City Council - Regular Meeting

Of 11/03/2025. Just gonna start off by saying that we have changed the audio system, so I think it's gonna be a lot better in here. Thank you, city manager. Roll call.

Mayor DePue?

Present.

Present. Councilwoman Gillis? Here. Councilwoman Thomas? Here. Councilwoman Dalbo? Here. Councilman Rainbird?

Here.

City manager Mahoney?

Here.

City attorney Wolf?

Here.

Interim city clerk Tupin present.

Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please remain standing for a moment of silence. Item two, approval or changes, modifications to the agenda. Is there any at this time?

Seeing none at this time, item four, presentation, proclamations, plat certificates, and or donations. It's time for the veteran of the year award. My friend, who is very worthy of this award, goes first, mister Gary Snyder. Proclamation, Veteran of the Year. Whereas, Gary Snyder is a member of the DAV, Disabled American Veterans, VFW, and Vets American Legion's PGR, Patriot Guard Riders and Wreaths across America.

And whereas mister Snyder is an advocate for veterans, helping them in the time of need, whether it be donating food, clothing, blankets to the homeless veterans, and whereas he has organized many tributes here in Edgewater, including Wreaths across America Day, Pearl Harbor Remembrance nine eleven Memorial Day ceremony, standing the flag in line at the local funeral homes with the PGR, and whereas Gary Snyder is a senior ride captain with the Patriot Guard Rider, an organization that makes sure veterans and first responders have someone at their funerals even if they have no family. Gary is a chaplain that has assisted many families during their hard times. Gary has never said no at accepting an assignment for our veterans. Whereas Gary was a civilian firefighter, coached football, basketball, tracked for local charter schools here in the area, he was instrumental in putting together a free day at Kennedy Space Center for the Gold Star children and their families. He was able to get them a lifetime free membership.

Whereas, while stationed in North Fork, Gary and his wife, Lisa, were foster parents to a 100 children. He is a dedicated husband, father, and grandfather. Now, therefore, I deems it up to you by virtue of by authority vested in me, mayor of the wonderful city of Edgewater, Florida, do hereby proclaim Gary Snyder as veteran of the year 2025 in the city of Edgewater, and urge all citizens to join me in special observance. And witness wherefore I, here and do, set my hand, cause this great seal of the city of Edgewater to be at this this third day in November in the year of our Lord 2025. Gary, you are a true local hero.

You never fail to call us and let us know what organizations we need to be a part of, what time we need to be there, and you always credit us. No. We're not to be credited. We don't do anything. We do the easy part. We show up and we help you. You are the one that calls months out in advance, organizes everything, and really cares about your community and veterans. You're amazing. Congratulations, Gary.

Sorry.

We have another great local to honor who is also involved in almost everything in the community who never fails to show up. Danny Kirkman, veteran of the year presentation. Proclamation, veteran of the year, whereas Danny Kirkman was the first vice commander of the American Legion post two eighty five and was very involved in the Honor Guard. And whereas Mr. Kirkland was always heavily involved in the American Legion's events, community events, fundraiser, and charity functions.

And whereas in 2011, Mr. Kirkland helped found and be a charter member of the Amvets Post two in Edgewater. And since his founding, he has been the commander of Amvets Post two Honor Guard. And whereas he is always present at every function, the Honor Guard is summoned to him, proudly leading America's colors in any ceremony. And whereas Mr.

Kirkman helped organize a startup veteran group, which is no easy function. And whereas Danny Kirkman is truly a great example of what an American veteran is. He is a relentless giver, taking his time to always exemplify service, honor, and duty and dignity. Now therefore, I deems it appear by the virtue of authority vested in me as mayor of the city of Edgewater, Florida, do hereby proclaim Danny Kirkman, also as veteran of the year 2025 at the city of Edgewater, and urge all citizens to join me in this special of observance. It witnessed, therefore, I here and do set my hand and cause this great seal of the city of Edgewater to be at this, this third day in November, the year of our Lord 2025.

Congratulations, mister Kirkman. We truly appreciate you being at every function and always helping out with our friends, our veterans, and also our wonderful friend that Gary Snyder that just received this award as well. Thank you. Okay. Moving forward.

Is anybody here from the Volusia County Domestic Abuse Council? Great. Okay. I do see proclamation, Proclamation, the Domestic Abuse Council of Volusia County. Domestic Abuse Council of Volusia County, whereas the Domestic Abuse Council of Volusia County, also known as DAC, is the only certified domestic abuse organization in the county and has been a steadfast advocate for individuals and families affected by domestic violence and providing essential resources, support, education to help break the cycle of abuse since 1976.

And whereas domestic violence affects all races, age, genders, backgrounds, and continues to be a serious public health and safety issues, not only harming the victims, but also affecting the entire community and country. Whereas in Florida, the re the rate of reported domestic violence offenses is significant. And for Volusia County, the re represents a serious burden highlighting the need for increased awareness and service as it ranks fourth in the state for incidences. And whereas the Domestic Abuse Council Volusia County is committed to offering a safe shelter for survivors and works in partnership with Volusia County Social Services, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office, Municipal Law Enforcement Agencies and advocates to prevent violence and promote healthy relationships throughout the county. And whereas it is critical that we as a community join together in the fight against domestic violence, committing to raise awareness, educate others, and support those who are suffering in the silence.

And whereas we acknowledge the resilience and encourage all survivors of domestic violence and stand in the solitary with them pledging our collective efforts to reduce and ultimately eliminate domestic abuse in Volusia County. And whereas the work of the Domestic Abuse Council is made possible through the commitment of volunteers, community partners, law enforcement agencies, and countless others who combined efforts create a stronger, safer Volusia County for all. Now therefore, I, Deeds of the Pew, Mayor of the wonderful City of Edgewater, do hereby proclaim October as Domestic Abuse Awareness Month in Volusia County, and I encourage all citizens to join together in supporting survivors of domestic violence, recognizing the invaluable work of Domestic Abuse Council and committing to making our community free from abuse. We'd to stand united in the pursuit of justice, healing, and provision of domestic violence in all of its forms so that all the families of Volusia County can live safely at home. And when this, therefore, I here and do set my hand and cause this great seal of the city of Edgewood to be at fifth this November in our year of the lord 2025.

We thank you guys so much for all you do. Thank you for coming down. Would you like to say a few words before I present this? Exactly what the committee and council is about and how somebody can re get ahold of you.

We're very thankful for the opportunity to be here today to bring light to this issue in our community. As you said, the Volusia County ranks fourth in the state of Florida, and we all know we are not the fourth largest county. Our rate of domestic violence is 72% higher than the state average. Think about that. We've got a lot of work to do, and we appreciate you all standing together with us and bringing, this, into light and, getting the word out to people that this is an issue we've got to address. We've got to address it with education. And so thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today.

We thank you for all that you do. Thank you for coming down to Edgewater, and we continue to appreciate your effort. Item five, city manager report. And before you get started, thank you guys for each and every one of you for coming here today. Congratulations to our veterans of the year, and thank you to the domestic abuse council for all that you do.

City manager.

Yes, sir. Good morning. Oh, wow. Good evening, mayor and council. How are y'all? I have a few things for you. First, wanna give you an update on the 1st Business Park. This is the development located adjacent to Majestic Oaks.

Yeah. Yeah. Check? No. Mm-mm. No.

Check. Is that working? Not working?

Check. No. Mine was working earlier.

Hello. Check.

We go.

Perfect. Thank you.

Alright.

This is a new system tonight, by the way.

Okay. An update regarding the first business park, is located adjacent to Majestic Oaks. The development order was issued by development services on October 20. Discussions with FDOT confirmed they would not approve a reduction in The U. S. One speed limit. The site plan was revised to remove only one oak tree to accommodate the business park entrance. The property was previously zoned highly commercial, which would have allowed uses such as gas stations or car washes. Staff believes the business park is more suitable use that better complements the surrounding properties. The original BPUD was approved by City Council in December 2024, following a favorable recommendation from the Planning and Zoning Board in August 2024.

Moving along, I would like to seek your consensus to have a workshop regarding the stormwater master plan prior to the December 1 City Council meeting. The engineering firm is ready to present some of their findings, prior to completing their official report.

That sounds wonderful. But can we just change it to a special meeting so that the public could comment if they wish?

Of course. Do I have consensus for that from the rest of the council? Yes. Yes. Thank you.

Then as we know, the holidays are approaching. This year, both Christmas and New Year's Day fall on a Thursday. In years past, the council has approved to give the following Friday off for staff. So I'm just seeking consensus to authorize giving those days as floating holidays.

Are they gonna be off for Christmas Eve?

No. Christmas Eve is not a holiday. Would they be off Christmas and then the following

day? Okay.

Fine with me. Oh, certainly.

Yes. Okay. Thank you.

Can we get off too?

Of course. Then at the last meeting, we discussed the outstanding citizens award. That will be assigned to the newly selected clerk. And then there's been some conversations about the charter review committee, and that'll be assigned for the new clerk to start organizing those meetings. I want to give thank yous to some staff.

The fall festival at Hawks Park, Jason O'Keefe, our parks director, and the park staff did a great job. He was well attended. I gotta tell you that that train he built for the kids was was really cool, and they did a great job. So thank you, Jason, and your staff. And then I wanted to give a thank you also to our human resources department, miss Julie Christine.

They held the employees benefit fair, the YMCA. Once again, it was an engaging event, and, all our employees seemed to really enjoy it. And then lastly, I attended the Southeast Volusia Chamber of Commerce Economic Summit and the Volusia County Elected Delegation State Appropriations meetings. And that concludes my report.

Awesome. Thank you. Before we continue, I see that we have a former mayor with us today, mister Hathaway, in the back of the room, former mayor and public servant still to continue, a former mayor of New Smyrna and on the commission for several years. Thank you for being here, thank you for your public service. We appreciate you. Okay. Moving forward. Citizens comments. This is a time for the public to come forward with any comments they may have. Citizens comments related to any agenda matter may be made at the time the matter is before the council. Please state your name and address, and please limit your comments to three minutes or

evening, counsel. My name is Linda Mosier, 319 Leaning Oak Drive, president of the Majestic Oaks Phase one and two Homeowners Association. And even though I know we've been heard loud and clear, it appears that the city intends to force a commercial business entrance through the residential side street of Oak Branch Drive. Over the past three months, counsel's heard many strong objections expressed by Majestic Oaks homeowners, not to First Business Park itself, but only to the increased risks and certain property damage posed by the side street only access plan. Interpretation of FDOT's role in refusing a US 1 entrance in the project site plans remains unclear, And I've documented those assertions to you separately.

It's my understanding that FDOT is only just now reviewing the actual permit request on the basis of the approved development order submitted two weeks ago. Along with others on our board, we've spent hundreds of hours going through thousands of pages of documents, reports, emails only to end up with more questions. I did not find anything other than the suggestion of a preference by FDOT to favor the path of least resistance through Oak Branch. I reached out to FDOT and had my questions answered same day. I reached out to the principal engineer and had my questions answered same day.

As expected, those answers simply suggest added project costs in time, effort, and bottom line. We're all in agreement about the notice problems in the lead up to this mess, along with the difficulty of engaging the public earlier on in the planning and zoning of all development plans. But thanks to Resolution twenty twenty five R25, you'll never have to face another final site plan approval from the dais. All of that aside, I'm here today to give those council members who approved those plants back in August another chance to stand by their vote after the fact. We know that any one of them can rescind that vote and send it back for revision.

