City Council Regular Meeting - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone and welcome to this regular meeting of the city council of the city of Fort Walton Beach and thank you so much for being in attendance and for all of you you are uh watching online thank you as well. If everyone in attendance could please mute your phones, put them on silent etc. We will uh stand first for the invocation for senior pastor Dwell from First United Methodist Church and then please stay standing for the pledge of allegiance. Pastor, let us pray. How grateful we are, oh God, to be a part of this city where great things happen every day. It's not just the sun rising and the sun setting, but people are at business and at school. We pray for our schools that have opened and for our uh school resource officers who are heroes and heroins to our children and who also keep those communities safe. We pray for the youngest in our community like those I saw in chapel this morning and their happy faces to be here and to be blessed. And for the oldest couple I saw today who were walking on the streets. We pray for the first responders. And we pray for laborers who are building the bridge and working in the roads and working in our city parks and in recreation. We pray for all those who are doing acts of mercy and care and reaching out and caring and loving their neighbors. We pray for all who are in business and for the chamber of commerce who gives great enthusiasm in this community. We pray for our city council. Give them wisdom and strength. Empower them, oh God, because all great government is local and we are here to be a witness to it and to bear witness to its goodness and greatness in this community of life. Bless us all and give us your grace. In your holy name we pray. Amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God. indivisible with liberty and justice for all. [Applause] All right, council. That moves us to approval of the agenda. So move. Second. Motion by Councilman Jeter, seconded by Councilwoman Deary for approval of tonight's agenda. Any additional comments? Yes, sir.

Council, please vote. [Applause] It is approved unanimously, which moves us to recognitions. Chief Beige, I believe you have a few for us. Yes, I have any recognition. I was promised more than one, but we'll accept one. I'd like to recognize you, Mayor, for being outstanding in everything you do. Thanks for all you do. So, now we got two.

And my second one is going to be for Officer Seth Williams. if Seth Williams can come forward. [Music] So, I think we may have previewed this during mental health awareness month when the city manager first got here, but Seth Williams is the officer of the quarter for the second quarter of the year. And the recognition comes from on May 23rd, Officer Williams spent over 40 minutes talking to a suicidal person that was basically hanging off the rail of the Brooks Bridge. Despite the other agency efforts, the sheriff's office also responded because the bridge kind of splits Okaloosa and Fort Walton Beach. Officer Williams was able to establish a rapport and trust with the suspect. The suspect would only talk to Seth Williams and after about 40 minutes, Seth was able to get him to come off the railing and they were able to take the subject into protective custody. The subject actually had a suicide note, so it was definitely a intentional act to possibly jump off the bridge. And Seth was able to calm him down enough so he could go into protective custody and go to the Fort Wald Beach Medical Center for evaluation and treatment. So that night, Seth Williams did the city proud and was also able to save a life at the Brooks Bridge. And we'd like to present him with the officer of the second quarter, Seth. Congratulations. [Applause] Thank you guys.

Thank you. Ch.

That brings us item six, presentations. The Greater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce quarterly report with the energetic Ted. Mr. mayor, city council, city staff, interested citizens, Ben Franklin and Betsy Ross. Thank you all. I've had the pleasure to come to city council meetings for over 20 years in this room. And today, I've decided to yield my presentation to two of our outstanding executive board members. Right there is our 2027 chair elect, Alan Jers from Car Rigs and Ingram. He will not be speaking but will sitting there pleasantly. But who will be speaking today is our 2025 chair, the CEO of Okaloosa Gas, Mr. Gordon King. Mr. King will share his opinions and updates on the Fort Long Beach Chamber of Commerce.

Thank you, Ted. And uh it's great pleasure to be uh before the council to give updates on the activities of the Fort Walt Beach Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Aliggretto and for and council members. Uh happy to be here tonight. Couple of things I want to bring up are some things that are coming up in the future and then kind of reflect back on some things of the past that the chamber has been active in over the last couple of years and then talk about a couple of things that I heard going on during the CRA which are near and dear to everybody's heart which is the around the mound project and and possibly a little discussion on the certax renewal that's coming up possibly next year. Um, if you don't know, the uh mayor's charity gala is going to be held September 6, 2025, and all nine of our Okaloosa County mayors have been invited. We'll be honoring Mayor Emmeritus Dick Reneerson with the Mike Anderson Award. So, you've got former mayor for Beach and former mayor of Fort Walton Beach receiving those awards. U, we look forward to that. It'll be a good fundraiser and hope if you haven't made reservations or got a table for that that you uh you take advantage of that coming up soon. Um back in April of this past year, April 30th, 2025, the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War was uh honored with over a hundred of our local Vietnam vets in attendance. Um coming up in February of 2026, the 35th anniversary of the end of Desert Storm. We'll be honoring those uh fighters that participated in in that event and uh more things to come from the chamber on that as uh as it evolves. Um a few things that we probably all do that the Fort Walton Beach Chamber does on behalf of the city and serves as a kind of a leazison is the chamber serves as the official visitor center for full Walton Beach. and we see over 10,000 annual visitors as well as email inquiries that come through the chamber

inquiring about what's going on in Fort Walton Beach. Other publications that the chamber supports provide information on Okaloosa County demographics, Fort Walton Beach city demographics and to note that Fort Walton Beach, the city of Fort Walton Beach is one of the top uh cities in Florida and is one of the top 100 small cities in the United States. Um the project that I wanted to kind of brief you on tonight, um I had the opportunity with uh Mr. Davis and a project design uh planning uh engineer from the FDOT uh district 3 uh Bryant PC. We discussed here around the mounds relocation last week with our executive committee. In that uh first of that meeting, we were informed greatly so that the city has undertaken to fund the remainder of the two and a half million$2.7 million PD&E requirements to get that uh design work underway. Um that was great news to hear from us. The chamber is here to support the city and pursuing that. So we thought, what else can we do to help the city move this forward? Uh we have a meeting with district 3 secretary Tim Smith coming up at the end of September where members of the chamber executives and uh we would like to have somebody from the city attend to a meeting in Chipley uh that afternoon if if possible to help promote uh the around the mound project. Understanding now that the city has helped to fund this in January. Um there will be a public hearing and then a 30-month period for the design work to proceed so that sometime in 2028 uh the project would be available for construction funding. We understand it's over $300 million project. We understand right now that we're number four on the list of uh TPO projects behind Highway 98 and I believe two projects on Highway

85. So, we are really out there to uh to promote this for the city. This is something that's been underway for years. Back in the '9s, it was undertaken and then uh former mayor uh of the city of Fort Walton Beach um brought it back up in 2017. And so, we've got some momentum going here. We want to keep this project underway for you. Um, we also understand that part of that funding for this PD&E money came from sir tax revenues that the city collected and that the uh county we will be working with Okaloosa County and trying to get a renewal on that coming up next year and certainly hoping to work with the city to help promote that because we do believe it's been good for the citizens and the income that's brought in for special projects like this. And with that, uh, just like to say thank you for the support that you give. um is a community member of the Fort Walton Beach Chamber and certainly uh pleasure to be here tonight. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. All right, that moves us on to the consent agenda. Council, any action on that item? So, move to approve the consent agenda. Second. Motion made by Councilman Jeter, seconded by Councilman Schmidt to approve tonight's consent agenda. Any additional comments? Yes, sir. Please vote. council. [Applause] That motion does pass unanimously, which brings us to item eight, mayor and council comments. We start tonight with Councilman Walker. Not at this time. All right. Thank you, sir. Councilman Browning. I'll save for the mayor. Councilwoman De.

Uh, not at this point. Councilman Jeter,

I'll save the majority for the end. I'd like to start with one thank you chamber for that wonderful presentation. I thank you. I don't know if you guys were here last meeting, but we actually had that same conversation with Mr. Davis, and we think it's great as a community to work together on all these partnerships on things that we're unable to do. We didn't get a trip grant. Now, it looks like we're going to be, you know, funding some of this money. It's great to have a partner like you guys that we could issue a small check to and you guys really go out into the community in areas that we can't and we maybe see a large return on our investment and partnering with you guys on some things and bringing us back some funding so that we can get a project complete that benefits all of us. City residents whether you're in the chamber or not, county residents whether you're in the chamber or not, but it's going to benefit all of us. So great presentation. Uh look forward to you bring us back some funding. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Councilman Merrell, not at this time. Councilwoman Riley, not at this time.

