--------- do that study uh that we were, you know, waiting on the official contracts and paperworks. We were notified that we're awarded in some followup and they could only tell me by phone. They couldn't say in writing, but the federal funding has
been pulled for that. Um they couldn't say the reasons. They do think it's going to come back, but anybody who had an agreement was in progress. Fortunately, we weren't in progress. Um got the money fun uh pulled away. And so
they do think they're going to be sending new agreements possibly this year and more money could that money could come back for your safe streets and you can get that. But that was one um where the funding was pulled. Um we
went after three grants through FD. These were state dollars uh springs restoration grants. And uh a little bit of a backstory, you as well as other communities that are in the Rainbow Springs and the Silver Springs
Watershed, Springs Watershed, have um nitrogen reduction requirements. They are mandated to do as part of the basin management action plan. And so to meet your mandated goals, um, we looked to doing some septic to sewer projects
and we applied for two grants. One was for $9 million, another for $11 million. And then in addition to that, since you're going to be increasing your sewer flows with these subjective sewers, we asked for money to increase capacity of the wastewater treatment plant. And uh,
that was a $22 million um, grant. Uh we did not city Wilson did not get those grants. Uh they just notified us here in the past month. Um we have a meeting set up on May 12th with the grant administrators to do a debriefing. What
do we need to do? Many times you have to apply for these a couple times. Um I looked at the list. Similar communities like Wilston didn't get funded at all this round. So you're not alone. Um, but we do have these mandates that you're
going to have to meet and this is one mechanism for you to to meet that. So we um I say we're going to do a debriefing with D on May 12th. What can we do better? How should we rephrase the grant? What should we do? Um so that is
coming up. So you know here we had some pretty good opportunities and funding didn't work out. Uh two weeks ago, um Sue and Donald met with USDA to talk about some grant opportunities, loan
opportunities. Um they are more of a loan program, but the USD loan for water and environmental programs um has some lowcost long-term loans. And uh we talked to them. Um Sue
and Donald did. I had a meeting with her again today. Rebecca Manning who is the coordinator. We had a meeting today and went over the projects and the Northwest 9 Circle pump station abandonment um which is about a you know 250 to
$300,000 project um which the city's trying to find ways to fund um she felt that would a very good candidate for a long-term loan, low interest loan. So we talked about that. We also talked about uh the homestead lift station which is
one of the lift stations here where you're getting some backup maintenance pumps. It's in very very bad shape. You know, we do need to do beyond what they're asking now on those pumps. It needs a replacement. It would also be
part of if you were to do septic sewer, its flows would increase to that. So that is one to look that we could look for um to to do an upgrade and an increase of capacity that also would fit in the USD RD loan category. So we could
bundle those together and that could be a very good opportunity. These were still applying. Um it's not like a grant so it's a little bit different but you have to meet the criteria. Each of these you have to do what's called a preliminary engineering report to their
standards, an environmental report to their standards. So we've already designed the Northwest 9th, but it's not to their standards. We'd have to go back, upgrade the design, do an environmental report and a preliminary engineering report. They
would roll those costs into the loan. So to to get it up there would be part of what they would loan you money for. There's also uh legal fees that would have to be done would be um probably incurred by by Kirstston and her firm
and also some bond uh bonding work that would need to be done. Those costs can also be tied into that. So th those are some new things that look very promising for you, but they're loans. Um, we also
talked about possibly doing some of the work that we're doing now on block 12. Could some of the sewer work that we're doing get rolled into that? That was a a no. I think it was more promising two weeks ago, but there's some technicalities why we can't do that. Um,
so that can't happen. But they do have a business development program and if a project helps local businesses, um, they have both grants and loans. and we talked about black 12 and the future
restroom and also EV stations would qualify for. So we're getting that information and so improvements to block 12 could be both either a loan or grant either way. So there those things are available. Um and then I did talk about
stormwater projects which are typically D like you know 9inth uh northwest 7th and northwest fifth. um they have a USDA communities facility program that does both loans and grants for stormwater projects. And so those are also
avenues to to maybe fill in the gaps for the the grants that we're not getting right now. Um but that's that's where we're at on the grant phase of things. Uh live stations, we can fund through
them, but they're loans. They're going to be loans pretty much. And there is a a you know takes time. I mean it it's probably a six-month process from applying doing the reports getting approvals and getting the loans in in
place. So it it would be at least that to do that. Um but there are avenues for improving the list stations. Not for these maintenance type things that you're doing. We still need to do the
pumps, but the the lift stations that are in the most dire homestead is one of them. We can start to okay, what can we do beyond the maintenance, the band-aid, what's the more long-term solution? And right now, Homestead seems to be one of
the the best ones to do right now. What do Yeah, Mr. Chair. Um, Mr. President, I apologize. Uh, to bring this full circle to item B, which I know we combined E and B so you guys could get understanding of, you know, because you mentioned grants. Where
would those fit in? As you're hearing, those grant opportunities are gone, at least right now. And so the things that are available for grants, as Walt just mentioned, are more geared toward economic development on the state and federal level. They are not geared
toward water, wastewater. There are a few opportunities on storm water, but that's it. So, I wanted to clarify um and I if Sue is still on the line, she can speak up. When we say 4 roughly 59,000 in contingency, and we've used
half, I want to make sure we're clear on what contingency is. So, contingency that we're talking about is a utility contingency. It is not your reserve. If you remember your audit, your audit said that the general fund reserve had
significant issues. The utility reserve passed. Now, is it where it could be? No. But it passed. The contingency at the end of the year, what's not spent in it for operations goes toward building up those reserves. But your utility
reserves do not have issues. So, when Stephen, we didn't ask him where that money would come from. That's where Steven, your finance director, indicated to sue. The money should come from. You don't want to take this out of your utility reserves. This is the leftover from the rates. This this is what we were trying to figure out what we would
have left over. So, as we continue the next few years, we know where to take our O andM budgets and then have money to build reserves. And again, Sue can clarify this, but I just want to make sure there's an understanding that we didn't ask for a spend on something that
was committed and we didn't ask for a spend on something that is meant to address a concern of anyone in the audit process. This is money that is part of the revenue from utilities um that we're referencing. So, I just wanted to make
sure we were clear on on that. Yes, sir. Please, Chief Ro if I'm wrong, but I thought microphone, please. I thought when they were building Homestead, part of that buildout was that they were going to do the lift stations or have something to do with
the lift stations. Was that was Was I mistaken? No, sir. Did I not hear that? They they call it Homestead. It's not it's a city live station and it serves that whole area. So it's more than just that facility. It's all the residential
homes in the area. That area we're also looking for some possible subject to sewer expansions that could be in there. So it serves a much bigger area than just Homestead. And Mr. President to answer the question we used to call it the Old Dixie lift station. So it's just you know the names that we have Dixie
Lily and it's its references. Each lift station when you guys look at master plans and whatnot they're actually numbered. So, the north northeast 9inth Street station, which is the CDBG that we were awarded, is lift station 4, but we don't call it that. The staff calls it the Northwest uh Northeast 9th
station. Um, so it, you know, it it it's although yes, it makes it sound like it's their lift station, as Walt mentioned, it's the entire area that regionally that that serves. So, it is it is a city lift station. Okay. I wasn't done with my question, but anyway, I I thought that and maybe I
maybe I misheard, but I thought that development like the the tiny home, the town homes, I've heard about them up upgrading lift stations and things like that. So, I thought that was part of the agreement with the homestead that when
they added all those houses to that that um what do you call it? your um sewer thing or whatever. That part of that was for them to upgrade that system so it would handle that capacity. Maybe maybe I got it wrong. We're talking about
Homestead Park. No, I'm talking about the Homestead sewer thing that lift station. Yeah, but it's at it's behind Homestead Park. Yes. And I thought part of the agreement with Homestead was that they were going to modify or upgrade that lift station to help us out here
with adding all those new homes. I may be wrong. Maybe I may be getting it mixed up. I think you are. You're getting it mixed up with CL. Okay. CLA CL did upgrade a lift station for us, but this is Homestead Park. They actually helped us abandon a lift
station and actually built a brand new lift station. We negotiated with Town Homes for a brand new lift station and they're required by the contract, negotiated by staff to upgrade the Woodfield lift station, not only to their their need, but actually higher
than what their need was. So no, we with all development with housing, we are absolutely doing that. Homestead doesn't have any housing connected. It's it's just that the business little area that that he's developed. It's it's not it's
not a a residential lift station in that regard. Not yet. Yes, ma'am. Oh, excuse me. Thank you. Northwood has their own lift station that's separate from Northwood is not under sewer.
Northwood was part of the grant that we put in for 242 homes to go septic to sewer. I know there are septic to sewer, right? But there's no lift station in that area at all other than the Homestead one. If we were to do the subject to sewer project, that grant upgraded Homestead and took
all of Northwood if it had gone on and mixing road and the Williston uh women's club and the church and part of the crossings and would have put it to that station and that station would have been redesigned. Right. That was part of that that grant. Yes, ma'am.
Yeah. And promise acres there. Any questions? My only concern is it just seems like we've been spending a lot of money the last couple of months. Absolutely. And we still have five months to get through
hurricane. Well, more for hurricane season. Just seems like we're just spending a lot and I'm trying to figure out where is it all going to come from. Miss Jones, the good part about that is that Sue discovered some emails that we
can get reimbured for most of the money that we spent for the three last the three hurricanes last year. So, we should break even on those three. Yes, that was a email that went to Cat Kamik's office. It was an email Terry and I put that uh we had not received
the money from we just hadn't submitted it. So, that explains it, but we will we're working on it. We've got a consultant that's helping us. Okay. And Mr. President, to answer your question on the expenses, you're 100% correct. We've spent a lot of money, but that's
because a lot of this stuff is is aged out. I mean, I I I don't know what I don't know what the answer is. We either build it new or we keep maintaining what's there, but this is the real cost of having those systems in place. If I could add to that, you know, I've seen
these lift stations. They're in bad shape. There's no doubt they are in bad shape. Um they should have two pumps in them for redundancy. Most do not. Okay. Um it's you're and if you keep going
into hurricane seasons in the condition that you are, you're going to see problems. You're going to see failures. My concern is not going ahead and getting the pumps that we need, but having so many pumps
on hand and with the potential of selling to somebody else. If we need it on hand for us, where are we going to sell it? Am I wrong? No, ma'am. I I gave you the wrong impression. Oh, okay. What I'm We need them on hand. You have to have spares on hand. What Mrs. Jones's question was, if somehow miraculously we
get through SRF and we go out for a loan and we redesign 10 of the stations and we can no longer use those old pumps. If by some miracle we didn't have those things breaking down like they have been and we had them sitting there, they're a brand new pump, we wouldn't just eat
that cost. We would find a way to recoup the money. We would get with another system and make sure that if they use that pump, they could purchase it so we get that money back in the budget. But SRF is not a guarantee. We could apply for SRF and the state could deny us. They could say, "We're not giving you a
loan." We could uh get a loan on unfavorable terms where we don't get an 80% loan forgiveness. So, if the study comes back and tells council you need $10 million, well, that's great if 80% of it's forgiven completely by the state and you only owe $2 million of the 10.
But they could say, "You no longer qualify for loan forgiveness. So, if you take out a $10 million loan, you owe us $10 million. So, all all I'm saying is that, you know, we don't know when that loan will happen. We know that the study will be completed in the next 5 to 6 months
roughly. Then there's the whole part of the process of applying, getting approved, and then council having to decide whether or not those terms are acceptable. And that'll determine what the loan forgiveness is, how much of that is, could be 50/50, could be 8020.
We don't know. So, we need these pumps. This is the bare minimum. I mean, that that's that's the engineer and this is the bare minimum that we need on hand to make sure that there's not a catastrophic failure that we can't address without sitting around waiting for days or weeks for a pump to be
shipped in. So, I know that we can't um we don't have a crystal ball to determine when things are going to break. Um, but I guess my question is how often does a brand new pump break? How and do we have is there insurance or
warranties or anything like that related to those pumps that would eat that cost instead of us having to spend out more money for that? Well, I can tell you on the warranty, um, every brand new pump comes with a one-year warranty. As for your pump
system, how long they last is the environment that they're in. I mean, you can have two of the exact same pump in two exact different lift stations. One that gets taken care of, one that doesn't. One may last 10 years, one may last 10 months. It all depends on what the situation the the environment is in.
And what do you mean by taken care of? Well, it's not necessarily maintenance, although maintenance plays a part. And we have a good robust maintenance program, but it has to do with what your consumer flushes down it. I'll give you an example. A year and a half ago, we had a store in town put down hundreds of
pounds of kitty litter into the sewage and we lost four pumps within weeks. It was over $60,000 to replace those pumps. I can't control that. And so that's that's the unknown factor. If if we
educate, we put out stuff on the bills, don't flush diapers, you know, this whole idea of flushable wipes. There is no such thing as a flushable wipe. I wish I could buy millions of dollars worth of advertisement and put it on the Super Bowl that there is no such thing as flush bllights because people that's
all they put down the drains and it's it's destroying our infrastructure even more so that that it's already burdened. So it's it's an environmental question unfortunately there's no way we could answer. And if I can add you're asking your pumps to do double duty when you
only have a single pump in a list station instead of two. you normally it runs one pump for the cycle that it needs to and then it switches over and runs the other. So you're evening out the wear on the pumps. When you only got one, it's one pump pumping and pumping and pumping and pumping and that that
cuts its life too because you're asking it to do double duty, right? So you're in that situation with a lot of your stations. You are and you don't have that backup. If you don't have a backup, you don't have alarm systems and and you you're going to wait for the flow to to
to rise, problems to occur, staff to come out, and they've got to have a pump to put in. And if you don't have a pump to put in, you're doing portable pumps. You're pumping around the system if you can into tanks that cost money, which you've had to do in the past. So,
ideally, these stations should have two. You have that built-in redundancy. If one fails, you still have that other one and then you can replace it. So, you're back to full redundancy. Um, you're nowhere near I would say your system has has failed. If it's designed to have two
pumps and it doesn't, it's failed. It's met the criteria from an engineering standpoint. It has failed. It doesn't have the redundancy that it should. Okay. And and you've got so many that are single pump. All right.
Council, what do you want to do? Yep. Can I asked Miss Scarce, can we since we're kind of use the other one that we piggybacked off a little bit? Can we do the both at the same be? And uh Yeah, we can. We can do
both at the same time. If I if if you would like, we can vote on both resolutions in the same motion. I know that they're sort of similarly related if that's what you want to do. Absolutely. So, I can just read resolution E.
Okay. Um, resolution E is 2025-60, a resolution of the city council of the city of Wilston, Florida, approving a community development block grant in the neighborhood revitalization category administration contract. Fred Fox Enterprises to manage the grant number 25
DBN9 and providing an effective date. Second the motion. Is the motion amended to include the second resolution? Yes, ma'am. Do I have a second? I can second it. You second. Who? Yeah,
Meredith made it. Okay. Okay, we have a first second. Any other discussion? Yes. Sorry. All right. So, I guess I'm I'm still at this point where I I know we need extra pumps. Is there any way we
can decrease the amount of pumps that we have on hand? And in at the budget, then go ahead and get more now that we know specifically where our our amount is. So even you
know for you guys I know you have had a healthy you know contingency but just looking at your contingency. Sure. So to answer the question um I hold a few licenses. I'm not an engineer. I'll let the engineer speak for himself. It is my
recommendation that everything that's being asked for in this item is absolutely essential. There is nothing extra. There's no fluff. There's not any bell or whistle. There's there's nothing additional here that is not something that I would consider essential. That's my opinion. Um if Walt has a different
opinion as the engineer, he's you know he's more than welcome to share that. No, I I share your concern and stance. I mean it's they are under they are under design criteria are by far far amounts and and the getting at least the minimum
amount of pumps in the stations and then still having a backup. Every community has backups to their system. They do and and right now you don't. Okay. Thank you. All right. So, we got a first second. We had a brief discussion.
Can I ask one more question kind of on top of these? So, there are 21 lift stations and there's 35 pumps listed here. If we got one of every kind we needed, would that not be enough? And I don't know that it would save us enough money to make it worth doing. No, ma'am.
