Good evening and welcome to the regular commission meeting for July 15, 2025. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Now, if we could please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please be seated. All right. Will you please call roll? Commissioner Clark. here.
Vice Mayor Vasquez here. Commissioner Sison here. Commissioner Dicki here. Mayor Doctor here. Thank you. All right. Moving on. Approval of regular and workshop agendas.
Do we have anything to add? All right. So now we will move on to proclamations, recognition, certificates of appreciation, which we have none. So, public comments for non-aggenda items. The first Karen Barnett.
Thank you, Mayor Doctor. Karen Barnett, 2011 104th Avenue. Um, I'm here on behalf of the Lyft Board. We will be doing a presentation July 31st. There's a little bit of information and flyers over here at the desk where you can get
your agenda. Basically, uh, it's a community gathering. We spend a lot of time on hurricane preparedness. Your boat's tied down, your house is shuttered up, everything's done, but we don't spend enough time on how we reacted to what happened to us. So, this
is just a community um gathering. We're going to have a leader there speaking, leading the discussion. So you have an opportunity to talk um things like anxiety about the future, loss of home or belongings, financial worries,
uncertainty about rebuilding, lifting your house, all of these kind of issues. And some of the people that were attending our meeting also have pointed out that their children every time the storm starts, their children run grab their toys and hold them to their chest because they saw everything gone. So
there'll be different topics discussed and if you're interested say you have young children and you're interested in how you can help them cope with this what are your resources how can you help personally there'll be information for you elderly you have an elderly parent
family or neighbor um information for them resources it's on the fifth floor July 31st at 6 p.m. There's child free child care available provided by Sunshine Sitters which is one of our local businesses here that's been started. So we want to support them as
well. Appreciate them doing that for the lift group. Um if there's any questions or anything there's uh info@liftyft.org that you can contact or myself or the city they'll refer you to us. So please attend or spread the information if you
know anyone who needs anything. And like I say there's information on it here at the desk. Thank you. Thank you. Cara Sim. Good evening. Cara Sim, District 1. Um, I apologize. I was not at the last meeting. Um, but my name was mentioned a
few times. Um, ironically, in Quidden, um, yes, well, you know what I mean. Um, I brought up impact fees a few meetings ago and ironically it was brought up at our LPA meeting and um, they are
actually two different topics. The multimodal uh, impact fee ordinance that was brought to y'all last week or the two meetings or the last meeting had nothing to do with actually what I was talking about two meetings ago. So Kimley Horn actually talked about the
impact fees uh with our LPA board. And so I'm just going to read to you their definition because he actually included that in our um packet. Impact fees are a tool used by local government to manage the costs associated with the new development. They are a one-time fee
assessed to new construction, both residential and commercial, to cover the cost of increased infrastructure and service needed due to the new construction. So, a couple years ago, I actually asked the question at a meeting
um when Tyler used to do the gatherings that he used to have at the community center. Um I actually asked if we had impact fees here in the city of TI and the qu the answer was no. The um business behind it is that every city
surrounding us have them. Treasure Island is at a point right now where yes, we are prodevelopment. We are starting over. We need to prepare for the future. And in order to do that, we're not trying to be anti-development
by putting fees into place. But we also have to think about the impact these new builds are going to have on the infrastructure that we already have in place and that we need to put into
place. Impact fees can be anything from transportation impact fees, sewer capacity fees, storm water utility fees, and other development fees. Um these can
be on commercial or residential. Examples of these fees can be used. For example, sewer and waste uh sewer and water capacity fees, utility fees can expand water and sewer treatment plants.
They can lay new pipes or lift stations for new service areas. Point A on 108. um they can upgrade capacity like when we build a new hotel and we need to upgrade the capacity that that impact is
going to have on our sewer systems. Transportation impact fees, these can be used for new road construction or widening. Um pretty sure the whole elevate TI thing was all about the 160 million we needed for roads, traffic signal systems, bike lanes, pedestrian
infrastructure, sidewalks. um a city can use the money it collects from the impact fees for the specific purpose tied to the reason the fee was collected. So a developer's transportation fee is used to pay for the new traffic light or the bus shelter
near the new housing or retail center. A storm water fee from a shopping center project might fund a new retention pond to manage the runoff from that specific area. A sewer capacity fee would help build extra capacity in a wastewater
plant to handle the increased demand. Um, storm water utility fees could be used for new drainage systems or retention ponds, flood mitigation and infrastructure to handle runoff from new development. There are many cities, for example, the
city of Safety Harbor. They have mobility, sewer, sanitation, public safety, which goes to their fire and fire station builds, library, park, and parkland impact fees. This has funded actually um most of their infrastructure
and service improvement projects since the 70s. Um now, I know a lot of people are now talking about the state bill 180 that just passed at the end of June. Um, since technically Treasure Island doesn't have any impact fees, we are not
actually impacted by that bill. Um, and obviously I'd want you to verify that, Mr. City Attorney. Um, because this is a new fee, um, the city would not be constrained by the 5-year rule on the fee increases. However, the city would
obviously need to do an impact fee study. Now, at our LPA meeting that we had um just in June on the 19th, Kimley Horn was there and we grilled him, you know, to the tea on how to make this
happen. An impact fee study could take anywhere from 6 8 10 12 months. And basically what that would entail would be the city commission would have to direct send out an RFQ um to our engineering firms to have an
impact fee study completed um and then that would be an ordinance it would have to go into place and then it could roll out. So we're still looking at a year timeline for that to happen. Um, so with that, we can still
circumvent around the SB180 bill that just came into place. Um, the encouragement that I would make to everyone that is here is to please attend the planning and zoning meetings. Please attend your local planning agency
meetings. Um, for example, we receive an update on every single piece of development and it's all public. it's on the agenda um that's happening. So, any project that's coming through the pipeline, any vacant piece of property,
any sort of um developer that's pulled a permit or looking to chew a change or anything before it even hits this desk, it's coming through our board. So, please attend our meetings. Um they're very um educational. I know the
multimodal thing caught a lot of people off guard a couple weeks ago at this meeting. It was very informative because we grilled them to a tea and yes, we all voted for it. Um because we got to the brass tax of what that was for because right now Treasure Island does not have
any sort of fees in place. The only money Treasure Island is making right now is off of us as residents. Um and so we need to change that and we need to put something else in place and have some sort of revenue generating um somewhere else. And that's pretty much
um you know where it comes from. I'm happy to send a lot of this over to y'all so you can take a look at it. But that's my piece. Thank you. Thank you, Cara. Eric Spain. Hello. Uh
I appreciate your time. So I'm here to talk about the beach replenishment that um we're getting ready to do. So I have uh lived on the on Treasure Island. I lived on Sunset Beach for over 20 years. Uh I've owned businesses in the area. I
used to rake the beach behind caddies for over 5 years. I got to manicure the beach, I should say. Um I was fortunate enough to uh really observe mother nature, you know, a lot. And I got to tell you, so we're getting ready to ship
in more sand according to your guys's plan. And it's one of the worst plans I've ever heard, honestly. uh we would be better off just taking a brick of gold and chucking it in the ocean because we're going to hurt the environment by
we're we're every time we bring more sand out to the beach, we're covering up the natural environment that's out there. And right now we have natural upwelling that's coming up out of the the water. If you go out there, we've had so much rain that the cold water is
actually coming up through the ground and it's cooling our golf. It's incredible. Uh it it's a blessing. And basically by shipping out the sand out there, it could destroy that. Um
what I what I'm proposing basically is I have a lot of other solutions. Um ju just by watching mother nature by working with mother mother nature I feel like that's our best thing to do. Uh just saying mother nature is is uh one
thing like if you take too much from our beach in other words if you act too aggressive like what we're planning on doing is elevating the sand we are going to create the most volatile situation that this beach has ever seen. Honestly,
it what happens is the water works on momentum and as it comes up, it goes down even faster and we're going to create a really bad situation by elevating the sand the way you guys are doing it and especially at the rapid
pace that you were doing it. We live on a sand bar, you know, really. It's not an island and all this stuff elevationwise should have been a lot different, but we we're here and now we have to deal with it. What I'm proposing that we do is basically instead of
dropping sand out there, I feel like we need to go out 100 or 200 yards and drop rock, boulders, big ones that don't move. 155 mph storms don't move boulders. There's boulders that have been sitting out on our beaches for a long time. like they haven't moved.
Uppam Beach just got finished replenishing their beach the same way by putting the uh the structure out there. It adds good things for fish. It adds a good environment for things. It it's a lot better of a solution than what we're about to do. I've seen uh full moons
take away beach replenishments. I've seen just a full moon take away a whole entire beach replenishment. And it's just basically taking our money and throwing it into the Gulf, you know? So, uh,
I I work better one-on-one. It's It's hard for me to stand stand up here and speak, honestly. It's I'm a, you know, I I I own my own business right now. I I I do a lot of manual labor. I I work with a shovel, you know, like that's what I do. I work I work with a hammer in my
hand. I'm a mason. I I do a lot of stuff, but I I I build tooling pools. There's a lot of stuff that I know about the environment with working with the environment, understanding things. And when we need a better maintenance system as far as just keeping up with the sand, we can actually take the sand that we
already have, use the billions of yards of sand that's already in the water that mother nature is trying to give to us like a gift, but we're not taking it. We're not using it. It's free. It's literally free. It's It's right there. And there's ways to do that. and I'm
happy to work with you guys as far as um uh consulting. I'm happy to be employed by you. I'm happy to, you know, contract with you, but I I would love to have that opportunity to move further in the future and discuss this, you know. Uh
but I I'm telling you, we've got better uh smarter ways to move forward. So, that's pretty much it. You know, I appreciate your time. Thank you, Eric. Yeah. Thank you, Sarah Pennington. Good evening everyone. Sarah Pennington,
Isisle of Palms. I did not intend to discuss impact fees, but I did want to mention one thing before I get to my non-aggenda comment. Um, a couple weeks ago when we had that multimodal presentation, they had, it appeared to me that the money brought in from those
specific fees could not be used for transportation operations and maintenance. And that kind of gave me pause because I thought, okay, well, what if we built up a whole bunch of fees, but we don't need any new transportation projects? We don't need
new stop lights or anything new. what happens with that money. And I did notice on their presentation they mentioned there was room for um negotiation on how those fees are spent, how those fees are brought in, all of that. And so I just thought that would
be something for you guys to consider if we did move forward with any um uh impact fees like that to ensure that we could use them for maintenance and things that we need and not be constrained only on new projects. Now, what I'm here to talk about though is
not that. I wanted to talk about tonight I've noticed a theme at the last several meetings and that is about revenue, which is very important to us. We need to bring in new revenue obviously and um and that's great, but I have noticed
there has not been much conversation around reducing spending within the city. And as any uh budget goes, whether it's our personal family or our business or even the city, I think um revenue is not the only lever that you want to look
at. You also want to look at the spending. Um if we reduced our spending, trimmed the fat, then maybe we wouldn't need as many schemes to come up with as much new revenue. So my proposal would be I know we have some budget meetings coming up soon. Would maybe the heads of
each department be available to look through their specific department and come back to us and say, "Hey, here's some areas that I found where we could trim the fat. Here's some areas where we could spend less or spend more efficiently." And maybe our department heads could actually help us all
together to look at that side of the budget, the spending, and allow us to get that under control as well. Thanks. Thank you, Sarah Marie. Good evening, mayor and commissioners. Marie Barber from Sunset Beach. Um, I'm
here in different postures from the last uh time I came up here on uh during public comments because I want to thank the commissioner commissioners and your four-year assistance. This was about my residential permit and I was pretty
distraught about five months gone by. Here we are, you know, at the crust of the next hurricane season and I couldn't get my permit and I had gotten that independent appraiser. Um, and so I found uh I did discover some things that
were I think uh Mr. Bars was the city manager. So he corrected me on uh not us talking about a substantial review board because there was none there is not a substantial review board. There is a substantial review person.
And so I'll get into the criteria a little bit um when I but before I want to thank uh art uh Commissioner Ardan for directing me to Renee. Renee did uh move this forward and within a week I
had my I actually have my permit. So thank you very much. Um, yeah. And but I do want to clarify some things because because we have the, you know, the we don't know what's going to happen. A
disaster can happen again, but we hope not, right? We we haven't seen this here on the islands for decades. I haven't. And my, you know, my significant other since 1955, 1956 when they built their home, I think the city of Treasure Island wasn't even the uh Treasure
Island at the time. you know that we saw we have not seen this this flooding ever. And so um but there's a process that I went through when I got the independent appraiser that changed the criteria of why I was not getting my
permit or I would have had it sooner. So that's something that maybe I can discuss with, you know, somebody that would like to listen about. I think it would be the city manager actually because he directs that traffic over there. So, um, but in any case, I really
did want to thank you. Thank you, Ardan. Thank you, Renee. Thank you, the rest of the commissioners and mayor for listening to me. Thank Thank you, Marie. Ronald Diazi. I know. I saw him walk in. And there he is.
Yes. Ronald, you're up. Okay, good evening everybody. My name is Ron Diazi and I'd like to talk to you tonight uh regarding transparency and self-ruule.
