August 11 to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands under God indivisible with liberty and justice for Chairman Carl Roth, >> present.
>> Vice Chairman Chris Leads, let the record show that Vice Chairman Leeds is absent from today's meeting. Member Daryl Rose. >> Member Robert Huard >> here. >> Member Ron Pedova. Let the record show that member Pedova is absent from
today's meeting. And member Devon Aaron, >> are you here? >> Present. Deon. >> Oh, here. >> All right. But we did go. We haven't had a meeting for a bit. Uh, but uh
it is fine. Sorry. Um, we haven't had a meeting for a bit. So, I thought we just quickly go around the horn, see if there are any topics that uh updates that any of the members have for anybody and uh at least get started there.
>> And just just a reminder, there's two sets of minutes on there that as well. >> Okay. So, um there are two sets of minutes uh from which dates? >> Um March 10th and April 14th. >> Okay. Uh so on the March 10 minutes, can
I have a motion to approve those? >> I'll make a motion to approve. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I And then the April >> I'll make a motion to approve April 14th. >> 14th. >> All in favor? >> I.
>> Okay. Minutes pass. >> Okay. So, uh other preunctaries we need to do Ashley. Uh, no. >> Okay. Any comments from the public out there? >> No, they're engrossed on their laptops.
Okay, we're good. Uh, so what I was going to do is go around the horn uh given it's been a little bit. So, if there are things on your minds that uh or things you've come across in the last few weeks, months, uh, want to bring to everybody's attention, why don't we
start there? Um I want Well, that's there's a yeah a lot of things to discuss. Um but we we were talking this morning about the um Sunset Road flooding at high tide. And uh being
that we're going to be getting set up for dredging, we have a lot of material be coming out of river. set maybe a burner across there across Sunset and down around the bayou and critical areas. The the big problem
is the boat ramps that Daryl had pointed out and getting permission and what we can do with the owner's approval uh with those boat ramps where the water intrudes and and the marina too as well. uh possibly uh extra coats of pavement.
Uh if you put maybe six more inches of pavement on those, that will curb a lot of the the high tide flooding. Uh we can also hopefully maybe then later put in some lift stations or storm water lift stations to pump the water up for that one hour period of that extreme high
tide because the salt water is tearing up residents vehicles, police vehicles when they go down there, anybody that goes down there. Uh, I'd like to just eliminate that. I mean, it's serious storm water and then nothing we can do about that. But, but those critical high
tides, I think that's something that we can address in the near future as we start dredging possibly. And we just need to contact those homeowners and see how they feel about what we can do with the boat ramps. They may be fine with whatever we do. They may don't don't touch them, but we just need to set a
mandate or figure out what they want to do. That's one thing anyway. Uh did do you know if American and Sunset are those both wells or are they ramps or both at the American and Sunset Marina? >> Sunset is is a well and so is American.
They don't um >> no ramp. >> Not at the marina. No, there's one I believe residential >> around the corner. >> I don't think that's critical as far as flooding as far as that ramp goes. I'm not sure. It's not as low as the ones on Sunset.
>> Gotcha. Gotcha. But yeah, that's true. But it's still, even though it's a well, it comes over that because it's so low, >> right? >> But if they, like I said, they put extra layers of pavement on top of that where they have the forklift, then the water would still be held with without
flooding there and they get water in the building at at full moon tes. >> Okay. >> Yeah, Tim pretty sick of it. So, >> thanks. Anything else? Um, no. I mean,
uh, docking. We can talk about docking for transient voters maybe later if you want. >> Okay. >> But there's a lot to discuss. >> That's going to be coming up. >> So, I just wait to see what they have to say about that then. >> Okay. Good deal. um
talked about possibly dissolving this committee to a capacity of city hall, but you can still have a residential committee where you guys can meet at your time, at your will, at your place and discuss issues and you can still bring these things to the city and
to the city manager and talking to you about funding for some projects that you might be want to to take care of. So, but that's it for right now. >> Let's have that as a further discussion later depending on where everybody wants
to go because I've kind of kept this agenda relatively open. It's uh will be uh a year cycle since we got established. So, now seemed to be a good time to kind of do a pulse check on where we are, where we need to be, and where we need to go. So,
um um I was driving on Sunset. Mike was driving on Sunset I think yesterday and I was like, man, >> yeah, there's just some water on there. So, I didn't I didn't bother going through it because why why do I want to salt up my my truck? You know what I mean? So, there's your your um talking
about your jacked up trucks. Are we all going to be on jacked up trucks? you know, who you know, but um you know, it almost seems like it's really hard to re-engineer that whole thing. It's so old, you know, and all the people live there and on the other side of it, you know, it's like owned by
residents and stuff. It's a really tough thing to do just logistically, you know, with all the people in their property and where the property lines are and everything. Um, but I think maybe like six inches of freaking pavement, man, right on top. I don't know if that's
even feasible, but um that seems like kind of because I mean I didn't drive all the way down and through. I'm not sure how it looks down at the end where it curves as it goes towards I'm not sure if that's all covered too. It's all
covered. Is it a foot? Is it a >> Yeah, but I mean on average, you know what I mean? It's like yesterday was a pretty good tide, you know what I mean? So it was definitely coming over. >> Yeah. It doesn't normally flood down there, but the water will come in from
the bayou in the properties through the back, >> but it doesn't The roads are fairly high back there. >> Okay. >> Sunset's probably about the lowest. >> I'm I just like the quick the easier fixes and stuff. What What do you think, Darl? >> So,
across the street from Chazco, there's that boat ramp. That's how Chazco floods. um in front of Lor's house that floods because the seaw wall is the same
actually I think is maybe lower than the road. So uh that's why that floods and when you get down by uh Pat Rogers's old house there's those old boat ramps that nobody uses cuz everybody has docks. the water comes up there and that's where
that >> So if you block in those boat ramps because nobody uses them, you can't you can't even use them because they're they got potholes in them. They're they're not even liable. Um and where that where the rock and everything is, if you build
a seaw wall just like it is across the street from uh Johnny Cash's house, right down the road from Chazco, that area doesn't flood either. Um, it just has to be raised up a little bit. >> If if you raise it to the level of the road because that road level I think is
3 foot above sea level. If you raise that up to about four feet as a king tide will still go over it, but you're not going to get them two foot tides and three foot tides going onto the road like they do now.
