Commission - Regular Meeting

We can get rid of one of these chairs. Yeah, spread out a little bit space. Water. No, sir. I'll take a water. Long Island. Yeah. Okay.

She's on. Good morning, Commissioner Tinder. How are you? Good morning. How are you? Not too bad. Welcome. We're about to kick off and I just wanted to make sure you could hear us. Oh, yes, I can. Thank you. All right. Yes, ma'am. Good. I haven't even tried it yet, sir. Give me a

All right. Can y'all hear me? Okay. Testing. Testing. Cool. That's just the um the mic so they can hear us do the live feed. Sounds good. Well, good morning everyone. Um, welcome to our trial slashg guinea pig run of town hall. The plan is to try three of these and see how they go. Uh, special thanks and recognition goes to Commissioner War. This was his brainchild. Brainchild. Yes, ma'am. Brainchild. And so we're going to give this a run. Uh, Commissioner War, would you like to say a few words on kind of what your intent is?

Yeah. I so one of the reasons I did this was um a lot of times when we have public commentary during our regular commission meetings, people expect us to respond and have a back and forth. That's actually not what's supposed to happen during public commentary during a commission meeting. Um they actually recommend you not do that because if you watch a lot of videos online when you start having that back and forth and get it go south really quick and it can come hostile and that's the last thing we want to happen in Linhaven. And so the feedback I received was we'd like to have some more collaboration, some more uh discussions and that. So I thought this would be a good idea to try something like this. Um I actually didn't come up with the idea myself. I saw Panama City was doing it and I'll be honest with you when I first saw them talking about doing it. I thought it was probably a big mistake, but it seems to be working very well over there. Figured give this a try and see how it worked. And uh looking forward to uh your feedback and inputs. So, as we kick this off, any other commissioner, city manager, y'all want to say anything,

opening remarks, if you will, Mayor, we did um you know, per the request, we created the town hall email, and we did receive uh two emails for that. We can talk about that after the the folks that are here uh their commentary, and I can bring up the emails that we received for discussion through that. Cool. commissioners. Uh I just wanted to say that um I think if we're going to do this, one of the things that'd be a good idea is that you got

if we do this that we come up with topics to kind of spur the discussion. And so today my topic is I want to hear everyone's feedback on ideas on how to raise funds for events for the city. So, if that would be like a private partner sponsorship or a way that we can raise money to do things like Easter events and stuff without having to raise taxes because there's ways to do that. Other cities do it all over the nation. So, if we can figure out ways to do that, that's how we can have more events led by the city without having to raise a taxes. Commissioner Pero, next

um I I just want to hear from people that are here. This is an opportunity to have two-way conversation and and just to just to note, we're going to do this for 3 months, but I I I don't know where we want to go. What we what we talked about was possibly eliminating public commentary in the meetings and that didn't seem to go too well with everybody. And I and I'm I'm agreeable to what the consensus of the population is. Um, but in order for this to be a a good trial, I would say, and I don't, and Commissioner War, you could chime in if you've changed your mind or what, but I think one of the months, one of the months, either our third month or second month of the trial, we should eliminate public commentary from a meeting so we get the the the right the right, you know, and I don't want I don't want to think that it's going right back, but but in order for this to be the perfect um um you know dry run. We we've got to do it as it's intended I think for one month of the three months and then see what our see what our see see what our feedback is. I don't want people coming with the pitchforks that month cuz they're mad at us cuz we didn't do public commentary. will give it enough fair warning. But the the the whole model of this thing from what I got from from you, sir, and what Panama City does is that they they streamline their meetings, but they give the they give the populace an opportunity to have two-way conversations with the with with the city. So, instead of instead of a just addressing the chair, that's what I got from it. And and at first I was like, ah, we got to keep I want to keep public commentary, don't get me wrong. I want I it's, you know, it's something that I feel like if it's if it's if it's

what the public wants. But, you know, just coming out of the box, I wanted to say that that's that's that's all. And uh and I'm open to any ideas people have and want to want to chat back and forth. So, and just to reiterate, in that scenario where public commentary during the dry run would not be in the public would not be in a a typical commission meeting, people would still be able to talk on agenda items. It's only the public commentary section all the time. That's the law, right? Law. Yep. So, with that, we'll kick this off. We've never done this before, so we're flying blind a little bit, but the concept is we open the floor. Anyone that wants to come up and talk can. Um,

and it looks like we have our first guinea pig volunteer, Mr. Ryan Gray. Thank you. You can adjust that if you need to. What's this thing on?

Okay. Um, good morning, commission. So, to cover a couple things. One thing that Pat said is I think if you're going to do that test run, you just move public commentary on agenda items only, right? earlier in the agenda so we can talk to you about the upcoming agenda items. Agenda items only. I happen to agree with Pat. If you really want to test this out, that's something you probably need to do. Um, on Sam's topic because he asked to talk about that, I want to bring something up. Um, public public private partnerships are a great way to raise funds. Right now, Lynhaven has a shortage of funds. Like we're all we're, you know, cut cut budget last year. We're trying to find more funds. There's a lot of opportunity for us to raise funds for events and really events shouldn't cost the city anything. Fourth of July, Winter Wonderland, um Easter, whatever the events are, the concerts, the city shouldn't be paying any money. I mean, maybe you provide some city staff support and so you pay that way, but really the cost of the event and everything should be on the vendors that are doing the event. Um, when I was in the Air Force, we would do events on the Air Force base and we would do reverse concession air contracts. So, basically put out uh requests for quotes and you get with the quotes you get back aren't how much it's going to cost the city, it's how much the vendor thinks the city can make from the event. And it's a shared profit model. So maybe the vendor says, "Hey, I think this event, if we do it this way, can make, you know, the city can get 20% of our profit, and our profit on this event is $1,000. So the city's going to get $200, you know, for this event." Um, the city can put parameters in a in an RFQ like that. So you guys use different terminology. For me, RFQ is request for quote in the in the defense world. So, when I say RFQ, Chris, that's what I'm talking about. Um, but you could put parameters in

there. For example, uh, you could say, "Hey, the concerts, they have to be free for general admission to all, you know, all members of the public. But if a vendor wanted to do like some VIP stuff or something, they could do all that." Um, same for like Fourth of July, has to be free to attend. It has to be familyfriendly. You could put qualifiers in there and see what you get back on bids. And I think you might actually be surprised if you try it what you get back. You can try it for a year. If you don't like it, city can go back to doing things themselves or not doing them at all. Um, so I think that's one thing Sam to address your topic on what you guys could look at. Yeah, definitely.

The thing I want to talk about is uh something I've been talking about for like 3 years now. Um, I I would like and to be fair, I didn't get to watch all eight hours of the video uploaded. I appreciate you guys recording yesterday and uploading it. I've not gotten through it. I'm through about half of the first segment. Um, great discussions happening, but what I want to talk about is guiding development in Linhaven. You know, implementing some type of zoning overlays. What is it going to take for us to get there as a community and not 10 years from now, but like start now and in the next couple years? see where you guys are guiding development and not just approving every development coming through. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Um I let you finish that topic and we'll try to adhere to the the 3minut rule. Uh let you finish up if you've got 5 seconds or more to finish your statement or your sentence. I'll allow you to finish the thought out of respect. We'll kind of free flow. We got enough time I think for that to happen this morning. Um, to the last point, zoning, it's it's coming. We talked quite a bit about it yesterday in the public works section. I think there's violent agreement that we all need to do it. We need to plan our work, then work our plan. And the more as we continue to grow, we're going to have to do so strategically and realistically, we're limited by geography. So, as we grow where it's possible to grow, uh, we need to do so in a very smart, proactive manner instead of a reactive manner. We don't need four gas stations on every corner. We don't need 22 fried chicken joints in Linhaven. You know, we need more variety. And you don't There's a lot that can be done with effective zoning. The good news is and uh city manager, would you like to speak to that kind of what we're working on in terms of uh the zoning what you briefed yesterday?

Yes. So, we we received a proposal. It's about $200,000 to look at our zoning uh implement zoning maps, hold public workshops and all of the implement implementation that it would take to progress in back into zoning. Um the commission did request to set up a workshop, a public workshop in the month of April. So I've reached out to our consultant looking at some dates and we will be scheduling a public workshop one evening to discuss the zoning and what all it would entail uh to accomplish that. Okay. Thank you. So the plan is we definitely we all recognize the need to do that moving forward. I still am not clear why they did away with it 20some years ago, but we definitely need to get that back. Absolutely.

So any other commissioner want to speak to zoning?

So this is where I'm at with it. Um I haven't made a decision yet on it. And the reason being is it's a lot of money. It's a little over $200,000 from what we were briefed yesterday is what we project it would cost for us to go to zoning. Um, but I'm I'm really looking forward to the workshop to make sure I have all the information I I have in order to make an informed decision. One of the things that I've been pushing probably for about 3 years now is updating the unified land development code and the comprehensive plan. That is something that is desperately needed in this city and it has we need to do it. And um why it's taken this long, I don't know, but it's something I've been pushing and I'm going to continue to push for it. That's kind of and I just say that so you know where I'm at with it. So,

well, thank you, sir. You're welcome. Commissioners, y'all want to pipe in on zoning at all? Are you good?

Sure. Uh, I think that the 200,000, although it sounds like a lot, is less than what I anticipated. So, that's good news. Uh, I'll say that we did have it on the the ballot last time to get as a non-binding referendum to see where people stood and it did not pass. So, I would say to people out here, if you are forzoning, you're really going to have to um and us to include us is advertise to everybody else why you think it's important because it's going to look really really bad if we put it on a ballot. people voted no and then we do it anyways. So, I think the reason it probably voted no is the way it was worded because it just said significant cost because we hadn't done enough um research at the time to see how much it would cost. But now we have more information on it and we can actually talk to people about it and why it's important. Um I'm with Commissioner Work that I'm not 100% sold on it yet. I on in theory it's a great idea. I don't have enough information yet to know if it is 100% the right idea, but I'll continue to do research. I I do agree. I think I'm going to start digging into the UDLC and stuff like you said cuz I think that that's the uh that's the first step for sure. Um but yeah, that's my thoughts on it. Commissioner Pera,

I uh just if you remember, we had a consultant or a professor from Florida State come and talk to us a while back and I had said something about zoning and I got got some weird eyes, but this fella said when he reviewed all of our stuff and it was about it was a workshop about the ULDC and whatnot. And this guy, this cat is a he's a planner, you know, he's he's a um he's a professor of urban development. Yep. Well, we left that meeting and I talked to him afterwards and his his words to us is like, "You need to start you need a zoning map."