So let me give you just one example. Russell and Ari are identical, right? Um Russell takes two of one type of pump and additional third pump. AR takes two of the same pump of the previous two. Uh went down two weeks
ago. Both of them went down. That's the giant one that he just said we're going to try and get in a skid. It has the motor and the pump mechanism. We had to go to Russell, disconnect one of those working pumps and put it in a so we
could avert catastrophe, right? Uh so we have to put one back in each one of those. Plus the third pump in Russell is not working. So there's three just for one station. And then you need one of those specialized pumps in each station
as a backup. So there's another two. And then the hospital also has these. It's not just we call it the hospital, but it's not just the hospital. It's for the area. Sure. It is down to one pump. So we have one that needs to go in it. And then it does not have a spare. So right
there you have two to put back in to put it up to level. I'm sorry, three between the three stations. And then you have three spares. Now you guys could say, well, take it down to two spares. I I guess technically we could, but the problem is is what do you do when those have lead times of six weeks and if all
three decided to go down and it has in fact happened before where many stations have gone down once, especially when they're in series, what flows through one goes through another. So you can have a contingency where multiple stations fail due to an environmental
condition. So I mean it's we'll do whatever the council wishes. we will do the best that we can with whatever resources the council decides to do for us. You know, if you guys want to ask again somebody else to look at the list and compare and and contrast whether or
not they agree with what we came up with, you know, that's that's perfectly and understandable. Um I I don't see anything on here that's not necessary. That's my opinion. I would just add a comment that I think since the fugat lift station went down,
we have all learned a lot about sewer sewer lift stations and I appreciate that education and and just so you know it's we're not questioning your um expertise, but we have to be diligent about, you know,
what we're doing and what we're voting on. I respect all of you for your uh fiscal stewardship. Thank you. All right, we had first. We got a second. We do minor discussions. Any others? All right. See none, we're going to move to vote. All
in favor say I. I. I. Those opposed. 4 Z. All right. Now, let's have a drink. All right. Mr. President, this is resolution 2025-57, a resolution of the city council of the city of Willist, Florida,
approving the addition of a utility operator position for the water, gas, sewer treatment, sewer collections, and storm water departments, authorizing appropriate parties to sign any documents required to effectuate same on behalf of the city of Willist, and providing an effective date. Mr. President and Council,
um we are seeking uh a locator position. We addressed this at the previous budget. Um we have also in the agenda here in another item or so um a GPR which is through the s uh sheriff's
association. Uh that is money that is in fact budgeted. We're not asking for any additional money for the GPR. Matter of fact, we're saving money. And then not only are we saving money, but there was an additional $10,000 taken out of the GPR fund that we also didn't spend that
went toward all the cleaning of all the ducks and the mold in this building for the remediation. So, we budgeted an item. We took 10 or $11,000 of it, did another issue, and addressed that. Then, we're still returning money from that issue or from that budget about roughly
$5,000. Um, and then we're going to be purchasing a GPR if you guys decide to let us move forward with that budgeted item. That's item uh D. The handout that you received on your DIS, it has on the top of it sunshine
811. If you look down at year 2022, which what this sheet is, um, we had in year 2022 766 locate tickets. So, if you flip the page, this is the
2023 and you will notice that that count in one year went up to 1,356 tickets. If you go back to 2022, they used to estimate our annual assessment, the cost to the city
uh for being part of the 811 sunshine as our annual cost at $55,9.71. On 2023, if you look at it, they stopped saying annual and they went to monthly assessment and that went to $82.46. So, we had a drastic increase in
that time period on locate tickets. Then if you go to the next page, it's 2024 and last year it was 1,429 tickets at a monthly assessment of $94.16 on our
membership. And the very last page is current on our ticket summary so far uh for 2025. Uh the normal, if you see the normal, that's 312. So according to our 2024 we should be up to 312 tickets to
match that same rate. The total already this year is 351. So we are getting more and more and more locate tickets. This has to do with if we're talking about you know fiduciary savings and responsibility. We probably, as I've mentioned to council
in the last couple years on breaks for lines that could not be located, on abandoned things, on other utilities that, you know, um, like for example, you can't locate sewer. Uh, we probably had close to $170,000 worth of damage on
those. So, that's why we at the beginning of last year's budget talked about the GPR, talked about that's another device that we can scan. We can do a much more thorough analysis of when a locate is done. But that takes your average locate ticket from let's say a 20 30 minute response and coding to up
to an hour hour and a half per ticket if you want to make sure that you're not damaging things uh or your contractors are not damaging things. 811 is not optional. We have to comply. It is state law under uh state statute 5 uh
556. Um so I just wanted to show you that you know where this is escalating to. um we are not staffed to have and right now we have an individual working 40 hours a week plus and all they're doing is locates and yet that is a
technical position who's supposed to be going out doing water meters doing gas meters fixing water leaks and so as we mentioned at the last year budget I understand that it was not done we are asking this uh currently if we can if we're going to get this GPR if we can
bring on a position for a locator um and that's all this individual would do in the city 40 hours a week plus. Um, and so, you know, that's that's what we're asking for. So, would this person been be replacing
the 811 within the city? Uh, no sir. 811 is done as a contract through USIC. So, Centry Link, Spectrum, AT&T, all of those services or where we coincide our utilities with, let's say, Clay or Central Florida or Duke, those folks
have to locate their utilities, but we are required to locate all of our utilities. So, anything within our regional service, not just the city limits, where power, gas, water, any of that is located, we're supposed to locate and we're supposed to mark. And then there's limits to how fast we have
to do that. We have a 2-day response time from the time the ticket's put in, excluding holidays, weekends. Um, and then we have requirements as if that is off more than 24 to 36 in on the mark. We don't give depths, but if it's off of
the mark, let's say the water line's here, and we end up locating it, we think it's over here, and that span is greater than 24 to 36 in, and the contractor comes in and rips up, cost us $20,000, that cost is on us. We cannot enforce them to pay for the damage that
they caused. So, we take photographs of that. It's not something that you go out to your house, hook up, and in 5 minutes it's done. They have to paint the lines. They have to flag the lines. Sometimes they have to make sure that they're thorough. We can't locate sewer. That's why we wanted to get the GPR. And
there's a lot of water lines because they're original plastic uh lines that were bored in. There's no ditch line, there's no tape, there's no locate wire. We can't locate those either. So the whole point is it takes a scan and it's like an ultrasound machine. Someone is
specially trained to go in and analyze the data and the waves on the reader and that allows them to say, "Look, I know that that's an empty line or I know that that's a full line based on how it how it appears. It's it's a it's it's a trained position. We're asking technicians who don't do that to go and
and and go in and out. And you know, one day you're a locator and one day you're not a locator and then we need you on the water leak and then we need but we're up to 40 hours plus every week on one individual or multiple individuals just doing locates and it's only going
to get worse if we integrate the GPR. So Mr. Bishop, so if you remember back T-Mobile next to Hardies when they had that big main break. Yes. The whole world came after us and said we didn't locate that. We located that six or seven times to come
to find out there was a line that even I forgot about or didn't know about 8 foot deeper than that. And and that line come to find out goes under uh the nursing home, but we didn't know it was there. So GPR, not saying you're going you're never going to have mistakes, you're going to find
everything. That's not what I'm saying. But you're going to drastically reduce that. Because if we had it, we could have done the whole road and then we would have been like, "What is that? We don't know what dig it up." And wow, there's new water line there. And it was an old cast iron line, so it's 30s or 40s when it was put in. So that's where
that could come in to help. All right. So my question will be in how are we would we fund this person out of what do we have the money in there? Because I know with um utilities they had they moved their A-line to next
budget season to make room for their person. Am I correct on that, Mr. Bishop? So, different different budget. Um, now the nice thing about the locators is basically paid out of every budget because it locates every service. Okay. Um, yes, there's a little bit in
couple different positions all throughout the year that are not funded. Again, Stephen could speak up. Um, but I mean we're there are s monies and salaries that have not been paid that if we had paid out full salaries that had been budgeted, there is money left over
to continue this budget year. Now, for the new year coming in October, if you wanted to keep the locator, yes, that would be new additional funding um that would have to be put into the budget. And that's why we put a range in here for you guys to see, you know, what what
they would qualify low-end to maxed end in. Um, so, you know, this but I I I'm all I'll say to the council is we're we're getting to the size and the growth where it's it's almost inevitable that you have to have someone do this full-time. I I don't know how else to say it. And we can continue to take
texts and do that, but they're distracting from the work that they're supposed to be doing. Uh, and unfortunately, this is another one of those unfunded mandates. I mean, you know, it's it's state law. We have to locate. We have no way around it, unfortunately. So, out of all the employees, we don't
have two to where one can work 20 hours and then the other one work 20 and they still Sure, we could do that. The issue with the GPR coming in is, you know, how many people do you specially train almost like an ultrasound tech to to do this? Okay. And we're going to
cross train of course, but we we have a lot of I mean, you got to understand the water, the sewer, and the gas crew all cover the same thing. They're all cross licensed. So they're going into multiple fields. You're throwing another one at them and you're asking them to take on that skill, and
there's a lot of responsibility when it comes to locating. I mean, you know, they can be responsible for a lot of damage if they don't do their job properly. So council could say, "Look, we want to wait and see how it goes." I can just tell you that if we're going to get the GPR machine, it's sort of a
waste if we don't have someone with that extra time that can dedicate to actually utilizing this technology to prevent high costs of damages. Clarification. So to just to clarify, the job position is not in the budget,
but the GPR is in the budget. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Mr. President. Can I say something? Yes. So, just in the short time that I've been here, um, just to kind of speak to Donald's, um, statement about damages, I've seen somewhere in the neighborhood
of 10 to$15,000 in damage come across my desk. So, it is definitely an issue that, you know, we're having um problems with not locating things properly and, you know, we probably would be able to over a year, you know, save enough money in these damages if we do have someone that's trained properly, you know, to
locate these utilities correctly. Question. Yes, ma'am. So if we create this position for this person, is it are we hiring somebody who already has the knowledge or are we going to hire somebody then have to send
them to school to acquire the knowledge? We would hire someone hopefully that has GPR knowledge. Um that's why there's a range according to their experience. If we could not find someone for this range with GPR experience, then the company that we would potentially purchase the
GPR offers free training and it's unlimited. We can call them out as many times as we want. We don't have to send the employee anywhere for a hotel or class. They come here and they will work with that employee until that employee or the city feels comfortable enough to
say, "We believe that they're trained properly on this device." We could get someone with a GPR knowledge that is trained on a particular companies. This one's Vermeir and yet they'd have to kind of relearn or or or kind of learn how this one works. So they could even
have GPR knowledge, but we would still get if we got a GPR machine, we would still get them with the company as a refresher and to to work toward that. So yes, we'd love experience. That's what we would look for in an interview process. But if we had to train someone or we would take one of the technicians
that's shown an inclination that wants to move over there, train them and then hire in for their former tech position. So there's there's a lots of ways of approaching it. Um yes, ma'am. Okay, that was going to be my next question. Thank you. And again, of course, my concern is the
money aspect of it. Um there's Meredith, you got anything? I yeah I mean I feel like this is a wise investment. It's unfortunate always to have to you know spend money on the not fun things but um I think this based on what Sue said
and my knowledge of how this has worked in the past I think we will recoup the cost of the employees salary and savings from having to pay damages. So to me it's a win win. It's a zero sum game. Great.
I'm good. You good? So, Miss Blue, can we put C and D since basically they're going hand in hand? No sense of hiring the employee if we absolutely. We can absolutely do
that. I will read D which is resolution 2025-58 a resolution of the city council of the city of Williston Florida approving the purchase of a utility ground penetrating radar GPR for the power water gas sewer treatment water sewer collections and storm water department authorizing appropriate parties to sign any documents required
to effectuate same on behalf of the city of Williston and providing an effective date. Okay. So can I get a motion to combine C and D? I move approval of resolution
2025-57 as well as resolution 2025-58. All right. Got a first. Got a second. I second. Got a first. Got a second. Any other discussion? No. All right. Seeing none, we'll move to vote. All in favor say I. I. I. Those
opposed? 40. All right. Mr. President, this is resolution 2025-61, a resolution of the city council of the city of Willist, Florida, approving the first amendment to installation contract with PSI, authorizing appropriate parties to sign any documents required to execute such amendment on behalf of the city of
Willist and providing an effective date. I see that my name is under this agenda item. Um, this is uh the first amendment to our contract that we currently have with performance services. um in order for performance
services to uh procure the materials that we need for the project. Uh so it's not an overall increase in the project cost, it's an increase in the contract cost to shift the cost from the city to PSI, which assists us in procuring the materials that we need in a more
expeditious fashion. So, I'm happy to answer any questions, but just to reiterate, not an increase, and Donald, correct me if I'm wrong, not an increase to the project cost, just shifting of of who's going to front those costs and how they're going to be procured.
Okay, I'll move approval of resolution 2025-61. I'll second. We have first. We got a second. Any other discussion? No discussion. All right, seeing none, let's move to vote. All in
favor say I. I. I. Those opposed. 40. All right, Mr. President, this opens a public hearing. This is the second reading of ordinance 2025 747, an ordinance of the city of Willist, Florida, amending the city of Willist land development regulations as amended. Adding reference to the International
Property Maintenance Code 2021 edition related to an amendment of the text of the land development regulations providing for amending chapter section 48. adding section 48-9 unsafe structure and building abatement providing severability providing for corporation in the city code of ordinances and
providing an effective date. Mr. Jones, thank you, Mr. President. You saw this two weeks ago. This is our um code enforcement adding the international property maintenance code to the code that we have to make it a little bit
beefier and a little bit more detailed so that Don has a little bit more power when he's writing his letters and trying to explain issues of blight and code deficiencies. All right, council. What do you want to do? I make a motion that we approve the
second reading of sorry ordinance 2025-747. A second. We have first and second. Any other discussion? All right. Hearing none, we'll move to vote. All in favor say I.
I. I. Those opposed 40. All right, Mr. President. Next item is first reading of ordinance 2025749. An ordinance of the city of Willist, Florida, amending the city of Willist code of ordinances as amended providing for amending chapter 12 article 3 section 12-79. Fees regarding the Willist
regional airport fees providing for setting rates via resolution providing severability providing for incorporation in the city code of ordinances and providing an effective date. Mr. Steel. Yes, sir. uh kind of just following suit with the rest of the uh rest of the ordinances that we have with
our uh rates and fees along with the city. Uh, initially I think I think the airport was the first one to talk about the resolution um, a few years ago and uh, the utilities departments kind of took it and ran with it and we kind of
decided to table it and are now revisiting the thought so we can actually update our PE schedule a little easier than you know having to come back and publish and publish and publish and publish all that good stuff. Okay. Council,
I move approval of ordinance 2025-749 on first reading. Second. We have first. Second. Any other discussion? Hear none. Move to vote. All in favor say I. I. I.
Those opposed? 40. Thank you. All right, Mr. President. Item I is first reading of ordinance 2025-750, an ordinance of the city council of the city of Willist, Florida, amending the retirement plan and trust for the employees of the city of Willist amending section G1 normal retirement
date section 6.01 to include or 25 years of service providing severability and providing an effective date. All right, council we have two options. Personally, I kind of like the
25 and out part of it because if you're a young man just coming in and working in a city or decide to do that and all of a sudden you decide you like it
more, it's a it's a uh enticement, I guess you could say, to work for that department for 25 years. be no different going to the military. Just five more years and then they could still, it might correct me if I'm wrong, they can
still stay on after 25 years and go into a drop drop program for five more years. That's kind of how I see it. Sorry. For all anymore. Anybody killing me? um just for the fun of
it and we're going to get there in a minute, but on page 144, can you bring up 144 for me, Laura? uh which is a totally different section. This particular section um it talks about normal retirement
dates and um this is what we I think what we currently have and that's why I just wanted to call it to your attention. that talks about attaining age 55 and 10 years of service to age 52
and 25 years of service or attaining a 30-year credit, you know, for credited service um investing in 5 years. That's what we have now. And I just wanted to point that out to you. I don't know that anybody's ever looked at
what we currently have, but just to tell you that's what's listed as what we currently have for the normal retirement date for an employee. Um, and obviously we're talking about something totally
different here. We're talking about staying 25 years, no matter what your age is, and being able to get full retirement because you we're here 25 years, no matter what your age. And I just wanted to call that to your
attention. Okay. Um, not to really say it one way or the other. And I will say, I don't know who gave us this little list, but I greatly appreciate it. Asked for it last time and it did suddenly appear on our desk. Um, that tells what
the longevity is of every employee. I do appreciate seeing it. I was shocked I was on there, Mr. Um, so page 144 is the police pension. Yes, it is different than the general pension. And I just wanted to call to
your attention that's what they are doing, right? So, exactly. Um, the police are 55, we are 62. Yes, I realize. Um, so I just want to point that out. So, um, 62 and 5 years is what what the generals are. For example, like John's been 27 years and he has 11 more
years before he hits 62. 62. So, he would have to work here close to 40ome years in order to retire. Um, we have a lot of uh young folk, both male and female. I was
looking at Laura uh that have started in their early 20s and they have they're the ones that brought this to the pension board and they're the ones that are talking about this because they're they're seriously concerned about not being able to retire and not being able to get that second career um once they retire from the city using the knowledge
and the licenses and things they get. A lot of people go on to consultancy and they go on to specialized fields. They become salespeople like the gentleman that was here I think from Coastal Pump. Um so I just, you know, I want to point that out. And then um I know that it was important to the council to understand
how many people this would affect on the back page of that list. Uh there's only one employee, two employees, I apologize. There are only two employees in the general fund pension that would be affected by this change.
One is actually not affected if you consider the fact that he's 61. No. uh on the back page. Uh the dispatch uh uh uh John John he actually will hit age before he hits his years of service.
Yeah. So then it goes down to actually only one employee affected there. There will not be an exodus of talented employees. There will be an exodus of one very talented employee if this were to pass. If he decided that he wanted to. Yeah. So I just I know that was a
big concern. Um, but you're not going to have like six people all of a sudden just disappear and say, "Thanks for the money and see you later." I I just want to point that out. Comment on the back page. If you look at it really good,
um, at least four of those are fire department and are not in this p in this general employee pension plan. Uh, some of the others some of the others are part-time.
Huh? Matt. Oh, Matt Fornney. He's the only one. Yeah, I realize that. Um, but the some of the others like like Reverend Cwell, he's part-time, so he's not in the pension plan. So, when you look at these, even those that are close to 20 years are I could take six of them
out right now because they're not even in the plan. They're in a different plan, but not this one. I mean like all the firefighters are in the the state firefighters plan and the police officers are in the 185 police
officer pension plan. So and that would Matt's not covered by this. He's he's already I mean but he hits 55 he'll be there. So or years of service either one. So he's not covered
by the general employee. He's a police officer. He's in the 185, not the general. So, when you look at it that way, that's why I said I really appreciate seeing this. Um, I was happy to find him. Okay. Anything?