Now, from what I could see, uh, we just appointed a new Would I'm sorry, Ron. Would you you need to speak into the microphone so that the people at home can Okay. We just, uh, I guess uh, hired a
new city manager and as far as I could see, there was very little transparency. uh we didn't get a chance to get to know what he's about, where
he's from, uh what his background is. And I'm sure it's the best. I'm sure it is. But I can't understand why out of all of Penllis County, we can't hire a city manager
that is from Penllis County where he has a stake in the community. We keep hiring people from outside the area. Why? We waste money
hiring an agency to read a uh resume and interview these people and hire them without us even knowing anything about them. I think it's a waste of money.
I think we should be able to vet our own city manager. It should be a strong mayor so he's accountable to the people. The city manager is not accountable to us.
We should have a a a a city mayor, strong mayor that's accountable to us. If not, we fire them. Also on uh talking about self-ruule,
we waste an awful lot of money. I don't know if anybody here had a chance to go and look at the videos that I suggested at the last meeting. Uh the videos are by um hold on a
second. Um uh uh Grant Warrington. Just Google Grant Warrington and he'll tell you we could become self-suffici sufficient Treasure
Island. We could become our own city. We don't need all these outside agencies. It's just a waste of money. I want uh I checked into it the other day. We don't need these outside agencies. What do we need them for? We're paying
them for what? I don't understand it. So, I would just appreciate it if you hadn't had time to Google Grant Warrington. Check it out. His videos will explain much better than me
about self-ruule and about our government the way it should be run. Uh, and that's about all I say I have to say. Just please go to Grant Warrington, read it, look at his
videos. There's several of them. And and then make an educated decision based on your knowledge. Okay, that's about it. Thank you, Ron. Okay. All right, that is the end of our public
comment. Uh so we'll continue to move forward. Uh approval of the minutes, please. I move to approve the minutes as published. Second. Do we have any uh any discussion up
here? hearing none. Um I think that we can uh move forward on a voice vote. All in favor say I. I opposed. Great. Thank you. All right. Consent consent agenda.
I move to approve the consent agenda as published. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor say I. I I All opposed. All right. We're now moving on to items
of business. Second reading of public hearing ordinance 20250 budget amendment to recognize the sale of a seized truck by the police department to the parks and recreation please. So it's ordinance 2025-09
ordinance of the city of Treasure Island, Florida, general fund budget to recognize the sale of the seas truck by the police to parks and recreation. We have a motion, please. I move to approve and adopt ordinance number 2025-09
at this final reading and public hearing. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Okay. Any public comment? Hearing? None. We'll close public comment. Uh once again, we'll do a voice
uh voice roll. Uh all in favor say I. Actually, this one because it's an ordinance does require roll call, unfortunately. Okay. All right. Roll, please. Vice Mayor Bazquez. I. Commissioner Clark. Hi. Commissioner Sison. Hi. Commissioner Dicki. Hi. Mayor Doctor. I.
Thank you. All right. Moving on. Second hearing to approve ordinance 202507 budget amendment to recognize insurance proceeds in the amount of $600,000. And I'll go ahead and read. Actually, I I did a little research on how much needs to be read. The way you just read
it pretty pretty substantially actually fulfills the requirement. Um, anything more than just the number is fine. So, since you annunciated basically the whole meaning of the ordinance, I think that's sufficient. Yep. Okay. All right. I move to approve and adopt ordinance number 2025-07
at this final reading and public hearing. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any public comment? Hearing none, we'll close public comment. Uh do we have any discussion here? Okay. Roll call, please.
Vice Mayor Bazquez, I. Commissioner Dicki, I. Commissioner Clark, I. Commissioner Sison, I. Mayor Doctor, I. Thank you. Moving on to H3. First reading of ordinance 2025-12, budget amendment to recognize insurance
proceeds in the amount of $14,12659 cents for hurricane damages. Do we have a motion? I move to approve ordinance number 2025-12 at the first public hearing and to schedule it for a second reading at the
August 5th regular commission meeting. Second. We have a motion and a second. Do we have any public comment? Hearing none, we'll close public comment. Any discussion up here? Yeah, I was uh going to ask Mike Howard
about uh what the total uh insurance proceeds we've uh received to date, including this amount. I mean, 2.5 million is a very impressive number, and I was just wondering if you have a total proceeds collected to date. uh not to
the penny, but um it's probably in the neighborhood of three to three and a half million at this juncture. Okay. Um but I'm being conservative and I'll stick with my oh hell yeah comment from a while back on getting more. So there's that was my follow-up
question. You you were this isn't the final insurance payment that we're expecting. Very good. Thank you. All right. Anything else? Roll call, please. Vice Mayor Basquez. I. Commissioner Clark. Hi, Commissioner Sison. Hi, Commissioner Dicki. I,
Mayor Doctor, I. Thank you. Moving on. H4, first reading and public hearing of ordinance 2025-10, budget amendment to recognize insurance proceeds in the amount of 2,526,7783 for hurricane damages.
Motion, please. I move to approve ordinance 2025-10 at the first public hearing and schedule it for a second reading at the August 5th regular commission meeting. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any public comment hearing? None. We'll
close public comment and uh any discussion up here. No discussion up here. Roll call, please. Vice Mayor Vasquez. I. Commissioner Clark. Hi. Commissioner Sison. Hi. Commissioner Dicki. Hi. Mayor Doctor. I. Thank you. H5, approval to authorize the
city manager to execute a contract with Beerquist Recovery Consulting for disaster uh financial recovery consulting services. We have a motion, please. I move to authorize the city manager to
execute a contract with Burquist Recovery Consultants for a three-year term with two one-year renewals for disaster financial recovery consulting services. Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion and a second.
Uh, public comment. Yes, please. Come on up, Sarah. I think this might be related to the grant writing position. Could someone just clarify that for me? Is this a consultant for the grant writer?
Does anyone know? They are. it it is related to acquiring grants for the city. Okay, got it. That's that's what I thought. I just wanted to not um misspeak about this. I just wanted to point out for the record that when we
took on this full-time position of a grant writer, almost every single citizen that came to the podium that night had said, "Hey, we need to be careful about spending money on this." um which I understand many of the um city's position is that this position of
a grant writer will pay for itself. Um but I I do want to point out that almost literally every citizen said, "Hey, maybe we should just get an on call um person to do grants. Maybe we should just hire someone part-time. Maybe we should just kind of go slow into this to
make sure that this is a good fit for us to have a full-time grant writer before we're spending over $100,000 a year on a full-time new position." And now here we are. I don't think anything has happened yet with this new um full-time position. And now we're looking into a contract
for spending more money on grant writing. And so I just wanted to point that out. I don't know if it'll affect anything that we're doing tonight, but it just kind of took me a back to think, gosh, we all said, hey, let's be careful about overspending on this, and
nothing's happened yet, and we're now already spending more money on another person. So that's it. Thank you. Thank you, Sarah. All right, public comment. Uh, Mark Hoey.
Uh thank you Mark Hoey 225 104th Avenue and also a uh member of the volunteer group Rebuild TI which is kind of spearheading the idea of driving for the myriad of grants that are available to
the city from all kinds of sources in order to help not only in the rebuilding process but to help defay costs incurred by the hurricanes. s over the last uh last year. So, I think it's clear that
we don't or we haven't really clarified the roles that are going to be in place here. And I'll leave that to Joan. She's fully versed in it. Joan Goodrich uh kind of heads up that group. Ardan Dicki uh is a sponsor of the group. And we've
spent uh every week, one one day a week uh going through since February going through all of the possible grant opportunities. Uh, believe me, if you want to know bureaucracy and action,
look at grants and the amount of detail, followup, um, just application process, everything that goes into these in order to even apply, it's enormous. Uh, the city up until
this point, the the grant writer started Monday, just started Monday. Um the amount of detail is such that there was nobody on board at the city up to this point that could manage that. We were trying to do some of this through
existing employees but that was not uh moving this forward. So about the Burkquist folks, this is really a jump start for the grant writing efforts for this city going forward. I'm for one I
don't think it will be permanent. I think there's a to in my mind uh Burquist is there to help go through the hundreds of opportunities we have. Pick the ones that we fit, get them submitted, and let's see if they will
indeed be effective in getting that money back. If if they do, it will pay for itself. The grant writer will pay for themselves. But I think for us not to try would be leaving a lot of the burden for future rebuilding of this
community back on us, the taxpayers. So I think that's a small amount. I say that 50,000 is not a small amount, but relative to some of the other spends we've seen for consultancy services, that's a small amount to put out as seed
money to try to get us up and running on the grants over the remainder of this year. So, thank you. Great. Thank you, Mark. Ron, uh, I'd just like to say it's my opinion. I'm not an advocate of grants
only because it's not free money. We ultimately pay for those grants. When we get money from the government, we're the ones that ultimately pay for it. So, I mean, we sit and discuss here or
we uh about getting money on grants. I think we should become self-sufficient. And if we need money, we could pay for it ourselves if we run the city properly. So,
I don't understand why we even apply for grants or anybody else does because ultimately people think the money is free. It's not. we ultimately pay for it. So, you know, I I would just like to see us try to stay away from applying for
grants and become self-sufficient and run our own city. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Ron. Now, we'll close public. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, Marie, I'm sorry. That's okay. Uh, I just want I'm I
happen to be here and I was here u at the last meeting where they discussed the grants and you voted to uh have the um to hire the lady that does the grant or the the person I should say and I thought it was a good idea. So, I just want to emphasize that some people do
support it. And one of the um instance and u examples that I gave was the living shoreline where we have over a million and a half I think is what we're up to. And that that pays for itself. She could be here for a long time if she got something like that. And the other
thing is we had the grant even though it was Bill Young, the congressman at that time. He gave us the $50 million for um the bridge, which is another thing, right, that we can there's other things about the bridge that, you know, we want to probably talk about later. Um so I
think it's a good idea and I do support it and I I hope that you know a lot of good things can come of it. Thank you. Thank you, Marie West. West Evans Isa Palms. Um few meetings ago we talked about a grant
writer. Uh we some of us discussed maybe uh hiring a consultant to do some work instead of a full-time grant writer. So maybe the commission can clarify. Are we having a a full-time grant writer on staff and we're also hiring a grant
writing consultant now as well? I'm sorry I haven't kept up lately. I've been working on a car a lot so haven't been able to do a lot of reading. So that might help the citizens a little understand what's going on. Uh, but one thing I want to point out when it comes to grant writers, and I think I might have pointed this out a couple months
ago or a couple meetings ago, is uh we don't want to get into the the uh process of having a person that's reaching out for $1.5 million to get it from over here uh for it's for projects
we don't actually need that end up costing us $2 million, but they'll pay for $ 1.5 million. and in the end we end up with things like a living seaw wall that uh is now washed out into the bay. Um so I just want to point that out that
maybe that's something we should keep an eye on. I know I'm not against getting grants uh commissioner. I'm just saying uh if I go to the grocery store and a bag of oranges is buy one get one free
but I don't actually need any oranges. It's not saving me money by getting the BOGO. I'm just spending money on oranges I didn't actually need because I got an orange tree in the yard already. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none,
we'll close public comment. Um do we have any discussion up here? I I think uh Joan wanted to add a little to the discussion. Okay. Again, I I just wanted to remind um the commission that this is actually
a specialized um post- disaster financial recovery um consulting services that we're looking to put in place um that would um complement the investment that you've made in the grants manager. Um so again what we've
learned post disaster is the complicated world especially at the federal level as it relates to these funding sources that we've got to be competitive for. So, the Burquist team, which has extraordinary
um experience in this regard, is is the reason why we're bringing this contract forward to to um you all and um Treasure Island so we can um win uh more federal dollars in particular um coming in to
our community to help rebuild. So, specialized um perspective for us on post- disaster funding. Thank you, John. And I just want to add in that we um this wasn't taken lightly as was the
hiring a grant writer just for for those who are concerned. I get the concern. I totally do. However, there are many, many, many examples of how grant writers pay more than pay for themselves. And that is a full-time job. It is not
something that another employee can take on and do their job because it is very very very detailed. So, it was not a decision taken lightly, I don't believe, by any of us. Um but it and if it doesn't pay for itself then you know we
we move forward in a different direction but that is why we did what we did and why we're doing what we're doing is it definitely there is more examples um out there and you know you could look up of how much grant writers pay for
themselves. So um I just kind of wanted to add that little comment. Yeah. I mean, that was kind of I mean, my question was, why do we need a consultant when we have a full-time grant writer? Now, I mean, Mark there who stood up and talked said that maybe
all that was discussed at the rebuild TI meetings. I mean, I attempted to go to those, but I couldn't because I mean, only one commissioner can be there. So, I I don't I didn't learn maybe what other people learned. But, you know, at the June 3rd meeting
that where this was brought up, I the first thing I said is, you know, um, you know, do we really need to hire a full-time grant writer? Can we get a consultant maybe to do it? And it was, well, no, because the consultants, they'll all be working on the same grants for the same town, and they we
won't get their full attention, and we'll all be fighting for the same grants, and so we need to have a full-time grant writer. So, we hired a full-time grant writer. And then the very next meeting, June 17th, we want to hire a consultant. Um,
you know, after hiring the full-time grant writer. So, that's where I things don't add up to me. I mean, if we hire a whisbang, you know, grant writer, shouldn't they be able to and it's their only job and their full-time job, shouldn't they be able to handle this?
And then I looked into the contract and I mean the prices of some of this stuff is, you know, I think the average was $134 per hour. There was people on there that were $170 per hour, $150 per hour.
