Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. The time is now 7 p.m. and all of us on the council are joyful. to be able to call to order this town council meeting of Tuesday, June 2nd. We'll begin with an invocation, followed by a moment of silence and a pledge of allegiance. If all those that are able, please join me in standing.

Let us pray. Almighty God, we gather this evening with gratitude for the privilege of serving this community. Give us wisdom in our decisions, integrity in our actions and compassion for all who call this community home. May we strive always to be faithful stewards of the resources, opportunities and responsibilities entrusted to our care. In all that we do, may grace and peace be with us all. Amen. We will now pause for a moment of silence.

Please join me in the pledge.

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.

May we have a roll call, please?

Mayor Koretsky?

Here.

Vice Mayor Choi? Here. Councilor Delaney?

Here.

Counselor Geisinger.

Here.

Counselor Sundstrom. Here. Town Manager Kitzerow.

Here.

Town Attorney Baird.

Here. Okay, we begin tonight. We have a proclamation for Code and Compliance Officers Appreciation Week. Before I do that, I read this, and I will be presenting it to Chris Isles, the Code Compliance Officer. I thought I would just share... some facts about our code compliance group and I'm gonna start to try to do this for proclamations recognizing some of our departments. We get a monthly report from our town manager about the activities and efforts by the various departments. So I'm just looking at code enforcement. So we named it code compliance many years ago because the real focus is not enforcing but to achieve compliance and they do a great job at that. I think this is a job that, in my view, is kind of a burnout job because you're always handling complaints and people aren't happy and you're limited by what you can do based on what the laws allow you to do. And I think many times the public doesn't understand that. So I just thought it would be worthwhile before I read the proclamation and just share from the latest month's data. 174 cases opened one month. 114 cases completed twice. 167 illegal signs removed. The public hates signs and maybe they don't even know, but this group goes around and picks them up year round. Appreciate that. And then we have this, for those that don't know, we have a piece of software called Jupiter Connect. Our staff, overall staff developed that a few years back. And it's the one-stop place where residents can go and ask a question and it's tracked. It's tracked to make sure that it's followed up to conclusion. So I'm seeing activity for one month, 198 CUPE Connects that this department, this small group handles, nine per calendar day. And then we have a magistrate that handles the more difficult cases that can't be resolved through just getting, encouraging people to comply. I think it's held somewhat monthly, and they'll either uphold, resolve a case, and then in some cases, because it's not about collecting fines for us, it's about getting compliance. So in a few cases, there's a fine abatement, and that's what happens in that process. But I just thought, since we get this every week, I should have done this before, but I just wanted to share it to create understanding on why the council is choosing to present this proclamation. So I'd ask Chris to come up to the podium and I will be presenting it. I'm gonna just read it into the record here. Proclaiming the week of June 1st through 5th, 2026 as Code Compliance Officers Appreciation Week. Whereas Code Compliance Officers provide for the safety, health, and welfare of the citizens of this community through the enforcement of building, zoning, housing, fire safety, environmental, and other codes and ordinances. And whereas code compliance officers are often not credited for the jobs they do, in saving lives and improving neighborhoods. And whereas every day, assisted by support and program staff, they attempt to provide quality customer service to the public for the betterment of the community. And whereas too many times their efforts go unnoticed, even after code compliance has been accomplished due to their efforts and expertise. And whereas code compliance officers are dedicated, well-trained, and highly responsible individuals who take their jobs seriously and are proud of their department and the local government within which they serve. And whereas the Florida Association of Code Enforcement, FACE, has declared the first week of June to be set aside by local government to honor and recognize your code compliance officers. Now, therefore, our Jim Koretsky, Mayor of the Town of Jupiter, do hereby issue this proclamation on behalf of the Town of Jupiter Council and do proclaim the week of June 1st through 5th, 2026 as Code Compliance Officers Appreciation Week in Jupiter, Florida, in accordance with the statewide observance of the same and encourage citizens of Jupiter to join this council in expressing appreciation for the dedication and outstanding service provided by the individuals We serve as our code compliance officers. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal the second day of June, 2026.

Thank you, Mayor. Chris Ailes, Co-Compliance Supervisor for the Town of Jupiter. This would not be possible without the staff that works alongside me. They don't work for me. They don't work with me. They work alongside me. They are dedicated every day to coming here and doing the utmost for this community. It's kind of crazy to think not a single one of these staff members actually lives in Jupiter. But they love Jupiter. They come from as far south as Miami Gardens and as far north as Fort Pierce, as far west as Loxahatchee, to come and serve the citizens here. And I don't know of a better code enforcement team anywhere in the county. I'm proud of them. I'm proud of the work they do. We are appreciative of the support that the council, the town manager, and every other department within the agency provides us. So thank you.

Okay, next we have a presentation. And this first one will be from the Palm Beach County Library System. And I believe it's coming from Doug Crane, Director of the Palm Beach County Library System. Welcome.

Welcome. Thank you all. Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Town Councilors. My name is Doug Crane. I'm the Director of the Palm Beach County Library System. With me today is Mark Freed, who's the Assistant Manager over at the Jupiter Branch. And I'm proud to say we are both Long-term residents of the town of Jupiter, I'm very happy to be living in this wonderful town. Tonight, I want to give you an update. Oops, it looks like my presentation is already moving ahead of itself here.

I don't know why that is.

Let's go back to the start here quick. I want to highlight the library system because this is your library system. Even though it's the Palm Beach County Library System, I'm going to be highlighting. I don't know why the presentation is deciding to act on its own. I'll do it this way. How about that? All right. I know for many people, when you think about libraries, you might have an outdated view of what libraries are. And maybe a place you think, you can get a few books to read on the weekend, and that's all. But I'm here to let you know that your libraries are much loved, especially by your town residents, but all of our residents who use the county library system. For we see libraries as a place where people bring their hopes, their dreams, their ambitions, and we supply them with the services, the resources, and the support to allow that to happen. Our vision is to open minds to a world of unlimited possibilities, and we have a mission to connect communities, inspire thought, and enrich lives. Now, I've been traveling around to the different municipalities in my library system, but tonight I'm going to breeze through these slides very quickly because I have some important updates to share with you regarding the future of the library system. But I do want to set the stage, though. Our library system is one of the big six public library systems in the state of Florida. And there are a number of statistics there. I'll just highlight the first few. We had 2.68 million visitors to Palm Beach County Libraries in 2005, fiscal year. And 8.8 million items borrowed. And 353,000 people using a library meeting room or study room. And if you have ever gone by your local library across the street after school is let out, you will not be able to find a place to sit. And on the weekends, it's pretty much the same. It is one of our busiest locations. And it is one of 18 locations. Our furthest north is your little sister city here in Tequesta, all the way through the center part of the county down to western Boca, and then out through the western communities, all the way to the shores of Lake Okeechobee, where we have three library locations. A lot of this was made possible through a voter-approved bond issue in 2002 that allowed us to do library expansion program, too. We also have a support facility called the Annex on Cherry Road. It's currently hidden behind the big Supervisor of Elections parking garage if you go to that site. And we are very excited that we opened our 18th location in the Canyon Town Center. That's in western Boynton. You take the turnpike south to Boynton Beach Boulevard, go a mile west. There's a brand new library there and a brand new county park in that area as well. And you can see from the map here, all of our library locations. Your card is good at any of those locations. If you happen to travel around, you can get material from any location and return it to any location. Now the library system was actually established through state statute in 1967 to serve all of the unincorporated areas of Palm Beach County and any municipality that wanted to be a part of it. Today we have 24 municipalities, of which Jupiter is one of them. Our millage rate has been steady since 2011. and we act as a tiny version of the county's general fund in that all the money raised on the library fund stays in the library, and we have to use it for capital projects, for reserves, balance brought forward, and all those fun things as well. We do get some grants from the state, and we do get some private donations as well to support us. We also work in cooperation with nine municipalities that have their own library to form a cooperative where residents of those municipalities can get a card and come to us, and our residents get a card with them. Your closest ones would be North Palm Beach and Lake Park. Of course, when you think of library, you do think of books. We have over 2 million items in our collection, both physical and a growing collection of electronic material that you can download onto your computer or smart device. We also have special items such as Wi-Fi hotspots, converting backpacks, citizenship kits, and if you've been staying away from libraries because you had an overdue fine and you were just a little shy to pay it, Don't worry, the Board of County Commissioners approved us to stop charging fines in 2019, and we have since waived all fine charges. The only thing that would bar you from borrowing a material is if you damage or lose material and you don't pay for it. We also answer questions for the public. We had 941,000 questions answered in FY25, and you might be wondering why anyone would ask us a question anymore when we have AI out there for free. I'll tell you this, though. My library staff do not hallucinate and give you the wrong answer. We provide factual information from paid databases that we subscribe to that have accurate data. And we also have specialist librarians. One I'll highlight today is our community research librarian. This one will do research projects for any municipality, government entity, or nonprofit community group out there. So if the town ever has a research need, feel free to reach out to us, and we'll do our best to provide you with the most accurate answers. As a former children's librarian, I believe children's services are the heart and soul of public libraries. And we, you can see by the numbers on the slide, that we serve children of all ages, from toddlers and newborns all the way up to teenagers. In fact, one of my favorite is an activity pictured here called ARC, Animal Reading Friends, where children who are learning to read but a little shy to read to a person, we bring in a lovely therapy dog, and they enjoy reading to the therapy dog. It's a lovely occasion. Definitely very cute to see. But we also reach out from beyond our walls. We have a bookmobile that we put on the road back last October that makes up to 42 stops across Palm Beach County to any area that's over three miles away from a library location or has a special population such as an assisted living facility where the residents cannot get out to a traditional branch. And for those who are homebound, we have a books-by-mail program that will mail the books directly to the residents' homes. For those who are blind, our Talking Books for the Blind program has free material sent to them with an electronic reader. And since we're champions of literacy, we also have an adult literacy project to teach adults how to read up to a level where they can fill out job applications, read the newspaper, and do all those things that are important in our society. I mentioned literacy. We are a founding member of the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County, and we work with them. We also work with the school districts. Right now, we have started our summer lunch program. Any child, 18 or younger, can come into a Palm Beach County library system for the entire summer from 1130 to 1230 and get a free lunch. And this is to help with food insecurity through the summer months when many children's only reliable source of lunch is their school. And throughout the year, we offer free weekend meal kits. Families can come in, get a bag of food that will support them through a weekend. We also work with different cultural organizations such as the Northern Art Gallery, and our libraries are early voting sites. Twelve of my locations are. The Jupiter Branch is just not efficient to be an early voting site. I know they use your community center. Excuse me. But the closest library location that's an early voting center is Palm Beach Gardens. And finally, we are a cultural hub of our community. offering activities for adults from anything from book discussions through concerts, through dance, through crafting programs. We're also one of the largest technology training organizations in Palm Beach County. We provide classes from just using a mouse all the way up through office products and even more advanced audio and visual editing software. We even held classes on how to use your smartphone. Our Writer's Live program brings national known authors down here to speak to our residents, and we celebrate the different cultures in our community through things like Hispanic Heritage Month, Haitian Heritage Month, Black History Month, and more. And this year, we are proud that the Board of County Commissioners declared 2026 as the year to rediscover reading. Reading for pleasure has declined in the United States quite precipitously over the last 20 years with the rise of all this smart technology that seems to just be making us dumber out there. So we invite everyone to rediscover the joys of just reading for pleasure, because reading for pleasure has verified and measurable health benefits, whether it's lowering your stress, increasing your empathy, making social connections through sharing what you read, and more. And we have a free tool called Beanstack that allows you to track your reading, and you can challenge other people to read more. So if the town council wanted to jump on, you could challenge each other for readings. Now, your closest location is the Jupiter Branch Library, of course, right across the street. We're open seven days a week. We have public Wi-Fi. We have free space for the public to reserve. That's meeting room space. You can go online to our website at pbclibrary.org, and you can check to see space available. You can put in your request, and Mark and his team will go ahead and just verify that you have a library card or you live in the taxing district, and you can get a room for the day. We also have study rooms available on a first-come, first-served service. Your two closest other county locations is Gardens Branch, down by the mall, and the courthouse, and the Cuesta Branch, close to the county lawn. Now, our branch manager, Henrik Larsen, could not be here today, but I know he has spoken to the town, and we have a long history of working with the town, collaborating on different activities, sharing publicity from the town, and the town, in turn, sharing the library's information. So, I really... value, not only as a resident but as a library director, the partnership that we've had with the town long term. So I do want to thank you for that. Now I promised to have two specific updates I want to give you on the library's future. The first is regarding our budget and capital program. I mentioned that we have a library expansion program that was initiated by the voters back in 2002. That voter expansion program completed in 2015. Since then we've been using ad valorem revenue directed into capital to pay for construction and renovation of library locations. However, all of our locations are in need of some touching up, some renovations, some more than others, and we are also looking at some new construction projects. Therefore, back in February, I made a presentation to the Board of County Commissioners at their budget retreat, where I asked for direction on three items. The first was their approval to do a complete renovation of all of our branches over the next 15 to 20 years. And that would include the Jupiter Branch Library. They gave me direction to continue on that path. The second was to construct a new main library. Our current main library is located on Summit Boulevard in suburban West Palm Beach, just south of the airport. It is our oldest building, first opened in 1972, and it has really passed its useful life. It is also the smallest main library out of the big six counties in Florida by quite a lot. The board has directed me to begin concept work on a new main library that would be three times the size of the current building, making it 150,000 square feet, located on the Summit Boulevard property. So I'm starting to get some work on that. But the third piece, in order to pay for all of this, the board directed myself as the library director to come back to them with a proposal to go in front of the voters to ask for their approval to get construction bonds to initiate a library expansion program three. These bonds would pay for New Main Library plus most of our renovations, which would include the Jupiter branch. That item will be coming to the Board of County Commissioners next week at their June 9th meeting. And it would be an item that if the Board approved it, will go to the voters on the November ballot to ask for their permission for the county to issue bonds to be able to pay for a construction program. Also on that agenda will be another bond request from the County Parks Department for also construction bonds as well. They are in much greater need than I am for construction work because they cover the entire county and have a much larger facilities and property footprint. Now I would hope to have just ended it there, but as you probably were all paying attention to Tallahassee this week, of course the legislature passed a proposed constitutional amendment that would affect property taxes. And I'm sure the board is going to get, your town council will be getting a detailed update, if not today, probably very soon. The effect of that with a $250,000 proposed homestead exemption, I wanted to share quickly what the effect would be on the library district. We would lose one-third of our budget at that level. which would effectively end any ability for us to put away money from our ad valorem revenues into capital projects and would definitely affect our service levels. This could include the collections that we purchase, the hours of operation and the days of operation that we have, and it may even result, of course, in a reduction of our staffing, depending on how serious the effect is. We've got some preliminary numbers from our budget office and the property appraiser. But as you're all aware, this is definitely a fast-moving target out there. We're not sure exactly what will happen with this and whether the voters of Florida will approve it. But it does add a wrinkle, and I know our Board of County Commissioners will be discussing this at their June 9th meeting when they discuss the potential bond issue. And also that afternoon will be part of their budget workshop, which was already scheduled for that day. So with that, I do want to just, and maybe on a more positive note, again, to thank the town council for your longstanding support of our library system. We cannot be a public library without the support of the public. And with that, I will close my presentation, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Any questions? Seeing none, I would like to just quickly share with you some information. If you didn't know, the town of Jupiter has benchmarked our residents Ten times over the last 20 years. We do that every two years. And we use that very much. I can tell you that I and others on the council, as well as staff, when we get that, we pour through it, I'm sure, for more than a day to understand. So when I saw you on the agenda, I already knew some feedback I wanted to share. Okay. We use a national benchmark company and at least it's my view that local governments, which in some cases are counties, in some cases are municipalities that choose to benchmark nationally to see how they stand tend to be the better communities because they're investing in learning where they can get better. Um, but so we have every time, every time we've had a question about our public library services, And so in December, when we did the survey, I'm just sharing those results. So the percent positive, and this is Jupiter, which means it's gotta be the Jupiter branch, right? Percent positive was 88%. It's gonna get better as I share what I'm gonna share here. Not that it isn't all good. Nationally ranked 101 out of 345 benchmark communities nationally. percentile 70%. Now turning to state, there's 26 benchmark communities in the state of Florida. And our residents believe that our public library services ranked it third in the state with a percentile rank of 92%. So I just thought if you, had you ever heard those numbers?