So they just have to be you have to block those in the where the marine is. It's just that one that's on the the left of the marina across from Chas Chasco is where how when when the tide goes up, everyone floods every single day. So that's just my opinion.
>> You live there. >> It is. Um and you don't want to drive them because you're just ruining your car through >> your car. Oh god. >> But that's why we had to put signs out. Hey, road may be underwater during high tide. We just put those in I think
>> last year. I mean, you can raise it a foot. The other issue. >> Some don't even get affected by it like >> right >> where that it looks like a relatively new seaw wall within the last 10 years or whatever because the concrete still
looks somewhat new, >> right? >> Um >> the water doesn't come over that seaw wall at all. And you can put drainage in to have it drain off and go back out when the tide goes back out. It'll take all the water off the road if take it back out to the go just like it does
now. Um we have that flat between Johnny Cass's house and uh that one house where it goes back to the back to those crates back there. When they tide comes when that area floods back there the pressure push the flap open on the low tide water
will go right back up. So >> what do you think the city's receptivity would be to >> Sorry guys. What do you think the city's receptivity would be to let's try doing this here?
It's like instead of paying the road, let's patch the road. >> All right. So, what kind of uh maybe it cost us 50,000 to do, but if we went and got, you know, and it's maybe a little bit of uh uh
rough engineering as far as getting something done >> versus spending $500,000 to have a study done and get an engineering crew in and do all of this stuff that said, "Okay, I need to put a seaw wall all along this run, but let's just say I take a 100
feet of frontage and do something there to see if it works. >> Uh I don't know what kind of >> feeling that is. >> I think I think just the seaw wall alone, even if you want to even to be on the more precautionary side where the seaw wall ends, maybe two feet off of it
between the road and the grass, you put a storm box there with a piece of pipe going out. So it does so that water that rain water does have somewhere to drain because you're going to that rain water you're going to have to have somewhere to drain anyways. So if you pitch everything, pitch the ground to where you put them boxes at, it'll take that
rain water in. But because that road does this, it goes up, it comes back down. The road does have low spots. So that's where you would have to put like if the water comes here, the water comes here, you put the box here, and you put the pipe through the brand new seaw wall, and then that when you the tide
goes out, that water will drain and go out into the Gulf just like it would. That's a small temporary fix to at least alleviate in my opinion some of it instead of spending millions and millions of dollars to raise the road.
Then you got to raise the homeowners. Then you have to invert the crown because you're not going to be able to have runoff on either side because you're going to flood everybody. So you'd have to have an inverted crown >> with the storm running down the center with the sewer. Well, I think where I'm
coming from is if let's say Annie recommended something to council and said, "Hey guys, I think uh based on our initial assessment that we've done, you know, we were out the last storm, we see this happening and we think if we do
this for 50k, it will help us out. We don't know. It's not going to be the panacea, but it's going to be uh we think it's going to help us to a degree. Do you think council have intestinal fortitude for
that activity? Because you could question their fiduciary obligations a little bit. And does that make sense? But if it's a reasonable number, do you think council would find that tenable? >> It depends on how reasonable you mean.
So we have the decimal 42. We may not have the financial. >> And that's where I'm going is it's really the dollar part that I'm coming to. But we can we can we can ask for it. >> It's more than just replacing the seaw wall because now you're on private property. That's all private property.
>> Well, you're talking about just putting like some material on top of the low really low. >> I'm talking about let having the city do things that we think will make things better until we can get a more substantive holistic view of things.
>> But seaw walls are like really expensive. >> Well, yeah. Yeah. I mean so seaw walls I mean we talked about paving and raising the road those are expensive drainage is expensive but if there were small things that we thought uh I'm saying the collective we be in
the city okay thought that this might offer some relief and then when we have the next event we find out hey it didn't do what we hoped it for it to do >> you know you're not going to prevent every event no >> it's just it's prevent you want prevent
a normal tide. A normal high tide is what you want to prevent. You're not going to right >> prevent the king tides. You're not going to pre prevent >> coastal flooding. you're not going to it's it's the it's the three 4 foot tides that you want to keep from
>> and that's where I'm kind of going is to can we give or should we encourage council perhaps give the city manager some more latitude for these let's try this with some tolerance
of what maybe a dollar >> well I was asking the last meeting uh when was sunset due to be paid because it's kind of ragged Um, and you could just run like you have most of a 3-in layer of pavement, but in the low line areas, you could maybe put
a 6 in layer or an 8 in layer of pavement over the low line areas, and that would alleviate some of the problems on some of the types. The only the only hesitation I would have and this it still be all really up to you
guys and Andy is we got to have the blue skies flooding solved before we would pave our road because you're going to if you pave the road the salt water is still going to eat it eat it away. So you're going to be >> flooding a brand new >> right >> rain water is different than the salt
just tearing it up. >> What about storm drain uh lift stations? Yeah. >> The other thing I do don't know is that apparently for some level of expenditures we have some breaks on us unless we can show that it's
uh able to withstand some level of resiliency. So is there a low threshold for that? So I can't build a fire station that's in a flood plane. I've got to put it in high enough. I can't expend that. Is there a threshold of
that or can I do these $25,000 or $50,000 things without that little level of scrutiny from God knows where on high is? So, uh, because that's just the question I have is how much latitude can
we give Daryl >> to do things to say, "Hey, uh, if I if you come up with if I put this drainage box in here, I think that's going to help something, and it's it's going to be 15,000 to do that." Go to city council and say, "Okay, this is all part
of resiliency. Think it's going to help some. Go ahead and greenlight the 15 grand >> with the ramps, right?" He's saying that the ramps are the kind of like >> Yeah. >> You know, so maybe that is the thing to >> So what do you do with the ramps? I
mean, I look based on Ash were talking about this. There's appears to be about 20 ramps throughout the city. >> Yeah. >> So they all have create some challenge in their areas and they're scattered everywhere. They're not just in one
area. So that's probably our initial compro where we're compromised as a city where water's going to come in. Certainly there may be cracks and seaw walls and all that stuff, but there are open areas wherever these ramps are. And they're north, they're south, they're
east, and they're west. Uh not to mention the city's ramp at at mix and uh um there at the park on um on Miller's Bayou where we have a beach that's open.