So I my question is why the two spends when we're a company that's been, you know, a city that's been hit by hurricanes and trying to, you know, save money. I absolutely want to get grants and I absolutely think that one of these two positions is needed. I'm just
questioning why we need both. Um and and you know it just it just it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me because you know in one hand we say we we need one but we don't need the other then we need both. So, uh, I'm all for getting
grants, but I'm not for wasteful spending. And I I'm not convinced that this is is is is proper spending from from what I've seen. And and the whole argument to me is, well, it's going to pay for itself. Okay. So, if we get a
grant for 1 million and we spend uh, you know, 250,000 getting it, uh, you have 750,000 left over. If you only spend 50,000 getting it, you had 950,000 left over. So, I I just don't buy that argument.
I'd like to add a little bit to that. Uh, and I and I understand your point of view completely, Commissioner Clark. One thing, if you if any of the commissioners ever want to attend one of the uh meetings, just let me know. I will I will uh let you go in my place at
at any time you'd like to attend. It's every Monday from uh 1 to 2:30. 2:30. Uh, we're pretty good about starting on time and ending on time, but I'll be more than glad to skip a meeting. Can anyone go now or not? I'm sorry. Can't anyone go now to those meetings? Well, well, we still have have some
issues we need to talk about on that front. But anyway, uh, in the meantime, like I said, anybody wants to come, but please let us know. Uh, I, you know, I I thought about this too, and because it's it's ant it's, uh, it's it's uh, not
intuitive. It's it's the the most logical thing is why do you need both? Wouldn't you need just one or the other? Uh, so I let artificial intelligence AI help me with a little and I asked them a very simple question. Does my city need to use disaster financial recovery
services if we hire a grant manager? And the response I got back was was actually made it a lot more clear to me. And they said, "You might need both. You should consider using both if your city is recovering from a major disaster or
planning long-term mitigation. if you're dealing with the multi-million dollar recovery or mitigation projects, if you lack the in-house experience in federal disaster grant compliance, and if you're concerned about eligibility, risk, cost recovery, or appeals. And I
think we we could probably check all four of those boxes. So, uh I understand that this is a on call as needed. Uh if we get into it, uh the the new grant manager just started yesterday. if we get into this and the the grant manager
feels that that they don't need these, you know, we won't use these services if if we don't need them. So, uh I think what what's uh being asked here at this particular time is that we uh fund no more than $50,000 between now and the
end of this fiscal year if needed. And we're, you know, we we'll see how how this interacts with the two. But I understand your concerns completely and I don't want to spend money foolishly and I certainly wouldn't spend it or recommend that we spend it if I didn't
think there was significant return on the investment. Did the AI program have our budget numbers in there? Joan, I have a question. Uh yesterday's meeting, was it open to the public? Yes. Was any anybody from the public there at
the meeting? No, not yet. I think that there is one issue here that that people aren't looking at is that uh we we basically did not have a grant writer or anything. Uh we did get some grants earlier because we did have
um Stacy uh who did write some grants for us and we actually did receive the grants. But on the scale that we are with the federal government involved, FEMA and everything else and there's all sorts of grants at the state level at uh even at county level, but even we got
grant money from the water district. I mean, there's a lot of grant money out there, but I think one of the things on the AI response is basically that uh when you're dealing with things that are so large uh and the scope of everything
uh you need as much help as you can get. when you finally determine that this is the grants we need to go after because it's the most likely these are the ones that we're going to get. And I'll tell you what, we're right there. We were ground zero for two hurricanes. We uh we
are, you know, in that realm of yes, we need help. And that's the reason that we did hire a grant writer. That's the reason that we're looking for a specialty firm to help us out with FEMA, the federal government, the state government, and you know, everything else we probably could handle on our own
dealing with the local water uh you know, districts and everything else. So, um I I think that it needs to be uh it needs to be brought on board and that's my feelings. Last question. So, this 50,000 is like a one-time thing. If we use that, you have
to come back to the commission for more or is this open-ended or I mean, well, if if you approve approve the contract, the next item um does is part of a budget amendment request. I guess I'm skipping ahead asking about that. I mean, is that 50,000 that's
that's capped and then you'd have to come back and ask the commission for more correct money if we go over the 50,000. Correct. and and the team's looking at again what to project during fiscal year 2026 as to possible
um on call on demand services that we might want to ask Burquest to help us with such as we've got the county's CDBG DR dollars um for infrastructure and planning that's forthcoming um this is a firm that actually has a
relationship with the county's um consulting team so they know them well um because that will be a very competitive situation for us also. And then the H7 item I'm going to speak to about um potential hazard mitigation um
projects that that we're thinking is ready for funding also funding applications. Okay. Anything else up here? All right. And we have already read the motion and have a second. Uh, roll call, please.
This one we actually don't need a roll call on. Can we use a roll call? We can. Then let's please do it. Vice Mayor Vasquez. I. Commissioner Clark. Nay. Commissioner Sison. I. Commissioner Dicki. I. Mayor Doctor. I.
Thank you. H6. First reading to approve ordinance 2025-11 to fund disaster financial recovery services for fourth quarter of 2025 in the amount not to exceed $50,000.
Motion, please. I move to approve ordinance number 2025-11 at the first public hearing and to schedule it for a second reading at the August 5th, 2025 regular commission meeting. Second. We have a motion and a second. Do we
have any public comment? Hearing none, we'll close public comment. Any discussion up here? None. We'll take a uh we're going to uh let's see here. Let's uh do a roll call.
Vice Mayor Vasquez. I. Commissioner Sison. I. Commissioner Clark. Nay. Commissioner Dicki. I. Mayor Doctor. I. Thank you. Okay. Moving on. H7. Approval of resolution number 202514 to authorize the mayor andor city manager to make
grant applications to the FEMA hazard mitigation grant program for the city mitigation projects. Motion, please. I move to approve resolution 2025-14 authorizing the mayor and/or city
manager to apply for funding to the Florida Department of Emergency Management for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program by filing deadline of July 25th, 2025. Do we have a second? Second.
We have a motion and a second. Open it to public comment. Any public comment hearing? None. We'll close public comment and we'll move on to u anything up here.
Okay. Hearing nothing, then take a um a roll call, please. Vice Mayor Vazquez, I. Commissioner Clark, I. Commissioner Sison, I. Commissioner Dicki, I. Mayor Doctor, I. Thank you. Last item,
H8, interlocal agreement with the city of St. Petersburg for trash disposal at the municipal beach on Treasure Island. Good evening. So, we have been receiving um complaints from residents regarding especially the weekend trash that is at
the St. Petersburg Municipal Beach concession area. that property was severely damaged during Helen and the concession stand employees that were there who were maintaining the property are no longer um at that location and they've been reassigned. Um one of the
solutions we came up with was my staff is a 7-day a week operation. We maintain the trail for trash every single day. So we were like we can do it but you're going to pay us for it um and get reimbursed. And so we have come up with
an agreement with St. Petersburg that they will reimburse us for our regular um hour pay and then holiday pay as well as they'll supply all the um trash bags and containers should the commission approve um the partnership. But what
it'll do is it really has no impact to my staff, but it will address some of the residents concerns about what the parking lot looks like in um the beach side. And that building is scheduled, I think, to be demolished and rebuilt.
I have a I have a question for Kathy, if I go ahead. Yeah. Um, so Kathy, I know uh walking on the beach trail, the trash bins that the city of St. Petersburg was using were like the gray rubber made trash cans. Can we get something like our other trash cans, a little bit nicer?
We can ask them that because we're going to be replacing all ours. Um, a lot of our trash cans floated away during the storms. We're having issues now because they're opened and every time it rains, my staff has to drain the um, water out of the bags in order to um, empty the
trash. So, we're looking into new cans that have lids, kind of the cement cans, but with the enclosed lids, and they're budgeted for um, fiscal year 26. So, we can maybe ask them to purchase some of the same. And then also with those uh
the cement ones with the lids, uh make sure they have a wire attached to the cap because I've seen many of those fly away throughout the years. Normally we take them when we had the old trash cans out there with the same lids. We take the can lids off before the storms, which we did for Helen, but
then the trash cans floated away. So we ended up with a ton of lids. So um we would probably be doing the same thing as well. Thank you. Okay. Motion, please. I move to approve and authorize the city manager to enter
into an interlocal agreement with the city of St. Petersburg for trash disposal at the St. Petersburg beach municipal beach. That actually should say St. Petersburg municipal beach on Treasure Island in accordance with the condition outlined in the agreement.
Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion and a second. Do we have any public comment? Hearing none, we'll close public comment. Any uh discussion up here? I just want to know if we offered St. Pete to take away all their troubles and not worry about trash and rebuilding and just take our parking
lot back. That's been an ongoing discussion. It has to do with their deed property, but we still try. I know. I had to say it though. May maybe we could trade them uh trade them the park for the East Causeway.
There you go. Already asked. I heard somebody in the back already asked. So I like that train. I like that train. All right. Is there any more discussion? No. Uh this we can do by voice uh role. All in
favor say I. I. All right. Uh moving on to commissioner reports and uh Commissioner Vasquez. So, I just want to say um I've we've I
think we've all received emails about the um mainly the beach beacon that has um that continues to be thrown even though we have a lot of vacant properties and it's it is definitely an issue. Um it's they're going into the gutters because a lot of times they
don't even make it to the driveway. So, we are currently in talks with um the the newspaper to see if we can come to some kind of an agreement on you know I kind of put out an idea to where they're not throwing the papers at least for
right now to the residents. So, for all of those emails um that we've received that is being tried to figure out um it's not considered litter um according to our rules so it can't fall under that. So, we're just trying to work with
them um because they have a business to run to, but so that we can find a solution to that. But be a good neighbor. If you're walking by and and you know a house is vacant and you see it in the driveway or in the gutter or if you're walking down the street, um I
know I do. I pick them up actually where they go to the drains. I pick them up quite frequently. So, while we're working on trying to find a solution, if you know a house is vacant, don't be afraid to pick it up and throw it in your trash. Um but we are working
on that. Um and also uh really good news, another local business opened, another Treasure Island staple, um Original Pizza opened this week if you did not know that. So just wanted to make sure um that that was out there because I know they were kind of doing a
soft opening. So so good to see our our local businesses coming back and um I just that's pretty much all I had to say, but I was excited about that one. Great. Thank you, Commissioner Clark. Yeah, I have a couple slides. Won't be
long. No. Um, so I continue to get calls and emails basically almost daily now on um the permitting process and um that seems to be the biggest single issue for district 2 residents and I think I think
what's happening is we're coming out of the drywall and the and the re refixing your you know repairing your house to now new builds and I'm afraid that we're going to be going back into uh problems that were as big or bigger
than we had during the rebuild permits. The main things I hear about are the cost of the you know for lifting and the permit fees which I'm going to go over in a second. Second is the unnecessary complexity around the TMM requirements. No one seems to understand it and the
local engineers that are even working here don't understand it. And I keep hearing from new Darren Browns every day. Darren Brown was a fellow that's been in here the last couple weeks talking about his permit and I'm I just keep getting the same type of people reaching out to me with the same issues.
And um so I think it's something that we're going to need to address. Um, and then secondly, I I got a couple examples on the next page that came to me today, and I actually have an update since I've turned this in, but um, it seems like every day I need new new complaints
about just the complexity and the basically the rigidity of of what we're trying to do. So, if you go to the next slide, I had um a neighbor send this into me today, and basically it's just the back and forth is just constant like
every time. Oh. every time that um they're trying to to do anything. I mean, they ask for all the information on all the windows and doors. It was all provided and then they come back and they say, "No, we need this. We need this again." And so, they have to stop
what they're doing. Go back up. Um they were told that they didn't need to uh do a drainage plant because they weren't changing their topography. They sent everything in, then they came back and said, "No, you do need to do a drainage plant." And then now they've had to go back up and say no that's not the case.
You go to the next slide. Um and then here's another example of you know you need to provide a trust package and um they provided all that information and now they said they don't have it and they need it again and they have to go back up. So this is not my
routing. This this was in the email from the resident. Um it's becoming increasingly madding that the city is asking for additional information that has already been completed and submitted. In fact, quite a bit of information that the city requires for permits is unnecessary ends up costing homeowners thousands of dollars. The buildard building department, the
permitting process needs to be revamped. Now, I've I received an email from this resident since I turned this in that now not only are they they provided all the list of windows, they want the like installation instructions for every single piece of window and door and
everything that that they are that they are requiring. But yet these are all Florida approved things that should be approved by our building department. So I I just think that I'm happy to say I've been I've already spoke with our
new city manager and I think this is the first thing on his list to revamp and kind of take a a look at our permitting process and kind of do a deep dive on it. Uh because I don't I just don't I I think now that we're getting into these new builds, we're going to have real
issues. Um, and that's what my residents are concerned about. Um, and I also think the permit fees still I want to bring forward a plan uh to reduce those fees. I think if these if these new homes are going to drive higher assessments and revenues, we need to
work together with them for them reinvesting in Treasure Island. Uh, next slide. The TMM, I'm not going to spend a lot of time in this. Bobby Shay has done a nice job helping me with what we asked for last week, which was, you know, trying to simplify TMM. It just doesn't
seem like Kimley Horn is very responsive. So, we need to try to get them to our next meeting so we can actually ask them questions and hear from them directly because all I keep hearing is they don't have enough information. It takes two weeks. I've never met met a engineering firmer
consultant that doesn't want work. So, I'm just getting concerned um about if they're the right people, but but I'd love to see if we can get them out to our next meeting. Um I've been meeting with residents. I'm going to have another meeting next week.
