Pledge of Allegiance. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. Court call the role. Council Gford here. Green here. Vice Mayor Brooks here. Mayor here. Item four. It's an honor tonight to have Florida House Representative Chase
Traymont with us and he is going to give us a legislative update out of Tallahassee. Welcome. It's always great to have you here in the in the uh in the council chambers. It's weird having you right there. I'm just going to tell you right off the bat. I don't think I've ever I feel like we should move him, right?
Yeah. Get out of my seat. I don't think I've ever been in this uh spot before to be quite honest with you. And the last time I was I sat for a um I stood for the pledge out there was prior to my election. So first time here, you
were just getting sworn in. So all right. Um so a brief I give you a brief roundup and uh thank you for having me today and uh what a great homecoming it is. Great to see all the familiar faces and everybody. Uh great to see uh most most of you. Hello, Lance. Uh, okay.
Council member, um, and, uh, Mr. City attorney, I I appreciate all you. Sorry for your loss, brother. Uh, you know, family, your your family's been in our prayers. Um, and I I can't say enough about uh not just the council. I I I have an ongoing dialogue with with all of you guys, and I appreciate not just
your friendship, but your service to the uh uh to to this to this great city. Um, it was never a a challenge of leaving here because I always know it's going to be in great hands because of our leadership here. uh and the staff here that I got to work with number. So, uh for a brief wrapup, um I mean there's
thousand of issues that we can obviously talk about. Uh but I don't think it's anything that I haven't discussed with a lot of you guys on a regular basis anyway, but since we're on the record, we'll we'll talk about uh just a couple of them. And I I think I'll just go ahead and hit the greatest one that that would probably impact us all here the
most would be our property taxes. Um, you know, we we we understand that that is a u a high priority of of the governor and uh you know, for the last six years, he's generally gotten what he's wanted uh up until this last session. You know, a little uh uh
difference of opinion on on leaderships, but I think that's good. It's good for healthy debates that we've had uh in the past year. You know, the House was uh was kind of more focused on some uh sales tax relief and the governor was certainly focused on property taxes. So, to address that, I'll just I'll offer
you my perspective and where I'm at. Um, and uh give you some comfort uh from your seats where you're at so you know who's battling for you guys up there and who's bringing your issues and concerns to the table. I I'm fortunate to be on
uh to be appointed on the property tax uh the the select committee on property taxes. myself as well as a number of other um former um city officials and county officials. You know, I think of Griff Griffiths and Robbie Brackett, a number of those folks who mayor down in
Vero Beach, a county uh commissioner, a county chair up in the panhandle. Uh people that recognize the issues facing local government as well. Uh because the idea of and the the biggest talking point from from the governor and the proponents for uh getting rid of
property taxes are things that I agree with as well. If you don't if you're constantly paying a bill for the rest of your life to live in your home, well, you don't really own your home. That's not real home ownership. If a government can confiscate your your home, for lack of paying uh basically what you know,
for lack of a better term, could be considered a rent, then you don't really own it. The government owns it uh in the long run. So, that being said, understand this. And I would caution uh folks that that want to get rid of property taxes to think that all of a
sudden they're just going to have a big cut out of their expenditures the rest of the year. I I don't perceive of it being that way. I think one of the greatest challenges and the things that we're facing and discussing and studying um is how to get rid of property taxes
uh as they exist now, but still not lose the revenue coming into the cities. uh because as you know as us local officials are advising people on this on this committee we're reminding folks that uh essential services our our fire I got to talk with the chief a a moment
ago our police EMS um you know any any code enforcement anything related you know we we understand that you got you know over hund00 million budget here and uh uh probably 40ome million plus uh from adalorum so there are a lot of revenue streams that we understand that come into the local government but the
idea idea that local governments are just going to wipe out $40 million of expenditures uh is not realistic. Um and and nor should anybody um you know expect that. So just I I want you to hear from from our perspective that there are people at the table that are
mindful of local governments are mindful of the challenges that uh could could be faced in result of that because it really sounds great to get rid of property taxes. never have a property tax to pay, but you have to replace that funding somehow. Um, and unfortunately,
you know, mayor, you and I have talked about so many times, and I I know people, you know, love home rule, but unfortunately, you have a lot of bad actors out there with other cities and counties are being very abusive uh with their with their tax rates and with their expenditures that unfortunately
good cities like ours get caught up in the crossfire when you're trying to reign some of those folks in. So, uh, there there there's a lot of, uh, uh, there's a great concertive effort to try to bring tax relief to working families who are trying to own their home. At the same time, there's enough folks up
there, uh, that have sat in your seats as well that are going to be mindful that we can't can't interrupt the local the the services that the locals not only need, but demand, frankly. So, that's the Do you have any questions in regard to that? And I can offer you a couple other updates before
I I'll I'll just say I think you hit the nail on the head. I think that's the question, right? It's that like you said, the tagline of eliminating that sounds great. I don't think anybody would argue that. It's it's how do you replace that revenue in a fair and equitable way so that it's not hurting
especially my biggest concern is whether or not it can hurt our seniors the most and how how can that be done? And so I think that's what we're going to be looking forward to see come out of the committee like that you're sitting on is what are those recommendations and what are those options going to look like because you know your essential services
are also the ones that cost the most your public safety services and things like that. Those are where those big price tags are and people expect those and they demand those high levels of of service. So that's what we'll be looking for I think. Well you know and some of these cities and counties have very little maybe 10%
of their budget at most comes from adalorum. to get them through through other through other other other streams of revenue. So when a lot of those are presented uh up there, some people will look at they say, "Oh, that's not a big deal. We can cover that through the state." Um you know, and there's a
number of ways number of ideas thrown out there. You know, I I don't personally I don't know how you do it without increasing the sales tax. You know, I'm I'm personally I'm a fair tax guy. I think we should abolish the IRS, get rid of the uh all the uh the income the the income tax and replace it with a sales tax. Uh, how do you do that here?
Well, I I think that's possible here. Certainly, the amount of sales tax that we generate here from out of out oftowners and out of state coming in here to do that. However, here's the problem that you would be faced into from a local government perspective is now you're going to take it uh based on
a formula that's derived from the state officials, not myself, but uh you know, somebody up there that's going to decide, all right, we're going to we may develop some algorithm uh some formula to distribute to this county based on their needs, to this city based on their needs. And that could be an idea that's
thrown out. I'm not a proponent of that because as you and I talked about so many times, uh, people in the city of Port Orange, for example, demand a higher level of service that other cities may not. Uh, so we get to choose and and decide that. And while I'm not in, you know, a thousand% a home rule
guy, I am as it as it pertains to the services that require because having lived here, I know that that the the demand for high services are here. So, you don't really want to go that that direction where you're you're you're letting the state decide how uh much they're going to send to each
municipality. So, but I'm sure that's an idea that'll be thrown out there. But again, just to put you at ease, you have people at the table there uh that have sat in this seat for a number of years and understand the challenges that you'd be facing with it. And the only other thing I would just mention, I think we we talked about it
brief, all of these guys weigh in on this. One of the things that I would really like to see the state invest in as as the discussion is going along is the state to build a model. Uh and maybe I might not be using the right word, but what I'd be looking for is that our our finance department, our city manager,
our staff, whatever these scenario options may be, there needs to be a model or a way to plug in that information to see where's the shortfalls going to where are they going to come and how do you make them up and what those scenarios would look like. because as you know, you got 420 municipalities roughly in the state of
Florida. And as you just said, not everybody gets to the same spot the same way. And so we'll all have to be able to plug those in so that you know, every municipality can weigh back into their representatives to go, hang on a second, you know, we've got a 17% shortfall or
we're over 9% or what have you on however those scenarios may play out and however the distribution of funds like sales tax or whatever those mechanisms may be. So, I think it would be awesome if the state um and maybe that comes out of the committee is to have that available for all the municipalities
that when as as ideas are coming around, it can be constantly updated and then our our finance departments and stuff can be plugging in our local numbers to see how does that impact us and then provide that feedback to you because we'd be glad to do that. So, did you guys want to weigh in on this one? No, I don't. Um Chase, thanks for
coming. Um, but again I'm I'm in the same same mindset is how are we going to replace this this money and because we've been doing this for so long and this has been the revenue stream for so long. How do you replace it in in a fair and equitable manner? I still think it's
very early on in the discussions because I think there's a lot of things that got to be worked out. First of all, I want to say thanks for all your help for us up there, for all you're doing up there in Tallahassee, not just for our city, but for the state and some of the things that some of the
fights that you're fighting up there for children. So, thank you so much. We appreciate you doing that. Uh, I have I have two things I want to talk about this because I've been involved in Just I'm sorry. Just real quickly, just on this one item, this one item, where is this pressure coming from?
