##VIDEO ID:q2P7heQM6vg## Board of Commissioners of the City of Tarpon Springs on Tuesday, January 21st, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. City Clerk roll call, please. Mayor coleus here. Vice mayor Collins. Here. Commissioner Eisner. Here. Commissioner DiDonato. Here. Commissioner Banther. Here. Tonight's invocation will be given by Pastor Adrian Murray, chaplain at AdventHealth North Pinellas Hospital here in Tarpon Springs. Please stand and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. Holy God, as we come before you, we ask that your presence will be here today. May nothing that happens in here go without your approval. May you be with the leadership here. May you give them wisdom, knowledge and understanding. Understanding to address the issues of the city. And we know that with your wisdom, your guidance, Tarpon Springs will be better for it. This we pray in your name. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We will now go to the special presentation, which includes presentation to Mister Mark Lacourse, who's retired and former city manager and public service to the community. Come on up, mister Lacourse. First, I just want to thank everyone for being here tonight. Just to show the respect and the appreciation towards a man who has given decades of his life to serve the community here in Tarpon Springs. From policing to being the chief of police, to looking out to his officers, to becoming city manager for this community. Always looking out for the youth and which I remember. I have great memories of going to sporting events with him and his children and all the other kids. Part of the Cops and Kids program, and it's just it's a day of appreciation. It's an honor to be able to welcome Mister Lacourse here, and look how great he looks. He's got his turtleneck on. He's got his. He let his beard go a little bit. You know, he looks great. So, you know, I've encouraged him to go visit as many sports stadiums as possible during his retirement. Because we know we know how much he loves sports and how relaxing it is for him. And so staff got you something special. Something really special to show their appreciation and everything that you've given to this community. And Mister Lacourse is a champion and he's a champion of champions. And Mister Course also likes wrestling WWE. And there was one way where we could tie things together to show him what he means to the city of Tarpon Springs and how much we all appreciate him. So I'm going to need a little help because this thing's pretty big. But here. That's awesome. That is. And on here it has a couple of many of his accomplishments being a police chief, being a police officer, which started January 9th, 1978. Founder of the Cops and Kids Program, 1989. It also has over here police chief, which started November 23rd, 1993, as well as City Manager, which started February 17th, 2009. And we got a big seal in the front with the city logo and just showing, just recognizing a great man that did a lot for this community that's going to be here forever and always looked out for the future and for the youths. So here you go, sir. You are a champion. All things, all beautiful, nice and shiny. So we're we're actually going to take a seat for a moment and we're going to go to public comment. Mayor, we do have a special guest that attending virtually a special guests. Okay. We'll bring them here. Thank you. Hey, Mark. What's going on, buddy? WWE Hall of Famer, The Godfather here. And your friends. Your friends. They got Ahold of me and they said that you're retiring after 47 years of service as a police officer, police chief, and a city manager. First of all, nothing but love. Man. I respect the military, the police. If it wasn't for you guys, this world would be worse than what it is. But that's. Get away from that. I hear that you were a huge fan of wrestling and founded Cops and Kids program, which takes underprivileged kids to sporting events. Dude, that is so cool. Especially wrestling events. We should get you Ahold of. Somebody should get you some free tickets if they're not doing that already. But hey, congratulations on your service, man. Good luck. You made it. You made it, bro. In this crazy world, you made it. And keep being you, man. And take care of those kids. Peace, brother. Jesus, are you going out? I'm too old to do his dance. He's a legend. All right, we're going to. Would you like to say a couple words or. Come on, Mark, I don't want to say too much because the way I was able to leave, you know, not many people, when they leave cities, were able to leave the way I did. There was a period where I was actually involved in in helping select the city manager. I stayed on three months after. So I had a transition out of very good transition out. A lot of times, you know, in our business and we learned as part of the business, you usually don't go out so good a lot of times. And when you do go outside, you just go out. You're gone. Goodbye and go. But, you know, I had a chance to be here three months with staff, three months with the with the new city manager. So I got the chance to say all my goodbyes and all my speeches. Got to see a lot of y'all in the community and stuff. So I just want to say you. Thank you for the 47 years. I was glad to serve you, I appreciate this, I couldn't think of anything better than this belt where I was involved with this championship belt. It'll go with my lightning, Stanley Cup championship belts and some of the other ones I've got. So it'll go with my belt collection and thank you for everybody and every, you know, the last 3 or 4 months, you know, all of your appreciation. You showed me and love you showed towards me. It has been appreciated. And thank this board and boards. Before that let me do a long career and go out. Probably the best way you go out as a city manager after serving the city that long. So thank you everybody. We're now going to open up the floor to public comment. Tureen. Matthews 444 South Hewitt Avenue, Tarpon Springs Police Department. For me, I never thought you'd retire, to be honest with you. I've known you since I was, like ten years old, maybe a long time. But when I graduated high school, I wanted to be a police officer. And you gave me two options. Go to college or go to the army. Well, I wasn't very smart, so I didn't go to college first. Thanks, chief. And I was a band kid, so I chose to go to the army, which, you know, was the best thing that ever happened in my life. Did some time in combat, but every time I came home, there's a couple of things I remember. I came home in zero four after being in Iraq for 13 months, and we went to the Eastern Conference final. You had a ticket. You're like, we're going. I was like, yeah, let's go. First time in civilized world, we got to see an event. Then I came back after the second tour, we went to WrestleMania at Raymond James, but beyond that, I look at some of your old, I want to say, or former employees. You and Bam and Derek's back here. You know, you left a lasting mark on all of us, especially me, because it wasn't cool at the time for cops and kids to be hanging out together and trying to make a difference in the community. When I came back and became a police officer, you retired after a year with me and said, Maybe I'll just burn the building down, but I really appreciate you because I wouldn't be standing here without your guidance running through the old police department and the new police department. You saw something in me that I didn't see in myself. And I think a lot of people in this town can say that about your legacy and what you've done for them. So my grandmother always said, give people their roses while they're living. And I, I think you deserve that. To know that the lives that you've impacted still today, they're out in the community doing the work that you instilled in them. So I just want to say thank you. Thank you for all the work that you've done. But thank you for having faith in me to go out there and be something better than what what I was, you know, planning on doing. So again, thank you for I don't know what else to say, but thank you, because I wouldn't be the man and the father that I am today without you and having bam! And you and Derek. Yeah, Derek, I've been on the payroll longer than you, so it doesn't matter. He. He hired me at 12, so it doesn't matter. But I appreciate you all. And to the board of commissioners that came on and let him do this transition that was very noble and honorable of you, because there's probably nobody that has impacted that African American community more than that, man, maybe a few, but there's not not very many. There's a lot of families in that community that have benefited because of you. And that community is a lot better because of you. So thank you. Mark will tell you, I know all the secrets. Listen, I was around when Mark's daddy was here and was the chief and then moved up. And I know the Liqueur's family from back then have been friends with them all along. What you've heard tonight about Mark is the absolute truth. There's not there's a lot of people who say, we got the worst police chief in the world. That's because he busted them, okay? The people in town talk very highly of him. And I talked to a lot of people, and I have, I'm sorry to say, for too many years, but he's done one hell of a job. The city owes him whatever you can do for him. Okay? That's how good he is. I've been around. I've seen others interim people come and go through the city. That's the best one that ever came and went. Good luck. Giuliana day for 13 years old with Tarpon Springs. I've been in Tarpon Springs all my life. And you know, everybody call and mock and liqueur. He's still chief to me. Sorry. He'll be chief to me and to chief. Okay? My children know him as chief. And like I said, like you said, the games. Sometimes I'm like, well, where are y'all going, chief? Picking us up, you know? So thank you all for the years that you knew Priscilla and Shakaya. And now, you know, you got a little girl, but she ain't a softball right now. She is into the race game. So she just was honored at the race. So for her accomplishment in softball, she's a pitcher, fast pitch pitcher. So thank you for everything. And thank the commissioners for honoring him and giving him the years here in Tarpon Springs. Thank you. And you're not going no place. You're still here, right? Okay. You kicked it to 14 Earl Street, Tarpon Springs. I've known Mark for many years. Since I don't know your patrolman at the time. I remember he got shot. I remember being there. And that was a long time ago. I just can't thank you enough for what you've done in this community. Mark has given so many timeless hours as sitting up here as a commissioner. When I was commissioner, we sat here with him. How many meetings and overnight meetings and thing and what we all went through for many years. And I can't thank you enough. We took you away from your family, your boys, and just all the time that you gave to this community. But also if you look around Tarpon Springs, you see Mark's accomplishments. Our town grew the years that you were city manager absolutely grew and flourished. And we thank you for that. You had a lot to do with that, Mark, and I'm proud to say that I had the opportunity to serve under you as as city manager. And you need to go enjoy your life now, enjoy your kids, enjoy your sports and have some fun. But thank you for everything you've done for us. Greg 743 Chesapeake Drive. Mark, I don't want to recount what everybody said. Obviously, the world is around. Tarpon Springs is very, very much grateful for what you've done for us for the last many years. I just wanted to personally come up and thank you. You were a pleasure to work with. A couple of years we worked together. We got a lot accomplished and I just wanted to wish you well. Whatever you do and remember, buddy, whatever you do, do it with grace. Hi. Carol Rodriguez 512 West wins. Mark, I wanted to thank you for always being there for the merchants and supporting us for First Friday. So this first Friday in February is ten years, and it wouldn't have happened without you and the commissioners. So thank you very much. Sherry went with the president of the Merchants Association, and I think Carol said it right, because when we both decided to open our store Downtown Tours, it was pretty dead ten years ago. And then we came up with the idea of First Friday. And even though sometimes Mark would look at us and think, maybe we've lost our minds with one of our ideas, he was always listening. He he, he never threw us out. And if it hadn't been for him sticking with us all these years and through all the crazy things, it wouldn't be as good as it is today. So our city has a lot to thank him for that. We've grown and it looks so nice. And a lot of that was because of his guidance. Thank you. Hello everyone. Beatriz Quinones, Officer Q's wife. I don't have an address here, but I think my volunteer hours have earned me this right to give him his roses, as Taryn would say. Thank you. As a girl, a victim of many things cops and kids was a is a safe place for girls. And I want to tell you, thank you for the girls in the community because we need it and that's it I love you. Go out and enjoy the boys. Go out and enjoy games. Whatever. You two get together and I love you and you've earned more than this. I can't even give you more than this. But I love you. Katie Taylor. 