[Music] I know you guys. Oh, this thing logs me out. [Music] Hello guys. All right. Yeah. C4 Richie Community Redevelopation Board meeting Tuesday, May 13, 2025. I stand
the pledge. I aliance 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.
Yeah, we can quick. Chairman John Eric Hoover here. Vice Chairman Chris Mayer here. Member David Mueller here. Member Robert Huard. Did he leave or did he
let the record show he's absent until come back? Yeah, let the record show. Member Robert Hubard here. You didn't put me on any commission. Yeah. Not just one, three. You'll learn, Bob.
You say you're here. Here. Member Lisa Burke here. City attorney Nancy Meer here. City Manager Matthew Cobbler here. Thank you. Okay. First step, approve. We got two sets of board minutes. I need a motion for the September 24th, 2024 CRA meeting minutes. Sure you do. I just wanted to
make note that the reason why it's September is I do apologize when I was doing my backlog of minutes. Those ones got missed and we hadn't had a CRA for a minute. So I apologize. They're from September. They have been found. We're up to date. That is pretty old. Any
Yeah. Is there a motion to approve? Motion to approve. How about a second? I got Lisa for the second. Uh any further discussion? Any public comment? Seeing none, put the vote. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Motion
carried. Need a motion for March 11th, 2025. S. Motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. A motion. Second. Any further discussion? Any public comment? Say the vote. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed.
Motion carries. Uh, next up is comments from general public. I do not have any signups. If I like to speak, seeing none, bring back comments for city manager. pass for his comments. Thank you. Um I just had one item I wanted to bring up. Um you may remember a number
of months ago uh we had a resident who's also in the audience uh right now uh come forward and talk about an issue down in the Mala Drive area regarding a lot of dead trees. And I didn't hear you Matt. I'm sorry. What was that? Which
regarding what dead trees? I'm sorry. Okay. Dead trees. I'm sorry. apparently after Idelia um because of the salt water that was laying around, it killed a lot of the trees in that area. You can kind of see where the water laid because that was the path of
dead trees. Um staff had met with him, myself, we actually walked the whole area. Uh there really isn't a lot of money out there uh from the state or federal government for that issue of taking down trees.
Um he did uh actually working with some of the other neighbors. Um correct me whenever I'm wrong. Um this Mr. Suhaki, right? Yes. Yes. I said that word right. Name right. Good. Um thank you. Um and
they took down a number of trees. As we were talking about, you know, potential ways to help out. The only thing that I think about is that he could have and and the neighbors could have applied for the uh residential grant which is up to $5,000. Now, um I believe he paid and he
has some receipts in here a lot more than $5,000 for that, but again, I think uh you know, landscaping is one of those items that the grant can be used for. Um the issue is it would be after the fact and we usually don't allow after the
fact. uh grants to do that. Um so I told him I'd bring it forward, talk to you to see if you were interested in possibly doing that. We could, you know, put together those applications or bring them back to you or you could just let us go and and filter through them like normally do
with the the applications and do the best we can and catch you up with that. Okay. Well, do we know how much is left in the residential grains? I mean, I was looking for some kind of tally on that. Yeah, I I don't have that in front of me
and our person isn't here, unfortunately, to give us that, but we can get that pretty quickly. I mean, that would be a component of trying to make that decision. Is there any dollars left, right? I think there probably is. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. I mean, again, I just I don't want to speak because I may be
wrong in answering that with that in front of me. Um, but I do believe there is capacity there from both grants and and and again I think based upon conversations some of you had as council or as the board um you know the thought
was always you could do more right I mean you have a substantial amount of money within CRA so you could increase uh the a lotment whenever you want to. Sure. That all. So there's consensus. Yeah. I can I can at least put that together and
bring it back to you so you can see it at the next meeting. We'll probably have another one um in two weeks. A consensus to let them go forward to apply for the grant and bring it back to you post application. Yeah.
