That. I don't know. I'm sorry.
Oh, Austin. Austin. Yes, sir. Are you ready? Yes, sir. Okay,
I'll hit the thing when I'm. When it hits the number.
I call to order the regular session agenda. Tuesday, May 27th, 2025, 6:30 p.m. Roll call.
Mayor Glenn here. Vice mayor Eisner here. Here. Mr. DiDonato here, Commissioner. Here. Tonight we're going to have our reflection. Mr. Pastor Thompson
is going to do the reflection, and then afterwards, we'll do the Pledge of Allegiance. Please
stand. Let us pray. Oh, gracious God, our father, we come unto you first and foremost to say thank you. Thank you for just
being who you are. Thank you for our mayor. Thank you for our city manager. Our commissioners and our chiefs and all of the
employees and citizens of this great city. Continue to guide them with your wisdom as they
lead this city to even greater heights. We welcome you into this meeting so that every word
that we say and everything that we do will be pleasing and acceptable to you. May it be for
goodwill and for all mankind as we work together to make this city a great city under you. We
pray this prayer in your holy name. As we all simply say, Amen. Amen. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of
America and to Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Thank you. Pastor. Okay. Just a couple points of order. We're going to. Item 13 is being
deferred to June 10th, and the city manager has requested that I move item 17 and 18, which are the ordinances and resolutions.
He would like those addressed immediately after the consent agenda. So we'll we'll be doing that. Let's have a public
comments please. Line up if you wish to speak. And public comments would be on anything that's not on the agenda
tonight. So please state your name and your address please.
Hello. Debbie McKinney, 1021 Rosary Lane. I just I love the new website. I love it. It's
great. He's very nice. Good job. But I'm having trouble with reading and understanding documents. So therefore I'm going to ask you guys a question. If somebody could get
back to me, that would be awesome. Looking at the referring to Airbnbs and verbose. I found out there's one
on my street. And according to the maps that I'm looking at, it's not a place they're supposed to be. So I did a little more looking. And just in
my neighborhood, there's 19 of them in the area that says they're not supposed to be. So I might be reading it wrong, but I don't believe I am. So if
somebody could clarify what the rules are about Airbnbs and like, verbose under six weeks. Okay. Thank you. City manager do
you want to. My cards are there on the Debbie. The city manager's cards are there at the podium. So if you'd like to take one and reach out, he can answer
your questions. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any any more public
comments? Peter Lack is 514 Ashland Avenue. Yeah. You can take your
potty break, Mike. Psalm 101. I will sing of your love and justice to you, Lord. I will sing praise. I will be careful
to lead a blameless life. When will you come to me? I will walk in my house with a blameless heart. I will set before my eyes
no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate. They will not cling to me. Men of perverse heart shall be far from me. I
will have nothing to do with evil. Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, him will I put to silence. Whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart.
Him will I not endure. My eyes will be on the faithful in the land. That they will dwell with me. He who walks is blameless will minister to me. No one who
practices deceits will dwell in my house. No one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence. Every morning I will put to silence all the wicked in
the land, and I will cut off every evil doer from the city of the Lord. So a couple of follow
up things from the meeting last two two weeks ago. One with regards to the fluoride debate and the little Suncoast beacon
gave a real nice again dental Association spin of this. But whenever you have to look at this in totality from a larger
picture, it's not. Look at how our health system works. Is our mouth and our teeth not part of our body? But it's not included
in health insurance. All they all have health insurance. And if you want dental, you have to buy extra. Just like in the private market, Medicare doesn't
cover it. Medicaid does some to a limited amount. Why is that? Why is it that all the policies and legislation dentists got
paid separately, usually in cash or in barter, but never got insurance coverage? So if you really look back at the history, part of the reason there's been so much problems with dental
decay is there's a large population that didn't have access to dental health, and they still don't. Now, about the meeting last week where y'all
discussed the Heritage Preservation Board appeal. I don't know what's in you guys, where you feel you have to make every decision and be in control
of every piece of thing that goes through here. Renee gave you. And y'all trust your staff for most 95 to 99% of the stuff
they tell you gave you a perfect way out. Send it back to the Heritage Preservation Board. Let them review it. Let that gentleman represent it. I don't know what the rush was that you
needed to do it, then you still ended up delaying it, and then you could use it for teaching and learning and growing opportunity, because from that
come whenever you have a month of five Tuesdays, you can have a workshop and work with Heritage Preservation Board and maybe the Planning and Zoning Board, and
work about setting up guidelines and refining those processes instead of having the man come back and you have to do it. And if the next one comes up, nothing's been resolved through
the Heritage Preservation Board. So I would recommend, instead of having that meeting on June 6th, you advise the client that you decided for them to make that
presentation to the Heritage Preservation Board meeting. Thank you. Any other public
comments? Good evening. Lori Weaver, 917 South Florida Avenue. Mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, I would like to address the topic of time
restrictions during these BOC meetings and share my past experience in an effort to compel the Commission to consider reducing the time limit for public speaking. In an
effort to streamline Commission meetings. I have heard repeatedly from residents that the reason they do not attend commission meetings is due to their lengthy nature. I myself
watch the commission meetings utilizing the fast forward feature on my TV remote to avoid listening to content which is not relevant to me. Some of you are aware that I served as a
commissioner in another municipality here in Florida. Our meetings allowed for the general public to offer commentary and limited commentary to two minutes per
podium. Visit. This was managed utilizing a written request system, by which any citizen could submit a card to the City clerk before or during the meeting, and request an
opportunity to speak on a specific agenda item. When that agenda item was up for discussion, the clerk introduced the resident, who subsequently allowed two minutes to address
the council. There was a countdown clock for monitoring time on the podium. Two minutes was plenty of time for anyone who had prepared a thoughtful
presentation prior to adjournment. General comments were allowed utilizing the same request card procedure. This procedure allowed for the agenda items to be cleared by city
leaders in a timely fashion, while also allowing for residents input. The system never failed us, allowed us to address every agenda item thoroughly, and serve the
public's interest to participate. While my presentation tonight was scripted, it was intentional and purposeful. In order to reflect that, it is possible to collect
one's thoughts and make a thoughtful presentation in under two minutes. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Thank you.
Anyone else? Austin. Do we have any remote? There are no online comments. City clerk do we have?
Can you turn your microphone on? We have one comment that came through online and I'll go ahead and read it as from Harold Joe 322 East Lime Street, Tarpon
Springs, Florida. I'm very disturbed about this organization. I'm a parent. I and a parent were told lies. There was a leasing deposit paid
for this center on three 13,025 for the date of six seven 2025. Plan was to have a teen dance slash go slash fundraiser.
However, as of yesterday, three men came together in order to cancel the event we had scheduled for kids. More info
will be coming out soon in the. Thank you. Okay, with no further comments, let's go to again item
seven. Excuse me. I'm sorry. Let's let me I'm sorry. Let's go through the consent agenda. Item one attorney fees Eunice Salzman
and Johnson Jackson. Item two grounds maintenance service number three, sidewalk improvement program number four,
annual street resurfacing. Number five, Sunset Beach Park pavilions. And number six, shade and shelter services. Does any
commissioner wish to pull any of the consent agenda items? Yes, mayor. I'd like to pull the item three Sidewalk Improvement
program. Three five and Vice Mayor wants to pull five. Anyone else? So let's let's vote on
items one, two, four and six. I'd like to entertain a motion. So moved. With any. No further comments. Go to roll call.
Public comments. Not on not on consent agenda. You don't have to consent agenda. Let's go to
roll call, please. Yes yes yes yes yes. We will go to public comment on the pulled on the pulled item. Okay. Item number
three, Commissioner Coolio's. Yes, I see that we have the sidewalk improvement fund. We are I see we have some projects that are listed to go this year,
although I would I don't want to support the sea breeze portion at this time. The amount of money for that project for that area I think can be used towards
other areas in the downtown urban Union Academy area, where there's a lot of walkability and where it needs to be. And at least for now as we fill in. So
I'd like to get the support from the rest of the board and staff needs to help. Just give a little update on that about switching, taking off the sea breeze and adding a lot of those
projects that would fit within the budget. Okay, let's go to commissioner comments. I'll go first. I have no opposition to your your amendment. I would
support it. Thank you, Commissioner Panther. I have no opposition, but I think we do need some clarity just in case we get calls from from residents on Sea Breeze on why we did
this, but I'm not opposed to it. I will call on the city manager last and let him explain. Commissioner Donato, I would just echo what Commissioner Barnier just said. I think that
I'm not opposed to changing. I just want to make sure everybody understands the difference. Some of them may think that they're getting what they may not get,
but and vice mayor. So I'm not opposed to it as well. My question is, as Commissioner Banta said, were there comments made by some of the residents
there at all? Because there's virtually no sidewalk on, you know, on that area over there? City manager yeah, I think if when you look at the dollar
amounts, we could probably do, Bobby said like 11 smaller projects and get them completed. Yeah, we could about 11 Union Academy area projects for that
if we swap out the sea breeze. And I would say that, you know, the next year's program for Sidewalk Priorities is coming in the next budget cycle. So the Sea Breeze project could go
right to the top of that for the next fiscal year. If the board so desired. Is there any public comment on item? No, I don't
think so. Let's yeah, let's any public comment on this item.
Your lack is 514. If you look at the traffic that would be affected doing 11 projects in the Union Academy neighborhood
and in this downtown area, there's more foot traffic, I believe, than what goes on out at Sea Breeze. So I would highly recommend that you support
Commissioner Coolio's recommendation and follow through on solving some of those easier projects, because if you can support 11 streets, you're
going to get a lot more better feedback than just one street. And as Bob said, you can put it in for your next budget and maybe portion it out, maybe a
third, a third, a third over three years. You know, y'all can figure that out. But thank you for that suggestion, Commissioner. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Any other further comments? Austin I'll
just mention that we're we're now working with a larger budget after the charter amendment. There are no hands raised at this time. Okay, okay. Thank
you. I'll entertain a motion. Commissioner, do you want to go ahead and make that motion? Okay. And I make the motion to
approve. Agenda item three, sidewalk improvement program. With the amendment of removing the 1610 sea breeze to 1674 sea
breeze improvement and including at the direction of staff, the projects listed in the downtown and the Union Academy that fit within the budget. Second, if
there's no further comment, let's go to roll call. Commissioner. Panther. Yes, Commissioner. DiDonato. Yes, Commissioner. Yes. Yes, vice
mayor. Eisner. Yes, mayor. Yes. Item number five. Vice mayor. So question one we have these
pavilions at Sunset Beach. Is any of this reimbursable through the FEMA destruction from Hurricane Lane or Milton? Yes it is. You know how much? Yes. The
total contract price is 268,000. Up to 190,000 is reimbursable. We're out about $70,000, something like that. Correct. But I also add that we are adding one extra one new
pavilion for that price. So the that 70,000 includes a new one brand new pavilion. Gotcha. So we couldn't tell FEMA that that was their imaginarily and just
no right. No ghost pavilions that I'm aware of. Sorry, this is just me. What can I say? The other thing later in the in the
agenda, I have something coming up. So I just wanted people on the board to remember about this $268,000 that we're going to be
spending, whether it's FEMA or it's us, we're the ones making the investment in Sunset Beach. And I'll continue my comments afterwards. So thank you. Okay.