So are there things that we could do or should do where maybe the city shares cost with the owner to put a barrier in when there's a swarm and the city puts the barrier in to make sure it's done. I don't know. I just But there's about
20 because I went and >> well sunset though that's like kind of the main like >> I think sunset is the one the where the ramps are the only affected when when it comes to tie just tide. >> Okay. >> Where where it affects the road per se
that that I've seen that that I've had problems with is the ones just on Sunset Boulevard. And you can tell by looking at them other than the one across from Chaz. Looks like they were just they were done 60 years ago. >> Yeah.
>> Well, the chast. >> I don't know if Dave is around, but Chaska one has created somewhat of a stink back in its day. >> So, uh there's a little history on that one whether it was legitimate or not. >> And they can that can be eliminated by
just putting a floodgate in on the bottom of it. >> So, that's a good lowhanging fruit, right? I mean that's something that >> that's how floods and you go look at our storm boxes and our storm tops are they are just they get eight alive.
>> So would we want to make a recommendation to take a look at closing off that Chesco ramp to >> I don't even know who owns that. >> I know who controls it. >> Okay. So ownership is a question because
the individual that did some things to limit access there was debate as far as ownership on that but I don't I don't know so I'm not worried about it but >> mayor got something. >> Yeah Mr. chair my comment. Um I just
came today from the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Commission meeting and there was individual on that uh committee that uh talked a little bit about some of the flood prevention stuff. What I thought was interesting, I wasn't aware of. I guess there's some and this is this
doesn't solve um blue sky flooding, but uh from a from an event type standpoint, there's and I think the FDM will give these to municipalities to to protect critical infrastructure. Tiger dams, you looked into those at all.
>> They're water filled barriers that connected together and they can go long something like that. You could possibly >> is using around their building. >> Yeah. So you possibly get that free from FDM and we can actually deploy that along here to prevent water from coming
in that way during a flooding event. As far as the ramps and stuff like that, if we could work with the owners to put in water fences or whatever that they could keep up, unless they're using it, put it down, obviously that would be something we look into. But I think from a from a prevention event type thing, we ought to look into see if we can get some of
those tiger dams uh to help out with that. I assume it would it would include roads include infrastructure. So something check I can tell you they work in the Great Lakes. I saw >> you fill it with water which we got plenty of >> and that's and that that's what I think
Famous Tate is using because we um supplied a hydrometer for them to fill up barriers for their building around their whole building that low. Huh. >> That well they flooded during Helen. They got like eight or nine inches of water. That's what I think they're using there.
>> And they have different heights. I think they 24 foot, uh, 36 foot. >> Yeah. So, >> lengths. >> Lengths. You can put them as long as you want. That's what's nice about these you just keep extending. Perfect. I think >> even better.
>> We like free. So, uh, should we make a recommendation to the city to pursue that avenue or do we have to do anything on that front other than just having our discussion? Are you executing some things with the city on that? >> No, I just fresh off the press. So, I
guess I didn't all options. >> Absolutely. >> But that's just something because he he mentioned water fences like the I think it was they used the hospital down in Tampa, whatever. >> Tampa General was basically saved by a tiger dam last fall. Well, they don't have fence which is and they talked
about this very expensive options, but the tiger dams for municipalities, >> they'll give them to you. >> Many county used Tiger D. >> Yes, man. I think >> that is a special thing. >> And then what's nice about them is they are deployable and reusable. So, it's
not like a one time thing. You continue to use them. So, it's like >> Yeah. >> cones, right? Just keep put them on. >> So, depending on the what the protection you want determines. Uh, but I think those are certainly a I've seen them work and they they work well. So, and
I've seen uh probably about um 3/4 of a mile of them put together of about a 5-ft dam. Um, and it protected neighborhood during the season. So, they
worked. Okay. Um, you could Yeah. >> Okay. Darl, any things on your mind as we uh um we just
been doing some storm water work across the state. >> Okay. >> All the rain events we had, I mean, we got some water in the road, but those low spots in the road, but other than that, all the water pretty much is drained in
the swings. Okay. Um, I have something for Daryl here and I guess the city in total. Um, back in we had our discussions in the springtime
uh talked about the city water uh supply and how to uh help protect it from uh seawater incur intrusion and such. and uh Tampa Bay Water reached
out uh Warren Hog ho GG who's their chief science officer and uh he is interested in working with us to try to figure out some things that we could potentially do on our uh water
uh wells to help protect against uh incursion. So, um, he's got a staff of folks and, uh, since our wells are probably closer to the coast than anybody
are are our our production >> water production. >> Yeah. They're all on the east side of 19, >> right? But closer to the Gulf than theirs. >> Yeah. >> So, it's something that they probably are just inherently interested in anyway. >> Yeah. Uh but uh if we can be the guinea
pigs on them coming up with something that helps protect our water supply and we don't have to buy it from others, seems like a viable deal. >> What do they do? What do they actually >> They control the water for the Tampa Bay region. >> Yeah, but what like what like what do you like what do you do? Like we pump it
out of the ground. One of the things that I talked to him about was if we could do something with uh storm water uh retention upflow of the wells that would provide a an additional freshwater
barrier there like a curtain if you will that might be something that helps protect our wells. He was intrigued with the concept. Uh they would like to look at it potentially. So we have a contact to do something with them if we choose. So
>> well being right now is currently being engineered right now. >> They would be best to get in touch with them. >> Well, it's certainly >> I'll let I'll let I'll let Phil and Green know. They may have already
reached out to him, >> right? >> I'm sure they know know about it. I don't think they would. for well. >> Uh so the deeper you So no so the deeper you go with the wells the more uh
salinity the water run is. Our deepest well is only like 120 ft. >> So with the that's why you get more iron and some of them are more shallow. So we have nothing. Right. If we were to drill the wells deeper we have nothing
that will take the salinity of the water. >> Right. Right. Right. Um, that's what the RORO is supposed to do. >> And the RORO will only work to certain extent. >> So if the if we have more intrusion from when the pump the plant was designed,
