Commission - Regular Meeting

If the issue, they need to have their three minutes. And I did not honor that.

He graciously accepted.

And so we move forward from here. Now, the next thing that kind of happened, and this is where the positive moving forward has already begun to happen, is he called a point of order. Well, when he called a point of order, he expected something to happen. And I expected something very different to happen according to Robert's Rules of Order. What we found out is neither one of our expectations were in the actual city resolution and sequence of events. So it only heightened the flared frustrations on both sides. So Mr. Scray and I have already begun collaborating on this. Commissioner Wark, Commissioner Peebles has also been involved, the city manager. We've actually got inputs from across the community from a variety of different folks that have said and gave inputs as well. A couple of attorneys here in Lynn Haven as well as Bernie Thompson as well had some very thoughtful inputs. So I thank all of you for those collaborations and moving forward. That said, The last piece of this is not to belabor the point. You may know, you may not know, I'm an eighth generation Floridian. My dad's family's been here since before statehood. My mom's family is actually Muscogee Creek, Native American. They were the indigenous people of this area. Both sides of my family tree have a long kind of Florida panhandle or Muscogee mindset of when you do someone wrong, you do your best to make it right. And so what I want to do tonight is ask Mr. Scray to come forward. I have a special presentation for him. So come on up here. We can just do it in front of the podium. I actually have two things for you, so bear with me. So the first thing, so number three, you can consider this a one-time prepaid, and one time now, Ryan, one time for the record, but this is a prepaid three-minute gift card, if you will, for speaking. Whenever you want to identify, when you come up to this podium and you're recognized for three minutes, you will get your full three minutes back that I took from you at the last meeting. Yes.

One time I got to turn it in?

you identify, you get to keep the three, but you say to me or the pro tem or whoever's chairing the meeting, I want to use the extra three minutes for Mayor Lowry, you get six minutes, okay? That's the best way I know how to make you whole is restore the minutes I took from you when I rudely tried to interject and talk, answer you, and we got into the whole talk over thing. I should have never done that. As you and I have done many times before, you've had your three minutes, And I say something, I ask you, we kind of get into a little, you know, discussion back and forth, collaboration, we go our way. We'll continue to do that. But when you're up here for your three minutes, that won't happen again, what happened last Tuesday. So this is the first of two things I want to give you, okay? The other thing I'm giving him, and I paid for this out of my own pocket, by the way, So no city funds were involved. But I have, as Commissioner Tender and I are both wearing our Lynn Haven jerseys, you know, two weeks ago on Tuesday, you and I in the moment when tempers are flared and we're talking over each other and you're trying to get your three minutes in and I think you're battling me for control of the floor post point of order, we weren't seeing eye to eye. And in that moment, you and I, neither one, thought we were on the same team. Okay? This is a symbolic reminder that we actually are on the same team. You and I have both worn the uniform of the U.S. Air Force. We didn't serve together, but we served the same force, same country. And now you and I volunteer and support in the same city. You're raising your daughter here. I raised my three kids here. My youngest daughter still lives with me here. We have skin in this game. So the next time you and I get sideways with each other, and never like this again, but in disagreements and, you know, whatever, when we don't see eye to eye, you and I can pull out and wear our jerseys. And remember that we're actually on the same team.

All right?

All right? And with that, I won't draw this out anymore. I want to thank you for your grace. I thank you for your apology, acceptance. And let's get back to work. One thing. One thing. One thing. Yeah.

I just want to say that I feel that it takes a lot of humility for somebody not to just say sorry, but say exactly what they did wrong. That's the way you apologize. You identify what you did wrong and you call it out specifically when you apologize. And personally, privately, that's what Dave did. And that's why I accepted that apology. So I appreciate that. I look forward to working with you.

All right. And with that, we'll get back to business. All right, first up is additions, deletions, and modifications of agenda.

Yes, sir. Mayor, we need to remove item seven and item number nine from the agenda, as well as add resolution number 2026-06-561 for the AI data centers.

So you said remove seven and remove nine, and then add the data center resolution number where a new number, insert it between 13 and 14.

Or it can take the place of number seven, if you would like, wherever you would like.

Okay. Yeah, let's remove seven then, and then we'll just replace that with number seven, if that's acceptable to the rest of the commission. So remove seven, remove nine, and new seven is data AI center resolution draft. Any questions or concerns among the commission? No? Any questions? Well, if not, City Manager, would you call the roll?

I need a motion on the second, Mayor.

Duh, I'm sorry.

Motion to approve.

All right, I've got a motion. Can I have a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. No comments from the public. Barring? Barring. Will you call the roll?

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

Yes. Thank you all for that. All right. So no proclamations or announcements tonight in the consent agenda. We're at approval of minutes for 6-9-26. So then we have approval to declare fixed asset 3897, a 2013 Ford Explorer and a 2018 Ford F-150 crew cab truck as surplus and authorized to auction off through govdeals.com and approve it to declare asset 3895, a 2013 Ford F-150 truck as surplus and authorized staff to auction off through govdeals.com. Those are the three items on the consent agenda. Any questions?

Make a motion to approve.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any questions or concerns? Any comments from the public? Hearing none, City Manager, would you call the roll?

Commissioner Tender? Yes. Commissioner Perno? Yes. Commissioner Peebles? Yes. Commissioner Warwick? Yes. Mayor Lowry?

Yes. 5-0, thank you. All right, well, there's no old business, there's no tabled business. So now we're to the new number 7, which is the Data IA Center Resolution Draft.

Yes, sir. This is Resolution No. 2026-06-561, a resolution of the City Commission of the City of Lynnhaven, Florida, directing city staff not to accept, process, or act upon any application for development permits, development orders, site plans, rezonings, special exceptions, variances, or building permits for data centers or AI data centers pending the adoption of an ordinance and providing an effective date. And, Mayor, this is following on with our discussion last meeting where the commission directed staff not to accept any more applications, just formalizes that. And we're in the process of drafting an AI ordinance, and we'll bring that back to the commission shortly.

Okay. And just for the public's awareness, this is the proper first step in preventing any type of data AI center from being built here. You can't just say no centers. Right. There's a proper way to actually conduct a one-year moratorium, do studies, and figure out how realistic they would even be here before you can move forward with a, yes, we may under these conditions, or no, we will not. We have to do our due diligence, and this is our due diligence for this. So this is the first step in taking a very hard look at this, just like all of the neighboring counties, Jackson, Walton, are doing as well. Any questions from the public regarding this resolution?

Go ahead. There is not as far as, that's one of the issues we're running through in the ordinance, trying to define it more definitively. However, the resolution says as defined in the ordinance or as in common usage. So it should hold until we get the ordinance done.

I'd appreciate that, especially coming from an engineer guy like you, engineering mind. All right. Motion to approve.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any manager, would you call the roll?

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

Yes. Thank y'all for that. All right. The old number eight is discussion of a draft resolution 2026-06-559 for consolidating services as directed by the commission at the meeting of June 9th, 2026.

Resolution number 2026-06-559, a resolution directing the city manager to evaluate opportunities for service consolidation, develop associated cost proposals for services currently funded through the city's general fund, and report on such opportunities and proposals to the city commission for review and evaluation. Mayor, this is based upon our budget workshop, the last commission meeting, and some discussions with you all. We will look at multiple ways that the city can save money for fiscal year 27 and with a potential ad valorem language on the ballot in November. So we are just looking at any avenue possible right now to cut costs. We will discuss these opportunities with the county, other municipalities throughout, and possibly some private providers as well.

