Thank you. No, it's to Charles. There you go. Are you guys ready? Uh, good evening everyone. Welcome to Obito City Council Chambers. If everyone could please rise for the pledge of allegiance
to the flag of the standsy for all. Please join me in a moment of silence. I would like to call our meeting to order. It is August 4th at approximately
6:31 p.m. We have all members of council present. We're going to start off with our first order of business and it's a ceremonial item for the purple heart presentation. So, mayor, would you like us to go down? Do you have a few words to share first?
Never for a loss of words. Excellent. Thank you, Deputy Mayor, mayor, and members of the council, city officials. It's my pleasure to be here today on behalf of recipients of the Purple Heart Medal
of Veterans of the Service, active duty, reserve, and retired members. And thank the city for its hospitality, graciousness towards members of the military throughout the time that I've been here
and since time began, I believe. It's my honor and pleasure to present to this city this purple heart medal which was received for wounds in action by a gentleman named Ed Wilds.
Ed gifted the medal to Timothy Henrix and he and his sister Melody Flanigan contacted me and wished it to find a place of honor when I suggested that perhaps Ovido being Purple Heart City,
it would be proper for it to be placed on display with the other memorabilia that hang today in city hall in honor of Purple Heart recipients. I'm particularly touched by the fact that the Purple
Heart is presented not only to combat wounded veterans but postumously to those who gave their lives in service. And we convey that medal today with the thought of those who didn't come back.
Um it's a symbol of honor, service, and dedication. And I'm proud to say that as a member, a citizen of the city of Ovido that they carry veterans
and service members with pride in their heart and recognize them throughout the year. I want to note that Thursday is National Purple Heart Day, a day in observance for all who received the Purple Heart, an annual observance. And
I think it's fitting that I and both the Hendricks and Flanigans are here today to honor this delivery to the city. Thank you very much. Thank you.
And as we're walking down, I've got to point out that uh Mr. Sloan here. Captain Sloan is indeed also a member of the Purple Heart Society and has earned the Purple Heart. So, thank you for your service. Thank you to all the members of the Purple Heart uh is the military
order of the Purple Heart. I've got to get it the get the right words there, but grateful. And would you guys all be willing to come up as well? Thank you so much. Short back. We will Move right along to item number two, which is the approval of the
minutes for the June 16th regular session and June 23rd work session. What is the pleasure of council? I make a motion to approve the minutes of the June 16th, 2025 regular session and June 23rd, 2025 work session. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion?
All right. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. The motion carries. We'll move on to public comment. Uh I I do have one written request to speak. When I call your name, please come up to the podium and state your name. Um, the
first one and only one I have up is uh, Miss Regina Burnswell. Good evening, Regina Burnsville, 119 McTavend Drive, Ovido, and I'm here representing not only me and myself as a resident, but also the McKinley's Mill
HOA association. So, several of our members uh have approached the board with regard to the water conservation initiative that's being launched by the city of Ovido. Um they were quite upset that they could
have a list. Um, I didn't kind of believe it until I heard the mayor say it on a a news channel that yes, McKinley's Mill, Bentley Woods, Twin Rivers, there's a list and if you want to know what's on it, request public records. Um, so I have a question. I
don't really think that it was the best way to launch a water initiative. But before I go on, McKinley's Mill had already asked for a legal document that
could be used to amend our CCRs or um create ARC and CCR guidelines that are specific for Florida friendly. It's not as simple as it's being presented. Um,
with existing HOAs, you need to be sure that you are legally within your right. I've heard from our uh residents that I don't need to do have an ARC. HOA cannot tell me what to do. The Florida statute
says, well, the Florida statute does say that we as HOAs must allow Florida friendly plants and abide by the Florida friendly um stipulation and legislation,
but that's complicated. It doesn't mean that you bring in a landscaper, throw in a few soers, and call yourself Florida friendly. No, the homeowners cannot just pull their sand
their grass up and throw wildfire seeds down. So my suggestion would be that the city approach the number three water guzzlers, McKinley's Mill, Bentley Woods, and the Twin Rivers. ask for
representatives from their board and have here legal advice for how do we implement because these are not new HOAs they're existing HOAs have experts show us examples ask
for our input and you might get a little bit more than what I've seen on Facebook thank you thank Uh, I don't have any other written requests to speak. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to address council at this time?
Hearing none, I will close public comment and we will move on to our consent agenda. What is the pleasure of councel? I make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Have a motion. Is there a second? I'll second it. Any discussion?