Is there any further commissioner comments on this item? Yes, mayor. Bob, just want to ask how you know how the long pavilion that was closest to the shore got wiped away? It was
about three three of them really just one long one. Do we have any plans to try to bring something back? Because when I went by this Memorial Day weekend, I noticed that a lot of people are congregating, a lot
of people that are on that side, they're congregating underneath the stage pavilion because and, you know, of course some people are bringing some tents. But just out of curiosity, is there maybe a consideration to bring a
larger shelter back there or something? You're talking about the band performance pavilion. The band performance is fine. It's just a lot of people are underneath that now, since there's not another shelter
there or that one that was three, three of them long, that was once there next to the boat ramp, right? Yes. I'm not sure I'll have to look into that. I'll just tell you that this
project includes four of the 16 by 24 inch or 24 foot shelters, and then 145 by 30 foot, one of the bigger ones. Perfect. Okay. And that's the one. Okay. All
right. Thank you. Thank you. I've been told that's the one. So I looked into it. Thank you. Any other commissioner comments on this item. Let's go to public
comment. Any public comments on this item. Austin. There are no hands raised at this time. Okay.
Thank you. If there's no further comments, I'd like to entertain a motion, please. So moved. Second, okay, if there's no further comments, roll call please. Commissioner. Yes,
Donato. Yes, Commissioner. Yes. Yes. Vice mayor. Yes, mayor. Yes. Okay. Now we're going to
move item 17 up and that is ordinance 2020 5-06. This is a second reading the Land
Development Code amendment. Renee. Mayor, you want me to read it? You have to read it. Okay. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Ordinance 2020 506 An ordinance of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, amending the City of
Tarpon Springs. Code of Ordinances, appendix A comprehensive Zoning and Land Development Code, article two, district Regulations, section
25.12 HB Highway Business District providing for codification. Conflict. Severability. Correction of Scrivener's error. Construction, publication and effective date,
that is, ordinance 2020 506, read by title only on second reading. Prior publication April 2nd, 2025 and May 14th, 2025.
Good evening. Mayor, vice mayor. Commissioners. This is second reading of this ordinance in a nutshell. It adds the schools of general education as a conditional use in the highway business district. There's no
new information to add to the file. There's been no additional public correspondence on this. Let's go down. I have no questions of staff. Commissioner Banther you have any questions?
No, sir. Commissioner DiDonato. No. Commissioner Gulyas. No, sir. Vice mayor. No. Okay, let's
go to public comment. Any public comment on this item? Austin, there are no hands raised at
this time. I'd like to entertain a motion. Second. Is there any further discussion on this item?
If not, roll call please. Mr. Panther. Yes, yes. Mr. Yes, yes, yes. Let's go to item number 18,
resolution 2025 Dash 43, adoption of the Pinellas County Local Mitigation Strategy. Resolution 20 2543, a resolution by the Board of Commissioners of
the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, adopting the Pinellas County Local Mitigation Strategy. Miss Vincent, thank
you. This is resolution 2025 Dash 43. This is adopting the required five year update to the 2025 Pinellas County Local Mitigation Strategy. This is an all hazards mitigation plan that
the county and all municipalities within the county participate in. This is about the fifth, fourth or fifth five year update. To this, we are
required to have this this plan. It does ensure the ability for municipalities in the county to apply and receive hazard mitigation grants. It supports
our floodplain Management plan. It is required for our participation in the community Rating system. Florida Department of Division of Emergency Management has
reviewed the plan update and has found a compliant with all the required standards. Pinellas County has already adopted the plan, and each individual municipality also has to adopt
the plan in order to be wrapped into the benefits of that plan. So this is being presented to you tonight. I can answer any questions I also have Megan
Araya, who sits on the local Mitigation Strategy working group and is a little more in depth familiar with this than I am at this point. But recommending approval. So let's
go to Commissioner questions. Commissioner Panther, you have any questions of staff, Commissioner Donato. No, I do not. Commissioner Gulyas. No,
sir. Vice mayor. No, sir. Is there any public comment? Austin. There are no hands
raised at this time. Okay. I'd like to entertain a motion. So moved. Second, is there any commissioner comments? If not,
let's go to roll call. Mr. Panther. Yes, yes yes, yes. Vice mayor. Yes, mayor. Yes. Okay. So that takes care of ordinance and
resolutions. Let's now move to business items number seven, request for time change to night of the Islands event on June
7th, 2025 from 5 to 10 p.m, changing that to 6 to 11 p.m. City city manager. Thank you. Mayor. The commission previously approved this event 5 to 10, and the event organizers have
requested that. They say the more historical hours were 6 to 11. Because of the heat. We don't feel. They don't feel people are going to show up until probably closer to seven.
So asking to change those hours shifted by one hour. Do any commissioners have any opposition to this? A public
comment? 204 Northwood Avenue. We also wanted to ask for assistance in the police, and the waste management of the city could help us out. Previously, we would get grants to put these
on. Now the restaurants and other businesses are paying out of pocket for this. So if we could have some assistance with that. And then also I have two banners, one for Tarpon Avenue and one for Dodecanese. But
there's currently an Arts and Crafts banner there, so I don't know who I give it to or do I take it down? So I'm just looking for assistance and guidance there. Why don't we. Why don't you take the city
manager's card, okay. Yeah. Would you reach out to him and you guys can coordinate that, and it can be brought back to us for something to vote on on that item. Thank you very much. Very
good. Any other public comments? Mr. Matsakis? Can you hold on a second? Oh can I? Yeah. You you
asked for support and funds. Do you have any numbers you're talking about? I mean, you just you just said without providing anything, sir. Yes. So the police, it's $50 an hour police
and 35 an hour for the waste management. And we need for police an hour and two waste management. So it's comes out to 1600 for the police and 560 for
the waste management. Again, work, work with him will, will. And we'll put it on. We'll put it on the agenda on, on the next. I just wanted to bring it to everybody's attention. No, I
appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you guys for allowing us. Thank you. Okay, I think I went to public. That's the only public comment I talked. Well, we can't have I
want to make sure we can't have it on the next agenda. It's June so it'll be after the. Yeah. So I don't know if just. Are you guys interested in giving them a little support with funds for
the things they requested? If not. Just let it go, then they'll come up. Why don't we. Let's vote on the time change. And then if you'd like to make a
motion on on the other, we'll entertain that as well. Okay. So any any again any opposition to the time change. If not roll
call. Is there a motion. Is there a motion I think I did the motion got seconded. Yeah yeah. Roll call please. Second was was it me? It can be me if you want
it to be fine. Seconded. Yeah. Commissioner Banther, Mr. Banther. Yes. Mr. DiDonato. Yes. Mr. Yes, yes. Vice mayor Eisner.
Yes, mayor. Yes, Commissioner. Coolio's. No. And he mentioned about $2,100 in funds. You know, I'm not there to, you know,
would the board be interested in lending or, you know, helping $800 towards that, that cost towards there about $2,100 to help them start off? It's really
a, you know, start up thing and just want to see something good come out of this night at the islands for the community. I think what we could do is we couldn't we just waive the police fee. It's even better.
Why don't you just do that and make. Why don't you make your motion for that? I'll make a motion to waive the police fee for the night at the islands
event, sir. Second, is there any any public comment on this? Austin? There are no hands
raised online. Is there, Commissioner comments? Commissioner. Banther. No. Commissioner. DiDonato. Commissioner. Coolio's. No. Vice
mayor. No. Let's go to. We have we have the. You have made the motion. It's been seconded. Let's go to roll call, Mr. Banther. Yes. Mr. Donato. Yes.
Mr. Yes, yes. Vice mayor. Yes, mayor. Yes. That work nice. How about let's go to business? Item
eight. City manager. Thank you. Mayor, this this item came up today. The reason we amended it so late and just rusty bellies celebrating our anniversary, I believe, is the 20th anniversary. And just want to
close the segment of street right in front of the restaurant. And so staff recommends approval. Okay. Does anybody have any questions of
the city manager in regards to this item? Let's go to public comment. Austin. There are no
online comments. I'd like to entertain a motion to approve item eight. So moved. Second, I have no further comment. Roll
call, Mr. Panther. Yes. Mr. DiDonato yes. Mr. Yes, yes, yes, let's go to number nine award
file 25 0172 Lime and Huey Lift Station rehabilitation services, Mr. Kiger. Yes. Thank you. Thomas Kiger, public services
director. Today we brought an item for you requesting approval to execute a contract with TLC diversified for the construction of a new lift station to replace
the existing Lemon Huey sanitary sewer lift station. This is over, you know, on the intersection of Huey, as you might imagine. And the existing lift station is aged. It's below
capacity. It's not meeting its current level, its required level of service, and it requires replacement. Also, I'm also kind of pleased to report that this is the last project from our CIP that was sort of a
carryover from a few years ago. We've had the last couple years have been sort of the catch up years to do with the inflation in the construction industry and get through some of our trying to find creative ways to finance
these projects and execute them, and this is a good example of that. So we're going to be completing this project with about $1.5 million in impact fees from the Sewer Impact Fee Fund, to reduce the burden of
the project on to the Water Sewer Enterprise Fund, which is financially beneficial for the utility. And we've also worked quite a bit with procurement to find some economical ways to
deliver this project through piggyback contract with Pinellas County. Other contract options that we're looking at ranged up to $2.1 million. This procurement method will deliver
the quoted prices a little over $1.5 million, and we have a 10% contingency just in the event of unforeseen construction conditions. As you sometimes happen when you start digging up old pipes. So with that, we're
recommending approval, and I'd be very happy to entertain any questions. Commissioner, do you have any questions? No, sir. Commissioner DiDonato. No. Commissioner Gulyas. No. Vice
mayor. Yes. Why is Pinellas County involved in this part of Pinellas County is going to is not is going to be not involved in the construction. What we're
doing is we're many of the local utilities will issue contracts for a variety of different line items for repairs and rehab of different, you know, roads and streets or stormwater utilities.
