Good evening and welcome to the regular commission meeting for April 7th, 2026. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Now, if we could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. City Clerk, please call roll. Good evening. Commissioner Clark is absent. Vice Mayor Vasquez. Here. Commissioner Sezon. Here. Commissioner Dickey. Here.
Mayor Doctor. Here. Thank you. All right. Is there any approval or approval of the regular and workshop agendas? Are there any changes? Nope. Hearing none, we'll move forward. Proclamations, recognition certificates
of appreciation. We do have that tonight. And I'd like to call up Greg Tong from the Sons of the American Legion. Uh, Gregory Tong, ACL Commander, American Legion. 108,000 Um,
post 158. I noticed since the last time I was here that the mic is not a you know way up here. So I can't fail the idiot test >> [laughter] >> where it said do not touch this just so that I really do appreciate
that. So can you Mr. Mayor? Can you tell me in which order you want me to go through this as it's based on the agenda cuz I do not have a copy of the agenda. Okay.
So you're going to be presenting three checks tonight, correct? That is correct. I'd like to do them one at a time and then at the end as discussed if we can do the other thing after. Okay. All right. So if we can have Chief Barkley to to come up. He'll be the
first. Chief Barrs will be second and Kathy Hayduke will be third and then we can get a picture afterwards. >> Yep. And then I'd when Kathy comes up I'd like her to say a few words cuz she normally has something to say about that.
And then I'll follow Kathy after that if that's all right. All right. So Treasure Island Police Association for for quite a few years we have worked with Treasure Island Police Department and the Treasure Island Police Association
since they brought that in and Treasure Island Police Department have you say a couple things about what the Treasure Island Police Association is but over over the last since the hurricanes to be honest with
you it's been a rough time. It has been a rough time for not only the first responders and the city and all the residents but of course with our organizations. Our organizations come
out and they respect the needs of the community and you know all of our charities whether
it's veterans their families [snorts] the children first responders and just anything that needs to be taken care of. And that is our mission. That has always been our mission.
We are nothing but a gratuitous organization to support everything that's around us. And that's why I'm here tonight is to support
people that actually keep us safe. The people that actually keep our children safe our families safe and that are there in in the most horrible situations. And so Chief Barkley I present
TIPA with a check for $750. >> [applause] >> Just just for a few seconds. We really value our relationship with the American Legion and Sons of the American Legion. We we very much missed having our our neighbors while you guys are doing the rebuild. We're very very happy that you are there
and then we will soon be neighbors directly across the street and we'll keep an eye on you. But TIPA is an organization Treasure Island Police Association that kind of has a small pool of money together that buys equipment for officers that isn't on kind of normal equipment list. Earpieces
each officer gets $100 a year for new pair of boots baseball hats anything like that anything that's kind of out of ordinary for us and just something that the officers going to have. They also paid for our commemorative 70th anniversary badges that the officers wore last year. And so that's just some of the very
small things that that TIPA the Treasure Island Police Association does but we like I said before we really appreciate our relationship with the American Legion and the Sons of the American Legion. Thank you Greg. I appreciate it. Thank you Chief. Chief Barrs.
So I'd like to say while he's coming up here whenever we have >> [snorts] >> and we do have some elderly veterans we do have some elderly veterans over at
the Legion and even PTSD or whatever it may be uh uh they're the first ones on site flat out. They're very professional uh I know I can't do what they do. It it's
just I'll raise money for them. I'll be right there when somebody needs some mental help but to see going through that other kind of grief and Lord knows how many celebrations of life that I've done
takes special people like this. It truly does. You know I'm not going to do what I did over at Rotary >> [laughter] >> and bring up some morbid stuff but it is a great thing. We are a very
apolitical association. Anything that we do from my officers from the from the SAL in the Legion part of it we're a flat out for community. And that
is what we're here for in our veterans even code and children organs plant transplant association what not but I I just wanted to give another check right here Chief Barrs and if you can
say a few words that's $750. >> [applause] >> And thank you Greg for this and thank you for the the Sons of the American Legion and the Legion and the Auxiliary. I had great partnerships with them for many many years. They support our events. TIPA is the Treasure
Island Fire Association that is our nonprofit 501c3 benevolent association. We do similar things to the Police Association. Um the firefighters need something to make the the fire station a little home here mattress covers um
you know a special meal at the holidays. We do our t-shirts that we sell. This is seed money for that. So a lot of different things and then when we do a community event it's it's funded with donations like this. So very good. Thank you for being involved in the community for everything you do for us. And I'm glad you guys are open.
I had fortunate to have lunch there the other day for the first time since you reopened and good job. As long as I'm signed in. Yep. Yep. >> [laughter] >> Thank you. Great. Thank you. Kathy Hayduke. >> [applause] >> And here I'm going to ask that we have
the Vice Mayor make a motion to accept the $1,000 because it's going into the general fund. Quickly before you go on to that I wanted to mention that I just got with Chief Barkley and I believe John you were with me picking up about I don't know if you
counted the bikes or not. 30 maybe Chief Trip. Chief Trip. All right. Chiefs can have access to this this supply [laughter] and the Legion's going to use just a
little bit of them and then also Kathy if she needs some for some of these campers but I believe it's it was around 30 bikes. Is that is that right? We'll use them for our bike rodeo and we'll make sure they go to [clears throat] good homes.
It's great. So and they're very nice bikes and that was granted to us by a partner that we have in Madeira Beach. But at this time Kathy Hayduke please. Do you want me to talk first? Yeah. I'm going to let you talk first. We're going to have motion read.
I move to accept the generous donation from the Sons of the American Legion Squadron 158 John G. Duran Moral Memorial Post 158 for the Parks and Recs Department Everyone's Play Everyone
Plays Fund in the amount of $1,000. Okay. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion and a second. Kathy please. >> So about 20 plus years ago the city partnered with the Gulf Beaches Rotary Club to begin a scholarship fund for
children whose parents may not be able to afford summer camp due to a hardship. Well from that then spun Everyone Plays that the American Legion Greg Tong actually started and that is
to assist with the cost of some of our field trips for parents who do struggle with their children to attend camp. So this fund will go into the Everyone Plays Fund which is money is that provide children to attend the field
trips. Okay. Do you have any idea how how many I got to let her know. No. But I can tell you that we we put so much money on everybody's account each week and then it's just deducted. They can pick their own trips from whatever
money we assign per week. And I could run you a report but not off my top of my head. All right. [snorts] Okay. So we're we're going to do this through a motion. We have a motion and a second. Do we have any anyone that would like to
have public comment? Seeing none we'll close the public comment. I do have one more thing to mention, this same thing I do [snorts] every time. If that's all right, Mayor? Sure. So, when I was in
uh elementary, we didn't I was raised in a very poor family at the time. And just didn't have the money for me to go over to places. And And the one place I actually got to go to was uh Circus
World, where I got lost. And I ended up being stuck there for the whole day with security until they figured out that I was gone. But the other times I was stuck in the lunch room all by myself. Maybe two or three other kids. And it's
because we didn't have the money or support from other groups like the SCL does or the city does uh to make sure that everybody plays. So, we don't want any of the kids going
without a meal and feeling, you know, the old Eddie Murphy thing, you know, I got ice cream and you don't. Uh we're We want everybody to feel part of the experience, period. And uh feel comfortable.
And go on all these trips. The only reason why you're not going to be able to go on these trips, since we're funding money, is because your parents didn't fill out the darn form. >> [laughter] >> So, uh uh that time uh this time, Cathy. Thank
you, Greg. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. >> [applause] >> All right. So, we have a motion and a second. Uh Can we do a voice? >> Sure. Vice Mayor Vasquez?
I. Commissioner Seazon? I. Commissioner Dickey? >> I. >> Mayor Doctor? >> I. Thank you. All right. And what we'd like to do is get a picture with all of you. >> [clears throat] >> All right. We are now at uh public comments.
