City Council - Regular Meeting

call the December 17th city council meeting to order. Commissioner Smith, will you give us the prayer pledge and fact of the day, please sir? Let us pray. Our father God, it's once again that we come before your presence. Thankful for the opportunity to be servants of this city. Thank you father for the blessing bestowed upon us. We ask now Lord to bless this meeting this afternoon that all that we shall say and do be pleasing and accept you in your sight. Bless those that are attendance and those that are visiting by live. We pray in our son Jesus name. 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. Fact of the day. On December 17th, 1903, Orville and Wright made the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled aircraft near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Orville piloted this gasoline powered propeller-driven fireplane which stayed afloat for 12 seconds and covered 120 ft of its inaugural flight. This historic Wright brothers aircraft of 1903 is on permanent display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. Fact of the day. All right. Welcome to the public meeting of the city council of the city of Apka. Please turn off all cell phones or set them to silent. The city council permits and encourages inputs and comments from members of the public on all matters which may come before the council for action. If you wish to address the council, please this a this evening, please make sure you have filled out a card with your contact information and have presented it to the clerk. When called upon, please proceed to the podium and speak clearly into the microphone, stating your name, address

of record, organization, if any, and direct your comments to the city council and not not to individual commissioners, staff, or members of the public. The council and the city staff encourages constructive criticism, however, personal attacks are prohibited. Please observe general rules of decorum and civility. Speakers and members of the audience shall refrain from rude or derogatory remarks, shouting, disruptions, reflections as to integrity, slander, abusive comments, profanity, vulgarities, and statements as to personalities. Any violations of these provisions may result in the issuance of verbal warnings, including warning for trespass. If violations persist, after such warning, violators may be removed from the council chambers. Okay. Uh, I know we've got um Representative Banks and you're you're going to be up right after we Let's see the You got that one problem popped up? Yep. Yep. So, Representative Banks has got a couple things he wants to bring to our attention um that been in the news lately and just want to make sure everybody's aware of that. So, Representative, thank you for coming out tonight. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, councel. And I did put some information for all of you there. Uh Doug Banksson, 585 East Sandpiper Street. Love being a card of a pocket. Um this is has to do with a bill that actually I carried last uh last session and it's HB253. It's the tag flipping bill is what we basically called it. But there became some confusion and it started going viral online that this had to do with the license frame. And so first let me just clarify these are two separate statutes. This does not change the frame statute that we've already held. Uh what this dealt with was uh basically the the primary information, your alpha numeric number and the sticker. People going through the toll booths and there are different things that are sold online. Some literally can push a button and a curtain will come down and cover the plate. Uh different things will olude it from being read. Some that you can read

straight on like a privacy filter on your phone, but you can't read it from the side. And so it was dealing with that and a stronger penalty for those who are doing this while committing a crime. That's all this bill really addressed. What ended up happening was there is another statute completely different that has been settled since 2015 that deals with our license plate frames. And so people were getting frustrated, irritated. I would as well. You know, I have a real nice one. And uh we like a little bling on there. But the bottom line is u the uh the bill that we passed the language here literally says covering obscuring or otherwise interfering with the legibility angular visibility or detectability of the primary features or details including the license plate number or validation sticker on the license plate. So that's really the information that they're focused on. And in fact the second Oh, they've got both of them up there. So, this one, for everybody that can see, the one on the right there really shows clearly. That's the information that uh they need when pulling a car over. They want to be able to know that it is a Florida sticker. But back in 2015, uh literally there was a court case. There have been three cases, Morris, uh, Pena, and Williams that have really cleared this already through where different ones were pulled over, and it partially covered, uh, some of that lettering, and it was basically overruled that, uh, they cannot, they don't have to, uh, they can cover around the perimeter. So, basically, again, the top letters and the sticker, that's the important information when it comes to the tag flipping bill. Um, and you can see that on your second page up there. uh that where it says myf florid.com, that's the one in 2015 that actually the the name Florida, the word Florida was removed from the statute. This is a completely different statute and it was not addressed in this bill. So, we've seen a confusion of the two. It's been confusion for law enforcement as well. So, I really reached out to the heads of the FSA and our our law enforcement and asked them, please put this out across the state. So, our our law enforcement uh you know, they don't want to be stuck in a sticky situation either. So, yes,

you can cheer on your favorite team, your alma mater, your your bling around your plate. Just make sure that you don't cover the important information. And so, I just wanted a chance to make sure and bring clarity to that. And if anybody has any concerns or if you've been pulled over, please contact my office. We'll just help resolve those things for you. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Representative. Thanks for coming out tonight. I know it's a church night, but thank you. Okay, Susan, Virginia Street. Good evening. Have to be careful when I get up these days. Don't want to don't want another incident. Um first I'd like to thank you all for the support you've given um compassion and aka and also uh the unhoused and the needy in the area. Our Thanksgiving fellowship um was an extra special time. We had over 90 plus guests and uh they were very grateful and they have talked about it ever since. Um I uh we are going to have a Christmas fellowship and that will be this Sunday um at Just Like Mama's. And once again um I anticipate

having lots of guests there um for Thanksgiving um U Commissioner Balas. came and it was very wellreceived and it would be great if I could have our mayor come and just peek his head in the window for a few minutes and and I got great support from um Commissioner Smith and also from um Commissioner Neesa and uh I and also I know that um I reach out to u the commissioners for their assistance. So, I will be doing uh I have done that to several of you and uh I will be reaching out to a couple of you for for a couple of things that are delayed. So, again, thank you for your support. We continue to see the numbers uh increase. Also, in the parade, if you saw um um Matthews Hope had their um bus in the parade, and so you got a good preview of what the sleeper bus is going to look like. Uh we still um are going to have conversations about where it's going to be parked. Um and I think the anticipation will be sometime in the summer next year. So again, thank you for your support. The numbers are increasing. Uh the holiday time we start to see more people um in the situation of being needy. um just going into the grocery store. I thought I was going to be needing something [laughter] because the groceries are expensive. So, just consider those that might be less fortunate than yourself. And if there's any way that you could help um the community and our um fellow um citizens, um please do so. I thank you very much. Thank you, Albert McKimmy.

Albert McKim 363 Golden Gem Road. There's number of you here tonight who were all here in February of 2023 when we did the workshops on the pioneering agreement. Commissioner Anderson, you get a free pass tonight. The rest of you in some way or other were all responsible for the inadequacies of that pioneering agreement. We are faced with the date of January the 1st when the developers will have to uh top up the funds for the escro account for the pioneering agreement to $25 million. The last time when they wanted a break to delay that it had to come before city council. Well, I don't see anything before city council just now. who I presume they're still got to have their 25 million in escro by January the 1st. However, the developers are all having a really hard time just now. There's several developers who are currently facing bankruptcy, not the ones on in our area. But let's be honest about this. How much are they being affected by the fact that we haven't yet got the rights away on Kelly Park Road? This was something that we spoke about in February of 2023. It's 2 and a half years later and you still don't have the rightways. I asked a question recently. If we can't provide the rightaways and allow them to have their certificates of occupancy, are we then faced with lawsuits against the city because we failed to allow them to get occupancy because the roads aren't built? So the pioneering agreement was based on the primary concept of interconnectivity between the roads that began at Sadler uh on Round Lake Road and was supposed to connect all the way down to Plymouth Sarrento Road. We don't own the land for that. We have no way of getting that done. And when I drive around there and take videos from the air of it, I don't know when we're going to be able to do that. Now, that's a concern because we

were told that Golden Gem Road wasn't going to be touched under the Pioneering Agreement. It was a separate entity. But in any respect, Golden Gem Road wasn't going to be looked at until after that all the roads that were contained within the Pioneering Agreement had been done. So now guys, we're back to discussing Golden Gem Road with Orange County uh and how much money they're going to be prepared to do, whether we're going to be taking over the whole length of the road. But there's a lot in this pioneering agreement we need to sit down and look at because guys, you don't have a full-time attorney here. You're not law experts in law, no more than I am. It's time we had a full-time attorney that belongs to the city so that you have unlimited access to it. Currently, I would imagine the cost of having a contracted city attorney just now is perhaps going to cost the city a million dollars this year. It's only going to cost a fraction of that cost if we have our own attorney and possibly a parallegal to help do that as well. Deborah Green. Good evening, mayor, commissioners. Um, I'm here to just say a brief word about the Apakka Birding Park. A little update. Um, as you know, [clears throat] it's the 70 acre property to the right of the Lake Aaka Wildlife Drive entrance and the name is appropriate. People are burning out there. They are walking around all hours. And um Orange Ottabon is working on uh three aspects of it. Um construction, renovation of the building for which we're still saving money. We do not have enough money to do it yet. And meanwhile, restoration of the property.