Christie Richardson. Um, work for the city of Willist obviously. I just want to say that obviously I'm past the point so it doesn't this part of it doesn't affect me but I do know that you know some of our guys they've had conversations with
me that did start out at a younger age and it's um in other words it's a an attractant when we're trying to hire good people if they know that they can work here x many of years and get their you know full retirement versus thinking they're going to have to work here 40 50
60 years to be able to ever retire as like Don would said you you know, so then they can move on to do other things. So, um, our younger guys are really, this is kind of I'm not going to say they may stay or they may leave because of it, but it definitely puts
kind of a not so good taste in their mouth as far as longevity at the city because they don't want to be here 40, 50 years to be able to retire, you know, when they start in their early 20s. And you can't blame them for that, you know. So, like I said, it doesn't affect me
because obviously I'm way past that point. So, um, shut up. Nothing from the peanut gallery. Okay. So, anyway, I'm just saying that, you know, I just wanted you to be aware that, you know, the younger guys are having the conversation that,
you know, would be the ones that would be, you know, this would affect, right? So, thank you. Thank you, BJ Bishop, city of city city of Wilston employee. Um, also just because it's an option doesn't mean they have to take
it. If they don't want to leave at 25 years, they can stay till they're 62 if they want. It's not an it's not a have to do. It's just an extra option and then they get to take the drop. Thank you.
uh Amos Henderson, city of Willist. Um the city, uh the pay rate here is kind of offbalance to other principalities. Like you can't compete. Um you want to draw in talent, you want to draw in the best you can get. And when it come to
pay rates, go to Lawa and look what they're paying their city uh employees and and Newberry what they're paying their city employees on the electric side. And you got to give something give give men something that can get them to stick and draw. If you can't can if you
can't give him the pay wage, give him something that can like, oh man, I get 25 and out. Where you can't give him that $30, $40 an hour to a lineman. He still can get a 25 year retirement. Get
out of 25 and give you loyal service. But I mean a lot of linemen can get their certificates and go on about it because they won't get nothing here anyway if you like they they go and get certified and just go on to a GRU where they can make the money. They might get
to 25 and out but they'll make the big bucks. They can go to Newberry where they'll make the big bucks. So y'all keep that in mind. If y'all want the city to grow and be something you you got to give something that's worth staying here. What we can't give here we
can do over here. Yes, you can't give the pay, but hey, you got this right here as the longevity. Stick it out. You got it. Lay my plan. Thank you, Mr. May. Yes, sir. My only concern would
be the the longevity of the fund for this. I mean, if we have a I know we don't have a bunch of people in the pipeline right now to retire, but let's say, you know, 30 40 years from now, if people a lot of people are doing 25 and out and they take the 25 and go,
um, you know, if you're what, 18 years old, it puts you at 43. Uh, you go somewhere else and the p pension fund is paying paying that out for the rest of the time until, you know, they're not anymore. though. I mean, that's that's
my only concern with it. I like the idea. I like the concept of it. Um, but can we pay for it? And if we if we do something like that, do we change the vesting to more than greater than five years to ensure that the pension fund is
funded um for that differential? That's my only takes just a little bit of fiscal double-checking. Mr. Barber. So, I'm sure the board, the pension board would be better apt to answer this question, but I sat in the meetings and the actuary discussed this
point. And what's made up for the amount of time that you're paying them is how many young employees we have. So, they're paying in for the next 20 years. and that's going to really build up that fund while we have very few people retiring for such a long period of time
that when they studied this out this was not something that was an exorbitant cost and this was not something that the actuary said that was um in any way risking the fund. I mean, those were questions that were drilled down on very Your general pension board is very thorough in the questions that they
asked and they did a really good job of vetting that very question. And um for those that would like to attend the meeting, I mean, everybody on the board really cares about the the longevity of the fund and they've done a good job in in asking those types of questions. So,
I would encourage maybe any of them to address that subject uh in particular. Thank you. Another comment. Uh, another comment that'll add kind of what Donald was saying. All those young people that are here, if anyone who doesn't stay at least five years,
um, if if they walk, if they're only here four years, they leave, they get their 5% back plus interest, but they do not get the part we put in. It stays in the fund. It helps it grow. Um, I'll
also say that, um, if they are vested at and they've been here 5 years or more and they leave, their money stays in the fund and also helps it grow. They get it when they get of age right now, but they don't get it even though they're vested.
They have to be 62 to get it. So, it's sitting here waiting on them to turn 62. And there are a lot of people that are out there that are like that. Um, but so there are dollars that sit in the fund that grow. So are you are you saying
that if they leave at 25, retire at 25, they're not getting their funds until they're 62? Correct. Yes. That's what it says right now. And I don't think anybody's really thought about that. We've got to change
the age, too. to no age essentially because right now it says 62. So we would need to delete that I believe from the plan. I mean it's saying we're going to change it to the full retirement is 25 years but I think
we need to take the 62 out. So we have the we have an or in there right now. Is there an or as the ordinance currently reads as is as is presented to you. Okay. Where is that? Just so I can look at it. I'd like to see it. I'm in the pension plan right now. I got to move.
Okay. So, you've confused me again. So, if while y'all are looking Yeah. So, if they take 25, depending on how we vote, then they can get all their got it their retirement right then or they can get their
retirement at 62. Is that what you're saying? She's got the ore in there. So, it does say that they can get it at 25. So here's my issue, right? So here's my issue. If we look at the years of service, they are all closely right behind each other. And if you have
multiple people who are coming out at the same time, we're going to be in trouble. And the fact that we're looking at doing this so that somebody can go and have um start a second career, that's not our priority.
It shouldn't be the It shouldn't be the pension committee's priority anyway. I'm speaking as far as the council, right? That that should not be our priority for them to go and start another career. Um it should
be the um betterment and growth of the of of the city. Not saying that, you know, people can't go and do that. That's not what I'm saying. Um, but we just need to be mindful of the fact if they take that retirement right away, we may be in trouble. That
money is no longer sitting there. Mr. President, can I Yes. Um, is there a way that this could be restructured to make the math work so that we did not have to worry
about running out of the ability to fund um, pension plans? In other words, can there be some sorry I feel a little dumb. This is not my area of expertise by any stretch of the imagination, but either some shifting of when the payments start
for people so that the interest acred can grow or you know different variations. Am I making any sense at all? Some are. Okay. My comment on that is just remember when you pay one out, you're replacing them that's going to be putting into it.
So you're gonna but not at the same rate. But he's not gonna but he's not going to take it all at one time. It's paid monthly. Yeah. You're not getting He may take it he may take it in a lump sum. He could take there are many their choices. Those are in here as well. Take it in a lump sum or they can take it as
payments but you're going to have someone coming in and by the time some of them leave. Yeah. They are coming in at the same rate he's making. I guess so I guess that's my question. and the way that it's distributed. Is there some way to adjust the distribution so that the interest earned on the amount of money
in there helps offset this change in policy? So, I was only on the pension um board for a short time, but our actuary has done this stuff for us and perhaps we should have them at one of these meetings or at least have a report from
them. Um, we have the current report. Yeah. I mean, could we attach the report to Does anybody Would you like for me to go print it? I started to say we've had it at the last couple of meetings. Yeah, but I have the 2020 the current one that just come out. He they sent it to us
last week. Okay. To the pension board. But I'm talking about the what the actuary wrote about the 25 and out. I do have that as well. Yeah. That's that's not because that didn't come out last week. No, the pension board didn't bring this to you without a lot of research first. They they feel that now pensions
are always a risk because it is the stock market, but they feel like it's healthy enough and that there's enough time for this to work or they wouldn't have brought it in front of you. And that's just what I believe. And there's some of them here so they can back me up. Yes. And I could tell you we looked
at the 25 and out and we looked at 30 and out. Um, and in all honesty, I was for the 30 and out, but the committee recommended 25 and out. And I agree with what Amos had said. You know, if we can't
pay the money that these big cities are paying, we have to do things to attract them for here and why they want to be here. Oh, there you are. And and y'all are talking about Willist like it's not like the people
that you're going to have people coming in behind. Like the city is growing. is trying to grow but yet like oh everybody leave at the same time 13 years before electric I seen a lot of old men leave it didn't hurt to pinching none didn't
hurt to retire me I came in at a later date they it was all 401k I didn't get the chance to retire there the older men they love it they work their youth all the way up to old men some stay like Mr. being Ivy, he's still there now. But
younger men like me that came in, they kind of canceled it all out and went 401k. So if y'all can't really get the youth something or young men 25, 26 something without the pay or retirement, y'all might as well
just get like part my French methods cuz the city cannot keep up with the city with the city owners cannot keep up with the major cities, right? They're they're paying top dollars. And if I come in here and work three, four years and get my apprenticeship and get my lineman,
you think I'm going to stay here making 27, $28 an hour when I go right there to GRU or at Clay Electric or a contractor and make $55, $48 an hour plus overtime, plus travel play and benefits. I mean, you're making
$160,000 a year as a lineman, $170,000 a year as a contract lineman. But you want me to stay in city of Willist? That's what a young man would think. Buy a house, have his kids, wife, and worry about retirement. No, he has a 180,000
$160,000 check a year. So, I mean, really think about that. If you if you want the best, you got to give them something to entice them to stick around, right? Mr. Bishop, just to clear some things up. Um, Miss Beloo, I think the or
you're looking for is on page 134. Yeah, I think we found it. Yes, ma'am. Um, but looking at the numbers though, you got 12 employees under two years, 21 employees under four years, three employees under six, three under seven, one under nine, one at 10, uh, one at
17, but but retired out before he gets his 25, and of course me. But those are the numbers you're looking at far as people that coming down the pike. And if the young people they're paying in it and they decide to leave, they're only taking a portion and the rest of it is
staying in. Yes, sir. So, and you're going to have some contributing even though they've left and they have if they don't take the full amount. But also, we're we're looking and I can't tell Yeah. who's who. That's
right. And I was You understand what I'm saying? And I'm totally okay with that. saying that knowing knowing the people that's why I did my math and I expect you to to trust but verify that I'm not arguing with but those are those are your numbers you're looking for though barber so if you go to your back page if you go to your back page where your
higher years of service are and we work back from the bottom Mr. Fortney is not part of this pension right Mr. Neil is not part of this pension y Mr. Bishop is Mr. Willis is not part of this pension Mr. Cwell is not part of this pension Mr. Mr. Salomire
is Mr. Smith is not part of this pension. Mr. Schultz is not part of this pension. Mr. Wallace is Mr. Steagle. Uh Brentsteagle is not part of this pension. Mr. Rat uh is not part of this pension. Mr. Muse is not part of this
pension. Mrs. Wright is Mr. Maddox and Mr. Murphy are not part of this pension. So on this page you have one, two, three, four that are 13 years, 17 years, 20 years, and 26 years. Of those folks
of age, their physical age, all of them already in the next couple of years before they reach the 25 will qualify to retire because of the age of 62 as the pension currently is. There's only one employee that would basically this would
benefit everybody else. this this is not going to do anything for him. If you go to the second page, it's a lot more of the same. As you go through there, as John mentioned, you've got one 9-year wait one 9-year employee and then
there's a few of us that are at seven years. I mean, that that's and then the majority of them, 21 are like four years and behind. So, I mean, it's as far as the number, you can go name by name. They're either in the FRS, in the police pension, and all the ones at the bottom
of the list with very little service other than a few are the general employee pension uh holders. And that's what we need to see instead of everybody coming together in order. Well, this is the only way I we apologize. This was the only way we could print out the report. Okay. I tried to get and that's why, you know, again, if if we want to
go through the list, the chief's here, we're here. Uh uh Lamar was here, but we can go through I mean uh many of you even know some of these folks. We can go point by point and show you that just like I did on the back page that 80% of
those folks do not qualify for this change. A great majority of them are firefighters. So if they leave, let's say, early or they retire and they were to take that up front,
I think it's the same as it is now, do they get penalized for taking it out front? No rule would change. The only rule that would change is instead of waiting till 62, if they put in a full 25 years of service, they would have the option, not the requirement, they would
have the option of retiring. Okay? If they wanted to do a drop now and put 30 years in, which most of us would want to put 30 years in, that's kind of standard. The benefit of the drop is you stop contributing to the pension anyways. Right now, if you want to do
the drop, you have to work 35 years. So, it's not attractive to very many people. The drop is you stop contributing to the pension. You go to a 457 uh deferred and then you get a lump sum to kind of pay off debt cuz it those five years it basically just collects as
one lump sum payment like a 401k and then um that's how that works. So, the actuarial calculation includes the possibility of what employees we have now and could potentially do the 25 and out. That was the report that you all have seen multiple times. He fixed a
cost to it and the the fund can pay for that cost. It will not cost the it will not cost the budget any further money. Um the actuary accounts for all of this and that's why we we paid him the $10,000 the previous year. The board
authorized to do that. So again, I mean we you guys can go name by name. I mean even right now and and you're going to find that the concern that you have it's it's actually the opposite. We're right now on the precipice of a lot of contributors with very little people
taking out. And one last thing I'll add, the last many people that qualified to retire in the last se six or seven years, many of them passed away within a year of collecting their pension. So some of them, I think three or four of
them did 30 plus years and received less than a year of their pension. So that's another reason why the fund is healthy and it's it's overfunded and it's overfunded in that regard. Is that the idea of the council? Do you want men to
die out before they can get their Is that the idea of C? I apologize. Is that the idea of council? Y'all want men and women to die out before they can reach their benefits. I don't think we're like social security and want us to Some of them are extenduating
circumstances as well. We won't go into that. But either way, they didn't get to reach that. They didn't get to reach and and get the potential all the years they served, right? So, just I beg of you just choose wisely. Uh choose what y'all feel
best of. Thank you. Mr. Steagle, do you have something? No. All right. So, council, I make a motion that we approve approve the first reading of ordinance 2025-
750. 750. I'll second the motion. All right, we have first and second. Any other discussion? No. All right. All in favor see none. All in
favor say I. I. I. Those opposed. I 31. I'll just comment on page 160. It gives you the all the options of how they can take the money. It, you know, normal, lump sum, monthly, whatever it
tells you right there. All right. Did you get the book? Okay. And can I just say the letter from the actuary was not in here, right? I It was not. that would have been very helpful. Um, and and and burden on me not to call in one of you guys and ask this question, but
that where somebody who knows more about math than I do um can say yes, we've looked at the math and it makes sense would be helpful. Laura, could you make a note to put that in our next agenda packet for second reading? Thank you very much. All right, Mr. President, this is first
reading of ordinance number 2025-751, an ordinance of the city of Willist, Levy County, Florida, amending the code of ordinances, chapter 2, article 5, division 2, pension plan, section 2-202, establishment of retirement plan and trust for police officers transfer of assets and liabilities to adopt the Florida
Municipal Pension Trust Fund defined benefit plan document of the Florida Municipal Pension Trust Fund contained in exhibit A and its accompanying adoption agreement contained in exhibit B providing for repeal of conflicting ordinances providing for inclusion ution in the city code providing for severability and providing an effective
date. I think this one's under me. Okay. This is what we had on the last agenda that we thought had been passed, but it was agenda and tabled at at the previous time that it was on there. So, it has not been passed. That's why you're seeing it again. And this is very simply
not changing the PE police officers 185 pension plan at all. It is just transferring it to the fact that we are going to be under the Florida Municipal Insurance Trust provisions for the as you read it
right there uh Florida Municipal Pension Trust Fund. Um, it's their particular documents that keep us up with IRS because provisions change almost yearly daily. Um, and they need
to be up to date in our document and our document is not up to date. Uh, it doesn't change any of the provisions. It simply updates it to what the IRS code is. And they will keep it up to date as we
go. That's all this is. And it's for the 1855 pinch of plan. This one is. So, it's pretty much just a slim dunk. Sir, it's pretty much a slam dunk. Slam dot. That's exactly right. Mr. Rose, there were some changes in
this document. Oh, yeah. The last document was it said 10 years. It's actually six years. Yeah. You were given that while we were at lunch or took our break. Um in the packet it says the vesting is 10 years but it was changed
to six to six. And this one has the correct verbiage in it. Now I now I would ask the question. Um, we did 25 on the first reading for the general employees regardless of what age. Correct. Is that is that what we
did? So, if they do 25 years, they can retire regardless if they're 52 earlier on page 144. Yes, that's that's exactly it. Okay. So, and I was kind of the reason I was showing everybody that earlier is because I thought we might could tailor that to our general employees, too, but it didn't go that
way. So well in a police pension plan 144 we've got it 6 years September normal retirement date shall be the first day of the month coinciding with the next following of the age of 55 and six years of
service or 52 and 25 years of service. So, if we're doing 25 years totally for general employees and they're fully retired with no age limit, should we not do the same for the police pension p plan? Maybe, but that's not
what this is. Okay. I just want to make sure we don't we might want to bring that back for discussion. Yeah. Um, your 185 pension board will have to discuss that. You need to take that to them. Okay. Um, I can let you know when their next meeting is. Actually, they're they should be on your bulletin board. Did
they get a copy of it? It's on your bulletin board at the police station. Tells you when the next meeting is. Want to say July? Yes. July. No chang. Yes. July. She's having cake. Oh, it's her birthday. On July 9th is
the next meeting for the 185 pension plan. It's usually at 5:30. Um, and you might want to bring that to them. Yeah. Yeah. And there's some more corrections that I see in here um that still say 10 years and they should sit. If you look at the document that's here, this is the document when
they general employees, which included the police department at that time were transferred into the 185. So, this is the language that talks about how they were transferred over. That's why it's got some weird stuff in here that doesn't even kind of pertain at the
moment. Um, and I think the new plan that they're going to give us will probably update some of that, but we need to look at it really good. And you're right, the ages may need to be looked at. Yeah. Okay. So, you going to table that? We need to
do this. This is the the changing to their plan to bring it up to IRS codes. We don't need to change anything else because that's up to the 185 pension board to recommend to us and see how much it would cost to do it. All right. I make a motion. Sorry. So,
we There is There is nothing to discuss here at all. That's right. Okay. I make a motion that we approve the first reading of ordinance 2025-751. I'll second. We have a first and a second. Any more discussion? I'll just make an additional
comment that if we don't go with their plan so that they keep us to they bring us up to code IRS code and keep us up to IRS code, we're going to have to individually change this every time. Ours is tailor made for us right now. But if we don't go with theirs so
that they keep us updated automatically, we're going to have to rewrite our plan every time the IRS changes their rules. So they'll do it automatically without us having to vote on it. That's right. Okay. You should be right. Yes.
