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the Palaca community redevelopment agency
meeting on February 10th 2025 at 5:00 pm and I'm calling this meeting to order starting with an invitation Pastor malberry are you in Zoom land you do not see him him okay can you give us please the invocation commissioner DAV I understand dear heavenly father we thank you for this day God we pray that
as we convene this meeting God that you give us guidance and wisdom as we care for the city of Paka and the citizens therein God we thank you for this day we pray that you bless it and continue to guide and direct us as we make the best decisions for our city it's in Jesus name we pray amen you commissioner palia could you lead us in the pledge please be happy too please join me I pledge allegiance to the flag of United States of America and to
the Republic whichs one nation indiv liy andice roll call Madam clerk please mayor Carrera present commissioner Davis pres commissioner Campbell present commissioner Jones here commissioner Borum commissioner pelis here
here commissioner Teresa Jackson here we have Quorum thank you has everybody had an opportunity to me the minutes of December 9 2024 yes motion to approve the minutes as printed second we have a motion in second all in favor I any opposition thank you I'm going to open up the floor to G public comments General discussions on the CRA is anybody here for
public comment seeing none we close public comment on to regular business presentation discussion gas lights in the South historic district Miss roach or or it Miss Odum who's okay thank you good afternoon can hear me yes wonderful good afternoon everyone um so this item is about the gas lamps in the South historic district so miss Rach with the support of commissioner
Campbell requested that the C discussed the following consideration of using CRA South historic district funds to cover necessary repairs to the lamps and ensure their lighting year round as well as exploring solutions that do not bur burden local residents with costs that can that can be assumed by the city or the CRA so a little background on this is that the South historic district features 17 gas lamps that are recognized as a visual and historical element of the community currently these gas lamps are only lit through the month of December with funding sourced
entirely from donations our residents this practice was initiated following the assession of the city and the City of I'm sorry and the gas Authority funding due to substantial costs involved subsequently the South historic district neighborhood association began funding the lighting around key holidays and we did an assessment and based on this staff analysis we determined that an assess I'm sorry excuse me based on the staff analysis we've determined that quite a few of the lamps need Replacements basically the majority of them need some sort of replacement and improvements and that there
is a sub stantial costs associated with that as well as the lighting and the maintenance and the repair of those according to the Paca gas Authority the current expense to light these lamps 365 days a year would be a dollar per day per lamp at about no worries um approximately $ 6,25 annually however factoring the necessary repairs and ongoing maintenance the annual cost could exceed over $110,000 replacing all the existing gas
lamps would incur a cost of $512 additionally according to the public works department converting to electrical or solar lighting is costly due to there not being any electrical connection to the Gas Lamp sites so um Brett and I are here for questions but I will let Cheryl speak on behalf of her item yes my name is Cheryl roach and I'm delighted to be here today I've owned a home in the South historic district for eight years when I purchased it in 2017 the lamps were lit and the charm of them was one of the reasons that I
bought in the neighborhood they have been neglected and somewhere along the line they were dimmed I have two displays uh Kristen just gave an overview bottom line what I'm trying to represent is exactly where they are located and also the pictures show that there are nine Regulators at the base of the lamps and eight regulat Regulators close to a house meter uh this has been a bone in contention
in the neighborhood there are people that feel that they possibly could be charged uh when the regulator is on the house meter and I will go ahead and allow Brett to answer any of the questions pertaining to that um I did have a slideshow um up I don't know if it's going to happen so I'll go through everything very quickly I have from the Palatka Daily News archives today in history on the 28th day in 1886 the plaa gas work Street lamps
were lit for the first time first slide speaks for itself the existing lamps were not the first we're but they are the last preserving them should be Paramount for the future of the South historic district the next slide it's an article from the Boston scope Boston is to switch their 2800 gas lamps to LED I won't go through the whole thing uh because of Time bottom line um neighbors the neighborhood felt that they were not notified by the city
it's Paramount that you do communicate with the neighborhood pertaining to any decisions made and secondly the cost of going to Electric um is not as green to Green as they had thought so it may not be the best way to go next slide please um this is an article from the historic Indian village in Detroit uh this was a neighborhood that
went about on their own to to install gas lamps the HOA after uh upheaval in the 70s um in total 258 were installed um in the 2000s uh only 100 of them were still working and um the city said you need to clean these up they were not getting any more assistance from the gas Authority because it had merged and switched companies and they
are still working on trying to maintain the lamps but the bottom line in this is that the HOA shouldn't be in the business of maintaining Street lamps in our neighborhood and lastly I wanted to speak pertaining to the gas lights in the French Quarter they have a very rich history in New Orleans they are being actively preserved cherished and they are more than just
the source of light the gas lamps of French quarter pay a crucial part in the shaping the overall experience of this iconic neighborhood their soft flickering illumination complements the intricate architecture creating a visual Harmony that transports visitors back in time so the final slide shows how New Orleans has integrated their gas lamps as part of the city's unique identity My Hope Is that the commission will embrace the same philosophy in closing the funding is in the South historic Tiff C
fund the was a large Surplus from last year that should be addressed at this point I will answer any questions and also uh both Kristen and Brett are here thank you Miss roach and just for the record commissioner boram has arrived it was about 505 thank you does anybody have any questions on Miss roach or no I just want to just thank her for bringing bringing that forward to
the uh board in term of the the lights and it not only serves the historical piece but also the safety aspect and everything else so just coming in looking coming across the bridge looking at those lights uh it really enhanced the city quite quite a bit yes they do and they've been dim for uh way too long and there certainly is funding in the CRA specifically in the South historic district that should be utilized and it would uh tremendously lift
the neighborhood right we do have F yes we do have fun it could take bright to blight to the literal state if we could re you know re-illuminated those lights commissioner Campbell do you have anything yes I was one of the ones who um asked that this be placed on the agenda um and I think we should strongly consider the uh not only the Ambiance but if that's an aspect of what makes that particular neighborhood that particular
neighborhood um I think we strongly should consider um we we we give money to festivals and things of that nature but we want to make sure that we give to our citizens um who remain here in those neighborhoods so I don't think um it may not be a drop in the bucket but I think it's an investment well I I and not speaking cost but I I do know that uh Brett does have if you want to come up and just very briefly uh discuss um it's not as expensive as you may think uh
to bring them up to par good afternoon good afternoon Mr Denis it may be a big surprise but the gas authorities on board with lighting those lamps we think it would be a a very positive thing and and uh advertises my product which I think is very positive thing for me um but there is a cost um when we light them between Christmas and New Year's um the person that's on call gets calls repeatedly to bre light
those lamps that's why we've recommended uh either rebuilding or replacement of the heads so that their uh their lighting is more uh reliable um anytime that a citizen calls in a smell of gas we're required to go out and respond to that so middle of the night on a weekend night we'll be out there relighting those lamps and there's a cost for doing that um we think with replacement of the heads that should be minimized during hurricanes all bets are off but um we think the plan that's been put
together is a good one um and um I'll answer any questions do anybody have any questions of Mr Dennis thank you please Mr Dennis yes you mentioned hurricanes which is a point are is there a process in place now for uh potential storm impact where gas related lights are addressed prior to well um usually during the time that we're currently lighting them there aren't
usually hurricanes between Thanksgiving and Christmas or at least not the time that I've been here um so we haven't run into that but we have run into it where the wind off of the river will blow out some of the lights and and that's a you know function of the age of the units and the repair that they're in the shape that they're in um but going forward if there was a hurricane coming up it'd be a responsible thing that I that I would take that on to shut those off safety is
a top priority thank you um and I I I'm just going to be the de no thank you Mr Den a devil advocate have we explored solar truly explored solar as an option because you can get yes he has as a matter of fact question solar well that is an option not one that we would I know that you wouldn't advocate for it I get that could be pursued okay I think all options should be pursued I also think the rest of the and I live in that neighborhood so I'm not um being the devil's advocate here I think the neighborhood also needs to be
pulled about how the majority of the neighborhood feels about this well I clearly stated that that that was one of the big mistakes that Boston made and uh Boston is in the top 25 cities in the country so um they have pretty deep pockets and um they could be a good example I everybody I think is certainly for h a green savings um you know it's hard to combine the two but there's big difference between 2800 lamps and
18 lamps pertaining to a mission it's very very minimal I don't think that it's should be um anything that would stimy um you know the lights being lit the fact that the emissions are are detrimental to our our town in any capacity so um I I I was under the impression that solar just really isn't something that's possible and the um the conversion to Electric uh what Boston Learned was that the best time to do it is when you're doing other maintenance uh
when when you you have uh you know mandated uh you know Capital maintenance that you're doing pertaining to sidewalks and streets uh is is the way and I know that we were not that long ago torn up completely you know that would have honestly been a good time to do it but um it wasn't even addressed so um you know that's why I was suggesting the possibility of exploring solar versus electrical I I had brought that up yeah I had brought that up I had spoken to Brett about it so I think it would be cute to have the little solar thing up there and it would be something
but it's only 18 likes we're not talking I understand that but anyway thank you question go ahead yes ma'am so I noticed the staff's recommendation is to poll the neighbors yes in that area polling the neighbors depending on the outcome I'm assuming is what you'll consider I guess and bring back for us to move forward with Absolutely I'll bring
my findings to the motion okay um okay I'm G to just stop it there that's fine if I may um I wanted to say that I did speak to Joe um about the electrical and the solar he's not here today but he did speak that speak to the fact that it would be difficult to get electrical out there even though it is solar there's supposed to be an electrical connection but I will absolutely reach out to him post meeting and get back to you all on a better understanding of the electrical component of this I have I have a
question um have we I see we have the numbers for the gas do you have any numbers of The Upfront cost for electric to go electric I do not but I will absolutely bring that to you guys um by the end of the weeken to you any further discussion on this item and just to add on to it it's when the report you said it can exceed $10,000 annually yes how much it can exceed it um those are not good
hard numbers of course talking about going forward and I think that that should be presented to us making this decision U as well and I'm like Miss Jackson I would like to know the num yes if I can speak to the $10,000 so um in a couple meetings I had with Brett we looked at the number can kind of go up and down based off a few things one that at this point the cost of gas would be about a dollar a day so it can go up it can go down as well as if the gas lamps get blown out I know that he mentioned the
over time cost so if those lamps go out a lot that cost can go up if they don't go out as much then that cost would stay the same so it takes those things to account and then of course general maintenance if a lamp has a problem it just it's hard to give an exact number because we don't know how much gas will go up we don't know how many lamps will end up needing repairs so that's just a general base cost that we felt comfortable with saying at least right now but of course as we do more research I'm sure we can absolutely get a more accurate number that was
