PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY; AND SETTING FORTH AN EFFECTIVE DATE. This is the first reading of ordinance number 2025-16 read by title only At this time I'm going to ask uh
finance director Chris Byle to speak on the item and then um we have one card after that Uh good evening I'm Chris Byle I'm the assistant finance director Um I work in the finance department and I appreciate the opportunity to present this item tonight So staff bring this item at commission request for consideration and we propose an increase to $75,000 This would eliminate approximately 50 agenda agenda items annually A survey was taken of local municipalities for a comparative study Of that study Port Orange came in at $100,000 all
the way down to Deltona for $25,000 The reasoning behind this proposed increase is it will provide flexibility and efficiency in purchasing items within this dollar range such as critical vehicles that currently require us to wait 6 to9 months such as PD fire public works vehicles critical IT contracts that need immediate renewal chemicals due to market volatility and miscellaneous repairs to public parks and city infrastructure to mitigate further damage The proposed ordinance change includes language to ensure proper competition oversight and
transparency Most items would still require a public advertisement and all expenses would ultimately end up on the city transparency portal Um so if you're not comfortable with this level that we're proposing staff will propose $60,000 as an alternative Anything below this level won't accomplish the objectives that I previously mentioned Alternatively if the procurement threshold remains unchanged we can forgo bringing solicit solicitations to the commission prior to advertisement This is currently not required by ordinance and would expedite the bid and
RP process And in staff are here for any questions Okay Um I do have one card so um I can just go to the one card and then we'll have Chris come back with questions Okay Um at this time I'd like to call Jennifer Bright to come up and speak It is vital for Ormond Beach to maintain transparency and oversight in our financials decisions by keeping the purchasing cap at 25,000 The current cap is implemented to ensure responsible fiscal practices and to maintain accountability to the taxpayers
Here are some reasons to keep the existing cap Promote finan fiscal discipline which aims to control overspending and prevent budget deficits Transparency and accountability Fair taxpayer representation The CAP protects taxpayers by limiting the ability of city officials to make significant expenditures without broader approval ensuring that public money is used with citizen consent Prioritization of needs The cap forces the city to prioritize the spending focusing on
essential services like public safety and infrastructure preventing unnecessary debt The cap can be adjusted for unforeseen events but the approval process guarantees a controlled approach The current cap reflects the balance between allowing the city to function efficiently and protecting public resources The current cap can be credited to several key factors Transparent budgeting process strategic planning The city can align
long-term goals ensuring that resources are allocated to high priority areas like infrastructure public safety and essential services Community involvement efficient resource allocation By adhering to the current purchasing cap the city is able to focus on efficiency reducing waste and ensuring that funds are used effectively These factors demonstrate how transparency strategic planning and community engagement
can lead to successful financial management under the current $25,000 purchasing cap Thank you At this uh time the commission uh we want to make a motion This way we can just go in discussion at this point Next move approval Second Okay discussion I saw Harold had his hand up Yes Mr Mayor Um I I support increasing the 25,000 but my position on this is you know we're we're blessed right now
with with with great city staff a a a very good finance director an assistant finance director and and city manager My concern is what happens when we don't have those folks on board anymore and my thought would be the request is 75 A lot of cities were at 50 We're currently at 25 I think we just comp I would like to see a compromise at 50 Yeah And you know what Commissioner Brley I I
I'm going to echo you on that one a little bit too because I did some research and we made we changed the policy in 1994 um from 7,000 to 25,000 So I wanted to compare what your spending ability would be now versus $25,000 in 1994 And it came up with 53 to $50,000 range So I I think that you know was something I was thinking too because we want to have the same buying power that we did when this came into place in 1994 Um so I would be in agreeance with the 50,000 as well Um just as a
side note but uh deputy mayor I'm sorry You said you would be in agreement of 60 I couldn't hear what Harold said 50 50 All right So Chris would you mind for a second so I did that analysis So if the 25,000 in 1994 is equal to with all those formulas 53,588 So just putting that out there But Chris um in some of the information that that was in our packet um there was a conversation that the
language would ensure proper competition oversight and transparency Would you mind explaining to me what that means how how would that work so the items within this dollar range of the 25 to the 75 or whatever is decided upon would still go on our public um advertisement platform called Demand Star And we would still put the each of these items on there for no less than 10 business days And that will open it to the public for you know everybody to uh supply a proposal or a quote on