Okay. Do we got first second discussion? Anything else? And that's just Sorry. And that's just for the police. Yes, ma'am. The general employees are next because we have to do it for them, too. And the general they're they're the next ordinance.
All right. First second. We had discussion a couple times. Anything else? All right. Hear none to vote. All in favor say I. I. I. Those opposed. 40.
Right. Mr. President, this is the first reading of ordinance 2025-752, an ordinance of the city of Willist, Levy County, Florida, amending the code of ordinances, chapter 2, article 5, division 2, pension plans, section 2-201, revision of retirement plan and trust for general employees to adopt the Florida municipal pension
trust fund defined benefit plan document of the Florida Municipal Pension Trust Fund contained in exhibit A and its accompanying adoption agreement contained in exhibit B providing for appeal of repeal of conflicting ordinances providing for inclusion in the city code, providing for severability and providing ing an effective date.
This is the exact same scenario except it's the general employee plan. It will be brought up to IRS code and they will keep it up to date for us. Nothing else in the Nothing else changes. Man, we could have just lumped
the two. We could have. I make a motion we approve. Sorry. The first reading of ordinance 2025-752. I'll second. We have a first and second. Any discussion? Seeing hearing none, we're going to move to vote. All in
favor say I. I. Those opposed. 40. All right, we're going to close the public hearing. Discussion with possible action. Letter out. Renaming Fireman's Park to be able to serve alcoholic beverages at special events. City
Manager Sue Boddet. Thank you very much, Mr. President. So, as you'll recall, we had a conversation, at least a starting conversation last month regarding the possibility of serving alcohol at one or one of our parks. Um, I discussed this with several
uh department heads and staff members, and this was our thought is perhaps we could rename, we would want to possibly do this just at one park. We were thinking maybe fireman's park to start um we could charge for the alcohol, you
know, the vendors want to serve alcohol, but our thought was that we didn't really like the word park because that denoted more of a familyfriendly atmosphere. So maybe changing fireman's park to be something like fireman's pavilion or some other um some other
word that would, you know, allow us to serve alcoholic beverages. Um it was really just another um conversation we wanted to bring about um to see if there was a way to satisfy, you know, serving alcohol at at least one location. We
could start with that location and if it does work, we could potentially um roll out to others or we could just keep it to the one. But that was kind of our thought was just to keep it at the one location and um see how it goes. Well, I can I can probably tell you that
Bill from Premiere will be knocking on your door going, "Well, wait a minute. If that's all it would take as a name change, why couldn't we do it at Heritage Park?" Cuz I know he's the one that's been, you know, asking about having it, you know, be able to serve
beer and wine there. Um, I've got mixed feelings on it. But I'm also not afraid to move forward to, you know, and looking for the future. um if he's willing to
um you know, we're talking about the name change, but I'm just saying if he's willing to meet what the police chief wants and things like that, I would say Heritage Park would be the place to try it simply because there's more events that take
place here than they do over at Fireman's Park. Can I step in? Yes, you sure. I'll um pass over to Chief Rolls if that's okay because I I was able to be at a meeting with Chief Rolls and um
the um and Sue and the concern and again I'm let Chief jump in in a half second here. Heritage Park is too difficult to to manage. Even fireman's currently named park is difficult and the liability issues and everything else by
starting with the fireman's park which has at least a smaller footprint and a fence could be put around it with one in and one out so that people could not or should you know say they can't but they shouldn't leave and it can be very clear
that they could leave no drinks as they leave. You can't do that with Heritage Park. There's no way to control where the alcohol goes and how it goes. So, the idea was and I mean that debating the pros or cons of being able to sell alcohol in Heritage Park is not the issue right here. It's about the
fireman's park. And the idea is in so that there's people don't say, "Well, you let it happen in that park, but you won't let it happen in this park." Let's just rename that. It's a pavilion. It's not a park. So, that way parks no alcohol. Pavilion. Yes. alcohol.
Well, and in this meeting, we we we talked about this and in our ordinance, it says no alcohol in parks. It specifically names parks in other areas as well. Uh so, we figure one way to get away from the stigma of having alcohol
in a park is to rename the fireman's park to fireman's pavilion or something. Now, I'll say this. Anytime there is alcohol involved in a party or something, there there's always issues.
As you can see, Chief just had one where it turned into a fiasco, shots fired, all kind of stuff. Uh those are the things that and the stigma that we're trying to avoid here in Willist. Uh we we've experienced the Craft Fest. We
know what it turns into. Uh the the fireman's pavilion, if we rename it, was a way to try it to see if it would work and if we would have any problems. But I also think we limited it to what alcohol
could be served there. I think it was wine and beer. Beer and wine, I believe it was. uh with with some stipulations of depending on how many people it is, you may have to hire a police officer to be there to control the environment. Uh
but for like weddings and baby showers and things like that, the fireman's pavilion park, whatever, would be a great location where if you're having a wedding venue, you can have beer and wine. Uh it's easy to manage. uh it's not a heritage park where it's wide open
and people can do whatever they want to do. Uh so that was just a step we looked at at if we decide to go that way let's try it there first. Okay. So in the name park whatever fireman's park I mean it's not an actual park. No
park. Oh you mean it's a passive park. Explain please. Come here. When we do an inventory of what we have, um, we do have things called passive parks. So, we have parks like the tennis courts, and that's you're going to play tennis there. Um, a
passive park would be a park that doesn't necessarily have anything there, but you could but it's it's it's it's a draw. It's still a draw. And since I've got the mic, we recommend what Mike Rolls would like us to call it would be
Fireman's Square. So, are are we going to be is this only going to be doing special events or is this going to be at any point or any time since it's going to be an outdoors open area where we're um agreeing to
allow people to drink publicly in the open with no food or anything associated? I mean, it's not like it's a restaurant and people go outside and sit and eat and drink, you know, but it there's none of that. We're just gonna allow people to congregate if it's not a
special event. No, it would alcohol. It would be a special event like I mentioned earlier, weddings, baby showers, things things of that nature because the concern and the issues that we have to identify and look at is if we don't make
it special events and we don't put a limit of how many people can come, then you've got nothing but a block party. And that's my concern. That's why I'm asking about Yeah. Yeah. So that's why we said it would be special events, you know, wedding showers, baby showers, whatever. Uh those type things where
they have to get a permit in order to do it. They have to go through the special event permit and we all have to approve it. Uh that way we prevent from having that open block party and everybody just going over there and hanging out and drinking beer and doing whatever. So So what's going to constitute a special
event? Cuz what I consider a special event may not be something that you consider. Yeah. have to fill out that special event application. I understand that. But what is going to be considered a special event? It could be birthdays. It could be wedding anniversaries. It could be baby showers. I mean, we can
come up. We can make whatever we want to be a special event basically party. Is that going to be I got divorced. Is that special event? I mean, so so that's Yeah. Yeah. That's that that's I'm just asking the question cuz people can come
up with any name they want and call it a special event and still have what it is that you're talking about. Well, that's why I'm saying that's why I'm kind of trying to that's why I'm saying that the board would have to decide what are we going to allow as a special event. I give you I give an example. Sorry. As
chief, they had the group said, "Oh, we're having a birthday party." Well, it wasn't a birthday party. M they said it was a birthday party so they could have it in the park and then it turned into a massive block party thousands of people thousands of people
problems all night. So that's why the board would have to be very specific on you can only have these and it would be up to us to decide okay is it do require a police officer or not? And if it doesn't we ride by and check it out. If
it ain't a birthday party and it it didn't turn into a block party we just shut it down. Is it going to require a number of people that can attend cuz the area is only so big? Yeah, we're going to be looking at that as well. It would have to have a certain amount of numbers of people that will be allowed the hours
too. We could say that the events can't start before 10 in the morning and they can't go past 4:00 in the afternoon. I mean, we can limit it in any way we want. Th this step is basically to pull the fireman's square park pavilion out of the lump of all the other parks so
that we're not talking about all the parks. We're just talking about that space across the street. Mr. Bishop, basically what we're talking about is the same thing that we do already. So when someone comes in and wants to do something, they call it a special event. Both chiefs look at it, I look at it, Latricia looks at it, Sue looks at it.
Um, and all the criteria we're talking about, we all get together, we speak about that. And there's a lot of times chief won't sign off it unless I sign off or vice versa. And it's all about bathrooms, it's all about security, it's all about PD or fire or crowd control or MOT and all that kind of stuff. And when
we do that, the numbers are there. So, correct. So, but the only thing is now we're adding alcohol. No, absolutely. But what I'm saying is all we have to do is critique what what we're doing now. What BJ? Not each event. Not each event. We're going to change the idea discussed at
the last meeting, meeting before last. Anyway, the idea of allowing alcohol in in parks, but the concern was Sorry, I thought I thought it was that we were going to do it. Hang on one second, Mr. Steel. Yes, sir. Yeah, I I think this is a
slippery slope. Um it is it is because you go you go renam in one park for you know essentially one guy that wants to sell beer and wine at events and then we're going to name that fireman square. Now we're going to come over here and name this heritage square so that we can
do the same thing and now we've got you know people doing this and people doing that and do we really want that look for the city of Willist? Uh personally I I mean I grew up in Willist, raised my whole life here, went off to the army for eight years, came
back and you know my roots are here. I don't want to see this city just you know eventually erode away like that. We've already got a lot of erosion by a lot of people coming in in massive amounts. Um, and little by little, you
know, things like that are are just going to eat at the soul wheels. And I'm not a fan, although that is true. But we have a gentleman who is right down the road that seems to have it makes makes it work in Matt Randle,
you know, it's a whole lot different situation. Yeah. Homestead Park. That that's a whole lot different. And and in this scenario, commercial establishment and in this scenario, we're talking about only certain things. We're I'm not telling you that I'm for it. I'm not
telling you that I'm against it. And I know that it's a slippery slipperly slope like you said, but what I'm saying here is this would be for only and we can do however many we want. We can say only baby showers. We can say only wedding anniversaries. We we can do that
and limit it to just those type of events where you're not doing it for one person like you're not having premiere saying, "Well, I normally do my my uh bacon making bacon at Heritage Park. Now I'm going to do it at Fireman Square."
Uh no, because it's only allotted for certain type things. Right. So here's my qu and when Chief happened, it changed for me on on Crossair and we talked about it. Oh yeah. But after
sitting back and thinking about it, this park if Bill did not do events and which I encourage your committee to meet with him and to say these are our our
concerns of this and that and see if he can help you maybe do a policy. But other than that, to me, I think that park's underutilized Heritage Park. He if it wasn't for that gentleman Yeah. doing it, we wouldn't do it. But he's
bringing people who on a Saturday maybe might not have come to Willist, but because there is an event, they're coming out here. Here's the thing we thought about. It says it has the title park. That's Fman Square. It's
not a park. Okay? Even though Lord says it's whatever you call it. Passive Park. Passive Park. Passive Park. That was passive square. It's It's not It doesn't carry parks are for our families and our and our youth and our children coming up. And if it says park, I'm going tell
you right now, I'm totally against anything says park. Okay? Cuz that's to me that's for our our families that that are bringing their children to enjoy and relax and grow up and utilize the park, not sit there and watch people drinking alcohol.
Fireman Square is Fireman Square. It's not It doesn't have the the title of park and we can limit it to what events we were allowed to take place there. So, if we were to go that way, go ahead. No, Kirsten has never had She had her hand
up. Then we'll go around. Yeah, Kirsten actually was before me. She just didn't put her hand up. She turned on her mic. So, I just want to clarify. We we can't say that we'll allow baby showers and not wedding showers or we can't say that we'll allow birthdays but not this other
I that's a first amendment sort of issue. We can't really regulate the content of people's speech in a public place which an event is sort of speech. So we can regulate it in a lot of ways but I just want to make sure that we
know that that's not one of the ways. Okay, Deborah. Okay. First of all, I think it's a horrible idea. And I don't care what Mr. Foster wants to do. He started out talking to me. Now he's talking to you. He's moving from one person to the other. We talked the other
night only because I was interested in the barbecue contest. Well, I brought him in here a couple times to speak to multiple city managers uh because he wanted to do it. I told him where I thought he might could accomplish it. Number one, and the main problem is there, and Meredith addressed it a
little bit. There's no controlled entry or exit. Uh it's a wide open space. And you talking about fireman's I'm talking about fireman's park. Oh, fireman's square, whatever you want to call it. Um there is no control. You can go in and
out wherever you want to. And that's not good. Um it would have to have a controlled entry and a controlled exit. Um if you were even going to consider it, which I don't believe that I will. Um, I do believe it would only have to be with special special event
application. I would want it to be approved by the council in every case. Um, I think it borders residential, which is not a whole lot different than the very surject that we talked about because there are some
houses in that area, quite a few. The reason it's underutilized is there's no bathroom. How are you going to have a party with no bathroom? I'm talking more so Heritage Park instead of Fireman's Park. Okay. The other thing is um you would have to
limit the number of people and the hours. My problem is I would not want them to sell alcohol. That's why Mr. Foster is not going to be interested. If you want to bring alcohol, that's one thing. I do not want anybody selling alcohol in any property that we own.
Yeah. I don't even care if they have a license. Yeah, I I don't it's just not on city property of any kind, whether it's a park or not a park. I don't think you need to be selling alcohol. Now, there have been occasions when we did the open uh the groundbreaking and also
things that the chamber has done there that we've wanted to have. We wished that we had could serve wine or beer, mostly wine we were talk talking about. Um, and we knew we couldn't and that's why we didn't. But
that would be the only only way I would go at it at all. There's no way I would ever vote to let somebody sell alcohol city property. But I think Councilwoman Jones has a lot of really good points and I don't believe so. One thing that I wish Latricia was here because
this is not about Bill Foster at all. This is about a lot of people who are coming and asking us to rent the park and then asking if they can have beer and wine and us saying no and they no longer want to rent the park. It is underutilized, but it's also in a bladed
block which we're working on and at some point this is going to be like the coolest fireman square ever, but it's going to take some time because there's really I mean it's bladed. Let's, you know, be honest. It was one step before that building fell down. We either had to save the building and do something
with it or tear it all down. So, we decided to save it. So, it is underutilized, but we think that And no, selling alcohol is not even on the I don't even think that's on the plate. This isn't for Bill Foster. No. Um and his events. This is for residents who just want to have um a small gathering
downtown in this small little box. And if you guys don't want to do it, it's we don't you know, Chief and I are fine with that. I think that it was just something that was going to maybe be a trial to make sure we could behave ourselves if somebody wanted to make it bigger and and let Bill do his big
events and maybe sell. So, how big is the area? Fireman's Park is right. It's right across the Yeah, the size. It's about the size of this room. But don't you but don't you have businesses that are surrounded that park it back there? So, how does that Am I thinking about
the No, you're in the right area. Yeah. So, right now it's next to three blighted businesses that aren't being utilized. Um, and then another two that were are low utilization and then hopefully a steakhouse really soon. And we're doing a parking lot over there.
That this whole block is going to be different in a few years. But if if if you're doing this as a trial for Bill Foster to sell liquor, it's that's not at all what the purpose of this was for. So that's I don't even think that's anything that any of us really want.
Well, when we when a when a meeting when this came about, which y'all know it caught me off guard in the in the meeting, uh, you know, I'm pro against it. I'm still pro against it, but I'm not pro against giving it a try. I mean, if that's what
the council decides they want to do. Uh, but now I sit here and I listen to our attorney say you cannot limit it to certain events, I'm done. I I I don't know. I'm I'm against it. But but you know, even and Jonathan can
probably back me up with this. Even if doing an event in Heritage Park, I we suggest that we talk to Jackie about doing SEAC state contest, which could have
made the city some really good money. There are better places I could send you. they didn't finish. The the key to that whole thing is it draws people. And if that's the mindset, then this will still be an underutilized park where we could
have events to draw people to this town which come for other things and it's just not going to you just stick with the same three events that you or the city can buy the properties and make things where they
can sell alcohol from that area and have the area in the back. I don't Obviously, I don't drink, but I'm not opposed to I'm not opposed to somebody doing it. How do we know that? Uh how do we know that the
containers, Yeti cups, and different things that people are walking in with don't have alcohol? What's the liability for the city? Um Kirsten, if you care to tell us, please. I'm just asking.
Well, there's liability associated with everything that you do. I get it. I get it. There you go. But what's the city? That's not There you go. What's the city? Yeah. Seriously, this isn't a completely novel concept. Lots of municipalities do something
similar to what you all are discussing here. Um, I'm not aware of any multi-million dollar lawsuits that have come out of these types of parks and situation. Not parks, squares. Um, squares.