I'm sorry. the pressure coming from? Where is it coming from to reduce property taxes? Where who's behind all that? Because it seems like a new thing recently in Tallahassee that the governor is talking about. Where is that pressure coming from?
Um not sure know what you're I guess trying to think about how to think about the question because I I I don't sense any pressure coming from anywhere. I mean, I can I can tell you I'd love to get rid of property taxes and and and I'll just be very frank with you and I sat up here for a long time. You know, my feelings.
I hate raising property taxes, period. Not that I think we should go to roll back every single year, but you know, I mean, when you're paycheck to paycheck and, you know, and I I I, you know, talked talking to a group the other day that just got, you know, uh, that have been flooded out of their home and and
I've been there as well, you know, having flooded and had lived on a a concrete slab for 6 months in our in our in our house because we couldn't afford to replace the flooring there. Uh, so I think the pressure is coming from pressure that people feel every day of
being able to make ends meet. So I don't think there's any special interests that are that are saying, "Hey, we should get rid of property taxes because there's no there aren't lobbyists out there that are pushing for that." I think this has been a longstanding uh issue within uh conservatives that believe in home
ownership and private property rights that says, "Hey, you don't really own your home if you're having to pay a bill every single year to the government. And if you don't pay that bill, they can take it away even though your house may be completely paid off to the bank. So I think just a fundamental uh belief of
being able to have your own private property, that's where the pressure is coming from. I wouldn't call it pressure as in someone's twisting anybody's arm. I think it's just a a fact of fact of life that people want to own their own home. That being said, again, I still understand the uh the issues associated
uh with being able to replace the revenue uh because it is it's it's a very it's a very serious situation that we need to be mindful of. My biggest fear is if we go to a sales tax, then we become a donor county because there's plenty of counties that don't raise enough sales tax but still need the
funding that they're not going to be able to get through property taxes anymore because we're a don donor county right now for for schools where we give back money to the Tallahassee and we get we don't get the same amount of money back. Not anymore. That we we resolved that two sessions ago. The district cost
differential that's that's not exist. So that's that doesn't exist anymore. So if we send $100 to the house, we get the $100 back. We get it all back here in Florida. Now when during Tom Leak's uh tenure on the appropriations, it was high priority and he got that done. Fantastic. Good.
And we're still having shortfalls over there. Exactly. Here too. Yeah. Yeah. Chase Chase, being that you're on council for this and seeing firsthand and coming up with ideals as we move forward with tax
relief like this is for me as a citizen of Port Orange and you being a citizen of Port Orange, this is just a remarkable thing for us. You know, it's gives a whole heart for me to be able to reach out and go, "Hey, how's it going? What's it doing?" You know, I think
that's one of the thing council has to look at is that we have availability having leadership like yourself up there and being appointed onto this council. Um, to me, it's a wonderful thing. So, thank you on my behalf and hopefully all
the city. Proceed, my friend. Go ahead. All right. Uh, I I'll wrap it up here. I know you got guys got a long one. Uh, I would just say great job for Port Orange on appropriations. I mean, I think we didn't bring anything home last year,
right? Uh, and that was uh, you know, that was that was a tough pill to swallow. Um, you know, even with our own guy as a probe chair, but you know, things they don't always fall the way you want. But, uh, you know, the the amount of times that you guys as council, as staff has been up there, I
can I can tell you that goes a tremendous tremendously long way. Um, you know, we in in every city in district 30 that asked for funding received funding. Very proud of that. We only had one veto and that was in Pon inlet, but they still got money for a
different project. Uh, so when you're and and when you're asking number one, when you're asking for very very easy projects to fund, which is always going to be storm water and and my conversation with you guys, ask for that. That's easy to fight for. Um, and
when you do that, plus having the record of accomplishments that you do with the funding, it's it's just an easy sell. So, and and you should be proud Port Orange because we we I think we brought back for the city of Port Orange more than any any city in the county. Um, you
know, we had uh and it's always good to ask for a couple different projects uh because I can tell you, you know, the the way it works up there, you you've got to be willing to wheel and deal and you got to go you got to be willing to barter. And when it came down to the end, um, you know, the chairman of of
one of the committees where this these two projects had to go, uh, they were asking, "Hey, c can you let one go?" Uh, so, you know, quick conversation with the with the city manager about which is the the the need to have. And so, we only got the one through and I had to to
play ball and and and give away this other, but we were very fortunate um, you know, when it came down to the sprinkler list for the speaker, he readded that one back in there. So, you know, when when you you you can go up there and and uh you can make a lot of noise and complain when you don't get
your own way or you can be a team player and and and show that you're that you're willing to help your folk your other folks out. Uh and I I you get rewarded with that and and and Port Orange did that. You guys are willing to do it. Uh I always say you want to help if you want to be successful, make it to the top, help somebody else get there as
well. Uh so that's how you guys have uh have really outshined uh just about every city here in in the county. So, I I say great job for that. And then I'll I'll wrap it up with uh we want to do more uh next year and I think we're in a great position. Uh
we've built the the the relationships, we know the system and how on how to work it. Um August uh 18th, we just had our date sent out to us today. Uh August 18th, right around the corner. That's when we we can begin to start filing our appropriations. So, no rush. I don't
need to have it right now. that doesn't get uh closed off until um till November. About the 17th. Well, I think till November, but we you know, there's always last minute stuff, always last minute changes. So, we we do want
to get those in uh pretty rapidly so we can we can start working our appropriations just just like we work our our bills. So, um congratulations to you guys on that. And I would just comment and and I do appreciate very much your your your comments about staff
and the commitment the city makes to go to Tallahassee and and and and seek appropriation dollars and try to follow the right paths. And as you know from being up here that that's not something that happens one year or two years. That that takes time for the staff to learn the process, for us to learn the
process. We knew when you got to Tallahassee we we would have a leg up up there and that has come to fruition. And I would even comment further to say that while last year we might not have brought back appropriation dollars that we would have liked to have had, we brought back some serious value in other
regards with our staff learning some things and being pointed in the right directions to go find funding elsewhere that that paid a significant role back to the city. So it it's not always while yes you want to go up there and you've got a project in hand, you want those appropriation dollars, there's a lot of
other things that can be learned that have a tremendous amount of value back to the taxpayers and the residents of Port Orange. But specifically to this year, we can't thank you enough. Um you're a fighter in Tallahassee for Port Orange. There's absolutely no question. We we talked we we can't find any record
of ever anybody ever going to Tallahassee in a single year and bringing back that amount of appropriation dollars back to the city that we brought back this year. So, um we're very proud of that. We're very happy. We're we're very grateful, by the way, and gracious. And some of those dollars will be used to not only benefit
the residents of Port Orange, but geographically speaking, some of our neighbor cities as well. So, we we truly appreciate all of your efforts out there. We love the fact that the that that you stay in contact with us. I can't tell you how many times I talked to the city manager and he'll say, "I
talked to Representative Traymond earlier this week." So, I I appreciate that you stay in touch with our staff and and all of us, but if we call, you answer the phone almost every time. I can't I can't think of ever calling you uh and you not answer the phone unless I maybe see you on TV and you're out on the floor. Maybe every now and then I'll
I'll try that just to see. But uh but anyway, in all seriousness, we appreciate everything and and you know, there's no finish line. There's always the next thing we got to keep working on and we we will continue to do that and and grateful to have you up there. It it's again, and I I'll I'll let you
guys go. I'll just remind you, it's it is all hands on deck. I mean, yeah, I do what I do, but it's a whole lot easier when I go back to the chair of that committee and say, "Hey, you remember meeting with uh uh with our city managers?" Oh, yeah. Okay. I got it. that that goes a tremendous uh
tremendously long way. In addition to your representation with with Pitman, uh he he's he's all over the place. He has a very unique and particularly this session, I think, has helped you greatly. He has a very unique relationship with our speaker's office that not many people do. Uh, which is
surprising because I can remember when I was first up there, I thought, wait a second, we got kind of a Democrat lobbyist up there representing Port Orange and we're a conservative legislature up there just for the speaking of the politics and how to be effective. But he is tremendous uh at
what he does and uh uh so he he he does well your entire staff doing doing what you guys do uh and as well as your your presence up there. So again, all hands on deck. We'll be ready to rock and roll August 18th. Right on. produce anything else? I mean, I can't thank you enough for
what you did for the city. So, thank you, John. No, good job. Thank you. Appreciate you. Thank you, sir. Hey, listen. We've spared no expense in and in and having something to give you this evening. So, I got to come down and get a quick picture with you.