Um hands down, they do not want uh an increase in the millage rate. Um and these residents continue to be impacted by storms. Um, our residents have to live their lives and they have to tighten their belt. And I think we need to do the same as a city.
And I'm just going to show my famous slide here that we've we've rave taxed 91% in the LA revenues in the last uh five years. So I think enough is enough. And last slide. Uh the other two items I keep hearing about. I know we've talked about this and it requires more code
enforcement, but we still have homes that literally have never been not one thing has been done. They're still just sitting there percolating with all the stuff in it. And I mean, that has to become like a health hazard and then lawns that are just completely
out of control. Um, and so I understand that we're a little short on, you know, code people, but at some point I think this becomes a health hazard and we have to address what we could do. So that's it. Thank you, Commissioner Savan.
Thank you. Uh I definitely mirror some of the issues that Commissioner Clark mentioned with the TMM. Um uh more aggressive paperwork that is required from the CDD department or CD department. Some contractors are refusing to work in TI and that's a
really big problem moving forward. Uh, another question I have for the rest of the commission and city staff. Um, because Kimley Horn is not responding all that well to the LPA and PNZ, uh, are we putting a lot on Kimly Horn? Do we have to look for a new on call engineer uh to, uh, tackle some of the
issues? Um, and then, uh, some of my constituents mentioned of s significant flooding on Paradise Island during yesterday's rainfall, especially on the corner of Second and Tarpon. All were, uh, the middle of the road was flooded. uh which definitely brings some uh PTSD
and anxiety in a lot of people on Treasure Island. Uh another comment I have is uh I received an email on July 11th at 5:20 uh p.m. as did many of other residents of Treasure Island uh from Citizens Voice Treasure Island uh
regarding turning over the police and fire facilities project to an experienced construction professional. And it pains me to say that I agree with that opinion from citizens voice. Uh the TI taxpayer needs to know that hope hope is not an open unlimited checkbook. I
hope that the rest of the commission agrees with me. Uh but we'll see what the commission says on the subject and who at the city has experience to take over the scope of design, build and cost savings management. And lastly,
bear with me please. Uh, I write everything down so I don't shoot from the hip. Um, uh, Mayor Doctor, Commissioner Clark, and Commissioner Vasquez decided to remove two agenda items off today's. It is not appropriate to read, submit
any document related to H10 and H11. Three commissioners have already dismissed your agenda submission. Okay. Well, um, can I talk about what Mr. Sabati told
me? Sabatiniti, I don't know what he told you. Well, if I can't comment on it, then I can't. If it's related to the item, the item's been removed, so it can't be relitigated. Can't just find another way to add the same item that's already been removed from the commission back into a
different part of the agenda. Cool. Well, on that note, um, uh, I have questions from the city attorney. Uh oh. Uh what is the exact uh procedure and protocol under the charter for
commissioners to timely uh uh added agenda items to the meeting? And what is the exact timing, procedure, and protocol for an agenda item to be removed from a published agenda? So, anybody under your rules can add an an
item, but it's only basically added to the queue if three of the commissioners learn of it, whatever way they do, and they they they tell the mayor who's had the who has the final authority on publishing the agenda that they're against it, then a majority of the agenda is against it. So, the rule reads
one way, but it conflicts with the charter. The charter literally says the mayor shall create the agenda with the majority of the commission. And so the items that you submitted didn't have the majority of the commission. So therefore, they were prevented. They were directed. The staff didn't have the authority to include them on the final
agenda. Thank you. One last comment, Mayor Doctor. I love that sound of the hammer hitting the cavl. I'd like to see that more during a meeting. Thank you. Okay. I Thank you, Mayor Doctor. I've got uh
three things I I want to uh mention in my commissioner comments. The first is the upcoming uh beach reourishment program. Uh the county held a public hearing on about this uh in this room last week and I pulled this slide from
that. Uh this is this is I'm not going to go through all 20 slides. As a matter of fact, this is the only one. Uh this tells you what the timeline is like. the beach reourishment project, $127.5 million that the county uh is putting towards reourishing our beaches. Uh but
the timeline on that as it affects uh Treasure Island, you can see that if I can get my pointer here working uh beginning uh September 2025, uh South Sunset Beach uh will start
getting reourishment. North Sunset Beach and Sunshine Beach in October and the middle part of Sunset Beach uh not till January 2026, but this is funded. It's permitted. It's ready to go. It's going to be a six-month project, but those are
the uh timelines that we can uh expect. And it's more than just putting sand dunes. It's a it's a more extensive uh process than than than just putting sand dunes up like they did last time. So, they're extending the beach out. They're
putting uh several lay layers of of of wet, they call it wet sand out there that helps prevent erosion as well. And as the final uh uh line of defense, adding the the dunes and the and and the plants that go along with that. But
anyway, that's uh that's uh should be beginning soon. Uh the second item I wanted to talk about was shortly after the two hurricanes. Uh one of one of the residents, Grant Smith, down in Sunset Beach, he he uh gave me a pretty good
idea or mentioned a pretty good idea. He says, "You know what? We ought to have some kind of landmarks out here that that that tell people, remind people what the water level was out here. Uh so that we don't lose sight of that. So the next time we ask people to evacuate, they'll remember they'll remember what
that water line was. Well, I saw something in the city of Gulport that kind of uh does uh what Grant was suggesting and probably even even more effectively. Uh these two pictures I took this past Sunday down in Gulfport. This one's on uh 58th
uh 58th Street. uh uh and it's a sign and I mean it's I think it's pretty impactful when you see this is what it at this particular location the city of Gulfport has has some low points but it also uh the elevation gets up 10 to 11 ft further the further away you get from
the the waterfront there uh but at this particular location on on 58th Street there's a sign that says this is what you could expect at this particular spot for a category one storm you know we had what three and a half four I'm or a 7
foot storm surge uh here in Treasure Island and we didn't even have the wind that went with that. So I think this really hits 11 uh with a category 2 11 foot. They have this on 58th Street and
this on 49th Street. Again, the same it sending the same message. And I think it's uh what I would like to do is for the city of Treasure Island to consider doing this because I think it will reinforce when we have a mandatory evacuation uh that people realize, hey,
if I don't, this might be, you know, even my my home is three-level home, but boy, if we're going to have a 16 ft uh surge coming, I want to be I want to be the heck out of there. So anyway, I'm just uh suggesting that as a as something we could take a look at uh
doing and not just on Sunset Beach, but I think all of Treasure Island I think would be it would be a good idea. And then the last thing I wanted to mention and I I had asked uh Bobby Sheay uh I saw this uh appear uh on my uh news
feed recently recently the past several days. I thought it uh it was pretty interesting and before I put it up here and and I did ask Bobby Shay to share it with the other commissioners. Uh I wanted them to see it as well. Uh uh but and and I wanted to verify it before I
presented it at this at this meeting. So I went on the St. Beach Pet St. Beach uh St. Pete Beach uh website and and I verified that the information is correct. But anyway, uh having said that, uh I thought there were two interesting things about this article.
the uh the first thing is St. Beach received $3 million for a new fire station and they got that grant money from the state of Florida, which I thought, okay, that's interesting. We got we got one a.5 million. I wonder why in the state's uh ultimate wisdom, they
felt St. Pete Beach uh could needed three million and we only needed one and a half million. So, that's that was the first question that I that I would ask. Uh, but the other thing I I noticed on here, it says the estimated project for their new fire station down in Passa
Grill. It's a $12 million project. And I thought clearly they didn't get the the CBTI email that says that they can build a fire station for $6 million. They don't need to spend $12 million on it. So anyway, that's all the the comments I
have. Oh, that might hurt later. Thank you, Commissioner Dicki. Uh, just a couple of things. This is beach reourishment. Uh I attended the uh I think a number of you were in attendance as well uh with the county talking about beach reourishment and what they're going to do. And uh yes, it's going to
be completely different than it was last time. They're not just rebuilding the dunes. They're actually going to renourish the beach. It's going to come up and the dunes will be there as well. Um and uh one of the other things is is that uh get ready for some ear plugs because truly they really do plan to uh
to do 24 hours per day uh putting the sand back onto the beach. Most of the sand will come from the Gulf itself. Uh but there is some sand that is going to have to be from I think it's at Lake Wales or or someplace over in that area, Barto. Um, so that's that's uh one thing
that's coming and yeah, it's about $126 million uh job. Uh, it's going to be done from from bed tax money uh for Penllis County. So, we're not getting it from the federal government or anything else. We're getting it from the county
government. Um so yeah that that's uh that that'll be happening very soon where we do not have the um the signed um not a lease but um easements easements thank you very much the uh the
easements um it will be left you know the beach will be reourished but then up towards their property where they're not wanting anybody to go and uh you know a construction easement is all they're asking for and only when there is construction going to take place, but
there are folks still that have uh not given us the okay. So, what'll happen is the beach will be renourished, but the dune won't be reourished going up to the the property. So, it's it's a it's kind of a scary proposition, especially with what happened because what you're going to see is that the water is going to be
a tunnel right right for the person's home, you know, because there's nothing there to stop it. But, uh there's still a lot of folks that aren't wanting to do and I don't say a lot. I mean, I I think that uh it was 11 that uh that we're we're looking at. So, it's it's not a
lot. Uh second thing, and my last thing, u the city vision. Uh I know that uh for folks that have been around a long time, every 5 years there was a new city vision uh that was out there. Uh we just last week we just took a uh the
opportunity to uh do vision for the uh 2026 to 2030 uh time frame. Uh that was at St. Petersburg College at the collaborative labs. Uh it was open to the public. Uh it was mostly uh the commissioners were all there. Um the um
all of our our direct reports to the city manager were all there, our attorney was there, and so is our city clerk. Um and so uh that uh is moving forward. We're going to see more. I think that it was a very beneficial uh
to me at least day to to be go there and be there. Um and I I did want to make sure that everybody understood because it was posted and it was open to the the beaches. Uh there were two gentlemen that did join us uh for at that event and uh and we're going to be looking
forward to uh now that we've got Charlie on board uh get him Charlie was there as well because we knew he was coming on board so quickly so he was there to see what was taking place. Um, but I think that uh that we're we're on track. I I
think that uh we had a rough start here since March 11th, but I do think that uh that uh we're coming together and uh it just took us a little bit of time and I hope that it continues. So, with that being said, I will uh adjourn the
meeting and uh we will pick back up at 7:30. Good evening and welcome to the commission workshop for July 15, 2025. I'd like to call this meeting to order. The first item of business is city
attorney and city manager reports. Let's hear that. Uh I'm happy to get started if we get Let's hit the hammer. If you guys can hear me, I'm happy to start your choice. All right, folks.
We're now on a public meeting. Thank you. That's right. Uh, mayor, you said you wanted a manager or attorney first. Couldn't remember. City attorney report and then followed by the city manager report. Cool. So, you guys asked me last month to reach out to Panelis County about the
percentage of sharing and and and whether we could be in a different district if you did go forward with the impact fees. And I spoke to their deputy county attorney who's been very helpful and very um um open and frank and good. So, they don't, as far as he can tell, and this isn't really the final position
because he is a staffer. He's not the actual county commission. They don't really have a solid position on that. So if we counter offered at a different percent and said we want like 25 or 75% they they should get 25. It's something that the commission can consider
negotiate. Um also being in a different district we can do that right now. I learned today that St. Pete Beach is negotiating with the county on how their interlocal agreement is structured and how it should look. There hasn't been a resolution. There hasn't been a final
offer but St. He's already pushing forth a different proposal than a the a 50/50 split. The other thing I learned, and this is new, is we were under the impression they'd have to pass it, I think, earlier. And so therefore, there was a rush. We were trying to get it all done by October 1st, but apparently we
only need to get it done by October 1st. So, I don't know if you want to just put on the next meeting or continue with the special meeting. We could do that. You could also postpone a couple weeks, and this is again coming straight from the county attorney's office. Uh it's fine to do this later. and and and do a proposal against them. And also then the
most important question uh that I had to answer was um was there any issue with the moratorum or holding back on waving the fees? And and he wouldn't say no, but basically they they he has no knowledge of there being any
legal impediment or that the county would have an issue with that. Okay. And at the end of the day, you know, we're the ones issuing the building building permit, so we're the ones collecting the fees. but we have the authority to stop it. So, it's my position uh that you can wave it or hold
off on starting impact fees even if you pass the ordinance or reversion of the ordinance next month or two months from now uh in nearly indefinitely. Now, that could change. The county might come back and say, "If you don't do it this way, we're going to sue and make a judge decide whether um you have to do this or
not." But that's my impression that you don't. Um, so that's all and that that all came in the last two days of talking to the county. Yep. Okay. Can you confirm that we have until October? Cuz that was a question I asked at the last meeting. I said, "Don't we have till October?" And then they said, "No, we have to do it by
Well, no. And I think they were acting in good faith. I think what's happened is there was an impression that the county would have to sign off or agree to what we did, but if it's the same agreement, um, they can get that done in a single meeting." Uh, and so therefore, we don't we're not on the strict of a
timeline. Now, that's the count that's the assistant county attorney telling me that um maybe different staffer has a different opinion, but um I think his name is Derek or Dexter. Some of you might know him. He's been pretty well known for a while. So, um we don't we're not in the rush that we thought we were
and I I have a just one more thing. If you didn't get clarity on it, and maybe you did and and I just didn't understand it. Um, if we do the moratorium on it, the one thing I want to be clear is that
the county's portion that we still as a city don't have to pay the county portion. They may say, "Yeah, you can wave your portion as long as you want to." But I just want to make sure that the city is not going to be responsible for paying the county's portion if we do that. My preliminary position is that uh we
are not in that position. He had and I asked him that specific question. I'm like, are you going to like try to come in and collect these fees even though you're not issuing the building permits and then force us to do it or like go over our heads? And he he he had no knowledge of that occurring and and or nor any plans to do that if we did not
agree. Okay. Thank you. Well, it does sound as though we could negotiate even if we're going to sign the interlocal agreement. Correct. And uh one of the things that uh I would like to see if that happens is that we're all in districts, little cities or
pieces and and uh right now they've got us St. Pete Beach and Tiara Verdie and I can tell you that uh Tiara Verie although a great residential community they do not have the traffic that St.