And we found that they have a contract with our preferred contractor that we do work with under the city. And but their unit rates were more beneficial for this particular project. So we're going to be using their
contract to determine the unit rates and will be incorporating all those contract terms in. But we will be executing the project internally with utilities project admin staff. So the
county, the county's only involved in so much as they're allowing us to piggyback their contract. So why are the Pinellas County, the people that
have signed the contract and we did not know you're looking at their prior, their agreement. That's what got us to piggyback ability, their agreement. So we
have our own contract with this contractor. Yes, sir. There are a lot of shaking heads. That's what I was trying to clarify because when I was reading it, it didn't it wasn't specific to
that. And, you know, I know they were giving us money. They were giving us 900,000 towards it. The county. Well, who's who's
donating the subsidizing the 900,000 that. The city will be paying for this from city water and sewer impact fees. And that is something that we had an
update, but it's our 900,000 from our impact fees. Or is it 900,000 from Pinellas County's impact city sewer impact fees? And it will actually be 1.5 million. We've had some updates.
1.5 is the total amount, but the 900,000 is from the impact fees. City impact fees. Yes, we had a late addendum on the board. Materials didn't quite make it in the agenda. The we've worked
with finance. The 900,000 has been increased to 1.5 million out of city sewer impact fees because like I said, when I read it, it was a little bit I just
didn't know whose money that was because I want to be make sure that we're in full control of this contract. We will be in full control of the project. The original adopted CIP and rate
plan called for the anticipated fund balance of $900,000, which was pretty much all we had in we're projected to have at this time in sewer impact fees. We worked with finance our fund balance and sewer impact fees a
little bit higher. So we're able to increase the sewer fee, the sewer impact fee contribution, the project up to 1.5 million, which should cover almost all the project. And that will allow
us to not take as much money from the water sewer enterprise fund balance to execute the contract. It's all city dollars. It's all city execution. You've you've answered the question. I thank you, thank you Tom. Is
there any public questions or comments regarding this matter? If not Austin, there are no
online comments. I'd like to entertain a motion to approve item nine. So moved. Second, are there any further comments? If
not, let's go to roll call. Mr. Yes. Mr. Yes, yes yes yes yes.
Item number ten. Award file 25 0071 request for proposal branding and marketing Professional services, miss
Lewis. Good evening. Mayor, honorable commissioners Janina Lewis, procurement services director. The item before you is a city issued request for
proposals for the branding and marketing professional services firm. This is to assist the city in developing a brand identity and a comprehensive marketing strategy for Tarpon Springs. The
scope of the work includes creating a unified brand, platform and marketing specifically focused on the downtown, Tarpon Springs and CRA areas. This will involve
designing brand elements for Logos downtown for the Community Redevelopment Agency, the CRA agencies, and various city department materials, both
working current and prospective special events where we'll get a brand created and then other events around town can market off the brand and kind of incorporate it into a version of
their own. The city received 18 submissions. We narrowed it down to a shortlist of five submissions where one had dropped out, and in the end, the staff is recommending 365 total
degree total marketing. As the firm most highly qualified, they demonstrated a strong grasp of putting the analysis together and bringing in the community
and the staff to be able to reach an agreement on a brand. And we're very. How should I say, we're very excited to
present this project to you. For that. I'll leave it to questions. Okay. Let me go first on the questions. I see that it's on this agenda and it's
also on the CRA agenda on the next meeting following this, can you explain? Yes. So because we're using funds from the CRA, the Community Redevelopment
Agency is required to be approved by both boards. Okay. Thank you. There will be some general fund and some CRA funds.
Okay. Commissioner, do you have any questions? No, sir. Commissioner DiDonato. No. Commissioner Gulyas, no vice mayor I do, but I'm going to
hold it for the second part, okay? Any public comments?
Parallax 514 Ashland Avenue. As Janine said, it's predominantly for the downtown area, the CRA
district, which I understand the need to kind of focus on CRA funds. But when I look through 365 proposal, if you go to page
45 where it shows the breakdown of the costs. Before I get to that part. Tarpon is more than
just the downtown. If you drive to Brooksville or Dade City or Mount Dora, they all have. They're all working on fixing up historic downtowns. What makes tarpon unique? And that's what
they're going to try to find out. They're going to look at our previous branding. We have a branding, the Sponger helmet. That's what you give away on that. That's been our brand. And for me to see you spend money.
Not that I have a problem with that, but just on downtown and not looking at the city as a whole is where I have an issue. If we market the sponge docks,
come to Greece in Florida, well, will that be part of this? I don't know, and then I've been preaching to y'all for years about ecotourism. Are we
broadcasting or saying what beautiful parks and beaches we have? I don't see that in their proposal. Now back to page 45. If you look, there's a section
there about doing a video, a promotional video and some additional videos and digital social media stuff. There's about $12,000 there. One, we've
produced videos ourselves before. I don't know why we have to go out and spend money to a contractor to produce a video, or maybe work with Saint Pete College with their video
department and do a partnership with them. But what this also brings me to. Is the neglect of
certain resources we already have for our city benefit. One again, Chief Young can tell you
1610 on the Am dial loop sounds. We're missing an opportunity to reach people with things people still use. Do use radios. You
added brought you increased your broadcast signal. And then if you go to the FCC and ask them for a dual license to have it brought an FM broadcast channel,
you can reach further out. We have a TV channel on spectrum at 641. I don't know the others. Want to tell you something
that's interesting. You may want to look into your contract with spectrum. In my house I have a TV and a cable box, the old style in the kitchen and living
room had to do the streaming. On the cable box. I can get 637, which is the Pinellas County channel, and I can get channel 641, which is the city channel.
But if you stream spectrum, you don't get those channels. So I called up one evening and I said, hey, I'm watching a meeting. I go to sit in the living room. The channel's not
there. Well, in the streaming there, there's different channels available. Wait a second, that's a public access channel. We have a right to have that broadcast. So all those people out there who no longer
using cable boxes and are streaming with spectrum, or maybe Knology or Wow or whatever, you maybe want to check, but they're not getting your broadcasts. So unless you
do like the lady did, go to YouTube and watch it later. You're out. So I just want to bring that up to your attention. Because if I remember when we set up these contracts, they're
obligated to provide a public access channel and they're not doing it to half of our residents. Thank you. Thank you. Any other public comments come
to you. Good evening, Susan Swenson 327 Manatee Lane. I am both a resident of this town and a business owner of this town, and I too, I was I was included
and thankful to the people for including me in a meeting today with consultants with respect to what we feel is needed in downtown and on the sponge
docks. And personally, I am also tired of hearing downtown in the sponge docks. I do go downtown. I am a frequent buyer in the downtown area, and I go to the
sponge docks and most mostly when I have relatives visiting or people visiting from other towns. But as we know, and a lot of this is from Main Street, a
city corridor is also known as a development corridor. It is critical for economic development and improving accessibility. They enhance connectivity between parts of the city by providing safe,
attractive corridors that can improve the quality of life for residents. We can improve walkability. People may park even further because these roads are then safer. We attract
investments and now we redefine inclusivity. Thank you. Any other public comment, Austin?
There are no online comments. Thank you. The city manager wants to make a comment. Yeah, I just wanted to touch on a few points. We, our Pio marketing specialist person, will be
working with the radio and TV stations that we have to work on content for those, but also this this branding effort. One of the reasons that's paid out of the two funds is because it will
have a citywide impact. So what often comes out of these is a brand for the whole city. And downtown is a is a piece of that, as will be other areas of the such as the docks and
Greektown and the Fruit Bowl and Union Academy and the alt 19 corridor. So they'll be sort of subdistricts and sub brands that will all tie together into a unified look for the city. So
including they'll offer us a new city seal if we choose to accept it. So there'll be a whole palette of things, a new look. So that's why we're paying for it. With the general fund,
they'll have citywide impact and the CRA for the downtown portion of that, that that's it is going to be impactful to the entire community. And look at everything Tarpon Springs has to
offer. Thank you, City Manager. One question, mayor, I see so this price for around this 66,000 that that's for the actual brand logo design as
opposed because I see we have in the back up the social media like support to they're going they're going to provide a marketing plan, a guidance for us. So we'll have a position on
staff by then. We can take that ball and run with it, and just going to lay it all out for us and really be a toolbox for us to use going forward. We can either retain them in the future
or or take the ball and run. Perfect. Thank you, City Manager. Any questions of City Manager? Okay. Let's go to I'd
like to entertain a motion. To approve item number ten Award request for proposal. And then we can have so moved second
okay. So now let's go to commission discussion I you know this it's exciting to have a new
fresh. Approach to our marketing. And like the city manager said it's we're going to be marketing the entire city. You know, whoever comes to the
sponge docks is hopefully going to go downtown as well and downtown to the sponge docks as well. You know, obviously at some point our big it's, you
know, no secret that our, our one of our big plans is actually, you know, as a parking garage to have to really be the impetus to expand our, our
commercial areas. And like Susan said, you know, we're we're going to head, you know, down Pinellas as well. And if and
also the Stafford Avenue and it's you know, all part of that. So we start with the branding I think it's important. And so I'm
going to be in support of this Commissioner Banther. No comments. Thank you. Commissioner DiDonato. No comments. Further comments. Commissioner. Cool. Yes. No comments. Vice mayor. They say
if it isn't broken, don't fix it. But I will tell you that other than the fact I was in Tampa airport, I did waiting for my luggage. I did see the come
to Tarpon. I did see a lot of advertisement, but there's nothing wrong with having a branding out there for new and exciting ways to brand. We
always are looking for new ways to get younger people. I was at the docks on Friday night and it was kind of quiet, I'll be
honest with you. So I am in support of having a new weather. I'm going to agree with the branding or not, or whether we're going to agree with the branding or not. It just there's
nothing wrong for the. To me, as a city of this magnitude, for us to have spend this amount of money to get ideas. Marketing is
not my expertise. So I, I know that we have ways and means to make the city better than we found it, and that's what I'm looking to do. So I'm
encouraging. I'm encouraged by the fact that we'll have outside eyes to look at it, and we'll decide whether it's something we want to do or we don't want to do. So that's where I'm at.
