Commission - Regular Meeting

That's what people do. 120. A lot of people watch their football. They watch all the football.

Y'all all ready to get started? Eric, Pat, y'all are good? All right. Good deal. Jamie, Judy, y'all ready to go? Chris, you good? CJ, you good? Yep.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to our city commission meeting. For some of you regulars, y'all have been here with us for about two and a half hours already. We've gone through a budget workshop and a CRA meeting, and now we're on to the main event of tonight. So welcome. If you're just joining us this evening, welcome. We're glad you're here. We're going to start off tonight with a call to order. And we're going to ask Pastor Neil Hickam from the Temple Baptist Church to come up and give the invocation and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Welcome, Pastor.

Will you bow with me in prayer at this time? Our Father, we thank you so much for the opportunity to be here tonight. And Father, I cannot help but thank you for our beautiful city, Lynnhaven. Lord, it's amazing that it was named after a Mr. Lynn who was a veteran and a soldier in the United States military. And then, Lord, someone had the incredible insight to add the word haven, Lynn Haven. Haven means a place of refuge and safety and shelter. Father, we are so grateful to live and work in a beautiful city on a beautiful bay. in Lauren that has excellent schools and community resources and accessible retail and commerce avenues and good churches, beautiful parks, recreational venues, a city that affordability, a city of low crime rate, one of the lowest, not just in Florida, but the nation. And Lord, good weather. Well, at least nine months out of the year. And so, Father, we're just thankful to live here. And thank you for the best resource of Lynn Haven, that is the people. So tonight we pray for this commission meeting and for our wonderful leaders, our mayor. our city manager and staff, and others at work for our city and for our commissioners and all. Father, I pray that they will receive your guidance and wisdom and protection in all that they do. Thank you, Father. These things I pray in the name of Christ. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you for joining us, Pastor Hickam. Thank you, sir. All right. With that, next on the agenda, an update on Bay EDA. Good evening. Good evening. Welcome.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the commission. Thank you for having us tonight. My name is Becca Hardin. I'm with the Bay County Economic Development Alliance. I'm here tonight with my colleague, Ben Moorman. And I requested that we be on the agenda so that we could give you all an update. Our organization, along with the county and city leadership, has been very busy over the past couple of years in bringing meaningful jobs to Lynn Haven and to Bay County. And I wanted to give you an update on some of the projects that we've been working on. And I'll start right here in Lynn Haven. And talk about some of the projects that we've recently announced here. Earlier this year, we were able to talk to you all and announce that IAG Aero Group, which is a jet engine maintenance, repair, and overhaul company, has chosen Bay County to expand their operations. They're headquartered in Miami, Florida, with operations in Rome, Italy. They do engine work for the big aviation companies such as Boeing and Airbus, General Electric, Pratt & Whitney, Raytheon in the defense world. We were able to work with them and convince them to buy this existing facility in the Hugh Nelson Industrial Park. which is here in Lynn Haven. It's 140,000 square foot facility on 36 acres. So there's plenty of room for them to grow here. They have committed to 150 new jobs here with an average annual pay of $65,000 a year. and working with our city friends, they are already looking at a 50,000 square foot expansion on this facility. Currently, they have close to 50 employees, well on their way to 150 employees here. They use this facility for a parts manufacturing and parts distribution center, and they plan to bring in some of their suppliers on their campus that they plan to create here in Lynn Haven. They are already good corporate partners. You see the large GE jet engine on the right. This is a engine that IAG Aero Group has donated to Haney Technical College. as part of their A&P training. Haney has an FAA-certified airframe and power plant training. We have quadrupled the size due to the recruitment of IAG Aero Group. IAG Aero Group not only donated this engine, they've donated a second engine that's coming within the next couple of months, and they've allocated an employee to do train-the-trainer sessions with all of our instructors, as well as providing all the equipment to be able to work on these engines. The value of this contribution to our community and to Haney is about $5 million. So if you look at the return on investment of what they are bringing to our community, it's substantial. But this isn't all that IAG is working on. This is the largest project that the Bay Economic Development Alliance, partnering with community leadership, has been able to bring to fruition in our county. This is an artist's rendering of a campus that they're going to be building at our airport. You see here that the front part of this slide has a 120,000 square foot jet engine maintenance facility and they will be building one test cell which has a capital investment of about 75 million dollars that they're bringing to the table. There are plans for a second jet engine test cell and then plans for two wide-body hangars. All told, IEG is committed to 500 new jobs in Bay County, the city of Lynnhaven, and at the airport. and a capital investment of $107 million in our community. We were successful in working with Triumph Gulf Coast, the BP Oil Spill Settlement Fund, to write and receive a $25 million grant to help support the recruitment of IAG Aerogroup to the city of Lynn Haven and to Bay County. And we're super excited to be able to welcome them here. They love our community, they love what you're doing in Lynn Haven, and they want to continue to grow in Bay County. Another company that we've recently worked with, this past year we just got approval. We've been working with one of your local manufacturers, Jensen USA. They are growing their business here in Lynn Haven and they were running out of space to be able to have a physical expansion. This would be a 50 job expansion and then the existing employee count would remain. We were able to work with them and the University of West Florida which also had a smaller BP oil spill fund. It's called the Industry Resilience and Diversity Fund, the IRDF grant. And we were able to get a $2 million grant to help them grow right here in the city of Lynnhaven. So those are two companies that are specific to Lynnhaven. If you look at just those two projects alone, here is your return on investments for your annual membership in the Bay Economic Development Alliance, which runs right now around $30,000 a year. Jensen, 50 jobs. Of those new 50 jobs, that's an increase of $2.75 million. and new annual wages that the people that live in this county and this community will experience. That means more money on buying houses, buying cars, more money in our banks, more kids in our schools. And of that expansion, they're looking at investing more than $2 million in that facility here. IEG Aero Group in Lynn Haven, they will have 150 new full-time jobs and that creates nine million dollars in new annual wages to the people who live in our community and most of them that they've hired already live right here in Lynn Haven. So their total capex already spent in buying the building and buying the equipment and then now going under an expansion is 10 million dollars right here in the city of Lynn Haven. Just these two projects alone created 200 new jobs in the city of Lynn Haven with $11.75 million in new annual wages for people's salary and $12 million in capital investment for the community here in Lynn Haven. But that's not all. We've had tremendous success in Bay County, and here's some examples that will also have an impact on Lynn Haven and Bay County. Two, three months ago, we announced that Voltari Electric, which is a Canadian marine and boat manufacturing company that manufactures electric motored boats on a carbon fiber hull, is expanding their Canadian operation right here in the Bay County area. We found a great site for them that was a former shipyard that had existing buildings on it and had access to deep water. It's near the Suzuki facility and Suzuki's who we recruited a couple years ago, right at the end of Robinson Bayou and Frankfort Avenue, right on the Panama City-Lindhaven line. They have committed to create 300 new jobs. The average wage of these jobs is $75,000 a year. They will be expanding manufacturing of their boats here. They will be bringing research and development and battery manufacturing will be made right here in Bay County. The boat that you see here is a boat that they manufacture for the Coast Guard in Canada. They are talking to the Coast Guard in the U.S. The reason that they chose to expand in Florida is not only because of our beautiful water and great assets in Bay County, but they are growing their defense business, and to do so, they had to have a larger presence in the U.S. These boats are currently being manufactured for Navy SEALs because as an electric motor, you can't smell it, you can't hear it, you can't detect it from an infrared light. So from a defense perspective, It's stealth, and we're going to see a lot more electric boat activity in the defense world in the future. They are already starting to hire. They hired a general manager and a director of marketing from right here in Bay County. Their general manager is retired military and has worked on ships before, so they are looking at the local community to fill their jobs. Global Impact Products is another company out of South Florida. They already utilize our international port to import glass and other raw materials to make windows that are hurricane resistant and doors that are hurricane resistant. If those of you who have been here a while and you're familiar with where the old county incinerator was off of Highway 231 in the original Bay County Industrial Park, this is what it's going to look like. We worked out a deal with the county and the company where the company will actually renovate this building and enter into a long-term lease with the county. We were able to get a $4.75 million Triumph Grant to help support the development and build out of this building, 150 new jobs, and 15 million capital investment. On Voltari, the company that I just mentioned from Canada, we were able to solidify a $13 million Triumph Gulf Coast grant. The county bought that property for them and has entered into a long-term lease with them, and that was our public-private partnership with that project. We also recruited another aviation company that is right across from where the incinerator building is located, Oxford Technologies. You see this long equipment, they actually manufacture the leading edge blades for the Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopter. And so they are bringing Sikorsky and the defense world into our community. Their equipment has been installed and they are starting the hiring process now. They'll have about 60 employees and this is a $8 million capital investment. We were successful in recruiting a last mile Amazon, so hopefully that's helping you guys get your packages a little quicker. This is in the Port Own Intermodal Distribution Center on Highway 231, right near Lynn Haven. They are up and running. They've done extensive renovations on this building, adding parking, opening up doors. Right now they have over 100 employees, and this was a $10 million investment, and they are up and running and doing very well. So if you just take these projects that we announced, these six projects that we announced in 2025 and 2026, Jensen, IAG Aero Group, Voltari Electric, Oxford Technologies, Global Impact Products, and the Amazon project, that was six new project announcements. which is over 1,000 new primary jobs that will be coming to Bay County over the next five to seven years. And of those projects, it's $175 million in capital that is being invested in our community so that we can continue to grow. And honestly, I mean, their employees are going to come from all over Bay County, but the employees that will be working at these companies will be living and working right here in Lynn Haven, and we're proud to say that. So we took this a step further and got our partners at Florida Power and Light to do an economic impact study for a longer term. What is this going to mean for Bay County and the city of Lynn Haven in 10 years? Well, with six new project announcements, over the next seven to 10 years, we're going to see almost 3,000 new jobs as a result of the projects that the Bay EDA and the leadership in Bay County and Lynn Haven have brought to this community. And of that, it's 143 million annual wages, so increasing in wealth and increasing in jobs. And then the total value add for the capital that will be invested in our community is $305 million. So that's an economic impact study that can really show for your annual fee and membership as part of our organization, you get a return on investment of $305 million and 3,000 new jobs. One of the things that we are out there doing for you, and I'm actually leaving Saturday for a mission with the State Secretary of Commerce to go and meet with some advanced air mobility companies in Taiwan, is we travel all over the world and represent you in marketing your community and marketing the buildings and sites that you have in this area. Already this year, we've done the maintenance repair and overhaul show in Orlando, Florida. Ben and I have recently gone on a state mission to Canada where the Secretary of Commerce met with Voltari and then met with one of our prospects that is from Canada that we're hoping to locate at our airport. We just recently got back from London where we participated in the Farnborough Air Show. met with more than 20 companies in three days, and then we are going to the Ibex Marine Boat Show in Tampa in October, and then another aviation show in Amsterdam right after that show. And then we do a lot of work in the Yucatan of Mexico, our sister city, Merida, and we've got a Newport director in Bob Micah, and we're gonna be taking him in the fall to go and meet with our partners in the Yucatan of Mexico to enhance that international trade. So we're out there, we're working for you. Hopefully these numbers will show you the return on your annual investment into our community. And my question to you is, how can you afford not to support the economic development efforts of the county? You've been with us for many, many years. We appreciate your support. It's exciting and energizing to bring these jobs to Bay County, and we want to continue with your involvement. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. I'll be glad to answer any questions.

Any questions for the commission?

All right.

Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you being with us tonight. Thank you. All right. Next up, additions, deletions, and modifications of agenda. I do have one modification I would like to add, actually. If the rest of the commission is amenable, I'd like to do an initial discussion of the city clerk and where we go from here now that the referendum has been approved. I propose we add that to number 14, so right before public commentary at the end of new business. So would everybody be amenable to that? Yeah? Sure. All right. All right. Otherwise, any other adds, deletions, or changes? Yes, ma'am.

