the city of St p Beach to order today is Tuesday sorry today's Tuesday April 8th 2025 it is 6 p.m stand for the Pledge of Allegiance i pledge allegiance to the
flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all city clerk if you'll please do a roll call commissioner Marriott here
commissioner Robinson here commissioner Resniki here vice Mayor Moholland here mayor Petrilla here we have a quorum thank you all right first we have presentations solid waste financial
forecast who would like to tackle this exciting topic good morning or yeah good morning commissioners so my name is Paul Sackle i'm the director for solid waste with Penelis County government uh extended the invitation to your uh representative for our technical management committee
which is the committee that's the advisory committee to the board of county commissioners for all things solid waste um we had a rate recommendation study that's been performed we do that every year we extended the opportunity to come and
speak with any of the uh municipalities that wanted to understand better you know the purpose of the study and and why we're moving on with that so I asked that the the presentation that you have as a read ahead is actually done by our rate consultant which is Raph Telus so
I'm not the rate consultant so I really can't provide you a presentation you know that that they provided but I can give you background as to where we are why we do the study and the purpose of going forward with the RA recommendations if you so desire
if not if you have questions about the presentation that was a read ahead i'd be happy to try to answer any questions you may have on on that presentation so I'm not sure what the desire of the commission would be thank you sir commissioners any questions or
comments is there a presentation any background as far as what you would want to know as far as why we want or why why the board is uh requesting a a change or an increase in the rate you want any background or history with any
of that sure yes please okay so when the waste energy facility which is our you know our mass burn incinerator which takes that garbage and turns it into energy for homes that is is sold currently now on the open market was to
Duke Energy for the longest time we had a power purchase agreement with Duke Energy for 30 years that expired at the end of 2024 it was a very uh uh lucrative agreement that was put in place it was definitely advantageous for
the county and by the time that that agreement expired it represented about 55% of the revenue that was coming into the solid waste fund which is an enterprise fund meaning that all the monies that are generated revenues generated are used for that operation no
tax dollars go into the solid waste fund so recognizing that going back to 2019 you know we saw that we were coming to that so-called cliff where we would lose that revenue source our only other opportunity for revenue or opportunities
or the sale of electricity which is minuscule in in in the amount of compared to the 55% loss in the capacity payments that we would receive the other revenue that is significant or more significant is actually the tipping fee which is the amount paid by by the ton
that's coming across the scales to the facility for material to be disposed so from the 1980s through 2019 the rate has stayed the same it was almost 30 years that that rate had not been affected it was I think 37 for the longest time in
2019 you know we put a plan together or a strategy looking at forward as to what we can do to help mitigate any significant increases all at once you know for our municipalities and our and our customers coming through so we we projected and we put a strategy in place
where we're going to start increasing our rates in around the six seven% range for a longer period of time now recognize we haven't done it for 30 years we needed some time to catch up and we know that even if we were to do that for a long period of time we still
would be behind as far as the expenses that are going on for disposal of all the waste when you're looking at waste energy landfill and the operations around that so uh looking with those those rate increases that were being proposed at
the time of about six six and a half% the plan was that we would use the reserves from the solid waste fund almost like a u a stable rate stabilization fund to kind of fill that gap and that's what we're doing so the rates have been increasing like I said
started at about six six and a half% uh this this year what's gone to the board is 8% and the reasons for those changes are really the increase in what we saw with um you know the economy the increases that we're seeing with going
out and going with a new provider or a new operator a waste energy and then just the CPI increases that we have for operations you know all the way around what's happening with solid waste the new fee if it goes through at at 8% for the next three years would put us in the
like60 $62 range when compared to other counties within the state um that operate waste energy facilities we're still way below the median because it's been so long since we've increased our rates but we will stay on that path of increase but again I think when compared
to others in the industry and what we're seeing for for the value of what's being provided you know I think the board recognizes that and that's what they're probably going to move forward with and approve now they only adopt one-year uh budgets probably similar to to the
commission here um but we did ask for three years at least so everybody all the municipalities the private haulers and whatnot could at least have it on their forecast for what they could expect expect unless there are changes uh that may happen between now and then
and that may be we know that we're going to uh we're on the street now for a new operator for the waste energy facility those changes could be higher or lower than what's forecast right now that operator uh increased their cost by almost 50% and uh in the last year which
is why we're going out on the street so we think that they'll come in less than that we have other parties that are interested in operating that facility and that's what's kind of been forecasted into the budget if for some reason those numbers come in higher than what's forecasted then next year when we
do our rate study which we do annually um then those numbers may shift a little bit but I don't think they would shift dramatically so that's kind of that's kind of where we are if there's questions on any of that I'd be happy to answer those questions too but that's that's the strategy that we see it and
we recognize you know disposal is tra traditionally about a third of of the the solid waste component when you look at collection you know with your labor your transportation your fleet and then you have the disposal piece when it comes to our facility you know we have
to dispose of it we either incinerate it or we burn it we don't recycle anything you know we try to work with everybody to divert and and recycle before you know the material gets to us once it gets to us we got to deal with it since we're not able to get the
presentation up on the screen for everyone else to see um what what kind of rate increase should So the in the the 8% increase that's being proposed when you look at it from a dollar standpoint to the average
citizen that has a single family home that generates about one ton of garbage per year that equates to about $4.50 a ton so you'd be looking at $4.50 50 cents more for disposal costs for your solid waste across Penllis County so on
a monthly basis I mean you can divide that by 12 you can see it's much less than that so that would be 450 for 26 an additional 450 or 460 for 27 or for 27 and 28
thank you yes sir any other questions comments commissioner Mohalland sir just um this a little out of left field um so the debris removal from the
hurricanes for all of Penllis County does that have any impact on any of this at all no sir okay thank you yes sir thank you sir all right thank you for the opportunity thank you for being here
next we have a presentation on the budget calendar 2526 mayor and Commission Devin Schmidt our new finance director who is online right now will be providing the presentation and we do have a PowerPoint devon we don't have audio
is it our end no still no audio check your laptop it might be your computer itself that you have off can you hear me now yes yes now I can't hear you give me one second
i apologize can you still hear me yes we can can you hear us okay i can't hear you for some reason how about now yes okay perfect excellent apologies for the technical difficulties um mayor and
commission um Devon Schmidt um finance director and wanted to um take the opportunity um to bring the commission uh through our um FY2026 proposed budget calendar um as well as a um finance budget committee scope of work and
recommendation um for strategic alignment this aligns with our internal operations um currently to our next slide okay so just to set the stage a little bit here so when we're um discussing the budget um you know I I really believe
that it's one of the most important items that a commission approves every year and the reasons behind that is it really sets the annual spending limit limits for the city services it's essential for um performing those services and completing those capital projects um it reflects commission goals
and community priorities so incorporating the needs of the community whether that's whether that's a service or a capital improvement project um it's a storytelling document about what the city plans to accomplish in a one-year term and it highlights some of those key
capital projects and services that are expected to be completed in that given year um in addition um all services and capital projects are initiated throughout the budget and the budget is that starting point for planning and implementation is what we're looking to
accomplish in that next um cycle of the year so um just wanted to set the stage with that information for the commission so a little bit of changes is um from what I understand um in prior years there's been a a one year or one um one
day retreat with the commission to go over um the budgetary information um so what staff is proposing for the changes this year um you know staff will continue to initiate the budget process the next step um should commit um
approve this process would be that the finance budget committee reviews that budget recommendation from staff and then the commission would receive a recommendation from the finance um budget review committee um from there the commission would then have a budget
workshop format so instead of it being a 4 to eight hour long day where we're going through all the budget um we're proposing to break that up into five different work sessions with the commission um after each work session the commission could provide some recommended changes that um you all
would like to see and then staff would go ahead and implement those recommendations and we would continue this process um five different times for each workshop what this does is it creates a lot of opportunities for community engagement through the workshops as well as through the um
