City Commission - Regular Meeting

Over to Vice Mayor Avila Vasquez for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Everyone please remove your caps, your caps, and let's do with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Articar, please stand. Arms.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America

honor guard for arms Right. Face. Forward. Mark.

I would like now, call Nick Pizzar to the podium for the invocation.

Worked. Microphone. Yeah. I can hear me. It's all good. Good evening, everybody. It's good to be here tonight. And, especially on National Firefighters, Recognition Day and and the swearing in of a new fire chief, Steven Cousins. What a beautiful time for us to be in the city of Deltona and with all of you here tonight. Have a little bit of a fireman's prayer before I do the actual invocation if you would.

Bow with me. Dear God, please protect our brave firefighters. Grant them the strength when they are weary, wisdom when they make quick decisions, and courage in the face of fear. Guide them through the smoke, keep them safe, and bring them home safely to their families. Amen.

If you join with me the invocation. Heavenly father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for bringing us here tonight. For all the decisions that will be made here tonight, we ask you to set apart our commissioners, our vice mayor, our mayor, our city attorney, our city manager, and all staff. Set them apart, set an anointing on them to give them the insight and understanding they need and the wisdom to use it to do the things that will better fit our community for the city of Deltona and its people. Join with us now, almighty God, as we ask this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

I will turn it back over to the vice mayor after we do the swearing in of the fire chief. And if I can please have the fire chief come up to the first podium up here. If I can please have the color guard go back to the Deputy chief Cousins, if you could please put your hand over the bible. Please repeat after me. I, Steven Cousins

I, Steven Cousins.

Having been duly appointed

Having be having been duly appointed.

As fire chief of the city of Deltona

As fire chief for the city of Deltona.

Do hereby solemnly swear and affirm.

Do by here solemnly swear and affirm.

That I will support, protect, and defend.

That I will support, protect, and defend.

The constitution of The United States.

The constitution of The United States.

And the state of Florida

and the state of Florida.

From all enemies foreign and domestic.

From all enemies foreign and domestic.

That I will faithfully support.

That I will faithfully support.

The provisions of the Deltona City Charter.

The provisions of the Deltona City Charter

An ordinance passed An ordinance passed in accordance therewith Therewith In accordance therewith That I will faithfully discharge

That I will faithfully discharge.

The duties as fire chief

The duties as fire chief.

Of the city of Deltona, Florida

Of the city of Deltona, Florida

And that I am duly qualified

And that I am duly qualified

To hold the office To hold the office. Of which I am about to enter

In which I'm about to enter.

So help me, God. So help me, God. Congratulations, chief Steven Cousins. Thank you. Would our new chief like to say a few words? Please.

I'm not a man of few words. I have lots of words if you ask any of the folks I work with. I like to talk a lot. But I don't like to talk around senator myself. So what I wanna talk about tonight for just a minute or two is the gratitude I have to the people I work with, The faith that the manager, staff has in me to give me this opportunity. It's extremely humbling. It's a huge responsibility, and I don't take it lightly. We have a great foundation. We have great memberships here at the Deltona Fire Department. And my only goal is to help build on that.

Build the people, give them the opportunities, and leave the entire community with honor and trust and integrity. And I just want to say thank you very much to everybody. I appreciate it very much. I'm gonna have my wife and my kids come up and put the pin on. Congratulations.

Thank you very much. Thank you again.

Thank you again, and congratulations to our brand new chief. Just making it official. Congratulations. I can please have the vice mayor, Avila Vasquez, come down here, and we're gonna ask the rest of the commission as well so we can recognize, the veterans that she has requested for this commission meeting.

Thank you, mayor. So today, I have two veterans that we would like to recognize, for their service, and I would like to call up deputy Prado. This is one of our finest, also the fire department in our VSO. We consider them one of Deltona's finest. So deputy deputy Prado enlisted in the Florida Army National Guard in 2022 and proudly served as a combat medic for four years.

In in this capacity, deputy Prado had completed three hurricane activation deployments, delivering critical medical aid and humanitarian support to both soldiers and civilians across the state of Florida during times of severe crisis. Since joining the sheriff's office in October 2019, deputy Prado has consistently demonstrated exceptional dedication, professionalism, and service to the community. As a resident of Deltona, Deputy Prado exemplifies a deep commitment to safeguarding and improving the very community in which he lives. His unwavering integrity, strong work, ethics, and continued service both in the military and as a deputy sheriff reflects greatly credit upon them and embody the highest ideals of the sheriff's office. I don't know why my voice is leaving me, but deputy Evan Prado, combat medic Florida Army National Guard, in recognition of dedicated service, sacrifice, and commitment, deep gratitude extended for your contributions in defending and protecting our nation.

We thank you for your service. Yeah. Oh, he he wants you to go thank him. The next veteran that I would like to call up is Wes Bro. Did I pronounce that right?

It close. It was close. How close?

Close enough.

Okay. Born and raised in Deltona, Florida, deputy Bruff. Bruff answered the call to serve by enlisting in The United States Army in 2013. Over the course of six and a half years, he distinguished himself through hard work, discipline, and leadership, ultimately attain attaining the rank of corporal. During his time in the army, deputy Brock served as an airborne cavalry scout, an elite role requiring both physical and mental toughness, as well as a commitment to operating in some of the most demanding environments.

His service took him across the globe with deployments to Iraq, Israel, Latvia, Lithonia, Estonia, Poland, and Czech Czech Republic, where he played a vital role in supporting mission readiness and international operations. Following his military service, deputy Brault continued his commitment to serving others by joining the Volusia Sheriff's Office in 2020. Since that time, he has carried forward the same values of integrity, dedication, and professionalism that define his military career. Deputy Broadjourney reflects a deep and enduring commitment to service, both to his country and to his community. Today, we proudly recognize and thank him for his sacrifice, his service, and his continued dedication to protecting others.

Certificate of recognition presented to deputy Roth, corporal US army, in recognition of dedicated service, sacrifice, and commitment. Deep gratitude is extended for your contributions in defending and protecting our nation. We thank you for your service.

Alright. This time we're going to start moving to item four, additions and deletions on the city agenda. There is a, a deletion, which is ordinance and public hearings. Section b has been pulled at the request of the developer. Vice mayor, did you have another addition or deletion?

Yes. As soon as I find my notes, here it is. I'm sorry. What did you pull?

Ordinances and, public hearings. Item b was pulled by the developer. I believe the whole commission received an email. That's section eight, b as in boy. That's the Hickory Lake project. That is correct. The Hickory Lake Project. Correct. Okay.

I would like to add a presentation that is requested by Florida HealthSource whenever you can fit them into a commission meeting. And I also would like to request a proclamation for two of the local communities that so gratefully gave a donation of food and breakfast and lunch to the Veterans Stand Down event. One of them gave food for 300 people. The other one was for 200 people. And I can provide that to the administrator.

One is Unidos. The other one is El Cocci Bakery. And I also like to ask for a proclamation for Deltona Pride, May 23. And I would like to get a consensus on all that. It's an addition.

But it's not an addition to this commission meet to this meeting.

Correct. It's a future.

She's requesting, for that's just asking him. That's why you don't need consensus for that.

I would like one.

Okay.

Can I add can I add two of them? I've got a request for a presentation.

Please click on your mic.

I'd like to request a presentation for the from the YMCA on their programs and and support to the community as well.

City manager, how do you wanna do? You wanna do it on each individual request?

No. If there's a consensus by majority, I think we just move forward on the one one vote.

Okay. Thank you.

I will send my information to the administrators tomorrow. Got it.

K. Is there a majority consensus? Yes.

Yes. Okay.

We have a majority consensus. Alright. We're gonna go ahead and move to presentations, awards, and reports. We're gonna start with section five a as in alpha, economic development update. That would be mister John Cox.

Good evening, mister mayor, madam vice mayor, members of the commission. Thank you for the opportunity to stand before you tonight as your economic developer, especially on this first night of National Small Business Week. I know you all know that the backbone of any community is small business, and we are grateful for the small businesses in Deltona. I just want to bring you up to speed very quickly on four items. One is with respect to our retail strategies project that we began October 1.

So we're a little more than six months into it. It is on schedule and on target. This is a group that we've hired to represent us nationally with respect to retail recruitment for the city of Deltona. In addition to being in contact with developers, they attend ICSC and other trade organizations across the country, making the name of Deltona known better than it was known previously. So we appreciate their work, and you'll be hearing a full report from them later on in this fiscal year.

The second report has to do with Amazon. You know about five years ago, our first Amazon facility came here. It was a million square feet. You may also know that they constructed a second million square feet, and it actually just opened this January. Good news about Amazon is that those two facilities together employ about 1,500 people.

