Good evening and welcome to the commission meeting, regular meeting on uh June 17th, 2025. I'd like to call the meeting to order. Now, if we could please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag 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, please call roll. Good evening.
Commissioner Clark, here. Commissioner Bazquez here. Commissioner Sison here. Commissioner Dicki here. Mayor Doctor here. Thank you. All right, we do have uh approval of regular and workshop
agendas. Does anybody have any changes? I do have two changes. I'd like to add two agenda items, please. And if we could slot uh the start of uh items of business. So,
move H1 to H3 and down the line. And then add agenda item. Hold on one second. I'll give it to you once I'm done reading them. Okay. So, uh, I'd like to add, uh, two very urgent items of business to the agenda.
I would like to slot uh, current item of business H1, review ordinance 202504, amending Oh, sorry. At uh, item H1, immediately create a restricted fund and increase parking
fees. uh from uh $4 uh to $6 for all public parking effective immediately and uh use restricted funds uh um create a restricted fund for this item and then
for for the for the what yeah this is very unusual not to say that it's I could ask the attorney if uh all good but uh because we've not had a workshop we've not had anything and all of a sudden
major or deals are popping up here. Sure. I I did I missed the deadline. So, um I was advised by the chief to add this to agenda item if it the commission feels all right with it. And then um the other one was uh adding code enforcement
staffing because obviously Okay. So, let's take them one at a time. Uh sure. Happy. Do we have a uh So, uh just a couple things about adding these agenda. Obviously, at any moment you could just make a motion to add something to the agenda. totally fine as a discussion point. If it requires the passage of a
resolution or ordinance, it would be best to have a draft. So the question then becomes, is the parking arrangement in the city codified in the sense of an ordinance? Because then you got to require then you got to amend the ordinance which requires notice etc. advertising
because I this is new to me too. I I don't have I didn't have the opportunity to go look at the parking ordinance and see if it requires that. Therefore, obviously you can discuss it. You could add as an item for discussion. you can pass a resolution uh to to change the the parking rates going forward, but if
it's codified in an ordinance, it would require notice and it would it would take some time to change. Again, it could be on the agenda, but to to legally change the ordinance, I' I'd need at least one meeting. And but if you but again, I mean, I'd have to go look at the parking ordinance. You might be able to just do
a resolution if if it's the majority of the commission that agrees to to change the rate. That might be something that can be done. And I could probably find the answer to that in the next couple minutes. But just a reminder to the commission. I'm happy to, you know, research any of these things going into the meetings if you'd like, but I'll pull it up right now as we're talking. I
was looking to add a resolution. Well, while he's checking that, you uh your voice uh softened there at the end. You said you were looking to change it from $4 to $6 effective immediately for what purpose? uh to create a uh fund to help pay for parking parking structures,
personnel um and consultants if if we go down that route to figure out our parking issue. We have a lot of issues on Treasure Island, so I'm trying to fix a couple things. So I do I while we have this downtime, I
would recommend that we put that on a future agenda to have so we all have more time to research it, look into it, talk about it before we so the city attorney is is reviewing it, but also to add an item, we would have to take uh uh
or we will take a motion uh or I'm hoping that I'll get a motion that says that uh that we will move this onto the next agenda. Do I have a motion? Yes, I'll motion to move this item to the next um meeting,
the next commission regular scheduled commission meeting. Do I have a second? I will second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Do we have any discussion? Please call roll. Vice Mayor Vasquez. I.
Commissioner Clark. I. Commissioner Sesan. Hi. Commissioner Dicki. No. Mayor Doctor I. Thank you. And then if I could just Mayor just to sort of summarize it is codified in ordinance the rates some of the rules on parking etc. So um
obviously any of you guys who want me to draft anything for that meeting just go ahead and let me know now. I can get you a sample draft so that way it helps facilitate the discussion and then next meeting when you have the discussion you guys have a consensus I can then bring that into the form of a resolution ordinance amend this ordinance and and
do exactly that. So just let me know. Thanks. Thank you. Okay. And your second second one is to add in code enforcement staffing. I've received a lot of emails uh in the last couple weeks of all the mosquito problems we have. Um and so I
was wanted to discuss with the commission to immediately add personnel to enforce and address derelict buildings, unpermitted work, fill dirt without approval and so on, which is a public safety issue.
Yeah. So I'm uh kind of confused as to uh that that uh agenda item. Uh we do have uh people that are in staffing roles for code enforcement. We do have some openings in code enforcement. Um, so I'm not really sure what you're
trying to accomplish here other than bring it just to light that we need to work harder or uh probably add personnel to help fix the problem. Well, we're trying to. And uh, Chief, do you know how many positions we have open in uh, code
enforcement? Um, I do not currently. I know we are re-evaluating uh CDD's staffing plan, reorganizing, and we'll be bringing that before the commission. I think as simple as, you know, I understand the Treasure Island Police Department is out doing their patrols,
they could help identify places where they're standing water or issues that would pertain to larvae and mosquito growth and all that other scientific stuff. So, I mean, and then code enforcement could address the situation and help speed things along. just a
conversation for us to have. Obviously, I don't know if you have any emails regarding any mosquitoes. Once again, that would work best at a workshop. Sure. Um, and uh, so do you want to have agenda or a a workshop add it to the
workshop? Tonight's workshop, I would believe. So, correct. Sure. uh if you want to add an item to the workshop that just is a discussion point and then therefore I mean just sort of uh predicting what would might happen. You guys might have a a non-binding
resolution a directive to the city administration and say hey we'd like to see an increase in personnel. Obviously city administration's going to take note of that and then and then execute that. Uh if you wanted to codify in the sense of an ordinance like hey we shall have x amount of people in this department at
any given time going forward. uh that would require I think uh me drafting that. So I need another another meeting but you're happy to add it as an item for discussion to the uh uh workshop meeting following this. Okay. Is that fine? Is that okay with you? Yes. Are there okay? So mayor can I
be recognized real quick just before we do this? But if we are already short staffed I'm not sure what making a rule to that there has to be a minimum of employees because we don't even have the staff that we currently need. So to me that's kind of a now you know if you I
could see discussing you know like you had mentioned about the police you know maybe having them I don't know if that's just a conversation all they got to do is write down the address if they see something right but as far as you know making a minimum of how many people that
we have to have in code enforcement if they're not applying for the job we can't really hire them just trying to make some changes I hear I understand our director of CDD would Abra, would you please? I I'm happy to. I I do. Well, we need her to go up to the Yeah.
to the podium, please. I apologize. This is uh what the first day of week three. Uh this is actually a conversation that we've had at length and I appreciate you bringing this up. Our staff is at a shortage. Uh there is a lot to consider and that is how we pay
for that additional staff. To my knowledge at this point we do not have any opening that are available to apply for. Um I'm looking forward to that workshop. We are working on that analysis now. Code enforcement is a priority for sure because of our TMP
program. We al also have two other positions that will be urgently necessary. So I look forward to the conversation. I'm willing to brush the surface at workshop, but I'm afraid I might not have the details that you need when it comes to fiduciary responsibility and what we have
available in the department because it will require us to borrow against the general fund. Great. Thank you for the clarification. Okay, I think uh moving on. Anyone else to add or I would just add one thing if I can. I mean, I agree with Arthur. I've
seen eight bazillion emails this week around mosquitoes and pools and pools being full. So, anything that we can try to do to find those things and um you know do what we can to take care of them that would be great with the staff that we have. I Yeah, I mean I know there's a
lot to do but uh I just know that a lot of residents have voiced concerns about it. Absolutely. Mayor. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm happy to provide the mosquito report. So, one of the issues that we've been working on priority the last two days is the mosquito issue and it's kind
of a two-layer position or two-layer issue. We have the county that provides the services and they're welcome to come out and they've offered to make concessions because of the volume of complaints and mosquito infestation. The second part of it is that just treats the problem and it goes back to your
point um commissioner that we have to address and remedy what's causing some of this mosquito and that would be abandoned poles. They also brought it to my attention that there's a new breed of mosquito that is breeding um coastally that has nothing to do with these
abandoned properties. So we are working together and trying to kind of have a collaborative plan to share information so that we are not duplicating and we are addressing each and every individual complaint both from a remedy perspective
as well as a treatment perspective. Yeah. And I think on top of the mosquito thing, I mean it just some of these properties now are just be getting really really bad looking. Like I know there's one and I'll send it to you chief. They just sent it to me today.
But, you know, they have a dumpster in their driveway that's been full for forever and people keep coming by and putting more trash in it and then the trash is blowing all over the neighborhood and the grass is, you know, 6 feet tall in the front yard and some
of them are starting to just look really, really, really bad. And I know we're trying to get permits and stuff out first, but at some point it some of this stuff's going to get to be out of control. Yeah. I we recognize that the primary constitutional responsibility of
these residents is health and public safety. And so this is something that I've been working on for the last three days as a priority. Um and I am if you could share those photos with me, those are the type of photos that we're escalating to the county so they make it
a priority. I will share them. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Yes. Okay. Moving on. No proclamations. Public comments for non-aggenda items.
Rick Matthew. Evening. Rick Matthew. Uh, District 3. Um, I'm going to read from a paper. going to read from my notes so that I can uh provide accurate quotes to ensure that the information provided will be correctly entered into public record for
this meeting. At least two commissioners have expressed concern about social media stating that constituents feel intimidated and afraid to speak out. No information was given on who these intimidators were. I agree there is an effort to suppress residents from
speaking out. Recently I posted two items on Facebook. Treasured Island residents page. One concerning height restrictions in Treasured Island. The other one was the hiring process of a department head. These posts were received overwhelming support from residents. However, not everyone shared
the same view. They did challenge u they did not challenge the information itself, but went on a personal attack. These comments were posted anonymously. Um and I understand there's another anonymous letter that's floating around.
Um, here are a few of the comments that were directed at me, although other posters receive similar comments on their post. Anonymous participant 824. You, sir, are a disgusting individual who has been toying with people's livelihoods and continue to try to
destroy the city. Calling employees out by name. You have not even given the opportunity to see what they can do is disgusting and irresponsible and quite frankly complete harassment. You and people like you are the reason half the staff has left over the last six months.
No one in the commission has any say over who the city hires. You must now incred you must have an one incredibly boring life when you feel the need to target people and therefore their families. And yes, anonymous is the only way that we can talk to this u
talk to this people who are in this group because otherwise you're continuously harassed and name called. I hope people see you for what you are and nothing more than than a despicable bully. On another post to the other one that I
did, this was in response to somebody that responded to me. This is anonymous 788. You will find Rick doesn't like smart women and loves to throw his military service so that people won't question
him. This is his mo. You are correct in the post and thank you for your common sense. The next anonymous post was made in response to another resident's comment on my post. Sorry if this gets confusing.
uh about the commission meeting decorum and one of the commissioners anonymous 824 or excuse me anonymous participant 994. It is not ambition that holds women back. They are punished for violating gender stereotypes and warm submissive
data. Ambitious men and women get promoted. Aggressive women are penalized more than men. In the double standard if you accept it men don't reject it women. All of these posts were made by the same person. Unfortunately, the anonymous poster did
not read the fine print. It clearly states that the admin or moderators can see the anonymous poster's identity. You would be surprised to learn that these anonymous posts were made by our vice mayor Sammy Vasquez and
commissioner one. According to Florida Ethics Commission, the use of anonymous social media accounts to insult constituents could be a breach of public trust and ethical conduct worthy of investigation. Based on these facts and the
demonstration inability for impartiality, I call on the city commission to remove Commissioner Vas Vasquez as vice mayor. Even more, I call on Commissioner Vasquez to step down from her position. I have copies of
these posts. Thank you. Thank you, Rick. Mr. Bazo. Uh, hello, Robert Vazo, aisle of Capri. Nice to see everybody. Um, I've also been the recipient of Commander Vess's uh anonymous posting u accusing me of
wanting to micromanage uh the city and uh perhaps I should stand up and maybe run for something uh in my life and I've certainly done that in my life including uh being president of an association that's larger than the entire city of Treasure Island. So I' I've done my time. Um,
so again, um, for my background, certainly I would, uh, I personally would resign if I did something like that, admit I was wrong. But actually, I'm I'm up here to simply say like Michael Kolleone and the Godfather that they keep I keep trying to get out of being the civic guy that stands up here,
but I keep getting pulled back in. I'd rather be on my boat. I'd rather be playing pickle ball. I'd rather be fishing. This is not really what I want to do. Um, but I was I was real excited on March 18th when this when this board uh was sat. I real excited about it. I was
especially also excited on um on May 6th when a change was made and uh and the and the chief was named acting manager. Extremely excited, extremely optimistic. Um May 20th, I was also extremely happy
uh when uh the acting city manager announced certain uh hiring actions. I tell you, I was impressed. Unbelievably impressed how quickly he acted. Um and he's not even a naval officer. Very very very impressed. I don't see my clock, by the way. Oh,
that's right. He was he was on a carry like I was. That's right. Um and then I saw it digging I saw it digging down into some of the hires. Um we have a particular job here that's one of the most important jobs certain department um a key department that
unfortunately didn't didn't have the knowledge skills and ability uh to really to to navigate us through this uh through the disaster and uh okay I said this this hire is going to be outstanding all the requirements I looked at the vacancy
announcement and by the way I've written vacancy announcements this one is like the And kudos to HR for a great vacancy announcement, details, education, skills. Loved it. And I said to myself, this hire is going to have everything. Going to be my god, a master planner, a
master uh expert in zoning, a master in permitting, all that experience. And I looked at the resume, uh, the cover letter, um, looked at, uh, LinkedIn profile, looked at, uh, her relationship with,
uh, with a commissioner, a familiar one, uh, that wasn't announced. I said, "Oh my god, this can't be right. This absolutely can't be right." Um, and so I put out to you all, the mayor, the commissioners, uh, the acting, uh, city manager, um, and the
city attorney. I said, "Listen, tell me I I hope I'm wrong. Tell me that proper procedures were followed. Tell me that everybody did the right thing. Looked at the candidates all qualified, interviewed, graded, standardized uh interview questions. Please tell me
that. Please, because again, I've done hundreds of these and I've saw zero experience related to this particular department. I saw a lack of education that's required in the vacancy announcement that's part
of this job. I saw the vacancy announcement call for six or seven years of continuous city government experience. This candidate has zero. Okay, so listen, I I I went out to y'all. I said, "Please tell me I'm wrong. I want to be wrong. I want to go
back to playing pickle ball. That's what I want to do. And I want to be I'm almost going to be a grandfather for the first time. and I want to do that. But my my sense of justice and and uh and uh the integrity I have for my my background and experience in the
military and government is please. And so I went to everybody here locally and was told all the rules were followed. Case closed. Okay, you guys know me. You guys know me. Is the case closed?
Have I been assuaged? We love military guys love organizational charts. This organizational chart is on a website under the 2025 budget gives organizational chart. Trip and I, we love organizational charts. Who's at the top?
Citizens. Citizens are at the top. We all have responsibilities. We as citizens have the responsibility to exercise free speech with restrictions. No bullying, no harassing, no threatening. Okay.
Elected people have fiduciary responsibilities like duty of care, duty of partiality, uh duty maintain public trust and duty of something else. Trip has responsibility for all those plus merit procedures.
Thank you for sharing. Let's look at these hiring practices. And by the way, this is not over. Thank you. Thank you for sharing. [Applause] Mark Hoey, I'm sorry. I had a clock. I should have pointed that out. It's on the window over here. Thank you,
Mark Hoey. All right. Now I see where the clock is. That's good. Good evening. Mark Hoey, 225 104th Avenue, District 3. U I first want to applaud the commissioners for removing the uh action item that was on
tonight's agenda for acquiring uh two new garbage trucks that was uh illtimed illplaced at this point in time for us to spend nearly 3/4 of a million dollars replacing the two trucks. There is no question the trucks that we have are
antiquated. They're needing a lot of repair. We all can recognize that, but it would have been a misstep to go out and buy new trucks now when we've yet to uh see the results of or even hear, if
it's even being done, of a study on the merits or or lack of merits for outsourcing the solid waste disposal for Treasure Island. Once that has been completed and depending on the outcome and the decision of the commission, if
that's still needed, then absolutely that would be an appropriate step to take as a as an item, but not now. So, I appreciate uh you pulling that off. I do want to urge that we get on with that because as I've mentioned from this
podium before, the scale, size, and scope of the future new public works facility is also dependent on the amount of services we're going to provide out of that facility. So, it really ties in. We can't do one, excuse me, one without
the other without the other. So, thank you. And thank you, Mark. Can I say something real quick? I I'd really like to keep this. Just wanted to ask the chief a question. I think we're going to get an update on that tonight, aren't we? The the garbage. Yes. Yeah. It's part of one of the
workshop items. Yes. Okay. Good. That's all I Sorry. That's all I wanted to do. All right. Corey Evans. This would be really brief because we have more important things to discuss. Uh Marylu and I walk the beach every
day. Um we pick up trash all the time. We used to have trash cans on the beach itself. Now the only trash cans are on the walkway, which is a long ways from the beach. And so we see more trash on the beach
now. And sometimes those cans that are on the walkway are overflowing because there aren't enough cans. We need to get cans put back on the beach itself like we used to have. I don't know why they were removed, but we need more cans back
on the beach. Thank you, Cory. Kimberly Stewart. Good evening, everyone. Kimberly Stewart, is of Palms. I had no idea Arthur was going to talk about the three things that I had wanted to talk about tonight. This is maybe beating something
that's already been talked about, but I'll just add my comments to it. I'm actually going to start with a cautionary tale about parking. Um, so the parking lot at the corner of G Boulevard and 112th is owned by the city of St. Petersburg. So, please understand this is not a criticism of our city or
any of our parking. Father's Day, uh, I was shocked that that parking lot was nearly empty. And I was talking to some people asking me where they could park and I was like right there. It lots of parking and they said it was something like $100 to park there for the day. I
was shocked. Um so just a cautionary tale. It drove people away from our beaches this weekend. We had an partially empty parking lot the entire day and it shouldn't be like that on a holiday weekend. So while I understand it's one of our revenue streams and we need to look at the possibility of making the most of it. I don't want that
revenue stream to be a deterrent of people coming here, which I am afraid St. Pete just did with that parking lot, at least for this weekend. I don't know if they're on dynamic pricing or what it is. I was shocked by that. Um, so just a cautionary tale there. Um, the next thing I wanted to mention is code
enforcement. Um, I am really concerned about the situation with that. You know, I put in a code complaint last August. The person I complained against was supposed to fix it by September 23rd. Guess what happened on September 26th?
