I call to order the regular session of the Tarpon Springs Board of Commissioners. Tuesday, January 27th, 6:30 p.m. Roll call please. Mayor Giuliani's
here, vice Mayor Eisner here. Commissioner Coolio's here, Commissioner DiDonato here. And Commissioner Banther is absent. And I would need a motion to have him excused. So moved
second. Okay. Roll call please. De Donato. Yes, Commissioner. Yes. Yes. Vice mayor Eisner. Yes, yes. So tonight, our
reflection will be by the Reverend Torie Huff of the new Spring Church. And then it will be followed by the Pledge of
Allegiance. Please stand. Thank you, everybody, for this honor. If you will bow your heads with me. God, we are just so
thankful to you for giving us this city, this beautiful place in which we live. God continue to bless it and allow it to prosper. Continue to bring us
in unity and not division. Lord, I just thank you for these civil servants and for our police and fire and EMS. Lord,
please continue to bless them. God, give them clarity and wisdom. Lord, continue to allow this place to be a place of discourse that is full of
respect and honesty and love. We love you and we thank you. And it is in your son's name we pray. Amen, Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. Okay, before we do our special presentations, the vice mayor wants to embarrass, I mean, introduce somebody. Thank you. Mayor, I
try to embarrass as many people as I can in one day, but I just want you to know, every now and then you get to meet a special
person. And I've had the blessing to meet Ivy Cole, if you don't mind standing up and just waving. This youngster is just a powerhouse and she is
everywhere. I happen to notice she's on the East coast and I post. I made a comment, I said, that looks like the Diplomat Hotel where I go to Florida League of Cities, and she says
it is. So she's here, she's there, she's a mover shaker. Just remember this youngster because she will be going places. She is politically
driven and I just am so proud to see somebody like you so enthused at a young age like you are. And I didn't get into politics till I became an old
man. So I take my hat off to you and thank you for being here. A little round of applause. And she's and she's
still in high school. That's amazing. Okay, so our first presentation will be the Holly Langston, our sustainability
coordinator will introduce the the guests who are going to be presenting our feasibility study. Thank you. Mayor. Good evening, mayor and board of commissioners. I'm Holly
Langston, the sustainability program manager. Thank you for having us here tonight on the agenda. So the sustainability division undertook a solar
feasibility study in 2025. And the impetus for doing that study was an action specified in our sustainability plan, which was adopted by the board
in 2023, that this type of study should be undertaken. So we were able to contract with Drmp, who is one of our engineers of record for the city, and they brought in a
solar expert, a Subconsultant as well. So we have tonight, Paul Benvie here with us from Drmp, as well as Dell Jones from Solar Utility Partners. And Paul is going to take us
through take you through an overview of the study and not print. Sorry. And and then we will wrap it up with any
questions you may have. Oops sorry. Thank. Gotta go to the right. Okay. There we go. All
right. Thank you Holly. For the record, I am Paul Benvie. I was a project manager for Drmp. Dale Jones and I are excited to share the findings of our study
and share with you some of our recommendations. The goal? There we go. The goal for the feasibility study was to evaluate potential sites across the city. Our primary
objectives of the study were to determine this and financial feasibility of these solar projects. We identified some opportunities for savings and developed a prioritized list of
projects based on the solar potential and cost effectiveness. We explored funding sources to support the city's transition to renewable energy, and this study aligns with the city's broader
sustainable sustainability goals and its commitment to reducing operational costs. The facilities evaluated included the Recreation Center, Public
Safety building, the library, public works building, golf course, city hall, the landfill, and the dredge spoils parcel. The study is part of a phased approach to enhance energy
efficiency and resilience across the city's operations. So we broke this up into several tasks. Task one involved a comprehensive site
assessment of the facilities we mentioned earlier. We evaluated the roofs, the ground conditions and the orientation, shading, structural integrity
and the accessibility of the electrical connections. Key findings reveal that the recreation center, the library and public works building have favorable conditions for rooftop installations with
minimal shading and structurally sound roofs. The landfill and the dredge spoils parcel offers significant potential for ground mounted solar systems due to their large available areas and
extensive, excellent solar exposure. However, these sites do require further geotechnical analysis and interconnection studies. City Hall and the Public Safety Building may need some structural upgrades to
support solar arrays, which could impact the project costs and timelines. Electrical infrastructure across most facilities was found to be accessible, although some sites may require transformer
upgrades or utility consideration for the grid interconnection. Overall, the site assessments confirmed that the majority of the evaluated facilities are viable candidates for solar energy
projects, with varying degrees of complexity and readiness. Task two focused on identifying energy efficiency opportunities that could complement solar
installations and reduce the overall energy consumption. The analysis recommended a range of measures, including LED light upgrades, occupancy sensors, HVAC optimization, and
programable thermostats. These improvements are expected to yield an energy savings of 20 to 40%, with payback periods ranging from 1 to 5 years. For
example, if we replaced 100 fluorescent fixtures with LED alternatives, the savings could be approximately 5000 kilowatt hours and reduce about two tons of CO2 emissions. The study
emphasized the importance of designing lighting systems, ensuring both efficiency and occupancy comfort. Advanced measures such as building automation systems, energy
storage solutions, and demand controlled ventilation also were also suggested for facilities with higher energy loads. By implementing these strategies prior to or alongside solar installations,
the city can optimize system sizing, enhance financial returns, and support its long term clean energy objectives. Each facility received a tailored recommendation based
on its energy usage patterns and operational needs. Task three involved developing a a prioritization network
framework for solar installations across the evaluated facilities. The prioritization was based on technical feasibility, energy savings potentials and
financial considerations, and other strategic factors such as permitting and community visibility. Facilities were ranked according to their projected solar output, installation complexity and
cost benefit ratios. The top ranked sites included the community center, golf course, maintenance building and the library again, which offer favorable conditions for a
quick, cost effective implementation. These were designated to be phase one projects. Phase two were moderately, moderately complex sites like the Public Safety
Building and the Vehicle Maintenance Facility, which require additional planning but do offer substantial long term savings. The phase three comprises high risk sites such as City Hall and the Cultural
Center, which may need special structural inspections and involve complicated access or external conduit runs. The dredge spoils parcel was identified as a special case
due to its scalability and proximity to existing solar infrastructure, but it does require future studies. The analysis also highlighted the urgency for initiating these
projects. Before the federal tax incentives expire in 2027, emphasizing the need for early action to secure funding and avoid cost escalations. Overall, the Prioritization Framework
provides a clear roadmap roadmap for phased solar implementation. One additional point to make here is that this is a living document, and it can be updated as new information becomes available.