>> we lose our lose our capability. >> Yeah, they um right now it's going to be designed the water's going to be 99.9% pure after everything's taken out. >> I think we're super lucky to have that >> if everything goes through. Yeah. Well,
just the well fields in general. >> Yeah. >> So, I can give you that contact information and then we can decide what we want to do uh on that. But they were interested. So, if uh we're interested, it can something to move forward.
>> Okay. With that, um I guess what I wanted to do is kind of figure out um where we wanted to go and how we wanted to go forward. We've had challenges with u uh getting corn for the last several
months. Um and um as this has evolved over time uh certainly um it was not clear where we were going to go exactly. So um what I wanted to do is find out from the members and the
audience on specific things that uh we think we should do or should consider if uh and how we move forward. So uh and I guess the fundamental question is is the committee in of itself still a viable
entity uh as far as moving forward. Um the recommendation that we have put forward has to do with sunset. I am not aware of any traction that we've had on that to date on this from the standpoint of the
city. So, um because we had recommend going out to the Army Corps to do a more comprehensive view of the the coding uh and to my knowledge that still is the case that has not occurred. So, I just
will throw it out here to open the floor up. Uh I will ask if there's any input from the uh the audience or other members before the council jumps in.
Um and uh I'll open it up from there. Anybody thoughts? >> Uh so I comment obviously when we when we put this together back a year ago the the idea was is to have an active committee moving forward with doing some
things that protect the coast. uh you know whether it be working on our uh barrier islands and whatever our shorelines just the whole gamut of of that right and so obviously you guys have have looked at sunset and I think we need to do something on that but I
think this committee is important uh whether it's this act of sunshine committee or it's a ad hoc committee that doesn't fall under that we still need to have some entity u you know studying that getting some science and making recommendations to council so that we can you know make investments in the community. So, I mean, I I think
it's a valuable asset because if we don't have it, then it's something the council is going to have to do in of themselves. And of course, we we're tied with other things going on as well. So, I think we need a committee focused on that. Um, so I would, you know, I don't want to see it disband. Now, if we restructure or something like that, I'm
I'm obviously open for thoughts, but I think we need some entity in the city focus on that. Maybe we we roll that back to the port authority board and and maybe expand that group a little bit or something. Again, there's there's ways we can meet the meet the need, but we
need we need a group that's uh looking at that so we can get recommendations council to make decisions. That'd be my two cents. >> Okay. I think the big um you know this was like Matt's like baby you know that he put that he sort of was the spearhead to
put this together and you know now he's gone obviously so he's you know the traction really isn't there but um you know part of getting you know these bigger funding you know bigger funding done through the you know state or federal is to have you know these committees in place and things like that
so that you know when you're asking for big dollars you have people that are interested you have people that are, you know, participating in the discussion and shephering something because, you know, if we if we go ask for money and things like that, well, show me something you've done, you know, let's
build on to something. Um, you know, let's, you know, get a study done or something and let them build on to that. But, um, you know, that was really the whole idea. Not that this is all just a dog and pony show, but really that's what this was really for. Um, and that's what Matt was trying to accomplish by
putting this together, but he's gone. So, you know, so we got to figure out um whether we want to do this, hold it into the, you know, to the to poor authority. And then also too, we got the issue with sunshine thing where, you know, we're sort of, you know, it's debatable, you
know, and what we can really talk about and whatnot. So, you know, you know, we haven't really accomplished much, you know what I mean? So, it's just kind of been, you know, we have a hard time even getting quum. So, it's like, what are we really doing? uh which you know we really need to figure out how to get
more people sort of involved that are actually going to show up you know so well that's the issue and the fact that you see something great well this may be very helpful let me call Carl talk to well I can't call Carl and talk to him about it
>> because we're at this capacity but when you're outside you can do that and then we can also bring this you can bring it to city manager anytime you want you got ideas you guys get together, we get together and we find, oh, this uh simple engineering has this program right now
that would help us grade over here. Let's see if Andy can get in touch with them and and get get some estimates or whatever whatever we come up with, >> right? >> But you're just strapped sitting here, you're time constraint, Ashley trying to get a quorum constantly and it's
difficult sometimes and like fill in the chairs is almost impossible. Um, but if you guys can meet on your own time in different areas, you know, when you got good ideas and you bring them together and then call Andy and have him get with the council, see what they feel about
it. U, I mean, I agree with Eric, but it's a small town and this is difficult to do here. Um, I think it is necessary. I think we should have, but we had an association 10 years ago, Bayou Business Association, full of all the business people in this
whole area. and um Kristen over at U Atlanta was uh treasurer. We had got a lot of things done, but unfortunately council didn't work with us real well. So, as businesses, we did things on our own, but we got a lot of things done and
the city didn't cooperate with other things, but we didn't have nothing in city hall. >> This was all done over at Whiskey Joe's or at Gild Dogs or wherever we met. about 12 of us >> and uh we got a lot done. >> This is like a formality to get big
dollars more or less. That's that's how this is, you know, but we don't even have anything that we've really accomplished. It's like you know what and you know he's got stuff to do. I got you got stuff to do. You got stuff >> we got good ideas and you know like I said you come up some you can call me
anytime you want if we're not at this capacity and talking about it. You can, but it's you're bound by sunshine laws. >> Uh, which I understand the reason for it. There's there's a cause for that, but at the same time, it's for us that
this capacity we can't it's hard to get stuff done. Only time got something three months ago was a great idea. Now is the only time I can present it to you guys, >> right? I I like the businesses coming together because I know if you bring you know
like 15 20 30 business guys in the marine industry together >> you know meetings I mean something will get done something will happen. >> We got the funding for the dredging >> but then you said you wouldn't spend it >> and they can get it on on the wrong thing and then lost the rest of it.
