Commission - Regular Meeting

To the Lynn Haven City Commission, it's 5.30, so we'll go ahead and kick things off. Welcome to all of our special guests with us tonight. The first thing I'm going to do is call this meeting to order. We're going to have the invocation by Pastor Trent Gann of the First Baptist Church of Lynn Haven, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Let's pray. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you tonight with thanksgiving in our hearts. God, thank you for the rain we've had. We've desperately needed that. So thank you for... your blessing in that. God, thank you for the privilege we have to live in such a great city. And God, as we look around, we just see your creation and it glorifies the Creator. So thank you for letting us enjoy it. God, we thank you for the people that make up this city. We pray your blessing on our city. God, we pray that we would be a city you'd be willing to bless, a city that stands up for righteousness, a city where we love our neighbors as ourselves. God, a city where we know what it is to go the extra mile. and know what it is to turn the other cheek in difficult moments. Dear God, we pray your continued blessing on us. Thank you for those who serve us in elected roles. God, those who are employed by our city, we pray that you would bless them and bless their families as well. And God, we ask for wisdom tonight. You tell us we can ask, and you will not chastise us for asking as long as we do so in faith. So God, we ask tonight that you would give our leaders the needed wisdom that they need. And we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Congratulations to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Pastor McMahon. All right. Next on the agenda, additions, deletions, modifications of agenda. Are there any for tonight before we get started? Nope, everybody.

Hit the microphone there, the red button.

Okay.

Yes, understood. Do you want, we do that during the consent agenda or additions? We're going to get Commissioner Tender back on the line here. We do have the one addition of allowing her to participate tonight via phone. She is recovering still. Hey there, Commissioner Tender. Starting to make the addition of adding you by phone tonight. So as you know, Commissioner Tender is still recovering from heart surgery. She will be back with us at the next meeting, but she hasn't been cleared to come back yet. So she is participating via phone tonight. I'd like to ask for everyone's grace and authorizing her participation via phone as such. So with that said, could I get a motion to allow Commissioner Tender to participate by phone?

A motion to approve.

Thank you, sir. May I have a second?

Second.

Thank you. I have a motion and a second. Is there any general commentary regarding having Commissioner Tender participate tonight via phone? Hearing none, City Manager, would you call the roll?

Commissioner Peebles? Yes. Commissioner Wark? Yes. Commissioner Perno? Yes. Commissioner Tender?

Yes.

Mayor Lowry.

Yes, we have it. 5-0. Thank you for that. All right. We have a special moment tonight, and if Mr. Justin Ward would come forward. We're going to be recognizing the Bay County Special Olympics basketball team. I have a hot mic for you, sir.

Got to go, Brian.

Y'all come on in, don't be shy.

Get in the back.

Watch your step.

Yeah, yeah.

So, yeah, we have everyone. So. Still switching. So I believe this is the second or third year that Special Olympics has rented out our gymnasium for their summer games. Even though they're from all over the county, I always say to our leadership team, this is a Lynn Haven team. They practice hard. They're there every Sunday. I know they reached a big milestone this year. They went to regionals in Walton County and they won. They had a bid to the state tournament. and Ty, which is one of our own in the sports and rec department. Raise your hand, Ty. Raise your hand, Ty. He coming to work all excited when they won the games, and it just put fire in us. So they went to state, and they placed third. So we wanted to recognize them for that. So... That was big. So on behalf of City of Landhaven, the commission, city manager, we want to present you with medals for your accomplishments. And we're going to let you guys give them out to the teams and whatever.

Thank you. We can do that. I just want to thank Lynn Haven personally. We came to Lynn Haven two years ago when we were looking for a place to practice. We had outgrown First Baptist. Downtown was letting us use their old upstairs gym, if y'all have ever been in it. You pray as you go up the stairs that you don't fall through while you're there. But, you know, it was a place to practice. And we had less than 20. This year we took three qualifying teams to state. And just to put that into perspective, these guys compete. just like if not more than any other athlete you've seen. They went to Orlando where over 2,500 athletes were competing in basketball, cycling, track and field, bocce, several sports. But we actually took three teams. We had four qualify, one... A player had to drop out at the last minute, and just like any other sport, they cannot compete. If their team can't move forward, they can't move forward. So these guys have definitely put in the practice. I want to personally thank Coach Ty as well. I was in the gym this summer, and I look up, and there's Ty. And I knew Ty back in Bay High. Cool story. Allison in the front. And okay. Kim told him he was going to coach. Let me give Kim, let me give coach Kim. He got voluntold. Um, Alison in the front, um, was a, she is differently abled as well. She's my daughter and she helped, um, which was a manager in high school at Bay high school. And Ty and Alison knew each other. So I was like, what are you doing here? He said, I work here. And, Here we are, state-bound and a great turnout. We look forward to next year because they're going to bring home the gold. But I want to thank Lynn Haven definitely for giving us such a great facility. We have Walton County come over, and we got to do another game, which is a big deal because we don't have a whole lot of competition in these parts. Thank you. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. And athletes, if you went to state games, if you'll just step forward, just the athletes that went to state games, unified partners as well. Unified partners are typical people without special needs who also come and compete with our athletes. So we had a 5v5 team, a 3v3 team, and a team skills team. There's different levels, and they compete with other athletes equivalent to what their capabilities are. All right. Ian Whitley.

This year was a shock. They fought.

Thank you guys. Really appreciate it. It's very nice of you. Y'all did a great job.

Thank you.

I know, I know. We used to see each other all the time.

Take care.

Thank you.

All of our visitors are welcome to stay, but you're also welcome to depart the pattern as well if you'd like. Congratulations again, and thank you for letting us share with you tonight.

All right.

We'll stand by about... 30 seconds. Let them clear out. all right thank y'all for your patience we'll get back to our regular scheduled program and just so y'all know i have a goal tonight i want to get us out of here in an hour so let's see that will be the shortest commission meeting we've had in at least an hour so the schedule's light so as long as everybody that wants to speak can be heard We may be on tap for an hour. Let's see if we can do it. With that, the first thing on the consent agenda is approval of our meeting minutes dated May 12th, 26. Can I get a motion to approve? Motion to approve.

Second.

Ma'am, can I have a second?

Second.

Thank you so much. Open the floor for general discussion. Any questions or discussion regarding approval of our past meeting minutes?

Mayor, that's actually for the entire consent agenda.

Okay.

It'll be for both items.

My apologies. So we got two items in. So we have the approval of the minutes for the 12th and also approval of the 9-11 Platt Residential Incentive Program application for 1221 Illinois Avenue, contingent upon completion. Thank you for keeping me straight, City Manager. So we have the two items. I assume, Commissioner Tender, you're still a motion, and Commissioner Peebles, you're still a second? Yes, sir. Thank you for that. So we have a motion and a second for both items. Any general discussion? Hearing none, City Manager, would you call the roll?

Commissioner Tender?

Yes.

Commissioner Peebles? Yes. Commissioner Perno? Yes. Commissioner Ward? Yes. Mayor Lowry?

Yes. Thank you. The ayes have it. All right. So, old business. Final reading, Ordinance 1190, Establishing Non-Avalorum Requirements in the City Charter. City Attorneys.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, this is Ordinance Number 1190, an ordinance of the City of Lynnhaven, Florida, proposing amendments to Section 6 of the City's Charter to establish requirements for non-Avalorum assessments, providing that the proposed amendments shall be effective only upon the approval of referendum as specified in the ordinance.