And I have a few here. Uh Mary Ellen Hewer? Mary Ellen. Mary Ellen. Oh, I'm sorry. >> [laughter] >> Close. A first name like Mary Ellen with a small b, and a last name like Hewer,
that's really choir. I answer to anything. >> [laughter] >> It might sound kind of like that. I wanted to make a shout-out to Gary. I had problems at our condominium, as well as the condominium where Arthur's mom lives. We didn't get our trash
picked up, and we didn't get our recycle picked up. And it wasn't the first time. And I came over here, and I'm upset because, you know, when Treasure Island was doing that service, we never had a problem. And then all of a sudden, this
is like the third time that hadn't happened. And you got it done, and I appreciate it so much because it does make a big difference. It uh it really does. And then there's another thing I wanted to talk about very briefly. Um
I look out our back to our across the street from the Arbor. So, I live on the water. I look at the back door, and Fusion is right over there to the right-hand side of where I look out. And there are boats there that are there all the time. When
they first were building Fusion, those boats were supposed to be just for people who had a room in the hotel, if I'm not mistaken. And then it changed. But now there are boats there all the
time, and they don't go anywhere. And I don't see anyone going over and scraping the boats or anything like that. What's on the bottom of those boats? And I can't think that that's the only place where that's happening because we have a lot of houses and things like that have boats in the water.
And nobody's attending to them. And it concerns me because is everything okay with that water? Is everything going the way it should be? And my husband is retired, but he was
the deputy executive director for the Southwest Florida Water Management District, which is a big job. And we care about water. We care about clean water, and we care about fresh water. We just want to make sure something's that's being attended to because I think
it's a real problem sometimes. And it's not to pick on Fusion themselves, but all over the place we do have boats that are in the water, and no one's attending to them. What's on the bottom of there? What What happens when they've been in the water for a year year or three uh a
year and a quarter, and they haven't been attended to? Thank you. Thank you, Mary Ellen. City Manager, do you have a note on that? I just took one. Okay, great. Thank you. John Peterson.
I uh My name is John Peterson. I'm a 40-year resident of the Isle of Capri. I'm also the vice president of the Isle of Capri Civic Association. I'd like to speak about the playground shade in Roselli Park. Commissioners Clark,
Seazon, and Dickey, who have repeatedly refused to fund shade for Roselli Park, want to give our kids a head start on melanoma. Now, what causes skin cancer? UV rays are the most common cause of skin cancer. UV rays can damage skin cells
and increase the risk of cancer. Most of exposure to UV rays comes from the sun. Damaged skin may not lead to skin cancer for many years. That's why it is important to start protecting our children, teens, and young adults from damage at a very early age.
People who whose skin get damaged when they're young might not get skin cancer until they are much older. Uh children Children tend to spend more time outdoors than adults, and they also get sunburned more easily. Research shows there's a link between childhood sunburn and the risk of skin
cancer later in life. Protecting your child's skin from the sun can lower their skin cancer risk when they're older. Uh now, the first rule of sun protection, play in the shade. And I think it should be noted that all
three of the district commissioners have playgrounds in their district, and all of them are fully shaded. And I find it interesting that Commissioners Clark and Dickey, when they were first sworn into office last month, their first their first official act was try to get rid get rid of a
woman in power. Hypocrisy, misogyny. I think we can do better. Thank you, John. Sarah Pennington. Hello, Sarah Pennington. I live Palms District 2. Um before I start my
comments, I just want to say I wish I was up here sharing really positive comments with you guys. I don't want to come here and sound like a complainer as I know some of you consider me. Um that's actually not my goal. I I want our city to be better, and that's what I wanted to talk about
tonight is uh doing what's in best interest of our city. Um even though the commission is not a high-paying job, it is the job of the commission to listen to the residents and do what's best for the city. Uh the reality is the residents are making their feelings
known on topics, but it appears the commission is letting personal preferences or personal grievances uh really guide their decision-making. Some examples that I've noticed, uh one would be removing things from the agenda just because you don't like the person
who put it on the agenda. Uh giving low scores to master plan firms, which was clearly based on a few commissioners' personal bias. And the last meeting's vote for Vice Mayor was a very prime example. I did see the FOIA's of the emails for Vice
Mayor. I think it was around 40 in support for Commissioner Arden Dickey, and maybe three or so in support for Commissioner Jamie Vasquez. A disturbing part about this um is ignoring the emails from residents because maybe you felt like they were
encouraged to send an email. And um I I don't know if people were encouraged or not, but they did take the time to share their opinion, which should not be invalidated. Um a democratic republic is based on encouraging people to make their voices
heard. For example, last year I went door-to-door campaigning for Mayor Doctor. Does that invalidate those votes that he received and make them less meaningful because maybe someone was influenced by me going door-to-door?
It shouldn't be. Um the people who wanted Commissioner Vasquez to be Vice Mayor, they had every right to bolster support for her as well. I personally didn't email my thoughts on the Vice Mayor appointment, and instead I wanted to speak on the topic at the last meeting, and I had a card submitted
for that, but public comment was not allowed on the vice vice mayor appointment at the last meeting, which lends further credence to the residents' concern that their voices don't matter. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Sarah.
Do we have any others? Seeing none, we will close the public comment section and we will move on now to approval of the minutes. I move to approve the minutes as presented. Second. We have a motion and
a second. Any discussion? Corrections? Hearing none, let's tell you take the roll call vote, please. Vice Mayor Vasquez? Aye. Commissioner Seazon? Aye. Commissioner Dickey? Aye. Mayor Doctor? Aye. Thank you. Moving on to consent agenda. Hurricane
loss mitigation program grant letter of commitment. I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second. Do we have Do we have anybody that's going to speak
on this tonight? Any staff? If not, um let's let's take a uh a roll call vote. Vice Mayor Vasquez? Aye. Commissioner Seazon? Aye. Commissioner
Dickey? Aye. Mayor Doctor? Aye. Thank you. Items of business H1, second and final reading, uh public hearing on ordinance 20 26-07. An ordinance of the city of Treasure Island, Florida, amending the fiscal
year 2026 general fund budget to recognize additional expenses of $536,000 for the expense of causeway mechanical repairs, providing for severability, conflict, and an effective date.
I move to approve and adopt ordinance number 2026-07 at the second and final public hearing. Second. We have a motion and a second. I see no public comment. Um any comments up here?
>> I have some comments I'd like to make and some questions, please. Uh so I'll direct my questions to Charles. Uh Charles, at the last meeting you indicated that you were uh exploring options related to the bridge, including potentially shifting responsibility to
the state or identifying alternatives, so it is not a uh does not remain a burden on our millage. Can you provide a clear update on what actions you've taken since that discussion, who you've engaged with, and
specific options you're currently being pursued? I don't have a particular report for you. We have opened discussions with Florida Department of Transportation to see if it would be um
even a possibility for them to take that over and or um could we toll a stretch of the causeway to include the bridge? Um I don't have any uh any firm belief that either will happen,
um but we haven't shut off communications either. Um that that is something that's always top of mind with me here. Is I I don't know how we got the bridge exactly. There's a lot of stories and we've pulled a lot of data,
um but I would like to not be one of the very few cities that owns a bridge. I think there's two of us in Florida. Um so that that's all I have for you. We've owned it since 1955. Um also, what is the expected timeline
for being bringing a defined recommendation back to the commission? I don't have one at this time. I I have nothing firm, just my desire, your desire to not own a bridge. Thank you. All right. Any other discussion?
All right. Uh I see no public comment, so we'll close that. Would we Please, let's take a roll call vote. Vice Mayor Vasquez? Aye. Commissioner Dickey? Aye. Commissioner Seazon? Aye. Mayor Doctor? Aye. Thank you.
H2, second reading public hearing of ordinance 20 26-09. An ordinance of the city of Treasure Island, Florida, Mike. I'm sorry, but my microphone was not on. An ordinance of the city of Treasure Island, Florida, amending the fiscal
year 2026 general fund budget to recognize additional expenses of $4 million for expense of construction of a public safety building, providing for severability, conflict, and an effective date.
I move to adopt ordinance number 2026-09 at this second and final public hearing. Second. We have a motion and a second. Let's now Do we have any discussion at this point? I have something to discuss. Okay. Thank you. I'm going to direct my
comments to uh Charles again. Charles, uh I'm concerned that we're not locking in uh a contract at or below at $8 million mark. So I'm uh any clarity on two points. Uh first, how do you anticipate we will spend uh over the
next 3 months related to this project? What you approved, I believe in the last meeting, was $250,000 for the design of the program. If we had a con- contractor applicant that would guarantee a maximum price of
any price, $8 million or any price, without seeing a set of construction documents, that would concern me greatly. So those documents that you've approved a quarter million dollars as a commission um to be drawn must be drawn before we engage
in um a guaranteed max price. And And so the the timeline on that is 3 to 4 months for the contractor to have in hand what they would need to give a guaranteed max price. Thank you. Secondly, based on the current information, how would you charac-
characterize the likelihood of this project ultimately coming at $8 million or less? Would you say it's unlikely, very unlikely, somewhat likely, likely, or very likely? You know, I didn't come prepared to take an SAT question test tonight.
