Call to order the city commission meeting of the city of St. Pete Beach. Today is Tuesday, June 24th, 2025, and it is 6:00 p.m. Let's stand for the pledge of allegiance, please. 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 please do a roll call. Commissioner Robinson here.
Commissioner Rzniki here. Commissioner Mhalland here. Vice Mayor Marriott here. And Mayor Patulla here. We have a quorum. Thank you, city clerk. All right, the first item on the list this evening is
we have Commissioner Joe Moholland uh who uh announced his resignation. We open it up for a period of several weeks for candidates to submit um an application uh and to also uh
collect their um their signatures and endorsements from the uh from residents. Uh and so the first thing this evening we're going to do is uh interview the three applicants. Um, and so before we get started with
that, um, I think city commission, I think we should just kind of go over the process very briefly. Um, and then we'll proceed with the interviews. Uh, city clerk, if you don't mind me asking, can you tell us the the sequence in
which the applicants were received? Who was first? Who was second? Who was last? John Maldonado was first, Bob Shiro was second, and Mike Greger was third. Okay, thank you. Um, so as as we discussed previously,
um, I think the process that we agreed on is that we were going to interview the three applicants. I suggest we just interview in a sequence that they put their applications in. First one in, first one in. Um the city clerk provided us with a list
of sample questions. Um or if you have your own questions, I think what this is just a suggestion, I think we should probably ask each of us should ask all three applicants the same question so that we kind of get a sense from them.
Um, and then after we finish the interviews, uh, we'll have the we'll have a discussion about, you know, how we feel about the applicants, who we feel is most qualified, um, and and kind of go from
there. Um, I know we had a conversation about this briefly last time, Commissioner Moholland, and I do not want to put you on the spot, but I will anyway. Okay. It's my last chance. You sure you don't want to leave? No.
Um, I think one of the things that we we could do is once we've had the interviews and then we've deliberated between the five of us, uh, one of the options is um, for example, for the commissioner who is resigning to resign
immediate effective immediately on the spot. Um, and then we can make the decision make the appointment tonight so we don't have to have another meeting tomorrow in the evening. Um, I'm not sure what purpose it would serve. We have a very light agenda. We have one action item tonight. Um, I'm not sure it
serves us any purpose to come back one more night if we're doing all the deliberation tonight the way that we had said that we were going to do anyway. But that's really the first person that has to say yes would have to be
Commissioner Moholland. It could be it could also be at the end of the meeting and then we would take that action step at the end of the meeting as well. It doesn't have to be immediately after the interviews. It's up to you, sir. Or we can do it tomorrow. No, I mean it's it is a light
agenda. Um quite honestly, there's nothing on the agenda that um you know particularly have my hair on the back up about or anything. So, um if that makes it easier and better for everybody, um
to, you know, get it resolved tonight rather than having to come back tomorrow night, um I'm I'm perfectly fine with that. I I I think as I understood it um I
would sit for questioning and then either at the beginning or the end of the meeting um I would make my resignation effective that point uh and then the remaining commission would make the decision. Is
that correct? Um yeah I I don't see the point. We've had plenty of meetings over the last several months. So, uh, I don't see the point in, you know, asking the public or, um, the commission to come back tomorrow
to make this decision. So, um I would be perfectly willing to um after the interviews are complete um at that point uh assuming I'm allowed to make a very brief statement
um resign at that point um to allow you folks to decide what the path forward is. I will say this, I may sit in the in the audience and watch only because I'm still a resident. I still own a home here. Um,
so, um, you know, I I I I would like to see what the path forward is for the city. Um, I'm not going to try to in influence that. I don't think that's necessarily um my place at this juncture. Um, but I
still have an interest in what's going to happen to this commission and what's going to happen to this city moving forward. Uh, because I still care about both entities. So um after the interviews are complete uh I am um
willing to amend my um resignation uh to be effective uh whatever time that happens to be uh and I will step down at that point and probably go to the back of the room and just uh observe as a
resident. Commissioners thoughts, comments? Are there any um noticing issues with you know where we had said that there was going to be a meeting tomorrow night to appoint a commissioner. Are there any noticing problems with changing that up
at this juncture? Well, you first have to amend the agenda to add the item. Under Sunshine Law, you can amend an existing item. I think in the analysis of this particular item, we saw applicants and the applicant application
period is closed. So, we can't get any more applicants. Um, we would have to take public comment on the item before you uh approve and take a final action um on the district for appointment. Um, but you're going to have to add it to
the agenda and then take public comment and deliberate and I think you'll be fine. One thing that might be weighing on you too is that well maybe someone didn't come today thinking they would come tomorrow. Um but the interviews were all today and we can take public comment
today. It's at your discretion. Okay. I'm good with going forward today and uh and um doing the noticing and doing what we have to
do to go ahead and um get it all in today. It is a light agenda. We've been here much later. We get to go home relatively early. Well, we're not adding anything today that the only thing we're going to do we were going to
do tomorrow is the actual vote. So, it should have been a fiveminute meeting. So, it's you want to come back tomorrow for 5 minutes, that's fine. I'm just saying there doesn't seem to necessarily be a need for it. So, I we just need consensus on this
whether you all want to do that or not. So, please let us know. I'm only concerned I think the same you know thinking about what what Commissioner Marriott is saying if if someone or even as attorney was mentioning if someone wasn't coming
today but knew that we were going to be deliberating tomorrow that was never on the schedule tomorrow was the vote if you look at the agenda for tomorrow but would they be able to give public comment tomorrow? Um not sure how that meeting is structured for tomorrow. We can look it up in a
second. Because you had a business item on the agenda, they would have been able to make comment at that business item, just not a general comment at the beginning of the meeting. Okay. Thank you for clarifying. Again, I just want to make sure that we understand what tomorrow's the only thing that's happening tomorrow is the
vote. So, we show up audience comments and there's a vote. All the deliberation, we're doing that tonight. I mean, that's the way we had structured it. Yeah, I'm not dying to come back tomorrow. I would I I I I would hope that anybody who wanted to comment came
tonight. And I'm sure if they didn't, we'll hear about it. I I I can't remember why we set it up the way we did in the first place and not the way we're but it but that's that's irrelevant now because it's in the past. Okay. I think we had it
originally. Mr. Mahaland was resigning as of 11:59 p.m. tonight. So, he would have to resign earlier. That would create the vacancy and then you can fill it. Okay, that's fine.
Just for me. All right. So, besides that, are there any other amendments to the agenda? I'd like to add an item for discussion. Um, what do I want to call it? I guess uh uh
perhaps uh uh to discuss the possibility of a a standing ordinance that would be post storms that would deal with some of the things we've been dealing with. I know that's not very specific, but I
don't want to get into it a lot right now. So, okay. Any other changes? Okay. So, I'll make a motion to amend the agenda to include after the interviews
public comments for this after the interviews for district 4 commissioner to include public comments and then vote for appointment and an item for discussion for commissioner Marriott on storm ordinances.
I second. City clerk, if you please do a roll call. Vice Mayor Marriott? Yes. Commissioner Robinson? Yes. Commissioner RZ Nikki? Yes. Commissioner Moholland? Yes. And Mayor Petrilla? Yes. Uh, forgive me. Uh,
city clerk, if we wanted to make an amendment to the amended agenda, is it too late? Your discretion. Uh the reason I'm asking is because we have hurricane recovery and posttorm um reports from staff and so I
anticipate that the interview process is going to take a little bit of time and so if we could move those two item first and allow the staff to make those presentations so they don't have to stick around for you know it's their evening and as well. So uh city manager any objections to that? No, I maybe make
amendment to your amendment is go ahead and move consent calendar before interviews as well. Okay. So, I'll make amend I'll make a motion to amend the agenda to move the district 4 commission
appointed interviews to be item five sorry to be after the consent agenda. So the first item will be hurricane recovery, then posttorm in reviews, then audience comments, then the consent
agenda, then the district for commission and pointy interviews. Second. City clerk, if you please do a roll call. Commissioner Robinson, yes. Commissioner Rzniki, yes. Commissioner Moholland, yes. Vice Mayor Marriott, yes. Mayor
Pillo. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. All right. So, first we have uh hurricane recovery insurance update. Good evening, Camden. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, charter officials. Um, for the record, my name is Cam De Mills,
uh, public services director. I appreciate the opportunity this evening to give you guys a brief update on where we're at, um, through our hurricane recovery, um, dealing with our our different insurance agencies. Um, so, first here, this slide is um, showing
our general liability coverage um, through public risk management um, in McLaren's. Um, how they've kind of presented the information that we've received to date is the replacement cost value is currently what they estimate the damages to be. The actual cash value
is what they've paid us to date. And then the recoverable depreciation is the amount um that we would be reimbursed um once we complete the repair and submit invoices. So for Hurricane Helen um they've identified about $3.1 million uh
worth of damages. and for Hurricane Milton um just over 300,000. Um and these figures do reflect um after our deductibles have been applied. Um this slide here shows just a breakdown of that PRM policy um specific
to our different facilities. Um so as you can see, they've identified about $2.1 million um in replacement cost value um for our various uh city facilities. Um this next slide here is just a summary on our various parks. Um so you
can see the the actual cash value of just over 10,000 is what we've received to date. And then the um total replacement cost that they've identified so far to date is is just over 14,000. And then this next slide is just miscellaneous um other infrastructure um
that they've identified as damage. So we have some seaw walls um around $200,000 and then our various um lift stations um just over a million dollars. This next slide here is specific to our flood insurance policy. Um and this is
related to content damages that were damaged from the flooding. Um the format of of this information was a little bit different. Um World Risk Management combined both storms together. um and and as they are evaluating their um
paying checks for this amount. So this this is what we've received um from flood insurance um to date just over $1.1 million. And then this next slide is is more of a summary um combining both of those insurance policies. Um you can see on on
the column two here titled construction u these are the values of construction repair work that has been approved to date for our various facilities. Um so that's the building repairs interior and exterior as well as our um roof replacements um elevators work and and
some um HVAC um and electrical work. Total um approved today is around $5 million. Um we did have some budgeted um funds in our CIP specific to the public services building um at $450,000. And then you can see the valuation um
that we've received to date from insurance at $3.3 million. On the far right hand side shows the difference. Um so that's kind of the delta that we're trying to um get smaller and smaller as as we continue to negotiate with our insurance. Um so right now, you know, we
we've have $5 million worth of repair and in insurance has identified 3.3 million of that. Um so we're working on on getting that difference down. Um it is important to note that the valuations from insurance do not include um the HVAC repairs which is just over $100,000
and the elevators um which is just over $600,000. So that $1.2 million um already is is closer um to about $500,000. That's kind of the delta that that we're looking at right now. Um some important items to consider as we're
evaluating these numbers. uh majority of the differences in the cost estimates between insurance and our contractor cotton is relative to the roof replacements, the HVAC and the elevators. Um as I mentioned previously um the HVAC and the elevators aren't
included um in the insurance estimate. The reasoning for that is those are reimburseable um based on invoices. So as we get invoices and pay those um insurance um pay pays that exact amount. Um, regarding the roofs, um, we have
clarified with the insurance and they agree to the same amount of scope. Um, so in the areas that we're proposing full replacement rather than partial repairs, um, the insurance does agree with that. So, right now, we're just clarifying um, the pricing of of what that those materials cost. Um, as of
last week, insurance had their engineers on site u meeting with our contractor um, to try and clarify those those pricing discrepancies. Um, as I mentioned, me mechanical, electrical, and pling plumbing items will be reimbursed on an invoice basis. Um, so
that'll cover the elevators and HVAC. These valuations are are ongoing. Um, so this this isn't the the end amount. We'll continue to try to to get insurance to cover as much as we can. And then it's important to note also um as we're going through some of these repairs, um, especially as it's related
to the building and the roofs, um, we are implementing some mitigation techniques to build back better. So, we can't expect um we're not doing exact like for-like replacements, so we can expect there to be some cost above um what a like forlike replacement to be. Um but in total, this this is currently
where um we stand with insurance. Um so, with that, I'll open it up to any questions. Thank you, Camden. I know one of the questions I've gotten several times from residents is, you know, when is the rec center coming back? Uh we we don't have an exact schedule on
that right now. Um the contracts have been executed, the contractor's been given the go-ahad and they've started to order materials. Um the what we've heard is about two to four weeks we can expect to receive those materials and then we'll formalize a contractor schedule. Um so as soon as we receive that from
Cotton um we'll share that information so we can get that out to the public. Thank you. Camden, do you have a feel on um any of these repairs or are where where the city is is coming out on things that maybe were close to nearing the end of
their life where they were going to have to be replaced or refurbished or fixed where even though that seems like, you know, big, you know, still a pretty big delta of work that has to be done that we haven't been reimbursed for yet, but is there do you have any kind of feeling for what percent of that might be um you
know, you know, maintenance that now won't have to be done over the next, you know, two to five two to five years. Is there a, you know, Yeah, there there's a good chunk of that related to the public service building. You know, that was a project that was already in our capital plan. So, that'll help, you know, push maintenance, you know, for that um down
the road. Um, you know, the rec center really the roofs is is going to be the biggest thing. Those roof replacements is really going to extend the useful life and and help out um for any maintenance that we would need down the road. Is that helping us? Yeah. No, it does. There's a a little tiny bit of a silver lining from the from what
happened. All right. Thank you. Thank you. The next item is the posttorm review emergency operations plan. Good evening, Chief. Good evening. Jim Kilpatrick, fire chief.
Tonight, I want to give you a little bit of an overview of what we've done um with the review of the emergency operations plan. We started with feedback and we did this on many levels. We started with the community um recovery task force was one
of the point of contacts we had for the community with staff. We had department level meetings as well as director level meetings, individual meetings to provide feedback uh to conduct our SWAT analysis. We also met with our partners
in emergency management from Eftim uh the county, our municipal partners, Treasure Island, Madura Beach, Golfport, and we've also gathered some lessons learned uh going through that experience. Here are some of the issues that were
identified. Um staffing gaps is probably one of the biggest ones that we've addressed. uh employee support communication of course the afteraction which is all part of this right now actions taken
we've conducted multiple trainings at this point and we're going to continue to do so with EOC personnel attending training prior to storm season uh we did a tabletop with the directors we've met with FDIM we've also conducted position
appropriate ICS training IC 300 IC 400 and others. Um, we're going to continue conducting training throughout the year with multiple reminders throughout the year. We've been more specific with our position uh assignments with the ICS 203 form, which is basically a roster of
positions identifying people to go into those seats, not just uh just not just an org chart, as well as position checklist to assist. Um, we've sent staff to county training to address the
the resource management meeting uh with county partners uh prior to the storm. We've also addressed uh pre-storm contracting for food debris management and EOCC locations. As you're aware, we have secondary and tertiary EOCC
locations that we contract with every year. In addition, we've also um plan on having a more clear objectives in the incident action plan that we issue daily while in the EOC, giving a uh clear
objectives to the staff that they accomplish during their workday. We've created an employee support position in the ORG chart as well uh as in the ICS 203 form. And we've made pre-made templates partnering with our county uh partners for social media messaging to
make a more clear messaging as far as evacuations and resources. We've sent staff to uh logistics and resource training with the county with additional staff uh scheduled to go in the near future.