Awesome. I also do want to point out uh you know, city manager here or your city attorney as well. The amount of times that you you know, I call him with legislation. Hey, can you explain this to me and how this is going to impact our locals? And he's he he's right on the money. So again, everybody, so thank
you, Mr. Jones. Thanks, sir. That's a gift card. There's no money on it though, but it's a gift card. It's just the card. Hey. Hey. That that jersey you brought me though. It hangs proudly in
pretty nice. You want to you want to speak to what's hanging in your office real quick for folks that don't know? You you guys presented me with a really nice Port Orange jersey with my name on the back and number 12. It's It's really beautiful plaque. So, I'm very grateful. I Port Orange. I I see the city of Port Orange every time I walk into my office.
It is a one-of-a-kind momento in your office, in there. Does it say Water Boy on it? Thank you for stopping by. We appreciate you. Thank you. May I say one final thing? Yes, sir. Uh, our delegation and uh, thank you, Miss Pat, for for reminding me. I don't know when our next delegation meeting
is, but as soon as we get that information, we'll get that to you and Pat will get this to you as well. Excellent. Thank you very much. All right. Item five, public comments on consent agenda items only this evening. Any public comments on consent agenda items? No,
Robert. Seeing none, I will take a motion to approve consent agenda items 6 through 9. There a second. No, I can't make it. I guess we got to make a motion. I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. We'll second it. I have a motion in a second.
Let's see. I think we do have a resolution. Call the role. Yes. Council Gford. Yes. Councilman Green. Yes. Vice Mayor Gro. Yes. Mayor Stelner. Yes. 40. All right. Now, moving on to we are going to switch hats here and go to the
Eastport CRA. And let's see. Eastport CRA. The chairman on that one is Council Gilbert. Take it away, my friend. All right. Do you need to recess the current meeting now? We just did. Okay. I call the regular meeting of the Eastport Business Center Community
Redevelopment Agency to order. Can you please call the role? Lance Green here. Jonathan Fley. Scott Stmer here. Vice Chair Tracy Grubs. Yes. Chair Sean here. Are there any objections to the
notice of this meeting? Hearing none, this not this meeting notice is accepted. Uh, do I have a motion to approve the minutes of the March 18th, 2025 meeting of the Eastport Business CRA? So moved.
Second. Okay. Roll call, please. Green. Yes. Stoner. Yes. Tracy Gross. Yes. Sean, yes. Item number three is a resolution number 25501 Eastport Business Center
CRA tax increment district for uh year 2026 operating budget. Can I have a motion to approve item number three, resolution number 251? Uh move to approve resolution number 251 approving the Eastport Business Center CRA Tax
Increment District uh fiscal year 2026 operating budget. Thank you. Can I have a second? Second. All right, we have a motion on the floor and a proper second. Any comments from the CRA members in reference to this
hearing? None. Any public comments in reference to this? And yes, sir. Come on up and introduce yourself. Uh John Cameron, 1873 Corp Pash Lane. Uh a drive-th through Eastport. Doesn't seem like very much is
happening. Uh lot of empty lots. I know the city manager kind of gave an update. Uh in the discussion the last meeting uh but I'd like to know if anyone's actively advertising it as being available, our recruiting. Um
our representative just talked about Avalorum. We had a discussion about Avalorum. It'd be a nice way to offset uh and develop that to bring in more tax money to ease the burden on the residents. We've got other parcels that
are available outside of the CRA on Williamson for example by the old radar building. So I just like to hear from you in this session uh if it's being worked and if there's any progress being made. Thank you. Thank you John.
Any other comments? Do we have an opportunity to discuss that? Does anybody have any comments from the co? No, I mean I um again we we and I think this is uh one of the things that we're talking
about earlier was the the CRA down here at at Eastport has a fund balance or or a balance of around $900 something,000 and that money can be allocated for for for several different things. And one of
the main things I think that and I talked with Wayne about was um incentives to get people to come and build in here and and that money can be uh for things like permit fees, turtle fees, whatever it takes and even
advertising getting uh to get this property filled in. But there is monies for uh expenditure that that can be for advertising or things like this. So yes. I agree with uh Councilman Green. You
know, we have a plus side on that and I think that should be actually looked forward to in Eastport as far as getting people in. You know, we talked about the turtle situation uh couple weeks ago. And if we can use some of that for the proceeds to offset that, that would be a great way to be able to move the
properties. Yeah, it's a, you know, my thought on it is is it's a very unique area and I don't think it's something that you just go out there and throw a cast net, so to speak, and hope to drag something into the area. It needs to be something that fits the area, fits our area very well,
fits our community very well, doesn't pro provide doesn't result in in in creating a lot of demand on infrastructure or services and things like that. Um, I know that the property in the area is on the on the radar for our Chamber of Commerce when folks reach
out to them looking for property areas. It's also on the radar for the Greater Daytona Chamber of Commerce. We've had economic development committees that will come in from time to time and reach out to the the city uh manager's office or community development. Uh, with regards to different stuff like that. So, it does get, you know, looked at and
and over the course of the years, we've seen some really good businesses come in there and and and we've seen some great concepts that sounded really good and then when they got down to it, it it just wasn't going to work out. And that's fine, too. So, um, but there are a couple new businesses going in there right now and and and
there's some uh some other companies that are investing in in there down there. Uh, the company that I'm with right now is getting ready to build a new building down there and that client's looking to do several different properties down there. I think I spoke with that person at a chamber event that they're very excited
about coming over here. I think one of the biggest challenges that most of the commercial realtors in this area have is having ready built things. There's people that want to be here, but they don't have the horsepower financially to go ahead and build from the ground up. So, it takes that unique uh company that has the financial
ability to go and do it. Borrowing money to do that right now is a lot more expensive than it was three years ago. So there's a the the market fluctuates with interest and if we had buildings already built there, they'd probably be
occupied, but we're not going to build real estate to rent it. Hopefully, we got to let someone come in, see the value in it. I know that the long-term plan is to uh work on Spruce Creek Road and making it easier for trucks to get in and out of there and help with some of the flow there. Uh we talked about
that today. It's just uh it's um but there is some interest. It's it's it's not dormant. There's some things going on and and it just like I said it it takes someone with that uh right for one they there's a lot of people
that need something bigger than what they can actually fit in Eastport, believe it or not. And you're seeing a lot of that going on out there on I495. You're seeing uh local companies expanding into that region and building and and operating out of there. we don't have that space there. So, it takes that
unique kind of smaller version company to come in and have the ability to go ahead and build the building and operate out of that. So, and that's a that's a challenge for every uh location. All right. Nothing else. Uh can I go
ahead and ask for the vote to approve? Do you have you have a voice on the floor? Yes. Call call the roll, please. Lance Green, yes. Scott Stoman, yes. Vice Chair Tracy Brooks, yes. Sean,
yes. All right. Any further business to be brought before the members of the Eastport CRA? There being none, I will adjourn this meeting and pass the what? The gavvel, the invisible gavl right back to I'm going to send it over to Councilman
Green to open up the town center CRA. How's that? All right. And with that being said, I will call to order the regular meeting of the of the town center CRA.