Might they be sued? Maybe. Or maybe not. Maybe the developer does want to be a good neighbor and is willing to do what it takes to come alongside Majestic Oaks from US one. Maybe the cost of that redesign is less than a lawsuit. Maybe. So you know that I hate to put you on the spot, but that is my question. Knowing what you know today, do you stand by your August vote? Any takers? I think I have thirty seconds.

If we have any other comments that any council member would like to answer or comment on this, I recommend to do it at the next portion, which is council reports. Thank you. Of course.

Appreciate your time.

Thank you, Ms. Moser, for being so involved and being here tonight. We appreciate it.

Just work this time. You all remember this time? Last time was kinda rough. Alright. My name is Jim Lynch. I'm Golf Other Custom Cycles. So the only reason why I'm here today so when we had this ride for officer Jewel last month, I reached out to a friend of mine, Brian Clocks from Clockworks, and he he produces windshields and phone mounts for motorcycles. And he donated enough windshields and phone mounts for motors for the city police department. And I thought before we went through and just donated them straight to the police department. I wanted to come to you guys, make sure it was okay that we donated them to the police department, and we'd also like to offer our service at the shop to install them for the motors.

Well, of course, we appreciate any kind of donation. That's wonderful, very kind, and generous of you. Thank you for all you did for the ride as well. I think, mister manager, do we need anything else other than direction?

Yep. I can have the police chief reach out to you. Just make sure that they are they work for our motorcycles. I know you know a lot about motorcycles. I'm sure they do. So I'll have I'll have chief Geiger reach out to you.

Okay. Any

consensus to accept the donation? Because we have to do

What what's the what's the value, sir?

The value is about $600 per unit.

Okay. It it couldn't hurt it couldn't hurt to get consensus to to accept the donation? Well, certainly give consensus.

Thank you very much, sir. Yeah. And I

we ordered enough. We I do know that y'all plan on getting another unit, so we may we got all five when you do get

the fifth one in. Okay. We appreciate that.

No problem. Right.

Thank you, mister Lynch. We truly appreciate it.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Appreciate all that you do.

Have the coolest motors.

Weird to do.

Good evening. John Zito, 718 Navigators Way, Edgewater Landing. On behalf of the association, I wanna make a comment about The US 1 corridor in front of Edgewater Landing, Majestic Oaks, east and north and south. We we refer to that as the as a speed speed trap. When the police are out there, they're doing a great job.

But it's really an amazing thing to to exit onto US 1 from any one of the side streets to recognize the speed at which vehicles are running. If they happen to make the traffic light at Roberts, the last place they passed was a Blaker in Oak Hill, and they're flying north in excess of 60 miles an hour. We've had a lot of near misses in front of Edgewood Landing, and I'm sure in other communities along that corridor. I would encourage the city council to stay engaged with DOT and to ask them if they would be kind enough to conduct a public hearing about this issue that confronts everyone on US 1, not just Edgewater Landing. It seems as though they make decisions, and they don't seem to be public input or response to what they're doing.

So I don't know what agency in your community here or through the through the council would be responsible to request a meeting for public meeting to to review the issues that they confront in their decision making for speed and turnarounds and things of that nature. It's a matter of public safety. And if you've traveled US 1 between Roberts and Indian River, you can see how fast they're traveling. I'm sure we have records of the number of police reports for speeding and accidents through a fire department, and I would urge you to, in any way possible, engage DOT to set up a public meeting. And I'm sure many people would attend that.

And I don't know what agency would do that, but we would like to request that of you because we are concerned about public safety in general, not just Aswath Landing.

Well, thank you, sir, for your comments. Our city manager and our development service director has a great relationship with FDOT, and I believe that there is somebody who has just that job in our area. So I'm sure we can make that happen.

That would be good. Thank you very much.

Contact information by chancellor manager.

Yeah. I do. And and there's been several studies there, but if you could leave your information with the chief of police

That's what I meant.

Sorry. And then, we'll coordinate, organizing a meeting and we'll have a conversation.

That would be good. Public hearing would be good for input. Thank you.

We appreciate it. Thank you

for your comment.

Hi. I'm Rick Bailey, 2620 Hoptree Lane. I'm the secretary treasurer for Majestic Oaks for HOA. And I've talked with Linda Mosher, and I understand she had concerns not only about the entrance way, but also speeding and getting in and out of her subdivision. And in our recent HOA meeting, I brought up these issues with our constituents there.

And when they brought that up, they jumped right up and said, yeah, we didn't know about these things. And they were also interested in safety on the Highway 1 corridor. So Majestic Oaks four is also interested to resolving safety issues on Highway 1 and getting in and out safely. So thank you for listening.

Thank you. We appreciate your comments, sir.

Chuck Martin, 205 Cherrywood Lane Edgewater, otherwise known as Edgewater Chuck around town. That's actually some of my goals as running for, city council district one, would be stop the flooding. We want clean, affordable drinking water. We need to lower the speed limit on US 1 from Boston Whaler to Pelican Cove East. I got them right here in my pamphlets if anybody wants one after the meeting. We need fair wages for our city workers, the guys on the bottom, so we can get more workers here. I want to bring my forty three years of experience, public works, solid waste, recycling, construction, and flood control systems, Edgewater. I'm an operating engineer. I can help get it done. So now I'm going give you my storm water flood prevention plan.

It's a common sense approach that's realistic and affordable. Number one, purchase two more eight inches pumps. For a start, they would place at Lime Tree and Kumquat Lakes. When the storms are coming, they'll turn on the pumps and create capacity just like at Duck Lake on Tenten 25 that saved many, many homes. Thank you, Joe Mahoney. Thank you, sir. Number two, clean out the 18th Street Canal at Riverside Drive to the river, including removing the failing salinity dam, which is restricting water flow. Number three, clean out the 10th Street Canal down there by McDonald's from US 1 to the river. It hasn't been cleaned out in about fifty years. I think they're going be working out next year.

Hope so. We need to create a shoulder crew, like I worked on when I worked at the county public works, and a ditch crew to clean out and dig ditches starting at Silver Palm and going all the way to the railroad tracks. We need to get it done. We need to coordinate with the county to install two large culverts on Volco Road, West Eliza Clinton Road, and east of the two bridges that washed out at the last two hurricanes. I was there.

I took videos. I sent them to Diesel De Pew, Danny Robbins, and Jeff Thurman. Waco roadblocks, a natural water flow south that drains to the backside of the shores. The bridges can't handle all the water, and they can't get there. And last but not least, we need to replace and install a new culvert that I found tonight that runs under Valco Road about a quarter mile west of the railroad tracks and east of the new Lennar subdivision.

The culvert under the roads has collapsed and has failed and is not flowing. Matter of fact, I put my ducks down there, and they're still there. I need to go pick them up tonight. The culvert under the road has collapsed and has not flown and has failed. Now, I'm confident now with our new city manager, Joe Mahoney, leading the city that we can work together and with the county and start correcting our flooding issues just like we all did at Duck Lake. Thank you. I will have these to pass out after the meeting. If anybody wants one, I'll meet you outside, anybody, and ask their questions. And I also have built a flood control system at a resident's house that will keep her from flooding again. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Martin, for your comments. They're appreciated.

Cindy Black Umbrella Tree. I don't know if any of you watched West News during the last flooding we had. And if you're aware, there is no canal between Victory and Umbrella. But if you watch the helicopter flying over Florida shores, they were showing what appeared to be a new canal between Victory and Umbrella. That was mainly caused by all the work that's been done recently where Willow has work being done on Willow and the deepening of the Dreyse wells between the twenty eighth block of Umbrella all the way up to Willow, which is causing more flooding behind our homes on Umbrella on both the east and west side.

The canal On Umbrella cannot hold any more water. So trying to pump more water into the canal On Umbrella does not work. Even with the river back flowing, We've already been overflowing. It just causes our canals to fall in or our banks to fall in. We've got to stop trying to pump more water into the Umbrella Canal.

It already overflows every storm, and you're just making it worse and punishing us. And and you're going through the shores trying to fix the property here and fix the property here, then those at the middle just suffer. It it's not working. And you have to think, you know, you dug out the canal deeper some of the I'm sorry some of the dry swells deeper below the water table. And they're just holding water now all through the season, and it's holding cyanobacteria now.

I mean, for ever since they dug them deeper back in July, And it's just holding water. I even went by your home, Diesel, where I think it was your home, and it looks like crap. And be honest. And some of these roads are not his home, the canal I mean, the dry swell that That's they dug

his

kid. So to be clear. But anyway, it's just been made worse. But like I said, you're punishing us on an umbrella that had the canal behind our homes, and you're making the problem worse. So what you're doing is not working. I'm hoping this new stormwater master plan has got some solutions. But you need more areas to put the water. You can't put it in the canals that already exist. So anyway, thank you.

Thank you, ma'am, for your comments. I appreciate it. And then Mr. Mahoney, if you have her contact information, if you could get any of your questions answered. Thank you. Appreciate it.

And you know what I'm saying? I'm hungry.

Sorry. I knew what you meant. My

name is Wolf Unger. I live at 1820 Kumquat. I have some video of that ditch that's behind my house that goes between Kumquat and Lyme. It it was quite a sight during that last rainstorm. But for the first time, I've I've lived here since 1982, and this is the first time I've had to shell out almost a thousand dollars for flood insurance, and I'm not in a flood zone.

But that's changing. One of the things I wanna mention is that today, I called the public works department. And I the lady who answered was an extremely friendly and helpful person. I think that's only fair to give that side of it. I am on schedule to get my ditch, my swell, the piping cleaned out.

The problem that's always confused me is that as long as I lived I was here when Kumquat was a dirt road, and then you paved it. And now there's more water being not being absorbed as going into our properties. You came and bit did the swells, and then you put pipes between underneath our driveways, between our my driveway and everything in between my neighbor's driveway. That's almost 40 feet of pipe. And I kept saying, who's gonna clean this? I don't have the equipment to clean that. Well, they put me on a list to clean that. Okay? But here's my problem. If all the swells were supposed to do was prevent a little bit of flooding in my house, maybe a half inch, you wouldn't have need to put the pipes in.

The pipes are there because it makes it part of a system to carry water away, because you're trying to mitigate the fact that you've taken over the natural flow laws, okay, and and told people, we're gonna have a system that takes the water away even though you've built on land, and now you're building houses two feet higher and some three feet higher, and you're putting the water on other people's property, and you're saying, we're gonna take it away. Well, those pipes the two kinds of people that live in this town. Working people, and I used to be one. Now I'm retired. And the problem is what I don't have the money or the time to want to go and and try to clear out 40 feet of pipe.

That should be a maintenance item from this city. It should be. Otherwise, those pipes were a waste of our tax money.

That's all I gotta say.

If the city could maybe look at that and say, how can we find a way to do that and at least inspect those yearly? My my my swell hasn't transported water out of out of my property in the last twenty years because our soil I keep having to regenerate my soil because the soil runs down into the swell and down into the pipes. And everybody's houses do that. Thank you.

Thank you, sir, for your comment. 1820 Kwonkwat Drive. Correct? Mister Mahoney, if you could look at his ticket tomorrow, that would be tremendous. Thank you, sir.

