that you would bring great good from even tonight's meeting Pray in Jesus name Amen Amen 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 We're not late Helen's not even here yet Okay Okay Can I get a motion for the approval of the agenda So moved Second You two got it down today We have a
motion by the vice mayor and a second by Commissioner Clark Is there any Is there any public comment on this Comments or questions from the commission Seeing none all in favor I I comments from the public Are there
any comments from the public Madame Clerk on any non-aggenda related items um I do have some Um are we doing comments by commission and comments by the city manager Oh they got Well we can do it in a different order if you'd
prefer Oh I'm sorry My bad Right Comments by commissioners Commissioner Gobi do you have any comments for us No I do not
Thank you Commissioner Clark Yes I just want to let people be aware that we're having Friday flicks at the 10th Street Recreation Center March 28th 2025 The movie passing will be shown at
5:30 p.m And we passing and we appreciate the um what's the movie P A S I N G passing Okay and we appreciate the efforts of the um 10th Street Recreation Center And coming up in May is historic
preservation month and they're working on a calendar schedule and they're going to be coordinating some things with of course Martin County's um 100y year in 2025 But one of the things that I started about five or six years ago was
to celebrate um Florida's Emancipation Day which is May 20th 2028 And that'll be Tuesday And we'll be having a program at St Paul Amy Church that Tuesday starting at 5:30 p.m And of course we're
working on it and we're inviting the public to come to St Paul and to learn more about Florida's Emancipation Day We're going to be following the theme that they have in Tallahassee and um we'll be working on that and making that
presentation And um I just want to say that we did have a meeting on March the 20th at the 10th Street Recreation Center Um to me it it hasn't been the first time It has probably has been the first time that we've had a business meeting
there We've had town halls where we've had the commission there Um at least I know that when I had a town hall in 2013 we had the entire commission there but it was for a town hall not for a fully agenda meeting And again I want to appreciate the staff at the 10th Street
Recreation Center and our community services department I know it's sometimes hard for people to participate when we go kind of on a different route and um some people may have wanted to see the meeting in person but um I think
it worked out well and we had participation from the community and I just wanted to um thank staff for their efforts to accommodate us as a commission having an official commission meeting there at the um recreation
center uh on 10th Street Thank you Vice Mayor I have none Uh I just want to re reiterate what Commissioner Clark said and yeah it was uh we're very fortunate when the public
can turn out in those numbers and share their concerns uh we're forced to realize how important the decisions we make and what an impact what a broad impact they will in fact have So um good for us and yes thank you
staff for making that happen and work so well Uh comments by the city manager Um I just I apologize in advance to those directors There's a couple of uh departments that had certificates and I don't have them in front of me So it'll have to be next meeting or I'll
individually email them to the commissioners as to I believe a couple were audits and then there were some other awards received but I'll follow up on those As it relates to the remote meetings um outside of city hall it is very difficult uh for the city to put
those meetings on As you know the recording for the meeting that took place the other night was a chest camera body cam Police body cam because we don't have the ability to tape record those meetings and now we
are trying to find a way to put it online But if we put it online and we don't pay to have it get uh the trans transcription or the uh closed captioning then we violate the ADA and
we've been sued for that before So sometimes YouTube can automatically transcribe it but of course chess cams aren't your typical iPhone video that they're used to people
uploading so it's not as easy and and um having the resources available as well for uh staff to be able to present on the board or to access other data and things on the server becomes complicated With that being said we need to schedule
our next meeting at 10th Street Um I bring that up too for a couple reasons Number one I I I think it's great that we're meeting over there for the purposes of this And excuse me I've just been told again that there's no sound from the for remote viewing
I'll take care of it I'm going to start moving my mouth They can't They don't know if we're talking No we don't need to hear them again So anyway um the the 10th Street this next one is actually going to be more like a workshop anyway I suppose or I
guess it won't be because we're going to it was tabled again Um if the commission's desire is for us to take it off the table and have it scheduled for final reading Um I'm happy to do that Um right now uh I I don't have a specific
date that works for you guys If you want to pick some dates right now we can start doing that Um obviously today is the 24th of March recognize that we have commission meetings on the second Monday that we I'm looking for a consensus
anyway and I can I can ask him afterwards and if his dates clear we we can begin when would be the first available since you have to notice it Um it would probably the soon well March Monday for the 14th of April we have a
city commission meeting and that week would really be the soonest just because doing the notice like if we sent the notice out um right now is the 24th we could I don't know that we could get it out this week because you have to send it to Naples I believe So it really
wouldn't go into effect until Monday the 31st or Tuesday the 1st Is it 10 days Mary that it needs to be out It's um it's seven days if you're announcing a meeting um due to adoption of an ordinance Oh but it's the ordinance I'm sorry Yes 10 days Okay So it's 10 days
So that would drift me to the 11th which is a Friday and then Monday the 14th is actually our regularly scheduled meeting date Tuesday the 15th Tuesday the 15th Wednesday the 16th Thursday the 17th are all um appropriate I should mention that
um Sunday the 13th is Commissioner Clark's birthday Hey Wednesday the 16th is the mayor's birthday Yay We have three in April I have that there too Yeah That's why you guys are You think alike You see that Um Oh yeah That's it Do you want it on your birthday Um
Tuesday Wednesday or Thursday of any of those of that week is fine with me Um starting time being you know 5:00 5:30 what's your pleasure If it's five I can do uh Wednesday as well but I would say 15th or the 16th I can do Wednesday I
can't do Tuesday Okay Um I'll be out of time Actually both audio TV feeds on YouTube and Swagot are now working Um so does Wednesday the 16th sound appropriate for everybody at 5th Is it 16th I'm good And
I'm good on the 17th or 18th also So 16th 17 I'll take I'll shoot for the 16th on the initial date I'm not available on the 18th Okay Why don't we pick the 16th for now and consult with Commissioner Reed And again the timing
