##VIDEO ID:iWEgawcC6M0## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e okay good evening and welcome to the regular commission meeting for November Tuesday November 19 18 2024 I'd like to call this meeting to order now if you'd please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance 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 wasn't amen clerk would you do the call please commissioner Toth excused vice mayor dicki here commissioner Min here mayor doctor here thank you all right approval of regular and workshop agendas do we have any changes mayor doctor um I do have a late addition that was put into the agenda if you would give me a moment I'd like to read off what it entails please do thank you later tonight under items of business you have a request to authorize the city manager to enter into a contract with Jacobs for building permit and processing services and issuance of a 30day emergency notice to proceed in the amount not to exceed 31667 with the recovery from Helen and Milton underway City staff is actively engaged in recovery efforts including the issue of permits these permits are essential for restoring structures to their pre-storm condition as every building in Treasure Island is located within the special flood Hazard area and subject to the FEMA 50% rule on average our 9 person Community Development Department team processes slightly less than 1,700 permits annually or approximately 32 permits a week since City Hall reopened to the public on October 22nd more than a thousand people have sought permit and Disaster Recovery assistance in our lobby yesterday Community Development published that they had received 959 permits of which 437 are in review 120 have been issued and 85 permits are ready to be issued that means 205 permits have been issued or awaiting applicants to come in to have them to be issued that equates to about approximately 51 permits a week while this is a notable increase from the 32 that they do on average we need to accelerate that number of permits being processed over the last few weeks some commercial companies have been engaged met with in scopes of work and costs analyze with the company Jacobs offering the most cost effective solution to augment the Community Development staff this is in addition to this week that the state had finally committed to fulfill eight Personnel missions that we had previously requested given the city's strong desire to help residents return to their homes and reopening businesses as quickly as possible this notice to proceed is presented to the commission for favorable consideration this request will help provide the resources needed to expedite the stress permitting process increase triaging permit applications and returning our community to normal more quickly this is a large request but a necessary one the funding for this is scheduled to come from General funds or building funds with the expectation that'll be reimbursed by FEMA under category e public assistant program reimbursements and not to exceed quote of $36,988 been received by Jacobs to provide the necessary support to augment our staff approval of this emergency notice to proceed will allow Jacobs to send six subject matter experts within 24 to 48 hours to Treasure Island to immediately begin to augment our staff while a full contract is being negotiated this not to exceed amount also includes the ability to flex the types and skills of the Personnel that will augment the staff if unforeseen changes arise or needs arise and finally once we have these Personnel trained we will report updating permitting numbers to the community twice a week thank you Jen would we uh need to have a motion for this yes you will and I believe it's the second item under action items on the agenda okay so at that time we're covered um yeah at that time I think Chuck will present and then you can do a motion okay yes Ma I just with this being a last minute addition I wanted to make sure that that the commission was aware of it and also the community great thank you the motion all right are those the only uh changes that we had for today okay let's let's go ahead and move on uh proclamations recognition certificates of appreciation the first we have fire department 10year award mayor Commissioners it gives me great pride to be here tonight and present this award uh Lieutenant paramedic Steven Roland began his career with Treasure Island fire rescue in 2014 is a firefighter EMT while working in this role he's earned his associates degree in fire science and also completed paramedic training and certification Steven was promoted to Lieutenant in June of 2020 and Contin continues to be a lifelong learner regularly attending Advanced leadership courses at the National Fire Academy conferences and is only two courses away from completing his bachelor's of Science in public administration through ongoing education deployments on Statewide Disaster Response teams and in his supervisory role at the fire department Lieutenant Roland continues to develop his leadership skills with 10 years of service he regularly demonstrates that he is still preparing for more responsibility and advanced leadership roles in the future congratulations Stephen and I'm looking forward to seeing you excel in your fire service career over the next 10 15 20 years yeah sounds good conratulations great than rations thank you and our next uh recognition is honoring businesses for their support during Hurricane Helen and Milton in response to the challenges posed by Hurricane Helen and hurricane Milton the city's emergency operation team worked tirelessly to support both staff and residents during the storms the city wishes to recognize the generous contributions of the businesses listed below whose timely and reliable food delivery services played a vital role in sustaining City operations and meeting the needs of residents during this difficult time we extend our deepest gratitude to the following vendors and please come up when you hear your name Pizza Hut just one taste oh and stand to the side we're take the original Tipsy Gypsy that was all the vendors that could be here tonight but to list the rest Caribbean cafe giggle Waters operation barbecue in partnership with happy Snapper kabas Bellis Bagels Tores tacos Athena's Garden Glory Days Chick-fil-A Publix hungry howis dog pound Red Cross and World Central Kitchen we also extend our deepest gratitude to Pasadena Community Church for their Hospitality through both storms as well as Clyde Smith general manager of the bilmar beach resort and Rogers Jones food and beverage director at Sloppy Joe's restaurant for their generosity and providing accommodations to our fire crew when their fire station was impacted their support in the rest of the Treasure Island community exemplifies the spirit of community and collaboration that helps our city endure and recover from natural disasters thank you thank you took yeah we did thank you so much everybody have a bless boy I got a lot of friendlies in here today it's time like these that we need to appreciate all the work that our community has done all of the the folks here and I thank you for everything that that you've done to uh keep your neighborhoods intact and and moving forward so all right I guess we had a few people moving around all right we're going to now go into public comments and I think that uh some of this uh there might be people outside so I'm going to call a few of them and uh and we'll go from there the first one is Mary Katherine doy Ray chuning Sarah Pennington West Evans and Jim Earl I want to move mine to agenda okay thank you good evening mayor commissioner staff thanks for being here tonight we've all been through some tough times over the last couple of months and um I've seen a lot of things on Facebook and a lot of conversations happening in the neighborhoods we are going to have to face some really tough decisions in the next year and I know they're they've already started not all of us are going to be happy some of us will be happy I ask that we consider our Revenue sources coming into the city and our extend expenditures that we can't even anticipate some of them at this time I know we have some um commission a commission seat coming open or is open that people have applied for and we need a good mix on the commission and I just ask ask that all of us as Citizens and residents of Treasure Island people that have business interest here to be kind to each other you get a lot more with honey than you do with vinegar and our staff and our employees we have no idea if they have been flooded in their personal lives they come and they show up every day and we need to be grateful for the people that are dedicated to our city so that is my comment about financially responsible going forward and that we try to be a cohesive community and not divide each other through this hard time thank you thank you next up R tuning R tuning formally 11253 Street each I'm speaking here tonight as a non-resident in case you guys were not aware so um I'm here to speak tonight because there's a lot of things have been tugging on my heart what's been tugging on my heart is a lot of people have been displaced and what I've seen from this city in particular the city manager and the staff has been a bunch of back and forth with the people that have been devastated they've been displaced many of them never going to come back not because their their house was more than 50% um substantially damaged but because they've had to make some serious changes within their life I have a lot of friends Danny and Virginia they live in an Airstream trailer in penel park I have a friend named Carolyn she's in a VRBO in Lake plid she works out of her house I have a friend named name Linda she's living in Missouri right now she's crying she's not sure what to do but her house is not that damaged she can't get an assessment nobody knows nobody can get his assessment right now there's none being issued and the bickering back and forth about uh whether we do option one option two whether we can get permits is stupid I was here two weeks ago and I told you permits need to be issued now they needed to be done two weeks ago I'm glad that you're going to get some outside help that should have been done a long time ago there was no plan there was no thought process through all of this people were not understanding that people were seriously displaced I have a name a friend named by the name of Franco he's bouncing from location to please hold it down what okay well then they ask them to turn it up yeah that would be a good idea I have another friend beatric and Walter they live in Switzerland they can't even get here to deal with their house have a mother-in-law who was displaced on Island Drive she's almost 90 years old she's living with her son she just recently slipped and she's now in a hospital she was out of her home she didn't she was in diff difficult surroundings and and and these kinds of things could have been avoided by allowing people to get permits to be able to rebuild their their homes not their houses their homes is where they live and their livelihood to be reestablished and I'm telling you the people that were responsible for delaying all this stuff should be ashamed of themselves I heard more reasons why we couldn't issue permits than reasons why how we could get it done we should have got things done so try to think a little bit more ahead about the curve Mr manager city manager so make sure that you're working on how you can get all these permits that you've issued and the completions done get them properly inspected and get CO's issued and get people back in their homes in a most fast and efficient way I don't really I didn't care for you when you were voted in I didn't think you were the right candidate and I think that you have gone to a point meing you're you're shaking your head but the fact of the matter is that I think your comments are out of place okay I don't think they are well okay so I'm I'm I'm leaving Treasure Island my home was barely damaged it's going to be fine the buyer's going to fix it back up it's a beautiful little house it's on water and um but I but I listen to this stuff and I see it and I watch the videos and I just it's just like bureaucratic nonsense issue permits get people back in their homes get them back into their lives thank you for your time hi good evening guys Sarah Pennington Isle of Palms um something that has me perplexed is since we changed to option two at that emergency meeting back in October um option two which does not require substantial damage assessments does not require it uh can the commission or someone in the city explain why we still seem to be waiting for for substantial damage determinations that are based on these vague substantial damage assessments that we actually don't need can anyone address that at all for us no we won't be addressing any questions but the questions uh we'll try and get you answers got it so yeah so actually I have a lot of questions so I know that we don't answer the questions here at these meetings but I feel like these are are questions that all of the citizens here deserve the answers to and so if they're not answered at these meetings how can we get answers to these questions can we answer that one probably not like how do we how do we get the information to find out these concerns that I have call the city manager yeah you you need to call the city manager Andor uh well city manager or your City Commissioner yeah and I would offer if I could give with you ma'am I'll get your questions and work to get answers for them and get them back to you okay and then I and then but these this information I feel like needs to be disseminated to all of the residents not just on a one-on-one which I'm happy to share the information that I get from you and I'm happy to get the information um so even though we might not be able to answer my questions tonight I still just wanted to go through my other questions that I have because I feel like these are things that other citizens might be thinking about and even though you can't answer them I still just feel like we should uh share what our concerns are so um so a big question again is is the city making substantial damage determinations based on the normal permitting process as per option two or using substantial damage assessments it's very very confusing uh while why we seem to be waiting on substantial damage assessments when those are not required with option two so that was a big concern and a big confusion and then also the last meeting I showed a screenshot that showed that we do not need permits for storm damaged baseboard and dryw wall removal and we're still getting uh told that we need permits for that I actually finally got a permit a couple days after and I was so excited and then I realized it's for removing uh storm damaged drywall and baseboards that I don't need a permit for according to the Treasure Island website and again my concern with that and I'm I'm not trying to you know be annoying to you guys I just it's it feels like the Twilight Zone right now with we keep talking about these things and I feel like you're hearing us and we're all in agreement but somehow things are not operating in that manner and it's I think that's what a lot of people's frustration stems from um but back to those uh permits for removing storm damaged drywall and baseboards if we are not if we're using the normal permitting process and we don't need those permits then those should not be counting towards people's 50% threshold and so that's a concern of mine um another question that I had that maybe uh we can answer at some future point and I'm happy to share with everyone the info is of these 205 permits that are issued how many of them are for repairing and rebuilding people's homes or are these just more permits for removing a storm damaged baseboards and drywall which we don't need permits for so that would be my other question question and then I'm really curious these substantial damage assessments seem so vague to us and I think that causes a lot of stress for me personally and I think a lot of other um citizens and and I would love to know like okay so a big batch of them just came out well how many of people's homes are being determined substantially damaged and are we even using those assessment letters because that's option one and um option two doesn't require it so again I realize I have a lot of questions and you know you can't answer them all for me tonight but I would love to find a solution for getting citizens answers in a way that can be shared with the rest of the citizens I think it would save you guys a lot of time as well from having to answer lots of emails and and U meetings with us when we could just all share the information freely so that's it thank you thank you all right I'm going to call out a couple we got Jim Earl next but Frederick Kelsey Cara Lonnie orens thank you and uh Sherry sour Sor thank you I'm Frederick Kelsey I live at the 450 Condo building next between the yach club and the drawbridge I've been resident Treasure Island for since 1999 I want to commend the permitting department when they permitted the demolition the demolition of the whole first floor of our building about 35 units was stripped and demol within 2 3 weeks after Helen well that was 30 days ago now my building first floor is been it's a desert I mean it's empty nothing's happened for 30 days so I'm one of probably what 1,500 that are homeless now I'm having to stay at the fusion Hotel over $66,000 a month and to see my no permit issue for 30 days for the association to be able to rebuild our condo building that's pretty rough I want to and you mentioned this resolution did that pass is that going to take effect if you you Contracting for the exec permitting people that will be handled a bit a little bit later this evening and I question why wasn't that done 6 weeks ago you know this is not the way I expected to spend my later years in life fighting about my home and now homeless it's I want you to be aware and please speed this process up and get to pering people working hire some people surely you can bring some people in to get this done thank you thank you Jim Earl live on is of Capri my wife told me to stop acting like a flamingo so I put my foot down um listening to the numbers earlier the presentation of hiring six people I think if I have the numbers correct it was $316,000 and ended in 18 cents I missed the dollars and it was six people for 30 days I believe those are the numbers and if looking at 40 hours uh per person uh per week I think that worked out to uh $329 per hour I just wanted to point that out per person so I you know just just as a thought please don't just please don't just yell out why we got speakers yeah thank you uh three I it was either three or four weeks ago I I stood up I I've been in a position of management before it's always good to to hear venting but it's also good to hear some solutions some some ideas of path forward and at that time we were we were concerned about whether the FEMA uh substantial damage investigations needed to go inside the homes and the idea was that they perhaps didn't if there was no one there which has turned out to be the case in many homes if no one was there then they would find alternative ways of evaluating and finding out if the the home was substantially damaged and I said if that were the case go ahead and bring them on and we could start processing that data at a rate of instead of eight per day and it would be eight or 10 or however many per hour I forget the number I used but it seems to me that's probably what happened within the next six to 10 days something like that our streets were crawling with uh FEMA people with the orange vests and their iPads and doing the evaluations but that again that was a number of weeks ago and apparently that data doesn't seem to be available because I was at the uh at the facility here today working on a demolition permit for another property that I have and I have to say and as as angry I say it straight up as angry as we all are with the situation and tangentially with you guys as angry as we are the people here the volunteers and the people working behind the desk you couldn't ask for a sweeter group of people I tell you what if I had said if I had said here's a drill and some dry wall screws come help I would had four of them follow me home right then there's sweet sweet people wonderful attitudes doing everything they can to help it's a good army I just think it's being poorly LED and that's that's a just an observation uh the good people need to have the the appropriate directions so three weeks ago or four weeks ago I said here's a here's a solution and that was to evaluate the homes without having to go inside get it done quickly so tonight I'm going to offer the next layer of solution we have X number of hundred if not thousands of residents here in Treasure Island being good dues we're sitting here week after week after week saying we want to we want to move ahead we want to rebuild our homes from not having a kitchen from doing dishes in a utility sink where there used to be a kitchen and and taking taking a bath in a shower that has no walls because it's bare studs people are being forced to live in squalor but they're doing that because they're good dobes and I think now is the time for us to say okay you guys are having a hard time getting the act together getting enough people to get this stuff done let me tell you what what we think we should do and that is we're going to start rebuilding and we're going to start rebuilding if and with two layers number one is if the water did not reach your plugs then we'll take just a picture of a wide shot and a close shot of where we put the drywall Layer Two is if the water did reach the plugs will take a wide shot before and after where the electrical outlets and or Rox was replaced and then a close-up shot where the drywall was done but we're going ahead we're going ahead because I believe it to be unfair and frankly illegal to keep people from rebuilding their own homes thank you well that's not go over now I mean with the clapping and and keep it at PACE should be louder car louder Cara Yes actually I guess it's Cara right I should know that my wife's name is Carol so okay hi guys um Caris Sim district one Isa cpri um first of all I'd like to start by commending and thanking all four of you even though Deb's not here um that are here tonight um who have you've graciously listened to your constituents and you've heard our concerns you know there are many people here tonight because of awareness that awareness is mostly from a group of citizens that continuously gets a bad rap but was created by the people for the people called Citizens Voice they gave the residents aka the people hear just that a voice not sure if you knew this but that group is now 6 to 700 memb strong they research they read and they gather factual information and they bring it to you and the public now I don't always agree with sometimes the way their information is delivered sometimes it can come off a little aggressive but as it has I will do and I will read and do my own research after the fact most of these members consult with Engineers attorneys and other City officials and staff each of you have also met with most of them and you've listened and you've been enlightened I'd like to see where this town would be if it had not been for them getting information to the residents like option two the engineering firm Jacobs that's on the event agenda the $17 million carry forward and educating this entire town on what that was and what that meant and the vanity project Elevate TI when all at the end of the day residents just wanted some dirt in their yard I remember when no one used to show up to these meetings and now we have two rooms full that's a good thing that means you have an active audience and residents who have a voice the legacy of failure started with Tyler Payne he's gone Mike Munger our finance director who was responsible for that $17 million carry forward he's gone and now Stacy Bo's our public Works director sent in her resignation last week i' really appreciate that we don't uh attack staff members factual information just facts the workshop unnecessary it's unnecessary yeah