I was impacted by this code complaint not being addressed before then. Um, it had other elements to it that since the storm, part of it's gone and I got to clean it up. Um, the other part is not and it's never been addressed and it's been almost a year. It seems like the
entire staff is really, really burnt out. And I get it. And I really don't know where the relief's going to come. But it's gotten worse. And I'm particularly fired up over the houses that have been purchased on my street alone in the last two months that are being fully renovated right now without
permits. I'm upset. You know, I can give a lot of grace and understanding for the people who own their homes when the storm happened, not having patience or deciding to go their own way when it came to the permit process. people who are buying these properties now should not be going in
there and renovating them when I haven't even gotten my permit yet. So, I just want to mention that I do think that that's a big issue and I understand we're trying to work it all out, but I just want you to know that yes, that's definitely painful. The last note on mosquitoes, um I actually this came up
um on social media and I found out that the county will actually work with homeowners and I just want to make sure that homeowners know that they can actually request that the county come out to their property. Um, I'm going to have them come out and spray on my area. I don't have pool or anything standing, but there has been an uptick and I'm just wondering if it's from dead plants
or I don't know what. So, I just want all of the citizens to know that you can also contact the county yourself um to get some individual help and relief from that. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Kimberly. Mayor Ber, did we do we add the workshop item or is that been decided or we just brushed that off? the
workshop item of uh code enforcement, additional code enforcement. Did we add that to the workshop? I think that motion went through. Yeah, I think that was correct. Just checking. Yeah, we we had consensus and feel free to just bring it up during the meeting, too. Obviously, it's not prohibited.
Carim. Hi everybody. Cara Sim, District 1. Um, positive summer camp's going great. Um, kudos to Kathy and her team. My kid is having a blast. Ay day. Um, we were doing something right there. Um, I uh
was not here at the last uh commission meeting, but I am obviously I sit on the LPA board and the PNZ board. Um, and this was brought up at our last meeting in May um for LPA. And so I um I paid attention to the commission meeting at um last the last commission meeting um
and it was brought up regarding um building fund money and permit fees and um where that money can go and where it can't go and how it can be used and general fund and um and all of the above. Um and it was actually brought up uh by me at the LPA um board which I
actually encourage all of you guys to start attending those. Um there's going to be a lot on the dockets over the next few years. So, if you can come to a PNZ board meeting or come to a local planning agency board meeting, that would be great. We would love your impact um and you know, input. Um so,
basically my uh my thought process with this was I've brought this up to the city staff many times um spoken to a few of you regarding it, but Treasure Island does not have that I can find or anyone can give me the answer to what's called an impact fee. Um, an impact fee is a charge that the city or local government
imposes on new development projects like homes, apartment complexes, commercial buildings, etc. to help cover the cost of providing public services and infrastructure that the new development will require. So basically, when the new building goes up, they create a demand
for things like road and traffic management, schools, parks and wreck areas, fire and police, water and sewer systems. Since these new demands constrain existing public systems, the city charges impact fees to developers to offset the impact their project will
have on the community. This avoids and can avoid raising property taxes for existing residents. Um, it's a one-time fee. It's usually paid when building permits are issued. Um, it's used to fund infrastructure expansion. Um, and it's typically paid by developers, but
it's often passed down to renters and buyers. So, for example, I used um Ocean Club, beautiful building down the street um that they built. They put in, you know, 100 plus bathrooms um that had a great impact on our lift station, our
our waste and water um systems. Uh they paid no impact fees to that into any sort of fund, but they paid, you know, I'm told close to 200,000 in permit fees. Don't quote me on that, but that's what I hear. Now, that 200,000 went
directly into the building fund. Can't be moved or touched anywhere else. Can't go to help if we need lines, you know, new sewer lines or anything to help with that infrastructure. That impact had with those bathrooms. Um, this is something that I think we could look at
doing. And I'm not saying to throw a fee on top of a permit fee. I'm saying let's try to perhaps offset it where we have 150,000 in impact fees and 50,000 in permit fees because obviously at the end of the day we can only create so much
into our building fund and then we can also use that excess money. We can't give away the bank. We can't start not charging for permit fees. We'll end up not in a good good position. Um, but growth pays for growth and over the next two to three, four years, like you guys
said, we're going to see tremendous growth. We're going to hope we get tremendous growth. We want to rebuild Treasure Island. And so with putting that into place, that may be worth our while. We're one of the only towns around that don't offer or have impact
fees. Um, St. Pete does, St. Pete Beach, Lakeland, where I was from. I mean, we paid tons, thousands and thousands of dollars and it's calculated. there's ways um that it can be done, implemented, put into effect. Um the
state can help. I know um Miss Bobby said I you responded back to me. Um I'm going to ask the question to Kimley Horn at our LPA meeting on Thursday. Um but it may just be a way to create extra funding without it actually
hurting anybody. But you know, it goes back to the residents too with developers. is, you know, you flatten a two-bedroom, two bath house and you build a fourb, four bath house. What's the impact that has on our sewer systems um and that developer or that that that
owner is not having to pay for that, but as a city, we are. So, it's just something to think about. I've got more information I can send over to y'all because I have been researching this. Um, but that's my two cents. Thanks. Thank you, Cara. Phil Collins.
Has Phil, have you already gone? Are you ready? I will I my name is Philip Collins and I was commissioner on Treasure Island
for 14 years. And I wanted to say to you and the chief that I appreciate you doing the work
that you did because it is very good and it's very good and I I really appreciate it very much. So, I I wanted to say more, but I'm getting
tired. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Commissioner. Brandy Long. He's such a sweet man. Hi, Brandy Long G Boulevard. Um, a leaked anonymous a letter addressed to Treasure Island and the
surrounding neighbors contained accusations that those who speak up at meetings at these meetings, these commission meetings are bullies. I disagree with the assertion that residents have caused staff members to resign. Instead, I've observed that some staff
members frequently discard disregard commission instructions often due to personal motiv motivations or job security concerns. When these staff members fail to achieve their goals, they either quit or face termination. In
the private sector, subpar performance and refusal to follow directives are unacceptable. I believe our community should maintain the same standards. We face significant challenges and without staff members committed to working collaboratively with us, we are unlikely
to succeed. I'd like to read a statement from Citizens Voice of Treasure Island regarding the letter. Government is by the people for the people. It's not by the former mayor who res resigned in the middle of a crisis
and a city manager for the staff. CVTI has for over two years brought t transparency and more importantly accountability to its government and its residents. CVTI has nearly 700 residents as members. CVTI advocates for fiscally
responsible policies based on constant feedback from members and other residents. members conduct conduct research, perform financial analysis, and speak publicly on issues of concern to its residents. Allegations of a
select few that hold court are patently false. Our local city hall does not want to be held accountable. Their days of irresponsible spending are over, and they're not happy about it. This intentionally leaked anonymous letter is nothing less than the
government gaslighting residents after being held responsible for their actions. Residents first, thank you, Brandy. Buzzy, thank you for your service. Appreciate it. Good evening. We having fun yet? Uh
Buzzy Barnett 2011104 Treasure Island. You know, you brought up the movie Godfather. I feel like an Alpuccino line. No, mayor. Not I take a flamethrower the place. The part where he says you, the committee, in this case, you the commission, city manager, employees, you hold this city's future
in your hands and we have to make the right decisions. We have to get a strong trip. Thank you for all you've done, but we have to I know you're ready to get the hell out of here. I don't blame you. Uh, excuse my friends, but anyway, we have to get a strong city manager. I think everybody agrees. I see John, I
know you we knew we know we have to get a strong city manager. I I have been coming to this island for 65 plus years. We've had a family home on this island since the 70s. And uh this is unprecedented what has happened. I mean
there's as we said that there's no doubt that mosquitoes are breeding and there's a lot of yards overgrown a lot of pools that they haven't been upkept that you know they don't have power they don't have you know the permits or whatever and and and I know the poor lady that runs the permit I mean the code
enforcement is just a dynamic person and does a great job so I know she just needs more help to Arthur's point but I know she'll get the job done because I know her and she's a great lady but all I want to say is you know I appreciate everybody body sacrifice. We've got to
We've got to get this city. We got to get first and most important get Trip back in the firehouse to get him out of the way. I don't know if he wants to get there or not, but let's get a strong city manager. I've heard rumblings, you know, we we we got to get a public safety building. We got to get a fire and police building. And now I'm hearing
they're talking about building on the park. Uh we fought that battle years ago and I certainly hope we don't have to fight it again because we got some real estate. We do not need the build on the park. I can tell you right now, I researched it thoroughly last time. If you read the dynamic reports, they talk
about green space, how important it is for vi viability and downtown, you know, strive with the green space. So, let's really think about that. I know you got a lot on your plate, guys. I'm here to help you and I appreciate what everybody does. Thank y'all.
Thank you, buddy. Darren Good evening, commissioners. Darren Brown, um Isa Palms. Um I'm here to share my wife and my experience with um trying to rebuild under the terrain modification program. I think we're one of the first residences attempting to to
do this. So, I thought I'd share our experience um here and maybe have some suggestions for you. So, we understand um and support the goals of the terrain modification manual, but the way the process has been created, it's quite frankly very frustrating.
Um it's complex. It's designed to be iterative. It's not designed to be able to submit a set of plans and get approval. It's designed to be able to submit a set of plans, get some comments back, submit some more plans, get some more comments back. It's it's a very iterative process.
Um, when we submitted what we thought was a complete set of plans, we got 12 questions back from the city engineer. Um, wasn't 12 things that we need to do to close out the permit. It was, hey, here's 12 questions. Get us the answers
to these and then we'll get back to you. Um, that Yeah. So, there was no indication that they were going to do anything with that once those questions were answered or if we answered the questions in the right way, we'd be approved. It was kind of an open door for for more iterations.
And shame on me, when the train modification manual was being reviewed and approved in workshops, I wasn't here. I did watch some of the commission meetings, but I have had an opportunity to read multiple times the 104 page manual um and tried to understand it.
And um there's a lot of conflicting parts of this manual. So even something as simple as a 5% driveway slope, which probably every one of you already have in your existing residence, that has to be defended. You can't you have to make sure that that driveway slope isn't
causing some unusual flood plane storage. So the issue is we don't just have to provide a good design. We have to explain why didn't we choose other designs? What what could we have done better? you know, is it um defend those
decisions and then wait for feedback. What makes it even more frustrating for us and for our engineer is we aren't allowed to talk to the city engineer. Applied sciences, I guess, is the outsourced city engineer. We're not allowed to talk to them. Um, we have to submit our feedback through the permit
techs who then email the data to the city engineer and then they have either 30 days or 10 days depending on the type of correspondence to to get back to us. So, um, we're left trying to interpret this 104 page manual, um, hoping that we guess
correctly about what the person that we aren't allowed to talk to wants to see. So, it's you can see why it's why it's frustrating. I'm not even sure the best engineer in Penllis County or the city of Florida could submit a set of plans and have it approved on the first shot
just because the process is designed to take a long time. you know, you know, that's all I have to say about that. Um, so the the the other feedback I'll give you, which I think there are some things that we can do, and uh
Bianca and Jackie and this and the permitting office, they they tried to help us out. When we first submitted, all we heard was, "Well, engineering is going to take a really long time." Well, how long? We have no idea. Could be weeks, could be months, we don't know. So, after sitting down with them and proddding them, they looked and they
said, "Well, there's 10 in the queue. two have been closed out. So, you know, presumably there's seven in front of you. I'm like, well, that's good information. It would have been really nice if we could just get that proactively up front. But it also leads me to ask the question like, what's going to happen next year when there's
50 or 100 in the queue? I mean, if it takes 10 days or 30 days to process 10, I don't know how we're going to survive next year when the city really starts to starts to rebuild and we start getting these permits through. So, um, what I'm
asking is if there's a way to let property owners or their engineers talk to the city engineer, I think we could reduce a lot of the back and forth, get a lot more clarity a lot more quickly, and get to an approved permit more quickly. Um, and
then the other thing is, uh, basic visibility into where we are in the queue rather than just saying, well, by code we have 30 days. Well, are you going to take 30 days? is you going to take 10 days cuz our contractor is trying to line up subs and and get the building process going. So, we love
living here. Uh we chose to stay here and rebuild rather than moving. Um and so we're trying to build back stronger. We're trying to do it the right way. Um but right now the system feels like it's broken and so like your help in fixing
it. Thank you. Thank you, West Evans. West Evans is of Palms. Uh I was initially going to get up here and speak about the anonymous letter that was uh on the news last night. I don't know if any of you caught it, but uh it basically was a letter that uh referred
to those of us who get up and uh speak at meetings as bullies and uh name callers and things like this. Uh, but then a few minutes ago, I was handed this piece of paper of anonymous Facebook comments, and I noticed that one has been made to my wife, Sarah
Pennington, who is not here to defend herself tonight. And uh, for anyone who knows my wife, Sarah, they know that she is one of the sweetest people you'll ever meet. She's like a real life Snow White. And um
um I don't know this, you know, I'm just going to say this is wrong. Everyone in here knows this is wrong. This shouldn't have happened. Um I don't know how we take care of this part. But back to the letter that was on the news
last night. Sorry, I'm a little uh shaken up by this. It's kind of outstanding. Um, anyone can come to these meetings and uh voice their grievances they have with
their local government and that's our duty as citizens to do that. Uh, we elect our representatives to represent us. Therefore, they have to listen to us to know what we uh desire
in them. And I just want to say for anyone who disagrees with things that I may say when I get up here, uh I encourage you to get up here because healthy debate is the cornerstone of our democracy.
And uh for instance, I'll I'll just say this. Brandy Long gets up here and speaks at every meeting. I get up here and speak at almost every meeting. Uh Brandy Long and I do not agree on any politics
whatsoever, but we're good friends and we come in here and we speak. She doesn't feel threatened when I disagree with her. She doesn't call me a bully if I disagree with her. And I just want the staff and the commissioners, uh, anyone to know if someone disagrees with you, it doesn't make them a bully.
It's your opportunity to defend uh your position and to uh hopefully sway someone or maybe be swayed or maybe there's an impass there, but it doesn't make us uh bullies or
someone that's out to get you in any way. Thank you. Thank you, Wes. Ron Deepzi. Good evening everyone. My name is Ron Deviazi. I'm here to express my thoughts pertaining to the way our city
government performs its duties pertaining to the $12 million proposed to be spent on a building that the public had no input as to their thoughts on this project.
Proving that our form of government is not transparent. As you well know, a petition is being formed to change our government to a strong mirror, which would prevent major projects being done without citizens
input. I would suggest we put everything on hold until a vote is taken if the citizens want a strong mayor. Therefore, saving the cost of hiring and
then dismissing an interim interim city manager. There are several ways we can put cost cut cost in running our city without putting the total burden on the taxpayer.
I sent an email regarding the postponing the appointment of inter interim manager to all the commissioners requesting a meeting to discuss all the options we have.
I received a re a reply email reply from one of our commissioners which stated that we do not have the luxury of postponing this any longer. I know that I am I know that I am not in
favor. It is a it is pro proven it is proven that does not generally work as well as a city manager. Even a city a size of Clearwater has a city manager and not a strong mayor.
I do appreciate your input and then again these are just my opinions. Now, it is my opinion a city manager has no control over running this government based on past
experience, proving only by what is happening now, whereby the acting city manager wants to build a $12 million public safety building and a city park that the voters
had no say in this proposed project. This only reinforces common sense in government that a strong mayor is better suited being that the mayor is accountable to the resident voters.
Cutting back on wasteful spending. There's an article on YouTube. Just go to YouTube and search Grant Warrington. He has some excellent suggestions on how we can stop wasteful spending and
relieve the burden on the taxpayers. I would like to also ask how a member of the board can decide that. We cannot postpone appointing right now
until we find out whether the residents want a city I mean a strong mayor or not as it is right now we're spending money
on a company to search for an internal manager, which we don't even know is going to be here once we have a vote as to whether the
voters want a strong mirror. It is my opinion that is totally totally a waste of taxpayers money. There's no reason we can't run our government right now and postpone
everything that's going on until we find out what the residents want. Now, in the in the uh email that I received, the commissioner's uh opinion was based on
one city, Clearwater. Now, I don't know whether Thank you, Mr. Debiazi. Okay. I'm sorry. Thank you very much. Okay. Okay. Public comments is now closed
and we're going to move on to approval of the minutes. Mayor, can I please be recognized? I just would like to address before we move any further since I was I was directly targeted if that's okay with you.
So, so I find it I find it and and quite honestly I'm not a bit surprised at um exactly what I thought would happen is what has happened and um just just kind of
briefly want to touch over a few things that needs to be addressed. Absolutely 100% those comments um on Rick Matthews post I did and yes I am aware that the administrative and I know that admin
obviously is part of the same civic association because their own rules are broken with every single post if anyone looks at their post. So yes I did know that um what Mr. Matthews neglected to do was actually read you the email of
complete slander of myself of our new CDD director and uh the chief and with severe accusations. So that's the part that was not um read. So that is one part I will say. But I do
find it amusing um and not amusing. Amusing is probably not the right word, but it's it's surprising to me that Mr. Evans gets up here and speaks. Um I'm surprised um the one person who usually
speaks at all these meetings are is not here. When two weeks ago, I received a call from a resident who happened to be in a restaurant bar after the last meeting
and was concerned for my safety over a conversation that she heard and her husband was scared to death for her to come to me, but said, "For her own safety, you probably need to let her know."
And I sit up here every meeting and I listen to predominantly the same people say the same things with the same criticisms and and they're never called out for it.