for that being five or 5:30 I don't I don't necessarily care Whatever works better for you guys I don't know if 5:00 you know the last two meetings we've had there myself and then the commission were five but they seem to be able to turn out well So it's I'd rather start a little earlier and end a little earlier
I agree Is that going to be a workshop Because I think people wanted to talk again before we I would prefer that we have people are asking to actually get rid of this ordinance but um well I thought the whole idea was for us to talk at the next meeting where they
were having we were having dialogue they were able to ask us questions we were able to answer them So I'll I'll tell you uh the development director and I um met for about an hour today and discussing kind of how to put this next meeting together based upon
the feedback we received at the last meeting it was pretty clear that the residents could not read the street names um and wanted to have a a more focused or zoomed in presentation So what we thought we would do is zoom in on those maps and break it into three
maps One being the BMU or that red map and giving all the street names and actually identifying with the satellite view the actual uses that are currently on the on the streets and then being able to show what uses would be available Also using the prior zoning
from the 1978 map and actually giving it color so it matches and showing what uses were available to those same sites in 1978 And then 30 minutes 30 minutes and 30 minutes in the beginning of the meeting of saying "Okay we're going to do a presentation on the first map which
is the red area and maybe it's Lake Street and and East Street and focus for like 30 minutes on it and then move to the second map focus for 30 minutes on it and then move to the third map focus for 30 minutes on it and then let it become a free-for-all and talk about all
of the interconnections but at least try to get all three separated and discuss it I would actually say I agree with you zooming in right You need to zoom in on Tarpon and Bahama and kind of over there You need to zoom in and do 10th Street So it would would be the use of three
uses So you have BMU you have single family duplex and you have GRRO which is general residential office I don't know that there was a lot of contention about the existing single family duplex But when I zoom in on SFD or single family duplex there's that section that that
that you know do do they want this Because we would go through single family duplex and show this is what's here because not just a map with color on it that's brown but actually a satellite and this is a house this is a house this is a house this is a church this is a house whatever it is showing
the surrounding stuff and then at the end blowing it back out to now here's the entire East Stewart neighborhood These are all the streets These are where single family duplex bumps up to GRO or where GRO bumps up to business mixed use so that they can see the
transitions What is an appropriate method of polling I I know I kind of unofficially went up there and said should this be residential and people are like residential What's what is the appropriate way to without going through an entire cycle of public comment for every single one of those section Well I
mean there is the the idea of the stickers I mean we've had that before where you hand raise or we could well we could have the meeting start at six but we could have staff start at five and we could literally tell the public to come
from 5 to 6 and we could have red green and the tan color You would want to have after you've been explained what it is what do you want Or you could do it then afterwards too I mean that's kind of like the way they do it in the Is it appropriate to poll with a hand raise Well you I mean you could do whatever
you want Masking experience It's it depends on who's present in the meeting Like right now if I pulled with a hand raised I don't know that this would accurately reflect the makeup of Stuart Um because I don't know who's here and who isn't The meeting that was there
last time had a lot of people present but to be honest with you I don't know where any of them like actually lived I think is it appropriate to say if you if you live in this neighborhood or own property would you raise stand up or raise your hand or something You can you guys can have any
interaction you want because last time we got a lot of feedback but in but what I'd like to do this time is is take action one way or the other So we know end up extending this to another meeting So if there's a way to go through each one of these and then poll and then threearters of them say hey we want it to be commercial Cool Fantastic All
right moving on to the next thing Then Jody can go through 10th Street and what And it's it's also interesting when you start doing polling because do the people that actually own the land get more weight than the people that don't I mean and I'm not saying they should or
shouldn't I'm just saying that there's a lot of vested interests and priorities And I think a person that lives on the street is more important than a person that wants to live on the street because the person that lives there is being impacted daily by that activity What do you What do you think
Do you think it's arbitrary to have um land owners and then also residents stand up or something I think it I think it is arbitrary if you're asking the question but I don't think it's inappropriate I think it still provides you information I think you have to base your decision on something right I think the commission needs to make it up based
upon their experiences overall But I think that that can be one piece of the data that you base your decision on on the feedback you get from that audience And you know like for example if at the meeting you said "How many people here want an eightstory building?" You'd probably get some negatives because nobody in Martin County wants anything
over four So that would be a very easy one to see Or do you want to put a golf course in a in a state park It was unanimous across all makes of community that nobody wanted that But also we received how many petitions did we
receive madam clerk 338 I'm sorry what was it 338 petition So we received 338 and some commission members said well those are meaningless because the nature the nature of that petition was saying that the commission was taking
discriminatory action but it was vague It didn't speak to what the action was that was discriminating That's why I said we would all sign that any of us would sign the same petition It doesn't mean to try to leverage that for your particular position is not valuable But then the the criticism could be made of
well that random poll you somebody packed it to achieve that result The same criticisms could be levied there as long as we said if you live here or own property please stand and vote You know we would ask to give us some feedback and you still may vote But it's still
arbitrary who is able to tend and who's unable to Absolutely arbitrary and capricious That's completely arbitrary to to ask the people who live there or own land to when you're looking at land use and zoning changes and compatibility and looking at what's there in the area
That's what you look at So not taking feedback from the residents and local Mr more is one is one part of it but it's not what you um I might say that if I was in the minority position on it but if the majority of people want a certain