budget review committee and then finally we would land at commission approval um later in September on that final budget document so um this is the biggest task list of course because this is what staff is going to be working on to
deliver that budget so I won't go through every single item on here but you can see um that the department heads have started working on the process for that next year um capital budget forms after that is completed um then we would
kick off to bring that to um the finance budget review committee and I have these broken out in a little bit greater detail on each of the of the upcoming slides but um after capital we would look to bring our um personnel and some
of those um benefit positions overviews we would bring our operating um back to the finance budget review committee and then we would bring that to commission and in the workshop format while we're doing all of that um we're working closely as a as a team um to prepare the
budget to make sure that it's balanced um that we're getting all those community priorities reflected throughout the budget and then um we would get towards that final adoption piece later in September as I mentioned so if we take a moment to kind of dive
into what staff is recommending for a scope for the finance budget review committee um starting with the purpose of what the charter states is that um they can provide recommendations to the city commission on financial budget matters in accordance with the city
charters um the process would be um for the 26 budget to go through um each one of those workshops review the information that staff has proposed and then act as an advisory role offering recommendations without any regulatory
or policy oversight so that would um of course land with the commission so that would provide a recommendation to the commission after each one of those workshops um the objective behind this is to ensure that the budget process is transparent efficient um aligned with
community priorities and then creates another opportunity for community engagement throughout the budget process um instead of at that one-day retreat option so this would be the proposed um finance budget review committee meetings
um and some of the work plan items so um starting off in May they would with that bud budget workshop number one they would um take a look at what staff has prepared for historical financial overviews what is our revenue analysis and then what are we um projecting out
for our capital improvement plan for that one-year cycle um after that um they would be looking at an updated capital improvement plan and position listing and benefits overview so after we've done an initial um blush at that
capital improvement plan um that would come back again and then um we would have the preliminary budget for the finance budget review committee um in July in that first meeting there and then um later in July they would take a
look at some of those adorum tax analysis the preliminary budget book and any summary of changes that have occurred um since that initial preliminary budget was put Well and then finally at that budget workshop number five they would receive the tenative
budget um book and summary of changes from the previous versions and so with each one of these steps they would be able to provide the commission with a recommendation that um has some additional information that um you know agrees with what staff has prepared or
some areas that um they would recommend that staff changes for commission consideration and then finally um when we're looking at the commission budget workshops and some of those community engagements um we were looking to um propose stacking
those meetings um essentially starting those at maybe 4:30 to 5:45 p.m when there's already an existing uh commission meeting scheduled so this would be the same information um broken out in those workshops the difference is
is that you would have a recommendation from that financial um budget review committee and um you would be able to see you know here's what staff prepared this is what the financial budget committee has recommended um and we would be breaking it out into a little
bit more digestible bits and pieces of the budget um as we go through that process and then finally um we would get to um in September that millillage and budget adoption our first public hearing and our second public hearing um but we
would we would have been able to in include all of that community engagement throughout the process as we work through the budget so with that um I'd be happy to open it up to any questions hi Deon just going back to the last
slide please you mentioned that um those dates where they coincide with commission meetings but I'm looking at almost all those are on a Wednesday and understand that two in September have to be on different dates opposite some of
the county meetings um but just want to make sure that we have the correct dates on the schedule here i think there's a wrong I can certainly um reconfirm those dates um I do understand that the the dates in September are a little bit different based on um noticing procedures and um
make ensuring that we're not conflicting with other um the the school district and the the county so I see what the discrepancy is your slide is different than what we have in our presentation are the dates up on
the screen correct i think we did have a last minute change and correction for after we published all of them are different okay so the ones that are up there right now are the correct and we'll correct the file um Madame Clerk
if you could um upload this presentation into the record after this meeting okay thank you that makes more sense mayor I just want to be able um to mention because when we decided
this calendar and this is for the record the July um 8th date was already on my calendar as vacation so that was one that we said well I would just miss that commission meeting but now I'm also
going to be missing a budget workshop so I just want to I don't know if it happened to any I know we had a lot of talks about who had off and so forth back then i have the same conflict on that day okay just happens to coincide with Fourth of
July weekend and good i just I mean I had a two week like gone like not here at all so we have two options if three of you are available we just need a quorum to keep moving if all of you want to be available we could
certainly make an adjustment to the calendar i can be available remotely that's not a problem i just won't so I can be available remotely that's Oh okay i just won't be here for a quorum understood and we need three for quorum we need three for quorum so I just need
confirmation that my other three will be here i'll be here yeah I'll be here okay okay so sure is the 13th 7th okay any other comments questions for Deon yes sir commissioner Mohalen
no uh question just comment uh I I just want to say that uh this is refreshing compared to what's been going on in this place for many many years uh thank you Devin and thank you madame
city manager for putting an actual plan together rather than throwing something together that was based on something from previous years so uh this is good to see thank you very much
thank you sir thank you Devin okay next next we move on to the approval of the agenda are the are there any amendments to the agenda as proposed mayor I have two i would like to uh it
was inadvertently left off the printed agenda an additional proclamation for renewal the state of a local emergency for Hurricane Helen Hurricane Milton is on the agenda um so I'd ask that we add that into your um
consent calendar and you have a copy in front of you for um final sign off if it's approved thank you and then the second addition is to remove again we had an inadvertent ad to the agenda under action item 6D that is not on this
agenda this evening it will be on April 22nd agenda thank you are there any other amendments to the agenda is there a motion to approve the agenda as amended i make a motion to
approve the amended April 8th 2025 agenda a second city clerk if you'll please do a roll call commissioner Robinson yes commissioner Esniki yes vice Mayor Moholland yes commissioner Marriott yes mayor Petrilla yes motion
carries thank you next we have Hurricane Helena Milton recovery efforts presentation good evening mayor and commissioners laura Canary community development director so tonight um pretty much the same
format just a couple little add-ins though a couple additional slides so we're going to highlight the permits damage determinations appeals then talk about some of the permit processing historic designations and then assistance available to the
community so first looking at a snapshot of the permits to date there's been 3,658 applications submitted you can see that we have issued 2765 there are 67 in review and 235 not
in review as far as our goal of the daily average we are at 36 currently is our average goal and then for permits closed we have 68 closed to date and then for the daily inspections the average is 82 inspections a
day for substantial damage and non-substantial damage determinations um as we've been reporting for um at least since I've been here the 2,883 assessments completed which was close to bringing us to that hopefully
almost final point we did receive the assessments today the 820 remaining now that's not to say that there aren't some stragglers out there or some that we may still have to go out and do um we are working through the data on our end now to get that input to into our system um
just again the same when we talk about the duplicated and delayed data um it's it that hasn't changed um you know we're receiving it from different sources and so we're just doing our best to get it into our system so that then we're able to have a depository of it of in one
place if you look at the SD and NSD letters mailed of those 2,329 have been mailed 1,512 of those are nonsubstantially damaged and 817 substantially
damaged of the 2329 determinations 554 total are still pending review or in review or additional information is needed so again all of the numbers when we're
looking at these one of the things to note as I get to this next slide is that this question I think has came up even for me myself um you will never see the the numbers on the right the 672 which represents the appeals approved and then the 158 those in progress equal the
total number submitted you can have a denial and a denial and then an approval and so it's almost we don't want to duplicate the number and count that as two permits but it's counted into the review aspect of it just another reminder owner builder
applications must be signed in person and then also as we have inspectors and contract employees still out in the community and just a reminder for everyone's safety and security that anyone out in the community should have an ID that looks something like this on the bottom of the screen if you have any
questions or concerns please call 7273672735 this is regarding the elevations required for exterior equipment because again this is something that has been coming up and each community is kind of doing things you know it's really interpreted differently as we've learned