Pete Beach and Treasure Island does. So, um, we would like to negotiate, you know, to basically just have these two and have Tara Verie go in with the rest of the unincorporated county. Mhm. So, but that uh will come another day
and we'll uh we'll live to fight the the damage from the storms that we did either, right? I mean, you know, so, you know, just sort of boxing you in options here. A, you could just pass what we what's already going to be on second reading at the next meeting. B, do a counter offer, instruct me to send
them specific terms and say, "We want you to agree to this amend and then we can pass this ordinance a lower percentage or something like that if that's what you're interested in." Uh, a a a change in the map, which of course we discussed and again, he didn't see any issue with that. He saw he thought
it was all just a bargaining, you know, everything's on the table. There's no legal issue with changing districts. And uh and that's B. So, yeah. A do do it the same. B, instruct me to, you know, draft this other thing or C, just do nothing, right? I mean, and see what the county does. So, just let me know.
Okay. We're not we're not in the rush we thought we were because I think different staff have different opinions and it's a large county obviously. You're going to be dealing with different staffers. Great. All right. uh before we change or or or or want to negotiate a change in a different district, it's it I can see
some advantage to being in in the same district as a tier verdict because if they in fact don't have any many roads and they don't have the damage, then that means they're not going to be using up they're still going to be paying the per the fees the impact fees, but they
don't get to use them, which means the remaining members of the group could tend to use them anyway. But what they would pay would be very small because their commercial businesses over there are very small and their residential is completely built out. So it would be
small dollars coming from anything you know and that the hotels but in St. Pete Beach and the hotels here in Treasure Island will make up a big difference and then we have a lot of we have a clean slate for a lot of new businesses as well. So but I I I do agree that we need to look
at it. Right. question that I have is can we like uh Richard Harris mentioned can we do a moratorum for a couple years? Yes. Yes. That's the one thing they did answer. What timeline two five? Uh right now there's no legal impediment to any
waiver of fees for indefinite period of time that they have an issue on. And as I stated earlier, they could change their position. The county might say, well, technically under House Bill 479 that passed two years ago, this inter it's not been put in a courtroom, so there's no case law on this. uh
technically, you know, you guys need to sign this earlier and collect these fees, but right now that's not the county's position. They haven't uttered that. The the staff is not saying that. So, I would say right now it's indefinite. But if they push us and come up with a legal argument, then maybe it could be adjudicated.
My understanding is no. If you want to wave, you can wave. Okay, great. All right, let's move on to city manager report. Well, first I'd like to thank you for uh hosting that beautiful reception and entertaining uh my family and uh being
so welcoming all the public that showed up. A lot of local business leaders showed up. A lot of people that own hotels, resorts, and different kinds of businesses. And it'll take me a few minutes, but I will get to know each and every one of you and get to know this community. Um,
thank you for hosting this uh quick little uh swearing in just to kind of let my family know where they're they're dropping me into. My my sons are grown. They're they're tied into North Florida to Jacksonville area. Um my wife will
split some time initially. Um and you met my father. He's not leaving Keystone Heights, but I might talk him into traveling down here with me during the week from time to time. Um, I've listened. I'm I'm an educator at heart among a few other things. And this is
not an exclusive list, but the four uh rocks I want to turn over fairly quickly in my first days here, my first month or two are laid out before you. Um, every meeting I've watched, every
meeting I've attended, um, everybody has, uh, various comments and, uh, issues, for lack of a better term, in the community development department, particularly in permitting. I make no assumptions that
things are going good, bad, or indifferent. I make no assumptions that we have a perfect or flawless staff or a bad staff. I will bring in um a a colleague from
the Jacksonville area that well let me first say this no government I've ever worked with and I've spent my entire adult life I'm 54 years old mostly working with different governmental entities um is ever as efficient as private
business. That's not the way our founding fathers even designed it. Okay. Having said that, government should never be a stumbling block or a quagmire to where it can't somewhat efficiently
serve its citizens. So, I'm going to have a third party that has made the Jacksonville Building and Permitting Department more efficient, not wildly efficient, but more efficient than they were, working uh with some of the past mayors of Jacksonville.
He's going to spend next day, next Monday down here with me and he's going to come back. He'll give me an assessment. His assessment isn't gospel, but what that will do is inform some of my decisions, getting to know the staff in the permitting department, getting
his assessment. I will synthesize that and come back and make some recommendations to this commission. Okay. The next area I've heard a lot of talk about a public safety building and I got to spend some time with a couple of you today. Literally, I've gone to
the desert where there was nothing and then later there was a 10,000 ft airfield with a long runway where we could land anything we needed to do to do anything we needed to do inside Iraq. Okay. I didn't personally build the
airport, but when I got there, it was nothing. And a few years later, it served many, many purposes. And in so doing, we had firemen and crash rescue and military police and everything we needed to operate there. Um, I will work
with your public safety professionals and we will vision cast out. There's a Blackhawk flying right now. That's funny. There we go. And um we will come back again to the city commission
with some capabilities and some recommendations on what Treasure Island needs 5 10 years down the road. I was so excited last week to see that you're already working on a strategic plan, but I've never started with a budget number or looked at the amount of trucks or
rolling stock and said, "Okay, I just need a building to build and house what we've got here today. Okay. So, I'm I'm going to go start 10 miles wide and a couple inches deep and then we'll we'll have conversations about what capabilities we need to respond to our
citizens and keep them safe. Um, in all this, I keep hearing about the the five stories over one story of parking maybe needs to be eight or nine stories over two story. We'll figure all that out and we'll build you a public service
building, fire, police departments that can facilitate what we need to look like later. Um, I keep hearing different numbers, 36, 38. You guys got rocked by two hurricanes, just smacked straight in the face last year. So, yes, some people
have left. Your former mayor left. Okay, I don't make any assumptions on why these people left, but again, I'm going to bring in a third party. We're going to look up and down through the org chart. We're going to go through each department division, and we're going to rightsize the staff. That might mean
some more people shortterm in permitting or building inspection. That might mean less people somewhere else. I don't know what that's going to look like, but I'm going to get an honest assessment from somebody I trust, that's a professional in the area, and then I'll bring you back recommendations. You're the elected
members. You get to say yes, no, trim that, add this, whatever. Um, we're already in hurricane season. I've talked briefly with the fire and police chiefs. Um, I meet with your county sheriff and tour the EOC on Friday. Um, I got to get
my feet under me as the emergency manager that those fire and police um, answer to. I'm really good in a crisis. I I I will lead you through the next one. I hope the next one's no time soon. Hope Treasure Island never has one
again. But hope is not a method. So again, I'm going to bring in a third party outsider, look everything up and down, look at the plans. Um we'll codify what's good. Uh we'll add what's needed. We'll subtract what is not helping us.
So those are my initial assessments. I just every I'm a helicopter pilot. I'm I'm loud and I come in you you never have to guess where I am. I've never been a special operator. I don't operate um quietly. So that that's that's that.
Next slide, please. Um my priorities near-term um are just to meet your other local leaders, your neighbors of the north, uh southwest. Um meet meet with some of the other municipal leaders, meet with your county leadership. uh
figure out who all of our emergency management partners are, meet our legislative delegation. Oh, by the way, in September, in two short months, month and a half, uh Florida's legislative session will start its committee weeks. Um I haven't even gotten to have a conversation with any of you on where
your legislative priorities are. Uh but those are important. and session starts in January next year and it'll run for 60 days January, February because all those guys are going to have to go home and run for reelection or whatever they're going to do. Um, so those are
always earlier in the calendar year u 26 being an election year. This is not an exclusive list. These are slides that I scratched out on a yellow sheet today and my executive assistant Kim is great and put them into PowerPoint and helped Joan and some others put together this
wonderful reception. Um, so here we are almost sundown on my first day and I just kind of wanted to let you know uh where I'm heading. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, we're moving forward. Uh we're here tonight for discussion item
and for an update on Treasure Bay. All right, Mitch, be quiet. All right. Good evening, commissioners, mayor. So, we're here tonight to give us an update on the current projects that we have going on at Treasure Bay and then a look at direction for our next
steps. Um our first slide is obviously the living shoreline project. It started in December of 2024. Anticipated completion date sometime September 2025. You can see some of the um living
shoreline there that um when we took this photo where it was up to which was behind courts 9 and 10. The actual project is approximately 3.2 million. Um where you see miscellaneous on there those are the gazeos, the exercise
equipment, the boardwalk. um the kayak launch. So those are the miscellaneous expenditures that we speak of. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to go through the slides first. Then we do have um Dana Andrews here from the USA who wants to address the commission as
well as Phil Gerardy if you have any questions. And if you have any questions regarding the living shoreline, we have um Gary, our public works director. And if I don't get the financing right, Victor's here to explain that to you as well. So, our tennis courts, we received
um a grant from the USA Florida section foundation of 281,650 towards the restoration of our tennis court clay surfacing as well as our fencing and electrical damage that was um caused by hurricanes Helen and
Milton. Our clay tennis courts, we just went out to bid and we have a bid of 59,900. the com um we will be evaluating those bids and then we'll be coming to the commission at the August 5th meeting um for approval. Our fence um invitation to
bid is currently being posted and we should get that back at the end of this month um and we'll be coming to the commission with uh the price to replace all the fencing around the tennis courts. And then in the budget we have the resurface and relining of the
asphalt courts. Um and to date we're just getting the um quotes for those. Treasure Bay, our building we estimate took in three to four feet of water. We had water that went as high as 6 and 1/2 ft. So the clubhouse is literally
complete studs because we had to remove everything from floor to ceiling. Prior to the storms, we did have money in the budget to repair the clubhouse um of 232,500. We have not spent any of that money to
date. As well as the maintenance building, we had anticipated possibly relocating it. We have not done that yet. Our maintenance building sustained damage um with the roof removal during Hurricane Milton. And then our bath house, actually there was no funds in
there, but I think the bath house is actually the most um sustained damage um from the facility. We had a brand new roof and the roof with the wind from Milton shifted it and did damage to the blocks. So we have a little more to um
work with FEMA. We're trying to look at mitigation with FEMA. We're also working with our insurance company. So right now we don't have any anticipated construction repair or replacement costs but there is a stipulation we must make
a decision before September 26 which is one year after hurricane Helen as to replacement or repair um for all the facilities if we want any type of um FEMA assistance.
Kathy that um to meet that deadline do we have to start work on it by then? Yeah, we just have to make a decision of which Okay, we are working FEMA's um our FDM people are here. We're working on mitigation right now for both Treasure Bay and the Beach Pavilion, trying to come up with
some cost to mitigate um to, you know, if we choose to repair um or what the option is if you want to replace, but but it's possible either option we would get we could get some help from people. So, usually um I know we've talked a
little bit more about the beach pavilion with um FEMA about mitigating that because it's right on the beach. Um, Treasure Bay, it would be just, you know, we are, like I've discussed before, the golf course, the FEMA line runs right through it. Um, so we would have to adjust any new builds for that
property to meet all our flood plane issues. Most likely things would have to be elevated. Okay. So, um, then we had a few other projects. We have our ADA sway swing that has been in the budget. That was um
a request from former commissioner Partridge as to put that on the property. Right now, it's on hold because we're really not sure where to put it and if we were to do new construction or whatever we're doing out there, we don't want to have to put it in and then remove it. So, we're
undecided whether to move it to another location or leave it at um Treasure Bay or not install it at all. We recently replaced our property line fence that part uh borders Treasure Bay as well as the village. That was a
budgeted item and that fence is now completed. And then we had dumpster enclosure and service road fence and gate. We had damage from the hurricanes. So that has been replaced as well. So those are all the current projects that are going on at Treasure Bay and where
we stand with that. our next steps. Again, number one or first dot, we need to have a decision on what to do with our facilities. Currently, my staff is working out of what they finally referred to as a she-shed, but it's a temporary mobile office with
portallettes. And in next year's budget, we have budgeted 34,800 for an annual cost for those portable facilities. But staff has to work out of something. What we need to decide is what happens once the living shoreline's done. What
do we do in the interim with the property? If any of you have been out there, not only did the hurricanes do damage, but so did the living shoreline. So to the property. So we have a lot of work ahead of us. But once that project is done, everything will be open to the public. So we need to decide what
happens in the interim. We need to approve a community engagement strategy and timeline to gather input for long-term amenities and the best possible uses for the facility. And I'm going to get this right and Victor will help me. So we have money in
our funding section which shows currently golf course construction, clubhouse, stuckco and painting and treasure bay maintenance building and shed. Those are CIPs. They are currently budgeted in this fiscal year. However, with fiscal year 26, they are will not
be funded unless the commission approves for those projects to be funded. Did I get that right? Wherever he goes. Okay. Yay. And then um we have money in our general fund as well for the bath house repairs, sewer relining for the
clubhouse, and um termite and floor repair. The building was going to be terminated before the hurricanes. Obviously, we held off because we have studs. Um, so that if we don't do that project, that will go back into the general fund. So we have our budget
hearing Thursday, too. These are decisions that can be made then, but we need to decide what we're going to do with funding. Do you want to explain a little bit more about funding? No, you did it. Okay. So, with that said, we have decisions to
make, some in the near future, um, some long term. I do have with us um Dana Andrews from the USA. She wanted to just speak with the commission and address them about, you know, future partnerships. You know, they have helped
us rebuild courts 9 and 10 after Ian. They're funding for all the repairs for our courts and our surfacing now. And then there are future repairs. And here she is. I want budgeting for a space heater when
I'm sitting here. sitting over here. Well, yes. My name is Dana Andrews. I'm actually a volunteer for USA Florida. I'm a past president. I'm a lawyer supposedly in my real life. Um, but I'm
really here because of my passion for tennis, my passion for this community. I'll tell you what, being here tonight, uh, of course we all saw the pictures on TV. I actually live over in Hillsboro County. and to hear what all that you're having to deal with um you know really
makes it even more real. But for me, yeah, on behalf of USA Florida, we specifically picked certain uh public facilities to give hurricane grant money to. We would have loved to have been able to give it. Think about all the public facilities that were damaged by
these two hurricanes. But for Treasure Bay, there's no question your tennis community is thriving. And in terms of tennis in general, I just have to say, I don't know if you've read, but tennis is the healthiest sport.