the workshop following this meeting should be canell how have our city staff and Stacy boils had time to create an entire workshop on Elevate TI because that's what it's being masked as again if you read it when we have sewage system failures over budget projects stalled projects and most of all residents without homes start fil dirt from the beginning with a new Public Works director and instead Focus solely on getting permits issued looking at most of the agenda tonight even the most of those items can wait until next year your priority should be your residence we have a new city manager elections coming up and a golden opportunity to make Treasure Island special again and to make it Thrive again thank you Lonnie ORS good evening Lonnie ORS from Isa Palms been a resident on Treasure Island for over 40 years first time I spoke at a meeting I'm doing so for a couple of reasons one I'm I'm concerned about all of the vacant homes here and how these people that aren't living them and we've been talking to them how they're doing and what they're doing to survive and what they need to get back into their home some are living with family across the country because they can't afford to rent a room at a hotel and I I find it very that we're not been compassionate enough to these people cuz a lot of people many of them inherited these homes from their families so they wouldn't have the means to necessarily have to do what might be necessary next but they want to know what they have to do and how they can do it and we haven't been forthright in doing that my second uh comment is why are all the Barrier Islands stalled like this there's a reason I know there is I don't know the reason but I know there's a reason and I have pretty sure it comes from female but why haven't the Barry Islands moved and gotten us moving forward we don't need FEMA to move forward we need you guys to move forward and I would really greatly appreciate Treasure Island being on the Forefront not sitting back and waiting for something to happen Tak it in our own matters I think my wife has read the FEMA book uh not something I would like to do in my spare time but uh you know she's she's read it and she understands it and a lot of what we're going through is not necessary guys at least if that FEMA book is correct it's not necessary and my last comment is and it might be out of place I know there's a a district spot opened uh on is of palms and I I've only know this because I've heard it I haven't seen it anywhere but my understanding is there's somebody on Sunset Beach that wants to run for that district and I may be wrong Maybe I'm Wrong temporarily for the next three months five months six months and then we have a resident on isop pal that desperately wants to lead and he's being shut down from what I understand so I can only tell you what I hear and what I know but that's how uninformed we are as Citizens we don't know we're not hearing things and I desperately plead for you guys to start putting information out we don't want to hurt you we want to help you but we also have a a huge reason to help our our neighbors who are seriously hurt right now we're fine we have a a second and third story we're going to be just fine but there are 80% of these homes that aren't going to be fine and that need some compassion so they can find out what to do to get back back in their homes and when you're living in California or Jersey or wherever you are Chicago you feel pretty alone out there right now and I can understand it thank you thank you sher's ours and while she's coming up uh Ronald will be next um looks like Tom bar bars bar bar okay uh Brian messic and Carlos Miro yes thank you thank you and congratulations you're one of very few people that actually pronounce my last name correctly um first off I also first want to start by addressing our distinguished members of the Board of Commissioners and our mayor by thanking you for your service and for listening to the residents I know that many of you don't do this full-time and that you're in a very difficult position where sometimes between a rock and a hard place but you've at least conveyed through your actions and your words and some of the decisions that You' made that you are listening to the residents and you are trying to help us and I thank you for doing that in the past and I ask you to continue to do that and to show very strong decisive leadership uh in doing that because the decisions you're making are hard I understand that I think most of the residents here understand that and they've got to be difficult to do um and maybe you don't get the recognition and the things that you deserve so on behalf of the people I know I just want to thank you for that I'm going to make some comments here that you probably are not going to like but I feel that you need to hear it I make these comments because I think it might provide you with some insight I don't make them to attack anyone I I tell you I've worked with members lower level members of this staff the ladies in the permitting office are fantastic uh the the lady who helped me with utilities and public works could not ask for a better human being to work with and and the cream D cream in my eye are Tom and Stanley that take care of the facilities you just don't make them any better than that so my comments are to pass on information on how people have have conveyed their feelings to me so I can share them with you so you can use it in whatever you way you want to make informative decisions so I offer it in that way it's not meant to criticize it's not meant to threaten it's just meant to provide information I sat out in front of Triangle Park for two and a half hours on Saturday I did this on my own initiative I made of Flyers supporting and campaigning for one of our district two um nominees to be appointed until an election can be held I did not do that at the request of citizens voices of Treasure Island although as a previous speaker mentioned I think it's it's been a great Grassroots organization to get information out and inform the people so that we can make our own informed decisions this is done on my own initiative I talked to about 40 individuals during that period of time that were residents of olive palms or their contractors and I want to pass on to you things that were said that were pretty much unanimous across everyone I talk to a lot of the people came by more than once because they just needed somebody to listen to them but these were all unanimous comments I I try to type them up so I can be brief as possible the first the citizens are angry over how the permitting process is being handled um this Board of Commissioners and the mayor voted twice for option two the standard permitting process without the substantial damage assessments yet many of the citizens and their contractors have been told I had a GC talked to the permitting staff yesterday and was told that they would to not move forward with permits until they got a special damage assessment so I don't know if there's a communication breakdown somewhere um from what you all have voted for and have directed and what the folks that are Manning the offices are telling individuals but there's a problem here and the residents are angry my husband and I have been living in our camper trailer for 2 months and Meadow going over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge my home has been my husband's family for 55 years the second thing that the citizens unanimously said is that at the current rate of approval based on the statistics that I got in an email yesterday if you do the simple math in terms of what the number of pants approved over the last 60 days and the backlog that's left would take over 15 months to get this backlog the existing backlog clear now I'm glad to hear that may you may be voting tonight on whether to bring on some additional help I wish that would have been done as previous speakers have said several weeks ago but I haven't even got to get my submission in because I had one GC drop us yet last week because of our pering to brocco in Treasure Island and I got another one that's about to drop us so that's our situation would you please wrap up yes um we keep changing the permitting procedures as a previous speaker said initially we told on the website that we don't need a demo permit then we were told for flood mediation to send an email and let them know that we've started and who's doing the work when in fact guidelines right here page 8-25 says and I quote certain related cost for making improvements in damaged repairing damaged buildings do not have to be counted towards the cost of improvement or repairs these include demolation or emergency repairs made for the health and safety of reasons to prevent further damage to the building that's what flood mediation is thank you Sherry Ronald Ronald you're up yep sure uh Tom bar is that thank you I'll be real quick everybody's covered everything I was going to say except we never hear anything on results when we ask questions and why not we've got the Treasure Island uh site why don't they write down all the questions that are asked and answer them in the site so everybody gets on the site and they can get all the answers instead of everything being a big big big secret uh my last thing is uh the silent majority voted November 4th for a new president and the silent majority is going to vote March 31st okay Brian hi Brian messic Paradise Island so um thank you for letting me speak this evening um first speaking of what he said can we clarify um what positions will be opening up during that that time period because um during the meeting of October 29th the mayor uh Jennifer Cowan read straight from the city Charter during the meeting saying the mayor would need to be reelected in March until and because he was only there until the next city election um some people came and talked about it and she said she was going to look into it but then there was no other information that was disseminated about that and that goes into the next Point um first I want to say this there's a quote government of the People by the people for the people shall not perish on this Earth that was Abraham Lincoln during the Gettysburg address and as a as a taxpaying citizen I feel feel the city government has has leted us down um and it doesn't have our best interest at heart it seems to be protecting itself under the guise of mitigating risk there's no communication from the city in this process and I think that would clear up a lot of the situation I I send emails to the Commissioners I send emails to both of you guys you flipped it over to the city manager one time and he said oh yeah that sounds like a great idea let's see if we can get that implemented for just asking for permit information just how many permits are issued and whatnot and he had it was going to be a big process it doesn't have to be a big process there is too much red tape I was I grew up in a small town that's where things get done it's because you work together and I just feel like there's big government in a town of 7,000 people it's crazy so I rewatched the videos of the B pass board meetings yesterday on November 1st Chuck Anderson said in the minute 1945 that they were onethird of the way of having special damage assessments done and he said that he expected to get 400 Dam damage assessments done per day and complete them in four or five days tops is what he said how is it at this point we're still waiting they're going to be mailed out to the taxpayers and and to the citizens and I haven't gotten one has anybody else gotten one so then there's no news on this there's no news as far as where we are in the process this is just something from a meeting back on November 1st also during the um FEMA emergency meeting Mr Anderson said that he made a decision to make option one even though option two was available in the meeting of November 1 at minute 3604 by direction of the commission the citizens were supposed to the the the city was supposed to start issuing permits under option to which did not require the special damage assessments they did add that they needed to have U an addendum that wanted to be signed and then it was determined later at the November 7th meeting that this this determination was overreaching and that they was to be reissued with just a notice not even needed to be signed that original addendum is still in the permit section of if you went to go apply for permits it's still sitting there with the full thing that you have to sign with with ad dentifying the city it's there so was it just a joke I I don't understand why was it just lip service to say that we could do this at all when it's still sitting there so in the meeting of November um excuse me during the meeting of November 7 May doctor said that he had a favorable business Zoom meeting with the outside Engineers November 7th that would exate the process starting as soon as November 13th why are we not using the engineer firm yet two weeks later not getting staff into augment the permitting is is is not helpful we appreciate everything that the staff is doing and we understand it's not their normal capacity but the city needs to to do whatever they can to bring in extra capacity permitting is going to be an issue inspections are going to be an is issue with the next part so you can see where this is going to go we'll get permits we'll start to do a build process and we're going to have to stop until we get the next permit to come out I mean the next inspection to come out so that's got to be rectified and just to alleviate the concerns when um somebody had brought up the hourly rate you don't have to worry about it because we're going to have all these permitting fees that we have to pay at 750 a clip that will pay for this hourly rate so it's better to have the the people getting the job done and than uh than worrying about how much the fee is at this point um so that's going to be the biggest thing is getting the inspectors in in in the long run we should we should expand the permitting Department if that's the issue that I mean it's it's not it's a known fact that the city of Treasure Island takes a long time to get any permitting done why is that we should be promoting building in this city not not stifling it because promoting building in the city helps the tax base which we're going to have a problem with in the future so before we start to spend more money on big extra projects like the living the living uh seaw wall we need to think about that think about that why we have the money because we're not going to have it in the future if we spend this way so it's very important that we we make sure that these are taken care of so I do thank you for my time and um the reality is you know Treasure Island can be great but let's just make sure that it gets there thank you Brian Ronald Ronald good evening everyone uh I'd like to start out by addressing mayor doctor I honestly feel you have the citizens at Heart of Treasure Island you're doing an excellent job and I want to commend you for that but I don't think you're going to be able to serve our needs under the present form of government that we have and I'll address that in a minute um one of the things I'd like to address is is there anything that we could do to help the senior citizens in our community that are losing their homes that are um going without food medication just so they could uh pay their taxes and the insurance on their homes so they don't lose them and uh and I'd like to also address item number two uh which addresses uh authorizing funds to go to supplement uh the city's payroll where's all the money that we've been paying for years where's all that money going uh I I I think I I've seen cities really I I don't think this city is managed well at all I think we need a different form of government I think that we need what is called a strong government where we have a strong mayor that is accountable to the people not the other way around we have a government in Treasure Island that goes ahead and does projects and then tells us that they approved the project once it's been approved by you guys that's not approving what the the uh citizens want I mean you you're passing law uh laws and uh uh permits and everything else without the citizens approval so that's why I would like to ask any anyone here that is interested in joining us which I have several signatures to change our form of government to a strong mayor which would be accountable to the citizens and I would like ask them to give me their email sometime during the course of this me meeting and I will bring them up to date on exactly what I'm talking about I'd like to thank you you and uh it's about it I guess thank you Carlos is Carlos outside oh there he is hi everyone this is Carlos Miro with District 3 uh Mr Mayor Commissioners thank you so much for allowing us to talk sometimes at length uh tonight uh it's uh really an opportunity for us to show democracy and action in a sense I I have some bulleted comments that I I'll get to but first I just want to give a a personal opinion um and I'm doing this from the outside you know so I I understand that it might not be accurate but from my perspective it seems that there's a bit of a disconnect between the the commission and the city Administration um on a number of occasions couple occasions at least the city commission has said we do option two that hasn't exactly percolated down to the street level um because I've heard that people have been being told that we're still on option one or some hybrid um so I think and and to reference referencing what the former the previous gentleman said um I understand what he's saying but there can be oversight of a non-elected city manager but it's the commission's responsibility to provide that oversight and I would like to see the commission be a little bit more aggressive about ensuring that your votes and your decisions actually are implemented uh on on U as part of that I'd like to go to my bullet of comments is Communications uh Mr Anderson I I think we can do a better job at communications and especially in this time when there's a great deal of of um of confusion um sometimes uh conflicting statements from the staff or even from the website uh I I think that um there there we can there's not in there's not sufficient information being pro uh provided and I'd like to suggest that you I'll give you an example the permit office voicemail I've called three times last three weeks went directly to voicemail I left a a very clear message with my name and phone number never got a phone call back um so I would like to suggest I know that we're going getting uh some additional help which is great um that we that you designate uh one person to answer phone calls return email messages who can provide the the uh the direct answer to questions related to this process and um I in that in that line um I'd also like to mention there is one person on staff who I found extremely responsive she picks up the phone anytime I call she if if she doesn't pick up the phone she returns my phone message right away and she's not even part of the permits Department she her name is is Renee T I can't pronounce her last name Sor sorry about that she's in Parks and Recreation uh and she's very knowledgeable I I've called her a number of times and she's helped me understand the process and I really appreciate that um and that's really what's been missing and she I'm not even sure if she's officially uh there but we need someone where who is responsive I know you guys are super busy you're trying to get these uh permits out the door um but if we have one person designated especially one now that we're getting a few extra people people um I think that would go a really long way towards maybe reducing some of the anger uh certainly helping us understand you know if our if our documents some document is missing helps us understand you know what what's needed um so I think that would be a great idea um if we could go forward with that um let's see I think that U that's all I have for tonight um I do I do thank the Commissioners especially I think you're doing a good job try to be a little bit more C from my perspective on the outside um and I know that there is an election coming up or an appointment coming up and uh I I there's a number of people who have spoken in favor of you know not here in the meeting but elsewhere in Far of Cl Chris Clark he's not in my district but all I've heard is that he's good good person and willing to commit to the long term to helping the city so thank you so much um and um be thank you Carlos Byron Magby Kim Coello West Evans those are the last three hi my name is Kim cavello I've been coming to Treasure Island since 1971 my grandparents moved here when my grandparents died my parents got their house I loved it so much that this is where I came and I bought a house here in 2019 so I've been here for a while and I've dealt with a lot of stuff but this what's going on right now is horrible I live on Paradise Island there is no Neighbors near me because they can't stay in their house I'm fortunate that I have enough stuff and I've got it cleaned up and it doesn't smell and I can live in my house I don't know how people can have their house in Treasure Island and then go and pay somewhere to live and still be able to pay their taxes especially since before the storms hit you guys raised our taxes now the people who pay taxes that doesn't go through their mortgage company How about if they start withholding their taxes because they can't live here that's not right what we're going through is not right I came from New Jersey you went and got a permit you brought all your papers in they all looked at it stamped it and here you go have fun with it you you had everything you needed to do I've never seen a permit process take this long at all I did it up in Jersey a couple of times it took me two days to get a permit two days filing it and then they called me a day and a half later saying your permit is approved come and pick it up why is it taking this long I'm living in my neighborhood there's nobody around me nobody because they can't stay in their house if I had to do that I wouldn't be able to do it either so I have a feeling that people should not pay shouldn't pay your taxes you're not living in your houses why do you pay it you should not pay your taxes they're not helping us at all at all I'm sorry but that's very it's rough I'm by myself and there's nobody there and if you call anybody it takes them forever to get over to the house so what difference does it make so now you know you have to defend yourself so I don't feel that what everybody's doing and the way this permit process is is absolutely ridiculous it's horrible go to other towns see how they do their permit processing and learn from them thank you thank you there's about a 20 second delay oh outside audio outside yeah okay that's why I'm late I've got a good excuse thank you Byron Byron Magby 10 1117 tarp and drive District 3 uh tonight's act action on hiring more staff that's great should have been done a long time ago we've all heard that tonight um because it's too late it's it should it should have happened already but let's leave that behind us and just get going um the theme of what I want to talk about is changing the the way this Council or commission and the city staff operates and I think car's put it well aggressive a little bit more aggressive um I've got a little solution here maybe it's it's not going to fly but you guys are in charge and then Chuck Anderson is in charge of the people under him somebody needs to show up every day and get and crack the whip and make sure this gets done a lot of the of my colleagues and friends out here are people successful in business running businesses as big as this one really there's a lot of smart people out here and they'll all agree with this you've got to show up and supervise I'd like to suggest tomorrow morning everybody on the commission come in here every day seven days a week until this is done and crack the whip on the workers staff whatever just supervise them treat them kindly but get them working get those permits being uh cranked out the um the crazy thing is the city expects us to obey the rules and the laws but I'm not sure from what I hear I'm starting