at 5:30 p.m can I get a roll call please yes commissioner Dison here commissioner Mercer here commissioner Dancler here mayor Prom Yates here and Mayor Bersong here all right we will have our
invocation and then pledge of allegiance and then we have some presentations that we will hear on Monday night and uh are we going to do the agenda review now or I mean the uh we'll do the
uh the pillar presentation at the end if that's okay with you sir that's fine thank you okay so we have no developments of note then we have the minutes and then we have the comments second readings none and then consent
agenda so could you highlight these for us certainly summer bus camp summer camp bus lease this is an annual item that comes before the city commission this is our use of school board buses for the transportation of participants in our
summer youth programs um we lease those through the summer at a cost of $1.25 per mile driven plus we're responsible for the fuel that is budgeted accordingly within our parks and recreation budget so nothing more really
with that i'll be happy to answer any questions nope keep going travel and training this is for the attendance of myself Deputy City Manager Carnival and public affairs and communications director Katrina Hill at the annual Florida City County Management
Association that will take place in Orlando May 28th through the 31st okay item 10 C um as you know we we process waste at the wastewater treatment plants that produces a um a byproduct in the
form of bioolids that must be transported and disposed of we put that out for bid we've we've for the past number of years contracted with Republic Services for that we actually had to rebid this uh one time because the two original bids submitted did not meet the
criteria on the rebid we received three and again the lowest responsive bidder was Republic Services there is a um a fairly substantial increase in this cost just associated with the cost of doing that type of business has gone up since
when we last bid it uh we do have this budgeted in the wastewater 2 and wastewater 3 cost centers and will account for the additional cost when we prepare the fiscal year 2526 budget
okay lake Howard gravity main uh final change order so this was a project that we did we've already completed um this is with Cathcar construction on the east side of Lake Howard generally from I'm
going to say around Avenue B South towards the Lake May Canal um there was four change orders that needed to be processed for that one is a deductive change order the other three are additive change orders uh and this is to
approve that the total amount associated with the change orders is $476,800 or $682 and that will close out the project we still have um some things to finish out with them and there is still retainage that we're holding on
that the Harmony master lift station again a change order that's being brought before the city commission so this the Harmony lift station is under construction now uh that project was awarded uh to BNB Underground
Construction in early 2023 at just under $8 million uh this change order addresses modifications to the project that include an enlarged motor control building a larger pump conduit required by the uh the pump suppliers new
equipment concrete enc casement of the larger conduit which is required for national electric code standards and the required fittings and labor to realign and connect the force main to the lift station the change order is in the amount of $340,146
item 10F this is for the purchase of our potable and reclaim water meters as you know we maintain an inventory of meters on average the water department installs or replaces anywhere between four and 500 meters each month with our current
stock that inventory would be depleted by June of 2025 so this is a purchase of 2,150 domestic and 500 reclaim meters and that is based upon staff's estimation of need that would provide
enough meters through the end of the 2024-25 fiscal year we purchased these under a piggyback agreement total cost is just just over $914,000 for those 2,650 meters that we'll we'll acquire
and that is accounted for in the budget item 10G is the purchase of some equipment for the streets division they use a number of different vehicles to perform their services and several of those are at the point of needing replaced those include a Caterpillar
backhoe a dump truck and a Ford Ranger uh standard pickup um they are recommending and and and requesting to replace the uh backhoe with a skid steer that you see pictured there the purchase
of the bump of the dump truck would be with a Freightlininer dump truck again displayed here that mirrors the piece of equipment that we have and they would replace the Ford Ranger with an F250 Ford Superduty regular cab um that's an
interesting one in that usually we have to order those vehicles far enough out and there's only certain times of the year that they're available we have the uh opportunity to acquire this vehicle because when a previous order was delivered they actually delivered two vehicles and offered us the opportunity
to go ahead and buy that second vehicle knowing that we had a vehicle that needed to be replaced it allows us to expedite that faster um that's happened on more than one occasion over the years that you know they on the on the supplier side they mess up an order
bring more vehicles than what had been ordered we've sent them back in this case we actually have an opportunity to acquire that so these are budgeted purchases uh within the capital depletion fund and vehicle replacement fund there is a shortfall of just over
$15,000 and that'll be covered under the streets operating budget using unspent pro uh funds that were uh appropriated for a bridge uh bridge rehabilitation project you had just approved for the pedestrian bridges that came in under budget so they have funds to uh cover
the delta there item 10G is I'm sorry that was 10 G uh 10H is the purchase of a new garbage truck so as you know we uh continuously expand our population and our number of
residents that we're servicing and we budget annually for the purchase and addition of additional vehicles for that service as needed um we included in the fiscal year 24-25 budget purchase of additional refuge
trucks and we have uh we're recommending the purchase of a 2026 autocar side winder uh refuge truck is pictured here again this is a um a budgeted purchase normally garbage trucks are taking well
in excess of a year for delivery uh this is similar to a recent truck that we purchased this is one that is available now um or in in relative short order i say now we'll be able to receive this in about 12 to 15 weeks compared to what
would otherwise probably be 15 months and then 10 I the commission has heard this item previously as members of the CRA board this is the developers agreement with the Carl Winterhaven LLC
this is for the development of a multifamily uh project at the corner of Magnolia Avenue and Third Street Southwest the um as outlined in the development agreement there's some photos here that that just remind you
what that site looks like and what the building is proposed to be um I believe it's 81 residential units that will be in here there's also a small uh commercial footprint on the ground floor the um the developers
agreement it is a uh incentive program application uh that would be tax in increment funded rebate they would receive 90% of the project's generated tax increment for the first 10
years 75% for years 11 through 15 and 65% for years 16 through 20 they've also requested reimbursement of the projected water and wastewater connection fees that would be spread out over four years
again this is something that was approved unanimously by the downtown CRA advisory board and then presented to the CRA board and now comes to the city commission and that is everything that is on the consent agenda all right Mr mayor can I
ask a question about the Carl um I'm still concerned about the parking um on this project um it's all going to be on site with no parking garage nothing elevated or anything like that is that correct and how are they going
to have enough space to park for another 81 families or 91 however many supposed to go in there how how do we make that work yeah so they're projecting one parking space per unit they have 81 units there they also have 23 commercial
parking spaces behind the BB&T available um in this site plan um and so at night when the offices at the BB&T building are vacant uh guests can also park
there that's all planned to be parked on site how's this going to affect like you know Grove Routts and some other people down there are they still going to be able to use that parking lot or so they have they still have parking to the south of this property you can see the
image on the far right shows the blue line that outlines the the parking boundary basically for um what would associate with the Carl and then there's additional parking that remains to the south uh the city is also in in early
discussions of uh continuing to identify opportunities for us to enhance uh public parking in this area but there is still remaining uh parking on that property that the private landholder uh has continued to allow the the general
public to use is there any way you can zoom out on that picture or is it it's it's a static unfortunately we can pull up u Oh that's that's good enough let me just look at that where's Gro Roots right there okay