>> Multiple choice. And I I spent a little time in the school of architecture 35, 40 years ago. Wasn't my best suit, so I will uh not give you a yes on something that I'm not uh prepared to guess on. So thank you for the opportunity, though.
Thank you for your response. From a fiscal standpoint, delaying certainly certainty reduces risk. I want uh that risk clearly defined in the future, please. Thank you. All right. Any other?
We do have one public comment on it. Uh Scott McKinney. Thank you. Scott McKinney, Isle of Capri. Um it's been 18 months, almost well, give or take, since our hurricane disaster. Uh you guys have been struggling through
some very difficult times. Uh construction budgets have been unplanned and and and you've had to respond to emergency situations. There's overages, there's there's extra money you've had to source, there's there's recovery funds from the state,
national, FEMA. Um unfortunately, all of our public safety stuff got wrecked. So we're building something nice and something new, but uh Commissioner Seazon just kind of put it on the head. Can you stick to the budget? Can you stay there? We don't
want to have $8 million and, you know, 18 months from now it's it's 15. Let's please stay where we got to We we got to be. Um the other thing is I just want to say that that you look around the island and you can see where there was damage, you
now have new pickleball courts, you now have playgrounds that are back in service, you now have some tennis courts that are going again or they're almost going over there. They're nice new fences. Um the the golf course, good progress. I noticed today when I came over the
bridge, there was um some white structures out there now. It's coming along. Places is doing good. Different playgrounds down on Sunset Beach are back in. People are back on the beach. Everything's been going great. Um you guys have managed through a really, really tough time. I just want to say
thank you. You guys, it's You got people coming at you all the time just with accusations and this. It's always negative. Positive, thank you for doing what you're doing. You're doing a great job. Continue to be vigilant. Our taxpayers have to fund these new
facilities. The police department, fire department are critical. The works department are critical. Parks and rec. Those staff, they need places to be, but let's not make these marble palaces. Please make them a reasonable facility. Just
be be very very very common sense. And thank you for doing a great job. Thank you, Scott. All right. Uh we'll now close public comment. Any additional discussion up here? No. Hearing none, roll call, please. Vice Mayor Vasquez. I. Commissioner
Dickey. I. Commissioner Zezulin. I. Mayor Doctor. I. Moving on, H3, authorize the award of the RFQ 26 W 009 contract to Raftelis Financial Consultants.
Do we have uh Motion? anything on that? Um I didn't know You want me to just recap what we've done? I think so. Yeah. So, um you as the commission served as the
evaluation committee and selected Raftelis um as your master planner. You directed me to go back and negotiate uh with them, which I did. Um they came back with a very detailed
timeline, which is in your backup. You, the public, everybody's had a chance to review it. Um to conduct their work as they presented in nine uh phases. And um for a total price of 197,000 and
something. So, a little under $200,000. Um And so, they've agreed to do everything that we put in the RFQ that they agreed to do for that price. So, that we bring you that back tonight as our uh uh
first and hopefully final stab at the negotiations. If you're uh comfortable with that price, I would suggest you uh pass the uh item. Okay. Do we have a motion? I move to award RFQ 26-009
contract to Raftelis Financial Consultants for the Treasure Island Commercial Redevelopment Master Plan project for an amount not to exceed $197,504. I second. >> We have a motion and a second.
Do we have any uh public comment? Hearing none, we'll close public comment. Any discussion up here? I actually would like to um make a couple comments. Um when when we discussed this back on the um when we were talking about moving it
forward to contract, I had mentioned about a possibility of adding the public city-owned properties to this. I know it wasn't in the original RFQ. Um and I wasn't in that meeting when that passed. So, that was the one meeting
I've missed. And I just want to know uh I don't I guess no is not the right word, but I just want to make sure that it's known that this does not include that. Um I know we all know that, but I just want
to make sure because I do have people ask me um especially with Treasure Bay. Um I do have people ask me um is that included in the master plan? And as I spoke in the last meeting, you know, I really if if we're going to
do this, and I'm not saying, you know, this is to me this is like half done because it's not a true master plan in my opinion unless it includes the whole area. Um tr- And by that, I mean at the very
minimum, 108 two acres that's going to be available, Treasure Bay, um and the city hall park area to possibly include a parking garage, etc., etc. Um so, I basically just want to make sure that the public understands um that
this does not include any of the city-owned properties. This is strictly for um you know, Gulf Boulevard on the Gulf side, um the Greenleaf property, otherwise known as the Gators property,
um the downtown corridor, and the Club at Treasure Island. So, all private-owned properties. Um so, I just want to make that clear because I get that question a lot. >> [laughter] >> So, um I'd wish this had this on there. I wish the original RFQ would have had
that on there. Um I don't know if there's an ability to at some point negotiate renego- wouldn't be a renegotiation if this passes tonight, but I really feel passionate that that needs to be included. Um I
brought the statistics the last time um that most master plans work best if the city kicks it off because then they see the initiative investment um from the city, and it encourages the
private property owners to negotiate with the city to follow the master plan cuz as we all know, they don't have to because they're private property owners. Um so, that's why I feel so that it's so important that we should have added them, and I will leave that at that.
All right. >> Any other thoughts? >> No, go ahead. Yes, thank you. Uh once again, I'll direct my questions to Charles as he negotiated contract. Uh so, this master plan is exclusively focused on private property as Vice
Mayor Vasquez mentioned, and it's uh not owned by the city uh those parcels. Uh during the RFQ process, every consultant indicated that they do not typically perform city planning for private property. So, being looking at the uh 9-month
timeline ending December 2026, I propose uh that proposed timeline with clear milestone dates must be included if this uh item is passed uh as a part of uh future agenda items so the commission
contract uh track progress. What is approximately $200,000? Um at each milestone uh time period comes up, uh I'd like to include it as a specific agenda item on the earliest possible meeting
uh for a full completion of the target date. Uh excuse me. My understanding is that the city is uh likely to be reimbursed for the cost of this master plan exercise. Uh so, Charles, uh what is your assessment of the likelihood of us being
reimbursed for this work, and when and how would uh would that likely to occur? I mean, I don't have the data for the grants right in front of me. I might be able to pull it up. Um
I actually just earlier today reviewed um what we have in terms of uh grants. Um basically, as as you know, we submitted
for five resiliency grants. Four of them were rated tier one. Um the county received either 22 or 24 million in their overall
um resilient the HDGMP. Mayor, do you remember I I I had that that paper I provided earlier today. Um anyway, it's unknown when we would get it, and
at last check a couple weeks ago, the county uh assistant county administrator or assistant county manager, Mr. David Spor, um communicated with me to let me know they have not written the grant
requirements for receiving the master for receiving the planning money for each municipality, but they did put money uh for each municipality to within the county to plan, and I'm sure some of that will go to the county. Um
A master plan as we've decide defined it, um we even went as far as to send the mar- RFQ and scope of work for the master plan that you're is before you tonight. But until they tell us what the test questions are, we
can't answer the questions. And so, just just like with any other grant and FEMA, um there's constant questions. These are all great great questions, but we're not far along enough in that process
to have the answers. So, I I don't have any firm answers. I believe the meeting that's going on literally right now on the fifth floor is to try to get the last bit of uh residential uh application fish through, and they
even increased the uh the dollar amount or the av- average to slightly above av- average um income level to be able to apply for that, but until they get as much of that money applied to residents to get back in their homes, they're not they're not
focusing on master planning or raising uh the causeway and the other things that that we put in for that are all resiliency grants. So, m- more to follow on that, but I I
I can't tell you when the county's going to act exactly. Thank you for your professional opinion. Without a clear path to reimbursement, this raises obvious and serious concerns about whether this is an appropriate use of public funds planning for private property. So, just
to be clear, as we sit today, there's no defined mechanism guaranteeing reimbursement. I mean, would you characterize reimbursement as likely or unlikely? I wouldn't choose to characterize it. Excellent. >> But, that's why this big dollar
commission comes to you as for our finance policy. Yeah, I think that since the the county has set aside money for it, that that it is going to materialize. Now, when we will get it, I I that's the bigger issue because
they've not even set the application in front of us yet. Uh but, they have a set aside, clearly a set set aside that's going to be for master planning. >> Right. They They [clears throat] set aside $24 million for the 24 municipalities. Uh
Uh for for this type of planning. So, it Again, as you had said and and the mayor had said there's not been a clear uh path uh expressed to us right now how to go how to apply for that money and I think they are working they're focusing their efforts on this uh the individual, you know, the
resident uh grants first before they move on to that. Uh regarding the hazard mitigation grants, those are uh separate from this as well. That 24 million was set specifically for helping uh Pinellas County municipalities rebuild. So, even though
uh you you didn't want to go out on a limb by saying uh how strongly you felt that we were going to be reimbursed for this, everything I can everything I've seen that that this should be covered under that $24 million set aside by the county.
