Town Council - Regular Meeting

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Yeah. Yeah. Good. Still still taken down, but hopefully by this weekend Norman did all the insights, but I do very little now. I just

Good evening. The time is now 7 p.m. and I'll call to order the town council meeting of Tuesday, January 6th. Um, we're going to begin with an invitation followed by a moment of silence and the pledge. And I just want to share as a protocol um we added the moment of silence uh a number of years ago so that individuals can choose to reflect upon anything you think we should be reflecting upon. So generally it's individual just so everybody knows we take that moment. I asked today we have a town employee highly valued that is has some significant health issues. It's a private matter or mention the person or the situation but I'd ask anybody that cares to to join me in praying for that person during the moment of silence. And we have an invitation please. Let us pray. Almighty God, as we gather here today, we give thanks for the many opportunities you have provided us. May our choices reflect the trust placed in us by our residents. And may you guide our words, our actions, and our decisions as we serve the community. Amen. We will now pause for a moment of silence. Please join me in the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

May we have a roll call, please? Mayor Kitzky here. Vice Mayor Delaney here. Councelor Choy here. Councelor Gisinger here. Town Manager Kitsero here. Town attorney B here.

Okay, we begin tonight. We have a presentation uh I believe from our police chief on eBike safety. Good evening, mayor, town council, members of the public. For the record, acting chief Don Hennessy of the Jupiter Police Department. I'm excited to be here tonight to give you an update on some of our ebike safety update, uh, progress towards update on that. Um, tonight we're going to go through, we're going to look a little bit at our education and enforcement efforts to this point and what we've done so far. Uh, we're going to look at some of the community outreach initiatives we've undertaken to make sure the community sees what we're doing. We're going to talk about a new community training program that we're in the process of developing that will hopefully get the word out on some of the ebike safety measures. We're going to talk a little bit about ordinances and what uh we're kind of pursuing in that regard as far as how we can come up with some legislation to better regulate ebikes within the town. And then I'll go through some next steps on where we're going to go from here. To start with education enforcement, as you know, we've been on an aggressive campaign to educate the public and enforce the laws regarding ebikes. Um I'm happy to report the staff has worked hard since March of 2025. Um they've conducted over 140 I'm sorry 145 traffic stops, issued 178 citations and warnings. Um and we've been able to limit the crashes involving ebikes to seven since March. And those seven crashes involving ebikes involved um there were eight eight of there were eight injuries in those crashes meaning some of those may have had multiple some

of them may have had none. So, but it resulted in eight injuries in ebikes. Along with our campaign for education and enforcement, we've also done numerous things to make sure we continue outreach. Uh we've conducted five standalone ebike safety events that were designed for public members of the public to come in and speak with officers, receive equipment, and get information about their ebikes. Um I'm happy to say we actually completed number six this morning. Uh officers from the Jupiter Police Farm were present at the middle schools um as they returned to school today from their mid- winter break. Uh we wanted to take the opportunity for those who have gotten new ebikes through the holidays or those who had existing ebikes just to kind of take some time to remind them of the rules and kind of what we expect uh on ebikes and how they're going to use them. We're also continuing our ongoing integration with regular town events and ensuring that ebikes have a presence at those events. Some of those events could include the coffee and connect with council events. Any town festivals that occur, we make sure that there is an ebike component present at those events. Along with the in-person things that we do across the community, we've also made a conscious effort to make sure we're reaching the public through various means. One of those is social media. Um there were 41 posts completed since March of 2025 across all of the town platforms. Um, I was pretty astounded when I got the results of of that. And it's not just 41 posts that went out. That reached over 200 over 200,000 views. Over 200,000 views of those 41 posts. So, we do have a wide reach um in those things. And those those messages ranged anywhere from a video um demonstrating proper ebike safety to um just graphics and information about ebikes and how they can be ridden safely. Uh in addition to our social media messaging, we also have an ebike website. Um during the same period of time there were over 2538 views of JPD's

uh ebike website. So we're getting a broad reach in that aspect as well. Um, aside from the social media and the the digital stuff, we continue our public engagement through our traffic contacts, calls for service, um, as we interact with the members of the public, educating both those on ebikes and those calling to uh, address concerns about ebikes on what we're doing, where we're going, and what exactly the laws are so they all understand them. Um, and in addition, we're also collaborating with school police at school campuses at the beginning of the school year. This year, we collaborated with school board. they were present with us outside the middle schools uh to help us kind of show a a joint effort in making sure that kids are riding to school safely. Uh that continued today with our with our efforts outside the middle schools. So, we continue to collaborate with school police. This next portion is probably the part I'm most excited about. Uh one of the things that I've learned as we go through this process is a lot of people are not familiar with the laws. They're not familiar with what they're supposed to do. and we can put things out on social media and you saw the reach that we're getting through those platforms. We wanted to create a more interactive process to get the word out to people on how to properly use ebikes. So, our staff uh members of the police department, members of the IS department, and members of the community relations department are all working together to create an online ebike safety training curriculum program. Uh what this program will be, it'll include information for people such as ebike classification, how to care for and maintain your bike, rules of the road, ebike laws, and crash avoidance. Um all these things will culminate in the completion of an exam at the end, and a proof of completion will be issued to the person who's completed the program. Um we're excited about this program as it develops. We're still working on finalizing the curriculum, finalizing the examination, and making sure that it it um is something that truly reflects Jupiter and and the type of product that

we want to put out. Uh once we're done with this, uh some of our plans with the next question was how do you push this out? How do you get this curriculum out to the public versus just having it on a website? Um, some things we're exploring are the creation of a QR code, um, which will work with local bike shops to provide them with the QR code that could be issued at the time of purchase so that these bike shops can then issue the you'd issue a receipt. They'd give them a copy. Here's a course from the town of Jupiter on how to safely ride this ebike. Um, we we'll work with the school district to make sure that that QR code gets to them as well. um place it on bike racks and things of that nature around the schools uh to get kind of a wide uh a wide reach with this program. So, we're excited to see that. We expect that to come uh in the near future um as we still work to complete the final details of that. The next piece is an ordinance evaluation. You know, we've done all the efforts that we can do as far as the laws that are in place currently. Uh the next step is also to look is there anything more we can do to um better regulate ebikes from a town perspective. I'll tell you Senate Bill 462 took effect in July of 2025. Uh what that does is that gives us uh the authority to create an ordinance for a couple things. One is minimum age restrictions on operating ebikes. It also allows for us to create a requirement that anybody riding an ebike possess a government issued identification card. There were already uh laws in place that allowed us to operate the regulation of ebikes and there's been a number of agencies and organizations that have already put these uh ordinances in place. We're in the process of working with those municipalities. Um I've personally spoken with several chiefs across the state uh to find out one are they doing, two what has the impact of their efforts been. Um so we're still monitoring some of that to see what has been effective. Um, we've seen things from anything from