um but as far as St pete Beach requirements it is one foot above the flood zone so when this matrix that you kind of see on the bottom of the screen is intended to give an example of that so step one is looking at the flood zone
and then the LAR information if you do not have an elevational certificate one of the issues is that the LAR data that's on Panelis County GIS is not available to the public so you can't just go on there and put in your address and find your LAR information so for
right now if you if you need that information and you don't have an elevation elevational certificate please email lidar staint peteb.org or and we can help you with that information moving forward the new software that we have recently got in place that we just
did the kickoff um actually yesterday is called Forerunner and that's the software that's going to help us in the future hopefully if we ever need to do substantial damage determinations again in house it's going to be a one-stop shop for the software and the assessments and it also does include the
LAR application and that will be available um through the public interface so in time as soon as we get that up and running and made available to the public we'll be sure to include that in this update as well just don't have it yet i mentioned this during the last
update but the as far as the information that we've received from FEMA um we've received not basically that there were 1,781 claims filed you can see the totals of the building payments and then
that's I'm sorry that I missed I deleted it said content payments was the the third um column over and then the grand total so we received that information from FEMA we took that information combined with a couple other data source
points that we have which when I go to the next screen um we used that information to send out the notification letters that went out last Friday those letters were basically sent to property owners saying that we do not have a permit on file um this is not a perfect
you know science as you can see the approximate 1,000 that doesn't match up to the 1,700 that you saw on the previous screen because again some of those individuals probably had a permit um we also when with regard to the thousand letters um we have in that
correspondence to please send your questions and responses to permits at staintpe.org org just since yesterday I checked with our permit administrator this afternoon and we've received about 150 emails just in response either saying this is the case i have a
question so um again we know it's not perfect and if anyone received the letter and error please same thing either you can ignore it if it's if you know that in in fact that you have a permit um but by all means if you have any questions or concerns please email
us at permits peteb.org or a reminder that the permit fees are waved until April 22nd and which is going to bring me to the next point that we kind of talked about a little bit at the last meeting and I was um asked to bring back some information as far as the fee
waiverss go and where we're at to date um so the finance director has assisted me with this table and um can probably answer more specific questions to the revenue projections and whatnot in the table but the key points are that currently to date we've waved $3.2
million in permit fees um the projections that you see on the bottom of the screen are again using the anticipation of our current staffing needs like considering the contract employees that we have on board right now as well as any immediate near future
needs that we anticipate and the year-to-ate revenue is just under 375,000 so you can just kind of see how that starts to track out in comparison to what we would have thought we would be at if you know per the budget so the
budget we had anticipated uh revenues at 1.325 million for the year so at this point at about 6 months we would be at the 662500 and you can just start to see the trend and then of course with regard to the fee waiverss how that impacts the
overall revenue and what you see on the projected 50% of revenue side that 1.750510 that's what we anticipate if we were to continue as is and continue the fee waiver where we would be and we would be under that $2 million threshold
of the of the budget for for the building fund for historic designations there's been 48 applications submitted 38 approved seven pending seven need additional information and three have withdrawn for certificates of
appropriateness there's been 15 demolition applications submitted 13 of those approved two are pending and the restoration this is pretty much the same as I reported um a couple weeks ago three applications submitted two approved and one has been withdrawn
going into some of the programs that are available the Elevate Florida program um there is the application deadline of April 11th to date there has been 6.2 thou 6,200 applications total for the
state 2,300 in Penllis County and if you take it down just a little bit more to our level 231 of those applications have been from St from St pete Beach again the deadline is April 11th we do understand that there are individuals that are either in maybe contemplating
the program or or have submitted an application and we just ask that if you are working with the Elevate program or any other program for that matter please just reach out to our office and let us know so that we can notate that accordingly panelis County also has the income eligible hurricane home repair
program this again is the one that has the income eligibility requirements and will provide up to $30,000 um in in grant funding again this is also the one that can be used for some different things such as your insurance deductible so um just again visit
panelis.gov the URL is on the bottom of the screen for more information about that program and there is not a deadline yet announced I do not believe on that program yet the recovery fund that's the 813 million awarded by the CDBG for disaster
recovery funds there's um a community survey that's available on the website and there al they also have the survey a hard copy at the public meetings that they've been having the in-person meetings there's a series of public meetings being conducted the first one
was last yesterday evening in Leman and that was considered the South County public meeting there's going to be a midcount one on April 10th tomorrow and then North County on April 24th they anticipate having the draft
action plan presented to the BOCC on May 6th and then you can also tune in if you're not unable to make it to a meeting you can also tune in to the virtual meetings on May 13th or May 15th to see the draft action plan and with that I'll be happy to
answer any questions thank you Laura commissioner Marriott sure um just a quick question Laura on the Elevate SL Florida slide where you had broken down the number of uh applicants from St pete Beach there was one under the um
something about acquisition and my understanding is that that's um a program that Yeah there we go acquisition demolition that that's a a program where where somebody can sign up to have their property acquired by
the municipality and so has has anyone from Elevate Florida talked to anybody in the city about are we in a position to be acquiring properties or are they going to give us money to acquire properties or I I haven't received contact but I
imagine based on where they are in the process they're still evaluating and then once they get that the additional information from the property owner they would contact us with the with more details and then we could take it under consideration with the commission thank
you um I have questions can we go back to the um the um elevation the BFA um and we're specifically talking about any HVAC and um as well pool
equipment is that correct or just HVAC mechanical equipment mechanical equipment so we're looking at HVAC um and the question is is this new or a repair or a rebuild or all all elements
i mean if I'm coming in and I didn't have storm damage to my HVAC my compressor outside is does this still apply to it no this is for new construction and replacement caused by flood damage only that's very important
point thank you okay so if you're not replace if you're just replacing it because it's old Y and it wasn't damaged during the storm then you're not required to elevate it correct okay so if mine worked after the storm and but it's making a horrible
noise but I just decide I want to replace it what is that considered that was not it was not damaged due to flood damage not damage due to flood okay good to know um just want to get clarification
on that one and then um can we go to the letter do you have a sample of the letter that went out to everybody so we could review that i do not have that um because there I've been getting questions on from people that have received it and I think it would be
it would be good to go over that at some point so people understand because there is some items that aren't clear on here um so when it says sorry have to go I did not get one yet um
um building has damage now work has be let's go through the categories so everybody knows um so there's some categories on this letter and one is um action on your part is immediately required if you're receiving this letter
here are the action op options for all probable circumstances if you received no damage is one um building number two is designated historical or you are in the process of a historical
designation let's see and the other ones are building has damage and no work has begun building has damage and work is in process without a permit or has been completed without a permit and under
that one in spec uh specifically says apply for a permit with an SISD packet along with any required supporting documents um i.e plans product approvals pictures of work etc
um typo there permitting forms and SISD packet may be found at the following link so if you are in that category and you have done work without a permit um are fees waved for you or do you have uh when you go in to get a permit what is
going to be required of you if you go if you come in before April if you've already if you've already done work okay yep yes before April 22nd then you will be able to still take advantage of the fee waiver okay so very clear i just if
you come in after April 22nd assuming there's no extension no no more fee waiver and you've started the work it's not permitted we have we will issue the permit and it'll have the the regular
permit fee if you have not came in to obtain a permit and we have been it has been brought to our attention or notified and we're aware that there's work going on without a permit the property owner contractor has not came
in to get a permit and we issue a stop work order and at that point you come in to get a permit that's when you'll be subject to the three times the permit fee okay so the the charge Okay so again if you have done work
without a permit and you come in before April 22nd to apply for a permit your permit fees are waved correct okay and also if you come involuntarily versus you
know somehow we find out that you did unpermitted work where we have call it essentially an amnesty program right so if you come and self-report we'll wave the fees before the 22nd if you do not self-report then
