--------- Good evening everybody. We'll call the uh work session to to to order. Um we are here today to discuss the public safety complex, have a discussion about that and a potential bond issue and uh what to build, when to
build it, and how big and beautiful to build it or uh whether to build a tent. So, we'll we'll see where this goes. And so, thank you everybody for being here. Uh it's nice to see everybody. I'll turn it over to the city manager. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. Uh, I have a brief presentation to start out
just to provide some context here with this issue. Also want the council and the public to know that we're joined here this evening in person by the architectural firm of PBK. There's they're waving right there. Uh, as well as by phone with our uh with Chris Row, who's part of bond counsel with Bryant
Miller and Olive. Um, so they're here to answer any questions that might not be able to be answered by me or or some of our staff. So, uh, having said all that, let me just jump right into the presentation. So, obviously, we're here to talk about public safety. Um, give you a little bit of history, uh, for the
community. The council is very well aware of this. When we started this endeavor, it was primarily focused on a police station. And there's some history here that the the fact that this police department in Temple Terrace, of which we all have a lot of admiration for, have never had a freestanding police
station as far as I understand it. And so there's been a discussion of that for several years. Um, in fact, it was a council priority just several years ago for us to acquire land for a future police station. That's in fact what we did. Uh, in 2024,
the city acquired a 5 acre parcel at 7911 Harney Road. Uh, we paid 1.6 million. We in fact we used the money from the Rollers Ranch sales proceeds to offset that cost. And as I mentioned, the priority was to find land for a
police station. But when we located this piece of property, it was the size of it being five acres was conducive, we felt, to potentially being able to house a fire station as well. So, uh, it made a lot of sense. the city council in the
FY25 budget, you included $200,000 for a conceptual design and costing to show what a police station and a possible joint police and fire station complex would look like on the property and how much the the financial impact would be to the city. And that's what PBK has has
has done. So, let's just focus right now on the police side of the house. So, the police facility. So, the police department has been here in the third floor of this building uh in an 11,000 square footprint since the late 1970s. And in
1982, this police department had 26 sworn officers and 11 civilian employees. And they served a population of just over 11,000 people. today in the this department has 57 sworn officers and 20 civilian employees and serves a
population of over 28,000 people in the same station footprint. So they haven't moved from the third floor yet. Everything around them has increased in terms of the officers, employees and obviously the population that they need to serve. The police also in addition to staffing have other challenges with space. They
have uh their reserve vehicles, their backup vehicles are located right now in various city parking lots around city hall. Their SWAT van and their uh uh Bearecat is actually stored off site uh in the public works property. So,
they're a little bit spread out in the community and obviously having one centralized headquarters would allow them to bring all those things into a secure unified position. Now, the fire station when we're going through this exercise, as I mentioned,
we had talked about a future fire station to address some of the growth that we've experienced on the east side of the community. And we envisioned that the fire station would would be a need at some point in the future. And now we're here at this moment where we have this opportunity again to develop both at the same time.
uh the issue or the I say the benefit of developing both at the same time would be obviously to be a cost savings because you have one one mobilization you don't disrupt the facilities if you have a police station built first you're disrupting their operations so that there's definitely some some efficiency
from doing that but we did ask the fire the fire chief and his team to give us the data do we build this now do we build this in the future so the fire department pro provided a report which I shared with the council a couple of weeks ago And it noted that the in the 90 90th
percentile response bracket for the area that would be served by a future fire station 3 that their calls are averaging 8 minutes and 29 seconds. Now the benchmark we have a class one fire department. So their benchmarks are probably more aggressive than other fire departments who are in class one. And
our benchmark is 6 minutes and 40 seconds for that first piece of apparatus to arrive at your house after you call 911. So obviously 8 minutes and 29 seconds is not meeting that benchmark. Uh in fact if there were not a fire station built by 2035 the
department projects that that could rise to 10 to 12 minutes and I've just lost the video feed. Brian okay I heard an O. Okay it's a good O I guess. Okay. Um >> an IT term. So, and then on the east part of town,
uh, one of the additional drivers is is that industrial and warehouse growth we've had, which is great. Amazon, uh, the Veterans Administration medical clinic, they're great in terms of taxpayers to the community and also in terms of the jobs they provide to our community, but they are taxing the
resources of the fire department. In fact, 9.4% 4% of all the calls, EMS calls that would be part of that station 3 area are being driven just by those two buildings. Um, so knowing all that, it sounds like we we should be thinking about a fire station.
Um, and uh, the chief and I have had many conversations about how do you staff this, right? There could be some operational costs as well. Uh Chief Kemp's idea, I think, is is a novel idea, which would be to move one of our rescue ambulances over to the third fire station with our existing staffing. So
today we have three rescue uh ambulances. We have one stationed at station two in the northern part of the city and we have two stationed at station one. So again, the concept here would be to move one of those two from station one over to station three. No
additional staffing. Uh, and I think that's that's a good idea and that would work I think for a while. Uh, I believe over time as there'd be more development and more growth in that area, you'd probably or future council, not this council, but a future council would probably have to consider funding uh,
the addition of firefighters for a full fire suppression unit. So, we've looked at that as well, and that would be the addition of potentially 12 new firefighter paramedics uh, to be consistent with the way the fire department's response methodology is. So, if you were to to do that or future
council was to do that based on today's costing for salaries, that would be an additional $1.3 million on an annual basis to the city's operating budget. But again, that would be several years out at this point. I don't foresee that happening anywhere in the near future. If you think about even if you were to say yes tonight to build both of these
facilities, by the time you even open the facility after construction, you're probably looking at 2030. Um, and so that that would still be some time before this issue became salient. Um, if the future council were to consider additional funding, there are federal grants that offset some of those initial
costs. They're called the safer grants. So, the way safer grants work is that in the first two years, there are three-year grants. The first two years, there's a 75% cost being borne by the federal government. In the last year, it's 35% borne by the federal government. So, it helps communities basically mitigate for some of that
shock, that initial shock of funding several firefighter positions. Uh, something that I used in my last community as well. So, uh, obviously a tool that we could consider if we needed to, but then that would be several years down the road. Now, as I was mentioning, we were
talking about these response areas for station three. So, uh, we have a chart here, and I apologize, it's in color, but I'll try and explain it because I I know that >> I'm good. >> Okay. >> Um, >> so there's station one is in green. Station one is the bulk of the city. So
everything from the Tampa border uh roughly to the river uh and then just a little bit beyond Fowler as well on the western end. Station two is in the pink or the salmon color primarily telecom uh in the area to the very northeast part
of the city. And then station three of the proposed area is in blue and that would be everything east of the river and most of everything south of Fowler Avenue as well. Now when we hired uh PBK to do the the concepts uh as I may have mentioned we
we hired him to basically show us a concept that would show only a fire a police station and a rendering and in site plan that would show also a joint police and fire station. So this is the what you're seeing on the screen right now is a police department only concept. So, this is has a police station that's
three stories, 33,000 square feet, has a secure parking area for the PD fleet. And that's also important because modern stations today, everything's behind a gate and a fence for the security not just of the vehicles, but also for the officers. Again, if you know, these folks are going out every
day interacting with people, may not be at their happiest moments, and you know, then they they're going back to their cars in the middle of the night, things like that. So, it's nice to have a secure facility. Um, this facility would also have an indoor firing range, which is, if you look at the picture to the right, on that picture to the right, the
very top left of it, you'll see that what looks like a box, a rectangular box. That's the indoor firing range. We also have a garage for their specialized vehicles. That SWAT van, Bearecat, and the uh command uh post, that garage is located in that picture to the right, the very top of the site plan in the
back corner. Obviously, the other alternative was to look at the joint facility. So, here we have a site plan that shows both a police station and a fire station. Fire station 3 would be uh projected to be 10,000 square feet, a one-story
building. It would have two bays and there'd be a drive-thru. So, in essence, what you see here on this site plan, if you look up at the top, you see Harney Road. You see the driveway entrance to the left. So, the the apparatus would come in through that driveway. They drive around the site and they venture through the back of the fire station
which is on the right side of that site plan and they'd exit obviously through the uh the other end of the fire station. Uh that's a very efficient way to to build a fire station. Uh this facility would also have a hot, warm and cold contamination control zone. Would have an isolated uh self-contained
breathing apparatus fill station for the for the tanks. Would also have an outdoor training area which you can see on the site plan. It's at the bottom right of the site plan. uh those would be sort of those conx boxes, those shipping container type things that they use for simulations and in their
training. And uh one of the more important aspects is if you do this joint facility with the police department, the fire department would be able to share training and conference rooms. So they basically walk across the little courtyard and there would be conference rooms and training spaces that they would use uh jointly with the police
department. And whether they paint it blue or red, it's up to uh I think that's up to the architects to figure out. But I know that concern has been raised already. So um this is an aerial of the uh facilities the joint police and fire station facility. So again you
see here Harney Road would be on the bottom right. There's a retention pond that would be constructed here to address storm water. There's also storm water underground va v vaults that would be used for storm water retention on the site. Uh and you see everything we just talked about.
This is a ground level view of the police and fire stations. So, let's talk about the project costs. So, these costs here are exclusive of financing expenses. Whenever you go out to to the bond market, you go out for a bank loan, there's always some financing costs and things like that, which we're
going to talk about outside of this chart. So, right now, this is pretty much designing it and building it and putting furniture in it. So what PBK did is they actually went out to three different cost estimators to try and find a good range of of pricing to get
us a solid estimate that would be conservative but realistic. So what I'm going to do here is you can see from the slide there are ranges for each of these elements. I'm just going to read you the top number again to be ultra-conservative again giving you the worst case scenario. So I'm going to start with the police station. So,
construction of the police station, uh, estimated at top end of $31 million. Now, that is a significant number, but I want to make sure that everybody understands that includes the majority of the site development costs because of council. If you have choose to just build a police station and leave a fire
station for later on, you want to make sure the site has proper storm water retention for a future fire station, that all the other infrastructure is there to accommodate a future fire station. So, all of that is being borne by the police station cost estimate here. Soft costs. This would be design and engineering. Permitting are
estimated at 2.6 million. Furniture, fixtures, and equipment uh approximately 1 million for an estimated cost of 34.6 million. Again, on the on the top end on the fire station, we're looking at a cost of uh 9.7 million. Soft costs about
824,500. Uh furniturees, fixtures, and equipment approximately 200,000 to add up to about 10.7 million. again on the top end. So, how do we pay for this? Uh, as I've mentioned in the past to the council, my
recommendation would be to seek a general obligation bond. A GEO bond is, in my estimation, the least impactful in operations because this is something that's very transparent. The voters decide that this is something they want to financially support, so they vote for this. And that's be a separate millage
rate on the tax bill. So it wouldn't impact the city's operational millage because if we had to support um this type of debt service, it it would be a significant fiscal strain on operations. So this keeps it aside and again it was something the voters decided. A geo bond
is backed by the full faith and credit. So it doesn't take collateral. It's not looking at add assets. It's the full faith and credit of your taxing your taxing power here. Um, also want to me make it very clear that the funds for a geo bond cannot be used for any other purpose aside from what's in the bond
question. So if it's a bond question that says you want to build a police and fire station, you can't use it to build a park. You can't use it for operations. You have to use it for what it was specified for in the bond. Uh, and if the project doesn't happen, the money isn't spent. So, for example,
um if you decide you want to do this and we move forward and the the bond is successfully voted on, but then we get struck with some sort of catastrophe like a pandemic or some some event of that nature, just because the bond's been approved by the voters doesn't mean it's been issued yet. And so, if you
never issue the bond or if you decide to issue it on a smaller scale, etc., the public is only responsible for what's actually been issued and what you're actually going to spend it on, not for, you know, the the an artificial number. So that fiscal impact uh so as I mentioned the police station 34.6
million fire department 10.7 million uh underwriting uh legal costs financial advising rating agency all those costs are bundled into about 1 to 2% of the total. So just those three line items alone would probably add to about 46.3
to 46.5 million when you're looking at a bond. uh upon advice we've had from our financial adviser as well as bond counsel, one of the things you want to be cognizant of is that this is a lengthy process. So, you're going to start now with an idea of what that number is going to be. By
the time you actually break ground, it could be a year, two years later. Um in our case, it probably would be two years later. So because of that there's a suggestion you want to make sure you have enough cushion in there that if there's inflation in construction of which there has been the last several
years that you want to have a not to exceed number that accommodates that inflation. So the suggestion here is have to have a not not to exceed bond amount of 50 million. Again that doesn't mean you spend 50 million. You could spend 40 million, but it's just a not to exceed amount because if you find
yourself in a situation where you did have inflation, you can't you wouldn't have the flexibility to address it through the bond anymore. You'd have to figure out a different way to do that. In terms of what the millage impact would be, if we pursue a 30-year bond, which would be our our recommendation,
the and you did it today. Um, so today if you did a bond, uh, you'd probably get a rate of between 4.2 25 and 4.5%. That's what our our financial advisor said based on our community. He's unable to predict a year from now
what the rates will be. Um I assume that the rates are going to go down. He's not as certain. So what I provided here is a range between an interest rate of 4% and interest rate of 4.75%. Based on those ranges and that 30-year bond, you're looking at millage of 0.90
to 0.98 mills um for anyone in this community in terms of paying repaying this debt. So, if there were a home that were assessed at $250,000, the impact would be projected to be in the range of $225 to $245 annually over this 30-year
period. Now, to help the voters understand this issue, it's important that we do a significant amount of education. Under Florida law, the city can educate, but we can't advocate uh for a bond issue, particularly once it's been voted to be on the ballot by the council. But our uh
city's marketing communications team, they're gearing up to work, assuming council gives us the green light tonight, to work with executive, the police department, and the fire department on materials for presentations, town halls. Um we'd have info tables at all our city events. We
could do website information, social media. We collaborate with different community groups like Rotary, the women's club, etc. Chamber. Uh we could even do mailers. However, the mail mayors, as I'm sure bond council, well, I know they've told us before, they'll tell us again, once you have the bond resolution voted on, which you have, the
bond ordinance in our case, which you'd have to do, uh, then you can't really do that anymore, but prior to you pos you probably could. So, there's a wealth of information that we could get out to our community. This slide actually just includes some logos from other Florida communities that have recently gone
through their geo bond process, help understand sort of how they've done it. So, let's talk about some of the referendum ballot options. Um, so there's three options here. The if council wishes to pursue this project
and you want to do a geo bond, you could look to put this question on the general election ballot of November 3rd of this year. Uh, obviously the general election is has the largest will draw the largest pool of voters. Uh, however, there is a somewhat of a downside is that it's
going to be a pretty packed ballot. Uh there's there are going to be other ballot initiatives, other candidacies, etc. So, our item will be mired in that mix. There will probably be also items uh based on the anti-property tax constitutional amendments that the legislature is discussing. We don't know
if there'll be one, two, or more, or none. So, that could also be on the ballot. Um in terms of costs, really the only costs are legal ads that we are required to do as part of this process. The deadline if the council wishes to put this on the general election ballot
would be August 18th. Second option is the primary election uh which will be held this year on August 18th. Uh typically a primary draws more of the sort of dedicated more informed locally focused voters uh this bond
refere if we did the bond referendum excuse me on that ballot ballot it would be likely to be more prominent uh less items. the supervisor of elections has already told us that that the the general will probably be very crowded. Um so they suggested that you know if we want to consider the primary that may be
a better alternative. U obviously the cost would be the same for legal ads. The deadline for the ballot if we choose the primary is June 8th and then we have the option of a special election in 2027. If that were the case, that would obviously be u at least right now
ostensibly a single issue ballot just for our city's geo bond referendum. And there would be a charge the supervisor elections would charge us $15,000 to hold that election. And the deadline for that ballot would be determined by when we decided to actually move forward with this issue.
