I call to order the regular session of the Board of Commissioners of the City of Tarpon Springs. Tuesday, January 13th, 6:30 p.m. Roll
call please. Mayor. Here, vice Mayor Eisner here. Commissioner here. Commissioner Donato here. Commissioner, here. Tonight's
reflection will be by the Reverend Danny Bennett from Grace City Church. And that will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand.
All right, let's pray together. Our heavenly father, it's always good to seek you before we seek solutions and improvements to this beautiful city known as Tarpon Springs.
God, we are seeking your wisdom and we just ask for your wonderful counsel as we make decisions. And God, we're so mindful and grateful for who you are in our lives and may we
always acknowledge you. You are a great creator, our Savior, and we thank you for that. We're also grateful for our first responders. We're always praying for their protection. We're grateful for their
bravery as they serve this city. We're thankful for this nation of ours who will be celebrating 250 years. We're also mindful of our armed forces as they continue to protect the
liberties and the freedoms of this of this great country. We ask all this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen, sir. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. Reverend, thank you so much. And I had the pleasure of attending. Was it your your second anniversary or your fourth, third
anniversary? And it's you have a wonderful congregation of and just amazing people. So thank you. Thank you for your presence. We have two
proclamations tonight. So I'm going to come on up. The first one is going to be the Arbor
Day. Okay. So we have a proclamation in honor of of
Arbor Day, Florida, Arbor Day. Mona Neville is here to and Pat McNeese. But Mona is our city's
official arborist. So she's and she's doing a great job and she is doing her job. And she laughs because I had a tree
that was that was falling in. So I had a tree that was that was falling. It started falling. You know about my tree, right? Okay. So my tree was falling
after the storm from last year. Helene so used to be like 9 or 10ft high. I couldn't no way I could even jump up there and touch the tree. But it got to
where it was actually hitting me, like in the face, right? So it was falling. It was eventually going to go into my driveway, which would have been a problem. And if I cut it off, I'd have a stump of a tree, but
not tree. So Mona came over and you know, she's there to make sure that we're, you know, adhering to the to the rules. And she measured the tree and looked at it and said, well, it's kind of general and
healthy, but I understand it's going to be a problem. And, you know, I'm going to give you permission to cut it down. But, mayor, I got to charge you so, so she, you know, and so, you
know, she didn't she didn't waver and I what was it, $413 or something to cut the tree. But she charged me. So I want to let you know she's doing her
job and she played and she plays no favoritism. So and I appreciate that I actually respect her for doing that. So thank you so much. So whereas
in 1872 J. Sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees. And whereas
this holiday, called Arbor Day, was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska, is now observed throughout the nation
and the world. And whereas in Florida, Arbor Day began in 1886 and was designated to be observed on the third Friday of
January. And whereas trees can reduce the erosion of our precious topsoil by wind and water cutting. Reduced. You're
okay. Got it. Okay, so make sure I was reading that right. Trees can reduce the erosion of our precious topsoil by wind and water cutting, heating and
cooling costs. Moderate the temperature, clean the air, produce life giving oxygen, and provide habitat for wildlife. And whereas trees are renewable
resource giving us paper wood for our homes, fuel for our fires and countless other wood products. And whereas trees in our city increase property
values, enhance the economic vitality and beautify our community, and are a source of joy. And whereas the city of Tarpon Springs has been recognized as a Tree City USA
by the National Arbor Day Foundation since 2007, and desires to continue its tree planting efforts. Now. Therefore, I, John Collins, by virtue of the authority vested
in me as mayor of the City of Tarpon Springs, do hereby
proclaim. Friday, January 16th, 2026, as Florida Arbor Day. And
yes, I have learned to love. Tarpon Springs, was born and raised in Tampa Bay area and came over here for a in difference jobs again. My first meeting of the mayor was at his
house and no, I did not waver. And it's I'm hoping to continue the effort of the board and everybody here and all the residents of Tarpon Springs and
plant more trees and continue with our newly adopted recently urban management plan. I need
everyone that you charge for the cutting of tree cutting where that money goes and buy it elsewhere. So we have a tree bank established, and anybody
that has to remove a tree for a multitude of reasons. If our code states plant for inch replacement, but a lot of properties do not allow that with bigger homes and things
like that. We as an arborist, we call it the right tree, right place, and so is property. He really don't have room for any more trees. So therefore we
have these set up and we charge. It's a whole fancy little spreadsheet we use. But that money goes into that bank and is used throughout the city does not hit general fund and we use it for tree maintenance
and or replacement fees throughout the city. And our Arbor Day free giveaway that we have in February. That money
comes from that bank bill. Yes, it's a it's a very good thing. And my goal here is outreach, education and to inform our
residents, students and staff on what we do, why we do it, and more education and outreach and being there and working
with landowners to help and why we do what we do. Okay, our
next proclamation is for Doctor Martin Luther King Junior Day.
So, Reverend Milton Smith, would you please come up? Hey,
Juliana will be here as well. So. Yeah, before I read the proclamation, you know, I want to. It's really appropriate
that. The Reverend Smith is here today accepting this. You know, I remember the day that Martin Luther King made the
speech. I don't remember seeing him make that speech. I remember hearing that speech, which was the I have a dream speech. And he talked about, I've been to the mountaintop
and I've and I've seen I've gone to the mountaintop, and I've seen the promised land. And, you know, it was. He
talked about, you know, unification of our, of our of our kids and, and, you know, white kids and black kids playing together and holding
hands and, and, you know, I also have a sign at the mayor's office behind my desk it says, these are the good old days.
And, you know, I think about back what it was like back then when he made that speech and where we are now. And the fact
that our friend here, Milton, is here, and he has been such an amazing part of our community and our Rotary Club, and I don't think anybody sees Reverend as anything different
than all any of us, other than he's just an exceptional person. And I think that's what Martin Luther King dreamed of, was that we would be seen by the
content of our character. And and to have somebody of this high character here and Julianne as well. But Milton represents that. And, you know, he's been the president of our
Rotary Club and and many other things, and nobody has seen him other than by the content of his character. I also, you know, we when we talk about these are
the good old days versus those days. And you think about, you know, so many people look at today and they talk about, oh, you know, oh, you know, the
everything's so toxic and the environment is toxic and all that. And, and I'm not saying that, that things can't get a little more civil. But remember,
you know, we had John Kennedy shot, Robert Kennedy shot. Obviously Martin Luther King shot Medgar Evers shot Malcolm
X shot. I mean, those were some very volatile times. And so I still think we these are the the good old days. And obviously we hope every day going forward is even a better
day. So with that said, I'll read the proclamation. Whereas Doctor Martin Luther King Junior devoted his life to the advancement of civil rights and public service, he believed in
a nation of freedom and justice for all, and challenged all citizens to help build a more perfect union and live up to the purpose and potential of
America. And whereas, celebrating Doctor King's life in spirit through community wide recognition and service on the on the holiday is an appropriate way to honor Doctor
King. Bringing our citizens together and strengthening our communities and nation. And whereas, the city of Tarpon Springs joins the community celebration in observance of
the holiday honoring Doctor Martin Luther King Junior. And Whereas each of us can, can and must contribute to making our communities better with increased opportunity for all
our citizens. And whereas the City of Tarpon Springs urges all people to recognize the life and works of Doctor Martin Luther King Junior and apply
his life and teachings of service to inspire others to serve and remember his spirit of community. Now, therefore, I, John Kuleana, by virtue of the authority vested in me as mayor
of the City of Tarpon Springs, do hereby proclaim January 19th, 2026, as Doctor Martin Luther
King Junior Day. So, Reverend Smith and and Miss Dave, if you want to come up and say a few
words. First of all, I'm truly humbled by the words that I mayor said concerning myself. I grew up here in Tarpon Springs.
I went to the schools here in Tarpon Springs, and I grew up in a time when things were segregated, when I grew up in a time where my first few years
in, in grade school was all black school and then, you know, then eventually things began to change over time. But I know what that feels like because
I've seen it, and I've also seen seen the change to where we all can be. One where we all can go to the same schools together. We all can live together and work together and
talk together. And I was raised with those values. That's in the Bible, and I was raised with those values that Doctor King stood for. So I truly appreciate Tarpon Springs. Continue to recognize the
Doctor Martin Luther King holiday and recognize the value and the standards that he stood for, for all people. Can you let everyone know what's going on this weekend? You will do
that. So if she would tell us everybody what's going to happen Saturday, okay. This Saturday, January 17th is our annual festival, parade and
festival on January 17th. That morning we have a breakfast at First United Methodist Church here in Tarpon Springs at 8 a.m. At 10 a.m. 10 a.m. is the
lineup for the parade. So if anybody wants to be in the parade, walking or riding your bike any kind of way you want to, you're welcome to the parade. Start at 11 a.m.
Proceeds down top and into the city of Tarpon Springs. Come to. Then we'll meet at the Dorsett Park for Festival in the Park with music, food and activities.
So everybody is welcome. Thank you. If I could just add to that, the brook was is not just coming down to sit down to eat.
There's a breakfast program and our kidnaping in progress. Our keynote speaker this year will be this. Our assistant police chief Terry Matthews. So come
out and have a good time at breakfast. So you. And I'll get
to the next one. Okay. Let's have we're going to have next public comments. Anyone that
would like to speak on any item that's not on the agenda, please come forward. Hi. Margot
Leiser, 514 Ashland Avenue, Tarpon Springs I saw many of you at the epiphany service at Saint Nicholas, where the priest reminded us that we are
the light in the dark and world. And I've been reflecting since epiphany. What of his words? So let me tell you about a story
about young Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote Treasure Island one night as his nanny was trying to put the young boy to sleep, Robert was staring out the window and the nanny
asked, Robert, what are you doing? And the young boy said, look, the lamplighter is punching holes in the darkness. I think that's an awesome
description of the reason God has placed each one of you where you're at. You're not there to shake your head or bemoan the darkness. You're
there to punch holes in the darkness. So how are you doing about that so far, so recently, Mister Banther suggested that the last meeting eliminating
calls for public comments. Excuse me, excuse me. That. Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me. Create barriers to participation. That item is on the agenda. You can you can
speak on that item when it comes up. So we need to have patience and understanding with each other. In Matthew 514, the Scripture tells us that we are
the light of the world. We live in a pretty dark world, but the world is not without light. Unless we fail to punch holes in the darkness, we must let
our light shine by treating others with kindness, compassion, and justice. We punch holes in the darkness by showing joy and taking the high
road and putting others first. People aren't impressed by how many religious services you go to. They need meaningful differences in all of us in
2026. Let's stop punching down on our citizens who care and want to shine their light. If Tarpon Springs fails, we all fail. We're in this together.
It takes a village. A community is a group effort. Every morning, let's remind ourselves I am the light of the world. Let's show the world there's
another way to be together. Let's punch holes in the darkness and quit punching holes in each other. Let us work together to make Tarpon
Springs the city on the hill full of light. Thank you. Hi. Happy New Year everyone! David Ballard Junior I live on
Georgia Avenue down the street in Palm Harbor. The Board of Forward Pinellas is a political offshoot of Pinellas County
government that officially took root around 2014, to my recollection, in order to qualify for a seat on the
Forward Pinellas board, a local individual city government must encompass a residential base upwards of 30,000 inhabitants
within its city limits, respectively seen as a qualification requisite to to be upon that board in accordance with article one,
section two of our current US Constitution. Adhering to the Comprehensive Interlocal Cooperation Act of 1969. In
chapter 163 of the Florida State Statutes, esteeming itself on the deliberately run down and failing infrastructure and purposefully blighted
downtown conditions that most of our cities now suffer from. Forward Pinellas as an intermodal planning agency, is
using legislative delinquencies as its platform to incentivize its inter-local redevelopment strategy, reflective of statute
339.6 for berthing systematic solutions to a deliberately contrived problem as its tactic labeling its tactics as a Safe
Streets program and to accompany its incentivized strategic problem solving process. Legislation is intended to give rise to
interlocal privatized jurisdictions, aiding and installing private military operations via statute 339.175.