Clerk, could you please call the role? Sean Gford, yes. Scott, here. Vice Chair Tracy. Yes. Chair here. Are there any objections to the notice of the meeting? Being none, the notice is accepted.
Can I get a motion to approve the minutes of the August 21st, 2024 meeting, the A or the March 18, 2025 meeting? So moved. Second. I have a motion in a second.
Can we call the role? Sean, yes. Scott, yes. J, yes. L, yes. All right. Item three is a resolution number 25-01 of the Port Orange Town Center CRA tax increment district for
fiscal year 2026 operating budget. May I have a motion? Move to approve resolution number 25-01 approving the Port Orange Town Center CRA tax increment district uh fiscal year 2026 operating budget.
I'll second that. We have a motion and a second on the floor. Can I Any comments from the members? Tracy, not at this time. Scott, no. Good. John, none. No. Okay. Being none, uh,
public hearing. Anybody from the public want to speak to this? Being none. Uh, final comments from the CRA members. Tracy. Okay. Scott. No. So, the only thing I have to add on
this one is is that uh it has no fund balance on this particular CRA, but it also has no debt. So, the debt finally got paid, I guess. And so, what is being collected is paying is paying off the the debt as as we go. So, so that's a
definite positive. Um outside of that, uh obviously we all know we got some work to do down here in in this particular uh in this CRA. So, uh, but with that being said, uh, any final comments, no other comments, uh, any further business to be brought before
the members of the Port Orange CRA? Call the Did I call the role? Okay. I call the role for the vote, please. Sean, yes. Yes. Tracy, yes. Yes. All right. Any further business? Being none, I adjourn this meeting and return it back to the mayor.
Thank you. Okay. We are back in session as the council now. So, item E, public participation non-aggenda. I have one this evening. Patricia Miles, welcome. Thank you. Got here early to sit in the front. I love it.
Well, I wanted to beat the rain. All right. I'm hope I'm hoping we still have time for you to do that. Oh, I brought my umbrella. So, that's another Anyway, my name is Patricia Miles and I live at 1508 Palm Drive in Port Orange,
Florida. I'm a retired art teacher, former arts supervisor, and I've been in arts education for 43 years, and I'm still very actively involved with the arts here in Valuchia County. And I go to Tallahassee every year to talk with
our legislators about funding up there. Um, and I went to see Chase this past year. I've lived in Valuchia County since 1982. And I know Miss Amanda was kind enough to uh explain that you don't deal with
Senate Bill 180 precisely, but from my neighborhood, I'm in Royal Palm Village, there's a lot of people who are very upset with things that they're talking about and they don't really know what they're talking about. So, um, what I
want to do is I want to ask you to consider your support in repealing Senate Bill um, 180. As a citizen of Port Orange, I want to protect my community and that's my neighborhood community as
well as my church community. I go to Fort Orange Presbyterian Church and um I'm worried because I feel like this that Senate bill attacks our home rule that we were so proudly uh embracing and
local democracy and our residents feel helpless then against the special interest groups of builders and developers and unchecked development. And right now we're apparently having laws written for and by some of these
builders and developers. It appears we deserve respect for local control and a way to protect our pristine rural and environmentally sensitive land and our natural resources. I love my Port Orange community. I want
our families, friends, and neighbors to enjoy uh safe and affordable housing, an aesthetically pleasing environment, and a secure quality of life by restricting the urban sprawl and control of the
flooding in our neighborhoods because our neighborhood flooded too in Royal Palm Village and the roadways during heavy rains and hurricanes. Please do what you can while you're out there working with your constituents about the future of our community and work to fix
the problems associated with Senate Bill 180. I thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much. Thank you. Is that one? Okay. All right. Moving on to council member comments. Tracy, we're going to start with you tonight. All right. Good
enough. Thank you. Go ahead. So, uh, real quickly, uh, two things. Uh, Parks and Recreation. If I if I don't throw this one out there, uh, I'll forget next time as it comes around. But August 30th, mark your calendar. Rock
the park 3rd annual event, music, food, and artist displaying. Uh, so August 30th from 3 to 10 p.m. And that's up on uh the website also, so people can go and check that out. And then also as
people are coming around and asking about different careers, not jobs, there's a difference between a job and a career. And career is something that pays out over long dividends as I I talk to young uh adults all the time. And there are a few job openings inside the
city. Something to take a look at um on the website that you can come in and look at the different job openings that are there. So pass that along. Anything else? That's All good. Council Green. Um I don't have much. I did want to make two comments though. Um on consent
agenda, we we approved um to to basically partner, I guess, with uh with the de on adding a sewer line down beyond city limits. Um as part of this, you know,
we're we're getting some of the money and we have to put up some of the money. Um, but what I guess I want to make make a point at is that ultimately the money will be recovered, but this is a good faith effort as Port Orange continues to
try and keep improving our environment by adding this sewer line down there. This section takes that many more septic tanks off of the system. And uh I know this is not our city, but at the same time, it's still our area. And I think this is a u a huge step in the right
direction. I know it cost us money and we'll recoup that money, but I just want to to to let everybody know why we're doing that and and to be a good steward to the environment. Um, other than that, I'm I'm good. And it sits on the fringes of a of a of a waterway that's very very important to
our community that has had a history of us fighting for and cleaning up many many years ago. And and so you're you're right. just connects to the Rose Bay thing and the same project we're working on there is try to get the septic tanks off and and and get them get them on a system and uh and I think this is I
think it's a good deal. I know it's not uh you know probably not a priority for Port Orange but at the same time I think it's a huge benefit to everyone. So that's all. Sean, yeah, I want to talk about the uh the Cassen approval resolution 2536 and what
that meant for us was that we were able to get some funding from HUD to fix some very very broken sidewalks without using our general fund money. So that's, you know, it's always nice when you can pull money in from another area and not have to use our general fund money. With that
being said, we do have some money and there's a repair that we need to it's not necessarily a repair, it's a necessity. I got called out to uh a neighborhood here in Port Orange uh Summer Trees where the developer when they developed
that they had a sidewalk end at a major street and uh and then it continued a block away forcing the residents of that neighborhood to walk down the street which is the main thoroughfare from Taylor Road to Williamson through summer
trees which if you haven't heard has become a way to get around the intersection at Dunlton and Williamson or Taylor and Williamson. Uh several accidents have occurred on that roadway and it got brought to my attention from one of the citizens out there that there
are several people that don't cross the road easily because of their their maybe their age or their physical ability and they have to walk along the road to get to the next sidewalk. And um I asked
staff to go out there and take a look at it and see if we could extend that sidewalk uh to protect those citizens and that traffic uh that comes through there, get them off that road. Uh the estimate that we're looking at spending is approximately
uh $20,000 to extend 100 ft of sidewalk and add some cross markings on that street so people are aware that there are people going to be crossing that road. So, I would like to make a motion that we authorize staff with some of the funds that we have available to go ahead
and extend this sidewalk. Um, and our staff members uh have pulled this up to show you exactly where that is. And if you look, uh the uh yellow crosswalk is across the main road that runs through Summer Trees. and the uh orange mark
will be the actual sidewalk extension keeping the folks off of uh the main road and then you'll see another crosswalk that connects it then to the existing sidewalks there. So basically you have an you have an existing sidewalk that ends and then they have to
walk down the road and then they get back on a sidewalk. So we're asking funding to allow that to happen in that neighborhood before someone gets hurt. So, I I would ask that we bring this back on an agenda item. If we're going to make a vote on a on a $20,000
project, I think we need to give council opportunity to go down and visit the site, talk to the city manager. You know, as far as sidewalks go, we all know we are way behind on sidewalks. So, $20,000 is $20,000. And there's a lot of sidewalks that have been waiting for years to get repaired,
a long, long time. So, and I'm not saying there's not a need here, but this is the first I've heard of this at all. So, I'm not familiar with this at all. So, um, so I think the prudent thing to do is to bring this back. I think you've identified something that that it definitely needs to be discussed and looked at. We should be bringing this
back on an agenda item so we can have that discussion. Council can all go down and site visit if they want, talk to the city manager, see what's involved, see how he plans to pay for this out of funds, if if this is coming, where the funding's coming from, that kind of thing. That's all I would suggest on.