you will be subject to the 3x permit fee okay okay just I just want to make it clear because people are asking me this and I don't know how to answer this question so now I I I do have that
um and what is the process for those that have not or have not gotten a permit or what let me take that back what is the process after this initial letter if you don't hear from
from people what is the next step because my understanding is this is an outreach letter to find out where people stand on those that um obviously have are not shown as having received or uh applied for any sort of permit
so we are going to need to make that determination but um one of the things that we've discussed is if it's our goal is just to have compliance of course and and and save homes but
what we have discussed is if it's after the 22nd after the fee waiver and you've started work already you come in to obtain a permit at that point again technically we're not it's not us
catching an enforcement again you're coming forward wouldn't be subject to the three times at that point regular permit cost and then as far as the Can you repeat the rest of the question sorry i'm just trying to be able to tell
people what the process is going to be um and and do we know what we're doing i mean as far as the process what we've discussed are we gonna have people having to take down their walls to show to show um what work that they have done
that was unpermitted so it's so it's it really is going to be a property by property because we I don't want to misspeak as far as what we may find at a property as far as work goes in comparison to maybe maybe
another property it may be a different scenario but one of the things that we've discussed as a team as far as next steps and you know there there reaches a point where we want to feel very comfortable that between getting an SD determination letter andor the letter that just went out that at this point
we've we've really as a city done our due diligence of trying to provide that outreach and say if you have damage and and even if you don't know if it's you know above if you still are questioning the 50% like we just ask you to come in and we will help you work through that
so if we get to a point where we deem that we have done an adequate amount of outreach and it now becomes okay enforcement then then that's when we just need to make a determination if any of the in if that enforcement looks any
different than what we would how we would currently enforce the code um the other thing that we've talked about is that at this point especially again not including any stragglers that may with this last round of letters that have went out we feel very comfortable that we have hopefully made contact or
attempted to make contact with every one option that we would have would be to do another data poll again um hopefully at this point too we would have it housed in in one place do another data pull of those properties if we wanted to focus
on those that have been substantially damaged we could pull the threshold of the properties that have been deemed substantially damaged according to the assessments and then those that we do not have permits for and do another round of outreach to those individuals
that's one thing that we discuss okay so then to be clear is this letter that went out is all um I'm confused is it also non-substantially damaged homes got this letter to that because they got some
form of of percentage yes so it's every right now it's everybody who got a letter yes okay it's more than that because it's also if you go back to the FEMA slide right one of the other ways that we're identifying properties is if
you received FEMA funds at your request because you submitted right a claim for hurricane damage and then FEMA issued you funds fema reports those addresses and those individuals to the city so if you're
saying you had a claim you had damage at the house but then there's no matching permit with it right am I that's correct right so yes okay part of those addresses part of those thousand homes is you may not there could be a scenario where you maybe didn't have a
substantial letter but you did claim FEMA funds and now you're getting a letter from us that says "Hey looks like you may have had some damage or at least you had a claim but there's no matching permit." Right so it could have been a simple thing where maybe you had
delivered a water intrusion in the garage and you lost some contents and FEMA paid you but you didn't actually have to pull permits because you didn't have any damage inside the house it could be any number of scenarios but the point is simply let's not play ostrich right the easiest thing is you know let
us know what's going on if you didn't have any damage then just reply back to the emails and the email says "Hey I didn't have any damage therefore I don't really need to do anything." And if you've done work and you didn't pull the permits and even though we've asked you for the last six months every single
commission meeting look we're waving permit fees we're making it as easy as possible for individuals you know it'll be a lot more difficult because again in in the conversations that we've had with other cities who've been through this you know Cape Coral for Myers Beach and some of the other
ones um I mean you would be surprised the lengths that they've gone through to find individuals going to listed homes on Zillow and looking at here's a house that's completely brand new and yet we have the determination said you had two feet but there was no permits right it's
a lot easier to deal with it now and so again we're we're making it trying to make it as easy as possible for everyone to make sure that you have a nice clean safe home and so please if you've done unpermanent work now is the time to do
it and for those of you who are still waiting is that where you were going so for those of you are still waiting we're waving permit fees for another two weeks right even if you're not 100% sure of everything you're going to do go ahead and submit your permits that you get
them in before the fee waiver deadline but I believe you have to have a price on it get as much get as much as you can in right which brings me to my other question which be staging and and phasing of permits so the question on
staging and or phasing I'll call it because nobody likes that word anymore so staging of your permits especially this late in the season um so that no permit is left open and following what you said is opening permits but opening
them in stages say I open my HVAC I open my roof I open my uh kitchen uh permits all of them separately and the question is if I get through the first two there appears to be a storm or I'm worried that I'm not
going to get this done in time can I close that permit out not without the work being completed so once a permit is open it the work has to be completed you can't close it out for it to be closed as completed work you
can withdraw withdraw okay withdraw would be the other okay so it can be withdrawn okay so that answers a good question there about the withdrawal thank you can I can I ask about the withdrawal though because when you have a placard
you have inspections going on so you can't withdraw once you've already started inspections right you can't just say "Okay I'm going to stop." Because it's completed you mean like clean placard nothing on it correct i just want to reiterate that because someone will say "Oh I'm just withdrawing and
I've already had three inspections and I just haven't done my final." I'm just thinking if you want to get in under the no you know the the permit fees waved you could open up separate permits and if you're not getting to the point you can get some of them done and not be under the stress of a storm coming or
potentially coming and close out one of them the last one that hasn't been touched exactly because I would have figured you would stage it in the how you think you're going to get them done anyway thank you Commissioner Mahome
thank you Mr mayor so I was making notes uh as you were speaking and uh to quite candidly my handwriting is so bad I have difficulty reading it so uh my questions are really just to get be better
educated on things uh I I think most people that have been paying attention the last several months um know that tidal basin created significant problems for us here in the city and I believe up
until tonight's presentation that 100% of the appeals had been approved and maybe tonight's I I wasn't able to ascertain it as as the slide was going by but is there a danger in the city
basically accepting every single appeal um because we're kind of at 100% right well there are value% we are um yes to so to date we have not when I say none
have been denied i just want to make it clear that there could be it could be denied initially for whatever reason we need this information we need you to show us this and then it then gets approved or you know the the appeal goes through to date we have not had any of
those denials either which way stay as a denial so we're still at yes 100% of them have and and I I'm certainly not sitting here saying that for some reason we ought to start saying no because no's not due
but you know FEMA is going to look at this and my question is is there a risk that we have not denied a single appeal i don't know how I don't can't answer that question what I I think that what I
can say though is that in the meeting that we had with Tidal Basin and FDM it was um very apparent that we were not the only community that had issues with the data that was that was received
i I think that's certified i don't think there's any question of that and I think the my only question is is it 100% on a large number of appeals and I I'm not asking for an
answer i'm just that was spinning through my mind it has been since I've been seeing 100% appeal approval since you know we've been getting these reports in recent weeks so I'm just going to leave it at that um it just you
know it's just a concern that on an audit that somehow that's going to make us look like we haven't really been serious about it and I don't know the answer to that i hope we have and I certainly don't want it to go the other way for anybody that's appealed i I just
wanted to you know ask that question so we've sent a a thousand letters out uh to people that there's reason to believe that they have done unpermitted work that no no it's reason to believe that
they had some damage in the home that may require a permit okay either because we have a report and a determination letter or they filed a claim with FEMA and received money or what's the are there any other options i think flood
those are the or they file a flood well we wouldn't get that data i think we do get flood i think we also had addresses uh that don't have permits but also had substantial damage
yes so the key to this first outreach is to make contact with everyone because the goal is that through this FEMA audit they want to see that we've done our due diligence in rebuilding within the flood plane and
so they want to see people making progress and if progress is I'm waiting to see if I'm going to demolish my home and rebuild i'm waiting to elevate Florida those are all all those answers are okay so we're really just trying to
