City Council Regular Meeting - Regular Meeting

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. [clears throat] All right. Before we uh move for approval of the agenda, I do have a couple changes I'd like to make to it as well. I'm just going to move up a couple recognitions cuz I know a couple golfers who got to be somewhere else real fast. And then also move uh items 10.1 and 13.2 directly after recognitions and before Mr. Sparks and his presentation. So, benefits everyone except for Mr. But I know he doesn't mind way exact same thing except for also add 13.3 right after that 13.2 meeting this year.

Yeah, absolutely. You want to make a motion? So move second. Motion made by Councilman Schmidt, second by Councilman Jeter to approve the agenda as it's been altered. Any additional comments? Seeing none, council, please vote. does pass unanimously. If we could have our two uh wonderful superstar golfers come on up to the podium uh along with your families if they're here as well. We have uh Mason Dean Hampton and Tinley Sharon. Are you both here? Come on up right there to the podium. I don't think

Oh, I got you. All right. Well, we have a want to recognize you. um two Fort Walton Beach Golf Club members who were part of the fourplayer golf team that won first place for the second consecutive year at the first TE national tournament in New Orleans along with outstanding individual performances. Mason finished second overall on the boy side. So we have a certificate of recognition for him and a big old round of applause for your achievement. [applause] you get that if you want to come stand right up here. We'll get a picture with uh our our board here.

Absolutely.

All right. Thanks. Awesome. Congratulations. Awesome job. [applause] I know she's not here, but uh Tinley Sharon, girls first overall as well at the uh first T national tournament in New Orleans. So, big round of [applause] applause for [applause] I'm sure Jacob can get that certificate, too, correct? Uh, and then we have two uh ACE award winners tonight as well. Awesome standout kids here in our community. First from Chalkall High School, McKenzie Mohler. If you're here, McKenzie, do we have McKenzie tonight? There she is. And if you have mom or dad with you as well, please uh invite them up or anybody that's with you that you want to bring up. So McKenzie, Miss McKenzie Mohler exemplifies civic excellence through her exceptional academic performance, impressive work ethic, handiccraft skills, and community service, ranked eighth in her class with a 4.63 GPA. McKenzie is renowned for her involvement in church and community outreach groups. Miss Muller also boasts an inspiring record as a student of the dual enro enrollment program. McKenzie counts uh building a school in Colombia. Had to read that twice. I almost didn't. Building a school in Colombia, cleaning hurricane debris, and providing um for society's most vulnerable among her proudest achievements. Miss Mohler's work experience is vast with time spent as a retail associate, babysitter, pool cleaner, and file scanner. She inspires peers through her multitasking, efficiency, and hardworking nature. Congratulations, Mackenzie. [applause] And Mackenzie, while you're up there, why don't you inform us about your

future plans uh that you know? Yeah. I'm going to go to Mississippi State and major in interior design. Awesome. Fantastic. And grab a certificate for [applause] you. bring mom and dad up and we'll all get a picture together.

Thanks.

Congratulations. [applause] All right. And Bradley Buckthal. Do we have Bradley Buckthal? There he is. Come on up. Mr. Bradley Buckthal embodies civic excellence through impressive academic achievement, compelling extracurriculars, robust work experience, and various awards. With a weighted GPA of 4.73 and a class rank of number three, he has distinguished himself in dual enrollment in AP courses while also being recognized as a Viking scholar and a recipient of the ANT Mitchell Award. As a member of the National Honor Society, Eagle Scouts, fishing club president, JB cross country captain, and an Okaloosa County Youth Leadership Council member, Bradley has had a serious effect on the improvement of our local academic community. Additionally, he has work experience shadowing orthopedic trauma surgeons. Look at you, man. Good lord. [laughter] Assistant scout mastering and champion champion champ. Oh my goodness. He's involved with youth leadership efforts as well. It's not coming out of my mouth. Uh he extols the highest virtues of civic responsibility. Congratulations, Brad. [applause]

[applause] future plans for you, sir? Um, I plan on attending University of Florida and going premedical major and hopefully getting into med school in the future. Fantastic, man. Awesome. [applause] Come on up here. Thanks. Congratulations, sir. [applause]

All right. And for our final excellent young person in the community, Mr. Walker has a presentation. Yes.

Uh today we're going to recognize uh Andrew Dolly for earning the rank of Eagle Scout. So Andrew, if you and your parents would come up and get you this and uh hear a little bit about your we got here. Tell us about tell us about what you got. So here I have my Eagle Scout project which is where I constructed two chest tables in Ferry Park. I believe that it is a very good addition to our community and I hope that I can give back to my community as much as I can. So, as you can see on the first slide here, this is my artist rendition of what the project would have looked like. This is the first visual of what I depicted or what came to mind when I thought of the project. This is what the site looked like before and when we started construction for the Eagle Scout project. As you can see, it's right there nestled in between the two playgrounds there in Ferry Park. And that's us beginning the construction of leveling it to a 2% grade. That's me there in that photo on the right and on the left of putting crushed limestone in the foundation of where our concrete pad will go, which is what goes underneath our test tables in the park. This is where we were constructing two rebar pillars or supports. So our pedestals holding the chess table could not tilt or wobble as we are playing the game. This is pouring the concrete which was helped by concrete contractor Kyle Ramsey. We were pouring the concrete in our form and that's me on the upper right evening out the concrete along with him. And on the bottom right that is our finished product.

This is how we made the chest boards. We constructed a mold at first and we put the tiles upside down in the mold and put special rebar reinforcements inside of the mold to make sure that it can attach to the pedestal in the right way. So those are the supports that I was talking about. And on the image on the right, that's how the support and how the tabletop connected to the base. This is when we unmolded our first one. That's what it looked like on the on the very left on the bottom left. That's what it looked like when we first took the top off of it. And then the middle, that's what it looked like after we took the rest of it off. And that's me on the bottom right sanding down the table so it would be smooth. This is where me and the scouts came in. We constructed the benches and we cut the forms that we needed to pour the concrete pillar. And that's us pouring the concrete on the right side. We put the concrete chest tabletop inside of the pedestal while it was still wet so they would attach to each other. In the middle, that is us drilling in the holes that we will use to attach to the bench. That is me with my black that [laughter] that is inside of the concrete chest table or inside of the concrete base. And that is inside of the that is inside of the concrete pad. That's the before. And next slide is the after of what it looks like in the [applause]

[applause] Uh, Andrew, if you want to come up here and mom and dad and scout masters. Yes. Oh, there you are. Yes. There you go. Uh, I want to say and Bradley Andrew's trip to help Mr. Mr. Walker be recorded. Where is the microphone? Oh, there it is. Is this everyone?

I think I take just I don't want to take just a minute to speak about Mr. Andrew uh and his um obtaining the Eagle Scout. Uh from the time he contacted me must have been back July of 25. In the several times I've met with him and talked with him about his planning and execution of the plan that he had there for the um for the chess sets that he's made, he has just been an incredible persistent guy overcoming problems and obstacles in his way all along the way and he performed it excellently. Um so congratulations there. Uh and I know that obtaining the let me see there's your evil scout there's your certificate there. Um and also today while u we're recognizing you for this, we're also recognizing you for another special moment today. Today's your birthday, correct?

Oh wow. [applause] And so while I know you have many badges to that you have there and now with the completion of your Eagle Scout, I hope you'll stay involved in the scouts and lead others to that place as well. but also would like to deliver you a little something just as a a birthday present for today and you can carry that one with you throughout adulthood. Great. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thanks. [applause]

Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Walker. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, if I would too. And um I want to thank all of the staff. I know that the rec department, Jason, all of you participated in helping Mr. Dolly bring that together. Wow, what a crowd. All right. Well, that brings us to item six on our agenda, presentations. Mr. Nathan Sparks, executive director of one Okaloosa Economic Development Council. I'm sorry. What?

Oh, yeah. You're right. My bad. I'm sorry, Nathan. I tried to not cheat back, but forgot what I even did myself. Some what? Oh, okay. First time caller, long time listener. All right. So, it brings us to item 10.1. Uh, resolution 2026-02. Mr. Burns, you need to read that one, Miss Neighbors. Yeah, Miss Neighbors.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, just as a little background, as you guys know, on October 28th of 2025, uh, the council awarded the wreck expansion complex to Gum Creek Farms in the total of 7,59,312.75. And you authorized staff to issue a competitive solicitation to secure the debt financing that we discussed. Um, we engaged with PFM, who we are contracted with, uh, to propose issuance of the capital improvement revenue note in series 2026, um, in an amount not to exceed $7.5 million. I know that's a little bit above the, um, awarded amount for Gum Creek Farms, but I wanted to put a little bit of cushion in there just in case there's change orders, which we all know usually happen, and to be able to furnish um, uh, the the expansion itself. Um PFM actually distributed the request for proposals or the RFP on November 17th of 2025 and we received seven prop seven proposals um from the following institutions from Capital 1 Hancock Whitney Origin Securities Regions Truist Trustmark and Webster Bank. Based on PFM's review and discussions with us and also with Bond Council, it was determined that Webster Bank provided the best combination of the interest rate and terms most favorable for the city. Webster Bank proposed a fixed interest rate of 4.08% and this rate is valid through January 30th of 2020 2026. Therefore, staff respectfully recommend city council adoption of resolution 2026-2 to allow for reimbursement of costs incurred prior to the issuance of any tax exempt debt instrument for the new recreation expansion complex as well as authorization for staff to move forward with Webster Bank and execute all required loan documentation. We have um obviously our city attorney, our bond council, and then also PFM is on um poor things got stuck in the storm and were not able to get here, but they are on teams for any specific questions regarding the loans.

Thank you, Miss Neighbors. Questions for Miss Neighbors or JB or NR? Councilman, the ink drive. We're still good with the deal with the terrace development department on helping fund this. Yes. Awesome. Thank you. Additional questions? Seeing none, anyone from the public wish to speak on this item? Seeing none, council, you wish to take any action?

Mayor move staff's recommendation. Motion made by Councilman Schmidt, seconded by Councilman Jeter to approve resolution 2026-02 to allow for reimbursement of costs incurred prior to the issuance of any tax exempt debt and web's discretion. Any additional comments?

Absolutely. Yeah, I know funding any projects is going to have its yays and nays and but at this level of a project, this this board's been discussing this project for a while and just want to thank uh Councilman Jeter who sits on that tourist development department board as well as Nicole and our our finance team and and city manager on working with our friends from the county and the tourist development department. It's going to be funding a very substantial large amount of this program. Uh and anytime we have an opportunity to expand parks, uh it's always always a good opportunity and at this level really excited about it. So hopefully the board supports it. Thank you, sir. Council J.

Yes, sir. This is a great project that's been a long time coming. So, thank you for staying with it, all of staff. It's been many, many years, but it's a great project that is uh glad to finally see happening and it's going to be great for the community. So, thank you, sir.

Anyone else? Seeing none, council, please vote. Motion does pass six to one. I would just like to add at the end as well um Miss Barnes, Mr. Davis, if and when, um that that project finally comes to fruition and opens up and we put one of those great city plaques on it that recognizes a lot of people that were involved in the project. I think it should definitely go back as far as um the council years and years ago that decided to vote not to sell the property because I think that was a really important vote which I was on the wrong side of in retrospect but there were a lot of people that saw saw it all the way through and uh otherwise without that we wouldn't have that property to make these builds. So I'd like to recognize them as well. That brings us to item 13.2. 2. [applause] If you're following along at home, you'll have to flip the page. 13.2 uh solid waste two-day residential garbage pickup proposal is the heading. Mr. Daniel Payne, we know him as Mr. Solid Waste here to give us a presentation.

