Mhm. >> We call this meeting to order the city commission meeting for Monday, June 22nd, 2026. Um, would you give a roll call, please? >> Yes. Commissioner Davis? >> Here. >> Commissioner Dollison? >> Here.
>> Commissioner Birdsong? >> Here. >> Mayor pro tem Mercer? >> Here. >> And Mayor Yates, who is not present this evening. Um, we will have the invocation by Dr. Steve Harness from First Baptist Church and the pledge of allegiance led by uh
the city clerk, um, Vanessa Castillo. >> Shall we pray? Dear heavenly Father, we come before you in the name of our Lord Jesus to thank you for all the blessings that you've given us in this wonderful city.
Lord, thank you for giving us such a fabulous place to rear our children and our grandchildren, and we thank you for the leaders of our city, Lord, who are men and women of faith and want to make decisions, Lord, that will bless and honor you and also bless our city. Right now, I pray for the safety and
protection of all of our city employees and those that sacrifice so diligently to make it possible for us to live here safely. Pray that you'll bless them and meet their needs. Lord, help them to seek your guidance in all they do, personally and professionally. Lord, we do pray for the future of our
city. I ask that you will grant this city your favor and that this will be a place that provides not only a beautiful place for us to live, but also a place where children can grow up and learn convictions and values and how to be good citizens and give back to the
community the blessings they have received. Right now, Lord, we ask your wisdom and grace upon the men and women here. We pray the decisions discussed and made tonight will be a blessing to our town and bring glory and honor to your name. We pray that your truth will
be more important, Lord, than human applause. We confidently bring these requests to you because we're asking them in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. >> 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. >> There are no um presentations tonight. And there are no developments of note.
And there's only one set of minutes for approval. >> Miss Miss Mayor Pro Tem. I move approval of the minutes. >> Second. >> Okay, we have a a motion and a second. All those in favor?
>> Aye. >> Aye. >> All those opposed by like sign? Okay. Okay, the minutes have passed. Um I'm Um, looking at the sheet, I guess we have um
comments from the audience at this time. >> We have one person. >> And we have one person, and his name is Tim um Steorts. If you would come forward. And state your name and address. >> Good evening. Tim Steorts,
208 East Lake Howard Drive, Winter Haven. >> Okay. And you would like to speak on what item on the agenda or >> I don't know if it's I don't think it's on the agenda. >> Okay. Um
you can go ahead, and you have 5 minutes. >> Uh excuse me, I'm nervous. Like this is hard for me to do. Anyway, I'm here tonight to talk about our roadways, which are meant to be used for traveling to get from one place to another.
But now there are so many speed bumps on several of the routes from my home that I can no longer leisurely and peacefully drive to pretty much anywhere on the west side of Winter Haven. There are numerous speed bumps on 17th Street Northwest
and the streets that feed into it and out of it from north and south. So, to get to Havendale Boulevard from my home, I can use US 17 and deal with the congestion at North Gate and the mess at 17
the 17 Havendale Boulevard intersection. The next option is to drive out Avenue G, really all the way to 34th Street. Most of my life I could use 17th Street and come out
from Havendale on 16th, 17th, 18th, or 19th Street. Actually, when I was younger, we drove to my father's business on Havendale using 23rd Street and Lake Howard Drive from Avenue G, which was a beautiful drive.
But, that is no longer the case, thanks to numerous speed bumps. Even on 26th Street, which is a through street, forgive me, I just closed my contacting them. I had to write down what I want to say
cuz I'm not good at ad-libbing. So, even on 26th, which is a through street from Avenue G to Havendale, and comes out of traffic light, there are numerous speed bumps hindering passage. There have been two on South Lake Howard Drive.
In all fairness, I will say those are not too bad. They're like But, there's there's been two on South Lake Howard Drive. Still hindering access to large areas over in that direction. Now, the most horrendous speed bump
anywhere anywhere has just been installed in the southwest corner of Lake Howard Drive in a curve where you have to slow down anyway. Every one of these speed bumps causes wear and tear, damage to many systems of a car. For
every one of them, you have to brake, causing wear and tear on the brakes, and then we accelerate, causing wear and tear on the engine. They all cause wear, damage to the entire suspension system, and going over them is harmful to transmissions. Is this my time here?
Remaining? I assume they were installed to slow down drivers who speed excessively and drive recklessly. Once again, as so often happens, the chosen solution is to punish interminably the vast majority of us who are not
causing any problems. To justify installing these obnoxious obstacles in our roadways, there must have been numerous deaths or at least serious injuries in all of these areas in which they've been installed.
