good evening and welcome to the commission meeting for April 15 2025 I'd like to call this meeting to order And 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 Clerk would you please call roll vice Mayor Bazquez here Commissioner Clark
here Commissioner Sison here Commissioner Dicki here Mayor doctor here Thank you Okay Next approval of regular and workshop agendas Any changes anything good um I'd like to add an item into the agenda if I could Okay Um and
that is to terminate the contract of advanced engineering design effective immediately All right So that will be put in place That will be I5 Any other
changes okay So then we'll move forward on that Um I'm going to stick this in here the uh under proclamations recognitions and certificate of appreciation we actually have uh two uh new employees and I would
like to have the city manager uh do introductions Thank you mayor and commissioners With us tonight I'm happy to announce that we do have two individuals that we were hire that were hired to be part of our staff Our first would be Lisa Marie Kennedy who is going to be our city
clerk Lisa Marie comes to us from Hillsboro County Clerk's Office and she has vast experience in public records law Lisa Marie holds a master's degree in political science and is a certified excuse me certified PE
CPM public manager Certified public manager So we do uh wish her well and we're happy to have her on board I've also have with us tonight Gary Volan who is our new assistant public works director Most recently Gary was the
director of engineering from the city of Key West Florida which has many of the same challenges and opportunities that we experience here in Treasure Island It is at is it is a coastal community Gary brings much experience in hurricane recovery seaw wall projects beach
reourishment and roadways Thank you Thank you very much and welcome to both of you Yeah All right Uh next we have public comments I have it looks like two cards
for public comments The first is uh Mitchell Thank you mayor Welcome commissioners city staff Mitchell Shankman La Palm I just want to announce that uh the Gulf Beaches Rotary
is having our annual Easter egg hunt this Saturday at Rosselli Park and we have already gotten 5,000 eggs 12 B gift box baskets
uh for the bonnet contest and hat contest and I hope you can all join us there bring your little grandchildren and all your children So looking forward starts at 10 o'clock in the morning Probably the kids will finish up by uh
10:05 and uh and then we'll have and there's also an Easter Bunny there so the kids can get pictures with the Easter Bunny So happy Easter everybody and uh hope to see you Saturday Great Thank you
Mitchell Rick Matthew Rick Matthew District Three Um several months ago I asked about um basically our plan for road repair and I said at the time it was addressed that yeah we have a plan in place I would like to
know does that plan exist and what is our plan because the side and I know this not a question or but make it available to us The sidewalk over here at the park was destroyed by the massive dump trucks and everything going by
That's a legal issue that the city could be sued for if somebody busts their butt And the other is 104 saw 30 years worth of damage in a couple months Now the the black top is completely gone They've repaired that
road more than five times in the last three years So I would just and this isn't just 104th It's all the city We need to be looking at those infrastructure things to see what our plan is because those are big ticket items Anyway if that would be ma made
available to us that'd be great Thank you Thank you Rick Bob Mining Good to see you back Bob Good evening We got riding on this side I bet Commissioners mayor staff
um I have a few comments but I first I want to start off by saying thank you Thank you Thank you to city staff They have busted their butts here for the last number of months Oftentimes gone without recognition or with worse with
being berated and degraded So I'm here to tell you that uh from my perspective kudos to all of you for what you've done and please carry on in that tradition Um then I want to congrats to I'll say the commission uh for passing
the terrain modification program Um as you are all aware that has been a long time coming and there are a lot of dead bodies along the side of the road for that one Um but it's nice to see it and it's certainly of benefit to
our residents especially Sunset Beach where the film material is uh sadly needed But many thanks Chuck and your staff for uh for getting that over the hump and to the commission for doing that Uh then I'd like to comment on some
posts that have recently appeared on Next Door Uh and it's discouraging um to read some of those Um it reminds me of my ninth grade civics class Um my teacher was Miss Coats and
the discussion in that civics class was around yellow dog journalism I don't know how and many of you recognize that term nowadays I'm told it's clickbait Um but the same concept and
that is demeaning derogatory misinformed headlines uh in order to attract reader interest or viewer interest And that folks has absolutely no place in our city No place And for those folks who
engage in the activity it's free speech I understand that you're entitled to do as you do but I want to tell you the negativity that it portrays about our city um is sad It's unfortunate and doesn't need to
happen Um one of the headlines in the uh recent posts on Next Door commented that the city was going to need tax need to raise taxes by 20 to 30% Uh I'm not sure where that number came from Um but nonetheless I would
like to point out to everybody that thanks to Save Our Homes uh you can only raise those homes that are homesteaded by 3% a year max or the CPI whichever one is less So to say that and to uh to
put it in writing that we're going to raise your your potential to raise your taxes by 20 to 30% is extremely misleading Extremely I mean thank goodness for Save Our Homes Um but that's got application here which is
super Another portion of the article stated that uh Treasure Island has 88 employees in our public works department Uh I can just go over this one quick Um it's 48 and that's from Mike Alford today Uh
and included in that 48 are 10 10 bridge attendants So the actual number of public works employees that we have in the city that are actually out doing the landscaping what have you uh is 38 So
kudos to those guys because they too have been busting their rear ends to get uh our city back in shape Uh another comment was made about the uh Commissioner Vasquez about taking our wastewater
uh and having Penllis County take care of that Good idea But we looked at that in the city about 10 years ago I want to say around 2015 And here's what they told us then and I don't expect that the story has
changed any now Sure we're happy to take your wastewater Um all you have to do is get it up to Madiraa Beach um and tie into our our Penllis County system So that would mean coming out of the master pump station down Gulf
Boulevard underneath John's Pass and then to tie into that uh back in 2015 or so when we looked at that u it was a nice butt and uh the conversation did not go any further I don't suspect that
that conversation would be any different today but certainly you can ask Penelis County what do they do and if they have a different answer um that would be great but I don't expect it to be any different to be honest Um staffing permit
applications So I ran through this and let me just share these with you There are 1,07 permits um and those consist of single family home demos 102 commercial demo 11
elevation 16 and residential reconstruction 888 um for a total of 107 of which 704 uh have been issued So then let's take a look at the number of single family homes there are in Treasure Island And
there are 1656 636 multifamily homes 213 town homes and 155 other for a total of 2,668 So some simple math Let's take the 268 and let's subtract the applications
that have been made for permits already And that simple math comes out um that we haveund 1,461 permits yet to be issued if everybody who has a residence
in Treasure Island to that My point in making this is um I think it's unfortunate that at the last meeting that the commission did not approve the expenditure of
$131,000 to keep this additional staff on Those additional 13 supplemental staff uh were let go They're gone So we're now back to our regular staffing And the regular staffing now has to in
some way shape or form and I have no idea when these are going to come in But again 1461 permits yet to be issued Think about that Okay I would like to say many thanks to Jackie Gabriel because she's the lady who gave me the uh the info
that I've just relayed to you The last thing that I want to mention uh is about the police and fire station and uh Chief Barkley uh has opined I'm sure you're aware that here on the second
floor is just not room and that perhaps the fourth floor might have room Um but that's a logistical nightmare if you think about it So I don't know where we are on all this picking spots I know the previous commission did select two locations
uh combined facility out here Um but I see still on the table is 108 uh and perhaps something to do with uh with this city Oh I I'm over Excuse me Sorry I rattled on Uh that's all I got Thank
you all Thank you Bob Sarah Pennington Hi good evening Sarah Pennington Is of Palms I have a copy a copy of all of my water bills since the storm Um I downloaded them onto my phone and the
average is about $240 for my water bill which doesn't sound too bad except for these bills are for zero gallons of water used because we haven't lived in our house since September 25th of last year So I did hear at the last meeting it definitely
caught my ear when I heard about a lucrative wastewater account that was bringing in if I recall $6 million a year but it's only costing us $2.5 million to process that wastewater And my first thought was gosh are we being
overcharged for that i don't know how this works I'm just a citizen but that was my first thought Um I realize that this $240 water bill is not all the wastewater account but it actually about 40% of this bill for zero gallons of water does appear to be storm water and
sewer fees So I was just curious to know if anyone has thought to look into this account and see are there any useful or meaningful adjustments that need to be made that would be helpful to the residents Thanks Thank you Sarah
Mayor Doctor yes I had some uh commissioner comments that I was going to address that uh issue that she brought up and I would like to with your permission to go ahead and and and talk about them now Sure Go ahead Thank you Uh earlier today I sent the mayor mayor
doctor and the commissioners uh an an email letting them know that I had found that I had made a mistake in the comment that I made at the uh workshop we had last Tuesday Uh I quoted a number of what I believe to be excess cash flow from our wastewater fund I said that our
revenues from wastewater fund exceeded operating expenses by about $3.5 million each year for the past three years I've since gone back and checked my numbers and was disappointed to discover that that the dollar amount I quoted was incorrect uh my Excel spreadsheet was
picking up my Excel spreadsheet which I did uh was picking up the correct amount for revenues from the wastewater fund but my links on the spreadsheet was grabbing the expense amounts from the solid waste fund not the wastewater fund So the true amount of the difference in
revenue versus operating expenses for the wastewater fund was 718,000 in fiscal year 23 and about 1.2 2 million in the 24 estimate and in the 25 budget I apologized uh to the uh commission uh
and to the residents for my air and I apologize for uh any confusion it has caused Can I ask you a quick question on that sure So did I did I read your email correctly that we're still generating 1.2 million above yes that's correct But
I in my calculation and I'd mentioned this at the workshop I didn't include any capital expenditures I just did operating expenses So uh to think that we might put an average 1 million a year in that fund towards capital improvements is probably not a
reasonable an unreasonable uh conclusion I tried to find that in the budget I was it was hard to do because there's the lift station in there that hasn't been so it was really hard to figure it out Right So anyway my apologies for that Thank you Commissioner
Dicki The next uh Ronald Dezi Debiosi Debiosi please Yeah Good evening everyone My name is Ronald Debazi I'm a resident of Treasure Island Isa Palms
Uh I'm here today uh to discuss the uh city charter uh and I just wanted to deform the commission that we are
uh arranging to uh proceed to change the city charter from um city manager council to a strong mayor And what this does is it gives
the residents uh control and the uh members of the commission and our representatives are accountable
to the residents Not the way it is right now Uh right now uh we've been informed over the years that uh the council represents
us but nothing ever is presented to us for approval or disapproval It's like we gave the council uh a blank uh card to vote on anything and whatever
they say goes and the city manager has no authority He's controlled by the council So we're going to get up a petition and we're going to file uh to for a city charter