Um and tonight you're going to vote on the or pass through the consent agenda [clears throat] um the removal of the concrete pads which were the basis of the old green houses. Um this district St. John's River Water Management District can use the concrete and so they're spending quite a bit of money to remove it and that can start as early as January. We [clears throat] get that passed tonight and um we're trying to do other things with the restoration. Um, we got uh some grants from garden groups, the Florida Wildflower Foundation and the Bloom and Grove Garden Club at Winter Garden and um have done a landscape right inside the gate starting our a lease part of the property. And so we're trying to continue uh developing it, although we can't yet do the building. And um we have benches out there now. when, as I said, people are already walking around and enjoying it. So, uh, and I heard that the water is finally um, installed, which will be a big milestone, and we'll be able to do much more with the landscaping. Um, so I thank the city very much for the this opportunity that we have to have this property right there at such a popular site and a 70 acre upland site that's good for upland birds and gopher tortoises and all that and we're really trying to make it into a important community amen amenity for Apopka. So thanks. Well tell us a little bit about the birding festival you just had. The Bernie Festival just ended to uh Monday. It was five days um 70 trips throughout uh central Florida, but focusing on the Lake Paka Northshore, the part that you

can't get into except uh by walking or riding your bike, but we have access to it. [clears throat] And one of the best things about it besides the sites is the leaders. Um uh we've been really good at recruiting great leaders that love it, love the places and love teaching and really giving their all and including a lot of younger leaders. The youngest one this year was 15 and um a lot of under 30 leaders which make it fun and there were 330 um attendees and uh they came from 16 states. Thanks for asking. Thanks Deborah. Okay. Sylvester H. Good evening. Good evening, mayor, commissioner. Seem like it's been a while, huh? Sylvester Hall, Rock Springs Ridge. I'm here to speak to we the people in the city of Apakka, in the state of Florida, and in our country. Too many good people standing around watching bad things happen and not opening their mouth at all, looking the other way, pretending that it's not even going on. It's time for us to stand up against hate. It's time for us to stand up against corruption. Time for us to stand up against racism. It's time for us to stand up against greed and it's time for us to stand up against white privilege. I'm a 20-year veteran and when I still see as of last week, we still have minimum 17 veterans committing suicide. When we normalize the abnormal, we

desensitize the truth to the point the truth doesn't matter. When my brothers and sisters are committing suicide, that's abnormal. But we don't normalize it. So it don't matter anymore. You don't hear the news talking about it. You don't hear nobody talking about it. When we normalize procedures, we haven't had the city administrator position post in how long? That's been vacant for how long? Why we haven't posted? Do we not need that job? Do we not need that position? Do we not need somebody qualified in that position? When we normalize the abnormal, we desensitize the truth to the point the truth doesn't matter. When we just prayed, a lot of us are praying. And if we all want love and togetherness when some of us has wicked have wicked hearts. And we know that when we normalize things, when we say the pledge, when we say liberty and justice for all, we know that's not true. But we don't normalize the praise. So until we start electing officials that understand principles matter, integrity matters, honesty matters, accountability matters, responsibility matters, morals matter, ethics matter, character matters, procedures matter, leadership matters, laws matter, justice matters and all God's people matters. When we understand that this country will change and we will have

Thank you. a great country for everybody. Thank you, Leroy Bell. Leroy Bale mod here. A couple of things. Uh I see that we have a popular finest out during this holiday season and they seem to be doing a great job. Uh normally when you change commands uh from one commander to the next commander there's a couple of things happen. Uh we normally have a audit of the office to find out administrative personnel and property wise. And I like to know where we can get that report. the report on how many officers, what how many cases, how many cases was a police brutality, how many was the disposal, how many ongoing investigation and I like to know where do we get that from? Do we get it from the city clerk or do we get it from the police chief? or if we get that report from the police chief, is it still going to be to the fact that it going to be so expensive that we won't be able to get it? Secondly, bring me to the election. I just hope my fellow Aopkins, the citizens look, I call it the Sylvester Hall anthem,

what he just got up here and recited about integrity, honor. We have three seats that's up coming in March. And that middle seat, I'm very hopeful for one of our candidates. We got an empty seat that somebody coming to, but then we got this second seat that we all going to have to hold our nose and take a swallow or one or less of the two evils. I would hope everybody would look way back at the candidates. I would hope that they will look to see who was employed, who left an employment in shame and apply to Sylvester, our anthem before you make your vote. Thank you. All right, come on down. Yeah. [clears throat] Good evening, Dr. Jim Moyer. Sorry for being late. Uh, I'm elected Orange Water Conservation District 2 Supervisor. Quick summary, many of uh a lot of which I've said before, but a summary of the last year. I was elected last November. At the same time, we had five board members. One was in a nursing home and she passed in February of this year. So, we were down to four.

We came out to the community and the community was responsive. Thank God. We now have eight people involved in the Orange and Water Conservation District, five supervisors, two associate supervisors, and a proono attorney. [clears throat] So, I I'm looking forward to next year to assisting in any way I can to the city of Apaka. We're now on Orange TV. We meet the second Friday of every month in the BCC chambers and we changed our time from 3:30 to 3 so we can get even more done. So I I'm very blessed to serve Northwest Orange here and it's an honor to come here and visit all of you. We have a little bit more money than we did a year ago. Thanks to Commissioner Neesa, Commissioner Smith, a co-e commissioner Kennedy, and I'd like to mention a young Jenzier, a new friend named Jasmine Rose. She just got married. She just got a substitute job. hasn't even been on her honeymoon yet, but she felt compelled to give a small amount of money because conservation is that important to her. And thank you all for everything you do for the city of Apaka and Orange County. God bless you all. Thank you. [snorts] Okay. All right. Approval of amendments. Need a motion to approve unless we have changes. I think it's just that one update. I see that um uh we have the printed kind of corrected version here and so as long as that's what we're approving then uh so

move got a motion by commissioner Neesa second by commissioner Vasquez all those in favor I all opposed motion carries unanimously now next up presentation by our friends from Sartoma Eric Lorena good evening My name is Eric Mock. I am here tonight as the president of the folage club of Apakka. And I want to thank the city, the mayor, commissioners, city administrator, the Apakka Police Department, Apakka Fire Department, streets and grounds department, and recreation department for another successful uh Christmas parade here in Apakka. This year was the 49th year that the Sertoma Club of Apopka co-sponsored the parade. The parade's been going on longer than 49 years, but the the last 49 years we've co-sponsored that parade. I've got a couple of things that I just want to read off and then we'll get to the winners and and the award winners. There was this is written here 20 volunteers. I think it was 20 plus volunteers that spent well over a thousand hours over a five to six month period of time in the planning and logistics and then the implementation of of that parade. The parade is not a fundraiser. It is something that the foliage club of Apakka puts together for the citizens of Apakka in our service to mankind process. The parade is self-funded through entry fees and through sponsorships. This year we had wonderful sponsors um that helped us out. There were 101 entries. I don't believe that we've had that many entries before. So we hit hit a top number this

year. There were 21 school entries representing 11 different schools in the Apakka area. There were four high school marching bands and one bagpipe band. There were five churches that had entries in the parade. There were five scout entries, including the Boy Scouts, the Cub Scouts, and the Girl Scouts, and we had several of them helping volunteer as well. I think they helped with the the breakfast. There were 15 nonforprofit and or civic groups represented. There were six dance schools or dance teams and two martial arts studios that were in the uh parade. There were 24 businesses representing here Apakka. 16 dignitaries including our elected officials. Um and we had the Apakka Fire Department and Apakka Police Department do their part at the beginning and throughout the parade and at the ending with with Santa Claus. So, a huge thank you from our club to you all and to the citizens of Apakka. The parade winners this year, best band, Okcoy High School marching band. Anybody? Anybody here from Okay. Best marching and performing a popka dance center. The best float was a Papka Elementary School National Honor Society and safety patrols.