I'm not familiar with the studies you're quoting. I would love to, if the town can share the results with me, I'd love to take a look.

Yeah, well, that's why I wanted to take the opportunity tonight. You know, we get these surveys, and I always have good intentions of sharing, and then time moves on. But since you're on the agenda, again, our residents have ranked... I say it's got to be the Jupiter Library branch because that's where they would be going by and large. Ranked third in the state out of 26 communities, percentile 92%. So on behalf of our residents, not just us, thank you.

Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

And now we have an update by, should I say the man of the hour here?

Okay. Sean, what have you done here? Let's see if I can figure it out. Thank God for Sean. Mayor council members, those attending here in person, And those watching from home, thank you so much for allowing me the honor to serve here at Jupiter Fire Rescue. Tonight's update is going to focus on our operational personnel, our apparatus, our fire stations, and our fire code adoption. But let me first start with this, that we are here tonight because of the hard work and dedication of the entire team here in the town of Jupiter. from the financial and legal frameworks built by finance in the clerk's office to the physical infrastructure driven by planning, engineering, building, and parks, the public safety partnerships that we have with our police department, our relationship and cooperation with our utilities department, right down to the people and technology supported by HRIS and community relations. This has been a master class in municipal teamwork. The entire team here at the town of Jupiter truly went above and beyond to get us to this historic moment tonight. Uniformed personnel, please stand. I am incredibly honored to present to you tonight the Jupiter Fire Rescue Department. We have with us our 91 operational personnel, as well as our command staff. So when I started here in January of 2024, town manager Kitzero said to me something that I have carried with me my entire time. He said, our firefighters are coming. We don't know their names yet, but we know they will be here. Well, tonight, they are here. We know their names, we know their faces, and we know that they are going to forge a legacy of exceptional service that will make this community proud for decades to come. These men and women are our founding members. They are the ones who will shape and deliver the highest standard of fire and emergency medical services for this town. They come to us from different backgrounds, different departments, bringing with them a tremendous wealth of knowledge and skill. But truly, what unites them is a shared, unwavering dedication to serve. The next four months of training will be very intentional. They will train together as teams developing a unified operational culture that will demonstrate what it means to serve the Jupiter way. I could not be more proud of the team that is standing right before you tonight. The vision that we talked about two years ago is now standing right in front of us. And when that bell rings on October 1st, we will be ready. You can all be seated. So it's hard to follow that up, right? But we're going to talk a little bit about apparatus and stations. In terms of our apparatus, I'm pleased to report that we've received our battalion chief vehicles and our first three fire engines all here in Jupiter. We're tracking the delivery of our remaining apparatus very closely. So our frontline ambulances, all expected to arrive before the end of this month. and our ladder truck is scheduled for delivery in July. This timeline ensures our personnel will have ample time to train on the specific equipment that they will be operating in on in the field, and we remain on schedule. In terms of our stations, our Pyatt and our Cinquez fire stations, significant milestones have been reached. We've received both the stocking permit, we've Loaded the furnishings and essential equipment. We have our temporary certificate of occupancy and we are fully prepared for our personnel to occupy the stations in just four days on June 6th. Regarding our temporary fire station in the Abacoa Community Park, the physical structure is staged and we're simply waiting on some final sewer and water line connections. so that can become fully operational. We did delay some of the work at that station until after the end of the school year to minimize any impacts from underground construction. And tonight, you'll be discussing Ordinance 1126, which amends chapter 10 of our town code. So this is a critical step that formally adopts the Florida Fire Prevention Code and the Uniform Fire Safety Standards of Florida. By adopting this ordinance, the council provides our fire marshal, Drew, where is Drew? The energy bunny. It provides our fire marshal with the necessary legal authority to enforce the statewide fire code. This guarantees that we maintain strict continuity in our fire prevention services and we remain perfectly aligned with state standards. Ultimately, this framework must be in place so that on October 1st, All fire protection plan review and life safety inspections within the town will seamlessly transition to our department.

And so I'll end it here.

We are here. We have our new fire stations completed. Our fire engines have been delivered. Our ambulances and ladder trucks are on the way and will be here shortly. And all of our firefighters are on board. These are incredibly exciting times. Very soon, Jupiter Fire Rescue will begin providing full fire and emergency medical services to the community. Not just Jupiter Fire Rescue, but all who serve here in the town of Jupiter are successfully delivering this financially responsible solution on budget and on schedule. And we look forward to serving and earning the trust of the community.

Ask my colleagues if you have any comments you want to make. If not, I'll go. So again, I want to just echo about being honored. We on the council and all of us, our town manager, we could not be more honored and joyful by your becoming part of our family, Town of Jupiter family. Welcome.

You're now here, so I'm gonna just pivot after having said that.

And I had spoken to our town manager about this as we were preparing for yesterday's event. Now, we're going to be putting emphasis on the fact that we are now blessed as a unified public safety team of police and firefighters. And with that, a few things. Number one, just to kind of get to know me. First of all, outside of this chambers, I go by Jim, so please feel welcome. And I encourage that. But the other thing is I do, some may say tease is one way to put it, but the benchmark for excellence in this town has long been set by our police department. But now we're unified, and I'm expecting no less from a fire rescue. So if you want to take that as a challenge, yes, it was somewhat intended for that. And then just another little fun aspect, because you get quite a perspective, all of us sitting up on the dais. Our police department leadership has a tendency forever to Police don't normally sit down. They're standing along the back. And what I notice here tonight is the leadership of Palm Beach County for Jupiter Fire Rescue Department is standing as well. Now, they do that. We always ask, please sit down. But I can already see that teamwork spreading by who I'm seeing standing up in the back of the room. But if there are seats to be had, we really welcome you to be in those seats. So thank you very much.

I just have a couple of questions, just because if the residents are listening, how many engines will we have and how many ambulances will we have when we're?

So there'll be three fire engines that are in service at all times, and we have a fourth backup reserve engine. We also have a ladder truck, and we have three ambulances in service at all times, and we have a backup ambulance as well.

Okay. And how many of our staff out here are going to be the paramedics?

So let me see if I'll get this right. Steve will fix it if I'm wrong. There are 33 firefighter paramedics, all 36 of our frontline leadership, our lieutenants, drivers, and captains are paramedics, supervisors. There are 33 paramedics who are Firefighter paramedics and then another 22. Firefighter EMTs OK thank you.

I get that right.

He's got to be on your right now chief I just want to say congratulations we are thrilled for tonight I've been waiting for this for a very long time and I know you have to. I remember when you first came on board. We've been at this for a long time now. And one of my favorite sayings of yours is, we'll figure it out. And we all just, I have such fond memories of this whole process. It was hard, but just getting to know you better, work with you better. I think I have a few emails from 1 a.m. I think I have some frantic text messages and calls to understand the issue better before speaking today. So I just want to thank you for always being there for us. It has been very easy to make the decisions that we have made. Our mayor was talking about that at the event. You know, sometimes we take for granted how prepared our staff are, how easy they make it for us. When I spoke and made the decisions I've made all through these past couple of years, it's been with complete confidence because I know that our staff across the board could get it done. and that includes you, and I'm just so grateful, and congratulations. This is really your night. You really are the man of the hour, so thank you.

Thank you. I can't talk now.

You want to go? It's been great just taking in the last couple of days. The ceremony yesterday was remarkable, and it just really hit home then. Everybody's here, the swearing in. How many people were there? How many hundreds of people attended?

A lot of tourists.

The auditorium held 600 people. It was just remarkable.

It was some standing, did you notice?

Not counting our firefighters who were on the stage.

And the overflow room.

I told you yesterday, I intentionally... Left you alone. I didn't want to distract you. But it's been wonderful watching the town staff, the new fire staff, the leadership team get everything done. And now to see all this here. Now it's going to be fun to watch these folks come in and you guys just take over and run with it. So just, you know, you're the man of the hour. Congratulations. And boy, almost three years went by quickly, didn't it? This is remarkable. So anyway, thank you all for choosing Jupiter. We appreciate it.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Now we have a presentation on Hometown Heroes.

Thank you, Mayor. For the record, Shawn Reed, Director of Community Relations. Happy to be with you tonight as we honor our first Jupiter Hometown Hero. Just to give a little background on this program, just a little reminder about it. This program is to recognize a resident or a business or a volunteer or someone who works in the town of Jupiter that does a significant, provides a significant impact to the community, whether it be through their service, their kindness, promoting safety or stewardship of the community. Again, I've already talked about who it's through. I'd like to point out that this is a program that came about because of a request from Town Council. So staff back in November, Town Council requested it, staff put it together, and we're here tonight to honor our first honoree. Just a little bit about the selection process on it. Nominations come in through an online form. A committee of town staff reviews the various nominations that come in. That committee, as you can see online, is myself, our town clerk. We have a representative from the Jupiter Police Department, a representative from the Fire Department, and then a representative from Parks and Rec. And we do have a scoring matrix that each individual is scored on, and then that committee talks about the different nominees, and we pick someone. It doesn't have to be just one person that is selected each time, and nominations can come in at any time, and so we do invite people to submit nominations. We'll look at them as soon as they come in. First time around, we did have several nominees, and happy tonight to introduce our first selection for this program. It's apropos that he's being honored tonight with our firefighters here because he's an ER doc over at Jupiter Medical Center. So someone that will, as our firefighters are transporting to the hospital, someone that will be there to answer the call when they come through the doors. With that being said, I'd like to introduce Dr. Jonathan Verkler. bit about Dr. Verkler. As I mentioned, he is an ER doctor over at JMC. He also mentors high school and college students. He serves as a speaker for the Medical Academy at Jupiter High. He also volunteers with the Spirit of Jupiter Marching Band. So pretty busy there with just all of that, as you can imagine. However, in the little bit of free time he has left, He chooses to volunteer at his church teaching preschool. So all great things that our committee felt was very worthy of this honor. I've learned tonight probably the most important thing. We're alums of the same university. He went to the prestigious medical, graduated from prestigious medical school at Wake Forest. I was way before him in the undergrad, so go Deacs. So with that being said, we do have a couple things that we will present to Dr. Berksley. Can I have the town council come down for a picture also? We have this picture of the lighthouse, obviously the lighthouse being the main symbol of the town of Jupiter, so we want to present this. And we have a certificate signed by town council that reads, Jupiter's Hometown Heroes, and This certificate is awarded to Dr. Jonathan Berkler in recognition of your meaningful contributions and exemplary service to the Jupiter community. Thank you for helping our hometown shine brighter. We'd like to get Dr. Verkler's family come up. I'd also like to mention that Dr. Verkler will be featured on the town website tomorrow with a little write-up, and we'll be featuring on our town social media.

One with just his family and then one with council and the family.

and then we're going to get one more with counsel with the family. I'm not sure if Dr. Verkler knows this, but it was his wife who nominated him for the award. Thank you.

I just wanted to say a couple words of thanks. Um, first I would like to thank the town of Jupiter and the town council. I can't imagine a better place to live, to work or to raise a family. I thank the town council for their leadership and for making this such an incredible town. Um, I'd like to thank my wife and my family for supporting me, giving me the motivation to do everything that I do. I'd like to thank my parents who have set an example for service their entire lives. And mostly I would like to thank the staff at Jupiter medical center, We have a team of doctors, nurses, techs, and secretaries that is unmatched, and there are many at Jupiter Medical Center who should rightfully be called heroes. The work that we do is important. The lives that you touch are immeasurable, and I can't wait to work with you guys.

So with that, before we move on to public citizen comments, I always do this. I'll give those wishing to leave, please feel welcome to. Don't feel compelled to sit here. So I'll wait a few minutes as people file out.

Okay.

they're looking to see if they all leave

Yeah, I love that as part of the ceremony.

You can take it out if you want.

I don't know. Yeah.

. . .

I know, after they leave. Thank you.

So I'd like to ask a special favor from Police Chief Hennessy, because I happen to throw out there about Dementia Mark for Excellence, and now some people never sit down again. Could you please sit down, and I'd ask, along with our fire leadership team, if you're staying, but if you're going, fine. Thank you. Okay, this is a time for citizens comments. We have any citizen comments?

Yes, sir. We have five speakers.

Okay.

Our first speaker is Douglas Crane, followed by Elizabeth Deshiel.

Well, good evening again, Town Council. I'm coming to speak to you not as my library director, I've taken that hat off, but as a 20-year citizen of the town of Jupiter. For the record, my name is Douglas Crane. I reside at 2612 West Community Drive. in Martinique and Abacoa. I'm an original homeowner in that community. As Abacoa has grown, there's been more traffic on Indian Creek Parkway. You know, it is a very busy east-west road here in the town of Jupiter. It is a county-owned road, and my concern is a public safety one in that it is unlit, with the exception of the roundabout at the top central. And I can hear from my home, certainly, especially on weekend nights, Sounds like very loud cars going by. It is a very, when you have to drive it at night, it's very dark and I fear that it's probably a space where we can have a lot of accidents, whether it's cars or pedestrians or now all these electronic motorbikes. And I did a little research. I talked to the county engineer and they indicated that the Indian Creek Parkway is a county-owned road, but their policy is that when they have a county-owned road in a municipality, that they do not provide lighting. So my request to the council tonight is if you could have your town engineer speak to the county engineer to see if we can facilitate lighting on Indian Creek Parkway as traffic builds on there. I think it does justify better lighting there in the evenings. And so I want to thank you for consideration of that. And as just one brief follow-up, I do have packages of library information that I know they'll be sharing with you all. But thank you for considering the request to put lighting on Indian Creek Parkway, and I'd look forward to hearing if there's a possibility of doing that. Thank you.

