Regular session of the board of commissioners, Tuesday, July 8th, 6:30 p.m. Roll call, please. Mayor Kas here. Vice Mayor here. Commissioner get to the bottom of the eerie sound.
Um, I have a I have a proclamation tonight. Uh, it's it's uh for the um park and recre recreation department. So, Bob Robertson and Jamie Taylor, please come forward.
Everybody here. Hello. Okay. Thank you. Um, if you look up at the screen, that was um when I coached a youth soccer team. U all those kids are now in
their 50s. Uh, some of them have grandchildren. Uh, that's actually me with all the hair. Um, and that was directly across. That's where we played everything. That's where, you know, it was mostly
little bit of grass, a lot of dirt, uh, sand spurs, and, um, you know, we've come a long way since those days. We've got the beautiful sports facility out there with soccer fields, football
fields. We've got baseball fields. We've got probably the I can't imagine any city, 26,000 residents that has the parks. We have Anderson Park, Howard Park, um Sunset Beach, uh Craig Park,
I'm sure I'm missing parks, uh Dorset Park. I mean, we've done gone come so far from those days where we, you know, the kids played on dirt and and and and sands. So, um,
in the city and and and so that's why I'm going to read this proclamation and it has a lot of meaning to me as well. Whereas proclaiming July as Parks and Recreation Month is an opportunity for our community and local leadership to officially acknowledge the importance of
our parks and recreation and the benefits provided to the people we serve. And whereas since 1985, people across the United States have celebrated Parks and Recreation Month to promote building strong, vibrant, and resilient communities and to recognize the workers
and volunteers that maintain our community parks. And whereas parks and recreation programs enhance the quality of life for our residents by providing places easily access the great outdoors. And whereas during Park and Recreation Month
observance, it is important to recognize the contribution opportunities offered to our residents and the many visitors that we serve. And whereas it is most appropriate to recognize the hard work and dedication of our parks supervisor
James Burke and staff, our recreation superintendent, Jamie Taylor, and staff. Also, our interim public works director, Bob Robertson. I just threw that in. It's not on here, but I just threw it in for the enormous value we receive every
day from these departments. Now therefore, I, John Kulianis, by virtue of the authority vested in me as mayor of the city of Tartman Springs, do hereby proclaim July 20, 2025 as Parks and Recreation Month.
So, I have a picture. Come on in. Come on. Come on in, mayor. All right. Well, I'm not I'm not part of the You are. All right. Let's get this out of the way.
I thought people were coming to the other side. Like Spielberg here. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, commissioners, for the proclamation. I'm Bob Robertson, interim project, uh, public works director. Um, just a quick note to say thanks. And I'm going to
give up the mic because they outnumber me like 10 to one. So, Jamie, Mr. Mayor, board of commissioners, thank you very much. Um first to point out uh the appreci appreciation towards the board towards city leadership for the continued support of our uh our efforts
and what we do. Um the echo is because we party in recreation. So that's that that comes with it. Um but on a more serious note, you know, we are very blessed in this city. We have an excellent uh parks maintenance crew.
They take care of a lot of different things. Get pulled in a lot of different directions each day. So really appreciate them. Um and then saving the best for last, we got our recreation staff here. Um over 100 years of tenure, you know, behind me here. Dedication, uh
heart. They are the the heart, soul, and the muscle to uh to our recreation department. Got Duffy Smith, Antoine Bass, Gale Gadson, Gina Bass, Desire Fisel, Brooks Fountain, Ashley
Harter, Nicole Fali, sorry, excuse me, and Joanna Raldi. Um, we've got some other part- timerrs that are running pickle ball right now and also keep our uh programs and operations running. But uh again, I I feel blessed to work for the city and just grateful that to have
everyone next to me and uh with us here tonight. Thank you. You did a good job. Okay. So, next we're going to have uh public comments on um public comments are for
uh special presentations, proclamations, consent consent agenda items, and all other items that are not items on the agenda. So, if you'd like to speak, please come up. Good evening, Tarvin Springs Board.
Anita Proas, 901 Beayshore Drive. Mayor, I would like you or the city manager at one of the meetings to give us an update on projects coming into the city and uh businesses that are interested in coming to city. There's so much going around the community. We don't know what's
really going on. And we would like to have a status report on Manatee Village because we don't see a lot of uh commercial work going there. and the the village manatee village is a business project of Tarpon and it's greatly needed. So if you at one of the meetings
can give us an update on all the projects coming into Tarpon businesses that are interested because if businesses are interested maybe we can write letters to tell them to please come to Tarpon Springs. We are the open gate to Pinealis County, but we are poor
in a lot of establishments that you have as you go down to Dutton Eden and Clearwater. And I know it's Highway 19 and that's why we've got to see what's happening. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else Marggo Lizer, 514 Ashlin Avenue.
Today I stand before you to address a heart-wrenching tragedy that has struck Texas. We mourn the loss of 27 young girls between the ages of seven and 10 who perished in a devastating flood.
This tragedy is not just a natural disaster. It's a stark reminder of the consequences of the decisions that are made by those in power. A few years ago, a good people that town approached their commissioners with a simple request to
install flood alarms along the river because the residents knew that that river rose. But you know the commissioners they said no it's too expensive. So today we must
ask ourselves what price do we have on human life? where were the lives of those 27 young girls worth 500,000 a million to their grieving parents no amount of
money could ever equate to the value of those children's lives. So imagine the scene at the commission meeting. Perhaps the commissioners rolled their eyes, limited the time for discussion, or even walked out during their police.
The result, 27 young girls are dead. So does that sound familiar to all of you? So, I'm here to remind you that the decisions made in those seats
have power and profound impact. It's imperative to humble our egos and listen to the voices in this community. No single person has all the answers. It takes a village working together to
ensure the safety and vi vitality of this community. And to those who may be unsettled by the reading of scriptures, I urge you not to shoot the messenger, but look deep inside of you and ask you, ask
yourselves, why does that bother you? That's where the true answers lie inside of each and every one of you. So, let us honor the memory of those have been that's been lost and work together to prevent such tragedies from ever
happening in our community. Thank you. Next, please. Jane Harrington, 1021, Jamaica Way, Tarpon Springs. Sorry, my voice is gone. Good evening. I would like to first
start out and thank code enforcement and the police for all the work they did to clean out the yard on Castle Works Lane. that eyesore has been around for several years and has affected our neighborhood.
We can't thank you enough. I pray he's not allowed to do that again. Secondly, I'm disappointed that the board voted to further limit time for public comments from the community.
It seems to me that residents should be encouraged to be involved and to share their priorities and concerns. Remember, you res represent us, the residents. Sorry, I'm sick and I hear myself coming through something.
It does not seem proper to be annoyed by our concerns or our public speaking styles. Not everyone can be as concise as others. Many agenda items in my mind could be handled by department heads working
directly with the city manager for approval. For example, discussing the payment of legal fees or buying truck parts to me seems like a waste of your meeting time. Since there's no path to non-payment, the city manager should make those
decisions based on budgets, standards of practice, guidelines, and city contracts. The board would then publicly review and discuss items that are outside of that standard. That will save you time. In the last meeting, Peter
made a great si suggestion. Commissioners should have a limit on their time. Your questions and comments should be within four minutes, then two minutes for followup as the round robin goes by
the mayor. You have the process and backup for each a meeting meeting agenda topic that allows you to concisely prepare your questions and then be aware if someone else has already asked the same question during the meeting.
We all of us few that sit in this audience are well aware when you each repeat each other. Thank thanking everyone for presentations from the city which are actually their jobs
although culturally expected often cost you a lot of time in these meetings. Please get to the heart of the factors that influence the decisions that matter to the city. Since public comment periods are not all
always are not a two-way dialogue, since you can never answer or respond to a comment, could you consider having town hall style meetings? Residents can receive answers and insights on your prior public comments not addressed. Plus, residents could ask
questions on a range of topics important to them. More dialogue would increase comments and understanding by everyone. Thank you. you. Anyone else? All right, here we go. Okay, let let me let me let me explain
something to you and to the rest of the audience. If what we're going to start doing from now on, if people want to take time sauntering up to the podium and wasting time because they don't want to line up, we will start the three minutes the time
they get up. So from now on, city clerk, you start the clock when you see that person stand up. Thank you. Go ahead. Now, you know, he's got you're going to get more time from all that than it took me to get up here. Okay, so Peter Lak is
514 Ashlin Avenue. I may have to do a little speed reading here, but my passage for today is from Matthew 13 beginning uh at 12. It relates to Isaiah.
And if you want to look to Isaiah up at six, starting at passage nine. But this is when the disciples were questioning Jesus as to why he speaks in parables. And he says, "This is why I speak to them in parables. Though seeing they do not see, though hearing they do not hear
or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of of Isaiah. You will be ever hearing but never understanding. You will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become callous. They hardly hear with their eye ears and they have closed
their eyes. Otherwise they might see their with their eyes, hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn I would heal them. So uh going back to last meeting with the public comments, looks like the papers out. I
just want to quickly comment on some of the comments that were made. Uh, this was Mayor Koulian. Some people are abusive about the continuous comments on every single item. Commissioner Mike Eisner, when you have someone who speaks on every comment that comes about, you kind of roll your eyes. He said, "I don't need a six commissioner." I'm not.
I'm a former commissioner and I'm a resident speaking as a resident. And then, um, Commissioner Kyas noted 99% of the interaction really comes from one individual in the audience when it comes to virtual comments. So, I pulled my uh I went back and got the agenda from last
week, went back and reviewed the tape, 19 items. I spoke on three of them. That's only 15.8%. So, again, you keep changing the diameters. Now, lastly, it was made a comment that I come up there with a binder full of tabs and take the
meeting up. Well, if you go and look at your rules of procedure, you all get your agendas on Thursday. Thursday. And they also Mark started where they had drafted denes before. So you already know by Thursday what's on there. When I
was a commissioner in Frank, you know, you might have had it. We used to get these big books when on Friday afternoon by 5:00 p.m. didn't have time to talk to anybody on Thursday or Friday. If we had the agenda before that, we might have draft agenda. We would have known what the subjects were to go and talk to
them. So we wouldn't have to ask so many questions at a meeting. So that's why I had my binder with flipper notes. And to mischaracterize that I'm the one that takes up all your
time. I only spoke on three items. Four, four, five, 9, 8, less than 14 minutes of your time. And I don't come here to prophesize. I come
here to show you what has been told before of what will come again. Thank you. Do I have time to s any other public comments? Thank you, Mayor Herb Elliot. I live in
Inisbrook. You all know I just want to thank you for your vote for the Boys and Girls Club. I'm here on a different item tonight, but I came up here a few months ago and I said I would not be present for that discussion. I was away on vacation out in California, but uh Boys
and Girls Club been very close to me for 40 50 years and I spent a lot of time getting that settled with the Rotary Club and the city and the Boys and Girls Club and the vote that you made made a big difference. I just want to thank you very much.
Thank you. Next. Good evening, Mayor Julian, commissioners and city manager Rudd. I wanted to take a Oh, Katie Taylor 657
Haven Place Tarpon T A R P O N Springs, Florida 34689. Uh, I wanted to thank you, Mayor Kianis, City Manager Rudd, and the commissioners for moving the exhibit down on Dotais,
the sponger, Bohemian sponge exhibit, moving it to the front street. It looks very nice, and you have a sign out there. It looks very nice. Um, we're hoping to make one more adjustment, but we'll we'll discuss that later, but right now, that exhibit looks really nice, and I appreciate you taking the
time to move it up front. We look forward to also moving forward and working continuing to work with parks to relocate the exhibit that's currently on MLK on the corner of MLK and um Gross Avenue at Union Academy to move that
exhibit up to Dorset Park. And um city manager Rudd, thank you for the interactions. You're coming to meet with our community when we call you. Thank you for coming out and meeting with the Union Academy uh neighborhood. We appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you.