thing we should probably do that Well the property owners if if everybody's properly noticed and they're there that's another thing is the notice not just the newspaper notice but if you're going to do that and absolutely change like that to go to some
individual lots and keep playing with things instead of looking at the area and looking at particular zones and contiguous property and contiguous uses and see how it meets with the the the plan of the community Um then I think
that we're we're going through a path where it's not that's not the appropriate way to do it Mr Mayor uh Commissioner Gobi Okay Um I I have to be honest I think that the people who own and live there it's
important You live in Stewart Would you like someone to be building a fourstory 128 complex apartment next to your home You'd like some input on that You wouldn't just want someone looking at it just from the architectural or the
regional or you know the the zoning You'd want some input as an owner who's going to be affected by that And I think that's important I think what's probably important too is that when we send the notice out the people in East Stewart who own there and and live there well
the people there's people own and don't live there There's people own and live there It should be noted in the notice that we will be taking a poll that it is important that their presence is is needed and that they are heard And I know it's an imposition to staff and I know they're all going to hate me but
you see something on the wall You've gone through three large and then you're starting to talk about it for for anyone sitting in an audience I mean I bring it up here on my phone and I can look at it again and look back at it It would be really nice if there was a way that we could have a print out maybe be four
pages each page of that blowup section of those streets and then what the um the uh acronyms stand for You know I mean I'm new to the commission I still struggle saying "Okay what does that mean?" So could you imagine being someone who just lives in the community
So it should be noted there what those acrements mean because acronyms mean because we're going to be discussing them and we're not going to be saying them out We're going to be using the acronym So I think that's important So I think it's like I said important that they know that we'll be taking a a vote or a poll of of what their input is It's
important that they know what it is that we're talking about and it's important visually they see it in front of them I I think you have to be very careful to tell the public that you're taking a poll right Because if the poll comes back and you don't follow it but you
notice them that you were going to do a poll and follow it the commission is not bound by a subjective or objective poll But if you put that in the notice and you tell them that and then you don't follow it I can just tell you that there would be some ser and and again you
might not follow it because you felt like there was something skewed or something missed that night but but I just I mean I'm happy to put it in there I just want you guys to be And I I hear what you're saying but I trust that um that you will come up with wordage that will at least let them know that they
should be there to discuss the things that will affect their property That's the point of the meeting itself right Excuse me We have a formal means of taking referendums and we should not try to ad hawk another method If what you want is a referendum then we should you
know go according to that method I mean look what happened to Bright The overwhelming number of emails and people who showed up were for Bright Line and this commission ignored them So I situation Mr Martell describes is very possible Um the real purpose for my
comment was to just get the date and time I just wanted to give you guys a brief kind of indication that we are going to zoom in on the roads and we will try and provide um much more detailed information so that we can in fact um explain to the community exactly
what happened historically and exactly what direction the city is talking about going in so that they don't feel like they were misled or that they were left out Um can we make sure that we have an opportunity after each one of those 30 minute sections that public comment not
for public comment So this I feel like this is intentionally being made more complicated than it needs to be It was very clear and I don't blame you for not wanting to do what I'm asking It was very clear how the people who live there not necessarily some of those land
owners but it was very clear with that unofficial poll that I did that people wanted Bahama and Tarpon and Tenth Street to be residential That was very obvious in the room And so what I'm saying is once we've been able to zoom in and show who's in the
room what the uses are what GRO means and give the option between do you want this to be residential or do you want this to stay as GRO And then if you want to go by voices if you want to go by hands you may not
necessarily count all those but at least receive some of that feedback from your room The problem we have is that that map amendment exercise has absolutely nothing to do with final reading Right now the only thing we're talking about is conditional use It will give input to
staff Certainly we have we still have to go back to the CRB the LK let's say let's say 90% of that room wants it to be residential You're certainly not going to start putting together a map amendment that keeps a GRO The map amendment is going to be converting it
to residential no matter what happens Whether we have the workshop or not we are going to bring it back in front of the city commission And the city commission is going to have to give us direction to make whatever the borders are wherever they are a different color
because it's already an assigned zoning So if the commission wants us to change that map the commission will need to get which and you that would happen that will happen with us after it goes to LPA and CRB Right Well except for we need
right now what is it to go to LPA and CRB Okay So we will give you those we will give you those parameters before it goes there That's what I think needs to happen The public will have plenty of opportunity to give input to but while we're in the room with the neighborhood I think it would be good for all of us whether or not we necessarily want to
follow that tone to hear it and see it I I disagree You don't want to hear and see what the neighborhood says about their neighborhood You choose to ignore the petitions I am because they didn't say anything But if we sit there and say "Do you want this to be commercial or residential?" That
is crystal clear Commissioner vice mayor you've made a suggestion and I do not agree with it So how do we take a vote Well you guys are welcome to engage with the audience however you want at that workshop or that meeting that night And just as you took a poll at the last meeting there's nothing preventing you
from doing it at the next meeting All right Then if that's we don't need to help your decision making Sure Well I think it'll help I think everybody gets information from it regardless of it Okay Um as long as there's not going to be an attempt to shut down Don't forget Don't forget the main issue is the