So, I'd like to then revise my motion that we put this on the agenda for our next meeting. I'll second that. A motion in second. Everybody good with that? Yes. Agreement on that? We'll do that. All right. Thank you very much. What else you got? And that's all I have. All right. Um,
so huge announcement. Aldi is open. So, uh, uh, I say that a little tongue and cheek. You know, it's interesting because uh first of all uh my compliments to the community development staff on on working uh with the
developer and that project. I never it's it's weird. We see we see parcels. Lance probably sees this a lot better than I do for sure. But you know, you see plans, you see them in black and white. You ride by the land and you go, there's no way that's going to fit there and it's not going to look good or whatever.
And it actually does fit there and it looks really good. And they did a great job. And um you know I also hear from time to time of course you got a large segment of folks who were Aldi brand fans and they couldn't wait and a lot of other folks who would say we don't need another grocery store. Well you wouldn't
know it because if you go there both parking lots public full all the way out to the bank and all the parking lots full. So um I did get a chance to go in and tour it. Uh I I'm a public's guy. I'll just admit that. But uh it's very it's very nice and it seems to be very
very wellreceived. So, that is open. Um, also last night, uh, I attended, I think Councilman Green did, you guys may have been there earlier or not, but, uh, new restaurant down in the River District called Farm Social, which is, uh, a new restaurant that just opened, uh, yes,
well, actually yesterday was their grand opening kind of a deal and kind of a soft opening thing and officially opens tomorrow. um great great uh addition to the Galbreth family of restaurants and businesses in that area and a great investment. The building came out
fabulous. The inside is wonderful. It's got a nice very unique. I don't think there's um anything like it. I don't think there's anything else like it in Punch. So, it's definitely unique. Very limited, small menu, but the items on the menu are very good, high quality, and it was it was very well attended. It
was absolutely packed. Um, also wanted to just whenever whenever I I mention something to the city manager that I think could be potentially substantial, I always want to kind of share that with you guys. So, I I reached out to the city manager and I asked him to look into some things with regards to
electricians uh in municipalities who have actual electricians on their staff. Um, currently we don't have a position in the city of Port Orange that's a true electrician position, which kind of surprises me. Uh we use uh private vendors pretty much for all of that kind
of stuff. Um it was brought to my attention that Daytona I think has six um and they kind of divide up where those actual electricians go. So that allows for a lot faster reactive response to certain things. Um but I I don't know that it's a good fit for us. You know, we're a different city than
they are. It may or may not be a good fit, but I've asked the city manager to kind of look into it, see how this could be utilized. Would it allow us to do things quicker on a reactive base when when short things pop up as opposed to having to reach out to a vendor to say,
"Hey, we got this problem. When can you get there?" And they're saying, "Yeah, we can be there next Tuesday or a month from now or what have you." Obviously, big projects are going to require those contractors or whatever. But anyhow, it it's not something that I'm advocating that we we try to force into a budget this year, but it's something I think we
need to look at and see if there could be some savings for us to have at least an electrician in in house or not and how that would look. So, just wanted to let you know I've asked him for him to do that. Um, I'd also like to see um on maybe our next workshop, I know we
haven't had a need for a lot of workshops, but if we can put this on the list, I'd like to for the council collectively um to take a look at our permitting process. I I'd like to get at least a a good overview of what requires a permit from a homeowner, mostly residential, I guess, but we can talk
about businesses, too. But what requires a permit from a homeowner? How do they go about get it? How much does it cost? does do we really need to require a permit for certain things? I you know I don't know that we've ever really had that discussion since I've been on council. Um and just kind of look at
that thing holistically. Um are we charging too much? Are we not charging enough for permits? Are there permits that we require that really most cities don't require? Maybe we don't really need to require them. I I don't know. But I think we should have that discussion because I do hear from time to time from residents that it either
takes too long to get a permit or I can't believe we need a permit or I can't believe I got to get a permit now and I got to wait for somebody to sign off on the per, you know, whatever that process may may be. I I I do remember kind of in the co thing and we can maybe talk a little bit about this was there was certain amount of things too that
you could do telephonically I think uh through like live uh live chats or something like that, video chats or what have you. I don't know if we still do that process if there's certain permits that can be done that way, but just looking at that. So, you know, if we could look at putting that more as an
educational tool for all of us and then if we see things then the council can can have discussion on and and put that I thought we had that. I swear there was like this little video on city website at one time and it says what do I need a permit for? It was kind of like a
tutorial and I it's still on online now. So there's there's a there's a video online and it covers like some basic some basic stuff but okay just for us to have a discussion you know and see I mean there may not be anything we may look at it and say man this is great we don't need to do anything I just don't want things to be
uh and I'm not I guess I'm really not suggesting that they are because I really don't know but I don't want things to be complex for our residents you know if they need to fix their homes I want them to fix their homes you know um and and do things quickly and and not not that you know have a lot of red tape involved for for things that
that a lot folks DIY nowadays. I mean, there's a lot of things that homeowners want to be able to run to Home Depot or Lowe's or wherever and get the parts and the pieces and the replacement door or the windows or whatever and and and do these things and and there may be some some other reasons behind there as to why those permits are
required. They may have to do with insurance or or whatever those things are. So, I think a lot has to do with the Florida Building Code. I don't think we require a permit for anything that the Florida Building Code doesn't require you to have a permit for. Uh, and we just did a fee study two years ago when we updated all the fees
for building permits. So, that went through the fee study at the same time we did storm water fees and water and sewer fees and all of those together. So, we can put together a summary of that for you. That'd be great. That'll be great. All right. That's all I've got. Um, city attorney. All right. Nothing for tonight. All right. City Manager, you got a
couple things. Go ahead. I did talk to the mayor earlier and he asked me to to have Tim come up and talk a little bit about Hurricane Milton homeowner recovery program. that is the Valuchia County uh program that's that's now out there. There are a number of funding sources out there to help people
with hurricane recovery and it can get confusing as you were just talking about. So there are uh we talked about during the budget process the funding that the city has to do storm water projects. So we have state appropriations that representative Traymont talked about. We have resilient
Florida funds transform 386 for infrastructure, but there's also a number of programs out there for individual homeowners that they can either have their homes purchased and and and walk away, they can have their homes elevated. Uh so there's a variety of these programs and so with each storm, different funds become available.