Anyone else in the audience like to speak? Mr. Austin, is there anyone on Zoom? No. Okay. All right. So, that uh concludes public comments. Uh now we're going to go to a
our quarterly uh commission committee updates. Um, are there any commissioners who would like to comment on any of the com uh committees or items that they would like to speak on? Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. Um,
the last couple of meetings that I've been to uh for Ford Penllis, um just I'm I'm just going to bring out some of the important points. Uh, I did bring up um there was a spoken uh about grants and grant programs and I know
that I brought up Tarpon Springs and in the near future there will be Whit Blandon will be having a meeting with our city manager if he hasn't had it already to get a wish list of what he needs to have forward Penllis do. So we
are um we are on the the map as I'd like to say. But um on the interim I also in last I I was at a uh MO meeting um for the state and um there were probably
about 18 some odd people I represented forward Panelis. Um there was myself and Mike Benino from Clearwater that wound up uh you know representing. And if you don't know what an MO is, it's a you
know metropolitan planning organization and uh it it controls between 20 to 50 years out. So, um, some of the things that we decide to do is, uh, it it it
just it's it's a planning, uh, organization so that probably when we're all out of office, we'll have, you know, people, you know, continuing to do the work that that we set up today. So, just wanted to, you know, keep you up to
date. Um, we have these things called the UPWP. Um, it's a two-year plan. We have a TIP, which is a five-year plan. Um, we have a, um, LRTP. Um, by the way, I didn't memorize all
these acronyms. Um, it's a 20-year horizon plan. And we also have, like I said, a uh a long range plan that's out to 205. So, um, th this is something that at least you should know that you have your
myself for now and your board is out there and bringing back information and and looking to the future for Tarpon Springs. It is uh it hasn't been represented in a while and now it is being represented. So, that's pretty much it. Thank you.
Thank you, Vice Mayor. Um, I I don't have a committee uh comment, but I do have an item that I'd like to just you uh take advantage of this time. Um, I received a uh a letter from the uh from Panelis County, and let me read it to you guys because I need your direction
on u uh and I I've placed a copy of a letter uh that requires my signature, but I I don't want to sign it unless I have uh acquiescence from the board. Okay. Um, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has indicated that Penllis
County will will receive $232,520 in Edward Burn Memorial Justice Assistance Grant uh, countywide. U, the application process has been completed and award recipients approved by the
Substance Abuse Advisory Board for the upcoming fiscal year. Letters from local units and government representing at least 51% of the county population must be submitted to FDLE with uh funding applications for your convenience. The
sample letter okay they've given me this letter uh and it needs to be signed by July 11th. It it is for and the letter um states in compliance with state of Florida rule 11D9 of the Florida
administrative code, the city of Tarpon Springs Rings approves the distribution of $232,520 of federal fiscal year 2024 Edward Burn Memorial uh countywide program funds for the following projects. Now, these
projects have been uh already been approved by the county. They require again 51% of the population acquiescing to it. Again, I don't want to sign this unless I have um approval from the board to do it. Um but um I've I have vetted
this with the city attorney and also the uh the city manager and they feel appropriate uh for us to go ahead and participate in this. It's it's county money. You know, we'll feel the effects of this. I know the police chief could comment on it as well. Um would you like
to comment on it? I I support the signing of it as Okay. Yeah. So again um is there any uh issue with any commissioner with me signing this letter?
Okay. So I'll take it as tacid approval to go ahead and sign it. Uh thank you very much. Okay. So now let's go to the consent agenda. Um consent agenda item number two, award file of force main cleaning
and flow restoration. Uh number three, attorney fees Johnson PLLC. Number four, request for authorization of new location for Bohemian Art Piece.
Number five, special event Tarpon Springs High School Band Boosters Outdoor Music Festival. Number six, uh, ratify an increase park exercise equipment replacement. And number seven, satisfaction release of
leans. Does any commissioner wish to pull any of these items? Uh, vice mayor has indicated he'd like to pull number four. Anyone else like to pull any other item? Okay. So, let's um if if there is no conversation on this,
I'd like to hear a motion to approve consent agenda item 2, three, five, six, and seven. So, move second. Okay. No conversation on this. Um roll call, please. Commissioner Vander, yes.
Commissioner Donado, yes. Commissioner Pas, yes. Vice Mayor Eisner, yes. Mayor Pianis, yes. Uh, Vice Mayor, would you like to discuss uh number four? I I don't have a problem with the uh movement of the art thing. What I have a
problem with is as you all have a packet in front of you. We received a letter from one of the applicants and the address on it is not a Tarpon address and it was signed on
June 26th. And uh it's a holiday address. And uh if you look back to almost the last page, I didn't really have this in chronological order, you'll see it's
also the same address was dated on 911, 1979. It was on August 1st, 2022. So when I There's also another address. Um there's a 3704. There's a 37
um 16 same street. Um I need clarification and that's not in the I don't want a a driver's license. I need clarification that the person that is u making decisions on any board, not
just this board, but any board um if that they are definitively a Tarpon resident before I'm going to approve anything. Um, you can't have somebody signed a legal document 6 or 7 days ago or 8 days ago, whatever it was when we
got this and uh, you know, just say that it wasn't updated by Sunbiz because this is the same address that was back in 1979 and 22. Sunbiz doesn't take eight years or six years or 10 years to change
things. So, um, personally, I I I don't want to approve this just because of that. I need to make sure that every and not just this person, but every person um needs to, if
they're going to move around, they've got to produce that they're here in uh that they live in Tarpon Springs. So, um this is my comment. I mean, I can read if I can see this here. The light isn't great. I hereby certify that the
information indicated on this report or supplement report is true and accurate. So, evidently, it's been denied. So, I know that if this was me signing this document, I would put a line through
that address and I would put my current address. I wouldn't put an address outside Topppin Springs. So, um, you know, it says this has the same legal effect as if, um, un under oath. So, if
this was under oath, that never should have been signed like that. You know, I didn't go on a fishing expedition. This was sent to me and I read everything that gets sent to me. And I I just don't want to go ahead. not going to vote for this until I know that
all the people that are on the board are official Tarpon residents. I'm not saying they're not. I just don't have any evidence other than a driver's license. And that to me, you can have a driver's license with any address on it for eight years and it you can just keep
it that way. It may not be legal and if you get caught driving with a different uh address, you could get into trouble. But the police at the time, you know, they don't know where you're living. Um, but this is an official document and it was signed by the Secretary of State. It
was filed on June 26th. Um, so on one place or another there's an error. So, um I I would like this clarified and I truthfully down I I spoke to the city manager uh about having a
um anybody on all boards should be, you know, producing that they live in Tarpon Springs. So, that's where I'm at. Okay. So, um um let's let's have a I think this a good opportunity to have a conversation
about process um and how this function works on uh right now the process. Um Commissioner Man, I'll call on you in a second. Let me let me uh start it up. So, you
know, whether whether it's a volunteer board or whether it's somebody running uh for public office, um you know, we right now the uh the vetting is is done strictly
by the city clerk. um whether she asked for a driver's license and a signed affidavit. Uh we've had many whether you know there's I mean we've had commissioners that were in college that
live that use their parents' address, right? Um and they produced a driver's license, signed an affidavit. They have no they have no um uh you know water bill, power bill,
lease agreement, you know, practically nothing to prove their residency other than their driver's license and the signature of an affidavit. Um I I I I hear what you're saying and I'm not and everything you're saying is you
know what is coming from documents that I know to be true. um whether you know there could be a difference between somebody's address of residence and their address of convenience. Um there
could be someone who uses a address because and my understanding is this person and I don't really don't want to embarrass this person tonight but um uh there could be you know the use of of their uh one of their family members
addresses for their for convenience and mailing purposes and yet they reside somewhere else and maybe they're only going to be there temporary. I know of, you know, young people that still use their parents' address to have all their mail delivered and they even use it to
do their tax return, but yet they live somewhere else, but they're not sure they're going to be there that long, so they know they have a stable address at um one place. That could be that could be an answer here. Again, Sunbiz is not the the the the number one definitive point. We went through that with another
whole thing a couple years ago. Um, but what I I and and obviously I'll go to every commissioner for a comment, but um I would if there's a question here, I think that question should be answered
by the city clerk. Uh she can have a conversation with the city attorney and come up with a determination. We I don't think the board of commissioners should be the ones vetting um you know where somebody is residing. And again, we
don't want to be going through putting volunteer people, which you know, again, these are volunteers, and vetting them in open forums like this is is I think problematic. So, I'm going to go ahead and and move over to one of the
commissioners, but I'd be happy with just deferring this item. let the city attorney and the city clerk uh come to some kind of resolution on it and then um you know but that's kind of where I am. So uh Commissioner Banther, you have
anything to say? Yes, I have some questions. I'm a little confused because I've been following this in my email and then I called the city clerk and um call Mrs. Taylor too to ask her. Um Irene, has Mrs. Taylor submitted an a a a driver's license with
a Tarpon Springs address? Um, yes. And has she signed the affidavit that everybody has to sign that she lives in Tarpon Springs proper? There is not an affidavit required. That's required for elected commissioners. There's an application at
the time and then it was updated. Yes. But has she met all the proof of residency requirements that we that we would require of of anybody else on a on a volunteer board as we do for board? Yes. Okay. Then my my confusion comes where I'm trying to figure out why we are
singling out, let's just say it, you know, one of the few African-American female volunteers we have. My god. Why is this not being applied across the board to every board member? And when I read the screenshots that I was sent by the city clerk, these texts come from
Joan Jennings, who was a former member of that board. I have no idea why what her motive is or why she sent them in. I don't know. But it just seems to me like Mrs. Taylor, for reasons I don't understand, is being singled out. So if we're going to apply extra scrutiny to
to Mrs. Taylor, it needs to be to every single volunteer person we have. And that's all I got to say. Commissioner Donado, I don't have any problems with it, but if you want to verify it further, I
suppose we can do that. But um this has been discussed before as Yeah, somewhat perplexed, but uh whatever the board should decide how it will fall. Commissioner Kas.
Yes. Uh uh city clerk is the the Rose Cemetery um organization. Aren't they a private? They're not necessarily They are not under the city. So I does the officer or does the the
members on the board um have to live in the city according to our charter? I that I do not know. I'm not part of Rose Hill and I don't know what their bylaws or their makeup calls for. Okay. So if as far as the the cemetery association,
I I think this is good. Now, if this is, you know, relaying to any other board and the criteria has been met, I don't know. I I think we should be good unless there's another process that everybody else wants to go through.
That's uh completely, you know, to I guess the overall board to decide. But I don't mind having the city clerk look into this, the city attorney. But as I look at this Rose Cemetery looks and they're a private organization, I I don't think that characteristic of
having to live inside the city applies to them for for what we're presented in front of us. So I I don't think there's anything I think, you know, we have to accept this document as is and move forward.
Okay. May I respond? Yes, please. Can you go ahead? So, a number of comments were made here, and not all of them are what I brought up in the first place. Okay? Nobody went to single anybody out. This
was voluntarily uh a a document that Rose Cemetery Committee sent to all of us on the board. It wasn't me going out and looking and picking on anybody because they were any different than anyone else
in my it clearly in this document the minutes from the Rose Cemetery and I'm not doubting their committee. So let's let's get that straight. I'm not doubting their committee. The person is the president.
This is the board. I'm not here to talk about that. But I have a signed document on June 26th that one of the members who's also a member of our volunteer board does not live in Tarpon Springs. I see.
I did not write this. It was voluntarily sent to me. I read it. It has nothing to do with Joan Jennings. It has nothing to do with anything more than somebody volunteered, the person who I'm questioning whether she lives in Tarpon
Springs sent me a signed document that said I took an oath that everything on here is true. So, but it's not because now she's saying she doesn't live there. So, that's the first thing. The second
thing I did also say I don't want this to apply to one person. I want this to apply to every volunteer board. I don't want somebody who lives in Holiday or in Hernando or in any town to decide that
they have a relative and they send a letter to that house and they say, "Okay, I want to become a board member because I have a letter that was sent there." You cannot decide the items going on in Tarpon Springs if you live elsewhere.
So, I believe all I'm asking is I I'm happy to defer it until that person produces proper evidence that they're getting an electric bill um or whatever it is it takes. A driver's license is no
longer a legal document for for a license uh for for residents. Now, if we need to change that, I also said in my comments that we need to address this in agenda item moving forward on what we
can and cannot have as a member. But if you read in the in the preparation for their meeting, they requested all burial records covering the period 22 to 25, the organization certificate book, the
minutes of all the board meetings from 22 to 25, from um Ideelia uh Goodwin, all documents communication provided during the meeting with the attorney uh per Perinich, including proof of
membership records for all members from Miss Leslie King, all finance reports, all bank statements in her procession. Vice Mayor, can we I'm just Can we get concise really quick because because this is a this is a consent agenda item.