Updates to the uh S plan. We've added additional support positions uh logistics coordinator to help with resources. We've also added as I mentioned the employee support position and as well as uh we've also increased
our bench depth with additional uh positions in the fire department with the captains uh that can help with our span of control and some of the management of the scene when we get into an incident similar to Helen and Milton. Uh we've also clarified our pay policy
for emergency pay uh so that there's no misunderstanding when storm season is upon us and we have to deploy personnel. We've adjusted uh our secondary and tertiary EOC maps and plans. Uh you may not be
aware but during our Helen deployment uh once the roof was ripped off the uh baseball field downtown St. compete, we received 150 National Guardsmen. So, that kind of put a stress on us and so we've made that more clear as far as who's allowed in the EOC, where they go
when they're in the EOC with our partner St. Pete College. Um, we instituted an AB shift to help with the structure of our deployment so that people aren't overworked and we're clear as when you start and stop work and what your jobs
are. We've also written and developed SOPs and checklists to facilitate role transition from blue sky jobs to gray sky jobs. And that includes uh we're going to be working on those SOPs for you as well as the commission. So,
any questions, Commissioner. So, chief and I guess also city manager or probably more so city manager. One of the most frustrating things for me um during
the storms um was I had many many people reaching out to me for information and um how I was getting information wasn't
particularly clean and based on the lens of my background. I'm more on the decision maker executive side than the
legislator side. But I think in many ways it would have been productive had I because I was here uh had I been able to attend the briefings at EOC and maybe I
could have but I never got an invite. Um and I understand that it's a situation where if the commission goes to EOC briefings they should be there. I don't want to say as a guess. That's not I'm
not I'm not putting it right, but you know, they need to keep their mouth shut and basically listen to what's going on and then if they have an issue, they take it up with the city manager after the after the meeting or whatever. But um there was a lot going on here that
um you and and to a greater degree the city manager was answering text messages and this or that. But I I just think that if we ever have that type situation again
and we have commissioners that are actually here and present um that they be able to potentially attend those meetings and they may be able to be more productive in answering
questions for the immediate residents that you know have a multitude of questions. So, I only thought of that as you was making your presentation, but I I thought it was worth making a comment about it. So,
um it's, you know, I know I know you don't want people there standing over you telling you how to do your job. I get that. Um but oftent times we're the first people the residents come to. And
if we're here, it's almost a waste of assets for us not to be able to attend those meetings to get a sense. But, uh, I just wanted to throw that out there. So, the so that that complicates things a lot. So, the the ICS structure does
really doesn't provide for any elected officials to be in that chain of command situation. And the complicated part is if one of you are allowed to attend, technically all of you should be allowed to attend and now you're putting me in a noticing
situation which only adds another layer of bureaucracy for me to try to keep the operation moving. What I can offer you is that that my job is as running that EOC is to be your conduit for information. And if you're not getting
enough information, that's where I'm now increasing the team the team's time reporting back to me to say instead of a situ situational report every four hours, I want one every every hour for the next eight hour shift. So that's how I start to change that flow of
information. also with you on the ground. This is why we want to do a a little bit of training with you and we've given you um some extra authority to get back into the island this year because I couldn't get you back on the island for a couple days. So, that did complicate things. You were already here
but some some had evacuated. Um is that if you're here or you can get back now your boots on the ground for me. So, you're feeding me information from your district and your neighborhoods that we I can utilize and that's really helpful. we were missing that this last storm
season because most people were not here. But that's that's I understand. I I mean I'm not surprised by the answer and you know I I just just popped in my head as the chief was
giving his presentation and you know once again from my perspective it was very very frustrating um to be on the ground with the residents and you know not being totally up to speed but I get
it. So thank you. I will add that when we evacuate there is a space at the EOC for elected officials. We do not interact you interact with the city manager or the liaison that through the ICS format. Um you will not be invited
to tactical meetings. You know those are situations where we're in the same room and discussing things and uh we limit that to kind of decision makers in that staff. So, you're well aware, I'm sure, uh, of how that operates. But, um, you please don't feel that you cannot come
to the EOC. Uh, but you probably will not see me in the EOC. You will see her and our liaison, uh, the PIO that's in the rear of the room right now or the clerk possibly. So, um, just won't be in those kind of tactical meetings and
such, but, uh, to address needs of your constituents and things that are occurring on the ground that I'm sure you're getting communicated as I am through cell phone and such, those are things that you could communicate through the city manager and that we can address and set objectives to meet. So,
thank you. Commissioner, is in that conversation, um, you mentioned you receive briefings, right? Um are part of the briefings could it be added um or part of somehow disseminated to us
um like a section like for for the officials. This is information coming from your your your report and then this is information to share to the community, you know, because one of we all know everybody's sending all this kind of messaging out and it should
always be going to one spot, but you could say now go here for the public, you know, it's just been updated. let them know and and this is for you guys, you know, like that way what however quickly you're being briefed, then we're
almost immediately after getting the same briefing. Yeah, I think um it'd be interesting to hear the time frame and where you were feeling less information versus more. As soon as our IMT team showed up, which
was our backup team, I don't know if you recall, but I as soon as I got those situational briefings, yeah, I was transmitting them to the commission, but that didn't start and probably until day three. So, you saw a bit of a lag time where our communications were were we
were in the moment figuring it out. But that's to the chief's point on all of the training that we've been going through. We have a welle equipped trained EOC now that even on day one they know what to do through the ICS structure. So those sort of formal
briefings will be starting will start to be prepared earlier and it might have been mostly the breakdown not so much from the city but we had breakdowns with other entities right if um all of a sudden the portables were coming in to the city but you guys weren't even aware that the portables were coming in. So
then we're watching from our side seeing them come in and we're like how are they coming in and they haven't even told us but we've got constituents calling saying hey you know where are the water pallets I see some down in Paso but they're not but you guys don't even know. So, um, or the bridge is open,
right? You literally could have told me two seconds ago, "No, it's still closed." And I'm telling someone else, and then all of a sudden I look out my window and I'm like, "All the cars are just they're just flowing." Right? So, it's not always necessarily because of the breakdown between the city and us,
but there's a breakdown somewhere else because we're not the communication isn't flowing to you all first and then back to us. you know, if the sheriff opened, you know, we found that after or, you know, like I'm saying, or they pulled up the water and the food or the
laundry units are now gone and, you know, I just finished telling everybody, go over there and they're like, there's nothing here. You know, it's like there's other things that aren't flowing um that are probably what we need to be communicating to the constituents because that's what they they're asking
for for help, you know, and it's coming after the fact. the information comes in like a fire hose and it all has to be filtered through the PIO, the city manager and our staff. So, it does get a little bit overwhelming. We did stand up more personnel in that PIO PIO footprint
which which assisted with some of that, but the information is not always clean. So, when you mentioned the bridge opening, I believe Fran and I were standing right here and we watched the sheriff pull away and we had no idea that it was occurring. Uh, some of those resources that showed up were not
ordered by us. they were ordered by uh other se county and state level maybe that were coming into the city that did not notify us. So that's why we had kind of a piling up of uh water pallets which Mandy can comment on uh just coming
relentlessly over the bridge and uh comfort stations and whatnot. So, but I think we have a better plan this time and uh more uh more robust and more well-trained plan for information and dissemination and sending it out. So,
Commissioner, so is there then a a completed document that all of the city employees have right now so that if we had a emergency next week, everybody would have a thing
that they could open up and go that this is what I'm doing. This is where I'm supposed to go. Here's how it's going to work. like is that is that a completed there is an IC 203 form that is namesp specific um that this person goes to this position. We've sat down as uh
directors and the leadership team and and mapped that out so that is completed and do all of those people then have something that tells them or they've all been trained on exactly what they do so that if something happened next week we are turnkey ready to go. All of those positions have checklist. There's
training is going to be coming, you know, over time. There is there has been some training, but there's going to continue there's continuing training going forward. There's also, as uh the city manager mentioned, the IMT team, which is kind of a support network that comes in. So each of those positions is
kind of mirrored by the IM team IMT team or supported in a way that they will know what they're doing when they're in the EOC. And so do you anticipate that kind of everybody will be trained and ready to go by August 15th when our part of hurricane season starts? There there's a lot of people in that in that
plan, but I'm assuming that all the critical positions will be trained and ready to go when the hurricane season uh comes forward, particularly the section leaders that are in that plan. There's some there's ancillary positions below that. And depending on how those are
mapped out, you could go down an org chart kind of black hole. Uh but as it stands right now, I believe we are uh prepared. Okay. So we might be ready. Could I ask one question because you
mentioned sunny day and gray day, blue sky and gray sky. So you know uh Devon is our finance director. You know, blue sky, she does that every day. But when the EOCC is activated, she steps into the finance section chief role, which is
completely different as far as operation. So, we're asking a lot of our staff to transition quickly from these blue sky positions into these gray sky positions as we stand up to EOC. Okay. Because I when you said it, I was thinking something else because I know
you you have to do policy changes probably in the city, right, for human resource. Um, and I'm just going to ask because I I'm familiar with some of the counties, um, and how they how they do stuff, um, as far as like time off, for example, because you said you have
critical positions, but like in like vacations, you know, how someone who's in a critical position has to go through a different level of approval for time off because now that person's gone, but you don't have someone to back up that position. So, I'm going to assume these
things are Everybody has a second. So even the critical, right? So hopefully that will help us in the preparation moving forward. So we've also and the chief can speak to this. He's probably canceled many vacations. You know, if you're already over in Sweden, we're not
calling you back. But if you have a vacation plan, this the organization knows as disaster service worker that that vacation could be could be cancelled because we usually have three days notice that it's likely we're going to get hit. So we are then making those
decisions as well and giving notice. So all of these discussions are happening right now in the organization to get people ready for every plausible outcome. Thank you chief. Thank you. Okay. Next we have general audience
comments. City clerk, do we have any? Yes. Leanne Moore. Good evening. If you'll please state your name and address for the record. Hi, my name is Leanne Moore. Uh my
address is 54039th Avenue B Vista. I'm also the owner of Topsh Shape Fitness located in Dolphin Village. I'm here today looking for an update in the next steps on the proposed sign ordinance. Um a few specific questions based on the information I was looking
at. Um, it's my understanding that a business owner may have one sandwich board sign. Um, are there restrictions on where this sign can be placed and how long it can be there. Regarding the allowance for limited banner placement during businesses reopening following a
major emermergency event, what constitutes a major event? Would the fires at Dolphin Village grant that the remaining businesses the opportunity for special signage to indicate that we are open? Currently,
businesses to the north and south of Publix have greatly been impacted due to the fires. We need to get the message out to the public that we are opened. The quickest way to do that is to have a sign closer to G Boulevard. We appreciate what the landlords have done,
but it's not getting the cars into the parking lot and the feet walking through our our businesses. Thank you for your update and your time. Thank you. We're really not set up to answer highly specific questions like that on a non-aggenda item. But I think the probably the best course of action is if
city manager can take one of her cards, send her an email tomorrow, and she'll have a reply for your Jen within 24 hours and give you an actual detailed breakdown of exactly what signs were and how. so you can get exactly the information that you need. Great. Thank you. Thank you.
Will you be having public comment before? Yes. Good evening. Deborah Shekner, Bokeisa is in St. Pete Beach. First, I'd like to give accolades to the Friends of the Library. They had a program last Wednesday that was phenomenal.
He was a professional comedian magician and he had the audience laughing and marveling at the same time. Tomorrow they're going to have Shauna Banana, I think, at noon. So, there's a lot going on if you want to get out of the heat.
Um, usually when we cancel a meeting, the clerk will put something on the website and in that little um, window outside and in the past without even this happening, there's been, you know, canceled meetings that I never knew
about until I came up here, but that's okay. U, I really, really want to thank um, Commissioner Moholland. I'm sorry you're leaving. You are truthful, honest. You speak loud enough so all of us can hear. To me, it's very important. And and you
will very well be missed. And for a lot of people who have not been here a long time, this is the normal summertime from maybe 10 or 15 years ago. Day trippers, hotels are not filled up.
And in fact, the moms and pops would take over pretty much most of September to refurbish and to take a vacation. So, this is kind of the norm that we have right now. I know that probably not a happy time for some of the um hotels,
but this is our summertime in St. Pete Beach and has been up until several years recently. And and to me, that's important. I think it's important to know that there is history here and you know perhaps we can figure out how to
work through this for our local businesses as go to the local restaurants, go to the local stores, help the economy with the local business people right now because they're the ones that are probably hurting just like that woman said over there at Dolphin
Village. and and honestly it's it's kind of our obligation to help do that, but it's also a nice thing because we're a good community. Thank you. Thank you. No further comments. Okay. Next, we have consent agenda.
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 is Nikki. Yes. Commissioner Moholland, yes. Vice Mayor Marriott,
yes. Commissioner Robinson, yes. Mayor Petrillo, yes. Motion carries. Next, we're going to move on to the District 4 Commissioner interviews. So, this is a public hearing, public
meeting. So, we really can't exclude anyone from being in the room. Yet, at the same time, I think it would be nice of the two applicants who are not currently being interviewed to step outside for the duration of the other
person's interview. Um, but I can't force you to. So, um, if you would follow Mark into the city clerk's uh office, he can let you in and then uh Mark will come and bring the next person in. So, the first person is going to be
uh Mr. John Maldonado. Good evening, sir. Um, if you would like to take a moment to introduce yourself, if you have an opening statement you would like to make, and then we will proceed with, uh, with the questions from the commission. I would and thank you. So, um, good evening. My name is
John Maldonado. I reside at 321 North Julia Circle and I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. immediately joined the United States Air Force right after graduating. Married my high school sweetheart who's also in attendance
tonight. Thank you, Julie. And served on active duty for approximately 10 years. While in the Air Force, I completed my undergraduate degree and subsequently entered my law enforcement uh degree, used that towards my federal career and
served an additional 24 years in federal law enforcement. During my time uh in both military and law enforcement, I was able to accomplish many things. I did many deployments, including three combat deployments, received many accolades,
awards, including foreign decorations. I also want to tell you that I celebrated becoming a grandpa and it's a very important thing to me because I hope that someday my daughter and my granddaughter and their friends will also be able to come to St. deep beach. Enjoy the life that we've learned to
love and appreciate here. I shared with the uh mayor and some of the commissioners during a recent volunteer breakfast in this very room that this was the first place that I ever decided to live in my entire adult lifehood.
The reason that we chose St. Pete Beach was for its historic nature, the people, and most importantly, the sense of community. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Uh, commissioners, would you be opposed to if we just kind of go down the line? We
each ask one question so that because I'm sure we're going to have overlapping questions and this way, one person isn't asking five questions and one doesn't get to. So, we can just kind of do it the way the city clerk normally does it. And we'll start and then we'll just move one over with each question. So, Commissioner Marriott, if you'd like to
start us off. Sure. Um, so I guess the first question is uh um why why do you want to do this? Thank you. And it is a great question and quite frankly something that I did ponder extensively and I'll tell you
that it goes back to my time volunteering here at uh city hall helping fellow residents with their permit applications. During that time, I was able to meet many, many people from not only Vina Delmare and Pasigril, which is obviously District 4, but throughout the entire
community of St. Pete Beach. I've heard their comments and concerns for our future, and I share those. I I I'm very concerned about the uh infrastructure, uh the overdevelopment as well as the effect that it has had on our local economy and our business
partners. that primarily drove my decision coupled with my extensive background in government uh working at uh executive level boards as well as enterprise management meetings and then most importantly in governance. Thank you.
Thanks. Um I have a slew of questions but um we'll just take one at a time. Yeah, I know that I know that um you know this is almost a full-time job. do realize um do you have the time to dedicate um any
obligations that other obligations you have yearly vacations or the like that would prevent you from attending meetings? So, first and foremost, I'm full-time retired. I do know that this requires extensive amount of uh preparation, studying, and then also uh the
historical uh things that come in to play with trying to see where we're going. And I on that note, I I I forgot to commend the mayor and the commission for all the hard work that they've done these past months and getting us over the hump and on track towards the right direction.
So, I hope that through more studying, through watching uh as many presentations as I can on previous commissions that I'm able to come up to speak quickly. Um there have been some very important commission meetings that have taken place uh specifically on 10
December. You know, that was huge. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for really pointing out several of the uh infrastructure problems that we've had. And then also uh some of the more recent things that have come up with noise concerns, the uh the cups, you know, the conditional use
permits and then freebie, which I I hope somebody will want to discuss later. Thank you. Thank you for your volunteering. It's been I can't say thanks enough. It's been a great program and and being able to work with the residents and help them out is key. And
thank you, sir. You mentioned um some of the needs that we've kind of identified in the city here recently, infrastructure, the December 10th meeting, over development and so on. Um what do you see as the city's current greatest need or
deficiency or area that needs? I think that the most immediate need is uh preparing ourselves for storms. The uh beach nourishment, the uh the failed pumps, the recent uh discovery that we did not have
a full picture from previous city officials in terms of where we are financially. That causes me a lot of concern with the uh the expected things that we want to do in the next 5 years. You know, I think that there is a little bit of a delta that needs to be addressed even more and I don't know
where this shortfall is going to come from. You know, I've looked at budgets, I've looked at the uh meetings and I've looked uh at numbers and I do think that maybe we're not looking at the bigger picture. So, I think that funding infrastructure and primarily getting the water out of here, whether it's sewage
water, whether it's tidal water, those pumps, you know, I I think that part of the plan is to come up with redundancies. I think that there has to be a priority on the redundancies, not only repairing but uh eventually replacing those and it's going to come
at a very heavy cost. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Good evening. Um where do you see the city 20 years from now? My hope through promoting St. Pete Beach
is, you know, America's premier beach that we'll start to attract even more foreign investment. I know that the TDT that is reinvested from Panelis County towards the beaches is 6%. I think that if those numbers continue to grow and
hopefully they do that we will be able to maintain our beach character, our historic properties and more importantly that we will be able to absorb higherend customers. You know, I I don't know what's going to happen with Dolphin Village, but you know, my dream in 20
years would be that that would be, you know, a a a number one place that people go for shopping, that we would have high-end restaurants in St. Pete Beach. Dress coat is always kind of a contestious issue out here. I'd like to have a place or two where we can go out and dress a little bit if we wanted to,
and if not, flip-flops and shorts are fine. But 20 years, I see this as still being a number one destination uh for St. P Beach, Clear Water and Penelis County. Yes, sir. Sir, thank you for volunteering.