Thank you all for that. And just for the public situational awareness here, we're looking at a very, very lean and mean budget this year. And then that's before all the homestead exemption stuff can come into play in subsequent years. It's going to be a challenge and we are going to have to do our utmost due diligence to be as smart with the city's coffers and funding as we can possibly be. So we're looking at all sorts of ways to consolidate and save money where we can. And that's what this is, is looking across the board, all options on the table, simple things like maybe we consolidate animal control services with Bay County. other things literally possibly consolidating police and fire kind of services right it's a lot but we at least have to look at what is feasible what is not feasible and go from there right and so this is just the initial for that we the commission has tasked the staff to basically look at run the tape run the options and come back with all the things we need to look at and potentially discuss so that's what this is motion to approve second have a motion in a second i have any questions mister scrape Good evening.

Good evening. I only need three. I'm not going to redeem that yet. So yesterday, or on Monday, yeah, yesterday, so I took my daughter, her friend that was here, her other two siblings, and my girlfriend. We went over to Fire Station 1. I was invited by Craig Ingram. They showed us around. They showed the kids around. The kids got to spray the hose. You know, those heat viewers that you guys bought a while back, we got to test those out. I got to resolve a misconception that people had during a committee meeting. We talked about, like, if the fire department was there and they saw, like, a body signature of somebody behind a false wall, would that be surveillance technology? The device doesn't do that. I found that out myself. There's actually pictures on Facebook that I uploaded where one of the firefighters was hiding behind the wall and then peeked out. You can't see what's behind the wall. You can see some heat signature, but it wouldn't be able to be used in that fashion. Really what it's useful for is recently they had a fire that they put out, and they thought it was completely out, and they started looking at the rafters, and there was active fire up in that garage. If they didn't have that tool, they could have left. and that fire would have continued burning. The hour and a half that we spent there and the data that I got, talked to those firefighters, what it brought to me was a sense that even though we need to, yes, look at where we can save money, there's core services for a community that need to be protected and really left off that table. For example, a lot of people don't realize that Lynn Haven Fire and Rescue are the rescues there for a reason. They're commonly getting to a house for a medical situation five to ten minutes before a Bay County rescue arrives because the rescue squad may be halfway across the county when they get their call. And so imagine laying there having a heart attack or a stroke, and you're waiting for a rescue squad because the city commission rolled it up to the county. And the county will get there, but they'll get there five to ten minutes after Lynnhaven would. i don't think that's what we want for our community so i think taking a long hard look is a good thing but poor services like police and fire definitely need to be left off the table is there ways to save yes maybe you forego updating some things for a couple years that's that's definitely on the table but i don't think anybody here will want to realize that they lost the loved one because we rolled services up to the county we still have to pay the county for those services and that they got their 20 minutes instead of seven minutes i just think that's not where we want to be as a community so you guys need to consider that as you guys look at rolling stuff up is that's the last thing you should be looking at when you have no other options left thank you

you're welcome thank you for that and i think your point is well taken there are core services that we have in fire and rescue and plumbing core public works is what makes us us so i get that and thank you for that sir mr bashir you coming up

Good evening. Good evening. Just a couple of things. I agree with Ryan. I think fire and police are core services of the city and very important to me personally in the city. I did want to mention one thing that as we go forward and we're looking for ways to save and combine services, etc., Lynn Haven's millage rate last year was just a shade over four. The county's millage rate, including fire for the county, last year was 6.8. So keep in mind that that's a higher millage rate than us. They're going to lose more funding in the county side than Lynn Haven is on the Lynn Haven side. So these opportunities to combine with them, they're going to be cutting services too. And it's going to be a lot more difficult for us to get even the level of services they might provide today going forward after they realize those cuts. We need to keep that in mind when we start looking at consolidating because what we see today, they're going to suffer worse than the city's going to suffer. So just keep that in mind.

Yes, sir. Good point, and thank you for that. And that looks awful painful. I hope you're doing okay. All right. Any other comments? Hearing none, we have a motion and a second. Would you call the roll?

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

Yes. Thank you all for that. Number 9 has been removed, the old number 9, so now we're to the old number 10. Discussion of draft ordinance updating Chapter 42, Parks. City Manager. City Manager.

So Mayor, we did not receive any other comments from anyone since last meeting regarding the parks. You all sent them directly to Ms. Myers or Mr. Jackson. So with that, if everyone's good with that language, we can direct Mr. Jackson to go back and finalize the ordinance update and prepare the first reading for next meeting unless someone else has any input.

Anybody got any inputs, commissioners? No other thoughts?

No, I gave mine last time.

Okay. Well, barring no other inputs from the commission, press add with that. You don't really need a formal vote.

No, sir.

Just a go-do. All right. Number 11, discussion on rules of decorum. Commissioner Peebles.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted, before we started, I kind of wanted to say something. I wanted to publicly acknowledge that last meeting I should have spoken up about the removal of Mr. Scray during public comment. I've already personally reached out to him, but I also believe it is important to address it publicly, so that's what I'm doing. To Mr. Scray and to the citizens of Windhaven, I apologize for not speaking up at that time. It won't happen again. One of the responsibilities of a commissioner is to ensure that citizens have the opportunity to be heard. Regardless of who is serving on this commission or in the mayor's seat, I will continue to advocate for the rights of our residents and their ability to participate in the public process. I appreciate that the matter has been addressed by the mayor. That was a beautiful ceremony. Very good. I do believe it serves as an important reminder that we do need to go back and look at the rules of decorum to kind of get a better idea of how we want to handle those. So that's kind of my point here is that why I wanted to be on the agenda. So the rules of decorum and everything is in the packet for the citizens to see, for us to see, and have any discussion about the rules of decorum that we want to have discussed. But, yeah, that's pretty much it. I just wanted to say that, you know, like you mentioned earlier, Mayor, that we're a team, that we should be respectful to each other. We should be respectful to the citizens. And I think you did a great job of exactly like Mr. Scray Ryan said, that you apologized. You said what you apologized for. I think that goes a long way. And I also wanted to apologize for not speaking up as well. So I apologize for that. With that being said, in our packet we have the rules of decorum. I know we all look at them beforehand, so that's kind of why I wanted them to be in there so we have those days to review them and talk about them. I guess really going forward, you kind of addressed already what I wanted to talk about, which was, you know, we're going to let the citizens have their three minutes. So you kind of addressed pretty much what I wanted to say. I do want to say that I don't know, like, There are a few things in the rules of decorum that's kind of like a gray area in the sense of the word disorderly. What does the word disorderly mean? What is the threshold of being disorderly? Um, so maybe we can talk about, like, what that means so that we kind of have an idea as a team, like, okay, you know, because like you said, sometimes we, in the heat of the moment, our emotions get to us or our morals get to us or whatever. And, you know, we're all guilty of it that we maybe... should take a step back and we don't and that's why we have us as a team here to kind of step in like hey hold up a sec so um yeah so that kind of like that so let's talk let's start with the disorderly like When we talk about disorderly and what it means that there would ever be a situation that we would ask the police to bring someone out, I like what you said about public safety. I really think that that's really the only time we should be asking someone to be removed because of a safety of us or those around them. If it's just words, it's just words. But if it's a safety issue, then that's when... we should be asking the police to get involved. That's my opinion. Is there any other feedback from anybody else?