So we had been working for years or at least a while off of the Hurricane Ian funding that came through from HUD uh with this and now there is Milton money available. So Tim's going to just briefly talk about the county's program and how the Milton money is a little different now than what we saw earlier
with Ian Tim Burman community development you're correct city manager did a great job in the summary for me then for the most part but yes the hurricane um basically Milton um homeowner recovery program with countyy's transform rate six program is now open for residents of Port Orange to apply through their
portal um this is about $40 million which is set aside for resident programs there um that could be for the rehabilitation of their home that was damaged by either Hurricane Milton or Ian. It could also do for reconstruction of the home, reimbursement of improvements already made, you can
submit for reimbursement that way. Um, also too for voluntary buyout program. That's where if you want to sell your home, um, basically they would basically submit to that then which kind of would evaluate that. Um, if it does qualify, they would then get back with the city to see if we would want to take that property then. Um, there would be no
cost to the city. That's paid by um, the program then. But that's another option that's out there. Then and the last one too which we're trying to look more into how we can assist some of our residents here on this one is that the um match that's required for the FEMA grants. Um a lot of the basic elevate programs that we have or the rehabilitation programs
that we've done FEMA grants for. There's a 25% match that the resident has to pay for. Um basically looking to see how that could be used and leveraged to basically pay for their 25% then. So, we're going to look at ways to basically get those people that are in that program into that transform 36 program as a way to kind of help facilitate
those when those come up. Then, um, we basically will be putting a link on our website to make sure that people get to those links at Valuchia County because that's the key to contact their staff for the information on that, get to the portal since it's their account there. But, we want to make sure if residents come on our website that they automatically go get that information so
they can get to Valuchia County to um, apply for that. The way the grant funding will work is basically the the low income will basically be the um where there so the lower the income and basically I think you know because with residents seniors and um younger children then we'll take priority then so that's how they'll kind
of evaluate the programs when it comes in are there any fundamental differences between the funding from Ian and the funding from this or is it very similarly structured very similar structured okay so the key thing here is to make
sure residents understand know that it is similarly structured but it is two different things and so just because they looked at the Ian funding or or or looked into it this is something totally different yeah different new set of money then and it can be for if you were
damaged in Ian or Milton still you can apply for it but okay so it's for for Ian as well yes damage from either storm okay and the 40 million is that for port orange no that's for county as a Were they not given 150 million? What was the amount of money?
The building one was aroundund 100 133 million and they did a certain percentage was going to go toward the homeowner recovery program then which is about 30% which is $40 million. The other additional money will be used for city infrastructure projects that would come out later on in terms of a portal
opening. There'll be more information on that later on then. Okay. The only thing I opened up right now is the residential recovery program portal which is about a little over $40 million. Okay. All right. Thank you. So specifically to the individual homeowners is the 40 million. Awesome. Good.
Plans anything any questions on it? Thank you. Thanks. Appreciate you clarifying on manager. What else you got? The only other thing I had is so at the next meeting coming up. I know that that you when we finished the budget discussion and set max millillage, we we put it to five. We didn't give you the specifics on how we were going to get to
five. At the meeting on the 19th under my comments, I'll bring back to you and I'll I'll provide some information in the package too that'll show you how to get to five and potentially if there's a desire to go to four to the existing millillage, the 4975, how we would get there as well. So that that meeting what
we would hope is that get council direction at that point so that when we come in September, we know what millillage you want us to put for voting on that night. So we're not we we've had your direction of where you want us to be so that we're set for that because there's a lot of numbers to be calculated that night. We want to make
sure we got everything right and all the lines are in the right spot so that there's no issues or errors and submitting the budget number. So I'll bring that to you at the next meeting. Okay. Anything else? Yes, sir. Can I say one more thing? Go right ahead. Um, I was going to bring something to you on September 19th, but
to see how tonight's vote went for the $20,000. Um, I want to put something on uh the agenda for the I've been talking with the staff in reference to the sidewalk lights west
of 95 on um Taylor Road and and down Williamson. There's approximately 50 lights that some work, some don't. Some have broken, some have fallen. They've gone ahead and and got some pricing in reference to what it would cost to replace them and bring them. They're all
uh separated uh you know by 100 ft to code. So all we would be doing is replacing the lights and that number is over about $115,000. Um, so I was going to bring that to us
next meeting, but knowing that you would probably want it on an agenda, I'd like to make a motion that we put that on the agenda so they can bring that to us as well. Someone help me out discuss it. So, we have a motion in a second. So,
here's what I would suggest. And again, all great ideas, all things that we need to look at, but I I think what we need to do is we need when we as we we need to get the budget wrapped up, we need to look at all of the funding that we have
available to us in our reserves and we need to decide how we're going to allocate this because you can't do everything and there's only going to be so much money. And so I, you know, I've already had a conversation with the city manager. We have a a massive amount of storm water projects that are going to take a lot of
funding and a high priority. That being said, we've got a lot of other things in the city that have to get taken care of, too. You've got roadways to be paved. You've got sidewalks to be constructed, maintained, paved. You have street lighting. Ironically, I talked to him about some street lighting as well. That that that's one of the issues with the
electrician. I don't want to have to hire a private vendor company to come out and tell me there's an electrical problem if I've got an in-house person that can short, you know, shorten up that whole process and get us caught up faster. So I I think holistically we need to have that discussion to say okay
where are we comfortable as a council to set our reserve funding minimums and maximums and then see how much money does that allow us to have a broad discussion to say okay we want to put this percentage into storm water projects this percentage into catching
up on road paving this percentage into catching up on street lighting street lighting all over the city by the way that's not the only area in the city there is a massive section all the way from uh u going into countryside there village trail village trail all the way out to
Wawwa there's not a single street light that works at night that whole area it's completely dark so there's a lot of areas where we need to get caught up on that and I think that we just need to have that very broad discussion so that we can see where do we want to put our funding where do we want to put our
money and and and how soon can we get those projects done and then the city staff's going to have to tell us Hey, these are the projects you guys have all identified collectively. This is what it's going to cost and then we need to have that discussion on how much of our reserve funding do we want to go ahead and spend and and put towards these
one-time one-time fixes which are going to always have maintenance costs to them as well. So, that's a lot that and I have got a little more on on the walk lights issue. So, one of the those the the problems that we have with this situation and the people who've been around for 20 or 30 years watching them
come in. So the the people in charge of the walk lights apparently didn't understand consistency. Uh and and so we have multiple different designs. We have multiple power sources. Some are in easement. Some are some are powered by an FPL pole. Some are powered by the
private business behind it. Some are on private property that we have an easement. Some we maintain. Some we don't. And and and there's different models. So you one of the things that you can spend a lot of money on is having 15 different things in stock every time a light bulb goes out. Some
are old school lights with with ballast, some are LED. Uh so I don't think if we want to keep our our millillage rate is the fourth lowest in the county. Sustaining a really fancy walk light program with 20 different options for
architecture is a is going to be the right approach financially. So, our approach was to go to DOT, who owns the road, and try to figure out a way and and they're looking out for their own interest. They've got a big budget statewide, too, but they've got way more resources to maintain street lights than
we do. And and the idea was to get them to take a look at the road and come up with some way where we can have DOT maintained lights. we would just pay a fee for that would go from basically the railroad tracks or Spruce Creek Road all the way out to Taylor Branch that where
the street light would also light the trails and all we would be doing is paying a fee. So we would you would have a somebody who would be able to maintain and take care of them, who would have the lights in stock and have the crews and the staff because it it is going to get cost very costly for us to keep
maintaining specialty people and specialty lights and and right now we spent a year on it years back when I was upstairs just trying to determine each individual light where the power source was coming from. And that section over there by the Chili's and the Applebees
and all that is is particularly bad. It's a little bit more clear out on the east side where new development was. So by the time Tim staff was in charge, they were out there saying, "Okay, these are all consistently done and set up and maintained." So the ones in front of the Aldi and the ones in front of Pavilion are a little bit cleaner than the old
ones. But he's got a project that council authorized that went through the TPO. So the regional transportation group is looking at a feasibility study. So they're going to go take a look at that huge section from the train tracks out to Taylor Branch and come back with what is it feasible to do this? Is it
something we can do? And we may be able to get 90% or so funding from the state to fix that large stretch. And that may then help us with the idea of what do we do with the rest of them based on what comes out of that and some knowledge. So it may not be something that gets fixed right away, but it it the hundred grand
on that one little corner will multiply quickly when we start trying to fix the rest of them going up and down the street. It just doesn't seem like it's a sustainable, you know, we had this conversation at one point where where planning commission considered some lights on the north side of the city. The the key is we want it to be safe and
lit, but we don't necessarily need to light it the most expensive way possible to light through decorative walk lights on the side of the road when you've got big poles and street lights. So, part of what we'll try to bring to you is is a more pragmatic approach that is sustainable for us financially over the
long term and it still provides you the light and keeps people safe. Well, and I appreciate that. I think I I think that is the way to look at it. But I also, you know, I I agree 100% with Councilman Gford's concerns about we've got all these lights and they don't work. They aren't serving the safety
purpose that they were intended to. Maybe some of them might have been for some aesthetic reasons, but, you know, I I do hope that there are some that can be quickly brought back to life and and functional. Maybe they're not. Maybe it's so bad that every wire in the ground has been
chewed up over years and there's no way to connect these. I know some of these, you know, we've had these conversations. Some of the light systems are no longer even available. You can't even get parts and pieces for them, which is crazy, but I I get it. So, it's not as easy as just, hey, that's out. Go put the bulb in. We had a conversation before the
meeting about the uh the area down there and the Port Orange Causeway at night. We've got several major lights that aren't working. They got to order special LED lights for them. It's not as easy as just running down to the supply at public works and hopping in a bucket truck and going up there and changing
the light. But it is dark in some places down there really, really, really bad. It needs to get lit up. So, I just think that collectively we need to we need we got to prioritize the funding because the danger is is that when you just say, "Okay, this is something I want to do and it's $100,000 and we put it on."
