Ladies and gentlemen, the meeting. We're going to start the meeting a little bit later than normal today, as we're waiting for Rabbi Adler. He's stuck in traffic. He'll be a few minutes late, so I'll
commence the meeting as soon as he arrives, okay. Thank you.
I call to order the regular session of the Board of Commissioners of the City of Tarpon Springs. Tuesday, May 12th, 2026, 6 p.m. Roll call
please. Here. Vice mayor. Yes. Here. Commissioner Eisner here. Commissioner Banther. Commissioner Weaver here. Okay.
Tonight's reflection will be administered by Rabbi Adler and followed by the Pledge of
Allegiance. Please rise. Evening. Massive universe. Bless all of us gathered here today, especially to
distinguished members of the city of Tarpon Springs who've been chosen to make laws and decisions for citizens of the city and the noble pursuit of justice and equality. This is
not only a civic responsibility, but also a holy endeavor. Our tradition teaches us of seven universal laws given to mankind by God through Noah, including
instruction to foster a moral society governed by law. These laws also include the importance of serving God alone, respecting God's name and the prohibitions against murder,
theft, adultery, and cruelty against all living creatures. In these challenging times for our nation and for all humanity, we recall the teachings of my revered teacher, the global
spiritual leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. He taught, difference need not lead to division. On the contrary, true unity comes from the synthesis of different and
even opposite thrusts. Differences between people are overshadowed, overshadowed by what is common to all of us. We are all God's creations. Almighty God, inspire us all to
nurture an environment of love and acceptance, a deeper appreciation that within each individual lies a unique potential mission. In the words of the 12th century Rabbi
Maimonides, each person must view themselves as though the entire world was held in balance and with a single good deed, spoken word, or even thought they could tip the scales, ushering in the era of
redemption as proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah. When no nation shall lift a sword against another, nor shall they learn war anymore. In the spirit of unity and the power of a single deed, I take this opportunity
to take this dollar bill upon which is printed in God We Trust into a charity box. The charity box reminds us of our obligation and opportunity to be a force of goodness and
sharing for our families, our neighbors and society at large. Almighty God, may this great city serve as a beacon of light, strength, and moral courage as we do our part in preparing
this world for an era of global peace and tranquility, let us all say Amen. Amen. I pledge
allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. Thank you, Rabbi. So tonight we have three proclamations. The first is Jewish American Heritage Month.
And Commissioner Eisner will come up and read the proclamation and introduce
Rabbi Adler. I am vertically challenged. So before I read
this proclamation and have Rabbi Adler come up, I just want to thank the mayor and the City commission because I. I
originally wanted to have my aunt who escaped Hitler. Germany was 101 years old, and
I went out to Boca Raton to hand the proclamation to her. So here she is. I'm in my city commission uniform, and she was
touched. I had all my cousins there. She was so honored. And I said to her, you know exactly what anti-Semitism is. You've lived through it and we're
living through it again. So with that, while she's up, I
call up Rabbi Adler. So whereas since the 16th century, Jewish immigrants have been integral to America's development,
freedom, prosperity and strength. And whereas this month, the city of Tarpon Springs joins Americans of all backgrounds in celebrating the foundational contributions of
Jewish Americans to the fabric of our nation. And whereas we acknowledge the long standing faith, perseverance, and resilience demonstrated by the Jewish people and affirm the
numerous contributions that Jewish Americans have made to our culture, politics, civil society, and varieties of other fields. And whereas, while acknowledging these
achievements, it's important to also recognize the prejudice and acts of violence experienced by Jewish communities throughout history, which regrettably continue in
the present. And whereas we remain committed to addressing racial, ethnic, ethnic and religious intolerance throughout society by promoting
education and fostering understanding. And. Whereas, during Jewish American Heritage Month, we recognize the numerous contributions made by Jewish individuals to our
community and affirm our shared dedication to pluralism, cultural diversity, and religious liberty. Now,
therefore, John Cogliano. By virtue of the authority vested in him as mayor of the city of Tarpon Springs, Florida, do
hereby proclaim the month of May 2026 as Jewish American Heritage Month. In witness whereof he has set his hand and caused the seal of the city of
Tarpon Springs, Florida, to be affixed on the 12th day of May 2026. And I am presenting this to you, and I think my wife is
going to take a picture of you and I. And you got that, honey.
Got it. Okay. So if you'd like to. You know, just this past
Sunday, you know, it's incredible. We're doing this today, this past Sunday, just two days ago, there was the passing of a great American, Abe Foxman. Any of you have
heard his name, probably one of the most famous Jewish people that was alive. He was actually born in Poland in 1940, right after the Soviets had taken it
over. And his parents had to escape. They left him with his non-Jewish nanny. He watched him for the duration of the war. Incredibly, both of his parents survived, and they brought him
and they picked him up after the war. And eventually they made their way to America. And Abe Foxman was the director for 50 years of the ADL, the Anti-Defamation League, which
is pretty much what we're talking about here, fighting hate and bigotry of all kinds. But of course, particularly against the Jewish community. His funeral was held today. And
so I think it's a special honor. We're reading this here today as someone who fought to foster unity within the community, something I mentioned in the
prayer over here as well. But true unity is realizing that we don't all have to be the same. In 1991, the City of Crown
Heights in Brooklyn, in the community of Crown Heights, which is where the Chabad movement is based, that's where, you know, I'm part of the Chabad movement. There were riots in 1991, and Mayor
Dinkins, who was the mayor of New York, then came to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the leader of the Chabad movement, and he said something we have to find a way to get these two communities to get along. And the rabbi corrected him, it's
not two communities. As one community, we're all one community under one government under one God. So thank you to the mayor and all the wonderful commissioners, everybody from the City of Tarpon for honoring
the Jewish community here. It started earlier this year with the lighting of the menorah. And may you continue to be a beacon of light to all communities and making the
Jewish community here feel very welcome. Thank you so much. Great to see you again. Nice seeing you. Only because the commission loves when I speak.
I just wanted to also say the rabbi in two days notice, we got the Hanukkah menorah up right after the Bondi tragedy. So I want to thank you for
doing that and representing, you know, terror because there's no place, as I've said up here many times, is we should have First Amendment rights speech, but no hate
speech. So love you all. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Our next proclamation will be National Safe Boating Week. And
Commissioner, our captain, Commissioner Lori Weaver, will
present that proclamation. You know, you need that for the
names. That microphone is. You have to get on the other side. If we could balance, balance
out. Commissioner Weaver, there we go. All right. So I'm very pleased to make this proclamation for obvious
reasons. Many of you know, I am still an actually an officer in the merchant marine. And I, I have worked with the Coast Guard Auxiliary and the United States Coast Guard as well. So.
I have just a moment of things to say, because this is my purview, as we recognize National Boating Safety Week, we are reminded that our
waterways are one of our community's greatest treasures. Safety and taking simple precautions is every boaters responsibility. Most boating
accidents, the gentleman can attest, are a result of what my industry calls the Titanic effect. It is never one error that makes a tragedy. It is a
series of events that together form something titanic and life threatening. The Titanic didn't simply hit an iceberg. There were many factors that came
together to make it the tragedy it is known for. Many know the obvious that the ship the ship may have been traveling at a high speed and had limited lifeboats, but upon further
investigation, we know there was a dead calm that night. Normally, waves will break around obstructions. A dead calm did not allow that. There
was also no moon so exceptionally dark again causing reduced visibility. There was a mirage effect that night, hiding the iceberg that until the last minute distorted the flares signal. The ship's
binoculars were locked in a cabinet. The key had been mistakenly taken ashore by an officer before departure. The steel plates may have fractured upon impact due to the
incredibly frigid temperatures, and the closest ship's radio operator had gone to bed that evening. Remove any of those items and the tragedy may not
have happened. And the reason that that's important is you cannot on the water ever not notice the smallest detail. And you gentlemen can attest to
that. These are gentlemen that are the volunteer arm of the Coast Guard. They patrol our waters, they assist our boaters. And really, I can't thank you
enough personally. So we have a proclamation tonight I'd like to read. The city of Tarpon Springs, Florida. Whereas an
average of 650 individuals lose their lives annually in voted boating related incidents within the United States. And whereas, most of these accidents result primarily from
human error or inadequate judgment, rather than issues related to the vessel, equipment or environmental conditions. And whereas preparing well is essential for
safe boating, as Coast Guard data shows, most accidents are due to human error and many fatalities could be prevented with life jacket use. And whereas using boating safety
practices such as carrying emergency equipment, wearing life jackets, taking safety courses and getting free safety checks helps keep voters safe during the season. And whereas,
National Safe Boating Week highlights essential safety tips for recreational boaters, the City of Tarpon Springs acknowledges the efforts of Tarpon Springs flotilla. 701109
and all boating partners in educating the public about safe boating. Now, therefore, your mayor, John Cooley, by virtue of the authority invested in
him as the mayor of the city of Tarpon Springs, Florida, do hereby proclaim the week of May 16th through 22nd 2006 as National Safe Boating Week in Tarpon Springs. And I urge all
those who vote to practice safe boating habits. Thank you
chairman. Before we continue, I have one small presentation.
This was given to me many years ago by a flotilla up north for some service that I did. I'd like to pass it on so that you can keep it in in your
Flotilla's headquarters. So actually, thank you. Who wants
to. Thank you. City of Tarpon Springs. Thank you, mayor, and the Fire and Police Department. They've been really good to us over the years. I'm Ernest
Cannon, the flotilla commander of Tarpon Springs flotilla, and I'm going to go ahead and pass it over to Steve Denhoff, my public affairs officer. Well,
on behalf of flotilla 119, Tarpon Springs, United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, I want to thank Mayor Collins. Thank you. You, especially Commissioner Weaver and the
Board of Commissioners for the honor of this proclamation. You covered a lot of statistics, so I won't do it. So that was very good. Thank you. In support of
National Safe Boating Week, May 16th through the 22nd, our flotilla here in Tarpon Springs is going to step up the efforts to ensure that we have
awareness for boating community. Our auxiliary members are going to be stationed at West Marine and Lowe's here in Tarpon Springs. We're going to have an
information table there. And on Saturday, May 16th from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. Additionally, at West Marine, we will have
Auxiliarists doing boating safety checks so you can get your sticker and make sure that you've got everything prepared for your boat for safe boating.
The US Coast Guard flotilla, 119 is a uniformed volunteer organization committed to boating, safety, marine security and environmental
protection. We are 25 members, strong and growing, thank goodness, and have served the Tarpon Springs community and its waterways for over 50 years.
We provide support to the United States Coast Guard, active duty in surface and air operations watch standard duties. That means radio patrol
in Saint Pete and down in Sand Key, and we provide culinary support for all the great cooks that we have. We support the US Coast Guard active duty with C
27 air drop exercises from Clearwater Air Station and two board or two boat exercises with Station Sand key. During
these patrols and exercises, we are always available for search and rescue missions. If the need arises and it arises. Believe me, we continue to
collaborate and support Tarpon Springs and surrounding communities by providing public boating safety classes at the Tarpon Springs Fire Rescue Station. So we're very
fortunate to be able to use their extraordinary facilities, their. And last but not least, we want to thank the Tarpon Springs Yacht Club for allowing
us space to conduct our flotilla meetings on a monthly basis. So if any of what I've just described to you interests you, please join us at one of
our meetings the second Wednesday of the month at the Tarpon Springs Yacht Club and learn about the auxiliary.
Thank you. Yep. Let me get out of the way. Jordan, where are
you? Oh, there he is. Go ahead and get together for a picture.
Get that microphone up. Which way? To go? Why don't you guys step in front of the microphone
in front of. You? Hey, that's why I'm mayor. Thank you very
much. Thank you very much. Thank you, Commissioner Weaver, that you that was a great job. Okay. Our next proclamation will be National Public Works
Week, and I'd like Supervisor Tony Mannello to come forward.
So, you know, in some of these trying weeks that we sometimes have here in Tarpon Springs, it's important that we always remember that the things that
affect people's lives here in Tarpon are really perform by the working men of the that go out day to day and take care of your streets, make sure your
water is running, make sure your parks are kept clean, all those things. Those are the people. The most important people in Tarpon Springs are these working men and women, of
which Mr. Mannello represents. Kind of reminds me of, of, of one of my favorite movies. So I have you ever have any of you seen The Bronx Tale and The
Bronx Tale? This young boy, he's enamored with the, the, the, the local mob boss of the of the neighborhood. And he's talking to his dad. And his dad
said, he ain't a tough guy. The tough guy is the working man. The working man's the tough guy. The guy who gets up every day, goes to work, toils and comes
home dirty after a hard day's work, especially here in Florida in the summer. It's tough. And I want to thank Tony and all the people that work
for you that keep our city looking good and taking care of all of our parks and our things. So the kids have places to play and all the wonderful things
you do to keep our city the wonderful place that it is. So then I'm going to read this proclamation. All right. Whereas public works professionals focus on services
that are vital to sustainable and resilient communities and to the public health quality, high quality of life and well-being of its residents. Whereas, these services could
not be provided without the dedicated efforts of public work professionals who are managers, first responders and employees at all levels of government who are responsible
for our public facilities, our fleet, Marines, parks, parkways, streets and stormwater signage, solid and yard waste facilities. And whereas it is in the public
interest for the citizens of the City of Tarpon Springs to gain knowledge of and maintain an outgoing interest and understanding of public works.