it Um and that's one of the key pieces of that is that's that's something that we're going to still almost treat them as bids but just to help facilitate the process Right So just for your for your sake I'm willing to go up to the 75,000 I think um and I do understand your concerns Commissioner Briley with you know we do have great staff right now and there's a very good high level of confidence and you you may worry down down the road Um but I think with some certain safeguards
in place in that transparency portal I'm okay with going with 75,000 not higher though Commissioner Sargent thank you Mr Mayor Chris are we losing transparency with this change i don't believe so We're We still each um item over $2,500 requires a requisition to be entered and it goes through a series of workflows the um the department manager still approves each of these items Finance and
budgeting approve it and then the procurement coordinator still approves it That is a um a process that has been in place for as long as I've been at the city for 19 years So that requires we have a a platform that you can attach documents Those can always be publicly requested All the expenses are on the transparency site So uh in our opinion if we continue to put them on Demandstar and treat them as if they're bid for items such as like police cars that cost
$71,000 to repair or replace I'm sorry Um we're we feel that it'll help expedite certain items such as that just for an example so that we don't have to wait 6 or 9 months for police car uh we can order it we can do what we need to do put on demand start try to get you know the quotes as quickly as possible uh as competitively as possible and move forward quickly so that we don't have to wait So we're actually be more efficient by increasing the dollar figure is what it appears
How many vehicles in the police department are we down that we're probably waiting for this are we waiting on many just just for clarification So um as he said we are still going to bid all of those documents We use the sheriff's contract annually to purchase vehicles What happens is sometimes dealers get vehicles and we have to bring it to you before we can get in line for that So we miss the opportunity because somebody else is next in line But it doesn't in any way
subvert the purchasing process Correct You have to be uh done through a competitive process And Randy uh will hold our feet to the fire as he always does So there's no there's no subversion of the the purchasing process Sure I'm good with the 75,000 I applaud you and Kelly We get many awards and Joyce for the financial responsibility that you all do for the city of Orbit And and if down the road things change with with employees then it can always be changed But right now this is
going to save what was it 60 items from coming approximately 60 items from coming and waiting for our police to have cars I mean I'm not willing to I mean this is going to speed up and make things more efficient so that they're not sharing cars or whatever the process may be Um so I'm good with the 75,000 Thank you Mr Mayor Um if I could say one thing you know if this is a police car issue which you know I'm of course in favor of making sure they have their police cars
but do we have a policy in place where there's always a backup police car because if we don't maybe that's something that we can you know we barely have enough Well you have to have cars to have backups correct okay So do we we do we have any backups right now we have backups but some of these cars are wrecked and some of them have high mileage on them So we take them off the road If a car gets wrecked into by somebody else like some driver wrecks into a police car we have to take that off the road to get fixed and then we put one of our older cars on the road For
a long time we weren't good at replacing police cars we were very slow because there was a very uh different mindset about how many miles should be on a police car and how how long they should be driven So it's only been in the last 5 years 3 to 5 years that we've been more aggressive in the um procurement of police vehicles and fire vehicles for that matter because you set aside a dedicated millage to do that So yes we have backup cars Are they desirable no Are they functional
yes One last question for you Joyce while you're there Um we um we meet every two weeks as a commission besides our breaks I mean does this two week window of needing a vehicle really slow down the process that much of getting another vehicle it can because um people that don't have that same ability to jump in when there's a vehicle available Chris can speak more to that We know that from time to time dealers there's a very specific um police model that we're looking for
the type of car um and when they they just happen to become available at certain times I don't know if Kelly and and Chris can speak to that over here So it's not all just about police cars and all I mean these are replacing like I I want to say air conditioning units but machinery type things that we're waiting I mean there's a lot of a lot of things that the wastewater treatment plant Yes And they're very specific pieces that are difficult to find and the longer you wait for us to approve
it the longer it takes to get that piece repaired One um key purchase was the Ames roof Um we had to go out for a bid for that because it was FEMA and we have to follow our procurement policy So that uh for hurricane I think it was Ian that took over a year when we could have had it when everybody's fighting for roof contractors We could have had that repaired within a month um just as an example because I believe that bid came back between 50 and 65 in that particular case