That means something else has to get bumped out of the out of the budget that was already approved to get done or we have to add that funding in there and budget to do it or we take it out of reserves. And ideally what I think we need to do is we need to we need to have that reserve discussion that policy
change. We kind of touched on that a couple times already. I think when we get there, we have that discussion and then that's where in my mind, again, I'm just one of us up here, but in my mind, I think we need to have that discussion to say, okay, this percentage we need to allocate towards these types of projects
and this percentage so forth and so on, and then go ahead and get caught up on a lot of this stuff as best we can. That's my thought on it. Well, this is this is been my concern since I got elected. And we had this discussion a couple weeks ago when we were trying to set our maximum millage rate. We couldn't even get to what the
staff wanted. We went all the way down to five. Now, you know, things I keep hearing, oh, we don't have the money. Things can't get done. We keep putting it off. That's not the way to run a city. We if we need the money, then we need to raise the money. And if we have it in reserves, we need to spend it. The
excuse that um oh yeah, well, that's been broken forever and that's been broken. I am tired of hearing that. That is unacceptable. You couldn't run a business that way. And this is a business for the citizens that pay taxes for the things that need to be done. So, I'm sitting up here and I'm I'm trying
to justify, wait a second, Scott, I appreciate what you're saying. We're going into budget season. Let's see what our reserves are, but we're not even getting We were saying we don't have the money. Let's look at the money. We need things done here. We need things done there. Now, staff explained to me that
we're working on a long-term program from Taylor Branch Road eastward to where they finished, you know, going to the railroad tracks. And whatever happened in the last couple years from in that area with the higher lights and and the way they work, they're beautiful. If we could run that all the
way down to Trail Branch Road, we wouldn't need sidewalk lights. We wouldn't need that constant maintenance because actually, I was paying attention to the ones west of 95. And then when I got east of 95 tonight, I'm looking at lights that are not that are broken
along the eastern side. Well, if that falls under what the staff was just talk, what the city manager was talking about that, hey, we're looking at a a program with the Department of Transportation, which I don't have a lot of faith in what our government does when it comes to getting things done. It
takes forever, it seems. They're not quick on anything, right? And I respect the Department of Transportation and and there's not enough people for the project. They got 10,000 projects going on with 6,000 people. So they I get it, but this is our city and I don't like
relying on other people to get things done when we have the resources. And if we don't have the resources, let's get the resources. And and this is a real problem that I have with going back to the last meeting, talking about our millage rate, getting ready to go into
our budget season, and setting what our millage rate is going to be to raise money to get things done. And now we're talking about that we don't know how we're going to come up with the money or are we going to go into reserve. So, uh, I'm just going on the record to say that we have needs in this city and the only
way you get them taken care of it costs money. They told me when I asked Robin and and and Wayne to go out and look at these lights, it's it's almost embarrassing to to see that and to find out that it's $100,000. If we don't have $100,000 to fix 54 lights, we have a
bigger problem. And that's why I want to get it on the agenda. I want to talk about now. I'll wait. I I'll I'll I'll play the game and wait, but you got to understand where I'm coming from when it comes to raising money and and I'm just talking about $100,000 of lights. I'm
concerned about keeping employees. I'm I'm concerned about competitiveness. That's I'm giving my city manager and our staff the tools. That's what I'm concerned about and and I don't want to hear we don't have the money. That's that's what I'm saying. So, what
I'm going to do is I'll withdraw my motion for tonight. I'll navigate through um the budget season and then I just want you to know that something's got to be done. Things got to change. It's just unacceptable and that's so just if you could the good news is is every year you will
get an opportunity to make a mo motion to raise taxes as much as you want to make them and if the support is there you'll be able to do that and generate that funding. I hope that we have enough money reserves where we can reduce our taxes because honestly I don't want to be looked at the guys who's raising taxes. What I'm trying to do and I don't like
the word term raising taxes. I like funding what needs to be funded and I don't want to hear I don't have the money because that's what I've heard. We don't have the money. Well, we don't have lights that work. We have How many lawsuits do we have for people tripping on sidewalks that don't are broken?
That's a that's a that's a problem. Why are they broken? Are we walking over a broken sidewalk every time? We don't have the money. That's what I hear. And I've heard this for a very long time from not ju not you guys, the people
that have been on this council. So, I got elected for a reason, and that's to take care of things. Believe me, I'd love to cut taxes. I have to pay them as well. So, I'm not want I just want to fund our city's needs. So,
sorry to go on that tangent. No, it's okay. And and it the basic fundamentals of government is a budget process. Yep. So, we can do whatever we want. We got to put it in the budget and we have to set the millillage that achieves the budget. It's how it works. Y now from time to time you're going to
have reserve funding. We have we anticipate having some of that this year and we anticipate looking at our policy that's going to free up some funds and then collectively we have to decide where to put it. Do we put more into sidewalks, less into lighting, more into lighting? Less into sidewalks, whatever those things are. We have to have that
discussion and and that that's what we'll be charged with and no, we put money into sidewalks and we put money into lighting and we try and figure out how to do that the most the you know most economic way. That is the discussion. You know, if you have $10 million in reserves and your policy is
to keep it at seven and that means you have 3 million, you have 3 million. You don't have 3.5, you have 3 million. And so you have to figure out what can we do with 3 million to to check the boxes and get some of these things checked off. And that's that's just how it's going to work.
Good. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Cert withdrew his motion, but we have a second on the floor. I'll withdraw my second. With the second. All right. Thank you, Wayne. Can you just give us not tonight but but let us know how soon we can get
that discussion on on an agenda or a workshop because I think it's really important to all of us. Um and and collectively we need to have that policy discussion on our reserve position. What how what is that free up? What is that going to allow us to get caught up on a
lot of stuff so we can collectively have that discussion and get that one thing I wanted to make sure I'm on the right page with you what you want is so we can tell you what the fund balance is now. We're so close to the end of the year and we're about to get full into the year and then we'll do the roll forward and we'll know probably early
November exactly what you've got what's left over from this year that didn't get spent and what you currently have in your reserve. So you you've got about 21 million in there now plus the money that we set aside from Allen Green sale and and the Adelia money to use for backups
on the hurricane projects. But we can give you all of that plus this year in November. And then here's your total. Here's where you want to be. And we can identify a series of projects that you can prioritize for us. Remembering again though, it's one time. So once it's spent, it's gone. It's not there for
next year's one-time projects. So, but it will put it all together for you. So, we can do now if you want to see where we're at, but there will be money from this year unspent that will add to it. It may help you do a bigger like a more thorough look at it. If you want to do it as soon as we close out
the current fiscal year, we'll bring you where we're at. So, the first thing you need to know from us is what is our policy position on the the minimums and the maximums, right? Is your right now you're 30 to 35, which equates to about $18 to $21 million. So, I I'm good with you putting that on
the next agenda. I mean, we can we can have that discussion quick, right? Absolutely. Yeah. You know, I'd like for all five of us to be here, but I think we should have that discussion. Bring us back some information on, hey, this is this is what GFOA recommends. This is the position we're in now. Historically,
we've been through certain amount of storms. This is how much we typically dip in after a really bad storm because I I do think that our policy level has been a little high. So, I think we can bring that down and still feel very very comfortable at that. But, you know, heaven forbid there's a major incident, we're still going to have the funding
that we need to to get through something like that. So I would say let's get it on an agenda for the policy discussion on setting those parameters and then immediately after that you can bring that back to us and go okay here's on this new policy here's what you guys are going to have and here's a list of all
the projects that all the council folks and and staff have identified as major concerns and we'll have to go through that process and we'll have to hash it all out and see what all we can get done with whatever funding's available. Anything else on I mean that make sense? Yeah, your draft agenda for the 19th is
going out Friday. So, it may not be on your draft. You'll see the title. So, we'll fill it in with information by the time you get your full agenda the following. Okay. You guys remember that? Yeah. Yes. Perfect. Thank you. Anything else? No. All right. Um, item 13, environmental
advisory board. The whole board. How about the environmental advisory board representative Steve? Hi, welcome. Haven't seen you all in a long time, mayor, council.