Most creative foliage garden club of Apopka. All right. Most unique performance. Apopka baseball booster club. [applause] And the la the last award is special recognition was the Wakiva High School Air Force Junior ROC. [applause] For those of you that were at the parade, this was the group that carried the flag before the parade started and went to the judges stand and we had the pledge of allegiance. So, thank you all and thank you all winners of of this year's 2025 Apopkco Christmas parade awards. Y It's Congratulations.

All right, we've got 12 consent agenda items. Does anybody from the public or from the dis need to pull any? If not, look for a motion to approve all 12. The only one I wanted to just I forgot to ask a couple questions on the U New Year's Eve event. That's the only one I need to discuss real quick. Cindy, you want to just pull it and just Which one was that? Which number was that? Uh, number five. You want to We'll pull that one in. Okay. So, we look for a motion to approve consent agendas items 1 through 4 and 6 through 12. So, move. Got a motion by Commissioner Smith. Second. Second by second by Commissioner Anderson. All those in in favor? All oppose. Motion carries unanimously. Come on down, Cindy. Uh, consent agenda item number five, authorization for street event, street closure, and open container area for the city's New Year Eve ball drop event on Fifth Street on December 31st, 2025. And I know we discussed these yesterday, so I apologize not asking these these followup questions. They hit me after we had met. It's okay. So, thank you uh for answering these. Just to confirm some of the questions I asked yesterday, it's going to follow the same footprint that the market does as well. Yes. So, the outline of that is going to be the open container area as well. Yes, there'll be signs at both um exits uh chief where the garbage cans will be. It'll let them know that they need to throw out their containers if they're carrying. And yes, that's how we're we're going to do it. And then the only change on the map was Matt's really doesn't have anything to do with the closure of the road, but we're moving the stage over to the middle section. But the whole Fifth Street parking area will be open except for one small piece. So it's going into the parking lot a little bit. Just a little just off of this. The stage is 20 ft out. So we want to have enough room for people to actually sit and listen to the band. So we're going to put it inside just a little bit but not all the way into the parking lot. Okay. Understood. And then the one the

question I didn't ask which I meant to was on my list. Um is this because I didn't see like a budget appropriation for it and I know there is dollars obviously going towards it. What are we allocating for um off duty for this event? The total um Yeah. So, Commissioner, what we're doing this time is we're using roll call, the system that we already have in place to post the off duty. So historically I think it was done like time and a half but in this case we're going to post it so officers will fill it that way at the holiday rate. Okay. And that but that is coming. How many total officers are we going to have there? I believe it's a total of 12. So officers uh with the road closure as well as what we call a QR team to ensure that we have in case an emergency happens. So you'll have some rors, you'll have those officers posted to help people cross the street, egress and ingress before and after the event. So a total of 12. 12 total. And those are all going to be the offduty from roll call. That is correct. Okay. Understood. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. Okay. Anybody from the public wish to speak on this one? If not, we'll close the public hearing. Look for a motion to approve the authorization for the event street closure. So moved. Got a motion by Commissioner Neesa. Second. Second by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor. All opposed. Motion carries nicely. All right. Next up, um Bradley Williams, sponsorship public facilities policy and procedures. Good afternoon or good evening, mayor, commissioners, inter city administrator, uh Bradley Williams. Uh tonight I have uh in front of you a proposed uh policy and procedure for sponsorship of public facilities. Uh this was crafted with the help of the

city attorney's office. Uh the purpose of this administrative policy and procedures is establish a systematic and consistent approach for the sponsorship of the name of selected public facilities in the city of Aapka including uh enterprise fund facilities, public facilities, park object or locations and programs. The distinctive characteristic for this type of naming rights is that the buyer gets a marketing property to promote products and services, promote customer retention, andor increase market share for a defined period of time consisting of a minimum to three to five years and a maximum of 10 years and for a specific amount of money. Um, this really is being brought forward uh as in the past we've had some interest at uh naming rights of the Apaka amphitheater. So, this policy is to help standardize a process uh for that uh possibility. Any questions for Bradley? [clears throat] I I did at the um agenda review when we discussed this. The only thing that I recommended with this was to establish [clears throat] an an advisory committee within having members of our community to be part of this process. So, yeah. And commissioner, so the way um that this uh process is proposed is that uh if there's an interested business that would like to put a naming right application in, they would fill out an application form. We would receive that and then we would go ahead and put that out for an advertisement uh to see if there's any other interested um biders on that naming right. That would go through procurement. Um and if you would if the council would like, we could um place citizens on that procurement review uh to propose a recommended award that would then come to council for approval. Okay, that would be fair. So, one thing we discussed is maybe every every commissioner if this if

[clears throat] somebody makes an application, we go through that process. Each commissioner and the mayor could propose somebody to be on that review if you'd like. Sure. Okay. Any other questions for the only thing I had asked, and I'd asked this yesterday as well, and again, thank you for uh staff's time with this, is there some ambiguous language within the um I guess it's not the application itself, but kind of the description of it, and it goes into what what's the definition of antisocial behavior? Um, and I know that that was a an attorney question obviously. So, uh, thought it was best for tonight. Yeah, I I uh was given a little bit of heads up that this might come my direction. Um, your mic is I think your mic it says it's it's red. I don't know what else to tell you. Um, I'm color blind, but I'm pretty sure it's red. the the the that is a reasonable uh question because you know depending on what events you're looking at in history and I'm not going to go into them because even mentioning will have reactions uh but some people would call some of those events uh antisocial and others would say well they were just exercising constitutional rights. So, I've given up trying to figure it out. And to your point, it your options are to send it back and see if I can come up with a definition that's been upheld, which maybe or maybe not, or just delete that portion about antisocial. And and that was kind of my thought is any kind of the more ambiguous language here just so that we have some certainty that again ambiguity does not is not our friend. So, if we can remove some of that a little bit, I think that would be helpful. Um, but that was my only kind of uh thoughts on this is just the ambiguity would does not lend itself to to the benefit of us. Okay. So, what what what's the what would you like to do? Well, remove the remove that just a section about that says antocial. Correct.