conditional use charge Conditional use But there's two things We took a lot we took all the feedback for conditional use last time I I intend to offer some alternatives at that next meeting and and we can kind of hash that out and then we'll have public comment if we make a motion Um but really that map
amendment is almost should be before that so we can get the map amendment has a long road to travel The map amendment is not but that that may be the the last hopefully we get it done that may be the last opportunity to be in that neighborhood and discuss those streets
with that neighborhood Well and that the future conversations about that neighborhood with the map amendment will probably be happening in here So I want to make sure while I'm in that neighborhood that I can get feedback about what that neighborhood wants those streets to be so we don't have to do 10
more sessions at 10 Street and keep punting this further and further It's It's always going to Sorry Sorry Mr Mayor I had my light on Clark there's always going to be changes as people come along They're going to want to do things with their property that's within the the the realm of different
possibilities that you can do within a zoning category Zoning is about use and it's also about the least restrictive means need to be put on so that you don't infringe on people's property rights And I just want to say that um if
we're going to put a lot of uh restrictions on people I know that Jod you're going to improve on the the um the map and so on One thing that needs to be clear is that somebody needs to pull up that um the right now it's
under the East Stewart and actually there's something that I saw in the language one says major um use amendment and someplace else it says minor use amendment So that needs somewhere in the code as well as what's written on the
application form But that application form for East Stewart under conditional use needs to be pulled up And I'm glad that we're talking about looking at the streets because if you have something that's compatible it's no use to have a a um a
a conditional use And we're going to find out that there are lots of people and lots of existing uses that are right beside each other that are going to flow naturally and there won't be any need to say that there's a conditional use um in in this area for this particular thing
And I think that what we're setting up people do is to come in anyway pay that $1,500 $1,600 to do a conditional use application And when you do the check mark from 1 through 10 or 1 through 13 they really didn't need to because they
don't have anything that's out of the ordinary that requires a conditional use So we have to look at the actual use look at what's in those categories and really be careful That's where we need to be careful We want to honor the the the community and what they want but we
also have a zoning code that has uses and that's what we need to look at So if we need to even pull a use from a particular area let's say it's in the GR and it needs to be in the BMU as a higher more intense use that's what we need to look at is uses
Okay So I know that you say you're going to do some suggestions I'm going to be looking at it too But that's the kind of thing that's important for zoning and to stop lawsuits in zoning I'm I'm glad we're talking about this I know it's in the middle of your comments but one of the things that I was going to recommend
was after hearing from everybody it seemed like the height you know the the high-rise thing was was kind of a concern four to five feet the the higher So so what I was going to recommend and and and just given this offering this so you guys can marinate on it from event
would be pulling back some of those conditional uses for some of those uses that are clearly not for that kind of a thing So when I say that I mean what's probably going to come in is three and
four story right Mixed use ALF hotel um m um multif family that's going to be apartments not like duplex and that kind of thing but uses that are outside of that barber shop you know restaurant things that child care those probably
after listening to everybody probably don't need to be conditional by conditional use So what I was going to offer was to put some starting to pull some of those cus out of there and keep it like keep it to whether it's GR or BMU the the uses that are most likely
going to come in very intensive Yeah And they're already under conditional use A lot of those already under conditional use Yeah Not all of them Not all of them Not all of them Bars Oh I thought we're not discussing conditional use but yeah I just wanted to Thank you Mike The 20th
No sir Commissioner Clark are you done with your comments Mr Vice Mayor are you Commissioner Clark your light is still lit Do you have additional comments Oh I was going to be all detailed but that's okay Okay Mr Mortell do you feel you have sufficient guidance from us at this point to schedule this on Wednesday the
16th Yes Um but the good news is I found the certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting achievement achievement um for the finance department Uh once again they received a certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting
the uh 2025 So the city was awarded the excellence in budgeting award for the 2025 version Hoping to get it again for the 26 but uh I do have two certificates um attached to my email that I will be
sharing with you finance director here to receive recognition for he's hiding in the back room now but he's waiting for the pizza bring him out if you want to he's waiting for the pizza embarrass him to see him um we'll have him come out there he is signing his face come on out bring it on out tell us about the
award Jolie congratulations to you and your staff staff yes uh the the whole city actually to uh the two awards that the manager is referring to is from the government finance officers association which involves 125 countries
actually across the world Wow And so what we do is we submit our annual budget for review by these other members of the group So they have peer groups that come together and these other finance and budget officers from the
entire organization look at your budget and they say did you have a budget that's clear and concise one that's easily readable one that provides information people would be interested in reading and is there a level of transparency there that meets this standard And we were awarded that for
our 25 2025 fiscal year budget as well In the short period of time we also received the award for our 2023 fiscal audit which is referred to as the ACT for the annual comprehensive financial report So we're currently being audited
for 24 So the auditors are here now and we're going through the books and auditing 24 So the audit for 24 year will be ready soon and I expect to submit that award as well So what does that recognition for that audit consist of That mean well so you know the city
being a full service city we have to make disclosures on both a governmental accounting standard and a private accounting standard because the water fund you know the water plant the sewer plant the sanitation operation storm water those are run like businesses whereas police and fire and streets are
run like a government and so they look at our our financials which incorporates things you'd find in a private organization like Intel but also things you'd see in a government and they say Well we've done our diligence to a provide the information comprehensively