Thank you. And for those of you that have been attending the meetings, this is basically the seven questions. This is all the details before any new non-advalorem tax gets established in the city. There will be seven specified bits of information, the start and end dates, the cost estimates, how much of a variation will be allowed. But the sunrise, the sunset, and all of the key details that can possibly be provided to our Lynn Haven residents before such a non-advalorum gets implemented, we owe it to the public to do that. Our city charter committee actually established this. Our vice chairman, Mr. Ryan Scray, is here tonight representing them. So thank you to the charter review committee for bringing this forward. This was the second reading tonight. City Manager, do you need to read it for the second reading?

I just read it.

That was it. Any general questions? Hearing none, may I get a motion to approve?

Motion to approve.

Thank you. May I get a second to approve? Second.

Second.

Thank you, sir. I have a motion and a second. Any questions, comments, or concerns?

So just to be clear, this is for any future non-Avalorum. That's what was added. Yes. That's the last time.

Yes. That was to ease y'all's concerns. The referendum will be on August 18th, and this would be for any new non-Avalorum starting after the referendum. I believe, City Attorney, we specifically said starting September 1st of 26th.

Yes, sir. It says new. Yeah, in 2026. Yeah.

So starting September 2026. All right. So we have a motion and a second. No concerns or public commentary. Okay.

I don't remember who brought up the idea, so I can't give them credit, but somebody had suggested that you guys put this in effect at the ordinance level, whether the referendum passes or not, because then you would be subjected to follow this in the meantime. And if the referendum failed, you'd still be subjected to follow it unless the commission overturned that ordinance. Is this covering that or not?

So the ordinance is being established to go forward to the referendum. Okay. Yes.

But if you pass like a non-advalorum assessment in the next meeting, it wouldn't be subjected to this?

Any new, the only one that's grandfathered in is the one that's currently existing.

Anything from September 2026? Yes.

OK, he's asking if, like, let's say tomorrow we had a special meeting and decided to do a non ad valorem assessment. This would not cover that because we got to wait till it goes to a ballot. Right.

Right. So effectively this commission opted not to take that person's idea and put it in this extra, you know, level of transparency from now until September 1st, 2026 in place or permanent if the referendum were to fail. So what I would do is I would encourage you guys if you, I don't think you're planning on any non-advalorum assessments, but if one comes up, I would encourage you because it's so easy to follow is just have this information ready and share it because, you know, you don't need an ordinance to do the right thing. You can just do the right thing. And I think the seven items are the right thing. That's why this is getting passed and going to referendum.

So city attorney, just for clarification here, though, this is literally a formal ordinance reading 1190. So we are establishing a new city ordinance that's going forward to the referendum.

It is not effective.

Yes, it's not. It's not effective unless it's passed a referendum. So the city commission could, if it doesn't pass a referendum, just simply adopt an ordinance.

Right. And in the meantime, if you cook up any, you know, non-advalorums, like maybe for sidewalks and salmonized neighborhood and only we pay, us and our neighbors pay it as an example, like you could still have these seven items fulfilled very easily. So that's all I'm suggesting.

Yeah, I'll say, I mean, if a non-advalorum comes up, And before the ballot, I will put it on the agenda to vote on the ordinance because I think that's important. So we can put it ahead on the agenda, make an ordinance and then do it.

So by the time you did a study and everything, it would definitely be past September.

And I would say the odds heavily favor that.

But we all are doing the honorable, transparent thing here. So we wouldn't turn around and not be transparent after we push this through. So that we're not doing the Texas two step here. So. We're good there, but thank you, Mr. Scray, for that input. Any other questions or comments? Hearing none, we have a motion and a second. City Manager, would you call the roll?

Commissioner Ward? Yes. Commissioner Perno? Yes. Commissioner Peebles? Yes. Commissioner Tender?

Yes.

Mayor Lowry.

Yes, the ayes have it. Thank you all for that. We have no tabled items tonight. We have one, two, three, four new business discussion items. Number eight is discuss and possible approval regarding continuing with town hall meetings. City Manager.

Yes, sir. So we established some town hall meetings. We've had our third last Saturday. Had some good turnout, good conversation from those meetings. But the original plan was to do the three and then reconvene at a commission meeting and decide which route the commission wants to pursue, whether it's to continue the town hall meetings or do another three to six and remove public commentary from the agenda altogether. or stick to the town halls with public commentary. Staff just request direction from the commission on what you all would like to continue to do.

So with that, ladies first. Commissioner Tender, since you're on the phone now, I'll ask you to go first. Were you able to hear the city manager there?

Yes, I sure was. Well, personally, if the rest of the commission votes to continue this, town hall meetings, I will be there. But for 10 or 15 people, it just seems like a big expense for that few people that show up. That's basically all I have. I will show up if they vote to do it, but I'd like to see a lot more people there.

Yes, ma'am. And city manager, to that point, let's see, the one we had this past Saturday, we had... Ken, for a little while, we had one of our regulars come late and leave early, but we had nine other of our pretty hardcore regulars participate. Do you remember offhand how many we had participate in the first and second town halls?

The very first one, I believe we had like 20 or 22 folks. We've got the feedback, every one filling one out. I believe it was 20 to 22, and the second one was the same, 10 to 15, if I remember correctly.

Thanks for that.

I would like to add that when we look at things like this, when you're looking at such a small sample size of people, the difference between 10 and 22 is so negligible that I would rather focus on being available rather than the actual number of people that show up. So I think that's really what we need to focus on is the availability if people can make it rather than the total number of people that do. And let's not forget that people are watching online as well. Yeah.

Commissioner Perno.

I think we haven't really ran the gamut with it because we haven't done it the town hall while we have not done public commentary at a meeting. And I really think if we didn't do public commentary at a meeting and did a town hall, then you'd really see the litmus paper as to who's going to attend the town hall. Probably the first one to tell us that we're not doing right by not doing public commentary at a meeting. But nonetheless, When you're trying to push something through like this, or not push it through, but trying to live with it, are we doing it how we intend to do it? We intend to eliminate public commentary from the meeting and do a town hall. That's exactly what was presented, but we've done a town hall while we've continued to do public commentary. So the real test is going to be if we do no public commentary at a meeting and do the town hall and see how it works. But I'm like Commissioner Tender. I'll go either way. Got 11 months to go.

And I'll be the caboose here. So before I go, Commissioner Warwick.