Yeah. So >> yeah. So I mean it was very >> and none of these guys that own these businesses live in the city except me. I did. My business wasn't in the city. It was in Newport Richie which is odd but that's how we got things done. We met at
when we set up meetings. It was like the second two months. >> Well it was it was all it was funded by the businesses. I mean any the the businesses >> were their own entity because of the lack of ability to get traction with the
city. It was kind of a a necessary at the time because there wasn't a cooperative piece going on. So it served its purpose I think at the the time and certainly it could continue to go on. I think how we structure it now is a
question because I know from at least my standpoint um I didn't envision um an inability to work on things and uh by virtue of the structure what I had agreed to initially
was that I'll try it and see how it goes and see if we can get things done. Um I don't think it's uh had the traction that I had hoped for originally. Uh I thought we would be able to do more. I
think the the as a committee I am encouraged because a number of things that we talked about from the initial concept back in 2020 the city has actually gone ahead and done. So as far as doing some of the the
planning and retaining contractors to get work done on resiliency those things did occur even without the committee. So I think that's a plus. Um, I guess a question I have from a CRA perspective,
uh, with the resiliency, um, are do we feel like we're making progress there? Are we missing something that maybe we should have more synergy on? Are there more tangible things that uh, a larger committee uh, could be
doing? And I know I've had conversations about the structure of the committee to leave passionately of things and allow us to move forward uh with some reasonleness uh in support of the city and city manager without the uh the overhead I
would say. And uh but that was probably about four months ago and I don't think there's been any action on that to date unless I'm not aware. Uh, so we've been kind of in I feel like we've been kind of in this limbo. We'll continue to try
to push it, but so I wanted to use this as a opportunity to say, "Hey guys and gals, uh, what do we really want to do?" So, I'm kind of uh I don't know from a CRA perspective, but there are things that uh we feel like there could be more
synergy or better things could happen for the city if we had a larger critical mass. So, maybe if we had CRA driving things and then volunteers that came in and stepped up to work on
things, maybe that's viable alternative. So, I'm open to anything. Please. >> So, the finance director made adjustments going forward to where I can work out of the CRA. So, right now I was originally 100% from in the CRA which
kept me on do C things, but we're fixing that. So, I can do resiliency citywide and I have been there some things coming up uh Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council meetings and and some other projects coming up. But with that fixed, I'll be able to do much more for the
whole city. So, are there synergies there? And I'm looking at Andy on this. Are there synergies there that we should be looking at maybe now because we weren't on board a CRA previously. This is a
relatively recent phenomena. So, um, and this concept has been around since 2020. and whether it's still viable today. I beg the question to council members that are here and the city manager uh what do
we think uh what's going to be most effective for the city and more importantly the residents? >> So, uh no pressure. >> No, thanks for the opportunity to to listen in and speak. Um, as I was
talking to uh, Councilman Huard before, if you guys find it easier to get things done by meeting at a restaurant or house or on the phone and having a regular meeting with me as citizen action committee or, you know, more ad hoc than
than an official one, um, my doors open. We've talked at length before. Um, I I think I think we're trying to bake in the the mindset of everything we do, everything we buy, everything we build
of resiliency. Uh, I was on Sunset today just we were checking out the blue sky, you know, how how the water is today or after raining all weekend and we were brainstorming on if they're not using these boat ramps, do we uh tell the citizens we're closing pro private boat
ramps? Uh, I asked, "Is there an alley in the back? Maybe we could make this a bike path and and help them turn their driveways off to come in from the back instead of the front and have a a uh a water wall uh on the south side of the
road." So, their their properties might stay dry, maybe the road gets wet. Uh, we're open to anything. the tiger dams, the uh the I don't know the name of the system at TGH, but the the wall that they use uh whatever whatever works. So
CRA, if that's part of the CRA, I think it's a valid way to spend money on experimenting things. Uh, I haven't been able to look into it, but Matt called me and told me uh that the one big beautiful bill at the federal level level was re-energizing opportunity
zones, something that had come about maybe a decade ago and fallen by the wayside. So, I want to sink my teeth into that and see if that that's a tiein. Uh, I I would suggest living shorelines along there, but that might restrict people from getting their boats
in and out. So, might be a non-starter, but I think we're open to whatever's best so that uh we don't lose that neighborhood. It's a historic neighborhood. It's beautiful. You can see why people will deal with the challenges to live there. Uh take the