across all those different sectors and different reports It includes what our long-term debts are includes what our projected payouts in the future are It also includes u largest taxpayers in Martin County and Stewart and who the biggest employers are There's a lot of
statistical information in there also about our performance like some of those ratios you and I have talked about where you know how much fund balance to revenue are we keeping a a a trend that's positive for the city Also there are things like if you're not in good
financial condition you'll wind up on a report at the governor's office and you'd be on financial watch Uh some local governments recently experienced situations where they didn't submit reports and they've now you know been penalized in certain ways but uh thankfully Stuart is up to date on our
reports and we seem to keep making meeting financial Yeah One of one of the criticism I've always found the least wellounded is that the city is fiscally irresponsible and it just the it is the absolute opposite that this is a very
conservative fiscal city manager the commission and you as well and this recognition is validation of that So I'm very proud of you for this achievement The uh the city manager one time made a comment It's similar to the there's a comedy movie where the guy has a big bag
of sh and he says I have a big bag of no So I know how to say no in like 50 different ways in just one minute So we we typically say no Thank you People love that Thank you Jolie Thank you Um well done So um thank you Jolie very much Um also a quick update on 10th
Street and Palm Beach Road We've been gathering um information The police have had the trailer out checking speed and traffic counts on 10th all the way down to uh where it turns to go up to Florida Street for the exit We're also going to
be implementing some of those little yellow plastic men that go in like the middle of the road You'll start seeing some of those pop up soon And then the there's information coming in from neighbors and I've um I'm going to get a consultant involved to address some of
the issues but there's several ideas that can be coming forward I just want to bring you up to speed that we are doing it and it'll be coming back to you Um the sound ordinance is also going to be coming back to you at a meeting I had uh talked to the city attorney about it at the last staff meeting and in the
past we actually created a sound committee I don't know that you want to do that at this point instead of just getting a presentation on the sound ordinance and then we could go from there probably at the next meeting Um so I'll be moving forward on that as well But the last thing as it relates to these these remote
meetings as as we discuss this and we act like we haven't been to that neighborhood in a long time it almost reinforces the negative nature of the fact that we weren't there that East Stewart is the closest neighborhood to
city hall other than Apot Stam Every other neighborhood in Stewart is further away from city hall than East Stewart is And so we are very accessible right here And on top of that if you get in your
car and you drive 2.5 miles you're leaving Stewart because it's only five miles So you can't really go much further than halfway through and you're on your way out again So the furthest neighborhood away is about two and a
half miles away from city hall And you hear about these counties that have remote meetings and you know you have a big county that might be a 100 miles wide or something and that would make sense to have these moving meetings or going to neighborhoods to be accessible But I I think it's fairly common for for
regular folks in Steuart to drive through all of these neighborhoods on almost a regular basis And if anybody wants to they can do it on the way to the meeting because it's so close and so convenient And I just want to make sure that we don't start creating a a trend
that people perceive that the commission is going to come to every neighborhood and set up buildings in the neighborhoods and start having meetings because we just can't we can't do it And I think it's great that in this particular circumstance the 10th Street Rec Center exists and we have the ability to go to East Stewart but I don't want the people in East Stewart to
perceive that we're not going there if we don't go in the future because it's really in the charter for us to have the meetings at city hall and for them to take place etc They sense we don't care And again I want to point out that they are literally the closest neighborhood
to city hall So out of all the neighborhoods that we reach out to there would be other neighborhoods that might be less accessible than that Um but either way um we will have that and we will move forward And that is the wrapping it up for me Thank you Can I
ask Mr You may ask city manager anything Commissioner city manager I had brought this up before on the Palm Beach Road and MLK it's a it's a county thing to try to get some kind of a crosswalk and work with the county I don't know if there's any followup on that There was
We um on two occasions have monitored um MLK Boulevard in Palm Beach Road from 4:15 until 5:00 because Steuart Middle gets out at 4:05 and on one occasion we counted four students that crossed
We'll continue we'll continue to monitor that with um the other neighborhood stuff But it was four four and four o'clock It was 4 between 4:15 and 5:00 Okay That window That
window Thank you Um just a statement about um the meeting the commission meeting at uh 10th Street Community for East Stewart about East Stewart I don't think it really has anything to do with the distance between this building and that building It has to do with
perception and I think it's just important to the community that we be there I know they don't think we're going to be there for every meeting but I think on this particular issue it's really important that we are there in the 10th Street community to have the meeting Thank you Thank you Can I get a
motion for the approval of the agenda Approval Second We have a motion by I have one from earlier for the approval of the agenda Okay Is there any public comment on this item Seeing none and comments or
questions by the commission If not all in favor I opposed Seeing none it passes Now comments from the public on non-aggenda related items Madame clerk do you have any green cards I do Kiana
Kelly Good evening Miss Kelly Good evening Um first I want to say thank you for your support Did you just introduce yourself Sorry please I just know I have three minutes so I'm like trying to go through it My name is Kiana Kelly I am the Martin Reeds Coordinator which is the
grade level reading program for the county for Martin County And I'm with Children's Services Council of Martin County which does a good work in this community um supporting various agencies I don't know the exact number but it's a lot of agencies since 1989 Um and what
I'm here for today I want to thank you first for the proclamations that you guys have given over the last year and a half But what I wanted to actually speak and use my time for today is to remind you guys that the summer is coming Like you know they say winter is coming the
summer is coming And summer slide is a really difficult time for our children Um it's when we lose the most of our learners And the mission statement of Martin Reeds that I want everyone to sort of hold close to their heart
