Good evening. I'm going to call this meeting um of Tuesday, October 7th to order. If you'll join me in standing, the mayor will lead us in a prayer in the pledge. Please bow with me. Lord, thank you once again for the wonderful city that we live in. Thank you for the staff that keeps it running smoothly. Uh they're
very conscientious of what they do and it's a great little town to live in. We ask you to protect our first responders as they protect us on a daily basis and lay your healing hands over the top of them and do what we can. We ask that all we do we do in your name, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Amen. 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.
Kathy, can you please call the role? Here if there's anyone in the audience that has something they'd like to speak about that is not on the agenda, if you could fill out one of these forms up front and give it to Clerk Haley. We'll get to that later on in the meeting. Uh mayor's
report. Uh I got a few things that I attended in the last couple weeks that seems to events are starting to pick up again uh coming the end of summer. But Evan Health put on a nice health fair downtown. First one they've done. They actually did it in three cities at one or four cities at one time including
Wulle Park and Lake Placid. Um just kind of a great event. We had u the legislative delegation. Thanks to Representative Kaylee Tuck and Senator Erin Gro for coming down and listening to no out or ask I guess if you want to
call it that for appropriations next year and that's I think it's pretty successful. We'll see what happens. So we've got a big ticket to to cut through but also thank you to Jared for putting together our presentation and really appreciate what you've done Jared. It's it's helped us in the past and it's
going to help us in the future. Um they had the pink on the circle. Uh Diane Albertton did a cancer uh event was really successful I think and I think it's going to grow every year now that she's kind of got it organized. So was really a nice event. Was able to go
to the VFW. Uh chief was there also Hogland. They had their 80th anniversary this week and um so we were able to present a proclamation and some other issues with that. But, uh, it's kind of neat to have in an organization that survived 80
years and still going strong. Um, got to be careful when you go out at lunch though. If you're going to go back to work, you got to be real careful. But a good good bunch of guys. Um, we had um the uh children's museum, which
we'll hear from in just a few minutes, but did a very successful event. uh they put on a kids business program where the kids make uh items and they sell them and they they learn a lot about what the business is and it was really neat because it was
they needed a much bigger arena than when they got out of the rain and went to the civic center and it was packed all the for all day on Sunday from noon till 4 I believe it was but it was a really a good event. Um let's see what else we got and the fire department.
Congratulations to the fire department. We had the CFO of Florida, Inglio, I believe is his name. Engali, I'm sorry, came down and and gave notice to the fire department said, "Hey, we want to hand out some checks to neighboring communities and to you guys. You have a
day to put the program together." And the fire department put it together and did a good job. Had a great turnout for it. We were presented with a million half dollar check uh for our fire truck and a roughly $9,000 check for some safety equipment. Um, Okchobee County
was here. I think they got two million. Highlands County was here. They got a half a million for uh, started their Lake Placid fire station. So, it was uh, it was really kind of neat to see everybody kind of together at the firehouse and did a good job putting that together and thank you for doing it
and congratulations. Um the event coming up this weekend is a heritage the uh Hispanic Heritage Festival will be on Commerce on Sunday from I believe um I think noon to 6 or something like that or 1 to 6 but uh
that'll be downtown this weekend. I also have one more proclamation and this is goes out to our uh fire department for fire prevention week. So I'd like to go ahead and if you guys would stand up and come up here
Get the fire department here. Whereas the city is committed to ensuring the safety and security of all those living visiting our community. remains a serious public. And whereas the National Fire Protection Association increase
by charge safely and recycle them. Whereas lithium ion batteries without exposing batteries to damage a fire explosion whereas proper disposal and
recycling batteries whereas the city of first responders are dedicated to reducing the fires prevention safety education. And whereas the 2025 prevention week theme is charge fire
serves as a reminder to the importance of charisberction. What does my hands? Oh, thank you. You put me on the spot. So, yeah, with that being said, we don't just celebrate one week in October as
fire prevention. We do it for the entire month. Throughout that month, we probably see, if not hundreds, thousands of kids either come through the firehouse and or us out in the community. So again, this is huge for us. It gives us an opportunity to kind of show others that we don't just run
calls, but we are also out there trying to teach prevention to our community. So thank you for allowing us to do this. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you for your service. All right. Uh moving on to council uh
council members reports Mr. Bishop. Nothing to add. No report. All right. I have just one little thing. So thank you to the fire department. Uh with it being fire prevention week. Um one of the schools that you guys went to
was my son's daycare. It happened to be his first day of daycare and he thinks firefighters and fire trucks are the greatest things on the planet. And so his very first day he got to meet some firefighters and climb inside a fire truck and um he thought that was every day at daycare. So he had a great day.
Thank you guys for that. And he taught him to stop, drop, and roll. So that's good. Um and then one one other announcement, the Military Sea Service Museum is hosting the Steel Beach Picnic for the uh Navy's 250th anniversary. That's on Saturday, October 11th from 10
a.m. to 4 pm. Um it's on 1402 Rosland Avenue kind of right down on Kennallorth Boulevard and uh contact is Fred Karina who I think is going to speak later tonight. Okay. All right. Um we're going to move on to the consent agenda. Are there any
questions or comments um from the public on the consent agenda? I have a something I would like to discuss on the consent. Actually, I'll just make a motion if that's all right. I move to approve the consent agenda with the except exception of item 8 C
line item five. Second. All right. We have a motion and second call roll for this. Yes. All right. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. All right. There's no old business. We're going to move on to new business.