uh to proceed changing it to strong mayor Now if anybody is confused they could look up the definition of strong mayor uh versus city manager and it'll explain exactly what
this does It gives control to the residents and the people are uh the representatives are accountable to the people and that's all I had to say Great
Thank you You're welcome All right Any additional public comment please Hi Um I'm Vince Shriber I live on Lagoon Lane Um I've been here for uh almost exactly two years ago I bought
my house And so I'm one of those people that um not a complaint because I knew it would happen but basically my taxable value went up by $800,000 with nothing being done Um but that's fine I knew it
was going to happen so not a big deal Uh the the real reason why I wanted to step up here I sent all of the um commissioners some articles over the weekend um about trying to come up with a public
private partnership of some sort so that we can actually build a a public facility for police and fire that we can be proud of um Commissioner Dickiy's comments last week I almost fell out of my chair because I was at home laughing
about um being a little bit half whatever Um that's how I feel Um honestly I've I've been visiting this area since I was 16 years old That's a long time Um I love it generally but had I
understood how backwards we were in terms of development I wouldn't have moved here Um we need to do something we can be proud of We've got a bunch of vacant land and it's some of the most desirable land in the entire state of
Florida and we're letting it sit here Um I'm not advocating for the 64story building that was in the article that I sent I posted it on online and nobody threw any rocks at me though which shocked me So that kind of inspired me to come up
here and um suggest that we get serious about coming up with a plan I'm extremely disappointed that the hotel is getting rebuilt over here It's iconic We love it and everything Why is it still the same number of rooms after 65
freaking years let's let's get creative Let's get outside of our box I'd be happy to work with the staff and explain how I personally working for other companies I've done design competitions that cost very little money
and you'd have renderings You'd have something intelligent you could talk about on what you could put over here that's a mixeduse building that includes police and fire I think it's a beautiful site for that and that's where it ought to be and I'd be happy to volunteer I I
get paid a lot to be a consultant Nobody has to pay me anything I'll volunteer Let's get something done that we can be proud of Thank you very much Okay with that we will close public comment and we will move on to let's see
where we commissioner reports So I would like to address to kick off I was this was going to be in my commissioner notes anyway um a little bit um on um something that Mr Mining had had said Um first of all I was going to correct the number of public works
today Um I definitely the only place that I could find because I had requested weeks and weeks and weeks ago I had requested um in a meeting to get kind of the breakdown of um each individual office for city staff and I
didn't get it and I understand that can be an oversight Um so the only place I could find it was online and online um it was actually I believe it was on Indeed it had stated that there were 88 employees in public works Um so I stand corrected on that There are 48 but I
still stand by my statement That is still more than twice what any city that surrounds us has in public works So even with the correction in the number uh my statement still stands Yes I was incorrect on the 88 It's 48 and we can
do better And so I will still stand by that statement um as to what happened in 2015 when the city went um and spoke to the county The county is very aware of that They've seen you know they they
still have the records from that Um a lot has changed in 10 years A whole lot has changed in 10 years It doesn't cost us one penny to investigate this but could save the city absolutely millions and millions and millions of dollars So
there is absolutely no harm in going to the county and working with the county which I've done over the last eight weeks to try to come up with this idea And as a matter of fact thank you to the deputy um person who was here last week the deputy director of public works for
the county Um this week we are going to have the letter of intent to start the process um to investigating It doesn't cost us the city one penny to do it And this isn't 2015 and as we all know there's a lot changed since then So I'm
definitely going to keep on that Um I think it's a wonderful idea and the savings to our city is exponential and it would be foolish and irresponsible if we didn't investigate that So I just wanted to address those things um right at first Also um I have received many
requests um from my constituents about the workshops A lot of them want to attend the workshops but because they are after our regular meetings and we can't seem to keep our meetings very short um these people don't want to speak at you know 10:00 at night and
11:00 at night So I have had a lot of people um that have reached out to me to ask if there was any possibility of doing workshops on a different day maybe in the afternoon Um that has been something that has been asked um or even
if it's another six o'clock meeting um but just on a different day Um I've had a lot of people reach out to me and ask for that Um I do want to thank the staff Um I will tell you I've also received three emails from people who said that
the permitting they did not have any issues this week that the permitting was going smoothly Um so um I know there were changes in the permitting department but I received three emails stating what a great job the staff was doing Um so I just want to thank the
staff for that You guys are you've done an excellent job and you're continuing to do an excellent job and the the people in the city notice it So I just wanted to definitely state that Um and I want to thank the residents I've I've received several emails this week of um
residents all over the island not just in my district um who have who emailed me to thank me for bringing up the sewer and for trying to find cost-saving ways Um I have a lot of things that I'm working on um that aren't quite ready to
bring but I just want to thank the people who reached out It does mean a lot between phone calls and emails It means a lot And it really um that's why I'm here is we've got to cut cost We've got to do what we can and that's what I'm that's that's my goal But thank you
guys Please keep emailing Um it means a lot to me And that's it All right Uh Commissioner Clark Uh yeah thank you So um I have four topics that I've received a bunch of phone calls emails and things over the last week So
I want to go through each of those four topics Um uh three of them have already been brought up by by folks in the audience tonight So the first thing I got a lot of emails phone calls on was kind of the city's financial situation as it relates to all the capital
infrastructure projects that we have to do Um and the impending decrease in tax revenue that you know we're saying that taxes are probably revenue is going to go down 8 to 10% possibly uh based on the storm and kind of what that means
for borrowing and our taxes in the future Um I think it's important for the residents to understand kind of how we got to where we are so we can move forward and not make the same mistakes And I know that I did not know any of
this information until I got involved here Um so I just want to go over and make sure that everyone's kind of aware of it I put together just two pages here I wanted to go through This is straight out of our budget our budget workbook and and this just kind of shows what's
happened with our taxes over the um the last since 2006 And to Commissioner Manning's point the mill rate can only go up by so much So as you can see over there you know it started at 2.6 in 2006 Now it's at
3.8 Um there hasn't been really any huge jumps Um it's kind of just progressively gone up So I mean that is what it is But what has changed drastically is the taxable value based on people buying new homes uh building new homes people
moving in So is if you look from the taxable value in 2006 was 1.4 billion That's gone up uh to 1 point it went up to 1.8 billion in 2018 That wasn't that big of a jump But
look what happened in the last six years It went from 1.8 billion up to 3.1 billion So what did that mean for the city if you look over in the property tax levy again it took 14 years for it to go from 3.7 million that we collected
each year up to 6.3 But look in the last six years it went from 6.3 uh million up to 11.4 million And if you go to the next page since since 2019 to
2025 that's a 91% increase in the amount of tax revenue that the city has brought in Um and that's 11.3 combined annual growth rate So the question that comes to my mind for me is where did all that
money go i mean we don't have any new facilities That's what we're talking about building now We don't have new lifts We didn't get a new lift station during that time We didn't get we didn't get much of anything Um I can tell you what we did get We got this building
which has been a financial disaster Um and we got uh a living seaw wall I guess that's kind of all that comes to mind So taxes went up by 91% Uh we grew government by 50% And
what did we get for it not much of anything I I can tell you what what I can tell you where some of the money went Uh five million uh to the over cost overrun on this building Plus we're still spending maintenance on it I I I don't think we're ever going to know how
much that this building ended up costing And it's sitting here 40% empty Um uh 1.2 million on a big public works building we're going to build and then we stopped uh half a million on connectivity
mobility uh safety studies and we did nothing with um 200,000 on the golf course design 1.5 million for revamping the storm sewers for elevate TI 3.3 million now it's going to cost us more because we didn't do the lift station
four years ago and and then I don't even I can't even really talk about how much we spent on ATI because I start to get sick Um but that was just another complete bombastic waste of money So now we're in a place that in order to do
what we need to do we need to either raise taxes which Commissioner Minnie stated we can only raise them by so much or bring on a bunch of new debt And you know I I I I heard the fire chief say last time we've been trying to get this new building for so long Yeah My
question is why didn't we get it back when we started bringing all this money in we wasted all of it So I mean we're in the position that we're in My residents have made it loud and clear to me they don't want a bunch of new debt and a bunch of new taxes And I I'm not
going to vote for that I think it's ridiculous We have to learn to live within our means So I stated personally that we should move the police into city hall um and build a small fire station over on 108 And I feel that way whether we get the $12 million or the $6 million
or we don't because then we'll just spend like instead of pending six or seven million we'll only spend you know one to 1.5 maybe And that's the kind of decisions we're going to have to make going forward as a town or or or we're just going to keep doing the things way
we've done over the past few years which is just spend whatever we want waste money on whatever we want and just go back and tax the residents and take on more debt And that's not the way that that that that it should be done And and like I said before this building here has been an unmitigated financial
disaster The only way to make it less of an unmititigated financial disaster is to fill it because we're paying the same amount every year over a million dollars on debt service on this building And I mean I I just don't see any other way And these are the kind of decisions we
have to make going forward Um and the other way the only other way to possibly help us take on less debt and and not raise taxes in the future is is to get and we talked about this in our first meeting I believe up here as a new
commission is we have to get development going tomorrow Um and that's the only way So in three years from now we can start bringing in some revenue And and what I want to propose is and Vince brought it up before we have a bunch of
new people here that are experts on design building public private partnerships So I think we need to put together a council of I brought this up to the city manager of of you know whatever it is five to 10 residents that are experts in development and have them
help the city get this going because if we don't get it going you know we're going to be our our financial situation is just going to get worse than it already is And unfortunately that's a choice this town has made over the last 10 years to not have development I think we all agreed we want to do it but we
need to get do it we need to start getting it done very very fast Um the second second topic I had I received a bunch of calls on this It's already been brought up We talked about it is the storm water Um the thing that Commissioner Dicki brought up I too tend