challenges for for the 360 great days or last year 350 maybe. Uh and take the take the tough weeks. uh but open to anything and I'm happy to keep working attending the meetings of this official board or if you do decide to uh dissolve
I think the mayor will keep me honest on doing an ad hoc meeting whenever you guys have something you want to present I can help you forward >> yeah I think answer your question is it's it's really what you all think you need to be effective if if the effective is having
this official board we keep doing this if you think we disband the board and the the city manager creates an ad hoc committee factf finding only that you guys can have the the latitude to to meet amongst yourselves and and get back with him on on recommendations that he brings in council. Uh I think that works
fine too. Again, as long as we have some some uh uh group of folks looking into these things for us and making uh recommendations and ideas that we can actually act on, I think will serve a purpose. Well, I guess one of the things
that I wonder about if there was a cooperative entity where we have this thing that we want to take a look at whatever it happens to be tiger dams. All right. So, uh, if there are a group of people that I could have beginning to
look at tiger dams and then I came together on that subject, okay, with whoever it was at the city, then maybe that adds some value because I have some other eyes looking at this topic rather
than leaving the topic undefined. Because one of my concerns, having done this in the past, it's very difficult getting the community engaged on things unless there is a very targeted focus point and to keep it broad is hard to
move forward and I think we've seen that in spades. So, um wondering is if we could turn it about a little bit to say, hey, here's a topic. need some volunteers to work with us and we want to get together in 30
days to take a look at this. All right? So, come back in 30 days and have this whatever you can find about this, good things, bad things, and let's see, let's vet it out. Uh, is that something that
adds benefit to the community? uh and then you take advantage of it and then the people that have come to that meeting, they can get together offline to have further conversations about it. Uh but we don't have the constraints
except at a normal what I'll just say staff meeting with whomever it is. All right. To bring all of those things together. Is that something that has viability? U make it informal. I mean, is that is
that what you want to do? >> Well, that's what I'm >> suggesting. I think >> we can we can we can send out invitations to like business leaders and >> you got stuff to do, man. >> To meet and they may volunteer their venue. >> Yeah, we'll just do it informally.
>> So, we can go meet and get their input and we can do possibly a different like a business venue every month. >> Um, and invite different people every month. I'm not orienting around the routine. I'm more orienting around the
ad hoc. So, you have something tomorrow, I should be getting after that thing tomorrow. If I don't have something for six weeks, then I don't have to really get together for six weeks, >> right? >> So, I'm looking at and then who's
interested. Okay. Um, you know, you're interested, you're interested, I'm interested in this. your interest in your interest and you're interested in that. >> Okay. >> And and an action committee can open up like here it's citizens you have business people don't live in a city
they can participate they might want to get participate as well. So that opens that up. >> I think you really hit on something with the hitting on the business leaders you were talking about it de too is I mean the chamber of commerce already exists.
If you guys form something like the the business resiliency coalition or something like that, I think, you know, there's some people that are snowbirds, they're not here, they're fishing, they're they're disengaged. Uh but business isn't disengaged. They they
want to stay in business. So, I think you've really done something there. >> That would be a good connection. I mean depending on have we had any outreach with the businesses in the community res regarding resiliency to date? >> Nope.
>> I haven't. I don't know if Matt took any of those steps. >> Have we done any >> I talked to him about it but just that that it exists. That's about it. >> Have we done any postmortems with the
businesses as far as uh storm recovery? Because one of the big things at least uh it's talked about in the insurance industry is how fast businesses can recover from an event and get operational again. We haven't had any conversations on that
front. talking to some some of the local restaurant tours, they talked about how what how tough it was getting back on their feet and uh trying to bring bring their employ keep their employees afloat until they get back in operation. So, boy, I think there's room for
conversations like that. So, how to be more prepared next time, lessons learned from this past year. I would imagine only interaction probably with the building department as they got the permits to rebuild is is probably the >> the extent >> the extent of the formal conversations, right?
>> Yeah. I mean this is this is an area that I think uh certainly in be it residential or business how quickly you can recover but businesses at least what I've read has been particularly important to try to get them back
operating for I don't think we had problems with food deliveries or things like that but depending on how significant the disaster is you could have all kinds of problems >> if you had to be dealing with water or electric or fuel and all of those Thanks to support the local community.