Um, when did you start um volunteering at the front desk out here to help the residents? I was one of the initial volunteers, sir. You were one of the initial ones? Yes, sir. Good. Good. Yeah, I uh it in all transparency, I
know the other two applicants because they've attended meetings and and things like that. So, I'm happy to hear that you have been involved. Um it's just I don't think I've ever met you. Um but I'm happy that um you've thrown your hat
in the ring here and uh I appreciate you volunteering to do this job. So, thank you. Thank you. Follow-up questions. Um, are you uh have you thought about or
are have you already decided whether or not you would run for election on this position as well, whether you're appointed or not? So, I have thought about it uh in full transparency. I'm not going to declare now that that I am, but uh I also saw this appointed interim
position as a great trial run not only for myself but also for the commission to see if I'd be a good fit and with the support of my neighbors and business owners. I'd like to get their input and then also that'll help me shape a better decision.
Thank you. Um I ran on a residents first platform which means decisions are made with the needs of the residents coming first. What is your ideology for um as a commissioner? So it's preserve, protect and promote.
Promote the ideas of uh my neighbors and business owners, protect what it is that we're trying to uh restore here and preserve our history. So it would be in that order protect, preserve and promote. Thank you. Thank you. So, we've you're you're looking to come
and serve as a commissioner and um so we certainly appreciate your involvement with the volunteers and the permitting department. But in in a more official capacity, have you served on any boards? Uh any have you vol have you
looked at serving any that get capacity? We've had commissioners in the past who've come in with you know zero involvement, zero experience, zero attendance, zero participation in the city's um you know governance and wanting to
step right into a into a commission spot. So I have zero experience at the state and local level. Uh that said, I do have uh experience serving on international boards of directors. I served on the American Overseas School of Rome uh directors board and then I've
also served on several law enforcement related uh working groups and committees. And then more importantly, just before we moved here, I was the president and vice president of our homeowners association. And so I understand how important it is to uh
incorporate the input you know from both city and local officials. Uh we fought very hard on making some uh legislative changes through our association uh in particular pertaining to safety and um you know it was almost like we we had to
negotiate with the city you know and then also involved you know corporate council uh attorneys and things like that. always trying to use a neighborly approach no matter whether it was, you know, at the uh um involving fiduciary responsibilities or, you know, just
simply just trying to get neighbors to to come together and work together. Very good. Excellent. Thank you, sir. Just looking at some of the questions they had here, but I'll go ahead and ask. Um, should the form six financial disclosure injunction be resolved and
the requirement be reinstated, are you willing to complete that form in accordance with state statute? Absolutely. And I'm also used to doing those having been in federal government service. Thank you. Thank you. That's a great question. Commissioner Rniski uh asked the
question I was going to ask. So he was doing so well. No, I think that's important. Um that's I think uh all the applicants should be asked that question. Um I I just have a
few notes from 2023. The the Florida Senate voted 35 to five to approve the form six uh requirement. Uh and in April of 2023, the House voted
113-2 to um approve that requirement. And then in May of 2023, the governor signed that into law. That has been in uh or under injunction for some time. I think I was
probably the last person that filled it out in the state, but um I think there's a reasonable chance that that will be um reappearing. So, I do think it's important that anybody that that takes this position um uh in order to hopefully prevent um
some of the things that myself and Commissioner Lorenzan was involved in um that uh people recognize that there's a real possibility that that may reappear its uh in the you know near future and
there should be a willingness in my opinion to to fill out a form six should it become necessary. So, thank you for asking that question. Okay. Any other questions for the applicant?
I just have one other I do um have you attended any commission meetings um workshops, community meetings or town hall or um for district 4 or any other district? I log in and do
them online. I find that that's very convenient. It also lets me, you know, uh take notes and get up and use a restroom whenever I need to yell at the at the TV, right? Well, I can tell. They're very serated and go very long. So, I can tell you I like
watching some of the board meetings on YouTube at 1.5 speed because it goes a little quicker. So, and and I do love your recap. Those are great to catch up on. Commissioner, are you involved in any
organizations that may influence any decisions that need to be made as a commissioner or anybody who sits sits up here? No. Thank you. Do you believe your personal views align with the views of district 4 when it
comes to development or redevelopment? And what are those views? So my views are that we would love and wish to continue to have the historic fill that district 4 has. Uh talking to most of my neighbors, friends, and
business owners, I think that my views align with the desire to keep things where they are. But at the same time, redevelopment is important. I think that structured redevelopment that brings, you know, beauty and attracts uh business that's
favorable to both the citizens, residents, and business owners is something that I would seek to continue to uh to have in district 4. What is a cup and how does the process work? The continuous
unconditional. Now the conditional okay this is why it's important to use words and not acronyms. Conditional use permit is something that's provided to uh resident or business owners that are looking to
change something that is not already in existence. A recent uh one that I can go back and look at would be the desire by a developer and hotel to extend an existing requirement for standoffs from
64 to I believe 31 ft and they were seeking to have that amended to suit their needs uh despite you know clear characteristics of that area being abused. And the second part was how does the process work? The process is that that's
presented to the commission. The commission hears the uh the petition and at that point they decide whether or not that's something that they wish to adopt. Thank you. Um, what are the residents and small
businesses needs and desires in district 4? And are those the same as other districts or are there inherent differences? And if so, what are they? It's a three-part. Yeah. So, so the
desires um are to increase obviously the revenue that's been lost by the recent storms and that applies to all of St. Pete Beach. What District 4's business owners are hoping to do is keep the
small characteristic historical shops that they have. how that differs along the beach obviously is that we have bigger vendors uh more traffic and then also higher and different uh varieties of opportunities for people to purchase
things. Whereas in district 4, you find local souvenirs for Passa Grill and some of these other uh locations down the beach that it's more specific to St. Pete Beach in general. I hope that answered that four-part
question. I think so. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, sir. All right. Any other questions for Mr. Maldonado? Who is the largest uh revenue provider to our tax base?
The uh the TDT to the tax base itself. The tax base itself. The largest provider are the hotels from tourism folks that spend uh overnight stays and incur the uh I believe 6% TDT. It's actually the residents through
taxes, property taxes which augment the 94 million. So we're we pay about 80% of the we Yeah, I was very surprised to see that uh through the agreement such a small portion of that comes back to the um to the residents. But thank you.
And as a commissioner, what are your responsibilities and to whom? The responsibilities are to the citizens of St. Pete Beach. The responsibility for me would be obviously to ensure that I get their input and that I'm their voice and not
speaking from my personal opinion. Have you read the comp plan? The cop? know the actual comprehensive plan. I have not read it in its entirety. I have seen it uh as well as some of the other plans that are out
there. You know, I'm still digging through trying to get some final numbers and then also see how continuity works here in terms of, you know, some of the things that were discussed today with the city manager. I found that very informative. Uh and then also it was very uh good to hear firsthand how those
limitations are put in place for the commission in uh what is the relationship um uh to the land development code excuse me from the comp plan or comprehensive plan. I I can't answer that.
Just one question for for district 4. What do you what do you see as the greatest need for district 4? Just district 4. The greatest need for district 4, I believe, is the uh continued beach uh
nourishment and protecting our wildlife. Are you aware of Friends of St. Pete Beach andor Protect St. Pete Beach? And what do you know of these two specific groups and who do they represent? So, yes, I've heard I've heard of both.
Uh they're they're greatly publicized. They have a website where they espouse their mission uh which is uh I believe that uh keeping the historic grill historic and maintaining quaint beach charm
but more importantly they're really opposed to uh the overdevelopment of St. Pete Beach. I think that's a common theme that we have uh in both those groups. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
commissioners. Thank you. All right. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Mark, if you would please bring in uh Mr. Shiro Bob. Good evening, sir. Hi. So, we are going
to begin with um giving the opportunity for an opening statement. Just introduce yourself. You know, anything else that you'd like to say and then we will kind of go in sequence and the commissioners will each ask you questions. Okay. So, my name is Bob Shyros. I live at 102 Pasigril Way.
It's between 10th and 11th. Um, I currently do a lot of volunteering for a lot of the Pass Grillil events like the golf cart, bonfire, that type of stuff. Um, I'm getting ready to retire and I'm looking to do some little a
little bit more work in community involvement in the in the community. Um, I think St. Pete Beach is really experiencing an unprecedented re rebuilding cycle and I'd like to be part of that. I want to work to maintain the history, the charm, and the sense of community at both Pasigril and Vina and
strike a balance between businesses and and residents. Um, as a property owner in St. Pete Beach, I walk uh at Pasigril, I walk my dog through the neighborhoods all around 8th Street and all my neighbors come to me firsthand and give me um suggestions of as soon as
I announced I was running, I got a lot of opportunity for uh for input. Um, my dog is really appreciating this because the walks have been a lot longer. Um, but I know what's firsthand what's affecting my neighbors. Um, my wife and
I started the Pastoral General Store, so I have a very keen um, knowledge, firsthand knowledge of what goes on in a small business. Unfortunately, that store only lasted about eight months before the hurricane took it out. But I believe my engineering background
leading a $40 million business unit and supporting a team of over 150 people 140 people um solving complex engineering problems for manufacturing pharmaceuticals would give me a different perspective to the commission. Um I've been a property owner since
2018. I've lived here since 2010 uh uh since 2020 and I follow a lot of the stuff that goes on in the commission remotely. Um, I I I watch some live. I like to watch the the videos. I can skip through some of the stuff a little faster. Um, I do
uh read the notes, too, when I'm not when I don't have the time. But, uh, I have a tremendous respect for the amount of time and effort that you as commissioners put in, and I really look forward to trying to join the team. With that, thank you, sir.
Commission Merritt. Sure. Um, why uh why why the commission? I mean, if you've been watching the meetings, are you sure you want to do this? Uh, yeah, I am. And and you know, um, I've done some different volunteering.
Um, I think that, you know, as I'm getting ready to retire, one of my biggest concerns is being bored. And I don't think that's going to happen as a commissioner. I think you're right. This is basically almost like a full-time job. Um, with that said, do
you have the time to dedicate? Do you have any obligations, yearly vacations or the like to prevent you from attending meetings? The only vacation I have coming up that's scheduled is I have a cruise in September for nine days. Other than that, um, and even
working right now, I don't travel. I work from home. Um, I used to travel a lot when I was before COVID. Um, now I do everything via video conference. So, uh, as soon as I figure out what my, uh, exit strategy is, whether it's going to
be in June or July or August or a little later, I'm negotiating with the company right now what that's going to be. But, uh, I'm I'm I'm looking forward to next phase. Thank you.
So, we have other openings at the city for board vacancies and so on. And um I guess the question is, you know, we appreciate you putting your name in a in a hat for for being an appointed commissioner. Um
why not start in in another capacity and kind of get your feet wet? Um first off, I like to start at the top. Um, I'd like I'd rather be in a position to uh to guide the whole ship than a little piece of it. Um, I find this to
be a little bit more challenging than one committee that just works on stuff. I, you know, the historical committee is very important, but I think I would be bored doing the same thing over and over again. Um, the finance committee would be the same way. You know, this is a little bit more diverse and I find that
more challenging. Um, what do you see as the number one priority for district 4 and just district 4, not the city? Well, I don't think there's just one. Um, there's there's there's a lot. Um, certainly the
title check valves are something that uh a lot of the residents have have talked to me about. uh the the the maintenance that needs to be done, rebuilding after the hurricane, Mary Perry Pier, um the shuffleboard courts, um I live next to the shuffleboard courts. I don't know if
you realize how often those courts are used or even how often the the barbecue grills are used. That just amazes me the the amount of people at barbecue at that park. Uh but beach nourishment. Um getting the swim buoys back. Uh right now there's no buoys for the uh you
know, in front of the Pasag Grillil. uh the Paradise Grill, um the Shuffleboard Court with uh replacing the the the structure that's there. Um that's something that's important. Um also looking at short-term rentals, that's something that a lot of people have have
brought up to me. They're very concerned about that. And uh especially now where the uh amount of rental properties are down, you know, they're they're very concerned about how that's going to be affected. And they're also very concerned about how the the community is
going to re rebuild. You know, Pasigril is a very uh unique community in the sense that we have some uh visitors that you know come in for the day and we have a lot of residents. So, there's a a unique mix there and trying to maintain that sense of community. Uh the the
Pasil Community Center and association is is something very is very good and very active. Um, so I think trying to keep the historical piece of Pasagril and rebuild and not have a bunch of uh, you know, McMansions
um, is something that is on a lot of people's mind and mine as well. Thank you, Commissioner Mah. Hi, Bob. You mind if I call you Bob? No, no, you've done it all the way all the time. Uh, so I'm not going to ask a lot
of questions. I do have uh, one. I'd like to just make a comment. I would just ask you uh don't forget about VINA. I I um I understand there's less action on VINA, but they are half the district. Y um
so in April of 2023, uh the Florida Senate approved uh a requirement to file for all elected officials to file a form six by a vote of 35 to 5. Uh in April of 2023, the
Florida House approved that same legislation as a vote of 113-2. And then in May of 2023, the governor of Florida signed that. Um so that is
currently tied up with a um I don't want to get too political, but a left-leaning judge has put put an injunction on that. Um, but when you look at how much support that received from the
governor government of Florida, um, there's certainly a very real possibility that that would get overturned and be put back in place. Are you willing to file a form six should that um, become a requirement?
Reluctantly, I probably would sign it. Well, I understand that. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Wouldn't be my first choice. Understand. But but you are willing to fill out a form six should that get re instituted.
Thank you. Um whether you get appointed or not, are you considering running for this seat um for the election in November? Yes. I ran on a resident's first platform which means decisions are made with the
needs of the re residents coming first and foremost. What is your ideology as a commissioner? I understand the need for the residents and and certainly as a resident I understand you know what comes first but I think we have to balance a little bit
about the businesses. So, you know, we we were a small business owner. I understood some of the some of the pitfalls of that, some of the costs involved with that. Um, I understand the way the you know, what the residents want. So, I I I think we need to balance
that. Um, maybe lean towards the the residents, but we have we can't ignore the uh the businesses. And you know, just listening to the woman talk about how she wants to get a sign up, you know, for her uh her yoga studio, you know, I I totally understand that, you
know, and and that doesn't really impede on the on the residents. So, there's a balance and you you know, you have to manage that. I know like when we talk about the uh decibel levels of having, you know, uh amplified music, right? The
business wants that. Residents don't want to hear it in their in their house. Totally understand that. I wouldn't want to hear it in my house. So, you have to come up with a plan. You guys did a good job with that to say, "Okay, you know, we we'll have we'll allow you to do that, but you can't it can't be uh heard in the residents.
Thank you. What do you see as the city's current greatest needs?" I would say just as an engineer, a lack of maintenance. I think that we don't do enough routine maintenance to h and
preventative maintenance to be in a better position to prepare for some of these things. You know, I I was uh I was I was in the showers in the FEMA showers. I was using the FEMA toilets. I was walking down there at 3:00 in the morning because that's when I had to go.
Um but I think you know I I put a generator in so I was prepared for electric. I didn't think of anything about the water. So, I I'm I'm very much into routine maintenance and and keeping up uh our utilities.
Okay. Are you a member of any organization that would influence any decision taken here on on the dis? The only membership I have is the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers, which probably won't in a favor.
I don't have any further questions unless something triggers a question. Mr. Mayor, thank you, sir. Um, I don't think I have any further questions. Who is the largest revenue provider of
our tax base? I don't know. I would assume the businesses, but you know a particular business. No, it's it's actually it's actually the residents. Okay, that makes sense. What is a cup and how does the process
work? um a a um conditional use permit. I always get that wrong. Um come to the board for a um make it you make an application,
right? you come to the board um you state what you want to do, why you want to do it, and then there's conditions approved with that and then there's followup on how those conditions are um are followed up to make sure that they are being agreed that what was agreed
upon is actually what's happening, I guess, is the best way to say it. So, it's a it's a way to get um something uh something around the entire structure like you have a specification and it's a way to tempor to to
um I don't want to say get around that that that specification but let's say um can you know have a have a uh a way to um use that do something in in not against that permit but not against that
structure, that specification, but um to be able to use use something around that um with certain conditions. I guess that's the easiest way. It's temporary. I mean, it it could be temporary. It could go with the with the uh with the building. It could go with the owner. Um
so, it depends on how you structure it. Have you read the comp plan or the comprehensive plan? I've read part of it. I started I fell asleep. It's not easy reading. Um what is the relationship to the land development
code from the comp plan? I don't know that. What are the residents and small businesses needs and desires in district 4 and are those the same as other districts or are there inherent differences and if so what are they? I
can't talk about the other districts. I can say that some of the some of the businesses, for example, some of the hotels have concerns about short-term rentals and how that takes away from their revenue. Um, I know the ice cream shop has a problem
or a concern that a ice cream truck keeps coming by. They feel that's taking their business and they feel that that that shouldn't be happening. Um, I'm trying to think what else uh offhand. Um,
parking is another area. They would love more parking um and a and a way to a better way to um enforce that parking. As a commissioner, what are your responsibilities and to whom?