Okay So our residents got to look at a beautiful full blue tarp for over a year when it could have been done a lot sooner The roof The roof I mean right Yeah Commissioner Deaton I consider myself rather fiscally conservative I analyze our budget You know I'm a numbers person Kelly Chris thank you for always answering my questions and my last minute questions today regarding this item Um do you still consider that we operate at a lean budget of course I do as well Um for that reason and because I do trust our staff and trust
that I I don't believe you're going to overspend frivolously um I'm okay with the 75,000 as well Mr Mayor um Commissioner Bryley Yeah And again I I I fully trust our staff The only reason you know I say 50,000 is because in inflation dollars today it would be roughly $53,000 Um but has been said and I appreciate Mr Ball saying you know that those those numbers would still be published for transparency but there's no opportunity for citizen input
So to me I still think that's you know while yes it's transparent it kind of just you know if it's not on the agenda there's not an opportunity for citizen inputs That's all I have Thank you Thank you Commissioner Briley Uh any other questions before I have a city clerk call the vote call the vote please city clerk Commissioner Deaton yes Commissioner Briley no Commissioner Tolland yes Commissioner Sargent yes Mayor Leslie no
Okay we're going to move on to number nine staff action items Um Shawn Finley to speak on item 9A Yes this is the um Halifax drive safety study that we presented at the workshop earlier this afternoon Um we are propo we're we're asking you to accept this um study that that was con cons conducted by Bergusel um with the staff accepting your comments from the commission workshop earlier this evening
Okay Does anybody have any questions for Shawn at this time do we need to make a motion with those changes that we want yes or no randy sorry I'm sorry to stop you over there I was reading ahead I'm sorry What was your question the commission would like to know if we have to make a motion to make that make an approval on any of that change You want to approve it officially you can approve it officially Well
Can you hear me um if you want to make the motion to include um that the approval reflects the minutes from the meeting earlier today we can do that Okay Oh that works out Well I think that the question is I think you know we we had we had during the workshop I thought we said you know we some of those changes are going to be made because of the construction on A1A and those temporary stop signs will be removed by the contractor when that that work is done So yes it'll be in place for a very short time but I think we decided I thought we suggested in the workshop we wait
till after all that was done is unless I'm wrong Is that how you heard it commissioner so I want to make sure that if we're accepting this study that those four-way stop signs are temporary one and that I'm not okay with that 6ft median Those are the two big things that were on mine that I don't want when the contractor does the the work on Able the contractor is the one that saw the stop signs they'll be the ones rebooting They won't leave them alone I just want to make sure Yeah Oh Shawn
I think your mic's off As with any as with any Sorry as with any um work that we would do from a study we would bring that back to the commission So if we were to do if if if it was the will to do those stop signs at Amiston and Standish we would bring that back to you as a capital project This is just a you know for you accept this is we're just asking you at this time to accept the the results or or the presentation of that study and that um any work to be done as a result of that study be brought to you as a separate item for for approval at that time Okay then So we'll see if we
can motion on that Move approval that um who's uh first on that one Susan Eaton Okay So is there a second then you want to do a second Commissioner Sargent second Okay Uh any other discussion on that before we call a vote on that no Seeing none uh call the vote please Commissioner Briley yes Commissioner Tolland yes Commissioner Sargent yes Commissioner Deaton yes Mayor Leslie yes Okay we're
going to move to 10 Report suggestions request Um we'll move on to staff and commission reports suggestions and requests Starting with city manager Shanahan All right Um Mike it's on It's on the meeting I'm not talking into it Doesn't want to hear you All right Um next commission meeting Tuesday April 15th we have a storm water workshop uh before the regular commission meeting On May 6 we have a final goal setting workshop before the the next commission meeting Um upcoming workshops
for your future planning purposes Tuesday May 6th I just mentioned the final goal setting workshop Tuesday June 3rd Mark that one It's an important one It's a capital budget plan Are you going to send all these yes Thank you You should have all of these already but we will resend them Tuesday July 22nd is your operating budget workshop Um just an update on Cassen Park The contractor continues the work on the new bait shop bathroom building and anticipate setting the roof trusses
this week I think I saw Ike here I don't know if he's still here Um uh periodic closures um to the park will be limited and mostly involve curb work and pavement thereafter So the parking lot is set to reopen by the end of this week Is that still on track Shawn that that is correct Yes So that's good news And I think you can see the work that's going on over there Uh legislatively first I want to applaud your uh efforts in Tallahassee to take the time from your professional jobs to go
to Tallahassee and lobby for our issues is very important and we certainly appreciate that as staff the storm water analysis uh request that we had up there received an allocation of $500,000 in the Senate budget but not in the House So they have to reconcile those two Uh so hopefully we beat the odds there I don't know Uh the Senate has filed an amendment to allocate $350,000 for the miracle fields Um we'll know more about the formal uh adoption of the amendment tomorrow So once that