For example, the design and future construction of the golf course clubhouse has gained significant amount, has gained a significant amount of traction, and while we did not evaluate it as a part of our
study, it might make sense to put that to the top of the list. That way, we're spending money on solar as a part of construction, rather than trying to retrofit it at a
later date. Recommendations. The final task outlines recommended recommended steps to advance the solar feasibility study into actionable projects. Key recommendations include
conducting detailed structural and geotechnical studies, utility coordination, and interconnection studies. The city should also prioritize securing the funding and
incentives, especially since the tax credit is expiring this next year. Early procurement planning will help mitigate risks associated with supply chain constraints and regulatory changes, and
developing a detailed implementation schedule that aligns with permitting timelines and minimizes disruption to public facing facilities is crucial. Additionally, integrating
energy efficiency measures with solar installations will enhance the overall project performance and financial returns. Holly would like to
talk about the next steps. Thank you, Paul, for providing all that information about everything that was undertaken in the solar feasibility study. Really? Tonight, we're just
here to allow you all to, you know, absorb this information, ask any questions you may have, and then just accept the results of the study, if that is your will. And understanding
that if it were to be accepted and the completion of the study does support several of our actions in the city's adopted sustainability plan, as well as one of our main goals in the
city's strategic plan. So that is really all we have for you. Okay. Thank you very much. So let's start off with
commissioner questions and I'll start it off. I know you didn't do much work on the spoil site, but I'm still curious about some things. I know you guys
have done work in the Middle East, so you're you're used to building panels that are probably very high, right? Okay. So if you know, we use that
part of the reason that that property was purchased is for a dredging spoil site. Could panels be installed that were high enough to where we could
still use the underlying property for dredge site? Yeah. Go ahead. I was going to say it's not anything. It's absolutely. The short answer is yes. It's just engineering to
make sure the foundations are secure for the wind loading and the and the panels. So it's not a it's like I said the short answer is yes. It's just yeah. So it could serve both purposes.
It could it could be a spoil site and also create electricity for the for the plant. Yes. Because the plant
uses about it the, the energy bills about 150,000 a month in that. So given that much property, can you generate that
much energy that have you seen that kind of of a load of that size? You'll probably run out of space for the solar before you meet the load. So what do
we do? 10% of the energy or 20 or 30 or 40. Typically the rates of return are about the same regardless. Well, okay. There's a certain size that's too small, but you get the same
return on investment, whether it's ten, 20, 30% of the total load of that facility. And you you mentioned the tax incentives, since we're
obviously we don't pay tax nonprofit, how do we how do we gain the advantages of that? Or are they like in in rebates from the government. What's tax
credits. Those for residential people ended last year the last day of the month last year. But there's other provisions for what's called third party
ownership. And then they own it, operate it, maintain it. And then there's just a savings that they get. And at some point they turn everything over,
back over to you okay. So just reduces our our overall cost either in the form of economic even if we're even if we're
leasing it back from the yes the provider, somehow we get a benefit through that. It's typically just fixing a price for whatever that term is. So
that's you know, in my career of 40 plus years, we've seen electricity sort of go up very steadily except for the last two years. And they've gone up, you know, quite a bit over the
last two years. And Fpl's annual reports are just saying, well, it's it's low growth. It's, you know, technology centers and data centers that are causing, you know, more
facilities of generation to be built. And subsequently rates have gone up in the last two years more than I've seen in my whole career. Okay. So back to that. You're fixing that cost
instead of writing with whatever the electricity costs will be in the future. You don't. And so how do you to meet that deadline? You don't have to have the panels fully
installed by that deadline right now. There's a period. There's right now it's it's basically you safe harbor some purchase, okay. And it's
usually 10% or so. And then you have up to 20 the end of 27. To complete the project, you have to show the federal government that you're moving forward
every step of the way. A lot of the rules on that haven't been defined yet, but essentially they want to see a progressive completion. So you have to make a you have to make some financial commitment towards it.
And then that that meets the deadline. Right, right. Thank you. All right. Commissioner De Donato, my biggest question was the the financial and what it
meant to the city and for federal incentives. And I think you answered that question, but we don't actually have numbers. It would be nice to have some some idea of that tied to the
individual areas that we could apply the solar. So hopefully in the future we might can get some of that as per for location, that kind of thing.
Thank you. Commissioner Coolio's. Yes, thank you for the presentation. I'm actually looking on the the first attachment and it seems that you have a data sort by rank and cost and ease of use, of
ease of installation. So you do have some numbers up there. So, but I'm confused about the usage as opposed to the production. Explain that. What
that means because of some of these capacities are going over this. Like the public safety building. It's a capacity of 324%. Can you explain? Does
that mean we're only going to get if we invest a third in kilowatts, we're going to save a third basically from what the production is generally, I mean, a standard electric bill in the
solar is just excuse me, can you can you get closer to the microphone, the the capacity and the bill is, you know what the solar is offsetting. So
like I said earlier, if you can get 10% or 20 or 30, you don't ever want to go over 100% because you're producing more electricity than you're using. So why is it bad? I'm sorry.