to agree that our bills seem incredibly high Um and even if it's only $1.2 million that we're bringing in that's too much for me Um you know I think our bills should be lower So and I've had a lot of residents say to this So I think
we need to take a look at where we are and reanalyze this I know that two to three years ago I think Stacy Boils hired a a consultant to come in to see how much we could raise our fees I believe that consultant got got uh you
know paid for that based on how much of an increase we did So I'd like to know who that consultant was and how much we paid them And I think we need to go back and take a look at where we are with our storm water to see if if uh the residents bills can be lowered in any
way without hurting the city because to me this just seems like another tax on the residents Um the third thing I had I've I I've gotten a bunch I've seen a bunch of stuff online about the $130,000 that the commission voted down Commissioner Mining you you brought that
up and you know I ran on a platform of permits now So permits now are incredibly important to me but as you've just seen the finances of our city are also incredibly important to me And I think the whole problem is the the
permit situation's been a disaster kind of from day one It seems like we've kind of got a handle on it but Commissioner Ming you gave me way more information on how many permits what the numbers were than we got from the city staff in order
to to make a decision on $130,000 I'm not going to make a decision on $130,000 without some numbers and some things So if they want to come back with you know exactly how many people how many permits is that going to allow us to get done how many days are those
permits going to take how many per we didn't have any of that information I'm supposed to make a decision on $130,000 For former commissions may have done that I I'm not going to And lastly the question I'm getting every day is when are we going to get refunds for our
permits i've asked the city manager can we at least throw a date out there of it's going to be July 1st or something and then maybe we could actually over you know underpromise and overd deliver get it before them But we're getting no date and we're talking about systems
talking and computer systems We all talked about how people came up and volunteered during the storm I will volunteer if we can't get this going in a minute to come sit in a room up here on a Saturday with a checkbook and a list of people and I bet in six hours I could write out a thousand checks and
put it into a spreadsheet so we have it So I mean we got to do something here to get these these folks e at least a time frame when they're going to get their get their uh refunds back So that's all I have Thanks Thank
you Commissioner Sesan Go first I've got I've already cut after you No I've already got my comments All right Thank you All right Well I got a couple notes so bear with me Um so I did get the list of employees that the city has 132
authorized position and 14 vacancies Um I got the breakdown here but I'm not going to bore everybody with that Uh we did lose our uh public works director uh Mike Uh he resigned yesterday So uh pat on the back from all that pressure from
citizens uh to get rid of more employees Um so comment number two this is going to be a doozy Uh so citizens voice commended me last week in an email uh to bring fresh ideas I don't think they're
going to commend me this week Uh it was resident of district 2 Andy uh Vassy Andrew Vassie who brought up the at the podium 37 million in potential new debt and a 20 to 30% property uh tax increase
and a uh citizens voice TI email that followed on Friday Uh just enough time to cause ha havoc and chaos Our informative meeting with the debit bond reps was educational I personally felt like a pitch but I definitely learned a
lot However I want to uh make clear that I hope not to bond any money let alone 29 or 37 million That'd be fiscally irresponsible of us Information that would be important to include that was probably accidentally left out would be
that uh Treasure Island has 7 million in cash 12 million in money market and 18 million in bonds So we got some money in the bank Um my next comment uh recovering from back-to-back storms has been the the city's priority since uh
since last year We're still in the phase and have that focus Uh that is not finished and we will have to prioritize with fiscal ideas that include reduced spending cost savings where achievable and out-of-the-box thinking I expect
these items to be part of this year's budget that uh will be presented by the city manager Um the constant insults directed at former commissioners and our former mayor are classless unfounded and
downright slanderous It's time to move on and move forward Here is the doozy So TI has been kicking the can down the road for far too long and it's time to get things done This new commission
needs to be proactively approving responsible cost effective facilities Accordingly we need a definitive and permanent plan for police and fire Now various plans have been kicked around over the years including a $12 million
public safety building which would be great if we had the money Unfortunately we don't and we need to make the best decision now given our financial situation We have a newly refurbished city hall that is approximately 40% or more vacant Uh the police should be
moved into city hall immediately and permanently without further delay Housing our police in portable pods makes no sense especially when city hall's space is readily available A brand new fire station should be built
on 108th for approximately $5 million at 1,000 square foot or $1,000 per square feet Uh the design and construction should be expedited to the fullest extent possible just like the community center If we were fortunate enough to receive the 6 million grant from the
state every penny of that money should go toward the relocation of the police into city hall and to expedite construction in a new fire station We cannot afford to wait any longer That would be it I already had my comments so I'll pass from here All right Uh let me just
follow up with a couple of other things Uh maybe a little more upscale Um at least in spirit Um the one thing that I do want to bring up is that uh public works we've already talked about it but there are 48 people in public works Uh
10 of those folks um are bridge tenders one full-time bridge tender nine part-time bridge tenders which would actually uh if nobody else matter of fact there are only two cities uh in the state of Florida that operate uh a
drawbridge Um and it's very expensive to build very expensive to maintain and very expensive to uh to do on day-to-day operations So that would put us really at 38 headcount and 38 headcount would put us right in about the same spot as
as other folks have been Uh there was a number that was given out last time uh as well that said that uh Madiraa Beach was 400 residents uh shy of our population base That too is is not correct uh we're
at 6,800 on the census and on the census for Madira Beach they're at 3,900 So substantially less than where we have it So then moving on um I I want to talk just for a minute about the car show Uh
we had a great car show here the other day It was from the American Legion Um it uh it lasted about 5 hours Uh we had close to record attendance Uh but this is now where we're getting back to normaly We're starting to do the things
that we've done and we're looking for more up uh to do on the beach and we're hoping that this year we're going to have our sandy ovations in November and everything that that we can do uh as much as possible And the last thing that
I have is that uh channel 10 um was here the other day Uh they uh they interviewed me as well as they interviewed uh are going up and down the beach and uh interviewing all of the mayors um for a hurricane recovery
program that's going to be airing on May 2nd And um and I'll tell you that u I was uh very positive in in where we are and what we're doing and uh where we can move forward and u all right ABC I'm sorry thank you very
much but it was it was ABC but uh yeah it's going to be May 2nd but they are doing a uh a program uh for all the coastal communities and uh so I think that that'll be something that could be um good and fun to watch And uh and I'll
tell you what uh from the reporter that was there as well uh she basically had said that uh Treasure Island appears to be in great shape compared to a lot and most of the other communities that are there And uh and I appreciated the
hearing that and I know it's the hard work of our staff Uh it's the hard work of our residents uh that has got us there and we just need to keep moving forward All right moving on Uh we do not have any approval of minutes We have no
consent agenda So our first agenda item for tonight is the second and final reading of ordinance 202503 Good evening Um you might recall a couple weeks ago uh we had received about million nine or so in insurance
proceeds and pursuant to an ordinance a couple years ago uh we are required to present this to the commission uh in order for us to incorporate it into the budget So this
is the second reading Um the total is uh a million81 and we would be putting it into a revenue and an expense on the budget the budget side Any
questions any questions all right Uh did you read the ordinance ordinance 2025-03 an ordinance of the city of Treasure Island Florida amending the fiscal year 2025 general fund budget to
recognize insurance proceeds of 1,879 and I'm sorry $879 $847.97 for flood damage providing for severability providing or conflict and an effective date All right Thank you
Um any questions for staff no Okay Any public comment okay Hearing none we'll close the public comment I move to approve and adopt ordinance 2025-03 at the second and final public hearing
Do I have a second i second We have a motion and a second Any discussion okay Roll call please Commissioner Sison I Commissioner Dicki I Vice Mayor Vasquez I Commissioner Clark I Mayor Doctor I
Okay moving on Adoption of the 2025 Penllis County multi-jurisdictional uh local mitigation strategy Good evening All right U I'm just going to quickly introduce myself I'm Jesse Miller the uh principal
planner community rating system community rating system coordinator and also the designated flood plan administrator for the city as well Um I don't usually come in front of the commission too often for things so not going to see too much of me Um so just so you know yeah this is kind of just like a standard 5-year update that we
have to go through uh based off the Federal Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 and as being a part of the Community Rating System uh program as well too Um I'm I believe most of the information has been provided to you So if you have any questions I'm available
All right Uh I just have one question real quick If I make sure I read this right I know this it's probably just a timing thing but this is done every what five years is that right every five years Yes Yeah And so it just happened that unfortunately it was done right before the storms So we're not able to
incorporate anything or learn anything from these storms right into this Unfortunately no Um then it won't be another five years now till we do another one Five years Yes Five years And we'll do the same process as kind of like what we did with this one Uh they're do like public outreach programs Uh a lot of those are held within like
around Ken City and then you can also do an input There's surveys that they put out as well too And the county is also looking to adopt this on April 22nd I don't I don't have a question but I did have some observations in it And it's a first of all it's a hell of a
document If you if you uh get a chance to read it it's it's what maybe a thousand pages but it's uh it it was not boring I wanted to point just a few things out that I thought were important and relative to uh Treasure Island Uh the first one was on on page 148 of the
agenda packet was three uh 3-26 of the mitigation strategy but it talks about CSR premium discounts by class and the Treasure Island and St Petersburg beaches in class 6 which gives our residents a 20% discount off of uh the
National Flood Insurance Program uh uh flood insurance I did notice that there were two other three other uh cities MadiRaa Beach North Readington and Readington Beach that was were in category 7 which is a little bit worse than ours They were at 15% However
Tarpon Springs St Pete and Deneden Deneden were in the the next higher category for uh in terms of a discount They get 25% discount and I took a look to try to see what was what jumped out at me in terms of you know why are they
getting the 25% and us instead of us 20% and I didn't see any real good reasons One of the things that was in there on page 149 of the agenda package it it does have the substantial damage uh thresholds and time frame for each of the municipalities So I just assumed
based on previous discussions we've had that maybe Tarpon Springs and St Peton and Eden had had uh had uh these look back periods that we uh rejected and in fact two of them don't have any look back periods So I the only question I