Before he starts, I just want to kind of run through some for everybody to digest. You know, one I want to thank uh hold up turning over those records as quickly as they did so we can put the presentation together and compare the other cities as requested by council. So that was cool. Two sides of the coin, right? If we're talking about keeping it in house or outsourcing. So if we keep it in house, we know we already have a great team, right? That I call Jerry and he's like, "Dude, got you." And whatever we send him out, he'll pick up a couch that day, right? So the that immediate response, I don't know that you'd get that same experience with with a vendor that we wouldn't be build for, right? So that would go away. Uh and I think you'll see Daniel's presentation between him, Jerry, and his team. They great presentations also probably the best price point. And then you know, flip that coin over. I mean, I guess we're technically competing with private sector. So something to take into consideration if we want to be a risk averse operation. There's it's a it's a dangerous job, right? It's heavy equipment, stuff catches on fire, explosives, whatever. So it takes away that riskmanagement concern, whether it's property or personnel. Um that being said, if we get out of the business, we're never going to be able to take it back in. It's, you know, we have 14 15 of these trucks. They're half million dollars a piece, 8,000 dumpsters, and so on and so forth. So just urging council to kind of weigh both the options and then and see where we go with that. But uh I I I do support the presentation they've done. They've done a fantastic job. So Daniel mayor and council Daniel Payne, public works utility services director. Uh tonight uh we were asked to come in front of you I think back at the uh December 16th meeting to come and uh bring a proposal together um for 2-day a

week for a potential and two-day a week garbage pick residential garbage pickup I should say. Um and having doing so you you have a staff report in front of you. we do have a presentation to kind of go through since since some of the stuff was outstanding at that time of posting. Um, so this is one of our employees, Steve. He was he was uh on the employee recognition. I thought it was fitting. U Steve was not able to make it tonight cuz he he works two jobs, but uh he's one of our solid waste operators on that side. Uh the objectives that we had is basically in the point of this presentation is to inform you about our current pickup. Uh explain the alternatives that we have and then provide a staff recommend recommendation for moving forward uh after this. Some of these common commonly used terms that that we lingo we float around 111 211 that it it really is the pickup schedule. 111 is is once a week trash, yard waste, and recycling. Uh 211 is twice a week trash, yard waste, and recycling. Tipping and fees are are those fees that uh we get charged at the gate of our transfer station for our disposal, whether it be residential or commercial or on our recycling side. Transfer station is is a facility where we take our stuff to. From there, it is transferred to a landfill. The city itself does not bring it to a landfill. Uh hauling company does that for us in a landfill. Um late ad, but I think we kind of all know when we see one kind of what they are. Uh current state of pickup. We the city currently serves around 10,000 accounts plus or minus. There's about 9,000 residential,000

commercial. Um we provide a 111 model once a week residential trash uh yard waste and recycling. Our commercial service that we have varies by dumpster size and frequency of pickups a week. And all the city garbage collected um is is hauled directly from our trucks to our transfer station um that is Allied Republics that's located in the industrial park CTP, however you want to title it. And we are currently in year four or five, year four or five of that hauling disposal contract with Allied Republic. This is our fleet. Uh first truck that you see there is a knuckle boom. That's our yard waste and bulk household machine. That's the mattress getter from the calls and emails that we get. Um the second one is is a residential side loader. That's what picks up our, you know, the majority or of all our residential and uh uh residential can garbage and uh recycling. And then the commercial front loaders in the back side. The uh sanitation fund is a it's a city enterprise fund. We get that all the time. What is that? It's a uh it's an enterprise fund is it relies on user fees and not on property tax. So it's basically self-sufficient on the amount that you pay on your bill. it it's not ad balorium or anything else like that. Uh we currently collect around plus or minus for this year 5.3 million um in revenue. A lot of those expenses going out. I would say the majority are tipping fees um as a pass through and then around 81 million annually is transferred back to the general fund. This is a 6% franchise fee is what we pay back to the general fund. um cost allocation and then debt service for the

field office complex building. What is that? It's like a rent basically payment for the square footage that solid waste uses on the new building. So, um, last month we were asked to come and bring a proposal for additional day of garbage, uh, pickup on the residential side. And, uh, in response to that, we got going, um, Jerry Gun, uh, public works ops manager, and we, we came up with three items that we wanted to cover on that one. One is just like you guys hear like with famous with the rounded mound, like the no build, right? The no build in this particular case is keeping the same once a week pickup. Um solicitation proposals, RFP for trash services is the second one and then having the city move to a twice a week pickup model. So um keeping the same once a week pickup service. We know what that kind of entails, right? Your service style remains the same. There's no large scale service. It is status quo on that end. um your residential rates stay on the same projected path, commercial, same projected path, cost allocation and all that. Um same, right? But that's not why we were here. We wanted to hear different things. Um RFP for trash service. Um it was one of the options that had been floated around here maybe for the last I don't know five or 6 months or so. Um, one thing to remember about that is I think Jason said a little bit if if that was something we had to absolutely be committed um to getting rid of the service if that's the route that you went. Um, it's not just a price check. All the price check stuff is available for municipal rates. You guys have seen them sometimes in the back in in the backup of the agenda. you know, these these solid waste companies and carriers, they don't want to put pen to

paper if they're just going to get price checked anyway. So, we absolutely would have to be committed to getting ready to getting rid of the service if we did go RFB. Um, you can see from the backup and some of those rate comparisons, generally speaking, it's the most expensive option. Um if if not a residential, some both commercial, you know, there our residential side's unique cuz cuz residents both, right? Commercial guys usually get left with the bag. Uh there would be service style changes. We know um the knuckle boom is kind of unique to our area. We that would probably go away. Side rear loader would be a question. bag yard waste, you know, some water residents like not um bagging their leaves and all that. Uh what to include. So when you got down into deep with the RFP, franchise fee, percentage, methods, personnel, equip, I mean it it goes on and on of what we wanted to include, right? And the deeper you go and the more custom you get, I think you whittle down your responses to, right? So you're you're getting into uh maybe scaring people off as well. So, if you didn't have a competitive bid for trying to take care of all the the unique stuff we had, it would uh probably not be the best, you know, benefit. Um, and then our transfers to our general fund would be potentially up a loss of upwards of a million that our cost allocation would give back to our general fund. uh twice a week option when we came back down to it. Service style remains the same. Uh those commercial rent rates stay on the the projected program rate schedule that we have. So there was no uh front loading back uh on commercial rates or or moving you know prices here

or there. The residential rate that we had come up with after utilizing our rate consultant and us going back and forth for the operations is 2912 which is up from the 2713 that is um you're paying right now for a residential rate cost allocation to and franchise fee transfers to the general fund remain the same and this could be implemented as soon as uh October 2026 we fail and I got I got questions at the end if you just let me ask

yeah I should have said that um two-day pickup options you could see um those are those we we hear a lot of of Destin's contract we hear a lot of Crescu's contract we also included Okusa counties I think that came up last time in the council meeting and you can see just right from there this is quick comparison but that's residential we have uh commercial rates listed below. Right? Every one of these you accounts is unique. There's different things that people do. Franchise fees in some places at 3% 6% when others. There's lots of moving parts in all this. It's really hard to get an apples and apples. But economies of scale, these two are definitely economies of scale that we have uh comparable to the city. And as you can see upwards some people if you just transpose one or another you know you're looking at you know 2 yard and 4 yard which we had roughly what 400 customers

500 anywhere from you know 100 or 75 to potentially you know 200 300 extra a month right so anytime we look at that that um gives us a little it's just hard to pass on to customer we would feel bad for uh staff recommendation wise you know what we had looking back um and I think Logan had asked to bring it back and it was the council direction but we feel you know we we recommend implementing a twice a week residential garbage pickup program um at 2912 that is the most cost effective option that we've seen and you're not impacting the commercial customers to carry that load code as well. That service remains under under our operational control. I think Jason said it earlier. It fits with the cleanest city initiative. Um we're still in the midst of our hauling disposal contract, right? So there's no uh termination of convenience or something that we have to get Mr. burns that go through and then no current impact to transfers to the general fund at a time when general fund wise it looks like you know with the stuff that's going through Tallahassee it put us back even further that's where the rate puts you I know it's kind of small to see on there but 2912 is what's proposed all those others are there and all those others are current year so they're going to either experience a CPI or some type of step increase probably at that time of October one whether it's September October or January implementing it um after going through um we have a way that we feel like tackles everything um your existing on the residential side

your existing residential pickup day will be your second day right so whatever day your recycle is either Thursday or Friday at this point in time will be your second day and then the city will move um the existing recycling zones to smaller recycling zones that we had throughout the city. The service start date of October 1 is really for us to obtain a few things. One of them just educating people. you know, launching stuff like this, you know, it's it's better for us to have really good public information. We know Devon is one of the best, but it's going to take some other things, filling cycles, um, budget prep, and then we're waiting for a new truck delivery wise, which would be July, Mayor June.

Mayor June. So, those are the existing recycling days. Those of you who've lived in the city, which is everybody up here on this board is either Thursday or Friday, you would split um basically one of four days on that side. So, you know, the education is really more on, you know, what your new recycling day is as opposed, you know, your trash was. Uh questions that we had um were available. David, I think you had some, but um having said that, recommendation is for the city to implement a a 2-day a week garbage at the rate of 2912 and um for a potential start date of October 1 so we can get to budget prep and everything else.

Thank you, sir. Councilman Schmid, you want to lead it up? Yeah, awesome presentation, Danny. Thank you. That's it's you know, even being up here for a period of time, it's neat to see those rates and that kind of comparison. Uh but just to highlight that, can you confirm that those rates for Dest Crestw and Okaloosa County on this chart on page 192? So for that two times a week in Destin, it's at 29.80. Crestview 3876 and then Okaloosa County Waste Management 3727.

Yeah. So that puts us at a from our our shareholders, our residents, [clears throat] increases the level of service, but we would still be the most inexpensive program in town. Yeah. Like I said, there's they're they're all a little bit different and it's hard, but but basically on the 2-day a week, you would be you would have the best mix of residential and commercial that you have. Sinko Shalomar smaller franchise franchise commercial way up right so Ben let's take Ben for example on that end Ben might get that you know $2 residential but his commercial price that he has right now stays the same if he has another one he might get you know which they're still cheaper on the residential side but if he if he's you know rate was a little lower say Sha Marino but then he's paying two $200 $300 extra a month on his business, you know, you know where that's going. So,

yeah. So, there's commercial rate deltas is like you said earlier on the presentation remains. They're the ones who get caught with or held usually the money bag. Not in all cases, but we'll say usually it it's I would say it's a business practice. Yeah, for sure. And those are the ones the commercial owners are the ones who normally get held with that. [snorts] And it looks like that the rates are still substantially lower with our increased level of service. So, that was the only question. I just wanted to confirm and make sure that those rates on page 192 who everybody who doesn't have those rates I think that's a value added to our shareholders

the county is a nonfranchise commercial area right so it's open market so their cost of their pickup is the cost of their pickup basically for their resident gotcha that's it m

thank you sir other questions Mr. Okay. I have concern about the uh the increase even though it's only $1.99 and still $1.99 for two pickup with many many Airbnbs and I have a new Airbnb in my neighborhood coming in. I suggested that they go rent a second trash can and be uh charged for that rather than people such as myself and others that rarely fill one garbage can uh every week unless we're cleaning out the house or whatever. But on the on the whole, and I know it's only $1.99, but it's it's the fact that we're paying extra for people that has more garbage. and and I I I oppose that.

Thank you for your presentation, Mr. Wouldn't that charge or that cost of that second trash can, isn't that roughly around $80 for for a second? I mean, to Miss Mr. Barry's question, and and rightfully so, she's got some concerns, but I guess the math I was getting ready to back into that $2 Delta probably be cheaper than getting a second can. Correct. Uh, personal choice. For some, we have some that have how many additionals? Up to five. We have I think one of the properties you have has up to five. Uh, they probably would still need addition. I'm assuming they would still want additional or need additional, but they might not have five. that might have, you know,

I guess what I'm getting I'm just trying to support the I'm I'm for the additional service coming with the $1.99, but her concern I was just trying to get some response from a cost perspective. It may be more costly to get the second can than it would be to go up a $1.99 is what I'm trying to respond to. It it is. That's it. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, they can pay for my $1.99 and everyone else's $1.99, right? get the new can. You know, Mr. Walker. Yeah, thank you. Great presentation. Um, I was trying to get a big picture of it to [clears throat] understand it and it sounds amazing that we can go from one trash pickup to two trash pickups. No additional personnel.

Correct. And the overall cost, so a resident right now, let's say it's $80. I heard you say $80. It's $80 as it stands right now for once a week. Correct. Or $70. It doesn't matter. Pick a numbers. $70 for once a week pickup right now in the $80 for an extra can. Is that 80 can? Oh, okay. I I I don't I don't know what my residential trash pickup cost is. Is it 13? But my my bill comes in my bill is $27 at my house. Is that what I get paid? I get charged. Correct. And under the new scenario, if it's adopted, it's going to go to 29.

29. 12. Yep. That's the amazing part to me that no additional personnel. Twice the pickups for $2. Correct. It's an awesome thing. It is. I mean, and I have to question, why haven't we been here sooner? I guess. Well, I think that's a good question. Yeah. Um, and I think, you know, just to back in on that one, we we do in our fleet replacement cycle, right? Um, you guys, last, I do believe September, I think it was September, we approved a new trash truck, right? So, where that landed on a replacement schedule was another side loading vehicle, right? So, so if we were not in that schedule,

we probably would have had a different price cuz we didn't need a new truck. Well, our truck's going to be here in July an additional. So, there's not that's not any change on that. So, so luck of the draw where you're landing on is something. Uh there is no extra personnel cuz we're going to reclass the personnel for a ASL driver. We are taking them off and boom. So, that's where that goes. So, we're already visiting your house twice a week. Mhm. To pick up a camp. Yeah. One of those is going to be garbage. So, so the introduction of the smaller recycling zones is really what we're paying for on that side.

