e e e e e e e e [Music] good evening everyone welcome we're ready to start the steuart city Commission meeting roll call Mary mayor Bruner yes vice mayor Rich here commissioner Clark present commissioner Collins here and commissioner McDonald here and and our uh we're going to rise for the invocation Edward skba our police chaplain is here thank you sir Madam mayor council members and most especially citizens of Stewart It's a privilege to come and and bring invite the presence of the Lord into this proceeding especially this the beginning of police week and I have I am deeply honored to be the ch for the Ste Steward police department and I ask that you all keep all law enforcement men and women in your prayers during this difficult time in our country let's go before the Lord Our God and our father great creator of the universe you bring us together to discuss things that are important to your people Lord we ask your presence here your guidance and your direction as we discuss these important issues and father we thank you that that this town this city of Stewart is an example is a shining City on a Hill on this Treasure Coast an example of friendship and fellowship and love of cooperation despite our differences help us to continue in that Spirit of strong cooperation and help this community to show your presence in all that we do bless our nation and our leadership father and keep them in the center of your will all this we pray in your precious name amen please join me now in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you now we're going to go into our art our Arts moment Natalia kabalo she's going to sing for us okay so hello as you just heard my name is Natalia and I will be singing a song entitled when I am lateen Earth from Henry pel's Opera and just to keep B quick this song kind of follows the story line of Romeo and Juliet and our Juliet is in a really deep despair because her lover was just tricked into leaving her which will lead to her suicide in this song [Music] stre no trou no [Music] th my [Music] bre enough [Music] no no bre me [Music] foret my [Music] f for my [Music] forget my [Music] f my [Music] [Applause] Natalia I have a thank [Applause] you before we go into the proclamation I only have one service award for our police officer so I'm going to um uh Matthew reader five years of service and would you please come up and get your recognition [Applause] police memorial week that we right into that Matthew you're lucky we normally have just people [Applause] out there were two other police officers uh celebrating one 10 years of service and the other one 10 years of service they're not here tonight but we'll make sure they get them okay this is Police Memorial Week May 8 May 12th through 18 2024 could you read this for me Lee of course Madam mayor whereas there are more than 800,000 law enforcement officers serving in communities across the United States including the dedicated members of the city of Stewart police department and whereas since the first recorded death in 1786 there are currently 23,7 185 law enforcement officers in the United States who have made the ultimate sacrifice and have been killed in the line of duty and whereas May 15th is dedicated as Peace Officers Memorial Day in honor of all fallen officers and their families and us Flags should be flown at half staff and whereas the service and sacrifice of all officers killed in the line of duty will be honored during a memorial ceremony which will be held on Wednesday May 15 2024 at 2:30 p.m. at the sus Point Police Department now therefore I Rebecca s Bruner mayor of the city of Stewart Florida do hereby proclaim the week of May 12th through the 18th 2024 as police memorial week week thank you who who's here to receive this Chief yes ma'am [Applause] sorry I'm late four Pierce traffic is uh pretty treacherous I want to thank the uh commission for this Proclamation um every year we have police memorial week and remember our fallen officers I'm sure I have a CP officers here as well just remember when we put on this uniform we don't know what the day is going to bring it could be a good day it could be a bad day but I want to say that for all those officers who made the ultimate sacrifice that's why we do it um I appreciate my officer ERS they do a fine job and I certainly want to thank all of you up here for the recognition so thank you Chief could you stay right there I was going to read this with my comments but I'd rather while you're there is it bad or good very good um last Tuesday there was a swearing in ceremony of the at the police department for a new police officer his name was James Heron nice young man and back in February we had two new police officers sworn in by the name of Grant Meyer and Preston copner I just want to applaud these officers willing to protect our lives at whatever cost I also want to give thanks to our police and police department for their very fine investigation on the solving of the hit and run of the man who lost his life you guys did an excellent investigation amazing so proud to live in the city of Stewart and um one more thing I wanted to ask you are you there Chief could you come up where you're here and explain to us what jugging is okay I reports is that no um bet the detectives can probably explain it better than I can but what it is they come from out of town or whatever basically a person doesn't necessarily have to be from out of town it could be anyone so basically what happens is a person goes to the bank and they're observed by these nefarious characters who are going to commit commit crime so what they'll do is they'll watch an individual and they'll watch the person come out of of the bank to see if they receive some cash and what they'll do is they'll follow that person and wait for an opportunity to either physically Rob them because we just had one um which resulted in arrest yeah um or burglarize their vehicle so that is what jugging is it's called Bank jugging so am I right guys all right we appreciate all you thank you very much I appreciate it Commissioners why is it called jugy that's a good question dad I don't not know take a picture by the bad guys okay can we get a picture of everyone all the officers love that yes have any under here to come down [Laughter] [Applause] already okay this way are you gonna get in there I'll jump all right super got it [Applause] and jugging in this context comes from the idea that the victim is carrying a jug of money making them a target for criminals I Googled it just in case you wonder I couldn't let us go on right it was going to be like Google that no one could focus on anything else until we had leave the bank here's another Proclamation that I am very proud to present um as a member of the Women's Club the Women's Club of Stewart is 110th anniversary our recipient our president of uh Women's Club is Cecilia Lewis please come up and get your Proclamation oh yes very excited whereas over a century the woman Club of Stewart has been a Cornerstone of our community fostering fellowship and friendship among its members as they work collaborativ to enhance the quality of life for all residents and whereas the Woman's Club of Stewart has a rich history of commitment to literacy notably by establishing the first public library in Martin County in 1916 and dutifully operating it for more than 20 years or I'm sorry for more than 40 years and continuing this dedication by steadfastly supporting literacy programs that Empower individuals through the gift of Ed education and knowledge and whereas the Women's Club of Stewart has played a pivotable role in the ADH advancement of higher education by awarding more than 1 half million dollars in college scholarships to deserving girls and women in Martin County thereby opening doors of opportunity and fostering the next generation of leaders innovators and change makers and whereas as we commemorate the 110th anniversary of this esteemed organization we honor its extraordinary achievements and contributions we extend our deepest gratitude to the members past and present of the Women's Club of Stewart whose unwavering commitment to service education and Community engagement continues to uplift and Inspire us all now therefore I Rebecca s Bruner mayor of the city of Stewart do hereby congratulate the Women's Club of Stewart on its 110th anniversary in Proclaim claim May 2 2024 as the Women's Club of Stewart 110th anniversary president would you like to say a few words yes absolutely thank you to all the Commissioners especially to you mayor Becky Bruner who is also Our member and to commissioner Clark who is also Our member gentlemen we can have your wives could be members your significant others your sisters we are a wonderful organization as you have heard 110 years that we are very proud of to be enhancing the lives of those in our community we're very proud of that we have had a very big year obviously our 110th anniversary to think that we started with 29 women in this community 110 years ago and we are part of the general Federation of women's clubs which is an international organization and now this organization has over 3,000 clubs with over 60,000 members in 12 countries one country of which is my place of birth Lima Peru of which I'm very proud to also be a member of but we are uh celebrating something else this year just last month in this room the city of Stewart designated our clubhouse as historic something else to be very very proud of and we are part of the national preservation month in Martin County and next month excuse me not next month this month next week Tuesday the 21st we will have our unveiling and dedication of the marker and I hope all of you will be able to attend and all of you will be able to attend because not only is it a wonderful opportunity to see the marker to learn a little bit more about the history of the architecture and how it came to be but also we're having a community open house and that is what we are also very proud of because we'll be able to display all of the wonderful activities and events that we have had throughout so many years in such a beautiful relationship with the city and uh we will have many of our members dressed in Period costume and um we will be talking about of course all our different committees but especially our holiday home tour of which is pretty incredible this will be our 16th Year and that is our major fundraiser in which we can raise money to then give scholarship to uh college scholarships to Martin County girls and uh older women continuing education so I hope many of you will be able to join us I do have one more thing mayor Bruner um because of our anniversary this year we decided to give out pins of service and I know commissioner Clark received her pen but you're a very busy woman and we're not at the meeting when we gave out the pin so I would like to present you with uh your dedication of over 10 years of service to our club so thank you so much welcome thank you thank [Applause] you now next Proclamation Boys and Girls Club of Martin County Youth Of The Year recipient Jamar zala Youth of the of the Year winner and um Megan chle is here to accept this could you read this of course Madam mayor whereas the Boys and Girls Club of Martin County's annual Youth Of The Year event recognizes the achievements of some of its most distinct and inspiring members and whereas Youth Of The Year candidates are celebrated for their academic discipline Spirit of good citizenship and volunteerism commitment to healthy choices and avoiding drugs and other dangerous patterns exhibiting leadership and support to their their peers and pursuing education training and career paths that will contribute to a better world and whereas the Boys and Girls Club of Martin County is proud of and thankful for all of more than 600 more than 600 children in its four clubs and the more than 6,000 children the organization impacts through its programs the Youth of the Year candidates worked hard to earn this special honor local winners Advanced to compete in Regional State and National levels of the program which was founded in 1947 by Boys and Girls Club of America and includes among its alumni numerous leaders in business Sports entertainment and politics and whereas the city recognizes this year's winner Joe Mara 18 of portelo of the portelo club a nine-year member of the Boys and Girls Club of Martin County having performed more than 500 hours of community service he's dual enrolled he's a dual enrolled honor student and plans to become an orthopedic surgeon now therefore I Rebecca s Bruner mayor of the city of Stewart do hereby congratulate and recognize Joe Mars ala as Youth of the year [Applause] thank you so much for having us here today I have the distinct honor of introducing you to joar alayia the 2024 Martin County Boys and Girls Club Youth Of The Year good afternoon everyone my name is Jamar Zia I have been going to the Porton Boys and Girls Club for about 10 years now and at first I was a super shy kid but the Boys and Girls Club quickly changed me into becoming a social butterfly recently I went I was able to go to Jacksonville to compete in the state level but I made it I didn't make it to the second round where they announced Nico flowers from the Jacksonville District as the FL State youth through the year but I made it to the semi-finals now this was a big thing because I got got to see so many Youth Of The Year from the military route to the traditional route and I got to see all their perspectives seeing things from different perspectives is something the Boys and Girls Club have taught me from seeing various staff and friends come and go since when I when I was 6 years old to now that I'm 18 I got to see a kid named Robert he goes to the Boys and Girls Club of Palm Beach County and he was the Youth of the year for them he taught us something called walk walk a mile with a child which helped younger students the youth we would walk with sorry we would walk with them and they will teach talk to us about their day whether that day was bad whether it was good but it was something special because we were with the child and we got to help them through whatever it was this is something that I've been doing for about a couple years now and it has helped me throughout my whole journey of being at the boys and girls club and I'm happy to announce I'll be graduating this Friday with 719 hours of community service thanks to my birth and the boys and girls club have taught me three leadership skills experience impact and influence now that I have learned these skills I will be teaching the youth one kid at a time thank [Applause] you mayor am I allowed to say that this city of Stewart will be having a Boys and Girls Club yes you are pretty soon the amazing things our boys and girls club does in Martin County is just awesome awesome now we will go into the um Florida emancipation day May 20th 2024 and is oh Mr Smith Jimmy Smith got to read it still okay go ahead and read I'm all right getting ahead of myself I mean you're following joar come on Wow president I I spoke too soon you can come up forward I've got to read the proclamation come back again Jimmy is the president of the na NAACP go ahead Lee uh whereas on January 1st 1863 President Abraham Lincoln issued the amend mancipation Proclamation freeing enslaved people in the rebelling Southern States announcing that on the first day of January in the year of Our Lord 1,863 all persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state the people where of then shall then be in Rebellion against the United States shall be then then forward and forever free and whereas it was more than two years later at the end of the Civil War on May 20th 1865 that uh Union Brigadier General Edward M mcook announced in Tallahassee Florida the freeing of the state's African slave population on that same day special order number 63 arrived from Major General Quincy a Gilmore and stated that the people of the black race are free citizens of the United States and whereas newly freed slaves celebrated this announcement with a picnic at Bulls Pond which is located in Tallahassee and today called Lake Ella and whereas for decades after the initial Proclamation African-American communities across the state carried out celebrations as a way of both honoring the past and celebrating the present while the end of slavery in Texas is commonly observed as as the end of slavery in the US and celebrated as juneth Florida's own day provides an important provides an opportunity to honor the history of in continued fight for freedom for historically marginalized community and whereas emanci emancipation day helps shed light on the continuing challenges our country faces in combating racism inequity inequity and inequality now therefore I Rebecca s Bruner mayor of the city of Stewart Florida do hereby Proclaim May 20th 2024 as Florida emancipation day come forward Jimmy [Applause] just a few Jimmy just a few two two couple two three words I just want to say thank you uh City Commissioner city steart city manager all of you all for what a great job you're doing I think this was initially started uh Miss Ula Clark commissioner Clark brought to the attention to this city that we should recognize mation day um it's such an honor to all of us in here uh whether you know it or not you have a part of this history that's right of when one is freed all is free and what we have gained together in this city and I've been here for a long time since 62 here in the state of in Martin County and that I have watched the the difference of where it was then and today I want to just commend you for a great job of leading this city to be a best place that people want to come and live and you're doing a great job uh second I want to invite all of you all if you got a program to the masturation day that be uh the 20th that's be next Monday Monday from today at uh Pentecostal Church of God in Christ pastor Jerry G church I would like to see you all out the program starts at 5 5:30 and if you can come learn a little bit about history my just that it will just only in Enlighten and also brighten your knowledge of why it's so important that we all love and live together in this country Jama make is the best place to live thank you very much for that thank you thank you sir our next one is safe voting week recipient uh Cheryl O'Neal florilla Commander marus uh carck call division five Commander Diane rigan Han kusher uh Gary bman Ray prus and Brian Bucky Le will you read this of course Madam mayor whereas for over 100 million Americans boating continues to be a popular recreational activity from coast to coast and everywhere in between people are taking to the water and enjoying time together boating sailing paddling and fishing during National safe boating week the US Coast Guard and its federal state and local safe boating Partners encourage all boers to explore and enjoy America's beautiful Waters responsibly and whereas safe boating begins with preparation the Coast Guard uh estimates that human error accounts for most boating accidents and that life jackets could prevent nearly 83% of boating fatalities through basic boating safety procedures carrying life-saving emergency distress and Communications equipment wearing life jackets attending safe boat boating courses participating in free boat safety checks and staying sober when navigating we can help ensure boers on Americans Coastal Inland and offshore Waters stay stay safe throughout the season and whereas on average 650 people die each year in boating related accidents in the US 75% of these fatalities caused are are fatalities caused by drowning and a significant number of Voters who lose their lives by Drowning each year would be alive today had they worn their life jackets now therefore I Rebecca es Bruner mayor of the city of Stuart Florida do hereby commen the volunteer service volunteer members of the US Coast Guard auxiliary flotilla 59 Stewart for their efforts in furthering the goals of the safe boating campaign and Proclaim May 18th through the 25th 2024 in the city of Stewart Florida as safe boating week okay um please come forward are we going to put the um yes okay all the Commissioners thank you oh yeah I think they seven okay all right hello Mike saw back Y how how do we get the picture that you there we go now just have your hands in thank [Applause] you we're always good for that well you all know who I am now um I am the commander of the auxiliary 59 in Stewart which is uh located in Sans sprit Park and I'm sure many of you have been to sandsprit park if you haven't you're missing a great location we have 71 members as of today that are actively protecting and educating people on boting safety that is our main purpose and we appreciate the honor that you've given us we've been in steart for 82 continuous years of servicing of servicing the uh boting public the boating community and as such we are such a happy group that we um we're the largest auxiliary in the area so we we do a lot lot of things and the auxiliary is the largest volunteer organization of the um defense uh National Defense Services we just want everybody to get home safe at night and preferably wearing your life jackets couple things I want to bring up um we have been awarded or honored with a grant from the Austin Blue Foundation and for those of you who do not know of the foundation a few years back there were two young men who uh took their boat out from Jupiter and never returned well we have been awarded a grant to provide free education to these children age 12 to 21 so any of you that have somebody in that age group get them to us we will spend a whole day with them working with them and also one parent can come along with them so it's free of charge if you're over 21 you still have to have a boting safety ID card if you were born after January 1st of 1988 couple things I want to invite you to first thing is coming Saturday on the 18th of May we are having a celebration of voting safety as such we we will be having a mini open house along with our Martin County Sheriff's grilling team and if you haven't experience their lunches and their hamburgers and hot dogs you're really missing something because they provide them for free charge so you'll get a free lunch out of it too the uh other thing is on June 8th up at um station Fort Pierce does everybody do everybody know where station Fort Pierce is okay they're having an open house up there so bring your family there's going to be games and education going on for everybody including tours of some of their vessels but the last thing and date wise is kind of links into law enforcement that we saw ahead of time dryw operation dry water runs through the year however there's a very big important push in um Fourth of July weekend and everybody will be out looking for who are the impaired voters so we don't want to see impaired voters so please please take care of that don't don't let anybody don't let anybody out on the water if they're drunk or if they've had anything at all and what they don't understand is that people dehydrate really quickly out there so it's really easy to get overly intoxicated on a lesser amount and on the good note is I thank you thank you Mr just get the message out to everybody go for education education is what cures a lot of the problems that we heard in the proclamation thank you very much thank you thank you next is our uh Public Works week May 19th through the 25th recipient Milton leet Public Works director could you read this for us of course Madam mayor whereas Public Works Services provides provided in our community are an integral uh part of our citizens everyday lives the support of an understanding and informed citizenry is vital to the efficient operation of Public Works uh systems and programs such as streets and highways public buildings parks and ball fields microtransit systems storm systems and flood control and Fleet Maintenance and whereas the health safety and comfort of this community greatly depends on these facilities and services and the quality and effectiveness of these facilities as well as their planning design and construction is vitally dependent upon the efforts and skill of Public Works officials and whereas the efficiency of the qualified and dedicated Personnel who staff Public Works departments is materially and influ materially influenced by The People's attitude and understanding of the importance of the work they perform and whereas this year's theme Advanced quality of life for all illustrates how Public Works professionals contribute to and enhance the quality of life in all of the communities they proudly serve 2024 marks the 64th annual National Public Works week sponsored by the American public works Association uh back SL Canadian Public Works Association be it now now therefore I Rebecca es Bruner mayor of the city of Stewart Florida do hereby proclaim the week of May 19th through the 25th 2024 as Public Works week thank you Mr Leed is he here yeah is Mr Leed here Milton's been preparing for this all week I hope he doesn't have too long the speech speech long [Applause] speech Mr Morel uh mayor vice mayor Commissioners our city manager on behalf of Public Works ID like to thank you for this Proclamation I also would like to thank you for letting us do everything that we do in this great city of stur maintaining our city and the last thing IID like to say is no one works like public works thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] mton killon there are um two proclamations on Mental Health um the awareness month so I'm going to do Susie Hutchinson first chief chief executive officer of uh helping people succeed Lee will you read this of course Madam mayor whereas there is a proven connection between good mental health and overall personal health only one out of two people with a serious form of mental illness seeks treatment for his or her mental illness and whereas surroundings can impact if how and when a person's needs are met which in turn affects mental health people with mental illnesses recover if given the necessary services and support in their community where early and effective interventions those individuals with mental health conditions can recover and Lead full productive lives research shows that the most effective way to reduce stigma is through personal contact with someone with a mental illness to alleviate the fear of discrimination and whereas helping people succeed as highly skilled therapists who provide specialized outpatient mental health counseling for children and adults and whereas people with mental illnesses make important contributions to our families and our communities each business school government agency healthc care provider organization and citizen share the burden of