anybody under 15 cannot ride an ebike at all to their speed limits that people have put on ebikes and other various uh regulations as far as the actual use of the bike. Some of the considerations as we look forward to an ordinance and some of the things we want to keep in mind are age limitations. What is that age? Like what age are we looking at? What's the appropriate age to to put on an ordinance to present to you? We want to look at the process for citation issuance. So, if we put a thing in there saying anybody under 15 can't ride an ebike and we have a violation, are we issuing that violation to a 14-year-old? Are we issuing that violation to a parent? Um, we're still looking and we're working with with legal staff for the town to make sure that we we move in the right direction on that. There's also jurisdictional factors, uh, town owned versus state roads. And we're, again, we're we're moving down the legislative road to see if that's something that we can regulate on county roads, state roads, um, or if it would only apply on town owned roadways for our ordinance. And the other thing we're looking at is possible integration of the training program. I mentioned to you already um is there some way we can take that training program and make that a requirement uh along coupled with the age restriction to say if you're under a certain age and you've completed our departments approved training program is that something we can incorporate into the ordinance. So those are some of the things we're currently evaluating as we look to create a new ordinance. So what are the next steps? Again we're going to continue to evaluate municipal ordinance options um looking at those other organizations. Most of the ebike ordinances that are in place now were recently enacted. So again, I want to get a I want to get a period of time where I can see the actual impact and see what has worked and what what is not working. And we're going to complete and implement the training program. We're going to continue to monitor that House bill um including a new House bill called 243 that puts regulations on restrictions on modification of ebikes. um the possibility of creating license

requirements for class 3 ebikes and inclusion of ebike content in driver's education. I think that third one is very important uh the the inclusion of ebike content and drivers education to make sure that motorists not only the people riding the ebikes so that motorists are also aware of where ebikes can and should be and how they're supposed to operate. So um and then we're going to continue to engage with those other municipalities and what they're doing. So, some key takeaways from tonight. Uh, we do continue our education and enforcement efforts. Um, as we did this morning, and you'll see officers out at the middle schools throughout the week, uh, reinforcing that message. Uh, creation of ebike safety and training program will reinforce ebike safety laws and practices. Efforts to evaluate potential municipal solutions will continue between staff and the town attorney's office. And in in conclusion here, we're looking for the best solution for Jupiter. There's been another number of organizations that have put ordinances in place. Um, each municipality, each jurisdiction has a different set of um, circumstances, different types of roadways, different types of bike paths, different types of population. So, as we move forward towards looking for an ordinance solution, we're looking for something that will clearly fit Jupiter. So, with that, I can take any questions that any of you may have.

Well, I'll I'll get started just um, do we have any public comment on this one? No, sir.

Okay. Um, first of all, before I comment, I really just want to emphasize how grateful I and the council and the public is for your leadership and our police leadership in this matter. Um, so we, you know, tremendous effort. Um, so I don't want anybody to take anything I might say out of context. We start from that point. Great. you know, uh, you talked about, you know, the number of, you know, accidents there have been this year, but I immediately think to for those that do know what's called a safety pyramid, you know, below those accidents is a heck of a lot of near misses,

unsafe behavior and whatever, probably every one of us in this room I've seen dozens of times there's been unsafe behavior. Um, and that's something, you know, we can't expect that our police can handle um because it's going to continue to happen. And um so personally um I I'm excit most excited about the completion and implementation of the training program because I do believe that even and I appreciate you're already thinking about how do you get it out but I would submit just it very existence parents grandparents aunts uncles neighbors may help to get encourage people that's the starting point, learn about safe behaviors. You know, we got an email from someone in the audience today that which I had read and perhaps others have or hadn't had a chance yet, but it was listing the, you know, observations they had made about, you know, silliness, uh, unsafe behaviors and whatever. Those were could have been accidents and could have been very serious ones, but well, I appreciate getting that. We've all seen that. So, um, and we want to get it right. So, I'm not driving to get it done and then it's not right because I think it's so important. But, do you have a target date for completion of that?

As far as target date, I don't. But, I can tell you that we're working I I called a couple police departments yesterday um to try to get kind of some status. I don't want to let this sit too long. Um, I want to get something in front of you all that's that's um something we can live with here in Jupiter. Again, I mentioned before there's some legal things we need to um tackle and understand first and we've been working with the town attorney's office on that. But that's ordinance stuff. I was talking about just a training program. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. For the training program, um I would say that would be done within months. Yeah. Okay. But if you could commit to that in the weekly report, I'll get you a final idea. We'll get a commitment and I and I know it to do it right. It's not you can't get it done in a day or two, but uh

to me that's an extreme priority uh you know for the community. So, if you could u and I know you need help. It's not just the police department doing it. So, if you could get back with us on that, I'd appreciate it. Um, I want to make sure that uh that I and my colleagues were not uh uh weighing in on the next steps even though we may not be there because you can't proceed without the training program. I think that's the fundamental foundation. Uh but um but I am interested in uh doing an ordinance which would be built upon having a training program and we've heard about that before. I think it might even been presented by you the last time so that's already been on my mind. Um and um I'm interested in the staff. I don't know what the limit would be but I'm interested in the age limitation. We haven't thought about it or talked about it or reached a consensus, but that'd be a given in that training requirements and and um you know, so and uh so all of the above. I appreciate all the homework you're doing to get us to that point, but I'd be remiss if we didn't just weigh in already. That that's something we're expecting we want to happen so that someone's not thinking, well, we're going to wait until you come back, right? So you're everything you're doing is moving in the direction you've been proactive. Thank you. And we're ready to weigh in when it's time, you know, for us to weigh in. And um so uh we all individually need to ponder, but it usually is founded by a staff recommendation or something too about an age limit or how you would handle training or whatever. But again, I submit that just having the training available, it's going to get a lot of use. I think it is. So, um, let me go down the aisle to my colleagues. Uh, Council Joy,

I agree, um, 100% that if you come forward with an or an ordinance, we're ready for it. But a question on the training program. Will the parents have an opportunity to buy into it so that they understand whatever period of time their child is going to go through a training? This is a responsible behavior on their part. But I don't think all parents see what their children are doing. And if they can get a buy in on your training program, whether it's to participate, whether it's to sign off, something that holds them a little bit more accountable as well. parents try, but it is difficult. They have to get that message out to their child and we've all seen crazy behavior. Um, again on that House Bill 462 and the age requirement, can any of that correlate with a driver's license requirement process?

It can. And one of the things, and I'll give you some kind of preliminary on what we're working on, what we're looking at here. Uh my personal take from a police department and safety perspective is uh anybody under the age of 15, we equate 15 with uh an individual can go and get their driver's permit, right? They have the capability to go and complete the driver's ed program. Um anybody under 15 does not have that ability to do so. Um so I think if we're going to start have a starting point for an age limit, I think that's appropriate. Um because how are we expecting 13 and 14 and 12y olds to understand how they're supposed to operate and what cars are going to do? Um, what does a yield sign mean for a 13-year-old? He may not know that. So, from a starting point, yes. I I kind of use that as a marker on where I would start with an age restriction.

What are you seeing with any of the modifying of these ebikes in so far as any of these crashes? Is that a big thing happening that they're souping up these ebikes to do? Yeah, a lot of the ebike crashes we have had have not had souped up. I won't say none of them. I'd have to review the data to find out like how many of them, but we're not seeing a tremendous problem with that. Okay, great. In the crashes. All right. And there are two types of riders out here. There are the young ones, and then those are the folks that need it as their vehicle to get back and forth for transportation. So, you've got two different

Yeah. And and just to clarify, because I know I kind of focused on the youth with the ebike training program. The ebike training program is going to be open for all all residents. It's going to be a public source thing. It's not going to be a cost factor. It's not going to be only accessible to the youth. It'll be open for anybody because we realize there are legitimate um uses and people are using that as their daily commute. Thank you. Thanks, Chief. Um I I appreciate everything your staff's doing and um how many months we've been do have you guys been doing this now since that first large meeting we had here? Was that like last summer? Since March. Since it was March. Okay. March. Yes. Have you and not I'm not putting you on the spot, but have you been able to notice any tangible decline in complaints or accidents? Is there any is or is it too soon?