And we don't normally talk about these items, but to the degree, I appreciate your bringing the matter to our attention. And to the degree that I know the county engineer and I didn't know what the rule was, I will also commit to follow up to learn myself and then plead. Can they? So I don't want to just leave the burden on staff alone, but thank you.

Okay. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate you looking into it.

Elizabeth Deschew.

Good evening, everyone. It was an exciting night for me to be here. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Elizabeth Ashfield. I'm a lifelong resident here, 51 Jacob Crest Circle, off of Notre Dame Trail. And for those of you who don't know me, I am, among many other things, the managing director Beach Shakespeare Festival. And I'm pretty sure you should be familiar with that. We are the longest running of its kind in the entire state of Florida. We have welcomed hundreds of thousands of residents and visitors to our annual Shakespeare by the Sea. It's the free outdoor production every July. We've held it here in Carlin Park Jupiter since 1990. This year, we have a world premiere production of William Shakespeare's Falstaff. It'll be pieced together with Shakespeare's actual text. It isn't like we're making something up. So we're staying true to our history and our mission. And I wanted to start tonight by thanking the town. This is our home. It has been our home. We are blessed to call it home. And I personally want to thank you and everyone in the community for your many years of support, whether it's just by sharing the word or through charitable donation or like last year with our massively successful Town of Jupiter Centennial Night, which was a sponsorship And I know I have sent personal letters to each of you. There might have been some confusion. Yes, I'm very aware of the charitable donation program, but as we are not included in it this year, I just wanted to extend the offer to join us in any way possible as our partner for this year's world premiere, Shakespeare by the Sea. We're blessed to be here, but the town has been blessed by having us. I know because for many years it was there. Most people's first visit to Jupiter was to come for the festival and anything we can do. And I'm speaking as, uh, this is my hometown and a resident to have these kinds of events that really focus on the year round residents that bring the community together in a way that is not digitally inspired. Although it's for the community, we are not community. It costs a lot for us to put this on, but we present it free of charge to all. So thank you for any and all consideration. And a personal invitation to each of you. I would like to say thank you and welcome from the stage. Please come out this summer. Thank you. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Carol Watson, followed by Craig Mowry.

Good evening. Carol Watson, 6,500 Chasewood drive. Well, I'm sorry that Mr. Crane left because I'm a lifelong library person. When I was a kid, the librarian told my mom that I read every book that was in the elementary section of the library in East Liverpool, Ohio. We had to go over to Ohio. I'm from West Virginia. because we didn't have anything on West Virginia. We had to go across the river. Anyways, I just wanted to say first of all about the Memorial day service. I've gone to, as you know, quite a few of these services. I haven't made them all, but that Memorial day service was the best that I have ever attended. And I was practically sobbing when, when the speaker finished. And that everything about it was just perfect. Next, I would like to talk about when I moved here in February of 2000, the community center, I don't know, can't remember how old it is now, but I thought, wow, this is a nice community center that they have here. And I thought, wow, this is a terrible town hall that they have. And the police department was terrible. But then finally, after many, many years, we got a new police department. And I'm like, wow, that building is really nice. And I couldn't wait for the town hall and the town hall came and I'm like, wow, that building is really nice. And look at this, what we have now. And do you remember what we used to have? I mean, it's like totally opposite on the spectrum. And then we got the veterans Memorial. And of course that speaks to my heart. And the Veterans Memorial, I just love it. It's just exquisitely done. And now, now we have a fire department. And I remember that August 15th day, I was at my house, sitting in my dining room table, watching it online. And when you guys took the courageous, brave, knowing what the firestorm was going to be, knowing what the backlash was probably going to happen. And you made that decision. And I jumped out of my seat and I was like jumping up and down because I'm like, I can't believe that you actually did it. And I'm so happy that, that you made that decision and you stuck by it and you It was a tough go for a while, as you know, as we all know. I sat in the old place when everything was, you know, a firestorm. But it happened, and it's the best thing that's ever happened. Yes, we got a new police station. Yes, we have a new town hall. But nothing compares to the fire station. Thanks for being courageous.

Our next speaker is Craig Mowery, followed by Eric Whiteson.

Wow, I got to follow Carol. Ditto, Carol. Well said. Thank you. I agree. Craig Mowery, 230 Blancados Lane here in Jupiter. I do want to make one small correction to what I heard a little bit ago. Yesterday morning was beyond standing room only. I know that because Jane and I were the last ones through the door, and we were standing. And it was packed. All of the seats were taken, and every place you could stand, at least up in the balcony, was taken. We were, I'm going to say, probably 700 people in there, maybe more. You know I'm a proponent of JFRD. I have been. I don't think that's any surprise. That ceremony yesterday, that swearing in ceremony, was a feather in the cap, I think, of the town staff. I really want to give kudos to all the staff who put that together. Really, really well done. Now the hard stuff. I'm also a proponent of a non ad valorem assessment. I think it's more, the way it's structured, what's been presented as council, I think it's more equitable than the same fee for every residence like some of the other municipalities have done. It makes no sense at all to me that you would charge a 400 square foot small condo the same as you would charge a 43,000 square foot residence. Sorry, Michael Jordan, but that's the way I feel. It does provide an alternate funding mechanism if something goes badly astray with the property tax, and I think it still could. I think it's also easy to overlook the fact that the authority to base a non-ad valorem assessment on size is new. We've heard comparisons with other municipalities in Palm Beach County, all of whom charge the same for every residence. It's because they weren't allowed to vary up until a couple of years ago. That's a new authority. No, it's not perfect, but I have been 77 years. I have yet to see a single piece of legislation that was perfect. Doesn't happen. Everybody writes them. I'm still a proponent of it. That said, the letter that came out to all of the residents of Jupiter has had some probably unintended consequences. It's a little misleading. it says on the letter the town is considering a special test assessment to fund jfrd somebody forgot to put the word partly in there if you if you decipher the little chart below it yeah that comes up with that and if you bury if you dig through the letter and find it you can find the pieces it's there but there is a new firestorm out on social media for people who misunderstanding this completely i

will stop there but i think we really really need to take some damage control our last speaker is eric white eric white said two thirty ocean grand boulevard and jupiter there karetzky you have a way of clearing at the house i came here to speak to the firemen I came to Jupiter nine years ago. I had a friend here. I didn't know anything about Jupiter. I'm here nine years and I love the place. But yesterday was the icing on the cake. I really found it fascinating. I got there, I thought, in time. The place was packed. I know. I was standing out in the hallway. But I really enjoyed it and I felt so proud of what has been done. And I went around yesterday and I talked to a bunch of the firemen that came from other towns and that was really great to see from all over Florida, Tallahassee and whatnot. So I wanted to wish these guys, I couldn't speak yesterday, I wasn't invited to speak. And I didn't expect them to be here, but what a great opportunity. And to thank the town council and all the staff and Chief Donato who really worked hard on this. And I'm just proud to be living here. And I want to thank you very much. And if the guys were still here, I would just tell them I'm more than likely to be rescued than seeing them in the fire. I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Okay, thank you. Was that correct?

Yes, sir.

Okay, Council, moving on to the minutes for the May 19th special meeting and the May 19th regular meeting. I don't see any corrections on the dais. If there are none, I take a motion and a second to approve both sets of minutes.

So moved. Second. Second.

Motion to second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries unanimously. Moving on to the consent agenda. Is there any member of the public that wish to pull a consent agenda item?

No, sir.

Seeing none, any member of the dais wish to pull a consent agenda item? Seeing none, I'll take a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda.

I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Second. Motion a second. All in favor signify by saying, oh, I'm sorry, I'd ask Mr. Baird to read Ordinance 1126 on first reading. Well, actually, there's three ordinances.

I'll do them in order.

Ordinance 1126, an ordinance of the Town Council of the Town of Jupiter, Florida, amending Chapter 10 of the Jupiter Code of Ordinances. renaming it Fire Prevention, Protection, and Community Risk Reduction Division, providing for amendments to Article 1 to create new regulations in Section 10 through 10 and designating a town fire marshal as the authority having jurisdiction, providing for the amendment of Article 2, Section 10 entitled Fire Prevention Code, and creating Section 10 pertaining to uniform safety standards and Section 10 regarding access to gated subdivisions or planned unit developments, providing for the repeal of ordinances in conflict, providing for severability, providing for codification, providing for an effective date. Ordinance 2526, an ordinance of the Town Council of the Town of Jupiter, Florida, amending Subpart A, administrative regulations, Chapter 11, entitled Miscellaneous Offenses of the Town Code. CREATING SECTION 11-7 UNDER ARTICLE ONE GOVERNING TRESPASSING ON PUBLIC PROPERTY. ESTABLISHING A PROCESS FOR ISSUANCE OF TRESPASS WARNINGS ON PUBLIC PROPERTY. ESTABLISHING AN APPEALS PROCESS, PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY, PROVIDING FOR THE APPEAL OF ORDINANCES IN CONFLICT, PROVIDING FOR CODIFICATION, AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. ORDINANCE NUMBER 2826, AN ORDINANCE OF THE TOWN COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF JUPITER AMENDING Chapter 8, Section 838, governing the special magistrate's jurisdiction, providing for severability, providing for the repeal of ordinances in conflict, providing for codification, and providing for an effective date.

We had a motion and a second on the consent agenda. All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye. Motion carries unanimously.

Moving on to the regular agenda, public hearing resolution 1126. This item is quasi judicial. Does any member of the council have an expert a disclosure?

I met with the applicant to go over the basic project details. I met with staff and I drove by the site.

And I have none to disclose.

I met with the applicant, met with staff, and also drove by the site. Actually visited the site, not drove by it, so.

Okay.

I met with George Missimer just as in the meeting, and I've driven by the site.

Okay. Okay, I'd ask for those that will potentially give an expert testimony to stand up and be sworn in.

Please raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you're about to give in this hearing is the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Okay, I'd ask the applicant to go ahead and present its application.

All right. Good evening for the record. George Missomer with a Kotlin hearing here tonight on behalf of the property owner and the applicant. What a wonderful meeting this has been. I don't think I've ever been to a council meeting or any public hearing this, but with this much positivity and it's really wonderful to see, I could see the pride in all of your faces. And so my hands are maybe a little sore from all the clapping. It's been wonderful, but I'll try to speed through this. Um, I know there's been a lot of information about the site. We've been going at this for almost five years now. So it's been a long process for us, and it's really a wonderful project, and we're very proud of everything that we've been able to put together. To start, our project team, our owner and applicant, Albers Land Company LLC, Nate Albers and his team, they have a wonderful company headquartered here in Jupiter. This is proposed to be their office location. Our land planners and landscape architects, Don Hearing and myself, George Missimer with Kotler and Hearing, our civil and traffic engineer, Johnny Irvani, another local engineering firm, and our architect, Burse Thomas, Alan Burse and Joe Thomas, a couple of wonderful architects that we get to work with. We're here tonight requesting site plan approval for an infill redevelopment project designed to be resilient, sustainable, and compatible with the town. The project aligns with Jupiter's comp plan and meets all land development regulations. We've gotten several letters of approval from neighboring property owners that are excited about the new development along their corridor. The project site, we are located along A1A, and this is the old Jupiter Dive location, so just south of Sawfish Bay Park. The zoning, the property is C2 zoning district. It is the most intensive commercial zoning within the town of Jupiter. We are bordered by C2 to our north as well as C3, which is commercial office just to our south. I've got quite a few slides, so if you see me skip through, if you have questions at the end, I'd be happy to answer. There's a lot of information in a brief amount of time. Land use, again, commercial consistent. The land development regulations as outlined in the staff report, we're meeting all of the requirements, the land development code. A little bit closer on the location and the layout of the site, we are consistent with the general format of development that's to our south, the other commercial properties that have been developed. We are proposing one access point in and out, which is a shared access drive between the town's property and our property, which would be constructed as part of this project.

as well as a shared access point to the property to our south.

If you remember the old Jupiter Dive location, the development that was there previously, there was an in and an out, so there's two curb cuts. It's right on the corner. It's really cramped. The visibility was terrible. So we're improving that design, making a one curb cut and trying to reduce the potential traffic conflicts in that location. From a pedestrian standpoint, providing safe ADA access from A1A into the site as well as connecting to the property to the south. In terms of the design of the building, sustainability and resiliency has been a significant aspect of the design from the very beginning. Nate Albers and his company, they operate in the disaster relief world, so they set up mobile command centers all over the world. as part of supporting government agencies like FEMA or a number of others. And so that resiliency being on the waterfront is really important to them. So having an elevated first floor was mandatory to be able to elevate the building. But then in general, an eco-oriented architectural design with primary frontage facing the east to get the benefit of the prevailing winds, looking at sun studies to understand the angle of the sun into the building. There's a lot of detailed research and design into that aspect of the site. 100% native landscape palette, restored native shoreline, reduction in the curb cuts as we talked about, parking areas designed 100% pervious, protection of cultural resources through specific construction techniques such as the pilings, limiting the footprint of the building on the impacts below. As we talked about, the project is consistent with the comprehensive plan and a number of different policies and goals and objectives. The landscape plan, as we talked about, being native really significantly more than what was there previously, but even more than that, we're more than what we're required to provide by code. in landscape area. The existing development, talking about traffic, was slightly larger, so we are technically a reduction in traffic trips. We talked about a little bit before the previous Jupiter Dive Center, we went through several certificate to dig applications, one to demo the building, and then another for this proposed construction. We went all the way through a Phase II archaeological study, and as part of the construction activities, we will perform a Phase III study. So any excavation of the site will be analyzed through that report, and then there's several conditions associated with any material that's removed from the site. Some of the planning principles that we look at in terms of consistency Looking at the design of the site, looking at setbacks consistent with the adjacent properties, the square footage of the building, the footprints, lot coverage were permitted up to 35% lot coverage. We're only proposing 18.5% that again being consistent with the adjacent developments. Looking at the height context of the site, it is slightly taller than the adjacent buildings that are constructed there, but we're still less than what we're allowed to go per code. But again, the primary reason for the added height is elevating that first floor, so bringing in those resiliency design principles and making this a really wonderful project for the town. So again, if you're looking at it from a massing and a scale perspective, looking at that portion above that first floor line. And here's just a good example of that in terms of comparison of scale between our building and the building just to our south. Looking at green space. Again, we talked about it. We're required 30% green space. We're providing more than 35% green space and really enhancing that shoreline with additional native plantings, all part of our stormwater treatment program to really improve the site building openness. I've got a number of slides about this, but just in general, the building has been designed to be very open as well as providing a view corridor through the building underneath for four views of selfish pay. Uh, so that brings us towards, uh, the architecture design. I'll skip ahead. There was a number of conditions and design recommendations that town staff had following our planning and zoning commission meeting. We met with staff, we made some adjustments, and I'm proud to say that we're all aligned in the vision for the building, and we are proposing what is being proposed and hopefully will be approved tonight, has rotated some elements on the rooftop to reduce some of the scale of the rooftop facade. So we're very proud of the building that we're presenting here tonight, and I'd be happy to answer any questions that town council has. I'll reserve the rest of my time for any questions or any feedback from staff's presentation. Thank you.

Thank you. Now our town staff to present.