Thank you, Vice Mayor. If there's no further comment, let's go to roll call Mr. Panther. Yes. Mr. Yes, yes yes
yes, yes. Item 11 appointments to the Heritage Preservation Board. Acting City Clerk. So as in your backup notice. Excuse
me, are you is it turned on? Yes. Can you hear me now? Yeah, just close to your mouth. So in your backup, you'll notice that there is two positions open that we're going to be voting for
tonight due to the resignation of miss Dean of and Miss Ryan, who currently her term has ended, but at the end of this month. But she does not want to
continue on the board. And we also have Miss Kaplan, who is a current alternate, would like to be moved up. And also, Mr. Specter would like to serve
another term on the board. So your items will be to reappoint, if you choose Mr. Specter to another four year term and then appoint, you can move the
current alternate up as a regular member and then appoint from the list Mr. Cadena as a regular member as well. Okay.
That's before you tonight. Would any commissioner like to propose a motion on this? I will if you. So I would like to. Re appoint
Mr. Specter. I want to move up Rita Kaplan to from alternate to permanent. And I would like to make Hector. I don't have his
last name here as the alternate or a regular. He'd be a regular. I'm sorry. So that. So we'd have then a full regular board. Okay.
Is there a second? Second? Is there any comments? Let's go to public comments on this. Any
public comments on this? Austin. There are no online comments okay I. Commissioner, do you have any questions? No, sir.
Commissioner DiDonato. No. Commissioner Gulyas. No. Vice mayor. No. Let's go to roll call, please. Mr. Panther. Yes. Commissioner. DiDonato. Yes,
Commissioner. Yes, yes, vice mayor Eisner. Yes, mayor. Yes. Number 12, appointments to the Planning and Zoning Board. Acting city clerk. So thank you,
mayor. As you know, Miss Francis has resigned from the Planning and Zoning Board. And miss, we have contacted miss Weaver was contacted, and she would like to be considered as a regular
member. So before you, we can move the alternate member, Miss Weaver, to fill the unexpired term of Miss Francis. And that term would end October 1st, 2026, and she would be eligible
eligible for reappointment at that time and appoint someone from the list below if you'd like. I can go through those or
you leave Miss Weaver as an alternate and point and appoint from the list so your options are 1 or 2. Okay. Does anybody
have want to make a motion on this? I do, I will be considering I'll make a motion to move Laurie up from an
alternate to a permanent and Matthew Collins to an alternate. Is there a second? Second? Is.
Let's go to public comment, then we'll come back. Public comments. Austin. There are no online comments. Is there any
commissioner comments on this? Okay, let's go to roll call, please. Commissioner. Yes. Commissioner DiDonato. Yes. Mr. Yes, yes. Vice mayor Eisner.
Yes, mayor. Yes. Okay. Let's go to item number 14, Discussion and direction on Rotary Park requests for Boys and Girls Club parking lot. City manager. Thank
you. Mayor. This item is brought for you today. We do have someone from the Rotary Club present to renew the lease. It's been in place since 1985. In
addition, with an additional request for funds. Okay. So we don't have. I would like to make
a presentation. Okay. Good evening. Honorable members of the Tarpon Springs Board of Commissioners, distinguished guests and residents of Tarpon Springs. My name is Rich Lundahl
and I own a business in Tarpon Springs located on 22 North Safford Avenue. I stand before you tonight as a Rotary Club member and the project manager
for the Harold Haftel Beautification Project completed this past February, joined by over 100 members of the community and our mayor at the
time, Mr. Kouleas, who presided over the ribbon cutting. I'm flanked by Milton Smith, current president of the Rotary Club of Tarpon Springs, and Freddie
Williams, chief executive officer of the Greater Tampa Bay Boys and Girls Club. We're here tonight to offer some insight into the hotel project and to continue our partnership with
the City of Tarpon Springs. In the completed project, there was a handout that I do not think was included in your packet. Was the lease actually the 1985
lease agreement? I have copies here. Just you can give them to
the chief. This is actually a copy of the original 1985 agreement
settlement agreement that pertains to our project. I'm sorry it wasn't included in the packet. We did share it at our
media meeting two months ago. So this 40 year agreement between the boys Club, Rotary Club and the city to utilize the parking for the ball field work just
fine for years. Part of that agreement gave the city a 40 by 100 foot parcel of land along the first base line at Rotary Park and the building, through
direct conveyance to the city from the Rotary Club. In 1985, the boys Club retained ownership of the lot and allowed the city to utilize the lot for parking
at the ball field. Please note that the city is responsible for the maintenance of that parking lot. That obligation for maintenance runs with the land.
That's a term that's actually in that lease agreement. And that was explained to me that our attorney, the city attorney, might need to give further clarification, but it runs with
the land. According to the agreement signed in 1985, the question now becomes what is maintenance? In light of the beautification project which needs irrigation, some weed
killing and grass cutting along the way? The timing of this restatement is related to the merger of the two Boys and Girls Club entities into the Greater Tampa Bay Boys and Girls Club.
That's why I invited Freddy here today. To be fair, it is our position that the city should take care of the maintenance obligation that includes irrigation, weed killing and
grass mowing. Now, just a little history on our benefactor, Harold Haftel. Harold was a longtime resident, successful businessman and landowner, and a
lifelong Rotarian in Tarpon Springs. One of his final gestures to the city occurred in April of 2017, where he sold his property just east of the
cemetery to the city for $249,000, well below market value and just below the limit to force a referendum. This was negotiated by the Board of
Commissioners and his attorney, Mr. Herb Elliott. Mr. Banther actually was on the board at that time and thanked Mr. Elliott at a Rotary Club meeting for the generous offer. The city
property is now worth $1.22 million, according to public tax rolls, which, by the way, I did check that was shared with me from herb. I didn't believe it,
but apparently it is worth 1.22. The parcel ID number I have it. I don't know if you're interested in pulling it up or not. Mr. Haftel passed away
shortly thereafter and left $25,000 to the Rotary Club to be used for a community project befitting of his generous spirit. The original bike trail
project proved to be too costly and was scrapped, and that was a relationship with the county that was going to fund water. Being delivered out to the bike
trail was going to be $325,000, so we scrapped that project. A second idea was developed around beautifying the sea of asphalt next to the Boys and Girls Club
and adjacent to Rotary Park Youth Baseball Field. This property is actually owned by the Boys and Girls Club, and leased by arrangement to the city for use of parking for the
ball field or other events, as previously discussed. So this project. We met with city engineers last summer, prior to the plans being drawn up to make sure the scope of the project
did not exceed expected cost 25,000 from the estate of Harold Haftel, and we assume the additional cost of 25,000 to be raised by consortium from Boys and Girls Club, the Rotary Club
and private donors. Plans were drawn up and bids went out for the parking lot. Islands, landscape design and irrigation. Once contractors were secured,
permits were applied for and approved and the work commenced. The parking lot contractor immediately ran into trouble when they discovered 12 to 18in
of cement concrete below the asphalt. Who knew? Not surprisingly, costs went up. Tapping of reclaimed water also
incurred in incurred unexpected costs of $10,000 as well, which was absorbed by the Boys and Girls Club. Our $50,000 beautification project was now
well over budget and we needed to compete. We needed to complete the funding, which of course was my job to find the additional support. So I went
back to the Rotary Club board. Milton with basically my hands out saying, I'm sorry, but we need more money. And we also went to the Boys and Girls Club
board and I asked, Freddy said, Freddy, I need some more money. And we also went to some private donors as well to get the project completed. You wonder why I'm coming to ask you this
after the fact. Well, our intention was to complete this project without asking for additional support from the city. But tonight my ask is that
you ratify the restated lease agreement which you found in your packet. That again includes maintenance and becomes public record. This lease agreement continues the partnership with the city, the Rotary Club of
Tarpon Springs, and the Greater Tampa Bay Boys and Girls Club. Further, we are requesting from the city $15,000 to help balance the cost overruns of this
beautification project that directly benefits the city and its commitment to green space that all residents can enjoy. So I'd like to entertain questions.
I have my two colleagues up here with me as well. I have no questions. Let me before we go into that, I'd like the city
attorney to address an issue. Mayor, as we discussed before the meeting, you're an active member of the Rotary Club. I did some research on this issue to
make sure to see if you had a voting conflict. You don't have a voting conflict by the attorney general, although there was an opinion that said that you may have the appearance of
impropriety and therefore may want to not vote if the choice is yours at the end of the day for this situation, there's not a specific voting conflict. We
just don't want. We just want to avoid any accusation, okay? I'm going to I'm not going to recuse
myself. I. It's not I don't have a legal right. I don't I am not going to gain anything from this. I am a Rotarian, but I'm first and foremost a
commissioner. So I'm going to go ahead and I can be fair and in deliberating on this item. So I will I will not recuse myself. Okay. So let's go to commissioner questions.
Commissioner, do you have any questions of the applicant. Yes. So your total ask is 15,000. Yes, sir. And that and is the project complete? Correct. This
is to help reimburse. Yes it was. And again, my apologies for not coming to you first, but my intent was to raise the money with the help of these guys behind me first and some private
donors so I didn't have to come to you. This is the work looks great. I think it's a very, a very, you know, reasonable ask. So thank you. Thank Commissioner
De Donato, just for disclosure, I am a former rotary member. Former. And I'm also was a former board member of the Boys and Girls Club for years and chairman for several years as
well. But I am not a member of either organization. And I would agree with the mayor. I there's no financial gain to me. I just feel that the project is a
beautiful project. It has upgraded that whole area, is upgraded the park, it looks much, much better. And I thank you for what you've done. And I
stand ready to fulfill that agreement. I remember when that was a city recreation building as well as a rotary building. I've been around long enough to have the history. Sometimes it's
good to have guys like me up here because I remember all of those things, and I just commend the Boys and Girls Club and Rotary for what they've done
over the years with the with the club, and I'd love to see it continue. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr. Yes. How much is the cost of the reclaimed water
bill each month? And that's just for the parking lot watering. Right? Yeah. So the Boys and Girls Club are have contracted.
