Good evening and welcome to the regular commission meeting for August 5th, 2025. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Now, if we could please stand for the pledge of allegiance. 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. City clerk, would you please call roll? Good evening. Vice Mayor Vasquez here. Commissioner Clark here.
Commissioner Sison here. Commissioner Dicki here. Mayor Doctor here. Thank you. All right. Next, approval of regular uh agendas. We do not have workshop tonight. So, approval of the regular agenda. Any changes and comments?
I would like to add something if possible. Uh bring up parking fees again. Um I spoke with our city manager. I promise it'll be like five minutes or less. All right. Anyone? Okay. We'll add that.
Thank you. That will be H2. Thank you. All right. Now, we're going to move on to proclamations, recognition, certificates of appreciation, and we have today a presentation of $1.5
million state legislative appropriation by Representative Linda Cheney. Line up. Mr. Mayor, Commission, it's a pleasure to present you all with a $1.5 million
check for your public's works department. I know um I spent about six weeks living at the Bilmar uh after Hurricane Helen and you were gracious enough to give me office space
up on your fifth floor of this beautiful building. And I had a really nice view that way. The view that way. Um it's amazing to see the transformation because I was watching the dump trucks come in with all of the debris all day
long in your park. And so it's just it's wonderful to see um some of the recovery in our community and I applaud you for that. Good job. You can't tell that field was ever anything but what it is now, that park. So good job. And I know
that you will spend this money well. I know you need more and I expect to hear back from you next session. Um, as you know, this was a difficult session for money and other things. Uh, but fortunately the governor loves the
beaches and uh, we have a good relationship with him. So, we were able to get this through. my fellow legislators uh and the governor are to thank for this check. So, well, thank you very much. Appreciate
it. I know you guys worked hard for us, our senators, our representative, all the everybody was working hard. So, and we appreciate it. We will always advocate for the beaches. Always. Thank you. We'd like to get a picture with you and the commission.
Let me Yeah, we usually like to get the flags in the background. Yeah. And Representative Cheney. Yes. Uh Chief Barkley and I on behalf of the commission and the entire city have a plaque for you just commemorating your support of first responders in Treasure
Island. Thank you. Thank you. Good job. Keep up the great work. Thank you. See you next year with another I need a bigger one. All right. Next, we have our public
comments for non-aggenda items. All right, the first one, Buzzy Barnett. Good evening, Buzzy Barnett, 2011 104th. That was a nice nice gift from the the state. So, I know everybody appreciates that. And I want to be here in a positive way. Uh I really do. I just
want to go over a few things that had happened to me personally. Mr. Vans is new and I'm looking for some great things that you're going to do here for our city cuz I've been here for over 65 years. So, I'm looking forward to what you do for our city. I'm just going to
talk about a few things and this is not I don't want to be negative. I wanted I want it to be out there so we'll go forward with it. Uh the first one was, you know, in my business, I ran my own business for 40 years, you know, and and sales people would they would do things that weren't always right. And you would
say just learn from your mistakes and correct them and go forward. And I think as a city, that is what we need to do. We need to learn from our mistakes and go forward. Uh and to say our our permit department was overwhelmed during the storm is an understatement. But to say
our permit department was in good shape before the storm would also be an understatement. I'll give you a quick example. I went to build a double garage with a side entrance for a golf cart with one of the top builders in the city. People probably can guess who that is. And we filed permits. And first of
all, I called two architects and said, "No, thank you. We're not going to work with Treasure Island." And that's my wife will back that up. You know, she doesn't lie. So, I'm telling you the truth. Two architects said, "We're not going to work with Treasure Island." That in itself was, you know, kind of stunned me. I I couldn't believe it. And
then I kind of saw why uh my builder would put in the appropriate paperwork and they would call for duplicates and duplicates. It went on for six months for a simple garage and then COVID hit. Needless to say, CO cost me because then I couldn't build it because we didn't
have the materials or the help and it cost me thousands of dollars in extra money to build that garage which he did a fantastic job. It looks great. Well, fast forward to the storm. Luckily, my wife and I were at we're in the new garage. We're up in the garage in the
attic watching the water rise. And I thought, "Oh my goodness, we're in bad shape here." Luckily, we only had 6 in of water in our house. And we and the water started receding around 2:30 in the morning, and we had all the water out by 5:00 a.m. My son showed up the
next day with his crew. He does natural disasters all over Fort Myers. He was the first call the police chiefs made to him, communications, and all his help. So anyway, he pulled the baseboards and cut two feet of sheetrock. I called a company the following week. They came out and said, "You're so fortunate. You
got no moisture, no water. You can immediately start rebuilding your house." That's where the good part came in. So I came up to the city. They said, "You got to have a substantial damage letter." Well, that took, as you can imagine, a while. It came back at, I think, 17%.
So, I trucked back over here with my substantial damage letter for 2 feet of sheetrock. My electrical worked fine. My heating and air, my air conditioners outside work fine. No issues. All I needed was 2 ft of sheetrock and paint. This was in October, the end of
September, 1st of October. I got my permit December the 26th. I guess it was a late Christmas present. But that's, you know, that's what happened to me and it happened to a lot of my friends. And so, not to be negative, just I want you to know what happened to a lot of residents. It happened to me. It
happened to a lot of people. Now, Ardan, thank you. I know you you help us a lot and I do appreciate that a lot. And I've told a lot of people that I tell people, call, bless your heart. So, but anyway, what all I'm saying is, Mr. City Manager, we have some issues with our
per permit department. We have in the past. I would suggest you grab some of these big builders that we have around here that are really professional and and well thought of and maybe have a sit down with them over a cup of coffee or something and figure out what their issues were in the past and let's all try to work together to rebuild the city
back to where it can be. Thank y'all for what y'all y'all looking great up there and you seem like you're all getting along great. So, I'm happy for that. Thank y'all for everything you're doing. Thank you, Buzzy. Ian Bole. Hello. Uh, my name is Ian Bole. I'm government affairs manager for Waste
Connections of Florida. Um, I got some handouts I'd like to hand out if that's okay to everyone. Yeah, that'd be great. Thanks. You I know usually there's like a threem minute time limit and I'm probably going to go over just to be perfectly honest. Um I'm here to speak about the
discussion you guys are having about um the privatization of your municipal solid waste department. Um basically there's just stuff I want to kind of talk about just kind of get it out there with my experience. I've been working in this industry for about 16 years uh with
Waste Connections. Um our uh our company is the third largest in North America. Um me personally, I've been part of over 150 to 1660 procurement processes all throughout the state of Florida. Our Panelis office is
in Clear Water, 11543rd Street North. Um in addition to our unincorporated work, we have seven municipal contracts on the beach. South Pasadena, St. P Beach, Readington Beach, Readington Shores, Indian Shores, Indian Rocks Beach, that's curbside recycling, a condo
recycling only, and Bair Shores. Just so we're on I just so I can I'm not here to speak against the city's desire to privatize and I'm not even here to speak against Waste Pro, which is a competitor. They're a good company, and I I can see why you're talking to them.
Obviously, they're a current vendor. Um, what I'm here to speak about is the process. And there's two things I kind of believe strongly and I just kind of want to get on the record after my 16 years plus experience. And also this is stuff that if if we there was some outreachers kind of meeting with
staff and kind of talking about it. These are stuff that would have brought up just stuff that you should probably consider in a contract or consider as you go forward. Um just from stuff that I've seen. Uh so anyway, um I I I do truly believe that if the city does want
to privatize, they should do it through a procurement process. This opens competition and allows all the vendors the the uh ample time to kind of go through all your services and see what your needs are and put together a price that fits your needs. Um, I I've been
for the last 10 years, I'd have to say I've had personal conversations with city staff and with commissioners uh about privatization. Um, 10 years ago, there was some discussion about it. Um, and we try to make outreach, I think it was commissioner, I can't remember the
commissioner at the time. Um, I talked to Commissioner Dicki last year at the uh Florida Association of Counties. He directed me to make an outreach of staff, which I did. They never got back to me. Um, I did have a conversation with your public works director, Gary Volnick, on June 10th. Um, when that
conversation ended, I thought there was going to be more conversations about talking with vendors. I was shocked when I saw that what happened on July 1st. Um, the other thing, the other thing that I feel strongly about from that July 1st
meeting, it was mentioned that you were looking at the North Readington Beach contract as a comparison. Um, North Radian Beach gave Waste Pro a good good uh reference, which I totally get, totally understand. I just feel strongly that you should not use North Right to
Beach as a comparison and use it as for your piggyback contract if you want to use it as a vehicle. In part of my packet there, I created some kind of comparison the difference between the uh numbers. You have about at least from all the information I have about 2100 single family homes, about 260
commercial businesses. North Readington Beach is about 348 homes and 71ish commercial businesses. You're actually more closer to St. Pete Beach. Um there over there they have 21 service. You're looking for 211 service. North
Readington Beach actually starts at 8:00. You guys will obviously you're a 7:00 start. These are just things that are different. Um, the other thing that I that I noticed that was a concern which I would bring out was that um you North Wrightington North Readington
bills uh residents individually. I'm pretty sure that's what Treasure Island, they put their uh service on taxes and so forth. Um with one source payment, you're guaranteed that your trash can be picked up. We have one source payments in writing shorts. We have one source payment in Dade City. Um just recently a
a municipality and I presented the article in there a municipality in Newport Richie actually it was an open market up there they went out to bid in franchise to one hauler which happened to be JD Parker which is waste pro they were billing the customers individually at that time 45% of the people were not
paying because there were a lot of renters trash was left at the curb residents were getting upset at as such they actually passed they actually went back to putting it billing on the taxes so I would check with Newport Richie first before you put anything together
as far as the billing goes. I'm sorry, but I am going to need to cut you off at the 5m minute mark. Okay. Um anyway, I have uh any other information if anyone makes an outreach to us. I think I think it's best for you guys to just look at at least at least meet with the vendors and and ask us
questions. That's just my my thought. Thank you. Thank you, Mark Hoey. Good evening, Mark Hoey, District 3. I want to speak just briefly about the unfortunate separation of Renee
Terristano. I don't have all the details of course, but I've already heard enough of the official narrative regarding the recent separation of her as an employee for the city of Treasure Island. I'm calling BS.
Renee was a cheerful, helpful city employee from the start. She started at the reception desk at the old city hall. She worked in parks and wreck and ultimately as part of community development. Here
after the hurricanes, she excelled, stepping into the raging fire of permit processing. Staged in the city hall lobby, Renee was face to face daily with the shell shocked residents, many angry,
emotional, frustrated with trying to get the permits to rebuild their home. Renee offered kind words, hope, and understanding, as well as solutions for getting their permits moving.
She helped many residents directly, many more through her weekly permit process seminars. How many? I don't know. Just ask around town and you'll hear her name mentioned repeatedly. In the past couple of months, she was
relegated to the reception desk, but still answered questions about permits. She wanted to do more. She felt she could learn more. She had achieved her bachelor's degree and wanted to contribute. Instead, she was kicked to
the curb. Was it the result of the lack of qualifications or experience? I don't know. qualifications and experience haven't factored into much of the hiring and promotion of others in
city hall as of late. Was it professional jealousy? Renee getting kudos for her concern about our citizens while others did not? Was it fear of an assertive, confident woman? From looking at Facebook posts from
around here, I would have thought this would have been a virtue to be celebrated. Whatever the reason, this is a big loss for Treasure Island residents, many who are still trying to work through the permit process.
Renee isn't perfect. She's no angel. But she cared about our residents during a time of great anguish and need. To me, this happened this what's happened is emblematic of repeated missteps and failures by the city's
personnel practices. Renee wasn't driven away by mean Facebook posts, tweets, or texts, but by unscrupulous HR politics. What a waste. Thank you, Mark.
All right, that's all we have for P. All right, come on up. We are going to try and move forward in the future uh everybody to have the cards filled out if you're going to speak. So, thanks Mike. All right. Mike Brady, 119504
Street East in Treasure Island. I live Capri and uh I guess I don't need to speak now because I was going to say the same thing. You know, Renee u many times was kind of the face of Treasure Island. you'd walk into especially the old uh
city hall and she was the bright cheery person you would see and she was always there to help. Um moved over here and after the storm she was the person that really helped you along with Ardan and Ardan's wife uh getting your uh building
permit. We would not have her building permit if it was not for Renee. So I don't want to go longwinded. I just want to say that I think it was a a major mistake to lose a person like Renee. I think she was a good employee of our city. I think she worked diligently in
our city and I didn't know of anybody that ever had a bad word to say about her. Thank you. Thank you, Mike. All right, moving on for the approval of the minutes. Approval of the following minutes. February 4th, 2025 regular and
workshop meetings July 1st, 2025. Do we have a uh a motion? I move to approve the minutes as presented. Second. We have a move. We have a motion and a second. Do we have any discussion?