would ask Jesse is that and and Chuck is let's let's take a look at see what Tarpon Springs and St Pete and Denedian is doing that we're not doing Uh that might be able to get us bumped up into that next category for discounts for our
residents Uh another observation I saw on page 150 of the agenda package uh was a staff personal resources and it was all the cities in uh Treasury in Penllis County And the one thing that jumped out at me is uh 11 of the 24 cities in and
municipalities in Penllis County have grant writers Uh we are we do not have a grant writer And there's probably never been a more important time for us to have a grant writer or grant manager than now Uh I briefly mentioned this at one of the previous meetings but I would
like uh to to see if the other com commissioners would be open-minded to to the possibility I know we're looking to cut expenses and not add but I think a grant writer at this particular time would be uh would would could bring bring a lot
of return value to us Uh and then the last thing I had that's in there is on pages 503 through 526 And this was a this was a wonderful discovery I wish I would have found it uh uh two or three months ago Uh it's potential funding
sources section and it describes over 31 different agencies that the the city of Treasure Island can go after to get money This uh rebuild TI group that we we gathered together a couple of months ago and and are working diligently was
actually focused just on this uh community block development grants uh that are part of that 813 million that the county had gotten That's just one It's a big one but it's one of 31 possibilities of of of grants that we
can be pursuing if we knew how to how to go about doing it So that's uh again just first of all I think it's a good document for the rebuild TI group because it can expand our range of uh possible uh grants Uh but more importantly it's I think it talks to the
need of of that we need a grant manager on staff to to look at this and not just following the hurricane but but uh for for many years to come That's the only comments I wanted to make on that Thank you Any other comments how can we uh
discuss a grant writer is I definitely agree with that statement Is that a future agenda item sure it can be Absolutely Awesome So uh obviously a lot of pages in this a lot of it put me to sleep a couple nights in a row which
was great Um the risk assessment section on page 153 um it literally shows a map of uh buildings built by year and it obviously Clear Water Beach is a nice blob of red because the entire beach is resilient to
storms Clearwater Beach that is And uh after the hurricane Clear Water Beach pretty much bounced back in two weeks most businesses were open with a small exception of a few hotels So I think that map was the only one that stuck out for me the most And obviously Treasure
Island is mostly in yellow built in 1950 to 1979 whereas Clearwater Beach is built in 2020 to 2023 So hopefully we'll get there That's it Great Thank you Commissioner Clark Anything no Okay
Then uh we will open this to the public comment Do we have any public comment hearing none we'll close that I move to approve and adopt resolution 2025-06 adopting the 2025 Penllis County
multi-jurisdictional local mitigation strategy Second All right Any additional discussion hearing none Roll call please Vice Mayor Vasquez I Commissioner Sison I Commissioner Clark I Commissioner Dicki I Mayor
Doctor I All right moving on Interlocal agreement with St Pete College Good afternoon mayor and commissioners Uh fire chief Tre Bars here Uh wearing the emergency manager hat We've
negotiated with St B college to u get an agreement with them to be able to use their Midtown campus as our tertiary EOC that's emergency operations center during anytime we need to evacuate the island for a storm or any other cause
and the Pasadena Community Church which is our secondary is unavailable or not suitable due to its location in the flood plane Um it's a very straightforward standard agreement Uh same one is being uh agreed to by South
Pasadena and St Pete Beach our partners in the EOC We used it last year uh during Milton when we thought we were going to take a direct hit and wouldn't you know would would have been washed out of the church had we stayed And it
um it was acceptable It worked but uh there were some things that needed to be tweaked and we've done that here both for the colleg's sake and for use for us So we've got a good agreement here It's been approved by legal Um I stand by it I think it'll do the city serve the city
well And for a dollar how can you lose here to answer questions Thank you Chief Any questions all right Uh any public comment hearing none we'll close public
comment May I have a motion please my computer's on the fritz again So is mine All right I'll I'll do it then I move to approve and authorize the city manager to execute the interlocal agreement with St Petersburg College to use the Midtown campus as a city's EOC
Second We have a motion and a second Any further discussion hearing none Roll call please Commissioner Dicki I Commissioner Sison I Vice Mayor Vasquez I Commissioner Clark Hi Mayor Doctor Hi Moving on I four appointment to the
planning and zoning board Good evening Okay So would you like me to present yes please Okay Give me one second So this evening we have district one and an
alternate seat that is available for the evening We had did have one of the applicants um res pull his application which was Michael Brady So currently we have Eric No Mitchell Shinkman Cara Sims
and Mark Z I'm sorry I cannot pronounce your last name They're all residing in district one except for Mitchell Shankman who resides in district two I'm I'm sorry to hear you Did you say something about Michael Brady or Brady
yes he pulled his application Okay Thank you You're welcome Okay So uh there are two uh vacancies for district one seats Correct That's what we just said And then uh when we get to
the alternate at large can that be from anywhere within the city yes that's correct Okay So but the two it's just one for district one Is this one for district one two total I think two total Oh okay Got it I think Is that right yes that is that
is how it reads if I look back over it Um so do we have any of the candidates here tonight okay we have three of them Um would you like to come up and we'll start with uh Cara
i believe we have all four here Oh yeah Mitchell is Yeah I'm Cara Sim District 1 Do you have any questions for me i guess we'll start there I do have something prepared but I'd like to just hear what you have
prepared Sure Um as a dedicated member of our community with a strong interest in sustainable growth and thoughtful development I believe I can offer an informed perspective that aligns with the long-term vision of our city with a keen understanding of how zoning decisions shape the character and
functionality of our neighborhoods I'm committed to promoting smart inclusive planning that reflects the values of our residents My background in commercial and residential building inspections renovating historic buildings and being active and present at these meetings as
well as PNZ meetings has given me valuable insight into the importance of transparency collaboration and strategic thought in the land use decisions for Treasure Island I'm eager to contribute my time and skills and energy and help guide reasonable and responsible
development that preserves the charm of our city while embracing opportunities for growth Thank you for considering me It wasn't loading Thank you Thank you very much And let's move on with Eric Nory
Hello I'm Eric Nory I live in Isa Capri and uh you know this devastation that happened through the hurricane um I thought how could I help and I talked to some some of you and decided that I would try to help with this planning board and see if I could assist in any
way shape or form Uh my former background I ran a manufacturing company for almost 30 years built it mult multinational sold products all over the world dealt with every level of government even governments in other countries and have a I have a good mind
for growth I'm doing some investments here in the city myself My whole family lives here My grandchildren live here I love Treasure Island So I really I think I'm on for an alternate position Um I've got a pretty busy schedule and I didn't know if I could really commit to
something other than an alternate but um so I'm here to help and assist in any way that I can Thank you Great Thanks sir Any questions yep Okay Nope Thank you And then uh Mark and I don't know how to
pronounce the last name Easy for you to say That's fine Uh well thanks for having me here this evening Um I'm a new resident of Treasure Island Uh well 2023 I moved here Uh but actually looking out the
window at the Thunderbird that's actually one of my memories from four years old as a kid I moved down from Buffalo about 20 years ago Um I've been a contractor in this area for 17 years I own and operate Stribble Design Build It's a a 40-year-old firm that's been
working in this area exclusively for many years Um I believe in community involvement and development Um creating opportunities for friendly businesses and investors to come in Um I think that I have a good strength of working in
this uh business for all these years and working directly with um variance boards and abiding by all these ordinances I think I have a good perspective uh for this planning uh board position and um here to help out in any way that I can
Thank you Great Thank you Any questions one question with owning as a business owner I have to ask Um do you think time will be any issue as far as being able to attend the meetings regularly and such no I have a pretty good staff Um
and I'm pretty good at delegating to them Um uh actually for the past 10 years I was uh the chairman of the board for Habitat for Humanity in Tampa So I was able to find time for then I'll certainly find time for here Perfect Thank you
Mitchell Shankman Shankman is palm 30-year resident of Treasure Island uh chaired uh the vision committee 2010 chaired the vision committee again in 2015 and spent uh I think two terms on
the LPA and PNZ uh I'm not sure what how many years ago but uh many uh I'd like to be part of this uh board again I think I bring a lot of
u background and history of Treasure Island with me and I'd like to see development in Treasure Island uh soon cuz I'm going to be 78 next month and uh you know I've been
here for 30 years and it's time for change But at any rate I just want to mention something uh John Mayor John Doctor said about uh standing ovations and the community getting back to normal
Uh this just yesterday uh Kathy Hook sent me some dates for uh our Barktober Fest It's a doggy costume contest and that's going to be on October 26th at
Roselli Park Last year not year last year but a couple of years ago we had over a 100 dogs and their owners all dressed up in costume and uh there had to be three or 400 residents there enjoying the event Uh one other thing I
found out yesterday from Kathy is that we are going to do the pancake breakfast again And uh it's been uh unfortunately last year we were unable to do it We've been doing it for 14 years and we're looking forward to doing the Robbie's
pancake breakfast once again We normally have about 500 people coming Everybody loves Robbie's pancakes Uh we have a huge 20ft sled outside uh collecting toys and gifts for
children in foster care So uh back to normal Let's get back to normal Thank you Great Thank you Mitchell All right So we have heard from all of the candidates Um and so once again we are
going to be looking at one seat for district one and one alternate So uh let's start with the uh the candidate for district one I' I'm sorry Do you say something i'd
like to suggest something here and I don't mean to put Vice Mayor Vasquez on the hot seat here but because it is just the district one position I I think we have four good candidates I wish there were only two people running it so so nobody would walk away disappointed Uh
but I I uh I would support whoever uh mayor Vice Mayor Vasquez uh thinks is the best choice for district one Thank you So I've read through all of the um at length um all of the applications and
such um as well as spoke um to the applicants Um I think for the district one seat um Mark Z is definitely um I think his experience with working with the cities and counties and and such and his building
experience I think for the district one seat is um I think it's something we could definitely um gain value from in my opinion Okay I guess I don't understand how this process works Do you make a motion for
some we will end up making a motion Uh once we have the two candidates then we will put it into a motion and that will then carry through Yeah Essentially all of the candidates are appointed by resolution So there's a resolution at the end We're filling in basically the blanks in that resolution and then the
motion will be to approve that resolution So do we just nominate another name for you could you could Yep I'm going to nominate Cara Sims uh for in my opinion the full-time and uh
Marquez alternative and I would agree with that Um those two um yeah I would nominate um Cara also for the full-time seat Um for the at large seat I would go with Mitchell He