Um, you know, also in the last 2 years, we didn't know where we were going to revisit this because we didn't know where the state of recycling was going to be. Okay. It wasn't until WM built the the Murf, right? The the recycling MURF in the industrial park that it kind of stabilized our environment because there was a time where we launched recycling and then thought we were going to have to roll it back. Then we're like, okay, back back and forth. Those of you who've gone through our ECUA contracts remember that. So with the threat of it always maybe going away, you would have been no cost back to two days we pick up if it did.

So launching it, you know, um at that point in time, I think the first time that we really felt confident was here since that facility has been built. So the costwise, like I said, lots of moving parts, but where it stands right now with the environment that we're in, truck replacement schedule, all the factors we go in, you know, it's it's not me running a a rate through here, you know, we spend an hour rate consultant, right? Somebody professional to do this, and this is where we landed. So, two more questions. Thank you. Um,

so when you went to that truck to begin with, I was thinking, are are those vehicles not going to double their miles? Because we're not sending, you know, the recycle truck by, we're actually sending a trash truck by twice that only used to come by once. So, are we doubling the mileage? Uh, not on the vehicles that that are picking up you already the side the side trucks, but are Yes. But a new truck will come into a smaller zone with smaller mileage per day. Really for that second. So, they're going to pick up trash and recycle with one truck. I'm trying to the loads pick up both, but they're, you know, your first day of pickup is whatever you are Tuesday or Thursday, right?

Your your second day is we're already there, but it's going to be picking up trash. That's you're already there with a trash truck. Yes. The same truck is picking up trash and recycling. It's the same size. Yeah. I just in my head I can't figure out how they're not doubling mileage of what they've previously been traveling during the week. Yeah. there we a new truck on the road is putting on different mileage but it's not you know all in the same day that you have on that side it's broken up towards still don't understand but that's thanks for trying to explain it and then [laughter]

he can explain it to me can't understand it for me but um so and then the last one it's something I've always um been curious I saw you had written franchise fee so is there a franchise fee on the um trash bill Yeah. So, the city chart is the solid waste enterprise fund, a franchise fee, and it's 6%. Okay. Um, I do believe Dest is three. Um, I do believe Cresuse is 6%. Um, they vary around. I don't know a tally. We try to do as much research as we can, but yes.

Do you know if that, you know, because the franchise fee that I've known has been related to the electric bill and that's through for FPL. Is it it's not related to that franchise fee? I mean, it's not the premise of that franchise fee is not is or is not the same as the Florida Power and Life franchise fee. I I would say it's different because it's built into the rate. Okay. You don't I think on the FPNL one, you see it on the bottom of your bill cuz they're smart, right? They're going to pass through it. They're going to be like, "Here you go. This is what that is." Um ours is built into the rate on that side. total.

But FPL doesn't actually well they do they just collect the fee for our on our behalf, right? The FPL the franchise fee so that the city won't open a electric cooperative. Is that correct? Okay. But yours this franchise fee on the waste management is not so that we won't open our own trash cuz we do we all have our own trash. So, I'm just I was I was interested to see your the fund gets charged that, but we don't come around and say your rate is Mr. Walker's rate is 29 or 2713 and then also a franchise on the bottom. We don't do that. 2980 is going to include the franchise fee. Uh 29 2912.

2912. Is that what it was? Okay. Gotcha. Okay. Great. That's it. [snorts] Thank you, Mr. Mayor. [clears throat]

Anyone else with questions here for Mr. D? See none. Anyone from the public wish to speak on this item? Yes, sir. Mr. Renie, come on up. Mayor, council 313 [clears throat] Keaptainner. Um, so looking at the numbers, there's approximately 9,000 households. The average count is 2.35 per household for Fort Walton Beach. 5,200 are owned. Um, 3,500 are rented. As Mrs. Deberry uh mentioned, uh B&Bs um are becoming um more of a u a tipping point. I ride about 20 miles a week through the neighborhoods on this community. Um and I do see um in my own mind in the last 2 years that BNBs generate a tremendous amount of garbage um September, you know, May through September, particularly on three and 4 day weekends, national weekends. Um and my thinking was that um twice a week um may be um too big an answer to a smaller problem. So, I was wondering, you know, why don't we charge or ask those people who who want additional garbage cans to pay 49% of the cost? That way, the city still owns ownership because they're contributing 51%. There are 27% of the households have children. Um, so is it the households with children that are generating garbage that need two cans and the other 75% of the households do not need two cans? So therefore, one day a week would still work and then just have houses, B&Bs, uh, the people with five um, would, you know, slow down the truck,

yes, but not slow it down enough that you need to make a second run. So sitting here in the audience, I wanted to I was saying to myself, if you gave people an opportunity to to to cost participate on a second can, how many would we actually add to the route? And what would the what would that do to the route versus just doubling it? I think that we are responding in a very robust way at $2 a month more. But I think you may have 75% of the household say, "I don't need to pay $2 a week more because I'm still only taking my garbage out once." Whereas 25% would say, "Oh, two bucks is great because I'm hauling two or three cans out." So, I'm not so sure we we have the parameters to make that large a decision because we still need some data. Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it. Appreciate it. Anyone else from the public wish to speak on this item? Seeing none, council, you wish to take any action on this?

So, move staff's recommendation.

Second. Motion made by Councilman Browning, second by Councilman Schmidt to uh accept staff's recommendation on this item. Any additional comments, Mr. Brown? I'm loving that we get to keep it in house for $1.99 more instead of seeing it go out and uh potentially gone up. U had a lot of conversation with people in my neighborhood over this past few weeks who are I won't say terrified is the word but not wanting to go with any other option. I do understand I I have a large household. I have five children. Uh I pay for extra trash cans. I'll probably still continue to pay for extra trash cans because I still don't think two times a week would be enough. I'd like to see it more, but [clears throat] um I brought this I brought this up to prevent it from going out. I did not expect our numbers to be so great and for $1.99 more and it's and keeping the services in house and keeping that it's just it's just a great deal. So that's why I'm going to support it.

Thank you, sir. Councilman Schmid. Yeah, a lot of credit to our team to get to this point. Obviously, sometimes competition breeds concepts and sometimes concepts turns into reality. And here we are tonight with a higher level of service and not much extra of a cost. And I don't even think we really hit on too much the environmental impacts of, you know, trash being left out in the heat for a week compared to trash being left out in the heat for 3 days. And we need more subject matter experts way more than I am on that. But that's an added value I think too that other municipalities get around us for that 2-day a week pickup and we're at that one. So glad about the level of service increase. Thank you sir. Anyone else wish to speak on this? Councilman Judy.

Yeah, Mr. Browning said it best. We're getting a great service [clears throat] for a price cheaper than we expected. So I will certainly be supporting the motion. Thank you, sir. Anyone else? Um I was looking at the um comparability and I think you did a great job in comparing and um as I'm I'm just uh really um amazed at the fact that you know we have a lower lower rate and with the two days I certainly I certainly support it. I've spoken with people like um Councilman Browning have spoken that really would like to see the two-day service. So thank you so much for the presentation and I'm supporting that.

Thank you ma'am. Anyone else? Council, please vote. And the motion does pass 6 to1 which brings us to item 13.3 procurement process for annual audit services. Miss N.

Thank you mayor. um about every 5 years we have to go back out for um for the RFP for audit services and we are up and do we this last audit will be presented in April and then after that we will um have to have a new 5-year contract. Um so really this just starts the process. It's it's a process where we have to get an audit committee together. Staff is not allowed to be on the committee. I can be an advisory and basically facilitating the information but we need um someone from the governing board the council to be the head of the committee and then there I think it's two hold on it's at least three members um need to be picked for the committee which we can do today or we can bring back and let you guys think about it and think about who in the community that you guys would like on this committee. Um what the the committee does is you evaluate the proposals. There'll be two or three meetings which we'll set with the committee um to determine before the um the bid goes out um and then the bid will go out and be posted and then the committee's recommendations will come back to council and council will ultimately still have the decision of who to um pick for it. Warren A has been absolutely amazing. They've been through a different company uh changes like through their names in the past 30 years but they pretty much have been our auditor for the past 30 years. They've won the bid every single time. um they're awesome to work with, a really great firm. But we also, if you guys remember, did open up the local preference now. So, it's not just Okaloosa County, it's a surrounding county. So, that gives other firms maybe some more opportunity um to also bid on this um contract as well. So, I guess if anybody would like to volunteer from the board to be the head of the audit committee, um I don't know how.

If if you want to ask them to do that, that's fine. I've just add this is a sunshine technically a committee that ask government under the sunshine which means that they'll take minutes and obviously notice the readings. So that's just maybe additional factors we want to consider council Jeter I would love to volunteer there we go we got the head Mr. Jeter is being on this committee. Second motion by Councilman Schmidt, second by Councilman Brownley to nominate Councilman Bryce Jeter as the head of this audit committee. Any additional comments?

I'd like to add a friendly motion if Mr. Browning's okay with it, but also too just procuring some of the community members tonight. Hopefully, we can speed up the process to get this thing rolling so you don't have to come back to another meeting. Or would we have to ratify the community meeting in public or would that motion to nominate any? Yeah, if you guys want to pick pick community members tonight, I mean, I'm I'm okay with that, too. But that's nothing saying that you can't. So, we don't have to worry about it. Do the first motion then make the Okay. I guess the question I'm getting to is do you need in the sunshine for us to ratify the community members or the person that we appoint? Can they go ahead and just appoint the committee members without bringing it back to council? I'm just trying to speak.

I think we have to bring it back to council. Yeah. So we but we could do it tonight if you wanted or wait and and bring it back in the next If we didn't have to bring it back, I would trust Mr. Jeter on getting the committee members. But if we got to bring it back, I'd like to add that tonight. Okay. Good with that. Absolutely. Okay. So motion and second. Uh council, please move. does pass unanimously and then we can entertain another motion to uh nominate anyone that you might want to from the community for this committee. I'd like to nominate uh a couple um John me and Georgia Henderson. Second.

Motion made by Councilman Schmidt, seconded by Councilman Browning to nominate Mr. John Meade and Miss Georgia Henderson. Is that correct? Can I ask one question? Is I know Mr. me lives in the city limits. Does Miss Henderson also live in He does. Okay. And then we need three people. So I don't know if Mr. Jeter wants a minimum of three. So we all can nominate if we want to. All right. So we have a motion and a second. We'll vote on those two that uh Mr. Schmidt has included in this motion. What do you want? Public comments. Public comments. We missed it last time, too. Do we need public comments on something that's not noticed? Um, every motion under the city charter requires public comments.

I'll keep that in mind [laughter] next time you tell me it's the other way when I Anyone from the public wish to comment on this? Seeing none council, please. [clears throat] I'll take that. It's not every motion, it's every item and this is basically a new item, not the nominations. Anyone else wish to make a motion to nominate anyone from the public? I make a motion to nominate Pastor Tim Black to pray for us this evening. Second.

Motion made by Councilman Browning, seconded by uh Councilman Schmidt to nominate Pastor Tim Black. Any additional comments? Anyone from the public wish to comment? Council, please. This pass unanimously. Do we know that these people will serve on this? That's what I was going to ask. I find out. I guess we will. To find out. Motion to nominate um Steve Colorado. Second.

We have a motion by Councilman Walker, second by Councilman Brownie to nominate Mr. Steve. Any additional comments? Would anyone from the public like to speak on this? Council, please vote. And look at that. We've got four members of the public for the committee along with Mr. Jeter is five. Do we need any additional members for this committee?