Yeah. Of course. I just wanted to add that, you know, we are working our way through the shores. We just started on the west end of the shores moving east to to clear all the soils and and culvert pipes.

Right. So

but we'll definitely look at, 1820 Kumquat as well.

Thank you, sir.

Doug Frederick, 504 Sea Acres Circle, Edgewater. Public questions to mayor DePue. One, please tell citizens of Edgewater why you have not publicly stated to community whether or not any attempt or any or submission of evidence related to this process has been falsified, fabricated, and or exaggerated by an individual with intent to harm developer and or city government. Two, please tell and advise citizens of Edgewater why you allow a city manager and city development officer to continue approval process without addressing evidence that was submitted publicly, conducting an investigation on-site with person who submitted evidence, which clearly shows failure to protect and serve entire city. Please, three, please tell citizens of Edgewater why you're allowed to continue to retain a city development officer who's failed to disclose to you the submission of a major change to environment, infrastructure, and community with your repeated public statements related to your intent to protect and serve, a submission that occurred on eighttwotwenty four with you mere clearly stating on twotwenty twenty five at thirteen thirteen hours that you had no knowledge of submission.

Four, please tell citizens of Edgewater why you continue to employ or support a city manager and city development officer who clearly failed and or disregarded your public statement at city public meeting that occurred on 08/04/2025. That statement you made, mayor, clearly told city manager and city development officer that you and I were to be told if and when resubmittal of plans were ever occurred. Documentation in place shows resubmittal plans on eighteleventwenty five. Documentation in place shows no attempt in any way, shape, or form until tentwenty twenty five at seventeen thirty eight hours after my documented request and update that occurred same date at seventeen thirty six hours. I first learned of resubmittal from Soltys without any explanation as to why he failed or purposely did not follow your direction.

City manager clearly stated via email on tentwenty twotwenty five at zero 08:48 hours. City is not required to accept future requests for documents that do not exist or are not in city's possession. Mayor, please inform residents of Edgewater when you first learned or were told of resubmittal. Five, please tell citizens of Edgewater and citizens of state of Florida whether you agree or disagree to my legislation request that was publicly presented at eight 04:25 at city meeting and publicly presented 10/2925 at state public legislation meeting. All before me was allowed three minutes.

Please tell me tell citizens of Edgewater why you and city manager did not publicly support or not support my legislation request at the meeting. Bail to support or disagree publicly is clear failure or intent to protect and serve a community with storm related risk and life and property in plain view. Please tell citizens of Edgewater six why my repeated request, the city manager and copy to elected officials that started on 10/2325 at

six for PMO. Your comments. We're I requested that each and every single council member answer questions underneath their council reports. A lot of what you stated is a little little bit off about city manager, former government, what the mayor can and cannot control, but I'll answer that during my council report. Thank you.

Sure. That's a false statement. No. I'm not Victor. I submitted this to governor to see at this yesterday. I have

always supported you. I've put you on the agenda. We're not gonna do this right now,

false statements with intent.

This is this is

a warning. I presented this to governor

DeSantis. DeSantis. Done, sir. I presented this

this. We're not And you would never answer anything.

Think the police is behind us. Everybody's had three minutes,

behind my back, sir.

Sir, just stop.

Knock it off.

I have

Knock it off.

I think you're the one that needs to knock it off, sir. I will answer your statements at Deering Council reports, sir. We have always had a great relationship. I've always answered your calls. I put you on the agenda. I appreciate all that you do. I will answer your I will answer your questions during your council report like I requested everybody else to do. There's no reason to get upset. There's also citizens' comments at the end of the meeting that can also be continued if you didn't have enough time. Thank you.

That's hard to follow, but so my name is Ed Pugliese. My wife and I live at 415 Schooner Avenue in Edgewater Landing. I know that there's been meetings in regards to some excuse me. I know there's been meetings in regards to some development South of us right behind Edgewater Landing. We received a letter dated October 14 from a gentleman, Thomas Cook, and I'll just quote from part of it.

As you may know, an extensive amount of survey work has been completed in the areas of encroach of encroachment have been officially noted and referenced. We had no idea that any survey was done. Nobody contacted us. Nobody had any permission to go on our property even though the survey was done on property behind Edgewater Landing, but we had no knowledge of a survey. Attached, please find document documentation specifically related to your property.

I would kindly request that you remove any personal property from the encroached areas referenced if applicable and immediately discontinue any usage or maintenance of these specific areas. So our some properties that will be affected by this proposed development if it ever comes about, the wooded area behind us is like a jungle. My wife, myself, we have tried to walk back there on a number of occasions. You literally can't walk back there. The growth is so deep, it's up to your knee as soon as you step into it.

I tried using walking sticks. I took a machete. We received, along with this letter, a notice, a survey showing us where on our property I'm sure you can't see this, this, but I'm just bringing it to your attention where on our property, there's a, a bulkhead interfering with whatever whatever the person is looking to do. As I said, I can't get back there. Also, there are it states in this letter, which I didn't want to get into in length, that there are some markers that mark off the property.

There is absolutely no way to get to the property behind our home to look for these markers or to look for this retaining wall that the individual is speaking to. So we're really at a loss because we don't know what's going on in regards to this project. And we're at a loss because we have no knowledge of a survey even being done. And of course, we're concerned about our privacy and along with everybody else, the ongoing growth of Edgewater and the community in whole in regards to flooding and the other issues. We're just laypeople.

We have no idea about surveys or anything like that. We would be willing to have a surveyor come out and check the property for us, but the price we got was nearly $2,000 Now, we're retired. In a retired community, dollars 2,000 is a lot of money. So I just wanted to bring that to the board's attention and to the community's attention tonight. We're at a total loss. I don't know what this gentleman is talking about in regards to surveys, and I definitely cannot read this. And there is no way that we're able to get behind our property to find the stakes and the markings that he talks about.

Well, thank you, sir, for your concerns and comments. We appreciate it.

Appreciate you guys very much. Thank you for hearing me.

Hi. Tom Sedita. 209 Oak Branch Drive, Majestic Oaks. I just wanna add a couple of things. Linda always does a great job representing the the bigger feelings of the Majestic Oaks neighborhood. I know we've spoken on the the construction. You know what I'm talking about. You know, two months ago, it seemed the the council was very much rallied behind the feelings of Majestic Oaks. We had a very nice meeting with with Ryan there. He's a swell fella.

However, I almost feel like the mood has kinda shifted. The council almost, like, take a knee, and the clock will run out, and there won't be anything left to do. And I feel like that's a a big shame. I don't want that to happen, and I hope, you know, we're we're paying attention to that. Alright? Thanks.

Thank you, sir, for your comments. I appreciate it.

I'm Sheryl Cheatham. I'm 3122 Oaks Drive. I just wanted to concur what he just said. And I just feel like it's like the people that voted against us are taking the builders, the people that are buying the property. They're taking their side against the homeowners. And it just really hurt my heart today when I had to pay my property tax. And it was $4,000 And everybody pays property tax. And that's a lot of money that we put out every year. And we do it because we love our home and we love our neighborhood. And it's like somebody is coming in to destroy part of our neighborhood.

And we bought the neighborhood, and part of that was the entrance. And that's going to be destroyed. And I just want you guys to know that that's very special to us. It's our home. And these people that are it's a business. And it's like, it's their pocketbook, yeah. It's money to them. But that's all it is. It's money. It's the bottom line to them. But it's not their home. And I just want you to consider that, please.

Thank you, ma'am, for your comments. I appreciate it.

Chris Cheatham, 3122 Oaks, the other half of the lady who just stood up to speak. And I would testify that for her to get up and speak publicly is a strong indication of the passion that we all feel about the neighborhood. I thank Linda for her efforts, and I concur. I do have concerns about the entrance of Majestic Oaks being turned into an additional entrance and exit for a business park for multiple reasons, the congestion that it could create around the front, but also the threat to it becoming a cut through to those who'd be westbound coming out of the entrance or the exit of the business park and deciding, you know, it's easier than just a cut through than to fight the traffic trying to come out onto Highway 1. And if it comes down, I've I've heard conflicting information.

I I'm not sure where things are exactly. I've heard originally that there was a rejection by the Florida DOT of the idea of a net an another exit being created there, but it sounds like it's just maybe a preference, an expression of a preference or opinion, but not a prohibition to creating that extra entrance there. And, you know, I'm just frankly concerned about the congestion and the cut through traffic. And if it comes down to really just being a matter of the developer putting out more money to create their own entrance versus creating theirs off of ours, then, you know, I I think it's a little unfair to just favor the developer and, and saving his costs in in place of saving our entrance to the to the Majestic Oaks HOA. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir, for your comments, sir. Appreciate it. Okay. Item seven, council reports. Mayor DePue. Okay. Well, I'll open it back up to citizens' comments at this time.

Just

before we stepped in. My name is Marvell Richards. Good evening to all of you. My name is Marvel Richards. I live 1099 Clubhouse Boulevard in New Smyrna Beach. We've been in New Smyrna Beach for forty years. I'm here to speak in support of Kelly

That is on the agenda at a later time. We request that you speak on that matter when it is in front of us.

Is that when the four names are there? Ma'am. Okay. Thank you.

We appreciate it. Thank you.

Not going home any time soon.

And sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. I didn't see you walking up.

Good evening. I'm Devin Thorne, owner of Wild Thornberry, 2146 South Drive. Good evening. Devin Thorne, owner of Wild Thornberry at 2146 South Riverside Drive. Last month, I kinda brought up some of my concern for the temporary sign ordinances prohibiting sign holders out by the road.

And I just kinda wanted to reinforce that and bring that back up to see what we we could do about that. In addition to that, some new things have kinda came through in the last month. Part of my solution to that in the interim was to put out a temporary sign out by US one at the recommendation from the permitting department. That had worked great. We had that sign out there for less than two weeks, and code enforcement emailed me, basically telling me that I needed to take it down immediately, that it wasn't approved, it wasn't you know, it didn't fall into the court ordinances. And I asked him why. Basically,

he

told me I did use improper materials. That, unfortunately, incorrect. I used the exact materials that the ordinances say that I was supposed to. And upon pointing that out to him, he agreed. I think there should be more due diligence on the court enforcement side of things to make sure that what they're telling people is true before they, you know, cause me a lot of stress worrying that the sign I just paid $500 has to come back down.

In addition to that, kind of what seemed like retaliation, he asked me to remove the sign when the business is closed. That is code ordinance. But for the week and a half prior, that wasn't an issue. And there's also still currently signs at that plaza and multiple other plazas around the city that never come down. They're the same temporary sign permit that allows them to be there. None of them take them down. Only I'm required, it seems like, so far. And I just wanted to bring that to your attention.

Well, thank you, sir. I was going to bring that up in my council report for the second time. But go ahead, and I'm just ridiculous that you can't have somebody stay at the side of the road for advertisement and go ahead and try to get people in for their business. There's a world famous sign lady in Port Arms. She's been there for over twenty five years. A lot of individuals know Mister Mahoney, what would be the the way to change that code? And what consensus would you need from us tonight if the majority of the council wants to move forward with changing that to help small businesses?

Sure. Just some direction that that is what you all desire, Consensus wise to look at our ordinance regarding regarding sign spinners.

I I most certainly think that it should be legal.