amendment becomes formal then it still has to be figured out between the two entities Efforts were effective in Tallahassee We continue to work with our lobbyist as the budget process continues and hopefully we will continue to receive funding for the um our priorities Importantly please mark your calendar Um the Ormond Beach Police Department Unity Tour is going to be happening again So uh they will leave on the early morning of um May 8th and they will they'll conduct their ride and
then they will be um in Washington DC on May 12th Um several of you have attended that arrival at I think it's the is it the police law enforcement memorial uh museum It's a really uh prestigious event and um I am so proud of our department that has continued to participate in that every year So that is May 12th that they will arrive in DC and the following night they
have a candlelight vigil on the mall uh honoring um fallen police officers So our riders this year are Corporal Summerlot Corporal Ortiz Officer Medina and uh they will be taking uh three bicycles with them Uh the motor escort will be Sergeant Caleb Brown Lieutenant John Borzner tenatively and two police motorcycles Support staff include Lieutenant Tom Larson Officer
Melissa Edmonds Officer Ally Ander and PIO Pauline Dang will go Dang I hope I said that right will um also be attending And Lieutenant Larson's patrol F-150 and police department um enclosed trailer that will transport all of those items to Can we request Chief Godfrey ride again uh he is riding in a separate race which is this weekend Um he's riding in I don't know if it's the Florida 250
See I got it right He's riding in the two Florida 250 from Miami and they're going to finish in the shores I got it And that's on Saturday morning right sunday Sunday morning So do you know what time you're coming in so I'll give you more We'll have more updates So that gives him a month right to get ready for DC no he can't do both of those rides Oh dad gum Okay He's done he's done the that ride a number of times We appreciate your confidence in him and but I think his legs will
be toast So anyway um we're so proud of them and what they do and how they represent our city and um they always come back safe and sound and that's the most important thing Let's see But if you're interested in going to DC to uh see them arrive it's really it's really quite spectacular They have uh people from all over the country that ride and it's really amazing So let us know We'll help coordinate that and I'm happy to answer any questions if you have any of me tonight Seeing
none Thank you Joyce In from a clean getaway assistant city manager Shawn Finley Nothing further Have a good night City Attorney Randy Hayes Good night Wow Wow Wow Uh this evening we'll begin with uh Commissioner Sargent I got more than a good night Thank you Mr Mayor First I'll start off with Belvedere as we got great news that that they have decided to chosen a site up in Palm Coast This was
a great um job by the community coming together the city of Ormond denying water and sewer to the current location and to Senator Leek for all of his work and Tallahassee as a representative to secure the $10 million of funding that really helped this move I know that a lot of people want to write letters or do things and there's still an active application to my best knowledge at the county So it would be improper to to really do anything further on this this site Um and the
one I think chess piece that we had with this was that we did not offer water and sewer Therefore we did not have to annex the property in And um so I think we need to be very happy that they chose a site but be cautious because there's still an application active with the county So until shovels hit the ground running I'm not willing to start celebrating just yet I'm very optimistic but
I want to be cautious that that those shovels hit the ground and it really goes in there before we really celebrate or or I think move forward with anything Um Florida League of Cities was great up in Tallahassee to meet with our our legislators and thank you to staff for the detailed binder It was the best binder that staff put together in the three years that I've gone up there It was very detailed Um and it was very good to meet with our lobbyist Doug Bell who's very in tune with our
um our leaders in Tallahassee Um I know we had a couple residents talk about code enforcement I know this is coming back to us our strategic planning May 6th I know that several of us in our strategic planning uh expressed our desire for a proactive approach instead of a reactive approach and that'll be coming back um to us with that report on May 6th And it is very difficult with
when you have Florida statues that say you can't have anonymous complaints what we can and can't do kind of have the hands tied and it's unfortunate but I I do think that we're moving forward in the right direction Um I did provide each of y'all with a document and Susan if you can put it in the record as well Um I don't know if you need a copy Um this was uh I did discuss called the um realtor that's selling the property at on Wilmet that I just have brought up a couple times
and and they did a due diligence uh summary that they had Zev Cohen conduct I just would like to read a couple things because I really think this is an opportunity for us to buy a piece of land and preserve it And um I'll just a couple things I highlighted in this report says "Given the site's proximity to Thompson Creek Laurel Creek and the Tomoka River the property pres presents an excellent opportunity for preservations and flood mitigation Other environmental assets on the