Council member, great presentation, Mr. King. I really appreciate you planting that seed. And to kind of play off of Mr. Jeter's feedback, I think a way to help is we have the legislation appropriations request coming and you know, as we meet with Mr. Smith, director, new director, and those kind of things as well as I know Mr. Corkran comes regularly to the TPO and thank you for constantly beating that drum of that around the mound design. But as we gear up towards appropriation asks that staff will be working on and going through that process. I think committee starts early October October 1st.

October 1st. So we're getting pretty close to to that whole committee deal. How to help. Thank you for planting that seed. Resolutions. I think as we prepare a package and and maybe we may need some council action on this, but a a project that we want staff to work towards on the the appropriations request from the state. The budget's probably going to be cut another two or three billion this year. We're going to be expecting those cuts and how to play with those cuts is we're just going to have to manage those. But while we're trying to manage those, I think there's a lot of community support thanks to Mr. cork in the chamber for the around the mound as well as previous boards, previous mayors, we have DoD officials, everyone is looking at around the mound in a positive way, whether it's mission readiness, those kind of things. So, how to help? Thanks for planting that seed. And as we prepare for our legislative request, I'd like to advocate that be our thing. You know, that legislative request that we're going to be knocking on the doors or some text, some go over there Tallahassee and dress up and all that stuff. But as we all lean in together with unified voice of that legislative request uh being that funding that the county roughly $600,000 recently funded and then we're about I think 2 million in. So we we got a lot of seed already vested and the state is going to be expecting a match anyway. So we're already there. So thanks for planting that seed.

Thank you sir. Public comments. Anyone from the public that wishes to speak on something that's not on tonight's agenda, um, please step forward and state your name and address. Good evening. I'll do the technicals first. U, my name is Mity Henley. My address is 108 Levio Bin, Fort Walton Beach, Florida. I'm here on behalf of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

And I'm Christy Pat and I live at 181 West Miracle Strip Parkway in Mary. So now I'm going to put on a different hat. I'm here as Benjamin Franklin and this is Oh, sorry. This is Deborah Franklin or Betsy Roth, whichever way you want. But as you stood up this evening, you said the pledge of allegiance to the United States. And we're celebrating that the 250th anniversary of our nation in signing the Declaration of Independence is next July 4th, 2026. is 250 years. We believe this is a milestone for our community and we have a challenge out to all the cities to start preparing now. And don't just prepare for July the 4th. There were so many battles and so many patriots that made milestone marks that led up to July 4th. And we want to challenge you to proceed with a proclamation, to challenge your businesses, to challenge your recreation centers, your sports programs, anything that you can to highlight the wonderful patriots that actually put together our country and our pledge and that laid the foundation for all of us today. Um, we also and and there so our goal this year is in DR is to tell patriot stories and we all are interested in people's stories these days but sometimes we need to go back and reflect all the sacrifices that were made and the reason that I say she's Deborah Franklin is so many people didn't even realize Ben Franklin was married because he was gone stayed in Europe all the time trying to work on all the issues there was a lot of issues and it took months to sell ships. They

couldn't just fly over there in a day. There was a lot of personal sacrifices and we just want to highlight those and challenge people to remember them. Um and so if you would do a proclamation, we'd love to come back help you with it. Um and think of how you as a city might want to start leading up to some fun events to bring about um this. Now, just so you know, the Okaloosa County Schools are putting together major programs with the school board. They've applied for grants for celebrations. So has Northwest Florida State College. Um the goal is to plan on kicking off some major events by November, right before Veterans Day. The S and the D are going to work together and kick some stuff off as well. And um so just please consider doing a proclamation and working with us in any way that you see that your community and your businesses would like to get excited about this um special event. And we are always here for any uh any support that we can give and thank you for having us.

I'm going to talk. Oh yes, I'm I'm talking Yes. I need to turn it over to Deborah.

Yes. because I'd just like to bring a little bit of information to this group tonight because I'm betting that there are a lot of you that don't know that there are two Revolutionary War patriots buried in Okaloosa County. I'm president of the Children of the American Revolution, the Snowden Horn Society here in the Fort Walton Beach area. Aaron Snowden is buried in the Milton Cemetery and Joab Horn is buried in the boonies out under the pine trees close to Laurel Hill. A lot of people don't know that we don't have battle sites too much. Pensacola has the longest siege. We don't have so many markers to put up, but we do have two that followed their children down here after the war and are buried. So, it's important to know that and we hope you'll get behind us in supporting this 250th anniversary. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you both very much. Councilman Schmid,

sorry. And instead of waiting to the council comments at the end, but this is our first time going through this with committee starting in October before our one or two meetings in September, can we have a short list of legislative appropriations ready in September? And then that gives you direction on what is our one thing or multiple things that we're going to go as for state. Is that a realistic timeline of preparing a short list so that when we go into committee because that's where a lot of the advocating has to happen in that committee week. We only got two meetings until October one. So I think I have a list. I'm going to put in the week of reports this weekend. I was for that you send me in. Yeah. So we do have it. I'll send it to you this weekend. All of you will have it.

And obviously I'm advocating for around the mount as being one of those short list. But whatever we ultimately come out of that that gives staff clarity to to try to advocate in TIC as we prepare for that October one deliverable. So thank you Mr. No problem. And just uh before we move on to item 10, I want to once again thank Mr. and Mrs. Franklin for being here tonight. I know you've traveled a long way through time

and space to be here. But just absolutely fantastic uh outfits as well. And I think it's a wonderful idea to start that planning now. I think I, you know, obviously I don't speak for the rest of the council, but I moving forward with these types of of 250th anniversary celebrations would be fantastic and wellreceived in our city. Um, and it's something that, you know, I would encourage our staff to seek out some grant funding for um so that we could make bigger and better parties uh all throughout the year. So, thank you very much for bringing that tonight, for being here. Yes, thank you for having

We will now move on to item 10, resolutions. Uh resolution 2025-15. I believe that is chief. [Music] [Applause] Thank you for having us. Thank you for being here. Stay out of the lightning. [Laughter] [Applause] [Laughter] [Music] Sorry about that. No problem.

Go ahead, sir.

This is a resolution 2025-15 is a resolution to accept FDLE grant funding for tactical first aid kits. Many time police officers are the first respond at a critical incident. And if it's a hot zone with an active attack still going on, a lot of times other responders do not respond in until the scene is no longer an active scene. So law enforcement officers are required to either provide self care or emergency care to victims. This grant will allow for the purchase of tactical first aid kits. The grant is for $4,766 and we're asking that the city formally accepts the JAG grant from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Thank you, sir. Questions from the council for Chief Beige on this item or on this neighborhood.

I have a question. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry. What's that in the first aid kits? So, it would be quick claw. It would be chest seals. It would be bandages. It would be anything you need for immediate first aid kit. But no drugs or anything? No, it's just a tactical first aid kit. Anyone else? Just curious. Walker. Thank you. Just curious, um, they call it the grant covers 100% of the purchase of the fitness equipment. So, if there's fitness equipment, it should be tactical first aid. Out of which page are you reading off? Oh, it's just two 2.3. Just so 2.3 that was probably left over from where we typed over. Okay. So, you can strike 2.3, but everything else is good to go.

I got you. I was like first aid kit and then the fitness equipment. I was That was last year's grant from Gotcha. Anyone else? Would anyone from the public like to speak on this item? Council, you wish to take any action? I make a motion to um accept the resolution to accept FDLE grant funding to tactical first aid kits TFAK.

Second. I have a motion made by councilwoman Berry, seconded by is that council to accept uh resolution or to move rather resolution 2025-15 to accept the FDLE grant funding for tactical first aid kits. Additional comments, Mr. Bear. No, thank you. And I appreciate you having that. This will be in all the cars. It'll be with all the officers. All the officers. Okay. Thank you.