Again, there's no guarantees, but Uh I hope you're confident >> commissioner. I have no reason to doubt that, but I just can't commit to something that's not my decision to make. I'd also like to talk a little bit about about the public property versus private
property uh issue. Uh the whole scope of work was designed specifically to focus on the areas of where we felt had the most potential for development uh that perhaps would would being held back because of our our building codes. So, we were hoping that
master planner can come in here and tell us, "Hey, your codes either work or they don't work and why they if they don't work, what they might recommend." And that was specifically for uh those five areas, which are the most underdeveloped and the most and have the highest potential. Regarding the public
property, there is nothing at all by proving this that would prevent us from from moving forward with starting to plan about what we're going to do with Treasure Bay and what we're going to do with 108th Avenue. When I say 108th Avenue, I don't mean the the public works
uh and the master pump station and the public safety facility. I'm talking about the two roughly two acres that's going to be left over. Uh there's nothing to prevent us we don't have to wait till this plan is finished before we start planning or to start
discussions about what we might do with some of those other areas. Would the rest of the commission be opposed to uh adding uh the timeline to a future agenda meeting so we're on time so it doesn't exceed 9 months or cost more?
Are you asking uh something that's separate but has the steps and the timeline? >> Like after all the steps are done that we have agenda meetings after uh the steps are completed before we move on to the next step or while they move on to the next step so we could figure out the
progress. So, later on there won't be any increases where they ask for more money. They They They have provided a timeline and and throughout that timeline are uh project updates uh where they'll be giving us updates on how they're uh uh
how they're moving along. I cannot imagine that there there'd be a uh uh expenses that we haven't uh expected at this point in time unless we increase the scope of the work. If we increase the scope of the work, we meaning this
commission, we won't be uh I don't think we need to be concerned about them going over budget because they have given us an amount and I think the way that's uh that the that we word worded here is for an amount not to exceed that amount that's in the motion. So, would they
bring uh the project updates to the commission? Yes. Like just agenda items so we're on top of things. >> Sure. Okay. All right. Uh we have a motion and a second. Uh roll call, please.
Vice Mayor Vazquez? I. Commissioner Dickey? I. Commissioner Seelam? No. Mayor Doctor? I. Thank you. All right, moving on. H4, taxes in comparison to other coastal cities. We are the highest uh as it states here.
Um Commissioner Seelam, I I would like to correct you that uh we do have one uh city that that is higher than us. Um they are in the big city, so there they are in the coastal properties and that is Clearwater. Clearwater Beach or
Clearwater? Clearwater. Clearwater Beach is owned by Clear water. It's one city. It's not a separate city. Oh, well. Thank you. Thanks for correcting me on that. However, speaking of that correction, um I'm going to direct again my questions to Charles. Um on March 28th, I
requested a comparative tax data showing how our rates compare to other coastal cities. Uh that information has not been provided. Uh to be clear, I routed this request uh through uh Charles as directed by him rather than going directly to staff and I still do not
have a response or supporting data for this agenda item uh along with many others. I've uh since compiled my own research, which is on display now. Um I I need a direct answer from Charles. Is there any reason this data was not provided to me for backup
information for the rest of the commission to review? So, yes. You as an individual commissioner don't direct my time or staff's time. You don't prioritize our time. The commission as a whole in a publicly
advertised meeting like we're sitting in tonight can direct me to take the finance department off their current workload and put them on something like this that would take exhaustive research. There's items in each of these cities that are not like
uh Treasure Island. It is not a simple apples-to-apples comparison. Um In fact, we even brought you a draft from the VOS company to get agenda items approved at one meeting so 2 weeks later they could be executed. And I would be
fine with any variety of that, but right now we're preparing for an audit. I think this whole discussion takes best best takes place in the late summer as we're getting ready to approve budgets in September. The uh
the rates have already been set for this year. The budgets have already been set for this year. And I have got work piled very high for me and everybody that works in this building and the those that work outside this building that the whole commission has already agreed on
by majority and given me to do. So, I've said it to you um privately. I've sent it to you in email. When you ask for something that exceeds the city charter and the scope of an individual commissioner,
that that gets kind of down on my priority list. If there's something that is easy to do, if it's information we already have, I provide it. But, I'm I'm I'm operating under the city charter. My scope of work is dictated in my contract.
So, you just ignore the email altogether? I don't have any further thing to say about this. Excellent. I do agree with you. Every city has unique circumstances that other cities are paying for that we're not, for sure. Um
So, based on information available, our understanding is that we're the highest millage compared to other coastal communities. So, the question becomes how are we going to bring that rate down? I Uh Mayor, if I could Sure. I I I have done
a little bit of work on this. If I could present it now or do you want to I got I I got more questions and but go ahead. Okay. I I did uh some work. This is the kind of stuff that I enjoy doing. So, part of the, you know, when we talk about Let me see. How I can I enlarge that
here? When I saw this, it How do I get into this display mode? Uh right there. Want me to do it for you? There we go. Uh as I as I saw this on the agenda, I I wanted to do cuz I I I really enjoy looking at this stuff and and and it's a good question. The this uh
relatively new uh uh Facebook page uh sponsored, I think, mostly by by developers. Uh but, they put this uh back on February 14th. They posted this and I you know, it's a legitimate question. Why are our millage rates so much higher
than than many of the other coastal communities. So, I think that's a legitimate question and it deserves it deserves an answer. So, I tried to do some work on that and and I didn't go out here to just disprove any any theory one way or the other. I tried to go out
and do my research and say, "How are the What are these cities doing that we're not doing or should be doing that could help with this millage rate differential?" Uh I am going to comment about this other other comment down here. It says, "Don't believe the bridge excuse because uh you're going to hear a
little bit more about that here in a second. Uh this data from this column right here over to this column is provided by the Pinellas County Property Appraiser's uh website. You can go Anybody can go on to that and and get this information. So,
this is the comparable data I think Commissioner Sezon that you were hoping to get. Uh the the the figures that you showed focused on this particular column right here, which is the city municipal uh uh uh millage rates. And there's our 3.8129.
And by the way, these are sorted highest to lowest, but not necessarily based on this column. It's based on this column over here, which I'll tell you why in just a minute. But anyway, so so the figures that you just saw from Commissioner Sezon that had us at the top was right there. You can see of the
24 municipalities in Pinellas County, uh we're kind of you know, we're not in the middle, but we're close to the middle there. Uh with at 3.8129. But uh I'm going to make an argument that we can't just use this column cuz that's only for the city. Some of the
other cities do business differently than we do and therefore their millage rate is calculated a bit differently. For example, some of the cities on Commissioner Sezon's list uh including Indian Shores, uh Indian Rocks, uh Belleair Beach,
uh and the Belleair Shores all outsource their not outsource, they they contract out for their fire department services. So, where whereas that's built into our city rate right here, it's not built into this uh their rates. So, you need
to include that. These other columns like countywide, schools, uh emergency management services, those are those are the Every municipality, every resident pays the same for those. But there there's a there's some other areas like this particular one that only
a handful of cities don't provide the service themselves that have incorporated that in there. So, that's why you need to use this total property tax total real estate column to get a true apples-to-apples comparison. Furthermore, there's about a half a
dozen uh uh cities that don't use don't participate in the in the county's uh transit district uh uh services. So, consequently, Treasure Island, St. Pete Beach, and some of
these other communities do not have this 0.73 mil added on to ours. So, we we've got a zero here. So, when you come out here, this is again this is the column. So, this is the proper column to really look at in terms of millage rates. This
is what residents and and businesses will truly be paying. So, our total millage rate is 16.5501. Uh and uh so again, all that information is right out of Pinellas County uh Property Appraiser's website. Uh so,
what I did was I took this a step further here and I said using Treasure Island as a as the as the standard here as the index, uh uh Madeira Beach, theirs is what 98%. There's their their millage rate is 2%
lower than ours. Uh Indian Shores is a 1.3 or 2.3% lower. And you can see some of these others. But what you see in this column, this is how much an average Treasure Island uh residential not residential, yeah, residential uh home pays. The the
average and I'm going to show you where I got this information from, the average taxable value of homes in Treasure Island is 465,300. Got that right last week from the uh Pinellas County Property Appraiser's website. So, that means at that at this
uh uh millage rate, this is how much total taxes that the a resident would be paying uh in in uh Treasure Island uh for total property taxes. That compares to uh these other amounts in these other cities. So, you can see in here and I'm
going to have to I'm going to have to get my glasses on to read some of this here, but but uh in Madeira Beach is uh uh if we had Madeira Beach's same millage rate, our residents would be paying $155 a year less
uh than uh than they do currently. So, you know, these aren't huge amounts. 155, 252. Now, when you get down here, that's a different story and I'm going to come and comment about that in just a second. Regarding [snorts] that bridge excuse, like it or not, we're stuck with this
bridge. Be wonderful if we can figure out how to get rid of it, but we're stuck with it. So, you can't ignore it. You can't pretend it doesn't exist. It does exist and it amounts to half mil. So, if we for these last two columns, I've adjusted I've adjusted for that half
mil. You know, granted that's a somebody, you know, negotiated a bad deal years ago that we're still living with. But if you would adjust for that half mil, this is really the difference. Suddenly, Madeira Beach uh pays more than we do. They pay $78 a year more. Again, these are very small amounts.