Good evening, Town Council for the record, Thatcher Hart, Planning and Zoning Department. Tonight's application, as you've heard from the applicant here, is for a four-story office building with underground, or excuse me, under office parking that's on that ground floor, including a shared access drive with that adjacent town-owned property to the north of the subject property. The subject application is subject to the conditions that are within that resolution 1126. and to the Town Council's approval of the shared access drive with the town's property to the north. The shared driveway is a beneficial aspect of the project to reduce the number of driveways along the main road there, but also allowing for additional parking to be provided on the subject property to allow for parking of the use. The proposed building satisfies standard zoning requirements that are outlined within the district that it is in, which is C-2, However, there are other qualitative characteristics like compatibility that are mentioned within Section 27.175 that is part of the review that have been focused on throughout this process. Staff continuously provided comments to the applicant to suggest greater compatibility with surrounding areas and has met with the applicant a number of times to reduce the massing and compatibility compared to adjacent developments. But the subject application did receive a recommendation for approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission at their April 14th meeting with the condition that stated that we would meet with the applicant here prior to coming before you tonight to just discuss that architectural components of the application. further solidify what was presented to you before tonight. And you can see that your compatibility where we pulled those sections 27175 on the screen there and then this is the evolution of design. So on the left here you have what the applicant originally proposed prior to playing and zoning and then to the right here is what you have tonight with their current proposal. And just outlining what you see there is the additional plantings and irrigation on the west facade, a coral stone at the base of the building, and then those vertical louvers along the stair openings. And then if the town council determines that the proposed development is not compatible, Code Section 175 provides that authority to you all to ensure compatibility. And we'll be glad to take any questions.

Okay, thank you. I'll turn to counsel. If counsel has any questions of either the applicant or staff, then I'll start at one end and work my way down. Counselor Geisinger, any questions?

Yeah, I have a couple questions. On that photograph right there, the picture, on both the northwest corner and the southwest corner, those protruding landings for the stairs, They're jetting out. Is that a safety issue to have them stick out that far, or could they be more flush with the building itself?

It's not a safety issue at all. With the railings there, there's no concern from that regard. Part of it is functional in the landings of the stairs, but also from a design element, they come out both consistent in the same depth from the face of the building. There are architectural elements that extend away from the building as well and with consistent depth. So it's kind of part of a theme. So if you were to look at it from a different angle, you can see those. It doesn't protrude an extended distance. It's not a safety concern. So it's all part of the intent behind the architectural design of it.

Okay, they just sort of jetted out at me and I guess it's all your personal personal preference. So I did have one question. I spent a lot of time with my mind to find glass today. going through your drawings, particularly your landscape plan. They're very hard to read, a little fine print. But at least my count, it looks like the majority of the trees with height greater than 12 feet, 18, 22, are on the south side of the building, with very few of those larger trees on the left. So was there a reason for that? Because I'm looking at the aesthetics of looking from Saltfish Bay to the building have a clear view. The only thing that's protecting that view right now is that big ficus tree. But I don't think the applicant should totally depend upon that tree and put the larger trees on the south side of the property, which is shielding them from all the other businesses to the south of them.

I appreciate the comment. I think just from our own perspective in designing the landscape, it depends on what you're looking for. The design of the landscape is done in in conjunction with the design of the building. So the trees are positioned and sized according to certain architectural features. Height doesn't always mean quality. It doesn't always mean better design. In our perspective, this entire project does not impact the park. So we're not needing to rely on landscape to offset development. We've designed a landscape that is both native beautifully designed to be consistent with the building. That being said, we do have one condition of approval from staff to add an additional foundation tree and we'd be happy to do that on the north side of the building. We'd be happy to add something with a little bit of height if that's something you'd like to.

Yeah, I'd like to see that.

So you got it.

Okay. And uh, I think that's all the questions I have that I do have a one question, a couple of questions of staff. Pertaining to, what is the town's plan for the commercial property just to the north of the, between the property being developed and Saltfish Bay?

So I know that there's been plans in the past, but I don't believe that there's any solidified plan at this moment.

I walked it the other day, and obviously it's been used a lot. Got a lot of vehicular traffic in it from the dive center. It's a lot of ruts, a lot of dirt, a sore-looking chain-link fence between the property and sawfish. Are there any plans to give that a little bit of a facelift? It might take some of the dramatic, you know, looking out from sawfish into it. That's the first thing you see in the dirt and the ruts before you even see the mass of the building. It's going to be going up there, so...

Hello, Stephanie Thoburn, assistant director of planning and zoning. There are no plans for that triangular piece. It's currently commercial. It is being leased out for the dive shop. We'd love to come back and have a discussion incorporating it perhaps to Sawfish Bay so it can be cohesive. Sawfish Bay Park. They're really and up until the demolition there was no no real discussion or on need to push it forward because they were renting a significant part of their parking on the town's property. So now that the building is demolished we should probably you know think about it.

I'd like at least to think about what we do to recondition that because it is an eyesore looking from Solvish Bay. Into that lot area, like I said, it's got ruts. It's got a lot of dirt from the overuse of parking and that from the dive center.

We take care of the ficus tree that you're talking about?

I saw trucks parked right up against it on the root system.

We put in fill and mulch to protect the tree. We call it the ocus because it's an oak that's being taken over by a ficus. So we take care of that tree. It's one of our signature trees like the Cabot Oak. So that's the extent of what we've done.

Okay. I like to at least have staff consider what can we do in the future and not right now, but if it's appropriate, maybe to fix up that area because it is, like I said, a lot of rust, like at least leveled out. So, and I may get some sod to grow back in there or whatever. So no other questions.

hard to go after you as well. I just have one question for the applicant for now. The stairwell appears to be on the northern end closest to the park. What was the logic behind placing it there? And I know you said there are a lot of considerations regarding light and wind and resiliency. There are a lot of factors, but You have it so that the view from the park sees the tallest point versus potentially stepping it back and having it, for the purposes of the discussion, south side to the right. So what were some of the factors that went into its placement in that location specifically?

Fantastic question. So when we looked at the site design and collaboration between our office and the architects, It was really critical. The stairwell had to be on the western portion of the building. It wasn't going to be placed on the eastern. It's right next to the elevator core as well. So from an access standpoint, from the street getting in, we wanted it on the west side as well. We didn't want it to impact the eastern side of the building facing the waterfront. So now we're looking at it north versus south elevation of the building and what corner you put it on. It was pretty obvious we were putting the access point on the north side of the property. Again, combining it with the town's piece, having a shared access. We talked about that very early on with the town manager to bring that forward to you all as a consideration for the site plan. If we moved it to the south, it would just be too close to the neighbor to the south to their access point. If you had it on the south side and something that the architect looked at that I was reminded of just a few minutes ago, If you had the stair tower on the south side of the building, that means our rooftop balcony would be right up towards facing the park, overlooking the park. There's a significant amount of landscaping that's along that south end of the park. We weren't concerned over any impact to the park from, again, our shadow studies that we did and the shadow casting from the building, even with the tallest portion being there. So there was a number of factors into that design choice. They work reverse. It's possible, but there would be a number of disruptions to the site from an access and ADA perspective. I know something that we talked about through the certificate to dig was elevating the fill on the site so that we would have the least amount of impact to what was underground. That plays a part into sidewalk slopes and access. So having it closer to our vehicular access can help with that. So I'd say it's a hard question to answer because there's a lot of detail that went into it and a number of years, you know, of evolution of the design as well.

Okay. And I see in the rendering also, so you've added, it looks like stone accents or?

Yeah, that was one of the, some of the feedback we received from staff in providing something on the base of the building to anchor the structure. And so we worked with the architects to provide uh, uh, that stone accent to anchor the building on the ground level.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

I have a couple of questions for the applicant. Um, what is the thought behind the changing of the roof line on the fourth floor from, it has like sort of a, is that a, um, is that a hip? And that's just the second one's just straight. Who, who came up with that? What was the thought on that?

So the one on the left was, um, a quickly designed alternative that we wanted to present as feedback from staff's direction on the potential to relocate the bathroom to the other side. The graphic on the right was a formal design by the architect, uh, which took into account the width of the stairwell and the actual relocation of the bathroom. So I'd say probably the, the roof line itself, uh, was more of a function of the, the architect made the design. on the final version versus a quickly rendered Photoshopped change to try to demonstrate how we could accomplish what staff was asking us to do.

And then the window design, it looks like on the current proposal, the middle windows are narrower or is it just those vertical, are they like a sunscreen or what do you call those?

Yeah, so it's a vertical, not a louvered system, but it's a vertical awning, I guess would be the terminology from the architects. So it's the same width, the window's the same width. Okay, it's just an illusion.

And what are the future plans for the dock? Is it private and commercial?

Yeah, private use for the owner and operator of the office building. So there will be no commercial aspect. They won't be running a business out of there. Okay. If he has a boat that he wants to keep there, then he'll keep it there. But it will remain the two slips that are there, but no commercial aspect to it.

Okay. Okay, that's it for now.

Thank you.

I just wanted to disclose, I was given a copy of the design months ago, no meetings, piggyback on another meeting. I was going to ask some of the same questions, and the building looks fantastic. I do appreciate the fact that it does deviate from what's along A1A right now, But I think it's a great compliment. But I did want to know about the docs as well. And you answered that. And some of the other questions were answered. So thank you.

Seeing no more comments, I'd open the floor for public comments. Any?

Yes, sir. We have one speaker, Mary Therese DeLate.

Good evening. This is Mary Therese Dellet. I am past president and will be speaking for the Loxahatchee Guild. As most of you know, the Loxahatchee Guild has been around since 1981 as the premier historic preservation organization in this area. As recently as 18 months ago, we gave the town of Jupiter $50,000 to help you put the ramp around the Acre House And this is kind of an unusual event for us to be here to comment on the non-historic building. However, it has a great impact on what we have done as an organization, and that is to save both the Jupiter FEC train depot and the acre houses. So as you know, tonight is on the agenda a motion to approve a variance on the proposed building, the acre property adjacent to the acre house and the 1915 FEC train depot. The property is more than a half an acre and is part of the archeological site known as the Harborview Prehistoric Shell Midden, which includes Bay Fish, excuse me, Sawfish Bay Park, to and including the former dive center property. And this is a midden that has been carbon dated to 3,110 BC. So it's very archeologically significant. And that's why it's taken so long because you've had to do all the digging to make sure that this property is protected, the understory. The proposed plans for the property, have been amended twice, but the reality is that a variance is still needed tonight due to the height and density of the project. The project as it is proposed tonight is more than a third bigger than is allowed in the current land use comp plan. The owners are requesting a four story building adjacent to a historic park to the north and a two story building to the south. The current code allows for two stories. The town council will determine whether the proposed building is consistent with the established character of the area. Because the area, of course, is the historic area that I'm talking about. The applicant has proposed a contemporary architectural style for the building, which is not consistent with the area. Now, as you may be aware, there is a very popular podcast called 99% Invisible. It's about design that sends subliminal messages, and in architecture especially. We all know that everyone loves Palm Beach because it's beautiful, because it has a consistent architectural style, and that's what we're asking you to do. the depot is not getting a visitation because the parking is so far away. So I hope in the future you will consider upgrading that area so that it can get visitation. Thank you so much.

Thank you. And that was it on public comments?

Yes, sir.

I go back to the applicant and her staff for any closing arguments.

Yeah, I think I just like to reiterate there's no waivers or variances being requested as part of this application. We're meeting all of our code requirements and exceeding most of them in every circumstance. We are adjacent to other C2 and C3 zoned properties on either side. I'd be happy to go back and through and talk about compatibility and architectural design that's existing along this corridor. if the council would like the benefit of some of those images. But there is no consistent architectural design along A1A. There's decades of various architectural styles, very much so not compatible or consistent with each other. So we've tried to create something that integrated contemporary construction methods as well as timeless design to meet all of the town's Land development regulations, as well as comprehensive plan guidelines so i'd be happy to answer anything else related to architectural consistency, if it would benefit the Council, thank you.

Mayor Mrakas, Stephanie everything to add. Okay, returning to counsel for deliberation, I'll start on this one. First of all, I always appreciate and I benefit from the fact that by the time it gets to me, I recognize there's been a lot of hard work back and forth to try to bring the best project that you can. So I appreciate that. I appreciate staff in their brevity emphasizing what this decision tonight is about and what authority we have to render an opinion.

So first of all, I'll say that

I appreciate the shared driveway. I certainly support that. But I'll then say that I don't find the site plan with the building height, scale, and mass to be compatible and are consistent with the established character of the area. The second and third floor office areas have expansive balcony amenities for building office users to enjoy. I'm okay with that, I appreciate that. But I think the huge rooftop accessory use creates building mass and height that appears out of place to me. I'm not even supportive of ever it ever being considered for a special event permit so just as a practice to me that would be inconsistent with established character of the area you know over the years it's interesting that things come to us And it gets softened downplayed. And then there's a door open for someone to come back. And consistently, when I see that, I'm opposed to it. So the whole roof element, I think, can lead to no good.

really out of character.

So the building openness sales pitch, by the way, it's not persuasive to me, as I believe the general public will rarely see the building from that location that elevation views are depicted. And I find this a lot of times is that, and I look at it where the public will actually see it. So while if you happen to be standing in that one location before the elevation, you see the openness, but even the coloring on the claimed open space in blue in my mind is perceiving. So I'm just giving the basis for why I've reviewed what we have here and don't support it. And then Louvre deck, To me, it adds to the building mass appearance, whether it's fixed, open, or operational. So just in closing, and I may be in a minority here, which is fine. I've been there before. But I just don't feel like the question before us, I just don't feel that the height, scale, and mass is compatible. or consistent with the established character of this area. So with that, um, who wants to go next?

Well, I'll go. I mean, you know, the other ground parking is, you know, allows the added height. There's still under, but the code allows, um, I know it's a nice soft-looking building. It is taller than other buildings in the area. There probably down the road will be redevelopment. There really is no consistent, you know, there's all sorts of different styles along A1A. Most of it is old and outdated. I think it's definitely, you know, it takes up less square footage area wise than the older building. Granted that was only one story, not very efficient. It, you know, probably lived past its shelf life. So, um, you know, I, I think it's definitely an upgrade from what was there. Um, And I think I prefer the look of the original rendering, but I'm not going to, you know, die in that hill. So if both parties are happy with the current proposal on the right from May 26th, I could live with that. I think in all in all, it's an upgrade from what was there, and I think it fits the area.