mental health problems and has a responsibility to promote mental wellness and support prevention efforts greater public awareness about mental illnesses can change negative attitudes and behaviors towards people with mental illnesses now now therefore I Rebecca s Bruner mayor of the city of Stewart Florida do hereby proclaim the m month of May 2024 as mental health awareness month Miss huton and you have no cane today good job it's okay mayor I think that um Nami is here she wanted to take a picture with you mayor Miss Janice SC from the National Association well before sus that's a separate just she just wanted they have a separate you're going to come you're going to get the other one okay I know that you were here we get the other one okay okay we couldn't be prouder to to be here with uh Nami we work with each other and support each other um as you hear every day on some form of media Mill illness is one of the most difficult problems that we have to solve today helping people succeed has been in the mental health business for the last 20 years and I'm really proud to tell you that we have like an 80% group of people who have made it back 90% of the folks we work with they're making real progress and 99% of the people that we work with have had no like interaction with law enforcement although we certainly respect law enforcement so it's something that as the proclamation says if we can have people working with therapists with folks with groups um things can change and can happen but what we find so many times is we don't find out about it until it's kind of too late so I'd like to tell you about one thing that's happening in Martin County not just with helping people succeed but with tyes and teens and others and that is we have therapist stationed at the schools so we're able to very quickly help a child if they have out you know if there's out bad behavior in class or all of a sudden they start acting different or it's an ongoing problem and so what we're able to do the the guidance counselor comes to us and we begin to talk with that child now we can only talk with that child for a little bit till we have parents' permission but we work a lot with the child helping you know trying to find out sometimes it's a very simple problem somebody hurt their feelings sometimes it's a very difficult problems like problems at home so we are able to get in at the very first of this child's issue and begin to help both the child and the family very early and we're hoping that with this kind of approach ongoing that will be able to really help stop the problem rather than always dealing with the problem but again we have um we have about 30 therapists that work with us on a daily basis so if any of you or anyone else in the audience would like to meet with us to see if we might be able to help you or one of a f family member or a friend we're certainly there for you and we thank you very much for recognizing this very very very important issue thank you thank you our next recipient on Mental Health Awareness uh executive director of Nami National Alliance on Mental Illness of the Treasure Coast uh Janice griller go ahead leave for me whereas mental health is part of overall health and helps sustain an individual's thought processes relationships productivity and ability to change or face adversity mental illness adversely affects those abilities and often is life-threatening in nature and whereas one in four Americans um has a mental health condition and 12.8 million adults live with a severe mental illness in Florida 2,769 th000 adults have a mental health condition approximately 50% of mental mental illness Begins by age 14 and 75% by the age of 24 early identification and Tre treat can make a profound difference in successful management of mental illness and recovery and whereas the National Alliance on Mental Illness of the Treasure Coast is available to support educate and advocate in areas related to mental illness and mental health and offer various support groups classes and activities throughout the year and whereas every citizen in community can make a difference in helping in the silence and stigma that for too long has surrounded mental illness and discouraged people from getting help now therefore I Rebecca es Bruner as mayor of the city of Stewart Florida do hereby Proclaim in the city of Stewart Florida the month of May 2024 as mental health awareness month M grer please forward Jesus stickler [Music] [Applause] easy good afternoon mayor and city councilman I'm sorry City commissioners uh my name is Janice SC and I am the executive director of Nami the affiliate of the national Alliance on Mental Illness Nami is the largest Grassroots organization in the United States and as said earlier I just want everybody to know if you are not aware there are one in four people that have a mental health diagnosis and in the State of Florida Florida ranks 49th when it comes to treating people with mental illness I'm proud to represent Nami of the Treasure Coast we provide support to those family that have loved ones with the mental health diagnosis and we provide support groups for those that have a mental health diagnosis we also have many other programs that help benefit our community one of the my favorite is the family to family program that is an 8-week program it's very intense and it's it's costree we offer it three times a year here like I mentioned it is an 8-week program once a week for8 weeks and it goes over diagnosis pharmacology communication skills deescalation skills and so much more and before I leave I'd like to re read our mission statement our mission is to support Advocate and encourage those who have a mental illness and their families in all areas of their lives mentally physically and spiritually thank you I'm very proud to accept this Proclamation thank you for having me thank you thank you our next Proclamation is historic preservation month our recipient is Evan Anderson um Mr Anderson wait till he reads his Proclamation I ask you to come forward go ahead pleas whereas historic preservation is an effective tool for Rev idolizing neighborhoods fostering local pride and maintaining Community character and whereas historic preservation is relevant for communities Across the Nation both urban and rural and for Americans of all ages all walks of life and all ethnic backgrounds and whereas historic preservation plays an important role in our lives and we should celebrate the contributions made by dedicated individuals in helping to preserve the tangible aspects of the Heritage that has shaped us as a people and whereas the Martin County historic preservation board has planned events throughout Martin County during the month of May to increase awareness and the need for public participation in historic preservation in order to save our local Treasures now therefore I Rebecca s Bruner the mayor of the city of Stewart Florida do hereby proclaim the month of May 2024 in the city of Stewart Florida as historic preservation month Mr Anderson please come forward Mr Anderson isn't here but I'm Jo lauan rice and I'm I'm here thank you very much thank you good afternoon Madame mayor uh vice mayor and Commissioners I'm joette laurian rice a past chair and still a member of the Martin County historic preservation board I'm here today to thank you for this Proclamation and for the last 15 years participating with us in historic preservation month we have a really good habit going on the city of Stuart Martin Connie will be celebrating this very special month along with the National Trust for historic preservation in the rest of the country the theme this year is people saving places is and all those bronze plaques that we put on building show all the effort and the money that goes into to really saving these places and I must tell you that when I moved here in 2005 from Miami I moved here because of his charm I came for a meeting on the Everglades and moved here because of charming Historic downtown Stewart and the first thing I did was get on the historic preservation board at that time the city of Stewart did not have one so I got on the Martin County historic preservation board so for the past 15 years our board has been coordinating this month the first year we thought we'd go at alone in 2008 and we did a week and we planned six events and um we did okay but the next year we decided we're going to get partners in preservation we're going to get all the organizations who care about historic preservation and the City of Stewart and combined forces and since then we've done a much better job we went from I think we had six events the first week and then we went up to 40 right before covid hit we had 40 events on our calendar in 2019 before we had to close down historic preservation month and now and I think you all have a calendar and I'll put some out for the public um out in the back um we're back up to 22 so um we're we're building again after covid and we have exciting things on there like um the Women's Club getting the plaque and I must tell you we were a little concerned at one point on the board because we only give plaques in the unincorporated area of Martin County and so we were like but there's all these historic properties in the city of Stewart and we didn't know if we'd have to do an inter local ordinance or what we were going to have to do but we were so thrilled when yall decided to get a historic preservation board and and start putting plaques on these wonderful buildings down here um it was the boards hop when we started historic preservation month that a preservation ethic would take root in Martin County and I think there already was one uh as compared to other places where I have lived and I think it continues to grow and I think that's because the people that live here they appreciate their quaint historic beautiful little Seaside town and so they not only protect it but we have people in our community that work very hard with city and county governments to make sure that we save the places for future Generations um just a few last things historic preservation is isn't only important to what Southerners call a sense of place it's also very good for the economy the very last study they did s said and that was in 2010 they haven't done one since but the University of Florida said it brings $6.9 billion dollar a year into the economy and they have done a recent report in 2021 that shows that six out of 10 visitors who come to Florida do Heritage tourism and the people people that do Heritage tourism spend more money and they stay longer because they come here for the quaintness and want to appreciate it all we invite you to join us at the Elliot Museum on um May 23rd where we will be giving out the preservationist of the Year award this year it will go to Kathy Spurgeon who has restored and preserved with her found the foundation the Apollo School Foundation the last remaining two room Schoolhouse in Martin County and and um I I also want to thank commissioner Clark for coming to our kickoff which we had on May 1st so we look forward to people coming to our event next year is the Centennial so get ready 100 years in Martin County and um we're going to be planning some big events so thank you very much thank you thank [Applause] you now our next Pro Proclamation is our our guard week our recipient is Rosita aristoff president of the Garden Club first I'm going to have re Lee read the proclamation whereas gardeners have a passion for nurturing the beauty and resources of the earth through plant the planting of seeds the care of all plants and the riches of their efforts gardeners seek to add Beauty Splendor fragrance and nutrition to our lives through the growing of herbs vegetables foliage and flowers whereas gardeners work work to preserve our country's traditional Spirit of Independence and initiative through Innovation and hard work gardeners Advocate the importance of All Creatures large and small that share our world and their roles in a balanced and productive ecology and whereas gardening furnishes a challenging and productive activity for our citizens for those just learning as well as those having years of experience gardening promotes a healthy lifestyle that lasts a lifetime helps reduce stress from other areas of our life uh teaches that rewards and can come from diligent efforts and whereas gardening enables members of garden clubs Across the Nation and the world to make a world of difference in the communities where they reside and work now therefore I Rebecca s Bruner mayor of the city of Stewart Florida do hereby Proclaim June 2nd through the 8th 20124 as Garden week miss arop you here come forward [Applause] flow Diane do you want to get take may just a few words um so I am Rosita Aristo president of the Garden Club of a Stewart and I am honored to receive the National Garden week Proclamation on behalf of the Garden Club the Garden Club of estart is among as many as 5,000 Garden clubs Across America affiliated with the National Garden clubs all of which will soon be celebrating National Garden week on June 2nd to the 8th it is an opportunity for all of us to work with other like mind minded groups involved in the areas of Florida friendly plantings native plantings floor design and in sh Lear knowledge about gardening for garden week we'll again Place floral arrangements at all of Martin Count's public libraries other activities leading up to that week include an in extensive cleanup of the Art Council card Gardens that's the historical courthouse and at the courthouse as well as 50 new plantings at the shapon School of seamanship and refreshing the blue star Memorial Garden in Memorial Park which is our tribute to our veterans so on behalf of the Garden Club of EST I thank the C the St City commission commissions for recogniz recognizing with this Proclamation our efforts to beautif beautify the community I will now leave you with this Garden wisdom from Abraham Lincoln we can complain because rose bushes have thorns or Rejoice because Thorn bushes have roses thank you very much thank you no I got it last words now yeah now we have comments from our commissioners if they have any who would like to go start with me or you're starting with trit go ahead commissioner Clark go ahead thank you I just wanted to well of course we have so many proclamations but I don't know if Mr Peter uchin is here our utilities director but I know that Mr leot is here I know a city manager who has done a lot of work in the past few years uh as attorney and city manager we had the ribbon cut in for our reverse osmosis water treatment facility we got funds from uh representative Harold uh and oh Mr uchin uh could you come up so that the public can see you Mr Mr uchin our utilities director yes and um we had we had um representative aadorf who also um got funds from Tallahassee and we have Ben hogart who has always worked to get these money Miss Jackie May when we see the end product we don't really give credit to all the hard work that goes into it and I know that you're new to us as staff but you work with the engineers who worked at the 10th Street location and we had the past lawsuit and so many people are wondering or we've had lots of questions about water quality in Stewart and what's happening with water quality so we had the ribbon cut in and how long is that osmosis plant supposed to last us except for forever conservatively that uh plant will last 40 to 50 years if not longer thank you so much there's just so much technology that goes into that Mr Woodside is there and it's just I know that I've talked to city manager about having maybe different departments do or say something every so often at our city council meeting and the men and women who work so hard at both our Reclamation plant and our water treatment plan and as you heard today all of Public Works I'm going to ask myself our commission and those who are here in the public to give them a great big hand thank you Mr mayor just briefly I wanted to continue with historic preservation we did um have the list and I hope that members of the public know they can go on the historic preservation website or come over next door to our feed store to see what's happening or to pick up a calendar for the activities that are happening this month one activity which did not get onto the couny um listing here is May 20th which you heard heard the proclamation today May 20th is Emancipation Proclamation day the State of Florida General Mook coming to Tallahassee and saying that those who were enslaved two years after the president had given the the proclamation and it came to Florida two years later in um on May the 20th 1865 so we're going to have this program in the evening starting at 5:30 at the Stuart Pentecostal Church please come out and participate in that as much as possible um I the Women's Club they already talked about there so I won't mention that that's already there I'm going to be having a town hall at the 10 Street Recreation Center on June 13th June 13th it's all confirmed we're working with our CRA with our historical committee with our um Community Services Department our police department and several others for them to have tables as well as some things that will be going we're going to be working on a program but this is a a um town hall on June the 13th at the 10th Street starting I think at 6:00 p.m. that's it's going to be there I wanted to do this but I know that city manager will probably do this himself well I know that we have Memorial Day coming up and many of us will probably be here participating in activities but that's also a day when we will miss a city council meeting and I think we will have the city council meeting the next day after that on the Tuesday at the 5:30 p.m. time frame okay so um that's all I have I just want to congratulate Mr um leot again and his staff for Public Works week and um we just really appreciate all you do to to keep our city well as long as you put up more lights this Christmas that doesn't cost us any more money we'll be happy thank you Madame mayor yes I just wanted to publicly thank Sheriff Snider I saw him Roman around in the back there but for paying attention to what's happening in the little city of Stewart and using his platform to advocate for the character of our city so I wanted to thank him publicly and secondly thank all of you we don't normally have so many people in the room uh so I wanted to thank all of you for taking your evening to be here and I'm seeing these green sheets filling in so I'm thankful for all of the public comments that you would all be willing to come here and um and share how you feel so thank you thank you madam mayor so we have a few times during the year we do get these three-week breaks and so much happens I'm going to have to start writing it down um besides these meeting I know all of us sit on many other boards and go to many other meetings and I attended quite a few I thought it was going to culminate in the uh South Florida water Management District board coming down here and holding their meeting and allowing us to attend but actually it did it it it culminating with us opening the water plant the the reverse osmosis which commissioner Clark mentioned I'm sure the mayor will have other words um I am the representative for the city commission to the Treasure Treasure Coast Council of local governments I attended that last week and I was lucky enough to hear a presentation a little bit nerdy but from the public utilities director of the city of Port St Lucy who was very enthusiastic in detailing their focus on what is a new Focus for so many communities in Florida which is rather than just dumping all our storm water into the nearest water body which has just created enormous problems now we try to retain as much water as we possibly can we want to treat it to as great a degree as possible get rid of all those nutrients that are following our waterways and then hopefully have that water uh recharge our aquafer so it was nice to see him um so proud of what they're accomplishing and those of you who drive around Board St Lucy will recognize the considerable challenge this these that that department faces with the incredible growth they're experience and um I do want to thank the south Florida Water Management District for coming we had a very nice party at uh a reception the evening before at fos I believe the commissioner McDonald was ear the mayor was there and it's very important for them to see our faces I saw many of the county staff was there and this makes a difference CU when we talk to these people and call them up and tell them how concerned our citizens are about the quality of the water that surrounds the city they can put a face to that name and they know that you know our concerns are reasonable I did also attend the rivers Coalition meeting um I think it was the only City Commissioner there which is very unusual normally all the City commissioners go but I wanted to bring up something that is very timely so this is a group that uh has a a a constitutional amendment uh they have a petition to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in 26 and it is the right to clean and healthy Waters and they failed initially and Eve maybe you can help me what year did they try to get it on for 24 this year okay so but they're going again so I admire their determination and those of us who are trying to fight for clean water recognize that I'm going to read to you why this is so important to the city of Stewart because these these elements are what we've lacked in in [Music] our effort to ensure our River stay clean so I'm quoting here this amendment creates an enforcable fundamental right to clean and healthy Waters authorizing a person to sue for Equitable relief when a state executive agency by action or in action allows harm or threat of harm to Florida waters this amendment provides for strict judici IAL scrutiny of such action or inaction adds to available remedies identifies affected constitutional Provisions provides for enforcement and defines terms and requires attorneys fees and costs prevailing plaintiffs this is a tool the city has not had before and this is if any municipality in the State of Florida will be in a position to make claims under this amendment it would be the city of steart so I don't know if we can put a link on the city site or if we can get a consensus I'm not sure city manager have but I would ask all of you to support go to the site the right to clean water and sign that petition and um I just this is something we can really use as we go forward um interesting words are there and our action and inaction and that's what we suffer from a great deal in our fight with water is inaction action and lack of enforcement and so this is what we need um thank you madam mayor very good commissioner would you like to speak yeah just uh I'm going to be very brief in the interest of time there's a lot of people here I just want to say the uh the opening of the reverse osmosis plant um was a Monumental event in the history of the city of Stewart it was one of the probably the largest Public Works you ities project we've ever had in the city it is one of the most important and me and commissioner Clark were here when back in 2016 when we got the news about uh about the posos and and our Engineers our Public Works our utilities department starting with uh Sam Emerson and Dave Peters and Peter now who have done a fabulous job of moving this through the process and getting this done and it's for the betterment of all of the utility users in the city of steuart so we're very very lucky to have such a wonderful group of people and everyone at the water treatment plant uh and all the engineers that worked on this and all the construction Crews that did everything so we're I'm going to say that it's I'm very pleased I'm very excited and it was a Monumental day that I will remember for a very very long time uh other than that I'm going to re just Reserve any com comments for the next meeting because uh in the interest of everyone's time so thank you dare uh the Daughters of the American Revolution asked me to just show everyone this uh the 80th anniversary of dday they're going to um uh it'll be at the road to Victory an open house Thursday June 6 2024 and they would like whoever to come the 80th anniversary of dday and one thing um I just wanted to ask about if you have any information um manager on the U Seventh Street of the traffic the four-way stop I think we had a cameras there have you heard any more my neighbors are asking me crosswalk stop y um I know that we did the study I don't know if it's complete and I know that we have collected the data from it and with that data we still have to determine what to do with the information and to do design and or decide what to do I also know I think it was the following week we put the stop sign up um so I don't know what the response from the neighbors are what's currently pending but we have the data and I know the sign went up it wasn't even a week later it was like three days later okay okay thank you Mike that's into the comment let's see um Mike our manager do you have any comments to I do um first um I know that the fecr is applying for a Chrissy Grant and um I was looking for consensus from the board for the city to uh prepare a letter of recommendation for the mayor's signature for the Chrissy Grant which will go forward toward the uh future railroad crossing bridge and Any Grant funds that are received by the fcr will be used for the uh construction Andor um design of that bridge so I wanted I was letting you know that we'll be preparing that I'll be asking the mayor to sign it you actually passed a resolution in the past authorizing us to uh pursue those Grant o opportunities also I wanted to mention and as uh commissioner rich said earlier when you have the gaps sometime we um there's a lot going on and things get uh behind us but um a couple of weeks ago our very own Anne Hawkins also known as used to be known as Ann ellig received the inaugural winner of the Wendy Lee Parker award at the keep Martin beautiful stewardship Awards and um she is a uh an environmental advocate for the city that is uh goes as an unsung hero the city also received received the Environmental Education award for the city of Stewart's backyard composting program which technically she was instrumental and putting together but um uh in addition uh during this time frame I received a letter regarding our very own Police Department uh essentially I wish to take this opportunity to express my appreciation uh to you and the members of the department for the fascinating and informative tour of the police department the community relations office officer and the uh along with the dispatchers and the Ride Along for the with the patrol