Anyone else? and thank you for getting a grant. This is a grant, another exhibit of a of a grant opportunity that was awarded and thank you for going after that and and it it will raise the budget and it will go up a little bit, but these are ways that it will offset our general revenue and those kind of things. So, thank you for going after that. Thank you, sir. Anyone else? Council, please vote. The resolution does pass unanimously, which brings us to item 10.2 and resolution 2025-16 authorizing the city attorney to seek the attorney general opinion. Mr. Burns

and uh council, this is the resolution that uh I indicated I'd bring back to you at the I guess workshop that followed the last council meeting. And uh because uh y'all were going to be combining multiple issues for the attorney general, I figured it'd be best to put it in resolution form because the first issue involving the police budget was would have been enough to send that over just just the minutes. But given the fact that uh once you start combining more than one issue in there, the uh attorney general, they're they're human over there and they like things very simplified sent over as one document. Uh after the last meeting though, um I did have a phone call with one of the council members the next day. Uh in fact, the one sitting next to me and he brought up a good point that uh the question needed answering on the third question that I added to this which is not a question that was considered during the open meeting last time and it would be the question of would the use of actual expenditures from the prior fiscal year as opposed to budget expenditures to implement the charter imposed spending cap. uh that expressly requires the city's prior year expenditures as the baseline violate the approval based accounting requirement set forth in section 218.33 Florida statutes and the deadline for budget adoption contained in 166.241. Now that's not exactly how Mr. Walker phrased it to me. Uh I do have to uh go in and create the question in the way that the attorney general will actually answer. But oddly enough, uh, two other council members, uh, had previously over the several months had asked the same question in ving various different ways. So, I know there was at least support amongst Mr. Walker and two other council members for this question. So, I've put it in there. If y'all decide y'all don't want to include this third question, we can just cut that out and uh, get the resolution over to Mr. Algretto tomorrow and y'all can just send it there with the two questions. But the third question is at what I just read out and I do know there is some interest amongst the council to have that question answered as well by the attorney general.

All right. Thank you, sir. Questions for Mr. Burns. Audience.

Mr. Walker got a question about the question. So um just looking at the um the language in the reference I think it's 166 um regarding the police budget. So, I went and looked at the statute itself and and when I read it and then look at what's before us, I'm not sure that now's the time to ask the question really uh regarding the police budget because if I'll take just a minute and I can entered into the record, but if the tenative budget of a municipality contains a funding reduction to the operating budget of the mun municipal law enforcement agency of more than 5% and I'll just stop there for a second. Is there a is there a proposed operating budget for law enforcement that is reduced 5%.

This question was actually voted on by council back in I believe June to actually seek that particular question already. And so I'm just operating under the motion that was made back in June of this year. But it seems counter to the referenced um statute that is allegedly in question. It's clear. There's no I mean I think and I'm again I'm just saying that this question is there's no reason to ask it because there is no tenative budget that is proposing any reduction to the police department budget and it's already been voted on. So I'm just following the previous council vote. Mr. Mayor, sure.

I think the interest that I have in the question is you know questions sometimes are good. Um, but the two the second thing is is the this might not be a 5% issue on this year's budget. I think it'd be good for at least get the AG's information on what the opinion is as we prepare for future budgets as well. So, I I hear what you're saying right now. Now, there's not a 5% issue, but if it if it is an issue in future budgets, giving the future boards or future staff or current board, current staff what kind of guidance that'll mean if there are deeper cuts in public safety and future budgets. Well, kind of a planning thing, too.

And I appreciate it, Mr. Mayor, for if I if I may respond, Mr. Councilman Schmidt. Um well the ordinance referenced or the statute reference actually goes on to say that if there is a proposed cut the procedures are outlined um on what the municipality shall do is a member of the governing body may file a petition with the division of administrative hearings requesting a hearing to challenge the reduction. So I don't even know if answering the question matters because it's already been answered. I believe if there is a proposed budget with a proposed cut, we could do it as a body if we wanted to. I can't imagine we would ever do it. If the police department wants a budget, they're going to get it. Uh it may have to come from other um capped categories, but if we as a body decided to try to, it's my understanding, and correct me, Mr. burns. Did this ordinance come or the statute come out of the, you know, protecting from the defund the police movement back when it was arrive? I mean, this is a relatively new statute. Correct.

Correct.

You know, so we're not here talking about defunding the police. Uh we're not talking about we don't have a proposed budget. And if we did and if we wanted to as a body to vote to try to reduce the budget, operating budget of the police department, there are administrative answers on how to do it. So, I think the question should be removed personally because it's already been answered. But, um, that's kind of part one of it. Um, part two of it um to you, Mr. Burns, going down and looking at the resolution itself. So, you know, personally, I think item one is question number one has already been answered. I think it may the answer it'll be interesting to see how the attorney general responds to that and may but um so number two I'm not as um don't have a question about but really what I've got a question about is why wouldn't we get your legal opinion in advance on all three of those questions prior to send prior to truthfully I think if your opinion comes back and we're all accepting of it we You don't even have to ask the attorney general. We just see your opinion. We're like, "Oh, there's where it is." So, I don't need to go to the attorney general. We'll just take your opinion. But to say we want your opinion in the same thing, you just draft it and give it to us. And if we all agree that that's a satisfactory uh legal opinion, then we would not have to send off to the attorney general. And uh in fact, Miss Cop is reviewing the opinion I've already written uh as we speak because uh it actually increases the chance that they'll hear it quicker if you have multiple attorneys uh sign off on it.

Okay.

Uh but uh the opinion I did intend on sending it to you before the meeting here today, but I can give you my answer right now real quick. Uh the the conclusions are going to be on the first question that it does uh in terms of the police department budget uh it it does preempt uh any reduction uh so so it does pre it does preempt the uh the charter amendment uh and and then uh regarding the second question uh I believe the only uh legal uh budget year that you could possibly adopt was 2425 fiscal year as the baseline year and And then the third uh question will be answered that the only way you can possibly comport with the modified approval accounting base requirement set forth in section 218.33 and also timely get the budget uh uh calculated by the end of September under 166.241 241 is you do have to actually base it on prior years budget expenditures because there's no way you can actually get the actual uh expenditures through the acralbased accounting requirements in time to actually adopt the budget. That's one those are my uh answers and those that's what will be going to the attorney general.

And how soon do you anticipate this going to your opinion being formalized and going to the attorney general? I I've finished it. Like I said, Miss Miss Cop is reviewing it right now. So, I don't know. It should take a day or two. So, but soon as you were going to vote on this, uh, we were going to have it prepared to go, uh, and and get the whole package out to y'all to look at. But that those are the conclusions. Okay. And when you say get it out to us to look at, is it to just here it is, it's going out tomorrow or

we we can wait to the we can we can do it the next meeting if you want to do it that way. The reason I'm asking is because the constituent group that brought this all these matters up to begin with. The watch group would obviously like to hear and and you just said it publicly what the legal opinions are that's expressed and then the uh watch group would like to be able to submit a um a statement with it as well to send along with the attorney general's opinion.

You can't I mean I hate to hate to say this, Mr. Well, with all due respect to the watch group, uh the only things that you send in on the attorney general's opinion are the opinion of the city attorney a cover letter and uh whatever documentation actually authorizes uh it to be sent in. Now, what they'll do is they'll then ask us once they've accepted review, they'll say, "Do you have any further information?" At that point in time, we could send in the watch group's further information if the watch group has, but uh we the we would not be sending the watch group's opinion in with it because that's not part of the attorney's legal opinion. Does anyone else have a question for Mr. Burns on this item? Would anyone from the public like to speak on this item?

Council, you wish to make any action on this resolution? Mr. Mayor, so move to adopt resolution 25-16 to formalize the city council's request for the AG opinion on three questions raised in the resolution. Second. Motion made by Councilman Jeter, seconded by Councilman Schmidt to approve resolution 2025-16. Any additional comments? Mr. Jeter. I think everyone on the board has a lot of good questions and some of the questions are about the questions and that's why we should go to the highest power to get the answer to the question. Fair enough. Anyone else wish to speak on this? Councilman,

questions are good. I respect, you know, Mr. Walker asking those questions that led to the city attorney bringing up today about the good question that he asked. And here we are in that space to discuss that. So, uh, now I'm looking forward to previous action that this board has taken to to task a city attorney to get that AGO and I look forward to supporting this one as well. Thank you, Councilman Walker.