I don't know why else such drastic measures would have been taken. As I wrote this, it came to me the bicyclist may have been part of the consideration. The solution for that is more bike paths. Bicycling brings up the issue
of all the motorized vehicles masquerading as bicycles. But that is not why I'm here. I'm here to ask that no more speed bumps be installed by the City of Winter Haven and further that serious consideration be given to removing most of the
existing ones. So that we can once again enjoy you more of the beautiful streets in this beautiful city. Thank you. >> City manager, would you have any comments on that?
>> Uh we will follow up with Mr. uh Stewart and get his contact information. Follow up with him further. >> Okay. Um there are no ordinances for second reading to review. And um commissioners, you have the consent agenda.
>> Miss Mayor Pro Tem, I'm in the move of approving of the consent agenda in its entirety. >> Okay. Um do we have anyone that would like to speak um to any item within the consent agenda?
Okay, if not motion approved for the consent agenda. Okay, um >> Madam Mayor Pro Tem, are you going to take a vote on that? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> All those in favor. Before you vote, I have a comment I'd like to make. >> Make it. Okay.
>> Um I was not here for the agenda review. Um unfortunately, I was out ill. But, I did want to make a comment on item number 10 I, the workforce housing agreement. I just want to thank Mr. Galt, who's here this evening for bringing this project to us. Um this is
a project we didn't go out seeking, uh but he brought it to us. It meets a need that that we have greatly in this city for affordable housing. So, I'm very pleased that we'll be voting on this tonight. And I also want to thank our staff for working with him on getting it to this point. So, I look forward to
voting for this. >> Okay. I need to take a vote. All those in favor. >> I. >> I. >> Okay, um We I guess now uh there's no um
new business. Um so, now we would um take the city commissioner's reports. And I'll start with Commissioner Dicks. >> All right. Um so, it's it's been a little bit light
for me. I actually am overcoming an illness that had me out for about 9 days of the 14 since we last met. But, during that time I did manage to attend the CRA training that was put on here for the city. Really appreciate uh the efforts from our staff to do that. I learned
quite a bit and um and just uh thought that was an excellent event. Had a good turnout from other cities in the [clears throat] area. And uh I also attended the grand opening for Publix down on Ruby Lake Drive. Third largest Publix in the company. Um that's pretty impressive. It's a
beautiful facility. Yes. Um it has a nice upstairs dining area overlooking the entire store. You must check it out. Uh I I haven't had a chance to really shop there yet, my parents did and they said there are products there they've never seen at any other Publix's, so uh very excited that we have that in our own backyard. And of
course it's always exciting to open another Publix in the hometown of Publix, where where it all started. Um and then uh we also have between now and our next meeting coming up for the Rock'n Freedom Fest. I'm looking forward to being there July 3rd to celebrate
with our community. It's always fun every year, but this year should be extra special with uh the America's uh 250th anniversary. And finally, I just want to praise our staff. I've had a few constituent issues come up in the last few weeks and our staff have been very responsive. I've gotten some good
feedback from the constituents, so I just want to thank all of our staff for the hard work they do in serving our constituents. Thank you. >> Okay, Commissioner Donaldson. >> Good evening. It's good to be here tonight. I uh also had the opportunity to
uh participate in the CRA board training as well as uh stated by um Commissioner Davis, it was in fact very informative. Uh you know, uh had not had that kind of training before, so very helpful as an
insight into just you know, the do's and the don'ts and just the makeup of the of the CRAs. And um hope to hopefully sit in again on something like that. Also had the opportunity to share with the Friendship Church. They had a community event.
Um and uh good crowd, a lot of information shared. Opportunity to uh meet some of the uh people in the community. Uh Pastor Sally is a dear friend. I know him I've known him a long time. He's done a great job there at Friendship Church.