offer was very knowledgeable the Prof the staff was very polite and professional and uh John Michael cops had a very very nice time with the cops um in addition to that uh I I just want to mention this and um because the the police chief mentioned it to me today and I get about one or two emails a week generally from people that received tickets but we have a a balance in downtown Stewart and and we hear very often that we need to enforce the parking regulations in downtown and they're not being enforced enough but it's my experience that every time they're enforced the people that they're enforced against let me know that they're being enforced um so I want everyone to know that the commission about almost a year ago now but about eight months ago moved move forward for the implementation of the new parking program in downtown Stewart well the new program is using uh much more efficient data and information and today they gave an example of that and drove through downtown Stewart and were able to identify five different cars that should have been towed or booted because they had more than five outstanding tickets for longer than 10 days away don't worry no one needs to run your car is not getting towed right now um I asked the chief when that could go into place and and start going forward and he said as early as next week but um I guess they always say we the last time somebody got a ticket they called me up and said we should have warned them that we were riding tickets again that's what I'm doing right now guys warnings here um also uh Eve samples the executive director of the friend of the Everglades is present and is happy to comment but she's asked us to join them as a co-petitioner to petition the EPA uh to set uh levels for cyanotoxins in the water um under the EPA rulemaking under the Clean Water Act this petition needs to be filed no later than May 23rd so I don't have time to put it on an agenda item and do the full presentation to the board what I'm requ requesting is a motion from you to authorize the mayor to uh participate as a petitioner with the friends of the A and then I'll put it on the 28th for a full explanation as well commissioner McDonald made the motion second I have a second oh you did okay do I have any comments from any of the Commissioners thank you thank you any comments from the public I just I'm sorry if I noticed in reading the petition that the State of Florida has a trienal requirement to I'm sorry and wouldn't open in my but it has a trianal requirement to address the latest could you just explain it a little bit and why this is so important thank you we get this tool thank you very much for your support Eve samples executive director at Friends of the Everglade so under the Clean Water Act the states are supposed to review their water quality standards every 3 years since the trienal review unfortunately the State of Florida has been much delayed and actually 5 years ago a group of environmental nonprofits petitioned the state to do this very thing that we're asking for right now to add standards for cyot toxins these are the toxins in blue green algae that we all remember from 2018 2016 they're a public health threat a real concern so the state has not acted so now we're going to ask the EPA the federal government to implement those for the state of Florida this is a petition it's not a lawsuit it's a petition for rul making and it gives us yet another tool to keep our water clean here in Stuart so the state fails to file that trienal update it needs to then provide an explanation of why it failed to file has the state done that either there has been no explanation provided to EPA and this all goes to the point why we need to take these matters into our own hands as to greatest degree as possible and this both these items this evening are essential ele ments and that so thank you thank you all um can I do all in favor or we need to all in favor is fine all in favor and and so I'll prepare that letter obviously uh to her as she probably already knows but um we will participate in that and then I will bring it back on May 28th for a more formal agenda item just so that we can go through share the petition with you and show you uh what you just signed up for thank you very much thank you um the last thing I have is I have um requested the City attorney just give you a brief dis discussion on the Quasi legislative and quasi judicial hearings that are getting ready to begin so that um the commission has clear direction as well as the participants thank you city manager um I had a couple of questions from City staff and uh from a commissioner or two on the difference between quasi judicial and quasi legislative and uh uh in the adoption process so I thought I'd just kind of um briefly give you a recap or a summary of such um and this could be for the benefit of the the folks here from the public as well um on the under the commission action on the agenda we have items items uh 13 and 14 uh there are two different agenda items um dealing with the same property located at 500 Southeast Indian Street and the first the first item on the agenda is a legislative it's a quasi legislative hearing and the second one is quasi judicial and so there's a difference uh even though it's the same property we have to have two separate hearings so that you understand why we're doing it that way um in the Quasi judicial the the the Board of Commissioners here they step out of the role as legisl legislative or an administrative role and they step into a judicial capacity and and it's it's kind of like a a informal hearing like you would be in court um the city commission will be responsible for making a determination by applying the existing laws ordinances and regulations to facts presented to the board and at the Quasi judicial versus the Quasi legislative the folks that uh will be testifying will be under oath um in addition they're required um to um disclose any expart Communications that they had that had occurred prior to the hearing tonight um the other questions I've had is about the hearings so there are multiple statutes uh statutes are state law and then there's our own city code um multiple statutes in our city code don't necessarily line up perfectly on how to the pro process or procedure to adopt an amendment to uh our comprehensive uh plan future land use map or the resoning so um I've had to review all of them and I want to summarize what my opinion is that we need to um comply with and so there there was some confusion and I hope that this will help in clarifying the confusion um it's it's my opinion that we we obviously have two hearings um and tonight at a bare minimum all that in my opinion is required is that we read the um the title of the ordinances that's the bare minimum and then at our second hearing which would take place at the next hearing um you would actually have a fullscale hearing on both of them however I know historically the board has at the first reading done some of the hearing as well so um when I when I gave my opinion that it's a bare minimum you got to at least do that but historically you do more and I think think that's fine I think the only uh difference is that there should be no vote on or a motion to approve and a vote on such on either of the agenda items tonight I think it would be simply to a motion to close the hearing um because the the law is pretty clear that the um the vote uh on the adoption on approval or denial needs to happen at the second hearing uh which would be at the next commission meeting so I just wanted to kind of give you my opinion on that and um hopefully that can clarify some of the questions I got over the last week or so so thank you Lee sure okay do I have an approval of the agenda move to approve the agenda second we have approval we have a second um any comments from our commissioner are there any comments from the public I see none roll call all in favor all in favor I I I okay now we're going to go to the U comments from the public but first I'd like to say there's many people that would like to speak and we're uh the rule is three minutes and that way you can give everybody a chance to say something and we won't be here to to uh you know all night you have three minutes and if you go over it I'll ask you to stop because we have so many people and it's fair for everyone to speak and our first one is our sheriff sheriff Snider Madame man can we just clarify that this first set of public comments is on non-agenda related items so if you're here to speak on 13 or 14 this is yeah when we get to those the reality of it is though is there's really not any thing between them well that doesn't mean they might have concerns that are not on the agenda so we should make them all General no no no this is General yeah yeah yeah okay okay cuz I'm not sure welcome you're first welcome Sheriff thank you for being here thank you thank you commiss you have three minutes no I'm kiding is it finished thank you thank for coming you're welcome thank you thank you for having me I love the experiment in government the experiment in democracy that we engage in when we do things like this this is where government belongs right here uh right here in excuse me in front of the people openly to discuss matters of importance and I think this is an important matter but I want to be very careful I I'm a cop I don't pretend to be anything more than that I always play myself and as such I think I have have a voice in this matter but I want to be careful I know that you you'll be thoughtful and measured and there's there's people that don't agree with me and they'll be up here I'm sure sometime today but speaking directly about this facility that if I understand it correctly is asking you all for a a a zoning change I'm going to just talk real quickly and then I'll I'll sit down and get out of your way uh we know in my industry we have a lot of experience with Rehabilitation systems we have a lot of experience with systems that have overnight or weekly or monthly attendance now I know there's some uh nomeclature issues about sober home impatient let's call it whatever you want it what I think is being proposed is a facility to treat drug and alcohol us dependent people and try to get them sober and off of substance and stop being substance abuser but the problem that I see is the 140 bed if I'm wrong on the numbers no correct me but at least over a 100 beds where people will be staying so here's the problem our experience with facilities like this excuse me is uh is is wide we have a lot of experience and what we have found let me just share with you from a law enforcement standpoint what we found face first of all there are federal protections once these facilities go into play we have I couldn't tell you the amount of times numerous hundreds of times we get information that somebody has a warrant that they're at a facility we try to go there and serve the warrant the facilities invariably do not cooperate with us as as recently as a few minutes ago I was on the contact with my legal advisor and we continue to have problems in that area uh any facility that attracts people from all over the country presents a real law enforcement problem for us I would advocate for any outpatient facility that treated people here in Martin County that have drug alcohol or or mental illness issues as a matter of fact between Palm Beach County Martin County St Lucy County we stopped counting at 100 treatment facilities currently so uh there may be a study that they'll bring to you that says there's some need for this but I would argue that with a 100 facilities that people here in Martin County can go to uh we we if you need help today in Martin County and you're a private pay I understand this facility is a private pay there's there's places you can go and then go home it's the livein that is the problem so as people and I've had some push backs uh they they advocate well it's it's one of these not in my backyard arguments well that's not really the argument the argument is it's in all of our backyards in Martin County if you have 140 people we did the math roughly and you could have at 30-day stays 1,680 people moving through Martin County every year I would suspect many of them from out of state when I was in Tallahassee I spent years as a State Rep I know what you're facing I know the pressures you have you have people that want to start a legitimate business and you're hearing both sides but one thing I learned when I was up there I would always ask myself this question when I was facing an issue is the juice worth The Squeeze In other words to translate it will we as Martin County be better off if this facility comes I don't think the question and I and I'll bring this in for Ling I don't think the question today is will people go there and get help let's say let's just move to that position of course somebody is going to go there and get help the question is will Martin County taxpayers people living in in willby Cove people in the uh uh affordable housing just to the north of that the two schools that are within walking distance will we have to subsidize as taxpayers and people that live here are we going to have to subsidize this we say how are you going to subsidize there's no tax dollars here's the subsidy when they fail out of the program which they will they'll be in my jail they'll be in these people's backyards they'll be on the streets they'll be sleeping behind Walmart you fly in here from another state on private pay and then you get in trouble there because they're some of these people are fragile where do they go They're not going home they're going to end up right here because the people at home have had all they can take and they end up here in Martin County so so I'll close with this I have been an advocate for years now for a mental health facility that would be impatient that we could help people here in Martin County I stand behind that and I stand behind any effort that would help people it's been in my family there's nobody out here there's nobody out here whose family has not been affected by drug abuse or alcohol dependence every single one of us has it we are all advocates for treatment what we are not advocates for is running 1,600 people from around the country through our vulnerable County which is changing way too fast as it is and with that thank you so much for letting me [Applause] do order okay there's I think I have two or three public comments the next one is Jack nfle pilosus leotus thank you sir thank you for having me uh my name is Jack nap leotus I live at 842 Southeast Westminster place here in AR County over at willby Glen subdivision I uh grew up in this town went in the Navy for 25 years and came back to this town because I loved it and right now just like Chief Schneider said we're going to have a lot of transients coming down down here and I have a scrub J preserve that's right behind my house and we've had all the transients that came from behind Walmart where hog is now or they used to be the cedar Forest they all moved into the scrub J and we've been calling non-stop to have Sher sniders people come in and get kick them out now where those people going to go when they fail Just Like Chief Snider said they're going to be in my backyard we've already seen them back there they're looking in our back door you our backyards through our windows and it's scary and we're going to be set up for failure if you guys let that thing happen that's all I have to say thank you sir thank you thank you can we hold down the Clapping some let's go on from next so the next one is um Karen R Miss R thank you for coming yes yes yes yes good evening thank you Commissioners mayor um people are upset so I came up with just a couple oh Karen Hall Yos rudge 1701 Southwest Palm City Road I've been voting in Martin County since 1996 rais my kids here I'm the luckiest girl in the world to live here people are upset we I have a couple things I think we can do number one this public comment needs to go first even before you guys talk okay and if you want to talk unless it's about the water the water is the most important thing but you guys should only have 3 minutes to talk and we should go first you have cut us from 5: to 3: and then you guys all talk no people are upset transparency number two emails we would like to see your emails we're tired of oh 200 people texed me about Costco really show it to me we want to see what you guys are doing we're trying to rebuild our trust and faith in you but you got to do your part you go after public comment we go first okay and uh the phones I don't want to I think it's ridiculous if you're up there on your phones you're only here two times a month stay off your phones we don't want to have stuff happening like with commissioner McDonald and I Crumpler and Martin count Realtors go Mike generally look at him our own Tiffany ma'am no ma'am you're pointing out you can't do it no I'm telling you we will clap we will clap when we want to clap we are running this is our thing okay not you guys we put you in there but we want you to listen to us and we want some respect and I don't want to be interrupted and uh now that Miss now you got me off track here we go now I have to appeal because your manager SL attorney whatever he's doing he he is dishonest with the court I've been asking you since 2019 very respect y just let someone else look at the case he just uh uh def defrauded the court uh like you know a month or so ago he shouldn't be representing anything in the rudge family property you're in the wrong are you do you understand how crazy you are to interrupt me and tell me I'm in the wrong it's Mrs asking you to not directly attack people and that's all you keep doing we love you you just called the mayor crazy no I said this is crazy that she would interrupt me you don't interrupt people I'm a resident and we love you guys I love each one of you I pray for you all the time especially this one but anyway you know what I and and now you've interrupted me and my train of thought is gone but yes we have our own Tiffany henyard right here in Mr mortell and we love you and pray for you m Miss cartright would you follow that welcome good evening I'd be happy to follow that actually because let's talk about conflicts of interest and ethics I appreciate that a candidate getting a donation from a developer by definition is not a conflict of interest nor is it unethical even if they receive a donation right before a pivotal vote though the timing is questionable also questionable leaking confidential information surrounding a legal case to a former commissioner turned blogger who published it and made be compromised a potential settlement yep confidential attorney client talks were leaked and published and Nobody Knows by home fun fact when I submitted for aoya to find out who was the leak six messages were labeled attorney client privilege and were unavailable to me the only one that had any relevant contact was a text from one current commissioner to a to the said blogger stating they were in a caner CPU settlement talk and would call after were they the leak we'll never know though it was stated this would be investigated as it was a quote unquote ser ious issue and it wouldn't be tolerated crickets so what else can you learn from AOA let's talk about the property at 228 southe East Ela Street or Isa Street it was reported to the city that the owner amended and divided his single family home into three units to allow for rentals there were meetings including current staff and Commissioners to discuss it and it has been well documented through emails and photos the emails were mainly between the former City attorney and the homeowner included in the emails was the statement quote if if I get fired over this case I'm sure the next lawyer the city hires is going to be much harsher than I would ever be well we all know that hypothetical situation won't happen based on the response sent by the new City attorney on April 29th the case has neatly wrapped up with the city determining that based on the email from the new City attorney it is indeed legal as long as there is only one electric meter and one water meter on the home so the lesson to everybody watching and in this room who owns a single family home and is in the city limits who apply to do something like this and we're or who just want to avoid the whole permitting process and create your own multif family residence is the following go ahead do what you want call in favors to staff don't file for permits ask for forgiveness not permission get the magistrate to lessen your fines and fees by more than 60% keep one electric meter and one water meter and have the new City attorney say it's okay because the property appraiser shows it as a single family property doesn't matter that pictures exist doesn't matter that there's photo documentation showing there are multiple units and it doesn't matter that a year ago everyone in the city was in agreement thanks to Foya we know this that the subdivision was an issue and the city won't force you to return it to its original state the Precedence has been set in a relatively meager fine and three units labeled as a single family home because it has one meter boy wouldn't it be wonderful if we were all given and offered this same Council in the same latitude so a gentle reminder to everyone watching and who's in this room make sure you're Reg to vote because the staff reports to commission commission reports to Residents and we deserve a commission with [Music] [Applause] ethics the green slips that I have for 13th and 14th when we get to those um then I'll call your name and you come up have calendar the commission action jod um let me read this the information uh 13 commission action informational only the clarity Point PUD small scale comprehensive plan future land use map Amendment located at 500 Southeast cynthian Street and this will be um legislative um Le you want to read this on we should probably do number 12 first I think we missed the approval of the minutes move to approve the consent agenda second I have a motion um to approve the minutes second any uh any comments from any comments from the public on the on the meetings there is none uh ra no um fav all in favor say I I I okay apologize for that ordinance number 25 29-22 24 Madame mayor before we proceed could I get just get a clarification here from the city we are only talking with regard to this item about the future land land use designation is that has nothing to do with the business that may be proposed 14 right 13 is land use is just the land use is changing it has nothing to do with that so if you want to come up and talk about the proposed business you're not talking about 13 you're talking about 14 it I know it's awkward but it's That's the Law now and for for clarification zoning is the he the traffic the parking the Landscaping the setbacks those things are all zoning the actual land use is a more Global concept of what the future and adjacent lands should be used for for example where we are is an Institutional or government land use so in the future this property would be used maybe it's not City Hall maybe instead it's a water treat treatment office and it would be those types of land uses a commercial land use could be something ranging from a a uh from a car dealership to a 7-Eleven so the land use itself is limited to just the land use the zoning which is item 14 is I think what the majority of the people are going to be addressing um Leah I um presented the agenda will you read the 13 uh of course Madame mayor this is this is uh uh the Quasi legislative okay go ahead of course ordinance number 2529 d224 an ordinance of the city Commission of the city of Stuart Florida amending the comprehensive plan future land use map for an approximate 9.46 acre parcel of land from multif family residential to commercial future land use designation amending the future land use map providing directions to the city clerk providing for repeal of all ordinances in Conflict providing for severability providing for codification and providing for an effective date and for other purposes thank you now I'm going to ask our city developer Jody to present what you have Jody uh good evening Madam mayor and the members of the board my name is Jody cougler I'm the development director with the city of Stewart and tonight I will present agenda item number 13 a smallscale future land use map Amendment for our site Pacific property located at 500 Southeast Indian Street the applicant submitted a petition to amend the existing 9.46 Acre Site from a multif family residential land use designation to a commercial land use designation a small scale comprehensive plan may be adopted by the property for properties less than 50 acres or fewer by the City commission this agenda item is being presented to the commission for information purposes only and no action is required until the adoption of the rezoning to the mixed juice planned unit development which is scheduled for the second and final reading before the city commission regular meeting on Monday May 28 2024 beginning at 5:30 or there soon after per Florida State Statute 163 31776 peren 8 sorry pen a peren 8 future land use amendments shall be based upon the following analysis the ability of facilities and services the suitability of plan Amendment for its proposed use considering the character of the undeveloped land soils to toty natural resources and historical resources on site the minimum amount of land needed to achieve the goals and requirements of this section this that data analysis was presented during the future land use amendment when the assistant living facility was established back in 2018 the 9.46 Acres subject parcel outlined in yellow is located at 500 Southeast Indian Street situated on the south side of Southeast Indian Street approximately 580 feet east of the intersection of Southeast caner Highway and Southeast Indian Street the site history of this property in 1997 the property was annexed into the City and was assigned a commercial land use for the property in 2004 an ordinance was approved amending the future land use to multif family residential in 2005 an ordinance was approved to establish a residential plan unit development to construct 66 multifam homes this development was never constructed or never came for wish in 2017 uh the ordinance was to repeal the the residential plan unit development and established the clarity Point residential plan unit development to develop the 84 unit Assistant Living facility with memory care for the 9.46 acres and amended the future land use from multifam residential to commercial for the remaining 1.92 acres in 2017 an ordinance was approved abandoning the 40ft r way within the clarity Point PUD and in 2018 