Yeah. Thank you. Um I believe if I understood you right in the um your legal opinion you said that it would preempt you're talking about state statute would preempt the charter amendment and and I'm I'm kind of I kind of agree with you and that's why I said the question doesn't need to be asked in my opinion number one doesn't need to be asked. It's a standalone statute. We're not limiting there is no proposed limitation of the police department budget. There's no cutting of it or anything else. So I think your answer when I said if you would give us time to review the your full legal opinion we could see if the questions were even you know needed to be sent and I could say I know it won't but I question number one could be removed. Um I believe it's everyone's belief that the state statute regarding the police department budget would supersede these. So it's not even I think the question's been answered and we all agree that your opinion is accurate on that. So, thank you,

Miss Riley.

Um, I just wanted to um to point out if um Attorney Barnes is, you know, if you're good enough to give us legal advice on an everyday basis, um why would we have to take it to the attorney general? I mean, are are you questioning the ability to be able to give us the best decision on that? because you just said that, you know, uh, Councilman Walker, you just mentioned that, uh, you can accept some of the, you know, responses that, um, attorney Burns have given us. And I I'm just, uh, I don't know. I'm just wondering why are we questioning his professional ability to give us a good, clear, legal, validated opinion. That's that's where I'm at.

I the only way I'll chime in going to hire to the attorney general. I I I would I would feel more comfortable getting an opinion from the attorney general as pure legal counsel because if I'm wrong, I'd like them to tell me I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure I'm not wrong. It would say save the city some grief down the line if I did happen to be wrong. That's right. Anyone else want to speak for the first time before we take a second? Councilman.

Yeah. kind of piggyback off of um what Miss Riley was saying. I just want to make sure clear. I I I I put full trust and confidence in you and your opinion. The background, my understanding of of this questioning was is to get some additional support to kind of copy and paste what Mr. Burns just said. So, I don't want there to be anything in the minutes to to to reflect as we're not trusting Mr. Burns. Uh trust Mr. Burns and seeking additional legal advice. Well, I mean, I will, but I want everyone else to have a chance. I just wanted to gohead. I just wanted to check and it seems like it's you know missing here in the question because the timeline that um as I un recall it was that the council voted initially to use adopted through majority vote to use the 2324 actual expenditures and then upon election of a new council new council and I believe it was council Jeter made the motion to change that from from using 232 24s to 2425 and that's that's missing in the question to the attorney general or in the statement that council originally adopted using 23s 24s budget and that's the big question Riley I mean that's a I mean I don't know if you're aware of it but that seems to be one of the big rubs um in the implementation and adoption of what the voters told us I'm of the opinion they told us to use 23 24s and actual expenditures. And now there's some questions if that was possible or not, but council did the previously council did adopt 2324 budget to use as the only prior year's actual budget. So clarification on that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Burns. Just for everyone's clarification, when you spoke

about this process, you will submit your questions, your legal opinion, and then when they do ask for additional information, what Councilman Walker just referenced would be included in that additional information. Correct. Correct.

If they I very rarely just issue an opinion without asking and and they also might even reject acceptance of even considering it off off the bat. They might say all these issues are are not something there's a question of law on. If they did that, that would kind of be a way of saying my conclusions. They agree with all of them. But, uh, I have a feeling because this issue is kind of unique, they will issue an opinion on it and they probably will ask for more information if we have any, which I I'll tell you right now if they do that, we will obviously reach out to the watch group or M ask Mr. Walker to reach out to the watch group and uh, and I will let Mr. Walker know. We we do actually uh Miss Cop and I in our background facts we do cover all of that. We we say initially it was adopted as 23.

I saw that and then I'm seeing it in the resolution so I wasn't really sure what was going to be sent to that AG but thank you. And just Mr. Burns for clarity as well. Will will we also reach out or offer any other political action committees that are of course if they want to say something about this as well they certainly could. probably the best course of action I'll come back to the council and then say you know the AG has asked unless I give it a tight deadline then I'll have to pick up the phone and figure out who those other political action committees are. Sure. So you never know.

All right. Uh council please vote. [Applause] And the resolution does pass 6 to one which moves us on to ordinances on first reading. And we start off with ordinance 2192 to vacate an easement at 206 Perry Avenue Southeast. Mr. Gibson and uh this is an ordinance on first reading. It's an ordinance of the city council of the city of Fort Long War Beach, Florida. Provide for authority, provide for findings of fact, provide for the vacation, abandonment, discontinuence, and closure of an easement located at 206 Perry Avenue Southeast and as more particularly described and depicted in the attached exhibit identified cross-hatching and provide for effective date. Tim Gibson is presenting on staff.

Thanks. Good evening. Uh so this property, this is the uh 206 Perry Avenue. This is the property that's corner of 98 Perry Avenue uh that I know this board um is very familiar with. Uh so back on June 2nd, 1999, an easement was granted uh by the property owner of the um the property there uh for the quote uh purpose of the public easement in order that the public can have ingress and egress over and upon the easement between Perry Avenue and the outlet center property to the public parking lot. So this was to connect basically the public parking lot over there to basically over where like the public's um and the shopping center is over there. Um as you know over the years there's been a fence erected around the property. Now, there's sidewalks that do run around the entire property to allow that foot traffic to go across there. Uh, but honestly, this easement is there um but not even usable as it is right now with the property being fenced off um as part of their development of the property. They're they're they've gone they've done their due diligence and everything. They've identified that this easement is there um and they are looking to remove it. Uh now, section 9.9.3 of the LDC outlined the requirements for the um requirements to vacate an easement. And really there's just two uh first one is it no longer serves a public purpose. And the second it is no longer required uh to provide access to um or maintain public facilities. And again as stated with the sidewalks around it being blocked off. It really does not serve a public purpose and it was never used for um access uh or maintenance of public facilities. With that staff does respectfully recommend city council approval of ordinance 2192 to vacate an existing easement located 206 Perry Avenue Southeast.

Thank you sir. questions on this for Mr. Gibson or Mr. Walker? I was hoping to see a map of it. My office is right across the parking lot and and I I remember recently we had discussion about maintaining the property, grass and and parking for golf carts and whatnot. And it seemed like then there was an easement discussed or maybe there was just how are we going to get onto the property? It was going to be out of the parking lot between me and them. But then listening to you there, where is the ingress egress easement? Is it on Perry?

So it it runs basically from the city parking lot. Um in the back material attached on there, you you can see it. It's it's a little hard. It's almost really in the middle of the property right now. That runs from the parking lot to Perry Avenue. Basically, so really just connect that public parking lot to there. Okay, let me get to I'm sorry I didn't scroll down that far. 251. It's the last page of that attachment. Okay. It's really, like I said, it's kind of a little bit difficult to un see in there, but if you notice um in kind of the hatched area there where it says less than accept, there's that 10-ft easement that's listed along the bottom of that property. And and that's the ement question here. And it's just a public access easement. There's no utilities or anything in there. Uh it was simply for access.

Got it. Councilman Schmidt, I appreciate you starting this process of working on accessing that property. I was just going to say I don't have any questions. Looking forward to take some action. So, yeah. Anyone else with questions on this for Mr. Gibson? I'll ask one just very quickly. Anybody moving forward with anything here? I'm sorry. I said, is anyone moving forward with anything here?

Uh, so it was actually discussed at the CRA board. Um, we've been looking as a CRA project, maybe doing some something to, you know, improve that fencing or something. Um, one of the things we had looked at through the CRA was, um, doing a living wall there, uh, which would have made us, uh, need to put in a well on the property. I did reach out and speak to some representatives of the property owner there to get their approval to maybe possibly move forward with a well, and they did give us approval for that, but they did let me know as well that they are looking as early as the first quarter of 2026 moving forward with development on the property. So, I don't know for certain. That's just what they're telling me. They said initially within a year, but then they did kind of narrow down that. They're hoping for the first quarter next year.