I think we're we're Hold on one second. We're distorting two separate issues. One is, are we going to approve the request to change the location of that Bohemian art piece which was voted on by that board? I'm sure it didn't come down to a one vote on their board whether
that person is or is not a resident. Then let's have a separate issue. Let's let the city clerk work and and get have some uh criteria for uh vetting people and then we can put it on the agenda at a at a later date and we can have a much
more time to talk about all these things. All these things were being brought up because I am I am contesting the comments that are made on this board. That's the only reason I read it. Okay. Thank you. So is is there a motion
to approve consent agenda agenda item number four? So move second. Okay. Is there any further comments about the consent agenda? Not about any particular uh member. If not u well let me um if not roll call
please. Commissioner Banther? Yes. Commissioner Donado? Yes. Commissioner Koulas? Yes. Vice Mayor Eisner? No. Mayor Kanz. Yes. Okay, let's go to business item number
eight. Um, increase file number 240067, water meters and associated parts. Uh, Mr. Ker, uh, Mayor Kanos, members of the board, uh, Thomas Ker, public services director. Uh today we have before you again a relatively simple item uh for
procurement purposes. This is our annual contract for water meters and associated parts. Uh this is a single source procurement item. We are standardized on uh Neptune uh water meters and uh we require this contract in place with the
local vendor for the for these products to continue to service and maintain our water meter population. Uh this is really important as it's the cash register for the water and sewer utilities. We have to maintain an accurate cash register in order to make sure that we're being paid for the services rendered. So, uh, with that, we would request that you approve this
item. Okay. Are there any, uh, st um, commissioner com uh, questions of staff? So, Commissioner Banther, no, sir. Commissioner Donado, no. Commissioner Kulas,
uh, this is Yeah. How come there's nearly a double in the increase? Uh we're trying to uh be proactive about meter replacement. Uh we actually envision potentially putting this uh some additional funding in the CIP in the next couple of years. Uh
we're currently working on some um meter testing as a large initiative because we've discovered that some of the meters are aging a little bit poorly. So as we work through the meter testing program, we want to have additional resources available to fix those to make sure we're recovering revenue. Thank you, Mr. Ker. No more no more
questions from me. Vice Mayor, is this FEMA res uh um will FEMA give us credit for any of these meters? Were they damaged during the storm? I most of these I would I would suspect not. Uh we we had some minor like uh
issues like posttorms with um you know like uprooted tree roots and things like that, but uh that's all been tallied up and uh this is largely a proactive forward moving uh activity for maintaining the meter population. I only asked that because it says the sustained
damage to water service lines from 2024 hurricanes also increased contract utilization and so if any of those meters were damaged, don't you think we should put it through on FEMA? Uh yeah, we have been tracking all of our expenses related to that. Uh again,
this is the next uh expenses moving forward. So all those repairs have already been completed but again we are anticipating you know continuing to um focus on the meter population um as a proactive measure. So going back to what the commissioner
just said this has just doubled in value on its own. It went from 350 to 700,000 just like that. uh we are also experiencing some uh cost pressures um on the parts uh as a result of you know uh from the supplier but again this
we're really proactively looking at this as part of our we've just completed our first preliminary meter survey uh and um there's also a need to continue to have some additional expense uh expense allowances in there for like new meter starts uh for like new housing and
things like that. So, we did a little bit of a deep dive on the on the cost, but we also did put some additional buffer in there so that we could do more proactive work. Does Ferguson have a monopoly on all of our meters? They are the sole source supplier in this area for Neptune meters and parts.
Is there anybody else? No. So, they have a monopoly. They are they're the registered vendor for this product in this area. So, they they have an effective monopoly from the manufacturer. They represent they're they're the representative for the manufacturer in this area.
Is it possible we could look into somebody else? Because when you have a monopoly like this, the next meeting we could have it being going to another 350,000. No, we would not be able to entertain other vendors for this product without
changing uh all of our meters that we currently have. So we would have to change to a different meter manufacturer entirely which is probably not feasible at this point. That would be a large multi.
I understand. All I'm asking is is it possible to get some facts and figures on whether it is possible for it to switch suppliers or to at least give them some competition when you have a monopoly. You know the
question came back. It's d it's become double and I'm trying to find out that it doesn't double again. It's it's not doubling because of the pricing. The the pricing is established by the manufacturer um and and the
vendor. The the again the increase is due to us our desire to do more work in these areas to procure more parts to complete more work orders and maintain the be more proactive in our maintenance activities. We're we're increasing updating our meters is basically what we're doing,
right? The pace at which we Yes, that's that's exactly what we're trying to do. We've been conducting some meter testing. This is an important part of maintaining the meter population and if we don't take care of the cash register, we don't collect all the fees for which we render service. So
realistically, there there is no realistic alternative for an alternative vendor. This Ferguson is the they are the vendors rep for Neptune in this part of Florida. My only all the other cities use Neptune.
There are several major meter manufacturers. Uh we have standardized on Neptune since I want to say 2008. So uh that's something we could look into. But we do have all of our billing system integrated with Neptune. uh it it would
be a significant investment to change. And then you're additionally looking at most meter manufacturers go through either direct sales from the manufacturer or some sort of like designated vendor representative and
you'd wind up in the same boat. If you could just give it a look, that's all I ask. We can do that. Thank you. Okay. Is there any uh public comments? Well, hold on. Let me um let me
entertain a motion first. Is there a motion to approve item uh business item number eight? So moved. Second. Okay. Is there any public comments on this item? Mr. Austin, do we have any Zoom
comments? No. Okay. Is uh there any commissioner comments? No. Okay. Uh roll call, please. Commissioner Banther? Yes. Commissioner D. Donado? Yes. Commissioner Kuas? Yes.
Vice Mayor Eisner? Yes. Mayor Kolianis? Yes. Uh business item number nine, award bid for the Elers Spur Trail Seaw Wall project. Uh Mr. Robertson. Evening mayor and commissioners. Thank you. Bob Robertson, project administration department director and
interim public works director. For this item, we're requesting the board's authorization to award a construction contract to KM2H LLC for the seaw wall repair and paved trail reconstruction on a segment of the Panelis Trail. It's
known as the Elers Spur. This is the portion of the trail that's um south is south of the Enklo River, but the pedestrian bridge uh that has remained completely closed for safety reasons for an extended period. The
contract amount is $965,000 of which $860,800 has been identified in a request for FEMA project reimbursement. Um, with the new trail extension set to open later this month, I'm excited to get this project under repair and get
this repair done. Um, with this repair, trail users are going to finally be able to connect from the Panelis Trail to Pasco County's Coastal Anclo Trail. And I'm really looking forward to that. So, uh, Mr. Mayor, that's my staff report. Okay. Are there any um, commissioner com
uh, questions of staff? Uh, Commissioner Banther? Yes, sir. Commissioner Donado, nothing. Commissioner Kulas, no. Vice Mayor Eisner. No. Okay. I have no questions as well. Um, can I entertain a motion to approve business item number 10?
So move second. Is there any public comments on this item? 10 or Oh, number Oh, number nine. I'm sorry. I apologize. Number nine. Do I need to we need to restate that motion? No.
Uh, Mr. Austin. Okay, let's come back to the board. Is there any board comments? Yes, mayor. I just want to I'm happy to see this project go through and now connects the other side of the uh trail that we spent that money and it's going to be nice. So, it's uh
be a nice long way for everyone to enjoy um exercising. So, thank you Bob and staff. Thank you. And um any Vice Mayor. Is uh did you bring this up also to forward panels to see if they were willing to kick in any money into this?
No, I did not. So, you asked? No, I did not bring it forward to for penelis. Okay. Cuz I would if you don't, I will. Great. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Is um is there any reimburseable portion of this?
Yeah. Uh 860,000 is reimburseable from FEMA. All right. I'm sorry I missed it. It's a lot. I mean, all right. If there's no further questions on the or no further comments, um, roll call, please. Commissioner Banther, yes. Mr. Donado,
yes. Commissioner Kuas, yes. Vice Mayor Eisner, yes. Mayor Kanis, yes. Thank you. Thank you. U, let's go to business item number 10, Internal Audit of Public Services, our golf division. Mr. Pulos.
Mr. Mayor, commissioners, good evening. I place on the agenda uh audit number 10-2025 is audit of the golf division. Uh good news is there's no findings. So I'll just go through the observations
quickly. Uh what I did is I looked at uh two major risks that I that I that I thought with the golf department and one was the enterprise golf fund that they're funded through and the other is uh transactional and reporting risk. Uh the enterprise the reason I felt that
the there was risk in the in the fund itself is not because it's just an enterprise fund. We have plenty of those, but uh it's a little different in as opposed to say the utility fund or the sanitation fund because those are things that are kind of compulsory. You
know, those funds kind of go in the red. Well, you can raise rates because people obviously they need they need water. They need to get your trash taken out. People don't need to play golf, though. So, it's it's it's it's imperative that this fund stays or remains uh remains
remains financially healthy. Um and then uh transactional and reporting risk. I looked at the cash receipts process. Uh in auditing we we we tend to look at uh two things and that's frequency and magnitude. And here the frequency there's they do a lot of transactions
sometimes you know a thousand a day but the magnitude is low. But when you see that many transactions, it's it's uh it's it's the right thing to do is is is to test those transactions to make sure that the cash receipts process is is is the controls surrounding it are
adequate. So in terms of the enterprise fund, I looked at three key performance indicators um which I think paint a really a really good picture of the of of the fund. The first one was the golf course utilization rate. And that's basically
the number of golf rounds sold as opposed to the total number of golf course rounds available to sell. Um, and I took the industry average uh which kind of which kind of floats because there's a lot of different golf course models throughout the US and I kind of
averaged those out and got to got to 55%. And from and I looked at the last four years for for the these key performance indicators, excuse me. Uh you can see from 2021
to 2024 we've been from 5% up to 12 or 17% above the in the last four years. And that's been growing steadily above the above the industry average. industry average has kind of leveled out, but the uh the the Tarpon Golf Course has been continuously selling more and more
rounds of golf and they're they're they're at a really good spot. I mean, 72% is is is really high. I mean, there's only so many rounds you can conceivably sell uh because of weather issues and things like that. I mean, when it rains, you can't sell golf. Uh when it's, you know, as hot as it is
today, it's it's hard to sell at 3 or 4:00 tea time. Uh so doing really good in in that regard. Uh the second thing I looked at or the second KPI was the net revenue per round. This is more of an efficiency revenue or efficiency uh measure because
it's looked at on a on a per round basis. You can see over the last four years uh in in 2021 we're making about $548 a round and by 24 that was $12.99 a round. And that's before the recent
price increases. Those came into effect at starting FY25. Um the the the great thing about that is once we get to about 63,000 rounds, economies of scale starts kicking in and and our expenses actually start
dropping. So the cost to produce every additional unit after about 63,000 63,000 rounds actually starts going down. And the unit being rounds of golf. So then our net revenue or uh the profit margins for each additional round starts they start widening which is which is
what you want that that's ideal. Um the last one I looked at is operating income which is more of a a bottom line number. It's not a a per round uh number but that feeds directly into the uh the
course's uh uh net cash position. You can see over the last four years it's gone up substantially. Uh in in in 21 it was around 302,000 and now in and it's more than doubled actually. In FY24 it
was 760,000 and that rolls up up to the total cash position and mind you this is not including FY25 uh which I know has been a has been a good year as well. They're at over 1.7 million in their in their net cash position for their for their fund. So
when you when you look at all three of these KPIs together, I think it paints a pretty pretty healthy picture of of the of the golf enterprise fund. So that was the that was observation 1 A, 1B, and 1 C. Uh the secondary observation that was
just looking at their policies and procedures. Um and they're they're they're up to date. They cover the gamut of things. everything from from inventory management to open and closing procedures, golf etiquette, employee
expectations, the cash receipts process is laid out really well. Like I said, they're they're they're up to date and and very thorough. Uh the third one, the third observation is uh like I mentioned before about transactional and and reporting risk. I looked at the cash receipts process, the
controls surrounding those. uh typically that those involve three stages and that's that's uh receiving and handling when I say cash receipts I don't mean just just cash I mean cash checks credit cards all the different payment methods um usually have there's usually three
areas and that's uh receiving depositing and and reconciling I went ahead I went ahead and added reporting which is actually done by the finance department to give just a just a a broader picture see if there's any any areas that need improvement uh I'll tell you a quick story. It's the
first time I did this. I I always send out an engagement letter to to the audit and I asked for, you know, a bunch of different documents and they sent me all these documents back and they sent me uh one day's worth of closing documents. And this is, you know, in the beginning,
I didn't know anything about how how they they ran their their business or anything. And I said, "Well, before I read anything, before I talk to anyone, let me just lay all these out cold and let me see if I can go through that day and reconcile everything and make sure everything matches from the the
transaction to the the the part where it's it's actually inputed into the into the Navaline system." And I was able to do that cold. So, that's that's a that's not a testament to me. That's a testament to to their cash cash receipts
uh controls. Uh, and you can see there's about two and a half pages worth of things I I tested and uh there was there was no exceptions noted on any of those. And so the last observation uh really wasn't a positive one, but I
didn't think it rose to a level of a finding and I don't know if there's really anything we can really do about it. Um I I'll just read it first and I'll kind of explain to you my my the thinking behind it. Uh while there are no findings concerning the cash receipts process as a whole, the courts can take
advantage of its existing technology to reduce data fragmentation. The rec department and the golf department have POS systems that can feed directly into our ERP system, which is the Navaline system. I believe they're the only two, unless something's
changed, I believe they're the only two departments that can actually do that. So, it kind of goes straight to finance and finance uploads the files in. Okay, that's that's good. The one the one issue that I had was some of the accounting codes, there's a lot of accounting codes that get uploaded, but
uh when it comes to to uh the green fees, which is just the cost to play golf, there's top level topline data, but not line item data. So, best just give you an example. I put this in in the report. If I asked you if I said, "Okay, well, how much how much did we
make in green fees last Tuesday?" and let's say it's $10,000. That information is the naval line. If I wanted to know, okay, well, how much of that was 18 hole rounds versus nine hole rounds versus, you know, like early bird special rounds. They have different pricing
tiers, different times of days and stuff like that. I would actually that's not in Navaline. That would be in the club profit system. So there so that's basically two sets of data. And the whole kind of point of having the ERP system is to centralize as much data as possible. It's not a it's not a big
deal, but I thought it it was worth noting. Um I I don't know if it'd be even worth it at this point to to get the accounting codes uh to add the accounting codes. I don't know what the process would be if we'd have to go to the to the vendor and ask them to do it or not, but I think I think they're going to look into it. Um but other than
that though, everything is a very well-run department. I was uh I was pleased. These are the audits I love doing. uh when there's no findings. Um if you have any questions or you want me to go into detail on any of the other other observations, I'd be happy to do that. Okay. Uh let me start off with the questions which commissioner questions
first. So if uh you know that we're uh have plans to build a a new clubhouse, correct? So did you do any testing to see what our capacity is uh for total play? I
know you said that um what what was the numbers you had? Um what was the total number of rounds you 60 67,000 67. So what do you believe that course's capacity is? Oh gosh. Um you know I'm not an expert
on that but I would say probably gosh if you could get to 70,000 maybe 71 I'd say would that's that's probably all you could do given the weather. I mean plus you have to remember too though the rates went up. These are based on the previous rates. The rates went up. The
board approved them I think in November, last November. So if we just stayed at 67,000 rounds with the higher rates, that operating revenue would go way up. Okay. Even if we played less rounds, if we sold less rounds, it'd be offset by the
by the increased fees. What What percentage of um of played or payments made at the at the golf course are cash? Oh, that's a good question. Um gosh I I I don't remember. It's been a
while I haven't looked at this in probably a month and a half. So So in you know as a internal control um thing when you have like like the issue we had at the at the dump right with the cash being paid. Um so is there an any
internal control that where um let's say somebody's going they go they check in they would pay in cash um but then they would go to the to you know the the um what do you have like um a range guy
right like a the what do they call the guy starter starter okay so does the starter keep track of play so that it can be compared with what is coming off the register in in the in the clubhouse.