I want to say... That area floods a lot. It's been during significant rainstorms. Most of the flooding on A1A is over there near Center Street. And so I've thought a lot about this because I thought about the height. And what I don't want in the future on this corridor is intensity on this corridor. I don't want there to be a building on the first floor, the second floor, the third floor. But I I couldn't imagine having to deal with future flooding in future years. I do respect the resilience, um, focus here and the previous pavers. And I think the town would benefit from that in that area and the flooding would benefit from that going forward. So I would be okay if you're going to lift it. I am. This is a good reason to, it's not adding intensity. It's that's not, um, office space on that ground floor. So I am grateful also to staff just watching the evolution of the building. We gave very clear instruction on, you know, what we're hoping for along that corridor. I'm grateful for the stone, the coquina there and the architectural details that you worked with after planning and zoning. I actually appreciate the new version because you can see the sky and the way it stepped back. And I remember that was a comment from planning and zoning. I appreciate all that you've done to follow the direction. It does meet the code requirements. I know planning and zoning was supportive. I understand the reason around the staircase. I just think the one thing that kind of helps me is that it's lifted for sustainability, for resilience, to prevent flooding, to protect the property long term. I don't want to prevent that, you know, in the future. I think that's really, you know, what after we went through our resilience plan with our water utility and our vulnerability studies, you know, what we're seeing more of, honestly. So I am generally supportive of that. I am a bit frustrated with the view. I do want to emphasize I would never support this if it weren't for that elevation. I don't want intensity in this area. I don't want a lot of traffic. I'm glad that the traffic is reduced, that it's less intense. because A1A has faster traffic, has more traffic. It's not Center Street. It's in the area, but it feels like it's on a highway, and visibility is what it is. So I'm glad that it's kind of a less intense use. I'm glad that the commercial... or the dock is a kind of a private dock. It's not a commercial dock. So I find these to be positive. I hope in the future. Um, I'm actually grateful for the comment about our parcel next door. I hope it, that's a wonderful idea that it continue. Maybe it could be improved to be a kind of parking space more formalized so that we can enhance visitation to our sites. Um, and I would agree with council member Geisinger about any landscaping that can be added, or the tree on the south side. I think that's a wonderful idea, especially with height. So, thank you.

And one more comment, Mayor. I think the only reason we're here tonight is because of the shared Ingress ERS access, correct? I mean, this is within code. It could have been done administratively, so.

Well, I'm just going by what's within our authority.

No, I understand. I understand. Yep. Yep.

Again, I appreciate the fact that resilience was a consideration. Flooding is a huge concern along A1A. Every time you drive by, even after a rainstorm, you don't even have to have a major catastrophic rainstorm. So this was a consideration as I was looking at it. Traffic was another point, and I'm glad it was brought up because it's not going to add any more into A1A similar to a center street situation um yeah it's a little different architecture is a little different but quite frankly it's i like the word being used as refreshing and there is no consistency if you go up and down us-1 and a1a that being said i was glad to hear about the town-owned park or parcel I would like to see that upgraded so that we can enhance what they have more folks come in to the railroad. I really don't find anything that would stop me from supporting this. I think the building has put many, many hours with the staff, with the applicant. So to me, right now, we're talking about the shared parking, and it's been cleared up.

I actually have another question for staff. If I may, I just wanted to ask about the rooftop and restrictions on the rooftop or permits request. Um, what, what are the rules? Can I mean, I don't want to see outdoor music. I don't want to see large events on the rooftop. Can someone speak to that?

Good question.

So the intent behind putting that in there was just to, um, basically say if there was anything more than office use up on that deck that they would need to come back in and make sure that they met all requirements within the zoning zoning code as well as if they were going to have extra events that they would need to meet the special event requirements. So anything outside of the regular business operational use.

Like couldn't very have a party at 10 p.m. on or would and yeah.

Well they would need to meet like sound ordinance sound restrictions and all of the standard zoning requirements.

John Sickler for the record, Director of Planning and Zoning. The applicant is also bound by their statement of use in addition to the conditions of approval that are in the resolution. I would just note that there is a condition titled parking, I believe it's number 10 on page 245 of your agenda. And that limits the use to be only for accessory use to the professional office. And then any use that would exceed the normal and those normal impacts would be required to receive a special permit or they would have to come forward with a special or a site plan amendment to allow some other activity on the rooftop. Um, there are no current, there currently are no hours of use limitations in this condition. Um, if that's the desire of the council, um, condition 10 or another condition would need to be added to limit the hours of operation or use of that rooftop area. They did indicate in their statement of use on page three of the statement of use, which is page 263 of your agenda on the top half of the page. They do state that it would be only intended for the use of the office tenants below and private use of the company, that it would be ancillary to the office space and only be used by employees within the offices below. and that they will not have sound amplification. And then further, if a special event is proposed, they would request, in the future, a permit will be requested and all requirements of that permit would be complied with. So if that's not adequate, then there would need to be some modifications to the resolution.

Okay, so they're held to that and to the statement of use?

They are held to the statement of use. That is the first condition in the resolution. includes a reference to that statement of use.

And if we wanted, we could add hours of operation or restrict hours given that. Okay.

Yeah, that would just need... Mr. Barrett?

Mayor, if I may. So are you permitted to have special events in an accessory use on a property?

You can have a special event.

I mean, can I have a special event in my garage? An accessory use, correct? Or my pool patio?

I mean, we haven't had that circumstance for someone as a party. We don't regulate activities on a residential property.

You have to meet- Okay, well, my property was commercial, and I have a commercial accessory use.

Are you saying that- If they wanted to do a Christmas tree sale, they could ask for a permit to do Christmas tree sales.

On an accessory use to their shopping center.

It doesn't have to be affiliated with the use that's approved.

I guess my concern about this is it sounds like you're inviting special events to this rooftop. I mean, I don't know what businesses use rooftops with for, but I mean, what would be the purpose of having special events on your business's rooftop?

And that was my point. I want to make it pretty clear because part of, to me, first of all, I always try to understand. If I owned a property, was doing an office, I mean, let's talk about our fire stations we go to. We have nice balcony areas we can go out. So the size of these two buildings, they have very expansive, for the size of the staff that's going to be there, they have very expansive balconies already all along the water. on both levels, okay? And I'm not saying, you know, not wanna deprive them of that, but I think the mask gets added when you add in the entire top floor. And I can't imagine any good coming out of that in addition to the balcony. That's why radar went off to me when I saw, yeah, you know, they're not going to use it for anything but, you know, business use. But, gee, you know, we can come back at some date not expecting to do so and get a special permit. To me, it just invites, once that amenity is there, it just invites that misuse. And I can't think of a worse place, you know, in town that doesn't fit the character of that area. than here, so that's why I'm opposed to it.

May I ask the applicant, sorry, may I ask the applicant to speak?

There's no proposed special exception, event, party, anything of the use of the rooftop. The reason that it's mentioned in the statement and the reason that it's part of the conversation now is staff doing their due diligence, making sure that there's protections that we're not going to have, say, you know, in the future, a restaurant or a bar or something on the rooftop that would add additional parking requirements to the site that the site can't accommodate. The site is designed for professional office. The rooftop amenity deck is for the benefit of those employees. We see this evolution in design of architecture of new office, Class A office buildings constantly now to where we're including rooftop decks for the benefit of those employees. It helps the companies recruit. helps the companies retain it means we get the best employees the best companies in our area so that's the intent of the rooftop it's not nefarious it's not intended for anything else but for the use of the employees if the owner wants to have some kind of appreciation maybe after hours for their employees christmas party something like that where they have their employees there That's the scope of what we're talking about. We're not talking about large special events with live music or anything like that. This is professional office building.

The condition says exceeds normal impacts. If you exceed normal impacts, you have to receive a special permit. So what's the normal impact of the rooftop?

day-to-day operations where an employee might go up there on their lunch or they may work outside on a nice day. That's the impact of that space. So the reason the condition is there at all is just a catch-all to say that, okay, if we do go beyond that use, we'd have to comply with the requirements of getting a special exception, just like anybody else would. And it's not proposed, it's not intended, it's not what that space is designed for. It's just precaution.

So staff question, if Our desired outcome was to not have a major event at 9.30, 10 o'clock near a park. What our options are, we can limit the hours. And the permit process would... I mean, permits are denied if they... you know, can you walk me through? Like, what could we do if our desired outcome is to reduce that kind of impact? What tools are available to us?

You could restrict them from having special event permit use of that area. You know, when we review the special permits, they're reviewed by various departments in the town. Depending on the type of permit, it's always reviewed by code compliance, building department, sometimes engineering. We look to make sure that any impacts that they have are accommodated so that it doesn't affect the adjacent properties, that there's adequate parking. We can place conditions on sound through that process. But there are a variety of different permit categories or categories of use. that can occur. If they wanted to have some kind of different event that went beyond their office employees, that would be beyond their normal operations and we would indicate through that the information that's provided in their statement of use and through the conditions that they would have to get a special permit for that. But if that's not the desire of the council to allow that type of activity, then it would have to be restricted so they're not availed of the provisions of the special permit section of the code.

Councillor Geisinger? Did Did you have any final comments?

It's going down the row here. I do appreciate the amount of work that went into this and the compromise reached between both the staff and the applicant. I think the end product is a very nice building. I like the openness of it. I like the fact that it's elevated above the ground so we have minimal impact. from the foundation to the Minden area. So I appreciate all those things the applicant did to minimize that impact. From an architectural standpoint, there's nothing that matches up and down alternate A1A, north alternate A1A as far as consistency from building to building. And this is a significant improvement above what we had with the dive center there, both in looks, mass, and everything else, and that's mere size and square footage. So I thought about this a lot, and I don't really have any more issues with this design and what's being proposed. So thank you.

Okay, I turn it to Council for a motion for consideration.

Motion to approve Resolution 1126.

Second. Motion to second. Any discussion on the motion? You're going to leave open the ability for special permits on this roof?

That was my only question. Can something be added in under?

That was a question that was asked, but there's a motion and a second on the floor. We're just discussing the motion. We're in discussion.

It can be amended, or if the motion maker wants to make it, but the discussion then is do we want to add any limitations to hours or restrictions to prevent that use? It already has restrictions. It already has to be a regular use, and it's an accessory use to an office building. So it's lunch, it's things like that, which I can understand.

Maybe a cocktail party after work or something.

But that, if it's beyond that, it requires a permit. It has to meet sound ordinances, all of that. So those are the rules on the books. Do we want to add to the rules?

I question, why would you even allow a special permit to ever be issued from what the representation is here?

Would the applicant be amenable to restricting?

But we're the ones that also ultimately agreed.

It's ultimately up to us. But I'm wondering if, I mean, we could make it conditional on that then.

I think that's fair.

Can I add one more? Do I need to, this was discussed, I believe the applicant agreed to it, but do we need to codify it here that The larger trees be put on the north side of the building.

We can do that.

I'd like to add that.

By the way, there is a motion in a second until it's withdrawn or amended. You know, I can't. So do we just.

Counselor Delaney, as you made the motion, it's up to you.

So I will withdraw the motion for approval. And also the second gets null and void. So, okay. Counselor Geisinger, you want to add in trees on the north side?

Yes, I do. Taller trees on the north side of the building.

And a town attorney, you have concerns about the special permit. What would you recommend that we add as a condition?

I don't have concerns about it. You do.

Well, I don't personally, but we do.

If the council's intent is not to have special events on the rooftop of an office building, then you should just prohibit it. You can't get a special event permit and then they're limited to their normal impacts of their accessory use, whatever that is. People going up to have lunch or after hours

What I've learned last few years being here, what's in demand these days for office space is high-end office space. With high-end office space, it's expensive, there's more amenities, and this rooftop, I look at that as it's an amenity for the tenants that rent here. They may, down the road, want to entertain guests, contracts, normal business things. I wouldn't want to deny them that usage of that expensive rooftop. I don't think there's going to be a bar up there 24-7 blaring music, but Are we in danger of having that if we don't put exceptions in, town attorney?

Special permits, you're limited to a certain number per year, and with rare exceptions, they don't come to council. They're administrative review. So I don't know what, I think the number five or 11 or something like that. So that's your risk, so to speak, in terms of events. Okay.

I don't think anything could affect the impact, you know, impact this character of this area more than it becoming a place where special permits for events on a rooftop When they really have two-yard huge balconies, you know, for the day-to-day stuff on the east side. Right. So really, quite frankly, I thought to myself, I worked in this office building and coworkers that I've had over the years, and it comes to mind when I looked at our fire stations. Oh, my gosh, when you have an expansive balcony like that, you can see it being enjoyed. Mm-hmm. fine they have all that that's looking over the water there's no better spot so to me then on top of that added a rooftop it just it just creates for me just a wondering you know oh my gosh there's got to be there's the potential for this being abused but you know so i'm it is you're making the motion i'm just saying what's wrong with they're representing no that's not their intention, if it's not their intention, then make the motion to specifically exclude a special permit from ever being issued. Now what'll happen then, if they wanted issued, it would have to then come back for an amendment. So it would come back to the elected officials that are held accountable for this. I'm not suggesting staff doesn't look out, but if we don't send that message in the motion and in the development order, then it doesn't exist.

Is the rest of the council comfortable with adding that in?

I agree with that.

Okay. I agree with that. All right. So I'll make a motion for approval with removing the ability for permit for special exception activities or functions. Is that? Special permit. Special permit. Does that hit it?

and add the additional landscaping on the north and add the additional landscape trees of such a unjustified counselor Geisinger on the north side second motion a second all in favor signify signify by saying aye aye aye motion opposed nay motion carries 4 to 1. thank you moving on to reports town attorney

Thank you, Mayor. It's been a great two days as stated earlier by one of the speakers of positive energy in the town surrounding the inaugural class of our fire rescue department here. In an effort to continue with the seamless transition of our service, I had earlier sent a letter to the Assistant County Attorney of Fire Rescue in regards to the return of the possession of station sixteen in abacoa in the deed that was given to the county uh... for that station there are two conditions to the reversion of that land to the town one was if the county ceases fire rescue services in the town which it will be doing effective end of september thirty of this year and two payment to the county of all unamortized costs of the improvements to station 16. The town's finance director and the county fire rescue's finance director have agreed on those costs, so there's no question about what the town will be paying. So my suggestion was to the county attorney was, well, then let's place a quick claim deed returning, that would be recorded returning possession to the town. that money in escrow and upon October 1 released the deed and the finances that the town's paying from escrow just like you would do at a closing a real estate closing so the county's assistant director Eric McKellen of Facilities Development and Operations wrote back to me, not the county attorney, but the assistant director wrote back to me an email which I found to be both somewhat, in my opinion, incoherent and insulting. And he began that email with, to set a correct expectation and understanding County Fire Rescue intends to continue operations until midnight October 1. Now that's actually a day longer than what they're entitled to do, but perhaps he's not familiar with midnight. and then said that their work plan extends far beyond this housekeeping matter alone. Well, I don't know about y'all, but I don't consider the conveyance of property and payment of large sums of money to be housekeeping matters, especially when they're consistent with a deed that's already been conveyed to the county. He went on to state that the county is targeting the September 15th Board of County Commissioners meeting for whatever it is that the county is going to do. That wasn't clear. Which of course is the last meeting that the county commission would typically hold absent a special meeting before October 1 of 2026. He also wrote in response to my request about the transfer that any different schedule other than the one the county wants to follow would be contrary to the important public service continuing and being rendered by the county. Well, we know that that service is ending September 30th. So I'm not sure what that's all about. After October one, he suggests that the County have a meeting with the town manager, myself and whomever else we would like to exchange thoughts on the same. I'm not sure what the same is. I guess it's the transfer and logistics to effectuate closing. Well, my question, which I will pose, is, well, there's 120 days before now and October 1st. Wouldn't it be appropriate to have that meeting to work all these things out at some point between June 2nd and October 1st? So the town manager, fire chief and I have been working towards this milestone and others, you know, our entire town staff for more than two years. This email is consistent from my perspective of what I've seen out of the county. It's consistent with its ongoing efforts to obfuscate a seamless transition of a potent public safety in the town. It's taken lightly by Mr. McKellen and it should not be. From what I can tell, Mr. McKellen and other county officials do not understand public service and certainly do not understand public safety. So the town manager and chief and I discussed a response today. I will be crafting a letter of response to the county to get clarification on some issues. and in all likelihood to take issue with some of the things that were said. My letter's gonna be direct, and it's not gonna be diplomatic. If our legal team needs to reactivate, we will. Just like our fire rescue team, we'll be ready to go on October 1. That's my first report.