heavily forested property include nine historic trees surface waters and wetlands Uh dedicating the property for preservation would protect the site's natural features prevent fill in the flood plane and avoid any additional runoff from the from reaching the Tomoka River an impaired water body And then another just sentence that says since the property is in zone AE and a regulatory
flood zone ultimately discharging into an impaired body water the Tomoka River storm water treatment will require a dry system or or treatment boxes to a wet box So the the devel or I guess the the owner of this property did this I didn't ask them to do it They emailed it to me cuz I've expressed that I think it's a very um key piece of property that we should really look at because as I've
stated before 20 acres five of it's buildable It's going to take 6 ft of fill to build on it And here we have an opportunity as you know the gentleman that spoke about the the bike trails out on Airport Road This is another opportunity in the center of our city to preserve some property and the city owns the property behind it for the water or for uh fleet maintenance is back there So this is a I just think it's a great opportunity for us to move forward on Um I don't know how
my fellow commissioners and mayor how y'all see this Um it's a very detailed report I think Susan can make it public for the record Um I'd like to know y'all's thoughts on this cuz I I think this is a great opportunity and I just I really don't want to see us in 6 months being approve uh an apartment project on this property So are we going to have Oh I'm sorry Oh no It's okay Um I I just want to say Can you guys hear me that I appreciate the uh property owner doing this and uh
I will definitely take a look at it but from there um you guys have a question So I'll go with uh Deputy Mayor first Yeah my my question is when are we discussing the storm water and flooding when in two weeks so I think this is a very appropriate I don't think we should do anything at this point I really appreciate the information I don't think it's going to sell in two weeks where we have to worry about it Um but I think that this is definitely extremely worthy of discussion and I'm looking forward to that Can we talk numbers well I mean they're asking too but obviously we
know that's not a um I don't think we would have to get an appraisal and and what kind of I mean do we have to do our due diligence as a city I'm not saying that you go in and you pay full aspirate That's not how we conduct business and it wouldn't be wise to spend the taxpayers money on that And I think there's a lot of um there's a lot of not only potential but there's funding sources to to secure this property Um agreed So I think that's what we that's what I really want to look at I'm not saying that we take this money out of the general fund or anything like that I think
we look at um grant money that is available to secure a key piece of property that is just very environmentally sensitive in the core of our city and we don't have look around the core of our city We don't have much of this left So sure With that being said I'm I'm definitely open to it I I can appreciate that this is 100% in a flood zone Um and it would be detrimental to see a developer for instance buy it and build it up and be detrimental to the surrounding properties That would be a concern for me Um yeah I'm definitely open to it Commissioner Briley I agree with Commissioner Tolland I
think we can look at it when we look at the the storm water workshop but I do also see in this report a lot of protected species on that property that may make it difficult for development to begin with So we can take a look at it Would would staff be have that be enough time for staff to put something together for us in that workshop to give us a little more information on this property we we can take a look and see what we can do We have reached out to a couple appraisers They're about 6 to 8 weeks out from of what they can do to prepare a a true property appraisal on
it So we wouldn't have that available in two weeks but we can take a look and I I we'll I've take a quick look at this and I know Joyce has we can take a little bit more look and see if there's any more input that we can give you at that time Okay Yes So just put it on the uh the agenda for the next workshop and we'll we'll discuss from there Is that okay with everybody mhm Okay Fair enough Thank you Commissioner The last thing I have is I know we had a great strategic planning couple days It was very positive And then that Thursday we all received I think it was Thursday or Friday and I I don't have the email up We received an email from the executive
director at Barracks of Hope Um and I believe Mr Mayor you toured the facility and and it stated something to the effect of funds that are available for them and what are the next steps Can you elaborate what was discussed there just so we can talk about it as a commission cuz I don't know that we have available funds to donate to anyone So I'm just kind of if if we have available funds our taxes are too high cuz I I don't think we just have pots laying around you know And that's a good question I'm glad you brought that up because when I saw that email I almost you know my eyeballs almost went on my my head Um it was suggested to me by somebody
to tour the facility Um you know you know that you all know that I serve on the first step board and um so it was brought to my attention I should check out this other facility um how clean it is and how well they do with uh veterans particularly Um so I went to go meet uh with the director over there But as you know with these nonprofit organizations they think that because I'm going there to tour that we're giving them a check And I made it very clear to the director that we're not giving a check I'm just here to look at it because I thought maybe it would be um you know uh