You know, I got a lot to say on this since I started this. As we discussed, you know, over the past three months, we conducted a pilot program for community town halls with the goal of evaluating whether this format could improve citizen engagement and communication between residents and their elected officials. And when this was first proposed, There was understandable questions and concerns such as would people attend, would residents feel heard, would this actually improve engagement, and would it work for Lynn Haven? And at the time, none of us truly knew the answer, which is why we agreed to test it before making any long-term decisions. After participating in these town halls over the last three months, I believe we now have enough real world experience and feedback to evaluate the concept honestly. And what we observed was a much different atmosphere than a traditional formal commission meeting. The town halls created more interaction, more conversation, more collaboration, and more immediate feedback between residents, commissioners, and city leadership. One of the most common criticisms we hear during traditional public commentary is that residents speak for three minutes, but there is little to no opportunity for dialogue or interaction afterwards. The town hall format changed that dynamic. Residents were able to ask follow-up questions, engage in discussion, receive immediate feedback, and in some cases, connect directly with the appropriate city leadership or staff to begin addressing concerns in real time. And to me, that is meaningful engagement. We also saw some new faces participating who may not normally come speak during a formal commission meeting setting. And I can understand that because speaking in a formal commission meeting such as this can be intimidating for some people. And this reminds me of a quote from Jerry Seinfeld where he said, according to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy. So I know it's a little bit of humor, but I think there's a lot of truth to that. And a more relaxed and conversational setting can make participation feel more approachable for many residents. One thing that stood out to me during these town halls was seeing residents participate who openly stated they would not normally feel comfortable speaking during a formal commission meeting. At one of the town halls, we had a resident attend her first public meeting ever. She openly stated she did not know how the process worked and was clearly nervous speaking publicly. Because of the more relaxed and conversational format, she was able to discuss concerns involving police interactions, receive immediate feedback, and connect directly with the police chief to continue addressing those concerns afterward. That level of dialogue, interaction, and immediate problem solving is difficult to accomplish during traditional public commentary. To me, that is a strong example of what meaningful public engagement can look like. The written feedback we received during the pilot program was overwhelmingly constructive and informative. Common themes included appreciation for the interaction, appreciation for the conversational environment, appreciation for immediate responses, and support for continuing the town hall concept. The primary criticism we received involved audio quality, which we addressed by adding microphones during the last town hall. I also want to make an important clarification because I know this has been a concern throughout this discussion. This is not about eliminating public participation. Public comment on agenda item before commission action is required by Florida law and will continue regardless of the structure we choose moving forward. The question before us is not whether the residents should be heard. The question is what structure creates the most meaningful and productive engagement between residents and their government. Over the course of this pilot program, I believe it became clear that many non-agenda concerns are discussion-oriented rather than action-oriented. In many cases, during traditional non-agenda public commentary, there is little to no opportunity for meaningful exchange, there is often no immediate path toward discussion or clarification, and residents frequently leave without interaction beyond their three-minute statement. The town hall format addressed that issue directly. Instead of limiting engagement to a statement from the lectern, residents were able to engage in actual conversation and dialogue in a setting specifically designed for that purpose. Based on the results of the pilot program, I believe many non-agenda concerns are more effectively addressed through the town hall structure than through traditional non-agenda public commentary during formal commission meetings. That is not to say we cannot still have discussion and dialogue regarding upcoming agenda items during these town halls. Again, this is not about limiting criticism or reducing transparency. Residents would still be able to speak on agenda items before votes are taken. continue to have public access to their elected officials, and continue to have opportunities to raise concerns publicly, and now have a dedicated forum specifically designed for broader discussion and interaction. At the end of the day, our responsibility is not simply to preserve processes because they are familiar. Our responsibility is to evaluate whether there are better ways to engage with the public while maintaining transparency, accountability, and lawful public participation. Based on the results we have seen over the last three months, I believe the town hall format has demonstrated that it creates more meaningful opportunities for residents to not only be heard, but to engage directly with their local government in a more collaborative and productive way. With that being said, I would like to make a motion that we modify public commentary to audience participation limited to agenda items, while continuing public comment on agenda items as required by law and establish monthly community town halls on the saturday prior to the fourth tuesday commission meeting from 9 to 11. thank you commissioner or i'm sorry mayor yes ma'am um i apologize for asking this but um i did not hear

Pat Perno's basic, I don't want a repeat of everything he said, but basically, did you interpret what he said was he's for or against?

He said he completely agreed with you, and that dovetails right into my comments, Commissioner Tender.

Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. I honestly feel the same way as Commissioner Tender and Commissioner Perno. If we as a commission continue to do this, I'm fine doing it. The first town hall was really... I think a heartwarming and good thing. We had a lot of participation. We had some first-time folks, and that was really exciting as well. For the last two, though, it quickly boiled down to just the regulars. And I'm afraid with the spring and summer and kids out for the summer and stuff now, I think it's going to be just the handful, the dozen or so regulars. Now, I may be wrong, but we'll see. But I kind of say ditto to Commissioner Tender and Commissioner Perno's thoughts. The only other thing I'll add is I am really uncomfortable and don't want to give up public commentary from the commissioners. I know that's the intent. So if we have other forums, that's great. We've already moved it to the end. So the folks that would... be at the beginning to do the YouTube moments and all that stuff and kind of really bog down agenda items. We'd be 45 minutes to an hour post-pledge before we got to the first agenda item. We don't have those anymore. What we have is kind of our hardcore regulars, and I could name them pretty much by name. They're here, and they're going to be with us whether they speak or not, and they speak at the end during general open public commentary. So I realize the intents to kind of pressurize the system by taking that off the city commission meeting. But realistically, we only have a couple of general comments at the very end of the meeting anyway, as is. So if we go forward with this, the town hall, I'm kind of agnostic on it. I'm okay with it. I'll support it. But I don't want to give up general commentary at the end of our current commissioner.

So just a couple things I'll add is I was asking Mr. Lightfoot earlier, what is the additional cost? The only additional cost is IT, correct?

IT is the only staff that's hourly that is here, yes, sir, and then the items that we bring for refreshments. So to me, it's minimal cost.

I love the coffee and the Chick-fil-A and the donuts. I just want to say that.

And to me, if we do public commentary during regular meetings, like we're doing, and this, to me, it's a duplication of effort.

So I will say that I'm not in support of removing public commentary either. Since day one, I've always been about more availability. So I think taking away public commentary in a vacuum, I see the argument, but I just don't agree with it. It's just a minor thing. But what I would say is that it does, by doing the town hall and still allowing public commentary, it offers different communication styles It's just a different communication style. They're not one and the same to me.

To me, what makes it difficult during regular commission meetings is the commission meetings are designed for action oriented, right? But with public commentary, depending on what they're coming up for, a lot of times they're expecting us to do something or they're expecting us to have discussion. It's more discussion oriented, not action oriented. And it's hard to have that type of discussion. And you can, but To me, it's a lot more effective having it through the town hall than the commission meetings. I just think they're a whole lot more effective that way.

And I hear you, Commissioner Wark. And offering the town hall forum gives us that. A couple of case in points. Mr. Ryan Scray and Ms. Michelle Beshear, they both came with lists. They were able to talk through their lists. And we responded. And, you know, it was much more that we didn't have a three-minute clock. Yes, sir.

I know you made a motion, Jamie, and what I said was... Could we try it another two months before you make the motion and try it without public commentary at the meeting and do the town hall and then we'll see where the real deal lies in the format of communication. And then you can make your motion and we'll go from there. Let's just try two more meetings. Let's try two more town halls.

Mr. Jackson, for the sake of minutes, would we assume that the Commissioner Warwick's motion has failed due to lack of second, so that CJ can document that?

Well, he motioned in the middle of it.

I think we're still talking on it, right?

Yeah, I hadn't even given my inputs. We were still sharing inputs. But, I mean, if you want to remake it, sir, feel free.

So I'll say my motion again that we modify public commentary to audience participation limited to agenda items while continuing public comment on agenda items as required by law and establish monthly community town halls on the Saturday prior to the fourth Tuesday commission meeting from 9 to 11. That's my motion.

Thank you for that. So I have a motion from Commissioner Ward for the Saturday before the fourth Tuesday meeting of the City Commission from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Unless someone wants to propose a different time, but I'm, of course, flexible on that.

But the key element there is you're asking for a suspension of non-specific agenda item public commentary for this two or three months.