to doubt that the people who work under the commission give you all that same respect I don't know it sounds like this business about option one and two and the permits taking too long I don't think there's it shows a lack of leadership to me let's get some leadership going you guys are leaders or you wouldn't be here um let's get some results get those permits crank and sit there on somebody's desk and say what can I help you with what can I what can make this faster can you crank out these things every 15 minutes look I've I've read my own permit I know I'm not a technical guy like some of these people but I've read my my own um assessment everything my permit should be granted in somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes that's how easy mine is and a lot of my neighbors out here it's the same way they've seen their estimates for um repair they know what their valuation is they're thinking you know I may not know much but I bet anybody could crank this out in 10 or 15 minutes and it'd be done stamped done so let's do that somebody show up please you you who lead us show up tomorrow the next day and the next day you got personal stuff you got business I'm sorry you really need to do this right away get all this happen happening um there's a um I just don't like the fact that everybody doesn't like what's going on with our city government you know I've got hundreds of friends in this island I know a lot of you out there I've never heard one person say that they're satisfied with with the way this is going I know we've got a lot of individual compliments tonight and that's great but overall nobody's happy not one person everybody's concerned that this is taking way too long and there's too much red tape let's not do that uh the um I'm going to speak later on on this living uh Shoreline thing but that's not a time to to think about this and spend more money let's get the city working get those permits out as soon as we can change the culture of the way you guys do it and show up down at that permitting part dep Department tomorrow morning and the next morning and Sunday mornings and Sunday nights I mean pulling on I don't care how much time it takes let's do it if if if there's anything any of these people could do they would do it too they'd sit there say okay I'll go over to City Hall and help what what can I do so let's get these things cranked up every 10 minutes 15 minutes something needs to come out of that permit department thank you thank you Byron West Stans isop Palms I was surprised when I showed up tonight I hadn't seen the uh agenda online yet when I opened it and it was three pages I thought there should be three items on it one salute the firemen two let's figure out who's going to fill the commission seat and three let's get people in their houses uh all this other stuff I don't even know why we're talking about it right now uh what I really wanted to come up to say right now though is uh my sweetheart came up a little bit ago and asked some questions and uh Chuck you said you could talk to her afterward and give her some answers and she said that's great she'll try to get the word out on whatever you say but uh we're all here right now so if you have the answers to it I think tonight would be a good time to address it to the crowd thank you thank you all right that uh concludes our public comment and we're going to be moving on to commissioner reports and uh so commissioner minning well where do I start um first of all let me thank all of you for being here and taking an interest in the city um there certainly is a lot to take an interest in these days uh and depending upon which side you come from um I would encourage you to keep on plugging um this is no time to give up a lot of the issues that were brought up tonight um and warrant comments um the answer are more complex and I'll use the example of the permitting that the gentleman just spoke to uh it's not as simple as walk in hand them your application get it reviewed in five minutes get it stamped and walk out with your permit why not it yes it is please why why if you will hold off I'll be happy to explain it I'm not interrupting you please don't interrupt me oh okay okay anyhow not going to get in there um why because we are op operating under FEMA guidance there you go yeah please okay I'm through I'm through good you guys want oh thank you I'm through commissioner dicki I have uh three items I wanted to update uh on on a little bit more positive uh shortly after Hurricane helain uh struck and and uh hit us all uh the Sunset Beach Community Association had posted uh on their Facebook page uh they' made it available for people to donate uh to hurricane victims and uh they informed me that they've collected uh through donations uh$ 6,365 worth of donations from Mostly Sunset Beach residents uh or or prior residents uh to to give to the Sunset Beach uh hurricane victims that were particularly hard to hit so there were 33 donors uh the donations ranged from $10 to uh $1,000 so we had quite a quite a few Don donations there and the Sunset Beach uh uh Community Association has been able to give out 25 uh of the hardest hit residents that needed this money the the most and were a able to reallocate that so 100% of the money that was donated uh has been uh either either given out or or we're still searching for the people that we wanted to give it to so I'm very uh pleased to announce that uh also I'm pleased to announce that uh we we asked for some volunteers to help out with this permitting process and most of you have probably come in here on a Tuesday and Thursday and seeing what a nightmare uh it is here to on a Tuesday and Thursday it's really hectic it's it's uh a lot of pressure a lot of stressed out people both uh residents and citizens and and employees it's a very stressful situation anyway we uh we asked in Sunset Beach in District 4 for some volunteers uh to help out help City with uh with permit processing anything we could do and 14 people had volunteered and came out this past Thursday the last week and again Tuesday today uh 12 of the 14 or Sunset Beach residents I won't go through all their names but I can tell you uh that we we received some training from the city staff on on Thursday and immediately started to work and uh the difference if you had been here which I had been uh prior to these uh these volunteers helping out it did it did significantly help this situation out here the volunteers they they don't have the technical skills or the Technical Training to actually process the the the uh uh permits but they were able to significantly help the flow they greeted the residents they triaged their needs help the residents fill out the rather complicated uh paperwork uh help check people check the status their permit help them check the status of their substantial damage assessment letter uh and they stag the ready to apply people out here along this wall and and and worked with the uh City staff and the two loaners that we had to to work them through that uh application process having said that I'm extremely proud of those volunteers that have done that uh I do believe it's helped a lot it's certainly lowered the temperature here and lowered the stress level for from from the residents to the employees it's gone a lot more smoothly uh but those volunteers can do more as much as uh were doing we can do more and you know I'm just I've asked the city manager to see how uh he might be able to use these uh volunteers uh even more effectively than what they're doing right now but anyway thank you for those who have volunteered and and uh again I hope we can figure out how to how to use them even more and the final thing I had uh again on a positive note uh the Sunset Beach uh uh couple has generally generously offered to donate $5,000 to the city to express their gratitude for how hard and how helpful the city staff has worked helping residents cover recover from hurricanes Helen and Melton and I want to read to you uh at their at uh their request I want to read you the the uh email that she uh that the resident or the couple sent to me to uh to uh Express their gratitude uh dear mayor doctor and Commissioners uh to our Treasure Island community Heroes the police fire and city employees my wife and I would like to thank you all for your hard work especially during both hurricanes Helen and Milton we all suffered losses yet all of you have been here to support us through those losses as they say when the going gets tough the tough get going again thank you for keeping us informed and safe your hard work and dedication does not go unnoticed please accept this gift with our gratitude as we continue continue to rebuild our city signed William bch and Sher Cohen Sunset Beach residents so anyway I talked with the city manager and they'll be making that donation and we're trying to figure out how to how to uh transfer that $5,000 and and use it best to show the employees uh our appreciation for their efforts their extra efforts in helping us get through this period that's my update thank you well I I can tell you one thing that um uh mayor if I may yes um commissioner Toth is not here but she passed a um report oh sure she asked me for reading into the record please do okay sorry didn't mean to interrupt you I would also like to thank our city team members for all that you do daily for us the residents of Treasure Island it's been a very hard time in our city and I really feel that you all are working very hard to help us return to or rather move to The New Normal our little town has certainly had its ass kicked by Mother Nature and I'm so grateful that you all put on your game day spirit and fight to get us back home I'd also thank our public works department for getting us back to our regular trash pickup schedule we know we can count on you to deliver results because you do and you do it well message to Residents please call Public Works to schedule pickup of the appliances that now stopped working or the couch that smells a little bit funky please remember to take committed to be kind the person helping you they may not even live in our community in case you aren't aware we are not the only Community affected by two back-to-back hurricanes I never thought I would have to remind anyone of the things we learned in kindergarten but pause and be kind our city staff are hurting along with us I don't think that anyone on our city staff is lying to you pretty much it's back to the basics that no one could have anticipated this mass destruction and frankly some of it it is on the job training during the Emergency Management training that I have done during my nursing career we have trained for Mass events such as a plane crash never have we trained for a hurricane let alone two back to back we know what to take when we evacuate we have quite a few prepare for the storm programs but little to nothing about what to do when you get back to your destroyed homes our new city manager is working hard to acquire additional help and some residents are volunteering to help intake so that the staff can work on getting the permits out the walk up hours are also reduced to allow our team to process the applications I hope with the additional permitting help we can get back into our homes because some of us on the dis are experiencing the same frustrations as you are we are also in the waiting queue to go home Dorothy had it right there's no place like home while we are waiting I would ask that you take a moment and think is what I am saying the best for our city as a whole or is it for my personal gain sadly I remember being hounded when the dog park meetings were occurring and the loudest voices against the dog park also sold their condo at a higher price because the dog park was a great selling point I pray nightly that we will get through this and realize that we are all in the same boat called Treasure Island and again thank you to our city employees and thank you to the residents that are volunteering to help each other get home and an extra special thank you to the hotel years out there that are accepting FEMA vouchers and and in doing so are providing us a home de talk thank you very much one of the things that I I want to do is to uh compliment the community um and all of the great things that they're doing together um we probably on the beach were the quickest to have all of the debris removed from everyone and I'll tell you what what I have seen in the last few days our neighbors helping neighbors raking up their yards where the trash has sat for the last four weeks or six weeks it's unbelievable you know the the relationships and I mean you got people out there that're laughing they got rakes and they're you know they're doing everything they can to get their Community back together and we need to now make sure that we do everything we can to get people back into their homes that's the first thing I wanted to say the second thing is uh um you know I carry a a personal phone and a cell city cell phone um in the last couple of weeks now I've been averaging somewhere around 80 calls texts or emails not that I mind them please keep them coming but I'm not going to be that quick getting back uh to some of the responses and a lot of them don't really need to have a response it's especially tonight uh we're going to be doing our our vote for the commissioner uh I've heard more people on this one that one this one that one and uh like I said please keep them coming I appreciate them I do pass them on to to Chuck and to uh our other employees so um so please keep doing that um the the last thing that I want to say is that um we have a great staff we really do and we have you know our fire department our Police Department uh the permitting people are are worth or weight and gold um but we what we need to do is we need to uh have a I'm hoping a little more respect tonight for some of our staff we're going to have some of we're going to get into the uh the the meet of the agenda and we're going to have staff people that are going to be discussing different things please let them do it please don't have talking in the backgrounds or anything else uh when they're making their presentations and uh I'll thank you in advance for that so with that we can go ahead and move on on our agenda and uh the next thing that we have is um the approval of the minutes do we have any minutes no minutes no minutes tonight okay all right so let's move on to the consent agenda um enter into memorandum of understanding with the Florida division of Emergency Management for divis disaster debris hauling Services you just need a motion I move to approve the memorandum of understanding with the Florida Division of Emergency Management for disaster debris hauling Services second okay we have a motion and a second um any discussion any public discussion okay clerk can we have the roll call please vice mayor dicki I commissioner Min I mayor doctor I thank you okay now we're going to get into our items our bus items of business the first is resolution 20241 extension of waiver for permit fees until January 30th 2025 five I move to approve the extension of the waiver of permit fees until January 30th 2025 to support Community recovery efforts and encourage compliance with permitting requirements second we have a motion and a second do we have any discussion do we have any public discussion thank you C clerk please en roll vice mayor Dicky hi commissioner Minnie hi mayor doctor I Treasure Island Historical Society uh City Hall project excuse me mayor I'm terribly sorry to interrupt but this is actually um I believe the item that was added at the last minute the Jacobs contract that the city manager spoke about during um the approval of the agendas so it was just added um kind of last minute so you're absolutely correct so this is the uh request for 30-day NOS to proceed authorization for permit processing and inspection services yes thank you mayor and Commissioners U before you this evening you'll have a request from staff to authorize the city manager to enter into a contract with Jacobs for building permit processing service is an issuance of a 30-day notice to proed in the amount not to exceed 36,6 $738 18 what I had explained previously that the permitting process while we do have a nine-person staff that with the amount of Destruction that had been encountered from hurricanes Helen and Milton it the processing is just falling behind and the staff is working six days a week to do what they can but they don't have enough people to do it we we' had been in contact with the county and the state for augmenting resources for about a month now we got word this week that they're going to provide us eight resources to help out but we still feel that we need to to get some external resources so we met with a couple of engineering firms or excuse me a couple of professional firms and asked them what they could provide and when they could provide it uh we took a look at both statements of work and the costs associated with this and request that we're allowed to award this to Jacobs for that amount they can provide the services within 24 to 48 hours and in the first week we'll have at least six people on the ground and then plus up to nine or 10 the second week we also have the flexibility as one of the community members mentioned so if we have permit reviewers in the beginning and then we realize we have inspectors we can lessen the amount of permit reviewers and increase the number of inspectors that we're going to need so there is the flexibility we will have to negotiate that contract over the next 30 days that's that's all I have unless you have questions yeah do did the initial six are all permit reviewers no they're not they're a mix of uh permit reviewer technicians plan reviewers and some inspectors okay uh do we need all all of those types to process permits yes we do okay okay that's all any other questions no uh public comment uh please um David Wills Ali I'm just trying to figure out um it seems like we're not allowed to I don't know if if this is just comment or if if it's discussion this is comment yeah yeah I I just trying to figure out what what happened option two uh my understanding was the City attorney sir I'm sorry you'll have to come to the mic the city I think the City attorney and I think I need clarification I listen to the video like six times uh are we option two if we filed for a permit prior to that emergency meeting and everybody else is option one no what do you want to I I'm confused by it I thought it was going to be in relation to the subject there's a lot of confusion yeah yeah I think that that this isn't really a in the mix here for the what we have uh well I I believe it is though because if we're going to hire all this outside help and they come in and they're still just getting fed option one here's here's the derivative you know or are we going to do really option two we are going to do option two option one is available for residents if they would like to do it if they're worried about uh exceeding the 50% threshold from FEMA but the city is operating under option two and and when you we contract with all these people is is there going to be stuff you know computers for them to work at because I'm I'm like feels like we got all this volunteer staff and other people working I mean I don't understand I mean I get there's a process but and and logistically it will be a bit of a challenge from the space but we're going to start expanding into this area here and moving up onto the fifth floor we're moving our flood plane review up to the fifth floor completely you know we will have some people who will be working remotely plan reviewers they can provide some on site and some of them are going to do remote work thank you do did you filled out a form discussion you said discuss yeah yeah yeah i' just like to say real briefly 300 and however many thousand dollars for six guys for 30 days no it actually it goes from six in the first week and it pluses up to nine and then it has 12 over number of weeks it's about a four and a half week plan where it the max amount of people is 14 people including the project manager so still seems like a bunch of money yeah it is it is very that's all I'm saying seems like awful lot of money when when I'm just saying yeah it is all right uh Andrew VY um good evening um I want to help explain to uh the residents here a little bit about what this jacob steal is about um I think it is a very good thing for moving permits forward um I I worked uh M and uh and Chris Clark we worked on this to bring it in to the city um Chuck has done a thorough job looking at it to make sure that the appropriate value is there for the market this is called program management and what it does is it puts a project manager in overse it breaks down the permitting process and it ramps up the people but it allows the flexibility for people to be moved around or taken taken off um because of the ramp of people as Chuck said from 6 to 9 to 14 and it's only a 30-day contract right now which allows us time to get more into the detail of negotiating a longer agreement and also looking at how the wave of permits that go out are in process that Areo inspected and closed out works so it provides the the city with flexibility and expertise I'll let others debate about you know when it should have happened because the people have opinions on that but I'm happy to answer any questions offline from anybody on the residence that are concerned about the value or the dollars that are doing it the idea here is to get this approved get these people uh many of whom are coming off of Fort Meyers Beach having just dealt with what happened down at Fort Meers Beach so they're experienced in the right way the lead program manager is somebody that I know from my airport world he ran an 8 billion doll modernization program at Chicago air airport he happened to have retired here in tier verie and so he is um just right down the road which is a uh a bonus for us and so um as it relates to this particular issue and the dollar amount for the 30 days and the vetting that the process has gone through I'm happy to say that it's something that um we can be comfortable doing and we are hoping for the result I think the option two part of this is really important that we're we're per we're pro with these people here that they're not bottlenecked by some other bureaucratic issue that is not allowing the permit to have a cost of repair and Appraisal do the math and we talked about triaging these permits and that is really important in this process because whether we have six people nine people or 14 people if they're getting bottled up because somebody's not and that's what this program manager the lead guy who came from Chicago is good at is sorting these out so the green light permits get out the door the yellow lights get the scrutiny they need and get out the door the red light ones that might be above 50 get additional scrutiny need to help either get the appraisal up get the cost of repairs down show some compassion for where the people are on the 50% Rule and see what we can do and so there's a lot that has gone into this and um again happy to answer any questions anybody has um on this but I would ask that that um this is a great opportunity now it's going to be in the execution of the team here to get these permits flowing get these people in ready to go but they have the experience um and they've been doing this down at Fort Meers Beach so we're fortunate those people are just coming off of that contract and can help us we're also ahead of the other 13 Beach communities and trying to do something like this and so um it's something that that you know that we've been pushing for off of the aisle of palms and um you know it's part of the the sort of new wave of residents that have come in and want to help and get things done so I just uh you know asked that the residents be supportive of it and that the staff execute on it so it produces the result it should thank you thank you Andrew um go ahead I I've got a number of them that basically have i1 I2 I3 I4 I5 so uh so what we we'll do is we'll take and try to get them all through my name's Brian messic again I just just one quick quick question to support this as well I mean this is a great thing because we need capacity that's and how