They'll be paying that bill. It is part of the maintenance. Our argument is it's part of the maintenance. But I have no idea what that number is. Mandy I don't know. Yeah. I think we've
had the bill for one month. I think we've had it for one month. But it's, you know, the bigger cost was the, the hookup
into the, into the main water line. And that's something we can address in the future. But that's, that's not for tonight. And I'm guessing it's probably
30 bucks. 30 water bill just came up because of the improvement from the parking lot. Yes, sir. Okay. That in terms of maintenance, if I could
address that with you, Mr. Coolio's, the original agreement was for maintenance. Obviously, maintenance of a parking lot is different than maintenance of
islands that have growing things. And so that's, that's that irrigation that came in. That's why we're asking for that to be included in the maintenance agreement. Okay. I'm
just concerned about what that could be each month. But as we talked about before, I didn't mind giving you at least 7500 towards the contribution. But if the board moves towards that 15
K what it's looking like, then I'm absolutely going to support it. So thank you. Thank you, Commissioner, vice mayor. Oh my. This is just questions. And
we'll go back to. More comments I hear you. Why was there no contractor overseeing what was being done as it was being done?
Great question. As you know, I'm a rotary member. Member. I'm the project coordinator. I kind of found that by default I'm not a contractor. I was the guy at
hand and we hired contractors with each of these positions that I loosely supervised. Right. But you hired subcontractors? Yes, sir. Yeah,
yeah. So whenever you, you know, this is the job that I get because I have a realtor a temporary helper, a CPA helper,
you know, temporary help. He's not day labor. Day labor. Thank you. Sorry if I've insulted you. Employment agency. Employment.
Yes. Okay. We need a little levity in this. And I don't want to negate my chiropractor to my left, but I as as you know, you
and I spoke, and I just have to be perfectly honest. Every part of the job that was done was not done either. With the city's
approval, and nor was it done correctly and had to be redone. Some of it had to be redone by the city, so I wanted to be known that when, you know, we
you would get somebody was given a choice of whether you do curbs sitting on top of asphalt or whether you bury it with rebar. They took the cheaper method and
just put it on top of asphalt, and they did it in a 18ft distance on banana. It had to be removed by the city. The city
didn't turn around and, you know, charge you for that. We just took care of it. We redid the sidewalk and we removed the curb. I was getting plenty of complaints from residents about they couldn't get down the
street. So some of you cost overruns were the fact that things were not done correctly. Again, going back to having a contractor or an experienced
architect who makes sure that you have all of the I's dotted and t's crossed. I know we spoke about some of the that the city
approved this all. I did go in to do research through the city manager, through the permit department. None of what was put
on banana was prior shown or approved. I know that the plumbing, the plumbing for the
reclaimed water was originally. It was attached to the 1.5in and then had to be moved to the two inches where you wound up spending more money. So my issue
that I have is if we did something wrong with any which way, shape and form, I would be readily available to try to
cover for what the city did. What I'm troubled with is the fact that we were not informed of these things. Things were
done in my eyes as a contractor. Retired contractor, haphazardly, without any checking on the city. And the whole reason we have a permit department is because subcontractors will do
whatever they want to get out of the job, get paid, and they're gone. I was part of the Rotary
Club when Harold, you know, I met Harold. I was a friend of Harold's, and I know what this project was. I know there was issues with you trying to find a
project that was worthy of him, but you have to be very careful. I mean, you could be coming back to us where it's 50,000 over or
75,000 over. I know it's you're only asking for a certain amount. I just don't know what responsibility. And nobody's been able to explain to me what
responsibility the city has or has. You know, what we did incorrectly. I'm not disputing the original contract that we
have. I mean, I just got to read it in a few minutes. I don't really know what parts of it we're supposed to be responsible for or not. I just find it hard to, you know, if the board
decides to go ahead with it, which it sounds like they will. That's one thing. I don't see that we're responsible for any part of a that's a question. Or
you ask some questions. Well, I'm asking him to determine why why there is a, a what did we do. Want to answer that question? I, I actually would
like to answer you actually made six points that I need to address each one of them. And so if now mayor, is this the appropriate time. Are you going to have the comments to this?
I'm happy to answer those questions. But go ahead and answer answer the questions. First of all, Mike, I acknowledge the conversation with you. And there were some
mistakes made along the way, but I'm going to address each one of them with you. Okay. The first of all, the curbing that was put on banana that was not in the
original plans. It never was. The contractor made the decision to do that. All right. When it was done, there could have been
a way to make it work, because that curbing on the road lined up with the curbing just south. And you can see from the pictures that you had on your
packet, it lines up. Okay. So no, it was not a part of the plans. So you are correct. It wasn't a part of those plans. The plans were permitted by the
city. So I take issue with you saying that we didn't get permission. We got permission with every step of the way. The plans did not show curbing with
rebar that cost for a D.O.T. Project, which again, I acknowledge that if we were doing a D.O.T. Project, we would have to follow that code for a new project. This is a
beautification project with curbs that may not have been ideal, but it probably saved us, I don't know, another $50,000 of fundraising that we'd have to do. So that's the curb issue,
the water issue I found out today was our contractor actually called the city to put it in a different spot, so it was not put in the original
plans. Okay. So I acknowledge that I pulled out both of those from our discussion with the city manager two months ago when we first met about that. In fact, in my prepared comments,
I'm not asking for anything because the city made any mistakes. I'm asking for a partnership going forward. That's why I'm here with you
today. So I'm not asking any of you or placing blame. We don't need to litigate that. Like I said, you and I spoke for over 30 minutes that evening, whenever that was, and you
voiced all of those same concerns with me. Okay, so I did my research and looked into all of those concerns. And you're right. All right. But this was a
beautification project that we were trying to make this corner something both beautiful for the city and to commemorate a dear friend to the Tarpon Springs
community in Harold. Let's let's go to comments when it's appropriate. Yeah, let's do this. Let's go to let's go to public comment. We'll come back, get a motion. And then then we
can have more conversation. And you can even ask more questions if you want. So is there any public comment regarding this item? Any Rotarians want to get
up and talk? Can you can you all line up if you want to speak so we can be efficient in time? I'm
doctor Clifford Brock I've been a I'm at 512 Austin drive and I don't know about curbs and I don't know about blacktop, but I think you have an important
issue that you consider as you look at this, $15,000, I think probably the asphalt is going to stay in place whether it's approved or not. There's going to be a parking lot. For me, the human element is the more
important element. And I think there are two important things that I just will remind all of you who have more time in Tarpon Springs than I do. When I came here almost 12 years ago, the
Boys and Girls Club was not what it is today. It was. I mean, maybe in some disarray. I didn't think it was particularly clean. I didn't think it was
particularly well run in the ensuing years. The people who staffed that club and serve those kids have really brought that organization along. And it
serves lots and lots of kids. A former I'm a retired educator, have a very keen interest in young people, and that club serves those kids. Secondly,
that Boys and Girls Club is more than a home for the young people. The Boys and Girls Club has hosted the Sleep in Heavenly Peace. That organization built
beds for little kids who have never in their life had a bed to sleep on. We do the cornhole tournament that's a fundraiser brings families in for an afternoon of entertainment. The
Boys and Girls Club serves many functions, and that beautification, the parking lot and all that goes with that is part and parcel of a corner of Tarpon Springs that I think is
very, very important and goes beyond just beautification. It really is a point of pride in our community, and I hope the commissioners will see fit to
support this. Thank you. Thank you doctor. Any any other comments? Austin. There are no
online comments. Okay. So let's come back to the board. I'd like to entertain a motion to approve item 14 discussion and Direction on Rotary Club requests for Boys
and Girls Club parking lot. So move for the for the 15,000 to make a statement and then make the motion if I can. I think there should be a motion first before you make the motion. I
think there's a motion. It's fine. Commissioner Banther can answer questions. Well, we can still answer motion. Let's get a motion and then we can. We can make a motion. You made a
motion. But if Frank has something specific he wants to say about the motion, I do want to hear it. Well, what I think needs to happen here prior to the motion, that's why I wanted
to do it that way, is simply it's time that we look at that again and dot some I's and crossing T's. That's all. It's called communication. I think it should be updated. That's number one. I'm asking our attorney to
get with maybe her or if he still wants to donate his time. And let's let's refine this a little bit. That's a suggestion. The motion is to pass and
authorize this allotment of $15,000. And I and I and I motions are made. Are you seconding the motion, Commissioner? Patterson? Seconded. You want me to. Okay, well, I will motion to approve
this item for the amount of $15,000. That's the lease. And the this includes the renewal of the lease. Yes. And the 15,000,
correct? Yes, sir. Okay. Commissioner Korea's you good? No. Well, there's the water bill to. I don't know if that's we're leaving that out. I think that's
part is that well for different items because he named two of them. I just want to make sure we're either going to approve it all or could I help with with this if I could clarify. So this
new lease is a restatement of the agreement. The restatement has maintenance requirement. So it would require the city to maintain that parking lot. I'm
aware of that. But I don't know that the city is not. I just want to I just want to make sure that that was in the lease. So the request is just for the money and approving the lease. And of course, it's up to you
guys to discuss about the maintenance, which again, we view that as the grass irrigation and weeding of the
beds, like you would take care of any other park and city city attorney. You will before we actually sign that lease, you're going to review it. You reviewed
it, okay. And it says exactly what they said. All right. It's a it's a restatement which has a provision in that the maintenance belongs to the city, which includes the water that
and the city. And it goes back to the original language and it runs with the land based on that original agreement. Okay. So we had a motion. We have a second. So let's go to commissioner
comments. And you can ask more questions if you like. Commissioner Banther. Yes. Thank you. I feel like some of the comments were a little disparaging tonight. I just want to acknowledge that that the that the Rotarians, which I was
Rotarian in this club from I think 2010 to just about two years ago when I have, you know, too much work on my plate at at the moment as well, way back in the day. And I think, Frank, you
and I were on that board together a little bit over, over at the Boys and Girls Club back in like 0708. But these are some of the finest volunteers. Here. We have the Toby's, the Brock's dad's rich. We have Milton. You
know, these people have given volunteer hours, I would argue, probably more than anybody on this board, with the exception of, maybe, Frank. And you know
what they've done in that corridor there to not just to not just the actual club itself, but the beautification. I don't think they should be treated like, you know, they, they, they did something wrong in this
process. I think Rich clarified all those points. Well, they're simply asking for a, for a, for a, for a, a, a partnership here. And this club services some of the poorest members of our
community. So I think, you know, we should have kind of a more unified front on this board. I'm in support of this and in acknowledgment of all the volunteer hours. Thank you.