And when this citizen called me and she said, "Miss Vasquez, you don't know me, but I have to tell you, I was in a restaurant after the meeting and I saw the meeting and I watch all
the meetings. I don't speak at them, but I watch them online." So, I know who these people are. And she actually has come to a couple meetings. She said, "Don't know her." that Chris Clark, Commissioner Clark, West Evans, Andrew
Vasey sat in this bar and it was confirmed by staff that they were there and for 40 to 45 minutes were trying to figure out a way and trying absolutely destroying my name, saying words that
you don't I would never repeat up here and trying to figure out a way to discredit me, trying to figure out a way to quote take me out. This is what this woman said to me and that I was a disgusting person with too big of a
mouth and I don't agree with what they say. I don't talk to any of them. I don't talk to any of them from from CVTI or any of the the group um that and when I say that it's not the whole group by any
means. There are a select few and they sat there for over 40 minutes trying to figure out a way to remove me or to get me to step down from where I'm at right now. Again, this was confirmed by staff that
they were there and that this took place. I also confirmed that earlier in the day, Commissioner Clark had a meeting with our city attorney as our city attorney is new to all of us
and he made um made the offer to all of us when I come into town. If you guys want to meet with me individually, I would absolutely do that to get to know you guys. He walks in to have a drink with him, have a coke before the
meeting. And he walks in and who is sitting there? But Commissioner Clark, West Evans, Andrew Vasey, and I called the attorney. City attorney said, "Yes, that did happen." I was
surprised. I thought it was just going to be myself and Commissioner Clark. I had no idea that they were going to be there. Now, I could believe him or not believe him. I choose to believe him. Nevertheless, why are the heads of CVTI
trying to meet with our city attorney in a sneaky way and then later after the meeting, those very same people minus the city attorney because even he stated he was very uncomfortable with the whole situation and he was in and out and I
believe you said 10 15 minutes approximately. Well, and I don't want to interrupt, but I I do want to say I'm happy to meet with all the commissioners. I do it all the time. I certainly don't have strong I don't Yeah, that's it. I'm happy. Did you or did you not tell me though that you did not know any of those citizens were
going to be at the meeting? That is what you told me. I'm still learning all the citizens. I'll put it that way. I don't know everybody in the room yet. Did you not tell me that you thought it was just going to be Commissioner Clark? Sure, you did. Yeah, Commissioner. No, it is.
And and here's here's my point. Here is my point. We all we all met with a citizen this week and last week that showed all of us
harassing emails, stacks and stacks, not just myself, stacks and stacks of emails. And this citizen met with I believe all of us at city hall to show us the harassment that he has received from Commissioner Clark and
that has been handed over to the chief of police. And he also threatened this citizen, this 70-year-old man to punch him in the face the next time he saw him. So that has all been turned over to the police. Let's wrap this up. So I
will wrap it up. So when I'm sorry when these people who have targeted me because I actually don't meet with them, because I don't agree with their agenda and because I support our staff and
because I support our first responders and that goes against what they want because they don't want certain things. I'm targeted. Now, you can choose to believe it. You can choose not to. The laughter, the everything that happens all the time. But if we're going to call
a spade a spade, I'm not the one that has an absolute thing harassment filed or given to the chief of police. And I am not in restaurants talking
about how to take a fellow commissioner out. And quite frankly, I was surprised because I thought Chris and I got along. So I was a little shocked. So, I just wanted to say a little bit to defend myself on that because this has been an
ongoing thing for not weeks but months that I have been targeted on social media and obviously in public places. So, anyway, I just wanted to state that. Thank you.
All right, let's move on to approval of the minutes. I make a motion to approve the minutes. We have a second. Second. We have a motion and a second. Do we have any discussion?
Hearing none. This would be a good time for a voice. Uh I can we technically we didn't amend the rules here. You can wave the rules and do it by voice, but yeah. Okay. We'll do that at the end of the meeting. Yep. So, all right. So, can
we have a roll call, please? Commissioner Sison, I. Vice Mayor Vasquez, I. Commissioner Clark, I. Commissioner Dicki, I. Mayor Doctor, I. Thank you. Okay, I'm going to take just just a moment here. We're going to move on to the consent agenda and our uh
regular agenda. But um we do have a different uh setup in the room today and that is that we have our eight uh directors or representatives of our eight directors u here and uh they're here so that uh that that basically they
can interact with us in a uh in a more formal manner and that they'll each take a turn going up. And so once we get into the agenda items that uh they'll be the speakers, they'll be getting up for in front of you and in front of us and u
and giving us what we need hopefully to uh to get through this. And um so I I do want to uh to commend all of these folks. I mean we've all all folks in the audience and that been sitting through four and five hour meetings uh every Mon
or every Tuesday night and I'll tell you it it's a lot. And uh it's a lot for the directors that have worked since 8 o'clock this morning and they're going to uh go until 10 o'clock or so. So it's it's a lot and uh and we do need to be
civil. We do need to uh to support uh our our city directors and um and we'll leave it at that and move forward. So we do have one consent agenda item tonight and it is basically to uh review our permits.
Mike, thank you. Just here we go again. This is a consent agenda item. He doesn't unless they want to see the presentation. Questions. It's just consent. Well, I had a slide. Yeah, but it's on consent. We don't
present. Oh, okay. Unless the commissioner has questions. Okay. Just a quick verbal update on the uh permits. Uh, as you know, we had a bottleneck and we you voted to regain additional staff. Uh, two weeks ago at the end of end of
May, we did see an uptick. It was it was the beat the clock week and so we got a surge in, but the week after that, it's come back down. So, we were down two weeks, had a spike upwards to hit the hit the May 31 deadline, and now it's
starting to track back downwards. Um with respect to the permit uh refunds uh we're still on pace about 50 a week or so as you know that we're scrutinizing each and every refund item to make sure that it's
100% correct and that's a that's a manual effort that's being undertaken as well as having to enter all the information into the accounting system and everything flowing. Um to date, uh we've got about uh
almost 300,000 uh in permits uh refunds um are have either gone out or in the process of gone out and we have about u call it 150,000 to go. So, we're on our goal was
to obviously make it before the year end of September 30th for for audit purposes obviously, but right now we're we're well ahead of that. I can't give you a hard date, but we're we're we're on the 50 week pace that we that was our goal
to begin with. Great. Thank you. That Ry comments. Oh, okay. Sure. our director from the CDD. Thank you, mayor. I just want to clarify that even though that number is lower,
we are going to start to see a trend from remodels into rebuilds. And those rebuild permits are actually more complicated. We have just posted our new application with additional checklists to make it streamlined and a little bit easier. So, I don't want the board to be misled that the permits aren't coming
in. They're just deeper and they take more time. Great. Thank you. All right. Is there Well, we didn't have any cards on public comment, so we'll move on to uh the approval. I move to
approve the consent agenda. Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor or actually roll call. All in favor will be at the end of the meeting. Vice Mayor Vasquez. I. Commissioner Sison, I. Commissioner Clark, I. Commissioner Dicki, I. Mayor
Doctor, I. Thank you. All right, moving on to the items of business. The first is a review of ordinance 2025-04. Will you be reading uh Anthony our uh yes ordinance? I just tried to open it and it didn't open. So, one second. Okay. Doctor, before he reads that, if
you don't mind, if it's possible, can we run those? Can you read those together? H1 and H2 because it's basically the same item. So we'll I'll explain it concurrently and then we'll do two motions. Great. If that works. Ordinance 25504, an ordinance of the city of Treasure Island, Florida, amending the future land use map of the city of
Treasure Island comprehensive plan for two lots associated with Isisle of Palms Park, also known as Triangle Park, located on the northeast corner of 112th Avenue A and 13th Street East. Lots four and five, which combined measure approximately 0.256 256 acres, 11,170
square feet from residential medium to recreational open space, finding the request consistent with the comprehensive plan and for penalysis countywide plan, providing for a transmitt to reviewing agencies in accordance with the requirements of law, providing for severability, providing for conflict, and providing an effective
date. And we want to go right into the next one too, correct? Yes, please. Sorry, just uh getting used to the internet here. Kind of going back and forth. All right, 255. That's strange. One moment.
You haven'tated. Sorry, I should have printed. I try to be a little green, I guess, but green. So, just 255. Yes. Oh, that's LPA. Yeah. All that is LPA, but that's that's
what the resolution is. but was passed by the LPA. Oh, got it. Got it. LPA resolution 258, a resolution of the LPA. Well, it's read as u I think it needs to be read as a city document though. Give me just one moment.
Yeah, if you have it in front of you, it would save me a lot of time. Sorry, I don't know why it's doing that. Ordinance of the city of Treasure Island, Florida, amending the official zoning map of the city of Treasure Island for two lots associated with Triangle Park, located on the northeast corner of 112th Avenue, a 13th Street
East, lots four and five, which combine measure approximately 0.256 acres or 11,170 ft from residential medium to recreational open space. finding the request consistent with the city of treasure island comprehensive plan land development regulations and the forward
panelis countywide plan providing for severability providing for conflict and providing for an effective date. Thank you. So um essentially what this item is is we're amending the future land use map and the comp plan and the zoning map. Um the reason for this is um
Triangle Park as you guys know is over there is off of Isisle of Palms and it was uh purchased back in 2018 and they received a grant from the was this the Florida Communities Trust Fund um back in 2022 I believe. And one of the
conditions of that grant is to reszone those two parcels right there um from residential medium to uh park open space basically recreation open space. Um there is no development proposed with this. It's merely just a zone change. Um
and I is there anything missing Kathy? It's as straightforward as it comes for a zone for a a zone change. Um there's no change to the code. There's no change to anything. There's nothing proposed on the property. It's merely just changing the designation as a requirement of the grant that was received for that purchase. Great. Have we actually
received the grant? I knew Kathy was here for a reason. Everything has been approved with the exception of the land changes. Um, which is okay. I'm waiting on just to get a confirmation as to when we're going to receive the $284,000
for the park. Thank you. Yeah, that's pretty substantial. A grant for $284,000. Um so this went before LPA uh May 15th. Uh they recommended approval to the commission. Um because this does change the countywide map as well. Um it's
required to go back to the county. Um, so it will come here. If you guys approve this, then we will apply to forward Penelis to change the countywide map and then it'll come back to you in a month or two for the second reading. Great. Does anybody have any questions?
Okay. Do we have any public comment on H1? Because we have two ordinances here going. Uh, but this would be the first one. Okay. Hearing none. Um, we are now taking a vote, a roll call
vote on H1, the first ordinance, and then we will uh do the second ordinance right after. You want me to do them separate? Uh, well, we've already got the first ordinance has already been said and motion, the motion and the second have already passed. So, so now
we're ready for a roll call. There no motion. We didn't I didn't move. I move to uh approve ordinance 2025-04 at the first reading. No, you didn't. He did. Okay. All right. I make a motion to approve ordinance 2025-04
at this first reading and recommend transmitt to the uh required reviewing agencies. Is this correct? Yes. Yeah. Uh second reading to be scheduled following approval of the countywide uh plan amendment. Okay. Do we have a
second? Second. We have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. Commissioner Sison, I. Commissioner Dicki, I. Commissioner Clark, I. Vice Mayor Vazquez, I. Mayor Doctor, I. Thank you. Now, we need a motion for H2.
Ordinance 2025-05. You can go ahead and do it, Arthur. I am scrolling. I can do it. I've got it here. If you want me to go ahead and read it. No, go right ahead. Okay. I move to approve ordinance 2025-05
and schedule for a second reading following approval of the countywide plan amendment for ordinance 2025-04 amending the city of Treasure Island future land use map. Second. Okay, we have a motion and second. Any public comment hearing? None. We'll close with
public comment. Any discussion up here? No discussion. Roll call, please. Commissioner Dicki. I. Commissioner Sison. I. Commissioner Clark, I. Vice Mayor Vasquez, I. Mayor Doctor, I All right, moving on to H3. Authorize
the city manager to sign a contract renewal with empty cause for building department services. Um, so, uh, these two, the next two kind of run together as well. Um, one is empty and the second is our supplemental building services through Joe Payne. Um
so uh MT Cosley basically provides our building services, our building inspector um whatever additional services we may need from them. But their original contract um was uh signed in 2020. It provided five years and we
had two we had the option for two one-year renewals. This for empty causy will be the first one-year renewal. Um they worked with our finance department and the contracts also require us to negotiate the rates every year. Um so they worked with finance and they ended
up with a 1.9% increase uh for this term. And this one would like I said this is the first one-year renewal for them and we would just authorize the city manager to sign the contract. Okay. Do we have a motion for item H3?
I move to approve the one-year renewal of the contract 20-001 with MT Cosley to provide building department and other planning related services and to authorize the city manager to sign the contract extension. Do we have a second? Second motion and a
second. Do we have any public comment? Hearing none, we'll close public comment. Uh any discussion up here, mayor? I just had one minor point and it's certainly not going to affect how I would vote on this or not, but uh uh in the write up it did mention that the renewal for the
term was 1.9% and I was thrilled uh that that was, you know, fairly low compared to some of the other rate increases we've seen, but I did the math and it's and it's still low, so I'm not complaining about that. But it's 2.6%. And same thing for the second for the second one. The math is a little bit
off, but it's still, you know, under the I think the consumer price index, which was just announced, I think, to be a 2.9%. So, I'm glad to see those are on. I just wanted to say that the math was a little bit wrong on that. I can speak I can talk to to David who ran the numbers and just make sure. So, but I know that
I mean, you have the the rate sheet in front of you, too. So, it's not a big deal. Okay. Roll call, please. Vice Mayor Vasquez, did we do the motion? Yes. I'm sorry. I, Commissioner Sison, I. Commissioner
Clark, I. Commissioner Dicki, I. Mayor Doctor, I. Thank you. All right. Moving on to H4. Authorizes the manager to sign a contract renewal with Joe Payne, Inc. for supplemental billing department services. Correct. Basically the same thing. Um, five-year contract. Theirs
was signed a year later. Um, so this for them was the fourth amendment to their agreement. Um, Joe Payne is basically our, like I said, our supplemental. So if if for some reason safe built or empty Cosley doesn't have somebody or somebody's out and we need supplemental services, we can go to Chopane with this
contract. So it's the same thing. I guess it'd be the two point 26. Um, and then that's all I have for that one. Okay. Do we have a motion? I move to approve the one-year renewal of contract 20-001
with Joe Payne, Inc. to provide building department and other planning related services and to authorize the city manager to sign the contract extension. Do we have a second? Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Do we have any public comment? Hearing none, we'll
close public comment and uh any discussion up here? No discussion. So, we have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. Vice Mayor Vazquez, I. Commissioner Sison, I.
Commissioner Clark, I. Commissioner Dicki, I. Mayor Doctor, I. Thank you. Item number H5, Kingfish Drive, road deed transfer agreement. I back. Yes. This is a simple legal cure. We've been maintaining this road
for over 20 years. It's just a transfer of the title from the county to the city and it'll be important down the road as we develop that area. Great. Thank you. Do we have a motion?
I mo I move to authorize the acting city manager to enter into a deed transfer agreement with Penllis County. Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion and a second. Any public comment? Yes, Mr. Hoey.
Just a quick thing. This Kingfish Drive. Can you please come to the mic? I'm sorry. Sure. Well, I didn't want to force her out of the way. What do you want me to do? Uh Mark Hoey, 225 104th Avenue. Uh Kingfish Drive brings back memories of a couple of years ago when
it was brought before the commission about the poor condition of that area. We we all know what it is. I'm just the question is is this change going to incur any near future expense to renovate or recondition that? If I'm not
mistaken, it was expected to be over $500,000 to fix that bridge abutment in order to make it safe. So, just wanted to know if that's included or it's just deferred until someday that we uh end up
developing that whole parcel. Thank you. No plans. No plans to improve that. Okay. Piece. So, no additional expense. Yep. It's also closed. It is closed. The park is is closed. So, if I may, uh,
mayor, to have the discussions to even discuss how to vacate or how to use that property, we can't do it unless we own it. Okay. Right now, the county owns it. Okay. Thank you very much. Uh, all right. We'll close public uh comments
and uh do we have any discussion up here? If not uh let's take a roll call. Vice Mayor Vasquez I. Commissioner Dicki I. Commissioner Clark I. Commissioner Sison I. Mayor Doctor I.
Next item H6. Motion to accept donation from the treasure I let to the parks and recreational department. Do you want to talk? I don't have to yet. You want me to? Okay. All right. The treasure Ilets are generously
donating $2,500 to our summer camp scholarship fund to assist families that otherwise cannot afford camp. Um that fund has unfortunately kind of taken a hit this year with un, you know, our
American Legion losing their post and we haven't had our golf and tennis challenge. So this is a blessing to a lot of the families that we could not provide scholarships to this year. No, thank you Kathy. It is with great
pleasure as the president representing the ILETes and some of our members here on how diligently we work to try to raise funds for giving back to the city. And I want to thank the residents and the businesses that have supported us.
and we're going to be coming through again and we hope that we can be as successful as always. And I just want to amend one little thing that Kathy said. It's not just for scholarships and for summer. We
also have it for the holiday camp. We just want to make sure the children have it. Appreciate it. Great. Thank you very much, ladies. All right, moving on. H7, first hearing to approve ordinance 202507 to recognize
insurance revenue in the amount of $600,000. It's me again. Um, you've heard this before and it's a hell moment because we got some more money in. We received $600,000 u primarily for to cover the uh rental
expenses on the pods as well as uh uh some work on u uh blue sky remediation services uh for the community center in Treasure Bay and other charges. Uh more is coming. Uh this is the first reading.
Uh this will just allow us to uh book it into our budget. Thank you. I'm going to pause here for a second. We needed to have a motion for the uh the receiving of the $2,500 from the eyelets. So, we're going to to do that. So, do we
have a motion for the acceptance? I move to accept the generous donation of $2,500 from the Treasure Islands for Parks and Rex Department scholarship fund to assist families otherwise unable to afford. Do we have a second? Second.
We have a motion and a second. Any public comment hearing? None. We'll close public comment and uh any discussion up here? Nope. And so we will do the roll call, please. Vice Mayor Vazquez, I. Commissioner Sesan, I. Commissioner Clark, I. Commissioner
Dicki, I. Mayor Doctor, I. Thank you. All right. Now we uh we need a motion. This is the first reading. So you know what to do, right? So we uh we need a motion. I move to approve ordinance 2025-07
at this first public hearing and to schedule it for a second reading at the July 1st regular commission meeting. Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion to end a second. Do we have any public comment? Hearing no public comment, we'll close public comment. Any discussion up here?
None. Roll call, please. Commissioner Sison, I. Vice Mayor Vasquez, I. Commissioner Clark, I. Commissioner Dicki, I. Mayor Doctor, I. Thank you. Moving on to H8, RFP 25-01,
uh, disaster financial recovery consultant services evaluation committee ranking and approval to negotiate a contract. One minute. Good morning. Good morning. Good evening, uh, mayor and commissioners. Joan Goodrich from your office of economic development
and I'm here to present this item. Um the per the purpose of the item is to increase the city's capacity, capabilities, responsiveness, and success in winning competitive grant funding as we recover, rebuild, and and um move forward with Treasure Island.
