--------- Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. minutes to address the council. Unless such time is extended by the mayor by questions by from council group shall designate a spokesperson to avoid
repetition of comments. Every effort will be made to avoid interrupting speakers. Thank you for participating in your city government. I now call this meeting to order. Can we all please stand and join me in a moment of silence? All right. Thank you. Please join me in
the pledge of 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.
Madam clerk, please call the role. Mayor Robertson, here. Deputy Mayor Gilbert here. Council member Paul here. Council member Irvin here. Council member Fletcher here. All right. And there are no presentations at this time. There's no consent agenda at this time. And we're
going to go ahead and do the citizens forum. And first up, we have Mr. Don Gray. Good morning. My name is Don Gray. I live at 409 Florida Avenue here in town. I appreciate this opportunity to address the commission one more time. As a
citizen of this this community, I object to my taxpayer dollars going to support this Pride event. This is nothing more than a celebration of a sexual preference and an alternate lifestyle. That's all it is. and for the city, not only to give them
the ranch, but also, as I heard our mayor say, gave them a $1,200 grant. I don't agree with that. That's my taxpayer money. And excuse me, this three minute thing intimidates the heck out of me. It's all right, John. Just stare opposed. Don't Don't look at the
light. Um, you know, as a as a preacher, I can stand in front of hundreds of people and speak that thing there. Um, but I just want want to say that my qu I got a question. Why is it so
important to have this proclamation? Are you looking for legitimacy? Are you looking for a society to accept your lifestyle? Because you're not a race of people. You're nothing more than a group of people who choose to live a different lifestyle and have a preference of sex
with your same kind. And that is not enough to celebrate my tax dollars with and I thank you for that. All right. Thank you, sir. All right. And we have Representative Jose Alvarez. Good morning, mayor, members of the DAS
on staff of St. Cloud. Uh my name is Jose Alvarez. I live at 2403 Cecil Street in our sister city of CMI. Um I'm proudly served district 46 as the state representative and I proudly serve
the city of CMI as their mayor. I am here in support of diversity and inclusive. I am always been very proud of this city. We had a mayor that sat right
there that was a preacher himself and he practiced what he preached. He embraced diversity and inclusion and this is what guided S cloud to go in
the direction that is going right now in a positive direction in an economic development growth direction and this is what this board I believe should be focused on
not in the few voices of hate you know because it's funny that those that brings the little few voices of hate on Sunday, they're all preaching to their creator because their creator doesn't teach them that.
I really would like to see St. Cloud continue in that direction. As a mayor, when I finish my term in 2020, I can tell you that this is actually the first commission meeting that I ever
attended and spoke with. because you guys are our future and I've always made it very clear to everyone that asked me to come and speak in a board meeting that it wasn't my part to do that anymore.
But when I see us going backwards in time, it concerns me because see me and your former mayor work very strong together and very hard together to get St. cloud city of CMI two sister cities
to move forward into the future and there's so much in that future but inclusive and diversity has got to be part of it we all have to be part of it I think I reminded that to you guys when you visited me in Tallahassee this
year and I remind you what I reminded you that day when you took her out of office, go back to that time, was to represent the people, not a certain group of people.
And then for me to hear from Tallahassee that I heard that LGBTQ community was because they chose to be. No, our creators put us where he wants us to be.
And we need to respect that. And with that, I hope that this board moves in the right direction. And I thank you so much for your time, mayor, and uh members. Yes, sir. I appreciate you speaking. And you know, I I have a lot of great respect for you, uh, Representative. Um, but I
will correct you on one thing. We we're not moving backwards in any way. We we actually sponsored this LGBTQ event. We've given them a a great discount. So, we have not gone anywhere backwards. So, I just want to go ahead and put that on the record that that's never happened.
and and mayor, I'm happy to hear that. Uh I just like I said, I I think it's the misconceptions of of people saying things in the media and not correcting things in the media. That's what got us to this point. Some people didn't do their job. Some people started this this sideshow. So, and I appreciate your
comments out there. Uh I was driving back from Tallahassee yesterday finishing the people's work and and I found it important enough for me to make my my point across to all of you. Thank you so much. Thank you very much, my friend. We have Egan Carter.
Hi, my name is Egan Carter. Um, my address is 2723 Dods Lane, CMI. Um, I just came here today to express um my support and utter joy at the Proud in the Cloud Festival. Um, as somebody who
participated as a vendor last year, it was very positive, very fun. Um, and was great for the city of St. Cloud. Um, I hope today that we can clarify some of the things that are being said in the
media. Um, it was kind of vague, so I'm hoping the special meeting does that. Um, and then I just wanted to say that, uh, Soldier City, city of St. Cloud was not founded on a race of people either, but on an ideal of inclusion and
opportunity. Not all the families in St. Cloud or Ociola County look the same. Not everyone chooses to celebrate diversity, and that's okay. That's diverse in and of itself. But celebrating our families and inviting people to the city of St. Cloud benefits the city and our county, and I hope we
continue to do it. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. And next we have Teresa Melhot. Terresa Melhot 2924 KBY Circle St. Cloud. I just want to um say as I attended the meeting, the last meeting
during the citizens forum, somebody got up to speak and it was hate speech. It was inflammatory. it was a smear and it was um maligning to a certain group of individuals. Now I and nobody stopped that
I thought we couldn't have inflammatory speech during the council meetings that things can be said in a way but doesn't have to hurl insults and try to inflame others. Um, if there had been a Oathkeeper, a proud boy here coming in
here saying that he believed in slavery again and got up here to speak and was saying all kind, I believe he would have been they would have been stopped. But this person was not stopped. And um, and they and anybody that doesn't believe me can go back and watch the
citizen forum of the last meeting um because it was just over the top and I disagreed with it and things pretty much went on from there. But I knew I had to come this morning and speak on that. This person also um signaled out a
minister on the city council board. I thought we were supposed to speak to the council as a whole and not single out anybody individually. Whether this was supposed to be an intimidation tactic or even um
whatever they were thinking, but it didn't it's not a good look. And I've spoken at many city council meetings. This is not my first, as some of you know. Some of you wished it might be my last, but it probably won't be. Um, but
I also want to say is I um do agree with my taxpayer dollars going to Proud in the Cloud. And for anybody doesn't realize um this group of people work too, so they pay taxes. So they can use their taxes for this, too. I mean, anybody says, "I don't want my taxes to
go to this." Well, they pay taxes, too. They're citizens. their residents and um I'm all in support of inclusion, diversity, and whatever. I still have 52 seconds. I don't have I'll take up your time for you if you want. Okay. Thank
you, Mayor. Well, I'm going to go ahead and correct you, Miss May. As I uh informed Mr. uh Representative Alvarez, we have given them a ma'am, let me finish, please. We have given them a $1,250 grant. The city of St. Cloud, it was not me or this council. It was the economic development committee. The city
of St. cloud back in February. Um, rightfully, wrongfully so, we approved a waiver for them to go over to that uh the ranch's property. I believe it was under the guise of uh there was some some
let's just say there was it was there was um things said that weren't accurate or that should have been disclosed. So, yes, we have get provided taxpayer dollars towards this. So, okay. And I and I agree with this. And now my thing's gone. But I have one more thing
to say. Um I do think that uh anything in the media that smeared our city council was wrong. They didn't have the true facts and should not have been that way either. So it works on both sides. I believe that's why we're here this morning, ma'am. Thank you, mayor. Thank
you, councel. Would anyone else in the audience like to speak on this item? On any item? It's a public comment. Okay. And we'll go ahead and get into it with Oh, yes, ma'am. Hi. My name is Tiffany Jeffers. I'm the CEO of the
Black Empowerment and Community Council. First of all, I want to say thank you, mayor. Thank you, commissioners, for the opportunity for us to partner with you. You have been a wonderful partner of ours. Last year, we had our Vanguard Gayla, which brought over 200 economic
development leaders. uh to St. Cloud at the marina and this year we look forward to our gayla again in St. Cloud. I want to thank you for the efforts that you are taking to uh include diversity, equity in this community and uh the only
thing I would say as a community leader is just for us to have more clarity on the processes so that we can follow them and ensure that uh we are doing all that we're supposed to do on our end to have our events be a success. And I want to thank you again for partnering with us
and we enjoy being a part of St. Cloud. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Council Member Fletcher. Um, as a point of order, um, I just wanted to put on the record prior to us getting started, um, that I have concerns with the the public advertisement, um, requirements, um, of
the meeting. I've had a conversation with our city attorney, and I believe he could fill us in on the the legalities of all that. Thank you, city attorney. So, um, just for the totality of the circumstances, So let's let's back up a
little bit. Generally speaking, so from a notice provision, the law requires under the sunshine law that reasonable notice be given of any meeting. It does not specify what reasonable notice is. What what the law says and what the guidelines come from the attorney general's office on this is that reason reasonable notice for any meeting needs
to be determined by the circumstances of the meeting. Uh so you have to look at all the totality of it. And generally speaking, the guidelines are that for a special meeting, which which is what this meeting is, as we've started it this morning, is is there should be a
minimum of 24 hours notice uh preferably 72 hours notice. Uh but again, you go back to the reasonable notice of it. We've looked at the case law on this uh and uh it is there's there is case law um essentially that would say that the
it is appropriately noticed because the notice of this meeting as a special meeting uh was about 24 hours notice with regard to this. Um however again you have to look at the totality of the circumstances and remember that there was a meeting that was scheduled for
today which has been noticed and advertised or published uh uh for this morning of this of this body that's been published for at least a couple of weeks I would think. Uh so there was a meeting. So really the change for
today's meeting is that you went from a previously notified workshop meeting which is a sunshine meeting that was appropriately noticed to now what has been characterized as a special meeting. The distinction between those two meetings is that in a special meeting the city council can take action. In a
workshop the council can only give direction or discuss items. So when you look at the totality of all the circumstances um although it's not clear uh we think the the you know the the the notice is consistent with the guidelines. Um however it doesn't mean
that if any action that the city council take is take takes today if it is going to take action and we we're not even sure that's what's going to happen that that couldn't be uh frankly challenged by a uh provision related to the notice. So in our view looking at the totality
of circumstances there's reasonable notice as required on as under the law but again I depending on what action the council takes this morning um I can't guarantee it wouldn't be challenged. Thank you city attorney. Who here in the audience didn't know we had a meeting this morning.
Okay. Thank you. All right. First up we have discussion regarding proud in the cloud event. I'm going to go ahead and start off by saying as I stated Representative Alvarez and Miss Mayhawk that the intention of this is not to shut down Proud and Cloud event. Uh I don't believe that is the intent of any one of
these council members. Um we can't go out there and the city of St. Cloud can't go out there and sponsor an event, put together the event, lead a a a group, I'm not going to say an organization. I don't know what this is at this point. um to lead them on to
saying they can have an event and not. Um so what I'm what I'm would like to do is ensure that uh because there's a lot of questions not answered that I want to make sure this this event goes off safely. That's a concern. These are the citizens in our community and surrounding communities. I want to
ensure taxpayers are are handled properly, our tax dollars. I want to ensure that our five half million dollar asset out there is protected. uh when you have two to four thousand people out there and the city manager and deputy city manager whoever and they have no
idea what what's going on up until a week ago. That bothers me down to the core. I I I just don't think that's how our city should be operating. And so that's why I wanted to have this discussion with you folks today. We have this this event is Saturday. Today is Tuesday. Wednesday. Yeah. Sorry, I
forgot what day it was this morning. Uh so I think it's important because I I feel a lot of balls were dropped in many departments at many levels at the uppers especially and I believe we need to take control of the situation and ensure that it's handled accordingly. Uh any council
members have any comments on this? Deputy Mayor Gilbert. Yeah. I had just a few questions. I didn't know who can answer them but uh these are just questions uh in my background of uh probably in the 30 some years I've produced over 10,000 events. So I I kind
of have this kind of uh background uh that I've have worked in with one of my companies I own. Um the question on the ranch and the special event and this may be David may may be able Scott may be able to handle that for we talked about 150 people in
in the ranch itself in the structure but there'll be 2 to 4,000 people at the event. Uh I've been to that venue and it's a beautiful venue. Uh, how are we controlling how many people go inside at what time? Or is it a certain 150? Or is
it rolling? Is it moving? I I just don't I don't get the logistics of how you can stop because it's questioned. It's a special event versus it's a rental ranch rental. Is the ranch part of the rental for the special event? Is there
additional charges for that? And then who I excuse me, please chief. if I don't mean to put it there, but who polices the people coming and going inside that ranch? Because it is a beautiful facility and uh it can't hold 2,000 plus people, but it can hold a 100
almost 200 I would think if you if you max it out. So, that was just one question I had if you could answer please. Sure. Good morning, U mayor, city council, uh deputy mayor, to to address your questions. Um the 150
number that is specific to the facility rental process. So that would be akin to somebody renting that facility solely for a wedding. Uh this event came in as a special event which is required to undergo a much heavier stricter uh
review process. Um as part of that to your one of your questions there on do they get the ranch as part of it? Uh yes they they that is the facility that they had chosen. So they do pay the fees for the the ranch which uh they they have
done um in regards to the process. So just to give a little bit of background on what that process is. Uh so a special event application is is submitted to the city. Uh once the intake is done staff
verifies that the data is available, the facility is available. It then goes through a review process. That review process includes uh all the departments. So, police, fire, uh they have that application. They review it. They take a look at the site plan. There is then a
DRC meeting uh different than the planning and zoning DRC process, the community development DRC process. It's just called DRC, which I can understand could be confusing sometimes. Uh during that meeting, the applicant is is present and they meet with all of those
departments. regarding the security of that. That is part of the review process done by the police and fire department. So they see the numbers of people who are there and they review that looking at the facility itself, whether it's at the ranch, whether it's at lakefront,
whether it's at a different park facility. They take all of that into account as well as what the activities are planned. They take a look at the flow of people, the different facilities. And so the police department then requires the applicant to have a
set number of officers that the applicant does have to pay for. So the police department after reviewing this event felt that for that crowd that they were required to have five officers and one supervisor out there throughout the duration of that event. Uh additionally
there are two EMS personnel who are required to be there for the event which the applicant uh is pays for as well. Um so all that staffing is done in regards to your question regard to the internal facility. Uh the overall discussion with
the applicant is the majority of this event takes place outdoors. There are some portions of the event that do occur indoors. Uh there are two buildings there at the ranch. There's the what we refer to as the upper and the lower. Uh the uh capacity for the upper facility
is 371. The capacity for the lower facility is 310. Uh through the review process, the applicant had explained what they were doing in that facility. Uh and in the upper facility, again, that's capacity of 371. There are a few
activities that are taking place that are rotating through and they're setting that up for a max of 150 people that will be rotating through uh from time to time. So, that would never be reaching that capacity. However, when anybody
rents the ranch facility, as part of that, there are two staff members that are included in that and those staff members are there to make sure that uh the facility does not go over capacity in those rooms. They're there making sure those things are are going along as well. Additionally, you have the fire
and police department that's there to address any of those future issues that may occur. Uh thank you, Scott. I may call you Scott. Is that okay? Please. Okay. There's a prop protocol a and uh you said 300 max or but you're putting
tables rounds or or or theater style seating so that it lowers the capacity. So correct 150 is a good number if you're going to put correct from what I understand there's going to be bingo uh going on. Correct. And that that requires tables and things and that's why they're limiting it. That's a good
number I would think but because when you put a table and chair it takes away capacity for for people. Um I'm not sure and and I don't know who to ask because I've asked this. We had given a grant as the mayor had mentioned u to what I
believed and it was through the DRC as a nonprofit organization. Uh but I've asked who runs this nonprofit and and it wasn't a nonprofit. Now it's a group of people that are applying for a nonprofit. I I I I could be wrong, but
I'm just trying to understand. When these proceeds are done, when the the event's over, where does the earnings go? Where does that pile of money, if it's $5 or $500, where does it go? Because it's not going to a nonprofit because they've admitted they're not a
nonprofit, does it do the people that organize the event, which we didn't get an answer during the last council meeting of who those people are, do they split up the money? Do they, you know, you get 50, you get 50, everyone gets 50. Uh, I I don't I don't know. Right.