>> I think I think Sunshine in my opinion I think your committee Sunshine holds you back a little bit because you guys want to go out as a group >> and hit these businesses and other entities and and try to develop
different sorts of resiliency for the city. So, in my opinion, I think it kind of holds you back. I'm not saying that you guys can't do things here within Sunshine. There's there's many different avenues to to to transfer information back and forth. I am your main hub. So,
even if you guys weren't meeting on a regular cadence, you could send information. I know that's not the best thing for you guys. You guys want to be able to talk freely with each other and bounce ideas off of each other on a Thursday night at dinner. You can't do that right now. So, it makes it
difficult. And I think if the city wants to move forward with what you guys have already done, I think it would benefit the ad hoc way in moving forward with what you guys have already done thus far. Well, I know from any of these
conversations that I've had at the state or um county level, by having being part of the city, be it Port authority board or the resiliency committee, you have some credibility because there's an entity
there that you're dealing with with the city >> versus a private entity, which really carries no weight that I've seen um with other governmental or quasi governmental entities. So, by having a city
representative as part and parcel, I think you get a lot more runway or a lot better response. Uh, and I think that's really where this thing with Tampa Bay Water played out is because, oh, we're the city of Port Richie concerned about our water supply. We have a committee
that's doing this stuff. Doesn't have to be the resiliency committee. It just has to be the city's concern about this and whether Larry Mo and Curley are supporting it. Doesn't make any difference as long as Larry Mo and Curley are working with the city to get that. That gets the city
credibility and it gets engagement on those areas that we need support or potentially need or want support from. So, um I guess with all of that, um my take is to maybe doing something on
that order. I don't know exactly what it is yet, but I would encourage something that there's a city liaz for whatever the topic is. Maybe it has to do with storm water, you lays here. If it has to do with resiliency, maybe it'll lies
there. Whoever you liaz with, you just create a virtual committee around that. And there are citizens that are probably interested in supporting those particular areas. And then if we start some type of thing where we get business engagement on stuff, we have another
circle there and maybe we have Ashley involved with that or Andy involved with that because business not sure but there's some connect with the representative from the city on whatever we do to move forward uh would be what I
would encourage and that and that way if um one of us is associated with that committee you can make a call to Governor Dantis and say, "I'm on this committee with the city of Port Richie. We're doing this." And you have some credibility when you talk with Governor
DeSantis. So that way those people that participate have a little bit of horsepower and they can feel more a contributor if that is an acceptable way to go, be something encourage.
And then that way on the on the the formalized committee, we probably let this either stand down, maybe keep it in, you know, at in place as far as an entity if we need it, reconstitute. But
for right now, we stand down. >> I'm cool with that. >> Yeah, I agree. And I would say that we'd look to maybe Andy and the mayor to kind of figure out what you would like
and what would be workable. But those are suggestions that I would throw forward. >> Yeah, we'll have to whatever solution we need to run by. Obviously, I was thinking of a working group, right? But even working groups fall under sunshine law when they're and so
let me just read this. So when it applies to working groups, sunshine law applies to working groups when they act as a collegial body performing governmental functions. And so there's there's things around law they have to navigate. That's why if you could talk to Nancy and figure out what the best
path forward is these guys I >> we don't we don't vote and make decisions here. Well, that that's always been my rouse, but I think uh when we have contractors in working at the city,
we don't fall under sunshine law. Okay? And I would not treat it any different operationally than that. And the members of that, whoever working on that project are citizens or maybe there's a hired contractor and there's a city representative that doesn't fall under
sunsight. Never has. I I think I think the key is is that it's not a it's not a city group or committee that's formed. It's basically the city manager in his own right creates a group of individuals to help him carry out his task. I think
it's is >> I I think the model might be a chamber of commerce type thing. It's totally independent, but if they the chamber of commerce wants to come talk to the city manager or the mayor, that's a very normal accepted thing, right? So if it was Citizens for Resiliency,
poor Richie branch, uh I think the door would be open and I don't think we'd be violating Sunshine if we were kind of your own ad hoc group. >> That and as well as your your ad hoc for 100% clarification, Nancy, I think that would be fine. But I think what you were
talking about, Carl, would fall under sunshine because you're you're starting to create these little subcommittees with a a city representative in your meeting and >> never has been. I've done a lot of work with the city cities and counties
uh have involving sizable amounts of money and uh it's never fallen under sunshine law. So if I'm getting a computer system for the city or if I'm putting in some others uh equipment doesn't fall under sunshine law. I'm
doing the work. I'm accountable to a city employee and uh it's contractual relationship. >> Absolutely. >> So and if it has to be a contractual relationship with whoever you have on board, create a contract. >> Yeah, that's that's what I'm saying. I
think as long as uh we kind of and maybe I don't know if you have had a conversation with Nancy but have a conversation what as a chair is what you envision how this goes forward or whatever do >> we we structured however we need to do that to to make it right. I think the key thing was allowing entities to do
work, right? So that's the initial conversation with Nancy was let's figure out an entity that can do work and uh that there it has the uh the force of the city behind it but not the baggage of >> the freedom to do the work.
>> Yeah. >> Yes. So, >> so with whatever resources you deem appropriate to get the work done, and I'm not sure who they may be. It could be anybody, but as long as we have that latitude, then I think it can be beneficial for the city and the
community. >> I like the business thing that just you can you can mix. He could be like still be president of this act um active league and then you can we can mention this to the business leaders if you want. We're having a meeting, you know,
whenever. Would you like to join us? And they may want to, they may not want to, but we can bring people in, >> right, >> to our meetings. You have a great idea or you may have a great idea and you want to present it to us or Daryl or myself, we can do that whenever the idea
comes up. >> Well, and I think that's my question on this whole meeting is what are those ideas? >> It's like we're talk we talking about with the firm and talking about something on Sunset Marina. Well, I'd like to invite Tim and Kristen own the marina over there and see what they
thought their thought is. You know, they can come in here and talk right now, but they can't because they're busy. But, you know, 7 o'clock tonight or something. Maybe they could. We could have a meeting >> right >> then about this what we're planning to do and see what do you guys think? And
so, yeah, and it's it's not just it's any business depending on what we're talking and the restoration of Durnney Key. There's a lot of talk about that going on right now, too. I'd like to get people's input on that. >> But I I really think that, you know, the the main reason why Matt sort of, you
know, pushed this committee and he was sort of the, you know, the big push to make this happen and again, he's gone. If we're not leveraging this as as one of the pieces of the puzzle to get a big dollar, you know, um, you know, grant or
something like that, that's why this was put together. And if we're if we don't really have anything tangible that we're working on right now where we can leverage this as a as a you know as something to say, hey, we have this resiliency committee. We're committed. We have somebody to shepherd this money
and this idea and you know, we're not like a rinky dink city and because look, we have a committee. That's what this was about. But if we really don't have anything in the pipeline or or any ideas moving forward, then we should dissolve it. But that's really what this was put
forth in the first place anyways, you know. Um, at least the way I see it, right? I mean, am I am I wrong on that? >> Well, not exactly. I mean, the the structure of how it was finally structured is different than what was envisioned
to satisfy the requirements of the city. >> Right? So the the uh the sunshine law component was not envisioned because we already had that piece but uh basically I concurred to go along with that to see
how it would work out. So walked the path here and certainly uh I personally don't feel like we've accomplished as much as I'd really hoped for. So at this juncture >> I would concur with that.