Can I just again, just so you know, the the issue isn't so much in the temporary sign ordinances? The way it reads for temporary signs, it sounds like you can. The issue comes to the bottom of the ordinance where they specifically prohibit certain signs, and that's where you lose it because it specifically prohibits any type of streetwalker, sign holder, etcetera. So that that's the issue with ordinance.

I understand.

Yeah. If you let me

do some research, and I can bring some in, at the December 1 city council meeting.

Thank you. We appreciate it. Item seven, council reports. Mayor DePue. Well, I enjoyed attending the Southeast Volusia Economic Development Summit. We do that once a year. My concern is we do it once a year, and there is no follow-up. So we're going to have a follow-up in six months from the chamber. They committed to that. And then the other thing that I brought up at the Chamber of Commerce, I wanted to let everybody here know, three of us were here. It was advertised that we could be together. We voted on it. Public meeting. It was recorded. We I have the idea.

I love everybody in Volusia County. I really do. But I think that we would be stronger and better off as a region, in our region, if we had a Southeast Volusia Storm Water And Flood Subcommittee for our region. Think that we all know our issues a little bit better than the other side of the county, and we should all come up, as a region, a project that would help all three communities. I brought that up at the chamber.

I'm going to bring that up at the Economic Development Board. I want to bring that up here, so you guys could go ahead and get that feeling. If there is no one opposed or any kind of opposing comments, I'm going to bring that up at the next chamber board meeting, see if they would be in support of that. And then the other thing I have to address Mr. Frederick, I'm really surprised. We have been in great conversation, great contact. I've always respected you. I've always been very respectful to you. I've we I added you to the agenda to where you could speak. We're all on your side. We don't want that development. I'm I heard about it because you had called me. Am I upset of that? Absolutely. Is there some communication things?

These individuals are busy. But you asked if the mayor's against this, the mayor's against that. I'm the same as these people. So I don't know why I'm being singled out. I'm one vote on the city council. I'm with you a 110%. Do you want me to sign a recommendation letter to governor DeSantis? I absolutely will. I am very against the live local project. I have been with you a 110% of the way. We have always been very respectful. Any questions that you've had, I've tried to get answered for you just like any other resident in the community. We're a city manager of former government. I put you in contact with our city manager who has everyday power that I don't have. I'm on your side.

We voted down the project. Live local is a terrible law. We've said that publicly on the dice, each and every single one of us. And we have addressed that and tried to get around live local. Unfortunately, we can't get around that law. We we did some tax increments and things like that that they can't get around, but I'm on your side. We've always been very respectful. I'm caught off guard. If you need any help, absolutely. If you need any questions answered, always call me. I always answer your calls. We've always been in conversation. To answer your question, I knew about it when you had called me, and I called the city manager right away. Am I disappointed about that? Yes.

But these individuals are busy. We don't talk every day. I don't expect them to call me every single day. But when they hear something oppressing, they're going tell me about it during an agenda review. Anything negative about Mr. Mahoney? I have that's the very first thing I've heard anything negative about him in the community as a city manager. So I support him 110% along with our billing service director. We all are a team in collaboration, just like I do with you. To answer your question, the letter you sent to governor DeSantis was a wonderful letter. And if you want me to support it, I will a 110% sign it and do anything that you request for me to do and to help you in any way. I think we're all on your side. We appreciate you communicating and all that you do. And I wanna

I wanna make a a formal apology.

It it

I I requested to to make an apology.

We normally don't allow this, but I'll allow a minute and a half.

It'd be immoral for me not to apologize. And I'm gonna state clearly, I'm emotionally distressed over this whole thing, the amount of time I put into this, and I'm trying to protect the community. And I'm gonna be clear. I apologize to you, sir, because I became emotional. I filed a cease and desist with governor DeSantis today via certified mail. I respectfully hope and pray that we as a city come together and protect this community, support the cease and desist, and not to prevent this developer because we cannot stop live local legislation. Simply put in the wall, put in the fence. I requested that the state government fund it. I apologize. It's okay.

I was wrong in my emotional response. I apologize. I've already apologized to a police chief, and I never disrespect cops. Am I clear?

It's understandable, but we're on your side a 110%. Apologize. We none of us made a motion for that development.

Would like to see what the motion that you support the cease and desist until such time is equal protection by equal prevention.

I can't speak for the other council but I support it.

I would ask you to put that into the whatever you call it.

The agenda matter.

We're to make an amendment, make it part of the next agenda for the for December 3, have the beautiful residents of Edgewater Land and give a chance to speak and have a vote and support the cease and desist, which you'll get a copy of tomorrow. I'll drop

it off. We'll see what we can do. We'll we'll contact you.

I apologize sincerely.

No problem. We understand.

Mister mayor, if I could. Sure. So just to clarify, development services did not send the resubmittal they received directly to mister Frederick. But I can tell you that development services and and Ryan Solstice, to be perfectly honest with you, went above and beyond in this development. He made sure that that was included in the storm water master plan, an additional cost to the city to protect the residents of Edgewater Landing.

And then just to be to be fair to myself, I scheduled two meetings with mister Frederick, and he attended one, and then he failed to attend the other. He was outside of city hall with a sign and a flag with some statements about protecting Edgewater, the kind of humorous thing. And there's a citizen out there that was curious of of what he was doing. And she asked because I was meeting with another resident in Edgewater Landing, and she asked randomly if she could join the meeting. I said, sure. Come on back. So we had a great meeting. I would love to meet mister Frederick again. There are some details that he has to understand the process, and that's something that Ryan Solsys with development services could really explain to him. It'd be helpful to get an understanding.

It's it's it's not the city doesn't support this project. It's live local, and I think he needs to he needs to understand that. So mister Freddy, if you could please reconsider having a meeting with the staff that might be helpful for your cause, sir.

Thank you, mister Mahoney. We appreciate that, and I'd be more than happy to be there. Okay. That's all I have at this time. I appreciate it. Appreciate your guys' support for the subcommittee. And moving forward, just for any kind of resonance, if you have any kind of questions and a council member would like to address it, this is the time to do so now. We're not really supposed to go back and forth, but sometimes we need to. Councilwoman Gillis.

I got a few things, and then I'm gonna address some people who had questions. So I attended the American Legion's Veterans Expo, or the Traveling Vietnam War and War on Terror memorial was brought. And I was humbled to meet several Gold Star families who had never seen their family's name on the wall before. I'm grateful every day for their sacrifice. And it was an honor to be a part of that, that day. And Mayor DePuy and Councilwoman Dobleboe Eric Greenberg were also there. I would like to thank the American Legionnaire Ambettes for all the work they have put into the local events. And I wanted to say thank you again to Gary Snyder and Danny Kirkman for all they do for the veterans locally. I attended the presentation on the 04/2005 interchange improvements. I met with city and county officials at different sites to address resident issues.

Myself and Mayor DePue bartended for charity, and raised money for the Southeast Volusia Habitat for Humanity. Thank you Crimson House for hosting the event. I attended our benefits fair and spoke with many city employees. I wanted to thank Julie, Cheryl, and Jackie in HR for putting together such a well attended event. I conducted city clerk interviews with all the applicants HR brought forward to us.

I attended a League of Cities Policy Committee meeting. I attended the Haven Sound Community meeting and met with many residents, and have been following up with them on their concerns. I spoke with many Majestic Oaks residents. I attended our Southeast Volusia Chamber of Commerce Regional Economic Summit, with members of council, as along with from Mayors and Council from New Smyrna Beach and Oak Hill. I attended the Daughters of the American Revolution chapter's one hundredth anniversary for their local chapter.

I attended Chief Geiger's promotional ceremony. I attended our city attorney interviews. I participated in the mayor's fitness challenge. I wanted to say thank you to Amy and the Taylor family at Edgewater Fitness for putting together a great event for this second year coming. I attended the Kiwanis Club teacher grant giveaway, where money was awarded to teachers at many of our local schools, encourage those looking for a place to donate time, to look into our Kiwanis Club locally.

I was also honored to be a part of the Southeast Volusia Habitat for Humanity Mentoring Committee that they just started when we had our first meeting. I attended our trunk or treat. Thank you to Amy, Jason, Chris, and all the Parks and Rec guys. And thank you to all the great vendors who support our local kids. I attended Edgewater Union Church's first annual Trunk or Treat event.

They are the oldest church in town, and they are trying to get more family friendly events going, so I'm just kind of throwing that out there if you guys are looking for something to do. I judged the Indian River Red Ribbon Door Contest with Councilwoman Dolbo, Mayor DePuy, and members of Police and Fire. That's one of my favorite events of the year. And I love all the artwork that the kids do at the school. I met with our city manager over several issues, and he worked with me to help each citizen whose issue I brought forth to him. I wanna express appreciation for Jeff Larracy, and all the hats he's been wearing, and everything he does for the community, and then I went to go look at him, and I don't see him,

so he's not here when I'm talking about him. All right. By the way, he wouldn't take a pay increase.

Then that I'm is

looking for that too. He's doing four jobs. You guys don't realize that. That needs to be I do

not know that part. Jobs. He's amazing.

He's a great, tremendous, caring individual that loves the city of Edgemont.

Alright. I also wanted to thank Taina Hilton for all she does behind the scenes. I received several calls of appreciation for her this month, and I also received several calls of thanks for Harold and Public Works. And then, a couple more things, so on November 16, there will be several local churches, including Relationship Alliance Church, if Pastor Tyler wants to talk about that later at public comment. They're getting together for a service at the Marine Discovery Center, and they are doing a Pack the Pantry event.

Last year, over $55,000 in groceries was bought up by members of these local churches and distributed to food pantries from New Smyrna, Edgewater, and Oak Hill. So it all stays local, and everybody gets together and does it that day. And I think that's a great event. And then on November 17, at Edgewater Alliance Church, from 9AM to 3PM, Wilder's Warriors will be doing a blood drive to support one year of Wilder's fight against leukemia, if anybody would be interested in donating blood that day if you are a blood donator. And then, a couple more things.

Mr. Zino, I wanted to address your question. I am meeting with FDOT on Wednesday, so I can bring that up again. I have brought up that question in the past, and when I asked before, when they've done some of the studies, I said, yes, we've had accidents, we have concerns, but they haven't had enough. A lot of times FDOT wants things to get worse before they move to fix them. And I'll say that publicly. I've said that all the time. But I will try to bring that up again when I meet with somebody on Wednesday. So I wanted to throw that out there. And then Val and Ed, please get with me about that survey, and I'll try to get some answers from Ryan if there's anything I can do with that.

Doug, as far as Edgewater Landing, I know that we're all or anybody here from Edgewater Landing in general, this is all kind of new territory. This is the first live local project we've all had to deal with. So I think I think it's we're gonna be hitting some bumps in the roads as the city figures out how to navigate it moving forward. So we've got to give us some like, none of us are happy about it. I could say I'm not happy about it. Like, I can speak for everybody, but I'm sure there's this there's a lot of the same sentiment. But we've got to give some grace on some of it, because this is all new to us as well. It's something we're trying to fight off. As far as Majestic Oaks, I wanted to address Tom. I don't want you to feel like we're taking a knee, or I'm not taking a knee.