Well, I think my first responsibilities is to the residents of district 4 and the businesses in district 4, listening to what their what their requirements are, what their needs are, and presenting them to the counts to the to the other commissioners and the mayors and finding a way to
meet their needs, which typically means finding money to be able to do that. Do you believe your personal views align with the views of District 4 when it comes to development and redevelopment? And what are those views? I think my views are probably a little
stricter than what the current regulations allow. Um but I would yield to what you know what the current plat is and overlays are. Um for example I I really believe that we
should have uh look at the imperous ground that's that's allowed and try and uh reduce that so that there's more water runoff. But if you do that then the houses become smaller. Um so there's there's a trade-off there. I I
understand, you know, what my neighbors want. Um so my view would be a little bit more stricter than what uh what they're doing today, but you know that that's uh um that's my concern is you know how are we going to present prevent
for the next hurricane and even some of the storms you know um as a great example I drive a Mini Cooper. When we get rain I can't go out of my out out the alley because the alley floods. I I didn't catch how long you'd lived here. I got confused. Between 2010 and
2020, I think in there, too. So, I bought a I bought a property in 2018. Okay. And then I moved in in 20 2020. Okay. Have you ever lived on a another barrier island? I lived on Coina K.
bigger island, but you um of all the places you could live, why did you pick St. Pete Beach? The beach, the sense of community. Um, we lived we lived in on Coina Ki and we
had the property here. We would use it and what we found is that we on Coina Key, we'd have dinner and we'd sit in front of the TV. When we got here, we would have dinner and then we'd go out, we'd walk around, we'd talk to people, there was restaurants we could walk to,
there was Shadracks, we could do a lot of different things. So, um, we decided that we would come here, moved into the property. We thought we, uh, our plan was to wait a year, understand what was going on, you know, get a lay of the
land, and, uh, we waited three days and made a prop made a bid on a property and won that. So, uh, we loved it, and that's why we're here. Are you aware of Friends of St. Pete Beach and or protect St. Pete Beach. No.
Well, protect St. Pete Beach. Yes. The first one you said, Francis. Fr. Friends of Oh, okay. Friends of Yes, that I've heard of. Okay. Sorry. That's okay. Francis. And um what do you know of these two specific groups and who do they represent? I don't know much about
them. I just know they're more involved in the new uh beach renourishment projects. I think I cover I covered all. All right. Commissioner's last chance. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mark. If you
would please bring in Mr. Greger. Good evening, sir. Good evening. If um what we'll do is we'll start we'll give you an opportunity to introduce yourself, kind of tell us um you know what prompted you to to be here and then um we're going to go down the line and we'll ask you the same questions that we
asked the other applicants. Sounds good. I'm Colonel Mike Greger. I live on the island of Vina Delmare. been a resident here for 25 years and I've always tried to serve my community. So I see that there's a vacancy because we're losing
unfortunately our commissioner and so I know our commissioner. I've talked with him and uh shared many things about our community together. I'm sad to see you go. Um, what prompted me to step forth is my neighbors, friends, and others
asked me to step forth because of my involvement with the city in the past, my involvement with county government, state government. So, I thought maybe I should step in and try to fill this vacancy. Thank you, sir. So what do you see as
um what what do you see as the thing that is most important in Pasigril and does what's most important to Passagril is what's most important to Pasigril different than what's most important to Vina Delmare. Well,
let me correct you a little bit because you forgot Vina Delmare and that's all part of our our community as well. District 4. So, Pasigril, Vina Delmare, they're two unique characters uh in district 4. Pasigril has problems with
infrastructure. If we look at what happened during the hurricane, we saw that uh the beach eventually became the road. So all the the dunes that were placed in there in my opinion late by the county due to the stalling of the
Army Corps of Engineers and I was involved in that the last time we had a renourishment because I was on the beach stewardship board. So I had discussions with the Army Corps of Engineers. I had discussion with the commander of the Army Corps of Engineers uh before they put the dunes in at the cost of the
county government. I asked him for some relief on what we needed for that and he told me that his hands were tied at Washington DC level. I reached out to our state uh representative and also it was Senator Rick Scott and asked him
specifically if they would intervene on our behalf because those dunes are so important to protecting the infrastructure of Passigril. And once we did get the county to go ahead and do those, we had to put the sea oats and other things. So there's there's many things that you can do to
harden the dunes that protect the infrastructure and that will protect the homes and residents. So that's one of our big challenges there. And and so do you and do you think that does I think part of my question was are does Vina have different does Vina have
a different main concern than the rest of Well, you might not know but uh many of the homes in Vena didn't suffer flood damage. Correct. So, you know, being high and elevated, they don't suffer that same thing. So, the dune
restoration really wouldn't have had an effect on the Vina Delmare residents. So that would be a difference in there. Uh as far as roads, you know, we redid passway years ago. We did it the right way. We put in all the new lines and
things like that. And uh once again, you know, if we look at Boca Drive, and I know this from being on the finance and budget review committee, Bokea Drive needs to be redone. Uh G um way needs to be redone. And so we're looking at
creative ways in which we can reaccoish that without taking us into debt. Our debt five years down the road for capital improvement for those types of project uh projects are looking at $21 million. So can we
resurface those roads and uh not pay that? Yes, we can. But then we're going to pay a cost because the infrastructure beneath it has failed. This can be a full-time job. And do you have the time to dedicate? Do you have any obligations, yearly
vacations or the like that would prevent you from attending meetings? I'm an airline pilot. If you ever been on a canceled flight, I commute to work, so I'm subject to the the whims of the weather and maintenance and things like that as well. So, there could be a time
that, you know, I I have pretty good control of my schedule because I'm pretty senior at the airline. And so I get to pick and choose where I want to fly and things like that, but there's always that chance that I can go ahead and do that. As far as uh uh vacations and things like that, no, I would
schedule them around meetings. Thank you. You're welcome. What um what capacities have you served in the city's other boards, etc. in in St. Pete Beach? Well, I served on the beach uh stewardship committee and I
serve on a uh finance and review committee. Thank you. Finance and budget review committee. But I've done other things as well. You know, dedicating the the the bridge that took an integrated effort with the
uh Florida Department of Transportation because our city manager didn't want to take on the task. The reason I took on the task is because I saw that our city has a resident that is a Medal of Honor recipient and they were going to name the bridge after a politician whose name
is all around this county who I advise, CW Bill Young. And CW Bill Young has a lot of things named for him because he was a true statesman. He served us well here in the county at the federal level. But we have a hero that lives in our our community and that man deserves to have
his name on that bridge and causeway. So I took it up with the city manager at the time and I also brought it to my commissioner's uh attention. Commissioner said, "Would you talk to the mayor about it?" I talked to the mayor about it. The mayor said, "Would you head up the committee?" I said, "Yes, I would." Took it on. We took on
the Ford Department of Transportation. We got the approvals to have the ceremony and to also put a plaque. The plaque hasn't been placed yet. And uh we had a community celebration. So this is something that I think I don't mean to
drone on, but I think it brings a sense of community together. Rather than being four distinct districts, we should function working to be a city and a city has to support itself. And events like that brought the city together. And I think we could do more things like that
together. Hi. Um, are you a member of any organization that may influence any of your decisions while sitting on the commission? People don't influence me in particular. I have to weigh the pluses and minuses
of each case that I've heard. And I've heard many different cases. I've sat in on the cup discussions and things like that. I've made my my moments here and spoken to the commission about my aspects and my feelings about cups and things like that. I've communicated with
my commissioner about uh my opinions and feelings. But as far as being influenced by outside groups, no, I'm my own person and I can make those decisions. But I represent a constituency and in order to have representative government, we have
to listen to our constituents and constituents is everybody in the community in district 4. That's who I would be representing. But like I said previously just a moment ago, we have to make decisions as a city and and bring our city together and do these things so
that we all benefit from this. Commissioner, good evening, Colonel Mike. Good evening, sir. On or in April of 2023, the Florida Senate voted 35 to five to approve, uh,
requirement of form six, uh, which is a financial disclosure form for elected officials. Um later that same month, uh the Florida House voted 113-2
to approve that same legislation. And May of 2023, the governor signed it into law. Um that um legislation uh was put under an injunction by a uh
judge where it currently sits. Um based on the overwhelming support within the Florida government that that legislation received, uh there's a reasonable chance that um that requirement would be reinstituted.
Um would you be willing to um submit to the form six requirement should it become a requirement again? If it's a law, then yes, you have to you have to comply with the law. Thank you.
Uh whether or not you're appointed here tonight, are you um planning on running for this seat in the for the election in November? I really don't know. Okay. Um, I ran on a resident's first platform, which means decisions are made
with the needs of the residents first. What is your ideology as a commissioner? Well, I think I've indicated already that we have to function as a city. We all rely on each other and we need each other for this government to function.
I represent a constituency and like I said I have to listen to them. I also know business owners and I see that sometimes we we are seeing a conflict and there doesn't need to be that conflict. Business owners have a stake
in this community because we go there. We go to their businesses. We utilize their businesses. It's just like uh um Miss Shner said, you know, this is the time to support our local businesses and get out there and visit them and make sure that they can continue to keep
their staff, their workers on board and uh some of them earn their living this way. So, I have to represent my constituents and listen to them, but I also have to be cognizant and do a good job as a leader explaining
myself and my decisions to people and also seek their input. Thank you. What do you see at the city's current greatest need? Money. Uh seriously, we have a shortfall of
money for the infrastructure that we need to replace, the capital improvements that we need to make. And uh many of these are not uh wants, they are needs. And looking over the budget, we had to prioritize all of those capital improvement programs. And so
looking at those things, it's hard hard to um prioritize those and push others out for a number of years because they are actual needs, not wants. So that that's our number one need here. What do you feel is the number one need
for district 4? I think hardening the dunes needs to needs to be done because it does protect the infrastructure and it protects the people that live there, their businesses and their homes. And we saw the devastation that it that happened there.
Uh when I went down afterwards, I stayed on the island. When I went down afterwards, there was the beach was in the roads and local businesses and residents were trying to dig themselves out. So, we had weeks of digging and
things like that. I think if we look at hardening the dunes, it will protect most of that area much better than it did in the past. Um, I asked the county to get involved in this before, long before we had the uh the dunes
actually replaced. I took films. I sent them to Commissioner uh Brian Scott and uh he's up on the north side. He goes, "I count on you as my eyes and ears on the south side." And so I took videos when the waves were right there at the pass
um paradise grill and the waves were lapping up on the concrete there. And I took pictures and then I showed the decay of the dunes and I said, "Commissioner, these dunes need to be hardened and they need to be hardened to do this." And you learn about those
things because serving on the beach stewardship committee, you know, I looked at wave actions being in the military. I had Marines that worked for me. Marines, what do they do? They take beaches. I talked to the beach guy. I call them my beach party. I talked to
the beach party. I said, "What do we need to do here and do this?" And they engineered different solutions and options. So, I learned quite a bit about that. So, that that's infrastructure is our number one need. You know, we need to take care of these uh uh the storm
water, the sewer, the reclaimed water, the roads, and the beach to protect it. Thank you. Thank you. Nothing further. Do you believe your personal views align with the views of district 4 when it comes to development and redevelopment?
And what are those views? My views on redevelopment are we need redevelopment. I looked at I I had friends that I wanted to visit. I didn't have room in my home. So I went and I looked at a couple of the rooms at in
the large resort district and I couldn't recommend them. They're old. They need work. They consume more energy. You know, you talk about our comprehensive plan. talk about leads and other green uh projects that we have in
there and those are our building standards and things like that. We want to promote that. So I would say redevelopment is is something that needs to go on up and down the beach and that also will boost up our uh uh advalorum
taxes which are kind of out of balance if you will. And so that that's going to help out with that as well. What is my philosophy you're asking? uh I have to represent my constituents but again as a leader I have to explain things to people as well and I have to explain how
do we get the resources in order to do this but we also have to protect our way of life and we have to protect our way of of life quality and that includes things like pollution that includes overcrowding that includes over density and things like that I'm not for huge
expansion completely frank about that redevelopment M4. Thank you. What is a CUP and how does the process work?
Conditional use permit. Uh if if I'm going to explain this as a leader to my constituents, I would say that these are not building permits. These are conditional use based on conditions. And if you look in the land development code section 4.1, it says that these are
not a right. You don't have a right to go ahead and, you know, pour in billions of dollars or millions of dollars and things like that and just get this approved. We have rules and regulations that you have to uh the land development code, the comprehensive plan are those
two things that are tied together so that we have a roadmap in order to do that. So conditional use, hey, I make my case to you. I'm asking for you to approve this, the commission to approve this. Here's my plans. It goes through
multiple phases, a technical review, the planners, does it comply with what we have as our character districts. Does it have the applicable uh items that we want as far as environmental concerns? Again, taking in the leads and all those
other types of things. And then go ahead and make their presentation and make a request. Who is the largest revenue provider to our tax base? The residents.
And that's what's out of balance. Have you read the comp comprehensive plan? Yes. What is the relationship from the comprehensive plan to the land development code? The land development code is like the rule book that supports a comprehensive plan.
As a matter of fact, you know, the comprehensive plan, it's kind of the way we brief a fighter mission. We have goals, we have objectives, and then comprehensive plan has policies. And so when I brief up my attack missions, I have goals. Brief those objectives.
Here's how we're going to do it. And then the mission elements would be the policies. What document has the standards for review on conditional use permits? The land development codes. And what are the residents and small
businesses needs and desires in district 4? And are they the same as other districts or are there inherent differences? And if so, what are they? uh needs for District 4. Again, we have a small downtown area, if you will, downtown Pass Girl, Pass Girl under the
lights. You know, I hope you've all come on down there and celebrated a little. We had a great uh New Year's ball drop. That was a lot of fun getting to be an annual event. What are the needs down there? Well, again, when we look at redoing Gway, we're going to be
interrupting those businesses. So when we do eventually whether we're going to mill and pave or we're going to replace like we did pass a girl way we need to make sure that those stakeholders are brought into the planning effort. How are we going to do that? How are we less going to impact those businesses and how
are we less going to impact uh the residents who come and go? How are we less going to impact the workers? There's going to be a lot of lost parking and things like that. This is going to have a significant input. So, it's going to have to have stakeholders that are participating in the planning
process. Um, are you friends of St. Pete Beach um and or protect St. Pete Beach? And what do you know of these two specific groups and who do they represent? I am aware of both of them because I'm a resident of
the city. So, yes, um, Friends of St. P beach and protect St. Pete Beach. Uh, one's a pack and one is a uh an advocacy group, if you will, and they would advocate for as I I get their email and I read what they're saying and I think
anybody should because that's a large chunk of our population gets that email and you get some good information from there and you also get other opinions. You know, people will talk about they'll put their peace out, but that begins a
community discussion as well. How long have you lived in St. Pete Beach? 25 years. And of all the places you could live, what made you pick St. Pete Beach? I started coming down here when I was a
lieutenant. I flew into McDill Air Force Base and my squadron mate had a condo in Tiraverie and I went around Tiraverie and he had a jet ski and I used to take that jet ski
out for hours out around Shell Island, St. Pete Beach. He introduced me to his friends that lived here. One of them lived on Vina Delmare. um whenever I had uh a jet and some time, I would fly into the base and come
and visit St. Pete Beach. And eventually I lost both my parents. I lived in Michigan. I lost both my parents and uh my reason for staying in Michigan was less and less. Being an airline pilot, I can live anywhere I'm willing to commute to work from. So, I always enjoyed my
time here from the early 90s or mid9s here and just uh decided that I need to seek a home here. Thank you. You're welcome. Any further questions?