yeah well like everything downtown this is a great project but I just have more and more concerns about parking for everybody else um going to be tough down it's going to be tight it's going to be tight and I I hope to be able to present something to the commission um in the coming weeks to
to further address that i'm I'm not in a position to uh present uh really much concrete information this evening unfortunately but I I do feel that the Carl the way that they've designed it they have accounted for their parking needs within the footprint oh I know we wouldn't approve it if we
didn't but I'm just worried about everybody else that's using a lot of that space now but anyway go ahead i'm good continue resolution R213 this is um acceptance of a warranty deed
from 610 LLC so when the when 610 and their partners developed Bowen Yard and AJ can you go to that im next image i believe it is so there was a um some area around there that they were uh
willing to dedicate as public parking and that would involve the use of some city space right ofway as well as some land that was owned by 610 as part of the Bowenard property um that project if you've been down there you know that
that parking is all complete that is public parking it is not private uh certainly it provides uh support to the businesses and the guests who visit Bowen Yard um but this is to dedicate
the improved area to the city of Winter Haven to officially make that public land and that was part of the development agreement for that project okay any questions with that one any questions okay
resolution R2514 this is uh EP erc Peace Creek LLC requesting that the city commission accept improvements and dedications in favor of the city for the plat uh for
Annabel Estates so this is going to be south of County Road 653 in Lake Ashton along Old Barto Road includes approximately 95.38 plus or minus acres 324 building lots and 12 common lots all
the water sewer and re and related infrastructure will be owned and maintained by the city all the storm water infrastructure internal roads and street lighting will be maintained by the Peace Creek Village Community Development District the
um city commission had approved the resolution R2508 to plat Annabelle Estates on February 24th of this year however certain improvements were not complete at that time the developer did issue a performance bond uh to guarantee that
completion recent inspections have found uh that those incomplete improvements are now complete in the water and wastewater systems can now be accepted by the city so this is to uh approve um to accept that uh that plat and release
the bond and related actions there too any questions all right item 2515 again very very similar item this is Starlight Homes Florida LLC requesting the commission accept certain
improvements and dedications in favor of the city as noted on the plat for Sunset Hills this is up off of Old Lucern Park Road in the area generally uh south of the Four Lakes uh subdivision and
Rolling Hill Cemetery to give you some landmarks this is a 45.4 4 plus or minus acre subdivision that includes 162 building lots and 12 common lots all water lines sewer lines and related infrastructure will be owned and
maintained by the city all internal roadways that are contained within the 50oot rights of way will be dedicated to the city um this was approved through resolution 2426 for the platting of the subdivision on May 28th of 2024 again
most they had improvements that were not complete and the developer submitted a performance bond uh recent inspections by staff found all incomplete improvements are now complete and the water wastewater and reuse utilities can now be accepted by the city
mr mayor I had a question this is a question for John john generally speaking just 35,000 feet when we release performance bonds what what risk are we actually running as a city and the reason I'm asking I remember we we
had a problem over here on Havenale where we cost of the project went way up and it had been a couple of years and we didn't have a performance bond and we ended up having to pay some of the difference i remember it was a negotiated thing but it just makes me think we release performance bonds all
the time up here and I'm just wondering generally what kind of risk are we running when we do that generally when we on the basis of why we are releasing them very little risk because the performance bonds are expressly provided to us to guarantee that these uncomplete
or incomplete improvements are made we are not releasing the performance bond until we've ascertained and determined all of the incomplete improvements at the time of platting have in fact been completed now the what we get generally is a
maintenance bond um after we get you know after it's in service and so there's a bond that's provided to us or some shity that if something within the first year of our acceptance I think I'm not speaking out of turn here but so I would say there's very there's very no
little uh liability uh for the release we go through this process the staff has already determined that they've they've performed correct they've done exactly what they said they're going to do our people have inspected it yes we're basically just releasing whatever it's
really ministerial kind of um other than Department of Health weighs in fd if they need to weighs in SwiftMUD if they have to our professional staff and there's no way we release these bonds too early no no we wouldn't release them until we're satisfied that everything is
done in accordance with appropriate standards okay I'm good and Commissioner D I I can recall I believe and John correct me if I'm wrong i there was one in particular I think we actually called the bond on um with with uh I think it
was Traditions subdivision many many years ago with a final lift of asphalt that hadn't been put down on roadways those are the things that you know we're making sure that the utility systems are all functioning they've passed their inspections the roads are constructed
all that inspection is taking place by our engineering division inspectors while that work is occurring as well as well as uh Gary's head has inspectors that are involved in that process as well in that tradition's example that if you may recall back then there was a uh
there was a dispute between some of the um developers and it was an arbitration and we ended up actually making a claim on the performance bond and remember that by doing so that that um that generated some action and it generated
the last lift of asphalt uh that was then placed on and and performed it generated performance why did we why did we not invoke the bond on this deal over here with the church on Havenale remember they we we gave them permission and they waited a couple years and the
cost this was not too long ago brian was on the commission and he talked about it quite a bit they didn't get it done in like two years and the cost went up% you're referring to some lift station there on Mr gerard's yeah um uh the
property there on 17 yes uh that was not a plat that was actually a contract we had a developers agreement that we had entered into this that wasn't a platting situation um and we have since I think because of that situation we have now taken further steps whenever we enter
into these infrastructure reimbursement agreements where they were making improvements to public things that we were going to have to do anyway and they were doing things we've we've now addressed that issue but we didn't require him to post a bond to do that when We we did not in that in that
scenario okay um but we have uh since that time uh addressed our our our practices but in that case it wasn't a plan it's a little bit different okay good that's all right good questions appreciate that trip down memory lane
yeah uh item 11D this is for um property that was recently annexed into the city this is Cross Tower Project LLC um this project is up off of Kings Road
uh just to the north of Winterlake Road so the owner is requesting final plat approval for the residences at Winter Haven uh actually the project is called Residences at Winter Haven 15.6 plus acres um again this a plat approved i
apologize if I said it was a zoning or land use this contains 63 building lots and five common lots internal roads are contained within the 50- foot rights of way will be dedicated to the city of Winter Haven again all water sewer utilities will be owned and maintained by the city while all drainage conveyances and storm water management
areas will be maintained by the homeowners association um water service to the subdivision from the Winter Haven water system and waste water will be treated at wastewater treatment plant 3 the roadway has sufficient capacity to serve
the subdivision on buildout uh proposed subdivision is consistent with the comp plan and all requirements of Florida statutes for the platting of land so this is for the platting of the residences at Winter Haven subdivision item 11E
resolution 2517 this is Black Fin Traditions LLC requesting final plat approval for Traditions Retail so this is AJ if you can go to the map please this is almost directly across the street from our fire
station number three corner of Thompson Road and Lake Road Lake Ruby Drive this is a 5.3 acre subdivision will contain three lots tract A will be de be dedicated to the city as rights of way
dedication water and sewer or water service to the subdivision is from Winter Haven water system waste water will be treated at plant 3 again adequate capacity in these systems to serve the subdivision um and staff will recommend that we approve resolution