And another piece of good news about Amazon is about 50% of those employees are from the city of Deltona. The last time I reported to our city manager about the percentages of people who work there and who live in Deltona, it was about 39. So we have seen growth there. I would also like to make you aware that on June 4, Amazon has invited us to their new facility that just opened, the one I mentioned a couple of minutes ago. So I'll let you know what time that will be, but they would like to greet our elected officials and take you on a tour of their facility if you are interested in attending.

The third thing I'd like to mention is, last year along September or October, you approved a CRA grant program. And we're very glad that you did that. It gives us another tool to help small businesses that are in the CRA. And so we began talking to businesses, and we've talked to more than two dozen. Out of that, four or five indicated an interest.

And out of those, one completed the application, actually did their project, completed the project. I've inspected it. And we will be writing them a check for $6,900, which was half of the project. And when we find out when that is, I would like to invite you all to be there that day to make that presentation. And because it's in the madam vice madam vice mayor's District, I hope that you could be there that day.

We'll try to work it out. It would be a wonderful thing for you to be able to be involved in that. And the last thing I would mention is with respect to Team Volusia, you know, they're they are our economic development partners, and they represent us across the country and around the world. Two projects that have been sourced for Deltona just in the last year, both came from conferences that we attended. One was an ICSC conference in Orlando.

And there, we had the opportunity to meet project CORA, and that was probably in August. In October, November, they signed a letter of intent with a facility here in Deltona. And they are working through the planning and zoning permitting process now. This will be a physical therapy medical facility, probably eight to 10 employees. So that's a win for the city of Deltona. Came from Team Volusia. We appreciate it very much. And the second is that we have a foreign direct investment project. That is it's not in The United States. It's somewhere else in the world.

It's related to the space industry, and this lead came from the Spacecom Convention a year ago in January. We renewed the connection this last January. And we've invite we've involved other partners in Volusia County to work with this company. They make medications that astronauts would take over long stays in space, and they are looking for a place in The States to manufacture those medications. Of course, we're hoping that it's going to be here.

So those are the four things that I would mention to you tonight. As always, if you have any questions or would like to talk about economic development, please feel free to give me a call. And I thank you for your support.

Miss vice mayor?

Yes. Thank you, John, for that, nice, speech, presentation of, CRA. You said that, only one person qualified or one person applied?

No. Four or five. It could have been as low as four, maybe as many as five, actually said they were interested, received the application, and I worked with them on the process to get them all the way through. At some point in the process, they withdrew their application except for the one who has been all the way through and whose check will be awarding in another week or so.

Okay. Do we know any reason why they withdrew or did they just not say anything?

So there are a number of reasons why there was one project that had significant issues to the property and the building that had to be addressed as part of the grant process, and they're not at the point where they could do that. And the others would be similar, but varying. I know specifically the one that I just mentioned, that was the reason.

Okay. The CRA grant, does that cover parking, paving parking lots inside the plazas?

Yes.

Because I by recommendation and suggestion, I took a tour of one of our plazas on District 3. There's not much damage because I think that they paved that around three years ago, But there's a lot of traffic in and out of there. So it's a little could use a little TLC. But I do know of one that really needs help. And if I can reach out or if you can reach out to it or we can talk about it later on

That'd be great. I'll be happy to.

Yes. Thank you. Appreciate it.

You're welcome.

Commissioner Nabek.

Thank you, mayor. Mister Cox, can you speak a little bit to some of the the tools that you've been provided in your economic toolbox to try and entice businesses to come into the city and talk a little bit about historically how that came about and some of the monies we've spent in the return on that?

Well, excuse me. The city has, over time, had some different types of incentive policies. Probably the one that you're most familiar with is the Amazon project from five years ago. A property that was paying a few thousand dollars a year in taxes, now paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes and has hundreds of jobs plus the capital investment. It had a five year payback.

It also had a $3,000,000 cap. And once the cap was raised, there'd be no more tax financing or paying paying back. So they've been paying full tax for more than a year. It was a win for the city of Deltona. If nothing else, the capital investment and putting our people to work.

There are two funds that the city established a number of years ago for capital improvements. And is my good friend John here? He could tell me what the second fund was for. But the city established those $21,000,000 funds, and they have been used at least one time a number of years ago on a on what we would call a QRS or a retail establishment. I think it was Dunkin' Donuts on Holland.

As they commenced on their property, they discovered there were some significant utility issues that they didn't wanna bear the price alone. So from that fund, we, the city, actually wrote a check for, say, 26, maybe $28,000. They went fifty-fifty with Dunkin' Donuts to make that repair or that improvement possible. So there are a couple of examples of the tools that we have used.

So several years ago when I was on the commission the last time, we were struggling as a city to be able to attract economic development, business creation within the city. And so at the time, the city manager directed then Jerry Mayes to come up with a program or a series of programs to assist economic development and be competitive out there when we're vying for an Amazon or a Dunkin' Donuts, whatever it may be. So that process, those economic incentives programs were brought to the commission. They were vetted at a commission meeting, and they were voted on. And public had ample time to to comment on those and and that.

And there's there's guardrails. There's things in place. Mister Cox doesn't just go to a business and write a check to them. There's certain requirements. There's ongoing monitoring that has to be done in some cases where they get some money back if they create a certain amount of jobs within a certain period of time.

And all of this was done in an effort to try and be competitive and attract business. And we've been fairly successful, I think, in attracting some of these bigger, cleaner industries to help offset the tax base, trying to get more commercial tax base to lessen some of the burden on our taxpayers. It becomes difficult for Team Volusia and for staff to be able to use these tools when misinformation is placed out there, as which was recently done. Commissioner Howington recently disseminated some misinformation regarding economic projects within the city. It was misleading and it undermines the public trust.

These freelance actions result in inadequate representation at Team Volusia by misrepresenting the city's intentions, goals, and views, and are disruptive to the economic development process. Therefore, mister mayor, I make a motion that we remove commissioner Howington as the representative to team Volusia.

Second. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Alright. We have a motion and a second. Do we, can we go for a a vote, please?

We knew we don't need to vote. I'm out. I'm good. You can have it.

Hold on. We let's keep order up here. She's she's resigning, so we don't need a vote. Is that correct, miss madam attorney? If she is officially resigning, do we need a vote?

There is a motion in the second on the floor. So you would have to retract your motion. But she is resigning, so it would render your motion moot.

Go ahead,

could you Call for the vote if you would like, because there is a motion

I'd just like to say that when I took that role, nobody up here wanted it. I took it because I was the only person who even offered. Yeah. Commissioner Harry, you were the one that actually nominated me. You did. So thank you. I didn't want it to start with. Nobody up here wanted it. So I'm appreciative. Thank you.

Would you two like to withdraw your motion or do you do you want to continue with your motion?

You would have to withdraw your second first.

Alright let's go. We're not gonna play these games. Go ahead for a vote. Go ahead for a vote. Motion passes seven to zero. Is there anything else commissioner Novick? No, sir. Alright. Is there any other questions for mister Cox? No. Alright. We're gonna go ahead and move to, presentations awarding reports to section five b. Vice mayor, were you? Gray. And Gray, if they can please come forward.

Mister McKinney, please press. There you go.

Mayor, commission, good evening. This evening, we have Purvis Gray, the audit partner, Tim Westgate, and supervising manager, Lori Walker, that are going to discuss this evening's fiscal year twenty four-twenty five audit. I first just want to thank them and staff for everything that they've been doing these past six months.

Thank you, John. Try not to crash into anything here. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to present. Just reintroduce real quick. My name is Tim Westgate, audit partner with Purvis Gray. Laurie Walker is the supervisor on the engagement. This is the final stage of the audit process for the 09/30/2025. The audit reports were dated 04/30, April 30, so we are right hot off the press. And the copies are just have, I understand, have just been distributed to you.

State just some reminders of the financial audit. This is the printed copy when you so choose to print the whole copy out. The statements, the notes, management discussion and analysis, statistical section, other sections like that are the responsibility of management, are prepared by management. Our responsibility is to conduct an audit and to issue an opinion on that audit. We are pleased to say, jumping sort of to the finish line, we issued a clean opinion, an unmodified opinion.

That is the highest level of assurance that you can have on a financial audit. The financial audit is the reporting requirements for your external reporting as reporting under generally accepted accounting policies that are issued by the GASB, that is the Government Accounting Standards Board. The requirements for your audit that you're meeting do fall under Florida statutes that require the audit, rules of the Florida Auditor General, as well as your granting agencies, your federal granting agencies, state granting agencies that require a single audit that's part of this package as well. Your lenders secondary bond market yellow book requirements, which are the government auditing standards issued by the OMB, Office of Management and Budget of the US, as well as a certain statute two eighteen four fifteen that is an investment compliance. The investment of public funds is it met in accordance with the statutes as well as Deltona policies.