We had issued a request for proposals for disaster financial recovery um professional services back in April. Um this RFP has gone through the process and tonight I'm bringing forward the um
final ranking of our shortlisted firms for the RFP along with a request um to begin negotiations with this um new professional service. This item was actually the second of two actionable
recommendations that have come from the Rebuild Treasure Island working group that the city manager had put in place um back in February as we were looking for new funding sources um for rebuilding and recovery. the first
actionable um recommendation you had accepted at your June 3rd meeting which was putting in place a full-time grants manager position um here um on staff. So this is the second actionable
recommendation um because as we studied other communities that have gone through um disasters like we have um positioning us um with more capacity to compete for disaster recovery funding um is really
necessary. This is a complicated business of disaster grants and so this is the second recommendation that came from um the rebuild TI working group. Again we had put this um procurement opportunity out um to the um
marketplace. We received um seven proposals, six of which qualified for evaluation by a five member evaluation committee with representatives from administration, finance, parks and wreck, public works and also we had a
volunteer leader from the rebuild TI working group. um they had looked at um in in the RFP there was criteria um that they had um looked at these proposals and at this point again the final ranking of the short list is um to begin
negotiations with the number one ranked firm Burquest Recovery Consulting and if we are unable to reach a satisfactory um contract with them that we would go to our number two recommended did um
short um shortlisted firm Broadus and Associates. Um again, currently there is no funding allocated for this service. We had not anticipated when we had gone through the budget process last year that we were going to have the
unprecedented 2024 storm season. So, um, at this point, estimates for initial funding, um, would come back, uh, with a successful contract, um, to your attention as to what that, um, investment might look like. Again, I
want to point out the differences between um, the commitments that we're trying um, that the the grants capacity that we're trying to build. Again, the grants manager is an internal full-time position for us, kind of the orchestrator of everything. um that will
be grants um here on Treasure Island as we move forward. Um that position of course reports to the assistant finance director will um be on point for developing and writing our city grant applications moving forward. We research grants um provide all of the
administrative services for that. Um, currently the team is in the hiring process for the grants manager and we hope to have good news for you soon. If you were to move forward in um direction uh to the staff and I to move forward
with the disaster financial recovery services um firm, then this would be an external resource that we would have um from a staff point of view. It would be on demand on call. Um, again, it's designed to provide the specialized
disaster recovery services that we continue to need. Um, we'll extend our reach to funding partners at the county, state, and federal level. We'll maximize our ability for funding and quicker reimbursement. will um help us also reduce the
likelihood of any audits or financial um penalties because again many of this disaster recovery grant money is is especially at the federal level, you know, deep and wide and there's a lot of tees and eyes to cross. Um again I
emphasize that if you were to greenlight um this particular next step on this request for proposal that um work authorizations would only come from um the budget that you put in place and
then ultimately the author authorization that comes to you. Um and it also um builds in that protection around us that should we face another disaster whether it's natural or otherwise we've got a
team in place that can be on the ground with us immediately. Currently some of the disaster financial recovery service capacity that we have in place is due to the gift that has been given to us by the Florida Department of Emergency Management. We
have we actually are supported by a three member team just working on FEMA public assistance. And in my ne my next item as I give you a more in-depth report as to what the rebuild TI working group has been working on and and what
we're um looking forward to um I'll explain just this the the S or the the snake like just on that one particular um funding source. So again, um it's my request um that uh you support staff's
re recommendation to proceed to contract with our number one ranked firm. And if we can't get to contract negotiations with the number one ranked firm, you'd allow us to go to number two. Does anyone have any questions for staff?
Okay, I do have just one. Um just to clarify and just to make sure that it's perfectly clear. So moving forward on this is just to move forward to get the pricing for it to bring it back to us to see if this is um if we can figure out a
way to budget it in. Am I correct? So yes. So again that a contract would come back to you along with um a request for a budget amendment to put in this new line item for professional um disaster recovery services. Okay. I just
wanted to clarify. Thanks. Do we have a motion? I move to direct staff to proceed with the contract negotiations with the number one ranked firm, Burquist Recovery Consulting. If contract negotiations are not successful,
authority is granted to proceed with the contract negotiations with the number two ranked firm. A contract will be returned to the city commission for approval and notice to proceed. Do we have a second? Yes, we have a second. Do we have any public comment,
Mark? Mark Hoey, District 3. I'm a resident volunteer on the Rebuild Treasure Island group. Uh, so I'm swayed on that. So, I'm not going to weigh in on on the the position, but I'll tell you this. Uh in the time that we've worked together
under Joan's uh stewardship and Ardan's uh direction, we've come to understand that there's tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars available to the city if we can wind our way through a
very complex uh very detailed process because every one of these grants has different requirements, different uh tracking all of that and we determined that there's really no one in the city at this point
on staff that has the skill set nor the time able to dedicate to work this full-time. Um, but it's also interesting to note and there aren't many positions within a city that pay for itself because it's all serviced driven. This
one, if we properly execute, will pay for itself. Uh, both this and the grant manager. So, uh, I would strongly encourage that we look very closely at this. Even though it's not a budget item that was covered for this year, the sooner we can get started on it, the
sooner that TI can start seeing some dollars flow in for all the gaps we have. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Mark. All right, we'll close public comment. Do we have any discussion up here? So, I I guess I have a question. We're
We hired a full-time grant manager. Now we're hiring a consultant also. So we um we are in the midst of hiring the grants manager and yes this is an external um additional professional service that we believe is needed um it
will be facilitated by the grants manager. However, again, it's a specialized um professional service we can call upon as we ready ourselves for county, state, and additional federal um grant programs that are coming down the
pike. Okay. So, the grant manager is unable to do this line of work. Um they will be on point. They'll be our orchestrator, the grants manager as our internal orchestrator of everything
grants. So, um should we again um find ourselves that uh grant opportunities, notice of funding opportunities are opening up now here pretty regularly, if there was additional capacity to scale on our grant um writing on our grant
advocacy that we've got this in place in case it's needed. Again, um this is on an ondemand on call service that we would have. And let let me just add a little bit to that, Commissioner Clark. The uh the Rebuilt TI group uh spent a
lot of time talking about this and whether or not there was a duplicate a duplication of efforts here. And we we uh uh thought about it, we talked about it, and we all agreed that that there isn't a duplication of efforts that this this uh firm that we're hoping to
contract with will bring additional resources to help go after this grant uh money uh and to use a quote from Commissioner Sison uh the last time, this is a a sprint and uh we are in a sprint to get uh to get some of this
money. I attended a a a Zoom call with the county uh last week uh regarding the uh hazard mitigation grant program and uh we got five different proposals uh in in and we made the deadline on it. Uh
but we uh during this call we discovered that there were only 13 of the 24 uh municipalities in the city of Treasure Island that did get grant requests in. So anyway, we've got about 17 almost $18 million in grant requests that have a
pretty high likelihood of getting approved, but we don't have a grant manager hired right now. Uh and and even if we do, we need to uh this additional support to to help bring some of this money in. I I truly believe it's one of those things that we're not going to
spend the money if we don't think there's a very high chance that we're going to get these grants. And once we get the grants, it will pay uh uh pay for for their services. So I did forget to cover this particular
slide that um commissioner covered quite adequately, but it does talk about that the um funding mechanism is built into um grants when we go after them to be either budget neutral or largely grant
supported. Okay. Hey, do we have anything else? We have a motion. We have a second. And uh will we uh call roll, please? Vice Mayor Bazquez. I. Commissioner Dicki. I.
Commissioner Clark. Nay. Commissioner Sison. I. Mayor Doctor. I. Thank you. All right. Moving on. And mayor, I'm still next. I'm just going to give you a brief um rebuild um
TI working group update. So again, this is a um group that have been put in place by um staff. Our city manager formed in February. Um, I want to thank our volunteer um, leaders from the community who have been working along
staff to investigate and identify needs and funding to accelerate um, Treasure Islands um, recovery and rebuilding. They have worked um, so hard and have um, brought great value um, to the team. Additionally, we've had other
collaborators that have come into our weekly meetings as we've studied um some of the sources of funding just understanding um the game of disaster financial recovery. Um I'd like to thank our county commissioner Kathleen Peters, the Florida Department of Emergency
Management, our our FEMA public assistance team from Deote, and then of course our city executive leaders and professional staff who have assisted um along the way. um highlights from the rebuild TI working group is we have studied um our initial impacts and data
points um from the 2024 unprecedented storm season. Um as an example, we learned that we are we represent 1% of the county's population and we had 10% of the residential damage. We also learned as we started to look at the
$813 million that was coming down from Washington that is going to our Penllis County partners um to look at housing infrastructure and economic revitalization. Um we learned um that a lot of what 70% of that money is
actually going to be focused in on our um population that is of low to moderate income and we learned a data point that 21.8% 8% of our population here on the island falls into that um that sector. Um again the team and then just trying
to tell the story of the impact of of um the storms on Treasure Island. We also use the data point that we lost 30% of our hotel um supply infrastructure. Our hospitality industry was really hurt badly and we continue to recover. Um
again I mentioned that the team had looked deeply at the um 813 million from the community development block grant disaster um recovery funding um that is currently um will begin to open up to us
later this year. Um again our county has developed a a model of um people first. There will not be a subreient model that is used. So therefore, uh, municipalities like Treasure Island, we will not be, um, having access, um, to
that money. Um, the money will go directly to either our business owners or our residents, there'll be a one portal, um, for for that funding when it becomes available to us. And um although we may have an opportunity for
competitive grants as it relates to select infrastructure and ultimately planning um and technical assistance dollars down the line. The rebuild TI working group also looked at again I mentioned best practices, lessons learned. They've studied Lee County,
Santael, Bonita Springs, Panama City Beach um in particular. And again, just looking at our grant readiness, appropriateness, and competitiveness, and thus the two actionable recommendations that you've you've take um you've taken action on. Now, again,
these are some of the um agencies that we've also been able to deepen our relationships with because of the work that the Rebuilt TI working group is doing. In particular, I want to point out um the regional planning council. Um, of course, the Florida Department of
Emergency Management, FEMA, and the Economic Development Administration has spent a lot of time with our team here on Treasure Island and understanding what we've been through and helping us to develop solutions as we move forward to rebuild some of the work that we
currently have on our plate. Commissioner Dicki already covered and the sheet of sheet that I had um just transmitted to you is a new working sheet now that we are going to keep as our grant pipeline. So we've got $29 million of infrastructure projects that
are lined up um for potential application. Now this particular pool of money comes from FEMA goes to the state. However, um our applications and our project explanations and descriptions
need to go through Penllis County's local mitigation strategy committee. So, just again a lot of layers to even getting to application. So currently the hazard mitigation program is something that ultimately the applications
um that we may put forward are due to the state July 25th. But potentially the projects that we've got aligned is our master pump station, west causeway evacuation route, citywide street and seaw walls, city center hardening and
utilities undergrounding around um city key city municipal services and the center here. Additionally, we've got economic development administration funding and projects that we had originally conceived and put forward to
the EDA, US EDA. Those actually total 25 million. It included a downtown program, uh a beach um uh revitalization program, an infrastructure program, and some planning. What has resulted from several
months of discussions with a representative from the southeast for the US EDA has resulted in what I'm calling lowhanging fruit, which potentially could be uh Treasure Island economic revitalization and resiliency
plan. So, um anything with the EDA would require a 20% match. So, 80% um is the investment made by the federal government. 20 um percent is made um would be made by us. So this is something that I would be um bringing
forward to you at your July 1st meeting to determine if this is something that you think is worthwhile and proceeding with. The economic revitalization plan would actually give us our first economic development plan here on the island. Additionally, we've received um
positiveness as it relates to the repair of the 108th Avenue seaw walls and marina. So, um, when the EDA's notice of funding opportunity came out, I think it's for $1.44 billion.
Um, the uniqueness to this um, funding um, notice is that communities from across the country are competing for these dollars. In the past, it's been explained to me that regions have gotten certain parts of that 1.44 million. So
we will competing in with um a community uh possibly in California for the wildfires or we've had flooding in in the northeast. So again the race for getting applications in that you support is part of um what we will be proceeding
with. Additionally, the team has been um looking at more than 40 other funding sources um for possibilities to again um help with um the the city's rebuilding. And then I just want to end with the
FEMA public assistance. So, there's all kinds of alphabet soup. I know our volunteer leaders have had to kind of put up with the alphabet soup that we talk about in this world of of grants, but this is just an example of what more
than um 30 let's see 34 $35 million of our damage is going through right now with FEMA. Um we've got 45 projects that are in phase two, which is that top yellow arrow. Um, we've got two projects
in phase three, which is that middle yellow ara arrow, and then we've got one project right now that's made its way all the way from the top left, and we're trying to get to the bottom right um that's in phase four. Again, right now,
our buckets is we've got $33.6 6 million worth of um projects going through FEMA PA. Um another million for Milton and potentially our reimbursement for the damage that we ensued. The ability to leverage um this federal partnership is
more um could be more than 26.3 million. So I think that concludes um my my report from Rebuild TI. Um, again, I I thank all of our um I I thank Commissioner Dicki. I thank all of our
volunteer leaders for the hard work that they have been doing on behalf of all of our um residents and business owners as we seek to rebuild and recover. Thank you very much. Uh Mark, would you like to speak on
He filled out his card. Thank you, Joe. Mark Coey again and again. I'm I'm pleased to be a part of this group. Uh we've learned a lot. When you look at that slide, it looks like we need a little governmental XLAX to move
things down through the channel, doesn't it? But but it makes a good graphic to show how complex the process is to get money that honestly it's it's our money really. When you think about it, it's citizen money that's flowed up to the
state federal level. We're just trying to get our share back. So, uh, I I fully applaud that. I did want to address one thing, and that was my understanding was that, uh, some commissioners may have been advised that the rebuild TI working
group in some way was endorsing putting the public safety complex in the park. And I just wanted to clarify that that that's not the case. that our group has no business, no authorization, no
anything with regards to where the money ultimately goes. Yes, we've got charts of the funding sources. Yes, we know what the needs are and where the needs are, but that decision making or even possibly recommendations will not come
from our group. And I'd just like to clarify that. So, we don't want to put at risk this working group's integrity by thinking we're going to start swaying money to certain projects, certain places in certain times. All right.
Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Mayor, yes, if I could be recognized. One second. Yes. Thanks, Mark. Um, I was going to address that in my comments as well. Um, I I erroneously read an email and attributed that idea to the rebuild TI working group. that's entirely my fault.
So, I'll own that. Um, it did come from citizen suggestion and um when I have my discussion with you on that or presented as one of the options, but it did not come from this group. It was my error. Okay. Great. Thank you.
All right. And uh we do not need a motion to move forward. So, we're going to move on to authorize the mayor to execute easement agreements with the Army Corps of Engineers for the upcoming beach renourishment on Treasure Island.
I can take this one. Okay. Um, so what this is is this is four temporary easements that a city would be granting to the county allowing them uh two years access to city parcels down on Sunset Beach to do reourishment. They uh
we got word this morning at the board of county commissioners meeting they approved the project. It is going to be some $125.7 million project and they're going to renourish all the beaches because we couldn't get the Army Corps to do it um
based on the permanent easements. So, this will go ahead. Um they actually approved it this morning and if we didn't get we don't get these easements this evening, they'll just skip that piece of it. Um they're temporary easements. um certainly within the rights of the
the commission to authorize uh totally separate from the Sunshine Beach easements which are easements for private property required by um the Army Corps of Engineers to do their project which won't happen again for another six
years. So um we've you know the core has just not worked well with us. They're not willing to do any of the reourishment if we don't get every single easement. Um, we had 11 we needed to obtain. Uh, we received two and the
other nine were unresponsive or refused to sign. So, um, fortunately where our need is is in Sunset Beach, not Sunshine. Sunshine's plenty wide. No homes are being threatened. So, uh, we consider this a big win and staff
recommends signing the easements. Thank you very much for that. Do we have a motion? I move to approve staff's recommendation to authorize the mayor to execute four easement agreements with the Army Corps
of Engineers for upcoming beach renourishment on Treasure Island. Second. We have a motion and a second. Do we have any public comment? Hearing no public comment, we'll close that down. Do we have any discussion up here? All right. Roll call, please. Vice Mayor
Vasquez, I. Commissioner Sison, I. Commissioner Clark, I. Commissioner Dicki. I, Mayor Doctor, I. Thank you. Moving on to H11. Here's where I'm going to take an opportunity to make one move on the uh the items here that are left.
There's three items. I'd like to move H12, which is qualifications for city manager, to number 11, and take number 11 and put it at number 12, which is the selection of candidates for the short-term manager interviews.
Does anybody have pardon? Great move. Okay. So, so what we are doing now is H11 modified. Uh so qualifications for city manager and I believe uh commissioners on this was uh one that you had. Thank you.
Uh so it is my understanding that we all agreed at the last commission meeting to uh have a city manager who has uh five plus years of city manager experience in a similar size city to Treasure Island. Uh we also agreed that Florida
experience was ne uh wanted as well as coastal city experience. Um and then uh economic development experience or uh Joan, I think we called it economic resiliency or
that's the word. Uh, and ICMA certification. All right. Does anybody here have any questions or comments about those? If not, we uh we don't have to do anything else. Rumor that we lowered it
to two years qualifications. Um, I don't know if that's rumor or not, but I believe it was two years or did it remain five? No, it was two years that was sent out in the brochure that I sent to everyone for review. So, it was at least two years experience along with
the ICMA credentials and the Florida andor coastal experience. Thank you. Did we said credentials? Is that correct? Yes. Yeah. I mean, I guess finding out and talking to some of these people and
you can actually you see some of these people have all nose and yet they say they're just about to get their ICMA credential. Like I mean it looks like it's something that's pretty easy to get. Like you don't even really have to have much city manager experience. So, I
don't really think that should be a deal breakaker because if someone who's never been a city manager and doesn't even have any experience can go ahead and go get ICMA accreditation, not really sure what that really means, you know, but
that's just my opinion. Was that a question there a question there? I don't think that it it should be they should have to have that. That's just my statement. Well, some of them uh I noticed actually I think too does anybody here
know? Oh, sure. Uh ICMA accreditation. Uh can you get the accreditation before you've been a city manager? That's a good question. I could find out, but I actually don't know. I know most people do it or there's a resume
here that says they're about to get it and they've never been a city manager. That's that's my point. Oh, I thought they uh they had been a city manager. No, there's one that's scheduled to receive it in January of Was going to receive it in January of of 26. Don't believe you have to have served as a
city manager to get the accreditation. Okay. I just remember when Amy was here, she got her accreditation 6 months after uh she went into the position. So, yeah. And I I don't know if that just means that she had the last course work to do
or whatever it was, but yeah, I mean, this one resume says they're about to get it and they have zero city management of any kind on their resume. So, I don't know. I don't believe Yeah, I don't believe it's a requirement, right? As far as far as the qualifications that uh were just read
out by Commissioner Sison, I I I support all of those, but but I think we have to be flexible, especially given the candidates. So, we have to choose from. Uh they may not all fit perfectly into that, but if they're close and they've got lots of experience, maybe we can we
can make up for it in another area. Okay. All right. That that could just I found it. So it's just it has to be a local government chief administrative official or assistant chief is one of the prongs. Okay. So thank you very much for looking that up. All right. So we
can move on to the next which is actually selecting candidates for the short-term city manager interviews. Now with that being said um we need to first decide upon how many candidates that we're going to have. But
uh let's have Jessica kind of uh lead into this. Sure. Thank you. So we closed the posting on June 13th. We had a total of 19 applicants. That does include the two that you kept on the list from the prior search that we had done, Troy Bell and Howard Brown. Uh both expressed
their interest to stay in the candidate pool. So you have those as well. I would say I would recommend that maybe we try we keep those two in and then maybe suggest another addition like an additional three uh kind of like who's
your top three in no particular order. Uh we can actually list those out. I've got a document up here that's ready to do that and we can start this the discussion that way. You you said we need to leave those two in as like you don't you don't
necessarily have to leave those two in. Uh, those were just your top picks from the last time. Those were your two two candidates that you wanted to see stay in if they were interested. I don't. No, I don't think those were just the only two that were left. That was all that was left. Everybody else withdrew. Okay.