I would like to add an addition to the agenda regarding our bidding process.

Okay. We'll make that number 15. And bidding process discussion. Is it Q&A or discussion or what would you like?

I'd just like to make a motion regarding the way we do our bidding.

Okay, so discussion then. Sure. Okay. Bidding process discussion. So number 15. So two new ads. Anything else? If not, can I get a motion for the two additions?

I'll make a motion. Second. Second.

Thank you. I have a motion and a second. Any comments or concerns about the two additions? Hearing none, city manager.

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

Yes. 5-0. Thank y'all for that. All right. As we move forward, we have two items on the consent agenda tonight. We have approval of the meeting minutes stated August 11th of 26, and approval of a surplus asset 5-4, excuse me, 4-5-2-3, a 2019 Ford Explorer. And City Manager, would you like to mention what that is?

Yes, sir, you all have already approved the Explorer to be surplus. It did not sell on GovDeals, so we have worked a deal with the city of Panama City to trade them the Explorer for install credits for some of our police equipment. Motion to approve.

Second.

I've got a motion and a second. Any questions regarding these two consent agenda items?

Just one thing on the minutes, page four, if my name could be spelled correctly, that'd be helpful. It's K-R-E-B-S. Perfect.

I apologize for the oversight. We're welcome.

It's not the first time. It's okay.

Congratulations and welcome to the team and your first city commission meeting on this side of the dais with us. So welcome.

Thank you. I look forward to it.

All right. So no questions regarding this. I've got a motion and a second. City manager.

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

Yes. Thank you all for that. All right. So now we move on to old business number seven, final reading of ordinance 1192, amending chapter 42, update code of conduct in city parks. It's got city manager on here, but...

I've got to read it first, Mayor. Ordinance number 1192, an ordinance of the City Commission of Lynn Haven, Florida, amending chapter 42 of the city's code of ordinances related to parks and recreation to generally update the rules of conduct, establishing rules and regulations regarding pets in parks, providing for park users assumption of risk and limitation of city liability, prohibiting persons from remaining in a city park between sunset and sunrise except as expressly posted or permitted, repealing ordinances in conflict, providing for severability, providing for codification, and providing an effective date.

Thank you for that. And Commissioner Peebles, you had worked this. Do you want to say anything about this, sir?

No, just thanks for everyone for looking it over and hope to continue to go through the ordinances. We've got one tonight that we're going over. So just happy to see this going and hope to continue to do it. And thanks to Deputy Chief Enfinger for talking to me about this and thanks to Christopher Lightfoot for talking me through it and all that. So, yeah, I'm excited.

Appreciate you bird-dogging that.

Mayor.

All right. Ma'am.

I just wanted to ask Commissioner Peoples, in this whole thing here, didn't we have a clause where if you were fishing on the bridge during the night, that was okay?

Yes, that's what the one part in the resolution that basically says, unless it says you can. So basically the way it reads is the park's closed, but then there's certain areas that's allowed. Okay. And that's one of the areas. And the bridge is one of them. Yes, correct.

Thank you.

Mr. Krebs, did you have some edits as well?

Yes. Looking at section 42-12 on audio devices, when I was reviewing this for the meeting tonight, there's an additional word added called intentionally. It states specifically that no person shall operate or use any audio devices, including radio, television, musical instruments, or any other noise-producing devices, such as electrical generators or any equipment driven by motor engines, in such a manner or at such times as to intentionally disturb other persons. So the word intentionally was added. The concern I have on that is that that makes it difficult for an enforcement aspect from a police perspective because now they have to get into the mindset of someone that's playing instruments as opposed to just an action that is actually happening. And also this, if you look at the noise ordinance that's already in place from the city, there's an actual exemption from city parks as far as musical instruments go. So this contradicts what's already in the noise ordinance. if this passes it may be a matter of trying to review this particular section to relate it to the current noise ordinance that's in place and i would recommend maybe instead of an intentional disturbance tying it to the noise ordinance itself maybe using the dba for the the decibels for like the public parks and in fact there's a complete exemption for musical instruments in the parks already in the noise ordinance now that might need to be made with a where the city adjusts, just having a lot of noisy people in the parks. But I just wanted to point out that that was my only concern in reading this is that word intentionally, because that makes it hard for a police officer to enforce this. Because you go to someone and say, hey, your music's too loud, turn it down. Well, I didn't intend to disturb them. And so it sort of changes what they can do on this. And we're not asking our police or code to get into the mindset of someone that's doing an activity. So I would just bring that for discussion.

Well, thank you for that. That's actually a good input. City Manager, Commissioner Peebles, would y'all be opposed to, since we do have our new city attorney here going through this, we actually table this particular item until the next meeting

uh commission meeting and give you guys a chance to huddle with him and do some minor revisions there on the wording potential conflict and again the rest of it is fine i didn't see any issues with the rest of it it's just that word that one section that sort of doesn't jive with what's already in the in the books related to city parks and noise

Well, and is there any more rework or refinement or alignment that needs to happen with the other noise policy or ordinance you were talking about?

Not that I could see, no, because this audio device is sort of just one specific part of that.

Okay, so... Yeah, I'm totally fine with tabling it. Just so you kind of know where my mind was at with that. It's good feedback, but where my mind was at is I've had complaints of people from like that play pickleball where people will come up and like intentionally honk their horns at them and stuff to try to make them miss the ball and stuff. And it's just being a public nuisance. So that was kind of where the intentional part came from.

But I understand that then it gets to, you know... Well, that's under 42-8, I think, on the public behavior, where you're talking about boisterous, abusive, threatening, indecent, disorderly conduct behavior gives them grounds to remove it. So that's in a different section. This is just purely about making... noise it sounds like it's musical or you know a generator or something else going on in a city park and obviously there could be exceptions um that that sort of i would suggest just looking at the noise ordinance sort of adopting some of the same exceptions and things related to the parks that are already in the books and just or referencing the noise ordinance related to that

Okay. So we're at a 98% solution here. You and the new attorney want to huddle and just do a little polish there and make sure we get it to your intent, but proper legally enforceable guidance for our police officers and first responders. We can bring it back up in our next meeting if that works. Okay.

Yeah, sure. There's not much to do. I think that would probably be fine. I can meet with Commissioner Peebles.

I appreciate that. Y'all good with that?

I have a question.

Yes, ma'am.

Are we talking about baseball fields as a park, or are we talking about Sheffield Park and Porter? When you said people playing music to make somebody miss the ball, I didn't understand that.

Whether pickleball courts are at the sports complex.

Oh, okay. Oh, they're doing that to irritate people? Yeah. Honking horns, flashing lights, that kind of thing. Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. Okay, so we're going to table that then. We are tabling number seven, so the new city attorney and Commissioner Peebles can refine some language there regarding noise intent, I guess you would say. And we'll bring that up in two weeks at our next commission meeting.

Do we need a motion to table? The attorney? Yeah, you need a motion. All right, Nick, I make a motion to table so we can look at that one section. Second.

Okay. I have a motion and two seconds. Thank y'all for that. Mr. Scray.

Good evening. I just want to clarify for 4213, which is being in the parks after sunset. What are the official park hours for each park?

That was to be determined.

Okay, so the commission will then revisit this and decide what each park's hours are and post them, have it posted up.

It'll be posted so they can be enforced.

Yeah, because like, for example, tonight at 7.13 is sunset, so I've seen numerous kids out playing on the playground at, you know, 7.45, 8 o'clock. Just want to make sure their parents are going to know what time the park's officially closed so they know after that time they can tell their kid, we got to go, otherwise I'm getting a ticket, right? Because I would assume that there's an enforcement citation to go with this, right?

I would hope that they'd give a warning first.

What's that?

I would hope that a warning would be issued first.

So do we have citations for this or no?

I mean, any code has citations, yeah.

Okay, so if somebody remains in the park and they refuse to leave when an officer comes up, what is the citation that goes with that?

Whatever code enforcement does to go through that process.

Okay. Well, there's five of y'all that I would expect you guys to know that.

It would be at the discretion of the code enforcement officer or police, depending on who was there. I mean, obviously, if they get abusive, it could go all the way up to trespass or arrest if it's a police officer. Okay. Right? So, I mean, it really depends on the actions and the discretion of the person that's

there. Got it. And then so then you guys will set times by each park because obviously like Porter Park's pretty popular for people to, you know, sit on those swings out by the water or sit on the beach. So you'll have to set a time on when people can't do that anymore. So that's something for you guys to think about. Because that's effectively what you're doing here is you're saying you're not going to set foot in our park after sunset. So 7.13 p.m. tonight, you wouldn't be allowed in there unless there's a sign at the park that permits otherwise.

And so to clarify, City Manager, we'll have like a springtime and a fall because sunsets at obviously different times during different seasons. We'd have like a springtime sunset and a fall sunset?

Not really, no sir. So this originated because we had issues with people camping out in the park. So the sunrise and sunset is the generic language that's in there, and then we will have the posted hours, which will likely be from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. or 10.30 p.m., whatever it was discussed. I'd have to go back to the minutes from a few months ago, and that's what would be posted.

We can always define the term sunset and sunrise within the ordinance.

We've already had the discussion on these hours. It was discussed that many of the parks would be 10 or 10.30 p.m. because you have the pickleball lights that shut off at 10 p.m., You have people that are using the swings and everything else.

Right, yeah. And then after that time, there's really not a reason for somebody to productively be in the park unless they're doing something they're not supposed to or camping out. So that makes sense. I just wanted to make sure that's not missed because it's not in here. And so if a citizen doing research looks this up and they're like, well, sunset, look at my phone, sunset's at 713, like, dang, like I can't even be at Porter Park on the beach a little bit after sunset. I just wanted to make sure that that's clarified. And it sounds like we have 10 or 10.30ish timeframe, so that's probably gonna be acceptable. Other than that, just make sure the signage is posted, because that's the number one thing people are gonna say is, I didn't know that, I didn't see a sign.

Fair point, thank you. All right, any other discussion regarding tabling this motion? All right. Come on up, Mr. Langford. I'm sorry, I didn't see your hand. Good evening.

Good evening. Yeah, I just had a couple comments on the fishing and swimming. Right now, it says that you can't fish anywhere unless the city says you can. So y'all going to spend a whole bunch of money posting a bunch of signs telling people where they can fish instead of just saying, hey, you can fish unless we tell you you can't. So look at changing that. That's in 42-17. 42-18, the very next paragraph, talks about swimming. And then the very last sentence says, boating and other surface water uses can be allowed by written consent as directed by the city. I don't know how we got from swimming to boating, but I guess I need to get permission to put a boat in and boat in the city of Lynnhaven according to this. There might be some room to clean that up. Just a couple of options there.

Thank you, sir. City Attorney, would you take a note of that when you and Commissioner Peebles are huddling on this? Make sure that that's properly worded and what the intent was.

It's in regards to the stormwater ponds and everything that are in the parks. It has nothing to do with, as it states in there, you can swim and boat in St. Andrews Bay, but this is to prohibit people from jumping in our stormwater ponds at the sports complex, for example.

I don't know of some clarification of that.

This whole ordinance is dealing with parks, not the bay. I don't think there's any navigable waters for boats in our parks for boating.

Just take a note and make sure that's spelled out properly.

Okay.

Because we're talking retention ponds. I don't think anybody wants to be swimming in those.

Yeah, I think the main thing is because we have that lake right back here.

Yeah. Yep. All right. So, anything else?