And I think I can address some of some of your question. I think there may be some people here who can address uh additional parts. So I think you're now talking about the grant through the DRC pro through excuse me through the EDC. Right. Okay. So that that is a separate
process uh that that doesn't pertain to this specific event. Uh but that grant process uh the uh procurement director Leslie may be able to speak to that a little bit more but that grant was done through the um have it here if I may.
The I believe we have the consultant that's that's online and the center was the applicant for both the special event and for the grant. So so the nonprofit was the applicant. they are partnering with the other group. Um, but the applicant but they were they're listed
as the applicant on the special event application that was processed once the facility location moved and they're also the applicant on the grant application and we had a certified fraud examiner review the application all of the applications the entire program he
established it and he's on the phone ready to speak. I I'll ask him questions if I need to but that's it. So, it's the nonprofit that I believe correct. That's great because that's all I was looking for is we're granting money to NPO. So, I'd like to see those go to that NP whoever it is. There was a lot of
different titles in these applications, a lot of different names. I just needed clarification. Yes, sir. So, thank you very much on that. Uh, we had talked about this being a large event, which it it is. I hope it's very large and I'm hoping it's the most successful event at the ranch because what a way to have a
wonderful event advertise the city of St. about all that we have to offer and with the capacity that's going to be set forth. What was the other large event? I asked this question. People said there was a vet like this that was large. There was one large event that was held
um a year ago. Um Stephanie, do you know that or the name of it that that event that did have a number of problems uh that occurred during that event and the process that since that event was some
of those lessons learned uh to make sure that those types of problems do do not occur in the future. Um, part of that was the additional um, police that that are required. In fact, the police department were requiring a
little bit more than what they would have typically and and had done previously for this event. Um, and the new code that the council had had approved, all of those things have been been corrected. uh making sure that the
site plans, all of that is is part of it because everybody understands what happened during that event. Um Erin, do you recall what the name of that event was? A good morning, Aaron Jen, Parks and Remration. Um I don't recall the exact
name. I know it was a Latin festival that took place at the ranch. Okay. Um and it was a couple years ago, correct? Okay. Thank you. And the reason why I'm asking that, I hope we learn from our past experiences. That's what you do in events. Usually a first time event that
comes uh it kind of gets all the wrinkles and crinkles out of it as it goes a year two, year three, year four. Yes, sir. So, we hope that that that uh continues to be such. Uh it looks like we adjusted. I the police chief will answer this question. I think five
police officers for 2,000 4,000 people is kind of kind of thin, but that's just they did the due diligence. They knew what it's like. and if there's more needed uh uh we have a great uh uh department there and I'm sure they'll handle it well to state that it's a low
number what I am for for events and 2,000 people it's usually the ratio is a little bit different right and and additionally um just so everybody is aware um proud in the cloud for the event itself they are providing 40 volunteers they have 10 staff they have
additional helpers who are coming in for setup and breakdown and cleanup um they've got a dedicated parking staff and then they have also uh chosen on their own to bring in five private security personnel who have who have been vetted by our police department. Perfect. Yeah. And that's what I'm
thinking that you know volunteers are great. We love volunteers but volunteers seem to come and go and they're just that they're volunteers. So to have them organized is is probably the biggest thing I would say when an event comes and volunteer events. I've attended a few that are race clubs and things like that and they use volunteers also. So
it's good that we have an organization of volunteers and some training that goes along with them and safety issues there. Absolutely. Uh last question I had was this event was it charged as residential fee because I don't is it resident or non-resident fee? Was it
charged as so? Um this was as as we had discussed at the the last meeting. This is where uh there was an error that was made in the cost comparison when the city council chose to reduce the the fees uh due to the construction that was going on at the lakefront. So if you
recall, initially this event as it was last year was held at the lakefront. Uh due to the construction that was being held at the lakefront, uh the uh deputy mayor at the time, council member Fletcher, uh had requested to wave had requested the city council since the
city manager doesn't have that ability, had requested the council to uh reduce those fees due to the event having to be moved to the ranch. Uh, and the cost comparison that was utilized at the time, excuse me, uh, did have the rate
down for the ranch at the weekday rate, uh, it had it listed as 3750. Uh, however, the correct amount should have been the week end rate, which was 47.50. Uh, so what the council then the
difference between their I'm sorry if I can interrupt. His question was if it was the non-resident or the resident rate. The rate. It's the non-resident. It was what? The non-resident rate. That was my only question. Yes. I'm sorry because focused on the weekend rate. No. And again, I knew that the that we had
had to adjust because it was first build on a week day weekend. I got that. But I just want to know was always the non-resident versus non-resident. I think it was $5,000 or something for I'll I'll review that uh again just because of all my investigating in this.
I haven't found any of it to be residentially um organized. It's from the Orlando uh group. So, it's not a resident that is is doing this group. It would be a non-residential rate. Correct. And that everything was everything was done at
the non-resident rate. And that's all I asking. Uh I just wanted a clarification on that. Uh Scott, thank you for everything and your hard work and and and the parks and rest staff, the police, the fire, everybody. This event, although we may seem it's a little controversial, it's going to be huge. It's going to be great. It's going to be
fantastic. It's going to be the most awesome event on the ranch, and I look forward to participating. And yes, I'll be there. I yield back to you, Mayor. Thank you, Scott. Hold on a second, please. Um, you created this this email, this explanation. I mean, there's a lot
of reading. Um, council member spee sorry, deputy mayor Gilbert just asked about the resident, non-resident. Where do you get those numbers from? Those are uh those are the fees at the
time that the application was submitted. The one you gave me this, you gave me this. This same document, the ranch, it's got the price, it's got everything on there. So, the fees were updated. Thank you, city manager. I'm asking the deputy city manager. Thank you, ma'am. Or sir, mayor, I'm for the
charter. I'm allowed to order participate in every conversation. Yes, ma'am. When I recognize you? Yes, ma'am. You can hit your light, but right now I'm speaking with the deputy city manager. Sir, these numbers, are they from this sheet that you provided to me? Yes, it
is. Those are the rates for the ranch as of when you had requested those. However, this application was submitted prior to the new fees, which is what you have there in your hand. Those new fees went into effect. The council approved those on May 8th. Okay. So, these are not the fees that we charged them.
Correct. They were the Where do we get the fees from that we charged this event? That's where I'm trying to understand. What document is it coming from? Is it from this? This is what you sent me. So, that's where correct. So they were if they had rented the ranch,
if that was their initial fee, if they if the initial application was for the ranch, their full fee for the ranch would have been uh 47.50, that would have been the price for the non-resident weekend rate.
What you're looking at there is the current ranch rates, right? I asked for the application for what they filled out. Well, you provided me. I asked for what they filled out. Yes, sir. This is what these are the rates because it says the non-resident or it says resident was
3750. So, these are accurate numbers as to what they're how they're paying, right? This is where that you got their numbers from this doc, right? They paid based on city council's approval during the February meeting, they paid the same
amount that they would have paid at the lakefront, right? But you're basing it off of this in comparison. So when in the comparison in comparison because you sent me all of this information, I couldn't get the same manager send me anything. So I that's why I asked you. Um, so that's where you derive that 3750
from this document. Yes, sir. So then you're now deriving the other number the 4690 from this as well. It it would be but again no it was the previous Yes sir. Right. But you're getting it from this
document. We agree you're getting it from the document that was at the time they submitted the application back in February. That is where that number came from. There is a different number now which is the document that you have in your hand where it says uh for a and and
that's why I asked for the the actual application that they filled out and I can't I still can't get that. So that was provided in the information that was sent to you on Friday just a couple days ago. Okay.
Let me pull that up if you don't mind, Scott. I have it here if you'd like me to put it on the overhead. Yes, please. No. Where's where's the the fees at? That's I see what was typed in there, but where's the actual where's our document? When we provide a document to
to people that that want to rent the facilities, what do we provide them and say this is what our fees are? That that's just a form. This is actually what they had filled out. No, I want to see what they what do we base our numbers from? Like where are they coming from? From the city's fee schedule. Where's that at? The one that they went
off of at the time that they applied. Where's that fee schedule? that is available online and in we can we we can certainly get that for you. We have to go online while we're in the middle of the meeting here. I'll go ahead and do the work. But again, mayor, what's online is what the current fees are, not
what the fees were at the time. And that's what I asked for. So, we don't have a paper document. They were not sent a document stating these are the fees. I I would have to ask. So, so we increased the fees between May
and now. Yes, sir. Okay. So where it says on this document that you sent me, I'm going off just what you sent me. Absolutely. I mean, so you got and there's no date on this. It doesn't say as of this date, this is why it's this fee. So I'm just going off of what you
sent me, what I asked for. And it says non-resident weekend rates $5,565. So that's what I just want to make sure. These are different numbers than what they were at the time that they applied. These are different numbers. Yes, sir. Okay. Now, what language changed in the
Senates about any event over 150 will be subject to a special event permit fee. You argue that it's a special event. That's correct. At that time, this kicks up to a special event. So, therefore, an additional staff p per 75 people. I looked at the website and there's an accuracies there as well where it says
$65 an hour. Another number says $30 an hour and I don't know what's up or down in that. So, sure. So again, a special event is a completely separate process. When an application comes in or an applicant is requesting a special event, that is a completely separate process
from a facility rental. The facility rental form that has the uh the additional staff members per 75. That is for a facility rental such as a wedding that occurs out there. Uh there are staff when we reviewed everything there
are errors in there. Uh, additionally, because our code says anything above 250 is a spe is classified as a special event. So, if there were an event that had over 250 people, it goes to the special event process. The special event process is a much more stringent uh
stringently reviewed process, which requires police, which requires fire review, which requires a safety review. Many of those changes were just adopted by the city council. What the facility rental application is again is a completely separate process that is not
for a special event, but that is for the facility specific for weddings and those types of events that occur in that facility. Same as if somebody were to rent the uh the marina building for example.
So you believe that um it requires that I mean you think people with weddings over 150 are a rowdier bunch then I mean I don't think it really matters what the the the type of event I think that if if people are going into our facility I
believe that is also classified as a venue but it also says any according to the venue document it says any event over 150 event at this facility will be subject to a special event permit fee.
So, it's it's both. So, it does require the staff. It it it requires the staff to protect our property. Well, there are staff who are included. There are two staff who are included anytime there is a rental of the ranch facility. That is part of the fees that is included. No
matter no matter what size or scope of the event, your fees, your base fees include two staff members. That is part of your rental fees. But a special event is different than a facility rental, right? This kicks in. This this it's a it's a blended. It's a special event and
facility rental because if it's not a facility rental, lock the doors. If they're not renting the facility, then they don't get access inside the building. they are renting the facility and they have and then if they're renting the facility if it's a venue
rental which is what that is then it's subject to this line that says one additional staff per per 75 people you can't just say we're going to take these numbers but ignore this but again mayor that is it is a completely separate process this event came in special your
process is broken because you tell me the difference whether you have a wedding going on in the venue or drag bingo. What's the difference to the taxpayers? They're using the facility. Yes, sir. So, what's the difference? Why
would who who makes that decision to go this route or that route when it's all the same? They're using the facility, the air conditioning, the the electricity, the liability, you know, and they're they're getting the the whole property. and we didn't mind the property, you know, and and when I first met with
you a couple days prior to my meeting in my briefing that you didn't even know. And that that's what bothered me the most is is the the two top people in this city had no idea what was going on with this event. And it's the largest we've ever had on this facility. And and
and the answers just don't make sense. City manager told me there's not going to be any portlets out there. How many bathrooms do we have in that building? Uh there are for that event there are well at that facility there are four bathrooms and the applicant is bringing in eight portallettes which was required
of them to bring in for the event. I was told there was not going to be any portallets on the property. Again when I said you were right there and the city attorney was right there and when I said well we're going to have all these people and and you know they they need
to bring in portletes because I was told that they need to use the bathrooms. Well, typically special events you have a whole line of portallettes and then I was told there's not they can't have portletes out there, but now I'm being told there's portlets going out. I don't believe you were ever told that they
can't. I don't think you were listening with your ears in that meeting. So, because you didn't have any idea of what was going on. You didn't you couldn't even tell me what they were gaining access to. You had to reach out to staff. But I believe this department is under you and I I 100% know it's under
the city manager. And I had no answers in that room when I asked four times for information. Sure. That's what bothers me the most, Scott. It It's these are taxpayer dollars and we have a five and a half million dollar asset out there and our top leadership has no idea what's even occurring out there. Up
until a couple days ago, Friday, you send me the site layout. And this when did they apply for this event? Back in January. February. No, January. That was the initial application. That was not that was not processed. And and we're not going to dive deep into this today. The whole point is I want to ensure that
that there's safety and security out there and the taxpayers's dollars are taken into account when we do that. Um I don't believe that that two staff members is enough out there. I believe we need to eat the cost on on this. I believe they need to have their event.
I'm not I'm not opposed to their event. No matter what somebody says with this council discriminated against them, I don't care about that nonsense. What I care about is we have citizens that are that believe that they were um getting a
facility of ours to hold an event and we need to ensure that they're safe and we need need to ensure that our property is protected. That's my concern. We'll deal with the rest of it later, the process, the failures, whatever. We we'll go ahead and and handle all that at another
time. But um I do believe council that we do need additional staff members out there. I'm sorry. There needs to be more eyes and ears. I'm not just talking about police officers because if you've got two buildings, when you say the upper and the and the lower, is that the where there's a big walk-in cooler? Is that the lower? Yes, sir. That's what I
was just assuming that the upper and the lower. So, we're going to have at least two officers in there, right? They're they are patrolling throughout the entire facility. Okay. It's a lot of people out there. How many people are going to be out there?
their their their max attendance that they have indicated is 4,000 people. And again, mayor, you know, this is something that the police department has reviewed based on their experience. And I 100% have have confidence in our police chief and that police department.
I I I just don't think that our staff, we need more staff there. We need more eyes and ears out there. Uh and it's not just that group. It's any group that's out there. We have to protect this asset. And that's not the police department's job. The police department's job is is to protect the citizens.
Our job is to protect the asset and and that's there's a liability out there. You you're saying there's 4,000 people. Well, I I I just don't think that we've got enough. And council, thank you, Scott. That's that's all the questions I had. Council, do you have any comments on on
staff? I think we need to we need to come up with something here because I I don't feel comfortable I do not feel comfortable this this asset is protected um the taxpayers dollars are protected here in this matter. Council member Paul.
Um first I want to address um some issues that have been going on um in regards to this um and I wanted to publicly do it. So here I go to the individuals and/or organizations who continue sharing misinformation. It has
come to my attention that inaccurate information continues to circulate specifically concerning some recent Facebook posts. I received numerous calls specifically yesterday um from Atlanta Georgia regarding the city council is can cancelling the proud in
the cloud event and I can't speak for everyone on the council but I want to address it publicly. The information being shared is untrue and only adds more fuel to the fire. I understand that the misinformation spreads quickly and is easy to share inaccurate content.
However, I urge you to be mindful of the information you share online to verify its accuracy before posting it further. Spreading false information can have serious consequences legally. I appreciate your understanding and cooperation helping to prevent the
further spread of this misinformation. Thank you for your time and consideration. And then um I did have some concerns in regards to the invoice that was created on June 5th. Um I know it's to the attention of the proud and the cloud I think. Um, however, since
this is just a team of people that it really should have been made to the primary, which is the center Orlando, since they are the ones that are using their tax exempt ID information to do the application, and also to um
Christina Boosezac, she also completed the application on February 19th, which she included the proud in the cloud, which we all know they are not a um nonprofit, so they really should have never been on the application anyway, which would this is why, you know, a lot
of the confusion is there. Um, but we have to learn to put the correct information on things when we're applying for it. So, um, those are my comments in regards to this event. Thank you. Yes, ma'am.