Yeah, it's probably too soon for that. There's also some other factors that play in. Um if you look at time of year, um as you go into the summer months, I notice a decline. Um some of that could be a lot of times on the ebike, particularly the youth, they're gathering together and riding together in packs after school. Yeah. Um when school breaks for the summer, people kind of go their own way. We we kind of saw a decline there, but I don't know that it was a decline. Okay.

Some I'd want to track over a longer period. And uh in regards to the training program, could we look at something where uh we we pick a certain age for minors where to legally ride a ebike in Jupiter uh mandatory training program that the parents have to make sure the kids they sign in on just to make I think some parents may not be aware of how what the kids do out there because you can't control you know kids are kids um and and they're aware of the hazards of these bikes on the roads and what's going going on with them. So like a training program parents have to sign in for the kid to be legal to get his certificate. Is going to be like a certificate kind of thing or Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. And it'll al be also be something that the police officers can track so that we'll be able to view and see if we do stop somebody they'll be able to see if they've completed their program or not. Okay. Great. Okay. That's it. Thank you, Councelor Kaisinger. Yeah. Chief Hennessy, thank you for your presentation and for the sake of not repeating what everybody else said, which I agree with. I do have a couple questions relative to monitoring like these house bills 243. Do m municipalities or even the police department around the state of Florida have input into these house bills?

They do and there's a n number of ways that that happens typically this can be done through the chief's associations and various lobby the lobbyists can certainly weigh into that. Um I I don't have a personal connection or say in the state. Um but it's something where if we wanted to push for a certain legislation, it's something we could certainly look at. Okay. And and on relative to the citations, 178 citations and warnings, are there currently any consequences for say a young writer getting a citation or a warning? Yeah, the citations most for the citations. Um yeah, they have to it's like a normal citation. It's a state citation. So they would go through the normal consequence of a non-moving violation for a bicycle violation. Okay. And those citations also go to the parent?

Nope. The citations are issued to the child. How do the parents get awareness that those citations were issued? One of the things that we've done if we're issuing a parent a citation that the parent is called usually to the scene or at least notified that it occurred. Okay. Does it make sense to give a copy of that to the parent so they're aware of it? It could. Yeah. And then often times what you know what I recall from the past is if we call parents to a scene they're right there when we issue the citation. Okay. And last what happens with repeat offenders who have multiple citation is there a threshold when more significant action could be taken against the writer?

No citations are done on an individual basis. Right. So each citation it's like if you speed you can get a number of speeding citations. It's really no different. they're done on a uniform training uh uniform citation. Now, I will say if we do decide to go the ordinance road, that's something could be built into the ordinance. We have a number of ordinances across the town that have first defense, second offense, third offense escalations. Um but no, there's no there's nothing in the state law that escalates. I'd like to see that escalation along with parents getting notification of the citation should should they not even um come to the scene, we got to find some way to make sure they're aware that their kid had a violation. So, sure thing. Okay, that's all I have. Thank you.

I have one last question. I apologize and and it's resonating here. Do the citation impact f future driver license? I'd have to check on cuz these are standard bicycle citations. Um the ones I know we spoke at the ebike town hall on the emotos and riding without a license. That one certainly would. I don't believe an ebike citation would affect a future.

It wouldn't. Okay. So just in closing as far as just some comments or some thoughts again which you may already have in your mind but just to get them out. Number one you know I share I remember a couple decades ago JTAa in trying to manage behavior of parents in w programs. there was a mandatory parental has to participate uh in the training because it was the parents that were not uh for wreck programs that were the problem um and not the kids but um so I do think some some way we ought to at least encourage it. you may not be able to mandate it. And while I use the word parent, it would be whoever is the responsible adult for a child. Um, the program, the training program should be set up that they participate in that or are well aware of that. Again, maybe you can't enforce it even with an ordinance, but I'd like to do that and and again, I'm sure you thought about it. But I would imagine this training program certainly uninccorporated areas to Questa, anybody that would be in Jupiter would still need to take it. Uh and I would expect that other jurisdictions like the Questa for example would love to be, you know, to leverage this. So, uh, I could see it really adding a lot of, you know, of value and, uh, so just to re, uh, reinforce what others had weighed in. Um, you know, I'm I'd like to have some, uh, ordinance, uh, teeth, if you will, on trying to make sure that we're just encouraging people to do the right thing. Not different than getting learner's permit, right? I mean, that's what's really lacking here is someone has to know the rules of the road, which is what you've got in mind to prepare,

right? And there's got to be some test for understanding. You got to pass that to uh um, you know, be able to uh have a chance of being responsible. Without that, we're going to continue to observe, you know, really very risky behavior and we're going to continue to have accidents and and events. So again, thank you very much. Appreciate the regular updates. I appreciate all the advances that happen, you know, between the updates and uh and staying on top of it as our police are. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Moving on to citizen comments. Do we have citizen any citizen comments? No, sir. Okay. Uh moving on to the minutes. We have before us the minutes of the December 16th meeting. I didn't see any corrections on the dis. If there are none, I'll take a motion in a second to approve the minutes as presented. I'll make a motion that we accept the minutes of December 16th, 2025 as presented. I'll second. Motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Motion carries unanimously. Moving on to the consent agenda. This is items uh 3 through 8. Is there any member of the public that wish to pull a consent agenda item? No, sir. Any member on the dis?

No, ma'am. Seeing none, um, wait a minute. Yeah, I'd like to pull one. So, um, I have number four. I have questions on and um, number eight. Okay, we have uh ordinance 2025 second reading is quasi additional. Uh do any members of the council have any exparte disclosures? I have none. None. No, your mayor. Your honor. Seeing none, I'll take a motion in the second on an amended ordinance consisting of three, five, six, and seven. So moved as amended.

Second. Motion and a second. Uh I'd ask the for ordinance uh 2025 to be read. Ordinance 2025, an ordinance of the town council of town of Jupiter, Florida, amending the town's official zoning map to reszone 1.19 acres of property located at 100 and 102 North Coastal Way from the Indian Town Road overlay zoning district, US Highway 1 District with underlying general commercial C2 to US Highway 1, Inter Coastal Waterway Corridor District, Waterway Commercial and Entertainment Subdist Providing for Severability, providing for the repeal of laws in conflict and providing for an effective date.

We have a motion and a second on the amended uh consent agenda. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Motion carries 40. Uh moving on to agenda item four approved by uh councelor Gisinger. Uh what's your just have questions or

Yeah, I just have questions if you don't mind. Just a couple questions on the this is regarding the fleet fuel with Pro Energy. I see we budgeted 900k for this year. What do we typically spend on a yearly basis for fuel fleet fuel? Uh for the record, George Zama, director of engineering and public works. Um we spend about nine about that amount every year. 900,000 to a million. Okay, another question relative to the contract with PO Energy. Does it count for fluctuations in the cost per gallon of fuel?

That's the only question. Yes, it is. I And I guess and are adjustments allowed through the year. Are there set times you can go in and make adjustments to Yes. Yes. And it's typically uh on the CPI, the index um and you know fuel rates, but um it's it's um this is through the state um contract and they have the provisions set forth and the fluctuations. So they monitor the rates and they'll make Okay. Yes, sir. And my last question is relative to the town standby generators, do they use gasoline or diesel? What's I apologize.