2517 there is a um gas station convenience store presently under construction i don't know if it's a Circle K or a 7-Eleven 7-eleven uh if you've been out that way they have their their awning up over their pumps and and we'll begin on their their building here
soon mr mayor yes didn't we Can you go back one picture one slide didn't we decide to change the name of that road from Kum Lake we That is a That is something that the commission had brought up and Eric and I have had discussions on that uh
very recently as a matter of fact um there are no residences correct me if I'm wrong we we looked at this there's no residences no businesses that are associated with that that would be impacted from a name change um usually
when we deal with a name change request that's coming from outside the organization to to make that and they bring Rialto Road is I think the most recent one that we could recall that was part of the Villimar subdivision um we
can proceed with that and I just I I've not had the opportunity to delve deep into that with the commission but what would be a preferred name for that roadway um and then once we have that we need to verify with the E911 system that
that does not create any conflict with other roads uh that would carry the same name that's certainly an issue that can come about when you're dealing with responding to 911 calls that uh responders get sent to the wrong location i think it's a fairly
straightforward action eric can you weigh in on that at all as far as what else needs to happen there yeah so it is just a resolution adopted by the city commission that road rightway um has already been transferred from the county to the city it's city owned it's city rightaway um and so a resolution
establishing a new name would be the the mechanism uh again we would have to you know there there are no businesses or residents who currently are addressed off of that so there's no uh notice requirements or anything like that to to any property owners who gain access from
that roadway um and we would just as city manager said we'd coordinate with E911 make sure they're okay with our chosen uh road name and then uh pass a resolution changing the name well I for one would like to see us go ahead and push this through before we get people
out there and we do have to deal with more people right now it'd be simple so let's come up with a cool name and yeah we'll we'll um uh work with the city attorney and and figure out how best to get input on from you all on what would be a preferred name there i I was given
some thought to that in in recent weeks just thinking of um some of the the natural features and you know what's in that area that would align with with the naming for that road um you know whether that's lakes or
historic you know uh grove operations or moon over haven let's just come up with a name and let's I just need to get that thing changed I I'll share with you commissioner dancler um many many years ago when I worked for the city of temple terrace there was a similar issue that came up regarding a private road that
became a public road and uh there was a lot of debate over it and the road ended up becoming named as commission Okay because the commission got their way in taking control of that road i don't care it's kind of like Dan's Alley that is right out in front here of city
hall um so uh certainly if there are if the commission has thoughts on what might be a a suitable name for that road please feel free to share that with me and we'll begin uh vetting that out thank you thank you maybe something with beehives i don't
know okay next up is a request by TBHG it's a mouthful to vacate for public utility easements this is um along Recker Highway as you pass 21st
Street headed into the Jan Philill area you can see the area highlighted in blue there uh immediately beneath that blue line is the railroad corridor so in 1981 the city was granted four 15-
ft perpetual utility easements of various lengths that totaled uh just under 3,300 ft and those were for the construction installation and maintenance of municipal water manes the owners the owner of these lands TBHG LLC has arranged for the relocation
and abandonment of all existing water manes within those easements and is now requesting the city to release the easements to allow for the construction of the Lake Deer townhouse development our engineering division and water department have no objections to this vacation request as part of the
redevelopment of this site the any of the abandoned or inactive water main utilities within that original easement that have been requested to be abandoned will be removed at the developer's expense new utility easements for the new utilities that will be required for
the forthcoming subdivision plat uh will be included within that plat yeah eric is there anything else with that one that stands out no sir so this again some old old easements
that are that are no longer necessary and and those utilities will be accounted for in the new development of that townhouse subdivision okay congress's first reading item 12A this is
um ordinance 2511 and 2512 2512 being a companion ordinance so this is PTP Real Estate Enterprises LLC requesting the city assign the neighborhood support future land use and the commercial
highway C3 zoning district to a parcel um along Sage Road and Carl Floyd Road uh the devel this was annexed just this past fall of 2024 and the petitioner is intending to develop this property with
a medical office um you can you're familiar with its location and what's around it based upon the size of it being 8.64 acres the maximum square footage that could be developed under the proposed neighborhood support future
land use would be 94,090 square ft there is sufficient capacity uh to support water sewer and transportation uh needs associated with this request of course final concurrency determination would be made at the time the property receives
site plan approval and is developed planning commission did review this excuse me on March 4th of this year and voted to recommend approval of the request there was somebody that did speak from the public concerning uh the
access location on Sage Road and potential uses which would be permitted under that requested zoning uh staff along with planning commission was able to respond to that so again two companion ordinances one for land use one for zoning can you
refresh my memory on that one it seemed like the the owner had agreed to allow for an easement along Sage Road for widening or something along those lines is that still in play or was that a promise or did we ever put that in
writing our code requires the dedication of rightway um along an insufficient rightaway width and so yes they will be required to dedicate right away okay thanks I think the uh it was not just medical only it was a medical but also other
uh businesses would be also I mean potentially there could be it's the the developers um uh stated uh intention to develop a medical office but is zone C3 so general commercial would be allowable i think
that was one of the concerns that uh was raised about the type of uh other business that would be possibly would come in there I guess and uh to the subdivision that was a big concern that I as I remember okay
all right next item is ordinance 2517 uh state statute requires the city commission if it's going to amend its budget to do by ordinance um to expend funds that were not anticipated in the approved budget so due to the
incumbrance roll forwards from fiscal year 2024 adjustments to the 25 budget are required these adjustments are necessary to accurately reflect the remaining funds available after accounting for these commitments um there is an attachment
within your fact sheet is exhibit A that identifies all of the roll forward uh adjustments stemming from incumbrances that need to be accounted for in this ordinance this budget amendment ordinance those total out to
[Music] $3,858,447 so it's just reappropriating money that was encumbered fiscal year 24 appropriating it within fiscal year 25 unspent dollars for projects that continue to go forward you can see on
page two and three of that uh attachment the vast majority of these are within the general fund there are a few within the airport fund that are associated with uh annual contracts and some construction
projects and then um there are a couple that are tied to the Florence Villa uh CRA and the downtown CRA and we'll be happy to answer any questions on those as you have standard procedure and just aligning with what we're required by
statute all right new business excuse me while I refresh because I got to make sure I've got this into the agenda um this is a significant item that I'm
very pleased to be presenting uh this may take a few minutes so if you'll bear with me um we have been for the better part of two plus years been working
to bring the logistics parkway extension project forward as you know we received two grants in 2022 and 2023 for this project from the state of Florida a little over
$6.4 $4 million from Florida Commerce as part of a a jobs growth grant and an additional $3 million from DOT for a total of 9.411 million to build a road that would go from the northern terminus
of the existing logistics parkway up through or adjacent to the wastewater treatment plant 3 property and continue further north on Pard Road this past June we completed construction
of what is officially described as phase two that was the section from the CSX railroad tracks at Pard Road all the way down to wastewater treatment plant 3 we provided an update and some images of that within the past few months when we