I definitely should have asked a better question. That that is definitely what I meant was as a developer moving forward. Yep. All right. Um, anyone from the public wish to speak on this item? Seeing none, council, do you wish to take any action? There is so staff's recommendation.

Second. Motion by Councilman Schmidt, seconded by Councilman Browning to move forward with uh the vacation of the easement at 206 Perry Avenue Southeast and move forward with ordinance 2192. Any additional comments? Good to go. Seeing none, council, please vote. [Applause] Stalling for Jeter. And the ordinance is adopted unanimously. Brings us to ordinances on second reading and ordinance 2187 amending CO section 9.06 loud and unusual noises. Mr. Burns and then Chief an ordinance of the city council of the city for Long Beach, Florida repealing and replacing in its entirety code of ordinances chapter 9.06 titled Loud and Unusual noises prohibited creating section 9.06.01 01 title intent creating section 9.06.02 title definitions creating section 9.06.03 title exemptions creating section 9.06.04 titled code violation code enforcement penalties creating section 9.06.05 titled criminal violation criminal penalties creating section 9.06.06 titled civil causes of action provide for separability and provide for an effective date. is his second reading and uh we did make the changes that y'all recommended last time and Chief Paige or that y'all voted to make last time he can detail you on those. So mayor, thank you. So as the city attorneys spoke about section 9.0603 0603 was where the changes were made in subsection 1. That's where the discussion was had and the time would cut off on Sunday through Thursday at 11:59 p.m. in the downtown entertainment district. And then you would have the downtown business entertainment

districts between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. the next day on Friday and Saturday. So you could have something on Friday night that would continue to Saturday at 2 am or on Saturday night you could have something that could continue to 2 am on Sunday morning. So that was one of the changes that were made. Then in several other sections it was 6:00 a.m. in section 3 6 94 and in 32 we had the time of 6 a.m. that was pushed back to 7 a.m. to correspond with the existing ordinance and those are the only changes made to the ordinance between first and second reading.

Thank you chief. Questions for Chief Ben? See none. Does anyone from the public wish to speak on this? Council, do you wish to take action? May I say move with stash recommendation? Second. Motion made by Councilman Schmidt and seconded by Councilman Jeter to move forward with ordinance 2187 amending CO 9.06 for loud and unusual noises. Additional comments. Senator. Hey. Yeah. Yeah, I was just going to say thank you uh Councilman Browning for bringing up some good uh points last time. I'm glad we were able to get them addressed and we got it right. So, thank you. Anyone else? Council, please go.

Thank you for showing up all the way to the second and it does pass unanimously. And Chief Page, thank you for your hard work on this as well. Moves us to item 12.2, to ordinance 2189 an ordinance amending LDC chapter 9 administrative procedures Mr. Burns an ordinance to the city council of the city of Fort Beach Florida amending chapter 9 of the land development code to update the process for handling subdivision plat request to comply with Florida statute provide for authority provide for severability and provide for an effective date this is second reading Mr. Gibson will present for staff

Mr. Just as a reminder, this is uh basically out of Senate Bill 784 that um requires municipalities to change the way we do our plat processes um and assign a a local um staff member to be the approval authority and um and basically put out timelines and everything in there. Uh this there's been no change to the ordinance and uh we've received no public input on there. Thank you, Sarah. Questions for Mr. Gibson on this item? Mr. Walker, the uh administrative um person that's going to be approving it and I'll be given that administrative official. Is it within the city or within the county or what? It's within the city. So, it'll be a new position here or an

No, it's actually going to end up being me um as the development administrator uh and outlining our land development code. It's the same level of approval for like our development orders and stuff like that. Not the major the expedited development orders. Uh it's the same level of approval with that. Thank you. Anyone else? Questions for Mr. Mr. Gibson, does anyone from the public wish to speak on this item? Council, do you wish to take any action? Mr. Mayor, so move staff's recommendation to adopt ordinance 2189. Second. Motion made by Councilman Jeter, seconded by Councilman Schmidt to approve ordinance 2189. Any additional comments? Yes, sir. Keep us compliant.

Council, please vote. And it does pass unanimously, which brings us to item 13.1, a proposed ordinance to move city elections to November and the general election date. Mr. Burns. Okay. council. So, back I believe it was in June, y'all directed me to uh go back to the April 11th, 2023 meeting and figure out what y'all moved to do in terms of uh moving the general election dates uh for the city. I went back, I listened to it uh many times over and uh Mr. Delux's explanation was pretty crystal clear and it lines up with attorney general's opinions and it lines up with what Destin and Cresview, well actually I'll say Destin has done uh in the last several years. Cresview has also moved their election date, but they actually did theirs by referendum. They didn't do the ordinance process, but that was a choice they made. They did weigh because I talked to their city attorney and he said they did almost do the destin route, but because they had a charter uh a bunch of charter amendments basically from a charter review commission going forth before the voters at that time they actually elected to uh just go and let the voters decide whether or not to move the election dates. And so Crescu did acknowledge that they could though use the what we call the destined method of moving the election date. Now, uh, talking to all the council members, uh, I'll to say there was some concern about how something like this would affect the terms of all the city council members. And, uh, they've made it very clear you can choose one route that will extend terms, and that's not a problem. You can't reduce terms. But uh I actually figured out a way that is legal to do this to where it would not impact the length of any sitting council member's terms and wouldn't impact the length of terms of future council members because

uh if this was adopted, let's say on second reading uh at a future future date, the proposed ordinance I have before you would actually have the election in November for council members and you'd actually take your seat April 1st the next year. Kind of like how the presidential election is. the president's elected in the first Tuesday in November, he doesn't actually get sworn in, you know, to the end of January. Well, judges are the same way. There actually is a judge's election. They actually get elected in August. They don't actually take the bench till January. Uh you can all look all around. There's various positions that follow that pattern. And there are some uh I think I might have updated the memo and put them in there, but there are some cities around the state of Florida that do handle it that way. And so uh so I figure out a way if y'all do decide action move forward with this, it will not actually lengthen any of the terms. So that concern would not be there. Uh but uh again, this is just for your uh really the debate uh for all y'all y this is legal to do it this way. Um I think there was also some questions how this actually be impacted uh by the charter review commission. It actually won't be impacted at all because it's a separate process. So, if y'all did end up moving the election dates uh by passing this ordinance, uh the charter review commission, I know they uh from watching all the meetings, they did consider the issue. Uh just because they voted it down would not impact what you're doing. Conversely, if they decided to actually pass something that says they want the election dates to be in March, that uh that decision would uh most likely be made after y'all will make this decision to move the election date. So, if y'all move the election date, let's say in October or September on second reading and the charter review commission decides to send an amendment to y'all and y'all put it out to the voters that if the voters then move to move it back to the March, then that would be set in stone at that point in time. So, it that's why I say it wouldn't have any impact on what the charter review commission may or may not possibly do. So, if you have any questions, I I'll do my best to answer them.

Thank you, Sarah. Councilman Smith, what I'm hearing you say is the way this ordinance is prepared is if in line with the charter review committee is is basically you would be able to choose between do you want the do you want the election to be in March or do you want the election to be in November and people vote if if we go the route referendum because Cresview you said went referendum. They did. I heard you correct. Destin went by ordinance.

They did. Correct. So, what I think I heard you say is is is legally we could go either route by ordinance, majority of council votes and it go to the first, second reading and and move forward. But that Crestview route, there was a referendum, correct? And and that referendum gave the people the opportunity, do you want to change election dates or not? Is that correct? In the way this is presented. Uh well, that that's also another option. Y'all could decide even if the charter review commission did not send that amendment to y'all. Y'all can y'all can add any amendments y'all want to make and y'all could make the decision instead of passing this ordinance to put it out to the voters. So y'all y'all have full flexibility on how y'all want to handle it. And you also said this does not extend any council person's terms, correct? The way that's presented,

the the way I drafted it does not. And obviously that would we we would use probably the same ordinance as the ordinance for a for a ballot question as well and just tweak it a little bit. But it still would uh if y'all are comfortable with that. I mean, uh, technically, if you're an elect, let's say you're running for the first time, you would go five or 6 months before you actually take your seat, but, uh, that usually doesn't bother too many people to do that. But I heard you correctly, by law, you could extend that person's term or the current board board's term, but the way it's presented here is there's no extending of anybody's terms. Is that correct? Correct. In Kresky, they actually, I think, lengthened them by 19 months and destined them by seven months. So yeah, I like the way it's presented.