No, I didn't put a time frame. I was going to say we should contest it in the manner in which he wants to do it. We've done it three times with public commentary in the meeting as well. Now his motion wants to remove public commentary. I think we all know how everybody else feels about it, but... In fairness to him, and if you want to test it the way he says, the true feeling that he's proposed, he's made his statement, but we haven't done it that way yet. If we do it that way, you'll get the feel. You'll get the opinions. Even if we did one more meeting that way, that's all I was saying is just test it one more time, the manner in which he's talking. Am I ready to go his way? No, but I'd like to try it his way if that's what he wants to do for two more meetings.

Just for the sake of clarity, I've

I acknowledge your motion, Commissioner Warwick, and what's the time frame of motion? Are you acceptable with Commissioner Perno's two-month trial? Are you trying to do this indefinitely or what?

I mean, I don't understand. We either want to do this or we don't. You know what I'm saying? This is the talk I had at the last commission meeting. And I just think, I mean, if you truly feel you need to keep public commentary, then make the motion. But I truly feel that this is the best way to go based on the feedback we receive from town halls and research I've done and that. So that's just how I feel.

Mayor? Commissioner Tender?

Um, I want to make sure that I understand what Jamie just said, because I was under the impression that we would always have public commentary at our regular commission meetings, but they could only, um, we would only do commentary on agenda items.

Yes.

Now, uh, uh, Mr. Warwick, are you saying that you want to discontinue public commentary completely? At meeting meetings? Okay.

No, what I'm saying is the public commentary would be replaced with audience participation, and they could speak on any agenda item during audience participation. And then on the actual agenda items, there will be commentary on that when we go take action on those.

Oh, so they would still get to have public commentary on agenda items?

Correct. Always, by law.

During a commission meeting?

Correct.

That's per Florida state law. It's just advocating for the removal of general commentary at the end of the commission. Right.

Yeah. Okay. As long as they get to voice their opinion on regular items that we're discussing at the agenda, then I think that's great. And for those who want to come on a Saturday and voice their opinion again or whatever, I think we should give it a shot and see. I don't think it's... My personal opinion is I would start to bark if we continue to only have 10 or 15 people there. Right. On Saturdays, you know?

I agree. Okay, so we have Commissioner Warwick's motion. Do I have a second? Yes. Okay. So I have a motion and a second. I'll open the floor for general commentary. I see Mr. Hines first and then Mr. Scray and Ms. Parker after that. So come on up, Mr. Hines. Good evening.

Evening. 1603 Rhode Island Avenue, Lynnhaven, Florida. You have... Ten minutes of verbal diarrhea about the same issue. What Jamie said was what should have been done the first time around. If you have an issue come up on the agenda that someone wants to speak on, they can speak on it. If it's not on the agenda, they shouldn't come up here and talk about Port St. Joe, Bay County, Southport, wherever, talking about all kinds of crazy stuff. That's why your meeting should be an hour because a normal person's attention span is only 45 minutes. You start a two-hour meeting, people start to walk out because they had something to say and they couldn't say it. So he was right with what he said. We should cut out the regular agenda item and let them speak, commentary. If they want to speak on weekends, they can come. And you all get paid. I know it's part-time pay, but this is a full-time job. So if you have to come in here and sit here for three hours on Saturday and only one person show up, that's your job. You're here for the citizens, not for yourself. That's my opinion. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Mr. Scray.

Before I share my thoughts, I'd like to get a yes or no on clarification. Would this audience participation be after item three additions, deletions, modifications of the agenda?

So the way we operate currently with the city commission is the general commentary is at the end of the meeting prior to the mayor's report and the commissioner.

I'm aware of where it is. I'm asking, will audience participation be at the beginning of the agenda or will it stay at the end? Because what I say depends on your answer.

Mayor, if it's audience participation for the items only, it would be appropriate for it to be before the items as they work through the agenda, if that's what the audience participation is specific for.

So if that's the case, if your intent is to allow somebody to come in and, for example, I could come in earlier and I could have spoken on every agenda item on this agenda for three minutes. However, I use that three minutes. So basically what you're allowing is somebody who didn't want to send you an email or call you in advance can come in and share their thoughts before you make a motion a second. Once you make that motion second, they can come back up again. Maybe they don't like your motion. Right? And then they retry to convince you to change it. You're like Sam said, you're just changing this communication styles. It's a little bit redundant to be able to speak to the agenda items before the agenda items. I mean, you could. And I don't know, Rob, if this is legal or not, but do you have to allow the public commentary after the motions or just at some point on the agenda item? Mayor, may I?

Yes, please. So the public has to have an opportunity to be able to provide comment before the motion is voted upon.

So it has to be after the motion, but before the vote?

It doesn't necessarily have to be after the motion. It can be at any stage in the process.

Okay. So if time is of essence, and I appreciate you wanting to get us out early, because if we get out early tonight, I can go do some DoorDash deliveries and make some money. But if time is of the essence, why not just change your format to get rid of audience participation and you as chair mayor, you may allow audience participation on each agenda item before any motions are made. That can be a rule that you as chairman inflict on the rest of your peers and yourself because you can make motions as well. um so you could say hey we're gonna have some discussion is there any any audience participation we come up we say our thoughts okay now's the time for a motion if you have one motions made discussion of the commission ensues no more audience participation we had our time it's voted on it moves on You can get rid of that whole 35, 45 minutes of audience participation and just give us the chance agenda item by agenda item. Maybe it takes longer because I need to talk about all 18, you know, or maybe it doesn't because I only have one I need to talk about. But that's just the thought that I have because, I mean, if we're going to change around the processes, kind of maybe just think about what's going to be more effective for... the citizens to engage with our representatives whether that be three minutes at the beginning or three minutes on the agenda item trying to convince you or my personal favorite i'll just send you a darn email right um that's that's my preference because as soon as the agenda comes out i can i can start formulating my emails to you guys i'm sure you've gotten some on thursday or friday nights at 11 p.m right um so that's kind of my thoughts on that is just is I can respect wanting to go to the public commentary and move it to the town halls. I'm okay with trying the idea. I personally think that every opportunity to hear from the public is better than not having an opportunity. But if you guys are going to try it before you buy it, fine. I don't like it, but I respect you guys trying it.

Thank you, sir. Ms. Parker.

That's a good point, something I didn't even factor in, but I think we would have to change where we would put audience participation if this were to pass. So obviously I wouldn't want it after we've already voted on everything.

Good evening, Ms. Parker.

Jerry Parker, Red Place. Guys, I've been here since 2002. 2002. 2002. I came to two commission meetings when Walter Kelly was mayor here. It was a crap show. I didn't come to any more commission meetings. After the hurricane, there were problems. I came all the time. People need to be able to speak up. A lot of people sit here and don't speak up, and that's okay. But there are some individuals that want to be heard in this room during a commission meeting. And Jamie, if you want to do these town halls, fine, do them. But look how it's dwindling. Ten people, the last one? That's ridiculous. And the same people, some of the same exact people are coming for that town hall. And not these same exact people come to the commission meeting and have their commentary? I think y'all are doing something, you are doing something wrong. I don't agree with the town hall. If you want to do the town halls, do the town halls. But public commentary needs to be done in the commission meeting during a commission meeting. Do I have to wait a month? A month? When I pull up something and say, oh, I need to go to the commission meeting and say something. I can't say something unless it's on an agenda item for a month? No. I'm sorry. That's wrong. We need to stay with the commentary during commission meetings. If you want to have the town halls, have the town halls, but we need to be able, there's people that have dignity here that want things to be heard by this commission. Do you know how many times I have stood up here and said stuff about people like Margo Anderson, James Finch, You know how many times we were berated by Mayor Nelson in reference to that? And how did I help with the committee to get him gone? Guys, this is not something that's unusual. Y'all need to stay with commentary. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Parker. Mr. Beshear. Good evening.