And when I I got on board, you were on board with ulc changes and and and he said, "You you you you really you got to start with a zoning map. get a zoning map and then change your uldc and go from there. Then you can enforce these these things on your map about, you know, about too many of of one or another. You know, you still have land uses, but you you can have a more or less a quota on things. um that that rung good with me and and I thought we were making progress, but we got told at the time it would have been like $800,000 for a zoning map, you know, and and that number just didn't sit good with with the way the the budget was and whatnot. And um since then we've talked about it and then I'm just recapping and Ryan you've jumped on board as a proponent for zoning really quickly with it and and uh u um Chris I know that you've looked at it and we've got the price tag down to somewhere in the $200,000 range which I believe as a project that would be uh good for the future of the city of Linhaven is is is is a is um could be a well spent project. I mean, the city does projects to, you know, road, sewers, stuff like that, but investing in our future is a big deal. And and uh yeah, the way it was worded on the ballot was I thought it was kind of a turnoff, too. Is kind of like, hey, do you know, we need to do do you want zoning? We need zoning, but it's at a considerable expense, you know, and the citizens are like-minded like us. You know, we're not going to spend the city's money if we don't have to. But if we're going to spend it for a good reason and we're going to and we're going to invest in in the future of our city for our for for for for our for our children's children, let's let's let's look at something like that.

Yes, sir. And I don't know how it got away from us. We got rid of zoning in 2008 and no one no one really wants to say where where zoning went. I think state regulations changed and I think was an opportunity to streamline the the city to to do away with a with that part of a building department or so forth and so on. So that's my guess. I don't know if any of the older people that have been around city know what happened in 2008, but we we lost our zoning map and our zoning department after 2008 is what I was told. So yes, sir.

Commissioner Tinder, would you like to chime in with your thoughts, ma'am, on zoning? Uh yes, I would I agree with um uh Sam and and Pat that it got lost in that the way it was worded on the ballot. And I had more people say, "Oh, that that's taxpayers money we're going to have to spend. That's so much money." And I think they compared it I think they compared it to what else we could do with th those funds. And uh and at one point I even had someone say, "Hold it." It said that our taxes would go up. And anyway, I the way it was worded I think threw it totally off. I personally think we need some sort of zoning. Things are getting way out of hand. And that's just like you said at the beginning. Um g four gas stations on one corner and things like that. That's just not necessary. And I think we need to take a real hard look at that.

Thank you, ma'am.

And and one more thing just to let everybody know, you know, our our hands are tied a lot on development orders because of the lack of zoning and zoning map. This isn't something willy-nilly that we want to do. So, people come up here and want to do a lane use change and build something. And you all may not agree with it, but we've got to sit here based on on them dotting their eyes and crossing their tees with the state. And we we we have to say yes. You know, a lot of times our hands are tied on development orders and and and you you you you look at us and say, "Hey, why the hell are they putting another letting them put another gas station there or build that there?" Well, it's it's not it's not us. It goes past us a lot of times because we don't have the the zoning in place. So some cities even don't even bring development orders to the commission because if they meet requirements they just allow it. It's almost kind of like a formality by the time it comes to us.

Mayor follows.

Sure. And just a note of administrative. We've got a fairly small crowd here. If we had every seat full, uh we probably would be a hard limit to the 3 minutes, but we've got a small enough an intimate group here. very glad y'all showed up. Um, what will happen is, uh, and of course Ryan Scray is one of our more talkative, engaged citizens. Uh, I'm not surprised at all. He was our volunteer guinea pig right out of the shoot. Um, but everyone will get a chance to speak and then if no one else, you know, comes up and someone who has already spoken would like to come up a second time, as long as we still have time in our two hours, you are more than welcome to do so. This is your time. us commissioners are here to support you and to listen to you. So, if you got two things to say, like I'm sure Ryan has about a half dozen. Um, we'll listen to at least the first two.

Yeah.

Uh, just quick followup. Um, you know, you guys you guys know I like to use AI to find lead me in the path of finding more information. So, I just quick asked um asked Chad GPT, what are ways Lyn Haven can fund $200,000 for a zoning map implementation without using their own tax monies. And it gave me nine ideas right off the bat and uh kind of broke it down to stacking funding sources. Um you can partner do partnerships with developers. Their developers in other cities have been willing to implement zoning. it makes their lives easier to develop in a community so they can pitch in money. Um, small planning search charges and there are grants out there that can help as well. So, um, I'm just going to copy and paste what it's spit out and email it to y'all.

Thank you. Thank you, Brian. That's a great idea, buddy, because we've got developers that tell us all the time that they don't want to build in Linhaven. It's too cost too much to build in Linhaven. if we made it more costefficient for them to build in Linhaven, they'd get on board and and and and help us. And I know there's a lot of good people out there that that want to that want to help us that that that are in that in that building um business.

And philosophically, General Coen Powell said this often. I actually heard him say it one time. Um leadership isn't about the pizzazz and the wow. It's what or how the organization is when you come into it. It's how you leave it. So, as we as a current commission, uh, if we can set the city up for success here so that our future successors and like Pat said, our kids and our grandkids, if we can leave the city in better shape than we found it, with reasonable, effective zoning in place, uh, to build going forward, that's a very good thing. Um, the rest of Florida's just about filled up, minus the panhandle at this point, right? South Florida, Central Florida for a long, long time has been the the main source of growth in the Sunshine State. We're now the third largest uh state, our third most populous state. Um, and we'll probably be number two in the next decade or so, right? So, where is most of the future growth going to be? Well, there aren't been so many more orange groves that they can, you know, mow down and build subdivisions in down in central and south Florida. A lot of that growth is going to be coming up here to the panhandle uh in North Florida in general. So, as more people come into Florida and as we build, as Bay County grows, as Linhaven grows, how do we do that as effectively as possible? And zoning is going to help us a lot. It's going to help our kids and our grandkids who will be up here one day doing this kind of stuff. So the uh 2024 census data came back and the greater Bay County area had the second largest growth in the nation.

So yeah, people are coming here especially after co Mr. George Oh, sorry. Drive-through Freeport. Oh yeah, huge. Yeah, Mr. George Hines. Good morning.

Morning y'all. I want to talk about the impact for you in Lever. We have five houses for habit habitat being built in New Haven in the last 20 years. And the reason we don't build in New Haven a lot is because of impact fees. We can build in other other cities in the county a whole lot easier. We can in Haven Haven also have excess land that they can donate to Habitat. We can build houses. People have affordable housing. They have people in this county building houses and renting them for a whole lot more money and we can build one. So, I would like for y'all to look into that and try to help Habitat for Humanity because that's part of the charity that I deal with mostly right now. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you,

Mr. Hines. Would you do me a favor and email me uh a good point of contact? I got your contact. Angela, I got her. I got her that your main person from Bay. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Cool. Angela's good. Thank you. Come on up, Mr. Basher. Mr. Johnny Basher. All right. Let's talk. Um, first, I don't think you can have too much fried chicken. Knock that one out. Cardiologist might disagree with you.

So, a couple of things. Um, per Pat's thing on eliminating public commentary as a trial in one meeting. I suggest you do that before the third town hall so you get true feedback at that next town hall on how that works. So, try to keep that in mind. Um, I have I have a couple of questions. Does I would like to know what prompted Amy Meyers to resign and leave. It was kind of out of the blue for the citizens that she was leaving. I don't I'd like to know how that transpired, how we went from having her to not having her and why she resigned. Um, I think also that, and this is different, we fail to go back and capture the things we say we're going to do or the commission says they're going to do. One one example of that would be y'all had a meeting and it was decided to demolish the splash pad at this meeting. It wasn't a commission meeting. You're going to have to come back and and direct them at a commission meeting. Thus far, I don't believe the city has had any direction to tell them to go ahead and accomplish that. But I've not seen it in another commission meeting. There needs to be some mechanism to go back and review what you said you were going to do in one meeting to make sure it gets done in some previous meetings. It's not just a splash pad. I think if you go back through a year of commission minutes, you'll see there's been several things that have been said, "We'll do that," and then it just falls in a blank hole somewhere. So, we need to think about how we can capture those things that you say you're going to do. Um I hope um Chris that one of the letters you got that Chris one of the emails you got was from Michelle I believe.

No sir, not to the town hall one. Okay. Well, all right. Well, or as of yesterday morning.

Okay. Um I thought she was sending you one. Anyway, for the donations thing, she's been trying to get a an event set up to use the sports complex for quite a while and it she's trying to get donations. there's not a donation policy in the city and the she can't move forward. It can't move forward until that policyy's in place. Now, she's been told that the city attorney is working on that, but I don't know. You've changed city attorneys. That's one of the things that she wants to know. How can we move this I can bike forward. She's been working on it. She's worked with several people in the city that to get it accomplished and it's taking forever. they're going to lose the possibility of doing it because the organization that does it is going to be full and not have any slots left if we don't get it accomplished. So, that's one obstacle you have to donations and getting partnerships with people. You don't have a donation policy that allows it. That's what we've been told. Um, so that's donations. The last thing is I would like to know on the 200,000 plus that was lost to a fishing scam what the status of that is. If we know for sure we're going to get that 200,000 back that or 220 back that we've not gotten back or not. I would like to know that.

Well, that one's the easiest to answer. So, I'll jump on that and we can circle back cuz you gave us a lot to chew on right there. Um, you can stand or you can sit. It doesn't matter. You're right there on the front row so we can see you. Um, Kiki briefed I think it was the last city commission. You want me to take it, mayor? Yeah, go ahead.

So, yes, sir. So, we have submitted um we've received the bank swept the account where the money uh was sent to. We received the $2,700 that was left in the account and we've submitted our insurance claim to our insurance company. Uh we're working through that claims process. Subpoenas have been issued to the bank where the money was sent and they're uh by Department of Homeland Security. They are working on that as well. But it's more than likely that the bank's insurance will cover the remaining funds. If not, then our insurance will. But yes, sir, we will be receiving that money back. Kiki had said it wasn't a matter of if we were going to get the funds back, it was when. And that's the only thing she couldn't speak to because the the Homeland Security investigation is still open.