Item number 10. Do we need to do the consider? I'm sorry. Sorry, continue. I didn't table it. Um, so this is a prime example of why we put this process in place. In my opinion,
this is a vacant lot that someone is wanting to place a mobile home on. Um, in my opinion, that's why we're doing this to prevent this type of thing from happening. So, uh, I don't know if anybody want to discuss it any further, but I'm going to say that we deny this
request. It's a single family lot. It's one. It's a vacant lot. And the efforts of being unilateral with our stance on other. So your stance would be that we would
deny any any new mobile home. Correct. One does not exist. There is there is another one on the agenda that is a existing mobile home just replaced. Correct. No, it's not even replacement. They're just hooking up the new service. Okay. All right. Does anyone else have
thoughts on that? I agree with Roland. All right. I move to deny the request that is presented to us tonight for 2341 West Jackson Street. A second. All right. We have a motion and a
second. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Stewart. Yes. Okay. Now we will move on to new business. Uh item number 10A. Going to go ahead and open the public
hearing. Mr. Swain, you have before you res propose resolution 2025-23. The this deals with utility rates and charges for your utility system and it includes a 20% increase in sewer rates
and a 5% increase in new service rates and these rates if approved will take effect November 1, 2025. Okay. Are there any questions or comments from the public on this item? All right. Seeing none, I'm going to
close the public hearing. Any questions or comments from council on this? Entertain a motion. Make a motion that we approve resolution 2025-20. Second. All right. We have a motion and a second. Kathy,
yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Moving on to item number 10B, public hearing and ordinance number 1554. Mr. Swain. Ordinance 1554. is entitled an ordinance of the city of Sebring, Florida,
changing the zoning classification for a parcel that totals approximately 0.19 acres located at 3611 Kennorth Boulevard from commercial district to one and two family district providing for severability, providing for conflict, and providing for an effective date. All right, we got to open public
hearing. Mr. Schmucker, Mr. Schmucker. Yes. Uh Jeff Schmunker, uh Central Florida Regional Planning Council, we've got a small presentation. You'd like us to go through the item again with you all? Okay, as that's coming up, I'll go go ahead
and get started. Um, this is a request by Dubberry Engineering and this is on behalf of property owner Denise Hamilton. Uh, requesting a reszoning on a.19 acre property located at 361 Kennorth Boulevard. Um, again, as the city
attorney mentioned, it's a request from C1 to R2. This is to allow the reconstruction of a home that was damaged following Next. Uh just a few photos. This is a photo of the home on the property today. Next
slide. Um this is also a photo of the home uh looking um down Kendallorth Boulevard and surrounding area. Next slide. And again the home uh looking from the other direction um looking to the west. Next.
Um so the future land use and zoning on the property today um is an existing future land use of mixed use and zoning of C1 commercial. Next slide. And the request here is to go to a proposed uh reszoning of R2 one two family residential. Next.
Um so the proposed R R2 zoning this is consistent with the existing uh future land use of mixed use. Um further the property um is serving a single family residence and is compatible with the from the maps that you saw a second ago, the properties that are along kind of
Kennorth Boulevard there are commercial uh but because this was a home that was looking to get reconstructed the C1 zoning did not support that. allow that to reconstruct property res. So although the propertyy's directly across Boulevard commercial, the rest of the
block that area res um in terms of impacts u no impacts staff doesn't identify any impacts. It's going to be the reconstruction property. So nothing was already questions.
Any questions from the public on this? Okay. Seeing none, I will close the public hearing. Any questions or comments from council? Right. I'll entertain a motion. Make a motion we approve ordinance number 1554 on second read.
Second. We have a motion and a second. Kathy, can you call? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you, Jeff. Okay, we're going to move to item number 10 C. Code enforcement lean clearing
presentation by attorney Matt Widner of the Widner Law Firm. Mayor, council, staff, good evening. Please allow me to introduce Matt Widner of the Widner Law Firm. Council directed code enforcement approximately a year ago to move forward with finding ways to hold property owners more accountable
and hopefully to put some teeth in our leans. Uh through doing some research, code officer romantic identified services offered by Mr. Widner's firm and very successful in several communities throughout Central Florida. It's part of your package. You'll see an article from Florida Trends, I believe
in 2022, and some success stories they've had showcasing his firm's ability to provide a lean clearing service. He's got a presentation that he'll overview the process, an opportunity for some question and answers, and hopefully give us some insight as to how we might make this a
good fit for our community and our code enforcement endeavors. Thank you so much, Mr. stand up. It is a sort of fixed presentation, but please jump in and interrupt me with any questions uh anytime anybody's got a question.
um started a couple years ago when I met with a code enforcement officer that statewide meaning for Association of code uh enforcement officers over in Orlando, but I had an opportunity to ride along with them a couple weeks ago and I got to tell you one thing that I don't want you to take for granted is what an incredible job code enforcement
officers and your chief have done in this community. I'm an outsider here, but I go to a lot of communities and I rarely see such a command of their job as these folks have. What is their job? It's that they've identified properties
that have violations on them. Go to a lot of places, you see a lot of boarded up buildings, broken glass, um trash all over the place. There's not a lot of that here when you drive around and and they're to be commended for that. We drove around, we went into some areas that maybe were a little bit rough, but
but their outreach with the people in the community showed to me a real sensitivity for what they were dealing with. Um but importantly, you saw a lot of uh new windows. I mean, I was really struck with the amount of new windows and new rooms that were out there and a lot of that has to do with the outreach
I think they've done. So, I call it comply, collect, and close. Uh, there is a problem within code enforcement and that is you've got these officers that are out there working hard trying to bring things into compliance and you got property owners that just decide, hey, we don't have to. Um, to tell you a little bit about myself, um, I started
off defending homeowners. I approached this uh this job from the public servant mindset. A mayor in St. Petersburg hired me because they had a code enforcement problem. Lots of leans, lots of money that's being spent on bulldozing properties, mowing grass. He said, "What can we do to collect it?" said number
one, we got to respect property rights. We got to respect our neighbors. But on the other hand, we got people that aren't respecting the community and we got to have a balance about that. But to come to it from that perspective is important. Um, I call it active code enforcement. These are pictures from St. Pete, but you will recognize, I mean, in
Largo and other ones, you'll recognize what happens. Um, code enforcement officers are out there. They're identifying these properties and the problem is the property owners just don't want to bring it into compliance. Um, critical for you folks to understand state law commands that you have this
code enforcement board, you know, mow your grass, clean up the roof, clean up the um, uh, windows and things like that. But oftent times it stops and and the enforcement part stops simply because we you folks are not enforcing the lean. code enforcement uh officer