Good evening. A couple of things. First thing is there are 11 citizens at this commission meeting. So it's not a whole lot different than a town hall meeting. We've not had what I would call an acid test of this yet. We've not had a contentious issue come up while we've done these town hall meetings. So we've not seen what's going to happen if you say, oh, let's not allow people to park their RVs in their yard. Something like that. Something that's going to bring people out. We've not seen that yet. And what we went through in the past with public commentary that lasted so long was we had contentious issues and people came and talked. So that's something to consider going forward. We've really not acid tested this. And I agree with Mrs. Parker to a degree on the time is of the essence. Do we want to wait a month to if a contentious issue does occur that we want to bring to the commission do we need to wait a month now that's not to say i can email y'all i can phone y'all i can come see you y'all are all available i don't have to stand up and say it publicly so the public sees it so you can be contacted if if necessary and try to get something added to the agenda I just wanted to make sure that you understood that it's not been acid tested yet. When that occurs, you'll know if it's really going to work or not. But until that does, I mean, it's just not going to lengthen anything out. I don't disagree with the two-month test to see, but if we don't have an issue that comes up, is it really going to be a valid test? I can't say one way or the other, just food for thought.

Fair point. Thank you, Mr. Beshear. All right. Any other questions or excuse me, public commentary? OK, so I have a motion by Commissioner Warrick and I have a second by Commissioner Tender.

Mayor, if I may, before we call the vote, Commissioner Wark, if you would consider instead of making it concrete on the third Friday, I'm sorry, third Saturday of the month, we could look at that at the first meeting of every month. That way, if we have a three-day weekend like we did last weekend, we could adjust accordingly instead of keep that a little more fluid date instead of making it in the motion of what Saturday it is.

Yeah, I'd be good with that. If we happen to have one like we just had where it's a holiday, we can change it. I'm good with that. So I don't know how I need to...

So it would just be continue with the public commentary with at least one meeting once a month and as scheduled by city staff or the commission and then eliminate public commentary at the... Well, replace public commentary with audience participation unless we dictate and we'll normally have it on

The Saturday prior to the fourth Tuesday commission meeting, unless we decide to move it because it's a holiday weekend. Fair.

And to clarify, this is not a month or two. This is indefinite, correct? Or until otherwise changed by the commission. Mayor. Yes, ma'am.

Okay, I'm totally confused now because I can only hear half of what everybody is saying. I'm sorry, ma'am. Go ahead.

I'll clarify.

It's okay. Okay, I need clarification. Yes, ma'am. First of all, I just made a motion to do this indefinitely. That's my first question. And my second question.

Yes, that's that. Commissioner Ward just verified that he's wanting to do this indefinitely, not the two-month additional test Commissioner Pernaut had recommended, but indefinitely until we change it.

Okay. But what we're talking about is we would still allow audience participation and comments on agenda items, is that correct?

Yes, ma'am.

So what exactly is it we're taking away to replace with Saturday?

We're replacing the public commentary with audience participation where the only things that they can speak about is agenda items.

Okay, okay. Does that make sense? Yes, it does. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.

Are you still wanting to second that, Commissioner Tender?

You know, I'm having second thoughts about seconding it.

Well, in order to remove the motion.

Yeah, I have to remove my motion because it generally just feels like We're taking something away from the public, not giving them anything in addition to.

We have to vote.

So I am going to, I do want to take back my motion.

Well, just a point of order, Commissioner Tender. Since you have seconded, we need to go ahead and vote. But that doesn't preclude you voting up or down. Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Okay. So we do have, we did have a motion and a second. We've had public commentary. We now, unless there's other questions or comments from the commission, I'll ask the city manager to call the roll.

Yeah.

City manager.

Commissioner Ward. Yes. Commissioner Tender. Yes. Mr. Peebles?

I'm going to vote no because I'm not comfortable with the removal of the public commentary.

Mr. Perno? I'm going to say that I'm in favor of town hall, and I would love to have tested it without public commentary for a brief time to make the decision afterward, but the way it's presented, I'm going to vote no. Mayor Lowry.

I'm also going to vote no. I'm not a fan of removing general commentary, but I am willing to support the town halls as an additive form. So the motion fails 1-4.

All right. Mayor, before we go on, I would request some direction from Mr. Jackson. Staff needs some direction on town halls. Do we keep them on the calendar? Do we remove them? Staff needs to know what we're doing with town halls moving forward.

I'll make another motion to do the town halls, but... The time period that you suggested in terms of the flexibility. But to continue public commentary in the. In the normal scheduled commission meetings.

Just for clarification, is there a time limit on that mission? People are just definitely.

Well, it's tough because I don't think I'm ever going to support removing public commentary, and so there'd be really no reason to test it for me. So I'm going to say indefinitely.

So indefinite monthly town halls, unless it's a holiday weekend, the Saturday before our fourth Tuesday meeting with continued city commission general commentary. Okay. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Okay. I don't have a second. The motion fails. So the guidance.

I'll make a motion and I'll make a motion to continue the town halls for the next, let's say, two months and remove public commentary from the meetings for those two and add audience participation on agenda items and then revisit the whole thing so it doesn't die and we can see what the town hall concept is in its truest form.

so commissioner perno i have a motion to basically continue what we've been doing but with no general public commentary for two months to by words pressurize the system right um that's your motion but it's only for the two month period so i have a motion from commissioner perno do i have a second Hearing no second, that motion also fails. So at this point, Commission, where do we as a team want to go with town halls? Do y'all want to pause them for the summer and look at reengaging in the fall? You're good with that? All right. So I have head nods from Commissioner Pernod and Commissioner Peebles. Commissioner Tender, how do you feel about that, ma'am? Yeah, just suspending them through the summer? Yes, ma'am, and starting back up in the fall. I do agree with that. And fall meaning September. Is that acceptable to everyone?

Yeah, I think we'd have to, before we start them back up again, we'd probably have to vote, though, right? Or we'd have to vote to suspend if we're going to do that, right?

So I would just defer to Mr. Jackson, but I would request a motion for whatever your direction for staff is.

You all can set a restart date right now. You wouldn't have to re-vote again. That's the pleasure of the commission.

So we don't have to do an official vote to suspend it?

City Manager, if you can help me remember, was the official vote to enact it?

There was a vote to enact it.

And that was permanent or was it a time?

It was for a three-month trial, yes.

Which has expired. Okay, so if it's expired, it's expired. You would need a vote to suspend it at this point.

So my question would be, maybe since it's expired, we could just revisit it in the fall and then vote to add it back.

We will add it to the second meeting in September to discuss moving forward.

Sounds good. Thank you all for that. I know that was kind of painful to watch, audience, but that is public democracy and sausage making. So thank you for your patience. We will move forward. Item number nine on the discussion, or new business rather, discuss impossible approval of FirstNet AT&T fleet telematics for government FirstNet telematics real-time services for 34 police vehicles. And Deputy Police Chief Stephen Finger.

Before I get started, I want to say hello to Commissioner Tender and hope she's recovering well. I've missed seeing her at Victoria's at lunchtime.

Did you hear that, Commissioner Tender? No, I did not. So Deputy Chief Enfinger just said he wanted to say he missed you, and it's not the same going into Victoria's and not seeing you there.