That's easy. All right. Any other questions for Radley, for Cliff? Anybody from the public wish to speak on this one? Okay. If not, we'll look for motion approved the sponsorship of public facility policy and procedures with the one um strike in that the language there. Also, would you include that [clears throat] we would um establish an advisory committee that would sit at the procurement of [clears throat] you? So, so yes. So, adding the suggestion of of um having every member of the council u provide a member for that review of the bid. Right. All right. Got a motion, Commissioner Anderson. Did you want to add anything? No. Okay. For a second. Second by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor? All who was the first one? Who? Oh, okay. I didn't hear the first one. Okay. All right. Thank you. Uh, next up, special election. Thank you. Good evening everybody. So, this is an item in anticipation of our resolution that's also on the agenda tonight for the appointment of alternate canvasing board members. Um, it's pursuant to our code section 30-26. And basically it said it reads in the event that one or one of the city council members is no longer eligible to sit on the canvasing board, the majority of the city council must appoint two citizens to serve as first and second alternate canvasing board members. So the first alternate canvasing board

member would serve as that third member. And um then in the event that he or she couldn't fill their duties, the second alternate would would um step in at that point. So, we are requesting the appointment of Eric Mock to sit as the first alternate to the canvasing board and the appointment of Karen Juel to serve as the second alternate of the count canvasing board so that we can get that um get that seated or get the board put together and send that off to the supervisor of elections. Okay. Any questions for Susan? How is the uh I guess the the residents that were selected, how were they appointed or or chosen? Uh well, there they have to be residents of the city. Um they um generally with regard to how we've done it in the past, we've done a board member. Um the second alternate is a just a resident um that has agreed to do it. You know, if it's going to be um we didn't put this out at all, correct? like this wasn't advertised for people to apply to. No, in the interest of time. I just kind of put it put it together. But yeah. Did you select these members or who who gave you these two names then? Well, the names were we kicked them around and and so basically we we talked about Eric being a board member. So he was a consideration. The other one is, you know, so the mayor selected these two. Okay. put another name forward. That's so completely fine with me. If there's another recommendation then well I think I mean and for for transparency sake it's helpful to have put it out. I think that would have been the recommended thing to do is to put it out for people to apply to if they want to be part of it. Okay. Um that that would be the best

alternative to have done it. But if we delayed at this point uh how much time do we have if if that's the case? When is this due to the supervisor of elections? Uh, I think we still have a little bit of time to um to go back. Can we do it for the next meeting then? 60 days. Yeah. [clears throat and cough] 60 days prior to the election. The election. So, we could do it first meeting in January if you and to confirm it's it's the election, not early voting. Correct. Okay. Because it doesn't they only meet twice. They meet the 10th and the 11th. Yeah. [clears throat] Okay. I think that's the the best route to go is to have people um apply that want to do it and then we can make the decision from there. Okay. So um and we'll note that on the resolution that we're going to bring forward. Also, anybody from the public wish to speak on this one? Yeah. Leroy Bell. Um I agree with uh Commissioner Nester. If anybody remember the last election, it was all kind of confusion with where do you send your your ballot this that and another. And I don't think it's fair for this mayor to pick anything to do with the election with his name is on the ballot. We have confusion last election about missing ballots, people having ballots turned in late. They even had people talking about people taking down ballots even after the election. He shouldn't have anything to do with picking nothing to do with the election. It's unfair to the other candidates. And we know this male track record. [clears throat and snorts]

Sylvester Hall. I echo everything Mr. Bell just said. But here's [clears throat] my here's here's my thing here. We get up here and we present this as it's just normal. we just get up here and say we're going to have two members and they put up there and then the question is asked well how do we go about this and nobody seems to be concerned about it. [clears throat] So when we when we do things like this that's why I say normalizing the abnormal and what m what Mr. Bell point out Mary's on the ballot. So why he's just randomly just picking two people he want to pick and nobody see a problem with that? How you say make it make sense? That's what we talk about integrity. That's where we talk about principles and we just do things like, "Hey, hey, ain't nobody's watching and nobody cares." And that's half of the problem. We don't have enough people watching. I have a follow-up question. Attorney Shepard, what is common practice with other municipalities in regards to this for picking a canvasing board? Yes. Exactly what was happening here. The only difference is you have a strong mayor. Okay. So this is not this is common practice wouldn't no in a in a in a council manager form of government there might be some discussion about the non normal members like there's usually a clerk and usually some non voting non non participating election member of council and then if there's going to be a citizen to participate they might have discussion of that at this level but the other two would have been done probably just based on the fact that you know who's in the

election and who's not and if you're not and we want to council number, they would just pick them and that'd be the way it would go. So, it's very typical. The difference is you're a strong mayor. Okay. So, is it normally advertised to the citizens, but it's not I just want to make sure that we're being, you know, fair to the public, not it's okay. It's not I don't normal is probably the wrong choice because that sounds like I'm making a value judgement. I'm not. It's not routine. Not routine. Okay. Thank you. All right. Well, so here here's the issue. First of all, the alternate typically only have one alternate that would be outside of the normal. But had [clears throat] Commissioner not Neesa not resigned to run for mayor, it would have been Commissioner Nesa, Commissioner Anderson, and Susan. I would have had no. Now, had one of them got sick or one of the three got sick, that's where the alternate would come in. But because we've got three open seats in in the mayor's position, we we'll have at least one from outside. um of this this das that will be a part of that canvasing board and and and as as you can you know I've been on the canvasing board and it it it's not quite what everybody wants it to make it out to be but anyway it's we'll [clears throat] be we'll be fine. We'll bring it back up. We I'll bring some names and we'll uh we'll go from there. So anyway, look for a motion. Let me ask Sure. Uh did you say that one of one of the alternates had to be from the board or no? One has to be from the board. Okay. So one of them has to be from board. Okay. From it's this board, correct? Yes. Oh, I thought you talking about the planning board. No, no, no, no, no. They they would normally this canvasing board would be the two non uh running commissioners plus the clerk. Oh yeah, that part I understood. I'm saying now since You cannot participate. Correct. Does the ultimate have to come from the No, it's we've done it with like last

time [clears throat] Jim Green from the planning commission he was on. So, you know, it was just kind of but no, that's not a requirement. Oh, no. Okay. All right. Anybody wants else? Okay. Not look for a motion to um postpone this until the next meeting on January the 7th. So move. Got a motion by Commissioner Nesa. Second. Second by Commissioner Velasquez. All those in favor? I All oppose. Motion carries. All right. Next up, ordinance number 3144. [clears throat] Ordinance 3144, an ordinance of the city council of the city of Papka, Florida, amending chapter 54, retirement systems, article 2, general employees retirement system by amending section 54-23 contributions to provide for an increase in the member contribution rate. Amending section 54-24 benefit amounts and eligibility to provide for an increase in the retirement benefit multiplier. Amending section 54-32 minimum distribution of benefits to adjust the required minimum distribution age requiring providing for codification providing for severability for conflicts and setting an effective date. Bradley. Yeah. Mayor, uh staff are requesting to pull this uh ordinance uh from tonight's agenda. Following the first reading at the last meeting, it was determined that a technical document called a business impact estimate was needed for this at the first reading. Actually, at time of advertisement for the first reading. Um so staff have since prepared that document and we'll bring back a new

ordinance at the January 7th meeting um to make sure we advertise that business impact estimate properly. Any questions for Bradley? Um the only thing I just want to clarify because um it was kind of there was a rumor going around that I had scheduled a meeting with the uh John Hansen who is the chairman for the general employees and u our uh CEO Bradley. And the only reason why I had scheduled an appointment, a meeting with them after the the uh council vote here was just to get some clarification and I explained that to both John Hansen and and uh our interim CEO uh Radley. Um I did not have any second thoughts. Somebody had put out there that I had second thoughts about my vote and I do not have any second thoughts on that. It was simply to get some clarification. a constituent had um had called and wanted some [clears throat] questions answered and I didn't have the information and what I did in turn was that they provided uh the actual funding valuation report for the fiscal year ending September 30th and I actually mailed it out to the constituents so they can review it and that was the only reason why I scheduled a meeting. So, I just want to clear that up with our general employees that had nothing to do with the vote. Okay. Any other questions for Bradley? Anybody from anybody from public wish to speak on this one? So, we're basically just going to just because we can't we can't even I think we have to we just deny it at second reading here and we're going to bring a new order because we right we can't we can't even you know deny it. We can just let it die, can't we? If it if there's no action taken on it, it's essentially the same thing. Well, it's different. Yeah. Well, politically it's different.