And they've shown they've shown it adds 10 years to your life because of its physical and mental. And two, what I was hearing today, y'all were talking about the PTSD of your community. And some people may say, "Why are we going to be looking at right now doing the tennis
courts?" Well, number one, you've got the money. I was hearing about the complaints about the grants. You're already done with that. It was super simple. You have the money. $281,000. So mine is if you're hearing from your community that they're, you know,
feeling the stress, obviously they all are, then let's start showing them that not only are we going to help take care of that, but we're going to do it at a public park. And obviously Treasure Bay to me, that area, I mean, I can envision
really making it a jewel and a destination that, in other words, you have people coming to your beach. I know I used to travel as a family and yeah, we would go on a beach week, but we were also a tennis family. So, we were looking for a public facility to do that
in. So, I see down the road that not even that far down the road that you really need to envision that spot as a central jewel in this city. And right now, it would start with the rebuilding
of those courts. And so essentially, USA Florida, we're just here as a partner. That is all it is. That you have questions. You know, for instance, I'm hearing about the bids. We may be able to help you in terms of other companies that we may know that you don't wouldn't
know about in terms of fencing, lighting, courts. So, I say turn to us. You know, use us as a partner. We get calls all over the state having those types of questions. So again, I'm here because I care. I
care about your tennis community. I'm excited that the money is there waiting to be spent. So with that, if you have any questions for me, I also happen to bring across. This is uh an EP economic
impact study that we did. We actually presented it up in Tallahassee of tennis within the state of Florida and how it can affect your community economically. And so I'll leave some of these. It can be your bedtime reading. And um and again, any questions that you have for
me while I'm here, I'm I'm more than happy to try and take them. But you know, we're here to serve and we're here to help you. Thank you. Thank you. Is Gerard back there?
He is. Thank you. So, how many years now did you tell us earlier at lunch uh that you've been doing this? I I don't know. 27 28 29 something like that. I' I've been over at the center. So, um and it's
been I'll get a little closer. It's I mean that's been my home. I've raised my kids here. Um, I've seen thousands and thousands and thousands of not only adults but juniors and everything go through there and um
I'm grateful. You you guys know that I wear several hats and one is with USA Florida and um I'm very grateful. I'm glad Dana came out tonight to talk to you uh for what they've done for our center and for our city. uh I think
about $330,000 in the last couple years between the last fence project and then this here. And I know that um the that the section um is eager and ready to do whatever the city's or help to do what
the city wants to do with our tennis facility. We're one of the big, we are one of the four corners of community tennis in Penel's County. And I know we are a city um you know facility and we have plenty of residents. Um I can show
you numbers of of of residents but that play tennis. But we are one of the four corners of public tennis and how it we definitely learned after the hurricanes the impact of tennis in this area. That's one of the reasons I believe we
got the figure we did at Treasure Bay. Uh I think we're a we're a key part of this community because all of our leagues had to play all away matches for this year. All of our our players had to leave. Um high schools, both high schools that play out there had to not
be there. Uh the college of course was not able to play there. So I mean and it impacted all the other facilities in the area. So, I think I think USCA Florida understands what this what this facility means to this area. I know I do. Um I'm
just going to be honest. I had um a chance to get out of here. Um but this is my facility. I've helped run it for a number of years. I feel like um the players out there are my family and I'm ready to help build the center and build the programming back up to where it was
and even better. um going and looking how can we make that center set for the next 20 years. So if you have any questions for me feel free if you ever have any questions for me individually I'm down there as a couple of you see me down there. So well brag a little bit about your team
last year how well they did. Okay. Now I'm just going to say St. St. Petersburg College is a small part of the center, but it's a big part of my life because I've been the head coach there for 17 years and um uh we finished number four in the country last year. Um
which ranked as high as number two. Uh we're perennially in the top five in the country for junior colleges, but we beat a lot of division twos out there and we actually beat a good division one school out there last year to NCAA. So I have to give a plug to my ladies. Um, you
guys of course uh have seen them before and um Oh, thank you Mitchell. Uh anyway, um so yeah, I'm very proud to have them there. Um I think they bring some credibility to the tennis world out there. Um but
they're not the only thing that's out there. Um the biggest thing we serve is is the community and that's from 5-year-olds uh up to my new boyfriend Ronan. Ronan, stand up for a second. 91 years old, got hit by a car during COVID, metal rod in his leg, and he's still out
there with the intermediates and still plays every week. So, that's what T. But I have to say that. But again, any questions you have, I'd be glad to either entertain him tonight for a short term because I know you have a lot of things to go through or you know where to find me. And again, just very
thankful thankful for what what the board um I am on the board for USCA. Um uh currently I was president for USA Florida when the hurricanes hit. Um and um I'm now past president, but I I know
what they feel about this and I was by the way I had to go out of the meetings when they did the votes. So I just to put that on board. Right. Again, I would just reiterate the money isn't given out willy-nilly. And certainly this size of a grant um is not
something to sneeze at. And so we did take, you know, special effort to look at each facility that got this type of money. And this was one we chose again because of your thriving thriving tennis community. Great. Thank you.
You're welcome. Question. Yeah. So Okay. If you want to do um if you want to do public comments and then if you have any questions, I'm
here, Phil's here, Gary's here, so we can all answer questions. Okay. Yeah, you're uh you're up. You're in here, right? Well, we'll move you to the top of the list. Come on up. I am that important uh in my in my own mind or my wife tells
me Robert Bazo District 1. U a couple things. Uh Charlie, a great uh top four priorities. You missed number five, which is pickle ball. Um and by the way, I'm taking full credit for the fly by of the Blackhawk. Uh you're welcome very much. Um uh just
like USA, uh just like USA, I represent the Treasure Island Pickle Ball Committee. So, we're huge. We're growing. We're also a very healthy organization. I I think we probably have more members uh than the than the tennis association here. I love tennis. My god,
I played that in high school. Um great game. Uh most of my career I played uh played raetball. Uh most of you non-military guys don't know what raetball is. I moved here and there's no raetball. And I said, "Uh, God, please don't make me play golf because it's
it's going to be terrible." I said, "God, don't do that." And then God showed me pickle ball. And God, I mean, my world opened up. And um again, uh uh three I also would like to say, you know what I'm hearing tonight? I mean, what
I'm hearing tonight is governing. Good job the commissioners. Good job to these three here. I think we're on the right track. Uh and very good. Uh three letters, MWR. These two guys going to know what that means. Morale, welfare, and recreation. Big deal. Big deal. It's
not like public safety number one, public works maybe number two, but number three is the MWR and recreation is a big part of that. Um, it's about uh I know at least from a Navy point of view, uh, I was judged on on one of my fitness reports talked about how well am
I applying morale, welfare, and recreation to my to my sailors. And that and that's part of our our fitness report. And you guys also going to be judged that way. how um so where where are your sailors where your airmen where your soldiers and morale welfare and recck is a big part of that and Treasure
Bay is the center of excellence for that it really is underdeveloped I've been here nine years and we've been discussing um the master plan for Treasure Bay as long as I've been here please let's come up with decisions I
mean I don't know why God invented golf because it just kills men but I mean if people like golf then let's let's develop golf Right. Um I love tennis. Tennis is great. Um pickle ball is better and I think uh a few of us uh formed a committee last last year and
for the first time we were able to get a budget line for pickle ball quarter million dollars thanks to these people up here and thanks to Kathy and we're going to be building for the first time ever uh six permanent courts at Rosselli Park near my house but not a coincidence. And uh it's going to be
outstanding. And hopefully we'll get some of the hardcourt courts, tennis courts at Treasure Bay painted uh so they're dual use tennis and pickle ball because yeah, tennis is great. Pickle ball is doing pretty well in this country. I think it's growing and it's
good for the heart and we can age into it. It's better on the knees. We got a new hip. But um it's ball, not pickle ball. But again, uh, Treasure Bay is is a pearl in this city. It's a
pearl, and we need but it's been we need to hug it a little bit. Give it some love. And it needs some not only funding, but it needs decisions. I think we have a team here to make decisions. If we're going to make golf uh work, then make golf work. Tennis, I think, is
fantastic. Great courts. Um, pickle ball needs a little bit more love at Treasure Bay, but Roselli, you guys are hitting home run and with Kathy's help, we're gonna get this thing built and hitting a ball by November 1st. And you all are invited uh to that and see how great
pickle ball is. But please, you guys, we got the team in place now. Let's give it some love. Let's make Treasure Bay work. Let's put the money in in it. Let's make the energy it. You're an a can do guy. You're an action guy. I've been here nine years. Nothing's been done. We can
do it. Treasure Bay Center of Excellence for Recreation Welfare. Thank you. Hey, Bos, does the uh pickle ball group have $280,000 to give us like the tennis people do? I'm taking up a collection now. I'm going to match I'm going to match
everything that that USGA does. I got I got 10 bucks. Thank you for the money. $20 million. You can just set it right up here. Thank you, Robert. Dennis Fagan. Mayor, commissioners, city staff, Mr. Renzant, welcome to the city. And um I'm
going to thank you all. You got I don't know where you guys get the patience from, but God bless you all. Okay. Uh I live at 116706 Street East. My name is Dennis Fagan and I've been a resident here for 34 years.