Standby generators are they gas or diesel? Um they are typically diesel and some well some are gas but um we have diesel generators. Do you know for the gasoline ones do we use marine grade fuel or ethanol based 10% ethanol based? I know for generators they often try to sway you away from using ethanol based fuels because of carbburation issues and things like that. So yeah, I I can't answer that directly, but I can follow up uh with you

if you would. I appreciate that. Absolutely. I just want to make sure we're not u for using 10% ethanol. We're not getting in any significant maintenance issues with our generator. So understood. Okay, that's all the questions I had. Mayor, I just had one quick one. The total of the nine is with the generators and the fleets, correct? Okay, that yes. Yes, ma'am. I have one question, Mayor. Go ahead. Have we opened it up? Um, in regards I didn't open it up. Go ahead.

In in regards to uh Jupiter Fire, is is the new fleet of trucks coming in predominantly diesel, the larger ones? Correct. Is that factored in into this? And do we ever go over? Like if we budget 900, do we ever go over? Um Scott, do you want to

I can actually answer that. When we uh uh we do the every year we do the budget, we do on a basically an average. We look at all the all the vehicles in the town and their usage uh and come up with an average cost based on the cost of fuel uh is what we estimate. And this past year based on we're going to be receiving our vehicles this year going into next year we have already done uh that estimate including those vehicles. So so from October on with the new fired up is we're estimating and and we'll go into that going into the budget season this year. We will estimate again for next year which is this is crossing fiscal years

right and regarding on the the three months we'll have you kind of give you sort of a benchmark. It'll be seasonal obviously because you know busier season more miles on the road and all that stuff. Correct. And we we we'll know what the diesel cost based on those averages. Yeah. And we'll know what those vehicles approximately run. Okay. Yes. Great. Thank you. That's it.

Well, I don't have to ask the question, but I will. Not to be not to compete, but uh No, this is a piggyback of a state contract, which there's probably no better good example of how that adds value to the rest of us. Do you want to just comment about that? I mean, while we have confidence here is because this statewide contract that gets piggybacked addresses all the issues we'd have concern about and it it has indices to take into account if there's changes in market pricing. Correct.

Correct. It's competitively bid and uh you know that's the reason that we we look to the state these contracts. It's it's an easy way for procurement and uh we know that it's been fairly and competitively bid and you get the best price as you're trying to point out there. Great. Thank you. I'll take a motion and a second to approve uh the uh piggyback of the contract for three-year term. Basically agenda item four. I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Motion is second. All in favor signify by saying I. I I

I motion carries unanimously. 40. Uh last item number eight on removed from consent. Uh councelor Gisinger, what's your questions?

Okay. Um first and relative to the what is the town's expected cost for an ILA approval through September 20 26 of this year? And I guess a comment is this cost primarily standing up equipment software license testing and certifying the system during this time. So this uh structure cost structure is identical to the cost structure the town currently has for Jupiter police with Northcom Northcom dispatch. And so the exact numbers for that we don't have this very second. What uh it does is it allocates those costs based on a population basis. again identical to what we currently have with Jupiter Police.

But do you expect to be you don't expect to be using that service between now and September 30th? Do you unless it's for training or Yes. No, sir. We will begin using that service on a training basis on June 1st. June 1st. Okay. That's what I was looking for. Okay. Thank you. U also does Jupiter Fire Rescue have input to Northcon standard operating procedures and response protocols related to Jupiter? Yes, we absolutely will. Is that part of that governing board that you're a part of? Yes, sir. Get the Okay. Um, and has Jupiter Fire Rescue reviewed existing response protocols and provided our concurrence? Do we get the opportunity to concur with those protocols?

Uh, so those protocols are being developed. Again, we haven't started them yet. So, they are being jointly developed. Okay. So, we are working those with Palm Beach Gardens in Yes, sir. Okay. Good. Um has Jupiter Fire Rescue in the town budgeted for the purpose purchase and maintenance of all radios, client side software, license and hardware, software, server software, etc. to receive service in Northcom. Has that already been budgeted for? Yes, sir. It already has been. Okay. Is that hardware on procurement and those software licenses? It's hardware. There is software involved. It's all part of um station alerting software and those things and those are all within the budget. Um, they've all been accounted for.

Okay. And I had one comment on reading through the contract recognition of error. I mean the ILA. There's a recognition of error paragraph pertaining to misalyed communications or dispatch. Do we know how often this occurs? Is that a uh that's just a motherhood statement thrown in there or is it an actual issue? Yeah. So I I would say that's a pretty rare occurrence. I'm not going to say that errors don't occur, but um it is a pretty rare occurrence. Well, let me ask this. Does Jupiter's police department experience have any experience with mis routed communications?

No. As far as misouted, as far as like individual communications, there are multiple organizations in our world um on on one radio frequency that share um for example, Garden shares with North Palm, we share with the Quest, but we've had no issues with with Northcom misouting information or or calls for service. Okay. All right. That's what I was hoping to hear. And regarding force majour, there's a paragraph there which has palm guard dispatch personnel ever gone on strike. There's a strike word in there that got my attention. So I I I'm not the legal expert here, but uh So that's a standard provision and all virtually all force majour clauses.

Okay. So then it it is permitted. Well, it's not permitted, but it's part of the standard clause for forced majour. Well, I was looking at do we need to address this in our procedures or training should it occur? No, I wouldn't think so. Do you concur with that, Chief? Yeah. So, again, I'm not the legal expert here, but I do believe under Florida statutes, um, police and fire are prohibited from going on. That's what I thought, too. I just wonder if that applied to dispatch, too. So, councelor, as far as I know, that does apply to dispatch. You can't just go on strike and abandon a 911 center. Okay. All right. Thank you. I have no further question.

I don't have any questions, but I do think it's appropriate uh for me to kind of weigh in and then I ask our town manager when I'm done. Um just from a point of perspective on this one cuz I'm extremely comfortable with this. Um, I've had the benefit of being up here a long time and during that time we had some really bold leadership by a police chief some years back. Uh, we used to have our own dispatch and uh, the Gardens and Jupiter got together and said, "Hey, let's work together." Best example, one of the best examples I can think of governments doing the right thing. uh and ultimately uh we consolidated all employees were transferred under the gardens. There's a mechanism set up where you know uh I think it's the town manager, city manager and Juno Beach kind of monitor this but I don't know this has been at least a decade in in working um and um I do remember for the first the anxiety that our dispatch folks had. Uh I think our former I think our current police chief was on dispatch, right? So uh we didn't send him off but uh but the dispatch staff moved under uh the uh you know centralized dispatch and it's been extremely successful and I say was bold because you know we weren't competing we were finding what's the best solution

work together. Um and um so I'm grateful that that B police chief by the way was is our town manager. Uh but I just wanted to emphasize that. So uh this was a logical next step. You know, I remember uh and again, I'm not the expert, but I just I live through this and and know that um you know, 911 calls goes to the this dispatch center uh for that for police and then fire rescue gets rerouted to Palm Beach County and fire rescue and there's a minute lapse. I remember uh meeting with the gardens and their firefighters would say they see their police heading off somewhere and they go be about a minute we'll get our call and there's a delay so there's a lot of benefits from getting there so I understand for your being the first time to read on this it'd be different than mine with the confidence of this having worked so well for 10 years uh and all these issues um that others may ask question about well that's what our police have been using success uccessfully now that we're going to be using the same communication means so everybody can talk to one another. So with that, I just feel I'd be remiss not to emphasize to me this is a celebration here because our fire rescue folks are going to get notified early earlier and and be able to respond earlier um in addition to all the other improvements you've been telling us about you're preparing for. Uh, and I don't know if the our town manager wants to add anything, but