Correct. Legally, no. Correct. So, we can just let that die. If there's no nobody makes a motion to go forward with it, it's dead. It's dead. Okay. All right. We'll move on then to ordinance number 3143. Ordinance number 3143. An ordinance of the city of Apakka, Florida, relating to the land development code, amending part 3, article 4, section 4.2, subsections 4.2.2 and 4.2.3, [clears throat] establishing a process for review of reasonable accommodation requests for certified recovery residences pursuant to the Florida statute section 397.487, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date. Uh, council, this is no changes from this is second reading. There's no changes from the first. If you need me to answer questions, I'll be happy to come to the podium. But usually I hear that when you say there's no changes, that's all I have to say. If I have to say more, happy to. All right. Anybody from the public wish to speak on this one. If not, we'll close the public hearing. Look for a motion to adopt ordinance number 3143. Got a motion by Commissioner Smith. Second. Second by Commissioner Anderson. All those in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries unanimously. Next up, ordinance number 3145. Ordinance 3145, an ordinance of the city of Apopka, Orange County, Florida, relating to fire, EMS, and police impact fees, adopting updated fire, EMS, and police impact fee studies based on current and projected growth, providing intent and purpose, providing for exemptions, credits, and other matters pertinent to impact fees, providing for future updates by resolution, providing for codification, providing for severability, providing for conflicts, and providing for an effective date. Thank you. Um, again, this is the second

reading as well, and there are no changes. Um, but just to give you a little history at on the August 6, 2025 meeting, council approved to proceed with implementation process that included two public workshops that occurred on November 5th, then November 19th. And the first reading was approved by this council on November 19th at the 7:00 meeting. We did go before the planning commission with both of the ordinance and they recommended approval and that was on December 9th and we're here now December 17th, you know, for the second reading. Any questions for Blanch? Anybody from public wish to speak on this one? If not, close the public hearing look for a motion to adopt ordinance number 3145. So move. Got a motion by Commissioner Neesa. Second. Second by Commissioner Velasquez. All those in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries unanimously. Next up, ordinance number 3146. Ordinance number 3146, an ordinance of the city of Aapka, Orange County, Florida, relating to parks and recreation impact fees, adopting an updated parks and recreation impact fee study based on current and projected growth. Providing intent and purpose, providing for exemptions, credits, and other matters pertinent to parks and recreation impact fees. providing for future updates by resolution, providing for codification, providing for severability, providing for conflicts, and providing for an effective date. Thank you, Susan. Same information applies to this ordinance as well. Um, same um events occurred in regards to the implementation process, and there are no changes. Any questions for Blanch? Anybody from the public wish to speak on this one? If not, we'll close the public hearing. Look for a motion to adopt ordinance number 3146. So, move. Got a motion by Commissioner Smith. Second. Second by Commissioner Nesa. All those in favor? I. All opposed? Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you very much. Yep. Next up, ordinance number 3148. Ordinance 3148, an ordinance of the city council of the city of Apopka, Florida, amending chapter 54, retirement systems, article 4, police officers retirement system by amending section 54-134, minimum distribution of benefits to adjust the minimum required distribution age, providing for codification, providing for sevenability, providing for conflicts, and setting an effective Okay, I guess Frank's not coming. There's no changes on this. Okay, no changes. Any any questions for Bradley? Anybody from the public wish to speak on this one? If not, we'll look for a motion to approve ordinance number 3148. Got a motion by Commissioner Velasquez. Second. Second by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries unanimously. Next up, ordinance number 3149. Ordinance number 3149, an ordinance of the city council of the city of Apopka, Florida, amending chapter 54, retirement systems, article 3, firefighters retirement system, by amending section 54-81, minimum distribution of benefits, to adjust the required minimum distribution age, providing for codification, providing for severability, providing for conflicts, and setting an effective date. Any changes, Rattley? No changes. Any any questions for Radley? Anybody from the public wish to speak on this one? Not. We'll close the public hearing. Look for a motion to adopt ordinance number 3149. So move. Got a motion by Commissioner Smith. Second. Second. A second by Commissioner Nesa. All those in favor? I. All oppose? Motion carries unanimously. Next up, ordinance number 3117.

Ordinance number 3117. An ordinance of the city of Apopka, Florida, changing the zoning from county A1 Citrus Rural to PD plan development for certain real property owned by PM SO EO LLC, HMF LLC, Charles P. Stallings, Kim L. Stallings, Ule E Stallings Junior, and Crystal Denise Stallings. located on the northwest corner of Andike or And Road and State Road 453 and State Road 429 comprising of 196.83 acres more or less providing for severability conflicts and an effective date. Good evening. Bobby How, planning manager. Properties located on the northwest corner of Road and State Road 453 and 429. See, it's outlined in black on the screen. The aerial shows the property and the vicinity of the property. If you'll recall, this property was annexed into the city back in the summer uh by a vote of 4 to one. A large-scale future land use amendment was adopted by this council unanimously about a month or so ago. Properties approximately 196.83 acres in size. The PD master plan has remained consistent with the development concept discussed at the time of annexation. The Onage North plan development cons establishes clear and consistent development standards that reinforce the estate style character and vision for this portion of the J city's northern area which is also known as the northern portion of the JPA. The road north or onage north PD has been designed with a clustered development pattern that balances efficient vehicular circulation with extensive open space preservation. project will preserve its open and natural characteristics through a minimum open space set aside of 50% of the gross land area. Everything that you can see on the screen that's in green is the open space uh and the pink is the lots and you can see the streets on there as well. Open space will be

distributed among large tree preservation tracks, recreation areas and landscape buffers. subdivision will be accessed from two primary entrances along on the trobe. Each constructed with a dedicated eastbound left turn and westbound right turn lanes to en enhance safety and traffic flow. Internally, a looped private system with sidewalks on both sides ensures walkability and connectivity between the residential clusters, amenity track, and natural open space. Orange County Public Schools has indicated capacity is not available at the elementary level and middle and high school levels and is deficient by 32.04 4 at elementary, 16.920 at middle, and 23.940 students at high. It's zoned for Zelwood Elementary, Wolf Lake Middle, and Apaka High Schools. Development review committee recommends approval on December 9th. The planning commission unanimously recommendes approval. Recommended motion this evening is accept first reading, hold it over for second reading and adoption. Uh myself and the applicant are available for any questions you might have. Any questions for Bobby? Well, I don't have any questions, but I know for me, I will have the vote no on this because I've been contacted by a lot of the residents right now, it's important that we slow growth down. If we approve this development, then we will be actually adding to the issues and the problems we have right now. I think we need to focus more on infrastructure right now because with the impact that this subdivision will have, I don't think right now our system can actually handle this. So, listen to the residents. We have to find a way to slow growth down. So, I I I will I just can't this my I have a vote. No vote. [clears throat] Thank you. Well, why didn't we why do we annex it in then? Yeah. I have to listen to the residents. I'm here to represent the residents. I mean, you I mean, you have your vote. I have my vote, but the residents does not want us to slow growth down if we approve this without any type of I mean, look at the growth. I don't disagree with you. It's why I voted against annexing it in, but you voted to annex it in. Well, one thing