And um I'm here as a resident, but I'm also here as a representative of the Golf Beaches Rotary Club. So bear with me for one minute. I'll give you background of Rotary because many of you may not know. Rotary is a 110 year old organization. It's a global organization
with 1.2 million members now, 45,000 clubs. Um, its mission is to provide service to others and its vision is to be in a world where people unite and take action to promote lasting change in our community. Now, the Gulf Beach's
Rotary Club has been here since 1950 in Treasure Island and Madiraa Beach and St. Pete Beach. So, we've been serving this community for 75 years now. Um, our main focus is supporting organizations
that provide services to at risk children, specifically abused and neglected children in the foster care system. We've been doing that for a long time. Um, but I'm here tonight representing Rotary to talk to you about the uh the
Treasure Bay uh property. And like I said, I've been here for 34 years. And some of you have been here even longer and you all know we've been kicking this can down the road for a very very long time. So it's past time
to take action and I feel that we have the commission and the staff in place now to do that. What the Rotary would like to do is to help you in any way that that we can. And tonight I want to introduce a a company that we've been
working with for the last several months. Uh it's called um Family Lands Remembered. This is an organization or a firm actually from Jupiter, Florida. And they're a strategic planning and environmental consulting firm. And they
have a core belief that I that I think we can all share. Their core belief is that economic and environmental sustainability are not mutually exclusive. So, at the end of my few minutes, I'm
going to uh ask if you'll uh accept um an introduction and uh and concept for discussion uh document from this company. And I just want to read one paragraph from it, give you an idea of what
uh what they're all about. It's on the Treasure Bay project and they say the proposed project at the Treasure Bay golf and tennis property aligns with uh Florida land remembered typical scope of work including components of ecolog uh
ecological restoration planning and recreational use. We recently had a productive meeting with city staff and with the Rotary Club members and we discussed the following themes and components that could make this project something special. We would
be happy to further discuss this project and how we might be able to provide value for the project proponents. So with your permission, I'm going to hand this out. I think I have enough copies
for the staff and for the mayor and commissioners. And um I would like to leave you with a couple of things. If you're interested in moving forward with this, I would ask that you allow the Golf Beaches Rotary
to participate in any public discussions about Treasure Bay going forward and perhaps instruct the city staff to get in touch with Family Lands Remembered and see how we can all get together and work on this project to stop kicking that can down the road and to truly take
some action and talk about kicking. And I'm going to leave you with a kicker that uh there is substantial amount of grant money available through Rotary. Uh we have a a disaster relief fund. Uh and
I've already spoken with uh the person in our district that oversees that district that that fund and uh we will probably qualify for some of that money. So I think the Rotary can help you in several ways including possibly funding
the project. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dennis. Mandy Diaz. Thank you very much, Mayor C, Commissioners, and staff. My name is Mandy Deetsz. I'm sorry. It's pretty close. It's good enough. Um, and I think another budget cut item is
to turn the thermostat up also. So, I'm going to support that as well. Um, I'm an owner in Village of Paradise Island. I am lucky enough to have a view of the Ninth Fairway and our beautiful waterways. I'm also fortunate enough to
be able to bike and walk around our quiet community of Paradise Island. So, I'm here tonight for a couple of things. Um, there are two topics that I want to cover. The first one is consideration for the decision that you're going to make with respect to the future use of
Treasure Bay. And then the second one I want to talk about the water runoff around that as a person who lives on the ninth fairway. Uh that's certainly near and dear to our hearts. Um so from my perspective it sounds like the decision is around do we do the golf course? Do
we restore the golf course? And if not what else do we do? And I would say just in terms of the golf course uh as a golfer I've done pickle ball and tennis uh and golf is the residual one for me. I got knees to show why I'm playing golf
now. Um, in 2017 and 21, you had feedback from the residents that supported uh restoring the golf course and renovating it. Um, we also know that the tennis and golf community uh the budget generated approximately $250,000
in revenue in 2023. So, there are reasons for retaining the golf course. Um, if you do not do the golf course, um, certainly you know where my preference is. Obviously any solution that we come up with must comply with any grant requirements. Um, and I think
from a contextual perspective, remember that Treasure Bay is nestled in the middle of a residential community with no parking. Um, the city of Treasure Island is one of our priorities that I've heard tonight and I really appreciated being here and you're going to probably see my face more often now
because I've I've enjoyed this and had a career in things that relate to work that you guys are doing. Um, supporting our local businesses. If we put an entertainment venue um near here where all the businesses are, people are going
to go to the venue. They're going to go to the restaurants, the bars, and shopping. If they go over to Treasure Bay, there's no parking to begin with, and then they're going to have to repark to come and enjoy those. So, I think it takes away from the use of our community
environment. Um, and I'm sorry. Oh. Um, so we are already have an amphitheater up the way uh that is not being fully utilized. So, I think we should uh let them leverage doing that as well. So those are my comments
related to that. The second thing I just want to mention briefly uh again we we have lived with the water and the runoff around the golf course up to this point. Uh we have concern with what the plans are for the future. We have requested and sent emails with respect to the
grading report to understand what the elevation and the runoff plans are going to be. And I really am just asking you all for assurance that the city will make sure that that property, whatever its ultimate disposition is, is graded properly so that we do not experience
the runoff that we've have up to this point. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much, John Webb. John Webb from um Paradise Island and I I came about eight years ago and we
discussed the Treasure Bay concept on what they're going to do and actually a group from University of South Florida was here trying to sell everybody on a water park through the research through your staff and I think the community then got involved and it was like 80% 75% that said why don't you just
maintain the golf course nicely and put some money and make sure the tennis facility is taken care of. Um, and we're eight years down the road, nothing on. I think I hate to say, but we got a lot of things going on in this city that our efforts ought to be into permitting and emergency operating plans and stuff and
upgrade that facility and nothing's wrong with it and people love it and utilize it a lot and that's really what I'd recommend and y'all's effort goes towards making the community better. Thank you. Thank you, John. Anita, Anita Finelli. Um, Village of Paradise
Island. And for anybody that doesn't know where that is, Treasure Bay is in our backyard, quite literally. Um, I've been up here before many times. Um, I want to thank the commission um and Mayor Doctor and and city staff for just
listening to us. Um, we've had more uh meetings and workshops and pizza parties um on the golf course uh or on about Treasure Bay than we've had I think anything here. Um and I'm just want to
remind a couple of pe remind everybody of a couple of points. Um in 2017 um USF came in we did two-day workshops uh on the amenities at Treasure Bay. The
top three results, top three, clubhouse number one, keep golf course number two, and green space number three. The bottom three, dog park, stager and amphitheater, and boat slips.
Additionally, in May of 2024, there was a short two question survey that was sent out. The first question asked if the respondent would want a golf course reconstructed or removed. Reconstruction one with 75% of respondents.
The second question was, "Hey, are you a resident or not?" And residents were 83%. So, your residents have spoken again and again and again that we want a golf
course or at least at the very least an open green space which according to the grants that we received um is a requirement of those. Um the grants for the walking path, the grants for the exercise equipment, the
grants for the living seaw wall was presented in June 7th of 2022. That acceptance of this grant, and this I'm taking this literally from the minutes, acceptance of this grant will require the forever use of the property
as open green recreational space. So, just a little reminder. I've heard many times people say how much money that the golf course is losing. I spent hours going back through
all of the uh commission uh reviews and published um income for the golf course. Here's the numbers. In 2016, the city projected $110,000 income. By
the way, this is golf fees only. This is not cart rental. This is not lessons. This is greens fees. People paying money to play golf. Projected income 110,000. They actually
we actually took in $92,725.93. 2017 projected 100,000. We actually took in 84,000 almost 85. But remember that was hurricane Ian 2018 I couldn't find the projection but the actual income was $ 109,513
in 2020 during COVID projected income 90,000 actual 77858 2021 still COVID remaining 90,000 projected actual income 90,16
2022 projected 95 5 income actual $16,929 a 12 almost 13% increase in 2023 projected 95,000 actual $125,44160
32 thou 32% more and no offense to the tennis people because that was the last full year of projection compared with tennis fees projected 80,000 income actual 79,260. Most importantly
last year we only had two um quarters reported our projected income was 95,000 actual was 66,725 almost 70% in two quarters. Um, we are having daily golfers come and
ask about the golf course. 66 came in May alone asking about the golf course. Um, going to go quick. Oh, anyway, quick on grants.
Five grants. World Golf Foundation, PGA Foundation, USGAA Foundation, American Golf Industry, and Par 3 Foundation. So, hate to bring up grants because that seems to be the word of the night, but there are grants out there for ten
for and there are grants out there for golf as well as tennis. Thank you. Thank you, Anita. Maryanne. Um, my name is Maryanne Frybot. I live at 23 Marina Terrace on Paradise Island. I've been a resident there for 32 years.
I'm also the treasurer of the Ladies Golf League of Treasure Island. Um, some of you probably don't even know we have a golf league. We've been playing at Treasure Bay since 1978. Every Tuesday morning for the last 47
years. Before both storms, we had 52 members. Two of our members are in their 90s. We have seven or eight girls, including me, that are in their 80s, and we play every Tuesday. We have also a member that just
graduated college, so we have all ages. This course is great for seniors, and it's great to teach kids from their parents and grandparents. I taught my granddaughter to play there, and she's 28 and still plays golf. I want to thank Twin Brooks, Course, for
taking us in after the two storms. They have stepped up to the plate in many ways, but it's not the same. We picked up at least two or three girls since picked up another one today. Um, but instead of having a shotgun starch, which means everybody starts on a
different hole, we have to go by um tea times. So, it doesn't it it's nobody sees one another anymore. Before when we were at Treasure Bay, the girls used to play golf. We used to come in and more like a
social club. Um they used to play cards and then go out to lunch. Uh in February um we have a hearts for friends that we we raise money uh for the children's cancer fund in Tampa. Last year we collected $700.
In December, one of the girls runs a Toys for Tots program. Last year, she had three car loads of toys that were donated just to name a couple of the things that we do other than play golf. We want to get back home and play golf
at Treasure Bay. We have a treasure over there. If you hired someone to run it properly, at one time only two hotels on the beach even knew that there was a golf course. Our girls took their own time and walked to every hotel.
I see all these grants being taken for everything. Has anyone even looked into securing a grant for the golf course? They're out there. I saw one myself. I can't apply for it because I don't I'm not part of the town, but they're there.
Um the golf course always came out number one of out all the house renovations. One, and that's understandable because it's a it's in sh sad shape, too. I just want to know for the life of me why we're going through this again. The golf course was already
voted for for last year with a 4 to one vote. Why do we have to go through this every time we have new commissioners? How much work how many how many workshops and community meetings do we have to have? They're all the same. We
want the golf course. We were voted to your you were voted to your positions to do what your constituents want, not what you want. So do the right thing. You have spent way too much money so far and dragging your feet. Thank you.
Thank you, Maryanne. Mark Hoey. Thank you, Mark Hoey. District three. Um, obviously an emotional topic which we have been through before and before as as I have done. I I guess the the thing is to step back a little bit and I
think the right approach is the visioning for Treasure Bay. I don't think there's any for this against that uh at this stage. It's really what is the vision for that uh gem of a property
we have. um right now and over the last few years, it's just been a bunch of disparit projects, no cohesiveness whatsoever. It was either obviously some immediate repairs, but also it was okay, we're going to work on that, we're going to change
this, but there were just disparit projects. And if you looked at the budget over those times, that's how they were kind of presented. So I certainly call for that visioning to at least have clarity of what this is going to look
like in 2, three, five, 10 years. It's not going to happen overnight and there's pretty much room for lots of opportunities there. I guess the other part of it that comes to mind to me is the financial viability
and and it this needs to be self- sustaining. It doesn't need to be underwritten by this that or the other throughout the years going forward including the cost to maintain. Um I'm no golfer. I have golfed on the
course but I think even the avid golfers will agree the last few years prior to the hurricane the condition of the course uh and its maintenance had diminished greatly. Uh which is something that we need to plan for. we need to plan for what those cost would
be to maintain anything along there. And then uh finally a couple of of specific questions to what uh Miss Haduk mentioned about the current condition uh about the existing facilities if they're going to
be kept or done done with for the next year or whatever. Uh had they truly been condemned by FEMA? Did they get a substantial damage uh assessment that said they need to go away or is that up to the city's option and that would make
a difference in truly the costs that are going to be incurred? And the last question was in the midst of this living shoreline project, um there was a collapse of a small section of that wall. I' I'd be interested to hear
not so much what happened, but how's it going to be mitigated and what's going to prevent that uh from happening to other sections as this project is brought to its conclusion. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Marie Barbara.
Um Marie Barbara also of um Paradise Island, the village of Paradise Island. Um I'm here um I also support the golf course. So, you know, this is um uh easy for me. And also, you know, anybody that
um has been here in a long time, I think some of the hesitation with the other commission me um members in that were because of the um land grab by some of the developers only because, you know, it's it's it's it's it's a it's a
development that some people did want and uh because of the way our charter reads, you know, that's land that's contiguous to the water. So therefore, it has to go back to referendum and the electorate. But I'm here actually to um in the date
of uh February of 1960, Mr. Joseph Clingal and Mrs. Louisa Clingal granted and sold a parcel of land to the to the city of Treasure Island as described in the warranty deed. I think some of you have looked at it to recognize the
Klingals for don donating I'd like to propose to recognize the Klingals for donating the treasure bay land to the city. I propose the city and its citizens acknowledge the grand tours with a plaque to commemorate this wonderful and cherish cherished area of
land. We can install the plaque on a stand or dedicated streak sign position along the roadway that runs along the south side of the area. There's also a mention of that uh road that has to exist each be uh 50 feet
uh from uh that is from the grand tour and 50 ft also from the grantee. So that equals to 100 ft that has to um exist. So this would be a simple way to recognize their contributions and thank the cling for donating the land at
Treasure Bay. This will also permit greater appreciation among current and future participants for the that use the sports activities as well as the upcoming amenities offered by the living shoreline. Perhaps the city could create a 503C charitable organizations to accept
donations which may qualify for tax and donors, you know, may even donate even more because they may qualify for tax exemption. So, this is um I did I've been wanting to do this for a very long time, you
know, to ask the city for a plaque like this like we have along the esplanade or the trail here. I mean, you have the names of the commissioners at that time. This is the actual grand tour donor that that gave us this land which is uh I
don't know 17 acres. So, um I would like um us to just consider that and maybe we can get started on something like that. Thank you. Thank you, Marie. Barbara Muno, I'm Barbara, Muno. Um, I live at the
village of Paradise Island and the Tre Treasure Bay Golf Course is my backyard. I sit on that patio every day and watch the seaw wall being constructed, watch the boats going through the bridge, and I enjoy my view. Um, I also want to
mention that my property on the property appraisers um website says it's a golf course. So all of us that live there, there's 21 units in village of Paradise Island that are right on the golf course
and all our property say golf course. Um I know that you guys have had a lot of conversation about tax dollars. Um what happens to Treasure Bay will affect 123 town houses property value. So I just want to bring that up. Um, the other
thing is is this has been discussed for very many, many years. I attended a lot of those meetings. I didn't see some of you that are on the commission at any of those meetings. So, I don't know if you're familiar with what was decided based upon what the residents want, and
it was a golf course. um not to um personally attack anybody, but I've um listened on Facebook all the past meetings that have occurred and Chris Clark and Tammy Vasquez were very
um pointed at stating that we're definitely not having a golf course and they would like to have a amphitheater. Now, I used to live on the on the um on the aisle of Capri, and when gators
had their bands playing at night, it was a noise hazard for anybody that lived on that side of the aisle of Capri. So, I can please ask you that if you live on the water, would you like a tiki boat playing music all hours of the night in
your backyard? I hope you would consider that. There's a lot of people whose homes reside on that waterway and I don't think that that's the place for an amphitheater. We have a lot of music events at the at the beach where
there's plenty of parking. Um I really don't think that there should be nighttime events except for maybe the boat parade and there's you can't see Fourth of July fireworks from there. Um living on the golf course, I'm really concerned about the hours. It really
should be dusk to dawn. I don't think that it should be opened at night with lights and people peeking in our windows and um I mean it's no different than having somebody on a personal boat in your backyard looking in your house all
night. Um I'm most concerned about property value. I bought my house three years ago because it was on the golf course. the price of my house was a lot more money than some of the other ones that are inside the village because I'm on the
golf course. Um, the other thing that concerns me is it took years to come up with a decision that the residents want a golf course. I feel
very um much that you guys are rushing to make a quick quick decision as to what needs to happen with this property. Um, I know we have really important things that need to be worked on right now, infrastructure, all that kind of stuff. So, taking the time to do
something, I don't think there's a problem with that. Um, but I think you need to listen to what the people have already spoke of, and that's having a golf course. If it's not a golf course, it should be green space. Um, I don't know how many people are actually going
to come to the green space since I never see anybody in the park over here. So it's and right now I walk usually five miles a day. It's too hot to be outside. I mean I know the golfers played because they're passionate about what they do just like the tennis people
are playing in this 95 degree weather. Um I just hope that you listen to what the residents have already spoken, not rush this decision. Please do not put an amphitheater in my backyard as well as
those on Causeway Isisles and all those other houses that are uh little thingers coming off of Gulf Boulevard. Um I heard somebody say how much money we made with the golf course. The golf course, first off, has not been maintained in years,
mostly because it was supposed to be rebuilt. So, I hear people making comments that the golf course was in poor condition, but people still came. So, if it is a top-notch golf course, more people will come. So, that's all I have to say.