No. Hearing none. Let's take a vote a voice count. All in favor say I. I. I. I. Opposed. Okay. Eyes have it. All right, moving on into
item I1, second reading of ordinance 202508. And I believe that are you going to be Anthony speaking uh or reading a longer uh one quick thing? Yes. Yes, mayor. I'll do that. And then just one thing,
it's not numbered, but uh we put in uh the city manager and city attorney reports sort of between the minutes and the consent. We can move it till later. It's totally fine fine doing either way, but I can see why you spit bias because it's not numbered actually. It's just sort of in there.
But we can move to that or we can just go right in or is your choice. Uh let's go ahead and do the reports. Yeah, I'll be brief. just uh been working hard with our staff uh multiple pretty long meetings regarding TMM. I
won't go too in the detail because obviously it's on the agenda and it's ongoing conversations, but we've been having a lot of meetings on that and getting ready to prepare a good ordinance with our hardworking staff here. So, we're pretty excited about that on the TMM front. also meeting with some pretty exciting applicants who are
coming to the city with some comp plan amendments and some zoning changes that I think you guys will largely be very excited about. Uh you know it's uh people taking the temperature of the commission and coming with some pretty innovative pretty interesting ideas I think you guys are really going to like. So we've been doing that working with
our manager to get up to date and working with uh you know just a host of other smaller staff issues. Other than that, not working on any particular ordinance other than TMM and these comp plan uh related amendments, but if you have anything else you want me to take uh note of and work on, just let me
know. And always happy to meet with you guys. Of course, my hours are always going to be the days of the meetings and the workshops doing office hours the same days. So, appreciate it. Thank you, city manager. Yes, sir. I have quite a few things.
Welcome. I'm glad you're here. Happy to be your city manager and happy that I'm here and I'll turn on till I get the green light. All right. So, uh, Kim, my assistant, gave me a wonderful list of things that our staff is doing. That is
not what's in this PowerPoint, which I think I left upstairs on my desk, but of note, uh, we uh, entertained the regional director for US Senator Ashley Moody yesterday morning. Uh, she's planning on visiting later in the month.
tentatively August 28th depending on if they actually get the summer recess when they think they are and all those things. Um we were able to talk to him about the bridge that we own and have a half a mill of our tax uh money dedicated to and how we would love to
give it back. We were able to talk to him about um our public safety concerns. Gave him a windshield tour of uh Sunset Beach. Uh uh Chief Bars put us in the jacked up pickup truck and took us down that way
and around 108 and asked him not to get out and step on an L and file workers comp suit and everything for what's going on our property up there. Um later this week, Representative Luna's staff is going to be here. Um so twice in a week in Treasure Island of, you know,
less than 7,000 people, you're getting two federal representatives in here. I think that's pretty good. Don't know if that happens normally. and your state representative uh dropping by tonight. So, all that's good stuff. Chief Bars swore in on July 1st as the state fire
chief's president. Um Chief Barklay swore in as the third vice president. I apologize. What's the association? Florida Police Chiefs Association. Florida Police Chiefs Association. And it's not a coincidence when you have um
public safety leaders and first responders that are in the hierarchy of statewide committees that you get the kind of attention. Um, you know, I I I just know a few enough statistics to be dangerous, but uh, Representative
Moody's um or Senator Moody's regional director said, "Hey, I told her y'all were 1% of Penllis Countyy's population, sustained 10% of the damage, still had tons of rebuilding to do, and she wants to come here." So, all that I take as
positive notes, and I'll get into what uh Jason, our PIO, made here for me tonight. Uh, this is your beautiful city. Uh, next slide, please. Somebody clicking these or am I supposed to do that?
Where am I aiming? Dang it. Sorry. All right. Gotcha. Gotcha. Sorry. Um, so little re uh rebuild Treasure Island update. Uh we had a fantastic group of community members that I for one appreciate. I
would encourage you to uh show your appreciation, gratitude as you meet these people on the street. Uh they made a huge significant beneficial impact. Um, as Treasure Island is trying to
literally rebuild ourselves out of a hole, uh, we were able to put in $27 million worth of grant applications on five major projects. Um, we still would have to front the money, but we could be reimbursed 75 cents on the dollar for
those projects that were submitted. Uh, we're sunsetting that group as of July 21st. Um, we have a lot of great citizens. Um, I've met with several of them. There is an extremely high degree of education and experience in this
community. I appreciate that. Uh, expect to hear from me from time to time as I need input and history lessons. I've gotten a few already. Um, and I'm I kind of like civics at some point. I was a certified social studies teacher in
Florida in the '9s. History's a big part. Some of it you want to repeat, some of it you don't. But if you don't know it, we're doomed to repeat it. Right? So, I agree with you, sir. Uh we just need to look forward. Uh marching on from wherever we were, not holding
anything against any anybody that was given information or direction from previous commissions or previous uh leadership in the city. Uh we just need to focus on our way ahead. We will continue to do that. If um I see the need in the future to have
another citizens advisory group, I've been on those and I've called for those before, I would most likely come back to the commission and just ask each of you to cough up one constituent from your own district to represent on whatever that might be moving forward. Um little
update on outsourcing the trash service. Um there's all kinds of good reasons that I've listed here. I'm not going to read the slide to you that we should do this. Um, we're looking at some potential savings per household in Treasure Island that could total up to
$600,000, maybe a little north of that. Um, we are in contract negotiations with Waste Pro. I can't give you an exact date. They'll have to have their staffing plan, right? Uh, the last guidance I gave to, uh, Mr. Volne, our
public works director, was to figure out, and this was a great question. Commissioner Dicki asked me, if we give up 100% of our cap capability, trash trucks, sanitation workers, and all that, did we give up 100% of the cost? Not quite. Uh, we've got several trash
cans along the beach that, you know, Waste Pro is not going to go down there and pick those up. So, we're we're looking at some ways to do that with Parks and Wreck and existing staff. And uh we do have a dedicated enterprise fund with sanitation fees in it. So we'll we'll we'll make that work and pay
those parks and reccks people out of that um for as long as that money last and just work that into future budgets. Any questions on that? Only question I I would ask is we did hear from the gentleman. Thank you. We
did hear from the gentleman uh from uh Waste Connections and we have skipped the normal procurement process uh here. Can you just elaborate on on why we're not uh opening this up for bid? I would turn around and ask you guys because I was sitting there on July 1st.
I think it was July 1st 1st or the 8th and I heard I believe I heard this commission give direction to seek a piggyback to expedite the process. But if the five of you tell me to do something different and we can step on tap the brake and do something different. You could also do both. You can
entertain the piggyback, you know, prep that while you're doing a bid and then see what comes up better. But I do remember there was a I think unanimous commission on outsourcing, but probably two factions on whether to bid or do piggyback. And I think maybe piggyback
was the last word. Well, if I can comment real quick, it wasn't just a piggyback. it was the fact that they're also a current vendor and we didn't think that that um you know getting another bid was going to make you know 50 cents difference. I mean
they're going to come in probably the same. And the other thing I've heard that I I wanted to dispel and thank God tonight actually proves it. Everyone's like well if you get locked into a contract your rates can go up. Gary's already addressed that, I think, with a
long-term contract with small CPI. But tonight's a perfect example. There's 20 people that want this business. So, it's not like we're going to we're going to we're going to get rid of all of our trash trucks and they're going to come and try to put some huge increase. All we have to do is call these guys or
someone else and they'd come out and do it. So, I I I don't see wasting another six months after we've already wasted a year on this uh to go do anything different. So, I think we need to keep trudging down the path that we're on and that we all agreed on. I agree. I think we also have to build
our public works department back. So, that'll take time as well. So, I agree as well. Yep. Yeah. I think that uh you know, piggybacking is the the best way for us to go. Um and you know, really we're not going to have much of a difference any
real difference to to go. As it stands, we are at $8 per household, $96 of savings. There's not a whole lot more of savings that that can probably be put into that. So, I'm not going I'm just saying I think normally we go through a bidding
and a procurement process and we and we chose to skip that. Uh the way I thought we left this was that we were going to go look and do a do a set of financial some financial analysis on there and bring it back. uh and I have not seen that financial analysis. I see what you
have here. Uh I did ask the city manager uh at at one point in time can let's we know that 100% in this scenario 100% of the revenue is going away. Is 100% of the cost going away? So if the answer to that is yes, then yeah, you're right.
We're we're going to save $600 to $700,000. If the answer is no, we still have a half a million dollars in expenses that we're going to have to pick up, that's not part of this contract, that just needs to be part of the discussion. So, what I the only thing I would caution us at this stage
is is we have not yet other than this slide, we have not yet seen a financial analysis of this uh to get to get to be be able to make a solid decision on it. So, I would just ask before we sign a contract or press the go button,
this will come back to you with a fully fleshed out contract to consider and vote upon. Well, not just a fully flushed out contract, but a fully flushed out financial analysis again to make sure that we've we've accounted for all the cost. Yes, I'm in I'm in agreement with you.
Thank you. Thank you. That that's all I'm asking. Personally, I would think that we've already dealt with this issue. Um, it did come up. We did, uh, we took a look at it. I know that there's been some communications going on. Uh,
so, so literally the last task, if you want the detail to give you a a full up what it's going to cost, we have multiple trash cans along the beach. Um, we've captured those in a map and given them to Waste Pro and asked them, "What
of these can you handle? If we put some extra dumpsters down there and our parks and wreck people empty the cans in the dumpster, can you get your truck to the dumpster? Where would it need to be?" So, we're at that level. Pretty granular detail. I didn't want to bring that up,
but if you want to get that granular with it, I can call Gary up and go even deeper, but that's kind of where we're at before we know final final numbers. Yeah. Again, again, I conceptually I'm all for doing this, so don't don't misread misread what I'm saying. I'm just saying we I haven't seen a
financial analysis and I would like to see it before we sign the dotted line. So, well, I think that uh we should be taking a look at uh giving it off to you at this point. Uh you and Gary work
together, handing this over to them and and get back with us. Yes, sir. I think that's pretty much where we are. Gary, you needed to say anything. Okay. But our direction is for the vendor with the pig piggyback with waste. Correct. Got it. Yes.
Yes, sir. Good. 100%. I say keep the pedal to the metal. Moving on. Okay. Um, so the train modification manual, we're looking at a, um, I hate to use the word radical, but
a pretty radical simplification of that manual. um creating something that's much easier for somebody, whether it's a homeowner doing their own home improvements or an engineer or whomever to pick up and read that's very straightforward that
addresses drainage um and keeps the idea that field dirt is legal and helpful uh coming on Treasure Island. Um it will take some time. It does affect eight chapters of our existing city ordinances. There's pieces of that that
need to be fleshed out. Um, as recently as four o'clock today, I sat down with CDD, um, Mr. Volneck, our, uh, public works director, licensed civil engineer, and
our attorney. And, um, I think we're going to try to do a u expedited kind of like I would call it a special projects officer in the military. maybe go go go out as early as this week, get a couple of our staff to
solicit some people who are uh capable of rereading all those eight chapters of ordinances. Um rewriting the pieces, taking out the language um that supports TMM and Mr. Sabatini's looking at which
two are you looking at? I don't want to put words in your mouth. The other two cities, Madira and St. Pete Beach have fill and drainage ordinances that are simplified and and seem not to have any issues and be have widespread support. So, we're using them as a model. Uh, and as Charlie pointed out, having an in-house
person, all of you would be able to have personal feedback to them as they're working through this. And, you know, it can reflect the concerns of the five commissioners. So, any other questions on that? I know it's coming up later on the agenda, but just want to let you know where we were
from our perspective. Um, back to uh the work that Rebuild TI did and the grants that were submitted through our economic uh development department. The items on the right were specifically for
the resiliency grant. So that was what was submitted uh Friday before last. And resiliency simply means we're going to try to harden our city before the next storm. So everything that was a grant that was approachable from that end is
making us more prepared for the next storm is in the white letters on the black background on the right. Two of those projects happen to overlap with this current five member city commission's direction on April 22nd of
this year in a workshop. Uh you codified in that workshop 13 CIP priorities. Uh you've accomplished number one which was a new bus for the recck department and master pump station on down to seaw walls are the next five. We're not
abandoning those for the five on the right but any of those five on the right that get funded um could possibly free up existing CIP funding to keep going down your list of 13. Any questions on that?