>> So and and I really attribute it to um the inability to really vet out what those ideas are and then take them to fruition because coming back to your point I'm not comfortable with that approach having dealt with the public. I
believe you have to have uh as a governmental entity we have to have some concept of what it needs to be to shop it with the masses >> is uh we'll never get any >> yeah you have talk about yeah you have to get together as a group but you can
present it to different people but you can't get anything done in meeting with everybody >> we saw that when we were trying to do the stuff in the waterfront overlay where they were not prepared to address things and when you're dealing with the public that's the worst
thing you can do and then that we're going to have potential could have potential impacts on the community I think we have to be really careful on whatever those concepts are that we're bringing out that they're fairly well vetted before you start looking for community input or else we won't get
anywhere uh in my opinion >> so what do we want to do >> well what I would encourage which is what I let's either stand this the committee down for now. Maybe not shel
it completely but just stand it stand. >> We can make it inactive. >> Make it inactive. >> There you go. >> Or whatever you need to do. We could just not call another meeting. If inactive is just suspend it for this period of time, make it easy. Whatever. That way you can reconstitute it at you
know whatever time. But then the solution to me is what we have to figure out. And I've expressed my perspective on it. There may be others, but um I think there's still people in the community that are interested in doing
things, but if they're interested in doing things and we've not been able to do things to date. >> So let's shelf it and then we'll meet get a beer and we'll go talk about what's going on. The only thing with
making it inactive depend on what we do. So if we if we make this committee inactive and then you guys all of a sudden are working in a ad hoc working group that it might be it might be smoking mirrors right so we might actually have to disband it again whatever whatever
dancing recommends it >> right >> but I like the idea of you know leaving it there in case we want to pick up some point with that in a more formal context >> to Dev's point maybe at some point there is a need that I need to have a a a
legal OS committee that is a 40 BAZ3 to get funding because I need to have that. Great. You've got you don't have to reconstitute it. I don't know. But uh I know if that happens to come along. So I will bring this up too. I you know
they the folks did create that Pasco Coastal Improvement Council. I don't know if you've been keeping up with that or whatever, but um you know we could look at creating something like that. not from the city obviously, but if the the group or whatever creates a 501c3 and called the you know the Port Richie
Coastal Improvement Council and you guys kind of operate similar structure or whatever. >> So that's an option. [Music] >> I want to be able to call you again. >> I miss calling you.
>> Okay. So, uh, after that discussion, do I have a motion on what we've been discussing from the committee? >> Well, I I can make a motion to, uh, make the coastal committee inactive at this
time. >> Does that sound that good enough? >> I'm looking to Ashley as the keep me honest. Um, I would I would have the motion in the minutes and then we will reach out to Nancy to get 100% clarification to make sure. I think it's just a a council action.
>> Yeah, the council make the action where we need to be. So, in your motion, I would just motion to explore other opportunities for the committee going forward. >> Let's do it right here. How can you do that? >> I'll make a motion that we'll uh look
for other avenues of having having a committee at a later date >> and and make this this committee in active at this time. >> I I I'd be cautious to make any solutions. Just
>> Yeah. just make a motion that uh you want to consider alternative structures for the the committee and have the city go forward with with uh you know Nancy the attorney to explore that and bring recommendations to council. I mean don't say all those words but just don't try
to get to a solution because we know what solution is going to be. >> Well yeah >> explore other opportunities for the committee at the direction of the city attorney. >> Perfect. If you say so moved, I think it's right. >> Yeah. Yeah. Make make a movement on what
Ashley said. >> I suck at that. >> Yeah. >> I think just so because Ashley's direction now is this meeting stands every month >> and to forgo that administrator.
>> Okay. Yeah. Sorry. that that motion will give staff direction to move forward with the city attorney and then ultimately bring it to council for action. >> Excellent. Yeah. And >> can't even get this >> your monthly meetings. We'll act on this quickly. Okay. So, if we get within a month or whatever, we can cancel the
next meeting, whatever you do, and then >> I'll keep you all apprised. >> All right. That's fine. >> And I mean, I'll talk to some business leaders just to see kind of how they feel about maybe doing something themselves or participating sometimes. >> Yeah. I think any of us here that uh are
aware of people that are interested in particular things, they may be interested in one thing but not another. If we can develop a cadre of people that we could bring to the table at be it business owners or whomever >> that would be I think inherently helpful for the city.
>> In the meantime, if you guys are so inclined to be I think you guys are all super excited at this point. If you guys want to share information in the meantime until council gives final direction, if you want to share things, just send it to me and I will send it to
everybody. >> Okay. >> It's still an active committee until >> apply >> for everybody >> except watch Daryl. That's >> I know. >> So, all right. Uh, do I have a motion to adjurnn if there's no other?
>> So, there was a motion and a second for that. So, >> all in favor of the motion. Hi. >> Hi. >> Okay. >> Hi. >> So, you're next. >> We're good. Any other >> topics? Anyone? >> Cool.
>> All right. Uh motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. taking