Section for Forward Pinellas, as apportioned is invoking individual, separate privatized political subdivisions.
Jurisdictionally in government. In correcting a third party legal privatized entity of such transferring county function
and power in Pinellas County. Home Rule Charter section 2.04 Q creating independent special
districts in statute 189.069 for creating an open air confinement and surveillance corridor reflective of article
one, section eight, clause 17, in its ten. In its ten mile square parameter that they're establishing jurisdictionally
under the 14th amendment. I believe this birthing of despotic water jurisdictions. Your three minutes are up.
Thank you though. Thank you sir. Next. Good evening, Katie Taylor, 657 Haven Place, Tarpon Springs. Happy New Year to you
all, gentlemen. Happy New Year. I have a couple things. One was I wanted to see if I could recommend. Epiphany was beautiful. This is the best shot, the best seat I had out
of all the years I've been going to it. I had a good seat and I wanted to ask. Although we can hear the church services over the intercom, is it any way we can have a screen that we can actually see the church
service? I don't know if that could be done or not, but to actually view it while they at the church, that's just a thought. You know, the the
second one was at Discovery Park, the lights in the, in the children area where the kids playground. It's not coming on at 6:00, 6:00 is getting dark.
So now the lights at Discovery Park in the playground area is not coming on. So a few of us grandparents was out there this week and we noticed the lights come on at 6:00. And some people say that they don't come
on. So here I am asking, who can I email to ask him? Can you take a note of that? Okay. Do I need to send an email? No, he's got it. Okay. He's aware. Okay.
Another one was last year. Earlier last year, we met with city Manager rod, a community community meeting. We met with City Manager rod, and we talked about opening Lime Street. And
it was going to be a US a traffic survey done, and I want to see if I can follow up on that. So do I email you City Manager Rod? Okay. Follow up on that. Thank you. And also we're working with with Road Cemetery.
I'd like to thank all of y'all that's helping us with the grave that we did find outside Rose Cemetery on city property. So I want to thank the gentleman, the the staff that's working with us to to work on
those boundary lines so we can get the people that's outside of roles in, in encompassed in roles. So thank you, gentlemen.
Thank you. And you can thank the city manager for that. Next. Good evening, ladies and
gentlemen. My name is Lori Weaver. I live at 451 East Tarpon Avenue. And I'm a candidate for the office of commissioner in the upcoming
election on March 10th. I'd like to invite all the members of the community to join me at the candidate forum held by the League of Women Voters. One
week from today here at City Hall, at 630 at the forum, residents will have the opportunity to hear directly from the candidates seeking to serve and lead our city. This
forum is a chance to learn more about the candidates and the issues facing our community, and they will have the opportunity to present their questions through the moderator.
It is also an opportunity for me to hear the concerns of our residents, so I look forward to the opportunity. Listening as much as answering questions.
The residents voice matters and their involvement helps shape this community, so I hope to see everyone here next Tuesday. And as a candidate, I'd like to
offer my contact information. You can reach out to me on Facebook where my phone and email are available. I'm always seeking resident input and I
look forward to speaking to everyone. Thank you, thank you. Next. Good evening. Hi, my name
is Deborah Hill Jones and I'm at 429 East Boyer Street in Tarpon. I've been here now for about 23 years, and recently I
had a little dealing with the water. And I asked the lady about the $100 deposit that you put in, and she said, well,
yeah, we keep it until you move. I said, well, I thought those other like like company, other companies, phone company back in. You put that up until you
establish your payment history and then they usually refund. But here they are telling me with the water and the deposit we put in, like I put in now 23
years ago, it stays there until you sell your house or get rid of it. I plan on being there until God call me home. So
where do I go? I see every year September or so, they put like a little $7 in some interest. I'm here to try to see if this
can be looked into and changed or whatever. Have you or is it going to stay or what? But from my understanding, and other cities, because I lived in
Madison, Illinois for 20, 30 some years, lived in Tennessee. After a while you establish payment history. They usually refund that money back instead of giving you a $7 and some
interest once a year in September. I don't know if you all can look into it or not, but that's my concern. Thank you for hearing me out and
smiling with me too. Thank you. What else? Evening. If you're like us, 514 Ashland Avenue.
And before we get to my readings, I want to highlight a couple of things that I'm required to answer. Now, instead of talking about the
proclamations. Thank you for honoring our staff and that we have a full time arborist. And as far as the doctor Martin Luther King Junior thing I had
on my little list here, we did a wonderful job for Christmas with lights. Drive down Tarpon Avenue between here and the
docks. The docks drive down MLK. There ain't no lights down MLK. That's a major street. It's got the nice bulb lights. But why
don't we decorate there too? It was brought up earlier. Was also on my list about distant and Lyme. We keep waiting for that to be opened up. With all
that backup on all 19 that's been going on with the traffic, you still got to cut through there. If you had distant open, a lot safer aspect. But I did
want to do one reading and this is from Proverbs. Some of the words of Solomon, Proverbs two 1 to 15. My son, if you accept
my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver, and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of
God. For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk is blameless,
for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understand what is just and right and fair. Every good path for wisdom will enter your
heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your sole discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you. Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from
men whose words are perverse, whose pastor crooked, and who are devious in their ways. And I reflect on this because the mayor says, where are we now?
Well, we have made progress with African Americans, but in the meantime, we've turned our backs and our wrath against anybody who is different or of
color. And then in this cast net, have you ever gone casting for mullet? You pull it in, you got some crabs, you got maybe a snook, a sheephead. That's
what's going on. Look into your hearts. Look at what's going on. Because these are what's going on now. And where are we now? You're three no more further
along than we were in 65. With regards to other people's rights. We need to stand up. All of you all need to voice.
Your three minutes are up. Thank you. Anyone else? Juliana
de 413 East Oakwood Street, Tarpon Springs, Florida I want to thank the city works that came out to fix the water that was coming up in the street,
but I am going to call back because this is the third opening on Oakwood Street, a water seeping up through the ground, through the ground, and
also the second opening of a hole in my yard coming down the side where I know the city owns a pipe that runs down the side
of my house. Yes, y'all do, but I want to thank you for coming out. And I know that when they did it, it had to be something serious because they had to bring the big guns out. You know, I talked about the big
guns, the big truck with the big holes. So I want to thank you all for coming in and doing that for me. So do you. You
need your pipe fixed or it's already got fixed. Yeah. That
was a good one. All right. Okay. So anyone else? All right, let's move on to the consent
agenda. Let me read the items. Number three is attorney fees. Eunice Salzman, number four, special event, Tarpon Springs, touch a truck and open house.
Number five, approval of bingo hall. Public art proposal number six, extend file utilizing the revenue producing Florida State term. Contract
number seven approval of Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services grant agreement. Number eight renew the cartridge filters for reverse
osmosis water facility. Number nine Award file for the Red Wing Safety Shoe program. Number ten renew traffic control products and related
products and solutions. Number 11 renew the file for the flock safety automatic license plate recognition cameras and number 12 appointment of temporary
part time senior administrator. Does any Commissioner wish to pull any of these items? Item item 12 number 12. Okay.
Anybody else? Okay. Let's go ahead. Go ahead and go on. Yes, I saw this. I was actually happy to see this with Mr. Herring being able to help
assist possibly another three months. And I'd like to make it up to six months that way, you know, if needed. That way it could help our new finance
director. And it actually worked out very well. When Paul Smith retired, we he came up for three months and we actually extended it to six months just in case if it was
needed. And I just like to do the same thing here. City manager, are you can you adjust that to six months? I think you can adjust it on adoption. Make that make that part of the
motion. Well, let's go ahead. Let's I probably should have voted on the other let's let's vote on three through 11. Then I'll have you make an amended
motion. And okay. So let's can I have a motion to approve items three through 11. So moved second okay. If there's no discussion, roll call please.
Mr. Panther. Yes, Commissioner. Yes, Commissioner. Yes, yes, vice mayor. Eisner. Yes. Yes. Commissioner coleus, would you go ahead and make that adjustment to that item? Yes.
I'd like to make the motion to be able to appoint Ron Herring, finance director, to start from three months to six months from January 15th, 2026 to July 15th,
2026? Second. Okay. Does anybody have any is anybody adverse to that moving it to six months okay. With that said roll call please. Commissioner.
Yes, Commissioner. Donato. Yes, Commissioner. Yes. Yes. Vice mayor. Yes, yes. I think that gives us more peace of mind that he can stay around for
three months. So I think it's a good thing we have two business items. We have. First, we have the ratification of the finance
director, Tabitha Atkins. Would you please come forward? We
have the basic. Is that better? Oh, yeah. All right. Good evening. Mayor, vice mayor, commissioners Tabitha Atkins, human resources director. So several months ago, as you guys
know, our finance director announced that he would be retiring. So Ron left us after 39 years of service. So at that time, we started a recruitment process. We posted our finance
director, finance director job and went through several applications that came in. We did an interview process. We did a first round of interviews,
and from that round we selected a couple finalists, which we brought in and we did a second round of interview with them. We feel very grateful that through that process, we were
able to find Ashley Kimpton, who is here tonight. Ashley is a certified public accountant, and she brings with her 15
years of municipal public accounting experience. We have made an offer of employment to Ashley. Ashley has accepted that offer. So tonight we're
asking for your ratification to finalize that. Okay. Does anyone, any commissioners have any questions of Miss Adkins?
Okay. Let's go to any public comments regarding this item. So I come back, let's entertain. I entertain a motion to ratify.
Okay. If there's any further comments, roll call, please. Mr. Banther. Yes. Mr. DiDonato.
Yes. Mr. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Thank you. Is she here tonight? She is. Ashley. Come on. Forward. Come and say hi to us.
Now. Don't scare her on Twitter. Yeah. Hi. How are you guys doing? Good, good. I'm pretty excited. We're excited to have you. Yeah, I get started on Thursday, so I know I'm going
to hit the ground running. I'm excited to hear Ron's going to stay on board for a bit to help me along. And I just I couldn't be happier. Wonderful. We're happy to have you. Thank you. So you must have done a good
job. Nobody even wanted to talk about it. We're just like, let's go. Yeah, I guess no news is good news. Yeah, yeah. You did a great job and we're very excited to have you. Thank you
so much. Welcome. Thank you. Okay. Number 14 is my item. So can we get it up on the screen. So back when it was it was an
idea I had back when I got sworn in as mayor was I was watching the meetings. And when I used to watch the meetings at
home, I noticed that there was always a lot of dead time on the screen where the the seal is up there for quite a few minutes before the meeting
starts. And, you know, one of the things we've I think we've tried to do here at the city, I think we're doing a pretty good job is, is is to create a
better. And a better community environment. I know the city manager is is committed to that with all the different activities we do. You know that
that longest table was a great example of of our community coming together. And, and I believe we should do more. And
one of the things was to, you know, we have a lot of really good people in our city doing a lot of really nice things for each other. And some of them, you know, they don't get
attention like we do up here. They don't come and they're not grandstanding or but and we saw a lot of this during the storm time in Helene and had people that were helping each other
and their neighbors. And I wanted and given that we had all that dead time on the screen, I wanted people to be able to acknowledge their
neighbors and those people who do acts of kindness for them throughout the community. So we have in in here, the rules
would be that we could it would be open to all residents and members of the public. The submissions must be received on on a couple times a month. The
acts of kindness will be chosen at the discretion of the city staff, because we can't have people sending in things that aren't kind, so we're only
going to post those things that are positive. If you want to complain, you can come here and go to the podium and complain. And and those they'll be
displayed again on the YouTube videos that people see at home. And they will also will be displayed in here before the meeting start. And can you go
to the next slide, please? So there'll be a nice port portal for them to go in and it'll be on the website. There you see acts of kindness. They can go
hit that spot and then then they'll have that. Like that and then they'll put their name. They'll be able to write a short thing. These aren't going to be very long. They're just
going to be. It could be something like, you know, mister, I was bedridden and Mr. Smith took my garbage out for me for. And I want to
acknowledge his kindness. It could be that simple. And then go to the next one, and it'll look like that. Saw neighbor deliver homemade meals to a recovering resident on my street. And they could and you
could say they if they want to say the person's name, they can and they can say submitted by who? It's submitted by, you know, watch the you know, we can actually I got part of this
idea was when one of the commissioners or actually the vice mayor's wife had asked me to acknowledge some city worker,
you know, we don't really do that here because again, we, you know, we have limited time and we could be overflowed with those things, but this would be
a perfect venue for somebody to say, you know, I went to I went to go pay my water bill. And Irene staff was extremely pleasant and helpful and I'd like to acknowledge them. And
they could do that right here on the. And everybody in, in, in the city could see that. So that's that's my that's my simple little thing that I'd
like to see us do. So is there any questions Commissioner Banther? No, sir. Thank you, Commissioner Donato. Commissioner gulyas no, it's a good way to just show
appreciation for one another in the community. Thank you. And Vice mayor, I think it's an excellent idea, and I. I'm glad
you brought that up. Thank you. Any public comment on this item? Austin? No, sir. Okay. With
that said, I'd like to come back and have a motion. So moved. Second. Okay. If there's no further comment, roll call, please. Commissioner Banther. Yes. Donato. Yes, Commissioner?