Okay. Uh public safety. I'm tapping the brakes on the public safety building. Uh the public works director and I are going to assume the leadership of finding the best fit for Treasure
Island. Um the chiefs, police and fire have both made some significant contributions. Um, I'm in talks with some people u that I know build public safety buildings in other parts of the state to give you a a a broader picture
of cost and possibilities uh for that. And uh when I get something a little more solid, of course, I'll bring it back to you for a decision. Uh parking. Um, I know you guys are going to touch on this at the end of the
meeting. Um, we've hired the third parking attendant, so we do have 7 day a week enforcement now, which is a step up. Um, people aren't really fighting for that entry level job in the uh, police department. Uh, but we do have somebody on board
now. Um, and you know, I'll take whatever direction you want to give. I've got enough big plans and studies to do. I don't want to get into another big study on parking right now, but if you give me the authority to raise it a dollar or
two an hour for 30 days, um it'll actually take some ordinances. If y'all had given me that direction tonight, I wanted to do it between now and Labor Day weekend and just kind of compare it to last year's same time frame as we wrap up the summer. I understand after Labor Day is the rest of September is a
little more desolate around here. um as far as tourists. Um but I I'll take whatever direction, but I I don't think we would see as u a significant change other than a positive change to our bottom line if we raised it a dollar or
two an hour, but that'll be up to y'all. Um community development review. Um, I'm engaging um a company out of North Florida under my city manager's uh
spending policy to come in and help me and CDD kind of assess where we are, try to streamline some policies, some systems, some outputs. Um, my dad has a saying, some of y'all met him a couple weeks ago, every tub has to
sit on its own bottom. CDD has three compartmentalized restricted accounts. It needs to fund itself. You have been very generous and gracious in refunding permitting fees, offsetting cost. Um but
at some point CDD needs to sustain itself and I'm trying to find that right balance of manpower um and fee collection to where it can do that. And that's it. Great. Thank you. And uh Ardan,
Commissioner Dicki, um I too appreciate very much the uh the work that you did with the rebuild uh Treasure Island and uh it's being sunset, but uh you were a major part of that and hopefully we're going to end up with 29 million on
on the behalf of the city. So we uh we do appreciate everything you've done. Thank you, Mayor Doctor. got some uh more comments on that in my uh commissioner comments. Great. Thank you. Thanks. All right.
Now, let's move on to items of business. Second reading of ordinance 25 or 2025-08. Oh, sir, the consent agenda. I'm sorry we threw you off. You got we never adopted it. Yeah, I think I interrupted. So,
ah, okay. So, no, we did uh for the consent agenda, didn't we have a voice vote? You you approved the minutes. Oh, approved the minutes. Okay. All righty. Let's go ahead and approve the consent
agenda. Do you want to do it as a whole? Yes. They had them separate. No, they they Okay, that's fine. They're as a whole. your guidance. Yep. I move to um approve the consent agenda as published.
Second. We have a motion and a second on consent agenda. Any discussion? Once again, we'll take a voice vote. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed? Nay. Hearing none.
Motion passes. Second reading of ordinance 2025-08. I'll pass it on to you there, Anthony. Ordinance 258, an ordinance of the city of Treasure Island, Florida, amending chapter 65 of the code of ordinances of Treasure Island related to impact fees, changing the title from fees to impact
fees. Amending section 65-1 amending and renaming 65-2 from to from transportation impact fee to multimodal providing for conflicts providing for severability codification providing for infective date. That is all.
All right. Do we have a motion? I move to approve ordinance 2025-08 amending chapter 65 to adopt the multimodal impact fee. We have a motion and a second. Uh does do we have any discussion uh for
staff? Okay. Hearing none, do we have uh public comments? Hearing none, we'll close public comments and we will uh bring it back here. Any
discussion for the five of us? No, I don't believe so. All right. So, uh, this is an ordinance, so we need to take a roll call vote. Vice Mayor Vasquez, I. Commissioner Clark, I. Commissioner Sison, no.
Commissioner Dicki, I. Mayor Doctor, I. Thank you. Motion passes 4 to one. All right. resolution providing for a 24-month moratorium on collection of multiodal impact fees.
I uh move to approve imposing a 4-year uh waiver of fees on collecting uh motormobile impact fees as suggested by Richard Harris, chair of the LPA and PNZ. Although he suggested 5 years, I hope we could uh waiver it for four
years. No second. It dies. Let's give the two years. Yeah. Thank you. Okay, we have a motion to add in a second. Do we have any public comment?
West. I do, but it's under H, so that's why it's Come on up. Uh, you've got under H and then on my computer it's under I H2. Yeah, that's weird. No, yours is all
you are correct. Anyway, Richard Har here, uh, 374 Bay Plaza, chairman of the planning and zoning board, and I have been a registered professional engineer for 36 years now. 39 years now. Gez, I get my
numbers right. Anyway, in my career, I did a lot of work with transportation impact fees. They've been around forever. Um, the reason why the PNZ board moved to approve this a few years a few months ago was cuz when a
house is torn down, unless you build a huge much bigger house, your impact fee is going to be zero. When the Thunderbird tears down their hotel and if they build back 106 rooms, which they currently are planning, their impact
fees will be zero. This is uh for the increase in development. The situation is is we got kicked in the teeth pretty good uh last September 26 by two storms. Our downtown is a disaster. The Gator's
property a disaster. The club a disaster. Treasure Bay a disaster. What I'm looking for is to give the developers a little bit of a break so they can get their feet back under them. You know, I I I've talked it over. I
recommended five years for a moratorum just to uh let them have a chance to get things done. The reason I want five years instead of two years is because of the permitting and design and construction process. I mean, when I was building
shopping centers, my major client said, "What takes you people so long in Florida? You can't ever seem to get anything approved." The city of Treasure Island's a prime example. We just cannot seem to get things moving along. And I'd like to have these guys have five years
in order to design a project, long time frame, permit a project because usually you have to go through the DOT, City of Treasure Island, Southwest Florida Water Management District, and then you got to find a good decent contractor to build the thing. By the time it's over and done
with, we're looking at two two years just to permit and uh build it. with a two-year moratorum. As soon as you get your project done, you're getting hit with a uh impact fee on the increase in the size of your project. I think five
years would be a much better solution uh for these. But even if you went to four, like Mr. said it would give these guys a chance and maybe somebody would do something here in Treasure Island because after living here for 39 years, our central
business district has not changed other than what the storm did to it and other fact that the old Pirate Square has been torn down. Thanks. And uh give four years a chance. Thanks. Thank you, Richard.
City clerk, would you make note that Granicus is not following the uh the same Yes. uh consent agenda or agenda? I will I will look into it. All right. Thank you. All right. So now, uh
does Wes have any comments? Okay. was okay. Once again, this was H5. So, all right. So, we uh that's our public comment.
No. Okay. So, uh let's bring it back here. Any discussion? I have a couple of questions. One one is related to the uh an analysis and discussion that was written up on here. We said the county has been notified of
the city's intent to wave collection uh of fees for a period of 24 months and have not raised any objection. Has that is that still the case? In my opinion, yes, because um they have I've expressed it to their attorneys. We did some conference calls. We let them
know what's going on. This is a new law that requires the interlocal agreement. So I don't think they have a final position, but the ten of position was they raised no legal concerns. And generally with local government law, you know, when you're talking about federal
laws, there has to be a basis for everything the federal government does. Like what's the law that allows the federal government to do that? With state and local law, the law is basically local governments and state governments are free to do things unless there's a law saying they can't. And so I have not identified what law it is
that they could potentially cite that says that we can't wave or we can't postpone or we can't have a delayed start date for the collection of fees. And so um I don't think they do either. Okay. And I I think the point I guess I'm trying to make here is do we have a
right to wave the county's portion of the fees? I can understand we can wave our own fees, but can we wave the county's fees as well? My legal my legal opinion is it's really one fee split down the middle and if the fee itself is not collected then they they get 50% of nothing that's collected which means
they get nothing. Now if they counter us and come back with a legal argument say no here's the legal argument why you need to start collecting these fees obviously I'll bring that to you guys I'll give you my legal opinion you can act here therein but the resolution all resolutions are temporary in nature you could say this is 2 years 3 years four
years 5 years but 6 months from now penelis county comes to us and says no we have a legal argument of why we think you need to be collecting it now I'll give you my legal advice and then you can make the final determination this doesn't actually lock you in for two years or four years it's just um an
expression of the will of the commission to direct staff not to collect the fee for a period of time. Okay. And that was ardent basically exactly what I was going to ask or sorry commissioner Dicki like I say that they give a formal opinion and we're really talking about two different groups. You got the the
county staff attorneys and then you got the commission which has the ultimate authority. They have not from what I understand had a final opinion on this issue. It's not been publicly expressed, certainly not as a group, but if it does, then I'll bring it to you immediately. Okay. I mean, I don't to me I mean, just my
opinion is whether it's two or it's four, as long as we can come back and make that change if the county comes to us. So that if they say, "Hey, you cannot collect your half, but we want our half." Mhm. that we are able to come back and say, "Okay, we're still not going to collect
our half if that's our decision." But if you know, we wouldn't be collecting anything. No, no, no. My my point is is if the county decides that because again, it's a new law. So if a year down the road the county says, "No, you have to at least collect our
portion of it," that we're not having to pay for that out of pocky pocket, meaning our city. Um, as long as we're covered on that and it can be come back and revisited to me, I mean, I don't have a problem with the with doing four years. So, if I may uh put my comments on
record, uh, on my walking route, uh, commercial properties are currently closed for business and or closed and for sale. Uh, of course, Thunderbird, the Sands, both sides of downtown, all of the Gators property, Silver Stands, Silver Sands of Treasure Island, Shake
Shack, Tropic Terrace, Dehesian, McDonald's property, Treasure Shores, Seahorse Cottages has been torn down, Sunrest has been torn down, Caddies, Sunset Beach House, Blue Waters, Sunset Inn Cottages, and the bungalows. So, in
two years is not enough time. So, I hope the commission could agree with me on at least four years. And the main question is why are we adding fees to development when we don't have development and we want development to happen? This is counterproductive and it will set us
back. Thank you. Okay. Any other comments? We have a motion and a second. Um, will we please call roll? Can you repeat the motion just for the record because it's a it's the
resolution as amended to four years. Correct. Just want to make sure that's clear for the record. I move to approve imposing a 48th month or 4year waiver of fees on the multimodal impact fees.
Yeah. Was it that that's clear? Okay. Yeah. Just wanted to make sure because there was obviously a lot of conversation. Roll call, please. Commissioner Sison. I. Commissioner Clark. I, Vice Mayor Bazquez, I, Commissioner Dicki, I, Mayor Doctor, I.
Thank you. All right, moving on to I3, which is H3 for everyone else. Uh, second reading and public hearing on ordinance 2025-10. Ordinance 2025-10, an ordinance of the
city of Treasure Island, Florida, amending the fiscal year 2025 general fund budget to recognize insurance proceeds of 2,526,7783 for hurricane damages providing severability conflict and an effective date. We have a motion, please.
I'm sorry. I move to approve and adopt ordinance 2025-10 at this second and final reading and public hearing. Second. We have a motion and a second. Do we have any public hearing? No public hearing. So, let's move on.
Any questions up here. All right, let's go ahead and take a roll call. Vice Mayor Vasquez, I. Commissioner Dicki, I. Commissioner Clark, I. Commissioner Sison, I. Mayor Doctor I. Thank you. I four second reading to approve
ordinance number 2025-11. Ordinance 2025- 11 to fund disaster financial recovery services for Q4 fiscal year 2025 in an amount not to exceed $50,000. Do we have a motion?
I move to approve and adopt ordinance number 2025-11 at the second final public hearing. We have a motion and a second. Is there any public comments? West, please come up. But I I second the motion.
You just got a little ahead of yourself, but that's all right. Anyway, I second. West Evans, Isa Palms, I believe our our sheets are off as well because I what you're doing right now is H5 on ours and
you're called it as H4 up there. Uh but anyway, I Sorry. No, they are off. That's why. Yeah, you are correct. All right. So, um, so we are talking about the 50,000 for the grant writing, correct? Okay.
Yes. Uh, I just wanted to um say again, we've talked about this before, that the city had the option of hiring a full-time grant writer, a part-time grant writer, or a grant writing firm
that gets paid uh on a percentage of uh basis of what they bring in on their grant writing. And of course, the city of Treasure Island chose to hire a full-time grant writer and then the following week decided we should also
pay that firm uh to help write grants. Grants uh aren't just money that they're handing to us uh with nothing attached to it.
If you go for a grant that's $2 million, you don't get $2 million and uh free money. You that's 70 70 to 80% of the million or two million is paid
for. That means there's 20% of that the city has to pay for. So if we have a full-time grant writer uh just writing trying to get grants, I'm not against getting grants. We should go for grants that we need, but we don't need people trying to get us more transportation
study grants. We don't need a a bridge that goes over a Gulf boulevard that we can get a $10 million grant for, but ends up costing us 2 million. I just want the city to keep that in mind that we have to pay 20 or 30% of the money
that comes in for these grants. So, I don't I I'm talking in circles right now. We've gone over this for weeks. Let's just start spending our money wisely, please. Thank you. Thank you, West. Anyone else? Okay, we'll close public
comment. We have a motion and a second. Do we have any discussion up here? No. Hearing none. Oh, yeah. I I I mean, I've voiced my disagreement with this. I somewhat agree with what Wes just said. I don't understand why we hired a full-time
grant writer plus a grant consultant. And at the same time, the grant consultant is not even paid on like a performance basis. Um, which that's the way I would do it if I was going to hire consultant. I'd only pay them if they're going to perform. Um, and the other
thing is this is $50,000 till the end of the budget, which is what, two months? So, I mean, if we're going to spend $50,000 in two months after we just hired a full-time grant writer, it I
just it doesn't make any sense to me. And lastly, if we don't spend the money and we roll it over and then we, you know, do another 50,000 next year, that's 100,000. I I just I just baffles me how we need a town of our size. I understand there's a lot of grants out
there. I want to get grants. I love grants, but you know why we're why we're doubling up here and why we're and also the contract is not performance based. So that's my comments. Is there a way um I guess this is probably an attorney question. Is there
a way to I know the answer to this probably to make it performance-based? Absolutely. Yeah, you have the free authority to design the contract how you'd like. Now, I'm not sure the origin of this contract, but that this just might be their model and they say, "This is how
we do it." And if not, you know, go to the next guy. U so I'm not an expert on, you know, if it's a great contract in terms of the value, but you absolutely have the authority to counter the contract with some kind of incentive uh pay. And, you know, it's a good concern because it might just be one of those things where they're giving you some
advice that the grants writer has already, but I don't I haven't dived into it. I'm happy to do it if you wanted me to. So, I wasn't involved in the contract uh negotiations or discussions at all on this. So I I I don't know the answer to
question, but maybe uh Joan Goodrich uh if you could offer any insight on that. Well, I mean, at the Rebuild TI uh committee meeting that I attended, they it was said that it was not performance-based. Yeah. So that's where I'm getting that from.