All right. We can't hear what's going on, so I don't know the proper time to come, but I do have something to say.

This isn't general public commentary, sir. We're literally tabling an amendment for a chapter of the city code. We're about to go into new business, and we will be getting to general commentary here about six items later. But we're getting there.

I'm sorry you can't hear. Mr. Gandy, I know which item you want to speak on.

On the agenda is a point to discuss the adoption of assessment for resolution. And when you get to that point, that's when I want to speak.

Yes, sir. We'll get you. Thank you, sir. All right. So, city manager.

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

Yes. Thank you all for that. All right. So we are going to revisit item number seven at our next meeting. Now we're to new business. First one up, city manager, is discuss impossible approval of a cybersecurity policy manual.

Yes, sir. This has been on my to-do list for about a year, working on getting the city in compliance with a cybersecurity policy. I have stolen some language from the city of Doral, Florida, along with the help of AI and Commissioner Peebles, and have developed a cybersecurity policy, as well as the city of Fort Walton Beach. So I've put this together. Commissioner Peebles, if you'd like to weigh in, and I know you had a change, too, that we kind of missed, if we want to modify that.

Oh, sure. Yeah, so this policy is a really good starting point, a really excellent starting point. Like any policy, it should be a living document. So as time goes on, it'll get more and more specific as we figure out what the cyber needs are, because cyber is always changing. But it was a very solid thing. I was able to, with what I do for a living, go through it and kind of give some pointers to City Manager Lightfoot. The one thing that needs to be changed, it's just a very minor clerical thing, is that when it talks about the role of the C-Cert team, which is the incident response team, it talks about what their role is for levels three through five. And it's talking about the severity levels, which is basically if a cyber incident happens, how they handle it. But at the table that talks about the severity levels, it uses the very low to very high model, which is one through five. So it was just a minor, we need to update that table to list, you know, very low being a one to very high being a five or switch the CSIRT to say, rather than three to five, say moderate through very high. It was something very minor. But it was an excellent job for the cybersecurity manual as a starting point, and I'm excited to see how it evolves over time.

Mr. Krebs, can we approve the policy as is with the language to update that table in the motion?

I didn't see any issue with the policy itself with that addition. I think you could do that.

Just specifically identify then the table?

Yes, or we would update the table accordingly. And as your car states, we anticipate this being just like the procurement policy where we will operate with it for about six months and then bring it back to the Commission if there's any changes or modifications that are needed once it's actually used.

Okay. Sounds good. Well, Commissioner Peebles, thank you for working on this. Would you like to motion approval of this? Sure.

I motion to approve.

Second.

I've got a motion and a second. I'll open the floor for any questions regarding the new cybersecurity policy manual. Hearing none, City Manager.

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

Yes. 5-0. Thank y'all. uh... new business item number nine discussion only regarding chapter sixty six point three related to parking restricted in certain designated areas You're a popular man tonight, Commissioner Peebles. This is you. Just doing my job.

So as we talked about in the past, kind of going through, trying to go through all the ordinances that haven't been touched for years and years. A lot of these haven't been touched since 1996 or older. Some of the language needs to be changed. This is a very small one, but this is one that has been high on the complaint list. side of things, so trying to knock out some low hanging fruit. CJ gave some good advice on this because pointing out that people have complained to the city, not just us as the commission. And one of the things that gets complained about a lot in this one is there's not a lot of guidance on how to handle school traffic. so i didn't know if we wanted to add something to where it specifically says that there can be signage for where you can park during school hours on certain areas that's one thing we could do for example if there's places we don't want people to park on public right-of-ways around moat middle school or lynn haven elementary or one of the others we could just put posted up signs that says you can't park between the signs from you know 6am to 8am and then whatever the afternoon hours are, 2 to 4, something like that. We'd have to, obviously, we'd leave that up to the experts to know where those areas are, but it would give the city the opportunity to do that. For example, there are certain areas in the city where citizens or parents park that are absolutely destroying our roads because they keep going off the roads and coming off and going off, and Beta Six Schools is not refunding us for those roads, you know, so... If there's certain areas that we need people to stop parking there because it's destroying our road, we need to have the ability to do that. The other thing I wanted to add was maybe, you know, one of the things that we've really been running into with the sports complex and Caine Griffin is, I'm there all the time, and one thing I see is you'll see vehicles with like a trailer taking up like five or six parking spots and we're already short on parking spots anyway. So I don't know if we want to say add something in here that talks about within public parking where there is designated parking spots, you cannot take up more than two parking spots with one vehicle. Because I realize that there are like duallys and big trucks that it makes sense to take two spots because you don't want to be right up on somebody, but any more than two spots I feel like is too many. So that's kind of where my thoughts are at. If anybody else looked at this and wanted to add anything else you know I'm not this isn't like a silver bullet as Mayor Lowry likes to say it's just kind of things that came to mind that we can hopefully make the parking situation better for our community well thank you all for that any other discussion or comments from the rest of the commission

If not, what's your way forward at this point? Would you like to, while you're already meeting with the new city attorney, you guys can review this as well as far as when you sit down and huddle?

Sure, we can look at it. What you're suggesting can already be accomplished through the wording that's in the ordinance. or in the the code because the city manager has the authority to put up restricted parking or no parking signs and in all of those areas and even discuss or put a sign up that says one parking you know only use one parking as required so i mean some of that can be done without adjusting this as long as the you know but if you want to direct or change it for specific things i can get with commissioner people so we can discuss options on that

So thank you for that. It's my opinion that the way that our codes are written is purely from an enforcement standpoint, not a rule book for everybody to play by. And the whole purpose, in my opinion, Sam Peoples' opinion, is that code and ordinances should be written so that as a citizen, when I read them, I know what the rules are. So, yes, it can be enforced already, but I would like to, as a citizen, be like, hey, what are the parking rules? And then I go look them up and it's very clearly stated to me what the rules are. I want it to get to where our ordinances are to a point to where it's a playbook by both code enforcement and the citizens because it prevents confusion. And when you have confusion, you have angry citizens. angry code enforcement officers so if we can make things more clearly understandable then or readable or whatever just have what the intent is right there where everyone can read it where it's been black and white okay thank you well it sounds like you and the city attorney are going to have a little homework to huddle on and then you bring back your revisions to us and we'll we'll look at them and see what we got to do to move them forward from there

sounds good sure yeah if there are concerning areas we can always get with uh mr lightfoot and see if there's some money for budget for signs or whatever if there's particular things that may be addressed because obviously if someone's going to park somewhere they're not going to pull the code up but if there's a sign that says i can't park here they'll know so we can do both i think it'll it'll help

Yeah, I also want to invite the rest of the commission. It doesn't just have to be me. If you have suggestions, email them to Mr. Krebs or whatever. I know you can't email me.

I agree with the, if we can come up with the money for signage, people do read signs, I think, because they get embarrassed to get out of their car if they're pulling right up to something, you know, that says you can't park here or whatever. But at the same time, I think we need to really consider with our recent budget cuts, I believe we've eliminated seven or eight police officers so far.

I don't know who we're going to be calling to send out there to... We actually, with the restructure like that, we actually will have more on a shift in patrol. The focus has shifted to patrol, so we actually have more on the road with the reorganization.

Okay. Just wanted to make sure we thought of that.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you all for that. uh... there's really no voting item per se we're gonna it's going to be kind of a boomerang item so uh... we'll come back and we'll revisit that when And you two are ready to bring that back to the commission. So moving on to number 10, discussion and possible approval of Resolution 2026-08-578, approving bid 25.26-27 for 18th Street paving surfaces to Gulf Coast utility contractors in the amount of $193,430. City Manager.

A resolution of the City of Lynn Haven, Florida, approving an agreement with Gulf Coast Utility Contractors, LLC, relating to the 18th Street paving project in an amount not to exceed $193,430. Mayor, this project was put in the budget during the mid-year discussions. It's been brought up many times, a road with many potholes on it. The bids came in a while back. It took some time to get on the agenda, but we'll get it done before the end of the budget year.

Yes, sir. So for everyone's clarification, this is current year budget. We had already programmed for this. I went out and visited the citizens on 18th Street, and it is one of the roughest roads in the city of Lynn Haven. So it's a very relatively short road, but it's definitely in need of this repair. So... I will leave it at that. Do I have a motion to approve?

Motion to approve. Second.

I've got a motion and a second. I'll open the floor for any questions or discussion on this one.

One thing, just to point out, the notice of award, I already spoke with Mr. Lightfoot about it. There's, I think, a typo on the notice.

Apologies, I meant to bring that up. After Mr. Krebs found that, Mr. Bracey, our procurement manager, addressed it, addressing the 10- and 3-day discrepancy in the timeline for the documentation. But the correct notice of award will be assigned.

Okay. All right. No questions or comments regarding this paving of 18th Street? City Manager.

Commissioner Ward. Yes. Commissioner Tender. Yes. Commissioner Peebles. Yes. Commissioner Pernod. Yes. Mayor Lowry. Yes.

Thank you all for that. All right. We're on to number 11 now. Discussion and possible approval of a 12-month extension of the train storage facility site plan development order on parcel number 11528-551-000.

Yes, sir. As I've discussed with you all, this URL approved a development order for training not too long ago. They are still awaiting permits, but they still plan to move forward with this project and just need a 12-month extension to make it happen.

And this falls under the guidelines we have that they're allowed to have a 12-month extension, but that's the max. If they go over that, then they got to redo it and make sure they're biding by code. So I make a motion to approve.

Second.

I've got a motion and a second. I'll open the floor for any questions or discussions on this item. Hearing none, city manager.

Commissioner Newark? Yes. Commissioner Peebles? I'm sorry, Commissioner Perlman? Yes. Commissioner Peebles? Yes. Commissioner Tender? Yes. Mayor Lowry?

Yes. Thank you all for that. Number 12, discussion and possible approval of change order one to Jim House and Associates to complete the FDEP in-kind project for the required upgrades to the city's lift stations.

Yes, sir. Over a year ago, you all approved an in-kind project to Jim House and Associates to install SCADA on our lift stations. We've been working on that for over a year now. We're nearing the end, but we do have many panels that, as they've been installing the SCADA system, the panels were outdated. They were either ate up with sewer gas and rotted, as you saw in your packet, or the relays were just so old that the new technology could not fit into the panel. So they got the list of lift stations, and they will replace the panels and finish the SCADA project. I sent you all a screenshot of our SCADA as it was being implemented a few months ago, so finally coming into 2026 with this technology. And this is required for our in-kind project, and the money was in the sewer budget.

Yeah, it's in pretty bad shape and dire need of being updated, so I'll make a motion to approve.

Second.

I've got a motion and a second. For those of you that looked at the package online for our meeting tonight, you would have seen the photos on there. There are several. These are our oldest lift stations. Some of these are literally late 80s, early 90s era technology in the SCADA in some of these lift stations. They're the oldest ones we have. They need to be retrofitted and modernized. And some of the boxes are extremely rusted out as well. So this is the worst of our lift stations, getting a facelift to be functional and be able to use them moving forward. So that's what these are.

In case anyone wants to know what SCADA is, that's where it allows you to notify employees that are not currently standing there. Whereas in the past, we'd have to wait for someone hearing a siren going off of it being messed up, and then someone would have to call somebody, and they'd have to run out there with installing SCADA. Now they're able to get notified wherever they're at, whatever office they're in or whatever.

Basically modernization of our alert systems with our pumps and public works. That's what this is. So we've got a motion and a second. City Manager. Any other questions regarding this? Hearing none, City Manager.

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

Yes. Thank you all for that. Item 13, open and motion to continue the public hearing regarding Resolution 2026-08-579, the annual assessment resolution relating to stormwater non-avalorum assessments to September 8, 2026.