Yes, sir. So, I spoke to them a week before last. Like I said, they've issued the subpoenas. They're supposed to come back, do more interviews. Um, but it is an ongoing issue. Okay. You want to talk about the administrative followup?

Yes, sir. That and the sponsorship. So, we do have scheduled to have a sponsorship policy um on the agenda for um Tuesday. Uh Miss Myers is working on that. She was out of the office last week, but is trying to get everything completed. We do have it on the agenda and hopefully we'll be able to present that to the commission for approval. And then the follow-up items such as the splash pad, you know, think last time we talked about it was the December 9th meeting and then we talked about it yesterday during our strategic workshop. Tai had a bunch of different options for Kinsol and looking at budgeting uh those projects in fiscal year 27. Um and so once we build out the budget, we received priorities back from the commission after yesterday's presentation. We'll get a game plan and then make it official in our budget uh to do.

Is it going to be are can you go ahead and demolish the existing? So, we can um it just hasn't made sense yet to de spend the money to de demolish it, then sold it and then tear it back up for whatever is going to go there. So, we're trying to do it all together at one time to make sure we not overpaying for demo and then sold it and then rip the sod back out and pour slab or for you know a pavilion or botchi ball or volleyball or whatever's decided to go there. Are we is it costing money on this insurance?

It's very minimal cost. So, let's see what else. Uh, Amy Meyers. So, um, Amy is still supporting the charter review. She's still one of multiple. We have Kevin Os, we have Rob Jackson, we have Amy Meyers. Uh, for the commission itself, uh, she and I had a couple of philosophical significant disagreements. Um, and I actually asked Kevin Os, who is the lead attorney, uh, if we could have someone else to support the actual commission. She's still supporting the city. She's still involved behind the scenes with quite a lot of stuff. Um, but that's where that came from. And she did not like the fact that I wanted to throw out a net and see what other type of legal representation offerings we could get. Um, and she said, "Well, if you guys do that, then I plan to resign." And I said, "Okay." And she did. So, we are currently working on that contract bid for full-time city attorney, part-time city attorney, and then new city uh representation from a law firm. So, all three of those options will be on the table. Um we'll discuss those actually this next Tuesday at the next city commission meeting. So, that's where that came from. She's still working. In fact, uh Ryan's the vice chair. You got Corey Langford there, the chairman of the CRC. They can tell you she was there last week right here in this room. So, she's still working.

Um, can I add a couple things? Um, before I forget, uh, Mr. Lightoot put some feedback forms in the back. We'd really like to get your feedback on how you whether you like the town hall setting or not. Uh, please, if you uh able and uh, willing, please do that for us. That would be very beneficial for us. as far as um going back in time and and trying, you know, things that we you said that we would do and and follow up. I think one of the things that'll help us that we talked about yesterday was um and you can probably fill in more than I can, but on this what's it called? Civic uh Civic Plus that does our website.

Yeah, Civic Plus. You'll notice like almost the vast majority of municipalities throughout the United States, they use Civic Plus for their website. And there's a tool in there and not only that, we're going to need to be ADA compliant by 2027 anyways. And you've probably seen this in other cities where you can go on watch a a city me and it'll have the video. It'll have the agenda and you can just click on it and it'll show you where in the agenda packet it is so you can read it and as you go through the meeting it'll tell you where they're at so it's easier to find stuff if you ever have to go back and find stuff. So that's probably not a 100% definitive answer to yours. But I think that's something that would help us and it helps us as far as creating our our agendas and that for the staff and that. So, commissioners, uh, Perau Peebles, do you all have anything you'd like to add?

Um, well, you kind of gave us a shotgun approach, so you gave us a lot to have three minutes. I want to fair,

I guess. Uh, you know, we we got an upcoming agenda item on this on this RFQ with the lawyer. Um, I feel like the way it's been handled, um, the lawyer hasn't, the lawyers resigned, but they haven't left us yet, and they're not going to leave us until we have another lawyer in place. Now, we're reviewing whether we're going to do an in-house attorney or another firm. And because we they've resigned in in in the term within the terms of their contract, we have to we have to look at the expense involved. Um, it's gonna it's going to cost the city a lot more to contract with a new attorney's office or even we're looking at uh an individual attorney u you know an in-house attorney. It's still going to cost a lot more cuz the in-house attorney is going to require things that that you know that a firm already has. um how we got there. Um I I mean the mayor's new um technically, you know, and I and I've I've just from being versed in e in the ethics from the time I've been with us, we're we're not supposed to direct staff and technically he directed staff when he talked to OOS. So, you know, that's up to that's something he's got to deal with. Um, and because he directed staff in that manner, there was a resignation, you know, and it wasn't because that it was it was the nature of the topic or whatever it was. That's between him, OOS, I don't know if he specifically told OOS he didn't want Amy at the meetings anymore. Um, that's a direct question for you. And if you did, that's directing staff. So, um, you know, um, uh, you know, I'm I'm not I'm not picking on anybody. Everybody's in a learning curve with the new mayor, but

um but I'm hoping that we do what's best for the city in the in in the dollar spent cuz it's, you know, it's upwards of $200,000 a year for a law firm right now. It could be $250,000 a year if we get another law firm. That's $50,000 we we lost on a whim, you know, or an in-house attorney. And it and it could be less and we could be happy at the end of the day. So, I'm I'm I'm hoping that we cuz you know with Rob Jackson sitting here, we we we got a darn good guy. Kevin Oasis, we got a darn good Amy Amy sat next to me for years. She's got a she's she she cares about the city. She's got compassion for for for the city manager, for the operations of the city and whatnot. I don't I don't know. I don't know what's transpired, but I do know that, you know, we've got a decision to make and and we could end up with the same law firm because we could come to them with our hat in our hand and go, "Hey, we need you guys. You know, at least work out the rest of your contract." And that's the way contracts should work. We we we just took them to on a little increase and they were in the last leg of their contract. We should and Commissioner Wart always wanted to shop it. I'm not going to speak for you, Jamie, but uh he's now that we're at the RF2 point, he's like, "Oh, well, let's shop it." Okay. Because that's what he's wanted to do with a lot of our contracts. So, we're at a point now where we've accelerated the shopping point on it and we're and we're and the contract's about to expire, but it it it should have ran its course. It would have been less expensive for the city of Lynhaven if it ran its course. That's all I got to say about that.

Well, I'll just say real quick there. Um, uh, Commissioner Perno, I have great respect for you and I call you a great friend. Uh, you're a wingman in the most truest sense, professionally speaking, but we do disagree a little bit there and that's okay. Um, so I am only the mayor is only one of the commission, no more, no less, 20%. But as the chair of the commission, um, I asked the lead attorney, Kevin Obos, because we basically you're all a cart. So you had Amy Myers, you had Kevin OS, and you had Rob Jackson. We contracted with the law firm, not a particular individual. Now, Amy Myers had been our lead. Uh, but I went to Kevin and I said, "I would like another lead attorney to sub to support the commission."

Can't do that without all of us.

Understood. I went to him as the chair and said, "I would like this. What options do we have?" And he said, "Let me work this. I will get back with you." Amy was actually going to be out of town running a barred exam or something anyway. So he said, "I'm going to plug and play Rob Jackson who used to support you guys. I'm going to bring him back. He knows y'all. He lives in Southport. He is by far the best plug-andplay person I have." So that's how we got to Rob Jackson. And Rob Jackson's been doing a great job. Amy's still with us. She's still supporting other committees, but Rob Jackson has continued on the commission with us. and I'm very happy with his work.

So that that's my concern is you know you are a committee of five and and mayor your position is no stronger than anybody else's when it comes to dealing with the city and the city employees. You need to be and I hope it's a learning experience is what I'm hoping for. It was it was you may be the chair. You're the chair of the meetings but you're not the chair of Manhattan. So, and and I'm not trying to be clean. I'm not I just I I I want y'all to all make sure that you follow within your lane, that you do what you what's your authority level is and and act as a committee and not as individuals.

And that's fair. Uh one more tidbit, Amy actually called the rest of the commission is my understanding. I know she did a couple and asked, "Hey, would you like me back or are you guys good with Rob?" And they said, "We're good with Rob." So, it wasn't a You never spoke to Amy. That didn't happen. I never spoke to Amy. Never. I'm not going to call out the commissioners. Um, but calls were made asking, "Would you like me back?" So, I can't speak to the the entire commission getting contacted, but I will stand by my decision as the chair. Judy, go ahead. Uh, actually, I was never called either and asked that question.

That's three out of four. just to let you know. Okay. Well, I didn't want to put you on the spot, brother. I Yeah, she called me and asked my opinion and I said my opinion hadn't changed from the last time we voted on because of cuz we were looking at all the service contracts cuz there are certain ones that have just been there forever and it's like to me a lot of these service contracts should be looked at after 5 years. do we want to put it out for for rebid? And um I I was of the opinion I wanted out for rebid and I and I told her I said that opinion hasn't changed

and and I know that's been your opinion and it's a good thing. I just think we should have addressed that as a commission before we something was said ahead of that.

And while we're on this, I will if there are any hard feelings or felt like stepped on toes rather inadvertently or not, I'll apologize to the rest of my commission brethren and sister. Um that was not my intent. Uh to your point, Johnny, there is a learning curve here. I've been on the job two months now and I was a military commander. This isn't the military, I'm well aware, but for 7 and 1/2 years and as a squadron commander, sometimes you make a hard call. And one of the most important people that you have as an adviser is your JAG officer. And you have to be able to work within. You don't always have to agree. You don't always play patty cake, but you have to be able to work with them. And I work a lot better with Rob Jackson than I do with Amy Meyers on a number of philosophical and just the way she approaches issues. I asked the question to the lead um and he provided another attorney from the same law firm and so that's what happened. So learning curve but if any of my fellow commissioners felt like I stepped on toes as the new mayor um I do sincerely apologize to y'all for that and I won't beat the dead horse any further.

Um what else you got sir? Money extra money. It's going to cost us more money. I'm Bob Bob Schultz. Hey, Bob. Can you hear me? Yep.

Uh I'm hearing all this and I've been hearing a lot from years and I think you guys are starting with a good thing. You're trying to bring the people in front of you. What are the problems? But a lot of the people have heard this stuff before and they just lost trust in the city government. And I think you're trying. It's a good start. But I've heard the same thing story after story. we're going to do this and we don't. I've am a library advocate.