I don't know. I'm not really sure. Um, but could you find out the percent on cash and then like what is the procedure to, you know, you're always going to have some loss somebody somebody can go ahead, hey, go out and play and and the
and the uh the guy at the starter, he could just say, "Yeah, go play, right?" You know, so you're always going to have that, but there should be some internal control thing between the um going and registering in the in the clubhouse and then going to the starter. If he keeps
track of of play and then you got the inside, you could compare the numbers to see. Correct. Okay. Is you know there should be that the same number of of guys registering to go out and those guys starting. Right. Right. Yeah. Cuz you you go in
and you pay at the clubhouse and then I don't know if they can't remember if they give you a ticket or what then you go to the starter. But yeah, there's I don't know if there's a control to keep maybe the starters, you know, next door neighbor from just walking up and playing. That that could happen, but at least you know, right, that there's no uh no shenanigans going
on inside the clubhouse. Correct. Correct. Yeah. Then they have a good division. They have a good separation of duties. Um you know, everything's signed off and reconciled by different people and uh that's So you felt comfortable with Yes. Yes. Absolutely. I mean, could something happen? There's no perfect
controls. Yes. But I feel I mean they're pretty strong. Yes. Okay. Commissioner Banther, do you have any questions? Uh, thank you for this. Uh, was there something that prompted this audit or was it just part of your standard review process? Oh, just part of my part of plan. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Appreciate you're welcome.
Commissioner Donado, I just want to thank you for your report and I'm happy to see that the courses has definitely been improved and the usage is also growing as well. And I think that the addition of the the new clubhouse can can add to that as well. But thank you.
Oh, absolutely. Commissioner Kulas. Yeah, just thank you for the report. Thanks for recreation, public services, Howard Hunt, head of the golf course. He's really uh him and staff have really turned it around. You you see it's making good money every year. And you
put in the report how the clubhouse is really outdated. And um a new clubhouse will be paid back costs about 4.3 million, but it will be be paid back annually at $445,000 from the same golf course revenue fund.
So it will pay for itself and uh um it's only going to get better. So happy to see this and congrats to everyone involved who's helped really bring it up and back to its great life. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, mayor. Um, I always love
getting a report that says there's no issues. So, um, I do want to thank you and I want to thank, uh, everybody involved. Um, you know, this is a, uh, I did do a couple of meetings with the citizens academy there and it is a relic
of a place. You know, you do go back in time. Um, lucky I still remember that time, so I felt I fit in there pretty well. Um but uh you know I'm happy to see that it moving forward and you know I always appreciate you know your
indepth report and that there was no issues other than you know just an observation. So observations are good. Absolutely. Bad findings are not good and I always love that. So thank you. Thank you.
So I'd like to entertain a motion to approve business item number 10. So moved. Second. Are there any public comments? Mr. Austin, mayor, the Zoom comment is not working. They're they're working on repairing the
Zoom office. Okay. All right. Um, come back to the board. Is if there's is there if there's no comments uh further comments, uh, let's have roll call, please. Commissioner Banther, yes. Commissioner Donado, yes. Commissioner Kulios,
yes. Vice Mayor Eisner. Yes. Mayor Polanis. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Pulis. That was a great job. Thank you. Let's go to business item number 11. Consideration of refund for impact fee and cost of sewer line installation,
Theodora Mikal Lakis, um 312 East Orange Street. Um M uh city manager. Thank you, mayor. Uh you all have in your packet the the history of this case. We did meet with uh um Miss Makisen and her attorney and we offered
to refund the impact fee um but not the plumber's fees and they asked to uh come before you and request the entire uh amount be refunded to you. So that's why And how much was the refund you're offering? The um Tom, what was the impact fee?
Uh the the impact fee was um 3600 200 I'm sorry $2,865 and there was initial request for a uh 3600 $3,600 uh private construction costs. Um we have the applicant here is uh
Yes, sir. Mr. Elliot, would you like to uh I'm I'm sorry. Um Mr. Hager, did you want to speak on this first? Uh yes, I apologize. I apolog uh yeah I'll provide a quick summary. So uh this is a little bit of a longer running issue that predates you know uh this
board and also the city manager. Um so uh essentially this relates back to uh work that was started in uh in 2021 and completed in 2022. Uh the gist of it is that there was uh historically been uh
two pro uh property at 312 East Orange Street. Uh it's historically been a multif family residential property with a sort of garage apartment in the back. Uh this parcel was subdivided uh you know looking back through the property appraiser records roughly around 1980.
So it's been subdivided for a while but it was all under common ownership. So it was managed under con ownership and um back parcel had the same address. So then in uh 2021 the larger front parcel was sold and the property the original
property owner uh Miss Behakis uh retained ownership of the back parcel as a separate residential property and after the sale uh the property owner of the back parcel wanted to establish a new utility account and new water service for the back parcel because you know the new front parcel was under
different ownership now and um it came before the city for the new sewer the new water account and uh it was found that she needed to if you want to have a water meter, you need to have sewer service as well. And this was reviewed by previous city attorney Tras and also
by current city attorney Mr. uh Salman and uh both agreed that yes, this is what the code requires that if you're going to establish a new utility account for water, you also need to have a sewer connection. And so she was required to establish a sewer connection for the separate uh and independent account and
the separate and independent parcel. Um so uh they completed the property owner completed this work with a private contractor. She established an account. Um and uh then later in 2023 uh Mr. uh
Mr. Elliot came into the picture on behalf of the property owner uh requesting reimbursement for the impact the sewer impact fee and also the previously completed uh sewer lateral install which was private and on private property for the parcel and only served that parcel. Um again, Mr. Salman
reviewed the case and he provided guidance that this is what was required by code and we hadn't done anything erroneous and that therefore the fee should stand and uh it was uh dismissed by the the previous city manager. Uh and then uh again in early 2025 uh Mr.
Elliott brought this back forward again for additional consideration and uh we had a meeting with uh Mr. Elliot and the property owner uh in March 2025 uh to discuss the issue and as a sort of like you know goodwill uh recommendation
to sort of put this issue to bed the city attorney recommended well why don't we go ahead and just refund the sewer impact fee that's within the board's discretion. Uh but you know the rest of it was private work on private property by a private contractor hired by a private individual and that we don't
want to establish any precedent towards uh paying for private work on uh private property for local sewer uh local water and sewer stuff that's essentially plumbing work uh for the property. So uh few other facts uh there was no uh pressure
applied through uh utility service. Uh just to be very clear about that at no time was water or sewer service uh to the back residential partial parcel disrupted. So she continued to have uh water and sewer service continually throughout all of her discussions with the city. So there wasn't any leverage applied that way. And um again, we also
want to reiterate that the new water and sewer service established for that back parcel was a result of a voluntary subdivision by the property owner of the original parcel. So, uh this would normally be, no pun intended, part and parcel to subdividing a property and establishing two two residents. So, uh,
with that, we're recommending, uh, that as a goodwill effort, we will refund the, uh, sewer impact fee, but we're not recommending, uh, additional refunds for reimbursement done by the private contractor on the private property.
Thank you. Are um, are there any questions of either the city manager or Mr. Ker? Okay. U,, Mr. Elliot. Thank you, Mayor and Commissioners. I'm here requesting a correction that
the city improperly required a new wastewater connection for a building that has been legally connected to the city wastewater collection system for over a hundred years. The property's on Orange Street, as Tom said, near Ring, four units in front and
one in the rear. And my client sold the four in the front. Is Mr. Price here? I invited him. He was the purchaser of the front four units. In any event, uh my client paid under protest $6,465.
There's no evidence of any septic tank system ever been there. All agree that the back unit was connected to the city wastewater treatment plant. The issue is, is the back unit legally connected? I submit it was after the sale to Mr.
and Mrs. Price in the front. Uh the staff has admitted that there's no impact fee required. That's a key admission that there's no growth. You can only impose an impact fee on new growth. The fact that there was new
growth, no new growth, there's no impact fee required and therefore the property was always connected and it's still connected. there was connected until this new new sewer lateral was put in insisted upon by the city in order for my client to use her property. I grant
you that there was some grace period during which my client had to hire the contractor to do the work. Uh, incidentally, one commissioner asked me, "Do we have a sewer plant back 1925?" And we did. When I was city attorney, there was an ordinance, the
oldest ordinance on the books at that time in 1918, I believe it was, ordinance number 11, that required connection to the city wastewater treatment plant if your property was within, I think, 200 ft of a lateral. So, a little historical information. Uh,
pursuant to the sale agreement, Lola, my client, had to get her own water connection. That was fine. She went and the city exacted the requirement to get a new sewer connection, even though it was already connected and working fine.