Um, so I don't have a problem with that, but maybe we should, again, I don't want to waste anybody's time either. Um, maybe be a quick conversation. Do you guys think that
you're on board with doing any post allowing of grants within a CRA? And the reason I bring that up is because um, and and I'm all about wanting to be able to help situation. I spoke to you as
well on this. Um the the problem that we have and I wasn't aware at time I think that you'd already done all the work or whatever. Um we just recently had a instance where the grant procedure wasn't followed to a tea and we denied $5,000 one of the residents. Um the door
or something on Blue Point um your next door neighbor. Yeah. Wayne Guido. Yeah. And so that that was you know another reason we didn't do that. Um obviously if we open open a door to do that uh I
think he has cause to come back and sue um as well as anybody else that that uh could have done something that was denied. Yeah. Was denied because it was uh I didn't follow the process. So I mean I'm okay with bringing it back
or whatever. I mean, realistically, if if there's if there's not a path to that, I don't want to waste his time or staff time or attorney time or anything else. So, um, is is there is there thoughts about potentially opening
that up that was worth pursuing? I take that as a no. I mean, I don't think we're interested in opening something back up where somebody's going to come back in and say, "Hey, you didn't treat me that way and cause problem." All right. I mean that's a Pandora box kind of set a precedent
that could go back way back you know people could come I mean I don't think there's probably statute limitations of certain amount I think and I think you know you have a policy you need to follow the policy that's that's step one um obviously things change sometimes you make exceptions sometimes you change the rules um but not only look at the
individual that you've already denied something to if you open this up other people might come forward like well here's my receipt I didn't know I could apply and now you've a standard that you don't have to follow our rules. You can just come in whenever you want. Um, you know, I know you all want to help. I completely get that.
Um, you do that, but I think policy and I I think the way to to help, although it wouldn't help the individual, um, but it proves the process going forward. Obviously, there's lots of things that have gone through, court case and all that that improve things going forward.
I think in the in the nature of an emergency, we could probably change that grant program to be a little more lenient towards something specific like a debris cleanup that uh they can go forward in and apply after the fact. I think that's something we could put forth for for future instances and I
think that's probably a good good idea. I I really wish there was some other mechanism for funding. I know you've been diligent trying to find a way whether this be FEMA or whatever. Um I don't know if there's any other avenue. This is this was obviously an avenue, but it would have to be approved
beforehand. So um I'm more than willing to look at um changing that for the future to see if we can make that better so we don't have issues like this and it gives some flexibility and provide some assistance. Um but unfortunately I'm saying sorry
but unfortunately um we have to follow the procedures the way they are otherwise we open oursel up litigation and that impacts you and every other resident because we have to pay a lawsuit pay all the stuff out um again that that that comes out of our general fund and in order to replenish that could be taxes or whatever. So,
it's incumbent upon us to to make changes where we see changes are good. Um, but we can't we can't put ourel in a position where we we could be sued and for not following policies. CRA money uh also fund landscaping.
Again, I think there's a path to do that work and had he had come in and asked for that before, we probably could have had that grant approved and and helped defay that under the landscaping portion of it. Um but but again you did it before there's a three quotes
requirement. There's a lot of things in the policy that has to be followed in order to get that. And we had a we had uh somebody following that process just recently um for $5,000 on the residential side. this same instance here. Um, and we denied that because he
did not um he started to work without approval and and so Oh, see I can I can tell you for 100% I I can't I can't not allow that and then say, well, you know, I feel empathy for this
individual. I want to help out. That's not what we're here to do. We got to apply. Yeah, we've been in that pickle before, right? We're here to we're here to make policy and if we see that we've got a gap in a policy which obviously I I 100% agree with you. I think there should be some provisions in that to to help out in a case of a catastrophe like
we had. Um but unfortunately I don't think we're in a position to be able to do that now. So that I'm sure that comment Bill Suaki uh 5203 Mallet Drive uh Port Richie Florida. I wasn't expecting a fight, mayor.