one thing about leadership is that when you listen to the residents, I'm not perfect. I make mistakes. Listen to my residents and listen to what they want. I'm changing my vote in regards to this. And right now, we need to slow growth down. And that's what leadership will know what growth looks like. Well, with current legislation that's in place, we could have stopped it at the annexation. Commission, you make your vote. Well, it needs to be explained to the residents that annexation can stop development. And that's where we can slow it down. Will you explain your vote? I did when I when we I voted. I was the only one to vote no. Please not check my vote. How much total uh green space is going to be part of this project? It's designated for 50% 50% open space. So 50% of the entire project is going to be green space. Correct. Yeah. It's designed with a cluster style development conservation style subdivision. And then they don't do they have a refined like amenities package yet for this. Not yet. It includes a tot. I'll read exactly what's in the report for the amenities. It is a let's see where we go. A cabana with restrooms, a 2.77 amenity track acre amenity track will be centrally located within the community. It will include a cabana with restrooms, a swimming pool, a covered mailbox kiosk and provide recreational social gathering space for our residents. And also it looks like they have some trail systems that proposed around here that go through the woods and it interconnects through the system. Thank you for that. And then will this be will these be public roads or are these going to be private like a gated community? It's a gated community. Okay. A gated community. So that means they'll be maintaining their own sidewalks, streets, things of that nature. That's my understanding. Yes, sir. Okay. And just to be clear, I'm not saying it's not a great project. I'm just saying right now adding 196 residents right now to all the train infrastructure is not a good idea. Any other questions for for Bobby? Will the want to come forward and then we'll

we'll have Well, go ahead and we'll do public comment. Albert McKime 363 Golden Gem Road. Again, we're back to we trust our staff to make recommendations. We go by the formbbased code. We go by the comprehensive plan. Once we annex something into the city, then I think there's justification to go ahead and move forward with a project like that. First thing is this is a gated community with over 50% green space. The alternative is if it's developed somewhere along another set of lines, if the comprehensive plan was to change or form based code was to change or or something was going to happen, we could end up with more multi-story buildings in there. So based on the fact that we're not going to have to pay anything for the roads, they're going to be maintained by the the development as well or the housing association. This is how we need to look to go forward with projects, not high density projects, lower density gated communities because we spoke tonight about the comprehensive plan earlier on and how because we accepted the roads into our jurisdiction, we're now going to have to maintain them. These developers are are going to offer us a lot. Now, here's the thing. The only negative thing I can say about this is it's nothing to do with a developer. is got to do with the city. If you look at FE road, which is a connection between where you're going to join Kelly Park and Onitch, Fe Road is no better than Golden Gem Road just now. But let's just think that when you go to widen a road by more than 25%, which is what's going to have to happen for FA

Road, impact fees can be used to do that. Here's a developer coming in offering us impact fees are going to help you fix a solution to a problem that you don't have just now. You 66 million is not going to be enough to do what you want currently with your parenting agreement. Give the guys a break. Anybody else? Can you see me? Yeah. There's a there's a way to push. I don't I don't know. Okay, just enough so you can see me. Uh my name is Geraldine Ferris. I represent uh Gallerero Properties LLC. I've been a uh a homeowner, not a homeowner, but a resident. I'm not either one owning this property for some 40 years. And I've watched Apopka change a great deal. Um I see every week the amount of u growth that we have in Florida. We have an huge influx and right now so much of it is going up and people not everyone wants to live in that kind of an environment and uh I very much support this reszoning to either one one or two one. Um, I think there are areas not far from us that already have that zoning designation. And I think this will allow um communities to expand in an area that people will love living and be closer as far as commuting and it would be uh positive for the Apopka area and for residents who don't want to live in vertical. They want to have some space and I think this is really something that would be positive and I support it. Thank you. Thank you

Sylvester real quick. Um uh we getting ready to get into a slippery slope here. If we say no and it's been months where we've been saying yes, yes, yes, yes. Now all of a sudden we say no, no, no, no, no. And you look at what recourse do the developer have. And so as I stated before, we do workshops on everything. Myself, Rod Olsson, everybody been talking about the infrastructure. And I proposed to you guys, why not do a workshop so we can see how these new developing development coming in, how they impact the area, especially when it comes to flooding. Remember that flooding, all these things have impact. So you got a developer who's who's pretty much doing the right thing. Those are the ones we want to, you know, we want to welcome. And I said simply before whatever we need to do to make up, we can't change yesterday, but yesterday has an effect on today and tomorrow. So, we need to look at how do we go forward here so we don't say no to developers who want to come in and change the area, beautify the area, but how we do it smartly so we're not in a traffic nightmare when we're trying to take our kids to school or when we trying to get from A to B. So, it's just simply sit down and look at what we have to put in play for the instruction instructure moving forward infrastructure moving forward. what we need to do if we add this development and put it in there, find a way to work it in there. And please don't let it be 10 years after the development is is is, you know, is completed. That served

nobody. Actually, that's a copout because you won't be here to answer to the residents that you have inconvenienced so much. So, just take a look at a workshop and see how is this going to affect us moving forward when we're adding more development into the community. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay, close. We'll go ahead and have the apple come up. Applicants, good evening. Elisa S with Bowen, 300 South Orange Avenue, Orlando, Florida, 32801. First, I just want to thank you all for your comments and for the public for taking the time. We'd also like to thank staff and the city attorney for working with us on this project. As you all know, we've been working on this project for quite a long time. quite a long time. Um, we held our community meeting back in January of this year. Uh, we had questions about the project, but we had no comments or objections with respect to it. We had submitted. We then went through a very um significant site redesign to come up with what you have before you tonight, which is a a very nice uh different aesthetically pleasing site plan that provides for curvature and lots that don't that aren't backtoback. You've got very large lots. This is a gated community, so it's private roadways, so the city is not paying for those roadways. Um so we've worked with the city consistently on that. Um we agree with staff and their staff report that recommends approval which is the competent substantial evidence before you this evening. We will be working in terms of concurrency for the schools and for the infrastructure to ensure that those are in place. I would like to just mention that the timing of this project is going to be a little bit longer than you would typically see with a project that has a

onetoone development program. So, this is likely going to start in at late latest latest 2027 and starting and rolling into 2028. This is probably a 5-year buildout project into the 2030s. So, it's going to be quite some time. This is intended to be a higherend community. It's a very nice transition. you have the KPI right along the um Anditch North uh or excuse me Anditch road which is the boundary of the KPI and this is allowing this really nice gradual transition into a more rural area and again it's a onetoone development program for this project and I know we had mentioned 50% open space this project right now what you're looking at is over 60% open space and it's not just open space you have over 40% is tree preservation area. There's approximately four miles of trails that run through this project. Um, as you can see, a lot of the intersections are going to hopefully like the intent is for it to have the mature trees. So, it's going to feel like an older community as you drive through this. So again, I would just like to reference we do agree with staff and staff's report and recommending approval um of this this evening and we are going to be working through all of the concurrency processes as are required. So any questions for the applicant applicants? Any questions? Okay. All right. Thank Thank you. Thank you. All right. We'll close the public hearing. Um I uh I like the one to one and I like the the private roads which means it's it's not an infrastructure headache for us. We're we're going to

give them they're going to maintain their own roads and sidewalks and with a lot of green you know 60% green space. I think it's something that I wish we had 50 neighborhoods like this one in Apopka, but um and so I guess we're just uh and let me just be clear. It's not a matter of this not being a great project. I think it's an amazing project, but in order for us to slow growth down, we have to be responsible for proving these projects and making sure that we're staging them out where we don't have a thousand homes going up, you know, at at at one time. So, it's not that I don't think this is a great project. I just think in order for us to make sure that we are growing responsible with growth and that we're giving ourselves time to grow properly that we don't approve a lot of projects at one time. So I want to be clear on that that I think it's an amazing project and I do like the project but I just think right now we have to find a way to slow growth down. Well I just want to say that um I I know we [clears throat] talk about my infrastructure but in order for us to impact these um they have to have significant occupancy first. So therefore, in order for us to fix the problem, we need the funds. And with this being a gated community, I think we're going to benefit even more uh from those impact fees, not having to maintain the roads and the sidewalks that's inside of this subdivision. And and have that amount of green space and natural trails, I think it's going to definitely be an asset. And with the uh one per acre uh makes it even more appealing. Um, at at first I did have some concern about our schools, but listening at the news lately, I don't think that's going to be a a great concern uh right now. Uh, so and this is going to be a project that's going to be over a period of five years or more. And so I'm in favor of the project. Okay. Any other comments? Well, it is