In the backup is the city ordinance in question, and I'd like to quote that ordinance. If I may, if you could find it in your backup. The first sentence is underlined, highlighted. I won't read that, but they skip the
definition of what fronting or abudding means in the second part of that subparagraph A for the record, section 136.02A of the land development code. quote, "Frontting or abudding shall mean where
the property in question shares all or part of a common lot line with a right of way or easement that contains a public gravity sewer line." So, the issue is, was there an easement to connect to the city
wastewater treatment plant along Orange Street? I believe that there was. It's in your backup. Mr. and Mrs. Price gave the my clients an easement to connect to the city wastewater treatment plant at that same location. There was no legal
requirement to make a new one in my opinion. I'd like to back up and discuss easements a little bit and I apologize. The staff all know what easements are for the benefit of the public. An easement doesn't get enough credit in
the world of real estate, but it's a permanent right for of one parcel. Sometimes personal public right as in rightway to use another parcel for a specific purpose. Parking, water, sewer, open drainage,
sheet drainage, electric cable, sidewalks, air rights. If you purchased any property around Tampa airport, you know, there's a like an 8 mile radius of an airright easement that's subject to when you buy your property, you have an airright easement and people are
surprised about that. So, in any event, uh there's an easement that exists and it complies in my opinion with the code of ordinances. A right of way is a kind of an easement. The old city attorney
thought it was different, but the but the statutes and the court cases have always said a right of way is a kind of an easement. Anyway, the city specifically permits connection via an easement as was done in this case. Chief, if you could pass out the one
little sheet that I have for the benefit of the public and the city commission. I try to search my memory for an instance where this was done in the past. Now, it's very hard to do unless you've had
50 years of real estate experience in Tarpon Springs. And I remembered one such example in 1985. You've seen it. I given you a copy of an easement from the what was then there's this is
two buildings between the hospital and the gas station along alternate 19. The dashers gave Dr. Carson and his partner the Hilers an easement for sewer connection and also the property next door my clients Jimmy Arvanitas and John
Status a sewer easement so their sewer pipe and I was there when it was dug went across Carson's property property and the Dasher gas station to connect to the city's sewer manhole for gravity purposes. You got to have
gravity. You can't tap in to a force man very easily. Not a good idea. So to get gravity like in a shopping center, I'm giving you an example of one shopping center title commitment on the back page of that shopping center out parcels. They're
full of easements standard procedure and it's been standard procedure in Tarpon Springs. The example I've given you is from 1985. I'm sure there are lots of others, but that's one that came to mind. So, based upon the law and the president, now the
staff is saying it's a bad precedent to do this. The president was established, for example, in 1985 and for hundreds of years before that when people were allowed to use easements to connect to public facilities. And we all know that. And that's what my
clients did. The easement is there in your backup. It was done in 2022. We've been get trying to get this money back for three years. And I would respectfully request that the city exceeded to my client's request and grant the
uh $3,60 I believe it was whatever for the for the sewer connection. $3,600 for the sewer connection. I appreciate the staff is agreeing to give us back the impact fee, which is the
admission there was no growth and it was already connected. Thank you. And that's about all I have. Okay. I'm I'm going to uh allow I want our our staff to respond to Mr. U Elliot's assertions. Uh city manager
wasn't the issue. You might want to that her sewer was still running through the other sewer. So if their sewer got shut off, hers would be shut off. Yes, that's exactly the issue was it was we basically had two residential parcels one above the other and they were going
to be sharing a common uh sewer plumbing systems and so this was reviewed like I said we sent it uh this was before my time as director so but it was sent to the city attorney at the time it was re-reviewed by uh Mr. Salman and this was the found to be the interpretation
of the code was that you know if you're you're going to have two different accounts you need to have two different sewer lines at two different establishments two different uh two water lines two sewer lines one to serve each parcel and that it was uh not within the code to allow them to flow the water through the other building's
plumbing system. City attorney mayor I just want to be clear um the total amount here is over $6,000. The offer that was made by the city to resolve this was to refund the $2,865.
That offer was rejected. So, right now, there is no offer on the table for any amount. So, if the board so chooses, um, you would have to approve 2865 or some other number. Um, but that offer was made to try to resolve this and that
was rejected um by Mr. Elliott's uh client. So there is no agreement to pay to return any money at this time. I just want the board to be clear on any decision they make. Let me go to um
commissioner uh questions of staff or the applicant's attorney. Commissioner Banther. Yes, thank you. And I did speak with Mr. Elliot prior to educate my myself on this from his perspective. Mr. Tiger. Um, is is so is there something in our code that prohibits people from sharing
a sewer line? Uh, that was the interpretation in this case. Yes. Okay. And there's is there an established easement that this applicant or or individual has with the other property for this for this sewer line? My understanding, again, this was before
my time uh as the director, but was that they established the easement as a way to try and get the uh sewer to maintain sewer access through the other buildings. Is that is that correct, Mr. Elliot? Is that correct? Briefly, if you don't mind to explain briefly,
the city has numerous examples of people tapping into private sewer lines. The Carson example is one. There are lots of others. There's no meter on a sewer. Correct. You don't care which direction it comes from. Some of what Mr. Ker has said is
correct, but he's also in their recommendation recommend just granting the impact fees. So I would correct the city attorney in saying that is the recommendation from the staff. That's what was recommended, Mr. Elliot, at our meeting to resolve. Thank you for the interruption, Mr.
Further, but because you're misstating the facts. The facts was that was an offer that was made that was rejected. So whether he's recommending it or not, that's up to the board. My line of question, please. Mr. Kiger, so the city offered initially
to refund the impact fee. Is that you know, I' I've not seen and it could be just I'm unaware. We don't often do that. Correct. It's not a common occurrence that we we are we are we are refunding impact fees. We would normally not recommend that yet. This was done as a goodwill gesture and I appreciate that and and I do
support that. But the issue I'm trying to tackle is because that's so rare, by the city doing that, while I'm sure our city attorney would would attest, that doesn't mean we are legally admitting anything, it does raise the question to me that there that there might be a mistake on that part of the city. And
that's what I'm trying to battle with here. Because on the surface when I see the city willing to refund the impact fee, that tells me at least from from my limited knowledge that we made a mistake in forcing this new new sewer connection cuz why else would we just refund an
impact fee that hardly ever happens? So, does a city attorney can can you can you educate me on that? Am I missing something here? No, Commissioner, we we're not It was really a goodwill gesture. Nothing more than that. Mr. Australia has attempted for a period of time to have this
resolved. The prior city manager, prior city attorney didn't uh necessarily agree. Um we looked at this, we met with him and in an effort to try to just, you know, the city to do a nice gesture uh in this situation. There were some
financial issues that were raised that the that was this was extremely harmful for somebody for the applicant in their financial position. Um and that was the sole reason. There's no admission whatsoever that the city did anything wrong. Thank you for that for that. And my my
last question um for Mr. Elliott is so currently is she hooked up on her own sewer system, thus this fee she paid and the impact fee she paid. Yes. That that lateral into Ring Avenue is there, but so is the other one, the original one
that she could have used, but she's not hooked up. Exactly. And that's your position that she was required to do these extra steps and she should not have been. Exactly. We had an easement as required by the code and required by past practice to do. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it.
Commissioner Donado. That was basically my end too was the confusion there. So I that cleared that up. So thank you commissioner. Commissioner Gulas. U Mr. Elliott. 1985 was the closest and most recent
precedent you can come up with. Searching my memory, which is getting very vague over time. What? Yes. Was it your memory or you went back? No, I I I was there when this happened. It's very unusual, but it's legal for an
easement to be used and I've given you countless examples of people using easements and it's permitted by the code. You don't need to have your property rightway line adjacent to your own property. You can use an easement and it's done repeatedly. That's why the
code allows it. So she separated the property. Correct. The back is its own separate entity basically its own separate property on paper. Yes. She own she owns her residence. Yes. So who's going to receive who's going to pay for the the sewer disposal fee, the
w the storm water fee? Who's splitting that cost between the front and then the back if it's all being ran through one? The city has no meter for sewage commissioner. So whether it goes into Orange Street or goes into Ring, it makes no difference to the city. You get it just as if it was a five unit
building as it was for 95 years and now it's four units in the front and one in the back and the pipes are still there and they can still be used. I don't you understand what I'm saying? Maybe I'm not saying it very well, but the the
property owner is willing to pay for a water bill. That's okay because the owner of the four units didn't want to pay her water bill, so she paid for a water meter. But the sewage can stay where it was. That's what the easement says. So the client who has the building in
the back is paying for the water for the building up in the front. That's No, no, just in the back. There's a separate meter for the back. We're not an issue over that. She has a separate water bill for her unit. Okay. And sewer and disposal, she gets
charged that through the water bill. Correct. Yes, that's okay. We're we're okay with that. The issue is the cost unnecessarily illegally imposed of the construction of the sewer lateral, the
$3,600. Why was it illegally imposed? I mean, she code. It says you're allowed to use an easement. Yeah, but she she's created her own property. She's she's got to create the building and all the infrastructure to go through there separately. And the
city that was under protest, Commissioner, she did that under protest. The owner of the four units in the front was perfectly willing and still is to allow the the water flow to go through to Orange Street. Well, I'm just going
to kindly tell you that she don't accept that 2,800. She's not going to get nothing. At least for me. And I I know she's a great lady, but I'm not send president. You can ask Mr. Kiger. I fight for people all the time to pay to have the city extend water within the
code supposedly and or sewer lines within the code and plenty of times, big money amounts got shot down. So I can't this is very goodwill for this impact fee which I'll support but above and
beyond private contractor private property easement or not easement or not I don't understand the issue here sir so what I'm telling you 1985 it's 38 years ago it's a long time ago that ain't the
president I'm going to go the code was still in effect then same as now unfortunately she used to connect to city sewer. She's separated property, sir. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to support her receiving that goodwill impact fee,
but nothing more because then we're going to have to do it to everybody. And there's people who I'm telling you, I've had many people come to me about this very exact situation who I've relayed and spent months talking with Mr. Ker on this type of stuff. There's another issue that's coming up on another
property that I've forwarded it all and I got to let staff take their course on it. So, um I'll support the 2,800 but nothing more. I have no further comments. Thank you. Um Vice Mayor, thank you, Mayor. So, I have to make a
little correction here. Um we do have sewer meters, correct? Uh we we typically don't do that like for for residential it's okay. I'm well aware what we typically do, but we do have them. Correct.
Uh I'd have to double check, but I think we might have a Let me explain to you why we have them. People fill pools and they want to pay for the water going in, but they don't want to pay for the return water. You put in a um a meter and it tells you how
much goes versus goes in versus goes out. So, I do need to clarify there is such a thing, Tommy. If you don't know it, you do now. I'm just going to tell you. Um, it is possible to me. Yes. Okay. And and we do that because people
don't want to pay both ways. My question that I have beside that is um this these pipes were put on a easement or they were put on private property. The new pipe.
Yes. The new pipe goes down the alley behind her house into Ding Avenue. I believe that wasn't my question. My question was did the new pipes go on her private property or on the easement
the easement from the prices from whatever the plumber put in. Did he do this on private property or was it done on the easement? Because there's two two things. Easement is a sharing
of of land that it doesn't nobody owns it. Well, people own it, but they it is utilized for the city to be able to go back in and repair and replace. The city does. So, it's not a public easement. This is a private easement, which is a legal a
legal document. I know I live I have a private easement on my property, so I understand what it is. Um, my point again is was the plumbing put in on her per on her property?
Yeah. She was forced to put pipes on her property to connect down the alley on public rightway into Ring Avenue. So, what would have happened if she did not do that? Well, what she wanted was to leave it
the way it was. That's what the neighbors wanted also. Okay. So, if she left it like that, what would have happened? Well, we got letters from the city engineers saying, "You better do it or else we're going to I don't cut you off or stop your water." How could you cut off a sewer?
Well, the health department won't allow you to do that, but they can certainly turn off your water. I can show you Mr. Smith's letter. It's in your backup. Probably the the allegation that you needed to get a new sewer line, which we did not agree to. We fully agree to the
water line and to payment of all the water bills which includes a sewer charge as well for user fees. Okay. Our problem is with the construction. My question then would be I get a letter from Paul Smith stating that we need a
new sewer line and you have to pay it. Why at that point did you not say um I I don't know why whether you were involved or whoever saying I don't have the money or I don't believe that I should do this so I need to have a hearing on that then
before she put it in the ground because we're now discussing the aftermath if you understand where I'm going. It's done. It's paid for and now we're discussing who should be responsible for what's already done. It's so hard to do
that. It's so much easier to discuss the um the wherewithin before the pipe is put in the ground. Commissioner, going back three years ago, I tried that. The city manager refused. Maybe you're aware of that. I tried to get on the city
commission agenda. That was refused. Now we're here three years later. Thankfully, to the city manager. I appreciate that. This has been hanging fire for three years. when I'm having a hard She couldn't just come to the city commission and say, "I don't think I'm
required to put in a new sewer lateral. She had to flush her toilet." Yeah, but it was still working as you said earlier. Yes, that's true. So, she could flush the toilet. My point is, if somebody sent me a letter like that, my response would be take me to
court. I would say or you need to sue me uh to to I don't have the money or I don't want to pay it. And now commission she wants to say something but the water is the she had to get new water. She was agreeing to do that. The city said
before we give you a water meter you have to put in a new sewer lateral. So they so they were tied together. That's the problem. So, in order for you to get a new water meter, you had to agree and
place a sewer system in. Yes, they forced me to do that. Yes. If you're going to speak, you must come up and and do your name and address. Okay. Thank you. Theodora, 312 East Orange Street. They did tell me
you cannot have wor if you don't agree to do the Sur also. we cannot allow you to have any water. So they forced me to do it. They didn't ask me if I have the money or not. They just forced me. So I had to borrow the
money to do that. Thank you. So let me ask you then the next question. How were you getting the water prior to the request? Wasn't it coming through um all wasn't it all coming through one meter?