something that we can recommend um well at least our officers and people that do our outreach to any homeless vets out there in our community that can go there and we don't not required to give any money uh to in order to participate in that program right now So if you are okay with that um we can direct staff to get the information on providing that another um outlet But um but it was the tour was only just to look at the facility um and just kind of see what they do Um and they also the director uh asked if any of you want to come out and tour you call anytime and you can go in
there and take a look at the facilities and find out more what they do My stance on this is we're already donating $85,000 to Firstep Shelter I am not willing to use taxpayer money to fund another project that's very specific to veterans I'm a disabled veteran myself Um I think they do great services there but if the residents want to donate their money and get a tax write off that's what they should be able to do We should not be doing that with taxpayer money So I'm I'm a no for that
Um and um first up shelter we're donating money for and if I remember correct we I wasn't here at the time but I if I remember correctly Randy we are participating in that because it helps our law enforcement officers to have a place to bring individuals and because we have that ability then or we can arrest them I mean and not so our officers are a lot more compassionate that So I hate to say like that but we're contributing to that for a specific reason And I don't know if
we if those funds went somewhere else or if we had other funds I just don't think that would work out and we would comply to that ordinance So I'm a no with with donating any more money to anywhere else If I may though I'm just going to jump back in there again Again this wasn't a tour to give them money It was just a tour just to give homeless people that are veterans another possibility of somewhere to go And the city would not have to give any money right now if we wanted to allow
individuals as that as another option to go to Um which was a cleaner facility uh focuses on different their their focus is a little different than First Step because you know they they have their program is is is built on people with those type of disabilities that were in the military So I just toured it because it was suggested it was a nice facility and it was just something else that I thought that we can offer and we don't have to give them any money It's just something else to offer I think where my I just found the email now and I think my concern is where I'll just read the
email from the interim executive director It says "Mr Leslie thank you for visiting Halifax Urban Ministries Barracks of Hopes Veterans Program Miss Conway our program manager mentioned that you enjoyed the tour she provided She also noted the possibility of available funds from the city of Ormond Could you please advise what the advise as on the next steps we are very interested in continuing our partnership with Ormond Beach Whenever you're in the area please stop by our main campus Hope Place We love sharing our work with others So that's where from reading that it appears that
there was money that was discussed So that's where I'm just So I'm here to tell you that there was no money discussed You know like I said it was just a tour She did ask if we were going to donate money I said "No I did not this time I just wanted to see what the facility looked like and just wanted to see if there was another option for people to go to that are homeless on the streets right now in our city that are disabled veterans Very well That's all I have Good night Uh next we have uh Commissioner Deaton Thank you Um we spent last week in Tallahassee for legislative days speaking
with local representatives about the needs for Ormond Beach I am proud to have cultivated such great relationships with our representatives in Tallahassee Those relationships are always helpful when we are in their offices asking for money or needs for our community I'd like to thank staff for preparing us prior to leaving for Tallahassee That thoroughbinder was especially helpful for me So I appreciate that Thank you Um regarding the gentleman that was here for proactive code enforcement um as you all know in strategic planning proactive code enforcement is very important to me Um I did respond to him and I sure hope that we get to discuss that further I would
like to personally thank Senator Tom Leek formerly representative and chair of the House Budget Committee for ensuring that Belvedere was placed in the 2024 budget so that the Department of Commerce could assist in finding a more suitable location for the fuel farm I'd also like to thank Representative Chase Traymont Volusia County and City of Ormond Beach for your hand in this The community of Ormond Beach deserves a big hand as well for coming together with one common goal in mind This project proves that it certainly takes a village I am saddened that Flagler will now have
to go through the same battle but I am confident that they now have a better understanding of the challenges ahead and will put up one heck of a fight With that have a good night Thank you Commissioner Briley Thank you Mr Mayor Um I won't I I'll just briefly touch Um I thought our our uh our trip to Tallahassee for for for legislative days was was was uh was beneficial for Ormond I think it was beneficial for our legislators to know what our needs are and what our asks are um staff did
do a fantastic job with the binder and I would like to thank um assistant city manager Shawn Finley and our fin um um economic development director Brian Rademacher for their attendance Um one of the things we talked about in the workshop this afternoon uh CRA'S and we know that there's bills going through Tallahassee that may kill future CRA'S maybe even some current CRA'S Um that bill may be dying on the vine We don't know Um but it was discussed too that our current there