You know what really bothers me the most is it just it was all done the wrong way. Uh we were I believe we were hoodwinkedked up here on council. We were not given all the information when we agreed to to not not by you. You can shake your head, but
we're actually we gave you not you Scott behind you, the proud and the cloud folks. You know, we gave you a grant. So you're sitting here shaking your head like I don't know if you even know why you're shaking your head, but we up here on council, we had one of our own. I
mean, you know, it would almost be like if I said, "Hey guys, uh there so there's this group that wants to have a pool party at the St. Cloud Civic Center pool, and is it okay that they get it at this price because the the pond over there is under construction? We can't have the pool party at the pond." So, and you say, "Well, sure." Come to find
out, it's it's a party for me and all and a large amount of my friends. That was the problem that I have with this is it was not uh presented in a I believe a legal manner. I believe that that there's serious concerns with that. We will address all of those later. Not in
this meeting right now. As I said, I believe we we need to make sure this event is safe and protects the property of the citizens. Uh any other council comments? Do we believe that uh does council
believe that that we need additional staff out there? If I may, mayor, my my look at it with with that venue and my experience in events that that just it seems like it just to me it seems having two staff
members uh is what I understand. Am I wrong on that, Scott? Is it more than two staff members from parks? Yes, sir. You're correct. So for out of the two to 4,000 people there'll be two staff members from parks there are from fire from um
police also from sorry yeah the different departments I I think I've read that u Veronica or city manager I know there's five police officers and we've even discussed with the the the the size of the venue having a fire truck and an ambulance out there on on
property just because uh the quick response sometimes is better at venues that large. You would like to have those those assets on site versus coming to site if something were to happen. And and I did want to point out also um that
that Erin reminded me of is the applicant has rented the stage and as part of the stage they're required to have staff that accompany the stage, city staff, and they're there the entire time throughout the duration of the event. So they're required to be there.
Additionally, there that's for the stage uh because of the insurance requirements and the operation of the stage, but they do have to be there. So, even though they're not specifically dedicated to that portion of the event, there are there are uh six additional staff
members that are there specific for the stage. So, we're up to we're up to eight from my understanding. We're up to eight now. Um that's one per 500 maybe. Yeah, I I I'm just looking I'm trying to
picture it and I apologize for doing this in public forum, but I'm trying to picture it through the experience I had and when you see the two to 4,000 people, that's a lot of folks and if something goes wrong, it goes wrong pretty quick, you know, and I'm I'm not saying it will and it doesn't have to,
but I agree with the mayor in protecting assets is our most point and also to the success of the event. So, um I don't know where we go from here, uh mayor, but uh I would like at the pleasure of council to think about adding additional
staff even if we have to uh uh eat the cost uh just to protect our assets. That that's the what I'm looking at, not to force anybody to do anything or it's our rules and regulations. So, I don't think any outside venue or vendor or anybody that's doing that needs to burden
something that we did not properly address or was not clarified. Yes. But I would like to look at additional staff if if it pleasures the council just to make sure it's there and and it's something that the city does. That's just my opinion. Uh I'm one of five up here. I'm just speaking from experience
of that's one of the companies I own. We do trade shows, conventions, court meetings, corporate events for the last 36 years. So that's the only thing I'm thinking of. So, I would say you're an expert in that field and something I'm not, but I do know that's a lot of people retired, by the way. Uh, Council Member Paul, how many more staff members
can parks and wreck add? You can ask city manager. She'd probably be the one to I I would ask for parks and recck staff to address that because availability wise at short notice. If I got to put a parks and wreck shirt
on, I'll go out there myself. I can I can get one for you. Uh Stephanie Hul Camp, parks and recreation director, mayor, council members. Um yeah, we can we can definitely add additional staff members out there. Um I do want to
caution you, it's summer summertime, summer camp, so to be completely transparent, there will be um probably some overtime with that. Council member Fletcher, um can can you explain the insurance requirements that
is required um of a special event applicant um for them to cover um for for a venue, please? Yeah. Well, I'm going to have Aaron Jensen come up and answer the insurance question. She's more intimately involved with that. Yeah. Uh right now, I'm going to stop.
We're instead of sidetracking to insurance, we're talking about staffing the event. Insurance is an after thing. That's if after an accident happens, we need to be concerned with that. Right now, it's we need to ensure and take pres preemptive action. So, are there staff except point of order? I'm still
I'm talking. You've already you've already I want my question answered, Council Member Fletcher. Okay. I'm going to warn you once. Okay, Stephanie. Yes. Um, are there going to be available staff members at some Do you think we can get some? Point of order. I would like No. Point of order.
Point of order. Yes, sir. I'm going to warn you one more. want my question answered. Sir, you need to stop. Oh, we're not. Control yourself. Control yourself. When I when I acknowledge you, I will. I'm talking to the parks and recruit. You acknowledged me and I want my question answered. You've already
We'll get into that. I asked a question. I want it answered. You acknowledged me. Council, I want a majority vote to be able to speak. Are we able to get staff there? Yes, we can get additional staff. Council member Fletcher, you may speak now. Can you please detail the insurance
requirements to protect the asset that are required by the applicant? Aaron Jenkins Parks and Recreation. We do require a certificate of insurance. I do not have all the details available at this time for you. I know it is up to a million um that they have to or 100,000.
Again, I don't have all the details. I can definitely get that for you, but it does go through our risk management department and human resources and they ensure that we have the correct insurance on file. I'm sorry, Erin. You said 100,000 million. I don't know. I'm sorry. Sorry.
Um I don't have that. I can get it for you. If you just give us a couple minutes, maybe we can. But I know it does go through the human resources risk management. So we just want to answer the councilman's question. I think Hi, good morning. Justin Kleasner, HR
director. Uh yes, we did receive their certificate of insurance just like we would for any special event. They do have a million dollars for each occurrence. Um and they do have special event uh aggregate coverage of 2 million, excuse me. And their general aggregate,
which is our total amount for special event, is $3 million. And this was reviewed by our department as well as through our risk insurance broker to ensure that it was adequately insured for the event. Thank you, sir. want to show you. Okay. Sta uh council.
Um I would make a recommendation that if the the parks and recck director can get additional staff that we get 10 more out there. I believe it's appropriate. We're going to take a loss on it unfortunately. But I think we need to look at the public safety and protecting
the property first. Um, so I'm going to go ahead and make a motion for uh the parks and wreck to go ahead and add 10 additional staff on there. I'm going to second that, but I'd like to ask uh council at their pleasure if we start to put verbiage in with numbers to add
staff to for because I was confused be be because it's a special event versus it's a rental versus it's still two to 4,000 folks. You you can slice it and call it anything you want. With that many people, I think we need to have the proper amount of staff. And I understand
there's two and six for the stage. So that's eight. That's getting us there. So I would second a motion for 10 uh to to do that if if the pleasure. But I'd like to write in in the future that we have adequate numbers of of personnel per the numbers, no matter what it is, a
special event or a rental facility or something such as that, if it pleases the council. I yield back. All right. And we have a motion to add 10 additional staff members. Uh Stephanie, I'll let you make that determination as to what level of staff. Okay. I just
want to clarify. So we have the two staff, the six for the stage, and then you want an additional 10 on top of that. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. And we have a motion, a second. Madam clerk, please call the role. Council member Irvin, I. Deputy Mayor Gilbert, I. Council member
Fletcher, no. Council member Paul, I. Mayor Robertson. I motion carries 41. All right. Thank you. I hope you all have a very safe and enjoyable time out there. Um, that's what the purpose of this having on the agenda was, not
contrary to what others were saying. So, um, give me one second. I will go ahead and let somebody speak on this item. Um, we have a uh Jackie Frition. I hope I pronounced it right, Jackie. Yes, mayor. You did. Close enough. Good
evening, council. I'm Jackie Fioni, 1717 Christina Lee Lane, St. Clone, Florida. I don't know if you guys know some of the new council members, but my history with the ranch. The ranch was a venue that we helped the previous owners
build, me and my husband. I know everything about that ranch. And when we ran the weddings and the fall festivals there, I just got confirmation from the previous owner, she had a minimum of 20 staff members working.
She had 20 staff members on top of the sheriff's department, the um working for the parking. She said the garbage um issue out there with that many people is going to be overwhelming
emptying the garbage cans and so forth. She also just confirmed to me that the maximum they ever had at their events there and our last year there was the busiest ever was,00 people and our
parking lot got filled to capacity the area to the left side of the ranch because as you all know the back part are the ponds and the lake that were made. So,00 people was the maximum we ever had there on the Saturday and
Sunday of the fall festivals that we ran for many years. The bathrooms, we built three in the red barn. There were three bathrooms. One hand had to be handicapped. The portallettes when we ran fall
festivals, we had to have massive numbers of portallettes scattered throughout the venue for convenience. We had to have a lot of handwashing stations. If there's food being served, if there's food trucks, you have to have
handwashing stations, especially when you're talking a petting zoo. You have to have the kids being able to wash their hands. These are just some things that I don't think were taken into consideration, but I did get this confirmation from the previous owners
that they think a minimum of 20 staff members is required. more considering 2 to 3,000 people. So I hope hope you guys take that into consideration. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. And I think um so we'll have eight plus
the 10 plus we'll have the police department, fire department. Um is it was parks and wreck already going to be out there in in any capacity like a table or so? They are going to be out there. Okay. Is this a private event? I mean and that's where I'm I'm a little concerned
about what this really is. Okay. Um, I think we're all on the same page with this and and like I said, I hope it's a safe weekend. Hope everybody enjoys themselves and u if parks and recck needs additional help, I'll come on out
there. But, uh, I wear a large. All right, my time's up. All right. All right. Next up, we have discussion regarding Tohjo billing. Morning, Kevin Felinger, uh, public works director.
Sorry. Um, so we just kind of go over today. I I know there was questions about the possibility of moving uh the storm water and solid waste um uh bills from the Toho bill to uh the um tax collector or
the the the property taxes. So, we just kind of want to kind of go over what our residential billing is uh currently for the uh the two areas there. I said you see our um our current rates are uh $12.60 per month for residential areas there and with a
collection of about $4.4 million a year uh annual collections at this point. Uh solid waste we are currently at 28 $2828 a month. Uh that's also our when commercial properties have rolloff bins they have at that same rate. uh
commercial dumpsters are at are part are charged at a per pickup on a cubic car basis and we're currently collecting about $9.1 million uh with the residential area there. We are currently I said on the Toho bill uh
there is currently a charge of $40.88 uh for both storm water and solid waste on the Toho bill. Yes, I'm sorry. I was just asking her about the gentleman on the phone. Sorry about that. Um, and so I said, so
as we talked about that, I said there is also commercial billing uh that comes with the the dumpsters. Um, as you can see, the different size uh dumpsters have different rates for every time that we we go ahead and we pick those up. Um, we have different rates of there. Um, we have some people that we only pick up once a once a week and we have some
people we pick up six times a week. um like I said and so like I said so the the rates are based upon uh per pickup uh depending on the type of businesses you have different different rates there and so we just want to kind of go go uh just kind of show that and um but like I
said but that does as we are providing a a a rate for people to be able to have different pickups and different size dumpsters um that does require us to have quite an extensive billing uh process for each one of our commercial properties. Um so that is a one of the uh the challenges we may have if we are
going towards a um a tax bill is we'll have to make sure that we work with these businesses to either be able to establish a set uh a set cost for an set annual cost and then if they do have changes where they they go and they change um throughout like I said if they
change businesses and they no longer either need more pickups or less pickups that's something that a challenge that we'll have to uh we will be able to work through but it is a challenge um that we have with our current billing system as well as our uh special pickups that we do um for uh for our residents.
Kind of our coho process right now. Um kind of some of the highlights of it. It's our current our current method like I said is the way that we're we're currently able to be able to do it. Um when new uh houses or uh commercial properties come online, we're able to immediately start be able to uh to build
them um for these services. Um, some of the challenges like I kind of alluded to before is there it is a manual billing system for a lot of our commercial properties and also our special pickups. Um, I said there I said as part of working with Tohjo um we get uh
basically quarterly payments from Toho as part of our interlocal agreement we have with them. So there are some delays in the revenues that we receive. Um but but we do receive them. Um there are some of the areas that do not have uh water and sewer uh there. And so like I
said, we have some challenges with that that are uh billing. Um like I said, when we we build them for their that we have a hard time sometimes collecting those because those bills if they if the residents are not paying those um we don't really have a really good way to be able to collect those with the
exception having to go into collections, that sort of stuff. if they have water and sewer. Uh I said like I said Tohjo has the ability to be able to uh work work through that process restricting services. Um I said once again the next bullet point there is about pass to an uncollectible billing. We did we did
have to write off uh some uh some fees uh recently. I think that was a council meeting or two ago where we had that that that went forward. And then also we have the area of uh when snowbirds are here. the people that that come here during the uh the cooler times and then go up north during the the warmer times, uh they they they have the ability to be
able to turn off their uh water and sewer while they're out of town. And so we are not collecting our uh storm water or our solid waste uh from those those areas. Um even though it still is obviously during the uh the hot times, it rains a lot more there. So that's really when the storm water utility is uh having some of the biggest burdens on
it. If we went to the tax areas there, um like I said, some of the some of the highlights there is there is guaranteed collection. Um like I said, like I said, if it's on the if it's on the tax roll, um like I said, we'll be able to collect from all the areas that uh that are uh
receiving those services. Um about 80% of the revenue is collected within uh the the uh the first quarter of the year um because everybody's trying to take advantage of the uh 4% discount that you get on your taxes. So, so the the the majority of revenue would be at the
beginning of the the year for us as opposed to being, you know, spread out throughout the year. Um, like I said, if we did go to be able to try to find a uh a way to be able to reduce some of our manual billing and find a way to be able to have either annual uh find an annual cost or some way to be able to work with
our commercial properties. um we may have to uh change some of our ordinances on on how we do do commercial, but that may be a way to be able to help reduce some of the the the manual billing that we're are currently dealing with that. Um like I said, uh right now, uh we pay
we pay Toho $378,000 a year, uh for them to be able to do our billing for us. I mean, they are providing us a service. Um and like I said, and so that's that's what we're paying for for that service. Um some of the challenges um like I said just time frame on how quickly we have to get some of the the tax bills put
together. Um I said I got I said we just got a uh a quick um area there from the tax collector to be able to look at the the file there. There's there's 33,000 different uh parcels that we're going to have to go through and be able to make sure that we assess them properly. Um and so I said so that that is going to
be uh part of the challenge we're having if we decide to go that route. Um I said uh we definitely would want to make sure we do an extensive public outre outreach campaign to allow people to understand uh the the change in the way we are billing. Um it's not like I said like I said that it's just a it's it's a
different way because right now everybody's paying on with part of their their water and sewer uh bill and this one would be uh as part of this going on the tax bill people would be prepaying for the year. So if I said if we go this route and they pay in 20 October of 2026 is when they would be assessed but they
would pay for the 2020 the October 2026 all the way to September 30th of 2027. Um as we talked about before there is a an early early uh payment credit of 4%. Um a lot of people do take advantage of that. Like I said we had estimates of
like I said 80%. Um, like I said, with the 4% of our current revenues, um, like I said, I like I said, I have a range between 400 and $540,000 because if everybody got took advantage of the 4%, it'd be $540,000. Um, and but not everybody does. So, that's why we kind of had a a a range there of of of of
revenues that we may uh have uh may may lose by putting on the tax role. Um, one of the areas there we we were talking about is about new construction. Um, as people come online, uh, like I said, if they come in, if if they were to come in, if we were currently in this process
and somebody actually built a house today and actually moved into their house, got their CEO, they really wouldn't be since it's a since you do prepayment on the tax bill, you wouldn't be paying for it until until October 1st. So, they would actually receive services from today till October 1st, um, and and not really pay for them. Um,
and so like I said, so that that that is one of the challenges uh that we would have if if we uh move forward with putting this on the tax role. Um I already talked about the 33,000 parcels and then um like I said and then I was talking about some of the different areas that like I said that how we would
address our special collections and our commercial properties. Um I discussed that earlier. some of our biggest challenges we'll have during our first year is because of the the amount of work this will take to be able to do the the the initial tax rule. Um I said I I spoke to one of our
consultants and they gave me an estimate of between 15 and $30,000 to be able to help with the assistance uh to be able to get those files uh done correctly. And then there's a question about the escro costs going up for uh uh for the individuals. We have a I said kind of an
area there just kind of an illustration of what we were talking about because uh individuals will still be paying their uh their tax bills u they will still be paying the the the utility uh bills on for for Toho but since it is a prepayment for the following year their escore payments would would go up also
because they'd be paying for the the next year's um bill as as part of that also. Um, and like I said, this, like I said, you see the difference in cost is if we if if we decide to be able to recapture that 4%
uh uh uh early tax payment, if we were to to to recapture that for the for the areas there, that's why you see the differences in the uh in the bills there because I said I said the the Toho bill and the escrow payment there is there's a 4% difference if we were trying if we wanted to recapture that. Um if we
wanted to move forward with putting this on the tax bill and and still not um impacting our revenues that we are collecting for the services we're providing. Um so like I said so that that yeah so it was a little more verbiage there but it's just a little easier sometimes to be able to kind of see it uh see um it
laid out with that slightly that's why I just I apologize could get them all on one slide there. So there's a lot of lot of information with that. So as I said but that that but this that that challenge there would only be during the first year because um once we go to the tax bill that would come off their their utility. So it would just be that that
that first year where you we're um you would have that um kind of double payment there because of the just the way the the differences are with with how how the collections are going. So we did a cost comparison. I said right now um the Toho bill like I said I
mentioned before is $378,000. We're we're going there. Our finance director spoke to um somebody in Tojo. I believe it's their finance director also. Um, and like I said, he mentioned that, like I said, right now they are looking at holding that $378,000. So, the actual percentage, the annual
percentage would actually be going down because right now it's currently 2.47%. Um, but if they hold that $378,000, the that that the 2.74% is not a a set cost. It actually be going down as our revenues go up because right now they've they're committed for at least in in the
near future to be able to stay at that $378,000 worth of billing. Um, as if we go to the tax assessment, uh, like I said, the the first year, we we're estimating that it's going to cost about 278 $280,000 because $270,000 would be
for the 2% and then they have an administrative fee of $10,000 is what they're estimating for the their administrative fee for being able to assess this. So, just a direct comparison, um, the tax bill is, I said, is a little bit is a little bit less as
with current revenues. Um, I said there another area that we just have to always consider is about that that that area about the 4% uh prepayment for for early the early discount that that people get for paying their taxes. And once again, that's the the 400 to $500,000 uh there
for early for early payment that we would our revenues uh are possibility are there. And so it's it's just if we do move forward with that, we'll have to consider whether we whether that's an acceptable loss or if we would want to adjust our rates to be able to uh make up for that that 4% discount.