had me at prodevelopment Well I said I was going to support uh I have no problem with doing it the other way either So So I'm with Cara as the District One representative and Mark Z is the al alternate Yes Yeah I have no problem with that Okay So I think we've
uh we are now at a point to put it into a motion I move to approve the appointment of Carara Sims for district 1 um planning and zoning board and for the
excuse me if I can interrupt you only because we do it by resolution resolution in the back of your um packet is u 2025-05 I don't have it it's my my iPad is okay well that resolution would show that
planning and zoning board Cara Sims as District 1 member with her term ending August 31st 2027 and Mark Z as the alternate member with his term ending August 31st 2026 Is that your motion yes that's my
motion Thank you Second We have a motion and a second Do we have any public comment hearing none we'll close the public comment Uh any additional discussion here okay let's uh go ahead and do the role Vice Mayor Vasquez I
Commissioner Sison I Commissioner Clark I Commissioner Dicki I Mayor Doctor I All right moving on We have one more that we have the one that was added uh earlier tonight which is
uh 5.5 And uh I'm not really sure I did not jot down what uh what you were actually uh looking for It was terminating the contract of advanced engineering and design effective immediately Um my
reasons for that are a few I feel it's time to move on Uh they supported a mandate on our residents that would have added 100 to 200,000 of cost and improvements to our homes participated actively in a no growth agenda that had
a negative impact on our economic growth and ability to diversify our tax base um used our work product as a to promote its business other communities and has the highest contract multiple at 3.0 um than any of our other on call engineers
So I just feel like it's time to move on and get someone new in here that can look at some of these things in a more objective manner Are you looking for us to remove them as one of the on call engineers off the list
i'd like to uh argue in favor of keeping them I think they did a a good job on the terrain modification program Uh they did what we we as a city asked them to do They're good engineers They they done good work on this I don't think they
should be uh punished because uh they did what we asked them to do So I would uh I would vote against uh removing them from our list of uh of uh engineers companies that we work with
I think uh to move forward and uh kind of just start fresh I'm in favor of removing them I'm going to be completely honest I um I don't even know if I'm ready to make that decision because I don't
know enough Um well I agree with you I think that uh we don't you know we have a certain number of engineering firms out there because uh we need the help and uh and I I would think it would be almost irresponsible to um do away with
one before we'd even start a search or anything else to try and and backfill Um and I I can tell you we have a lot of our staff right now that is uh at probably the lowest level of all of our directors that we've uh had probably
ever And uh to to just start discarding everything at the same time doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me Then what if we did an audit of them and what would we actually be auditing i
mean we've paid them a ton of money over the last few years and I'm I'm unclear to where it all went There was a lot of it that was around um Elevate TI the train modification manel There was again their contract multipliers one of our higher ones I I just want to make sure
everything's on the up and up there I don't I don't have a great feeling And I have no problem with that I just don't really want that information earlier Uh did you get it what did you ask for that information but I had asked I'd asked the city manager multiple times doing audit He
said that not any commissioner had any to do that whatsoever Now I'm hearing something exactly different tonight that no one has a problem with doing an audit Commissioner that's the problem I have every time I go into never been asked I didn't think so Commissioner Clark ridiculous Please
commission I would what I was asking is I understand that at one of the not I understand I I thought I observed you in one of the earlier meetings asking specifically to get the information uh of how much was paid to them over since 2015 Yeah it was really hard Were
you given that information i was but it's almost impossible to decipher it Um you know so um I spent a long time and I'm pretty familiar with numbers So um and I even talked to Mike one time Mac in the back said he'd be happy to do do
the audit So it's not like it's any big deal But um honestly I have no trouble doing an audit I just I just what I have trouble is us attacking our our uh vendors that have been loyal to the city and done a lot of work to them But if you feel better I don't know how doing
an audit is attack is attacking them I a little bit you just tried to fire them Yeah So anyway but if if if doing an audit uh of their of what we paid them makes you feel better I I don't have an objection to that Mayor all five people
here now have said this is a problem we have in this city All five of you have said you don't have a problem doing an audit I brought this to Chuck three times and he said not one of you has any interest in doing an audit So there's some disconnect some here At least four of you want an audit
or agreeing that an audit would be fine Maybe you don't Ardan That's fine But but there's a problem with the fact that I I've asked this multiple times and I get told that no no one's no one's knows anything wants to do an audit Commissioner Vasquez just told me she's never been asked about an audit I've
never been asked I think an audit is a waste of time I mean we just tried to fire him and we couldn't we couldn't get a vote for that but I think an audit is a waste of time But if we're not going to fight them we just not give them any more jobs That's an option as I just think it's I think it's premature to do anything at this
point without further investigation on it I mean I uh let's be honest we are very short on a lot of things and a lot of people and I I I mean personally um I'm not saying yes or no I'm just
saying I'm not qualified at this time to make that call Um that that's one of the problems with adding something to the agenda at the last minute like this None of us had an opportunity to do any homework any an investigation ask any question Yeah I I but that's the problem
I've uncovered tonight I've tried to put multiple things on the agenda I'm told by the city manager not one single person has any interest in it And that obviously is completely false based on what I've seen tonight At least two maybe three of you have an interest had an interest and have a problem with an
audit So I was told that there was no possible way anyone was interested So pardon forget all this Then my problem is how the heck do I ever get something on the agenda how do I even know that our city manager is asking you guys because it's obvious to me in this this
right now i wasn't I wasn't getting the truth Chuck asked me if I was interested in an audit and I said I don't I don't think that's a waste of time And he did ask me too and I gave him the same answer I was not asked and I I am gonna say I was not
going to say something but only because it was brought up I too had a problem getting something added to the agenda and um it was the sewer outsourcing the sewer and unfortunately I kind of had to
backdoor my way into getting it put on the agenda um because I was told that it didn't need to be added and that I should just bring it up in the meeting and I refused because I point blank said I'm not going to blindside my
commissioners and not give them an awareness and a time period um to research at least do a little bit of research So I basically had to through adding people to emails um kind of
backdoor my way into getting it put on the agenda and I don't think you can disagree with that because you and I had that conversation and you would not put it on the agenda Commissioner what I explained is when you have a special meeting the mayor called the special meeting and according to the rules of the procedure for the
commission the mayor calls the special meeting has the ability to do it In his absence the vice mayor can do it in his absence When the mayor called the meeting he had the agenda items which was public works which was all to do with public works And as I explained to
you and and it was it was fee related It was the three items And you said you wanted to add one on And I said the simplest way to do it would be just to bring it up on the dis and if not then I made contact with the mayor You see you did not say that when we talked about making contact with the mayor You
strictly said why don't you I don't think putting it on the agenda is a good idea Why don't you just bring it up i said because I don't want to blindside my commissioners by trying to throw something onto the agenda And at that time after I emailed and forwarded the
email from the deputy um person from the county when she agreed to come last Tuesday that is when I added on there the others um including city attorney and city clerk saying that absolutely
you will be added to and that's how I got it added on to and then and only then and after then there is an email Did you say that you spoke to Mayor Doctor and that he approved it being put on the agenda that is correct I did
speak to the mayor because he called the meeting and set the agenda which I have no problem with that but that was not what was said before Only thing that was said to me before was it should not be put on the agenda that I should just bring it up And I refused because I did not want to blindside my my fellow
commissioners by them not having a clue what I was talking about And that's it I mean we can sit here and argue about it and the only reason I brought it up is because I too had an issue having something added to the agenda Yeah I mean I guess that I wasn't trying to blindside anybody but I've been
challenged with getting things on the agenda And I'm glad this happened tonight because now I know what kind of I expected is what's going on So I guess in the future I have a question for the commission If I want to get something on the agenda I I'm just I'm I'm sorry but I'm just a straightup honest guy I don't
how do I know that he's asked the other commissioners what I want to put on the agenda i mean can can can he be forced to email everybody and have me see if people say "No no I don't want this on the because I have no faith anymore that anything that I want to talk about here
is going to get on the agenda." So okay So let let me ask the question I'm going to kind of do it backwards because I'm going to start with the special meeting first So when there is it's called for a special meeting um that is done because it's a special meeting is done so that
the agenda is set by the mayor If the mayor is not available um to do so it would be the vice mayor Um with a regular agenda um any city commissioner can put something onto the the regular agenda So
there is a difference between the special and and the regular Um and um so at that point it could be any commissioner It can be I believe the city manager and the uh city attorney Correct Those would be so yes So they should be getting your your agenda items
should be getting on to that that docket if it is a regular agenda And the only reason that I had said because it was the special agenda and obviously we can't talk due to sunshine right so I we have to work
through the city manager for those who don't know that we aren't allowed to speak to each other other than in the meetings And when I saw that the special meeting was going to be on the solid waste outsourcing my exact comment was this needs to be part of the discussion
because this has to do with the size of public works the size of the building that needs to be built so on and so forth So they very much coincided which you ended up agreeing once you found out Um unfortunately I couldn't pick up the phone and call and tell you that Um but
that's where the breakdown was Um it was one I was not told that um that you know will let me talk to you know mayor doctor I was told we don't need to add it It's a special meeting Just bring it up and comment And that's when I said no
because it would have blindsided all of you and you wouldn't have had a clue what I was talking about and we wouldn't have got as far as we did in that meeting And but I do understand the difference between a special meeting and such It's just it happened to be the special meeting you called had to do
with this exact subject which was um outsourcing So the three of us are still new to this So did you just say that on a regular meeting I should be able to put something on the agenda prior to the meeting a workshop or the regular meeting a regular meeting It it can be a
regular meeting and or a workshop Say I've been told over and over every week that I can't put anything on the agenda unless three other commissioners agree to have it put on That's a problem No Commissioner that would be for a special me special special meeting or a special workshop