So I'll just say the same thing. I made a Facebook post about this and I'm in the same boat that, yeah, I, We all should have spoke up on that. So I think we all take responsibility for what happened. I spent a lot of hours. I mean, a lot of hours developing rule of decorum to revamp what we have. And I believe they were emailed all the commissioners. Is that correct? I don't know if you guys had a chance to look at it, but I'm doing a lot of research, talking with other people. I've received a lot of feedback and there's some things in there that I wish I could take credit for. But I took that from feedback from other people that I think will work really good. i'd like to go over it but i don't know we could get through all the what i wrote in a single meeting so i don't know if a workshop is the right way to go or what but um i think from here forward we need to put clear direction so that doesn't happen again and two one of the things i noticed i was going through it is that we already have code that What I developed, there's code out there that I encapsulated into that rules of decorum to kind of make it one central point where everything's at instead of scattered in different areas of our code. So that's where I'm at with it and just ready to listen to feedback of what you guys thought of it when you guys read it. So that's all I have.

Yeah, so I looked at it, and I honestly didn't realize it was you that put it together, but it did look really good. So, yeah, thank you for that.

I actually went through it and sent comments back to the city manager and actually added some stuff, but 90-plus percent of it's there. It's really good. And that's one thing, ladies and gentlemen, where we can turn a positive out of a negative, where Mr. Scray and I, when we had our flare-up, and we've talked about this, where he and I, a point of order meant two very different things to us. And we expected very different things to happen. The best analogy I can use is a football, a flag on a play. When a ref throws out a flag, all play stops. Players take a knee. And you wait until the refs say, good to go. But we didn't see that eye to eye. We thought different things would happen. And it's not even mentioned in the resolution. You have to go back to Robert's Rules of Order to understand the parliamentary stuff, and it's not spelled out in our own guidance. So therefore, we have a chance to fix that and make it very clear, not only for us moving forward, but future commissions and mayors and public speakers as well. So Mr. Scray has already given us quite a bit of input on that as well. It was very good. We've got Commissioner Warricks, Mr. Thompson, a couple of other attorneys here in town that actually kind of specialize in some of this stuff. We're also very helpful. Both of them happen to be Lynn Haven citizens. So we're getting started with this, but again, it will be a positive out of a negative. And I think we'll be better for it process-wise going forward. Clear expectations is a very good thing for everybody involved. Thank you for that discussion. Does anyone else want to do any more discussion among the Commission?

Mayor, I would ask the direction from the Commission, do you want us to prepare a resolution based upon the documents that have circulated back and forth?

I would honestly, and I'll defer to my four teammates here, but I honestly think we should probably do a workshop, a brief workshop, maybe a two-hour workshop. uh... once we get the drafts and uh... we've even been given good checklist to be able to reference for like what would potentially be uh... public safety that concerns wanna make sure our attorney gets that i'm wanna make sure everybody here understands what those things mean and just like what a point of order means and for example uh... when a point of order is called against the chair the mayor The mayor can't be the judge and one of the attorneys, right? The vice chair, the mayor pro tem has to step up then as the vice chair and be the referee. So those kind of things we can kind of work through and formalize and make a very clear kind of rules of engagement, if you will, moving forward. But I think that needs to be in a workshop. That's not going to be something we can do in five or ten minutes up here.

Do you want that prior to the next commission meeting?

Teammates?

Like the same day, maybe?

Yes, sir. Sure.

That's fine. Strike while the iron's hot. It's fresh on everyone's minds. All right. Any other discussion on item number 11? Hearing none, we'll move to discussion, old discussion item number 12, discussion and approve of the expanded community services board to seven. And that's Commissioner Peebles.

All right, so I've had a lot of discussions with the Community Services Advisory Board about using that board to help look for funding sources outside of tax dollars, have citizens be involved to help lead the charge for promotions and fundraising and that sort of thing. And there's been a lot of people that wanted to be involved, but so... But looking at the other boards, I'm thinking the best strategy might actually be that what we'll do is we would expand it to seven, but we'll have five... I'm just workshopping here, so I'm not going to die on this hill. I'm just workshopping. Maybe have five... Lynnhaven citizens that are voting members and then have two extra people on the board that could be anywhere in Bay County that are experts that could come in and give advice to the voting members. That way we're not just limited to Lynnhaven citizens in that sense because we have... There's a lot of people in this county that are really good at raising funds. Now, they absolutely can be Lynn Haven citizens, of course, but they would not be allowed to vote if they're not a Lynn Haven citizen. This way, it kind of expands it. And the other thing I'm worried about with it being seven is that, like, it's a great idea, and if we want to go to seven, I'm 110% in. I'm just weighing the pros and cons here is that with a board of seven, you'd need at least four to show up for a quorum. Whereas with five, you'd only need three to make a quorum to vote.

Well, so we've done some research, and CJ was able to find the bylaws. So the bylaws of this one are a little different. This one just doesn't take the three for the quorum. It's any members. And the bylaw says that this one's a quorum. Um, but like what the direction of the five and with the two non-voting, we did have five members, one resigned, and we have not heard back yet from the, the other one. We had our first meeting, um, Thursday or I'm sorry yeah last Thursday for the first time since 2024 I believe it was we did give that board now that we have a sponsorship policy in place we gave that board a proposed sponsorship package to go back we're going to meet again around 30 days with their input as well as hopefully have two new members to present to the commission at the next meeting or meeting after and add two more voting members to that board and then we would like to change it you had Kind of conflicting boards. You had the Leisure Services Board and Community Services Board, I believe it was. And so I want to clean that up and only have one board of the five members with the two, I guess, you know, committee members, if you would.

Right, and then we could start there as a way forward, and then if we find out that we do need to make seven voting members, then we always can expand it from there. But rather than take a board that has... a board that hasn't really been meeting that much, we can go ahead and start here and see how it works. I guess my main question is typically when we appoint someone to a board, they have a term limit just like we do. And if that board has not met since 2024 until recently, how much time do the sitting members still have left? Do they actually have time left?

I'd have to look back at the bottom.

We do need to look at that. I just want people to have the people that want to serve on that board have the opportunity to apply for it. So if there are rules in place like term limits, we need to follow those rules. And if those sitting members want to reapply and they're great for the board, great. Please do. We just need to make sure we're following the rules.

I don't know if you've already verified this to make sure it doesn't conflict with the charter or code that we currently have. I don't believe it does.

I don't believe there's anything in the charter about a community services board.

I think there's something about boards in general, isn't there?

There is something about boards, yes.

We may have to do some cleanup to kind of combine the leisure services and community services and get that straight, but we can certainly do that.

And just one point of clarification, Commissioner Peebles, if we were to, you're talking about some non-Lynn Haven resident, potentially two positions, subject matter experts, basically, right? Would they need to be members or would they be advisors?

I guess it could just be like two official advisors. They would not be voting members. They would just be advisors.

I think that would be a key distinction. You have your committee members who would be voting and then you would have special advisors who are kind of your subject matter expert SMEs.

Yes.

And that way it keeps it clean.

Definitely.