make contact and then if you you must per you must follow your permitting and building codes for rebuilding and so that's the third piece is you have to do permitted work and we have to confirm that that permitted work occurred so it's possible that that number is and we
don't know that number that number might be 500 it might be 300 that uh took money and should have gotten a permit we're just you know this is our mechanism so how much is this going to
burden the system so far as approving permits for those that we know have been following the process as frustrating as that might be
um in in talking to the team I think that um two things i want to go back to your previous point very quickly about the appeals because I think it's important um you know the the staff is using the information that they know because I'm sure as it's been explained
some of it was just like standardized almost like the input that was put in but because we know that we can be aware of that information but still treat each appeal independently as though it's the first appeal that we've received so when it's necessary whether it's looking
again at what you can see on your computer or needing to go out to it we're we're treating each appeal you know independently just want to make that clear and then as far as um with the to about the thousand letters and
then you know we're using a a combination of different data points so we're using the information that we received from FEMA basically saying that these are the properties that we know received the funding and then we compared that you know we have those
properties that we have open permits on we have that information then what we also to the mayor's point we didn't just want to reach out to property owners that we thought had the substantial that were deemed over the 50% because there may have been some that had less damage
but that a a permit is required so what we sent out was to kind of I don't want to say to be a almost an umbrella of again why hence the language in there if if you've received this and this is incorrect please reach out to us because we knew that it was not a perfect
science especially considering that the data sources that we're using you know you got where I'm going with that like we're trying to marry it up um moving forward um in talking to the team you know it's just taking some more
time when it when looking at the appeals so um I would say that yes it it does take it takes longer hence why you see the numbers the average daily numbers are at half of what the goal is um so
they take a little longer but they as part of the process and with the new software that we're getting we're hopeful that at this round and where we're at like even with these this last batch that we just received as we begin to put that into our new software it's
going to really help us be able to expedite things through the system so to answer your question as far as if if it's taking more time and more staff and resources to be able to deal with
the appeals and process those in comparison to if they were all just a clean permit being pulled um yes it is taking more time but we feel that with the software that we're putting in place and then of course with having the staff stay in place that we currently have
those contractual employees for the um you know limited duration term that will be able to handle it but it is something that absolutely it it takes longer to process and my um I don't want to say concern that's probably not the right
word but I'll use that word it wasn't so much on appeals because we got dealt a a a short stick by uh title basin everybody knows that uh I'm more concerned
with if we have three or 400 homes and I don't know what the number is you don't know what the number is that did unpermitted work when it was clear and obvious i'm not talking about you know replacing a
you know a couple shingles although I know that's supposed to be permitted too um but how's that going to burden the people or slow down the people that play by the rules all along and that that was my concern with that comment and I don't
think you necessarily know the answer i think it's obvious it's going to slow it down because you're going to have to devote resources to that would that not be correct i believe that would be correct thank you uh and the last question that I had
um when you were talking about waving permit fees I wanted to make sure I understood from a dollar perspective I think you had indicated that you anticipate that we would be
left with a $2.6 $6 million reserve um by the 22nd of of April and that if we extended them that that reserve might be drawn down to 1.75 or did I misunderstand that no that's
correct okay so we had previously spoken about we wanted to keep a floor on that at $2 million i think we had a consensus amongst the commission that that was the desire so we're kind of in in in limbo there are are you putting forth any
recommendation or are you just asking for us to you know give you another consensus or give you another opinion on how we'd like to process or you know proceed with that because once again 22 April we
anticipate that the reserves will be 2.6 is that correct yes that's correct um and then we anticipate that if we extend that how
long what date do we hit the 175 so these projections were based on our fiscal year so we're looking at and it just Yes and it just so happened that when we started having this discussion you know two weeks ago and and you know we're at that sixmonth mark so the
numbers are a little bit clearer but not you know not perfect but to show the projections so for for nap napkin math we could probably extend the free permit fees for two to three months and meet
our target of $2 million now a lot's changed since then i mean we've you know we know we've got infrastructure problems that maybe we didn't even know that we had back then but from a strictly budget reserve perspective for
this particular account if we extended free permits and I'm not necessarily advocating for that if we extended the free permits for two or three months we would probably still stay within the floor of $2 million just napkin math i believe that's
correct and I'd let Devon chime in if she feels otherwise but she helped me with this i also like to chime in because you mentioned prior there are some unknowns out of this these thousand letters so if 10 people are the only problems we have that's a very different
story than 300 and so then you're going to be seeing me coming in and saying "Well I need now some code enforcement officers and I've got to ramp up that team and I might have to ramp up the building official team." And so this is where we're in another unknown space and we have not put in the
projection yet a high volume poor response from the thousand people that we still have outstanding so I just give you that as a cautionary uh data point as you consider this that
these again are estimates and they're based on assumptions of all the information we know right today and Devin you came on when you look at it we've got we've waved 3.2 million we've had roughly 3,200 permits so
figure every permit is worth $1,000 so if it's 10 people it's $10,000 if it's 300 people that could be a $300,000 deficit now yeah and and I just wanted to get it out there Mr mayor for a discussion point i
mean I I'm not you know I'm not pounding the table here saying that we should extend the free permits but I if we get to that point I wanted a little more information on where the numbers were so thank you ma'am thank you Mr mayor i
have a question robinson um the thousand letters is that the total universe of the letters or is there more to come at this point that is all that we're aware of um as I said there may be some gaps you know there are instances where there
may be an individual that owns more than one property so ideally they would receive you know so there so it's not perfect it's not perfect close and the number to be exact was 979 that we sent out on Friday there's also the potential
of those who had damage did not file a FEMA claim did work without a permit there is a universe out there i don't know how large it is and there's also the universe of somebody getting a letter that actually
pulled a permit too so we have that both ends of the spectrum okay if they pulled a permit they wouldn't have gotten the letter they I have somebody who did ideally no but yes it could happen okay commissioner Resniki
is it possible to um in preparation if we do have a discussion about extending um the waiver of the permit fee of the different types of permit types right because the fee you're doing a new build
shouldn't be waved as an example or you're upfront you just started your hurricane repair um you're not having to remove let's say maybe possibly a drywall because you're doing an afterthe permit um can we differentiate that so
that way maybe if let's say we were to come to an agreement to continue the waiver that the waiver might be for a certain permit type versus just saying we're waving all permit fees i think it already is correct yeah yeah it already except for
for these after the fact possible right if you get a letter and you've done the work oh I see so you're saying because it's a thousand i'm not saying there's a thousand but let's just say potentially i get what you're saying so we're hoping tonight you have that discussion because
we won't be back till the 22nd and absence some direction it would sunset you can absolutely set any range of policy you'd like around that fee waiver discussion commissioner Robinson oh sorry i still
have that on that question so absence any discussion on this the sun sets on April 22nd so now is the time commissioner Merritt um yeah so on the uh when thinking about whether or
not we should continue the waiver of the building fees um I think I think there's a couple ways to look at it and um the first one that comes to mind for me is that I think for um a whole lot of residents um they would be totally happy
paying permit fees if it means that things happen quickly you know like I don't think anybody wants to see a continued waiver of permit fees that results in a in a reduction of services and so um so I think that that's the
first thought I have is that that if if uh if permit fees are what is required to to to maintain or or preferably increase our level of service in the building department um you know I think we've given people a long time to to get
a waiver um you know there's a lot of people like myself who still don't quite have it figured out and are working through the process and so you know people like me are going to potentially lose out on a on a waiver of permit fees but you know com compared to compared to
it taking months to get a permit I know I would rather pay a fee and have it happen in weeks right and I and I think most people would probably be in that position um and and I think we do need to be mindful of keeping our building reserve you know our building department
reserve high um but I but but you know maybe it would be appropriate to consider a a 50% reduction in fees or something like that for for for a short period of time you know a couple of months as a as kind of a a a gradual gradually working our way