And and to be honest with you, we don't want we don't want to fight with you. There we go. Okay. There was a way for us to give us give us some money. I'd help out. No, I appreciate. Thank you very much for letting me speak. Um, I also want to thank Matt for coming out uh touring the neighborhood. Um, I can't
remember the other gentleman's name. Daryl Rose. What was it? Daryl Rose. Daryl Rose. Yeah. Um, he was really nice. He walked the neighborhood with me. We sweat um quite a bit. There's like 20 neighbors just in my little group there by Whiskey River.
You're familiar with it. Um the trees died because of 2023. We only had two or three inches of water. Um we never expected something like this. We're new to this stuff. We don't know the repercussions of a hurricane,
saltwater, whatever the intrusion was. Uh some of my trees are around this big. Okay. So, even though um it was my responsibility because supposedly it's my land and all this other stuff, um it was a natural disaster that killed them
and um you know there was an expense. You know, the tree looks great once it's up and you're like, "Okay, I found somebody for 5,800 bucks to chop them down." But when you put 15 trees in the backyard of of Port Richie where I'm at, it looked like a lumber lumber yard. And
then I had to have them cut up and then I had to have an excavator because they were so big. Take them to the curb to find out that the city can't pick them up because they're so big. So then I had to hire uh um grappling trucks to remove them because I just had to breed like
crazy. Um there's people in my neighborhood that don't have a lot of money. It's I don't have a lot of money either, but I was fortunate enough to able to find the work and and help people out. Um, some of the massive trees like this were leaning on houses.
Um, the storm, this last storm was four feet of water. Well, trees that were even partial leaning are now because of the storm, they're, you know, they're angled more. So, there's even more danger now after this last storm.
So again, I don't know the progression of, you know, asking for money, but you know, no matter how it comes down to, um, we don't know the difference of when to ask and whether there's deadlines. Um, we could use help. Um, my expense
was $18,000. I expected a five grand bill. Um, and this was with cheap labor. Some people wanted 20 grand just to chop the trees down. Um because I had a cheap tree guy, I walked the neighborhood and I think I
helped like seven or eight other homes. And then as my trees were coming down, people were just saying stop by my house and seeing what they were doing and the expense compared to everybody else. It was a lot cheaper. My 19 seconds are up. So I just know that there's money out there. Um I
was talking to the gentleman whether or not we fit into that program. It's not stuff that is happening now. It's it's a repercussion of what happened and worse comes to worse, it's collateral damage and we're going to get another storm and there's going to be more damage and
there's going to be more things and if we can figure out programs to put together so we can ask the state for, hey, listen, this stuff is just a hurricane. It's just not wind damage and we'll bring FEMA in here and we'll get insurance things here and we'll get code enforcement over here and get get it
done. There's a lot of stuff that's repercussion afterwards. Sorry for going over time. Pause. Give another minute. Um, so, um, you know, it's just it's things that, um, for me it it's it's people, the
safety of people. You know, now that my lot is cleared, you you can see it. It's all dirt. I it, you know, this is going on almost two months of cleaning it up. There's other people out there and I just feel so bad that I just don't have money to help. And there's no way for me to say, "Hey, listen. go over here to
help and see if they can get some help. And again, if this is something that we can uh implement a program, I'd love to help maybe direct it, do something um anything that I could do to make it a safer safer place and protect the people because you know there's other
collateral damage than oh your house got ruined. You got to replace your drywall, electric sockets, otherwise you're going to get fined by the code enforcement, you know. Um on the outside, we have to take care of people also. people walking the streets. Um, I mentioned limbs, you
know, on the on the main drag. When they fall, they're not going to announce it's going to fall and it's going to hurt somebody and it's gonna, you know, my thought is if there's grant money, I could use some reimbursement. You know, I've helped um five of my neighbors. Um, not the richest guy in
the world that made an impact on me. And any anything that you guys can get me or direct me to, it would help me help. Yeah. Talk to your homeowners. What's that? homeowners. Did you talk to them? Um I yeah I talked to homeowners and some of the people they they can't afford it. Your insurance company um
they won't cover your um outside. They won't cover landscape. They won't cover your trees. Um so and you know again it's not like you know and the only thing I can think of is man these trees are so old. How did not another hurricane come by here and kill these
trees? And what happened this time? And it wasn't automatically dead. It took a whole year like I told Matt all of a sudden we're getting you know it's springtime and they're not being you know the the leaves aren't coming out. So as far I'm not an arborist so you