And whereas, the year 2026 marks the 66th anniversary, annual National Public Works Week, sponsored by the American Public Works Association, with
the theme rooted in service powered by community, highlights the deep connection between public works and the people they serve. Now. Therefore, I, John, by virtue
of the authority vested in me as mayor of the City of Tarpon Springs, do hereby proclaim the week of May 17th through May
23rd as 20 as National Public Works Week.
All right. Good evening. Thank you, Mayor and Commissioners, for recognizing and awarding Public Works Department this proclamation.
It's it's especially it's very special this year as it comes on the heels of the recent resolution passing of 2026-11, where public Works employees
and staff were recognized officially as first responders. Interesting, timely manner. About two weeks ago, Eric Williams from our street department went out and assisted Chief Meissner and his
crew for a structure fire with our mini loader to move move some structures around. So it's been a long time coming, so thank you for that. I would
like to, on behalf of Public Works Department, our director, Chris Carter, I, as streets and stormwater supervisor would.
I'm honored to accept this proclamation and acknowledge the efforts of our staff that, as the mayor said, keep the city running and looking good and I have to have a cheat sheet here. He did mention them,
but I don't want to leave anyone out because they're all they're all special to me. We're we're pretty tight knit department, so I want to acknowledge the efforts of our
staff, the Parks Department, fleet, solid waste, yard waste, Marina, traffic facilities and my passion streets and stormwater. I thank them all
for their hard work. And I do thank you for for your
recognition. So thank you. Looks like karaoke. Before we
go to public comment, I think you can surmise from the the agenda tonight, item number 14. We will be appointing a new
inter interim city manager. And tonight Chief Young will be is sitting in in the place of the city manager. So therefore let's go to public comments. Is
there any public comments on items that are not on the agenda tonight. Yes. Thank you. Mayor, city commissioners, senior city staff Robert
Rockline. 755 North Lake Boulevard. I'd like to continue the meeting on a positive note in regards to the quality of some of the city staff members. I attended yesterday's Park and
Recreation Committee meeting to get an update on the Consultants Park and Rec Master plan, which is still forthcoming. And besides the great committee members that
were there, the city staff liaisons, especially Jamie Taylor, James Burke and Amber Thompson, all provided very concise and timely updates on various completed and
anticipated parks, activities and and projects around our city. They they basically answered questions before they were asked, so they should be commended along with with many
others under the guise of public works, the pickleball. The pickleball court was packed last night on my way to the sponge docks about 8:00. I think if the fire chief would have saw it, he would have
thought about setting an occupancy limitation. But that was great to see. And I was one of the the proponents for that for, for quite some time, equally bocce, which was talked
about for many years. It's another family sport. It's low impact. It's takes doesn't take all that much physical skill. It's able for young and old. So hopefully that's enabled soon.
Also. And as you just mentioned, I'd like to thank former chief Mark licorice for interrupting his retirement, which I know he was enjoying because I've seen him out in many places to step
up again and assist our city. He's an exemplary public servant, and the city is really blessed to enlist his knowledge and experience to aid us once
again. Whether you choose to to look at the glass half empty or the glass half full, we have so much to be thankful for in this city, so let's not focus on the
stumbles. Let's focus on the arising, the getting up and the continuing of the journey moving forward together for everyone's benefit. So I thank
you all. Thank you. Next. And and please refrain from talking about anything that'll be on the agenda later. But Martin. Marty Peters, 1702 Heritage
Oaks Court. I've been reading the newspapers lately, and I, I see that we have fired or accepted the resignation of our city manager, Marty, we're
going to have an item number 14 where we'll be talking about the new city manager. So really, we're not supposed to be talking to public comment about items that are on the agenda. But that's true. But I'd like
to talk about the old city manager, and I'd like to try and find out why he was fired. Item seven consent agenda is going to be covered under number 14. No, but nobody's going to answer that question.
So if you you came and saw me last week, you can come and see me next week and I'll give you a detail. But excuse me, I would think that the public
should have a right to know what the reasons are. The newspapers were very inadequate on it. $40,000 spent. Was it for four people? 40 people,
4000 people. We don't know what went on there. Why were people so upset? It sounds like they were upset because they couldn't use their cell phones. I suspect it's more than that.
But we ought to know why this training was so bad and what happened there. And the reason I came and asked for that and would like that information. I'll tell you about me. Last
century, when I was a teacher, I had a kid come up to me one time and he said, you're a dog. And I said, you can't call a teacher a dog. That's insulting.
No, man, you're a dog. You're a dog. And he kept going on and on, and I said, go to the office now. I'm much older now, and in the time from then to
now, I've learned a lot. And I learned that that kid was actually giving me the highest honor. He was calling me a dog,
not dog, but DAWG. So my reaction to that kid kind of really was a bad thing to do
because here's this guy he's giving a compliment to and he sends him to the office. That certainly didn't help race relations. When I think about my life now, I think about the
things I would have liked to have done differently. That's one of them. And I'm wondering how this whole thing fits in. Is it something like that or is
it something more serious? I'd like to know. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you.
Debbie McKinney 1021 Rose Tree Lane. I let him talk. Go ahead and talk. I wanted to say that I was a little upset that I
didn't get to say anything because there was no public comment when we were talking about the parking fees. And
that'll be on another agenda. And we will we will talk about that. I'll bring up more information about that then. I just wanted to share that I was a little upset and left out,
but I also want to comment on the public service award that was given tonight. We had a disaster at the splash park on Saturday. The water turned off
and it didn't come back on. And we were like devastated. And so we called the emergency number, which was really the non-emergency police department.
And she said, we'll get in touch with somebody to come and fix that. Sure enough, in 20 minutes they were there, had the water back on, and the kids
were happy. Once again, that was our public works department. Thank you, thank you. Susan
Swenson, 327 Manatee Lane. I'll leave my other comments for later, but for now, I do love the city and I like to be positive and I want to be positive. But I'll tell you, the homeless situation, by my
by, my business has gotten worse and worse and worse, and I am out there every day talking to them and they know me. I'd like to say they respect me because I always tell them, please move. They're
sitting right outside our businesses and I tell them, unless you want to pay my rent, I am not going to have people coming into my business when you are sitting out here. So I tell them to move to the side
and they do, and then they leave all their crap out there and I say, please move your stuff. And they do. But I feel like I'm the one. I don't want to call the police all the time. They're busy doing other things,
but it's getting worse. And I had today about ten people out there sitting down. And last week I had two women sitting on a chair with two other guys out in front of what used to be the
Mercado over there, and they were doing hair. She was braiding somebody, the four homeless people. And I love the homeless. I'm very good to to many, many, many of them. And I
speak with them and I give them books and I talk to them all the time. So I'm not a mean ogre here, but something's got to be done because you're impacting our businesses and
you're impacting future vitality of the city. Thank you. Good evening. Katie Taylor six five, seven Haven Place, Tarpon
Springs, Florida. I wasn't going to get up and say anything tonight, but my heart is compelled to say it. Thank you all for everything you're doing. Thank you all for each of you. Whenever I come to talk to you individually, I
appreciate you listening to me. But one thing I'd like to ask of this commission of each of you, because you you vote as a unit. You, you all stick together. And that's a good
thing. But but you have to have your own individuality at some point. So what I'm gonna ask is when you're making decisions on something, I hear a lot of why
you can't do something, but let's try to focus on how we can do it, especially when it comes down to the kids, the children when we're trying to have projects for children, the budget is tight. A lot of
things going wrong in the country right now. Finances are off the chart with we own a rocket ship here, but I'd like to just ask instead of always telling me why you can't do it,
kind of look at the opposite side of the fence and say, maybe we can find a way to do it. And that's all I ask you to do, is open your mind a little
bit more and find a way to do it. Thank you, thank you. If I may just clarify a point of
order, as you scolded other people speaking about things on the agenda, and I'm a little concerned that the main item about the acceptance of resignation is in the consent
agenda. And from what I was told through a Facebook post, somebody's going to want to speak about it. So if you're going to pull it, we should be allowed to speak on it because it will no longer be on the
consent agenda. So if that's the case where we can speak on the resignation and acceptance parts, then I will hold my comments to that item. So are
we going to pull that item? No. Go ahead and speak. I don't know if they're going to pull the item. I have no I have no way of knowing. Well so go ahead and go ahead and speak. I'll let you go ahead and speak
on whatever you want. Well, being that's the case. And your three minutes, three minutes can start now. Yes, I can understand that. As Peter said, there's a lot of questions unanswered and I can see where
his focus is, you know, on the seminar and things of that nature. But from just reading what I'm reading here, so the internal auditor gets some
complaints. The only thing we hear in the paper is the mayor. So where is the conjunction between getting the information
and the action of him resigning? So did the mayor go and confront them, the Mr. Rudd and say, hey, this is what I've been hearing. And he says, yeah, whatever. We don't know what
happened. Then the other thing is, is seems like all the commissioners, in a sense, have already acquiesced, whether it's a board decision. So why
is it that they I hate to say it, but was there some kind of discussion or implied actions that you, the mayor, accepted
to take the responsibility if it is you. Because that's what the paper implies. You're the only one quoted. So did you confront the city manager? There's a whole bunch in this
process and how that went, and how other commissioners learned about it, and how they may have reflected their views. So
that's my part with regards to this. Secondly. Very glad that we are celebrating Jewish American history and Jewish
history. And as I heard and I keep hearing, it's hate, it's not only hate to the Jews, it's hate to this, this Islamophobia, it's hate to Christians in
certain areas. It's hate to we got it's hate. We're all the same people. We're all the same people. So I want to go to my reading a little bit as much
time as I have left Isaiah 59 and Isaiah is my favorite. It. It's part of our Bible too, but it ties us to the Jewish
religion and how we believe in the. Trajectory of how people accept God. 59 surely the arm
of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God. Your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not
hear. For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken. Lies in your tongue mutters wicked things. No one calls for justice. No
one pleads his case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments and speak lies. They conceive trouble and give birth to evil. They hatch the eggs of vipers and spin a spider's web.
Whoever eats their eggs will die. And when one is broken, an adder is hatched. Their cobwebs are useless for clothing. They cannot cover themselves with what they made. Their deeds are
evil. Deeds and acts of violence are in their hands. We just got to stop fighting wars all over the world. We're good at making bombs. Let's start
making peace. Thank you. Any other public comments? Okay, let's move on to the consent agenda. Consent agenda number
item four. Bayshore Heights Public lighting. Number five. Award file number for the single source purchase. Legal
shield. Employee volunteer voluntary plan number six. Approve Novation for file for digital airport advertising. Number seven. Acceptance of
resignation and release number eight Award file for tree planting. Does any commissioner wish to pull any of these items?
Okay, with that roll call, please need a motion. Excuse me, a motion. I need a motion. So moved. Second. Okay, now roll call please. Commissioner
Weaver. Yes, Commissioner. Yes. Commissioner. Eisner. Yes. Vice mayor. Yes. Yes. Mayor. Collins. Yes. Okay. Business items number nine. Human resources.