I'm not aware of any very large lawsuits. Um, I will say that your sovereign immunity sovereign immunity um right now is limited to $300,000. Um there is uh proposed
legislation in place that would increase that very significantly. I believe it's $3 million would be 1.3 at 600,000. Yeah. 1.3 and three 30. I think it's currently at 600,000. Yes, ma'am. But what she's trying to tell you it's going
to go up to 1.3 and and and 3 million for eventually. It's passed six times already. It's going if you would like to continue. So you have limited liability by sovereign immunity. Generally speaking, there are
some situations in which sovereign immunity does not apply. It's very fact specific. So I can't tell you um gross negligence whether or not this would any potential liability incurred at this square would result in sovereign
immunity exempt liability. It's not. I'm I'm just asking simply because I know if you're at a bar or somewhere, whatever, then they kind of bear some liability because it would happen on their premises. You do bear some liability. I'm just trying to figure out what
it would it would not be unlike that fact discussing it. Okay, hang on one second. So, not to overstep you, uh, Miss Hines, but what you're talking about with the bars, you're absolutely correct. But the part that you're missing is if you're doing the serving then you have then you have the issue
with the liability. Okay. So if you're serving Yes, you're correct. 100% correct with the bars. Mr. Barber, thank you. I come up here. I'm not speaking as an employee. I'm speaking as a head of another organization completely. So I'm
the chair of the Citra Improvement and Volunteer Fire Department. I want to encourage the council not to pursue this because I don't want a neighboring community honing in on my business because I think it's absurd that through economic development, we're starting a
chamber over there. There are political events, there are banquetss, there are specific things at our community in cooperation with the Marian County Sheriff's Department and the Marian County Fire Department. We would absolutely do this and we are going to do this on our property. We have insurance for this reason. and we have
policies. So, I hope you don't do it because I don't want you to steal that business and I want those events to come to me. Thank you. Thank you. Well, and I think that was the reason for doing it as a special event because of the insurance. We can have them have that
insurance have their have their own insurance on a special event permit. Uh, and that's why we were trying to limit it to certain events, even though I was just told we can't do that because it kind of infringes on people's first
amendment. But anyway, I think I didn't write the first amendment. So, I think that was part of why we were trying to tie it to an event. You have to have a special event permit. Go ahead, Miss Meredith. Yeah, to just to piggyback on that, we can make it as
difficult or strict as we want by limiting hours, music, number of people, um, you know, provide, not provide parking, however you want to do it, require insurance, buy insurance, a fee. I mean, we're not talking about, oh,
it's like a last minute decision. We just want to go down to the park and we're going to bring a bunch of beers and we're going to have a party and call it a special event. This is like you could do it by how many weeks in advance you have to put in for the permit and things like that so that we structure it towards exactly the groups that Sar
Donald was talking about. But um but you know making sure it's people who are planning ahead and having contingency plans and willing to put the money on the table and you know rain no rain you know however we want to do it. We can 100% structure this as tight as we want
and if all goes well and we want to loosen the edges we can. And if we don't, we don't. But otherwise, what what what is anybody going to do with that park over there? You know, it's it once there's parking and more landscaping, it's still going to be lovely. But, you know, to have a place
where you can have an event and coolers of beer and a glass of wine and cheese or whatever and and no selling, no hard liquor, however we want to structure it, we structure it. I was telling Laura that down in Palatka, not Palka, Apakka, beautiful facilities. They made
a lake. They have a a band shell and everything else. With their pavilions, you got to rent them. And there's rules. And on the pavilion is a placard that says this is rent it. Mhm. These are the
people. Yep. And from time to time. From what time to time? My feeling is this. We've been beating this dead horse. So, I think tonight we either decide we're gonna do it or not do it. That's just my because we're just
beating a dead horse. M Jones. I would I agree. Don't do it. I think the mere fact that we're talking about liability. The fact that there's no bathroom even though they could break a portaotty and the timing of it. We're getting ready to dig the whole thing up and put utilities
and build a parking lot. I think it's a terrible time to do it. Even if you want to do it, but why not? The timing is just on there. Get the rules done now. Why they're doing that? That's out of commission. I don't want to do it. Then vote then
vote no. Let's I make a motion that we Is that what we're doing here? Move forward forward with renaming the fireman's park so that we can discuss having alcoholic beverages and special events there.
Got a first. Got a second. Anybody interested? You're making the ch name change contingent upon why you're doing it. Well, I don't think we need to change the name cuz it's fireman's square. It's not fireman's park anyway. Oh, it is fireman's park.
It says fireman's park right across the [Laughter] whale. So, I make a motion that we rename Fireman's Park to Fireman's Square and continue the discussion about having
alcoholic beverages at special events at Fireman's Square. So, the rename is not contingent on the No, it's just continue to have discussion. But at what point are you going to cut its neck? Well, somebody would have
to bring an ordinance because it's a change. So, it would have to be brought as an ordinance to allow allow alcohol in firemen's square for special events and all of the other
things we want to keep this tight. Okay. So, we got it first. You got anything? Okay. All right. So, it dies due to lack of lack of a second. Lack of a second. Thanks, Dad. So, we'll be back in another month fighting about it again
and be 10:00 or we can forget it until after the parking lot is done. Item M or forget it forever. Discussion with possible action overage and aotted vacation hours. City manager Sue Badet. I'm so sorry to bring this up at 10
o'clock at night. Um unfortunately this might be a long conversation. So you want to kick you till next week or next meeting? We can. I mean it's not going to kill the world if we don't. It's about you can wait till the next time if you guys want to do it. Sure. We don't want to
pressure you. I mean, I can at least tell you what it's about if you want to just think about it. Um, but I think this has been going on for a long time. Our employee manual um says that employees are only allowed to acrew 288 vacation hours. We
have eight employees that have significantly more than 288 vacation hours. And with the new system that we're going to edm, um I've been told by Selena that uh basically anything in excess of 288 hours is going to go away.
Um so I need to get some direction from the council as to how we want to handle these excess hours. Um in previous places that I've worked, we could out the difference. I don't know if that's something that we can do or we could consider, but we'll just we have to
figure out what we can do with these. And there's some people in here that have a significant amount over 288 hours. So, real question. So, you said we're going to a new system.
Edmonds. Edmonds. Okay. So, in 288 is the only number we can go with. We can't go higher than that. Or that's what's in our handbook right now. and and maybe that's something we can do
is maybe you may want to think about changing the employee handbook to allow people to, you know, acrew more than the 288 and keep more on the book. But I mean, like I said, we have people that have, you know, 800 or 900 hours and they're way over that 288 that's
allotted. So what 7 weeks and that's a liability for the city. So we don't really if we increase it, we're increasing the liability for the city. Yeah. But 288 really isn't a lot. Seven weeks. Yeah, I just divided it out over
here. That's the number. That's still That's still isn't a lot. But okay, that and that's fine. I'm not going to I'm I'm not going to fight with the numbers. Um, yeah. I guess if you can come back maybe
to us with the ones who are significantly over and what the cost would be in order to pay them out or um do something different next vacation. Why you looking like that? Cuz we're talking thousands of dollars if you pay them out. I just want to see numbers. I
mean, I don't know what they are. So, and and I can say in in systems that I've been in before, if you if 288 is your number, why were they allowed to acrew more than 288? Um, our system, every every place I've ever worked, it stopped at 288. You
didn't keep acrewing and and have it. One other place that I used to work, uh, when management group changed from one to the other and we had more than they allowed, they let us bank the
extra and you could only use it for special um, like illnesses and that sort of thing. You couldn't use it for vacation so much as you could for sickness or illness after you'd used all your other. it was there so you didn't really lose it but it was banked and it was only
banked for you. So that's another solution that I like could think of Mr. Barber. Okay, brief history one is we don't just have leave time. This is annual time. We also have a a sick time. So you have up to eight 800 hours of
sick time that the uh handbook allows you to acrew up to. Then there's an additional sick bank which you can purchase hours into and that gets you up to so much time. So the staff is not complaining about the levels. In regards
to Miss Jones, you mentioned, you know, why why were they allowed to get over 288? This is a sort of a sad subject because the answer to that question is we were not allowed to take that time. We were
forbidden that's not at all what I meant from taking that time. I meant why did the system allow cuz it's manual. Cuz it's manual. It's infamark. It's literally an Excel sheet and they just keep adding it up and it kept going up and up. Edmonds.gov is not going to be
manual. Edmonds is an automatic. You put in your coding and then the coding dictates that if we were to after an adjustment was made that it would drop off automatically and that you would know what the rate it is that you have to take. Your options could be one comp
time. It could go from annual to comp. Comp is another category that we have. The second option could be that you pay it out. The third option could be that you create something that many systems have called terminal leave. Meaning that when someone gets to their retirement,
if they have banked what they put over their 288 and put into terminal leave, that let's say the last few months before their retirement date, they don't show up to work, the position is not filled, and they are on what we call terminal leave. They're terminally leaving until they're processed out for
retirement. That's another thing that Marian County, Elatchua County, and a few other uh uh agencies do. The military does terminal leave. position though. So, it would it's it's it's not considered vacation sick or any of that. It's considered basically like
you're banking the time to early retire, but you're still considered a full-time employee with benefits and things of that nature. Just banking that time till the end of your retirement. I'm not saying that's what you should do. I'm just those are your those are the different ways that people handle overages. The other thing that was
mentioned is the as far I'm on the list. I know a lot of other people here on the list. I'm not looking to go down to 288 because if you guys make a change, let's say tonight, and you decide to take my excess over, then the very next paycheck, I'm starting to lose time again. We want to go down to like 200
hours and annual leave, and we want the balance transfer. So, we have a little bit of time and room to allow that to grow. Um but the only reason why these numbers got excessive for employees is because there was some in an
inappropriate management decisions years ago and we were not able to utilize this benefit or else there would have been consequences up to and including termination and there were vacations that were cancelled and there were a lot of serious things that occurred. That
was four or five years ago. Yeah. Yeah. Talking a lot. Hang on. Mr. Bishop is next. The other thing to think about too, if you if we remember if we remember the 288's somewhat of a newer thing. Um I want to say it's five, six
years old, eight years old. The 288's a newer thing. It hasn't been there my whole my whole career. Okay. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I think we need to start
somewhere. Um, and have to like maybe um figure out how to have those who are excessively over put somewhere the their leave put somewhere. But it still needs to start
at a certain amount and I would say increase it to maybe like 350 hours and then start at 288. That way you have some a buffer in there. Um but after that once we get
there instill that if you go over your hours it's a use lose. Yeah. So if you don't use leave by the end of the year if you have overage um then you lose that amount or you have to take leave. That also instills to
make sure that people are taking leave and getting rest and spending time with family and things of that nature. So I think we just have to kind of like start where we are and then go from there. So whatever excess there is, it's
just excess like you say bank it or something. Um but then start at 288. I mean 3 328 would be 8 weeks. We went up to 328 for 8 weeks and bank the rest of it.
That's fine. I mean you know what I'm saying? Yeah. But you know I actually agree with you. I I know. I know. I mean, I'm just I mean, because you know, unfortunately, things tend to happen and um 8 weeks really isn't a long time. Not
saying that we're looking to two months, two months without an employee that we need is a long time. And they could be on family leave or family medical leave or whatever. Yeah. They could be on FMLA from having a baby. I mean, it just kind of And
that's what 6 months. Mr. Barbara, FMLA is 12 weeks if you want to meet a a federal standard. It's totally and it's totally different than this. Well, I understand that. I'm just saying but you you would lose if you went out on FMLA. I went out of FMLA last year for our child that was in NICU for many many
weeks. I was out for 8 weeks and I can tell you to Miss D's point that went by very very quickly and I came back because I I need I was needed here. So, I mean I kind of self- returned but your FMLA is up to 12 weeks. But when you apply for MFAA, if you want a paycheck,
it's not free money. You have to use your own time. Right. Right. So I I would just say if you met the federal standard, that would be what they could take as a max anyways at a time in an emergency in a calendar year. Do you know how what our liability would go up
if we went from 7 to 12? No, I understand what you're saying, Miss Jones. 7 to 12. What? Oh, you mean weeks? I mean, we're talking about their hourly rate times 40 hours is a week. All the people they're talking about everybody. I mean, we're talking a lot of money.
We are, but the only way you would really see that money is if somebody to do it for everybody, not just them. If if you're having a person who is having a medical necessity, they can't really take eight weeks at once just because they have it because No, they can't. No.
No. Because I mean but like Donald said generally but if you want to you if you want to get paid you have to use it. Right. Right. But the manager can also say listen we have this amount of people I can give you two weeks off. I can give you you know whatever there's the you
still have management who has to regulate that. It's not just because they have it they can use it. It's still regulated. I have six weeks at talking about vacation or FMLA. I have six weeks of vacation at my job, but they're not going to let me take all six weeks at once. You know what I'm saying? So,
that's I guess that's what I'm saying. I agree with that. Miss Meredith, can we table this? Um, this is not going to get solved tonight. It's 10:00. Um, can we numbers? Yeah, we need some numbers. We can argue it till we're going to need to, if
I this will go into effect the next couple of weeks. So, we're gonna have to definitely address it at the next. If you read here, it says the system goes into effect manually. So, you can bank them until
then. Yeah. So, they don't lose them. But what we need, we need numbers. We need to know how many hours they've got. We need to know how many what their really what their rate of pay is to know what kind of dollars we're talking about who if somebody's talking about paying them out which I'm not but somebody
might be you might could convince me but I don't think so because I've never worked anywhere that did that right um when you left they pay you out that's fine it's just conversation uh exactly uh what else do we need though from them between now and then the number of hours
oh we also need to know that if we increase it from 288 to Even 328, how many more dollars of liability does that give us for the entire year's payroll? We need to know that, too. And if it would
require more staff to cover people gone. Okay. So, can I make a motion that we table this until the next meeting when we have the answers to those questions? I'll second. But I have a discussion.
the record. Sorry. Um, is Miss Bad still on the line? Okay. Did I say that right? I'm sorry. Yes, ma'am. So, is is is this just for annual leave or vacation time or is this for sick leave as well that we're
looking at? No, it's just vacation. So, we probably need to look at them both. If that makes sense. If there's a cap on the number of sick hours, which I'm sure there is, we need to look at it, too. You're exactly right. 180 800. Oh, 8. Oh, yeah. Thank you. You
did say that earlier. What's your So, if there's anybody with more than 800, we need to hear that, too. So, it's 800, but when you cash out, you only get 25%. So, the real number is 200. I realize that you get all of the vacation, but you only get a quarter of the correct sick leave.
Yep. Can we discuss this at the next meeting, please? I'm going to have to go. I'm sorry. I I'm going to have to go. This one will be real quick. Okay. discussion with possible action. Charter review committee uh review of term limits for the council members and the mayor
uh council president me Michael Cox. Basically, this is and you can read it. We can bring this back because we want to have it done by October. I talked to Tammy Jones actually. We can go a little later, but I don't want to because I don't want it
to go until we don't get it on there. Basically, it's saying that we're going to take my suggestion is a it's the council that sets this first one. Granted, I realize people vote on it. they said it but
um to go from two years council to four years um in if I've highlighted in the little packet that I gave you the ones I want to do a point of order. Mr. Mr. President. Yes, sir. You you guys have a motion on the table with a second, but
you never actually took a vote. Oh, sorry. We have to table to table M. Yep. Sorry about that. Sorry to say what was the motion to table. There you go. All right. We have first. We had a second. Any other discussion? Hearing
none to table it. All in favor say I. I. I. Those opposed. 40. All right. So, um, going back to this, just wanting us to get where other cities are at. um we're
outdated and I brought this up about almost a year ago that we do this. The other thing is um even talking about uh installation of new officers.
Um so president instead of one year we'll go to two years. Um not doing it for me trust me. um to go for me. Oh, two years. We elect every year. Yeah. So, we'll go to two
because we're going to go to a fouryear thing. Every two years there's going to be an election. So, we'll do elect every year, but it doesn't matter. Yeah. We keep the same. Um so, you can read over that and we'll
come back to it. Uh the other part of it something that I don't understand is how come it is that if a council person leaves office they have to wait a year if they want to go work for the
city keep people from having conflict of interest. So if John leaves office and goes over and has backhoe experience and want to work for utility, how would that be a
conflict? Because utility may have solicited him to come and work there for them. Thereby he will leave office and go work there which is the conflict of interest. So instead of just a suggestion instead of
a year go to 45 days or six months. It's just it's just something I don't under stand understand. It's not explained in here because it's good
practice to to actually insulate yourself. Okay. So that's one of the things that I see with that that do have to go but not going to stay here all night for this. So take it home. I make a mo.