No. I appreciate Miss Collins and her team sending a lot of information my way the last few days. I know that was not the smallest task and and it's been many year or not many years but quite a few years I think since I last asked for
comparative uh analysis and I do appreciate confirming that OVO is not an outlier in offering subsidized benefits to uh family members. Okay. Anything else? Then I'll ask the clerk to call the role.
Council member Bford I. Council member Written. Hi. Mayor Slick. Hi. Deputy Mayor Tuker. Hi. Council member Hot. I. The motion carries. We do not have any public hearings, first reading ordinances, resolutions, or discussion items. So, uh, you came for show
tonight. I apologize. We are on to the city manager report. Uh, thank you, Deputy Mayor. I only have one thing. I uh attended the uh ribbons ribbon cutting last week for Riverside Park and I having all the folks there uh
for the ribbon cutting was just was a wonderful event. Uh I got to talk with a number of people and of course when the city manager there they all have questions but it was actually fun. It was fun to engage with the residents and it was a lot of fun to see the different
things that we're going to be doing at the park and as Mr. Beldin said we're still learning and how you know the optimism of all the different things that can be brought to the park and just the uh just the way that you know the park has been like a phoenix. It is it
has now sprouted its wings and has taken flight and it was just a great day and so just it was a wonderful event. That's all I have. Deputy Mayor. Thank you. The city attorney's report. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. I have nothing to report. Uh, council member Bodford.
Yes. So, it was a great thing for the Purple Heart and I do want to thank our our DFW members here for their service to our country. So, I can relate personally as I said uh American Legion. American Legion. I'm sorry. Yes, sir.
But, uh, yeah, I just attended my daughter's uh, graduation from the Navy Nuclear School. So, um I I can respect a lot for what you guys have have done for our country. So, thank you. Uh the other thing I wanted to bring up was the um we had uh several citations given up for
our unit citations for our police department. Chief, I didn't know if you would uh like to come up and talk about a couple of those. [Music] Thank you for the opportunity. Uh just just to give you a little background,
normally we do once a year we do our awards ceremony, but the the awards committee uh had asked to kind of break it up by quarter uh and just do the awards because if you if you're eligible for award in January and you don't go to to a ceremony in December, it seems like
it's a lost its luster a little bit. So we break them up over the quarters and then at the end of the year, we'll kind of combine them all. picked the officer of the year and and employee of the year. So, that's just to give you why you're seeing these now on social media. There were three of them of of notice
of notice. Uh the first one uh was uh we got a 911 call where someone was being threatened with a firearm and uh it it was uh basically a lot of good police work and fast action on on using what
resources available uh between uh LPRs and uh looking up things in our system and they were able to locate the vehicle, excuse me, and u stop the person, find the firearm, make an arrest and solve that problem uh post taste. So
that was that was the first one. Uh the second one was a another most of these were were a group effort. Uh we had two individuals, two or more that were uh decided they would spend the day using counterfeit money and going from store
to store to store to store. And uh you know there's a pattern here and uh bad things happen when you have a pattern for them and and they were able to track it all down and tie it all up and make a nice neat package and and take two people to jail for using a lot of counterfeit money when it came to that.
Um and the third one was actually the one that uh probably the most important because officers responded to a head-on crash. Uh the car caught fire. uh people for whatever reason couldn't get out of the car and uh they jumped into action, didn't hesitate, didn't didn't wait and
uh were able to get the person out of the car, start CPR, help them get involved and and it was a pretty uh significant event what I'd call it and uh luckily that uh everybody was able to to be safely transported and everything
and nobody was further injured. So those were the three that that is great stuff. I mean again it's It talks again both for our fire and for our police. I mean, having having that local public safety, I mean, the value you guys add to this community. So, we we thank both you guys, you know, for everything that your
departments do. Yeah. And I want to thank Lisa McDonald for for making sure they get noticed and recognized because she does an excellent job. She does a phenomenal job. Yes. So, I appreciate it. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Chief. And that's all I got. All right, Council Member Britain.
Uh, just a couple things real quick. one. Uh I can't say how happy I am. Brian already talked about it about the ribbon cutting at Riverside Park. This has been a long time coming. It's it's really the the last piece of the puzzle to make this a community for a lifetime.