Yes. Vice mayor Eisner. Yes. Thank you. Yes, and thank you. Okay. We're going to go to ordinances and resolutions. I'm
going to move item number 18 up because we have an applicant here. And then I don't think we have applicants on any of the others. Correct. Renee okay. So
let's move. Item number 18. City Attorney. Would you read it by title, please? Do you want me to read the quasi
judicial first? Yeah, sure. This is a quasi judicial proceeding where the Board of Commissioners acts in a quasi judicial rather than a legislative capacity at a quasi
judicial hearing. It is not the board's function to make law, but rather to apply law that has already been established in a quasi judicial hearing. The board is required by law to make findings of fact based
upon the evidence presented at the hearing, and apply those findings of fact to previously established criteria contained in the Code of Ordinances, in order to make a legal decision
regarding the application before it. The board may only consider evidence at this hearing that the law considers competent, substantial, and relevant to the issues. If the competent, substantial, and
relevant evidence at the hearing demonstrates that the applicant has met the criteria established in the Code of Ordinances, then the board is required by law to find in favor of the applicant. By the
same token, if the competent, substantial and relevant evidence at the hearing demonstrates that the applicant has failed to meet the criteria established in the Code of Ordinances, then the board is
required by law to find against the applicant. Do any of the commissioners have a ex parte? Had any ex parte communication?
I do, Mr. cut my said tree that I discussed. I'd hired him to do that and at that time he just he told me that he was going to be bringing this item
forward. And that's pretty much the extent he didn't really get into detail with me. Does anybody else have ex parte communication? No. Anybody else? Okay. Anybody have a conflict
of interest? No, mayor. Then I'll read the resolution by title resolution 20 2520 2569. A resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the City of
Tarpon Springs, Florida, approving application 2440, requesting site plan approval to construct an additional second vehicular access point on property located at 1372
North Pinellas Avenue in the Highway Business Zoning District, providing for findings, providing for conditions, and providing for effective date. Do you swear?
Anybody in. Is there anybody going to be testifying? The applicant, sir. Just you, just me and the applicant. You need to stand up. Thank you. If you
raise your right hand, do you swear or affirm your testimony before the Board of Commissioners shall be the truth, so help you? I do thank you. Okay. Miss Vincent, you
make your presentation, please. Thank you. This is a site plan. Application 24 dash 40. This is fairly simple. This is a site plan. It's actually an amendment to an existing site
plan project that's been under construction for for a while now. The request specifically is to add a second driveway access to an existing project
location is 1372. Excuse me, Dixie highway. We're at the southwest corner of Pinellas Avenue and Dixie highway. This is the site here. This is the
site. When it was the site construction was underway. This is a little bit old. Doesn't show any of the buildings or the other improvements on the site yet. The subject there, they want to add a second
driveway access in this general area off of Dixie to the onto the site. This was a site plan that was previously approved. As you can see this you oops
overlaid on top of the the aerial photograph. So the buildings are showing up yet one building has been completed. When we brought this through originally the second access
was shown, but it was marked through as not part of the site plan. They had some things that needed to go through Pinellas County and swift Mud before they could bring that forward. They didn't want to hold the
whole project up for that. So they're back. They have the Pinellas County right of way use permit and the swift mud permits for the minor impacts to wetlands, which are being
mitigated on site. So there really are no no issues with this from the staff perspective. The Planning and Zoning Board did review this at their last meeting, and they did recommend
approval. Other no issues with the site plan review criteria, the comprehensive plan, the Land Development Code or our concurrency management system. And as I said, staff recommendation is to approve.
There are some conditions on it. Number one, no mangrove alteration of any kind is permitted. The contractor shall field verify all utility locations. Anything needs to be
relocated or any damage. The contractor will be responsible for that. And then just a cautionary that the total development project cost may
kick in the public art program requirement. With that, I'll be happy to answer any questions you have. Planning and Zoning Board did recommend approval of this unanimously. Okay. Mr. Panther, Commissioner Banther.
No, sir. Thank you. Commissioner Donato. Commissioner. Any comments? Vice mayor? It's just pleasing to see that all the permits and everything were in place, like
we usually don't get. So I wanted to compliment. This was a well thought out thing. So thank you. Thank you. Okay. The applicant doesn't have to make
a presentation, but do you wish to do one? Okay. Let's go to public comments. Are there any public comments on this item?
Austin? No, sir. There are no hands up okay, I. Oh, you want to talk on this project or. Yes, water in general? Well, this
does have a wetland issue tied to it. Correct. Go ahead. Thank you, sir. David Ballard, Gattis junior I live down the street, Georgia Avenue in Palm Harbor. I grew up in this area. A lot
of you know that. I remember when Pinellas County was predominantly orange groves and cow fields and development, some of the fastest development in the history of the world has
taken place here in Pinellas County. The eco structure that we used to have, we don't anymore. I don't remember the last time I saw an armadillo or
a raccoon or a rattlesnake. We haven't, as a society, protected the environment at all. We've completely driven
right over the top of everything that God gave us and paved over all of his graces to include what's going on here.
At a certain point, when do we finally say, okay, is there a moratorium that needs to take place? When do we finally look at it and we say, we're running
out of water? We've already got water issues tabled with this reclaimed water contrivance, and we're compacting more
development on top of a failing water supply. Do we think we need to continue paving over
our eco structure? Thank you. Anyone else? Austin? No, sir. There are no hands up. I'd like to come back to the board for a
motion. So moved. Second. Okay. Is there any anyone have any discussion on this item? I do have one comment that first of
all, I think this this access point on Dixie highway is really helps with safety because coming out of that location, you know, there's
most likely going to be trucks pulling trailers. And if they have to turn south on to alter 19, I think it's going to be a
problem. So I like it from a safety standpoint. If there's no further discussion, let's have a call, please. Commissioner Banther. Yes, Commissioner DiDonato. Yes,
Commissioner. Yes, yes. Vice mayor. Yes, yes. Okay. Let's go to item number 15. Would you, city attorney, would you read
the resolution? Yes, mayor. Resolution 2020 601, a resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, supporting the grant application to the Florida Department of Agriculture and
Consumer Services. Fdacs for the community. Forestry. Hurricane Ian recovery Grant program funding opportunity
number 23 DG 11083112009A and providing for an effective date. Okay. PJ would you like to.
This is just a resolution supporting the application of the city of Tarpon Springs to FDA. CS for a grant for the recovery from Hurricane Ian,
which I know was several years back, but they opened it up to several counties that did experience some damage specifically to our trees. And Pinellas County was one of
those. And so we are putting forth an application. The maximum grant amount that we can request is 75,000. It does require a 25,000 or I'm sorry,
25% match, which we are asking for of in-kind services from staff time. I'm in the process of finishing up that application, but this is one of the requirements is to have a
letter of support from the governing body. Okay. Does anyone have any questions of
Miss Harvard? No. Okay. Let's go to any the public have any comments on this item? 514
Ashland Avenue lady didn't mention, but it's in there that there's $1 million plus available. I'm not sure how much we can apply for or what we'd be allotted, since there's
going to be other counties, but I did want to read something that's in the resolution that wouldn't have been read earlier. Tarpon Springs, located within the eligible county and
committed so hard to read to restoring an urban forest, improving environmental resilience and protecting community assets. So I'm glad
we are working on a master plan and such, but I keep seeing surveys we've done fall to the wayside or not being used. Commissioner blunt, former
Commissioner Lunt was. We went down to the rec center a few years back, and we looked at all these options for Whitcomb Bayou resiliency. So if we get
any money from this, to me, that's a project that's been neglected and it's been sitting there. But we need resilience in like she said was four years ago, we had Helene Milton. That
place flooded over as well as other places. So to me, if it's regarding hurricanes, we need to look at resilience along our coastline. So, Whitcomb, by you,
that study we did would be a good place to start. But as far as going forward, these are the things I think we need to be looking more forward and
combining it with our sustainability committee and our master plans. I think we're creating a vision to do the best we can to preserve what we
value in Tarpon Springs. And as Mr. Getty says, and we've seen it, you've grown up here. I grew up in Palm Harbor and Tarpon. Yeah. Used to be the
best. Grapefruit grows where the junior high is now and. So all in the name of progress and
dollars. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else? Austin? No, sir. There are no hands up. Okay. I'd like to come back to the
board for a motion. So moved. Second, is there any discussion on this item? Roll call please. Mr. Yes. Mr. Yes, Commissioner.
Yes. Vice mayor. Eisner? Yes. Planner. Yes. Okay. Let's go to number 16. Would you please read the resolution, resolution
2020 603, a resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, designating certain officials as authorized signatories on negotiable instruments of the
city of Tarpon Springs. Is there any any questions on this by staff? It's pretty rudimentary. Okay. Is there any
public comments on this? Austin? No, sir. I'd like to come back to the board for a motion. So moved. Second, if there's no other comments, roll call,
please. Yes. Yes, Commissioner. Yes, vice mayor. Yes, mayor. Yes. Okay. Item number 17, ordinance 20 2520, an ordinance
of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, amending the City of Tarpon Springs. Special area plan sponge docks and community redevelopment area. Downtown. Character district. Table 3-5
providing for findings, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date. That's ordinance 20 2520 read by title only second reading,
which was will be held on January 27th, 2026. Publications were November 26th, 25 and January 21st, 2026. Does
anyone have to be? Is there any swearing in or no? Okay, not a quasi judicial. Okay. Miss Vincent, would you do the
presentation on this item? Thank you. This is draft ordinance. I don't have a presentation, so I'm going to talk through the memo. This is draft ordinance 22 Dash 20 amending the sponge docks and the CRA Special Area Plan,
specifically the downtown Character District. So kind of scroll back and forth here. So the area of impact for this is the area outlined in blue. And
so I'm going to kind of talk at a high level for a moment. Essentially right now in the in the special area plan, we have a hotel density allowance of 50
hotel units per acre. And then another piece of this proposed amendment speaks to residential density, which would be specifically within this orange area as well, about residential
density, which is 15 units to the acre. So there's really two two things that this proposed amendment is addressing. One is an amendment that facilitates
just candidly, the Tarpon registry project. They proposed to have second floor of lodging at a certain number of units.