just for today's discussion thank you got one other question sure so so if the lights go go out um what would be the emergency to get maybe one light two lights so how many lights determine an emergency before you call somebody out for overtime spell I think I can answer that anytime we hear that there's a gas smell it's a response immediate we have people on staff are on call 24 hours a day for
water and or for gas uh if if a resident called and said they smell gas we're going to respond immediately okay I mean I just I just wanted to double check and make sure that I mean so if it goes out that means that gas is still going to it and it's not being burned it is but it's a small amount of gas and natural gas being lighter than air would tend to dissipate rapidly okay um I was in the propane industry for a lot of years and that goes down right being a more dangerous situation um I'd also like to say that the first year
cost we would expect to higher than going going after that because replacing the heads doing the repairs up front then it's just maintenance so the first year would be the bigger and then C we would expect to level out after that right and the last question is so the the lights were on prior but then they were turned off correct yeah I'm finding uh discrepancies on exactly when it was shut off uh but
our records show about 200 they were turned on they were turned on all year and then at that point sporadically I thought it was actually I thought it was before that I I bought a house in 2005 they were on all the time I thought it was more like 2009 is when the the city decided to cut off the funding for the city Andor gas Authority cut off the funding for that and told the neighborhood association they had to absorb that cost and that may well be that different people were paying the city themselves yes
is what we looked into I've been here since 2018 we've been doing it on during special occasions since then so my last question is um so since they were turned on and then turned off whatever that period of time is um can you look back and see the number of times that maybe yall had to maybe go out if they kept records of that during that time to kind of understand and know
well I give you an idea um that um during that one month period I would say we have at least 10 call outs during that time would you say that's fair to say 8 to 10 yeah probably 8 to 10 is an average depending on how windy it is okay with the current heads that are on it correct we would expect with better equipment we'd have better results okay thank you thank you thanks you sir thank you and if I could just add real quickly um there are guards that you can buy uh they're just simply a little
glass that you slide on top and um especially at the riverfront where it does blow a lot it could certainly uh help a lot and I was told it was $40 a pop when they're turned when they blow out thank you thank you thank you any on to the next item recommendation to award building Improvement Grant September 2024 cycle Miss Odum Miss not sure how
to operate okay okay uh I'd like to pull um item 4 BH please if I may is this the appropriate time yes okay go ahead and I like to say something um I have a relative that actually apply and I want to disclose it and I want a recru from okay this vote
I don't need to take a vote on thank you so the the issue there is whether or not um you would directly benefit if you would in your any sort of personal game I wouldn't but I like it to be clean I think that commission could award or not award without me so you don't own the house at no I don't own it I have any interest however I have a
relative that applied as I said thank you thank you thank you so on January 14th the tax increment fund advisory committee scored and rck the eligible applicants for the September 24 cycle of the building Improvement Grant these scores have been including your report and today you'll be asked to make a funding recommendation the funding recommendation will be made today before submitting it to the commission for final approval the applicants will have an opportunity to share any new information regarding the projects however please note there will
be no recommendations I'm sorry presentations allowed and before you all begin um Miss West and I as well as Miss cardi we had a few conversations of just a few things we wanted to bring up so the application cycle closed in September 22nd 2024 and in that time there was a few things in the application we looked back on as that was quite a few months ago and we noticed that quite a more than half of the applicants have already began work on their projects and in
this appli it says that work that is retroactive may not be eligible for funding but there is a part in the application as well that says that within 30 days of the deadline of the application approaching then um there will be some sort of determination that the process will begin that did not happen as I stated before the first meeting was January 14th to go over these so we are asking today if it would be considered that just for this one cycle that the applicants that have already done work are still consider
considered but only for work they've done after the 30-day Mark which would be October 22nd and this is only because we would hate to penalize these applicants that are really doing what the grant is meant to do which is great it's to remove blight in their Community as well as one of the other important parts of this application is that they not be relling on Grant funds commissioner Campbell uh I just wanted to bring legal
land I know she mentioned that her Miss cardi and legal um had or was in communication I just even though it ultimately Falls up under the commission um I want us to be mindful of the precedents that we are setting so I want to bring legal in to get her true perspective as to um the recommendation sure thank you commissioner Campbell so uh upon taking
a a deep dive on the building Improvement grant program materials um it does State work completed prior to Grant award on the property may not be considered as match or for grant funding um because that is not mandatory language it's not a shall um I in my opinion that that allows uh some discretion on the part of the CRA board to consider improvements that were made afterwards um it will remain within the
discretion um of this board to consider that in future funding Cycles if this grant program verbiage is not changed um all that being said I've been working with Kristen we've identified uh some of the the problem areas loopholes potential issues within the grant program documents that we will be working to address in the future um and that's going to be one of them but you do have discretion here and uh know so and propably characterize this as you
know uh addressing the blight in the city so we would urge the the commission to use that discretion thank you so how would we like to proceed with that just like I said over half the applicants have already begun work in some way um before we move forward I just would like to see how you would like to proceed and that will determine what applicants we hear today what is the thought of uh
commissioner Davis I'll go around I do not have a problem accepting the request commissioner pelia same commissioner B okay commissioner Jones um we knew some of this from our last cycle so um some of these loopholes and some of these issues already have been dis disclosed and discovered and truthfully I
don't think it's the applicant fault um it's our fault and if they have done work I think it should be considered that's my personal opinion on this because it is not their fault so if that money can be allocated i' say Let's uh allocate funds to them let them be eligible m j i to I totally agree you know it's not their fault and we should move forward with allowing them thank you commissioner C okay with it
okay and I am too I concur it's the responsibility the onus is on us and I'm I'm glad that and I think I've mentioned in Miss Odum that this grant really verbage needs to be revised updated there's a lot of glaring issue so I I'm all in favor of that great and I would like it to be known that before the next Grant cycle cycle this application will be brand new and we will solve a lot of these problems that I've heard from residents as well as staff
thank you course so um give me one moment Miss Johnson um our first applicant she um is not feeling well and wasn't aable to make it today so she just asked me to read a little bit if that's all right with you all a text thank you okay actually she did not text me yet but that is okay so um we have 110 Main Street so she's requesting um $1,846 as part of
her total project of 20 3,690 so she's going to be replacing a front porch replacing external doors repairing shingles and her she replac her metal roof and like I said um many of the applicat have done the work and are almost complete and she's one of those applicants I have a real quick question if I may mayor go ahead is this the grant where we're matching up to half of what the total project is yes okay thank you yes so I listed on all
of the stop reports them Max so of course you can go um from that Max to anything below that to not to exceed that amount yes do you want to just do we want her to miss s to go through each individually and then we can discuss so how do we want to proceed it might be easier to go through all of yeah go I'm Sorry Miss K what I was just saying it is in the packet as well yes it's yes clearly um go on to the next please yes
um the next one is 113 South 8th Street this applicant is asking for she can receive a Max of $25,000 as part of her $55,100 project cost repairing the roof troop removal windows and doors electrical climbing itch back pressure washing if you have any questions she is here today Miss Conover does anybody have any questions of the applicant okay thank you we can go on so next is 720 St John's Avenue the applicant is requesting
the max of $25,000 as part as their total cost of $57,900 for hardscaping landscaping for finishing facade upgrades all of the above in that way um Mr Alexander here if you have any questions questions of the applicant oh which one that is this is 720 St John's any questions of the applicate um if we go on
then to 310 Main Street 310 Main Street they're requesting a grant amount of 99,100 as part of their $188,200 project cost for repairing the exterior replacing rotten wood repairing Windows Doors Andes as needed and they here to answer any questions somebody have any questions of the applicant are they did you say they were here I do not see see them
okay thank you and um on to 214 St John's yes the applicant can receive a Max of $25,000 as part of their 30,000 794 I actually believe that is a typo on my part should be a little over 15,000 they can receive for the max of $3,793 for their project cost thank you 912 St John yes they can receive a Max of 25,000 as far as their
1967 $1 project cost okay any questions of the applicant who is here in this case no okay thank you 706 St John's for 706 um they can receive a maximum of and I believe that's another tip of my I apologize um can't do the mouth top of my head but it's a Max of $35,000 I'm sorry the full project cost is $335,000 for this applicant and I believe Mr Bates is here today
okay any questions of the applicant who is present no thank you and those are all of the applicants and that's all of the applicants at this time yes any discussion about any particular application mayor I don't have a discussion I do have a question about the general process can you just run through the general timeline of this grant process application start application closing review time and Grant time yes
so um I started on January 2nd was my first day so I'm sorry let me rephrase my question what is the city's process not necessarily when you got here no problem so um applications were received the deadline was September 22nd from there the applications were reviewed can you state the year oh yes I'm so sorry um of 2024 September 22nd 2024 the applications were received they were reviewed and um staff member
reviewed them all and listed them out sorted them by district and answered just some more basic questions of what they were asking the scope of the project what districts they were located in and if they had a complete application from there um a meeting is set for the tiac committee to review the applicants and then do a scoring so all of those applicants were scored and they were included in the report then from there the following meeting which is where
we here today we are here to um put amounts with each of the applicants and then from there it'll go to the city commission for thank you so the process is typically about a three to three four month process typically yes any additional questions of Miss OD I would like to request that we add something simple as before and after pictures that be added yes um because
you know we're on Hon system that work has been completed and I see some um receipts here and matter of fact couldn't kind of catch up with you one of the receipts I saw it said work had not been completed yet and it was actually uh in this packet so a question is I don't think we called the residents out from the address that
that you call but the aside from that I would like to see before and after what's the need and what we're what we're approving be done and then if they say well this work have been halfway completed and we've receiving these packets to approve them say well here's the half of the work that F approved that could help us out here absolutely and I've already reached out to all of the applicants in preparation for this to have them bring forward um any like the completed
invoices that they've paid to prove appr prove that the work was done and that it was done after that 30-day period if necessary if you all would like to receive that as a conditional part of receiving their grand funds but I can absolutely make that a condition of before and after photos other thing would be nice you know consider to and we used to do that in the past a long time ago when it was out there we used to um come before the CR with before and afters for the Home Improvement program Etc
so I think it would be great additionally I'm sorry with the necessary documents received that you know with the purchase of the equipment or um material that that's been purchased and U of course uh certified um contractors or whoever doing the work I agree also there's an additional step that um you have the project manager