Thank you, Barbara Mitchell. Hi, everybody. Mitchell EAM. I just want to thank the city for allowing me to have children who have never had a
tennis racket in their hand come to Treasure Bay, big brothers, big sisters, children in foster care and learn how to play tennis. I want to thank the city. I want to thank Kathy. I
want to thank Phil. And I want to thank the girls from St. Petersburg College tennis team for allowing these children to learn how to play tennis for the first time in their lives. So,
thank you, city of Treasure Island. Thank you, Mitchell. Okay, that is the end of public comment. Uh, at this point, um, there's a hand up. I'm sorry. Come on up, West.
West Evans, Isa Palms. First of all, I want to thank a lot of the Rotary guys for coming out because uh it's nice to see people who are involved in the community, coming out and offering to help in the community. I know my dad was a mason, a Shriner, an elk, a moose,
uh whatever. you name it. My dad was involved in it. We lost him in March, but um he's remembered through his communities uh for those reasons and he did a lot for his community. So, I love seeing you guys out uh offering to help out. Uh I want to say that uh Treasure
Bay of course we like several people have said uh and Mitchell has been a proponent of we need a vision plan for it and that the beginning of that vision plan uh needs to be uh what do you do when it all caves into the water because
we tore the cap off of a seaw wall and put a bunch of boulders in. So uh we need to decide what we're going to do with that. Is there any kind of plan for this all washing away now that we're getting rid of a seaw wall? Uh because it's what can you build there? Do we
have a guarantee from the people who gave us the grant that when you rebuild the golf course that it's not going to wash into the bay? Just want to throw that out there if there's any way we can get out of the horrible decision that was made to have a living seaw wall around Treasure Bay. Thank you.
Sarah. All right, guys. One more. Sorry. Um I just wanted to give a perspective. It's very clear that a lot of residents from the um Paradise area came out tonight to speak about it and that that makes a lot of sense because this seems to directly
affect them much more than someone like me over on Isle of Palms who doesn't actually go to Treasure Bay or use it at all. I don't even really know exactly what's happening over there. I've so I'm I'm not very knowledgeable on it because it's not in my backyard. So, I
appreciate all of you that do have a lot of skin in the game about this and doing your research and sharing your opinions about it and I respect those opinions, but I would like to say that it would be nice for the rest of the residents to have a little bit of information
regarding we heard about how much income comes in, but how much at the end of the year are we spending? Is it costing us money to have Treasure Bay and if so, how much? Not everything has to be profitable. Like Boso talked about the I
can't remember MWR. Uh not everything has to be profitable. Sometimes the city spends money on things just for the residents to enjoy and I understand that. But I think for us to make decisions, it would be really helpful to have those numbers of how much money we actually spend. Is this a
big loss for the city every year for us taxpayers? And also what percentage of the residents are utilizing the treasure bay? that would be helpful for us to know. Thanks. Thank you, Sarah. All right, last one. Cara,
thank you, Cara. District 1. Um, I wasn't actually going to speak on this. Um, it is very emotional as Mr. Hoey said. Um, as a mom here on the island, there's lots of us. Um, there's lots obviously children that go to camp from
all over, which Kathy knows. Um, there's the word legacy always comes to mind when I think of Treasure Bay. And the way I look at this entire island is legacy. And the way I hope we all look
at it from a generational standpoint is we all want to rebuild this island and we all want to make it the best that it can be. I agree with Miss Sarah that we do need to look at the costs at the end of the day. Things can make money, but
at at the end, how much are we losing on Treasure Bay or or are we breaking even or what are we doing? I haven't actually seen proper numbers on it to justify the means. Is there a way we can accommodate golf and an amphitheater and the pirate
playground that my kids love, you know, my kid loves and all of our friends love? Um, is there a way to put a restaurant there with a marina um where boers can come and enjoy a nice dinner? You know, there's there's just so much
opportunity with that piece of property. Um, obviously pickle ball is going to take over this town, unfortunately. Um, until your generation dies, I mean, that's you it's it's going to happen, Rob. It's going to happen. Tennis will come back. Tennis will come back. Um,
and I will I will fight for tennis all day long. Um, and uh, but you know, at the end of the day, I think it's legacy and I think we can all and like Sarah said, you know, most of the folks that came out live around Treasure Bay. I'm District 1. I go to Treasure Bay. I play
tennis. My kid takes tennis lessons there. Um, you know, we go to the Pirate Playground. We would love to do more there because of that green space. I don't golf. Uh, my husband does not golf. Um, so that does not affect me, but there are definitely things that
could be done there to better the entire community of Treasure Island and to better St. Pete Beach and Madiraa and make it something. I mean, look at Rock Park and Madiraa. They have baseball fields. The income that that brings in. I would love to see those numbers. Um,
and we asked them for those numbers because, you know, they they use our park in Rosselli because they need overflow from the influx from that. They also have an amphitheater there. Um, and I'm pretty sure you can bring your boat up there as well. Um, you know, and they
have parking, so you know, they've they've done it all minus the golf golf course. Um, but it's obviously not as big. The the other thing, you know, I just again want to talk about is the plan, but the other options of the
vision of the restaurants, the marinas, you know, obviously to West Point, we've got to fix it first and then get to the point. I mean, a discovery center for kids would be amazing. There's so many opportunities
at with that space that we could do something bigger and better than just a nine-hole golf course and just a playground and some tennis courts. So, thank you. Thank you. All right, we're going to
close public comment. Um, normally what we do is uh is basically move towards a consensus, but I don't think that we have anything to move towards a consensus with. But I would like to do one thing. I would like to call up Gary, who is our director of public works, and
let him give you the information on the um the living shoreline. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners. Um Gary Volenik, public works director. It it sounds like Treasure Treasure Bay and the Living Shoreline have a lot of uh varying op
people have a lot of varying opinions on it and it's been interesting to hear everyone uh share them with us. Um uh I I when we observed the the the uh the collapse of a portion of the seaw wall along the uh u the new the new uh
construction project um I researched the the plans and um and also just the overall concept and from what I understand back in 2023 when the project was was being undertaken or designed um the concept was to to do two things. one
to save money by not having to replace a a concrete faced seaw wall, but the other was to to use um uh the living shoreline concept to uh to not only mitigate wave action and that sort of thing, but also to help promote environmental improvement through the uh
provision of some sort of uh of of biodiversity opportunities with with the biodomes and and the rock rip route. Um the concept includes instead of a hardf face seaw wall typically you have a sloping sloping shoreline and um when I
talked to the consultant they informed me that the the the cap was taken off because the ground was was sloping downward and and they were going to have you know and this rip wrap to kind of uh face it. Uh but unfortunately in certain areas in the particular area where it
collapsed um when they did the survey in 23 of the the bottom they found there were seaggrass in tight in that location. So the uh uh the the uh permitting would not allow them to put the rock out there because they felt it would damage the
seagrasses that were growing and and there also some coral communities. Um so when when this event happened you know we we got with the contractor and the consultant they swam the area to double check and this either the storm
or the time the storms or the time uh that's passed since the original benthic survey of that area and the grass is not as close to the wall as it was. So they are proposing they've given us a couple of couple of considerations. Uh, one of them is to to
um uh remove the portion. They're going to initially try and pull it's it's it's it's offer by about 30 degrees or so, 20 to 30°. Try and straighten out the piece of seaw wall that's there and they've gotten permission from the agency to put rip wrap in front of it in that area
which doesn't have it. You you've seen some of the areas there is rock into the water. This will have the rock into the water also on the on the front side and they're going to add a little bit more rock in the back to stabilize it so it'll balance the weight in both directions. So there is a concept a plan
for that. When they went out there, they also looked at some of the other areas and it appears that there may be another section where we were not able to um uh uh put rip wrap on the front that due to the cracking and the age of the seaw wall that they recommend we we actually
remove that and and actually put the rip wrap back in because we can't go out. There's some corals and things there. We'll we'll build the the shoreline back, but it'll it'll pretty much be a continuous rockfaced sloped rockf face um shoreline, excuse me, which will
absorb the the wave energy, promote a little bit of, you know, growth of um of uh oysters and different things to help filter the water and stuff. So, the intent is we can still accomplish the intent of it. It'll be a stable shoreline. It's got to go through a
little bit of a minor modification from permitting, but it looks like we have a good solution there. And and you know, when it's completed, it's not going to it's not going to wash into the bay or or fall apart or whatever like like some people have have, you know, the opinion of. Um we we feel like um this is a good
solution, but that's the direction we're going in. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer. I have a question. Is there any plans to add a cap back with a rebar or no? No, no cap. Thank you. I'd like to if I could bring my uh Excel
spreadsheet sheet back up and then I I added a couple of pictures. I went out there this Sunday and to take a look at, you know, what was going on there and the piece. Thank you. Thank you. The mic was on, but anyway, uh let me grab I can grab
that right here, I think. Actually, what did I grab? That's not mine. Yeah, that's not mine. There must be another one there. No, it wasn't a P. It was an Excel spreadsheet. Mike,
well, while they're locating, I just wanted to pass on that um I started work on the on April 15th and either that week or the week after, I took a tour of the construction site. And when I went along this area, the first thing I asked the consultant was, "Why did you take the pile cap off?" And I recognize that
that could cause a problem. Um they told me that they didn't anticipate it being an issue, but I think with all the rains that we've had um before the project was was finished and and they had everything, you know, stabilized it all the water behind the wall, it tended to push it outward and that's why we have
the the tilt. Okay. I I I took a couple of pictures out there. The the section that collapsed was how many feet would you say? 30 feet. Was it 30 feet? Yeah. I thought I thought it was even less than that. But anyway, uh you can see the seaw wall here in this section. See it right
there? Yep. That it has no cap. So there's there's there's this rock in front of it and uh and back of it. And the area that Gary was speaking about that did collapse. There was there were no rocks in front of it. Correct. So perhaps the the the pressure of the
rocks behind it did force it to and the rains and everything else forced it. But anyway, clearly uh this this seaw wall that doesn't have a cap is not going anywhere. I mean, that is pretty solid. I mean, this is another another similar
picture, but longer. But you can barely see the you can barely see there the uh the seaw wall, but it's it's not going anywhere. as you said, uh, uh, this this isn't going to collapse into the bay or or, uh, you know, disappear on us, but it's, uh, it it's it's this is pretty
this is this is very solid stuff that that's not going going anywhere. When you don't have a continuous wall, then you have a path for water and then you got a massive unless that's made.
I'll let Gary. Well, it it seems like we have a lot of engineers in the audience, but but um um we have a geoteexile fabric that goes in behind the existing wall so that any water that does migrate will not transport sand or you know part
you know particles of sand and things through it which causes the degradation the imbalance. So this the the the fabric the geoteexile fabric is integral to the design. Okay. Thank you. That's all I have. All right. Okay. So, uh, there is one last thing
that we need to do here and that is, uh, Mark Hoey, do you have anything else to say tonight? No, I'm just I'm I'm reading it and it says I the public comment goes for the individual item and now it's overall
individual item. Okay, that's all right. So, uh, we will adjourn. what any direction or Well, that's what I said. I don't think that at this point we have that. Now, for the folks in the audience though, um
we are going to have on August 8th, that is going to be our big budgeting day. That will start in the morning and go through the afternoon. And that's where, you know, we're going to basically put our energy for the uh the 26 budget. So,
uh, and it was open to the public and, uh, so but keep that in mind and, uh, I'm sure that, uh, you'll see some of it in the newsletter for Treasure Island about that date. So, all right. We're close.
You good? Well, just keep keep in mind they're leaving. Um, keep in mind that we still we lost them. Okay. Yep. We'll talk about budget. All right.