is what does it take such that we create or grow literate compassionate creative citizens that are going to change the world And if our children are not reading they're not going to be able to show up at your meetings to talk about zonings They're not going to be able to
advocate for themselves in their health they're not going to be able to advocate for themselves financially and they're not going to be able to achieve their goals So we have a critical issue and it's nationwide It's not you know uh Martin County doesn't have the market cornered on this but I wanted to just
use my time publicly to sort of remind you guys that the summer is coming and it is a huge learning loss time for us where our children are not in any programs and that we lose a lot of our children during that time So we want to
just be mindful of making sure that the information of the various programs that are there are is made available to our parents and to the community as well as looking for ways to fill the gap of those children that are just not going to any of of any programs during the summer Um I know that the school
district does provides breakfast and lunch at some of the facilities and I know there's a lot of funding issues and a lot of things going on but we just want to I just wanted to remind you guys to keep our children our learners um first Our little guys are they they need us and they can't do it by themselves
Thank you Thank you Thank you Has she spoken with you Mr Trollski regarding what city resources may be available Can I Can I question Good time to introduce you to Can I ask a question Sure Miss Kelly sorry Normally um do you
need books Like if we had a box or something at city hall could people just drop things off here If would you be able to do use anything like that So I don't distribute books Um I do coordinate getting books to different
providers So I know that Steuart Middle um the principal there has reached out about doing a book club and needing books for the children there Um Riverbin Academy is in desperate need of books So there are there are different spaces that definitely need books And of course
if there's no other place you know I'll take them and get them figured out But yeah books are books are one of the ways that our kids you know can get access to the tools But the other thing that people have to think about is that a lot of our kids are going into homes where their parents can't read They're going
into homes where there's nobody that can actually help them with their literacy challenges So um making sure that their parents have the support mental health support is very important as well as social you know support for just existing you know trying to keep the lights on trying to keep a roof over
their head Our our community the people in our community are suffering So I want to just really sort of put the light on that I know there's a lot of other things that are are way more important to other people but literacy is um my baby and I'm I'm I speak up for the
little ones So I just want to make sure that we we have that front of mind as we go into our summer and our vacations and all of the things Commissioner Joi I just wanted to ask if you could just reach out to me in an email I had some thoughts Sure Okay Thank you Anybody
else You guys can always reach out to me I'm always willing to come down talk presentations your church your community I know you guys you guys can't do everything by yourselves and so and I can't do everything by myself right So if there's any um group of people that you think hey they're they'd be willing
to volunteer They're willing to help out They're willing to get involved Please you know feel free to reach out to me I will talk with anyone about this and I will get them involved I'll get them plugged in immediately No problem Thank you Thank you Madam Clerk Anybody else
Yes Nelson Solano Good evening Mr Solano Good evening My name is Nelson Solano I am a resident of Stewart uh for over 35 years And uh um I'm here to encourage I've been selected from my community uh lots of uh my
neighbors We live adjacent to downtown Oh we live adjacent to downtown Stewart Thank you And uh virtually all the people in my community I've been talking about are a little bit upset with the commission because they blocked the tra the train station So we want to
encourage the city commissioners to please cooperate with the county and get let's get this station built You know uh we have been waiting for quite some time now We have dozens of Bright Line trains coming by day in and day out We get to listen to the horns We get to be
inconvenienced by the intersections yet we don't have any access to the train So we would like to encourage whoever is holding out in this impass to please get over themselves We are all taxpayers and public transportation is taxf funded virtually everywhere We don't want to be
any different We feel it's a need and and most of the people in downtown Stewart want this train station Also it affords the students and workers and residents the opportunity to go to downtown West Palm Beach in just over 30 minutes without having to park their
cars or pay for parking or any of those types of things Increase the economic stimulus to our city Uh allow students access to Bokeh colleges and universities in just in one hour Okay Um cut down on the traffic So
we just want the people at the commission whoever's holding out I'm not even sure who it is please stop being so shortsighted invest in the in the future of our community for our kids and uh you know we could spend tax dollars every single year on the roads We could do
this onetime expense to get the station built We want to avoid spending money on litigation in the future all the money that we spent taxpayer dollars litigating against the train trying to block a metropolitan area of 6 million
from connecting with a metropolitan area of three million that being in Orlando We could have put that toward the station So we just want to use the tax dollars wisely and invest and get this station built please Thank you Thank you Mr
I have no further public comment Okay Thank you Can I get a motion for approval of the consent calendar So move Second We have a motion by the vice mayor You're too slow Commissioner Gobi A second by Commissioner Clark Is there
any public comment on this item Seeing none comments or questions by the commissioners No Um all in favor Roll call Commissioner Gio yes Vice Mayor Collins
yes Commissioner Clark yes Mayor Rich yes Commission action Mr Bagot will you read item number four for our consideration please Sure Uh it's release of unity of title 505 Southwest Federal Highway It's
resolution number 41-2025 a resolution of the city commission of the city of Steuart Florida releasing a unity of title for property located at 505 Southwest Federal Highway Stewart Florida 34994 Legal parcel ID number
05-38-41-0000-0000-00-1 providing an effective date and for other purposes Um who's are you going to be talking about this item or Mr Mar All right Um so this is the uh matter of Pulk hotels that came before the city
commission um a couple of meetings ago seeking a um change of the zoning from urban waterfront to urban highway in a one-third parcel of land that um they had uh consolidated with two other
parcels prior to or as part of the application their attorney um did a deed restriction or a unity of title unifying the three parcels they purchased two of which were urban