right to yeah so um once we make it to the end of the process and of our end where we draft Grant agreements based off of what everyone is awarded we reimburse um I'm sorry the Aon is expected to turn in receipts and then we go through them make sure that it matches the scope that they were granted for the project manager goes to the site and confirms that yes all of these things have been done and then from there we go ahead and do the requisition to reimburse the applicant for their
portion of the work okay appreciate thank you so what I was referring to is the 113 South 8th Street and it actually says here work not yet completed and but but this invoice is here so do you and there's you know I see invoices but uh it doesn't say that they're paid or what yes so those things need to be like cleared up so we
wouldn't know so we if I may explain that um so those were that's what was submitted in the original application in September 2022 I didn't want to mix it up with new information since that wasn't a part of the original application due to the fact that you all may have not have approved today to move forward with allowing these applicants to allow retroactive work but the applicat and applicants today have brought that information with them if you would like to see or I can take them from there but I kept the
applications the original applications received in September as that was new information to me based off the last tipb back meeting that a lot of these applic applicants had completed the work the these address I mean these dates are August and September of 2024 this is yes this is old the old information so that was um all the information that was received at the date of the application being submitted in September of 2024 but but you guys are requesting that we approve it so
to be approved we should have all the information I do understand where you're coming from and in the future I can absolutely do that and I'll but this actually will not be a problem in the future this will not be the case but I do absolutely see where you're coming from on this item yeah you know go ahead commission cell finish but go ahead okay Sor sorry go ahead finish up commissioner Jones then sorry my apolog what I'm saying is you you're bringing a process to us to approve this
entire um board and we need complete information to to to be fair so so G to be fair we you know to the applicants I think that we should have this and you say you don't want to mix all and new but it's all one of the same because we're just talking about the same property um rather it's uh costs that have been incurred or the estimated cost and we need to know the difference whether they have already uh paid the
the cost or this is just the estimated cost because if it's estimated cost and they have not spent the money we're we're reward awarding more than they have paid so more than the 50% say so that is actually one part of the application so in the grant agreement that you have to pay x amount of money before or prove that you've paid x amount of money before you can receive your check so I had a applicant I just gave them their reimbursement check for where they what it said on their application was they
had to spend $30,000 to receive their $155,000 they actually exceeded that so those were things I looked at and there was even a few things on there I was like this doesn't apply I'm not going to include that to make it as Fair as possible if that helps to explain um that part of it it does it's just it's a little confusing and then again to make the process Fair that's it I just want to State it because I did see these two here yes I understand a commissioner Campbell yes I wanted to
um it's my understanding that there was a Review Committee and there was rankings given how does the rankings play into what we have presented to us today yes so um the scores that were provided it's it's something that it's not stuck um set in stone you all can see the scores and say I don't agree and make a different Choice from there so it's just something to help make the process a little bit more smoothly for
you while you review these as the tipat committee was able to ask questions get a little bit more information out of each applicant so the ranking is not based on anything outside of just questions that was asked by the criteria so there was criteria on page 26 of the packet it was based off project qu quality project feasibility and Redevelopment impact and at the of the meeting I did go over
all of that with them so they knew what each scoring criteria they were scoring off of so they could make the best decisions possible and of course any questions based off that were there any other applicants besides the ones here that were ranked so yes there was one more but did not have her certificate of appropriateness which okay then made her ineligible okay move forward question so those this was basically all the applicants but that one and that
was kind of my question um okay and at this point there's sufficient funding obviously to cover the C these these grants if they're approved do we want to proceed and vote on these or is there any additional questions
okay go ahead commissioner B the only the only thing is I guess we need to make sure U whatever necessary Corrections need to be made um before the next cycle we need to make sure that that stays before the board and so it's on the agenda so that we know that it's being worked and the grant revisions updates okay we got application okay and if I may um before you all make your motion with the next step there are I'm in the process of going through
old applications or old cycles and Grant agreements so there may be some that people are still going through the process and I'll be hearing back in the next few months before their Grant agreement expires so when I put together the cost Improvement share of showing how much is left in the fund I just wanted that to be considered as there may be applicants that I'm sorry Grant agreements that are still active and we're still determining whether they are still in the process or
if they stop doing their work okay yes we know there were at least a couple that we voted looking at that hopefully just want to make sure that is known thank you go ahead commission dve Madame mayor based on what's appropriate from what I hear I would like to make a motion that we accept the recommendations to award the grants for all of the one at
a time that's that's what I'm asking Direction okay go back up look at addresses 101 Main is the first Madame mayor I move that we approve the grant award for 1010 Main Street second we have a motion a second all in favor I any opposition thank
you somebody want to make a motion for B 113 south8 I'd like to make a motion to approve 110 south3 113 south8 we have a motion to have a second second all in favor I I any opposition thank you C do we have a motion I move that we a accept um awarding the grant for 720 St John's Avenue
second second okay commissioner Campbell was a second all in favor I I any opposition thank you D you do need to vote except for the one that you feel you don't you're recusing yourself I yeah I haven't heard your little voice in the background I'm done okay because we're doing them separately uh d310 Main Street you have a motion like to make a motion that we're approve
310 Main Street second we have a motion to Second all in favor I I any opposition thank you e 214 St John's do we have a motion I'll make a motion that we move um with the grant for 214 St John's Avenue second motion second all in favor any opposition thank you 912 St John's motion make a motion to approve 912 St John's second have a
motion and second all in favor I any opposition thank you 706 St John's motion has a motion motion to approve 706 St John's second we have motion to Second all in favor I any opposition thank you on to the next item discussion Direction city of Paka LED sign yes so we no no I want you to
go so the city is considering the purchase of and installation of a new LED sign to replace the existing Port Consolidated sign located at 102 Reed Street situated at the North historic district this initiative aligns with the goals outline the community redevelopment plan which emphasizes the importance of advocating for health and safety of residents Property Owners visitors within the Redevelopment area so the city has solicited quotes from four different LED sign vendors receiving about eight proposals the signs VAR
in size from 5 by8 feet to a larger 5x1 ft to evaluate the offers myself as well as um city manager Marcia cardi reviewed the proposals and looked at the following criteria size cost quality of warranty instulation options and we did in All or Nothing scoring for those so you either got the points if you met those criteria or you did not so in reviewing and during a thorough analysis the vendor with the highest score of eight was the
steart signs which was a 5et by 2 in by 9 fet by two in which was the is a first attachment in the staff report and that cost of the sign would be $317 6126 thank you um that is for the sign itself it's not for the structure that it's housed in correct my understanding is that it's for everything that's for everything okay that's that I want clarification on that AB okay
the warranty installation I'll be above and is that gonna be off the ground that uh or is it going there's a already some type of fixture out there already you going off of that or off the ground so we would be removing what is currently there and having it on that pedestal to be lifted up off the ground um we had looked at some different ideas and figured that the whole goal is to be able to see it from both sides and see it as you're coming down the bridge so we thought that that would be a
more appropriate for eye level as the sign structure that's currently there is a little too high for what we're wanting to use it for where is it oh I'm sorry will you go still commissioner Jones so for our sign ordinance how how tall would that be that is a wonderful question um I did speak with Lorenzo prior to and when we were looking at signs um when I first started everything that we were looking at stayed with
in the ordinance range they wouldn't be a problem but I will absolutely get that in writing so how tall would that be again so that is going to be8 by eight it's 8 feet and8 inches I believe is what I see on there yes this my vision is it's so yeah I see eight eight so just I'm a visual person so if
I'm thinking about the school district sign in relation to that is it about the same same that same I me you guys I don't have I don't remember what it looks like I do apologize um but I can absolutely get back to you on a comparison on their sign versus our sign to get a good idea of what this would eventually look like and and only reason why I say asked that question is we're want to sign War our sign is bigger than theirs and then then you have somebody else come in trying to put uh we
see yeah Charlie Douglas Mega Law Firm all across the building and because I mean I'm just saying that's what we'll end up having and then we're g be in here discussing and matter of fact while we're talking about it I think we need to um actually make that ordinance something that's complete when we say we're going to do electronic signs I hope it's already an ordinance but if it isn't we should make sure we know how big a sign can be coming in this um I just want to
say that not for you thank commission Davis where it says welcome and this is a functionality question that's able to be changed depending on what you want to place there okay with LEDs welcome should be on top commissioner B now in the intensity of the lights sometime that could really um impair um you know your your your drivers from with distractions as well with the um intensity of their lights um
because there's a location within the city I won't say where it is right now but uh when you're driving past that area it there's some high intensity High intense lights coming off of that and it's very distractive can that be controlled though by the pro the program that's involved I'm not exactly sure I would I would think yes that we be able to control that but I think one thing that we can consider with that because I gu is a topic that has come up quite a bit safety at the end of the day right
right so um as of right now we have that location where the Port Consolidated sign is but we can do a little bit more research look at some um studies on where accidents currently happen I've actually looked at one and I could see where the concern could absolutely arise there and maybe we can change the location a little bit I think we can absolutely look and I can come back and say this is the safest location based off accident reports right and I'll pass the other information over to Mr Lorenzo so he
can look at that area at Le well I pass it to the city manager so that they can pass it over to Mr Lorenzo yes sir commissioner Campbell yes I wanted to kind of piggy back on the uh dialogue that commissioner um Jones mentioned um I don't want a sign War either but I want us to maximize um what we can do with that area because I know you have um coming from across the bridge something high would be a a little
bit more feasible than having something low so I want us to take that in consideration as well thank you thank you um and and I know we're going to have a workshop to discuss the potential future of this property um but my other thought was that if and we don't know what that's going to be but if at some point the city discusses the possibility of selling it and we have the sign here are we going to Annex that property into our city hall property that little portion of wherever the sign is I'm just asking for future thoughts yeah
we we were looking some of the potential placements for the sign uh was initially where there is already a sign and then secondly uh a position that's close to where we're currently parking our cars but on the Port Consolidated which could also be right so that way if for some reason there's any a future event that it's not ours
or what ever at least we'll have the location for placing the sign close to the area that we already own we're looking at so many building and closer to the the school district sign so it's kind of it's there's a limit to where you can move I guess very limited it's only like two places almost two and um one of the other reasons we had chosen the ports Consolidated location with speaking with another company there's already electrical there so