Oh, well, thank you very much. I appreciate that.

answer Mary said a mouthful there so I'll try and a simplify this put in a Reader's Digest version so arm our police department said GPS on our on patrol vehicles actually in the laptop computers for several years so dispatchers have got a big screen they can look at they can see where everybody is it's a big officer safety thing it also helps them dispatch people calls faster because you get a guy that's right down the road McCall you probably rather dispatch him than somebody on the other side of town. So what happened was last summer, our operating system, we run through the Bank County Sheriff's Office. They did a software upgrade. At the same time, we're transitioning from modems and cars, which is where our GPS was, to air cards in the laptops. And basically the two weren't talking so we haven't had any gps that was reliable and really worked for quite a while um months since probably fall of last year so um Chief Blanchard started looking into getting us some working GPS, and what he found was this FirstNet, the AT&T Fleet Telematics. So he found that for the police department so that we'll have these GPS devices in our vehicles so everybody will know where everybody's at, their speeds, it records all kinds of stuff. While he was looking into that, he also looked at the city as a whole because we've got GPS devices on, work trucks, all city vehicles, so we know everybody can keep track of them. So what he did is he worked out this deal with AT&T because the city was using a different vendor, and he wound up saving the city $25,000 by not only the police department going to this, but the city joining it as well. So that's what this is. Peter's digest version.

Mayor, to add to that too, this item is just for the 34 for the police department? Once we get these established, we will bring Miss Myers reviewing the Sam Sarah contract. We will bring that to the city commission to terminate that contract. And then we'll bring you back the remaining 200 and something vehicles for these. But this item tonight is just police department only.

But the net $25,000 savings would be for the entire city?

Once we go to the entire city, yes, sir.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but they wanted to test these first to see how it goes compared to what we currently have, making sure that we don't lose any extra functionality we currently have.

That's correct. Yes, sir. Okay.

Thank you. Typically, this is $611 per month, so it doesn't look like it's going to be over the $35,000. However, we already pay FirstNet substantially over $35,000 a year for our city cell phones, which is why it's coming to the commission. This item is only $611 a month, but we spend over $35,000 annually with FirstNet.

Any other questions among the commission?

I'd like the motion to approve.

All right. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Thank you, Deputy Chief. I'll open the floor for general commentary. Are there any questions regarding this item? Hearing none, City Manager, would you call the roll?

Commissioner Peebles? Yes. Commissioner Pernod? Yes. Commissioner Wark? Yes. Commissioner Tender?

Yes.

Mayor Lowry? Yes.

Yes, the ayes have it. Thank you. Item number 10, discussion and possible approval of Resolution 26-05-558, calling for a referendum. City Attorney.

yes mayor this is resolution number 2026-05-558 it's a resolution of the city of lynnhaven florida calling for a referendum related to the proposed charter amendments setting the date of the referendum to be august 18th 2026 and providing for notice thereof establishing the ballot titles and questions for referendum authorizing city managers to make such corrections and amendments as may be necessary to accomplish the purposes of this resolution and providing an immediately effective date

Thank you for that. Any questions or discussion amongst the commission for this item? If not, may I get a motion to approve?

I'll motion to approve. Thank you to everybody that made this happen. I know a lot of work went into it.

Indeed. I have a motion. Do I have a second?

Second. Second.

Thank you, Commissioner Pernod. I have a motion by Commissioner Peebles and a second by Commissioner Pernod. Are there any questions or general comments regarding this item with the general public? Hearing none, City Manager, roll the roll.

Commissioner Peebles? Yes. Commissioner Pernod? Yes. Commissioner Ward? Yes. Commissioner Tender?

Commissioner Tender? Did we lose you? Commissioner Tender, we can't hear you.

There you are.

Okay.

My answer is yes.

Okay. Thank you, ma'am. Mayor Lowry. Yes. So 5-0. Thank you for that, City Attorney and City Manager, for pushing that forward. Number 11, new business, discussion only for the way forward to go through the ordinance by chapter. Commissioner Peebles.

Thank you, Mayor. A few years ago, we started going through the ordinances that we have in our city because they, a lot of them have not been updated since like 1996. And I think a lot of good progress was made with that, but we kind of stalled out there for a bit. and i think as our us as commissioners one of our main roles is to go over ordinances that's one of the main purpose of this position and i think it's time to re-review things we've seen some great things happen like you know we saw update my one of my favorites is updating the ordinance on This seems minor, but to me it's important. Updating the ordinance on the amount of grass that can be over 12 inches rather than the entire yard, we've cut it down to 50%. Really, by updating ordinances and looking for tiny things like that, we can save effort from... code enforcement being called out, but it can also help save some confusion among the citizens. I think it's a win-win for both the citizen side of things and code enforcement to remove any possible confusion so that we don't have maybe just people going out and causing unnecessary strife over not understanding the ordinance because maybe it's outdated or something like that. So I'm not looking for like a major overhaul or anything like that. I just want to continue to go through these ordinances and make updates that'll prevent any possible confusion. Or maybe there's something that we didn't even realize was in the ordinance that just doesn't make sense anymore. I'm not looking to start at, this is not to add any, uh, add any more requirements to the citizens more to help prevent confusion or anything like that. So that being said, CJ was kind enough to give me a list of all the ordinances that we've updated relatively recently. So I do have a list of ordinances by chapter that we have not updated recently. And I was hoping that with everyone else's help here. We can kind of decide a way forward on how we want to look at these. If there's one that particularly sticks out to anybody, that's fine by me. I really don't have a... We can go by number. We can go by what we decide as a commission is high, low on the you know, low on the totem pole or of high priority, whatever route we want to take. But right now, the ones that have not been updated recently are buildings and regulations, which is Chapter 14. Chapter 15 is communications. Chapter 30 is Fire Prevention and Protection. Chapter 34, Human Relations. Chapter 42, Parks and Recreation. We touched on that a little bit, but it was just about the park hours that we talked about. We didn't really do an extensive look at that. Chapter 54, which is Solid Waste. Chapter 58, which is Streets, Sidewalks, and Other Public Spaces. Chapter 66, which is traffic and vehicles. Golf carts have been updated recently, but outside of that, nothing else really has been updated. Chapter 70, which is utilities. And Chapter 74, which is waterways. I don't know if any of you all have looked at the chapters recently, but that does not mean we have 74 chapters to go through. If I would guess, there's probably more close to 20 to 25 chapters. But does anything stick out that anyone wants to tackle first?

Just a point of clarification, Commissioner Peebles. Do any of these, like, for example, you said the fire, there was one for, obviously we'd have to have fire department input there as well. Do any of these require kind of a tiger team, if you will?

We don't really need a tiger team. It'd be more so like we would just get it and we'd know well ahead of time which chapter we're looking at. And that way we can either reach out to the department heads ourselves or have them come and we can ask their opinion. This is more so that we can talk to the SMEs, get their idea. For those of you that weren't military subject matter expert experts, and ask them those questions and maybe something that we can go through the ordinance as well and kind of scrub over it from a citizen standpoint that can help out the citizens understand it better. I'll give an example in the past when we were going through those. My opinion is whenever you read an ordinance, it's not just to make something legal or something not legal. It should also be a rule book. So like if you're playing basketball or baseball or whatever, you want to periodically go over that rule book because if there's a certain rule that's confusing, you want to update it so you don't have to argue about it later. And that's kind of the route I want to take.

Mayor?

Yes, ma'am.

I totally agree with Commissioner Peoples because I see some ugly, ugly Facebook confrontations going back and forth on what time you can mow your yard and

all kinds of uh things and people being downright about it um i i would definitely make a motion to pass this okay thank you ma'am any other comments or thoughts amongst the commission just curious what was the motion she made a motion she said she would support she would motion but um She's supporting Commissioner Peebles' effort request here.