know whether it's you know trying to get in after the fact. Well I didn't know there was a before fact and I didn't say hey listen those trees are going to die. I better get my my u my application for my grant in no and I appreciate you coming out of course my time. So I'll
leave you with this. the the grant program is still available. Okay. Um and while you currently don't qualify for because you did it in advance, you still have $5,000 worth of grant money that you could do another project with which would offset that cost. So, while you may not be reimbursed to anything for
the the tree stuff, if there's something else you need to do or whatever, and that that didn't all have to be at once, you can um you can do a $1,000 project here, do a th000 project there. Um you have up to $5,000 and I believe it's every year currently. So you could potentially get $5,000 every year. So if
you if you think about it from that perspective and now you know about the process, um you know, think about what you want to do that you need some money for and we can offset $5,000 this year and then after a year expires and you have another opportunity
for $5,000. And by doing that, you you kind of recoup your money because you not have to spend the other money going forward. It's I mean doesn't help you now, but obviously it's uh it's light at the end of the tunnel. There's there's there's and same for your neighbors.
$5,000 is available every year for projects and several projects, windows, doors, eaves, landscaping. I mean, there's and that I would get with Pam, I believe, right? Or yeah, process would be I get with Pam and if you want to find out the details of the process,
there's a packet out there. um tell your neighbors to come in, call council person, we can direct them. Call civic staff, they can direct them. Um but this this in a nutshell, you go out, you make the application, um you get three quotes, you bring that in, then once they give you commits to start, you
start and at the end you get $5,000 reimbured to you if if that's, you know, obviously if you if it's a $1,000 project, you get $1,000 reverse. It's dollar for dollar. Um it's not a match. So I mean, you could spend $5,000, doesn't matter your income level. We change that. You get a full $5,000 if
you spend $5,000. So, used to be different. If you didn't meet the poverty thresh threshold, we give you 50 cents on the dollar. So, if you spent,000, you get 500, but now it's a straight 5,000. So, use that cuz it's it's what it's there for. Okay. And and
again, I heartfelt for the issue, but please try to understand our situation. We don't want to open up city for litigation. and I said we just had very that very thing happened a couple months ago and we we couldn't make exception for him because we wouldn't want to make exception for you and anybody else who comes after. So that's kind of the
position and and I appreciate that. It's just the fact that um a lot of you know people aren't as educated in the process as you are. Yeah. it. Um, so it's um, you know, even if there was, you know, I remember, uh, listening to them on the hurricane
and said, you know, you know, the news u, and they're saying, hey, listen, if there's a tree down, don't worry about it. Call this number and we're going to come down and chop it, you know, and uh, I was just like, well, see, there is there is help for like like that. We just didn't have the trees down. It didn't fall on anybody's house yet. And
um I can't let you off for ever because it's you know again this policy in three minutes we stand. Okay. Thank you. I I commit to you that we will talk about if there's any way we can improve that process, improve the communication of the process. We'll do our due diligence to make sure that we get the word out. Um but the onus is on folks too. If they
need help, they need to seek it out too, right? And quick call to myself. Everybody has my cell phone number, another council. We can direct them. It's just Well, if we can all if I can leave you with this also. Um I mentioned earlier um with these guys here during break if there's a way that we can think
about that my situation is going to happen again. Yes. If we can figure out a program for it that we know that okay there's a hurricane coming. Let's make sure that we ask the state for this extra money. We can even allocate it within our own coffers to handle this.
We we definitely look at improving that process going forward. Remember, I've addressed this earlier about having a manual and how things are handled and the numbers to call for different situations like flooding, fires, trees down, whatever. And we had a manual hand
out to all the citizens and they could look and see the contact numbers and procedures hurricane preparedness manual. I've seen Yes, it's it would be detailed for that, but it's detailed for the city of Port Richie. Okay, let's let's talk about that. I keep everybody
here, but we I'll give you my word. We're going to look at that look at that at a future meeting, see how we can improve that process and maybe create something, right? That's only bringing money to our comm community, our community, and you know, our our causes, you know. Um I you know, I just look at it like I know there's like 20 people.