Now, what we've done is gone ahead and suggested the primary u just to give you an idea of the schedule here. uh if you chose the primary obviously be more the most aggressive schedule uh for this effort. Uh so you see here this was actually put together by bond council.
So I want to take thank Mr. Ro who's on the call. He put this together. I haven't included all the elements of the schedule. I just included the ones that were salient to the city council. So tonight what we would ask this afternoon um in in the council meeting would be a
decision on the bond scope. In other words, do you want to do a geo bond and what do you want to do it for? Police and fire combined or just police? And which ballot would you like us to pursue? Uh if you do that tonight, then April 7th and 21st, we'd have the readings of the referendum ordinance. Uh
by May 1st, we'd have the referendum ordinance forwarded to the supervisor elections. By May 29th, we'd have the translation of that referendum and the publication of notice. The translation is required by the supervisor elections. It has to be translated into Spanish. uh by June 8th, we'd have that
translated ballot to the supervisor elections and then we'd have the election on August 18th. Now, that's everything leading up to the election. After the election, assuming the bond is approved, there's still various steps and months that still are
are time frames that we have to meet. So, the uh results of the referendum would be presented to city council on September 1st. there'd be adoption of an authorizing authorizing resolution to move forward. Uh then by December 15th, there'd be adoption of a supplemental
bond resolution approving the details of the bond issuance. And then we would look to issue the bond in the first quarter of calendar year 2027. And then we would look to um retain the secure a design engineering contract for your approval also in that first quarter
27. And in construction, realistically, I see construction starting in 2028 and running for about 18 months, perhaps a little longer. So, it would take us to late 29 perhaps as or early 2030. So, again, just to reiterate tonight,
what we be seeking uh some recommendations from the workshop and in action at the council meeting is again, what would you like us to do? police station, joint facility, geo bond, and which referendum uh which ballot I should say. And I will stand for questions.
>> Thank you, Mr. B. So, council, it seems like might be a good good way to move forward is to start with questions for staff and then move into discussion afterwards so we don't get tangled up and not get anywhere. So, are there questions for Mr. B? I'm sure there there probably are. So, Council Member
Fernandez. >> Okay. So my question has to do with timing. One is if we were to choose the primary ballot, would we realistically have enough time
to actually get the information to voters? I I don't know the exact science, but you have to see something seven times before you really absorb it. Um, so it wouldn't make sense to choose the primary ballot over the general if
we really can't get the information out widely and consistently enough. >> So definitely the primary ballot is a more aggressive schedule. Um, if we I I'm confident that we could meet that. So if you think about today's February
3rd, if the council says tonight go with the primary, tomorrow we'd start to convene our team. actually already sent out a note to the team preemptively just saying look if we do the primary we have to get these steps and they have the schedule that the bond council gave you which I shared with the council uh last
week as well so uh we're first week of February the the election would be third week of August so I feel like we have still sufficient amount of time there obviously it's more compressed but if you think about our big events where we'd have information disseminated as well we still have time to hit all those
events largely not winter wonderland but that would be too late anyway But all the other events, the Fourth of July, the Artsfest, the Brewfest, all these things, we we'd have a presence there as well in addition to any other publications and materials. I'm sure word of mouth would be a an important element as well in this community,
community our size that has again a high regard for our police and fire officers. Um, I'm sure that that would help. Uh but obviously it is the more aggressive uh chronology, but there's a reason for that because again there's there you have to weigh the pros and cons. The
general election ballot being as crowded as it may be, is it worth taking the risk that the shorter time frame may actually provide you with a little bit more exposure for this issue? >> And so and then uh my other question for staff is annexation.
And we've discussed annexation, you know, obviously for years and years and years. But what is the thought process that because this station three obviously that's the area
where we have annexation available to us and if the more we or the faster we add an annex, the more that spot that is needed. But do we have any sort of
concrete annexation plan that we're going to try to pursue in the near future? >> Right now, in terms of a proactive plan, we've we've had discussions about it. We don't I can't I wouldn't sit here and say we have a concrete plan. U we are
getting requests for annexation, additional annexation. In fact, we have a property that's on the other side of 301. So now we'd be jumping 301 potentially down in the industrial area that's they're they're having discussions with our community development staff through our DRC. Um and they're talking about being annexed.
Uh we also know for example down at the the Rollers Ranch property which Dr. Patel and his team bought if they develop down there. So there'll be new tax base down there and also that's an area that that's going to be a challenge for fire department to respond to again because of where it's located sort of
the outer extreme. So, so there voluntarily there are pieces that have been coming into the community. I think if you were if you were going to ask me right now where I think we should annex I think the area directly across the street from this police station that Tampa uh Commerce Park which is sort of
the light warehouses industrial warehouses that's an area that is in my mind sort of an enclave that we should look to to annex. Uh I think at the northern end of the city there's a what I call a donut hole where these apartments where uh Douglas Grand apartments and other apartments have
been built that is completely encircled by the city. So that might be an area also that would make sense for us to to look to annex because it's already serviced. Wouldn't be serviced by fire station 3 if that's something you wish to pursue. But it be serviced by fire station 2 which is almost across the street from it.
>> Okay. So right now u the area that fire station one primarily serves is completely built out. There's really not a lot of room for any kind of development there. So we don't necessarily foresee a staff inc without
station three we might have to increase staff at station one just in just to have people available to run the calls to station three. With station three, we don't would we see any
in need for increase in staff at station one or would that stay a fairly fixed? >> So my understanding it would stay fairly fixed and and in station one as as you've identified I don't right now the challenge is not really the staffing and
the chief can jump up and correct me if I get it wrong. I think it's just the way the stations are distributed where the areas are distributed the way our community is growing. it's growing largely to that eastern side and our main station that does probably 85% of our calls is located, you know, pretty
much at the very western end of our community. So, um that's the biggest challenge is trying to just geographically distribute the the ability to respond and that's why the station is is more important, I think, than any staffing consideration. I think that's why the chief suggested we'll
take our existing staff and move it because we really need to distribute these resources better than they currently are. Okay. So, if we were to do uh both buildings at the same time, would it also make sense to make that if
if the police and fire were both there at the same time, would it also make sense to make that basically the hardened communications building with both of those agencies there versus
what we've been doing to station one to make it our EEOC or emergency operations. Um, and have we thought of that to incorporate that into that space? >> So the so I should me mention that
because uh chief told me that tomorrow still tomorrow okay tomorrow we're breaking ground if if you will on the EOC. So we're starting to clear the site. Um, so the new EOC next to fire station 1 will be a hardened facility and that EOCC is where we are going to
move the 911 communications center to the primary so that we move from city hall it'll be moved there. Um, and it's been programmed the space has been programmed to accommodate that and we did that because we had the bird in hand. We had an EOC who we had funding and so that project started and we
wanted to make sure we can get the that emergency dispatch out of this building which is not hardened and move it there. So, they were already doing that. Um, the the new police and and and uh fire station, we did not program the space to have a full, you know, dispatch center
because we had the other EOC option already. Will they have some accommodations for a backup facility? Yes. But it's not going to be the primary EO not primary uh dispatch center. >> Okay. >> Sure. Thank you. um to your uh the the
two buildings at the same time some um question. So if we go out on the bond for the entire amount is that do we have to build both at the same time or could the fire station be one year later
just in the in the funding? >> So you you you could you could build it later in that scenario. I think one year later you could do that from a bonding perspective. I don't believe there'd be any issue with that. In fact, bond council, Mr. Draper, when he was here, he talked about you could phase it. I
think if you spread it out beyond a certain amount of time, it'd be a little tough to to pull off because pricing would have changed and there probably some legal questions to address. But I think one year it' be fine. But if you did that, I don't I don't know if you'd actually meet the the the the goal of doing it together at the same time is
you save money because you do everything you one the contractors there and they mobilized on site. mobilization is a big component of their cost typically. So, you'd be able to do it and you wouldn't disrupt the police department. Um, so I'm not sure if doing it a year later would really help the project. Um, but
you could do it with the bond. To your primary question, yes, legally I believe you can do it and and if bond council feels differently, I'm sure they'll chime in. >> Okay. Um, so that leads me to the second one which you touched on. So, if we were to do the fire station a year or two
later, you would increase the cost of construction because you're not doing it the same time. Correct. >> Yes. >> And plus the inflation, I'm sure things would go up. So, you you have that and the disruption of the police. But if you
uh uh but you would also save some operating costs of the electricity to run the building, insurance costs uh to ensure a building that's there. Correct. So there would be some cost savings moving it a little later and I'm
sure the insurance cost is nowhere the savings that you would get from uh building at the same time. >> Yeah. In fact, I think in the memory serves in the in the report that Chief Kemp provided the council, uh, I want to say it was 36,000 was the cost to the annual operating costs.
>> 36 38. >> Yeah. 36 38,000 the annual operating cost for the for the fire included all included every element in there, electricity, fire insurance, things like that. So, >> okay. >> I think the mobilization costs and inflation costs would be far outweigh that. Yes. And >> my last question. So, uh, you mentioned
uh immediately we could move uh uh rescue three I don't know what you call it. Rescue three. Sounds good. >> Yes. Yes, sir. >> Res. Okay. So, you can move rescue three and the and uh I would assume the two EMT paramedics fire paramedics,
>> right? So, they would be the only occupants in that building 24 hours in the same shifts. So, three shifts. >> Correct. >> Okay. They just would move. >> Okay. That's it. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I had
my my question my questions have been answered so far, but I do have commentary when it comes time for that. >> Council member K, Mr. Ba, may I direct a couple of questions to the representatives from the fire department? >> Sure. Chief Kevin, >> how's it going?
>> Um, I was just wondering if you could going into the two two-minute difference between building the third fire station versus not doing it going forward. Um, can you go into some of the possible scenarios, for example, for cardiac arrest or or what it would mean for a
building if a a fire uh fire department vehicle were to arrive 6 minutes in versus 8 minutes and some change? >> Well, I think certainly everybody in our business understands and I think the police and those that have been affected in the community understand what what
seconds mean to to a life saving. um you know after about 6 minutes um your ability to sustain brain function with with no oxygen starts to deteriorate rapidly. Um anywhere from seven 8 n
minutes um you you're usually brain dead at that point. So obviously when we've we've done our accreditation process and we've tried to figure out what and talking to other agencies um obviously the best case scenario is to get there within a minute or two or three or four
minutes and that's just almost no community is able to do that but the the the quicker you can get um to a patient um and and and get oxygen start CPR and defibrillate if they need to or if they're if they need Narcan because they
have an overdose the better off you are. Um also, um that area is an industrial area and in our biggest and some of the stuff down there, um they have oxygen, they have different chemicals. Um it's it's it's
one of our high-risisk areas and that area has the the the longest response time. So once once a fire starts on the average that would be the exception because of the accelerance that it has, but on your average single family home
every 60 seconds the fire doubles. So um not only to be able to put a fire out quickly, you want to get there as quickly as possible, but also for firefighter safety. You know, you want to get in there before you have start start, you know, seeing structural damage and and and the ability for to
have a collapse. So, not only on the EMS side is it very important to get there early, um certainly on the fire side as well. >> Thank you very much. That was me. Yes, sir. >> Okay. So, we're moving into discussion. Um I do want to remind everybody to be mindful of the time. So, if you can kind
of distill your thoughts into um a organized manner. So, we'll start back down and work down if that's okay. Um council member. I have a I have a couple monetary questions that are more maybe for the bond council.
Um, but if the city were able to secure grants in the future or maybe in the in the shortterm future that might offset some of the cost of building this uh, for
example, for the equipment or or just any any kind of public safety would is there is there an ability to pay off any of the bonds early? Um and then my other question about this
is that how do we handle the um the millage rate? Is that something that we would set every year or is that something that's set in the bond ordinance itself? Because for example, typically it our valuations
have increased over time. So in order to generate the funds to repay the bond on the required schedule, we might not need the same millage rate year after year. And then secondly, if we add or annex
property, we've now increased the the tax base and we might not need the same millage rate year after year. >> Correct. So I can Are those your questions? Yes. Okay. So I can answer the last one and the other ones I will defer to the bond council. the the last question you're correct the millage rate
that I I read out the range 0.90 to 0.98 that's year one because that's the valuation that we have today that you're absolutely correct so we assume I believe actually the financial advisor is assuming a conservative 2% growth a year in our valuation again not accounting for massive annexations or
anything like that so that's a conservative number and uh you would see the millage rate decreasing based on that so every time that you precisely hit it as the as the value increases the millage rate decreases, still have to have the same amount of money to pay the debt service, but that the rate itself
will change depending on the value. And you're correct, if we annex it, that change would be even more dramatic. >> Okay. So then my question has to do with early payoff. Is there I is there any provision that if we don't use all the
funds I know we don't issue those bonds to begin with but if we do issue them and somehow we get additional revenue from other sources can we pay the bond off early bonds? >> Mr. Rhodess did you hear that question?