Then we can we can still kind of just pick a top three and move on from there. Okay. And and if I could, I just want to advise you on the law here. You can legally do whatever you want. So, I mean, if you want to keep all of them, keep none, whatever you want to do.
Don't think that there's any sort of like rule leaning on you right now. You can do whatever you want in terms of picking this charter officer, period. Yeah. I mean, should we just all kind of give like maybe our top one or two and
kind of see if we all we Is that what you actually have is is a graph, chart, whatever that uh ready to go. That would be kind of a I would have a visual. I can add an additional
box if we need to. But just to kind of start the conversation, we just want to see where everyone is at. And it doesn't have to be told to us in any particular order. We're just trying to figure out if there's any agreement on any candidates starting the conversation.
So, uh, Commissioner Clark, if you're ready to say who you would like to be your candidates. I had four. Okay. Michael Brilhart, Taylor Brown, Andrew Butterfield, and Charles Vanzant. And give me one moment. I'm just going
to add this under Charles Vanzant. So, I'm sorry. Who was your fourth pick? I've got Brill Hart, Taylor Brown, Charles Vanzant, Andrew Butterfield. Andrew Butterfield. Thank you. I'm trying trying to type on like a ton of wires over here, so it's a little slow and I don't type well to begin
with. Okay. Commissioner of Vasquez. Um, mine was Andrew Butterfield. Okay. Howard Brown and Charles Vanzant. I've only got three. What was the You said the third one. I didn't catch that.
Oh, I'm sorry. The Charles Vanzant. Okay. Thank you. Mayor Doctor, if you're ready. I have Charles Vanzant. Mhm. Howard Brown, Michael Brilhart, and Hector Rivera.
Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Sison. Well, I've been vocal about not having or wanting a interimm city manager. Um and I think all these candidates should submit to uh SGR I believe it is. Uh but
my three is uh Howard Brown, Charles Vanzant, and Hector River. Yeah, I I think that's something that needs to be discussed going forward because like I know one of these candidates that's been on everyone's
list so far told me that, you know, I'm not going to come do this for an interim and then, you know, do a good job and then for some reason have someone else get the get the full-time job and leave my leave
my current job and quit it and then wind up out of a job. So, um, and that gentleman wanted what's equivalent to $400,000 a year, and I can't we can't afford that. So, that's why, you know, um, who did who won? I have no I don't think we're talking about the same
person, but I have no idea. When I spoke to Howard Brown, he wanted he was on the upper. I'm not speaking about Howard Brown, so I'm not really sure. Yeah, I'm not really sure what you're talking about. Well, obviously you weren't in a conversation with me when I was speaking to him, so Right. Um
Yeah. Um Yeah. But I don't think we could afford uh that price point of pay. So, and I had a completely different price point. He he gave me uh $220,000. Oh boy. It's because we're talking about a different person, I think. No, no,
we're He and I are talking about the same person, Howard Brown. Okay. I was not talking about Howard Brown. So, but yeah, that's the one he is. And Okay. So, we can confirm that and I would agree. Correct. Um easy if I if I
recall, I believe that um Mr. Vanzant would be wanting more understandably so because he would be leaving a job. um would be wanting to do more on a permanent um he definitely had the qualifications, but I kind of got the
same impression. Yeah, he shared that with me as well. He's not going to upend his family for 90 days. And so um but he was uh I haven't met any of these people in person. I don't think any of us have, but um he had a a good uh interview that
uh that took us to a place that said, "Yeah, we need to to take a look." So, can I clarify one other thing? If we could get Commissioner Dicki's comments before we start discuss uh I've got Taylor Brown, Howard Brown, and Charles Vanzant.
Nice. Mayor, I hate to keep interrupting because we're all doing it and I apologize again, but I just want to again just highlight law that way. I think it guides the conversation. You guys know your sort of left and right limits, parameters. This decision, quite literally, there's
nothing Yeah. There's nothing that binds you or constricts you or holds you in. Staff has been extremely helpful, I think, in trying to come up with guidelines and and bifurcating it between interim and permanent. and you know, we want these windows and these stipulations. And they're and they're
trying to feed basically like an apparatus, like a program to help make it look methodical, but quite literally the best way to explain this is almost like that attorney did the night I got hired. Me, the city manager, and the city clerk, we are at will employees. At
any second, at any second, you can say, "I move to get rid of him. I want somebody new." And if it's seconded and there's three votes, he's gone. There's a new person. That's it. We are literally like servants to you. You just tell us what to do, we do it anytime. So, I think staff's done a good job trying to create this this program, you
know, with all these sort of stipulations that sort of guide it, make it very scientific, meth meth uh methodical, but the truth of the matter is at any given time. You guys have unlimited authority to choose. So, I
think there's like this conversation, well, do they want temporary? There's permanent. you you choose and you can just do it anytime you want. I mean, call special meeting, make it a new city manager tomorrow. Not saying that you should. I'm just saying like you have unlimited authority on this. There's no law or guidance that dictates what you have to
do. And I just I I think that's very important to understand that you're not being boxed in in any way. You you have unlimited authority on it. Thanks. That's all. So, that was the question I was going to ask you is correct me if I'm wrong. There's one name I think it's on every
list, maybe two. But let's just say that hypothetically we spoke to that we all spoke to this person tomorrow and we all thought he was the greatest city manager in the world. We could we could call a meeting tomorrow night and offer this person vote four to five to zero and
offer this person a job tomorrow and never have to do the search or do any of that. Right. That's 100% true. Okay. Just want to make sure that's clear. And that's what I was kind of getting at. I don't want an interimm city manager. I want someone that's ready and willing to take the job right away for
the full term. So, I think we're probably all in that wheelhouse, you know, but yeah, we just need to make sure that there is one of these candidates that is going to maybe not knock our socks off, but someday
it's really going to impress us. If we're going to do that, we are going to move forward in that manner. Yeah. And mayor, just just and commissioners, just be aware if we do if you do choose a city manager and offer them a long-term contract, that would basically negate
any agreement we have with SGR. So, we would lose their services. I mean, we could always hire them again, but it would be a cost, right? Yeah. I I think that we understand that, you know, because we're if we basically are saying, "No, we don't need you anymore." We're not going to run back to them and
say, "Oh, yeah. With the same deal." So, all right. That's uh So, do we want to have four? Do we want to have three? Do we want to have two? Um and would anybody like to see more
than four? I like four, but does anybody want to see anything more than four? No. I mean, I think we all scoured over everything well and kind of made our two of us only picked three. And again, I I think I may we may have already said this, but three of us did. Yeah. You know, if we interview one of these
people and we think they're good enough to be the permanent city manager, we can do that, too, right? Correct. Absolutely. Yeah. Actually, it might be preferable in a perfect world. Yeah. Well, I think it would be. Yeah. I mean, it just depends if we can get it done or not. Yeah.
Absolutely. Okay. So, so you would like to set interviews for this week, correct? Okay. Do we have uh only four up there? I know there's two of them that are on everybody's, I believe.
Uh only one. Nope, there isn't. There there is three. There is Oh, Vanzant. Okay. Howard Brown would be the second. Yep. So, Vanzant and Howard Brown has three. And Rivera has two. And uh Taylor Brown
has Taylor Brown has two and Butterfield has two. Yeah. Mike Brilhart. Yeah. And Butterfield. So most of them. So how would we like to do this? Well, I I would like to say something.
Um I um I planned all my vacations and family trips around the schedule. It was part of my commissioner comments, but obviously we're talking about it now. Um so I planned all my family trips around the uh uh schedule, the commissioner
schedule, knowing that the first second Tuesday of the month will also be a workshop. So, I'll be away uh next Tuesday uh which is uh planned. Um so, it would you guys would need a 40 vote uh to select someone. So, yeah. I don't
know if you want to postpone that. I mean, technically, don't we have to have a 40 vote anyway? Well, we need Yeah, we need four. It is a super majority. Apologize. And uh so we will have to have four, but um I for one uh would like to call the special meeting and uh
and take our chances with the four that are left. Okay, I'm fine with that. Now, there is a it would be that we'd have to do it earlier in the afternoon as well. Uh because we do have uh one other commissioner that has a uh an
appointment already scheduled for that evening. But, uh, we could do, you know, 1:00 or a 2:00 or a 3:00. Uh, I think would all fit into the schedule. That's entirely up to you. You let us know. We already have the date set for the 24th as of right now. That was actually going to be my next item of business was to
figure out if you were going to continue with that meeting or postpone until Commissioner Sison was back in town. Okay. I think we're going to uh proceed. Okay. With that, uh, does anybody have any, uh, preference on early afternoon
timeline to start? Earlier the better. It's Oh, okay. All right. What day is this? Uh, week from today. Yeah. I prefer one o'clock. One o'clock. Yeah. What is that date? the 24th. 24th.
Yeah, that should work. Okay. So, let's look at 1:00. All right. And then also, just so you're aware, you are aware, acting city manager, Chief Bars, will not be in attendance either. Okay.
Uh, Commissioner Sison, would you still like to be included in the interviews because I know that you're going out of town. Um, yeah. Can I reach out uh with them uh over the phone? Absolutely. Yes, I can just let them know that you'll reach out uh sometime prior to
uh the 23rd. Sounds good. Thank you. All right. So, so far on our list, we have Vanzant, we have Howard Brown. Is there anybody else you would like to add? I think two is too few. So, I would Right. I think we need to go with four. Four. Yeah. So, obviously I'd like
Taylor Brown to be one of those four. You said Taylor Brown. Yes. Okay. But, uh, we need one more. Just I'll yield. Quick question. Did all of us interview Howard Brown? Because I think the majority of us did. Or did all of
us? So far as I know, all of you have spoken with Howard Brown. Is he one of the first two? Yes. Yes. He's out of South Florida. That's what I thought because we've all interviewed him. Um, well, the question becomes then, uh,
do we want to go with the four or five? I mean, I liked Butterfield because he had one, he's St. Pete Beach, but he also had the the um I mean if we're adding a third um Van and Brown would be my top. But um but I did butter I mean
I'm sorry Butterfield St. Pete Beach but he has the experience. He lives here. We don't have to pay for you know expenses for him to move here. Um and he had an impressive resume I felt. So if we're going to add a third I definitely would
like I mean that's my opinion. Yeah, I think that we're going to end up going with four. And according to my notes, just to just to clarify, Butterfield has interim experience. Okay. So, he does not have long-term experience, right? Number 40.
I like Brill Hart and Rivera, but Bril Hart I uh I think is probably just based upon the resume, he is a stronger candidate. So, if we're going to do Brill Hart and then Taylor Brown,
that's fine. Is that uh good with everyone? There's our four. That's fine. So, Bril Hart and Taylor Brown. Yes. Sounds good to me. Okay. All right, let's uh and I don't believe
we need any motion on this. I don't believe so. No, it does need to be formalized. It does need to be formalized. No, it does not. It does not. This is just a directive, that's all. All right. Thank you. All right. So, sorry. Just one more thing. So, if you would please I'm going
to be sending out an email probably first thing tomorrow morning. If you would please let me know some availability that you have. So, as I'm trying to schedule these interviews, I've got some windows of time that I can work with. So, if you can get that information back to me as quickly as possible, that would be great. Also, I
know that there was some conversation the last time we did this when we had a couple of candidates arrive here. Do you want that to be any sort of criteria that they're here the night of that you make the selection or the day of that you make this
selection? I I don't think that's practical, especially for four of them and and some of them live pretty far away. Okay. If it's four of them, yeah, say no. That's fine. I just wanted to clarify. Thank you. All righty. Thank you. All right. Moving on to H13,
amendments to the rules of the procedure placing commissioners reports before adjournment and 72 to allow voice votes in some instances. Oh, it's my item. Yeah, just real quick. This was originally discussed as two items. I think it made sense to do it as
one. These are amendments to your rules. Your rules are basically I think it's a 17page guide of best practices. At any time, you can suspend them with three votes if it makes it more efficient, but generally they're good rules. Uh there's two items that uh I think all of you I
think comments indicate you all agree with this. One of them is it'll allow you to vote uh for voice. use voice votes on items that are not resolutions and ordinances. And you probably think, well, that's everything. No, actually, there's 12 items tonight on your agenda that were not resolutions or ordinances.
So, that's 12 items that you can say, you know, as the mayor, you could say, I would appreciate a motion to pass this. Somebody could say, so moved, second. All in favor? I done. You're next. You're at the next thing. And so, it saves a lot of time. Number two, uh, just moving commissioner comments to the end. And I think the basis of that was
so the comments can address not just everything going in the city but everything that occurred at the meeting and wrap it all up together. And I think everybody was in support of that. So with that said um um you can move to pass this now um or amend it however you'd like and then um it would be by
roll call and then for the rest of the meeting or the workshop or anything else and of course starting next week you can do things by voice votes as long as it's not a resolution or ordinance. Okay. So, I move to approve resolution 2025-10
to amend the board city commission rules of procedure amending section 5.1 placing commissioner reports before adjournment and section 2.0 to allow for voice votes in some instances. Do we
have a second? Second. Now, is this an administrative piece where we don't need to go out to the uh to the audience for public comment? Uh I actually think this does require public comment. Yeah, because it's done as in the form of a resolution.
Um and and there's there's a b there's probably a basis. Do we have any public comment? Hearing none, we'll close public comment. Any further discussion up here? Hearing none. Roll call, please. Vice Mayor Vasquez, I. Commissioner
Dicki, I. Commissioner Clark, I. Commissioner Sison, I. Mayor Doctor, I. Thank you. All right. And now we're going to move into the last piece of our meeting tonight. Uh, Commissioner reports. And let's go
with uh Commissioner Vasquez. It looks like he's got it queued up. I made a little video. This is um we've had a lot of inquiries um about um you know the old building. People were curious about the old building. We've had inquiries about the fourth floor, so
on and so forth. So, I thought it would be kind of nice to take a tour so everybody could see the inside of the old public safety building and just kind of tour through it a little bit. And then also we went up to the fourth floor so that you guys can check out the
fourth floor because it's it seems like it's been a mystery and I've had people reach out to me and ask. Um so I uh went on a tour graciously. It was hosted um the walkth through because it's very dark in that building. But um but that's
what this video is and um why the need for the public safety building is so important for our police and fire. Hey guys, Tammy Vazquez, vice mayor here in Treasure Island. I wanted to come out and give you guys a tour of the old
police and fire station today because we've gotten a lot of inquiries and people who just don't know what it looks like and the kind of damage that it has gotten. Um so I'm here. We're all masked up. Um I can tell you even walking up to the building, the smell is overwhelming.