a resolution was approved for the plat for the clarity planned unit development policy the existing land use policy a7.1 multif family residential consist of or is defined as one or two or more dwelling units per building include single family detached duplex Town Homes garden homes foster homes adult congregant living facilities of four fewer unrelated residents and zero lot line residents also public facilities churches daycare centers schools and distribution substations are allowed the proposed future land use is defined in policy a7.1 peren M which is commercial land uses and activities are predominantly connected with the sale rental and distribution of products or performance or professional and nonprofessional services includes retail sales service establishments businesses professional and other offices shopping centers financial institutions restaurants entertainment hotels and motels and other temporary lodging a limited amount of multif family residential indoor industrial use is allowed also a mixed use projects are allowed within this this land use [Music] the property is adjacent to uh is adjacent to on the North side is the crossings to multif family residential development within the city of Stewart on the south the property is undeveloped and is in the location within Martin County and is zoned as low and density to the east is a commercial planed unit development knowing as Pomo Edge shopping center within the city of Stewart and also uh to the West is a commercial plan unit development uh commercial with within a five and has a 5 acre drainage track on March 14 2024 the local planning agency held a public hearing for the smallscale comprehensive plan Amendment petition and voted to forward a recommendation of approval to the city commission the motion was passed 3 to one with Board member Miss Peterson voted nay no action is required by the city commission until the adoption of the reson to the mix mix juuse Planet develop planned unit development which is scheduled for the second and final reading before the city Commission on Monday May 28th and beginning at 5:30 this concludes staff's presentation I do believe the applicant has a presentation as well excuse me Madame mayor yes can I ask staff a question this is a quazi Judicial matter did you did you did you mail things within three 300 ft and did you report that in your report yes the uh applicant did mail uh notices within 300 feet did post a property um and then changeed to sign appropriately to describe today's meeting however that's not a requirement till the second reading but they did send out notices within 300 feet twice I just want to make sure that we pivot on the record yes thank you okay now we go to any of the Commissioners have any questions of the staff yes staff no our petitioner you I don't think you should he should he speak regarding this the petitioner it's their they're the applicant now it's their opportunity right yes welcome thank you thank you they the applicant good evening uh for the record Brad Curry representing the applicant um I understand that this is for informational only tonight staff did an excellent job presenting the application I don't know that I need to do the presentation um Jody it's very similar to what you did um just to show that the request to change the future land use to commercial is completely consistent with the uses surrounding us there is commercial land use to the east of us as well as to the west of us a portion of this property was already changed to commercial we're simply trying to change the rest of the property to commercial so I just want to to reinforce and state that it is consistent with your comprehensive plan is consistent with the surrounding uses and we respectfully request approval when this item comes back for you the 28th thank you okay Madam mayor yes so thank you jod for that presentation um so if we look at the comprehensive plan this is actually the very first element of it when so hold on I'm having trouble with my computer this evening here it is okay so it is is the element one is the future land use element goals objectives and policies of the city of Stewart and it talks the P the goal statement one is maintain and enhance Steward's quality of life natural beauty smalltown Waterfront character then it talks about topographic and soil characteristics this sort of goes to the city manager's point of how Global a framework for this decision um conservation element flood management residential development housing element and uh what's the last one here I noticed anyway it doesn't talk about you know we're are we making this decision to accommodate one business not hard's hardly the case so if we look at the vacant land in the city Jody there's 634 vacant acres is that correct approximately more or less uh mayor mayor and commissioner rich I do not have that uh information I'll just go through it then without asking you we do we have 634 vacant Acres 138 of those are commercial um 423 of those are conservation so no one's going to go near those so if we look at the vacant acreage in the city it's actually 21 acres are commercial 60 6% 2third of the land in the city vacant land in the city is commercial zero is multif family every report I read says that what the city needs is more housing not more commercial and we have zero vacant acres to accommodate that I can just see and just overall there's 925 commercial acres in the city including the and multif family there's 579 I just don't I I can't come up with a good reason to make this future land use chance I just can't and that's my comment all right do we have any other comments from the Commissioners Madam mayor yes yes along with commissioner Rich's Point uh for me personally I you know this just got changed in 2004 to multif family it wasn't that long ago for me that's basically ironed out from just a land use and not discussing the project or nature of it uh seems sort of like we're flip-flopping land use for whatever um is is the wind of the day so for me I wouldn't feel comfortable you know going forward I know we're not voting but just sort of vocalizing my my thoughts um Madame mayor CLK yes Mr Mor if you put on your attorney hat but um I think I've asked you these questions before as a City attorney but I can ask Miss Mr um baggot I don't know I thought we had the three C's or something comprehensive contiguous and there's another C well just to be consistent with a comprehensive plan when we're looking at these land use type issues and um I know that uh sometimes it looks uh good when you can say well these are all the things that are surrounding the area and what we're going to be doing kind of completes what's in this area it's contiguous to the area and um you know it fits in with a comprehensive plan and uh usually that that's a good thing but along with that I did ask staff to look through it and I'm glad that Mr Rich actually has something written down they might have responded to me but I hadn't uh looked at anything since after the time I asked to check was that the Willoughby PUD itself and the change that have happened in there and when this last change happened um you know it happened for a reason to have this to have this um this PUD in there with the with the nursing home and we really do need to keep multifam as much as possible especially if there's vacant multifam this is actually developed multif family but it's vacant now and it was a business but it remained um in the I guess in the residential PUD um category not the commercial category even though there was a nursing home there because that's what it was allowed to do um it's uh it's the the land use considerations are what I'm looking at and I know that you can just as soon say it's it's um it fits in there's something there's commercial on the east side of it and way out to Indian Street and ker Highway there's commercial uh but to the South it's vacant and um I think that part is also multifam to the South if I'm not mistaken is that correct Jody yes undeveloped vacant residential yes ma'am yes correct yeah and um even though this actually fronts onto um onto uh Indian Street um and I know that the other issue is that that vacant vacant residential is actually County jurisdiction not City jurisdiction um but um it's it's a very um the the land use issue and looking at the comprehensive land use um I I appreciate you speaking to that Mr Mr rich and also Mr Collins the comprehensive land use issue and I I hear what Mr see Mr Corin and Mr anner I remember Mr arner's name I I hear what they're saying but I'm really looking at it from the from number one the city's perspective of our overall land uses and what we have available and what we can develop in the future how we can develop in the future and then when we look at the the micro of what happens in a particular area and what's been going on with the The Crossings and with the the hospital development and anything else that's coming along there and how those land uses have been set and I'm not telling you that they're perfect we have a lot of hodge podge stuff that goes on and it's probably because of the way land has been owned and things have happened a lot of the ways in this area if we look at the history which is why I wanted the history for myself even if we don't do it all here but we're transparent and we try to be as transparent as possible is that these prop a lot of these properties were in the county and then they came in with a certain type of land use and we got the closest that we can to the city and we even had that issue on on the caner um PUD project so it is um something that when we do have something like a nice patch of residential multifam that I think that we probably need to to keep that that way as much as possible and um that's all I'm going to say for right now but I it really we have to make sure that we're following a good land use analysis and it's not just that always because something is contiguous is only one of the issues there are other things and of course overall um thing I think May if you were here for a long time we had a proclamation or something that somebody mentioned about um a sense of place in our community and that is also a very important consideration so um I think that we're we're looking at things and we're having the right discussion that we need to have for the um small scale comprehensive future land use map change we're we're considering the things that we need to consider thank you commissioner commissioner McDonald I've got no comment at this time okay Jody do you have any more to say or add or any questions you're fine uh mayor Bruner I do not m madame mayor may I and I'm going to go to the city manager again and to the City attorney especially I noticed that I didn't actually I'll admit that I didn't get to read the minutes but I did talk to some people about the um LPA that LPA mean meeting the member the number of LPA members and then the vote we had like four members at the meeting there was a 22 vote on the that was the zoning on the Zone I was going to say that on Z and there was a 3-1 on the land use I'm sorry I mean I I I said both of their things but we do talk it was a 3-1 on the land use and they actually recommended because I don't know I I that's why I said I don't have the words of the minutes here with regard to whether they were looking at contiguous or looking at other things whether up and down caner highway or up and down Indian Street what that because I don't have their minutes to enter in as a part of my conversation right now but it did show that they were sending to US 31 but then there was a conflict I mean there was a whole different vote on the other thing but yes but I also I mean I I see what their recommended recommendation is but I'm really looking at it from another perspective of more comprehensive for the entire city and the availability of commercial versus multifam residential my concern is are we going into 14 no yeah it's informational but we're not okay okay Mr Kennedy discussion yeah all right um there is no more discussion uh I think we need a mo I think commissioner rich just made a motion to close discussion I believe that's what Lee said we need to and a public comment on this issue on this on the land use okay right okay I'll second the commissioner Richard's motion thank you okay we have a motion to close this and we have a second by um commissioner McDonald all in favor uh public com on the motion yes do we have any public comment you have on the land use mayor yes 13 just on 13 just 13 13 are getting me confused here so uh I do have some on 13 but should we do that if you have it on 13 that's what this agenda it I'm going to call just 13 they probably talk about 14 again three minutes I bet they're really 14 yeah call it Larry uh trom brow would you like to speak might as well get yeah thank you sir good evening everybody I've been living in uh Stewart for 21 years I came from Brooklyn New York which was an interesting place to grow up I want this town Stewart that I live in for over 20 20 years to be better than where I left okay you all know if you watch the news what's going on up in New York City do we want that here in Stuart I haven't wor heard anybody say a word about the people that have planed to move in here or they're going to whoever owns this property that's not important what is important as a board is to figure out why Sheriff Schneider who's one of the best sheriffs I've ever heard about tells us that it's not going to be a good idea to have these type of people living right in this community and Sor I don't mean to interrupt you but that's the zoning issue that's not the land use issue I think we will you know I'm just trying to make a point to the board that's all I'm trying to do don't allow this place to get spoiled it's beautiful I moved here 20 years ago because I escaped the place that's worse now anyway thanks for hearing me I appreciate it keep up the good work yes thank you sir okay we were going uh no more public comment except vote to close all in favor I I okay thank you 14 okay this is our first reading Clarity Point PUD reone from the city of Stewart official zoning Atlas from residential plan development to the mixed use plan unit development zoning designation located at 500 Southeast Indian Street this is quasi judicial and Lee would you read that ordinance 2530 2024 of course Madam mayor ordinance number 2530-20 24 an ordinance of the city Commission of the city of Stuart Florida rezoning the city of Stewart official zoning Atlas from residential plan unit development two mixed use plan unit development uh designation for an approximately 9.46 acre parcel of land located on the south side of Southeast Indian Street and approximately 540 ft east of caner highway to convert the existing 84 bed assisted living facility with memory care known as Clarity point to allow for an inpatient Primary Health uh primary mental health in residential drug and alcohol facility with medical detox providing for master site plan approval providing for conditions of approval providing for specified commercial uses providing for signage requirements providing directions to the city clerk providing for repeal of all ordinances in Conflict providing for severability providing for codification and providing an effective date and other purposes thank you again this is quazi judicial and I'm going to ask my Commissioners uh if they have any uh exper communication we'll go with you commissioner Clark yes I have met with Mr Connor I lost your name again um I met with Mr Kennedy and I've met with Mr anner uh who represent the project and I'm not I think they brought someone else with them and I met with them I don't think I've received yes I don't they if I receed any paperwork from them but if I have I will make sure that I get it to the clerk I've also met um with uh Mr Crumpler and maybe Miss Tucker and some other folks from the coastal detox I've talked to them I've talked to staff just by phone and an email and I've read their reports um the LPA members I've I've haven't talked to each of them individually and I think that's about it I don't if I've met with anybody else or talk with anybody else I've seen lots of emails and I'll make sure that all of those are captured and and preserved under this item for those some people have not had a chance to respond to their email some people have had they've had very good thoughts and sent out to me and sometimes I've sent back a response sometimes I've not been able to send back a response but I appreciate all the comments that have come into to me with regard to this project yes madame mayor I have spoken to Mr Kennedy on behalf of the applicant residents um read their emails that have been coming through staff I've also received an email from Miss Tucker from Coastal detox and I've also met with uh Miss Tucker and Mr crumer commissioner Rich I've met with the applicant um Mr Kennedy was there um representative overdorf was [Music] there um I met with them twice actually and then I toured the applicants facilities in St Lucy he was nice enough um went to see the building with him the the proposed building uh they want to occupy and representative overdorf was there at the time as well I met with the people from Coastal detox which included uh Mr Crumpler and um I don't know Skyler's last name I'm sorry Gorman Skyler Gorman um and I received uh quite a bit of documentation from them and I have provided that uh to our are paralal and I believe uh that's included in the foyer request uh Sheriff Snider was nice enough to take some time and I met with him in his office there was somebody else there and and I forget who it was he would know um and obviously I've met with staff repeatedly and talked to them about this issue at length and um yes read many many emails uh with regard to people's concerns forgive me uh Madame mayor I left out that I've also spoken with Mr overdorf and Sheriff Snyder so for the record okay very good Madam mayor yes um I spoke with the applicant and his team of professionals I spoke with uh Coastal and their representatives I spoke with Sheriff Snider and uh I've uh received numerous emails from residents regarding this matter and I'm here with an open mind Madame mayor I just speak to sheriff Snider also I forgot that I did I didn't speak to sheriff Snider but he text me um and I have spoken with with Jason the applicant several times um Costo I met with here uh Ike was with them Mr Kennedy um lot of emails lot of emails um and I I too I'm here with with an open mind through okay [Music] so Jody again for the record my name is Jody I need to swear in the uh potential Witnesses I didn't uh will all potential Witnesses for the applicant and City sta please stand and raise your right hand to be sworn in uh do you affirm that the testimony that you are about to provide in this hearing will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God you may be seated okay very good all right Jody you can proceed okay how many people did we get all the names of the people who stood up I think so yeah city manager not we don't we only need the names of the people that actually testify right okay go ahead jod thank you give your presentation apologize again for the record my name is Joey cougler the director of development with the city of Stewart I'll be presenting agenda item number 14 the applicant Jason anner with perseverance Recovery Center LLC is requesting approval of a rezoning from the existing residential plan unit development for a mixed use plan unit development with a concurrent site plan to convert the formal 84 bed Assistant Living facility with memory care to allow for for impatient mental health and 140 bed drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility with medical detox by public notice requirements outlined in section 11.2.2 and May 4th 2024 the applicant mail notices to surrounding Property Owners located within 300 ft of the subject parcel and a sign was placed on the subject property displaying the meeting dates and the discretion of the proposed [Music] petitions as stated in the previous presentation the proposed project is outlined in yellow only 9.46 acres are being proposed for the rezoning the remaining 1.2 acres is not part of this petition the existing zoning is uh identified in section 2.0 7.00 in the Land Development code as a residential plan unit development and as an existing 84 Assistant Living facility with memory care the applicant is requesting a proposed zoning uh outlined in section 2.7.0 and requesting a mixed use plan unit development and the proposal is the 140 impatient mental health drug and alcohol Rehabilitation facility with medical detox a mixed use planed to development may be located in the city in in an area defined and described as office residential multif family residential and commercial industrial institutional recreational downtown Redevelopment East Stewart Marine industry or neighborhood special district and public by the future land use element of the city of Stewart comprehensive plan in which is suitable and compatible with surrounding uses as determined by the city commission residential uses integrated in a mixed pan unit development shall be designated to be compatible and development developed in ACC combination with any Associated commercial retail medical governmental and light industrial uses the existing Assistant Living facility located on the site will be converted to a proposed impatient drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility as previously stated no new improvements are being proposed while the facility's bed count will increase from 84 to 140 beds the building footprint is not being altered as such the facility will remain consistent with the adopted levels of service for utilities and Facilities as outlined in the capital Improvement element of the city comprehensive plan the 2016 approval which I which actually to developed the um assist Assistant Living facility known as Clarity point this is the approved site plan as you can see uh this is the where the existing building is today the 1.92 Acre Site is not included that is already commercial and developed with commercial sites this is just showing the architecture of the existing building uh the building does consist of 96,3 Ft on story building with 87 parking spaces on site drainage and storm water improvements have been already been made and the applican is proposing any exterior renov is not proposing any exterior Renovations or additional parking spaces as you can see in 2016 uh there was some Wetlands that were mitigated at the time that the assistant living facility was built and approved and the previously appr trees and Upland preserves as outlin in green um it still exists today and will remain as such the applicant did provide a new uh traffic report and our city City's traffic consultant kimley horn evaluated the traffic generation of the existing site relative to the proposed use the existing site currently operates as an assistant living facility which is consistent with the previously approved traffic study a mental health Health Rehab Facility is proposed which is similar to the existing use with a minimum with a maximum increase from the existing 86 beds to 140 beds the proposed increase to to a maximum of 140 beds has the potential to generate a net increase of 146 daily 10 trips entering and four exiting at am peak hours and 14 which is five entering and nine nine exiting at PM peak hour trips based on the net change in the peak hours it is less than a traff less than 20 trips a traffic study is not required for the city of Stewart Land Development code section point section 4.0.0 4.05 can I ask a question yes yes Jody why was a traffic study not warranted there again what's that point according to our code and our Land Development code under the section 4.0 0 point 4.4.5 any traffic trips less than 20 trips per for AM and PM peak times does not require a full traffic study but the traffic data here is based on an assisted living facility that code 254 is um for an assisted living facility where this would be a drug rehab detox why was that code used for this this type basically all we did was applied that same 2.6 number to an increase number in beds to determine that increase going from 218 to 364 where these are going to be different usages not a code for forgive me is there not a code for mental drug and Rehab uh thank you commissioner Collins that is correct there's not an actual it code which is what the typical um Transportation traffic engineering will use so they used a mental health rehab which is equivalent to a hospital uh they used the 140 beds and they also used the 84 you'll see the difference between the existing traffic counts in 2018 versus the proposed that the developers requesting and the way that we look at traffic and the way our consultant looks at traffic is the based on the AM and PM peak hours and if it's over the 20 20 trips then they're required to have a full traffic statement so this this data that we're looking at here uh the mental drug rehab uh where where we're seeing 140 beds and 364 that's that is that same 2.6 deployed at 140 beds so it's 2.6 * 84 gets 218 2.6 * 140 gets 364 it's that same assisted living facility code deployed at the mental drug and Rehab so my question is is there if are you saying then that we should be using the inpatient Hospital code for this and this is just off yes I'm actually going to have the applicant uh further um address that okay um traffic gets a little uh confusing at times um I don't mean to grill you it just I saw that wait a second no I understand uh so with the traffic counts if you're using them an equivalent and the our traffic consultant agrees with equivalent to Assistant Living facility versus the rehab their equivalent use um they are not generating more than 20 trips per the AM PM however there is a net amount of 146 trips added right overall but not during the AM and PM times not to beat this to death but my my only concern would be if we don't have a code for this to to make sure it's appropriate wouldn't we that to me that should trigger a traffic study to make sure that we shouldn't just assume it's going to be the Assisted Living traffic may be similar but we don't know for sure if I may may I have the applicant come up and answer that okay quickly yes Jason please before we get too far field normally what we would do is have our staff do a brief presentation and the applicant would put on the facts and circum my question there I agree I thought you were through Jody proceed Jody thank thank you again this uh application was heard on at the local planning Agency on March 14 2024 they held a public hearing for the rezoning petition and voted to forward a recommendation of approval