may be a temperament in our current county council as to not extend or award any new CRA'S And as Councilman Kent said tonight um the relationship between Volusia County and Ormond is probably strong as ever And I think this might be a good time to petition the county council if we're interested in continuing our CRA'S extending our CRA'S and creating new ones because we did talk about that in our strategic uh plan workshop So that's just one thing to consider I don't think you know I
always hate to hear that you know somebody says "Well it's dead on arrival." You know I don't take no easily So I would like us to explore you know extending our current CRA'S and maybe creation of a couple new ones Um congratulations to the dog beach folks That was a great one today at the county council Uh we do it is nice We I get a lot of phone calls and emails from people thanking us for the dog beach They really enjoy taking their dogs down there Belvedere Um again
I I agree with Commissioner Sargent and and and echo the sentiments of Commissioner Deaton Um you know I'm not going to be thrilled until they start breaking ground because again they do still have an air permit out there It's not over till it's over as Yogi Bear used to say So Yogi Bear rather used to say it ain't it ain't over till it's over So um but I would like to thank our community You came out you supported this We were with you The county was with you And again uh Senator Tom Leek
was very helpful with that So would like to thank everyone involved Um the goal setting workshop I thought was very good I thought Doug Thomas the facilitator did a fantastic job I was actually telling Joyce I thought it was a little bit better than our our strategic workshop or strategic planning workshop from two years ago So um looking forward to the the results of that um Volusia League cities dinner last Thursday over in the land very well attended Um each mayor was asked to
bring uh small business owners from the community Mayor Leslie invited um Dana and Sharon Kamage that own 31 Supper Club and I thought that we were well represented uh having them there Lastly I'll end on kind of a downer I'm very disappointed with the Florida State Park system and what they have done to Tomoka State Park I had a feeling when they decided they were wanted to pave that road that they would have to widen the road It's difficult to pave a dirt road and not widen it
And the amount of historic trees that were taken out and in my opinion d has destroyed a lot of the charm the old Florida charm of the state park You know I keep hearing the argument people with RVs were getting stuck Maybe it's not a place for an RV State parks aren't KOA campgrounds I know because I have an RV I don't take my RV to Tomoka state park It's not the place KOA maybe
So shame on the park system They should put their priorities elsewhere like maybe restoring Chief Tomokie With that I'll say good night Thank you Commissioner Briley Uh Deputy Mayor Tolland Great Thank you so much I have um not too much to to share but I do want to let you all know all the all the fun things that I've been doing A lot of them have been with you but some have not Um we all got an invitation from Lucy Jackman to enjoy the performing arts center and I took advantage of
that and um saw Spyro Gyra with my husband and it was just amazing to see the enthusiasm of of the residents in a full house What a you know what a beautiful re remodel and and it was a it was a fun time and I would ask that you all partake in that sometime Um I attended the Volusia County elected official round table where they presented updates from um the storm water and flooding task force Um I
virtually attended the TPO workshop identifying uh their long range plan up to 2050 It's amazing how much work is done this far in advance Um I was also able to enjoy the Hungarian festivities at the casement with um Mayor Leslie and was pleased when the consulate recognized our very own Siobhan Daily for her support of the Hungarian history over the many years Um I attended team Volusia
annual meeting and was blown away by the financial impact and the business growth in our area and vicinity Um I was invited to to attend the Florida Power and Light lunchon at Embry Riddle where some very good information was shared and um I'm sure at some point we will probably enjoy the um increase increases in fees at some point you know It's it's kind of where where everything's
going Um I enjoyed the Ormond Beach Chamber Women to Women event and that was held at the Hard Rock Cafe Uh there was a very dynamic speaker from Advent Health Dr Audrey Gregory Attend the Volusia League dinner in the land And lastly um the goal setting and lastly participate in the Volusia County legislative action days um where we shared our priorities as a city with our legislators And as I'm on the Volusia League of Cities board and shared their positions on all these bills fighting
as you know the the CRA and property taxes and all the other So it was it's been a really busy time And I'm only sharing this with you because um I officially retired from my nursing career Um maybe it's been 3 weeks It's been a weird change Um I'm going to say I'm going to welcome it at some point but I'm trying to reinvent myself and kind of figure out what I'm going to do with my last chapter of my life Um maybe in the volunteer world Next chapter Next chapter final chapter
Next chapter Okay Anyway so that's why I have the option to to do all these wonder these wonderful things representing you guys in the community Um as far as Belvedere is concerned I cons I'm sorry As far as Belvedere I want to thank staff I want to thank the previous commission okay that really fought the county our legal SR Perrott which we forgot to mention up here and our business leaders our friends in Tallahassee and particularly Senator Leek Representative Traymont and last