Just the math doesn't work. In a nutshell, they're they would be limited to nine hotel units, I believe. By the way, the under the current ordinance
that they want 12. So the the idea of an all inclusive floor area ratio within these districts, you have a few things that govern the height,
the bulk, you know, the massing of a particular development you have that you have height limits, you have the lodging density limit, you have a residential density limit, and
then you have the floor area. And the floor area ratio is essentially, if you have a 5000 square foot lot and your floor area floor area ratio was 1.0,
then you can build 5000ft■!S of building on that lot. If it's a floor area ratio of 2.0, you can build 10,000ft■!S on that l. You know, obviously in in, you
know, would take two storeys at least to do that. So right now in this area that's shown in orange, this is Tarpon Avenue
from just a little bit of east west of Pinellas to ring, you have an allowance of a 2.0 floor area ratio in that
district. Outside of that, the rest of this area is a 1.5 floor area ratio. So what this proposed amendment would do would eliminate the density cap
of 15 units to the acre and the lodging density cap of 50 units per acre. It does not take away anything else, but it allows you to. So going back to the
5000 square foot lot example, if it's a if you have a floor area ratio of 2.0 that allows 10,000ft■!S of development on tt lot, what you do inside that
10,000ft■!S is not further limid by the density cap or the floor or the lodging. Those two density caps, either lodging or
residential. So we you know, we're proposing that essentially in this district, you're eliminating the hotel lodging density cap, the 50 units per acre. So you would
just be able to build within that floor area ratio for a hotel within in this district. In addition, and this is a different issue that we're trying to address, the
residential densities that exist in on the second floor apartments in this area all greatly exceed 15 units per acre. If you had one of these were torn down, you had to
rebuild it. You simply would not be able to. So this is something that and this is this is a recommendation of staff. It's not being driven by any particular project at all.
We're trying to to just remedy a long standing situation such that in the future, if things need to be rebuilt or you have a new project, that there's a
reasonable method to get there. So that is, you know, I'm trying to just kind of talk to you about what this amendment does. The actual amendment
itself is pretty simple. Let me pull up the the actual
ordinance. So this is the straight out of the downtown of this, the the special area plan. And this is the downtown character district. You see,
you have a density of 15 units to the acre. You have floor area ratio of 1.25. Down in these footnotes are where you have specific allowances on Tarpon Avenue for 2.0 under
certain circumstances. So the strikethrough would would remove the residential density cap. And it would also remove
the 50 unit per acre lodging density cap. So that in a nutshell is what is being proposed. So I'm going to stop there and let you ask questions
and then we'll go from there. Thank you. Okay. Let me start the questions off okay I'm sorry. Planning and Zoning Board did review this at their last meeting and they did recommend approval. Thank you.
Was that unanimous? I believe it was, yes. What? Okay. So so what you're saying is if if we
have if if we're getting away with from the units per acre, then we can you. It's the same amount of space. But you could
just have smaller units. Correct. Right. So if like the analogy you made with the, the existing units that are upstairs, all the rental
property, all the rental residential rentals in downtown, if they could not be replaced today under the current because otherwise they'd be forced to be bigger units. Right. Correct.
And if they were bigger, fewer units. Fewer? Yeah, fewer. But they would in the same space it would be bigger. Right. Which then any owner you would
suspect would have to have higher rent. Right. If you can. Only if you if right now you've got four units upstairs that you get to rent and now under
under with. If they were rebuilt you're only going to have two units upstairs. Rentals now become more expensive. Correct. That's a that's a logical conclusion. Yeah. Because the person has to make I mean whoever owns it's
got to make their return on investment. They got they get return on investment on four units instead of two. Correct. Right. Okay. Commissioner Banther, do you have any no
comments, Commissioner Donato no, sir. Commissioner coleus yeah, I have a few questions. That way the public can have an idea of about this. This ordinance. Miss Vincent. And I
was the one who asked. Miss Vincent, are there any other future applications that's been introduced, any staff members or anybody regarding this, this
land use change? So. Miss Vincent, as currently written, this this orange area is the bottom. The first floor of a building could technically have
storefront in the front and then residential in the back. Correct? Correct. Under the current ordinance. Yes. And so the only way I want to approve this moving forward is that
first floor of anybody in that five B's exclusive to retail. This will, in fact allow opportunity for people to build out some of those older first
floors if, if needed. And we want those downtown first floors to remain retail that way. Can people can move around as well as since we're adding
livable quarters in which I don't know how I feel about that. I'm just I'm just making sure we this comes back to us with retail only at the bottom. And I think we're going to get
that in writing. And then as well as I'd be willing to increase the f.a.r in some the way this is written, it allows more opportunity. But our
current code with this 2.0 f a R, you know, by right second story or by third conditional use still limits the potential of this affordability that we
want to create. So I don't mind us creating some more density, but I'm not going to support it if it wipes away the retail in the first floor, because we want to still create that and we want to create and maintain,
if not build upon this walkable downtown area. So I'm not going to support it unless it comes back that it's, you know, clear written with with that as well
as the the ten area that we talked about, it's I guess it's at a, a 1.5. You talk about maybe there's an opportunity to increase. But that's only for
hotel correct. Correct. How does that affect residential wise. Like actually that that does not. The residential density cap is not proposed anywhere except in the orange.
The the residential density cap would stay in place for the stuff that's in yellow. Yes. And when this comes back, can you have a better understanding of or at least a better
breakdown of what that actually means per property? In a way there's not too many of them, but because 40, 40 units on an acre, those properties aren't
an acre wide. So I don't want that to get that misconception that you're building 40 units on there. Trust me, they educated me a little bit earlier today on it, so it's not that much of an increase,
but I think we need to allow more of a f.a.r to really get what we're trying to do. If we're talking about affordable rooms and places and and creating that more walkable
stay within your area. But I don't want it to come at the cost of first level, first floor retail. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you
mayor. So before I even ask my question or my statement, I do agree with what Commissioner just stated as far as keeping commercial on the first floor
and residential thereafter. I agree with that was an excellent point. So the real purpose of doing this change is
literally to legitimize what we have existing. Correct? Partially, yes. The residential piece is to legitimize what we have existing, at least in this
particular small area. So were there any projects that are going to be possibly brought in that this would help any areas from a residential perspective?
No. Okay. So for commercial, the one project, the lodging density piece is applicable to the Tarpon registry project. Okay. Specifically, it will
allow them to get to the number of hotel lodging units that they want on that second floor. Right now. They can't get there. So what would just for informative reasons, what would
they be allowed now versus nine nine. So literally the change we make would change it from 9 to 12. That's what they want is 12. There really wouldn't be a cap, but they would have still
have to work within that second floor, you know, area. Do you see any problem in that? No. Okay. Was it was a unanimous
decision by the PNC. Hold on. I'm I'm 90% sure it was, but
let me check the memo. Yes, it was six. Oh. Thank you. Okay, I have no further questions. Okay.
Let's go to public comments. Any public comments on this item? Austin? No, sir. There
are no hands up. Okay, let's come back to the board for a motion. Commissioner, do you want to make that motion? I just want to clarify with Renee. There is. How is this going to
work? The second reading is not going to include the retail at the bottom and right. So correct me if I to include that as part of this, I'm going to have to go back to the Planning
and Zoning board and redraft some things. We are working on a larger we have a consultant working with us overall set of updates to the to the Smart code and special area plan that
we definitely will can incorporate that into you, give you my word that that will be in there. But that's you know, that's probably going to be summertime before that might get in front of this board. So,
you know, if you trust us at our word that we will include that and be bringing that back. The ordinance is is going to come, come to you. And I'm hoping it will be no later than summer or I can redraft this,
take it back to the Planning and Zoning Board and do it that way. I trust you. I just its application come as they come, and if they come with the ordinances like this that are accepted, you have to accept
them as they're written. Can we have some type of moratorium or they still have to come before us? Absolutely. All projects will have to come before you. Let's take a let's take a straw
vote. I mean, it's it's unofficial. I'm I'm in agreement with you that the bottom should be residential. I mean, a commercial, it should stay commercial. So is there
anybody else has any issue with that? No. Okay. I'm neutral. I'll go with the will of the board. Yeah. So and it's got to come back to us anyways. Well yeah. The larger code amendment
that we're doing overall we will incorporate that into it if you want it sooner than that. If you want it to be part of this, I'm going to have to go back, make some changes. I don't want to hold up their
project. You know, I give you my I can do it. One of actually, there's a third way I can process a separate individual amendment that will take care of that. If it doesn't look like it's, you know, we're going to if if our overall code
amendments look like they're going to slow down for some reason and be more than coming to you in the summer, we can draft a quick amendment to to incorporate that as a single
ordinance and like and like and like we as the board have the ability to just bring this up, right? I mean, we don't we're not at the mercy of staff. I mean, if we in a month from now want to bring this up, you can
put it on the agenda. We do it right. It's not a prohibiting factor. Yeah, but there's a lot of time it takes. Are you okay? I don't I don't want to delay taking her word. And and we're and we're I think you have.
I'll follow up. I think you have a consensus up on the board. Motion to approve. Item ordinance 20 2520. Yes.
Ordinance 20 2520 on the first reading. Second. Okay. If there's not any further comment, roll call, please. Mr. Panther. Yes. Yes, Commissioner. Yes,
yes. Vice mayor Eisner. Yes, yes, thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. Number 19 has been
withdrawn. So we scratch that and now we'll go to item number 20. City Attorney Resolution 2020 602, resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the
City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, revising the rules of procedure for the Board of Commissioners, repealing all resolutions in conflict herewith, and providing for severability and
providing for an effective date. Okay. Commissioner, do you want to lead this off? Yes. Thank you. And just to bring some perspective on this so we don't get ahead of ourselves here. My
name's on this because it was asked to be. But this has been the sentiment of I don't want to speak for everybody but the majority of the board, we almost did this in our last amendment to the to the rules
and regulations. So but I'm, I'm wanting to take the heat and I'm one to also, you know, you know, you know tackle things head on. This was we brought forward zoom in the
pandemic. And let me be specific here. This only has to do with zoom. As far as people speaking using using it as a as a form of like of like public
comment. Our meetings are still broadcasted on, on YouTube live and there's no change to any public comments in this auditorium. Despite what was said in the opening comments
today. You know, we only have one person that primarily uses that, and that's former Commissioner Delacruz. I had a good call with him, with with him, with him today, ensuring
him that I obviously support his and everyone's First Amendment rights in this meeting, as I have in the past. I've been here as late as like as like as like as like 1 or
2:00 in the morning. If the public's lined up to speak, we we, we will stay here and and listen as long as we need to. But to afford one method of
communication that was used during the pandemic six years ago for the benefit of 1 or 2 individuals, I just don't think that's that's that's that's a good idea and a cost to the
city of $14,000 a year, which I think is ridiculous, that we have to pay that much for zoom because we're a governmental entity. And as well, it has caused some strife in the board when we get later in the
meetings and Zoom's not connecting, or the person on zoom is arguing with somebody or whatever. So in my opinion, no other surrounding community
to, to my knowledge, has zoom online comments in every meeting. Plus, plus plus having having normal public comment and and and here's the thing of
it is if if tonight if we if we if the if we remove this if something happens in the future, God forbid another another pandemic access issue, you know,
access issues in City Hall, we can always bring it back. It's not saying zoom is gone forever. We're simply identifying a tool that that that was used six years ago, that we're still
paying 14 grand a year for. That is very that had that had that has that has very low demand. Okay. So that's some perspective. And for the comment that that was an appropriately made today about
Commissioner Banton wanting, wanting wanting to cut off. You know, you know, you know, public comment I encourage people to to to maybe do their homework. This is my eighth
year on this board and I've served previously five years on advisory boards. I was the one that started the Citizen's Academy, which there's people on this board and in this crowd
and running for office that have gratefully been benefited from that. And as well, I was one of the people that helped get, get, get, get our meetings live, live streamed on YouTube.
So I really think with that and the things that that we have done here in, in, in, in, in City Hall, you would be hard pressed to find any surrounding community that affords the
residents more, more opportunities for, for, for, for for involvement in speaking. I had to represent a client before the Dunedin City
Commission. It was like going to the DMV. I had to fill out a card. I had to take a number. You're given just a handful of minutes. It was a very unpleasant experience and I never want to have that here.