highway one of which was urban waterfront into one singular parcel identification number and dedicated the unity of title to the city of Stewart So they can't go back to the property appraisers's office and subdivide it
without the commission granting the uh resolution They've asked us for a resolution authorizing them to restore the property to the um three separate parcels the way it was prior to their
application Uh in light of the fact that the commission voted no I told them I would put it on the agenda and it was the it was the discretion of the board as to what they wanted to do one way or the other I can answer any questions if there's anything additional
Mayor I'd like to move approval on resolution number 41 2025 I'll second She got it We have a motion by the vice mayor and a second by commissioner goi Is there any public comment on this item
Seeing none comments or questions from the commissioners Nothing Commissioner Clark no I hope that they'll be able to comment on something They'll have to take part of it conditionally Well we'll see how the vote goes Let's put that way Okay Um
roll call please Mayor Rich yes Commissioner Gobi yes Commissioner Clark yes Vice Mayor Collins yes Mr Bagot ordinance second reading item five for our consideration please All
right Title of the item is code amendment to merge board of adjustment duties to the local planning agency Ordinance number 2540-2025 An ordinance of the city of Stewart Florida amending part two chapter 2 uh administration article
three boards committees and commissions division one and division three of the city of Stewart's code of ordinances providing for the repeal of prior ordinances and resolutions providing for codification providing providing for severability providing for an effective
date and for other purposes And uh as the mayor alluded just a minute ago this is the second reading And if you recall we were um we were uh merging the duties from the board of adjustment and adding them to the local planning agency So
they would take over all of the board of adjustment duties And so uh if you look at the red lines uh and markups of the proposed ordinance it's removing the board of adjustment and adding the duties and responsibilities from the board of adjustment and adding it into
the duties and responsibilities for the local planning agency Are there any questions of staff by the commission Lee has anything changed since last time No No I make a motion to accept um res ordinance number 254
2540-2025 Second We have a motion by Commissioner Gio and a second by Commissioner Clark Is there any public comment on this [Music] item Old BA member No Okay Seeing none
comment or questions by the commission Seeing none roll call please Commissioner Clark Yes Vice Mayor Collins Yes Mayor Rich Yes Commissioner Gobi Yes Well we're very expeditious this
evening Uh the final item for our consideration is a discussion and deliberation on I guess we're going to be talking about meeting dates In essence I'm going to let our HR director Okay I'm sorry Roz Take it It's okay
Well good evening all For the record Ros Strong human resources director Um I've been asked to provide a recruitment update for the environmental attorney which I'll walk us through Uh commission provided direction that a committee be formed um to review the candidates That
committee consisted of six individuals listed there um on the slide Committee's responsibilities were to review all candidate credentials and make interview recommendations Committee reviewed the credentials of all 16 candidates We did have one withdrawal Uh we did have one
step out He was promoted at his current place of employment so he withdrew So that left us with 15 candidates to review and we looked at their education experience their achievements uh in relationship to the job description and what the expectations are for the
position Uh we had good discussion all of it and interestingly uh we were aligned with the majority of the seven that are recommended to you uh for interview ring binders that were delivered to all of you All the candidates are in there including the
one who withdrew So all 16 are in there and then we included the summary recommendation which showed kind of the tally sheet that the committee used to have their discussion and make uh the recommendation to you So following uh your discussion on
candidates and however you'd like to proceed what we're looking for is authorization to develop the interview process and we are mirroring the procedure as we have done in the past very similar if not identical The location for interviews would be here at
city hall Commissioners would be situated in separate offices Uh we would use the administrative suite We'd probably use some offices downstairs So we would make sure commissioners were in different locations And if you wanted to meet with all seven candidates um we
would have seven spaces with the city attorney and the city manager taking up two of those um locations because it's like a roundroin uh Vice Mayor Collins and I laugh about it being a speed dating So it's a the candidates are moving around So we would have city manager and city attorney in two of
those spots so that you would have a steady flow Suggest 30 minutes in between or sorry 15 minutes in between the 30 minute interviews Um because they have to travel between offices there might be a restroom break or an interview may go a little longer So
recommend scheduling for 30 minutes a piece 15 minutes in between Um I would provide to you interview questionnaires do and don'ts and tips and guidelines Um because one of the philosophies we work with here at the city is that interviewing is more than a
feeling It's more than a gut feeling Um an interview questionnaire provides structure to the process And of course you can ask additional questions in that process if you'd like We call that probing Um so if you ask a question and you want to get more information you can
do that You can also have some other questions that match that candidate or as the discussion flows But this interview questionnaire does provide the structure And one of the questions that came up was where do those questions come from And they really come from the
job description So the job description informs a candidate or a successful candidate what type of work they would be doing So the questions the original questions the root of the process questions come from that job description
right the idea is that the candidate then can provide proof that he or she can perform the duties that you seek to have performed So this provides structure and then commissioners can also and I would look to the city attorney and city manager perhaps for
guidance but I believe the last time we uh did this commissioners were able to funnel questions that they would like to ask to the city um clerk that could be included in the questionnaire but maybe that's part for discussion tonight Um so that's how that process would uh would
generally flow And you would also receive a list of the dos and don'ts and you the landmines you wouldn't want to get into and tips and guidelines on how to run a smooth interview to make you more comfortable Uh this I believe can be accomplished in one day Uh the first
being at 9:00 a.m and the last one would be at 2:30 and that's if you do all seven It still provides an hour for lunch and it would allow you to get back to the DAS in time on that day which I'll get to in a moment What Five of the seven live within and I said a