I uh met my wife in the library. Uh I go to the library about 10 hours a week. I love libraries. One of the things the previous city manager and other officials said that we're going to do we're going to get the library as soon as the city hall is completed. It will be the next

goals. It'll be the next one done. Even had plans drew up. You all got money from FEMA and insurance. But the last election there was a measure on the ballot saying that kind of misworded. Well, no, not really. It was worded right. But you didn't put everything in. You didn't mention that the city got FEMA money and insurance to replace the library. It was like it will cost this much. The ballot was defeated by 80%. What do you expect? Like I said, you have to regain the trust of the city officials. There's an old street that uh probably built in Lin Haven in 1913 when they first was incorporated. And it runs on Pennsylvania Avenue of North to South from Fifth Street to Third Street going down to the bridge, Bailey Park, and our poor park, excuse me. And um that was supposed to be redone. We're building sidewalks to nowhere. When I say that, because it just seems like because we're zoned the special, we get special money from the county to do this. We have to do something. So he builds sidewalks to nowhere. But that old sidewalk that I brought up many times, oh, we're going to take care of it. It doesn't. The bridge, uh, Porter Park down there, we got $1.3 million from FEMA. You can't tell me you spend $1.3 million to the park down there. No. But I was told that certain FEMA money can be used for other expenses. Then I'm heard that the city is in debt from 20 million to

40 million and then I'm told no. It's just like we don't know who to believe anymore. So I think you need to rebuild your trust in you know people don't trust city government or government period. Maybe some people show up when there's an issue. I heard about this meeting last night on the news and if you say you broadcast it on Facebook, not everybody does Facebook or not everybody checks their Facebook. Yeah.

So I think you need to listen to the people no more anymore and not just pat them on the head and let them go their way. I think Well, I'm done. I guess it wouldn't be but you listen to the people. I would like to know one thing. How much is a city in debt? Is it 40 million? That's why I'm here. 20 million, 40 million. How much are we in debt? And thank you. Thank you, sir, for coming and speaking. Thank you, Bob. Chris, would you like to speak to the budget piece? Yes, sir. So, Mr. uh Schulz, I'll get you the death calendar, the debt service calendar, and provide that to you. And one more thing, you got you got mics in front of you, but you're not using

these mics only work for the live streaming. These aren't actual mics to the speakers. I'll get you the uh the debt the debt service out of the budget so you can see exactly what it is as well as the the payments. Um as far as the sidewalks um so there are some sidewalks that start and end and go to nowhere but that's because it's part of the whole sidewalk master plan. So this year we build this portion and then we come back and connect it. For example, this year we built uh the 1400 or 1200-400 block of Minnesota Avenue. So that one goes and ties in at 390, but it comes to 12th and then it dead ends before it ties into anything. But eventually it will come all the way down the sidewalk you mentioned on Pennsylvania Avenue. We actually have the Deubberry working on a design right now uh from Third Street all the way or Fifth Street all the way down um to tie in here at 9inth Street. Uh that design is ongoing. The CRA board approved that I think two meetings ago. Um and so that one's ongoing. A lot of a lot of sidewalk projects and we have a master plan for that. Mr. Jenkee can share that with you as well. Um, the Bailey Bridge, we did receive, I believe it was $1.8 million um, as from a FEMA uh, funding for that Bailey Bridge repairs. That money was a 428 project, so it was absorbed into the other stuff. U, but the work was done in house as far as uh, painting and repairing the piping that goes on it and replacing the solar lights at the time. Of course, we will eventually have to replace the lights as they age and wear out. And that bridge is inspected by DOT's contractor and not hurricane related damage, but that bridge does have some damage that we have budgeted for to put a put a bid package together and bid out in fiscal year 27 for repairs. That's concrete. That's not from the hurricane. That's just from the age of the bridge and keeping that going. And I would like to refer you to our strategic meeting yesterday to Mr. Ferris. He had a great 5 to 10year plan for that bridge, a walking bridge with landscape and architecture on that. Um, very interesting. uh preliminary drawings

there to check out on that. Uh none of our live streams are done on Facebook for that reason that you mentioned. Not everyone has Facebook, but everyone does have access to YouTube. So all of our meetings, this one included, is live streamed to YouTube. Some of our like our charter review meetings, they're not live streamed, but they're recorded and then uploaded as soon as the meeting's over. So all of our meetings are available on YouTube on the internet for anyone to see. As Commissioner War mentioned earlier, we are working on a new agenda software that will allow you to go on our website, you click on an item that you want to hear specifically, so you don't have to scroll through the whole video. You click on that item and it takes you right to the the place in the video so that you can hear exactly what happened on it, how the vote went, what the public commentary was, and you don't have to spend two hours, you know, watching the whole meeting. Um, and I think I answered everything. I will defer to the permission to discuss the library. Yeah, I'll I'll take over on that. So, I think one thing to speak to the public trust is to remember that there we're a board of five, but I've not been a commissioner for 20 years. I've only been a commissioner for 3 years. So, there's commissions in the past that may have had a different vision than this current commission. Along with that being said, I can speak for all five of us and say that all five of us have the same goal, and that's to make the city better. However, all five of us are individual people that have different paths on how to get there. For example, path Pat is very pro library. I am not. So, we both think that the city will be better by taking different paths. I trust Pat to do his job. He trusts me to do mine. We just have different visions on how to get there. So, to me, things like the library, that's not really a matter of trust. It's more so to just realize that not all of us are like-minded people. You would not have elected all five of us if we were just robots and all had the exact same vision. That's impossible. We're humans, right?

So, my advice is rather than just assuming that we all have the same vision to get to a better Lindhaven, reach out to each of us individually and see how we feel about it. I've never been shy about saying that I'm I think we should save money by not spending it on a library. I've been very vocal about that. Um, there's many ways to reach us. Town hall is one of them, but I have a phone. I have an email. I live in your city. You can knock on my door, right? It's my address. You know, like there's ways to get a get a hold of me and ask me how I feel about it and I will tell you. I don't think it's a matter of trust. I think it's a matter of we all have different visions or we all have the same main vision which is make Glen Haven better but we all have might have different paths of how to get there. So yeah, trust does need to be built but I'm just encouraging everyone to reach out and ask how we feel about it and hopefully we'll be open-minded to maybe learn something new from all of you on why our opinion needs to change. Sam, you if I can go off after Sam. Yes, sir. Go ahead.

Sam, you couldn't be more right. Um, and the fact that we're different is cuz Sam wasn't on the commission when I was on the commission after Hurricane Michael. And as a matter of trust and integrity, we promised the people they were getting a library. And I'm not going to break that promise as long as I'm commissioner in hopes that we can get a library or a technology center for the people in Linhaven that had one sitting right out outside that third window and kids were walking from Linhaven Elementary and it was used every day. um even if it was just for people to drop their kids off after school and hang out, but there was good constructive stuff to do in that library, you know, and we lost it and we got money to replace it and it it's it's gone. So, um I uh I just hope that uh yeah, I just hope that that that um that that I can stand before you and tell you that's the reason why, you know, I support a library. And and I I just I just think that, you know, libraries are somewhere you that you you end up and you and you're you're better for being there whether whether whether your intent is to be there or not. I spent time in the library as a kid. I went there to goof off, but I ended up, you know, I ended up meeting people that are lifelong friends and and grabbing a book by, you know, I would have never read Old Man in the Sea if I did wasn't scooping around in the library. You know what I mean? So, it's it's one of those things that that, you know, and I'm from a different time than Sam. Obviously, there's an age difference.

Our our beards are a little frosty, but mine's frosty. But anyway, I I I I I just wanted to state state that and then uh I I don't know going uh going back Johnny, you're talking about you were talking about plans that we didn't we didn't do, but if you about about the pavilion and the and the splash pad. Ty made a great presentation yesterday. I I thought he was in the room earlier, but um and city manager will back it up is is that um we're looking at a family pavilion in place of the splash pad as possibility as a future project. So yes, sir, that just hit me and I I I'm all over the place. I'm sorry, but

but um that's that that that that can explain the difference in and the and the the chronological nature of the commission and whatnot. So was the meeting yesterday was sitting straight after yours? Yes, sir. It was recording and uploaded. There there's two segments. Um it was, you know, before first to lunch and then after lunch. There's also a proposed project to landscape the bridge like like m Mr. Bob was talking about and it looked it looked awesome. Looked like a seven milei bridge in in Key West. Commissioner Warick, would you like to add anything to Mr. Schultz?

Um there's probably a lot I I could say on this. Um, I'm not going to go in a lot of detail. I'll just say this. When since I've been on the commission, whenever we voted on something that was related to city rebuild with FEMA reimbursements insurance, I don't know if I asked it every time or almost every time, and if I didn't, then it was on the staff summary sheet. Is this all covered by FEMA? Is this all covered by insurance? And the answer I always got was yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. and I ask questions and I struggle with this a lot and uh I'm not going to go in a lot of detail cuz a lot of stuff going on but um I would recommend you go and watch I believe it was back in August 2025 Miss Roman who is our finance director did a presentation um most of it was about city hall rebuild I would recommend that you watch that I think that will answer a lot of your questions and as always my door is always open I'd be more than happy to sit down and and discuss it with you. Thank you, sir.

Commissioner Taylor. Yes, ma'am. You're I was just asking you, would you like to add to Mr. Schultz's commentary? So, ma'am, well, Mr. Schultz and I have had a number of conversations about that subject matter, the library and such. um way back in time uh people were very disappointed when the library was

demolished and um I think it's just one of those growing things and then we had a temporary library which worked good for those who like to get books. So um it is like what Sam said, we all have a different opinion, but we need and it has to be divided to finances.

What's best to make the city grow and what's best to make the city invite new folks, you know, to come to uh live in Lin Haven. But mayor, I want to say I am having a hard time hearing anybody at the podium. So if you don't mind, I am going to hop off this call and I will watch it on YouTube. Carol said they are live streaming it. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you. Travel safe, commissioner. Oh, mayor, I wanted to ask this. Approximately how many people are there? 30. about 20. Little over 20. I actually

Okay. Um 21. Jennifer Hodgees just counted. 21 plus a handful of staff and 20 online. Okay. And 20 online. Well, thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much. And I'll be calling in on Tuesday night for the meeting. Thank you, ma'am. Travel safe.