Sure. I guess the question really is did was that discussed as part of the contract negotiations, the idea of uh being a performance base? You get us you help us get these grants and you know you then we pay you as opposed to we pay you for
your services regardless of whether or not we get the grant. I think that's the question. Again, good evening Jim Goodrich from your office of economic development. So again, um just the for for this particular um service for us, it's
broader than um simply grant writing. It's focused on specialized professional services for us with disaster financial recovery services which includes grant writing, grant administration, this the
uh very complicated world of federal grants as it relates to disaster financial recovery. Um so um basically the contract that you all had approved is not performance-based.
um it's on demand on call um for the city of Treasure Islands. So should we find ourselves that we need um the um Burkequest recovery services then there is a um hourly fee that they'll charge us based on whatever component um to
their team um the personnel from their team that we'll be using. Um we mentioned the hazard mitigation grant applications that we had submitted. Um so part of that um grant application um looked at compliance and um so we um
obtained a quote um that we actually um put into that grant application for hazard mitigation. So should we find ourselves awarded and we should need um this particular professional service um for that um grant pool um and fund then
we've got them on call on demand. So it's more on call on demand than it is retainer. It's not a retainer contract that we've put in place. Um but it but um pay for performance is not uh a part of it. Okay. Thank you.
Okay. Any other discussion? We have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. Vice Mayor Vasquez, can I possibly go last? Is that possible? I don't know if that's in the code of uh
the rules. I I could double check real quick. I think it is because I'm looking I'm reading through it again. That's the only reason I'm not sure. It's by in the board rules. It's by person who motions, the person who and then in district order. So you can resend the motion and then be last.
No, I'll vote. Okay. I'm going to say no. No. Commissioner Dicki I. Commissioner Clark. No. Commissioner Sison. Hi, Mayor Doctor. Hi. Okay. And at least for my peace of mind
and and yours as well, I refreshed my computer and I'm back to normal. So what normal is, you know, it's so All right. H4, second reading, ordinance 2025-12. H6. Yeah, we just H6. Correct. Yeah, we're
on H6. First reading of public ordinance 2025-6 budget amendment to fund Treasure Banks attendance. Is that where we're at? No, it's supposed to be H4. It's the $14,000 that we received. Mine were off, which now that I'm back on I I'm now
you're off. Oh, did we skip it? I don't remember. Oh, yep. There it is. Second reading of 2025-12 budget amendment to recognize insurance proceeds in the amount of 14,126,59 14,000 $14,126.
So used to the bigger numbers I $14,12659 cents for hurricane damages. All right. Do we have a motion, please? I move to approve and adopt ordinance number 2025-12 at this second and final public hearing. Second.
We have a motion and a second. Any public comment? No public comment. Any discussion up here? Nope. So, roll call, please. Vice Mayor Vasquez. I. Commissioner Sison. Hi. Commissioner Clark. Hi. Commissioner Dicki. Hi.
Mayor Doctor. Hi. Thank you. All right. H6, first read and public hearing on ordinance 2025-06. Uh, ordinance 2025-06, budget amendment to fund Treasure Bay tennis court resurfacing and fence replacement in an
amount not to exceed $231,650. I make a motion to approve ordinance I make a motion to approve ordinance number 2025-06 at this first public hearing and to schedule ordinance for a second and final reading at the August 19th 2025
commission meeting. I'll second. We have a motion and a second staff. Hi Kathy. Good evening. The city was awarded a hurricane relief funding commitment from the United States Tennis um Florida Foundation for repairs from hurricane
damage to our Treasure Bay facility. The cost of that um funding commitment is up to 281,650 and is included in the resurfacing of our clay courts, the repairs to our tennis court fence as well as to any
electrical um damage we had from flooding from Helen. the with the city issued an RFP um 13 it was 25-013 and it was for the clay tennis court resurfacing and we've also issued
ITB25-014 which was for the fence replacement for the tennis courts I have before you um 25-13 tonight and we'll be bringing before you 25-014 at the next meeting the budget bud oh
sorry the budget amendment allocates funding in the amount not to exceed $231,650. We do have $50,000 allocated in fiscal year 25 for the um asphalt tennis court fencing 7 and 8. The expenditures will
be reimbursed through the funding commitment from the USA and the revenues will be recognized once we have been reimbursed. Any questions for Kathy? Nope. Thank you, Kathy. Any public comment?
Hearing no public comment. Any discussion up here? No. Let's go ahead and take a roll call vote. Commissioner Sison. I. Vice Mayor Vasquez. I. Commissioner Clark. I. Commissioner Dicki. I. Mayor Doctor. I. Thank you.
Moving on. Motion to approve city manager purchase authority of 59,900 to J. Courts Incorporated. I move and approve and authorize city managers purchase authority to J Courts Incorporated amount of 59,900
to resurface the clay tennis courts at Treasure Bay golf and tennis facility. I'll second. We have a motion and a second. Kathy, the city received two quotes for this um RFP. One from Jay Courts, Inc. and one from Armor Courts. Um Armor Armor Courts
bid was considered to be incomplete. The quote from J. Quartz also includes the resurfacing of all eight courts which are quartz 1 through six, 9, and 10, as well as replacing all the um net post with aluminum post and um outside
cranks. So staff is recommending that we um provide this um bid to J courts in the amount of the 59,900 and the funds again will be reimbursed through the ordinance 2025-06.
Any question for staff? I have a question. In the under the funding section, the write up on this, we mentioned the city has a maximum of eight months to complete the repairs. When does that eight months start? December. Well, it started when we received the letter and it expires December 31st.
Will we be able to complete that? Definitely. We um have the we'll be we have this and we're bringing the bid for the tennis courts at the next meeting. Um so we should be able once this ordinance is read again for the budget amendment which will be also at the
August 19th meeting. Um I know the fence company is ready to go and should be once permitting is done and they get the approval we should be able to have them start. Our hope is to have the fence go first before we resurface the courts. So, I'm hoping to have everything done
by October, November. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you, Kathy. Do we have any public comment? Hearing none, we'll close public comment. Can we get a roll call, please?
Commissioner Sison. Hi. Vice Mayor Vazquez. I. Commissioner Clark. Hi. May Commissioner Dicki. Hi. Mayor doctor I thank you. H8 resolution 202513 commission. You have
several uh committees that you need to appoint members for. August is typically when we do this. I we did reach out to the applicants and some of them may be here. I don't know how you want to proceed, but we could go uh committee by committee. We could start with planning
and zoning and then move on to those applicants. Could I actually be recognized for one sure second, mayor? Um I actually would like to uh make a motion for district 1. Um I move to remove Cara Sims from her position as a
member of the planning and zoning board, district 1 of the city of Treasure Island effective immediately. In conjunction, I with this removal, I would also like to move to appoint alternate member Mark Straeski as a member of the planning and zoning board
effective immediately. This action is necessary to maintain the integrity and effectiveness of this board. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Do we have any public comment?
Hearing none, we'll close that. Any further discussion? Okay, so we have a motion and a second. Please call roll. Vice Mayor Vasquez, I. Commissioner Sesan, I. Commissioner Clark, I. Commissioner Dicki, I.
Mayor Doctor, I. All right. So, back to the annual appointments and yes, let's take them. Does this uh mean we have two openings for that? I was just going to say I believe this leaves us with an opening
for a alternate. Okay. Um on planning and zoning. So we would need one at large and one alternate. Am I correct? That is correct. Okay. So okay. So your applicants are Billingsley
Bonvalor and Accree. I don't know if any of them are here would like to speak. Yes we do. I have uh Jennifer Bonville. How do we every time that you come? How do you pronounce that? The easy way to excuse me.
The easy way to pronounce that is bon velour like the fabric. Bonor. But if you want to do with the French voice, bonvois. Okay. Thank you. Um, so good evening, uh, Jennifer Bonvoir, 113257th Street East in Treasure Island. Good evening, mayor.
Good evening members of the city council, city manager. Nice to meet you. and and and all all um last time I was here uh it's not my notes but last time I was here I actually did a like 10 uh deck PowerPoint. I'm not going to bore
you tonight with that. Um but I will share with you my continued interest in serving this board. Um, when you appointed me just a few months ago, I was honored to accept the challenge of filling the remainder of a vacant term.
In that short time, I have dedicated myself to learning the board's procedures, understanding our city ordinances, and doing my best to adhere to the code and procedures um, and the comp plan, of course, while contributing thoughtfully to every discussion. While
my time has been brief, I believe I have demonstrated my commitment and readiness to serve this community effectively. my experience as both a former council council woman and as a member of the planning and zoning board in Smithfield, Rhode Island, a city of over 20,000
people where I was also elected, has given me valuable insight into municipal government policy development, which I have been able to apply during my tenure with the Treasure Island Commission. I have been a dedicated resident of this
city for eight years. I am deeply invested in his future because as my husband and I say it's from our house to the cemetery. My only agenda is to do what's best for this city and its residents. I am not a
real estate agent. I am not a contractor. I am not a developer. Nor do I have any related businesses or family members with related businesses. And that's not to say anybody else does. I'm just letting you know who I am. and that allows me to approach every decision
with complete impartiality. I understand the previous appointment in my district was made based on a precedent for those who had an atlarge position. He was given the full-time position. I respectfully ask that you
also consider my prior two applications to the board and then my now proven dedication during my short tenure in this role. My passion has only grown stronger during my time in this role and I have enjoyed working alongside
the other members of this role for sure. Um, tonight you have a decision to make about the future of this board. I am confident that my experience over the past several months has prepared me to be effective long-term member and I'm eager to contriute continue to
contribute my perspective and energy to ensure our city remains a great place to live and work. um thank you for your time and opportunity um allowing me to have served and I hope that I will continue to be able to serve. Thank you.
Thank you. Daniel Billingsley. Hi, good evening. Uh my name is Dan Billingsley. I live at 13 Island Drive on Paradise Island. Um thank you for considering my application. Uh for the last 16 years, I've been a licensed contractor. I've been in the contracting
world for 26 years, third generation. I know the codes and compliance in the area. Um, as of recent, I was a last three years I was the dad's club president at St. John Vienna down the street until the hurricane took us out. I was also on the capital development board there. We had a lot of stuff in
works. So, I'm used to dealing with the boards on development projects and I also had served on the United Way board for three years. So, I want to just keep it short and sweet. I'm just looking to give back to my community. I still have young kids in the area. We're rebuilding our house from the hurricane and uh
since my vacancy opened up from St. John's, I feel it's a good opportunity for me to give back. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Let's go down Bella Creek. Hi,
Valerie Ay. I live at 12300 Fifth Street East on Isisle of Capri. I have lived in Treasure Island for 11 years. I have served on the code enforcement board. I have been president of the IA precipic association
uh previously for four years and I am very uh I'm looking forward to serving on the um planning and zoning commission and I'm looking forward to serving my community. Short and sweet.
Thank you, Bill. Can I make a motion for the position? Yes. So, we we are So, we need to fill what positions and in which districts? Uh, it's an atlarge position and an alternate position. So, there's no district requirements.
Okay. I make a motion of selecting Daniel Billingsley to planning and zoning board LPA uh for the atlarge member. I second. We have a motion and a second.
Do we have any uh public comment? Okay, hearing none. Back to any discussion up here. I'm not sure how we're going to do this because I was going to motion Jennifer for the same thing, but I guess we have to vote on this first motion first.
We would vote on this. Yeah, technically you just take up one motion, but in discussion you can indicate that, hey, I'd rather have this person. Yeah. Then it's it's one motion at a time, but honestly, you know, you can kind of broadcast that you'll vote no and make a follow-up motion and then hopefully, you
know, that could affect everybody else's votes accordingly. So, yeah. and and uh again I'm I'm I always hate when when we have uh two positions and one and one and three uh applicants because I I appreciate very much all of them coming forward and wanting to
volunteer to do this work uh this unpaid uh unpaid work. Uh but having said that uh Jennifer has served uh as an alternate uh I think she wants to be at at large representative now and I and I you know I would support her for that
and I would support Daniel to be the to take her place as the uh alternate. Okay. Yeah. It's always confusing when we get up here with these board positions and multiple boards and fewer or more
uh openings. So, um, so what I'm hearing is that, uh, you're you're doing you're saying Jennifer for the at large. Yes. And Billingsley, Daniel Billingsley would be the alternate, right?