talked about infrastructure in designing the second or the the first phase of the project which goes from the wastewater treatment plant south to Logistics Parkway the original design in had the road
traveling eastward along the northern edge of city-owned property and then down the eastern most edge of that same property coming back to the west and tying into logistics parkway this made for a horseshoe type shape of the road
um the length of that road the design features given the number of curves and turns involved um made that project very expensive uh it would also take a significant amount
of time to build that that roadway recognizing the cost associated and trying to ensure that we could deliver a suitable project at the greatest benefit to the residents and at the lowest cost
we sought out a new alignment that would take the road almost directly south from wastewater treatment plant 3 all the way down to that northern terminus in order to do that the city would need to coordinate
with Florida Can Manufacturing to acquire a portion of their land that was kind of in between the two points so we started working shortly after I became city manager in
2022 uh started negotiating with Florida can for that land transaction very successful discussions in in moving the project forward um that involved not only the sale of a little over four
acres of their land to the city but also allowed for the amendment of a developer agreement that was executed at the time they were developing their property um we got all the way up to November of this year of 2024 and
that began to slow a little bit um as we came to find out that Florida Can was in discussions with the Ball Corporation to sell that property that transaction I believe was completed in early January um the mayor and I actually had an
opportunity as soon as we found out to travel out and meet with the uh executive team of Ball who was on site that day and it it kind of put a stop in all progress for that negotiation with the help of uh the city
attorney's office and our uh professional team with the city we continued to push on that and I'm happy to report that within the last 24 hours we've gotten to the point where we're ready to present to you purchase and sale agreement um things don't normally
take us almost two and a half years to to execute but if there was something that could have gotten in the way of this project it didn't waste any time in doing so and the team was able to overcome that at the end of the day what this will allow for is the city will
purchase a little over four acres 4.04 04 acres to be exact from the Ball Corporation under the the name Florida or FCM Florida Can Manufacturing when Ball bought the company they actually bought the stock interest so everything will still appear under FCM or Florida
Can Manufacturing um so we will acquire those that acreage at $105,000 per acre that is a price that we agreed to when we first started
negotiations back in 2022 in exch what's defined as the first amendment to the developers agreement that was between the city and FCM that agreement required FCM to participate in the construction
of the road and to uh participate in the cost associated with the relocation of utilities however it was clearly contemplated in that developers agreement that if the city was able to secure funding for that
construction that that would be amended to release them from that obligation um at the time we were doing our transactions with Florida Can we were also pursuing grants so that's how that came to be a part of that so this first amendment addresses removing that
language from the developers agreement and that is consistent what with what the intent was all along the developers agreement also outlines some more technical aspects that um probably the most salient in my opinion is that
anticipating potential future development and expansion of the Florida can property our roadway design will contemplate I believe it's two roadway curb cuts and driveway aprons to accommodate future access points
the third piece to this transaction is the um is a first is a right of first refusal in an option agreement in favor of Florida can recognizing that by selling us a
piece of their land we are uh that has a direct impact on future development of their property to the to the east of where they are now and you know there's what's the benefit to them to sell the property so as part
of our negotiations and recognizing that we had prepared a right of first refusal and an option agreement that would give them the opportunity to purchase additional city land that was part of that PUD approved
by the city commission for future industrial development of all the land we had out there they have the uh that first right of first refusal and option pertain to 54.3 plus or minus
acres that is land that we would have sold otherwise to an interested buyer for industrial development uh in that general area that that was our intent all along it holds the price on that property again at
$105,000 per acre which was the um the comp that that price is based upon comp sales and other land transactions that occurred at the ILC at the time we began negotiation so we have set that in play
on both our purchase of their land and their potential future purchase of our land the right of first refusal comes into play in the event that if the city is approached by a third party with a bonafide offer to buy that
land from us we're obligated to go back to Florida can and and give them the option to acquire it at the $105,000 per acre if um and I believe they have 15 days to respond to that when we when we
notify them of that that offer the option agreement pertains to if Florida can without the presence of a uh an offer to the city from somebody else if Florida can on their own wants to move forward with acquiring the land they can
do so both of those options are for five years from the date of execution of the agreements um so basically it it provides an opportunity for them if they they see the need or they have a desire to uh see that land further developed in
industrial uses which is what we want you know that is is exactly what the city would like to see happen there that was the intent of the PUD and the uh actions taken by the city to dispose of that property and make it available that's what led to Florida Can's initial
investment on that property um so it's it's very consistent with that doesn't mean that Florida can gets that land for free in fact if they exercise the option the city will receive $5.7 million for that land
transaction um again you know this is a has been an extremely complicated effort i would say that this has been for myself and Bruce is here somewhere i think he would agree and certainly John Murphy and and Drew Crawford from the legal side this has been one of the
heaviest lifts that I've certainly ever encountered um a lot of sleepless nights of trying to get this to this point and you know we're grateful that we've gotten here and and Ball has been uh willing to carry forward the
negotiations that we work so hard on with FCM recognizing the benefit it provides to the city the benefit it provides to them and the benefit it provides to the rest of the ILC is this roadway becomes a corridor for workers to
access the entire industrial park there whether it's part of the the ILP the ILC or the properties that develop on the city land so the intent is um the request or the recommendation is for the city
commission to approve all three agreements which is the per the agreement for sale and purchase of real property that is us buying 4.04 04 acres from Florida can the first amendment to the developers agreement which addresses
uh obligations that were included originally in the developers agreement which no longer would pertain the right of first refusal agreement and the option agreement and then to authorize me to to carry out any other actions
related there too we we are still putting the finishing touches on a few of the exhibits that are part of these documents we've been working on this pretty feverishly over the past 72 hours um to get everything fully buttoned up
so there may be uh some slight changes to exhibits uh nothing substantial these are you know just cleaning up little things here and there that that need to be as such um and if that if that is the case that those need to be done those
documents will be appended prior to Monday evening we have sent these back to Ball as of today and to our counterparts there the hope is to get um all the necessary
signatures you know noted as such and wet signatures excuse me returned back to the city prior to Monday and we will execute the purchase and sale agreement pending favorable consideration by the the commission the
and and I'm going to ask Drew to correct me with a nod here if I have this wrong but I believe the uh amendment to the developers agreement the right of first refusal and the option agreement would be documents that are part of the purchase and sale agreement but would
not be executed until we actually get to closing or we'd hold them in escrow or we'd hold them in escrow um those would be uh again so that all four documents go together it is a suite of documents
everything has to to go forward in order for the transaction to occur we anticipate and fully expect to be able to close on this by on or before May 30th of this year uh as for the
project we have continued our design efforts continued our permitting efforts and it's my understanding that we will be ready to put that project to bid uh immediately the this is one of those