So all we're doing tonight is considering removing a tool that is six years old, costing us $14,000, and is and has very little use. And again, if
conditions change, we can always bring it back. And and that's what I have to say about it. Thank you. Thank you. Let me start off. We'll go through
the all the commissioners for comments on this. Let me you know. Yeah we, we spend $14,000 on the, on the zoom
subscription. And obviously it's not being used by really by one it's being used pretty much by one person. I don't think anybody else has called in in the last six months under,
under this method. You know, I just want everyone to understand that when, you know, we're when you you look at the state House, you don't get a
chance to go on the floor of the state House or the Senate to speak. You can call your state representative and tell them your opinion. You can send
your state representative an email and give him your opinion. You obviously can't go on the floor of the Congress, and you can't go on the Senate floor,
the House floor, and speak about anything. You can send a an email or you can make a call, possibly to Congressman Bilirakis or Congressman Luna,
and you can express your opinion. And then they can either take that into consideration in their decision making or not. That's called representative form of government. But here at the
local level, we allow we allow much more interaction with our community. You know, we have you know, anyone can come
before on the floor of this, of this body and speak directly to each one of us in a collective manner. We have social media.
Every one of us is active on social media, and you can communicate that way as well. You can call any of us. We all have our cards out there and
each one of us probably. I know I have on my card my cell number. I suspect the other commissioners as well. You can call them, you can email them and you can ask to visit them.
I don't think that any commissioner would deny any resident the opportunity to meet with them individually if they choose, and they could express whatever their opinions. I know that I have an open door
policy. I had five residents come up and visit me today up in the mayor's office, so I know I'm open for anyone to have conversation. You know, I
actually asked Austin and he looked into it. Austin, do you know of any other body in this area that's using a zoom call
in? No, sir. Strictly speaking, most of the Pinellas County cities have done away with it. The actual county does occasionally have zoom meetings,
but you have to register and fill out about 24 hours ahead of time, and it's not a very common occurrence. Okay, so,
you know, and we can just as you know, we change the rules of procedure. We're changing them. If it's voted on tonight, we change the rules of procedure. The rules of
procedure are fluid. You can we can change them. Now and do away with zoom for, for the time being. And we can reinstitute it later. If any
one wants to change the rules of procedure. So, you know, it's not the it's it's not like, you know, the Constitution. It's our general rules. We, we're going to have, you know,
even though it's only going to be one, I suspect, one new person coming in in April, it's it's a new board and that will have a rules of procedure meeting. And that new board
could could see things differently if it's changed today. So I don't want people you know again you know theater is one thing and and drama and
drama is is something. And I know here in Tarpon where we have no. You know scarcity of, of such but. This is this again
like like Commissioner Banther said, this was instituted for one reason. It was for Covid. It wasn't there before Covid, that technology existed before Covid. It was brought in for
Covid because people couldn't come here into the into the chambers to speak. And it was. And then it got it just for some reason got kept on. And
again, very few people are using it. It serves no further purpose, the way I see it again, but it could be reinstituted anytime later. So I'm going to
be in support of of the of amending the rules to remove it. Commissioner De Donato. Yes, sir. I was going to emphasize that point too, because I did
an informal check and to my knowledge, there's only the county occasionally uses it, the system. And that's number one. Number two, it is my
understanding from our city manager that there's still a process that we can bring forward where they can communicate. Is that good teams or do you want to I don't know
if you want to talk about that or if we even want to look at it, but it is available at a at a far lower cost. We have we have the teams included in our
Microsoft. Package. So we could you're right. We could institute. Yeah. It's something we can look at that's much more available and reasonable than, than than what we've been doing.
So that's all. Commissioner. Yes. Well, I'm on the complete opposite end of it all. I mean, you know, mayor, the whole point of having zoom is for the
necessity when there are big issues that pop up regardless if one person does abuse it or not, which he does, he knows it. But I have to at times. But there are going to be big
issues that come up, and unless you guys are willing to put in the discretion to allow the zoom, then I'm not going to support it because we're actually we're going back in
time and we're not going to be transparent moving forward. People don't come to these meetings. We haven't really had any big conversations on anything. We run a few items and we're out of here by 738.
There's no real juicy stuff that the people want to get involved in and be a part of. And so but when we do have them, the people need to be able to speak and speak at home. I mean,
Covid did change some things and it changed the way people interact and work and communicate and got active. And so and the 14 k that you guys
talk about don't bring that up about spending, wasting money. You know come on guys, that's I get it. But let's not nitpick at that stuff. And as far as
community engagement, I mean even with the YouTube stuff, they weren't getting more than 100 views. Nobody was watching Tarpon Springs politics. Nobody cared. And then someone like me came around and started raising
some awareness. And we were starting to get hundreds, if not close to thousands of views, a meeting. And so and then if you look back, which I'm frustrated that that stuff gets
erased, the videos get erased from Facebook. After 30 days, we're getting upwards to 5 to 6, 7000 views a meeting, and people weren't getting involved.
And, you know, just one individual was commenting. But I just I get where we're going with it. But for us to take away the ability for people to speak on items that are big,
that will come in front of us at some point doesn't mean that we should, you know, sacrifice their ability to engage because maybe one individual does. And,
you know, he's he's been friends with us all at one point or another. So I get this whole abuse thing. And, you know, sometimes can be frustrating, but we just gotta
try to be able to deal with it. And, you know, I just I'm hoping we can. I don't like us being compared to other cities when it benefits us or, you know, when it doesn't benefit
us or Tarpon Springs, we build community engagement. Let's keep it that way. It might add 15 20 minutes to the meeting, if that, you know. So that's just how I feel about it. But
I'm not going back and forth with everybody. I just think it's the right thing to do. And at least at the very least, we should be able any one of us. Because you know what the big
item is or not be able to tell the city manager once we get the agenda item out on Thursday or Friday that, hey, this item should be up zoom item for
people who want to get involved. So those are my comments. Thank you. Vice Mayor. Thank you mayor. You know, I'm also first,
I wanted to thank Commissioner Banther. You actually said pretty much everything that I wanted to say, and I think you're owed an apology for
taking the hit. A big boy. I know you are. No, but yesterday I got a email and I wasn't looking to read it in to the
record, but I think the public needs to hear it. I did have the city manager send it out. You know, we do not shut down
free speech here. We allow everybody to speak. And as commissioner was just saying, if it's an important enough item, they have the ability to
be here. And that supposed person who decides to go home and use the zoom for some reason is here tonight because this is important to him. So on
all of these things that are important, if it's important enough to you, we're here. The resident can be here. Also. Covid was during the Covid time.
It was used because people did not want to cross contaminate. They didn't want to get other people ill. It's not it's not there for your convenience to
go home, put your feet up, eat dinner and and make phone calls to the city. If the item is important enough that it is, it's concern for you. It should
be that you can be here as well. But I did want to read this because I got this personal email that I don't normally make an individual plea to my friends. However, I feel
compelled to do it now. Over the last few months, the Top and Springs Board of Commissioners has whittled down the amount and time that the public gets to comment on items,
which I find is not true. First, they cut the time to speak from 4 to 3 minutes, but concurrently they also decreed that there would be no comments allowed after presentations,
proclamations, or for the items in the consent agenda. If you wanted to comment on those, you now have to incorporate it in the three minutes you get to the general public comments.
Then they get rid of emails being sent to the clerk and being read into the meetings and minutes. You can still send in an email, but it must go to the bulk email address and will only be read into the record if
the commissioner requests for it to be done, which no commissioner would not do. Are they going to want an email critical of their performance? Read well, this is a email
critical of us. I doubt it. And you notice that they haven't read any of the positive ones. Maybe they didn't get any that they could brag about. But now,
after Commissioner Banta suggested at the last meeting, the Board of Commissioners now wants to get rid of zoom access to the meetings. Look at item 20 on the agenda for Tuesday's meeting, page 11 specifically,
and you'll see the latest attempt to keep the public out of the process. Again, not true. So what I'm asking is for you to spread the word about what
they're trying to do and let you talk. And friends know that we need them to call into the meeting on Tuesday and let the doc know that we don't want any public access reduced. If you
go to the city's website, click on boards and committees, then click on the link to the doc page. Once they'll be, you'll see a link to participate by zoom. If you watch the meeting
through either the cable channel or the YouTube, you can call in directly using the following phone number and meeting ID. The prompts are easy to follow, and you can listen to the meeting through
your phone. Be advised there's a time lag between you and the Board of Commissioner hearing you, so be ready to go when you get the signal. And there's the zoom number, there's the
meeting ID and then it says, so when item 20 comes up, raise your hand and speak by pressing number nine. When the gatekeeper tells you to unmute, you need to press number six.
Even if you don't normally use zoom or call in, it's important that you do so now, so we can at least preserve that option for the future, because, you know, they'll come a time when
we need it, and once it's gone, I don't see it coming back, at least not anytime soon. Peter Dalakas me. I'll take credit
for it. The bottom line is most of this letter is just to incite people to come up and to attack this board, which is as
open as can be to public comment. Nobody stops you from saying your mind and we all appreciate your input. I sit on Forward Pinellas board. We
don't have zoom. I don't know of any other place that is as convenient or kind to the people to give their point of view, whether they're from
another county, another city. We don't have any restrictions on it. We don't put people through what Commissioner Banta said about having people write things down prior to so we can
proofread it. And we also don't go around trying to make people not want to speak their mind. So this kind of letter is is
just an agitating type of letter. It's not something that somebody who preaches about bringing people together. This is to tear things apart. So,
you know, there's enough time for all the things sometimes the people that are giving the presentation to us, it's not even pertinent to what we make
decisions on. You have to kind of know how to read the room. And there are certain people that just don't know how to read the room. So that's all I want to say. I am not going to
support this idea. I think the zoom has come and gone. If we find down the road that there's an issue, as the commissioner said, we can always bring it back. But right now it's not
necessary. Let's go to public comment on this item. Any public comment on this item? I
Craig Lunt 743 Chesapeake I'm actually kind of disappointed that this is even being brought up. You know, I'm disappointed
on a couple of levels. One, one of the things that Mike you just said is nobody ever shut down anybody. There was a previous meeting address. I'm sorry, the mayor. Mr. Mayor,
there was a previous meeting where you actually shut down somebody on zoom because you didn't want to hear it. You just told Austin that's not true. That's true, that's true.
I have video because I didn't want to hear what they were saying. Well, I don't know whether it's because you didn't because you don't here. So go ahead, go on, go on. Or whether it was the time delay, but you
just shut it right down. And that's a fact. It's not true. But go ahead I yeah. You have you're not going to argue with you here. Yeah. You have your version of the existing
procedure. The the existing procedure states that this is a right, not a privilege, not a maybe it is a right for the
citizen. So an eight B it says the citizens have a right to do this. Not and you're just taking away a right if you if
you take this away. I agree entirely with, with Commissioner Coleus and the fact that we need this, we need this when important things come up. We need this for people
that can't get here. And I did some research for myself today. And out of the six most populated cities in Pinellas
County, five of them right now have some method of zoom into their meetings. So whatever everybody else saying is may not be accurate. The cities are.
Saint Pete Clearwater does not allow it. Largo, Pinellas Park, Dunedin and Tarpon Springs currently offer that facility.
It's interesting. So in closing, you know, you're taking away a right for the citizens to be able to speak and address the commission. And I'm kind of of
the impression that as a commissioner, you should be fighting for your citizens rights, not taking them away. Thank you. Thank you. The video
for. Next. Katie Taylor's six five, seven Haven Place, Tarpon Springs. This is the first I'm hearing about the zoom thing. I usually go on. I'm not knocking
anybody's suggestion on zoom because I don't really access it through zoom, but I do attend meetings through zoom. And to me, it's kind of tedious to have to go to the sign in
that they have to let you in and all that stuff. Now, my question is when we I usually go to you, YouTube and I just click on the meeting and and
voila, there y'all are. And if you want to raise your hand, you raise your hand. You can ask questions like that. So it's something different about zoom that that's something that is being offered. That's not in
YouTube. We can't. Is it something different there that make those two those two softwares big a big difference. Two different things. Yeah,
that's what I mean. So that the same thing that you're doing in that you're looking at in YouTube. Right. If you can't speak on YouTube, that's where you're at or you can't know.
