Good afternoon and welcome to the commission workshop for August 4th, 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. >> All right, roll call, please. >> Good evening. Vice Mayor Vasquez, >> here.
>> Commissioner Seson >> here. >> Commissioner Dicki >> here. >> Mayor Doctor >> here. >> And Commissioner Clark is absent. All right. So, we're going to move on to uh the reason that we're here, the discussion uh Rafillis commercial redevelopment
master plan status update and plan development presentation. >> Good evening. Cheryl Trent with Rafillis mayor commissioners staff members of the community. Um pleased to be here. I am here three days in a row at this time. I wanted to give you a
brief update on the status of the commercial redevelopment master plan. um talk to you just a little bit about plan developments and mention a few key dates. I want to make sure I cover what you want me to cover, but also make sure we save time for your second presentation tonight, which is very
important as well. So, at any time, feel free to interrupt me with any questions or feedback or comments that you might have. I'd like to start with our project update. There are some handouts over there about the plan development process in case anyone didn't pick one up. But
as you know, we have five phases of our project. We are in the middle of phase three, which is the most labor intensive piece because it involves community engagement as well as finalizing a lot of the data that we need to use to
inform both the report and the second financial model we're working on. So, a brief overview for people who may not know about the plan. Um, this is a review of your existing your current codes and land use development regulations with an eye toward
commercial redevelopment. Would we recommend any changes or any updates to your code that might be helpful to drive the commercial development that you all want to see here within the community? We're also creating a uh fiscal
development model and you've seen a piece of it. You met Mr. McDonald. he was here. And that is taking a particular parcel, any parcel at all, and being able to run it through a fiscal analysis to see whether or not it's feasible to develop commercially
under your current code or if we were able to adapt that and put some different numbers into that model. What are the financial numbers that come out at the end? Let me stop there for a second and say we are going to be running uh three scenarios on each of
the five study parcels that you've asked us to study. And part of that work is dependent on my community meetings. So I'm going to intertwine this for a moment and say we have four community meetings. My fourth one is tomorrow night on the downtown. And at each one of those, and I know you all have been
to those, so um I won't belabor this point, but each one of those we're asking some specific questions. And some of those questions are about that specific area and about that specific parcel. What would your community like to see? That gives us some indication of what the community might support in
terms of development on that property. Now, some of those things are community amenities and there is no financial return. Some of those things are actual commercial developments like a uh small hotel perhaps or a restaurant where there may be some financial return. So,
as we continue to build those models, um I want to bring those three scenarios for each of those parcels back to you and talk to you about them. Um we are suggesting August 18th for that date in a work session. Mr. McDonald can be here virtually. I can be here in person. And
what we would present to you is each of those uh three financial models on each of those five parcels. So, a total of 15. It's pretty dense information. What I intend to do is give you a one-page handout on each of those scenarios. So,
15 pages of handouts that hopefully will be easier to read than his spreadsheet that he brought up last time. Um, but he'll be available to walk you through those virtually and answer those questions for you. And I'll be here in person. So, if if August 18th doesn't work, just note that we're available,
depending on his availability really, we're available any time for the commissioners to bring us back and show you those. I'm I'm thankful that you were willing to wait until I got some community feedback because that's really helpful for me to I don't want to suggest things that are inappropriate
for your community. And while we're not done with our our code um our our review our full review of the codes and any recommendations at least now I'll have an idea about what your community might want to see in those areas. That really helpful. And by the way, your community
has been incredibly um participatory, very engaged, very respectful. These meetings have been great. We're getting some great information out of them. Um one of the things that I would repeat here since maybe somebody will be watching or watch later, if anybody has any photographs of the type of
development they would like to see in these areas, I would love to have it. I would love to see actual images and photographs because often people will tell me I'd like to see Spanish architecture, but their version of Spanish architecture might be very different than my version and a photo
will tell the truth. So, I am hoping to get as many of those uh photos as possible in the next week or two. Our next meeting is currently set as a community visioning session and it's set for September 8th. It's an openhouse style and it'll be at the community
center on September 8th. And the idea is that we will have some um opportunity for the community to see some initial recommendations from us in the sense of what could be on this parcel. The fiscal analysis is going to be really helpful
for that. Um we won't be able to show any modeling at that point. We're a little ways away from the modeling conversation, but at least they'll have some photographs to take a look at and some ideas to give us feedback on. Most importantly, I think the guiding principles and the vision that we're
going to talk about with them. Um, I've shared an extremely rough draft of the guiding principles with you. And this will be released um to the community prior to that community meeting so they have a chance to think about it. Um, what I don't like to do is sort of
surprise somebody on the night of. So, I just want to let you know it exists there. And I'm going to cover it very quickly again in for the people in the room, but also um for the people who might be watching later and knowing that this document will be released in just a few weeks once we're a little bit more
comfortable with how we've written it. I find that the written word can be very easy to misinterpret. And I want to do my best to avoid that as much as possible. Right now, these aren't in any particular priority order. This is what we've heard from the community in the survey and what we're hearing clearly in
our community meetings. We're not done. We have one more to go. I don't think that'll change this, but it could. So, here we go. Fiscally sound and future ready. We need to deal with resiliency and risk. We want to be connected, but
we don't want to be crowded. The shore, meaning the beach, belongs to everyone. Redevelopment has to happen by design and purpose. The character of the island is non-negotiable
and that the pace of development really matters. I want to come back to the character because I do think that's one area that deserves quite a bit of focus as this master plan comes forward with its recommendations because I don't think
the community has yet been able to really get a good discussion about what is the character that you want. Is it a laid-back sort of 1970s beach vibe? Is it a little bit more of the 1950s architecture that you can still see around here and you can still see some
of that signage, you know, for example, in some of your features on the resort side. Is it something that's more Spanish or italante in style? I don't think the community has really uh had an opportunity to have a solid conversation around that. But whatever it is, that
character once it's been defined needs to be integrated into your your codes to make sure you protect it and preserve it moving forward. So that's just a little bit about the guiding principles and as the community sees those and reacts to those on September 8th, as we continue to move
forward, that will guide our recommendations because once you have those guiding principles, there's the foundation of the decisions that you make around your land use codes. I also included and the community has seen this in their meetings uh the initial results of the survey. The full
results and I do mean full a full PDF the full Excel spreadsheet with all of the comments all of that will be available on your website around the end of the month and anybody that wants to can sort of go through the survey. Um these are just some of the initial
themes and uh the type of people who responded to it, how long they've been working, some of the top concerns. This is good data for us. And I want to stress as I did in my report that this is feedback and opinion data. This is
not statistically significant data. We never intended it to be statistically significant data. We are not collecting nor do we treat this as statistically significant data. But it is great information to have. So, for example, we're doing a poll at the end of each of our uh community meetings. And we did on
purpose open that poll up to people who could not attend the community meetings so they could have a voice. The there are pros and cons to that. One of the cons is they didn't have the opportunity to hear all of the information and get the handouts and have the same conversations that other people did. Before you leave that
subject, um there were several people that were on community sites last night after the meeting that were trying to do that poll and and I went on it myself to see after I saw people saying that and it said that one didn't exist right now. So, if you could just address that while
you're talking, that would be great. >> Yeah, absolutely. We we were fortunate enough to get the same feedback. Thank you. Uh almost immediately and we went in and they are correct. It works on a phone. It did work last night on a phone, but it did not on a laptop. So, we've created a link and we've sent that
link back out. So, I will make sure each commissioner has that link at the end of the evening uh my presentation this evening. So, you can share it however you want as well. Um and the idea there of course is that so more people can take it. Does that does that lessen the validity of the poll? Not at all. It
just does, I think, show the need that your community wants to be participatory in these processes. And any opportunity to inform people about what's going on and to give them more information to consider as they make these kinds of decisions or give you their feedback is
going to be incredibly important in this land use process. >> Cheryl, is each of those uh surveys separate? We have four different surveys. They're you don't combine them all into one. one for each evening that was unique to that >> evening. All right. Thank you.
>> And um the reason we did that, of course, is because we do know at the end of some of those um some of your residents were kind enough to email that out to other people or to share it with their neighbors. And that's just an indicator to us when the meeting closed, what did the poll look like? And after it was mailed out, what did the poll
look like? And um you know one of my uh ongoing questions during the community visioning cycle is if you indicated for example that you wanted no or limited development what exactly does that mean? It may mean something very different to me again just like the architecture than
it may mean to you and digging into that question I think is going to be good at the community meeting opportunity to do that. So, those survey results, as I said, that's the two-pager. The community that attended those meetings has that already, and it'll be out on the web, the two-pager will be out on the website
as well. And then that full piece of information. Um, I actually really appreciate that your community has been digging in and asking questions because it shows me their interest. It shows me their passion for the community that they love. And I believe that the
process deserves to be integrated with these types of questions. Um and I think the biggest question that has come up is the statistical significance which I mentioned to you. And then I believe the second one that has come up is about my background and my expertise. And I know
I sent you all an email and I have copied and pasted that exact information for several other people as well that have asked about my background and experience. And I'm more than happy to answer that and to talk to you about the rest of our team's experience at any time. I think what's what's really
important to me is that your commercial redevelopment master plan is successful. That it gives you what you want and what you asked for. That's truly reflective of what the community wanted and asked for. And that also gives you our professional recommendation about future land use as it relates to commercial
redevelopment. And in order for that to happen, people have to understand how and why we're doing it. They have to be a part of it. And you all also have to understand and support that process and and how we're doing it because without that we've spent nine months and a a
considerable amount of your budget on a plan that won't be as successful as it could be otherwise. So I appreciate all your questions. I appreciate the the ability to answer those fully because I think that's that's critical to an open and transparent process. So um I think
almost everybody has my email by now. If they don't, I'm happy to share it. Joan's happy to share it. I believe it's on your website as a way to contact me. Please do. Please email me. I'm more than happy. And email me with photos. Send me a nasty message, but attach a good photo. That would be my my uh
request to you. So, in terms of our project update, we're still on track. Um we still intend to deliver a full set of draft deliverable deliverables. Your staff has been pressing us very hard and I'm giving them some push back again because I want what we create to be
accurate and reflective of what the community wants. But we're still on track to develop all of these draft deliverables by the end of September, September 31st, October 1st. I'm not sure that falls on a that falls in the middle of the week. I think I think the 31st is a Friday. Regardless, we're
still on track to deliver that. We will have a community meeting to go over that draft. And then once we get that feedback from the community, we will also bring that to you in a work session of your choice, probably late October or early November, and then hopefully bring
that back to you for adoption as quickly as possible after that, so you can start implementing some of our recommendations. So, you all are not the only ones holding my feet to the fire asking me when you're going to see something. Let me just double check uh if there was
anything else in here I needed to mention to you. Oh yes, I do need to mention to you that you probably uh remember Terry Bovery. He was he is our project director. He's had a financial relationship work for Treasure Island before. He was um he is the driver
behind what we're going to to use as our general fund financial sustainability model. This is a far more robust model than we had originally anticipated, but I think it's going to be incredibly useful to you and your staff. And that is, yeah, the financial development
model here, but that doesn't reflect what the benefit may or may not be to the city's general fund. So, this general fund sustainability model takes some parameters, those three opportunities I'm developing for each site, as well as some other information,
and says, what if we did this? How does that affect the general fund? positively negatively neutral. Well, what if we changed this? How does that affect the general fund? That model will not be built out till probably mid October because it's extremely data driven, data
heavy. And um there's an immense amount of data that goes into it. And you're also aware of the upcoming November ballot issue. We will be building out all of the partial information as part of this model in order to tell you what may or may not happen as a result of
that November ballot issue. The partial information is important as well if we're doing a high, medium, and low conversation about what could happen commercially. So, it's an extremely robust model and um I think I think I can safely say midocctober would be when we would be able to come back to you and
talk to you about that. It's also a tool. >> That is my updates. >> So, I have a question. So when you spoke about the modeling, uh would it be beneficial at all to do the modeling on the two parcels on the 108th Avenue that
would be empty once the uh fire department police department are built? uh rather than any of the five other private properties that uh we're doing uh mass the planning for cuz this way you know the way I see it is if a model
is made of a design you know however that may be Mediterranean modern and so on you know that could cause issues later on for those land owners uh for a direction of what they want to build so
>> ah thank you it's a great question Um, so the five specific areas, parcels, pro, let's call them projects, that's easier for me. The five specific projects we will be financially modeling, one is the Thunderbird, one is Pirate Square, one is the yacht club
with the legal restrictions that go hand in hand with the yacht club, one is John's Pass, and one is the city-owned property on 108th. And the fiscal modeling is only going to take into account uh built infrastructure. there won't be any architectural
considerations. Uh I think you remember when Stephen talked about his uh development fiscal model, he talked about the levels of construction, right? There's sort of a lower or a medium and a high-end type of construction that he can put in. But we won't be talking about any architectural design as part
of our fiscal modeling, just what's literally able to be built on the property. >> Understood. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> All right. now waiting into the unknown with a plan development conversation. Although you're welcome to again interrupt me at
any time with a question that may relate back to the project. Um, as a from a professional planning standpoint, I believe in offering the commissioners and the community tools that work with you and for you when
you're talking about land use and development. And I believe that the plan development process is one of those tools and I'm very pleased that you're considering it as a result of that. Obviously, we won't have a recommendation about specifics in terms
of height or density or setbacks or any of that work for you until we get done with our analysis. So again, you're talking the end of September, but I wanted to come and talk to you a little bit about plan development and some
things that you might want to think about because I believe if you if you pass a plan development ordinance, you'll want to be as thoughtful and complete with that ordinance as you can be so you don't have to come around time and again. Now, you may end up adopting
this ordinance well before we come back with our recommendations. I I fully support that. whatever the commissioners want or need to do to make that happen is something that if I can support that in any way, I will. Um, so this document was designed to bring um to you a couple
of considerations that you may not yet have thought of or you may have. Um, and I I've followed along your conversations. I watched your uh meeting last time and I've read uh all of the potential uh issues that you might want
to bring forth in your plan development. So, while I'll say I don't I I won't say I have a complete grasp as if I was your staff member, I think I have a pretty good idea of where you want to go and what you've been thinking about. And what we wanted to do was talk to you about what a valuable tool this is and
suggest at the outset that I believe based on my interactions with you all, your community, your staff, it would be really helpful if you all could ask your staff to design some sort of a workshop around how planning and development
happens in Treasure Island. It is an incredibly complex piece of work here, more complex than in some other areas because of course you have Penllis County who has a um an interaction and a an approval process with you that some other communities don't have. You also
have some land use codes that haven't been updated and integrated in quite some time. So they're very confusing. You might find a setback in one place and you find three other setbacks in three different places. and the same with signage. And so it's very complex.