Indian Shores pays $20 less. Even uh St. Pete Beach, which is the closest, they're down to what uh this number is right here. What is a $103 difference between us and St. Pete Beach. So, look at how close those are. I mean, those are incredibly co- close.
So, it's a little bit misleading when we say, "Hey, we've got the highest millage rate." It sounds like there's a lot of waste. Sounds like there's a lot of inefficiency. Uh and I'm not saying we don't have waste and I'm not saying we don't have inefficiency. What I'm saying is where relative to the rest of the cities, we
we you know, we're we're we're kind of situated where we should be here. Uh look at the the single biggest determinant uh >> [clears throat] >> determining factor that I could find that controlled uh not controlled, but that uh lined up with millage rates is
is population. The five most populated cities in in uh Pinellas County, you see right here. The five cities with the highest millage rate, there's St. Petersburg, [snorts] second highest uh millage rate, Clearwater, third
highest millage rate, Largo, fifth highest, Pinellas Park, fourth. So, there's a there's a strong uh uh correlation between the population in the city and the size of their millage rate. Belleair has got an issue of their own, which I don't know. I'd
love to No, I I wouldn't want to be up there trying to explain their millage rate, but that's a that's a different story. Treasure Island, bottom line is we're 12th we're the 12th most populated municipality in Pinellas County and we have the 14th highest
uh millage rate in Pinellas County. Conversely, same thing here, the smaller cities. These are the five least populated cities. So, you can see and some of these are on that original uh that uh graphic that I pulled off of the
Facebook page that I showed you the my very first slide. Uh Belleair Shores has a population of around 95. They have 47 households in Belleair Shores. Every one of them is on Gulf Boulevard and every one of them is on the west side of Gulf
Boulevard. The average taxable value for the homes in Belleair Shore is $5 million. So, don't Please don't compare us to Belleair Shore. That's a bad comparison. No, I'm not. I'm just I'm Okay, so anyway, but but like I said, I rushed I
got I rushed through here, but I don't want to uh uh wear out my welcome up here. But anyway, Yeah, you can see [laughter] that there is a Well, I I would I got the data here. So, anyway, you can see that there's a the smaller cities have just the opposite effect. Belleair Shore has
the lowest population. It has the lowest uh millage rate. Indian uh Redington Beach, you can see there. North Redington, again, there's a close correlation between population and the and the uh uh size.
Now, here's some of the information I pulled out last week from the Pinellas County Property Appraiser's website. And I'm just going to show you this because these are the number of households that's my cup next couple of slides are going to be using. And these are the millage rates. Now, the Madeira Beach,
they have a 2.75 millage rate, but it that doesn't include that 0.73 for the transit district, so I've added that on there. So, you can see that real closely there. Here. This is where it starts to get interesting. This is residential values uh without timeshares for each of the three
cities. So, I'm and I've kind of narrowed my comparison. I'm not going to compare us to Clearwater and and and and and even Largo or any of these other towns. I'm not going to compare us to Belleair Shore or any of those others. So, I'm kind of narrowed it down to these are the really the three cities that come the closest. Not only are we
adjacent physically adjacent to each other, but we're kind of and we're not close in population size, but closer than others. But you can see what the This is uh This is the total taxable value of of all the property in Treasure Island, all
the residential property. $2 billion a little over $2 billion. For St. Pete Beach, it's $3.5 billion. Uh in Madeira Beach, that. But this is the total the average taxable value for each of the these municipalities. So, if you take that times their millage rates, the
average resident in Treasure Island pays 1774. The average resident in Madeira Beach pays 1795. So, they pay about $22. Again, we're real close. St. Pete's does show that we're they're paying $110 difference, but I when I
pulled this information out of Pinellas County website, I found something interesting. This is a screenshot from Pinellas County from St. Pete Beach. And you can see I found this but column that I've highlighted in yellow. And it shows they've got a special assessment that
they give all of their house. So, even though they're paying less taxes, this special assessment isn't reflected in their millage rate. So, if you go back to the previous slide, they they were paying $110 less, but they're look at they're getting hit
with this $184 for these single-family homes. They're getting hit with that. So, they're actually paying more, but again, it's all close. It's within we're talking about within $100 on an annual basis of every household. So, it's all close. It's not that far off. I've got a
couple more slides I'm going to rush through here. Another issue that keeps coming up is about residential property values versus commercial and what percent of our residents will pay, you know, what what percent are of the burden of
our property taxes is carried by our residents versus business? And in St. Pete Beach, I was expecting when I did this to see St. Pete Beach residents paying a much lower percentage than than the commercial properties, but in fact, that that is not true.
The and and St. Pete Beach, the residents pay 79% of the total property taxes. Commercial businesses pay 21% even though they've got This is the total value $941 million of
of taxable value for property for commercial property in St. Pete Beach compared to our 533. So, even though there's a higher much, you know, more not much more revenue $878,000. Even though there's more there, you can see the burden is
very very similar between the two. The commercial properties between these two cities pay about 21% and the residents pay almost 80%. Okay? How much if we in our best of all worlds, if we could ever match St. Pete
Beach and if we increased our taxable value commercial property by 408 million, how much more how how how how could we roll back? Again, I'm looking for how we're going to make our our tax rate. If we somehow magically got
an extra 408 million in commercial taxable value, we could reduce our our which is what St. Pete did. That's the difference between us and St. Pete. St. Pete Beach. St. Pete Beach, thank you. We could reduce our millage rate by .5267,
which would bring us down to 3.28, which would give us the same amount of revenue that we currently have right now. So, even if we somehow magically got 408 million more in commercial property tax not revenue, but but that that we could
tax the the the value, it's it's it's an insignificant amount. Two more slides, I'll go through these quickly. I I did look to try to figure out what are again, what are they doing that we're not doing? Well, the biggest thing I could find was parking revenue. St. Pete Beach gets 5.7 million, we get
1.8 million. These are all numbers are audited. So, they get 67% almost $4 million more than we get in revenue from parking and it's not because we charge lower rate than they. Matter of fact, this is 2024, we're
charging a higher rate than they are. They just have more spots. More more more spots to park. Plus, I don't think I don't know how big uh uh what's the name of that Florida parking? I don't know how big they are down there. Uh but but clearly that some of the
differences is being picked up by Florida parking. Uh but anyway, so so there's a big gap. They they got a $4 million. But in spite of that, our total tax our total average taxes are within within, you know, $100 on any annual In
spite of this benefit. Uh long-term debt. Now, this is interesting, too. This is debt for bonds and notes payable. The other municipalities are much more aggressive about borrowing money. Uh uh St. Pete Beach has borrowed almost four
times what what Treasure Island has. We have 8.3 million in loans. Long-term debt, they have 31 million, but Indian Beach has 19 million. So, even on a per capita based on population, we're substantially lower. So, we we Looks like these municipalities are
relying on future generations to use your uh analogy, would you future generations to pay for some of their work. We're we're paying more kind of as we go along here. Anyway, that's that's what I wanted to say is our millage rate comparisons, I think with other cities
show that, you know, are very comparable. You can't use the smaller beach communities. They just especially the ones with 1,600 or less population, you just can't do that. All of Treasure Island, St. Pete Beach, but they were all within a few dollars on an annual basis. It's not, you know, again,
this myth that we have this horribly high millage rate compared to everybody else. It's all kind of it it when you when you do the additions and the subtractions and you look for the things that have been like it's all basically the same. Thank you for those numbers. >> How long did it take you to put these together?