You have five or whether you have seven.

We also need to look back on how it was in the past and see if these positions are appointed or at large position as I remember a few boards ago we had that discussion on which boards are at large selection where we all look at the applications versus we to point someone for example the charter review committee we appointed whereas the planning. Commission was at large. I would imagine that this is by appointee because there's five, but I don't want to make the assumption.

Any other discussion on item number 12 before we move forward? No? All right. Thank you for that. Item number 13, discussion on steps to move forward with city attorney selection or direction for next steps. City Manager.

Yes, sir. We received the RFPs back for the city attorney. We received from three submittals as well as we had one applicant for an in-house position. I think you all have scored or made contact with Mr. Bracey on your recommendations for the firms. We were just looking for direction on how the commission would like to move forward.

Well, when will we get the actual results from Mr. Bracey?

We were still receiving results as of today, so it would be the next meeting before you would actually receive or be on the agenda with everyone's score. We asked for them on the 22nd, and we still, he was in here right before the meeting trying to collect so we can.

So what's the next best step then, just process-wise? Strangle in any lost patrol boat-wise, and then once you have all five inputs, You share it with all five of us, and there should be kind of a clear collective team-making decision, right? So at that point, it's workshop or just discussion here?

I don't think there's a workshop needed. I think it's just an agenda item. If that's what you all want or you can make a decision tonight to move forward, it's whatever the commission desires.

Do we have a, now that we have all of the information, do we have a cost difference between in-house and contracted out?

I have additional information. Mr. Garman, who was the applicant for the in-house position, sent me an email late this afternoon removing his name from consideration.

Oh, okay. Okay.

Well, in that case, we're down to the three submitted contracts. So once we have all five inputs, we can plan to have it on the next meeting for a vote.

I'm fairly sure that Corey walked out of here with all five of them signed, sealed.

I'm sure he did, but we didn't have time to get it on the agenda. If he was getting it ten minutes before the agenda, it was published last Thursday.

Okay.

So, okay, well, let's, if it's good with y'all, let's post it and do our decision at the next meeting. And then as soon as you get the results, please share it with the five of us. Collective decisions. All right. All right. Everybody good with that? All right. Next up is public commentary. So we have four folks signed up for public commentary. First up, we have Mr. George Hines. Come on down, sir.

Good evening. Good evening. I appreciate what you did, what I suggested that you do. And, of course, the quorum. You need to do what the Bible tells you to do. Treat people the way you want to be treated. And you won't have to make up this long litany of things the way you treat people. It's simple. You know how you want to be treated? Treat people that way, and you won't have that problem. We want to have a decent meeting where a lot of citizens come and get involved, but they don't because of the people sitting on the dais. You have people that you talk to, and you have people that you don't talk to. You have people that you respect, people that you don't respect. But when you get on the dais, you've got to forget all that and just become a person on the dais. You listen to everybody's complaints, and you have to make decisions what you're going to do about them. What I put on the paper was people and pay for my speaking this afternoon. We talk about consolidating things. It's causing people to lose their jobs. The number one problem in America today is health care. Most of the people got jobs, including you, only doing the job because you need the health care. If you had the same health care the government workers have, you wouldn't have that problem. Same with the military. They have the same thing the president and everybody else has. Now, we still have consolidating services. We lose personnel. and we lose equipment. You turn things over to the shared department as far as the communication department, two years from now, it'll be upgraded every other year, and that's going to increase your pay to them. Then you decide it didn't work for you, and you want to take them back in, then you got to update all your equipment again. It don't make good sense. If we want to save money, we can start at the head, which are you all. I think two of you got your own business and the other three have other jobs. So you can take a pay cut right there and save money. So there's a number of ways you can save money without getting rid of people. I'm concerned because I ain't worked in 13 years and I can still make it, but other people can't. You need to consider that because you're talking about somebody's livelihood and their kids and their neighborhood will go down and then a crime will pick up and you'll wonder why. Because they have no insurance, they have nowhere to go. Think about that. You don't have to shrink your city to save money. We can save some of the outside contracts we have. Like one year, about three years ago, y'all were talking about garbage pickup. We have garbage trucks. We still pay outside people to pick up garbage in certain parts of the city. Expand our route. Take the money back. We have a maintenance department that can go out and cut grass instead of paying the contractor to cut grass down 7739 or whatever it is. If DOT don't do it, we can do it. Think about it. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. Next up, Mr. David Switzer. Good evening.

Good evening. David Switzer, 323 Alexander Drive. I just wanted to let you know what's happening around FLOC and the issue that I have with it. And just to give you a progress report, If you'll remember, I think it was December 9th, we held that vote of December 9th of last year in which it was a four to one vote in favor of flock. And the people who voted on it knew nothing about it. I believe it was rubber stamped. I believe you didn't know what it was. And now we know that all of that data is shared with 13 to 1500 people. other law enforcement agencies, and the federal government. You're not doing anything about it. Nothing has happened in six months. That is not right. I will let you know, I understand that in April there's another election. And to me, election season starts today. And I'm going to do everything I can to find somebody who will vote Flock out. The people who are going to be running, if you have a political aspiration to run, flock is going to be the number one issue that you're going to have to face. I'm telling you, this is spreading like wildfire. Three people spoke about flock and how there are real concerns. And you voted on it anyway. You should have erred on the side of the Constitution and researched this thing. So why do I say that it's spreading? Why is that happening? And what is the evidence? Well, let's look at WNBB. All that they did is posted one small Facebook page of a gentleman who put a survey out there. And that specific Facebook story, the average, and when I'm looking through here at WNBB, they have maybe... You know, there's nowhere near double and triple digit likes, shares and comments. This story about the flock survey, which has almost a thousand people, has three thousand and two hundred likes. 1.2, that 1,200 comments and 401 shares. So you better get your position down sooner than later. And I would recommend voting on flock and understanding it before the election, because if you have political aspirations, you will not win. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Schweitzer.

Number three, Mr. James Finch. Come on down, sir. Good evening.

Good evening.

James Finch, 410 East 2nd Street.

I'll come up here tonight to talk about item number seven, and y'all have taken it off the agenda. It was on there this afternoon. You know, World War II took four years. It's been six years I've been doing this. Six years. And I had a settlement with y'all. Everybody agreed to it two months ago. And this afternoon, y'all take it off, and I understand... I was on the way up here and one of those lawyers that was in your shade meeting or shady meeting, whatever you want to call it, he calls me and says, listen, they're changing the deal. I said, what do you mean? He said, well, the contract was written wrong and there's something wrong with the contract. I said, well, look who wrote the last one. The same lawyers y'all got now wrote it. They was in there telling y'all, this is wrong with it and that's wrong with it, and y'all pulling it from the agenda. And like I said, it's been six years. I don't want to hire. He says, well, if we throw it out, you got to hire me back. I said, I don't want to hire you. I don't want no damn lawyer. I want to do what I promised I'd do this city, and I expect them to do the same. And I come up here in three minutes, y'all blow me off. Oh, one of y'all can give me some time on your commissioner's deal. But this is wrong. I mean, every bit of it's wrong. And y'all was going to hire some attorneys tonight. They stopped it. Those attorneys right there stopped it tonight. Y'all couldn't hire Shipman. Shipman called me up and says, hey, I got to be your lawyer again. I said, I don't want no damn lawyer. You know, Shipman's a good law firm. And that's all I ever said about them. I don't want them. I don't want anything to do with the city suit. I never wanted to sue the city. I sued the city only because that was the only way I could get the truth. Everybody says, why did James Finch sue the city? He loves it so much. Because I couldn't get nothing from this dice. Nothing. Five or six years. And it's time for you all to step up and do what you say you're going to do or resign or do something. But this is wrong. Every bit of it's wrong. You got sworn statements. Y'all got a copy of the sworn statements? When they did that, Vicki Gaynor didn't last six days. She did it all. She's suing now, suing y'all for discrimination. You know? I want this settled. If y'all want me to try and get this settled, we'll settle it. That's all I want to do. But the lawyers that y'all had four and I had one, I got right here from these people, the draft resolution approving this settlement and the budget amendment and the contract approval necessary to implement from those people right there, sitting there. They've been fired twice and they screwed this deal up this afternoon. I'm out of time, but this is wrong.