thank you, mayor. Just a couple of things real quick. Um, so Northcom came into being just for the very reasons you talked about. Um, the population calls for service, safety demands in the uh, law enforcement world were increasing exponentially. And so, uh, not to mention having regional situational awareness, being able to share resources, responding together, especially across those jurisdictional boundaries, and um, and I will tell you that uh, if you remember at the time, it was one of the first times that we've had four councils all meeting together at the same time in the same room to go over everything. And we've maintained our levels of service there. We used to call it the cat in the tree standard, meaning if there was a cat stuck in a tree um and somebody called 911, we're still coming. We're not going to tell them we're too busy and and that kind of thing. So, the point I'm making here is the fact that this is proven, it's tested, we've been doing it probably closer to 15 years or so now. Um and we had high expectations at the time. This is this endeavor has far exceeded any expectations uh that we have had from a safety perspective and um and I'll tell you I have no doubt that it's going to do the same thing with fire rescue. We we have a strong working relationship. Initially it was the gardens and Jupiter. Then it became garden Jupiter and Juno. Then it became gardens Jupiter Juno and North Palm. Then it became uh Jupiter Gardens North Palm to Questa Juno and uh and we've had others that we've had to turn away. um you they do a phenomenal job there and uh and you know you're talking to a person that not only helped um design that but in a previous life in a large county in in the Washington DC area I worked in a 911 center where we took a thousand 911 calls a day and had police and fire working together and it

was it was just seamless. So uh so the bottom line again for us is is that our fire department and our police department will be working seamlessly together and expanding into um you know the region with other departments as well. So it enhances our safety. And I will say this, um, we were so committed to that that I don't even know, I know Chief Rally's here, but we even took our police radios and put them in Palm Beach County fire rescue trucks that served Jupiter and their uh, and their ambulances. And uh, and at one point in time, we had a EMS captain, I think, who has really wanted to be a police officer and is reporting all kinds of things over the radio. And so, um, it's it really works well. Good.

So, thank you, Mayor. I just have a comment that I wanted to say. The collaboration between our services and the municipalities is what creates quality of life and saves lives. So, I support this and the history. I appreciate hearing the history on how it began. So, thank you for that. Okay. I'll take a motion in a second to approve resolution 1726. I'll make a motion to approve to approve resolution 17-26. Second. Motion a second. All in favor signify by saying I. I.

I. Motion carries unanimously. Moving on to regular agenda item nine, which I am delighted about. Um, I turn it to staff to present. and we'll take these uh we need to uh vote on and take these matters up separately. I don't know if that affects your presentation, but uh go ahead.

Good evening, Mayor Council. Ashley Wilson, HR director. So, tonight staff is presenting two resolutions related to our agreement with the Police Benevolent Association. The first resolution, resolution 15-26, approves the three-year collective bargaining agreement between the town and the PBA representing the police officers and the sergeants. As the prior contract expired September 30th, 2025, this new agreement retroactively begins on October 1st, 20ou 2025 and will end on September 30th, 2028. And the contract sets compensation, benefits, and working conditions for our officers and sergeants for the next three years. So, the contract includes a updated step plan that results in average salary increases with 19.9% in year 1, 9.4 in year 2, and 9.1 in year three for a combined average increase of 38.4% over the contract term. And the key goal of the compensation updates was to ensure the town remains competitive within Palm Beach County so we can retain our experienced officers and also recruit qualified candidates. And the estimated cost for year 1 implementation is $2 million. And staff anticipates funding through a combination of operating contingency and year-end savings. So key improvements in the agreement include increased extra duty pay rates, updates to assignment pay for specialized roles. The agreement also includes a step 12 annual tenure payment of $3,000 estimated at about $500,000 over three years, enhanced supplemental retirement healthcare benefits, and the establishment of a New Year's Eve midnight differential. And the agreement also includes intentional language to clarify definitions, eliminate inconsistencies, and remove gray areas in the contract so it can be applied consistently dayto-day. So, at this time, I would like to introduce Scott Reynolds, our finance director, to cover the second resolution, resolution 16-26, which addresses the memorandum for agreement related to the police retirement fund

and long-term retirement planning beginning in 2030.

Uh, good evening again, Scott Reynolds. I'm the finance director for the town of Jupiter. Um, uh, as Ashley was just indicating, this is a very large, uh, financial commitment by the town. uh which uh is always stated by the council that uh we support our members of law enforcement and uh public safety. This is definitely a large commitment towards that. Uh what I want to highlight tonight is uh we talked about the uh tier pay system and and a few other of the benefits uh that are included in the uh in the current contract, but there are also uh pension reform uh items. Uh if if you're not aware, uh there is a uh um uh code of ordinances regarding the pension that will have to be updated and those uh there will be some ordinance changes that will come before the council in the next couple of meetings. Uh but uh this kind of codifies it in this in this uh uh CBA and also in the second part to this which is the resolution uh for an upcoming change uh that we've agreed to uh in the pension ordinance. So, I wanted to just quickly talk about a couple of the uh the pension ordinance changes. One is the healthc care subsidy uh for officers. Uh we've increased the healthc care subsidy for active officers uh currently that are not in drop. Uh also uh the drop participation uh that uh would normally an officer would have to pay about 10% of their pay while they're in drop. Uh that will be eliminated. Uh the biggest item uh relating to resolution 1626 that Ashley was just uh outlining uh is a removal of a tier one uh tier 2 uh actually the tier 2 uh of the pension plan will be removed uh at a future date. So what we're uh committing to in the MOA uh relating to resolution 1626 is that uh in October 1, 2020 or 2030 uh we will be

bringing back before the council at that time uh to make those pension uh reforms from the tier 1 tier 2 uh benefits. Uh I will tell you the uh uh it also uh the me the memorandum of agreement uh that's attached to that resolution also uh there's what's called 185 money uh which uh has to do with insurance uh u dollars that the um town receives to help offset the cost of the pension. Uh we receive annually approximately a million dollars. It's growing every year. Every year I've been here, it's grown, and the amount of money that we received, uh, last year was over a million dollars. Uh, right now, uh, the CBA is committed that if we do this in 2030, uh, that, uh, they will increase the amount of the, uh, 185 money, uh, that can be used by the town to offset the town's cost by $135,000. Uh, currently, uh, the town receives $615,000 of the million that I just spoke about. that would increase it to $750,000 in 2030. Uh so definitely an offset of the overall cost u of the tier one tier 2 implementation that'll be coming in a a later date. Are there any questions in relation to to those items?

Any questions? Seeing none. Thank you. So just some key messages and takeaways. So together the two resolutions represent a major investment that the town has invested in the police workforce. And this is an investment in our officers and sergeants to support recruitment, retention, and long-term stability and public safety services in the town of Jupiter. So approval of these resolutions will authorize the mayor to execute the agreements on behalf of the town. Any questions? Any questions?