Um I'll just add one thing, Mr. Schultz. You hit on something that when I walked in the door as the brand new mayor, the one of the very first conversations I had with the then interim city manager was we as a city have a public affairs problem. Um, we have very good people on staff. We have very good commissioners. We didn't have a great public affairs program. Um, part of it, you know, we've been through a a big organizational change. Some key city lead city leaders have changed. Um, and the new folks that we have in the mayor's seat, the the city manager seat, the chief of police seat are different individuals. We're going to approach things differently. We come with different backgrounds and experiences. We have different leadership styles. So, there's going to be some noticeable changes even though only one commission seat switched out. You had some other key city leader positions changed out. Um, so things are going to be a little different philosophically and just operationally. Um, but we have tremendously amazing people. I absolutely love the city staff. We have some incredible folks, born and bred Linhavenians, and then we have, you know, transplants, right? folks that move from other places. Um, including my favorite New Yorker here, um,

upstate New York.

Okay. Excuse me. Upstate New York. Yeah. Yeah. Fair. Um, but we don't always do the best job of letting the community know about the good things that happen day in day out. Chief Blanchard, uh, he's been with us a couple weeks now. He, uh, he replaced me as the newest guy. So, I appreciate that, Chief, very much. Um he does an excellent job every day of highlighting his amazing staff. He's got 35 police officers uh plus some dispatch and and folks like that. Let's just around say about 40 people. Um he recognizes him. He goes out of his way to recognize him. We could do that as a city a lot better. Um and that's one area that's one key area where and Tai does a great job with Facebook. That man's a master with that stuff. but just in general telling the stories and not to your point, not everybody's on Facebook. Um, we need to do a better job of articulating the good stuff we do day in day out. Rebuilding trust is not just words, it's deeds. And there has to be consistency, there has to be accountability, and there has to be transparency. And when somebody steps on toes, if my bad learning experience, I apologize. Right? if it's a a non um you know if it wasn't an intentional slight or bad or you know mistakes happen but you come back and you own it and you say this is how we're going to fix it and this is how we're not going to do that again no matter what it is right um and then you be transparent and you walk the walk you talk the talk and you show your citizens and your neighbors that you give a damn about them and that you want to be here for the right reasons and then do your inherent goodness say what say what you're going to say, then do it. Um, and that's where we're at as a city. We're kind of transitioning a little bit and I hope you like what you see and I hope you continue to like what you see because transparency, especially

in the sunshine state, is an inherently good thing. Sometimes it can complicate things quite a bit. And I'll give you one case in point. So when Mayor Nelson resigned, uh, Commissioner Peebles as the mayor pro Tim was the deputy mayor, right? he stepped up and did an amazing job for a couple of weeks acting as the acting mayor. Uh his term, his one year, because each commissioner, it's a four-year term. So during that four-year term, each of the four commissioners will be the deputy mayor prom for one of those years. Commissioner Pero is about to step up and take that over in April, I believe. Is it April or May?

May. Okay. So in May. So Pat's going to be my new deputy mayor. If I get hit by a bus or struck by lightning, he's the mayor, right? Because of sunshine law, Pat and I or and Sam and I right now can't even effectively work together because of sunshine law. Everything has to go through the city manager effectively. Now, we can talk about this town hall after it happens. Sunshine only applies to what's in the future, not in the past. So, we can do an afteraction review and collaborate, but we can't do a lot of collaboration before, right? other than are you coming? What are we wearing kind of thing, right? Are we going to try to match? Other than that, you can't really do any collaboration. So, sunshine law does make some things hard harder. But the fundamental bottom line of sunshine law is transparency to earn the citizens trust. You hear what we hear from each other when it comes to voting items and and things that are on the official agenda. So, we can talk personally, we can talk sports, I can ask him how his grandma's doing and those kind of things, but we can't talk about city work. And so, um, it makes things challenging, but it makes it transparent at the same time. So, we're working on that. I hope you continue to like what you see, and I hope we can robust up our public affairs footprint in the community because the goodness is there. It's just not always sold or articulated or presented or whatever you want to call it to the public as, hey, look at what we're doing and we need to do a better job of sharing that inherent goodness with our neighbors.

Hey, thank you. Just don't forget us. We No, sir. There's no way. We live in this community. We are part of this community. We're your friends. We're your neighbors. Um, None of us are here to get rich. I promise you. Um, we're here to make a difference in this city and that includes earning your trust and keeping it. Mayor, may I add to that? Yes, sir.

So, in the past month and a half, we have also uh dedicated a a staff member, River Jordan, to our public affairs office position. Uh, she has been really effective in getting new press releases out effectively. We've also got a new podcast, um, the second episode released today. That's called Linhaven 444 podcast. You can check it out on Spotify or anywhere else that you've listened. Um last the first one was about opening day and everything that went on positively for opening day baseball and softball season. You can hear the uh sound bites from the kids playing from parents. Um even you can hear the the hit of the baseball off the bat. It was pretty cool. Uh this week's podcast is she interviewed Mr. Randy Wright with Gulf Coast Tree and it's talking about the tree canopy that we lost during Hurricane Michael and the effect it has on our city. Uh so she will be showcasing different topics every week and pushing that podcast out to really know what's going on in the city. Uh what we have coming, what we've done, and try to help repair that image or or push that image out better.

Is that in addition to rivers right? Yes, sir.

So it's But Mr. Schultz, you hit the proverbial nail on the head. It's going to We didn't get in a bad spot public affairs wise overnight and we're not going to be glowing awesomeness overnight either, right? It takes time to rebuild trust and uh build transparency. But we have great staff. We're doing good things. We just need to learn how better to share that and get it to the venues. If we're putting all this stuff on Facebook and you don't watch Facebook, how in the world would you expect to know about this, right? So, we've got to look at different venues also to push this out, especially for um folks that aren't necessarily Facebook friendly or have a big online presence. How do we get that out? How do we make sure you see this? So, thank you for your inputs very much. Okay, I see I saw you first s second row come on up and then Miss Warick, you're after that. Phil Mount. Uh Chris, I sent my email yesterday afternoon. Did you get it?

No, sir. I was tied up in the strategic workshop. I have a

I think I brought paper. Uh Phil Mount, 110C Alabama Avenue. Um I vote for Chick-fil-A if I have a vote. Uh moved here in 1998. Uh was the environmental manager under John Lynch's reign for two years. He and I did not get along well even though he's my neighbor and I loved him. Love you, John. Um, sorry about that. Um, went and worked for D as a stormwater engineer at the Panama City branch office. Um, left that and then decided to go out on my own. went under a contract with the city of Linhaven, work for Bobby Baker and our illustrious illustrous manager Chris. Good times. Um I'm here because of the recent events of the strandings of our precious dolphins over in the St. Joe Bay area. Um stormwater background and trying to do things right. And the bottom line is in new construction where you have developments, they do storm water treatment right. They have to. It's part of their job. An old section of Linhaven is not being done correctly for new buildings within city limits. And I reached the frustration point. I terminated my contract with the city so I could file a formal complaint with the EP um on a subject that affected Maxwell Bayou. That's where I live. And it's still not being addressed. Back in 2022,

the city received a grant and the status report of that grant back in October uh was that finalized legislative work plan for the stormwater portion of the legislative funding with 56 outfalls identified as needing dredging. An outfall, let me let me bring you up to speed. It outfalls where storm water exits municipal or state property and goes into state or federal waters. Um, not a concern in new construction. They're doing it. Old town park, big big problem. We used to have female dolphins. Oh, by the way, female bottle-nosed dolphin raise their little ones in our bay.

They come up here and raise the little ones. They used to come into the bayou with the little ones and teach them how to fish. I'm getting close. It's not happening. I am very concerned that we did not do the dredging that this grant said we could do. Lots of reasons. Chris knows politics people in the past. Okay, I'm over that. This is this is a new venture. I hope moving forward that we can indeed be responsible for the environment that we're charged to take care of. You know, this gray hair thing, crying comes with it. Thank you for your time. Thank you for being here. Thank you. I appreciate what you're doing. And I would have said hello to Judy, but hi Judy.

Well, thank you for that, sir. Chris, do you want to speak to the dredging and

Yes, sir. So, we received um a legislative appropriation, I believe in 2022 or 2023 um to look at 56 of our outfalls. There were numerous projects of th those outfalls. Some involved dredging, some involved uh replacing the piping. Some involved uh tearing out the the grass and putting concrete canvas so that it wouldn't back up and flood. Uh we were able to do six of those outfalls as part of that appropriation. Of course, ran out of funding. Um so we have the design done on the remaining outfalls and we will be submitting uh River submitted for a couple other grants that we did not get. Uh but we have plans ready to go. Every time we can find a grant that possibility for that, we will submit and continue to work to get those out walls completed.

Can you speak to his particular bay that he spoke to? What is needed for that one? As far as the dredging goes, it's Maxwell Bayou. So, typically the residents have um all put in money to dredge Maxwell Bayou. Um so, we did not spend any funding from that appropriation to dredge Maxwell Bayou. The residents paid for their own dredging uh to keep that bayou open. So that belongs to them. Well, it's state waters, but they dredged it so they could have access in and out for their boats.

It's a it's a city permit. Residents on the bayou. 70 80% of them kick in thanks to the efforts of McCormick Construction Company in town. They do it very reasonably wise. We pay for it. The city permit, right? So, we're able to to obtain the permit on behalf of the residents. They dredge and they put the the spoils on the bank. We haul the spoils off at our expense. If you utilize the dredging spoils for public works projects that you don't have to have additional permitting and and pay the uh extra. Thank you for that. So, sorry.

Where is that? By the bridge. Yeah. Off of um Mr. M, what's the best way to describe where Maxwell Bayou is? Between Virginia and Georgia. Okay. North of Fifth. So, just to clarify, the city's doing what we can to support the residents in that bayou. Is there something else that is needed? So there are multiple bayus um that need dredging um but the city has not paid for any of that dredging out of pocket. No sir and we utilized the legislative appropriation to begin outfall repairs um and ran out of funding before we were able to get to any of the dredging. Is the estuary program aware of this? I mean can they look at it for

the estuary program has had discussion with that. Okay, I would like to underscore if I may for interrupting you again, new construction is not an issue. It's all part of the city, right? That's for the issue. Well, you've got it in the right hands. We'll take a look at it. If there's something we need to as a city do better to support you residents in that bayou or any of the bios bayus over there in that particular area, we need to know. So, to do about this. You know what? You might want to hook him up with River and let him do exactly that. We got to volunteer.