to the city commission that motion did fail two to two uh so there was no recommendation to the board um again this petition confirms to the criteria outlined in section 11.0 1.09 of the city Land Development code and is consistent with the city of steart comprehensive plan goals objectives and policy and staff is requesting the city commission discussion and consider moving this petition to the second reading and final adoption for the resoning for the from planned unit development to I mean residential plan unit development to a mixed use plan unit development and is scheduled for a regular City commission meeting to be held on Monday May 28 24 at 5:30 or soon thereafter and the applicant does have a brief presentation and they can answer your question about the traffic thank you Jody the applicant again for the record Brad curry good evening um before I begin I would like to ask former Chief Deputy guer um who is now running for Sheriff of of Palm Beach County to come up and say a few words before I begin yes good evening mayor vice mayor Commissioners staff and uh members of the audience did we do we did we swear you in yes I saw him yes yes thank you sir uh my name is Michael goger I don't live in Stewart I live in Wellington Florida I spent uh five decades at the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office I retired in February of 21 as the chief Deputy at serving that for 16 years I would tell you that isn't it a little ironic that we're addressing a mental health substance abuse facility when just an hour or so ago we gave a proclamation uh recognizing mental health awareness month and the need for treatment you know it's so tough for people with mental health and substance abuse issues and the stigma that they sometimes carry and I think historically in other areas of of Palm Beach anyway that uh it got a bad name particularly out at delr beach when they had all these sober homes that were out of control and uh the patient brokering that was going on and people were getting rich and people were failing they moving one to another to another this is not that type of organization what is being proposed is a professional organization that is that has the licenses of AA DEA all the different licenses that are necessary for a Prof Professional Organization they have psychiatrists and doctors and and medical staff that will be there I shared with you that I retired with 50 plus years but I've also been an advocate I have a masters in social work I did that a long time ago because I recognize that you know jails don't work you know what it's a revolving door of justice that in and out and in and out and until we get them straight and sober you know what they don't return because they get straight and sober and they don't keep going back to jail and I've uh worked with our state attorney and our public defender's office and and and battled with uh getting people help uh I I've served on many boards and uh in the community I I served on ferous I've been on that board for 40 years and we've taken the worst of the worst with no money and put him in uh a treatment program that's located at okobi in Church Street I've served on the cartboard I served on f um growing together which was an adolescent recovery program years ago i' so I I I believe in recovery we talk about mental health and substance abuse there there's so many times co-occurring if I look at my inmates in my jail and I have 1,800 uh inmates in the Palm Beach County Jail they're co-occurring 85% of them there with mental health and substance abuse problems you know uh the current Sheriff shut down the drug Farm years ago it was a award-winning nationally recognized recovery program I argued with him over it I was his number two guy I argued with him and he said well you can open a program in the event uh it doesn't cost me any money and I said is that a promise so I went to because of my relationship in the community I went to two for-profit recovery programs much like has being uh presented here and they each two of them provided a counselor each free of charge and I opened up a program in our Corrections division called another way it is still operating today and they provided services for almost two years before I was able to get money into the budget to pay for it you know I look at the failure of our local state and federal government and the lack of funding that they are providing I was a member of the southeast Florida Behavioral Health Network at its very Inception they're the ones that provide the funding for mental health and substance abuse for five counties Palm Beach Martin St Lucy Indian River and okobe counties you know what there's not enough money to go around there's not enough money and there's not enough treatment facilities so much generally you know there's waiting lists at so many of these organizations they shut down Jerome golden Center a mental health a Community Mental Health Center in Palm Beach that has created a nightmare for us down in Palm Beach but thankfully we have had some for-profit companies that came in and at at least we we're able to fill some beds uh having served as a public service uh you know I learned quickly that that relationship with uh not for-profit and for-profit uh recovery centers uh was an advantage to all of us because when we looked uh to release folks from our program in Palm Beach out of our jail that had been to the another way program was a 60-day educational program we found places and many times they were Scholarships in fact Mr akner I'm had provided many scholarships for uh folks that uh were released uh everywhere uh uh we look and those waiting lists are there and uh you know another facility it is not the type of facility where people wander it is not the type of facility where people uh will Escape uh they have security they have all the things necessary to keep people in that facility uh it's highly licens it has AA and other accreditation organizations that display the professionalism of the organization if it was a sober home I wouldn't be here testifying on their behalf uh however uh when I look at the uh a program down in Palm Beach they had a holiday in at Lakeworth Road and the turnpike some of you have been down there you may be familiar with it well guess what there was a program called behavioral health of the Palm Beaches they purchased that holiday in and they went through the same kind of a code problem that they are facing here now well I I was a captain of the district at the time and I went in and testified on behalf of Behavioral Health because they had been operating in a neighborhood that was low income and they had improved that neighborhood tremendously and had cleaned up that neighborhood and so I testified on their behalf it was approved the folks had testified against it were afraid that all this was going to happen that people were going to be wandering and breaking into their homes and all it it never came to fruition in fact a year later when I met with those neighborhood groups they thanked me and said we had no idea it is so much nicer than a holiday in and the problems that went on with the holiday in so if it was a schlock operation I wouldn't be here tonight but it's a Professional Organization it is well-run and he has a good history of of working with other agencies like uh Sheriff's Office and and the local police so uh you have any questions I'd be glad to answer thank you appreciate it thank you any questions me yes I'm sorry we have one sir Mr ger Mr guer he does commissioner Rich so I thank you for bringing up the point of a sober home because I think the applicant has been his he he's been unfairly labeled as wanting to open a sober home and that's not the case here as you pointed out what what is the difference between a sober home and the facility he's proposing and why is the latter the former undesirable I didn't quite understand that question s say it again okay either either you have it in my presentation but he's asking the sober home and what this fa okay that's fine first of all sober hormes aren't licensed you know they they uh they aren't controlled they run by people who are not professionals they don't have medical staff they don't have psychiatrists and medical doctors and and psychiatric nursing care they don't have any of that and people come and go at will uh so this is a Professional Organization they can't wander uh it'll be I I tour the facility I was impressed at the design of the facility and how it's going to be laid out it's going to be secured the doors will be secured uh they have Security on staff uh people will not be wandering and uh that's there's a big difference between sober homes you know the sober homes that were in delr beach that created such a nightmare in Palm Beach along with the patient brokering I work with the task force we put people in prison for their conduct and and put a stop to a lot of it uh the state attorney David uh uh was was uh also I I think is in favor and and recognizes that it's a big difference between a sober home and a professional highly licensed organization like this good thank you thank you sir thank you Chief Deputy guer um again I'm Brad curry with engineering design and construction representing the applicant I do have a very brief PowerPoint um there's been a lot of information in the news and online about this project hopefully this pre presentation tonight will address some of those issues that were brought up I want to say first off as um um commissioner rich just mentioned this is not a sober home this is what we are going to be calling an inpatient treatment facility meaning that people come to this facility they get checked in and they stay there for between 30 and 45 days they're not allowed to come and go they will be in this facility um for their entire stay it's more like a hospital than it is like a sober home um as was previously stated they are licensed they have medical personnel on site 24 hours a day there's a lot of people in this room that probably know more about this type of facility than I do I've learned a lot over my years of of being a land planner and I'm going to try to talk about this use as as a as a common person as a planner and um I may get some of it wrong and I'm sure I'll be corrected if I do but the Professionals in this in this type of profession use acronyms and and terminology that sometimes unfamiliar to us and could confuse us and so or confuse me I'm not saying you guys are easily confused um so I want to make sure that I put it down as clearly as as and cleanly as possible and so that's what my presentation is going to going to try to be um again I I don't want to misrepresent anything and if I do I'm sure I'll I'll be called out on it um Jody which button do I hit I found it um again the request before you tonight is is a rezoning of this property basically from a from a residential PUD designation to a mxd designation PUD designation you may ask why we went with mxd the reason is is that there is another facility just down the street that does basically the same thing that we're proposing to do and that property also had the mxd zoning designation and so we felt like it made sense there was a precedent sent that showed what the Pres zoning should be and that's what we chose and again I just you want to say that again I think there were some discussions about schools in the area and parks in the area there's already a facility in close proximity to those schools into park so I wanted to make sure um that I said that um this is the location staff has done a fairly good job of of showing where it is just wanted to show what's happening around the property um you have the Willoughby Golf Club um preservation area to the south of us you have County RightWay it's actually a county owned property to the to the west of us and then you have um indan The Crossings in Indian Hills to the North and then you have um Cleveland Clinic to the Northwest it's about 725 ft from our property to the nearest residential to the South so it's a pretty good distance it's not like we're in close proximity to them and it would be through The Preserve area again here's the subject property just a little bit zoomed in um we are not proposing any development with this property it will stay just as it is it fits perfectly for our use wish I knew where to point this thing Jody I'm helping you out oh you are because it's not working sorry um next slide existing zoning um was the residential PUD as we said and um we are proposing to go to the um mixed use PUD the original site plan is next it was approved in 2017 I believe there was a site plan before this for multif family 66 multif family um the existing zoning in land use I believe would allow between 15 and 30 units per acre on this property and um so we are um proposing just to keep it as it is with the with the um with the way the building is laid out the next plan is our proposed site plan looks very similar to the plan that was there we are making again no changes no new construction I think it's um it's not often that a specific business like an assisted living facility like this goes out of goes out of business it it is vacant it's been vacant since mid January and it it's it's not common for another use to come in and fit so perfectly with this use often times these types of facilities stay abandoned for quite some time they could go into default they don't pay their taxes they become an isore all of those things happen and so from our perspective we think it's a pretty good situation for the city of steart to be able to find another user for this property right away without the property going der um the next slide shows the layout of the building which is pretty pretty imp pretty key to the overall discussions um there's been a a we I reviewed the material that that you guys got from some of the opposition and I think one of the main things and I think um the sheriff spoke about it earlier tonight was the size of this facility um we're proposing a 140 beds um we we could go down to 126 so that can be a later discussion um what I'm about to show you does show 126 beds and it's really four different facilities in one building and from our perspective having one facility that does all four things in one building it actually reduces the impact on the surrounding neighborhood or the surrounding City and it also provides a higher level of care for the for the patients that are in this facility so what we have in the um red area is um about 24 beds of detox that's Medical IAL detox 24-hour supervision that typically lasts between 5 and 7 Days of an individual coming to this facility it's typically a time where they're they're pretty heavily sedated going through the detox process it is a life-threatening process I don't know if anybody has ever been a part of a detox process but it can be very um hard on the body and could cause you know emergency calls and and I'll I'll go to that a little bit later in my presentation um the light blue area is the m residential impatient um treatment facility uh and I'll I'll get into the level of care a little bit later in my presentation and the purple is the female residential impatient facility and then the green area would be the mental health 36 beds each for the female and male so that's a um total of 72 and then 30 mental health beds so so that screen that slide that's on the screen right now shows a total of 126 bits next slide so we have to make the decision you know is is the size the issue I just demonstrated to you that it's really four separate facilities and if we took these four separate facilities and spread them out throughout the city would that be more acceptable to the opposition because that could be done we talk about inpatient and outpatient outpatient facility all you need is a medical office and an apartment complex I'll get into that a little bit later so again what I've shown on the screen is trying to demonstrate that you could pick these four quadrants up put them throughout the city have the same overall um amount of beds and amount of patients in the city just have them spread out throughout the city probably would not have to come back before this board for that if we were able to find other places so I just just want to understand is it the size or is there something else pushing the um the folks that are in opposition to this property um next slide is the floor plan again um just showing you that that we've got some pictures I want to briefly talk about the entrance to this facility is on the leand side of the screen you come in and you have the courtyard in the middle all the outdoor area outdoor time for the patients in this facility will be inside of this Courtyard there'll be no patients that are going to be allowed outside of the facility that's why we believe that this building is perfect for the use that's being proposed again the patients will go inside the courtyard they will not go outside they will not be out on the front building in the backyard none of those things um the the facility is set up is four quadrants as I previously stated each quadrant has a sitting area I think of it as like a living room or a den each each quadrant has a kitchen area where you can get a light snack it also has a full commercial kitchen that will serve meals on a regular basis but if you want to snack in the middle of the night or in the daytime you'll be able to go to it it has a salon for you to get your hair done has a um place to get massages and so forth so it's completely self-sustaining on the next slide shows some pictures of the facility if you haven't been in it this is that example of one of the um sitting areas again there's four of these one in each quadrant go ahead this is the locks this are the doors that separate the four quadrants you can see um we call them the mag Lots they're locks they're going to be locked and you can't open those doors that's what's going to separate the four facilities um I believe there will be at least three different licenses Jason can speak a little bit about that so it will actually function as three different facilities in one building next slide this is that din area with a with a place to watch TV this is the courtyard as you can see this would be where the patients hang out on a on a day-to-day basis this is the the the kitchen area area where they would have their meals as well as if they wanted to get something you can see the kind of kitchen area over on the right hand side of that picture this is a typical room this would be a two-person room that shares one bathroom and this was the salon that we were talking about where you can go get your hair cut or hair done so one of the other things that we've heard a lot about or we've reviewed and and and seen and materials that have been submitted or or are given to to you all from the opposition is the difference between in network versus out of network insurance I think that's an important distinction about the individuals that are going to be coming to this facility I I believe the opposition is saying that we are bad because we are an out of network facility I'm not sure if there's bad or good in in network or out of network but I can tell you that the out of network is a different type of clientele than what the nend network would be I think of it as um I I hurt my shoulder a couple weeks ago and I have a doctor that I want to go to that doctor is out of network so I have to choose to go to that doctor I pay more money to go to that doctor I'm fortunate enough to where I can afford that many people don't have that ability and they have to go to in network so an out of network provider is actually a a the the patient that comes there is has plenty of money and they typically are from a family that is supporting them and they have a job to go back to they have a family to go back to once they're done with their uh once they're done with their treatment and so what I'm trying to say here is that the individual that comes here isn't someone that is going to leave in the middle of the night and go become a homeless person they typically are someone that has a solid family background that has the means to be able to afford an out of network provider so I'm not saying that people won't leave here you know one of the things I had never heard I've been working in this business for about 20 years and I had never heard the term a against medical advice there is going to be people that leave against medical advice they're not going to leave and go become homeless they're probably going to leave and fly back home because they've had enough if that's the case they're going to um call a friend if they live in the area to come get them and I'll get to that in a second these aren't the type of patients that have ever lived on the street they typically come from a family and that's and that's what they will go back to um the next slide talks about the public records request this was something else that um we found that you that the the folks f s here at Stuart were were the Commissioners that were reviewing and I believe there was a discussion about that there were um 18 calls I don't have it in my notes um oh yeah 18 calls from March of 2024 and when you go in and look at the data I just want to make sure that the Commissioners do this whenever they get I'm sure they do but I want to just you know emphasize it that out of the 18 calls that were put in the materials that you reviewed only nine of them were actual calls if you go in and start looking at the materials they duplicate the calls when someone calls 911 for the most part they send a police officer and a fire rescue person to the facility So when you say that there's 18 calls or or or however many calls are stated it's typically you have to go in and look at the data and we've done that I've got information about how we went in we looked at each call what it was who was there all of those things so there was some discussion about my client's facility in Port St Lucy having 18 calls in the mon month of March 2024 four the reality is was it was only nine and we have a breakdown of what those types of calls were next slide so what I love about this job is how confusing it can get what I hate about this job is how confusing it can get so the very top number is 102 calls were in from 413 2023 to 43 2024 and when you when you actually look at that it's only 56 calls that generated those 102 people coming there so that's basically double so sometimes just the police would would come out but for the majority of the time you had the police and the fire rescue come into the facility so out of the 56 reality calls real calls there there were 36 that were medical the 20 other calls are I guess would be the bad calls that would be the calls where someone was unruly it was a behavioral issue and they probably just called the this is for a year from it says at the top from 413 2023 to 43 2024 one facility this is my client's facility in Port St lcy yes sir one of the facilities yes yes sir so out of all of those calls we can see the type of calls that they were um most of them are cardiac problems as I said when you go through medical detox it's definitely harder on your body and most of those calls are for cardiac problems you have diabetes Caesars just sick respiratory um alter Consciousness behavioral um abnormal allergic reaction so that's just a breakdown so these types of of issues that are are causing the the fire rescue to come to the facility are Health more more more than more Health rated than anything forgive me one one more question I won't keep hammering questions on on this because I know you're still in your presentation but how many beds are at this facility um this is the 239 I um do you know how much 26 beds at this yes sir okay I have I have other data [Music] um so this go to the next slide so this shows we actually went out and got our own call accounts for for other facilities in the area um the first one is is is my client's property at 710 had 24 calls in a 6-month period um the um other facility is at the 2349 carry is 21 calls in a in a six-month period um the coastal detox had 25 calls in the six-month period and um the banion treatment centers had 13 what's interesting about this slide is in that same six-month period when we believe the assisted leing facility was half occupied that 36 calls so the existing facility was actually a bigger strain on fire rescue than the proposed facility so if it were developed as it is it would actually require more medical assistance because of the nature of the existing facility so we do not believe that the drain on the public facilities on fire rescue and police is a justification for going against this project because the existing facility actually had more C s than the other facilities next slide so I'm sorry go back Jason is going to come up after I'm done and do and talk about a couple of um things and one of the things he's going to talk about is is out of town patients um we heard the sheriff talk about out toown patients and what Jason's going to prepare for you and tell you is that the success rate for Intown patients is much lower the rate of AMA again against medical advice is higher for local residents that makes complete sense when you think about it just take me for example I'm suffering from addiction I go to a facility here in town I know where I've been getting my drugs I know how to walk to the near 7-Eleven I know who to call to come get me I'm more likely to leave because I'm familiar with the area if I were somewhere else California New York Texas I would be less likely to leave that facility because I don't know the people in the area I don't know who it is I don't know where to go to get my get my drugs and so the reality is that out of town patients actually provides a lower rate of AMA and we have um we have we can pass it out to you we have information from Jason's other facilities that demonstrate that that when you live local you have a higher likelihood of AMA as an out Town patient does not have that is not is not as high okay next slide so we talked about the difference between inpatient outpatient and sober homes impatient as we as I previously stated you were suffering from addiction you would go to this facility go through the detox program move into either the mental health or the um female or male portion of the facility stay there between 30 and 45 days depending on your um your level of care and how long you're going to be there um it's 24hour care the patients should not leave the facility they may leave to go to meetings but some for the first um 30 days they typically don't leave the facility so it's completely inside the facility outpatient is another way that they do treatment the Outpatient Treatment could be where I could live at my house and I could go to the facility um in the morning get my treatment and then leave uh it's it's I don't it's not to me it's not as high a level of care you think about it as I'm going to eat and I'm going to sleep in one facility and I'm going to retreat receive my treatment in another facility that's considered outpatient what what we're considering is you eat and you sleep and you get your treatment all in the same place that's impatient and then sober homes would be after you go through the the um the treatment process the 30 to 45 days uh if you select it to you would go to a sober home and that would be a place where you would hopefully you know join back to society start getting a job um and contributing to the to the local area um I I remember at the last meeting that we had where we where we postponed the project there was a gentleman that spoke that was from West Palm he told a great story about how he came to Stewart and he um was recovering from from addiction and how he was a member of this community and so we talk about out of town people I think we focus too much on the negatives on the small percentage of people or the Bad actors that come here and don't and and potentially cause harm what we don't look into is the number of people that come here and become successful members of society and even successful members of Martin County next slide we talk about the staff required um this will be about 110 people that will be employed at this facility three shifts um 7 days a week 24 hours a day this is just some of the types of of people um keep going next you it says have a full kitchen there'll be a head chef and everything cooking cooking three meals a day parking was something that was discussed at the LPA meeting and we just wanted to set it straight that we do have enough parking based on the code as well as based on the um other facilities in the area again we believe that we're required to have 55 stalls and there's 87 next slide shows the parking area and then this was just a facility down the street very similar facility um 05 spaces so basically just showing that we're parking at a standard rate as what they are um this shows that the parking that we're using is assistant leing facility and we talked about that assistant leing facility actually generates more parking than what our facility will assisted living facilities people would be able to drive there um assist assisted living facilities people have visitors so we believe that even though we've used assisted living as a generation for parking and also for traffic we believe it's actually inflated it's actually higher than what our use was because we don't have visitors and our patients do not drive to this facility and they do not did not leave the facility in a car next slide this shows we actually went out um commissioner Collins and and we did traffic counts we sat out there and counted in the AM and the PM and what we found was that our analysis what we anticipated was 0.24 trips per bed and after all the analysis from the 710 to 208 um 1131 Southeast Indian Street which is the coastal detox aola it's Point actually. 