that's one less comp component we would have to worry about on a financial aspect yeah which makes sense one last question so I know you guys already have the answer but for clarity um that's not that far off of the roadway so there are variant that has to be certain distance from the roadway because all of those Port consolidate probably a long time ago uh when they put up had a sign up that kind of electronic sign
yes quite sure it has to be off the road whe a way yes like a certain setback right so yes there that absolutely exists I'm not sure how many feet that is from the roadway but I will get the answer for you and we did have planning director of planning there when we had a site visit with the various department heads that would be impacted by having that led sign do was there he said not L our
our directors we had the U and we had our planning director and so forth but we will indeed get in touch with fdot as well so they you are seeking Direction and I guess it's to explore this further and get the information re question is that yes I think all of those questions need to be answered okay thank you thank you go ahead and yeah go ahead the um just from a uh the sign proximity just say for instance uh you got a
number of different um entities or businesses or organizations want to put signs up is there a certain proximity or um I'm not for are youning planning with no but I'll include that in my report for the next meeting appreciate it thanks any additional questions about this led sign from the soda thank you next discussion Direction CRA code enforcement officer yes so the CRA districts Encompass areas that require
targeted efforts for Effective revital revitalization and Community Improvement as these districts undergo development and change strong code enforcement becomes increasingly essential currently the code enforcement office manages a large area the entire city to address this issue appointing a full-time code enforcement officer who dedicates part of their time specifically to CRA districts will be more effect will help to more effectively tackle quota compliance issues and better support the C's objective is as outlined in the
analysis there are a few things that I looked at first was purpose and need a designated code enforcement officer will focus on the particular needs and challenges faced by properties businesses within the C District this also aligns with the c goals to reduce blight and enhanced Community quality another is community engagement this qu enforcement quod enforcement officer work with myself as as well as helping violators and residents in the business in businesses in the C District and I would like to
also note that I did speak with the city of St Cloud today and they actually have a designated code enforcement officer there's this fulltime and they consider enhanced Services by the office and that salary is paid for out of the CRA funds okay that was going to be my question because I made this suggestion several years ago would this be a halftime position or full-time so it would be a fulltime employee hired by The Code Enforcement office but part of their time will be dedicated and that will be
clearly tracked absolutely no funding purposes and all three tiffs will contribute to this that yes absolutely does anybody else have any other questions just want to understand that the full-time position parts of the person's salary will come out of other funding other than CRA so cra will pay a portion what portion of that salary will CRA funds pay so miss Cur I know you have the exact break of what we
typically take right so um there are two Alternatives that we're actually looking at we're looking at possibly having a full-time code enforcer for all three districts and also knowing that we're going to a fourth district uh that's one option the other option is only part-time and that part-time salary would be split between all three existing districts the percentage would be
7 20% 22% and 8% that part-time portion that is allocated to the CR from the C from the three Tiff District the three C District c as a whole would be paying 50% of the salary general fund would be paying the other exactly so it depends on the direction fulltime is a better idea I think yes so do I but uh we have to go by uh the direction that you give us so I'm what I'm saying
is initially when we talked about this um C enforcement was here is here but uh we were thinking about having a full-time code enforcement person allocated to all three CRA districts okay and then that person's costs would be split between all three districts the percentages are 70% for towntown 22 2% for uh South
historic and um 8% for North go ahead commissioner Jones how are the how are the code enforcement Duties are split up at this current time and how do y'all keep up with currently we are in uh I would say a transitional mode um would you like to come up you want me to continue Chief
currently have uh commissioner I'm sorry go ahead go ahead all right now the codin for off split up in half we got two codein for officers in half of the city uh it pretty much break down at 19th Street on both sides so so would it be fair to say they have they're split in half half the city
half evenly so you're going you're talking about and the third one or fourth one actually before you have a third position that's not filled right that has not been filled you allocated a third one what we going to do is make that the city in the threes and then this act additional Code Enforcement office actually going to be dedicated to the downtown T and I was going to take the other three and split the city around them but they will be rotated every six months so one code for off won't be stagnated at one spot I
like the rotation deal but I also like to have the understanding of how the the the workload and the duties are divided because when we talking about having the percentage just didn't sound right as I don't know I know commissioner Borman is about to talk speak on that but you said 70% 22% then 8% I I really don't get that so could you explain to me what do you mean by that how the percentage is I guess is
on pay uh the percentage of workload would be actually divided up among here she's rout that they take uh so I would not tell them to do 7% they have a designated area that they need to cover on a on a weekly monthly basis and then they rotate around every time like that so the the percentage she call that out that is on pay that is not on the Cod exactly that's on the funding that's on funding right and budgetary and it's based on the size of the the
size of the districts right that is um a ratio that has been established and from a budgetary perspective that's what the allocation is three Tiff districts go ahead you may have cleared up go ahead commissioner B the only question I have is I I I still think that the code enforcement is done based on uh a per call in uh as opposed to having uh staff proactively
go out and look for um violations right so that's has has it changed changed two years ago we got to be proactive right and when they stopped doing anonymous calls we got to be Mr home we got to be proactive so actually twice a week they ride around the city they stuff and look for violations the other weeks they do admin stuff or they do Callins okay so so this the entire city should be pretty much have
some yes coverage in terms of violations uh existing violations and what you future as so right now our cubicle is set for code enforcement hearings all way through November of this year with at least 12 hearings certain month okay and I do know code enforcement generally pays for itself for the most part so it help in that regard does anybody else have any questions on this topic commissioner Campbell do you have
any questions or comments I don't um so uh the request is for direction from this board do we want them to move forward do we want any more information so silence rain no everybody might going be on because we'll be talking in a minute I just turned it on I just turned it on well what I think have to establish whether we're going to do fulltime
or part-time first and once that's established I think that's when things can move forward so so from here you right you saying you GNA you desire to start a part-time and see how it work or what what you saying I I I feel first you got to know which direction you're going to go are you going to go fulltime apart time and then from there establish if it's even uh feasible I mean from my understanding
there's code Code Enforcement now so I'm assuming that it's broke so it needs to be fixed I don't know like I created something maybe I'm gonna turn my mic off no disrespect man but no it's not broke uh when I took over code enforcement we had a lot of issu no no no pun P but we have now created some structure now we have made some people mad but it's not broken but now they wanted to reorg and change some things
around so that's why but the code enforcement in the Tiff District was something we had talked about two years ago right trying to get them to have their own person because be honest with you a lot of our cases but they're lowline fruit a lot of our cases come from the tied yeah you know so we were trying to say okay make you put some skin in the game and and have a code enforcement or somebody dedicated to help that area so that's what that came about and and the re we we don't have a lot of resources for the whole when you look at the whole city we have
had historically two now we're going to three for the whole city and then this would be a fourth just dedicated to the three TI District CRA um so you know it's it's just there are a lot of issues in the city codewise um and so it has been a limited ability it's not that it's broke it's that it's resource well I'll I'll stand on if it's not broke don't fix it but go ahead commissioner Jones uh this one is an internal question to commissioner palace here how
many Code Enforcement Officers do they have for the county I was just sitting there running that through my head and I'm not exactly sure whatever I tell you but I'm going to guess and say three three for a 70,000 population Central and South is how I would think that but I was going to make the comment he would know certainly if they need part-time or full-time or if they need to start somebody at part-time and then as it looks like it develops hey we got a real need here bring that person on it's fulltime so I'm I'm just asking for educational
purposes and I know you probably work with the county code enforcement so how many do they have they have three code enforcement officers and they have two uh like guess they called planning officers that can condemn building so to Total five total but they're only three in the code enforcement department actually code enforcement But to answer your question if we're going to start this I would say go with a fulltime position because that person can be utilized in other things and also cover a little bit more of the city if we needed to a parttime person with the case load itself it would not
be advantageous for you because the case load itself runs you about 24 to 30 hours a week I would lean to his guidance and that he works there every day I we would take his recommendation and obviously it can go to fulltime if the need if the CRA does expand the need arises in the future we can discuss that and if I can add the budgeting part of it uh this came into play during budgeting and in budgeting I think initially we were talking about two part-
timers but then as uh the director looked at it more and more and the prior city manager uh they came to a better understanding that it was wiser instead of us having two part- ERS to have one fulltime and allocate that person to all three uh CRA districts so that's how we arrived where we are now I'd like to introduce A New Perspective when we look at where we're trying to go in this city and
what we're trying to accomplish and I've heard already um commissioner borm to your point we want the code enforcement to be proactive right because we've been not in the past that has been addressed even though the county has three Code Enforcement Officers I'm just going to say this how's that working for for them isn't addressing all the needs the point I'm
trying to make is just because the county has three does not mean they're sitting a predent of what's best right if we look at the city and we have two currently split 50% with the number of cases that exist all the way booked all the way for court dates in November somebody's overworked and we're not in a
timely manner I believe addressing what needs to be addressed we're trying to accomplish a goal with code Code Enforcement is not to punish people but to drive uh an appropriate behavior according to the codes of our city and so I do want to consider that we um I I want to recommend moving forward with the request with a full-time person as we've just heard heard from Mr cutright
and the funding is here it sounds it also I've heard that a lot of the blight or things that need to be addressed there's a huge impact from the CRA districts as well so I wish all things were equal but it's not always like that in life but to be Equitable if a lot of the work is coming from one area and we're in half a
portion of a half we need to put more resources there and that's what I think I'm hearing I don't mean to simplify it so much but that's what I think I'm hearing so I'm in favor of moving ACC moving forward according to the request thank you anybody else have any comments on this topic I have another question okay go ahead and uh I appreciate your opinion on the code enforcement and their jobs
I know that we're very adamant about bringing code enforcement back and making them proactive within the community not penalizing the homeowners however but helping them bring their homes up in businesses up to a standard okay so I am very much for that now a proponent and that's why I asked this question uh kind of candidly we
we have members of this commission that live in these area that we're talking about having a designated code enforcement person that's going to spend significant amount of time in those areas um and if I had a choice as well I would want to be in my community or where I live as well as a dedicated person so um with that being