Well, we're going to table it to the next one so we can leave. So we don't have to make a motion. It's a table. Okay. You've discussed it. I may be late. I got I have some sleep. I make a motion that we adjourn. Time is
now 10:15 p.m. Can I get a second? A second. Thank you. Going to first. Got a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. I. Part: 2
afterwards All right You ready You ready Over here listen All right Good evening ladies and gentlemen The date is April 22nd The time is now 6:01 p.m in the city of
Williston City Council has come to order Miss Laura would you call the role please Mayor Charles Goodman I am here Council President Michael Cox hello Vice President Darfus Hines here Council
member Deborah Jones here Council member Meredith Martin here Council member Alexa Hannah Rikio here City Manager Sue Bedette she is online Attorney Kristen Kirsten Belaloo here City clerk Latricia Wright she is
online and all other staff All right welcome everybody All right open in prayer and pledge of allegiance to the flag Mr Mayor Charles Good Join me if you choose to
Is this thing actually on It is Keep talking Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello Aaron Aaron Aaron Aaron Aaron It Aaron Aaron There you go Aaron now we're here
I just love calling his name Amen Join me if you will Lord I just ask you to be with us today as we go through the business of this city Lord I ask you to be with the council as each of them weighs the pros
and the cons of each issue Help them to make the best decisions that they can for our city And Lord I ask you to be with the people here who have come here to do business And I ask you to give them the wisdom and the patience that
they need to deal with it And Lord I just ask you to please be with my fire department and my police department They are constantly out there
when the rest of us are safe at home and they're constantly doing things that we couldn't even imagine So I just ask you to give them peace about their jobs in Jesus name Amen
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 Thank you very much
All right Item one addition deletions changes and approval of the agenda Can I get a motion Move approval of the agenda as presented All right Second Got a first got a second Any
discussion All right Seeing none we'll move to vote All in favor say I I Those opposed All right 5-0 Item two proclamation water conservation
month Mr Mayor we're going to bump that down right Or did you want to go ahead and do it Hi So it was in here It was in there I just 174 page agenda is ridiculous Yes it is
I don't think any of us disagree with you Mr Barber may I see you please I want to ask you something Not you this time huh Mr Whereas water is a basic and essential need of every living creature And
whereas the state of Florida water management district and the city of William are working together to increase awareness about the importance water conservation And whereas the city of Will and the state of Florida has
designated April typically a dry month when water demands post water conservation Aaron present to educate citizens about how they can
help save Florida's precious water resources and whereas the city of Williston has always encouraged and supported water conservation through various educational programs and special events And whereas every
business industry school citizen can make a difference when it comes to conserving water And whereas every business industry school and citizen can help by saving water thus promote a
healthy economy and community And whereas efficient irrigation design programming and maintenance can conserve water the city of Williston will encourage all citizens and businesses to
evaluate their irrigation systems for potential efficiency enhancement Now therefore let it be resolved by the virtue of the authority vested in me as the mayor of the city of Willist I
hereby do proclaim the month of April as water conservation month The city of Williston Florida is calling upon each citizen and business to help protect our precious resources by practicing water saving
measures and becoming more aware of the need to save water For this the 27th year of water conservation month there will be a special focus on irrigation systems signed under my hand and with my
seal in the council chambers of city hall on this 22nd day of April 2025 Mr Barton he is in for those of you that don't know he takes care of our water He
works very hard at it He's pretty darn good at it No that's the men leading group Thank you very much [Applause] All right Item three Item three public
participation This is your first opportunity to address the council at this time Anyone in the audience can come to the podium and speak for five minutes on any topic other than what is on the agenda When
you come up please state your name your residency if you do so and just a reminder that the council does not have to comment on that Okay Anybody Okay
Item four consent agenda These are the council minutes from April 8th 2025 Can I get a motion I make a motion that we approve the consent agenda from April 8th 2025 A second We have a first We got a second
Any discussion All right Seeing none we'll move to vote All in favor say I I Those opposed 5-0 Item five updates
staff Well we'll do Sue first Sue man uh city manager Sue Bedette She is on Can you hear me Yep Can you hear me Yes we have you Go ahead Excellent Thank you All right So u just wanted to let everybody know that over the last couple
weeks I really focused on the airport Um back on Thursday April 10th I uh Benton was kind enough to give me a lovely tour of the Willis airport which was wonderful And then last week uh Wednesday and Thursday we attended the uh spring 2025 Florida Aviation
Professionals Academy in Fort Myers uh which is where electrician and I are again this week Um and the training was great Like I said it was about a day and a half training It uh focused on seven different modules and uh definitely learned a lot about airports Uh learned that there was 128 commercial and
general aviation airports in the state They fall under seven FDOT districts Uh we learned about chapter 333 of the Florida statutes that addresses zoning regulations like obstructions vertical construction and wildlife Um there are eight steps to building a brand new
airport The last two that were built were in Tvaris in 2017 and St Cloud in 2022 Uh public use airports receive a license whereas private use airports receive a registration And uh all proposed projects have to be included in an FDA
accepted uh airport master plan and entered into uh JIP which stands for joint automated capital improvement program And uh the state of Florida actually gives more money to its airports than any other state in the country which I thought was really interesting uh district one which is not the
district we're in but uh there was a representative from district one Uh they have 12 different counties in their district and they have nine different uh projects going on right now and they stress that projects are selected based on priority not on uh revenue base And
uh last uh web the last module was on grants and they stressed the importance of grant spendown making sure that you're constantly you know spending money that you've been awarded because if you aren't spending the funds fast enough they could decide to reallocate the funds which I thought was
interesting So uh definitely learned a lot about airports last week and um like I said Latricia and I are at in uh Fort Meyers again this week for an insurance summit through FMIT So I'm sure I'll have a lot to report back on insurance at the next meeting And then uh lastly
wanted to let you guys know we have um recently hired Vicky Corbin as our administrative assistant She's going to be starting on Monday May 5th And uh we hope to have a decision on the HR director position by the end of the week We've had one candidate that had to reschedule several times uh but we're
hoping to have a decision by Friday And that's all I have Thank you very much All right Thank you ma'am We'll start over here with Miss Laura for staff You have anything ma'am I don't have anything I have a lot on
the agenda that we'll talk about on some updates please Chief Rose you got anything Uh yeah Our dark simulator simulator that we purchased Uh
oh microphone Sorry Eric the dart simulator firearm system that we purchased and that Ben was so graceful to give us a location for We're about 95% done with the completion of the room The system is set up and
operation and operating at this time and I am going to be setting dates for the council members to come out and get a go at it So it'll be a lot of fun and I think you'll enjoy it Uh the
team have done a really good job with the room and getting it set up So I think it'll be something that you'll really really enjoy and you'll really really see the benefit uh that it provides to the officers having that that training facility out there and having a chance to practice Uh if you
watch the news lately there was an officer that was uh shot in his weapon hand strong hand and uh the sheriff said that by that happening it totally eliminated him out of the fight Uh well
with this simulator we'll be able to go in there and practice a lot of weak hand shooting That way if you do get hurt in your strong hand you'll be able to shoot with your weak hand And by doing this with the simulator it's not costing the city or the taxpayers money by going out
to the gun range firing all these rounds off down range So uh it's a really great system and I think you'll really be proud of the the purchase that we made of uh buying that system So when we get it all set up get that 5% done we'll start setting dates for you all to come
out and and give it a whirl and see some of the things that the officers have to experience as far as distressing every shooting or somebody pulling a gun at you and how quick those things take place So I think you'll really enjoy it Chief Ro Yes sir If I may ask you're not
planning to put guns in the hands of this council are you Please say no It's a simulator It's a simulator Mayor the word is similator Okay Yeah Not real guns No Not real guns No No No No No
Yes ma'am Well we're we're going to do a we'll do a press release on it through the media Uh you know advising the community what we've done and what steps we've taken but the system is for law enforcement So
yes ma'am So it just be for us Yes ma'am But we will do a press release you know letting you all know what's going on with it The second thing I got uh which is Lor's trying to push me up front is uh beginning of the month the uh police
department took the FMITA safety excellent initiative and I'm proud to report that we passed [Applause] So by completing that task uh it opened
us up to receive a $6,000 grant $6,000 grant that could be used for the police department right Yes For the police department So we'll be able right It's a safety grant Yes ma'am So I just wanted to share that with the
council So that's all I have Oh one other thing This morning I went to the um county commissioner meeting Uh they are now moving towards uh having live stream count uh city county commissioner meetings So uh
they're working on that now So I just want to bring that back to you all So we'll be able to uh shortly hopefully soon we'll be able to watch their meetings live and uh see what's going on on the outside of the four walls of the city of Willist so we can all be on the
same playing field So okay Thank you sir Congratulations Thank you Mr Lamarsteagle Got anything good No sir We're good right now U I believe I already announced that we received the money funding for the uh grant reimbursement
and pretty much getting prepared for an ISO inspection on May 19th All right Thank you sir Mr Benton nothing You good I have a question for
Ben Yes sir I know you love your airport I do You've done a lot for it You guys are not shooting rocket ships off there now are you Not to my knowledge That must have been one heck of a plane that took off from there earlier today We We
have some big ones Yes sir It was really big I at my house which is a long distance from the airport right I I vibrated with the sound of that engine and I said "What in the world
have we I have heard lots of planes I've never heard a plane with an engine that loud taking off from the airport." I think I know which one you're talking about I don't either I wasn't No no I think I think I do know which one you're talking about It was extraordinarily loud You know we've got we've had lots
of planes taken off from there I've never been able to hear one to the point where I could feel it vibrating my skin We we have a couple that would knock your socks off Okay They had a bad muffler A bad muffler Huh Chief can you
uh ticket them for that Yes Okay Thank you Ben Good luck catching up to him Yeah I really Mr Bishop No Mr Miller Mr Barber I just want to let the council know they're going to start seeing materials Uh I believe fencing was dropped off across the
street at block 12 They're going to be staging a little bit over this week and hopefully uh the parking lot will be sequestered and uh some major work may begin uh at the end of next week or the beginning of the following week But be looking for that And if you get
questions from residents um like I believe one was given today Hey there's some fencing over there Can we take it No um that you can't that's the construction company So if you if you guys hear anything or get any questions that's what's going on We're we're at
the groundbreaking and the actual work on block 12 So that's exciting All right Thank Thank you Thank you All right staff Anybody else I can I have a question for Donald Yep Uh Donald have we notified the the businesses that
we're getting ready to do that Laura and I can start working on that tomorrow I mean they've they've been made aware as the process is going on but we'll do some door knocking tomorrow and make sure that everyone's aware of the timetable and what what we'll need Yes ma'am That's good because it's been a considerable time since we did the Yes ma'am It's a great idea We'll we'll
reach out tomorrow We need to let them know where where the other available parking spaces are We'll have some maps drawn up and pass them out Appreciate it Miss Maloo Thank you Mr President I promised at the last meeting that I would come back with information about
food trucks and short-term rentals and all of that good stuff Um so I have some information for you all The first item that I was asked to look into is food trucks specifically Um food
trucks are regulated through the Florida Department of um business and professional regulations Um regulation of food trucks is specifically preempted to the state um in Florida statute uh
509102 So we cannot levy any additional um restrictions on food trucks specifically as a city of Willist that is for the state is explicitly preempted in state statute What we can do
is regulate across the board for all trailer like or mobile um home like RV like vehicles storage and placement in and on private property in the same way that we
say that you can't have an RV parked out front of your house Um so those regulations we can make broad as long as they apply not just to a food truck but to all similar apparatuses and
vehicles Similarly um with the short-term rentals we can regulate what we can regulate short-term rentals to the extent that we regulate residences We can't single out short-term rentals and give them
additional requirements but across all residences we can have certain regulations It may be worthwhile going into your noise noise ordinance um and taking a look at that Looks like we haven't um updated it since 2014 So
maybe time to take a look at your noise ordinance and see if we can get that a little bit more in line with 2025 era um issues that people are having in local governments Um and that is something that I'm I'm happy to look into So I just wanted to report that we are working on it I did look into it as I
promised and we will continue seeing what we can do to alleviate the issues that were brought up Mr President may I ask a question Yes you may Yes counselor So what I think I just heard you say was if we try to regulate food
trucks on someone's private property then we got to get the ones over at Tractor Supply the ones at O'Reilly that basically use it as their business place Not not exactly close Close What what
I'm saying is we can't say food trucks no matter where are regulated in xyz way What we can say is trailers can't be parked here or here for x amount of time for x amount of
days Um so it has to be uniform across the apparatus and can't be specific to food trucks Okay Now I'm going to ask you another question I'm not trying to be negative I'm just trying to understand what you're saying I love that Under that then trailers that are parked in
people's yards will not be allowed to be parked in people's yards There are and the boat that my next door neighbor has will not be allowed to be in his backyard and all the other people in the city that have boats in their yard will have to remove them Is that accurate It
depends on So no it depends on what regulation we decide So most municipalities do not restrict parking of trailers or boats or anything like that in the backyard Um most municipalities do restrict parking in
the front yard um for those items So as as do we So so those are the kinds of regulations that you can have Laura did you say as do we So when I am cleaning my boat and it's parked in the front yard where I can reach it with a hose
I'm being illegal I'm I'm not sure that we're discussing boats I think we're discussing RV type trailer type um vehicles And yes you can certainly pull your RV out to your front yard and wash it You cannot park it permanently in
your front yard Permanently correct That's an important word It is You can park an RV in your driveway to visit your neighbors and your children Correct Yeah Just like any other vehicle if it's going to leave at the end of the day Same place would have it right But so as
far as people parking their RVs in on their properties they must be in their backyards or driveway No they can't store them on the driveway Store right That's different than parking Okay So you can't
park for a long time in your front yard I'm not trying to be the devil's advocate here I don't It's actually a very good question because people do complain about RVs and people's front yards and they're there very temporarily Is that somebody's full-time job to drive around and see if there's RVs and
food trucks parked in their front yards during the day It's not So we just wait till we get complaints about something like that or we know it's been there for a long time Thank you I would think it would also be a good rule of thumb that they can't
park on right away Absolutely Right Generally speaking you can't can't park on public rideway What about the one in my area is road ride ofway They're in the road
right away You please and the food trailer the food truck and all the people that are parked to go to it in your neighborhood Yes ma'am You weren't here last week Were you here last meeting I went on and on about it Yes she did Yes I'd be glad to tell you
I went on and on about it So there are some things that we can do It just can't be specific to these kinds of like the items that were raised are good items We have to legislate broadly in these areas We cannot be as specific as people would
like us to be So and we can't be too restrictive as the mayor has said So we it is a fine line to dance and staff and I will be dancing it and most of the things he's concerned about are already in the code I would think I mean they're already there about where you can park
your boat and your RV Those things are already in your code and where you can put a shed and where you can park a trailer and Yeah We were talking about changing stuff When we're talking about changing stuff I want it to be clear what you're talking about That's what I would say Well some of the things you brought up
are already in the code that you can't do I'm aware of that counselor All right Thank you that's all for me Okay Council Miss Mayor n uh how are we doing with the RFP for the
top of the hill We are I know we debated it at length Yeah we are working very hard on your SE coast loan right now and so your RFP has not been at the top of my list Um and I
can't promise you it will be on the next agenda because the next agenda I believe will be our CO Yeah we definitely need that So after that I will give it my utmost attention All right Also uh the issues that Mr oats brought up at our
last meeting um for Cornese Williams Park Were you here last time Laura I don't think so either U we probably need to at some time to fill you in on He said people are charging money or wanting to charge money to park cars
during different events and that sort of thing And he was very concerned about it Um I was here for that meeting He didn't think it was something that he they should be doing because it's a public park So I just don't want that to fall through the cracks I want somebody to
follow up on that Uh and I know we have park regulations They just probably need to be maybe stapled to the back of a special event application so people know what they can and can't do He was very concerned about that and not wanting people to charge money for things that
we can provide that clarity I just want circle around that Um also I wanted to ask Mr Barber if there's been any and and also Kirsten if there's been any movement on the street lights in
CL Not that I'm aware of Um we have the president of the HOA here tonight and we um have addressed that subject Uh the staff and the HOA I think we're trying to set up a meeting with the HOA when all the officers are available and we
were going to make Kirstston aware of that and uh have a meeting and kind of go after that punch list Walt's also here from right Pierce and he can tell you that we have never finalized that final punch list yet uh for the developers agreement So there are some
steps that we still have to take and we're not quite to that point where we could compel them because they could still say they haven't made full completion Um and that's that's partially what we're waiting for I know permits have been pulled but we have se
Okay so the last house was CO'ed yesterday so we're we're we're there So we will definitely bear down on that Um we're also being distracted with what was started new and uh there's some things going on there that we have to take care of as well Well I kind of wanted to give some
consideration between yourself and Kirsten perhaps sending a letter from the attorney to the developer stating per the developers agreement you haven't completed this I think the punch list and the the engineers would be your
first appropriate step Yep And then if they don't respond positively to the engineers then I would think that Kirstston would say it would be elevated to her level Well that's just another thing I don't fall through the cracks No ma'am It won't because they're going to be asking for their um money back
their bond Yeah So we will not be giving that or their letter of credit until that's completed Correct Correct Perfect Going to help them a lot but it'll get it done sooner or later if we even if we have to do it ourselves with the bond Thank you That's all I have Mr President
Miss Rico you have anything Miss Darfield Science Thank you Um Chief Stagle can you tell us what ISO is ISO is
I'm sorry That's the uh insurance adjustment for your homeowner's insurance And if the numbers go up the insurance goes up Numbers go down the insurance goes down We are doing our best to hold the rope Okay Thank you Yep Thank you Your ladder truck ought to
help Yes ma'am It should We're hoping But like I said our goal is to stay at A4 So okay Mr Mayor got anything I have nothing Thank you All right Item six new
business Discussion with possible action Airbnb and wedding venue on private property Williston res resident Phyllis Caldwell please come up to the podium [Applause]
She can do that if she wants to state your name and where you're from State your name Caldwell I am a resident or I have been known in Willist for over 20 years It's not a newcomer Used to be here when all
the fine antique stores were side by side We had an Ivy house that was for family We had lots of We had even had a motel We had a hospital We had a high school which is now all food places What has happened though is that we'll
littleston has taken a change like the whole country has taken a change and rentals are a situation and I had suggested that I have the house at 206 Northwest which is a an address change please if you haven't made the notice
206 Northwest 2nd street first street first street and we have been accused of having parties parties party trucks party vendors We have also our own little airplane drones that fly around and we
can tell you that there was a party in November called the Fall Fest We had a party in April called the April Spring Fling We had a food truck parked on my private property off the easement
and that was one food truck That was in April In February or in November we had a food truck parked on my property off of private property off of easements So things can be escalated as they're discussed and as groups get
together and continue discussing things blow out of proportion The music was provided by a local radio station out of Gainesville It was a DJ So there was music there was dancing there was parties there was fun but it