goes out there and says if you don't clean it up we're going to find you go in front of code enforcement board magistrate magistrate says you know $100 a day or whatever and then it just gets filed away and forgotten about. The difference about you folks is you've got a real good command the department of all the leans out there and your
officers in particular can look at that lot and say we've been mowing that grass for you know 10 years or that property right there we demolished it you know 15 years ago. Well, now this is a tool that allows you to come and collect that money. Um, I I'll just roll right over
to that last part there, Doge. Y'all heard about that? Doge in Florida? We all heard about it, right? There's a concept that when citizens, taxpayers are owed money, in this case, these leans, that you folks are in command of collecting that money. And that's a huge
part about what this is. all around this community. As we drove around, I saw uh foundations where properties have been demolished five, ten years ago. There's a cost to taxpayers about that. The key component of this is getting that money back. If you ran a report, you'd find
that there's a couple hundred thousand at least in money owed where, you know, the house burned down, the people went away, you put out a contract to to demolish it, five grand, 10 grand, whatever it is, and there's a lean against that property. The key part of this is the city is going to collect that money and they're going to put it
up on the public auction site and allow other neighbors to to bid on it in a truly transparent, completely open process. If the next door neighbor likes that house, great. Bid with somebody from across town or across state or whatever and and be part of that
process. Um, but the idea that going back and getting that money is is a critical part of your role um is important. Um they pointed out multiple lots where they've been mowing it over and over again. Um he he mentioned one of them that your contractor I think he
said $500 or something like that. It's a heck of a a contract you have with this guy mowing the grass. But the bottom line is you should not be the lawnmowing service for these properties. It's happening repetitively. So this process is collecting that money back from the property owner. Um
what what ones you go after? Well, a lot of vacant lots, abandoned buildings. You showed me one right next to an elementary school. Beautiful single family house that the windows are blown out of. There needs to be a family living in that house. And the way there's going to be a family living in that vacant house is cityr's going to uh
pull a foreclosure case to say where you want to collect the money that we spent to take care of this mow the grass. And now three months from now, four months from now, the public's going to be able to bid on that house. So you want vacant or abandoned ones that have a lot of accumulated fines and a critical one,
non-responsive owner. Um I know last year that she sent out letters at your direction, didn't get much response from people. So, these are people that are clearly not participating in the process. What's going to happen? These are a really good case study. Um, city St. Pete had been mowing and pulling out
garbage for years actually on this particular thing. And within seven, eight months or so, new house on it, new homeowner living in there. Um, all over the state. I've been from uh the east coast over to Longboat Key to Fort Pierce. Um, where I have done that. This
is important. How long will it take? Um you identify say 10 20 properties out there where you've been leaning it literally for 10 maybe 20 years. We're going to uh take a look at those. Uh key thing is collecting that money that's been spent. Um and then from the time we
file to where it's up on auction about five months or so. Um where and what you're going to find happening is the moment this starts people are going to be coming to code enforcement department to pay those fines, get it taken care of ahead of time. They'll realize that the city's serious about this now and
they're going to voluntarily come and and want to come into compliance. Again, more about the concept of economic development. You're um you got a sort of tight community center. You got good opportunity to have that growth and housing in the core as opposed to out
where you have traffic problems. I'm getting close to wrapping up here, but let me explain one of the the key problems. This is a title search. I know some of you folks have some real estate background, but here's the bottom line. People ask, well, why won't the the family step up and take care of this piece of property? You know, the code
enforcement has mailed out letters and we can't figure out who actually owns it. This is the big explanation for a lot of these properties. Someone died 3, four years ago. They had four kids. They didn't put it into probate. So, those four kids and two of them died and then they've got eight other kids. So,
literally in some of these things, you have like 16 kids that have an interest in the property. Solving this all becomes my problem. We'll get to the the nuts and bolts of what I proposed. In all these cities that I've worked in, um I I front all the costs, the title
search, the private investigators to track down all the property owners, the filing fees and everything. And then at the end of the day, deliver clear title either to the city ring or to someone that would bid at it at auction. Um I I wanted to be quick. Respect for your
time. I I welcome any questions about the process. Is this a typical foreclosure? Like if a bank went into a foreclosure, the same kind of process where I mean it but it goes to the courthouse steps 100%. It doesn't come directly to the city once you get the lean.
Correct. That's the best one of the best parts about this is a judge is going to make the decision. So you folks are merely saying, "Hey, there's leans up against there." But there's going to be a judge that will decide that, you know, property owner was served and due process whites were respected. All the
city sebraring is doing say, "Hey, we're owed this money." All that other stuff is in front of the judge to make frankly hard calls. Good. I like it. Yes, sir. What What is the trigger for you to start the foreclosure process? Is it number of notices, the dollars acred?
That's up to you. You could say that on the first notice because this one's a problem. A green pool, a dangerous building, you know, a roof or whatever. It's a fire hazard. You the state law says at three months. Is it subjective? Meaning that each property can be different or we need to have a
the law allows you to foreclose at three months. You could set a completely subjective process if there's a fire hazard. You know, we've had literally law enforcement that says, "Look, this is a drug deal. I want this one done the moment three months ticks over. But
frankly, you've got such a universe of properties out there that you've been mowing the grass for 10 years. We we talked a little bit about this. You may say that, you know, once it reaches $10,000 owed to the taxpayers, that's when we're going to collect. You could say that, you know, if it's a I certainly think if it's a dangerous
building, boom, that's one you're starting on immediately because you're not going to have some kid that goes into a pool or some homeless person starts a fire or whatever that's a problem. That could be trigger. And how many do you think we have on the roles that fit that category like now?
Just a round number. How many dangerous buildings? Yeah, I would say maybe four or five. Okay. Tyler and building address our unse. Majority of our problems are longterm maintenance type cases where we going
for years. Okay. How many municipalities do you do this for right now? Um they they tend to roll off. So I've been up to 10. Um but you kind of work through an end. So there's an end process. Like you feel like there's a a point where you say, "Okay, I've done my job."
Yeah. I've shared with the chief and I'm sure with any of you folks. Um, Newport Richie is a real it's real real similar to you folks in terms of the enforcement model. We have law enforcement and you know we go through a process of start slow get a couple of them and then we work through the inventory and we're done. I'm on to the next.