And with that, that's kind of the the summary I have for everybody. And I'd be glad to answer any questions. Is that the transfer station? Yes, sir. Yeah. I said Andrew took a picture of that a couple weeks ago, so I had to put it there. Yeah. No, I know we're uh the
city's investing some money in fixing. I know that's been an issue out there and I've I've been in line there for many times myself the these past couple weeks, but um All right, I'm good. Uh Deputy Mayor Gilbert. Yeah. Um thank you for that presentation. So um um the
figures say it's costing us over a thousand bucks u a year to to do billing per because 33,000 parcels and three 378,000 uh cost That would be 1,200 bucks or
1,100 bucks a year. Uh it's 33,378. I think that's that's $10 $10 a a parcel. I said because I think right now we're in the in the high 20s of actual customers, but
we were looking at it because the overall parcels we have to get we have because like I said the the parcel the the the parcel projects we get from the the the tax collector is different than the current customers because that includes all of our vacant lots also that we would have to go through and and be able to do that. So So there there is a difference between our current
customer base and the parcels we would have to uh we would have to address. Um I just was for for clarity. city manager wants to add something to the question. Okay. I'm sorry. Not on that specific item. If you if you want to finish that line of question. I I was just looking at $378,000 our cost
for billing right now. Is that correct? Yes. I How many customers do we have? It's 20 It's like 28,000 give or take a little bit. It's a little over a dollar a month for for each one of our bills. That's what it is. Okay. Okay. That makes better sense to me. That's not a
big cost. The thing I'm looking at is with the tax going on the tax bill, there is a 4% um decrease and then it goes up to 100%. I think it's in November if you pay you wait to pay your taxes to November. I could be wrong there, but it's 100%. So there's a four,
a three, and a two, and a one, I thought, isn't it? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So, we're not just talking about the 4%. We're talking about the three, the two, the one. That that that's why I gave the range because I said because it was if it was straight the the straight 4%, it would be $540,000. And so that that's why I gave the range because that because they that because
according to the the information we received is 80% of the people typically pay by the end of November which is where you get the 4% discount. That's where your dad is. I I never knew that. So 80% of people are can afford and and are smart enough to save that 4% across the board. That's just not for this.
It's for all tax. Correct. I said, yeah, because like I said, especially especially people have mortgages, uh, the the companies that they're doing the escros and that sort of stuff, they they obviously are trying to take advantage of of of making sure that that they try to keep those costs as low as possible. Yeah. I I don't know, and the council may tell me, but I don't know if if 10
bucks or is that much to to continue what we have. Um, I don't know if we get our own system, you know, uh, what the cost is there. So, I'll yield back. But thank you for those answers and thank you for the presentation. Yes, sir. Uh, Council Member Fletcher, did you have your you had your light on for a while?
No, that's right. Uh, city manager, thank you. Um, I I'm not sure if Kevin said it during his presentation, but I did just want to to note when we had the transition um from St. Cloud Utilities to Tojo Water, there was an agreement. As part of that agreement, the original
intent was that we were going to remove our billing from Tojo's bills. At the time, the thought was that we were going to put it on the on the tax bill. Um, following that, there was some concerns about some of the same things that that Kevin had said from our finance
department. Um, and at the time I had spoken with Mr. Swingle from Tohaho Water Authority and and they were willing to work with us. Um, you know, that was obviously before some of the the recent public issues had happened. So, I I wanted to note that we do have
other options besides staying with Tohjo. Um if at the end of this if we could just kind of get council's decision if you do want us to move away. If you like the idea of the tax role and otherwise we can look at other there are other billing companies that can do it for us. We can buy software and get
additional staff. Um there are those other options but I did want to highlight that the original agreement with Tohjo was that we were going to separate that function. Can I made comment on that? Yes sir. But but Kevin, you mentioned something that I thought stuck pretty hard is that we
don't have any recourse. But if there if it's on Tohjo's bill and it's not paid, they can kind of shut off the services. Is that not correct? And what what do we have to say if you don't pay that bill if we take it on ourselves? What recourse do we have for non-payment? I'm sorry. Well, the for for storm water,
it's kind of hard to build stop the rain. Um but uh but for uh for solid waste, we we we we could remove the um the the cans. Um but but people still are creating so the the waste there and so that there are concerns that if they
don't have a garbage can to put it in there that it's a possibility that they may may go dump it other places also. And so like I said so it is it is definitely is is a health and safety uh concern when whenever people do not have the ability for us to be able to pick up their their their their refues. And I
really like that funny the Lord decides when it's going to rain or not. That was pretty cool. I yield back, Mayor. All right, Council Member Urban. Uh, yeah. Uh, so, city manager explained it pretty well. We did um agree with Toho to eventually get our cost off of
their bill uh when we entered into the original agreement. So, I'd like to find a way to do that somehow. I understand there are challenges with putting it on the tax roles as u as uh Kevin had just uh spelled out here, but um I I would be open to looking into our own separate
billing system and maybe some cost into that. um something that you know I'm a guy that's got everything on direct deposit or auto pay and I just you know set it up and forget about it but that that would just be me. All right, city manager, do you have
more? Yes, thank you. Um I also wanted to highlight we used to have these on the electric bill that's that's done by OU. though um you know that is still an option that we I don't know if they would be willing to do it again but we
could um we could go back and and ask them the challenge we had previously was you know when they would um implement new billing software they had expected us to participate in that large cost which was why we had previously separated and done our own yeah I think
I mean my concern with that is if if they don't pay the water bill and they get their power shut off too is that if it's on that same bill Right. I mean, that's essentially I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing. I don't know the I I believe CMI right now currently does does their
billing through KUA. Um and so like I said, that that is part of that. Um back in a different life when I was at at CMI, um there's people that always would try to, you know, just pay the portions they wanted to pay. But the good part about building systems when it comes to utilities and that that that sort of stuff is that they don't just they don't
let you just you just say, "I'm not going to pay that portion of it." They they distribute across the entire area. So, like I said, so that that that is um some some of the the areas we have, but like I said, but but you are correct if they said that that like I said, if if you don't pay a portion of your utility bill, um they they they do send you the
the the the notice um that they may terminate services. Yeah. And that's my concern. I I don't like kicking somebody while they're down and if they're behind on a water bill and, you know, say that gets disconnected, at least they still have power or vice versa. You know, I just I just have concerns with that.
Well, you're saying you can you can't just pay a portion. You can't say, "I just want to pay the water portion instead of the that that that's my understanding with with all the buildings I've dealt with in other areas." So, you say you can't sit there and say, "I I don't agree with paying my my my garbage bills today. So, I'm I must only pay, you know, 30 less dollars
and and and and then you put it towards everything else, but the garbage I'm not going to pay that." That you're you're not able to to do that because it is an aggregate aggregate bill. Okay. That's not something we're deciding today, right? This isn't what what what are you looking for us from us direction if you
want to put it on the tax bill because that's the easiest to collect. Um and if if the concerns raised if you're concerned about those putting it on the tax bill direction that you still want us to as soon as possible come off of the to
bills and um look for the best solution for the billing just knowing that we would have some collections issues. Yeah, I think I like that better than going on the power bill. Yes, sir. And I just want to point out, so if you're going to go to the the assessment collection method, which is
what we're referring to, it's going to take a little bit more time to get that in place. And so you have to look, do we did we figure out the lead time on when you would be able to stop billing at Toho on that if you went to the assessment. Have we done that analysis yet? My my understanding is is if we
were going to move forward with this, we were going to move forward in next tax for for 20 for the tax bill of 2026, which means that the payments wouldn't be coming in until the fall of 2026. Well, but but but but from like I said,
from my understanding talking to the the the the uh finance director, he's not here today, but like I said, but but he was uh but his conversation with Tojo is is that that they they then their conversations that Tohjo was not opposed to us being able to stay with them till
September of 2026. Okay. And and the reason why I point that out because that process will require further public hearings in front of the city council to be able to implement that. So if that's something that this council wants to provide direction on, we can we can work staff obviously can work both paths and
then bring back more information to the council. But we would if if you are I'm not asking for a decision on it today, but if you are inclined cons to consider what is referred to as the special assessment process, then we're we're happy to start work on that because it
is going to take several months if not longer to get to the point where you're actually receiving revenue from that method. All right. And then you can make a decision, you know, obviously in the near future about which direction you
want to go. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Kev. Appreciate you. So, did we receive direction? Yes. I think we're going to work both paths and then All right. Next up, we have a budget update.
Good morning, mayor, deputy mayor, and council members. My name is Mark Mula. I'm the deputy finance director here at the city of St. Cloud. I'm happy to be of service this morning to you and uh just want to give you a brief update on where we're at with the budget. So, at this point, we've gone through all the
uh projections and forecasts to come up with kind of the fi final numbers and we are now meeting individually with council members. I know we've already met with Miss Paul and uh the the other meetings are scheduled. Um and that is in preparation for the July
14th uh council workshop on the budget um at 1 p.m. Uh every budget year is unique this year. Uh it was no different. We have a few challenges that we underwent. Um I I had actually thought I had another slide up there,
but there's a clicker. Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Sorry. Uh, so like I was saying, this year was no different than any other year. Um, there were challenges uh both to
creating the budget and uh the the differences in the economic environment that we've experienced. Uh to go down the list, the first challenge we have is our unassigned fund balance. Uh we've under the prudent discretion or direction of our city manager, we've
been trying to reduce our use of unassigned fund balance, which is basically utilizing the prior year fund balance, what was left over to fund the current year budget. Uh I kind of liken this to running paycheck to paycheck. We're trying to not do that and improve
the city financial uh position overall. uh roughly 10 well five years ago we were using $10 million to help balance the budget. That was $10 million of prior year fund balance that we' use and fast forward to today during
that fiveyear time span we've roughly reduced it to about $5 million a little less. Uh so that proposed in next year's budget down to five proposed. Yes. Thank you. That's a substantial improvement. Um to give you an idea, as of 9:30 24,
our unassigned fund balance was 13.2 million. That's 22 20.2%. We would like that to go up to 30%. Um that's kind of a more more of a sustainable number. And for instance, the city of St. uh city of
CMI, they're around 30 35%. U that's that would be a good goal. And that helps us weather um economic downturns u or any tough financial situations we might find ourselves in. Uh another challenge we faced this year were sales tax revenues. They were down 5%
year-over-year. That's about $700,000 of revenue that we could not then utilize to fund current year operations. And that's going into this next year's budget. OC entered local revenue declined by $800,000.
Um that's a for anyone familiar with the OU interlocal agreement that we get a revenue share from OU and that helps uh fund our current year operations. Um can I ask a question on that? Um and I know we've spoken about with the city manager
and I I really haven't understood the uh why the relationship has changed. Is that is that due to the change of a relationship why it's down $800,000 or is it people not using power? I mean I don't know what the uh that's primary primarily due to a fuel search charge
that OC had tacked on to the bills and that fuel charge fuel storage charge went away at the end of 23. So we get paid like a year a year after so with OC. So for instance uh their 23 revenues goes into our 24 budget. You say manager
at the time the fuel search charge was when the cost of fuel was was was going up. So OU added that instead of changing the rates they they used the fuel charge while they needed to and then once they didn't need the fuel charge any longer they removed it. Okay. But so it did
cause prior year last year this we had an increase in in the amount but it really wasn't I mean it wasn't it was temporary. Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. Uh yeah, deputy mayor question and I understand about fuel charge because that was brought up at a council meeting that when they were
going to remove that uh fuel charge, but I don't know we're growing. Yes sir, we are growing and our our revenues just so that was just the impact of the fuel search charge but overall if you were to take that out our revenues from OC are slowly going up every year uh and and
that's due to that growth. That answered my question. Thank you. Yeah, and we we do expect that, you know, absent of the fuel search charges to increase next year as well. All right. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, sir. Uh the safer grant we have applied uh for the city and that would be to cover 48 firefighters. Um
roughly each firefighter cost us about $100,000. So, we'd be looking at $4.8 million to fund those uh additional personnel. Uh the safer grant, which we do hope to get, uh would cover about uh the majority of that cost. So the city
share would only be about 1.3 million for those first two years of the safer grant and then it would go up to 3.6 million. But if we do not get that safer grant, uh this is one of our challenges. We we would have to come out of pocket for all those additional firefighters. We've increase that to 48, right? The
the the ask the ask is for 48. Yes, ma'am. We have to hire 24 this year. Um we would delay the the second 24 um until the following year. because there's a state there's two stations being built. So, if we got the
safer, we we we did increase safer to 48 because we can house them in other locations. Um because the grant is amazing. If we can get the grant, we wanted to get the grant and bring the people on earlier. If we don't get the grant, then we'll just wait for the timing of both of the fire stations that are currently budgeted, approved, in
design, and and I think they've been approved by council for um construction manager at risk. At least the first fire station was, the second fire station. Um I don't remember if that's been for final I don't know if it's gone through the final approval yet. Okay. So in the budget we're we're budgeting for 24 but
we're going in for the grant for 48. We can't budget for Well, yeah. I know the fire chief kind of said it would have to come out of the the unassigned fund balance. So we have reduced the unassigned fund balance in this next year's budget by $2 million.
Okay, that's the best we could do. Sounds good to me. Sorry, Mark, I keep interrupting you. No problem. Uh, the next item is pension contributions. Uh, police and fire contribution rates have steadily increased um from just a few
years ago from 27% now to this new budget year of 39%. We do expect that to continue to increase, but that does have an impact on our budget going forward. Um, so we do have to continue to make sure we're adjusting for that increase every year. Uh, total pension
contributions that and that was again for police and fire with what I just quoted you. But for also including the general pension, uh, the total pension contributions amount to little around 11.5 million, which is over 13% of our general fund budget. It's quite a it's quite a hefty
lift. Finally, health benefit costs. On average, our health insurance costs are increasing 10% per year. Uh this year going into this coming year's budget, it'll be around $7 million. It'll actually exceed $7 million um as
as funding for or the expense will exceed $7 million for the general fund. Uh and then finally, the the last thing, and this kind of ties back into the unassigned fund balance, are the economic and construction risks. uh if we were to hit an economic downturn, having or padding the our unassigned
fund balance to make sure we have, you know, a bigger safety net or emergency fund would significantly help us. Um so it's just again those are one of the things we looked at when we were trying to go through our budget and trim whatever fat we could uh to keep it keep us lean and mean and operating
efficiently. Uh and that's all I have today. All right, you don't have an easy job. I appreciate you, Mark. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next, we have discussion regarding community grant funding process.