If my bill is 20 grand, you know, that's you know, 400 grand coming into the the city. You know, don't understand. We we'll do what we can. Yep. Promise. Thank you very much for your time. Appreciate coming out. Sorry about your Okay. And I'll talk to Pam and we'll see what we can do. Awesome. Yeah. Like I
said, there's $5,000, you know, for other projects. Okay. Anything helps. Y Thank you. Thank you again for your time, Matt. Good luck. And uh you're doing a good job out there. Thanks, Bill. You always make sure the cops are happy with you, right?
My my new son-in-law, he's in St. Pete and he was talking about Port Richie uh Police Department. and he goes, "Port Richie department's getting a reputation of being really tough, so you're doing your job." And I could notice the streets are safer. Good job. Thanks, Bill. Appreciate that.
Okay. Um, do you have anything else? Okay. Comments from the board. I'll start left. Uh, member Hubard. Uh, nothing at this time. Member Mueller. Vice Chair. Mayor, that's a little easier say than vice mayor. Mayor, I'm I'm just waiting for
the board business to come up. Okay. member Burke. Okay, I have nothing as well. Um, next up is our agenda, board business item number two, award of branding and wayfinding signings plan. I'll pass that to Mr. Cop for introduction. One second. Two seconds
here. As long as you get it from, we're good. this timekeeper. Uh in December uh 2024, the board authorized staff to issue a request for proposals for the development of a branding wayfinding sign plan for the community redevelopment area. This
initiative aligns with the goals outlined in the recently adopted 2024 community redevelopment plan which calls for identifying appropriate locations for gateway and wayfinding signage through throughout the city. To achieve this, a communitydriven process is needed to establish a clear and
recognizable brand for the city along with the design of signage that will guide residents and visitors to key destinations. The CRA received nine responses to the RFP proposed budgets range from 38,135 to
$150,200 and estimated time project timelines varied from 14 weeks to 46 weeks. And so um the next thing in in my cover letter here is that uh uh kind of the spread of the costs associated with
it broken down into three tasks that we had in the RFP which is uh kind of the kickoff meeting and data collection brand identity design and then the development the wayfinding program design. I also threw in there the estimated project timeline because I I
think that's pretty important to consider. A selection panel composed myself, the operations manager and the CRA resiliency coordinator evaluated the proposals based on a defined set of criteria and that that criteria was placed in the RFP
um so everyone knew what we're going to be looking for within their u their proposal. The table below summarized the scoring from the committee's initial evaluation. So out of the nine um submissions, uh we narrowed it down to
four with um Sky Design I believe having the highest score, KMA, uh FD2S and then guide studios. And from there uh selection committee conducted virtual
interviews with the four highest scoring firms. These meetings were held to clarify proposal details, assess deliverables, and evaluate each furn's approach to branding and wayfinding planning with the goal of selecting the best fit for the
PRC. After completing the interviews, committee reached unanimous decision to recommend KMA. In addition to submitting the most cost-effective proposal, KMA brings extensive experience in community- based branding and wayfinding projects for municipalities across the country, including prior work with city
of Newport region committee included that KMA's methodology and proposed deliverables align well with goals and expectations of the CRA. Let me let me say kind of um in general
uh I I wasn't enamored by KMA's proposal. Um I thought it was a little bit uh cookie cutter in terms of what they put forward. Um, but I'll say in the the clarification uh virtual meeting we had with them,
they were by by far the most organized of the the companies and they have a process. And my concern going forward is that, you know, everyone's going to be kind of doing a lot of different things and and this is a very important thing
for the city. this is very important for you and to lose sight of of getting this done would be a bad thing because you'll end up with something you don't like or the community doesn't support um and so
having a firm that has that that process in place and can help drive it um is very important. So uh after that I you know honestly I I can't think of any of the other of the other three better than
what KMA uh uh presented. And so that's again one of those things where you know you look at it on a piece of paper and you say there's no way but then doing the actual uh interviewing you find that well you know this is a better company and they are more qualified and they
have a better process. Okay. That it would have motion discussion. I'll make a motion we accept KMA's proposal. Okay. Second branding. Okay. Have a motion and a second. Any further
discussion? Any public comment? Seeing bring to a vote. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Next up item number three, Grand Boulevard Area Planning Study. I'll pass it. Mr. Cop for introduction. I will be very brief on this. You know, we've we've talked a number of times about
conducting a planning study on the Grand Boulevard area. Um, it's time to get moving on this because I I think it's going to be an area that has a lot of potential for the city. Um, is a great time to do it as
you're starting to do the development along the waterfront. This will be ahead of that and hopefully it will start generating interest as that uh project gets built that will get redevelopment going in the the Grand Boulevard area.