1991 Douglas Lane. Mark, I'm going to miss you because thank you for all you've done and guiding me when I come to the city for things, you guided me. You put me on the path and showed me how to go through the steps to get things done properly and in order. I appreciate everything you've done. Thank you for working with the Union Academy Neighborhood Revitalization Group, and you will always be an honorary member. That's why we gave you that t shirt. You're going to always be a member of that group. You're welcome to come at any time. We're going to start texting you on the meeting dates. But the Arbor Day. Thank you for helping us initiate Arbor Day. Thank you for helping us with the Rudy Project. And thank you, thank you, thank you for helping us put together the first Juneteenth program in the city of Tarpon Springs. And that's going to work. That's going to be with us for years to come after I found out that you live right there off of Boyer Street. I say it's a brother from another mother. Look at that. Thank you. So we love you always, Mark. And thank you for everything you've done. And I appreciate all the help you brought me through. My name is Raimundo Black. I'll give you 444 Huey Avenue also. I started working as a police when I was 20. Mark brought me in, and I would say he taught me how to be a man and act as a man. I was out there being a little kid, just having fun, just like every other 20 year old. But as I grew a little older, I thought it was a thing to dress up and become prim and proper. Mark taught me that honesty was the most important thing, and I appreciate that from the bottom of my heart. Hope you go out and have a good time. Pat Simmons, Chesapeake Pointe Co-op. Mark, I just must have missed it because I only moved here a couple of years ago. But you're obviously deserve a lot of thanks. Just take a second, because I got about a dozen of my neighbors with me tonight and a September 26th. A lot of things changed for our little community, and I just want to say particular for a number of people that we've worked with over the city. And I just wanted to point out to the commission some really what we think is very good service to us, particularly. We started with the cleanup, as you know, early on, it was it was quite challenging for us, but we worked with Tom Funchion, Nick Gerakis. We've been working recently with Pat McNeice, David Gilson and Megan Raia. And I just we're not in a position to give them an attaboy, but we are in a position to say thank you and thank you for supporting them in their way and supporting us. Utilizes 514 Ashland Avenue. Listen to what these people have spoken, the words they have said, showing you the character of a person that has been willing to sacrifice the good of the rest of us. Honesty. Humility. Kindness. Empathy. Compassion. Understanding. These are the qualities that we always search for. And I think Mark is an embodiment of that. I also want to point something out that has been said over the years. And just to highlight, when y'all were doing your. City manager searches the first time and the second time you wanted somebody like a certified. I remember for a number of years, Mark was being trained. Basically, he was the assistant city manager, and you should really look again at trying to add that. But he came in at a time where the city asked him for his help. He could have stayed a police chief and we could have done a search. But he came in. And as many of you have spoken, he's continued the progress. He started working with the African American community. He expanded working with the merchants. And I have to point out another point. He guided us through some troubled waters. As you heard, he came in in February of 92,009. And if you remember, November 2009, you know, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, all that crash, recession, he guided us through that time and we maintained our reserves. We kept the city as a full service city. He saved us through that time period. And he wasn't an iCam, but he had the help of all these people. And this is the second point I want to point out. You can go through city managers, but oftentimes you go through that and look at. Karen. Renee, Ron. Scott, Rob, they've all been here because why is Mark set up a structure that was supportive, that they worked together and allowed the city to function in a very efficient way. And we have him to also thank for that. So. Other than that, we do appreciate the fact that you've given your time and now I'm 30 and go catch the lightning playing the Canadiens. Good evening everyone. My name is Robin Read. My role as executive director of the Tarpon Springs Housing Authority. I met this day, this man. Day one, when I came to join the Cops and Kids Youth Center as their executive director. And I did the best I could. And we've done an awesome job in carrying out his goals to empower the students, the children, the teenagers and the community. Cops and kids grew out of a tiny apartment in Mango Circle, a very, very old 1964 city Council approved apartment community. And those children needed additional support and love as they were watching different strife, different things going on in the community with their families and struggling with law enforcement that are trying to help them and keep them safe. And Mark was concerned about the students and the impact of what they were seeing. The former executive director of the Tarpon Springs Housing Authority, Pat Weber and Mark I, was just at a rotary meeting about an hour ago, and I said to them, this was Mark and this was Pat Weber rolling up their sleeves to say, what can we do for the students? So we came together and we had this amazing partnership with the police department. This tiny apartment turned into this church that all these officers came out and renovated, volunteered their time. The housing authority donated the community center and expanded Cops and Kids Youth Center to be a campus. I always called it a campus because I had more dreams and aspirations like you, Mark, and the dream to expand. It will come true and we will serve more students instead of having this waitlist that we always have. But I also want to thank Mark on behalf of our commissioners. Our Board of Commissioners have a tough job. We gain the assets of different apartment complexes within the city limits of Tarpon Springs, and they were built in 1964 and 1975. These are communities that were amazing and beautiful and new complexes. But, you know, weather and aging and all this and public housing funding is extremely limited. And so what a housing authority has to do is they have to be innovative and they have to think outside the box like Mark does, like other community leaders do. Chief young has been amazing in helping us brainstorm what we can do to support the families and the community. If it wasn't for these amazing city staff, the three 9% tax credit communities that the Housing Authority build could not happen. We were able to meet construction deadlines, get dates and service so that we can have amazing brand new housing for residents. And I always go around and talk about your staff, Mark, that there could have been so many delays delaying people from having beautiful housing, but because of the processes, the protocol, the due diligence, the quality assurance that all of your staff facilitate each one of these three 9% tax credit developments happen on time or early. Mango circle is demolished. We built Eagle Ridge and we closed in October 19th and 2020. It was during the pandemic that we were building Eagle Ridge Apartments. If it wasn't for these amazing people on your team with all of the plan B, C, D that everybody had, everybody across the world had to figure out, right? But we were able to be on time and early for that development. I can't say enough about Mark Lickers and Chief Young for the support that they they they provide. Myself, my staff and the ten staff that we have at Cops and kids, we're able to be there, show up, smile, have fun, provide amazing tutoring, expose them to all kinds of different venues and opportunities. You can't become anything you haven't seen. And with the Juvenile Welfare Board funding, with Mark, support with the Police Department support, support, that is what we're doing is changing the trajectory of these kids lives that are living in a lower income community, create opportunities for them that their families would love to provide them, but they need help from the village. So I, I thank you, Mark, so much for welcoming me. When I came to the Housing Authority without any housing experience. But I had a heart like you, and we worked and we learned, and we continued to drive our mission to help families in the community. Thank you for all your support. Are there any other public comments? It are there any zoom comments? If anyone online has any comments on this item, please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Thank you. We're going to go to Commissioner comments. And we'll also include our staff members too. Commissioner Banther. Yes. Thank you. Mark. There is you know, when I learned of your wrestling bill, I said there's no better gift to you because I knew that that that that you wouldn't like, you know, a plaque on the wall. It's not your style. But like the people have said here tonight, there's no better fighter for tarpon than you. I mean, you look back and you. And you're also very modest about your career, career, career here in Tarpon Springs and what you've done. But I think tonight you've heard just a bit of your legacy. And I really do think it's a legacy. You, you have left like commissioners, we come and go, but you put a framework in this city, as was mentioned by Commissioner Delkus, I think a few weeks ago, that when, when, when we had these two travesty hurricanes hit, you put this infrastructure in place and was executed. And we and we recovered in a way that most of the county did not. And that speaks to you. I remember when I was first elected, now 12 years ago, you know, I don't know what I was doing. I thought I did, and you took me under your wing and really showed me the ropes and weren't afraid to tell me to shut up when I needed to, and kind of help keep me in line. And that helped me grow. To the commissioner I am today, and I know many other other, other commissioners I see in this crowd have had that same experience with you. I always joke too, because my father always spoke very, very, you know, like you know highly of you. And I would see you growing up. My, my dad would take me to sporting events and I would see you there with a whole group of kids. And when, when I, when I, when I was up at Hillsdale College, I had this professor that when we went, whenever we did essays. She had us use pseudonyms because to avoid her like, you know, bias and grading. I use Mark LaCour several times up there in Michigan. I still follow local politics because I'm a dork, of course. But, you know, you you have a lasting impression in the in this town. And I think your legacy is going to be here long after you are. But I hope you, I hope you you have many years left, and I hope you get to do all the things that you didn't get to do because you were here very, very, very late at night for, you know, long meetings. So all the best to you, to you and your family. And we'll see you around town. So, Mark, all these people spoke so nicely about you. Now, I got to tear you up. No, I'm only kidding. So, you know, when I got to meet you, I was on the board of adjustments. And it's interesting when you sit on this side of the dais versus to see you in action. I learned to have the most deepest respect for you. I realized that you were always dealing with five different personalities, all eight type personalities. And it's not an easy thing to do. It's a balancing act. You're a very skilled balancing act. Person. The city. From when I first moved down here 12 years ago to where I see it, it is today. Is just an amazing accomplishment on your behalf, which of course, everybody has kind of told you. But I also have the most deepest respect for how you manage the different styles of boards that you have to deal with. And I just want to thank you for all you've done. I have a deep love for you because I know you have that deep love for the city as I do as well, and I want to end this before I choke up. But, you know, I don't know if people know this, but Mark will go out of his way to call up somebody to see how they are. When there's an issue, when there's a medical issue, when there's a sickness, you have your heart in the right place. Mark. It's not just a job for you. It it was not just a career for you. This was, you know, your life was Tarpon Springs and your life still is Tarpon Springs. I was a little shocked when I saw you not wearing a tarpon shirt, you know, coming in here, but I'm glad to see that you look good. You look relaxed. You look happy. And I couldn't be prouder to be part of the commission that retired you the correct way. Because, honestly, I didn't come in there in with that head frame. And, you know, like I said, what you what you start off as and when you get to know somebody is completely different. So from me to you, I, you have my full respect and I'm honored to have been working with you. So thank you. Commissioner DiDonato. It's been said, Mark, you know me well enough that I'm not going to get through this because I care about a teammate. And I always thought you were. You didn't always agree. But that's one of the things I loved about you. You agreed that we could go forward and maybe find a solution. You were always that way. And as Robin said, you did always pull up your sleeves and work to get things done. There are many things I should say tonight, but you know some of them. And I'm just going to pass over because you and I have talked more than once. But you're a very special person. And. Tarpon is lucky to have had you. God bless you. You know, he's got it all typed out. But as you know, I have notes. Okay. So yeah, you know, you're you're 47 years, obviously. You know, you're that it demonstrates your, your consistency or your love for the city. That's one of the things I've always admired a lot about you is you're consistent. You would yell at me pretty much on a regular basis and, you know, you're, you know, and I learned so much about city government from you over the years and, and the times I was able to work with you, which have been the best time that I've had up here is the time I got to work with you. And, you know, everyone's impressed with your institutional knowledge and, you know, it's unparalleled in the town. Nobody knows this town better than you. Nobody knows the characters of the town better than you. I remember you telling me a story about when you were being an assistant to Ellen. And there were some. You had some coalmines in the, in the, in the office and, and they were yelling and stuff and like the meeting wasn't going well and you just started screaming at them and she was like in awe, like she was like shocked, like, what are you doing? What are you doing? And they just popped into place because you knew who the characters were. You know, you talked to her in one way. You talk to a semi in a different way, right? You knew it. And you know, that came with all the time you spent with people and gotten to know people. You know, I've really been impressed with your ability to lead people more than even your knowledge. You know, like Peter said, you set up, you set up this infrastructure of quality people. You know, you're all your department heads are well, well, well trained and everything worked together. They they knew how to work together. I, you know, and they all had respect for you. And even universally throughout the city. I didn't run into anybody, anybody at any staff level that you hadn't earned their trust, you know, you. You know, one of the common themes amongst