You only need three total. So, you got to five. Would anyone else like to nominate someone that lives in the city limits for this committee? Say none. We will move on to item six to the relief of Mr. Nathan Sparks, executive director [laughter] of one Okaloosa Economic Development Council. Mr. Sparks, I sincerely appreciate you staying. If in the future you have to leave, we certainly would have understood. But thank you very much. We do appreciate your time. No worries whatsoever. Thank you so much, mayor, members of council. Nathan Sparks, one Okaloosa EDC. Uh haven't seen you uh in mass this year. So, happy new year officially. I was last before you on October 28th. And uh obviously, it's been a frenetic pace to start the new year. And you all have a a memo that I prepared and submitted to Miss Barnes, which really encapsulated the entire last half of the year. um uh dating back to the July time frame. But uh I really wanted to highlight um some of the activities uh that I thought you'd be most interested in um since I was last here. So um just to kind of dive into that. Uh since I was last here, um something has come to light relative to the Eastern Gulf Test and Training Range. And you know, through one Oakloo EDC's Defense Support Initiatives, we've been working to advocate uh for the protection of the Eastern Gulf Test and Training Range for many years. And you all have been part of that in many in many cases, uh as have so many members of our community and our region, um our elected leadership at the at the highest level, the governor, members of Congress, etc. And um what we learned in November is that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which is part of the US Department of Interior, had released um a proposed leasing plan for a large swath of the Eastern Gulf test and training range u that essentially um

would open up uh the Eastern Gulf of America for um drilling and offshore oil exploration. and you all know how problematic that is to our local economy, our regional economy and our national security interests. Um so we have been working along with so many others to get the word to the right people um in the right way that that is not a good idea. Um of course you know back in 2022, President Trump uh in his first term uh passed a 10-year moratorum on oil drilling in the Gulf um which goes through 2032. and uh we want to see that honor. Um so uh and we'd love to see it extended. We'd love to see the the Gulf protected for perpetuity because you know how important it is to our two largest economic engines being tourism, hospitality, and of course defense and military. So um we did assemble and uh and also receive a number of letters from community partners, individuals, community groups, etc. In total, we have about two dozen letters in a package that we prepared. Um, and if you if you ever want to see what we're up to with respect to these matters, militaryfriendlynwf.org is a great resource. We try and put a lot of information out there. Uh, but uh, we're still beating the drum. The comment period closed on January 23rd. Uh, so it's effectively closed now, but we think we got a lot of information in the right hands and certainly our our Florida congressional delegation and our governor and others have stepped up and no surprise also taken up this mantle. So, we appreciate everyone who's been a part of that. Um, so also wanted to share um on a little bit of a brighter note um back uh on November 18th, we had the opportunity to co-host our Educate the Educator Plus One event right here in the city of Fort Walton Beach. Um we started our day at Career Source Okaloosa Walton. They're a great partner. We've been doing this together

now for more than 10 years. And in fact, this was our this was our our 10th um educate the educator event. And uh we had a great group of of students, 22 students and teachers in total from uh South County um schools, middle schools, high schools, and we had a great group of partners that day, including uh Mr. Davis representing the city. He did a fantastic job talking about career pathways within the city and his own journey which I learned a lot about Jason that day in terms of his his uh progression to get where he is today. So that was great to kick things off. Inenver Aeronautical University was our host for breakfast. Um and then we had uh industry tours of Magna Manufacturing, Kratos Defense, and Boeing Global Services. All in the Fort Walton Beach Commerce and Technology Park and all fantastic facilities that were incredible host and really did a great job inspiring our young people about the career opportunities that exist right here. And that's the idea of this program as you know is to really plant seeds for those in those young people to think about um you know if they even if they go off to get educated somewhere else coming back here and making their uh future careers here. So uh a great day and really just uh certainly appreciate everybody who was involved including Mr. Davis. Um so um to continue on um also had the opportunity in November to attend the National Defense Industry Association's Air Armament Symposium uh at the uh convention center here. Um this is an event that brings industry and key leaders from uh the Pentagon and other senior um uh places around the country here that uh are here for you know this was the 49th uh India armament symposium. there were over a thousand attendees. So, it's really a fantastic opportunity to have right here in our area. And for us, we see it as an opportunity to showcase our community. So, we had a booth along with all of

these other defense organizations. Um, and we had some great discussions with companies that are already in some cases doing business with Eglund. In some cases, they're hoping to do business with Eglund and and Herbert. and um we want to have them keep us in mind should they choose to uh move forward with an actual physical location. So, a great opportunity for sure. Um and then I did have the opportunity to see many of you at the precision measurement incorporated the PMI open house um back on November 13th. Um that was a great day for the city. It was a great day for PMI. Um you may remember from prior presentations that we helped PMI um secure a grant from the University of West Florida so that they could migrate um into a new business line which was essentially uh doing um calibration services for law enforcement personnel including um your uh your police department here. And so uh having those uh calibration services for vehicles right here in the city uh we think is a really great opportunity. I know that um you know we'd heard from law enforcement personnel that often times those vehicles had to go out of county and they were out of service during that period of time and that was just not an optimum situation. So kudos to David Haynes and his team at Precision Measurement for the vision to offer those services locally. You know that they're doing calibrations on Air Force One uh the Air Force One fleet, the presidential fleet. So um they're topnotch and just a great company to have right here in our community and growing by leaps and bounds as we saw that day. So to see their new facility and to see several of you there to help them celebrate uh was fantastic and of course Representative Many was part of that as well. Um so the other things that I'll point out in your in your packets um you've got our 2025 accomplishments sheet uh which is kind of our precursor to our annual report that'll be released here in a couple of months. But we wanted to go ahead and have something as a uh interim report

for you all. So this summarizes sort of our year in review. Uh, a lot of great things in different buckets from supporting existing industries to recruiting new industries to supporting workforce development like we do with our educate the educators. Um, working to assist uh, entrepreneurs with um, their ideas like we do with our veteran entrepreneur video series. Our most recent one of course featured Tom Rice from the Magnolia Grill and various things in there. So, I know um, you will enjoy reviewing that if you haven't already. And then a couple of events. So, um, you have a flyer for our 9th annual Techman Industry Day, which, um, it's hard to believe. We've been at this for 9 years now, but this is an event that brings together, um, usually about 4 or 500 people from not just our area, but from around the country. Uh, we'll have an expo hall with 50 or so exhibitors. We've already sold 37 booths. We've already sold all of our sponsorships. We're selling um registrations um and hope that many of you will take advantage of the fact that you all as elected leaders have discounted admission to this. Um it's $25 versus the $75 for our members or $100 for the general public that starts with pastries and ends with a reception and some great information throughout the course of the day and some great networking. It's not just for techies or those in manufacturing. It's really a great opportunity to learn about what makes our region tick and we always have uh uh excellent feedback. In fact, this past year, we had 100% of our survey respondents tell us that they would recommend the event to a colleague. And 95% of those who attended said that they identified a new business opportunity as a result of participating. So, that's pretty strong and we want to continue to to deliver in that realm. So, and then last but not least, you don't have a flyer for this and you're the first um uh public partner to hear this. Um we just finalized this uh just a couple days ago, but um we are hosting our first roundt lunchon of the year on March 31st and we'll begin promoting

that here in just a few days, but you all are hearing it first um along with your viewers online and those in the audience. Uh but um March 31st at the Hilton Garden Inn um on Okaloosa Island, we will be hosting uh President-elect Manny Diaz, who should become official here in just a couple of days as the president of University of West Florida, and of course our own President Mel Ponder from Northwest Florida State College. We're doing a fireside chat with those two dynamic gentlemen who served in the legislature together and now are leading uh two of our most important uh educational engines here in our here in our region. and having them together on stage with that chat is a really fantastic opportunity so early in their tenure. Uh as you know um President Ponder started last January so he's been in office about a year and President Diaz is brand new so I think it's a great opportunity and those uh events are open uh uh to anyone to register and certainly hope that um you all will consider doing that. We'll open registration online at onealoosa.org uh in just a few days. So with that, happy to take any questions that you may have of me and and certainly appreciate the opportunity to come before you today.

Thank you, Mr. Sparks. Questions from Mr. Sparks. Mr. J. Yeah, please. I just want to say thank you all of your presentations. I look forward to seeing you on the agenda. I know Council Member Schmidt does a great job of representing us on your board uh and he thoroughly enjoys it. But I've been to a lot of events outside of here and they're all first class just like your presentation. So, thank you. I look forward to seeing you on the agenda. Love seeing and learning and hearing about all this stuff. Even though it's not stuff that maybe is daytoday that we can see, touch or feel, but I know you and your team are working very hard behind the scenes to get some awesome stuff done for our community. Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. Couldn't agree more. Anyone else? Mayor, just Yes, sir. You forgot most important part.

What's that? He was the opening night of Citizens Academy, the first pres presenter for the entire series. Yes, he was. So I was he uh kicked it off. So yeah, I was honored to be asked. Thank you for that. Thank you, Mr. Sparks. Appreciate you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes. Yes, sir.

Kind of piggy back off what Mr. G said, always professional. Always enjoy the third presentation. U also one of our recipients of the grant that the city gives out. We may already be doing this, but if we could continue to invite the Emerald Coast Fitness Foundation as well as the chamber or one of the representatives from that grant recipient so we can see more of these type of professional updates that were chamber was supposed to come tonight. They were going to come on the second night so I didn't know how this was going to be thick, right? So they'll be first night in February. I was also going to recognize Mr. Corkran for speaking that night as well. He was number two in our citizens academy.

And like I said, we probably already doing these things. I just don't know if the coast fitness foundation and [clears throat] the chamber are responding. It's good that they are responding and wouldn't expect them not to. But thank you for your attendance always being thorough as well as the professionalism, but I'd like to continue to see those other two as well. My pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. All right. Believe it or not, that brings us to tonight's consent agenda. [laughter] Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir. I only have one question about one item, but I can pull it off if you wouldn't mind pulling item 7.4. Just a question for staff. Second.

Okay. So, you move you move Councilman Walker to tonight's consent agenda minus item 7.4 which you'd like to remove from the consent agenda to be discussed directly after. Actually, exactly like that. All right, that's council member Walker's motion, seconded by council member GTA. Any additional comments? Anyone from the public wish to speak on the consent agenda? Plan it say please vote. Councilman Schmidt is not here to vote,

but we would think he'd vote no, [laughter] just a guess. It's a consensus without him. Okay. All right. So, the motion does pass. Councilman uh Walker wanted item 7.4 pulled. So, that is a task order to Adora Group Incorporated for Lion Locating Services. Luckily, Mr. Daniel Pin is still here and can address your concerns. Right. And I um this is where we used to do this in-house. Correct. That's correct. And then was last year our first year or the year before our first year? Last year we transitioned last last full year. Yes.

Right. And then I don't that's I don't remember the number. So what I'm looking for is what is this cost compared to last year's cost? It's um it's a good question. So, um I think last year's cost we had budgeted like 200, right? And I think at that point in time, um we not getting in a little of the the city intricacies, but but like we needed help before the year, so we had a couple purchase orders out there, but there's 200 budgeted and we covered it and we were fine. Mhm. This year, we even carried we we needed some help and we carried some money over So this total amount is for 2.85.

Mhm. But in all actual reality, we've already paid like um 60 of that on that side. This is for the whole encompassing the whole year because now they're general consulting. Previously we just piggybacked off the county cuz they were the county's consultant. Now they're actually a part of our team. So where project is here 285 total maybe but really and that's what the whole year thing is for but the request is probably around that 225 mark I hopefully that answers what you're trying to

a little bit I was just really I knew [snorts] that we had personnel in house that weren't able to keep up if I remember correctly. Yeah. Or hire them. Yeah. Or hire keep. All those things were involved. And so we were doing it at a cost inhouse. And then when we went out of house the first time, it was a kind of a big leap, but it was okay. They're going to supply and they're going to do it. And now we're we're going up to So is this a is the proposed 285 from them? I mean, we're going to pay them 285 if

Yeah. So it's it's timing. It's dependent on how many tickets came in, right? So, so last year [snorts] estimated tickets. I got you. So, theoretically, if fewer tickets come in, you wouldn't reach the So, they're charging a per ticket. Yes, it's a per ticket deal. So, like, so we had a pretty good l for a period of time. I would say it was regular. Well, then we have Cox doing a fiber project. We have a gas dumpy and then we're back into looks like tickets all over the place. But, yeah, it's it's it's it's an estimate, right? It's tile materials up to if if we don't use it, what we do is we carry we carry it over into next year. And that's what we saw for this year on that end.

Just out of curiosity and and kind of kind of around the mound if it ever happens, will they will someone else be providing will we be responsible for paying to locate the utilities or will that be a part of the DO's services? Um, so it's it's Florida statute, right? So, so that call goes in, you know, we're statutoily obligated to locate our utilities. Now, if it's a certain type of ticket, a design, then we just give them our information. But if it's markings on the ground, yeah, they're going to mark them. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank anyone else for the questions on this item for Mr. P. Mr. Barry.

Okay. I have a question for clarity. When you say line, this underground lines, I'm sorry. Yes. Uh the city's water and sewer and storm infrastructure. Yes. Underground. Okay. I I know whenever was those um companies for networking or something like that, they were having a hard problem and they were digging into our lines and Yeah. So that's it's a daily Yeah. Unfortunately, it's like a daily weekly thing. So do you have any control over that where they're digging or a little bit. Yes. But you know the and that's where some of this stuff comes in on the risk management side too

cuz they take pictures of all the markets as well. Thank you. Thank you ma'am. Anyone else with qu questions for Mr. I want I want a followup there just um so estimated it comes it comes in $50,000 over. Is that something you come back to us for? I would. Yes. I mean, it would And if it was under and that's fine. And if it was if it's under 250, there's $35,000 left in there. What happens to that $35,000 that been funded, been budgeted and funded?