There's just only so much that some of us can do if it's already gone through. If I could bring it up and have it talked about again, would, but I can't. And then the last thing I wanted to bring up, I wanted to bring up, this kind of goes along with something that you had talked about earlier as far as days off. It was brought to my attention that for Veterans Day, I would like to see if there's something we could do where it would give our members of our city employees that were former service members, that we have our veterans, that they don't get the day off themselves. They can use their PTO to take it off if they like.

But I would like to see if it's something moving forward that we could give our veterans a paid day off on Veterans Day as a thank you to their service. I know from calls I made that not a lot of other cities do it, but I mean, who says we can't be the first? I don't know if that's something I kind of wanted to seek consensus on. If there's something that we'd be able to do, I don't know how many vets we have, what the number is off the top of my head. I know we have some, but I don't know what the exact number is and what that would be as far as budget budgetarily wise.

But Sure.

I feel it's something we could easily do.

I can look into it. But keep in mind that the fire and police are in collective bargaining agreements. So but I'll definitely look into it, and I and I support that. Is

that something I can get consensus for?

Let me do some research, and then I can report back to you.

Well, I just wanted to ask because Veterans Day is

I definitely give consensus to have mister Mahoney look into it to see if it's a viable option, necessarily.

Veterans Day is November 7? Okay. I'll look into it quickly.

Thank you. And It is eleventh. Next Tuesday.

And as far as the signs, I know we I mean, I brought this up. I've asked about it before. Is there a way that we could temporarily allow these sign waivers to allow them without having to go through three or four meetings between P and Z and then council meetings to have it changed? Just the holidays are coming up.

No. I'd have to defer to Jeff Larishy, but he's outside. But I'm pretty sure our ordinance prohibits it. So let let me research that ordinance, but I don't think that's something that we could do without it being before you with two two approvals to change it.

Okay. Thank you. Councilman Thomas.

Yes. I participated in the clerk applicant search. I think we had a 141. Is that correct? And then we stopped it.

We narrowed it down to four. If I remember right, that was an all day affair. And then last week, I attended the search for the new city attorney, and we had limited that to four. And I think we'll be selecting a clerk tonight, I hope. But I want to I want you all to recognize something.

And, you know, you all think that when we we get elected this job, it's we meet every other Monday. Well, we take so many phone calls, and you just heard what Charlotte does. I mean, go to how many meetings was that? You know?

That's not all.

But I know. But was, Mr. Rainbird has a full time job. And he was there all day for the clerk's search. He was there all day for the attorney's search. And I asked him, I said, Eric, I said, how are how are you doing that? He says, I'm taking days vacation. You talk about dedication? That that that amazed me. I can't say enough for that.

His dedication to this city has really amazed me. Another thing, backing up the mayor, you know, you've heard of unmandated funds. And what the state does is they make it a law and they shove it down our throat and they say, you figure out a way to pay for it. You've got to do this, but you've to figure out a way to pay for it. And I'm so tired of that, just like I have not talked to one single resident about this, what do they, what do you call it, the Live

local, sir.

Live local. Oh my gosh, everybody is against it. And again, it's something they shoved down our throat. Senate Bill one eighty, they shoved that down our throat. You know? When you go to the polls, you do your research on who you're gonna vote for. Without them, I'll cut it off. I'll keep it short.

Thank you, mayor Thomas. Councilwoman Davao.

I attended the No.

Hello? Hello? Got a meeting?

Oh, yeah.

Oh,

shoot that.

It's pulling up a background. No red light or a green light.

Technical difficulties. There we go. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. I attended the escort, escorting the traveling Vietnam War and the War On Terrorism wall in Edgewater. It was honored to have them in our city. And thanks to the American Legion two eighty five for hosting a weekend of remembering our veterans and helping bring much needed services to them. I attended the Southeast Volusia Regional Economic Summit Recap.

The economic development plan overview was discussed with a great roundtable discussion regarding the regional corridors oh, thank you. Okay. And space industry overlay with the three cities, Edgewater, Oak Hill, and New Smyrna. We collaborate together and look forward to a future where we discuss infrastructure, economic resilience, and transportation, aerospace, and aviation infrastructure. There was a discussion about the stormwater resilience planning that explained more in detail for us to better understand the conditions that Southeast that happened with the Volusia flood risks that we are all experiencing.

I attended the Red Ribbon door judging contest at Indian River Elementary School, and we had a great time with that. The kids always do a wonderful job. That's all. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Councilman Rainberg.

Good evening, Edgewater.

Going to

try to keep this as brief as I can, but I don't know if I can. First of all, I want to address domestic violence statistics that we were just told about. Let's not forget that those are the reported statistics. So much domestic violence goes cat hush-hush. That said, And I appreciate everything that that organization is doing for the awareness of it.

I'm not gonna tell everybody what I did this week because I have some things to address. But as an American Legion rider of twenty eight years, I am proud to have escorted the Vietnam Wall on our motorcycles with Mayor DePue of Edgewater and Mayor Ricky of Oak Hill. That gives you goosebumps to look in the rearview mirror of your motorcycle and see hundreds of motorcycles and that wall back there. And then they had it on display at Post 285, and it was great. There were young kids there that didn't even know what that was and didn't even know what Vietnam was.

And I think you told a couple of them what it was. Can't forget that. I've seen a lot of messages on the internet about this $10,000,000 grant that we got for our stormwater. And while that money's been there a long time, and it's public information, how much interest did we make? That is a grant. We lay money out. We get reimbursed. We lay money out. We get reimbursed. Up to 10.6 or 10,200,000.0, whatever that is.

We don't have that money in the bank. We don't have a slush fund, guys. So that kind of hurts to think that we're over here sitting on interest and not telling you guys about it. It's public information. But I just wanted to address that.

I did not vote against you, the people of Majestic Oaks. I feel like I voted to protect you. Because as many of you know, I've been talking for three years now, maybe four, that one of the largest developers in this state built right up against my back fence and caused a living hell for my life and my neighbors and for everybody that had to listen to me bitch for the last five years. So please, folks, don't forget, we all live here, the flooding. We all know that we all some of us have been victims of it. Mister mayor, how many times? Your grandmother?

Three.

So to Majestic Oaks people, I'm not against rescinding my vote as we've received some new information. Just find out now that DOT is just now making some considerations. But what you guys need to know, and you could ask the Edgewater Landing people, This is gonna be two business buildings with a nice buffer of trees. Only one tree removed. They're listening to you too.

The builder's listening to you. If they decide to go live local, your buffer and all those trees are gonna go bye bye. I guarantee you. If I was there, I'd like to know that maybe there's two buildings with some businesses and maybe some traffic at 07:00 when they come to the people come to work. Throughout the workday, a little bit of traffic. Maybe some of it, unfortunately, from the guava side. Lunchtime, a little more traffic. Hopefully, 05:00, the traffic's done. There's no big blaring white lights facing your development. Because if they live local, if I were to rescind my vote, it's no longer in our hands anymore.

Right now, the way it is, I'm sure the developer's willing to listen to you, miss Mosier. And I believe that they have been. I did not have I did that that lady in the back, that quiet lady that is afraid to come up and speak. Thank you for coming up and representing your people. I did not vote against you. I feel like I voted. I work for you. I take vacation days for you. I'm trying to protect you. If you really feel that you wanna take the risk, and I rescind my vote so you guys could either hopefully either wanna renegotiate or take roll the dice and go live local.

But mister city manager, how many or or maybe mister Solstice, how much buffer implants are they gonna put in currently? And if they go live locally, they're putting in a

Brian Solstice, Development Services Director. So the PUD that we negotiated, the BPUD, has them planting it's 99 trees and two palms. So it's quite a bit of trees. Right now on-site, there's only about eight trees in total. So I made him plant a lot of trees. The buffer will be probably the densest buffer we have in the city of Edgewater.

And then this can happen on the South side, that lot on the corner. And when you go down towards Evergreen, there's that little lot down there that they can go through this all over again, correct? I

mean Correct. So Live Local is that preemption on any commercial, industrial property. A developer has the right to authorize and do live local on those properties and make a in the city of Edgewater, it has to be mixed use. So there will be some form of commercial, but it does allow them apartments at that point. And that's based on the highest density that the city has.

And the people at Edgewater Landing didn't want apartments, so it was voted down. The guy went and lived local. He's given them a whole bunch there's there's gonna be a whole bunch of there's gonna be a whole bunch of stuff there and apartments. Correct?

Correct. Correct. Yeah. It's less apartments, but

But it's still apartments.

Correct. It's still apartments. And then staff's opinion, inferior product, just because he doesn't have to make the product to that caliber. The code doesn't prescribe those types of landscape buffers and that sort of materials, facades, whatever. It just doesn't have that strength in the code for LiveLocal. We did update the code, so any new LiveLocal does have to provide a little bit more landscaping and so forth. But again, it is a state preemption. So it is something that staff is required to review, do the TRC process, and then administratively approve without public hearing. The law is pretty clear on that.

And if it goes live local, they could put a Starbucks there. That could be twenty four hours. It's still gonna be the same entrance because FDOT is not gonna care what's there. They've already may draw their line about what they're doing on US 1.

Yeah. I think the real issue with in with Majestic Oaks is that that although the Majestic Oaks HOA maintains the canopy and the landscaping, it is a public road. And so a public road, someone has the right to access a public road if we can't tell them they can't.

Yeah. I mean, just to chirp up on that a little bit with the Hello. Okay. With the Live Local, with the front of Edgewater Landing, it was a great project. They had big buffers of cement walls. They improved a lot of things with infrastructure and stormwater. And when it was turned down, it's going to be apartments, it's going to be a car wash, it's going to be a strip mall. It's going to be busy, busy, busy. And we're going to get a lot less quality of a product on that property that could have been. And that was a big concern to me when that happened. So thank you for bringing that up.

Can I I think I got a I wanted to kind of piggyback on that? Or is it okay. There I am. Sorry. So but I wanted to bring up, if anybody were to rethink their vote, it would not necessarily mean you'd have to change your vote, but it would allow it to come back up to be re heard so that the residents could speak on it.

I'm only saying that from a point of that maybe Majestic Oaks would have time to sit and weigh their options as to this is what they would be accepting, or would they want to roll the dice if there was the possibility of a local, and that would give them more time to be able because a lot of them didn't feel they had the right public notice to be able to come and speak on it. So that would give them time to gather their troops and make a decision and meet beforehand. I don't know. I'm just throwing that out there. I mean, just if if any word anyone were to move forward with anything.

Wolf, is that accurate? I would not recommend the vote to approve the site plan or rescinding the development order. The site plan was approved months ago. The development order was recently issued. So I think that there could be litigation if the vote was changed now to resend the approval of the site plan if the development order was

Okay. Seeing no further comment, the city manager and I are a team, so he may kill me that I didn't tell him this beforehand. But with your blessing in allowing me to use council chambers, I'd like to start office hours the first and third Tuesday of the month from ten to twelve for residents who come in and talk. I understand that a lot of residents have work, but my phone number is always online with your blessing. And of course, I wouldn't need counsel chambers.

Sorry to put you on the spot. But we'd love to start that in December with the city clerk's approval along with the city manager. Ten to twelve, first and third Monday of every month, mayor office hours right here in council chambers because we don't have an office. So I would be more than happy to meet with anybody here and discuss any questions, comments, or concerns they have first and third Monday of every month, ten to twelve. All right.