Yes, sir, and this is just a formality to open our discussion for this fiscal year 2027 non-available stormwater assessment. So, Mayor, when you ask for a motion, I would ask that the motion read exactly as the agenda title so that we're covered correctly. But this will open the hearing for the September 8th meeting. I know that Mr. Ganey, this is the item that he wanted to address, but this is just to discuss what the stormwater rate will be. We are proposing a 3% increase, as you all know, just like last year's discussion. Any questions tonight can be answered, but I'm sure there will be more questions at the September 8th workshop, our meeting.

Okay. Any other questions among the Commission? If hearing none, Can I get a motion to open and continue the public hearing regarding this resolution?

I'll make a motion.

Okay. Can I get a second?

I'll second the motion for discussion.

Yes, sir. I have a motion and a second for discussion. Sir, you have been very patient tonight. It is your time. Come on down. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir.

I got a notice of proposed property taxes from the Bay County property appraisers. In this, it has the note, Lynn Haven Stormwater hearing to adopt final assessment resolution on August 25th at 530 at the City Hall Chambers, Ohio. I wanted to keep up with this resolution. It's very important to me. So I requested a copy of this resolution to review it before this meeting tonight. And the response I got was, this resolution does not exist. So we're here tonight for a hearing to adopt the final assessment resolution that does not exist. I went down to the property appraiser's office, and for an hour or two, those people out there were sending me a notice to come to have a final hearing here tonight. And why would they send me this note? And after an hour, Mr. Hartzell finally convinced me He had nothing to do with this. He just pushed through what Len Haven said. So I'm going to ask you, why did you send me a notice that we're going to have a hearing to adopt the final assessment resolution tonight when you don't have a resolution? In this time, in this notice also, I have a stormwater assessment for $904.03, which is 2.6 times higher than any one of you could be assessed. On the acre and a half, you could own 15 acres, and I would pay 2.6 times higher than your assessment. And why is that? Because it's vacant property. If you own vacant property, you can't vote See, if you assessed the voters the way you assessed me, you wouldn't be here at the next election to get voted out. They'd already have a recall and we would have had you on that ballot with the mayor to get rid of you. But you can gouge me because I can't do anything about it. I can't vote. The bottom line of any ad valorem, non-ad valorem assessment, the bottom line is, It has to be fair and equal. Now, if you're assessing me two and a half times more for an acre and a half, if somebody can have 15 acres and me pay 2.6 times higher, is that fair and equal? No, I don't think so. Also on this assessment, you have... of proposed amounts of taxes to be paid. You don't have a resolution to back this. You have not had a meeting on it. Where are these assessments, these estimated assessments coming from? I would like to know. Yes, sir. I know where they're coming from to see if you know. Yes, sir.

City Manager, would you like to speak to this? Yes, sir.

The resolution will be approved at the September 8th meeting, so we don't have a resolution yet because it's not prepared. And the trim notice is prepared by Stantec every year, and it's sent out per statute.

And the data is coming from?

Stantec.

Mr. Langford, come on up.

It's that time of year again. I missed your name, but thank you for coming. I'm sorry I'm directing comments. Look, I got the same thing in the mail that he did. And these dates and this resolution, to me, this culminizes the entire stormwater assessment program. This thing's been screwed up six ways from Sunday since it come out. All right? And we still can't get it right. Look, every year I come up here and I ask y'all the exact same question. And everybody up here tells me, Yeah, you're right. You shouldn't be paying more for stormwater on a vacant lot than you are than what you're paying for your house and your pool deck and all this stuff over here. So I looked at it this year, and I compared my two numbers, my house stormwater fee and my vacant lot, which I've got a huge garden planted on. I planted it this year because I was thinking maybe I could start charging the city for drinking up the stormwater runoff by my ochre plants, but I don't know if we're going to get that far yet. My point is this, I've asked since 2021, I believe, since this thing come out, why am I paying more for stormwater assessment on my vacant lots than I am my dadgum house? It don't make sense, it's never made sense, and everybody up here says, yep, you're right, but ain't nobody fixed it. So I'm just asking again this year, Please fix it, okay? I've provided ideas, different ways to fix it, so on and so forth. A flat rate fee for vacant lots. It would solve this gentleman back here's concern and everybody else's concern, okay? I'm going to tell you right now, last year we went up, I went up 75% of what I paid, all right? We don't have to go up on the taxes, okay? Everybody knows that. We've been at all these budget meetings, and we see what's going on with the millage rate. And what I've heard is, well, we didn't increase the taxes this year. We didn't increase the taxes that year. Well, we actually went down this year. Well, what we didn't see during all that data was the stormwater assessment. It kept creeping up. Now, some years it didn't, right? Some years the stormwater assessment didn't go up and the millage rate didn't go up, right? But typically, the vote on the millage rate not going up is because the stormwater increased. So if you're increasing the millage rate this year, you better not increase the stormwater assessment again.

thank you thank you sir mayor mayor respond sure so you're gonna get me fired up now uh i i tried addressing this probably for the last couple years and i had a presentation and my my solution wasn't a 100 complete solution but i thought it was a step forward to try to get what we're addressing right now and it didn't pass and this is what drives me nuts is You know, I have to answer the mail on certain things when it's a 3-2 vote or a 4-1 vote. It doesn't matter what the vote is. Once it passes, we all have to answer the mail for it. But I agree with you, and I've tried addressing it, and I don't know what else to tell you. I've tried.

The city manager refreshed my memory, but we talked at length about exempting or doing some type of flat fee for vacant parcels. Did we not?

We did. You all didn't pass it.

When? How far back was this?

The last year for stormwater assessment.

So this was last fall?

August, September.

I've been here seven months, so that was before me. But even since I've been on the commission, we've talked about changing this.

We've just had discussions. No one has given any direction or motion or vote on exempting vacant parcels, reducing the fee on vacant parcels. It has stayed the same.

So among the five of us teammates, I heard you. I heard you both loud and clear. And very colorful, as always, in your typical country boy logic, Mr. Langford. I appreciate that. We need to get this right with vacant parcels. So how we do that, I don't know yet.

hold on just a minute mr i recognize you sir um however we do that we can discuss we can get together and discuss the options i mean that's not an issue there i mean stormwater has to happen whether it's a vacant parcel or whether it's there's something on it and typically if you've built on a parcel you've at least within the last 20 or so years stormwater has been determined and sort of not the assessment, but you're controlling the stormwater from what you're building on it. Just because it's vacant doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't need stormwater control because we don't know how that land, why the water flows over the land and all that stuff. But obviously, if there's some way to assess it that's fair and the city comes to a decision on it, that's fine.

And by the way, my assessment doubled. It was 175 to 350. So what I will commit to you two gentlemen tonight is we will specifically address vacant parcels. Mr. Langford has made that position very clear to me since the day I took office on January 20th that this was something we needed to address, and we will address that.

Can you come to the mic?

Come on up. And then Mr. Scray.

I might make a suggestion, especially for these vacant properties, especially if they're forested, because I've noticed, and they've been working at stormwater at my house, and it's still not done, but I had 30 pine trees that I lost, and the uptake of the water with those pine trees was, I mean, didn't have any problem. So if you have a forested lot... I mean, the woods are going to absorb the water, which is going to decrease their liability for their stormwater, and actually is a positive for the neighborhood that they're in.

there. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Stray, come on up.

Go ahead. I hear you on that. Kind of like what Commissioner Wark said. Maybe it is a time to re-look at this stuff because I'm kind of in the same boat that Commissioner Wark's in. When I first came into office, it was a big thing for me and everything I suggested got shut down. One of the things was, what if I have a stormwater pond on my property? Shouldn't I be getting a credit because I'm pulling in stormwater the reality is is that if you pull money from one then it's got to be paid by someone else and that was the conversation i still in pro credits if we can figure that out um so maybe we need to re-look at this uh and for the record Me and Commissioner Wark were very pro-lowering the vacant property. We were the two that advocated for that. It was supposed to be higher than it actually is. I know it's not the full answer. Flat rate does kind of make sense. The hard part is if we do a flat rate across all property, then there's still, we got to get that money from somewhere else. So that was kind of the conversation we had, if I remember properly. But like I've said, and I continue to say, I am open to solutions on this thing. Because we have spent hours and hours talking about this. I am not hard set on anything. If we've got better solutions, let's use the better solutions. The key is we have to have stormwater funded in some way, though. If this isn't the right way to fund it and there's a better way, then let's do it. I'm open for business. But yeah, the hard part is if let's say we did a flat rate on property, which I don't have a problem with at all, is that where are we going to get the money lost? Because that's got to come from somewhere else because we've got to fund the stormwater. That's kind of the sticking point, and I know Corey's got ideas on this, so I'm always open, but I just wanted to say I'm open to business on this, and go ahead, Ryan.

Just one clarification. The stormwater assessments are intended for the infrastructure of the city to collect city stormwater. It's not for private stormwater. Does that make sense? It's a little... This is the runoff of our roads. This is the runoff of public spaces. This is not to help technically to take care of private property runoff. So a road goes by a vacant lot just like it goes by a lot that has a house on it.

So that ditch or whatever, that's what the assessment's for.

But again, I just want to make sure we're all talking about the right thing when we're discussing this. Stormwater assessment's for the public stormwater and not individuals.

Right. At this point, we are funding what I firmly believe should be an operational department with non-Avalorum funds. And it's just the way that the city decided to fund this at the time that they did. And the money is basically funding the salaries for the folks that are cleaning the ditches and doing the drains and doing the grunt work out there to get this water off of our roadways and our canals. So we've got to figure this out. But it is definitely a work in progress. Mr. Scray, you've been patient, sir. Go ahead.

You guys are all over the place, but you're nailing little bits and pieces of it. The original stormwater proposal was to manage stormwater. That's operational annual O&M, digging ditches, cleaning culverts, replacing culverts, et cetera, and also capital improvement projects, of which we have not collected one freaking dollar. Right, Chris? $1 collected for capital improvement through this non-ad valorem.

So that's a little skewed. How many dollars? The money we collect is only enough to take care of your operations and maintenance. You cannot fund any of the $5, $10, $20 million capital improvement projects out of the $2 to $3 million we collect annually, correct?

But the original proposal did suggest that. It suggested collecting more than $3 million a year.

The original proposal, we are way behind because the original proposal was not followed at all from the beginning.

Correct. It was only partially funded to begin with because it was going to be too much for the residents, the residents who have expected stormwater to be paid for for the last 60 years. The same residents who've been paying into this city for many years and have had 30 or more years of mismanagement of stormwater. Hurricane Michael, which I was not here for, but everybody else that was here for knows damn well has peeled back the layer of the onion that has exposed the problem. Lynn Haven has continually lacked the financial wherewithal or the leadership to manage its infrastructure, core services like stormwater, sewer. We all know sewer needs to be upgraded. There's a lot of old pipes that are breaking, water. All of this stuff needs to be upgraded. But the problem is you have a whole population behind me all over the city that does not want to pay for it, and for good reason. A lot of them feel like they've paid for it already. But the reality is that money's gone and it's never coming back. And so really it comes down to this. Do we want stormwater to be continually band-aided and barely managed? The last big storm we had was, I read on the National Weather Service, was one and a half inches of rain per hour. I believe, unless I'm mistaken, that exceeds the 100-year storm plan. Is that correct, Chris? Do you know? Okay, so our last big storm we had, which social media was full of people complaining about stormwater. Why did, you know, I pay all this hundreds of dollars a year to it. Why isn't it getting fixed? Why is this problem happening? So you're sitting there having to be Socially responsible and explain to them that number one it exceeded the city standard of a hundred year stormwater Number two the money we pay doesn't actually fix anything. It just keeps annual maintenance at bay You're basically pushing the problem away another year and another year and another year until finally at some point we're gonna have a Hopefully at least three leaders hopefully five leaders on our City Commission that are gonna say you know what the residents are gonna hate me for this But we need to fix stormwater and that means putting a plan in place That covers those capital projects that we're not going to be able to pay for if we keep pushing the can down the road another year in another year I say Scrap the whole thing after this year keep it going for a year But in the next 12 months scrap it and start over fresh a brand new plan because the plan you have looks like Frankenstein Thank you, sir this day would you if you want to stay put well Okay, mr. Harold's gonna bring you a microphone this day Thank You Harold

Testing one, two. Testing one, two.