going in, isn't it, that they're building this area kind of compatible with what's already out there, which is pretty much rule. So, they're kind of keeping the same character in that in that area back there. And because I drive we drive up there, so um I mean, I'm in favor of the of the project. Okay. All right. We're looking for somebody to make a motion. So, move. Got a motion by Commissioner Smith. Um second second by Commissioner Velasquez. All those in favor? I. No. All opposed? No. One. So four to one with Commissioner Anderson in opposition. Okay. Number 3147. Ordinance number 3147. An ordinance of the city of Papupka, Florida, changing the zoning from T transitional RSF1A residential single family estate and MEBT mixed use eastshore gateway to PD plan development district for certain real property generally located east of Vic Road, east of Jason Dwelli Parkway, north and south of Ponan Road, south and east of Pitman Road, and east of Ponan and Summit Drive owned by Palucci 11 acres LLC comprising of 618.36 acres more or less providing for severability complex and an effective date. Good evening Bobby H planning manager the applicants requesting continuence to January 7th 2026 agreement with that. Okay, any questions for Bobby? Okay, anybody from the public wish to speak on this one? Sure. Come on down. [clears throat] Good evening, Mayor Nelson and city commissioners. My name is Joshua

McMillan. I live in Bridalwood subdivision on Leicester Road directly adjacent to this proposed development. I staunchly oppose the this development project. I am a volunteer at the Apopka Museum where I have befriended the incredibly knowledgeable Francina Boyin who shares the same sentiments with me tonight. I am an eighth generation Flidian and third generation of Hopkin. I am here representing not only myself and family, but an entire community of multi-generational Flidians who care deeply about preserving our state's land as it has provided us refuge, food, and life for centuries and decades. Reflecting on my grandmother's stories of growing up in Apopka without the luxury of air conditioning and indoor plumbing, often eating freshwater turtles from the lake and growing all of their crops in their garden and raising animals. I can't help but think of how disconnected from the land our city has become. We do not have to destroy animals habitats in order to live here. And our history is a testimony to this. I was raised in the southern portion of Rock Springs Ridge off of Mount Burwick Drive adjacent to this uh proposed land reszoning. My childhood memories of this wilderness area that is planning to be destroyed by this development include driving down Punkham Road on the school bus every day while attending Wolf Lake Elementary, which has been overcrowded with many portables for years. My siblings and I as small children played and dug in the gopher tortoise burrows behind our house whenever they were home. We have also seen many black bears in this area, one of which only a few weeks ago. The land proposed for reasonzoning is rich in wildlife and character. For those who do not know, this area was historically known as Mary Mack. Today I walked down

Vic Road in the area of the project and saw two gopher tortoise and their burrows along the side of Vic Road. And I did take pictures. Having lived in Apaka my whole life, I can say that this piece of land for me and my siblings is the most beautiful piece of land in the city. Thanks to its views of the surrounding hills, lakes, and forests that transport you into a natural oasis far removed from the surrounding city and subdivisions, this sandill upland habitat features some of the most prominent hills and elevation in Apaka, resembling the Lake Whales Ridge of Lake County, also currently under attack from heavy overdevelopment. What I am trying to establish is how this piece of land in particular and specifically is incredibly special and unique to the city of Apapa and its residents. Y'all are driving people like me and many others out of Apopka. I recently spoke with one of my great aunts who relocated to Mississippi, driven out of Apakka due to rising prices and overdevelopment. I asked her about the ecological destruction taking place here and she said if I still lived in Apakka, it would have done killed me by now. Anybody else? Albert 363 Golden Gem Road. Uh I can't really make up much of my mind about this because I don't really find there's enough information on the uh agenda here to to even tell me how many acres you're looking to to redevelop. So I'd appreciate if in future you know the common person like myself who doesn't have access to your agenda reviews you could do something let us know before we come here so we can make an informed contribution.

Anybody else? Okay. All right. Uh we're looking for a motion to delay this to a date certain of January 7th. Was there a reason that they were moving this to January 7th? We the plan development agreement was not complete yet. So there we're almost done with it. There's issue on some legal aspects of it. Okay. Thank you. All right. So got a motion by Commissioner Vasquez. Second by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor. All opposed. Motion carries unanimously. All right. Next up, resolution 2025-46. Resolution 2025-46, a resolution of the city council of the city of Aapka, Florida, calling a spe special election and a runoff as needed for the purpose of electing a city council member for seat four, providing for the qualifying period and election dates, providing city authorizing city clerk to proceed with all election arrangements, and providing for an effective date. Okay. So, this is um this the request here is um to approve the resolution for the purpose of filling the unexpired term of commission seat 4 um and setting a new qualifying period for that um for that seat. um and setting the election date. So, the election date um we're going to do concurrently with the uh March 10th election and um should it become

necessary, the runoff would be Tuesday, April 14th. Um, the qualifying period that we're going to open up for the special election is going to be Monday at noon, Monday, January 5th, 2026, starting at noon and ends on Wednesday, January 7th, 2026 at noon. And um so for this there wouldn't be obviously there wouldn't be um time for any qualifying by petition. So, that would be something that the only other thing that this resolution does have in here is something that we'll have to um do a on the uh canvasing board. We will um just put the alternate board member will be to be determined. Um and um we do have um myself sitting on the board. Commissioner um Nadia Anderson will also be on the board and whoever whatever names that you guys give us to to vet so that we can get that third al or second first alternate the third board member and um I think that pretty much uh is it we do have that so we're announcing the special election so that we can you know run it concurrently also it's it has to be Um it has to be within if it's going to be the unexpired term is over a year we have to call it you know within a certain period and it has to be um I think it's 60 days I think it's 60 days that we have to or it has to be um we have to hold an election within 60 days or as soon thereafter as so the soonest thereafter would be our March 10th

election. So, that's what we're our goal is on this resolution. Um, if anybody has any questions, I'll be happy to answer. Any questions for Susan? Just to confirm, they it's not an extension of the qualifying period. It's just moving the qualifying period just for this specific seat. And it matches similarly to what was done in 2022. Yes. Okay. Same process that we So, it's the same exact process. We're just going to it it's only going to be for seat 4 in January. So, it's only going to be a qualifying period for that. It's not an extension of the qualifying that we have going on right now. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. All right. We'll look for uh anybody from the public wish to speak on this one? Not look for a motion to approve resolution 2025-46. So moved. Second. Motion by Commissioner Nesa, second by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor? I. All oppose? Motion carries unanimously. All right. City council reports. Commissioner Velasquez, why don't you get us started, please? Okay. Um, I have a little list here. First, I want to extend my congratulations to um the Apopto Police Department. There's been quite a few promotions going on there and also um you know, social media. I've been checking up on you guys with the acts of kindness around the city. So, I just wanted to say u uh thank you. you're making the holiday very special for many of the families out there with your acts of kindness. And um let me see go down the list here. Uh we attended I attended the uh Jingle Bell book bash over at the Kitland Nelson Park with Reimagine and there were over 120 families and there was a gift for every child that was at the park and that was uh that was a very hard to do but they did it. and it was very nice. Um, of course we had the employee Christmas party and it was very

well attended. We had a lot of fun there. Uh, we had the Christmas parade and you saw the awards. Uh, the UCF concert was very nice. Um, it was a nice evening. Um, and then we have the breakfast with Santa this Saturday from 8:30 to 10:30 at the Apakka Historical Museum. Um, that's breakfast with Santa. It's a free event. So, that's an invitation just to remind all the families if they want to go with their children and uh have pictures with Santa there. Uh tomorrow there's a swearing in of two new police officers and that's going to be at the Apopka Community Center at 11:30. Uh also on Saturday we have Naomi kids. I'm surprised Nikki didn't come tonight to remind us. Um do you remember the time for that? Um Commissioner Nester, it is this officer swearing in I believe is here in chambers. Oh, is it here in the chambers? Oh, yeah. Oh, I thought it was at the community center. No. All right, then I'm correct. Stand corrected. Thank you for letting me know. Uh Naomi Kids is 11:00 a.m. 11:00 a.m. Okay. I didn't have the time for that. Um today, uh Commissioner Smith and myself, uh being on the board for the Lake of Hopton Natural Gas, we attended their Christmas celebration. It was very nice. I did get to speak to our the CEO Brett. Um I keep asking him if he can come and make a kind of a small presentation the history of what Lake Aopka is. um and and how is it that we came to own two shares and and the reason for that is cuz you know I had told um the CEO that