Absolutely.

Thank you, ma'am.

Yeah, I don't think this is necessarily an actionable item. It's just if so, I don't want this to be like me just, hey, reaching out to CJ and so on. Like, hey, do you mind putting this on the agenda? I kind of wanted to bring it before all of you so that we could kind of brainstorm this thing because it's going to be a team effort. So I really just was kind of get an idea of like, do we want to go chapter by chapter like we did in the past? Or is there a certain specific chapter we want to look at first?

Go ahead.

We did chapter by chapter stuff before. We did it at our pre-meeting. So where are we going to do this? Are we going to do it in commission meetings? Are we going to do workshops? What are we going to do?

Yeah, so, I mean, we'll have it in the – we'll know ahead of time what chapter it is because we'll set a way forward, and we don't have to do anything like we did in the pre-commission meetings. We could just send red lines to – we could just send red lines or updates or whatever, and then that chapter will be on the agenda, and then we will talk about it, and we can either accept the changes or discuss and make changes – live and then vote on that ordinance to be updated.

Mr. Peebles, if I may, I would recommend that we chapter 42, I believe, is the parks that we continue on with that one. Ms. Myers has some modifications that we talked about the last meeting, you know, with the park hours and everything that didn't make this agenda. So if her and Mr. Jackson could review those, we could get that one finalized. That could be the first one we look at and then kind of make our way through the rest of them.

Yeah, I mean, I like the idea because I've looked at that one recently as well, so...

Just my first blush thoughts. I applaud your effort to get this underway. Because of Sunshine Laws, we can't sit around a table and have a soda and kind of work through it. So if you're willing to be our commission point person here and coordinate with CJ to basically identify the chapter after we get past Parks first, basically you and CJ send out the homework and we can review and we can do that shuffle back and forth with the city manager and CJ providing our edits and comments.

Yeah, definitely. I'm down with that.

Is that acceptable to the rest of the commission? Commissioner Tender, are you good with that?

Yes, sir. I'm good with that.

Thank you, ma'am. Commissioner Ward? Sure.

Okay.

So there we go. That's not really a votable item per se, but it sounds like we're in violent agreement here. So Commissioner Peebles and CJ, looks like y'all are going to be giving us some homework.

So thank you for your due diligence in advance.

All right. That closes out the normal business agenda. We did not make the hour endeavor, but we'll see if we can get y'all out of here before the hour and a half. We have public commentary now, and we have our own Charter Review Committee Vice Chair, Mr. Gray. Come on up. The other person, I believe, signed up for Special Olympics because that's what she had comments-wise. Ms. Parker, you'll be next.

I wasn't cutting anybody off. First off, I want to say I appreciate you guys starting with parks. Let's go ahead and put it in there that people getting special event permits and carrying the proper insurance can provide low volume alcohol at their special events. This is probably familiar to three, four, four of the five of you. Mayor, it's probably not familiar to you, but prior to your tutelage, I pushed an effort to allow special event promoters to have proper insurances and processes in place. I presented a very beautifully written plan on how the city could review these and make sure everything was going to be done professionally and safely to have events such as brunch by the bay where you can enjoy a mimosa and at a food truck event out by Kinsaw. I appreciate Commissioner Peebles' pushing for help push for that uh former commissioner vandergrift uh helped a little bit uh ultimately it didn't go forth any further but uh now it's a good opportunity for that to come back to life so i look forward to talking about that again um additionally i wanted to bring up um i'm sure you guys got my email about the jackson county possible data center This is hot topic in the news. A lot of people are anti data center. We're using a data center right now to deal with YouTube, right? We use data centers daily. Anybody who uses Facebook, Instagram, chat GPT, it doesn't matter. If you're on the internet, you're using a data center. Data centers are not new things. The amount of them are, how much they do and how big they are is new to us. That's why it's becoming popular. There's a lot of information out there about data centers. And as we know, development is inevitable, but how you control development is within your control. And specifically, it's within our city's control. So I would like to bring public attention to the fact that I think it's a lofty goal to say we're never going to have a data center anywhere near us. I think it's a better realistic goal to say, hey, there's a lot we can do in city code, ordinances, charter, et cetera, to ensure that not just data centers, but any industrial commercial developments that create a high demand on our resources in our community are very scrutinized. and really to the point where they need to be self-sustaining. We don't need a cement factory that's pulling water from the aquifer to help make everything needed for cement or aquaculture facility growing catfish that sucks the aquifer dry to grow these farm-raised catfish. There's a lot of things that we can do as a community to protect our resources and be the example for the rest of Bay County and Northwest Florida to protect our natural resources. and develop responsibly. So I encourage you guys to look into that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Scray. Ms. Parker. Good evening times, too. Thank you, guys.

Okay, one of the things I really want to talk about is about how long did it take to fire Gaynor and do a recall on Nelson. Can you imagine if it took one month to get them fired? Right along with Ramey. Think about that. Think about that, Jamie. If it took them, if we only did a town hall once a month, can you imagine? not getting them recalled, not getting them fired. Look at the stuff that Ramey did. You know how long it took for Gaynor to get fired? Six years. You know how many times I stood up at this podium and gave information that was 100% correct? Guys, y'all need to look at things a little bit differently. Amy and you in particular. So this town hall, once a month, negates citizens the ability to opine on public commentary as they desire to provide information to this commission. I hope you all understand what I'm saying. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. All right. I'll open the floor for any additional commentary. Mr. Thompson, good evening.

Hello, I'm Bernie Thompson. Tomorrow, I'm going to publish an expose about the flock cameras and Lynn Haven. All of you are in it. But there's something I noticed that I want to bring to your attention that I don't think you know. and I'm angry about it, but I'm going to discipline myself best I can to ask you all to look into it before I carry on. And that is the flock representative who came here on December 30th of 2025, Kerry McCormack. He told you that these are point and shoot pictures just public license plates on public roads, they're public pictures, right? They're not traceable. He called it a myth. But here's the thing. According to Florida statutes, the data on these license plate readers are confidential. You can say all you want that you think they're just public pictures. They're confidential. Here's the statute. It is 316.0777, 2014 statute, that labels every piece of data from a license plate reader as confidential. And that's the reason they're exempt from public records, except for your own. So if that's true, if now you know those are confidential records, You sent more than, what was it, 1,500 agencies? You guys sent confidential data to more than 1,500 agencies across the country? Las Vegas? Los Angeles? Do you know what their retention is? Or just regular old data? That's confidential data. You guys had 21,000 hits of hot lists. Hot list hits. Those are supposed to be for criminals. 21,000, 22,000 population in Lynn Haven. Will you commit to answering? I'm asking. Is my license plate on your hot list? Every citizen should be able to ask that and get a straight answer from you. But here's the other thing. Sam. You said you're a cybersecurity professional, and you're allowing confidential information, what the state has designated it, to get out of your control. You don't know who accesses it. You don't know anything about who audits it. You know nothing about that confidential information. You guys got to do a better job with that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Any other general comments tonight? All right. Hearing none, we'll move into the mayor and commissioner's reports. I don't really have a mayor's report tonight other than we had a good town hall this past weekend. Good discussion, kind of a two hour at length discussion with 10 of our hardcore regulars. And I very much appreciate that. Many of you are here tonight. So thank you all sincerely. That's all I have. We'll start on the left-hand side and work our way to the right. Commissioner Perno, you're up first, sir.