Why is that bad though? The utility, it feeds back to the utility, they're virtually not going to give you any much for it's they'll give you the wholesale value, not the retail
value of electric costs. Okay. And then as we you showed that dredge spoil site as well as the landfill, those were production numbers and what the
M milliwatts megawatts. Megawatts. And that's what how many times more million watts. Right. So one megawatt, just to give you a sense of how big it
is, one megawatt of solar is about five acres of land. It's it seems like it can produce a lot of energy. I'm I see a lot of these projects. I'm willing
to accept the document, but I want us to really focus on this, this rank list. And I'd like a very good intense analysis on both the landfill and the dredge site, because those seem like massive amounts of
production for this community and ways that, you know, we can chip away at some of these buildings that seem like they'll pay for 100% of themselves, you know, each year, which is a great thing too. But
those two sites seem like whatever those numbers you're talking about, they seem like big savings or big energy that can be transferred back within the community. And I'm I'm really interested in some of
those big ones, especially when we did purchase the dredge site for some type of use, being one of those solar fields. Scale does matter. You know, it's
it's lower cost. The larger the project is typically. So that's I think you're you're spot on in that assumption that, yeah, the larger projects have, the higher yield the better
economics. So all right thank you sir. Thank you Vice Mayor. Thank you mayor. So just want to let you know this is somewhat my forte as well. So I
did want to have you add a couple of things changing from fluorescent to LED. You lose the flicker, you lose the startup. But the bigger thing
is you lose mercury. The fluorescent lights all have mercury in it while the LEDs do not. So on a safety factor when we break fluorescent bulbs, which people love to do, it's
just spreading mercury everywhere. So I'm very happy to see that. And that should be something that you have in your, you know, your helpfulness to change it over. So I do want to
thank you. And it was a great presentation. But there's also a factor when you have when you put these in their lifespan
versus what they cost. Are you able to speak about how long it takes the payback from when you buy it to where you break even? Point is to where it's no
longer producing. And then what do you do? This is the worst part of the question. What do you do with it? Because that's going to be our biggest problem going down in the what do we do
with these old solar panels that have a multitude of carcinogens in it? And we don't have any way to get rid of them? Well, I do want to make a point
on the carcinogens. That's a thin film is one type of solar panel, the silicon. That's not an issue, but just the predominant thing. But typically, warranties from
manufacturers are easily up into the 30 years now. I started in the solar industry in 79. There's projects I know back in the early 80s that are
still operational. They're not big. The modules got bigger over time at a less cost. When I first started, solar panels were $75 a what. Now any
anybody can go online and buy them for $0.50 a what now? So the cost has gone down, the longevity has gone up. The standards and and codes are are
much better than when I started in the industry. But you really got a long term. I mean, you're looking at a piece of silicon layered in glass with two wire
leads that come out of it. So it's really, you know, there's not much to fail. Yeah, I mean, inverters, the electronics, I mean, it goes like everything you have to provide maintenance
and operational observations to make sure it stays operating and and and works well. So it's not trouble free, you know, put
it in and forget it. It's like every other piece of, you know, equipment, especially when you get into the inverter. But easily the panels will go 30
years plus. There's a push in the US now for panel recycling. There's two facilities that just opened up in Georgia that are taking modules for things
that were put in 15, 20, 25 years ago. Stripping the glass out, the aluminum, the silicone, and then recycling that into new modules. So there's a
robust recycling industry that's just started. And it's basically recycling stuff that was put in 25 plus years ago. Well thank you. I'm glad that
you said that. There are multitude of different kinds, because there are people who are buying the cheaper kind, and that could be a problem for us down the road. The other
problem that I have with or concern that I should say, is the maintenance over there. It's a sand pit in a sand pit. In those blowing days that we've had the past couple of
days and hurricanes, the sand is going to blow. It's going to scratch these. How do you handle that? Well, the the modules really don't have much
of a maintenance cost to them other than once a year checking the leads, making sure there's, you know, everything's in good mechanical, structural shape. The wind, you know, in terms of
damaging the panels just because of wind, you know, scratching them up, if you will. That's not really been a problem. And in terms of the hurricane and winds, we all
have to install to whatever the wind velocity dictates for this area. It's very site specific, so we can't put something in that doesn't meet the
engineering qualifications and standards for the wind load, where that panel is going to be living. Yeah. To your point, we have millions of megawatts of
solar out in the desert in Nevada and Arizona. And that's not an issue. The sand, the sand is not an issue. You may have to clean them to get the sand off, but they're not going to damage the panels. We have
that nice heavy rain here that cleans them off. Yeah, a lot of people do ask us about module cleaning. We live in Florida because, you know, it's it's a problem in the rain. Takes care of it all. Yeah. Well thank you.