Okay, I guess we're ready.

Good evening, ma'am.

Hi, good evening to you and to the rest of the commissioners, and I have a couple of things that I would like to say. This goes back many years ago, I can understand, but Chris Lightfoot was a public works director from 2020 till 2025, right? Right. Now Chris is in the shoes of the city manager. And Chris goes back and forth to Stantec. Stantec has done several presentations, involved with the city engineers a lot, and Stantec is the reason that we're all paying the stormwater with Mr. Lightfoot's supervision as he was public works director for so many years that allowed so much to go on, and we're paying for it today. But now you're going to sit up there and listen to what Mr. Lightfoot has to say because he knows the gospel, right? So what we have to do now is probably go back and rearrange everything that's been done through Stantec, gone and reevaluated people that may be the homeowners in the land development. They put their proposals out, and Mr. Lightfoot, he agreed with all of that when it first started. So now we gotta go back and double check Mr. Lightfoot and see what's going on. Was he qualified as a public works director? Is he qualified to be the city manager now? And that'll be up to you all to decide because the budget is coming out. and the people are going to be shocked to see what's coming up with this budget. I heard it this afternoon, some of it, and you know what? Your senior citizens can't keep playing around with you making all these errors. So it's high time you get on board, you start supporting things that are important to the seniors, too, of this city. 3,600 of them, plus not including your 50 and above, these are the ones that are going to be suffering. That's the generation. So we've got to wake up and realize what's going on around here. As far as your agendas being posted, take them down. They're so small you couldn't read them. If a fly was sitting up there, you wouldn't even know it. So take the agendas down. Number one, I think if you're going to advertise agendas like that, you need to do something about that too. Mr. Lightfoot, correct? Okay. Thank you so much.

Yes, ma'am. Harold, on that note, is there a way to increase or zoom in so that folks can have bigger text for the agenda on the screen, sir?

Just a second. We've got an idea.

You've got another. You've got someone that wants to speak.

Ma'am, come on up. Yeah, we're still in stormwater.

Good evening.

So ma'am, this isn't public commentary. This is just regarding stormwater, non-avalorum. That's coming. No, no, that's coming. That'll be during public commentary. Two items down the road.

Mayor. Ma'am.

Sir. Mr. Walker, come on up.

Good evening.

This is a subject that came up a long time ago. I'm going to try and make it as quick as I can to prevent you from stopping me. Lori, we go back way on this one.

This is regurgitation over and over and over again.

Jamie, started with you, too. You gave it to Santex. You had Santex there. You had the meetings with Santex. They were put in charge. I noticed on the charges and checks here, Santex, whoa, what are they doing? $13,000, $214,000. Are they still involved with stormwater? I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Is Santex still involved with stormwater? When it first started, people didn't know that on your water bill, you were getting charged for stormwater. It was very minimal, dollar a shot, dollar a shot, went up to two, went up to three. However, when it came time to come to this, they didn't know how much money they had. They didn't have any. They didn't know where it went. Lynn Heinzman asked me to take a look at stormwater. Where did the money go that was collected for 20 years by all the citizens of this town for stormwater? It went to the general fund. It went to the general fund. Where did it go after that? Where did most of the general fund go? It disappeared. This is ridiculous. You've got an answer here. You've got to address this. I just bought a vacant piece of land. I'm not going to be like this gentleman. I'm not going to pay nine times the value of what I purchased. Mayor, you've got it.

Yes, sir.

Run with it. You've already heard me commit to working on this. I did.

I'm waiting. Yes, sir. Thank you. Yes, sir. Mr. Schweitzer, come on up.

Good evening. Hi there. Good to see you guys. I was just going to say maybe and offer a different view. And I can't say what's fair, what isn't fair, how much what should cost. But I can say how stormwater has affected my neighborhood. And I've seen guys out there, the ditches around James E. Rogers Park are much broader and much deeper than they ever have been. And there was a guy out there just a couple of months ago, new hire out of Montana. And he was out there with the heavy equipment, digging everything out. And it looked fantastic. It looks fantastic. I mean, my neighborhood's benefiting from that. Also, that fill station on the north, the lift station over on Bell Circle, kind of like at the 10 o'clock there, if you're facing north, they've put drainage in there, like 18-inch pipes at least, that drain a huge area of that neighborhood that was flooded every time it rained. So... There are projects that are benefiting at least my neighborhood. I can't speak for other neighborhoods, but it's bone dry, and I'm appreciative of it. Where I grew up in Arizona, you don't get rain very much, but when you do, it rains a lot. And the rain comes and the rain goes, and I've seen that here. I don't see stagnant water sitting around for days on end, but I don't get out very much. So I see a benefit. I don't know that it's a fair deal, like people were promised one thing and something else happened, but I don't really give kudos to government that often, but it's worked for my neighborhood, so thank you.

Thank you, sir. Any other comments regarding stormwater tonight? Hearing none, we will, city manager, we will vote on this motion to open and motion to continue public hearing on resolution 2026-08-579.

Commissioner Tender?

Yes.

Commissioner Perno? Yes. Commissioner Peebles?

Yes. Commissioner Wark? Yes. Mayor Lowry?

Yes. Thank y'all for that. All right, we're down to the last two items. These will be the two that we added, so they will not be on the agenda screens. but it's number fourteen and number fifteen. So number fourteen is city clerk initial discussion and fifteen will be bidding process discussion as requested by Commissioner Tender. So fourteen city clerk discussion. So we had approximately seventy three percent of our fellow Lynn Haven voters that uh... voted approved the referendum item for the city clerk, number one. So we now have the ability to establish a city clerk. This was something that I campaigned on last year. I felt very strongly about it. If we had had this checks and balance in place pre-Michael, I honestly don't think we would have some of the problems that we have now organizationally and financially. Neither here nor there now. We're doing right moving forward from now. And to the citizens, whether you voted for it or whether you voted against it, I thank you for voting. And for the 73% of our fellow citizens that voted for it, I thank you. This gives us the chance now to bring in a very key and critical checks and balance. So now amongst the five of us, we need to figure out how we want to go about appointing a city clerk. who will report directly to this commission, just like the city manager and the city attorney. So I do not want to have a six-month hire process like we had with the city manager. And based on where everybody's thoughts are tonight, I'd really like to hear from everybody on where your thoughts are. We'll figure out how we move out from here. Do y'all want to do a... open application for two weeks, four weeks, internal only within full-time city employees now, because the intent was to not establish a new position, but take an incumbent position.

and adjust it modify it i think we need to define what we're going to how the structure we want that's what we got to do first and then we got to get the description down i understand you want this to happen trust me nobody wants us more than this guy because this guy advocated this for many years and it's finally happened so i'm ecstatic this is finally happening but we got to do this right and i think that's the first thing we need to do

Fair. And for the record, I gave you credit for this. You were a one-man marching band for a while pushing this, and you're the reason that we have this today. So I've publicly said that before, and we'll recognize you again for it now. That said, we were all on board with establishing it when we voted to put it on referendum, and I very much appreciate that. So now we need to figure out how we're going to do this.

Mayor, our recommendation would be the next meeting, September 8th, we have an agenda item for you all to discuss which type of clerk you are after, whether it's a treasury or a ministerial clerk. Once that is established by you all, then the next meeting we would hopefully have a job description for you, and then you would be able to make the decision on internal posting, external, hiring a headhunter, whatever you all wanted to do.

So... What are y'all's just general thoughts? I'm really curious. I'd like to hear from all four of y'all. What are your thoughts on kind of where you're standing right now?

I kind of like what Commissioner Wark said, like I said in the budget meeting, is yes, we need to figure out the type of clerk we want, like their role, and what the job description is. I like the idea of putting it on the agenda in terms of once we decide what route we want to go, then get the job description. I would ask that you would give us draft of the job description before the agenda comes out so that we can maybe do our inputs, whether that's through HR or whatever.

We can also provide for the next meeting a job description of both the treasury clerk and the ministerial clerk so you all can kind of make a decision based on the job description of what type of clerk you all want.

Right. I mean, I like that. And then we can, after that we can, we'll know what the descriptions are. We can talk about it publicly and make modifications as we see fit.

And to be clear, we do currently have a city clerk, and we have a clerk designate, or a deputy clerk, if you will. The city manager has been dual-hatted. That position has been dual-hatted for quite a while. This, when we appoint and hire a new city clerk, that will make a standalone position. So it sounds like we're all in kind of agreement here. that this is something we want to hire and move on sooner rather than later. But as General McQueen likes to say, let's not rush to failure here, right? Let's do it right the first time. So Commissioner Tender, you got any thoughts you want to add, ma'am?

I'd like to see it happen sooner than later. But I also agree that we need to lay out what we expect from this person. in the job description. I mean, we'll probably have to haggle that out, but I think it's time to move forward with it. I hate to think that it's going to take another month to decide before we can advertise it. That's a little overkill to me.

Well, hopefully we can nail this down at our next meeting fully. So if we can get the information from city manager on the two position descriptions that you're discussing, which is basically an administerial one and then a finance one. Let's look at them and we'll come together from there.

Mayor, if I may, I would suggest also maybe appointing an interim clerk while this process goes through and you can determine whether that's at the next meeting, a ministerial clerk. We already have a finance director for the city, right? So it may be somebody just to be in there because as soon as the charter is actually published, it says shall have a city clerk. So I have an interim in the meantime while this process goes through, maybe something to look into.

Hmm. Okay. Commissioner Perna, you got any thoughts, sir?

I'm agreeable to whatever the board decides.

Okay.

I know we discussed this before, but I'm still of the opinion that what we went over during one of our town halls of being a clerk slash treasurer and then those people moving over with the exception of the procurement manager being administratively under the city manager but operationally has to go through the clerk slash treasurer office. I don't know if all of you remember that.

I do, and I think that was the- I remember it, but I totally disagree with it. I don't think they should be the same position, treasurer and city clerk.

I'm the opposite. I think it's vital that the money part is separate from the city manager to create those checks and balances.

For sure, and we can still do that. And I may have to pull up the Charter Review Committee, Chairman, to keep me straight on the city charter, but you can have the city clerk who is the treasurer, right? As our charter's written now, as I understand it, the city manager, the finance director works for the city manager, and it specifically spells out the city manager will supervise the finance, unless the city clerk becomes If the finance director becomes the city clerk, you have a clerk treasurer, right? Otherwise, let's say you have an administerial clerk. You couldn't have a finance director, but you could potentially have a treasury person. You could still have a treasurer reporting to the clerk, but you couldn't have a finance director reporting to the clerk. It's a change in duty title, but at the end of the day, it's your city being countered. Did I get that right, Mr. Langford? Yeah, so that's in accordance with the city charter. Now, we can do the administerial or we can do the financial. Either way, I think, and Mr. Lightfoot has been in agreement with this, he would very much like to have someone else handle the finances so he can handle the operations. And this... This dual authentication actually helps him too. So it's good organizationally, but it's good for him as well. So it's not a takeaway per se. It is a built-in safety feature.