So now we have programs for for youngsters, for teens, for adults, and now for seniors. So I'm really excited about uh using that facility and and making it uh you know, one of our our crown jewels. and and uh I'm sure it
will be. Um second thing is kind of along the same line of uh our community service uh our community in action here. Uh we got a young young fellow little one and a halfyear-old named Dawson who uh is suffering from a tumor and cancer
and they've had a couple fundraisers for the family. Uh I was at one yesterday at at Froggers and it was packed house to to help that family. So that's just kind of an indication of of the kind of place we live in. People will come out and and support their neighbors and uh in their
time of need. So uh finally, I want to talk about the water conservation program and and and Brian, you and I spoke about this today. I'm not real sure what our conservation initiative is, but I don't recall us uh
wanting to identify individual uh water users as part of our sanctioned city program. So, is there a way we can get what our real program is out to the public and and educate uh folks on what we really have in in place?
Uh yes. Yes, we can. Okay. And I know we I know we have a a program that that Jay will provide uh water saving devices uh flapper valves for toilets and and showers and things like that. But there's a little bit more
to it than that. And I I I think we're getting off track with this uh this thing, this initiative that I don't think we as a city council have have approved this yet, but I don't know if there's a way we uh if we we have to or if uh or if it really is a city program.
So, uh if we can get that out to the folks, that I'd appreciate it. Uh that's all I have. Okay. Council member, uh no report this week. All right. then it's up to me. Um, so, uh, I want to start with the senior
center as well for a couple of us were out there, but this is this was probably one of the coolest things I've done since being out there is having such a large amount of people show up. Uh, I didn't expect to almost struggle to find parking at Riverside. I went a couple
weeks ago when it was done before we had done a ribbon cutting and the pool was filled with seniors. Um they did a taichi event that morning before the ribbon cutting and it had a really good showing too and the amount of people that just came up to myself and others standing there and thanking us for doing
that. Um it was a good call. So I'm really excited to have that place open and have it out to the community. And I want to say thank you to uh Council Member Britain too for leading that charge for so long and seeing it come to fruition is pretty so and and staff did a great job too. So hats off on a a
great ribbon cutting there. Um, I also want to say, um, good luck with the the school year coming up. So, I know my kids are super excited as well as myself for them to go back to school. So, uh, we should see a little bit of a kick up in the morning on traffic, but all for a
good cause. And then I did want to talk about this this water initiative as well. I have gotten several calls this week about it as well. Um I and I want to kind of rehash what we as council decided several weeks ago about what we're going to do about it because I think and please correct me
if I'm wrong on this. We all agreed that educating residents is a good thing and if we can educate people and identify areas where they can lower their water usage that we were all on board for that and we even discussed doing a open town hall here from the city's end and
sending out mail to like the top users and inviting them out to educate them. And that's that's as much as I knew about what we were doing. But I'm getting called about people being singled out on lists and and things of that nature that citizens are not on
board with and I don't believe is a city initiative. So, if I'm missing something as far as what we discussed up here and what is coming from the city, I I agree with council member Britain on we need some clarifications on what's being driven by the city and what's I mean the
mayor's initiative because I do believe residents think the city is singling people out which is not the case. So, we need to find a way forward where this is being messaged the right way. So, and with that it is your turn for report. So, I'll hand that over. All right.
Well, I think you guys probably remember, at least some of us remember at a work session there was discussion about sending the mail um and and whether council would agree to cover stamps. I don't know if we have enough stamps to do, but I think we talked about about a hundred people would get letters. So, that based on that
discussion u I met with staff and the interns to figure out what is the most potent way to start to make a difference. And the suggestion was from our water conservation officer was start with the neighborhoods that use uh
drinking water for irrigation. So that that's where that came from. Um I didn't expect it to take off as it did from just posting a picture of hey these interns are learning how to do a mail merge because that's the state we are at now. Uh prior to posting that picture
though I did send a draft of the letter to uh I believe Mr. Cobb and Mr. Stainer who is our water conservation guru Aquaman asking for feedback. Um there's no suggestion in the the proposed wording
which you know of course was going to go I think everybody on council wanted to see it before it went out so hasn't got out yet. So hopefully staff can circulate that around in whatever way Mr. Vose uh blesses. Um but yeah that that's kind of where
where we are. And the idea is in fact to invite people to learn about resources. So on September 10th at the cultural center there is a combined initiative uh mainly inviting HOAs and community association managers to come and uh