Yes. She owned all five units. Right. So, did somebody cut off the water to all five units? No. The city graciously let us continue to use the back unit, pending this discussion, but after a while, we had to
make a decision and she was told to get a new sewer line in order to get water. Okay. But she agreed to that. No, it was under protest. I whether it's under protest or not, it's agreed to. Someone puts I don't want to get too emotional, but it was under protest.
Don't get emotional. My my point I'm trying to make is if somebody put the emotional gun to my head and said, "You can't do this." Why at that point do you not say, "I'm not pulling the meter. I'm not putting a
meter in. I'm not doing a sewer unless the city covers this." May I say something? Of course. Because I sold the house and I supposed to move in the back home. The home in the back. Okay. So I couldn't move over there if I didn't have any water because
the other guy he wants me to put my own water on. Okay. So I have to use water in order to live in that place. So they use that excuse. I came back and forth to them. They use that excuse to
force me to do the sur. Even the the people who connect me from the city, they say to me, you don't have to connect it. It's okay. It doesn't matter. But I have to connect it because they
have to come and check it out and see if I did if I did it. So I had no choice. I had to move to my own place because I sold the the building. So I didn't have any choice. If you
think I had, I'm sorry. I didn't know any other way. Another minor point, but it was so valid at the time. It was COVID, middle of COVID, and things kind of got derailed during those two years.
So, the only thing I can say is um I understand there was maybe a little pressure put on and whe there's a little pressure, a lot of pressure, but you still have a situation that you know you need to have separate sewer system. Um,
I know you're saying you don't, but uh, I know that if you sell that property and the next person needs to put a return meter on, which is available, they need to have their own pipes so that they know what water is going in
and what going out. And I just want you to explain something. Some people water their lawns out of wells. Some people water their lawns right out of the uh RO plant. And if you water your lawn a lot
and somebody else doesn't, you would be the one that want to put a return meter on because you don't want to pay for that water going both ways. I I don't know if this is that much of a cost that you know we we cannot pick up
the cost or we cannot um pay for for private sewer uh work. Commissioner, if I may, all I'm asking to do is follow your own ordinances. Let's do this. You're allowed to have an easement. Let's get a It's a private easement that runs with the land. It's
permanent. We got you. Sorry. Okay. Let's u I'd like to entertain a motion on this. I'm not I'll entertain a motion to grant the impact fees and nothing more. You want to state the amount? Is there a second? I I can't see the amount in front of them.
The amount Yeah. 2865 and and the amount of 286 2865 2865. Is there a second on that? Second. Okay. Um, I'd entertain another
motion. I have a motion to refund the complete amount. Uh, because it appears to me this was done by mistake and I have my calculator out and that is $6,465. Is there a second on that? I'll second it.
Okay. So, um, let's go to public comment. Is there any public comment on this item, Mr. Austin? Any public comment? Do you have your system working up there?
No. Okay. So, let's come back to the board now for uh commissioner comments. Let me go first. So, um I Okay. So, I'm just trying to make this as simple so that I understand it
because I'm no expert on on these items. But you got your your neighbor and and you sharing a sewer line going directly into the system. Um, so if my neighbor
um if my neighbor shuts me off somehow, I've got no access to the sewer. So, I'm not asking you for a comment. This is we're now in comment. So I'm I'm this is my own process here. So um asking
somebody to access the sewer that has now subdivided their property seems like a reasonable request of the city, right? You would have you wouldn't share a sewer line with from your property with your neighbor going into the line in the
street. I I don't know if I'm and when any other commissioner gets a chance to talk, they can correct me on that. The other thing is um I I mean I wish that Commissioner Kulas's uh motion was approved because I
think um but kind of have put us in a spot where you're saying that if we give you the impact fee refund, you're saying it's a we're admitting of some guilt. I mean, you
said that. You said that. You said it. So, I don't want you I I don't need you. I can't talk already. No, not yet. So, no. It's over. So, um So, you know, I'm you know, our we you know, we have our
staff. Uh I'm sure that uh city manager Lurus, you know, is was was he was a fair man and I'm sure he would have taken care of that if he thought that was warranted. Um uh I mean I don't think we asked anybody
about um uh any uh I know this isn't quasi judicial but whether exparte um but there was you know conversations about more of a of a need-based situation
right like I I you know okay so that that's kind of what my conversation with you kind of went to but um it doesn't appear to be that here. And then, you know, you you have this information about uh easements and such,
but were the these easements appear to have been established prior to the tap in for Arpanitus and um and Carson where this easement was established by the city. Um right, we established this
easement. There was no easement there to start with at the spot before the I go ahead. Go ahead. This is a private easement and I'll just read one sentence. Grand does hereby without consideration
grant parcel B, that's her property, a permanent easement for sanitary sewer shared by parcels A and B at the same location and to the same extent as such has been utilized for the past several decades. So, so it's a permanent easement that
runs with the land. Nobody can cut anybody off. They're allowed to stay there. If one property is sold, it runs with the land. It stays in a place. So, city man uh city attorney, when you looked over all this uh all this
information and did you believe that the refunding of the impact fees, though not an admission of guilt, was a fair resolution? Uh and and well, it wasn't just me. The city manager and I and and Tom, we all sat
there and said, and in all due respect to Mr. Elliot who who made the argument. We were also told of financial need and so we tried to you know do something that we felt was appropriate. Yeah. And and and what concerns me and
then I I'll go to uh Commissioner Banther, but what concerns me is is we had a prior administration with our city manager who did not feel that he that this should be done. Um, and now we have our staff, we have our attorney,
we have our city manager, we have um our our uh our director all saying that okay, at best we would do this refund of the impact fee. I I'm just I you know I I appreciate
everything you said and I appreciate your your client and but I have an issue with overriding all these professionals that we have on our staff and just giving th those monies. So I'll go to
Commissioner Banther. Thank you. Um well, first I'll say obviously my reasoning behind the motion was um I believe from what I've been told by city staff and Mr. Elliott and hearing and hearing and hearing the applicant speak that she was required to
hook up to city sewer and not use an easement she could have used through the the neighboring property that that she had just sold. Therefore, this was compulsory and she should not have been have been have been have been required to. I know this is not court. We're not
requiring who's guilty or innocent, but that's just for the record. And I know the city is graciously offering the refund of the sewer impact fee. To me, that implies that the city incorrectly required this applicant to hook up. That's why I did my motion for the full
amount. I deal with easements every day. I'm in a legal battle for one right now up at my farm. This is very common occurrence and you know, I do believe this was an error on the city park. That being said, and not to put the vice mayor in the hot seat, but if the vice mayor is not in support of that, I'd
rather her get something than nothing. And I'll happily withdraw my motion. Commissioner Kulios can redo his. And I'll second that. You know, I'm not saying it's all or nothing. In my view, the city aired and we should give back all the money, the money that she had to pay privately because of the force
connection. But if that's not the will of the majority of the board, I'm happy to withdraw the motion. Have Commissioner Kulios redo his and I'll second that happily. So, and Commissioner, do you do not owe you withdraw your second? Well, I I I I feel very much the same
way as Commissioner Banther just just stated, I I and this is no disrespect in in as far as I'm concerned to to any party both past and and present as far as city staff andor the applicant. I I I
just something doesn't I use it smell right so to speak and I don't I don't know where fault lies but if if you didn't have to connect why why were they made to connect that
that's the part that bothers me um I personally think that it should be the full amount but I I rather than see it die and not get any I I'll I'll consider but I I I firmly believe that it's okay to make mistakes. It's just not okay to
keep making that mistake. Uh that's none of us are flawless here. And um I I still remember without a gentleman called by the name of Kel Powell, if he hadn't have been around,
the city wouldn't have known where a lot of those pipes and sewers and whatnot were. He was the map. I Maybe that's a fault of of getting hair like this, but um I I'm just saying we we've come a
long way. We have to make sometimes recognize that we're in a much better state today because now we know where pretty much all of them are and at one time wasn't that long ago that we didn't. So I I just see
something that bothers me and so I tend to lean to towards a full amount. Again, I'm not here to slow it down any further that, but I wanted to explain that part of it. Are you willing to withdraw your second?
I'd like to have the motion voted on. If it's dies, then we could try a different motion. You're doing Are you will you asked if you would pull back to your second? I wish. Thank you. Have you uh if if I do, I still may not support the
motion, but if if in the essence of moving forward, I'll do that. Well, simple. If uh the Commissioner Eisner or or sorry, Vice Mayor doesn't support the full amount. I'll withdraw. He withdraws. Commissioner Kiosk reaches his and we move on. Okay. And again, I'm not trying to put him in
the hot seat, but it's just the math. I mean, I I just think it's a what's going on is fair. I mean, you're going to get the impact fees. You you bring up something from 1985. I mean, a precedent from back then. I don't work on precedents back then. I work on precedents now in our
modern day of our community. So, years, Commissioner, that's just one example that came to mind. Well, that's the only one you brought forward. And so, I brought you an example with the city's. You're a former city attorney. Let me speak. Commissioner, would you like to make your motion, please?
If we allow this to you, we have other properties with very similar situations who are going to come back and ask for this type of stuff. And so what I would say is they've all been withdrawn. Yes. All right. Can I speak before you make
anything? Yeah, I'm waiting to hear. That's right. I hadn't heard that. I'm just saying I'm willing to if Vice Mayor Eisner is not in support. That's all I can say. What I what I would say is mayor, turn this down. You can pass the gavl over. make the motion. I'll second it and I'm sure either Commissioner Banther or
Donado will support it at that point for the impact. Vice Mayor, you I have a question. If either of these sewer lines break, who repairs it? The property owner. Thank you. That's what I wanted to hear
because that's why it had to be dedicated to each one and that is the important thing. So, I do not support the full amount, but I'm in the middle of this. She's come in good faith. He's come in good faith. And I'd like to have
a number somewhere between full and and you know, and not to admit guilt, but just to appease so we could move on. And I I I'll make a motion. I have to withdraw mine first, Vice Mayor. Great. We have a motion.
I will withdraw my motion. He and the with and the second has been withdrawn. Okay. For the sake of uh so I mean I I I would probably do a motion to um something like $4,000 inclusive. And so we could just, you
know, it's not what the full amount. It's not the half amount. Amend my motion or want me to No, he No, no. He's making a brand new motion. Yours has been I made a new motion for $4,000. It does supplement some of the explain why. You can just make the motion.
Is there a second? Second. Um, is there any public comment on this motion? Not the applicant. Any public comment on this motion? Um, Mr. Austin, still not working.
Still not working. Okay. Um, let's go to roll call. Commissioner Banther. Yes. Commissioner Donado. Yes, Commissioner Kios. Yes, Vice Mayor Eisner. Yes, Mayor Kianis. Yes.
Thank you. Thank you. Can we do a fivem minute break? Um, yes. Let's take a 5m minute break. Let Well, let's make it 10. Come back at uh 8:40. Thank you guys. My head on the wall. You're welcome. Have a
good evening. [Music] Commissioners, I'll start getting ready to sit down. We have a chance. We have a chance. Here's one more minute. Oh, I brought you a bogo, but I ate it.
Sorry. I deserved it. I could have eaten that. Okay, let's go ahead and uh resume the meeting. So, let's go to business item number 12, utility lean reduction request at 11:45
River Ridge Drive. Uh, city attorney, mayor, commissioners, uh, the board probably remembers this property. This is the one we dealt with a few months ago dealing with a code reduction. Um, and the code reduction uh fine was
brought down to $25,000 and paid. If you recall, at that time there was a question brought up about the utility lean um which the then property owner said that he would pay. Well, he didn't. And the property went
through foreclosure and the new property owners um are asking that the utility lean be reduced. Now, it's fair to tell you that the the utility lean law according to the attorney general um is
that the lean lasts for 5 years. So, in essence, this lean would actually be uh expuned. Um but they are willing to pay a amount to uh show good faith um to take care of this issue and that's what we're here on. Now, just so the the
board knows, we are going to um go back to the attorney general and try to get a clarification because we were under the understanding that the utility lean lasted as the other leans, which would be um for 20 years and could be renewed.