>> Yes sir I did hear that question. Are you able to hear me? >> Yes we have you. >> Very good. So it your ability to prepay the bonds will depend in some measure on how the bonds are structured. Typically with a bond issue of the size discussed
uh to this point somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 million. If you did that all at once, you would typically borrow through what's known as a publicly offered transaction. you would work with an underwriter to basically act as an intermediary between the city
and the investment community to to issue the bonds in that dollar amount and the bonds would be publicly offered and available for resale on the bond markets. For publicly offered transactions, there is typically a period of time following the issuance
during which your ability to prepay is somewhat limited, if it exists at all. this the so-called 10-year call period ba basically for the first 10 years your ability to prepay is generally limited. Now there are exceptions to that. One
exception is when you expect to have some sort of a grant from the state or legislative appropriation of any nature where you feel some degree of certainty that that money will come. then you can structure the bonds to allow you to make
sort of an extraordinary payment solely from the proceeds of that type of grant if those monies materialize during the first 5 10 etc years of the bond issue. The the the rub for that though is you may end up for that portion of the debt,
paying a little bit more in the way of interest to compensate the the the lender, the bond holder for the risk involved knowing that he or she may not enjoy that interest for the full 10 years. They may be paid off within two or three years if the grant monies do
come through. These are the types of questions when we go to structure the bonds that the financial advisor would be particularly well suited to address. But that that's generally the basics of how it would work. >> Okay. Thank you,
>> Council Member Chambers. My comments, I would like to see us go for both buildings now and uh at the primary uh election. >> Thank you, Vice Mayor. For as long as I've been around here, PD has been
looking for their own facility. Once FDLE left and then and they're just too big. Um, for at least the last 10 to 15 years, the accreditation people have said that if we're if we're not careful and not and don't come up with an
additional fire department, fire fire station 3 sometime soon, we could jeopardize our our uh uh class one uh accreditation. I know I've used you guys. Minutes count. Um, and luckily lucky it didn't matter with me, but I
know others it well could have. So to go to even being at 8 minutes is a scary number. But to go any beyond anything beyond that is is unconscionable. Um, I too support both
buildings same time, do the bond issue the way it's it's presented, you know, go forward with it. And I too do like the primary because the general election is going to be very very crowded. There's going to be a lot of noise going on that we're going to lose our message
in the process. So I I do support build them both put them both together the go bond and go forward with it. We need we owe the we owe future councils, future residents. Um we're planning for you know the next 30 years. Now now's the
time we have to do that. Council member Kravitz. >> Well, first of all, I agree with what everyone else has said up to now. Um, I just have one point to make, which is the difference between a class one rating and a class two rating also
impacts people's homeowner insurance. So there may be a cost involved in voting for this bond issue, but if you decide to not vote for the bond issue, there will also possibly be a cost if we lose our class one rating become class two.
Could be anywhere from $1 to $150 for a $250,000 home roughly. So that's just something to bear in mind. And also I would point out we shouldn't overestimate
how much additional bandwidth we'll be able to get by doing the bond issue referendum in the general election because as we move closer and closer to the general election, voters have more and more issues that they're tuning
into. So the amount of attention that they can give to this bond issue will be competing with a number of other major topics and also major candidates who will be flooding everyone's mailboxes. So the earlier we can do this I think the clearer the field will be. So for
that reason I also think primary is the way to go. That's all. Thank you. >> Thank you. I I I was skeptical at first of the fire station 3 concept because I was um I hadn't seen any data and I
was really waiting for some data to come in to see whether or not the data reflected that. Um I I believe it does. Um the think analysis was very well done. I had a few follow-up questions that that I was able to get to dig a
little deeper on some of the analysis and I fully support doing both now. Um, but not not just because I love the fire department, but I think this is a good way for our city
to wade into this and spread the cost of this over a period of years as opposed to waking up one morning in 2032 or whenever and saying, "Gee whiz, now we're at 8 minutes. We got to do something here really quick. Now we've got to build what is going at that point
would be a $20 million fire station and instead of 10 and it's going to take three years to get that done and then we have to hire up and build a new firet truck and all at this way we build the
building we move existing equipment and staff into the building in 2030 right we look at the data 2031 2032 whatever how depending on how much annexation happens, right? And then we say, well,
we have the building, we have some of the staff, we need to now buy another firetruck and hire 12 more people in order to make this a fully functioning fire station. So, at that point, we've paid down the building. We've been paying on the building for a certain period of time. We've already absorbed a
lot of the cost of it. So, I I was skeptical of this at first, but in looking at the data, I've kind of changed my mind on this. The data seems to support this and helps us spread out the costs. I think this is a an example of a city doing a great job of looking
into the future and taking this in a in an intelligent way um to accommodate what's going to happen in 2032 33 35 whatever it happens. Now I do want to be clear at least from my perspective and you guys can correct me if I'm wrong. I
I what I wouldn't want to happen is there to be any misunderstanding. I'm supporting this with the idea that in 2030 we're going to just move the fire or the rescue car and the paramedics over there. Unless the data supports that that time that we've grown
so much that we need to pull the trigger then. But I don't want any confusion. I'm not going to be here. But I don't want to read in the beacon and that the the door opens in 2030 and the fire department says, "Well, the council back in 2026 is we're going to hire fire, you
know, where's the 12 new firefighters in the fire engine?" I think a future council needs to look at the data and decide when that decision is appropriate. So, I don't want any misunderstanding that that's the decision that we're making tonight, or at least I don't think it is. So, I
think um and I'm also supportive of putting it on the the primary because that for a whole lot of reasons that have already been stated that just makes perfect sense. So, okay. What do you Now, we're going to vote on this in the council meeting in about a little later on.
>> Correct. I believe it's under council business this evening. So, that's when you could you take action. >> Yeah. And um just for those people in in the audience, uh there will also be public comment when that item is called up at the council meeting. So you if you want to stick around, you'll have the
ability to provide uh public input on that. Okay. Anything else, council? >> Good job. Good reports. >> Yeah, very good job, Chief. Very good job, Carlos. Very good. Our city manager, very good job. Um, and we did
not forget that this story began with the police station chief. >> Not at all. >> And I want the conference room painted blue by God. Thank you all. We'll see you in 11 minutes. We are journey. Part: 2
Good evening everybody. We'll call the uh work session to to to order. Um we are here today to discuss the public safety complex, have a discussion about that and a potential bond issue and uh what to build, when to
build it, and how big and beautiful to build it or uh whether to build a tent. So, we'll we'll see where this goes. And so, thank you everybody for being here. Uh it's nice to see everybody. I'll turn it over to the city manager. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. Uh, I have a brief presentation to start out
just to provide some context here with this issue. Also want the council and the public to know that we're joined here this evening in person by the architectural firm of PBK. There's they're waving right there. Uh, as well as by phone with our uh with Chris Row who's part of bond counsel with Bryant
Miller and Olive. Um, so they're here to answer any questions that might not be able to be answered by me or or some of our staff. So, uh, having said all that, let me just jump right into the presentation. So, obviously, we're here to talk about public safety. Um, give you a little bit of history, uh, for the
community. The council is very well aware of this. When we started this endeavor, it was primarily focused on a police station. And there's some history here that the the fact that this police department in Temple Terrace, of which we all have a lot of admiration for, have never had a freestanding police
station as far as I understand it. And so there's been a discussion of that for several years. Um in fact, it was a council priority just several years ago for us to acquire land for a future police station. That's in fact what we did. Uh in 2024,
the city acquired a 5 acre parcel at 7911 Harney Road. Uh we paid 1.6 million. We in fact we used the money from the Rollers Ranch sales proceeds to offset that cost. And as I mentioned, the priority was to find land for a
police station. But when we located this piece of property, it was the size of it being five acres was conducive, we felt, to potentially being able to house a fire station as well. So, uh, it made a lot of sense. the city council in the
FY25 budget, you included $200,000 for a conceptual design and costing to show what a police station and a possible joint police and fire station complex would look like on the property and how much the the financial impact would be to the city. And that's what PBK has has
has done. So, let's just focus right now on the police side of the house. So, the police facility. So, the police department has been here in the third floor of this building uh in an 11,000 square footprint since the late 1970s. And in
1982, this police department had 26 sworn officers and 11 civilian employees. And they served a population of just over 11,000 people. today in the this department has 57 sworn officers and 20 civilian employees and serves a
population of over 28,000 people in the same station footprint. So they haven't moved from the third floor yet. Everything around them has increased in terms of the officers, employees and obviously the population that they need to serve. The police also in addition to staffing have other challenges with space. They
have uh their reserve vehicles, their backup vehicles are located right now in various city parking lots around city hall. Their SWAT van and their uh uh Bearecat is actually stored off site uh in the public works property. So,
they're a little bit spread out in the community and obviously having one centralized headquarters would allow them to bring all those things into a secure unified position. Now, the fire station when we're going through this exercise, as I mentioned,
we had talked about a future fire station to address some of the growth that we've experienced on the east side of the community. And we envisioned that the fire station would would be a need at some point in the future. And now we're here at this moment where we have this opportunity again to develop both at the same time.
uh the issue or the I say the benefit of developing both at the same time would be obviously to be a cost savings because you have one one mobilization you don't disrupt the facilities if you have a police station built first you're disrupting their operations so that there's definitely some some efficiency
from doing that but we did ask the fire the fire chief and his team to give us the data do we build this now do we build this in the future so the fire department pro provided a report which I shared with the council a couple of weeks ago And it noted that the in the 90 90th
percentile response bracket for the area that would be served by a future fire station 3 that their calls are averaging 8 minutes and 29 seconds. Now the benchmark we have a class one fire department. So their benchmarks are probably more aggressive than other fire departments who are in class one. And
our benchmark is 6 minutes and 40 seconds for that first piece of apparatus to arrive at your house after you call 911. So obviously 8 minutes and 29 seconds is not meeting that benchmark. Uh in fact if there were not a fire station built by 2035 the
department projects that that could rise to 10 to 12 minutes. And I've just lost the video feed. Brian >> Hi Shannon Long. I'm the library assistant director at the Temple Terrace Public Library. For somebody that hasn't visited the library in a while, I would
say that the library has evolved a lot over the last 30 years. The library remains an important place for modern day because it's one of the few places that a lot of most of our resources are free. It's one of the only places you can come to use the internet for free
and do research, check out books for free, and we have a seed catalog and the Beyond Books lending library where you can check out tools and other things for free so you don't have to purchase them. So, yeah, the library uh definitely
saves patrons a lot of money. So, the library recently introduced a new logo. It's a open book with the silhouette of a Temple Orange. Um, the temple orange represents uh some of the history of Temple Terrace. So, recent renovations
at the library include the uh the new restrooms. Um, we're getting new tile, new flooring, new stalls, new plumbing, pretty much new everything. And we hope that it's a more functional space that's uh a little bit more aesthetically pleasing.
I think the Temple Terrace Library is the only library in uh Hillsboro that does the seed catalog. So, the seed catalog, you can check out uh four seed packets a month on your library card. Um we have a wide variety of seeds, mostly
vegetables that you can plant, but we do have a few um flowers as well. Um so, for book clubs, we have a contemporary book club for more, you know, the newer novels that have come out. We have one for classics.
Um, and then we also have one at night. I think that's more of like scary stories um for adults and then there's a garden club book club. There's there's a a wide variety of different book clubs that uh you can attend and you can look for the listings of the dates and times
on temple terrace.gov events calendar. So you can find more information about the library on on Facebook or Instagram. We have uh weekly posts of the different events we have going on. We have funny videos that we post with our staff. Come on down to the library and help us
celebrate what's next. Welcome to the February 3rd meeting of the Temple Terrace City Council. It's nice to see so many folks out tonight. Uh, you must have heard that I was doing the historic fact tonight. You came just just to hear that, right? So, uh, man, you put the pressure on me tonight. So,
I'd like to remind everybody to please silence your electronic devices. And if you would please stand if you're able to join me in the invocation and the pledge. Lord, we ask your blessings upon our meeting tonight. Grant us wisdom as we work to advance the common good of our
city. We pray for those who are less fortunate than ourselves, especially those impacted by the recent cold weather. We thank you always for our wonderful employees. Please continue to bless them and keep them safe. 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. It's time. >> Thank you everybody.