Position reclassification. Tabitha Atkins, our director of human resources. Good evening. Mayor, vice mayor. Commissioners. Tabitha Atkins,
director of human resources here for the city. First, I want to apologize just for the timing of this request, but I will mention that I did have the opportunity to discuss this
need with the potential interim city manager earlier, and we did agree to leave it on the agenda for tonight. So I'm asking the board to approve the
reclassification of one of the positions in the HR department, from an HR specialist to an assistant HR director. The reason that we're asking for this request at this time is
that I've got a vacancy in the department. So this will allow us to reclassify that position without increasing staffing levels. Staffing benchmarks
currently for HR are about one for every 60 to 100 employees. So we are well within the lower range of the number of employees in the department for
the size of the city. Over the last year that I've been here, just trying to assess the department's needs, demands of just operation. And it's clear
that I need another position in the office with the ability to not only be boots on the ground, but also to have the experience, to understand the complexity of employee relations, benefits,
recruiting, when I have to be out of the office or have other things going on, or just demands of daily operations. This reclassification also allows for succession planning
within the department. So happy to answer answer any questions that you guys have. Okay. Commissioner Weaver, do you
have any questions? I'd be where are we drawing from? What pool are we drawing from for new hires in the department like yours? Do you go outside
of the city or. No. Well, we have, of course, our salaries and benefits categories that you're asking, like where the budget would come from? Well, no, I'm just wondering, how do
you how do you ascertain these advertise for them? Yeah. So we use government jobs.com. Okay. It's we started using that
about a year, almost a little over a year ago now. And it has definitely adequately filled a lot of our positions, you know, filled enough applications and,
you know, qualified applicants for most of our positions. So yes, we went to that, but it's gov jobs. It's a recruiting software that we have in the, in the system. We also at some times, if there's a need, if
it's a slow, hard to fill position, we'll reach out through LinkedIn and other, you know, specific recruiting softwares that might help to draw in, you know, specific
clientele. Thank you. Commissioner, do you have any questions? No, sir. Commissioner. Sir. No, sir. Vice mayor. No, sir. Okay.
Let's go to. Is there any public comments on this item? If not, let's come back to. I'd like to come back to the board for a motion. So moved. Second,
if there's no discussion. Roll call please. Commissioner Weaver. Yes, Commissioner. Yes. Commissioner. Eisner. Yes. Vice
mayor. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Let's go to item number ten. So let me ask you, Mr.
Kiger, are are items ten, 11, 12 and 13 all related? Yes. Okay. Would you like to present them? Want to stay there and just present them? Do you want
are you presenting them collectively? We just vote on the individual. Or do you want to have a discussion on each item? We can present them collectively. Actually, my first line of my reading was
these four items are all related. So we'll start with that premise. All right. Go ahead. Okay, so the next four items are all related and they're related to water meters and the associated parts. And
service item number ten is one standalone item. It's the annual contract for as needed meters and parts from Ferguson Waterworks, who is the sole source provider for Neptune
water meters in our region. This is an annual contract and we use this contract by parts for inventory and for replacement of water meters. This contract is also used to purchase new water meters for
new construction, for new housing, housing starts and new connections to the system. Historically, this contract has averaged around half $1 million
a year. Our current spending authorization is 700 000. We're reducing that to 600,000, knowing that we're going to be replacing a lot of meters through a large project. So we wanted to reduce that to
reflect those projected savings. But again, we need to have a buffer in case we have a need for to provide new meters for new housing starts or new businesses or things like that.
So with that, we request that item number 11 be approved. As for as needed services. And I'm sorry for as needed parts for the water meters. Items 11
through 13 are all related to one project. And this is the fiscal year 26 phase one meter replacement project. The goal of this project is to replace approximately 4500 of the
oldest water meters in the city. We currently have 10,000 water meters in the city, and 5800 of these are more than 15 years old, which is considered rather aged by standards in the water
industry, over 1200 these meters are more than 25 years old, and as meters age, they tend to slow down and they don't capture all the water use from the customer, which results in high water loss, low,
you know, reduced water conservation and lost revenue. And it impacts the financial health of the utility. So this project is included in the budget for $2.4 million. It's designed to improve the
financial health of utility and reduce the need for future water rate increases by ensuring that we get paid for all the services provided through the water meters. Item 11 is a one time contract
increase to Core and Main. This is for the plastic meter boxes. The meters go into. Item 12 is a one time contract for HST utility, which is a. A company that provides installation
services to install all the new water meters rapidly and. Item 13 is the one time contract for Ferguson water meters to. Or Ferguson Water works to buy approximately 4500 water meters
for the installation. So those three contracts combined to represent the total purchasing for the project. It's under budget. We found some cost savings were actually originally we're going to get about 4000m. We're thinking
we're going to get around 4500m now. And that will be based on the actual cost once they're installed and in the ground. Thank you very much. You answered all my questions previously, so I don't have any.
How about Commissioner Weaver? Do you have any questions? No. No questions. Okay. Commissioner Panther? No, sir. Commissioner Eisner, thank you.
Mayor. Yes, it was a very interesting set of circumstances here. As I spoke to Mr. Kiger earlier today, it was very interesting that every
single one of the questions was that I was going to ask was answered in the next, you know, the next agenda item. So he did
cover how many meters. And you know that there's 265m over 1980. The one thing that you didn't answer, which I'm going to ask you, is the what is the
amount of savings per 1% that you that you and I spoke about? Yes, that that's one important thing. We expect this program to self-fund. We're this we think of this as a one time
smart investment to generate future revenues without having to change rates. And for every 1% change in accuracy of the whole population of water meters, we gain over $200,000
in estimated revenues that would otherwise be lost. And how many percentage are we looking to gain? We're hoping to get at least 2 to 3% overall in the first year, but it could
be a little bit more. And we're going to be testing the meters as they come out to to verify. And that'll let us know how far to go with the meter replacement program. Could be 6% to correct. It could be up
to 6%. Okay. Thank you. Vice Mayor. I just want to clarify to the public that these items have already been budgeted in our budget from July. It's just our charter requires us to ratify it so that they're not
coming before us and asking for more money that was originally budgeted for. We just have to ratify it through our charter to to accept this. So I just wanted to clarify that. Thank
you. Thank you for clarifying that. Okay, let's go to public comments. Are there any public comments on these items? I'd like to come back to the board.
Now. What we're going to do is we're going to have to make a motion. So let's have a motion on item number ten. So moved second. Okay. If there's no comments roll call please Mr.
Weaver. Yes, Commissioner. Yes. Commissioner. Eisner. Yes. Vice mayor. Yes. Yes. Mayor. Collins. Yes. Let's go to I'd like a
motion on item 11. So moved. Second. Okay. Roll call please. Commissioner Weaver. Yes, Commissioner. Yes. Commissioner. Eisner. Yes. Vice mayor. Yes.
Yes. Yes. I'd like a motion on item number 12. So moved. Second. Roll call, please. Commissioner Weaver. Yes, sir.
Yes. Commissioner. Eisner. Yes. Vice mayor. Yes. Yes. Yes. And I'd like a motion on item number 13. So moved. Second
roll call, please, Mr. Weaver. Yes. Mr. Yes. Mr. Eisner. Yes. Vice mayor. Yes. Yes. Mayor.
Yes. A lot speed round. Okay. Let's go to item number 14. Appointment of interim City Manager. Mr. Salzman, would you like to start us off? Yes,
mayor. So, Mayor and Commissioners, obviously you know that the city received the resignation from the former
city manager last week. At that point, there needed to be someone put in that position for interim city manager.
Individual commissioners. Mayor had, I believe, had spoken to. Mr. Licorice to see if he had any interest in coming back on
an interim basis. Of course, there was no discussion amongst the commissioners. I think it was an obvious decision that you had. The prior city manager
possibly available, and I also talked to him. He's agreed to come back, if you so choose to have him on a basically at an
as an at will employee. And so if if the commission wants to choose to have him, the simple terms of I had discussions with him would be that he would have
the same salary as the prior city manager, that he would be paid for a automobile the same as the prior City Manager, and those would be the only benefits he would receive. He
would not receive any kind of vacation sick time. He would receive no medical benefits whatsoever. It would be a 30
day notice provision by either side upon termination. Basically, to have somebody in the position so the commission can ultimately decide how you're going to get a permanent
person in that position. So the idea of of appointment of Mark licorice would be something presented to the board. Should you consider it, if you choose
not to consider him, then you would have to appoint somebody else, at least on a temporary basis in that position. Okay.
So first we're going to have any questions of Mr. Saltsman. If you have no questions of Mr. Saltsman, please hold your comments till we get back after
a motion is made. So I have no I have no questions of the city attorney. How about you, Commissioner Weaver? Okay. Commissioner Panther. No, sir.
Commissioner Eisner no, sir. Vice mayor. No, sir. Okay, let's go to public comments. Is there a public comments on this
item? Hurry up. It's 514 Ashland Avenue. Yeah. Mark is
very logical choice, but I'm thinking of how we got here. I remember not too long ago, we created a position for an assistant city manager. And
part of the reason was that if the city manager had to leave or had somebody fill in. But I don't see the assistant city manager sitting in. I see the police chief, Mr. Young, in
there. And then I'm also recalling over the last, what, three years now, first the
headhunters who did a whole bunch of surveys and interviews, and we had people come and that blew up. And we had the other,
you know, process where Mr. Rudd and the other guy, I think he was from Nevada or somewhere out West, brought him in, had
nice meet and greets, brought. So what are we going to do now? We're going to go through another headhunter search. What's the you know, y'all talk about transparency. Boy,
everybody seems to be hiding behind their microphone tonight. Some of y'all don't mind talking a lot about other things. We're out here in the
dark. Yes, we're out here in the dark. And I keep speaking about light. Y'all talk about transparency, shame, shame,
shame. So what's the plan? Y'all going to go through another process? Or maybe just offer it to Mark for another six months, rolling it over like we do with Paul Smith and
some of the other people that we've hired as consultants? I don't know. You know, you and again, how this process got to
this point. Where everybody seems to have silent lips and agreement makes me wonder if
this incident wasn't just an excuse, a reason to do what was happened as compared to maybe some other issues that were
going on. Remember back years ago, I forget the gentleman's name. Who was the head of the building department? And there were some problems that
happened with the sponge docks and the flooding and all that stuff. He took the blame for it, but I think there were other things at that time, too, that were going on because everybody
complained about how rude he was and how hard he was to deal with and getting permits and all that stuff. So I think y'all owe us a vibrant
discussion of what you knew, when and how things went down for you making your decisions.
Thank you. Next, please. Jim Harrington 1021 Jamaica Way. I can't say what is going on or
isn't going on, but I can tell you as a city resident, when one event is publicized and a person loses their job, what does that say to anyone else
who might want to apply? If we don't like something, you're out. If an employee can't use their cell phone in a meeting, you're going to be fired. And
now we're going to bring back a city manager. I read in the paper you were considering it, then it's nope, he's coming back. The HR director today
said she met with the new city interim manager. So where does this leave the people? And lastly, you're bringing back a city manager. And I look at
several of you who campaigned hard to replace Mark licorice. There were many emails. There were many discussions on
replacing Mark licorice. You guys now are bringing him back with no end in sight. You've got a retiree who's going to come back, and you can't help
but do the same things the same way that you left. We were finally on a path for a new look and a new feel here in Tarpon. I'm just worried that
this will not sit well with new employees you're trying to hire, trying to bring in. I would appreciate if you would think we have an assistant city
manager for a reason. Use that person. Let's keep the change in the momentum going forward. Constantly going back to four
people, former commissioners, former city managers is not a help to this city. And I do love the city, but we need to
move forward. Thank you. Anyone else? Want to wait and then comment about that? Katie Taylor 657 Haven Place, Tarpon
Springs, Florida. In a time like this, when you when you hold an exempt position, you set yourself up. So you you accept it being let go at the
spur of a dime. If you are exempt employee so that comes with the job. So it's no surprise. But Mr. Rudd was a nice guy. I got along with him
quite well. He worked well with us. I'm hoping that projects can still be moved forward that he was working on. Mark is a great guy. He. It's good that
we have somebody that can fill that job. Until you do have someone that can come in with experience. I'm kind of baffled on the fact that we we did do a lot of interviews, just like
the gentleman said, we have a, we have a assistant director that the position was created for some kind of wondering, why can't that assistant director just step into that job and do
it? Start start doing it? Are you going to just leave the assistant position as is, and you're going to hire a new city
manager? If you do, I ask you to please make it clear when the job is open so people can have an opportunity to apply for that job, because a guy
with a master's degree in a position in another state came down here when he when this job was open, he didn't get a shot at the job because it was his his application was shut out.
He couldn't figure out who to get it to, to even be interviewed. So in, in this new. When you open the job again, I just ask for it to be publicized. Give a fair
opportunity for everybody to apply for that job and get a chance to interview. Thank you,
thank you. Next. Hi, I'm Vasily, I live at 307 South Spring Boulevard, Tarpon Springs, Florida. I have a concern. I
was in a meeting several months ago where the budget was increased that the city manager could spend without permission. He could spend a larger amount without having to come back to
the board and ask. And I feel like maybe we should go back to the original plan, because if if he wasn't allowed to spend so much money, maybe they wouldn't have all gone to the
conference in Orlando and people would have not gotten upset because y'all would have known about it. So if you could just rethink about the liberties that we give new people who come in until
they've been here longer, and we know really how it's being spent and agree with a large
sum of money like that. Thank you. Thank you. Next. I, Sherry
went, I live at 1214 Riverside Drive. And and tonight I think I wanted to speak also on behalf of the the merchants association that that I am
president of. I wasn't going to speak at all, but I, I just with a couple of the comments, I wanted to speak in behalf of your decision to bring Mark
Lucas back. I'm not going to try to get into what you're going to do next, but I'd like to say that several years ago, when a bunch of us decided to
jump in and go and be on our merchant board and try to build up the city, we we had and we knew we were green as grass.