So I think it would be really helpful and you've got some incredibly talented planning staff uh to come back and do maybe like um oh gosh, planning 101 or something like that. really basic, very straightforward, and integrate the conversation about how planning
currently happens and how planning might happen if you've already passed a PD ordinance at that point or how planning might happen with a PD ordinance because it is a tool that allows you and your community to negotiate the benefits that you want to see on a project that you
otherwise couldn't negotiate if you were just dealing with straight zoning. So, straight zoning is really it is what it is. You either meet the zoning or you don't meet the zoning. It's really hard to write a zoning ordinance, a set of codes that would cover every potential
possibility that would give you the flexibility to negotiate something special or unique on a special and unique piece. So that's what the PD does for you. It allows you as and there's a community there's a heavy community process that goes along with this
typically. It allows you and your community to set up some guidelines within the ordinance. sort of a here's our general swim lane that allows a developer to come in and enter your door knowing what that swim lane is because from a development perspective it's really important to have some guidelines. That's why straight zoning
is really great for developers. They know exactly what they can get and that's why a PD that's more specific than that is also really good for development because it allows somebody to come in the door and know hey these are my parameters. Now, I might ask for everything in the ordinance at the very
top end limit, but at least I know those are my parameters coming in the door. And then you can sit down, your staff can, given your guidance in the PD and other decisions you've made in the past, can negotiate with that developer and say, "This is a really critical piece of property to our view of the ocean
because one of our main roads ends right there in that intersection, and the view of the ocean is an incredible uh amenity to the community there, as might be some public access, as might be some additional landscaping." and then entering into that conversation with a
developer to be able to be flexible and adaptable to meet your needs and make sure it works for your general fund, but also to meet the developer needs and the community needs. So, we took a look at some other like communities and I need to make um thanks to some people who
read this with a critical eye, I need to make a few corrections to this this document. The first is this is my mistake. Number three, I did in fact mean Anamaria Island. I did not mean what I put in quotes, the city of Anamaria. I that the Anamaria Island is
comprised of three distinct communities. You all know this. And what I meant to say was communities there. So Anamaria Island, the city of Anamaria Island does not in fact use a PD process. They have a a similar they have a very tightly written zoning code that acts in a similar fashion, but they don't have a
formal PD process. So this is the communities of and in particular um uh home speech there that use this process. So what we did was we took a look at this and um I think as I mentioned the most important part of this document starts on page nine where we talk about
cross community themes and implications and these are some of the reasons you would want to talk about a PD ordinance and potentially consider adoption but also some of the things that you want to possibly include in your PD ordinance that might not be there now. I have to
tell you, I lean in favor of being more specific to protect your community character than less specific, but that's a a personal preference and you all may not not have that same preference. So, when I speak, you'll probably hear that.
So, when you create these statements, um I think your PD process is more of a a character and a quality control issue than it is a growth management tool. um you can encourage commercial redevelopment through a change in your
codes. The PD takes those same codes and now says, "Okay, how can we protect the character of the community? How can we create something that has the architectural feel and look that we want or has the landscaping that we want or has the amenities that we our public would like to see.
That's what a PD can really do for you. The second one here is form-based standards. This is what kind of triggered me to start thinking about a planned uh um planning 101 conversation. Form-based zoning is a very um
it's a very useful form of approaching your zoning. So, it produces typically more consistent results and more um results that are easier to support with both staff and with any issues that you may face from your community about
those. But it's also not easy to explain in um you know a short presentation like this one. So use-based versus formbased can be something that you can think about as you and incorporate into your your plan development conversations.
your community hasn't mentioned this much um possibly because they believe it's well taken care of and I believe that to be the case but environmental additional environmental standards in your community. You are a barrier island. You saw what happened to you recently. you you're seeing the
difficulty that that happens in trying to recover from that and additional environmental standards within your plan development conversation might be very helpful to the to protecting what you have but also enhancing the community character. This is a very beachforward
community and I think um what I've heard from the people who've participated is that that's very important to them. The beach is very important as part of why they moved here, why they love it here. And also, it's obviously, it could be, if you want it to be a very big tourist
attraction. I believe that's why a lot of people do come to Treasure Island is because of your beach. And once they discover it, then they talk about it and spread the word and then more people come. We talked about trade-offs. There's trade-offs to that. And then finally, this concept of community
engagement. As I mentioned, you have some really smart, very involved, very passionate people in your community, and getting them involved in this conversation around a development at the appropriate time can be really helpful for both the developer and the community and and the
city government as a whole. Um, anytime there's a lack of communication for whatever reason, it seems to create uh a lack of trust and it seems to create a deep frustration when people
don't know what's going on. So while the development process is designed to bring forward a product partway through the process, not initially because you need to make sure the the product meets your city codes and the plan development and the the
community can't be involved from day one. A PD almost always requires significant community engagement at at critical points in the process that your regular code process would not require. So, I think the final thing that
everybody is aware of that I don't really need to talk too much about is SB80 and how that's affected our ability to write codes that we might feel are protective and protect the community character. Um, it's just something to
keep in the back of your head. I'm not a legal person. I think I made that statement like 14 times in this document. I can't give you legal advice, but from what I've seen, your conversations so far would not have they would not be um negatively affected by
the SB80 because you're talking about perhaps being more expansive to allow development instead of more restrictive. And when you're negotiating these types of things in a PD, that's typically outside the scope of SB80 and its intent anyway because you might end up with
something more restrictive, but it's because you allowed it to be more expansive over here. So you can see so I just wanted to come tonight and um spend a little bit of time with you um to answer these types of questions. Our
master plan will address what if you haven't already done it um will address what we believe could be in a PD and probably more important where that that PD should apply because you have the areas that we're studying uh some of
them would be uh very I think initially very appropriate for a plan development conversation and some of them might not be. Um it's just the nature of the development that's already built and the built environment uh takes into play. So
the character of your downtown um should be very unique to the character of your downtown and probably very different than the character of your resort side. And as the character of John's Pass might look and feel very
different than the character at the yach club. There are different constraints on those properties. there there are different inputs into those properties. So, one of the things to consider in your PD as well, I think, is to think about where you might want it to apply. And I know you've been thinking about that. I I've watched you and having a a
solid conversation about where this tool might be most useful to you because you can also, as you well know, you can negotiate things like architectural standards within a PD that you can't outside of it. Maybe you want that applied to your downtown because that's you want to be able to negotiate
architectural standards. Maybe you don't want to negotiate height standards, but you want to be able to negotiate something else, landscaping or some type of public amenity. I believe according to my notes, I've covered everything I wanted to cover and I've still left room for another
presentation. So, if you have questions, I'm happy to answer them. I left you with a lot to think about. I know. So what you're talking about is like uh organiz organizing a uh special education meeting like a a workshop
where you know you could tell us the benefits of like a PD or a comp plan that would be beneficial to Treasure Island. >> Yes. And um I think it would be your staff that would be doing the work. they
have the depth of knowledge and experience that I do not with your own code. But as you're well aware, if you do a PD, it affects your comp plan, which then potentially affects your your zoning code, which and it's they're all intertwined. And typically, you want to
take this forward in in some degree of continuity so that you don't have to come back time and time again because each time you come back, maybe you pass a PD, but now you come back for a comp plan amendment. Well, what happens if the comp plan amendment doesn't pass? Right? So, having the staff bring
forward to you how does how does development actually work, right? When somebody wants to do development in your community, what actually happens? What are the steps? What is the review process? Where does the community get engaged? How might that change with a PD? How do you do a comp plan amendment?
What things need referendums? We we do have a piece of property at John's Pass that has a public access that touches the water. So, we need to do some review on on the legalities because if you want to develop that piece, you can't really do it with a a vacant parcel right
through the middle of it. So, some of those things I think your staff can cover with you and talk to you about in terms of considerations that you may not have thought of. And it's helpful anyway for the community to understand how that works, too. It's very complicated. It's not easy to understand.
>> Let me take just a moment uh just for some housekeeping. Uh, has anyone showed up? Okay. So, um, I just wanted to make sure that, uh, we weren't pushing you out. Um, but now we've got the folks
that are here. So, great. >> Anything else? >> Out out loud, I just like to state my email for anybody who might be watching later. It's S as in Sam. S Trent, s T reelis.com. It is somebody's last name. It's
riselis.com. You're welcome to email me, send me photos at any time. Um, love to hear from you. So, thank you very much for your time tonight. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. >> Uh, not until the end. There there was >> Well, thank you all for having me. My
name uh my name is Chelsea Favo. I work at Ford Penllis and we've been spending the whole summer trying to make it to every city council, town council uh throughout Penllis County. Uh so I appreciate you guys making the time uh some time on the agenda for us. So I just want to talk a little bit about who
we are and what we do for those that don't know. Ford Penllis is a fictitious name. We are actually two separate entities that were merged together in 2014. One side of our entity is the penelis planning council or the PPC. The PPC is established in the state uh and
state law back in the 70s. Uh a lot of the jurisdictions in Penllis County were putting their least desirable uses right at their neighbors back door and development was going a little crazy. So the state of Florida stepped in and said Penllis Countyy's charter includes a requirement for countywide land use
planning and the PPC was established to cover to fulfill that role. Now the PPC does not tell the local governments what to do. You all have your existing comp plans, your zoning, your land uses. What the PPC does is it sets the upper limit for density and intensities and major
use changes. So if any city can do whatever they want, but if they hit that limit, that upper limit, then they have to come to the PPC to make sure that it's consistent for the countywide plan. Now, the other side of our agency is the MO or the Metropolitan Planning Organization, and that's the side of the
agency that I manage. Uh NPOS's are set in federal law. Every urbanized area in the country is required to have an NPO. And really where the NPO came from is back when the interstate highway system was being developed, the federal and state government came in and put the highways wherever they wanted. They
didn't ask any questions. They didn't take public comment and there was a lot of backlash about where some of those interstates were developed. So no state or federal dollars can be spent in Penllis County unless they are approved by the MO. And that's us as Ford Panelas. So, just like the PPC, we don't
tell the local governments what projects to pick, but once the local governments choose transportation projects and we help them come up with those project ideas, we work with the state and federal government to help get those funded in advance. And there are 27 of us throughout the state of Florida, which is a really
large amount for any state. Um, again, we don't come up with ideas for things uh in a vacuum. We we have our own governing board. We do not report to the county administrator. Uh we report to a governing board of 19 members that are made up of elected officials from throughout Panelis County
and the Penelis Sun Coast Transit Authority. Um one of the biggest roles that we have is prioritizing those transportation projects that our local partners have asked for and then also fulfilling the count Penelis County Charter for countywide planning. When it comes to transportation
priorities, um, every year we come up with a new list of transportation projects and we send those over to FDOT, the Florida Department of Transportation to work on getting those funded. And we try to make sure that the projects that we advance really meet the land use goals of the NC of the a of the agency.
You all live around here. You know, if we keep widening some of our roads, we're going to start taking out businesses and neighborhoods. And that's why the countywide plan tries to direct intensification of development towards our major corridors that could handle that traffic and the redevelopment and
also protect our neighborhoods. So about 10 years ago, we came up with a program for called local government grants. It's not a very good name, but that's what they get. That's what you get when you get some planners involved. Um, prior to 2014, our agency only prioritized major state roadway
projects, nothing else. And we realized that some of the funds that we receive from the state and federal government are pretty flexible and they could be put to good use by some of our local governments who have some projects that are not on the state highway system. So in the last 11 years, we've given out over $13 million to our local
governments um for different planning and construction projects. This is a competitive grant program. Uh we have a call for projects open right now with applications due to the end of October. Uh so if you all work with your your staff and determine that you have some trans transportation priorities, please reach out to us and we'd be happy to
talk you through to see if they'd be appropriate for our program. For our planning grants, we provide $150,000 each year uh with a minimum project award of 35,000. And this is just a list of any of those how any of those funds could be used. We can do community
sharets, safety analyses, roadway concept plans. Um, another caveat to this is we manage this project for you completely. You do not have to go out and procure consultants. Uh, you don't have to manage invoicing and grants and all that fun stuff. We do all of that
for you in partnership with the local government. This is just an example of the projects that we funded over the last 11 years. And you can see we funded projects all the way from Tarpon Springs down to St. Pete Beach. Um, some of these have moved forward with towards construction. Uh
some are in the process of moving into construction. Um but we've funded, you know, big projects in St. Petersburg, small projects with Kenneth City, uh all across the county. And we have yet to get to fund one on Treasure Island yet. So if you guys have ideas again, we'd love to work with you all. On the
construction and capital side of the house, we have $3 million that we make available each year for capital and construction. The caveat for this is any capital funds have to be spent on right away, government rightway. Uh we often get requests, well can we buy bike rack racks and put them in front of our grocery stores? Unfortunately, you
cannot because these are federal dollars. They have to be invested on public rightway. Um and also these funds, they are federalized. So if you federalize a project, it does tend to drive up the cost of the project because there are a whole lot of strings attached. Um but some of our smaller local governments have been successful
in partnering with Penllis County or the state and they will sometimes build a project on your behalf if they were to receive these funds. So, this is just another resource that's out there for you. And this is an example of those capital grants that we've been handing out. Uh, a lot of roadway projects, but also, uh,
we just, uh, prioritized a project in St. Petersburg just to upgrade upgrade the signal technology in the cabinets throughout two corridors throughout the city. Um, so the funds are fairly flexible. This is that timeline. The call for projects is open now. Applications are due in the fall and we'll make a
determination in March as to which of the projects get funded. Uh the planning funds are available starting on July 1st so we can get started on a planning project pretty quickly. The construction funds because we work with the state work program. Unfortunately, we have to target the new fifth year. So we are looking at 2032 for those construction
and capital funds. It's a lot of planning and a lot of waiting for those, but $3 million makes it hopefully worth it to to some of our local governments. on the panelis planning council side of the house. Um I did mention earlier that we were merged in 2014 2015 time frame.