Thank you, sir. Thank you. Should we open it for audience comments and then deliberation? City clerk, do we have any audience comments on this issue? Nancy sur. If you'll please state your name and
address for the record. Hi, good evening. My name is Nancy Serubi. Um 109 11th Avenue St. Pete Beach. Good evening, commissioners, mayor, city manager. I'm here to express my full support for Bob Shyros for District 4
Commissioner for our city. I've known Bob for seven years and I can tell you firsthand he is not here for the title. He's definitely stepping up to serve. Bob is a reliable, dedicated member of our community who constantly shows up when it counts. I can't can tell you how many times I've called him for just a
small favor. I'm right there. Whe it's volunteering his time, he's volunteered. We're on the committee for party under the lights. He's always willing to help. What do you need and how can I make your life better? That's what I want to hear. He always listens to the neighbor concerns, always lending a hand when
needed, and Bob has a steady commitment to make the city a better place for everyone. His approachable and friendly nature makes him an asset to the community. He understands the importance of the communication and calibration, and he brings people together with respect and purpose. Bob has a strong
strength sense of responsibility to the city and its residents like us. He has constantly expressed the importance of improving our infrastructure, supporting local businesses, which you clearly heard him from here tonight, and striving for transparency in our government. I believe he will represent
the people of District 4 with integrity, energy, and common sense. The city deserves leaders like yourself who care deeply about the place we call home. The leaders work hard to stay involved and put our community first. Bob Shyros is that kind of person. Thank you so much
for your time. Thank you. Rich Lorenzan, if you please state your name and address for the record. Good evening, Rich Lorenzan, 22nd Avenue. Um, I didn't expect to talk tonight because I thought this was going to happen tomorrow night. And I hope a lot of folks haven't been
disenfranchised from showing up and getting a chance to speak. But, uh, I think, uh, we have several very strong candidates. All three of them, I think, are good people with with, uh, with good backgrounds. Um, I see two that have kind of stepped out and one that stepped
a little bit higher up on the scale. Um, I can tell you as my time when I was sitting in Joe Mahal's seat before him filling in as an interim, I got two phone calls from Vina Delmare, I got at least 80 from Pasigril. So, why do I
bring that up? I can tell you that the problems are all in Pasigril and it's been all touched on tonight. It's, you know, it's the infrastructure. It's those tidal flow valves that are still not repaired after three years now. I think we're up to failures. It's the
city seaw walls that need to still be finished up. It's beach reourishment. It's parking. It's 8th Avenue. There's so many issues that are critical to pass a grill. And when I listen to all three candidates, I kind of go, boy, all three of them are pretty sharp guys, but which
one's got boots on the ground and a stake in the fight and is going to be the one walking around past the grill all the time? Does that mean that Vena doesn't have any issues? No. But Vena is a lucky community. It's kind of it's kind of does its own thing. It's got houses, doesn't have a lot of infrastructure problems, and we just
don't have a lot of issues with VINA. So, um I think that uh when I sit down and listen to everybody tonight, I think there's two that kind of pop out at me. Um I think I'm going to throw my hat in the ring for Bob Shiro. And I think
John's done a wonderful job. I think he's an excellent guy, too. I think he comes with a clean heart. He has no agenda. He has no baggage. He has no intertwined connections to various groups that I think sometimes get a little bit cumbersome and uh I think he's just going to be an outstanding guy
to represent District 4 Vina and Pass Girl. Thank you. Thank you. No further comments. I'm sorry. Debner, please state your name and address for the record. Deborah
Deborah Shakna. There you go. Okusa Isle Drive in St. Pete Beach, Florida. Um, we need somebody who is knowledgeable, has attended meetings, have spoken before this commission, and I will tell you, we are
certain areas of our city are still a mess. about I hate to say it out loud, half of my neighbors out of 80 are still not in their homes. So, we need somebody who understands that. We need somebody who is up to date, can sit in district 4
seat immediately and know you have to know the comprehensive plan, what a cup is. These are the issues that are be coming up all the time. You have to know that the residents don't want 20s story buildings.
These are all important and I think Colonel Griger seems to be in my opinion the best candidate. The other two candidates would probably be better off trying for a board seat or doing some other things
in the community to get the feel of it. Until you're sitting up there, you don't have the feel of what really what's going on as a government official or a planning board member, which is a very excellent way to start.
Colonel Griger has lived here 25 years. I think that stands for something because I feel history in this city is not taken into account many times with um decisions that are made. He knew the answers. He understands the
city. He's been involved. He's been on a board. Those are the kind of things that say to me, yes, you can sit in that seat. It's very, very important. I think all of you know that because
without knowledge and without understanding of how our city works, it will very long catch up period without a doubt. I think you all know that it's not easy. I know
some of our commissioners here attended meetings all the time, spoke all the time. And I have heard Colonel Greger here in the most important of times and he speaks well. He reaches out to the community and just because Vita is not
flooding doesn't mean Vita doesn't have issues and problems. So, I kind of find that a little condescending when you take Vina and just say, "We don't have to worry about them. They can take care of themselves." Well, no, they can't. They're part of our city and they deserve everything every other residents
in this city has. And do we still have flooding problems around? Yes. research, information, and I think uh Colonel Greger connections to get things done when he reaches out to county commissioners as a resident on our
behalf. That's important. Thank you. No further comments. Okay. All right. Next is Mr. Mayor, I'd like to um amend my uh
previously submitted resignation uh to make it effective uh upon completion of uh a couple brief comments if uh that's um agreeable to the commission. Yes, I would love would love to hear from you.
I'm definitely going to miss uh working for the respectful residents of this city. And there are a number of in fact the majority of the people in the audience tonight are are folks that
uh it was I take great honor in serving them. Um and uh I will um miss working and representing uh those respectful residents. So um I will miss you all. Uh
so thank you very much for allowing me to represent you. Uh I want to thank the city staff for all the assistance that I've received from them over the last 17 months while I've been um on the commission and on the board of adjustment. Um there's been
a lot of changes in the city staff. Um and I would say uh it's absolutely for the better and thank you madam city manager for um contributing greatly to that. Um so I I just want to thank the
city staff that's here tonight as well as all the other city staff that is that have truly been very helpful to me. And then finally, um I'm going to miss very much working with the charter officers uh as well as this commission. Uh we
haven't always agreed on everything. Um but I know we've all worked hard uh and uh I truly will miss working with you all. Uh I was retired for a number of years um or a few years. Uh decided
to get back into the work environment and uh uh thanks to the storms, we had plenty of work to do on top of all the additional work that was necessary. But I really will miss you all. Uh and I
thank you for allowing me to serve with you. I hear about resign. Let them know you resign. [Applause]
Mr. City Attorney, do you need a formal declaration? Uh, maybe a motion to accept the resignation. Is there a motion to accept Commissioner Mohalland's resignation effective immediately? I move to accept his resignation
effective immediately. I second. City Clerk, if you'll please do a roll call. Vice Mayor Marriott? Yes. Commissioner Robinson? Yes. Commissioner Rizniki? Yes. And Mayor Petrilla? Yes. Motion carries. Would
any of you like to say a few words to Commissioner Mhalland? Now might be a good opportunity. I would um I I just wanted to um thank Commissioner Mhalland. I did have the opportunity to meet with him before he took his seat. So I got to know him a
little bit. Um even though he doesn't get my name right, it's uh it's okay because um it it keeps it light up here um whenever we have to laugh about it. So, I appreciate that and I appre appreciate your service. Um, you know,
all around the country to us to the citizens. Um, I know this is a hard decision for you. Um, but you know, sometimes we do have to make decisions for ourselves and for our family and and I do appreciate even learning that it's a reminder to us all of what's
important. Um, so even though we did motion and I and I said yes, of course I wouldn't have wanted to motion for you to resign, um, because I think you've served us very well. Um, and and you've kept me on my toes because even though we don't agree, I I do appreciate the
differences that that's always important to have differences because that makes you think. So I I do appreciate that a lot. Thank you. I'd like to say it's been a pleasure and um I really greatly appreciate your nononsense approach and just getting
right to the heart of things. It it helps move things along as well and uh your desire to see action um instead of just talk. Thank you. Uh I'd like to thank uh Joe Mahalland as
well. I think uh um we all know that this can be a a difficult spot to be sitting and uh um and uh we we all are take our turn at being the um the subject of criticism and I think he's taken it with grace when it's been his
turn and uh um and you know now that now that you're a uh a resident instead of a commissioner sitting up here I want to make sure you know keep my number on speed dial Joe because I'm always interested in what you how you feel about things that we're doing here.
Commissioner, it's been a pleasure and an honor to serve with you, sir. Thank you. Would the commission be opposed to a short recess? Great idea. We will recess to 8:15 sharp. Thank you.
You know, there was a moment there couple days before the deadline where I'm not sure we're going to get anyone for district 4. Um, uh, for those of you who don't follow county politics much, statistically speaking, over 75% of all commission
vacancies in Penllis go uncontested. Nobody wants the job, right? And so for for nothing else, I just want to say thank you for the three applicants um who put their name in the hat and and
said, "We're here. we're willing to step up. We're willing to serve. Um and so for that, you have you certainly have my thanks. Um so the next step for the commission is for us to deliberate um and then make a motion to appoint.
So you got your green little thing. No, we'll take our turns and you say or you make your comments, have questions, suggestions. Yes, Commissioner in the green.
Um I I do want to thank the three candidates. Um and I do concur with the mayor. It um it's really we ask I know I ask you know this the city clerk, you know, has anybody submitted an application? you know, so um just because we want to know. Obviously, we
don't want a seat to be empty um indefinitely until November for the next uh election um for for district 4. So, I appreciate um all all of you stepping up. I'm sure it was not a light decision to make even though you might have been
coerced by some of your neighbors. Um I know it's not a light decision to make. So um but with that um you know one of the questions I had asked was you know what what was one of the biggest priorities for district 4 and and and there there are many you know and um
even for myself being in a district that has a variety of different neighborhoods all very different and unique um as far as location and where they are. Um district 4 having um two primary neighborhoods if you want to call them that being Patrick Grill and Veno. We
kind of I'll I'll discuss that. um um Pasigril um you know and it's not to to say that someone living on Vina is unfamiliar with Pasil. You have to drive through there to get to Vina, right? But the situation in where they currently are
and and what they have to see on a daily basis might be different for someone who might have a little bit of ref's fest. Let's just call it at at Vena. Um Pastor Grillil um is at a critical state. Um there's been loss of homes, um loss of
businesses, um and and you know, you see this all day. I I see it in my neighborhood. Um I think uh one of the public comments was, you know, you you've got maybe 80% of the homes um not occupied um around you
and that and that takes a toll on people who are actually living there as well. So, um I I do think it's important um to be close to where a lot is happening. Um but also know how to reach out, you
know, to to those who might not be close to where a lot is happening as well. So, being part of a community is very important. And um again, it's really hard because I I hear what all three candidates say. Um um and I'll say Bob
since since Joe opened up Bob, but um Bob Shyros, right? Um you know, I I do feel strong u as a candidate because of your proximity and having the knowledge as a resident and
business owner. um your willingness to serve um having the time other than your potential crews um in September, but knowing that you are willing um to to step up and even um take the November seat and and go for election is I think
is um important um because then we create again another um empty uh seat. Um, so because of that, I hold um um Bob as as probably my first choice. Um,
Colonel, I watch you, you know, on the finance, you know, I and I've seen you on beach stewardship. Um, I looked at a lot of those before I went on beach stewardship. Um, but you're serving that position well. So, another one of my concerns is that
we are now opening up another position um by moving you over. So, unless you had someone and I wish you would have said and maybe I could have asked that but it wouldn't have been fair to everybody but if you had another candidate though I know the the mayor did appoint you on that seat. Um but
that that concerns me. Um and that knowing how many times we have meetings these evenings which is a lot and in impromptu I'm happy that we're not having one tomorrow night. um but it wasn't planned for and um I don't know if it would be difficult as your role as
a pilot being able u to look at your your calendar as quickly as most of us I think have to look at our calendar while we're sitting up here trying to squeeze in um another meeting. So um that's that's my little brief summary and I'll
hear what the others have to say. Yeah, it's very well said. Thank you. Colonel Greger is a huge asset on that. Absolutely. On that uh on that committee know the numbers. He knows his stuff for sure. I'll go um Renee, how many letters did
everybody put in? I mean the the um the petitions 15 for everybody or were there more in some or what? Or some did produce more? Okay. I did not verify all of them. I just verified the necessary 15. Okay. Um,
how did everybody put in 15 or is there 25 to some, more to others? I just don't know. Yeah, one put in 15, one put in around 30, and one put in around 60. Okay. Um, I I have concerns with just not knowing
the comp plan with a couple candidates not knowing the comp plan. That's a huge item that we It's the Bible up here. It really is the Bible. and two of the candidates are going to run in November. So, my suggestion is you really need to learn the comp plan
or read it, read through it, know the LDC. Um, know the, you know, the standards for review on the on the conditional use permits. It's a huge it's it's a big stake for the residents here on what gets
approved. It's a huge stake. And again, the residents pay 80% of the tax base here. So they are driving force. Not to say that the small businesses the small businesses
are the flavor of this town and they deserve it too. But you we have to respect and listen to the residents. They've been neglected for a long time. Um so I have concerns with not knowing the comp plan and that's a huge issue
for me. Um, so with that being said, you know, my choice is Mike Greger. Um, simply based on that, he has more knowledge
than than the other two. And they have time to learn it. They've got months, a few months here till November. If they're going to run, it's an awesome opportunity. I think everybody are, all three of you are great candidates for the job. just the knowledge base um is
needed on that on that. It really is. It's the basis for most of what we do here. It's really kind of the basis for everything we do up here. Um so that is huge. The 25 years being here as well, that's
that's another, you know, um it's got a lot of background. Um you know, everybody lives in the same district, so there that's that to me is all the same. I like the feet on the grounds and knowing your neighbors and and you got to be able to take heat because trust me, you'll get heat. Ask
Joe, ask me, you'll take heat sitting up here. That's for sure from people in the community and people outside of the community. So, um be prepared for that as well. But um I would have to go with the person that is more experienced
um and give the other two the opportunity to gain experience and to learn in the few months that we have till we get to November. That would be my recommendation. So, I think that um we're very fortunate
to have three super smart guys be interested in taking this position. Absolutely. Um, and uh, there is no way to overstate how important it is to have people with a variety of
backgrounds and experience sitting up here to help us make decisions and to to have a variety of experiences informing the decisions that we make. Um, listening to the three candidates, I think for me the strongest candidate is
Mr. Shyros. Um I think there and there's a couple reasons for that. Well, three three reasons really. The first one is that in the last two days um I've had a whole lot of people um come by and see me and call me expressing their support for him. Um so he does have real strong
support from his neighbors, probably more than he knows of people tracking me down to let me know that. And uh um I also think that um somebody with uh an engineering background and the thought processes of
an engineer could be invaluable to us in a lot of the things that we're going to be working through in the next few months. Um so I think that's I think that's a a maybe I'm a little biased because I have an engineer for a dad, but I think it's a uh um I think it's a
perspective that is very important that we've been missing. Um, and then you know when he was here answering our questions on on every question that we asked about, you know, what's important in Pasigril, what's important to you,
what's happening in Pasigril, he didn't just have theoretical answers. He had answers from clearly people on the street that he's been talking to specifically, personally, one-on-one. He's so tied to that community. It's very clear to me that he's very tied to that community and the people in the
community that it will be very easy for people to make their opinions known to him and for him to represent them because he's so accessible. And I think that's I think that's uh um I think that's very important and particularly when we're appointing somebody interim
where there's not going to be a lot of time for people to get to know him or or you know figure out how to reach out to him and things like that. He's clearly already very wellknown and accessible. Um, and so I think that's a uh I think that would be a real benefit to the folks in Pasigril to have somebody
stepping into this position who's um already so responsive and accessible. So we've heard from three candidates seems two of you all for Mr. Shyus and you seem to be leaning for Mr. Greger. So from those of you leaning towards Mr.
Shyus, the other two told us what they've been doing in the city, how they've been involved, how they've contributed, how they have listened to their neighbors, and how they've
actually taken steps in action. So I'd like to just hear from you all. I mean, convince me. I mean, what's what has he done? How has he taken the things that he's heard and then taken steps to remedy those issues?
Well, I think I heard him say that he was involved and also looking at the the resume and the association, the events going on in Pastor Grail. I mean that that's listening to people around, you know, and that benefit some of the events they hold in pastor grill is not
just for pastor grill. It's I know I've gone to a street, you know, whenever there's an event when they've had a bonfire and um even when I was president um for the association, I felt comfortable, you know, calling over there to, you know, get ideas on how
they run their association and what they do. So, um even though, you know, two have not served in a committee um prior, I I would say not all of us here did either, right? So I think we we do that
all in different ways, right? The the involvement doesn't there's always a first, right? This is my first as a commissioner. Um yes, I was involved in other ways, you know, within my community. Um but in involvement does, you know, doesn't mean that you had to
have I don't know if you're asking about like boards. I'll restate my question. Right. So for example, Mr. from Aldonado. He heard there was a need. He stepped up and volunteered.