Yeah. If it's it's if it's already cut as a purchase order to them, either it uh gets cancelled or they're calling them at the end of the year, they say, "Hey, do we need to carry anything over?" And that answer will probably be yes. And we carry that over. And then you pay off that and then you're you're going for the rest. That was interesting. You said, "So, do they get that 285 cut to them?" No. Okay. It comes to us up to 285 up to $285,000. We're like, "Okay, you're still good." After that, it becomes, hey, where am I going to get the money? But if it comes in, they didn't consume all of the money, then that money stays, right? So, of the 285 now, like we've we've cut about 60. I got you. You've only cut 60. I got you. Okay. Thank you.

It was really because it was going to go threshold amount through the rest of the year. Gotcha. Thank you. Anyone else questions? Anyone from the public wish to speak on this item? Council, do you have a motion to make? Mr. Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve staff recommendation.

Second. Councilman Walker makes a motion to approve the task order to Adura Group Incorporated for Lion Locating Services in the estimated amount $285,000 for fiscal year 2526. And Councilman Jeter seconds that motion. Any additional comments? Council, please vote. Okay, that does bring us to mayor and council comments. We start tonight with council member Mayor. Uh I think in December I asked for uh staff to get in touch with the city about youth council. Is there any updates with that? Mr. Davis,

I'm sorry. I was reading an email. Youth council. Is there any youth council updates? Yes. So I reached out to the school board before Christmas. They had their Christmas break. They got back to me like last week that they are interested. I just haven't uh I asked them to provide some scheduling so I could go physically meet with them. I just don't have a response yet, but that I'm guessing any day now they're going to give me their availability.

Will you keep me in the loop on that? I'd like to go with you possibly. And then um I just want to thank the business owners and the nonprofits that were involved in uh Bman Leonard's event, the community convoy that we had. I know Mr. Mayor was there, Miss Barnes was there, Chief Paige was there. Um it was incredible to see. I mean, probably by the time it ended towards at Harley-Davidson, I'd say probably 500 people were there. I don't know what the final count was on how much money was raised for the family, but it was incredible to see. So, thank you for the business owners, the nonprofits, everybody who is involved with that. That's all I have for now. Thank you, sir. Mr. Dear,

uh yes, I'd like to uh thank the recreation staff uh for uh our road trip to Niceville, the senior center there, uh um the happy place, so that they could see more uh um of what I'm working on to have more. We have a similar very similar uh activities, but I would like to see more in our area. We uh had a a very successful AARP safe driving class for I think we had 39 people there and uh it was an all day event, but uh you get a discount even though it's only like 10 or 15% on your car insurance. And for us seniors, and a lot of you guys are getting up over 50 now and I notice a lot of people driving not nicely, not just the seniors, but others, you know, [clears throat] maybe they need to take the class also, but I hate I hope to have more activities such as that, you know. So, and I thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And uh thank Mendy for me also. And then uh I think that's that's that's about it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Barry. Mr. G, save for the end. All right. Thank you, sir. Mr. Merrill, Miss Riley, why don't you Mr. Schmidt's not here. Um, Miss Walker, I'm sorry. [laughter] Um, so yeah, that's right. I was thinking we we we're only going to have one, but we're going to have two still. Okay, I'll save it till the end. Yeah, thank you.

I'll save mine to the end as well. Um, that moves us to public comments. Anyone from the public wishing to comment on anything that's not on tonight's agenda, please come on up to the podium, give us your name and your address, and then we'll get 5 minutes to tell us whatever you want as long as it's not on tonight's agenda. Mr. Mr. Gray, my name is Barry Gray at 217 Vernon Avenue. um on several companies in the city of Football Janitor and building maintenance company and a development company. Um at the last meeting it just I felt uncomfortable leaving here. It was like some of the board members was like you're giving me something you know which you are to create affordable housing. But I want to say tonight 45 years ago the city came to my family for land to build a storm water on Love Joy. We didn't question that because they want to better the traffic going into herbal field. You know what we did? We turned around and gave the city our land free of charge with my aunts, uncles, all of us did. So we we the city had our land for over 40 50 years. We've never complained. That's been time just been cut and you guys uh subbed it out a contract the lawn service out. And so for the last year it's not getting cut in on the edges. So we go out, we pay somebody little, we do it. So not one time we ever went to the city, complained about it or not not get it done. You know on Bay Street on my you needed a storm water facility over there. You know what my family did? Donated land to you guys. So when I felt at the last city council meeting, I felt like you you're looking at me like, "Oh, you want something from the city?" But I we've always given back to the city. Always

giving back. Every time I bought a house in the city lift, I turned around and contact the fire department or the uh police department to go and do training. The house we bought at 105 before I tore down the city was able to bring the fire department to practice a fake fire. I have contacted um this next house on 103 Carson. I've made a range with the police department and the fire department to do training before we tear down. So, and for the last 30 years, I've done environmental research in the love drawing community. Not one time have I ever came and asked the city or the county for one penny. I spent over $150,000 of my own pocket doing site studies, storm water studies. I got studies in my office this high. Not one time I asked anybody anything. The Brownsville designation for redevelopment in the Savannah Heights community. I had asked no government for anything. We got the Brownsville designation. We got the opportunity zone in the love draw community through the Trump administration. We didn't come to nobody. We came to the county with that claim opportunity zone. We got to Tallahassee to get our governor. We have the only opportunity zone in Okaloosa County. Me and Mrs. Riley was able to get there with the county and we the first major redevelopment in Savannah Heights was on Till Street. 74 units with a pickup ball court, swimming pool for seniors. The rent said 77 but $474. You know, we did that. We pushed those things in the love community. The worst thing hurt that community was the central track cuz you talk to Tallahassee uh five six years ago, they'll change the cens track our houses were 400,000 200,000 because in Tallahassee they don't look at neighborhoods by name like we do. They look at it by central tracks. So the central track had us included with Emer Village and also North Gator Estate. It took me 20 years. I didn't ask anybody

for no help. I did it with that young lady right there. We went out. We pushed to get the system track changed. Now track so we comply with grants. You know, we try to come and partner with the city and the county. So, but last the last meeting I was at, I left out here feeling just weren't feeling right cuz I never asked anybody for anything. I'm a solution person. And that's all I got to say.

Thank you, sir. Anyone else from the public wish to speak tonight? See none. That moves us to [clears throat] item 10 to 2. [cough] Uh resolution 2026-03 amending resolution [clears throat] 2025-29 rules of procedure for city council and its meetings. Mr. Thank you, mayor. Uh at the last meeting the council uh by motion moved to amend resolution 25-3 the rules of procedure for the meetings and they requested three changes be made to the previous uh rules and the first change was to amend section 6.1 uh to remove the second set of city council comments towards the end of the meeting. So if y'all do pass this tonight uh tonight will be the last time you'll have the second set of comments at the end of the meeting. Uh the second uh change was to amend section 12.2 and to go back to requiring a supermajority which is which is a majority plus one vote to suspend the council's rules of procedures during the meetings. And then the third change and final change was to add a new section which I uh figured out section 13 would be the most logical place uh sitting at after section 12. And uh I had I had to kind of go back and listen to the council meeting a few times because it was a little little bit unclear exactly as to what uh I know what Mr. Brown had asked for, but throughout the discussion it was a little bit unclear. So I took my best stab at a adding a section that limits certain directions that may be directed to the charter officers by the council members. And I'm not married to the language I came up with. So if y'all want to rip it apart, it's a good chance to do so tonight before it gets passed. And so, uh, I believe the first two items, uh, completely accurately covers what y'all moved to amend because those

were very simple, uh, motions. The third might not get it. And so, I want to get some feedback from y'all now. I want to make some changes to it. Questions on this for Mr. Burns from the council? Questions now or forever? Will be to Mr. Burns, you said? Yes, sir. cuz we will we'll make a motion and then there will be discussion correct amongst ourselves because I wasn't here last week. I wasn't here at the last council meeting. I'd like to note that. But anyway, I do have some questions about um the procedural changes which would be a great time right now to ask them. Oh, I thought we not not to you per se, but I guess I Who made Well,

well, Mr. Brown made the motion, but we're not we're not there yet. questions amongst council people questions that you'd like to ask Mr. Brown ask them to Mr. Burns I'll um you know

Mr. Burns. So, um, seeing that the amending section 6.1 to remove the second set of city council comments towards the end of the meeting, um, um, it how do you feel about council members not being able to comment on the things that happened during the meeting? It seems that that's an appropriate time to, you know, come back to items that happen throughout the meeting and and share your thoughts or whatever at the second at the second one. If you have council meeting comments at the first, we we've not heard all of the arguments and discussion throughout the meeting. So, I think how do you feel about the second set of the second set of council comments um being removed? how it might affect the council members abilities to express their thoughts on the uh um events and happenings at the meeting. It's as close as I could get. Wow, that was hard.

I'd rather just go straight to him. But uh I'm I'm neutral. The council moved to move the second set of comments at the last meeting, so I simply uh deleted the one line in the previous set of rules and procedures that had that in there to have that. So, uh, that's all I have to say on that. Gotcha. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Anyone else with a Henley Hill question from seeing none. Anyone from the public wish to comment on this?

Yes, ma'am. Yeah, good morning. I said res. It just seems if you're going to get rid of one of the times for you guys to make comments, it seems to me it's logical to have the first round cancelled because of like Councilman Walker said, you have all the things from the previous meeting. Just get rid of that first one. Essentially the same thing. Very fair point. Good idea. Anyone else from the public wish to comment?

Mr. Just to speak to that logic, I think some of the feedback that I got when I started here was after consent staff leaves. So if you get rid of the second one, your the team might not be here to ask the questions. That's why that was killed. And if I may add, as the driving force behind putting the second round of comments on the agenda in the first place, I thought it was a great idea because when you do attend a committee or some sort of event that you do want to get in front of the public, it's much more likely that we'll be speaking to a room full of people here during the first round of council comments. By the time we get to the end of these meetings, sometimes we're at 10:30, 11:00 at night. people may be gone, not watching, and especially if they're watching back online, they may not be watching that far into the video. So, it's really a great time to get those important things out. So, it's why I always enjoyed having the two opportunities. Most people on the board since its inception have not taken advantage of both opportunities to speak or be long- winded or weigh down the the length of a meeting. I that's as far as I can go without stating my own. Um, those are facts. Um, but I appreciate the comment. All right. So, we have, uh, given everyone the opportunity to ask questions. We've had the public comment. Now, do we have a motion from council?

Uh, I move for the approval of resolution 20263, rules and procedures of city council and city meetings. Motion made by Councilman Browning. Do we have a second? Second for discussion. [clears throat] Second by Councilman Jeter to uh approve resolution 2026-03. Additional comments, Mr. R. Uh, no. No, sir. All right, Mr. Jeter, comments.

Yeah, I said for discussion because what you just said makes sense. I didn't think about that last time. when you have and I remember being in here when you changed it and gave us two and I remember wanting to speak sometimes when some directors were in here. Um, I know we just talked about this two meetings ago, but just like Nathan Sparks or someone may come present next meeting, weighing out now how many times we say save for the end and it only taken 20 seconds to go down the line and weighing out the fact that you can comment positively in the beginning. Um, and then comment on the meeting at the end of the night as we close the doors. It just makes sense to leave both open. I know we discussed this a lot last time, so I won't discuss it anymore, but that's why I'm not going to support this motion cuz I'd like to see unless he would accept the friendly amendment. I don't support the current motion. We discussed it in the last meeting.

Thank you, sir. Anyone else? Additional comments. Councilman Walker.

Just to agree with um Councilman Jeter there that Yeah. I mean, I I won't be supporting it unless there is a friendly amendment. The the other two I don't really know what um they're even for. or I don't know when they've come into play. I don't know about suspending the rules. I don't tend to follow much. If I do, I'm just doing it by accident. But um and um so I I do like the idea. The few times that I've used the first one, it's been something that I want to share with everybody that's in here. There's often times the youth that are here. I don't want to occupy their time with some of the serious stuff. So, you know, I like having them both. I think they're appropriate to have them both. And like Councilman Jeter said, we went through it really quick. Anybody got any comments? Nope. Save it to the end. Save it to the end. So I'd like to see that one removed by friendly amendment if um Councilman Browning would allow such.

Anyone else wish to comment on the motion?

I'll comment on it. I mean, I'm I'm kind of torn between the friendly amendment portion cuz one, we debated on it for 30 minutes. Last time and it didn't come up and then even today we just skipped to the end. So, I get Well, I [clears throat] get on one hand, well, it just takes 2 seconds to go down the line, but also it's 2 seconds wasted. So, that we could have just gone. I the proposed motion was to have it at the end and to get rid of the beginning and then I was asked to amend it to bring it to the beginning and and get rid of the end. So I did that and then now I was like well you know let's just amend it and do both of them again anyways. So I figured we just write it out and see what happens.

Fair enough. Anyone else wish to comment? Council Ler. Yeah then you know um I'd follow up. Um, as I said, it wouldn't be getting my support because of that. So, um, but just since you're the motioner, um, you would be the one most able to describe the value of amending section 12.2 to require a supermajority vote to suspend council's rules of procedures during meetings. I it may have happened in my 2 and 1/2 years of being here and then I was here for five. I don't remember there ever being suspended or motion to be suspended myself. what is the relevance or the u what's the point of making that change to begin with?