Okay. How uh last question. Sorry I'm commenting here. I wrote down all my questions. How do you get paid? That's a really important point. Uh contingency. So the contingency contract uh provides that the net recovery between 20 and 40% if it goes all the
way to appeal. There's nothing out of the city's pocket. Um each case I front around a th000 up to $2,000 that comes out of my pocket. Um when it goes to auction for many of these it's not going to be much, right? Um but some of them is going to come back in there'll be a
20 30% recovery on those things but nothing out of six. So this applicable to residential or commercial, right? All the above. Okay. Um, and have you seen in the cases where you have worked where this has kickstarted
some of these uh non-compliant owners to self uh mitigate? I I told the chief and my city attorney, you know, get ready for people coming here for because, you know, it's it's interesting how they all communicate and every community they've been in, investor, the flippers or
whatever, they get wise to what's going on and they'll start coming into compliance and start paying and settling those things. So, talk to the chief about make sure you got a settlement process already in place. What is it? Number one, it better all be in compliance. that grass better be mowed,
the fences, everything all better to be taken care of. Then you can come in and fill out that application and uh reduce it down under reasonable terms. Um chief mentioned it's important homestead is a problem, right? So um you can't foreclose on homestead property, but
we're going to be sensitive. The critical thing is you folks always uh are in control. So you're going to have somebody that's going to pop up that's got a a hard luck story. Dad got sick, grandma got sick, or whatever. We weren't aware of this. That's the time when we take the foot off the gas a
little bit. We work with the f kids, whoever is communicating with. They bring it into compliance. You make that one go away. You reserve the actual auction for the people that just aren't listed. And those are the ones that ultimately go to.
So, is the control at the code enforcement board or is that at city council? Um, code enforcement board's already done their work. they determine the fine is there 250 bucks a day or whatever. Um ultimately would be city manager, mayor, whatever policy you decide that we're
going to stop and not take that one off. Um everyone comes through my office and I communicate and have done this for 10 years. We know where you want to work with people and where they're just being not. But the critical thing is you always
have the ability to take your foot off the gas and let's work this one out versus the other one compliance. What if there's money owed on the property? Like if you have an apartment building, the guy rents the apartment
don't get much or whatever and they're constantly written up but they owe money. Yeah, real really good point. So whether it's a mortgage or IRS lean or something like that, um that's a technical thing that I have to look at that and decide, hey, there's a million dollar Bank of
America mortgage on there and um maybe we won't get anything at auction. But the reality is that's never been a reason to stop our enforcement because, you know, we got people that are in foreclosure and we all know this used to
drag on forever, right? But the city can leap frog over that say I don't care about Bank of America waiting around on this. We're going to bring this to judgement in you know three months because I guarantee you your sit circuit court judge will put you to the front of the line. Bring that property compliance
to your question. We talked about a philosophy of property selection and when these properties should come through this process for lean clearing. Um ideally per statute you can go at three months. We collectively felt that that was very soon. Um, right now we've got a process where once the leans are
imposed, the owner is notified. They're notified through the due process. They get a notice of hearing. They get a notice of lean. They should be aware of that process unless it's an absentee type landlord. We can't get a hold of the property. At the one-year anniversary, we're sending reminder letters at direction of council. We kind
of thought that in year three for the general property once we've cleared inventory that would be the time that we could move this to the process for lean clearing comfortably on an casebyase basis. Now the hardlock stories the life stories that come to the table. Obviously we contend with
those individually and deal with them through the process and opportunities for mitigation where they can bring the property into voluntary compliance. We can work with them as long as they're working with us and maybe avoid the foreclosure process. If they don't communication stops, we've got the
ability have said foot in the gas. That's a really conservative timeline. I don't think we would be hurt anybody by waiting for three years, right? No. And realistically, we've got such a backlog of cases right now that I think as Matt mentioned, once some of our
property owners and our landlords get the idea that this is going, it's moving through the process and some of these other properties are being forclosed on, we'll get volunteer compliance as this process is up. If we get this started and we have this backlog, is there any limitation as to
how many we can start at one time? No, we have got capacity big counties, little cities. because I would imagine the first six months is just going to be a lot a lot. I know the mayor asked this, but for clarification, when would the
circumstance be when the city takes ownership of that property if if any? Great question. Yeah. So, the way an auction works is goes onto the auction steps on uh realistically March 1, 2026, and the judge has said the city is owed
$50,000 for mowing the grass, bulldozing, everything else like that. Um goes up to auction, but no one bids. So now that property reverts back to the city. Um in every city that I've worked with um we've developed successful
programs of turning it over like habitat for humanity as an example. Um we've adopted what's called an angel fund which is some of that money that comes back in the city can then use to help a neighbor with a roof or something like that. But we've been very um intentional
with with some properties. So you know you look at some of these vacant lots near the places and I mean these are vacant lots need to have houses on and we can pull those back and get them onto the market so you can turn it over to Habitat or
whoever else and allow them to build. It's really helped in the affordable housing stock some cities. How successful have you been with working with like a P3 partnership or getting private developers who know that if a city or a property reverts back to the city that we could work out a deal
with them similar to what we're doing with our CRA and uh incentivizing individuals to flip these properties and develop them. So one of the things about this process is it's so transparent that when they're all up in the auction step if Habitat or
any of the other redevelopment or CR a people I almost that gets lost in the weeds and the difficulty of making sure you're not favoring or you got any kind of inside deal. The thing that I really like about this is if you've got a partner that wants to invest in the community, the very best thing is to say it's coming up
to auction August 1. So, you know, we kind of got bogged down in one city because we're trying to qualify these different partners to participate in the uh affordable housing deal and I said just let it all go to auction. You know, if Habitat and there were a couple
builders that wanted to participate participate in the auction. You pay two grand for it there and and save all the administrative time and all the you know favoritism other kind of things buy there but but let's say as an example in your CRA or whatever you could intentionally
decide hey you know we want to bring in this project commercial property or whatever and but we got all these other vacant lots around there. the city could be very intentional and say, "Hey, let's let's put those five vacant ones into the program so that they can come out with them, you know, four months ago to