Good morning, mayor, council members. I'm Leslie Flores. I'm the procurement services director and the grants division um is in my department. So today I'm going to give a brief overview of the um community support grants. Um some changes that were made last year.
Um I'm not good at these clickers, so I'm going to do my best here. So uh last year following the 2324 community support grant cycle, um we were requested to make some updates to the program. Um we engaged a consultant
to help review the current program and make some recommendations. So, we had a workshop in August of last year and we made a presentation to the council um regarding a transition from our current community support grant um process to
more of a capacity building assistance program. So, I I'm sorry. Um the slide should come next. So, capacity building means that we will support our nonprofits. We will help them build their nonprofits.
We will provide training. We will help them learn how to write their own grant, the components of a grant, create a budget, um provide them with training on how to find resources, how to find the available grants to apply for.
So, in our proposal, um we proposed a three-year phase transition. So in year one, out of the $150,000 that was set aside for community support grants, we would reduce the number to 125 to our grants, and 25,000 towards
capacity building to help our nonprofits. Year two, um, it would change. It would reduce to a 100,000 towards the grants, 50,000 towards capacity building. Year three, $50,000 for grants, 50 for capacity building, and then the community support grants
would go away and we we would retain our um CBA program. At that point, council gave direction to u move forward and begin implementation at the year 2 level. So, some of the other changes that we
made to the program, um, traditionally council made selections this year, we um added some clear objectives that aligned with the city's strategic priorities. The city went through a lengthy process
um going through and and developed these four um strategic priorities. And um part of effective community safety is building strong collaborations and partnerships with the community. So we incorporated that into the community
support program. This helps us partner with the nonprofits to bring services to our citizens. That's the goal is to provide services and programs to our our citizens. So another enhancement was to provide
transparent criteria. So we um we required all of the applicants to attend a training. Our consultant provided a training on um the new eligibility process, the new evaluation process, and we did um encourage collaboration and
partnerships. part of the scoring criteria that we added to this program was 20 points um for their collaboration and partnerships. We also moved the review process to um
the economic development advisory committee. This is a volunteer committee. Um the consultant provided training to the committee. They review the evaluation criteria um and as well as using our electronic platform through open gov. This allowed
the applicants to register to submit everything electronically and then have the evaluation committee go in and electronically score them. So we were trying to streamline that entire process. And if I may, Leslie, um, sure. Part of that was
to citizens having the ability to have a say in how their tax dollars were being used, um, was was part of our original intent with the economic development advisory committee. With also with the city's strategic plan, economic development being so important and the
fact that a lot of these grants were for special events, we felt that the economic development advisory group would be a good group to to decide if those events were adding additional um to economic development, bringing, you know, visibility to St. Cloud, um
bringing new people to St. Cloud who would hopefully be shopping at our businesses either at that event or following that event. Additionally, we had council members um who were on boards that were applying for grants and
so that was also to help protect those board members because um however they scored the organizations that they were a part of um there was complaints about that. Okay. Uh, Deputy Mayor Gilbert, uh,
the part of the process and and we were part of training and and grant training and I think there's some 40ome people at the last grant uh, meeting was that you mean the four trainings that we put on? What we're trying to do, and I try to make layman's term out of this, we're
trying to teach them how to fish, not not give them fish. Correct. Uh, so there were 40 people at that grant training. Was that correct? I don't have the numbers with me. The first one was about 40 and then it was like 30 around an average of between part part of another board I'm on which is TDC. We
require that all the people that receive a grant go to a course of how to spend that money and that money is only directed towards marketing of that event for the city of St. Cloud which gives us an economical impact of people spending money in St. Cloud. also read that I and
I did not know that that 49% of the grants that we gave out this year were people that are neither residents nor have a place here in St. Cloud. Uh to to me that's a little bothersome. I'd rather do it with citizens and people that are
established uh folks here in St. Cloud. Now, we're going to wing this out, but I would like to at the pleasure of the council that these folks have to either be live here or work here or have an establishment here because that's we're we're not talking about federal taxes.
We're not talking about state taxes. We're talking about city taxes that are spent there. So, I would just like the council to think about that and that if we do review this that you have to be e either a resident and or have a business in St. Cloud to be applying for a grant.
That's just my two cents on that. I love the grant workshops. I really think that works and and I don't know, everybody says I don't mind paying taxes. I just want to put it in this uh bucket or that bucket or that bucket. And we we kind of well we really do work for the people.
So I I would like uh it be for the city of St. Cloud any grants going further. So with that, I yield back. Mayor, that's just my comments on that. Thank you. Yes, sir. Uh council member Urban. Yeah, thank you. I've I've made my thoughts known about this program and uh I think I made it pretty clear I'm not a
fan of the program at all. I wouldn't lose sleep if we put this entire budget into police and fire public safety services. As a taxpayer myself if I want to donate to an organization or an event, I'll spend my own money. I don't need it
funneled through my tax dollars. With that said, I understand that's not a popular viewpoint, just my viewpoint. Um, as Deputy Mayor Gilbert said, number one, first and foremost, it should only go to St. Cloud residents organizations.
Number two, I believe this should only go to organizations that directly provide essential services to the residents of St. Cloud. Essential services meaning food, housing, shelter,
medical care, clothing. Um, you know, the one that comes to mind, um, when I think of this is the Ocola Council on Aging. They do incredible work directly for residents of St. Cloud. Place for Grace does incredible work directly for the residents of St. Cloud. So, that's
what if we're going to keep this program, that's what I would like to see it do. You know, with events and everything, these events need to be able to stand on their own two feet without um, taking money from the taxpayer. That's just how I feel personally as a taxpayer. But um that's my thoughts.
Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. And I I would agree with that that um you know things don't always work out and and that's our job to question things, review the whole situation. Um unfortunately last year's process there there there too many flaws to mention and I believe it it created a
lot of controversy here and and um we we got a lot of backlash even though we supported things that that you know that that I don't believe we should have but we did and we still got backlash. So um I would be in agreeance with with uh
Council Member Urban that I do not have any faith in this program. I believe it's Let me ask you Leslie real quick. This consultant, I believe he may still be on the line. Do we have a contract? Do we pay him money? Yes. How what what's the value of that? This year council approved 50,000 that was on the
previous So it's 50,000 to just to do a $100,000 grant program. They managed that. They provided the trainings to the nonprofits, the trainings to the EDAC committee, and they're building it was a three-year phased program. Yeah. So I I'd like to go ahead and cancel that
contract if we can. Uh I I don't believe uh spending $50,000. It's 50,000 a year. It was Let me go back to the slide. And and I do want to point out I did I did interrupt her presentation. She had other other Oh, no. No. We'll let her keep talking, but we're going to go
ahead and go through some of this real quick. So, this is this is what was proposed and and council's direction was to begin at the year two, right? So I'm talking about the agreement with this um so the 50,000 of the capacity building was what
was the um the consultant was providing the he overviewed the community support grant program the new process he provided all the recommendations he provided the training for the nonprofits he evaluated the applications um he did
the EDAC training he helped work through the awards and now is why we're here we're getting ready to move into the year three implementation. Um, and we were hoping for some feedback. Okay. So, capacity building, that's the amount that he was awarded to do this
consulting. 25,000, then 50,000, another 50,000. Well, they skipped year one. So, we jumped right in at year two. Okay. Mhm. But he did get 50,000 in year two. Correct. And he's getting So, we're going to enter into 50,000 spending $50,000, but only give about $50,000
worth of grants. Correct. But he's going to make $50,000. Right. he would expand the training. Yeah, I'm not in support of any of this. Um, folks, I don't know what you think, but that that's just a lot of money and and and to administer a small amount of grants that although it's small amount
of grants, that's taxpayer dollars, and I agree with Council Member Urban on that as well, that I I believe they they should not be distributed in this manner. Um, I don't think we're getting the value in this agreement. Yeah, I know this was an agreement that was done
long before me, but I'd like to u um go ahead and make a motion to cancel that agreement. So, for clarification, are you cancelelling so you're cancelling the capacity building program? Uh well, right now I want to go ahead and cancel this agreement because I don't think we need we don't need this.
But that's good money after bad. Mayor, these are Yes, sir. Mayor, thank you. Can you can you give us the opportunity between now and the next council meeting to I haven't reviewed the agreement. I need to take a look at that. So, if that would be okay with you, we can take that as direction and then we can have this on your agenda at the next council
meeting and decide how we have to do that in accordance with the agreement. Yes, sir. This gives me a chance to look at it. Thank you. I'll go ahead and finish let you finish your presentation. Uh, city manager, do you have something else? No, I'm sorry. Thank you. I go with the clicker. Okay. So um by
June 30th all of the awarded nonprofits are to submit a final summary and within their final summary um here they demonstrate their accountability the impact of their programs. It helps us the stakeholders understand what their programs were for supports the future
funding because one of the eligibility requirements was to um provide that final summary. If they don't they couldn't move on to the next funding cycle. And again here we are at pro the program improvement. We did receive very good feedback from the participants um
of the trainings that we gave on the grant writing um and the resource training and budgets and all. Um so again here we are um getting ready to do year three implementation and um you know we got good feedback on
the capacity building and hoping for some kind of other feedback. I appreciate your feedback, Council Member Gilbert. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up, we have discussion regarding St. Cloud Chamber and Main
Street agreements. I'll let the city manager go ahead and start off on that. Yeah. I I'm sorry. I I actually had um a question based on the direction from last year also. It's not It's not It's not you, Leslie. Thank you. Um well actually so so we we got direction
on cancelelling the contract. I I need to know the direction on the amount that you want to include for for four grants or or no or no grants. I don't know that I saw three heads on um do do we still want to reduce it to 50 or did you want to eliminate it? I think right now zero.
I think we we we not even discuss it until maybe the next meeting when we talk about this agreement with the with Put the program on hold. Yeah, put the program on hold. We're not going to put the placeholder in the budget. Just that's that's um uh yes, we can put the amount as a placeholder. The the the
year three or year two, just the amount. Oh, I see what you're saying. Disregard this program that's been in place, but the amount the $100,000 or is it 150? What's the amount? That's that's that's why I that's that's why so year two was $100,000
um in grants that we gave away. Year three was supposed to go down to $50,000 in grants that we give away. So that's that's the the I think the number. So basically you got a $100,000 line item for this Yeah. program. And I would leave it at 100, but I I agree with Council Member Urban's comments. They
should be for different uses than what that we've been given out in the past. Okay. And then One more question. U last year the direction was also um to stop um we had we had line item within our budget. We
had line items for help now for um the transition house. I'm sorry. I had it I have it printed on a piece of paper. Help now the transition house. Um find my piece of paper. I'm sorry. gonna look at Kelly because I know you printed it for me this morning. I don't
know if you have it easily or you remember what it was. It was help now the transition house education foundation and ocular reads is an interlocal agreement. So I don't think that one would apply but I I guess last year the direction was don't don't budget for
them um starting this year. They would need to apply for the grant process. So um so I guess I was looking for do you want to continue that direction also? Um at this moment yes.
Okay. So we'll keep if we change it then yeah that's maybe it's a topic for another meeting if we decide to to to add some some money in the budget for that. Looking for three knots. Good. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. and I'll go ahead and let you kick off Chamber and Main Street stuff as well.
So, Main Street is not is not here this evening um or today, I'm sorry. The we're going to put them on the workshop that we have scheduled for next week. Um Representative Stark is uh in Tallahassee, or at least she was last night.
Um, last year when we discussed the grants, the the direction was to um, like I said a few minutes ago, remove those line item details for those specific organizations. Um, that at the time included the chamber, St. Cloud
Chamber. So, as a result, um, we had wanted to continue to have some form of agreement relationship with the chamber. So, I was directed by the board to come up to work on negotiation points. Um, so we've met with the St. Cloud Chamber
multiple times with um Durk and Joe. Um, and I know they're here. I know their board was meeting on this topic earlier this morning. So, it might be more helpful to have have them um maybe mention what happened at the board because I don't know because I know they
were discussing this specific topic. Uh Dirk Webb, would you like to come up and talk to us? I really want so badly to say good evening, but uh apparently it's not. Well, good morning, Mayor, council. Uh
so the board met this morning in their midyear uh review and basically what they're looking for now that the city uh our normal process is a partnership a trustee level partnership. We have
several of those including as seeh commissioner grie here with the county and u so the board is looking for a similar trustee agreement uh that has equity for our other trustee
members as well. And the other thing that was directed is that we when we have some talking points finalized and I have a couple of things here that we will take them back to the board for their discussion and their approval and they will actually be the ones making
the final decision on this. Okay. So you're are you looking for just $15,000 for this next year? That was what was suggested in the in the discussions that we landed on and went back and ran the numbers. It's a
significant hit to our budget, but that's the um the understanding that we came to along with, if my understanding is correct, then some uh additional opportunities to to purchase add-ons uh
according to what events we do. Am I correct? Yeah, that was the direction I received from the board. You you were looking for standard um standard membership uh which is why we started working on the trustee level and then you had stated or you had directed that
you wanted the ability then that we would pay to play. Um so so that was part of what our conversations were. Um what's not really highlighted I think also is that we need to make sure um and we need to make sure that we cover the
city's contribution to the uh Christmas parade because that's something we do for the chamber. I know the council doesn't want to I think that's it's it's a part of this but it's also separate from this. I I don't think anybody wants to see us not not waving the fees for the chamber. Um, so, so I think that
was, you know, definitely one of the the points that there's a little bit of a difference, I think, between doing their typical trustee agreement and then a normal city agreement that we would normally enter into. So, um, so I think
really we just need to hear what the board wants in that final agreement and and Durk and I will work together, um, to get that across the finish line for you and put it on a council agenda. Um, or if it's within my approval authority
based on its direction, if it's clear direction, then then, you know, I can just execute something with the chamber myself. Deputy Mayor. Yes. Thank Thank you, mayor. Uh, city manager, you'd mentioned the uh Christmas uh parade. Uh, I know
there's cost and I know it's a tradition. I think the mayor had mentioned before going on 50, 100 years or whatever. Uh, it used to be down 192, right? Used to be right down the main street. So, that's something I think the council and the city sure surely should
should support. Uh, what is the cost of that? Because this $15,000 for the trustee level does not include that, does it? Correct. I have that. Okay. Because I I it's a valuable asset to be a part of this chamber and and and Durk does a
wonderful job and if we are going to pay to play, I think we we need to do is participate in as many uh things as we can and pay for those items. So, even though we it was at a $50,000 and we're going to 15, it might add up to $48,922
by the time we uh buy tickets for events uh to the Christmas parade and things such as that. So, uh you know, putting dollars in different pockets, I guess, what we're doing. I just want to know the cost of Christmas parade. And then I think Durk, you put a pretty good level what uh what the uh trustee level comes.