Also attended the governor's press conference here. I understand that it was the first uh that we've had within at the PD. And uh I want to say to uh our police chief and staff, excellent
job. They're professional. Uh in fact, I was impressed with uh not that I haven't been before, but did a great job and uh certainly appreciate all the efforts and uh it was a I think a great opportunity for us to highlight uh what we can do
here in Winter Haven when uh the governor comes to town. Also I was able to attend the Polk All-States, excuse me, All-Sports Hall of Fame banquet. And uh tell you it's a wonderful event. Uh you know, just seeing a lot of people
that I've known over the years. Uh those who uh you know, have just distinguished themselves in the area of sports and the uh just knowing those who have really poured into so many of our young people throughout our county. Uh it's just a wonderful to see that and
see them celebrated as well. Also attended the fifth annual Juneteenth celebration. And I will say to the committee, they did a great job. Uh wonderful job in fact. It's first time we have had it indoors. Uh that was a blessing because it was
hot outside. And uh so I think many people enjoyed uh using the recreation cultural center. Uh the only thing is I was thinking about it. I wish I had had my swim trunks and went down there and dove in that swimming pool. That would have been the good end of a
wonderful day. Uh happy belated Father's Day to any fathers in the house. We had a great celebration and we thank God for all of the fathers. That's all I have. >> Thank you. Uh I attended some of the same events. Uh
actually chaired the uh TPO meeting for the uh transportation disadvantaged in Bartow. Also attended the uh Pope TPO meeting. Uh Got to do something that I had never
done before. Actually rode in a seaplane at uh Jack Brown's seaplane basin and landed when my uh summer youth kids were doing the tour. So, that was sort of very special and had a tour of the uh
Winter Haven Airport. Thoroughly enjoyed the uh seaplane ride. Uh It was uh piloted by the general and you all know who the general is, Jake. So, uh
it was really nice. Um the Juneteenth really is uh Commissioner Dollison said was inside, but I just was so impressed and pleased with the staff
that was on hand at work that facility. I mean, they were cleaning up as we go. They didn't allow anything to be on the floor. I'm saying, man, oh man, this is this is really great. But, again, it was
uh a great event and uh according to the ticker, there were over a thousand people that came through the door, which is uh a tremendous uh turnout. So, it was really nice. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Uh Also attended that uh Publix uh grand
opening. And I actually went up on the mezzanine. That's what they call it today. You know, I mean, I'm saying. They say it's the only one in in in Polk County, one of the few in Florida, so I was able to go up and look out, and they gave us the
goodie bags, and so uh It was really good. It is a huge Publix. Um Then I also attended the uh 100 Black Women's uh salute to women that they had
at the Bartow Civic Center, and uh recognizing several uh women from uh the Polk County area. In fact, one of the members of the board of uh trustees over at the uh Lakeland Regional uh
hospital, so It's a good event. And um Finally, the the the the gentleman that came talking about speed bumps, uh I have to say that's the first time
since I've been on this commission that I've ever heard anybody come in and talk about removing the speed bumps. Uh and that's just I'm just saying what I've seen and what I've heard, but uh
both times the people coming in here talking about we need to put more speed bumps on places that you can't put speed bumps. And um so But I know the the the staff will will work with you and and and
give you some some some type of satisfaction. So, that's all I have. >> Okay, and a lot I attended a lot of the same events. Um Some different ones, like you said, in the Polk County All Sports Awards and
Hall of Fame. We have some very distinguished um athletic athletic athletes and um some very distinguished in all of those sports. Um and some children our kids that are following in their footsteps. So
um attended the Juneteenth at the Reparation and Culture Center. Um Also attended Governor DeSantis press conference in which our chief did a very um
nice um speech that he had um prepared and um had given. Um also I attended the Ridge League in Davenport. And I think that was about it. I did not make it to the Publix. Now I have to go see it.
Okay. Um City Attorney. >> Thank you, Madam Mayor Pro Tem. Uh Commission, I have nothing this evening. Thank you. >> And um Deputy City Manager. >> Good evening, Mayor and City Commissioners. Mayor Pro Tem and City Commissioners. Um so I just want to
mention, you may have noticed that we've started getting some rain again. So uh the county has repealed the burn ban heading into the Fourth of July holiday. So that's just good to have on the radar. Uh and then I also wanted to extend appreciation um to our staff, but also to the committee who helped to put Juneteenth on. That is a group of
residents who have met throughout the course of the last year to plan that event. Uh it is the first time, you know, there were a lot of changes from how we've done it in the past and their engagement really was critical to how that event came together and um it was just so cool to see that space activated
for the community in the way it was uh this weekend. So that's all I have this evening. Thank you. >> Quick question. Is there a wrap-up to that? Do they uh kind of to review uh you know, that >> Yes, sir. They will do a debrief and I know one of the committee members who wasn't able to attend today sent some
notes along uh for that and the team will get together with the committee and kind of debrief so we can learn especially like we said this was first time in that space so there'll be a lot of debriefing and I think there are a lot of lessons talking with Scott over the weekend that you know we this is our first big event hosted in that space so
there are lessons we learned this weekend that we will start applying to every event that we host there so just a really great event overall. >> It was a great event, yeah. Um city clerk? >> Nothing this evening. >> Thank you. Um there are no emergency
matters received for the agenda. And with the motion >> So moved. >> We will adjourn. We adjourn. >> All right, we will be back. >> All right. >> We're going to let you do this tomorrow.