Mark Lucas didn't say no. He worked with us. He helped us. And it a lot of a lot of our success was that he didn't think we were totally crazy.
People that didn't know what we were doing. He just said, bring me a plan, and if it's good, then I'll help you. And he always helped us. So for people who don't know him, I know
you're bringing some. They're bringing someone back that why are we doing that? But I'm very happy that you're bringing somebody good. That made a great difference in our city
over the last ten years. Without him, I don't know if we would have been quite as successful in building the downtown and doing a lot of things that that we have done
with our events. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next. Thank you again. Robert Rockline 755 North Lake Boulevard here in
Tarpon. And I apologize for bringing up Mr. Klaus, Mr. licorice before, but I felt that that needed to be said because he is that type of person that is truly a public
service. What I've been hearing over the last week and some some here tonight also was the fact that there's no real
official release about the who, why, what, where and when, and that just generates the rumor mill and innuendo and the blame game. And, you know, I've heard
so many stories lately and I just shake my head. You do have a public information officer. I feel that's something eventually should come out for the sake of transparency. And
it's not a matter of what happened and why. Like we're we're all human, we all make mistakes. Let's just try not to repeat any of them. And let's admit to whatever fault and
process may have allowed this or caused it. It's it sounds simple, but it is. And no one has to, you know, accept blame. It's recognizing that something
may have been inappropriate and probably was. But admitting that and moving forward, I think should be the goal of everyone here, including the citizens and the business
owners. Thank you, thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Let's I'm going to come back to the board for a specific motion for the
appointment of Mr. Mark licorice as the interim city manager. Second. Okay. So let's we'll go to now. We'll go to
the commission for comments. I I'll start them off. You know, I'm not going to get into specifics because it's it's
difficult, you know, we have to respect certain issues that aren't always easy to debate in
public. And it's unfortunate. And, you know, we were all hopeful for Mr. Rudd. I, I was a supporter of Mr. Rudd and I helped him at every point I
could for him to be a successful city manager and for very many parts of, of his job, he, he was successful. You know, I, I sponsored him to become a
member of the rotary. I, I went all around town taking him to every organization that I could, whether it was the chamber meetings, introducing him and
helping him with as much as I possibly could. First of all, there is no conspiracy. There are five independently minded
people up here. There. You know, there's nothing I can do about what social media thinks and how conspiracy our ideas are
are considered, but that is, there was no conspiracy. This. I want to say that I'm actually
very proud of this board. I'm exceptionally know that the city employee, somebody got up and said something about the city employees, and if we did this to him, we do it to the
city employees. City employees were paramount in our decision. And to request that and and for
his resignation, they were paramount above all. And the city of Tarpon Springs, we we can get into again, I got to be
we have to be very sensitive about things that we discuss in public. I'm. And I just want to let you know that we. This was
not something we any of us enjoyed, and none of us are happy that it happened. And there was again, no conspiracy to bring Mr. Licorice back. Mr. licorice was happy with his in
his retirement. He is doing us a favor. Trust me, a huge favor. We're. Right now. This is the absolute worst time to have a change of City manager. We're
going into the budget process. We have all these projects that have to get moving and. And they're all coming out of the
design and, and, and, and, and approval stage. And they have to get dirt and stuff has to get done. So there wasn't
anyone that we felt, and I feel that can come in and get us rolling and keep the city moving better than Mark licorice again, he is doing us
an enormous favor coming back and helping our city, and none of us are happy that this transpired with Mr. Rudd. But it was not a merely somebody
not allowing somebody to use their cell phones. I know that I don't have any control of what newspapers. Right. And so if they if that was the story, well, I'm sorry. Okay. You
didn't hear that coming directly from me. You heard it through a different party. So and as far as the spending thing that is in the city
charter that talks about spending, and I believe it's $25,000. Anything above 25,000 has got to come to the board. So that's in the charter. It's not something we voted on here
at the commission. So I will go now to Commissioner Weaver. Thank you mayor. I think I feel
confident that our projects will all move forward under Mr. Licorice. I've had very positive response from the
public that I've spoken with. It's a unique city. We will benefit from someone who understands it. You know, on a ship, there's something called
a loss of confidence. And when that happens, it it's akin to a mutiny. We had something of a loss of confidence here. And
and that compels us to act. I'm satisfied with the direction we're going. I think we were going to come out much better for this, and I. I hope in time
you will see that as well. Thank you, Commissioner Panther. Yes. Thank you. I'm very grateful that Mark, can you can you I know, have a bad habit of
that. I'm I am very grateful that Mark licorice is coming back to help us. As long as he's approved. Tonight. I have asked our city attorney at the end in his comments to help further explain how last week
went down. And that's going to lead me into these comments. I know it's nice to get up here and do public comment and, you know, pick out the board and that's your right to do. And I'll always sit here through it.
But it's funny because everyone that came up and was kind of accusing us of, you know, meeting behind closed doors, tight lips, conspiracy never rang my cell phone one time. And, and they all have my cell phone number. And you want to
know what happens, call me or call any of these people individually, as the mayor said, and as Commissioner Weaver put, put, put excellently, there are things that are not appropriate
in, in, in, in, in a public meeting when it pertains to individuals and their employment. And that's out of respect to them, whether we fired them or not, we're still going to follow a proper process that, that, that, that
that is above board out of respect. And we live in a very like, you know, legal environment too. We can't sit up here and go through every single account of, of, of like what happened because it takes
one sound bite that's misconstrued and then we're in trouble. So if you want to know something, call one of us. I guarantee you, as I am all, all of my colleagues are more than
happy to, to, to, to, to, to tell you what, what, what, what we know our side of the story and our opinion. And then you can come to that conclusion. So the concerns are valid, but I have trouble accepting the
speeches when, when I wasn't contacted and they have my cell phone number. But going forward, I'm very happy about this change we're doing. We this is
obviously a lot like the mayor said, a very a very difficult time. Not only do we have these projects, we have the budget season. We have kind of impending doom with with this with this referendum in the
fall, where, where, where, where we could lose up to $8 million in revenue a year. We have no time for on the job training. We have no time for outside searches right now. We have to right this ship. And
it's Martin Licorice that can do that job. Thank you, thank you. Commissioner Eisner. So I want to first start off by
thanking all the department heads who. Did what they needed to do. And I do want to
apologize because the buck does stop at this dais. I agree with what the mayor just said. I agree with Commissioner Banther. I agree with Commissioner
Weaver. We're not here to micromanage or micro dissect actually what happened, and then it'll go in through different, you know, venues.
The people that called me, I explained it as best as I could to those people, those that didn't call me. And everybody is free to call me. You know,
I'd be happy to explain the situation to the best of my ability, but you guys put us here to make these tough
decisions. And I really didn't need to on these particular issues that came about. I didn't really need to. And I don't mean this in a
disrespectful way. I didn't really need to hear what the residents think I should do, because we had five commissioners here that
independently all made the right decision. None of us spoke to each other. We all made the right decision. We all
made the call. From what I understand, to Mark and asked if he would come back when you left with a very, very tough decision to make, the best
thing you could do is make the best decision, and I'm very proud to sit amongst these other four commissioners that we were. We couldn't have been
in more unison. We saw a problem. We handled it. And I'm sorry that it's we're not at freedom to speak about it in a public setting, but I think we
all did the right thing. And the city will move forward. It wasn't easy that I'll tell, you know, nobody up here had a blessing of a week. It was very,
very tough on everyone, including the mayor. Probably had it the toughest. And the city attorney. So before
anybody gets up here and wants to throw the stones, I know you can only speak about what you saw in the newspaper, but you could speak about what you saw on social media, Facebook and
all these other things. It's all hearsay and everybody has their comments. I've read them all and none of them are true. But we did the right thing and
the city will be healthier moving forward. And that's what I want to say. Thank you, Commissioner. Vice mayor. Yes.
And I just you guys were really addressing the mayor in a in a manner which I get it, you have limited information, but, you know, the mayor is not at fault
for this or anything. He helped. He's the first person to speak to the news. Staff had reached out to me, notified me, and the
most logical thing to do was notify our labor attorney and our city attorney. From there, they were able to gather information and, you know, proceed where they needed to
proceed. But I'm sure when any one of us got the information, at some point, one of us were going to bring it forward. There's no doubt anybody wasn't.
So just to avoid any type of, you know, elaborate discussions, you know, I think it worked out in the best way. But Peter, you know, I respect you a lot. But
you, you, you've been up here before and you've been through these changes. You could have done a little bit better job in trying to present yourself and, and discussing all this. But
there's no there's no conversation. So what I will say is I helped put, you know, get this started and looked out
and I'm here for the staff. I'll always be here for the staff. I'm not. We come and go, we're going to be gone, but we want our staff to be here
forever. And I we're not going to create this, you know, thought or feelings that in which we got to be there for our staff for the short and
long term. And the city is unique. It's very unique in many different facets. I can't tell you that even if we have our differences up here, they are outweighed by our love for
this community and wanting to serve you all. So I just want to thank our brave employees. They're the ones who make the city go. All of them. I do want
to thank our our labor attorney, Miss Jackson. Mr. Saltzman, you know, they they they need they had the intake they needed to. And they addressed it the way they wanted, you know, they needed to in the most
professional manner for this community. So I do want to thank them. And I do want to thank our board because we acted swiftly. But at the same
time, I'm saying this in a very constructive way. You know, there is for months there was this pageantry of compliments and fluff. And, you know, we got to get to work up here. We
got some big issues to address. And, you know, let's stop with the side compliments and get our pencil sharpened and get to work, you know, and you know,
Peter, as far as the city manager search and I'll tell you all flat out, I don't I'm going to tell you guys how it is. Why wouldn't we go back to Mark? Why would we not go back
to Mark right now in this time of need? We borrowed money. We got former city manager out eight months into a ten year loan. Okay, think of that. Who
better to come up here and tell us no to stop spending money? Who better to come up here and sit there and say, nope, we're not going to do this. We're going to focus on this and we're going to do this. We need
it now more than ever, you know? And that's what a strong city manager can do. And so I'm looking forward and one step back and two no it's one step back five steps forward the way
I look at it. And so I'm very happy to support Mark of course tell you I was one of the first people everybody knows go look at the history. But as people you evolve and you understand.
And if you want to be a true politician, admit when you're wrong, or at least accept the the what you learn and try to do better moving forward. So that's the best we can do up
here is trying to admit our mistakes or you know, how we dealt with stuff in the past and move it forward to in the right direction. The searches, they didn't go great. I'll be
the first to tell you we tried it. It didn't work. As you can see, we're bringing back Mark now. And I'll tell you what, I don't want to hear one. We're doing this one. We're not. I
ain't rushing for nothing right now. We're going to slow this down. We're going to take care of our community, make sure we get our budget right because it's the first big one again, and simplify it for the
community, for you all and everything. We didn't hide anything. This was a very fluid situation. The confidence of our staff is the utmost, you
know, importance to us. So we all individually, collectively spoke with our attorneys and came to the decisions where we
that we came to. But I'm proud of this board. I'm thankful for our staff. I see a very good direction. And don't tell me what a good time. I'll keep
Mark around for a long time. There are no buttons to push around here. Okay, so let's take care of our community, learn from this, and work together to do what's right. So
I just want to thank you all. Thank you, thank you. With that said, there is a motion and there has been discussion. And
let's go to roll call, please, Commissioner Weaver. Yes, Commissioner. Yes. Commissioner. Eisner. Yes. Vice mayor. Yes.