time is of the essence projects that we have grant obligations that we have to fulfill we have fulfilled the financial obligations assigned to the city by Florida Commerce when we completed that phase two portion last June we now have
uh we're on the clock with FDOT to complete the financial obligations there and then both of those tie back to certain performance and outcome requirements with jobs generated and the like so that's a a mouthful
um again very significant project at the end of the day in land transaction uh I can say with all confidence that no stone was left unturned in trying to make this happen the end of the day it reduces I think this is probably the part I left out that may be the most
important part the original cost estimate for that road to take the the long way around was in excess of $21 million the projected engineers engineers
estimate of of probable cost as of today which we're at 85% design documents is about 10.5 million so we're we're cutting the cost of the project in half by being able to do this transaction
um and hope you know I think ultimately it leads to the further development and investment from the private sector in uh future industrial development in that general area any question i just have one question t
um the parcel they have the right or first refusal the uh that the per acreage cost that we've locked in as compared
to the potential acreage cost out there now is do you know what that is it's going to be less it's certainly going to be less um as as other transactions have occurred out there certainly land values have gone up um that that's a benefit to
them you know that's and and that and we we recognized that at the time we began the negotiations you know we didn't think it would take us two and a half years to get there but it's also pertains to the cost of the land that we are buying from them right right so
really and truly uh we're saving well saving about 10 million and even if we sold that I mean it's bring 10 million I don't think so here's what here's how I
would would say um and these are these are my words so I don't want to anybody take liability for them but this is a project in which we are land rich and cash poor
and we need to flip that equation i don't see us being any worse off at the end of the day in the sense that we could we could build all the way around and hope for a future sale of our property to offset the $21 million cost
which is a big gamble um or we can get the road built right and and spur additional growth in that area yeah well we we've got to get the road built because if we don't and we're on a time clock and you end up having to repay Yes
grant dollars or lose grant dollars that you have not received no I was just Yeah I'm all for it and I'm glad to see it finally happen because I thought it would it would have happened a little faster but hey I'm just happy that it's
happening now i promise you it's not from a lack of effort i got a question go ahead i say commend the effort i I think that has been herculin effort to say the least and so certain to be commended uh and uh hats off to you guys for doing an outstanding
job bring it to this point yeah I I know this the negotiations have been tough and congrats yman's work for everybody that did this i totally get it but along Mayor Birdsaw's questions what what is track selling property out there
now for 500,000 an acre 400,000 what's what's track getting now three million i think the last transa the one the most recent one I'm familiar with was around 300,000 but I don't know if there's been transactions since then higher than that Bruce i mean
we're and I'm not complaining about anything other than the price and I just I feel like I know we had to negotiate and it's hard to negotiate with a tiger when your head's in his when your head's in his mouth we didn't really have a lot of options but we're buying four acres
and we're selling 50 acres there's if you do the calculus to me go ahead Bruce what's what's what's property really worth out there well it's kind of a loaded question because the property that chat is selling already has direct road access right
right whereas this this property does not right so but for the value of this road it's probably worth 65 or 75 or $85,000 an acre we've got to get a road into it at which point it will obviously be worth a lot more um the the the
property uh that's that has been sold um there's one recorded transaction that TR engaged in and I think it was recorded about $360,000 an acre but it actually included a lot of site work storm water ponds outfalls and pad prep and so it's
not a true number to work from well I know you can't go back i And I'm not trying to advocate that i'm just saying I don't want to say because I know this is public i'm I'm not trying to say anything i'm happy with this deal okay i just wish the numbers I I just feel like the numbers because what we're
giving we're buying four acres and we're selling 50 acres at a greatly reduced rate and I get it i understand we don't want to pay the money back and we don't want to build the road i get all that um anyway it just commissioner we've run the math in my mind
and we've run the numbers a number of quite a number of times net the city is better off doing this transaction than building the road and trusting that we can sell that land later at a much higher price that's calculus the way you're doing
it i'd like to see that math because I don't see it that way i mean oh maybe five or 10 years down the road well five five or 10 years down the road we may have missed out on alarm tax revenues and water and wastewater
sales and jobs impacts for the next five or 10 years that's true so there's a delta that we really don't grasp and we're just kind of projecting what I can tell you right now is that the amount of activity we have at the ILC I think we have six or seven active leads right now
right um one lease about to be signed another project going before the county commission for tax exemptions uh next week and in the first meeting in May uh those have both attracted a lot of attention uh in this economy and with the the the the discussion going on
around tariffs the leads are coming out of the woodwork at this point so I would hate to see this deal fall apart in the hopes that someday down the road we can sell this property when in fact we've got a deal on the table we've got a a a willing partner in ball which I think
for them it's been a real stretch to get their head wrapped around this so quickly because their deal came together with Florida can very quickly and then they immediately transition to this um but but net net I think that the tax oddarm tax value that we can generate
out of this going forward could be far more than any land sale price you would ever get and that's really what we're going for is that taxable value and the jobs that created and that economic impact that come off
of it well if you throw all that in there I get it but on paper it doesn't add up to me well just from what I'm looking at but if you throw in all the other stuff the tax I guess it does okay
I'll say this we're spending 400 hey this is just a a general off-the cuff discussion we we we we get it we get it we get it just saying we're And keep in mind I mean 50 acres at $400,000 acre
you can do that math you can that's and that again if they exercise the option or the right of first refusal too well they'd be crazy not to if flip the property i mean if it's if it's clearly worth if
it goes up they're going to flip it you know like any good corporation would do well this this commission really spearheaded and moved forward a lot of the development that has happened out there over the last you know five years
and so I think this only perpetuates that same growth by having this deal put together so you may not you you may get you know some incremental gain now if you wait down the road but I think you
lose more than than what you know what you may gain and that so long this property out there set at nothing until some movement happened and some things changed and now all of a sudden you got a million square foot
building built on spec out there and and so many other things so I think this deal really keeps that growth and momentum moving forward well you're right and I want to vote for it but I'm just saying Brian I mean uh Bruce is right when you throw in the advorum taxes and all the sewer in the
water and you don't have to have a bunch of cops out there if it's residential if it's not residential I get all that and if we take the long view I can see how the calculus would work but to me on paper at this point it just seems like it's you know tough but anyway good job
good negotiation i'm not bl throwing any dispersions i think it's great and I know you guys worked your tails off to get to this point so bravo yes yes all right i had a full head of dark hair
when we started mr had hair okay all right so now we're ready for the strategic plan thank you uh Mr mayor and commissioners so again we uh prepared to present to you an update we're back at the
beginning of our strategic pillars so you've heard on all six over the past six months this evening we're going to do a very brief update on the responsible government pillar and keep in mind that next Wednesday and Thursday
we will have our strategic momentum session which really is a testament to responsible government uh but we did want to present some information to you this evening uh so again just reiterating what responsible government is all about and it's how we manage