>> me about 80 hours. Really? >> [laughter] >> But I I enjoy doing this. So, it's it's I did So, Can I ask a question? So, if I had to spend the last 2 weeks doing the work you do, probably with not the finance background
you have, then I could have answered your question sufficiently. So, with that being said, in our current budget, we're projecting an approximate $2 million revenue decrease next year. So, how are we going to bridge the gap without increasing the millage rate?
I'm glad you put all that together. All right. Well, you or you want me to answer all your the questions? >> for Charlie, but you know, we'll just figure that out later. So, question for Charlie, how are we going to we're going to have $2 million less in revenue next year.
How are we going to bridge the gap without increasing the millage rate? When you say next year, do you mean this this fiscal year? In the current budget, we're projecting approximately $2 million revenue decrease next year. How are we going to bridge the gap
without increasing our millage rate? So, that was my end goal, but I'm That was awesome. >> we we already I mean, we already approved the budget that is that assumed that $2 million less revenue. In the following year? With the following year, we'll have to see how how how So, we are the we are the highest for coastal
communities. Clearwater Beach has 116,000. Yep. Go ahead. No, we're not we're what I've been trying to say is that we're not necessarily the highest for co- we're we're all kind of bunched in there together. So, my question will be for the future. We're not significantly out
of whack with the other communities. All right. I will say I'm actually glad you put that on the agenda and Arden, as usual, thank you for the articulate and just all that you do on those. As I always say, we look to you as we know
we're we're going to get the graphs, but I think it was good though to be able to really look at that and and so, thank you to both of you for doing that. All right. So, um just a discussion. It was the only way I could bring up information is putting
this item on the agenda so we could discuss it. >> No, I was glad to see it on there. I was more than happy to see it on there. Okay, so Sarah Pennington. We now are opening up public comment. Okay, yep. Sarah Pennington, Isle of
Palms. Um Commissioner Dickey, I really appreciate that um that information that you shared with us tonight. Commissioner Suzana, I appreciate you putting this on the agenda. I do believe that property taxes are a very important discussion that we need to have, and I think we need to
take a hard close look not just at revenue. That seems to be what you talk about the most is just like, how are we going to fill the revenue gap? But where is the talk about our expenses? Uh I actually I want to give kudos to Commissioner Vasquez. When you were new on the commission, you actually
expressed concerns about our public works department and you felt, gosh, it seems like we're overstaffed over there. And and we actually overhauled public works, but it's like, where is that focus on the rest of the building? And I'm not trying to be cold um about
people's jobs, but the reality is is that our personnel personnel expenses have increased very dramatically, particularly since we moved into this building. West likes to say we didn't get this big building just to fill it with people to work here. And um that
kind of feels like that's what's been happening. Um so, but it's not just personnel. I think as a commission, you need to be directing staff to look and do every possibility to reduce our operating expenses as a city. We talk all the time about the revenue, but
we're not hearing enough about reducing expenses or even hearing anything about it. Um I'm a small business owner as some of you on the commission are as well, and I can imagine that you could like if the whole town was contributing towards my business, yeah, I would probably be spending a lot more money
than I do in my normal business. But that's not how a business works. You have a budget and you have to stick to it, and that's how our city should operate as well. We should have a budget, stick to it, look to ways to reduce the spending. And uh Commissioner Dickey, again, uh your research was
really great, but this $100 difference that you're saying about taxes is just on the average. It is not applicable to many many residents in the town that are paying a lot more than what you saw on the chart. And even if the property taxes are not
huge amounts, let's say it's not even that huge, it doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to lower our millage rate, eliminate waste and inefficiency. And I would love to see that become a priority of this commission. Thanks. Thank you, Sarah. And that was the only public comment
sheet that I had, so we'll close public comment. I don't believe that we have a vote on anything tonight, so no motion. So, let's move on to item five. Which is the West Causeway drainage and
landscaping including seeding and sodding ordinance for adjacent lots. Thank you. I put this on the agenda as well. So, Charles, once again, I previously requested an updated uh email and information regarding seeding
and sodding, which you did provide. The only little tidbit that we had when I purchased my home um whenever that was and before I built, the city required me to put down seed and grow grass. Um
so I want to know why we kind of some of the just Anyway, continue here. So, this issue requires immediate attention in my opinion, particularly given our current drought conditions and the approaching approaching rainy
season. We've already discussed the need for seeding and sodding ordinance during our uh with our engagement with the Boss Law Group. At this point, I would recommend that we formally direct as a commission
the Boss Law Group to direct to draft a seeding and sodding ordinance for the commission to review at the next meeting. Would that be something that the commission is interested in directing? I thought we did we cuz I know we
discussed this. Did we not? Fell through the cracks. I have. Through the mayor if you want me to comment. Sure, please. So, we have an ordinance that speaks to soil stabilization
by which is either seeding or sodding is not very long. I sent it to Commissioner Sazon. He had also numerous questions about seeding and sodding along the West Causeway.
So, I've sent code enforcement out there a couple times last week. Everything that they that code enforcement saw that might be a little shaky or not up to code, they've issued uh the courtesy notices, which is the first step in our codes policy. And also
transmitted I mean, there is a very specific um city policy or city ordinance, which is driven by Florida law that says if you want to make a code complaint on somebody
there's a procedure for that, but you have to put your name on it. You can't have anonymous code complaints or kind of sweeping clean up this stretch or that that isn't really how it works. So, that that's what I know about that.
I was seeing if we could draft a seeding and sodding ordinance and have something on the books that would be applicable for all of the the city. Or some We know that we experienced last year significant mosquito and standing water issues uh
when the for the unmaintained lots. While some properties will be rebuilt, others may remain vacant for an extended period of time. And we need a policy in place to address this reality. So, my question is if the commission
agrees let's draft a sizable ordinance, maybe take it from another city and have something on the books that is more than just a couple sentences like we currently have. Yeah, so city attorney, what we would like to do is have you review what we have on the books at the
current time and then suggest any changes that will satisfy, you know, the the neighbors, the city uh Okay. I remember the mosquito problem we had last year. Right. Yeah, we did. It was bad. Absolutely. And then as for the
West Causeway, um I would like to acknowledge Mary Allen and James Dixon from code enforcement for addressing some of the vacant properties and working with the owners to bring into compliance. I also understand the club has applied
for a permit to repair the wall, which is a positive step. However, there are still several outstanding issues um like the blue tarp on the roof, the dumpsters being stored in the parking lot and the continued disrepair of the docks including water and electric.
So, in addition, Charlie, what is the status of the proposed high and dry high and dry project in my district? That is an incomplete application the last time I asked about it. We have lots of incomplete applications just for the
record. Thank you. And more broadly, what is the status of code enforcement issues I've raised and the request for a site walk along West Causeway? I actually talked with our attorney earlier today. Um
You as an individual commissioner again are not entitled to my time or staff time to walk up and down the Causeway. I did submit to you the kind of what I consider the common sense approach is that we are doing the normal
maintenance along that road and others as far as uh mowing the grass, making sure the drainage is flowing, things like that. There are no doubt chunks of asphalt and things that need to be repaired and we try to stay on top of those, but I would like to know
um what amount of the grant we will get. We put in for a significant amount of money to raise that as far as a resiliency uh grant for the whole island and do other work to it. Um we have a very robust uh capital
plan. Um I can bring that back to you guys for review and if you want to commit current capital outlay money outside of the budget season to the West Causeway and bump other priorities that
you've already given us down I mean, that is you as a full commission's prerogative to do that. Um so, I'm not not trying to say we're not going to deal with it. But everything has its right time just as the other issue, the right time to deal with millage rates is during budget
season. The right time to deal with this is when I know how much money we have to put on it. Um and right now our whole city budget for repaving projects is less than a million dollars. I don't remember the exact amount.
Um so, if if that becomes a commission priority as we get into the summer months I need you to tell us what what we're not doing and um that you want to do as a commission and we'll put it into the five-year
capital outlay plan. The reason I bring this up, this is a primary entrance into Treasure Island. It remains visible in disrepair months after the hurricanes. Beyond code enforcement, the most critical issue along West Causeway is
the infrastructure. Drainage, raising the road, restoring landscaping in the three medians need to move forward immediately. We are currently in a drought window with the rainy season approaching and this is the time to advance design and planning, not to delay it. And that's all I have.