So all in all, you can see there are a lot of audit requirements that this meets. Pleased again to report the finish line is a clean opinion in all of that. So there are no non compliance issues related to any of those specific audit pieces. The audit is also done and your reporting package is assembled for submission to the FGFOA. That's a Florida I'm sorry.

The GFOA. That's the Government Finance Officers Association. It's an international program that you submit to for the certificate of achievement and excellence in financial reporting. Under that requirement, participation in the program, which is voluntary to do as opposed to that first batch you're required. This is a voluntary participation that you do showing that Deltona goes above and beyond the requirements of GAAP, generally accepted accounting principles, for the spirit of transparency and additional disclosure.

The package is submitted to the GFOA who reviews it. They subsequently distribute it out to academics, other parties, you know, other CPA firms who weren't part of your audit, public officials throughout the nation, nobody from Florida. If if you're in Florida, you don't review Florida. So the the 09/30/2024 received that award. We anticipate that this reporting package will as well, that you've met all of those voluntary requirements.

So commend the participation in that program and choosing to do that. As part of our audit, we do look at internal control related to financial reporting as it would have an impact on our audit. We look at compliance with matters that noncompliance would be material to the financial statements. Pleased to report there are no material weaknesses reported in the package. So they're clean reports in that regard.

That doesn't mean we don't come without recommendations through the audit process. And one of the letters that you received from us, there is a recommendation that we had related to the financial close and reporting process. As an example and in our audit engagement plan, we plan to issue by March 31 of each year. That's one of the program requirements. You did get an extension for participation.

However, the audit process didn't start until mid March and wasn't issued until the end of April. So we have recommendations to streamline that process. We do recognize that you're about five weeks or more earlier than where you were in last year's close off so improvements are being made. We also want to recognize the significant turnover in your finance department which requires a lot of learning curve in there. You also did some geography changes in the adoption of several departments within the city, fleet management, information technology, and building the building department were all moved out into separate funds And then solid waste and storm water were governmental special revenue funds.

They became business type funds. So there was a lot of changing and shuffling and how you present the items in line with the budget that's adopted. So those were decisions made early in the year, just required a lot of homework for your team to accomplish that and report under the new standard. So we anticipate improvement in the new year. Related to that, we also had a recommendation to revisit the capital asset reporting model, which appears to us to be overly complex.

It did take significant time for your team to final close out, reconcile all the items, identify all the transfers, disposals, additions, and we think the process could be reviewed, probably opportunities for further improvement there that we think would also assist in your timeline, in closeout of each year. Common area for lots of governments, obviously you have extensive assets throughout the city. So that's just the recommendation from us as well. So with that, that's sort of the highlight. The key recommendation that came from it, I do invite any questions that you have related to the audit.

Well, I don't see anybody up yet. But quick question. The funds that were removed from Wastepro and Stormwater from government to business style, means they're more of an enterprise fund now, more restricted to that specifically? Yes.

Yep. Same thing proprietary fund, inter fund business type mean the same thing just different terms for the same. So they switch from the governmental reporting model to that business type enterprise fund with the view that the revenues collected over a period of time will cover the cost of those funds.

So it's more restricted. So if we're doing storm water, it's specifically for the storm. Right. Got it. Understand. Commissioner Santiago. Thank you.

Thank you, mayor. Yes. Quick question. Number one, thank you very much for giving us that update. And I want to thank the finance director and the finance team for an amazing job with having no material weaknesses. And with a new finance team, a new department, all that's just great news to hear. So first of all, I want to thank you. The other question I had was there was another you had mentioned something about the related party disclosure. Can you kind of give us an update on that and overall? Because I think that was something that you had a concern with.

Questions that we ask through the audit process it is a routine question that is always asked about through the process is whenever there are any key positions within a government people would have an opportunity for influence not saying they are doing anything wrong but just the opportunity for influence So for example if a commissioner owned a construction company and the commission elected to have that construction company do major projects within the city there's a related party transaction that's occurring in there. So as part of our audit process we inquire what related parties exist, what opportunities are there. So the city did elect to add a new disclosure related to related party just as an awareness where you have a commissioner who has a key position with another local government.

Thank you for the update. I know we also spoke and I did speak to the attorney as well. I know that there could be a conflict with a commissioner when we submit our audit to the clerk's office. And where I'm going with this is there is a conflict that possibly may be a conflict. And I know when my first meeting with when I first started my first meeting, I know that there were issues, a conflict that came up by another commissioner, Commissioner Caldwell.

I know you had an issue and wanted the ethics and wanted me to report an opinion done about my marriage with the Volusia County Councilman. So this is kind of, in my opinion, when I feel like there's a conflict with our financial disclosure, I think we need to have an opinion. And I would like to have our attorney take a look into that and make sure that there's no conflict of interest with having somebody look over and approve any auditing or financial that's sitting in this dais right now. If you don't mind, I mean, don't think it's a big deal. I think we want transparency, clarity.

I think we have a responsibility. And I'm just asking if we approve our city attorney to move forward with just having an opinion from either the state agency or ethics.

We would need a vote on that, correct? Because we had a vote for her as well.

A vote or a consensus, but we would need that to be able to request an official opinion.

Would you like to do a vote or a consensus request?

I can make I can do a motion. So I'd like to make a motion to have the city attorney get an opinion either from the ethics commission or our state attorney in regards to if it is a conflict of Commissioner Dory Howington just working on our financials.

Okay. Is there a second? Vice mayor, you turned on your mic. Yeah, I just I have a question after Okay. Commissioner Novick.

I'll second it for discussion.

There's a second by commissioner Novick. Alright. Commissioner Howington, you had your mic on first, and then I'll go to you, miss madam vice mayor. Did you wanna turn on your microphone? There you go.

So who are you asserting that we're submitting the financials to? Because you said you submerged it to the clerk. So how would that have anything to do with any sort of a conflict? Do

do we want, where's mister McKinney?

I don't remember being in construction, so I'm not sure how I have any dealings with the city of Deltona.

Hold on. There you go.

Good evening. From the conversation with all the commissioners this afternoon that met with the auditors and I, I said that there were two items that got brought up during this audit engagement. Item number one, we had to do some confirmation of invoices with the clerk's office that was between my staff and initially Ms. Howington's staff. And then in the responses, we both got brought into it.

So that was the related party on that instance. As this is a GASB 62 issue, I then brought that up during field work with, miss Walker here. And in bringing that to her, attention, one of the other individuals that was on the engagement during field work said that, well, we just recently conducted Purvis Grade, recently conducted a review of the state child support item. Well, then that brought up item number two because we do have withholding of child support from employees' checks that get submitted, through the clerk's office, throughout the state process, for payment to the other parent. So those were the two related party issues.

There's nothing material. I could read the entire statement if you would like, mayor. There's nothing material. It's just purely a disclosure of related, parties. As a result of GASB 62, it does require the city to have policies and pre procedures that if something material does occur, then what is my responsibility to the city manager, the the city attorney, and to con the commission for disclosure?

Nothing more, nothing said. If we were a, constitutional comptroller office, there'd be a whole other litany of items. But the clerk here in Volusia County is not a comptroller. I know that. But as reiteration, that is handled by the county government done specifically.

For clarity, can you just read that statement and then we'll let commissioner Howington finish off and then we have commissioner Nabic, then vice mayor of Villa Vasquez.

Yes, sir. I remember the page number. It's note f sir on page 92 of this year's ACFR annual comprehensive financial report. It's it's labeled related party disclosure. A member of the city commission also serves in a key position with another governmental entity with which the city may conduct business. This relationship may give rise to transactions between the city and the other governmental entity in the normal course of operations. During the fiscal year, no material transactions requiring disclosure occurred between the city and this governmental entity.

Commissioner Howrington, would you like to ask anything else?

No. Thank you for giving that explanation.

Yes, ma'am. Alright. Commissioner Novick and then vice mayor.

I was just lit up from the second. I didn't have anything. I was just lit up from the second.

Understood. Vice mayor of Ilovoskovos. Thank you, may mayor.

I have a question. With this coming up with this, issue that just came up with conflict of interest, does that mean that our applications, candidates' application, have to be reviewed for commissioners and mayors to find out that their background or their job doesn't conflict with the city's regulations, that their job doesn't have a problem with the city because most likely everyone up here works or does something that the city is involved with or we have to make decisions and vote up here. Does that mean that these applications are we going to vet, review these applications for commissioners as well to make sure that there's no conflict? Then running for the position and then they come up here? I'm just wondering because that's what it sounds like.

No, that is not the logical next step. There may be conflicts that arise that are situational. The most salient example, I think, is the one the auditors gave, which might be Commissioner Nobbek is a sitting commissioner, and his wife has a construction company, and they put in a bid for a city construction project, we would either he would request a conflict analysis. We would perform that analysis, make recommendation, or recommend that it be sent to the Florida Commission on Ethics for an opinion. So there may be situations that arise that require conflict analysis.