Commissioner DiDonato. In follow to that, I know for a fact that the city has done some work on the parking lot, for example, when I was mayor, they repaved it, and I know that the same
thing is true with the basketball court. And I know that over the years since I got here in 1976, the city has done what it could to maintain that building because they they used
that building. Herman Burris, if you remember him, donated 100,000 plus to start off, the Boys and Girls Club when the city and Boys and Girls Club
made that original document. It provides a service. And again, I thank you for bringing it forward. I just want us to get
together on the communication of the document, that that's the only purpose there. And the city has a history of with this organization, so does the Rotary Club. It's been a trying for as
long as I can remember, the three groups working together for kids in this in this city. So and I've said for me. City
attorney wants to make a comment on something, mayor, just to remind. And Commissioner Cooley's brought it up. There are four issues that are being requested as as you see from the
memorandum. And I know we weren't as specific in the motion, but the changing the names on the agreement to the Boys and Girls Club of Greater
Tampa Bay, Inc. Is one, a request for a waiver of payment by the city for or payment by the city for the reclaimed water bill each month, which is an
additional request, a request that the city take over the maintenance and repair, and the associated costs for the parking lot, or, if we do not perform these duties, to reimburse the Boys and Girls Club for
maintenance, which was part of the original agreement, and the $15,000 request. So just want to make sure that on the motion that everyone understands what
the four issues are. Okay. Thank you. Commissioner Coolio's. The only thing I'm stuck on is this reclaimed water bill each month,
and I'd like to at least have it reviewed. I don't know if it's going to be $200 or $600 a month. And that's, you know, it's a lot of money if it goes up in the higher end. And so I
just at least maybe have this board come back to review that in a year. It's fair. I amend the motion to that as it relates to the reclaimed water specifically. Correct, Commissioner? Yes, sir. I can amend that motion. All right.
We're good. Are you do we have a second on the amendment? Frank? Yeah, sure. Okay. All right. We're already out there. Reclaimed water doing rotary
field. I mean, it's just adding a little bit more to it. Mostly asphalt anyway. That's a reasonable. Request. Anything
else? Commissioner? No. That's it, vice mayor. Okay, so here's my issue that I have. I heard what Commissioner Banther said. I also know every single person
that's up here. I've been the Rotarian of the year for the club. I've been the Rotarian of the year for the district. So nobody is more rotary minded
than me. You may think that that, you know, I've been doing this for many, many years, and if I have to make my decision as a Rotarian, I'm in agreement
with everybody up here. But that's not what I'm here for. I'm here as a representative of the city. Do we? And the question I want to ask is, do we
pay anybody's reclaim water bill in the city? We even we pay. So one fund pays another fund. So do we pay anybody's reclaimed
water bill in the city? No, we cannot by code. Okay. So here we are discussing paying the water bill when it's not even legal
for us to do that. So that's one thing I want to do I want to speak about. Can I address that? Well, let me just say my other comment, please. The other issue
that I have is I have to get more detailed because none of those curbs were done with rebar or sunken in below the asphalt.
Any car that runs into him, it's going to crack who is responsible down the road. I know everybody likes to say, let's pay for it and it will be
beautiful, but I am a realist and I know for a fact and I, I've done the research. They're going to crack, they're going to break, they're going to fall apart. They were not done right.
They were done the inexpensive way. They were not done with rebar. They were not dug down below the asphalt. Asphalt had to be poured up to it. Whenever
you do any sort of curbing, that is the issue. You have to dig everything out. You pack everything down. You put your curbing in with rebar to hold it together, and then you put your
asphalt up against it. That wasn't done. So are we supposed to, as a city, be married to this, where if somebody drives into it, which is going to
happen either from the parking lot side or the street side, who's responsible for that is the question. Okay. So first of
all, the curbing the curbing is around the islands and there may be somebody run into it down the road. That's acknowledged. It is the city's responsibility for
maintenance. That's in the agreement. That's in the previous agreement. That's in this agreement. Okay. That's it's it is the city's
responsibility regardless. That's I know we've had no curbing there whatsoever. And now curbing is put in going in, going out down the streets. I
mean the curbing is everywhere. And truthfully, as, as I've said to you before, it's all done incorrectly. It should be done with rebar and recessed. So, you
know, again, I'm going to say I have a strong idea of what contracting is supposed to be. And I don't want the city to be responsible if the rest of the board wants to be responsible
about this falling apart, which it's going to do. And then that's their decision. It will not be my decision. I just feel understand, you know, and I and
I want to repeat what you said, I, I wish I was still a Rotarian and being a, you know, an overseer to this project, it wouldn't have gone down like that. I understand, and you
weren't available. So that was my job to oversee it. But I can tell you is that the city didn't pay anything for that curb. The
city didn't raise a dollar for any of this project. I'm coming to you after the fact because of the cost overruns. Had we done the rebar, I guarantee it would have cost us about 50 grand more
than what the cost was. Which means more time on my behalf. Going and shaking down these two guys behind me to do a parking lot that's benefiting the city. It's beautiful. The first thing
that you mentioned was the reclaimed water. So, you know, as city manager said, there's no
process to pay that. My argument about that is that the ball field right next door is being irrigated by reclaimed water. You have crews that are maintaining that field right
next door that could spend ten minutes and weed, or cut a little bit of grass. That's in the new parking area that can be taken care of. Somebody's paying for that reclaimed water to
irrigate Rotary Park. I don't know how it's done, but somebody is paying for it. And so the little bit of water that's going to be used to irrigate these
islands seems like a drop in the bucket compared to that. But that's why that's in the, in the proposal. So let me let me make
a comment here. You know the. The. The parking lot is, is owned by the boys club, right. Correct. And obviously we use
that parking lot for our all the ball activities to take place. So it's not necessarily this
$15,000 ask is, is asking for a contribution towards those costs that were used to fix that parking lot. Right. The cost
overruns. Yes, sir. Well, cost I don't care where I don't. It's to me it's fungible. Right. It's just water in a bucket. You're asking for a contribution towards that cost, which again
seems reasonable. City manager okay. You you stated that we legally cannot pay for the reclaimed water for them for our
code. So for our parks, so our parks, our general fund pays the water fund, we pay ourselves as an enterprise fund. So we pay it out of general funds. So we would do that here like we do
the ball field next door. We would pay the bill, the water fund from the. So just to clarify, it's not really paying it. It's just providing the service. In essence, we're
paying the enterprise fund, but we're paying ourselves. Correct. Which is just it's the same way you do the ballparks. Correct. As opposed to the request for actually paying their bill,
which is not the way you would do it. It just sounds it's I know it's just we're trying to make sure that it's done properly. So how are what do we
need to do on this motion? City attorney, how would you recommend we clean this motion up? I would say, if that's the intent of the board, that it be included as as part of the parks
for the reclaimed water purposes. Can I ask a question? Sure. Forget the semantics of words. Borrowing, paying, giving. Are we legally allowed
to do this? Yes. We I think if you treat it as a park. Yeah, the answer is yes. Parking lot to a park. Okay. We're good, we're good. We all good. And
we're going to it's going to come back within a year to see what this price. And that's part of the that he accepted that as part of the amendment. I have another question. You have one more comment. I was just
wondering on your is it possible to get an extended warranty from your contractor on the curbing work requested, or you should have at least a year, right? Yeah, yeah. So I have a
relationship with the contractor, and if there was something that broke on it, as Mr. Eisner pointed out, I'm sure I could get him back to fix it. So I will give you my warranty,
that if there's a broken curb in the first year, I will make sure I get the contractor because they owe me a little bit. All right. So. That's yes, in case
I'm sorry to drone on, but that's. Yes. So that provision obviously isn't in the agreement that we have. I would ask that if you approve it with that
amendment, we will draft up language that will read regarding that that warranty. Yeah. Okay. Because I think that's one of the issues that that board wants to make sure
that we're not getting into something that we have to restate this motion to revise the motion again or shall I start? Yes, Commissioner. How about listen, you have the law degree. Why don't you state the
motion and I will show us a lot of. Yeah, okay, I would do. I would do the motion to approve the request concerning the four
items, subject to an addendum to the agreement, which will state that the city will not be responsible for the first 12 months for any problem with the
curb. Secondly, that the city will also bring back the cost for the reclaimed water in 12 months to determine whether they will continue to provide that service with those two
conditions. So moved. So moved. Is there a second, second second second? Okay. If there's no further comments, let's go to
roll call. Final. Excuse me. Read it back or no okay. Yes yes
yes yes yes. Thank you, thank you. Okay. Let's go to item number 15 discussion and direction on increasing fines for parking violations at the
boat ramps. Commissioner, vice mayor Eisner. Just one. I have to bring up an agenda item. Everybody's leaving. What is
this? I don't you can stay. Okay, so we have a situation that every weekend. I'm making a
call to the police chief because I get residents calling me up, especially this past weekend. It was just. I don't even know if I
could put a word on it, but it was just confusion at its best. So we have a situation where I believe, is it a $25 summons?