I had read you know on social media that you know there was a suggestion of us selling our shares but that isn't something that we can do and so it was important to kind of bring CEO bread in so that he can kind of explain how we own how the city of Apaka owns two shares and [clears throat] uh just give a little background ground of Lake Aaka. I think it's important um because we do represent we do have two representatives myself and Commissioner Smith there. So, it would just be nice for the public to understand our involvement in that. Uh other than that, I just want to kind of share my sincere wishes for a merry Christmas, a happy and healthy merry Christmas. We are also celebrating uh Kaneka and that is until the 22nd and that's the celebrating of the tradition of festival of lights and following that on beginning on December 26 we have Kowanza which is um also lift up the light and that is until January 1st 2026. So I want to wish everybody a very happy and uh healthy holiday. So, okay, Commissioner Anderson. So, just kind of echoing everything she said, there's been a lot of events uh that we actually all probably all attended together. I don't want to kind of go over the same events. Um just um in the spirit of the holiday spirit of of happiness and joy and kindness, um is there anything that any family needs in this season and doesn't have anything, please reach out to my office? Um I have a lot of people that are volunteering that have a lot of things to give to different families. you know, a family in need, please, please, please, um, reach out. And, um, happy holidays, everyone. That's all I have. Mr. Nesa, absolutely. Um, just a constant reminder, uh, the office hours, my last one of the year will be tomorrow, uh, city hall 11 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Uh, feel

free to come set up an appointment or, uh, just stop by. And then I'll be pausing it obviously for, uh, uh, next week, which is Christmas Day, and the following week is New Year's Day. So then I will resume office hours. Um, same schedule, same everything, 11:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. here at city hall. January 8th, uh, will be the first one of next year. And I just want to wish everyone a very happy and safe holiday season and a very good, uh, new year as well. Commissioner Smith. All right. Well, I won't repeat all the events that Commissioner has mentioned already. Uh, with the exception of the employees Christmas party, I was not able to attend. uh my granddaughter was graduating uh from the Florida Agriculture Mechanical University in Tallahassee. So I was there at my granddaughter's graduation. Uh so that the reason why I missed the uh employees Christmas celebration. Uh just wanted to wish everybody a merry Christmas. And then I just want to also uh publicly say to uh uh Mr. Durant and his family. I understand that they read the uh post that I placed in uh my comments and he understood it that I was taking credit for the uh addition of firefighters and the new fire station. And that was not my intent. That would be uh unkind uh to the family. I simply mentioned that as a commission that these were some accomplishments that had taken place during the time that we were in office. Uh I'm not that kind of person to take credit for anything I didn't do. I only have one vote as a matter of fact. Uh so Mr. Dan, I want you to know that that was not what the uh post intended uh its intent. Uh so I respect your family and I support all that you do for firefighters. Thank you. Okay. Okay, Bradley. Yeah. Uh, mayor, just want to share that we have begun receiving readings on that

new tower on the Orange County uh, space station. So, uh, that's looking good for our water utility meters. And then just wishing everybody a safe and happy holidays. Okay, Cliff. Yes. And I'm not going to be the Grinch that stole Christmas. I do want to however uh comment on the uh public commentary on the acquisition of the rideway because obviously if you don't know the facts you can't obviously make good decisions and here are the facts. The pioneering agreement was amended so that the total funding that can be provided is extended until June 1, 2026, not January 1, 2026. And just in the last couple of weeks, an additional parcel uh I think is being purchased by Dr. Horton if I'm not mistaken and will be bringing additional money to the table within the time frame required. Um they they were literally tracking me down as I was traversing the state to go to various locations to say how do I pay the money? Um, so that's the situation and on the acquisition of Rideway, uh, we are literally in the midst because it's a mailway of a closing. Blanch, excuse me, Miss Sherman sent money to the firm today by wire transfer for the Green Buyer CE pet cemetery. So that's closing should be closed, finished by the end of this week. And the only one left is the same one I mentioned last time, the dentists. Um, Mr. Galvin and his folks are meeting with the dentists. I think they said next week, maybe it's as early as Friday. I'm not sure. He's scheduling it because it's his folks and staff and their folks. Um, and then hopefully they will give us an offer that we can then respond to. If they do not, that will be the signal in which to bring the lawsuit. And just so everybody understands timing, it would be a quick take, which means as soon as we file the order, file the uh petition, there will be a hearing set on a uh uh order of taking and the property transfer will be made. In the meantime, we will not know

exactly how much it's going to cost because then it' have to be determined by a jury. That is why we hope to get a cash offer that we can respond to in an appropriate fashion before then, but we'll know that after this meeting by Mr. Galvin and his crew and the dentists and their representatives. Thank you, Cliff. All right, mayor's report. Let's see here. Well, um, start out we the only thing that Commissioner Vasquez has pretty thorough in her list of activities. The Reese Across America was a great event as well. I was there. Yeah. Yep. Um, and so we we put I think it was it was 34 boxes and I helped unload them off the truck uh that we put on the the graves at um Edgewood Greenwood. They were also putting them on I think it was today they put them on at um Bay Ridge Bay Ridge. So all the wreaths have been laid on our our veterans grave. So a really nice event, very somber, very but very um very well uh put together. Um, we had a the ribbon cutting last Friday at the Avy Brothers, which um, they really were in a in a in a in a really bad situation. And we we won't go into the details, but I was really really proud that we were able to to put them in a brand new three-bedroom, two- bath house. And one of the things that we didn't even realize is, you know, they they didn't even have, you know, beds and sheets. And so, a lot of a lot of those came in. City Serve came forward with a lot of things that they needed to outfit their house. Um, uh, Antinet was instrumental in putting together. We got a they had a a nasty old chain link fence down the side. Uh, she pushed through our the wrap program. We got them a brand new fence. So, when we did the ribbon cutting last Friday, had a brand new fence, brand new house, brand new some of the furniture inside. So really really um heartfelt um thank you from the Ivy brother uh brothers in

their their new home. So a great event. Um I also uh met was it yesterday I think with uh Senator Trout invited us to a meeting about Lake Apka. It's really well um a lot of great information about Lake Aapka the improvements we're making or they're making St. John's water management with state federal help. Um and so just looking for, you know, as we really continue to make progress on Lake Apopka and how we can highlight the um advancements and improvements on the lake and how that will create, you know, a long stream of revenue coming in to support those those improvements. So, um, really good meeting and we were we I was excited to be, you know, part of that with OKE and Winter Garden, uh, Oakland and what's the other one on the other side of the lake, the north side, west side. Anyway, so it was a good meeting and and got a great information. I'm hoping they'll share the the PowerPoint with us and I can I I'll be happy to share that with the with the council as well. And then last but um well two things then we've got the New Year's Eve events coming up you know here on Fifth Street and then also at Hurricane. So um you can do both do one or the other. Both will be great events and we're we're so excited for what that will bring. And with that um merry Christmas and everybody have a safe and um happy holidays.