I think you've did that in your memorandum. So, I appreciate that. But I would like to also know what other options and I know we have a a council member on that board. So I I would like to see if it'd be the council's pleasure to have her head that up and what events that we should uh participate in what
she thinks and what's good for the city and good for the for the chamber. If I may uh at the pleasure of the council and I yield back. Yes, I would agree. Uh Council Member Paul. So I do agree on on what count um deputy mayor um Gilbert indicated as a sitting board member. I I
honestly think the 15,000 is really too low. Um the St. Cloud Chamber of Commerce do a great job with supporting the community and as a sitting board member. Um I would just ask to increase that amount. Um and you know cuz I also
represent for the city of St. Cloud. So that's my take on that. Yeah. Um Mr. Webb, what is Go ahead, city manager. I'll go ahead and let you speak on this first. Thank you. Um, so the the city waved $6,686
um in city related fees this past Christmas parade and then um in the previous agreement $8,000 was specifically listed as for the Christmas parade. All right, let me ask you on that. The $6,800 6,686
that was the the fees waved that those were the fees staff cost police fire. Okay. And then and then we gave an additional 8,000 to them to put the parade on. Yeah. And I look at that as, you know, we should be community partners with them when it comes to that. Like that I I don't think we
should look at that as we're waving anything. We should be joint venturing with them on this because that is one of the greatest community events we ever we have here in our in our community. And I know Ken likes to dress up like Santa Claus working on it and
I'm an elf, you know. So, no, I just it does seem a little low and I know we're we're sitting here uh nickel and diamond when we're we're calculating what we're waving, but I think we also need to look at how we actually how we participate in these
events and not and not count those as necessarily dollars, but we want we want the community to know that we're out there and I want the fire department out there and the police I know the police department's out there, you know, we can't keep him out of the limelight and uh but no, He he's he's doing an amazing
job. I just I just don't think reducing the numbers and just basing off that um how much of that is actual like just permit fees. I mean, do we charge a permit fee or would we if if it were not I don't have the breakdown. I would assume it includes the permit fee
because I was the council removed my ability to wave special event fees. So that that should be all of all of those or at least the prior fee schedule because we we have a new fee schedule. So, it would go up again this next year.
Okay. Council member Urban. Yeah. I would just um sort of echo what Deputy Mayor Gilbert said about you know $15 that's our base membership and then it's sort of all a cart um on what you know it might add up at the end of the year
to $50,000. We just the the whole um discussion with this and the previous discussion about the community grant program is we just need to to be accountable for every dollar that's going out of here because it's not our money, it's the taxpayers's money. Uh
and and the chamber does an amazing job. They're a great partner. Um, I just think going all the cart with our events and and and trusting um, Council Member Paul, who's a board member on on there to tell us which events we we need to be attending and participating in uh, in
the chamber. I think that's the way to go. But that's just my two cents. Yeah, I would agree with that as well. Permission, Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir. So, a couple of things here. my board uh in their discussion this morning, they are working up uh an estimate of what we do
for the Christmas parade every year including our time. So we started about matter of fact about six months uh we just met to establish a theme for this year and so the time involved in that is to be considered and we thank the city
for their contributions each year uh for permitting. The other thing to keep in mind is we have uh some of our events are designed for larger topics to shine on St. Cloud.
Uh one of the aspects of this agreement that we've talked about is providing us a place to meet for four even yeah four events a year including two at the marina and two at the community center.
The reason is uh some of our events um taking that amount away from that doesn't provide us much margin. But an example I will give you is in August uh we're bringing in the Orlando Dreamers because we are uh interested in the business of sports and what it means to
economic development in the community. And one of the things I asked uh Veronica for, I'm sorry, the city manager for um was a waiver of that because I wanted to have it in St. Cloud. I wanted the people who deal with
the dreamers and all that PR to see St. Cloud and that's really what I'm interested in is shining a light shining a light on that. In November, our quarterly lunchon series will include CFX and the roadways that they're working on trying to educate the
community. So, these are things that we feel like we add value to the city of St. Cloud uh in what we present and what we do. So, thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak. Yes, sir. Thank you. And I know I see we have Miss Betty Dempkkey out there. I know she works uh
very hard on that Christmas parade. Are you currently on that committee? You, Mr. pass. Yes, we all work for Miss Betty. Yes. Oh, I know. We We all do. We all do. All right. Thank you, Dirk. I appreciate
you. Yes, sir. All right. So, yeah, I believe that was the consensus that we're going to move forward with a kind of an alle cart kind of a breakdown. Yeah. And I if if Miss Paul would take that lead and and thing things and then when partnership comes
up if it's going to be a larger dollar value for us to participate in the parade as a partner, you know, let's let's look at that what their costs are. I agree with Durk. Uh time is money. So the prep time is costing money too is I
think is what he said during his uh his presentation which was adequate. So those are things I would ask if if if council pleasure to have uh council woman Paul to do that and put it together on on a sheet for us to look at. So it may be this a while, it may be more, it may be less. And I think that's
the best way we go look at it because uh council member Urban's truly very very right. It's not our dollar. So spend wisely. So yeah, I think so. Yeah. And it I'm sorry. No, I was going to ask D. Is this all the events that you have
listed or are there more? Thank you for the question. So, this is a primary um example of our events. Um which document are you referring to? Um the city of St.
Cloud partnership proposals. Okay. question. Okay. So, this is what is available to the trustee level. So, if you go back and look at our pricing piece, um there
what is available is everything that we offer any other member plus the trustee level including the board. So, uh if you don't know him, this is my board chair, Joe Riley. Is it okay for him to speak as well? Absolutely. Go ahead, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Uh they were when
Dirk put this together, there were assumptions made on what you would attend. So you could do more than what's in there. And that's I just want to point that out that it was based on assumptions and what you think you would be attending. Okay. Because I think Heather does a great job with sending the emails out of what's happening with
St. Cloud Chambers. Um and I pretty much try to attend, you know, majority of them anyway, especially the ribbon cutings and anything that pertains to the um St. cloud chamber as a board member and um I honestly just think
15,000 is low um doing the alocart I mean I'm okay if they stuck with the 50,000 and we can move forward. So would a with your uh permission the would it be possible then from a uh government
standpoint set a cost not to exceed a 50,000 without coming back to council and that way that gives you attitude to uh adjust. I don't know. I'm just asking that question. How you may make a recommendation. Um first I want to say thank you city manager and and Mr. Web for working on this sitting down and
going through this whole agreement. I think it's a great amazing starting point. Um I think the way to get to the end goal is um we give um direction to allow council member Paul to sit back down with the chamber and then come back and and kind of work through those
details and get all the numbers and then come back to us. Is that fair? Good. One final comment if I may. So, the August quarterly lunch and I made you all baseball cards. I hope you saw them. All right.
Baseball card. That wasn't me. What are we talking What are we talking about? The whole AI thing is scary. I just want to let you know my picture didn't look right either. I I do have one uh two things. Okay. So, you're going to try and lure the dreamers to St. Cloud uh right up against Turnpike. Is that
correct? Oh, wait a minute. So, that not in St. Cloud. paying you for 15,000. Um, the other thing is, you know, I know you Rob does a great job at OEL Heritage Park with the politics and the barn and all that, but is there any way we can try and get some of the more of those activities here? So, that was the point
and adding the two and the two was to try. So, to be clear, Ocio Heritage Park is a member of ours as well. So, we try to take good care of Rob, too. But yeah, we want to bring more of the
uh events to St. Cloud. So, that was the reason we asked for kind of a waiver for the year for four events so we could go back to doing the marina and the community center. Okay. And also the civic center, right? We could do some events in there as well.
All right. Uh, Council Member Urban, just a quick comment on that. We've got to uh as a city work on getting some better event space here in in our city because I know there's been groups and organizations that have wanted to do conferences and meetings here in St. Cloud and we just don't have the space
uh to to fit everybody. So maybe when the dreamers build their stadium here, they could put some event space next to it. Yeah, they lost control of this one. And and we have an in-house consultant here that uh for I don't know what the city pays them, but uh we got them on a
cheap rate. That's exciting. That's that's exciting. Let me be clear. We appreciate the bringing. Next up and you know those investors that one of the major investors already
investing in our community. So doing a major project and multiple projects here. So I am familiar with them. So whatever you can do Durk, make us happy. Make us proud. Thank you. Thank you. And so we're not going to discuss Main Street. Well, actually that that that was part
of why I I had my my light on. Um Miss Paul is the board member on Main Street also. So I don't know if if the board wants to maybe give me direction to have her meet with Paula similarly rather than having the workshop next week or if you'd like to start with with um
Representative Stark, sorry. Um next week and then and then give direction at that point or if you want to follow the same path that that we just received. Uh, Council Member Fletcher, um, you to it. Um, this this is one of the the items
that I I had I had previously brought up to to go through the historic preservation process. Um, the intent of it was is to see if there's ways that we can streamline the process while also encouraging, you know, um, historic preservation. So, if we could, you know,
maybe wait till we have um, you're talking about with Main Street integrating it in historic preservation, right? because because I mean they have it I believe they they assisted in coming up with the historic preservation ordinance. So I think that their their guidance would be you know helpful in in
the decision that we make. Okay. Um Deputy Mayor from Gilbert. That's a great suggestion because those two do work hand and glove. Uh I would suggest that we do the same format with with Councilwoman Paul because she's already there at the table. Might as well bring
it out. use the same format so not to be confused with one group or another and have that format. That's my only suggestion to make I'm not trying to make it easier, but if it works, why why change it? Yeah, we're trying to put you to work. Uh, Council Member Paul, I was just
going to add to that. Um, I would like to wait on Rep. Stark to provide her um plan of action and then take it from there. So, yeah. Yeah, we trust that uh you'll be able to work with her, work out some details. All right, that's
consensus to for Is that good? So, so that is for the main street. We'll take it off of next week and then the historic preservation presentation. Um, we we'll just wait until it comes until I guess we're ready for Representative Stark to discuss that. You talking about
what's on the agenda today, right? Because I think Yeah, we can wait if that if she's part of that as well. maybe come back with after she's so the main the main street organization provided a draft to city staff and the city staff revised it and brought it to
the city council for adoption. Um so we already have some challenges and and some improvements that we know we would like to address. Um we do have a presentation to to to to do that. Um you know but we can wait. I just I don't want to wait too long because it is it
is impacting businesses. You know, we get complaints about the fact that signs have to go through the historic preservation process. Signs and doors and basic items that um that our current process is is cumbersome. Um so, okay.
Uh if Council Member Paul can can meet with Representative Stark or Main Street Director Stark next week or soon after that um and maybe we can have it on the next meeting agenda. Well, she had planned on attending the
workshop on the 26th, so we can keep that as is and she can share with us what she has. So, okay. But you'll work with her before then. So, okay, that works. And then we can do the historic preservation at that time during the 26. Okay,
good. Everybody happy? Okay. So, I think uh we have no first reading. City attorney Thank you, mayor. I don't have anything other than my I will be out of town all next week. So, um I'm
going on a short vacation. So, I would there will be I will have probably Patrick Brandt my office will probably would be here for the workshop and I'll get with staff on the historic preservation process beforehand to provide make sure they have my comments.
Would the council mind if we reschedled? I I would really like Dan there for the historic preservation discussion. Well, it's going to be the is that 26th next week on the 26th. It's next week. Okay. Yeah, we can we can reschedule that to another week. Whatever. Whatever feels comfortable. Thank you. Thank you. I do
I do Yeah, I know you love talking about historic preservation stuff. Well, I'm old. I just we wait for you. I learned a lot. I actually sat in the last one. I learned about uh Japanese influence on some of our our infrastructure or some of the the the
homes the residences here. It's was interesting. Didn't know that. I didn't have I don't have anything else. Mayor, thank you. All right. Thank you. Um Commissioner G. Yes, ma'am. Sorry about that. I was trying to get your attention much earlier. I'm sorry. I just wanted clarification on the
additional um employees that would come to the event on Saturday. Um so that is not a cost to the organization. Okay. because I know that was discussed, but I wanted to make sure that was part of the motion as well. And how many was that again? There's going to be 10 additional on top of what was already going to be
provided. And so these 10 additional are there to help out to fill in doever what's needed at the event. Yep. Okay. Very good. Whatever whatever needs to happen. Well, it's more to preser to be our eyes and ears on the property, you know, or cleanup or whatever. Parks and recck, whatever their roles are with
parks and wreck. I'll let Stephanie I I believe we obviously You just don't want it around. Well, well, they're not, you know, they're not really volunteers for the event. They're there. Um, there's obviously going to be some cleanup that maybe the event staff doesn't get to,
you know, we just need to make sure we have our staff on site as well. Okay. So, again, thank So, they'll be assisting. Yep. Absolutely. We like to call them standby. Yep. Uh, yes. City manager. I have nothing.
All right. And Council Member Paul. So, I did want to bring up um one email I received yesterday in regards to an event that's on Saturday. Um they originally, I guess, had conversation um about their event being at the ranch, but it got moved. I guess you received a
call from Parks and Wreck of the event being moved to the St. Cloud Civic Center and she's been in communication with staff over there and um it's a bunch of emails going on, but I did bring it up to the city manager yesterday in regards to it. And now
she's being asked by Parks and Wreck to um receive the invoice of I believe over $3,000 or else she can't host her event on Saturday. So, just wanted to um bring this up publicly. So, which event is this again? I'm sorry. It's the
Vanguard Golden um Renaissance, the BEC. I'm going to that, right? We I I just agreed to it last week. I think we didn't receive an application until June 5th. Um so the fee is is in line with the facility
rental. Um I don't have the authority to wave that. Um she last year our economic development department sponsored the event. um they're not sponsoring the event this year. So I I think that's where part of that confusion was. Yes.
Because I also have a post that she posted back on January 29th indicating the event was going to be at the ranch. So and then another post indicated June 21st it was going to be at the St. Cloud Civic Center. So there's definitely a
miscommunication along the way. So when was it What are you saying? It was going to be at the ranch on which day it was. She posted made a post about the event that's happening on June 21st. It was going to be at the ranch. And that post
went out on January 29th, but she had been in communication. I guess it was more of a conversation and a misunder understanding that she was getting the ranch. And come to find out, she's receiving an invoice for the civic center for her event on Saturday. So
when did she apply to go to the civic center? You said June. Well, so she just applied. She just submitted paperwork. Yes. Okay. But was she was it an event that she was supposed to have somewhere else and she and she just did an updated application or how did we kind of like
with the proud in the cloud with the they started off at the lakefront and then they're at the ranch. Is that do you have any details on that? There was no formal application until June because we received invites from Kelly. um regarding because I remember accepting it back in early on and it was at the
ranch. Then I got another invite that said the civic center. So I asked Kelly, can you confirm where is the location event going to be at? And she said it was changed to the civic center. So when I reached out to Tiffany, which she was here, she's no longer here, she
indicated she received a call from Parks to Rex saying that she needed to move the event. Um and they didn't give an explanation of why. So calendar that that's this Saturday, correct? Yes. So the emails from the
that the direction we've been given is to forward every event to the city council. Um whether there's every event that that we have knowledge of. So that would be the event invitations sent out by Kelly. Um and again if they didn't
reserve the facility. Yeah. Um it says civic center but but it says the ranch too. Did they you're saying they didn't reserve the ranch? Correct. Did somebody tell them
they could have the ranch? Was there a Well, I I can't tell you at the time when they probably started conversations, there was probably no no facility booked. Um, but we don't hold we don't hold items
forever. But if she sponsored last year and assuming she had a conversation because she said it was December early on she had a conversation and then January she posted about it because I remember seeing it and um saving it to my phone
about the event. So um knowing who Tiffany is, I'm not sure why she would post the event back in January knowing she really didn't have the venue. Uh Deputy Mayor Fletcher, I'm sorry, Gilbert. Uh yeah, let me try to explain
this from from from a observation point. Uh last year we had this event. It was held on top of Krabby Bills. It was awarded u the economic development council um prior to any council member's knowledge uh gave a $15,000 uh gift to
the Vanguard and sponsored that event. Uh I attended that event and it was very well attended probably a couple hundred people but uh it was sponsored by the city. So I I truly think the the mishap would be coming that the city u uh
reserved the place. The city did that. Uh the city had also I can understand why the the person in charge now thought that was going to be in place already because it was last year. Now it's not a sponsored event. So, they may have assumed, hey, the city we want it, the
city will hold it. That's the only thing. And I don't like to use the word assume very much because it's not not a good way to use it. It it's it's a good event. I'll be at that event also. There'll be two events on on Saturday. But I think that's where the confusion is, mayor, is that last year was sponsored by the city. It was at Krabby
Bills. It was a lunchon uh venue that we went to and the city had granted. I don't know if it was a grant or a gift or membership. I I have to look back, but it was a $15,000 check that we gave them a at the venue itself. I uh was there. So, that's where the confusion
may have lied is that it was a city sponsored event last year. So, the reservations for the Krabby Bills may have been taken place by the economic development uh department. Um and that that's the only thing I can see how this got a little convoluted, but but that's
the only input I have. Other than that, I do not know uh uh Councilwoman Paul how that um was reserved. Not I will tell you one thing. When reserving um venues, uh I'll use the Orange County Convention Center at the time. The venue gets reserved when the application is
filled out and when the deposit is given. That is when it becomes from from gray to black. That's when it becomes a solid is when that application is filled out, accepted, and the deposit's given. That's how most venues have, you know, then that date. you can't lose that
date. Now, there are there are venues that will put you on an A, B, and C. They'll charge you a lesser amount forward using that venue. And if something else comes above it, which is a higher quality and a higher paying, then you you then move to another facility that that they have to offer or
different dates. That's how things are done on that stairstep level of reserving and also contracting uh venues and facilities. That's the only thing I can add to that. if we look at that in the future. But I would say once you put your deposit down, once your application's filled out, whoever does
that first gets that facility is what I would I would suggest there. Therefore, it's clarity. I yield back to you, mayor. No. And and that's I think the problem we have right now is about a 3,000 some odd dollar number when event doesn't take place. When they
it was advertised as the ranch, did was she given a an indication that she could have it there at the ranch? I don't it doesn't matter what day, but was she did our economic development work with her in any capacity to talk about that that facility? So, um this was investigated
yesterday by the I I learned about this yesterday. Um so, our deputy city manager investigated it. Yes. Um mayor, to your point, um the event was held and and deputy mayor, you're you're correct. Last year was held uh above Krabby Bills
at the Marina Building. Um there were conversations between the agency and with the economic development department. Uh we spoke with the economic development director yesterday. She is she has indicated that she had had multiple conversations with um with
the organization that it would not be sponsored again by the city. Um there were no conversations that were held on reserving the facility uh through the parks and recreation department whether it was at um whether it was at the civic center or whether it was at the ranch.