We have three um projects going on. And so the first is a doc uh storm drain update. It has been approved and it has been funded and we are very excited. That is something we put together so that when we were taking our situation
into consideration and listening to all of our residents social media and listening to what they had to say we it was important for us to engage them in whatever takes place and that is how we got started and adopt a storm drain. It
has been funded and uh the project will be rolled out. It involves um the residents and their street nothing more than that. There are some technology involved. That's what had to be uh budgeted and we're ready to go and this will be rolled out in the fall and um
roll into 2022 because we have to see and tweak everything. But very excited about that. Um our plant giveaway. So we have that coming up in the fall. That will be at the October 18th. So uh this year you're going to email me instead of
the city. And if you email me, you can get up to three plants. Excuse me. There's three different varieties. You can get two if you're a Port Orange resident and you reserve them. One if you just walk up to the table. And they will they're going to be bushes this time. Uh we've been doing trees for
years. Time to do bushes. So everybody can take advantage. Not everybody can have a tree, but everybody can have a bush. And so uh butterfly gardens, blueberries, we're really promoting um edible uh food. um bushes. What day is that?
I'm sorry. What day? Well, we're giving away that it's going to start being advertised that you're going to email me for them. I'm going to reach out to everybody that had uh uh ordered a tree last year. So, it's going to start Mike, where is he? He's going
to be part of rolling out the program, putting out on social media and advertising and then we will deliver them in October to the table at the Port Orange event because it's always been very successful at the event at the city center. So that's why we continuously uh promote it here.
It is and people love it and they go quick. We even have to have our own little corner because so many people when you guys did the one down there at Riverwalk Yeah. people people were aggressively trying to get their trees. Yes. Yes, they were. They were. We We don't have any left over. That is for
sure. Is that in conjunction with family days? Yeah. Is that what they call them? Fall event family days. Yeah. So, it' be like October 11th. Mhm. Okay. Yeah, that'll be Thank you. Uh I looked it up. It was the 18th. I just looked it up right before I got
here, but maybe I It's definitely October, but it's in October. Yeah. Um, speaking of trees, trees are very important. Therefore, we are focusing on trees and
we are going to start a pilot program for trees around ponds for various places in the city. And our pilot program is going to address how it affects city staff mowing. We're not going to jump right in and and plant a
tree and have it mowed down by accident. That that is sad when that happens. So, we're putting a lot of thought into this. We're going to figure out where the best place, right tree, right place, and how we work with the city so that it grows and matures and helps with the canopy. Um hopefully we uh can have take
some of our money from the tree bank and upsize our trees to help with the canopy. So this is a very inclusive project that we're going to undertake and if it works in one place we're going to duplicate it in others. Um but it is a lot more complicated than what people
think. There are a lot of staff members involved. There's a lot of just a little space can cause a great deal of harm and a lot more money than anybody really wants to fail at. So we want this to be successful. If we could keep them away from public
sidewalks, that would be that. Yeah. Well, I was sitting there listening to that. I was like, why are the sidewalk walks up? We know that's because of trees. We know these things. What happened in the 80s, what happened in the '90s, we know this. So, we're not That's why we're not Your ponds are not
near the sidewalks. We're going places that are not going to affect anything. But the we would like to see the wildlife given a place to have some shade. We would like to see more areas
for people to sit and and our biggest complaint in this city is that stop taking down the trees. We know that. We hear you. We're working on that. But right tree, right place. And so um it's a continuous project and um our projects
have have rolled out. We've had the support of the community, of the council, especially of our city manager and staff. They've been just great. Always coming back with the best processes. And so teamwork and Tracy knows we get things done, don't we? Absolutely.
And and so this this year, this is where we're at. We're very excited. So that when we focus on the people, we f focus on our area, and we focus on creating the best outcome, that is where we succeed. That being said, we need more
people for our board. We love having people come to our meetings and we need people that really want to help us get these projects rolled out. People that just take it's once a quarter we have an hour meeting, but look at all we accomplish in that amount of time and
that's because of all the teamwork. I think probably that family days event's a great opportunity for you guys to recruit folks as well. Yeah, a lot get a lot of facetime there. Just to clarify, it is the 9th through the 12th, so the 11th on Saturday. Okay. All right. So, somebody fix that
on their website. I'm looking at it right now. So, absolutely. All right. Any questions? Anybody? Good work. Thank you very much for coming today. Thank you. Bye. Item 14, second reading of ordinance number 202517.
An ordinance of the city of Orange Lucia County, Florida, amending the land development code chapter 16 relating to local government regulation of homebased business to ensure consistency with compliance with recently adopted state legislation amending section 55.955 Florida statutes limiting local government regulation of homebased
businesses providing for repeal of conflicting ordinances severability and an effective date. I get a motion to approve ordinance number 2025-17. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any comment from councel
on this one? Second read. Any comment from the public on this one? Back to council. Call the role. Council Gford. Yes. Council Green. Yes. Vice Mayor Grubs. Yes. Mayor. Yes. 40. Second reading of ordinance number
2025-18. An ordinance of the city of Port Luc County for amending the land development code chapter 20 relating to additional incentives related to permanent fees and mitigation for wetlands trees and gopher tourists for targeted businesses providing for repeal of conflicting ordinances severability and an effective
date. I get a motion and a second for approval of ordinance number 2025-18. So moved. Second. Have a motion and a second. Any comment from councel? Second reading on this one also. Now, this is uh what we were
talking about earlier about incentives for economic development. Mr. Cameron, this is this is part that's going to help. Any comments from the public? And back to council. Call the role. Council Ger, yes. Councilman Grant,
yes. Yes. Yes. 40. Item 16, city council committee report from the police pension board. Councilman Lance Green. Actually, I didn't know this was going to be on the agenda, but we did have a special
meeting. Um the the person who was the actuary passed away. Um he's been a long time long time service of the Port Orange uh pension board and he passed away. Uh with that we we made a um a
motion and we made a movement to to go with uh a person who was his partner um and the firm that is his partner. So we uh we made that approval and and and made a decision to move on with an
actuary who is very familiar with Port Orange already. So that was basically the only uh action we had at this meeting. Yeah. Mr. Little had been the actuary for the pension for as long as I can remember and and and actually taught a lot of the classes at any of the pension
conferences that you would go to. So I think he's not just a loss for, you know, us as a as a vendor and contractor that's been with the plan for so long, but for the state because yeah, there's not a lot of actuaries that that specialize in public pension plans and
you really they really got to know their business and their game because and he really did that information can lead to some a world of problems. So So that was the only action on that. All right. Anything else to come before us tonight? Okay, sir. Gentlemen, yes. Good. Thank you.
All right. Have a good night.