Just uh real briefly before we get to Councilman Walker as well, just so everybody's on the same page here and I think everyone understands, but we are not making any kind of motion tonight to take any kind of action to move the actual election. We are giving direction and can make a motion to instruct Mr. birds to bring it back in some version of what he's presented uh on first reading because the public would need to be fully noticed and have the opportunity to show up here and voice opinions and speak to their council members etc. Mr. Walker.

Yeah, thank you. That makes sense. I just wanted to kind of play it out, make sure I got it right like Councilman Schmidt did. So, we could, as the mayor just said, give you instructions, make a motion, bring it back as proposed here as moving it to November. we go do our two readings, approve it, and then I don't know if the date is yet known about the charter review committee, but that's kind of where my questions went. So, they could, if I understood you right, bring us a proposed amendment that they suggest we send out to the voters and it could say, and let's move it to March. We'd be like, we just did it to November, but it's okay. they would bring it to us and we have the option as a body to accept their recommendation for an amendment to go before voters or we can reject it. Right.

Every single suggestion they make you can decide whether or not y'all and y'all can amend it too cuz that's just kind of if you want to get in the process the we of that whenever that they bring all their items to you. Uh y'all are probably gonna have to take a little bit of time at that meeting or meetings because y'all might want to maybe tweak some verbiage on just some of the stuff they did because that's actually what the council did back in 201 I think 14. Was that the last one? And they did they charter I think there was a charter review commission then too or at least they presented a bunch of amendments to the council and they had several meetings where they batted around and made further tweaks. Some were adopted, some were rejected, I'm guessing. I I guess I don't know if any were rejected or not, but we have the option to reject any that they bring to us. Right. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Anyone else with questions on this for Mr. Burns? Anyone from the public wish to speak on this item? Council wish to give any direction here by way of a motion? May I move uh for the city attorney to bring us back for first reading uh presented but going down the path of of a referendum. Second. Motion made by Councilman Schmidt, seconded by Councilman Jeter. Can I ask a clarification question after that? So So you do you want me to bring it back as a actual referendum question that y'all will end up potentially? That's it.

Okay. because I tweaked I'll have to tweak the ordinance a little bit to make it in that form, but I can I can do that if if y'all end up passing this. It's okay. Yeah, cuz what I like it was it wasn't extending anybody's terms. It wasn't, you know, again, by law, we could go the ordinance route, but I think this is the most transparent and public process we could do is go the referendum route, similar to Crest View is what you were advising, and let the people decide. Thank you, sir. All right. Anyone else wish to speak on the motion? Mr. Just for clarification, so it's it you're trying to do is it a different referendum or a referendum that's going to go out with the charter review committee's recommendations? Are you trying to tie it into that?

I'm just trying to get it out based off of 2023's action to get it to a referendum, however staff squares it up. We haven't even seen the charter review recommendations. You know what I mean? We don't even know what's going to pass, what's not going to pass with this board. So I think I could yeah just I I think what the the direction here as I understand it is for Mr. Burns to bring back this item to the council so that we can discuss it and Councilman Schmid's motion specifically puts that in a referendum that will go out sometime to voters at a at a time that this board can be turned.

I'm tracking that. I'm just trying to see if we're trying to do referendum upon referendum or if we're just trying to tie it in. Again, you guys could decide that at a later date. He's just wanting to bring it back so that everybody can see it and the public can have the opportunity to speak to it. Um, Councilman Jeter, I was going to say I support Councilman Browning's question and I think putting it all on one package, I think we'll still be able to do that with this and I would support that as well. Anyone else wish to speak on the item?

Council, please vote. And it does pass unanimously,

which uh mercifully at 7:00 brings us to city manager reports. How about that? Struck down with a pause competitor today. I'll reach out to Paul and see if we can work on something else right now. Contract uh moving forward with some roof repairs at fire station 6 house uh human trafficking initiatives on so we turn that applications as we're able to move forward with submitting the right amount of funding. So, I'll reach out to the county to see if they can cut that check, the sooner, my understanding is the sooner we can pay for that, it keeps us in the queue and we can earn interest on that money. So, work on that. Golf driving range, Jacob's just killing it. Uh 33,000 over on the driving range and the merch is up 12,000 uh from expectations. So, he's a wizard of sorts. Library, the blood pressure monitoring kits can be checked out now. And the restrooms will be getting a minor facelift here because they're kind of funky. Uh, super kudos again to the police department for their accreditation. That's good stuff. Uh, the cleanup day was a great success. We had a lot of people show up. It was like 70 people. It was really cool. So, we'll be pushing out some more initiatives coming up. Free tire will be posted here shortly through uh Daniel's group. Uh the parks, the landing restoration uh restrooms will get uh some much needed attention and the ferry park bridges are getting replaced shortly. Uh public works took over that museum project because that particular vendor was struggling to finish it. So hopefully we can have that open to the public here soon. The meeting repairs for irrigation have been scheduled. Uh the landing has given me the the contractor gave us a verbal commitment. Uh they actually provided a hard schedule today, but December 12th that

should be completely closed out, but we have a physical schedule in hand now. And just a quick plug for the dragon boat and the mayor's ball next weekend, which has already been touched on. That's all we got. Same day. Same day, same day. Correct. It's a whole Saturday indeed. Big excitement. Um all right, city attorney reports. If y'all have any questions, uh there's no new lawsuits that the city's been named to and no changes from last month. Thank you, sir. Uh, final council comments, Mr. Walker.

Sure. Um, Mr. Burns, I don't I know we've spoken about a little bit publicly, but u, could you get us an update or list of all ordinances that have been I know the staff's probably been working on that. I don't know the governor's bill number that, you know, kind of addressed issues that went back to August. I think it was of last year. just just uh what staff has had what we we know that the short-term rental stuff and the library those are two big ones. Are there others that uh have been either stricken removed or no longer effective cost of the governor's bill

and uh Tim who is here can also help me if I miss one. So, there was the MX3 zoning that y'all passed on first reading that I believe Tim's they passed on first reading. It was sent to the state and not sent back for second reading yet or

No. So, there's a couple of changes um that I think are going to be okay. Uh one we did do um as part of the downtown master plan. Uh they did want the creation of an MX3 zoning district with a much higher density um and everything. Um at the same time we were also um bringing a comprehensive plan change because that required that um also with the manufacturing being allowed in certain zoning districts that had not been previously allowed in there. That was all part of the comprehensive plan change which would have been affected by this. Um however both of those things we believe made it more or less restrictive because it allowed manufacturing and zoning districts that they previously not been allowed. We did create the MX3 zoning district. um the intent on there, it did not produce any um it didn't make anything more restrictive. Uh the only potential problem on there is if you remember when we were discussing that that was going to be some of our core downtown area. We didn't really want to go with the higher density at that time just because we really were waiting for around the bound, but we did make it a little bit more restrictive on um a lot of the uses because we were planning on this being our core downtown area. There were just certain uses that would typically be allowed in our MX2 zoning districts that we didn't want to allow in that core downtown area. Right now, that's not affecting anything because nothing's been zoned MX3. However, that's one thing that I know me and Mr. Burns have been discussing is okay, well, would it become more restrictive if we reszone something uh MX3? Right now, that's so far down the road. We're not really sure if that's going to be there. Obviously, if it was a voluntary reasonzoning that somebody came in to apply for, that would be different. Um, and we would not be making it more restrictive on there. So, the MX3 has already been done. It's been created. Um, it just hasn't really been implemented yet just because we're not quite there yet for it.

Gotcha. And then, uh, the bus stop ordinances, those are the only other ones, I believe, right? Y, but the two big ones are the the delivery vessels and the short-term rental ones. Those are both effectively null and void. Uh, no. Uh, there's chunks of each one that are there's not not in their entireties. So, so that's kind of what I'm looking for. Constituents asking about I'm confused on what I can do, can't do, must do, that kind of stuff. What applies to me? I don't know how to answer them because I don't know what parts of it remain and what parts of it have been stricken. Is that something is it in in its final form that y'all gone through and find out?