auction and maybe this developer that we're otherwise working with his partner for spin-off people can go there and grab those." But it's the same process where, you know, a neighborhood could come and bid on as well. I will just tell you there's two that
come to my mind. Um, it been that one house right by the neighborhood right by the school. Um, It's a beautiful house block. It's got windows blown out. What your code people told me was, you know, with the rain and everything else like that, this thing's going to fall apart really quickly. And that's terrible
shame. It's a crying shame. There's another house um that was a, you know, r huge lot and that had been abandoned. He said that the the family members, whoever they were, in fact, said, "We don't want anything to do with this." You know, maybe there was a mortgage on whatever else, but over and over again
in every city, we've had these circumstances. literally property owners and say, "Get me out of this thing. Mom died. I live in New York. I didn't come back here. This is the way that you can address all of those problems." I guess a question for both of you too
and and chief. So, a year ago, we did Shrek to send out those reminders on an annual basis. It sounds like what uh Matt's offering too is doing more of the due diligence and follow-ups and connecting with whoever owns the property, uh having a private investigator, all that. Do we need to
consider stopping that process now knowing that it wasn't as successful as we hoped it to be a year ago with reminders? fat opinion and I think towards the outreach piece code enforcement we continue until this program is up and running there's no harm no bots this
point it's a stamp and an envelope it's staff time they're autogenerated on the anniversary day for the lean I don't think any harm whatsoever in continuing that process any time I think it'll go away if you roll into a three-year type program or two type program with this
reminder letter will be a letterhead from wiser should take care of. Okay, I'm smiling because I give this presentation all over including especially the code enforcement officers. I say notice, notice, notice. You can never overnotice. Florida statute provides a very specific
notice that you send certified mail to the registered address there. The half of them come back, they don't answer, but we've done our job by noticing. So, code enforcement board meets, it goes out there, they sent a notice. That's another one. But a critical part of what I do because the requirement in court
now is private investigators going out really is that's that last very formal and and there's a lot of expense involved. That's one of those ones where there's you know 18 kids and whatever literally um that could be several thousand dollars worth of private investigative expense but that's my job
as my burden to bear. I take that responsibility of making sure that we've exhausted every opportunity to find that cousin, you know, 16 times removed and make sure they know, hey, granddad or whatever had a house in CRA and if you want it, come to the table. Let's work
something out. Any other questions or comments from council? Is there anything from the public on this side? I don't see any negatives. Could you come to the podium, sir? Great that you're to the podium.
Sorry, you got to introduce yourself for the record. My name is Andrew. Uh I think it's great that you're all addressing flight. It's a very critical issue. How does it address the debris that's on people's properties? That's that's the
immediate uh impact that you know a visitor or homeowner or or investor sees that first. How would your program kind of address that kind of I would respond to council and that is that the thing that really got my
attention was how thorough these officers were. I mean it really wasn't a house we drove by. They were not explicitly aware of what the facts are who they've been nailing to the cousin six move and and they're just wasting a lot of their time because they're spinning their wheels. And to answer the
the citizens question when they're able to stop that wasted effort then they can really focus on those immediate issues of taking care of this one right now. Um, another kind of spin-off topic of that is for some of our neighbors that
trash and debris and stuff like that, they just can't get their arms around, right? Financially, they're hurting or otherwise. And every community that worked with, we establish an angel fund so that um, we got a little bit of money to fix the salt and fix the roof, fix the whatever. But we'll allow look
knowing how intense these code enforcement officers are in their connection for that house. He's talking about the junk all over the place. I I think they can go in there and maybe it's hired that contract to kind of help take that stuff off that was responsive to the citiz
and and your officials you have the tool code enforcement. Um, this merely puts the enforcement part of that. Um, so you are going to have examples where people have just gotten accustomed to not having to respect their neighbors or the law that you have. I promise you that
all ends immediately once this there's no arguing with the circuit court judge that's going to say I've heard from the I know what's going on. We're not going to Yes, sir. Christopher Toughley. Uh I had a case my
sister uh we didn't realize how she was and she had become a hoarder and you walked into that house and in fact I'm having to sell it because it's going to cost about 60 or more. I doesn't have a kitchen anymore and doesn't have a bathroom. So when you're dealing with
mental illness, so a great point because this is an issue. Um this kind of hoarding that sort of situation is a mental illness and we have to understand it as such and that's where the sensitivity of the community comes in. So in that
circumstance again we kind of take the foot off the gas a little bit over and over again. I have referred to other attorneys that maybe they got to open up a probate to find the relative to come in and help. But that's where the the servant heart and sensitivity this comes in and and we work that circumstance
out. Um so you know for the we've got people that are just completely ignoring because they get away with it. We have other people that need a little helping hand understanding the difference between those two is anything else from the public on this.
One point from the contract I think bears mentioning in the situation where there are no biders at the public sale after the foreclosure in the city takes title to the property based on based on what's called a credit bid the percentage recovery that would be due
Mr. Widner's firm is based on the assessed value of the property according to the the property appraisers uh determination. So depending on the value it could be expensive. Of course, the city has the ability to look at that issue and and make a conscientious
decision of what to send to his firm to handle. I think I think we should do this. I think this is a I think he's got a great idea. I think the city will be well served by it, but you it could be on occasion a situation where that dollar amount can be pretty significant on a on a particular property.
In theory, it's only smallish percentage of the assessed value. Correct. Uh between 20 and 40% uh is the recovery his firm would receive uh if they take it all the way through and nobody nobody else bids on it for whatever reason
nobody else bids. The only thing I would want to say is I think our code enforcement officers are doing a great job and this is the part where they can't do anything right made it to where all they can do all the code board can do people that just don't want to comply. I think this is a a great
idea. Y I'm looking forward for Tyler and Joe, too, once we can clear the deck a little bit for them to do something other than what they're doing day in and day out with the same properties time and time again. I think it's a great idea and I think you have a great attitude for the city too that we're not just trying to
foreclose on anybody and everybody um but having the heart of a servant too to help people and we want to treat people right and fair. Any other comments? If not, I will entertain a motion. Yes, sir.