So for those of you who may not visit us often, we have a um tradition for the past few years in Temple Terrace where we start each of our meetings with a fun or interesting or historical fact concerning either our city or the region. Uh and we rotate that duty down
the deis. And tonight it falls on me. And so I am going to bend the rules just a little bit because what I want to tell you is a story that really has to do with the Florida State Capital. So it's not really a Temple Terrace thing, but
having been there last week, um it I was telling this story to somebody who it was their first time at the capital and I thought, you know what, I got to do this next week. I'll just tell them this story. So you're going to get to hear about the capital. And so we all know the capital's in Tallahassee. He's been
in Tallahassee since before the state of Florida was a state back when it was a territory. And the reason Tallahassee was chosen was because it's halfway between St. Augustine and Pensacola, which were the two big population centers in Florida at the time. It was a 20-day trip to go between those two
cities. So, they picked Tallahassee. So, it was 10 days for everybody to get there. And so it remained in T still remains in Tallahassee although there's been several attempts over the years to move the the capital. And the one I want
to tell you about is not even the most recent one is the biggest one that gained the most traction was in the 1960s. And so in the 1960s um there the panhandle politicians were struggling very hard to maintain control
of the state. They had really dominated state politics and state policy ever since the state was founded because that's that's where the old rural core of the of the state was. And so back in the 30s, 40s, 50s, for about a 30 or 40
year period, they even formed something called the pork chop gang, which was it was 20 state senators and legislators that banded together to control the Florida legislature. They had enough votes that they you couldn't get anything that they didn't like through
the Florida legislature. That pretty much dissolved in 1968 when the Florida Constitution was adopted. But in 1969, something else happened. And that was they were still in the old Capitol building, which is really cool building. If you haven't been there, it's really
it's like five bucks to get in. It's really cool. So they were still in the old building which dates to 1845 and it had been added to and added to and added to and but you know wiring and HVAC you know air conditioning everything was a mess. It was a 150 year old building 120
years old. So they were having a discussion about what to do with some people wanted to build a new capital demolish the old one. Some people wanted to do this wanted to do that. Um the old guard the old pork chop gang people they were wanting to make sure that it stayed there. they um in
Tallahassee there was a progressive senator from Miami named Lee Weisenborn. He was a a very progressive Jewish gentleman from Miami that said, "You know what? This is a perfect opportunity for us to move the capital from
Tallahassee, which we should have done a 100 years ago or whatever, because now the population in the Florida has changed. It's no longer centralized in the northern part of the state. it's more in the peninsula, Miami, Orlando,
Tampa. And so he started a a campaign to move the capital to um several cities were discussed, but Orlando was the one that was that was settled on. So it started to gain traction. He was actually holding strategy meetings at
the capital in Tallahassee, getting people on board with this idea. He was drafting language for a a joint resolution to introduce in the chambers to to get this passed. But the old guard wasn't having any of this, right? They're like, "No, you're not moving the
capital." And and as he started to get more and more traction on this, they immediately jumped into action and said, "No, we're not doing this." So they passed their own resolution very quickly funding the construction of a new
capital right behind where the old one was and they intentionally funded it at a high level. They wanted to build this magnificent tall probably bigger than it needed to be but this extravagant beautiful capital so that nobody ever in the
future would ever propose to move it again because they invested so much money in it. Right? That was part of their rationale like we want to build put so much money into it that they'll we'll put this to rest forever. Right? Didn't work. It's been brought up since then. But the new capital was funded
started construction I think 72. It was opened in 78 was the first year the legislature met in it. But true to politics, right, they there's a plaque on the first floor of the Capitol that is really kind of the epitome of
political sarcasm. And I'll show you a picture of the plaque, but it it's a it's a kind of a tongue and cheek at a boy to Senator Weisenborn, but it's really more of a head slap to him than anything else. And that plaque is still there. Brian, put
that plaque up and let me show them. This is the plaque that's there today. uh dedicated to Senator Lee Weisenborn. Yeah. Whose valiant effort to move the capital to Orlando was the prime motivation for construction of this building. So yeah, and so um it's still
there. If you go in, if you've ever been if you if you It's really cool building to It's probably one of the ugliest capital buildings in the country, but if I didn't build it, that's just saying. But if you go in the door, the the public entrance and you go right back towards the elevator lobby and then turn
right, it's on the wall on right near the elevators. And and uh so everybody I see in the capital, I tell take them to that plaque and show them this is the epitome of pettiness in my opinion. But and the interesting thing is both sides of this lay claim to this plaque. his
supporters lay claim to it and say, "Well, yeah, we insisted that they put it there to recognize his efforts, you know, that that caused him to build this building. It was his fault that they would never would have done it." And the opposition says, you know, we put it there as a head slap to him because we built the, you know, he wanted to go to
Orlando. So, both sides even today kind of take credit for this plaque or look at this plaque with pride. And so, it's a big uh topic of discussion at the capital. So, anyway, I know nothing to do with Temple Terrace. I'm sorry, but uh still an interesting fact. So, okay.
Well, thank you for an indulgence there. Next up, this is way better. I promise. Next up is the employee of the month for December. Uh is Everett Meyer. All right. Everett Meyer. Yeah. So, GIS specialist Everett Meyer is
being recognized as the employee of the month for December. Uh, Everett consistently goes above and beyond to support multiple departments. He tackles diverse requests with impressive speed and efficiency, always ensuring the highest quality in his work. His
expertise and leadership are invaluable. Whether he's generating maps for planning, analyzing data for city operations, or providing critical insights for field teams. Even when faced with numerous citizen requests or concern, Ever handles each interaction with patience and a positive attitude,
making him an outstanding nomination for employee of the month. And congratulations from all of us to you, Ever, for being selected as the December employee of the month. So, you like to say a few words? >> Uh, thank you for the kind words, mayor.
Um, you know, in my position, I get to work with a lot of different departments in the city, which means I get to work with a lot of really great people. So, uh, with that, thank you all. >> Thank you. >> Right in the middle. >> All right. Three, two, one.
Perfect. Thank you. >> Now, I have a favor to ask of you guys. We have a couple people standing. If you have a vacant seat next to you, would you scoot over so that we can free up a couple of seats for the folks who are standing?
Thank you very much. There you go, guys. Okay, next we have a presentation of a Temple Terrace Rotary Club donation. Okay, I was wondering who was going to come over. Please tell me somebody's coming. >> Good evening, mayor, members of city council. Carl Leno, leisure services
director. The reason that we're we're here tonight to talk about this is for a very special young lady uh from Temple Terrace whose time with us was far too brief. Um I had the pleasure of
working with her when she was a lifeguard at the family complex way back in the '90s. Um I've thought for the past two weeks about what I'm going to say tonight about this and everything I came up with fell far too short. Um, so I'm going to give it over to friends,
family, Rotary Club, whoever else who can do a far better job of this than I would ever be able to do. >> Hey, hey, Carl does a great job as director of leisure services in the cities. We're all blessed to have Carl working for us.
>> As a proud graduate of Florida State, my wife and I very in seasoned ticket holders. We're very glad the capital is still in Tallahassee, by the way. Okay. Okay. Um 25 years ago, Marcela Martinez,
while studying abroad was run over, tragically killed. Marcela was a graduate of from King High School, class of 2000. She, as you'll find out, we'll talk about her a little bit later. Uh she was
very special individual. And shortly after she died, the Rotary Club set up a foundation her name. And over the past 25 years, we've given dozens of scholarships to deserving students. Today, I represent the Temple Terrace
Rotary Club. I'm here to, you know, announce that we're making a minimum $25,000 commitment uh to the Temple Terrace Recreation Department. uh that's primarily going to be used to
redo uh the lifeguard room, which I don't know if you ever looked at it lately, but definitely needs to be redone. Okay. And as Carl said, um Marcela was a lifeguard. She also learned to swim in Temple Terrace.
Uh and we what the family is here. Ma Marcela's parents are both here today. And uh what we want to do is create a permanent memory for Marcella. And to talk about Marcel a little bit and tell and show you why she was so special, I'm going to introduce
her brother Felique Marti Mart Martinez and best friend Stephanie Hall Shay to talk a little bit about Marcel and Rachel's here too. Okay, the the two sisters are here. Okay, with the check. Okay, but don't try and cash that.
>> Good evening. >> Good evening. How are we doing? Uh Felipe and Martinez. So yeah, didn't expect to ever be standing in this position right now. But um so no, for us, I mean, we're born and raised here in in Temple Terrace off 63rd Street and
then moved over to Druid Hills. Uh for us, the rec center was, you know, a part that our community, our friends, we just grew up there and built all these relationships through. for Marcella really was a big part of her life as
well being that you know she was part of the swim team. We learned to swim. Carl was actually one of our our lifeguards when we were little kids teaching us to swim. So uh he you know she got to work with him as a lifeguard. She was there teaching doing all these different
things. So, um, like Perry mentioned, the scholarship originally started, uh, helping students out of King High School, and then we recently realized that we wanted to just do something big and do something for Temple Terrace that gave so much back to us. And part of
that is that that lifeguard station that we've seen over the years needing a lot of help. And uh, and no, that's where we wanted to be able to do this for Temple Terrace. And then I brought along Stephanie too, which is a big part. She was also a big sister to me and my
sister's best friend. So, >> yeah. So, my my family moved here in 1989. Um, and so I guess not as long as the Martinez is. Uh, but the Temple Terrace Rec Center always has been a foundation in this community. Um, and when we think about it, I think it's more than just a structure. It's the
people like James and Carl. I think I saw Corey in here. Now, Tiffany. Um, but you're hiring people who are building friendships. you're providing a place where people can be a part of a team, um, a part of any kind of clubs they want to. It just offers so many opportunities for people, um, and
opportunities that his sister, myself, so many people from our generation certainly have taken advantage of and continue to. So, it's a pretty special opportunity to get to donate a nice sum of money to another group of people and and continue on. So, and we really
appreciate everything that the Rotary Club of Temple Terrace has done and especially Perry and managing all this money so that it can be all this money. Um, but it's it really is a special thing to be able to do. Uh, and I would too, if this isn't too much, if you are here for Marcela in some way, shape or
form, can you stand up so we can show that? And this is just the surface. I mean, it truly is just the surface. A lot of people are very excited about this. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Oh, the check. >> Yeah.
>> Carl, would you like this? >> So, and the Rotary Club is very glad to be able to do yet another project with the city and with the recreation center. um you know that will have a lasting impact on the guards and the community.
So we're glad to be a part of everything. Thank you. >> We are very happy. Thank you very much. We need to arrange a photograph. >> We have some of the the new generation of lifeguards. I'd like to get them to come up here and part of this picture as well.
Yeah. >> Yes. If I can have everyone like squeeze in if you can. I know it's I know it's tight. All right. Three, two, one. >> I'm gonna get one from this angle if you want to look.
>> All right. >> Perfect. Thank you. May I say something, mayor? >> Yes, sir. Please. >> Sorry. >> This is my uncle, by the way. He's part of the Rotary Club. Um,
>> good evening. Thanks for >> Yeah, just part of Temple Terry. So, >> Marcela, Marcela to all of us and the way I describe it in the poem when she passed, it was a a desert, a rose in the desert.
She always uh brought a smile to all of us and very nice, kind person. Beautiful soul and that's what she is. Thank you. >> Well, we really can't thank you enough
for that. So, thank you all. Thank you for coming and sharing your story with us tonight. And uh I'm sure Carl and his team will put that money to good use and and uh as you can see, we have some young people with us that are that are following her footsteps. And so, uh
you're making a huge impact on their lives. So, thank you. Okay. Uh, council, has everybody had an opportunity to review the minutes from our January 20th meeting? And if so, is there a motion? >> Move to approve. >> Second.
>> Any discussion, corrections to the minutes? >> Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. >> I. Opposed. No nazs. Minutes are adopted. So, persons wishing to be heard on items not
listed on the agenda or items on the consent agenda. So, requests to address the mayor and council or in the back of the chambers on the little table back there. Um, please complete the forms and give them to the city clerk. I have a number of people already, but if you
haven't signed up yet, please complete the forms. So, we do have a 30 minute time limit for this section of the meeting. Um, I think we're going to be okay. Um, but at 30 minutes of public comment, we cut that section. We we temporarily suspend that section so we
can move on. You'll still get to to address the council, but we have to finish the council business and then at the end of the meeting, we'll resume and we'll stay as long as there's still people that want to address the council, we'll stay all night. So, but this part of the meeting is 30 minutes. Um, we
have a threeminut time limit and posted on all comments from the public. Uh, we ask that speakers come to the podium, state your name and city of residence. During public comments on items not on the agenda or items on the consent agenda, the city manager and directors in attendance make note of these items
and all of your comments are taken seriously and will be followed up on. So, Mr. Loe, you are recognized first, sir. >> Uh, Charles Love, Terrace Park. First of all, I want to welcome you back, Mr. Mayor. >> Thank you. >> Uh the second thing is I want to list
the holidays that are coming up before the next meeting, which would include the uh the Super Bowl, President uh uh Valentine's Day, and President's Day, and a lot of birthdays in between that I have that I don't have time to mention.
Uh there was a magazine called I want to start with the pickle ball first. There's a magazine called Road Scholars spelled R O A D that had something about pickle ball trips. And I was thinking with the future here in the community that you all between uh
the stadium opening up and uh and the hotel coming up and Busch Gardens and all that and maybe someday you all will be able to have a pickle ball trip if you're still going into that. I'm willing to to leave the information with the city manager if you all are
interested in doing that. Uh this by the way this magazine called Road Scholar was January 2026. The main topic though I wanted to talk to you about was climate change. Uh the storm that came over through here kind of reminds me of the uh storm in the
movie The Day After Tomorrow. uh kind of a what was described as a paper as a snow cane. Uh we have to do better job on the environment. I ran across uh this newspaper article from a paper called El Paz Paz or however you
pronounce it and that this was the 10th anniversary of the Paris uh climate uh climate conference. Uh before that time they were doing 2.2 two uh uh increases per year in terms of polluting and went down to 1.1, but we still got to do even
better than that. Uh we the longer the less the let me see if I can say this right. The shorter uh time the faster we destroy the climate, the less time we have for our scientists to deal with climate change. the longer the more
we're energy efficient and the more we save uh the of course the more time the scientists will have to deal with it. It also shows this chart also shows the effects of degrees uh since the uh over the course of events
if anybody wants to see this or cares to see this. But finally, again, another little incentive, and that's my electric bill. Over the course of my life, I've never driven a car, never wanted to drive a car. Uh my last two electric bills, my I brought my last one over
here was $3016 and the one before that was $315. Uh so, it's kind of like an incentive thing to for people to keep in mind that it can be done and we need people to do it. Thank you all and good evening.
>> Thank you, Mr. Lo. Katherine Palmaya. Good evening. >> Good evening. I'm introducing the city of Temple Terrace tennis team, the Titans.