else are we going to get it if there's if there's competing resources there's not that many resources and there's competing beach front things another thing that Chuck mentioned during with I think initially correct me if I'm wrong this is this even though it has a cost we can get reimbursed from vimma for it so the net cost to us would could be potentially nothing so we should absolutely do something like this thank you uh West West Evans Isa Palms I don't really know if this is the time to say this or not but since we're talking about permitting stuff I did want to thank Andy and Chris Clark for making this happen because we've all been desperately desperately needing someone to come in and get these permits going um I've heard that 120 permits have gone out so far we had you know everyone's been talking we just want to know how many of those have just been demo permits so far and how many are actually ones for people to start building because that's I don't know kind of a good part of the discussion I think we should be having thank you Ronald I'd like to excuse me I'd like to know if the citizens are not in favor of this what happens I can't see spending $329,000 if I got the figure right for eight weeks inspection did he say or whatever 14 people eight weeks 40 people days 30 days 30 days oh 40 oh well then I misunderstood but even at 40 329,000 to have people go inspect these properties I agree with commissioner Dicky that we could get volunteers from the community that are well qualified to go out and do these expect inspections at a lot less cost to the citizens thank you thank you cara okay good come on up uh hi good evening uh my name is Tim Butler I live on Al Palms uh i' just like to start out by saying that I am in favor of hiring this firm um but I'd like a little bit more detail on it um also some clarification do we have people from the state that are currently working in the permitting Department I believe we do because I went in and filed for my permit and it was a lady from the state working there are they going to stay on or are they going to leave uh secondly What specifically are these outside people allowed to do because I went in filed for my permit and then when I went online and I was there with my contractor we went through the package every single item check check check you need to notorized this you need to sign this it was complete I went online today on the permitting portal and it said sorry um building re review check uh scheduled for December 5th which of the next item is that pack package is complete so the person from the state that I went through everything in the package to confirm that it was complete now I have to wait for two weeks for what city staff to say it's complete or are these people going to be able to say it's complete move on I'd like just more specifics about who's doing what and when that's all thank you thank you do we have like I said I've got folks that have just written down one two three four five six so uh is there anybody else that would like to speak Byron please Byron Magby 10117 tarp and drive District 3 uh I like the uh the concept of this idea and I was glad to hear Andrew's talk if Andrew approves it it's really that goes a long way for me however I would like to suggest amping that up um it's a great idea but let's put more people on it that's that's kind of my suggestion I don't see why we can't have um more than one project manager uh I like the word triage we need to triage all these permits uh but it's like at a hospital you don't have one guy triage triage in the emergency room let's have two or three uh looking at these things just expand what you're doing I know the engineering company wouldn't approach with this but let's start tomorrow with calling him back and saiding hey look let's let's talk about the next uh contract right now let's start tomorrow with it this is not enough people um we've got one project manager for each of the four weeks we've got two or three people working permits and inspections that's not going to make much of a difference that 15mon uh guess that somebody made earlier it sounds pretty accurate to me this is not going to put a big dent in or put some but let's take that greater idea and run with it a little bit further okay that's my suggestion I hope you all can do that thank you thank you Byron please even mayor uh Commissioners City staff Jeff Bachmann uh is of Palms uh I I think this is a great idea to augment uh the city staff to try to get the permits through I'll offer this following suggestion that while you're trying to get the city uh get the permits done you also need to attack the requirement side of the permits okay for example why do we permit drywall um I I just don't think I think there's things we can look at in the permanent thing and say we don't need to do this and that will help lessen uh some of the workload and everything else that needs to be done thank you thank you okay I believe that is all of it do we have any discussion here no a motion please see I remembered this time good thank you I moved to authorize the city manager to enter into contract with Jacobs in an amount not to exceed $316 I'm sorry $16,679.24 to proceed second he we have a motion and a second any more discussion roll call please vice mayor dicki I commissioner Minn I mayor doctor I thank you all right moving on to item three Treasure Island Historical Society City Hall project and we have Kathy thank you good evening uh for uh city manager Amy davidus had coordinated with the ti horse Historical Society to do art um projects in the new city hall when we moved over here the Historical Society has worked closely with um D djr Enterprises to develop um wall wraps such as the one behind us on the back wall of the chamber um they are the historical society is ready to do their second um wall wrap and that would be on the elevator wall outside the second floor and they just need consensus on the design which um both was in the packet and ones that I have um provided to you the um wall wraps depict the history of Treasure Island and the second wall would be for the three City Halls that the city of Treasure Island has had um the original one being I guessed over by the Surf Motel which uh Barbara Driscoll had informed me was the location of the first city call the project has been um the funds have been paid for the city has paid 60% the remaining 40% is due at the time of the completion of the projects and the walls are again are around the second and Flo fifth floors across from the elevators and the walls on the side of the elevator so I'm here to answer any questions um but they are ready to go on the project and they just need a consensus on the design well I like the the design in back you know when we looked at it at like this format this one um it it didn't it didn't appeal to me but now that it's been there it's at least grown on me and it it's very attractive so um if we're just going to take a look at I would say uh number one would be uh would be my vote so those are all the same design they're just different views of them different looking at them at different ways down the hallway same building oh it definitely looks different yes it does they do I had bar had to explain it to me okay and then you'll see the little lights and they've kind of gone around the emergency box and the emergency light so okay good doesn't it look different the just for uh I don't think I heard you say this uh Kathy but the total amount for for this one plus so the total amount of the project is 11,310 and 60% has been paid already and the 40% is due the end and again that's for all the public spaces so there'll be this one on the second floor plus two others on the side of the elevator wall for the second and then on the fifth floor opposite the elevator on the two walls there okay thank you I'm in in agreement these are beautiful and uh I think they liven the place up and I recommend we move forward with this I agree okay I will let um Barbara know tomorrow I don't have a timeline as to when um they will install it but I will let the city manager know who can pass on that information to you thank you this is a wrap they're wrap so they're laminated digital okay um artwork thank you thank you very much you're welcome okay moving on to item four um executed contract with c and Shoreline LLC in the amount of 2,767 1838 50 including construction contingency totaling 3, 44,6 122 and approve uh additional spending Authority and funding reallocation good evening um so I know this is not an easy topic to talk about tonight given the environment that we're in now um the reason why this project came up initially is because we've had several seaw wall assessments out at Treasure Bay due to the failing seaw wall infrastructure so one we had was back in 2011 and um the city actually went out to construction bid to make repairs to the first 500 ft of seaw wall or so at that time because it was so bad and the the repairs were only meant to last 3 to five years um so we had another Citywide seaw wall assessment done in 2020 that looked at all of the city's um owned seaw walls that we have to maintain here in the city and the Treasure Bay seaw wall was noted to be one of the worst that we had in the city and at that time the engineers who performed the assessment back in 2020 estimated it to cost about 1.8 million to repair in some places and to reconstruct in others um so because of that high cost we really started to look at well what are are there any funding opportunities here to help us cover that and there really aren't many funding opportunities out there for just traditional Seawall repair and replacement so we started looking at Living shorelines and you know what opportunity we had there to perform uh that work so another issue that we had at the time um was we were very aware of the degraded state of the two Golf Course storm water ponds that were out there if you'll recall if you've been here for a while you'll even know that it was labeled on Google as being a Death Pond at some period of time um there was Aven botulism that was identified in that pond and just a lot of Laden golf like pesticide herbicide sediments in there and that those ponds as they do today currently outfall to boaa Bay which we know to be um both an impaired and um an outstanding Florida water body um so we have we have a responsibility to um to not continue to contribute those nutrient loads there um so living shorelines are an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional seaw wall design what makes this um living Shoreline project kind of cool is we have different coastal um conditions there along the sea along the seaw wall we have un like the northwest corner we have a fairly calm area that really lends itself to um being able to be constructed as a traditional living Shoreline which is kind of that gentle sloped um area that provides habitat and water quality benefits and then as we start to wrap around the seaw wall to get to the inter Coastal side where you have more wave energy we start to transition into a hybrid seaw wall living Shoreline and then into a a more of a living seaw wall approach so it really gives kind of a cool um opportunity to educate Community um or schools or whoever want to come out there about the different types of um of environmental um options that you have in different environments um so in addition to the two grants that we've been awarded for the living Shoreline work one which also covers the restoration of the ponds we've also been um fortunate to have um additional amenities that have been provided through these grants to provide um an educational Overlook Boardwalk a flood protection burm a recreational Waterfront Trail exercise stations picnic pavilions and an ADA kayak launch and paddle board launch um so this um I heard at the last meeting when we um tabled this topic there was some confusion about you know where this came from so again this has been um being in discussion for quite some time now and there have been eight public meetings on this project where we've discussed the various Grant sources um and the commission has provided design funds and agreed to those um Grant agreements as well we've had um several meetings on um on the golf course where this has also come up as a project and been supported in those meetings and we've also held two engagement meetings back in um late 2021 where we discussed this project specifically and invited people to come out and learn about what the project was all about so through a very extensive public engagement process you may remember the city also adopted a park master plan in 2020 um and in that Master Plan there was a goal specifically to incorporate environmental sustainability efforts um elements into our parks and public spaces so on I believe it was July 30th we held a meeting and we discussed that um that bids had been received for the project and if you'll recall there were two alternates to that bid one was for the kayak launch and one was for the golf course and the bids came in rather High um and so the commission um moved to reject the bids and authorized staff to rebid the project um obviously we didn't know that we were going to have two back toback hurricanes at the time that would potentially change things up but on August 15th the project was re bid and we ended up having to extend the opening date to accommodate biders due to the storms and in that change we removed those alternate bids as well as the oyster domes and um some plant material that the city will self-perform to fulfill the in kind requirements of some of our grants um there also um additional uh work that will be performing that we quoted out separately so basically um the former low bidder did rebid the project and it was significantly higher than before that was Tampa Contracting Services and their bid came back at 3955 million but the new low bidder C in Shoreline um after you compare apples to apples with what we removed from the bid came back about $200,000 less than the former low bid we do believe that that would have come back significantly less um had we not had the storms but we couldn't have projected that but it still is a cost savings um in a direct comparison um so several other components like I said were quoted by staff separately in effort to provide a cost savings and those additional components total about $229,000 with a 10% contingency and when you add a 10% contingency to the SE and Shoreline construction Grant or contract I'm sorry the construction cost is just over $3 million um so we talked about you know maybe this isn't the opportune time to perform this project because it is still over budget again we started designing and permitting this project years ago and it took much much longer to receive the permits than what anyone had anticipated and costs do go up with time so um unfortunately if we don't approve a Construction contract tonight we will lose just over $100,000 um in our Tampa Bay Estuary program Grant um because we have funds that have to be extend expended and reimbursed for by the end of the calendar year and the contractor needs to start to mobilize a as soon as possible to make that effort happen Additionally the $1.5 million grant that we have um with FD will um likely be Frozen um they said that that needed to be awarded or approved by the commission by November 22nd so that they could have it executed before the end of the calendar year those are arpa funds that they have to obligate in that way before that time and the construction bid can only be held until um the 28th of December that's when their bid bond is no longer in effect and they have indicated to the city that they're looking to move sooner than later and again um unfortunately the it comes down to if we don't move forward today we still have failing infrastructure out there that is unsafe and needs to be addressed especially if you're anticipating more users to that space in the future um so we believe it would be over $2 million to replace and repair that seaw wall today and that's being compared to after we look at all of the grant reimbursements it's $1.5 million or so out of pocket to the city so it's kind of comparing those differences that that we're looking at today when we make that recommendation the budget um for this project is um 2.74 five million almost all of it is coming from Penny funds um with a small amount $150,000 coming from the storm water fund um so again total grants just for um design and construction of the project is almost 1.9 million from um the resilient Florida Grant the Tampa Bay environmental restoration fund Grant we have a land and water conservation fund grant for the trail picnic pavilions and exercise stations as well as a um Florida Recreation development assistance program grant for the Ada paddle board and kayak launch which makes that kayak launch less than $10,000 net out of pocket to the city to be able to put in at this time unfortunately that's already been permitted and if we waited to do um the paddle board and kayak launch at a different time we would have likely to do mitigation efforts to put that in because hopefully the living Shoreline will start to grow in and create habitat and at that point you would be disturbing that habitat um so we've provided a few if the commission does want to move forward with this we've provided a few different items to help cover um the construction con um deficit from the budget which is about $528,000 we talked earlier this year about a paradise Boulevard Landscaping project that project significantly changed from what it was originally intended to be um we've known for quite some time that the irrigation system on Paradise Boulevard needs to be replaced because it's old but if you're not digging up the entire landscape to change out the trees which is what we went against when we finalized the direction for that project it doesn't make a ton of sense to dig everything up just to replace the irrigation system at this time we can still do some beautification out there put in the trees that have died you know replace those and continue to point repair the irrigation system so that would be um some savings and as well as um there was a carry forward um in storm water that could help to support the deficit for the pond Rehabilitation which is where you're seeing there was some storm water um deficit to this project that would that would help to cover that so you're still using storm water funds to cover storm water components of the project so um you could take $240,000 $245,000 from the storm water carry Ford put it towards the storm water component deficit of this project and then um that would that would leave you with an $283,000 or so deficit that come could come from the Landscaping project if you wish to go that way um some other items that remain available from carry fors was the seaw wall carry Ford this is ultimately a seaw wall project it would be an appropriate use of the funds that were set aside in the penny do that um and it would still leave funds available to address the 108th and 115th Avenue Sea walls which we know need to be addressed as well um there's also the money that was set aside for the golf course reconstruction at $1.3 million um so we're just seeking approval tonight if you would like to move forward with a Construction contract there's a number of motions that go alongside with approving that project um and then alternatively um the commission could provide a motion that asks us just to move forward at some date with repairing the seaw wall because it will still need to be addressed at some date any questions for staff I I had I do have a few staty uh if approved one of the biggest concerns that I'm hearing from residents about moving forward with this project is that it would take away from the time that uh everybody needs to be focused on getting permits issued and helping us rebuild how much time if this is approved if this project is approved how much time of the city employees work would be detracted from helping the city rebuild that they would be over you know focused on on the living Shoreline right so um the engineer who the city hired um in a prior year to to oversee this project was also awarded contract management funds for this work um and so they would be having the ultimate responsibility um they already have a a PO and a prior year budget to to handle most of that work we also have one staff member who is our special project manager who helps our city to oversee projects on the ground but it's not a significant undertaking for him and it wouldn't um delay any recovery efforts for the city so you're saying roughly one employee might have some time of his time distracted from RE hurricane rebuilding efforts focused on this we so he would oversee any construction projects happening within the city at that time so it could be a recovery construction effort that we have ongoing um but it's not anywhere near a full day of time that he would be out there it would be you know just providing time to time site checkins to make sure that it's being constructed appropriately okay and I heard you say that we still this would not affect funding that we have allocated for build rebuilding the seaw walls at 115th and 108th Avenues that's correct yes uh would it affect in any way the timing of when we would rebuild those other seaw walls so no it would not that's awaiting a construction bid okay and let me make sure I'm clear with one of the or you're clear with one of the points you made this sounds more like an either or decision for me either we spend 1.5 million to do this seaw wall or this living Shoreline project or we spend $2 million to build a traditional seaw wall is that is that pretty well summ it up it is it's a net expense to the city of about 1.5 but in addition to giving you the living Shoreline you're getting the the you know beautified rehabilitated ponds and all the vegetation the trail the burm the um the kayak launch the Overlook Boardwalk the educational signage that comes along with that the picnic pavilions the exercise stations so it's all of those amenities together for less than what it would cost to repair the seaw wall okay I have I have some more comments or questions but I'm going to see if you have some that you want to yeah I wanted to I would ask the same thing um it's an either or um but I think that's all premised on the 2020 uh Sewall evaluation report who was that done by that was done by cardino who was now um Stant but they were still cardino at the time it was their Structural Engineers who performed that assessment and cost evaluation okay and the conclusion uh or the recommendations from that report were were to begin to uh reconstruct and repair the seaw wall as soon as possible okay thank you that's all I had I I walked uh I walked the the seaw wall path uh for lack of a better term uh yesterday and saw how badly damaged it was uh my uh with my own eyes so I do understand the need to do that uh but but if uh I I would like to say a couple of things one this has been in the works for four years that the city has been working on this uh program and uh four government agencies must think it's a good idea because they've been willing to put up about 1.9 million in Grants to support uh this uh further delay in this project and you know I agree that I wish the timing wasn't shortly after we had a hurricane but uh delaying in it right now if you look on page 24 of the supporting documentation delay in this project would cost approximately $100,000 that we would lose and some grant money uh we do risk losing the entire 1. 