Carlson, for the record, I just wanted to thank council and chief for pulling this together. I think it's a great step toward having some teeth related to our code enforcement. Two things that I would ask. Annual notification. If compliance is our goal, annual notifications to someone that's not in compliance, it's
not adequate. If it's an automatic system, I would ask that you maybe program that to be monthly or quarterly. so that if the notice gets lost in the mail, someone's not waiting a whole year to get the notice. Maybe that's part of the attorney's pro process. Um the second thing is that a lot of debris
that's in people's private property is not necessarily placed there by the property owner. Um, so one thing I would ask that perhaps we work with police department and code enforcement on is enforcement of illegal dumping laws and helping us with when other people dump.
This is a major problem downtown almost daily where people dump illegal trash, piles of it, uh, on our property that we do something to stop them, especially if we know who they are that are dumping. Thank you. Unless there's Anything else? I'll
entertain a motion. I'll make a motion direct staff to retain attorney legal service for code. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, man. Thank you. Appreciate your time. All right. So, next on the agenda is business from the audience. We've got several tonight. As a reminder, um public comment is limited to three
minutes, please. So, when you get up here, please uh introduce yourself and you'll have three minutes. First up, Miss Kelly Drestell. Good evening, Kelly. I am the executive director for the Children's Museum and host of Children's Business Day. So, At
least the mayor got to come and visit our fair on Sunday. But the reason I'm here is because I wanted to at least extend a big thank you to the city. Um on Tuesday, we realized that the weather may not be cooperative, which of course
it was. But if I hadn't made that decision, that would have, you know, we just didn't know what the weather was going to do. And when you're dealing with children, it's different for an adult vendor who is watching the weather and everything. when you have 51 kids businesses that you're responsible for
scrolling down North Ridgewood, we just couldn't take that chance. So, I made a phone call to the city and Scott um was amazing. He talked to me immediately um and Robin at the front desk um walked me through the process. We were able to
secure the um civic center. And what was great about it is, God bless him, that was plan B. And I kept saying we might not need it. And I know that's really difficult. because we're trying to put everything in place, but he really worked with me. Um, probably rolls his eyes at me a little bit because I'm a
little chaotic at times and hyper, but um, it was really just a a pleasure working with the city offices. And then I'd like to give a special shout out for Toby with public works. Um, God bless him as well um, who had to deal with me um, for two weeks while we were trying
to figure out where to put the stage and where to put this and that. and then none of that mattered because we moved to the civic center and he was just wonderful in every aspect. So, um just being proactive, helping me, making phone calls to me. I brought signs out
and Toby called me almost immediately and said it's our um which I appreciate. Um who knew one foot would matter with what goes up above the city circle sidewalks, but it will be a mistake I will not make next year. Um but I do app
appreciate um the lenency and just a little bit of care. Um the kids did a great job and um if you didn't get to come, I know some of you have been our judges. Um I'll be coming up to ask for judging again. Never again. I know. Um once you're a judge, you never have to
do it again. You are clear slate. Um John's not allowed to do it because he gives everyone a 10. We're all great. How judgment works, but it was a spectacular event. We had um 68 kids participate. 51ives that
actually were ready to go. It was a great event this year. I think there were 20 when I Yeah, it's rough now because these kids are really going to be our up andcoming business leaders. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for doing that.
All right. Next up, Mr. Anthony Miller uh to talk about Good afternoon. So, um I came up here this evening uh because I want to express my concerns about some takeaways that I saw at the last meeting. Um couple of u the people that went and
donated that property to the city. I think their intention was to give back to the community. And I think that they would not want that property to be a a uh burden for this community as it has been for years. Okay. And cooperate with
the Harter Hall so that harder hall is only going to work with that with that golf course for it to be really a fivestar destination. Okay. For for our county, okay. And u you know, I would really hate to see him back out of this.
And I you know, another take away I took the meeting was that um after all those months of discussing the matter with them that you would bring it to the table to take a vote on it, but when Mr. Blackman was here to kind of explain some of the uh things that you still had
issues with drainage, etc. Um I don't understand why none of that was kind of like resolved prior to him. And then one of the council members did bring up about tableabling it. And I was a little surprised. It seemed like the entire council pretty much made up their mind prior to coming to the meeting that
night. And uh so I'm just asking you all to reconsider about working with Mr. Blackman. I mean just once a not everybody you don't get too many people walking into town with the willingness and the money to be able to do this job
and it's a it's a huge lift and this uh Carter Hall is really an important pillar for this community. Okay, it is it is a huge asset. I can't understate that enough and you all know how long it's been abandoned and so I'm asking
you to reconsider what your thought process is get back to the table up and say listen let's get this taken care of you know this I think two jobs that many jobs that council has two of them are is you want to improve the
quality of life your citizens and number two is want to increase your tax base to to uh support basic services like the officers that were here earlier tonight or the the tax increase that was water
bill and and utilities whatever it may be. You're always striving to uh get an extra uh ordinance officer um to be on the job to be able to get your your community in more compliance in dealing with the blight that you see every day.