We're all about volunteers now, sir. All right, Miss War, are you ready to come up? I'd like to make a motion that commissioner spouses cannot talk during public commentary. Be nice. I promise. Oops. You broke it. That's hurting. Sorry. Short. Well, now I'm not that sure. Now you messed it up. All right. So, the only reason I came was I spoke to a commissioner recently and I don't know if he informed you of what I spoke to him about. He has not. Oh, you don't know what he's going to say yet. Okay.

No, he does. Um, so April is a very special month. Um, April 2nd is autism awareness month and well it's all month is autism awareness month but April 2nd is autism awareness day and that has a very special place in our heart as our oldest daughter has high functioning autism. I also worked for 9 years in autism prek as well as K1. So it's a very near and dear to my heart. You have at Linhaven Elementary have several classes that are autism classes. Um, and on top of it being autism awareness month, April is also month of the military child, which is also very near and dear to my heart as not only are our daughters military brats, I myself was a military brat for 16 years. Um, so both of those combined to me makes April a very special month. Um, and I would like to see somehow the city recognize both of those in any way. Um, did you actually talk to him about it?

I'll answer your question when you're done, man.

Um, so I just a little bit of information about autism if you didn't know. It's actually harder to diagnose girls than it is boys. One in 10 girls um are diagnosed and unless they're very severe, they don't get diagnosed until later elementary age because they're so much better at masking their symptoms like our daughter was. She's more of what we call quirky socially. Um, also, you know, if you've met one person with autism, you've met one person with autism. Everybody with autism has different abilities, and they have what we like to call superpowers. Our daughter is amazing with puzzles, Legos. She can't remember everyday life things to save her life. But um if you bring a TV show that she likes and you bring it up and you bring an episode up, she can tell you what episode it was, what happened in that entire episode. Um you have kids that stem, you have kids that don't stem. Um and to the fact of autism and military, um it was a big struggle for us moving from state to state as the IEP system, which is your individual education plan that every child gets if they have a disability. Um, every state is different. We had things thrown out in one state and then we had to work that much harder when we moved to another state to get it re-implemented. Um, so both of those things create a big struggle for military families if you have a child, not only on the spectrum, but just if they have any kind of disability. Um, and that was something that I worked very hard for while he worked very hard in the Air Force to make sure that Whitney had everything that she needed. And so the other thing I wanted to say about that is for parents is if you have a child, not only on the spectrum, but if they have a disability, don't leave it up to the school and the district to Oh, I got I can finish.

Um to um believe that your child is being taken care of. You as the parent have to be their advocate. You cannot expect the schools and the district to do that on their own. if you have to be their voice. That's the only way that Whitney got everything that we were able to get her is because I fought. I mean, I went up against them. I fought and did everything I had to to make sure that she was accessible in school. And we also placed expectations on her. Expectations are important. You can't just assume because they have a disability that they can't do things. They can they can do things. You might have to adjust your expectations, but that's okay. You adjust them. But she's met every expectation aside from moving out. We're still working on that. Um, she's met every expectation that we've placed before her. So, I just wanted to let you guys know about that and I appreciate your time.

So, ma'am, um, if you if you read the agenda for this coming meeting on Tuesday, you would see that there's a proclamation in there for the the month of Mil. That's your job to tell me. So, autism is the first meeting in April. And and so, um, did did that certain commissioner come and talk to you about that? Commissioner Peoples took care of it. Yes, sir. Thank you guys for your time. And yes, so there is a proclamation for the military child month um this meeting and then the first meeting in April I believe is April 14th. We have a proclamation for the autism uh I appreciate that. Who came to see you for that one? That was Commissioner Peoples as well.

Also, there's a lot of resources out there. I know a lot of parents don't know that, but there's resources also for adult children with autism. They've started a thing at Ark of the Bay. Um and there's a group on Facebook. If anybody needs more information, they can contact Jamie and I can get that information to them. Thank you, Miss Ward. And for the record, um I see you, ma'am. Just a second. You come on up. Uh for the record, No,

the lady behind you was volunteering. Um my uh I got a birthday card. We definitely appreciate our spouses who support us being here and doing things in the city. Uh you included, Miss Warick. Um, my wife gave me a a birthday card one time and it said to the man of the house with love dot dot dot. You opened it up and it said from the commander-in-chief and CEO. Right. So, uh, husbands can appreciate that, but we appreciate you and all of the the wives and significant others that we have uh, supporting us as we try to do these jobs and balance our families and full-time jobs, too. So, thank you for that. Did anybody want to add to autism awareness or military month for of the child? I think she covered it all.

Cool. Ma'am, come on up. I'm sorry I don't know your name. I'm Holly. Holly, welcome. Um, this is my first time meeting ever and I don't know how this really works, but um awesome. I guess I'll follow suit to what they're doing, right? Yes, ma'am.

Raise my hand. Thank you for um talking to me. Um, so I think I'm just here for information um about scope of police versus raising my children. Um, I've recently felt bullied in my own hall by police in Lhaven. I moved here from the beach for a safer environment. Um, Lin Haven, I'm really happy to say, is like so high on on the safe places to live in America. Um, so I have had the police called over to my home twice. I homeschool five girls from 17 to uh five. She's almost six. And I believe in letting children be free based on their um uh what how accountable and responsible they can be with the freedom that you've taught them to enjoy. Um and I think that so I I thank the policemen for coming over not just one but three both times um to keep my children safe. I know that there's children who aren't as uh watched and educated as mine are. I have my doors open to my porch. I know where my children are in my front yard. My front side yard is not uh fenced. Um my al my kids also um play on the bayou uh extension right there um on Minnesota. So, it's kind of an extension of our front yard. My kids know how to uh cross the street. They cross the street together. I've caused to speak with them. I know that they're responsible. Um, so I appreciate the good neighbors calling. I'm just wondering where the rules are on on neighbors calling and about an child. In this case, my child is eight. Um, the

policeman told me that most 8-year-olds will run in the street. He said, "Do you agree with me?" And I said, "Not with most." I agree that some 8-year-olds will, but I, as a parent, have the ability to decide if my kid is safe. I agree that I don't want my child hit by a car. It's a busy road. I feel like if the busy road is the concern, which was very hammered into me, then maybe the police resources should be working on the speeding on Minnesota. Um, he says the golf course people come and lots of people circumvent 77 um by going down Minnesota. because there's no stop signs. So maybe our resources could be placing that road to get people to slow down, maybe a speed bump, maybe a stop sign. I don't know. But it kind of feels like um my my kids' childhood is being and me feeling like I'm being a bad parent and I and I don't like that. Um, I talked with other parents about it and they all said, "You should have kicked those police off your property." I I don't know where the lines are. He asked me for my ID. I kind was like, "Yeah, I have an ID." And then it was awkward. I said, "Oh, you need me to go get it?" I went and got it. I showed it to him. he decided to write up a report and um he said DCFS will may or may not be coming too. And it's just hard because I feel like I'm a very good parent. I appreciate him being checking on me if I was inebriated or something like that. Those children need to be safe, but I don't know where the scope of practice. As he was leaving, I asked him, "Can my children be unattended in my front yard on the side, not across the street, cuz I don't

have a fence there." And he said, "Can they run out on the street?" And the whole time it was very um what's the word? Intimidating and bullying me that I was being a bad parent. And I thought it was very inappropriate. Thank you. Go ahead,

Miss Holly. Is that correct? So, Chief Blanchard here in the back, if you would, when you get done, if you would go speak to Chief Blanchard, he can answer any of your questions much better than any of us sitting up here, as well as go back specifically to the day that that you're referring to here, and he can look into those details and provide you a much better answer. He He's sitting right in the very back there. He will walk out with you or whatever you need to do and uh he can answer anything, any of your concerns, and he will address that. Okay. So, that's better play. I didn't know who to talk to the guy. Great for coming in. Thank you. And uh that's the reason he's here today. Uh but anything you need as far as the streets being safer, that's his issue.

So he will address that. Then uh public works and all. If we need to put our traffic counters out there and get some data uh to go and then we'll make a recommendation if there's, you know, more stop signs needed or speed bumps or something like that, we can get that information, but address all of those concerns with him and then he can bring them back and we can go from there. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for coming and speaking to the commission. Ma'am, we're really glad to have you and your daughters here. Homeschooling five daughters from 17 to five is sounds like a ginormous task. I have two daughters. I always jokingly say I have a wife and two daughters. I have three women. I can't hardly keep happy. So, here you are juggling five. That that sounds tough to me. You'll have to be my husband. Thank you. All right. Thank you.

Uh my my parents also homeschooled five kids. And um we'd walk around all the time. That never happened to us. So my advice is walk to like the store and park and all that attended. Yeah. Cuz that's twice that I hadn't called. Yeah. My police come. Yeah. Very intimidating.

Yeah. I agree. Um I agree with Chris. Talk to chief because that shouldn't be happening. I can't task the police what to do and what they can't do. But what I can say to you, um, is if you go on Municode, which is the website of all of our, uh, website of all of our ordinances and stuff, you'll be able to defend your position more because I guarantee you there's no ordinance in our ordinances that says your children can't be in the front yard unattended. Research it. There's no law, right, in Florida, right? So, if that doesn't exist, you'll win your case every time.

One other thing I'll say, ma'am, Miss Holly, is Chief Blanchard's been with us two weeks. Um, he is a straight shooting. Very almost two months. February 9th. Chief Blanchard, two months. February 9th. The swearing in was a few weeks ago.

My apologies. I'm sorry y'all. I've been here 2 months and it's a blur. Um, my apologies, chief. He's still the one guy here younger than me. So, I thank him for taking the rookie title away from me. Um, he's a damn good man. He's a straight shooter. And if anybody can give you a straight answer, it's him. He has a very, very low tolerance for BS. He's always a show me in writing. And he is a by the book, squeaky clean cop. So, you go talk to him, you spend 10 minutes with that guy, I think you will have a he can hear from you, you can hear from him, and between the two of y'all, I think you'll walk away with a a proverbial rock out of your backpack. Sincerely, and thank you for doing that. All right, anybody else? Mr. Langford, come on up or come on down. Oddly enough, I don't have too much today other than the fact that other than the fact that what just happened right just before me is exactly the reason that this is important. So, thank you, Commissioner Warick, for for bringing this up. I know I know this is a hard topic um to to quote unquote remove public commentary from a meeting and and shift to a town hall, but um I don't think the camera is catching everybody out here, but I come to almost every commission meeting and there's people in this room that I've never seen before and that's a good thing. Um I I love to hear I I like to hear from from everybody. I know y'all do too. Um so I think this is a is a good thing. Thank you, Mr. Parno, for for mentioning the fact that yeah, in a in a sense, we do kind of have to test this thing out and and remove public commentary from a couple of meetings to really kind of gauge the success andor failure of these

town halls. So, I would ask that you all continue to consider that. Um, I don't think anyone wants to think that their voice is not heard, but um, the the lady that came up just just now, I think that's a perfect example of why something like this can be successful. So, thank you all for for doing this. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Langford. Come on up, ma'am.