29 trip for a bit so we went from0 24 was what we used in our analysis and we went out and counted cars and we got 0 29 very compatible I will also say that the city reviewer um I believe it was kimley horn who did the review for this they actually responded and said they are completing in agreement with our traffic study so from our standpoint we've submitted a traffic study that the city reviewer reviewed and we've done actual accounts that show that we are are in with the traffic so we don't believe that the traffic is is a concern for this property we have some conditions of approval um we would be as I previously stated I think we've been talking about 140 beds we would be willing to go to 126 beds based on um getting into the details a little bit more I think when we first started this project we thought we 140 was the number but after we spent a little bit more time we're going to be converting some of those beds into into the some of the existing bedrooms into offices and treatment rooms and so we believe that we are now at 1 126 um we will not be a baker act receiving facility and um I'm sure most of you guys know what Baker Acting is but we are not going to be a baker act receiving facility um we are not going to offer any outpatient services people will not be coming and going from this facility it will only be an inpatient facility and um we will not be an outpatient medical detox believe it or not that happens um 90% of the parking would be allocated staff that's an easy thing for us to say because again our patients aren't driving there and we have very few guests um applicant will ensure that those being treated for mental health do not include those identified as sexual offenders are those with The History of Violence so there is an intake process that they go and I'm sure Jason will talk about people having warrants they go through and they do a background check and they they research the individuals that come in here and I'm sure if there's any warrants Jason will explain how they're handling that so I don't know that I think the example that the sheriff gave I don't think is applicable to this project and Jason's going to talk about scholarship um you heard um Mr guer before me talk about that Jason was given scholarships out in he was doing in Palm Beach um he's he's willing to offer up a certain amount of scholarships every month to City of Stewart residents um if this facility is approved and those and those people would would be able to come to this facility free of charge uh as we previously said I'm sorry to go back one more time um it's not a sober home and it's not going to provide trans transient housing of any kind and and it's going to be um licensed through AA um Jacko and DCF is a requirement of this facility I'm sure some of you going to laugh when I say this but from a louon zoning perspective this is about as simple as it gets we um have commercial in the west of us commercial in the east of us we have an existing building that is perfect for our use and it doesn't get much simpler than that from a land use and Zoning perspective the trips are similar we've demonstrated that parking is similar we've demonstrated that water and sewer use would be similar same actually it's it's going to be a little more beds but the um the the type of use it is which be very similar I've demonstrated that the EMS and police visits to this site will actually be less than what it is under the existing use question and we've demonstrated that all that we are very similar to the previous use um with that I'd like for Jason anner to come up and um talk a little bit about the project I'd be happy to answer any questions once he's done okay thank you thank you Miss Jack thank you good evening ladies and gentlemen thank you for your time Brad nice job on the presentation um I will make a few corrections to Brad's statement even if it's my own detriment because I'm always going to be honest with you and I'll be honest with the people um first of all my name is Jason akner I'm a Martin County resident I'm not some Outsider I've owned businesses here for over two decades I don't know if you guys were aware but I had 173 treatment beds in Martin County none none of which you approved none of which you got to vote on okay that's how the code works and that's right now there's how many treatment centers are in Martin County do you guys know how many licensed ones 22 do you know how many of those had to go through this process two of them because they're the only licensed Inpatient Detox in mental uh health care facilities and I don't even know that there's a licensed Mental Health Care Facility in Martin County because what they do is as Brad said you just need multif family zoning I could rent an apartment buy an apartment and just get an office building and lease it and I was bu ing back and forth 173 patients a day and treating them for over 15 years in your county not only did I do that but I also donated over $15 million in scholarships for people that couldn't afford treatment to get them off the street and give them a better chance at life I did this with my own personal money this was my mission I do this because I'm very passionate about it so if anything I say tonight may come off inappropriate or anger it's my passion and nothing more than that I hear a lot of people behind me snickering making comments you know I don't know how many people behind me have lost loved ones have seen this disease ravage families ravage homes neighborhoods but I've also seen the beauty of recovery and the turnaround when you see a husband and wife or or a daughter and her father reconnect for the first time and you see the twinkle in their eyes that's what motivates me to do what I do this isn't about money for me I'm opening the exact same facility in the city of Wildwood right now I already have all my approvals and I'm opening a primary mental health in the city of Rockledge I already have all my approvals didn't have any of this opposition at all and that's okay Everyone's entitled to their opinion but I want to put some of the misinformation to bed tonight because that's what it is it's a lot of misinformation unfortunately the disease of addiction um has not come very far in the past hundred years in education most people are highly uneducated as it relates to it and even ignorant as it relates to addiction mental health has made some progress thanks to celebrities and media swimmers musicians athletes um movie stars commercials like it's okay not to be okay so in the past year or two years um I don't have the data in front of me but you can Factor check this over 50% of people with mental health issues have reached out for some form of help whether it's therapy whether it's inpatient outpatient only 1% of people with substance use disorder have been comfortable reaching out for health because of the stigmas that are placed on them because of articles that are run showing a man with a bloody face from Arkansas saying high-speed chase this is what what the face of addiction looks like no the face of addiction looks like everyone in here and everyone up there I can't violate Hippa but I have treated several public officials in this County and multiple other counties I have treated residents as of people relatives of people in the White House this disease does not discriminate it affects everybody every single person and I'm sure everyone in here knows somebody with either disease of addiction or mental health issues and guess what which came first does anyone know we don't do you know how often people call and say I need mental health help seven out of 10 of them when they admit and we drug test them they're positive for five substances but they're not comfortable saying I need help with my my substance abuse I'm drinking too much it's not manly to be a police officer and admit you're drinking too much so they say it's PTSD it's mental health but you can't cure the mental health if you don't cure the addiction so I'm going to go in order of some of the misinformation um Brad said the facility right across the street right down the street does the same thing yes they do inpatient medical detox and they do Residential level of care they claim they have 35 beds but they have an approval for 80 what nobody's saying that they also do is partial hospitalization and intensive Val patient these are these acronyms PHP IOP what they do is they bust in people from their sober home that you guys don't license or have any say in every day to that Treatment Facility in addition they do outpatient detox they are prescribing narcotics to individuals to either leave with pills or prescription to take home if these people can't manage their own medication on their own you think giving them a prescription yes they're drug tested yes they're monitored if you think that they they all take it as prescribed you're kidding yourselves that's what's going on right across the street I'm telling you we're doing none of that you know and to reassure you guys I put my money where my mouth is there's what's called conditions of approval to educate everyone in here if this gets approved it'll be approved via development order well there will be specific stipulations that will say what I can and what I can't do and if I violate those the police department will shut my business down uh Brad had mentioned the remainder of the calls for EMS police fire um paramedics the remainder is probably the unruly ones that's not accurate maybe 1% is unruly I can tell you in 17 years we I can count on one hand the number of uh aggressive incidences where police had to be called where there was an actual fight the majority of those if not all of them are people that are being Baker acted because they came to us and say I want to kill myself so we have to by law protect them and the police come and escort them to a Baker Act receiving facility which because we don't have one of those so they go to Port St Lucy hospital or Coral Shores or another facility that's equipped to handle that that's the majority of the balance of those calls Brad was talking about um Brad mentioned AMA that means leaving against medical advice yes we're not a baker receiving facility we can't physically restrain anybody but we have a couple things we put in place number one we have a 48 hour policy that they agree to and sign upon admission if they don't sign it we don't admit them that policy states the following if I choose to leave early for any reason I will notify my therapist I will notify my psychiatrist and I will wait a minimum of 48 hours before I act on it if someone happens to drive in locally we take their car we drop it off at our facility in another location and we hold the keys so if they get an Impulse in the middle of the night their car is not available their keys aren't available they're in a safe and no one other than the director of nursing or The Clinical Director can access it to the following day so that's a safety precaution we put in place um you know Brad was talking about the parking uh the aclf they some of them Drive in well this was a Memory Care Facility nobody drove in nobody had cars there so I'm going to be very transparent and honest about the facts here right I know that that was a concern in traffic for you commissioner Collins I'm addressing that nobody drove in but they did have 35 to 40 visitors a day because aclfs memory care it's very important that they're close to their family so their family can come visit them we're strong Believers that in the first 3 to four weeks of treatment they don't get visitors from the outside addictions a family disease they don't need to be triggered by divorce papers or a kid crying and screaming I miss you mommy and daddy so we try to remove that so they can focus on themselves so they don't do that at this level of care when we transfer them to Port St Lucy to our partial hospitalization intensive outpatient and have Transitional Care there and help get them educated uh vocational training get them for interviews get them back into the workforce that's when we start to reintegrate the family after doing family therapy because believe it or not a lot of the family is pretty hurt and offended and and the convers don't go very well once hey honey I'm I'm a week sober that's great but you spent our mortgage at the casino you were with you know there's not a lot of Tolerance and understanding in the early stages so we want our patients to focus on themselves because if they get distracted by what's going on at home can't tell you how many times said oh I got to go home my wife's going to divorce me if I don't or my husband's going to divorce me if I don't go home so we we pretty much eliminate that communication unless it's something that's very important um as far as cars like I said we won't have any cars at the facility we're going to have 105 to 110 staff members that work the nurses work in 12-hour shifts the rest of the employees work in 8 hour shifts and the 15 to 20 therapists they're only there during the daytime so there's never going to be more than 35 to 40 cars on our property at any given time so we have more than adequate parking in fact I'm so confident that you'll rarely see any uh people parking out front they're going to be part all the employees will be parking in the back to touch on the land use of the existing property commissioner Clark I completely agree with you as far is residential multif family but this property is already built there's a residential multif family next door this property is built and I know the owners put close to $35 million into this property I did the math with our land planner you can get roughly 200 homes there $35 million $200 homes is that a million 25 million5 per lot and then with the construction of the house and then to make a profit who's going to buy a house on the corner of Indian Street for $4 to5 million nobody so the only thing that's going to go in that spot is another commercial use that's under the existing land use maybe you don't give us the land use but it's not financially feasible to develop a residential Community there so it will be some other commercial use whether it's a church another assisted living a memory care it's the only thing that financially makes sense CH sounds nice um you know I heard I heard some people from the public speak about the homeless people living out back this where's the assumption that people people with mental health and drug addiction are the only homeless people that there are right what about the veterans that come back that that that have PTSD and our government doesn't do an adequate job supporting them who do you think picks up the tab when nobody else will people like me when other treatment centers when they get called for scholarships hey I got this veteran that really suffered he was in three tours in Iraq will you help him out the other treatment there says Ah we're our beds are full when they're at 50% capacity call Jason anner he's a sucker he'll take him in right I'm not a sucker I'm a compassionate person I do that because I care because they have nowhere else to go I heard the sheriff say that he stands behind mental health treatment he correct me if I'm wrong he said that he's not comfortable with the addiction facility but we we really need an inpatient mental health facility there's really none in the area there's not a quality inpatient mental health that's not a lockdown that doesn't have schizophrenics that are violent criminals and sex offenders in there right there's nothing like that so if any of you or your loved ones needed a quality mental health facility there's nothing in Martin County as a Martin County resident I'm kind of ashamed there's not a resource here to take it one step further we're going to accept Medicare all the Baby Boomers that have been raising families for years that maybe they got dependent on sleeping meds like ambian and they're depressed or they just lost their spouse and they don't know where to turn guess what there's no Medicare facility in the state that's going to treat them with dignity not Medicaid okay not Medicaid Medicare Medicaid is what they give out to people that are poor homeless that can't afford anything and I'm not discriminating against that I'm differentiating so you guys understand the Medicare is for people 65 and over that want to have options so whether it's if I I'm not going to presume that any of you are under over 65 I'm going to assume all of you are under 65 but you have parents if your parents need help do you want to send them out of state or would you rather send them somewhere local that provides quality care that you know they're getting the treatment they deserve there's no there's no Medicare facility anywhere in the State of Florida that provides quality dignity dignified care to people that deserve it so we keep talking about 140 beds it's not 140 it's going to be 126 the way I look at facilities is I build the program I build the medical needs the psychiatric needs the amenities the the physical therapy the gym everything they need and whatever's left over after that that's how many beds we're going to fit in there I'm not like most operators that sit there and say we're going to fill as many beds in here as possible and try to maximize profit that's not how I do things I built the the facility as far as the layout the design the licensing and then however many patients are left over and it happened to be 126 not saying this to try to Curry favor or please you guys and tell you what you want to hear it's a fact that's how I would build the facil how I would build out the facility um I also heard it mentioned that 1680 people would be coming in and out of our town that's not true either over 50% come locally all right I just because I advertise nationally and half of my advertising budget is throughout the United States a lot of those people are already living in Florida they just have New Jersey or New York area codes I Target by area codes when they see ads on their cell phone or they see ads on their computer based on an IP address so a lot of those people are already here the other thing we do is treat the military there's not an impatient Tri Care Facility of this qual of this caliber and quality that our veterans truly deserve all the other 22 facilities I mentioned with the exception of maybe two of them they're these outpatient programs where you go live in an apartment you have a little bit of supervision at night you come to the the treatment center for five hours for therapy during the day they bust you back out this is happening all around the county all day long in your neighborhood whether you like it or not or know about it it's happening very short story um about 10 years ago one of the detoxes open in Port St Lucy we had a lot of public outcry just like this right now right one of the guys that came and was the most focal fast forward 10 years later we get a knock on the door from the FBI and says we need to use your parking lot as a staging facility I said may I ask what for for the largest drug bust ever in St Lucy County five houses down they busted a guy that was manufacturing pounds of fentanyl kilos of cocaine MDMA he had assault rifles $800,000 in cash and look it up it was the largest drug bus in St loucy County history and he was the neighbor living amongst you guys that everybody was in support of blocking my facility and the federal government said Thank you thank you for allowing us to use your parking lot thank you for your cameras outside monitoring the street thank you for the work you do and keeping this County in this town a safer place you know the traffic counts were way off when it with even with the calculations Sorry Brad no disrespect the 364 cars that's never going to happen at our facility like I said we're going to have 35 to 45 at any given time there I know you using formulas and calculations but there'll never be 364 cars coming in and out in a day because we don't do outpatient and we don't allow visitors um we're also going to be able to help by having a prominent visible detox we're going to be able to reduce some of the burden on the ER instead of people rushing to the ER because they're having DTS deliria tremens from alcohol withdrawal or benzo dipine withdrawal or various issues that are non-life-threatening or actually they are life-threatening if they go untreated they know where to show up right now if I asked everybody if you had an emergency and you ran out of your Xanax and you start shaking other in the hospital where's the closest facility you'd go to and I'm sure everyone here that works for Coastal is going to say Coastal but with the exception of that most of you don't know so the other thing I wanted to point out about the quadrants is not only is each quadrant going to be locked down and have a separate level of care right we're going to have the mental health we're going to have the detox male and female separate residential substance abuse but they all have their own nurses station they all have their own Pharmacy they all have their own therapists and they're dedicated to that Wing I agree one facility with 120 140 anything over 65 beds is way too much in one facility because you can't provide the quality of care right so the only reason I'm interested in this property and in wanting to move forward with it is because we're able to break it into the four quadrants and keep them separate and provide personalized care we're even in large educational groups you're never going to have more than 32 to 33 people we have what's called case load where each therapist is never assign more than eight patients so it gives them ample time to do one-on-one therapy with each patient and the other thing that I want to say and I want to challenge everybody in here I want to ask everybody what do you guys do to help reduce the homeless population in the city of Stew what are you willing to do what do you guys do to help with mental health crisises and addiction crisises in our neighborhood what are you willing to do I'll tell you what I'm willing to do and I'm willing to sign it in front of all of you personally guarantee and and put my house up as collateral I will donate 10 fully funded scholarships to City of Stewart residences every month that's over $6 million a year in free services I will provide the city to help with the homeless problem I don't want to be a burden I don't want to be part of the problem I want to be part of the solution I'll commit to it and I'll sign it right now is any of you willing to do that is any willing of you to do one is anybody willing to donate $10,000 to get a homeless person off the street okay so the stats I want to produce also because anyone in the industry no matter what they may say otherwise it's been proven time and time clinically by psychiatrist by psychologists that the most effective chance of successful recovery especially your first go around is to get you out of your environment they say change people places and things it makes sense how Brad explained it if I know the local liquor store if I know that I can get a hold of a drug dealer and he can throw a football over the fence that's filled with Heroin trust me this happens not at our facility from out of town people who do you think it happens with the local people and I'm not discriminating because I'm a local person I'm just saying they have the access to it so the statistics looking at our patients from the last 12 years 12 sorry the last 12 months people from out of state successfully completed treatment 72% of the time and returned back home 177% left before successfully completing treatment and 11% left for medical or