So, we're going to take you on a little tour of it. Um before the hurricane, this building already had black mold. It had been proven. Um and this is why um our police and fire need that new station. So, we just wanted to give you
a little look inside of it and um let you judge for yourself. Look at all those mosquitoes. Oh my god. Even through these. [Music] [Applause]
[Music] After speaking to multiple heads of police departments, the president of the PBA summarized it best and all agreed. Safety is the priority and legal obligation not only to the police but
the city as well. Putting a police department in a city hall that was not built ground up for that purpose endangers not only the city employees but the citizens that come there 5 to 6 days a week. For example, the city hall
in Indian Shores which is used as an example many times was built for that purpose. It has a single entrance for the police department in the rear which is completely secured with a sally port
and has a fob system in order to gain access. It also has an individual elevator for transport up and down with suspects. So this is completely separate from the city hall. There are also
requirements to have a completely secure armory for the weapons. And even if we create it, it is still in a public building with full access and no secured separate entrance. In the beach's case, having the ability to return to work
immediately following a storm is pivotal for security and safety of all the residents and their homes. And to do that, you must have a hurricane safe building complete with generators. This goes for the fire department as well. We
are on the the infamous fourth floor. A lot of people have talked about the fourth floor and why aren't we putting our police here? Starting with the building's still not fortified and the amount the level of danger of having a police station in the city hall that's not specifically built for it is just
amongst many of the reasons. But it's also totally being used right now for storage for police, fire, public works, all of the above, including um the firemen have a small little gym that um some residents were nice enough to
donate some equipment for. And that's what this is being used for. So, it is pretty darn full. And that is one of the reasons we can't use the fourth floor. One idea that is being floated for the fourth floor is, and we're looking at it right now, is possibly putting public
works administration on the fourth floor. The fifth floor of city halls is used for public and city events almost daily, including our camp kids during summer camp. Would you feel safe with your kids riding up and down an elevator
with suspects? Would you feel safe with the police department being right under the fifth floor? A new public safety building was already scheduled to be built long before the hurricanes hit. This isn't a new idea. The old 67y old
building was due to be replaced a decade ago. It doesn't even meet the minimum ADA standards. So, I hope that at least gives people a general idea of what it looks like and then you can make your own decision. I
will tell you, you could literally walk around the building and the smell would knock you over. I was surprised even with the mask how intense it was. But anyway, I just wanted to do a a little tour to give people a insight as to what it looked like inside and to the fourth
floor because we have had a lot of emails and inquiries on that. They're talking while I'm talking. So, but anyway, I'm done. Everyone back there's talking while I'm trying to talk, so there's no
sense in me even trying. Commissioner Clark. Yes. Um, so last week we tried to say I couldn't do PowerPoints. Now we have videos, so I guess I can do PowerPoints and videos now going forward. Um I have neither
tonight, but um uh I just wanted to say the District 2 pizza party um will be this Friday night, 5:30, fifth floor of city hall. Um
5:30 is the party, 6:00 is pizza, 6:30 I'm going to do a Q&A with all of the residents. It's where I get a lot of feedback from the residents and it's where I uh bring a lot of the things that they want uh that are important to them uh to bring on bring out out here
to the meeting. So uh I encourage you to come. We had a really um really really good crowd last time and also um I think we talked for about 45 minutes. So, I hope to expand the crowd this time and
have even more um uh dialogue. Um I was hoping that Darren Brown was still going to be here. He stood up and talked about the terrain modification manual. Um he had been reaching out to me for about the last I don't know few weeks. Um and
I forward some of his emails to the chief. um with all the issues he's had with TN TMM. Um we had the uh I've had about three other people from my district with the exact same
issue and then today I believe all of the commissioners got an email from someone in district three um with the almost the exact same complaints that uh Mr. Brown had. So, you know, I I just
think I I was not a proponent of TNM TMM from the very beginning. Um, and I know there was talk that, you know, this was going to be simplified after the fact after it was, you know, put in. So, I mean, for the next meeting, I'm going to
put on the agenda how we could try to simplify this because I think Darren was coming here, you know, really looking out for his neighbors. You know, I think his point was good. If it's taking a month or two months for someone to get
responses on the TMM, then what happens when there's five or 10 times as many permits in? I mean, people are going to run the risk of losing builders uh and things like that. So, I think it's something that we need to to really look
at. Um, those were the really two things I had. I do want to address um some of the comments u made by Commissioner Vasquez, Vice Mayor Vasquez. I I really have zero clue how
um her interactions with Mr. Matthew and Mr. Bazo, I think his name is, have anything to do with me. I I barely know those gentlemen. I think I p played pickle ball with Mr. Bazo
a year or two ago. Um, so I I I'm not really sure how any of that has anything to do with me. Um, additionally, I am unfamiliar with a lot of these dinners I've supposedly been at. I will say I
did go uh to a dinner after our last meeting. Um, and actually the city attorney texted me uh uh and said, "I'm going to dinner at this restaurant. Where are you?" And I said, "I am already there." And two minutes later,
he walked in and we had a group of some Treasure Island residents and a bunch of non- Treasure Island residents. And I I don't recall any of the things that were being said. It's all seems to be hearsay from multiple different folks. Um
lastly, um comments about police and things. I just want to tell you over the last three weeks just tell you some of the things that have happened to me. Uh my wife and
I have both got gotten threatening phone calls. Um, uh, my work has been, uh, somebody, uh, anonymously sent an email to my work, um, saying, "Do you realize
that I don't think, uh, you know, Chris Clark even works for your company anymore? He is, uh, at city hall all the time." Uh, I guess attempting to get me fired from my job. Um, luckily, you know, my job is very aware that I do
this. I've been with this company for a long time and um and they they like public service. Um so yeah, I I it's all of this for a $400 and dollar a month
job. Didn't do it for the money. I did it to help the residents. And I'm learning that if you attempt to help the residents and you don't have any really other special interests behind you, um you know, it's it's it's it's it's tough. Uh and people are going to try to
do whatever they can to tear you down. But I will say this. Um, if anyone threatens my job, my wife, my family, and one of the people that called me said it was a it was a blocked number.
And I we answer every single phone call right now because um we're trying to get Elevate Florida. We got insurance things and stuff. And they went on to talk about the some of the police and fire stuff real quickly and then said, you know, you better change your tune or I
wouldn't leave your little dog sitting out on your front porch anymore. He may disappear. So, um, that's the kind of stuff unfortunately you have to deal with. Um, and I'm welcome. I I'll just say this again. I want to make it really
clear. If anyone threatens my wife, my family, my kids, my dog, I will stand my ground and I'm welcome to talk to the police about absolutely anything because I've never threatened anybody. Um, and
uh it's just it's just really sad that all this has come to this and that people can't work. I I agree with Commissioner Baz. kind of thought we were friends. So, I don't I don't uh have no ill will toward her, but I again the last thing I'll say is I have zero
clue. The other thing is I want to say one more thing. Um and then I'll stop. But there's this keeps saying that I am a part of CVTI. Uh I have not spoken to anyone at CVTI in well over a month. I've never given them any money. And I
think you'll see in the coming months with things that come up here, I will be at a 180 degree disagreement with CVTI. So I very I very may well be a uh recipient of some of their negative
emails that people talk about. So I just it is the amount of uh misinformation and and things out there are just really really sad. And all I'm going to do, no one, none of this is going to, you know, none of this is going to force me out. I'm just going to continue to focus on
the residents. And I just want to thank all the residents of District 2 because I get emails every week saying, "Do not give up. Do not give up. Keep We're behind you. Keep up the fight. Keep up the fight." And you're darn right that's what I'm going to do.
Do you have Carol's email to read? No. I would like to have Ardan go first and then I'll follow him, please. I was hoping I was hoping you were going to go first, but all right. Sorry. Let me try to get into this file if I can.
I can't see it from way back here. I think it's that one right there. And Commissioner Clark, you can have a video, you can have powerpoints, and you can have an Excel spreadsheet. There you go. All right. Thank you. I've got that. Now, there have been a number of uh when
I'm out working in my front yard down there in Sunset Beach, and people come walking by. Uh they always stop and talk, which I encourage them to because I I love hearing from them. Uh but but after getting hit three times with the same question, I thought it would be good to just do a little more research
on this subject. And and the subject was that from three different people over a period of, you know, several weeks. I heard from them that said, uh tell me tell me it's not true that I'm paying 91% more in property taxes than than than I was, you know, in 2019.
And uh and I said, "No, that's not true." True. And that's certainly not what uh one of the commissioners ever said. I think what the what was said was that our property tax revenue has increased by 91%. It didn't say nobody ever said your personal property taxes
were increased. But anyway, so that's the first thing I tell them. The second thing I I' I've uh told him is I I want you to make sure that you understand that when you do get your property tax bill that only 23.6% 6% of your tax bill
is for the city of Treasure Island. The remaining, you know, 74.4% or uh whatever that re inverse is, I'm sorry. Uh the the uh that's that's from other, you know, the these other uh uh agencies, you know, like the Penllis
County General Fund and EMS and the school board so forth and so on. So anyway, just so I I asked people to be aware of that. Uh, the other thing I thought would be interesting is I as I went and I checked on some of these. Let me see if I can make this a little bit larger. Uh, I went and checked on some
of these uh, things like the the first item is a or first home is a homestead and homesteaded home in Sunset Beach. As a matter of fact, this one's my house, so I won't make any secret about that. But in 2019, I paid now this is for city of Treasure Island only. My property
taxes were $2,325. uh five years later in 2024 they were 20 2807 so my property taxes increased by 20.7% during that time or about 4.1% a year uh
I did uh commissioner Sesan's uh uh information is right below mine uh his his went up 4.2% 2% as well. So both of our homes that we lived in for since 2019 had been homesteaded the entire
time uh both of them uh went up 4.1% over that per per year uh which was less than the US inflation rate of of 4.6%. So our taxes did did go up in our homesteaded homes but it wasn't uh it
wasn't anything out of the ordinary. uh a couple of the other uh points here on uh this third and fourth address here. These were uh let me do the fourth one here. This was a uh somebody's uh property taxes went up 62.7%
in that year, but that's only because it was a change of ownership and that in the house for for uh for the third and fourth addresses. So, but once once they got past that and the and the clock was reset on the value of the the house, uh they they drifted right back into the
3.2% increase each year. So, it was just that big bump there and here the year in which they bought the house that affected their taxes. So, it wasn't the city of Treasure Island was raising your taxes. Uh I thought it was interesting as long as I was going down this path to
take a look at uh how much a nonhomesteaded house did. And this is just a house down in Sunset Beach, a random house, but you can This is what happens, you know, for people who don't have homestead exemption. They're looking at about 10% increase. And that's all entirely because of the
assessed value of their house. They're capped at 10% on that. So that's why you see big increases there. But we're perhaps a city generates a a lot of money and will probably be the benefactor of this down the road is this
this uh six example down here. This is a change of ownership uh a tear down and a rebuild. So the property taxes on this particular uh house in Paradise Island in 2019 were,049
dollars. Today they're at 12,334. So that's a huge increase. but it took place in this year and and simply that's what happens when you tear down a $290,000 house and you build a $3 million house uh in place of it. So So
that's uh that's that's where the taxes are. But anyway, I I I've any any of my neighbors that uh have expressed a concern about their taxes and I do tell them, you know, it is going up. There's no doubt about that. Uh but but we're not, you know, the city's not raising your taxes by, you know, 91%. So, I just
wanted to, you know, make sure that was cleared up. A couple of other things that aren't related to this uh was uh the trade modification program and and it looks like Bobby Shay uh stepped out, but I would uh chief like to ask that at our next commission meeting that she
give us an update on the terrain modification program specifically. How many how many how many uh how many permits have been uh applied for that fall within that uh within that uh uh terrain modification program
requirements and and how the process is going if she finds it as difficult to and her staff find it as difficult to work through as as some of the residents do. So I I would like to hear some clarification on that and what their uh outlook for for the tarine modification
program is. Uh and uh that's all I have. Okay. Well um please bear with me. I have to read my notes. Um just like I mentioned before in the previous uh agenda item that I'll be out of town on
the 24th and um on a family vacation. So, uh um I'll let my constituents know I won't be voting on that. Um number two is uh uh regarding the mosquito control. I know we brought it up before, but uh
hopefully we could uh have the police uh do patrols, maybe uh target some standing water or some areas of concern where uh the mosquitoes are uh impacting our residents.
And um of course I got an email from Citizens Voice uh regarding how everything's transparent. Uh so I was just wondering if they could provide us with who's on their board uh and who are sending those emails and
full transparency, right? Uh and lastly, most importantly, I had this uh thing. It's kind of long, so bear with me. Um there are three areas of no noise. um residents, uh city staff, and the
commission. Uh a prime example of of a distraction is coming from no other than Commissioner Clark. Uh a commissioner threatening violence to a resident who is also a senior citizen. Uh Commissioner Clark told me uh on the
call uh that uh the next time he sees Peter, he's going to punch him in the face. Violence against a senior citizen um is no laughing matter, especially uh uh you know there are calls for a commissioner to resign. Um but what
about threats of violence against a fragile old man? You know um it's a double standard. So uh where's the outcry there? Um I think the police chief knows about it because it was a verbal threat. Um so there's that. And
actually, I'm not sure if uh many people are aware and this this is pretty like just why do we even have to go here? We're supposed to work together to make Treasure Island better. Uh we're supposed to uh you know, our island deserves the best from us and this is
not our best. You know, we have bickering back and forth between Commissioner Vasquez and Commissioner Clark and Mayor John Doctor and Commissioner Clark and and back and forth and, you know, we got a lot of uh important decisions to make. You know, that's one of my reasons why I brought
up the workshop. Uh make sure you get that text from Bassie, just let you know. Um so, the other thing is um uh more childish distractions from Clisher Clark. uh the distribution of these memes that he puts out. Uh he
believes that they're pretty funny as he's laughing about it now. Uh they've been dispersed by him to other residents. Uh city staff have seen it. Uh the city attorney has copies of them. Um and if this is the legacy that
Commissioner Clark wants to display, that's on him. I don't have the time to make memes on me father 2025 or whatever program you use to make memes. Um, since you did laugh, um, you know, and you
think it's comical, here's one you sent of me, uh, Peter, Arthur, and Tyler, the real housewives of Treasure Island. And, you know, I sent it to you. You know, you got to make me more anatomically correct. So, yeah, she's kind of too skinny to be me.
But, yeah, it's childish. Grow up. Maybe uh, play some Xbox or something. Get you that get that out of you. And that's pretty much it. Hopefully we could move on with what we have to do. I'll tell you what, on March 11th when
we had the election, um I was excited to uh to be your mayor. Um, you know, I I won it and I got 80% of the vote and I truly was excited and I was excited about sharing the diets with these
folks. Today, I'm not sure how excited I am about anything. You know, this is uh it's not what we need. Uh we need positive energy and we need to all be moving step in step. We got a lot of work to do for the city and for the
residents for us to be up here, you know, calling names and and talking. It it it's just disappointing. I have other words for it, but I'll use disappointing. So um with that being said uh that is the end
of our our comments for the commissioners and uh and we will move into the uh the workshop and uh let's uh let's say u literally let's say five minutes so that we can get out of here.
Uh so excuse me. I think we should all grow up. Okay. I know I am not supposed to speak. Should all grow up. Totally agree. You're really a bunch of immature people and it's my money on the island that you're not representing. You're doing a terrible job.
That's Tracy. It is. You could go in. Is your picture in here? No, it is not. Good evening and welcome to the commission workshop for June 17, 2025.
I'd like to call this meeting to order. The first item of business is city attorney and city manager reports. Oh, you uh you want me to go first? I'm happy to go first. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, sure. I'll go first. Attorney will go first. Okay. Uh I got some If you guys
are cool, it's for you. Okay, sounds good. Yeah, guys, we're um we're back in session, guys. Hey, there's going um so it's my report. I got a few comments to make on other items, but first we'll start with a slideshow. So
the slideshow addresses two two questions that um commissioners wanted kind of updates or reports on. One was the live local act and what it's looking like this session which start which ended I think 24 hours ago. Um the legislative session ended and they
amended the live local act. The second thing was about referendum, the referendum provisions in the charter here, uh, which I've consulted uh, all of the parent law and talked to the previous city attorney and I'll give a little update on that at the end about where referendums still play a role in
terms of land development here, which is really nothing, but we'll talk about it in just a second, but it's just a few slides. We'll go through it. So, uh, live local act, if you don't know what that is, you know, in my personal opinion, I think it's one of the worst bills that Tallahassee has ever passed. It's it's a very top- down approach to
um driving to solve the the crisis, as they call it, of affordable housing. And so, it just says that they're basically going to override everything local governments do. So, it's it's a law that really just comes in and tells cities and counties what they what they have to do and what they can't do. And uh it's
very unpopular. I'm just letting you know if you go to Florida League of Cities, you go to Florida Association of Counties, they generally do not like this law. Um but it was pushed through some by some very powerful interests in Tallahassee. And so what it is and just to summarize it, they come in and they
say if you're pushing for affordable housing, which is housing that a person would spend if somebody's of medium income or whichever income, if only 30% of the money they have has to be spent on housing, that would be the target price of the unit in the housing complex. And if they say that they're
going to build something like that, you basically have no choice. In fact, I would just say that literally, you have no choice. they can come in and just do it. And so we'll talk a little bit about the amendments that just came through and then we'll talk about the history of it. So the new amendments um yeah, this is uh kind of what I just said. Let me skip to the next one. So
here's some of the new language. So when they come in and they look at your zoning map and your your flu map, they look at your comprehensive plan. if they see commercial land, if that's a commercial property, they can come in and say, "Okay, I know that you really wanted to do a hotel there and some commercial stuff, but instead we're
going to do affordable housing complex there." And it is administratively um approved, which means you guys don't even really vote on it. It'll just go through. Uh your density restrictions don't matter. Uh to a certain extent, your height restrictions don't matter. They can get increased height, they can
get increased density. They can just jam it through. I guess the only good news is um these are not as popular as we thought they'd be. They started passing this law two years ago and they've amended it twice and everybody thought they would be flooding applications through but really there's been very
very few. So I think Hillsboro has had only one or two. I could be wrong on that but I know Miami Dade only had one application go all the way through yet so far and that's Miami date. So so they're coming in very slowly. Um but so if it's a yeah multifamily
application for zoning or low-income uh housing, it overrides everything in your comp plan in your zoning plan if it's commercial property or mixed use. That was the big amendment this year. If it was a mixed use, you're like, well, we already had it for housing and business. Doesn't matter. They can turn the whole
thing into affordable housing. Uh also came up with some definitions. Cities and counties were trying to push back and saying, it doesn't fit our code. What you don't you don't have definitions. So they they added more teeth by defining these terms, making it easier for them to to push it through. Um
let's see. Um you still get land development regulations, uh which if you don't just kind of give you a reminder, you know, you have your comprehensive plan, which is your sort of big picture map of what you want going on in different parts of the city. Then you have zoning, which is sort of different densities and mostly
densities and intensities of use within that zone within the flu map. And then you have your LDRs, your land development regulations, which are very specific things like trees, u you know, rocks, literally like width of driveways, um those sorts of more specific things. Those generally are
upheld. You can still your LDRs must be satisfied in most cases. They just can't. They get to override your height and your density and the type of use that you want in that area. Parking requirements, you know, a lot of cities say, "Well, we want to make sure that these developers have parking." This law makes it that they don't even have to meet your parking requirements. they can
have, I believe it's 15% less uh parking than what you want. So, yeah, as crazy as that sounds, but they're saying that that's what they want to do in order to create more affordable housing uh in the state of Florida is override local planning. Next is about lawsuits. They
can sue you and win a lot of money plus costs. So, that's like their hard cost on top of their attorney's fees if you try to deny them or stall them in some way. technically goes to the prevailing party, but the the laws written such a one-way direction that they're likely to be the prevailing party in a lot of
cases. So far, they've just been using the threat. They come in, they say, "We're going to do this via live local act if you don't approve." And a lot of cities want to evade the litigation, and they approve the type of development that they want already just to avoid any potential litigation. Building
moratoriums, people have said, "What if we just do a flat moratorum?" they get to override a building moratorum too. Um, technically on this next slide, it says you can have one for 90 days if you justify it. Uh, I think it was actually on the last slide. Let me go back. Yeah, you can have a 90-day building moratorum
within a three-year period. I don't think that the commission at this point is considering doing that, but it is an option. But obviously, that's really not much time at all. And then a little bit more, just the same attorney's fees apply if you did have a building moratorum in place. And then just to add
insult to injury in my opinion, they're making you do all these elaborate reports to the state saying, "Well, has anybody applied to us? And if so, has there been litigation?" So, it's just, you know, reporting to the state that somebody came and tried to do it and, you know, did we comply or did we try to
stop them? So, uh, just one more little addition, which is unnecessary, sort of an unfunded mandate. And then again, wherever they have height within that comp plan already, they're allowed to get it anywhere they apply. So if you allowed 60 ft in one part of the city, my understanding is that they can have
that same high in a nearby area in which they apply. So So that's bad uh in the sense that whether you want high low high or low, you want what you want in that area and they get to just take it and move it to a different area, they get the highest amount of height that
you had in your code already. And then Oh yeah. And then so that was live local. If you um there's only two slides on the next part, so if you have any questions, you could ask now or we could wait to the very end. But I'm almost finished on referendums. One of you uh u gentlemen asked me about
the status of referendums because citizens I think are still under the impression uh that if somebody wants to advocate for more housing in some development must go to a referendum. That was true up until 2023. The state legislature passed a bill. It's now the
law. It's been law for two years saying that referendums are only allowed in some cases. So on height, they're essentially not allowed at all. There is a grandfathering clause. They can take place in certain places. It doesn't apply to Treasure Island whatsoever. So
in terms of height, it's not allowed whatsoever because it's in what's called the LDRs. And so therefore, the law says you can't have any kind of height restrictions in your LDRs that require a referendum. Period. So referendums out the window. Now, referendums still exist for purposes of development in the city
when it comes to different items. For example, I'm sure you all know it's already come up a few times. If you have city-owned land, city parks, and you're trying to facilitate that for private use, that must still go to referendums. Tallahassee has not passed any laws in regards to that. And uh I think there's
one other issue in which you require a referendum. But when it comes to the height land development restriction or any kind of what they call development order, any kind of permitting application for building, referendums are out the window. They're gone. And then I just give you there's another provision that stuck out here. I know
the font is very small, so I'll just explain it quickly. There was a provision in your charter that says if you guys pass an ordinance and the citizens didn't like it, they could force it to a referendum at any time. And I brought that up to say, well, that's basically legally null and void. It's still going to exist in your code.