1495 million in Grant for the uh living uh seaw wall living Shoreline uh the construction bids would probably have to go to rebid on that so there's a lot of downside to not doing this project project now it's not it's not hey it's a you know hey let's put this off until we have more time but we do risk losing significant grant money if I understand this correctly yes that's correct okay not to mention that it doesn't put us in the best standing when we go after Grant funds in the future good point okay I think I've completed my question okay so uh how will it impact the current facility over there at Treasure Bay and how long would would there be this impact so once a construction contractor awarded you get more details on the construction schedule um when you meet with the contractor to discuss what that looks like um but it's anticipated to be a six to seven month project okay and what what uh what the golf course is going to be impacted yes the golf course is going to be impacted so as we've discussed um at all all of our engagement meetings and other commission meetings that um the burm the sidewalk sits on top of the burm and that is encroaching into the into the golf course and and and I think three holes or something like that okay yes I'm good all right so uh at this point do we have any more questions for staff uh public comment uh I know there's a few people uh Beth Wetzel evening mayor doctor and commissioner City staff thank you all for all that you do um I want to um speak in support of going forward with the living seaw wall or Liv living Shoreline um in in this this was something that it's for years it's been going on that we've been talking about about the benefits I was formerly um when I on the commission I was also part of the Tampa Bay Regional planning Council this was something that other cities came to me as and I had to tout Stacy for this that how did you get so much money for this where does Stacy come up with the money you know she they um Al commended how we were able to get so much funding for this and such a creative project besides that um you know just being something I I've heard some things tonight about how um people are are leaving the city how people want to stay here well one thing that we do want Treasure Island to be is a city we all come back to and there is a difference in having this beautiful living Shoreline versus having another seaw wall and I have walked that seaw wall in the past I've seen the spots where it is in great disrepair and um is in a dangerous situation um the residents back in over the course of time this was something that they wanted it was something that was important to people um not only from an aesthetic aspect but from an environmental aspect on it and it brings value to our city and to that area um I am also somebody who's displaced um I'm living in St Pete now I am very frustrated um you know with not knowing what I'm going to do with my future so I understand that from other residents but I do not see why these cannot be concurrent projects um they do not have you know this is something where time is of the EV as of the essence and we don't want to be Penny wise and pound foolish on this because it will cost more money that $2 million bid was back from 2020 who knows what it would be now um all things that we have to consider and the um you know a person fixing their house is not going to be impacted by the construction on the living Shoreline so I urge you to approve the funds for that tonight thank you thank you Sherry SAU thank you Commissioners and mayor doctor with all due respect to the last speaker I would totally disagree with her position I would like to ask you to vote no on this specific um agenda item in fact I thought the decision was made at the last meeting um that you all made was that this would be put on hold for at least 6 months and I believe I read an article in either the Beach Beacon or the Tampa pay times to that same effect if I have that incorrect then I stand corrected um I don't believe if I am correct that this should have been put back on on the ballot um on the agenda for discussion and we have to learn that when you all make a decision that it gets carried out as I told mayor doctor before the meeting I sat on the United States Special Operations Command Staff for nearly just barely under 20 years I have been a senior staff member I have seen a new leadership come in a new Commander come in and had the previous Commander absolutely love my project and have the new commander and Senior staff absolutely hate it and I know how staff manipulates things I know how you pitch different things I got it been there done that got the T-shirt worn it many many many times and it's disheartening when all of a sudden something is supported and then it's not but our senior leadership has put in place to make decisions and those decisions can change over time depending on the circumstances and I do think at this time the circumstances warrant that this at least be put on hold now you know vice mayor uh Dicky I understand and completely appreciate your points that we've got a lot of grant money for this and that grant money is put at risk but I think that's a risk right now that's worth taking because we have other priorities for this city and to include fixing any failing or critically def uh deficient City infrastructure like lift stations or other things that we really need to do and get repaired to help us with some of our big thunderstorms much just much less get us in a position that if we Face another tropical system next year or in the future that we're prepared for that I'm not saying that it's a bad project I do think that we might be can be more efficient and make it more affordable if we put it at home put it at rest at least for 6 months as I believe was decided before rethink it relook it maybe rcope it maybe go back to some of the people that granted us these these Grant monies explain the situation what has changed change and see if we could return the money if that's what we need to do but not face a demerit for going back at a later time when we are able to afford it and coming back with them with proposal to maybe get grant money at that time for maybe something that's more fiscally efficient I thank you for your time and consideration thank you Byron Magby byon Magby uh District 31117 tarp and drive um I'm asking you please don't execute this contract please vote no for right now uh let's put this off until another time let me explain um the um decision should not be made based on oh we're going to lose some grant money I I remember when my daughter was taking me out to make me go clothes shopping with her for a big event and she kept saying dad you got to you've got to buy these clothes and this dress and these shoes they're on sale you're going to save so much money if you don't do it now it's going to cost more later that is no way to make a decision you can't and I had to tell her look I've got to have the money and justify the money in order to get this great deal so that's all we're talking about we've got a great deal because of the uh grant money well that's all right right we'll find more grant money we're going to save money by not spending money that's the deal let's put this off for a little bit longer and see what we can do and by the way just as a parenthetical I like the idea of a traditional seaw wall myself we don't need exercise stations we don't need picnic tables we don't need all this fancy stuff it's not this community a nice seaw wall would be great so let's think about that but let's put that off for a while and not spend this money we don't have this money and um I think was Stacy was up here talking about oh we'd have one person go over and supervise every once in a while that's one of the problems with getting projects done in the city we say oh we're going to send a we'll send a bill or Fred over there for an hour every week to supervise that's not the way to do something this is $3 million of our money and you're going to have some guy just drop by every once in a while no I want somebody over there Dawn till dark in a hard hat in a measuring tape supervising that thing that's $3 million we don't just send somebody it's going to take a big amount of supervision and I would love it if this um commission were able to get boots on the ground start supervising going out to these projects talking to the supervisor to the uh Foreman that's the way we get things done please um so the um impact that it's going to have on future grants I I caught that one it's not going to hurt future grants if we're fiscally responsible that's what's important uh nobody's going to say oh you know you remember a couple years ago they asked for money and and they gave it back that's not going to penalize us come on I don't I don't think that's going to happen and and even if it does at least we've saved money and not thrown good money away at this point let's do it later on we need supervision we need funding we need people boots on the ground to issue permits thanks car Cara district one kisim um I honestly wish I could bottle up all of your comments because it was knocked out of the park um I am all about beautification and um making something great Treasure Bay is still a question mark we don't really know ultimately what we're going to do there are we going to have a cultural center are we going to revive the golf course or not I mean there's so many things that I've heard that I've read we could go any Direction with that piece of property it's Prime real estate and the city could do so much with it um that the priority right now again is your residence we're here asking for permits we're here asking for help and in this Shoreline yes probably definitely needed to be done in 2020 according to the engineer Stacy just said it needed immediate attention it's been four years guys so I'm questioning again this is on the long list of 30 plus projects that the city has not completed why and and why wasn't it immediately taken care of then you know I I would love to go back we we actually bought our house in 2020 so you know I'm coming into this right right when that happened um and just now you know really really getting involved and it it really I would love my son took tennis lessons over there um it's a great facility um kayak launches and all of that sounds great but again you know my husband laughs at me because I buy something on sale and I told him I saved him money but ultimately I still spent it um just a little less so I don't appreciate either ores either um I don't like ultimatums I don't like Scare Tactics and and I I that's what I heard um from that presentation was you know if we don't do this tonight we're going to lose it all and with this being State money and and all of these grants have we asked the question to them we are in a natural disaster right now we are zoned you know we are we're in it right now with our residents can we table this will you give us Grace you know will will you let us put this off until February or March next year when we've really got our residents back in their homes because at the end of the day this shorline we could vote this in tonight I could be up here in a year and it might still not be done um you know at the rate we're moving and if you're going to concentrate on putting money there let's put money into to more permit techs you know let's let's put the extra 500,000 into another engineering firm let's move this you know this permitting along quicker and and with that your residents are actually going to be here to enjoy the shoreline how whichever direction I prefer a traditional seaw wall as well um but it's one of those where we've got to get the morale of the city up because right now it's sad it's you know it's a ghost town and we've got to get them here first and we've got to put residents first thank you R tuning living a little bit because I got hurt during the hurricane um I'm G to come at this at a little bit different angle uh and I've I've mentioned this to you guys before first of all just I'm a non-resident but I have some credentials I graduated 1979 from Auburn University and with a degree of civil engineering I'm a registered professional engineer in Florida and I'm a civil engineer so we deal with these kinds of projects all the time I graduated number one in my class of civil engineers in the quarter that I I graduated look it up it's there all right so I came to you guys before about this because I like the idea of living s line but I've warned you guys before about the way it's designed and the way it's being presented that there is a big risk to the city of Treasure Island and that is that the slopes that are going to be laid back are I have the great potential of sloughing off you will be stuck with the price tag of having to maintain those slopes over the years that is not something that you should take lightly you should look at it very closely uh uh seaw walls are armored it's an armored slope basically so seaw walls are stronger so the timing you said that is not necessarily good because we just had a hurricane actually it's excellent you can go out there and see what Mother Nature does to these types of structures and having a slope leaves you naked I'm telling you you need to listen to other people about what the dangers are of doing a project like this not knowing what you're getting into in the future I have worked on Wetland Pro projects where you we've worked on lorial shelves that after a storm were completely destroyed after spending three or $400,000 Mother Nature can kick you in the butt and we this the timing is right for you to think about this and maybe you should think long and hard about whether this is something you want to do maybe it needs to be adapted in such a way that you have seaw walls where people can look down and see the living Shoreline that you're talking about I like the idea I'm just saying I think you guys are heading into a territory and today's environment of this hurricane that we're going through right now you should go into it with your eyes wide open delay it think about it more I asked you to go back and get a second opinion on people that build these things and make sure that you're doing right it's a lot of money and by the way grant money is our money too it's coming from the state of Florida we're all Florida residents and I remember Mr minning you said sometimes you just don't have to spend money right right right okay so I don't think this this is this is necessary right now I really don't now I'm not a resident anymore but I'm going to come back over here and visit some of you and have a tea with you or a beer and accordingly and and i' you know I'd love to see this project completed one day but not right now and also uh I told you before about the elevation of this whole thing so again you you're wanting to talk about Elevate TI and terrain modification and all this other stuff but you know it's only at a certain level and and in the last storm Helena it would have gone right over it did because you're not really raising it much more than what it is right now everything inside that bowl is going to be destroyed just I I just I I just think you should really think long and hard about this I don't think it's the right thing to do at this time all right thank you for your time Wes did you want to speak on this yeah no I'll say well you can if you want I just have all the eyes all right West Evans aisle of Palms uh it sounds beautiful and that's the same thing I said about the sand dudes in passag gril and I went down to visit them the other day and they're all gone so just want to say that thank you uh Heidi hork hello mayor and Commissioners short staff we have tonight how does it feel wonderful you can feel a little bit of what our staff is feeling um I wanted to speak on this I I was um the commissioner when this project was in its infancy in discussions um and I think it was discussed in within the community at various events many many many times almost ad nauseum I totally understand why you don't spend money now that you think you might need need later I I am very compassionate with everyone who has been up here and um Express that however I do think at this point that this is something that is an hour or ever um the next time we come around to this either we're not going to be able to get the grant money or it's going to be a lot more that $2 million for that seaw wall I'd be really surprised if you could get it done for 2 million and you're going to get this incredible project for a million and a half so the money makes sense in that respect certainly um the other thing that um I Heard a little bit tonight from an engineer and I am not an engineer it was my understanding from I when this first came up and I was on the Tampa Bay Regional planning Council and people were talking to me about it that it was more resilient uh in storms this type of Shoreline because of the growth that it in genders um and so I may be wrong about that if we get another Helen or Milton quickly and the growth has not happened it probably is some maintenance risk but again those things um fortunately since we still have femer disaster relief we would get probably relief to help with any sort of major storm damage to a project like this on I'm pretty sure that would happen I've seen that on many other projects I want to remind the commission that one of the biggest projects that was proposed for the city while I was there was a a new city hall in the middle of Treasure Island Community Center Park right here and I looked at that and I thought this is a huge project it was projected to be $27 million we knew it would go over it would take away one of our Parks it was really a very bad idea and City staff and the city manager were barreling down the tracks toward that thing and I had to be the one to stand up and say this is really ridiculous this project and I and it never happened because I did get a lot of support from a lot of the people who are here behind me now the second project that I opposed was a beautification and a redo of the whole Treasure Island Causeway you might remember that commissioner minning we were going to partner with the city of St Petersburg get all this grant money it was going to be beautiful they wanted to do a separate bike lane and all this kind of stuff and myself and Ed Gaton got up at city meetings and said no this this is a bad project we don't like it we sat we sat at Public Works we looked at all the drawings we lobbied we did all the same things these people are doing eventually we got that project stopped we ended up doing it ourselves the city of Treasure Island and I think it worked out much better but so in those two projects there were major projects long-term grant money I was against them I'm for this one I really think this has been worked over for so many years and considered by so many people not just here in this room but outside in the county and so forth I really feel like this is one of the ones I know it's bad timing I know it feels difficult but believe me I've been one to stand up to Big unwieldy City projects that I don't like so I understand but this one I I think is really worth going forward on just money alone okay Maya B good evening I'm Maya Burke and the assistant director of the Tampa Bay estay program one of the granting agencies um so I wanted to be present today to talk a little bit about why we're in the position we are why we support living shorelines why we think now it's more important than ever to install living shorelines throughout the Tampa Bay Region and how much I empathize with what this community is going through because I'm going through it too um so for more than 30 years the Tampa Bay EST program has worked with the community to show that water quality improvement and Community growth and development and economic growth and development are not mutually exclusive you don't have to put one on hold to accomplish the other we do both hand and glove and for a project like this it's more important than ever that when you have a rebuilding process like you have out here you also have projects that are treating your storm water and that are protecting the private property owners that live in this community and this project will do all of those things we have examples of living shorelines that we've invested in throughout the Tampa Bay Region that have some have been damaged from these hurricanes and others have persisted and so if you want to see how these things perform we can take you out we can do these tours but like Stacy mentioned this is a project this is a grant that was awarded in 2020 we have been very generous with the timelines we have extended these to allow you to see additional Grant funds because I'm not delusional I'm a small potatoes kind of money Giver um I don't have a lot at the table a little over $200,000 to help you with things like planning and implementation we're trying to be the spark for these good ideas that help benefit the community provide clean water help us fish and enjoy this place that we love so much and this is our attempt to do that unfortunately our Prime funders for this grant funding the the money expires and so we're in a position position where we're no longer able to continue to extend the agreement and so it's not a power play trying to be you know a bad actor or produce a particular outcome the the point of the matter is we understand the position you're in unfortunately to be good fiscal stewards ourself we're no longer able to continue to extend this agreement Beyond um the current terms that that we've got um in place right now and so that's why acting is important but I understand if it's budgets or values you know statements of values if that's not where this community is if you're not ready for these kinds of investments in water quality protecting private property um improving your flood protection you know everyone needs to be on board about these things but that's the purpose of this project and um we really hope to get to continue to be a partner with you all out here on this effort um and so if you have questions for me about any of those things I wanted to offer that but we really do support living shorelines we have a goal of installing more a mile of living shorelines a year throughout the region it's really ambitious you would be critical components of making some of like elements of those goals um come through this is also a project that's partly funded through um private donations as well as um settlement money from lawsuits related to some of the failing infrastructure so this project is intended to offset some of the harm that's happened with Wastewater sewer overflows and so um we'll have to go back to the drawing board if it doesn't go forward we'll do these things as a community whatever we decide because we serve not just the natural resources but we do serve the people as well thank you thank you well said um Andrew Vass vasy andw VC District Two um I actually was going to set this one out because I you know I understand it from both sides but a couple of comments came out that I just want to get on the record so that um so that everybody understands what they're voting for tonight um because this is about some accountability and execution on the aesthetic issue uh I'm an architect I can read the drawings 2,000 linear feet out of 2 200 of it is a pile of rocks it's like rip WP on steroids if you look at this slope back um time is of the essence it's been a four-year process for a seven-month project what we've heard tonight so I think that kind of tells you a lot of the a lot of the history of this um we heard it'll cost more if we do it later well they've already proven it'll cost more because it's already run up the bids on the history of it as well so certainly will agree with that because that's been proven and lastly on the sources of funds we hear well it's pennies for panelas well money is fungible so you could take the million and a half or whatever it is off of pennies for panelas and you could move it to something else that that is eligible that we could use so it's not like we're losing something because of it um Treasure Bay is 17 Acres uh it should be reimagined and looked at comprehensively and based on what comes out of that uh there are a lot of ways to look at costs and what can be on there that's not being done we're 4 years down the road we just had a natural disaster so I just want to make sure that everybody understands the aesthetic or the lack of it and the time is of the essence all of a sudden after four years to do seven months worth of work the uh the fact that it will cost more and sources of funds you can't dismiss it because it's coming from Penny store pelis thank you thank you Anita I too Finelli uh Village of Paradise Island um I too wasn't going to get up and talk but two things I heard while sitting there just had to come to mind I know we've had incredible amount of turnover in our commissioners um but you know I've been all for the living seaw wall and I've said that