other reasons patients within the State of Florida six 65% of them successfully completed treatment 23% left before completing and 12% for other patients that reside in Martin County whether they're homeless or they physically live in a in a dwelling here only 54% successfully completed treatment 38% left before successfully completing treatment so there's a 224 per greater failure rate if you go to treatment locally than going out of town and 8% left for other reasons it saddens me with the deaths the unnecessary and untimely deaths that occur every day um this industry has showed me some of the worst things that I wish I would never exposed to but it's also showed me some of the most beautiful parts of humanity that I never knew existed you know so everybody that's sitting behind me that I'm listening to your Snickers your comments I ask you what are you doing to make a difference what are you doing to fix the problem complaining doesn't fix anything I'll leave you with that ladies and gentlemen thank you thank you [Applause] sir okay um commissioner Collins you wanted to ask a question thank you Madame mayor Mr akner you mind getting back up there I have a few questions for you so would you consider this to be the largest um medical detox and residential Center in the State of Florida if approved I don't believe so but I can't say for certainty I don't really compare what other people are doing and look into their bed count but I know there are some other large facilities out there so I appreciate that answer that's a bit vague um it's just truthful I I I really don't keep track of the big to of of competitors and I appre I appreciate the Rebrand a bit for the four separate quadrants um versus this is one facility correct that we're talking about your application is for one facility property correct correct just for clarification sorry I think there's multiple LIC but our application here is yes we'll be applying for multiple LIC but our application I'm answering the question he's asking one facility correct that's correct because it was a little confusing based on the presentation um for my first question I'm sure you're familiar with um with this yes this is the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration list of all medical detox and residential treatment centers in the State of Florida right have you seen this before I've seen it okay so then you are familiar with the bed counts and the number of these I only saw it in the past week because that was provided to you by some of the opposition so when we made a public records request that was sent to me so I saw it for 10 seconds okay outside of that so so but I study bed counts I just I I glanced at it yes so when we're talking about the numbers of beds um I counted I think there was somewhere between 250 and 300 of these U medical detox and residential treatment centers in the State of Florida but the question I ask you sir is how many of those are state funded lock down facilities where the quality of care is substandard and you're treated like a criminal so when we're looking at the number of beds there's not one that's even over a 100 the closest we get to is going to be 90 well so you're comparing detoxes and we're only going to have 20 6 detx 23 detox beds but in terms of facilities this but you're comparing detoxes let's compare this is not breaking down each of their different Wings this is Oh I thought you said that was a list of all detoxes in the State of Florida for the facility this is this is the list of number of beds we don't get over a 100 so clearly I get one at 90 there's one at 82 another at 80 most of these most of these are going to be U much less you would be this would be the largest of this type of facility in the state of Florida it wouldn't with all due respect because you're talking about detoxes we're only going to have a license for 23 detox bed this is medical detox and Residential Treatment Center that's oh so that is residential as well okay okay so then with that information you would agree that this would be the largest of that type of fa current and accurate yes gotcha um in terms of the number of calls uh it's another point I wanted to get to because at the end of the day who's going to be paying for increased number of calls how do you you figure there's an increased number of calls when the AL was is more than double the calls the memory care facility that we're replace would be replacing they have I think triple per patient in number of calls so we wouldn't be increasing the burden we'd be reducing it so without getting too technical if we are talking about 126 beds we can't really predict exactly what that number of calls would be compared to that memory care fa I know what their census numbers was I'm friendly with the owner and I could look at my facilities I've owned over 17 years and come up with a prata formula so with the um you are the owner correct of the unity Behavioral Health that's no longer open I shut that down during Co that was an in network facility but the the records that are associated with the number of calls that was also ref occupy those properties that that would apply correct Y correct so uh this in particular had 26 beds if the address is the 2349 carry then yes so 26 beds so we could roughly times five it whatever this number is if we're talking about 126 beds could right so when we say that that Al had how many calls I think it was 35 in a month was it BR 36 36 in a month so when we start talking about and I and I'll take and I believe Brad said we had 105 in a year so the reason I want to bring this up specifically is in the LPA there was there was an exchange between you and board member Peterson and one of the questions she had along the emergency call uh you know line is she asked you specifically how many times ambulances and police are coming and you said maybe two to three times per month the I I'm quoting you verbatim from from this LPA meeting uh and then she asked you a follow-up question and said across all of your facilities and you said yes ma'am if that that is in stark contrast to what we're looking at here even if you want to say that oh I agree that we so I'm trying to remember the context of the conversation you did ask across all facilities yes sir okay maybe I maybe my answer and is was ones that we don't initiate how many facilities do you own uh we had 17 at one point and five of them were in Martin County right but we Consolidated with Co currently we have if we just talk about Unity that's no longer in existence butre and even if we take nine calls in March instead of the 16 that's listed here where our Public Safety is going to be answering those calls it may be one event but we're still getting these calls sure right so Bill me I'll pay for it so when we're talking about but but but you ever understand something our patients are po top-of-the-line Insurance you don't think the EMS bills their insurance 1,200 bucks a pop you don't think that they're being compensated share point but from a public safety standpoint the city of Stewart is not Martin County you don't have the resources with police and fire that the county does it's going to hit a the city of Port St Lucy doesn't either but we we accommodate it there I mean we can't please everybody we're either going to save some lives and use some resources and if our patients insurance pay for those resources and if you can show me it's a big enough strain I'll make an additional contribution to make sure that's very generous of you but at the end of the day it's going to be taxpayers that are paying for that extra Public Safety so when we're looking at you know in March you say it's nine but I see 16 um yeah are you out the duplicates the number of calls you're saying it's nine but I read 16 are you backing out the duplicates these are still calls they may be one event but they're multiple calls yeah but the resources are one person taking two calls they're not bringing out unless necessary multiple EMS employees I guess you're not following my logic when you told Miss Peterson that it was two to three across all of your facilities right and what I said is I was I was probably speaking about patients that initiate the calls not us calling for medical safety reasons that's that's probably what another point you made is that these are not necessar these are these are basically just suicide attempts which there are there are plenty of those in here but there are also physical fights and assault and you said you've only tracked maybe one or two of these in your career and I've got two of them on uh just one facility okay seems like maybe we're not being entirely accurate to characterize something an example of assault a female walks by a man and spits on the floor next to his shoes she's a mental health patient she says I want the police called I'm pressing charges that's assault it's hard to decipher what that is I'm just seeing assault well with with a business assoc affiliate agreement that protects Hippa I'd be glad to open the charts and show you I've got nothing to hide you guys can come on my property you could look with the proper documentation sign and see what these incidents actually are my next question would be where you know where are your patients coming from you've you've answered this and I heard a bit of a pivot tonight um but when Miss Peterson asked are are you getting your patients from the court system hospitals or both you responded neither we get again this is quoting you verbatim okay neither we get probably 10 maybe 10% or alumni maybe 5% of professional referrals and the other 85% we spend millions of dollars on online advertising that's 100% correct I thought that was incredible Point um when she pressed you a little bit harder and said are most of your patients and this was talking about the Port St Lucy facility are most of them from Port St Lucy do they stay in Port St Lucy and you said I would say about 50% of our patient State locally 50% are from out of state I know I'm going to quote you for B 50% of our patients are from the state of Florida 50% elsewhere 50% are from around the country half of them go back usually to where they came from correct and I clarified that when I started by saying that 50% of our marketing efforts around the country and several how much money would you say you spend on on marketing is that Rel just a question you don't have to answer it but I'm just curious probably close to a million dollar a month so a million dollar a month with u and I'm assuming who's going to come here is who you're marketing to right so 50% are from outside of the State of Florida no what I said is that we target 50% outside of State of Florida 50% are not originally from here 50% come from out of state but you have to understand they come down here they go to a program program kicks them out they fail they go to a sober living they you see how that's a very different kind of situation than taking care we have a serious problem here already and I'm offering a real solution I would say importing more of it into the people that that fly in they they're middle class to upper class affluent families they're not homeless people in the street the New York City that have po insurance plans that that fly down here you know we don't treat teenagers that it's their parents sending them down here it's husbands wives business owners when they go against when they when they go AMA and they don't listen to what you say you kick them out of that facility we we have the 48 hour policy phone no we give them their cell phone they have no they have a way to contact you they need to these people have money they have more a lot of them make more money than most of us here they have cell phones fair enough they come in with cell phones and people say oh they have no IDs how do you get on a plane without an ID we can't legally admit someone without a driver's license because we have to set up a medical chart like a hospital I've just heard that in these types of facilities and I I appreciate you for correcting the record that often these people can be um kicked out of the facility if they don't follow the rules they don't have a phone they don't have their license I've never said they don't have a phone or a license that that's misinformation for correting that that was one of the points I last people do have the right to leave the facility but if they're from out of town we take them to an airport take them to a safe place if they're not mentally well we take them to a Baker Act receiving facility to make sure that they're protected and they're not a danger to themselves or someone else you know three reasons to kick a patient out number one it does them no justice and that's the whole reason I'm in this business is to help people number two it creates a tremendous liability for me and my company I don't want to family suing me that their loved one died on the street out of town somewhere and number three um it's not good for the city I agree uh last Point uh just for clarification you had mentioned in that LPA that you had a letter of some support from the sheriff's office yet there seemed to be some disagreement with uh Sheriff Snider was that a different Sheriff this is misinformation Deputy Chief gerer came up here and spoke on my behalf of all the work that I've done we were referring um I I I said his name a news reporter decided to manipulate it and suggest it was no the words that I'm referencing were your words from the LPA meeting you said we have a letter of support from the Sheriff's Office Social Security I promise it's for btim okay well the deputy chief that came up here and spoke that's who I was refering that's all just for clarification I just wanted one more just point of clarification I looked at the Sam serve report and our second reading we'll provide a full report as with all the data that you have it is very misrepresentative there's at least I'm looking at a facility right now that has about 6 beds at the same address so I don't know why they're listed three it's the same name same address and they have 60 beds in the same place so while you're looking at the individual numbers you need to actually go and identify the address the facility and everything else and I'll provide that at our next meeting yes please please do because and all fairness it's a little difficult being questioned on data that I looked at for 10 seconds that I haven't had a chance to analyze and actually verify yeah it's okay I looked at it for you that's all my comments thank you um any other Commission we're good thanks we're good nobody else I'm sorry Mr you back up right when he sat down sorry I was waiting for commissioner Clark I thought I was going to get a cake if I sat down in time I I have them but I they've been kind of answered but go on and I'll see because I don't want to ask the same question over and over again um I think you have been the victim of a great deal of Miss information I've been disappointed to see that happen and I would advise people who speak to the Commissioners in the future that you try to be as truthful and as uh as truthful as you can be with the data you present and you know um thank you you you know you do have a good reputation you're trying to do a good thing this this is desperately needed service and so this is a diff decision for the you know for for the city of Stewart um I've gotten some calls from some medical professionals and they actually say their concern is about this What's called the full Continuum so you bring them in you detox them um and then you say you are not going to provide partial hospitalization or no absolutely we are I'm a big believer in the F Continuum and trying to keep them monitor them for up to a year not out of this facility not out of this facility that will be done up in port s so that's so they so they're saying you're going to do what 120 people a month is that accurate I mean there's been some remarkably High figures 40 days yeah 120 people a month is and so then we're going to have a, people engaged in so it it seems that the full Continuum is going to be you're going to provide that by actually sending them to your facilities in Port St Lucy yes but it's not always cuz a PHP is they stay somewhere and then return to your facility right correct and then intensive IOP intensive out patient similar thing just less less hours a week of therapy so but keep in mind not not everybody would be going through that cuz some people have careers to go back to they have children to take care of sorry um so the full Continuum doesn't apply to everyone if I had the guess I would say probably half the patients go through the full continue but I mean that's that's what your business model would prefer to have happen right no not necessarily I mean yes I'm not going to sit here and lie to you and say it doesn't benefit the business's cash flow for that to happen but I'd prefer them to come once and never have to come back again and have a great life and refer their friends and family and then there's op there's outpatient MH which is very typical in this right with the current facilities we have but none of that would be done at this facility and it would have no problem putting in the development order so none of the PHP IOP or op people would be returning from to this facility from where they may be staying in the corre the count absolutely you you were with me and you saw the medical strip center that's where they would go to and then there's apartments right down the street from there that they live in okay so this is very focused in the area of treatment yes what in house yeah in patient correct okay it said that you're going to charge $2,000 a day for detox is that a COR that was information that that the competitors gave to you that was completely made up they don't know what my rates are at a maximum we charge $1,000 a day and if they're going to be an extended detox because of a long history of benzodiazapines or method uh methodone uh we typically charge between 500 and 750 a day so the statement was made that you're going to have 300 plus Admissions and discharges a month that was another lie this none of this information was created by Me was reviewed by me this was what the competitors handed you to fear-monger and to getting this denied because of their own personal greed and fear sorry I don't want to talk Nega they do good work as as a point of reference I should say that I don't believe any of those records are part of the record in this case they haven't been offered by either an intervener or the applicant and they're not as part of the file at all other than they were referenced as xart Communications well I'm just allowing him an opportunity to right clear verify statements that were that were made to the Commissioners both verbally and in writing and I'm trying to get as accurate a picture as I can I'm just reiterating I know you know that I'm just clarifying for the rest of the Commissioners in the public that none of those and the average detox takes about how long um the average length of stay is about 5.6 days because some people leave after a couple days they decide that they're not ready or that they can do it on their own and they go back home and then the average residential average residential for us is about 28 days wow okay so that's on the people that successfully complete treatment at an inpatient level of care stay with us approximately 43 days between detox and the residential treatment is that an unusual length of time or typical um it's a little higher than industry average and that length of time is because that's where you've had success obviously with it's where we're able to provide them the highest level of care and give them the most Services okay thank you Mr yes Jody can you please put up the four quadrants from me and if you could just go through a day for me on those four quadrants and see how that works okay um it was in color like four colors yes yeah so typically when they admit to the detox level of care we provide clinical uh support we do psychiatric assessments we do central nervous system testing we do medical examinations but those first few days they're coming off the substances they're mentally foggy they're physically not feeling well so during that process we let them rest a lot we do provide they stay right in that area they stay in that Wing they will never leave that wing for any reason um in fact we can't even let them leave if they want to at that phase because they're being Medicated by us and they pose a danger to themselves or someone else so that so sometimes we call the police for that hey this person's on a uh benzo aspine taper or they're taking Librium for for alcohol withdrawal they're not safe to be out public so then the police come and explain to them you can't leave until the medical doctor says this has been out of your system long enough where it's safe for you to leave um so at that level of care we offer uh group counseling individual counseling um but it's mostly testing and resting and and medicating and getting them comfortable to get all the uh substances out of their system once that happens then they'll be transferred to the residential program see that's happening in the community now they're just busting them from a detox to a residential then to a PHP then to an IOP we would like them to be able to stay there for 30 to 45 days and when they leave really transition to another another level of care so at the residential for example they'll be woken up at 7: a.m. they'll have to take they'll have to get in line at the various because there's four quadrants they well for residential there'll be two they go to the nurse's window they get their medication they go and have breakfast uh they'll do like a spiritual goals group in the morning then they'll do what's called case load where they meet with their therapist and the six or seven other people that are assigned to that therapist spend about two hours there just discussing really deep issues and and getting very personal um then they'll have lunch have a little bit of a break um after lunch they'll come back for some group education then they'll probably have a one-on-one session in the afternoon then they may do an appointment in our neuro feedback department where we do qeg brain scanning to identify areas of impulsivity hyperactivity and create custom uh neuro feedback protocols to help regulate and help their brain and neurotransmitters heal a little bit faster than they would just on their own um after the end of that then they will work out or exercise whether it's yoga taichi G weights we will be installing a gym in there um and then after that they either have what's called h&i hospitals and institutions from Narcotics Anonymous Andor Alcoholics Anonymous are both Andor Nami the National Alliance of mental health is here they will come in and bring meetings in and hold meetings on the property with our patients and then they'll have a curfew in a bedtime and they repeat that basically six days a week um on the seventh day we give them a little bit less therapy a little bit more of a break they can spend time journaling um we also give every patient a Chromebook that we control from a central platform so they have access to be able to zoom if they can't sleep 24-hour 12ep meetings there's meditation apps on there um there's job-seeking employment when they're ready and we control what apps and functions they have access to and each patient has their own commissioner Clark we could be here all night no no no but I just we people I just need to know what's going to happen there in this thing so that we know what's going to happen so that's about a week two at the end of week two yeah after after the first week you know 7 to 10 days that's what they start and they'll and they'll stay in that type of curriculum for give or take 28 days or a little bit longer okay and then during that time whether they're there for 28 days or there for 40 days they do not go shopping correct they do not go to pick up their own meds somewhere else off campus they don't go to parties or Recreation activities off the campus you're strictly impatient inhouse all the time and that's one of the big allord yes ma'am and that's one of the big allures to me is right now at our residential programs people have needs they want a haircut they want to get their nails done they want to do this that by us having uh a spa on site with hydrotherapy massage therapist chiropractor having a barber shop a hair salon manicure pedicure there's no reason for them to leave so they can have all of their needs and wants met at the same time within reason can you tell us a little bit about your medical oversight uh whether it's done by a psychiatrist or psychologist or your head medical person sure so our medical director is a psychiatrist and I believe he also board certified in neurology um we have director of nursing we have pa arnps um once we open this facility we'll be I can't disclose the person's name but a very prominent medical director will be joining us as well at this facility um I can't disclose it because she's and you hire more than 30 people oh we have we have at least 105 to 110 we're starting with all those will be parked on the site correct but not at the same time shifts at sh yes ma'am okay so and I believe don't hold me to it but I think there's 35 40 spaces out back which that's where the staff would park so all intensive purposes the front parking lot's going to be empty them pretty much all the time okay because you're on a shift system so you don't use all of your 140 spaces or whatever correct we talked about the largest in the stage Residential Treatment you're definitely different from Coral Shores which does a lot of other things Baker Act lock down facility or lock down Hospital facility I and I don't know ma' why everyone has this concept of the largest in the state if there's 300 beds in a two mile radius and they're being busted all around you and they're going in and out of grocery stores and barber shops and head shops and doing whatever they do wouldn't we rather know they're all in one place and safe and not leaving and going anywhere cuz that's how it is now is we have multiple facilities spread throughout the city of Steward and the people are being busted around all day long and it's way more than 126 people I can tell you that okay I know that people are anxious to give their comments I want to hold back I want to listen to them okay fair enough may could I just have one last question real quick yes uh do you share any medical staff with Coastal detox Yes actually our chief medical officer asked me if he could do them a favor about back in September and if he could work for them because they needed a medical director so out of the kindness