I think it's a good reorganization in order to protect the city and protect the money, which was extremely valuable, especially in the time of today. Yeah.

And you guys and ladies have already heard, we're $18.8 million in the hole, and that's some overspending, and it's also $4.9 million of theft a city manager went to jail for. And we're now paying those bills. We as the citizens, not just the commission, we as in everyone that lives in Lynn Haven are paying those bills. So this is something we want to get right, and we make sure history does not repeat itself here in Lynn Haven going forward, period, end of story. So let's look at the position descriptions. We'll come back, and I really look forward to our September 8th meeting, not for the stormwater discussion, though that is another lively topic we're going to have. We're going to have a couple of lively topics between that and the city clerk. It should be a fun meeting. And hopefully when we get done, we're all on the same sheet there. All right. So that wraps up, unless someone else has another discussion on the city clerk, that wraps up 14, that gets us to 15. So Commissioner Tender, you wanted to talk about bidding process discussion.

Yes. First of all, I want the public to know that years ago, when I first came on board, When we had a job that needed to be bidded out, no matter what it was, a road, whatever, they sent out the notices, and whoever wanted to bid on that job sent in their figure. They sent in what they could do and how much it would cost from their company. Then they set a date, and those people would show up. They all sat around the same table. They opened the bids, and the low bidder got the job. Unless there was something unforeseen back then there was one commissioner allowed to be in that room with the city manager and Then it kind of changed hands a little bit when a couple city managers ago would have the same Commissioner in that room and no other commissioners were allowed to go in and What I would like to propose for the sake of full transparency is I believe that when we have a project that needs to be bidded, they send in their bid and we open those bids right here during a commission meeting for full transparency of who is bidding the lowest bid. and do it that way so the public is always informed. Because right now, we don't know if we're accepting the lowest bid or not. We don't know. We don't know who they're related to, who they're friends with, or anything else. I'm not saying that's the case. I'm just saying that I think we've gotten away from the full transparency that needs to be out there. We kind of know what y'all are here for tonight, but if you're not interested in bidding or listening to who's bidding, you'll set that one out. I get that. And we can do it towards the end or whatever. But I would like to promote that and at least have a discussion about doing the bidding out in public for full transparency for them.

We do that already, don't we? Except not at a commission meeting.

So, yes, sir, and you all are provided a detailed bid tab that's witnessed, attested to, signed, sealed. You all get every bid that's received for any project. The bids are advertised publicly.

And they all show up and they open them right there with all the people. Yes, sir. But I don't understand why only one commissioner can be there. I would think all of us could be there if we wanted to.

That's a meeting, but more than one would be a meeting.

That's why it would happen. Well, I mean, we can't discuss it, right?

You're going to vote on it.

But we should all be able to attend if we wanted to.

There's some Sunshine Law aspects of that for public business like that. I mean, it'd have to be a meeting. It'd have to allow for public comment and everything else to be involved in all that.

So only one of us could attend then? Right.

Bids are open to the public, though. I mean, they're advertised. If we had a bid due today, it would have been due at 2 o'clock today in the conference room. Anyone that wants to witness it can come in and witness it. It's on the calendar.

Commissioner Tender, is your main point, you wanted to make sure not only the transparency piece, but the commission was involved, at least one member of the commission was involved?

I would like to see more than one member, but I also know pretty much the schedules of all five of us, and for one or, go ahead.

I was just going to say, I was all for any of us going if we wanted to, but if I understand the city attorney correctly, you can't have more than one because it's considered a Sunshine Law violation. Right.

It used to be Dan Russell. Dan Russell was the man to be there. He was the commissioner that was at every single bid opening. And I'm sorry, but to me, that's not transparent. All I'm offering or suggesting is that we become more transparent in front of the residents and not expect them to sit and read bids out and understand what in the heck they're talking about and all that. I remember a commission meeting, and I won't name names, but I can tell you, Margo stood up and the lowest bidder, she goes, hold on a minute, that's not the lowest bid. And sure enough, when she asked him more than once, he was not the lowest bidder. He was like $200,000 more. And she right then said, nope, we're shutting this down and we're going to have to re-bid and look at this again. Had she not caught it, nobody would have caught it and he would have walked away with a huge, huge job. I just, all I'm bringing it up for is that I feel the transparency is necessary. And if the residents, you know, don't seem to care about that, then I don't want to bark up the wrong tree, but I think it's important.

Pam, would you like for, because if this is important to you, it's going to be important to me. So if you feel like one of us commissioners need to be there with the city manager and all, as was done in the past, we can set up a rotating schedule. With our lean, mean budget we're going to be in, it's not like we're going to have a lot to begin with, but we could certainly do it.

And that's better than, that's certainly better than nothing. I mean, when you hold a bidding, you have it in an office back here,

It's in the conference room.

Okay. And how many people usually show up?

It really just depends. I mean, last time we had, I think, 11 bidders on the project.

Awesome.

But normally it's just the bidders that show up, right?

The bidders, the procurement manager, the appropriate department head is for it.

Right. And then there's a sheet they all get a...

Yes, sir. They all sign in. There's a sign-in sheet, and then there's a detailed bid tab. That detailed bid tab that's been signed and witnessed is always in your agenda packet, and all of the bids are available publicly.

Okay. Well, maybe we should send that out to the residents or publish it online.

It's online.

It's online. Yes, ma'am. I can go somewhere from our site. Yes, ma'am.

Yes, ma'am.

Now, if you want us there, one of us can be a fly on the wall, and whoever that commissioner is that attends that bidding can come back and report to the rest of us, hey, good to go. I recommend, you know, I can attest the lowest bidder was X.

That was one of the reasons, too, of hiring a procurement manager, to ensure that we had that transparency and that person that's dedicated to it. Mr. Bracey has done a great job.

Is he here tonight?

He is not.

One other thing for transparency, Commissioner Tender, we can do is we could actually have Mr. Bracey come and brief the commission, if you'd like, just a two or three minute, hey, commission for this bid, because normally city manager does it, but if you want to hear from the the guy in the trenches actually doing the work, he could come up and he could brief us and say, hey, you know, we had 11 bidders for this and here was the... All of those items are in the agenda packet.

Mr. Bracey does a detailed report. He typically does the car. He does a memo. He does a detailed bid tab. So there's nothing more to put in there.

And since we're going to be having a city clerk under the commission now, that could be one of their responsibilities is to attend those. to make sure everything's on the up and up.

That's true. That's another good point.

Yeah. I just think it needs to be more transparent, that's all. I just wanted to bring it up.

Transparency is never a bad thing in Lynn Haven in this day and age.

And then I have one more thing, but I'm going to wait for Kiki when she does her report.

Okay. Thank you. All right, so that brings us to the end of our normal business items with items number 14 and 15. We are now at the public commentary, so we can open that up. Ma'am, we already made you stop once. We'll let you come up, and we'll kick this off again, and we'll go from there. So good evening, ma'am.

Good evening. Can you hear me?

Yes, ma'am. You may have to adjust it a little bit.

Okay. My sinuses are messed up, so I'm sorry. My name's Ashley Russell, and I'm a resident of 37th Street that is being considered for a connection and a cut-through road to Hawks Landing. I bought my house about eight years ago, and it was a quiet, dead-end street, and that's a reason that a lot of us like it there. And we're actually going to add on to our house soon. About a week ago, we learned that plants had been in the works for months that could change our neighborhood, obviously. and bring hundreds or thousands of additional vehicles past our homes each day. We were not notified of these plans until we saw a random Facebook post about it. And I've notified my neighbors this week, and we all obviously have concerns. I just wanted to list a few of those concerns tonight. So the first is safety and quality of life. We have lots of kids that like to play in the street, elderly residents that like to walk up and down the roads for exercise, things like that. And we don't have sidewalks. So obviously, we won't be able to do that anymore if that's a cut-through road. Also, we have a concern about traffic. That's going to become part of the Bay Haven loop for drop-off and pick-up, I assume. So we're worried about that being obviously well-traveled with Bay Haven residents and Hawks Laney residents as well. And so we wanted to present to you, does that solve a traffic problem or does it create more problems? So another concern we have is drainage. Obviously we've talked a lot about that tonight, but several of my neighbors have said they have houses that flood, sorry, yards that flood during bad storms and that could come into their homes. So that's something to consider. And we're also concerned about our homes and our investments. We've all bought our homes and thought that things wouldn't change on our road, obviously, and we have concerns that that would affect our property values and make homes less desirable to potential buyers. So this has been described as a win-win for everyone, but I wanted to ask where is the win for the families who live on our street, and just for you to consider that in your decision-making, please. Okay.

if i ask one question yeah um so i know there was a piece of land that was donated to us that we accepted but two weeks ago right and i don't remember plan coming forth for the 37th street so i'm just wondering how that came about

Okay, I saw a Facebook post about a road being considered being built there, and so we just had concerns, obviously, about that. I know it hasn't come forward to you guys yet, but I think that's in the works.

Okay.

Yes.

Thank you. So, ma'am, just so you know, I live in Hawks Landing. I live back in the neighborhood you're talking about, and we had a very generous donation to help with traffic, but we literally accepted it at our last meeting.

Okay.

This hasn't been in works for months. We literally accepted it. We're just now having initial conversations, and we haven't even gotten into the school traffic, all of that yet. It's a discussion. It's now an option for us to figure out a better way. Right there with Mosley High School intersection, 389 Mosley and Bayhaven. That is an absolutely horrendous gridlock, and it's been horrible, bless you, since Hurricane Michael. Prior to that, more than 70% of Bay Haven students were bused in. Now, 90% are driven in by parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, whoever, right? We have a massive, for about four hours a day, we have a massive gridlock there. And we've lost three homes, one last week sadly, and a fourth one burned down to the studs. When we have medical emergencies or fires during those school gridlock periods, it's a huge, huge safety thing. So we are very much trying to figure out how can we get a better flow, how can first responders get into the neighborhood. And by the way, we've lost two homes ago. It happened during the school gridlock. It took over 25 minutes for the fire department to get into the neighborhood, past all the school, because the school locked down the gym and the kids weren't allowed to go out. So the parents and grandparents were just stuck in traffic. By the time they got in, that entire home was burned to the ground. It was four doors down from me and I watched it and was there with the family. It was heartbreaking. So we're trying to figure out a better way for the public safety thing. There's an old saying in the military, you never want to spook the herd. Well, somebody spooked the herd here, per se. We just got this. There's not even a formal drawing board yet. There's an option for long-term, but there's no traffic solution locked and loaded yet. There are discussions going on, and when those discussions, when we get some plan on the board, it will be incumbent upon us as the city to notify the residents, hey, here's what we're looking at, and have a public discussion like this. and do that. Unfortunately, y'all got upset very needlessly, and I'm sorry about that.

Okay. I was just going to say, I'm sorry. Go ahead. I forgot what I was going to say anyways.

May I say something, sir? I noticed last week one of your residents out there sent me an ad, if you will, off Facebook from the school. And it said in that ad that our Lynnhaven Police Department would be out there to direct traffic and everything after school. Well, I checked into that immediately. The ad was written by somebody who obviously had no authority to write it because it wasn't true. They'd never, I mean, they hadn't called us or anything. And there are other reasons why at that particular entrance that we have now, this person was stuck for 15 minutes blocking 359 or whatever. 389. 389. That article was written by a secretary or somebody, and our police department knew nothing about it. So I know that our chief of police did call the school and talk to them about that. And I just wanted to say that in case you're spooked because you saw that, or whatever, because it's been an ongoing problem, but like the Mayor says, we haven't begun to do anything yet, as far as, we want to make it convenient for everyone, we want to make your neighborhoods safe, obviously. And you have a huge HOA, I think, that probably does a lot of different things, and

I think we just wanted to bring our concerns before it got to be too far along, those kind of things. So that's why we're here tonight. Yes, ma'am. It may be ahead of time, but I just didn't want things to get too far along before we considered that option.