Yes. Mayor. Yes. Okay. Let's go to now. We're going to go to ordinances and resolutions. First one is item number 16,
resolution 2026-20. City attorney, would you read it by title resolution 20 2620, a resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida,
approving application number 26, oh seven and 2608, requesting conditional use approval and site plan approval to allow a four unit multifamily
development in the HB Highway Business Zoning District, providing for findings, providing for conditions, and providing for an effective date. Do you want me to read the
quasi judicial? Yes, please. This is a quasi judicial proceeding where the board 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, and 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. Is there any ex
parte communication that the board needs to disclose, and is there any conflicts? Thank you. Mayor, before we proceed, I
Vice Mayor just reminded me number item number 15 has been deferred. I had crossed it out. That's why I skipped it. Thank you though. Okay. Miss Keene,
would you please do the presentation? Sure. Good evening. Mayor, vice mayor and commissioners. You need to be sworn in. Oh, yeah. Swear me in. You swear or affirm your
testimony before the board shall be the truth. So help you I do. Okay. All right. Again, this is for applications 26-07
and 26-08 for conditional use and site plan approval under resolution number 2026-20. The property is located on the south side of East Lemon Street,
approximately 230ft east of US 19. It comprised of two historically platted lots, just about an acre in size. The applicants are here today requesting approval to develop
the property with a four unit multifamily building. It will be a two story building, approximately 6400ft■!S in size. They're providing on site parking and stormwater retention, and each unit is
approximately 1350ft■!S in size. Site again, is outlined here in yellow on the south side of East Lemon Street between US 19 and Japonica Avenue. The blocks are all in the HB Highway
Business Zoning District. This is one of our more intense commercial zoning districts. However, there is some single family residential zoning east of the property. Zooming in to
the context of the area, the property that we're talking about this evening is the only lot that is undeveloped in this area. There is a collection of different uses in the surrounding area. There's
professional offices to the south. Queens pizza is to the west of the property. There's a car wash and child care facility to the north, and there's an existing multifamily apartment complex immediately
adjacent to the east. Here's a look at the proposed site plan. The building is situated to the rear of the property here with parking access from the front there. Stormwater facilities will be behind the building.
One thing to note is back in December of last year, the applicants received variance approval from the Board of Adjustments to reduce the side setback from 20ft to 4ft. And this was really in response to
the overall relatively small size of the property. The highway business district really looks for intense uses and those typically larger properties to accommodate all the necessary improvements. So
that was the need for the variance in the site plan that is before you this evening is consistent with that variance approval. So look at your landscape plan. It does comply
with all the requirements of Land development code here. Look at the floor plans. Each unit is two stories again about 1300ft■!S in size. These are
elevations. And with respect to the conditional use review criteria, the project is found to be in conformance with Land Development Code as well as consistent with the comprehensive plan. The site is
not located on environmentally sensitive or historic property with respect to compatibility of the area, the project does provide kind of an appropriate transition between the intense
commercial corridor of US 19 to the residential development to the east. Again, within the immediate area, there's really a mix of nonresidential and residential uses, and the proposed development is
complementary to the surrounding development pattern. Due to the mix of uses in that area and the context of that location, we do not expect
adjoining property values to be adversely affected. The city is able to provide services to the development, and the site does represent efficient, orderly development. As an infill property, those are desirable.
It makes use of underutilized lands as well as they're able to be served by existing facilities. And lastly, the public health, safety and welfare is not expected to be
affected. Looking at your site plan criteria again, the project is found to be in conformance with the Land Development Code Comprehensive Plan. We can provide services to it and is expected to meet
all applicable building, fire and other technical codes. Staff does recommend approval of resolution 2026-20. We do have five conditions that are listed here on the screen.
These are your typical conditions that we place on a site plan application, but they cover that. The final details of stormwater handling and utility systems will be submitted at the time they submit. For building permits.
Their construction plans must be consistent with what was reviewed here this evening. The developer must obtain all other jurisdictional permits and approvals. They must comply with the public art program. If
the project exceeds $1 million in job value, and the site plan will expire in six months from the effective date unless they obtain their building permit.
This did go before the Planning and Zoning Board back in April. There are six members there present, and they unanimously recommended approval of the resolution with staffs conditions. There is no public
comment comment at that meeting and with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions. Okay. I don't have any. Commissioner Weaver, do you have any
questions? The the forefoot setback that was that was a variance. When when that happens, did that go through planning and zoning? Who has to
approve that? So the Board of Adjustment has jurisdiction over variances. So it went to them first so that they can get approval for the site plan. And then it went to the planning and zoning board for the site
plan. Okay. So so they did, they did approve it at that time. Correct. Okay. Very good. Thank you, Commissioner Panther. No, sir. I'm good. Commissioner
Eisner no questions, vice mayor, no questions for Mrs. Keane. Okay. We have no applicant here tonight. We do have an
applicant. Does he have to be sworn in? Right hand. You swear or affirm your testimony before the commission shall be the truth, so help you? I do, thank you. Do you have any statement
above what the. Our director has stated? No. She did a great job. All right. Thank you. You can be available for questioning. Absolutely. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Let's go to
public comment. Any public comment on this item. All right. Let's come back to the board for a motion. Hold up, hold up, hold up your documents and
evidence. Evidence. I do enter all these documents into evidence and for the record. Okay. And we accept it. Thanks. The board to accept those
documents. Okay. This is quasi judicial, so you have to have the competent, substantial evidence, which is the report. So as long as the board accepts the report, then we can move
forward on a motion. So now I'll give you the so moved. Second. Second. All right. So let's go to Commissioner Weaver. Do you have any comments on
this item? No. I'm always happy to see people investing in the city. Does anybody have any questions of the on the evidence or is that so moved on the motion so moved on the
motion. Okay, okay. We're ready to go so we can continue. Sorry, sorry, Commissioner Panther. No, sir. Commissioner Eisner, I'm
just always glad when we get a unanimous vote from the PNC board. So I have no questions, Vice Mayor, no questions. Okay.
City attorney, you've earned latitude this week. So sorry. You can forget anything you want, and I will forgive it. So.
All right, with that said. Roll call, please, Commissioner Weaver. Yes, Commissioner. Panther. Yes. Commissioner. Eisner. Yes. Vice mayor. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Thank you very much. Thank you. You did a great job, though. All right. Let's go to
item number 17. I guess all the rest of the items are all yours, Miss Keene. They are. So. Okay, let's go to item number 17 with City Attorney. Please read the
item by title, please. Mayor, do you want me to read all three? A, B, and C? Is that the way you'd like to handle it? Okay. Go ahead. Ordinance 2020 605, an ordinance of the City
of Tarpon Springs, Florida, amending the City of Tarpon Springs Code of Ordinances. Chapter 20 Water and Sewers. Article six stormwater management and article seven
storm sewer system providing for codification, providing for conflicts and severability. Providing for correction of scrivener's errors and providing for an effective date
that is ordinance 2020 605 read by title only on first reading. Second reading will be held on May 26th, 2026, and publication
occurred on April 1st, 2026. The second will be May 13th, 2026. Ordinance 2020 606 An ordinance of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, amending the
following articles of the Tarpon Springs Code of Ordinances, appendix. A comprehensive zoning and land development code pertaining to stormwater management. Article
eight plan consistency, concurrency management and mobility management. Article nine development standards, article ten Subdivision Regulations and article 12
Administration and Enforcement providing for codification, providing for conflicts and severability for providing for correction of scrivener's errors and providing for an effective date that is
ordinance 2020 606 read by title only on first reading. Second reading will be May 26th, 2026. First advertisement occurred on April 1st, 2026.
Second will be on May 13th, 2026 and then resolution 2020 619. A resolution of the Board of Commissioners. The City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, approving the City of Tarpon
Springs Stormwater Technical Manual dated May 2026, providing for findings, providing for subsequent revisions process and providing
for an effective date. Okay. All. Any presentation please. Yes. So the planning department, as well as public works streets and stormwater division, have been working over the past
several years on doing some updates to our code pertaining to stormwater management as well as illicit discharge discharge. Tonight we have Brian Anderson here, as well as
Rick Aguilar from WSP, USA. They are the city's stormwater consultant. They're going to go over the proposed changes to you just for clarity. The changes do affect both the municipal code as well as the
Land Development Code, and it does incorporate the adoption of a new stormwater technical manual. Brian and Rick have worked with the city for many, many years, and they're very familiar with the city, so
we're happy that they're able to help us with this. So I'll pass it on to Brian. Thank you.
Ali. Tony to be sworn in. Good evening. Thank you. Good evening Tony to be sworn in, I don't know, I don't think so. It's okay. I just want to make
sure I. Follow the. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor and Board of Commissioners. Thank you very much for having us here this evening. As Ali mentioned, I'm here on behalf of the city planning staff and the streets and stormwater
staff for the discussion. Overview of the stormwater code, changes related to City Municipal Code and the Land Development Code, and then adoption of the Stormwater
Technical Manual. So a little bit of background back in starting in 2022, staff initiated discussion on needing some changes to the city's land
development code and municipal code related to stormwater. This actually precipitated the development of the draft Stormwater Technical manual, which we had hoped at that point would move forward
through adoption. But if you remember back then, there were some changes with the city attorney staff, which delayed our our plan. And we're here in front of you this evening. From
2024 to present day, we've been working with alley and stormwater staff to revisions of the Land Development Code and municipal code related to
stormwater. So overview of the changes of land development code related to stormwater. Why now and some of the benefits. Land Development Code
stormwater is under 141.00 today. Single family and duplex duplex development of lots of record are currently exempt from city stormwater management
plan requirements. There's a lot of low lying. As you all know, most of the city is is pretty much built out and there's a lot of low lying lots left. These are the undesirable
lots that are hard to develop. So there's there's an exemption has been challenging for staff since these properties still must demonstrate that they're developed, that their projects
not going to create any adverse impact to surrounding private property or city assets. So this criteria has been revised with this update. The current Land Development Code lacks
definitive stormwater criteria to assist development applications, and this has also been updated and criteria has been moved over to the Stormwater Technical Manual.
The current Land Development Code is missing criteria defining inspections, violations and penalties related to the construction of stormwater infrastructure, which ultimately protects the
surrounding water quality of Tarpon Springs. This has been corrected and added with this revision. The current City Land Development Code also lacks stormwater criteria for some
proposed redevelopment, so this criteria has been relocated to Stormwater Technical Manual. So going into an overview of the municipal code changes, these are under article six
stormwater management. The current municipal code is missing definitive criteria on how the city stormwater management utility fee is calculated. This criteria has been added in this revision.
The current code is outdated, has outdated definitions related to illicit discharge, and the city's municipal separate storm sewer system, or the Ms4. This has been relocated to Stormwater
technical manual. The current code is missing violation penalty fee matrix for illicit discharges. This has been added to this revision, and then the current criteria is also
missing criteria on extent of the illicit discharge violation. Whether that violation is a minor violation, whether it's a moderate, major or willful
that's also been corrected. And then the current criteria is missing information on obstruction stormwater. We've clarified that in this revision as well. So going into the
development of stormwater technical manual why now this this document is going to serve as a central location for all stormwater city stormwater design criteria for all
development and redevelopment within the city. This criteria is to is going to be used to reduce. I'm sorry, define the criteria to reduce the development stormwater
management utility fee through the use of green infrastructure. The manual also includes development of application checklist which has been really helpful in streamlining the development submittals through
the city, helping city staff with their reviews and the permitting process for developments. And then the manual also is serves as a
document so that if revisions are necessary in the future, we're not coming back to you to make revisions to the Land Development Code or the municipal code that can be adopted. So the overall
benefits of stormwater technical manual, it's a better roadmap for the development applications. There's application checklists, clarification on design criteria, etc. this will streamline the internal city
review process and the permitting. It's going to increase protection for private property, city assets and the water quality of Tarpon Springs includes updates that address
the adopted comp plan changes and has a better enforcement of city code. This. This information here is basically an overview of when we went in
front of the Planning and Zoning Board. We met. We had two meetings with them. Then after the first one, they had three suggested revisions. I'll go through those. They wanted
us to clarify. Exemptions from the stormwater requirements include projects involving less than 1945ft■!S of impervious ar, not a lot of coverage. So we
made those changes. They asked us to ensure consistency between the code and the technical manual when using the terms engineer of record or registered Design professional, we made those changes. We
replaced the words registered Design professional with Florida registered professional engineer, and then we defined the flood hazard area, as well as clarifying that the special
flood hazard area designation. And we changed that in the technical manual defining the flood zone as a special flood flood hazard area. And with
that, I'll open it up for any questions and discussion. Okay. Commissioner Weaver, do you have any questions? No, not at this time. Okay. Commissioner
Panther. No, sir. Commissioner Eisner yes. Just a quick question. In your first slide, you had their duplex. You're talking about a single duplex,
right? Not a multi duplex. Yes. Okay. That's it. Vice mayor. I was just a curious question about the stormwater, the matrix for illicit discharges. Is that what, like commercial
property? Like what is what is that for, sir? So the matrix of illicit discharges, illicit discharges can occur. Okay. Bye bye. Any anybody can be a commercial or private
individual. And so we're classifying those type of discharges for fee structure associated with the type of discharge or illicit discharge that may be like paint into the
storm sewer system or it's oil greases. And those have been classified based on the, the level of, of illicit discharge. So the appropriate fines can be
levied on the, on the person that that performed the discharge. Okay. And that just out of curiosity that that could what you see that if a
repair needs to happen and then afterwards you be able to see the discharge. I'm just curious how you guys can verify that. So the city, all the city streets and stormwater staff are trained on identifying
illicit discharges through their ms4 permitting required by the city. And so they're just some people call them in like, hey, there's an oil plume, you know, and or, or, or city
staff recognizes those kind of things. And anything, whether it's a storm sewer system or in a water body, they'll recognize that there's some type of illicit discharge that's occurred. They'll trace it back
upstream, try to identify where that occurred, then identify the type of violation that may have, you know, how severe it is. And then those penalties are set forth from that criteria. Thank you, sir, for
answering that. You're welcome. No more. Okay. Let's go to any public comments on this item. I'd like to come back to the
board for a motion. So moved. Second. Any further comments?