>> Hi guys. >> How you doing? >> Good. >> How are you? >> Good. >> Good. You're going to tell us a little bit about your team? >> Yes. >> All right. >> Good evening, city council members. I am Nicholas Luke, >> Leonardo,
>> Sergio. >> My friends and I are on the city of Temple Terrace tennis team and our name is the Temple Terrace Titans. We wanted to inform the city council about our recent su successes. In the fall, six of us played for the city of Temple Terrace
in the US Tennis Association's junior team tennis program. We played against other local teams like Hunter's Green, the Tampa Bay Yach and Country Club, Van Farms, Avula, and others. We had a great season and came in second place in our
Hillsboro County Division. Then in December, five members of our team went on to represent the city of Temple Terrace at the US Tennis Association Junior Team State Tournament in Orlando at the United States Tennis Association National Campus. Teams from
all around the state of Florida competed and we placed second in our under4 age division. Our team placed well and we were proud to represent our city. We wanted to thank our great coach, Peter Adler, the tennis pro here at the rec center for training and preparing us
for these competitions. Tennis is fun and we are lucky to have a great coach. We would like to thank the thank the Temple Tier city leadership for providing the wonderful tennis facilities here and allowing the tennis program here to thrive. The city's uh
tennis program is making a positive and lasting impact on kids and families. That's a photo of us in Orlando. And thank you. And go Titans. >> Well, thanks guys. Thanks for coming. Is it okay if we get a picture? >> Yes. >> Is that all right?
Congratulations. >> Wonderful. >> All right. Three, two, one. Perfect. >> Congratulations. That was unexpected. >> Great. You guys come back anytime you want.
Okay. So, next we have David Porilich. And while he's working his way up, let me make sure I'm doing my math correct. You come on up there, Mr. Porlich. I have one, two, three people who have seated time to Tara McDaniel.
You're seeding time to Mr. Porlich. Bill Snelling, you're seeding time to Mr. PGorich. And Roger Little John, you're seating time. Okay, my math is correct. You have six minutes. >> I won't need that much. >> Okay, if the clerk could set the timer
for six minutes. >> Oh, not 30 minutes. Six. >> I can go. No offense. >> I'm going to keep it. I'm going to keep >> Okay, here we go. All ears, Mr. Porich. Welcome. >> Thank you. David Furich, 1534 North River Hills Drive. Um, so we are here,
and I do mean we, there are some people here that are here just because of of this. Uh, we're here tonight to let you know that while we support you and we support the fact that you have to make a big commitment to be here and there are, um, your dedication is certainly
appreciated. Um, We we believe that you maybe have lost your focus and you need to get back to moving our city forward and um focus on issues. Um I know you've received some emails from some others that
specifically address other things. So I'm going to keep tonight's comments more general with some suggestions. The first suggestion is respect our dedicated employees. Members of this council as well as other past
councils have done a phenomenal job of recruiting dedicated, intelligent, professional individuals in every department uh in the city and um we now have the best and the brightest
and um we need to show them some support. Um listen to what they have to say and respect their decisions. In that same vein, respect the people that are standing where I'm standing right now, whether it's a citizen, a
developer, a consultant, or a guest. Treat them with respect. Um, don't treat them as adversaries, and don't give them hostile um, what's the word I'm looking for? Cross-examination. Why we're standing up here. Uh, respect each
other. Try to work together. The DAS is not a place for grandstanding. The DAS is not a place for look at me. The DAS is not a gotcha moment event. And the DAS is certainly not a platform for narcissism.
Please focus on the people. Focus on the issues that move us forward. And remember that council is a we job, not a me job. Thank you. >> Mr. Forage, I don't currently have any further requests to speak at this portion of the meeting. Are there other members of the
public who wish to address the council at this time? I have a couple of people signed up to speak on a later agenda item, but nobody else for this portion. Okay. Very well. Then we'll move to the
consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Go ahead. Move to approve the consent agenda. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. No nays. Consent agenda is adopted. >> Next we have a resolution approving
phase one of the Riverside Park project and our leisure services director Carl Langfeld who's having a very good night so far is here to explain. >> Good evening. >> Good evening Mayor, members of city council. Uh thank you all. Uh I'm here tonight uh this evening requesting city
council adopt a resolution approving phase one of the Riverside Park project and directing Halen Associates to move forward with with permitting and contract bidding for the project. At a council workshop held on January 8th, 2026,
representatives from Hal and Associates provided an update on the project. During the workshop, a consensus was reached on specifics for the first phase of construction. Including in the agenda is a map of the park showing what phase one will consist of. For clarity, the
items indicated in red on this map. Uh Brian, can we get that on the screen? Come on. Nice. Thank Thank you, Brian. Uh for clarity, items uh highlighted in red on this uh graphic are not included in phase one of
the project. >> Also included in the agenda materials is an opinion of probable costs prepared by Hal and Associates. Phase one costs are expected to be approximately $3.4 million. Uh, please note that this cost estimate includes over $950,000
in contingencies. I stand for any questions you may have. Very >> good. Thank you, Mr. Lingfield. Council member questions. >> Yes, >> Council Member Fernandez. Um, I just, this is really a question about the funding for this project because I know
that there are frequently comments about why, why would we fund this and not other things? And um, can you speak to where this funding is coming from and why we are using this on this project
versus other infrastructure? >> Mr. Mr. Ingram, correct me if I'm wrong, but the bulk of this is unassigned fund balance. Am I correct with that? >> That's correct. >> Okay. So, it's $3 million from unassigned fund balance. This was
programmed. So, if if council recalls, we've had a pattern here over the last several fiscal years of basically using unassigned fund balance as a way to pay for capital projects. You're basically it's a savings. So if we have savings throughout the year, we go into the assigned fund balance and you go through that budget cycle. When we did the
budget workshops, this would be a couple of fiscal years ago, we had a conversation about this project and how we would fund that. And so we we you collectively, the council agreed to use unsigned fund balance for the bulk of it. We also uh put in a prior fiscal year $400,000 from TIFF funds this for
the CRA. This is an allowable uh CRA expenditure. Uh and then we this fiscal year put an additional $400,000 in there. So we have 3.8 million available for this initiative for the park. What Mr. Langfield noted is that the costs can you remind everybody what the cost
for phase one would be again? >> Uh it'd be 3.442 uh $69325 to get it down to depending but again this is just the contractor's opinion of probable cost. So it will it may vary depending on how the bid documents come back.
Thank you. >> Other questions, council members? Are there any members of the public who wish to comment on this item? >> Okay, seeing none, is there a motion? >> I would like to make a motion to
approving the uh phase one resolution approving phase one of the Riverside Park project. >> Second. >> Motion seconded by council member Fernandez. Any discussion of the motion? All those in favor say I. >> I. Opposed? No. Nays. Resolution's
adopted. Thank you, Mr. Lingfeld. Next is a second public hearing and second reading of ordinance 1589 amending the capital improvement section objectives and policy of the city's comprehensive plan. I'll open the public hearing and community development deputy
director Marissa Robinson will explain. >> Good evening, mayor and city council members. Marissa Robinson with community development. This is the second reading, public reading and public hearing for CPA 251 amending the capital improvement section of the comprehensive plan. The
first reading was presented by Katrina Cochran from the planning commission. This item is initiated by the planning commission to comply with state statute. The proposed updates will remove the language for the city's 15-year multimodal transportation program,
including the annual loss of service report and the concurren concurrency management report. There is an additional policy, CAP policy 1.1.10, which does allow us to continue with the 15-year multimotal transportation
program if we choose. The planning commission found this um change consistent with the goals, objectives, and policies of the Temple Terrace Comprehensive Plan >> and I will stand for any questions. >> Thank you, Mr. Robinson. Are there
members of the public who wish to comment on this item? Seeing none, council members, are there questions? No questions. If there are no questions, I will close the public hearing and ask the clerk to read the title of the ordinance.
An ordinance of the city of Temple Terrace, Florida, amending the imagine 2040 Temple Terrace comprehensive plan capital improvements section objectives and policy providing severability providing for correction of
typographical errors, repealing all ordinances or parts of ordinances, in conflict here with providing for an effective date. >> Thank you, Madam Clerk. Is there a motion? >> Move to approve on second public hearing
and second reading of ordinance 1589 amending the capital improvements section objectives and policy of the city's comprehensive plan. >> Second motion and second discussion of the motion. >> None. All those in favor say I. >> I.
>> Any opposed? No nazs. The ordinance is adopted on second reading. Thank you. Next is a second public hearing and second reading of ordinance 1590 amending the plan development zoning district at Woodsto Plaza,
otherwise known as RZP-25-02. I'll open the public hearing and our city planner Joe Mora is here to explain. Good evening, Miss Mara. >> Good evening. Thank you, mayor. Evening council members, Joe Moretta, Community Development. As the mayor mentioned,
this is for a reasonzoning 252. Before I get into the presentation, I would like to take care of a clerical issue. Uh we're introducing a substitute ordinance to uh rectify a minor error. The word Tampa is contained in the title block
and also in the body of the ordinance prior to Telecom Drive. So it says Tampa Telecom Drive instead of Telecom Drive. So that ordinance should be getting passed around and the word Tampa is going to be eliminated from the title block and from the uh also from the body
of the ordinance. Moretta, are there any other changes to the ordinance on second reading? >> No sir. No sir. Just those two words in those two locations. I'll let Linda pass that out and then we can get moving.
Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you, sir. >> Thank you. We're ready to get moving. Um, this parcel is located on Woodstok Plaza near Telecom Drive and Fletcher Avenue. It's on the southeast corner of
Telecom Drive in Fletcher. The affected parcels are 2.31 acres. The total plan development, which is this is a part of, is 7.8 acres. The PD modification proposes an additional 5,722
square ft. The uses will remain the same and they are retail, medical office, and restaurant. This will amend the total of the plan development from 29,000 to 34,722 square ft. If you look at the slide, you can see an
area outlined. That's the change area of the site. Moving on, when this site was transmitted for review, Environmental Planning Commission commented because there was some concerns previously about the property to the south. that area has been fully mitigated. It's actually
approved for development and will not require any other uh type of mitigation. So, that area is already spoken for. Even though it's not proposed for development, it's already been fully mitigated in a in a previous uh mitigation plan.
Moving on, beyond that, the planning commission has reviewed this and found it to be consistent with the city's uh long range long range uh comprehensive plan. In terms of staff findings, just to reiterate from the last hearing, our
development review committee supports the approval of the modification. Uh the modification and use is compatible with the surrounding uses. There's no change in use. It's only in the amount of use. Uh the DR standards, DRI standards, development of regional impact, and the site engineering requirements will
offset any additional transportation impacts. The DRRi uh deals with the uh network uh transportation impacts. they've already been dealt with through the DRRI. Um there is a site plan that was approved for 79,500
ft several years ago. If the trip generation for the 79,500 ft is exceeded, then Hillsburg County will need to review that for potential access management improvements uh and that will be reviewed at site engineering. Um the city staff agrees
with the planning commission and the staff findings in regard to the consistency of the comprehensive plan. Uh, we are recommending approval of this and I'm available if you have any questions. >> Thank you, Mr. Moretta. Are there members of the public who wish to comment?
>> Is the applicant here, Mr. Yes, he is. >> Would they like to speak? It's >> it's voluntary. Okay. Okay. Council members, are there questions? >> No. >> Okay. There are no questions. I'll close the public hearing and ask the clerk to
read the title of the ordinance. >> An ordinance of the city of Temple Terrace, Florida, approving a zoning reclassification amendment for two planned development parcels totaling 2.3 acres plus or minus of property
consisting of two folios, 1 19954.0732 0732 and 1 199554.0734 0734 generally located at the southeast corner of Telom Drive and Fletcher
Avenue for RZP25-02 providing for amendment of the official zoning atlas map of the city providing for severability providing for correction of typographical errors repealing all ordinances or parts of
ordinances in conflict here with providing for an effective date. Thank you, Madame Clerk. Council, is there a motion move >> to approve ordinance 1590 amending the plan development zoning district of Woodark Plaza RZP25-02?
>> Second. >> Motion in a second. Discussion of the motion. >> Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. Opposed? No. Nays. Ordinance is adopted on second reading. Thank you, Mr. Morett. >> Thank you. Good evening. Next, we move into council business. And the first uh
well, really first or maybe only, I'm not sure. No. First item is the selection of a vice mayor. The vice mayor position is filled on a progressive rotation by seniority. Council members who have served a minimum of two years are eligible to serve as vice mayor. In the absence of
the mayor, the vice mayor shall take the chair at the appointed meeting hour and immediately call the members to order per resolution 96-88mm. Pursuant to rule six of the council rules and order of procedure, council members should select a vice mayor for a
one-year term of office. Um, and I will open the floor for nominations for our next vice mayor. >> Yes, the vice mayor. >> I'd like to nominate J uh council member Chambers for vice mayor for next year. >> Do you accept the nomination? >> Yes.
>> Are there other nominations? Okay. If there are no other nominations, I'll close the nominations. Is there a motion to approve council member Chambers? >> Move to approve the the appointment of council member Chambers as the vice
mayor for the current calendar year. >> Second. >> Motion in a second. Discussion of the motion. If not, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. Congratulations. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> You get the park six feet closer.
>> Wow. Yeah. Next are the mayor appointments. Um the mayor is responsible for annually appointing the city council members to serve as representatives of the city on various county boards and state committees and to city boards and committees. Um I have not made any
changes to this. I think everybody's doing a a very good job on all of their board assignments and and uh if there are requests from the deis to make changes, we can have a discussion. It's not just my decision, but anybody propose any changes? If not, it's the
status quo. Is there a motion to approve the status quo appointments? >> Move to approve appointments as listed. >> Second. >> Motion in the second. Discussion. All those in favor say I.