I have no further questions. I appreciate what you your presentation. One question that the vice mayor asked I don't think you guys answered yet. Was he asked about what's the
rate of return? Like how many years do we use? Is it usually take for us to to recoup our money in savings on on power? It's it's like historically the
ones you guys have we lost the tax credits. It used to be standard six or so years. It was a 30% tax credit funded by the federal government. If you
don't pay taxes, you could transfer that credit to another entity. So you sell the credit to someone else. That's just not really an option now. But
what it did was change the simple payback period to maybe eight, nine, ten, 11, 12 years. But it's very site specific, and the larger the project, the
lower the individual cost. We we chart, we talk about cost per watt. And that's sort of our benchmark of how we, you know, you know, people talk about board feet or square feet
of this. But we look at things in cost per watt. And I, I think you've really got to look at each one. Once you go through the design, you put it
out for a quotation for the installed complete rolled up system installed. That's when we'd want to try to get that
somewhere in the 1012 year range. Okay. Thank you. Let's go to public comment. When we're not in we don't have
public comment on special presentation okay. So do we want to have a motion to accept the proposal. If we all if can
we need to amend that. We have a do we do have an extensive study on both the dredge site and the landfill site, because those seems like really big
numbers that we need to at least look into. Okay. Is that your motion? Yes, please. I would second that. Okay. So just so I'm clear, you're
you're saying accept the site and then you're asking for an additional study on those. Well, just because it's unknown on some of those spots we need some detailed numbers. Those
those numbers are like 100 times, 200 times more what it seems like in production. And maybe this is something that we need to try to look at for long term, big time energy savings
as opposed to just picking some buildings, you know, and it's changing document. Just I just want to make sure we have a good study on those two big properties. So but we're not instructing them to go do a
study. Now. We're not approving a an additional study. Well, they have to look into it some more. I mean, they can't just come back with unknown. I mean, that was part of the whole
thing was for them to do the study and look at these properties. They can't just come back unknown. We need to see some more numbers. I was going to say we can look back at the scope and see if there
was room to include anything else. It may involve obviously a little additional expenditure, but that would be something we would, you know, have to obviously get a little quote from them to maybe do a little
add on. So I think that's at the board's will, that is, you know, probably budgetarily available in, you know, the sustainability division to do that depending on the cost. So
okay, mayor, can I say something. Yeah. Yeah. This is very hard for us because I mean, we can we can motion and
approve. I would think what you've given us. But there's a major factor missing in this. So it makes it where we would want to probably push to defer
it till you get back the response that we could just say yes to, I don't know, I don't know what your criteria was to to come up with this, but
meanwhile, we don't have the main question of what this costs, you know, to do. And, you know, that's the same
question with payback. I don't want to override you on your numbers, but I know the payback is you don't get your payback until 12 or 13 years. So I
would like to see what those numbers are before I approve this feasibility. Why don't we why don't we? I'll let me ask to have the motion amended to
table the acceptance. Allow them to come back with a further appraisal of of
estimate of cost to include those and more. Yes. Or whatever that whatever that means. Can we do that? Yes. As as the motion stated with the
amendment, including the mayor second. All right. Just I just want to say it's a big project. I don't want us, you know, I hear you, I hear you, I just two big items on there that we
can't just go unknown. I just don't want to approve. Sure. Additional work that we don't know what we're paying, what it's going to cost us for them to do that because we would need them to come back to us.
So I thought that was part of the study, but. All right. Yeah. Well, that's something we need to. Why don't you do you understand what we're where we're at? Kind of. I guess if.
What is the question or the, the issue at hand is that this was just a feasibility study. So they don't part of the study wasn't doing site specific designs. Right. So until you
get into that site specific design, you're not going to necessarily have that pinned down cost estimate that I think you want. So specifically because they're you know, this
again, is just them being able to give a range. So unless we were going to ask for a scope of design services and then pay them to initiate some level of design, it wouldn't I don't know if we would get to that
specific of information, because we wouldn't necessarily be initiating these projects because we just really wanted to eliminate the types of projects and the locations that could be viable for solar.
That's really the the basis or the importance of the study, I guess. So I understand what you're saying and wanting more information. Absolutely. I agree with that. I just don't know if it's I don't know where
we would end up on added costs or anything of that nature. Let's back up again. So why don't we entertain a motion to
accept the the study as given to us? We're not approving anything, we're just accepting the study. And then then we can make have a we can include some
additional we we can instruct our sustainability coordinator to gather additional data. Is that okay. Perfect. Okay. So
moved. So moved. Second. Second. Roll call please. Richard. Yes, Commissioner? Yes. Yes. Vice mayor Eisner. Yes, yes. Thank
you very much. Thank you. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Okay, so now we have a
certificate of recognition. Vice mayor, this is your thing.
Okay. Okay. So let me first start this off by the mayor had a excellent idea of having, you
know, recognition on the times that we have that logo up on most of our YouTube. And it's, it's people that do kind things in Tarpon Springs. And it kind
of gave me the idea. I said, who could be the person who does kind things in Tarpon Springs? So, Jonathan, I would like you to come up with your
family. I can't do it here. Okay. Again, I'm sorry I had to be up at eight this morning. Right? I had old family go with
them. Get up there. Yeah, listen, I'm the one that should
be nervous. You guys just. Go. Even the little cutie. So
before I read this, I want you to know something. I. All I can tell you is, every time I'm in Tarpon Discount grocery, this some pastor or priest or
somebody, all my wife for that matter, walking out with shopping carts filled with items to donate to less
fortunate. And this family is just they're what God sent here to be human. I'm just they are more than human. They they just do things that are just
outstanding. And that's only what I get to know. But Jonathan, you've been an amazing person. I just can't tell you. And I'm so proud to know you and know your whole
family. I go in there and it's it's makes tarpon, tarpon, it's a family place. And all he wants to do is feed tarpon, holiday, Palm Harbor and
anybody else that comes there. So I did want to make some recognition. And I have this plaque and this is a certificate of recognition. The Board of Commissioners, the
city of Tarpon Springs, Florida, presents this certificate and acknowledges Jonathan Metcalf, owner of Tarpon Springs Discount Grocery, in recognition of your generous
donations to various organizations within the city, including Saint Timothy's Lutheran Church, Citizens Alliance for progress, Shepherd center, local churches, as well as all of the groups throughout
the city and state of Florida. We deeply, deeply appreciate your remarkable contributions to the well-being of our community and to those in need.