Item nine, consent agenda. All matters listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine by the city council and will be acted upon by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of those items unless discussion is desired by a member of the council, which case the mayor will remove that item from the consent agenda, and such item will be considered separately. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?

I make a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Second. Second.

Mike. Seconded by Councilman Thomas. Roll call.

Mayor DePue? Yes. Councilwoman Gillis? Yes. Councilman Thomas? Yes. Councilwoman Dalbo? Yes. Councilman Rainberg?

Yes. Item nine, public hearing ordinances and resolutions nine a, resolution number twenty twenty five dash r dash 37, final year and budget appropriation for fiscal year 2024 to 2025. Bridget is gonna jump up and down. Staff report.

I should read it into the record, mayor. Resolution number two thousand twenty five dash r dash thirty seven, a resolution of the city council of Edgewater, Florida adopting budget adjustments to the twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five fiscal year budgets and providing an effective date.

Staff report.

Thank you, mayor and council. Bridget Vasier, finance director for the City of Edgewater. The resolution before you this evening is the final resolution for the prior fiscal year. Florida statutes including chapter 166.241 provides that the City Council shall adopt a final budget and all adjustments within sixty days following the end of the fiscal year. The budget amendment must be adopted in the same manner as the original budget unless otherwise specified in the charter and respective municipality.

Too much sugar at lunchtime. My apologies. The city manager and staff performed a final year end budget to actual review of the revenue and expenditure for each fund. The City Council of the City of Edgewater amends the fiscal year 'twenty four-'twenty five budget by revising the budget in total pursuant the exhibit attached this evening. There was an additional detail schedule as well included with the resolution.

There were four line items that were crossed on a prior exhibit that are being corrected with this final exhibit amendment. The first was to the fire impact fund that inadvertently shown the recreation impact fund. This was 12,750 for the upfit of the donated equipment. The increase for the 31,004 and 74 insurance true up was on the workers' comp line fund line. So we've corrected it to the correct insurance fund.

The attached exhibit also includes the final expenditures that were required for the year, citywide amendment of $179,222 of which $24,009.11 transfers and total cost increase of $1.54 $3.11. So of that, the $1.19 400 for state insurance premiums, so police and fire receive 72,631 for police and 46,769 for fire pension contributions from the state insurance fund. And this reflects that in the general fund. There was a lightning strike at Fire Station 55. We're working with the insurance company to get all of the damages reimbursed, but we had to front the cost of an emergency generator repair.

That cost was $24,911 And then legal services for Senate Bill 180, or the law firm that is being used to assist us with the SB 180, was $10,000 incurred fiscal year 'twenty five, and we will be including an additional amount in fiscal year 'twenty six when we come before you with a budget amendment. So the recommended action this evening, motion to approve resolution twenty twenty five R-thirty seven and all necessary budget amendments.

Thank you. Citizens comments. Council comments. Great job, Bridget. Appreciate all you do, and thank you Julie as well and every department head that had anything to do with budget amendments along with our city manager. Appreciate it.

I move that we approve resolution Yeah.

I do

have a question.

Yeah. Sorry.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. Thomas. Sorry. But you you just said something that kinda made me pause. For this, senate bill, that we're fighting the lawsuit for paying $10,000 for fiscal year twenty twenty five. Will there possibly be more in 2026?

Yes, ma'am. So the initial retainer amount was $10,000 And so we're anticipating some additional costs moving forward. That will be before you in fiscal year 'twenty six. I believe the additional amount was estimated at 10,000, but I believe it's subject to

Yeah. The the additional 10,000 would be the additional 10,000 would be if there's an appeal of a ruling in the underlying litigation.

Well, right now, all that we agreed to is $10,000. I'm in full support of the the lawsuit, but right now, we're only on the hook for $10,000, correct, that we we approved?

Well, the resolution approving going forward with the litigation said 10,000 for the trial level activities and then additional 10,000 for appeals.

That's not what you said in the meeting, but okay.

And I have another follow-up with that. Am I understanding right? Maybe, mister Mahoney, you could answer. Are we the only city left in Volusia County that is still in the lawsuit for Senate Bill 180? Or maybe that's an Aaron question?

No. That's correct.

Believe I believe Celton withdrew. Celton withdrew.

Okay. So we're the only ones. Alright. Just wanna clarify. Thank you.

Mister mayor, I could probably find it for you, but I think I read that it's $10,000 initial. Mr. Wolf, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it was 5,000 for an appeal and then 5,000 for the second appeal. And at the second appeal, I think it's at the Florida

It was 10,000 it was 10,000 and then 5,000 for the Right. First appeal, and then 5,000 if it went to the Florida Supreme Court.

Right. Right. We're standing up for stuff that they're cramming down our throat, just like I said before.

Most certainly

Yes, sir.

That we're not prepared for and changes that we had on the pipeline that really need to be done for a stronger Edgewater. Okay. Seeing no further comment.

I move that we approve resolution number twenty twenty five r dash 37 final year in the budget appropriation for the fiscal year twenty twenty four twenty twenty five. Second, Rain Bird.

Seconded by accounts councilwoman Davao. Roll call.

Mayor DePue? Yes. Councilwoman Gillis? Yes. Councilman Thomas? Yes. Councilwoman Dalbo? Yes. Councilman Rainbird?

Yes. Item 10, board appointments. 10 a, Volusia Growth Management Commission. Mayor DePue's appointment appointment to fill the expired term of Theresa Pope, who is seeking reappointment. She's a treasurer. She's gone through all the reigns with affordable housing. She really cares about our community, cares about all of Southeast Volusia. Everybody likes her. I never heard one negative thing about her. She really makes a strong difference with any kind of growth management along with any kind of affordable housing crisis that there may be. Was there a staff report on that? I don't believe that there was. Yes.

Miss Pope is is seeking reappointment. Her term expires. We're looking for an appointment of three years. Great. Motion to reappoint Teresa Pope to the Volusia County Growth Commission for a three year term.

Citizens' comments. Counsel comments.

Thank you with everything that you said about Teresa. She's awesome. And I love to see her on the board.

Do it. Does

of a good She's a very concerned, good person.

Is there a motion to approve?

I make a motion to approve mayor DePuy's appointment to fill the expired term of Theresa Pope who's seeking reappointment. So

Second. Roll call.

Mayor DePue? Yes. Councilwoman Gillis? Yes. Councilman Thomas? Yes. Councilwoman Dalbo? Yes. Councilman Raper?

Yes. Item 11, other business. Item 11 a, city clerk staff report.

Mayor and council, I'd refer to you for discussion. If you decide to make a selection, I would just need some direction of to have the city attorney execute employment contract and if you wanted to set the salary this evening or if you wanted city staff or mister Wolf to negotiate salary.

Thank you. Citizens comments. Sorry to keep you waiting.

Sorry you all are having all the flooding issues. Good evening, everyone. My name is Marvel Richards. I live at 1099 Clubhouse Boulevard in New Smyrna Beach. My husband and I have had property in New Smyrna for forty years. And I've been very involved in our city. Had the pleasure I'm here to speak on behalf of Kelly McQuillan for your city clerk. I've had the pleasure of working with her a lot. I was on charter review, which took us nine months. And Kelly was by my side.

I served on the neighborhood council. I've served on golf advisory, all with Kelly right there. Kelly was New Smyrna Beach city clerk. I'm here to speak in strong support of her confirmation for Ed Trotter's clerk. In our time working together, required by me, Kelly consistently impressed me with her intention to detail, deep knowledge of municipal operations, and her calm professionalism.

Beyond her technical skills, I saw a person who truly values public service, someone who treats every citizen with respect. Ketley knows the rules, follows the rules. She always has a smile. Was always supportive. I believe this is exactly the kind of person you would want as your city clerk. It's an honor for me to support Kelly McQuillan. I encourage you to confirm her this evening.

Thank you. Well, thank you. We appreciate your comment.

Good evening. My name is Deborah Dugas, and I live at 200 North Pine Street, New Smyrna Beach. And I probably should just sit down and say I agree with everything miss Richard said, But I wrote my speech because I'm not a good speaker. I'm here on behalf of Kelly McQuillan as a candidate for city clerk. I've lived in New Smyrna Beach as a permanent resident for the past twenty years.

I completed the New Smyrna Beach Citizens Academy. I served on the beachside task force and attended many commission planning and zoning and preservation historic preservation meetings. I wanted to learn and know what was going on in my city. And I counted on Kelly for information and clarification many times. I've had many encounters and communication with Kelly.

During her tenure in New Smyrna Beach, found more open transparency, more willingness to assist residents than I'd ever had before. I could ask a question, ask for clarification on an issue, pretty much anything that should be available to the public. She listened and helped me. She helped me learn how to understand and navigate through things. If it was something another staff member could help with, she would refer me to them.

She was never condescending or unprofessional in any way. She always answered my emails, my calls, and would even meet with me if I showed up without an appointment, as many would not. I did not know Kelly personally or as a friend, but I do now count her as a friend. And I know I could ask her for understanding at any time. She's all about helping, but she's also about everyone following the rules, which I respect.

I think she knows and shows how important the job of city clerk is. If people cannot approach a staff member, what's the point? I understand that staff are busy and always think they need to be open to residents, which Kelly certainly was. I hope that Kelly will be chosen as the new city clerk for Edgewater. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am, for your comments. I truly appreciate it.

Good evening, mayor, council, and staff. My name is Leslie Sachs of 816 East 8th Avenue, New Smyrna Beach. I came here to share with you the things I know about your clerk applicant, Kelly McQuillan. She is a very experienced certified municipal clerk with only one year away from master certification. She knows, follows, and shares the rules and regulations of city government.

She is very friendly and cordial to the public. Back in 2023, she was very helpful to me when I did a traffic speed presentation under items of new business. She always had a smile and was very approachable no matter how busy she was. I have been to many commission meetings and you can see the experience and professionalism, yet she was always transparent, approachable and ready to assist the public. She makes it look so easy, but I can tell this is a very involved job with many duties, setting agendas, working with newly electeds, and setting elections and handling public records requests, to name a few of her duties.

She was very instrumental with our youth council which trained teenagers on how local government runs. The kids were assigned a commissioner and sat on the dais while meetings were conducted. Seeing the spark of interest in their eyes was really special. They conducted their own meetings with the goal of building and placing art sharks throughout our city. This goal was accomplished, the sharks do look great. Please don't let this opportunity slip by your city to get such a valuable employee and a veteran to boot. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, ma'am, for your comments. We're truly appreciated.

Well, good evening, counsel. My name is Celeste Lester. I live at 410 Quellisisi in New Smyrna Beach. I've lived here thirty years. My husband is Doctor. Lester, right here in this town. I've known Kelly for a long time. I was president of New Smyrna Beach Citizens for Smart Growth. We did a lot of stuff in New Smyrna. I am on the board of the hub.

I worked for Habitat for Humanity for six years. I've done a lot of work here in this town for a lot of people. Kelly is fantastic. She's never lied to anybody. If I find out that's for simple let's say you're gonna run for mayor, you're gonna run for mayor, you're gonna run for mayor, I'm gonna go to her, and I'm gonna find out exactly what your backgrounds are before I make a decision on who I'm going to elect.