said I'm in favor for the position but to whom much is given much is required I don't want to just see a an officer dedicated to just you know to take basically take on one area and cater I'm I'm being candid with my words right now and and and and ker I would like to see a program being
really established by code enforcement where we go out and when we identify these things we could also educate them into how we could help them manage their properties because it's a perception that we want to take folk property just like you said people are angry with code enforcement maybe but you're going out doing your job um with the more help that we get as a CRA for the North and the South um and the new new District that we're talking about so that potentially we could
add three more Code Enforcement Officers at some point maybe not now but the need may be there but I would like for the program to be a fulfilling program where we're going to see improvements in all neighborhoods where people in those neighborhoods going to feel that they are also getting uh I want to say pristine care when when it comes to hey listen we see the need in your neighborhood and we're going to
address them and we're going to help you address your issues so I I talked to um chrisan Christan the other day about the same type of a program and so if adding more Code Enforcement Officers will help us get to that goal I'm all for it but um I would like to see that that kind of dedication throughout the city and that kind of
coverage throughout the city so I I had to say it because I wanted to I know we're talking about one particular the CRA District in particular and the amount of time as you you shared it but um I want to make certain that we'll be able to whether the general funds maybe fund even a additional officer because I think that's why I asked about this the County versus the city if we need more than three plus a dedicated person let's let's
round it off and just have let's have that kind of coverage with a program that makes sense makes sense and I agree with that also having somebody dedicated as we're saying to the CRA districts frees up the other code enforcement employees staff as resources to cover the rest of the city which is also a plus but if we need additionally I think that's something we need to talk to during the talk about during the budget SE see if we want to move forward with that that's part of Planning Commission go ahead okay yeah
and while while we're talking about the the the sourcing and resourcing mentioned dedicated now when you're saying dedicated you mean that position is the full-time dedicated position but I understood that the people were going to rotate rot dedicated but rotating yeah that way we can keep the understand that pie I just want to make sure because we we were saying dedicated uh person to the areas the other piece was that uh when
we're doing the enforcement I've got complaint uh that I got to share that um some people are feel feel like that they are being charged more than maybe their neighbor next to them or um as it relates to the cost now that's what was shared with me I can't say yes or no to it but this is a concern I'm bringing forth and um we just want to make sure that whatever we do we're doing it fair inequitable across the board and that some
people are not given um um you know different treatment than others are I think that's part of the education that commissioner Jones kind of brought up that there has to be some information education to Citizens about this whole process because it is very confusing if you don't understand it commissioner Davis go ahead um agreed with the education piece CL point I want to get clarification we're the request
is for an additional um resource that would be dedicated to the CRA District paid by the CR funds hold on let me make sure part at least F part of their time will be there but they'll also be used as a resource in other parts of the city yes so because I
heard something when commissioner Borum he's he's driving a question for me so now I I want it's clear it's mud to me now it was clear before but you're talking about rotating resources in the city so the city let's say now will be divided into thirds because you may have three resources but but really you would have potentially 3.5 I'm not I'm I don't want to get caught in some Antics but do you understand where I'm going with
this this sounds like an administrative getting funded by the C could not be rotated line that's the bottom line for the half salary anyway so so so explain this question my initial proposal when this all came up was have I wanted four code enforcement October yes uh between the conversation with the city manager and also T we got three uh two years ago Mr Griffin lobed to try to get the CRA kind of offset some fund for one the code enforcement because again most of
your Code Enforcement cases was coming out most of your major cases were coming out of the C district with permits planning and all that stuff that comes with old houses uh so along the way they was going to post the offset we did a study about a year and a half ago we did Saturdays in the CIA District they trying to see what kind of workload we have and how much it would cost to have a cold enforcement offer there that study real maybe we needed a good parttime officer there so we I to get a fulltime that way that person would be more
of an admin side on the house and also work in the C District but also be the lead the team leader of the other two code enforcement off other three code enforcement officers that we were trying to get at that time to where give them time to still do other man stuff but also help the C District it manifested just having one code for officer splitting that one splitting that in half and that's where that came so now right now we have a three Code Enforcement Officers two and a half that will
work for the city and other half will work for the C District correct okay so again to the mayor's point that person is not in the rotation of the city potentially potentially yes I just want to make sure um I I want to I want to just clarify and if I want to make sure I'm clear on my position this entire city m matters the
entire city matters I don't care what section of town is in when I hear this request I am speaking and commenting under the assumption and if it's not correct we will need to correct it that all areas will be treated the same I'm talking I can only speak from this point forward all areas are the same and so I hope that
we don't have to make continue making comments about ensuring that one area is treated the same as another area because that should be a given and I I'm not here to reprimand you I want this statement on the record we're talking about all of the city I also believe we have to understand that certain areas of town have different requirements based on different structures
and different makeup and so when we're talking again I can only hope that that's the distinction we're making not in how an area is treated if we're trying to go from Blight to Bright it doesn't matter if one area is shiny and two others are not the city is not shiny so I just want to state that because that's always the Assumption I'm coming with um the other point now I want
to make sure that it is very clear clearly identified as we go forward to look at this that when it comes back for consideration that we have a clear black and white manageable process where we can understand that the resource that the C is paying for is a resource for the CRA and so you've heard the concerns so hopefully they'll be addressed and the last thing I want to consider and say
is that I want to thank you for your work because I know it is challenging and I know we're in transition and doing better with code enforcement and I am going to yield to some of the things we've heard that the city manager heard and will discuss accordingly with you thank you thank you any additional questions I just got one concern I mean comment to Mr cutright yes
I mean again I I Echo the same sentiment as Miss Davis I want to thank you for how where you brought the program from to where it is today uh you have made the city um much brighter and um it's it's certainly um something that it when you're coming through the city now is looking a lot better than it did in the past and so again you brought this uh program from a mighty long way buddy thank you commiss thank you I do have a public comment Mr Alexander public
comment Cod I should say on this topic Jeremy Alexander 134 timberlay and I don't want to belabor the conversation anymore but a lot of what I wanted to talk about was about process uh and then I also wanted to compliment Mr cutright team because where we were two years ago uh is much different than where we are today from a codes enforcement perspective so whatever is going on is much better than where we were I I do know that um the only uh opportunity that I think we should consider
through this process to the conversation about city and county working together is is there a need from a building inspector position um and as we think about throughput and process with adding an additional codes officer is there a need from a city perspective when it comes to condemning buildings or structures that could potentially help with that throughput as well that's all thank you got any further discussion
thank you um police bicycle Patrol my chief com Shaw is here to answer any questions on this item but I'll go ahead and read a little bit from the staff report so the city of Paka Central business district serves as the heart of the community and attracting residents businesses and visitors alike however the increasing foot traffic and activity of the in the area has led to need for enhanced safety measures to ensure public confidence and overall Community
well-being in response to the concerns from stakeholders including local business owners and residents the establishment of a police B Patrol has been proposed this this initiative aims to provide a visual police presence during peak hours which have been identified as Thursday through Sunday 2 pm to 7.m and as outlined in the staff analysis there are a few benefits Prime deterrence direct communication with business owners and increased visibility and accessibility and I did want to make
this known is that this is an extension of services from the police department that the CRA would pay for under the cost considerations you can see that the annual cost would be about $46,800 for one officer and for two it would be around $93,600 and that does not include the fringe benefits which are about 20 to $21,000 annually and it also does not include equipment and there are quite a a few cities that have implemented this
the city of Sarasota Mount Dora Winter Garden Key West and Daytona Beach also Sanford because I happen you talk to the the folks police on bikes in Sanford and they were actually retired police officers that were contracted they weren't even in City positions per se they were contract positions um too and they were very helpful they also shared a lot of information about the city so they were a great p our piece
as well yes so if it's possible I'd Like Chief to say a few words if you may because we are actually looking at both options contractual and employee of course you don't want to hear it but still true sure good evening mayor Commissioners um I do I agree totally with the increase of visibility as well as the opportunity to be able to address issues in the uh downtown in the CRA uh
District uh I do want to emphasize that the police services would be better place put as the uh the product that we would be delivering opposed to just simply identifying it solely as bike uh Patrol and because I believe there is a necessity to provide services throughout the area an opportunity to provide services throughout the area uh to go along with more than just the bicycle unit now I do agree bicycle unit would be something that is a great plus and
addition to it but I believe we it's an opportunity if we're going to add Personnel to deliver a total package of services uh to the area and and an ability to focus and concentrate on the area um one of the things that we mentioned and uh one of the challenges that we see and we Face currently is when we're looking at hiring is the ability to hire in a timely manner and we're also looking at uh as what what the mayor stated as retired officers and a pool or uh something to
pick from retired officers to complete those services and talking with the city manager I told and expressed to her that the contractional position or part-time position is something that we could look at definitely but I believe we're going to running the challenges because what we found in our area is not something that's uh has been um something of a popular nature to be able to attract those uh services for what we provide currently um we do as you know um run into an extreme Challenge but we're able to deliver for full-time
officers um but it is not necessarily something that we're able to not only supply for our Reserve staff but for the opportunity for part-time I am um for anything that we can look to accomplish to add in addition um to be able to address the issue um but I I just wanted to express and take the time to express what we probably will be facing as uh when we're looking at the hiring portion um and then also wanted to make sure we understood that in that process of when
we're looking at hiring we still have to send these individuals if they're attached to the police department through a training uh regimen and they will have to go through field training which if uh their experiened office officers can be a little as seven days or or up to four months it depends on the development and and how well they uh go through the actual training process but they would have to go through a training process once they're hired one so In Sum are you you're recommending
um not non-contractual um employees of the city police officers that's your preference I don't want to put words in your but I want you to be that that is good okay so we're still in the exploratory stage and we just wanted the CRA to know that we heard you when you mentioned it before and we're just bringing it to you just for discussion direction do you want us to continue exploring options and it may be that we cannot