and stood up here multiple times and I've said that however there's just been two things that that um I'm Wonder wondering about has any of the Commissioners anybody or anybody of the staff actually gone out to a living seaw wall or a living Shoreline to see and talk to the people who are living it who are there that's my first question question number two is because this was also brought up a traditional seaw wall requires very little maintenance what is it going to be our maintenance cost for that living sea wall has anybody thought about that and then what happens of course in the course of another hurricane and that's all I wanted to say thank you thank you viser evening mayor Commissioners um visar hja from Dolphin Drive Treasure Island uh we actually that that Park we use it all the time uh my son and I we skateboard there we play around uh I'm all for it but not at this time so I would encourage you to put a temporary hold on this even if uh we're going to lose that grand uh right now the city should be focused slowly on one thing and one thing only bringing the residents back to the city so they can start living their life this that Park is nothing without the kids without the families and we're we're very far behind on on on permitting so we have to focus only on that for now until we bring everybody back into their homes and then we can start working and figure out projects so how how can we make the city better but taking res sources from uh from the city now to focus on something else other than bringing these uh the people that are displaced and the people that need Renovations back to their home uh I think it's it's it's not an option right now so I would encourage you for for for all of you uh to to vote against it thank you thank you do we have anyone else that would like to speak on this topic okay we'll close the public uh portion of it um do you have any discussion yeah um maybe we should start at the beginning and look at the 2020 report that was done by the engineering firm uh and that recommended that well that concluded that the seaw wall as it exists now was in bad shape and needs repair so if we started there then there are two two choices either you do the conventional seaw wall the the concrete seaw wall uh or the PVC sheep pile seaw wall anyhow conventional Seawall or you take advantage of grant funding uh and you do a living Shoreline option one do a traditional seaw wall you can do that at any time um but the total funding for that project would be on the taxpayers total funding that's going to be an excess of $2 million easy so that's that's option one option two is you do the living Shoreline you get a good portion of that Grant funded um and you come up with the alternative of about 500k say um to get that project moving forward to me I'm not interested in seeing the city of treasur Island spend over $2 million to put in a p pce of concrete or some um PVC sheepa and I don't think any of you would be either but I'm not sure about you being in favor of the living Shoreline but in terms of going with the engineer recommended that that seaw wall needs attention and if you start there you've got two choices and I think the living seaw wall is the one that is the most advantageous to the taxpayers of treasure out I'll leave it there thank you thank you do we have a motion I move to authorize the city manager to approve contract change change orders that do not result in exceedance oh no no I'm not sure um what you're moving forward but look on the I think the motion started on the page before yeah okay sorry about that wores I don't know there are multiple motions and we'll talk about how go together no worries thank you for correcting me I move to approve the spending Authority for no that's not the one I want okay where we going here is it this one I hear Jennifer yes okay sorry about that I move to approve the award and execution of a contract with the deductive change order with c and Shoreline LLC in the amount of 2,767 83850 including a construction contingency for a total of $3,446 122 contingent upon timely receipt of the required insurance and bonds and approve additional spending Authority in the amount of $229 and 500 $229,500 second we have a motion and a second is there any additional discussion city clerk would you call the role please vice mayor dicki I commissioner Min I mayor doctor I thank you U before we leave that item so there are several other motions depending on the path that um the commission decided on the next motion for your consideration is how to reallocate the funding for totaling 528,000 450 I believe that um staff has identified uh a recommendation I believe with regard to reallocating those funds M we just need direction from the commission if they want to um approve the reallocation in accordance with staff's recommendation or from some other projects I'll do a move here motion okay I move to approve the reallocation of funds totaling uh $645,000 from Paradise Boulevard Landscaping uh construction specifically the uh irrigation system and from King from carry forward of the uh uh Pond Rehabilitation money uh totaling $645,000 second well have a motion and a second any additional discussion any discussion from the uh the audience city clerk yeah you've already had public comment on all of this oh this this covers all of it but we still have to vote Yes you still have to go through all the Motions cler please mayor Dicky I commissioner doctor hi sorry commissioner Min hi mayor doctor thank you hi and then the last uh motion for your consideration under that option was um with regard to approving contract change orders that do not result in the exceedence of the total amount that you've previously identified and that do not increase time okay I moved to authorize a city manager to approve contract change orders that do not result in the exceedence of the approval total amount of 3,446 $22 and do not result in an increase to Total contract time second okay we have a motion as second city clerk vice mayor dicki I commissioner Minnie I and mayor doctor I thank you okay so now we're moving on to uh I5 executed thir Amendment to the contract agreement with Tampa Bay estor program for the Treasure Bay living Shoreline and water quality improvement project so there are three um related to the item that we just discussed grants um on the agenda that we'll be talking about next and they probably would have just been on the consent agenda if we hadn't had to have this discussion first um so the first one um Maya mentioned is with the tary estu the Tampa Bay Estuary program and that's for um just over $200,000 for the design and construction of the project and it's really um they've helped us to reallocate how the tasks are laid out in that Grant um so that we can um take advantage of the funds that have been made available to us um before they expire okay thank you do we have a motion yeah I have a hard copy of this because my I forgot my uh laptop sorry about that uh and I think I'm short here on the the reading here but I move to approve the execution of a third amendment to Contra to the contract with Tampa Bay Estuary program for Treasure Bay living Shoreline the Treasure Bay living Shoreline and water quality improvement and water quality improvement thank you thank you do we have any public comment oh wait you had a motion I'm sorry we didn't have second second okay thank you do we we have a uh any comment okay any discussion here all right say clerk vice mayor dicki I commissioner mini I mayor doctor I thank you okay I6 execute a grant agreement with Florida Department of envir Environmental Protection for the Florida Recreation develop assistance program 2425 funding cycle for $50,000 Grant to fund Ada kayak and paddle board launch at Treasure Bay good evening mayor and Commissioners I'm here to seek approval for accepting the grant agreement with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for the florider recreation develop development assistance program The Parks and Recreation Department applied for the grant in August of 2023 the city was awarded the Grant in July of this year the city issued an invitation to bid with living Shoreline which included an alternate bid schedule for purchase and installation of a kayak and paddle board launch at Treasure Bay the bids received were higher than expected so staff seek quotes to bring down the cost staff contacted three companies for quotes and acuda came back in approximately $50,000 for the materials City received a quote for installation of the dock at $9,800 the city has been approved for the $50,000 Grant and has budgeted $50,000 in the penny for panel's fund the the total cost of the project is going to be 59,800 bucks these amounts are covered in the spending Authority for the living sheline construction agenda item that you guys just pass staff is available for questions no questions no questions all right thank you all right do we have a motion I move to approve the execution of a grant agreement with the Florida Department Environmental Protection for the Florida Recreation development assistance program 2425 funding cycle for the purchase of an ADA kayak and paddle board launch second we have a motion and a second do we have any public comment hearing none city clerk vice mayor dicki I commissioner mini I mayor doctor I thank you all right seven approve a grant Amendment with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for the Treasure Bay living Shoreline project so this is um another administrative Grant amendment that they're requiring of all of their um grant awardees that were funded under that parent funding source it's administrative requirements great thank you do we have a motion please I move to approve the Second Amendment of contract 22 fp8 with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection second we have a motion and a second do we have any public discussion hearing none say clerk please vice mayor dicki I commissioner Min I mayor doctor I thank you I8 consideration of selection of appointment to the city commission for District Two this item is for your consideration and discussion for selection and appointment for district 2 um we have four applications that we received we received Chris Carter Diana crel Jesse malar I'm sorry if I said your name wrong um Stevie um Ste Steven rybold your applications and the comments from public um that have submitted in support of one of the applicants has been submitted for you for your review and you have a hard copy there great thank you let me uh find my hard copy all right and I'm not exactly sure how uh we're going to do this uh I I would U it would be my suggestion that we call each one of them up to the uh the podium and uh and give us an opportunity to ask some questions all right so we'll start uh first with uh alphabetical let's see here alphabetical order Chris Clark would you please uh step up to the podium you sure I'll start out with the questioning and and I think uh we'll ask each of the uh participants have question go ahead yeah could we start off with each of the uh candidates uh saying a few words tell us who we are why you want to do this good suggest that's that's a good question how much time how much time do we have five minutes that's fine um yeah so I mean that's the question I always get um why do you want to do this um so I've lived here for five years I love Florida I love Treasure Island um my wife and I have a a ton of pride of ownership in our home um wherever we've lived we've always been involved in very involved in the community and uh and it's no different here um we I play pickle ball with a bunch of guys in the neighborhood I ride bikes with a bunch of guys in the neighborhood my wife's in the Bunko group and we're always doing things with folks in our neighborhood and everywhere I've lived um people always come up to me and say Chris you know you should get involved you should be you should be involved in either the the city government or our homeowners association I've been a president of two very large homeowners associations for that reason um back in Missouri where I lived before I moved here um and I think that the exact same thing has happened here and I I'd kind of like to explain how I've gotten here and how I've gotten involved um because I think there's been some misinformation um about why and who I support um I support the residents of Isa palms and the way this all started was not sure if you guys aware of this or not but um after Hurricane Milton a roof blew off of a house and covered 15th Street so no one on 8th Street or 9th Street could get to their homes you had to park your car and you had to walk in so everyone that lived on 8 8th to nth Street was calling um the city they were calling the disaster hotline couldn't get anywhere so I think it was my wife's third call to the city where she was told that we can't help you if you want to do it do it yourself so I said okay so I grabbed my chainsaw out of the garage I rounded up a bunch of neighbors I went down to 105th Street spent all afternoon destroying my chainsaw and cutting the roof off of the road and after that I had people coming up to me saying you know Chris you should really get involved in in in in the in the city government here and I said you know I think that is something that I want to do so that's why I'm here and one of the main reasons I'm here is the same effort that I showed to get the people of 8th and n9th Street back into their homes is the some same effort that I'm going to show to give everyone here back into their homes because I think that's the most important thing that we're facing right now um besides that since then I've worked with a bunch of neighbors to to find out what they want in a commissioner um we've actually set up with some help of of some neighbors kind of a voice of isop Palms which is created a professional network of people that can help me in the future and also help this help the city these are current retired professionals these are you know Finance Executives attorneys Builders city planners and that's what we need is we need people like that involved in the city and that's something I know that I can bring together to do so a little bit about what I support number one getting people back into their homes um number two managed Economic Development I think this city with the beach and what we have is years behind in in where we should be with businesses being here restaurants being here and being a place that we people want to come and that residents want to want to work in um I think we need to tighten up our budget something that I'm very used to doing in the business world and you know getting critical infrastructure projects done like lift stations and things like that and that's something that I would push for and then lastly just making TI a better place to live uh my background um I've had high level positions with Fortune 500 companies I currently manage about $2.3 million in revenue for a $43 billion company so basically every quarter if I don't bring in what I need to bring in our stock price goes down so managing the city government here and the staff and the budget it's something that I'm very used to doing um so basically you know I support the people of IA Palms I've spent a ton of time going around and talking to people and gaining support um I I want to thank that's my five minutes so I want to thank a bunch of people for helping me and I I want to sure that I solely um I'm looking out after the residence of is Palms you have more time if you want we won't uh no I was just going to add I mean you know we've really gone and and and gone out to the people of IOP Palms I want to thank um Jen and Lonnie over here they had a kind of a rally at their house with about 70 people on Saturday night that were out in support of what we're trying to do um and I Sherry mentioned it earlier my wife and her sat out in Triangle Park you know for the entire day on Saturday promoting what we want to do listening to real residents about you know what they think needs to be done here and and that is that that is my my my sole goal um one thing I I I I have to I have to bring up is you know I've heard some things around town that hey Chris is a is a mouthpiece for cvti and that Chris is you know we got a ton of emails but but they all came from cvti that bothers me immensely because that disrespects these folks that had 70 people to their house that disrespects these folks who who sat out there all day you know promoting what we're trying to do and also a lot of them are here the people that that that that wrote emails the majority of them have no idea who cvti even is so I am beholden to no one I support the residents of is Ms and that is my sole goal and I also find it incredibly interesting and almost comical to be honest with you that the big win tonight was getting Jacobs on board we never would even be entertaining that if it wasn't for Andy who I know is part of cvti so they obviously do some good things and I actually helped them with that so in closing I really hope that this appointment is based on the will of the resident of IA palms and and and not on politics and not on any influences from other districts and and that's my sole ask um because we put a lot of work into this and it's something that I really want to do so thanks for the time any questions yeah I that's a question I when we talk today um but i' just like everybody to hear it and that is um Win Lose or Draw uh you're going to be a candidate for March yes I had that in my notes and I forgot yes I am going I've already filling in the process filling out the paperwork right now um and uh and I'm definitely going to be running in March I guess one thing I would ask is I hope that it's not well you know we're just going to Appo someone who's not going to run in March so then you can be elected well I I don't know why we would you know waste three months um but whatever I I'm prepared to run I will run and I I I'm looking forward to the outcome if that if that's the case thank you I guess more a statement than uh than a question uh isop Palms is a part of District 2 uh it also carries forward Sunshine Beach as well as uh all of the Gulf Boulevard from uh U from the U Waffle House on up yeah so um and I I I you know District 2 is uh you know part of my uh my legacy my DNA yeah and I you know great people on the AIS of palms and uh you know that they they deserve the best and that's why we wanted to make sure that we're going to get an opportunity to uh to hear from everybody that's here that's running for the position um and like I said it's it's near and dear to me so I want to make sure we get the best person possible so thank you and I just have one question and you you and I met Friday so so uh none of these questions would surprise you but how much uh how much time do you have to dedicate to this job yeah so you know I'm pretty lucky I uh I been with a company that I'm with for quite some time I I do I do still work but I have a very flexible schedule I work from home um I set my own schedule and any travel that I would ever do I could work around this so I have a lot of time um to put into this and again I you know I'm developing a network of people that are going to support me and help me and I think that's a smart thing to do so um yeah I I have plenty of time to to put put forward toward this thank you I thank you for your time I appreciate it thank you Diana Kel would you please come up I have to lower this needless to say with Chris being so tall and me being a  good evening mayor and um Commissioners and staff um I am running because I have been very active in this community in a in many ways and unfortunately uh mayor doctor you stole some of my thunder that I was going to tell Chris that it's not just aisle of Palms that you're representing you're also representing Sun Sunshine beach in addition to that as a commissioner you end up representing the whole island you are with everybody because you're one of five people and that's the governing body so it's not just aisle of Palms that is very important that's home base basically for District too but you have to remember you're working for the city and for all of the citizens and that's a very key point that when somebody's sitting up there in those Commission State seats excuse me um you have to listen to everybody you need to if you get input from somebody else you need to be taking stride to resolve any problems they have I am a problem resolver I like to to uh work M I don't want to say behind the scenes but if I have a problem I will go to the person and I will discuss it because it may just be something with me I don't know that I want to be positive in all of this and I do commend um Andy and um Chris for bringing forward the um Contracting idea and stuff because I was thinking that all along and the and where people have spoken about communication communication that would probably be one of my first things that I would tackle if I were appointed and my first stop would be with the city manager we need to get a frequent questions asked and get that out on the website for this permitting the substantial damage and all of that we could we could circumvent a lot of problems with all of the community if we had one source where we can get in there and take care of those things um as far as my activities I've been a resident since 2014 I have been I am currently the president of the treasure aets who gives a lot of money to this city we offer scholarships I sit on pnz and I have for six years I worked on LPA for six years I believe and my real calling came from when Triangle Park was being owned by private individuals and I really wanted to have that Park the entire thing instead of just the bench in the flag poles and when the city said they needed somebody to go to a board they need board positions filled I stood up they gave me a park that I wanted in Isa pal boms and that is Triangle Park so my way to pay back was to petition to go to pnz and so I think that was around the 2018 2019 time frame since then I have participated by volunteering I'm this morning I was in City Hall at 8 o' this morning and I was learning how to fill out the permits so I could help people today I stayed here and till 2:30 the lobby was about was gone everybody was waiting to go into the permitting so there was where I stepped up even today I am retired I don't have a problem with saying that that makes me old but I'm retired and I've got time that I would be more than willing to jump in and help our citizens I agree with everybody here we need to get back in our homes I am one of those people that needs to get back in their home I'm also on a slab so I'm not on an elevated house so I understand where people have this sphere of the 50% rule I think that unfortunately our active members have not been active long enough to understand some of the critical things and it has to go back that there have been workshops I've been to the workshop for the Strategic plan of Treasure Island that's something that even maybe some of you haven't even participated in and um I've been part of the comprehensive plan I've been part of I was one of five people in the master Park plan you can see that onl online one of 15 people acknowledged for their work on the master Park plan there there are numerous other things I've helped at the Chile Cookoff this year for at the fire department Department I have been out with the cops for coffee coffee and cops I did it at um roselli Park and I did it at the non-existent sunset Pavilion now too so it's not that I'm just here for one thing I'm here for the whole community and I want to make things better yes I do think Chris has some valid points I will not deny that at all but I think I have sh The Proven leadership that this city needs and I have been in different segments so I've met with the fire department ask them what they've needed I've gone to the police department what have they needed and I I'm very proud to say that under my toolage the ilets bought the electric bike for the for um the police department so there are many things that I have done and I'm hoping that when I get out there and I start uh petitioning and going saying I'm going forward with this cuz I am going to run the reason I wrote my letter and said that I don't know if I'm going to run