It took a long time because the PPC penelis planning council um was created by a special act of the legislature. So in order to merge the two agencies, we had to amend the special act and that took a couple of years, a couple tries to get past vetos and the whole
legislative process. So we're really excited that that took place. Now that we've been operating this way for about 10 11 years, there is some conversation going on about merging the transportation entities in the Tampa Bay region. And currently the language in the special act kind of weds the PPC to
the Penllis County MO. And if the Penllis County MO goes away, the PPC kind of floats out here without anywhere to land. So we're working Oh, wrong way. We are working right now uh with the legislative delegation for a bill sponsor to clean up the Penllis Planning
Council special act to ensure that the PPC can remain in existence going forward. And the PPC doesn't just sit there and tell the local governments, hey, you're building too big. You need to stop. We try to be a really good partner. And
this is just an example of some of the resources that we provide to all of our local governments. I believe at one of your more recent meetings, you all approved an interlocal agreement with us to allow us to work with you. We provide the local zoning and land use regulatory reform, although not as comprehensive as
your last presentation. Uh we do quarter mobility and other planning studies. Uh we do comp plan updates for some of the beach communities um since some of them don't have as talented staff or any staff unlike you all. And then we also have access to some modeling tools, ArcGIS urban and city engine where we
can model what certain co changes to your code would look like on the ground. So these are available um to you all whenever you may need them. So we've put together a subcommittee of our board uh to talk about how the PPC can move forward if the MO
is not attached to them. Um, so I'm not going to read all of this to you, but we have a very detailed 12-step process to get us um over the finish line uh with filing a bill to clean up the special act uh to make sure that the PPC can remain solvent and to keep providing uh
those services to our local governments. And that brings me to the proposed merger. So I had said before that every urban area is required to have an NO. Back in the 70s there was one in Port Richie, there was one in St. Petersburg Clearwater and there was one in Tampa
and now we've all kind of grown together with the exception of the bay in the middle of us. Um since the 1990s uh the NPOS of the Penllis Pasco Hillsboro have been asked to evaluate a merger and every time they were asked they said you know it doesn't really make sense. Let's
stay separate. Well in 2023 a bill was filed in the legislature that said you can't just consider it now. Actually look into it and see if you can make it happen. So, we've been working towards that, working together uh to put together um a consideration for a merger to the governor's office. And really,
the point of that is instead of the state coming to Hillsboro and asking what's your top priority and coming to Panella and saying what's your top priority, they can just come to Tampa Bay and say, Tampa Bay, what is your top priority and how can we work with you to get it done? So, it's really a single voice um for uh transportation
prioritization in the region. We've done a lot of work so far. We've done an employee culture survey. We've summarized all the operations of the three different NPOs because we all do things significantly differently which is a little surprising. Um and we've
done an operational comparison report. When we talk about merging the NPOS's we have to have a single policy governing board. Um currently Penllis has 19 members on our board. The max allowed by state law is 25. So when we do what we
call a portion, when we say okay, who gets how many seats, it is required to be done by population. And these are the population numbers that we're working off of. We have to go by the recent the most recent dennial census. So penelis had about a million, Hillsboro 1.5, and
Pasco about 6 million. Now we know that these numbers have changed. Pasco and Hillsboro have been exploding in growth. Penelis has actually seen a slight decrease uh in population. Uh but for the purposes of the law, this is the exercise we're following now. And if a merger were to go forward in 2033, we'd
be back here again redoing this exercise with the new and updated numbers. So with that draft aortionment plan of 25 seats, what we're looking at is Hillsboro would have 10 seats, Pasco five, the Hillsboro County Aviation Authority and Port Tampa Bay would each get one off the top. And those would be
non-elected officials. they would be the CEO or their um their designate and then there would be eight seats for panelas. Now we haven't really come to a full final determination as to how the penella seats are going to be aortioned. Currently you all are represented um uh on the through the big C and through
your seat on the big C. Um but what we're talking about is two seats for the board of county commissioners, two for St. Petersburg, one each for Clearwater Largo and Penelis Park and then some kind of rotating smaller city seat. We don't quite know if it's going to be, you know, one at a time, which means every jurisdiction would have to wait a
very long time to have a voting seat on the committee, or maybe it's we have a small cities committee, and then they elect they appoint one of their members to represent them at the larger MO. But this is the what's currently going currently under discussion.
So, as of last week, we just finalized um an organizational chart for the staff. We've developed bylaws and interlocal agreement. Uh we're looking at service offerings. Next, we're going to start to see, okay, if this merger does happen, where would where would the staff sit? Um, we're working on all of
that. Uh, the first week of October is when all of those details are going to be released. Um, we're be working through the transportation management area leadership group, which is a regional entity representing the three NPOS's. Um, and the goal is to have this voted on and sent to the governor in
February of next year, all to get this merged NO operational by the summer of 2028. And this will take a vote from the three boards of county commissioners and the city of Tampa by law because the city of Tampa is the largest central city.
And then this is just an update on some other Ford panelist support that we offer. We offer that data visualization I touched on mapping support. We have a really robust traffic counting program where every spring and every fall we go out and we count about 60 different locations. Um but we also have additional budget. So if you need if you
want traffic counts somewhere in your city, give us a call. We have a supplemental budget that we can go out and gather counts, bike, ped, vehicle, truck, um, anytime. Uh, crash data, we have 25,000 plus crashes every year in Penllis County and we have them all in our database. So, if you ever need crash
data, uh, we are happy to pull that for you for just your city, the broader area, a specific corridor, just give us a call. Uh, and we provide that service uh, to our local governments. Um, and then also assistance with applications for land development approval. And then just that last note that interlocal agreement it was approved by you on July
7th. So that is in existence and I'm on time. I'm sorry I talk a little bit fast but I'm happy to answer any questions that you all have. >> You had uh appropriately noted that the city of Treasure Island hadn't been the a benefactor of any of the funding the
grants that you had uh mentioned that Ford Penllis has uh supported. Is it primarily just because we just haven't asked or >> So would would a project that would fit uh uh your criteria be something like improving the bike lanes and the and the
sidewalks along Golf Boulevard here, would that be the type of projects that that we could apply for grants with you? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yep. Yeah. If you would work with the Florida Department of Transportation, just get their blessing on that because it's a state road. Uh we would definitely consider that as a project.
>> Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? >> Thank you very much. We appreciate it. >> Thank you so much. >> All right. So, now what we're going to do is move on to uh the comments, public comments. And the first one is Mark
Hoey. >> Good evening. Mark Hoey, District 3. Uh two separate comments. One on the uh Reptellus process. have had the uh pleasure of joining the three of the meetings on the community outreach. Uh,
good information, but I what one thing sticks out to me and I had mentioned this to Cheryl briefly, but in the tradeoffs and and we finally spent a little time on tradeoffs for more development, what's the trade-off, less development, what's the trade-off to the
city, the the general drift that I get is that if we don't support more development, the city's going to suffer from revenue. That's how I'm reading it and that's how it kind of comes across to me and and some others.
Um yet it kind of belies the fact that speaking of Treasure Island 80% of the revenues coming from property taxes from residential. Now, I know residential's taken a hit. Obviously, we all know that
over the result of the storms, but over time, I don't believe that percentage is going to change much because we're going from one and $1.5 million homes that are being replaced by three, four, and 5 million homes. And that's going to take
a few years, but when that hits, we're going to see again a significant uptake in residential property taxes. again depending on what happens in November. But I I just wanted to kind of get that clarified a bit in my mind uh because it
just seems like there doesn't have to be that significant of a tradeoff. And the second one is for our uh representative for forward penllis. If possible, I think for the benefit of the public, I'd like to know very briefly
how forward panelis is funded. Thank you. >> Thanks. Do you have some comments that you would like to share? >> Thank you. Cheryl Trent with Rafelis. Thank you, by the way, for all the work you've done to support this process and spread the word. It's really critical.
So, the general fund sustainability model that I mentioned, that is the financial model that will show the exact data. That's the the proof, if you will, of what happens when you, for example, might rebuild, anecdotally, I've been told, 300 single family homes. I'm
trying to verify that to see how many homes were destroyed, how many have been rebuilt because Mark mentioned the timing. So all of that will be in the financial model and that is the the sort of the financial data. I apologize if it felt skewed. It was not my intent to be
skewed. Although it is generally speaking true that a diversified economy is better than a single sole source stream economy. So if you're heavily dependent on residential property tax, you can see a lot more fluctuation in
your general fund than if you had more diversity. And if you had more population, of course, the way Florida works is that you'll get a higher sales tax based on your per capita. So if you want to try to drive some population numbers, then that can also diversify
your income stream. So I apologize, it was not meant to be skewed. That was not my intent. And that financial model will give us the actual data. >> Great. Thank you, Cheryl. Donna Jollymore. >> Um, good evening, Mayor, Doctor, Vice
Mayor Vasquez Commissioner City Staff, residents, Don and Jolly Moore, the Thunderbird. Um, back at the beginning of November, the city held a joint workshop to discuss the future of planned development in Treasure Island. Just two weeks later on November 18th, our requested comprehensive plan amendments were denied with the
understanding that the city would um instead pursue plan development. Here we are nine months later and Treasure Allen still does not have that uh plan development process in place. Granted, there has been um lots of conversation and it Ruff Telus is doing a remarkable job, but there's still no implementation
and still no path forward. Um it was surprising last night um hearing last night that the recommendations regarding height and density may not come until December. I may have misunderstood because tonight I believe uh Cheryl said September but we may need clarification on that. Um because at the last
commission meeting it was stated that we should begin having the necessary answers by September. So, we must ask why do the uh why do the timelines continue to move further away and why does a rebuild of Treasure Island continue to be delayed? Over the past
three community meetings, the residents themselves described parts of Treasure Island as abandoned, deserted, looking like hurricanes happened yesterday, uninviting embarrassing unsafe neglected deteriorating stagnant and in need of reinvestment. Uh that's just
to name a few. These are not my words. These are the words of your residents. If that is how the community sees itself today, then why does the process continue to move so slowly? Every additional month of delay is another month that the businesses remain closed, employees remain displaced, investment
sits on the sidelines, the tax revenue is lost, and storm damaged properties continue to define your landscape. Um, another point that has been raised repeatedly is that the residents are not against development, but they want smart development. Um because I wanted to understand this comment better, I looked
up the principles of smart development. Smart development is generally defined as making efficient use of land, promoting walkability and connectivity, protecting environmental resources, supporting economic sustainability, uh creating resilient infrastructure,
designing attractive public spaces, and balancing private investment with community benefits. Um, when I read that list, it struck me that these are the very same goals that the responsible developers are trying to achieve here in Treasure Island as well. Uh, we all want resilient buildings. We all want
attractive architecture. We all want environmental stewardship. We all want economic sustainability. We all want projects that strengthen the community while respecting uh the character of Treasure Island. Um, so if the residents and developers are seeking the same outcome with smart development, the
question is what is preventing us from moving the process forward. Uh, the longer the process takes, the longer Treasure Island remains exactly as residents have described it. Uh, the facts are before us. The need is before us. The residents have told us how they feel about the current condition of the
community. We all say we want smart development. Uh, Treasure Island has an opportunity to rebuild in a way that is stronger, more resilient, more attractive, and better prepared for the future. Uh, we have property owners ready to invest millions of dollars back into the community. We have the
opportunity to replace storm damaged properties with projects that enhance our city, strengthen our economy, and provide lasting benefits for the residents and visitors alike. Uh, we already know that Treasure Island should rebuild. Now, we need to make it possible to rebuild. Um, I respectfully
ask the commission to help move the process forward with the urgency that our residents, businesses, property owners, employees, and visitors deserve. Uh, there are many things that can get approved um and ready to go as Refillis goes through their process to provide
recommendations and guidance to move Treasure Island forward. Thank you. >> Thank you, Donna. Don Nemis, >> Mr. Mayor, Madam Vice Mayor, Commissioner, staff, fellow residents. Um, first I'd like to compliment Cheryl
on her presentation. I thought she made a lot of really, really good points. Um, the workshop I think is a very good idea. I think some of the commissioners have already mentioned that in the past. I loved her comment about being more specific than general in our codes. Um,
she made the comment that different standards should apply for different locations. And I think you're hearing that from a lot of uh residents. I do think that, you know, what we should do in one location up by John's Pass maybe should be different than what we should do downtown and we need to be thoughtful
about that. I really liked her comment about environmental standards. Some of you know I teach environmental law at Stson Law School is one of the many hats I wear and that was near and dear to my heart. So I appreciated that as well. One thing I wanted to rise to mention uh was talk about was something I haven't
heard discussed much in this process. Um we are looking at specific parcels. We're not looking at the entire city. Most of those parcels are in private hands. Um we haven't talked much about the use of municipal finance tools to
whereby the city can make things uh less expensive for developers uh by using these tools. I'm not a municipal finance expert. I don't pretend to be. I know enough about it to know that there are tools out there that if you are creative
in the way you use them and you have the right people at your side and advising you that you can encourage development uh if if you're willing to do so. Um public private partnerships are a related concept here and I know some of you have mentioned public private partnerships.
uh these are really ways in which I think we can make development more attractive and I think your financial models ought to if not take it into account directly ought to the report ought to at least discuss what those are Cheryl and and educate us and educate the commissioners as to how those tools
might be used to help spur uh development. So that's really all I had to say and I thank you very much for your attention. Thank you, Don. Marie Barbara Marie Barbara, um, resident Sens Beach
and Paradise Island. Now, um, one of the things that sparked my interest, um, of the other speaker because I came here to, um, speak on the, um, comprehensive plan and you asked about the PD and, um, a comprehensive plan change and I don't think you were here when we talked about
that, but one of the things that sparked my interest here was the merging of the two entities of the transportation. It was the MO and um, the funding that would come in. It would be really interesting to see the mixed bag and the confusion we have over the uh it was the
Bill Young Bridge. The causeway bridge, the Basio Bridge was the only bridge in Florida that is funded um that is owned by a local government that we have no uh funding from people uh going p uh uh transferring or using the bridge to
cross over. Um so it's kind of private, it's kind of not. And it was funded by federal dollars. So maybe you can help us out with the next major repair on that where for funding. But what I wanted to say was um a question by Art
Sea and um we talked about um Florida state law requirements as a um uh required by the the Florida Department of Commerce for large scale amendments to the future land use um amendment changes. So if the PD amendment was
proposed by the L which was proposed by the LP uh LPA which entailed numerous parcels which may trigger a comprehensive plan change and approval by the state of Florida which is approval by the state of Florida if it's larger than the 50 acres. So this falls
under Florida statute if you want to look it up or the attorney 163.3184 that local governments can finalize smallcale amendments without the stay sign off or you know the comprehensive
plan change. So um providing there's no legal challenge. Well, another thing to keep in mind if you're a hotel owner um and that you it may trigger a if you're not if your property is not included in the uh PD plan that this might trigger a
um maybe a legal challenge from you or any other hotel owner if you're not included in that parcel. So, that's what I wanted to comment on. >> Thank you, Murray. All right, we >> answer a question real quick. Um, you
had asked who um, Forward Penellis was funded by. >> Yeah, it it's actually funded by our tax dollars. It's um, part of the millillage. It's the countywide millillage. So, it's funded by that and then additionally some transportation
grants from state and federal. So, I wanted to answer that because I asked the same question back when I was talking to him before we hired a master planner about the things they offer and I asked the same question. So, >> yeah. So, exactly.