Roll call please. This is our this is only on the it's on each ordinance. You want to do each one individually. Yeah. Let's do it. So, Commissioner
Eisner, I think you made the motion. This motion will be on ordinance 2026-05. Correct. Correct. Okay. Roll call please.
Yes. Yes. Yes yes yes. I'd like a motion on ordinance 2026-06.
So moved. Second roll call please. Yes yes yes yes yes yes.
And I'd like a motion on resolution 2026-19. So moved. Second. Roll call please Commissioner Weaver. Yes yes
yes yes yes. Thank you sir. Thank you. Okay, let's go to item number 18. Would you like to ordinance 2020 608, an
ordinance of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, amending the City of Tarpon Springs Code of Ordinances. Appendix a comprehensive zoning and land development Code. Article one general provisions to
incorporate general updates and revisions. Providing for codification conflicts. Severability, correction of scrivener's errors, construction, publication and effective date that is
ordinance 2020 608 read by title only on first reading. Second reading is scheduled for May 26th, 2026. A publication was on April 1st, 2026, and
second publication will be May 13th, 2026. Ordinance 2020 609 An ordinance of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, amending the City of Tarpon Springs Code of Ordinances.
Appendix a comprehensive zoning and land Development Code. Article two District regulations to incorporate general updates and revisions. Providing for codification,
conflict, severability, correction of scrivener's errors, construction, publication and effective date that is ordinance 2020 609 read by title only on first reading.
Second reading is scheduled for May 26th, 2026. Publication occurred on April 1st, 2026. Second publication will be on May 13th, 2026. Ordinance 2026
ten An ordinance of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, amending the City of Tarpon Springs Code of Ordinances, appendix a comprehensive zoning and land Development Code. Article three Supplementary
District regulations to incorporate general updates and revisions providing for codification. Conflict. Severability. Correction of scrivener's errors. Construction, publication and
effective date that is ordinance 2026 ten read by title only on first reading. Second reading is scheduled for May 26th, 2026. Publication
April 1st, 2026. Second publication will be on May 13th, 2026. Okay, let's. Do you need to swear anybody in on this or.
No, this is all legislative. Okay, let's have a presentation, please. Okay. Again, these are proposed amendments to the city's Land Development Code. This is specifically to articles one, two and three.
Just to provide a quick background of why we're bringing some proposed changes before you this evening. Over the past several years, staff has been identifying various quick fixes within the Land
Development Code, and these are items that are intended to address repeated variance activity. Gray areas within the code updates for compliance with the state regulations, as well as just to provide
additional clarity throughout the document. And then in 2024, as you know, our comprehensive plan that was updated was adopted. And because of these two things, it gives us an opportunity to go through the
land development code and make updates to incorporate those recommended changes from both comprehensive plan as well as to address those quick fixes. Planning staff began reviewing the Land Development code late
last year. Our approach is really incremental. We're going to look at each article in its entirety, and as we complete those, we'll be bringing them before you for your review and approval. So this is just one
of a few. In the next several months, in February of 2026, the Planning and Zoning Board held a workshop to discuss these potential items for for
updates. And then in April of last year, I'm sorry, April, they did their public hearing and provided the recommendation to the board. Again, this is included in three different articles or ordinances and one
for each article. I'm just going to provide a brief overview of the main updates that we're doing for each of the articles. Article one are your general provisions here. Just very minor updates to the
text to provide better clarity of the application of the Land Development Code. We've also removed a lot of unnecessary language that has been included in the adoption ordinance, and it's not necessary to be
replicated and repeated and codified in our Land Development Code, article two, or the zoning district regulations. The main change that we're doing here is really trying to make it more user
friendly. To do that, we format it, formatted all the district standards into tables. We reorganized combined sections in order to create a more logical reading order, as well as to really eliminate a lot of
repetition that's currently in the code. We've also created a new permitted land uses section that basically puts all the land uses for all the districts in one location into a table.
We've also looked at amending the for legal nonconforming, lots of record, recognizing those without requiring a property owner to go receive a variance approval to build on
those nonconforming lots we've looked at, or we've added a requirement to bring non-conforming site features into compliance. And this is in proportion to the project scope. We are also recommending to
combine the AR 100 and R 100, a single family residential districts. And this is going to be utilizing the R 100 A standards that are in place today. And this is really in response to a lot of variances
that we processed over the past several years for setbacks in the AR 100 district. We are also recommending removing any references to the minimum dwelling size. This is
something that can be viewed as discriminatory, and it's recommended to not be codified within your code. And lastly, something that we're excited about and I think will be beneficial to the board is we've created a conditional
overlay section. And what this does is allow the board to place conditions on a rezoning application. So, for example, would allow you on a rezoning application to potentially, you know, limit the permitted uses
where we didn't have that opportunity to do so before article three or the supplementary district regulations. Here, we've added a lot of clarification on how we regulate accessory
structures. We have also addressed an issue between screen enclosures that have solid roofs and open screens. This is again in response to several variants applications. We're recommending reducing the
front yard fence height from four feet down to three feet. And this is really to be consistent with our site visibility triangle requirements. They're they prohibit those requirements were prohibit any sort of
visual obstruction between a height of three feet and eight feet for accessory dwelling units. The biggest thing we did was move all the regulations into one article. Currently, those standards are split
between two different sections of the code. At the recommendation of the Comprehensive Plan, we have increased the allowable size from a maximum of 600ft■!S to 800ft■!S. And then we also
provided better clarification on what actually constitutes an accessory dwelling unit for site visibility standards. This is a section that the language, how it's currently written is
very confusing and wording and wordy and very difficult to interpret. So we tried to clarify that with these updates. We also added a graphic to visually show how you actually measure those triangles. And
again, by reducing the front yard fence height, it helps to eliminate that conflict between the two sections. And then lastly, another comprehensive plan recommendation was to add a section regarding residential
building orientation. And this is something that applies to townhomes and multifamily developments. The Planning and Zoning Board held a workshop to discuss these potential updates.
Overall, the board was supportive of the requested changes. We did incorporate one item of clarification when we brought it back to them for public hearing in April, and at that public hearing, they
approved unanimously to adopt all three article updates as presented to you this evening, that I'm happy to answer questions. Thank you. Commissioner Weaver, do you
have any questions? Thank you. Mayor. When when these land codes get updated, does that do they become retroactive in the
sense that someone who had a violation prior to these these codes come into compliance? So it applies to anything new that
is submitted to the city for review and approval. If someone's already in in noncompliance with the code, there would be necessary actions we could do for code enforcement to bring into
compliance. But one thing that we tried to do for properties that maybe were developed way before a lot of our current standards were put in place, was to add that provision to bring certain site features up
to compliance. So, you know, stormwater, landscaping, parking, those are some examples that we want to try to address for sites that maybe come in for not a full redevelopment, but do incremental changes over time.
Okay. And, and you mentioned about building size changes as to not be discriminatory. Is that residential? Yes, it's it
pertains to dwelling unit size for residential units. And how do we how do we address that within a, an HOA area that may have an alternate, you know, code? Sure. So an HOA can
regulate differently than the city. They can't necessarily allow something less than what we require, but they can put provisions in place in their declaration of covenants that basically states that a, you
know, a home needs to be so large or any other provision, but they can't necessarily go in conflict with our code, but they can do something more restrictive. Okay, thanks.
Commissioner. Panther. No, sir. Commissioner Eisner, just to follow up on what Commissioner Weaver said, if they come back and readdress with a new
proposal, they would be able to follow the new rule, correct? Correct. Yes. That would be applicable. Okay. I just wanted to put the little dot and comma
on that. Go ahead. Vice Mayor. Yes. I just want to thank Director Keen for this presentation. And it you know, my I always try to look out for the our 100 neighborhoods to make sure they're always
protected. And this help clears in a lot of different code in between the two ones. So thank you. Director. Are there any public comments on this item?
Okay, no public comments. We're going to handle this the same way as we did item number 17. So let's come back and I'd like
to have a motion on ordinance 2026-08. So moved. Second roll call please. Commissioner Weaver yes. Commissioner. Yes.
Commissioner. Eisner. Yes. Vice mayor. Yes. Yes. Yes. I'd like to entertain a motion on
ordinance 2026-09. So moved. Second roll call, please. Commissioner Weaver. Yes, Commissioner. Yes. Mr. Eisner. Yes. Vice mayor. Yes. Yes. Yes.
And I'd like to entertain a motion on ordinance 2026-10. So moved. Second. Roll call, please. Commissioner Weaver.
Yes, Commissioner. Yes. Commissioner. Eisner. Yes, Commissioner. Cool. Yes. Yes. Mayor. Yes. And I'd like to say,
Miss Keene, you are doing an amazing job, and I really appreciate all your hard work and getting all these ordinances cleaned up and straightened up. And I hope
that the the rest of my colleagues recognize that when your name comes up for full appointment to your position. So thank you. Trust me, we're very excited about these changes as well. That's coming
up soon. I guess the city manager will be the one to recommend planting a seed. Yes I am, I'm actually toiling to
see the turf, so thank you. Yeah. All right. Great job. Thank you. And let's go to I guess you stay there one more time. So let's go to item
number 16. Ordinance 2026-07. Would you please read that by Title Ordinance 2020 607. Ordinance of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida. Amending the
City of Tarpon Springs Code of Ordinances. Appendix a comprehensive zoning and Land Development Code. Article four, section 56 Temporary Uses and
section 5605 mobile food dispensing vehicles. Temporary providing for severability for providing for inclusion in the Code of Ordinances of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, and
providing for an effective date of this ordinance that is ordinance 2020 607 read by title only. Second reading is scheduled for May 26th, 2026.
First publication occurred on April 1st, 2026, and second publication is scheduled for May 13th, 2026. Okay.
Presentation please. Okay. The last item I have for you is ordinance 2026-07. These are proposed amendments to the city's Temporary Food Truck Ordinance. As some of you may
recall, back in February, the Commission had a discussion about potentially making amendments to this section to provide the ability for temporary food trucks to remain on the service site overnight
for a limited period of time. You provided staff some direction to make those proposed changes, and that's what's before you this evening, we have put together a draft ordinance that's in your packet.
All of the existing requirements for food trucks are still in place. This is just an amendment to one bullet point in the ordinance. And what we've done is recommend primary business owners that
are looking to have temporary food trucks stay overnight, go through a temporary use approval process. This just goes before the technical review committee. We've also limited the overnight parking
to a maximum of four nights in a calendar week. The primary business owner again would have to provide those specific dates within their local business tax application. So those are
specified when they can have the truck there overnight. And then again, we also added some information about how to document and enforce these requirements through the local business tax process. The
Planning and Zoning Board heard this item at their meeting in April, and there were six members there present, and they recommended two revisions to what staff had drafted. The
first was to require a conditional use approval as opposed to a temporary use. Conditional use is a public hearing process. It would require them to go before the Planning and Zoning board, as well as the commission for one
reading. And again, the temporary use is a technical review committee review. They've also recommended to decrease the number of lights or nights allowed to three
nights. They voted on this and recommended it to you for approval. And there were two members there that were dissenting. We have provided you two versions or both versions in your packets for
review. Both the staff originally drafted ordinance and then also the revised ordinance by Planning and Zoning Board for you to consider. And then just one housekeeping note, we wanted to
point out on the record that the originally published ordinance title included a reference to Land Development Code, section 56 temporary uses. However, there are no changes to that section, so we have
amended the title and properly noticed it for second reading. So in case there are any questions in the future about that, I'm happy to answer questions about this. I'll have.