Thank you, Mayor. I don't have much report other than I did attend the town hall. I also was a participant in the 99th Sherman Invitational Golf Tournament. I won't tell you how I did, but I played. But I've got to say... I turn on the TV and look at news and to see a positive segment about a leadership course from our police was amazing, was really a good feeling. And Chief Johnson, the work you guys are doing, Chief Blanchard, Chief Johnson, thank you guys. Deputy Chief Enfinger and the rest of y'all, I think you've embraced everything and man, it just seems like it's a good feeling to be a part of. I saw the group picture of the leadership conference. And it didn't look like anybody had a bad time. They were smiling. They were happy. They were accomplished, you know. So to me, I thought it was a wonderful thing. We just actually attended a chamber right prior to the meeting. We attended a chamber, a ribbon cutting for the new playground at King Griffin, right? And it was a positive atmosphere. So it's just great to see positive things happening in Lynn Haven. Yeah. No. And I know, don't we have a concert in the park coming up with Will? June 5th. Yes, sir. June 5th. We won't have a meeting before that, right? No, sir. We've got to let people know. But I'll tell you, that's going to be a good concert. um so with all that being said and uh john and michelle thank you guys for attending the the town halls i i just want you to know i'm not a i'm not a proponent of of of being against the town halls and but you know i i i would have thought we'd have tried it without the public commentary but hey it is what it is and we can revisit it in september And Bernie, thank you for what you do. And I appreciate everything. I appreciate the people that come to these meetings. Ryan, George Hines Jr., thank you. Y'all are good. And Al... You know, you're the president of the chamber, and I've seen you in the audience now every meeting since you've been president of the chamber, and you're a Lynnhaven resident. Thank you, buddy. Appreciate y'all. That's my report, and thank you to our first responders and dispatchers.

Thank you, sir. Commissioner Peebles. Thank you, Mayor. This was a fun meeting. Thanks to everyone for coming. We had some healthy debates up here. That's what it's all about, so it was a good meeting. Thank you to everyone that came out tonight and giving your feedback on everything, as always. As for my report, I spent a lot of my time looking through ordinances and that kind of thing. We had the town hall. Commissioner Perno and I are both part of the TPO board, so we have our quarterly meeting tomorrow. Hopefully that goes well and we'll continue to fight for state funding for the city of Glenhaven. And with that, I just want to say thanks to staff. Baseball and softball season is coming to a close. It was a great season. I might actually get to watch some new sports tonight because there's still some time left. And I'm going to be playing co-ed softball in the summer, so I hope to see some of you guys out there playing too. We're not going to win any games, but if you guys want to win some games, come play against us. All right, and that's my report. I'm looking forward to seeing you all, and thanks for being so engaged. I appreciate it. Oh, sorry, one last thing. One thing that I did have written down in my report, the reason I forgot about it is because Ryan kind of already talked about it. If you could help me brainstorm, I do think the way forward with data centers is since we're in the state of Florida, we can't necessarily stop things from happening, but what we can do is write policies in place to make sure that we're protected from anything that could harm us. So we do need to, I think, start doing some research on some policies that we can have ahead of time in case data centers ever try to come here. That way we'll be protected of any, you know, there's pros and cons to data centers, so let's remove the cons by having policies in place. So I don't want to pretend to be an expert on that stuff. So I need help. So, but all right, that's, that's my report. Thank you, sir.

Commissioner tender.

Hello. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm reading my notes here. First of all, I want to thank everybody for all the kind wishes and, and the emails and stuff that I get. I, I, Without me going out and doing jumping jacks, I should be at the next meeting without doubt, and I'm eager for that. I did have one question. Actually, I had two, but I'll keep it to one. I wanted to ask the city manager, where are we on the 10th Street project by the school? Where are we with that?

So they're continuing to work. They've got a few tie-ins to do around the school. They will do those June 2nd after school lets out and all the school kids and traffic get out of the way. But they are still way ahead of schedule. The contract ends in August, and they should be done well before that.

Okay, good. So I can tell people that they're going to start on the 2nd of June.

Okay.

Okay. I'm just keeping up with that one. And yeah, I just appreciate everything and the fact that everybody tries to stay on things that matter. And I think the public has every right of speech. And I think that's so important that we allow it. And sometimes it can be aggravating and downright frustrating. But what's important to one person is not always important to another, but it doesn't make it unimportant. So I appreciate everybody's input, and thank you so much. That's all I have tonight.

Thank you, Mary. We look forward to having you on the dais with us next commission meeting. Commissioner Ward.

I am ready. I am ready.

All right. After the last meeting that Friday, I had the pleasure of sitting down with our new planning director, Ms. Grandpre, and talked with her for a couple hours. And, man, she is phenomenal. She has got all kinds of knowledge and information and is exactly what Lynn Haven needs in a planning director. And so I appreciate you sitting down and talking with me. One of the things she mentioned to me was our comp plan ULDC is in desperate need of being updated. And I was like, really? Interesting. So we had a long, good conversation about that. I also went to the King Griffin playground groundbreaking with the Bay County Chamber of Commerce. It was good. I actually tested one of the slides to make sure it was ADA compatible. So we should be good there. As far as the data centers and AI factories, I've been doing some research on that. I actually sat down with Mr. Lightfoot. and, um, uh, had some discussions with him to make sure that we stay ahead of that. Um, there are some things the federal government and our state government has done to try to provide some protection, uh, as far as some of the things that were discussed as far as infrastructure and that, but we need to do our due diligence to make sure we protect Lynn Haven from anything like that. Um, so, um, yeah, that's with that. And, uh, last thing I had was, uh, I think that was since our last commission meeting was the Touch a Truck event. If you didn't go to that, it was a phenomenal event. We had a great time. I asked Mr. Lightfoot, I was like, how much coordination did this take? And he goes, I didn't do any of it. It was all the Chief Blanchards. So, you know, Chief Blanchard's a new police chief, and he's been doing phenomenal work, and this is just another great thing him and his team have coordinated on. And a lot of people, I think you guys said you had over 1,000 people, 1,500 people? Yeah, there was a lot of people there and a lot of food and that, and a lot of people enjoyed it. So I appreciate the city supporting that and everyone who came out for that. So that's all I have.

Thank you, sir. Now we'll move on to the city manager's report.

Yes, sir. We've got a volleyball camp June 11th and 12th. Registration is open now and will close June 10th. So if your child is interested in the volleyball camp over the summer, get them registered for that. A lot of work going on with staff building the budget out. Just a reminder, we will have our first workshop June 4th. Of course, the budget won't be completed, but we will have several topics to discuss that night and present to the commission. Okay. Atlantic Pipe, the contract you all approved to piggyback off of, I believe last meeting, they have started work on Vermont Avenue, been getting reports as the meeting went on tonight for cleaning that stormwater pipe so they can begin the lining of it. As Commissioner Perno mentioned, we do have the makeup concert June 5th with the Will Thompson Band. And then Commissioner Tender, just making sure you got it, that June 2nd will be the tie-ins there at Alabama and 10th near the water and get those yards restored and get that handled. And any questions for Ms. Roman with the checklist?

Any particular finance report from you tonight, ma'am?

Nothing tonight.

Thank you for the awesome bean counting work you do for all of us.

Thank you, sir.

Yes, ma'am. All right. Well, and last but certainly not least, our city attorney back from a vacation in Hawaii visiting his daughter. You look a little tanned and very relaxed, sir, so good on you. What do you have for us tonight?

I have no report, Mayor.

All right. Well, thank you for what you do.