>> All right, we're going to adjourn and uh I'd like to see everybody back in their seats at 6:15. Good evening and welcome to the regular commission meeting for August 4th, 2026. I'd like to call this meeting to order.
>> City clerk, would you please call the role? >> Vice Mayor Vazquez >> here. Commissioner Sison >> here. >> Commissioner Dicki >> here. >> Mayor Doctor >> here. >> Commissioner Clark is absent. >> All right. Moving on to the approval of regular agenda.
Do we have any uh anything? Okay, we're good. All right, moving on then to proclamations, recognitions of certificates, and appreciation. And our first one is going to be a Knights of Columbus donation to the
lift. You >> want me to say a word briefly? >> Please. >> We're the Knights of Columbus. We uh serve uh St. John Vienni Church uh and as well as Most Holy Name of Jesus Church in Gulfport. This is our grand
knight, Ron Busousard. This is our past grand night. Tim Barber and you probably know Clyde Smith of course >> and I'm Don Snow and I think you know me too. So we're just very happy to support Lyft. We're a small organization. We don't have a lot of money but what we do
have we we use to support really important charities like Lyft. And so we're very proud to do that. >> Today we'll be presenting a check for $500. Today we'll be presenting a check for $500 to the lift program based on one of
our charity initiatives. So Leslie on behalf of Knights of Columbus. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you for what you do for the community. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you for your support of the program also. >> Thank you. And we'd like if we can get a picture do you have anything to say?
>> Yeah, I just want to say Leslie um on behalf of Lift Board, we are entirely grateful for the Knights of Columbus. Not only do they provide monetary support, they also provide physical support of coming to our board meetings. So we are very grateful to the organization and um we are so very
thankful and it helps us becoming one step forward to becoming self- sustainable. >> Thank you so much. Let's go ahead and get a picture. Thanks. Thank you. All right, moving on. We have a pinning ceremony for firefighter
Morgan Keen. Sorry about that. What a beautiful family. >> Mayor, commissioners, thank you for having us once again. >> Um, as I I said last time we did this, um, this is a big event for the fire department. Uh, we hire somebody on, they've been through fire academy,
they've been through EMT school, and we get a year, they get a year of probationary employment. um that's their time to prove themselves to us and our time to show them that this is going to be their home for the next 25 years. So
um tonight we're here to recognize uh Morgan Keane, firefighter EMT, and uh welcome in him into our family. Welcome, um Kate Fischer and Keegan into our family as well. Uh it is a family affair. the family at home has to
sacrifice when when he winds up working Christmas and Thanksgiving and you know you can celebrate those days the day before or day after that's your choice but um you know it's it's a hard job it's a lot of work and we recognize the toll it takes on your family so we have
to bring them in and get them involved and that's why they're here today um that's why Kate and Fiser are going to pen >> firefighter Keane here you go sir Oh, that's awesome. >> So, Morgan's been with us a year. Uh,
when we hired him, he we knew he had a lot of boating experience, a lot of experience in the marine rescue world. So, uh, been a great resource for us. He grew up in the area. He knows our local waters, which helps. Um, so even though he's only been here a year, he's already
contributing and helping teach other folks, you know, how to how to make the water rescues and and do one of our specialty tasks. Um, know it's been a big year for you. You've done a lot of work getting your probationary task done. While you've done that, you you've completed almost Are you done with two?
>> Almost. >> Okay. two semesters of paramedic school, which in and of itself is a full-time job. So, he's raising a family. He's working in the fire department and going to paramedic school to better himself. So, um couldn't ask for a better guy to
be part of our team. Welcome. Thank you. Just want to say I'm excited to be here. Happy to pass my probation and looking forward to serving the uh citizens of Treasure Island. >> Fantastic. Thank you. Yeah, let's get a picture. Moving on, we have the Treasure Island Police
Department Chief's accommodation award. >> I'm going to keep the good news train rolling on the tracks here and I like to call us a little segment of while you were sleeping. And uh one of the best parts of Treasure Island is that it's a safe community and that's due no doubt to the hardworking men and women of the
police and fire departments here and their dedication to keeping us safe. And a lot of times people don't know exactly what's happening and that's a good thing. Um, it's a good thing because we go out there and we do our jobs every day not looking for accolades or accomplishments and just darn good
police work. And a little, and I'm going to call this breaking news because you are well aware we have to prepare our agenda two weeks in advance. Last Tuesday, and I'll be recognizing both squads about this, about 6:45 a.m., we got a burglar alarm call in the north end of town. Um, our officers responded,
the first officers got there within 45 seconds of the call. They ended up getting a, and I'm use the term loosely, a gentleman who had broken into an occupied dwelling of a 91-year-old man and he had dumped his belongings outside and he was prepared to do whatever he was going to do inside that house. Was
scared away by the alarm. Our officers apprehended him immediately. He was absconded from probation and he has a wrap sheet longer than you could ever imagine. Why he was out of jail, we don't understand the criminal justice system, but we put him right back where he belongs. and both the day shift and night shift shift squads responded to
that because that was right a shift change that was excellent. So why we are here tonight chief's commendation I couldn't be more thrilled than to give this award and let me read you this the narrative of what happened tonight I have the privilege of presenting the chief's commendation bar to officer Darren Chaputi for his exceptional
police work during an incident that occurred shortly after midnight on May 21st, 2026. He's right behind me here. Here stand next to me. You definitely don't have to stand behind me. While patrolling G Boulevard near 120th Avenue, Officer Chaputi observed a woman walking northbound along the roadway. He
also noticed a man in the same general area who appeared to be intoxicated and was stumbling as he walked. Although neither observation alone necessarily indicated that a crime was occurring, Officer Chaputi relied on his training, experience, and instincts and continued to monitor the area. Now, in honor of
the new Spider-Man movie that's just come out, we call this in Veteran Officers, Your Spider Senses Were Tingling. The man eventually entered the courtyard of the Lois Resort and disappeared from view. A short time later, the woman returned to the area and walked through the resort's west parking lot. The man
then reapper reappeared and began interacting with her. Officer Chaputi immediately recognized that the circumstances had changed. The interaction became confrontational and the man became yelling. Officer Chaputi then observed the man produced a handgun, manipulated the slide, and
pointed the weapon directly at the woman. The man subsequently lowered the firearm and the woman entered the resort's courtyard with the armored man following closely behind her. At that moment, Officer Chuputi was faced with a rapidly evolving and extremely dangerous situation. Based upon what he had
witnessed, there was an immediate concern that the woman was being forced into the hotel at gunpoint. There was also very real possibility that the incident could develop into a shooting, a hostage situation, barricaded subtc incident, or any other violent confrontation. Officer Chaputi
immediately notified the other officers working that night and they responded to the resort to locate the individuals. His actions from that point forward demonstrated not only decisiveness but restraint and sound tactical judgment. This is the part that says, "But there's
more." Rather than rushing into the room and potentially escalating the danger to the woman, the responding officers quietly approached unit number four. Through a window, they were able to observe the individuals inside and determined that the woman was not at the moment being physically restrained. This observation provided the officers with a
tactical advantage and allowed them to make a deliberate and coordinated approach to the door. The officers subsequently made contact, secured the firearm, separated the individuals, and conducted a thorough investigation. The investigator determined that the incident involved a domestic assault with a firearm and the suspect was taken
into custody without injury to the victim, the officers, the suspect or any of the hotel's other guests. The incident demonstrates why proactive patrol and experienced police work remains so important. Officer Chupi could have continued driving after his initial observations. Instead, he
recognized that something did not appear right and remained attentive and placed himself in a position to witness and respond to a serious act of violence. His awareness allowed officers to intervene before the situation escalated further. His decisiveness ensured that assistance arrived quickly, while his
patience and tactical judgment prevented the officer's response from unnecessarily increasing the danger. His actions may very well have prevented the victim from being seriously injured or killed, and may have also prevented a dangerous encounter involving innocent hotel guests and other responding officers. Officer Chibouti's actions
reflect the type of professional, proactive, and thoughtful policing we expect from the members of the Treasure Island Police Department. His performance brought great credit upon himself, his fellow officers in the department. For his superior awareness, sound judgment, and tactical discipline, and his commitment to protecting others,
is my honor to present Officer Darren Chapbouti with the chief's commendation bar. Thank you. >> Say there's no kids are saying. >> All right, we're going to be moving on to public comments for non-aggenda items.
The first is um Mari Wden. >> Hey, my name is Mary Wden. I just want to give a huge shout out to Jason, our beach sweeper, beach cleaner. He's out there every day. Keeps our beaches clean and pristine. He needs some acknowledgement. He works well with the beach service. So, I just want to say
thank you. >> Well, thank you very much for that. We'll make sure that he gets a big thank you as well. I don't see a name on this one, but at the bottom it says non-aggenda. Thank you commission. >> Yes.
>> First of all, Good evening gentlemen. I would like to thank you all for giving us the opportunity to present our concerns to you commission as a whole. Uh I would
like to address a couple things that happened at the prior meetings. Uh one of them is where uh our commissioner is not here tonight.
he presented to the commission. His concerns about wasteful spending by the uh by the city and uh the response to that was by Mayor
Doctor that he didn't want to go there uh concerning the wasteful spending. Um, I I think as a taxpayer we should be informed as to where our
money is spent. Also, I would like to address another uh thing that uh I had uh conversation with a uh one of the commissioners who was all four
having uh strong mayor uh government uh was behind me and then after uh I contacted him. I don't want to mention any names because I don't want to embarrass anybody. He stated that uh he changed his mind
that a lot of people that worked in city hall as heads of departments he met with and they told him that they didn't want a strong mayor because they wouldn't be
able to run their departments the way they wanted to. My response was, well, they don't want to be accountable for how they run their departments. And basically
that we both agreed on. Uh he stated that because he was personal friends, they socialized together that he changed his mind that I should ask another commissioner to form uh a committee
where we sit down with the commissioners and discuss the spending and what's going on in the city. like we might have be able to have a special meeting once a month with the commission take a particular topic discuss it for
15 minutes but openly discuss it so that we have some say in our government that's all the more reason why uh I believe I don't know whether it was you uh Mr. Mayor or one of the commissioners
we had a gentleman by the name of Mr. Brainard who ran a a city or a town. He was ahead of it. He was a strong mayor. He spoke here at your your request. I believe Mr.
Mayor and you were supposed to invite him back, but we never got him back. So, I was wondering if you could invite him back to speak at the next meeting and explain to all of us exactly
how the strong mayor works versus city manager. Uh, and that way maybe we can move forward and hopefully change our form of government, which we all know doesn't work.
So, that's about all I've got to say. Uh would you, Mr. Mayor, invite him back? >> Um, we're not going to take uh any back and forth here. You you get the opportunity to come up and give your statements and then uh then finish up.
>> Would you have a problem if I invited him back? >> Would you let him speak at the meeting? Are you going to stand there for the last 30 seconds? >> I don't know. I want >> I just told you that this is not a give and take. You've got 20 seconds if
you've got anything to say. >> Oh, you can't answer. >> They don't answer questions. They just take >> Oh, okay. All right. So then I'll invite him back. Just hope hope that you'll let them speak. Okay. Thanks, >> Sarah Pennington.
Hi there. Uh Sarah Pennington, Isa Palms. Uh two quick topics. One of them is we have a budget meeting on Friday at 10:00 a.m. which a lot of people might be working and might not be able to attend that or even for those that can attend it. It would be really nice if
whatever slides are prepared for this budget meeting if those could be released for those who can't attend or for those who are and they just want to be prepared and know what's going on um with the budget because I know it's a big topic. Um West and I were driving around recently and we started counting
and we realized there's only four hotels in all of Treasure Island that we counted that aren't open. There's only four. Um, that would be the Thunderbird, the Sands, the Swashbuckler, and the Tahesian. And now I see great signage over at the Tahesian that it is going to
be reopening soon. It's being repaired. So that leaves us with three, which is really exciting. Um, and we do we have a once-ina-lifetime opportunity to develop Treasure Island thoughtfully. Pushing to just get it
done right now to me is disrespectful to the process and the citizens of the town who are paying our tax dollars for this master planning process, particularly when some properties have not even demoed the original building, especially
when you consider the entire PD process was considered and initiated for the most part in reference to the Thunderbird to help the Thunderbird. I would argue that the reason some of the areas in our town look terrible right now is due to the properties that have
not been properly maintained or shown basic respect to the town. The developers do have rights to their opinions, of course, but residents are the largest stakeholders in Treasure Island. We need to be thoughtful and make responsible decisions based on
data, ensuring all potential effects are considered. We need to do it right, not just do it right now. Thank you. >> Thank you, Sarah. Mark Hoey, >> Sarah covered what I was gonna say about those documents.