all of them was that you knew where you stood with Mark, and that was always something special, like there was no back behind their backs. You had something with them and you always had their back. When a citizen, a resident, might complain about a staff member or a department head, you never threw them under the bus. Now I'm sure they got a tongue lashing when the door shut. Right, guys? But but you never threw them under the bus because they could trust you. And that was really important, you know? And, you know, they always say, like, if Mark doesn't yell at you or he walks by and doesn't say anything to you, you got something to worry about. So if he's giving it to you, you know, he gives it, he cares. And that's that. That's means something. You know your ability. You know your. I also want to thank our new city manager for and I did thank him up at up at his office. But I want to do it publicly that, you know, this transitional period that you guys had, you know, you have handled it with a lot of grace and you were sensitive. You had and you were also smart because you knew you had a treasure here of knowledge and you wanted to be successful. You didn't put your ego before your job. You, you know, a lot of guys might not have wanted their predecessor walking around the hallways, you know, and you didn't you didn't have that insecurity and you utilized him. But you also, I thanked you on his behalf as his friend for letting him go out with so much dignity, because you really made it comfortable for him to come to the office, and you treated him with a lot of respect. And I want to thank you for that. Yeah. You know, Mark is one of the brightest people I know. And you know how bright he is because he could take the most complex subject matter, and he knew how to break it down to the simplest, understandable form. And he would do that with me all the time. I would call him up and I don't mind. I don't mind confessing it. Mark, what's this about? And he's a John. It's okay. It's okay. If you vote yes on this. It's okay. Like, okay. Thanks I because I trusted him. Just like you guys. Just like you all trusted him. I've never met anybody that can read people better than Mark. You know, maybe it comes with being a cop, but his his BS meter is unparalleled. You know, he he could you could not pull anything any wool over his eyes. He, he always knew, you know, who was telling him the truth and who wasn't. And I used to utilize his BS meter. Do I trust this thing? Yeah. It's all right, John. It's like. Okay. Thanks, Mark. I'm good. So, you know, you're like, Susan said, you know, your imprint on the city is enjoyed by residents and guests for years to come. You know, there isn't a part of town that one can walk where you don't come across an intersection, a park, a building, or any observable or unobservable thing that you didn't make happen by your direction and implementation. You know, the politicians get a lot of credit for things, but you were always one that made it happen. You were the one who oversaw the project, got it to its completion. You were able to do that again. Your ability to get things done, process, move things along. You have a great staff. But there again an extension of you. They wouldn't be the way they are if they didn't have your leadership. You know what you've done with the cops and kids is remarkable. You know, I've always said and I've said this before, that, you know, you get a kid who made a decision one day to go to the cops and kids instead of going with his friends to go do something that might have got him in trouble. And so you don't know. You'll never know how many lives you saved because they made a decision to go to that cops and kids that you set up instead of going the in the wrong direction. Right. Robin, you you never know what would happen that night. They could have gone somewhere. They could have got shot. They could have got arrested. They could. A lot of things could have happened. But you saved them. Obviously, Taurene is a way back there. He's an example of that. You know, he just like he got up and said, he's told me we were at Dunkin Donuts. He said, Mark saved my life. My life is everything I have is because Mark took a chance on me, and I know he's not the only one. I know there was a guy that came up here one day when, you know, it was all the debate going around about when you should go and who should, you know, all this kind of stuff. And the guy comes up here and he's talking all about you, how much he loves you. I didn't know this till later. You arrested that guy. He arrested the guy. The guy got convicted, spent like ten years in jail on his arrest. And here here he is defending Mark because Mark was fair and he knew it. And Mark. Mark worked helped him after he got out. So it's, you know, the people that admire you are, you know, all over this town. So you know, you've got that, you know, despite being an innately smart person, you're one of the biggest goofs I've ever known as well, whether it's dressing up like Santa, being the largest living of the Seven Dwarfs, or decorating your office with an assortment of bobblehead toys, you know, I hope your sons appreciate how special it is to have a father who they can respect and the best play buddy around. You know, the thing is, Mark takes his took his job serious, but not himself. He never took himself serious, but he always took his job serious. You know, you guys have go everywhere together. I'm really I really admire, you know, admire and envy the fact that you have this, this amazing relationship with your sons. You know, you go watch sporting events, movies. He goes to these weirdo comic con conventions, he gets all dressed up and he goes to WWE wrestling. But, Mark, can I fill you in on some little secret? You know, you're you're you know, yours. And my city hall relationship is over. But, you know, our friendship is at the beginning. So it's only just begun. So you know that I'm going to be reaching out to you for lunches, and maybe we can go to some of those things together, and I'll go to the wrestling with you, too. Yeah. You know, your dad would have been very proud of you. You followed in his footsteps as a cop, chief of police, city manager. You know. You know what I'm going to say next? Yes. There's still one more position that you need to get to follow your dad. You need to come up here because his dad was a city commissioner, too. So I'm expecting to see you up here. I think it's going to happen because I think you're going to get bored. You're going to want to come back. It has to be the most awesome thing ever to see you up here as a commissioner. Maybe you should have the mayor's job, too. You could have the gavel. I think it would be the ultimate anything. But anyways, Mark, I want to wish you the best of everything. And you know what I think of you so we don't have to go any deeper than that. But that's it. Thank you. Chief young, would you like to say a few words? A few words I'll be. I'll be brief because Mark would yell at me. Not a day goes by that Mark doesn't yell at me. Just so you know. And I'm the probably the longest serving employee that's worked directly for Mark in one capacity or another. When he got with the untimely passing of Chief Bergstrom. When Mark got promoted to chief, he called me. I was working for the Collier County Sheriff's Office because Mark recruited me as an officer here, but there was no job openings and brought me back home up to Tarpon Springs, which I'm always eternally grateful for. And I always tell him it was the smartest move. But really, Mark, I just thank you very much. You'll always be chief to me. You you know, I've heard everything said up here. The intelligence that you give. Yes, but you always led with your heart. And that's. You know, I always tell everybody. Yeah, Mark's real gruff. He'll yell and scream, and I just sit there and wait till he's done, and then we'll talk a little bit more. But Mark cares about people, and that's what was special about him as a chief and a city manager. And that's what I take and serious in my position now. The Cops and kids program what Robin said to be everybody else that came up here, Raimondo and Taurine, and the impact that you've had on this city is far reaching. And to Commissioner Panther's point, you know, when I went through Saint Pete Junior College, that's how old I am. In order to get your A.A. Degree, you had to write an essay as part of the class test. If anybody ever took it. Well, they had a question on it, and it said, who would be one person you would want to interview and why? If you were a newspaper reporter and mine was easy. Mine was Mark liquors, chief of police of Tarpon Springs Police Department, and what he did with the Cops and Kids program. And that was my essay for my class exam to get my A.A. Degree. Mark. And you've always been an inspiration. We don't always agree. We butt heads a lot, but always respected you and appreciate you and love you like a brother. And I'm going to miss you here every day. So, Charles, you're gonna have to yell at me, like once a day. At least make me feel it. But I'm coming out to give my brother a hug. Big round of applause. Yes. Thank you. Chief, any staff members like to get in the final word? Come on. We're not going to forget about the staff. We can't forget about y'all. Well, thanks, I appreciate it. Somebody mentioned that Mark, the staff respected Mark, and that's 100% right. But what may not know is Mark respected us a couple of instances in my career, way back in my beginning, I was the union president, and Mark was on the other side of the table representing the city. And we had some pretty good arguments during negotiations. But when we were done, Mark respected it enough to say, hey, come on, let's go get lunch or whatever. We could, you know, argue, but still be good buddies. Later in my career, when I got moved up the ranks, I had to the chief's position. But Willie made my day and Willie made me feel good about myself being the chief. The first day of me being the chief, we had to start getting the city ready for Irma. So it was kind of a quick awakening to what I had to do. So I remember sitting in the EOC the first day and Mark's to the right of me, and he must have saw something in my face because I was like, Holy crap, this is really going to happen, and I have to take care of this. And he he looked over at me and he said, I don't know if he remembers this. He looks over and says, you got this. You you just take care of the city. I'm right here if you need me. And that made me feel really good. It was like, okay, he trusts me. He respects me enough to get this through the city, through this ordeal. So that's always been with me. I appreciate that, and I'm sorry Jeff had to get yelled at, but he probably deserved it more than me. But he's always been there. Mark's always mentored us and I just wish him the best. I appreciate what you've done for my department through the years, and we're always here. Call us if you need anything, and you still owe me an NBA game, by the way. So thanks. Paul Smith, former public services director. And I just want to say I really appreciate you. I had a chance to talk with him personally for some time. And but I just want to follow up here. He selected me as director. That was probably one of the first selections you made when you became city manager in oh nine. And I just really appreciate you giving me that opportunity and supporting me over all these years through good times and tough times. It's been said many times, but it's true. We really appreciate your support. Thanks and you earned it. Mark, I just want to thank you for everything. You know, you were part of the crew that hired me back in 2002, and I regret that I took off and left the city in 2014. And then I came to my senses. And the first place that I wanted to come back to was to come back and work for you. And so thank you for taking me back. And if it hasn't been said, you know, you the one constant that we always, always knew as department heads is you always had our back. You might yell at us, you might get some abrupt phone calls every once in a while. But push come to shove, you always had our back. So it's been a pleasure. Thank you. Hey, Mark, just a quick thank you. And for the last time I saw your signal. So I'm going to shut up. Thank you. Tom. Function public works director. And as Mark, as you mentioned here, Paul was the first one he hired. I was maybe the worst one he hired. He did a lot of yelling, was probably more to me than anybody else, but I was doing that to take the heat off of these guys. So no. Mark. Thanks. Mark was not only my boss, he's also my friend. I appreciate it. You have a great rest of your next step in your in your in your life and enjoy it buddy. And I'll be seeing you at the game real soon. Yeah. Mark, I want to thank you. You brought me here in 2012 and really helped me navigate through everything. When I started this position here. And I remember one of the first things is you always told me before you go out and meet anybody, let me know who they are because I can tell you what to say, what to do, you know, and who, who everybody is. And that that really helped me. So you always had my back. I know I got yelled at a lot too, but we had a lot of challenging projects and I know you always try to keep me out of trouble. I always seem to get into it and you'd help me get out or help me stay out of it. But thank you so much. I really enjoyed working with you and look forward to some sporting events coming up. Thanks. Since I'm the director with the least amount of words. Thank you Mark. City attorney Dickman. Mark, I'm sorry I haven't had a lot of time with you. I clearly have missed something, but I've always been taught that success is not about what you can accumulate, but the lives and people you have touched in your life. And I'm just I'm just stunned here tonight. You've obviously done very successful work here. Thank you. City manager Mr. Rudd. You left some really big shoes to fill, but I really appreciate the support you gave me. And really the staff and the infrastructure. Everything you did for the city really made my job coming here really easy. And I only hope I can can make a fraction of the difference you did here. Thank you. City clerk, Miss Jacobs. Mark knows how I feel. We worked together for a long time, and I want to thank you for your help. Always and for always listening to me and kind of talking me off the ledge a lot. And I'm sure we'll be talking again soon. Thank you. Commissioner Eisner. So there was one thing, Mark, I forgot to tell you. You know, I did. I was the one instrumental in getting you the rule 85. You