Well, you know, that's part of it, you know, and the agility agility to work with black. Let's get this plant back on seemed like it went off track. Let's get back on track. Let's get this going so that we can all
better not only for city. Thank you. All right. Uh next up, Mr. Jeff Carlson. Let's talk about the golf course. actually made notes. Jeff Carlson for the record. That's perfectly timely that that came up. Um, I wanted to start by
thank John I reclaim my first five seconds. I wanted to start by thanking the four of you that voted for accountability, transparency, and your fidiciary duty. In this regard, Mr. Blackman didn't start this process off with good
intentions. you didn't start it off in good faith and you guys stood up for the citizens of the city of Sebring and despite what you see on social media, we appreciate it. We love it and we're proud that you did it. I was surprised that there were prior council members that got up and argued literally against
accountability and transparency. That was shocking to me. Um, and I thought it was sad. I'm here tonight because I think you you you put forth the RFP. They're putting together the RFP process right now. And I'll try to come back to that, but I was out of town for the last
one. But I want you guys to start thinking out of the box a little bit. The original gift of that property was not was not intended to be given to a private developer to profit from it. And let's be honest, if anyone's going to make money off the the donation, they
keep saying sale online. The donation of that property, it's Mr. Black. That's it. No one else will benefit from it. What they wanted was a place that's beautiful that the citizens of the se city of Sebrin and surrounding areas can enjoy and use for the rest of their lives. I want to show you a map if you
want my pass around. I want you to start thinking about the recreational opportunities that you have there and not the value of that land today but opportunity cost but the potential giving away of that land today and what you'll do as city of Sebring continues to grow to the south to the west. If you
gave away 100 acres of land and 10 years from now had to buy 100 acres of land somewhere in order to provide the recreation opportunities that are already maxed out at max law. I give you that for perspective so that um I can cover that in a second. We travel a lot
and a lot of our travel is walking around cities and one of the things we enjoy most is visiting parks within those cities. For for pers for for perspective in this sorry I only have three minutes for perspective here. I want you to look at the max recreational That's approximately 30 acres. You could
take the entire Max Long Park and make three and a half of those on this land. You could also take the three acres that make up um soccer fields and put it on one fairway of this golf course. You could easily cover that. You could
partner, you partner with FRAP, ARPAC, all of the agencies that help the entire county grow and build these recreational opportunities. You already have approximately four miles 20 seconds. Four miles of trails, golf cart trails on that that could currently be open for
passive recreation for hikers, walkers, bird watchers, cyclists, people that want to get out and exercise and recreate. You already have disc golf on that on that facility that you could expand and work with private investors to build on. So, I just ask that you leverage that. Think outside the box. Think about the potential benefit to
this community for the next hundred years for us, not for development. Thank you. All right, last up, Mr. Fred Kino to talk about the Navy's 250th birthday. Good evening. Good evening.
I retired from the Navy 31 years ago and uh some people still think I served with John Paul Jones. Uh the Navy's coming up on its 250th birthday. We'll actually which is actually going to be Monday the 13th. Uh but we thought we'd throw a birthday
party on Saturday the 11th. Uh it'll be from 10 to uh 10 to 5. Uh we've got uh free cake and ice cream. We've got a bounce house. We've got what's the thing when you throw the bag in the Oh, we have cornhole. Yeah.
And uh we have a dunk tank. And I was hoping we could get some volunteers to be in the dunk tank. We'll be raising money raising money for the disabled American veterans. So, um if anyone wants, we don't want
anybody to wear speedos. So, no speedos in the dunk tank. Uh and um uh you may not know, but a steel beach picnic is a unique Navy cultural thing. If you can imagine an aircraft carrier with 5,000
people on board and it's they've been working hard and you stop in the middle of the ocean. You put the elevators down near the water. People go swimming with the sharks and then up on the flight deck you've got barbecues. People are fishing and catching fish and cooking them on the barbecues. It's it's a day
to let your hair down. I used to do it when I had hair, but it's kind of a let your hair day hair day down. And Um, so we're asking uh uh we're glad that you could uh have us here tonight, but you're all invited.
Scott, bring your kids and uh and it'll be a good time. Free food, free burgers, dogs. Uh we promise not to burn the hamburgers to a crisp and free ice cream and and and cake. So come on down. Celebrate your
Navy. You might not know this, but the Navy's been in combat for the past 24 months in the Red Sea. Did you know that? We've been fighting the bad guys for 24 months, guys. Guys and gals are actually getting medals for combat. But anyway, good uh thanks for letting me
talk to you and I hope to see you down there and y'all come on down. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we're going to jump to item number 12A. Mr. 12A is ordinance number 1556 and it's
entitled an ordinance annexing approximately 27.15 acres of land located on Sunnyland Drive Martin Luther King Boulevard in Bossy Watson Avenue and government lot 8 section 20 township 34 South Range 29 East Highlands County Florida into the city of Sebring Florida
and establishing an effective date. Uh this is on your agenda for second and final reading. I'll note for you attachment four to your materials is an objection that uh the county highlands county staff sent to the city. Uh the county one of the things they would like
is for the city to start taking more uh of the road maintenance obligation away from the county so the county didn't have to spend money on that. This annexation is necessary for the city to move forward to use the property
it just purchased to uh build the the utilities and and whatever other facilities you decide to put on that lot so that we would encourage you to move forward with the annexation. Okay. Any questions or comments from council?
Any from the the public? I'll entertain a motion. Make a motion approve ordinance number 1556. Second following. Second. We have a motion and a second. Kathy, you call please. I have a question because I have to send
this to the to the state report tomorrow. So it goes as is. I mean anything with the objection. Does that not change anything? I'm just asking the ordinance get is will be presumably approved as is with no changes. So I don't need to do it'll be
correct. Sorry. Bishop, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. All right. Item number 12B is being pulled from the agenda. So, we are going to move on to item 13A, city
administrators uh business and women's phil. Good evening, council. So, uh, within the past two, three weeks, I had received a local inquiry about the women's club property
and potential purchase of said property. Um, so staff is looking for council direction in reference to this. You had prior priorly given us some direction that you'd like to see this property perhaps RFP. I've enclosed uh agenda
item summary for when we purchased the property um or attached that to the agenda item summary and minutes from the uh May 21st, 2019 meeting where council at that time uh talked about all kinds of different options for that property.
everything from the city creating perhaps a second civic center if you will to uh you know aring the the property out uh to demolishing the property which when we purchased it was
I think the original intent was to create additional park at Veterans Beach. staff's looking for your guidance as to what you all would like us to do. If you like us to go ahead and publish an RFP, get some responses, bring them
back to council. What would you like us to do? Any questions or thoughts? I think we'll have to do an RFP on them and see what kind of action we get. Uh I do know one person who somebody's
interested using it. Scott, if we wanted to move forward with an RFP, do you need a lot of details tonight or is that something you would be working out a framework for our approval?