Y'all thought you can raise your hand and ask questions and zoom, zoom. That's what we're talking about. Okay, well my bad. Any anyone else here?
Thank you. David Ballard, get his junior Georgia avenue, Palm Harbor. I was in Tallahassee that the day that they they closed down the government. And
we all had to go to basketball court down the street. I was there to address the Senate bill. It's true. We don't get to stand on the floor, but we do get to address legislation
regarding, you know, Senate bills and House bills and so forth personally in front of the board. And at that point, you know, I'm standing there in
the basketball court and I'm looking on a screen and I'm seeing our public officials on this TV screen that kind of reminded me of Hollywood Squares. You know, I was
looking for Joan Rivers or Don Rickles up there, you know, and and it just looked awful peculiar to me that I lost
access to my government on that day over a supposed pandemic. And I look at the way things are kind of unfolding in
society. We have Candid Camera at every intersection now. Pee wee Herman wrote his little bicycle with a suit and tie to work. And now we've got
everybody riding bicycles on, and it's as though somebody thought us through a long time ago when this Hollywood Square Zoom meeting thing, should we
ever have another issue in government where the government needs to retreat in some suspect, but they need to maintain power, maybe. Possibly
they overstepped sovereignty in some way or another, and they feel as though their safety is in jeopardy and they still want to maintain power. Will they revert back to a Hollywood
Square setting, and thereby we won't be able to address our grievances and, you know, bring forth juicy subjects to the
board if I'm willing to stand up and talk about issues that are very subjective. Personally, I believe we all have a duty to
be here, and that's what government's for. We're here to talk about topics that are disruptive, and we're here to find solutions to them. And we're not here to talk to a
Hollywood Square setup, even though I can see where it can be used for a purpose. But it can also be abused for a
purpose as well. Thank you. Anyone else? Juliana de 413 East Oakwood Street. I've used zoom to so he wasn't the only
one, especially when I wasn't feeling well. So I would come in, I would tune in on zoom. We are a city. That's transparency.
That's your word, right? So I think we need to continue to be that either regardless of one person, two people. But you're there if you're needed to be
there for your citizens. Thank you. Anyone else? Peter Lack is
514 Ashland Avenue, and Miss Marcus has kindly donated her time. First off, thank you, Commissioner Eisner, for reading my letter. Everything I said in there is true. You
address the mayor, address me. I'm referring to Commissioner Eisner's reading my letter. Thank you. Because everything in there is true. And it's not an attack. It's an invitation
to the citizens to become aware of an issue that they not may not be aware of. Just as Katie said, she didn't know it was going on. And as it was mentioned earlier, yeah, things
have been calm. You're doing routine things, people aren't tuned in. There's nothing really sometimes to comment. Now, a couple of things I want
to dispute here cost 1200 and something dollars a month. Okay, so you do the BoCC meetings. Well, why don't you look at that contract and see if
instead of paying just 1200 a month for BoCC, use that resource for other meetings, planning and zoning, board of adjustments, code enforcement,
heritage board, sustainability? You can all do it from that meeting room here or here. So expand it as it was spoken about before and it was spoken
about the light at church. We are Tarpon Springs. We are based on the Greek philosophy of we discuss, we talk, and we make our own local decisions.
Tallahassee and Washington keeps trying to take those away from us, but we still have that tradition of speaking. And as Mr. Gaddy said, yes, you can go to Tallahassee and speak to
boards of certain different departments, same thing in Washington. And you, in a sense, are those boards all combined?
The other thing about expense? Yes. Like I said, you can expand it possibly to include other boards $14,000 a year. We
blow up between 25 and $30,000 a year. Every July 4th. We shoot off fireworks for about 45 minutes out into the Gulf.
Not only are we using money that gets basically burned up in an explosive, we pollute the gulf by containers that still hold sulfur and nitrates and
all this other stuff. And I know it's a tradition. Maybe we can go to laser light shows or something that's more economical and more environmentally pleasing. But when you say, oh, it's a waste
of money to have our citizens being able to tune in, how many residents do we have that are either disabled or elderly and
they can't come to the meeting? I remember when Annie Dabbs came up here and she had to struggle, and we had to walk her out because it was important for her to be here,
to speak. Now, a lot of people aren't that flexible. With zoom YouTube, you can turn your TV and you can pull it up. But yeah, you you can't talk back, you can't give your comments.
And we tarpon have a tradition that we are going to be unique and different. And I don't care if Clearwater doesn't do it or Tampa doesn't do it. Pinellas
County makes you jump. Yes, I'm proud of the fact that we are able to do what we're able to do at this point. Yes, we are better than some communities,
but that doesn't make us the best. Turning the lights out, turning the phones off. Another thing I've told you about we've got a TV station. Why aren't we
doing more public access? I've said this before. One a Thursday City manager brings into the meeting room coffee with the residents. They ask
questions. It's televised. Same thing with the mayor or any other commissioner said. We get retreads of recycling or galinos or all these retreads.
Another resource we have. We don't use our radio station 1610. Why not broadcast the meetings on the radio? And as I
pointed out in the letter, you don't need a computer to connect with zoom. You call that 312 number. It asks you to put the meeting ID in. You put it in, says you're now
participant. If you wish to speak, press nine. Then Austin up here says having speakers. Yes, please turn on you. Please
unmute press star six to unmute. It's not an attack. I'm trying to awaken you that you're turning off the lights of people being able to share
their thoughts. Yeah, sometimes you may think I abuse it, but I've been doing it basically not to protagonists, but to share things or give advice.
And yes, you did cut me off because on that second call you told Austin, cut it, cut it before I even said a word.
Thank you. Okay, anyone else in the audience? Austin. No, sir.
There are no hands up. Okay, I have a question. Go ahead. I'm sorry. My understanding in talking to you was that. That
the team's thing is workable and viable. Is that is that not true? Or we need to work on it or. I can speak to that. I just
want to clarify. Hi. Suzanne Linton, IT director, we do have Microsoft Teams, but it is not
configured for town halls or webinars at this time. It would take probably a month or two to get the proper equipment to be
able to do that, but we do not have that at this time. I for one, I don't know how the rest of you feel. I just want to look at it. You know, I don't know what the cost are for the
equipment. I don't, I don't know, I think there's a monthly fee or something you might have to pay to. I'm not sure, but I'd like to look at it. It
would be exactly the same as zoom. It is the same platform as zoom. It would operate the same way. One other thing about
zoom is when we do a meeting here, we have to have two employees running the meeting upstairs. When we do zoom, if we didn't have zoom, then we
only would need one employee. So we are paying two people to come in when we really only need one. I'm aware of that too. I know a lot of corporate America are also leaving zoom.
We're not the only ones that are talking about it, but they are bringing forth other programs. And to my knowledge, one of them is that the teams program. I'm just not fully aware of how that operates, but
it's something we can look at in the future, is what I'm what I'm saying. Yes, we could always bring it back if there ever was another pandemic, anything like that. We still
have zoom, we have all of the equipment. It's just, you know, we're we're hoping that we don't have to pay this, this monthly fee going forward when
it's not really being utilized. I just wanted to clarify. Thank you. Okay. So let's mayor, I'd like to go into discussion a little bit before I was going to come back for a motion. Then
we can have discussion on the motion. But I'm I want to try to convince the board something. Right now I'm seeing a lot. I mean, you want to make a motion. I, I'd like to have a little discussion a little bit, mayor,
I mean this you see where this is going right now? Can you keep it? Can you keep it brief? And then I'm going to try to keep it brief and transparent as possible. The bottom line is you can tell by the feel of
this crowd, we're getting this wrong. You are mayor and we're going to get this wrong. And because what? Because we don't have thick skin up here, you know? What are we worried about?
The cost difference between teams and zoom. It might be a few thousand dollars. So if we have to switch over that's not an issue. But you know, when we talk about other municipalities
and they don't do that and they write their names on the cards. Yeah, people make fun of those municipalities. They always make fun of them, but they can't say that. But if we go backwards just because and
apparently there is some animosity up here. I mean, you know, a couple people's tones towards Mr. Dalakas is, to me, right, why we're stopping it.
And it's not a good look. He's not going to do anything about it. We know that he's a past commissioner, but the cost savings isn't an issue. And you know what? If there is an issue
that I think the citizens should know about, I do want to be able to go tell my constituents, the people that are going to come out to support an issue like that big loan. And you know what? The people that support me and like
me but don't like that issue and, you know, supported it. They didn't get involved. So, you know, not everybody's going to just because you get a crowd of people to come in, which we
all have at one point or another, we all sent somebody up here, whether it's one person or several, to get stuff done. Then we have. But and I'm going to say another thing and I'm going to say it because we
hear it. But, you know, we read this letter out from Mr. Dalakas, but at the same time, we're walking out any moment he starts reading scripture. That's disrespectful. It the first couple times was okay,
but every single time when it's clearly not directed towards you is, I don't know. So I'm going to speak my mind on that and that's where I'm at with it. But you guys are going
backwards. I'm going to make a motion right now, and it's the most sensible motion you can do, make a motion to approve the rules of procedures with
amending that, the city manager be able to play zoom on a certain agenda item at the request of a commissioner, by Thursday or Friday of the prior
to the meeting. And that's the simplest form. Y'all know better a second on that. It's a simple as form. Commissioner, do you think that's a
reasonable I mean, I'm going to maintain what I, what I said and also what I said is that we can bring this back if the demand is there. And and I appreciate where Commissioner
Coleus is coming from. I do I do believe you are you are very sincere in what you're saying. I think some other people need to be honest with themselves, and that I think some people,
I'll be honest with you. Look for a fight in here. I'm not meeting you though, though, though, Commissioner, it was said that, you know, we haven't had any big items. It's been easygoing. I don't think that's
the case. I just think we we are. We are working well together. We. I do not want to return to the fireworks years. I absolutely do not want to do that. And there's people in
here tonight that I think want to nobody on this board. And so I don't think it's a matter of that. We're limiting public comment. And the only reason it
hasn't been used is because we haven't had any hot topics. I mean, we had a very tumultuous budget season with the loans, with the pay scales. We did the
Tarpon registry. We have we have discussed some big items up here, but I don't think it's that they weren't juicy. I just think we are working well together as we should and as
the citizens expect us to. I don't want fireworks. I don't want to be here till midnight. That's not the sign of a good meeting. That's the sign of of of usually. Not always, but
usually poor agenda management. So I'm going to keep my position as is with the fact that if we see a demand and I will be the first one, if I'm still up here and I make this
promise to you, it's on video, it's on audio, and you are here listening to me. If we start getting feedback from people, hey, I want to comment, but I can't come in. If those numbers start increasing, we will bring
it right back. It's not that I'm opposed to zoom. I've been called everything but a but a child of God in here and I'll listen to it again. That's fine. I'm a big boy. I've been called everything. But it's the fact
of I just. I'm an is what it is guy. It's only being utilized by one person. And we have disputed much smaller amounts up here than $14,000 before. So
I think some intellectual honesty up here is needed. And just know this is not like the mayor said, the Constitution where it can never come back. If we see the demand, I'll be the first one to to bring it
back. And that's what I got to say. Okay. So there's a motion on the floor. Is there a second to Commissioner Coolio's motion? Okay. That motion dies of lack
of a second. So do I hear another motion? A motion to approve resolution 2020 2602?
Amendment to the rules removing zoom. Second. There's a second. Is there any further comment on this? Yeah. Like I said, I think we're going back in time. It's not representative of the
people. You can see the general public here. It's clear that some of us just don't have the thick enough skin up here. And we're tired of one individual speaking. And because it doesn't benefit us to have a
crisp meeting like we talk about. So my my goal for you all is to promise these people a transparent government, because this is a step back and all that, and we will fight to
get it back. Thank you. Okay. So I'm going to I'm going to go and then I'll come to you last go around okay okay. So first
of all this is first of all I didn't bring this item up. This was brought up by Commissioner Banther. I this thing about having thick skin, I, I take
all the shots. You want the meeting where again let's let's not sanctify Mr. Delkus and his
behavior. He has continually and everybody knows it. He continually never. He wants to speak on every single item.