resources smartly and fairly with citizen input it's everything from our budgeting and financial stewardship our responsiveness to our citizens the fairness and impartiality that we demonstrate being transparent being as efficient and innovative as we can at
all turns the community partnerships collaboration opportunities and our care for and retention of employees this evening we have uh some people who have not appeared before you before um so
would ask that you you go uh easy on them to the extent that you're so inclined uh but we have with us this evening Kayla Ruffen who is the city's organization development administrator mr tyler Best who is the HR systems and security analyst uh we'll
hear from John Murphy Andrew Crawford uh regarding a recent initiative that we put into play as well as Katrina Hill uh as you can see the things that we hope to cover this evening are some youth program opportunities that we have in play to really try and shape the future
for our community an update on our LD LDPA uh program which is a leadership development and public administration we'll hear some updates on what we're doing to improve efficiency within our processes some
Sunshine Law training and then an update on some legislative efforts so with that I'll hand off to Miss Kayla Ruffin thank you good evening Mayor Birdong and all other commissioners who serve the city of Winter Haven and all others present to begin we do have collaboration
efforts that we we have with different schools and age groups in the community ranging from middle school students up until early adult early adult ages at this time we do have two schools that we've served this year at the middle school level to offer these young people
the opportunity to see what careers within the city of Winter Haven would look like a part of that pro program is that we allow them to apply for actual jobs we allow them to go through an interview process and then depending on
the needs of the schools we do either go to their campus or just as we did yesterday we allow those students to come on site to look at our daily operations again we've offered that to over 50 students this year at the high school level we have a partnership with
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay where the students of Winter Haven High School who are in that program have the opportunity to be mentored by different employees within the city on a monthly basis they are exposed to a new department they are able to see the
operations thereof and then they receive guidance in regard to goal setting and anything that would help them in regards to their career as well as their personal development this year we had 16 students in the program nine of which
who are seniors and graduated and we held that graduation on last Thursday we also have a partnership with Career Source Poke and where not only high school students but even young people that are young adults can come in and intern all of these efforts allow us to
expose different people at a younger age group to our operations and it allows us to develop homegrown talent so that people don't feel as though they need to leave regarding wherever their passion is they can actually fulfill that right here within the
city for persons who are employed with the city of Winter Haven we also want to provide a training opportunity for them as well entry level employees were able to go through the program in partnership with Poke State College the leadership development and public administration
program myself and 15 others were graduates of cohort 6 what's interesting about this program is that it doesn't just allow us to learn what we need in regards to adding skills and and adding to our career toolbox but it also gave
us the opportunity to give feedback to the city of Winter Haven in order to graduate from this program each member of the cohort had to identify an issue or something that would help our operations we also had to develop a
solution to that and present our business case model in previous cohorts and potentially in this one those ideas have been implemented to help us with our operations so that we can better serve the city with these efforts not only have we been able to develop young
talent but also develop those who serve in the city as a whole with that being said I'll bring up Tyler Best thank you well good evening Mayor Birdong and uh fellow city commissioners um and all those in attendance so my big thing today is going to be efficiency and um
how we were able to create some digital forms and uh speed up some processes that we have here in the city and uh the first job that I had here was making sure that we were able to use our performance employee review forms or our annual evaluations
um and make them digital um the last process it was very long and people would have to pass uh the paper versions from desk to desk throughout the city it was very difficult to get them done timely um and you even had some get lost
and caught up in paper trails and whatnot so with this new digital form now we can create them and have them processed all the way through the city manager's office within a few days compared to a few weeks or months um and we've had great feedback from all of our city employees well some of them I know
some of them behind me aren't too happy with it um but we've been able to have that i've currently also uh released a personnel action form which deals with all things jobs within our city uh for our city employees and I'm currently working on our CDL and educational
assistance applications along with our travel and training form and then our personal requisition forms i'm hoping to release three of them on Monday so that way we can get those out and also being processed as well the next thing that we are using is
UKG which is our time management system it also has a cool feature that we can use for our applicant tracking we are currently testing it out and it's very early um beta access right now what it'll be able to do is make sure that we are able to track all of our applicants
throughout the city who are applying and it'll increase the efficiency uh for citizens applying as well the main thing that we are testing out though is to maintain the integrity of our city and it makes sure that we stay true to our equal employment opportunity title with that I'll bring up city attorney John
Murphy real quick um mayor and commissioners I just want to comment on what what Tyler presented and it may seem um the significance of it may not fully come across there but these are
historical processes that have been just paperheavy a lot of moving things about he he said it right you know you you have a a employee review that goes through maybe five six different people that's paper form that means our amazing
courier Tracy is picking that up from one place and taking it to the next that gets process goes to the next it can take an a significant amount of time we've had employee evaluations that have come through the pro this new process
and been gone from when they were first initiated to when they were finally approved and everyone's final approval is with me those have happened in 48 hours or less that was unheard of before the uh number of applications that we
get under this UKG process the receipt and review and organizing and dissemination of that if that's not an efficient process we lose applicants people don't want to wait we've got to be as efficient and as timely as we can with that um and these are things that I
know Sean has Sean Dykes our HR director has has envisioned how do we get this stuff done and has been working tirelessly to do it when Tyler came on board given his background in in the computer science side of what we do uh was able to very quickly put in some of
these processes we started with that employee performance review because that was a pain point for so many in our organization and we have been able to quickly pivot to other processes that we have in play now uh that have made this so much more efficient and and so much
more user friendly whether you are the person doing the approvals or the applicant or the employee who's getting the review uh a very significant advancement in how we do HR so John
thank you T and u good evening commission and mayor mayor prom commissioners uh with me is also my law partner Drew Crawford um who has uh greatly uh facilitates and assists in many things not the least of which was the new business item that we've just
discussed in some detail regarding the Florida Cane Manufacturing and the Apollo Road extension so I just want to publicly state how appreciative I am of Mr crawford and his efforts in conjunction with all the great leadership that T michael and staff have
um Drew if you want to come up uh Drew has been instrumental in administering Sunshine Law training we've done three sessions as you can see uh we've had about 66 attendees but Drew if you want to just give a brief overview of what it is we talk about and then we have some
moving forward um efforts that we'd like to try to continue to in conjunction with city's leadership team keep everyone in the rails y so to speak yeah absolutely thank you John good evening mayor commissioners it's a delight to be here tonight to talk about this uh we're so happy to have done this training
we've received 66 folks that are your appointees to your boards who have come citizens who take time out of their evenings to come and hear about the sunshine law and how better they can serve the community this primarily goes towards that transparency component of your responsible government element and