That. Can I speak? All right. Yeah. You have the floor. So, absolutely agree on the entrance to the city. I mean, we don't have a lot of control over what's being built and things right now on the private properties. But
definitely I I I would love and I guess that would probably be a workshop for us to try to figure out the most economical way and see if we can figure out a way to at least somewhat improve it where I
mean, cuz right now we just chopped down a bunch of trees and it just it looks terrible. So, and I do know we have a priority list. So, maybe just a thought, maybe we workshop, look at our priorities, look at potentially some
different options. I mean, if you know, others agree with that. Because it is it is sad because you when you're on the other side of the bridge that's not even our property or technically it's not ours, but we maintain it, it looks beautiful.
I mean, the trees are beautiful, the landscaping's beautiful and then you cross the bridge and it's like uh So, I very much do agree with that, but maybe that's an idea, you know, to throw out there. I mean, is it something that possibly a workshop or something? I
mean, what's your thoughts? >> Yeah, I I think so. The workshop probably best. I think that we need to get a handle on the grants. >> Yes. Um the commission, I know our staff is is up to speed, but the the commission um does need to to
understand what we have put in for and what we have not put in for. And I know that there are some things one of the weaknesses I think that I've seen in our budget capital budget is the amount of pavement asphalt that that we
have. I mean, it's less than a million dollars and a million dollars of asphalt is is not that much. And I know that we have put in for something on the West Causeway. And now that it's not been dealt with yet by
the county. But at some point, you know, we're going to need to take a look at at those and and understand what we may get and we may not get and the timing of those payments. As well as the drainage. Correct. Yeah, it'd be the right in
included. I can send you a pretty good recap tomorrow on all the grants we've applied for and what the amounts are and what the titles are and all those things. And if you you give me a little bit
I will bring back to you at the next meeting a um proposed date for the workshop on the West Causeway. Right now I've got public works more than chest deep and a whole lot of projects and that will take some time to deliver you all the
quality product that you deserve to make good decisions off of. I'm thinking probably the first or second meeting in May would be a good time to have that workshop but I need to give um with public works to make sure I'm not
overextending them. Okay. I do not have anything for public comment but if there is anybody that that would like to be have a public comment. Seeing none, okay. And and we do not
have to take a vote on this. So we will move into >> putting something on the workshop like Tammy mentioned? I like I said I I I think that you're going to come back to us to put something on for a workshop. Yes, sir. Thank you. Yeah.
Thank you. All right. So let's move on and what we have left is our city and city manager and city attorney reports. For the city attorney, nothing this
evening. Thank you. I have a question. Yes. Regarding city attorney reports, is there anything regarding e-bikes? Can you give us a little synopsis of what the state decided on e-bikes? Yeah, the the state legislature adopted
some new statutes regarding e-bikes. Um primarily focusing on the accidents that have been occurring e-bikes and reports reporting that data. I'll present prepare a memorandum and a potential ordinance for you to consider.
E-bikes have to be treated similar to to regular bicycles. Um so I'll present something and bring it forward to you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. >> [snorts] >> So I just wanted to we're we're getting into spring and we actually have some
good news to report. Some ribbon cuttings. I've said the whole time I've been here the way out of the the ditch here is ribbon cuttings and restoration. Um so I'm I'm not going to read each slide to you but I do want the audience and you guys just to take note. This is
going out on our social media website. Um but in 2 weeks, I guess a week from this coming Saturday we'll cut the pickleball court. I don't see Mr. uh Bazzo here tonight but I know he believes that's the most important thing under the sun. Um
That same day the Legion's putting on a car show. Um Sunset Beach Pavilion. I've been by there several times recently. That work's coming along really nice. So as soon as we hit a firm
date for it, we'll we'll blast it out to you guys and everybody else. Um Treasure Island is known to be very environmentally friendly. We have a lot of help cooperation from a a lot of different individual
people and some groups. So here are some opportunities if you would like to participate in any of that coming up. Um couple of grant opportunities. >> [cough and clears throat] >> So uh Suncoast Credit Union um
as I brought to you before they would like to help with something kid-friendly. Um they have a pretty extensive grant application themselves. Um and so Miss Hayduk has submitted that on our behalf. Um
we're looking at another grant for our kayak launch at Treasure Bay. Um And there's a little money out there through USTA for a hurricane relief grant. Um so we we are pretty vigilant and follow up. I'm
I'm pretty sure if you contacted Pinellas County um and asked for a grant update from Treasure Island, they would confirm to you that we are very engaged with them looking for uh next steps and timelines and
uh when are we going to get some money and how much. Um just a couple other things. Um There is an opportunity. I'll show you on the next slide to vote for some things going on in Treasure Island. Um so if you are
savvy with your phone even from the back row, you should be able to click on that QR code and vote for us to be the best beach and that for Sanding Ovations to be the best festival.
Cool. Scan the QR code. Yeah, that was the last slide. So I'll leave that one up there as you're leaving tonight. You can get your phone to capture that and that's all I have, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Vice Mayor Vasquez First of all, I would just like to say
we had a blast. There was a lot of us there at the egg hunt in Roselli Park Saturday. It was so awesome. I mean we estimated well over 100 children and basically the egg hunt was from 6 months
to 10 years I believe, 10 years old. And it was just an awesome turnout. Everybody was laughing and having fun. The weather couldn't have been better. So thank you to everybody who helped with that and thank you for everybody coming out. I agree. We have to definitely start focusing on the
positive. You know, I I actually spoke with someone from Naples um this last week and he at the time was serving um
in office down there and during Ian and he and I had a little conversation and he was just saying, you know, keep your head up and know that Fort Myers 5 years five
almost 6 years later is really just now getting back to normal. So definitely we we need to start focusing I believe. Not that we don't have problems. Not that we don't have issues but talking to him was, you know, encouraging because he
had been up and down the beaches and he said, you know, compared to where we were after Ian, you guys don't look too bad. So that was that was encouraging. So um I will say just a couple notes from some emails and just neighbors reaching out
to me. We have I know there was a comment made earlier on the trash pick up. Um I've definitely had a lot of people reach out to me with issues of either not picking up or confused about trash and recycle,
all of that. Um I have been talking and working with the city manager and Gary on that. So just know that's not being kicked to the curb. Um I know that again I've talked to Gary a few times on this
um to resolve some issues and it's strange because everything was perfect right at first and then now we're hitting some bumps in the road but we will work through these bumps in the road and and hopefully get everything back to to smooth running the way we all want it to be.
Um Also on another note, John spoke a little bit on the sun shades and thank you for being so diligent on that and the importance of it. Um I will say again at the Easter egg hunt toward the end of it
the equipment started getting really warm and more than anything you know, the ground as well and people were starting to leave. I was talking to some neighbors and stuff when we were leaving. And again, it's it's not summer yet but we it's pretty obvious we're not going to have anything for summer but I
just want the families to know I am still working trying to find possibly sponsors. I actually do need to get with you two because I have a lot of people asking if we can do GoFundMe's or some way to
donate and I know in government it's a little different than personally. So I want to get with you two on seeing what that looks like cuz I have had a lot of people including today at a Rotary meeting ask if there was a way that people could donate or do
fundraisers or something. Um so again kind of touch on some things that city manager already did but tomorrow evening at 6:00 p.m. in Roselli Park, we have our ICCA meeting.
And and you know, everyone's welcome to come out in Isla Capri with anything. I will be there if you have any questions or anything. Please feel free to come out tomorrow at 6:00. We also, April 25th, we have our fourth
annual ICCA wine tasting in Roselli. And that is not just for Capri Island residents. That is for anyone who would like to come. That is on Saturday, April 25th. It's the fourth annual and it's very
well attended and gets better every year. And that starts at 5:30. You also already mentioned the car show. I'm a car buff. So, for anybody who is, there are some beautiful cars at the at that car show every year. That's April
18th. And that's right out in front of City Hall in that parking for those who haven't been before. And I just and then of course the pickleball. The pickleball ribbon cutting. I'm excited about that in Roselli on the
18th. And I just a side note, I have to give a huge shout-out to Carrie Arbach. She is probably one of the most unsung heroes. Anybody who sees her out and about, just stop and thank her because she
works harder than anybody I know voluntarily to keep our beaches clean. And the trash bag dispenser trial thing we're doing, I will tell you has been I've heard nothing but good about it.