And I have a very good, good reputation because I am very proud of everything that I have done for New Smyrna, Edgewater. I am a native Atlanta Georgian, and I've always worked my whole life. And I've traveled all over the world, and I've felt oh gosh, I can't even think of what it is. I made a did a hospital in Taipei. Mhmm. I built that. And I've done a lot of other things for a lot of people. So I hope you will let Kelly be your next city clerk. Thank you very much.

Thank you, miss Lester, for your comments and all that you do for the community.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council members. My name is Jim Hathaway. I'm a resident of New Smyrna Beach. I have been for seventy two oh, strike that, Sixty eight years. I actually lived four years in Edgewater on Sable Palm Drive, 1974 to 1978. I served as a city commissioner in the city of New Smyrna Beach for eighteen and a half years. And I served as mayor for four years. And prior to that, I was on the original CRA board. So I've given it over twenty five years of my life in service to the city of New Smyrna Beach, and I appreciate what you are doing tonight for your city. Absolutely. It's a tough job. Y'all know it. You deal with it daily. And I'm glad I'm retired, but, I'm very fortunate you guys are are are doing a good job for the city of Edgewater.

I wanna speak for Kelly McQuillan. No one knows what it's like, unless you've been there with this great, great city clerk. Kelly took over from our existing city clerk, Johnny Bledsoe, who wasn't well. He had some medical issues there the last year or two when I was the mayor of New Smyrna Beach. Kelly stepped up to the plate, was able to do everything that Johnny did and then some, straightened out all of our minutes, got the agenda put up together in time, did a remarkable job with dealing with the electoral candidates.

And all I can say, I'll echo everything that's already been said by these ladies that spoke before me, but I want to say to you, New Smyrna's loss is certainly Edgewater's gain, and I hope you will seriously consider Kelly as your next city clerk. Thank you very much.

Thank you, mister Mayor, for your comments. I appreciate it.

Cindy Black, Edgewater, Umbrella Tree. Somebody's got to stand up for Sarah Geiger. Sarah's helped me several times with some public information. As far as qualifications for the job, I know she's been with the police department for a long time. And she's currently our public information officer.

I don't know how she would do for a city clerk, but I know as far as some of the duties, what she's done in the past gives her some experience. But I know she's people friendly. She's ran many events in the city. So organization skills, she's got those. So I just felt like somebody should come up here and stand up for her and say, she's really friendly. Everybody knows her. And, you know, she she would be a good faith in in Edgewater. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am, for your comments. I appreciate it. Mister Martin, not to catch up. I think he got up first. Sorry.

Mayor, my name's Wayne McCluskey. 509 Wildwood Drive in Edgewood are here. I'm being caught by surprise. I didn't know. I didn't expect to get up and speak about Sarah. But I'd like to say something, because I know what she means to us, the PD. I've had the privilege of working as a cap for five years. I know it's the men that get the credit. But behind every man is a better woman. And I'm telling you, you if you knew what she does for the city behind the scenes is absolutely incredible.

You know, all the functions, everything that goes on, she she pretty much has her finger on the pulse. And, I mean, it's real nice what we're hearing about outsiders and other cities. Nobody but nobody but has their finger on the pulse like Sarah does. And we'd be making a major mistake if we didn't use use Sarah to her full ability. So thank you.

Thank you, mister McCluskey, for your comments and all that you do for the city of Edgewater.

Chuck Martin, 205 Chair Woodland Lane Edgewater. And what a wonderful guy. They don't come any better than Wayne. I've known him for many decades. Know, over the past many, many years, a lot of the reasons why I'm here is because I've heard Edgewater's corrupt.

And I was just so sick of it. And when I heard that we could potentially have Sarah Geiger to move into our city clerk's position. Almost fell to the floor. Nothing against anybody that was here or Kelly. Don't know her.

I know nothing about her. I've heard great things. But we turned a corner when we put Joe Mahoney into the position that he's at now. And to have a good, honest, hardworking law enforcement officer to move into that position, that's a win win. That she would even be willing to do that, I think we would all be very honored.

And I agree with what Wayne said. Behind every good man is a great woman. They don't come any better. I've known her since she's came here. That's it. Thank you.

Well, thank you, sir, for your comments. They're truly appreciated.

Renee Sortman, Edgewater Animal or, well, Sheltered. I want to come and tell what I feel about Sarah. I started the Southeast Volusia Crime Watch years ago. And the support I got from Sarah was unbelievable. And since then, she has done above and beyond for Toys for Tots. She's done records. She's done just a whole bunch of community involvement. And I think that we should be hiring from within. I think that we should consider what she means to all of us. She does.

And I think that our citizens need to step up some more instead of no disrespect to the folks from New Smyrna, but we need to be recognizing what our own people do seriously. And I think that Sarah Geiger is going to bring us all together because that's what she does. She a she'll do the right thing. She has integrity. And she she is a homegirl. And I think that we should bring our homegirl home. Thanks.

Thank you, ma'am, for your comments. Counsel comments.

Can I go for mister mayor? Sure. Such good applicants. Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

Their their resumes, when we first started, we started with 141 and I went through most of them and just the resumes alone were outstanding and then to limit it to four, which I got to personal interview all four of them last week. But what I want to say is I personally I've been in this city since government since o five. I took a four year break, and then I took a two year break. But some of the things I've witnessed Ms. Geiger do was unbelievable.

When they had police put on their demonstrations at the Whistle Stop Park, I was invited to go down there. And when something would go wrong or somebody needed a question, they would go to Ms. Geiger. And Ms. Geiger would say, do this or do that.

But I, it was, it was, I saw this with my own two eyes. She organized the event and then being a police officer myself, you always got to have plan a, plan b and plan c. And I guarantee you she's got those. And organizing these events is really, really something. When I ran the Hunt Club, I had a semiannual event where I had a work day and I fed two sixty five people.

Well, you just don't do that in one day. It takes weeks and weeks of planting. She's a planner, she's a go getter, she's a homegirl. I really believe in promoting from within and I'm just really impressed with her, her resume, and all that I have seen with these two eyes, what she has done. You know, and I think she can I think she can pull this court's office together and organize it, I think she'll be another Mahoney?

You know, I I, you know, I I think she's I think she's think she's gonna be great. So with that, I would like to nominate miss Sarah Geiger for the city clerk purposes.

Second, Rainberg. Roll call.

Are there any other comments at this time?

Loyalty comes to mind.

Are you gonna speak to Debbie or I'll wait till you talk.

My my microphone died again.

I can't believe it. They were on the train.

$17.

What are you doing, Deb?

I don't have your gold.

I never shut

it off so I wouldn't dream this too much.

We should be good.

Awesome. Hello?

Thank you.

Mike, I echo a lot of things that you've said about Sarah, thank you to all the applicants that applied. I'm sure each of them would serve our city well. Two things I was looking for in the application process and the interview process: First, I was looking for someone with experience. I was interested in finding someone who had prior experience in the position who could start on day one and know what they're doing. I was also looking for someone with dedication, city, a love for our residents, to serve with honor and respect.

And the two that I've come down to, and I'm wrestling with myself, is Sarah Geiger and Cheryl Hebert. Cheryl has the experience as city clerk. She is currently our human resource coordinator at Edgewater. She's been an administrative assistant. So she has a lot of experience that she could come in right away. But Sarah has a love for our city. She's well respected. She serves with honor. She's a wonderful woman. And I would happily see either one of them there.

Wanted to say they were my two top choices. Kelly was a wonderful, wonderful interview, and I appreciate all that she's done in the city of New Smyrna. And she also has experience. But again, I was also considering hiring from within when it comes down to the final two. And so I'm split. I think Sarah would do a great job. I think Sher will do a great job. But just I wanted to put that out there for the two two finalists for me. So I'm I'm that's where I'm at right now. Thank you.

Well, I appreciate that. And my two that I came down to was miss Kelly and Sarah Gogger. Kelly has experience, has a lot of recommendations from everybody in New Smyrna Beach, and did a great job from what I hear from a lot of highly respected individuals from New Smyrna Beach, even the former mayor. But Ms. Geiger has the support of the community, has a love for the community, like you stated, has served with honor, dignity, and respect.

I believe from promoting within. Those are my two choices. Out of the two that you had picked, I 110% put my confidence in Ms. Geiger to serve our city in a positive manner moving forward. And the clerk's department, I think, as Mayor Thomas stated, we, moving forward, are going to be united. I think that we would make a great team. But I like Cheryl from HR. Think she's a great individual, but I like the way that Kelly and Sarah interviewed. And the way you get experience is you start somewhere. And she has experience with public records. She knows what to do in that position. That's my two cents.

I'm going to echo, I guess, what a lot of everybody else said. I mean, also when I factored down after my interviews, my two I kind of came down to were Sarah and Kelly. They both interviewed very well. All the applicants did as well. But again, from promoting them within.

And the one thing Sarah did differently, and taking the fact that Sarah is Sarah and lives here and is loved by the community out of it, what she did differently in her interview, she already came with a plan. Sitting down here asking some questions, she already broke down to me, like, list of things, these are things I can see improvement, these are some things, like she has already put some thought into things that she wants to fix, and things moving forward, and she was the one who did that. And that's just all her on her own, she interviewed very well, and let me tell you, Julie's gonna look at me. I threw some crazy questions at them, because being in the clerk's office, you never, they're kind of the catch all for everything. And you never know what somebody's gonna come in and ask them.

So, I mean, I did throw some oddball questions to see if they were quick on their feet, because sometimes you've people in there asking you crazy questions with a camera in your face. And I wanted to see how everybody handled the stuff that I threw at them. And I think that everybody interviewed very well, but I love that Sarah had already come forward with a plan, things that she saw just from watching. And also, this also comes from working within the city, things that she saw where she felt there were issues that she could fix moving forward, and ways she thought that she could do it. So that's my two cents on that so far. Again, with the promoting from Bethanne Kelley, I think is great and very well experienced. She's an Edgewater resident as well, but I've got to go with my gut and my heart on this one.

One of the one of the questions that I asked miss Geiger was what is one of the toughest things you've had to do? And you know we lost one of our police officers about two or three weeks ago. And she organized the event and she said it was heartbreaking, of course, the police department, the family. And again, I wanted to donate. I was sick at that time, just got out of the hospital.

So they had a GoFundMe account, so I gave her a 100 bill. I said put this in the GoFundMe account and she said no, we're not going to do that because the GoFundMe account gets a certain percent and we want all of it to go to the family. And that's her kind of thinking in the organization. I really appreciate her having to go through that breaks tears to my eyes. But, anyway, she's an organizer, and I think she'll do well with this.

Councilor Rainberg, did you have any comments?

Well, I agree with everything everybody said. As you guys know, I've always touted promoting from within. Sarah took an oath to protect and serve. And I believe she took that for life. And just from knowing her for the twenty years that I've been in this city, I've got to meet a lot of the officers. And she's a magnet for a lot of the people here. And to steal Ms. Sortman's phrase, she's a homegirl. And, yeah, you've been branded. So she brings people together.

You think of the word consensus, she kind of gets one quickly. She knows who to call. One of our applicants worked for the we had great applicants. It was the hard decision. She's Edgewater. We had a girl work for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals,

I believe.

She was

a great applicant as well.

But Sarah came with a portfolio of stuff. So I agree with everybody's comments here.

Madam City, before we move forward, I want to thank miss Monique for all that you've done during this period of time.

Amen.

Always being present, always making sure that we had everything on the calendar. You did a tremendous job. Yeah. Appreciate you.