Right? I'm sure everybody else heard the same needs, right? We got seaw walls, we got dunes, we got infrastructure, we've got roads. Colonel Mike Greger picks up the phone and calls county commissioners, calls our federal senator. Okay. I'm asking for Mr. Shyus.
What have you seen him actually take action? I'm happy that he listens to everyone. I want to know what actions has he taken. The other two gentlemen have taken actions and not in any official capacity. It's like, hey, I got some resources. I got time. I can volunteer. I can do this. I can make a
phone call. I would like to know because to me, you know, to say something as banal as talk is cheap. Um, I want to know what what your actions are. What have you done? How have you actually not just heard about the problem, how have you actually done something about the
problem? I I think that that that it's different. I mean, again, he said he volunteered in different capacities within the community. He actually if and correct me if I'm wrong because people did reach out to me too to support you as well. But you took on a general store
that that I think people in the community were very well aware of kind of, you know, historic nature of Passic Railroad is a big big big thing. I mean, we have a historic preservation board, right? And he took on a business which
unfortunately got hurt, you know, by by the storm. um but instead of demolishing it and putting something else, he tried to bring something back to the community. So to me, that's listening to community. It it doesn't have to be on a
board, you know, I think that's action. So by by running events for the community, not everybody does that. I I would say the same. You know, did did the other two candidates help run set up
set up camp for um the bonfire or the uh the or the a street lights, you know, or or just go to the event. I mean, volunteering is in many different aspects. So, um some people pick up the phone and some people go set it up, you
know, it it's it's just very different, you know. So, I wouldn't diminish either three because their level of volunteering is is just different in all capacities. You know, um you I volunteer in 10 other things outside of the commission, you know. I doesn't I don't
say that that makes me better. I just it's we all have we're all different, you know. So, I just still say that that he he's still volunteering. I think people take action in different ways at different times when the when
the opportunity presents itself and and their their position in life allows, right? you know, um I I I I think as Commissioner Rzniki said, he he's he's clearly volunteered a
lot in the community and and absolutely, you know, there's there's I like what you said, there are people who pick up the phone and then there's people who like pick up the tables, right? So, they're they're they're both taking action and uh and so so I think that uh
um you know, to to I I I I just don't think that's a significantly relevant question. So, you don't think the question of you heard about a problem in the community and how
have you taken action is not relevant for somebody who wants to be a commissioner? Especially after the hurricanes, it's been very important. I don't think we asked any of them to give us a list of of what problems did your neighbors bring to you and how did you take action? You know, the other ones
all told us about it. Yeah, he had opportunities. He's telling us about how he's out there walking his dog and talking to his neighbors. I mean, it's they had opening statements, they had closing statements where he asked open-ended questions. We didn't restrict him to yes or no answers. I simply wanted to know if you all feel so
strongly about this individual. Convince me what has he done to be so deserving of your endorsement. So what I I I am endorsing him based on my impression of who he is.
So you don't think his knowledge is important? You don't think his actions are important? You don't think his community at all what I said. Okay. So So this this this conversation is about who are we who who do we support for this role and who are we going to
appoint for this role. Um, and and and I think I've made that clear. Well, I think this conversation should be about who's most qualified to be a commissioner, not who do we like the best. This is not a popularity contest. This is about who can step into
in two weeks time and fill this seat. Not have to play catch-up. not have to be educated on what a CUP is, not have to be educated on the most basic things that our commission has to deal with, who doesn't
have to be caught up on the last five, six, any number of years, right? It's our responsibility here to make the best decision for our residents and that is to pick the most qualified person to be sitting up here and representing their
district. So, so you're going to base a decision because you felt that one person answered the cup uh question better than another? I mean, again, it's not rocket science. Anybody here can pick up a document and read it and learn
it, right? Um, and we don't that wasn't the question. Do you know every single ordinance that's in our city by memory, by heart, or do you do research before you make a decision? Are you saying that his intelligence and and not I'm not saying your intelligence but in general
right that that the three candidates aren't intelligent enough to do the research when needed. I mean many times I'm I'm to the wee hours of the night researching to prepare for these meetings and and they're all different. We we have
different situations happening at all all all times. None of us are knowledgeable on all things. We have to be able to do the work, right? And so I think he's qualified and able to do the work that is needed to get the job done.
Based on what what what are you basing that on the questions that we ask and and listening to the to the c the you know the people who came up and spoke. So um I I would ask you the same thing. What are you basing it on? Because you're asking me, but what do you have to say?
What what are you basing it on? I got a different impression from and I'm I'm perfectly honing, you know, to say what I think. I don't think I've shied away from that at any point. And so to me, Mr. Shyros,
you know, whether you take offense or not, sir, you are, in my opinion, the least qualified of the three candidates that we have. And I'm happy to support that with your own comments. You know, we'll give the gentleman a moment.
So, several times when asked why he wants to be involved, he said because he's bored. Sir, I am not bored. I got I got tons of things to do outside of being in a city and I'm here because I want to serve my community, not
because out of boredom. Um I think it's it's sad that, you know, something as simple as, you know, our tax basis, not knowing who's responsible, you know, when you realize
that the vast majority of our taxes are paid by residents, but you think it's actually somebody else. And so now you're not understanding who your constituents are, who you here to represent. You know, when he talked about um you know, short-term rentals, he wasn't
concerned about the short-term rentals, how that might impact the neighbors living to them. That's one of the things for example, Commissioner Mohal has been very vocal about is, you know, the noise that and how that impacts our residents. His concern was that it should not steal
revenue from the hotels. Those were his words. Those are not my words, right? Um, you know, he hasn't been here. He hasn't been involved in any capacity at all. I know he tells us that he walks his dog and I wish I wasn't allergic to dogs and
I would walk my dog as well and probably lose 20 pounds in the process, you know. Um, but that's my cross, right? Then talking to your neighbors and hearing from them is one thing, but there's a difference to me between somebody who hears there's a problem
and whether you're in a board or not because Mr. Maldonado is not on the board, right? But he saw a need and he's not talk, he's not hearing, he's about let me do some action. I have some excess time, I have capacity. Maybe
I don't know a whole lot about the permitting process, but I'm willing to learn so that I can help my neighbors, right? Versus, you know, Mr. Shyros when asked, you know, why he wouldn't, you know, serve in a board in a capacity,
you know, he said, well, he just wants to start at the top. Well, I'm sorry, sir. based on your answers, I think you should reconsider that and maybe actually get involved in some capacity and get a little bit background, get a little bit of experience in the city to actually be able to serve in this
capacity. And again, for us as the commissioners, our responsibility is to pick somebody who can who actually has the necessary experience and who's qualified, who's the best qualified person. Um and to me those are the other two candidates both on their
professional experience based on their involvement in the city. Um you know Mr. Maldonado did you know you know was able to explain what a cup process you know what it is and what a process is. Um when asked about the LDC he just frankly
said no. He didn't try to come up with an answer. He just said no. I I don't know. And if nothing else, I certainly appreciate somebody who's honest and can say, "Look, I don't know." Too many people will just try to invent an answer and try to like do some word salad or so
on. So, I certainly appreciate that very much. Um, and so that's why for me, again, looking at eliminating one person right off the bat, Mr. Sh based on his own answers, based on his own lack of involvement, participation, experience
and so on, um is is certainly unqualified. And having been through this process before, we saw the results of what happened when we picked unqualified people, right?
Both of you had experience. Both of you had served on boards on the HOA or the community association on beach stewardship, right? You had experience. You knew what it was like to serve in the city. There were two other commissioners appointed. One who
couldn't even be here half the time, had zero had zero experience, zero involvement, zero understanding of anything of the process. And we appointed him for district 4. And then we had another person that we appointed for district two
who by his own admission said he wasn't qualified to be a commissioner. I asked him and he says, "Yeah, you're right. I'm not qualified." And we had somebody else who had 30 years experience and we picked that person.
Okay. I think it is an opportunity for us to show our residents that we can make good decisions. that we can make decisions that don't seem to be influenced and motivated by something because I really don't know anything
about Mr. Chyus and nothing he has said today convinces me that he's able to step in here tomorrow and fill that vacancy and we've made that mistake already twice and our residents have vehemently
rebelled against it. And so if you all want to take that on again, but we have an opportunity to do it better this time than we did last time. The residents deserve the most qualified
person for the job. It's not a popularity contest. It's one who's most qualified for the job. It's a short stint. If if the person wants to go on, that's fine. If the other folks want to run. It gives them an opportunity to
learn the basics with the comp plan and with the land development code. It gives ample amount of time to get familiar. But what we need right now is somebody who can just step in for this time period.
It's not a learn not a learning curve and they can hit the ground running. And to me, that's the chronal mic driver. So, I think it's always a learning curve as commissioner
because unless you've been commissioner before, it's a learning curve. And uh I'm pretty sure when the mayor got elected, he had not ever served on a single board in the city or volunteered with any neighborhood association in the city.
Um, and so I think I think that's a little uh disingenuous now to throw that up as a as a required qualification for sitting in one of these seats. I do believe that as the mayor has said many times,
we have a responsibility to the residents in the city and by far I have heard from not a single resident about either of the other candidates. But I have heard from many of the residents who supported Mr. Shyros.
So, numerous times we've talked about voting the way our residents want us to versus our personal feelings. So, are you willing to go with the person that had the most resident feedback?
It is it is it is a part it is a part of what encourages me to support him. Okay. because Colonel Mike Greger had 60 endorsements and he's got 20 plus letters of reference in our package household. Let's not even go there.
Okay. So, so you and your husband don't have differing opinions. You don't count as two people. Okay. No, I mean that's what you just said. All right. So, they don't their opinion if we want to go for a motion. Is there a motion?
I I motion to appoint um Bob um Skyros for commissioner for district 4. Second. City clerk, if you please do a roll call. Commissioner Robinson, no. Commissioner is Nikki, yes. Vice Mayor Marriott, yes.
And Mayor Petilla, no. Motion fails. [Applause] Okay. So, we talked about Mr. Shyros. Let's talk about the other two candidates. whether your objections or endorsements of the other candidates.
What are yours? I already gave you mine. I talked about both candidates already. They've both been involved in the city. They're not talkers. They are doers. When it was time to take action because they heard from the neighbors because there were problems in the community,
they both stepped up and took action to help their neighbors. Whether they were in official capacity or not. I make a motion that we appoint John Maldonado. Motion dies for fail the second. I'll make a motion to appoint
Mike Greger. I'll second city clerk, if you please do a roll call. Commissioner Rizniki. No. Vice Mayor Marriott? No. Commissioner Robinson? Yes. Mayor Petilla? Yes.
Okay. So, those of you that voted against Commissioner, well, Colonel Mike Kger, would you care to let the public voted against him? What are your objections to him? I I already made my comment on it. So, I'm sorry. I didn't I didn't hear
you speak about at the very beginning, the first time. My concern is the commitment of time having to be, you know, we meet a lot. you know, I'm constantly adding stuff to my calendar
besides what's already listed on our calendar. So, that's a concern of mine and and not knowing whether to run again for um November. Um that that's a big one. And also that we're going to be freeing up another seat on another
board, you know. Um I think actually see that as a benefit that could help those two other gentlemen to fill that seat. I mean, that would be a great opportunity for them to kind of get their feet wet if they're going to run in November. I travel a lot for a living, too. And I
still make the meetings. We do the we do the the survey as to availability, and there are choices in that. So, I don't find that necessarily an issue, especially with our commission meetings are well planned out. I mean, they're planned out through
December. Not always. You know how many times I have to pull up my phone for for regular comm regular whether my employer wants me to or not. Regular commission meetings are scheduled. You haven't had many regular commission meetings. We're
here to regular commission meetings. I do it. I I I I have to plan out or I have to say no if it's on the schedule and I get asked to do work. I turn down work to be here. I lose money by being here
a lot. So I don't find that an issue. If you have the commitment to turn down work to be here to serve your city or your community, I I I don't find that an issue if you're willing to do
that. Actually, I find that more of a commitment than anything else. Commissioner Marriott. So, I have I have similar concerns. So, I think that um taking somebody off the budget and finance committee in the middle of the budget season, then you're going to have somebody walking into the
budget and finance committee who's also has to get up to speed on arguably one of the most important things that happens here. Um and so I I think that is a concern. I think that's a significant concern. Um,
you know, I I I and I still feel very strongly and I and I've heard from a lot of people that that Pasagril has problems that are different than people realize who live in Vina and that that is a significant that is a
significant issue and it's a significant concern of a number of people that I've heard from who live in Pasigril. So, what did Mr. Greger do when he heard there was a problem in Pasigril?
He he told us twice. He he called about beach nourishment that was already happening. No, he called our first he called our federal senator, right, to get movement on that and he also called
our local county commissioner. I would prefer to have somebody on the commission as we're dealing with a lot of things in the next couple of months that we have to deal with the county and the state and federal. I would rather have somebody on the commission that can pick up the phone and say, "Hey, what can we do here? Can you help some
movement?" You know, unfortunately, the other gentleman didn't even know what the tourist development tax was and where it goes versus actually being able to pick up the phone and call the county commissioner and say, "Look, we need some help here with the with the tourist development tax." But you also hope that the person's going to call the city
first, right? He also said, and I hate to say it in in this, that he didn't the city manager wasn't going to get it done. So, I went ahead and did it myself. You know, wouldn't you want the person to be contacting you first before going to a
county commissioner? Sure. And I did. And I I I used to try to work with the previous city manager. No, no, I'm asking another question. No, no. You asked about want our constituents to come to us first, not have to go above us. Absolutely. You would want to. And I
I stood there at this podium for a year and I talked to a wall and I got no results from the previous mayor and the previous city manager. And then you know what I did? I said, "Enough is enough." And I said, "I can do a better job." And I got up and I Colonel came to you and he couldn't get it done. It had to go to somebody else
in order to get it done. He's talking two years ago when there was no move. You were still the mayor. When there was no movement with the previous city manager, but you were the mayor. I was. And I couldn't get anything done with him either. And that's why he's no longer here.
We need somebody who actually has the ability to to show some leadership, take action. And when, you know, if it's not working at the city because he's got something he can't work with and none of the commissioners are willing to do anything
about it, you know, I applaud him for stepping up and saying, you know what, I need to worry about taking care of my neighbors. If that means I need to call my state senator, my county commissioner, my federal senator, well, good for him for having those relationships.
I appreciate anybody who uses their their contacts in a positive way. It's not a bad thing regardless of who they're going, you know, not having to go through. Pick up the phone and call. That's the way you got to be the squeaky wheel in this
world. Get it done. And I I like that attitude of somebody willing to just get it done. Just like with the volunteer program, stepping up and and stepping into that and and learning. I'm sure there's a lot
of learning going on there as well. For his for to his credit, Mr. Maldonado talked about the budget. He talked about the infrastructure. He talked about the needs. He referenced the December 10th meeting. He's been, you know, paying attention watching commission meeting and actually able to reference and talk
about those intelligently and specifically. So, with them already being somewhat up to speed, I actually wouldn't have any objection at all to appointing him to replace M Greger. I think he would be a great candidate to put in and then you
know if he wants to run maybe he can read the comprehensive plan and see what the cup is in more detail. Um but you know I think he would be a great candidate to replace the colonel. give him an opportunity and if he's, you
know, true to his word and he actually wants to serve the city in any capacity that he's able to and not just start at the top, then I would think that would be a great candidate. And so, sir, if I would ask
you, would you be willing to serve in a capacity like that? Absolutely. Without a doubt. Thank you, sir. So, how do we move forward? We cannot operate with four people until
November. And so, a decision has to be made. If we got to stay here until three o'clock in the morning, we're going to stay until three o'clock in the morning. But we got to make a decision on this. You will be out of town next commission meeting as will I. Which means we need
three people for a quorum. Which means if there's not three people here, there will be no quorum. There will be no meeting. And this is a budget meeting. Which means we will delay our budget meeting by at least a week or two. And that is not a good decision for our staff, not a good decision for our
residents. Now, mayor, I didn't know you were going to be out because when we did our calendar, I don't recall you saying you were going to be off for the next commission meeting. As a matter of fact, when I asked to move it, you said no. We we already had enough quorum. No, we
never talked about moving it. when we were talking about the p when we added the budget p um you know the the workshop before I had mentioned at that meeting that I was going to be out and you said it didn't matter. We talked about this two weeks ago when Commissioner Mohal
decided he was going to resign. No, I'm talking before I think and he and I said at that point is we're not going to be able to operate with only two people. So the way I see it is you have one individual who's exceptionally qualified. He's been
involved in the city. You know, if we're going to take former commissioner Rich Lorenzan who was just here, you know, he said, and God knows he and I have agreed on almost nothing ever, but he said, "You need a one person who goes around,
knows all the issues, and does something about it. And that's only one person that's done that in Vienna Delmare and Pasad Grill out the three candidates that we have. And then we have somebody who's got an exceptional career who I would love to
have at some point sitting on the commission and have a chat with the sheriff and and some of the enforcement issues that we have and how we can get that going. but who would be a great candidate to step in, get his feet wet, start learning some of the the nuances
of how the city operates, you know, and now we have somebody that, you know, when it's time to run, you know, somebody I could be comfortable saying like, "Okay, here's somebody who knows what's going on in the city. They know the issues. They've been involved.