And I'm more on the Billingsley for at large and val for alternate. And I agree with Tammy. I would agree with that too. So knowing it's 32 you could just I mean
save yourself time make one encompassing motion if it is a 32 split which it discussion might indicate that. So for the sake of time somebody can make a motion to just do it accordingly. So would he need to resend his motion first? Correct. Yes.
I make a motion of uh first I'd like to resend my motion. Okay. And there was a second. All right. I would like I mo I move to um elect Daniel Billingsley for the
atlarge position for PNZ and LPA and Valerie Cree for the alternate position. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion up here? Any public
comments? make a com. Sure. Because this is a public forum and it's being recorded. Frankly, I'm shocked and disappointed. I don't know any of you personally. Um,
I've done a very good job at what I I believe. Matter of fact, in many cases, I have been the lone nay vote in uh variances coming up to the board. So, I wouldn't rubber stamp things. I've taken
a lot of thought into what I've done. And I've heard a lot of sideline comment that if they're spending, as an example, if they're spending a lot of money, they should be able to get what they want.
I don't believe in that. I believe it should be the best for the town and the best for the community and following the code and following our comprehensive plan. And um
I feel like I I don't know what you know about Carara. I don't know why you would do that. I simply met her on the board. Um, it seems it just this doesn't seem kosher
and I'm it's very disappointing. And I think if members of the community would look at our zoning board meetings and look at what you guys are doing tonight after, by the way, I was told, "Oh, don't worry. I know it's only a few month stint, but when you come back, our precedent is we'll we'll put you in the
at large position." it it's just it's um hypo hypocr hypocritical and it's disappointing and it's not doing the best for the community. Now, like I said, I don't know any of you. I have except for John who you and I have only spoke a few times. Um, and this was in
the past prior to the hurricane for landscaping reasons, but um, despite the fact I respectfully ask you to reconsider because it's it's just for people that want to do the best for the community
and you're kind of undermining what you say you want to do. So, thank you. Thank you, Jennifer. Discussion up here. I comment
Come ahead, Richard. Come on. Thank you. Richard here. Since I am the chairman of the planning and zoning board, I just want to do uh give my two cents. Uh I want to compliment Jennifer. She has done a great job in the uh I believe two months she's been there. I do know her
and she's actually what we need on the board. She's not one of these people that will just go along with everybody. So quite frankly, I would I don't know either of the uh two other uh applicants personally, but uh I would like to say
that I support Jennifer Bombalore for the for the uh full-time position. She is right now she's not an alternate. She is a full-time position from uh correct me if I'm wrong, Paradise or Palms. I think
Palms. Okay, I let's put it this way. I get everybody mixed up because the atlarges can be from anywhere, but then we have one person from each district. Anyway, you know, I'm sure that um let's put this way, everybody has done a
pretty good job over the many years that I volunteered here. Jennifer has done a really good job over the two meetings that uh they've been here. Uh we do need conting uh continuity for the board and
I just want to say if you could uh see fit to keep her at the current position for her district and have one of the other two for the alternate. Thank you. Is Jennifer
a at large now? Yes, she current she's filling um the remainder of another term, but she is in an atlarge position. Okay. Yeah, I I uh I do agree with some of the statements that I've heard and from Jennifer as well that uh you know, she
came on and took on a alternate position, but it only had a couple of months available uh to it. And um and yes, we we usually if you're performing well and the president of the board says
that you are um it would be um in your direction and uh and I would vote that way and uh so it always gets very awkward here when we're trying to decide
um who does what and where. So I don't know with three people. Is it best to Well, we got to do something with this motion, but we can take care of that in a second. Um to actually vote individual by individual. Absolutely. Yeah, you can do that. You
can vote that way. Yeah, we could do that. Um so we would just go through each commissioner and they would say the name that they prefer for one, two, and three. One, two, and three. One, two, and three. Okay, basically we'll start with because you need to fill um an atlarge position and
an alternate position. So, okay. So, uh we can start with the atlarge. Let's first remove the the motion that we had. I'll withdraw my motion. We can. Thank you. Um and now let's someone actually explain maybe I should
note this. Sorry. Um, alternate and and what at large alternate only votes if someone's absent. Okay, gotcha. Thank you. But do we do they go to every meeting?
They're allowed to debate and converse, but they can only vote in the absence of a and from speaking to um Richard quite a few times um because it is such a large board, it's pretty frequent that there is at least one person absent um one to
two people. And correct me if I'm wrong, Richard, I don't know where you're at, but correct me if I'm wrong. that typically because it's a large board there um there's usually a uh absent person or sometime frequently an absent person where an alternate um would speak
up or sit in. Am I correct? That's what you've told me before. Well, we are always able to get because there's nine attendees to get a quorum, we only need four, but like our meeting uh in July, we had two absentee members.
So, in that case, both Mark and Gary voted. And so, like you just said, Tammy, it's it's a a lot that uh we always have a quorum, but usually the alternates do get to vote.
Okay. Thank you for clarifying that. All right. So, let's uh let's take that vote. Okay. So, do we want to start? I don't know. District order. Okay. With the mayor last uh Vice Mayor Basquez
Uh Daniel Billingsley for at large, Valerie Cree for alternate. Commissioner Clark. Um same. Commissioner Sison, same. Commissioner Dicki, uh,
Jennifer at large and Daniel alternate and Mayor Doctor Jennifer at large and uh, Vela Aree uh, as the alternate. Okay, so that's going to be Billingsley
for the atlarge seat and Miss Aree for the alternate position. Oh, it's three. Yes, that's correct. Okay. Um and then we can just have a motion. So moved to have it adopted.
Just a so move or move moved adoption uh move adoption of Billingsley for at large and Valerie Cree for uh alternate for the planning and zoning and LPA board. Do we have a second?
Second. All in favor say I. I. I. I. Thank you. Nay. And then the next committee is going to be code enforcement. You have an atlarge member and an alternate member position.
And is Dana Ball here? Okay. Eva Deise. Hello. Um, I just wanted to say uh good evening uh to the city council and um thank you for the opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Eva Dere. I'm a longtime property owner in
Treasure Island and currently serve as board president at the um Crystal Palms Resort as well as other commercial associations. I've been in the community support roles for over 13 years with hands-on experience in ownership compliance, property management, and
conflict resolution. Professionally, I come from a background in public records research and private investigation, which has given me a strong fact-based approach to evaluate complex issues fairly and objectively. I care deeply about maintaining the
safety, appearance, and overall quality of life that makes Treasure Island such a special place to live or visit. I'd be honored to to to support the mission of the code enforcement board and help ensure the compliance efforts remain fair, constructive, community, and
community focused. Thank you for your time and consideration. And I'd like to add that I'd like to be um considered for the atlarge position. Thank you. Thank you.
Is Jeffrey Bannon here? Good evening. Uh Jeffrey Bannon, 1146 9th Street, Isis of Palms. Uh I'd like to be considered uh for the uh for the position. I uh
I in in my past life I've had uh uh 50 over 50 years of decision making and uh I'm not afraid to do that and uh uh nor do I go with the flow however it has to be. Uh
I uh I was in the restaurant business and my team we own over 11 restaurants in uh in Manhattan at one time. So I'm used to dealing with people. I'm used to dealing with positions and and violations and such. Uh I've also spent
20 years uh one of the founders of the uh Pelum Community Rowing Association in Westchester County where I was chairman of the uh the boat house. Uh and I uh like I said I held that position for
over 20 years. Uh so uh I I been living here for 5 years, been coming to Treasure Island for over 30. Uh it's always been my wife's and my favorite place. Uh and so we brought our two sons
who also live here on the island. Uh we uh when we landed here finally, we said to each other, paradise. And it is. It is it. And that's why I I volunteered for
the board uh because I uh I'd like to bring it back to where it was when I came here 5 years ago. This is a magnificent place. It needs to be fine-tuned, more than fine-tuned, but it needs somebody that's not afraid to get their hands dirty and do what has to be
done. So, uh I appreciate your time tonight. Thank you everyone. Thank you. is Thomas Santarles. Good evening. My name is Dr. Thomas Santarles. I own property at 10116
Golf Boulevard, unit 401 West. Um, I believe that code enforcement is a critical component to city government. It's important that we have effective code enforcement people working so that the residents, the business owners, and the people who visit this city can take
pride in coming here, living here, and working here. Uh my background consists of uh various boards around the state of Florida. I've served as a vice chairman for the community redevelopment agency in BTO. I've also served as a vice
chairman for the uh historic resources review board in Tampa and approximately 10 years as a code enforcement magistrate in Hillsboro County handling the red light cameras, the school zone cameras, taxi cabs, and the Uber and lifts. I was appointed by the co board
of county commissioners there to fill one term and been reappointed uh two or three times since then. and I would ask that you would consider my application and I'll serve in whatever capacity you believe that I can best serve the city of of Treasure Island.
Thank you. Thank you, Thomas. All right. So, what positions do we have available? We have an atlarge member and an alternate member. Uh we could go through the same process if you wanted or um if there no comments or anything.
I do have a question. Uh, two of the four candidates are not residents. They do own property here. Is is uh being a resident a requisite for holding one of these positions? I believe it's acceptable to be a property owner.
A property owner. A property owner. Okay. Thank you. And just to clarify on that one, I actually spoke to Miss Dere and her and her husband do live they do stay in their condo that they have here. um like
their aotted time that they have um and um they spend a lot of time on Treasure Island. She sits on the board and such because I was curious about the same exact thing, but they actually do live here a lot of time a lot of the time.
I guess you would almost say similar to a snowboard snowbird. Does uh again along those lines and I guess I would ask this of Eva. Uh being that you don't live here, where do you live when you don't live here? Would you not be available?
Okay, that's that's good enough. Thank you. Thank you. And I and I uh do know where Thomas lives. He in Riverview. Is that correct? Okay. Thank you. That's the only thing I had. Mayor doctor. Okay. Do we want to do it the same way? I think that's the best.
Yeah. Okay. So, I'm going to start with the atlarge member. Vice Mayor Vasquez. Uh, Eva Dere, Commissioner Clark, Commissioner Sison, Eva Dere, Commissioner Dicki,
Eva, and Mayor Doctor, Eva. Okay, that's going to be dives for your atlarge member and we'll take a motion for both at the end. So, moving forward to your alternate vice mayor Vasquez.
Let's see. Uh Jeffrey, was it Bannon? Pronouncing right? Yes. Commissioner Clark. Uh Jeffrey. Commissioner Sison. Jeffrey. Commissioner Dicki. Uh Thomas Santoas. Mayor Doctor
Jeffrey. Okay. Okay. So that's going to be Banyan for that one. Yes. So for your ATL large member that's Dere and for your alternate member that's Banyan. And if I could just get a motion confirming that. I move to confirm Eva Dere as an ATL
large member of the code enforcement board and Jeffrey Bannon as the alternate. We have a motion and a second. Thank you. Do we have any comment? Public comment. Close public comment. Any further
discussion up here? No. Nope. Let's go ahead and take a uh a vote. Do voice. Okay. Oh, no. It's a resolution. I'm sorry. Uh Commissioner, Vice Mayor Vasquez, I. Commissioner Clark, I. Commissioner Sison, I. Commissioner Dicki,
I. Mayor Doctor, I. Thank you. Okay, moving on to the Lyft organization. So, for Lyft, you actually have three vacancies, but only two applicants. So, it's not going to interfere with quorum requirements, but unless you don't want
to pick one of these applicants. I mean, I don't know if they're here tonight, but you have more vacancies than you do applicants. Is Carlos here? And is Judy here? Thank you.
Good evening, mayor and commissioners. My name is Judy Pardin. I live in um your district, Commissioner Basquez. I live on the island of Capri, 1165 Capri Circle South. My husband and I have owned property here in Treasure Island
since 2017, and we've been full-time residents for three years. The reason I'm very interested in this position is to be able to give back to this fantastic community. Uh since living here full-time, I joined the uh beach ambassadors and I also was able to come
over to city hall and volunteer to help get essential items to people who wound up with absolutely nothing. And some of the stories I heard and the people I met um made me want to help even more. As far as my uh professional background
goes, we moved here from Chicago. I was uh in the press office of two Illinois governors and I worked at the commuter rail system which had its own police department and a lot of issues related to mental health and homelessness and people that were living in train
stations and so I learned a lot about how to solve some of those problems. Obviously you can't solve all of them but um having our own police department um prepared me pretty well for that. And I also worked in Cook County Sheriff Tom
Dart's office in the executive office. Part of my responsibilities were to work on the tier with 40 pregnant women who were in custody and um helping them with not only their pregnancies and their delivery, but working with a lot of
charitable organizations that came together to help them with their babies when they returned to the community for about five years. So I my experience from that I think prepares me well to be an asset and help out and I appreciate your consideration.