learn from the St. John's River Water Management District, Jay Stainer, um, and anybody that is willing to come and talk to people about some of the basics of how do you adjust your irrigation control, your timer, things like that, programs that are available, including
beginning, I think we're going to apply October one for the next cycle of the St. John's River Water Management District. Um, it's a rebate for getting a smart timer installed. And there's data out of the city of Jacksonville
showing that even people who are like super excellent at turning off their, you know, keeping their rain gauges in working order, turning off their timer and stopping irrigation if they know rain's coming, if their ra rain gauge isn't full and can't can't serve that
function. Even those people who are excellent at these things uh reported saving upwards of 30% in water, which resulted in lower water bills. So, um, I've got very different feedback from you guys. Most people just want to know,
are they on the list? And will the list ever be published? I said, well, I'm not going to publish the list. Um, the the goal here is to let people know if they are outliers as compared to others who live in their neighborhoods and have
similar size properties, similar yards, similar rules, and all that kind of stuff. So, uh, I think we'll be able to make a a good bit of headway on September 10th if we can get some of the, if we've got the attention of the HOAs, great because the interns have
been trying really hard to uh, get with them to do some of the things that Miss Bears mentioned like updating their bylaws to be Florida friendly uh, to reflect Florida friendly landscaping policies. So, that's also going to be an
element of it. A lot of attorneys hopefully will be in the mix. I'm working on getting it approved to be a continuing legal education credit. So, it's going to be from 1:00 to 3:00. Uh I believe under the St. John's um
curriculum that will be presented and I believe Mr. Kelly might may have a better memory on this than me. I believe there may be one hour of CAM credit available at this at this thing as well.
So the goal is get the professionals who think about all of this on behalf of the neighborhoods up to speed on how very critical it is for us to be wise stewards of this shared resource of our
upper Florida aquifer and lower Florida aquifer but especially that upper Florida aquifer. And do you mind if I ask some clarification here? Absolutely. So, as far as setting up a September 10th meeting, that's what we all agreed on. I'm I'm on board with that. But as far as interns going and
trying to contact HOAs and tell them to change their bylaws and things like that, I don't know that we agreed on that. They're just We don't even have interns in the city. Well, that's they are my personal interns and they're doing it out of love of doing this thing. And that's fine. So I guess my clarification here is are they
presenting themselves as hey I'm with the city of Oto doing this or I am of a separate initiative with mayor Slateic with this initiative because the latter okay because we are getting people calling us upset about that part. Okay city initiative
they have not contacted any residents at this point. So, we were meeting to to start the the first step is to send the letter that council agreed to. And if people respond to it and say either, you know, I'd like to talk to to Mr. Stainer
or I love using a lot of water. I think my bill is terrific and I don't want to use less. Uh cross off people who have who who do not need a visit. If somebody does not respond, they are willing to go and say, "Hey, do you do you want to
have any assistance? would you like access to potentially a $1,000 grant through the city of Ovido and let people know about things that are available not just through the city because we do have a $10,000 we have $10,000 budgeted. I'm seeing looks of confusion here. No, I this is coming off to the public
like it's coming from us. Okay. Like 100%. That's what we're getting calls about that we are out there knocking on HOA doors telling them to change their bylaws. Nobody's knocked on any doors as far as emails and calls and and contacts. So yeah, nobody's done any of those things. That's that's the case. If we could just
clarify if on your end when we're going out there the city as far as what the city's doing is we are educating people. There's no penalty with engaging or not engaging on what we're doing. I think that could clear up some of the confusion. Okay. That's Yeah, I just want to Yeah,
there's there's no penalty and I I don't know where anybody got that there would be a penalty. You might You look like you're to say something. Well, I think to a lot of people who maybe don't follow city government all that closely, the mayor and the city are one
and the same to them. So, um if you ask somebody, well, is the city doing something? Well, yeah, I saw it from the mayor. They must be, but that could be where where some of the confusion uh comes from. Um as as far as uh penalty, I I had one resident uh
contact me about um water water tiers, right? It's something that had been discussed up here a lot of times. Um, and you know, so I I think anything that has has perhaps been said, um, people
think is is on the table. And I I don't know if you had said anything about water tiers on on Facebook or or anything like that, but maybe over the last few months even. So So has it like all gotten mixed together into one mega? It's
my hypothesis. Yeah. Um, well, we have definitely raised awareness or I I don't I don't know if everybody wants to claim the raising of the awareness. So So you're saying to that nobody's gotten a letter? Nobody got a letter. Nobody's got a visit.
Nobody's called the HOAs. Well, they've tried to call HOAs only to confirm contact information. Okay. And uh nobody's knocked on any doors. Um and uh have one other thing that I can't remember. Yeah, nobody's done anything.