>> I opposed. No nays. Uh, is there any other council business? >> Yes. Council member Fernandez. >> Um, I wanted to ask about our sign ordinance and if that's something that we could consider revisiting to maybe
make it more clear to to give it some clarity, but also to make sure that what we do have in the ordinance is consistently enforcable. I just I know that there's there have been a lot of changes over the years to
the ordinance for to address one issue or another at one time and it seems like maybe given the fact that we have very strong first amendment rights in the country and we can't obviously overrule any of those. We wanted, but at
the same time, we want to make sure that our signs are um consistent with the neighborhoods or the or what the community wants. um for one. So, a suggestion um making sure
that we're very clear about what's what's not allowed basically um in signage so that it's easy for staff to know if they're if a sign if somebody complains about a sign if it is in fact
something that the city staff code enforcement or somebody else can actually take action on. But just so it's very clear, but also potentially looking at 56th Street and Bullard and some of our other areas to get some kind
of consistent signage structural standards that you might see in other communities. Um, one of the complaints that we hear all the time about 56th Street from people that don't venture off 56th Street into the deeper
community is that it looks very um suburban sprawl shopping center kind of you. So, it's just a thought that I have and I it's something I might obviously also bring up at um council goal
setting, but I wanted to bring that up now to see if there was any interest in any discussion about it. >> Vice Mayor, >> yes. Um I would agree. I think the last time we really looked hard at the ordinance ordinances was 2016, I believe
was the last time. and uh you know we we go through a I think the terminology is presantism. So that uh what what was good then is not necessarily good now and and so forth. So uh um I I would I would I I would ask the administration
to uh to take a look at it and come back to us with any you know changes um particularly with first amendment type qu uh issues um and uh you know at a future date so that we could look at it with any changes they might recommend.
>> Could we I don't know what your desire here is. The sign ordinance is long and thorny, right? Sign ordinances and noise ordinances are probably the two worst ordinances to deal with that we have. >> Is there specific portions of this that
we're concerned about as opposed to just telling them to look at the whole I mean that could take that's a that's a big undertaking. Are you >> well th those two issues specific? >> Well, the commercial signs we talked about we talked about the corner lots and stuff. We had a discussion about
that recently. It's not that it it's more of an overriding style of how what we how we allow our signage to I don't want to say be placed, but if you go into certain communities, if you
go down maybe into uh West Palm or Palm Beach or they they have a very strict style of where you're allowed to place signs or how you're allowed or how high they're allowed to be in an effort to look less
of as suburban shopping center sprawl that people have complained about 56th Street before. So I get that's that's one of my concerns. And then the other area is to make it very very simple for
residents to understand specifically what's allowed for them in their yards signage and to make it easy for city staff to
say, you know, right away this this is allowed by by really I mean we would say what's not allowed because most things are allowed in the under the first amendment. But I just feel like in recent uh recent comments that have come before
city council, there's been constrnation about some of the signage that is in people's yards that is protected speech. But if we were more clear about what is not protected or allowed as public
signage, that would maybe help everybody answer that question and city staff to deal with it. So those are those two areas that for me >> crevis anything? Sure. Um I think that a consistent application of the rules is
always critical and uh I know in this particular instance there are rules on the books which the uh city administration has some difficulties enforcing. So if we can align the rules that we have on the books with our actual behavior
that's always going to be something that I support. I've supported that in the past on other matters. Um, I think it's critical that people are able to look in our statutes if they're interested and have an actual clear understanding of what they're allowed to do and what
they're not allowed to do or if they're getting permits, what they're required to do for the permit. And when we have a situation where there are informal rules that are created not based on a proper legislative process but on discretion,
that's always going to be something that rubs me the wrong way because discretion has its place, but people need to be able to look at the law and understand what's expected of them and what isn't. And I think this is a situation where
it's very clear that people cannot do that. So, I'd love to see something along those lines move forward. I'd love to see a motion where we ask city staff to look into this and maybe come back with some guidance after they've spoken, for example, to Mr. Shanks from uh code enforcement who's doing an excellent
job. Uh and and he can go and develop some form of a standard for our consideration and then if we like it, we can approve it. If we don't, we can send it back for revision. I think that would be a very good move. Um, and I also welcome that on any other areas of our
ordinances, and there are others where we're not doing what the ordinance says. So, that's what I have to say on that. >> Council member Chambers. >> Sure. Uh, first on commercial. Um, you know, that one's a little bit more tricky. We could uh put some new rules
in place if we choose to to uh tighten that up maybe, but I can't see us making all the business people now change their signs. So, it would have to be progressively down the road as businesses change. We can look at that. Yard signs. I think we have an issue
with yard signs and I think uh we need to look at that part. Uh I also think we need to shorten the time frame for political signs during campaigns to go out. I know we shortened it. Uh Councilman Sh, you remember we shortened it
>> once 90 days before the uh election, >> right? I think we needed to shorten it again. political signs go up in yards way too long and you know just my opinion. So, >> Vice Mayor, anything else? >> No, that's good. Okay. So, I I would
fully support and agree with my colleagues remarks on the issue that we have with the really uninforcable ordinance we have concerning yard signs, snipe signs, yard signs. But I am not supportive of directing staff to go back
and revisit all the I mean the the commercial signage. We we've been over that probably three times since I've been on council. It's a good ordinance. It's already more restrictive than most cities. If you drive Fowler Avenue, you can tell when you leave Temple Terrace
and go into Tampa just by the signs. Um that is a really burdensome task that we're asking them to do. Now, if there's a particular area like we've already asked them to look at the signs, the portion doing with the corner lots that don't allow them to have this, we've
already addressed that. So, if there's a particular thing, but to have them go look at that whole that's a lengthy sticky ordinance when it comes to how many square feet and how how the lighting is and how it's corner lots and
side lots and what if there's this, what if there? That's no easy task. So, um, I would happily support, enthusiastically support the revisit of the snipe sign or the yard signs, but I I just don't think
we're fully appreciating what we're asking of them if we're going to ask them to do a wholesale revision of the commercial signs, which which we have done. Um, so I I guess I would just try to persuade you to narrow that a little
bit and maybe look through it yourself if there's something that you see in the commercial sign or you know like well can we look at that? >> I'm sorry. Um I I agree. I'm I'm not talking commercial signs. I mean what we got is what we got out there on Fowler
Avenue. I'm sorry 56th Street and so forth. You're not going to get it to you're not going to be able to get it to take it down and redo it. But uh I'm talking strictly yard signs and and uh that that type of situation. But uh you know I just we would ask just ask
administration to come back to us. We got a lot of things going on. I don't want to I don't want to pig pile on with with something new. We got we got a lot of other issues that are going to be coming. But put it on your radar so that we can come back in a few months, six months, whatever with some recommendations because this is not
something that's going to take be done overnight. uh you find out all the intricacies and and and issues with the yard signs. It's going to take a lot of time to uh to pull that together. So, I I would like to see administration come back with that. More focused on the yard
signs than than just a general review. >> I think you got a lot of traction on the yard signs if you want to narrow to that. I think I think everybody would like you to make that motion. >> Do we need a motion or do we need cons? >> Well, we used to not do motions, but now we do. So,
>> okay. So, then I will make a motion that we ask sta city staff to revisit the sign ordinance with regard to yard signs and snipe signs. >> Second. >> Motion and a second. Any discussion of
the motion? All in favor say I. >> I. Opposed? >> No nays. Okay, we are still under council business. Is there any other carryover council? Council member Kravitz, >> I do have one question. And if I could direct it to uh city manager, um we
voted some time ago for a virtual PAS town hall and I was curious if there is any update on when we can expect that to be executed on. >> Sure. Um as I think we we've mentioned a couple of times. So the the the goal is
we're working to get the report from CHA a final report um presented to the council and then subsequent to that we schedule I I actually suggested doing a another inerson town hall as well as having a concurrent virtual town hall via Zoom. Um so that that's hasn't
changed. So we're waiting on the on the report to be finalized. >> That's excellent. So when when would we expect potentially to have the additional in-person town hall? after being presented to the council as I mentioned to the council before right now we are looking at um I think we gave
the council a date of by June at the latest we would have this information I think we're going to get it earlier than that than that point um earlier would help us also from a budgetary perspective because if we're talking about including it as part of the rate um we'd like to get that information the
sooner the better so as soon as we have the information we can analyze a process that prevent present you with a with a report that includes a financial analysis. Um then I would if the council's obviously at their discretion have you know a town hall explain
everything to the community and have it simultaneously uh broadcast um virtually. >> Is there anything we could do today to make it so that the in-person town hall can happen without any further difficulties from your perspective?
>> I'm I'm sorry. I'm not sure I understand what the further difficulties are. question. >> You you suggested that we had to take action on it. Should I make a motion to go ahead and proceed with that in person town hall? >> I if you're asking me, my suggestion would be to wait till you actually had
the the report and the analysis of that before moving on the town hall. I think that seems to be that would not be my recommendation doing it that way. But again, it's up to the council. >> All right. Well, I look forward to the report done. Thank you. That's all I
have. Is there other council business? Okay, we'll move on to new business and board reports. First item under consideration for new business is um a followup to a meeting at the council had a workshop at 5:00 pm to discuss the
proposed public safety complex. Um Mr. City Manager, do you have a elevator version of that presentation? >> Sure. Uh so as the mayor mentioned at 5:00 the uh we discussed a a public
safety complex where we discussed a number of things. Uh city acquired property in 2024 for a future police station. uh in looking at that property, the size of its five acres, it would accommodate both a police station and a future fire station, which has been
talked about in this community for several years, particularly as our community grows to the east and we're annexing more property. Uh the response times that we've we've identified in that eastern part of our community are slower than our benchmarks for the entire city. Our benchmark for the
entire city is 6 minutes and 40 seconds for a response. From the time you dial 911 before an a paramedic arrives at your at your property. On the eastern part of the community, we're seeing uh in the 90 percentile range, we're seeing response times are 8 minutes and 29 seconds on average. Uh and that is pro
um uh predicted, excuse me, to deteriorate even further over time as more development happens out there. We're seeing new warehouse development, new retail development, also some new residential. So the conversation earlier was do we want to build a fire station
simultaneously with the police station? And it would make sense to build the fire station from a cost perspective alone at the same time because you have the contractor mobilizing once on the site and um and also you wouldn't disrupt police operations once they're in the
building, etc. So that was presented to the city council along with the the cost for that for that. Let me just pull it up here. So um the police station so right now our police department is operating in the same footprint that they've been
operating from since the late 70s. And our police department in in the late 70s early 80s uh was much smaller than it is today. And they serve the community was much smaller than it is today. Uh this community has talked about having its own police station, freestanding station
to accommodate the growth uh as well as to accommodate uh all the needs for evidence. If you can imagine just evidence, we were a community of 11,000 when the police station was first moved to this facility. Today we're a community of 28,000. Just the evidence retention area alone is is busting at
the seams here in this facility. So u looking at that, we hired an architect uh to do some conceptual planning and cost estimating. So, right now we have the estimated cost for a new police station, uh, 33,000t facility. It's $34.6 million. This is on the high end
of the range. I'm giving you the most conservative numbers. Uh, fire station 3 would be projected to be a 10,000t facility, two bay fire station at $10.7 million. Um, obviously when you do, this is not a cash transaction. This would be
a debt instrument. So if we were to do for example the general obligation bond um there is underwriting bond counsel credit agency reporting etc that also has a component of the cost and that would be roughly 1 to 2% of that total. Um, in talking with bond counsel and our
financial advisor, they recommend to uh also have a cushion in in your in your bond if you do go out to the voters for a general obligation bond because it's going to take us one to two years before between the time of a vote and the time you actually break ground and there could be inflation, there could be other
things that uh in ex make that price go up from where it is today. So we were talking about a suggested general obligation bond amount not to exceed 50 million. So for example if everything shakes out and it's 40 million that that would be the number but the not to
exceed amount would be again providing that cushion. Uh looking at the options the general obligation bond uh would be the best option in our estimation. my estimation, at least put it that way, uh because it would provide us more transparency because the voters would be voting
exactly on what they want to financially support. So, it's it's not buried in any budget. You're going to very clearly see that you'd be voting to say you support building a police station and a fire station for uh for that amount of money. Uh it would be a recommended 30-year
bond. um between uh at right now the interest rates are hovering between 4 and 4.75% somewhere in that ballpark. Um that would be a a millage rate uh right now based on today's valuations of between 0.9 and 0.98. So, you're looking
at if you had a home assessed at $250,000, the projected financial impact would be uh $225 to $245 annually uh to support that bond cost. This evening, what we were asking the the city council is
authorization, if they want us to move forward, do you do you want to include a police and fire station? Uh, does the council also wish us to do a um general obligation bond for the financing of this? And then, uh, which ballot, excuse
me, which ballot would we, uh, place the question on? So, there's an options. There's three options for the ballot. Uh, you could do a primary ballot, which would be the primary elections August 18th of this year. It could the general ballot in November 3rd, or you could do a special election sometime in 2027, but
there would be costs to hold a special election. Um, I think that's roughly the synopsis. >> Thank you, city manager. Are there members of the public? I do have a couple people that want to comment on this already, but if you have just heard that and decided you'd like to make some
public comments. The forms are right there on the little table in the back, so you can fill them out, give them to city clerk, and we'll be happy to take you in order. So, the first person recognized is Sher Donahue. >> Good evening, Miss Donahghue. >> Good evening. Boy, this is a quite an
occasion. You've had two former city council people here. Thank you to each of you who are serving. So, you know, it's not often that you actually live a a slogan or a motto or whatever, but the new slogan that we're working on, we've
given up on amazing city. We've already found out that we are an amazing city. Correct. So, now what is it? It's what's next. >> Okay. listening to that workshop today. I want to give you just tremendous kudos on that workshop. All the dots were over
the eyes and all the tees were crossed. You laid it out beautifully. I wish everyone could see this workshop and hopefully it will be on YouTube and people can watch it because watching the planning that has already been gone
through watching the way the plan is laid out all the way from when to build it, what to build. All of those things are amazing. But what also strikes to every heart is the time it takes. I can
tell you that I am a beneficiary of a lot less than eight minutes. And that less than eight minutes made the difference between me celebrating another Christmas with my son and planning a funeral last month. So, you
know, if somebody says time is of the essence, that that is all in capital letters. So, I heard what you said in the workshop and I hope you'll all stick to it because it sounds to me like we're going to be um breaking ground on a dual
police and fire station in our future and I want to commend you for thinking about what's next. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Mr. Non Hugh. Uh Alec Hassie. Good evening, Mr. Hassie. Good evening,
Mayor, City Council, Alec Cassie, uh Wesley Chapel, Florida, vice president of the Temple Terrace Professional Firefighters. I just want to say on behalf of our members, we're all very, very appreciative of uh the work that you guys have done planning uh the
future Fire Station 3 and the public safety complex. Echoing what Miss Donahghue said, a lot of work goes into this, a lot of data uh and and it was all presented very very well. And you know this this fire station has been a
topic for over almost 25 years. So this was identified nearly 25 years ago in the strategic planning process. So to see it come to fruition with this council, I mean I think you guys need to give yourselves a pat on the back because we we wouldn't have made it here without you guys. So we just wanted to
say thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Hassie. Are there other members of the public who wish to address the council? Okay. Council members, are there questions that remain from the workshop? >> I don't have any questions, Vice Mayor. >> I have no questions, but we'll be ready for a motion.