And it can be something as simple as someone's a member of a nonprofit board, and then that nonprofit is, you know, requesting a grant or donation. So does the commissioner have to recuse themself? But it does not mean that the applications for commission would be subjected to that.

Thank you. I was just curious about that. Thank you.

Commissioner Caldwell.

So, if we're going to go down this avenue, would would that mean that anything that we share, any other city that we share, let's say purchasing power with that one of us commissioners is affiliated with. Would that be a conflict of interest? Or a family member or

So conflict analysis occurs often in the work of city commissioners. And it is largely because we, as a government, do so much business. And we do so many things. We, you know, obviously safety, roads, fire. We purchase things. We buy equipment. We have health insurance. So we have a lot of interactions with different entities and businesses. As a result of that, there may be conflicts that come up. The Florida statute has a very clear definition of conflict, like family member conflict, and they have a definition of all the different relations that are conflict.

So a lot of times I'll get a call and someone will say, my neighbor has a business that's going to bid. Is that a conflict? Well, if your neighbor is just your neighbor and not a relative, that relative conflict does not come into play. If your spouse is an employee of a Fortune 500 company and they're not a decision maker who's going to get a direct benefit from the city's use of the Blue Cross plan, and they just work at Blue Cross selling health insurance, and they're not our agent getting a commission, there may be no conflict. So conflict analyses are very situational specific, and they have to do with each individual and their circumstances.

And there are levels of recommendation that come out of them. But they are specific, and oftentimes if they are complex, such as, I believe Commissioner Santiago referenced the one from her first meeting, which we sent to the Florida Commission on Ethics, and they provided a very detailed, helpful written opinion that extensively analyzed all of the potential conflicts and ran a number of scenarios. That has been a very helpful guiding document for us. But that would be a circumstance when we would recommend the Florida Commission on Ethics provide an opinion. Because the more complex it is, the more you want to make sure that you get it right.

Because obviously, you know, as good stewards of the public trust, you know, you all take that, your oath seriously, and you do a very good job. And so we do these analysis all the time. Sometimes they're public, sometimes they're not. Often they're not. But if the request is for the Florida Commission on Ethics to provide an opinion, we would ask for either a consensus or a vote. So if it's something as simple as, I'm on the Audubon Society, we're giving them a donation, do I have a conflict? Can I vote? We would just say, No, you cannot vote. You are on the board of the Audubon Society. That's a simple one. The more complex ones we would recommend, the Florida Commission on Ethics give an opinion on. And for that, we would ask for a consensus or a vote.

I understand that part. I mean, I understand the need for a disclaimer. I I just don't understand the avenue that we're heading down here, because there seems to be several conflicts of interest between entities, other cities and stuff like that. Do we go down each one of those and request for an ethics opinion? Maybe I don't understand the question. Well, I I think that there's other people that work for other cities up here on the dais, and we do business with those cities. I'm assuming that we're doing a a purchasing thing with Seminole County. Is that correct? And I don't want to get into specifics, but I mean are we going to go after ethics violations for everything?

So are you talking about piggybacking contracts?

Piggybacking contracts. Yeah.

Right. So piggybacking contracts, I mean, we would have to look at the specific circumstance. But typically, a piggyback contract is just a way for us to have a more easy procurement route.

I understand.

Because it was done properly by another government. And instead of having to go put our staff through the whole rigmarole, we can say, well, this county did this or this city did this. We can utilize their procurement as long as it is a like for like. So for piggyback agreements, that is procurement question. Not as much a conflict analysis, although, again, we could analyze it on a case by case basis. But it is a, I think, that is, I think, in a little bit of a different vein because it is related to purchasing.

Thank you. Commissioner Howington.

Thank you. How about five zero one(three)s if we have people who are operating as officers for 05/00 one(three)s and they're doing business with the city of Deltona? Would that be something that we should probably submit as well?

501c3 analysis are usually a little easier. And we've done some 501c3 analysis and made recommendations. And I believe, to my knowledge, at present there are no existing conflicts with five zero one(three) officers. If you know of one, please bring it to my attention. I'm happy to talk about it and look at it.

Five zero one(three) analyses tend to be the easiest because they're pretty clean and clear in the statute. And typically the interactions that governments have with them are, you know, we're funding them or we're giving them space, some sort of in kind donation. So if you felt like it was a conflict that needed a more detailed analysis, we could seek a consensus to send it to the Florida Commission on Ethics for an opinion. But but again, I'm not aware of any, but please let us know.

Oh, absolutely. And then do we do any business with Seminole County at all? Do we ever buy anything, permits anything with Seminole County?

No,

ma'am. Excuse me. No, ma'am. We do not. We do utilize on frequent basis piggyback contracts that they've done as the city attorney stated, but at no time do I have to discuss with any member on the dais that.

And those piggybacks have actually been recommended by members of this dais during conversations here at the dais. Me

myself, personally, I am not aware of that. I mean, I'm not saying during a vote that it might not come up, but I've never been directed to look at any specific contract when we're going to procure something. Not in my tenure.

It's been part of the conversation here on the dais. That's okay. We can go back and find the videos.

Okay. Before we do a vote, I don't want to keep the auditors here. Is there any other questions pertaining to the audit? And then we'll finish up the motion, the second, and then get any public comments on that before we vote. Any questions for the auditors? Okay, seeing none. Thank you guys for being here. Is there any if there's anybody in the public that wants to make a comment before we vote on looking into a possible conflict of interest, just fill out a card and give it to the city clerk please. None? Alright.

Can we please go ahead and go with the vote? The motion passes six to one. Alright. We're gonna go ahead and move to, Deltona Community Events. Then, miss Parker? Okay. We're gonna go ahead and move to, consent agenda items. Vice mayor.

Alright. Thank you, mayor. Yes. I'd to pull for questions, seven f as in Frank, j as in Jack, and let and number eight, letter a as in apple.

We're not doing eight yet. We're just doing consent agenda. So you wanna do That's not consent agenda? F and j. Correct? No. Number a is eight a is public hearing.

Oh, okay. I'm sorry.

No. You're good.

F and j.

Alright. F and j. Is there any other anything else from the commission? Alright.

Yes.

Go ahead, commissioner Howington.

I'd like to pull c and d. And then also let's see. Might already be pulled. Yes. Okay. That's it. Thank All

right. At this time, we'll go ahead and do public comment for the consent agenda. There's none? Alright. At this time, I'll entertain a motion for commissioner Navi. Go ahead.

I make a motion to approve the consent agenda items a, b as in boy, e as in echo, g as in George, h as in Henry, I i'da, and k king.

There's a motion by commissioner Novick, second by commissioner Harriet. If we can please go for a vote. Motion passes seven to zero. At this time, we're gonna start with letter c which is Commissioner Howington. You pulled it. Vice mayor, I know you pulled things first but I okay. Thank you. Go ahead, commissioner Howington.

So what are the main changes? There wasn't a red line included in this, so I was just wondering what the specific changes were between the the contracts and then, what's been completed to date.

Welcome, miss Wallace.

Good evening. Commissioner Howington, what was changed on this is just an extension of time. We entered into an agreement with Meade and Hunt, mid part of last year, and we just need a little bit more time in which to be compliant with the agreement itself. There is no additional funding, cost to the city. We just need the time to get this, to be compliant with the agreement.

And this is extending out till 2027?

Gotta get my glasses on.

Yes. 03/31/2027.

So has there been a delay? There's been a little bit of

a delay, and it's just a matter of pulling all of the data together so that we can put together our consultant can put together a full comprehensive submittal. We hopefully wouldn't have a lot of RFIs request for information. We tried to do a one and done and get this get this completed. Our plan is to try to expedite this with our consultant. We're we're behind, and we don't wanna be behind. So we they understand that the importance that we get this done as quickly as possible.

So on page six, there's an itemized list of tasks. Which items have been completed thus far?

One second, please.

They have completed, I believe up to number seven. I think we've had two public outreach meetings.

Okay. Thank you.

Alright. This time, I'll entertain a motion.

Commissioner Harriet. I'll make a motion to approve item c.

Second. Commissioner Santiago. Alright. There's a motion by commissioner, Harriet and a second by commissioner Santiago. If we can please do a vote.

Motion passes seven to zero. Commissioner Howington, we're gonna go to consent agenda d, which is a request for approval resolution number 2026Dash34 and task authorization between the city and the the Corandino Group for phase one.

It seems like we've been having an issue with Demandstar not getting responses recently.