of my heart I agreed and had I known they were going to come attack me and say what a bad job we do I probably wouldn't have agreed but it's kind of ironic that my medical director that runs my facility is the same one that runs their facility so how could we be doing not the right thing and have bad judgment if they have good judgment thank you okay thank you thank you we would go the public Susan Duppy is Susan Duppy still here okay okay I understand it's getting late um next is uh Linda seies okay um Dr Karen Dodge good evening Miss Dodge Dr Dodge good evening um thank you mayor and vice mayor mayor and vice mayor and the County Commissioners um City City commissioners yes I'm sorry City commission thank you um so my name is Dr Karen Dodge um I am a faculty at florid Atlantic University Schmidt College of science department of complex systems and brain sciences and uh um I'm a metrics kind of gal so I just want to know about that s report what year is that great question I don't see a year on it so let me tell you a little something about my background I work for the federal government Health and Human Services Department of Health Resources Services Administration which actually has samsa as a subpart of the agis of that um that Federal organization and so what my job was is to uh put together a demonstration of need and unmet need for the entire United States regarding all titles Ryan White um that's HIV AIDS and many sexually transmitted diseases then I got hired by the state of Florida to put together uh a demonstration of need and unmet need for all 67 counties and I was hired uh by Hanley Hazelton by the way they have 150 beds just to correct you in Palm Beach County that are across the Continuum of Care starting with detox Rez PHP IOP and outpatient I also um then worked for Karen Karen has about 160 beds in Del re so as far as large um our place is kind of small um and I worked at both of them just these up across different facilities is that the idea these are no this is one facility okay these are one facility hanley's on a main campus just like Karen is on a main C campus c a r o n but anyway uh a little bit about my background I'm also on the uh board of directors of the Florida Society of ADD ition medicine and to talk about demonstration of need and unmet need what we do to gather those numbers is look at people 18 and over in a county and so Martin County has approximately 160 PE 160,000 people and if we were to look at 18 plus that's about 134,000 people so out of the 34,000 people about 16.5% of those have demonstrated a need for substance use treatment and out of that uh 34,000 um about 19,000 have something called unmet need in other words right in the county of Martin we have an unmet need of about 19,000 people with a substance use disorder I'm not talking about mental health and Mr anner I've worked for him for going on8 years and I got to cut you off yeah three minutes okay so I just wanted to say that he's a great guy to work for and what I do there is something that the rest of the state kind of doesn't do we do I have to leave it to three minutes sorry but we provide neuroservices so we actually treat the brain of the drug adct and mentally he mentally ill thank you got thank you Doctor the next is Cynthia uh CA poia poia Oh it's uh CA po say it we're both Cynthia he pronounce what is your last name cop rash like a cop with a rash okay sorry way off wasn't I took me a year to figure that out um I live at 4361 Southeast Waterford Drive and Stewart um I live very close to the proposed uh rehab center I'm opposed to the proposals number 13 and 14 I do not want to see these proposals approved by your committee we do not want a rezoning for a facility where over 50 50% of the patients can be brought in or flown in from outside of steuart with the ability to leave on their own now that may not be the truth that was what I was told with no place to go other than um become part of the homeless population we already have a coastal detox center close by and do not want the number of proposed beds to increase this would be one of the largest facilities that seems to be in question also in the State of Florida with mental health drug and alcohol facilities with medical de talks this would be a safety concern for ourselves and for our neighbors this area will already be impacted by the traffic and people because of the building of the Costco as well as the building of the apartments that will become a part of that project I believe that this proposal would negatively impact the surrounding community in our Township and I agree with Sheriff Snider that it will become a burden for all of the people of Stewart I urge you not to approve it thank you ma'am thank you Evelyn Nelson is next she's gone uh Richard wolf he's gone okay uh uh James Gordon Gordon Gordon ORD Duncan Drive yes ma'am not good at like public speaking so it's going to be fun um good evening and thank you a lot for allowing me the opportunity to speak um my name is James Gordon I go by Jim Jimmy or JB however my wife sometimes uses different names I'm a resident of South Florida born and raised went to college in Tallahasse at FSU go NOS go NOS eventually returning uh back to my roots here in South Florida at a pleas said I'm proud to call home I'm a family man uh with a one and a half-year-old daughter Abigail and our son Daniel expected this October my wife is a school teacher of many years before recently earning a promotion to become the assistant DEA students at a local high school I'm a hardworking W2 employee and exv volunteer firefighter and a man of high morals and strong faith I care deeply about my community and the other families here which brings me to the reason why I'm here today I an addict the man before you today is the same person who got addicted to opiates as a teenager after a bad sports related injury the same person struggled with depression and would binge drink alcohol just to numb pain the same person also nearly flunked out of high school threw away his life on a quick on the quick path to Rock Bottom I believe wholeheartedly that I had not been given the chance when I needed it most had I not been offered the multiple and life-saving services provided by facilities like we are discussing here today had people Shrugged off the idea of additional options just because there was already some options out there regardless of the quality of those other facilities then I surely would not be standing here today I want to add um as Sheriff mentioned about taxpaying dollars I'm advocate for law enforcement and always have been my father was a police officer when my brother and I are both growing up um I sincerely support the sheriff in nearly all capacities with this whole exception I'm me I I'm not an expert on the topic and do not have the statistics here in front of me today but I'd be willing to bet that the burden of untreated addicts in this community and communities throughout South Florida is definitely a line item for the city budget um especially when we look into the future so yes in my opinion every life is worth a chance like I had and yes as was previously stated the juice is worth the squeeze thank you Michael Michael gerer goer he's the sheriff sheriff oh yes County thank you Deputy Dr uh Sofa U Georgio golus good evening my name is Dr Sophia J Julius I'm a licensed clinical psychologist in New York and Florida um I've been a director in New York City for over 10 years in substance of use I've trained doctors at New York Presbyterian Hospital and on harm reduction uh at the Department of Corrections and I'm also um involved in speaking this evening um basically advocating for treatment I've been a co-chair uh discussing in different uh communities the effects of addiction and you know we're talking about people's lives you know fentol now is killing Youth and um not only I'm a member of Staff but I believe that when we speak about numbers and we speak about um us being affected these numbers are our loved ones as was previously mentioned and and since being here I've worked mostly nonprofit but working in this facility I have seen High function individuals who have come with money there's never been an issue of anyone leaving and being in the streets so you know I just urge everybody to really consider that we're talking about people's lives you know our children I have a 10-year-old and it's no longer marijuana in the playground it's fental so please consider and we're talking about even if one life is saved if it's your son your brother your daughter your sister it's one life you know we're talking about our loved ones and everybody's affected by addiction so um thank you for giving the time to speak and um enjoy their rest in the evening thank you do appreciate it uh Louisa Levy hi my name's Louisa Ley I live at um 3661 Southeast dumbleton drive and I've it's been very interesting listening tonight I've really learned a lot I've perhaps um moderated my feelings on it but there's still several concerns I do agree that mental health is a big issue I am a um registered nurse I'm a uh have my masters in Public Health nursing I worked at a psychiatric hospital Duke University when I graduated from school and um I've seen the problem firsthand both here and in the hospital and um I guess there I have a lot of questions that are still unanswered and I'm assuming that all of you will get the answers to them and know how to further proceed um what will the diagnosis be of the mental health segment of the group um what kind of diagnosis will they have we I think they said something like Duality maybe they're going to have two diagnoses but that would be very concerning to me what ones I know he said we're not going to have schizophrenic um murderers but let's find out what they are um secondly um when they are um going out to get physical exercise in that middle in that middle area how are they going to be mixing I guess maybe they'll take turns going out in that courtyard but I don't see those four groups mixing in that area and there's no other place for them to be available um third um about the signing out AMA um the point was made that it's always the um in town people that exceed the outof town people signing out AMA that may be true but if there are any people that are signing out AMA give the 48 hour um sign in which I thought was a great um addition that he added um still they're signing out and they're nowhere they're unlike signing out when you're a local Floridian yeah you have sources you can go if these people from out of town sign out you know where are they going what are the ages of these people he mentioned that they were're not having a bunch of teenagers I'm not sure what the ages are they haven't covered that so if you're going to get 20 22 24 year olds that are addicted to drugs which are very typical of these high income people that will be able to afford the treatment here down in Florida they very likely will disappear into Florida why not it's easier to be homeless in Florida than it is in New York state so I think that's a consideration um finally the Staffing is very confusing and we went over that that slide so quickly that I really didn't get enough time to appreciate it um 110 staff members for 126 people if it's 126 I heard that 18 were going to be working with the producing this wonderful food um I'm a little concerned about the Staffing and I hope you consider all these issues I do do think that there's a real need for mental health thank you thank you no wait a minute here Anna anner okay uh Michael Craig Mr Craig so uh my name is Michael Craig I'm a will I'm a member and a resident of Willoughby Golf Club one of my questions the first thing off the bat is first we said anyone on item 13 and then 14 can I combine a little 13 and 14 it seems like that's been done to kind of show you where I'm coming from you got three minutes sir yeah it won't take that long okay my name is Michael Craig I'm resident of Willoughby Golf Club I'm talking about zoning changes to start with it seems like for the last several years the city commission has been busy granting land use changes every time I turn around there's a four-story apartment complex going up that further puts impact on our road system C Costco as well including Apartments so it's taken two years for the city and the developer to get get that approved bottom line is most people buying a home and one of these uh is one of their biggest Investments that they will make so when they do their due diligence look at the surroundings and determine what the vacant Parcels are zoned for and then decide to make the purchase or not then years later the city commission pretty much uh starts granting land use changes to every developer that wants high density so for the Willoughby residents who are fighting the Eden Project to our East and now a developer wanting to purchase a closed down Assistant Living facility for pennies on the dollar to convert to an inpatient mental health residential drug alcohol and detox facility I ask well what could go wrong with there so bottom line is we know why the developer wants to approve to get this approved but why does the city want this in our backyard come on enough is enough the uh police uh Chief himself or the sheriff and the city is going to put undue expenses on the city and county taxpayers not to mention the hospital and with this many people they say maybe 50% coming from out of state there's no guarantee that they're not going to be uh checking themselves out or when the dollar stops coming in and like the other people said where could you get a better location with beaches and everything else so I ask you why are we even discussing this I mean we got the whole country and this is where we want to put this in our backyard come on anyway that's all I had to say thank you sir yeah Cynthia Robo wo welcome good evening thank you very much for taking the time to listen to me um I am retired live here from Chicago my parents moved to Stewart in 1998 and I'm also here to represent them they're 93 years old and they live in a community that is just East that has not been um shown as a residence on the maps that were shown um this evening they live there independently they're 93 years old and I worry that this facility being so close to them with the ability for people that are addicted to drugs can simply check themselves out in a 48 hour period that they can and will be at risk and it will be a safety hazard for them to continue to live here they on their staff counts there's no security listed there's no um staff called security so I'm just concerned for their well-being so thank you very much thank you okay the next is Barbara PTI yeah hi thank you my name is Barbara petett I spoke at the March 14th local planning agency meeting expressing my concerns it was myself the only one speaking and the people from Coastal detox I presently live in Willoughby Crescent which is within 300 ft of the proposed Clarity Point same place where the previous woman spoke of her parents I am a retired registered nurse my family has res resided in Stuart for over 30 years since 1994 I've always felt safe and never thought twice about going out in the evening when it is dark I can honestly say now that I don't feel safe and rarely go out at night and if I do I am never alone in the past I have been approached at Walmart by homeless couple my husband was approached at Publix down the street from the proposed facility also recently outside diners in a close strip mall like two strip malls away from this facility were just recently approached obviously the facil is not there but somehow they were approached by others I questioned several aspects previously at the LPA meeting on March 14th from a medical standpoint that is of much concern to me I will again express my concerns what is the intensity and levels of mental health patients Mr anner at that meeting I don't want to be quoted but I know he said they would mostly be PTSD or bipolar he was answering one of my questions later on however even a level one bipolar patient can be dangerous to others including themselves if they leave the facility typically a lot of these patients can have a history of being in and out of all the systems relapsing and leaving or eloping eloping is doesn't mean running away and getting married elopement is a medical term legally defined as a patient who is incapable of adequately protecting himself and who departs the facility Mr anner stated initially this was all at the other meeting that there would be eight mental health beds and the end he said that he would cap it at 12 mental health patients and now we just see on the board that it's 30 beds and today in the Stuart news I don't know how accurate that was it said 25% would be mental health and that alone would be the 30 beds that he's talking about so how could it be capped at 12 it's almost tripled the amount that concerns me and brings up the point of Staff ratios there could be many employees like you say custodial housekeeping dietary but what I really want to know what the ratio I think you should ask would be for the medical staff per each mental health patient another major concern of mine is security which Mr anner explained in detail with individual locked Wings which he continues to talk about interior Courtyard Etc that at the then at the end he said that a patient had the right to leave which we've heard now that really scares me because he said 50% of the occupants will be from other states they would become homeless have nothing and be very desperate against he says that it won't be but I they leave there they really don't have anything and and then today's newspaper said they would have 25% flown in thank you Mr P okay thank you uh Rich Petty before I start can you pull up the chart that was done by Brad that showed the businesses and will be golf club no sir come forward you got three minutes my name is Rich petett and I live in will be Cresent very close to the proposed rehab center they're not going to show you the map now but willb Cresent was not on the map it had will be golf club which was very inaccurate because willby creson has 27 units which are very very close to this I was at the last March 14th LPA meeting they are an advisory committee that gives their opinion on the topic of discussion at this meeting they were not in faor of the proposed rehab center I do not want to see this approved by you if you filed Martin County rules you would not approve this because we have Coastal detox close by and the proposal is to increase the number of beds from 84 to 140 or 126 this would become one of the largest out of network facilities in Florida also we do not need a facility where 50% of the patients are flown in from other states the patients are free to leave on their own whether it's 48 hours or whatever and without local support they'll become homeless in our community Mr anner has refused to be interviewed by the local press to hear his side of the proposal based on the LPA meeting it appeared to me that he was a corporate businessman looking for a deal he has an option to buy this $35 million property for $12 million if he was confident that you would approve this proposal he would have purchased the property rather than had an option land use change should only be passed when it is good for the surrounding communities in your Township I see no good in this I am against this project please do not approve it thank you sir Douglas Ashley I'm here I've taken over 25 pages of notes let me give you my background I've been around the world I've been in front of this city uh several times on a lot of different reasons in terms of traffic deaths in terms of homeless people somebody I had taken care of for five years there's no homeless shelters I'm also a realtor full-time for the last 15 years my my home's been here since the 60s and I'm very like I said I've taken 20 20 pages of notes I also was a corporate troubleshooter around the world I've been in a lot of these meetings not in your county not around the State of Florida for uh a luxury uh apartment Builder a national one the numbers of flown by me today and I don't want to criticize I can't criticize it's a public meeting but my head's spinning and I hope you have a better homework the assignment than I do because I don't understand some of the basics do I do understand was when uh Mr rich brought up the fact that we're we're desperately in need of affordable housing you don't have sites anymore um very very few and I see that those numbers as a realtor and and somebody who's taking care of homeless people the other fact that the person who standed here earlier his background Sheriff William Snider I've dealt I've dealt I shouldn't say it that way I've worked with him and I don't think somebody's ever critiqued his background he had 48 years of Public Service 20 years with the public uh Miami day Police Department 13 years with the Martin County Sheriff he was a representative in the Florida house representative six years his background is a bachelor's degree in Florida Golf Coast University in criminal justice a graduate graduate of the FBI National Academy in the Harvard Kennedy School of government The Source it's on Martin County sheriff's website some of the sources I heard tonight my head like I said is spinning I don't see fa factual numbers I've see a lot of things that you could put up on the screen and I again I was a troubleshooter I also worked for a CPA firm that did uh studies for Resorts again I want to be careful it's public meeting I mean I can make numbers work I just want to caution you please diligently do your homework and listen to people very carefully thank you very much thank you sir um next is have a rebuttal at the end U let me finish with this Miss uh Harriet Shapiro got one more thank you my name is Harriet Shapiro and I have been a citizen of Martin County for the last 30 years I live at 1902 Southeast talet place so I'm very close to um the facility I am a CPA and my office is at 7:30 Southeast East Indian Street so I'm just down the street from the proposed facility I very often during tax season work very late there are times when I am in my office by myself until 9 or 10:00 in the evening um I've never been I've never felt afraid or unsafe in the area however the type of facility that's being proposed does make me feel very nervous nervous knowing that people can leave all right after 48 um hours I have no self-defense training and I'm not looking to get any thank you thank you ma'am and the last one is Laura gilby not here here that's it please come forward and I just want to speak what you needed to say thank you mayor I just wanted to address a couple quick points first of all I listened to all the rhetoric from the the crowd talking about addict not alcoholics right because alcoholism is an acceptable thing in this country I wonder how many people in this room have alcohol problems and are in denial about it that's for them not for me but addicts aren't murderers rapists kidnappers okay those people exist that aren't addicts you know the misclassification is what further drives the stigma to people losing their children their husband their wives you can't lump a group of people because they have a a a a a hereditary disease as defined by the Ma and say oh they must be a rapist or a child molester or this or that that's the the the definition of discrimination didn't we start this meeting about civil rights wasn't it part of the the accolades the Civil Rights and and mental health awareness and then everyone comes up here with their own private agendas to label people and do that first of all a Baker Act receiving Facility by law they can only hold you for 72 hours those are the crazy violent criminals and guess what happens after 72 hours they open the doors and let them in your neighborhood that's what they do we don't treat those type of people we don't bring those type of people into our town they need help I don't want to discriminate against them but that's not my line of work I don't know how to help them I haven't been trained how to help them so I let the professionals that have been do so but to sit up here and say oh they're going to leave the center after 48 hours and and and and murder my family and I mean that that how much more discriminatory can you be right is anybody in this room that's Italian or you in the mob and going to whack me when I walk outside I mean it's absurd statements that these people are making to you know and and the there's just lie after lie after lie I haven't spoken to the media there's Keith Burbank right there how you did an old article he's going to do one tomorrow I spent the day with him at my facility for several hours where did Ethan go with wp12 news he just walked out of the room a few minutes ago it's just lie after lie after lie this is why I'm not a politician and this is why I'm a businessman thank you oh and I just wanted to say one more you can't you can't you can't it times up and and to address the Staffing real quick the 105 employees is what I'm opening the doors with I don't think I'm going to have 126 patients the day I open it takes a year to build up a census of 126 so when people are criticizing my Staffing show me the Professional Organization you've run for 17 years and let me look at your Staffing ratios before you judge mine that's just what we're opening with thank you sir thank you sir and just as a point of clarification there's always at every hearing different perceptions presented by different people and I don't think that the commission buys wholeheartedly every word they hear from everybody their job is to disseminate the information and to base their decision on professional facts and data and that's what they'll do well that's the end of uh the public comments um I'll move to close the hearing if they don't have a card to J person second we have a motion to um move to close the hearing I have a second you made the motion oh Commission um McDonald and um vice mayor Rich vice mayor rich and do we have any more uh any more public comment up here when will this uh be at second reading so everybody knows two weeks two weeks just everybody knows and I no more uh public comment we've taken it off and that's when the final vote will happen the adoption hearing will be on the 28th on a Tuesday which is not a regular time we usually me that on Mond you take roll Mary if you'd like me to it's not necessary you want okay I'm sorry it's not it's a vote to close the hearing right so just take the RO I can take the rooll yeah be I mean we need something commissioner Collins yes commissioner McDonald yes mayor Bruner yes vice mayor Rich yes commissioner Clark yes thank you everyone thank you need we warmed I didn't the day when we honor Milton a long