Thank you very much. Appreciate it. It's a great organization. That's what I got ready to say. Thank you so much for applying because that's it's a tough that's a tough position too and that's that's wonderful. Lyft has done a lot for the community in the last few years. So thank you for applying.
All right. So I think that this one is relatively easy. We just need to make the motion to uh to cement it. So, and I move to appoint Judy, is it pardono? Pardon? Pardon? And Carlos Mero as an atlarge
member of the Lyft board of Treasure Island. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any public comment? Hearing none, we'll close public comment. Any further discussion here? Nope. Okay, let's go ahead and uh take a vote.
Vice Mayor Vazquez, I. Commissioner Sison, I. Commissioner Clark, I. Commissioner Dicki, I. Mayor Doctor, I. Thank you. Okay. And that is the end of item H8. Correct. All right. Moving on to number nine.
Community development staff request to include full-time flood plane manager and full-time code supervisor to relieve current uh employees and having responsibility uh of two different job descriptions. So this would uh
would we would you have to take an ordinance on this? I know you and I discussed this a little earlier today. But uh it's just basically moving forward with the two positions. Correct. Yes, sir. I don't think it requires an ordinance, does it? No. Okay. Not unless it would
only if it was a budget amendment. Yes. It would only be a budget amendment if if the numbers truly change what was pre-authorized when you passed the budget last year. So, we're good to go then. Yep. Absolutely. Okay. So, a motion, please. I move to
approve the request for full-time floodplane manager and full-time code supervisor. We have a motion. Do we have a second? I second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any public comment?
Come on up, Mark. Mark Hoey, District 3. Uh just a quick one. Uh it was news to us from uh our city manager that he's going to bring uh some consultant activity to CDD
uh to kind of go through and determine just what do we need and all that. So why are we hiring two people now? These aren't open positions, but we're hiring them now and we're haven't really gotten a chance to go through and look at this with new eyes. So seems like it's out of
order. Sarah Sarah Pennington District 2. Um yes, that's the exact thoughts that I had that Mr. Hoey um just got up here and said when our new city manager had mentioned earlier we're going to be doing a full assessment of our permits
department, community development department. I thought maybe we should, as he likes to say, put the pause or hit the brake pedal on uh on hiring any new hires for our department until we've gone through and actually done that assessment. Maybe we don't need more
people. Maybe we need the right people. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying we don't know yet uh what we actually need in that department. So, it might be a good idea to just wait until we have that information to make a better decision. Thank you. Thank you. Would
you like to address this? Sure. And I'm I'm addressing my five bosses. I appreciate all the public comment and the history lessons I've gotten so far, and I can see where the confusion may lie. Everybody know who Stevie Wonder is? Great musician, but
really doesn't have great visual acuity. I feel very comfortable with years and decades of human resources and personnel background of making an initial assessment that we need more headcount to clear a backlog. We are down two
people from three weeks ago when I started NCDD both resignations just for clarity. So I can't move you in any great direction to clear the backlog without some more headc count. I already know that you have no flood planes manager
and what's your largest backlog in CBD? Flood plane manager. Yes, sir. Correct answer. So, and you also have another person doing double duty. So, I would like to alleviate that. I am wide open and confident in the assessment capability of the
consultant I'm bringing in to help me with processes, procedures, and he might look at me and say, "Mr. Vanzant, you need one or two more or do this with a consultant for 90 days, alleviate this and then you can drop one. But I know without any doubt in my military mind
that if you want to start clearing this backlog and seeing some headway, I got two more months in this fiscal year and I need to be moving in that direction. Andrew Uh, Andrew Vasey, District 2. Uh, I appreciate the color and your
perspective from that. Um, as residents, we've been through the whole gamut with the CDD. Okay. It started with Elevate TI, then it went through permitting. Um many members of this commission provided
Jacobs to come in and try to staff up. Prior city manager didn't want to staff up. We have been through staffing issues with CDD. uh the people that are on it, the agenda that those folks have on it, getting additional heads outsourced quickly
after the hurricane so that we could move permitting through the and one of the things that that everyone talked about at that point was to um to look at the whole permitting process at the
time. You're a very process organization guy, so let's talk a minute about the process. We had a whole slug of permits coming in. We had a variety of needs that people had wiped out of your house, able to come back and put some drywall in. We we we had a whole we had a whole
range of them. We knew what was going to happen then after the hurricane hit. We knew that you were going to need to have permit applications put in. They would be reviewed. There would be inspections. There would be closeout. There would be a FEMA audit. There was a whole process. We knew there was going to be the people
who could do them quickly and the people that needed more time because they were going to elevate and the people that were going to rebuild. We knew all this. So we we we get to this point where we're at the end of a fiscal year instead of having somebody come in who
would this commission made available to spend the money during FEMA paying for it with a with an organization. We got a third we the the staff was asked for a one-year contract. They gave a 30-day contract. Then they complained that the
company couldn't staff up. Well, for anybody that's been in business, how do you commit and staff up when somebody's giving you a 30-day contract and you're trying to move eight or 10 or 12 heads up here? Couldn't do it. Then he used them so lightly that when they finished the 30-day window, they still had half
the value of that contract left. So then the mayor comes in and says, "Go ahead and and get a year contract to the city manager and get staffed up and outsourced." So they don't want to do it. Then they come back and at the same time throw in 130, 150, 180, whatever it
was. Oh, we want to staff up with outsourced people. So this commission votes no, we're not. You got to come in and explain to us what these people are going to do. So then they come in and say, we're going to add all this headcount. We need to go through September 30th and we have flood plane
managers in. Jacobs brought flood plane managers. The person here doing the flood plane management caused a lot of the problems which was the bottleneck that then somebody from the fire department had to go figure out what was going on there. So we we went
through that. Then we went through the community development director resigning. Then we had that person resigned but stick around. Then we went through a temporary city manager hiring a temporary hiring a CDD person who is a wonderful person fine person doesn't
have CDD capability at all. So now we're back here two months before budget and we're adding staff you so we had to come back a second round for diff different outsource people even though almost a year ago when we were all waiting for permits we we had a one-year solution
served up. Nobody took it. I'm not saying it's you cuz you were not here. But I'm just giving you the flavor of what all of us have been through with this and with particularly this department because they handle permits. Okay. And the permitting process has
been awful. Option one versus option two. Awful. Okay. People worked hard. Commissioner Dicki was in there. People worked hard, but they were they were dealt a bad hand. Okay. And we've all lived through it and we're done with it. So now you come in and I I applaud you
for saying I want to evaluate and see what I have. Totally makes sense on the other and and you're right, you need the help. But to do this and and on the one hand tell us, oh, I got to evaluate and put in. Oh, I got to have these people. Oh, I got to outsource these people who
are already here since September 30th and they got voted no because nobody told us is insanity going on around here. And you guys can all do better. You've got to explain it. The reason that we get up here and complain about this is we've seen all this. This isn't
like we don't know what's going on. We haven't lived through it. It hasn't touched us. And then we're just up here saying no. We've lived through it. We've seen it. And it you you you have to understand that of where we're coming from when we get on this. And that is
the history of what's happened here. And I think you should hold this off and you should extend your people and you should get your budget done and then justify it that way when you get the right people in there. Thank you very much. Thank you, Andrew. Any other comments?
Okay, we'll close public comment. Do we have any comments from the staff? All right. From the uh commissioners. Um, yeah, I'll make I I in my Thursday, last Thursday meeting with the city manager asked the exact same question that Mark and I believe it was Sarah, I
think, that got up and I said, you know, why are we hiring full-time people when we um when we're having a consultant come in and tell us what to do? and he used the same analogy that Stevie Wonder
could see that we need um you know this full-time flood plane manager and this other position. So um you know I'm I'm seeing movement on the trash which we've never seen before. I'm seeing movement
on TMM which we've never seen before. So I got to I got to I got to give him some rope here and trust him on this one. Um, you know, if I'm proven wrong, I'm proven wrong. But, um, you know, that's that's where I'm at. I certainly understand your questions because I have
the exact same one. Um, and that's just where I'm at. So, and I would say on the I mean, the two positions you're asking for, the flood plane manager and code supervisor, we have one gentleman who's been doing the exact same job. I mean, two jobs and
being paid for one. And then we hear complaints of of code not being enforced. We hear complaints of permitting not going as fast. When if you don't have the positions filled, you know, I do own a company. I own a couple
of companies. And if I don't have certain positions filled, I can't move forward. or if I do, it's going to be a lot slower, not nearly as effective as it could be as if I had all my positions filled. Um, I I don't even use the s the
the Stevie Wonder analogy. I just say it's common sense. You can do the you can't do the job efficiently if you don't have the people there to do it. And we can't continue to ask one person to do two
jobs. And so to me, again, if down the line something changes, that doesn't mean we, you know, you can tweak and balance and do what we need to do. But right now, I think, you know, if we're going to complain about a problem, we
have to be willing to fix it. That's my opinion. I think that uh it goes from here. I know that our city manager basically said he's too short from just where he was, you know, a couple of weeks ago. Um what we did is we passed uh about a
month ago we we passed 90 days worth of uh funding for contract employees. Um that's part of what why we're down low. So we would basically would have given him the authority to bring up to
that staff that included our in-house folks and our contract folks. And so what we're saying is that and I don't even know if these employees or these I guess employees are they the contract folks that are that are down or inhouse
employees that are down because really it's it's all the same money. It's just are we going to hire them in as contractors or are we going to hire them back in as full-time employees going forward? That that's the only difference I'd see. So, your current staffing
model, I've shared with each of you, you have six contract employees that expire on September 30th. And what I'm asking you for tonight is two additional employees, a flood planes manager, which you don't have
that position. You have your principal planner, and that gentleman's been doing two roles. and you have a planning manager that's also been covering down on your code compliance supervisor position. So those would be two city of Treasure Island employees. And then when
those six temporary people expire on September 30th, we'll be bringing you back three more. I got a colorcoded document that would be full employees. And mayor, when you and I were talking, this one was the wrong color in the previous edition.
Okay. So, um, just in full transparency, this is my most likely course of action when the consultant comes in next Monday and begins his 60-day process. And as we continue to hammer out the budget through September, and as you hopefully
and graciously allow me more time to spend with my staff and less time to spend with everybody else, I will have better recommendations in September. And as if I can be allowed two more seconds, as a holistic 50,000 foot view, don't
expect a budget that we adopt the end of September to be the budget for the whole fiscal year. We have grants we've applied for. We're asking for help from state, federal, county assets. Our our income is yet an unknown before you or
after you even adopt the mill rate. Um, so we'll gain some some of this will come through. Um, so I I plan on bringing you at least one budget amendment in the next fiscal year, possibly two as the picture develops and I have longer than three weeks and we
get our staff in here and things like that. Thank you. Okay. I I guess what what I'm asking though is you you just said that we are too short from where we were three weeks ago. I had two more people. And those two people, were they in-house employees or were they contractors?
They were in-house employees. They were in-house. Okay. So, basically what we're saying is that we want to bring back in those two and we want to bring do two more heads and we want those heads to be permanent heads and not
permanent heads and do different jobs, flood plane manager and code compliance. But yes, sir, two two employees have left in three weeks and I'm asking to add two headc count back. Okay. Thank you. The only thing I'd like to add to the
discussion is is clearly these two areas that you've asked for uh additional help are where we need it the most. The two biggest complaints I get are about the slow permitting process and about uh codes not being enforced. I'm getting
hit with a lot of those and uh and the biggest backlog that that when I've checked when I've asked that and getting permits processes in the flood plane area. Uh so and and I don't see that getting any better and it's you know we
I'm not doing this I'm not supporting this because I think it's a uh you know we need to not have somebody work two jobs. I'm doing it because it's a major bottleneck in getting permits processed. So, in that regard, if you were going to, you know, add two FTEEs, this is
where I would I would put them. But to make sure I understand what you told Mayor Doctor is you won't be filling these two other positions that have left, you're going to you want to fill these two instead. Is that correct? These are the two I'm asking to fill
tonight. And then most likely course of action on your October 1st headcount when the six contractors that are currently doing permit tech, permit tech, estimator, flood plane, flood plane, and appraiser.