I'm not on the purchasing side, but you're absolutely correct. And the two times that we advertised this, once we did them independently, Catalina and Elcam, which we have two separate grants with the division of emergency management, Then we bundled them together, because we didn't get any responses at all. So we rebid them and bundled them together, thinking the economy of scales. They're not too far apart. The timing is we still got no bids. So we went back to the state, and we asked them could we use or consider use any of our continuing service vendors who do traffic engineering. And they said yes. So that was the course we went. We went to all of the firms that we have on call, which is there's four of them. One no longer does work in the Central Florida area.

They strictly work in Tallahassee now. And the Coradina Group was the one that we were able to get them to the amount that our contract with DEM is an amount, fall within that guidelines, and hopefully get this project moving with the design engineering and permitting. Okay. So they

came in essentially with a bid with them?

With a little bit of negotiation. Yes. Okay. There were a few things we thought were a little bit on the high side, and we clarified the project scope for them.

Okay. Thank you.

Commissioner Harriet.

I'd like to make a motion to approve resolution number 2026Dash34.

Okay. We got a motion by commissioner Harriet. Commissioner Santiago.

Second.

Motion by commissioner Harriet, second by commissioner Santiago. Can please vote? Motion passes seven to zero. This time we're gonna go to vice mayor for f consent agenda request for approval resolution number 2026Dash38 for the approval of broker agent for insurance programs.

Thank you, mayor. I'm just wondering, it says that a committee was formed and they're the ones who made the decisions, to submit to a selection of the insurance that was selected. Who was this committee? Was it staff, or was it residents? It was staff. It was staff? Yes, ma'am. So both because it seems like it was two different committees, right? No, was one committee. Okay.

All right. So, this is a new medical insurance that's coming into place, or that doesn't affect the medical insurance? It doesn't affect the medical insurance. It's the broker for the medical. So, it's just the broker part? Everything stays the same coverage? Correct. Because last year's change messed up my dental. So, I'm hoping that it doesn't touch anything else for the other staff members. It doesn't. Okay. That's what confused me if it was like two different committees that were looking at all the plans and selecting from that. But that's good. I make a motion to approve

item f. There's a motion by vice mayor to approve item f. Second by commissioner Harriet. Please vote. Commissioner Herriot was the it was for the second. That's why you were on the board. Got it. Motion passes seven to zero. Vice mayor, we're now looking at item J request for approval resolution number twenty twenty six dash thirty two mid year budget amendment to fiscal year twenty twenty five dash twenty twenty six.

I'm look I have a question. I'm looking at the it says CDBG grant proceeds for the Fire Station 62 relocation. Where are we relocating that fire station to?

Vice mayor, at this time, we have not determined the exact location. But seeing that we are having to spend money, we're reallocating the budget to other areas between CDBG and CRA both. In this case, for CDBG, the, the new manager, when they went back into IDIS, we do not have as much money available to us in the CDG CDBG program, so we had to reduce that allocation from CDBG.

So you're no longer relocating the fire station or you just

We haven't determined the new location, but we don't have there's not enough money in CDBG funding to allocate CDBG funds for.

Okay.

We reduced that funding source.

Where is the new location? Are we allowed to know?

We have not determined that location at this time.

Okay. And and can you remind me again why this is the one on Diamond. Correct?

Yes, ma'am.

Can you remind me again why we're relocating that fire station?

We're currently in the middle of trying to determine the best location based on the call volume of the best strategic place to put a fire station. Diamond, because it's back a little bit, it doesn't serve the best majority of the calls that we respond to. So we're currently looking at with the new fire chief, the deputy city manager, and GIS to determine that best spot. So now that we're looking at that spot, then they're keying in on available land.

So you are looking at a spot?

We are, ma'am. We don't know which spot, but we're looking

Oh, you haven't identified a spot yet?

That is correct.

Okay. I know that you guys were looking at somewhere by Alexander or something like that, and by closer to Doyle?

Yes, ma'am. There's several spots that we've seen at this time though until GIS completes their data log with the fire chief, we can't determine that exact spot.

Okay. Alright. That's all I have for this.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you. Commissioner Harriet.

I'd like to make a motion to approve, resolution number twenty twenty six dash 32 mid year budget amendment. Commissioner Santiago.

Second.

There's a motion by commissioner Harriet, second by commissioner Santiago. Will we please vote? Motion passes. Joyce, are we allowed to abstain?

I feel like I have to after what Commissioner Santiago just put forth.

The only way to abstain would be to declare the conflict and then complete the form at the end of the meeting or this week.

Well, if we're going to ethics, it sounds like there's an accusation of just exactly that. So why wouldn't I abstain?

You okay with that? No,

have to you have to vote yes or no. You can abstain, but you must declare a conflict and state what that conflict is. And then you have to complete the disclosure, the conflict disclosure form.

Pending commissioner Santiago's complaint, that is the potential conflict.

I I think, mayor and commissioners I I don't know if Robin has anything more, but I believe the, concern is is there anything in this midyear review that affects the clerk's office?

Well, it has to do with the budgets. So that's That's the that's the complaint.

Okay. You have to you have to describe what the what the misdirection is, right?

I think as long as you complete the conflict disclosure, you can abstain.

Okay. All right. So the motion passes six to to one abstain. Alright. We're gonna go ahead and we're gonna move to ordinances and public hearings section eight a as in alpha. If I can please have the city attorney read the public hearing.

Thank you so much, mister mayor. This is ordinance number zero six dash two zero two six. An ordinance of the city of Deltona, Florida establishing a new article three, small wireless facilities of chapter 82, communication antennas and towers within the land development code of the city of Deltona's code of ordinances in order to comply with Florida statutes and best practices providing for conflicts, codification, severability, and an effective date. This is first reading.

Alright, this time, I will hear or entertain a motion and a second so we can begin the presentation. Commissioner Harriet. I'd like to make a motion for the sake of discussion for ordinance number zero six dash twenty twenty six and then I'd also have some comments on it.

Okay. We'll come back to you. Commissioner, Novick. Second. There's a motion by commissioner Harriet and a second by commissioner Novick. We're gonna go ahead and listen to presentation and then hear public comment and then we'll go to the rest of the discussion.

Good evening, mayor, commissioners, Jordan Smith, community development services director. The item before you is ordinance number zero six dash twenty twenty six which proposes amendments to chapter 82 of the land development code related to communication antennas, towers, and wireless communication facilities. The request is to amend chapter 82 of the land development code to establish regulations for small wireless facilities consistent with Florida statutes and applicable federal law. What is a small wireless facility? Small wireless facilities are the smaller pole mounted devices commonly used to support cellular and data network coverage.

These are typically installed within public right of ways and are substantially smaller in scale than traditional cell towers. In 2017, the Florida Legislature adopted the Advanced Wireless Infrastructure Deployment Act codified in section three three three seven point four zero seven print seven Florida Statutes. This established statewide framework regulating small wireless facilities within public rights away. In 2019, the legislature expanded those preemptions, further limited limiting local government authority over placement and approval of wireless. So, these are regulations that should have been done by the city in 2019.

So, some typical questions you may be asking yourself as I go through this presentation. Can we deny these facilities only if the application fails to meet objective applicable code standards? Can we control where they go only to the extent allowed under objective placement standards within right of way? Can the city prohibit these in residential areas? No.

State law preempts local governments from prohibiting small wireless facilities and public rights away, including those adjacent to residential areas, provided the application meets code requirements. Can the city require providers to use existing poles first? No. While colocation is encouraged, state law prohibits the city from requiring applicants to demonstrate that colocation is not feasible before installing a new pole. And can the city require spacing separation between facilities?

No. State law preempts local governments from imposing separation distances from small wireless facilities. Is the city required to allow these facilities? Yes, Florida statutes require local governments to allow small wireless facilities within public rights away subject to objective and non discriminatory standards. And can the city require providers to use existing polls first? No, I heard it. I'm sorry. Okay. So, why is this update needed? The proposed ordinance creates section 82 dash one twenty through 82 dash one thirty three and establishes okay.

Okay. So these amendments are necessary to bring the city's land of m code into compliance with current state law. They also provide objective standards that allow the city to continue regulating placement design and safety to the extent permitted by law. The proposed ordinance creates section 82 dash one twenty through 82 dash one thirty three and establishes regulations addressing application procedures and review timelines, placement standards within the right of way, design and consuming requirements, equipment and lighting restrictions, and compliance with building electrical and safety codes. Although state law preempts much of the city's authority, the city retains the ability to regulate objectives, standards related to public safety, ADA and pedestrian accessibility, traffic safety, infrastructure conflicts, and aesthetic and design requirements, including concealment and neutral colors.

The ordinance includes design standards to reduce visual impacts by requiring concealment and shrouding of equipment, neutral colors, corridor consistency, and restrictions on excessive or freestanding equipment. These standards help preserve community aesthetics while complying with state law. And however, law prohibits the city from imposing certain requirements including separation distances, demonstration of service needs, zoning approvals, and proof that colocation is not feasible. As such, the city's authorities limited to those objective standards expressly permitted by law. Based on staff's review, the proposed amendments are consistent with the comprehensive plan and applicable state law.