So by Robert's rules technically you're supposed to ask the question to the chair of the meeting. Okay should be and I can certainly explain it to you. Um Robert's rules of order when when they're suspended we're basically just saying hey we're not going to follow the normal guidelines and procedures here during this one particular item. So by making it a supermajority, it's just making it harder to make that the case. So instead of just a normal majority vote of 43, we're asking 52. Well, that's interesting then. So

yeah, thing the practical effect of that, Mr. Walker, is typically and a lot of other boards do it more often. Y'all don't actually do that very often, but uh usually it's to add an agenda item during the meeting that was not contemplated prior to the meeting. uh orders will suspend the rules to add an item. So that's that's the practical that's best example. Gotcha. And and what I'm checking because I didn't participate in the last conversation what you said there, you know, when you told me earlier I needed to ask questions to Mr. Burns. That was very difficult. It was very difficult cuz I would prefer to go Mr. Brown because I believe my goal up here is to have great conversations even if we don't agree,

right? Um, so anything that stands in our way and if that's going to stand in our way, if I have to now ask a question to Mr. Browning through you, unless we have a supermajority vote to suspend those rules, I'm definitely against 12 2.12 as well. And I I haven't even looked at 2.13 adding a new section limiting certain directions that may be directed to the charter office. Don't know what that's about, but anyway. So, want you to know I'm I won't be supporting this at all. um e no matter even with a friendly amendment now. Thank you. Thank you sir. Anyone know wish to comment? Council please vote. [snorts]

So Miss Barnes for the purposes of this Mr. Jeter is voting as the seconder but you can vote no. It won't allow you there but I can change it. So if you tell me which one you want. Second but no. I see I can change it. If not, we'll just [clears throat] motion does not carry. Mr. Mayor, I move to adopt resolution 2026-3 with two sets of comments in the beginning and end as second

as current. Okay. A motion made by Councilman Jeter, second by Councilman Walker to uh approve 2026-3 with those uh changes, any additional comments. And the additional two items as well, correct? You're adding the second set of comments back on, but you're also uh adopting the other two items. Correct. What's Mr. Mayor? Mr. mayor because I seconded that and it was without without that understanding. I don't know what the proper procedure is to remove my second cuz I can say no on it. [laughter] Gotcha. Okay. Councilman Mald did offer to second place, but

we'll stick with it. Uh any additional comments? Yeah, I just Yeah, with this I'm fine. We talked it out, but I talked the least I think when it comes to the comments. I'll have to send it on through, but I wouldn't want to limit if if I get it. You want to say thank you. You want to recognize the people here and you guys do bring up a good point to to have that now the meeting's over and there might be some things that need to be brought up. But we have discussed it in the other two that I brought up. I think we've gone over if anybody else has questions, I'm sure they'll bring them up. But as we move on, I wouldn't want even though I don't like to speak that much, I wouldn't want to limit you guys if if that's your goal. So,

thank you, sir. So, so, so following up on that um understanding, the 12.2 requires supermajority Robert's rules of orders that you talked about. Um, so unless there's a supermajority vote of council from this day forward, should this pass, um, all questions should be directed to you unless Councilman Walker, that's always in Robert's rules of order. It it is rarely enforced by the chair of this meeting because I don't like to be a complete and total over the top person. Gotcha.

But when I say things like what we're looking for here are questions for Mr. Payne, questions from Miss Neighbors, that's not the time for the council to get long- winded opinions on [clears throat] what they think about it. It's the time to ask questions. Now, you can as a skilled ortor certainly ask questions that aren't really just opinions. Mr. Payne, wouldn't you say that we run a great trash service here in the city? Mr. Payne, wouldn't you agree that it's best? You know, you know what I mean?

So, that's the time for questions. Then we have the public comment. Then we have a motion. Then it's time for everybody to say, "Hey, here's how I feel. Mr. Payne's a jerk and I don't like his green shirt." Right? Before it's, "Hey, Mr. Pay." So, that's Robert's rules. I mean, in a nutshell, very briefly, I I try not to be like over the top and enforcing that. This is actually not changing any of that. Okay. This is always the way it's supposed to. Gotcha. However, this would say now we're going to suspend Robert's rules to do that. It's going to be way harder or at least one vote harder.

One vote harder to um as you said, Mr. Burns, what was the example you used for that suspending of it? We've got a meeting, an agenda's been published, and one of the members up here through the discussion decides that it would be a a good idea to have a vote on a an item that's not there. supermajority vote would have to take place so that the member could put it suspend it and then put it on the agenda and then come back under and

seems like really more real world examples at least in this room that we've used in the past where you know say we're having a discussion where a council member has added an item to the agenda and then we just want to have a discussion about it rather than have council members ask the chair or a representative, you know, everybody just wants to have a nice good oldfashioned schedule and I like that and we've participated in a lot of those. That would be a suspension of Robert's rules as well.

Gotcha. And and when I'm looking at these to support or not, it's like what was the problem to begin with? And I still haven't heard what a problem was to begin with that would warrant a an additional rule or procedure up here that may inhibit um conversation. So, I'll be not opposing I'll not be supporting it. Thank you. Second, the second. But yep, get ready for your little no click over there. All right. I believe everyone's had a chance to speak.

Mr. Second, uh um just a comment that there is nothing that has happened that has made me want to do that. It's just kind of standard across most municipalities as you mentioned. It's probably I don't think I've ever seen it done working here or being up here. [clears throat] It's just when I was looking through it and coming up with things that change, I noticed that it was just majority vote. It's standard usually super majority vote. So, I just threw out the change. That's it. No secret sauce to it. Thank you, sir. All right. Council, please vote.

I hit second and and you do the no. Or do I hit anything? Miss second and then she has the

And it does pass 5 to one. 5 to one. All right. So that brings us to ordinances on second reading, I believe. Is that correct? Uh, ordinance 2194, an ordinance amending the landl section 5.04-11, community residential homes, Mr. Burns. Ordinance 2194, an ordinance to city council of the city of Fort Witch, Florida, creating section 5.04.33 of the land development code to update the standard for the review and approval of certified recovery residents requests to comply with Florida statutes. providing for authority, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date. This is second reading. It's a quasi legislative hearing. And Mr. Gibson will present on behalf of staff. Tim Gibson, growth management director. So again, this is just the second reading on this one. This is all stemming from section 397.487 of Florida statutes that was amended last year that requires us to adopt uh procedures for this. Uh we've received no comments or um input um since the first reading. Uh and with that staff effectively recommend city council adopt ordinance number 2194 which adds the land development code section 5.4.33 certified recovery residents to be consistent with amended section 397487 Florida statutes.

Thank you Mr. Gibson. Questions from the board for Mr. Gibson on this item. Seeing none anyone from the public wish to speak on this council. Do you wish to take any action tonight? So move to Ordin. I'll second.

A motion made by Councilman Ger, seconded by Councilwoman Riley to approve ordinance 2194. Any additional comments? Council, please vote. That motion does pass unanimously, which brings us to item 11.2. Mr. Friends,

uh, Ordinance 2201, an ordinance of the city of Fort Witch, Florida, establishing a temporary moratorium on the enforcement of the requirements for short-term rentals set forth in section 8.13 of the city code of ordinances created by ordinance number 2181, provide for findings of fact, provide for a six-month temporary moratorum recognizing pending litigation over the constitutionality of SP80, recognizing that the Florida legislature may consider a bill modifying SP 180 in 2026, providing receptability ility provide for an expiration of the moratorum on July 27th, 2026 and provide for an effective date. This is second reading and Mr. Gibson will present on behalf of staff and I can answer any questions as well.

Mr. Gibson, so this goes back to April of last year where the ordinance was passed to uh start adding some regulations on the short-term rentals. Uh as we all know, SB80 uh came out was passed by the governor uh which basically puts this entire ordinance um in jeopardy. Uh, so this is really just a legal framework to say that we're not going to enforce it. We've not been enforcing it since, uh, SB180, uh, was passed with this one. Uh, I just want to add a really quick side note on this one. Um, one of the things that is in this ordinance uh, is the requirements for extra trash cans for the short-term rentals. Uh, I know that came up earlier, so that would be in there if we ever get to enforce this. Um, again, this is a 6-month moratorium on this one. If um SB180 is overturned or if we're allowed to go ahead and implement stuff, we can always come back to council to uh remove this moratorum and start uh enforcing at that time. And with that, I respectfully [clears throat] recommend city council adopt ordinance 2201 to enact a temporary moratorum on the enforcement of the requirements for short-term rentals set forth in section 8.13 of the city code of ordinances expiring on July 27th, 2026.

Thank you, sir. Questions for Mr. Gibson on ordinance 2201? Mr. Walker, is this really just, if I understand it right, it's simply kicking it, it's keeping the framework in place down to July of this year to wait find out what happens regarding the lawsuit. Is it a lawsuit or just uh there's there's multiple things going on. There's a lawsuit that could put it into jeopardy. There's multiple things um going through the legislature right now that could either overturn the whole thing, redefine certain words in there, have the panhandle. There's a lot of things that could uh make it so that we can start enforcing this is really just kind of or have to prolong it happens or have to prolong it depending on Gotcha. Okay. Thank you.

Excellent summary. Anyone else with a question? Anyone from the public wish to speak on this item? Council, do you wish to take any action on ordinance 2201? Mr. May to adopt ordinance 2201.

Second. Motion made by Councilman Merrill, second by Councilman Jeter to adopt ordinance 2201. Any additional comments from the board, Mr. Walker? Yeah, I didn't support it back then and I won't be supporting it today. There were some industry experts that came in and spoke to us and basically begged us to do what the state ended up doing. So, I'm glad that it's happened that way. So, I just won't be supporting supporting it based on my previous objections. Thank you. Thank you, sir. And council may

I I did the I support the moratorum last time and the reason I did it is because I also did not support it last time. Um and so the fact that we can at least delay it maybe it makes it back to the table. So I know you're not supporting the ordinance. I would hope you would support the moratorum which does give it more time before where it's not enacted. So I'd like for it to fall apart myself. Well this keeps it this keeps it 6 months down the road. That's right. But if we voted today, no, it would fall apart. And that give me my goal, which was that it never implemented. So you can get the majority, you can make that. Oh, I I've given up on that often, let's be honest.

For me, that keeps it going down. You know, I did disagree with it as well.

Gotcha. All right. Anyone else wish to speak? Council, please. And it does pass 5 to one, which brings us to appointments. Miss Parker, [applause] thank you, Mayor. Um, on the Fort Walton Beach Housing Authority, Mr. Anthony Sawyer has been a member of the board since February of 18th. His current term expired on January 13th and 26, and he has expressed an interest to continue to serve another term. So, staff respectfully recommends the mayor with the approval of city council reappoint Mr. Anthony Sawyer to the Fort Walton Beach Housing Authority Board for a 4-year term to expire January 13, 2030. [clears throat] I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, ma'am. Anyone with questions [snorts] for Miss Barnes on this item? Would anyone from the public like to comment on this item? Would anyone from the board wish to make a recommendation on an appointment? I would like to please. I think I I think I misunderstood that. Let me let me call that back because I uh we've already recommended Anthony Sawyer. We have not yet. No, we had questions and we let the public speak. Oh, I thought you were Oh, now we want a recommendation. Okay. Well, I would like to recommend um Anthony Sorya

uh for the position. He's been doing Absolutely. [clears throat] A nomination and recommendation from Miss Riley and seconded by Mr. Mr. Jeter for the reappoint of Mr. Anthony Sawyer to the Fort Walton Beach Housing Authority Board. Any additional comments? Mr. Jer, is Mr. Sawyer here? And Miss Sansbury also apologized that she wasn't able to be here. Well, I I would like to make a comment. Please do.

I just wanted to u thank Anthony for the work that he's done. Um I've known him for quite a while in the community and I think that he's you know he's very committed to um his work. He's committed to you know to the communities and and I know he'll do an excellent job. He's been doing a good job and so um I would love to see him continue working with Miss Sandersburg. Thank you ma'am. Anyone else wish to call? Seeing none please vote. Miss Riley, would you be the mover? Yeah, I hit it. Okay.

All right. There we go. It does pass unanimously. 69. That brings us to uh item 13.1, action, direction, and discussion. Consideration of a development agreement for Ashton's Place. Mr. Burns and Mr. Gibson. Mr. Gibson will present on this. I would it does say that it's quasi judicial. Oh, that's that's correct. It is quasi. And so uh the first thing we need to do [laughter] so we I do need uh to ask each council member if you've had any exparte communications with any members of the public or the counc and uh Mr. Brownie. Mr. Barrett, Mr. Jeter. Yes, sir.