Thank you.

There is a motion and a second on the floor. Please call the roll.

There a motion you

need include?

Mayor DePue?

Yes.

Councilwoman Gillis?

Yes.

Councilman Thomas?

Yes.

Councilwoman Dahlgow? Yes. Councilman Rainberg?

Homegirl.

Is that

a yes? Yes. Alright.

And and then as far as the contract, would you like me to get with, miss Christine and do a survey of city, clerk salaries and negotiate the salary and then bring the contract back to you?

Yes. Please.

I'll do that the next meeting.

Thank you. And congratulations, madam city clerk. Yeah.

I guess we could. Mean

Mister mister mayor? And mister Wolf, could could we set a a range for the salary?

I would say this. I mean, can we Wait. We set

So we can execute the contract prior to the next council meeting. Okay. Is is what was curious if we can get her to work quickly, in that department.

We did a meeting yesterday.

I I would say the same as what Bonnie made. I think that that was a very fair amount.

Okay. Can we say we would negotiate between I think it was between $80,000 and $100,000

Sounds good.

Okay. And then if those terms are met and Mr. Wolf approves the contract, does the rest of the council, agree that the mayor can execute the contract?

I give consensus.

I give consensus for that, but there's one thing that I want to also bring up to attention. It's not the fact that I don't trust Sarah. I think she's going be a great city clerk, but I don't really like the thirty days notice at all. If you're fired at a job, you're out the next day. Maybe, potentially, is there a you know, I'm not for a severance package, either, but I really don't like the thirty days. Can we negotiate it to seven, potentially? I think that that gives enough to work with an interim clerk and to work to get the knowledge to the city manager that's needed. It's not the fact that I don't trust Sarah. It's for years to come because

Moving forward.

When you retire, if she moves out to a different position, how is that gonna be negotiated if there is a separate contract?

In in regards to separate If

you have to dismiss somebody, because we are a city government, and our data is very important, And stuff can be deleted. As I've mentioned in other meetings, if we did have to dismiss somebody immediately, I would just rather pay them money. Here you go. Sorry. We don't have a don't have a reason, or we have a reason. But we can't have you sit back at our computers and be exposed to our database. So, you know, here's a check. Thank you for your service.

Okay. Yeah. I I understand. I think, mister Wolf, I I agree we could eliminate

that. Right. And then severance for dismissal without cause. By statute, it's limited to twenty weeks, but you could set a different range, less than that or equal to twenty weeks.

I mean, if if you can give a range at least so we can negotiate with with miss Geiger.

Last one 12 to 15.

The the last one was eight. I would suggest ten weeks.

Ten weeks is fine with me. Is that fine with everybody else?

As far as the severance?

Yes, ma'am. Are you on board with

I'm digesting everything.

Yes. I think that's a little weak. If you're That's kind of an upheaval of somebody's life if it's a decision that we make with no I mean, I don't want to just throw taxpayer money away, but that's kind of a big decision and a big change to somebody's Well,

is normally severance anyway.

Can leave that up as part of the negotiation and have it be from between ten and twenty?

Ten to fifteen.

We're hoping this don't happen.

GREGORY ten to days? GREGORY I'm sorry. Okay. Okay.

Mhmm. For for without cost?

Yes. Yeah. I'm pretty I'm pretty on pretty dead set about seven, to be honest with you guys, just for the record. And it's not that I don't trust Sarah. I know her personally. I think she's gonna do a tremendous job.

I don't know. I think it should I just feel a little longer would be better. I mean, they're at the whim of counsel, and any time someone can be uprooted and fired without cause, and I think seven weeks, I understand what you're saying, to save taxpayer money.

The only concern that I have with that is we had a former city manager that got on Facebook, cursed everybody out, cursed us out, very, very, very unhappy leaving. I don't think that that's a good idea.

We can't but we shouldn't judge future employees by past.

Well, you learn by your mistakes. I'm trying to argue it.

I'm just No, no, no, It's a discussion. No, no. It's good to have dialogue. That's how we talk through things and understand

each I can understand how you think that way, why to think that way. But I just think that thirty days is too long. Mean, I there's a lot within that. Now, an attorney or something to that degree that has a lot of litigation going or something like that, that's separate.

Mayor Counts, would you rather us negotiate the contract and bring it

to the You negotiate the contract and

bring it

to us. Correct. You're hired. We can we go ahead and give a consensus of no more than fifteen days? Can we agree to fifteen?

Fifteen what?

Fifteen days notice

Yes.

If they're fired without cost? Yes.

No more than

fifteen than that. Okay.

Can we give consensus to that? That's legal, sir. That's fine. K. Alright. Well, congratulations.

Alright.

11BAR20250457, request for approval of Deering Park North Deering Park Center phase one proportion of share agreement. Please read into the record.

This is not a resolution, mayor, so there's no reading.

Staff report.

Good evening. Brian Solsys, development Services Director. This is a proportionate share traffic agreement between the city of Edgewater, Volusia County, and the applicant during Park. The TIA identified intersection and roadways that would need to that would operate below the adopted level of service. The development must pay their upfront their traffic impacts to address and remedy these identified deficiencies in the adopted level of service.

This is a requirement of section four zero two, the city's land development code, and section two seventy two, pardon me, of Volusia County's land development code. The proportionate fair share agreement is for $819,605.25. These will be paid to Volusia County for roadway improvements. The city is anticipated to generate roughly $479,386 in multimodal impact fees at the time of building permit as the TIA did not identify any local roads that would be operating below their adopted level of service.

Thank you. Just two questions before we enter citizens' comments. I'm sorry, I know it's time to make it at council comments, but I think this is going to come up. Do we already agree to this and there was a title issue?

So this is the proportionate share agreement. I think what you were referring to was on the consent agenda, the quitclaim deeds.

Okay. Thank you. Yes. Has our new city engineer digests this at all?

Matt did not review the proportionate share agreement because this has to do with traffic. So the city contracts out all traffic engineers to our Stanley traffic consultants who reviewed this with Volusia County and FTOT.

So we did have our third party engineer check this over. Are there any storm water concerns potentially?

Regarding this is just a traffic agreement?

Correct. So no storm waters. No. Okay. Great. Thank you. Appreciate it. Citizens comments.

Cindy Black, Umbrella Tree. So this is a wastewater agreement?

No, no, no.

Are we equipped to even handle their wastewater yet, considering we are having to build a new wastewater plant?

This is for traffic. This is the proportionate fair share agreement for traffic. The next item will

be Okay. Well, that's shown on the

we're on item b.

B.

Okay. At the counsel comments, I ask my questions. Are there any further comments?

I just have concerns with any of this being talked about until

We can't hear you.

I just had concerns as far as this. I thought we were going to be not moving forward with some of this until we got the stormwater master plan presented to us, and it's not been presented back. So I just have concerns with any of it moving forward without the other information presented to us.

I think that the city manager has been that was one of my issues and concerns. And the Storch law firm agreed, when I met with him for lunch, to hold off until December with any kind of stormwater concerns. I think that the third party traffic engineer didn't have any stormwater concerns with this, because that was one of my major things. Anything related to any kind of stormwater master plan issues, they did discuss and said that they would hold off just for the record. Right. We can Because have that the reason I say that is I share that same concern. Sorry, Mr. Storr.

That's Okay. No, I appreciate it. Yeah, I just wanted to clarify that as well. We agreed, after hearing, that you'd like to have the Platts, which have

to deal with

stormwater, continued until after the report. That's what we're doing. So that has now been continued until December 1 after the presentation that you're going to hear on that night. So the idea is that all those plats that were going have been continued until that time. This is only dealing with the proportional share agreement.

It's a standard proportional share agreement that everyone does as they're going through the process. It's how much the developer pays, in this case, to help address potential traffic issues. And so in this case, you'll have it's a hearing before you. We're paying $819,000 just for this particular area. And then we'll also have a hearing before the county council. They also have to approve it before both sides can sign it, and we can pay the money.

Well, thank you. We appreciate it. This is not related to any storm water issues. Are there any further council comments?

I move we approve AR 2025Dash0457 request for approval of Darien Park North, Darien Park Center, phase one proportionate share agreement. Second.

Roll call. But before we do roll call, I just want to clarify that this is not approving anything on the developmental side of Darien Park, just traffic relations. Some of

you were even dealing with some of the traffic stuff. I mean, to say that traffic some of the traffic changes wouldn't have any impact on storm water when you're dealing with traffic and roads and all of that. I mean, there's got to be potential increases. Just have concerns.

Roll call. But if there's any if there are any changes, I rather see changes by roads. This is this is different for us. We're actually getting infrastructure put before we start all this crazy building, which is what has been our problem for the last twenty years. We've been hearing these developers three years on planning and zoning, I've been hearing developers saying, yeah, we're gonna develop oh, yeah, roads. Oh, yeah, traffic lights. Where's the traffic lights? We've been listening to developers say, yeah, we're gonna work on infrastructure first. We actually have it now. So I think it's kind of

Amen, brother.

You know, we're not used to it. And I think it's and as as this gets developed, we'll see water changes. It's better than having some developer start to build. And we heard, what was it, twice that their storm containment failed. And we had people out there in the dark getting water into their living room because some engineer miscalculated something or some kind of wall failed.

I mean, this is a baby step, it seems, for me anyway. Or could just start building and worry about the roads later, or not even worry about the roads, because they wouldn't do that to us, would they? I mean, this seems like the white right way to approach it for me. With all due respect, counsel and Gillis, counsel and Gillis

Let me ask you a question, mister Storch. I understand that this is part of another engineering firm. If anything related to this traffic study comes back on the stormwater master plan, would you agree to hold another meeting to see any concerns that are with that to comply with our stormwater master plan?

Well, again, yeah, there's no stormwater issues here. This is all dealing with the thing. If there's a stormwater issue, of course, we would come back

and

talk to you. Because I understand how important stormwater is you. But at this point, it's simply a matter of getting the agreements as to what we have to do. And most of this work, by the way, is being done by the county, not being done by us.

Asking what road is this going to cover?

Well, road's nice to see infrastructure even talked about. I'm just not used to it.

It's when you see it it's roads that the city the county has determined may be appropriate for improvements. And again, none of these are city roads. These mostly county or state roads.

Good evening. Ernie Cox with Deering Park. The Exhibit A to the agreement actually based upon the traffic impact analysis that was approved by the county, the city and DOT in terms of where those impacts are. There will be improvements made to State Road 442 I-ninety 5 interchange, Some signalization there. There'll be improvements made to the off ramp, the northbound off ramp. There'll be some turn lane improvements at Indian River Boulevard and U. S.

1 and

then proportionate share of an improvement to optimize some signal timing. And so these are going through the impacts that go to those particular roads for all county facilities.

Majorly, we don't have much control.

Well, it's just following the the traffic analysis that gets done following the DOT, the county, and the city requirements. And then it's a commitment to write a $819,000 check to help get those improvements done.

Thank you.

So mostly this is gonna be 442 and the interchange is on 95.

Right. And that's in addition that's totally totally separate. That's in

addition to the It's not gonna be included with Clyde Morris or any of that yet. No. Yet.

You're talking about

Williamson? I'll put a Williamson. I'm sorry.

No. Say that Williamson is not affected by this agreement.

This is for 442,

mainly. Yes.