out of the out of the waiver of fees scenario commissioner Robinson I would either agree with waving the fees for two more months or doing a reduction in the fee i just don't feel that it was a lot of the
residents fault for the delays and everything that happened to them and it's an unfortunate circumstance um but um I just don't think I I think it would be fair to go ahead and give a little
bit longer of a time period because I know that a quite a few people still haven't received some of their SD letters i know some of my neighbors didn't and I know other people were waiting on finding out and just really um within the last what four weeks was
Elevate Florida right so that was kind of a delay so there's been a lot of delays in general so we have uh hurricane season starts June 1st just so that we're all on the same page right
um you know the the discussion around waving the permit fees has always revolved around the reserves so the reserves for example were in the process of hiring seven additional staff for the building department and so those seven individuals call it roughly
$500,000 uh a year that will come out of the reserves because we did not have it in the budget so in order for us to Commissioner Merritt's point to be able to expedite some of the permitting process or at least keep those staff on you know once FEMA stopped paying for them um that's going to come out of the
building reserves um so I would propose that we extend the permit fee waiver until June 1st start of hurricane season and from April 22nd it'll be a 50% waiver rather
than a 100% waiver okay and that will take us very close to maintaining that $2 million reserve which will get eaten into once we add the staff yes so that would be basically an additional six weeks of 50% correct yeah
yeah yep and again you do not have to wait for that SD letter to submit a permit you can submit a permit package tomorrow we can always amend it in the future right so um there really isn't any reason for anyone to wait any longer the other
thing is when you look at the tracking for the last couple of months you know the last two months we're not seeing you know 500 or thousand permits being submitted every month we're seeing maybe 75 or 100 permits so it's really come down to a trickle so really we should be
just the last few hundred left and so please just get those permits in um you know if if it takes longer afterwards to process it that's fine but just get it in so we can uh wave those fees so that's my proposal so conceptually I like that Mr mayor i want
to make sure though I didn't miss something but isn't it quite possible as a result of the thousand letters going out that there that we're going to get another flood of permits and that the numbers that as I
understood you were explaining it may get skewed to the negative side from a financial perspective i mean look it's we there should be an incentive for people to to get their
permits in as quickly as possible we've extended it multiple times now you know I'm I'm happy eating a little bit into the reserves if we can get people in process permits as quickly as possible um you know if you get them in before if all
thousand come in before April 22nd I would be shocked but but good i mean that'd be great and if if there were actually a thousand that necessary I think there's a high likelihood that it's it's a much smaller number
yes Laura sorry just one uh for clarification just when we projected the total expenditures when we had um if you can pull up the presentation please um the 1.713852 that did include um the
contractual employees i just wanted to make that clarification thank you okay okay so I'm seeing a lot of head nodding i just want to repeat what's on the floor and if I get consensus I can bring it back in a resolution that from April
23rd to June 1st there will be a 50% fee waiver yes okay for hurricane repair yeah for her for the same criteria we're currently using so we'll bring that by resolution on the 22nd okay thank you
okay any further comments on this topic next we have audience comments city clerk do we have any general audience comments john Kursman if you'll please state your name and address for the record john Kursman uh beyond the way south so
my first I'll just start with this topic first is I really want to thank uh you know everyone involved for what they're doing here because this is really a nice approach for how to address the people that haven't done anything first as you recall I'm also one of the people that
got the code enforcement letter earlier which gave until February and now the new deadline I think is April 12th so I just want to make sure that that's being addressed and and pushed aside because obviously that you know this is a much better approach um and um then the the
next uh thing is I heard mention of 4ERunner um and uh 4Erunner is a great site uh that the state put has uh put together I believe it has all the elevation certificates on it it has I think we just heard mention of the lidar
but um this is also the site if you can switch my screen this is also the site that I wrote to Mr ray about so just to give perspective this is June of 23 that the overhead
yeah this is the beginning of the but in June of 23 um can we go to overhead yeah there we go and zoom in a lot it's a little screen it's my phone um but in June of 23 I I flagged that the 4ERunner site
has many properties that even though they went from AE11 to AE10 show on the 4ERunner site as velocity 13 that's a big error um and when I and it has a button on this on
the 4Runner site that says click here if you want to get something corrected i clicked there in June of 23 and it said "Oh well we actually can't correct anything." They sent me an email and the email came from um the you know the the state uh flood plane manager you know
management and they said "Only your flood plane administrator of your city can do that." So you know we worked I've been through a couple of flood plane administrators or acting flood plane administrators and a couple of acting city managers um or like that that manager and then
the next city manager and then by the time the next city manager came in you know we really were up to our armpits in flood waters um so but I think it's a priority because I've heard stories of people's insurance getting the wrong
rates because some insurance companies I believe look at the state site for your elevation certificate and then look for your property see velocity 13 and then I I actually said to my neighbor "Oh that happened to you your rates went up like that?" Then they just reapplied
different agent same insurance company and got a much better rate so this is a problem and it may help the city to be rated better um and it's not just the fact that the site uses if any part of your property extends off of the out of
the zone it uses the highest zone it actually appears that we're missing a line because it goes even to properties that are not even on the water it's like they think velocity 13 just sweeps right across our peninsula so we've got a whole list of ones that I just checked
locally in my peninsula but it also happens at Palm Point it also happens at B Vista there's a whole bunch of the city that's miscatategorized on 4Runner and and I really hope it gets really think it needs to get fixed um and maybe we'll help our rating overall and
counteracts other things that are happening um and now lastly as as a beach steward um I just wanted to say that for the minutes I noticed that um and this is and it caught my ear because at the last meeting the city manager
mentioned that she you know she wanted a workshop for the uh the um uh noise ordinance and the uh uh freebie and and the beach ordinance and the beach ordinance caught my ear and I think these these workshops and I'm speaking
for myself by saying that I think these workshops are terrific um and I was looking forward to that happening but when I was reading the minutes it only mentioned uh the the freebie and the noise ordinance so I just wanted to flag that i believe it was mentioned that the
beach ordinance was a target too thank you very much thank you Claudine Reese Deborah Shener if you please state your name and address for the record um good evening Deborah Shechner Bokusa Isle Drive in St
pete Beach um I was looking at the city's mission statement and vision statement recently uh so the mission statement to ensure an optimal quality of life for its community and protection of our
beach's familyfriendly environment and be respectful of its history meaning St pete Beach history the vision statement says maintaining its distinct sense of community values of fostering an environment of
innovation resiliency sustainability and inspiration and I go back to family-friendly environment because that has been something St pete Beach has been known for since there was a St pete Beach and even before there was a St
pete Beach when we had small communities i think maybe we want to take a look at the mission statement again in our vision statement and make it very clear uh it doesn't say anything about hotels and that's good because I
don't think they're part of our mission statement that would be maybe something totally separate and I think our city can do a better job and I think that um those of you up there might have some really good ideas
and we can change this um there's also a value statement and I'm not sure if we have one of those or not and that has to do not only with residents but also people who work with and for us and it's important to know for our staff that we
do value them but it's also a way to make sure that they are valued and going back to Tidal Basin I don't know if the city manager has written or contacted the state or the county about
all the issues that we've had with this and so maybe they can reimburse us for all that extra time energy data collection duplicates and letters not going out and I personally
believe the county owes us that money and we should get it thank you thank you i don't have any other cards thank you we had a meeting that ran into this meeting with a two-minute break in between would the commission be opposed
to taking a 12minut recess before we started getting into action items i'd appreciate it okay we will come back let's let's make it 7:40 call it 15
minutes 7:40 sharp thank you next we have consent items is there a motion to approve the consent agenda i make a motion to approve the consent agenda second city clerk if you'll please do a roll call commissioner Resniki yes vice Mayor Moholland yes
commissioner Marriott yes commissioner Robinson yes mayor Petrilla yes motion carries thank you next we have action items after each uh usually the first meeting
after the elections in March uh we usually elect a new vice mayor and then we also um look at appointments to outside agencies uh boards and committees and so on and so we'll start with the first one
which is the election of a vice mayor is there a motion or is there a nomination i would like to nominate um Commissioner Maria okay are there any other nominations