three-hour drive one way I think the farthest away is the Miami area And I just envision the traffic That's just you know where my head comes from But I think the suggestion that we're going to make here might alleviate that But five of them live within three hours and then
two of them live out of state One is in Washington one is in Virginia Washington state that is like way across the country And one's in Virginia So um it's possible they would do Zoom which we can arrange or it's possible that they would
fly in given enough time to get here So anything could anything could happen Um if the last interview is at 2:30 commissioners could make it back to the DAS that same day at 4:00 um to discuss the candidates Is that a formally
noticed meeting 4 p.m Um it would be if you guys are in I mean first of all we would be noticing it anyway because we would probably call it to order at the beginning and then have you split up but we don't have to But we would if the
commission's desire is to make a decision You don't even have to make you have there's a couple of options there you could come back and just while you're fresh discuss some comments and some feelings that you had so that you could all share information before going your
own separate ways to digest it for 24 hours or 48 hours or however long you want Well I'd like to call references too of the people I'm thinking of hiring Um so you can so you can have that discussion as as the uh HR directors recommend I guess we could probably at 4
p.m get a pretty narrow focus on Right Don't think we would Yeah And and I have to say on the screening committee and we would probably discourage the applicants from sticking around Oh I agree Not that they can't go
look it up later but just so that and they and technically they could say no to us because if it's a public meeting they're allowed to attend but they probably won't right They're gonna It just makes people not speak as freely if they're sitting right in front of you It's It's just more difficult to talk about Just You're gonna interview Mr
Bagot and Mr Martell yourself Well we're going to be providing It doesn't We're not It not I'm not I wasn't planning to It's really more of placeholders because there's seven of them So that there's two that would be sitting around doing nothing They might as well just be going through with us
but we wouldn't be participating in the discussions And I would like Ryan to in one of those rooms She can take my place She's like a CIA agent Yes And so having her interviewing them round robin as well Do you want Ryan to be in one of
their rooms Yes Yeah Great And that's who's going to they're going to be working with anyway All right That's a good idea That's a good idea No Ryan's tough I agree She's good You'll see a lot of names on there There's seven names but part of the conversation was
having it having there be more options for everybody to consider And also when Raz calls these individuals some of them do live out of state and reminding them that this is a full-time position where you would be here physically This is not a remote gig There may be one or two of
these uh seven applicants that may end up withdrawing or you know understanding that they're going to be required to move here within a time frame right Well that's in the job description I assume Ros right Yes it is Okay It is that they would have to be
here on site Apply thinking they can skirt that they might ask her reminding them Yeah And they might ask Yeah exactly And probably looking for guidance on whether you guys would agree to allow them to appear by Zoom Oh yeah
Yes Oh yeah Sure All right So the interviews could be done Mr No I prefer in person You know you have no problem right No I prefer in person also but you can certainly gather information when you're seeing someone on a Zoom I wouldn't do a phone call but I'd like a
Zoom You have consensus on that Yes Do we limit it to just if they're out of state Yes Yes Because that way you I would I agree with that Yes Yeah So there's two that are out of state Yeah there are two that are out of state The others are within the state of Florida
Pretty easy to get here But what I was as we kind the city manager and I kind of walked this through that um suggests that the interviews not take place any sooner than two weeks from tonight So the week of April 7 is two weeks from tonight but that's employee appreciation week There'll just be a lot going on I
thought there was was already in the we had agreed on a a time frame for this So the time frame that is included in your binders was just recommended It was just throwing out dates It can be whatever time you'd like Yeah but I what is that time approved family vacations to clear
that week So that's I don't have that flexibility anymore I thought that was set So I would ask that we adhere to that please That's the week of April 21 Yeah Okay No no I've made my wife's not happy about it
Happy Well I'm out of the country but that's okay I won't be here on the Monday I'll be traveling Okay So we only going to need one day for the interviews Th No not Thursday or Friday I have a
ethics class on the 24th of April all day at IRSC and I have a a night meeting at the airport on the 25th and then I have a investigure for a judge in Fort Pierce on the afternoon on the 25th
25th I'm not available I 22nd If if I'm allowed back into the United States I'll be here It's an environmental attorney on Earth Day Yes There you go The irony Beautiful 22 If I get back into the country on that that day I'll be here 9:00 a.m on
the 22nd You going to be here If I get back into the country Okay And and then also I'm assuming you guys want us to order some lunch or something for that day Is that how they wanted to do it I stepped out of the room sounded ordering lunch for the commission that day because it's from 9 to like 4 lunch would be here We bring
it in Okay Do you unless we get a couple cancellations right One or two Sure And we just modify the schedule So you could we could start them later or we could start or end earlier So I'm good
So we're saying 9 a.m 22 Tuesday the 22nd Okay That was easy Commissioner Reed Rivers Coalition is Thursday Okay So it's 9:00 a.m 9:00 a.m on the items we need to discuss Raz No sir It was just to make sure that I had direction from you that we were okay to
move forward schedule the interviews and get the process flowing And if you're all good with that we can move forward and I'm looking forward to your dos and don'ts to make sure that we don't violate anything when we have some questions I'll be sure to present those to you
Yeah especially with a bunch of questions Mr Bagot you have everything you need Um just obviously when if you are going to vote on this or get consensus are you guys good with the seven proposed by the committee or do you want is there anybody else that you
want to help Okay All right No let's do all seven I was going to ask for four but we'll do all seven The screening committee provided us with seven We're going to accept their work product Okay then All right Unless you really want I narrowed it
down but that's okay Well please don't tell us to whom you narrowed it down All right See no other items for our consideration I can't believe it's only 5 after 7 This meeting is adjourned
because we had we had Ukraine