The certificate is presented in recognition of your significant role in ongoing support and commitment to our community, signed by all of the City
Commissioners, the mayor, the City Clerk, and in addition to this, I want you to know this is a family and a and a man who went through Hurricane Helene
had his whole place wiped out and could have just walked away and opened up somewhere else. But he decided to stay, stick it out, because he knew just
how much he means to this Tarpon Springs. So I thank you
very much. Would anybody would like to say anything? This is your opportunity as the only
one that came to the award. Before you leave, do you want to? I would love for my wife to just get up and say something, because she's the one who
actually went through there like a like somebody was in my wallet, you know? But she was in yours. Each year, the Gfwc Women's Club of Tarpon Springs, we do a Thanksgiving food drive
for the Citizens Alliance of Progress, the Cap center. And I reached out to Jonathan to see if they could help us with some of the food that they needed. Well, we went in with carts
packed high. We filled up trucks and delivered it to the cap center. And because of the your family and your staff's generosity and the moms, we
everybody had a really fruitful Thanksgiving and we just cannot thank you enough. We're very blessed. Thank you. Thank you,
thank you, thank you, thank you. Hey, Mike, can you move that microphone over here? Thank you,
Jonathan and your family. It's wonderful what you guys do for the community. Thank you. Okay. So we're going to go to public comments. Are there any public
comments of items that are not on tonight's agenda. Yes. Mr. Oh, can you go to the podium,
please state your name and your address. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My name is Mike Elliott. I live on North Riverside Drive. I had
the pleasure of living right across the street from Mr. Eisner and his wife, Linda, for a number of years. And this
Sunday, my wife and I went to Tula's restaurant. Now I own an electric vehicle. Well, I own four of them. I also have a solar roof on my house, not
panels, a roof. So I'm quite interested in this. I'm also a Leed, AP and an engineer, so the whole feasibility study has got me piqued to say the least.
I'd be happy to answer any of you guys questions after reviewing the study, but what brings me here is really a point of somewhat embarrassment.
There is a gentleman from New York who had pulled into the Chargers right by tula's that are there in the parking lot. I think there's four of them, and they were broken. Not all of them were broken. Some of them
were functional, but he spent 15 minutes trying to get his car charged. And he went on, he downloaded an app. He tried to get this up and running and it wouldn't work. And so he moved
to the next one. It also wouldn't work. I parked my car. I don't need it. I got charging at home. It's no big deal to me. But I called the number and the number was disconnected. That
was located on the charger, so I have no idea what the city's contractual obligations are with who's ever providing the service, but I can attest that
I have a Tesla wall charger in my garage. It cost me $600 and maybe another $150 worth installation charges. And it's
flawless. I've stopped at hotels that use the same setup. Flawless, but the third party stuff that probably came along with the Dieselgate not so much.
So let's let's don't be embarrassed. Literally, these could be all be replaced. The infrastructure is in place already. The the feeds are there, the wattage is available, the power is available. They
can be replaced with something functional for about 600 bucks a piece and a day's worth of the city electricians time. Well thank you. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. So on your way out, if you
would, wouldn't mind getting a card for the city manager there. Oh, they're right there. I'm sorry. They're right there. Yes. Give him a call and let's we we we don't know. Things are
broken unless people tell us. So thank you very much. You're doing a service. You're quite welcome. And thank you for the time. And I think three of us up here drive electric cars. Commissioner coleus, myself and
and the and the city manager. So we're concerned about such things. Well, sure. I invite you to come by and take a look at my beautiful roof sometime. Yeah. Are you from Chicago? No, I'm from Indianapolis.
Indianapolis? I knew Midwest because you say roof. When I say roof, my dogs. My wife says, what, the dog barking. Yeah, well, my my claim to fame is I put a roof that opens over the
Lucas Oil Stadium. I'm from. I'm from outside Chicago. So I say roof. And my wife said, roof before you leave, Mike did. The mayor just said three of us
commissioners up here have eaves. So why did you call the guy with the gas vehicle? I'm just kidding. It's just a joke. Make him one of his jokes.
They're not always that funny, though, because he was closest to you. Mike. Sometimes my jokes are funny. Oh, me only. But. But you do bring. I'll be real quick. You do bring up one
point. We're currently at about real close to a 10% adoption rate. If you've ever looked at a curve, this is going to take off. I will call. Let's come on up to City Hall and talk to us
okay? Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you so much. Anyone else like to. Yes. Hi. Good evening, David Ballard, Georgia Avenue down the street in Palm
Harbor. You know, Lockheed Martin, defense contractor down the street there. Their entire parking garage is nothing but solar panels, which calls into
question. Why don't our rooftops? Why aren't they made out of, like, a roll roofing solar powered? Why are our automobiles not laminated with
solar power? So the car charges itself rather than having to plug into a charging machine. I had a solar powered wristwatch in like fifth grade with a little calculator on it. So
solar power has been around for, you know, 50 years or something. So it seems as though the evolution of this is dragging
its heels. If they can somehow engineer roll roofing, practical roofing, solar power that they're putting on rooftops today is not practical.
It's a it's an eyesore. It's it's it's not it's just not sensible. You have to go through the roof and screw it in through an existing roof. Why don't you just make the
whole roof shingles that are powered, solar powered shingles or something of that nature? It seems like they're working in half measures and dragging their heels on this when we
know that's the direction we're going. So let's do it. So okay. Thanks. Thank you. Anyone else?