They've been participating. they've, you know, I mean, he's been involved for since since day one, so for almost six or seven months now, on top of that, with experience in budget and finance, you know, that's great. So, I think you have you can fill both positions and I'm
perfectly happy to nominate him. You know, second, we have a vacancy on finance and budget if that were to happen. So, I think we can we can clear both of those issues at one time and not not skip a beat because we'd have both
of those meetings are in two weeks and so we'd have both the commission and the board full. So, I will not be supporting Mr. Greger for the to be appointed for this seat. If he chooses to run and wins, I will be
perfectly willing to serve with him. Um, I do not know him personally. My only impression of him or the only thing I know about him is numerous times when he has gotten himself embroiled in some
social media discussions that I do not think are productive and I I think we already have enough in civility on this commission and I would prefer not to bring more of it onto the commission.
And so, um, I I I feel very strongly about that. And so, you will not come up with a reason that will get me to agree to support him. Okay.
Commissioner Rzniki. Well, we have one person says they will never vote for Mr. Greger. I've given you my reasons why I cannot support Mr. Shyus. So, can your mind be swayed or
are we at an impass? I I would say um you know, I did get a lot of calls the the same as Commissioner Marriott. No one other than what we read on the resumes in our packet. That's all I received. You know,
I um it again I think the colonel, like I've already mentioned, I I watch your meetings. I watched them before. You know, I I might have sent you a message once, maybe twice. I can't remember, but I remember I did once um
um or a little a month ago. I can't even remember. Maybe you do. Um again, I I still feel everyone has a different in what we call involved with the city is at different levels. Um, so
I I do think again, you know, that the Chyros did have the most. I mean, if if people were casting ballots, he would had the most ballots, whatever. Not even close. For me, I don't know the calls you receive, the public the public stuff
that was received, right? But I'm talking about also things that are not documented. So why are people not picking up the phone and telling all the commissioners? I don't know. Maybe they feel comfortable. I don't know. Doesn't answer the question. The question is, are we at an impass? Is there are you of
the position, same as Commissioner Marriott, that there's nothing that could be said tonight that would sway you to vote to vote for Colonel Greger? I I would say the same to you. I mean, is there nothing there to sway you otherwise? I mean, I made a motion for another individual, first of all, and
then I and then I I'm happy to support Colonel Greger as well. I'm looking at the three candidates. Using the candidates's own words, I explain to you why one person, in my opinion, is unqualified. If you all are perfectly happy to repeat the mistakes of the past
and pick the least qualified person, then this is why we're having this conversation because the public and the residents of St. Pete Beach need to hear it from you. So, I I don't agree that he's the least qualified person and I I think that
there are, you know, what what are what are the qualifications for being commissioner, right? Well, in an election, the qualification is getting the most votes, correct? So, you know, any any list that any of us would come up with of what we
think are the qualifications is just that. It's just our opinion of what we think the qualifications are being. So experience is not important. I think that there's life experience is tremendously important and and so life experience trumps experience in the city.
Certainly have any commissioners. We we have a candidate sitting right here that's been on both the beach stewardship and the finance and budget. And I can't even believe we're even having this conversation. And we've got two other candidates that haven't been on either of those.
and and the one that's been on those knows the comp plan. Why are we even having this conversation? I really don't understand. A and talk about incivility. You're sitting saying you won't ever and it seems like that is a little bit more than than what you're making that out to
be. So I I just don't even understand why we're having the conversation. Uh one candidate is clearly clearly more experienced than the others. Yeah, I would be more in favor for Mr. Maldonado
to take the seat and and I'll and I'll tell you one other reason why I think it's important is to have more people involved in this city, right? I understand that you're volunteering now, you know, in the permitting um volunteers, but I'm a proponent of getting more people involved, not not
just always the same, right? It's Colonel Greger is serving a a great position right now, a very important one that was left in the dust for a little while. You all know nobody was we weren't even having workshops
last year and and we passed the budget, you know. Um it's not an an easy one either. Not everybody's a numbered person either, right? So, um I am more proponent to getting more people
involved. Um you know, so if anything, I wouldn't be shuffling positions. I I would I would encourage to have someone new. You know, I look at the I look at the candidates and you know, much like in
anything else, everyone comes and they try to tell you the most favorable version of the answer that they think you want to hear, you know, and they've all come forward and said,
you know what? I'm willing to step up. I'm willing to serve. I'm willing to take action. I look at and say here's another opportunity for you. If this is about serving your community, if this is about you stepping up and
doing what's best for the residents of Passa Grill and Vina Delmare, if you think there's somebody more qualified than you that deserves the job, maybe you remove yourself from the process. Help us make the decision easier. That's to me what tells me a lot about
the character of the individuals that that they would quit the minute someone asks them to. Not sure. You know, when I when I ran, people told me, "You can't say that. You can't do that." And you know what I said? I'm going to tell people exactly
what I think, exactly what I believe. And if they want to vote for that, they should. And if they don't believe what I believe, and if they don't believe in my ideas and ideals, then they shouldn't vote for me because I don't deserve the
job. And so, yes, if I I was perfectly happy if I lost the race to say, you know what, clearly my message and what I wanted did not resonate with the people of St. Pete Beach, so why should I deserve the job?
they have the same opportunity to say, you know what, I think somebody's more qualified. I think there's somebody who's better suited to serve the city than I am. If they don't believe that, then you know, by all means, stay in it, right?
This is all about ego just because you want to be in it, then great. If you think that you would serve the city better by stepping out of the race, then by all means, I've made this appeal before and it's, you know, Nick didn't listen either. And look at where we are
now. For those of you know, Commissioner Phelts was appointed by this commission in December two years ago. Zero experience, had never attended a commission meeting, had no participation, nothing. voted for one of
the most massive expansion projects in the city of St. Pete Beach. Told us all about how he was going to be here for the long haul because his family's been here. And then the second the storm hit, he sold his house and moved. I want to serve with people that want to be here because they want to serve the
community, because they want to contribute in some meaningful way, not because, you know, somebody said you've got to go and do it. Not because this is an ego trip. Somebody who said, "You know what? Whether I'm a commissioner or not, I'm actually going to take action for the
betterment of my community. I'm going to pick up the phone. I'm going to go have that meeting. If the city manager doesn't answer my calls, I still got to go do something. I'm not going to let my community suffer just because we have somebody who doesn't want to answer their phone and respond to emails. I will say it again that Mike Greger is
the more qualified of the candidates by being on the beach stewardship committee by being on the budget and uh finance and budget committee. He knows the comp plan. He knows what a CUP is. He know understands the process.
He know he knows who the largest revenue providers are tax base. He's not afraid to fill out form six. He's lived here for 25 years. I don't think he's going anywhere else.
I didn't hear from anybody. I didn't receive a single phone call for anybody support. So, it's amazing that only two commissioners received phone calls. I don't know if you did. I didn't receive one. I went by the letters that were given
and what I've seen and we have a situation where we have the most qualified person and we have the next qualified person in my opinion ready to step up and take that other position who has plenty of experience in
finance. I don't even understand again why we're having this conversation, why this is going on this long. So when you talk about qualifications, again, I think that that we are all very capable of making our own list of our
opinion of what makes someone qualified. And so that's what we're talking about, right? Is our opinions of what makes someone most qualified for this job that that uh that that there is no set of prerequisites for.
And so Mr. Shyros has been a small business owner in the community that he would be representing. He lives in the community that he's would be representing. when he was asked what the city's current greatest needs are, he said lack of maintenance and
infrastructure. I think that's exactly what we've all been talking about for months, right? So, he is very aware of the concerns and the problems that the city has. When asked what is the what are the the concerns facing district 4,
he had very specific very specific issues that were affecting the people in his district. He talked about parking. You talked about people wanting to maintain the historic character of the of the city. He talked about the need to balance the differing
opinions of of, you know, about his neighbors building new houses and and and his view of maybe having, you know, less impervious surface area, but needing to balance that with the property rights of people who are trying to build a new house and what they want. And so that shows a an an ability to to
have a nuanced view of what's happening in your neighborhood with your neighbors. And so I still think that that combined with his engineering background makes him exceptionally qualified. He talked about restricting people not
realizing he cannot restrict people. One, he can't do it on his own. It would require an ordinance. Second, the state of Florida is about to block us from even doing that. And if he'd been paying attention, he would know that City attorney, could I ask you a
question just so that we know because I know the mayor said that we we have to make a decision, but what what can we do. Well, you could continue with four members.
Um, we have in the city a policy, a procedure for budget workshops, but they're not required by code or by statute. Um, you could have the regular budget meetings. uh you would need four people if you
were going to go from the roll back rate up to 110% of the roll back rate for your millillage. So you would have to have four out of four uh to go over 110% you would need an unanimous vote of the body which I'd
have to look but you might need five people to go above 110% of the roll back rate. So you probably be the only difference I see is it may limit you in your millage rate setting to 110% of the
roll back rate. In the roll back rate, the property appraiser does a taxable value and then he finds out the rate it would be that would provide the same tax revenue as the previous year. So your rates could go up and down with the property valuations.
That would be that would be one impact. The other impact is if you have other controversial votes, you may have two two ties a lot. If you have a 22 and something needs an affirmative vote to pass, then it fails. Um like tonight, so
if you don't have a if you have a 22, that motion failed, the next motion failed, so we we don't have one. Um there is a section in the code for extraordinary vacancies in which um it states that should two or more
vacancies occur simultaneously on the commission. The remaining members shall within 15 days call a special election to fill the vacant commission positions, such elections shall be held in a manner prescribed by the laws of Florida. Now, the supervisor of elections said they're
not available to host an election for us. So, we'd have to host our own election with city staff or contracted um and the supervisor of elections would have to certify the signatures of the voters and we'd have to pay for those signatures. We'd have to try to do that
and that have to would have to be within 15 days. But but that's only for two or more vacancies. Yeah. Theoretically, you could probably call for a special election saying that since one can't be appointed or you could wait for this special election to come up and have the
candidates between now and the date that we picked uh do their qualification uh to be a candidate on the election and continue with four until that election that the supervisor of election would run. Okay. some some uh more controversial items might not pass over the summer
until that next election and we have a determination, but you could try and and you know certainly uh each item would be considered separately. So, it's hard to tell how the different votes would go, but you could certainly continue with four right now.
You could extend the period of time to get additional applicants. No sir, that is not an option. Okay. And I had we talked about this. We're not changing the process because we don't get the people we like. We got the people we
have. We've made this mistake before. May I read something that just got emailed to me? A letter from a resident for support of a candidate since it wasn't in this. May I do that? If you send it to the clerk, you can ask the
clerk to read it. Okay. I'll send it to the clerk. The letter should be going to the clerk. As long as it's distributed to everyone becomes part of the public record. Even if it's distributed to one of you, it's a public record. Yeah. No, I'm saying for the meeting tonight. Yeah. That's
why we're emailing we email it to the court. The clerk can read it and then it'll be part of the video. A current email though, right? Yes, it is receive. Just receive right now. There's nothing that prohibits it, but it's up to you whether you want to or not. There's
nothing that prohibits it, but it's up to you whether you want to allow that or not. So, this would be the first correspondence I've gotten personally supporting a candidate. Tell me when you get it, Rene.
It's probably going through the Okay, this is from resident Leila Balmanis. Email states, "Mike did a lot post hurricanes for our community. He got supplies to neighbors who were unable to get to the supply drops. He doesn't just pick up the phone. Colonel Mike is boots
on the ground. Thank you. If someone would make an additional motion, that's like the only option I guess for tonight. Otherwise, uh this item would would fail and we'd move on to the next item on the agenda.
I'll make a motion um for uh Mike Greger. Greor, I think I keep mutilating his last name, so there you go. I second. Vice Mayor Marriott. No. Commissioner Robinson, yes. Commissioner is Nikki,
no. Mayor Patulla, yes. Okay. So, I think it's really important for the public to see because we saw what happened at the last time we had a vacancy and the public was ignored and our
residents were ignored. We had Commissioner Maul Holland who had overwhelming number of endorsements and votes from residents to virtually none for Rich Laorenzan who had zero experience, zero participation, had no involvement in the city at all. And the
commission because they wanted that candidate in spite of having zero qualification, they picked him rather than the qualified person that you all praised so much tonight. And then they handpicked somebody else who had again zero experience, had
attended zero commission meeting, participated in nothing over somebody who had 30 years experience in the city, who's been intimately involved in the city and knows the land development code and the comprehensive plan inside and out. Well,
they pick that person again in spite of what the residents wanted. And you all are doing the same thing again tonight. You have somebody who's got 60 plus endorsements, another 20 letters, that's more than double of the next
person. And instead, you would rather put the city in a position where business halts to a grind. So, don't tell me you want to hear from your residents. Don't tell me that you represent them, that you hear them, because they've been telling us for
years loudly in emails, at the podium, through lawsuits, that they're tired of this behavior. And yet here you are not representing your constituents. That is completely incorrect. And that
is 100% correct. repeating the same mistakes of your predecessors. So, Commissioner Robinson had also not served on any boards prior to being on the commission. There's I mean, I knew the comp plan. I knew what a CUP is. Those aren't the
only things that we know more commissioner than than you probably ever knew. I've been here for 32 years, Karen, and I've been active that whole time. Great. So don't I didn't say you weren't qualified. I said that you were heading
down that path, weren't you? No. So you want to talk about incivility? I was not heading down that path. I was saying that that the mayor was setting up qualifications for what makes somebody qualified that even you I'm looking at
paper what's on paper here. What what is this is about hiring the best person for the job. If you want a popularity contest, that's going to be with a vote and that will be in November. But even if you won a popularity
contest, you still have one candidate overwhelmingly supported by the residents. And again, we're not sitting arbitrary. You would take something that a reasonable person would look at. And I would tell you that if our residents were sitting here and they had to choose between one person who's been in the
city for 25 years involved on multiple boards, who's volunteering, who's helping out, another person who's been in law enforcement, who's also contributed and volunteered, and another person who has zero involvement at all, hasn't been to a single commission meeting. You can't tell me that a single resident other than the ones that like
him would show up and say, "You know what? That's the guy." These are not arbitrary standards. These are standards a reasonable person would look at. And again, I want voters to know because your terms are coming up in March. And I want people to know this
is how you vote. This is how you treat the residents. You ignore them. You don't you don't care. You're not here about rep. I'm not sure who you're here to represent, but it certainly isn't the people of district 4 in this case overwhelmingly supported the
colonel. So, I think I'm here to represent what what I hear from people who call me regularly um who thank me for representing them is it's the people who didn't vote for you. And so, I understand that that can be frustrating for you that the people who
didn't vote for you have a voice and and so I'm sure that is very frustrating for you. But that doesn't mean that I don't represent anybody or that I am capricciously making decisions on a whim. You're making decisions that contradict
what the residents of the city want overwhelmingly. No. In fact, Rich Laorenzan, who was here as well, said it better than anybody else. I heard from 500 people against this, so I'm going to vote for it anyway. And that's exactly what you're doing. You've spent a lot of time tonight talking about past
commissioners and Yes. Because we need to learn from our mistakes and not repeat them. And you all are about to make the same mistakes again. You do not listen to your residents. They told you last time the way the process works, the way the whole thing was, the way that people were handpicked that were unqualified,
who didn't know anything about what's going on, who were not up to speed, who didn't know the first thing between the cup and the cup and the sippy cup. And these are the people that were appointed. And you're about to want to make the same mistake. And you know what? I'm not going to let you because I
will not support him ever in this case. If he wants to run, good luck, sir. I'll come shake your hand. I'll give you some pointers. Happy to do it. But for today, unfortunately, and this is not a personal decision because I really don't know you. I genuinely don't. I mean, you
could be the nicest person in the world and I still wouldn't vote for you based on your qualifications because they are lacking, sir. They they are on the face value of them. they are lacking. I think gives you a great opportunity to get some involvement in the next six
months before the election. I think you're frustrated because I'm not representing your views and so you keep saying that I don't represent the residents or my residents or you know I I I hear that from you a lot and and um I guess all I can do is keep telling you
that that that's not accurate. Um, and I do represent residents and I do hear from residents and I represent their views. This is I also think that it is not in the best interest of the city to move forward with four people on the
commission. So I will make a motion to appoint Mr. Maldonado to the district 4 seat. I second. City clerk, if you'll please do a roll call. Commissioner Robinson, yes. Commissioner
Rzniki, yes. Vice Mayor Marriott, yes. And Mayor Patulla, no. Motion carries 3 to one. Thank you, city clerk. Mr. Mayor, would you like to swear in the uh new commissioner for District 4? No, sir. We had to set that up for the
next meeting. Okay. Um, believe the next item is a resolution. Would you like me to read the resolution? The next item is 5A, resolution 2025-17, resolution authorizing a memorandum
agreement with FDOT. A resolution of the city commission of the city of St. Pete Beach, Florida, authorizing a city designate to enter into the Florida Department of Transportation, District 7, Highway Landscape Reimbursement and Maintenance Memorandum of agreement and
providing for an effective date. Who's got it? Sorry, mayor. Uh, public services director Camden Mills. Camden, please proceed. Good evening. Um, so this item before you for this resolution is an agreement between the city and the
Florida Department of Transportation for landscape improvements along Gulf Boulevard. Um, the stretch will be from 75th Street to the Bayway. Um, so this is the um landscaped medians um in the Gulf Boulevard roadway. Currently, the
city is responsible for maintenance of of these landscaped islands. Um, so what what this ask is is to replace some of the ground cover um and help beautify and and add some aesthetic features um to those landscaped islands. Um, just to give you a timeline um, regarding this
request, in May of 2024, we received a notice of funding opportunity um, from FDOT. On June of 24, um, the city responded to that um, that notice of opportunity with an intent to apply. At that time we were applying for um the
landscape improvements along Gulf boulevard. Um also we were applying for a long go blind pass. On March 28th uh we were notif of 2025 we were notified um by FDOT that we were awarded for the Gulf boulevard portion.