that's really what we focused on the transparency components of the sunshine law transparency components of the public records act uh we also talked a little bit about board ethics as well too just so that they have a flavor for that and can understand that some situations may put them in positions
that might not best serve that transparent responsible government that we're looking for um the sessions were were were short relatively short we did it about what was it half hour about an hour give or take yeah yeah we were right on the nose about an hour um and
they were received very well uh there wasn't a meeting we held that that four three four or five people didn't come up and you know tell us thanks and talk about their personal situations and sort of what they've seen in their board uh uh in the life of their board um so we we really thought the program went off
well we're very thankful to uh the city manager for asking us to to do this for you guys uh and I think the next step that we're going to take we're going to look forward to giving this training session to staff members as well uh those who are potentially involved in um
shephering those boards or dealing with those boards so they understand how best to help their board members and really for staff to understand too that there are obligations that we need to take in order to help facilitate your obligations complying with the Sunshine
Act so um it was it's a really great program we're super happy to be uh asked to present it uh it was really really good and commissioners again this is you have gosh I don't know how many boards and committees and um and the like that
that serve you CRA advisories airport advisory library boards tree boards lakes advisory committee um you know there's there's pension boards a lot of times those are citizens who have expressed an interest and say I'd like
to serve on this you all run for commission you go through ethics training is part of that you understand how sunshine laws pertain to what you do you you experience it every two weeks when you appear here for your meetings
you know what you can and cannot talk about outside of this when you're engaged with each other lay citizens don't know that um and and certainly we we don't want to have them step into a situation
where out of just an ignorance of the law an unfamiliarity with it engage in some dialogue or some action or um some documentation that ends up you know in a in in a puddle of hot water because
that's a reflection back on all of us at the end of the day um it was great to see the planning commissioners here you know all these people that we we work with day in day out participating in this and I would say that every one of them walked away with a I'd say
certainly new information um as well as a new appreciation for how seriously we take the sunshine law and its applicability here in the city of Winter Haven absolutely and and as well we should um because at the end of the day
we are um we we are the the the top of the citizenry and the entire organization and the credibility and the um you know just the the the veracity of our organization depends in large part
upon complying with the the laws that we discuss and so it it was very gratifying to be able to pro provide that education and we want to continue to do that um so it it's something that we enjoy doing and we will continue to do and we thank
you all for giving us the opportunity to do that thank you John and Drew um the last item we wanted to provide for you this evening was a brief update on our legislative efforts obviously session is still very active um and we're trying to
monitor bills as best we can uh this MJ and I spoke earlier today this is the the really bizarre time of legislative session when it starts off you have all the bills in front of you and you you're trying to sort through them as they make their way through they're all traveling
different pathways and trying to figure out where they are is is juggling cats it truly is i mean you're they're all over the place some things have stalled in committee some things are getting appended to other legislative items to move them forward uh we are nearing the
end but we're nowhere near the end um so with that I'll ask Katrina to give us a brief update on legislative efforts good evening so as T Michael said we're in week six of 10 of the Florida legislative session right now it's slated to adjourn on May 2nd um if you
recall from our time in Tallahassee our presentation from the Florida League of Cities kind of when you're half you're past that halfway mark now right so committee should be kind of wrapping up um but things are still moving um fast and furious so bear with me i have some notes because some of these bills that
we're tracking moved today so I want to give you the most update information I can um starting with Senate Bill 180 this one is on emergency preparedness and response this actually passed the Senate unanimously this afternoon um with an amendment that appears to mirror
another bill that we were tracking on storm water management so we still need to dig into that a little bit more but those that did pass and we'll come back to you with more details on the impact of both of those katrina real quick on that storm water bill that she's speaking of you received a copy of a
letter that I sent to Senator Burton last week expressing our strong opposition to that bill because it creates an unfunded mandate for municipalities that is the bill that was amended into this emergency management bill so that
is something we need to to dig very deep into and see what impact that's going to have uh it's a it's a significant change to what we do on an annual basis for storm water yes sir um Senate Bill 1242 and the House Companion 991 on community
redevelopment agencies this is the bill that seeks to sunset all CRAAS by 2045 and prohibits any new projects in the CRA as of October 1st this is in the rules committee which is its final stop on the Senate side um that committee is
chaired by Senator Pasadomo and it has not been put on that agenda yet she expressed in the last committee that she wanted to do a pretty big overhaul of it if she was to move it forward and we haven't seen that one move yet and it's not moved on the House side in quite some time either so we're hoping that
that one just sits and stays um Senate bills again there's a lot of questions with that you know there's a lot of unanswered questions and I believe that's what Senator Pasadmo's position is um that would be extremely
detrimental to any community that has a CRA and we have communicated on that on multiple fronts and we'll continue to do so senate bills 1196 and House Bill 503 that's on local business taxes these set a baseline for how much you can collect
through the BTR process as um what we collected in fiscal year 2024 and requires reduction of fees or refunds if you exceed that amount um the Senate bill has not moved to any of its committees the House bill did move through two committees um but it has not
been placed on the agenda for its third and final committee yet so we're keeping an eye on that one um the storm water bill this was Senate Bill 810 it didn't have a House Companion doesn't have a House Companion this is the one we sent letters on last week it was heard and passed its first committee today but then almost
identical language was put into the other Senate bill that passed today so same and they were both by Senator Bergus so that one probably won't move because of the language that was put in the other one and then the final one to update you on is Senate Bill 1416 this
is the election dates um for municipal offices that would move us back to the general election this hasn't moved on the Senate side since April 1st and it doesn't have a house companion either so with committees wrapping up this week we're also hoping that one stays katrina
do you have any update on the bills pertaining to enterprise fund transfers they haven't moved this week okay so that's the other big these are the ones that have a direct impact on the financial sustainability of the
organization um and we'll continue to update uh the commission on those we have a uh a section within our strategic momentum session where we will talk more about some of these bills as they pertain to some of the thing the the efforts we have underway but um I would
not be surprised at all to be sending you copies of additional letters and communications we'll be putting out to legislators in the coming weeks yeah um and just because a bill doesn't go through committee there's other ways they can shoehorn it in so we'll keep an
eye on all of that of course and then finally we're preparing for our trip to Washington DC coming up um so our priorities there are first and foremost to advocate for local government um and then also to really advocate through the FAA and some of our delegation um the
pursuit of a dedicated frequency year round at our airport not just for sun and fun like we came off last week um and then finally we've requested some support for Willough Road both at the state and the federal level so we'll continue to pursue that on both fronts as well
can you speak to I believe all of PK County request uh for funding at the federal level level um through uh Congressman Franklin's office uh primarily were denied is that they my
understanding from our contacts in DC is they were not included in the continuing resolution so they're kind of in limbo they're not dead they're not funded it depends on what happens next with the budget okay have we done any studies yet on you know the governor keeps spouting