>> Oh, great. Thank you. And I hope that everybody shows up for that meeting on Friday of this week. It's our uh annual budget meeting. So, uh, Jay Smith, >> thank you for having me. And I I have to
apologize. My left ear is totally plugged from swimming and I can't get it unplugged. I'm so I've been trying. And I would like to uh thank the lovely lady that just spoke because she brought up a part that went into my comments to help
our city code compliance do a better job in referencing a lot of the home properties that that are next like one next to me. You don't even have to you could I could drive ride my bike bike up and down Isa Capri and see all these
empty houses that they're rehabbing. And the one guy tells me he's uh oh I he brags about he bought 35 properties and uh he's willy-nilly rehabbing these properties where like I don't even know if they have
permits truthfully the way they're doing it. I I my concern is how the properties have not been maintained. Like the brush that's now this tall and up in the back of my house, their property, the big
Franapany went over is so huge now it's laying across the seaw wall on the fence and big branches are hanging over the water for the dolphins and the fishes. And if that cracks off, it's going to impede the waterways. Plus, there's other there's a big palm
tree and not just it's leaning and it's leaning more and more. And with that property, the landscaping around it's upheaving the ground. That palm tree is going to go right over in my property and knock down my palm tree and have my
seaw wall and break my sprinkler system that I am the princess maintain beautifully. that property as many, not just that one, many around the island, even Iowa is Iowa Palm, Treasure, uh, Paradise, the whole island. There are many
properties to this avail. And they said to me today, well, they can see like there's a Fran Penny. It's hanging over in front that cracked off. It's partially in the gutterway. Okay. So, the one in the back's even worse. It's
bigger. So, other properties are like that. So, I'm I'm thinking, why don't they have drone surveillance? In fact, this property, you could stand there and see through the garage because there's no garage door there. It's down on the ground. You could see inside the whole
property. So, I don't know about the other properties, but you could use a drone and fly over and see the back in case they have buried bodies there. Who knows what they have back there? I know there's been no rain since God gave us the rain on those properties because
they don't have sprinklers. And so everything's been dry. And I worry about these guys out there. They sip smoke. They drop their cigarette butts. And I go around and I check around in front where I can that if they leave their cup from drinking, they work hard. I pick up
the trash. And I'm worried about fires. And then I'm worried about the trees falling over into my yard or onto my house. They can take a drone. I heard somebody in the pro in the city, Jason is it has a drone. The police used to have a
drone. Then they couldn't have the drone because they remain China in their, you know, security risk. So they have to get a new drone. The paramedics or the the fire department, I don't think they have a drone. But I think And then you think they the the uh they could use the boat
up the road. Don't they have a boat? They can go down the canal and look at the back properties, not just the front and back, and hit them. We have to maintain our properties. We are We live here. We respect our homestead. And I feel violated that. And I feel I'm sure
all you people that have properties around by you feel violated that they're not maintaining their properties. You live across the canal. You could see that Fran panty hanging over the seaw wall. I mean, the trunk's just hu it's huge. Anyhow, so I just came to say
offer my um a thought. I wrote drone surveillance because my husband has drones and they could drone over the properties, not even have to go on the boat and see the backs of the properties and see how their the brush is piling up all the debris and at least clean up the
brush there. Whatever they're doing to the house, you know, that's not my concern right now. as the brush, the rodents, the mosquitoes, the fire hazard, and damage to property if those trees fall over as
one is hanging there. And thank you. And I heard that the policeman might get a drone. And they said they'd be glad to help with code compliance. >> Thank you, Mrs. Smith. >> Can I say something about >> I hope I wasn't hard. I love your pink, >> West Evans.
I do >> twice. >> West Evans, Isa Palms. I would encourage uh the lady who just spoke, get to call code compliance so they can know exactly which property you're talking about. Get them on it. Um I wanted to speak
tonight. Uh actually I wanted to Knights of Columbus are walking out the door. I wanted to thank them for uh being here. As a lot of you guys know, uh my father was uh a mason, a shriner, a elk, a moose, uh Rotarian, what he everything you
could think of. My dad was involved in it and the head of it at some point. Um I love to see community action, uh people volunteering, uh doing a civic duty to make their community a better place. And a lot of you guys may know
that I spend a lot of weekends, sometimes during the week, driving around the state of Florida. I paint uh Florida landscapes and I sell them throughout the state. And I spend a lot of time on the east coast uh mainly between Vero Beach, Stewart, West Palm
Beach. Kind of that's my main area I spend a lot of time. And last weekend, uh, my sweetheart and I were driving through, it was either Vero Beach or Stewart, and there was fantastic landscaping in the median as we were
driving through. Much like, uh, our own causeway when you come in, uh, two lanes on each side, wide, uh, median in the middle, except it it was beautiful. It looked like a tropical resort. And I've at first I was thinking like,
man, like these guys must pay out the rear for property taxes to keep this maintained. And then as we got up to the middle of it, I noticed a sign that said this median maintained by Jason's
Landscaping Service. and it had his sign, his number, and it it really made me wonder why we don't maybe reach out to or I don't know if there's probably some legal way to do this. I'm sure, you know, working
through government, there's always some kind of something that has to be done, but we could really um we have a beautiful causeway coming in or it could be beautiful if we could somehow
reach out to landscaping services, palm tree companies, companies who maybe would want to show what they can do to as people are coming into the community. This is what your own yard could look like and we maintain it on behalf of
Treasure Island uh as in trade for us being able to show our sign right here. I think, you know, things like that are things we should maybe start looking towards, especially with hopefully property tax being eliminated soon. Um,
we can start looking at things like that and then also leaning on our uh civic associations for the help they can provide the city as well. Hope I didn't ramble too long. Thank you. >> Thank you, West. All right, that is the
end of our public comments and uh we have no approval of minutes this uh this evening. Moving on to the consent agenda. Do I have a motion? >> I move that we approve the consent
agenda as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, uh please call roll. Vice Mayor Vazquez. >> I, Commissioner Sison, I >> Commissioner Dicki, >> hi. >> Mayor Doctor,
>> hi. >> Thank you. >> Moving on to our items of business. Second and final reading of ordinance 2026-20 amending administrative waiverss and allowable encroachments. >> An ordinance of the city of Treasure
Island, Florida, amending 68, zoning regulations of the city of Treasure Island land development regulations. Amending section 68-35 administrative waiverss to authorize limited administrative relief for stair encroachments necessary to facilitate
the elevation of existing structures to meet flood plane requirements. Amending 68-542 allowable encroachments to provide additional balcony encroachment flexibility for existing structures elevated to meet flood plane
requirements. providing for severability, providing for conflicts, providing for codification, and providing for an effective date. This is the second and final reading. >> I move to approve ordinance 2026-20
at the second and final public hearing. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Uh I do not believe that we have uh any uh comments from the audience. So uh
we can close that. Any further discussion? All right. And roll call, please. >> Vice Mayor Vasquez. >> I. Commissioner Dicki. >> I. >> Commissioner Sison. >> I. >> Mayor Doctor >> I. H2. Resolution 2026-06
referendum election for amending section 3.07 of the city charter. >> This is the citizen petition initiative placing the matter on the ballot. We need to do a motion to approve this resolution so that the supervisor of
elections will place the ballot language on the ballot. A motion to approve doesn't necessarily condone the uh amendment, but it does pass it on to the supervisor of elections to post on the on the ballot. Um the deadline is uh
August 7th to put it on the next election. >> Okay. Do we have a motion? >> Um can I ask one question real quick? Um, I just want to make it clear because I this was brought to my attention and therefore I brought it to our city
attorney's attention just to make it clear to the general public. I mean, I'm putting it forward and all of that. Um, however, there was some questions raised as to if this would be considered
more restrictive. even though we don't currently have the PDS, we're moving toward that. Um, and this would be one more barrier to getting approved. So, I just wanted your opinion on the potential that that would be challenged
in the future as against it being more restrictive. >> So, Senate Bill uh 180 and the subsequent renewals prohibit more burdensome or restrictive land development regulations. Um there's no case law about whether or not a
supermajority vote would be a more burdensome or more restrictive. The requirements would be the same, but you would need one additional vote from the city commission to uh get approval of a plan development. U individual plan developments would be um voluntary
applications, but also would apply to special area plans. Um, so if a challenge were to be brought, it would be after the election if it passes in the election and that a court would make the determination. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you for that
explanation. I just wanted to make sure. >> Sure. >> I had the same question. >> Did you? Okay. >> Well, I I'd like to bring something up as well. I'm going to pass this to my fellow commissioners and I want to put this on the record as well. Thank you. Can >> we get one more for the clerk?
>> Sure. >> Thank you. So, uh, I also had that question about Senate Bill 180, but I want to make sure and confirm that you're confident that it presents no legal conflicts or risk. And before the city commission moves
forward, I want absolute clarification and your legal opinion that uh you fully evaluated this resolution under current law and are confident that it complies with allable stat statutes and does not create a
legal risk for the city. >> Yep. This is not something that city staff wrote. It's written by the citizens. Um so if it goes to review, it would be reviewed by the courts. Um, but I'm confident this is um legal to go to the referendum. >> Thank you.
>> It may be knocked out afterwards, but it's good to go to referendum. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Anything else? >> Okay. >> No. >> All right. I move to approve resolution 2026-06.
>> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any discussion up here? We'll go to public comment and Mark Hoey. Uh, good evening again, Mark Hoey, District 3. I stand here as the chairman
of the petition group that is forwarding this for your approval and ultimately to go to the voters. This, you know, your decision tonight is not yes or no that you agree or disagree. is really to let the voters decide, the Treasure Island
voters. We had 120% of the minimum required uh signatures. It came quick and fast. As I've mentioned to you before, there's a lot of desire for the citizens of Treasure Island to have a voice, a bigger voice in development
decisions that will soon be forthcoming. I think it's a foregone conclusion that some form of PD will exist that will guide development and that's going to make a very important decision on behalf of you as the commissioners and your
future commissioners and the feeling from the residents is they want to have assurance that they have a better voice in this important decision going forward. So that's what this is about is
let this go. Let the voters decide. But more importantly, win lose or draw, listen to the constituents who want to have a bigger voice in this action. They don't feel they have that up to this point. So I appreciate your support on
this and thank you very much. >> Thank you, Barb Adams. Marbams, Isa Palms. Um, as we know, Commissioner Clark's not here uh this evening, and he had made a brief statement here that he'd like to have
read into the record. Um, I support resolution 2026-06 because it gives the residents of Treasure Island the opportunity to decide an important public policy question for themselves. The question before us is straightforward. Should the
citizens of Treasure Island be allowed to vote on a charter amendment that they lawfully petitioned to place on the ballot? The dedicated group of residents gathered more than enough valid signatures to qualify this referendum. They followed the process established by
law and their effort deserves our respect regardless of where any of us may stand on the proposed amendment. Approving resol resolution 2026-06 is not an endorsement of the charter amendment itself. It does not require
any commissioner to support or oppose the amendment when it comes before voters. Rather, it affirms our commitment to the citizen initiative process and recognizes the right of our residents to decide this issue for themselves. Decisions involving major
planned developments can shape our commercial districts and influence the future of our city for decades. Reasonable people can disagree about whether those decisions should require a simple majority or a supermajority vote of the commission. That debate is
exactly why this question belongs before the voters. Today is not about the merits of the amendment. It's about respecting the democratic process. It's about honoring the work of our residents who followed that process and ensuring that their voices are heard. Whatever
the outcome in November, the decision should be made by the people of Treasure Island, not by five commissioners deciding whether the question can even be asked. For these reasons, I respectfully ask for your support of resolution 2026-06,
Chris Clark, District 2. Thank you very much. Um, Marie, Barbara, Barbara, no. Okay. And West Evans, Zyla Palms, uh, the question that the vice mayor uh, and Arthur and John
Doctor, uh, you guys all I guess all agreed you had for the attorney. I helped gather signatures for this and uh it was something we actually asked ourselves as well. Does this create a
burden that uh would be counter to the Senate bill? And uh we had several attorneys uh tell us that this is not does not constitute a burden because if this if
needing a supermajority would be a burden, needing any majority at all would constitute a burden and at that point it's asking asking the commission for anything if that would be a burden. At some point it uh
it does have to come before the commission. Whether that takes three votes, four votes, five votes, it's still a question that has to come before the commission. And if needing three, if needing four is a burden, then needing
three is a burden at that point, which obviously we know that's not the case. I hope I makes sense in my way of saying that. I'm just saying this off the top of my head from memory, but uh let me know if you have any questions about that. Thank you.