You're going to pull Munich code and you're going to see that, but it's legally void. Why? Because it conflicts with state law because of um our home rule statutes in the state of Florida. The state legislature is allowed to preempt you on certain things, and that's what this is. So, that's a sort of invalid part of the code. And then, do I have one more? Nope. That's it for
the rest of the slides. Happy to take any questions you have. And then anytime you want me to do a a presentation on any other topic, feel free. just let me know and I'll add it to the agenda. Uh I thank you for for walking us through that. I understand uh that SB
718 uh did uh take away the aspect of our uh heightened density uh uh code that says that if we were to change that it would have to go to referendum. Sorry, understand the referendum's gone out the
out the window. What I don't what I'm not perfectly clear on is what about our current height and density uh restrictions. Are those still in play? Totally. Yes. So, all of your height and density restrictions are still in play.
Uh and um kind of getting ahead of the issue, if you did want to increase them, I was just talking to staff about this in the CDD. It's really the county code that we would have to deal with or or get briefed up on and try to conform to or get them to push their own code in a
certain direction to to to allow us to do something if that's what you wanted to explore. But currently your height and density restrictions have not been removed in any way. Just any future uh Thank you. More questions. Yeah. Yeah. Just to
clarify on the live local, if if that were to happen, um from what I read and and I think I saw it at the beginning of the slide, it is not required that the entire building be affordable housing. Am I correct? That it is 30 or 40% of of
it. That's a very good question. It might have been the new amendment which passed. It's not signed by the governor, but it's 99% expected to. The chief of staff said he's the governor's in support of it. um that number that quantitative number of the mixeduse
projects which must be affordable units might have changed. So if you give me a day I can uh let the clerk know to send my legal answer tomorrow and tell you what I find in there. Yeah, that's fine. I just know when I originally read it that's I can't remember if it was 30 or 40%. So yeah, if you could find that
that sounds right, but I'll double check and get you guys and I also I believe and someone may or may not know the answer to this. I do believe you had mentioned it can be basically the highest building that we have in our area. Am I correct that 12 stories is
the highest building we have on Treasure Island because I know the mansions is 12 over one. What do you know? 15. Oh, it is 15. It is the sands of uh Treasure Island Sands. Oh, that's right. The tall one. Yeah. With all the uh antennas and everything else. I forgot about that.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, good. I'm glad you know the answer to that because I I I was thinking 12. But just just to be clear so that everybody understands um what they did in 2023 is if a a developer uh on the beach, let's even
say, you know, well, no, I don't want to use a real name. We'll just call it the hotel. Um and uh and somebody comes in, we buy the property, they knock down what's there, and they want to go up eight stories versus five, which it is
today base plus five. Um, they can't go to referendum. No, it goes to the It can go to the commission and the commission's got to kind of live on the county's rules. Correct. Because you're a charter county. 20 of the 67 counties have charters. So, you have this
basically roof over your heads where the county gets to tell you what you can can't do. Like, you can do more no more than this. You could advocate to them to change at any time, but right now, my understanding is there restrictions like 60 feet. I could be wrong on that, but but I don't think the county let you go
more than that in that document. Yeah. I'm sorry. Can you go to There are people online. I apologize. This is actually during my time at the commission. So, Ford Penelis is our governing body at the county level. They're our MO. uh 2023 is when
the countywide plan change from plan Penllis to Panelis Countywide plan. So, and that and that has the height restriction of I believe currently it's 60 feet. I can just double check real
quick, but you can advocate for the county to change it. I'm sorry. I'm trying to find the specific use because there's different ones that apply here. Yeah, I was going to say the height is
defined differently. Well, I don't Yeah, it's not popping up right now, but I'll have it in the next couple minutes. I'm just going to pull it. It's on a different document. So, the Fort Panel's plan has two documents. One's called the rules, and one's more like a charter if I'm not mistaken. So, I have to find the code that actually establishes the height. So, just one I
mean, if you want to if you have other questions, I'll find it. Just I want to slow down the commission. All right. Uh, are we ready for chief to Is that end of report for you, Anthony? Uh, yeah, just Oh, a couple other minor items. Just uh let's see. Yeah, happy to
do that anytime. Okay, the terrain manual like that was done as an ordinance. Obviously, CDD can take the lead on that or you guys can tell us what you want to do. I'm more than happy to just go through it's 136 pages and like simp help help simplify it, work with them to simplify it because obviously I've talked to a lot of you guys. I think there's definitely a
consensus that you want it reduced, simplified, made easier. I mean, obviously that story told tonight was pretty terrible. I want to make sure that obviously if you want to get rid of that, let's avoid that by simplifying it because I do think it's very complex right now. Uh so if you give us that
directive, we'll start having meetings and then I think it's already on a future workshop. Um I think you voted to put it on a workshop, but we can have a document ready for you to vote in the next couple weeks. I'm happy to do that. Okay. And then and then one more thing I would just say, you know, sunshine law
definitely one of the more misunderstood laws in Florida. A lot of commissioners immediately think I I'm not allowed to talk to any commissioner at any time. No, you're you're absolutely allowed to talk to each other. Uh I personally think I encourage you to talk to each other. I think it's good to talk to each other. You just can't talk about the
agenda or what's forthcoming on the agenda of what's foreseeably could be on the agenda. But what does that mean? That means you could talk about anything else. You could talk about what's happening in Tallahassee. You could talk about the 24 other cities in the county that are doing things. You could talk about the county commission. There's a million things you could talk about. And
I do think in this phase because you guys are in this growing phase. You're brand new. Not everybody has their sea legs yet. There's some tension. That's because you guys are very passionate. There's a lot of energy. And as you work through it, I think it is very important that you guys are talking. Most attorneys aren't going to say that. They're very cautious. Oh, don't talk to
each other. Not talking to each other is going to exacerbate, I think, some of the distrust or uncomfortability. I think it is good that you talk to each other. Just don't talk about city business and foreseeable items that could be city business, but I do think you guys should talk to each other and it's perfectly legal and sound. And I
will tell you that most cities do do it. Most city commissioners do meet with each other. So with that said, I'll get you an update on the hype. So, chief. Thank you. All right. Um, first thing I want to mention is the Independence Day celebration coming up
Friday, July 4th. going to take place on the beach uh around 900 pm. Best viewing areas will be near Gulfront Park. So, um planning will or parking will be at a premium. So, consider that if you can ride share, car poolool or or just walk
would be great. This year, the city is once again asking everyone to leave their personal fireworks at home. Uh we will be enforcing current ordinances to curb the use of personal fireworks on the beach including leave no trace policy, no open flames on the beach and
coastal lighting standards. Wanted to also talk about the run for the beaches 5K fun run and walk that takes place uh pretty far out on December 6th, but um teams are forming. So you can come solo or start to get on
a team currently. Um proceeds benefit the island sustainability efforts. There'll be a band, no filter, and taste of Treasure Island. Along with that event as well, Lift Board is looking to fill three vacancies. So, if you have a
passion for helping folks that are underserved in our community, uh the homeless, um folks who don't have the means to help themselves, uh Lyft is a great place for you. Please reach out to the city. We can get you a seat on that board as well. I uh wanted to address a couple of
things that were mentioned in citizen comments. Uh first being uh the the discussion or the thought that our new community development director uh is not qualified or was underqualified or was handpicked or anything of the sort. Um,
I will let you know that when I got to this chair, there were two applications sitting on the desk and that had been whittleled down from an unknown number, but none of the applications we received had any um experience with zoning,
planning, or or codes. Um, there were some, I'm told, that had experience in affordable housing, and we've just talked about that. So, clearly not good hires there. um of the two that that were left to to choose from and uh just
putting it off and waiting for a permanent city manager was not an option. We needed to get somebody in there to lead community development and to evaluate where we can do different processes. Um how we need to staff appropriately giving where we find
ourselves in you know this paradigm shift to to you know prodevelopment from stagnation and then post storm. Um, I think with with Bobby Shea's county contacts, which have have already proved fruitful and beneficial, um, her
legislative experience, her experience in Tallahassee, um, it was just a a pretty easy pick for me. So, um, at one point the former city manager had my deputy chief over there, uh, in community development, just applying incident command principles
from the fire service. And it was that kind of leadership that got them out of the hole they were in. And I have no reason to suspect that Bobby Sha's leadership um won't take it to the next level. So, um it is a a staff position. The city
manager is authorized to fill that position. I stand behind my decision and if you know citizens um you know, if they have some questions on it, I'd be happy to to answer those. But at this point, um, you know, I'm really putting
the matter to bed. I've made a decision. We're moving forward. It's what you are paying me to do. As far as the beach garbage cans, so we several months ago, we got direction from the citizens that they didn't want
cans on the beach. They were blowing over and trash was blowing all over. They were being overfilled. Trash was blowing around the beach. So, we moved them off the beach. We've put cans at all of the beach walkover points and then cans in all the garbage cans. What
we're seeing now, um, and this is mostly an education piece, um, we're seeing people come off the beach, they're bringing their trash with them, which is great. They're dumping in the first two cans they see, which are on either side of the walkover. Even if they're full, they're still dumping their trash there.
They're walking to their car and saying, "Oh, look, another garbage can." But they've already dumped their trash. So, um, we're going to work on an education piece there. Uh, there are cans out there. It's not for lack of them. It's just lack of appropriate use.
Uh, wanted to touch base. I know we talked about it earlier, but the mosquito issue. So, it's rainy season. Not news to anybody, right? We're starting to get those afternoon thunder showers. Um, we do have abandoned pools. We have lots that
have been scraped clean and homes demolished and that soil is holding water. Um, just a bad situation overall. We're working on right sizing CDD staff. We'll bring that to you. We do want to do those kind of code enforcement items
that I mean, I'm getting from each of you. You probably don't talk to each other, so you don't know it, but you're each sending me three to five of these a week and we're working on them. We are triaging what CDD does. You know, and the the most important thing, as I've mentioned
to most of you, to all of you and most of the resident responses I've given, getting people back in their homes is most important. So, we will rightsize CDD. We'll bring those to you for action and we'll be able to, you know, we're not ignoring code violations. It just
takes, you know, 20, 30, 40 hours of staff time to build a case to go to code board and we just don't have the staff ability to do that right now. Um, so, uh, Bobby Shay did reach out to her contact at mosquito control in the
county. Um, I got a two-page email forwarded to me. Um, they're going to set special traps tomorrow. Uh, I got this email this afternoon and in Treasure Island they're going to pick the traps up. Um, I believe it's a week
or a week or so they come back. It identifies which types of mosquitoes and how many we have. Um, at that point they can do uh fogging missions either aerial or from truck. They can do larvaide. And then uh one of the other issues
regarding abandoned pools uh they have to have a way to get legally onto the property. So they can't just go onto private property. So uh working through some of those issues and um hopefully have some solutions to that fairly quickly.
Uh we did talk about the beach reourishment project earlier. A few more details. It is a $125.7 million project funded by the hotel bud hotel hotel bed tax dollars and state grants. Um the county and municipal
partners have conducted extensive public outreach concerning the importance of acquiring easements um for continuous or contiguous nourishment project which offers the greatest protection. um where they don't have easements, they're going to skip those properties for homeowners
who have not signed the easements. Um unfortunately, what that does is it provides, you know, extra beach and dune all along the beach and in front of your property where you refuse to sign the easement, there'll be a gap. That's where all the water's going to come and
then the dunes and beach reourishment start back up. Uh county wants us to know that this is a one-time thing. six years from now when we need reourishment again, we cannot expect the county to expend these funds again, it's going to be back on the Army Corps of Engineers,
which means uh residents who have been notified that they need to provide an easement need to provide the easement. If even one of those residents um refuses to sign, then the entire project gets skipped. The entire community gets skipped. So, we've got six years to work
on that. County will host three public meetings uh to share information about the upcoming project. Um the one for our area is July 9th, 6 to 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and that'll be here at Treasure Island City Hall on the fifth floor.
And finally, um, this week I received a letter from a member of staff and I believe it, uh, it speaks to a lot of what was was talked about today, both from the dis and from the residents who were here. And, um, I
would like to read this into the record. It it um, I think it just bears bears saying. So, um, if you'll bear with me, I'll read this excerpts from this letter. For the thousands of res residents that we serve, we the staff, we hear you. We
show up each day for you. And on an individual level, we fight attacks against our personal integrity, which can occasionally escalate to personal threats. In this current state of aggression from an isolated few, these individuals who have bullied our community into
submission and keep people from coming to the podium to speak for fear they could become subjects of the same defaming attacks. Their narrative being sold is that your public servants are failing you and is being sold by a select few.
They do not stand for the character of our community. Instead, they actively seem to want to tear down and fight any progress that is being made. It is time we move forward, consider all possibilities, celebrate how far we've come, and engage
with public servants as we share the goal of a new and vibrant city we can all be proud of. Many cities have lost and continue to lose leadership due to public lashings and constant ridicule from a select few who hold court in public forums and on
social media. It's not just Treasure Island. We see it all over the county, all over the state. At what point do we say enough is enough? For how long will we allow them to control the narrative? In Treasure Island, we have been faced
with obstacles as public servants that seem insurmountable, but we show up day in and day out. Many residents have shared their gratitude and appreciation for staff. They continue to put basic human needs first, not just assisting with permit
applications, community policing, EMS response, but for the hours staff spend simply listening when some days that's what residents need most. to the residents we serve, the backbone of the community, you will continue to
be the reason we will flourish. And as an added bonus, uh, while I sit in the seat of city manager, I would like to offer the five or six most vocal individuals from CVTI to come meet with
me. I will spend an hour with you in city hall. We can talk about what staff does for you. You can ask any questions you might have and I hope to be able to show you that we're not burned out. We're not lazy. We are working beyond
capacity and we're here to serve despite what some may think. Thank you. End of report. Thank you, Chief. All right, moving on. We have uh commissioner goals for end of
September, end of December and end of 2026. So I asked the city staff to uh bring this uh to a workshop. Um you know looking at city government and the process it takes
to uh make decisions. Uh we have a lot of decisions to make in a short amount of time uh such as the public safety building uh location um public works uh building and size solid waste storm water at treasure bay
and so on. So uh my hope was to um uh discuss uh a timeline where we could make these decisions and start the process of putting a shovel in the ground and you know moving treasure island forward. Uh obviously a lot of
factors come into play. Um you know ways are we going to pay for it? Uh and so on. Um you know a public safety building uh you know obviously we need funding for it. Um you know I would love to get rid of that old bridge and stick it
right there. We could put a turntable for the fire truck and we pointed it in the direction of the emergency. Obviously we have no way of paying paying for it. So uh that's not going to happen. So, uh, I'd like to, uh, you know, have see if the commission is interested in having a conversation and
pretty much, you know, making goals and sticking to them and and hopefully we could do something uh together uh without um attacks and about just let's just get
stuff done. I'm just frustrated. So, that's pretty much it. I'll just uh jump in if if you don't mind. Go ahead. The uh I I certainly agree with us working better together than we have. I did feel that we did
have a it wasn't a uh off-site u uh meeting, but the commission had a meeting several months ago and and we got a chance each to say here are our top priorities. And I was very surprised and pleased to see that we were pretty
much in alignment. And that's what frustrates me a lot with with our with our board and how we're working together or in this case not working together is we agree on what we want the endpoint to be. We don't necessarily agree on how to get there in many instances. Uh but but
beyond having another workshop like that, I'm not sure what you what you mean. I will add one other uh note though because this this this really caught me off guard, but I had in in uh when people have asked how we might fund
the public safety uh facility, I've been struggling with that too because I didn't want and nor did I think any of the commissioners want to raise our millage rates. Nobody wants to do that. Uh so I thought, okay, how are we going to borrow, you know, 10 or 12 million
and not raise uh taxes? Uh and anyway, I I had a epiphany one day and and I thought, you know what? All we need to do is I know how much we get about 1.9 million almost 2 million a year in parking revenue. All we have to do is
increase parking from $4 to $6 an hour and that would get us uh enough money to cover uh the the debt service on a on a $10 million loan for the public safety facility. So, I floated that idea by no
more than three or four people uh uh as a as a way of funding that so that that we get visitors uh and tourists to pay uh pay for our public safety facilities. So, we didn't have to pass that burden on to residents. And like I said, I only
mentioned that as an idea. I've mentioned it to the finance director uh to the uh acting chief I to to chief uh trip uh I I mentioned that to him I mentioned it to a couple of residents and I had planned on raising that up at
the appropriate time here. But anyway, just I raised that only because I I uh when Commissioner Sadan mentioned uh putting this on the agenda and and I thought wow wow raising it from four to six boy that sounds like a familiar idea. I don't know how how that one got
around so quickly, but I did want to before we jump into talking about how we might spend that money if we if in fact we do it, I do want to uh uh lay it out there for everybody to hear right now that that is one option of how we might
fund a public safety facility without raising taxes. So, when I said it's a restricted fund, uh, you probably wanted it to be an enterprise fund or a fund that we could grab, we could pull from. No, I wanted a
$2 incremental from four to six go specifically towards servicing the debt for a public safety facility. That's right. Anybody else? Thank you for that, Ardan. That's that's um I mean that's awesome. And I think again along the way one of
the reasons that there was never an intent because well nobody pays cash for a government building because you stretch it over the time of the use of the building which you know is 50 60 years or in our case almost 70
even though it was supposed to be replaced a while ago. But one of the reasons for that is not only stretching it out, but also to get like the little paper we have here, so we can still continue to go and get more funds and grants along the way. And as we
discussed before, there's no prepayment penalty um on those. So, it's that's really awesome that you did that. That's very uh encouraging, but and that's something to remember too is we continue to still go and try to get more money
and pay it off and pay it off. So I think the combination of that is uh is amazing. So thank you for doing that. Okay, mayor. Um, yeah, when Commissioner Dicki brought that, he, you know, we did some
math on it, and when you look at a 15-year, the annual debt service on a 15-year loan of $10 million is approximately $945,000. Um, if you if you raise parking rates from 4 to $6 an hour, um, you know,
you're looking at 950,000 a year incremental in incremental income. um you know it kind of it kind of pays for itself and like you mentioned it does transfer that cost from the residents to visitors. So um keeps that
valorum low. We staff is also looking at at some other options that we would present to you as well. Public private partnerships are happening a lot throughout the country. Um, there are developers who who will come in and build a facility for you, lease it back
to you for 30 years at a rate less than what you would be paying, you know, for for debt service. During that 30 years, it's their building. You're the tenant. So, they maintain the roof, the HVAC, um, anything that could go wrong, the sewer, all all the systems, they
maintain those for you, and then at the end of 30 years, it becomes your building. Uh, there's an option there as well. So, one of the residents mentioned impact fees. I'm not the finance I'm not a finance guy. We're going to have one a year. So, for the impact fees of that, if we're going to incorporate impact
fees, I do recommend to to have it like to pay them to make them pay like 20% advance and then they will reserve that capacity like when they submit their plans, they pay 20%. And then every five years if they don't build uh you you
charge another 20%. So 100% of the impact fees will be due when uh the occupancy is provided to the developer and those my understanding those are restricted fees. Fire impact fee. Yes. It's for fire capital projects. So
impact fees are to uh pay for growth. So any any project that is related with growth. Yeah. I'm fine look at looking at other at options that don't uh uh don't increase people's tax increase our residents taxes. Uh what you're
suggesting is doesn't increase the mill rate but it does put the burden of paying for that on developers on on on residents. So one of the things I liked about and again I'm open for anything. I'm not s I just floated that idea out for people to give it some thought to
see if that's not a good way to go about covering the debt expense on uh a $10 million loan. So uh in I what I recommend to to the board is to don't make big decisions until uh you hear the the balance budget
that we're going to present in July. Okay, good. It's good the discussion. I like it because we can have it in our mind. So I can prepare a couple slides about this discussions to present some options. I'm going to meet with the financial consultant as well to bring uh
the current market conditions and to bring updates on how much we are going to have to pay monthly for different loans amounts. I'm going to bring that in July as well. So it's good the discussion but I do recommend to don't do any big decisions on on revenue uh
sources until July. And I'm going to try to prepare a slide about the parking about the $2 as word because I do like that idea. And if any commissioners have any new ideas, just reach out to to us and we can prepare some analysis for you in July. Joan,
would it be possible for you to explain our parking problem if you could elaborate on that? Commissioner, I know we spoke a little bit about parking, I think, in our last workshop meeting, and I was given um a green light to look at parking more
comprehensively. Um because it is very complicated. Um, so I'm not quite sure um how in depth you want me to go with the intricacies of parking. Um, from a fees and charges
point of view though, um, I think as was explained earlier, we can do that by ordinance or resolution. Um, when that when that time needs to come, I think that we would we would really need for her to go into this, right? she would need to have all of her
documentation with her and she doesn't have that tonight. But the simple is that, you know, right now we could use 250 additional spots shoots up to if we're fully built out, the city's fully built out, it's about 550 spots that we
have. uh but you know to get into any type of where the money is going to come from, where it's going to go, are we going to tie up, you know, uh what today is general fund money to to a dedicated um bond or something, you know, that's
getting way over over our heads tonight, right? And and and just to confirm again, we do have the parking function is assigned to finance. I got involved from an economic development point of view because parking is one of um the the top barriers we have to address from
a revitalization point of view especially in the downtown core. Um in my in my research again parking right now we've got a parking program in the budget. It is not a parking enterprise fund um commissioner seaison which you had um spoken about um this evening as a
possible next step forward. Um and again that's got all kinds of implications but um as our finance director said I think we're just what just a a couple of weeks away from um bringing some of this additional analysis to you so um
decisions can be made. So uh for the workshop I mean do we want to set any goals or we just want to wing it? Well, I don't think we want to wing it, but I don't think we want to decide what it's going to be tonight either. Let's put on the commission meeting.