No that's that that is absolutely not what we've talked about I wanted to put stuff on a regular agenda at a regular meeting So okay So I guess I guess now I know I can put stuff on the agenda I can't I it doesn't have to be by three three commissioners don't have to agree with
me So I apologize that I created a stir tonight but I've been given false information Now the other thing just to clarify is that to take something off of the agenda uh a regular agenda uh it would take
three of the commissioners to take something off Was told repeatedly three other commissioners will not agree to put it on So we're not going to we're not putting Oh no I'm just saying I'm just clarifying Yeah I get that now Yeah To take it off I knew that I think Yeah Yeah So as to advanced engineering can
we table it i mean I think yes we could had it table it had bring it up if we table it It's got to be date specific when we're going to bring it back up Correct That's when you continue Um you can table it and you don't have to list a date specific I
would say that if you have direction for staff that you want to see something like you mentioned an audit that you give that direction Um just so you know uh advanced engineering has um multiple contracts They actually have two contracts and they cover five different
disciplines Wastewater storm water transportation roadway and um subsurface utilities So I would just I'm just telling you that so that if you are looking for an audit we're clear as to if you're looking for a particular discipline or if you're looking as to all five From my understanding as well
we could go out for RFQ for more on call engineers Correct you you can And the other question um is because there are five disciplines um if you would like the city to provide you whether or not we have other continuing contracted
engineers that provide any of those five disciplines that's information the city could provide as well So you know whether or not there's anyone else in that area Okay Right So I I I think though that because they have the five different disciplines I don't even know
if the other two that we have cover all of those five And that that's where you know I'm I'm concerned that if we don't know that correct going into the vote then we might be leaving ourselves wide open Well yeah I mean my initial thing was to do an audit but I couldn't get
that on the agenda So um I had to I resorted to this and and so I mean again a lot of this has to do with had I have been able to get it on the agenda properly like I wanted to I would have asked for an audit and everyone would have had time to re research and and do it So not trying to beat a dead horse
here but uh we just try to fire them We didn't get the votes for that Uh we we didn't vote on it right we tried to do an audit I think it's a waste of time What about an RFQ for the five specializations that they have but a
different company do we need that right this second until we know if any of our other contractors do the same work i think that's putting the the cart before the horse I think we got to find out Okay we know their five things Do any of our other contract there's Kimbley Horn
There is another company I can't remember the name And then there's Michael Baker which we dropped The other one Stanton Stanton Right Okay Sant right so I think a lot of these contracts have been in place for so long I think as we're trying to move forward
we're trying to start to do development I think we just need new blood in here and I I just I I have a lot of questions around the amount of money that's been paid to this firm over the years and it's why I have an issue with that Okay Well let's go ahead Let's go ahead and do do the audit that you've requested
and and then go from there Fine by me commissioner I can go out for an RFP for a firm to do an audit on AED if that's what you would like if we could get you're talking specifics about
the multiplier Am I correct Commissioner Clark yeah I think I sent you one time a whole list of So that's going to be more cost is going to we're going to spend money to try to figure out what where money went What list was that Commissioner Clark i'll have to go back and look but I believe it I had it in one of our our meetings
Okay we I think we got some public comments Okay let's move on to public comments Richard Harris I've been in the engineering business for now about 40 years Just want to make a comment in order to address uh Arthur's comment
about the other engineering firms that are currently under contract They are Kimley Horn Applied Engineering C Fred Duel and Stantech All of them have those five disciplines I've worked with every one of them in the past So they all have
that If for some reason I mean obviously I'm very familiar with Advanced Engineering because I got to listen to them for about 24 hours uh through their presentations I mean they're a good small company but they're uh they offer
the same basic services which include uh all five but those other engineering firms uh supply them as well So somehow one way or another the city is covered with their basic needs Thanks Thank you
Richard Thank you Any other public comment yeah I'm I'm sorry Wes Yeah you did bring this up here Thank you Or they brought it over to me West Deans is of Palms Um Chris asked for the
info Uh Ardan you pointed out he asked for something uh maybe an audit or something and uh he was uh not given that So his next resort was you know what let's get rid of them And the reason he wants to get rid of them
I'm assuming I'll say the reason I think you should get rid of them because this firm has made several decisions and convinced the staff on several things that have uh been negative for our community One of them they tried to convince uh the city to do a 10-year
look back Immediately after the storm even though August 20th everyone defeated Elevate TI they were under this building trying to get Elevate TI back on the books That was what they were focused on
They weren't focused on uh making sure your hotel is getting the permits it needs They weren't making sure your houses you have the permits to get your houses fixed They were focused on how can we get people to knock down these houses so we can do our Elevate TI
program That's this consultant firm that we're dealing with That's why we need to get rid of them And I would like to point out that uh Chris Clark has said he's had trouble getting things on the agenda And it seems like he's having trouble getting things on the agenda if
they go against the staff's agenda Think about that Thank you Thank you West All right Anything else yeah please Sarah Hi I'll make it quick Um is there a possibility i understand we don't want
to make rash decisions I am not a huge fan of advanced engineering I haven't done a deep dive on them but yes any company that would suggest a 10-year look back to happen to us residents of Treasure Island that gives me a lot of pause and I don't want to do business
with a company that would suggest that But I do agree we have to make decisions based on good information and um is there not some sort of middle ground where we don't hire an consultant to do an audit but maybe inhouse we could get a little more detailed information about
what we've spent on advanced engineering and what we've gotten for it and just more detailed information without having to hire a consultant for a full audit Thanks Thank you
Gary want to address them Gary Patenziano District 3 Paradise Island Uh I just got to close on a couple things I didn't get a chance to speak about Uh Commissioner Vazquez please don't stop with your efforts on the wastewater
Definitely needed Please do not stop And thank you for that Um Commissioner Park I agree with you on business Actually we're late already Uh we should be looking at business now We're going to need that help getting new businesses in here Aron thanks for coming back with
the information you had I know it's difficult doing that We got some tough things ahead of us guys And this engineering thing I don't have anything to comment on that other than let's take a look at it Can we look at any other engineering firms that are successful in other cities and what they've done and please no more consultants
U there doesn't seem to be an appetite to pay an outside consultant to do the auditing I'm happy to put together a list of what we would need out of an audit and see if we can't do it in house I will say this if um and I have no reason to doubt Richard I mean he knows
this stuff when it comes to engineering If we know um that our other engineering firms that we already have cover the same services that's my main thing I'm you know I don't we definitely don't need to
hire another consultant and another that's crazy We have four other firms that and that's what I'm saying So Richard says that the four other firms um are capable of doing the same exact thing Then that's that was my main concern is not being covered if we need
that coverage because doing away with the I agree with Sarah doing away with um the company that wanted a 10-year look back um I get it as long as I know we're covered by our other engineering
firms that we have and again Richard said that you know he believed that we are so That that was my concern Uh can the in commission entertain a modification to the motion not to allow advanced engineering to work on train
modification and permit review immediately yeah that's possible I have one other question Don't we have a kind of a full audit going on right now on a bunch of other things we have our annual audit that goes on according to the government accounting
office and the Gatsby rules Yes it's got a it's got a specific scope that is attached to the audit There's no way this could this couldn't audit couldn't be added into that at like no extra cost We would have to amend the scope and there would be a cost with it Commissioner Clark what I was going to suggest earlier you had mentioned that
uh that you were I thought you said you were comfortable with uh uh our acting finance director Mike Howard doing that audit or you did I read you correctly on that yeah if he's willing to do it He told me that he was at one point but I don't want to put words in his mouth But
mayor I'd like to just to talk to uh Director Howard or Mr Howard tomorrow just to ensure that he does have the time He's the same one who's leading the effort on working to get the permits uh the fees rebated back I mean I would entertain what Arthur just said because I that that's that's my main goal is to
I think where the majority of our money is gone And I think we need fresh eyes on on the whole train modification manual not the people that wrote it Richard not to put you on the spot but can't Kim Kimley Horn do that is he
allowed to come to the podium sure Thank you I want to make sure you guys can hear me But anyway Kim Kimley Horn is a nationwide company It's a huge company So is Stantech Stan Cte Tech bought out Wilson Miller which is also a huge company many years ago And uh they're
both very capable The other two companies C Fred Duel um the guy used to work for me who owns it So I know he's capable And uh the last one applied they're a good engineering firm too So
uh they are all wellqualified So you'd be comfortable that those four firms can handle everything that we would need to have done So mayor if if they have been contracted for those specialties you know some may have been contracted for surveying some might have
been done for landscaping So the particular specialties is what they're under contract for I don't know offhand what companies have been hired for what specialties Right So that would maybe be a good point to push it off to the next
meeting is to just clarify that we've we've hired them for the right things They they may do all five but we maybe hired them for two Well my comment is they are full service companies I mean they're not like a landscape architects They are they have the full gamut I used
to compete a lot against Kimley Horn So yes they have the full are our contracts written that we only take do certain services with them yes So so Mr Harris is absolutely right There are full service companies I'm very familiar with all of these firms as well But when we
do an RFQ we list all of the different um categories that we're looking for those services and then they come in and qualify for particular categories And so the question is which firms do we have that are are qualified in those particular categories it very well may
be the ones that Mr Harris has said I just I can't affirmatively state that to you right now I think basically it would be best to push it to the next meeting and go from there because we don't know what specialties we've hired for or not hired for
I like that idea Yeah get the list That's fine I I that gives everyone the ability to take a look at everything exactly not be thrown on and and now I've learned about how I can get an item on the agenda So at least that was a positive that came out of this forgoing
the audit and Jen Okay So we uh are going to Would we continue it to the next meeting i was going to ask do I need to motion to table it um you can you can make a motion to continue this item until the next meeting if you want Just could you clarify if it's the
meeting on the 6th that you're just discussing like the regular meeting or whether or not you I don't think you want this at the workshop No no this would be on the 6th Okay All right So I make a motion to continue this to the next meeting Okay A