Implement anything in this fiscal year but at least it will be on the radar during the budgeting for next year um if I may add I I I think it's a wonderful idea I do think it we should move forward with it if we possibly can and maybe um if it's difficult to hire permanent employee because I I I agree with you I would rather than work for the city I I understand your stand your you know
where you're coming at from with that but is it easier maybe to contract until you can get somebody in if we're able to move forward with this program well that is something that uh it's a hard question to answer being that we haven't uh looked at Contracting police services in the past so to be able to U look at the the proper answer for that I would I would actually have to tell you I no you okay okay and for coverage purposes
um is the recommendation two versus one officer or part-time versus just for again for clarification for coverage purposes is one officer sufficient I don't say how you're asking for a number of officers mayor now open a loaded question yeah 10 two time four what what we've talked about and looking at what we've talked about myself and the city manager and looking at the total numbers we talked about
two officers um and we we spoke to a couple of different things to cover uh time wise and coverage for the area yeah and that if you're proposing that coverage for that period of time like Thursday Monday whatever we're saying then it sounds to me like you need to go ahead commissioner P um Chief would this be something that would be strictly daylight hours only and or maybe festivals and events that are downtown putting U officers on bikes is that what you're proposing or thinking or what you where where you what your outs well
again U when we talk about U adding additional resources we talk about Services uh the bike unit would would actually be out through most of the daytime services but I'm talking about complete services so it would allow for um them to be out or the individuals to be out through different periods of the day depending on what the need is for the area at that time feel your way as you go so to speak until you find out more less where
you really need them is that well we'll we'll identify and we've identify the peak times as it stands currently um and look and looking at it we'll make sure those services that are delivered during those times um will be ahead of it to uh be able to provide U scheduling and and um offices for the area when the need is knowing that the scheduling might be um already predicted ahead whether it be festivals or whether events in the downtown area or whether it be just simple uh not only patrolling but
getting out and engaging with the business owners and the residents so we would schedule as what what the need is for the time and to the point based on the previous discussion about code enforcement this would free up other police officers to give an equal amount of coverage to the rest of the higher level of coverage to the rest of the city I know equal but yeah this would also free up existing police officers to to do more in the rest of the city yes ma'am and also you know we're
talking about coverings remember uh Saturday Sunday yes as well which the peak time for downtown as they go um do we have any other comments no comment that come on I think it's still within the CRA and not CRA but it it be code enforcement so whenever I can add that piece on after you can add it now if You' like well in terms of coding enforcement is what just it just um hit me
but um I think most time when we have people who are violating codes sometime they're doing things outside of the normal business hours 8 to5 they know that U code enforcement normally work during the core hours of the day and so and I know that Mr cutright said that they also did some things on the weekend because the case load required that so we need to think about anytime after five on the normal um business week and then even sometime on the weekends as
well I can share that with any other comments we have a request public comment Mr Deputy please come up Deputy 623 St John's Avenue uh downtown uh this is very concerning to us and uh as Merchants because uh Christmas day we had shootings at night 19th Street to past uh just a few weeks
ago within 30 days we had a a stabbing on in the park downtown at midafternoon broad daylight someone stabbed 27 times uh since that stabbing business downtown has taken a nose dive because if you go on Facebook it is not safe downtown it's better to go eat St August our restaurants if we're comparing month to
month we're taking a nose dye because the perception is there so I want to tell you that I've had uh a number of homeless on my block and I'm calling but I had one drop his pants drop his bottom and I had to clean it up across the street from me because there it is and so you know my broom my my my porox everything is over there I shouldn't have to do that uh
passing out notices for the sidewalk meeting last week I do that before work I go into an Al Cove right across the street from the courthouse I trip on a homeless person in the dark that person jumps and lunges at me well I'm almost 70 I'm not who I once was and so I'm running I'm calling the police we shouldn't have homeless sleeping in business doorway way at
all if we expect to be a walkable downtown uh but it's incident after incident so I want to make sure that Chief s Shaw here is fully funded fully staffed to the needs that he has to make sure that downtown is safe because perception is 100% of the game and if you're not safe you're not going to go I have to look out back or send my dog
out back before I can take my trash out back and I'm talking broad daylight or at night and we just can't do business that way in a state of fear and so let's make sure that we have the resources available but we can't wait until 26 for that uh we're at the cusp of our downtown changing and the perception will make it or it could break it with the last stabbing you know my cousins call from
Indianapolis and say are you safe you know word goes across the nation and Paka needs to be up there at the top thank you thank you commissioner Bor yes um um speaking on the the homeless piece I mik would like to ask the City attorney to kind of maybe speak to the law that was just passed when then they just passed the law regarding the homeless and what you can and cannot do with a homeless person if they're
whether in a park or wherever in terms of moving those individuals if you're not having a better place to put them uh yes commissioner uh that was passed during the last legislative session uh the public camping and sleeping Bill uh that was passed there are uh certain exceptions uh for example and and commissioner piser you may know about this if you're a fiscally constrained County you can exempt um the county from the requirements to provide uh sleeping
quarters for the homeless it's my understanding I was just recently informed by the county manager that putam county has chosen not to exercise that particular exemption Clause but I don't know if if the county is going to move forward with uh establishing a homeless shelter within its jurisdiction um so perhaps commissioner pelis here can provide some guidance on that but in terms of what the police can and cannot do it is extremely Limited if you look at the verbiage of the statute um
unless they are actually camping and that requires um the structures that you would imagine with camping like a tent or a cardboard box or sleeping there is very little that the police department can do to enforce those provisions of the statute so it is extremely limited um but we do anticipate additional bills coming out of this legislative session and commissioner boram I know you'll be keeping tabs on that right and that means that if if they're there that mean you cannot make them move unless you have a better place for them to go
but to spin off from that because it's been like a two or three year thing going uh the city has U put in uh um funding in the budget yeah for it as an priority but we want to work with the county to see what we can do because again we did have a uh where the county did get grant money or Appropriations for um animal shelter which almost almost million dollars so we've been pushing uh for some time to be able to get a homeless
Shel no matter the size we just want to make sure that we have the services that we can provide for our for our people we we're doing it for Animals we we deserve to give people human dignity Chief sha sure I just wanted to uh just make a couple comments off of Mr Deputy last statements so first I commend Mr Deputy on get the call give us not ation on things that was going on downtown and we uh definitely heard his
uh call and heed his call and addressed those issues as the visibility for downtown like any other hotspot area that we may have spark up within the city and how we respond to it with resources uh is the same our visibility for downtown and addressing the issues downtown and the fear of crime downtown has increased tremendously we have made it our duty to make sure that we are there both uh for the times that that they are released from the shelter to make sure they begin to clear out the
area as well as uh continuing to uh Patrol the area and respond in the evenings to uh ensure that when they and if they return that they're returning in the proper manner and going to the proper places uh as stated from uh the attorney there is only so much we can do when it comes to the house bill but it does not mean we can do nothing and encouragement and communication and uh what we tell our officers every day is the best two provided to them is not a tool that we can give them it's the tool that God gave them and that's the
the tool of verbal uh communication and our through our verbal communication and insistance I believe we've uh received some compliments from individuals in the downtown area Thanking us for our presence and Thanking us for the changes that's been made since the initial uh stabbing from downtown thank you commissioner pelia um I have because I didn't have your number Chief I called Justin um Campbell many times about an individual at
night Street and he is presenting a traffic Hazard as well as endangering himself another sitting with his feet out there in the road with his sign and as Mr deputy said perception is everything and if you have um I was in New Orleans six eight months ago I guess maybe further back and made a had my daughters when we made a trip around trip around the super doome and we saw an actual tent city that was there was easily 200 people living under a a overpass and that's not the perception
we want we're trying to attract growth and people that we want to stay here and and enjoy our town and be become a part of our town this is something that we've got to do away with it's just got to be done and coming from a background in law enforcement or knowledge of um the man that I was uh educated by um if you make it unpleasant they'll leave um and I didn't say kick out I'd said just make it very unpleasant here it's not a nice place to stay
and they'll find somewhere else to find them a home but you can't have them on Reed Street and St John's Avenue with the main thorough is through this County and we've got to work closely with the county to provide those wraparound services not just a shelter but a place that people can get the services they need whether it's mental health medical or other things and I think that's something we need to work with the county on in terms of funding because it is an unfunded mandate as many are from the state um but we do have folks that are unhomed and they are still people and
we need to be there for them and find some solutions collectively or collaboratively to address these issues and speaking on on what Mr Palace was talking about in reference to Mr McCall we did address Mr McCall a couple times as a matter of fact he had move he had moved across the street for the north side of night Street and then assisted into breaking a few laws where before he was arrested uh I think Mr C can ATT tested when we received the phone call we
did uh take care of that issue as well um Mr Mcall uh from what I understanding is not out there at this time so uh within the last week as I spoke of there's been some different things that's been pushed through I agree with you on the fact that you make him uncomfortable but also in the world that I live in and understand um especially with litigation and now has it increased and and things of that nature you have to be very careful of the unpleasant it's a different world how you define un
Pleasant he used to uh make his uh place of operation there corner of 17 and 207 and I kept the so on him hard enough that he found him a new home and I guess he came this way sorry about that well he was here before we pushed him over there commissioner boram yeah again I think it's just an opportunity for the city and the county to work together to help provide some form of uh uh homeless shelter or whatever else it may be with
all the the services uh that we need so that we can help um best take care of our people again it started out in Oregon you got Texas California all those places you go there even DC you go like you mentioned in in New Orleans these places they are just riddle with homeless people and you see encampments everywhere so but I think we're not there yet but we're on our heels we were trying to get there like
a few years ago but we now we're we're here it's ahead of us we got to do something we can't keep talking about it and we can't you know we just don't want to make it so uncomfortable for the people where it's being uh not a in a humane way to where uh it's it's being uncomfortable so I think together we can work together between the city and the county to help solve at Le we might not solve the problem but we can make things better thank you go ahead commissioner johnes um I think I know what Mr
deputy said I heard a little bit from back however um you were talking about moving in statute but um there are other tools that could be used to kind of help people move along from um businesses or in one of places like we still have the lauding statute um and you can move folk right along so and then you could call if you don't want them on your property there also trespassing so there are other tools that could be used so people could be moved um and I