So, uh think what I'd like to know is are you looking for an RFP for purchase and or lease. That would be a major be a major item that we would need to
know, I think, out front in order to draft the RFP property boundaries, if you will. Currently, the women's club, you look at it kind of proper, you got the women's club, you got the parking lot to the right. That's probably what we would
envision being in the RFP as opposed to the parking lot that's on the left of the women's club which currently kind of serves uh as an overflow for Veterans Beach. So
if you'd like to do that or want to get get to me later and let me know what it is that like incorporate. So I would agree. I like the idea of a long a longterm piece. Um the only I
think this was mentioned in our workshop there hardburn over parking, right? And the city having the ability to to use it. My thought on that and I like you's opinion is a long-term lease that the whoever the the winner of the RF is um
could have shared use of the parking but not exclusive. meaning the city could still use it for overflow. If it gets filled up on the 4th of July, well, you know, that's okay. You know, whoever is in control is not to vehicles or anything like that. Just shared use, but not
would you allow them a certain number of dedicated parking spots. Um, I think the entire thing is free range. I don't know. We bought that house and tore it down next to it, expand because we have issues on holiday weekends and that
stuff. So I don't know how you would block off a portion of the parking lot so you can't park here. I think it's a first come first serve type basis but and I think really depending who goes in there. It's a few weekends a year that it's packed
gets busy, but it's still I think that the use of the parking lot and actually what we ought to look at doing somewhere down the road is take that grass lot and turn it into parking lot because everybody parks six different ways of Sunday on that lot. at
some point in time. We just need to improve that that section especially if somebody does put a tiki bar in there or a restaurant or you know an outfitter place you know it's and and there's room in front too that maybe if if becomes an issue that that
can also become part of a parking too. I mean other thing that we have to look at especially if we do put a an active parcel in there is road control. How do we slow people down to come, you know, put a crosswalk there with the
flashing lights that they, you know, push the button and when it goes on because, yeah, it gets busy on a weekend like they would at the beach or we've had residents asking for that already. I think it'd be a bad idea if it's Yeah, I think that I mean I want to see
that crosswalk could use one now. Yeah, definitely. But if you do put somebody in there that's active, you're going to really need because you're going to have families going back and forth. So, I also wanted to just remind council
that obviously that building and I think I think you for a tour been on a prior tour of the building is going to need significant improvement. The restrooms are going to have to be converted to ADA restrooms or some type of restroom
created. There is a kitchen in there but that not going to serve from a commercial perspective, right? It needs it's going to need, you know, hood system or something like that if there's going to be a restaurant that goes in there.
So, I just wanted to put that out there so that anybody that might be looking knows that there's there's some significant investment into this property. It's not it's not going to come cheap.
You can negotiate that long-term investment into the lease also if you're charging 50 bucks a square foot and just charge half of that. Mr. Kum, you'd like to speak up serendipity. Uh my name is Fred Corino.
I live at 4241 Lake View Drive across the street from the old uh women's club. Old women's the old Sebring women's club and um I see the use of uh Veterans Beach Park every day, every night and in
fact uh I want to thank the the council and the city manager for making the huge improvements in that city park. It is it is quite spectacularly better than it used to be 32 years ago we moved there. But uh I didn't know you considered
demolishing the building and just increasing parking. Uh having listened to a lot of wedding receptions and and after my parties there, uh I think a parking lot expansion is probably the best and
highest use of that property. Now, uh what would you sell your house for? You'd have to move that big boat, though. Okay. Okay. Yes. Uh but uh again I see that park and uh on every weekend and when
it's warm the entire parking areas are full uh there is inadequate number of spaces for uh boat trailer parking and so uh I think the population I mean the park seems to be more and more popular
all the time and especially during holiday times it's totally over over full. So, to me, uh, parking sounds good. I don't necessarily look forward to a tiki bar being there, but, uh, that's my input. And if you do want to
go ahead with an RFP, I think you ought to have a public hearing and get input from the residents or at the Senate. Thank you. Any other thoughts or comments from I agree with with you and Lard Longterm lease. I don't want to see us lose
ownership of the the property and if nothing comes back with the RFP, I think a good idea would just be back making it to parking. I don't want to do what prior council did and just do nothing for many years, but let's move on it one way or the other. I just don't want to see the c the city
putting in a bunch of money into the building either. So, whatever comes from the RFP needs to be self-sufficient. My thought is if we make the lease long enough that make that investment worthwhile.
Anything else from council? Any questions or comments from? Okay. So, we need uh some sort of a motion or direction. Is that right, Scott? the motion that we direct staff to RFP.
I'm sorry. RP instru Bishop, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Stewart, yes. All right, we're going to move on to item number 13B, city manager project
report. What's your name? So, uh, the only really material items, uh, on the project report, um, uh, the government affairs consult obvious was on the consent consent agenda tonight
that you approved. uh Illinois Pondweed in Lake Jackson. uh staff and uh council president Stewart and mayor have an appointment with FWC on October 14th on the lake to
analyze the the problem if you will and uh at that point subsequent to that we'll come back with maybe recommendation as whether we have a workshop or whatever might take place subsequent to that and thenum as As you
know, we're working on an RFP for the Sebring Municipal Golf Course. We hope to have that to do uh in a November meeting, hopefully the first meetings. What's the, if I may, the next step in
the Westlake Jackson? What's the next step? Um West Lake Jackson. Uh so they've finished engineering all four phases. Within the next couple weeks, I'm going to get for phase two. I have easements
for phase one. Um, and when I say easements, I have the drawing easements that we need to obtain. Okay. So, we need to obtain those easements. There's going to be about 58 in total.
For the whole project or just phase one? For the whole project, for all four phases. Uh we won't see the easements the drawn up easements probably for a few months for phases three and four.
Uh they will be coming back to us probably for some additional funds because they only accounted on the front end for having to do perhaps 30 ements. And which phase contains the most easements? I'm sorry.
Which phase contains the most easements? Uh So the I I I can't answer that question yet. Um the first phase is all the outfalls like the for the entire length. Then two, three and four are sort of sections of
the of the road. Some of them are temporary construction ements uphill upstream right from the out and some of them are permanent. I want to say in
first round we're probably 12 to 16. Don't don't yet know what phase two are gone. Saga continues. Maybe by the time two years. Sorry. I won't see this one.
All right. Any anything else for for Scott? Okay. We're going to move on to Last but not least, uh, city clerk. So move. Second. All right, we have a motion and a
second. Call roll, please. Bishop, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. It's