second Second All right Uh public any additional public comment Brandy i just have a question since there are staff members here that maybe could answer the question if they could clarify whether all five entities are
covered within the contractors that we already have I mean there's they're all sitting back there I don't know if they have the information Rick Yeah I just um couple things one I guess one thing to be do we have anything active from uh advanced engineering
that's happening now that would have to be paused that should be a consideration whether or not actively engaged and the other thing was um are we contractually responsible if we cut them loose are
we that's something to to think about what is our contract with them can can we just say no so that's something to be considered also All right Thank you No And there is a notice provision in our contract So your motion would be to terminate to provide the notice as required in the contract
Exactly Yeah Okay So do we have a uh uh I'm going to close public comment We have the motion A second Yeah Roll call please Commissioner Clark Uh I Commissioner
Sison I Vice Mayor Vazquez I Commissioner Dicki All right mayor doctor Hi So we are at that point We are going to adjourn and we will get back with a workshop uh let's say at
uh 10 minutes till uh Eight Here we go They're gonna do they have Good evening and welcome to the commission workshop April 15 2025 I'd like to call the meeting to
order First item of business is city attorney and city managers reports I have no report this evening Thank you Thank you mayor and commissioners Uh over in the community development department they asked me to pass on that
they're continuing to diligently work to review and approve permits as posttorm permit rebuilding progre progresses across Treasure Island Staffing has returned to normal levels following the expiration of the additional support provided through FEMA's 126 program and
residents are encouraged to submit permit applications as soon as possible as the city's permit fee waiverss will end on May 31st Over in the fire department Deputy Chief Brennan attended the National Fire Department instructor's conference in Indianapolis
from the public safety facility design proposals that was put out for an RFQ There were seven responses that have been received for design and engineering services for the new facility These proposal proposals will be evaluated and ranked with a list
of the top three coming to the commission on May 20th requesting approval to negotiate Our firefighters participated in multi-ep department hands-on vehicle extric extrication training Thank you Couldn't get that one And our antique firet truck
was shown in the Sons of America's Legion's annual car show this past weekend Over in the police department police officers and communication staff created 580 records and computerated dispatch between April 4th and April 11th This included incidents for calls
for service as well as self-generated patrol activity Park walk and talk patrols were conducted on open businesses and the selected traffic enforcement program resulted in 29 traffic citations and 29 written warnings during this reporting period
Also there were 179 parking citations issued along with three dog on beach violations Over in park and wreck they asked me to pass on that the assistant director is conducting interviews for summer coaches The community center repairs are also ongoing Drywall has
been installs installed walls painted and the floor is being prepped for tile installation The director went to the clerk of the court and recorded the declaration for public use for the island of Palms Park This was a little bit of an undertaking as she had to go
to several different offices but was able to achieve this They are also obtaining quotes for the ADA sway swing and also for exercise equipment for the landwater conservation fund grant Events coming up such as the summer camp the registration that
started March 3rd The camp is going to be conducted from June 2nd to August 8th and enrollment to date is we have 112 in children that are enrolled for the 10-week full camp Just a reminder as was mentioned earlier there's a special
Easter egg hunt this Saturday April 19th at 10 a.m at Rosselli Park The Easter Bunny will be hopping in at about 9:45 If you need a beach wheelchair the city does provide three beach wheelchairs on a first come first- serve
basis These can be reserved at city hall from Monday to Friday from 8:30 excuse me 8:00 a.m to 4:30 p.m as well as during beach events Over in the administration please join us as we celebrate the ribbon cutting ceremony at the Gulf Beaches
Public Library celebrating the reopening of the library following the restoration efforts from hurricane damage The ceremony is scheduled for Tuesday April 29th at 5:00 pm I needed to let the commission know I worked with our federal lobbyist for the
city to submit our FY26 community project funding requests to Congresswoman Luna's office There was a short time frame put out from the Congresswoman's office for the submission due to the continuing resolution for fiscal year 25 As there
was a continuing resolution there was no funding for some projects or excuse me for projects and we discussed the best path forward We enhanced last year's waste system lining project and put resubmitted the project for a larger amount of money for this year All the
deadlines were met and the project is eligible under the CWSRF As updates occur I'll keep the commission appraised Beachourishment The city of Treasure Island is collaborating with Penllis County and the Army Corps of Engineer to prepare for upcoming beach reourishment
projects Here are some of the items that people would need to know Beach reourishment matters because it adds sand loss from storms and erosion It safeguards our shorelines our homes and infrastructure while ensuring our beaches remain beautiful and enjoyable
The Army Corps of Engineers usually manages beach reourishment but halted work in 2023 Following Hurricane Adalia Panellis County provided emergency sand replacement and may oversee additional projects very soon Before any
reenourishment can happen the state must must officially draw Bless Bless you A boundary called an erosion control line This line helps determine what is public beach and what is private property Panelis County hosted a public meeting in January here
in Treasure Island to collect comments and the state is moving forward with this process Once set only one easement from the city will be needed for Sunset Beach To proceed with the renourishment of Sunshine Beach 11 private property owners in the city must sign easement
agreements These agreements permit permit crews to deposit sand on the beaches nearest to private property Without these easements Sunshine Beach won't be renourished and neither of Treasure Islands beaches will qualify for future Army Corps of Engineer
projects The county had hoped to get these easements by March 30th to stay on schedule with a limited time emergency permit and city officials are currently engaging with residents to ensure the progress The pre-budget commission workshop I have discussed with you will
be a forum to provide your budget priorities for the upcoming fiscal year This workshop will be facilitated by Pam Bran Brancasio and be held on Tuesday April 22nd from 1 to 4 p.m on the fifth
floor of the city hall building Pam is offering her services for free as she serves as a national coordinator for the International City and County Management Association advisor program Pam is also a Florida senior adviser and has strong ties to the area as she is a former
Treasure Island and current St Petersburg resident Finally Commissioner Dicki and Mr Peter Donatelli and I drove to Santael last Thursday to talk to the city manager and his key staff on the steps they took to obtain more than 133
million in grant money to help rebuild after Hurricane Ian There were many items we learned and the highlights included potential direct services and assistance that can be provided by the state possible community project funding avenues the advantage of having a
dedicated grant administrator and grant writer on staff the state lobbyist role in recovery efforts advantage of code compliance versus code enforcement and numerous other items The city manager from Santael is going to provide us with the templates and the documents that
they use to secure their grants and we will use them to help shape our requests to the county state and federal agencies That concludes my report Thank you The next item on the agenda is the Treasure Bay update and we have a staff
presentation Good evening The city manager asked that I give a brief update about where Treasure Bay is posttorm So I'm going to go through um most of our damage that we sustained Not only did Hurricane Helen flood out all our
buildings that we have on the property Hurricane Milton decided to knock down our tennis court fence and move our sheds around um and throw them at the village and um we lost our roof on the maintenance building So we've been going through a lot just to get Treasure Bay back up and going and getting some
programming back So we took some photos just a brief um little video and introduction but um you will see that's that's our clubhouse Um post storm we had um so much water that the moisture went up at least uh 6 feet in the
building So they had to tear everything down from the studs the floor to the ceiling um at Treasure Bay And the next video will show basically you can see all we are left in the building right now is just our our studs Um everything
else has been removed You're going too fast Um so we do meet I've been working with insurance We just met with insurance out there on Friday and then FEMA will be here Thursday um spending the day at Treasure
Bay just kind of evaluating the property Um so we're moving along on the facility We currently work out of what my staff calls a she-shed Um it's a 10 by20 little office at Treasure Bay and it it
suits our purposes Um it has a air conditioning a little desk We have everything set up Um it's $500 for 28 days and um the only issue that we have is we have portallettes there and our guests are not happy with the um
portallettes they do miss uh restroom facilities on site So that is just one of the photos of the damage to our tennis courts We have many um through the tennis courts I did get a grant from the United States Tennis Association
um in the amount of let me get this correct um $281,650 to repair all our fence to mitigated standards like we did on court 9 and 10 after Hurricane Ian and to resurface the courts and to start with
the repairs to our electric u most of our um fuse boxes and our electrical boxes are very low They're on the base of the tennis courts and we did receive substantial damage um to those electrical panels So you will see tennis
programming is back Our first goal was to get Phil Gerardi back out there with his tennis program and we had him out there I'm going to say by November um doing tennis lessons We've opened courts five and six for tennis play and we have
pickle ball back on the basketball courts That is our property line fence that um we have scheduled for repair by SGMA services Um we will be putting black chain link fence Some of it's it's
that's the original fence that was out there but much of it was destroyed by Hurricane Milton as well That's what we consider our maintenance building We lost our roof um during Hurricane Milton And the slabs
you see is we had five sheds We have one shed left They literally just lifted up Um a quick story We moved everything from the clubhouse that was flooded out during Helen Put them in the shed thinking they were safe and Milton took the sheds and threw everything all
around So basically we have no contents left at Treasure Bay The living shoreline This would have been a public works um kind of presentation And I'm just going to kind of read off their um report that they submitted to the state on the um
progress of the living shoreline Treasure Bay does look like this It's a little rough to see because it's um pretty much all dirt and rock right now but um we are currently um I'm going to read off the report too The contracts
and the city crews are currently um laying the oyster domes along the along the shoreline Um some of the dates is the pond plantings are scheduled for May 2025 Those are the ponds Um they're
dredging them and uh they're looking for city staff and volunteers to help with those plantings The onland grading will happen April through May Um and then we have oyster dome placement which is like I said currently happening right now
between city staff and the contractor We also have um the kayak launch which came earlier than expected and it's being stored at Treasure Bay but that will be probably installed in May Um so we're hoping to get that up and going
The Burm building will occur in June They have the sidewalk going in in July of 2025 And then the pavilion pads and the pavilions will go in in July as well Part of the grant for the um walking trail was to include two small gazeos 10
by 10 as well as um exercise equipment Not sure where we're placing that yet but we have some video that um Jason took just to show you kind of the living shoreline So there's three That was a video back