Um, just a comment, a couple of comments on that. So thank you for the update. Um, you know, just remind council and I know I don't need to remind as much for the record here. Uh, cause I know you all know this, but you know, we weren't allowed, they weren't, they didn't give us the opportunity to even go inside the station until the beginning of this year. So we all hope and we keep offering as a town, we're going to help. We want to help you, whatever. But they just seem to be, you know, being extremely unreasonable. And one thing I mentioned to Mr. Berry when I heard about this was, you know, September's hurricane season. So even if they even if we got them to agree and they were well intentioned to, you know, how is this any different than a closing, you know, real estate transaction or whatever? You've got a day or two to get out of there. You can get out of there, right? And so, you know, planning for 9-15, you know, puts at risk they couldn't even act on it. if we were to have a hurricane, right? Meeting gets deferred, right? So there's no reason to have delayed that to 9-15. And then further, there's also no reason to wait until after October 1 to exchange thoughts. I mean, that's sending a pretty loud signal here that they're not yet ready to partner on public safety issues. which is disappointing so I appreciate the update and it just disappoints me greatly at some point keep us posted because at some point it may be in that point maybe even now is that we start reaching out to some of the county commission ourselves and make sure they're aware of what's happening here and I would trust that the town manager is going to really be reaching out to the county manager whatever but simultaneously here Cause I just, I just can't believe that this would, that behavior would be condoned by the county commission. Uh, they know what public safety is about. Um, and so anyway, I just wanted to kind of weigh in on that.

A lesson learned from earlier and working with them is that we often tried to work with the county fire department and we didn't go to our elected officials soon enough. And so they didn't often know what was happening. and I weren't fully aware. I do recommend, I think we should all try to reach out if we can.

I agree. Did you have any other report?

I do, but we'll provide you with the email that I, with the letter I sent to the county attorney, the email response and then the response from the town to the email and then you can reach out you'll have the facts in front of you uh... i do want to end on a a very positive note uh... again with fire rescue because uh... it is such a momentous occasion for this town this little town that 101 years ago didn't have anything other than volunteers with buckets of water. And now you've got a first class operation that's going to complement very well our police force. So after the ceremony, I took my two partners, Travis Foles, who handled the litigation that we had that was unfortunately brought by the County Fire Union, and Brett Lashley, and Travis said to me, these are two young, but especially Travis, very accomplished, very good lawyers. And Travis's remarks to me was, you know, it is not, it has not been my experience that I see the tangible results of my work. But being in that ceremony today, seeing all those firefighters, seeing the pride in the town, in the town council, in having created that department and realizing that it was going to be here, he said, now I can point to something that is tangible about my work. And he saw all of those uniforms. And I could tell it really made a big impression on him. And he's always been very gracious about his role. But as all of you know, Travis really did his job and did his job well. So hopefully he'll run the webcast back and see his compliments. Thank you. Thank you for that.

Town manager.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple of things from me. First of all, I couldn't agree more with the town attorney on both of his points. It's unconscionable to me. And this is another example of the lack of integrity on that fire department's leadership. The fact that we are now months away from from assuming primary responsibility for the safety of our residents, and we're still going through this stuff. And we have had to go through this for the entire few years that we have been doing this, and finding workaround after workaround after workaround. Shame on them. And I'm saying that as a career law enforcement officer, not a town manager, I'm making my remarks as a police chief. They ought to be ashamed of themselves. Now, having said that, I will tell you, and I want you to rest assured, and the people that may be listening to me, that we have a plan. We are in great shape. We will be able to respond efficiently, effectively, and set that benchmark for excellence the moment we have the authority to do so. And that plan is not going to be compromised by some shenanigans going on over a fire station. They ought to be ashamed of themselves. But it's just one more hurdle, and hopefully it will be the final hurdle that we have to go through. And then, having said that, I'm going to move to the positive side as well now. I couldn't agree more with the town attorney. Yesterday in my remarks at that ceremony, I talked about the courage of the town council. And since I look down this dais all the time, I always see Tom on the other side over there. So I put him in the realm with the town council. And so I had planned on bringing up the fact of how much Tom and his team and his firm have done for the creation of this fire department. And ironically, I was thinking about all the litigation associated with the petition and all those things, the going back and forth on the station on Military Trail. And I can't thank them enough. We would, as complicated as all of this is, I don't think we would be where we are today without all the legal, uh, assistance, the fighting, the, you know, they get in the ring with them and let them have it. So Tom, thank you to you and your staff. And if you would please pass my kudos along to them because truly appreciate it. Um, and then I will say the other thing I wanted to acknowledge, I see Sean sitting in the back of the room, that ceremony yesterday, It was about one of the finest I've ever seen in almost 50 years in local government. I couldn't be any more proud of you guys. And I think everyone yesterday when they left that event came away with what we call the wow factor and really got a strong look at what we've built and the level of experience and the level of commitment and professionalism. These guys are just remarkable in where they are. So I wanted to acknowledge that as well. Okay, then moving along to just my few other small things. First of all, Councilor Geisinger, tomorrow I'll start taking a look at what the issues are over that Sawfish Bay Park area and we'll start taking a peek at that and see what we need to do to clean that up. Um, and so, uh, also last week, uh, once again, our Jupiter police department set in a benchmark, um, you know, the derelict vessels, you know, what a challenge that is all the time. And these guys do a remarkable job. So last week, the Jupiter police department directed a removal of the derelict vessel known as second love from Jupiter's waterways. This removal was part of the town's ongoing strategic initiative to protect Jupiter's waterways by removing those derelict vessels. And it is a process to remove them. Since the beginning of 2024, 21 derelict vessels have been removed from Jupiter's waterway. And I told you that's a very complicated process. Also, I wanted to provide you a quick update. If you remember at the May 19 Town Council meeting, there were some comments regarding the large ficus tree located at Cinquez Park. I can tell you from the very beginning that tree has been a priority in this project. The town's certified arborist and a certified arborist from our own construction contract have closely monitored the tree throughout the fire station construction. Minimal pruning of the tree has been conducted only when needed and for the health of the tree. This beloved tree continues to thrive and will continue to be a major part of St. Quest Park. And I'd like to also remind everyone of our two fire stations' river cutting ceremony scheduled for this week Tomorrow at 11 a.m., we will officially open station number 10, located on US-1 near Burt Reynolds Park. Meanwhile, on Thursday at 11 a.m., we will cut the ribbon on station number 12, located adjacent to Cinquez Park. And so I hope to see you all there. And, Mayor, that is my report.

And I asked our town manager, and I said we would be disciplined under town council sections. is asked him if he would stick around and we will discuss one topic, and that's fire rescue, because I do think, you know, because he's going to lead because we're going to be doing his review and conversations, and that's the normal practice. But I thought before he did that, to the degree that I'm sure that in closing here, each one of us may have something further to say about you know, uh, Jupiter fire rescue department and the event yesterday, et cetera, et cetera, that he ought to be here to hear that and not just notes passed on. Right. So, so with that, uh, who wants you want to start, uh, mayor, vice mayor, I'd be honored.

I sit here and a little different than some of my colleagues who were part of the decision to say, yes, my decision. to say yes came when I was asked to run for town council. That process, I knew what I could know at that point in time from sitting in and listening to decision making that happened up to that point. However, my pride came the day I met with Chief Darrell and our chief of police at the time I wanted to hear from them why, number one, we should have our own fire rescue department. And I walked out after meeting with the chief and said, I will be part of that team. I will be there. I believe 100% that our fire rescue and our police will be the best thing ever in 101 years of Jupiter. And that gave me the momentum to keep moving forward in the campaign because I knew I wanted to sit here and I want to be part of that ceremony yesterday. And it was heartfelt. It was beyond a wow factor. And there were tears. I am the first to tell you I had tears. But to look in that room and to see all of the staff who will be here with us and their families and the pride that they're going to be working with the finest. I mean, you are remarkable. Our two chiefs sitting here, I'm proud to say I'm sitting here on this dais, and it's because of folks like you and the residents who said, yes, we want it. Thank you.

Yeah, so we were here for the beginning of all this, and it was a you know, it was a slog and it was hardest on, you know, we, we made the decision, but town manager and the staff and fire chief, and you guys got it all done, you know? Um, but you know, the ceremony was unbelievable. It exceeded expectations. Um, it was just, I was just absorbing it the whole day. So after the sermon, I just walked out into the lobby and I'm standing there next to, uh, Chad Norman, our, um, our canine officer. I beat your chat a little bit. Then I just stood there and just watched everybody. I, for about 15, 20 minutes, just kind of, it was just kind of like floating on air. Then went home, finished my day, got home last night, and to hop on your remarks, I had to text Sean. I said, and I think when my text said, you know, congratulations, that was the finest town event I've ever been to. It exceeded, and you did a great job. And he responded, thank you, and all that. But I, you know...

I noticed the same thing.

He and his staff did a remarkable job on that. So it's just, we're kind of like in the glory days here. All right. So, and again, correct Mr. Baird, town attorney, we would not be here if it wasn't for you and your firm. And I've said that in the past, and I want you to reiterate that, that, you know, your name is going to be on one of these buildings someday. Hey, slow down. put it on the rooftop please on the rooftop cocktail party and this whole issue with you know the county and fire and just they're just it's just sour grapes i'm tired of it i could i could uh let us have expletives but i won't it's just um they're just pushing us aside and just making us go over every hurdle we need to have to it's not necessary These meetings should have been held months ago. They should be tomorrow. But we just keep pressing on. We're getting it done in spite of. We had to build an extra fire station because they didn't want to deal with it and they didn't want to work with us. So whatever. We're just getting it done. That's it. So I'm over it. Anyway, that's it.

Councilor Sundstrom? You know, when I think about how an internship helps with a job or how wedding planning and engagement helps you prepare for a marriage you're surviving all the guests and all the people around it um you know we have been we are well prepared for whatever comes our way and i know that there's some bad news and i hiccup now and i'm as frustrated as anyone else but i'm too happy um frankly to be too frustrated tonight um you know we have worked those muscles. We know how to work together. We know how to face conflict. We don't back down. We're confident. We're clear. We're together. And I know that we're going to be fine going forward. And I say that with regards to all things, um, Frank town manager, I'm so grateful for you. You know, you had multiple phases. The first was the information phase. The first burden was on us making that decision. But there's so much staff work that goes into supporting that decision and making that decision. I thank you for all the information, the analysis, for all the negotiations. I think people forget that we were going to have the original county millage, the full county millage, and it took a huge effort to even get to the contract negotiation phase. None of it was fair. And that would have been enormous. And I can't, I'd love to see those numbers because I can imagine what they are. Um, after that decision making support, which was substantial, you had a communication task because the firestorm came and we were all in it together. You built a web page, you filled it with source material at our request and, and video and everything because you know, we live in a world where trust has to be earned. And if you don't take it from me, take it from the source. Take it directly from the source, and we're going to give you everything. And that's exactly what you did, and it took a lot of work and a lot of just diligence. Sean communicating through all of that, our external affairs team, crisis communications is what it felt like. That was a lot of effort. Tom. The legal challenge, I'll never forget. That's quite a chapter. That was a chapter that we had. It was my first time visiting the courthouse. That was quite an experience. And Travis, all that he did for us and watching him make that argument, thank you for all the information, for all the fight that you put into that. Thank you for walking us through the fire a little bit with calm and steady hands, a little bit of a fight. as well. Thank you for sharing all of those documents with me because you know me by now and you don't even, you'll just do it in advance because you know I'll ask. But that was a significant chapter. You know, if someone writes a book, the chapter is going to be, you know, the preparation, the decision, the firestorm, the legal challenge. I mean, each of these is a chapter that we've been through, each with its own challenges. And I'm just so grateful for all of you The fire family was out there. We welcomed them yesterday, but it's also here. We're all part of it. There was a lot of, you know, it was very specific, a lot of criticism coming mostly from the fire union and those around it. It looked bigger than it was online, but we felt all of the background. We got so much support everywhere. And so we never felt alone. And a lot of that you helped build and you helped show us when we couldn't see it sometimes. And so I just want to thank you. I'm humbled and I'm too happy to let anything get me down this week. It's too good.

Councilor Gressinger.

I'm last.

What can I say? Yesterday's event, the swearing in ceremony and also last week's memorials event we had for our veterans. I mean, two very superb events. that took a lot of effort on town staff to pull it off. They're excellent. And as a resident of Jupiter, both made me very proud to be a resident and also proud to serve on this council. And hats off to the staff, Frank, you and your staff, Tom, and these three counselors sitting beside me for what has happened over the last three years to make the Jupiter fire come to reality. phenomenal work and I appreciate all that you guys did to make this happen. That's all. Thank you.