think Mr Palace is talking about um the proactive days where the sheriff would send them to the county line and and let them out yeah that that that's not a good method and we can't do that of course and I'm and I'm not talk I'm talking about some some new it turns into being a nuisance at at certain times I'm quite sure um when you come I had a a business owner call me state they're scared to go to their business in the morning because I have camped out there and it's a danger and you
don't know I think some mental health issues are there too so they don't know what person they're going to meet what particular day so you may upset an individual once you go to your Sho open shop and they're on some other level that day it could it could be it could get ugly so um I do like the dialogue that we're having about trying to do something and um I I you know I think I agree with everybody's input up here but we
we do have to think of the people that own or lease the spaces their rights to their property and their rights to their space um there are some homeless tents in my neighborhood area there some wooded areas and I think on North 16th Street there's an area where um the the residents say Hey listen these people are in the woods and they have blankets and Tents that's where they go you can
see them going there late at night they and um again like commission B we don't have a solution because we don't have anywhere to put them but what about those residents that are afraid that thinking something's going to happen they can't sleep at night so they they're in their house but they're almost like prisoners in there once these people invade the community we got to we got to put our heads together I hope hope we could Workshop it uh city and county and all other entities yes the
mental health and all we got to get together and try to make this so Chief if you can head up something like that um a coalition and we can get together I think that that's a start that's a start we really we we really talk about it it's going to take the attorney gonna take Chief it's gonna take all of us collectively to really get something done and we have you guys to the inter city manager as well as U Miss West this is not something that we've been sitting
quietly we discuss it on a regular basis on looking at um not only what we have in our tool box um and the trespass tool we are using um as far as the ordering as you know from previous law enforcement experience it has to be another crime within to be able to fit the statute if there's not then there's not order so but the trespassing is something that we have been encouraging not only residents but business owners uh to to uh make sure they understand that they have that that right and we understand that we have that tool um to
get people to move along outside of the public areas again it's an encouragement it's the way you approach an individual to be able to get them to move out the out of the area and uh allow for peace of mind for whether it be the residents or the business owners um but we are um discussing on a regular basis um and then returning it back to you all as far as uh what we are able to do um and asking for the different assistance because we realize that it's not something that one the police department uh
or only the legal department or maybe even Public Works are going to be a deal with alone it's something that we're all going to have to sit down to the table and bring some stuff to to be able to have some answers and provide uh to be able to address the problem and the school district is also a part of that because there are a lot of Children and Families on help that attend school commissioner boram has something else unless you're not done are you done commissioner J okay go ahead Family Market area
that is breeding breeding issues where people are afraid to walk by there um to go by in their vehicles and again we get calls I'm quite sure everybody get these calls um they moved them from the so sort of like they used to hang out at a train station now they migrated towards the Family Market on the side of the building in front of the building they even have furniture out there um so that that's almost a sign saying it's okay to to to to to to hang out there
hang out here and and you know again it's potential problem so like code enforcement being proactive we could stop that um because nothing good is going to come out of that kind of congregation and that's and that's the area that's uh once again recently has po popped up again as you know the they used to congregate in the back and we've addressed that with the property owner and they put up the fence um now it's in the front and again there have been some changes and we're have we're going to have to reapo proper as well as those
individuals to get it uh to cease and again like I said resources being able we are looking at addressing but we're aware of it commissioner Bor yes so just the last thing about this but if an example out in Oregon most of the officers outen there quit they quit um if you call for an officer uh you might get um um a security guard because they had inundated those um people out there with
all of the homeless calls and and they made it to the point to where if they're in your yard you can't make them move you can't make them do anything but again because they what what happened the officers couldn't do their job because they were all all their calls were going for um trespassing people and and they weren't most time they weren't even violating um any law or whatever so what they do what they can do is
provide give them a citation or or or anything like that but how you going to site a a homeless person or different things and they're not breaking no no laws so I just don't want the city to get into that particular thing but if we can help them in the best way we can that's where we need to be at go ahead commissioner d i I think the discussion lends well to us uh accepting the staff recommendation a secondes
keep moving on thank you interim city manager CRA coordinate yes so quickly yeah I will make this quick so we have two items that we like two Redevelopment initiatives that we're really excited to give updates on since I started the first is the St John's Avenue street skate project so I have Carlos our project manager here to go over some of the things that that's
any questions you all may have but um sure so the yeah we was on the B oh I'm sorry yeah we didn't move on got sidelined so things okay try and bring so we'll let commissioner Davis bring us back full circle what's on the agenda so the staff recommendation for the bicycle um police bicycle Patrol is to move forward and I second it that's what you
were saying yes I move that we do we need a motion we want you to move forward do we need to Mo motion a second all in favor yes all right second commissioner B yes all right yes to I apologize I got a little excited sorry now back back to you m no problem so um two major r velopment initiatives we are working on since I've started I'm really excited about these the first is the St John's Avenue street
skate project I know it's been going on for a while but some updates we have is last Monday we held an informal meeting with some of the business owners here where we had the architect Chris on the line with us um some of the business owners myself Miss cardi Miss West um Carlos and Joe we all here to answer questions and we received great feedback and we're in the process of taking those to the architect and getting some answers back a lot those were pertaining to the bump outs I know was a huge one we talked about and basically in conversations with that that's not currently
included in the quote so we're going to get a quote for that and then see what our other options are to fund that and Carlos we will talk about that a little bit more and just some other little things that we're going to get included and get some answers on and I'll bring those back to you guys but I'll let Carlos kind of take over on that may your commiss it was a really nice meeting last week with vendors I mean with business owners
and where we stand right now and that project in St John's Landscaping it's that we're just spend expecting the last um 100% Plans by one or two months by now after that we need to send that out to fdot and the architect said in that meeting that it might take like six month right now with fdot this is not something that we can control right now but after that we're just planning to
send that out to be and we hopefully have like someone contracted by the end of the year we have been talking with the vendors saying like you know we cannot start the construction in December because you know it's going to be like really busy month and it's not worth it but we ended up saying like after we get a contractor we're doing a meeting with the vendors again with the business owner I'm sorry again to set like a meeting and to set the SC how do we want to work in that what times it's it's better for them whatever
so that's what we ended up doing right now the project is like 1.4 million we have like 1 million for fdot Grant remaining and we have like 400,000 for City match funding right now thank you any questions do we have do we have those numbers that you're presenting to US based on the project layout and the um yes so we'll send it okay yeah
we is it in there is it in the packet no no it's not it's not it's not in the packet but I will absolutely send it if you're able to pull it up you don't mind does she know exactly where One and there is an issue too that we might need to look at you remember the bump yeah yes the bump pouts mentioned that yes are not included right now but we're
in talks with the architect to see how much it will cost to see if we can find some funding to add it because right now we're just like we're not funding on this project but let's see what we can do to find some funding for that because that would create the opportunity for some outside dining and other amenities but also it's a traffic calming opportunity well which we desperately need on St John what did you say the what out bump out so there's a little bump out from the sidewalk where there's
a potentially a seating area for other cities have done that for eating outside business owners has been the one asking for this but go ahead sorry right before we do that we need to repair some of those walking hazards that we have downtown so um we have that money for the street skate I think we need to address those in that area because those are potential liabilities and I if I'm not mistaken you have some already out there um so
I would I encourage us to look into those um walking haes out there because we have on some of those curbs but some odd odd reason uh the drains are different than everywhere else downtown do you know know what I'm talking about you're talking about St John's specifically yeah St John's Avenue all the way down St John's Avenue because during the Christmas parade we had people having um
near accidents so I think I know you guys have heard am I the only one have heard or seen those no I thought that was all gonna be corrected during the replacement of the sidewalks Etc I reported it to the city manager yes so we're talking about some things I understand the beautification we on that but those safety has need to be addressed first yes sir thank you any additional questions or
um comments about the streetcap projects is that included in the street you're G to make sure it is yes we're going to make sure because we're replacing all the sidewalks you was aware of them I'm sorry were you aware of those hazards that I'm speaking of I know Miss Davis said she told the city manager are we yes yes I mean I I've been I have been noticed all this stuff that you're talking about and I I will talk to the architect to see if if he's taking care of this stuff or if not and if he's not we need
to take care of that definitely I mean so my understanding is that there are some risks there right now yes that we need to pay attention to I will meet with public works let them be aware of it that's independent of the street skate project I do well they said that they were going to repair them and that's where because it was going to be corrected during the street skapes right so I want to make sure I do
understand the request thank you was first go ahead is is there any way that we can make that to be on the list so we know that those things are being addressed and it back because a lot of times when requests are put in when when when requests are put in from the commission the board or sometime the Community General community there's no feedback in terms of next steps or or where we are with the
status we need End to End customer service yes sir Davis my question is just going to be we have a risk do we have a risk management officer we do does the risk management officer go around and assess risks in the city that is not as you're describing I'm just I know but it sounds like we have an opportunity we
do thank you thank you yeah we I mean we do have big opportunities and I have sent in a number of different things from insurance risk rating stuff to um previous city managers and the current interum as it relates to a lot of different things across the whole city as it relates to Insurance risk rating and I hope we're continuously working on those items and I ask that we share with that with the rest of this board and the and the commission thank you yes we will make sure any further
discussion let me go one other update on the splash pad is that a part of what you okay so we are making progress also with the splash pads just wanted to put that out there and we're still exploratory we are receiving quotes we are also looking at potential locations and we're looking at the maintenance upkeep we have already met or spoken with County to see how they're managing their Splash Pad so
just want you to understand we are making progress okay and I don't want to keep continue to be the dead horse speaking on risk management um and that's FAL line when we start talking about day-to-day operations but then the liabilities and what comes back to this board and Other Board in our commission uh when there are potential risk and that have been identified um
I think it's some kind of way that those those concerns need to be disseminated to everybody so that everybody would know what those potential risks are versus one-on-one conversations and never disseminate the others and we won't know about it um um so I'm requesting that that occurs and you may talk to the mayor and it goes to between you two and we don't know anything or you may talk to me about it and don't let the mayor or commissioner