Peter, before use 514 Ashland Avenue before you before you speak. You know, at the last meeting. You know, I talked
about we had a Martin Luther King proclamation, and then I introduced the acts of kindness. And. But I think the rest of
that meeting, I was less than kind. So I want to apologize to you. Well, thank you, I appreciate that, and I appreciate and I appreciate
that very kind message you sent me. Yeah. Well, John, it's we're all in this together. And we all have maybe different ways we see things of doing
stuff. So I guess my three minutes will be starting now. We can start now. Okay. To follow up a little bit about the solar stuff. And sometimes
you guys sometimes get too much in the weeds. All you really are accepting the feasibility. Anything else coming further? You're going to have votes on it. But you missed hearing something critical. And it's in
the feasibility study, not in the little photographs. Once we see project has to be started by July 4th of 26 has to be
completed by sometime in 27. So we're almost in February. That's the second month. July is seven. So if you want to do any kind of design or any of that stuff, you need to look at
it. So there's a lot of data in there. If you go to page 12 of that feasibility study, you will see the differences in the megawatts and how much you use, how much you produce. Basically,
whatever you're producing, subtract to what you're using now, and that's your cost benefit. Now, my reading today,
I went and I'm not a scholar, I go to this website. No Jesus. You can click on topical Bible. You put in a word or something and it comes back. And my word
this week was injustice because of what's going on. So it's Isaiah ten. Woe to those who
make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and rob my oppressed people of justice, making widows their prey and robbing
the fatherless. What will you do on the day of reckoning when disaster comes from afar? Who to whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your
riches? Nothing. Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives or to fall among the slain. Yet for all this his anger is not turned away. His
hand is still upraised. It's a time we need to be raising our hands now. Lastly. Quick thing
about the zoom replacement and y'all listen to talk radio. Sports radio Wday 620 Tom cruising C3 to seven after the
Buck games call in shows you want a simple way to have response from people. Just get a dedicated phone line. The guys already up there calls in. You put in your board. You don't have to have the zoom and
all that stuff. They can watch it on TV or YouTube and still call in and they got one to raise you. It can be done cost effective. Lastly, I want to
see a resolution from this board, and I want to see some lobbying by the city manager, the chiefs about this property tax issue, because that's our
lifeblood and this legislature. And, Frank, I rely on your expertise and wisdom to share how over the years, home rule has been wiped away and the mandates you need to share your
wisdom about this, because they're going to cut the legs out from underneath us. Peter. Time's up. It's time for you all to act. Thank you, thank
you. Anyone else? Okay? Let's go to the consent agenda. Item number three. Attorney fees.
Eunice Saltzman. Johnson. Jackson. Number four, special events, sunset beach concert series. The B is 51st annual
Tarpon Springs Fine Arts Festival on the Bayou. Greek Independence Day Parade 2026. Number five corrective update.
City rules number 11 and number six approval of land Use restriction agreement with the Citizens Alliance of Progress. As any commissioner wish to
pull any of these items, no. Roll call. Please. Oh! Excuse me. Motion. Motion, sir. Okay. Roll call please. Commissioner.
Donato. Yes, Commissioner. Yes. Yes. Vice mayor Eisner. Yes. Yes. Okay. We'll go to ordinances and resolutions number seven. Ordinance 20. Can
you. I'll let the city attorney read the ordinance, please. By title, ordinance 20 2520, an ordinance of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, amending the City of Tarpon Springs Special
Area plan sponge docks and community redevelopment area. Downtown character district. Table three five. Providing for findings, providing for severability, and providing for
an effective date. That's ordinance 20 2520, read by title only on second reading. Publication dates for November
26th, 2025 and January 21st, 2026. Okay, guess who's here from the Planning and Zoning
department to mayor. This is a second reading, so there's no new information on this item. All right. Is there any commissioner questions
regarding this item? I'll make some comments. Mayor, I just want I want to move this forward. But I'm going to be very aggressive in making sure we come back with updating this, this code over here. Because
the way it's written, some of those first story or one story buildings can literally be apartments or, you know, living quarters. And that's not what
we're looking for. So I want it nice where the first floors are retail. I'm also going to request that in order to maximize this percentage per unit acre that Miss Benson's
here, I very much apologize. Did you move this up on me? That's right. Now we're moving fast. We're just moving fast. I had the meeting on that was involved in something, I apologize. So, yes, we are
committed to taking care of the ground floor retail issue as we're doing the smart code update, the overall smart code update. We've already incorporated that. So we will make sure that that, that that does take place sooner rather
than later. Miss Vincent, what about, you know, 2.5 f.a.r permitted by right and 3.0 conditional use? You know, I want these potential buildings to maximize the the units per
acre. You know, I that we can look at that as we do the overall code updates. That's a pretty big change. Certainly don't want to incorporate that into this particular amendment.
But we can look at, you know, look at that in the future that those are those are big f.a.r shifts. So they're really only 20% if you consider it. So
we'll, we'll, we'll we'll look at it as we do the overall code update, just like we are with the ground floor retail. Thank you. Certainly. Okay. Anyone else have any questions. Yeah I have a question. I know
Commissioner last time asked about changing this. And if he's requesting a change, doesn't it have to go back to the PNC if you were going to incorporate it in this particular ordinance? Yes, it
would have to if we're going to, but we're not making any changes to the ordinance as it's been written. Okay. I just want to be sure that we're handling this right. That's all.
Thank you sir. Okay. If there's no further questions, do we have any public comments on this item? Okay. I'd like to come back to the board for a
motion. So moved. Second. No further comments. Roll call please. Commissioner DiDonato. Yes, Commissioner. Yes. Yes. Vice mayor. Eisner. Yes, mayor.
Yes. Thank you again. I apologize for not paying attention. I apologize for nothing. To apologize for the. Let's see. Number eight
resolution 2020 6-05 City Attorney. Would you read it by title, please? Yes, mayor. Resolution 2020 605, A resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the City of
Tarpon Springs, Florida, authorizing changes in the organization of the Project Administration Department, including the reclassification of a position and providing for
an effective date hereof. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Robertson. Do you want. Thank you. Mayor. Commissioners, I'm Bob Robertson, project administration department director, for this item. We're
requesting board approval to reorganize the project administration department by creating a new project administration specialist position, as described in your backup materials. Currently,
the project admin and public services departments share an executive assistant position. The workload for that position has steadily increased since it was created in 2017, when the
project Admin department was created. Project admin has grown, taking on more projects and adding grant management services as part of our duties and public services has grown.