Uh there was a tour that was was given of the civic center uh with them that was back in March. Uh we do we do have that date but there was no other applications. There was no indication on anything that was done at that point.
They did book the facility on June 5th. Uh so, you know, approximately a week and a half ago was the first formal application that was received. Uh there were still some questions on whether it was being paid for through economic development or the applicant was paying
for it themselves because the parks department was unaware of any conversations between economic development and and the applicant. That's not something that that would have happened. Uh so yesterday the um parks department spoke with the economic
development director, economic development economic development director, excuse me, three times. Thank you. Uh got a hold of the applicant and they worked that out. So that's where that invoice came from yesterday. But that was from the June 6th, excuse me, June 5th application. That's the first
application that was received. And deputy mayor, your your point is correct. All facilities are are reserved on a first come first- serve basis when when they're submitted. All right. Now, why Scott, I'm sorry, real quick. Do you is there any
indication as to why she thought she had an event planned? That I don't know. I mean, advertise saying it's at a facility, right? I certainly can't answer for for the applicant why they would have sent something out or would not have sent something out. Um but
there was no discussion about them correcting him and saying you're not having it there but you can have it somewhere else. No, there was there was no conversation about that. Um they had that meeting in uh in March where they talked about what the facility was uh
the civic center. They do recall that they let them know that the ranch was booked at that time. So that was post uh proud in the cloud uh applications everything their second application being submitted. So that facility had already been been booked at the time,
but there was never even a request on a specific date. The parks department uh speaking with them yesterday wasn't even aware of the specific date of the event. It was just showing the community center on that on that day in March. Okay. And last year when they and I know you weren't here, neither was I, but when
they when they held it at Krabby Bills, did Tiffany, did she deal directly with parks and wreck or through an internet? And that's where I'm thinking that I don't know the communication and and right saying you you may possibly be
correct on that. I do know um that as the conversations with Antranet uh were taking place yesterday that she had indicated that this was a conversation that they had had a number of times that it was not being sponsored by the city. So I don't know you're there's always
some possibility of there being some miscommunication on that. Um, but I can tell you that the the parks department had not received anything. The first notice that they received was the application on June 5th for this. I can understand. Yeah, parks. Yeah, I don't I
think they're kind of maybe left in the dark on this and maybe maybe economic development wasn't clear. I don't know what but now she's being presented a $3,000 bill. So, what do we do? We can wave if the council would
like to w you have been waving other facility rentals. If if you'd like to wave that, it can be waved. I just don't have the detail of what that $3,000. I don't know if she was having any additional services as part of it. Um yeah, and that's that's I just wish I
had more information on that. Um council, do y'all have any You go ahead, Council Member. At this point, I I think it's only fair to to wave the fee. My I mean, the common theme I think of this meeting is
we got it's on us, but we got to fix our special event process. Um we we we've got to have a clear and concise process. Um no event from no outside organization should be costing the taxpayers a dime, whether it's in staffing or facility rentals. We we've got to figure this
out. So, I I think that should be a top priority for us as a city council to get this get this figured out as soon as possible. We give staff direction on that. Is that if we all agree to wave that? Is that how we Well, if you can give us the city manager can take that. Council, I'm
sorry, Deputy Mayor Gilbert. No problem. Just one comment. Uh, agree with Councilman Urban 100%. We We are the city. we represent the city and it it doesn't look like we've done a good job of communications and I think that's where we fall. Uh I have no problem I I
have problem but I I do believe through this instance instance only that we should wave the rental fee. However, I would not want to wave any labor fees, cleanup fees, things such as that that are direct cost to to the city. Uh we
have the facility. It's there. It's available. It was a miscommunication. And I do believe I don't I'm not pointing fingers at who. So I would I would be uh in in in with uh council member Urban of waving the rental but any additional labor fees that come with
it and cleanup fees that that should those are direct costs that we can't we can't recoup unless we recoup if that makes sense. And I yield back to you. That's my only point. And uh I want to see this event. I want to see all the events happen here. And that's essentially what they had last year at the Krabby Bills. Is that the
arrangement? They we just offered up the facility, but they had to have the staff to clean it up and they they provided food and and they did the cleanup and and all of that at Krabby Bills. Um we had a staff member there because we always have to have a staff member in the area at Krabby Bills. Um so so we
would also have have to have a staff member present um in the civic center. Okay. Council member Paul. And um my last remarks is I definitely agree with council member Urban. We do need to sit down and look at the process of special events because it's definitely broken.
Okay. Are those your final comments? Uh Council Member Paul, Council Member Urban. Um listen, I mean we've had some pretty uh contentious council meetings lately.
emotions running high. I think we owe it to the residents of the city of St. Cloud to try to be as professional as possible up here and and try to get along in a professional manner. Um, I know emotions have have been high. I
know everybody up here has different viewpoints on things, different politics, uh different religions, everything, all of the above. Um, you know, we we say the the the pledge of allegiance before every meeting. It's uh liberty and justice for all. That's for
all, for every single person uh in this room, for every resident of the city of St. Cloud. Um we shouldn't be seeking for things that are going to divide us. We should be seeking for uniting us as residents of
the city and as Americans, as human beings. And and I I think we owe that to the residents of the city. And I hope we can move on from here and just do the work that we were elected here to do. Uh so so that's that's my comments and uh thank you for being here. Thank you,
Council Member Fletcher. I would I would echo those same comments and uh that's all I have. And Deputy Mayor Gilbert, no comment at this time. Thank you. All right. I have nothing else to add and but now we have our information section, report section. Thursday, June 19th,
2025, city officers closed in observance of the Junth holiday. Friday, July 4th, 2025. City officers are closed in observance of the July 4th holiday. Of course, we're going to be out there at the lakefront with fireworks. I think uh is does the chamber participate in stuff
out there as well, or is that just that's us? We do all that. Okay. Uh Thursday, July 10th, 2025, city council meeting, 6:30 p.m. at city hall council chambers. And there are no reports at this time. And this meeting is adjourned.
Thank you. Part: 2
To the flag of the United States of America and to the stands nationy for all. And if everybody's going to testify, if you'd be remain standing and raise your right hand, I'll swear everybody in. Do you all swear affirm the truth? The testimony you get today
is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. For the benefit of the respondent, my name is Drew Smith. You can be seated. My name is Drew Smith. You can be seated. Oh, no. You can be seated. I'm just introducing myself. Uh you That's okay. Uh my name is Drew Smith. I'm the
code enforcement mag for the city of St. Cloud. My role in these proceedings is to be an independent finder of fact. So we'll go through each case. I hear yours is already first, so we don't need to move you up to the front. You'll be the first one we hear. The code enforcement uh officer will present uh their evidence testimony first. After I've heard that, it will be your opportunity
to tell me anything else you'd like me to hear. If you have any evidence, I will receive that. When I've received everything, I will make a determination on the facts and and render an oral oral opinion today and that will be followed in the mail by a written order that she'll receive. Okay. And code enforcement and cling first case. Case
number 2024-1439 Jacob Stokes NUS owner location of violation 1414 Minnesota Avenue St. Cloud, Florida. Good afternoon. April Bennett, code enforcement officer. I'm presenting this case for the property located at 1414
Minnesota Avenue. At this time, I would like to enter into evidence the following items. Copy of the certified IPMC notice sent by certified mail to the owner of record. Copy of the statement of violation and notice of hearing sent by certified mail to the owner of record post of the property and
city hall. Copy of the PowerPoint presentation. affidavit of postings, evidence of mailings, the code section in violation of a copy of the original deed to the property, and a copy of the cost incurred if the magistrate finds the respondent in violation in the
amount of $320.77. Um, the representative for the property owner is here. He represents the property management company and he has been provided with copies. On November 18th of 24, um, code enforcement was contacted by a tenant in
unit A, uh, for a housing inspection to be performed at this location. On November 19th, a housing inspection was completed, and I observed the following. There were leaks in the ceiling, visible bug infestation, missing window screens, missing smoke
alarms, exterior doors that did not seal, sewage backup, leaking shower, buckling floor, a light not secured to the ceiling, inoperable windows. There was a support member to an exterior staircase that was bent. Roof metal was
not secured. There was missing flashing and sophet high grass and weeds and just general maintenance issues. 12 photos were taken. What am I looking at? That is um what the tenant said was like um bug feces
that was on several other items. Same question there. What am I looking at? It's the ceiling um where one of the leaks is happening. And it's it's cracking the ceiling down the middle. And here, what is this? Just there was a hole in the wall in the staircase. Wall. Yeah, the tenants taped it up because
they didn't know if bugs were coming in from it. Could wall or ceiling? Yeah. Wall. Um, that's the shower with the shower running. Um, I don't know if you can see the water in the picture. That's running out onto the floor. Okay. hole in the door.
That's lighting coming in um around the um one of the uh doors. That was an exterior door that you just showed me, right? Yes, sir. Um that's broken tile that was on um the stoop out front um that was a potential trip
hazard. That's the buckled um support member to the outside staircase. Looks like it's got metal. Has it been uh looks like it's been fixed at some point? It may have been repaired at some point. Um I've got a better picture of it from a side view.
Um you can see where it's like actually uh split apart on the back side. Sophet, right? Yes. Sophet. Um and the metal um metal not attached. Um, again, sophet rotten wood underneath
there. No window screens or insect screens. Okay. On December 12th, I was able to verify that um, USPS attempted to deliver the certified IPMC notice. However, no one
was available. I called the owner of record to discuss the violations and I and he requested that I email him a copy of the IPMC notice. Um I emailed him a copy that day. On December 17th, I received a call from Karen with Solomon
Real Estate Group advising that she had just taken over the property management and she would need time to address the violations. Um she was going to obtain bids to have the work completed and requested an additional 30 days for compliance. The compliance state was updated until January 20th.
On December 20th, I received an email from the property management uh company with multiple invoices attached for pest control, drain clearing, and miscellaneous maintenance items. On January 18th, I received an email from the property manager stating um
there were the following repairs made to unit B. The hole in the wall near the staircase was repaired. The light fixture was attached to the ceiling. the hot water that was previously running to this toilet had been corrected and the bathroom repairs um were made to the shower.
On January 21st, I called to speak with the property manager to confirm that I did receive her last email about the repairs that were made. During this conversation, she advised that the smoke alarms were ordered and would be installed on January 29th. Dirt was being delivered to um repair the washed
out driveway and a permit was pulled for the roof. I was able to verify that a roof permit was issued on January 10th. She requested additional time to cure the remaining violations. Additional time was granted and the compliance date was updated till February 28th.
On February 28th, an appointment was made with the tenants in unit A and B for March 4th. On March 4th, a reinspection was completed and I observed high grass and weeds, um plumbing issues such as sewage backing up into unit A, shower leaking
in unit B, hot water was still being supplied to the toilet, uh non-operable windows, missing insect screens, the areas um of the previously buckled floor were not repaired. Um unsecured carpeting on the staircase,
exterior doors that were not ceiling. Um, and then the exterior stairs with the damaged support member. 14 photos were taken. That's just showing the missing screen from the slider. That's more insect feces.
Uh, lighting coming in around from an exterior door. the um shower was still leaking and that was you can't really tell from the photo, but that's wet um baseboards. Um the upstairs bedroom for the master
bedroom, the windows again, they don't have insect screens, but they were repaired, but they were repaired where they were sealed shut. So there was no means of egress from um the master bedroom painted shut. Do you know were they just shut? It was like some type of ceiling that was put around the window
and so they they weren't able to open them after it dried grass. High grass and weeds. Yes, sir. That's the support member from that picture. You can see where it's the back side of it where it's it's separated. On March 24th, I received an email from
the property owner advising that he had spoke with the property manager to outline his expectations and solidify a timeline for the remaining repairs. He was going to prioritize the plumbing issues, the staircases, and the window issues. He requested additional time for
the repairs um since we were they were trying to schedule around the tenants uh schedules. On April 4th, I called and left a voicemail for the property owner advising that I had received his email and will grant an additional 30 days, which updated the compliance date to May
5th. On May 5th, I attempted to contact the tenants to set an appointment, but was unable to make contact with them at that time. On May 14th, I learned that the tenant in unit A was allowed to break her lease and move from the location. Unit B had received a letter
about breaking their lease due to the repairs needing to be made to the property. The tenant stated that she was going to seek legal counsel because she was not expecting that. On May 22nd, I sent a statement of violation and notice of hearing by certified mail to the owner of record,
posted the property and city hall, completed an affidavit of posting, and three photos were taken. On May 23rd, I received a voicemail from Michael um from Codwell Banker stating that he was going to be working with Karen, the property manager, in reference to this location. He stated
that the tenant in unit A vacated the property. However, the tenant in unit B had retained legal counsel and she would be staying until her lease was up, which would be two more months. the requested he requested additional time um to allow for the repairs to be made um and the
for the tenants in unit B to uh move out. Additional time was not granted. On June 13th, a reinspection was completed. I observed high grass and weeds. However, I was not able to verify the condition of the inside at that time. Photo five photos were taken.
It is the city's recommendation the respondant be found in violation of allowing the residential dwelling units to be lived in without proper maintenance and repairs and not corrected by the time specified. The city would recommend the respondant be given until July 18th of 25 to cure the violations and complete an inspection
walkthrough with the code officer or a fine in the amount of $250 a day be assessed until compliance met. The city would also request the cost incurred in bringing this case before the magistrate in the amount of $320.77 to be paid within seven days of the
written order by the special magistrate. And that concludes my presentation. I know your last inspection was exterior only. So I this question is is asked understanding that and so answer me to the best of your ability as you know from your most recent inspections of the
inside looking at your IPMC uh violation letter as I go down that list. Has anything on the list of violations been cured to this point? There have been a few things cured. They have um a pest control company now that manages
the property. So um the pests are being addressed. Um they have had the So that would be the section 309 violations. Yes. Okay. Anything else? And again, I'm assuming that it's resolved the issue. I just had invoices that that they've
secured somebody. I haven't actually been able to speak to the tenants to make sure that they don't still see infestation. Um, that's just based off of the invoices that I received um that I do know that they have secured a um pest control company. I just don't, like I said, I haven't been able to speak to
the tenants to find out if it cured the issue or not. Okay. Um, and like I stated in my narrative, the there was a hole in the wall that was repaired. The light was reattached to the ceiling. Um, but there are still other there's still other issues on
those same code sections. I'm just I'm just going through and making sure that I pull out any code sections that are no longer applicable. Yes, sir. So, are there any are there anything are there any of the vi the sections that you've cited that are that should be pulled out at this point? That's really what I was getting to. Okay. Give me one second. Mhm.