>> All right. Do we have a motion? >> Oh, while you get that ready, let me read the entire header because I think I read the summary that was in the agenda. >> Okay, >> let me read the whole uh header for resolution number 2026. a resolution of the city commission of
the city of Treasure Island, Florida, calling a referendum election to be held in conjunction with the November 3rd, 2026 general election on the question of whether to amend section 3.07C of the city charter to require a
supermajority vote of four members of the board of commissioners for the approval of any plan developments or special area plans, providing for the ballot title and ballot summary. Providing for the full text of the proposed amendment, directing the city clerk to certify the ballot question to
the Penllis County Supervisor of Elections, directing the city clerk to satisfy the requirements of section 100.352 Florida statutes, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date. >> Thank you,
Lisa. Have we uh already done the motion reading? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, um all right. So, um the what what I will say uh before we take the vote um is that um yes, the the way that it was
presented, it it's it's fine. Um and uh I although I wouldn't necessarily support it um I will because what we what will happen ultimately is there will be a challenge after the fact when
it's whether it wins or not it it'd be after the fact and uh with that being said you know there's no harm no foul the courts will decide. Well, I'll just add one thing to this is
that and I'm actually going to uh quote Vice Mayor Vasquez on this. I think you had mentioned when we talked about this originally that uh this doesn't bother you at all because if it's a good idea, uh if it's a and these are supposed to be exceptional ideas, uh it's more
likely to get a 50 vote than it is anything short of that. So, I think that's a very good very well said and I agree with that. Okay. >> Vice Mayor Vazquez I. Commissioner Dicki. >> Hi. >> Commissioner Sison. >> No. >> Mayor Doctor
>> I. All right. Moving on. Consider uh our resolution 202605 establishing an auditor selection committee. This is a resolution of the city commission of city of treasure
island establishing an auditor selection committee which will also serve as the audit committee as required in section 218.391 of Florida statutes and providing an effective date. This is a state requirement when we choose an auditor um
to have an audit selection committee. The last time we did this was five years ago and our contract with the existing auditor has now been extended to the maximum. So we have to uh go out for bids. The bids will come in first. It will go through the audit selection committee and then it would go to the
full city commission. >> Okay. You have to have at least one of uh the city commissioners on the audit selection committee, but you can have three members of the city commission on that committee if you'd like. Also, the finance director will serve um
as staff to the committee in an advisory role, but won't be actually a member, a voting member of the audit selection committee. >> Okay. Would any residents be part of that group? >> You can if you would like to uh nominate one. >> Okay.
>> Okay. So, let's uh let's discuss that. Um are you in favor of having somebody from uh from the residence? I don't have anybody specifically in mind, but I was just curious if that was mostly a res a resident driven uh group
or >> No, usually it is is the u the commission. Okay. >> It usually is just as it is. Is that the finance folks uh back it as well as selecting three commissioners? >> Okay. It's kind of like um the bid selection committee uh that we ran
through one time where you were the bid selection committee would be similar. you will make a recommendation. The audit selection committee will make us a recommendation to the full city commission. >> Correct? >> So, it gives you a little bit time to go through it and then maybe put it on the consent agenda when it comes to city commission.
>> Okay. So, yeah, this is as it is. It says considering and establishing the uh review. So, uh I think that we're good. um >> shouldn't take too long to be on there and you're um all super qualified to be
on this audit selection committee. So, we just need three volunteers. >> Okay. But that wouldn't be tonight. >> It's tonight. >> Oh, it is tonight. Okay. So, let's >> um Commissioner Dicki, would you like to be on there? >> I was hoping you were going to ask me last, but uh yes, I'll I'll be on.
>> Commissioner or mayor, Vice Mayor. >> Yes. So, and are there? >> Yep. >> Okay. And uh and then we'll have a representative from our finance department. >> Thank you, mayor. >> I cannot be a voting member of that committee. I can be I can serve as an advisor.
>> Okay. Great. We appreciate that. >> Can we take a formal roll call just to approve those three three appointments? >> I need a motion. >> Do we do we have any audience uh participation hearing? None. Okay. Let's uh let's go
ahead and move forward. >> So, do I need to do the motion with the names? >> Yes. Yes, please. >> Okay. That's what I thought, but I wanted to make sure. Okay. I move to adopt resolution 2026-05
establishing an auditor selection committee which will also serve as an audit committee as required by section 218 uh 391 of Florida statute and
serving will be Ardan Dick Commissioner Ardan Dicki Commissioner Arthur Saison and myself Vice Mayor Tammy Vasquez Second. We have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. >> Vice Mayor Vasquez, >> I.
>> Commissioner Sison, >> I. >> Commissioner Dicki, >> I. >> Mayor Doctor, >> I. >> Thank you. >> Moving on to item four, consider establishing a charter review committee. Um, let me pull this one up.
This is resolution 2021-13, a resolution of the city commission of the city of Treasure Island, finding there is a necessity for review of the charter of the city of Treasure Island, Florida, pursuant to section 6.01 01 of the city charter, providing for the establishment of a charter review
committee, providing guidelines for the appointment of members, providing organizational guidelines, providing for the powers of charter review committee, and providing for an effective date. That was the 2021 uh resolution. >> There's not. >> And we have a companion.
>> There's not a resolution before you this evening. >> Okay. So the reason this is on mayor is it's been five years since you've had a charter review. You don't have to have one at the fiveyear mark. You can say we got a lot going on. We want to do it in
a year or two from now or you can and say we want a charter review committee and then >> Okay. So it's just a discussion and make kind of make a decision on what we'd like to do. I think since we suffered catastrophic losses after the hurricane, I think it's
wise to look into the future. Hopefully, it never happens again. But, you know, we got to make some changes if if there is needed changes. That's my personal opinion. >> I would agree. I mean, I sat on the charter review, my god, it's been 10
years ago, I think, now or more. So, >> yeah. And this is when you were in 2021, you were appointed at large. >> Oh, there you go. I'm like, I don't know when it was. >> Um I just five years ago, uh I we went through this process.
>> Uh maybe it's closer to six years ago with the uh the pandemic and everything else. But uh um this is an opportunity where uh what we did back then is that we had each commissioner and then the mayor select from our our our residents
um people to be on that review committee. And I think that that uh it it panned out pretty well that uh that we gave people the opportunity. they took it very seriously and they uh they were act out uh asking and talking to
neighbors and going to their civic associations and and talking with so that uh I don't know if it says how many people need to be on the committee >> um last time >> I think there were five >> last time each commissioner appointed
one person and the mayor appointed three >> okay there shall be one member of the charter review committee appointed from each election district from within the city who shall be appointed by the city commission based upon their recommendations from the city commissioner elected from that district.
In addition, there shall be three members appointed from the city at large who shall be appointed by the city commission based on their recommendation of the mayor. >> Okay. So, uh yes, what let's uh I think we all want to move forward on this.
>> Sure. Oh, the only other restriction is that they have to be electors of the Treasure Island and they can't be on any other city board. >> Okay, >> that answers my question. Thank you. >> Great. So, okay, let's uh have a consensus on this and move forward for
>> Is it a motion? >> You don't have to do a motion if you don't want to. What I was going to say is if you if there is consensus at the next meeting, we will bring you back the actual resolution that'll set guidelines for, you know, the appointments that Ralph just mentioned. And um then we'll
start advertising and we will bring you back probably late September, early October actual nominations for you to consider. >> Great. Thank you. >> We'll take applications that. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> Okay. So, let's go on to the next
item. >> This is a piggyback agreement with Ajax Paving Industries of Florida for roadway resurfacing and repair services. We have a motion. I move to approve a piggyback agreement with Ajax Paving
Industries of Florida for roadway roadway resurfacing and repair services. >> Second. We have a motion and a second. Uh any discussion? Do we have anybody in the audience?
Hearing none, we'll close that. Let's hope we could uh do some uh paving on 107th Avenue uh between the Basco Bridge and West Causeway. I mean, it's definitely degrading on the uh right side of the road heading east. So, okay.
All right. Um, we've read the motion and so let's do a roll call. >> Vice Mayor Vazquez, >> I. >> Commissioner Dicki, >> I. >> Commissioner Sison, >> I. >> Mayor Doctor, >> I. >> Thank you.
And now we'll move into uh city manager and city attorney reports. >> I have nothing this evening. I'll defer to city manager. Okay. Mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, uh citizens. Um happy to to bring some good news and
just highlight some extraordinary effort um that's taken place in the last year here. Um, as you're all well aware, uh, we have had several citywide,
uh, projects. Um, there's been much discussion about them and, uh, progress has been made in really just so many areas. Um, but what I'm particularly proud of and would like to thank public
works and our planners and the people that have been a part of this, uh, when Mr. Volan and I got here, there was about $3.2 million, uh, budgeted for Dune Walkover full
replacement. And through taking a good hard assessment at how that money was going to be spent, um we we took a a a lot of different directions and brought that cost down
significantly. Our own city employees did a lot of the work. Uh we did a lot of coordination with FD uh to provide them uh everything they needed to go up the coastal construction line. Um, and we've completed a lot of
that work at a significant savings to the Treasure Island taxpayer and so that you guys have money to spend on other projects if you like. Next slide. Um, we all inherited an ongoing already in
progress living shoreline and um, beat up clubhouse at Treasure Bay. Um, again, we've done a lot of that work inhouse. Um, we've been able to restore the
clubhouse, which is on ground level, as you know, that we're considering still several options at Treasure Bay. Uh but with a lot of uh diligent project management um in and actually staff doing in-house
work including the two gazebo structures irrigation etc. Um we were able to do significant work um at a substantial cost savings. Um Sunset Beach Pavilion, I think we were all there um when we had our ribbon
cutting a couple of months ago. Um, again, we walked into a plan for full up uh tear down and replacement, and we found that we could um salvage a lot of what was there, that it was structurally
sound enough to repair it versus totally replace the whole thing. Um, we had contractors engaged, um, but we were able to do some of the work with our internal staff and I think the project turned out beautifully. I heard nothing but rave reviews that night.
Many of you in the audience were there as well. Next slide. Um, our community center um was badly damaged. Um, we had to pull a permit with ourselves and did
and again used a lot of internal workforce labor ingenuity and uh value engineering to return it to full use. Many of you have been in there for chili cookoffs. We're doing our community engagement meetings with the master
planner uh etc etc and we have a very usable uh building. Once again the bottom line is that in these four projects public works staff has demonstrated a commitment to responsible steward
stewardship of city resources by identifying some practical alternatives using in-house expertise. And these efforts have allowed the city to reduce consultant and construction cost um
avoid unnecessary full replacements and provide uh some hard infrastructure and soft infrastructure um in a very cost-effective and timely manner. So thank you for everybody that was involved with that. Thank you commissioners for supporting us in doing
some of that work ourselves. I think that um has all uh benefited everybody here. I do have three other things I'd like to hit that aren't on any Well, yep, I said that. Um,
a couple weeks ago, um, Commissioner Saison, uh, brought up trees and Miss Haduk is here for Roselli Park doing some shade alternatives. And I'd like her to come up and just give you a brief update on where we are with uh, possible
shade options for Treasure uh, Roselli Park. >> Good evening. As requested, we did receive um quotes for some trees. We've been working with Ballinger Landscape and they have recommended um a few
options for trees. One being a live oak um one being a I'm going to get it wrong. A gumb a gumbo limbo tree and one a silver buttonwood tree. Um we have gotten prices on the gumbo limbo and the
buttonwood. Both are very salt tolerant. They don't have that extensive invasive root system as an oak wood to put trees at Roselli Park as an option. Um looking for direction before we proceed. But the
trees approximately we're looking at four gumbo limbo to Buttonwood and that would be approximately about $20,000. We'll also have some money still in our budget for this year to shade the standalone swing set. So, we just need
direction on how to proceed. >> Did you happen to ask um what the approximate time frame of the growth to where >> I'm not a tree person, but >> would be significant. I know live are
slow growers, >> water, >> if you go with a more mature tree, they're not as hearty and they tend to struggle a little bit more. But if we were to go with a um so I'll read what
he said. Um a longer transplant shock recovery is 6 to 18 months for a larger mature tree. higher mortality rate in sandy seline soils and increased aid irrigation maintenance requirements. If we were to
go with a preferred size of 3 to 4 in caliber 10 to 14 ft high, those established faster adapt better to sight conditions and often catch up to a larger specimens within 3 to 5 years.
>> So, what's the biggest we could get? Um, they're recommending we received quotes on an installed 6-inch gumbo limbo tree will run about 35 or 3,300. An installed 4-in buttonwood tree will run around
2550. >> So, we're not looking at shade for that park for a long time. >> Correct. >> Did Did you say something about some of it would be shaded, though? So, we do have money in this year's budget to shade that standalone swing set that's
kind of just out there between the pickle ball courts and the um softball field. And that was about I want to say it was 15,000. But though, if we end up, we're going to hear about it Friday. One
of my well my only CI pro CIP project that I put forward is the sun shade. That's it. And the original plan when we were talking about it before was to take the stingray shades that are on the current park and to move them to that to
reuse those and then cover the current park. So therefore, we wouldn't need to do the standalone if we decide to do that. >> Correct. We we've had quite a few options, but if we were to cover the entire playground um with a shade structure similar to what we had shared
from Golfport, I think, and don't quote me on it, it was like 140 150. We could take the shade sales that exist today and move those to the standalone swing. And the only thing you would have there was a not so much an removal
installation cost, but a repair to the turf cost if if staff was to do it in house. >> Okay, that's what I thought. I mean, I can tell you everyone that I talked to, um, they'd
love to see trees just to be pretty, but it's not realistic that that is going to do what it needs to do to protect that the people or the children that want to play on that park. I mean, it's again, unless they go before 9:00 a.m. or they
go after 8:00 p.m., it's not you can't use it. So, I can tell you from my my side that, you know, I don't think we, as much as I would love to see beautiful trees out there, I'm still going to push for the um shade sales. And
unfortunately, I don't think we have room to do both as far as financially. I So, if I got to pick one, I'm gonna stick with that as my personal
thoughts. I I I would prefer that we u decide on this on Friday when we're looking at the other capital. >> Please. That's >> Well, the one thing we don't want to do is plant trees and have to remove them. >> Exactly. >> That's for sure. So, we just need
direction as to which way you would prefer. >> Okay. >> And I'll have all those playground numbers again and everything. >> So, that sounds like a hold, please. >> Yeah, >> that's fine. >> Thank you. Thank you, Kathy. Um, so I've received
some uh input from staff since the Ford Panelis uh presenter. Um, we have applied in 2025 for two projects with them and did not receive them and we're not waiting to receive them. We
know that we applied and did not receive them. And uh CDD is currently working with our grants manager to submit an application to Fort Panelis for implementation of adopted connectivity plan which includes roadway, sidewalk,
and bicycle lane improvements along the Gulf Boulevard corridor. So, um it's not that we haven't asked, not that we're not going to continue to ask. I didn't know all that off the top of my head when she was presenting, but I just wanted the commission to know that. And
the last thing, Commissioner uh Dicki, I believe, would you pass those down? It's one for you, asked me to uh do some arithmetic and show um how the two additional code enforcement officers were going to be funded. So, um finance
did a very simple side by side. There are two positions I'm not recommending back in the budget and um it's about $11,000 savings uh to continue the action that you guys approved two weeks ago. So, thank you
for that support and I know that's been a thing with a lot of the citizens. Uh we had another speaker tonight and so as soon as those people are on boarded, I I would think in the fall we'll see quite an uptick in code enforcement action. >> All right. Thank you. You're welcome.