i'd like to nominate Commissioner Mah and I thought he did a great job has been doing a great job okay in that case we will open it for discussion i I think it's probably important Mr mayor
uh I uh as most people know um I probably will be leaving um not for certainty but I will likely be leaving the city sometime in the
coming months uh I anticipate giving a notice um I I don't plan on showing up here and quitting last minute um but it is possible that uh uh I I will be leaving
um so I I think the commission should consider that if the commission wanted me to continue to serve as vice mayor I certainly would um but I want to be totally transparent that
um you know there's possibility that I'll be leaving uh at some point uh with a reasonable notice thank you comments are there any audience
comments no sir okay thank you is there a motion i'll motion um to appoint Commissioner Marriott um if she accepts as vice mayor i would be honored thank you and I guess I mean am I allowed to second that
motion okay vice Mayor Moholland well she didn't actually she asked if she is allowed i thought she Oh well then I do second it sorry then then yes I second vice Mayor Moholland yes commissioner Marriott yes commissioner Robinson yes
commissioner Resniki yes mayor Petrilla yes motion carries thank you next we have appointments to the advisory boards and committees um I think what we've done in the past is uh commissioners have submitted
their if they had any changes to the city clerk's office by the next commission meeting so if you have anyone that I mean if you have somebody today that you want to substitute take out whatever we can certainly do it um but it doesn't
really require the commission's approval that's at the discretion of the individual commissioners and so we can we can do it now if you want or if you just want to send the city clerk an email correct there's if you desire to make a change if you don't that's fine too thank you
okay can I um Does anybody want to make any announcements for changes um I wanted to uh just bring something up that um I had uh discussed uh previously but um about suns setting the library committee because the library is
doing a fantastic job by themselves the library committee um meets twice a year and um there's also the friends of the library and the limited there's very limited scope on the uh library committee itself and um like I said the
library is and that scope is really to do programs and the library is doing their own programs and they're doing a fantastic job of doing those and advertising them and getting them out there okay maybe we can have as a discussion item at the the future commission
meeting where we Okay okay uh appointments to outside agencies is next mr mayor not sir not to interrupt you and I know you've already moved on but I'm not making any changes to my
appointments but I I I would like to go ahead and renominate all the people that um are representing um my district uh for their positions just to publicly say their names to show a little bit of
appreciation for them if you don't mind sir so um I'll be renominating the following individuals for board of adjustment Dan Small for the planning board Terry Grocott for the historic preservation
board Daniel Dashel for the beach stewardship Dan Russell Rothensberger uh for finance and budget review Kathy English for parks and recreation Ken Gordon and for the library of uh advisory board Shelley
Newuhoff thank you Mr mayor okay okay so next uh 6C appointments to outside agencies um does anybody is does anybody want to switch
any boards that they're on or are you any commissioners go ahead i just wanted to ask for one because I I mean again this is an opportunity I guess to participate in a different one from from prior
um I did want I I I did want to continue with the Florida League of of Cities and [Music] um and I did want to participate in the Tampa Bay Regional Planning because I
had asked before but we kind of all shuffled around trying to figure that out um if that's possible so then somebody else would have to take the Penelis County Flood Insurance Committee well I can stay there if I know that was
one well we should probably have another primary and then if you want to stay on as the alter oh you mean to keep it as two okay yep gotcha so does anybody want the uh Ben County Flood Insurance Committee i'll do it do the flood Okay and then I'll switch to alternate then
for for that one is that okay okay i am so sorry if you could speak up i missed that that I would be the alternate as the pro as opposed to the representative for Commissioner Robinson would do the the flood insurance they'll just switch spots and then
uh Commissioner Mohall do you have any objections to uh vacating the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council wherever you want me Mr mayor all right sounds good any other requests or recommendations
i think um historically the vice mayor has been your alternate on the big C um so I don't I don't know if we want to make that switch as well yeah that that usually just happens just happens okay yep got it okay
any other changes okay can I read them to make sure I got them right certainly for the big C it would be Mayor Petrilla and um Vice Mayor Marriott as alternate florida
League of Cities would remain Commissioner Resniki and Mayor Petrilla as alternate um MCPC would remain Mayor Petrilla and Commissioner Moholland as an alternate and then the insurance commission would
be Commissioner Robinson as the primary and um Commissioner Resniki as the alternate and then um SLC would be Commissioner or Vice Mayor Marriott as primary Commissioner Resniki as
alternate and then Tampa Bay Regional Planning would be Commissioner Resniki as the primary and Commissioner Robinson as alternate correct thank you Mayor could we formalize it with a motion and a second and I will vote for the minutes
certainly is there a motion to adopt the appointments as amended i move to adopt the uh appointments as amended second city clerk if you'll please do a roll call commissioner Marriott yes commissioner Robinson yes commissioner
Resniki yes commissioner Moholland yes mayor Petrilla yes motion carries thank you next we have action item 6E authorize the city manager to enter into a federal lobbyist agreement yes city manager thank you mayor and city
commission if I could do a presentation on both item E and F and then take separate action um as they're both related to lobbying on behalf of the city um in January of this year I was directed by the city commission to undertake an RFP process for a federal lobbyist the city went through its
normal purchasing procedures we received um four respondents and Becker was the leading contender through a committee-based review they um are offering their services at $48,000 per year we have a
two-year contract in place for you to consider based on the level of uh damage in the community and lobbying that will be required at the federal level with our relationship with FEMA and other federal agencies i do recommend that you
consider the two-year contract and during that time period establish metrics and reporting to determine um the return on investment the second lobbying firm is Shoemaker Advisors they have been the state lobbyist for several
years for the city of St pete Beach our lead lobbyist changed at about the same time I was hired um and is now Jim Taylor um he has been representing us and we've uh been working with him that we also put the state lobbying contract
out for a bid to extend to look at go through the RFP process and make a recommendation we are recommending to uh renew the contract with Shoemaker Advisors and that is $60,000 per year for a three-year contract so with that I
can take any questions and um consider a motion on both individually thank you city manager commissioners questions comments did I hear you did I hear you say that the uh the state lobbyist uh went out too big as
well yes okay commissioner Nikki um just a follow-up question i don't know if if um um Francis if you were able to find out whether other municipalities also have federal lobbyists or if anybody out there you
know had has contracts and and if you've been and I didn't ask you this before but if they were successful you know on on that return on investment so for federal it's very common for mid to large size cities to have a federal
lobbyist given the size of our city under normal circumstances I would not have recommended we move into this position but considering how much we will need to lean on the federal government for recovery I think it's worth testing the
ROI on this one for the next few years they and every city I've worked for that has a federal lobbyist ends up showing you get more money than you spend on lobbying and because we're so far removed from
federal it usually takes a lobbyist to get yourself in a in a good position to receive any significant grants and I'll just add on the federal side typically you don't want to consider a grant usually less than about a million dollars because they are very um labor
intensive to manage similar to what you're seeing with FEMA grants thank you good old bureaucracy there's no free lunch definitely not there commissioner Robinson do you have a follow-up question
do we have any audience comments we do deborah Shener thank you if you please state your name and address for the record uh Deborah Shener of Boka Isle in St pete Beach i was probably going in the direction of one of the commissioners is
there a way to share um a lobbyist with the Treasure Island or one of the other cities to bring the cost down but at the same time I wouldn't want our city to lose out on any monies and how much have we gotten
from I think we've only had people for the state and not so I'm wondering how much have we gotten and with all the rockus in Washington DC do we expect any money to come our
way through all of that morass and and difficulty or do they have connections within the government that can maybe circumvent some of the I'm going to just use the word circus so I just have those
two questions thank you city manager did you want to elaborate on the federal one and where the funding for that will come from yes so the plan for the federal lobbyist this year is this fiscal year i will
absorb it through salary savings that we're achieving in the city manager's office budget and then for next fiscal year we'll roll it into the budget proposal and evaluate it at under the broader review of the fiscal year 26 budget so I'm not asking for a budget
amendment at this time for the remainder of this fiscal year and then just to come back to what you said a few minutes ago is you're anticipating grants in excess of a million
dollars but let me rephrase it you said it's not worth our time to consider grants in ex in less than a million dollars then kind of lends itself to the question what you know we're what we're looking from from them is large grants yes
infrastructure and so on and the lobbyist really helps us seek how we can align our needs with the policy direction of the administration in Washington and so as soon as then they have a better pulse on what's
happening dayto day clearly they're there and so they can help us position a project request and typically you'll focus you'll be very focused on your project request to try to get a specific project that aligns with their policies