All in the topic, but gee, Mr. Barrett, I want to thank you for Given the two guys at Tor and bringing them to the event, they could see it. You know, I had the pleasure in my long career with my prior employer to work with a lot of attorneys, and he generally was on contracts. And I think I was one of the few that would tell them when there was success because attorneys, just as you put it, rarely ever get the feedback to know the difference they made. So, oh my gosh, thank you. I can't, you know, I could really relate and appreciate that you did that because I didn't include them in my remarks, but I knew in my remarks, I wasn't going to be able to include everybody. Um, but I try to keep it as groups, but oh my gosh, you know, that's why it was such a team effort. And thank you for, um, and just the fact that you explained to us that he, could see the fruits of his labor. Absolutely. He's part of that team. And this is related, but for those that may not have yet read Navy Bob's book, which I had, and then I had the pleasure of meeting him and sitting in on an afternoon session that he had to employees or anybody who signed up, I did. And, you know, in large part, it's about culture. It's about team culture, leading with love and all that. And, you know, he talks about this top deck three. But I just want to reinforce on the Abacoa Station thing. You know, behaving that way is not unexpected from the county. They've been doing it all along. But really where it hits me is we have one of three teams that are going to be working out of a temporary station which is far less than the accommodations that we want and the benchmark we have. So, you know, it's unfair to them if we allow this to go any, and there's a lot of renovations that are needed there, right? And, you know, the county knew that because if you ever saw what they have in budget for station renovations, they need renovations. So while we didn't get a chance to see it, it was not unexpected that it hasn't been renovated in all those years so you know i know and i'm just emphasizing we as the council you know i'm going to feel bad every day that we still have one of our three stations in a temporary station so yes yeah we can i have no doubt and knew we're going to be able to you know, serve, but it is in a disadvantaged, you know, living arrangement rate and even response arrangement to getting into Abacoa station 16. And that's what we need to appeal to, you know, our colleagues, you know, our counter, the county commission as well to say, would you treat your employees that way? you know, and especially on the town teams. I just wanted to have said that perspective. And then, you know, just kind of in closing, I want to just say, refer to a few things because, but, and I suspect there may be nobody up here that thought about what I'm about to say, but whenever I look as the blessing of being the mayor, whenever I'm asked to give remarks, I am very careful about using I versus we. If you didn't know that, if you were to listen to the words I said yesterday, I can tell you, I went back, I used I one time because it was appropriate. It was when I used the word Mr. Kitchero as well because I was talking about how we've gone back and forth. that issue and every other time it was a we and what's interesting about it is often time well first of all oftentimes except that I know that two weren't there in the beginning but beyond that the we is five on council but it generally always included the town manage town manager and it often included the entire team So nobody may have thought about this, but I spent time preparing what I was saying, and I really felt, which gives me such joy to be sharing that, right, that we have just an incredible team. I mean, it is unprecedented. And so I just, I can't overemphasize that. You think about it as like everybody that's participated, and I said this, the level of organizational teamwork has been inspiring an unprecedented government And it showed in the event, right? It shows where we are, right? It's divine providence that we're where we are today. And a lot of that I attribute to our town manager and his leadership because from the very first day when we went down this path, Um, you know, he worked hard, he assembled a team, you know, and, uh, you know, he convinced me, and as I said it on here, you know, with he and Scott and the others, but, um, you know, they led the studies, the analysis, the preliminary planning efforts, provided key information and professional opinions that enabled the council to make the policy decisions that we did. And that's all of them, not when, and including some that have happened since everybody's here. at the dais today. But, you know, as I said, I'm just repeating this, that, you know, his team, and I was calling out, you know, Frank and Scott, convinced me that they, and then in turn, I said we, were capable and well prepared to embark on this undertaking. And that we grew over time. That we started out on that first day and it was, council members and we knew that you know our town manager had the team engaged but that team grew and truly and I hope our staff recall this believe this is every single staff member because whether they work directly or they were covering for work that somebody left behind because they're working on the fire rescue right is just just absolutely incredible. And anyway, I'll just leave it at that. But, you know, oh my gosh. Thank you.

All of our pleasure and all of our honor.

And with that, I think you want to get out of here. Yep.

And thank you for giving us a heads up to come up with our questions of him.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you.

So I think that we should start, we'll finish the roundtable after we do the one agended item that we were not agended, but we knew we came here to discuss, and that is talking about our performance critique of our talent manager. you know, let everybody have a chance to say something into the record. And then, although we kind of already have, but if you want to say anything else, and then we need to kind of go down the line and, you know, talk about what, what does that, how should we, you know, we address, you know, a compensation, you know, for the, his work of the past year. So with that, somebody want to go first on just the critique? I mean,

I don't have a problem with going first. During my performance evaluation with the town manager, a lot of consideration was given to the creation of Jupiter Fire Rescue. I look at everything you've all said on the dais, and I won't repeat it. It's right in front of us. So he's overseeing 150 staff there. He's overseeing a police department with 150 gun, and I say this, gun-carrying officers, overseeing capital projects, budgets, emergency management, negotiating the PBA contract for our police, managing 600 staff. As I look at this town manager, this man leads with skill, diligence, but the biggest thing I see with our town manager, he leads with a huge heart. And that, of course, cannot be done alone. And it's been demonstrated by every single department that I have and all of us see every day. Yesterday was a clear example. This man knows how to run a town. I equate what this gentleman does... He's as superior if not better than CEO of private firms outside of municipality or in government. So when we get to the point of compensation, I think we need to address everything he's done to this point and know that it took an extraordinary individual who has skills beyond what may have been required of a town manager in other municipalities. So with that, I say those are my comments and wait until we get into consideration for compensation.

Okay, I just have a partial list here. I could have gone on much longer. But anyway, recent hirings of department heads have report recent hirings of department heads have paid immediate dividends, effectively reorganize some town directors organizational organizational chart, effectively improve town staff morale with award recognition. has great teaching and mentoring skill due to his vast experience, effectively organizes and schedules projects, agendas, and time-sensitive ventures, brilliantly organized and executed the JFRD department in less than three years, which, by the way, we started with nothing but one fire station that we can't even access until after the fire department's online. We touched on that tonight. Mr. Kittrow has met and exceeded all my expectations. I could just go on and on. This would be a waste of time, so go to the next counselor.

Well, I'll just go down the dais on this one and just add, because I already commented. But, you know, what I said yesterday was in reflecting upon just fire rescue, really, because it's not just fire rescue. It's the whole organization. that made it happen. And for the three of us that made that initial decision, and yes, I didn't worry about it. I had confidence, but I, and you know, You know, in my other job for years, I have really high, it takes a lot for some, you know, when I would do reviews and whatever, but every single reasonable expectation that I could have ever imagined was exceeded. I mean, really, you can't. In my wildest dreams, I had no doubt we were going to get ready by October 1st, but I thought there'd be some more hiccups along the way, right? I'm a project manager.

Can I ask you a question, because this is your thing?

Yeah.

The only thing I sort of worried about was just the timelines of, building completion, worrying about the contractor, just delivery on time. I never feared, but it all happened. So is that your saying? Is that the only little nagging thing you had?

No, no, but look, I'm a longtime project manager, and we get paid to solve issues that come up, right? And there's no project that ever went smooth. And that's why I don't have any hair, by the way, if you didn't know that.

Right.

but just the fact that it, you know, just the fact that we kept going along and we had hurdles and we had walls that we had to kind of climb over, but every one of them, we just climbed over and just kept going. Right. It was just, it really was, it's the most enjoyable experience I've ever had. So, you know, and you know, I never expected, you know, per se, we're going to be within budget. I knew when we, when I was saying that committing to the public and, We're going to come in under. And again, this is from a seasoned project manager, right? And so I'm just in awe and grateful for the leadership and the entire team effort. So this is a team effort, but a team effort unlike anything I think anybody has truly experienced before.

All right. We're at 9 45 PM. So I'm going to be super quick. I'm going to say the PBA negotiation was excellent. We've talked on fire. So assume all things fire. Yes. PBA negotiation was excellent. A hundredth year anniversary was a lot to coordinate. I think that was excellent. Um, I appreciate his attention to staff, both with his committee to look at quality of life for staff, but also, uh, leadership Jupiter, which is something he started, which is still continuing, just always being accessible. I'm grateful he successfully sworn our new JPD chief and well, a couple actually onboarded our full JFRD team with all these different sectors, strategic planning. You know, I was, you do have to touch on fire because it does touch everything, but you know, project management is making sure there's enough of a buffer when you order apparatus. We ordered those like immediately after making the decision, knowing the three year lead time, we made sure we had every bit of time we could to ensure success and allow for hiccups. So we do, um, that was good. The temporary station is creative problem solving. We had it, we had a wall, we worked, we worked our way over around it. Um, and you know, I just think that's excellent. So those are kind of some of the things that stood out to me. A lot of the negotiations we've had, um, working on the budget, transparency around the budget, mapping, um, strategic planning to the budget more closely. Um, all of that. So the non-advalor studies, all that's been going into that. So he's really been focusing on, on our budget quite a bit and I'm grateful to him for that. So all of these different areas, communications, personnel, project management, fiscal discipline, all of it. I'm grateful.

Ditto. No. A couple things stood out. From an achievement standpoint, obviously we've all mentioned the Jupiter Fire established in the fire department. We saw everything come to fruition tonight or yesterday with the swearing-in ceremony. The PBA contract was a big hurdle, so was Sonny Sands was a big hurdle that we had to get through. With Tom and Frank's leadership, we got through that. I always looked at Frank's board up there, all of the things he had, he was working on. and when he would check them off, and I'd check my notes, how are we doing and everything, and he shared that list with me. So there are so many things you can credit Frank from his leadership standpoint in getting things done. He's very proactive. He's liked by his staff. He looks at opportunities to develop his employees. We've seen that this year. And also he looked where he needed to look as far as promoting some people to very high positions within the town. And we had to go upon his wisdom and what he provided us in making those decisions, and they were all the right decisions. So I had like six different categories I ranked Frank on. I evaluated each one of them, and all but five out of six, I gave him an exceeded expectation. So I think High Limb, he works well with counsel. He keeps us informed, and I think he's the right person for this job at this time.

you know moving on to the second part of it is uh... compensation adjustment i'll just start by saying i do believe uh... that uh... we could give him a uh... adjustment in his base salary and then i do believe uh... due to the special year coincidentally this review goes to six one you know which was the event you know as we reflect that i do believe they should get We should reward him also with some kind of a one-time bonus, if you will, for that work. So I'd open it up for discussion about that.

I agree with that. I think we need a bonus. We spoke about how we were structuring compensation before. I do want to note May 17, 2025, we gave one of the largest structural changes with the contract, the new contract, and his pay. We bumped them up from 248 to 300,000, which was the largest ever done in the history of the town.

So we did a lot.

Um, that was with his contract. It was timed with his contract. So, um, it was kind of, I kind of wish that that would have come with the completion of fire, you know, with the perfect timing for everything. But, uh, we do have another big year for us and we did talk about how, you know, The bonus is it only speaks to the year, right? It's one time, and what a year we've had. So I really want to stand out with that. And for base, I want to look at, and we're going to have a lot of discussions going forward, but the big picture with budget, what we're doing for our staff, looking at what's in line there. Because I feel like we've already done a huge restructuring of base. We did a lot of that last year.

Regarding the bonus, yeah, I think the emphasis should be on the bonus this year based on all the accomplishments in last year and this year. And I'm not opposed to an adjustment, but I think the emphasis should be on all the accomplishments he's completed over the past year or so.

The reason I said both, I thought to some degree, is that just as a general rule, when we established the budget, and we're still really in the fiscal year 26 budget in making this decision, we set a decision in the current fiscal year that people whose review come up during the year would get a 5% adjustment. That doesn't mean everybody gets one. It depends how you perform and whatever. Right. But I do think that sets the basis for, and then beyond that, I think a bonus is because of just the special nature of what's been achieved and where we stand at this momentous moment. So I've thrown it out. the 5% as a salary adjustment, you know, to kind of keep it, you know, every year people generally get some type of adjustment and then a bonus, but as opposed to doing all bonus.

No, I agree with you. My notes reflect what we're giving in the staff. 5% would have been the top employee performance. And I think that's very appropriate. And I think a bonus on the year's activity and what is still to come is where our conversation should we should put energy into that.

Any What was the bonus last go around?

We didn't. We focused on the structure and the base. We did a 50,000 jump, 51.

Two years ago.

Two years ago. Well, 2025, May 2025, yeah, with the contract. So we, because we focused on base, we didn't do. You didn't do a bonus last time?

No, we did it two years ago. Two years ago, okay. Effectively, we moved that bonus into the base. Into the base, right, okay. It's kind of what we did, yeah.

I think it was 10,000. Yeah.

What was the bonus?

It was 50. The one-time bonus? It was 50. It was 51 times.

Because that's almost why we then moved that into base the second year, seeing it's really been consistent, right? Okay. Plus, we had, you know, we don't, for the newer members here, for the newer members, you know, we do get, when we ask, and we have it from last year, and, you know, Vice Mayor, you were aboard, but, you know, Councilor Geisinger wasn't, so we, you know, I didn't ask for it this time because I still had the benchmark to other you know, of the, and I know there's a just every year, but, you know, and so I still even have that here, you know, of how others are, you know, compensated, if you will. But, in any event, so.

Well, you're looking for a recommendation for a bonus?

Yeah, well, we need to come to a consensus on it, so let's talk about it.

You know, we agreed upon the 5%. Do we read just I guess that's that they have to be a 15 K increase in the hour correct and we've we've done 5% before in the plan currently on from a bonus, I think it's something to be a little higher than that higher than 15 maybe double be happy with the 35 K bonus takes it to 350 for all the work he's done in the last year, the bonus plus the adjustment.

I agree with that.

I think.

Well, just to the degree that I've been sitting up here and in the past participated, you know, two years ago in large part when we gave them 50, it was in large part the progress we were making. Now it's been effectively brought across the finish line. So I was curious to hear what people would say, but it's great. In my mind, it had to be at least that I agree.

Yeah, it was 50. At least that for what's for this type of for this? Yeah. What number these results we've gotten since it's what were you thinking of a number? It's kind of not really but 60 more.

I'm open to the 50. I understand your rationale about wanting to go forward, but I think with the 5% leaving it at that and $50,000 bonus, I'm comfortable there.

Do we have a consensus on that?

I was happy with the thirty-five, so.

I was also, I think we've got a really challenging operating environment, a different operating environment than we had before. It is, I mean, I've always been cautious about, he is an executive and we have to pay him like an executive. And I agree with the 5% and I agree with the bonus. I think 35 is excellent. I think it's not, it's not a small amount. I want to be careful about where we go with this in the future because I see these amounts like the 50, the 50 K base was really shocking, really hard to digest for me. We got it there, but that was really hard for me. And I'm just, I kind of worry where this is going because we're really leaving the stratosphere of other municipalities.

Do you think so?

Oh, yes.

I don't know.

Boca is 307. And it's a larger population. I absolutely want to honor this accomplishment. I want there to be a bonus. I want it to be significant. I think it is. I welcome the 5%.

want to be careful with staff watching with others watching and all that we're about to go through i want to signal that we're being careful and being i understand yeah and i just give my basis um the and i have a year old salary data here so you know we said last year palm beach gardens city mayor gets last year was at 412. And we said, no, we're never going to compensate for that, right? So we're aware of that. But no, I'm just saying. But there was three others on this list. last year that were making that were making 300 more than 300 okay so i you know i put uh you know frank in that category which is why last year i was supportive of moving his base salary to there we're still in the range what's that we're still in the range yeah yeah i don't understand population is one of them west palm beach with the west palm beach population population yeah Yeah. But when we look at what's been achieved, I'm just saying that was last year. And so I don't think moving at 5%, you know, it's still kind of and they could all have gotten. But then on the bonus side, I mean, if there ever is a time, you know, and the bonus isn't perpetual, it's one time and that's it. Right. So I'm not as sensitive to a message I'm sending because I certainly believe that. it's time to, you know, reward. So that's why.

I agree. The Jupiter fire is so significant. And I think the 5% increase in salary, that's just, to me, that would just be successful. It's just mandatory. I think this is such a milestone. I mean, I asked him, I said, Frank, is this the crowning achievement of your career? He kind of pondered a little bit. He goes, yeah, I've never started a department before. You know, it's significant. So I'm in at least 50% I mean, I'll do what you folks want, but I think he deserved at least 50.