>> Okay. Well, let's uh make sure there aren't any questions that remain. >> Okay. Vice Mayor, you're recognized. It's >> my pleasure to make a motion to proceed with all due diligence on the combined uh project of the new police station and
the new firehouse. number three on the assigned property on Harney Road to seek a uh GEO government a general obligation bond in the amount of about $50 million as as described um and uh do this during
the primary election in August I think it's August 17th of this 18 August of this year. Second >> motion and a second. Discussion of the motion. >> I have comments. >> Council member Fernandez. >> One. I do hope that you all watch the
workshop that preceded this meeting. It was filmed and it should run on YouTube and that might help if you have any questions, but I'll tell you why I support the motion. And that is um any annexation, any growth in the city will
be that direction. So at some point if we follow the plans that the city has initiated in in years past that's where the growth will be and we will be putting a third station sooner probably sooner than what uh we might think even
though we might think well we we don't have that growth today. It takes a lot of time to plan this and and actually implement the construction and that we'd like to not be caught behind the eightball. We're trying to plan for
the future. Um construction costs are a fairly known dollar today, closer than not perfect, but closer. And we know that they're only increasing, which means that even if we delayed this
project for 3 years, we might be looking at a 50% increase in construction cost. >> I don't think it works like that. And we also know that it's when you're doing a major construction project that
it's less expensive overall for the site work to do this in one combined project versus coming back and having to restart at a later date. And we know that the accreditation of the fire department is
very important to all of our citizens. And it's important that we as the city council provide the tools to maintain the service and the accreditation that city residents have come to expect. So those are the reasons I support this.
>> I would encourage the public to go watch the workshop. It was almost an hour long. It was a lot of good comments made by every council member. And so, um, go go watch the workshop. It was I don't want to do it again another hour, but,
um, so anyway, that was a good decision. So, are there other comments on the motion? Vice Mayor, >> thank you. Um, I I just can't echoing what everybody else has said. I can't say how outstanding the the workshop
was. Um, I can't overemphasize that everything was locked down and this whole project from from inception on with the money becoming available to buy the property and the the property even being here to help us through uh through uh Milton and so forth. Um, everything's
worked out perfectly and it's it's a lot there's a lot of work to do, but I'm very proud to be a part of this council where we're starting getting the ball rolling. We're not going to be on council when very none of us will probably be here when when you guys move in there, but I want to be there when when when it when you cut the ribbon for
this because uh we are we're setting the stage for the next 30 30 40 years for the city of Temple Terrace and that's what's next. So I I I I obviously I support and I made the motion, but I can't uh you know, the next thing is convincing the our p the public that uh
this is really important and it's and it's it's critical for for our future. >> I'll stop. >> Member Kitch, >> thank you. Um, this is just first of all, fantastic and I think we all agree and that's great and this is really just for the record because there
might be some people tuning in now who didn't watch the workshop. Um, the voters have a decision to make in the primary ballot and I encourage them to give it some serious thought. This is uh a big ask. It's a lot of money. Um, but
there is a cost either way. If we don't vote for this, it is likely that Temple Terrace will prospectively lose its class one rating. The class one rating is critical for everybody's homeowners insurance. If we go to a class two
rating, the homeowner's insurance will increase. And so, you have a cost either way. You have to have the bond or everyone has to be willing to pay more in their homeowners insurance most
likely down the line for worse service from the fire department. And the fire department is willing to to give the good service and I know they will. But we have to support them. And so um this is not a tax increase today and it is
not a tax increase if you vote for it. But you will see a line item every year for the repayment of this bond. Uh, and what it will be will depend on your property taxes to some degree because it depends on the value of your house. But
it isn't the same as property tax. The money that you pay only goes toward the fire and police station. It does not go to the general fund. It cannot be spent in broad strokes. So, I just want to encourage everyone to give it serious thought. There's going to be a leadup to
this. There's going to be a lot of public information and that's very important and I'm fully in favor of that and I'll I'll be pushing for that so that we can give voters all the information that they need in order to make a fully informed decision on the primary ballot. And I'll probably be out there myself talking to people about
this as well. uh and hopefully with some of the people from the fire department. And you know, I think we we should go out into the community and we need to get everybody uh the information that they need and then everyone can make up their own mind because that's what it's all about. And other than that, I don't
have anything else to say. So, thank you very much for your indulgence. >> Thank you. That's a good point. There's likely a cost either way, so that's a very good point to keep in mind. Council member Chambers, any comments? >> Uh I'm ready to vote. >> Okay. All those in favor say I. >> I. opposed. No nays.
Yes, that's a big step. Sure. Thank you, Mayor U Council. I just wanted to say a few things. Um, number one, I want to thank the city manager. Um, he asked the hard questions over the last couple years on why this is a fire
station, why we needed to move a rescue over there and potentially down the road staff, um, a fire engine. Um, And uh I want to thank my assistant fire chief who I leaned upon to give me those stats and that information. Um I've got a rock
star of a staff. Um the firefighters and uh paramedics that I represent are uh second to none. Uh I want to thank this council. I appreciate your support of not only me, my staff, but our firefighters, but the real beneficiary
of this and the real winners of this is the community and the 28,000 residents that we serve and the visitors that visit our city every single day. So, thank you very much. >> Thanks, Chief. Are there other new business or board reports?
Other new business or board reports. I've got a couple quick things. I apologize for not being at the last meeting. It was unavoidable, but um I wish I had. I just don't want to belabor beat the horse to death. But it's been
brought up here a couple of times that we've been violating our own council rules. Like rule 18D doesn't talk about the use of the form and we're requiring people by custom to use the form, but it's nowhere in our rules. In fact, that statement is actually now enshrined in a
approved minutes to a meeting. That's correct that 18D does not address the use of the form. However, 18G right below it does. And paragraph G says members of the public will have an opportunity to be heard on all agenda items coming before the city council
prior to city council action. Persons wishing to be heard should pro complete a written request to be heard form provided by the city clerk and present the form to the clerk. And then later in the same paragraph G, it talks about um donating your time to another speaker
like they did for Mr. PGorich. And it talks about use of form provided by the city clerk to designate in writing a representative. So it's twice mentioned in paragraph G. And then if we go to rule 25 concerning public hearings, it's the same thing. Says person wishing to be
heard should complete a written request to be heard on a form provided by the city clerk and present the form to the clerk. And then it goes into the second time it mentions it is is donating your time to another person and it says through the use of a form provided by So
the minutes that you approve. True. I mean 18D doesn't have it but it doesn't say that in the minutes. It just says we only do this by custom. Well that's not true. Here's the city council rules. Um, and the other comment I wanted to make about the last meeting
that I again I'm sorry I was absent for unavoidably, there was discussion about the need to have a permit to up to um build or install a shed in your yard. There was discussion and then it was recommended
to the council member that he bring it up at the goal setting meeting. So, two things I want to say about that is one, we already had this discussion on February the 27th at a land use workshop we had where we talked about sheds, sideyard uses, commercial vehicles, micro breweries,
trees, commercial signs on on corner lots, accessory dwelling units, and historic buildings. We had this meeting and we gave staff direction that they've been working on. In fact, some of these revisions that we directed them to make
are at the planning commission now to get approved. So, one one of those things is to sign permits. And the other point I'd like to make is the council member correctly responded to the suggestion by saying, I thought the goal
setting was a budget planning meeting, which is absolutely correct. He's 100% right. That's the goal setting is for the for the budget. It's not a land use workshop and to embed a land use workshop in a budget meeting is wrong.
It needs to be publicly noticed as a land use workshop so the public knows if it wants to attend. We don't embed it in a budget meeting and so people don't know we're going to be talking about land use issues. So I I don't know what you guys want to do. I mean, if you want
to reverse the guidance that we've already given staff, you better probably better do it soon because some of it's at the planning commission being looked at now. I I and then I I don't know, but we I'm
pretty sure that land use workshops don't need to be conflated with budget planning workshops. And so anyway, just to put it on the record since that's what we do now. Okay. City manager report.
>> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh members of council, in your backup this evening, you have the quarterly updates for the fiscal year 26 first quarter. So, we have the uh the budget and the council priority updates there. Uh if you have any questions, >> any questions for the city manager?
>> I I just want to make a comment real quick. I I know the work you're doing because I talk to you just about every day. I know what most of you guys are doing, the big stuff, but until you put it into one document like this and I go scrolling through it
and I'm like, "Holy cow, I forgot about that. I didn't know we were doing that." I mean, I when you put it in one document, I got to tell you, you guys are a bunch of rock stars. You really are. And and uh so is the leadership. And so when I look at all the stuff that
you're doing and all the irons you have in the fire, every every department in here, I'm like, "Oh my gosh." and they still answer the phone. How do they do that? Um, so really to all of you and and Carlos to you too and the other charter officers too. I mean both of you
guys, you're just hitting it out of the park all the time and so thank you. >> Thank you very much Ross. Appreciate that. I'm sure that all this in the report all in the updates this is the work that's done by the team. They put it together. So >> Mr. Chair, just
>> Oh, I'm sorry. Council Kits. >> Thank you. Um I I do have just one or two queries and and compliment. So good job getting the golf course into full compliance with their loan. I know that's been a sticking point in the past. I'm I'm glad it's working out well with them. That's wonderful. Uh really
happy to see that. And um the other question was uh relating to the Fowler Avenue sewer. I didn't see any reports in there. Um is there any update on that? >> Yes. So, we are in discussions with outside legal counsel concerning the the contractor that was terminated from the
job. Um, they're looking at the right now at the the different um advantages or disadvantages in terms of the approach uh for that legal action. So, I plan to come back to council as soon as I have definition on that. Right now, we're still in um I'd call it more than
due diligence, but we're still trying to get some questions answered. >> And uh second question is uh related to the I Please correct me if I'm wrong. I saw an additional accountant position being open to deal with PAS costs. Is that >> so we've what we've done uh and I have
to thank Mr. Warfelts and assistant city manager and HR director Nazario is basically uh reconfigure some positions if we have turnover, if we have attrition. Uh we always look at positions. We don't just blindly allow it to be filled. Uh we look at it again if there's new needs that we have. And
one of the new needs we had in public works and engineering is really for a uh in essence an accountant an accountant three position over there. Uh PAS is part of it. There's just a lot going on right now. Public works and utilities uh that we felt that that was a skill set we needed to have there.
>> Okay. Thank you. I hope it goes well. >> Thank you. >> Other questions for Mr. Beu? >> Okay. So, if I could jump to one other thing. Um I know that in the last uh month particularly we've had some
significant water issues particularly down in the area south of River Hills uh drive uh south of South River Hill Drive uh which some sometimes you'll hear it referred to as the peninsula here. Uh and I just want to give the public an update and the council as to where we are with that. So if you'll recall on
December 30th we had a break in a water man on West River Drive. um that line uh was is not in good shape and in fact uh we had a subsequent break uh about two weeks later if I'm not mistaken and so
uh staff's been working to identify a solution there. Um we feel that that line is really not doesn't have much life left in it. Um, so the good fortune we have here is that there's actually a cast iron water mane on the other side of West River Drive on on the south side
basically. And so we are looking right now to move the homes that are being serviced by the by the compromised line over to the to the the other existing line. There's about 31 homes that are on this existing um uh pipe. Uh we have been in touch with um one or two
contractors are now getting pricing and it looks like we'll probably be able to piggyback with a contractor that has a cont a contract with another uh central Florida community and we're hoping to bring something to council within the next two meetings is is my goal uh to have a contract with you um so that we
can get that work done and get those folks moved off that line. know to move them off that line. What that will mean is that we're going to be uh basically going under the road uh what they call it the bullet shooting the bullet under the road making the connection under the road for each of those 31 homes. Um so
that's we hope to get that uh work underway as soon as possible to get that uh line abandoned basically. Also want to touch upon some of the another question that's come up about sort of the uh uh the lab protocol and the water shut off because obviously we've had
when you have a water main break uh you try everything possible to avoid shutting off the pressure to the system because then you have to go into a precautionary boil water notice for 48 hours uh at minimum. And some of the issues we have is that the the different
labs that we use have different protocols uh in terms of some labs are really for weekdays, some labs are for weekends. Um and so we have tightened that up. Uh we've learned some several lessons in some of these water breaks over the last year. So we've we've uh
improved that relationship. Our staff is much more aware now of which labs will work with us and which labs will stay open late so we can get the samples in. The reason that's important is because we we want to make sure that we shorten that period for that precautionary boil water notice because we know it's incredibly inconvenient and we don't
want it to happen. Uh the break that happened December 30th, unfortunately, we had the New Year holiday there and that that's what threw off some of this because of the lab um and us trying to get there with a holiday and and so that was a problem. So, we've we've improved that um and we're going to continue
working on that. Also want to touch upon this past weekend we had um three I believe it was uh actually may have been 10 10 homes looking okay Mr. Warner it was a small group of homes >> 10 >> 10 to 12 homes uh so because of the cold
weather as I informed council and everybody actually spoke to it Mr. Lo spoke to it early on. We had this cold snap. Um we don't typically have temperatures that are freezing or below freezing and so we had to make sure that our infrastructure was protected and in in uh in this particular neighborhood
again down in that in the sort of south of River Hills area. We had a construction meter. So they were doing some works. They had a construction meter. So they had a basically an exposed pipe overground that um we realized would probably freeze. So staff went out to shut the water off to that
meter. Uh and in doing so there were two valves. Um they they turned the one valve off and that valve unfortunately shut the water off in this in this area. But they they caught that mistake within a matter of minutes. I think it was about 10 minutes and they they turned the water back on. Um but that happened
didn't result in a boil water notice at all for that. But it was an inconvenience. So we're we're working on training our staff in terms of we don't have many of these construction meters. So this is not a typical thing you'd find. But uh I know one of the council members asked me
how did we find out about this and I want to commend the council for supporting in our budgets for the last several years the iHy uh I hydrate notification system. We've been phasing this in. That is a great system. So, um, probably most of the people sitting right here on their phones have the app
and whenever we lose pressure in any of our hydrants, at least the hydrants have the I hydrant function on it, that telemetry, it indicates immediately sends a text to our staff. So, they're all aware that there's a drop in pressure somewhere, which is usually indicative of something happened. Uh, could be a hydrant broke, it could be
that a water man broke, etc. So, they're able to respond very quickly. At the same time, again, want to thank council for the Cclick Fix app that we have because I know that residents also concurrently were sending notes to Cclick Fix and that was going Maria, our our PIO was monitoring that as well over
the weekend, particularly in light of the weather. So, between those two uh methodologies, we're able to respond very very quickly and make sure that this doesn't become a bigger issue. So, so that was important. Uh we have also been asked about how we have our our
utilities uh marked out and and uh cataloged. And so our infrastructure, we have a fairly good idea of most of the city's infrastructure that's underground. The the challenge that we have is the service lines, things like that that might be privately installed.