And I'd like to piggy back on what he said. I appreciate this opportunity. I think this is a much more appropriate environment for feedback from the citizens. I would like to commend the commissioners though each time I've emailed you and I email you separately on purpose so that there's no violation of the sunshine law. But you've been responsive any concern I've had. I felt like I've been heard when I've emailed you. I've spoken to previous mayor commissioners privately and I think that's much more appropriate. I feel like the commission meetings should be about business and I think that your your job is policy and procedures. I think some of the meetings are um inappropriate to target individuals. I don't think that's appropriate and I think public um feedback has become that and that's not where that should happen. If I had a problem with an employee of the city, I would go to that person's boss or I would go to you individually and say this is a problem with this situation. So I feel like this is the time to do that. It makes you more productive. I know that there was a concern about the staff's time. Well, I've sat in 4hour commission meetings and a lot of it had nothing to do with the agenda. So, this is at least a time frame that yes, they are being asked to come at a different time. But they're spending it at a 4-hour commission meeting also. So, I don't see the difference in that. But I appreciate you and I I do pray for you. I pray for discernment because I think sometimes you're given information that's not always completely accurate and then your wills are spent on something that's not time well spent for you, but I appreciate you and I'm glad we've had this opportunity.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Really appreciate that. All right. Well, I know Ryan's Craig's always got extra bullets to talk about. Yeah. So, little Miss Nelson in the back. Come on down, ma'am. I'm sorry. I didn't see your hand go up. And don't forget, we got two emails ahead of me. Right. Right.

So, I just wanted to bring up something. I watched the strategic play yesterday. It was a little long. I only got through the first half except my wife's ties community services that was really good too. One of the things that Chris pointed out yesterday he did and by the way my background is I'm a software engineer. I work in AI and cyber security. Chris mentioned 2027 goal for cyber security and IT. I want to encourage you not to wait. You don't actually have that much time. You know what I mean? Like waiting for a full cycle. And so I know Sam is very familiar. I don't know what framework the city uses. If it's the NIST, if it's any other kind of cyber security, BCIDSS is really important to me, something I'm familiar with. Something that I think that you need to address though is also the AI governance. I watched some of the presentations yesterday and there were a few things that triggered me to say, I wonder how the city has set up a policy for using AI for their employees. I have a vested interest because my personal information,

my personal information is in the city databases. So, do I have city employees that might be taking information and putting it into AI without my permission? Is there a governor's policy in place? So, that's really what I wanted to present. I I do have resources that are available. They're free for education from the city staff. I have grant information on certifications that would be helpful. So, if that's um something of interest, I would love to talk to any of you afterwards about that. Thanks. It's really important that we put that in place and he's on the right track. Awesome. I do also want to mention with this project we have going on the the public affairs could also help like the resident advocacy for um the issues that we're experiencing with the capital improvement debacqua that we're going through. So thank you. Thank you.

Thank you Miss Nelson. What was your first name? Beverly. Beverly. We'd love all the help we can get. Can you summarize what she said? Yeah. Sure. Yeah.

So, um I actually met with Miss Nelson and and her husband yesterday on some issues they have there right in the middle of one of our uh big construction projects right now. Um so I went to meet with her yesterday evening about that. But while I was there, she had watched um the strategic meeting uh yesterday and we had discussed uh hardening and fortifying the city in fiscal year 27 for from a cyber security standpoint. uh she told me her background and she was a software engineer and had some great ideas and input for that. Um we said, "Hey, you're on the right track, but we definitely need to get moving faster with that to make sure that the city does not fall uh into any more attacks or or remain vulnerable as we have been in the past." Uh so looking at that and she also mentioned an AI policy. Um she probably noticed that during some of the PowerPoint presentations there was probably some reference to AI or or some staff had utilized some AI for that. I've actually talked to a couple other city managers here in Bay County um about to see if they had developed any AI policy yet for their staff. They have not. The state uh the state of Florida has. They will not allow us. Um so we utilize Microsoft Teams for our meetings. There's a read AI portion of that that if you can't attend a team's meeting or you want it to attend with you as well, it will actually attend in an AI format and at the end of the meeting, it will send you a summary of the meeting, any action items for every attendee. in it. During those meetings, the state actually kicks that out, so you can't utilize that. Um, so we are looking at developing an AI policy for employees, so they're not you using anything uh that's out there. Um, and we'll work with our um IT team to to get that implemented.

And Chris, I do want you to take advantage of that. We do have grant money available. We're state opportunities there for training. So, it doesn't need to wait for the budget approval to be available. It's really important to me that this as soon as we can. And then the other thing is I feel like it kind of got glossed over with but the high risk portion of your presentation that's a big red flag and that does not require money or major decision making policy to implement some of the protocols that come back in this framework. I would really like to see us invest

and we also um Miss Jordan actually submitted a grant probably a year ago um for some cyber security um items we have. It seems that we are going to receive that grant. So, in the coming meetings uh for the commission, we will have an item for them to accept that that funding and utilize those funds uh to help us with some of our cyber issues. But, Miss Nelson, we would love if there are other grant opportunities. You can never get enough cyber per se, cyber hardening, cyber readiness, cyber training. Uh that's just the day and age we're in, folks. So, if you can help us get resources and training, uh we would be very grateful. And I'm assuming you can pluck her in with not only our IT pros but public affairs, too.

Yes, sir. Cool. Thank you for speaking to that. Thank you. Um, what else you had is there anybody else that wants to come up and speak um before we go to the two questions? Mr. Gary, come on up. Hey there, man. This young man and I served together at the Pentagon 20 years ago. Thank you all for your service. Proud to serve with you and be here. Most of all, thank you for doing this. This is great. We're get I'm learning more here today than I think I've learned and I haven't been able to attend a lot of meetings because of you know few health issues. But you speak in the mic.

Can't hear money. You still can't hear me. Okay. You can grab the mic if you want to. Just take it off. How's that? Is that better? All right. You want me to sing?

Anyway, again, thank you. I'm learning a lot here. I think this is great and I hope we can do it again. One thing I would like to bring up though is can we readress the storm water assessment? I got my tax bill last year. I was shocked, but I'm going to take the blame for that because health issues kept me away from a lot of meetings. I didn't follow it. I didn't track it. And all of a sudden, I get this tax bill and I'm almost $100 increase from what I had before. Nothing changed on our property. We didn't add anything. We didn't add any buildings. We've planted trees. Thanks for the trees. We appreciate that. So, a lot of the water that collects on our property is gone now cuz we've been able to replace the trees. I don't understand how we come at this cuz then I find out we're in another tier, a higher tier for storm water assessment fee, a tier that didn't even exist a few months before. So anyway, I appreciate if we could get that back on an agenda and and maybe discuss it and help us learn where we're going with this thing. It seems to me like it's about time to cap this thing and figure out a different way to go. Uh, another thing I'd like to thank the city for was about a year ago we had a where you picked up our um like old wood, you know, old furniture. I guess it's kind of like the county amnesty day that's coming up. That was really helpful for people like me that have a lot of trouble. You know, I can't get out the steel field and I know that didn't include hazard, but if we could consider that again in the future, that it was extremely helpful. just like the cardboard box pickup you did after the holidays. Good stuff and we really appreciate it. Thank you all again for your time.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Um Gary, if you take a look and you can sit down, sir. I can talk to you. I don't want you standing more than you have to.

Um we actually storm water was actually a very lively topic of conversation yesterday afternoon in the second half. So, uh we had an eight hour workshop. We had four hours and lunch and then we had the the the second half. Uh it was actually a lively discussion and I'm much of the mindset you are and I know there are different opinions. Uh there are different ways that the revenue need is there clearly to to invest in the storm water for all of us here moving forward. But how those revenues come in there are different options and of course to Commissioner Peele's point we all have different kind of thoughts on that and what's the best way to get it. Um, mine also doubled. Mine went from 174 to 350 when I opened that in November last year and went, "What the heck is this?" So, I totally get that. And, um, the city manager can speak to that some. Kiki Roman was very big on that. Other commissioners will likely want to as well. Um, but we're working it. It's something that I promise you is on our radar. Again, it was a very lively discussion yesterday. Um, and we will continue to work that as a team, a team of five. uh plus the city manager and we will get that figured out. I promise you that and it's coming up. Um so city manager, do you want to speak to that first and then so nothing much to add to that mayor other than our conversation yesterday. Of course, we will, you know, begin the addressing of that uh for fiscal year 27 and what route the commission wants to take during our workshops. Um again, those will be advertised. I'm sure that we will have a separate workshop at the commission's direction um outside of our normal commission meeting uh for that uh for public discussion and input.

Commissioners, do y'all want to speak to that at all?

Uh I'll just kind of recap what the mayor said yesterday. The discussion really came down to the funding has to be there because the money that we're pulling in now um barely covers the operating cost of day-to-day operations with storm water. the way that the uh finance director kind of described it and I like how she said it is basically storm water is in the same category as like uh sanitation or uh any of your other utilities because it's an ongoing thing where we live in Linhaven. So the the main thing is to figure out how to get it funded. Um I've tried and I'm going to continue to try to find ways to fund it outside of the non-adorm. Uh I'm partly responsible for the tier change um because it was severely underfunded based on the the tier system was not correct when the previous tier system whenever they created the tiers. Tier one was way too big, tier 2 was way too small. Um things like that just the math didn't line up. But you know, as I've told Corey, if we can come up with a better solution, I'm all for it. Um, I don't I don't have that solution yet. I don't know exactly what it is. Um, but the funding has to be there because if not, uh, we're going to start seeing a lot more storm water. And it's clear that the it's working cuz, you know, 3 years when I came on the commission, there was houses that were literally being flooded and that doesn't happen anymore. So, the funding does have to happen. I get the point of that at some point we may not need to spend as much. Um, I don't have the answer to that yet. It's uh it's a it's a fluid thing and I would I don't I don't have the answer yet.