The planning zoning board considered this item at April on 04/29/2026 and recommended approval seven to zero. The ordinance is scheduled for first reading tonight and second reading scheduled for June 1. That's it, Mayor.

Alright. Is there any public comment? Alright. Commissioner Caldwell, you were up first.

Jordan, let's use five as a number here. So, let's say there's five carriers out there and they all want to put one in the corner of El Cam and Newmark which is my district. So, where there's nothing we could do to stop from having five poles or five mini receivers put in that area. Is there a distance that we can require or? No. So, we we can't stop.

Our hands are tied.

Okay. There's nothing we can do in in our ordinance or codes to. Alright. Does the state mandated?

Yes.

Thank you.

Commissioner Harriet. Thank you, mayor. Well, this is kind of disappointing that from the state. Something that I think it's incumbent upon all of us to bring up with our state delegation because this is worrisome. On a on another direction and another direction and I don't know that this is the right place for it but I would like to I know that there are plenty of cell tower sites and on properties that the city owns.

And I'd like to see us put together a program that would allow beekeepers to keep bees on those sites. So I understand this probably isn't the best place for us since this is talking specifically in public rights of ways but I I would like us to work in that direction and possibly some sort of cost sharing program but something that we can expand be beekeeping across the city. Thank you, Mayor.

Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. It is disappointing. I don't even know why it's brought up. Something like this is brought up to commissioners when we don't have a saying. We can't even deny it. So, it's just a comment on my part. I know you guys are doing your job. But something like this shouldn't even be bothered to be brought up to the commission. If we ask for this, it says, I mean, I watched the PNC board meeting and I heard their comments and everything was no, no, no, no. So, but I appreciate you letting us know what we cannot do. Thank you.

So, Vice Mayor and Commission. So, one of the reasons why staff is bringing this forward is we've gotten, I wouldn't say an influx but we've received a fair amount of applications. We do not have anything in place but now, with this, we'll at least have design standards in place. So we will have regulations in place for future applications that come through. So it's better than having nothing.

Commissioner Harriet. Thank you, Mayor. Sorry, do have another question on this. Say that one of their applications is to put one of these small wireless facilities in a location that we potentially would want to, say, expand the roadway or add a turn lane or something to that effect, do we then have a basis to deny their request? Or would we have the ability to require them to move it when we go to complete that transportation project?

We would have to work with the carrier on that.

Okay. Would there be benefit in being more thorough in areas where we would potentially have transportation improvements so that we can we have some basis to say that this is in our future plans?

I like to get a point of clarification from the city attorney. I think that's a good line of questioning and I'd like to know because if we do have some infrastructure improvements, let's say on Newmark and

Cam and Newmark say a turn lane or something or

even Catalina or Fort Smith and Newmark. Those are great points. City attorney. I mean if you don't have an answer right now obviously you can get back to us.

We'll have to look into this Jordan I don't know if I

think one of the things Commissioner Harriet's leading towards is can we deny these facilities. One thing is if it conflicts with existing utilities or infrastructure in the right away. Okay. I believe that's what you're referring to.

The other answer. Alright, Commissioner Caldwell. Were you done, Commissioner? Commissioner Caldwell?

Yeah, I had the same question as him but you just mentioned at the end my other question. So, if there's infrastructure already underneath, say, fiber optics and things like that, that'll dictate where they can put these?

That would dictate. Go through

a review process with the city?

Yes.

Thank you.

Alright. Seeing that there's no other questions on here. Can we please go ahead for a vote? Not like we can do anything else but. Thank you. Gemma, before we move on to the next item, does that fall under like the homeland security thing where we're not allowed to know where those things are going to get located? Or could the commission get a list of where they're planning to locate them?

No, these are yeah we I mean I don't want to speak for staff but they don't fall under homeland security so I'll defer to

Just technically it's somewhat like infrastructure. That's why I asked. Yeah that's what I was going to get to.

Mayor these come in as a right of way use permit application.

Perfect. That's all I need to know. And then when our hold on. When our commissioner comments come up, then I'll I'll do the request or either of you can make a request. Alright. We're gonna go ahead and move to action items. Nine a's in alpha, consideration of appointment of alternate to the planning and zoning board. Alright. I'm gonna go ahead and because nobody is posting I guess there's only two people, correct? All right. I'm going go ahead and make a motion.

All

right. I move to appoint the following alternate member, Norma Jean Gadea. I hope I said that right if she's in the audience. I did not say that right. Of course. I'm sorry. I know what it feels like to get your your name butchered. To the Planning and Zoning Board for a term to expire on 03/15/2028. Second. There's this.

Retroactively.

There's a second by Commissioner Harriet. All right. Is there any public comment on this? All right. Is there any questions from those on the dais? Is there a comment?

I was just while we

were on this

topic Could you please go to the podium?

Just while we were on the topic of of filling spots, don't we have to do that for team Volusia with

I'll be in next commission meeting. Okay.

Alright.

Can we please go for a vote? The motion passes unanimously. This time we're gonna go ahead to city attorney comments.

No comments at this time. Thank you, mayor.

City manager comments.

Mayor has brought up a little earlier about the Theresa Basin. It actually, I believe, landed on our staff's desk at this point. They're doing their general evaluation right now of what we're looking at, and it'll be publicly out to the commission in a very short time. Thank you.

Thirty days maybe?

Hopefully.

All right. No further comments? City commission comments and requests. We'll start with Commissioner Nabik.

For Jordan and planning development, drone delivery is coming from Walmart, and and many other things probably will follow. I received information a couple of months back about a medical drone program to be able to deliver emergency equipment to more rural areas. I don't think it really would apply in Deltona, but Chief Clotterbox looked at it at EMS and is bringing it up countywide. My question is, I know the drone activity is covered primarily by FAA, but do do you see an opportunity to create, any kind of regulatory ordinance, hours of operation, height restrictions, flying roads rather than over people's houses? Commissioner, those

are all good questions. And we just had a pre op for the Walmart drone delivery, the Walmart on Howland. Our hands are pretty much tied in terms of what we can put in our code. We can restrict we can regulate fences and then the structure that the drones are kept in. But other than that, we cannot regulate anything else.

Okay. Thank you. That's all I've got for tonight, man.

Commissioner Cole.

Yes, one of my comments was on the Theresa Basin, but you've already covered that for us. Thank you very much. I have some questions about the unfinished developments, being the Enrico. Maybe this is something for the attorneys. I was able to visit the site and and obviously, we can't move forward on on condemning them or or having them removed.

Is there anything we can do to prod this project along? We have several projects that have been sitting stale in the city here for a while. I think one is Osprey Estates and the other one down on Doyle. Is there any type of presentation we can get on how we can protect ourselves from these unfinished developments? How we can force them to be done in a timely manner, so to speak? Moving forward, obviously, there's nothing we can do about the ones that are here.

Code enforcement is the right avenue for this. Our code enforcement department is excellent. They do a great job. And we can just continue to encourage them to enforce the code.

It

is tricky to foreclose our liens. We can explore it, and we are underway on two lien foreclosures right now.

But Those are mostly after the fact. I'm looking at something that we could preempt this situation from happening again as far as changing our ordinances or our development codes.

So I'm happy to, we're happy to work with staff and Just point

of clarification, we did ask for that several, I mean it's probably been a while, but we did, and I believe the last time we heard back was that it's going to work in the, be worked in the code. But can we get an update at least on that? Because we, I mean, I know, I even said that if they do something like this, like a second, for them not to be allowed to come back to the city, period. I mean I don't know how much we can restrict because you know we believe in private property rights but to commissioner Caldwell's point, I mean I think all of us up here, regardless if we agree, there's one thing we can all agree on this dais is that we're all sick and fed up with that whole development process. And we want something done.

So to his point, can we get some type of clarification of what preemptions we can put in so this does not happen again? I didn't mean to interrupt you. Oh, that's fine.

Thank you.

I mean, I'm happy to work with staff, but to be, it's hard to do anything outside of code enforcement in that people do have private property rights, and you can't force a private business to take action, which is building a building in a certain time other than what we have in code, right? So we can do code enforcement and enforce our codes if they're in violation of our codes, but

Could we put something in place, for example, for safety reasons? Because that should

come the building is unsafe, you can red tag it and demo it and have the demo be added to the lean and put on the project. But then you have to determine that the building is unsafe. I know it's frustrating, but I mean, frankly, industry does have the right to develop and to take their time, and financing is complicated. We could explore certain I mean we do have infrastructure bonds in place for certain projects. If it's a city project, we have a lot more control.