Okay. Oh, and and the list is not going to be public. And well, I mean, it it's a public record, but I'm not going to participate in making it easy to I I think that's a disconnect, too. I think a lot of people don't understand what things are public record and uh this is one of them. So, you know, I've
seen a lot of people say things like, you know, privacy, that kind of thing. Okay. Anything else? Couple of things. U three cheers for all the backpack giveaways. A couple of us were at the uh Mr. and I were at the uh Hope Helps one
on Saturday. There was also one on Saturday that was not necessarily a pre-registration just to any kid who needed help over at Audio Excellence and they were doing haircuts. It was amazing. And uh then yesterday, the SEK Society of Central Florida teamed up
with uh SCPS to get the backpacks straight to the kids who need them, even if they haven't pre-registered and their parents have no idea that they're getting help. And I think that all three serve a different element of the community and just give it props to all
of the volunteers and all of the people who donated to make those different events happen. Um, and then I I mentioned a couple of weeks ago or maybe a month ago, that Grant Malloy, the clerk of the court, had volunteered to for free uh put all
of our checks online in an o open checkbook format. And uh there was some talk about how we might pay to do something different and something cooler and Mr. Kelly spoke a little bit about that. But in the meantime, um I' I'd like to see if we can get this as a
discussion item, if it needs to be discussed more intensely about just letting him do this free thing and and then people can just look and see who are the checks being written to. I think it's a a step in the right direction for
transparency just to put it right on out there. Are are you looking? Yeah. Are you guys okay with that? We can discuss it. Okay. I it it's free. We can do it right away. We don't have to figure out how to do in the next budget cycle because it sounds like we're not close to to doing
this other program that costs something. Um and then the last thing, and I don't know when the right time to talk about this is, but it's membership in the League of Cities. So, I I recently fully realized that it cost us about $8,800 a
year to be part of Florida League of Cities and the Tri County League of Cities. And after we invest this rather substantial amount, we get the opportunity to then attend a conference that costs like $600 per person to register. And then it's 300 a night for
people to spend the night in a resort for this annual conference. And you that ends up being I believe that budget item was like 15,000 additional. So we're looking at somewhere in the $23,000 range. And I I am not sure
that it adds enough value to continue doing it. So, wanted to bring up to you guys the possibility of just not we we have our own federal lobbyists that we pay for separately. We pay for a state level lobbyist separately. All of the
content that is well some of us only go to the conference the annual conference and then a lot of the educational content is available through groups like Thousand Friends of Florida. So we can get all of this all of the things except
for the parties for zero dollars. Um well not zero because you know we already have the I'm not in favor of uh going away from the big cities. I think it provides value and each one of us can make a decision as to whether it has value or not and not attend the uh annual
conference if that's how you feel about it. Just don't attend. And I I agree with that. I take a lot of I've gone every year and I take a lot of courses there and I've learned a lot of different ways on different things different cities do and different perspectives and I've also with a bunch
of different cities and learn from each other. I'm taking my ethics course again for the year at the annual conference. So, I don't I don't think it's fair to say it's a uh it's a party weekend. That's not what I look at it as. It's very much an educational tool.
Well, sounds like everybody wants to continue with that investment. So, just thought I'd bring it up. But, but you don't have to Well, I didn't go last year and I'm not going this year, but I do go to all of the things that do not cost the taxpayers anything extra to participate in for that initial $8,000 investment.
So, I can I can work with that. All right, that's all I've got. All right, moving on to future meeting dates. We've got Monday, August 18th at 6:30 p.m. a regular session. Monday, August 25th at 5:30 p.m. a work session, which is still tenative or
No, we'll have it and we're going to have it. And then Monday, September 4th. Is that Monday? That is a Thursday. I was like, that's Thursday. That is the third. Thursday, September 4th at 6:30 p.m. a regular session. We also will have a CRA meeting on August the 18th and it will
probably start at 5:30 at what time? 5:30. 5:30. Okay. So 5:30 on the August 18th. Is there anything else for the gift of the order? Is that Labor Day? September 4th. Uh no, that's Lab Labor Day September 1st, I believe.
Yeah, the 4th is a Thursday. That's why that's it should be Thursday. Oh, gotcha. Okay, I got I heard Thursday and I'm looking there saying Monday like something's off. Okay, it is 7:04 p.m. and this meeting is adjourned. Stay dry. Right on time for rain.