Question. just want to comment um on behalf of the council and myself. Uh this has been an extraordinary effort. I appreciate I know how much effort um the two of you have put in along with your staff. This has been about a year's worth of work along with uh with our police uh and town manager's office, etc., etc. And I appreciate the thoroughess. I appreciate I remember when we began this process and and I say we you know town uh we wanted to address all issues that have been lingering for a long time and uh it's pretty uh and obviously I wasn't closely involved nor should we have been but it was nice to see the redline version. Um I don't know we always get that but I do think it's helpful to see that along with the clean version. So thank you because that makes it pretty clear the scope of issues that you know we negotiated changes on um to uh you know needed changes but showing how much we valued our police. I'm really grateful for the time. It wasn't a significant effort, but the results I think are in a new contract that uh is uh much better for all. So, thank you. With that, I'll take a motion in a second on approving resolution 1526. And I'll just add, I know I think it was said, but it's not lost. What's unique here is we're also recognizing that there's a $2 million budget shortfall that is expected to possibly be made up of contingency in underruns, but uh the way our process works, I'm just reminding us that uh it still comes back to us and we do

quarterly updates. And if, for example, the underrun that was hoped for didn't happen, then we're recognizing that this is an $2 million increase on what we authorized. And I'm just wanted, for the record, have emphasized. I understand that. So, I'll take a motion in a second. Before we make a motion, can I make one comment? I did read through the entire contract. I did find there were several grammatical errors and typos. I don't know if anybody wants to clean that up, but it's already probably ratified as is. So, but uh didn't want to make a note of that. So, motion to approve resolution 1526. I'll second. Motion a second. All in favor signify by saying I.

I. Motion carries unanimously. I'll take a motion and a second to approve resolution 1626. I'll make a res u a motion to accept resolution 1626 as presented. I'll second. Motion a second. Uh, all in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Thank you.

Moving on to reports. Town attorney. Thank you, mayor. Uh, first wanted to report that I did not travel to Tallahassee in December and, uh, perhaps I should have. Um, the motion for preliminary injunction was denied by the judge, circuit court judge. Uh there is also this is on Senate Bill 180. Um there is also a motion to dismiss that lawsuit that is pending that the judge took under advisement and so far no no order has been issued in regards to that. If the motion to dismiss is granted, um I suppose it's possible that the both motions or the orders on both motions could be appealed, but um the chances of success on appeal on a denial of a motion for preliminary injunction uh are typically not great. So, um, for now the, um, lawsuit remains live. And, um, I think that aside from the fact that 30 local governments came together to challenge legislation that more than 30 local governments believed was very poor legislation. Uh what we are seeing in Tallahassee are bills being filed to amend that legislation that will give uh municipalities such as Jupiter relief um from the more ownorous provisions of that of that legislation. And by relief what I mean is that the scope of the effect of that restrictive legislation will be reduced. So, you may recall from

bill summaries on it that that legislation applied to a path of 100 miles from the path of the three hurricanes, Milton, Debbie, and one other that u that affected the state of Florida. Um and so the legislation is such that um that the scope of the effect of the restrictions on local governments will be reduced if those bills pass or if one of one or more of those bills pass. So, it remains to be seen and I'm sure that the uh the various lobbyists for the local governments around the state are working hard to make sure that um the legislation doesn't as it has for the past year doesn't stop planning in Florida. Um, secondly, I want to bring back to the council a request for an increase in my hourly rates for the lawyers that work on uh matters for the town. We do have one pending uh case going on and um I know not all of you have been on the council um and necessarily understand how my firm works, but although I'm your town attorney, you have 50 lawyers um from my firm that are behind me or well some of them are in front of me, but uh the um assignment ments are made based on the strength of the lawyers that are involved in it. So for example, litigation when we were litigating the issues over the ballot question and fire rescue, you may recall um that one of my partners, Travis Foss, handled that

litigation and uh you know the result of that. It was an outstanding result. In the past, uh, another one of my, uh, partners, Mike Gore, has handled some very difficult litigation, which was the, um, we call it the Jupiter Soccer case, where a private soccer club essentially tried to take over a portion of the town's recreation fields for its own use. Um, and Michael was extremely successful and and the uh litigant in that case actually dismissed their lawsuit because of the strength of the motion for summary judgement that uh Mr. Gore filed. So, um, I'd like to bring that back. It only involves compensation and uh we haven't really addressed compensation for the attorneys in our firm for three or four years now. Um like everyone else, our costs go up and and uh so it's a pro you can you can think of it as a CPI increase but uh it's not really CPI. And uh other than that, I'm looking forward to continuing to work with the council in this new year. And uh for the town, uh I think it's going to be, you know, last year was an incredible year celebrating the 100th anniversary of the town. This year we have the start of our new fire department coming. And um as a resident of the town and somebody that's served the town for a long while, it's incredibly rewarding to see uh this town become a fullervice town in terms of its public safety. Thank you.

Just to respond on that one, um and I would expect what I'm going to ask for my colleagues would want as well individually. I'd ask for you to get with us individually to share what the request reflect upon that before it comes back before us. I think that's the best way to handle it is meet individually. Yeah, I know. I know we have individual meetings set up on another matter. So, we'll we'll do I'll do that as part of those meetings.

Manager, thank you, Mayor. Just a couple of things from my um air of responsibility. First of all, I was not aware that the town attorney was going to bring that last topic up, but I I do want to take a moment to acknowledge the work of the town attorney and his staff, and I can tell you they're truly responsive, and the lawyers he has working with them as well are truly a really remarkable people. So, I can tell you from the town manager's office, they're a great resource. And um and you know, our town attorney, it picks up the phone, answers the calls, and uh and the team does quite a job. So, uh, so I wanted to thank them and also acknowledge their work. Um, also, uh, I wanted to take a moment and thank, uh, Ashley and Scott and the Jupiter Police Department members and the PBA, uh, and this town council for all their work over the last year. Um, I could tell you that this has been a particularly challenging negotiation as we've mentioned before. Um, but one of the things that I wanted to follow up on, point out that the mayor uh had said just a little bit ago is is this contract really fixes a lot of those things that have been hanging out there for many years. And I can say that as a town manager and as the former police chief, things that we we were not able to fix before and and the overall dollar investment that this council has made for this police department um is, you know, we just celebrated a hundred years. I I haven't gone done gone back and done my homework, but I'd be very confident in saying that this is probably the most uh lucrative in terms of the uh financial investment that any council has made in its police department and uh and so I want to thank all those involved. Uh I will say a point of observation, not that I want to put anybody on the hot seat, but typical police. So the person that's guarding us here tonight that's protecting us uh is one of the PBA reps. So before the

meeting, I went up and said, "Would you like to say anything?" And he he looked at me like I asked him to walk in front of somebody with a machine gun. And he goes, "No, I'm not saying anything." But uh but I'm going to say thank you and please thank your team. Uh I know it's been a challenging uh a challenging time. Um, also while I'm on the subject of police department, um, as you know, Chief Hennessy has been our interim police chief uh since uh October of this past year. And I will tell you, uh, when I when Don took the job uh as interim, I you know, I'd spoken to him about the fact that he has to earn this job and he has done a remarkable job. He is, you know, he has far exceeded any expectations that I have had. You know, I've been I've had the privilege of working with Don. As the mayor pointed out, he was a dispatcher uh when I started and then sponsored him in the police academy and look where he is today. So, we're going to be taking the interim label off of him and he will be sworn in as our police chief. I think some of you have already gotten the invitation. Um, I've asked our communications department to hold off on putting out the press release till after I could tell you personally and uh and so that will be going out tonight. So, congratulations to Don. Welld deserved. Um, also would like to remind anyone uh wishing to be considered for a town board or committee uh you can now apply for that consideration through the town's website. Uh the town has eight volunteer advisory boards or committees that allow residents to serve the community and nominations can be submitted through f Friday, February 6. And town council will vote on appointees later this spring and and for those who's going those that are going through this for the first time, we'll walk you through this process uh to show you how it how it works because it's a lot of work.