No. So, uh, the short-term rental ordinance has never actually been enforced yet because the issue was, uh, they're going to wait to see what happened if the governor signed SB180. So, nobody's having to do anything about, uh, the short-term rental ordinance right now cuz they're not going to enforce it at all till we bring an amended version back to y'all that waters it way down. So, uh, the delivery ordinance though, I believe, uh, there was already one in place, right, previously. That's correct. So, so no, it does not go away. The the the portions that are more restrictive from the previous version of the delivery ordinance, uh those provisions we'll have to take a close look at and and remove anything that's more restrictive in the new version compared to the old version.

So, we don't have an updated version of the restrict of the ordinance really. Stricken, stricken, stricken remain stricken. We don't have that yet. Correct. Okay. Gotcha. Okay. Thank you. Um and then Mr. Davis, you had mentioned um the pause contract. I've been getting a lot of communications regarding that. Were we operating on a monthto-month? Correct.

Okay. And now it's we they wanted to charge more apparently and we weren't down with that. So the the 3second kind of paraphrase when I first started, I realized we were on a monthto month. So I reached out to that agency to see if they would sit down with me and figure something out. uh that individual was going on vacation while that person was out. The county reached out to me for some data. Um and I was under the impression that the county was going to stand up their own animal care meeting with Mr. Hoffstead. That's potential, right? But uh nothing in action. So it might be a couple years down the road. So um today, so that's kind of where we're at. So right now I have nothing.

Okay. And just because I've been getting so many questions about it. So just when we have our own that monthto-month it was operating its funds its cost was funded out of the general fund. Is that correct? I think so. Yeah. Okay. And then the other question that related to it is you know we taxpayers send our money up to the county and it lands in its funds up there. Do you know if their Paul's contract in the unincorporated areas comes from the general fund? Yes. I mean, I don't know. Probably as a county budget. It

it's it's just been brought to my attention. I think Mary Esther's been dealing with it a little bit, but there's the question of double taxation. So, if we as city taxpayers are paying into our general fund and we're paying for Paul's service and then we're sending our funds up to the county and they're funding Paul's, we're like, we're being taxed twice here. So, that's what I was just I'm trying to find some clarity and maybe I'll have to go to the county to figure out who's double taxing us. I get it, but I'm just putting myself in their shoes. I'm I'm assuming that's probably I'm going to pick my words on how to phrase this. I'll get back to you. Yeah,

I'll I'll have them phrase it for me because I asked the same question when I met with him. Uh but he he uh phrased it. I I don't want to butcher his words. That being said, uh, the county has a contract now in place that seems a little bit more by per capita. So, that's why I want to sit back down with him and see if they'll take that route. Sure. I just taxpayers seem to be funding their services up there and we're funding our own. So, I'll have him rephrase what he said so I don't butcher, but I I follow. And and is that Mr. Hoffstead? Is that correct? Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Uh, and then last, I'm just looking forward to the music at the landing starting up in this wonderful weather we've been having. It's September the what? 4th. Is that our first?

I don't remember, but uh, it's coming up. Is Wendy still here? Do you remember, Wendy? Or the landings concerts series? Um, no, I don't. First part of September. First weekend. First Friday September. Yes. First Friday. Thank you. That's all. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Walker. And before we move on to Mr. Brown, because I do like to recognize these moments, Mr. Walker, I do strongly agree with you regarding the call's double taxation situation. That was a that was an 8ear mention for me. Uh, Councilman Brown,

uh, congrats Chief and to you and your team and also Officer Bags for 40 under 40. That's uh, that's pretty awesome. And then thanks to the staff and citizens who showed up for the clean a city initiative and helped clean up the city. It was it was a good turnout. I didn't make it, but I'll be at the next one for sure. Thank you, sir. Council de Mary.

Uh, yes. Uh, I would like to uh address the Florida League cities that Deborah Riley and I and Amber attended a couple weeks ago. I never want to drive down Interstate 75 again, but other than that, uh, we met a lot of, uh, people there. ly um um it was it brought back memories back whenever I was doing this a lot with my nurses association and the networking and networking and getting to know the people. Uh I may I I would like to suggest that uh when Amber we now that we're going to we're going back next year and we're going to stay at the hotel for the convention is right Amber we had to travel 10 miles and that was fun with all that traffic. Uh but uh whenever we're um appointing uh members to uh represent different uh organizations and going to committees and all that, I would like to include the Florida League of Cities, but also be uh during that time and uh have us here on the council appoint Miss Riley and me, you or whoever is going, you know, um that way and there won't be any confusion. I would love to support you in this rally to continue to go to League of Cities as much as y'all would like and to learn.

Yeah. But but what what I'm saying that there's one one of us would be appointed to vote.

Uh and so uh I would like uh um to discuss that and and include that uh whenever we who knows I might not be here. uh someone else might want to go down, but uh we vote uh for different um items um during that time and we'll be going uh back down in uh September and and some others and that's with the different committees uh representing and we'll be voting on that. So um one of us needs to be appointed to and this year uh Deborah Riley was appointed to to um vote. So, whoever goes the following years, uh, I would like that to be um included. How do I How do I pronounce how do I

You said it. You said it. Did I say it? All right. Yep. Do I need to make a motion on it or do I need to So, before you make a motion, you need to We need to decide real quick. Do you want to do it by ordinance or resolution? I would suggest resolution and then maybe having staff look into either creating a new resolution or going back to the old procedures resolution that y'all last I think visit was it 2023 Kim was it and maybe I'd like to give a little bit more information. Okay.

Yeah. Seems awfully correct. Um, so when this came up, the the conference itself, it came out in June or whatever and I sent the information to all the council and said, "Let me know if anybody wants to go." Well, I didn't hear from anybody until mid July, late July. And then at that point when I found out someone wanted to go, then it was too late to get counsel to appoint the voting delegate. And that's what Miss uh Deberry is referring to. So there was not an opportunity to do the normal procedure. It's not in writing. It's not by resolution. It's just always been that we presented the council as an agenda item. And usually for the past probably two to three years, there's only been one person who attended and that was uh former mayor N. So he was always appointed as the voting delegate. And so that's how we got where we were. It wasn't that we changed the process. the process that we had been using wasn't available to us because of the late notice letting us know that they would attend the conference. So, okay.

I don't know if we need a formal procedure because that's I mean we've just done it in the past as an agenda item. So, register earlier register earlier. We're going next week. I mean next year, right? Another option you're already if you're already going next year potentially just flip-flop. We can do that. What if anyone else wants to? Well, there's the third straws. Well, one thing y'all can informally do to, you know, every year y'all reappoint uh folks to the various sports group or that every two years y'all do it. So, every two years, uh that could be the point in time where two council members raise their hand, say they'll alternate those years if if need be. And that's the other way. There we go. Now we're thinking.

So, do we need to make a motion now or or you you can always make a motion if you want. That's uh I can add it to the appointment calendar when we do that. There you go. Okay, that's that's the plan. There's no way to staff it. You'll get notified earlier and we'll register and someone will have voting. Okay, that sound good. Sure.

Okay. And then also I'd like to thank u uh um the city for repaving part of homes. The people there at Wright and Homes are ecstatic about that that intersection there. Uh and uh and also um the storm water easement, they call it the Martisa's storm water easement. That's been a real job and they did a really good job. That section that they had to tear up Jet Drive, uh and repaving that has been really good. And and the neighbors said, "We thought it was really going to be horrible." So they've calmed down. We've got the new uh conduits or whatever you want to call it in there. The neighbors are happy. They're putting up new fencing. So, thank you very much for that. I appreciate that.

And u the pickle ball players at the pickle ball courts say thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's all. Thank you, ma'am. Councilman Jeter.