Adding sustainability and utility billing services. So as such, we'd like to take this single dual role position as it exists now and split it into two full time positions, one
for project admin and one for public services. The new project administration specialist will provide much needed mid level project management and administrative
capacity as we face a surge of projects coming up in this fiscal year and beyond. The new Executive Assistant for Public Services position would be able to provide full time assistance
to the large and very busy Public Services Department. And like all positions in project administration, this position would be funded from three sources water and sewer,
stormwater and General Fund. And finally, as the board has previously directed, we are bringing this report to you in conjunction with the budget resolution to account for the
funding that has that budget resolution is has been added to the upcoming. Sorry, this position was added to the upcoming budget resolution, which I believe will happen at your next regular session when
you have a full board to vote on that. So, Mr. Mayor, that's my report. Let's go to commissioner questions. Excuse me. Let's go to commissioner
questions. I'll go first. So again, like the like I asked you this morning the by having this this additional position
the this reorganization is that going to help us to execute on all these projects that we have. Yes. Included in our current
budget. Yes it will. Okay. And if we have by doing this, will we reduce the some of the need to go to outside management
consulting services to help us manage projects? My belief is it will keep us from having to do that. Of course, I'm always open to it. You and I have talked about this. If we do need some additional project
management support, we always have that emergency break glass option to get consultants help. But this is my effort to prevent doing that. Okay, Commissioner De Donato, no
additional question. Commissioner coleus, you know, I'm skeptical about doing reorgs after we've done our budgets, but I understand that you got a lot more projects to handle this year and give you
extra assistance to help in that department is much needed, especially with the with the big task that we have up. And so of course, anything for you Bob. Thank you sir. Vice mayor.
Thank you. Mayor. Is this in the budget? It's in the budget resolution that it's coming up at your next board meeting. Okay. The other question I have,
what is the number one? Reason, the thing that you're expecting to get the most bang for your buck by doing this. So what the.
Let me answer it this way. My biggest need is project management. Right now I need people to keep eyes on the projects as we're going through the design, and we're getting these projects through
permitting. It's it's I'm I'm doing a lot of that, but I'm also doing that as a director. It's taking my focus away from things I need to be focused on and managing the minutia of
projects. Not saying that's not important, it is important, but I just need help doing that. So I think this will help us to prevent those kinds of things from slipping through the cracks. And as I said to the
mayor, help hopefully prevent us from having to bring in consultants to help us manage projects. Well, thank you for saying that, because I don't want you on every inspection and every item. I only want you
to be there where there is issues from somebody that brings it back to you. Correct? You know, you can periodically look at it, but there's no way you can dine at everybody's
dinner. So, you know, I'm glad to see this come about. We need to definitely get a hold of things much more than has been.
So I'm for this. Thank you. Okay. Are there any public comments regarding this item? Okay. I'd like to come back to
the board for a motion. So moved second. Okay. With the motion, is there any additional comments? Roll call please. Yes,
Commissioner. Yes yes yes. Thank you Bob. Thank you for your support. Everyone. Okay. That concludes our our all of our business items tonight. Let's go to board and staff
comments. Chief. No comments. City attorney no comments. Mayor. City manager I just want to say I hope you enjoyed the late evening. February is not going to be so late. So a lot
of stuff coming to you in February. There are no dose. City clerk. Commissioner De Donato, I just want to get back
to commissioner, talking about what the state is slowly but surely doing. And I assure you, I have many talks with the city manager on on several issues
concerning that. I've also talked to the city attorney, and I know he's staying up with that. But as I leave, one of the things I would stress is
that's 100% right on. They've been trying to do this for on and off for years, a long time. And I think all of us up here
knows how difficult it can be to provide the citizenry as much as we can and still be able to pay for everything.
Depending upon what happens in November with the decisions they make on property taxes. It could cause some serious
problems. As far as financing what we've already undertaken. And so indeed, sir, I would like you to know I am not taking it lightly. I will go out fighting and the city
manager knows how many times I've discussed with him my concern with property taxes. Well, I, I do think they can be lowered. They have to be replaced somehow so that cities
can maintain the service level that they they currently are providing here in Tarpon. And we need to be more abreast and
in tune with what is happening. Because if we don't financially, it could be a big downfall for us, for our citizens and our city. So you're 100% correct,
sir. That's all I have. Okay, Commissioner coleus, yeah, just a follow up on the property taxes request. An email that I sent to Mr. Herring. Mr. And you see, he responded back with
a very detailed, you know, what could happen it just because they go away, property taxes are going to go up in other places. The deficit is too much. So but you know, it's all
politics. I just wanted to bring up you know, I did want to mention the mayor's brother's passing and was a great guy. And it did happen a couple days after the last
meeting. So and I have great memories of mayor Tom Collins, you know, as a younger guy with him just being a a great father and with all of us hanging out,
but especially these last few years and the politics, he I really enjoyed him. And we may have been back and forth at times, but he was a good guy and spirited, and it was a
blessing to have him around and enjoy time talking with him. So I know you've been through a lot, mayor, and did a great job today and these last few weeks, so thank you. Thank you very much. You know, you he was
feisty like you. Oh yeah. Yeah. He was an old codger like me. He was young, like you. So, vice Mayor, are you saying
you're not feisty? I'm not. Trust me, I'm not as feisty as my brother, so. Okay. And that. And anyway, I'll leave it at that. Okay, so one thing I
wanted to first let me start. Also, I did come to pay respects. Tom meant a lot to me when I ran for office. He sat
me down. We spoke quite a bit on coffee, over coffee, and I did appreciate all of his kind words, his knowledge and, you
know, getting me up to snuff. So he's a great loss to the city of Tarpon Springs. But he's been a great advocate for it. So, you know, he'll have
good memories from, you know, everybody. And it was a it was a sad situation. But I have my father always said, nobody's getting out of this world alive.