Thank you, sir. Last up is Mr. Ryan Scrag.

On note of the advisory boards that you were talking about, I was looking it up, so I didn't get to come up here on that item, but... The limit is 6 consecutive years for all standing boards, except for the planning commission is 8. So, 6 years from whatever their point is what you're looking at math wise. However, as a member of the charter committee, I'd like to point out that it does specifically state that it is composed of men and women who are residents of the city. And who are not disenfranchised by law. So the board members themselves would need to be residents. However, there's a difference between being a board member and being an expert that has an open invitation to attend every meeting. I think rather than trying to change the charter to have board members that are non-residents, I think it would be wise to look at that other option and bring these subject matter experts in who can give the board advice so the board can make informed decisions to then turn around and give the city manager and the commission uh informed information um and then some thoughts i have on flock so um i I've always looked at everything, trying to find the balance between our civil rights and good order of being a productive community and good members of society. And the truth is there's always going to be bad people. People can say if you do nothing wrong, you don't have anything to worry about. And that's not true because there's always going to be bad people that should make you worried. Just like there was a case where a gentleman out of Nebraska drove down to Florida and kidnapped two sisters who he met through Roblox. If you're a parent and your child is on Roblox, you should be turning, if you're going to let them have Roblox, turn the communication features off. They shouldn't really have it either. It's an ongoing battle I have with my own child. But the thoughts I have on flock are it's a useful tool, but it needs to be properly managed and have healthy oversight. So some things I think we should look at are reducing the usage of it only for crimes that would be classified as highest class of misdemeanor and felonies. limit sharing to our surrounding states of Alabama and Georgia, reducing retention to 15 days, and physically locating the flock cameras we have at the main entrances to the city for inbound traffic only because our neighboring communities already have cameras to show who's leaving Lynn Haven. So those are my suggestions. It's not an election issue. It's something that can be resolved long before April. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, sir. Come on up. We are now open to those are the four that signed up for public speaking. Now we'll do an open floor and Mr. Thompson. Thank you, sir.

Bernie Thompson, the Bernie Thompson show. I want to echo what David Switzer said about flock. I agree 100%. And Mr. Finch, I'll give you an hour on my show, sir. I want to know more about the settlement, why it didn't go through. I'm eager for the city to, you already voted this law firm out. I'm eager, they're useless, worse than useless. I'm ready for them to be gone and for you to get good legal counsel, that'll be good for the city. Just last year, if you had given me two headlines, And I had to choose which one was real. And one headline said, Lynnhaven mayor owns mistake, apologizes to citizen. And the other one says, the city of Lynnhaven flock cameras tracked a ringtail goofus and captured it. I would have said, the one that's not true is the mayor apologized. I mean, that could never be true. But it was true. And I've never seen it. I've been covering local government. I hit you pretty hard, mayor. following night for an hour on my show about it and I want to salute you sir and say this is real leadership humility especially somebody coming from your position high-ranking military officer to be publicly wrong and to own it and to fix it and to make the city better I have great respect for you. I've rarely seen those qualities and that's true leadership and I thank you. To the rest of you who are considering the new resolution for public comments because the current one is wrong and outdated and unlawful, there were two big court cases that came out in 2024, Moms for Liberty versus, gosh, what was it? It's Moms for Liberty. You can look it up. The other one is McDonough. 2024 cases that govern public comments. And there are a couple of things that I would warn you about. One decorum is for when we're out here. When we're here, there really are no rules for decorum unless we're threatening you or something like that. Number two, I'd like to say with regard to disorderly. It is already defined. I don't have time to read it, but it's already defined. You guys don't have to spend time trying to come up with it yourself. But disorderly, to throw somebody out of a meeting, they're disorderly. Again, that's if you're out here. If somebody out here is interrupting the flow of the meeting because they're out here interrupting, that can be disorderly and that can be thrown out according to the law. But this is the floor, right? This three minutes here, if you all interrupt, you're the ones being disorderly. And so finally, I have an idea to protect police officers and citizens. It's called verification. If anybody else asked an officer to remove a citizen and I'll send it to you by email. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Any other? Come on up, sir.

Good evening. Good to see you all again. Today I brought some gardening gloves instead of boxing gloves so you guys don't have to be defensive with me. You know, I wanted to say, you know, I've been watching some stuff from afar because I've had family stuff going on. And so, you know, let me start out by saying that in the last even three months, watching the transparency with the budgets, the growth, how things are being managed at the city and stuff like that is a breath of fresh air compared to a year ago. I know a lot of people last year. meeting brought up, you know, oh my gosh, the budget numbers and stuff like that. But listen, it's making sausage. I mean, no one ever got to see that beginning stages of it. They saw it in August. They never saw it in June. They never saw it in May. So, you know, seeing the process might be a little bit of shock to everybody, but it is a process. It's got to whittle it down. And so, you know, getting to see that, getting to watch how it actually happens, it's important for everybody, but I do appreciate that visibility. So I wanted to say that. And, you know, we're going to have to make some tough decisions, just is what it is, between debt, between services, you know, potential property taxes in November, things like that. It's going to be tough, and citizens need to recognize that. So, you know, I appreciate it. I do. It is a breath of fresh air to not have to religiously watch it either on YouTube or be here in the audience to know that things aren't, you know, completely going sideways every time we have a commission meeting. With that said, I kind of wanted to give the commission a challenge. Now that we are at least moving forward, we've got a locked-in city manager. I know we have some questions about the police chief, but, you know, everything's moving forward, right? I would like to see the commission focusing again outwardly. Let the sausage makers make the sausage. Let Chris do what he needs to do. And, you know, kind of focus on what we can do to bring resources from the outside back in. So I have a challenge for each one of the commissioners. Commissioner Tender, you know, you're out in the community a lot. So I would like you to be our earpiece. Bring us the complaints, the concerns, the problems, you know, what the fears are in the community so that we can address them properly and quickly. Commissioner Warrick, I would like you to focus on legislation. I'd like you to focus on state level, bringing us the things that we need to do and being, you know, ahead of the game instead of behind the game so we can start looking at things like zoning or, you know, data centers or things like that, property taxes, those type of things. Commissioner Peoples, you know, I'd like to see you with sports and recreation and, you know, how families live in the community. Mr. Perno, I like that you're on the transit boards and things like that and work with those boards to start bringing those things. And, Mayor, I'd like to see you working with the military and the state and stuff like that. How can we bring economies here into the city and start bringing those type of things? So those are my challenges to you, and I appreciate the transparency. Thank you, sir. Mr. Beshear?