We did it last year. Oh, you did it last year. So you're good. Uh okay, good. So we we're good,

Marian. we don't have to do anything. Uh it's just going to take care of itself. Um and then uh as as you uh may be aware, the town has begun its hiring process for the operational firefighter positions uh for the Jupiter Fire Rescue Department. I thought I would share some of this these numbers with you. So the job listings for captains and lieutenants opened on December 22nd and to date we have received 195 applications for the captain's positions and 177 applications for lieutenants. On December 29th the job lifter job listing for driver engineers was posted and thus far we have received 113 applications. And finally, at about 400 pm yesterday, we opened applications for our firefighter paramedics and firefighter EMT positions. In just 24 hours, we've received 256 applications for those positions as well. And so, um, you know, I want to, uh, acknowledge the work of, uh, Chief Donado and his staff and our communications folks and HR and everybody that's been involved in this process has been a very significant undertaking. And I, I want you to uh, keep in mind, and I thank all of our employees uh, all the time for this, because many of our applicants, in including our fire chief, with their credentials, could go anywhere, but they choose us. And so I think that speaks volumes about our town. I think that speaks volumes about our leadership and the council's commitment to the employees and to public safety as well. So um we're excited about where we're going. As you know, we're on a sprint. Um October one of this year, it's we're rolling out that door and we're going to set a benchmark from the second we roll out. Um, and finally, I want to recognize some of our employees, as I always do, for celebrating significant milestones of service with the town. On January 2nd, police officer Christy

Coleman celebrated 25 years of service with the Jupiter Police Department. And this Thursday, January 8, Chris Craft, a member of our utilities department, will also celebrate 25 years of service. And uh, they're already members of the Club 20 uh, contingent. So, with that, Mayor, that's my report. Thank you, Councelor Joy.

Okay. Thank you. Tonight, I sit here and I hope our residents understand safety. Everything tonight is about our residents. The safety from ebikes to our listening to the fire for October 1 safety, our contract. We believe at least sitting on the council we believe in what our residents need and most importantly their safety is a top priority. We closed 2025 with so much celebration. It was amazing to be part of it. And as we enter 20226 with the birthday of our country, um I think it's just um amazing that we sit in a seat in a town called Jupiter that everyone is looking at us. It's collaboration, safety, and our residents. So, happy new year to everybody. Vice Mayor. Um, Mayor, you and I have been through a few of these police contracts, you more than myself, but um, it took a while. I knew it would would get done. I wasn't worried about it, but um, I just want to thank town manager and staff, everybody involved and everybody on the um, the PBA side for for getting it done. This is a great contract. It's a it's a it's a it's a big investment, but it just goes to show how much we appreciate our officers and captains and and Jupiter Police. And what kind of warms my heart when I look at it, the final vote with the uh across the street with the with the the folks in the department was 8412 for the contract and 8610 on the MOA. So that really they're happy over there. And every contract, I've said before in the past when we pass different contracts, want to make sure that the officers are happy, feel they're well compensated, their spouses are comfortable, and they can live in the area, and they they appreciate working

in Jupiter. And I know this is a great place to work for them. So glad that that's done. Um, and as for our uh Mr. Beard, our town attorney. Um some of the hurdles you've gotten us over in the past couple years, especially the the issue with the uh um the uh the election and the um I can't think the memorand not the memorandum, the uh

the ballot initiative. That was that was a a major feat that you guys were able to get over. So we we really I really appreciate that. So we'll we'll discuss I think we meet sometime later next week, I believe. So anyway, and uh to sort of piggyback on the town manager story about Jupiter Fire, have a neighbor, he's in the um he's in the insurance business and I was coming through into the the neighborhood one night and he's in his driveway. He runs over and he taps my window. Hey, I got a story for you. He was at some conference out in the Midwest somewhere and had to do with fire equipment and he was at a one of the the uh the show booths and this these folks were selling I think was Jaws of Life and things like that and he mentioned where he was from and this and that and he goes oh yeah Jupiter's building their own fire he goes he said Jupiter's doing it right and this was like you know thousand miles away but around the country they know and that's why with our leadership we have here that's why everybody's they know it's being done correctly here. So that that guy was kind of like, okay, and I knew we were doing it right anyway, but that was just some outside source of letting you know things are you're doing a great job. So everybody, so uh that being said, everything's great in Jupiter. So appreciate it. Good night,

Council Gaiser.

Thank you. Uh you know, follow up with all the thank yous. Uh I too would like to thank the both the town manager, the town staff, um the police department personnel, the PBA representatives for all the hard work and the amount of time put in to the to negotiate and pulling together the CBA contract and the pension MOA leading to two things besides legitimate ratification uh by both our police officers and sergeants and second it was approved tonight by town council without really any issues. So, uh, congratulations all. We're glad to get this behind us and I think it'll work out well not only for the town but also for our police department. And second, I'd like to thank Chief Hennessy for his presentation tonight. Um, the outreach initiatives he's working on with the communities and also developing the ebike training program, which I think make the streets a lot safer for ebike riders. So, I appreciate all the effort going into that. Thank you.

I have a number of items. That's why I'm going last. uh number one uh want to share to the town manager that I might have a conflict with the schedule conflict with the swearing in ceremony which would kill me. Uh, I have a my no meeting is usually on that Thursday, so I need to check. Um, but I can't miss the MO meeting, but I prefer the schedule issue gets resolved, but I just share that now cuz it's not Thursday's not bad. It's the time happens to be during the meeting. Um, that wasn't request. It just I'm just kind of sharing it. So, if I'm a no-show because that's the time it is. Um, number two, um, I don't know, everybody keeps saying 101 for JFRD. I'm expecting 81. I know 101 is the official date, but I'm still op an optimist and county's going to work with us and we're going to begin to transition earlier, but I know it depends on them, but that would be a win. So, I know we'll be ready about then. So, others can say 10-1. My mind keeps thinking 81. And my wife showed me, by the way, the other day. I was telling her about the clock that we have here, the countdown clock to fully staffed and to the 101 date, how many days are left. She proudly showed me she has an app on her phone. So, she's tracking it. So, that just shows how much

an important person in my life thinks that's a big deal moment for the town. um a question. Um you may have the answer now uh Mr. Kitser or or get back with us, but I thought the resident survey results were forthcoming about now. I haven't seen them, but I'm very interested in those. Um and I think we were going to get a copy as soon as they were available before we put it on an agenda. So, I'm very interested in seeing the feedback in particular on the targeted questions because this uh county transportation plan is moving fast and we're going to have a short window to give input in on and I think all of us would want to get the what the residents responded to for those targeted questions sooner than later.

We'll get that we'll get that to you, Mayor. Um, we've had to juggle the the presentation around a little bit because of the PBA contract getting understand and then we have a big meeting. But I think when we talked about it before, it isn't so much the presentation because we could get an advanced copy of it, right? That that's more what I was asking for.