But we did find a attorney general opinion on point. And so, uh, I think it's fair to say that in this case, based on the attorney general opinion, any, uh, any payment by the current property owners is is gratuitous on their part.
Okay. Um, would the applicant like to say something? Yes. Thank you for letting us be heard. Uh, my name is Dale Hunter. This is my business partners, Justin O, Michael Hernandez. We're local, born and raised.
Um, we're here. We're requesting the rem Do you mind stating your address for the uh for the city clerk? Yeah, it's 1145 River Edge Drive. Um, we're here to request the removal of the utility lean. Um, we haven't been able to clean up the property or start renovations because the utility
department requested the payoff of the uh lean to set up water. The city leans were foreclosed on as uh the city attorney Salsman spoke of in the foreclosure case that happened back in May. And additionally, the lean is
expired and uninforceable for the per Florida statute section 95.112. So, we tried to resolve this through the admin, but we were told we needed commissioner's approval to have this lean removed. Uh, the property has numerous HOA
violations and was in code violations as you spoke of, and it's an eyesore for the community. We'd like to get started on this work as soon as possible and request your removal of the lean. Thank you. Are there any uh questions of either the
city attorney or the applicant? Um, Commissioner Banther? No, sir. Commissioner Donado? No. Commissioner Koulas? No, sir. Vice Mayor? Yes, I do. When you bought this pro, this property,
you did know there was a lean on it or you didn't know there was a lean on it? We saw the history of a lean uh originally filed in 2014, but knowing that there's a Florida statute of limitations also being in the city of Tarpon Springs was named in the
foreclosure case, those usually get removed. H it makes for a sticky, you know, substance circumstance because we we then were lied to by the of course not
you but you know that we were going to be paid. So um okay that that's the only question I have right now. Uh, I'll entertain a motion to approve the um to approve the
uh reduction um uh to $2286. So move second. Okay. Is uh there any public comment other than the applicant? Okay. And Zoom is not working. So um
let's come back to the board. If there's no comments, uh, are we okay to go to roll call? Okay, roll call, please. Commissioner Banther, yes. Commissioner Donado, yes. Commissioner Ky, yes. Vice Mayor Eisner,
yes. Mayor Kianis, yes. Thank you. Thank you for your time. You're welcome. I have one question. If we wanted to resolve this, can we make payment to the clerk tomorrow? Um, will that be on record? We can get this cleared up. the city manager can answer
that one or no I can they come yes they can come pay tomorrow yes you can okay I appreciate that thank you thank you very much okay num uh let's go to business item number 13 appointment to the planning
and zoning board uh city clerk yes thank you uh mayor and commissioners um the office has been notified that Nick Zamellis who was a regular member has resigned and he is no longer living within the city limit The current alternate member Matthew
Collins who was recently appointed uh would also like to be considered for this vacancy. Uh the board has two options. The first one is they could either move up the current alternate member Matthew Collins as a regular member to fill Mr. Zambellis's unexpired
term which will expire October 1st of 2026. And if that's done then they would need to appoint an alternate um to fill that unexpired term. or they could do option two to appoint from the list of applicants as a regular member. This
term would expire uh one October 1st of 2026 and that would leave the current alternate as Okay. I'd like to entertain a motion um on one of the options. I make a motion to move the current
alternate Matthew Collins as a regular member to fill the unexpired term of Nicholas Embellis. This term will expire October 1st, 2026. And to appoint Julie Wade as an alternate member. This term will expire October 1st, 2025.
So moved. I'm sorry, second. Okay. Is there we have a necessity for any comments on this? Just a quick one. Does this Julie Wade have any experience, board experience? Uh, he has a bunch. She's 10 years retired from the
That was not to be made serious. That was a little bit of a joke. So, are there any uh public comments on this item? Okay, we have nothing up above. Let's come back to the board unless we have some other comments. Mayor, yes. And so,
it's not an issue. She's on the code enforcement board, right? No, she turned out. She's turned out to be termed out. No doubt there. She was there 10 years last week. That's why that was a joke. What you were saying? Oh, okay. Yeah, she's been there 10 years. You didn't get my joke there.
I did get I just didn't know she was still on. All right. Roll call, please. Banana. Yes. Commissioner Donado. Yes. Commissioner Kuyas. Yes. Vice Mayor Eisner. Yes. Mayor Kianis. Yes. Okay. Uh, business item number 14,
appointment to Tarpon Springs Housing Authority Board. Let me start this one off before I go to the city clerk. Um u u Linda Eisner is um one of the uh applicants here. Uh it has been vetted
with the city attorney that she is qualified to um serve on that board. Um just a side note, I would support her being a a member on of on of the U Tarpon Springs Housing Authority board.
Um with that said, go ahead with uh city clerk. Um so the office um was notified of the resignation of Mrs. Karen Gallagher. So the board action needed is to appoint one of the um applicants listed below to
fill the unexpired term of Karen Gallagher who is a regular member and that term will expire November 22nd of 2025. In addition to the two names listed on the backup late very very late in the day, we did receive another
application that I forward to y'all by email and I also have printed the hard copy on your dis and that was for Mr. Charles U driver. So we have three applicants for this position. Okay. Do I like to entertain a motion? I
have a motion to appoint Charles Driver to appoint to fill the unexpired term of Karen Gallagher. Term will expire on the 22nd of November 2025. Is there a second on that? I'll second it. Okay.
Um let's have uh let's have uh commissioner comments. Well, let let me go to u public comments first. Any public comments on this item? Okay, let's go to commissioner comments.
Uh, Commissioner Banther. No, no, no comments. Thank you. Commissioner Donado, no comment. Commissioner Koulas. Uh, yeah, I I just went with Charles Mr. Driver because uh um he's been in the community for a long time. I was I just
happy to see his application. Nothing towards uh any other applicant. They do a great job. Um I I just thought it it'd be nice to have him um on the housing authority. So, thank you. And I apologize for not saying this uh earlier that uh uh the vice mayor has to recuse
himself on this item. Um okay, with that said, um is there uh let's go to is let's go to roll call, please. Commissioner Banther, yes. Commissioner Donado, yes.
Commissioner Kuya, yes. Mayor Kanes, yes. Okay. Um, let's go to business item uh number 15, ratification of public's works director. Uh, city manager.
Thank you, mayor. Yeah, this after an extensive search, we found a candidate um for public works director. Mary Jensen is a um civil engineer and with experience at the county level as well as the private sector and we feel she'll do a great job uh in our public works department and we look for your
ratification. Okay. Is there any uh questions of the city manager? Uh Commissioner Banther? No sir. Commissioner Donado? No. Commissioner Koulas? No sir. Vice Mayor? Nope.
Okay. Um, I'd like to entertain a motion. So, move and second. Is there any public comment? And we'll come back to the board. If there's no further comments, um, roll call, please. Commissioner Banther, yes. Commissioner Donado, yes.
Commissioner Kulas, yes. Vice Mayor Eisner, yes. Mayor Kana, yes. Uh, item 16 has been deferred once again. Um, all right. Throw that in.
I had to throw that in. Need to bite the bullet. Okay. So, let's go to business item number 17. Discussion and direction of auditor selection procedures uh for the external auditor.
Ron Herring. Uh, good evening, mayor, commissioners. Ron Herring, finance director. The city's required per Florida statute 218.39 to have an annual financial audit performed by an independent certified public accounting, a CPA firm, annually.
And 2024 was the last year with Malden Jenkins, who had the previous 5-year agreement. Uh, Florida statute 218391 requires a city to use an auditor selection committee when selecting an auditor to conduct the independent financial audit. Uh, the auditor
selection committee must be at least three members. One member must be a member of the governing board of the city who will serve as the chair of the committee. Um, so at least three members. We've already have two budget advisory committee members have volunteered to serve on the committee
and I'm here to answer any questions if you have any. Okay. Are there any questions um of the finance director? Uh man, Commissioner Banther? No sir. Commissioner Donado? No. Commissioner Koulas? Uh no sir. Comm
of vice mayor. Yeah. Quick question. This is a one meeting or this is a monthly meeting? How many meetings is this? No, it's basically probably probably mostly just one meeting. We'll send the RFP out out for the for the firms. Uh they come back
in, the committee reviews the audit proposals that come back in. They meet once, review them and score them, and that's it. So really, it's not a a committee. It's it's more of an interview. Yes. Okay. Thank you.
Um, let's uh entertain a motion to Well, let me I guess we can't entertain a motion unless we know the the person. Um, I'm willing to be the board's um member on this audit committee.
That's good. I think the votes were coming your way anyway. So move. All right. So now let's have a let's have I was going to do it for you, but All right. Let's have a motion. So move. All right. Is there a second? Who was the second? Somebody second.
Second. Somebody second. Okay. Um, public comments. No. Let's come back. Um, unless there's some more comments. Uh, let's go to roll call, please. Commissioner Banther, yes. Commissioner Donado, yes.
Commissioner Kas, yes. Vice Mayor, yes. Yes. And thank you for your confidence. Okay, so let's go to ordinances and resolutions. Um, can you read those? city attorney.
Resolution 202545, a resolution of the board of commissioners of the city of Tarpon Springs, Florida, authorizing the lease purchase financing of the acquisition of two vaccon trucks approving the form of
and authorizing the execution and delivery of a master equipment lease purchase agreement, including any schedules attached thereto with Bank of America, Public Capital Corp. approving the form of and authorizing
the execution and delivery of an escrow agreement in connection therewith with Argent institutional trust company, a Florida trust company, authorizing the execution and delivery of other documents required in connection therewith, making certain covenants and
agreements in connection therewith, and providing for an effective date. Um, okay. is let's see are there any questions of staff my guess of the city attorney or the
city uh manager on this item. I have a question. Yes. So I brought this up. Um I'm okay with approving the um two vectors which I think we only need one but I'm okay with that. What I do have an issue with
is and I don't know was this was that 2013 removed out of this. Yeah, we we would be open to keeping the 2013 if that want to be part of the motion as a backup um to think it's that'll help with the support um rather
than ser I don't think that'll that will change that won't change the financing at all. Right, Ron? No, it won't change it at all. That's fine. So, what what I what I wanted to say was, you know, we have estimates of $48,000 per year. I I don't want to confess that, but I don't think
that's going to be the case. And a if we use it as a backup, it it'd probably be nothing. So, I I if one of the new vehicles should go down for whatever reason, and new vehicles do go down, we can have a backup. So, for either um
division, so I think it what we get for it is not worth what we could utilize it for. So, I'd rather keep it. If there's no other questions, uh, would you mind making that motion? Was there any other motion made or no? No, there's no motion. Okay. So, I make the motion to approve
both Vector trucks, but also keeping the 2013 um, Vector truck, which is a little bit confusing because it also says 2016 in there in the backup. So, whichever one, it's the 2013, I believe, is the one we're referring to that I looked at that
looked like it was in good condition to keep. Second. Uh, is there any uh public comments? Okay, no public comments. Come back to the board unless there's some comments of the members. Uh, I'd like to go to
roll call, please. Um, Mr. Salsman. Uh, just for clarification, they have an A and B and they did not mention the resolution. Is I'm sorry I Irene, I couldn't hear. So, the resolution wasn't voted on. Does that have to be separate?
Does it I my understanding the way the motion was to adopt the resolution and the keeping of the truck? Yes. Resolution. Do you want me to repeat resolution number 2025-45? Is that it? I got it. I mean, I was just wanting clarification. Just want to clarify that
was your motion. The resolution with an addition to keep the truck. With an addition to keep the 2013 truck. Yes. Okay. Roll call, please. Commissioner Banther, yes. Commissioner Donado, yes. Commissioner Kuyas, yes.
Vice Mayor Eisner, yes. Mayor Kanis, yes. Okay. Business uh I mean ordinance and resolution number 19. Um would the uh city attorney read that please? Resolution 202547, a resolution of the board of
commissioners of the city of Tarpon Springs, Florida, approving the live oak at Anklo River Crossing final subdivision plat application 23- 110, accepting all offers of dedication as
described in said plat, authorizing the appropriate city officials to certify approval thereon and providing for an effective date. Is there any Oh, before we go, I think uh you want to ask for any um any conflicts?