Do you need a chair, sir?

Are you okay standing? I'm good. I'm good. Thank you anyway. First, I'd like to say, Commissioner Tender, you look better today than you've looked in a long time. I think you're doing great. I really do. So congratulations. I'm glad to see you here. I just have a question. This could be handled outside of a meeting, but since you're here and I'm here, somebody brought it to my attention that a company, that someone was doing some commercial work at Porter Park where they brought a barge in and were unloading old bridge parts or old dock parts and stuff off and loading them onto flatbeds, stuff dropping in the water. they occupied the center stall and the the porter park boat launch for a considerable bit of time doing this i don't know what the rules are what the what we look at at porter park on what commercial activities are allowed there and how they are handled but it's something we may want to consider i'm not talking about the the guide boats, the people that do fish and trip guides. I'm talking about heavy construction, that type of commercial activity at our boat ramps. Is it allowed? And if not, how do we police that? That's all I wanted to talk about was to bring that to your attention.

Thank you, sir. City manager, you got that? Okay. Mr. Beshear, city manager, got that? We'll get you an answer on that. Come on up, Ms. Parker. Good evening.

Good evening. I would like this commission to address the commentary by James Finch and what the situation is. And also, is Vicki Gaynor still under that discrimination lawsuit? I know it's Phoenix against Vicki Gaynor and the city of Lynn Haven. However, I'd like you to address the commentary by James. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. So, City Attorney, would you like to speak to this at this point? Yes, City Manager. Go ahead. Just give a brief update.

Sure. The brief update is that the Commission had a shade meeting earlier today where we discussed the pending litigation, and the Commission decided to table the potential resolution. That's pretty much it.

So, well, that's not it altogether. You guys, you are now going back to Mr.

There's not a we don't think there's a meeting of the minds. Any kind of resolution requires both parties to come to a mutual agreement. And at this point, we don't think there's a mutual agreement. And we are going to go back to the other party and see if we can come to some kind of mutual solution.

Okay. Okay. Any other public comments tonight? Mr. Finch, come on up.

When I filed my lawsuit against the city of Lynnhaven and Vicki Gaynor, I settled with the city of Lynn Haven. I didn't want to settle with Vicki Gaynor. My offer was to, if Vicki Gaynor would drop her suit against Lynn Haven, I would drop mine against Vicki Gaynor. The city didn't want me to do that. And the attorneys y'all met with this afternoon wanted me to drop the deal with her. And I didn't want to do that, but they said, that's the only way we're going to settle with you. I said, well, I'm tired of lawyers and I'm tired of all this BS. I says, I'll do the deal with y'all. And we had a deal. And I always was, you know, if you make a deal and you shake somebody's hand or you give somebody your word, you do that. Yes, sir. You know what I'm saying? And I come in here five minutes before the meeting. I didn't know anything about this. And now we're supposed to just get together or whatever, which had to be fine. But, I mean, it's been, like I say, it's been six years. I've been here 76 years. My family's been here over 100. And I've been here in Lynn Haven. I never wanted to sue the city of Lynn Haven. I wanted to settle this old deal. And it's always been that way. But you've got to go through the law to do it when the commission will not work with you. You can't go up there and say, hey, we'll do this for that. You know, especially when you've got an attorney. When you get two attorneys, you get three opinions. And so... That's my deal. I mean, I wanted to drop it against her. And so if we're not dropping the suit or whatever... then my suit's going to go up in place with Vicki because Vicki, I don't think, you know, I offered, I said, I'll testify against Vicki because she was not discriminated against. It's not her color. She negotiated her contract. She signed her contract. She was happy with her contract until she lost it. Now she says she wasn't treated as good as y'all treated the white guy. That's wrong. And I don't think that you should drop the suit against her or whatever, but that's y'all's business.

Yes, sir, Mr. Finch. There is not a whole lot I can say other than what I will say is the terms of agreement that you and City Manager Lightfoot came to, the city commission is doing its utmost to honor that there is one sticking point with legalities with the attorneys that they want to get with you and your attorneys on that one sticking point is what caused us not to be able to settle this tonight i can't talk about it here sir will but rest assured uh... all i can say for the commission mister finches The honorable intent of meeting you with what you and City Manager had agreed to, we are doing our due diligence to make that happen. There's one sticking point with the lawyers, and we've got to get that ironed out. But after that, the intent is to do exactly what you and Mr. Lightfoot agreed to, to the best of our ability to do so. Trust me, sir, that was discussed. Multiple times. But we are going to do our utmost due diligence, sir, to do right and honorable in this. I'm sorry we couldn't get it approved today as intended. And the very first, I will say one thing that we had in the meeting tonight, as soon as we ended, I asked them to contact you and your attorney for due diligence and respect to let you know so you didn't walk in and get surprised just like you did. Yes, sir. And I apologize for that because that wasn't right. I literally used the term. It feels like Lucy in the football with Charlie Brown. And I'm sorry you feel that way tonight. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Understand. And I appreciate your patience. Yes, sir. All right. Anybody else for public commentary tonight? Mr. Langford, come on down. Good evening, sir.

Good evening. There was some heavy stuff, talking about consolidating services and stuff, and there are going to be lives impacted. There was lives impacted earlier this year and kind of towards the end of last year when the federal government reduced the federal government employees as well. This happens. We've gotten pretty big in the Lynn Haven government. I put something out about this a little while ago. Last year, we took $2 million from our savings account to keep the lights on. That's what happened. This year, the first budget was brought to y'all had a $6 million deficit. That's equivalent to us spending our entire paycheck on our bills, and then we got to put our groceries on our credit card, and then at the end of the month, we can't pay our credit card off. We're paying the minimum monthly payment. So there's going to have to be some cuts that's made. There are potentially going to have to be some consolidations of services. What I would ask, because it was mentioned here, talking about response times and that type of thing, that when you do start looking at consolidating services, I would like... to somehow figure out what would be an estimation of effects to those services. So, for example, if our – and I'm just throwing out examples. I'm not a proponent of consolidating anything. I want to keep everything we got, but I'm also a realist as well. We've got to cut costs. That's just the way it is. I've said it for years. Lynnhaven ain't got a funding problem. Lynnhaven's got a spending problem. And y'all are tightening your belts on that, and I appreciate it. But if we got a four-minute response time from the fire department in Lynnhaven and we consolidate it to Bay County, what is that? What affects? I doubt they're going to close down all of our fire stations in Lynnhaven. That ain't going to happen. They're just going to say Bay County Fire Department on this front sign out there, not Lynnhaven. But I would like, just at least for the public's perspective and impact-wise, if those services were consolidated, number one, what are we saving money-wise and what's it costing us? But number two, how would that affect the current services that we have? I think that would just kind of at least give us some level of idea of what we would or wouldn't support from the public's concerns. I'm going to reserve my comments on Flock. I hadn't had anybody reach out to me. My 30-day offer of disconnecting from Wi-Fi and nobody wanted to take me up on that. I do have a solution, though. City could quote-unquote get rid of the flock cameras and donate them to the citizens. I think I've said it before. Y'all can put five of them out in my front yard if you want to, and I'll own them, and I'll share the data with the city, and then y'all can just do with it whatever you want to, but the city won't own the flock camera. I will. Kind of like what they're doing over at the country club. But anyway, it's just a solution. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Langford. Anybody else tonight? martin hearing none thank you all for the public commentary uh... first up mayor's report i think i've already spoken enough tonight but i appreciate the grace and uh... looking forward to moving forward and not looking forward to the tough discussions and decisions we're going to have to make but it is what it is and so that's why we're here and that's why it's important that we get the public's input and feedback because we all have to live with this we're all in the canoe together and so whatever we do we're all going to have to live with so it's just vital that we get collaboration and teamwork and communication here so please stay engaged with us it's not going to be a smooth ride it's probably going to be bumpy but we really need the public's input and engagement. So thank you for that in advance. With that, I'll turn over to Commissioner Pernod with seat one, and we'll just go straight to my right. Sir? I'm sorry. I'm just batting 1,000 tonight. Commissioner Pernod, I'll start off with you. Seat two, sir.