And my joke goes back to when I used to visit the Bronx Zoo as a kid. The feeding of the lions was $25. When I my kids were born, I realized I can afford to
feed the lions because the fine was only $25. So my point with that humor is it's a point where the $25 nobody really wants to
go buy a pass. People will park anywhere. They don't really care if you write them a $25 summons. It's worth it for their day that they're burning hundreds of dollars worth of gas out there
on the water. They've got beer, they've got food, they've got everything. So I kind of did some research into fines in
Florida for parking, and I kind of leaning towards. And I'm looking for input from the board on their opinion and their
thought process. With this, I was looking at $125 to $150 is the kind of fine for not having
a boat trailer sticker and parked somewhere in Sunset Beach or in the fruit section, because we're also, you know, I'm sure
everybody's getting the same phone calls as I am. You know, people complaining they don't have a place to put their trailer and boat, but everybody
else that's not does not have a trailer launch permit is parked there. So I want to make sure that it is costly enough for
them to second guess and not be parking there. Also, from what I heard is not allowing jet skis out there. So we're getting a slew of jet skis. I want to
thank the police chief. I had to call him twice. There was an early morning person there renting six jet skis to two random people, which would all
be under our liability should someone get hurt. And then he was, I believe he was chased away and he came back as soon as the police left and was doing it
a second time. So I would like to see the board institute some sort of a more stringent fine. I think the people of Tarpon Springs deserve better than
that. They have to fight. We pay taxes, they pay taxes. They should have the right to have freedom to dock their boats and
their trailers. And that's my comment, and I'm looking for input from the rest of the board. Commissioner Panther, do you have any comments on this? I'm in agreement with Commissioner Eisner. I walked
down there on the weekends. The past two weeks especially. This one was just an absolute madhouse. I mean, there's and it's almost all jet skis, and that's fine. You can all the jet skis you want, but I agree, I
think we need to we need to increase the fines. We should at least mirror what the top end of the surrounding communities do. We have that data. And I really do think and this is a good
thing, it's not a bad thing. I think in the budget season we might need to discuss some seasonal staffing at the beach, because, I mean, it's just a madhouse there. And it's and it's just a matter of time
before something happens. But I mean, even me and I'm walking and I'm big, so I walk slow. And I mean, you have to I mean, you're like you're like dodging people and things there. So I mean, it's I, I'm in full
support of this. And again, I think in the summer budget talks we need to discuss a, a seasonal position there. Thank you. Commissioner De Donato I'm in total agreement. It's long
overdue actually. It is kind of during the summer kind of tough out there. Yeah. Even if you just want to go take a walk. So. Yeah, I'm. I'm support an
increasing of the fines. And I would like to see us endeavor to have a staffing person out there during certain periods of the year. I think that would help. I think the police are doing a
fine job, but they can't be everywhere all the time. So if we can help them out a little bit in that manner, I think that would be a good, good idea. Commissioner. Yes, yes. I didn't
see any backup numbers on just, you know, what the current fines are, what they could be raised to. But should we take into consideration people with permit or getting a permit as well
increasing it, or should we just leave that at B? Is that a good price for the year that we have it at? What do you mean by a permit increase the cost of the permit, the cost of the permit for boaters? Well, that would be
a different agenda item. You know, one of the things I would be looking to do, I know you jumped the gun with this. I wanted to get this passed. And one of the other things I wanted
to do was increase the permit, but not but to also give the employees of tarpon that work
for us the same costs as a resident. Sure. So absolutely. Yeah. I got to go by there. And I mean, it's it was the holiday
weekend. There's always locals out there barbecuing and stuff. I know it's you know, there's a lot of traffic. But the goal is to even when there's not those holiday weekends that we're not
seeing this excess launching from over there. So this weekend was an exception about how crazy it can be. But we obviously see that locals, you know, are going
there more than ever. And other people. So yeah, let's let's increase it. So. I'm also in agreement I think increasing it
I, I don't mind you going with $125 number. I think that's a good incentive. Yeah. 25 really good. 150 I think you said 125
to 150. I said 25. It was 25. I want to go to 1 to 150. Yeah I'm good with we could do 125. No, no I thought, I thought you said 125 to 150. I'm good with 150,
Commissioner. I think he's he's got it on the record. 150 is a good statement. Yeah I think it's a good I think it's a good number. So let's let's go to
public comment on this. Any public comment here. Winston. Once again 327 Manatee Lane I have a question. We once spoke about trailers, the length of
the trailer and the width of the trailer and what's allowed and what's not allowed, because as I walk down through the fruit bowl area, there was one trailer and
it's truck parked it actually on Spring Boulevard, not or spring, whatever that is, and not even in the fruit bowl streets like pineapple and banana. So I'm
just wondering, not only should we increase the permit, but how do we explain to people or communicate with people what
size trailers are allowed? Thank you. Any other public comments? Lori Weaver, 917 South Florida
Avenue. So building on what Susan was speaking about, I own a property in the fruit bowl, among some others, and there's times when those trailers are
blocking driveways, and I'm sure you're all aware of that. I just want to make sure that it's going to be comprehensive. Whatever Vice Mayor Eisner has proposed, which I think is a
great idea, but it's going to be comprehensive enough to cover that fruit bowl area as well. Yeah, well, I think it's a great first step in what Commissioner
Eisner I mean, Vice Mayor Eisner has proposed. So thank you. Any other public comments? Austin.
There's no online comments. Thank you. So let's let's let's entertain a motion. Vice mayor, you want to make that motion.
Sure. So it would be a violation to not have a trailer boat trailer sticker. And I think the
violation should be $150. But we also need to do with this is to have signs there. So. Mayor, the chief has a concern I think we
have to do. I was just going to say that, mayor, this is an ordinance that we have we're going to have to amend the ordinance. Yes. So why don't we do that? Yes. Fines established.
So we're going to have to bring this back to you for consideration. Why don't we direct staff to go ahead and. Draft up the ordinance and bring it back to us so we can have it
at the next? Technicalities? Can I make a recommendation, sir? I'm okay. But I also do want to bring up that we should have signs there, because I don't want this to be a surprise. You
know, we should do this. You know, of course, we always educate first after we make changes like that. But if I could make a offer, if we're going to look at this ordinance and we're going to go in there
not just looking at the one line for those things, we do a comprehensive review of the whole ordinance and update all the fines to bring them into into categories. There are some that are statutorily driven. You know, you have handicapped
parking. That's a statutorily driven one, parking in front of a fire hydrant that's statutorily. So we can go in here and change these and bring forth a better divine numbers to
get it. And we'll do the review of the county's and the other cities in our area, and then work with the city attorney on drafting an amendment to the ordinance to present to you all with those numbers and to answer
the question regarding the fruit bowl. Back then, Assistant Chief Ruggiero did bring the width of the ordinance forward. We went through two different attorneys at that point. I don't know
where it landed, so we'll have to work with the attorney. Saltzman. That should be in the 50 foot stack of papers that he got from the other attorney groups. So we're just waiting on
that because we have to look at 1814, which is the parking of large vehicles and trailers in residential. So we can bring everything back comprehensive. And then all the issues that you
brought up, I believe we have the direction to move forward, to bring it back. So then my motion is just for the to move. You don't need a motion. I don't
need a consensus unless the board feels differently. Then it was a nice discussion. Thank you all for your time and thank you, Vice Mayor. Good. Stop. Okay.
Vice mayor again. Yes. Number 16, discussion and direction on instituting parking fees for non residents at Sunset Beach. So we had in addition we had it wasn't
as other commissioners had said there's been it was a madhouse at Sunset Beach. It was just you know we have a situation where both Sunset Beach and Fred
Howard Park were flooded during Hurricane Helene. I don't see that Fred Howard Park is moving ahead fixing their bathrooms and their facilities. Everything is
porta potties and they're charging $6 for that gracious use. And we are charging nothing
for having bathrooms that are repaired. I know they want to lift them, and I don't know where they're getting the money from. I've heard no movement, but bottom line is we should
have a fee. Not for our residents, but for our nonresidents that are utilizing not only Sunset Beach, but also
the splash park. These are things that I would like to see the board change our policy to have it similar to what we have
at Dodecanese, where you put a sticker in your window. I did do some research, so Indian Rocks
charges 250 per hour. Half Moon Beach charges $10 per day. Sand Key Beach $6 per day. Tiger tail
$10 per day or $1.50 per hour. Saint Pete Beach is a dollar to $1.50 per hour. Clearwater is
350 an hour. Fort Myers is $5 an hour. Treasure Island $5 an hour. Palm beach $7 per hour. Cocoa beach $4 per hour in
Jacksonville, $15 flat. Was there. The Fort DeSoto was there, one for that beach as well? It wasn't on my. Yeah. So I mean, I don't know, I just was
going to do some just to give us some ideas and some guidance on how we could change hours. I mean, I'm open to suggestions,
whether you want to do a flat rate or do you want to do an hourly rate, but we have to get some control. The people that called me over the weekend with just telling me there was
nowhere to park, they were parking down, you know, the off streets and having to walk like like what we have on the Sunset Beach concerts. So, Commissioner
Panther, do you have any comments on I'm in support of this at least I'm pretty sure I would not be in support of any fees for any residents, but I don't think that that's what's being proposed because I was you
know, I still detest that our friends in, you know, over in Down County want to charge Tarpon residents to park at Howard Beach. I think that's absolutely insulting and ridiculous. So as long as we're only talking about nonresidents,
I'm good with that. As long as we keep it within the middle range of our surrounding communities. Commissioner Donato, I would concur with that. I would suggest a flat fee, however, instead of an
hourly fee, because that to me is how are you going to police that? Is it my only question with it. But as long as the committee works that out and brings it back to us, I'm fine
with that, Commissioner. Cool. Yes. I mean, I have some concerns with charging people to come to Sunset Beach. So it's the problem. I mean, if we're talking about last weekend, it's
a holiday weekend. But, you know, I want people to come visit the town and it's got to be cheap. As you see, those city owned beaches are charging much
less than those county owned beaches. And that's where I'm going at it. As Commissioner Banther said. And mayor, I would ask with the consensus of this board, there were some communication. I've been going
back and forth with the county about giving parking to Tarpon Springs residents for free at Howard Beach and the Causeway. If you can, ask Trish to just pull that information up and
needs to come from you. Now you're the mayor as we have this consensus, try to work with them a little bit. They they come up with these reasons about their county owned park. And, you know, I explain to them, well,
you're county owned parks are in the heart of residential neighborhoods like ours is. They're just not, you know, our youth and our everyday people are not enjoying it and like
they should because they got to pay 5 or 6 bucks a time and we're already paying for it, if you ask me. So I think this board of collectively supports you to just carry that communication, that dialog
forward, to help them look just for Tarpon Springs residents. And I'm going to go one step further. I was told there was some, you know, thought of the park. The county went off of the
park back to the city at some point for fractional amount. I don't know if that was true or not, but I'm interested in getting that park back. They're neglecting it like no other. I mean, they got porta potties
going on for 8 or 9 months. You know, it's why don't we buy it and take care of it ourselves? We can make it. A money can be a money maker for the whole community, and we can make it work really good. So, I mean, I
know it's came out of nowhere on the agenda item, but we're talking about it all and something to consider. So thank you. I wish you we had had this before this morning because I had coffee with Brian Scott
could have asked him that. He's he's really good. He's he's a good friend of Tarpon Springs. Yeah. Yeah. And so is Dave Eggers. Yes. So. How should we
proceed on this? Do you just do you want to just kind of was the consensus to bring back a proposal or an ordinance that would establish parking fees for the beach for nonresidents?
Yeah. And then we also want to I mean, it's a side item, but is to follow up with the county on. Sure. We'll provide I'll provide you with that email history.