Well, and I look at bonuses as just that, the past year, in addition to fire rescue, the contractual nightmare that he went through the police department, and then just what we saw tonight. I think it's a thank you. He did it. He did it in a seamless way that not many people could do. His emotions... And to keep the team that made that happen, his leadership is powerful, and I think we have to appreciate that, and I know we all do. So I think that $50,000 is one time. Bonuses aren't given out every year, and they shouldn't be structured into somebody's compensation.

Which is why we have it in the contract that way and the way we deal with it.

Exactly.

And last year we didn't do a bonus. Yeah. But I'll just say this also to add. It's like, you know... I remember as we were preparing for the event yesterday, meaning some days before, I was telling Frank, you know, we made the decision on August 15th, 2023, and here we are 33 and a half months later. His first words were, it felt like six years.

Right.

No, no, I mean, I'm serious. So you think about it as now time flies, but it was subconsciously saying the toll it took on him.

That's the longest pregnancy ever.

And the reason he could do it is because he has the temperament to withstand all the moving parts. And most people do not, even in an executive position, is that. I know you're thinking of town employees worth this thing, but this is the CEO of the town. It's a special position. I don't gauge it with the other pay scales. The 5%, yeah, but I'm looking at retention. I want to keep him for a while. He's going to want to retire someday, and I think he deserves a 50.

I think we have a majority, too, and I'm certainly not going to get in the way of harming our town manager or have a vote be too close, so...

You know, I understand what you're saying, and I think we're already... You can also look at it as the success of implementing Jupiter Fire, the money the taxpayers are saving. This is just a nice little thank you from everybody. That's true. Thank you for saving us $10 million a year. Very true. I know sometimes when they give a guy a $50K bonus, not everybody out there realizes the work and the whiteboards. I mean, he just gets... Tom, you see it, he just gets it done.

And it was more than $10 million because if we went to the full millage.

It would have been.

But just lastly, and almost really, this really did hit me actually because, you know, Frank probably wasn't even thinking about what he was saying, but it was really how he felt. I mean, he was, yesterday was like, and he was saying, I feel the weight off my shoulder. And I said to him, you put it there. He put it on himself, but he's been through six years and 33 and a half months, and I was sharing that with his wife because we were standing there, and she was saying how many times she was experiencing him not being able to rest well because of all these obstacles, you know, anyway.

Well, and he also ran the entire town in addition to bringing that 33 months together, so I think we all

Do we have a consensus then for 5% and $50,000?

Yeah, I won't stand in the way. You have my consensus. Thank you. I just don't want to confuse what's required of the job. To me, the PBA is all part of the job as opposed to what went above and beyond, which is the fire department. So I'm okay with it.

Thank you. And you know what? There's a whole bunch of managers from the municipalities that never would have taken this lift on.

Right.

Because they've been easy to say, hell, we can't do it. Exactly.

been a lot of councils and managers would have taken.

So thank you. Then moving on. I don't think we have to direction motion. Now we need a motion.

Why don't you do that.

OK. All right. I'd like to make a motion to give the town manager 15 percent not sorry 5 percent salary salary increase and a one time fifty thousand dollar bonus.

OK. Second.

Motion to second all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries unanimously. Okay moving on to just remaining items for roundtable I know one item I'll first turn it over to Councilor Sundstrom because we got given to us a legislative item she wanted to discuss.

And this is a roundtable just in Council Commons. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Just checking. Yes. Let me move over. So, Council, you received a series of eight letters today. They are drafted for each of our appropriations requests, which are still in the budget. Unbelievably, we're thrilled with our lobbyists, with all the efforts that have gone into this. We have been actively building a case for each of these. A number of letters are being sent from others, but we also wanted to have this suite of letters from our mayor and from our council. So they were sent earlier for review, and I just wanted to ask. that we have consensus, that we send those out in support of our priorities. And it is, again, it's great news that this late in the game, we have all of these appropriations requests still in the game.

We have an opportunity to support them through these letters like this.

Absolutely. And from us, it's kind of table stakes. We're also getting others that

This is something we needed to do, and we've never done it before.

I'm so thrilled with our lobbyists just to understand the process to be included like this, to be able to be a part of it, to learn, to contribute. I can't say enough good things about our lobby.

Do you need a motion for this?

Well, we're discussing the question.

I just have just two comments about the letters and I could live with them exactly as they are. But when I'm about to say the first part is first item is consistent with what I said earlier. Mayor as mayor, it's appropriate that I would sign the letter, but all the council's on here. So I think all the letters should start with not as mayor of the town of Jupiter, I, but we are writing.

We have in the past sent letters like on the Jonathan Dickinson issue. We sent a letter with all of our signatures. We could do that.

Well, we could do that or we could do that. And, you know, I wasn't saying that, but I'm OK with that. I think my point was, I do think that, you know, because it says mayor on the signature. So if it was just my signature, then you don't need to start off, you know, saying, you know, as mayor. So either way, I'm OK with.

So that's one item.

I think that it's more appropriate to share that to change the mayor on behalf of the council.

That's a good idea. That's the quickest. Yeah. Yeah.

And then I just thought on the athletic field repairs, and I really, you know, I was trying to come up with some quick wording, but I just wanted to make the point that, you know, and I like the fact, I think there was even words in here about the athletic park. It talks about regional athletic complex, but in the first, second paragraph, I'm just talking about the $700,000 athletic repairs. But I do think that some reference to the fact that 50, I think education to the governor helps that 50% of athletic team participation participants using these town owned parks and facilities reside outside the town of Jupiter and therefore contribute no, maybe sensitive, but property taxes towards field maintenance and upgrades. You know, because I do think, I mean, I said that to our legislators because I wanted them to know, no, this isn't an earmark for the town. This is an earmark truly, you know, for a greater population.

Yeah, exactly. So I just think that note could be added in here.

Other than that, I looked at them, and I appreciate the effort put into this, but I just think that does help our case.

Do I agree with that? Yeah. I want to just check with staff because a number of letters are being sent on our behalf from BDB, from a number of other partners of ours that may offer other perspectives, and we may be trying to offer different perspectives. but I agree. We want to generally have a higher level view of things. We could talk about, um, yeah, the number of, of youth and adults from other municipality. We, we can, well, exactly. We could give percentages, we could give numbers, but we could give a regional, a more regional perspective in terms of data. So I did look at that one. Um, and I did notice the same thing, especially after the beach one that talks about the 500,000 annual users And that gave the regional perspective, we should have the same for the park. So that's fine. I think that's fine. But then all of the letters would need to be changed for on behalf of versus the one brief.

Keep it brief.

Yeah. As long as we can get them signed it out soon. Cause this is a tight time.

I know it does. Yeah. So we'll just leave it to you with that comments and you could edit it and then you can sign digitally or whatever.

Wonderful. Um, and then just the other update, as I'm sure all of, you know, the Florida legislature approved Governor DeSantis' property tax relief proposal. So it was passed with a 30-9 vote in the Senate, a 75-26 in the House. This measure could scale up the state's homestead exemption from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027, up to $250,000 by 2028. So it's a lot to digest. It was released late last week, over the weekend. This session was only a couple of days. So we're all... taking a breath, adjusting, understanding how this, um, you know, works in Jupiter. And so, you know, as time goes on, I'm sure throughout this budget season, we'll be having more conversations about that, but that is all for the legislative side. Um, I thanked Travis and legal that was on my list. Um, I do want to say, I'm going to, I'm going to say this. I'm really, um, A little frustrated with the communication around the NAV. I think we really need to improve the non-Avalorum assessment communication. I think there's a lot of good news there that's getting a little confused.

That word is.

Yeah. And I know the letter, and I kind of agree. I've had so many residents and neighbors come up to me since the letter came out. And the main concern is that they feel, when they hear assessment, when you hear HOA assessment or something like that, they're thinking it's additive. Correct. They're thinking it's additive.

It is not additive.

This is a conversation I had with Scott yesterday. We just need to do a better job visualizing, sharing that from the resident's point of view, across the kitchen table. I've said before, maybe Marlee could do something. We need to... do a better job with this. We are replacing, we're, we're removing a huge number. We talked about that, all the savings, but, um, every single, um, trim notice, every, you know, every single property tax bill, that line item for Jupiter fire is disappearing. And that is big news, big news potentially. So depending on of course what we do, we need to do it. We're not doing it. And we really need to, and I'm frustrated, and I know that legally we have different restrictions in terms of the letter. That wasn't our language. That's legal language that has to go in there. But we are burying the lead. We are not being clear, and we're not putting it at a household level. $10 million is not easy to understand. So I agree with some of what I'm hearing.

How about a video explanation?

All that we did for fire rescue on the web page, not the website, but we need to really make sure that everyone understands what this is and that there is a lot of good news all around on fire rescue. It's going to keep coming. It started yesterday. The savings, all of it is good news. As soon as I walk it through with my neighbors and I show them the trim notice, and I put a giant X through this one line, and I talk about the dollars. Then they get it. But I can't do that 62,000 times or whatever. So we really have to scale it up. I want to see something and soon, because we're going to come to a meeting that's going to be packed with mostly confused residents, And I don't want that for them. And I want everyone to be able to celebrate and enjoy Jupiter Fire Rescue. And that's it.

Council Gasson, do you have anything? Nothing to add to that.

I'm done.

I know I just want to say I agree with come for fun storm in that that language unfortunately a special assessment is what I think precipitated you're sitting at a kitchen table we and we can't do it to 62,000 people so. If we can do.

And I just want to add to that. So first of all, I've watched how the community has reacted to the notification. And they're all over the map. I mean, I saw one person saying, oh, my gosh, I thought I was going to this line item goes away and now we pay 60 bucks. So they were actually using it to defend people. Oh my gosh, no, it's not bad. This is good news. Look how much we're saving. So I mean, they're all over the map. Not everybody is worrying. Some people think they're getting much better. Oh my gosh, I'm getting bigger savings than I thought. So with that, I just want to say, I looked at, well, It's a complicated subject. And I don't know that anybody could have ever done it the way ideally we want, because it's a complicated subject, which is why I've been advocating all along. Let's just keep it simple. What we were telling people for two years, but that said, and, but the next meeting is when this happens. So people are going to be here next meeting. And, uh, I just want to share kind of in closing, you know, I, I had gotten from, you know, Scott, the line item, by property number assessment. And so I've confirmed that what I consider to be unfair disparities are widespread. And I've talked that, so I'm talking about the non, The disparities is that fundamentally residential properties that have garages, porches, balcony spaces, if you've got a townhome or a condo, you don't pay for that. Single family, you do. So I've confirmed that, given this to Scott. The islands of Abacoa townhouses, the Charleston Court townhouses, the Abacoa Town Center townhouses, the Tuscany townhouses, the Martinique townhouses, the Windsor Park townhouses, the Canterbury Place townhouses, New Haven townhouses, Botanica townhouses, Sea Palms townhouses, Mallory Creek townhouses, Greenwich townhouses, Osceola Wood townhouses, Tierra del Sol or Jupiter condominiums, the Cornerstone condominiums, 15 areas widespread will benefit from a different assessment. that I think is unfair. Now, you could say everybody's, you know, it's okay, but in addition, early on I was just saying I didn't agree with the way the assessment is where it was kind of an exponential. I don't think, and I would hope, I don't want our staff to have to try to defend this, to try to defend how there was ever any logic Everybody was well-intentioned. You know, I have no doubt about that, right? The ideal thing was to do this, but I just think it's a mistake. You know, people, why? You know, can't answer that because we were told on day one you couldn't change it when we asked the question.

But we have to know that it's not. I agree with the residents that spoke earlier. It's not. You could argue either way. Should I be paying as much as a celebrity with a $40,000? No, no. You can make the case either way, but ultimately it's at the margins. The vast majority of the rate will be non-ad valorem. This offers resilience. It takes care of the debt portion. It does a lot for the stability, financial stability. We're not debating it.

All I want to do is just have Sharon.

But there's a $2 million gap as well in the general fund that we would have to sort.

It would be done by ad valorem tax.

But that's taken a tiny percentage of what's going to be. So the line items coming off from Palm Beach County Fire is coming off their tax bill. That's going away. And the cheaper price of Jupiter Fire is going to be added to the normal ad valorem. Hold on a second. And a tiny percentage was added to the ad valorem that we're going to have a 5-0 vote to increase. It'll still be much cheaper than Palm Beach County Fire. And a tiny percentage of that is going to be that. But when you keep bringing that up, you're adding to the confusion out there. Because people, now you're saying it's not fair. That's adding to it.

It's not confusion. It isn't fair. You can say it's fair.

But it's also not fair for a 2,000 square foot home to pay the same amount as a celebrity 10,000 waterfront.

There's no exact...

fair absolute down to the penny fair, it's peanuts on the margins. So we're going to have to do that. We did that. I understand. I understand you want complete fairness. Nothing's going to be exact. It's it's pennies. But that gives the town flexibility in the future for because that can be used for debt service, which add Valerian and not and seeing what's coming down the pike with property taxes with Tallahassee. We don't know yet. It just gives us flexibility.

No, we don't. And we could come back if we if if we were to decide not to do it, we could come back next year and do it. And you would keep the cut in explanation completely consistent with what we represented.

We could.

I'm just saying this because next time...

I'm not married to that.

Next meeting is going to be the public hearing.

But we're getting a chance to discuss, and it is complicated, so any time to discuss is a good time to discuss.

I'm not married to either way. Either way, we're saving over $10 million a year first year out of the gate.

And every resident is saving and this is at the margin.

That's adding to the confusion.

It's not adding to the confusion, it's a fact. There's a logic. Okay, a garage or a porch or a balcony in a townhome doesn't have a fire hazard.

It's granular. And we've got a communications issue.

But if we go to the flat rate, that's not fair. If you're, you know... Does a 20,000-square-foot home have more potential for fire hazard than a 3,000-square-foot home? It probably does. It has more systems.

To me, this is a bigger disparity than the square footage.

I don't know.

But whatever.

But we've got a millage issue as well. I mean, we're going to have a host of communication issues, but if we're not aligned on this, if we're not being proactive, we need to be more proactive, I think, because we have more stuff coming down the pike. This is just one part of it. And given our external environment, we're really going to have to. What we learned from fire rescue is that in tough times, more communication is better, not less. And so if we have to do a town hall like we did during e-bikes or something, listening sessions, HOAs, we have to get the message out around the financing for Jupiter Fire because there is a lot of confusion around finance. And we are, we have done such an incredible job. We are doing, this is good news. This is good news. And I don't want that to be lost. And I don't want to build anxiety into an environment that already has so much. And so I just cautioned this council, all of us, we have a lot of heavy lift coming up through these next months. Let's do our best to not add to confusion, to try to come around something so that we can help our residents digest a whole lot of change.

We were told in the first meeting we heard about that when you do a study, you can't change it. We were told when we asked. So, okay.

There's no absolute fair system. I don't disagree.

And I think just to summarize it is...

But if not all of us are married to it, then... We have a communication issue more than anything else.

We have a positive $10 million... All positive. We've got to communicate. And if we have to think about communicating around a kitchen table, let's do it. town halls, whatever it takes. It's positive. Get the message out. Yep.

With that, the time is now 1021 and we'll adjourn the meeting.