I will come back and ask for flood flood plane coordinator, zoning tech, and permit and codes tech. Barring what fleshes out through this assessment, this is a very fluid thing. I know we got some areas to fix. I'm willing to work on those with your support and
we'll flesh out the rest as we move forward and move through our budget cycle. I And one other thing you said that caught my attention was you said that there uh six there's a 60-day uh period that you're talking about using a consultant to take a look at
community development. Is that correct? Yes. and that that's more he may bring um suggestions on headcount and specific job descriptions, but I'm looking to simplify the processes and procedures so this isn't such a pain point for
residents going through the process whether they want to build a new home, whether it's the developer or whomever they they're rebuilding. Um, that's more of a processes and systems thing that I don't feel as qualified to wax eloquently about, but I promise you I'm
very good at staffing and personnel. I've done tons of it. Lift, shift, move people around. If I was not confident in this um, assessment, I would not stand here asking for it. Okay. it it I assume the person the
consultant you're bringing in is highly experienced in community development and I would think it wouldn't take 60 days to to to come up with uh some recommendations on how to streamline that operation. So, uh, it won't take more than 60 days, but
that's the scope of work he submitted and that I signed off on. And he has had great success with the city of Jacksonville, which like this place has switched back and forth between ideologies and bottlenecks, and he's had
proven success for several mayors that I know, and it's a strong mayor system up there. So, the mayor hires and fires everybody. I'm gonna give him a chance to come do some of that magic that he's done for Jacksonville here. I Ardan, I agree with you. Every time I
ever half the time I ever heard about permits being stuck, they were stuck in the flood plane department. What I've never understood is if you got a foot of water in your house and all you're doing is putting your cabinets and your your drywall and your baseboards back, why
does it have to even go through a plug flood plane review? It sounds like that's what this guy's going to do is review all that. Yeah. I mean, I just I'm just curious why that would have to It never made any sense to me. I understand if you got to tear your house down, start building a new one, that that would make sense. But
um anyhow, have a motion. We have a motion and we have a second. Um roll call, please. Vice Mayor Vazquez, I. Commissioner Dicki, I. Commissioner Clark, I.
Commissioner Sison, no. Mayor Doctor, I. Thank you. All right, moving on. Discuss Kimley Horn scope of services and work authorization related to revised fill ordinance and development regulations.
We have a motion. I move to approve the scope of services provided by Kimberly Horn to authorize the city manager enter into work authorization. Second. We have a motion and a second.
I was understanding after conversations with the city manager and city attorney that we don't we've already got this covered and we don't need this scope of work to spend money on it anymore. Correct. Yeah. I know I'm the one that wanted it, but this was a late Yeah, this was a late I'm not used to people actually doing stuff when we, you know, so I Yeah.
Yeah. actions been taken with staff to bring in a special project coordinator so we can do it in-house that way because I I really think this is more of a legal change than it is a brand new re-engineering because we're repealing and we're adopting a nearby municipalities ordinance and that way
you guys can have some facetime too with them. That way it's reflect reflective of the entire commission too. So it's going to be done in house and uh you know if we down the road we end up needing an outside service that you you'll know about that but we don't need it right now. Okay, let's hear from Gary. Gary, if you
would. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners. Gary Volenick, public works director. Um, just to kind of give a little bit of an overview so that the public is up to speed on what you're you're discussing here. On July 1st, uh, um, agenda item H7, terrain modification
manual, was discussed. Uh, Commissioner Clark had presented a a a uh proposal framework to uh re-evaluate the ordinances, look at the ordinances, the Treasure Island ordinances before the train modification manual made the the
eight changes. Um, and also to look at simplifying both in terms of fill edition and also grading plans, try and simplify the process, help to expedite it for the public and for city staff. Um staff met with Kimley Horn. We obtained
a proposal. It was within the ballpark number that uh had been established by the commission at the July 1st meeting and uh the they they are ready to go forward. Excuse me. Uh but the the uh
we've had several meetings in house, the city manager, the city attorney, myself, uh community development staff, and we feel that it'd be a lot more expedient if you give us the chance to go through the ordinances. I think we can go ahead and
and far it out those items that are are maybe in conflict or can are causing trouble and we can we can uh provide a a turnaround both in terms of the review process simplifying it. That's the whole idea. Um and and get that done a lot
quicker than Kimley Horn could. They wanted six months. Uh we were able to get them down to four months, but still we we feel in house we can do it even faster than that and save the city some money. So, we request that you allow us to proceed that way. Uh city manager will keep you informed as how we proceed
and um uh we we we'll get this turned around uh in house. Great. Appreciate that. So, uh go ahead. I haven't done open public. Can I just can I just paraphrase what I
heard from city manager and the city attorney is that we uh we looked at the St. Pete Beach I think it was and Madira Beach much simpler talked to contractors they said we don't want to work with Treasure
Islands terrible we have no problem with the MadiRaa and the St. P beach one. So your plan is to develop a new one based on those two simple filled dirt ordinances. So then we will basically
have a simple filled art orance and we'll uh remove and replace. Correct. With a drain with a simplified drainage plan. Sounds perfect to me. And we don't so we save money on not having to use Kimley Horn. it moves faster because if
you do it outside, it's a whole procurement process and there's a whole debate about the scope of work. Just get somebody who's got basic planning experience and they go through all eight chapters of the ordinance, make sure everything makes sense. It's just this is not a permanent position, but this is somebody who needs to really sit down
and substantively work on it for a number of hours. So that's why this and he'll help him make sure it's all correct legally. Yeah. So it's a quasi legal quasi engineer and quasi community development project. Okay. Richard, would you like to say anything? It's been an interesting couple of
weeks. Richard Harris, 374 Bay Plaza once again, uh, planning and zoning board chairman. I'm also a professional civil engineer and have been for 39 years. Uh, in my experience, I've probably done thousands of lot grading
plans. Um, I got involved in this thing when Mr. Darren Brown said he was delayed for five weeks trying to get his plan approved through the city and did a lot of research, found out that it is a
process problem. U situation was Mr. Brown, it's partly his fault. submitted his house plans to the city. The city immediately subbed it out to an outside engineer. They took a couple weeks, sent it back with a bunch
of review comments. It went back and forth and it ended up being five weeks. That's just something that the outside engineer doesn't even want the work. Um, he doesn't make any money off it. I think he made $1,300. Uh the other one was uh there was a
meeting here on Thursday with the uh seaw wall builders and they all had the impression that the seaw walls had to be built up at elevation five no matter what. Didn't matter if the finished floor of the house that you're building the seaw wall at is elevation 4, you
still got to build it at five and flood the house. Of course, that's incorrect. The information is in here, but I agree with the approach of let's take this 136 page document and make it more user
friendly. Um, I was looking at seaw walls and I'm like, where in the heck in this 136 pages does it say that seaw walls have to be built at elevation five? And after digging around in there for half an hour, I found this statement. The
goal for type D.4 development shall be achieveing a minimum top of structure elevation of 5.00 that's great you know why do you call it type D.4 for development. Why don't you
just call it a seaw wall? That's what it is, you know? But the average person out there, including the staff, is digging through these 136 pages and they're going, I can't find what I need as a professional engineer. It even took me
20 minutes to find it. I'm like, and it's just written. So, like it takes the the author he like the author wanted to be the guy who interpreted the uh the document and
he's been fired. We're no longer going to be using him. But what I wanted to do was use my uh experience. I volunteered to Gary Volanac to help him out if at all possible. I've actually been a
volunteer for this city since 2002. 23 years between the code enforcement board, the planning and zoning board, and other things that I've done. You know, why do I do this? My wife thinks I'm crazy. I just want to see Treasure Island a better place. You know, I mean,
we took a hit during the hurricane. We just need to get people back in their houses. Uh we need to help out people like Darren Brown who has suddenly started working again and uh thank you uh to everybody who got him going again.
I hope that the meeting that I was not at with the uh seaw wall builders straighten them out. You know, you can't build a seaw wall at elevation five at the house that it's uh protecting is elevation 4. You know when do you need a
sump pump? I heard something to the effect of put a sump pump in. When do you need a sump pump? When the power goes off, you know, during a storm. So, I think that I am more than willing to take my time and help out this situation. Um,
I've talked to a lot to Gary and I think we have a good public works director and the biggest thing that I've always said in my business is that man knows how to get things done. We want need people who don't want to go through a bunch of paperwork. They want to see the end
result. And the end result on this is building new houses, raising houses, um building new seaw walls, making the city better. And uh I'm here to help. I appreciate the fact that we're not throwing another $42,000
of good money after bad. I know we spent a ton of money on um advanced engineering. not a real big fan of their manual. It's uh it's just difficult. And the average individual out there, I mean, the poor guy who's trying to build
a house, like Darren Brown, for instance, he was in it all his life. He got a uh a email and said, "You can't proceed." He never actually got a stop work order, but he's a law-abiding cit
citizen, and he stopped work for five weeks. It should never happen. And so let's uh let's see what we can do and make it better. And I'm just here to help. Uh as a 39y old uh 39y year resident, I am 39 year old. I'm a little
older than that, sad to say. Um but as a 39 year resident, just here to help. Thank you, Richard. All right. So it sounds to me as though we want to retract the motion. Yes. Okay. So who who made the motion? And
now just just you can move right on the next item which is commissioner reports and it'll just die off because obviously you know it's unnecessary. So we do any other kind of motion to get this moving forward the way we discussed it. Not really. Not really because right now I mean um the city manager has already
announced that he's going to be advertising that position tomorrow and that person's going to get to work immediately and because it's an employment doesn't take another ordinance or resolution or anything. Um yeah, and just to piggy back off of um
um Mr. Harris, I mean I got, you know, Darren Brown was one guy. I have four more Darren Browns now that are stuck in TMM hell. So the faster we can get this done, I think the better. Um and that would be great. So
okay, then let's move forward. And uh so H11 nomination of mayor an Marie Brooks, city of MadiRaa Beach to represent the big C on the Ford Penllis board. What this is all about is that u the big C is all the coastal communities and they're
represented uh by the mayors and the the mayor of Readington Shores, I believe it was, uh David Will. He uh resigned from the position as the representative from the Big C. The only person that threw
their name in the hat was Maryanne Brooks. And I'll tell you, she's a great mayor from Madiraa Beach. uh and that she wants to be on the forward penellis board. So we need to do that. Each commission needs to uh to basically take
a vote on uh who is going to represent the big C in the forward penllis board. So um if we can have a motion to nominate her. I move to nominate Anmarie Brooks, mayor of Madera Beach to serve on the forward
Penelis board as a representative of the Big C. Second. We have a motion and a second. Do we have any public comment? No public comment. Anything up here as discussion? Nothing here. Uh here we can go with
voice uh roll. So uh all in favor say I. I opposed. All right. Unanimous. All right. And uh now we have H12. Thank you. Um, I had a nice conversation
with our city manager today and I would like to uh ask the commission uh for the duration of just 30 days to consider raising the fee by uh not exceeding $2 to observe its effects on visitors and local businesses. Uh it's up to the
discretion of the city manager and he'll run it. Uh, so as easy as that sounds, I make a motion to give the city manager authority authority on parking for the next 30 days and setting parking fees not to exceed $2 to observe as its
effects on visitors and local businesses. I'll second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any public comment hearing? None. Any discussion up here? All right. Uh
is this going to be a resolution, an ordinance? It's actually got to be an ordinance to change the fees. Correct. Is both in the sense that you can res you can pass a resolution right now as as Commissioner Sison has moved for to allow them the discretion to higher the fees in the meantime to but to make the
permanent change. I have to draft the new ordinance. I'll probably have the draft next week. It'll be on the next agenda and then of course that takes two readings. So, it will be official law in 30 days, but you can authorize him uh the authority, administrative authority
to raise it up to $2 right now, and I don't see any issue with that. I mean, somebody could make an argument. It goes against the ordinance, but it's for such a low period of time. I don't think there's any standing to challenge that. Okay. Well, let's take a roll call. Uh anyhow,
Commissioner Sison. Hi, Vice Mayor Basquez. I, Commissioner Clark. Hi, Commissioner Dicki. Hi, Mayor Doctor. I now move on to Commissioner reports. All right. Uh, first I would like to
congratulate once again Chief Bars for his new appointment as the president of the Florida Fire Chiefs Association. It's nice to have you as one of ours and as a representative for the whole state of Florida. So, that's pretty nice. Um, I'd also like to once again, um, I've
had a lot of people reach out to me, um, and and mention that they never even thought about picking up the papers out of the vacant lots that they know they walk by every day. So, I just kind of another reminder, um, we do still have a lot of people not living in their homes.