his no property tax agenda um and it would appear like the thousand potential change for property taxes may be on the path to being imminent will that affect us or have we looked into that yet what
I've seen in terms of the early on language for this um rebate for lack of a better word is that would be at the state level based upon surplus funds at the state level um
the language that's tied to bills and certainly MJ and Katrina can correct me if they understand this differently but what we've seen in bills in session for 2025 are to advance a study at the at
the state level on what can be done with with advalorum property taxes when um we have provided along with every other city that is part of the league information on on how much we
take in in advorum and uh related expenditures within your general fund to remind the commission we we generate less than $28 million in advorum revenue on annual basis our public safety expense is around 32
million that's just one example of it if you think about the impact on schools on other jurisdictions that's problematic you know I don't know how you do that without advancing some other form of revenue
generation to be able to continue to provide services um the more recent discussion about that rebate again what what my understanding of that was that wouldn't be a reduction at the local level that
would be a a rebate almost COVID like to what people saw uh in 2020 from the federal government there's been additional discussion from the speaker of the house at the state level speaker Perez to uh
permanently reduce sales tax have not seen really any further movement or discussion on that that would have an impact on us as well because we participate in state shared revenues which comes off of sales
tax um there's been discussion in bills that have been drafted for uh an automatic exemption on homestead values of $100,000 again that has a a direct
impact on us for that uh CJ I believe we did run a preliminary estimate on that and Brian I'll have to get that for you Commissioner Yates u we we'll make sure we have some of those details of what these these impacts would be when we meet next week for the the strategic
momentum session um if you collectively look at everything and and double fingers crossed up here and toes as well that some of these bills that pertain that that have a direct impact on operational
revenues that that they don't make it all the way through utility fund transfer that's significant um elimination of search charge for non uh for customers outside the municipal boundaries that's significant that
directly affects all the rates that you you just approved last fall elimination of business tax receipts or capping those elimination of CRAAS uh and then all the things that I just talked about collectively all those things start to really pile up and then
you take on the bills that add additional responsibilities to local government in the form of an unfunded mandate i'll go back to the storm water bill for a minute right now per the ND NPDS National Pollution Discharge Elimination System
requirements we are obligated and required to inspect 10% of our storm water infrastructure system every year under this bill as it was drafted now I've not seen the the appended language that Katrina was speaking of it would
require you to complete a an inspection of 100% of your entire storm water system within 14 months the appended language has a deadline of September 1st 26 so what that does is it redirects
every effort that you have underway to improve your storm water system and all of your resources to pull up boots from there and put them into inspection without really understanding you know in our case where we're doing
storm water improvements it's to address where we know we have issues to we're doing inspections per the federal guidelines now but you're going to have us do all of that in a single year in areas that it may not be it may not have
the result that that they're looking for there you know let us let us address where we know we have issues and certainly I feel for coastal communities that experience significant flooding because of failing or undersized utility systems for storm water um but again
this is perfect example of one sizefits-all it it would appear those changes um align with current permitting requirements so hopefully those once you get in there and study what those amendments are I think it
it is drastically better than what it what it could have been um so far but I guess my concern is you know again the governor wants to tout his agenda and and no tax agenda at what point do we as
a I don't like to be reactionary i I would rather be proactive and okay if that and and hopefully it's a You know you don't want to do something for nothing right but what if that did come to fruition what does our plan look like
at what point do we start discussing that does it have to be further along in the process or is that process you know sooner than later well you know you're talking about the advalorum elimination of advorum
i think that discussion's already begun of really looking at what is the what is the uh the revenue received and what are your expenses that you're funding through that and at a very high level what are you no longer going to
do because if there's not a supplemental strategy for generating revenue does that mean you go to a a fire service fee a police service fee some other user fee you drive up all of your costs elsewhere because if you if
you don't have the funds to do um and again 100% plus of your advorum is consumed by public safety so how do you offset that through other other means that that's what's frustrating to me is you want to
eliminate it but you haven't proposed anything to replace it right and so is that job going to be on us or is that job going to be on at the state level to where they're going to fund the gap of of loss of the only and you know I I don't know how you would do it Brian i
honestly don't i think that that's conversation that we need to have with our league partners and and everybody else it's just it's all over the place with that i I just it doesn't make a whole lot of sense um because the only way I can the only way off the top of my head that I think you could do that
differently was if you went into in the case of fire a fire service fee that you're going to charge to every property that's just shifting right and what that's doing is the state saying my words no one else is and I'll probably get smacked for saying this by somebody but the not in this room but outside
maybe in Tallahassee it's the state saying "We're going to issue a tax break to everybody." And and it's up to the cities to figure out how to tax them some other way to make up for what we took away we're going to be the good guy so and you guys are going to have to be the bad guy that this doesn't work um I
don't I I'm anxious to see what the proposal is and I'm I'm confident that we have very smart people in Tallahassee that will recognize you can't do away with that level of of revenue in your municipalities and still be able to
provide services to your residents the other thing um and Katrina didn't touch on this but we'll we'll talk more next week but we're very mindful of what's happening at the federal level too um that those are legislative matters that have a a significant impact
on us and on businesses within our community and I've had a number of of business owners reach out that are um dependent upon materials and supplies from outside domestic borders and are
very concerned about what the future looks like based upon tariffs and and the like certainly impacts on the markets commissioner Dancer I'm sure could give us a a a lecture and a great lesson on
on what to do in the market case but those things we often think about you know what does it do for your own retirement savings and the like we have three pensions that are defined benefit
pensions our former general employee pension our police pension our fire pension that we're responsible for making up the shortfall when the market doesn't perform well and so we're being very conservative in how we look at the forthcoming budget because of those
things we've had to do more advocacy work uh this year on all these matters than I think we've ever had to do it did recover nicely today though yeah i hope they bought yesterday they did a lot of buying yesterday and
be smart today and with that um again we we will be going to DC i did want to share with you that I have extended an invitation on our DC trip for General Jake Palumbo to join with us as we meet with the FAA um
he has graciously agreed to that he is a member of our airport safety committee um and uh that is an important delegate to have with us as we try and advocate for those safety improvements at the airport uh so we'll we'll provide some
more on the agenda for that going forward uh your next update will be on May 7th and at that point we'll return to the discussion of community safety and uh hear more about what's happening in that arena from our safe neighborhoods folks police fire water
and IT in the area of cyber security with that that concludes our presentation all right thank you all right then we'll have our layers on reports and city attorney city manager deputy city manager and city
clerk then emergency matters not received for the agenda so now we're down to adjoinment unless there's something else we stand to join