Okay? He he has no humility whatsoever. I've, I've asked him to up to my office, just like I asked you, Mr. Lunt. I'm willing to talk to anybody. I
asked him up to my office. He he made a promise that he didn't keep, which is fine. It's his prerogative. As a matter of fact, you know, he
would sit. He knows he's going to speak on every item, but he would particularly sit away from the from the podium from. And then he would meander over
there. Everybody knows he goes up and he stretches and and all that. And then, you know, he in, in my issue was never about him reading the Bible. He could do whatever he wants, even though
I don't I don't think there's one person here or listening that can say what at the end of his reading, what he said, because he he he he and but
that's fine. And he can come up here and he can preach to us about his behavior. And he knows how he behaves, and he knows how he behaved in the church, how he behaved in the
church with Adderall, in his in his mouth. Okay. So he knows. But you know, the you're out of line. So no, no, I'm going to I'm going to you, you you you have about all the
opportunities to speak. I'm going to speak. So he knows what he he knows what he does. So the the when up when he's on
zoom. And I've asked Austin about how, how much time should I give him. What's a fair amount of time? Because I don't know if he's playing the same game on, on zoom as he plays
here in the audience, where he sits way far away and meanders over. I don't know if he's stretching at home. I don't know if he's playing some game. Austin, how long did I when I asked you how many how many
seconds did you normally tell me that I could reasonably wait, that he could get on? I think you told me five seconds that correct? Yeah. Five seconds is a fair assessment, sir. All
right. And and then and so it goes on for five, ten, 15 seconds. How long should we all wait for him to make his grand?
Presentation? Okay, so his grand appearance. So that's when and and you all know the day that I, when I did say cut it, enough is enough. You know
exactly what I was going through. And if you want to, you know, throw it back, you know and and the vice mayor knows and the city manager knows and I'm not going to I'm not going to go through that
with I'm not putting my personal stuff out there, but regardless. So this has never been this is not personal. This wasn't my motion to bring up.
But I agree with it. So, Vice Mayor, do you want to go ahead? So thank you mayor. So there was a comment made that I don't
appreciate Scripture and I don't appreciate a fellow commissioner telling me anything about scripture. I have never been disrespectful. I listen to every single person
that comes up to speak. But I'm not here. This is not a church. We do, we do. We have a pastor that comes and does a a
presentation. And I will not sit here to be lectured on my behavior or the the commission's behavior, or what a fellow resident sits and
wants to tell me how I should live my life when they, in my opinion, should be looking at themselves, not at me. So I will always walk out of here, not just on the first time,
second time, fifth time. I'll walk out of here no matter who comes up to lecture me. This is not a church. This is a place where we make decisions and move forward. So it's not a
synagogue either. So with that, that's another disrespectful comment you're making. Stop, please. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Okay, well, I don't need to
hear this kind of comment. This is not not not not what I want to hear. Unfortunately, this has become a issue because of
somebody's actions and there's nobody else that's abusing that system except one person. Okay.
So yeah, I just need to I need to clarify, I, I happen to, to agree that it's not being used like it was planned to be used. I also think it was brought
forth because of Covid. However, I am not totally comfortable in taking. Once you give, it's very difficult to take away. So I'd like to to explore
alternatives. And I will repeat what Commissioner Panther, part of what he said. I only have until March, but if it is shown
to me that it is a service that that will function a little better and be used, I would reconsider. But I just for the record, to let you know that.
But right now I feel that each of us up here are totally open and ready, ready to communicate in any way anyone wants to communicate with us. I think
most everybody up here goes above and beyond, and I think they'll all continue to do the same thing. So it is not, in my opinion, taking something away.
But there are alternatives that perhaps this board should consider in the future and be open if the need is shown again. Okay. Every commissioner has
had a chance to speak. We have a motion on the floor. So roll call please. Mr. Panther. Yes, Commissioner. Yes, Commissioner.
Yes. No. Vice mayor. Eisner. Yes, mayor. Yes. Oh, that that concludes our all the business
and resolutions and ordinances. Let's go to board and staff comments. So, major. Thank you.
City Attorney. No comment. Mayor. City manager nothing tonight. I'm happy. New year. Yes. City clerk thank you, Commissioner Banther. Yes.
Thank you. I will not be at the next the next meeting I will be in Ireland with with my with my wife and youngest daughter. I'm getting to meet with the Mayor of Dublin on the last Friday of
the month. I have a nice key to the city to give him a proclamation from the mayor. I'll make sure to get a picture over to Jordan. I'll post to Facebook and I'll send all the good wishes over there on
behalf of the board. Commissioner Donato. Mr. Commissioner. Yes, it's just it's been a great holiday season. It's finally come to an end. It's time to focus, get
back to work with all of our stuff. We got a lot of big projects coming up, a lot of different changes, and it's time for us to buckle down and get it all ready again. Because we're, what, a third or quarter
away through the first budget season or this budget cycle. And we got a lot of things that we're attempting to accomplish. So thank you. And let's all stay active, stay communicating
and keep the engagement going as much as possible. Thank you, Vice Mayor. So tomorrow the city manager and myself will be at a workshop at Forward
Pinellas at 11:00. And I want to thank him for, you know, coming in to see what the year ahead for Forward Pinellas will
be. I'm I don't know I don't think he's going to stay on for the 1 to 3 meeting that I have. But I did want him to come
there so as to know what we're projecting to work on for the year as a forward Pinellas board. In addition, there will be no zoom at that forward Pinellas board either. Okay.
Thank you. So epiphany was, I think, a huge success. God gave us great weather that day. The archbishop I got a chance. I know that Commissioner Coleus,
when he served as mayor last the last epiphany, got a chance to meet and spend time with His Eminence. And and it was it was
special. Yeah. He's really an amazing person. And yeah, I was really proud of the city. Chris, your your guys did a wonderful
job and in decorating and and making the the city shine. City manager you did just a yeoman's job. And in putting the best,
you know, holiday season and having the sea look amazing I don't think it's ever looked better. Not that I can remember. Our police were so diligent in
protecting all the dignitaries we had. I know we had the mayors from. We had the mayor of Tampa here, which, you know, that's a big deal to have a mayor that of probably what is
a million people. And then we had the mayor of Clearwater, and we had the mayor of New Port Richey here. And, you know, everybody felt safe. You guys
did an amazing job of keeping us. You know, there's there's always characters out there that would like to disrupt what we do. And, you know, you're you guys stand between them and
and us. So thank you so much and thank the chief as well sir. And with that the meeting is adjourned at 836 we will have a
we're going to have a Community Redevelopment Agency meeting
that will start at, let's say, about 845. Take a break. Okay.
The Community Redevelopment Agency meeting for the downtown Tarpon Springs redevelopment area. Tuesday, January 13th,
2026 at 8:45 p.m. Roll call please. Chair here, vice chair, Eisner here. Commissioner, here. Commissioner DiDonato here.
Commissioner Banther here. Okay, we have just one agenda item tonight. It is the Tarpon Springs downtown district, main Street contract. City manager,
would you do your presentation? Thank you. This is this is a culmination of a long process working on this. Actually, since I got here and even before Casey and her folks have been working on this, the downtown district folks for,
for quite some time to reestablish a main Street program here in Tarpon Springs. There was a main Street program in the 80s and a strong desire now to to reignite that, that
program, get it going here because of the benefits I'm going to I'm not going to I put this slide show in your packet so I won't go through it in any detail, but I want to explain just briefly. Also in your
packet are the the bylaws for the organization, the policies and procedures, the structure of the organization, all the information about the organization and their budget and their annual work plan. So the the National Trust for
Historic Preservation started this approach. How do we how do we revive historic downtowns? The best way to save a historic building is to have it in use, to have it occupied. So they start looking at how to do that.
And they developed a four point approach. The main the important thing is incremental grassroots effort to revive downtown, because a lot of times in small communities,
capital is an issue. So what do we do if we don't have a lot of money, and how do we revive the downtown? So they came up with this approach. These are the programs. There are programs around the region down in Saint
Pete. There's one program still all the way over to Plant City up to Brooksville, New Port Richey, of course, very active program. These are the distinguishing roles. And I won't go through this of people wonder why we need a chamber
and a merchant association because they're very distinct organizations. Chamber and a merchant association play an important role in our community. There are five, one six their membership driven. They're what
you might call pay to play. You need to be a member of that organization to get in the publications and so forth. And they they are an important partner in us. And those will continue. Whereas the Downtown
District Main Street program will be a volunteer C six charitable organization and an an opportunity for residents to get involved in where they wouldn't necessarily join a
merchants association or even a chamber of commerce. It is a these are the eight principles of Main Street. It's important to be comprehensive in the approach, and this is the
approach. The Four points organization, which is really bringing everybody together, all the stakeholders, residents, merchants, property owners, government design is the
physical environment, economic vitality is the economic environment, and promotion is image creation. A lot of times downtown will have a negative image to overcome. We're we're fortunate. We just want to get
the word out about how great the downtown is. So these are the elements of that. These are the four committees. The the organization is made up of. And this part of it is that it is an independent organization.
This is critical to the approach. It can't be part of the city or part of the chamber or the merchant association. And its sole mission is revitalization of the downtown. So it does have a working board
of directors. It's not an advisory board. And that board has representatives from downtown organizations such as the church, the chamber, the merchant association, the city,
and the Historic Preservation Society. So those organizations all get together at least once a month and talk to each other and talk about what's going on downtown. It does. They are required to have full time professional management. That's
one of the distinguishing characteristics of the approach. There's someone who thinks about downtown all day, every day, and that's their their job is to the success of downtown. So they have a committee
structure. They have to create an annual work plan, which is in your packet. It's made up of volunteers. They do have a membership, but it's a donation based. It's not a membership pay to play organization, and
they'll be involved in fundraising like any nonprofit will be. This is the the model. We strive for. A third government support is is required for Main Street that the local agency local
government support the the program monetarily and then they do the rest through memberships, corporate partners, fundraising and special events. The physical environment is
everything from preservation to public space building improvements. Typical. These are typical projects they would in public art historic tours, and they'll partner with the
main street with the CRA. It's a great partnership because the CRA, of course, they have a we have a much bigger budget and we're the CRA is confined to bricks and mortar. So the the
perfect the perfect partnership of a main Street organization working with the business owners, what I call the warm fuzzies, the residents getting people engaged. The Longest table was a great example of
community event of a main street type event. The economic vitality is strengthening our existing businesses while looking out for new business opportunities, how to utilize
underutilized spaces, how to fill vacancies. They can do things like have merchant mixers, property owner mixers, get people talking and communicating and sharing and
working together. These are typical things that Economic Vitality Committee would work on zip code surveys, secret shopper programs, things that will help the merchants be
better merchants, make more money, do business plans, and so forth. Promotion is image creation, retail events and special events in this community. We have a lot of special events. Our merchant
association puts on a lot of great events. So really that box is checked. What they'll be looking at are things more like our social media presence, what I call those events that don't
need to close the street. The Candy cane stroll the Longest table is a great event, more of a community. It's really not designed to make money for the merchants. It's designed to bring the community together so
they'll be able to focus on that. Since we have such a great street party, we have great annual and quarterly events. So again, these these are the four points that they'll have to work
comprehensively. And so what we have is we've created a contract for service. So we're actually organizing our new master plan around the four point approach that we make sure that it's a comprehensive approach to redevelopment. And
then we're going to contract with them to to assist us in implementing that approach. They're going to take care of those aspects of the approach where the CRA particularly is restricted. We can't get
involved in with CRA funds. We will provide a quarterly disbursement to them. There'll be an annual contract. We're already into the through the first quarter. So this year it will just be for three quarters.
And then each quarter they'll come back to you and they'll say, here's what we did. Here's what we did in the last quarter. Here's what we accomplished on our work plan. Here's what's coming up in the next quarter. Here's our financial statements.