was just a gathering a gathering for the city of Williston or the people of Williston to enjoy a few hours And that's all it was a few hours It's not like 366 days of the year It was one day in April one day in
November So as far as I am concerned when you have three lots in Wilson you have plenty of parking around your house you have plenty of room to have parties inside the house and you own the property and you pay your taxes
like all of you probably pay taxes then uh what is the issue of having gatherings My husband passed away and I probably had the biggest gathering of parking because he was a very popular person We were used to be water skiers He has people from all over the United
States comes and visits I still have people calling me on the phone I still have them coming over to my home and visiting We had 50 people there that day and everybody had a good time It was quiet It was a celebration of life It
was quiet but very organized Had food catering in We didn't have to have anybody there We had it brought into us So there's certain ways of doing things that make it nice for everybody and comfortable for everybody and rewarding for everybody The same as a a wedding
What more festive thing would there be other than a wedding You have birthdays We have children's birthdays People hollered about the kids across the street a bounce house making too much noise These are children One of maybe the other
people complaining didn't have children back in their day that had to have a bounce house to play with because they didn't own bounce houses We had jump ropes We had jacks I'm 74 years old I'm not a spring chicken And I happen to know that there was a lot of different things that we played with pogo sticks
but there was always happy jumping around and having a good time So as far as I'm concerned my property is just for a good time a couple times out of the year and is not hurting a thing Guess that's must be about all I have to say So the floor is open to discussion or
you may add if you want This is my daughter Tara Cwell If you want to talk My name is Tara Calwell I've also been here for over 20 years Okay May I ask a question Yes Where do you live Where do I live You don't live at
that location Where do you live currently I live at 455 Northwest 4th Street Right around the corner from there across from the new development at Country Yard Side Land I was totally wrong but yeah And where does your mom
live She live in the city limits No ma'am She lives about 10 minutes outside across from um the old golf course is on the outside of Wilson Highlands area Mhm All right I was one of the people that was called and I was actually called by
three people Um in the a at the April occasion Mhm Um I did go there I did take pictures Uh it the food truck may not have been on the rideway but all the cars were everywhere They're outside your fence which is on the rideway There
was a lot of music even at that occasion Uh probably not as loud as the other one because I think uh the gentleman that lives right across the street he's the one who he practically knocked my door down on a Saturday morning Two fists like this Scared me to death I didn't
know what was going on Um and he he just told me what was he just asked me to go look And that's exactly what I did And it was it was mostly the cars the noise If it was in your neighborhood where you live you may feel otherwise
That's and I'll just leave it at that Well um so help me understand if you have a gathering at any resident whomever may be having anything that they're having their holding at any point where would people park on their property or on their sides of the house
If there's another option for when people come to a residence to have a gathering what other solution is Except if you're not a resident you're using it to either rent out or whatever you're doing with it You don't live there and neither does your mom So
it's a little bit different Not much It is in a residential area and it is your property Um but that's just the way this gentleman feels about it and I can't say that I feel a whole lot different So Mr President may I address this Yes sir I
have houses around me My neighborhood is now filled up They have children teenagers playing a band outside with drums and electric guitars and everything They have parties in which
they come over and I'll bet you there'll be 20 or 30 cars there They park wherever they can park on the road going around Take a break You don't need to control people that much Uh we all have
to put up with our neighbors because we choose to live in a city and I think that this is much to do about very little I think the same scenario happens throughout the city and
I understand it can be annoying It's annoying to me I just go in the house and shut my doors and turn some noise on but they have a right to live too And they're just enjoying themselves It's
not like we're having a crab fest here Not with people with guns These are people living in their house having a good time And I think that this is overdrawn Thank you And so I can also
add once again they're not living in the house Thank you counselor Don't yell at me Mr Don't interrupt me You were you had quit All right let's let's calm down you at all So when people um do rent
they come here from all over So it brings people to Willist that they may not even have known Willist's not on the map for most people to know I have people coming in from all kind of different states to go um their daughters are graduating from UF or
their sons are graduating from UF I'm actually booked um the first week of May um from multiple people that are having their children graduate And so they have family that also all gather in one spot to you know celebrate their child or
children graduating from UF There's not a lot of pl there's a lot of places to stay in Gainesville but some people like to get outside of Gainesville and come here So I can't as long as they're within the city ordinances which is no loud music or noise after 10:00 and it's
not necessarily interfering with there's nothing out of control happening It's a controlled gathering Um I can't dictate and say to them "No you can't have anybody over to the house that you're you're literally renting it to have the
celebration for whatever you're doing." I actually had someone reach out to me that lives in Lilis and has lived here for 20 years and it was her son's and daughter's birthday and the son they just had a basketball tournament and
they wanted to rent the the house that's over there that has the pool So that way some of the basketball people could come out to it and also they could have the the kids had their friends and their daughter their place wasn't big enough to host a a gathering for two kids'
birthdays and extra you know family and and um parents and whatnot to come out to It didn't work out because they only wanted to book one night and I had already had it booked before I could work anything out But that's besides the point Um just saying people that rent have a reason why they're coming They're
not just necessarily coming just to hang out inside a house They're coming to experience what Wilson has And they usually come in Bruce whether it be the springs whether it be wet A lot of people come from everywhere to go to wet and go to hits We're only 20 minutes away from there So a lot of equestrian
and they bring a lot of money into Ocala Williston and all the surrounding areas And I couldn't say "Oh well now you you're not allowed or you can't because that's the whole point of getting people to come when there's no place to stay here." that helps bring in extra everything for the city and more
knowledge about everything that's around here to do Mr Jones is there any issues with what they're doing being in a residential and renting and
um so it's not commercial so it's not technically um like an event venue like Homestead Park would be Can they have parties Um yes They still have to stay within their
noise ordinances Um there's nothing against the law about parking on the rightway Chief as long as you don't block traffic or block sidewalks or as Kirsten pointed out emergency vehicles So having a heavily um attended
party at somebody's house and they do own this house So this is their property When it gets sticky is if somebody is like giving out flyers and saying party at this place um $5 to get in then we're
talking about an event more so than a a party It's hard to regulate Airbnbs Um it's hard to regulate what people do there I think we should stick to what we can regulate which we've talked about is
noise traffic um nuisance and um those types of things that we already have in our code Okay I have a question So when they have events at Heritage Park are you guys scheduling anything there to
draw people down No sir We've never done never done anything like that I mean so it just happened to be that it was the same day as the bacon festival but honestly we didn't even know it was the same day as the bacon festival the last time we had the gathering there Um and it was just an Easter gathering We had a
tent set out back for um kids could come out and paint little wood things and we had food like you know like fruit plates and stuff for people to come over and and get if they wanted And and then the food truck was out front Um we never
charged the food trucks to park there um food trucks are all licensed by the state They have to be in order to operate out of their trucks So they're already certified and cleared through their ordinances that they have to follow Um and like I said we don't charge them to come there We ask them if
they would like to and if they say yes they they come If not and there's never only there's only ever been one There's never been multiples everywhere And correct me if I'm wrong but the easements are 10 feet from the road on
either side of the road in that neighborhood Yes It's a it's a 30 foot easement altogether Right Yeah So So from the very middle of the road middle So we were actually more so on but we make sure we're at least 10 foot off of each side to to accord to abide
by the easements um for the food trucks when they do park So we make sure that they're on our property um whenever they're there Yeah And you're actually putting up signs around town telling people they're having a festival there listing that address and soliciting vendors because I've seen the signs The
sign states that we do offer gatherings we offer weddings we offer um funerals uh celebrations of life fall festival with vendors So would you say the signs are not to a specific event but generally that you
have a place where people can have things Right We do offer a place where people can have it Would you like to see the picture Would you like to keep it to yourself What's your problem today It's it's a Oh my god Problem Okay That's wonderful
It's a good question Maybe you should go because you said about with food trucks I mean here are you going and soliciting them to come out because you're having a festival maybe the same really 100% speak on that the the celebration side
of things because my um one of my best one of my good friends her name is May um uh she is the one that usually has she has a she's a notary and so she started doing um c uh not catering but
she started doing uh event coordinations for people that are having weddings and um so she could go ahead and make sure that she notorizes their marriage license and all that kind of stuff So then she started saying "Well I've been around it so much I can do it on my own We have enough space We can go ahead and
get people in." Now I know that I think the fall um one she did advertise as far as for like we did have people coming in um to have whatever like their knickknacks that they made and everything I did check with the city
prior to that and there was nothing that was brought up to me that I needed to um do in order to have people come over because it was on my private property It was more like a like I said a celebration of the fall Um but like I
said at the same time if there's something I need to do in the future uh like get a permit in order to um have something that is open to the public then I'd have no problem doing that that that was never brought up to me as being a concern or a need prior to us doing
any of this So I have a question Go ahead Or a couple Um are you typically present at these events that you're talking about Uh yes Not the not always the whole time just like I wouldn't be at an event if someone booked it on their own space on their own time like
an event I mean a Airbnb like someone booked an Airbnb time I wouldn't be at their ceremony or their celebration or whatever they're doing unless I was needed for some reason or some accident happened I got called in by the cops and the owner of the property needed to be present But as Go ahead As far as the
events I have been present Um majority of the time that it happens So the two events that you're talking about in November and April April Are those are your events Are you at those events the entire time Yes I was at I was at those I wasn't at all the other ones the like
suburbs night life I was there some um some of the birthday parties I was there here and there you know But has anyone ever approached you during the events about the noise or the cars or anything like that No No one's ever come to me and asked politely and said "Hey it's a
little loud." They just called police and the police have come over to the house Never once has anyone come to me and said "It's a little loud Do you think you can lower the volume?" He did go to the house and there was no one there to talk to How is that my problem
in my call You said you were there and you said they hadn't talked to you He did go to the house that day I was there when he I went to the house and I didn't see you either When was that In April I know What time I mean I could look to see what time I took the pictures I was
there It was after he went The entire time of the event So if you didn't see me I was inside or I was in the bathroom I mean I can't tell you if when you were there why you didn't see me but I was there And I don't know why that's that seems very trivial to pull up And as far
as if if there was any other time only time I know of someone came to the house and got went walked on the property and was very aggressive Shoved a sign in my face I reached out for the sign and he jerked it back towards himself and said "I thought this was already handled."
And I said "There's nothing to be handled." And then the cops ended up coming after that So it wasn't a very pleasant visit There was no niceness involved of "Hey do you think you could do this or you think you can do that?" It was always just aggravation and just unpleasantness
because he's essentially lived next to a party house And I I would like you to help me understand how that is a party house Me counselor No that's what I'm making I am not She actually said that I did not say it was a party house Ma'am never once You said you book it for parties and events I didn't say it's a
party house That is not a party house That does not amount at the same time Sorry Why are you yelling at me Because you are I'm not even talking out of order I am not out of order You are out of order She's asking you ask questions Oh my heavens Okay I don't The only
reason I said it is because Is it okay if I talk to you You want to go outside and we can talk all you want Sir I want you to behave yourself Well you want to go outside We can talk all you want Mr President can I recommend that we take a 5m minute break Yes ma'am We're going to Time is
6:51 and we will be back here at 7 p.m I'm going to have them come back up once they're done I mean once our break is up They can come back up once our break is up It He said "Look at them." All right The time is now 7 o'clock and this meeting
is back in order Ma'am do you have anything else that you would like to say Mr President just very briefly before we start back up Uh I will remind everyone that the code of conduct for our meetings applies to all
of our audience members as well as our council members No personal attacks are permitted between any council members or any audience members There's no conversation other than that is which is recognized through the chair All comments are directed to the chair The
chair recognizes the speaker That is the procedure that we follow If we are unable to follow the procedure and are reminded regarding the procedure more than three times then we will be escorted from the building Does everyone understand the rules and regulations as
I have listed them Okay Okay Do you have any I have a question for your rules and regulations counselor Does this mean that we don't just speak out we ask the president for permission to speak Mr Mayor to
clarify you would ask the chair I have a question for the attorney Thank you And then I would respond if the chair so chooses Thank you Okay Good
Okay You have anything else ma'am Um can I say my name again No Sure Sarah Cwell Um so I noticed that in the in the topic it says with action and I was just wondering if what that means like am I supposed to present an action that I
would like or that because I would like to stop being harassed It's for us Okay because I was wondering if there was a way that I would this would stop happening If we do have a gathering and there's people that are doing whatever this whatever it is happen whatever it
happens to be if it wouldn't consistently be the cops called and that everyone's on the same page that this is allowed We're doing nothing wrong We're within our rights and we're within our ordinances to act as we are and that we could quit having this consistently be a
thing Police Chief Rose do you have anything you would like to add to that No Uh she's correct If there's no law violations there's nothing we can do about it Um and as long as she's not
violating any ordinances there's nothing we can do about it but respond If they call if a citizen does call we we got to go That's our duty That's our obligation Yeah So but uh if we come and there's no law violations then we do what we've
done in the past which I think is either said turn it down or nothing Correct Um they've actually never asked us to turn it down because it's never been an issue I mean even the last time the the cops were called the lieutenant was up here at the vacant festival and they were on
the radio at the same time And she says "I can't even hear it up here." Right And you know they said during the last meeting that we turn it down when they come and we turn it back up when they leave and that's not the case Um we actually like I said we do have drone footage of um some of the occasions that
we've had and um so if you know as far as pictures being taken we have pictures of the actual event during the the main time of the event So I can also provide that if it's required or needed to also show how many people were approximately
there what where everything was located because it's literally an aerial view of the whole entire property So we do have um tons of evidence and and proof if we needed to present that we were within our rights and our ordinances and all the places that we needed to be properly
Um but uh I had a point I don't know where I went but anyways Oh my what I was saying is that if it continuesly being called is there any way that there is a a nuisance called to the sheriffs if there's a something that
I don't know what it's called but if someone consistently calls about something if if it's always every single time address or if it can be considered harassment Well if if a citizen call and they feel that something's violating the law or
that something's too loud it's their right to be able to do that Uh and we will respond to verify whether it is or not Uh and I can't say it's a nuisance because sometimes it may be it may not be loud and the second time it may be
loud So uh I wouldn't call that a nuisance but just understand that if they call we have to come and at least investigate it Whether we do anything or not is based on the circumstances of what we find when we get there Okay I was just curious if there was a number
of times where you have gone and you investigate and it always is the same outcome if there was anything that was a thing Yeah I wouldn't know that because each person's opinion of what's going on is different So I couldn't tell you that every time that we went it was it was
legit or it wasn't legit So if it's not legit like you say we will tell you hey can you turn it down a little bit or you need to remove these cars off the sidewalk or out of the roadway or whatever Uh but no I can't I couldn't give you a solid answer on that Okay And
I just was going to say if anyone had any other questions for me Okay While I'm here may I speak Mr President Um if we are going to allow um comment public comment specifically for this
event that we limit it to two minutes please Great That's within your right Yep As council to decide Mr Laur you got the timer Mr Aaron does Okay Okay Anybody from the public have
comment on this matter Yes My name is Tim Maker Northwest 225 Um I live right across the street And ma'am it's not the issue of the parking It's not the issue of the vendors It's not the issue of the Airbnb It's the
noise And and and and somebody come up there we shouldn't have to ask you to turn the noise down That poor lady on the left of us is 90 something years She had to leave last time Is that is that right for her to do that Erin will you please pause the time um for a moment Just as a reminder all comments are
directed toward the chair So we're not going to speak directly to audiences Well I'm just was your comments please But uh there has to be some kind of noise ordinance for this It ain't the amount of people It's the noise orders This is the issue Is the noise It ain't
the people It's not the Airbnb It is the noise and only the noise There has to be something done about this Some fines or something If they if it keeps happening it it's not right It's not right
That's all I have to say Council do you have questions or anything N Okay D Quick question for the chief Is there anything um out that um
would measure the noise ordinance at that specific residence that whomever is there and having whatever it is that they're having that they can look at and go by and see whether or not the noise they're making is too much or you know to kind
of help maybe alleviate some of this There is a sound measuring device Uh the the noise have to be over 50 dB and it has to be continuous for 15 minutes Correct me if I'm wrong Kirsten that's my recollection Don't quote me on that
because I'm not looking at it But but and that's something that can be purchased by the homeowner to place maybe in the yard or somewhere so that they kind of are aware That way they can tone it down if they see that it's getting too loud for the area Yeah the
homeowner can purchase that as well as we can too Uh if uh if it continues to be a problem we could simply order one and if we go over and we measuring it and it's 15 minutes I think it's 15 minutes Uh I'm not curious Don't don't
quote me on it but I think it's 50 dB for over 15 minutes before you can take some action Okay So that means an officer would have to once called go and sit in the area for 15 minutes and measure and measure the town But if it takes them out of uh it takes them out
of service but if it breaks that barrier anytime before that 15 minutes is up you got to start all over Okay If it breaks it but it doesn't it's not sustained is what you're saying Mhm Miss Blue I do have one question
for for Miss Codwell her daughter So I have a question for you So you've been speaking a lot so I'll talk with you Come up to the podium Okay So you said
that you're not there all the time not for when people book through Airbnb and they choose to have something there I don't interfere with any uh any guests Now when I'm personally um like when
we're doing a gathering of some sort I'm usually there because I help and I'm helping my friends set up for whatever she's got going on She's got um depending on what it is like when it was my mom's celebration of life I was there because it was my stepdad and we you
know it was family Um uh so it's usually something that I'm there if it's something outside of the Airbnbs Okay So if you're not there who's in charge Who's the person there that if something
happens that they go to that person to handle the situation Well I would I would assume it'd be like if anyone was renting a house like long term if they did something the owner would be I'm sorry I'm talking about the when you're
renting the venue I'm I'm not really ever renting the venue as far as I'm just It's my own event I mean I'm not charging myself for anything No no not what I'm just saying is if you had said earlier that you're not always at the events So
if somebody's doing a graduation party there um my interpretation you have like a wedding venue or something like that that people do So my question is is if you're not there at the event that
somebody is having a party at is there somebody a contact person that if there's an emergency is there somebody there they go to Oh absolutely I would be there I literally live two seconds away from that house Um I live right around the corner across from the the
new development So if there's anything like let's say the water heater went out and my my guests didn't have hot water They contact me through the the message board and they say "Hey we don't have any hot water What's going on?" The AC like during the during the summer the