I need to recuse myself. Okay. And I've already filled out the form and my brokerage is selling those units, so I can ask your vote or comment. All right. Thank you. Uh are there any question? Uh Rene, do you want to make your presentation? I'm sorry. Sure. Uh this is a resolution 2025-47.
This is a final plat for the uh live oak at an Live Oak at Ankllo River crossings. Uh this is a 10 unit um subdivision. Uh it went through previously went through site plan approval. Uh infrastructure has been uh
in place. They are bonding a small amount of this um but uh it is ready to go to Plat and this will allow them to sell these and continue building. Okay. Uh is there any U commissioner questions of staff?
Yes. I just want to ask uh Miss Vincson just to clarify because I you know drive past there you see one building already up. Why is this being presented to us again? The final plot. Yeah. So you you can't officially sell lots and sell the the units. So um a lot
of times developers like to they want to pre they want to sell before they actually construct. They want a contract. So, you can't do that until it's platted. So, uh without the plat in place, they can't sell. And if they can't sell, they're very reluctant. You don't want to speculatively build these. So,
okay. The one the one house that was built was already platted. No, the one that's there, you are allowed to have um uh oh, what's the term? Uh you're allowed to have models. So, a certain number of models in a subdivision. So, that that's they were
allowed to build that as a model. Thank you, ma'am. No further questions. Any further questions of staff? Okay. Any public comments on this item? No public comments. I'd like to come back and uh entertain a motion. So
moved. Is there a second? Okay. It's already been seconded. Is there any commissioner comments? If not, uh let's go to roll call, please. Commissioner Donado, yes. Commissioner Koulas, yes. Vice Mayor Eisner,
yes. Yes. Okay, that concludes all the business. Let's go to board and staff comments. Let's go to um the uh chief, please. I just want to start off uh this Saturday was a a tough day for our
department, Barry and our brother, Officer Nicholas Wood, but I want to thank everybody up here on the DAS for your support. everybody in the community for their love and support and outreach and just want Nick and his family to know we'll be here for him and Christina will always be here for you. Love you.
Thank you. Uh city attorney. Uh no comment. Mayor, city manager. Yes, I do have one one item. You know, the we've as far as the Gross Street storm water project, we've closed the intersection of Tarpon and Gross for probably the next five weeks or so. Uh
so immediately west of that uh Unrefined Brewing has approached us about doing a street party. They want to kind of add since the traffic has been cut off, they want to you take advantage of the closed street, attract people to the area on the 26th. Uh it's very short notice. We
we can can't get it to you until next meeting in two weeks, but they would like some kind of indication that you would be in favor of that because they have to book bans, buy insurance, get per, you know, the alcohol permit and so forth. Uh, so I just wanted to get a a sense from the board if if you feel you
you'll be supportive of that application coming to you in two weeks to block off that block of Tarpon Avenue uh where unrefined brewing is and they'll do a band and and food and vendors and so forth on the 26th of July. It's a Saturday night
and that's Tarpon Avenue from what? Ring to ring to gross to the road block. Just that it's already done, isn't it? Looks like it was done. Oh, it's blocked. It's already the road's blocked. They want to take advantage of that and try to draw some more foot traffic. Anybody have any opposition to that? So,
the city manager can move forward. Okay. Okay. We'll bring that to you next time. That's all I have. Thank you. Uh, city clerk, I have no comments. Thank you. Okay. So, let's go to Commissioner Panther. Thank you. Yes. Again, I know we we were
all at that funeral and it was very sad. We've had too many of those here. Um, I was I was talking to the to the chief earlier and I think that once he gets the police boat in service, if his people and he approves of it, I think we should dedicate that boat to Nicholas
Wood. I know he I was told he was a boater. I always try and find way to remember the past and I think that's a a very cheap and easy way to do that. If it's something he loved and it's a and and and it's our first official police police vessel, I think we should
consider that. if the if the chief and the um and his uh and his people want that. That's all. Sounds a great idea. Uh Commissioner Donado, I would I would echo that. And and while I was sad, I was very proud um of the
reception and and the short the turnout and even along the the route back into town. Uh I appreciate his people that so honored that young man. Uh Commissioner Koulas. Um, I just respect and condolences to
the police department and the and the wholewood family. It was um just a just a somber day. Um, uh, we did have a great Fourth of July picnic. Um, the rain did, you know, put out some of our fireworks a little bit, but it's all right. We kept rocking, and
that's what it's about. I'm sure those people fighting for our uh, Revolution Independence had to go through a lot of rain and mud to to fight. So, uh, that was great. I just, um, other than that, it's, you know, we got a lot done today.
We got a lot focused on. Um, I am worried about some other people coming in front of us asking for requests to for any relief on similar situations as to that one Orange Street property because there have been other ones and we just have to go from there. So, other
than that, it's great meeting tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, mayor. So, um I also, as everybody else has been at that, um Nick's funeral, and it
was really a heartfelt, um tribute to him and the family. Family's great, our police force, there's nothing better. Um, a lot of tears were shed and truthfully I I was so moved by all the
people writing back. Uh, all the residents that came out whoever thought to make that announcement, they were all there. They were all holding their hearts. They were all saluting. Um, it was it's what makes Tarpon Tarpon. I loved every minute of it. I had tears
watching all these people. It was a very very rough day. um coming back and and and celebrating his life in the rec center was the start of healing and uh you know that there's going to be some tough
times ahead. Um but we're there to you know support our brothers in the police force. Uh the fire department was there. It was just a very moving moment. Um, I do want to say the July 4th, um, fireworks
was done properly. There was a system north of us. There was a system south of us. We had a nice window. And all of the feedback that came back, at least to me, was that it was one of the best fireworks in 40 to
50 years. I don't know whether that had to do with the lightning coming down or the darkness or I don't care what it was. You know, it's okay to book a firework um presentation. It's very hard to book a storm and a thunderstorm to come in to
coincide. You know, I'll only take a little credit for it was it was really nice. Um we we really did a great job. Um, also the Fourth of July party was amazing. It was
extremely hot. Um, it was really nice. This this city just always steps up to the plate with, you know, free food and, um, you know, water slides and, you know, to see the kids and and and just
the people, you know, there it was just it was just great. Um, so the other thing and last but not least that I'd like to say to everybody if they're listening, um, there's going to be things posted on Facebook and just to
let you know, Facebook isn't real. Just because people post it doesn't mean that it's true. Um, so you have to be careful, you know, taking the bait. There's a lot of bait out there and uh, there's a lot of hooks with delicious
bait on it. So, I I just want you to understand if if anybody has issues, we have helplines. We could call, you know, the city manager. I'm sure he's loving the calls and uh or call the mayor. You know, me, don't call. I'm not interested.
But no, just the bottom line is because there's so much misinformation out there and and it gets uh carried away. So, just want to thank this board. We I think this went about as smooth as it possibly can. And um tomorrow I'm going to uh forward Penllis. I will be
carrying those requests there whether they like it or not. And that's just the way it is. So thank you. And we're finishing. Yes. I just wanted to mention I'm not sure if anybody else did. Um big props to the
the fire department. I know we I'd asked some questions. Why can't the police department, the fire department share a boat? And that weekend right after, right, they went out and saved a whole bunch of people on the ankle islands. So, we talk about money and saving and
that was pretty much egg on my face. So, uh they saved a lot of people's lives out there and of course it's worth it. So, I just wanted to give them a big shout out and recognition for it. Thank you. Commissioners, there's no egg. you know, it's it's our job to uh it's our job to
ask tough questions. It's our job to push back. Um you know, even if we're there's no egg in doing that. You did your job. Mayor, I have one more thing I wanted to say. I don't know if the board knew about this. I don't know if the fire chief Did you speak to them about the
bid that we got for the covering? Okay. So, I'll make that. Uh we did get back a bid to cover the u the boat, the fireboat, and it was beyond astronomical. It was about $20,000 for the permit and etc., etc. It came to
over $60,000 just to put a covering. Um that that's just crazy numbers. I mean, you know, so I I don't think that's going to go ahead, but at least we did follow through and try to see, you know, thank you for following it through,
Chief. Um, it was a little too costly and, you know, you need to have something that is readily available like you just said for quick rescue. You can't just cover the thing up and, you know, have people stand there 15 minutes to take the covers off. So,
sad. Thank you. Okay. So, uh just to piggyback off, you know, I you know, this I'm really happy with this board. I I think that we are doing, you know, what I had hoped we would do, which was finding ways to compromise and finding
solutions. Um thank you, um Commissioner Banther for pulling that motion. I know, you know, you pulled back. We came up with a a solution. We're not always perfect and it doesn't mean that, you know, there is no always an ultimate right or wrong. We have to make
decisions and I think we are making as thoughtful decisions as we possibly can. Uh so I really appreciate um everybody participating in in you know whatever compromise I'm not asking many ever compromise or principles but um you know
there's a lot of things that we can uh do like tonight and I thought tonight was a perfect example of of a board that functions well together. Um yeah I want to you know thank the uh on the fireworks were amazing. Uh special thanks to the chief uh fire chief for
you know your guys uh having to you know making sure that that was everything was done safely. Um we got the fireworks off. There was a whole bunch of people out on Howard Park you know expecting fireworks. They got it. Everybody was safe. You guys did an amazing job. all
your guys. Thank your your all your firefighters for being out there doing their doing their thing and and you're a great leader. So, we really appreciate we're lucky to have you. And the police and the police. All my people.
You guys get a lot of thanks for a lot of things. He never he you get away more thanks than he does. So, let him have one. I do away a lot more. Let him have one. Okay. Even though you look alike. Um, so the um, uh, I see.
Okay. Um, you know, Officer Wood, I Commissioner Banther, that's a great idea. I I was hoping we would come up with some way to to, you know, we made a promise to remember him here at the city. Uh, that would be a great idea. So, I I hope you get, you know, get that put on the agenda so we can vote on
that. Um, that was that's a really good idea. Um, and that was, you know, it was a beautiful service for a very sad day. So, uh, I apologize to the residents if anybody can listen to us right now. Uh,
I did get a text that there was no sound going through on the on the um YouTube live stream. So, hopefully they'll get it straightened out. I'm sure they've got us recorded and when they can, you know, put it back so people can hear us.
Um, you know, we want the uh residents to be able to listen to us as well. Um, you know, on uh I had a a nice meeting with the principal, principal fatalis. she came to the office and um we're g she's going to be coming up and we're
going to be proposing a citizens academy for the high school um of which I would appreciate you know and I think it's going to include all the commissioners uh maybe you know the what we kind of envision is a a day on on campus here uh
each commissioner has a separate room we you know go over whatever items you know you guys feel comfort of wanting, you know, that you're passionate about. We talk to them. We actually get them to come up here. We give them, you know, some uh uh sample agendas. They get to
vote on things. They get to see how how uh you know, uh democracy works. And um I think it'll be really really a cool thing. So, uh she's going to be uh getting with her government uh teachers and they're going to put together something and then they're going to come
here and she's going to make a presentation to propose something for us. So, I think that would be really cool. Um, you know, when I when I took that had that picture up on the screen of when I was um really young with a lot of hair. I had as much hair as you did
back then. So, you know, and um you know that across the street obviously there was nothing there. It was all fields and stuff and I I and this is no bismerchment on any
prior boards. So, mayor, it's not going to anything. Things happen. But the idea of having the front door of our city hall facing a sewer plant isn't the most attractive thing, right? Um, I don't
think anything, you know, that plant is getting old. Uh, we know it had a long-term bond. I think it's getting near 40 years old. I don't know what the useful life of those things are. Uh, I'm looking at you two guys because you know you guys have a lot more tread on your
tires that someday someday you and the two of you have a lot more tread on your tires that I mean it's not something that you know we could either do or afford it at this stage but at some point you know getting that moved out of there somehow having can you imagine if
we had because and again nobody knew at the time that live oak was going to become the the the thoroughare going down to the docks. But wouldn't it be awesome if if you came down Live Oak and there was a treeline street running right into city hall, you know, with a
park and it would just be it would just be amazing. And it takes a lot of, you know, at some point that's going to be the, you know, as much of an important road going into into Tarpon as Tarpon Avenue is. And uh somewhere down the road maybe we can design that maybe in
the next couple years before we this board takes off. But um that would be a long-term project that at some point that that would be amazing if that was done, you know, in my lifetime to see that happen. It would be amazing. I
think it would really um do something special for the town. And so I'm throwing that on the two of you to get it done. All right. Well, to get it done again, it's it's something. So anyways, with that said, I adjourn the meeting at
9:16.