All right. So, we're still going to stand with 304.7 for the roof. The roof was repaired, but there is still missing sophet um there. So, I'm going to stay with that one. I'm assuming you're stay with everything unless you tell me to pull it out. Okay. Um just I'm trying to
read through here real quick. I'm sorry. It's okay. Take your time. So, we can go ahead and and not do 605.1 for the lighting since that was addressed and attached back to the ceiling. And then um the sections under 704 for fire protection, that was taken
care of because they got the smoke detectors installed and I was able to verify that. So, okay, that would be all that I would be removing. Okay. I have no further questions this time. Thank you. Respondent. I know I've already heard it, but if you would uh state your name and
relationship to the property for me and what you've handed me, show it to council. Uh appears to be a list of items that you that you're going to allege have been completed. So, um my name is Michael. My last name is
Solomon. I am the uh broker owner of Caldwell Banker Solomon. Uh we are the property management company and uh this this house this duplex has been obviously has been an issue. We're trying to do everything possible to get
everything accomplished. We want um but we know a number of these items we're not going to be able to do until we have two vacant units. Uh we have a lot of subflooring issues that we'll have to tear up the flooring. The staircase
obviously access to the upstairs unit when we go to take that off. It may be days before someone can use a staircase to go back upstairs again. So we took the steps. Uh the unit A uh
tenant uh agreed and moved out in May. We gave uh notice um for unit B. Um and I'll read her letter. She says, "Hello. Uh this letter is from Michael Solomon um and the owner
of property 1414 Minnesota unit B. We received your notice on May 12th for notice of termination. Um due to our written lease, we will not be moving out." She she has had a lot of issues. respectfully. We're trying to address
all those issues, but when we told her, "Well, you may move out. We'll return your security. We will return your last month's rent." We thought that was going to be the case. Um, Mr. uh noose had arranged and we had
everything ready for June to get all this work done in June, but with her refusal to move now we're at liberty to wait till the end of July. She will be out on August the 1st. We will have two
vacant units and Mr. Noose has plans to jump right in and do anything and everything that hasn't been done yet. But we need two vacant units to be able to do this properly. Uh when he bought this property, he had an inspection, but
unfortunately the inspector missed many, many things. And it's been nothing but fix and repair ever since. And uh it's unfortunate it happened that way. But he wants to make it right. He wants these
two units to be sound so that we as a property manager, you as a wonderful community don't have continual issues like this. Um, the tenant is supposed to be responsible for the grass and I just drove by it and I'm like, you know, I'll
get someone over there to weed whack it at this point. At the end of the day, it's property between the city and the property owner. It's the property owner's problem. That lease is between the property and the tenant. But we can't go after the tenant. we can only go after property owner. So, um, our goal is to make it sound, but I'm going
to plead for the month of August because that the month that we will now have it be vacant where we can do the job properly. I I have some thoughts on that and I probably am not too far off from where you are on timing actually as
I was listening to the case. Do we have the respondents exhibit? Was that was the one copy? So I I was providing it to you before I I took it into evidence. Are there any objections to it? Would you like to like code enforcement officer respond to it or just right now? I just want to get is there any objection to it? I'll get it into
evidence and then then we'll go through it. I haven't I haven't taken a look at it yet. I don't even know what it says. And that's I had asked April whether you know when was the last that she had been in. But uh in unit A, which is now the vacant one, smoke alarms were completed.
The ceiling repair was completed. Uh yes, we've had a sewer issue over there. Probably a root in the sewer line. Uh there's an invoice provided from 11:24 for snaking the lines. Uh but uh she took this is you know spoke with the
tenant yesterday and recently had another backup. So um we're going to continue to work on that. The screens, yes, that still needs to be done. The windows, yes, still need to be done. Uh they did do interior pest control now on
both units. And then unit B, which is still the occupied unit. Uh we have a hole in the bathroom door. Not all the way through, but you saw pictures of it, but the buckled flooring that you see described in here. Damaged
wood case, damaged wood, I'm sorry, in the wood in the staircase. Loose carpeting. Uh all of this uh comes back to a a damaged or improper subfloor and that's we're going to have to tear that
that whole flooring up to get to that to do it right and someone can't be occupying the property at that point. Um the hole in the wall near the staircase was corrected. Uh damaged floor in that
bathroom. We did do we did correct that. uh the hot water going to the toilet, you know, I don't know how you come up with that, but that was corrected. Um the light hanging picture that was corrected. Smoke alarms were added to
unit B and now the interior pest control is happening. Uh the outside staircase needs repaired. Karen has it completed. So I have I have not seen that myself, but I want to see that property needs to
be mowed. Yes, for sure. driveway needs to be repaired. That was completed. They had to bring in uh soil for that. Broken tile on that front porch. We saw the picture. That was completed. And then the roof, it's an
all new roof on that property. Now, the tenants, you know, we've been challenged by the tenants schedule and their cooperation basically to allow us to get in and do the things that we need to do. But uh the owner and we are committed to
getting everything corrected. So yes sir. Thank you Mr. Smith. So we just conferred quickly given the situation with the tenant the city would be willing to adjust its recommendation with a September one complaint. I was going to say August 31. So then we're
all on the same page then. We give them basically the full month of August beyond what we're asking for. Are there will there be permits required for some of this work? He mentioned possibly especially with this I don't know about the stairwell case case and maybe the flooring. So I'm
gonna I'm going to break that up a little bit just so that we don't get to August and then work that you could have done while tenants were still there not being getting delayed. I'm going to include in the order that any permits that are required for the work be obtained by the end of July. That way
any that way any permits are in hand and as soon as that tenant vacates the property owner can get to work because I don't want I don't want to be waiting for tenant to vacate before permit applications are made because that tenant can be there when those permits are applied for. Okay. But that is uh anything from anybody
else? That is my finding with the exception of those that were that were identified as known to be in compliance by the code enforcement officer. I am going to find the property remains in violation uh of the IPMC sections that were cited except for those that were removed. I
will order that those violations be cured as follows. That permitting that any necessary permits for the work to cure these violations be obtained by July 31st. And by obtained, I mean in hand, not just applied for. And that the work be
completed by September 1st. And that includes the inspection by code enforcement to verify or the the allowing code enforcement to inspect to verify completion uh by September one. So that that inspection should occur by September one too. Is that reasonable
for everybody? Is that enough time? Okay. Yes, sir. I will also order if if not brought in compliance, the fines will be $250 per day until compliance is met. And also order the respondant to pay the administrative costs incurred by the city. That amount is $320.77.
Um, is there any hardship that you know of to your to your client that would prevent that from being paid? Normally, I'd say seven days if you ask for more time, I am pretty free with that time because our our first number one priority here is get properties into compliance. Do you think there's any hardship in paying the the cost by seven
days? Okay. And that is my order. And like I said, your client will receive one by the mail. And if you'd like, you'd give me an email address or a physical address. I can have a copy mailed to you. give it to him now. If you'll provide me an address, I can
make sure you get a copy. Yes, I can give to him right now. Just saying. I'm sorry. It's okay. 1182 West Oyola Parkway, Casemi, Florida 34741.
And I'm sorry, what is the Coldwell Baker? Uh yes sir. And attention your name again. I'm sorry. Coldwell Banker Solomon. Okay. Got it. Thank you very much. Anything else on this case? Okay. You're free to stay but you can
also leave. We will not be offended. Thank you very Case number 2025-243. Jordan Anthony T. Mclaflin and Christy Lelay Rupchend. Location of violation 1512
Pennsylvania Avenue, St. Cloud, Florida. Alex Miller, code enforcement officer for the city of St. Cloud. We would like to request a continuance on this case. Okay. Thank you. Case number 2025 260, St. Cloud MHP LLC owner location of
violation 1961 13th Street St. Cloud, Florida. Good afternoon. Alex Miller, code enforcement officer for the city of St. Cloud. At this time, I would like to enter into evidence the following items. Copy of the observation notice. Copy of
the courtesy notice sent by regular mail. Copy of the notice of violation sent by certified mail. Copy of the statement of violation and notice of hearing sent by certified mail posted at the property and city hall. Copy of the PowerPoint presentation, affidavit of
posting, evidence of mailings, copy of the sections in violation, a copy of the deed to the property, and a copy of the cost incur if the magistrate finds the respondent in violation in the amount of $2945. And the respondent is not here.
On March 10, 2025, while on patrol, I observed that there were there was a mobile home uh trailer installed at this location that was creating an obstruction of the rideway and three photos were taken. On March 11, I received a complaint
about the same trailer and adi I advised the complainant that I have observed the trailer and I will be proceeding accordingly. I verified that there was no permit application and no business stock received for a landor license on record. I went to the office and spoke
with the property manager for the park and explained the violations and how how they they will need to be corrected. An observation notice was provided for the violations and on 312 an email was also sent to the corporate office advising them of the
violations. On March 20, a reinspection was performed and verified that the violations were not corrected and one photo of the mobile home trailer was taken. On March 21st, a courtesy notice was sent to the owner and agent to correct
the violations. On April 17, a reinspection was performed and verified that the violations were not corrected. A notice of violation by certified mail was sent to the owner and agent to correct the violations. On May 23, I received an email from the
director of the mobile home park advising that the trailer has been moved back from the rightway and asked if that if that would put the case in compliance. I explained that the permit a permit will still need to be obtained and a business tax receiver for a
landlord license has not been obtained. I did not get a reply after that. On May 30th, a reinspection was performed and verified that the violations were not corrected and one photo was taken. On June 3rd, a statement of violation
and notice of hearing uh was sent by certified mail to the owner and agent posted the property in city hall. An affidavit of posting was created and one photo of the posting was taken. On June 13, I verified that there was still no permit on record and a business
tax receipt for a landlord license has not been obtained and three photos of the trailers were taken on June 18. Um, I verified that a business tax received for a landlord license was obtained. Um, but still no permit application for the mobile home
trailer on record. It is the city's recommendation that the respondent be found in violation of allowing a mobile home trailer to be instal installed prior to obtaining a permit and not obtaining a business tax receipt for a landlord license by the time specified.
The city will recommend that the respondent be given until July 7, 2025 to obtain a permit or remove the trailer or a fine in the amount of $250 BSS until compliance is met. The city will also request that the cost incurred
and bringing the case before the magistrate in the amount of $2945 to be paid within seven days of the written order by the special magistrate. And this concludes my presentation. Okay, let me make first make sure I understand. So they they did come in
after the compliance date and they have now obtained their business tax rece but that was after the time set in your notice of correct. Now help me understand the other permit issue. So the trailer they brought into
the park needs to have a permit because they need to obtain permit. Um the permit needs to go through building and planning and zoning uh because they need to get permits by the MEPs, the mechanical, the plumbing and it also has to meet the setback requirements as far
as for planning and zoning goes. So they need to obtain a permit for the mobile home installation because it's a it's going to be a permanent permanent structure. That's why so really that that permitting probably has to do with the connections the permanent connections of that mobile home trailer.
Okay, that's what I was looking for. That's what I needed. Thank you. I needed to understand that connection to that and building permit. Okay. I have no other further questions. Anything else for me? No, sir. Thank you. U based on the evidence testimony presented, I find in favor of the city find the respondent was in violation for
failure to obtain a business tax receipt. I find that that violation was cured after the time the notice of violation for cure but prior to today's hearing. So, I will simply be making a finding a fact as to that violation. As to the building permit violation, I find
that that violation uh continues. We'll order the respondent to cure that violation by July 7th, 2025. If not brought in compliance, fine of 200 $250 a day will run until compliance is met. We'll also order the respondent to pay the administrative costs incurred by the city in the amount of $2945,
that amount due within seven days of the date of my written order. Case number 2025-456 IH6 property Florida LP owner repeat violation location of violation 1982 Comm Soul Way CMI Florida.
Hi, good afternoon. Everco compliance supervisor presenting case number C25-456 uh for property located at 1982 Comm Souls Way, St. Cloud, Florida 34769. On behalf of code enforcement officer Alex Miller. Um at this time I would
like to enter into evidence the following items. A copy of the statement of violation and notice of hearing sent by certified mail posted at the property and city hall. Copy of the PowerPoint presentation, an affidavit of posting, evidence of mailings, copy of the code
section in violation, a copy of the deed to the property, and a copy of the cost incurred if the magistrate finds a respondent in violation in the amount of $254.77. The respondents are not here today. On May 20th, 2025, Court Officer Miller received a call from the tenant of this
location requesting a housing inspection because she was having some issues and has not received cooperation from the owner. She also verified that this property did not have a landlord license business tax receipt. A statement of violation and notice of hearing was sent to the owner to notify them about the
violations. Uh May 21st, code officer Miller posted the property in question and city hall along with completed affidavit of posting and one photo was taken. On June 13th, a reinspection was performed and verified that there was an
application on record, but the landlord license business tax receipt has not been issued. On June 16th, code officer Miller verified the property had obtained their required license. On June 18th, I verified that the property has in fact obtained its required license.
It is the city's recommendation that the respondent be found in repeat violation. The city would recommend that the respondent be assessed a fine in the amount of $250 since the violation was first observed. The city would also request that the cost incurred in
bringing this case before the magistrate in the amount of $254.77 to be paid within 7 days of the written order by the special magistrate. And that concludes my presentation. Um, right. I'm just trying to to find the dates. Probably better to ask.
Probably can point me right where they are. So the date the date it was first observed was uh May 20th and then did I hear you correctly that they as of June 18th they were in compliance.
So I have the calculation May 20th to June 16th would be 27 days out of compliance to a grand total of 67 $6,750. Okay. And then this question goes to the amount of the fine you've requested. If
when in your landlord license process is part of that obtaining of permit for landlord license, is there an inspection performed of property to make sure it's habitable or fit for habitation? Is there an inspection associated with
that? No, sir. Okay. The reason I ask is is is there is there a safety life safety welfare relationship of the permitting to the violation?
I I wouldn't say so much of life safety just because we don't go through the inspection process. Okay. $6,750 even on a repeat feels a little steep to me without there being some safety component. I I say that I'm not asking you to to
change your request. I'm I'm saying that to let you know where I'm struggling on the request to give you an opportunity to convince me that that's the right number if you'd like to try. No, sir. I leave that up to you. Um, then that that is one point. You
know, if there were an inspection associated with that, I would actually see $250 a day. But since it's just to let us know you're you're renting and there's not an inspection being performed, there wasn't a life, as you you know, honestly testified to me, there was not a life safety issue there. So, I do find
that that amount to be a little bit steep. So, I'm going to I'm going to cut it in half and I think on a repeat because I do think they should have known better and this is a company that's been in front of me for different violations about different things. So, I don't have a lot of sympathy, but I still have to be fair. So, I do think uh
a little bit less than that is appropriate here, but I do find that that they should that we still need to get their attention. So, that I will make that $125 a day for the 27 days. And that would be
whatever half of 6,750 is. All righty. Thank you. And I will also order the respondent to pay the administrative costs incurred by the city in the amount of $254.77. that amount to be due within seven days the date of my written order. Thank you. Thank you.
Unfinished business. Notice of hearing and motion for authorization of foreclosure on code enforcement lean. Case number 2022-187 Shannon Halas owner location of violation 705 Grape Avenue St. Cloud
Florida. and I have the city spot. Okay. Thank you. So, um this is our our request for authorization to foreclose on a lean that was first created back in December of 20 thou 2022, December 29th, 2022 based on an order issued by the
special magistrate. Uh as of the date of the motion, the fine in this matter has acrewed to and the lean is accured to $98,700. uh we've uh this has been a problem property for the city and the city really needs to move this thing forward to the next step which would be to get
authorization from you to foreclose on the lean that's been placed take it in front of the city council and see how the city council wants to proceed on that. So for today, because the lean has been in place for uh in excess of of three months, we'd ask for the special magistrate to issue an order authorizing
foreclosure on the code enforcement lean and allowing the city to proceed in accordance with the law. Yes, sir. And as you were speaking, I was reviewing the city's file, and I find everything you just stated to me to be uh consistent with what's in the file. Find proper notice was given, find that order has been uh recorded for more than 90
days. Um, based on that, I see no reason not to authorize foreclosure. Right. So, that order is or that request is granted. Thank you. And I believe that's all we have for today. New business? None. Next scheduled
meeting July 16, 2025. Thank you. We are adjourned. Thank you.