Thank you, Mayor. I just don't want to tie up anyone's time more than we have to. I have an estuary meeting tomorrow at 1 p.m. at the Dean's Conference Room at the Holly Center, and I appreciate everyone being here. It's good to see the faces that are here. Thank you all. Like you said, we've got some tough decisions to make or not make, but we've got to stand by what we do. Yes, sir. Thank you all.

thank you sir commissioner peebles seat one thank you mayor uh one thing i guess i want to use my time on my uh commissioner report is to actually talk about flock a little bit um i do want to say that i hope that we can all agree that if flock cameras are still here that i do think we need to have some serious conversations about how we need to have better oversight and auditing abilities. We can create some policies for that. We need to have strict consequences if they're misused or abused because that's really what it comes down to is it's a tool. We don't want it to be the wild, wild west out there. So we need to make sure that it doesn't get misused. I'm very willing to discuss adjustments to Lynn Haven's policies regarding the usage, the retention, and the data sharing like Mr. Scray talked about. Those are some solutions. I do think we do need to start having those conversations because... Again, it's a tool, but there's a lot of tools that have good intentions that can have bad consequences. So we do need to look at this tool and make sure that it is used properly if it's going to stay in our tool chest. So I just wanted to encourage the rest of you up here that if you can work with me too, and maybe Dave or Mr. Spray or anybody else that wants to talk about it to figure out some policy updates that'll help protect us as a city, and help protect the citizens and their rights and things like that. Thank you, sir.

Commissioner Warrick, seat three.

The only thing I have is when we originally agreed to the city manager's contract, we talked about having SMART goals for the city manager, which is actually specifically spelled out in the contract and said within 90 days we would have SMART goals. So I would like to, at the next meeting, discuss what those goals are. I've already established mine. I'd like to hear your inputs. I mean, he's been in the seat, I think, for a little over 60 days now. And remember that SMART goals are supposed to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. So I'd like to add that to the agenda for the next meeting to discuss. That's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Commissioner Tender, seat four. Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate it. Well, tonight I happen to have a lot to say. Didn't have much to say last time, but I've got it to say tonight. First off, I would like to commend you for how you handled yourself. Last week, last meeting, and this meeting. You've got more temper control than I have. A couple of things that I think are very, very important. I'm really disappointed that at the end of our shade meeting this afternoon when you asked the attorneys to reach Mr. Finch so that he didn't have to come here, And I would have swore I heard one or two say, yes, they would. Or they at least said they did.

They spoke with Mr. Shipman.

Oh, so he he was. Oh, so Mr. Shipman didn't call Mr. Finch.

I have no idea. But our attorney spoke to Mr. Finch's attorney. Okay.

Well, I'm glad to hear that. The other thing is when it comes to budget cuts and things like that, I'm still waiting on the list of salaries and employees, and I asked for that over a month ago.

At the last commission meeting, you said it was the salary study list you were waiting for. The salary study is not complete.

Oh, with just a list of employees with their salaries?

You said the salary study.

Okay. Look, I've seen a list of employees with salaries that Vicki Gaynor did, read everybody's salary, that kind of thing. It doesn't have to be any kind of

So you want a list of employees with just their salary on it?

Yeah, that's all.

Yeah, I asked for it last week and I got it already. Oh, you did? Yeah. So I would recommend just shoot an email to CJ for public records request. You can probably get it pretty quick.

Okay. Okay. I will do that. Complaints from residents. Boy, am I glad Zach gave that one to me. I don't know. He already left. Yeah. One of the things I would like to discuss is I want to hopefully somebody will make a motion to allow us to have a workshop on the 10th Street Project. What those people have been going through is unbelievable. What started out last December and keeps getting put back and back and back has now been pushed from April to June to August. And I would just like a workshop where these residents can come in a non-threatening situation like we did before, have everybody down on the floor so we can just sit and chat and write things down about what's happened during this whole transition, and it's still not finished. I think it's very, very important to the residents, number one, to be heard. And I'm hoping that you would agree. that we need to have a workshop. I don't care if it's on a Saturday. I think, I think that's something that the residents, most of them are working folks. And I think they, you know, I'm like everybody else. I don't want to have to get out at five 30 during the week, you know, at night. But I think the time spent with them is crucial so that we can control how the companies that we hire treat our people. And I got to tell you, it's not a pretty picture, and I think it needs to be heard.

For the record, I'm more than willing to have one. I've filled in numerous calls myself, and I appreciate the frustrated residents reaching out. I'm glad to have a workshop if we need to.

Okay. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Does anybody want to make a motion that we have a workshop?

We don't have to make a motion. We can just make a workshop. Just make a workshop. Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Do you want it to be on a Saturday so that it's easier for them to come out?

I think so. But I know that people that have little kids have baseball in the morning and all that kind of thing.

It's not baseball season. So.

Okay. What season is it now?

We don't really have a season going on right now. Oh, good. So now's a good time.

You're free. Oh, you can't.

No.

That's town hall.

So a Saturday. All right. You thinking late morning or early afternoon?

I'm thinking late morning. Or early afternoon. Doesn't matter to me. I'm not an 8 a.m. person either.

So maybe an 11 a.m. or 2 p.m., something like that?

Sure. That works for me. And I think for the people, yep, I'm getting head shaking yes, that the people out there that would like to be here, 2 p.m.?

I'm good with that.

Okay.

You want to get it scheduled?

Yeah, what kind of schedule? Let's get it down. This Saturday?

This Saturday?

Yeah, I'm free.

This Saturday? Saturday or next Saturday? How about we give everybody a little bit of heads up? Okay, two weeks. Next Saturday? Yeah.

Let's do next Saturday. That's 4th of July.

Never mind. I'm sorry. You guys want to meet on 4th of July? Let's do it this Saturday. Yeah, my bad. This Saturday.

Okay, let's do it this Saturday.

Okay, 2 o'clock. Here, same time, same channel.

Be here, be square. But it's also a good opportunity for people to, even if you're not on the 10th Street Project, even if you've not lived through this nightmare, it's good for you to hear... what we can improve on. I mean, we can control this and we can fix it. And I think it's just important for all of us to get together at one time.

Do we want any of the construction companies here? I'm sorry. Do we want any of the construction companies that are the, you said?