know, that that's been removed now because you have no business here in town. You must be at the Thursday morning at lunch, rotary meeting that rule 85 has sailed for you. But thank you. I appreciate you always. Mr. Licorice. I just I want to thank you for being able to work with one another. A lot of people don't know, but Mark and I actually had a very great relationship all three years, you know, the whole time. And so we were two people and just like vice mayor says, he has a great BS meter. And he knew when I came to him and I asked him about advice, I was coming with good faith and trying to make decisions for the city. And you know, I have a good BS meter. So I always knew Mr. Licorice was giving me the best advice to try to make good decisions on behalf of the city. And so we had a great relationship. It pretty much involved me coming in, asking him a few questions about the agenda items, talking some sports, and then talking how we would, you know, handle certain people and individuals in town. And, you know, because everyone's unique and especially in this beautiful town. So I just want to thank you, Mr. Licorice. It was a privilege to work with you, to have that respect from you as well. And we did great things together. So I'm very honored and thankful for everyone to be here tonight to show the appreciation, the recognition of a man who gave so much to this community. So thank you, Mr. Licorice. And now we're going to go into a seven minute recess, just a and then we're going to resume the meeting. So we'll meeting in recess until 7:36 p.m. The meeting is back in session at 7:37 p.m. There's one announcement. Vice mayor has left a little bit early. He wanted to be here for the special presentation, but I want to go home and rest. So he's not going to be here for the rest of the evening. But we have enough people for a quorum, so we are good to go. We will now go to public comments on items that will not be discussed on tonight's agenda. Please state your name and address for the record. You will be given four minutes to speak and two minutes to speak. If you are on zoom. Are there any public comments? It are there any zoom comments? If anyone online would like to make a public comment, please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do have a raised hand. Allow the first person in. If you can state your name and address. For the record. Hi, my name is Kenny Lane. Addresses 515 Kirkland Circle. I just wanted to touch base on Mark Locker's retirement. I apologize I didn't get in the meeting early. Mark was my mentor from the third grade after my mom passed away meant the world to me growing up. He saved me from so many things and he kind of led me to where I am today. So I just wanted to say thank you, Mark, and wish him the best of luck. If he's still there, I hope he's here listening to this and hopefully I'll see him again soon. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Lane. And we do not have any other raised hands at this time. Okay. Thank you. We will now go to Consent Agenda. Item two is approve renewal file number 180104. Dash c dash j j. Electrical lighting, data communications and security. Products and related products. Services and solutions through Omnia Partners. Contract number EV 2370. Item three approve renewal file number 230040. Dash p Dash j l litigation Attorney Services item for award. Award file number 250089. Dash C Dash h. Utility call center. Support services utility billing Florida municipal Power Agency RFP, number 2024-209 to E n Co Utility Services item five Award file number 250100. Dash c Dash a s. Laboratory services utilizing City of Clearwater. Contract number 901972 852-23. Item six. Special events six A Tarpon Springs Book Festival six b Greek Independence Day Parade 2025. Six C Sunset Beach Concert Series six D. Sunset Beach Movie Night 2020 56E. Touch a Truck and Open House item seven attorney Fees. Item seven A Eunice Salesman Jensen, PA invoices eight, four, three, three, six and 84337. Item seven B Dickman Law firm. Invoice. Statement number three. Item seven C Johnson Jackson P, LLC. Invoice 14148. Item eight. Award file number 250105. Dash c dash p h. Rotary lift for new ambulance GSA contract number GS07F29 for a two vehicle service Group, LLC. Item nine increase file number 250053. Dash c Dash p h. Utilizing Sourcewell contract numbers 091521-NAF and 032824 dash Knaff and Florida Sheriff's Association contract number FSR 23-E, QU2 1.0 for the purchase of city vehicles. Item ten authorize the mayor to execute a standard agreement with the State of Florida Department of Financial Services. Number FM 989 for funds to purchase one Personal Protective Equipment extractor through the firefighters. Cancer Decontamination Grant program. Item 11 increase File number 210160. Dash c dash j l water sewer rate. Consultant studies. Item 12 Award file number 250109-C-JL. Clerk's Office furniture and item 13 Award file number 250066-B-JL Road Materials Landscape Services commissioners. Are there any agenda items that you would like to pull? Are there any public comments on the consent agenda items? It. Are there any zoom comments? If anyone online would like to make a public comment, please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raise hands at this time. Thank you. The chair will entertain a motion to approve consent agenda items two through 13. So moved. Second. There are no further comments. Roll call please. Commissioner Banther. Yes. Commissioner DiNardo. Yes. Commissioner Eisner. Yes. Mayor. Yes. We are now going to business. Items of the day. Item 14 is discussion and direction for short term rentals, tours, homes. And we have Planning Director Rene Vincent to present the item. Good evening. Mayor, commissioners. Rene Vincent, planning director. I'm also going to lean on the city attorney, Mr. Dickman, for this discussion item. There's been some interest expressed in maybe opening up the city short term rental ordinance, either to expand the area, maybe where they're allowed, or change the what qualifies as a short term rental by maybe shortening the duration that's required currently. We have a six week minimum stay for if it six week or longer is not considered a short term rental. So anything less than that is, and we regulate those in both in the smart code and in the land development code. I don't want to go too deep into this for right now for the purposes of tonight. If you follow the legislative acts over the last few years, there's every year there's a you know, they're chipping away at the local ability to regulate short term rentals. And so if we're going to look at trying to do anything one. So tonight we're seeking, you know, direction from the board at least initially of do we even want to open this up again. And if we do, there's a very real possibility that whatever we do could get challenged, unless perhaps we move to a posture like Pinellas County has whereby they they allow them anywhere, but they regulate the impacts. And so I'm going to kind of turn it over to Attorney Dickman for a little more discussion on the legal side of that. So from the legal perspective, these are truly every year vacation. What are called vacation rentals is sort of brought to this state legislature. And basically Florida Statute 509.032, subparagraph seven B preempts municipalities from regulating vacation rentals. Except for if you had codes on the books. June 1st of 2011. Those are considered grandfathered in. The trick, however, has been in the cases have been that if you amend those codes with regard to duration and frequency, you run the risk of losing your grandfathered status completely. So you would have no, you basically eradicate your entire vacation rental ordinances. Now, there are there are cases that stand for the proposition that you can adjust some things like registration, dealing with impacts like cars and parking, things like that would be more code enforcement oriented where there have been challenges and they survived those challenges. But it's a really tricky thing. So the my answer has been so far with regard, can we move to a more of a. Saint Petersburg saint Pinellas County model is maybe depends. I can't give you a clear bright line answer yet, because this is one of those things where you don't want to lose what you have because you have something that's grandfathered, but at the same time, we would have to look at more specifically what you want to do. And, and I think if it's less, if it's less, if it's more permissive and it's focused more on the impacts rather than the duration and the frequency, we might be able to do something with it. So I'm I'm willing to continue working with Renee and her team on this, if that's the will of the commission. Thank you. Are there any public comments on this item? I t are there any zoom comments online? Would like to make a public comment. Please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Thank you. We have the city manager's on, so we're gonna let him speak first. Thank you. Mayor. This is something I've. I've spoken to you all about. It came up during this storm. The hurricane. People need a place to stay. And I became aware of this six weeks. But, Renee, basically, within our CRA and our sponge dock area, special area, you're allowed to do one or 2 or 3 nights. Is that correct? We have a couple of specific areas within the special area plan and the smart code area where they're permitted by right. It's in what we call the Uptown Character District. I can't get the map to load or I can point this to you. And then and we have a few other places in that area where they are permitted as a conditional with a conditional use review. And it could be just 2 or 3 nights. Sure. Yeah. The anything less than, than six weeks, you know, would be how you how you operate. It is up to you as to what your duration of stay would be. But anywhere else in the city it would need to be six weeks or more. Is that correct? So there we have outside the CRA, there are in the residential multifamily zoning districts. You have an opportunity as a conditional use to apply under certain circumstances. And those could be less than six weeks. It's very few and far between outside of that area where you can apply. So basically, if we were to open it up to the city, we could restrict the amount of cars in the driveway, the number of occupants, and try to control it in that way. Because if we do open it up, it opens it up to the to no regulation in terms of whether you're an Airbnb or not. Is that correct? Correct. Now, homeowners associations can regulate them. And many do. I know you know, I know our our our HOA. You have to have a year lease. So we have a lot of the city that is under HOA regulations. So that may temper things a little bit. But but generally if we take off the boundary the, the bumpers it's, it's open. So my recommendation would be if you if you're interested in just opening it up. But then we put controls on in terms of the amount of cars and occupancy and so forth to control it, because the reason we're looking at it is, you know, as a tourist destination, most of the city, most of the city, you you can't stay or have an Airbnb. So that's something we want to look at. I think we could still, even though it may open us up under the new statute, we could control it through other means. Our our what we need tonight is some direction. If we are to move forward with that. You know, constructing something where we talk about the impacts but just allow someone can could designate an Airbnb wherever they have property. And I was able to get the map to finally load. So if you're looking over your shoulder, the black outline is the that's the CRA boundary. Anything that basically has a color on it that's not white. They're allowed either permitted or by conditional use. So you can see that, you know, large areas of the city, they're just not allowed. And then we have the smattering of areas, you know, outside the smart code area. And then within it, you do have quite a bit of availability, at least through conditional use. So. Okay. Commissioner Eisner, your light was on. Thank you. Mayor. This has a double edged sword to it, which I kind of, you know, spoke with Mark licorice numerous times about this. On the one hand, there private home owners who have bought homes because they wanted to use it as an Airbnb. And, you know, you feel for that. But at the same time, you lose the grandfather and the control of what we have right now, even though we need to have some Airbnbs because we don't have the wherewithal for people to stay on. I've tossed this back and forth in my head where, you know, if you had a poor neighbor and you would be calling the police on them, so it would be the same thing as if you had a poor rental Airbnb rental, and they were causing all sorts of havoc past the 10:00 evening. You'd be calling on that too. So unless I knew all of the legal aspects from the city attorney, I mean, I'd be willing to do more delving into. But I don't think I want to make a decision on this yet, even though I do want it. I'm not willing to trade that want for the loss of the grandfather, because that could just get you in a whole lot of trouble. Believe me, I see, and most of us see the bright side of this, how it would be helpful. And we also see the negative side. You know, I was thinking about I know a number of people who have had Airbnbs in a cul de sac and in a really nice area of tarpon, and it's been pure havoc where the police have had a full time job having to drive in there, because many people in Airbnb, they're not using it just for a vacation, but they're using it as a party house. And the next thing you know, you have 15, 20 cars there. No matter what rule we have. And the police are coming in and you're you're now sacrificing a neighborhood of people that were very happy there before because of carelessness in in how the Airbnb is managed. So I don't know whether yet. Do we have to initiate if we go that route, do we have to initiate permits to people? And if they break the rule X amount of times, do we remove the permit from them so they don't have their control? But it goes still back to if we break our grandfather laws and rules that we presently have. To what degree can things be fought? Because what we have is very valuable. I'm not looking to match Pinellas County. I mean, there's and believe me, I'm not considering everything. There's so many other things involved with this. Is it good for us? Yes, but it comes with a risk. So I still would need more facts. And that's my statement. Thank you. Commissioner. Commissioner Banther. Yes, mayor. Thank you. I thought a lot about this over the years. My brokerage, I