when the was the winter is a split unit in there and some No I was just talking about the event I'm not worried about the Airbnb Just saying that in general if there's ever a problem or anything that happens or if there's emergency I'm contacted and I'm there right away I'm literally it takes me a minute to get in
my car and drive to there So I'm always available if needed for anything Okay All right Nobody else has any questions I did want to address the chair for one second Um in regards to what Tim said um as far as the the you
know as far as the noise and everything um like I said no one's ever come to me and he says "Well you should just like how am I supposed to know if it's too loud for you if you don't tell me it's annoying you or it's too loud for you?" Besides you know you know then of course
calling the police But if no one's ever come to me and said "This is this is too much or this is too loud." I've never you know I can't read your mind Okay All right We understand Thank you So we're just going to just Next item
See how it goes All right Item B Miss Beloo Mr President this is resolution 2025-56 a resolution of the city council of the city of Willist Florida establishing authorization for the city of Willist to approve purchase of lift station pumps from CPE for continued
service and providing an effective date This is logistics coordinator director Jason Lee excuse me I don't know who put that on the council agenda for director but I'll accept it Um so I have with me tonight I have actually Thomas Shel He's the provider
of these pumps They are Soul Source Um so we've had a bit of an issue uh when it comes to information on our lift stations They are old and undocumented when it comes to asbuilts which allow us to determine our duty points and everything for these stations which in turn allow us to determine what pumps go
in there to do the job effectively Uh so we've been slacking a little bit I would say in trying to get it up to standards Uh recently they have been kind enough to come out and go through each of the lift stations with us and help determine what pumps are what I'd like to point out too that these pumps are about half
the price of what we were paying We were paying originally around $5,000 per the smallest pump And the councilman U Michael Cox can testify that over in Woodfield they were burning through them around every four months
The alarm was going off constantly and it was costing 5,000 every four months to go out there On top of that our crew workers were going out there every weekend to every other weekend doing overtime trying to unclog them and drag them Thomas and his team came in they
provide us with a pump and we haven't had to touch that lift station in almost two years So we are looking to purchase all these pumps for the lift stations across the board to get them to where they should be for right now to get it to where they have two pumps in each station along with additional backups in
case of anything goes wrong And uh Thomas if you'd like to come up and go over any of this with the council How's it going everybody I'm Thomas Shel with Coastal Pump Um your lift stations are kind of like the heart of your your wastewater system Everybody's houses
flows to a lift station and then from there it goes to your wastewater plant Well if you don't have the proper pumps in your lift stations you'll constantly be burning pumps up having electrical failures and all kinds of things that you really don't want to have in your system Some of the pumps we proposing um
or that I'm proposing to them are kind of like the ones that we put in Whitfield The ones that you currently have in your system they're typically non-logs or vortex What we're proposing is what we put in Whitfield which is our chopper pump It takes debris It will
pass smaller solids but will also um your bigger pieces will chop it up into smaller pieces and pass it down the line Your pumps that you have in your system now do not have that capability They are when they see a rag that's big they'll clog up and that's what they
were constantly getting called for So these new style of pumps they've been out for about 10 years now Um they they've really helped the ragging situations in in cities So we have references across the board of other municipalities that currently use them
and they're absolutely loving them So the question um what was the cost Maybe I missed that Of all the pumps uh it is shown on one of your diagrams if you scroll down I think it's page 15 Scroll down a little
bit more No I think it's Nope One down farther 15 I believe it is There it is Yeah right there So if you scroll down to the bottom of the page I think it has listed 152 We have the do not exceed B 165 Um I would like to point out that the most
expensive item on there is for Acry Lift Station but it also goes to Russell lift station and the hospital lift station That is a skid It comes with a motor and a specialized pump which the original pumps we were getting for that station were around $15,000 and that was just
for the pump not the motor included We were having to get that separately So in total 1617,000 Now we can get them for$10,000 Comes in on a skid unbolt the old one bolt in the new one to the floor easy installation So that's why that one is
the most expensive item on there which is I believe 40,000 because we are asking for four of them And this would take care of all the lift station pumps Yes So you know next question Yes Where's the money coming from That I would like to direct it to our lovely
city manager Sue I went over this with um student room a few days ago He advised that we currently well sorry the budget was 459,000 in contingency Uh currently we still have about half of that available
So roughly 200 and something thousand Um so that 165 would have to come out of of that 200 and something thousand or at least that's what he advised he would he would have it come out of Can you repeat that because I didn't understand Yeah Can you repeat that maybe Erin Can you turn that up just a
little bit more Yep Absolutely So um Steven said that we have about uh about 459,000 in contingency That's what he budgeted There is about half of that left right now So roughly 200 and something thousand whatever that works
out to 230,000 roughly And this 165 would have to come out of that 230,000 At least that's what he would recommend That's what it would come out of Mr President Yes sir Please could you please tell me what a rag is
I'm I'm assuming you're not talking about someone flushed a wash rag down there and this thing will chop up a wash rag Right It will That is exactly what you were talking about So when what we classify rags is human hair Swiffer sweepers baby wipes
grease everything you put down your drain that you don't want in your house That's what they they go through your collection system and they collectively with the grease make what we call a big ball And we just call them balls of rats Well that's fine I just don't It's It's a lot of different things mixed into was
just I'm trying to think how do we get so much cloth in there It's the baby wipes the diapers the Swiffer sweepers all Thank you very much Miss Mayor Oh thank you Um I have a question for I guess Jason
Um given that we're only in April and now we're down in our contingency fund I'm not great at math but not much left What can we anticipate happening in the next before the next fiscal year that we might be really in trouble if we don't have this money Not saying this isn't
well spent money but just I'll take it So we already have a budget for pumps Um we would operate within that budget this exceeds that normal what we call operations and maintenance budget uh by quite a bit Uh you're going to see more
pumps but they would come again out of that normal budgeted sector This is really to do with the condition and the degradation of those 21 lift stations Some of you have gone on tours with us and seen the horrific condition that most of these lift stations are in I have a quote to redo one lift station at
Homestead Park uh to reline it redo the paneling at $76,000 So this is a band-aid This is similar to what we experienced earlier uh in December of this previous year with Fugate the master lift station when Terry was here and had to authorize
trucks to come in Gainesville to come in Newberry to come in city of OKA or Marian County came in We had to rent the vector truck that that vector truck for one month was $14,000 Uh we can't spill when we spill D gets very very upset When we went
through all the lift stations after December we began to do a forensic audit and we looked at every station How many pumps do they take What models Which stations are duplicated If one goes down and it has a spare pump you know uh what are the life expectancies of those pumps
So we're trying to do better technology as Jason mentioned And then we're also trying to have contingencies in regards to we don't want to be in a position where we have to wait three days and have a truck coming to a lift station sucking it up every few hours and transporting it to the plant because we
don't have a pump that's functional that can go in that space So this 165 is a necessity It's not a want There's no bells and whistles here This isn't SCADA This is normal operation and it's just to do with how old our stations are I remind you that we're in an SRF study a
state revolving fund study for facilities on our waist system Uh they've already gone through and and done a lot of that They should be done here in probably about another 4 months They're going to come back to the council with recommendations to address the most severe issues They're going to
give you a price tag That's through Wright Pierce And then we were going to have to go to the state and consider getting a loan to do as the project I mentioned at Homestead you know $76,000 reline that fix the containment fix the control panels upgrade the pumps So this
is a band-aid This is that to answer your question absolutely we could come back and say we have another problem that we need to address Uh but I don't know how to get around this Um because the alternative is is that we tell the state we can't manage our wastewater system
I appreciate that And maybe I'll clarify my question in a different or present my question in a different way historically how how often do we have big ticket items like this How frequently do they come along that so I
I I'm try I guess I'm trying to figure out if you know how often this is likely to happen I'm not talking I understand everything you said and I agree 100% I'm just asking historically to answer your question in particular
uh I would say that the the approach was to nickel and dime is to do one pump at a time and because those purchases were under a certain limit a large amount was spent akin to this but it was done within the bounds of the purchasing
agreement We wanted to do it in this manner because there's a time issue here and so we need a bunch of them Um and instead of stringing it along we also need council and the citizens to recognize and see what state we're in And so when the SRF comes up why that
that is going to be a critical loan to upgrade our infrastructure which you know we have mains and things that are 50 60 years old Some of these stations are 50 60 70 years old So I mean that's that's that's the reason why we switched strategies here was after Fugate we by
Terry's order needed to do a forensic audit and we came back and this like if bare minimum this is what we should have on hand so that a spill is not possible so that we have a spare pump regardless of whether one or two pumps go down in a particular station
Mr whatever Have we graded them maybe one through five to see which ones are the worst and like can we do part of them and not all of them at once I'll let Walt answer that because that's part of the SRF study While while you're talking about the FRS
study my next question because I had two was if we buy them now and the F FRS grant comes through for the state revolving loan What happens if we've already paid for them I'll answer that one first Um a lot
of the pumps that we're moving to for chopper pumps we're upgrading certain stations with the electric department into three-phase So all these stations as they're redesigned on our designs and standards are going to three-phase So we're trying to get them as close to what country lane estates looks like or the new town homes lift stations going
to look like So that's why another reason why we're upgrading the technology and in doing so we actually saved money as Jason mentioned So that's a positive The second part of that would be the idea that if we have a brand new pump in a package we have other systems that we're integrated with through
Florida Rural Water and we would then sell those pumps if they were unusable but new to those other municipalities that are looking for those same pumps and and we've already had discussions with them on that and SRF has those resources to say "Hey this is what the city of Wilston has to offer Is anybody
interested in purchasing it?" and we would sell the ones that we could not integrate into our technology and retrieve those funds But once we've done this study and we tell FRS what we need and we've already bought them I don't believe they'll pay for them Well no they're not going to pay for these pumps
No matter That's what I'm afraid of Absolutely not SRF is going to be specifically to redesign and upgrade stations You can't purchase materials I know previously That's what I'm saying Why don't we wait till the study's done That's why I'm asking the question Well if we could wait I would love that But
the the problem is is that there's a couple stations tonight that if one pump goes down that's all they're running on and I have nothing to put in their place That's kind of what I'm asking for in the first question Yeah So Jonath Mr Bishop at the end of the day it's pretty
simple Spend the money now or spend more later There's a lot of what if back and forth but I don't really have it now I mean I do but it takes it away from everything else out of contingency Absolutely And I agree but you don't have more later either So FRS could pay for it Okay Well I go with Right Pierce and
I'll add to that Um we have a a ranking a list of the list stations and and an assessment of them and you have about nine or 10 of the 22 that are I would say critical critical
your typical lift station that you have excluding um fugit because that's kind of your master They're typically duplex pump stations So they have two pumps They're designed to work normally with one pump running but then you cycle amongst your pumps so you get even wear
but you do have a second pump for surges high flows that are maybe beyond what was anticipated Your worst pump stations you're down to one pump running That is not the way they're designed That's not the way they're permitted to be operated on One pump is not meeting any of the
design criteria whatsoever So these purchases will get you up to where you should be now and then gives you back up and and support when things go wrong That's just for today's flows today's
development The SRF study is going to look at stations that are undersized It's going to look at where growth is happening and then what those stations need to be for the future So that's looking at a little bit different What
you've got now is maintaining today The F FRS is okay What do we need tomorrow Upgrade in a larger It could be some of these pumps could be used on another station They're all pretty unique but you could possibly still use them If we
upgrade a lift station for example the pumps that you put you're purchasing today possibly could be used somewhere else You really have to look at the pump curves the head and all the things that go with it are pretty unique But this is
for getting you to operate today Today Steven's not on the phone is he I have a question and this is probably for Donald Um how much over what you've already budgeted for pumps are
we Do you know the number Uh so we have roughly 20 to 30,000 left in our O andM budget for the year Um that's why we couldn't go and spend 165
Again historically previous utility administrations uh they would just you know at the end of the year say you know we were 480% higher than what we were budgeted and you guys would get that at an end of the year report um we we just we don't feel that that's
the appropriate way to proceed So we we just need you guys to understand that this is this is additional cost Um you can't budget for these things because like I said the degradation of the pumps has been sped up by growth Uh that's been a big part of it Walt can speak about that I mean you have you know a
lot of infill Laura can speak to that where a lot of the permits have been neighborhoods that haven't been built It's just empty lots that have been filled in And so that that has a uh cascading effect over time on on those systems In addition to growth there's
just a degradation of the collection system which is also part of the FRS study And looking at it you have you know INI that call it inflow and infiltration As the system ages more clean water groundwater rain water gets into the system illegal connections
downspouts that get in there that happen over time just increased flow and in a day pump stations and things like that So it's some growth your infill but also an aging system So are you are you looking for the full 165 or you looking
for that to match up to um the 165 which would be give us about $100,000 left in in contingency No I need I need to remain the budget that I have to go from May to uh September 30th That's just my
normal operations and maintenance Okay this I need to order tomorrow I mean because we're weeks out on some of these things and there's a couple of stations if something were to happen tomorrow We're back to who are we calling and how much money are we spending if you get if you guys consider the bypass the pumps
that were purchased um if you consider the um uh the other work that was involved the renting of the Vector truck and all that I believe we're up to almost $220ome,000 on fuel That was a completely unexpected cost Nobody could
have budgeted for that because we didn't we didn't know that that was going to to fail to that capacity I mean we lost we had three pumps up running when we did the budget last year Went down to two went down to one and literally the two last two went down within weeks of each
other So um and then the hurricanes and the storms had a lot to do with that because there was an electrical issue at the same time there So again this is not something that you can plan for And if we don't move forward with this tonight and there's another catastrophe to John's point you're going to end up
spending on one of these stations you could end up spending the 165 I mean that's that's what you're talking about because you didn't you didn't address the issue with a with a a secondary pump when the emergency happened I also want to point out that if Jamie Hope was here from Florida Water he's talked about
this in the apprenticeship classes and the the uh focus on change that they host throughout the state D at any time can say "Look we've had enough of your spills." And they can levy a fine Those fines can exist between 5,000 25,000 75,000 It depends on the spill and the
assessment that they make They can even even order specific cleanup to their level of what they establish as a proper cleanup So this can get rather expensive if you you know put sewage in places that it's not designed to go And you said that this is just a band-aid when
you say it's just a band-aid Um if we're spending $165,000 for pumps why is it a band-aid And I know we're not looking because I don't have the millions right But because to fix it properly and and Walt can speak to this we're probably looking
at closer to 10 to 12 million I mean like I said one if you get a loan I think that we have estimated at $3.4 million to rebuild it to the standard that it should be So I mean that's one station We have 21 So some are more expensive some are you know a little bit
cheaper The CDBG that we have out on lift station four on Northeast 9th circle that will be starting hopefully this fall Um that station right there is a $500,000 uh rebuild So these I I I mean if we can find that kind of money I
I I'll fix them the right way but this is the band-aid That's that's why I'm referring to it that way Okay And that's what I want to know Why are we spending all this money if it's just a band-aid But thank you If I can add to that Um I mean you're calling it a band-aid This is normal maintenance and operational
needs It's things that need to be done I mean yeah it's a band-aid that it is maintaining the system as it is but this is this is part of normal maintenance that has to been done has to be done Um should have been done a lot of funding
reasons a lot of reasons for that it needs to be done and you need to have that um you need to have that capability to maintain the system as it is So and and I do want to clarify just one thing because under item G I'm going to talk
about some other funding opportunities that are out there that the city's pursuing and it does touch on some lift stations also So we are looking for other things for the beyond the on and m type things but I'll be talking about that shortly So if the council gives
their blessing and and all that what's the time frame of getting these all changed out amongst all the other projects that we got going So to clarify I won't change all of them out Uh probably 12 of these pumps are the spare I'll put them in inventory So they're
they're in inventory because inventory is depleted in in many cases That That's correct Yes ma'am So yes there are many stations that need replacements and there's many stations that are operating on one pump that we will get up to two where possible I think there's two stations We can't put two pumps in as
Walt mentioned It's just the the infrastructure is gone It's it's rotted to pieces We can only do one pump So in that case we have two pumps sitting in inventory So but yeah about 12 or 15 of these are going in a storage and in inventory and then the rest will be
installed as to the time uh we could have them once they get in here we could have them installed in less than a month So the install is really not difficult Uh we have the staff and the crew and the expertise for that part So let me ask this question So I know you have extras that are up there but it is each
one of those that needs pump needs a pump are we going to put a pump in place So then have extras So how we figured that out is we're going to get them all back up to where they should be as much as they can And then let's say there's five stations that take a barn style pump or what we call a rail pump is
another type of pump Well if there's five stations and they each have two places that's 10 pumps potentially that we have operating So we took that and we said we should have four spares right So that's how we determined that We said if if multiple stations have one pump go down we need to get them back up to two
pumps So we basically did less than half of how many utilize that pump and then understanding how many we would need if a couple of them failed which is definitely a possibility Uh there's one particular pump I think it's in three stations He mentioned it it's in Russell
and in the hospital So we're putting all those back to two and then I think we're asking for two spares Uh if two of them had a problem they would be back to the two pumps So that's that's how we kind of went through and looked at that the ones that were duplicated We're not asking for a spare for each one We're
only asking for spare for let's say 50% or less Um collectively I see seven pumps on is that seven on one particular one That is for Northeast 9inth Street Northwest 9inth Circle Woodfield
and sorry uh and another lift station that goes to a total of four different lift stations that type of pump So you have seven pumps A couple of those stations need a pump And so that would probably give you two spares for four stations
I would like to hear what other funding that Mr Walt was going to talk about that was on G Can we I mean if we're going to make a decision on $152,000 you want to go to Well I would like to
see what the other funding before I make a decision I'm just gonna as part of item E I was going to also give you an update which is CDBG um issue that Laura was bringing up I was going to then give a synopsis and overview of the various
grants that we have been pursuing or have won or are pending Um so I I if you don't mind I'll kind of run through it some of it maybe a little bit But is it related to this Well it's it's grants that are available to the city and it I
think it's a good status of what's going on right now but we can kind of use it towards Yeah Mr President may I make a suggestion How about we table this till the end so that we don't get confused
and then you'll have all your information at the end to make a decision Okay we can do it Just you're saying recess um Pizza is here if you're interested in taking a break now or whether you wanted
to wait till 8 o'clock You want to do 8:00 He's like take a break I say wait All right we're back at it is 7:39 and this did we table it Do we have to
make a motion to table this to the end of the meeting Yeah if you're if you're going to table this item until the end of the meeting then you'll need a motion to do that Um if you're just going to take a break and come back to this then then we can just recess
It's up to you all Do that Okay Yeah All right So we're recess 7:40 We're going to turn to 8 Well last time they should be