If we control the dirt, if we own the underlying fee and we do a ground lease, and you know, we have more agency. It's hard though with private property owners. I mean certainly John Cox and economic development, there's some levers there, but frankly none of them are going to be big enough to move the needle in these big scale projects that struggle.

I'm not talking about the changing of a bee putter or something like that, the owner's rights. I'm talking about these are projects that are already approved. They've gone through the process. There's gotta be some kind of mechanism we can put in there that they they're finished in a timely manner because we've all came to an agreement at that point.

I mean, I'm going to give you a good example. Think about very rural parts of communities that are platted and have their development rights in place, and they take thirty years to develop and build those houses, land banking, extending time, waiting for investment, those are all reasonable things.

And it only benefits the developer.

Yeah. I mean, the only way to truly control dirt is if you own the dirt. So if it's like if someone is mad that their neighbor's building a house, they live in a rural community and the lot next door or someone builds a house. Well, you should have bought that lot. The only way you can prevent someone from doing something with land you don't like is controlling that land, owning that land.

I mean, we we can continue to explore, but and certainly, we don't like to give you bad news, and we can continue to try to come up with creative solutions, but the reality is that I mean, we could change we could look into changing zoning, we can look at updating the comp plan, but the reality is that it's challenging with private industry that has private property rights to compel them to do something when we don't have a ton I mean, we have code enforcement. And frankly, this is a problem all across I mean, think about the crash of two thousand and eight. I mean, that's the perfect example, right? Everybody went belly up and there were unfinished projects all over. The problem is that when a company goes under, there's usually no one to look to.

And you can't restrict again, an intelligent developer will just start a new company, right? And they'll come back and they'll develop under a new LLC. So it's hard. It's a hard thing. I mean, I'll say this. You can control the dirt, or you could go out. And I think, again, John Cox and the manager have done a really good job in the world of economic development, as have you all, at focusing on projects you want to attract. And that's a strategy to say, this is a piece of property. We want to see this occur here. And we, as a city, will welcome it.

We will help, you know, we will provide incentives and programs to smooth your path forward. That's a way to sort of hedge against problems. Because when we let's say, for example, we did decide, okay, we want to have a movie theater at this location. And it's privately owned, but we believe that movie theaters are good for families, and we're going to incentivize it, and we'll agree to put in the sidewalks for the movie theater. And because of that, we then have a city investment in the project, right?

We have an economic development investment in the project. So we have a little more control, and we can put in some restrictions and rules related to our investment and the skin that the city has in the game. So that's a way to sort of hedge against development challenges, is to be very involved in recruiting the development you want, incentivizing it, creating a real economic benefit for them, which is like the carrot, right? And if they don't meet the conditions, then you have the stick. So that's a creative way to

When we require a bond on some of these projects, is there any control we have over on collecting on these bonds, so to speak, a time frame?

So typically, they're infrastructure bonds. The only time that we really can have more complicated bonds, performance bonds, are when we like that deal we had that involved Edward Rose, right? We negotiated that complicated tri party deal where we did have a performance bond, but not everyone performed. So we were ready, but they they didn't get to the point to trigger even the purchase, right? So they couldn't even get to that point.

There's just a limit to what and I don't like to say there's limits to what we can do, but there are limits to what we can do. But again, I mean, there's creative solutions. And again, I think the staff's done a really good job with economic development. And that is a good creative solution to, if you want to see something in a certain place, or you don't want to see something in a certain place. And as a government, certainly you have the right to land bank and then say, you know, we're going to buy this anything and hold it for storm water or hold it for who knows? Hold it for public purpose down the road, a park, a passive park, whatever it is you want. So you have the right to do that. I'll kick this back to the manager.

Is Commissioner what you're thinking something like in the vein of if you're going to build this and we're changing zoning, you have three years to get started? Correct. If in five years you don't finish something else? Correct.

But I

don't know. That's one thing we could look into, but I guess that's

kinda weird knowing. All the approvals have come through. We we already know you're gonna do something with the land.

Yeah. We're given permission.

We're not moving to give you this. How Yeah. What is your commitment to us?

Yes. I mean, if that's something we could look at as staff and come back, maybe other cities have things like that in place.

Yeah. We definitely can look at that. And development agreements, when we have them in place, give us the right to do that. So core if the so So we need

to change our development agreement?

It's only if they need something from us. If they already if they buy a piece of land and it's fully entitled and they don't need anything from us, they don't need a change in zoning, they don't need a variance, they don't need anything, They don't have to do a development agreement with us. They only have to engage with us if they want to do something different than what they are already allowed to do. And so that's why there's no perfect solution. The key

is in the change of zonings.

If they Right. Want to do And like someone could get that up with us and say, I'm just going to take what I have as my underlying zoning. I'm going to withdraw. I don't want to jump through your hoops. They often want to, right, because it's financially advantageous for them for more density, right? But that's not every project. And some projects are just they can develop as a matter of right. And they can and do often get in sticky situations. But the manager's right. When there is when they have to engage with us, we certainly can put in and time we did. When we did that deal, I mean, were time limits.

That was one of many. Mean, there's like I said, there's at least three projects that I know of out there that are sitting land cleared infrastructure in in this case, buildings up and finished almost the completion of flooring, you know. It just it

is frustrating and I think again, whenever they come to us, we can work to with the staff to ensure that there's a clock in the development agreement when that comes into play. And again, code enforcement. I know these aren't the greatest answers, but there is not a one size fits all. There's not like a magic bullet for this type of problem, unfortunately.

Thank you. Vice Mayor, did you want to comment really quick on?

Yes, on this topic. So we had requested that a while back about putting it a timeline on new developments because this is like really getting out of hand. Deltona is going to be known as the unfinished houses building projects. There are so many of them. Even individual homes I drive by and there's a lot of them that are not completed.

And I continually drive by and they're still in the same condition I looked at a month ago. So I believe, and I think we did request this back a while for staff to look into it. So this is not a new request. Yeah.

And vice mayor, just so you know, I mean, we have put it when we can in development agreements and PUDs. So I unfortunately, Jordan has left. But I I we can set up we can call you tomorrow and call you individually if you'd like to talk to you more about this and bring an update to the next meeting. We whenever there is again, whenever they need something from us, we can and have put time limits in, and we'll continue to do so.

But going forward, you'll be able to do that for other contracts coming forward to for new development and stuff like that.

When they need something from us, when they need a PUD, if they need a change in zoning, if they need a variance, if they need something, if they don't need anything and they can develop a single family home is actually the perfect example. If you buy a single family lot, you can take your sweet time because you don't need anything from us. If you're just building to spec and you're building, you know, in accordance with our code, there's nothing that we can do to force you to go fast unless you violate a code and we can have code enforcement, unless it's unsafe and we can red tag. It's

Thank you. If you can just get back to all of us, that'd be great. Commissioner Howington?

Thank you. So going back to the last meeting, had made a request if we could have a presentation of the ADA improvements that have been made. And as of April 24, there were new regulations that went into place. I don't want to know specifically what we're doing for individual people. I would like to hear from our ADA coordinator on what the city's doing to improve our services because I know that there have been a lot of strides made to do that. So if we could hear from that person, that would be great. We've had residents request it. But, again, we like to ignore our residents, don't we?

Point of order It's an inappropriate question that I'm not gonna answer

in a previous list. Oh, no. I'm good. That is unnecessary.

Okay. When I met with a developer about three or four weeks ago, they had informed me that we were signing off on a third Amazon building. And I'd like to know where that stands because I'm hearing it from a developer that we're getting a third Amazon and I'm not hearing that from the city. So why am I hearing information from outside the city that I don't get from in the city?

Commissioner, it's not a final decision at this point, and it's not for the city to promote what other companies are doing that are coming into the city. We're working with them, and things take time. Nothing is built, as you were told the other day, until it started building in the ground. Something's put in the ground, so there's no guarantee anything's going to happen at any time. So there is no information at this moment to report to you other than you've heard a rumor that Amazon's coming for a third building.

We hope that that's true. But for the city to promote what's happening with Amazon and have Amazon not actually promote themselves at this situation. There are some things that happen at the staff level, administrative level, that we aren't able to just go out publicly and start announcing to everybody what's happening because that actually makes projects fall through and makes other developers look at us and be gun shy to say, I'm gonna meet with John, give him all the details of what we're thinking about doing so that we can go to social media and announce it. That's totally inappropriate. So no, at this point we have nothing to announce about Amazon three at this moment.

Okay. So I'll just start getting my information from developers outside of the city. Let's see. So did Chick fil A have a representative of some sort make a make a request for $750,000 to the economic development director? Was there not an email that went back and forth? I have the answer, so you may as well admit it.

Then why don't you explain what you know, commissioner? Because I don't think it's appropriate, again, if you have an answer to ask staff to give you answer that you I'm

asking the city manager.