or not was because when um commissioner minning was appointed one of the criterias was that you weren't going to run for that office so I didn't know what that criteria was going to be when I appi my letter of interest but I'm out here and I'm going and I'm going to do my best and I'm doing it for the whole island and I'm doing it for Treasure Island I and the aisle of palms and sunset I I just feel very strongly about that and I think I've shown a lot of leadership in the community on these um different committees I've been on and that type of thing and how I participated great thank you very much any questions pretty much covered the two questions I think in terms of we are you going to run in March and you've made that clear and you talked about how much time uh did you have another question that I think that was it those are the two things the thank you Diane okay thank you thank you very much and I believe uh Jesse molar has just just walked in hi sorry I apologize I didn't know I was supposed to be here in person but I've been watching the whole meeting live this evening so oh my goodness um as you can see from my letter of intent I'm actually a newer resident I moved here in April um my husband and I saved money for 10 years and it was we lived in St Pete prior to that so um I have been born and raised in St Pete I'm 41 years old so that's a long time but I grew up on these beaches and um my dream was always to live here and this year we finally made that come true and of course unfortunately we've had to deal with all the Hurricanes and destruction and everything um just to give you a background I'm an attorney um I'm also a homeschool mom and um I have two little kids uh Gracie and joy who are nine and six um the reason I put my letter of intent is because I really love the city even though I haven't been living here for 25 years I do um have some government working in government experience I did previously work for the um Internal Revenue Service and I did practice in front of um um the District of Florida in on a federal level so I have experience with like you know a lot of reading through a lot of Law and making decisions and you know um all of that kind of stuff but I um I think one of the things that I quickly realized is the people have so much heart here in Treasure Island and I really want to be a part of that Community I quickly as soon as the hurricane happened I jumped in with my HOA and I became the unofficial HOA liaison who has been dealing with all the FEMA claims and organizing and helping all of that so I do understand um how all of that and everybody's concerns I mean I'm actively watching the meetings and listening to all the residents and all of their concerns and my heart goes out to everybody and I'm in the same boat as everybody else you know my house got destroyed I had 42 Ines of water and you know I'm in the middle of you know rebuilding and all of that stuff too so um I don't have any prior experience sitting on boards or anything like that or um but I really do want to be a big part of this community and I really care a lot about everyone here so thank you very much well thank you go ahead you know the uh we we've asked each one of the other candidates about how much time you would have to put into this um so basically um I right now even though I'm an attorney and I do practice law on a part-time basis I'm a homeschool mom but I do not currently have a job or am employed full-time so I actually have a lot of time to put towards the position um just like my HOA I was able to take a lot of time in order to organize all of our FEMA claims and everything with our adjuster and all of that just because I do have a lot more time than everyone that's like working and everything in our community so um I I would say I have plenty of hours every week too okay thank you if uh Win Lose or Draw would you be a candidate in March yes I would like to be a candidate okay thank you thank you thank you very much thank you and stepen ryol evening how yall doing name Rial I am District Two um I've lived in the island of palms for quite a while I'd like to say thank you to all of my colleagues and neighbors um I am 100% on board with getting folks back in their homes you know we've got we've heard a lot of the concerns that folks have you guys are doing a Yan's job it's a tough job that you guys have to make these decisions I've been in leadership positions most of my career when I retired in May my expectation was that I'd find something really great to spend my time doing and since then I think I found my calling I think my calling is to help folks get back in their homes um I've got a history in program management and Engineering I was an executive for Fortune 100 company I understand contracts contracts management risk management understand the challenges that our city manager has and and a lot of the legal aspects uh budgeting different colors of money there's a lot of things to to consider in all of these decisions um having experience running multi-million dollar contracts for a very long time having to negotiate them um I understand that there's a lot of risk and long-term strategies you know some of the things I hear folks talking about is what is the what is the viability what is the the maintenance for some of these projects and I think you know as we as we go through and we look at a lot of these options sustainability is going to be a huge a huge concern you know strategic planning needs to be a focus of the commission not just you know the next couple of months the next couple of years strategic planning is a long-term Vision but we also too have to overcome all of these obstacles and and triage things right we need to have a good system in place to be able to triage problems come up with resolutions prioritize them based on the needs the budget and the immediate uh items that the folks care about right now we know the number one priority is getting permits the next thing is going to be inspections you know are we are we Forward Thinking are we taking lessons learned how do we interact as a community we've got a really great uh Community here you know I think that we've got a lot of strong folks we've got a lot of a lot of uh community support and honestly I think um this is the best place in the world to live I think we're very blessed you can look at Trip Advisor and you can look at all of these other things and they don't seem to do it justice the feeling that we have as a community here is unlike anywhere I've ever lived in my life I don't plan on going anywhere so plan on sticking around and to answer the question ahead of the class I will plan on running next year as well so that's all I have for y'all I'd like to hear what you questions youall have for me since I didn't get a chance to meet with yall that's Sor right but uh uh the other question was uh about how much time you would have to to invest in this work absolutely I retired in May so I have plenty of time good okay I don't have any I don't either thank you very much thank you all have a great evening you all right so uh looking for a little bit of direction from you Jen on sure uh where we go from here so if so I mean you you certainly can have a discussion at this point if you'd like um to take public comment you could take public comment and then when that's concluded you could have your discussion it's up to you um the other thing I wanted to bring up is that uh commissioner Toth is absent but she did send in a written her written notes on this and thoughts and so if at some point maybe during your discussion if you want those to be read um the city manager has those and can provide that great okay so yes let's start with uh the uh the public uh come on up West West Evans aisle of Palms uh it sounds like we have uh four great candidates for the seat uh when uh you know I'm a little younger than most people that probably live in Treasure Island I'm originally from Atlanta Georgia and when me and Sarah moved here people were like why do you want to go live around a bunch of retire cuz I like being around people who've busted their Knuckles and gotten work done something that doesn't really get done nowadays everyone wants to sit behind a desk and do things and uh seeing Chris go out in the street and cut a roof up with a chainsaw and move it so old ladies could get back in their home feed they're cats the kind of dudes I like that's the kind of dudes I want to see up here I mean we're talking about someone who moved a roof out of a street when we can't even get people to move a permit across a desk right now so I just want to put you know I just want to say Now's the Time we need to look for people with bloody knuckles to get work done thank you thank you is there anyone else good evening once again Mary Beth Wetzel um I am a uh Sunset Beach resident so I'm not in IA Palms um and when it comes time to vote my vote won't matter but I did want to speak um right now just on my observations of Diana over the years um certainly all four people sound like they are well qual ified for this job and I think everybody brings something different to the table um but just in my experience in um seeing Diana through these meetings over the since 2020 when um you know things were boring at sometimes or people couldn't really attend or had to be socially distanced and you know we had a lot of other issues to deal with di was always there at the community events I see her white I think that's important as a member of the community um and not specifically a district 2 Resident is because that seat does hold a lot of power for the entire Island um and what I do think that Diana brings to the table is the knowledge from being on Planning and Zoning um of our delicate Coastal Community and what these laws and these um safeguards that we have in place really mean and secondly she definitely has her pulse on the community um because of her involvement um I think everybody's well qualified but I only have personal experience with Diana so wanted to offer that thank you thank you please I I'm Jennifer ORS from District 2 and I think what we are really looking for in our district is great strong leaders like you three and so thank you but you know when I first encountered Chris and Tracy Clark was with the the roof and we all dug in we got our gloves on and we just dug in and got that roof out but then it was more than that it was also going and looking for a reserve team and when I mean a reserve team I mean he's looking for other people around him who are retirees and people in like all over the island and all around District too who have resources is like he helped Andrew find the engineering team and we have so many people who are retirees that are incredible people that have resources because your job is also to help delegate right and so we have really awesome resources and people who are very strong so he brings strong leadership not that Diana doesn't but he can then make the relationships while he's a commissioner with the police officers with the fire chiefs right he can do that along the way but right now he showed incredibly strong leadership in an emergency situation and I think that's what we really need right now somebody with awesome leadership so thank you I'm in favor of you appointing Chris Clark thank you very much Sherry sour District too I'm sorry I'm sure you're getting sick of hearing me talk this evening um as I mentioned before my husband's family has owned our home for just shy 55 years he's been coming to um Treasure Island since 1970 I have lived in our home longer than I have lived anywhere in my life including my hometown for about 15 and a half years um my husband and I would like to ask for your vote for Chris Clark as our district to commissioner Chris is Young I'm retired on Social Security I'm not young Chris is energetic he is committed to Isis of palms and all of Treasure Island and he is also committed to the other residents of District 2 Chris as you have heard knows how to bring people together he knows how to tap on the experience he has in his community not only in District to but in the entire Treasure Island community to help figure out what is it that the residents needs what is it that the city needs what challenges are we facing how to we address those challenges in innovative ways and fiscally efficient ways which is something the city in the years that I have been here's not necessarily done very well as I me in one of the ear um earlier emergency meetings we need a hero right now Chris chainsaw Clark is considered a hero he is considered somebody when as I mentioned when we sat for those hours campaigning for Chris hearing people and sometimes they just needed someone to hear them they F disenfranchised with the senior leadership of this city and not that I'm trying to pick on anybody but that is what the residents are expressing they don't feel like the senior leadership in this city um not the lower level staff but the senior leaders really care about them as Citizens they feel like they don't have compassion Chris wants to change that Chris wants to work with all of you to help find innovative solutions to our problems I have a lot of people I work with from all over the country um many of them came to my retirement ceremony years ago from all over the country particularly the DC area one is a younger fellow that I mentored he brought his family he loved Treasure Island he's used to go to beaches and other places in Florida and in Maryland area and he absolutely loved Treasure Island I grew up in the pan handle in the Destin area what Dustin did very smart that Panama City Peach did not do is a cater to families he said I like treasury Island because it is a familyfriendly community that is something when he says he wants to help businesses he wants to help bring in new residents there is an area where this community is sitting Prime to surpass this other Beach communities as being known as the familyfriendly beach commun community and I know that Chris will bring that to you um he has been part of different Fortune 500 companies and very senior leadership roles he knows how to look at what challenges are find innovative solutions and more importantly how to do that in very fiscally efficient ways and as he mentioned before he's been the president of different homeowners associations for very large communities very prominent communities some of which had functions such as budgets infrastructures like roads and other things that he had to oversee just very similar to what he would do on the commission with the rest of you all um for this for this City's government um we need a strong leader nothing against Miss krael but I've been here voting on referendum I have some of these strategic plans and other things that were put in place in the 2010s and they were not supported by the residents of the city as were a lot of the referendum that used to be voted on before we stopped going to the citizens with referendum to vote on some big key decisions which all started under the previous mayor so I would like to encourage you to please vote for Chris he's Innovative he's young he's a strong leader and at least for the is of Palms and I think it would be true for district 2 as well he is the kind of hero that we need thank you for your time and attention thank you I usually do not get up and comment but um I have lived in Treasure Island for almost 40 years I was born in St Petersburg and my grandparents lived out here on the beach so I'm really from familiar with how Treasure Island used to be and how Treasure Island is now I am also a treasure eyet Millie font badgered me for five years until I finally caved in and decided to get involved and under Diana's leadership she has come up with some of the more creative things that we could do to raise funds for scholarships for children of people that live here in Treasure Island mostly but also off Island but she is always up to the task she has been involved in so many different things and she has led us to all kinds of projects to help with beautification in the city uh the fire department the police department and she's just such an asset that I know she would be a wonderful commissioner for district 2 thank you thank you anyone else hi kisim district one um I think there's some great candidates um Chris Clark I actually heard about the roof um being over in Capri um we were here for the storm and um I didn't think it was actually a real story until many many U neighbors and friends told me about it in in detail which is is pretty heroic actually um and um I have gotten to know him and and what he stands for and he is younger he is energetic and I think he is definitely here for the people and for the residence and I think he would be a great pick um so I hope you choose him thank you thank you Andrew intervac District 2 um I'm here to ask you to support Chris Clark for commissioner uh I think it's exciting that we got four candidates to come out I think it's exciting that more people attend these meetings than whenever I first moved here about three years ago and it was more sparsely attended um and so we we have choices and I think that this appointment and certainly we have an election coming up in 90 days or so that looks like there could be four people at least up for election um the rumors are true maybe five and so we're looking at at uh nobody has mentioned Economic Development which is something that as we've gone through this sort of reset that Treasure Island is looking at for a couple reasons one the demographics are changing because the real estate prices keep going up and it's harder and harder for retired people on fixed incomes to buy new houses here so you see a lot of folks coming in that are uh that are professionals that have sold businesses that that that have a um you know that have an interest in participating and that uh um have a higher expectation of the delivery of government services and the delivery of quality life and I think that that that uh Diana hit it right in that you're looking at the for the overall commity excuse me so as it relates to quality of life and it Rel relates to the delivery of service we got to look if we're going to do more of the same or we're going to change it and I put Chris in the category of somebody who is energetic and creative he stepped up on the one hand he's chainsaw on the roof on the other hand he's sitting down with me working on the scope of work working on the work breakdown structure on how these permits flow so we can figure out the red light yellow light green light triage and everything else so very very versatile on the on the economic development side if you look back at where we are it you know the McDonald's is gone half of 107th Street is a parking lot 108 Street plan is for a water park and a big garage for garbage trucks I mean from the if you're in planning if you're in zoning if you're in Economic Development we need to be able to move these ideas forward we have an amazing asset here six miles of Coastline we're the other end of Central Avenue and what the residence of olive Palms that I live with with and I've known Chris for three years so they were one of the first couples Elizabeth and I met when we moved here and he sort of shephered us around to meet all the other couples that we've become friends with and what we need to do is we need to have people that are going to be able to look forward Chris works for a $4 billion doll company and solely is responsible for over two billion of the revenue if you want to talk about a key man in a business all the rest of the salespeople handle the other two billion and he does two billion and himself that's the trust that this company this Pokey traded company has put into Chris so I think that that it's a matter of going forward or or staying with more of the same and I think it's time that we move forward I think you've all been contacted by a lot of people in District 2 about Chris um and that that I'm asking for your support so that many of the things that we talked about especially around Economic Development we're trying to hire an economic development person now we need people like Chris that are in the business Market that are creative that are energetic to help this thing go and I think that from from a point of view the commissioner working with staff that Chris is a great person for the commission thank you very much thank you is there anyone else it's our district true a Palms my wife summed up most of it but I just wanted to come forward and say I think Chris is one of the leaders we need in this place as my wife said I've been coming to this city for 55 years it's changed within the last three to four years we made a decision to move out of this place it got CTIC this the trust people who were around everybody there was no I want say there was no strong leadership that did not try to circumvent other folks to get things done that was within his plan this won't happen Chris is going to be out there he seem almost every day walking with his dog sometimes his dog comes in my house because he wants to treat he just I hear his a garage door coming comes running down the street but he's always out he's always with people I think he's a proven leader he's a strong leader and I think we need that here he's energetic he's younger he can carry this tradition ion longer so I just something to embed some younger folks in here that have the capability and The Proven trust and confidence of monster businesses as well as neighborhoods he's got our neighborhood down pat so that's just what I want to say I hope that you uh consider Chris Clark great thank you Lonnie Lonnie ORS Pals this is not a happy wife happy life uh Speech here um the day I met Chris I was on a dolly with my 71y old brother-in-law bringing a generator back to my house on Ninth Street so I could use my oxygen so I could survive and I've never seen something like I saw that day and since then I've gotten to know Chris really well and uh I've lived out for 40 years as I said earlier I've seen a lot of people talk a great game I've seen a lot of people promise I've seen a lot of under delivery here over the years and I've seen more so the last five than I've seen the previous 35 so I'm excited about Chris I think a lot of is PALS and people that know Chris are excited for him I think he signals change and and I'm very strongly uh asking you to consider uh Chris as part of the district thank you thank you hi Sarah Pennington I love Palms um and I just wanted to say that also I agree with the other comments supporting Chris Clark uh the reason that I support Chris is because I have seen him active at all of these meetings he's actually no offense to the other candidates but he's the only one that I already knew of because he has taken the time out of his life to come to these meetings every other week just like I have it's taken a lot of our time and you guys too all of us here that we come here every other Tuesday and stay for hours and hours and Chris has been here along right beside us and he's not just been here but he's been making a lot of really great suggestions and comments and he really seems to be thoughtful and intelligent with the things that he's suggesting for the city um also as a business owner myself I appreciate the business Acumen that he has I find that people that have a lot of business experience tend to be good problem solvers and are also very fiscally responsible which which is very important to me I've talked to many neighbors in is of palms and all of the neighbors that I've talked to have also been in support of Chris many of them can't be here I think because uh they're displaced and not able to make it to the meetings um I also wanted to I was curious about this I noticed that Deb Toth isn't here and I wasn't sure how the voting works if she's not here to hear um the four different candidates speak and hear the public comment I wasn't sure can she still vote did she vote in advance without hearing this information or how that works no so she's not here so she will not be voting she just sent in her comments and that's it you have to be present to be voting okay great well that's all I had okay yeah thanks thank you very much looks like we have one more person please come up hello Elizabeth Murray Isle of Palms I would like to Echo my support for