We are in rainy season. So, if you know people are not living in these houses, please, if you see papers, if you see anything that is small enough for you to pick up and throw away in your trash, if you could please do so, it would just be such a huge help, one on public works,
trying to keep our drains clean, um, and also help us from our roads flooding and quite frankly, just make our neighborhoods look better. So, if you see them in front of these vacant homes, um, in the gutters, uh, please just just pick them up. And again, we're still working. It's not as easy as it may
sound because there you get into constitutional reasons why newspapers can throw. So, it is a difficult thing. Um, but um, in the meantime, if we could still keep doing that, that would be great. And I just wanted to remind everybody um, I have had a lot of people
um, comment because when I get emails um, to my city email, I actually respond um, typically the same day. Um, but I try to within at least 48 hours. Um, and it's funny because a lot of them have said to me that, and I'm not speaking
about the current commission, I'm just saying in general, they um have not been used to that. So, they're almost surprised when I respond to them. So, I just wanted to kind of remind everyone um that we're here working for you, the
citizens. So, when you guys have an issue, whether it's, you know, at your own home, if it's with, you know, a staff member, if it's an idea you have or something, you know, a sidewalk that needs fixed or whatever it is, that's
what we are here for. Um, reach out to us. You can go on our city website. Um, it has our city phone numbers on it, our email addresses. That's what we are here for. So, please know that we are here to work for you guys and um we don't take
that lightly. I don't think there's one of us that take that lightly and um we will get back with you. Um I've I've not really heard of anybody up here who doesn't respond and isn't responsive. Um so, please just remember we're here as
your representative. we're here to take your issues to the city manager so that he can represent all of us and which means therefore you. So just keep that um keep that in mind and um we definitely want to serve you guys um
well in our stint up here. So thank you so much. Thank you Commissioner Clark. Um turn this on. Yeah. So, we have a workshop Friday on the budget, which I think is one of the most important things that we do every
year. So, it's at 10:00 a.m. I encourage residents to come and if you can and let your um you know, voices be heard about the budget because I think it's incredibly important. Um, I plan on setting up next week um a district 2
kind of budget meeting where people who can't make it to the um to the um uh workshop can come and and and let me know their concerns, issues so I can hear those and pass those along. Um secondly, I I still continue to get um
you know, emails on permit issues, so keep those coming to me. I'm happy to try to help whatever I can. Got very good um feedback and help when I when I pass those on to CDD and to the city manager. Um and I do also I want to
thank um you guys for helping with this TMM issue because I think it is a big big issue for the city and the residents. Um and and also with the trash. I mean, again, I think and I I I want to make sure that folks out here realize what
happened tonight. You know, the the TMM I came to you, I said, "We need to go do a study. Probably it was going to cost us 50 grand." In the old days, probably nothing would have ever happened with that. Now, this time, we come and we're working on it
and we're going to not even need to spend the money and we're going to do it quickly. So, I mean, I like what I see. Kudos to everyone that's that's working on those things. Um, lastly, I did mention this to the city manager uh before the meeting and I'm going to
follow up on it, but I have got two residents in my district who have um multiple homes that were purchased next to them, I think, by some sort of I don't know who, not some sort of business, and I think they fixed them
without a permit, but that wasn't really their issue. their issue is like they're renting them out like weekly, I think. And so, um, you know, I think that's something that I'm going to talk to you guys about on what we can do about that because that's certainly not, uh,
allowed, I don't believe, and also not the spirit of, I think, what we want in the town. So, I just heads up, I'll be following up with you guys on that. And that's all I got. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner San. Um, I got a couple emails from some uh,
constituents of mine. I'd like to share this idea with the rest of the commission. I'm sure they got this email as well. Uh Kingfish Park, which is the old uh bridge that went into Madira Beach. I'd like to see if possibly we could consider selling it instead of
repairing it. Uh it is falling apart and we have allocated half a million dollars uh to fix Kingfish Park Seaw Wall, which already fell into the Gulf of America, Mexico. uh with and um and of course
it's it would be a referendum for March 2026. Uh we would obviously sell it to the surrounding land owner. Um it would be a substantial amount of money in my opinion. Um so it'd be nice to maybe put that on an agenda and maybe have I don't
know $1.5 million added to our coffers. That'd be nice. Uh, as for the Gators property uh, property, I would like to make sure that Kimley Horn includes in their phase 2 portion of the LDRs the planned redevelopment zoning district
for the largest land owner, also known as Gators Property. Uh, we give them their own named zone, the planned redevelopment, mixed use northern entry. Um, and then update on the bathrooms at Treasure Bay. Gary and
Kathy are working on quotes for outdoor restroom facilities and maintenance building for Treasure Bay. Once received these quotes, they'll bring it to the commission for consideration. And finally, with the help of Cindy, the president of the Paradise Island Civic Association, we finally had our no pizza
pizza party meet and greet on July 31st, 2025. Our first general meeting in over a year. We had about 30 attendees. Uh I hope that the next meeting will be larger. We're thinking probably October, November. Uh my na my main goal that I let them know was fiscal responsibility
and common sense decision making. That's my top priority. Uh and of course concerns of Treasure Bay, its construction construction of the living shoreline and the difficulties that will bring in the future as the commission decides what's next for Treasure Bay and how it's funded. Thank you. And we had
Sushi, Commissioner Dicki. Okay. Excuse me. I I want to start out by by uh recognizing and thanking Richard Harris. He is somebody I have very much
come to appreciate and uh I lean on him a lot. I go to him for advice on a number of subjects. Uh he was my opponent uh when I ran for this position. Uh and it was a tough campaign. He was a very tough campaigner, but I have to tell you, he
is he's done more for this city uh over over the last 20 years than probably any other uh individual. So, I I want to thank him and and uh publicly recognized his contributions to this city. So, thank you, Richard.
Uh I had two or I've got three other things that I want to talk about. This one here, most of you who don't live on Sunset Beach may not recognize this, but this is lands in. Uh, and what is it lands into? It's, let me see if I can
reduce this a little bit. Or Jason, is there some way I can make this take the whole screen up and maybe I guess not. Let me do this here. Oops, I didn't help there. But anyway, that's that's Lanszen. and Lanszen uh sent me
an a letter earlier in the week and they asked me to read it here, but I want to give you some background on on there. This is an older picture of Lanzin. It literally is the southernmost point of not just Sunset Beach, but Treasure Island. And this boardwalk here, this half mile boardwalk uh that starts right
here and goes all all around or did go all around uh to the tail to the uh west end of of Lanzen. Uh the Lanszen uh condo association. many many years ago agreed with the city to keep and
maintain this and o and keep it uh maintained and to keep it open to the public uh for for forever. And they've really had a hard time doing that. Not only with the most recent hurricanes, but every single hurricane
we've get, this uh this boardwalk gets destroyed. And they they came up after Hurricane Elaine. They, you know, this this was torn up pretty badly. if not pretty badly. It was completely destroyed. And all that extra sand that we had in Sunset Beach, they they they
were very creative and they started moving that sand and filling this whole area up. So, what we have right now is a is a walkway. It's a it's a if you haven't been in there, I I go jogging there every other night. Uh but it's a walkway. It's not a boardwalk anymore.
But, uh the lands in at their own expense have been keeping this up and maintaining it. and they did uh apply for a state grant and uh let me tell you a little bit about that grant. The grant uh was for lands in public walkway and
seaw wall. Uh they requested from the state $511 5 $5 511,713 for construction of a resilient scenic ADA accessible pedestrian walkway to replace the hurricane damaged boardwalk.
uh the state told him, "Hey, we've never ever given a grant to any condo association. We haven't ever given a grant to any anything other than a a municipal government or a city government or or or or government related. Uh and they asked us to uh the
the the condo association asked us to join them in asking for this grant." Anyway, let me read this letter to you I got earlier this week. It says, "I we want to from the condo association president. We want to express our sincere thanks to you and the city of Treasure Island for writing a letter to
support lands in at Sunset Beach Condominium's recent grant application with the state of Florida to replace our damaged boardwalk. As you know, the storms tore up the the old boardwalk and we've had to rebuild. We have a requirement to keep the walk open to the
public and therefore thought a grant might be available. Since we are not a government entity, but have an obligation to the city to keep the walkway open to the public, we technically qualified, but it took a lot of discussion with Senator Tagley and
Representative Sheney offices to explain why it made sense to award us this grant. We really needed the support letter from the city of Treasure Island to convince everyone that the city was supportive of this request. We were recently informed. We were awarded a
grant of $511,000. So, uh, everybody's very happy about that. They're happy about it. We're happy about it because right now it's not ADA uh accessible. Uh, but they're going to be uh lying on top of that
surface. And this is something the city manager and I will be looking at tomorrow morning at 10:00 uh with them. They're going to be lying some kind of uh material on top of that to make it where you could, you know, uh operate a wheelchair uh on there. It's not just
sand. So, it's going to be and it's going to be a lot more resilient. It's going to it's not going to come to a crash. But anyway, that's one piece of good news I wanted to share uh with you. Uh, another thing is July 25th. And boy, I wish I could make this bigger. Can I
make it bigger? No, I can't. PowerPoint. Yeah. Uh, July 25th was a pretty important date for the city. Uh, and and these folks, uh, if anybody ever doubted the commitment and dedication and work ethic
of some of our city employees, July 25th uh, would definitely change your mind. Uh, Victor Ortiz here, Gary Balnneck, uh, Joan, uh, Good Rich right here. Our our, this is, uh, help me. Uh, this is
Jessica. Uh, she just joined us. She's our new grant manager. and uh and our uh Bobby Shay here, but there were a number of people that worked here Friday night on July 25th until 10:45 p.m. to meet
the midnight the 11:59 p.m. deadline of getting all those grants in that you've heard uh mentioned by both Mayor Doctor and by uh by the city manager. So, uh but but to tell you a little bit more about those uh those grants, let me tell
you. But and and by the way, you don't make the deadline. You don't you don't even go to second base. You've got to make this deadline. You can't call and say, "Hey, can we turn this in Monday?" You've got to make that deadline. That's one of the things that uh that they did. But they submitted these five requests
for about $22 million. Uh but anyway, I wanted to thank those people because when I heard from uh Joan at 11:31 that uh that night and saw that picture, it was a big relief because I I knew it was going to be very difficult to to to
get all those in and to make that deadline. There were very complicated, highly detailed uh uh grant applications. Not it's not just sending an email or a memo in saying, "Hey, we'd like to have this money." there's a lot of documentation uh that's required uh
for that but they they got all five projects in. Uh having said that and I do appreciate the comments from both the city manager and the mayor to talk about uh the rebuild TI workg group. Our last meeting was on uh July 21st. Uh so for
five months this committee uh worked hard on a lot of these things and the four individuals over here on the left Sherry Cohen, Peter Donna Tuni, Ginger Gapper, and Mark Hoey who's here uh were the resident uh representatives on that.
Commissioner, County Commissioner Kathleen Peters was also on it. Uh Joan and Gary were all part of it as well. And I want to appre tell them how much I appreciate all the work uh that they did. Uh but but our goal was to seek out
grant funding and and and that's what we have that's what we have done. We attended a number of uh state, federal, and county uh public meetings to learn more about the types of grants because when you see when you see some of these grants uh you you saw the city manager,
he said only two of the five fit the top five priorities. But we looked at the entire list of capital uh investment items that were on there and we tried to get everything in here. But but there's certain requirements to even apply for the grant in here. And if it doesn't
have to do with mitigation, then you can't apply. If it has to do with repair of something that was torn in the damage, that doesn't apply. You can't use that. uh if it has to do with just general maintenance or repair and maintenance or it just came to its uh
depreciated lifetime, you can't apply for that with this. So, these were the five projects that were put in uh a total of 29 million with 21 million right there that we're hoping to get and and I'm feeling pretty confident, I know the committee is, that that four of
these five projects might get approved. Uh, and then I didn't want to lose sight of this next one that comes up, and that's uh, this hasn't been applied for yet because the window of the window of applications hasn't been, but there's uh, $136 million that the county is
setting on through the CDBG uh,-d uh, that beginning in the fall, we can apply for these kinds of things. So, there's two projects on there that at least two that I'm hoping that we do apply for the grants to get our to get a
piece of that $136 million there. And that's the new public works facility and the new public safety facility. Now, we may not get a penny from for either one of these. Uh I don't want to uh build up false hopes, but I think given the fact that we did so well, that the the the
the team did so well to go after this money and get some and and we've got again a strong possibility we can get that, you know, I'm I'm very hopeful that we can get uh this money to rebuild uh the infrastructure that we need to rebuild. But I just wanted to end again
by thanking the people who gave 5 months of their of their lifetime and and and and uh and participated in this process because it did uh I think it did pay off for the city and I very much appreciate their efforts. That's all I have.
Great. Thank you. I had the opportunity on July 24th to uh to come here to uh our fifth floor and uh and participate in uh coping with hurricane fatigue. Uh,
I'll tell you this was uh, you know, I I showed up because uh, I was the mayor and I guess I should have showed up, but I'll tell you when I uh, when I walked out u, it was unbelievable. And I'll just give you two seconds worth. What it was about was understanding the mental
health impact of back-to-back hurricanes. Experiencing repeated hurricanes can lead to increased anxiety, depression, PTSD, and the emotional toll can be profound, especially for those affected in the communities.
Started out by saying, "Overwhelmed? Well, you're not alone. Let's talk about it." Talked about the emotions, talked about anxiety, talked about loss of home and belongings, talked about financial worries and uncertainty about rebuilding. And I'll tell you what, it
was probably the the best uh seminar that I've been to this year. Uh it was put on by the uh oh heck. Anyhow, it was put Oh, here it is. Uh
the National Alliance of Mental Illness. Um, and this is Penelis the uh the chapter Penelis chapter. And I'll tell you, it was when I walked out of there, I was thinking, you know, I I have felt this way. You know, I've felt overwhelmed. I've felt, you know, what
is uh what are we going to do with the financial studies? You know, everything that was there was 100%. Even better yet, Lyft is looking at putting these on at least once a quarter and uh they're going to uh to have this particular
organization uh visit with us again sometime during the course of the next year. Um and it was great. I really enjoyed it. Uh there were about 35 people there, but uh we need to get the word out next time that they're going to be around because I'll tell you what, when I walked out of there, it it made a
lot more sense than when I walked in. So, I uh I appreciate everybody tonight. Uh thank you for being here. And we are adjourned.