Yes. I'd like to thank staff for a great presentation on the Hollywood Boulevard project. I know we had a really good turnout and I'm looking forward to some of the feedback from that. And um I've spoken to some of staff about that and it's very uh it's very encouraging to have in-depth conversations with some of our citizens about it because sometimes some of the details get lost and this particular project there's really not a no cost option. We've got to do something to the road. to and doing the road. We tried to incorporate a much needed roundabout as we discussed earlier and there are just thousands of of uh reasons why those are so much safer and once you engage in conversation with people even about pedestrian paths and how we're trying to connect and some people I've spoke with is I'm not really sure when you come over the bridge and just let them know we're working on connecting the pedestrian path from Hollywood to the bridge and doing our best if we should be allowed. to make an entire multimodal network. So, it's just really cool to engage with the community on topics that they're maybe concerned about, but after speaking with them and explaining more in detail, they're maybe not so concerned and not so supportive. And one example I can give you of that is I think we all received an email of someone who was maybe against it. And then a few days later, we received an email of an individual, that same individual that had an in-depth conversation with Chief Beige. and that person said, "I've changed my view and now I" So, it's just really cool to see people not just not have an opinion and not do they have an opinion, but after further discussion, maybe that opinion can shift and change is good. So, it's good to hear.

Amen. Councilman, nothing. Councilwoman R.

Oh, you know, I absolutely have to balance back what um Mr. theory I mentioned and um it's a good thing. Father, I just wanted to um say thank you all uh to the staff um for all the arrangements that you all made. Uh it was my first time uh at the Florida, you know, legal city's annual conference and I can certainly tell you I really enjoyed it. Um, usually when I attend conferences, you know, my my major goal is, you know, to uh bring back something, you know, something that, you know, I like to go and and seek out knowledge and I like to leave with more knowledge than what I came with and I really feel comfortable enough to say that um I enjoyed it. The sessions were really um really really good sessions. Um not boring. It wasn't the type of session that you fall asleep on. So So I you know I learned quite quite a bit. The ethics pass was was amazing. So, I'm a little bit excited. You know, I'm new to this. So, I don't know if anybody else is excited when they went, but I'm very excited. I was very excited about it when I came back, you know, and they're really really strong or positive move, you know, how we can probably move the city forward. And just, you know, looking at the policy procedures and how things are ran, the ethics class, it I thought it was amazing. Um, Mr. Barry, I I want to tell you, you know, I felt so good being the delegate delegated to do the on the voting part of things, but you know, certainly um I um I understand where you're at with that, too. And so, yeah, I'm a person that loves it. So, if it be, you know, the council's will, I wish you, you know, the opportunity to be able to be a voting delegate on the next conference. Um I want to bounce off of what M um Bryce has just said, too. Thank you so much Bryce for saying that because you know I attended the workshop too and I think the council the staff did a great job you know u in addition to just telling you all you all do really

amazing work amazing work um and I was able to talk to some of the uh uh you know the residents of the uh city also and I'm just listening to some of their opinion and you're certainly right some some folks that I you know was for some were guested but you know it's good to be um just listen to you know um the the voters's voice and so we can, you know, focus on making sure that we make good, you know, sound decisions and able to give back to our city and just continue to build on it because, you know, I'm so proud of our city and I felt like that. Again, at the conference, I felt felt like that just meeting a lot of people and just knowing that we're just I felt like I was sitting on top of the rainbow when it came to the city of Washington Beach even though I met, you know, quite a few people. So, enjoy. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Miss Riley. Council member Schmidt.

Yeah, I'm going to keep playing off of compliment staff. I mean, just the political process of the Hollywood conversation, you know, seeing signs up and down Hollywood, you know, promoting the the workshop. I'm sure we'll be getting more public feedback as we get closer, those kind of things. So, thank you staff for preparing for that, getting the signage and getting all the information out there, the information that we have at this point, and then we start fielding the the the residents and their information and why are you all trying to do all these things or or or whatever the information is. So, thank you staff for starting that political process and and and making it uh again very uh transparent. While y'all are going down there banging on the doors of League of Cities, please continue to advocate for home rule. Um the reason why I'll also support Miss Miss Riley's recommendation uh with you know with you, Mr. Barry, is because I know how much of a champion of home rule you are. I know we can all up here agree and disagree on different policies or different procedures, but connecting this SB180 to home rule is essential is essential. And you know, my understanding is like with some of these STRs that we were just discussing that that SB80 got popped up a little while ago and in some comments after Mr. Walker and Mr. Burns were discussing their council comments, but that that SB80 and home rule is really what it's about. And if we can't manage whether or not there's more than 26 residents inside of a home inside of a residential neighborhood, what kind of authority do we have? You know, those kind of things. So, home rule. Home rule. I know when you get to those different conferences and things, it'll it'll take you 14 different directions and a big agenda that's packed out with all the training. But, um, continue to advocate for home rule on that. Um, also on the Ferry Hollywood, I noticed today there was, I believe, a wreck at at U Ferry and Hollywood, you know. So, just again, objective data that goes to the need of us. Uh, I know there's a fine line with

all right, you're here. We're the government. We're here to help, but infrastructure and safety is something I think we're obligated to do. So, with that being, you know, with that being said, um, last thing I have is the Preston Hood Sports Complex. Just a status update on that bid process. We're open. Okay. I think we're opening on the 28th, right? Yes. Yeah. The bid packages are back, but we don't I think Yeah. Speaking to my purchasing manager today, I think we're opening on them all on the 28th. Some kind. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. That's all I got.

Thank you, sir. And I would just like to close out uh with a couple things here as well. you know, if Ben Franklin were still here as he were was earlier tonight, um I think that home rule would be something, you know, that as we look at this 250th celebration of our country is something that our country was founded on. um having that ability to to govern yourselves and attend a city council meeting and tell these people that are your elected representatives that sit in front of you, hey, this is something what I want and not for your local government to say, well, we'd love to do that, but sorry, we can't. So, when we talk about the Florida League of Cities, that's really what it's all about. And you know, Miss Riley and Mr. very attending that on our behalf is very important because it's more voices added to the fire to say, "Hey, listen. We still need the ability at a local level to be able to control things because our community is different than Miami. Our community is different than Cresview and those jurisdictions should have their ability to control their jurisdiction just as we should. So, Florida League of Cities is a is a really strong advocate for that and we do always need representation for it." I also wanted to echo um somewhat what Mr. Jeter said. You know, I was at that event um that we held the workshop for the redesign of Hollywood Boulevard and it was just incredible and and it's something that I've definitely learned over my time on the city council and it's something I've just learned in life. It's it's easy to have an opinion of something that you don't understand um and be misinformed about things. And I'm not saying that everyone there was misinformed, but I maybe spoke to seven to 10 separate people or groups of people and each one of them had an absolutely different idea of what this meant and what this was going to change and they were all in a negative way. By the end of those conversations, not all of them were positive and ready to run in here and say, "Hey, let's do this

tomorrow." But at the same time, you you start knocking down those concerns with just the facts of of what this project actually is. and it's all of the sudden a whole different opinion. Um, also on that same note, I spent the the end of the the time there speaking with three people who are also involved in local government or at least one that was formerly involved in local government. Um, and listening to their opinions, their informed opinions on all of the things that are involved in a in a project like this. And while I don't think I made a ton of of inroads in convincing them that this was a great project, um toward the end of the conversation, I I did hear one of them say, you know, I I think it's just taking care of the city and and there's no pride in it. And you know, where our our city has really gone downhill, which I took a great deal of offense and exception to because I I've lived in this city for more than 15 years. I lived in this community for much longer than that. and and I like if you look 15 years ago to now it's wildly different and it's much much better and you know for somebody just to start off with something like that I thought it was ridiculous. Well then right after that he said well you know you guys could get this correction detail and they they would help clean up the city. I said I thought that went away. So he said no here's here's the phone number of the person that can help. I took it to Mr. Davis. Mr. Davis immediately called. That meeting is is set to move forward tomorrow. Hopefully that that will come. So just just even having the conversation with people that might not necessarily agree with with what you're saying or or support what you're doing can ultimately end in some type of positive fashion. And I uh I really thank Mr. Davis for for moving forward with that so quickly as well because it uh it certainly will help.

Anyone else with the second opportunity or secondary? None. We will adjourn. Nothing to it.