own we manage Airbnb's and legal parts of the city, and they're in high demand. I mean, it's we stay, we stay, we stay pretty booked. But at the same time, I think of, you know, those are inappropriate places right there in the special area plan and places where neighboring residential units are accustomed to a little more activity and noise because of their proximity to the sponge docks, downtown and restaurants. I think over on the west side of town where where a lot of us live by the beaches, you know, I can see that being more of a problem in areas that that that don't have an HOA. I've also thought, you know, about perhaps, you know, if we do loosen the rules up where we're not so much in jeopardy of it being challenged, that there should be some kind of registration process for homes outside the special area plan, almost, where they acquire a type of a business license. And then if you know so many calls a year, so many, you know, violations that that would get pulled, but then that creates a whole nother thing to manage. And that can get complex as well. So it's kind of hard, I think I've always liked to kind of get ahead of trends, if you will. There's things we have to accept. Even if we don't, we don't, we don't we don't like them, but we can manage them in our own way. And I think perhaps I don't know the right words to use as far as the area, but as far as where the special area plan is now, where the where they're allowed by right and by conditional use, maybe expanding that area just, just just a little bit, but not encroaching too much into residential areas where they're not near tourist areas and restaurants and aren't accustomed to that type of inflow and outflow. So but, Rene, could you refresh my memory on what Pinellas County does, as that's the comparison tonight? Sure. So they and that that is in your I put a copy in the in the agenda backup. Basically they have a registration process. They have a maximum occupancy limit. They have parking requirements. They have quiet hours that have to be observed. And I think most importantly, they require that you basically have an identified responsible party. It's on a placard. It's and it's the person to call, you know, when that if we someone calls us complaining, we can reach out and call that person that's responsible to get a grip on things. If there's something bad happening in the neighborhood. So and so that's that's kind of how they manage them. Now I, you know, I'll again, I'll refer back to the city attorney there. I think Pinellas County's amending their own ordinance right now. I don't know what direction that they're going. So we'll follow that as well. Thank you. I mean, and that's something again, back to what I said about having a registration system that I, that I would be in favor of, but I would look to the city manager unless the staff is that something we can support as far as policing that with the police chief and all that kind of stuff. So, you know, I definitely think we need some expansion of where we allow these. I do not think it needs to be a free for all here. At the same time, I don't want to do anything that that jeopardizes, you know, the risk of, of us losing any kind of grant grandfathered status and then it becoming an absolute free for all, because I think that would just not be a good thing for our city. So I do support staff coming back with some with some with with some with some recommendations. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Banther. Commissioner DiDonato I too see both sides of this and I like the advantages and a little afraid of some of the disadvantages. And I would be open to more research into this, I just don't. I remember when we were talking about this the last time, and there were a lot of unhappy people at the time, so I believe it's something that really needs some fairly strong guidelines. If we if we do open it up, and perhaps at this day and age, it should be opened up somewhat. But I would walk very slowly and it personally. Thank you, Commissioner Eisner. Yes, there was one other thing. I wanted to also make the board aware of. If we do change this, we do run the risk of having corporations coming in and buying up these properties to utilize for this. And as Renee said earlier, you know, there's on these short term vacation rentals, you have to have somebody local with a local phone number. There's no way that a corporation that's buying up these properties a it would make our property values kind of go up. You'd lose the ability to buy where you want to buy, because a lot of things would be taken up by the corporations that have the money. And at the same time, they would have to hire somebody to oversee the, you know, to be the overseer, to respond. And I don't know what control that person would have or not have. So just on that, it tends to get very sticky on losing control if you own the house. It's one thing if you're working for a corporation that owns the house, which is what some of the problems that I've heard run into, it's I'm pretty much more leaning if we're going to change something and it doesn't get us in. You know, trouble, then I would only go with something that's just going to expand a little bit to our area. I don't want it to be throughout the whole town, so we have to watch out for that corporation business as well. So that's it. Thank you. Commissioner Eisner, City Manager, Mr. Dickman can expound on this, I believe from our our meeting we had if we add it anywhere that it doesn't currently allowed, it just opens the door. Is that correct. So if we can't expand it just a little bit, it's either what we have or everywhere. Is that sort of I mean, that's your interpretation. There are not a lot of cases on this, because so many jurisdictions in Florida have been very nervous about even testing the waters. It's a roll of the dice. But yes, that's the general impression is that if you open the door to other areas, it's still a duration and frequency situation where you're not, I don't I don't know that you could take a baby steps like that. But again, I like Renee. We didn't my office. I didn't feel comfortable doing a whole lot of a full legal memo on it yet until we found out what you all wanted to do. But I'm more than willing to dive deeper into the case law and look at. I know Pinellas County is, from what I understand, is doing somewhat of a modification of their of their code. I'm kind of curious to see what they're doing and just see what that entails. And then I'm more than happy to work with staff and the city manager and everybody just to come back with more specific legal opinions on it so that you have a better, better foundation from which to make a decision on. But it is. Yeah, it's a risk, no doubt. Commissioner Eisner. So I don't know whether you can answer this, Renee, or the city attorney. Did Pinellas County have a rule before or were they were they grandfathered in? Is the question. I do not think that they had a rule before I, but I will research that and find out. I'll get my contacts out. I was there when they put this in place. So my I'm recalling that I don't think they had any regulations before. So it's very different when you have no regulations and you're going to modify what you don't have for us, for us to modify anything. We'd be giving up something that we do have potentially. So on that part, I would not want to change it unless the rules change where we could do a small change and not give up the rest of it. The risk is just too great. Sure. No, no thank you, Commissioner Eisner. Miss Vincent, I'm just going to ask you a couple of hypotheticals. The. So all these the LDC zoning districts and the smart code transect zones, these have the ability to have very short term stay like 1 to 3 days. Right. So if you're if you're looking at the map, the black outline is the special area plan and the smart code area. And so within that area you have the ability either by right, which is this one, what we call the Uptown district right here. Everywhere else it's conditional use, but you can at least come and ask for them. So pretty much anywhere inside that that boundary you have a, you have a pathway outside of that, everything is pretty much conditional use in these kind of these orange and brown colored areas which we don't, you know, don't really process very many of those. Yes, ma'am. And then also just the white areas that have no colors, they nothing they. All right. So it says not permitted may rent for more than six weeks but requires conditional use approval and not permitted within 1200 feet of an existing tourist home. That's that's the if that's that that's the orange areas, you know, outside the special area plan. Okay. That's yeah. Anything that's in white, you cannot you have no path at all. All right. So only the colored areas do you have a path to do them right now. So we currently have the ability to have short term one one day two day three day rentals. Okay. Yeah. I'm just hesitant to move forward. It seems like we change, you know, 100ft of the boundary or anything else. We're going to be really opened up to a lot of things. So I don't know how this board wants to move forward. As of right now, I just think we just need to try to gather more information or play a waiting game. As you know, different laws and ordinances come about from the from the state and see how we can, I guess, manipulate it a little bit to open up more without exposing, exposing the whole town to it. So what do you think, City manager? Well, I think what I'm hearing is because the nature of the it's all or nothing, I hear a reluctance to, to run with it all because we don't know how how what the, how the enforcement would be, how difficult would be to enforce the rules. And, and so we'll certainly track what Pinellas County is doing. And then if there's a significant something I think might work for us, we could bring it back to you or if any of you request it. But I don't I don't I think what I'm hearing you tell me. No, I'm hearing a reluctance to. Yes, open that can of worms. I just want to make sure we're on the same page. So. Yeah, we're we're just. We'll pause it for now until we get some more information. But maybe we just advertise to those property owners their ability for short term stay just to help spur some overnight stay in the areas. So thank you for that item. Thank you. We are now going to item 15 Discussion and Direction on land donation offer. And we have a City manager, Charles Rudd. Thank you mayor. This item as indicated in my cover memo, we were approached the property owner. Historically, these lands would have been part of an HOA agreement. The HOA would have been responsible for them and that that didn't happen for whatever reason. So now they're offered to donate them to the city. And I talked with my staf, and we really didn't see any reason to accept them. There's a lot of cost involved, and there's there are currently violations to be remedied. So but that's the commission's decision whether to accept land donations. So I brought that to you to give us direction. Thank you. Are there any public comments on this item? It are there any zoom comments? If anyone online has any public comment on this item, please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Thank you. Commissioner, your light was on first. Yes. Thank you. I want to thank the individuals that brought this forward and offered this to us. I did review it and talk with the city manager. I just don't see an upside for the city at this time. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner. Commissioner DiDonato, thank you. I don't see any advantage. I'm not even sure how developed or usable the piece would actually be. So at this time I would say no thank you. I'll just go along with what I just heard. Okay? And I agree too. So appreciate this being brought forward for the commission to make a decision. But at this time I we're going to so could I have a motion just to decline the offer? Okay. Second the other any other comments or discussion roll call please. Yes, Commissioner. Donato. Yes. Commissioner. Eisner. Yes, mayor. Yes. Yes, we are now on to item 16, discussion and direction for local bayou dredging. And we have Mr. Bob Robertson, project administrator, director, and Matthew Star with Stantec. Thank you mayor. Yeah, I'm Bob Robertson, project administration department director. So for this item tonight, we're going to be presenting the results of a recent hydrographic survey and volume analysis of the local bayous and channels that was conducted by Stantec. This survey work is a requirement of the city charter. It's required to be completed every five years. The last time the work was completed was in 2021, so we are ahead of the required schedule. The charter also requires the results to be presented to the board, which we're doing tonight, forwarded to Pinellas County and forwarded to state agencies, both of which will take care of. After this meeting. The heavy lifting of this presentation is going to be handled by Matthew Starr of Stantec. Mr. Starr was the project manager for this effort. He. Stantec, National Dredging subject matter expert with more than 23 years of dredging experience in Florida. And he's based out of Stantec Clearwater office. He's going to show you the extent of the survey work that was completed and share with you the results of Stantec Analysis. After his presentation, I'm going to ask the board for direction on two things. Really, the target depth for the dredge work and the timeline to begin the design and permitting work. And of course, we'll address any comments or questions you may have. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Starr. Thank you, Bob, again for the record, Matthew Starr, Stantec Consulting Services, Clearwater, Florida, here to talk about the hydrographic survey we completed and volume analysis. So in April 2024, we worked with Bob to develop a task order to complete a multibeam hydrographic survey. Volume calculations were requested, complete a feasibility memo, conceptual level cost estimates, and also a navigation chart, and finally present those results this evening. So the first thing that we completed was the multibeam hydrographic survey. The figure on the left, the black lines represent where the survey was completed. It's about three and a half miles of waterways within the city limits. On the right side is a picture of the survey vessel and the multibeam hydrographic survey equipment. So what is a multibeam hydrographic survey? It is a it's a survey of the underwater bottom elevations. The survey is very detailed. It's on a one by one foot grid pattern. So we can see every shoal and lump and high spot within the waterway. So we can really develop accurate volume estimates, which ultimately roll into a cost estimate for construction, design and permitting. This is what the process data looks like. You can see the yellow and green bathymetric contours. Once that's processed a little bit more, what we're really looking at is the volume within the proposed waterways. We developed dredge templates that were between 50 and 30ft wide, depending on the width of the waterway. And what this lets us look at now. And here in even more detail, we can see where the high spots and the low spots are. As a result of that survey. When we actually want to look at the volumes within these waterways, we need to figure out what is the amount of material to be removed. So we looked at a dredge depth of -five feet, mean low water, which is one of the more streamlined ways to permit dredging in Florida. If you go deeper than five feet, it typically takes a lot more effort and cost to permit it. So that -five foot elevation is one of the readily accepted dredge elevations. But on this figure you can see the red spots. These are areas where there's more than three feet of sediment above minus five, the yellow and the orange colors. That's between 1 and 2ft of sediment above minus five. So basically what you can see is within this designed waterway, the red spots, that's where you have a big shoal or a barter remove. And you can see going north and south, east and west where the dredging actually has to occur. What that looks like when we kind of dive into the data a little bit more, we create a dredge template with a 3 to 1 side slope. We look at the -five foot mean low water elevation. And that's your dredge template. That's your cut where the contractor would remove material. We can look within that and see the red areas. That's our dredge area that tells us how many yards of material are within the dredge template at each station. So all that comes together for the different waterways within the city. We looked at different dredge volumes from minus five, minus four and minus three. Low -three feet, mean low water. Like I mentioned, minus five. Is that dredging depth that's typically permitted in Florida. But if you wanted to go shallower, obviously you would not be able to get vessels as large through those areas, but the volume of material would decrease, which ultimately rolls into the big question what is this going to cost? So when we look at each of the waterways dredge to minus five, we used a low estimate of $125 per cubic yard and a high estimate of $200 per cubic yard. These are based on recent dredging projects within the Tampa Bay area, and we can look at that as a whole at the bottom. If we dredge to minus five, it's about 12,700ydâ– !T. In comparison, your Anclote River project was about 50 to 60,000ydâ– !T. So this is about a fifth the size of that project. But when you look at the low cost, you're at about 1.5. High cost is about 2.5. To remove that material down to minus five. Again one of the other big questions is okay, well we don't want to go to minus five. What if we only go to minus four? Minus three. You can see the volume of material is reduced at each of those step downs. But again the serviceability lifespan of that project is going to be reduced a little bit. Typically if you go to minus five, you may not have to address this project for another 15 or 20 years. There's room for that sediment to settle and accumulate before you have to go back and really dredge it again. But if you only go to -3 or -4, you might have to reduce that service life and perform a dredging operation more frequently than if you went a little bit deeper in that area. So some of the next steps we worked on with Bob and city staff. Okay, we did this snapshot of time back last summer when the survey was completed. Here's the condition of the canals. Here's the volume within the waterways. What are the next steps here? If we actually want to do a dredge project, we would have to go through pre-application meetings with the Army Corps and DEP. Submerged Resources survey for seagrass would have to be completed between June 1st and September 30th. That's the seagrass growing season when the fieldwork actually has to be completed, when the scientists map it. So that's accepted by the permitting agencies. Geotechnical investigation has to occur to identify the type of sediment. And also what's in the sediment. Is it coarse, fine material or are there any heavy metals in it like arsenic, copper, or any potential thing that could make disposal or beneficial reuse options a little more complicated? We'd have to investigate a staging area, map the shoreline for any mangroves that might be in the area to avoid when we offload the material. Any impacts. Once we get to that stage, we can do the 60% design and permit drawings, submit permit applications and then respond to responses from the agencies from the Army Corps and DEP as we receive them. Right now in Florida, these dredging permit applications are taking between 15 and 28 months to get. It is not a fast process. It's essentially due to staff shortages at Army Corps and DEP. You submit your application and you get in line, and when they get to it, they get to it. On this, it's a it's a slow process right now, but that is what it is. As we work through this with our other clients in the area, once we receive those permits back, we develop the 90% 100% construction drawings, bid docks, tech specs. Essentially, get your invitation ready to bid to select the contractor. We did break up the bidding services in the two different phases. The funding became an issue. We could do one series of waterways one fiscal year, another series the following fiscal year, and also once those costs are determined at the end of the design, we may have to update the hydrographic survey I presented to you earlier in the slide deck that was completed in April and May of 2024. Obviously, Hurricane and Helene and Milton came through last year, and more than likely there were some dynamic shifting of the sediment and material underwater that could remove material from the dredge areas. It could add material that's an unknown at this point, but we are seeing that in other areas of Tampa Bay, when we do surveys, there's a significant amount of material that's accumulated since these storms last fall. With that being said, our next task was to create a navigation chart that I believe Bob added to the agenda packet. This takes the data that was collected during the hydrographic survey. We've created navigation charts that were provided to the city's GIS Department to post online so the public can access them and see real time, the condition and depths in the waterways. When the survey was completed. So with that, again, my name is Matthew Starr with Stantec. Thank you for your time. And I'll let Bob step in here and answer any questions. Well, thank you for the presentation. Are there any public comments on this item? Jim Kuleana, Circle Drive, Tarpon Springs I'm rather upset that I saw the list of places and they want to dredge. It doesn't include the whole city. The biggest problem we have and was not mentioned the spoil islands that the feds put there over years and years ago, and a no wake zone plowing all these big boats to come into the city. I've lived in that one spot 45 years. Okay. This year at a moon low tide, I could have walked across to the main channel. So if you're going to dredge and God, I hope you do. How about doing the whole town? I welcome? I'll call each and every one of you when the tides go out again, so you can come and see for yourself. And I hope you do do it. That's not a lot of money. That's not a lot of money to clean it up. You have to see what's happening and what's causing it. Okay? Pinellas County is buying all those spoil islands that they can get now, and they're doing that because they don't want anybody to build on them. It's a great idea. But don't they have some liability to maintain those islands? The sand's coming off. We all, including the city, went to the state. We went to the meetings. We I know I personally collected like 700 people who said we need to have a no wake zone coming into the city with the boats that are coming in now. And you guys, I'll buy you a beer if you want to come and see it. You can sit on my deck. Those waves are that that mess that's going back that you want to take out down to five feet. It's coming off those spoil islands and in our way. And how are you going to stop that? Just by dredging the state. Turned us down on that. Okay. The people who who live there and wanted this to stop, we don't have the funds or the contacts for somebody to contact the state and say, hey, wait, you got to you got to let this no wake zone come in. You can't afford to you can't afford to do this. Every year. I was on the charter committee. We're down to three years now, not five. Okay. And there's a reason for that. Because the sand is building higher and higher. I can't afford to have it done. The feds will do the main channel. Not as often as they should, but I hope you continue to allow these people to do this, but let them come back and do it all the way, okay? All the way where the spoil islands go, because that's what's causing that large area from where the sponge docks is all the way out to the lighthouse. There spoil islands and those big boats, and they come in and they come in. That and the, the new boats that come in and are taking 40 people out to the island to pick shells, they don't come in slow. They're causing so many wakes. It's unbelievable. I would you asking your help to do it all. I appreciate what they've done because I like the idea that the city is going to get involved. And, Mr. Collins, your time is up. If you could just wrap up your comments. Okay. I appreciate the time you gave me. I would be happy to show anybody when that tide gets that low again, because if it's going to cause a lot of dirt, it's you got to you. You got to get the county involved in this because they own those islands and they they're $1 billion business. They can they can help you. Thank you. Thank you sir. Good evening Craig. Lunch, 743 Chesapeake Drive. I'm more than thrilled that we're finally addressing this. I've brought this up several times as a commissioner. A couple times prior to that, when I wasn't a commissioner. Yet the last survey that we did, I mean, not just the recent one, but the one before that, I believe Bob will remember. I actually followed up on it because nothing was done in the procedure that's supposed to be attached to that. Until the time that I asked about it. However, that's not the point right now. I think it's a good thing we need to do this. I think one of the biggest mistakes we made in this particular survey was the fact that we forgot the west end of Cramer Bayou. If you're taking a look at, I'm not exactly sure which page this is, but it's it shows the outline of the channels. If you look at the whatever is the southern west end of Cramer Bayou where you see seagrass there and there's two strips of access on that bottom part there. There is a bigger part between these two sections where there are at least 11 or 12 homes. These are 11 or 12 homes right now are sand bound. I can take a look off the end of my dock, which is in the middle of Chesapeake there, and basically see a path to walking from the spoil island in there to their property almost at any low tide. Never mind the low, low tides. I mean, I can literally I have pictures I can share with you. I can literally show you the sand just going from end to end. So that's one of the things I wanted to comment on, because there's at least 11 or 12 homes there that have docks, have boats and have no access anymore because it's just too it's just not navigable. So that that area between those two pathways, there needs to be joined up because there's homes in between that that can't go anywhere right now. And if nothing's done about it, that spoil island is going to be right up against their shore and not too much time at all. The only other thing I wanted to comment on was there was some conversation here about navigable depth and the charter of the city of Tarpon Springs states that the city will maintain these channels to a navigable depth. The navigable depth is really not a question. Average navigable depth in Pinellas County is considered five feet. Four feet and three feet and two feet aren't really going to cut it. So that's all I have to say. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Lunt. Next speaker, please. Georgiana Francis, 15 Athens Street. I echo what Mr. Jim Collins said up here. And I think what we've seen here tonight is a good start. You know, Tarpon Springs has more waterways than any other city in Pinellas County. So something a project like this I think has to be a multi faceted project. This is now that we have a spoil site, we can kind of rest easy, that we have a place, a place to put all of the all of the sand and all the dredging. So I live near Spring Bayou, Craig Park, and I can tell you that a lot of times people share the pictures of when there's high tide and when it's coming up over, you know, almost to the streets. But what people don't share is pictures of when there's low tide and it's almost you can almost just walk in there, just like when you see the reverse, a surge in a hurricane. I've seen some very troubling things in the bayou. I've seen a wheelchair sticking out. So it's getting to a really serious problem where we're going to need special, I think, barges to even get into some of these places. So we're going to have to do again, as was mentioned here by Mr. Lunt, if there's bayous that are missing on here, anything it needs to be like, again, a multi faceted project. And I think that we need to balance that with especially with Craig Spring Bayou, the Craig Park seawall replacement, because that's also a huge project that's upcoming. And how are we going to balance those two things being done at the same time? Because I'm pretty sure that they would be interacting. So I think that's something that I think this, again, is a really good start, something that we just need to take time to work out. And Stantec, a lot of faith. They're a huge company that that we can do that. So just keep building and make this one of our priorities. Thank you. Thank you. Miss. Are there any other public comments? It are there any zoom comments? If anyone online would like to make a public comment on this item, please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Thank you. We are now going back to the Commission for comments. Commissioner Banther, your light was on. Yes, mayor. Thank you. I think it's not even disputed that we need to dredge these bayous and canals. I know Cramer Bayou from personal experience is very bad. I mean, it's even in high tide if you have a pontoon boat and navigating the oyster beds there, it's though it's almost, I don't want to say impassable, but you have to be skilled. I've had to get out and cut my feet and help push the boat off and whatnot. I also know that Sunset Lagoon is really, really bad. Is there any correlation between intensity of storm surge and the need to dredge? Is there anything on that at all? No. Not really, not at all. Okay. That's good to know. What's our what's our funding source for this? I think Ron can speak to that. But it's primarily going to be penny funds. Right Ron. Yeah. Thank you. Well I think this this this needs to be a priority for this, for the for this, for this commission for many of the reasons that that, that have been said tonight, but also a lot of our property values, not even those directly on the water, also are tied to navigable waterways. And, you know, I've seen in my lifetime, in 42 years, the way it's gone, if we don't start correcting this now, I think it's going to be a bigger problem down the road and much more costly. So I hope that we're able to figure out a way to move forward and have a plan. I know we can't do everything everywhere, but at least have a plan in place and a progression to move, to move forward. And of course, the dredging of the Anclote River, which, you know, is something that when I was on the commission in 2016, we got that ball rolling for what was just, I guess, somewhat completed. I'm unsure of the final status, but it needs to always be a topic of conversation with us because it is vital to our economic vitality. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Banther. Commissioner Eisner, thank you mayor. Do any of these prices that you have up take into consideration moving the sand to the spill site? Yes. Yeah. So these are included in this? Yeah. The higher numbers definitely would be included. Part of does that mean setting up all the pipes that go there. Well we'd have to look at the different ways to do it because as Mr. Starr mentioned, there's more than three miles of channels that we'll have to work through. There may be ways to barge it instead of pumping it through the piping, but that's going to have to be worked out once we get through the design, the methodology. But these are not the final prices, then these are conceptual cost estimates based on a volume that we calculated. So I know it was said before and I'm going to repeat it. All these people that have homes on there which I've spoken to you about, they're paying top dollar to have waterfront property and have boat access. And literally by charter and by law, we have to, you know, provide that. And we should not be we should either do this all because to break it up is so lengthy in time, as we can see just on this, that this is a project that needs to just we have to get the funds for it and just do it. Did you ever find out what the last time that we did in major. Area Project I. It predates me and I've been with the city for almost 19 years now. So. So it's been a while. Well, that's that's where I was going with this. Yeah. So it's been neglected for at least 20 years. I just can't see that we can just leave this like this for people such as Mr. Giuliani's as, as a view of, of low water. I mean, it has to be done. And it hasn't been done for many years. So I would only like to see, as I mentioned to you when I first saw this, this thing has to be extended to at least, you know, not not take out all the sand everywhere, but at least take out the sand around people's properties, because we don't know whether, as was said earlier, how much of if you dig out that five feet, how long a storm or how long people motoring onto their boatlift is going to make a berm and, you know, mess things up as well. So you do need to do at least five feet, because I was going to ask how long it takes to fill back, but I don't think anybody has that answer. The fill back could be according to storm. It could be according to a boat. So to me, doing just the open paths and spending all that time and effort, it sounds like it's going to be something two, three, possibly four years to get done. I couldn't see then starting it again with, you know, the rest of the areas that are being neglected. I also think that if you're going to do some of the area, like I saw some of the spots that are going to be done where people will have a nice path, you can aggravate the other people who are sitting there. Why'd you do it for them and not for us? So it either needs to be all done correctly, or hold off until we have the money to do it correctly. Yeah, I understand, and if I may, and no one was left off intentionally. No, no, I know that, you know, we picked the areas that I used a template from the last time the survey was done prior to 2021 was was again before my time. So, you know, I had knowing no other information. We used that as our template and that was our target. We've also had a hurricane since this survey was done. Two of them. So you know, there's some potential for change. And if the board wants to give me that direction, we could go out and do additional survey and pick up some of the areas that that were gaps, as you mentioned, come back to the board again with the recalculated numbers and get your approval to move forward with the design. We're in no rush to get the design started, except for the fact that it's going to take many years, sure, but if we want to do it right, as you all are, as I'm hearing, then maybe give us a little more time, a little more money and we'll and we'll, we'll get a better, more bigger picture of what it's going to look like. Well, I can tell you, this is a boater. I've watched just thousands and thousands of sand moving from. I'm sure you know, the sandbars. You know, all the canals open up, they close. I mean, it moves a whole lot of sand. I don't know how much it does on the inside because it's not full, you know, full, full wind. But we have to do it all. I mean, it's been neglected way too long, so thank you, Commissioner. Thank you. Commissioner. Commissioner DiDonato, I definitely feel we should go forward, but I, I would respectfully request that. And you probably already doing it, but I don't know for sure. But now that we have our own spoil site, I think we should use the heck out of it. If as long as we can afford it. We are a waterways community, we do have an obligation, I believe, to the to the to the town to make make sure these are navigable. So I like this long term process laid out one day that not one day hopefully in the future near future where we continue to stay caught up with the river and its channels, the bayous and whatnot through a long range. I agree this. It's unfortunate that the permitting process takes so, so long. So if we expedite our priorities on the dredging, then maybe that'll aid us in a better program to go forward a little here, a little there, a little. Eventually we'll get it done. And I'd like to see us come forward with that type of thing. Understood. Thank you, Commissioner DiDonato. Bob, thank you for the presentation with staff. I'm looking to do the minimum of five feet. As we all discussed, I was just hoping to see, like, my interpretation was like, when you show Cramer or you show Spring Bayou that, you know, that whole area was going to be scooped out so that that was what I assumed initially. So. Is that something we're all looking to come back with, or are we just looking to connect the actual pathways that the boats travel through the, the inner waterways? I think what I'm asking, if I'm understanding your question is your question is should we dredge everything or should we, you know, survey everything? I mean, I don't think everybody boats everywhere in these canals and bayous, maybe I'm interpreting that wrong or what you're saying I'm interpreting wrong. But I think the idea would be to if the board is okay with it, we could spend a little more money and go back and survey some of the maybe the hotspots that we might have missed or that were developed since the last time we did this and almost a year ago, or did the survey work. And then we can come back with a little more information for you to make a decision. Sure. I'm not. You know, I understand it's a pricey item, but I'm cost is we're talking about a capital improvement project like this that supports the charter. I understand it's going to be expensive. And so I'm here to support it. I understand you know, what our community is, but I'd like to get as much area covered as even the residents are. Board. The boards have asked for. That way we can just try to do it right. So a little bit more time isn't going to hurt us. No. And we started this process early in the charter. Still, says five years hasn't been changed yet. So we know we're within that window. You know, I started it early so that we would have time to make changes and adjust if things needed. So I think we're in good shape in terms of timeline. Thank you sir. City manager like him on. So I just wanted to confirm on what I'm hearing is a larger scope of dredging more areas. And then I think your question was like a like Spring Bayou. Do we not scoop out the whole bayou or just a path in and out? So maybe we'll look at how we these the, the bayous, the, these areas that are through. Do we scoop it all? Can we scoop it all out and, you know dredge the whole is that doable, that sort of thing. Right. We also have to look at permeability of something like that. We may not get permission to dredge that much. We may only get permission to dredge canals and thruways so boating traffic can get in and out. And Matt, you could speak to that if you want some more information about that. So another thing to think about as, as we kind of bring this to a point. Sure, sure. Okay. And Bob, how are we looking with the Outer Cuts project is that I know that that last presentation said it was about a year out. Where are we looking at with that right now, sir? So, mayor, you're asking me about the Army Corps project, which is the dredging of the outer cuts of the Federal channel, which is out past Anclote Key for everyone's information. Yes, yes. I'm. I'm constantly monitoring that. They keep me in the loop. It is entirely an Army Corps project. It won't involve the city. It won't involve our spoil site. Anything. At this time. They make no plans for that. But it is still a ways out because it will impact seagrasses. And because of that, they have to mitigate that. And so they're working around finding mitigation. I will update the board, and I have asked the Army Corps to come present to the board when they have more information for you. Right now, it's still kind of in the working phases, and I don't have any definitive information for you beyond that. Thank you sir. Yes, perfect. Commissioner Eisner, your light was on. Yes, sir. Thank you mayor. So I could probably answer your question. What you asked, there would be probably no way they would allow us to scoop out an entire bayou just because of the grass and all kinds of things, besides the fact we probably couldn't afford it. Sure, it would be way. Even though I would tell you this, it's an excellent and amazing idea because that's what it's needed. But they would never allow that. So what I had asked of Mr. Robertson was just to do a pathway around a perimeter so that people can get in and out, and even that will be hard to d. And expensive, probably triple to quadruple what we have now, from what I see, because I know all these back areas is still a lot to take out, a really lot where where Mr. Lunt was speaking about where you could walk. Yes. You're talking about it being now in a foot. They'd have to take out at least four feet there. So the amount of dredge that you'd have to do would be so costly just to go around the perimeter. It's I would like to see that estimate. That's all I'd like to say because it's going to be a whopper. Yes, sir. I'd like to still see it. I'd like to have to do it, but, you know. Okay. So, yeah, trying to take the whole thing out. It's a great idea, but I don't think we can afford it. Yeah. No, no. Thank you. Okay. City manager staff, do you have direction to go check out a little bit more and come back with some other numbers? Yes, I think we've got good direction. Thank you so much, Bob. Thank you sir. Okay. We are now on to item 17 Award file number 250107-C-H discovery Park playground equipment utilizing school Board of Manatee County. Contract number 21-0053. Mr. Park and playground equipment. And we have public works director. Mr. Duncan to present the item. Good evening. Tom. Function public works director. We're recommending the replacement of the Discovery Park playground, which is of course, located up in sports complex. Approve the bid from Project innovations for equipment and installation based on a piggyback contract. Manatee. Manatee County Schools contract number 20 1-0053. Mr. For $545,263.60. Discovery playground was originally installed in 1988, and we refurbished it with the help of Commissioner Jeff Lawson. Actually, in 2012. The playground is now 27 years old and has surpassed its safe and useful life project innovation is a Tarpon Springs based company that has done multiple playgrounds for the city of Tarpon Springs. Actually actually did the one at the Sunset Beach two and a couple other ones. This is a project number about total about $650,000. Remaining money between the 254 and 650 will utilize for tree removal, bench replacement, picnic tables and other amenities that are up at the park. Thank you. Mr. Function. Are there any public comments on this item? It are there any zoom comments? Hearing none. The chair will entertain a motion to approve a award. File number 250107-C-PH. So moved second. Thank you. There are no further comments or discussion. Roll call please. Commissioner Banther. Yes, Mr. Yes. Commissioner Eisner. Yes, yes. We're now going to item 18, resolution 2025-06, ratification of Executive Orders 202503 and 202505, extending a declaration of state of emergency for Tarpon Springs due to Hurricane Helene and City Attorney, can you please read the title? Yes, sir. Resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida. Ratifying Executive Order 2020 5-03, extending the declaration of local state of emergency to extending the declaration of local state of emergency to January 21st, 2025, and ratifying Executive Order 2020 5-05, extending the declaration of local state of emergency to January 28th, 2025, and providing for an effective date hereof. Thank