Yes. And I'm staff. So there was an offer by Chick fil A. The city said, no. And that's where it ended. We'll have Don't bring those topics to the commission to discuss, guess who called us today? We have all kinds of options coming. This has happened and this has happened and that's happening. It didn't go anywhere. You have an email that clearly says, we said no to their offer. Then you went on social media and asked the citizens, do they think we should give $750,000 to Chick fil A? Because that's what staff's considering when you clearly knew. I Staff already said no.

It. I did not say Said

the city is considering the 750,000 for Chick fil A.

No. I said it might.

And it wasn't. It was absolutely So a

if a developer comes to the city of Deltona Mhmm. And they get a no answer from staff

Mhmm.

Is there an option for them to make a request to come before this board to ask for us to override staff?

Sure. Anybody can speak to the commission at any time. That's what we have commission meetings for.

So in other words, Chick fil A was told no by staff. Correct?

Yeah. We represent the city to make sure that we don't make a bad deal, and 750,000 for something that's gonna bring a small amount of tax money in makes no sense at all.

And then in the email back to them, it was acknowledged that they needed that $750,000 in order to move forward with the project. Developer. Economic development director's email.

Every developer will tell you they need money or they can't move forward. We see that every day.

However, that's what the email stated.

Okay.

Then fast forward to a few months later, it is still being discussed as an option to have Chick fil A coming to town with the prior email stating that we know, as a city, the economic development director knows that they needed that money to move forward.

No. They asked for that money to move forward, but they may end up coming to the city at a cost of zero to the city.

They could.

They might. Don't like

this stuff.

They might. That's where that word might come.

That's why we don't publicly discuss these things as you're doing But again,

that's not misinformation. That is exact information as it was written in the email.

Did you ask

They can come back and ask us to do that in the future. They can ask us to do anything. So is it not my right as an elected representative to ask my residents how they feel about giving incentives?

Commissioner, you could do whatever you like as elected official, but if you hurt the economic development process by going out and announcing that the city is considering giving something to a company when you clearly saw an email that said, we said no. We're not doing that at all. No. I don't think it helps the economic development process for the city to deal with the next developer because whatever we say to them or they say to us is gonna be put out all public. It's not meant the commissioner's job is not to get into the weeds on every business that knocks on our door and says something.

It's just not. When we bring something to you that we can vote on and move forward, if we find there's somewhere the commission can help in the process, without a doubt. But we told you in the hallway in confidence of just, say, giving you a heads up what happened with Chick fil A that's not moving forward, and you put a post out as if it was actually happening. Now what's Chick fil a thinking? What is every developer thinking that wants to come to our city that that's inside information that should not be made public? That's the issue I think what happened here.

Well, I know my residents keep telling me they don't want any more quick service restaurants. They want sit down restaurants.

Exactly. We all do, I believe. I don't think

So I think it's fair to ask them what they want.

But don't imply don't say the name of the company and imply that the city is still considering this.

Did I sign an NDA?

You you have to sign an NDA for to understand? You don't publicly announce?

Well, when I'm economic development I'm not getting information directly.

There was no information to give the commission. I think I just explained that in detail.

Well, I think it's very clear that the information I did put out there was based on actual emails that did take place. It was not misinformation. You might not like how it was delivered.

You didn't put the information out to explain. This is not happening, though.

No. I asked questions that's not happening. Alright.

That's enough. You guys are acting like children. Commissioner Howington, you have a little bit more respect. It's okay to talk to your city manager. We are all his bosses, but show him some respect. He doesn't show respect city That's enough. Ask your questions respectfully like we all do up here. None of us agree on a lot of stuff, but we don't down talk to our staff.

When was our fraud policy revoked?

I don't have the information, but we have the fraud policy among all of the other policies. As recall at that time, we removed, I don't know, twenty, thirty, 40 policies that were actually all within other policies. So that was all relevant. Don't know. What are you looking for? Because the fraud policy actually that didn't really involve the commission. That

was Well, it specifically lists commissioners in the policy.

And the and the discipline was termination.

And I'm other not talking I'm talking about the overall policy.

Yes. Written by a city manager, which when you write a city manager policy, we have no say over the commission. So therefore, it really has nothing to do with the commission, especially when the discipline includes termination and or suspension or some other disciplines. That's that's not we can't do

anything So then does that mean that if you write a policy that oversteps and goes towards the commissioners that that would be a problem?

You would not follow that policy, obviously, because it has nothing to do with the commission. Staff cannot put a policy together that affects the commission. No. Period.

Okay. I'll print one out. Thank you. Let's see. How about the impact fee study? How is that coming along?

I believe that was was it this summer or fall? That's still in the process, without a doubt, yes.

Thank you. I was informed that PNZ is having to fill out financial forms and that seemed to be a surprise to some people. Have there been changes in the requirements for PNZ board members?

Public. PNZ board members

have always been required to fill out the f one form and they're notified when they get appointed. They've been doing it since I've been here.

Is there a way to put that out there before, like when they're filling out the application so that they know?

Yeah, we can shoot them an email when we get the application. Just say, hey, be aware that you're going to have to fill out this form. Maybe have a copy of it so they'll know what's on there.

Okay, thank you.

And then going back to public forum being part of the meeting time. So we've gone back and forth. And back, I believe, in November or December, vice mayor brought forth a vote to put public forum back into the meeting. And that was voted down. But I'm very curious because we were just told at the last meeting that public forum is part of the meeting.

So if it was part of the meeting, why did we have a consensus vote to put it back in the meeting? And then subsequently, our two and a half hour meetings beyond that started at the 06:30 time. So I'm confused as to why it keeps changing. And that was echoed by some of our residents who've been here and have seen that. And if public forum is part of the actual meeting and we are not allowed to hold a meeting without a quorum, how come on September 3, public forum was held without anyone sitting on this dais?

If it was part of the meeting Mhmm. We would need a four or we would need a quorum, but yet we had people speaking to an empty dais.

Commissioner, these are many things that you can certainly talk to me away from the commission meeting if you choose the No.

This is to be in public.

That's number one. Come on. I'm saying there's a lot of questions here of trying to gotcha questions, which you can clearly speak to me any other time. The public forum, you don't need a quorum. Presentations, you don't need a quorum. Workshops, we don't need a quorum. So it sounds like you're implying since we didn't have a quorum for a meeting, therefore we couldn't have public forum.

No. That's not what I'm saying at all.

I think you just said

No. I said, if it is part of the meeting, as you stated in the last meeting

Mhmm.

That we cannot have public forum unless we have a quorum.

No. No. No. I said if there's not a meeting, we don't have public forum just out of the blue. Because, again, you don't need a quorum for public forum. Commissioners are all sitting here at 06:00 and dedicated. To say we're not having a meeting right now, I don't know what we're having then at 06:00. What are we having? But to say, well, we should have public forum even though the meeting's canceled, no, they generally go together. That was my point. Public forum is part of the commission meeting. But to say we can't have public forum if there's not a commission meeting, why not? You have workshops. That's what it really is. You don't need a quorum to have anything on the agenda except things voted on.

So yeah, it's part of the meeting, but it's not that you have to have a quorum to have public forum or presentations or anything else or commissioner comments.

So then should we have all of that before the meeting time so that we're not losing out on our business time for the two and a half hours?

You wanna start the meeting at 06:30 and go

Well, that's what we had done up until March.

So we'll have public forum from 06:30 to 07:00. Okay. Public forum is not part the meeting. 06:30. Excuse me?

Public forum is not part of the meeting. And then if it if it always was, why did we have a vote in December to put it back in the meeting?

That was a vote by the commission, but that was not a decision by administration to take your vote. That was no. You know, that's up to the it's up to the administration, when it comes to, what you're referring to television, basically, I assume is what you're getting at?

No. I'm referring to the meeting time limit.

Well, we'll have it at 06:30 if the commission would like. 06:30 to seven, it'll be public comment. And then at 07:00 your meeting would start. That's up to the commission if they want to make that decision. Your business part of the meeting. The part where you actually have to have a quorum to vote.

Point of order, we need an extension. Is there a motion and a second to extend the time? There's a motion by Commissioner Avila Vasquez. Is there a second? Okay. The motion dies.

I

will defer to commissioner.

Alright. Commissioner Emma Santiago, you have a minute. You have to turn on your microphone.

Thank you, mayor. Just really quick, River Oaks Heritage Corridor is having a young adults photography contest. It runs now till June 1. More information, I'll give it to staff, see if they can put that on there. Delta, The library was also asked to just mention that there's a free at the Deltona Amphitheater Night of Jazz. It's gonna be with the Deltona Thank

you, mister Mitchell.

Brigade and the

Thank you. Meeting meeting is adjourned.

Okay. Thanks.