Well, let me ask you a question. So what what was the rationale of the PNC to change the proposed 4/9 to three? I
believe there's some concern about having them there for an extended period of time. They felt that three was more appropriate, gave them a potential for, you know, a weekend to keep a truck there
on site. They felt like four was a little bit more than necessary, which is why they recommended to decrease it to three. Okay. Commissioner
Weaver, thank you. And I was on the PNC board when we first started talking about this, but just refresh my memory. Is there anything in the in the
current code that disallows a food truck to park near a brick and mortar restaurant so they to have a temporary truck. So when that comes and goes, you
have to basically be on a property in association with a brick and mortar development. You have to. And that brick and mortar business owner is the one that pulls the local business tax, not the food
truck. So they have to basically state that they can be on that property. They can't operate in the public right of way or on a property that they don't have permission to do. So they also have to be able to
provide permanent restrooms, the electric hookup, or they have to operate by battery. So there's provisions in place to protect some surrounding properties that may not want
them. I think that's it. Thank you. Commissioner Panther. No, sir. Thank you, Commissioner Eisner. So you know that we
changed this whole mobile food truck ordinance because the state kind of said you're going to change it. So we made some
very restrictive rules to abide by this. You know, no generators that have a bathroom. You had to be out, you know,
just everything. And now we're restricting it down to or they're trying to restrict it down to PNC to three days while we ask for four. So I don't
even know why they renegotiated or legislated this. I really don't have a clue. As the mayor had asked earlier, but the comment I heard and correct me
if I'm wrong, when does it get to the point where we're over regulating and the state could turn to us and say, you You know, you're making them stand on their ear and walk on one
foot. So that's my question to you. Is there a ruling that the state has that we need to follow, because we can keep just putting more regulations?
It can only be open from 2 to 4 in the afternoon. I mean, does it stop? So that's my question to you. Sure. I'm actually going to defer this to our city attorney to talk about the legality of it. If you have
home rule. So it only stops with you unless unless the state has rules in place that prohibit you from doing those things. You can do your
reasonable restrictions that you want to make. Now, understand that at some point, if you make if you're too restrictive, there becomes issues of taking and things
like that. But right now, based on the rules that you're adding, going from 4 to 3, anything like that, those are still considered reasonable. As long as we have a competent,
substantial evidence to support those positions. Okay. So I still have one thing. We have so many rules and regulations involved in this. We have one
food truck. So unless we get more food trucks, which I don't see anybody that would be in their right mind wanting to do
this. I mean, I'm okay going back to the four days and not accepting the three again. As the mayor said, I don't have a clue. I watched the meeting. I
still don't know why they renegotiated it down to three. So that's where I'm at. Vice mayor, director King. When this got presented to us a few
months ago, the original proposal was six days, right? I don't believe there was an actual proposal before you. It was just discussed about what you would like to see. Yes, it was discussed and there was
almost an attempt to go six days. And it's too much for food trucks to be sitting on, you know, wherever they're going to sit six days in a row when who knows when the business owner is even going to
show up to open up the food truck. It's just, it's, it's not the most appropriate look, and it's just too long. So I would and so we talked about planning and zoning came up
with their decisions. This is more of a comment I'd like to make the first motion when that comes with the Planning and Zoning board's recommendation. So I just wanted to go from there. Thank you. Okay. Is
there any public comment on this item? No. I haven't spoken
much for several months, so I'm going to try to make up for it tonight. Robert Rockline 755 North Lake Boulevard, Tarpon Springs, and one of the members of the city's Planning and Zoning Advisory Board, raised
some questions about why the change from 4 to 3. And I was the one who made the motion. So if I'm going to give you my reason behind presenting that,
and then you know why it was accepted by the other members, I can't answer for. So I'm not speaking for them. I'm speaking for myself. Having had a lot of experience with food trucks up north. There is potential
impact. Even though the truck may be located on a commercial property, you have commercial zoning that abuts residential zoning. So whether it's factors of impact, as we used to call
them, lighting, noise, smoke, smell, whatever. It can affect people if it's there for an extended period. Normally food trucks are Friday, Saturday,
Sunday, or if they want to take Sundays, a day of rest. Thursday, Friday, Saturday. That's why we came or I came up with the three day proposal as kind of a compromise, because
at the time we were hearing that, why do you even need three days? So I think that compromising, whether it's 4 or 3 one is a, you know, a
preponderance of the week. One is one number under that. I leave that up to you, but I'm just basing it on experience because I was the fielder of many complaints in many jurisdictions where I worked
about this type of impact. So that that was the reason. And if that clarifies anything for you, it makes no difference to me. And like Commissioner Rice said, currently we have only one food truck. I think its
placement is not going to be impacted whether it was there seven days a week. In fact, the the owner of that varies the location from time to time based on her scheduling and
need. But whatever it is, I just think that a single day is too little and a whole week is too much. So any, any compromise in between that I can find acceptable. But I'm
thinking more as a residential homeowner that would be adjacent to a commercial zone, which could accommodate an approved food truck for some
time for some reason. So just my school of thoughts. Thank you. Next. Debbie McKinney 1021
rose Lane. I kind of remember the conversation about the food truck, and it was especially about the gas station that wanted that thing parked there. And, and I thought that it came
up with, we were going to agree to four days. Okay. So four days would only be three nights because they could do all day
Thursday, Thursday night, all day Friday, Friday night, all day Saturday, Saturday night and all day Sunday and leave Sunday night. So are you
talking nights or days? Because the wording is nights. If it's three nights, that's four days. If it's four nights, that's five days. So I just say,
that's actually a good question. So. We'll let the. Our director answer that when we get there. So any other public comments.
Okay. I'd like to come back to the board for a motion to approve ordinance 2020 607, but with the recommendations of the
Planning and Zoning Board. Okay. Is there a second? Second. Okay. Miss Cain, would you clarify the question? Miss McKinney
asked. Yes. How? It's well, actually how the Planning and Zoning Board version is currently drafted. It would say three nights they could be there. So four days would
essentially, if you're counting being there. Okay. So what she says. So it's four nights, four days, three nights. The Planning and zoning board version would be four days.
Three nights. Okay. All right. You got it. That good? Yeah, yeah, like a cruise. Yeah. You kind of get cheated because by
the time you dock. It's. You either get nothing on that last day or five days, but that's a whole nother. Let's let's not digress there. All right. So I
I'll go first on the comments. I don't I really don't care for or three, I kind of agree with Mr. Rocklin obviously want some
restrictions. Let me ask you one other question though. This this can get changed, right. It can always be can always be changed. So this this isn't a
permanent commitment. It's we see how things work. Things change. Then, you know, it can. It can also be altered at a at a future date. Yes. Correct.
Okay. Commissioner. Weaver. Weaver. Thank you. Mayor, can you clarify how much time has to has to pass before they can
request another permit? After they've after they've exhausted, you know, their 4 or 3 days. So they wouldn't have to necessarily request additional permits. The person that's
pulling the permit is actually the brick and mortar business owner, allowing them to be on the property. They are pulling a business tax saying, I want a food truck on my property, be
able to stay for so many these nights specifically. So that would be just in place. So if they say I wanted to be there Thursday, Friday, Saturday, then a food truck could be there Thursday, Friday, Saturday. It could be one food
truck, one week, it could be another food truck, another week. But they're limited to only having that at that location based off the local business tax. So, so could could they conceivably have one
truck there for three nights and another truck subsequently come in, let's say the next night after and and be there
for three nights? No, because they would have to specify in their local business tax which three nights they would allow them to stay over. Okay. So a week has to pass before they
could bring another truck in or. Right. Yeah. So if they say I want them to be there Thursday, Friday, Saturday, they could have one there Thursday, Friday, Saturday for the duration of their business tax. Okay. Thank
you, Commissioner Panther. No, sir. I'm good. Commissioner Eisner so I proposed this originally because first of all, I don't even know how we're
going to have code violation, approve or disapprove whether they were there Thursday, Friday, Saturday. I think it's an overregulation. I think this
is a personal attack on one. Donuts is the only one here. I also, when I proposed this according to. I think the mayor
agreed. And the reason he agreed was because we put a. I put a six month time limit on it, so I would like to. I'm not
going to agree with the three day, three night, four day. I would like to come back if it's if I'm willing to get a motion
to do five days and five nights, four nights, five days, I'll get it together once in a while. I was at Forward Pinellas all day. My head's spinning and I
would like to have a six month trial to see how that works. I don't think we should be overregulating, and I don't think that we. I don't even know how you could supervise this, whether they're going to
be there, whether they have to declare the days I'll be there. What if they. This week I want to be there Tuesday through Thursday next week. I want to be there Friday through Saturday or Sunday. You know,
who's going to supervise this. It's we're getting to nitty gritty into the into the weeds. She's only there two, three days and then she's off to, to
somewhere else. So I mean, anything we do, we could put a time limit on it, whether it's three months, six months. So we could come back and revisit it. If it gets out of hand, it's
not out of hand. So I, I don't want to go picking on Millie donuts. And that's the only one out there. So I'm not going to vote accordingly. I'm going to
want to have it where they could select their four days. And we do it with, I don't care whether it be a three month trial or a six month trial, and see how it works. That's my
take. I don't know if he's willing to change his ordinance. I'm not willing to amend my motion. My reasoning is very simple and straightforward. We're not going to go from one day to six and then come back
to four nights and five days, okay? We have to at one point of another. We have to listen to the planning and zoning board. I, you know what they're asking for. If the difference
is going to the TRC meeting or going in front of the Planning and Zoning board, what's the difference? They still have to go in front of a board to be reviewed. So and what's the
difference if they got to get the extra day to keep their trailers there? And I'm sorry, I don't want trailers staying longer than three nights at any specific property. You know,
it's unsightly if some people take advantage and it's not a personal attack on any one individual or anyone business, but we don't create rules just for one business. That's not
what we do. And so, you know, when this last meeting happened, I end up getting a very mean message by one of the so-called attacked people about my actions. My actions are always
for the overall well-being of this community. And so I don't appreciate one commissioner going out of their way to basically say negative things about the opposite of what I said at any meeting. So we
don't create rules for one business truck. We create rules for everybody. I'd like to slow play this. The only thing I'll amend my motion to is I'll have this come back in six months
for review, if you'd like to second that. Okay, so the motion is to approve as the Planning and Zoning Board recommends, with a as with a
six month trial. Okay, everyone's had their chance to talk. Let's go to roll call, please. This is for three
nights. We're voting on four days. Four days, three nights. No. Commissioner. Yes, Commissioner. Eisner. No. Vice
mayor. Cool. Yes. Yes. Mayor. Yes. Okay. I think that that concludes our business tonight.
Let's go to board and staff comments. Assistant Chief. I just want to mention this week is law enforcement. Law
enforcement week. And we have people up at the Law Enforcement Memorial. I believe the officer down memorial is tomorrow night, Wednesday night. So if you guys come by the PD,
say hi to the guys. There's probably some hamburgers and hot dogs that somebody dropped off that you can come eat. And then on another note earlier, I want to thank each and every
last one of you five that made tough decisions and supported staff. So I, I want to say that personally. Thank you. Thank
you. Our city attorney. Yes. To give a a summary of what happened. This is just general overview of of what happened
last week first, so that everybody understands there are four charter officers in the city, and these four charter officers answer solely to the
commission. So when a complaint is made or any issues brought up, depending on who the charter officers surrounding that, it determines kind of how
you look at these issues. Last week, it became apparent that several employees and directors had gone to a leadership
training session. I think that concluded on the Thursday before for for a few days. And some of them had made
complaints to a charter officer that they felt there were concerns about the particular program, and they didn't think it was appropriate for
leadership training. That particular charter officer took that information and notified some members of the commission individually, because it's just
for informational purposes. This issue was then discussed and brought to the mayor's attention, I believe, by that charter officer, the mayor brought it to my attention. We
met here at the city, had some discussions with some of the mayor and I and some of the individual directors to find out what their concerns were,
because it's informational, I can speak individually to individual commissioners just to tell them complaint had been made here. The concerns, just
to let you know what's going on. The then a discussion was was had with the city manager as to what had occurred and the
appropriateness of that particular issue. There were a couple discussions back and forth on that, I believe, at some point, and I don't know, I wasn't present. The city
manager may have spoken to individual commissioners about this particular issue. Subsequently. Additional
information was brought out about this particular program. Further discussions were held with the city manager. One commissioner had stated that,
you know, this issue needs to be addressed at the next commission meeting. Let's put it on the agenda. Once the city manager found out that it was
going on, the agenda, he decided to resign. The City commission had no discussions that I'm aware of amongst
themselves, which I don't believe they did. They received information and the city manager was told exactly the
complaints that occurred. And he at one point actually apologized for the particular class, the appropriateness and determined that it was, you
know, an issue that wasn't necessarily going to go away. And that's what happened. Okay.
Thank you very much. Chief. No comment. Okay. City clerk, no comment. Thank you.
Commissioner Weaver. Thank you. You know, an interesting thing this week that I witnessed as a new commissioner was solidarity.