>> All right, Vice Mayor. >> All right. So, this is not an easy conversation to have. Um, what I'm addressing is not a single disagreement or an isolated incident,
but a continuing pattern involving fiscal judgment, hiring decisions, communication failures, interference with commissioners ability to perform their elected responsibilities, and inappropriate workplace conduct.
As an elected commissioner, I have a fiduciary responsibility to safeguard the city's public funds and protect the interest of the residents. Consistent with that responsibility and my ethical obligation under the
standards overseen by the Florida Commission on Ethics, I believe I have a duty to bring this matter before the commission based upon the documentation. I'm sorry. Based upon the documented pattern of
fiscal mismanagement, excessive spending, unnecessarily costly hiring, and compensation decisions, failure to respond to official inquiries, interference with commissioners ability to obtain information and place matters
before the commission, an inappropriate workplace conduct, and the resulting loss of trust and confidence. events. I move to place city manager Charlie Charles Vanzant on paid administrative
leave effective immediately pending the formal investigation and formal consideration of his termination for cause. I further move that Mr. Vanzant immediately relinquish all managorial authority, access
credentials, cityisssued equipment and property and his place on the dis and that he be provided supervised access to retrieve his personal belongings without accessing removing altering or
destroying city records or property. that Assistant City Manager Gary Volneck immediately assume the duties of acting city manager, that all relevant city records and communications be preserved,
and that the ongoing outside investigation proceed independently and without inter interference, and that the city attorney place a written resolution addressing Mr. Vanzant's removal and termination for cause on the earliest
legally permissible commission agenda. I fur I further request that the acting city manager to the fullest extent permitted by the city charter and applicable law institute a temporary
administrative hold on non-public safety hiring terminations promotions and material changes in employee compensation until a new city manager is appointed. Any proposed creation of a
new non-public safety position shall be shall be presented to the city commission for approval. This hold shall not prevent necessary police or fire personnel actions, legally required
actions, employee discipline necessary to protect the city, or emergency actions essential to maintaining city operations. The acting city manager shall promptly notify the commission of any action
taken under this exception. >> Second >> and I am open if you want to discuss we can discuss. I mean I would >> I I certainly would like to comment on that when when appropriate. >> Please go ahead. >> Okay. uh listening to that uh list of of
of concerns that Vice Mayor Vasquez has about our city manager, I have uh not personally experienced any of those. Uh I meet with them weekly. I do understand that both the uh person that made the
motion and the one that second uh rarely meet with the city manager. I meet with them weekly. I I think I know the mayor does. I think Commissioner Clark does. uh if you don't meet with them on a regular basis and yeah there there's probably a lot going to fall through the cracks and my understanding is you guys
haven't met with them on a regular basis in a long time so yes things will fall through the crack I've seen no mismanagement of city funds uh he made a recent hire that was a a solid hire a good decision a highly experienced uh
person was put in that position and I think was the right thing to do uh I think even talking about replacing seen our city manager during the middle of a budget process is ridiculous. I think try I mean I just can't I trying to go out and recruit a new city manager after
we've fired uh two within within less than a year. Uh I just I just can't hardly uh grasp all of this. But anyway, I have said before and I will say again that that uh Mr. Vanzan has my full support. I have found him incredibly
uh helpful and easy to work with. Uh I can't cite a single incident where I've asked of him something of him for myself or my constituents where he failed to follow through on. So I would like to uh
dismiss this discussion completely. >> I would like to respond to the not meeting with the city manager. Um, I met with him weekly and talked to him more than weekly up until approximately seven weeks ago
and the meetings became continually very uncomfortable. Um, inappropriate conversations on many levels and I unfortunately
had to stop meeting. Um, one particular interaction happened a couple weeks ago to that's very verifiable. Um, there um, not Ralph but one of the other city attorneys um, heard partial of the
raised voices when the city manager confronted me between the PNZ and LPA meeting. Um, and it's on video as well, which I that has all been retained. um when he proceeded to tell me he did
not care if I wanted to hear him of why he was trying to force me to not put something on the agenda, he did not care whether I wanted to hear him or not that I was going to hear him. and I stood there and he raised his
voice, therefore I raised my voice to the point where a citizen came out into the atrium to make sure everything was okay because they heard the raised voices in this room >> of both of you. >> That was the icing on the cake for me and that is when I filed a formal
grievance against the city manager. I had let things go and let things go. And so the answer to your question, I met with the city manager all the time and had multiple conversations and through the months,
through things that I questioned him about, through things that did not make sense and did not add up when it came to receipts, people that were being hired potentially. Um
obviously the aggravation got more and more and on top of a few other things that because it's under investigation right now I I'm sure the city attorney would agree I probably shouldn't speak
on but um I agree and the last thing and I that's why I let it go for so long and many people will say Why on earth did you approve? Did you vote yes to approve
his uh contract for one more year? I absolutely did not want to, but I knew I didn't have the votes. Um it just fact is fact. So that that is fact. Um
I absolutely did not want to do this. I absolutely fought with myself. But some things that have come up and been discovered in the last five days. It is my,
as it states, my fiduciary obligation as an elected official not only to do what I'm doing right now, but to engage the investigations. And so I am doing what I feel I am
legally obligated to do as an elected official. And I get it. If you've never had an issue, I 100% understand, Ardan. But I will tell you that I have and
it's not minor. You know, I I believe that if there are certain things that have taken place that you think have reached, you know, a certain level to be investigated. Um, but I uh I agree with uh
Commissioner Dicki that uh you know, I I I've never had an issue with him. I uh I I'm sure I never would have a issue that would reach any level um with our uh our city manager and um
I'm going to give uh Arthur a chance here to to speak and then I'm going to call for a roll call. >> Thank you. So I didn't have confidence in Charles leadership. Um, I do send a lot of emails, but I would say 55% of my
emails are follow-up emails and they're pretty thick. Uh, I do have like last minute where I'm bombard them before lunch, uh, not set dates and we go through emails and still waiting for information on a lot of the items. Um, I
think as the CEO of Treasure Island, um, a lot of the responsibilities for our city managers to be involved in the community, um, and being seen, uh, I know he was there at the first two, uh, workshops that were presented. He wasn't
there last night. I hope he attends tomorrow. Um, and you know, uh, Treasure Island is a tourist town. We have the treasur on Madira Beach Chamber of Commerce and I I've heard uh that he doesn't attend any of those uh meetings. Tampa Bay Beach's Chamber of Commerce
has annual events um and uh uh the uh all the gatherings and dinners and you know to bring uh tourism to the island. He does not attend those. Uh he does work a lot from home whether that be at
Keystone Heights or Golfport. Um, I don't feel like he does 40 hours a week. Uh, you got to be here. You got to be present. You got to be a part of the community. And, you know, I see I keep bringing up West Causeway. You know, West Causeway is the main artery into
Treasure Island. And, you know, we have uh water uh pooling issues we need to put in. And I just get stonewalled every time. I honestly just send emails now to our assistant city managers and CC
Charlie now. Uh I get a pretty quick response from either Gary or Victor uh or even other uh city staff members and I do get reprimanded a lot that email should go to him but uh he doesn't respond. So, um, I go to the people who
respond and I get reprimanded a lot, but it is what it is and I don't have any confidence in his leadership ability. So, that that's my two cents. Thank you. >> And I I would like to state one more. Um, because again, I I totally get it if
you've never had an encounter and this is two different levels. There's there's two different levels to this. at the last um city commission meeting when um I was literally you could do a public
records request and see the back and forth emails when I was trying to get something placed on the agenda and it was the PD discussion and I think everyone that attended that meeting saw how I had to truly fight to
get that discussion to be had that day. >> Excuse me. >> And not only did I have to argue in that meeting, I had to do it the Thursday before to try to get it on the agenda, which is what I was being confronted on
in the atrium. And in that meeting in the workshop where I was discussing the Sunset Pavilion and the questions that I had heard and that
people had asked me and rumors that I heard that I just wanted to be resolved out in the open. The city manager, you could go back and look at the tape, scolded me, claim, go back and watch it, Mark,
claimed claimed that I should have never put it on the agenda. I should have emailed him directly and he could have easily answered the questions.
True. As I stated, can we can we please not talk while I'm talking? stated that had I emailed him that he would have answered the questions and it would not have needed to be discussed. I emailed the questions
to not only him but to Gary so he knew he had a print out of the questions. emailed them on the 15th exactly what was going to go on the workshop and the questions and the
actual meeting was on the 21st. Never heard a word, never heard an answer, never heard anything. But then I'm publicly scolded in a meeting saying that I summoned his employee to answer questions when Gary
knew full well and was actually already up here and that he was going to receive questions. And I was publicly scolded for that and told that I summoned an employee. And that is just one more example of why
I no longer meet with him one-on-one. And it is just the buildup. And I know that probably most of that comes from the things that I have discovered and that I have found and the whole reason
why I think that I am ethically bound to do what I'm doing. If I don't have the votes, that's fine. But I assure you because of my conscience and what I think I am legally obligated to do, I will do this at every meeting until it
is resolved or the findings come back from the investigations and the problem takes care of it of itself. But I can't sit here and continue on like this. Again, I I respect however you guys
vote, but understand we're going to do this at every meeting. >> The that's not something uh I look forward to doing at every meeting. But anyway, >> nor do I, Ardan. Nor do I. >> If I could comment on a couple of other things here. One is I I did hear uh you
talked about being u publicly scolded by the city manager with in reference to the uh uh pavilion park questions. I think I heard him say what he said and I think what he was saying is I could have answered your questions asked answered your questions and we wouldn't have
needed to be put on the on the uh on the workshop agenda and I had had we met regularly and I I took that as a him reaching out saying hey let's let's meet regularly like we used to but anyway >> but he had the email on the 15th the the
workshop was on the 21st he had ample time to reach out and answer questions or email me back. >> Okay. >> And there that was not done. >> The the other thing is >> it was public publicly scolding me for not reaching out to him when I did. >> Okay. The other another thing, uh,
Commissioner Sison, you you posted last Wednesday, uh, on your commissioner page, uh, a photo of his car being gone, and you said it's, you know, uh, the city manager went out to lunch, uh, and haven't seen him back. And this, you
posted this around 3:30, 4:00, I don't know exactly what time. >> I think Thursday. >> It was actually on Wednesday cuz I saw it. I saw it that day because I had I had three back-to-back meetings with the city commissioner or the city manager that day from 10 to 11, from 11 to 12,
and 12 to 1 to 30. And he had to excuse himself from one of my meetings because he had a follow-up meeting with Commissioner Clark. So, you were under the impression he wasn't here, but I had I was with him for three and a half hours, and Commissioner Clark met with him after I did. So, you know,
something's getting falling through the cracks here. But anyway, this is not the right time. Uh I do if you're concerned uh Vice Mayor Vasquez about about any kind of uh inappropriate transactions uh financial transactions, I encourage us
to do a an any kind of audit or or bring somebody uh an outsider in to being done. Okay. All right. So, I encourage that. uh I I think you'll find nothing but but let's go through the process and and uh as quickly as possible so we
don't have to hear this at at every meeting. Uh the other thing the only other thing I'd like to add is that if I wish Commissioner Clark was here so we could hear his thoughts on this but uh but he's not. So so maybe next week or next meeting uh uh we can hear uh from
him on that. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Um, I hate to ask this question, but u public comment I do. We do have to do
that. Um, yes. No. I >> Yes. >> Okay. So, um, can we, uh, we we'll see how we go with the five minutes, but um,
yes. Uh Rick >> Rick Matthew District 3. I cannot believe that we're doing this again. Absolutely cannot believe this. Well, one, let's go back to procedure. I think we just had an issue where due process
where we tried to do something and we said, "Nope, due process. We got to evaluate it. Where's that tonight?" Another thing was all five commissioners weren't here. something as important as this. We shouldn't be voting on it without five commissioners and the two commissioners that are trying to take
the moral high ground. Give me a freaking break. Oh my gosh. We have a a a city manager. We're in the middle of freaking hurricane season. We're in a budget analysis. Let's do this.
Okay. If there's something that do you have an improvement plan, what are the specific? I haven't heard any of this. I heard rousing endorsements couple months or a couple weeks ago for the city manager. You can't just flip-flop because he
doesn't do something you don't like. Being a leader is grooming people. Is there one perfect city manager? No. But there's a learning process. And unless you dictate that, there's no
learning. And you can sit there with your smug look, but this is this is garbage. And you know it's garbage. >> Stop with the personal attacks, Rick. It's what you're >> Okay. All right. Okay. Yes, Miss Smith.
>> Yes, you. Well, first of all, I think we all need to get back to a higher power than what's on earth and reach to that level and think in our hearts and our souls and in order to let
life go on, the city to go on every day you breathe on earth. Common sense in getting things done. There are always rules and regulations and yes, lawyers and you're going to sue you. But we need to get some common sense,
common ground to make our city whole again. And again, that's everybody. We need to reach into our souls and our hearts. And I'm sorry for everybody that's going through anything that's not right to
their heart and their soul because everybody has a heart and a soul. And we can make it better by simply being kind, common sense. Not like, okay, they passed the law, the
sunshine law, where because somebody was a bogus complainer or something, but when you come to don't don't return your calls or he he picked on you or whatever, it happens. And I I understand that. I make a phone call. I leave a
message. Did I get a call back? No. I had to come down to city hall and do my due diligence and face that person they left a message for on Friday. Today's Tuesday, so I gave them Apple time to
reach out to me. And that's on the basic level of city jobs and getting the job done. And they were there. They're sitting around in their offices. They're not out scoping the landscape or digging a hole, you know. And and I'm a princess
pruner. I listen to little things. And I planted a tree from Home Depot in my yard. It gives you plenty of shade. I paid $54. I picked up a a palm tree, foxtail palm that I could haul in my car.