Well, I'm sorry you all got spooked that way. I mean, social media is really good at getting information out, but it also gets misinformation out as well. And this land, literally two weeks ago tonight, we accepted the donation of the land. So now we have an option to figure out a good way to make a better traffic solution. And who that is, it certainly will be used by first responders whenever we get there, right? That's the most important thing. But can it relieve school traffic? For a couple of years I actually worked with St. Joe and St. Joe was willing to donate land on the south side of Bay Haven going down 389 towards 231. But it was wetlands so they decided they did not want to touch that because there's all kinds of different state requirements to build on that. So this has been a work in progress for many years. But rest assured, we'll do our due diligence. And once a plan is developed, you citizens will be given ample opportunity to be brief and know about it and have your inputs and have your say as well.

Yes, sir. Thank you.

Came up here longer than you expected, huh?

Mr. Scray and then the gentleman right back there. Good evening. Is this two or three now? Three, right? I don't know.

I don't keep track. So I know what you mean about social media putting stuff out. I just talked about a stormwater, right? Tons of people making posts, having to try to explain stuff. Right. Luckily, I can say that nobody posted about that in Lynnhaven Neighbors, so I'm off the hook for that one. I know the post she's talking about, though. I've seen a couple posts, actually. A few people did reach out, and I said, you know, I looked at that area where they said they live. A lot of those properties are county. They're not even city on the 37th there. So there's a little bit of a communication gap there. Some of the folks didn't even realize that they're, you know, not subject to the city commission or the city commission is not subject to them. But I suggested the three that reached out, I was like, hey, you probably just go talk to the commission because they're going to know what the plans are better than anybody online is going to. I knew you guys acquired the property and hadn't seen anything yet. So that aside, Definitely going to want to workshop that one. As far as the parking thing goes, Commissioner Peebles, I know what you're talking about there down at the end of Carolina. They drive off the road and tearing up the road. Some of us parents that have Mowat students, we park over off Alabama behind James' shop along Alabama. The thing is, is if you got a kid at Moet, there's really not a good way to get them, especially if you live over in our neighborhood, because what do we not have that a lot of neighborhoods have? A safe place for the kids to walk home, right? No sidewalks over by us. So if the city is going to put parking sign or no parking signs up and enforce, you know, these parking zones, I think we're getting ahead of ourselves. Basically, what you're saying is, yeah, we know there's a problem because you don't want to sit out on 390 and get wrecked. waiting for your kid or get stuck trying to come down Mullet School Road or have your kid walk down a road with no sidewalks. But instead of actually trying to fix the problem, we're just gonna tell you, you can't park there. Like that's like the biggest, I've seen, um, I know that's not your guys's intention. So what I would expect is if you're gonna put up no parking signs is that you're working with within the city and with the county and the school district, or whoever to number 1, find ways to remedy this traffic issue at Mo as well. Um. number two finding ways to have parking spaces for those that want to pick up their kids via their car and not go through the car loop that backs out on the 390 and becomes unsafe find solutions rather than just throwing up a sign saying screw you you can't park here the last thing I want to say is that Damn, I actually forgot. Lucky you guys, you get 17 seconds back. I'll just email you about it. Thank you.

No worries. Thank you, Mr. Scray. This gentleman here coming up, then Mr. Schweitzer, and then you, Ms. Stewart?

Mayor, there's the guy in the red.

Well, I'm here to discuss the 37th Street as well.

Yes, sir. I didn't care for the herd comment.

You know, that's not the scenario at all. And I felt like that was a bully proposition of you to discuss about, you know, losing homes and things like that. When each individual purchased their home in Hawks Landing, they were aware of the egress point. So 37th Street has been there much longer than Hawks Landing, longer than the school. It's a dead-end road. That's the reason why myself and our neighbors purchase homes there because our children are safe to walk on the road to enjoy themselves in the street and not have to worry about through traffic. So what I'd like to say is 37th Street is a dead-end residential street. I'm sorry, dead end residential street unless until the city demonstrates that opening it through traffic is necessary and is the least disruptive reasonable solution. Our street is an established residential dead end, opening it would permanently change the function of our street and potentially introduce substantial subdivision in school related traffic. This is not simply a request from residents who do not want more cars. We're asking for an appropriate solution. So in my mind, having a piece of land donated to you And already discussing, which I believe that you may have posted, that it's a potential for that to be a drive, a cut-through. Was that your post?

I did post that it was donated, yes.

So that is an implication that's what 37th Street would become. And... It's just bewildering, it's just confusing in a sense to me that there's not other opportunity further up 389, especially towards rails to trails. And I appreciate your talk on code and transparency and things like that because this doesn't feel very transparent. You live in Hawks Landing yourself. I don't think you would be an advocate for it if you lived on 37th Street. So, you know, that's just one of the things that I wanted to say here. And, you know, the issue is not whether East 37th Street can physically be connected. The issue is whether opening it to unrestricted through traffic is the safest, most reasonable and least disruptive solution available. So that's where I'm at.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

All right. Sir, come on up. And then Mr. Schweitzer, Ms. Stewart, and Ms. Moore. Good evening, sir.

Good evening. Mr. Leif, I sent you a few. Harold. Okay. If you could go to map two. Okay.

Yes, sir.

I don't know if you guys can see it or not. We can. OK. All right. All right. My name is John Pauga. I live on East 37th Street. I'm also here regarding the issue at hand with the proposed access road. I know a few things about traffic, and I think it's a terrible idea. You're not gonna gain a thing by trying to use 37th Street as an access road. 37th Street, if you go to the next one mapped, the next one in the procession, East 37th Street, the exit onto East Avenue is less than 300 feet from the entrance to Hawks Landing. We are smack in the middle of that entire traffic jam. We have to deal with the traffic jam just as much as anybody from Hawks Landing does, and anybody who has to deliver and pick up their kids from the school. We have as much problem almost as the people who live in Hogs Landing. You put an access road there, everybody's just going to be stuck on 37th Street trying to get out. I mean, it's folly to think that this is going to accomplish anything. You're taking a hard bypass and taking the graft, and you're putting it on one side of the blockage, but then you put the other end right back right into that same blockage. It accomplishes nothing, OK? The key here is to get the traffic away from East Avenue. East Avenue is the problem. You have to go in the opposite direction away. You have to figure out something, in my opinion, just if you go back to the first map again, please, Yes, that one. If you look on there, Hawks Landing in the upper, it's kind of hard to see on this one, but in the northeast section of Hawks Landing, there's Red Tail, which is very close to Ormont Avenue. which has multiple ingress and egress north and south. And going south, it'll take it to 231, which will more than account to any traffic problems that you're having over there. People who need to get out from the school, they can go that way. People who live in Hawks Landing, instead of going toward the school toward where all the traffic is, they can go in the other direction toward Ormond and out onto 231. They'll avoid the traffic entirely right there. It'll completely remove all of the traffic problems that you're having in that area. But to think that 37th Street, you get a donated piece of land, A to B, the shortest distance, that's not going to do anything. It's still going to be the exact same traffic jam, and you're just going to add to it. And the residents that live there who are expecting to have easy running, then from then on, they're not going to get it.

Thank you, sir.

I have a question.

Go ahead. Or a statement. I just want to say, you're a very articulate speaker. Thank you. Are you from here? Have you lived here a long time? Originally?

I'm from Chicago originally, yeah.

There you go. I knew it. Thank you. Okay.

All right. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Switzer, welcome back.

I just wanted to say thank you. There's been a lot of work done over at James E. Rogers Park. The poles were taken down. I can actually say that there were a couple security cameras in Lynnhaven that were taken down. I don't think they've been connected for a long time, but I do appreciate that. It's not great, but it's good, so I'll take that. I wanted to let the community know that for those who want to vote no on Amendment 3, there's a form that you can fill out at the Department of Revenue. It's Form SR500AR, Removal of Homestead Exemption. So if you want to continue to fund big government, you can do it. Even if the vote is a yes and everybody else is enjoying a few hundred bucks extra a month, keep paying. I encourage you to keep paying. Lastly, regarding flock. I asked for the automated audit that Flock has done. As we know, Flock has turned into a huge problem for law enforcement. There was one law enforcement, a part-time dispatcher who searched Flock over two years, 20,000 times. I asked... If we are using, as a result of law enforcement totally blundering Flock nationwide, Flock has implemented an automatic audit to stop this madness of cops watching women and tracking everybody And nobody knowing. The cops are saying, hey, we don't know until someone actually complains. It's like, how do they know to complain? They don't know that they're being tracked by these law enforcement officials or I asked for a copy of the audit and I got three months of data without any audit. I want the audit and I want more than that, I want you guys to make this public. If there was an audit that was done, a flock audit, not a city of Lynn Haven audit, I wanna see it. Everybody else is saying, oh yeah, we're running this audit. And apparently we've ran an audit, this flock audit. And if we've done that, I want to know the results historically. I don't want to know for three months. I want to know if anybody abused it. If they didn't, fantastic. I will almost think about trusting this thing. Now, they also decreased from 30 days to seven-day retention policy. I want that. I don't want 30-day retention. Flock is asking police, recommending seven days. Also, tonight, the Walton County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to ban Flock cameras from all county right-of-ways. That's where we're going, and if you support this, you're on the wrong side, and you're not going to get re-elected. Thank you, sir. Ms. Stewart, come on down.

Good evening.

Hi. Excuse me. My name is Courtney Stewart, and I am here to just give the other side of the 37th argument, I say, or not argument, discussion, because we're not to the point we're arguing. But I also am a resident of Hawks Landing. I would like to refute some of the statements with them saying that their traffic is as bad as ours because they can still get to their houses. So that's a little different. So that being said, I was one of the people who sent to Judy the other day the picture stating that Lynn Haven Police were going to be on scene actually enforcing the thruway. into our neighborhood. A few of the things, I think one thing that would really benefit all of us, and I don't want to be rude, I don't want to be arrogant, I want to come at this with the most humble view possible. I would love for Bay Haven to actually, number one, be held accountable. Number two, be a part of fixing this problem. I feel like we've had multiple residents call them and ask them, like, hey, can we get together? Can we talk about, like, what our options are? Can we do anything? And we've literally been told by their secretary, we were here first. It's your problem, not ours. I'm sorry, but that's not a great answer. I love, I say I love, I'm open to the idea of the 37th Street option, but all of this to say, I would really love to see them held accountable. I asked a few months ago in an email to all of you, who gave them permission to, or if they were given permission, to draw yellow dotted lines on our thruway indicating that there was a second entrance, that our thruway actually was a second entrance to their school. And nobody was aware that they even did it. They just apparently did it. My other question was, okay, was the city of Lynnhaven actually supposed to be there to... enforce the thruway. I know we're really tight on enforcement and on officers. But again, this comes to security. If that fire a few days ago would have happened two hours earlier, it would have been literally rubble. I saw they actually got boxes of documents out of their house from this fire. That's a blessing. If it would have been two hours earlier, they would have gotten nothing. All of this to say, what can we do to actually work with Behavin instead of the CEO just saying, I'm sorry, that's not our problem. We're doing the best we can, blah, blah, blah. Let's all come together and actually figure something out because they're kind of like, that's y'all's problem, not ours. We were here first. You knew this when you moved in. To answer that question, no, I did not know this when I moved in. When I viewed the house, it was 10 a.m. Nobody told me that I was going to be stuck out of my neighborhood with a newborn screaming its head off with an ear infection trying to get home. And the doctor can only get you in at 1 o'clock. So all of that being said, there's a lot more to this. A workshop would be great.