Here's where we spent the money and make a request for that, that next disbursement. And then every year that contract will be up for renewal. So they'll come back to you with a summary of the year. Here's everything we accomplished.
Here's our new plan for the coming year. And here's our request to renew that contract. So for this approval, it will be for January through the end of the fiscal year. So for three quarters, we provide them
with a disbursement this quarter that will enable them to hire an executive director, which will be some of you, I imagine if they're hired, you'll be able to meet them at the next report. They come back
to you. So it's full transparency, full disclosure. You have access to everything the organization is doing as a way for us to leverage our efforts. Our funds in the CRA
for success in particularly in the areas we don't have the staff to go out and and, and meet Ongoingly with, with business owners and property owners and hold these things.
And that's when I when I got to New Port Richey, they had just revived their Main Street program before I got there. And there are a lot of events in New Port Richey, and it was a similar situation where, as
economic development director, they were a tremendous assistance to me to work with them. I didn't have the time, the hours in the day to go work with every single merchant downtown. And so it was a great
benefit to me to have that, that extension of reach through the Main Street program. So that's why I highly recommend approving this contract for services, and then we'll see them back here in April to make
their request and report back to you on how they're doing for the next disbursement. Okay. Thank you. Let me start off the
question. So have you had any experience with Main Street programs that any other communities you've worked at? Certainly, I, I've been a main Street manager myself. I
started my career in redevelopment as a main Street manager, and I've been in small towns and urban programs, and then I've facilitated the creation of a main street in
actually, the continuation of New Port Richey was was just starting up and in Crescent City, it started Main Street program there as well. And what were the effectiveness of those programs? The the results were
phenomenal. It was really generated a lot of excitement in the community, a lot of excitement about downtown in Crescent City. It's a small rural area, and actually there were very few downtown
merchants there. It was almost all residents saying, we need something happen downtown. And they got that program up and running and started a day of the dead festival and art
festival, and took over the fireworks event that would happen. The lake was downtown. Same thing in New Port Richey they were excited about. The program had petered out and then they were interested.
Folks were interested in getting it going again, and I was able to assist them to to be successful. And now it's a very active program. Are they
still using the program in New Port Richey? Yes, yes. So let me you know, today and this may be a little bit off because I'm
not. I'm today somebody came to me and said we need a diner in Tarpon Springs, like an old style diner. And you know, so
you get I get people coming to me all the time saying, you know, we could use this, or we could use this kind of business. And, and I always tell them that, you know, that's that's not what we don't. The city is
not going to open a diner. But how do we how do we help promote or try to steer private
businesses to, to open in a, in a certain area or in a certain kind of business that might be needed? Would this organization
have any kind of involvement in like identifying a need for the community, and then how would we pursue that need? Well, one
of the great things about being part of the Florida main Street Network is the executive director will receive training in just that sort of thing through Florida main Street and the National Main Street Center. So the the program identifies,
for instance, a need or a niche that's missing, or there's a space that needs to be filled. And then we'll can either target. It's always kind of difficult really don't want to
go poach businesses. But we we go encourage businesses for second location. As an example, when you have a second location here, if we have a spot, they would be the ones that would encourage us to create a
restaurant grant program if we didn't already have one. They look for ways to facilitate. What can the partners do to make that happen? Create a grant program. Can we go out and do visitation? You know, as
as people involved in the community, they're showing up and selling the community is very different than than, you know, one of us doing it or an economic development director
doing that as sort of a paid person to make that sales pitch, saying, look, I'm in business here in the community. I live in this community. We would love to have you what you offer here in our community. So that organization, and particularly
through the executive director, focuses on that kind of activity. How do we get to looking for 100% occupancy, looking for everyone, being successful, making good money
and doing business well, keeping their windows free, refreshed, keeping, you know, make sure that the place looks beautiful and they're looking at the four areas. That's why it's a comprehensive approach.
I call it spinning plates. The executive director's job is to make sure all the plates are spinning, and they'll advocate to us like, we think a public art piece would be great over
here. And if we were to raise half the money, would you match us? And we can we can consider. Oh, that sounds like a neat idea. Let's consider that. So they're thinking about that constantly. Thank you. And
nobody had to get mad at me. I just I was just repeating what somebody said to me today. I don't think we need a diner. I think you guys have a beautiful diner. But anyways, Commissioner Banther. Yes. Thank you. I'm in support of
this primarily because I think we're a lot of things have, I don't want to say failed, but not been as successful in the past as it's dictated too much from us. You know, it's like government saying, we're going to have this coalition and
you're going to do this. I'm a very much a free market guy, and I believe that. I'm glad that this is being really I know we're overseeing it, but it's being implemented by people like Casey and Cody and
people that have a vested interest down there. They know what's best, okay? They are they are business owners and they are. I think they are the the best equipped to help the
existing businesses be a liaison to to city Hall and to promote new businesses coming in. So I'm really excited based off what I, what I have read in the backup and what I spoke
with you about in our in our meeting on Monday. And I think it's going to be a great idea. So thank you. Thank you, Commissioner De Donato. I too, I understand that the more this
whole community works together, the better our community is going to be. And and we on the commission can't do all that by ourselves. We need we need input certainly from business
owners and and citizens of that are interested in that kind of thing. So I echo what what has been said previously. And thank you very much. Excuse me. The biggest thing I've seen over
the years, I've seen programs start up similar to this, but they just don't have the drive behind them to keep them going. That's been my experience. So
and I think the better this is organized, which I see you doing, the better chance it has to succeed. So I thank you, sir. Thank you, Commissioner Coolio's. Yes, city manager.
This organization, when it talks about like the sale of properties, what exactly is their role in like any facilitating like selling properties or renting them? Well, I know for instance, when
I was a main Street director, we would we'd be putting on a street party and people come up to me and say, how do I rent that shop? And I would put them in touch with the owner or the realtor, whoever was
representing the shop, so people would it was it was an access for people to say, this place is so great, I want to be here. And, and I, I was able to put them in touch with whoever they need to. I didn't actually
rent the space or do any, wasn't involved. But I would put the two parties together. I got somebody looking at your space. Can you can you meet tomorrow with them at 2:00? And I put them together and if they
didn't work out I would say, let me let me show you around some more. There's a couple other spaces that are available, and I would just be the spark to put the parties together. They'd have to work it out, do their deal. Yeah, like a
liaison in a way where you have. Okay. I just my only concern is some big private equity firms with some big cash come do some big things. But I think our local community has a good grip
on it all and does everything to protect our values here. So let's let's go forward with it. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Mayor. How is
the board put together? How is it decided? So the board is composed of the chairs of each committee. So design, promotion, economic vitality and and
organization would have a chair. And sometimes in the beginning, when you're still recruiting, the officers sometimes cover those positions until they find a chair. But ideally you would have president, vice president,
treasurer and eventually a past president and then a secretary. And then you have the four committee chairs. I always tell everybody on the board has a job. It's not advisory board. You need to have homework when
you leave that meeting or you're not doing your job as a board member. So and then it'll also be those liaison positions we talked about that Representatives will be voting board members from the historical society, the chamber,
the merchant association, the church, the Greek church and the city. So is there any jurisdiction for having to be
in the CRA area? No, it's not tied to the CRA area. I mean, it it does fall within the CRA, but there's not a through Florida main Street. There isn't a need to tie it to your
CRA. So but it's funded by the CRA area. Yes, because it does fall completely within the CRA. So if I was a CRA business, could I be offended that
somebody else is making decisions for the money that I put into the business, you know, into the into this main street?
Well, I guess anybody can get offended. No, I know, believe me, I know this town very well. So we're using the money because we want to implement this approach we want to
partner with kind of leverage our money. And so that board doesn't decide grants. You don't delegate any of your authority to that board. That would put them under the sunshine. So they don't decide
grants. They may come to us and say, it'd be great if you had another grant program that would accomplish this and maybe help us write it, and then you guys will approve it or tweak it or not. So they they were
like an advocate for us. So they'll, they won't make any decisions about the doubt. Like even or they may recommend code changes like a main street would fully support first floor
retail only. No, no residents on the first floor, but they would just advocate for that. Like we we we would strongly recommend a code change to make sure we don't, you know, get residential on our in our
storefronts. So they they're they're like an advocate kind of looking out for what makes downtown tick but not making decisions about that. That's
that's so they would be the PNC to our board of commissioners. Pretty much. No. They're just advisory. They would have no authority. That's what BNZ is. But advisory PNC has no
judicial. They have some quasi judicial. Yeah. They okay some things to stop at PNC. So they would recommend art projects. They wouldn't decide the art but they would say we'll help raise money for this if you'll,
you know, approve it. So they'll they'll recommend special events. And so they're, they're really in that volunteer capacity and their eyes and ears on the street,
they're down there. They'll come with ideas. And because they by going to the conferences and all the training, they just in a wealth of of we saw this in another city. It's a fabulous project.
We think it would work here in Tarpon Springs. What do you think? So how is the quarterly money decided? The the amount
that the CRA budget puts into the main street? Well, I've got in there. It's $15,000 a quarter. So the idea was a $60,000 contract. So this year
it will only be for three quarters will be $45,000. So $15,000 a quarter. That's really at the end of the day that provides the overhead. So they have they can hire
somebody who feels like who knows they're going to get paid through the quarter. You know, I've been in that position where I went a couple months without paycheck because our fundraiser failed and I and I just had to not good. Yeah, it
was not a good experience. So I like as having been in those shoes, I like to provide something where you'll be able to hire a professional with a background. Usually it's in the background, could be special event promotion, marketing, real estate development. Many
different backgrounds come to Main Street to be directors, executive directors, and we want to give them some sense of confidence that they're going to get paid throughout the year. There won't be benefits
necessarily, unless they are good at fundraising. They have the option to raise funds, have have successful events and then they can begin to accumulate benefits. But initially, I think coming out of the gate
there might be paid time off and sort of those intangible. But just a salary is pretty common for director. So last question, how long do programs
like this usually take to get off their feet and running smoothly where they are a functional Main Street organization? Well, they have
phases. I don't know if they still call these out, but like your your startup phases, I think 1 to 5 years, 1 to 3 years, something like that. There's a startup phase and then there's a a growth phase,
which is 10 to 15 years. And then there's a management phase where like Fort Pierce, Main Street is 30 years old, DeLand Main Street is over 30 years old. And they're just cranking, you know, they've had
tremendous amount of success and their districts are very successful. But the program is still watching the ball to make sure things don't begin. Vacancies don't start rising and buildings start falling
apart. You know, they they begin. They always advocating for the continued success of that district. So you guys heard that eat organic. It's could be a 30 year project. I
was just kidding. That was my last question. Thank you. Are there any other questions for
the city manager I have one. When. So our downtown okay. So we have some. There's a couple
spots there that that we believe. I think anybody that walks downtown has some issues with right. How are they making.
You know I don't want to please I don't want to name names with the main street. Deal with that in the sense to advise like and
then what what would we do with that information for blighted areas. So let's say there's stores downtown okay. Let's say
we have stores downtown that are not maintained. Sure. Yeah. They're able to work kind of a softer approach with the property owner so they can address those items. Yes. Okay.
They build those relationships. Hey, there's dead flies in your window or, you know, just begin to. Yeah. Okay. It could be as simple as that. Yeah. You know,
something is, you know, not not maintained in, in, in that enhances the downtown area or whatever it is. So they can deal with that. Yes. Okay. All
right. Anybody else have any questions. Can I hear a motion to approve. So moved second okay. If there's no further comment roll call please. Mr.
Banther. Yes, Commissioner DiDonato. Yes, Commissioner. Yes, yes, yes, yes, thank you very much. Okay with that? Okay.
Are there any board comments? And first we go to staff. Major. Sir. Okay. City attorney, city
manager. Okay. City clerk, Commissioner Banther. Sir. Commissioner DiDonato. Commissioner coleus. No, sir.
Vice mayor. No, sir. Me? No, sir. We adjourn at 909.