Um, because we can we can I mean that's a thick book. We ultimately spend days or certainly hours on it. Um, you know, we all have heard from a member of the public uh a few meetings back and I think we all received an email today and I want to share from my colleagues that may not know and then it's an action item for staff use of dockage in the IMID village if we could even do it is a CRA matter. So you might think that and the person that asked that question we may wear we may be the same people but it's a different hat we wear. So I just wanted to you know share that that it is not the action of a counsel but the action of a CRA. Number one. Number two um we had explored that before and uh the docks were constructed with a grant that had funding restrictions. So I know that those funding restrictions at least for the period that they uh are valid or that we could not use it for anything other than a pure public use. So I just asked that and I always do this town manager and if it turns out to be an unreasonable request fine take another week but I usually say put it in the weekly report because I'm assuming whether something is easy and it may not always be but if you can in this weekly report or not then the next week it's but that's a good vehicle to communicate but my question is on behalf of my colleagues or I should say the CRA members that uh are there funding restrictions that would prevent us to even consider that? And I'm not advocating for it, but

the public was asking. Um the first step is could it even be done? And again, I know from experience, staff had indicated before we got significant funds to build the docks and it was just for public use. So we were not able in the past uh to uh allow it to be used by any business entity. So again so I guess the the real specific question is if there are restrictions do they ever end? I would imagine they do and if so what that date is. Um I'd be remiss if I didn't really emphasize this. I want to say kudos to the very apparent improvements in the bid evaluation, selection of successful bidder and completeness of the agenda package information for all requested contract awards tonight. Others may not have noticed it or you may have, but I certainly did. Uh the finance department and our procurement manager contributions to these improvements were appreciated. I've never seen the standardization before across the departments and I'm saying this as a celebration. I just really wanted to recognize everybody. I know that didn't just happen. There was a conscious effort. Um and um you know we approved in this current budget a new uh position for a procurement manager and that's enabled our finance department to make those kind of things happen. So, thank you. You know, I certainly critique, so I think it's only fair. So, so I'm going to hear me. Geez, Jim always say, "Great." No, no. I've certainly been pretty challenging on that. So, therefore, it's important to uh

emphasize uh when you see a significant change. So, thank you. And then just lastly, I thought I'd just give carefully an update. There was a legislative delegation meeting today considering a single bill um that had not been you know voted upon and so that meeting happened today. Um, I was kind of disappointed in the outcome, but it is what it is. But I thought I'd just share and I I think um that others may have the same information I have, but you know, one never knows and we can't talk outside of Sunshine, but um you know, I think so. I got in the letter on behalf of the town. Everybody got a copy whether you saw it yet or not. and and then I spoke today uh to the delegation. Really, Councelor Sunstrom's been running point on this with her positions in the league. Um and being out of town and whatever, of course, I still would have weighed in. I was uh maybe a bit more involved, but um I really was. So, you know, the way it went down today was uh there was members of the legislative delegation and they were the outcome was they had a vote on whether to include this or not into this into the legislative session. The request that many parties had made was to defer it. Of course, they chose not to. um you know we hear by the sponsor that you know oh it's going to still going to change and whatever but um but the fact was that uh it had gone through four and I'm reading from a summary because between uh uh Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Police Chief Kennedy and uh the League of Cities uh executive director Amelia

which are the first two speakers you know you kind of get it had a summary and uh there was four complete bill iterations to get to the point. Um and we had gotten I'm assuming we all did, but I know I got um the league had put out a summary of where they were after three iterations and um it was really well done. So you could see and and you know Chief Kennedy talked about hey it started off at one paragraph everyone working together in these these iterations and I heard you know the league of cities rep get up and say you know they started out with an opposition and request to defer to the 27 legislation and they said the fourth iteration of the bill was the worst. So league took the position of asking I'd like to think plead you know to wait till the 27 session because this is really a local issue that for some reason some feel it it's appropriate for a state to get stick their nose in um a local issue that's things are best work there but nonetheless um so bottom line it's disappointing to me because although it seems like there's good um dialogue and information provided, the outcome was that what went in the bill, what changed from when the league last saw it to what was voted on was it went from I say as an example that on a annexation that the county could potentially keep get funded continue to get funded for four years, it went to it went to eight that they would get eight years of impact fees after, you know, the new government's, you know, another government has annexed the area and whatever. So, it just, oh my gosh,

it was just I'm really just trying to give an update on it so everybody kind of has a perspective, but uh it's disappointing to me. You know, there's so many times we deal with unfunded mandates and stuff and you would hope on a local issue there'd be a little bit more understanding, right? But this is a local bill just unique to Palm Beach County. Doesn't apply anywhere else. And um there didn't seem to be as much support for municipal concerns. Bottom line, it it really does reflect double taxation and this does affect the town. Mhm.

Uh, you know, my wife and I, we go to mass on Sundays and we go to McDonald's afterwards and I go to McDonald's on Sunday and where do I look? There's a voluntary annexation sign on a piece of property. I hadn't even thought about it. Happens all the time. So, we may not think about annexations happening,

but they do happen all the time. In our case, they're smaller scale, but nonetheless. So this bill as it is moving at this point in time, we keep hearing, oh yeah, it's going to change whatever, but it's only changing for the worst. We could annex an area and then the way it is reads is we'd actually have to pick up and pay county for fire rescue services to tax the property owner wouldn't. So, you know, I wake up this morning and the headlines I'm reading online is legislative session ready to jump in and deal with at taxes. And the first thing out of the box I deal with in the morning is a legislative bill by our own delegation to increase his taxes in municipalities. Gee, that's in the wrong direction. Um, hopefully this is helpful. I really just Yeah, I think we all need to, you know, know what's going on. This is the only time I can weigh in and share.

And normally, like I say, credit to uh councelor Sunscrum because she's been running point. I was really pleased with the representation by the executive director. Never met her. Um but I I think we're being represented very well there. Mayor Ver, it seems like an intentional roadblock to annexation, you know, because now towns will be lary to annex and annexing usually the residents have to all, you know, sign in on it. You know, it's very difficult. We've over the years we've tried to get different parts of the town in you know uninccorporated into the town and here's another roadblock. It's it's it's ridiculous.

But interestingly and I agree but one thing I do want to share from a positive note is uh because in our response I know I was trying to make this point going back to when Commissioner Marcus was uh the commissioner for North County. there was she built a consensus on annexation uh boundaries which means you then could plan and I was pleased quite frankly to hear um and I'm just picking on a few words that I heard but Chief Kennedy talked about 16 stations are in annexation areas. So I assume them I therefore assume at least there is awareness that you know conflicts are going to have to be resolved. Um and they will. I mean that's our job. That's why I think it's a local issue to uh to deal with and agree

and that but I I look at you know uh the fire station um in Burton Reynolds as an example. Um, if that had been an annexation issue, because they talk about a station being built across the street, we made every effort to not have a station across the street. We offered to buy it, rejected.

There's 08 calls a day left. We offered to provide it uh to make those calls at zero cost mutual aid. And they're still um committed. they're going to keep that station open. Well, if you read the language that we saw today, which gives the county eight years of revenue, they could, if this had been an annexation issue, it isn't, but it could have been. If they behave like that and keep a station open for eight years, they'll collect. We'll be paying them for eight years. you know, whoever annexes properties and and wrongly so when there's a more cost-effective solution for everybody.

Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Anyway, um hopefully I didn't take too much time, but I do think this is such an important issue that I wanted to kind of give that download. Um I don't know. Did anybody have any questions? They're pretty clear. I did read your letter and thank you. It was a very well good letter. Excellent. I got some good input from our uh assistant town manager on that too. So, I appreciate that. Uh with that, the time is now 8:28 and we'll adjourn the meeting.

Thank you for entertaining my question. Oh, yeah. No. Hey, you that is everybody's problem to learn, right? Thank you.