Oh, I'd love the construction company to come.

Okay. I mean, I don't know. I'm directing city.

It will very likely just be staff for Saturday at a 2 p.m. Yeah.

Yeah, we can invite them.

We can invite them so they can defend all the accusations. Yeah, it doesn't have to be a bombardment, but they'd probably want to defend themselves at some point.

Sure, yeah. This is more probably a venting and a being heard because there's a lot of our residents around 10th Street that are very upset and they feel very run over, for lack of a better term.

And the other thing I want to say publicly that's very important is I want Ben Jenke to know that even though I asked for public records, he does live on 10th Street. He did have his driveway poured. He says he paid for it with his own money. And I have no reason not to believe him. And I don't want him to think that I was trying to in any way, say he's a bad person or he's a liar or anything else. But I did put in for a public request. And of course, CJ had to copy Ben on it. So I'm going to say it publicly. I don't want Ben to think that I'm out after him or anything. All I was doing was asking if there was a receipt for him paying that $7,000 to have his driveway poured. So, Ben, I know you're not here tonight. Don't think the worst of me. I was just asking because there are other people asking on that project as well. So I'm excited. So we're doing it. Oh, we're doing it this Saturday.

Yes, ma'am. 27th at 2 p.m. OK, I'll be here.

And let everybody down on 10th Street and all those side streets connected that this is a place to come and voice your opinion and give us an outline of what we can do to improve. Because we have a lot of room to improve when it comes to dealing with our residents.

um other than that i i just can't imagine anything anything else i can talk about thank you ma'am thank you and i want a second i don't remember who gave you the compliment that you mr basheer i gave you the compliment that your color does look great you look much better post post medical treatment now now if i would just get smart enough to take my medication

Yeah, I don't like to take anything. I don't know why I'm taking it. You tell me why I'm taking it, and if it makes sense to me, I'll take it. Well, I remember, but thank you. I feel much better.

We're glad to have you back with us in person. Thank you. All right, and with that, City Manager, over to you, sir.

Yes, sir. We are working on the fiscal year 27 budget. CJ will be sending out a date for a workshop. We haven't confirmed with everyone yet, so we're just going to schedule a date and roll with it. We had active shooter training for staff, city hall staff, as well as all city the other day, hosted by our police department. I attended a CRA training two Fridays ago, sent you all the information on it. It was very informative about CRAs and what you can and cannot do with that funding. We did approve the procurement policy, the first revision back in December. We told you all we would be bringing back in July for just, hey, we've been dealing with this for six months. We found some ways to improve or some things that need to change as well. So we will be bringing that to you all at the next meeting for the second revision in it. Staff has been working on a new agenda software. We hope to go live with it in the coming months. So you all will be seeing your agenda a little bit differently as well as how the meetings are streamed and how the agendas are posted online will be a little more efficient for staff as well. July 4th is going to be here before you know it already. Staff has been doing a great job planning for that, getting everything lined up. So we're looking forward for another great event. We'll see you all there. We got approval from FDEM for the Wyoming Avenue Drainage Project. It's an HMGP-funded project. It's been ongoing since 2023. Finally got the go-ahead for them, so next meeting we will bring a budget resolution to you all so that we can add that to the budget and get it advertised. Again, that's a 100% reimbursable project. Crews will be installing dock bumpers at Porter Park on the dock next week. And reminder, we have the UODC workshop July 10th at 10 a.m. All-star baseball teams are leaving out tomorrow. Games will start Friday. We've got several teams going to participate there in South Haven, Mississippi for that. Justin has our fall ball registration open about 70% full as of yesterday. So likely we'll have another full league very soon on that one. We've also got the beach volleyball lights. The solar lights were installed out at the beach volleyball court. Staff did that in the house. They look great, very bright. So we'll have the opportunity for our residents to play beach volleyball there at the sports park until 10 p.m. And then the Play It Forward event, not sure if any of you got to go out to Kinsaw for that a couple Saturdays ago with the United Way. We're looking forward to doing that again next year, but it's where people bring donations in of, sports equipment, pass it on to other kids. There were some companies that donated some funding for the United Way. They bought new equipment as well and gave all of that away for free. Our police and fire participated, gave out ice cream and popsicles to the kids. So it was a great event. Looking forward to hosting that again with the United Way next year. Any questions for Ms. Roman with the checklists?

No, she already answered my questions.

I have a question for you, Mr. City Manager. I think I know who it is, but who's the headliner for 4th of July? Oh, I forgot the name.

The Grateful Dads, right? They're opening. They're opening, okay.

Yes, sir.

There's three total, I believe.

Okay. Grateful Dads are local boys.

I think actually the Grateful Dads have canceled and it's another one total, but we'll get that posted on who it's going to be.

Can I ask a question? When will we be voting on the attorney situation?

You all decided earlier at the next meeting.

At the next meeting.

And they're going to share the results by email with us once Corey gets them consolidated. He has all five inputs now. They can share that with us and we'll know what we're walking into at our next meeting.

Okay. Thank you.

Go ahead, sir. I just wanted to piggyback on what Commissioner Tender said earlier. I should have spoke up, but on what you said about the receipts, I do think it's I hope that staff doesn't think that when we're asking for receipts, we're questioning their integrity or anything like that. When we have receipts of things happening, it protects the citizen and it protects the city because it proves that what is being said is factual with data. So I hope that if you're a staff member and you happen to see a public records request, that you don't take it as questioning your integrity. It's more of getting the data to prove what you said is true, and we can prove if a citizen is asking or we're asking, we can prove that what you said is true, and we have data. It's just like if you go to court, you don't want to have a he said, she said. You want to have... the factual evidence in front of you. So if you're trying to, you know, whatever you're looking to do, it's good to have receipts.

I can add on to my thing. I did want to say something about flock. You know, I voted. I don't care for it. I got my records. They were false. They were ridiculous. They showed me driving a black BMW and, I wish I was, but I'm not. And you can't believe what you read. You can't believe what you see in the pictures that they give you either. I feel that, and I know for a fact, without saying too much, that our last police chief watched certain people coming into town and leaving town. So if we put them all in your yard, Corey, we wouldn't have an issue at all. And that was being done deliberately. So that's one of the things that... And I'm not saying our police officers are crooked or anything like that. I'm not insinuating that. But I've read stories about how people who have access, you know, look for their ex-girlfriends and watch their house to see if anybody's coming over or whatever. I think, like somebody over on 10th Street, matter of fact, said, everybody thinks Flock is a good thing because they can keep track of everything, but yet... You're at home with your back door wide open. And they were talking about the fact that they can sell all that information and give it to other people and stuff like that. So I think Flock is something that we need to keep our eyes open. And I believe it was totally brought in by the last police chief also, for whatever reason. But I like the idea of putting all the cameras in Corey's yard. all facing his garden. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. All right. Ms. Kiki, do you have anything for us financially? Last meeting's bad news was bad enough, right? So we'll chew on it for two meetings. We're still glad you're here, and I appreciate you more and more every day. I don't see how you have as much hair as you have, and you don't pull it out. But thank you for all you do for us.

Certainly last but not least, city attorney. I just wanted to thank the commissioner for the time earlier today with y'all. And other than that, no report.

Thank you, sir, for all you do. And with that, if there's no other issues or concerns, we'll adjourn. Thank y'all.