And you know, I don't expect to as well moving on from that. The discussion on taxes, you know, Florida League of Cities
has been speaking out about the removal of home rule for as long as I've been there. I don't think it's a politician's
place to try to stop them. I believe they are going to do whatever they want to do. There's been a lot of people, a lot of politicians have all
placed their opinions of how much it will damage, how much it will hurt, and honestly, I have not seen them flinch or blink an eye. Things are moving
along. The only outcome that we have as a society, they need 60% of the vote. And if you're out there and do not vote for
that, they will not get it passed. No matter what we what, no matter what we say up here. Because honestly, I know the residents think that we have
some sort of Kryptonite power or super power, but we don't because I have always been an advocate against this removal of home rule and the removal of
taxes, it will only hurt people who are renters. It will help the people that that own, which most of the time don't need as much of that help as as they're
portraying. And I, I know that I see that they have a ten year plan to just do it slowly, but it would be a slow death. We would be sitting with our necks
in a noose and hanging at one at lower each and every time, and we'd be getting rid of the some of the police department and some of the fire department, and we'd be getting rid of the
people that we'd have to reinvent the waste management, and the streets would be starting to look worse. And we have we were the only thing we
would have to do is as as commissioners go to Tallahassee on our knees and beg for more money, that's the only thing that that they're trying to make us do. And I am so much
against this. You know, everything sounds good when they're going to give you a discount, but there's a price to pay for that discount. And unless they can give me a
formula for how they're going to replace the taxes, then I'm not interested in hearing about the lowering of the taxes. This
could be so detrimental if we have a storm and we're shortchanged because we don't have the police force or the fire department or anybody else. I mean, it's just it's a horror
show and I don't see this stopping. I don't know why this came up as an idea. You usually bring up an idea with a solution. We have an idea with
no solution. And if you're not aware of how detrimental it could be, it's scary. So I am personally against it, and I'm glad to hear that everybody
else is up here. Last but not least, February 22nd is in Clearwater Synagogue is Jewish week. So if you miss a New York
pastrami corned beef sandwich with chopped liver and knishes and everything else, I and the city attorney will be
volunteering our time to. I think they got me cutting meat and I'm happy to do that. And Sunday I'm happy to eat. So anybody that would like to come, it's been posted all over
Facebook. It's from the Carnegie Deli. I will remind you again. And for those that forget. And with that, I thank you all for coming and
appreciate it. So let me just follow up a little more on this tax thing. So when you look at when you look at your tax bill,
you see there's lots of charges on the bill, not all of which of your tax bill comes to the city of Tarpon. You have the schools, you're paying taxes for the school system. You're
paying taxes for, you know, juvenile welfare Board, a whole the whole slew of things that we that are included in the in the tax bill. As a follow up to
what Commissioner Coolio's requested of of the finance director, the former finance director, you know, I we I had actually asked him the same thing. He said you had already
asked him to calculate what his estimate would be if we did lose the tax revenue from homesteaded homes in Tarpon. It
he it was about his his rough calculations around 7 million he said $7 million because again we you know the we the we get a little less than a third
I think comes from ad valorem taxes because we have sales taxes and we also have services. Now services are are the largest part of our budget, which are, you know, services
for water, sewer impact fees and, and the like. So, you know, I, I, you know, I don't want, you know, to portray the sky is
falling in. But again you know it definitely will have an impact. But the impact is not going to just only be on on the city and what is in our budget.
It's like the vice mayor said it's going to spill over, to fire to, you know, our police safety. So a lot of that. And
then and then what what impact will it have on the school system. And so it's yeah, I just I don't know the extent of how well this was thought out, whether it's, you know, again,
just a, you know, political. But again we don't, you know, when things are proposed, this could end up by the time it goes through the meat grinder of, of the legislature. It
could end up being something different. It could end up being just a raise in the exemption on, on homesteaded property. And maybe that wouldn't even be quite as bad.
So we don't know where that's going. Go ahead and say one more thing. And then, yeah, I did have another thought. I sit on Forward Pinellas and
actually I can't say that they're in neutral, but indirectly they are kind of in a quagmire. They are in neutral because they just don't know
what's coming. And, you know, the city manager and I sat at a meeting to forecast what was coming down the road. And truthfully, I sat there and
they just everything that they bring up, they go. But we don't know what, you know, state form, you know. 301806I mean, there's
so many different variations of what they're about to try to do that they're in a quagmire. They cannot move forward. They don't know how to plan for, because anything you plan for
could be just, you know, just stopped in its tracks. So it affects not only us, but it affects all of Pinellas County. It affects the whole state. So
I did want you to know that. So just real quick, I just want to say that the reason why I brought it up, there's a lot of ifs, ands and buts. We don't know exactly what they're going to do. I have a lot of people
I've talked to in Tallahassee and I've been following it, but it's also SB 180 that slipped through everybody, and basically they have the ability they're not going to I don't think, at this point in time.
But until that law gets changed, they have the ability to tell us what we can develop in the city and what we can't. They have the final approval. And I don't think many of the people here were aware of that, but
they can and I think I believe it will be changed because it's an unfair law. There haven't been any bad repercussions from that. But my point in bringing it out is we need to be aware
and on top, and we need to be planning. Maybe alternatively, what we might do if if you've got if this happens, what are we going to do scenario. And that's that's all I'm saying. And it's something just to
think about. It's not panic. I'm not trying to to to say the sky is falling, but I am saying that it's important enough that we all need to kind of consider it, you know, read about it in
your readings and ask the questions. I, to sit down with Ron. And Ron told me basically the same facts that you quoted, but there's just so many things that are unsure, and they want control as much as they can
because it makes their job a lot easier. And if we ever start relinquishing, we've already done it somehow. We need to be aware. That's that's that's my biggest thing. Sure.
For sure. No, I think it's it's a good conversation and it's good for us to have this communication with the residents so they understand that their concerns are ours as
well. So on a personal note, I want to thank everyone for the outpouring of respect and affection that I received in
regards to my brother. Everybody up here couldn't have been kinder to me. Every every commissioner, the city manager
went above and beyond to do things to show respect to my brother. The police officers at the door of the church, the,
the, the firefighters that were there. It was just it was amazing. It was very touching. And and it, you know, it was a send off for someone who has,
who had given a lot to his city. And anyways and that also happened to be my brother. So
thank you very much. Meeting adjourned. 743 thanks.