Yeah. Because then is that okay. Yeah. All right. Thank you agai, Vice Mayor. So is there any
public comment on this item? I didn't ask, but is there Austin. There are no online comments. Nice. Thank you very much. Okay.
That concludes the agenda items. Let's go to board and staff comments. Fire chief. That's an
inside joke. I actually accidentally called him fire chief at the Memorial Day. No comments. I did too to be honest. City attorney, no comments. Mayor, city manager,
just mention I'm going to be at the City County Manager conference for the remainder of the week. I'll be over in Orlando, so I'll be available easily if you need me. Thank
you. Our assistant city clerk. And let's go to Commissioner Banther. I just want to thank, I guess it was the Elks, VFW and
police, fire and city staff for a great event yesterday. It was extremely hot. I feel bad for our men and women in their in their color guard uniform, but they all did a great job. And I
just want to thank the board for a very well run meeting tonight. And for those of us that that watched our workshop, I think that went very well as well. I'm
out of the country next week with my daughters and my wife for a little cruise. So I wish you all well and I will trust your management of the city while I'm gone. Commissioner De
Donato, I too would like to thank the Elks and the Legion, as well as the city, for their presentation. I do want to comment, though, to the timing
police chief, that our major needs to speak into the microphone a little more so, but it went really well. I'm encouraged by the numbers that that turn out, and I have a
solution for you with the two chiefs I think we should buy one of them a toupee and tell.
Commissioner. Every once in a while when I would introduce their names and I'd get the, you know, I'd go to say their first name and I'd say the other one's. And it completely messed me up for the speech. But. So I
get it. No, just thank you for everyone in Tarpon Springs for honoring and remembering those for Memorial Day, you know, just was a great weekend to be
thankful for the freedom we have to be out and enjoy everything we got. Budget seasons coming up. We're taking care of some items, the boards gel and we're
doing good. So just wishing everybody the best and thank you. Thank you very much. Vice Mayor. So I want to I'm going to
use Commissioner Donato's line. Everything's been said I, I just want Commissioner Banta to understand that, yes, I will have take care of things while
you're gone. Have no fear. I love that line. It was a very nice turnout. And yes, I don't know if they need toupees, but
we do need to put them on different hats at least. So. And you should also write down who you're going to be speaking about before your your speech.
But anyway, thank you. Listen, I'm here to abuse as well. I do think that that workshop that we had was excellent. I think the
board is, as commissioner was saying, was is gelled and working together. I like the differences of opinion and even the sarcastic comments that come
my way. I love them too. I do want to make one comment that I know we have a specific person who wishes to come and preach
out of a Bible every week, and I know he has his First Amendment right to do that. I would, just as our rules of procedure dictate, I do not wish to be
called out, to be told that I'm using a potty break or anything like that. That's not necessary for him to make any comments. I've already sent a letter out
to him once, and I will be sending out another letter to follow up. If he wants to do what he wants to do, that's his prerogative. But I will do what
I want to do, and that's my prerogative. But this board has to be addressed either to the mayor or to the board. Not Mike is to is going for his potty
break. I thought that was ignorant and immature. So with that, I wish everybody a good week. And. If you see people
messing around at Sunset Beach, feel free to call me because that's what everyone does anyway. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Yeah, I want to thank the
commission for. Their patience with me. You know, I'm, you know, it's a much tougher job. You didn't you didn't warn me about how tough this is because,
you know, it's you're you know, you're you're trying to keep the meeting going. You're also trying to you're looking ahead a little bit, and then you're also
trying to participate in the conversation. So you're trying to absorb everything. Everybody's saying try to stay. You know I sometimes I forget. Is there a motion not a motion I can't remember I'm going to here
and there. So again I, I really appreciate all your patience with me. And I'm, I'm trying I'm trying to get better. So the we
something we didn't discuss at our rules meeting, which is honoring people. There's two people that I'd like to honor
and I just I just want to. I mean, I could put you guys on the spot and say, does anybody oppose this? Because I don't think anybody would. I'd like to do a special honor for. And I don't want to wait for people to
always have to pass away before we honor them. You know, I'd rather honor people while we can. And, you know, one of there was kind of mentioned tonight,
you know, Mary Burris and Naomi Patterson have been, you know, angels in Tarpon Springs. You know, they you know, they funded
Mary's husband, Herman and Mary. They were married, you know, and they funded the boys club. They also founded the Shepherd
center. They've they're just they've been tireless workers in, in very low profile things. You know, they've never asked for a thing. They're they're
like I say they're you know, we have angels in America. They're, they're they're those angels are the ones always stepping up. So unless anybody has opposition, I'm going to do something to
honor them next at the either the next meeting or the next one after that. Naomi is not in the best of health right now, and I want to do it while we can. So I hope everybody is okay with
that. That's great. So with that, with that said, the meeting is adjourned. Is adjourned at 830. So do you guys
want to take any kind of break? No potty breaks. Do you need one there? Do you need a break? It's a good thing I got thick skin though. It is good to go over
here. Anybody want to take a break? No. Okay. You need a break. Five minutes. If you need 1 to 5, we'll do one. I don't need a break. I'm good. All right. No. I'm good. I know if
anybody else. Okay. So. The we. I'd like to call to order the Community Redevelopment Agency meeting for downtown Tarpon
Springs redevelopment area. Tuesday, May 27th, 2025. Roll
call. Here. Eisner here. Here, here, here. Okay, let's go to the agenda items. We have. Agenda item number one Award
file request for proposal branding and marketing professional services. This is the follow up to what was on the general agenda. City manager,
this is just a companion request for the portion will be paid out of CRA fund. Is there any is there any questions of the City
Manager on this item? Okay. Any public comments? Austin. There are no comments online. Okay. If
there's no further comments, go to roll call. I mean roll call please. Can we get a motion. Motion we have I'm sorry, I'm sorry. See, I told you guys.
Have you got a lot of patience? We're good. Okay. Commissioner Panther made a motion. Second, second. Okay. Now let's go to
roll call. Mr. Panther. Yes, Mr. Donato. Yes, yes, yes. Vice chair Eisner. Yes, yes. Item number two. Award, sidewalk
improvement program. City manager. Yeah. This is also the companion piece for the segments that are on Tarpon Avenue within the CRA. Okay. Are there any
questions of the city manager on this item? Any public comments? Austin. There are no online comments. Thank you. Can I hear
a motion? So moved. Second. If there's no comments, further comments. Roll call please Mr. Man. Yes, Mr. Donato yes yes yes
yes yes. Item number three Tarpon Avenue. Bump out removal. Additional parking. City manager thank you. Mayor, this is a an item that was on the books
before I came. And I just wanted to bring it back to you. Just to. So you are aware of what? Before we start tearing them out, what's going on? Just kind of reassurance that you're still good with this. This will create
a few more parking spaces in the downtown and clarify where these spots are again. So there's a little do you have a map in your presentation presentation as the final item of the evening? I
have a 47 slide presentation. You did not go over each one. We'll jump right to the chase here. Thanks to Tony for preparing the slides here, but the location here is on the corner of Tarpon just west of
ring. You're facing south here, so you can see this whole area here was removed except for one piece. We can have the site triangle that we retained. You see this here? This is what it's
going to look like after the work is done. So we're going to gain five spots here. And then there's an additional fifth spot further down on Tarpon Avenue right here. This bump out is going to get removed. And a
parking spot we put in. So we're gaining a total of five spots. All the work is going to be done in-house under operational budget. And Tony tells me he can get it done in 2 or 3 days or your money back. Yeah. Okay. So
let me let me start the questioning. The what about go back, go back. Sir, what about the one to far to the right? Why isn't that getting punched up? I don't think that one gives us
enough space for a parking. But also we want to keep the sight lines for on the cross streets. Okay, so cars can sometimes, you know, if you've ever left ring
and you got the parking by the bank, sometimes you just can't see because the site has been maintained there. So we want to be conscious of that. Okay. Commissioner, do you have any questions? No, but this is this
is great. Thank you, Commissioner de Donato. No. Commissioner coleus, this is great. Please be on the lookout for taking more bump outs like
this. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I'm for this. The only issue that I have is whenever you do things like this, you know, I sit on the MPO for Pinellas, and
they're leaning towards putting more of these things in, slow the traffic down, and now we're taking it out, which speeds up
the traffic. So I'm concerned that we don't create, you know, we create a more parking spots but we create other hazards. So
I'm for it because I do want the parking. And that's why I'm glad in a way that you're leaving that little triangle. Because otherwise, you know, that'd be a second street for people to go
buzzing down when somebody's standing there waiting to make a left. So. Understood. Chief, you got any comments on the. Don't
think it's a problem. Okay. Let's go to public comments. Anybody have a public comment on this? Austin. There is one
public comment. I'll unmute them now. Please state your name and your address for record. Good
evening, Peter 514 Ashland Avenue. This is really a great idea. It's been long coming and needed. I have to say that when
we did years ago, we did some all this work where we put all these bollards out. It's come to be a mistake. So yes, it's good
to pull those out. But I also, as Commissioner Coleus mentioned, you should look at some other areas. The main area that I think would need to have those removed is the corner of
MLK and Pinellas or alternate 19. There's one on the northwest corner that if you remove that, you can create a right turn
lane. Also on the same side over by the southeast corner, that one could be removed and the other two could also be looked at being removed. But this would
actually increase your flow of traffic at that light. Since there is no dedicated left turn going eastbound to go from MLK
to Pinellas. So that whole intersection needs to be looked at. And I would also implore you to talk with the county about changing the light structure there. So when the left turn
lane light comes on, going westbound on MLK, there's a corresponding left turn lane for the eastbound MLK that would help increase your traffic flow
and also timings for during the day when school is in effect. Because sometimes you'll get busses backed up all the way past banana, because there's not enough time for those busses to
cross all 19. So I would say, look at that intersection for maybe increased traffic flow and removing some of those bulb out.
Thank you for your time. Okay. Any any more. There are no other public comments okay. So let's come back to the board. I'd like to have a motion. So moved
second okay. So just I I'm definitely in favor of this. Like like commissioner said come back with some more okay. Any
other comments? Roll call please, Mr. Panther? Yes. Mr. Yes yes yes. Vice chair. Yes. Chair. Yes. That includes
concludes the agenda items, any board or staff comments. Chief. No comments. City manager, our deputy city clerk, any other
commissioners want to say anything? Okay. Then the CRA
meeting is adjourned at 839.