And and it's nice to know that without conferring with with other commissioners, we all have the back of the staff here,
which also tells me, because I'm staff in a sense that they have my back as well. I appreciate that there was a
couple things that. That I had requested when I came on board from the city. I know Miss Swenson's not here right now,
but she. She spoke about the homeless situation in front of her business on North Pinellas. I had I have requested a bench
be put on her on opposite her business. For people who are waiting for a bus to be able to sit down, I don't know where that stands. I'm going to be checking in with Mark. Of
course, when he comes on board to see if we can make that happen. We've lost a lot of benches in our community due to
the uptick of people sleeping on them. I understand that they do make benches with partitions, and I think we need to invest in benches and allow people to
sit down while they wait for public transportation. Again, I just want to reiterate that this was done. And and really, you know, let's let's just face
the facts. I mean, our city manager resigned. Okay. So and in all respect, we we accepted a resignation. We did not we did not fire someone. We did
not put pressure on someone to resign. We simply accepted a resignation. I'm glad it happened that way. I think it needed to happen that way. I want to keep the confidence of
our staff and I'm going to end. I'm going to end my commentary by saying we have some of the best departments in the best staff in anywhere that I've lived, and I'm very proud of
them. Thanks. Thank you, Commissioner Panther. Yes. Thank you. First, I wanted can you sit up, please? I'm sorry. I know it's a bad. I always talk so loud. We can hear you,
but I don't think I can hear you. The microphone. Well, anyway, for all the people watching, anyway, you know, Miss Swenson brought up a good point, and I've. And I've said this in previous terms and it's
very unpopular. But the homeless issue. Sorry, vagrant, there is a difference. The the the vagrant issue is getting worse. Again, it kind of peaked
around 2012, 2013. We had some relief. And now I'm seeing it back again. And it can be unpopular to address. It can be a very sensitive to address.
But but that's something that we're going to have to tackle here soon. We can't fix the problem. We can't solve the problem. But it's unfair to ask people like, like myself and others that that are that are
personally invested in Tarpon Springs to, to just put up with people that can defecate on buildings that can, as I had this past week, try and bust
into your office, they these people need help and just having them on the street is not solving any problem. And I'll be the unpopular one to say that. So I really hope we
can do what we can to address this issue in the future. I was the commissioner who was going to put this on the agenda. As far as the city manager, I'm very glad that that did not
happen. I think that at all possible, we should avoid spectacles in here. This is not a talk show. And I and I think if it got to that and if we had to do it, we certainly would
and would not have gone very well. So I'm very happy with how things went down. Not happy it happened. It was not a good thing at all, but I'm very pleased with how it went down.
And it primarily was that that successful because of our city attorney and because of our mayor. I judge a leader by how quickly can you execute under pressure? A lot of people can't
do that. People much smarter than me and us can't do that. But what I saw, the these past eight days were two leaders who stepped up, took control and solve the problem. And that's a very delicate balance to do
outside of a public meeting, as our city attorney described. But I couldn't be more proud of this board. I couldn't be more proud of staff. I wish Mr. Rudd all the best, but we have to
move forward. And I think we need to, you know, after this week, kind of wrap up the chatter about this because we're going into budget season. We have very important matters
to the though though, though to address. And I could not be happier that we have back to back to guide the ship. So thank you. Thank you,
Commissioner Eisner. Thank you mayor. It was a super trying time, a super trying week. I agree with what Commissioner just said. I do I do want to
commend our staff. As Commissioner Weaver said, this was not easy on them as well. But every one of the commissioners up here were
remorseful. We all spoke to the staff. We reassured them that things will be fine and dandy. There was a lot of compassion done here and on that point,
I'm very proud to sit up here with the other commissioners. I didn't speak to them personally, but each and every commissioner I had heard through, through one of the staff that they were
all here to, to deal with whatever they needed to speak about. So it was it was a team effort. And again, I know the
mayor and I know the city attorney had their hands full. And I also got to thank Mark licorice. He's definitely enjoying his retirement. And there is you know, it's not
like he raised his hand and said, I want to come back. I believe from what I understand, each and every one of us did our own, you know, our own call
to say Woody. And, you know, he's willing to step up to the plate. And we have to thank him for that, you know, ability. He's been a year and a half enjoying, you know, his
retirement. And I know he doesn't want to come back, you know, to to just be working again. He's coming back to work with us to save the city and,
you know, to make it a strong city again. And I also agree with Commissioner Vice Mayor Cooley's about not just looking to jump in and just get any old
city manager. It's a very important decision. And I gotta say, you never know somebody until you go four seasons with somebody. So, you know, things
happen. And we we did act upon it very quickly and very responsibly. And that's all you can say about it. So thank you all for understanding that. It
was a tough decision on all our parts. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Yes. Regarding the the homeless slash vagrant issue, I mean, we
all know the bottom line is a relocation somehow. How do we come about it? I don't know, the prior city manager had been in discussions with me about some nearby local sites. As
long as those property owners could come into agreement about some modular setup. So maybe that may be something to be introduced into the future. But that's, that's a project, you
know, that's an idea and a concept that requires we focus all, if not of our time on it. There are certain amount of time and we have to see it
fulfilled and completed through. You know, we come back six months or eight months and revisit it just it's the same circle. And yes, it's going to pick up. It's the it's the summertime, it's heating again.
So you're going to see a lot more people out and about too. So you know, it's, that's just something we really need to sit down and, and go over discussion as, as far as what's
happened over this last week, it's been very fluid and new for all of us. But, you know, once we had gotten Ahold of this, you know what? We notified the right people and
the mayor, you know, did his separate thing and got everything going. But I did myself, and I do want to make that clear without a shadow of a doubt. And I myself would have brought it forward if
Commissioner Bradford did not. So I have a different sentiment about how I saw things go for a little bit. I was not the greatest support in some of the
direction we were going and how we were going about it, and take a look at my annual review. That's very clear statement on how I felt. And, you know, I had some criticisms about
changing that stuff, but no, I stick to my guns and everything I said ended up being the truth. So I encourage everyone to stay involved. We're going to do a good job moving forward. And I
know some of us have our disagreements at times, but once again, it takes a major situation that happened to our city for us to realize the residents come first. So we got
to try to do a better job with that, including myself first and foremost. And so we made the proper decisions, and I'm looking forward to having Mr.
Licorice back. I'm not lying. So I look forward to some good, proper direction, and we're going to be in good shape. We got the best staff, we got. You
know, we got a lot of great things coming up. We got a future planned and we're going to make sure everything gets done. But hats off to the staff, the hard working staff, our
attorneys and the board. So thank you all. Thank you. Okay, so yeah, as far as Mark is concerned, when I made my call
to him, I said, Mark, you think you are ready to come back and help us out? And he said, well, given that the lightning lost in the playoffs and they're not,
there's no more games to go to. I guess I've got some time on my hands. So as you as all that, you know, Mark know that he's always good for for a joke. Let
me let me get to that home, the homeless thing first and I'll finish up. Yeah. I agree with the vice mayor. You know, they need they need a strategy. They
also need a business plan and a budget. They, they're, they want what you want to do. But what you can plan to do and, and budget to do is different.
You know, I'm, I'm torn because I really care about them. I care about the Shepherd center and I care about what they do for the, for those needy people.
And, you know, I wish that I had the time to help them with that business plan because I think I could get them there. But, you know, maybe I'll if it's not solved in, in one year
and ten months, maybe I will jump on that. Maybe I'll jump on that, on that, that, that idea. But yeah, getting back to what had transpired this week,
first of all, I want to say how proud I am of each and every one of you board members. It was a it really was, it was, it was a strange thing because it
was collective. But we didn't collaborate, which was again, that is the mastery of our city attorney who knew how exactly
how to navigate this thing, keep us from violating anything. But yet getting to this point, because it was necessary. It was the only way that we, you
know, could get to this point without, like the Commissioner Banther said, without having it be a circus here, I think. And and getting that message across
to the former city manager, you know, they're like the city attorney said, there were issues of appropriateness. There were issues, in my
opinion. And again, I'm using, quote, my opinion funding and procurement concerns and also possible conflicts of interest
as well. I just want to say that. And and this is a very broad statement. This is just something that came to my mind all throughout this week. You
know, our city staff needs an A, they need education, they need training, but it needs to be specific to city government. It
has to have direct relevance to city government. And on another, on a very personal note, we are a faith based community. And
the most noticeable and most important building in this town happens to be a church. And.
But yet it's not brought here to City Hall. Here we and we, we we don't. And we have no pre
we don't we're not here to proselytize any of our staff. And it's and and that's as far as I'm going to go with that
comment. But you know, we again, going back to. We were here to first and foremost protect our staff, which which ultimately
is to protect the residents. Because if we don't protect our staff and we have turnover or we have disillusionment and we
have no respect and faith in our leadership, then it's going to eventually reflect on the services that we need to provide to the residents. So we I think we had to make those
calls, and we made them as quick as we could to avoid any drama, unnecessary drama that would have ended in the same position. Anyways, I'm really
proud. Again, like I said, our city attorney, I'm also very proud of our chief. I'm proud of our city clerk, and I'm
especially proud of that man at the end who he knows what he did this week. And he's a, he's, he's a a treasure to Tarpon
Springs. So, Assistant Chief, you're always respected, you know, with Mark coming, you know, we, we, we, we do have
that loan, which I'm only and I'm in agreement disagreement with my vice mayor. I think it's it's a great thing, but I think it's it's a great thing only if it's executed properly.
And now it's I think with Mark, of course, he's going to be more focused on these. On getting to the business stuff of the city. We're going to spend. You know, I do agree
with the the vice mayor on, you know, fluff and and there's time for that. There's time for, you know, all kinds of or overall planning things. And there's all, there's always
time for, you know, new branding and all that kind of stuff. And it's great. But right now we've got two major issues. We need a, we need to get our budget through and have
it balanced and not raise millage on the residents. So we can't raise the millage on the residents, but we need to get our all the things we need to get done through that budget.
And I think Mark is going to be the perfect one. He knows he does know how to say no, and he will be very helpful for that. But, you know, another thing is
that, you know, we have we've gone through these searches and I'm glad that the vice mayor also doesn't isn't in a big hurry to start another city
manager search. I think that we you know, we always have this thing about homegrown or internal. Passage from into the
city manager position and then what we call professional. But, you know, we overuse that word professional because, you know,
Mark Lucas is a professional. He's a, an amazing professional. He's done this job. Now, did he go the traditional route to be a city manager? No. Did he go
to school just to become a city manager and, and do that? No. But as does all of his years of experience, make him a
professional? I say, yeah, Abraham Lincoln didn't go to law school, but nobody doubts that he wasn't an effective. Attorney. And, you know, I go
through that sometimes when I'm in in when I'm testifying in trials, in my forensic work, I didn't go through the traditional route. I didn't
study forensics in college when I was 21 or 22. And sometimes I'm there on the. And the opposing expert is, you know, a
25, 26 year old guy. And I'm over here, you know, much older than that, right? Actually, I'm going to be 72 in August. So I'm actually proud to say I
actually, I actually jump a year because I don't know. But anyways, so, you know, I've said across from guys who, who had more formal education than
I do, but you know what, when, when they, when I get voir dire by the, the attorneys and they say, well, you know, he has this and he has that. I said, yeah, I worked for a living.
Well, he went to school, so I. And that's the thing with Mark. Mark worked for a living and he's got all the education knowledge he needs to be an effective city manager. He was an effective, effective city
manager. I don't none of us have a time machine to go back and do some of the things that were done, you know, and, and I appreciate when people say that they that campaign promises,
you know, a lot of times campaign promises, you run on something and then you have to be able to pivot sometimes because when you, when you get close, you find out facts you didn't know when you were
campaigning. It's, you know, it's like Barack Obama, when he became president, when he was campaigning, he says, I'm shutting down Guantanamo Bay. We're shutting it down. We're letting all those guys out. As
soon as he became president. And, and, and the, and the, the, the guys on the end said, hey, Mr. President, there's some bad dudes down there. You don't want to. And, you know, we
never talked about it again. He never said another word because he found out the truth. And I'll tell you what, some of us, you know, campaigned or talked about stuff. But then we got in,
we found the truth and we realized maybe we were wrong. So and some people didn't. But anyways, I'm happy Mr. Licorice
is coming. I'm I'm again, I how this happened is is is kind of strange course of of of a road. But we're here now and we've
got a great guy that's willing to help us and help this city, the city that he loves. He didn't need to come back. He's got all the he's he's fine. He had a really he was I never saw
a guy enjoy retirement more than him. So, you know, but yet he loves Tarpon Springs and he wasn't going to let us flounder. And he wasn't going to let us be without a a captain at the
ship. So again, tickled pinks. With that said, meeting
adjourned. 842. Thank you, Irene.