And uh what we do and what we're asking for is for you to say put together the RFP, bring it back to us so we can get this move forward. Okay. Motion have discussion. You're talking about we got 2 point two
two million bucks in the CRA budget. We're proposing using that as the funding source. Yeah. But we don't know the amount. Yeah. Yeah. And and I would I would say my gut tells me that you're looking somewhere in the $50,000 range
to do this. But um I think as we go through the RFP process and development of that, I think we'll have a better understanding of what that is. Um I think again I I didn't want to start this process if if
you didn't want to do that. And so there'll be a lot of staff work to put this together and then we'll be able to come back to you say here it is here's what we believe the the cost is going to be. So you can make a little bit more informed decision on that. But but
again, my my gut says we're in that $50,000 range. Um but you could easily go up to h 100,000. Um depending upon what what services you put in there and then we'll have a study that we can
go to bid to do something or it's going to give us a guideline. One one of the things that is going to come out of this and and let me just add that you know we we have had a conversation with the county the brownfield uh uh agency. Uh
we've had talks soon as I can have another conversation with them hopefully we can flush that out a little bit more. They may put money they could put money towards this. They're actually uh putting I believe they're going to be putting money towards a similar type study that's happening at the other end
of Grand Boulevard in Alers. Um they're looking at doing kind of a a a formbbased code study which would be a part of this as well. Um but I think more of the study is going to be looking at you know what what can be
developed there. you know, how to put together the the right elements of of commercial and residential and and kind of lay it out. Um, but there will be a a a component of the formbbased code, I think, in this because you just you have
existing things there and forbased codes are a lot easier to fit new development in with existing. Can we piggyback off of that? Um, interesting. Um because we got money for 19 for landscaping. Yeah. Yep. And
we have them help us with something to decorate that and grand. Yeah. So I mean I I we can look at that. I'm not sure exactly what who the county is using for that. The then the county may be doing most of the work themselves. We actually
our our planning consultant Tammy Vana has had conversations with uh the county planning department to talk about cooperation on this. They're just a little bit further ahead of us um in doing that. So they've already started
that out there. Um but again there may be some some u bring in some options for us to look at. Yeah, that would be nice. So, I mean, we can have further discussions with that, but I think it's going to take a little bit of time to
put this RFP together. So, that's why starting now. I think it's a good idea. That's our future. That's our future right there. That's our future. Yeah. Nope. I think it's going to be fun going through that process.
Is there a motion? Motion to approve item three, Grand Boulevard Area Planning Study. Second. Motion second. Any further discussion? Any public comment? See put to vote. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Next up, old business. I
have number four. Is there any old business? Okay. The only thing that I'll add business is uh true to my promise. If we could is there any objection to getting on next CRA meeting, we could talk about um potential stuff for storms and what
we can do from a from a cleanup thing. the next agenda. Objections. I'd love to do that. Be great if we can maybe have a council meeting over at 8. Frank, he's whispering. It's passed at that time. Okay. So, if we get that on
the Okay. Yeah, he's already rolling it back. Okay. That's all we got. Motion to second. Motion second. All in favor say by saying I. I. Thank you all for your