approved thank you is there a motion i make a motion to authorize a city manager to enter into a federal lobbyist agreement with Becker in the amount of $48,000 per year for two-year contract
term second city clerk if you'll please do a roll call commissioner Robinson yes commissioner Resniki yes commissioner Moholland yes vice Mayor Marriott yes mayor Petrilla yes motion carries thank you
is there another motion i motion to authorize a city manager to enter into an agreement in the amount of 5,000 per month with Shoemaker Advisors to conduct the state lobbying activities on behalf of the city of St pete Beach second city clerk if you please commissioner
Resniki yes commissioner Moholland yes vice Mayor Marriott yes commissioner Robinson yes mayor Petrilla yes motion carries thank you next we have items for discussion so we have a report on the
city clerk vacancy uh we had a first round of interviews um and the commission requested of uh the city manager and our uh recruiting firm um to conduct a second round of candidates um
which we had the pleasure of interviewing last week um city manager Thank you mayor and commission so um at the direction of the commission we did set up a second round of interviews with two very qualified candidates we followed the same process as we did with
the first um round of candidates that involved interviews with the leadership team which is made up of all the directors and our communications manager as well as the city clerk's office to um interview the candidates and then they also individually interviewed with each
of you prior to this evening as part of the process um I asked the leadership team and the city clerk's office to rank the candidates and tonight I wanted to report our ranking and then ask that you all individually share your rankings and
then we can move into a discussion so with that um our team had ranked uh Renee Rose as our number one candidate and Cassandra Kilgore as our number two candidate thank you city managers sorry city
manager um we will open that for discussion from the commission at this point commissioners thoughts comments or we can do similar what we did with the city manager when we went through interview process um if you
wanted to just go down the line and name your number one candidate and number two candidate we can do that as well uh and then would you like to proceed that way yes and the goal tonight is seeking direction to if you have a preferred
candidate to direct u me to work on a negotiating a compensation package um and also provide me your backup candidate so that um we have I already have authority to move through the recruitment process with with
uh um multiple um individuals okay let's start with district one sure um so I thought that both of the the candidates that we interviewed last week were were uh quite impressive and um uh between
the two I would have had a very difficult time picking a favorite and so based on the fact that uh um that the leadership team is the one who's going to be having to work very closely with the person that we hire on a regular basis I will follow their recommendations of um Renee as my first
choice and Cassandra as my second okay commissioner Robinson um I felt the same i felt they were both very qualified um a little bit in different areas um I like the fact that Renee had her CMC
certification um but uh not as much experience in Florida as a Cassandra did or does um so it was a it would be a very uh tight race on those two i I believe
um I like the fact that that Cassandra had some more um training or or was able to give training Sunshine Law um and um conducted meetings as well um it's tough but I would say the same thing i I
think that if the leadership team feels because for me those two are so tight that they felt they're the ones that are going to have to work right you know right with them so um I I would say Renee number one and Cassandra number two thank you Commissioner Robinson
commissioner Resniki yep um my my number one is definitely um Renee um and I and I do think she has uh way more experience than the the other candidates um she comes from originally Kansas uh
municipality larger than than this city um there was an error in the resume so I don't know if everyone noticed but she actually did have over a year experience in the state of Florida um um and I only know because I I asked thinking at the beginning that she only
had uh three months experience um but but actually since 2023 um so um has conducted meetings um as a as the head the city clerk um um so definitely uh my
my number one um backup being Cassandra thank you Commissioner Mohalland uh thank you Mr mayor it actually wasn't very close for me uh I I've got I'll give a ranking of
three uh Renee is head and shoulders uh in my opinion uh the best option i did have some concerns about her my very first question to her was "You've only been in your present position for 14 months." That automatically to me coming
from my background raises red flags uh she absolutely satisfied my concerns about that so that was my very first question for her um another concern that I had with her and I still have with her uh I believe
she's upwardly mobile which is a good thing um I I know in my past life when I was hiring for key positions uh I would always hope that the hire would be one
successful and two that key positions that they would be around for at least 10 plus years i I am not convinced that she will be here for 10 plus years i think she's upwardly mobile enough i think she's
um got enough um charisma and capabilities and abilities that uh as I told her um what's to make me think that in two years you don't want to be the clerk of
Clearwater or St petersburg um those are all concerns of mine with her uh uh she allayed some of those so I I do believe this is just my gut instinct i do believe that there's a reasonable chance
that she'll be here for at least five years i'm not sure she'll be here for 10 years but she is far and away uh in my opinion the best option that we have for this position um my number two was Cassandra and my number three was
Jessica but as I say Renee was head and shoulders above anybody and that includes the first trunch of people that we interviewed i feel she's head and shoulders above everyone and uh I I I I believe that if
she were to accept the position um that she would serve the city well maybe not as long as we'd like her to but maybe she will we'll see but that's my position Mr mayor thank you sir well it sounds like I'm going to
have a very tough phone call tomorrow morning as uh her current mayor is a I wouldn't just say friend I would say a good friend um so on that side and unfortunately I represent the
city of St beach and so I have to be selfish in that respect and I'm sure he will understand and respect that decision um so I think city manager I think you have consensus from the commission
um as far as far as a candidate and we would like for you to proceed with uh moving forward with negotiating presenting an offer negotiating a contract thank you all right next we move on to
reports city clerk so I placed before you um the doodle poll results for the priority work session and then at the bottom of that form I put four additional dates
that the city manager added as perhaps um two of those dates two days in a row for June 4th and 5th or June 17th and 18th so if you can make a decision perhaps tonight we can go ahead and get
that calendared since we had some difficulty i would be available for um uh any of the new dates the two day in a row either either of the two day in a row groupings would work for me can I get a clarification are we saying
that we want we want we're going to have two meet we want two backtoback meetings is what we're saying right the the dates on the bottom are two backtobacks the beginning ones that we put out were just single meetings that were longer versus the shorter the shorter okay i I
definitely cannot make the fourth um the fifth i I can let me double check something as well as 17 and 18 okay so are there any other conflicts
with 17 and 18 it's June 17 i have none jenny you have new dates okay thank you okay anything else that is all for me thank you thank you uh city manager nothing to report thank
you city attorney nothing this evening okay district 4 yes Mr mayor couple things um I've started to uh re say receive uh occasional uh requests from the Pasil
residents about the alley trash pickup service uh so far and this continues to be the case my guidance has been that um we had left this off a few days before Helen
hit and that um the desire was for the community uh that we had a community group that was going to do a survey of the alleys and um provide some type of recommendations
that I could bring forth to the city um I I would say that that position remains that uh if the community group uh is prepared to bring forward a audit of
their review of the alleys um I will happily advocate for that assuming I believe that it is logical and makes sense so um for those that have been reaching out about that that's the status of that at this point
uh and then there's been uh a lot of concern about the dunes and the damaged wall from First to 8th Avenue as it relates to um sand potentially washing
over and blowing over uh into the rest of Passacril that from 8th or 1st to 8th um I sent a detailed explanation from the head of public service are we calling it public service now or public
works still madam city manager public services public services so I submitted a deep detailed explanation with estimates etc um to the um head of the
Pas Community Association i have recently declared her as my point of contact with these issues so anytime I get uh information that I think's important I pass it along to her and then she has a database to uh pass it
along to the rest of the community so I submitted that information that I received from public services last week and I am hopeful that that has made its way down to the residents of Passro and that's all I have mr mayor thank you
district three yes thank you um just a reminder um for uh two community meetings April 10th Belle Vista neighborhood meeting at 7 p.m so that's this week um April 24th uh
the Donses at 6 PM to discuss resiliency so specific to the topic of resiliency in the neighborhood um and then I know I am going to reach out and I apologize for the neighborhoods of Leo Bokea and
all the neighboring associations but I was very very very sick and there was no way I can go um but I will make sure that um we somehow coordinate um a meeting hopefully in April um that that I'll also spread somehow to everybody to
know that location so thank you thank you district two um I don't really have anything to announce other than my looking to do my forthcoming uh library hours i need to get with Binda on that and I will announce those online thank you district
1 um yes nothing of note other than I am having a beer with a commissioner event next Monday the 14th at Mastery's Brewing in District 1 uh no purchase or drinking of beer is required they just generously offer up their space um so next Monday the 14th from 6:00 to 8:00
p.m thank you all right with that we are adjourned thank you