I didn't have a big truck, so I I wanted to plant a tree and have shade. That gives you a 50 foot 20 foot span, and it's not a root structure. So, I am the princess printer shrub stylist. So, I was trying to help uh is it Kathy,
the the lady back there, the that set up her I was going to talk to her. You can get by a nice palm tree foxtails. They're very friendly. I did my research years ago. A Bedrock Book of Palms. Good book. And it doesn't have a bad a root
structure. I planted it in 2018. I keep a record of things. 2018. It was just as tall as me. It's now way up there. Big fronds shade. It grows three to five feet a year.
Takes a little fertilizer. That's it. But I the the most important part to all this is it's very sad that we're not doing the right thing from our heart in our
jobs. I was a nurse for 30 plus years. do no do no harm. And I can live to this day and know I loved every one of my persons, not just the patient, but their family. The teacher in nursing school, you can't
talk to be socialized with your patients. Why? They're sick. They're here. They want to be home with their family, with their dog or cat or bird or whatever they they love dearly at home. You have to connect with people at every
level in order to make life on earth right. That's it. >> Thank you. >> I'll pray. >> West >> West Evans is Palms. Uh I'm not going to comment one way or another on uh whether
I think uh Mr. Vanzant should be coming or going. But I will um say that uh Vice Mayor, one of the things you said, and I think everyone should take note of this and use it uh as a lesson for the future
that you voted a certain way uh a couple months ago because you didn't have the votes. And I know there's several of you up here who do that where you'll go along with something because well, I don't have the votes. It's not going to win.
So then I'm just going to be voting no instead of voting my conscience on it. And I think all well except Arthur. Arthur will vote no on everything. He he doesn't care. And honestly, that's what you should be doing.
It shows leadership. Even though each of you might not be the mayor or the vice mayor, whatever, you're all leaders. You're leaders for the community. You represent your district. you need to be voting uh the way uh your residents
would want you to vote and the way you think is right not just because the commissioners beside you are disagreeing with you at that moment. So in the future I hope all of you take that as a lesson for leadership and uh and do the right
thing. Thank you >> Mark Hoey. Uh, thank you, John. And, uh, District Three, um, I worked in corporate America for my entire career. I understand
the issues that could come up for, uh, conduct. Um, things that happen in the workplace that are unacceptable, things that happen that might be, uh, border on, you know, internal corruption or theft. All of
those things in a corporate workplace uh deserved and got a lot of attention and thorough investigation and reach a conclusion and at that point a decision is made either because it's corporate policy or it's legal policy.
But none of them none of those paths started like this and open public discourse about that. Uh and again, Vice Mayor, uh won't diminish any of the things you had to say that have been
wrong. They need to be investigated. They should be and and as you say, they shall be, but meanwhile, we can't uh basically hog tie city hall at this point and just wait for a resolution of that. And I don't think that puts us in
a good place to try to function. Uh obviously it becomes a huge distraction for everybody. Uh and the work the workforce that's here what are they how are they I mean it's just going to be dysfunction uh on top of dysfunction.
So, there's got to be a way to uh not table it, but set it aside and say we will do all of those investigations as required by law, as required by our charter, and then there'll be a full public discourse or display of what was
found and what the uh the the alternatives are that if need be, the commission decides, some higher authority decides, the law decides, whatever it has to be, The public deserves that and and you would deserve
that for if those things are proven true. But to to basically threaten that you're going to bring this up every meeting until you get your way is disingenuous and it's just wrong. We're we're better than
that. >> And I do want Okay, hold on. >> No, I just want to say due to sunshine due to sunshine, it has to be brought >> in public. That's all I want to say because of sunshine. That's all I want to say.
>> All right. Um, come on up, Sarah. >> I will be super fast. I just want to point out um not related to this specifically, but in general, a theme that I see on our commission is that decisions are being made in our city and
discussions are being had generally not in regard to what is best for the citizens of Treasure Island, but it seems to generally be in regard to I don't like this person, I don't like that person, this person's lined up with that person, and it's just it's really
not what we deserve as citizens. and I really am hoping to experience more professionalism um across the board from our commission in all of the decision making. Thank you. >> Thank you, Durant. >> Since we're having a discussion on
ethics, I think it's important to lay some groundwork. Uh Grant Smith, Sunset Beach. As a followup to what Sarah said, if you're going to claim a violation of ethics, you have to pick your you have to pick your position, you're either a teological ethicist or a deantological
ethicist. A deantological ethicist is one that claims every act in an individual act must be moral and ethical. A teological ethicist is one that says the ends are just the ends justify the means.
Those who can't make up their mind are referred to as situational ethicists. And when you're a situational ethicist, you can no longer claim a moral high ground. Because you switch your ethical behavior in your ethical interpretations
according to the situation. This is dysfunctional. We got to do better than this. This idea of of ethical violations being brought up with a disregard for past behavior that could easily have been pointed to and easily was pointed
to is an ethical violation. Just get to the business of governance, please, and take care of the problems of the city. Thank you. >> All right, I'm going to close public comment. Roll call, please. >> Vice Mayor Vazquez,
>> I. Commissioner Sison, >> I. Commissioner Dicki, >> no. >> Mayor Doctor, >> no. >> I'll be right I'll be quick. >> Yeah, we'll be moving on. >> So, uh, one of the, uh, Miss Sarah Pennington mentioned of all the hotels
closed, we need to add Treasure Shores that's boarded up, uh, Seahorse Cottages and Sunset in Cottages were torn down and are empty. Uh number two, um I understand that when Cheryl was here, do we want does the commission want to have
a special meeting to discuss uh like the benefit, you know, have the city staff put on the presentation of the benefits of a PD and the comp plan and the pros and the cons and >> you know comments? Uh uh so with that statement, I want to correct uh a lot of
misstatements that have repeated throughout this process that adopting a comp plan would eliminate the city's ability to negotiate public benefits. I cannot support a PD ordinance un unless it is adopted at the same time as a citywide comp plan that reflects a
unified vision for TI. I can't also support what the other commissioners proposed. So, my comment number three. Oh jeez. It wasn't on. You want me to go again? Yeah. All right. So, all right. Uh, first, I appreciate the commission
recognizing my excused absence at the last meeting. Uh, my family vacation has been planned for over a year, and I did watch the meeting afterward. After reviewing the discussion, uh, I believe reducing the millage rate to the roll back rate is not enough. Treasure Island has one of the highest millage rates in
the area. And we if we are serious about making government more effective, we need to set a more ambitious goal. I would like to propose a target mill rate of 3.0 uh mills and ask staff to prepare a road map showing how we can responsibly
achieve that goal. This would put Treasure Island below St. Pete Beach and slightly above Madira Beach while providing a meaning meaningful tax relief to our residents. Um and uh >> yeah, so during my travels um I visited
Juno, the uh capital of Alaska, and I'm looking off the cruise ship looking at downtown and uh it's really interesting. It's the state capital. Uh there are no roads connecting it to any other cities in of Alaska. Uh the only ways of
getting in and out are by airplane, sea plane, or ferry. every road, even off-road roads, come to a dead end. Uh technically, you could attempt to cross the glaciers on skis, but that's definitely not recommended because if you fall in a crevice, you'd be gone forever. Uh Juno has two seasons,
tourist season, summer and winter. In the late 1900s, uh 1982 to be exact, uh parking was a serious problem in downtown, especially near the cruise ship docks. uh tourism workers and vi visitors were parking along the streets blocking driveways and dumpsters
creating chaos throughout the city. So in 1982 uh the city uh decided to build a parking garage uh and keep in mind fairies airplanes only way of getting and out and that's that building right in the middle. If you get the next slide please. Um the garage ultimately solved
uh the parking problem and uh to use better use of the space, the city put the public library on the top uh top level. So if you go to the last picture, you can see that the library is literally at the top. And uh if you uh I read the terms and the rates. If you uh
present your library card, you get $2 per hour, two hour minimum, and then it's the regular rate thereafter. And it definitely resolved. I mean, that's we pay a lot for our uh public library uh fees, but uh they solve parking problems. So, that's all I have. Thank
you, >> Commissioner Dicki. >> Were those are we commissioner comments? Is that what we're doing? >> Okay, let me let me grab that. >> I I Vice Mayor Vasport didn't get to do your permission.
>> Uh you want to go ahead? >> Uh >> okay. I wanted to talk about a couple things. I've heard some public discussion about uh roll back rates and and uh and I'm concerned about that because I would encourage my fellow commissioners to go into Friday's budget
meeting open-minded. Let's wait until we've actually re looked at the revenues and looked at the expenses and looked at our reserve levels and looked at capital improvement needs. uh we need to do that before we get a complete picture and before we can make an informed decision
on what our millage rate should be. Uh if after that analysis we determine the city has has uh more revenue than is reasonably needed to provide the level of service our residents expect, then I would be certainly willing to support reducing the millage rate. Uh I'm trying
to get this one right here. Let me go into this mode here. And just so that we keep things in perspective, I I wasn't quite ready for uh Commissioner Suzan's comment, but the difference I I took a look at the difference between
our current millage rate and the roll back rate that uh would be required uh uh for us to consider. And it's really, you know, just so everybody keeps this in mind and doesn't get too excited about how they're going to spend
their their windfall uh in property taxes, uh 10% of the homes uh in the city of Treasure Island, if we did the roll back rate, would save $6.94 a year in property taxes. or if you if you uh
have a mortgage, you'd you'd get a 58 cent a week or I'm sorry, 58 cent a month savings on your mortgage payment. 30% of residents would pay less than $1.25 a month. Uh if we used the if we
adopted the uh roll back rate, 75% of residents would save about $5 a month, a little less than $5 a month uh by going with the roll back rate instead of the regular rate. So the median would meaning 50% 50% of residents if we keep
our current millage rate and don't adopt the rate would be it would be $2.81 a month. Uh I've got one other slide that kind of shows the same point but just a little bit differently. 25% of Treasure Island uh
homesteaded homes fall within this first quartile. They range their taxable value is a low of 11,949 and a high of 166,000. That group would average if we adopted the roll back rate would save a $1.20 a
month. uh the second quartile 26 to 50% they would save $2.74 a month and so forth and so on. So anyway, I just want to keep everybody to keep in perspective. It's not a significant amount of money uh for individual
residents. Uh, and again, I wouldn't go plan on and uh how you're going to go spend that money uh and uh just yet, but but I do encourage our commissioners to keep an open mind as we go into that into that session. Uh I do have one
other thing uh mayor and that's not related to this. Let me see if I can Can you get me out of that? I just I wanted at the last meeting uh one of the residents uh challenged me to uh state what my vision was to move Treasure Island forward. Uh and there was been
some subsequent kind of almost personal attacks on on social media uh from that person as well as uh uh another one uh regarding that. So I'd like to if I could uh take a three minutes I've timed this about three and a half minutes. I'd
like to read this. This is my vision of how we move Treasure Island forward. First of all, I reject the notion that the only way for Treasure Island to move forward is by allowing taller buildings and greater density. We can move this city forward in many ways that can prove
our quality of life, strengthen our economy, protect our tax base without fundamentally changing the character that attracted so many of us to come here. To me, moving Treasure Island forward means completing the comprehensive plan uh that that gives us
a long-term vision instead of making peace mill decisions. It's about investing in the infrastructure, storm water systems, roads, sidewalks, seaw walls, parks, and public safety to make our city more resilient and better prepared for future storms. encouraging
redevelopment of aging properties while maintaining reasonable heightened density standards that respect our neighborhoods and our unique island character and that reflect the desires of our residents and supporting local businesses through thoughtful redevelopment.
Making decisions based on facts, not arbitrary numbers. Before we dramatically change our land development regulations, we should understand impacts on traffic, parking, utilities, evacuation, public safety, city services, and our financial future.
Progress is not measured by how tall we build. It's measured by whether we leave Treasure Island stronger, safer, more beautiful, and more financially sustainable than we found it. My vision is a Treasure Island is resilient after hurricanes, financially
strong, attractive to residents and visitors, supportive of local businesses, protected environmentally, and true to the character that makes people want to live here. I support redevelopment. I support investment. I support modernization. What I don't
support is changing heightened density first and hoping everything else works itself out. Planning should drive zoning, not the other way around. I'm prodevelopment. I'm pro- resilience. Resilience. I'm pro planning. I'm simply not convinced that bigger buildings are
the only path to a better Treasure Island. Furthermore, I don't believe the starting point of all this is my personal vision or even the commission's vision. Former mayor Larry Lun had a thoughtful vision of what our downtown business district could become. It was
an inspiring concept, but it never came to fruition because ultimately redevelopment doesn't happen unless the property owners are ready to invest. But the real question we should all be asking oursel is what is the vision of the property owners? I'd like to hear
from the property owners of Pirate Square, John's Pass property, the yacht club property, and other key development sites. Show us your vision. Bring us a conceptual plan. Show us what you want to build and how it would enhance Treasure Island. If your proposal
requires flexibility from our existing regulations, then tell us specifically what flexibility you're asking for and why. Don't ask us to broadly change our development regulations in the hope that someone might someday build something worthwhile.
Instead, bring us a project that the community can see, evalu evaluate, and get excited about. If it's a high quality proposal that benefits Treasure Island while respecting the character of our city, then I believe we can work together to find a path forward. Anyway,
I just felt the need to share that. >> I want to thank all of you for your patience this evening. And um the the one thing I do want uh I'll I'll state what I said at the beginning. Uh this Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. is going
to be the budget meeting. If you want to have a part and some input and seeing how uh the uh the the cake is made, um that uh we will do that. So, thank you everyone. We're adjourned.