Chris Clark as commissioner I've known him and his wife Tracy since moving to Isle of Palms and I know that they are both very intelligent helpful professional people I think he would be great in this role um is of Palms is a great community and I definitely think we have uh Chris and Tracy to thank for that thank you great thank you okay I think that wraps up so yeah we're gonna go to Chuck this gentleman I think s his hand did you want I thought you raised your hand but I guess not he did okay okay Palms I just wanted to reiterate what the last person said Chris is a neighbor of mine and I think he um listen to the voice of the people which is what we need right now and um I think he's the person for the job great thank you Chuck if you would uh read the comments from commissioner Toth I very strongly I feel very strongly in my support for Diana Crill for district 2 I've heard from many points of view and I am unwavering in my support for Miss Crill as the representative I feel she will vote fairly and unbiased on very important issues affected the city as a whole we need someone who genuinely cares about our city and has been actively involved in many aspects for years she has served on many boards including Planning and Zoning which in my opinion is where her experience would be one of the most valued assets for our city team as we move forward our dedication to our city Rivals very few actually actually Dominique Ryder and John morone come to mind as comparison figures she listens and hears other opinions I am confident she will hear and represent every resident in our city and listen to all viewpoints when making her decision I cannot say the same for Mr Clark he has not volunteered or served on any committee to date I am less than impressed by the way he has spoken to US city staff and bullied other residents at previous meetings enough that some of my constituents of are weary of speaking out because of their fear of reprisals and we are when it's said and done we are equal voting members of this community if that is the spirit that he embodies it does not represent quite a few of my constituents that wish to work together peacefully to solve this Crisis get us back home learn from this disaster and instill a plan to move forward together as a stronger Community I am very concerned and dismayed about Mr Clark's stated intention to lower the millage rate our city is already going to take a hit financially from the storms we have a bridge we have other city property like Parks our beach and last but actually most importantly our city employees Treasure Island was always known for our low attrition rate and very good work environment if the attacks on staff continue we will become desperate to replace our city staff family how are we going to maintain our standard of living if runs off our staff the city needs money for our bridge to function trash to be picked up maintenance to our sea walls facilities Parks engage tourism and protect our beaches on the other hand as you all well know Diana is a dedicated citizen who will represent the best interests of Treasure Island residents as a member of the planning and zoning committee she has a clear understanding of the rules and regulations that are unique to our Coastal Community additionally as the current president of the treasure ilets she has her finger on the pulse of our community's residents incidentally she is ALS she also has damage from the storms and is in the queue for permits this is why I feel that Diana is the Clear Choice she understands the processes the zoning I have confidence that she will work together in a positive direction for the future of our community thank you Chuck would it be possible for me just to there was multiple multiple multiple personal attacks in there could I maybe just respond to one of them not at this point um wow that's that was thankk you apprciate so sound like okay so anyhow let me get back control we have four great candidates and and I truly mean that there are four very intelligent great candidates that we have here today and I can tell you they're volunteers this this job pays $450 a month and uh and you you'll probably spend about 15 hours a month on the light side uh going through all of the documents and everything else it's great to see that people are interested in our government and being part of the government part of the the solution versus part of the problem and and I really do appreciate that um I don't know do either of you want to say anything in general and then we can uh we can begin our discussion not in general okay would it I I don't want to break protocol here but it would be possible to to hear Mr Clark's uh response I I don't want to sure be possible okay Chris yeah I mean I can't really count the number of direct personal attacks that were in that speech but I I I I'm just going to stick to policy I'm so I'm just going to mention one of them and that was the discussion of the millage rate yes that is a long-term goal of mine for this city is to possibly bring our millage rate down I don't know any I don't know any I don't know very many people that wouldn't like to have lower taxes but what I will say is that is definitely not something that's on my radar right now with everything that we're going through um I certainly don't think that would be prudent to do at this point but in the future I think it's something we need to look at and if we can become a little more you know fiscally um uh you know tighter around here um I think it's something we could do I will also say based on all the residents that I've talked to and I've talked to a lot of them I think they would be fine with the mill rate staying where it is if we actually got some things done and got some projects approved like critical infrastructure like lift stations that don't work seaw walls on 115 so and and and helping spend that money to attract some businesses here if we if we do that and the people see results then I think they're fine with the millage rate where it is but um so yeah I just wanted to clarify that because I mean the multitude of personal attacks were were were were hard to get through but that's at least one that I wanted to to address thank thank you thank you Chris would any of the other candidates like to say anything now that uh that you've heard all the discussion Diana we have been asked if we are going to run for office or not I didn't want to bring this up but I I think that in Justice for everybody body that is here and things that I want to make it known that Chris has this house up for sale it's listed on Zillow and it's been on sale for like 170 days where is the commitment there thank trying to move into John's building I'm not leaving Treasure Island so either John either going to be neighbors or I'm going to stay exactly where I'm at so I have a a very big Comm to the city thank you this is not the okay I just learning please that I think the personal attacks down I mean all we hear about is being being um respectful to staff and everyone else certainly wasn't wasn't afforded to me when I said that I am a puppet for cvti that that you know unfortunately I guess it only goes one way and and the person personal attacks tonight have just they need to stop I mean it's terrible all right um so uh I'll let you go first I'll let you go first you're the senior oh um I only have um well I I've spoken with two of the two of the four and I didn't know the other two existed quite honestly no offense um but I just got the information very recently so thank you for stepping forward and um I hope um I I am like a newer resident but one of the things that I can see here is like you know there's a lot of history a lot of old and new kind of mix I mean something that I really do want to bring to the table is like they were talking about bringing in more families I think that's kind of what I represent as like a mom and you know new a resident it's like Forward Thinking stuff I do understand like the past problems I mean I have been watching the city of Treasure Island for my whole life that I've been here but I do um I do want to say that it seems like there's a lot of like I think somebody you do need somebody also that is able to like work together and you know with the committee and with the residents and you know have also kind of like a cool temperament because it seems like there's a lot of fiery stuff going around here but thank you thank you you have any comments Steve okay yep great thank you okay okay you got come wasn't planning to say anything and I do know three of the four people and I'm not promoting anybody in particular but Steve is new uh well five or six years he's a neighbor across the street and during the storms he did come back to the island in his boat was looking up and down all the fingers for people and then with another one of our neighbors knocked on every door to see who needed help and what he could do and um I didn't know you were running for commissioner but anyway I just had to say that thank you Barb okay Bob um yeah I'll start off uh again four well-qualified Commissioners uh having been through this drill myself um I empathize sympathize uh probably both of those and um I I made it known at the time that I was not a candidate and I'll reiterate that this evening uh um but for those of you who are going through the process um i' as I said I've spoken with two of you I spoke with Chris I spoke with Diana um this seat um I believe should be um voted on by the residents by the voters of of uh the is of Palms um through disclosure um my wife and I also own property on the is of palm so um we're not a stranger to the area by any means I think that the credentials that Diana has brought forward and the experience that she has um in serving the community speak volumes I would think that in the future that Chris would also Endeavor into those volunteer organizations volunteer for getting more involved in the city's inner workings um if you will and um the fact that all four of you are going to run for a reelection it's a short term it's a short-term appointment um I'm going to be in favor of Diana to to fill that spot you want to go first no go ahead okay uh I also uh when I thought there were only two candidates I asked to meet both of them I I knew of both of them but and uh hadn't hadn't really met either one uh this is probably the most unpleasant thing I think I've had to do as a City Commissioner is to is to make a decision here because I agree with uh with h mayor doctor and and commissioner menning that that we've got some very strong candidates and I wish I would had the opportunity to talk with the other two as well you both sound very interesting and and I encourage you to to pursue that uh uh the running for that and and getting out and meeting some of your neighbors that you maybe have not met yet and have Express have it a have a time to hear what they have to say uh but it was it was very difficult for me to reach a decision and I even tried to make it uh as objective as I could I developed a little Excel spreadsheet with all the different criteria on it and said Diana did better than this category and Chris did better than that category so it was very it wasn't it isn't a simple process and uh I'm getting ready to endorse one of the candidates but it is by by no means uh uh critical of the other because I think both of these people would be excellent City commissioners uh I I am glad that this only for a four-month uh stent and that the uh residents of District 2 can decide on their own and not have to not have to rely on people that don't live in your in your District to uh vote on that but having said that uh I have uh uh been leaning towards Diana as well yeah I um you as I said earlier I've got uh the DNA of District 2 in my blood and uh and it it means a lot to me that um that all of you have come out to support different candidates but overwhelmingly uh the support has been for Chris Clark and um you know I I got my spreadsheet and I even was telling the city clerk how I did this when people would call or they would text or they would uh I would put a I had the uh a couple of different things but one of those was the directory for the aisle of palms and I wanted to make sure that these were real people so I would go in and I'd check it off and check it off and check it off and and uh it was overwhelming uh Chris Clark was the the candidate that the district two people wanted um and that's not to say anything about the others and you know that as we said there a four-month stint that's going to be going on and after that four months you know we'll have another candidate in that seat um and uh and we'll go from there but uh you know my my choice and my vote would be for for Chris Clark so at this point uh a motion you're going to need a motion yes you'll need a motion in a second and just remember this is a a vote for for the to fill the vacancy and so when you fill a vacancy it is the majority vote of the remaining members to fill the vacancy okay so a motion please okay I motion to appoint Diana krael to serve as District 2 commissioner until the March 11th 22 2025 municipal election second okay we have a uh a motion and a second um we've already done all of our public comments so um at this point uh city clerk please call the role vice mayor dicki I commissioner Minny I mayor doctor nay so again as I said when a vacancy occurs on the commission a majority vote of the remaining members of that commission is what appoints we have two to one so there are four remaining members one is not present so that motion would fail it's not the members of and if this wasn't clear I apologize but just so so we are clear when you do an action of the commission except as otherwise provided it is the majority of the Quorum that is present specifically for vacancy it is the majority of the remaining members that choose not the quorum present it's the majority of the remaining members that's what it says in the first line when a vacancy occurs the city commission by a majority vote of the remaining members shall choose within 30 days the successor so normally we have four four here so it would be a vote of three in this instance you have three so it needs to be three to appoint anyone um so well no so the option so the options before you are this is that there can be discussion and there might be a appointment um with regard to this you know issue you may decide um on nominating someone else if at that if you don't want to do that if the commission cannot agree um the mayor gets to appoint alternatively you can postpone it and the or move the item forward and continue it to a um to the other meeting to the next meeting and you'd have to have a special meeting because you've got to be within the 30 days to have all four present that's assuming all four could be present so those are the options before the commission when is the 30 days over the November 28th 28th of November yeah we can meet on November 28th Thanksgiving Day turkey and gravy so um we don't have a meeting schedule before right so we'd have to have a special meeting well have a special meeting can we open no public comments been closed yeah not at this point so our choices again are so your choices are that you can continue just discuss the matter and see if you can get to a consensus you can declare that there has been no consensus and the mayor gets to app point or you can continue this meeting um at until a special meeting when all four are present and you can take this item up those are the options I move to uh reschedule a an additional a special meeting within the 20 within the 30-day guideline to vote on the uh commissioner replacement for district so do can I take an option at at any point uh well right now you have a motion so if there's you need to call for a second you can withdraw your motion or he can withdraw his motion I'm not going to withdraw it I'm going well I second your motion okay so now where do we go you you V you take you take a vote on the motion as to whether or not to hold a special meeting okay so I I guess that uh if if I have the option of appointing do I still have that yes you you've got you've got a motion right now you have a motion in a second so procedur you're supposed only for the meeting correct for the special meeting special meeting and so if we do that MH the 21 still plays into the 21 would be on that motion so that's not as to the vacancy that's just as to the special meeting okay so has my option already gone Wayside there was no need for a motion ilal motion is not illegal St members can uh or I'm sorry Commissioners can make a motion at any time you have a commissioner who has made a motion for a special meeting you have another commissioner who second it you have to vote on whether or not to have a spe special meeting on this item that's what's on the table okay but how how does it play out if if I if if we have a 21 do I still have an option there's no there would be the motion was to have a special meeting on this issue so if there's if there is an affirmative vote to have a mo or to have the special meeting then you would have the special meeting on this issue if at that time there's no majority then you would appoint he just took it out of his hands yeah I I I I you I guess yeah you didn't right but you know I was asking for clarification on what it was and then commissioner dicki called for a a motion yes before you chance cor yes I guess so where are we on it right now you have a motion that's before the board for a special meeting you have a second so you have to you have to vote on that I I mean we're this this is all very very confus I wish I was smart enough to have said that I did that on purpose that I voted uh or that I made that motion I was trying to move this vote meeting forward I I had not uh realized that what I was going to do there so I'm sorry so the can so so the May can what so so so just to be clear I guess we people are suggesting that that the mayor make the sole decision and not the the the board of Commissioners I I I keep with my motion then so in accordance with in accordance with the um Charter it says that the mayor shall make the appointment if the commission cannot agree you have three of the members here you have one of the members that has asked to for a special meeting to deal with this and you have a second member who has I'm sorry a motion to continue this to a special meeting to deal with this issue you have a second on that same issue so now you have to vote on that motion because that's the motion that's on the table well you guys can I mean obviously discuss it amongst yourself but you that that's where we are with it you you all can can this is an administrative item as far as setting a meeting goes and you all can discuss that but there's a vote I mean that that's the next thing you all can talk about it but there then you vote on the motion please no no no yeah he wants it to be dead so I I guess that I asked for clarification and what I got was a motion from one of our board members and like he said he wishes he was that smart that but to know what what he had just done but you know I was asking or and you were answering at the same time you made a motion so I never really had the opportunity to respond to respond I understand I'm let's start over and then you're but you're saying because there is a motion and there is I'm just saying in in accordance with the procedural process when you have a motion and then you have a second that's what's on the table right now and so you have to vote on that motion that's just the procedural process yeah unless we unless we can and you guys can talk you guys can Talk Amongst yourself please here's what I'm going to say about this I I feel very strongly that that we have at least two maybe four very qualified candidates and I would feel very comfortable with Diane krael or Chris Clark so I'm not gonna I I I don't want this to get ugly and I don't want it to be ugly and I never intended it to be now having said that if what may be three of the four Commissioners pick one person then I think that person is the one that's selected according to our our Charter so because of that I I choose not to withdraw my uh motion and you yeah I'm not well the motion's not withdrawn I don't withdraw my second well that's the uh the end of the discussion then so um can't do anything else you you may want to hold on for just a second um com I'm sorry but uh the city manager just leaned forward and told me that um he he just received a text and that commissioner Toth may be on her way so if you want to recess to allow it well I mean Al alternatively and I don't know if that changes anything and and I don't a excuse me excuse me mayor but I don't know for a fact that that is happening oh never mind well I'm sorry I had to get a ride I go back to my original advice to you which is you have a motion and you have a second okay so we so so right now there's a motion on the table to continue this item for a special meeting and there's a second can I withdraw my motion given that the uh fourth commissioner showed up yes and in your second okay I I'll withdraw my second okay so now we're back to discussion and anyone can make a motion about any of it okay can I make one quick statement I do apologize I was in the ER I've had a detached retina and just got out of the hospital please please if you thank you I can't read it okay thank you I have a tally at home too okay but I all right so we're we're back at discussion you're back at discussion okay okay I moved to appoint Diane Crable to serve as District 2 commerci commissioner until the March 11th 2025 municipal election second have a motion and a second any other discussion okay uh say clerk please call Ro vice mayor Dicky I commissioner Toth I commissioner Minnie I mayor doctor nay no it's not wrong Jesus election in March that's right totally out of order withed you guys should not have made a motion until he was finished with his response if you want to do a point but you jumped in and made a motion it's just not fair the motion was remade we've got a workshop oh we do now we do have a workshop yet uh so we'll uh yeah we're going to take a 10minute recess and we'll back together at 10:15 I just really literally got out of the heard that yeah I e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e yeah thanks for sh we can't do it in a workshop so can you ask me is he really oh yeah yes okay it's not sorry man good yeah no I'm just thinking it's not Mo I think the okay all right that's what it'll be okay so it's not me it's the city manager sorry yep um that you're in trouble for everything no okay I called to order this uh Workshop meeting and U City attorney yes um is it okay for us to uh schedule this meeting for the next meeting yeah you if it's the commission's will you can give consensus direction to the city manager with regard to um postponing this item to another meeting given the time it is in the evening okay so we would make a motion that just just consensus yeah it's just consensus there's no motion um and I apologize because I um started to say that earlier um there's no motion because we're in a workshop it's just consensus direction to the city manager asking him to bring this back before the commission at whatever date you want to um hear this because this is a workshop item so you're not going to take any action tonight it's just when do you want to hear the workshop item okay great and mayor and Commissioners if I could I know um director boils does have some vacation time that she's going to be taking so um if I would look to recommend for the meeting in December but if not with the with the possibility of having a res scheduled that um to another date I'll be able to confer with her on what her um go back for the leave I approve for her to take okay so do we have consensus to uh to end the meeting to adjourn or consensus to to um have the city manager put this on a different meeting because of the late hour of the evening is that what everybody wants to do is here at a later time agenda yes okay I'd prefer it to when I could right and I'll coordinate that date with uh with with the commission okay agree okay yep I agree okay I agree everybody's tired huh yeah I can't see I have we had too much fun yeah exactly all right so we will now adjourn thank you doctor