but not least our residents that attended many meetings held signs protested against the fuel farm in Ormond Beach And I personally and publicly would like to thank Mr Tim Griggsby for reaching out to me early on um to make us aware of the air permit that was pulled um for Belvedere before it even became something that everybody knew It was really because of him that started this the whole ball wear rolling of our awareness He truly deserves the credit for bringing the proposed
fuel farm to light So I just want to say thank you and I appreciate him Um as far as the storm water task force um it's very important that the city participate in these meetings regarding flooding and storm water with the elected officials round table And uh Miss Shanahan I would love to see Mr Finley if possible attend and represent Ormond Beach Um and as an elected I'd be honored to to go and participate as well Um if not I'll at least be there and listen in The the issues that
we're facing flooding and storm water are countywide in collaboration is absolutely critical Um last but not least well two things Code enforcement Wondering if um we could ask our police or Chris Mason or Chief Godrey to reach out to the gentleman that lives on Kenilworth Okay they're active Thank you Um and I know that my fellow commissioners I'm just trying to piggyback on comments that you guys have made multiple times at other meetings
um on homelessness Our homeless population seems to be increasing I've received numerous calls regarding such Um I I really don't know what we can do I know we all recognize there's a problem and our residents are not happy I got a call today about um a gentleman whose wife won't walk her dog on the sidewalk because there's a gentleman that's there So I you know the the more we can bring it to light if we can do a workshop or I I I know we're doing some things I just don't know
what we can do But I also would like to share this book that I picked up at um I don't know I can't remember where I picked it up but anyway it's for staff And then finally uh announcements Earth Day celebration and tree giveaway will be held at the EDC on April 19th from 9 to 2 It's sponsored by Echo Regrow Volusia Regrow the Loop in Ormond Beach There'll be a beautiful selection of drum roll native trees available So please take advantage and everybody go plant a tree Good night
Thank you Deputy Mayor Uh Commissioner Deaton just asked to say something real quick So can I ask where we are on the homeless um or the transient workshop that we've spoken about a few times we have no Okay We did request a workshop a few times but we don't have an update on it I thought we did request one We did You did but we haven't had Oh okay Well we've had so many workshops so I'm getting confused So yes if you if you could kind of put that on your list of things to do it' be
great Thanks Thank you Deputy Mayor Um well we had a a month off even though we were all kind of working still but I hope everybody enjoyed the time that they did have off from the last meeting that we had Um this past uh Saturday we had the mayor's fitness challenge Uh we had uh 35 weigh-ins Um I believe my colleague next to me had a weigh in too Um I will wait to to be determined on that one Um also while we're sitting here I'd like to congratulate Randy Fine Um he is our new
congressional representatives uh for CD6 that replaced uh the former uh Mike Waltz Uh we did have legislative days last week Uh it was a great time I think we're the only city that had everyone in the commission with us I believe Um so that's at least what I was told from some of the feedback So that's we had a good presence So good job everyone Um we had um we had a great time I think and we had a little bit of team building together as well So I really appreciate that as well Um on March 17th I uh was asked to do some meals on wheels And uh it was the same time that Chief
Godfrey um we had a good time He rode in his own car and I rode another car but it was really nice to uh bring some meals to folks and uh they were uh shocked to see me and I said "Well I'm here to to help you out." Um as far as Belvedere goes uh you know some great news Uh thank you to everyone that was involved Senator Leek uh the like I said the former commission um all the residents that were out there too as well Um but you know I will echo some of my colleagues here by saying that you know it's not over till it's over So we just got to be a little cautious on that Um so I I agree as
well Um but hopefully we'll have a plan in place after the um you know that that whole project moves on what's going to happen with that property in the next step Um so I think staff said that they might be working on something and the the county council as well u or the county uh staff So excited to hear about that Um congratulations to uh Deputy Mayor uh on your retirement Um I just put that in my notes Uh nursing is just not an easy thing Um and I I appreciate everything that
nurses do Um I am not a needle person and I can tell you that a nurse was the one that helped me get through that with giving blood So uh thank you for your service Uh it's really really greatly appreciated Um I know we had a tough night with this fluoride thing I really like you know thanked all everyone in the dais here I know it was a tough decision but I'm I'm proud that we all stuck together in this thing and and and did what we had to do Um sometimes we have to make tough decisions um as leaders but I'm I'm thankful that to have this group here um that stuck stood behind it as well Um with that um I'm going to close it out So everyone have a good night Thank you