We're working it though. Can I say one thing about that?

Um, part of what you might see on your bill, some people have disability exemptions, other exemptions that they don't pay standard annual orum taxes on their taxes. So a jump on your storm water assessment which is not based on your cost. You will definitely see that jump. My property taxes went up $200 last year from last year. This year 100 of them were storm water. 100 of them was appreciation on the property. So it's less apparent if you don't have that extension. So you may notice it different because that's the way it's addressed. It's an assessment and not an add tax per se. So it's not affected by the value of the car. I saw it.

So, I saw Mr. Langford's hand raised, but before we go any further, I wanted to make sure my fellow commissioners had a chance. If they wanted to speak to it, they can. If not, we'll uh let Mr. Langford speak. Go ahead, you can sit still or you can come up here. It's all good. We're kind of wrapping up. We're down to the final 15. Nope. Going to come up here and talk about it. That's all it took was one person to get me riled up about storm water.

Mr. Gary, you might want to watch you might want to watch you might want to watch this next Tuesday's commission meeting. Um cuz we are going to brief and and I don't want to spoil this, but we will be briefing you all. I I will be briefing you all on from the charter review committee on proposed uh amendments. Um, but to just completely set that aside, I think, you know, some of you all have hit on it, the fact that and and I've not went back. I started watching the strategic workshop from yesterday. I've not went back. I've not watched the entire thing, but if I can find where that is, I'll watch that section first for sure. Um, but Mr. Lightfoot actually sent me an email with the numbers on on this and and it was it was really eyeopening. Um, and you know what what he sent me and then you know I I combined that and and did a little public math with the capital improvement projects just related to storm water. Um, I think, you know, it really kind of put things into perspective with to me, um, that I wish I would have known this in 2021. Um, and and I didn't know this in 2021 because I don't believe it was really discussed what the actual cost in Linhaven to fix our storm water problem. What's what is the price tag? I wish somebody would have said in 2021, 2022, hey, how much is it going to cost to fix storm water in Linhaven?

We had 16 projects. Yeah, didn't projects in 2021. Yeah, there was 16 priority projects. I don't remember an exact number, but yes, sir, a good bit.

So, right now, I can tell you what that number I want to say it was 30.625 million. 30 30,625,000. And correct me if I'm wrong, but that's a pretty darn close number. And that's just as of today. From now on, that's how much it's going to cost us to fix the storm water in Linhaven, not counting what what they've already done and all the improvements that's already happened. So, this is going to become a math problem at this point really quick. And when we look at the fact that, you know, we're about $100,000 over, I think the generated how much money the storm water assessment's generating versus how much we're spending, we've only got 100 grand left over. Well, if you take $100,000 and put that towards that $30 million, I mean, our great great grandchildren are going to pay off the price tag, assuming it doesn't increase from there. So, um, this is going to have to get addressed and, um, you know, there's going to be some difficult decisions that was made and I know one of the one of the charter review committee meet, a couple of of them I thought was going to fall out of their chair, but I said, man, in 2021, if they would have said, you know, we're going to keep paying the $8 on our water bill and do the non-abalorum assessment, I think I would have almost supported that, you know, because now we're paying we're paying for operations, but then we can now dedicate that money that's coming from the non-abalorum assessment to that 30 mil right now 2.7 2.6 mill a year we're looking at paying off that $30 million price tag in 15 years versus our our great great grandchildren paying it off. So, you know, all these things again, it's becomes a math problem and we're really going to have to sit down and crunch some numbers on this and I'm sure that it's already being done. But from a policy perspective on how do we pay 30 mil, that's what's going to have to that's what's going to have to happen. And you know, it it's just it is

what it is at this point. But I just wanted to chime in on that. Well, I have more to say on it obviously on Tuesday, but we'll get there. I'm going to try to get y'all the read ahead slides by midday on Monday. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Oh boy. Any other in-person audience speakers want to come up and speak before we move to the two emailed questions? If not, again, thank y'all for y'all's participation today. As we wrap up, we have about 10 or 12 more minutes. We'll go to the two uh emailed questions to the city manager.

Yes, sir. Uh so, we had one email from uh Mr. Eiggo Estrada. he had emailed requesting uh for us to look into a street sweeper possibly to help clean up some of the roads. Um I do know that it is quite expensive to own a street sweeper. Um so based on his email, we will look at some contract. There's several uh companies throughout uh Bay County. We'll look at some uh pricing on that of what it would take to kind of add street sweeping uh service to our budget and maybe present something in the fiscal year 27 budget if it's cost effective.

Awesome. And then we also had an email from a Miss Chelsea Scheler uh with concerns about the MOET school crossings um there during the school zone. Um we do have some some projects in the work that we want to meet with the commission on possibly looking at. Panama City recently did um schools on speed cameras. Um they are extending that. Um that didn't Yeah, he talked about that yesterday during the strategic workshop. Uh but we're definitely going to get some more information and be presenting that to the commission to look at that to see if we can help uh with the MOT school zone. It's 390. You know, there's a lot of people that speed through that. They don't pay attention to the school zone. Um a lot of safety issues there and so we will be working with the commission directly in the coming weeks and months to uh potentially get something uh there to remedy that situation.

Real quick on the street sweeper, I don't know if y'all knew this. I never did until yesterday. Bobby Baker briefed us on it. There's 125 miles of road in Linhaven. That's how much our public works folks maintain on a daily basis. So, I hadn't even thought about a street sweeper before, but we could darn sure put one to work with 125 miles of highway or streets in Linhaven. So, good idea. Um especially if we can lease it or rent one or contract however versus owning it. Yes, sir. Bobby Baker in general. And

does anybody commissioners is there anything y'all want to speak to uh with the audience or in general before we kind of wrap up? No, I uh I wasn't sure how this is going to go and uh I'm happy to see new faces and people coming up here and talking. This is kind of what I envisioned. So I hope that this can keep going in the future and we create a lot more of this collaboration. So I appreciate everyone coming out. Commissioner Par, thank you everybody.

Yeah, thanks for coming out. Uh, one final thing could Miss Nelson, could you send me um the certifications and stuff that you were talking about? Very interested. Um and yeah if I guess uh who shot would who would know about our cyber framework. Okay. Okay. Yep. Everybody know that speaking here. I just got one question on the spring concert. We're going to have four four. Four. Yes ma'am. Is that going to be called too? Yes ma'am. Four and four. Yes ma'am. Johnny, you had something.

As you can imagine, I still have questions on my list. Michelle couldn't make it today, but she had some questions and I did, too. Um, one, and you may have pull this out. You may have addressed them in the the meeting yesterday. James Rogers Park in Bair. Um, that's money we've not spent to to change that park. And personally for me, I don't know that it's a good use of our funding right now to use it on that if we don't have to. And it's my understanding that those are those 404 funds or whatever they are that can be shifted and used somewhere else. So there's not a a absolute driver that we spend however much it's going to cost to do that. I think there may be some cheaper ways to do it. Like I said, Ty may have covered that yesterday. I don't know. I'll go back and look at that meeting. Um, also unfortunately Chris, I don't think we need to change the city charter to say that the city manager does not live in the Linhaven city limits. I think they should be subject to the same rules and regulations that they enforce and guide the city in. And to do that, they need to live within the city limits. Um, I guess the last thing is I know it's been talked about a lot and it's a contentious subject, but when Vicky um, Gainner was terminated, part of it was because there were some bid rigging charges and I don't know that the commission's ever addressed that we did get back or we this the city did get her property back or the city property back from the FDLE and they declined to bring charges against her. the state attorney decided not to bring charges against her. I just wanted to make sure that the commissioners are aware of that and that the public's aware of that, too, because she was terminated in a very public way and I'm one that believes that if if something happens in public and it changes, it needs to be addressed in public. I think things can be done in

private, not so much for y'all, but the way I operate is we usually I usually do corrections in private and commendations in public. I just think that's the way it ought to be done. But if if there's a public something happens in public that's negative and it's proven to be wrong, it needs to be addressed in public again. Thank you. That's all. Thank you. Um James Rogers was addressed in that. Okay. So, um but correct me if I'm wrong, Chris, but I think uh basically where we're at now is all the funds are no longer available.

The funds have been exhausted. As you know, we we paid um about a $2 million um debt service payment on the disaster bond. At this point, you know, there is no James Rogers Park will not be moved forward with any FEMA money. Um it will, however, it's built in the future. It will be out of the general fund, but it has been designed. Yes, sir. The design is complete. You all voted on a um decision on the design back in August, I believe it was. Um so, the design is done. It's ready to be bid out. It's just a matter of how we fund it, right? Okay. And mayor, go ahead.

Um, just a reminder that there are feedback forms in the back. We do ask that you do fill them out just so we kind of know where we're at and have a place to go off of anything we could do better. Um, and hope to see you all next month um for that. So, in in closing, uh two months ago last night, I was sworn in as your 33rd mayor, and uh I'm grateful to the commission uh for their support and giving me the opportunity to step up and serve all of my fellow neighbors and citizens in Lin Haven. The one thing that I I said uh in my very brief uh I guess you call it swearing in remarks was I would love nothing more than for us to get back to a well-run, sleepy bedroom community where everybody is golden rule, treats each other well, and we don't have a whole lot of drama or strife or conflict. I think these kind of events go a long way to help with that. Mr. Schultz kind of talked about that earlier. Um, thank y'all for coming out and being part of our experiment here that Commissioner War uh wanted to do. Uh, I like you when you thought Pet City it wasn't going to be a big thing. I was real leerary about this first one. I thought we might show up and there might be three people here. Ryan Spray, Johnny Brashier, and probably Cory Langford. It would be too late.

So, at best five on the news. Yeah. Of course it is. Yes, ma'am. You were. We should have gave her.

Um, but I was so happy to see so many citizens come out and ask questions. This is what this is supposed to be like. And it is very different when we get up there and have to do the city business and the agenda. Uh, it's very scripted. It's kind of very formal and it's very from one to the next, but this is free flowing. And you heard people from the heart talk about their their bayus and their kids playing in the playground. I mean there was a broad swath of topics but it was important to them and they wanted to come bring it to the commission so it's important to us and I thank you sincerely for for being part of this experiment with us which is to improve transparency and collaboration between the citizens and your city government. So with that we're closing it looks like about 3 minutes early. Y'all have a great rest of your weekend. Thank y'all.