um Davis know anything and about it so um I would like to make that request yes if there's no uh privacy laws being um broken I think that we should be a a breast of information that goes on when it's talk about risk because when it come down to it we'll all be named um for any liability so that's my request from legal in
Miss car yes I heard you I C attorney has been quite active with assisting Us in that risk management area as well so it's a combined effort with the risk manager and City attorney but but we have not as you stated we've I don't think we've given you a report so I would like to follow up on that because we do have that report uh at my request they did prepare that so I can easily send that on almost like the police department incident report give us
the incident report let us know keep us back to okay thank you go ahead Miss thank you so the next one is going to be the CRA boundary expansion and community redevelopment Plan update right yes so um back in June actually April 2024 there was an F FRP for request for proposal put out for community redevelopment area consulting services and this was to they were
seeking we were seeking statements for qualification from qualified firms or individuals with experience in Redevelopment neighborhood planning revitalization and Implement implementation of community redevelopment areas to provide assistance in developing and implementing community redevelopment areas and all interested parties were asked to submit proposals so Gia has start is the company that was selected and they've started conducting a finding of necessity which is the first step for
stue to do a boundary extansion for the CRA and this is in accordance with fla sttion 163 this study will assess the feasibility of expanding the existing community redevelopment agency there is a map in your um reports so you can see where that District would potentially be um and this was outlined in F FRP 202 24-5 and on Thursday January 6 16th staff has hel held a kickoff meeting with the consultant team to discuss Redevelopment goals and pro project
objectives and review the steps involving the finding a necessity outlining the project timeline and clarify the scope of work we are currently in the process of providing them all the information they've requested so they can complete their finding a necessity and any necessary necessary data they would like from us so um and then the other part about the community redevelopment plan I'm sure you were all aware so the last one was 2021 um that is document that the CRA goes off of everything that is in there
outlines what the CRA can do all of the goals objectives and this update is going to be so great for us to have because anything that is not included on there now that we want to include in our goals in the future we can include those in there so kind of set the standard of how we want to operate moving forward so it's this is really exciting stuff I'm very excited about the community redevelopment Plan update and I'm very excited about the finding an necessity for the snoo district as you can see so g g is going to do the updated um
plan as well yes okay because they did it the last time corre they they did yes they did thought it was a different company was Jones that did it the last time yeah right he's the one that's sick my understanding was that he was with another company before worked on the I just know he was involved he was involved different companies okay just he is not able to be the leader in this particular Venture uh there's another project
manager that has been assigned I just wanted to be clear in my head um and I also saw some mention here of merging the CH districts into one so that is something they have found in their findings but of course that's me in the finding an necessity they will discuss all of that that was something that they brought up and that would be a recommendation on their end that they may propose once finishing they're finding a necessity what I can speak to on that is um in our meeting they
asked why are they all separate and we all Express that that's how it's always been and they gave they said you can absolutely keep it that way that's no problem everywhere is different different cras operate differently one thing that they did say which was I believe an excellent point was if we decide to create this new District it's going to take at least 10 years for them to start generating some funds to be used if we were to combine them and I'm nervous when I say this but if we were to combine them we'd be able to spread
the wealth a little bit and it would allow that District to start making money right away to start making those revitalization improvements instead of waiting another 10 years we can really make a dis a difference in North col yeah I get that I I think some of the residents in the existing three tip districts will have a little Ang about that so but we'll see I agree I'm just saying the whole goal is create some angst I'm not saying I'm a poli I just made a
statement when you had something to say again go ahead besides that you very talk not really okay anybody else have any questions or comments I think I think the um the one Paka thing look really good with combining all the yeah the districts the new District coming in yes based off the knowledge I have at this point I would agree but I would love to see is finding a necessity and I feel like we would all be able to make an advocated decision once we see that so did they ever meet I know we had
a meeting set up at one point and we never that's what they talking I'm not sure um do you mind explaining I'm sorry no was talking about the you talking about the the fourth district but we'll complete this business but I'll okay finish up with that so that was it for that's it okay thank you for everything for all your updates Miss CTI financial report
for the court ending December 31st 20124 Commissioners hello everyone everyone that's here uh the financial report for the CRA for the quarter ended December 2024 uh as of the end of SE uh December we had actually received uh the 538 th000 from or would be receiving shortly
538 th000 from the county um so that represents um a good portion of the 964 th000 that we expect to receive um we do expect to receive the rest of the money uh by the end of this month February or before on page number two we have uh very little expenses only $1,418 and uh
we have transfers over into better place for Street skate uh the potable and uh the reimbursements for the administrative expense so at this point of that 53800 250,000 has been spent so far in the OR allocated for spending in the downtown district in the South historic
uh we've only spent or transfer 13,000 and the budget is 517,000 so South historic we have not spent much money at all as of the end of December and then finally North historic we've only uh spent 1,923 so our expectation is that in the second quarter you will start seeing more uh expenditures and for instance just
a sure fact that tonight we dealt with the building Improvement Grant those kind of expenses will now be reflected in that second quarter so for the entire three districts uh we spent a total of 200 on page four 265,000 what that means is that our revenues and SS our SS revenues at this point is
272,000 awesome job thank
you smart Mr Paul Small Business Development Center rep Paul grew a beard for waiting so long mam Mery commissioner staff good evening those chairs are not meant for sitting long periods of time uh a little bit of update uh last year I probably the previous c meeting I talked
about uh working on about $10 million worth of projects and at that point I had 3.2 million and people who got approved for loans uh that's now increased a little bit because when people fill out into year surveys and stuff so that's up to uh three and a half million at this point which is about 35% of the projects that are worked on and that is probably about 20% % too low or and I believe that's mostly due to Under reporting um so
that's uh some of the news there the good news is I'm already up to 700,000 for this first couple of months of this year in trying to get things going um a couple of other items in here I currently am running a series of workshops in Hastings this was a combination deal um between St John's County Small Business Development Center in putam County Small Business Development Center I'm proud to say that we've
had our first meeting and we had a really good turnout for this series uh 22 folks however the sort of bad news of that is only 10% of them came from Buton County so uh I don't have a marketing budget um as far as I know there wasn't any sort of posting anywhere in like the city newsletter about the workshops I'm holding them for you guys and for yeah I saw your you saw I Shar it okay what
that's worth okay uh I didn't see it and um it it would be very helpful as a partner to have access or get the spdc on the website as well as in newsletters to help get the word out there if I may I address may I respond um we have uh began initiating BM more collaborative with you and Christian has been working recently with Peter so if you can explain
what our plans are to help so um yes he we met I believe about a week ago we had a wonderful meeting he updated me about all of the great things that they are doing and one thing he brought up was the marketing um since then same day I met with Peter and he said absolutely let's do this um we're I'm going we're going to make sure that gets posted as much as possible I will follow up with him and make sure that is done as well as updating our CRA website to make sure that anytime that these happen that we are posting them because this is coming out
of our CRA budget we are paying for his Services we need to make sure that we are getting the most out of it not only for ourselves but for our business owners because a lot of the concerns um Mr Deputy so nice that he took me to a lot of the businesses a few weeks ago and just chatting with them about a lot of the concerns you have a lot of the solutions for those so I really want to take this on and make sure that we are getting the most out of it for our business own and so that includes uh that we'll be mailing out his information as soon as you
give it to us we will mass email it and additionally have you on the website and inclusive of the newsletter as well so that would be fantastic yes sir you we are Partners okay but I don't see our our name on this FL doesn't say City or the c c so we'll correct that you need to correct that U yeah this is a different
uh than my normal here's one of the normal ones I'll show you and it has all of that information on here this one was put on by St John's County um putham County and then the St John's County School Board uh our Marland but I think when you were asking if we were sharing it and publicizing it yeah then be nice yeah it would have been nice to yeah I think that that that's commissioner Jones's point you said we you know we didn't share and then
we didn't do a good job at that but I think that was his point I I get it this was a oneoff flyer versus our normal flyer that too but we did bring it up so that's how it goes here all right other than coming up uh I don't have the flyer yet for that one but yes you guys are on the bottom of that good job that will be AI in marketing uh
so that will be put on by uh chamber Commerce member here in putam county and it's free it will be at the Chamber of Commerce on March 11th from 5:30 to 6:30 uh fantastic tool for small business owners so that's an upcoming Workshop um lots of kudos to go around number one Krist thank you so much it's wonderful to work with you I really look forward to it um other Kudos are going on I'm hearing great things because I'm hearing
a lot of city and county working together to solve issues so I love to hear that and I'm also very much in favor of the bike patrols downtown so that will help with the small business Community down there so with that being said are they any questions for Small Business Development Center it looks like none commissioner Campbell and questions is he still there I think he dropped off I thought he dropped off too but I wasn't sure because I couldn't
see we had the screen on there good things I haven't asked him in a while and do we have I think we're all set Mr Paul thank you so much do we have a motion to a Jour so move second third you have a question I was just gonna thank Kristen for her first meeting and to say that I can see a difference already since you've been here so thank you I agree I concur thank you great job I do too chrisan I give we give you a hard time but I
know you work hard thank you so much you already know you a well thank you all so much I'm so excited to be a part of this team thank you before we adjourn this meeting there's a catch that I did make and I mentioned about the receipts we've already uh approved those allocations but there were more than one receipt that said work hadn't been done and that same property did can I
can I follow up because that that was I was going to just follow up to say that I believe when you explain the process it addressed in other words once we Grant they still have to meet requirements to get the check abolutely and so that's where I think we'll be able to address that so the % is only going to be awarded what has been paid yes what is
yes what is what is being paid only and the other thing is uh it'll only be for work done 30 days after the city started or we did not do our part 30-day grace period that we had that we did not follow through on only work that has been paid for and completed as defined in their scope of work there are estimates in there and it clearly states that the work not been done as somebody who received the grant several years ago that's historically how it's been done you don't get any
money to prod it's 18 month Grant period so it's they have that time but that's something that Miss West and I will talk about because in our opinion at least Miss cardian eyes is that if you started in September or in November excuse me then that should eat into your 18 months you don't you shouldn't that's not fair to the people that were awarded before thank you thank you so we had a motion to adjourn