Can I ask a real quick question? Um, I know before um the public safety building, I don't know where exactly we're at, but do we have a date that we have to decide um where it's going to be located before we go to the next step?
So, um, we did meet with our top design consultant. Uh, we had our first meeting last week and it went really well. We look forward to bringing you guys a contract here in the next meeting or two. Um the timeline they laid out for
us um has site feasibility u be be basically programmed during July and then um we start schematic design end of July into August. So, um I like I mentioned last meeting, we need to start
considering and having discussion on the available sites and I think I think we saw based on your video and just you know it doesn't make sense to put money into a 67y old building. We, you know, it doesn't, we don't know that you can you
can build up on top of that building to get it out of the flood plane based on the age of the building, the structure, um, the stability. Uh, the bays are, if you look at the front of that building, the bays are three different sizes. Uh, one of the bays we have to fold the
mirrors in on the truck when we're backing in and out. Uh, backing in and out is just not a standard anymore anyway. So that that site in my professional opinion uh that site and it's right on the water. You know, we don't want to be right on the water. Uh
it's right in the middle of that. We're we're we've torn down the old city hall, the old public works administration building. We're going to rightsize the pump station facility and the public works yard down there. It's it' sit right in the middle of that beautiful
waterfront parcel. It just doesn't make a lot of sense from a from a going forward standpoint either. Um it the idea has been floated 105th is platted to go through the park anyway. Extend it out through there and put it there. It
would use a fraction of the park. Um it would be pretty much as far away from the water you can be and still be in Treasure Island. Uh which which is a significant point. I mean it gives us the ability as opposed to this parcel here to use more fill and build up a
little higher. Um but also there are structures and space between where the wave action would hit the building. Um then rather if we put it right here. Uh the other item here is this parcel um has potential contamination of the soil
from the 7-Eleven that was there. There's 13 current monitoring wells that the state has picked up cost to monitor and maintain. They do that on a quarterly basis. We'd have to remove those uh build our facility and then replace somewhere between nine and all
13 of those and then maybe or maybe not. The state would pick up monitoring on that again could be our ongoing expense. So that's another thing that our consultant has has determined. Can I ask something on that real quick before you skip past that? You said something about it was already plotted for 105th to go
through. Yes. So, being that that is technically parkland, does that, and that's probably a question for over here. Does that have to go to referendum to do that? Because I believe it does if it's parkland. Am I correct?
Well, what what I was and I'd welcome your opinion, but what I was what I was told was um if we were to sell it or lease it, it would just a simple zoning change can be done by the commission. Oh, okay. Is that correct? Partially. If
if I'm wrong, let me know. So, I would I would probably defer to Marielleen or Katherine on this because they have specific experience with regards to spot zoning and that would be my ultimate concern. Um, it does read in the charter all parks have to go to referendum, but I am not going to sit
here and claim to know on day 14 the answer to that. I can promise you that I can get it. How about that? That works. I mean, the language I can read the language. I have it. Uh, notwithstanding paragraph A, all parks wherever located and public lands within
the city limits of the city of Treasure Island that are contiguous to provide water access including but not limited to the Gulf of Mexico beaches, Bokea SGA Bay, and Blind Pass, including rights of way and access easements may not be
sold, leased beyond three years created, or given away absence the passage by an affirmative vote of four fifths of the city commission. and approval by the electorate or by vote of the electorate through initiative or referendum is provided for
in article 7. U it doesn't mention anything about zoning change. Okay. You know and zoning change is not an easy process. That's 9 to 12 months. Um even if we get started today uh the the programming from the contractor doesn't
have us breaking ground until August of 26. So, um, that's just how long design, permitting, all that takes, whichever site we choose. Okay. I just wanted to because I know I've received a couple emails about
it, you know, and I when I read the charter, I kind of read it that way. So, that's why I wanted to double check. That's why we just need to flesh all these these things out and and make the best decision going forward. But a decision we must make. And what did you say the timeline was? We we need to make
a decision on first of all we're going to have a a joint uh public safety facility. We need to make decide on that as a commission and we need to decide on location. Correct. And what are the what's the timeline on that? Uh well, we can do it anytime you want. U we're
getting the pub the the new temporary facilities delivered. We had the police building delivered today. Um we can stay in those at $10,000 a month as long as we need to. Um, but again, that's, you know, it's like renting. It's it's pouring money away. We're not investing
in our our community's future sufficiently. They would like to know like by July, August. Correct. We've got uh the site feasibility and concept um programming uh begins uh the beginning of July, runs through the entire month
of July. So, well, I think that you we've pointed out two items that we need to do. I think that the the third item is how are we going to pay for this? We don't have the money. I mean, we were planning on 6 million from the state and 6 million, you know, we were
going to do 6 million match. We got a 1.5 million from the state and that's if the governor doesn't line item veto it. Uh, and so I think that, you know, realistically when we're talking about it, we need to take a look at all three. It's a three stool, you know. Sure. For
the past 10 years, the plan in the CIP has been to borrow the money and that that's just the way it's done in municipal. Yeah. We don't spend our cash. But we just had two hurricanes that wiped out almost the entire facilities of of the city. So, I mean,
it it does we just have to figure that out before we start rushing into anything. Right. Agreed. We we've we've presented three ideas this evening and you know it's just a matter of the commission making a a decision on how they want to proceed and letting us know
we can exist in the temporary buildings as long as we need to. But it's not ideal. It's just fiscally not responsible. But you know we're willing to do what we need to do. And I agree there were several options
given just tonight on Yeah. I don't I don't disagree that we need to get the the firemen in a a real building. Um we just have to take a look at it. Is it going to be that $12 million building or is it going to be something different
than the $12 million building? I don't know what other option there is. I mean, that's what the contractors are telling us. It's $1,000 a square foot. I mean, yeah, the the research I had done earlier, I shared at one of the commission meetings. I and I I have it
here in my stack somewhere. Uh but I I went and looked at a whole bunch of recent uh and recent I mean in the last two or three years uh fire stations that have been built within the state of Florida and all of them all of them were in the 9 10 10 11 million range
including the the most recent one over there at the South Pasadena. So so that uh that 10 to 12 million range is not unreasonable. uh chief has been floating and others the idea possibly it being 12 million if
we get 1.5 million from the state we're going to get insurance some insurance money I don't know how much but we're going to get insurance money we hopefully get some with FEMA uh and we're still going for grants but I think what we what what if we just raise our
parking from $4 to $6 an hour we will cover the 945 950 a year in debt service for a 15-year loan. So, in 15 years, we'd have that new facility paid for. So, anyway, that's just some of the options, but I do agree with you, mayor,
that we need that needs to be one of the three things that we need to work out. All right. Is there anything else? Uh, my item number two, um, ready to move on to that one. What was your item number two? Code enforcement staffing. I think
we agreed upon to move it forward. Yep. U Okay. Don't we're not expecting the hoe to make any decisions tonight, right? We're because we're in the this is the uh workshop where we don't make decisions, of course. Okay. All right.
We talk about it for a couple meetings. Uh code enforcement staffing. We're obviously short staffing code enforcement. Uh we've need to immedi immediately add personnel in the code enforcement to address derick buildings, unpermitted work, fill in uh fill fill
dirt without approval. Um on houses that are being torn down that are not graded uh property on the lot or providing proper drainage or drainage. Uh they're not also installed silt felt fences uh and not solding thus creating a mosquito
breeding environment which is a public safety issue. So let's not talk about it. No, no, I I think we we can and should talk about all those things because I agree with everything you say there. question is is we don't have the staff to do that and and you're you're
asking let's figure out how to fund that right and get it going because I don't think you'll get any disagreement with anybody here on on the dis that that we we need to be focused on all those things I keep hearing that we need to be focused on getting people in the house
and their houses but the ones that are in their houses already are complaining about all those things that commissioner Sesan just read off uh so we need to get uh either permanent or temporary resources to community development uh to
allow them to uh to to start enforcing some of these codes and and otherwise things are going to continue to deteriorate. And this isn't just rainy season mosquitoes. This is the worst mosquito that I've ever seen. And I know
lately the uh code enforcement uh board meetings have been cancelled for the last since I've been a commissioner. I don't think we've had any code enforcement meetings at all. Uh and I know Mitchell Shank Shankman, our uh one of our residents, uh you know, joined the code enforcement board and then
resigned because there were no meetings. So, he brought that to my attention. Yeah, like I mentioned, it takes 20 to 40 hours of staff time to put together a code board case. It's it's a quasi judicial judicial meeting and we just don't have the staff time to do it, right? Well, is it that that we don't
have the staff time from code enforcement because they're working in permitting? Correct. So, do we take a look at saying, "Let's get our code enforcement people out in the field and let's hire more more permit folks." What about a non- call engineer? Does anybody
uh have experience in is that outsource outsourcing available for code enforcement? Director is working on that now. Um we we don't Yeah, we don't know what we don't know. So, she's looking at a a full review of her department. She's only been here three weeks, but she's
putting together a plan. Almost three weeks. Almost. Uh, no. The staffing issues are a priority for me, and it really comes down to funding. And I'm looking at everything from the costs that we've spent in temporary help versus some consulting that we may be able to bring in house. But there was a
position that was slated for the budget prior to 25. It was slated for FY25 which is flood plane manager which I don't want to skip past because it is equally as important as code especially as we get into terrain modification. Right now our
staff member is doing two jobs um which is also part of the delay in the process. He is both flood plane manager and planning um person. So we are looking at the staff as a whole and I am I am thrilled that you have brought this
to workshop. My goal was to be able to have something before you at the next commission meeting and it's incredibly ambitious, but that's what my my goal is and that's what Marielle and I are working towards. Um, but to your point with codes, we're coming up with an internal plan to try to catch up until
we have approval for new staff. But it comes down to dollars. Uh, our department has lost a significant amount of revenue from fee waiverss. No judgment. No, it just is what it is. But the recovery from that is going to be tough. So, we will definitely be having
to ask to to borrow against general fund. And we also have to look at long-term the consistency of these positions because this isn't going to cure itself in 12 months. Um the the more we rebuild and the more we develop,
the city's going to continue to need staff. So, I need to have a better idea to be able to project what that looks like so we have sustainable staff for the future. Thank you. And if I may, something that you had said, you meant you brought up Mitchell
Shankman and I almost forgot. He actually had a really good idea. Um he um I don't even know if it's a feasible one, but he um he actually, you know, drives around and walks around and anybody that knows Mitchell knows how
Mitchell is. And he's just a community guy, but he's a great guy with a great heart. and he said he had noticed a lot of um houses that are for sale with real estate realtor signs in the yards and
that the yards are overgrown like they're still overgrown because they're basically I don't know if they're foreclosed and he didn't either but he's like there's a lot of houses out there for sale with with real realtor signs in them but the yards are overgrown
and he was curious as to if there was any way we could like pass a little ordinance or do something where the real estate company who is and again I don't even know if it's a feasible thing but it was something he brought up um possibly where they would be responsible
um with for cutting the grass and keeping the property maintained because he's like you would be surprised how many are out there that have the real estate sign. So I I actually looked into that. We had a meeting with Mitchell. Um the the first recommendation is that if you see a real estate sign on a property
that looks overgrown or in blight, there's nothing stopping you from calling the realer to let them know that the property needs to be maintained. Um it would have to go through state statute. Oh, gotcha. In order I I don't know that you'd be able to even at the
state level, I would defer to Anthony on that one. Um to defer responsibility of that property to an agent. Makes sense. It was a great idea. I app and I didn't and I apologize. I didn't realize he resigned. I got the impression in our meeting that he was just eager to work.
So, thank you for that explanation, though. So, call the realators when you see overgrown grass. All right. Um, let's uh in just to follow up two very quick two points of inquiry. Uh, Commissioner Vasquez asked
about the eligibility for live local acts to get their credits when they put in an application is as long as 40% of the application is or units are for affordable housing. It applies either it's I mean could be residential or commercial. If the application all has
100 units, 40% are affordable. They're they they they hit the threshold. And then the maximum restriction right now as it pertains to here under the county code is 60 feet like we talked about. That's the county tax. Yep, you got it.
Thanks. Thanks. All right. Uh, public comment, West Evans, Isle of Palms. Uh, I just wanted to address a couple things. Uh, it seems like everyone on this commission is kind of on the same page on everything with
minor differences. Uh earlier I was accused of making threats against a commissioner, the vice mayor, which I've never done. Uh I believe I don't know if this was supposedly more than one time. I was supposedly
meeting with a bunch of people and talking. Uh after the last commission meeting, we went out to eat, walked into a restaurant at the same time as the attorney and actually left before the attorney did. and uh I'm sure he can uh
actually confirm that no threats were made about the vice mayor. In fact, what we talked about is how everyone in this commission pretty much agrees on everything with minor differences.
That's it. I think all of you do. I know uh some of you might want the public safety building on 108th. Some want it besides city hall. Now there's something about in the park. That's probably the biggest difference between everyone.
One thing that does seem to be happening is everyone kind of has this game of telephone going on where each of you say that well you heard from someone that this is happening and someone's saying this. It seems like maybe there's
division going on in the background and you guys are being divided by uh anonymous, not the same anonymous. I'm not referring to the letter, but there's people trying to divide you to keep from getting things done in the community.
We all want this to be a great town. I don't think anyone that comes up here and speaks is despicable, deplorable. Whatever the words were disgusting, those words that were used, everyone wants the same thing, for it to be a great town to live in and a great
town to raise your family in. So, once again, I just want to say I've never threatened you in any way. Never said you did. I just said you were there, just for the record. Okay. Well, I just I want to make it clear, but I also also I've never said you did. Okay. Well, I also want to make it clear that I've
never heard anyone say anything about taking you out or anything like that because I would speak against that. In fact, most of the time when we leave these these meetings, Sarah and I talk about how great you are as a
commissioner. So, I know you think we have some kind of difference. We don't. We agree with 99% of everything you say. We agree with 99% of what all of you say. This was our dream commission. We want you guys to work together and make
this great. So, whoever's whispering in your ear telling you little things that are, think about it. Maybe they're trying to divide you guys so you don't work together and you don't get things done.
Thank you. All right, that's the the end of our public comments and that brings us to adjournment.