You would think over the years that there would be good records, but it I'll be honest, every community that I've worked for, it's hit or miss. Um, and so some places you'll have very good asbuilt records and other places you may not. So what we're trying to do with our staff is anytime we have any kind of interaction with our underground
infrastructure or service lines, we document that and we're adding that to our geographic information system. So trying to get that in as quickly as we can. We've mapped out a good portion of the city already. We feel comfortable with, but we still have a lot more to go. Um, and I want to thank Council
Member Kravitz actually because he sent me a note a couple of weeks ago about uh, Congresswoman Lee's office managed to secure funding for Hillsboro County precisely for this kind of initiative to map out their utility infrastructure. Uh, we had had requests for council member Congresswoman Lee's uh, office in
the past. I've sent out emails now to her district chief here seeking to find out more information. So, if there's an ability for us to get into a next round of funding for something like that, that's something we'd like to do. Um, and then, uh, also want to talk about
finally in terms of staffing. Um, we're we're going through several staffing changes right now and like I mentioned before, every position that's open, we look at is there a better way to do this? And so, that includes in our utilities department, too, as well, trying to figure out how can we get more skill sets into the department. Uh we've
hired a new utilities maintenance manager uh that brings a wealth of experience. So we're hoping all these things bear fruit as we move forward um uh to improve the utility system. >> Happy to answer any questions. >> Are there other questions for city manager council member Kravitz?
>> I just thank you for the thorough report and also um I know we're going into goal setting which is when we develop our budget. So, I just want to encourage you and the staff to think about what the needs are for our sewer system because I think everyone would like to fund those
and perhaps there are some preventative things that haven't been explored because of cost. Perhaps there are repairs that have been pushed away that aren't absolutely critical yet. I think we should try to get ahead of that if it's at all possible. Certainly we have a lot of financial challenges going into
the next 10 years. But delaying this is also one of those things that isn't going to be cheap. So uh just my re my my suggestion or or request would be so that we can have a good discussion about this topic during goal setting to explore that in the next uh coming months. In fact, it's we're working on
that already too. We have the um the capital plan for the water plant that's being developed right now. uh we'll be bringing that to you the findings of it to you later in the year. It'll be part of the budget and uh obviously on the sanitary sewer side as you mentioned we'll be looking at that as well. >> Thank you.
>> Council member Fernandez. Um, so with regard to the inventory and the mapping that you're in currently doing and planning to to get the system documented, will you also be creating a time process
or some sort of schedule that will tell us what maintenance needs to be done as part of your report? I mean, I I'm all I wholeheartedly want us to talk about what needs to be done as we go into the future so that we can get the
budget established or know what the needs are. We will so we'll be we'll be looking at as much as we know. So, I want to make sure that I want to leave anybody with a misunderstanding. Again, we haven't been able to map the entire city. That's a long process. that that
that's not going to happen in a very short period of time unless we were able to secure some significant funding, outside funding that would allow us to hire a third party to come in and map everything. And even then, it would probably take probably a year, I would imagine, to do. Um, so we don't have all
that all that mapped, but our goal would be what we know and what we're getting from our consultants reports about our infrastructure that we will bring that to council as part of your budgeting. You know, it may not be all in fiscal year 27 because obviously trying to do that all at one year will will probably
be nearly impossible. But we'll have a plan that'll go out over, you know, several years, maybe 5 to 10 years and show you these are the costs that we anticipate today. That doesn't mean we're going to capture everything. There may be something that we don't even know about right now that's underground that's going to come up and become an issue for us, but we're going to try and
get ahead of most of the things that we we know right now are going to be problems. Uh but again, it will take time. It's not going to happen in in just one budget cycle. >> I'm just my only request is that u a lot of the infrastructure is aging and
it's better to maintain or repair ahead of you know some sort of break. So, uh, whatever information you're able to bring us as we're establishing the budget, even if I know we're not going to know everything, but that's all that
I would request. >> Okay. >> Mr. Mueller, city attorney's report. >> Thank you. Uh, mayor, I have a couple of things. First, um, I'd like to, uh, do a first thing will be a, uh, my report on unanimous consent.
>> I object. Excuse me. I'm sorry. This is improperly agendaized because the city attorney's responsibility is to report on external matters. This is a item governing the city council's own management of its affairs and it is a sovereign body and as we saw with the mayor's chair ruling which I strongly
disagree with from about 6 months ago which removed our authority to put things on the agenda. It is our responsibility to make those decisions. It is not the city attorney's job to dictate whatever policy he thinks should apply to unanimous consent. So, I would like to see this struck because it is
not properly placed on the agenda. The city attorney has no agenda setting authority. >> Well, as the chair, I'm going to allow it because we pay for the city attorney to give us advice to make sure that we're compliant. And this body, this body,
>> this body has full authority to make a motion to appeal the chair's decision. And by unan or by majority vote, you can overturn the chair's decision. and I welcome that. But right now, the chair's decision is to allow the attorney to do his job.
>> I object and I would like a vote on that. I move that we strike this item from the agenda and move on with other matters that are more important. >> We have a motion. Do we have a second? There's a motion. Do we have a second?
Motion fails for lack of second. >> Let the record reflect that the city attorney wants to talk about unanimous consent and that I didn't want to talk about it. record so reflect that. Mr. Miller, please continue. >> All right. Thank you. Um, actually, I was asked to bring this up uh by you,
Mr. Kravitz. >> That's not correct. Um anyhow uh in the past few meetings the use of unanimous consent has come up when voting on some motions and I have expressed a little concern doing uh using uh unanimous consent or for the city council to use
uh unanimous consent when voting on certain items and that's a reason for this. I want you to understand what that concern is. So, if I can, unanimous consent is a parliamentary procedure that's found in Robert's rules
of order and rule 24 of your rules uh points to Robert's rules uh when there is not a specific council rule governing a procedure. So, basically uh what is unanimous consent is found in Robert's rules uh in
rules 458 through 460. uh rule 458 which discusses and tells us what unanimous consent is. It's in cases where there seems to be no opposition in routine business or on questions of little importance, time can be saved by
the procedure of unanimous consent. Um and uh under those conditions uh the method of unanimous consent can be used to either to adopt a motion without the steps of stating the question and putting the motion to a formal vote or
it can be used to take action without even the formality of a vote. So 458 tells us what unanimous consent is. Rule 459 tells us how uh this is to work. Um
in cases where there is I'm sorry. So to obtain unanimous consent the chair would state that if there's no objection the action that he mentions will be taken. He then pauses and if no member calls out I object uh then uh or he will say
that there since there is no objection the action is decided upon. If any member objects, uh, the chair must state the question on the motion and allow the desired debate. And the question goes through our normal process, which would be a motion, a second, uh, discussion
and then the vote. And then, uh, rule 460, uh, explains, uh, really what an an objection to using unanimous consent means. When a member responds to the chair's inquiry, is there any objection? Um, he may not that
person may not necess and and someone responds with I object. That person may not necessarily be opposing the motion itself, but may believe that it is wise to take a formal vote under the circumstances. In other words, the objection is raised not to the proposed
action but to the action being taken without a formal vote. Um, so part of my concern about using this, Robert's rules does not contemplate such factors as in Florida the sunshine
law and under 286.012 012. Uh it states that uh when a member of a municipal board at which an official action or ruling or other act official act is to be taken that there uh they
cannot abstain unless there's a possible conflict or they are to assure a a fair proceeding. Uh but they need the vote and that vote shall be recorded or counted. And where my concern comes in is around the fact that uh using
unanimous consent usually results in a silent vote. And I do not believe that silence can be that silence can be recorded or counted. Therefore, I'm afraid that if we were to use unanimous consent that um you know we would have
run into a problem if we were having some sort of official action that you were voting on. So what is official action that I would you know be asking that we make sure we use a voice vote and not unanimous consent would be of course the approval and denial of a resolution, the approval
and denial of an ordinance. Uh the continuing or postponing of an agenda item to a future agenda and uh a mo a motion that you may make of taking official action. And I have up there as an example, um, if you were directing,
uh, that speed humps be installed on a P on a specific street, that would be an official action and we would want to use an official vote. But if you were directing staff to investigate the need for a hump, that could be done using unanimous consent and has been done in
the past by the city council. And I will tell you that if it's not clear whether we're dealing with an official act or not, uh I will be asking you to take a voice vote and that is all that I have. >> Council member Kravitz,
>> I I had a lot prepared, but I'll just dispense with most of it and get to the core of this. Okay. So, the city attorney said that Florida sunshine law has some sort of relevance here. Tampa uses unanimous consent on
the regular. It operates under Robert's rules of order just as we do. That is its parliamentary authority under their rule 4J. The resolution in question from Tampa is 2024-520. Robert's rules of order, newly revised,
shall govern the proceedings, etc. Very familiar. Okay. Here's a citation from Tampa City Council, Thursday, September 19th, 2024 at 9:00 a.m. Member making motion. Council member Lyn Herac, presiding officer, Council
Chairman Guido Maniscalo, Council attorney Martin Shelby. Here's the verbatim transcript at 958. Mr. Chair, do you want to make that a motion by unanimous consent? Linherac, I motion to listen to item 70 since they are here. are a good efficient way of um
proceeding with this topic without objection. Any objection? This is Guido Maniscalo. By unanimous consent here item 70 now, etc. Planning Commission. So this is an example from Tampa City Council from 2024, which is as far as I know subject to the Sunshine Law of
Consent being made by someone who is a member of Tampa City Council under the recommendation of Tampa City Attorney, which is recognized by the chair and then passes. I've got another example. February 6, 2025. Council member Lyn
Herac, once again, the culprit in the unanimous consent escapade. February 6, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. Same person requesting, same chair, verbatim transcript. I move items 18 through 21 and 23 through 34 by unanimous consent.
Guido Manoscalo, the chair. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? I. If it's good enough for Tampa, I'm pretty sure it's good enough for our little city council here, which I love very much, and I'd just like to see it move things a little quicker with unanimous consent every now and then.
Mr. City Attorney, your legal advice is fine and welcome, but when it comes to how we govern ourselves as a sovereign body, I really have to emphasize even the mayor has much more authority than you. I really don't agree with his
chair decision about how he has restricted the right to put things on the agenda, but everyone up here voted for it and we accepted it. And unfortunately, I have to abide by it. And that is how this body sets its own rules, not based on you putting your thoughts into an agenda when you don't
even track who's applicable under the sunshine law. And you didn't even look at Tampa, which is the largest, most applicable jurisdiction in Hillsboro County, to this situation. And that's very disappointing. And I just want to say that this was a big waste of time. So, thank you. And I have more. So, if
you want to go at it, I've got eight other examples here, including authority from Robert's Rules of Order itself, three other municipalities in the United States, and two academic institutions with citations under how they interpret Robert's rules of order. So, I got plenty of ammo if you want to go on this
one. >> Are there any other questions for the city attorney? Thank you very much, Mr. Mueller. Are there anything else in your report? >> Yeah, one more thing. Um, it's been brought to my attention that there was an incorrect vote notation in the
November 4th, 2025 minutes. Uh so I am noting for the record and u that that correction has been made that the city clerk will be handing out uh the vote notation with that correction
and she can uh explain any further if you have any questions. >> Thank you. We'll take a moment while she passes that out. I could tell another story about the capital if you wanted. >> 22 floors.
You can see to Georgia from up there. >> Oh, yeah. I guess you can. >> Or so they say. I don't know if what Georgia looks different than North Florida, but >> is it coming, Madam Clerk? Here we go.
Did you go up there? >> Oh, yes. >> Yeah. They say that's Georgia. I don't know. How do you know? >> Yeah. >> Half an hour away. >> They say you can see the Gulf, too, but I've never been able to see the Gulf. Just for the public who can't see this,
um, this involved, um, a resolution approving the purchase of two Thunder Creek Fuel and lube trailers totaling $74,58348 from Federal Contracts Company utilizing General Services Administration Contract
number GS03F-113DA. This is page 12 of our minutes from the November 4th, 2025 council meeting. At the end, uh the minutes incorrectly captured uh Council Member Kravitz's
vote as a nay when in fact um it was an I and there were no nays. It was a unanimous vote. And so that's what we have that's what we have done. It's a scrivener's error, although a rather significant scrivener's error, but um
that's the change that has been made. And I assume this will be attached to the minutes as a as a correction. >> Yes, it will. >> Okay. Has that been done? not to the official minutes that have been posted. This will be done as soon
as we had brought it to your attention. >> Okay. Could you just confirm with an email to us when you have done it so that we can all put it to rest and know that it's done? >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you. Any questions, comments for the city attorney? >> That's all I have.
>> Anything else, Mr. Mueller? Nothing else. Okay. Anything for the good of the order? Okay. Okay, if not we will stand adjourned. Thank you everybody.