Um the blind pass portion was not awarded due to FDOT's plan con um resurfacing project. Um they thought the scope would would conflict. Um so they recommended that we apply in a future year for the blind pass. On April 4th um we did submit um a notice of intent to
FDOT to accept that award. Um that's when they sent us over the agreement package and that's what we have before you here today. Um so the total amount would be not to exceed $186,000 um and or 186 $340.
Um how this would work was the city would contract the work um in accordance with the the stipulations of the agreement and then once that work is completed and inspected we would submit um for reimbursement for the state up to that amount.
Thank you. Camden. Commissioner, a question. Camden. Um, because you and I I know I asked the city manager this um when we met, but just to verify, when you say to up to the bayway, does it also include the
bayway all the way up through the the toll plaza? Basically, it it does not include the bay. Sorry, Camden. I apologize, commissioners. Uh something just occurred to me that if we do not have a third person sworn in at the next commission meeting, there will not be a
quorum while this candidate is still here. Or can we swear him in at the next meeting? And then just so you know, I I'm going to call in. I can call in. So you have to be you have I'll be here. Physically not not in person. We have to be physically here. We have to have three physically present. The question
is if he gets sworn in at the beginning of No, the meeting has to have a quorum to start. Or can Well, actually, no. The last couple were sworn in at the city clerk's office. Right. Exactly. Before the meeting. They can be sworn in at any time prior to the meeting. Um, they can be sworn in at the start of the meeting
if that's what we're we're good. The city clerk can swear them in anytime. The city clerk can swear them in anytime. He might be coming back. He's coming back. We might as well just do it. Okay. Um, I just didn't want to leave that meeting in a position where we
don't have a quorum. Let's do it now so the public knows that it's happened and he's good to go. We could do it again. We'll finish we'll finish this resolution and then um thank you sir. To answer your question, Commissioner um this does not include the portion of the Bayway up to
the to the toll booth. This is um just north of the Bayway. So that first landscape median immediately north of the Bayway intersection. And we are we still I I remember when they approved or how we got the money for for initial um
landscaping on that portion. Is that then just city responsibility? Is that what F dot left with us? Is that correct? That's ours all the way through the swailes and everything. That's that's city responsibility. I believe so. Okay. because it does have a I mean when you think of how many landscaping
wise like the the medians that's the one that has the greatest amount of median you know that we have the dead palm trees um we have um all the the palms that are along nonelet swale um I would
say maybe about 45% of them are dead um so I know that would be I guess a budget item at at some point but I just wanted to know because I know we were going to get a clarifying on that whether it included it or not. Thank you. City clerk, are there any public
comments? No topic comments. Thank you. Any further items, discussions, questions for Camden? Thank you, sir. Appreciate you staying this late. Is there a motion? I make a motion to
adopt resolution 2025-17. Second. City clerk, if you please do a roll call. Commissioner is Nikki. Yes. Vice Mayor Marriott? Yes. Commissioner Robinson? Yes. Mayor Pilla? Yes. Motion carries. Thank you, city clerk.
Next, we're going to proceed with swearing in Commissioner Maldonado to make sure that we have a quorum for the next meeting. Sir, could you just step forward to the podium? I know this is rather sudden than expected, but we thank you for your indulgence.
Please raise your right arm. I state your name. I, John Maldonado, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I am a full-time resident of the city of St. Pete Beach. that I am a full-time resident of St. Pete Beach. that I will support, protect, and defend that I will support, protect, and defend the
Constitution and the government the Constitution and the government of the United States of the United States and of the State of Florida and of the State of Florida and that I am duly qualified to hold office and that I'm duly qualified to hold office under the Constitution of the State under the Constitution of the State and that I
will well and faithfully perform and that I will well and faithfully perform the duties of commissioner the duties of commissioner on which I am about to enter on which I am about to So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations. Thank you, sir.
[Applause] We will see you Tuesday, July 8th at 6, actually at 4:30 p.m. right here. Looking forward to it. Thank you so much. Thank you, sir.
All right. Next, we have items for discussion. Commissioner Marriott. Yeah. So, I wanted to um to see what everybody else thought. Um I I think we I think we've all received some of the same emails um where people are are
struggling with some parts of our code when it comes to the realities of rebuilding after a hurricane. And so, um, specifically what brought this to mind was, um, a bunch of emails that, again, I believe we all that we all, um,
received about a a gentleman who has, um, you know, more sheds than you're allowed to have in your backyard, but, he has his stuff stored in them while he's trying to tear his house down and build a new one. and and that that you know our our codes are our codes and
they are the rules and we can't we can't ask or expect or nor should we want city staff to be just making by the seat of your pants decisions to make exceptions to the code even even when it's a situation that where where you might
want to or it seems like the reasonable thing to do. And so, um, you know, one one method of of dealing with this is to to try to, you know, be figuring out where these codes are that maybe we want to look at changing and how do we change them to make things
more reasonable. But, you know, it it occurred to me that there may be a batch of codes that could be addressed in situations of an emergency or the aftermath of something like a disaster like the hurricane where where maybe if
on the books we had some sort of ordinance dealing with poststorm recovery that would that would make allowances for things like delays on landscaping and delays on um you know
some parts of of you know bringing into uh into compliance some part you know properties for some parts of the code um in situations where the more the more important thing is for somebody to be able to get their house fixed or rebuilt
and moved back in. Um, and so I didn't know if there was any um if anybody else had any thoughts about that or or any any desire to pursue that that line of thinking. I think it's more than just that. I think we have
procedures in place that we have found through this process the last six to nine months like the 20% overage for contractor profit. Let me just because one of the and this is I had a conversation with the city manager earlier today is one of
the things I hear from residents and from their contractors a lot is and this is like a you know by the 20th 30th time it's a you know no other city requires this right and I think part of it is and
so I'm glad we're doing some of it but I think we need some more a deeper look at okay what are we doing because we've always done it this way but there's no real purpose behind it other than just to make life difficult for people. And is there a way for us to come in and start getting rid of some of those
things which would not only make it easier for our residents and their contractors, but also make it easier for our staff, for code enforcement, and for everybody else because, you know, the fewer and again, it's not getting rid of good rules. It's just looking at and saying, okay, why do we have this? Why
are we why did we start doing this in the first place? And the real answer is unfortunately for many of them is like that's just the way we've always done it and there isn't a real rationale behind it other than that's just how it's always been and we really need to start getting rid of some
of that and you I think that would free up a lot of resources both our staff and our residents as well. Yeah. Commissioners Nikki. Yeah. I I mean I I'm in favor of doing something because you know it depends who's looking right like when code enforcement let's say
goes by and saw that shed um once when we are doing things already that are obvious like I'll give you an example the RVs or campers on people's driveway I am pretty sure there's an ordinance that doesn't allow people to park their
RVs on property and live on them right now and I'm not saying to go quote and force anybody, okay? I'm just saying it's a good example of that it doesn't match the situation, right? Because people are trying to
repair their home. Um, but we were okay to turn an eye on that one, right? And let people build their home. Um, but we're focused on the shed where they might have their stuff right inside. Um, and that became an issue,
right? like there there is an issue, you know, um, and how do we address it? I don't know. And I would even ask the city attorney, you know, being that you've been in other barrier islands and communities that have been hit with storms. Do other communities have something in
place for situations like that where I would hate to call it turn the eye, but you know, I like the post storm. Well, no, we had emergency ordinances where we said, "Okay, we're we're it's a temporary, you know, so we did that for for multiple things where we said, okay, it's it's a temporary six-month, you
know, ordinance, you know, or it's an emergency ordinance that I think related is what some of that, but I'm saying there's more than just that. I think there's some additional red tape that's in there." Yeah, there's that needs to be absolutely cleaned up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
And I think and I'm I'm and I'm hugely in favor of cleaning up the the additional red tape. And I think that's that's a um a an endeavor that needs to happen. Um I I also know that that that that the going on that could be slow.
And so I I definitely don't mean I I definitely don't mean, you know, emergency ordinances instead of the the cleanup that is that that needs to happen in our code or or or or just the changing priorities that may have happened over the years. But that that in that that is there something that we
can do that would give staff more flexibility or put the city in a better position where in in the aftermath of a storm we're not having to come up with a whole bunch of emergency ordinances to fix these things. Is there anything we can do proactively? Yeah, we could put a trigger in an ordinance and put it in
the code that says for a period of so many days after landfall over a hurricane or contact with this island where we had damage uh you know somehow define the trigger event and then what people could do uh for the next x number of days like put
an RV in their driveway while they're repairing their home and I have a number of those RV ordinances from other jurisdictions. we could put that in so that it triggers um you know the state statutes have now in Senate Bill 180 has something that's
a preeemption on us that's triggered by the landfall and track of a storm. Um so we can say if we're within the track of a storm then the following things can be done for the next number of days and that way we don't have to adopt all these emergency ordinances. are actually in the code already. And that would
allow staff to to do things like extend the period of time when they have to submit a landscaping plan or allow for additional storage for a certain num number of days. We could pick numbers of days that make sense for each particular topic.
That will give us a little bit of leeway to get started, hit the ground running without having to have a council me commission meeting to adopt an emergency ordinance and then go through the uh ordinance first and second reading. You'll remember we were doing that every meeting. We had so many. So we have
these now. Um and then we've as we've gone through this process and we've heard from citizens, we've learned things we want to change about the code. So we could put some of that together. Yeah. city manager. Does that give you some direction? Yeah, it does. So, we'll talk
and uh come back with some proposals on maybe a blanket. I was even going to say maybe some things turn administrative if um if I remember correctly, are we not doing a what do we call an efficiency or a process study for
permitting? We have uh business analysts looking at that process right now and trying to So was that part of what they're going to be doing is looking at our process for to make sure it's as efficient as possible with the resources that we have. Yes. Okay. So some of that is
already happening, but I I see what you're saying about a separate ordinance, not something that the city attorney could then work on. Mhm. I get together with Brandon and Camden and others that worked on the emergency ordinances.
Yep. Okay. Next, we have reports. City clerk, just want to announce that the qualifying period for the November 4th special election is now open. The qualifying will close on July 7th at noon and any interested parties can come to the city clerk's office and review
the materials. Thank you, city clerk, city manager. No report. All right, city attorney. Um, just a couple updates on some legislation. Uh, one, House Bill 784, um, preempting city commissions
from hearing plats and replats and requiring that they be approved administratively was signed by the governor uh, yesterday. And today the governor signed um a good bill, Senate Bill 1622 that repealed and rescended
the statute that set forth the ownerous customary use doctrine um preeemption process. It required us as a city to sue our own land owners and beachfront owners in order to establish customary use. That was repealed and rescended in
one line in Senate Bill 1622 repealing that entire statute. Um, so we go back to the prior customary use doctrine, the common law doctrine that applies and we can take a look now um back at our own um beaches and customary use areas and
report back to you in the future on that. And there's a couple other bills we'll put together bill summary and potential impacts on the city and distribute those memos. So, for the customer use, is there anything that we should be looking at as far as a city ordinance or is that something that should go into the beach ordinance as
that's being reviewed or That's something we're looking at. Um, we had apparently a customary use ordinance and it was rescended by the city council as part of a settlement agreement where we're going to review the settlement agreement and see the see what language is in there. Um, but I think we can
possibly do something in our in our code to memorialize or at least to acknowledge the common law of customary use. Okay. Thank you, sir. District three. Um, just a couple updates for um for the
community. Um, at Lazaro Park there will be holding a social um cheer event, just a chat event. Um this is on July 17th at 5:30 and then um there will be a a Donsar Property Owners Corporation
general membership meeting on August 14th. Um and that's at 6:30 at Lazario Park as well. Thank you. District 2. Um not much to report other than I do have library hours. Uh, Tuesday, July 1st, 5
to 5:45, District 1. Um, yes. So, um, make sure everyone has on your calendar that July 18th to the 21st is the grand reopening of the Beach Theater, which is very exciting. So, the Beach Theater on Cory Avenue will be reopening in late July.
Um, you can go to their website and there's already movie tickets available for the summer. It's fantastic. So, uh, so that's good news. Um, in district one, uh, there's more people moving back into their houses every day. I think we might be sneaking up on, you know,
probably 25, maybe even 30% of people back in their houses, which is really great. Um, we have unfortunately had a few issues with um, some unoccupied houses being broken into. So, make sure you uh, watch out for your neighbors. If you're in the neighborhood, keep an eye
out. Call the sheriff. The sheriff is fantastic at responding and investigating. Um, so watch watch out for your neighbors. And that's it. Thank you. Um, actually, I was going to ask you if you'd be opposed to me attending the big
C tomorrow. uh the city at city attorney city manager who's not doing a career change um would like to have a presentation to the big C about uh beach maintenance and working with the county to would you mind explaining it in more
detail and so I've perhaps some of the mayors that uh our city manager will be there just to kind of coordinate some of these effort with him and hopefully take some couple million dollars off our budget. Uh yes, thank you mayor. So, one of the ideas we wanted to explore with
the big C mayors was whether or not there was interest in collaborating together to submit a a memo or request to the county commissioners and the uh taxing board
that monitors the bed tax to invoke um a provision of the current resolution that provides um actual wording that says says that the bed tax can pay for beach maintenance. And while historically the county has taken a position that that's
for capital improvement projects only, uh we believe a case could be made that um a compelling case could be made by the all the beach communities to request that the county help with the ongoing beach maintenance given that it has a
direct impact on tourism. And um we think we can make a strong argument that I'll just be pitching the idea to see if they're interested and then get the information from each beach community on what they spend per year in beach maintenance. At St. Pete Beach, we
spend almost a million dollars in adorum tax to pay for that. And those are for the public beach maintenance areas. And so we thought it was the most compelling nexus to begin the conversation with the county and the uh taxing board. Does
that include any of the walkovers for the p at the public beaches like pass a grill and and up them? I believe the regular maintenance of those. Yes. When they get destroyed, no. Those become capital projects which we could put on the capital list, but that
would come under that umbrella. We believe in our request. We would be asking for some assistance. Okay. Yeah. So, you said you you're available to go. Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. It's I would be skipping the PSTA meeting, but I think this is it's it's a worthwhile
project to explore. Um, you know, I think if we can all if we all came together with all the 11 beach cities, you know, the county collects almost $und00 million in bed tax. Uh, and that some of that would be nice if it came back since they used that money to
advertise, you know, St. Pete Clearwater Beaches and we're the second largest tax contributor for the bed tax. It would be nice if they helped pitch in some of that beach maintenance that they advertise as having here. So, um, and looking at our budgetary deficits, you
know, I think that could go a long way for some other capital improvements and God knows we certainly have plenty. Yeah. Well, and thanks to the city manager for being the first person who's actually come up with a plausible plausible way to get some more of those dollars.
We'll see how the county goes. We'll see what happens. It's at least it's a solid attempt. And I'm going to count on Mike to make that phone call whether he's in a commission or not. There we go. So, with that, we are adjourned.