you. Are there any public comments on this item? It are there any zoom comments? Anyone online would like to make a public comment on this item? Please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Thank you. The chair will entertain a motion to approve resolution 202506. So moved. Second, there are no further comments or discussion. Roll call please. Panther. Yes, Commissioner. DiNardo. Yes, Commissioner. Eisner. Yes, yes, yes. Item 19. Resolution 202507. Ratification of Executive Orders 202504 and 202506. Extending a declaration of state of emergency for Tarpon Springs due to hurricane melting. A city attorney, can you please read the title resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, ratifying Executive Order 2020 5-04 extending declaration of local state of emergency to January 2125, 2025 and ratifying Executive Order 2020 5-06, extending the declaration of local state of Emergency to January 28th, 2025 and providing for an effective date here of. Thank you sir. Are there any public comments on this item? I t are there any zoom comments? Online? Would like to make a public comment on this item. Please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Thank you. Hearing none, the chair will entertain a motion to approve resolution 202507. So moved. Second, other comments or discussion? Roll call please. Commissioner. Panther. Yes. Commissioner. Donato. Yes, Commissioner. Eisner. Yes, mayor. Yes. We are now on to item 20, resolution 202508 supporting the legislative appropriation request application of the Project Administration Department to the State of Florida for three stormwater improvement projects to resolve flooding issues and mitigate storm surge impacts. And we have Mr. Bob Robertson, Project Administrator Director. I could read the resolution. Oh, yes, a resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, supporting the legislative appropriation request, application of the project administration Department to the State of Florida for three stormwater improvement projects to resolve flooding issues and mitigate storm surge impacts. Thank you, City Manager. Thank you, mayor. This is the item I alluded talked to you about in my city manager report. Our request to the state this year are all stormwater projects. We took the next three off the stormwater action plan, and we've met with our Senate, both our Senate and House representatives, and they feel optimistic about our due to the impact of the storms. We think we have a sympathetic ear to get these projects approved this year. It sounds great. Thank you. City Manager. Are there any public comments on this item? I t are there any zoom comments? Anyone online would like to make a public comment on this item? Please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Thank you. Hearing none, the chair will entertain a motion to approve resolution 202508. Second, there are no further comments or discussion. Roll call please. Mr. Banther. Yes, Commissioner DiDonato. Yes. Commissioner Eisner. Yes. Yes. Item 21. Resolution 202509 supporting the Community Development Block Grant. Application of the Project Administration Department to Pinellas County for a public facilities improvement project to rehabilitate the Tarpon Springs Community Center. Gymnasium floor. City attorney, can you please read the title resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, supporting the Community Development Block Grant. Application of the Project Administration Department to the Pinellas County for. To Pinellas County for a public facilities improvement project to rehabilitate the Tarpon Springs Community Center. Gymnasium floor. Thank you. Are there any public comments on this item? I t are there any zoom comments? If anyone online would like to make a public comment on this item, please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Thank you. Hearing none, the chair will entertain a motion to approve resolution 202509 moved. Second, there are no further comments or discussion. Roll call please. Mr. Panther. Yes, Commissioner DiDonato. Yes, Commissioner Eisner. Yes, mayor. Yes. We are now on to item 22, budget resolution 2025-03 City Attorney, can you please read the title? Yes. A resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, amending the budget for fiscal year 2024 dash 25. Thank you. Are there any public comments on this item? It are there any zoom comments? If anyone online would like to make a public comment on this item, please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raise hands at this time. Thank you. Hearing none, the chair will entertain a motion to approve to approve budget resolution 202503. So moved. Second, there are no further comments or discussion. Roll call please. Mr. Banther. Yes. Mr. DiDonato. Yes. Commissioner Eisner. Yes. Yes. The final item of the night. Item 23, ordinance 202401 Land Development Code amendment amending article seven heritage preservation and providing for creation of Neighborhood Conservation overlay districts. Application 22-112 Legislative second reading. This is an ordinance of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida amending the City of Tarpon Springs. Code of Ordinances, appendix A comprehensive Zoning and Land Development Code, article seven heritage Preservation and Establishing standards and processes for the creation of a Neighborhood Conservation Overlay District. Providing for severability. Providing for inclusion in the Code of Ordinances of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida. And providing for the effective date of this ordinance. Thank you. Are there any public comments on this item? I t are there any zoom comments? If anyone online would like to make a public comment on this item, please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Hearing none, the chair will entertain a motion to approve ordinance 2024-01. So moved. Second. Thank you. If there are no further comments or discussion, roll call please. Mr. Benson. Yes, Commissioner D'Amato. Yes, Commissioner Eisner. Yes. Mayor. York. Yes. Get to go home now. This is the end of the agenda. This concludes the regular session agenda. We will now go to board and staff comments. Staff comments. Police Chief young, no comments, sir. Thank you, city attorney Mr. Dickman. No comments. Mayor. City manager, Mr. Rudd, no comments. Madam city clerk, miss Jacobs, just real quickly, I just like to remind the board tomorrow night at 6 to 8 is the Citizen's Academy graduation. Thank you, thank you. What location? Heritage. I'm sorry. The heritage museum. Perfect. Thank you. Miss Jacobs. Board comments. Commissioner Banther. Yes. Thank you. We have a special guest here in the crowd tonight. One of my oldest college buddies came down for some hunting trips and he thought it would be good entertainment to come watch our City Commission meeting tonight. His name is Anthony Lewis. He's from Michigan, and he he's also involved in local politics up there in Michigan. So he got to he got to compare and contrast. So hopefully we're not any worse than how they do things up there. So congrats for you know sticking through 2.5 hours. So it was a short meeting tonight. Thank you for coming. We're actually well behaved tonight. So that was good. Commissioner DiDonato none at this time sir. Thank you Commissioner Eisner. Yes, I think you should have told us so that we could have misbehaved. I warned him about you, though, don't I? Pre-warned him? But welcome and thank you for the entertainment. I just wanted to thank you all. I'm actually after I had the Sister Cities meeting, I went and spoke with them. They advised me to send out two letters to the islands to finish the twinning ceremony. Obviously, if that does even happen, they'd have to come to Tarpon Springs. That would be vice mayor, mayor elect Collins during that time period. So just letting the board know and then other than that, there are no further comments. So this concludes the regular session. Meeting adjourned at 8:56 p.m. And we are yes, we are now going to the CRA. We're going to give one minute for it to set up, and we'll begin then. I now call to order the special session agenda for the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Tarpon Springs on Tuesday, January 21st, 2025 at 8:57 p.m. Miss Jacobs, roll call please. Chair coleus here. Vice chair is absent. An excused. Commissioner Eisner here. Commissioner Donato here. Commissioner. Panther here. Item one on tonight's agenda is approved. Scope of services for shuttle services. And we have City Manager Charles Read to present. Thank you. Mayor. Thank you. Mayor. We're bringing this back to you after the last meeting. You wanted a scope. We thought by piggybacking, we could try this service out. As it turns out, it's really kind of all or nothing. They want us. They understand. They need to buy vehicles, hire people and go in. So it is the same cost as a year. So my recommendation to you, if you still want to go this route would be we do an RFP and we aim for next fall. You know we get multiple proposals perhaps and compare pricing because this is a pretty, pretty steep price to try this out just at the end of our season. And they would need as much as 60 days potentially to get set up. So that would be my recommendation is we if you want to try this, if you don't want to buy a little electric vehicles and do it in-house, we would do an RFP and see what we get and then maybe budget for it for next fiscal year. Perfect. Thank you. City manager. Are there any public comments on this item? It are there any zoom comments? If anyone online would like to make a public comment on this item, please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Thank you, Commissioner Eisner, your light is on. Yes it is. I was the one who kind of brought this up, and I was waiting for those kind of numbers to show up, and I kind of was actually not in agreement to what you were suggesting, mayor, about buying it. And I would like to reverse that and consider us buying it and not getting involved with spending 170 some odd thousand dollars. I think we can buy it and not just restrict it to the CRA area as well. So if people want, you know, if we did own it our own on our own, we would be able to be able to take people that possibly did drink a bit much to bring them back home safely, and they could pick up their vehicle the next day or whatever. But I think that's the route we should go. We should start possibly with one vehicle. See how it works, invest the $60,000, invest the one driver and we wouldn't be hindered. When I saw it was 22 hours and I saw the price tag, you know, we could do our own advertising on the sides of the vehicle and get paid back that way as well, so we don't have to split it with freebie. I think they were a little too heavy handed with their pricing. I understand why, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm still going to say no to that. It's not worth that kind of money for us to do so. I don't know how the rest of the board would like to hear what they have to say, but I'm willing to go and pursue a $60,000 purchase. Or even if we wanted to do just, you know, a fair, a fair weather golf cart type thing where we could have one enclosed and one exposed because our weather is pretty good here. So however we want to do that, that's going to be so much more cost effective than having an outside source. Thank you, thank you Commissioner. Commissioner Banther thank you. Yes, I was in support of this item coming back with details that are out of out of, out of respect to my colleagues in support, but I don't support this item tonight for the same reasons I didn't support it last time. It's a great concept, not opposed to the idea of the future, but I just can't support it at this time, especially purchasing the vehicles. Thank you, thank you. Commissioner Banther Commissioner DiDonato I concur. I do not see now is the time to make an expense on something we weren't sure of. I don't believe the idea is a good idea. It's just before it's time as far as I'm concerned. So waiting until the fall sometime to date to be determined is fine with me. Okay, what would this commission be interested in? Allowing City Manager and staff to produce an RFP for some type of fall presentation in the future? I'm okay with that. I know, I know, it's getting pricey, but, you know, it's seems like we're not going to do it in-house and maybe we can get some competitive offers, but at these rates it is expensive. I'm not saying it's not, and I don't think I'd support anything close to what those numbers are reflecting. You want you want my go ahead. Okay. So I don't think the RFP that we do is going to be any different in the fall. Is it? It will be now. So my suggestion to purchase is not that it has to be done now. It just has to be researched. Price is done for when we decide that we will start it. So I think that's I didn't want anyone to think that we just run out now and buy $60,000 vehicle. But my comment is more so if we're going to decide between outside source or in-house, I want to do in-house whenever that is, that's fine. But I want it to be an in-house. I want to buy it. Okay. If. All right, you had your comments, if you'd like to make a motion to the extent that you're saying. And so I would like to make a motion to get hard pricing and have a time frame of when we're going to price, whether it be 1 or 2 vehicles, and see about having drivers and offsetting it by advertising, and it would be out of CRA funds. I'd also like, which I always believe in, is to get a poll of what the CRA business people think about it, and if they are in approval of it, it would be something that we can go ahead with if they're not in approval of it, and they feel that they don't want to do it at all, then maybe we shouldn't. So, okay, that was a that was a long motion that you made. Yes. It was. Yeah. I think there was two parts to that. One is pricing out the vehicles and the other is getting input from the CRA because we're spending their money. That's what the bottom line is, even though we're in charge of it. See if they want to do this as well. Okay. So you look to see if the pricing and the cost of for the city perform it in-house. Yes. Is there a second? The motion dies. So the motion dies. This concludes the special session agenda. We will now go to board and staff comments. Police Chief young, no comments a city attorney, no comment. City manager, no comments. Mayor. City clerk, no comments. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Banther. No comments. Commissioner DiDonato. No comments, Commissioner Eisner, no comments and I have no comments. This concludes the special session. Meeting adjourned at 9:05 p.m.