That was not the next one Just to show you kind of the property and the living shoreline So Kathy that would be the rip wrap that was placed along the shoreline Correct Correct And that is from the parking lot heading to the third tier or out to the
golf course And where you see that dirt will almost be where the sidewalk and the burm will be Now the contractor is required to put the property back to precontract or pre-RO condition So
hopefully all the dirt we see now and everything will have plant sidewalk burm and more sod um and not looking like this necessarily And this seaw wall is going to go around the entire perimeter Yeah there's going to be Mike's going to post something in
a minute and it's going to go around all the perimeter with that but there's going to be a 500 foot section of a boardwalk that will be out there for um people to sit enjoy We also have part of the grant was to put educational signs So we'll have a
lot of educational signs out there um talking about what the what you're seeing when you're looking at this living shoreline Do you have I'll pull that up in a minute I give give you an idea of what the the site plan is
Do we know how many uh linear feet of new seaw wall we're getting as part of the living shoreline project you hold on This is a public works one Um 2340 ft of existing seaw wall and replace the first 500 ft of seaw wall to reduce and then it just talks about to reduce the
erosion and all that So 2340 ft Are they cutting off the cap of the seaw wall yes they are Yep And that um rip wrap was installed on the water side and seaw wall cap has been removed What is the height of the new seaw wall oh you're going to ask me that I don't know
I got more questions for you If it's engineering come on I'm trying here That I don't know Anybody gary new person Do you know i'm sorry He doesn't know either Uh the treasure island clubhouse When are we tearing it down that will be
a decision for the commission to make Awesome And how can I get these oyster domes under my dock well if you could lift one you can go to Treasure Bay and and grab one But good luck to you They're pretty
heavy Okay So here's the actual If you can Can you blow it up a little i don't think that's the original one cuz the other original one had the X's Nope Can you get your email you can go from that one We can kind of
This kind of gives you an idea The other one showed you more of the burm and everything but um when you first walk in from the kayak launch there's going to be like a little pathway so people can get out to the launch It is an ADA accessible um launch And then kind of where you see
that other big square and a little bit further will be the um Oyster Domes In those two far corners there will be um two 10 x10 gazeos Um we're going to put those little picnic tables and um they
can be picnic tables or benches similar to what we have at the gazebo on Paradise Island And then obviously the ponds are currently being dredged Um they will be enlarged They will be airrated Um new plantings around them as well So other than height of the wall
I'll try to answer the rest of them Any questions kathy if I could could you describe a little bit on the way the walking path goes around okay I really wish you could especially along the fence line there in on your email
go into the staff report then go into sorry go into granicus and then pull it up it's the attachment because that'll show you the sidewalk So while we're doing that I wanted to ask um when do we start I mean I love the living shoreline I love all
of that but when do we start discussing um the ideas for the golf course itself um definitely I have some great ideas Um and even better we have resources that are willing to come in and help us with
amazing idea of what to do with it That would be a huge financial impact to our city Um and I just kind of was curious as to when we're going to start that discussion I've seen beautiful ideas beautiful drawings Uh I would say as
soon as possible and it would be helpful for staff if if we absolutely well a few things It'd be helpful for us if we could see some of these ideas in advance so we can discuss and and work it out so we can have some answers when it's presented at a
commission meeting But yes the decision has to be done soon because we're going to be done with the living shoreline project in July or August Um and we have there's going to be repairs I mean there if you haven't been out to Treasure Bay um there's going to be a lot of needed
repairs from and and that's the thing I want to make sure we know what we're doing with it before we start putting a lot of money into I mean I know there's a lot of grants and such right now which is awesome Um but yeah figuring that out before we put too much money into things
that might have to either be moved or whatever the case may be And we're hoping to have you know some of those insurance costs those FEMA costs to see what um I know we had private appraisals done of the clubhouse and the other buildings And I'm sure the clubhouse
might exceed the 50% With the demo cost and their putback cost So all that dirt was I'm sorry If I'm if I could we can add that to a future workshop agenda So there could be a discussion on that I know Kathy was we were waiting for the
insurance and the FEMA inspections to come through before we could we possibly do that workshop not after a regular meeting so that more people could and I think I think the mayor asked for every second Tuesday of the month that there be a workshop okay put on so I would I
could include that great so what you see there the black line that goes around is the sidewalk the walking trail and then you'll notice a little opening right there and that's where that boardwalk will And then you'll see if you can two tiny
little squares on kind of on the um northish west corner and kind of right there on the east corner that are the 10 x10 um gazeos So the walking trail will connect to the current sidewalk too um by the
tennis courts there I guess I've never understood how you have a walking trail on a golf course Well it's not going to be a golf course Let's be honest It's not It hasn't been a golf course in years Seems like it get hit in the head with a golf ball but to say well it hasn't been
a golf course in a long time a playable one Uh one of my constituents in the villages had a question Was it answered regarding the um the burm the drainage so what I found out today was there was
a burm placed and when they were draining the ponds water was kind of going to the village but then they built another burm behind it right by the village and it stopped any type of waterfall or rain It's pond water going
into their property when they're draining the ponds But I think it has been resolved And so was their question answered i think so And I've been working with them on the property line fence They wanted to know what it would look like and basically it's going to be the black chain link We're just putting
back what's there Um so I think I answered their questions there And the pictures of all that uh dirt Was that fill dirt that brought in no that was all the dirt from dredging So they're dredging the ponds and they're all that other dirt and much a lot of rocks And
what's the estimated completion date i would say July August Oh that's fast So they are actually out to the golf course now around the Well they're right at where the third TE would be And I hear rumors that pickle ball is going to be added That's up to the commission to
tell me what will be added How about racetrack again up to the commission that would be That was a joke That was a joke Um that is a discussion we're going to have to have as to what is occurring on that portion of the property Um you
know staff is open to any ideas and it will be the commission's final decision as to what we do with that property Yeah I just want to we just had a train a couple of residents comment about the golf course Uh that I I don't think that issue is
settled What what we're going to be doing with it I think we still as a commission need to hash this out and listen to what the residents have to say uh about the golf course and and and look at again what the other options might be and if we if there are other viable options that's what needs to be
discussed but uh clearly there's a expectation that after amongst a lot of people that after the living shoreline is completed that the golf course was going to be returned uh uh to a golf course So if we're not going to do that
we need to have we need to have probably more than one workshop on that issue I agree Well yeah One thing I brought up before and I think people agreed with and I think actually you and I have spoken about this a long time ago Commissioner Dicki is I think we need to instead of just saying to people do you
want a golf course or do you want nothing we we need to have do you want a golf course or this item A or item Bact and have something for them to look at Maybe even the golfers might see item B and say "Oh god yeah I'd much rather
have that than the golfers." Well we got to have some options And I think we have to have numbers behind that as well because we've had you know I mean there's certain things that we all may like but if it doesn't make sense and if it's costing the city money and it's not
our city cannot afford to you know keep nostalgia at the sake of losing money Well some of the things we could put in there could generate a bunch of revenue Exactly And that's my point I think we have to not just look at what we want It's what makes sense We can't put something back in there that's going to
cost us money to maintain that never really made us money in the first place and cost us Um because I know the last and I'm going back a few years The last numbers I heard is that the golf course was costing us um in maintenance over
and above what it was coming in was and I'm getting off on something else Um was around a quarter of a million dollars a year and um that was a few years ago So all I'm saying is yes we can definitely
we need to hear from the residents Um but we also it has to make it has to be fiscally responsible It can't just be because you know we want it it has to make sense I grew up on a public city golf course in St Louis It lost money
every single year of its existence Yeah All right Let's take uh public comments Uh West thank you Kathy You're welcome And we also don't need another park need money Yes West Evans is of palms Uh that uh drone video going over the uh
Treasure Bay there was really it kind of opened my eyes Uh I spoke against the living shoreline at one point and uh then Stacy got up and kind of convince me of it with some
numbers which I then found out later uh maybe weren't completely accurate numbers that were used to convince us that it might be cheaper than doing a a regular seaw wall but that's uh off point Uh what I wanted to say is if we don't know what's going on with the golf
course let's say at some point that could be some kind of thriving uh restaurants or something Uh doesn't it seem weird that we're filling it all in with rip wrap and everything where we could have public docks where people
could be pulling their yachts up in our town and spending money in our community that desperately needs tax money coming in Instead we're basically building a 10 foot barrier to where you can't pull a
boat up to uh and calling it a living shoreline when it's a bunch of it looks like a bunch of rubble to me Don't get me wrong I personally uh snorkeling is one of my uh hobbies and I snorkel rubble all the time Uh
but snorkeling rubble isn't going to bring tax money that's needed in this community in So uh I don't know if the ship sailed on this but if we could possibly have something in that beautiful area that could be making
money for the city maybe we should be doing that rather than um you know tearing out the seaw wall cap and uh dumping it in the water in front of it Thank you
Thank you Any other public comments Sarah um you guys asked a lot of really great questions tonight about the living shoreline but the one thing that we didn't hear about was what is the budget on this project how much of it was the
grant did we actually truly get in hand and where are we at as far as tracking with the proposed budget of this project are we tracking to be on budget with it are we tracking to be over budget what is the status financially of this
project i would love to know those answers Thanks Anything else no We will close public comments Um anything uh when can we add a workshop
on the discussion of this the future of this location in my district commissioner that would be the second Tuesday of May we will have that awesome no so the 13th May 13th I I'll have to take
take a look and get back to you okay to accommodate that Jennifer just passed on that we do have the uh the city attorney RFP I think that closes out So I want to make sure there's not a conflict in the dates for interviews to be conducted with the commission We we'll have to do the roundroin on the interviews for the
uh for the applicants Okay Thank you All right So uh I guess we wouldn't really have any consensus or direction at this point but we are going to have something coming up that's going to be put on the agenda
Yes mayor Okay All right With that we are adjourned Thank you