Mr. Alto, Mr. Merrill and Mr. Walker. And Mr. Riley, I believe you've indicated you are going to be abstaining. Correct. And and uh Mr. Gibson, can you raise your right hand? Okay. And pray as well if you're talking to raise your right hand. Yes, sir.

Mr. Thank you, mayor. By the way, [laughter] this is the development agreement for Ashton's place. Uh this is a three unit development. Uh as was mentioned, this did come through uh city council at the last meeting, the first reading of this as well as the approval for the development order for that project uh that was approved on January 13th. Uh the total grant amount for this is $150,000. Uh at the first reading of this one, uh Mr. Gray did make the recommendation or the request to city council that um instead of 100% of the grant money being granted uh at the completion of the foundation for the work for the pro for the project uh he was requesting 25% of that money uh be granted upfront um at the completion of the development agreement um and then the remainder be at the end of the foundation survey. I did work with uh Mr. burns on that when we did make the changes in paragraph 4 the development agreement uh which now basically states that um at the completion or the approval of the development agreement $37,500 uh of the grant money would be awarded um on the approval of this and the remainder of $112,500 uh would be approved uh or would be issued um at the completion of the foundation work and pending any questions uh stat recommend city council authorization to execute a development agreement between development LLC and city for Walton Beach.

Thank you, Mr. Gibson. Questions from the board for Mr. Gibson or Mr. Gray? Mr. W. Mr. Gibson, I just I think this is this is the one that Mr. Gray came to us at the conclusion or at the end of the last council body, I guess, and we had already approved the money out of the of the housing funds. Correct.

So, yes, correct. So uh the tenative assignment were done there where the three different applicants and everything to formalize that though require the development agreement. Florida statute requires us to bring any development agreements to two readings before city council. So this is really just the formalization of what was already um kind of earmarked before if you will. Great. Okay. I was making sure I wasn't missing anything. Thank you.

Yes sir. Anyone else questions for Mr. Gibson or Mr. Anyone from the public wish to speak on this item? Mr. Barry Gray, 217 Brand Avenue. I want to thank the council for the opportunity to apply for the funds. Uh I know Mr. Walker always say the free market. If you've been on Carson lately in Third Street, we acquired the property at 103 Carson, which was a Sorai. A lot of code violation. Someone's running a mechanic shop out of a piece of property. That property's been cleared as we speak. U Mr. written house uh already started his six units and Jenkins Engineering right now is designing us six units. We purchased that property. So we have three units going in at 105 and six units uh going in at um 103 the free market as you say.

Mhm. But I thank you guys for the opportunity. Yes sir. Thank you. Anyone else from the public wish to speak on this item? Council wish to take any action? Mr. mayor. So move to adopt the consideration of the development agreement for actions, please. Second motion made by Councilman Merrell, seconded by Councilman Walker to accept accept rather staff's recommendation to execute a development agreement with UN Development LLC for Ashman's Place Multifamily and Workforce Development at 105 Parson Drive Southeast. Any additional comments from the council? Mr. Jeter.

Thank you again, Mr. Barry. Again, when you get these units done and get your CO, they don't do a lot of ribbon cutings for commercial or residential doors, but we're going to do a ribbon cutting for one of these doors cuz you've jumped through a lot of hoops to get to this point. So, thanks for all you do for the community and let's have our first residential ribbon cutting when we get these done. Couldn't agree more and I'd be honored to be there, sir. Any additional comments? Council, please vote. And the motion does pass 5 nothing with one extension. And that brings us I think title 14 city manager reports. I'll go ahead and uh I'm going to handle an announcement for a uh upcoming exe executive session. Um, I'm announcing that the city council will conduct a private attorney client session pursuing to section 286.011 subsection 84 statutes at a future meeting. The private attorney client session will take place on February 10th, 2026. The purpose of the private session will be disc to discuss pending litigation involving the city specifically style form beach watch group a political committee and Travis Smith and individual plaintiffs versus the city of Fort Beach, Florida at all. Okaloosa County case number 2026 CA000000115-f. The private session will be conducted to discuss litigation strategy and expenses related to the case. The persons who are expected to attend the private session are the mayor, city manager, members of the city council, the city attorney, litigation council, and a certified reporter. And that's all I have. It'll be uh I believe 5:00 p.m. Is that the time we

Yes. Yes. Okay. So, it'll be 5:00 p.m. on February 10th. So,

thank you, sir. Mr. I uh one thing I failed to mention when we were discussing sanitation, if you have not done a ride along with Steve on the knuckle boom truck, he is quite a sorcerer. I highly recommend it. Uh Preston Hood expansion has started. If you haven't seen the clearing out, uh they've done substantial clearing on the property. So, one, it looks a lot better, but uh two moving along swimmingly. Uh Love Joy cleanup went really well. We had, you know, 25 30 people, including some local celebrities, the mayor and council lady Riley were there. So, very nice. And I noticed that we had probably close to 200 hour manh hours in the last 6 months of the city staff just volunteering time at various cleanups and those sorts of things. So, it's pretty cool. Uh the feedback that I got, I was uh borderline communist for cancelling Marty Gro, even though I did not cancel Marty Gro, but the feedback that I got from this past weekend, the pub crawl was substantially better than any Marty Gro that uh we have hosted locally. So maybe that's the business strategy going forward, but uh I think Mr. Merrill's company was highly uh celebrated by the public. So thank you for that. There is a senior survey taking place at the Preston Hood Rec uh rec center to add programming. I think uh council lady de Barry had spoke to that earlier, but if you want to suggest some programs that we would like to bring into the senior rec center type uh programming, please do that. Um I mean, if you're a criminal dude, so you're probably already making bad decisions, right? But I for the life of me, I can't figure out why people are doing it here, cuz our police has just been killing it lately. some. So, got to give some high fives there. Uh, fire also going just full boore ham style. Uh, save two elderly residents. Fought two fires over the last couple weeks. So, uh, just wanted to recognize a shift, which is I don't know these title

names, so I'm just going to go with the last names. We have Abbott, Frightenberg, Sears, Smith, Southern, Brewbaker, Corgan, Connley, and Walter. Uh, handled that fire and pulled those people out. So, super cool there, right? Yes.

Uh [sighs] the I kind of put it in my weekly report. We had the CDBG fun bundes identified to install a neighborhood park, if you will, off of the Love Joy and Combmes. I'm not very good with the community names. As we went looked at the property, there's a lift station on the property. There's a pond on the property would probably be responsible to fence off, keep the kids from getting in the pool or the pond, you know, whatever, just for safety. It's an oddly shaped piece of property to begin with. So, you go from point4 acres to probably 2 acres with the setbacks and the easements. And I just feel like it's kind of a disservice to put a playground there and we only have 105,000 to play with. Just the demucking and the civil work will be more than that. So, I had conversations just to white board with the county. They have a substantial park being in uh is it Eckles or EarD Street right around the corner, Miss Ray?

Echo. Echo. Okay. Um so, it might be more better to take our 105,000 and partner with the county. They do not have playground equipment scheduled for 2 to 12 year olds. And that's what the community came back with saying, "Hey, we want playground equipment for 2 to 12 year olds." So, we might get more bang there and be a good partnership for the county, but I I would need some direction from council because the direction from council right now is to build a playground on that existing property. So, I'm just kind of looking to you for some guidance there. Anyone from the board wish to direct there, Mr. Peter?

Yes. And we discussed that earlier and I fully support that. Anytime we can partner with Big Brother and still accomplish what we were trying to get done, it it's going to cost us more than what we allocated to build a park where we wanted to. So, I would certainly support partnering with the county and uh even if there's any extra money left over to make sure there's a nice path to get to it since it may not be in the same place. It may be around the corner, but would always support that and the money still going towards the park which is what we originally wanted it to go towards anyway.

Gotcha. Anyone else? M. I'm kind of, you know, um I'm very um thankful in the sense that the county, you know, um they are going to do a park, you know, and I know that they're going to move forward with it and it's probably going to be really nice. Um looking at the the the park or on Combmes and I'm I'm totally 100% in agreement. you know, I was at the meeting and um listening to the uh the voices of the people that live in the area and would be the ones that would mainly want to benefit from the park area. I was very excited about it, you know, putting the park there. But on the other hand, you know, if the money is reallocated in a sense, that would be fine. I was just, you know, uh, love to see something if, you know, if that's not going to happen, if it's not going to go through with the with the county, I I would like to have the little path and maybe the the picnic table that was suggested in in the in the meeting u fire pit or a little small walkway, you know, remember what they had discussed a little small walkway and maybe I know a swing set or something somebody I think you had mentioned about Destin Elementary School or middle school um donating um equipment, putting my own equipment, but um I would love to see something of that manner, you know, something um small but not extraordinary, but if if it don't work out with the county, I would just like like to see something, you know, allocated there.

Yeah. And then I did speak I forgot to mention there's a another property that's way more appropriate for a neighborhood park that would require the demunking on Bernett and Love Joy corner of Bernett than Yeah. So I mean we could potentially look into buying that. I mean obviously that money can't be used for that but that I think that I'll still track that down and even on that oddly shaped parcel that we currently own. I think we can still do something there in in outear. Mhm. I just don't think the 105 is enough to do anything that would I feel like it would be a disservice almost. I I totally understand that. I I was just thinking if it you know if something if there's a glimpse there of something it where it doesn't work out. I mean I'm sure will make sure it'll work out though.

Yeah. I think on the back end we might be able to partner in a different capacity on some of those other parts. Good. Right. And you know, and that was a good idea, too. And I don't know if you all were aware, but we had approached the city some years back about the Bernat property, uh, Love Joy and Bernat Street. We had actually had a really great plan together. And I know the the Miss Barnett, the mom, she ended up passing, but that was something that she was pushing for and her son once she passed, I know the colonel passed before she did, her husband and um, he came down and kind of squashed that a little bit and said, "No, no sales." But that was on the table. You approached the city about doing

and that parcel going back to the community input meeting we had there was a request a high level request for a splash pad and a couple other things and that would fit on that parcel. It would not fit on that parcel that we couldn't have. So we could do something beefier on that part if we could move that direction. I think that would be understandable. I'm just happy to see a part. Anyone else wish to provide any direction on this? Good. All right, I think you're good, Mr.

Good. All right, so we'll I'll reach out to Jeff Peters and I'll circle back. Um, and the final thing, I did have an entity reach out public records request for that 3% white paper that we've that I've been working on as we've navigated the cap issues. So you may start getting some calls if that does go anywhere, but that's just the issues that we're running into that I would eventually at the end of the fiscal year, we'll know all those impacts, but I would turn that over to ICMA and FCCMA so other communities can see what that real impact is. Want to plant that seed. That's all I have. Go. Thank you, sir. City attorney reports.

And before I discuss the reports, there was something I actually brought to Mr. days earlier that uh probably if there weren't so many things on on the agenda, you probably would have thought to add it. But we got some good news on the steamboat landing property. Um I talked to the magistrate who was assigned by the court today to actually marshall the property and get it ready for sale. He he got signed 10 days ago. Uh and he he indicated that he's basically in total control of the property and his job is to get it marketable now cuz the judge entered a judgment giving him that power. when he heard that the city council and the CRA board have both uh numerous times in the past indicated that they want to have that building demolished and they're willing to pay for it out of that nuisance abatement fund that the CRA board uh controls. Uh he was like surely that's not right. There's no such thing as a free lunch. And I explained to him like no the city has done this a couple times now and uh they are willing to go on there and demolish the property and uh and in return you know you need to sell it. make sure there's no other code violations on the property, but they will demolish it, make it safe, and so it doesn't it's not an isore anymore. He is ready to sign the contract as quickly as they can. Uh he would still want the judge to sign off on it. And he asked if uh y'all are are still in support of it, I might be required to appear in the next few weeks at a hearing just to confirm that the city is actually supporting this and answer any questions that the judge does have. And so, uh, I would assume, uh, unless I hear something otherwise tonight that still the council's mission is to demolish that building. Correct.

Yes. Okay. I got a question for you on it. So, just, um, not being intimately familiar, but I know the place you're talking about back there that's got that building on it. It's been on there forever and they've graffitied it and there's a old abandoned pool and that kind of the b the the building's abandoned. Um it it was my understanding on very but the HOA was in a um a legal battle with insurance company from the so so what's gone on over the last few years there's actually a time owner or time share association

there were I think thousands of owners committed breaching that so what happened is the building uh was not not liable it was condemned and in a situation like that uh the same thing would happen if it was owners association in the condo, but it's even worse if it's a time share situation. Uh all those time share owners own fractional interest in the proper the real the dirt. But the only way you can corral them all together is to actually file a lawsuit. And so the old owners association basically like somehow or another file the lawsuit against all the owners

to start this process. And it's required and it requires a judge certifying them as a class representative and then so they can then market and sell the property otherwise it'll it'll sit there forever and ever. So that's actually what this lawsuit was about. Right. And then and then that took me to the next step. I mean we as the city/taxpayers money that abatement fund is that what you said described would be used to tear the building down. um they in order to sell it, they're not going to they're not willing to tear it down themselves or was this just a carrot that we were putting out in front of them?