Mike and I went for a long walk on the beach. I believe it was last Sunday. >> [gasps] >> And we started here and went down to the end of sunset and back. And we were just kind of picking up trash as we'd go. And then when I'd see a trash can, I would go up. And we got around Caddy's and I
went up to throw a little bit of trash away. And a resident recognized me. And she came up and just thanked all the commission for our hard work. No matter you know, the different things that we
deal with you know, week to week. But, that was always nice to hear. And also heard the trash bags have been very successful and that people really are starting to use them.
And again, Carrie, you know, that's her brainchild. And she just she I've never seen somebody with such a passion like she has. So, if you see her out and about and if you don't know who she is, she's known as the clean beach lady.
>> [laughter] >> So, when she's around, just definitely give her a big thank you because she's a big reason we have such beautiful beaches. So, that's it. Thank you. Commissioner Sizzon. Thank you. Please bear with me. I got a a couple important things that my
constituents have brought up. I'd like to point out. So, I'd like to address an issue that I've been raising for months now that continues to go unanswered. I've sent sent dozens of emails to our city manager requesting information related to single-family home permitting
valuations and fee collection. And I've not been provided clear and complete responses. At this point, I feel like I'm being stonewalled. This is not about me personally. This is about the city of Treasure Island not collecting substantial revenue that it is owned owned.
We currently have a 1.1 million interest-free loan from the general fund to the building department with the expectation that permitting activity would repay that balance. Because full and complete information has not been provided, my research indicates that there are numerous homes
that were declared construction values used for permit fees slightly appear significantly below the actual value resulting in underpayment to the city. For one example, a 7,735
square foot home was submitted at a construction cost of 750,000 or about $97 per square foot. That is ridiculously below what we know construction costs to be for an elevated concrete block home,
which are typically in the 500 to 800 dollars per square foot range. In this case alone, evaluation used for permitting fee purposes is at least five times below what it should be.
On a similar home, also around the same square footage, but that information I couldn't get, was submitted to just about 450,000 in the total construction value. That one may be more in order of the magnitude of 10 times below the actual
cost. Because permitting fees are based on declared construction cost, this directly reduces what the city collects. That means we are not only under collecting fees, but also failing to properly repay the loan tied to this activity.
So, I'm going to ask clearly, Charles, how much of the 1.1 million dollar loan has been repaid to the date today to date? I would have had to have that question before tonight and that's not a number I have in my head. I don't know that anything's been repaid. We would
probably do that during our budget session. And let me Go go ahead, Vince. >> Thank you. How much has been collected in new, not including lifted single-family homes fees permit since the hurricanes? I'll send you all these
questions in advance. Next. And what verification process is in place to ensure these construction values are accurate and reflect real market costs to ensure that we are collecting fair and proper fees from
everyone. That I think you can answer. Can you answer that question? Do you want me to repeat it? And what verification process is in place to ensure these construction values are accurate and reflect real market costs to ensure that we're
collecting fair and proper fees from everyone? I'll answer that question um in writing with some applicable Florida statutes. I have been looking at this. I had some
discussions about the a similar topic with the mayor yesterday. Um and uh I'm I'm not prepared to answer that off top >> Thank you. Please send that to the rest of the commission as well. These are basic financial accountability
questions. They should not take months to answer. I'm requesting that this information be thoroughly analyzed by trained professionals and provided publicly so we can determine whether the city is properly managing its revenue and collecting taxpayer resources.
And number two would be short-term rental enforcement. I'd like to address ongoing code enforcement issues related to short-term rentals. Right now, there's no consistent enforcement and it's creating real impacts across our community. We are seeing properties being used for
short-term rentals with late-night parties, noise issues, and repeat disturbances. This affects quality of life for residents and impacts property values. It's also creating an uneven playing field. Our hotels and motels operate under strict regulations while short-term rentals are operating without
meaningful oversight. This is not about eliminating short-term rentals. It's about enforcing the rules we already have and holding repeat offenders accountable. So, I'd like clarity on where our current enforcement process is, how are
repeat offenders tracked and escalated, and what resources are being dedicated to ensure compliance. If we don't have clear enforcement mechanism, we definitely need one. Can you answer any of those three questions? I can repeat them.
You can email all of them to me tomorrow if you would, Commissioner. I'm I'm not prepared to just pull these figures out of the air and off the top of my head to questions When can you expect a response from you? When can I expect a response from you?
I don't get responses often. That's why I ask. May May I address Commissioner Sizzon very frankly, Mayor? Yes. Each of us Commissioner Sizzon, all of you, me, we're all entitled to our own opinions.
We are not entitled to our own sets of facts. Facts are facts. To that end, I've listened about three meetings in a row, you sit up here and complain that I don't answer your emails.
I answer your emails, which are voluminous. And when I answer 10 or 12 questions, I get 37 back. I'm exaggerating a little bit. But, to that end, just to make sure I wasn't crazy, I asked our IT director to go back
over the last 90 days and tell me how many emails I've sent to each commissioner. Between January 1st of 2026 and April 1st of 2026, I've sent Commissioner Sizzon 71 emails. The other commissioners were between 22
and 27 in the same 90-day period. Um Do we have Do we have Can I ask Commissioner Sizzon responding to those emails? I I told him to not make a science project. Just give me some simple numbers. But, um you ask a lot of great questions.
They're not always in line with the the timing for what we're already doing with the um what I have from the complete commission as directives. Um but I I can't take and and bird dog
um I'll use one of my superintendent phrases, make a science project out of everything that comes across your mind and comes through my email. It's just impossible to do. And and I I won't have any further
comment uh to you or to the commission tonight. But feel free to send me all your questions. Sounds good. I'll continue. So uh number three, finally I'd like to address our capital improvement funding as it relates to recovery. Based on financial data to date, even if
all CIP projects progressed as scheduled for the rest of the year, we would have approximately $10 million worth of funds that could be invested in rebuilding TI on projects like drainage issues on the West Causeway, seawalls throughout the
city, and improving Treasure Bay and Central Park. So the question is, why are we not deploying these funds now to accelerate recovery in key areas of Treasure Island? Oh, no comment. Awesome.
These are all core assets tied to safe access, safety, and overall appearance of our city. We must make TI attractive to new owners, investors, and tourists. We should be prioritizing and investing in visible, high-impact improvements now.
Enough time has been wasted. We need to act immediately to reasonably utilize all available assets to accelerate recovery. Almost done. So uh commish uh follow-up on prior items, um Charles, I do have some
follow-ups on uh prior items that I requested. First of all, regarding the summer programs, uh we're still waiting on a report out or I'm still waiting on the report outlining revenues and expenses, including historical performance and forward-looking plan with the goal of at
least breaking even in the summer. So I was wondering if you could hopefully send me an email regarding that information. Maybe we could discuss that at a workshop, a future workshop. I know some of the uh residents have expressed their concern regarding that.
I would also uh request Oh, I just said that. No. Second, I'd like to uh an update on the Popstroke visit. I understand that there was a visit conducted to evaluate whether similar concept would be viable at Treasure Bay.
Can you provide a summary of that visit and any conclusions or next steps? I'll email it to you, too. Third, I was uh waiting CIP budget information for fiscal year 2025 and 2026. When can the commission expect to
receive that? I'll send that to you as well. And lastly, I have uh several outstanding emails that have not been responded to. I'd appreciate a response to those pending items so we could continue moving forward efficiently.
Um And backup information as well would be important. And of course, uh have you looked into any updates for alternatives to the shade of Rosselli Park, such as implanting a big old oak tree like we had in discussions many months ago between you and I in your office? I know
you you brought that up and had a wonderful story that followed with that. So maybe at the next workshop, we could discuss those items further. That's all I have. Thank you. Commissioner Dickey. I just have a couple of things. One is
uh the new erosion control line for uh Treasure Island and Sunset Beach in particular was recorded yesterday. Uh so that was very good news. We heard from the Pinellas County uh government uh to let us know that that has been uh recorded and uh those those uh permits
that we're waiting uh waiting for that to happen can can move forward at this point in time. Uh the only other thing is yesterday, uh you heard about you've heard about Connor, the young gentleman who lives I think in Isla Capri,
very happy to say it had a very good turnout. 18 volunteers picked up about 103 lb of trash. So thank you very much to the volunteers. Thanks to Don Pader, the president of Sunset Beach Community Association, for helping get many of the volunteers out. And of course, a special
thanks to Connor who uh who's who, you know, his initiative is helping uh this to be a better place to live. So thank you uh for all those involved. That's it. Great. Um I think everybody has uh
talked about everything that needs to be talked about. So uh we're just going to adjourn. Thank you.