The CRA board numerous times uh has indicated interest. I think even one point might have voted on the other board with doing it. Gotcha. Okay. Yep. Thank you. And uh regarding the city attorney reports, um initially I was going to just give some updates on the new litigation that was filed against the city uh which we just announced the exe executive session for that the watch group filed. But now that litigation council the has been signed by the insurance company, I will leave any updates uh up to him when we meet on the 10th. So

thank you sir. All right. Final council comments. Um we start with Mr. Um, so I want to try I don't know who to direct this to, either you or you, but um, him. Okay. I want to see I'm interested in seeing if there's any orphan land, any orphan parcels between after Shalomar Elementary School up to the gate of Eglund Air Force Base. That's probably something me and Mr. Davis can work on if you're if you're looking for Yeah, you can bring that back. That' be great. What's the rehearsals in here? I have no [clears throat] idea. you know the uh

oh after shalomar all that land that becomes Eglund that if they're willing to sell any of it up to the gates of Eglund Air Force Base I think it I do remember there were some discussions probably a year ago at least when the the Eglund Air Force Base put out a map saying there were certain parcels that they were maybe going to offer up. Are those the ones you're talking about? Okay. And then I have to give a shout out to my seventh grader because I missed her last soccer game tonight. I don't know what the score is. I'm assuming it's over, but I hope you won. Go Megs. [laughter] And that's all I got. Thank you, sir. Mr. Perry,

Mr. J. Mr. Mayor, Marty Gar was a success. Um, I think you mentioned uh us running it like that. There's interest, I think, on both ends from the businesses down there to the Marty girl organization, that specific one that we work with. So, we may we may like to see it get even bigger, make a whole thing of it, maybe even a golf cart parade. Obviously, there'll be conversations that will be had from that. But, yeah, we would love to kind of take that on. I think everybody on both ends was happening.

And to Mr. Greg, to your personal comments from earlier, I agree. I've sat on the other side as a business owner and sometimes you feel like what's what's happening? What are they thinking? I feel like the city and I'm not saying anybody out here isn't or is, but I feel like the city needs to be business friendly to people that are working well with the city that have earned that reputation that continue to come back. We need to be open to the people that want to start out when they first get it. And uh I've seen a lot of good things from the city. Um, and I've seen some things where it's frustrating and I'd like to see those things streamlined. But yeah, when as a business owner, as an individual, when the city has a deal and we see that deal through, it shouldn't be a well, look what you mentioned it like like we did something for you. Um, you did it. You did it. And the city's uh blessed to have people like you and other businesses in here that that drive and and develop the city. And I think from the comments I hear is a very pro for that type of thing board. And so I I think you know maybe we need to do a better job sometimes of of showing that up front. And that's why when you asked for that, I thought it was a no-brainer to give it to you. And I'd like to see us be develop that that personality, that culture up here that for what becomes a businessfriendly city because I'm on the other side and I've heard and in some instances that it's not. And then I get on this side and I've sat in the offices from a business person where I argued and then I've learned both sides. But I think there's a way to for us to to get better at presenting ourselves as a business friendly city. and I as a council member will continue working.

Thank you, Councilman M.

And on that note, I'm going to piggy back sort of on what you're saying because I wanted to um to say to the city, first of all, Mr. Davis, Mr. Tim, Mr. David, you know, Wendy, your staff at the rec center. I, you know, um and and [snorts] I just really really really appreciate it because I want people to understand too that the city is here and we are concerned about our constituents. We're concerned about our residents and when you open the door and the opportunity to listen to to what the residents want, I think we're on the right track. And and and I I I think it's kind of fallen a little bit where, you know, a business friendly city. I want us to be the type of city, too, that we listen to the voices of our residents. We got to listen to our residents and let's listen to what their needs and their wants and their desires cuz they are taxpaying citizens and they deserve that. So, I wanted to tell you all thank you for the, you know, I enjoyed going to the CDBG meeting. It was open for the residents, open for the public to come and I thought that was just a great thing. I love town halls, meetings. I love people being able to express how they feel and how they want their taxpayers dollars to be spent and that was a great opportunity. And so, just again, thank you all so much. You know, wonderful presentation. Wonderful presentation.

Thank you, Miss Rile, Mr. Walker. Um, thank you. Um, reading tonight before this afternoon before coming out and um, going into the executive session we went into, I was reading through the deeds and all. I'm just curious. I've not seen it and I'm I don't know if it's here. I saw it reference a World War II vets plaque at the entrance or or is anybody familiar with a with a plaque to the lot that was a part of the deed requirements that the city There's some plaque over here where there's a eternal flame or something Daniel's hand went up Mr. Payne's hand went up

it was referencing Fort Walton Beach um veterans of World War II that came back is it is it out here somewhere? Yes, it's over there. No, cuz my wife's grandfather's, you know. Yeah, but it's right over here by the by the fields. No, it's in the front. It's down by the internal flame thing. Yes. Right in front of the auditorium. Gotcha. [clears throat] Internal fame. Okay, great. I just saw that. I was like, man, I don't know that I've ever seen it. Okay, thank you. Ceremony there just a couple years ago. Okay. Mr. May came out and they did a huge cere. Great. I'm going to stop by and look at it. Thank you. Uh, and speaking of plaque, leads me into um, Mr. Mayor, you had mentioned a plaque honoring former um city council members cuz it's gone back so far

and staff and all recognizing those and I know it seems like I've brought this up one time before even preceding those leaders in the community who've been here will be here and it's going on. But you know I think when we put up a plaque I'd love to see an acknowledgement to taxpayers. It comes from taxpayers. I mean with our leadership and previous bodies, but so if we could include some form of recognition to the taxpayers when they fund something on a when a plaque goes up as great as this body is, the taxpayers are really appreciated too. So if we could do that, um Mr. Browning, you had mentioned orphaned land in Shalomar. Um not sure obviously what the purpose or intent of that would be to ask staff to look at for some orphan land north of us. Um can the city buy land that's non-ontiguous to city property?

It can buy land whether or not it becomes part of the within the city limits uh is a probably not. But it all depends on where exactly the land's located in in comparison to the closest city land. I don't know if if any of it butts can wood or anything like that. So, we have to figure Yeah, cuz I'm not sure exactly. Are you talking north on 85 on the north side by the school going up through there? Like near the um uh armament museum kind of stuff. Sure. Yeah. I mean, just wherever is available and then we bring it back and discuss where, like you said, how close is it to the city limits? Gotcha. Of what we can do with it. I mean, not shallomar, but all that becomes Eglund as soon as you pass the elementary school. So,

Gotcha. Just see what what's out there.

Gotcha. Okay. Thank you. And then um David's not here and I had hoped to be able to ask about it. I saw recently an article by the um one of the news organizations in Okaloosa County dealing with the the bridge uh remodel and all and its cost. And I emailed you and thank you for your response. I got it late today, but um I was curious if anybody up here knows or is willing to take a stab at it because I've heard several different um takes on it. But when I inquired with the DOT regarding the PD&E and the design of the bridge and the you know the redoing of the the roads and stuff out on the the county side and I found out that county residents of which we're one of them too um you know did not have to pay um anything towards a PDE andor design cost. I've kind of scratched my head and I'm just out of being the curious guy that I am said why did why does the county residents of the county out there not it's a state road why do why was there's no PD& cost borne by them but we have a our taxpayers have a PD have borne the PD and cost and design so far so I'll say all of that to say that the two stories I've heard is that if we didn't do it they going to go through downtown, right? So, we did it as a preventative measure and then I've heard that well, we want it to go around downtown so that it can be revived downtown. So, has anybody up here know David being on the transportation? Yeah, Mr. Mayor,

I was kind of confused by what you're saying. Sure. You you kept saying the bridge. The bridge. The bridge. You talking about the bridge? The Okaloos Island Bridge. Yep. Brooks Bridge. Okay. The replacement of the bridge. I mean, I would think that every single thing involved there, those were all born by every state, not just county or state like live in the state of Florida. Your tax money goes to FDOT, correct? That's going to fund [clears throat] all of those studies, whether it's PD&E, whether it's whatever. I think the only thing that we funded separately were around the mound projects.

Well, it's a state road, right? We're going to reroute State Road Highway 98. And that's what they did on the island with the redirection of the traffic out there for traffic flow. And of course, last meeting we talked about the potential cost of 300 million. And then we want some overpasses and whatnot. And I was just trying to distinguish what the difference that I don't know on this, but I I would say if you lived in Penllis County,

you were paying for that project to be done. And then and I'm with you. I'm not disagreeing. I agree with you. And then I come across the bridge and there's a rerouting of Highway 98 of which the city taxpayers end up having to fund the PD&E and the design on it. So I'm trying to figure out what the distinction is why a city is born with those cost and when the county is not born with cost directly. You know what I'm saying? They didn't go to the county, Okaloosa County, and say, "Give me a check for the PD and E study." We did. We had to do that right for around right rerouting of did but we didn't have to I think we did it to move up on a list if I recall okay

is that and that's what I'm asking really I don't know is so we're

on the bridge thing I don't think we did anything special at all on that that's just you live in the state on the round we did pay two separate times a significant amount of money to move up lists I believe somebody can correct No question [clears throat] on the technical recording committee for the TPO as well. Um and and you're absolutely correct. So it's all about getting that state funding. Um and you can move up on that priority list to receive that state funding with those local matches. So for the around the mountain plan, obviously the city did kick in for that one. The county did volunteer to kick in for the design phase. We were applying for some grants from the state. um the city match on that one was going to be split between the county and the city on that work together. Fortunately, we didn't get that grant, but we're continuing to work with the county to see where we can, you know, collaborate on that kind of stuff. So, yeah, but it it was all just to get it funded sooner.

Sooner and we get that local match in there. Basically, the state looks at that and saying, "Okay, if there's local interest in there and they're willing to pony up some stuff, obviously the state's going to prioritize that higher." Okay, good. because that dispels the myth that if we didn't go around the mound, they were going to gut downtown with widening Highway 98 through there. I had heard that and that's why I was looking for some clarity tonight on that. So, thank you there. Um, and I think at the last I'll try to finish with a funny comment. Please humor me.

I know you humor me if it's not. But in honor of um of procedural and administrative efficiency, would this body approve the process of um in the future instead of having to read the long motioning of staff's recommendations, can we just simply say here here and that be an acknowledgement that we were making a recommendation to accept staff's recommendation? And I'll finish with that. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Yeah, I have one more thing I forgot to mention. Um, with the two schools closing, they are proposing a reasonzoning of schools. So, it may directly affect you. Like my kids right now, for some reason, are zoned to go to school in Shalomar. Never made sense to me, but now they're zoned to go to Elliot Point where they go anyways. So, it could affect you. Um, so just pay attention to that. That's all I got. Thank you, sir. Good point. Uh just very briefly, three things plus that was the third time you're talking tonight during council conference. So you want to keep I'm just saying I think I think it's any any director of staff. [laughter]

I think it's I think it's worked out really well. Uh wanted to say awesome job by our parks and wreck. The bridges at Ferry Park, brand new bridges are so so awesome. They look great. much needed and the work was done very efficiently and they're just really really cool. Really nice work. Uh had an incident, not an incident, but I took my kids to the batting cages at the Preston Hood uh field as we often do. Just go up there, hit some baseballs, etc. I text a video to Mr. Davis and said, "Hey, some some street hooligans have busted a few bottles out here, glass bottles all over the ground." It wasn't even 15 minutes later and here come two employees on a golf cart with a broom and a blower and cleaned all of the glass and apologized. Had no idea, you know, I'm the mayor. You're doing this for for me or anything else. They just, hey, there's a problem. Let's go do it. Let's clean it up and let's apologize to the user. Um, and then very lastly, um, was very happy to see tonight's vote with the trash situation. Uh, Mr. Payne and and Mr. Gun and everybody that's involved. I think that's one of the best services that we have as a city, period. Um I'm really always so hesitant to ever want anything to go out of my own control. And so as a city, as a collective, we have the control currently over these trash services. So costs go up, costs go down, we can control that cost. Once you start getting into, oh, we're going to let these people run it or these people run it, they can tell you what those costs are and then you have no control of it. I thought it was awesome that Mr. Davis brought up once you get rid of it, that's really going to be it because we're never going to be able to afford 20 trash trucks and 2,000 dumpsters and and all of those things all at one time.

So, really nice work uh tonight by the council just working that out. Even if the vote would have gone the other way, it was a good discussion and uh well done council. Anyone else with anything else? Mr. Browning, one more time. [laughter] All right, we're good. I know you can. All right, we're