Thank you, ma'am. Ms. Moore. Good evening. Good evening.

Judy, I'm going to let that Chicago comment slide. Speaking as a hometown girl, I think I'm articulate with my southern accent. And my husband from Boston really isn't, so anyway.

The restaurants in Chicago. I win all the arguments in our house.

I just had a couple of comments on some things. I was home with my shoes kicked off and cooking dinner for said husband and listening. I wasn't planning on coming up here tonight, and then I heard that this was—and it was chicken, too, Judy— Then I heard that there was going to be discussion about the city clerk on the agenda, so I would really just like to ask, I mean, I appreciate that you don't want to wait forever and maybe wait two weeks, but I really wish the, unless it's something that's very important that has to be addressed immediately, that y'all really don't add things to the agenda because like that, there are important things, and I've said this before, if it was something that I had known was gonna be on the agenda tonight, I would have rearranged my plans a little bit. So I understand that some last minute things are gonna come up, but the election results were in last Tuesday. I don't know why that couldn't have been added to the agenda for discussion tonight. Even though I know you didn't vote on it and weren't planning on it, it was discussion. I wanted to be here in case there was a motion. I thought that that was important. So just in the future, I mean, I think the public really needs to know. And I'm sorry, I know y'all have been fussed out a lot tonight, and I didn't want to come up here and fuss at you, but that's just something I think is important. As far as the stormwater discussion, Just to give y'all a little bit of grace, I know stormwater's important, and I've been at those discussions that you all have had, but the commission's been dealing with a whole lot the last year, so unfortunately I think stormwater got to the back burner. So hopefully you guys will be able to move forward and come up with some solutions. I agree with these people. If I had a lot in the city, It had trees on it, and I wasn't contributing to the stormwater issue. I'd be upset about paying the same as somebody with a big concrete pad on their property. As far as the cut-through road, I totally get what both sides are saying. I think safety is so important, and this is something that has needed a solution for a long time. I live on kind of a side road, and it's a quiet road. I would be very upset at the idea of a cut-through coming near my house, so I totally get that. But then again, you have the issues with safety and fire, and that is so terrible that a house just burned down because EMS couldn't get through there. If there is a cut-through road in this section, like I said, I get it with those people. I've got a friend that lives over there. I think it would probably only be an issue with a lot of traffic coming there a few times a day because you're talking about when school's in session. So it wouldn't be like a constant flow of traffic all the time. And also, before I leave here, I don't know if he's willing to speak, but James is the one who, James Finch, donated that property, and he builds roads, federal roads, so I don't know if he has a comment to make about the road and how that process would work.

Thanks.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you. All right, who was next? Mr. Beshear? And then Mr. Langford?

Couple of things. It wouldn't help Hawks Landing any, but when you get to the point for the workshop, you might consider a gate for just emergency vehicles through there. If it's a safety issue, it wouldn't help with traffic for getting in and out for Hawks Landing, but it would get your emergency vehicles there sooner, maybe. The rest of these are probably for Chris. There was a sewer main break by the First Presbyterian Church. that I think ended with backup into that church. Was that solved or fixed or?

Yes, sir. It was part of the 10th Street CDBG project.

Okay. It's been addressed then. Okay. Has anybody approached the city about annexation in from these enclaves where we've waived the annexation fee?

Staff has been working on sending a campaign out. Okay.

So it's not yet. Not yet. Okay. Okay. The paving project that you approved tonight, is that paid from streets or paid from Surtax? Surtax. You realize that you signed a contract with Mr. Finch.

This was done prior to that, and the city has the discretion on the project, so.

Okay, just want to make sure that we're doing what we need to do there. The last thing is, if you do consider a temporary or interim city clerk position, You may want to consider someone outside of the current city structure because it will be a conflict and I can see where that, if I was working for the city manager right now and you assigned me as the interim city clerk, I would be hesitant to go forward with stuff if I'm going to have to report back to him again. I'm not saying there's anything there. It's just I can see issues there. Just consider that going forward. Thank you. Yes, sir.

Thank you. Mr. Langford.

Good evening. Good evening. I was going to get another three minutes' worth of stormwater talking here. Mr. Krebs, if you want to get with me after the meeting, I'll be happy to give you some more information on the stormwater. We are definitely 100 percent paying for the runoff from private properties, not from public streets. um to answer mr scray's question what is the cost to fix quote unquote fix storm water in lynnhaven right i've been asking that question for years and thankfully city manager lightfoot took the time and effort to sit down and put all these numbers together for me and i added them up had to take my boots and socks off to do it but it's 30 million 625 thousand dollars That's what we got left on the projects, just as of today. And that's in engineering and design, et cetera, to obviously the construction of the projects to finish. So $30,625,000. Out of our stormwater assessment that we pay right now, there's about $100,000 left over that's not being spent on maintenance and maintenance Supplies so if we look at if we put a hundred thousand dollars a year How long will it take us to pay thirty million six hundred and twenty five thousand dollars I? Think it's three hundred something years That's what we're up against so when I say this thing screwed up six ways from Sunday Stand tech should have been fired years ago all right I think when it started, I think, if I remember right, Commissioner Warwick, you can correct me if I'm wrong, the quote-unquote list of things to do equaled about $1.7 million was the capital improvement projects that we said, hey, this is what we need to do in Lynn Haven to quote-unquote fix the stormwater. All right, we went from $1.7 million when this thing was born to $30,625,000. I know inflation's bad, but I didn't know it was that bad. So I'll be happy to get with you and give you the down and dirty. Here's a sneak peek. When this thing first rolled out, they said vacant lots that had no impervious surfaces was exempt. You didn't even have to pay. You know who brought that up? Me. I voted on it about three or four years before I said, hey, man, y'all... Y'all been charging me here, and it says I'm exempt. What are y'all doing? They said, oh, man, good catch. And the previous attorney, oh, that was a Scribner's error. We got to change that. Well, it wasn't a Scribner's error. That was a darn policy change is what it was. But anyway, got some work to do, and I just wanted to give those numbers out to everybody. And I'm not as articulate as the gentleman from Chicago. I apologize. Thank you.

For the record, Mr. Langford, you may be from northern Mississippi, but I think you're pretty darn articulate, sir. Come on up, sir.

My name is Buddy Pepin. I live on 390. Listen, I want to talk about the low bid and extensions. Because right now, every time we have a low bid, like you say, you know, it's the lowest bid, so we take it. But then they add extensions onto it, and then the guy comes back and makes more money than the original guy who bid on it. So is there a way to put it in our program to look at this differently?

I'm serious. Yes, sir. When we bring projects to the commission, we typically put a contingency line item that they're approving not to exceed. The procurement policy prior to December of 2025 allowed for a 10% discretion in change orders. That was stricken from the new policy, so every change order has to be approved publicly by the commission.

Okay. Yeah, because I worked at the FEMA project in Mississippi, and I was Coast Guard. They gave me $266 million for 17 projects. I spent $67 million and gave them back to RISC, which went to Louisiana, which burned out in a week. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. And thank you for your service from one veteran to another. Thank you, sir. Ma'am, come on up. Good evening.

So I was listening to Florida Voice and Governor Ron DeSantis was speaking on this, the homeowners exemption and getting away with homeowners. And y'all can go back and listen to it, but he said that they have $2 billion, $1 million or whatever in the Rainy Day Fund. They have got so much money in the Rainy Day Fund that they cannot put any more money in it. And with doing away with homeowners, that they're going to be able to take that money and help the rural counties. And that there should be nobody, no county, that increases taxes, period, because there's enough money to fund it. So if y'all could look into that and then give a report back, because that would be very helpful.

If there's a magic pot of money for Amendment 3, if it passes, I'd sure love to know about it.

Well, I'm just telling you that's what he said. So there's just, we don't need to sit around and wait and then get charged more taxes. And there was money there because somebody didn't care to look. Again, it's transparency, and I like that. But, you know, getting back to transparency, it's not just the flock cameras. Flock cameras are a distraction. It's... surveillance state. Axon cameras are going in and they're tired to palantir and it's not a clean thing. Just then you know transparency like cameras where we can see our our city government and I don't know do we have any city vehicles or anything or that we that people that we pay and employ and they drive vehicles or they get a monthly allowance do we track those vehicles too to make sure that that's we're getting our money? or value for what's going on?

For city vehicles, don't we have... All of our city vehicles have GPSs in them.

Oh, okay. So we do track the vehicles. So, I mean, they're used appropriately, correct? I'm a penny pincher. I make Abe Lincoln cry.

That's all right. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Hey, Ms. Day. Harold, do you want to grab her? Yep, Gina's going to help. Thank you, Gina. We got a microphone coming, Ms. Day.

Yes, thank you so much for your time. I really have a couple of issues that I would like to talk about, as I always do, and I would appreciate you commissioners trying to listen to it if you possibly could. Number one, I certainly hope you check the liability issue on the vehicle that is City Manager's vehicle that we pay for by the month. I hope you have done your homework on that. And also, too, the sign. I assume that he doesn't like signs. He doesn't like videos. I don't know what he likes, too, except a big paycheck every year. So, therefore, we're going to have to analyze it. We've got to work it. Because it's wrong what is going on in this city. Check qualifications before you hire someone. Check the finance credentials. Let's check it all. Let's make sure it's correct before we start sticking all this extra cost on the citizens. The stormwater's got to go. Stantec's got to go. I've already told you that several months ago. There happens to be like the civic clerk that you just decided to vote for. You thought it was good because the city manager recommended it. Okay, it might be good for some, but it's not good for your seniors that cannot afford to have... these cell phones that they can talk on. Matter of fact, you need to be accommodating the guy that was here that couldn't hear. I don't see any of that going on for him to read. So let's take care of that too. Let's increase it and make sure we have agendas back here that you can hand out to the people. That's wrong, what you have allowed the city manager to do. And it's time you take inventory, do your check-off list, and take care of it. It's getting tiresome to have to tell you about this all the time. There's going to be more coming up, I'm sure, by the next time we get ready to vote for this big budget that you're supposed to be cutting, but you're not going to be cutting anything. You're letting her sit there and add all this extra stuff to us. Let's stop it. Let's don't scam a picture here. Let's tell the truth about the budget. What's going on? It's the big salaries that you allowed people that were not qualified to fill them. That's the whole problem. So let's go back and check that part out today. And that civic clerk, please take inventory. Cost $10,000. Can we go back to YouTube and allow that for the people that cannot afford your equipment that you have set it up to be? Let's go back. Thank you, ma'am. Connecting up to YouTube is free. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

As a general, when your timer goes off, I'll give you a courtesy five seconds to wrap up and stop. Just please don't go over that. I don't want to have to talk over you and tell you to stop. I want to be courteous. But there's a balance there. And Ms. Day, I appreciate you, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. No, ma'am. You're fine. That wasn't directed at you. That was a general administration of the chair. We got another. Sir, come on up. I recognize you. You're one of our new Lynnhaven residents. Welcome.

Hello, Seth Howard. I live on Cali Court. Today I'll be discussing more of my... Interpretation of modern portfolio theory. We're paying our electric bill to FPL, which takes our money and gives it to NextEra Energy on September 15th of this year. NextEra Energy is going to pay out $0.62 in dividends to anybody that is a shareholder. To give you some perspective, one share of NextEra Energy, which is who we're paying our electric bill to, has gone up $3.29 per share. If just one citizen in Lynn Haven was to buy just one share, which is $84 per share, so pretty affordable, that $3 increase in share value would have been a $72,000 increase in value right to the citizens. If you were to take the dividends that would have been paid, it would have been $54,000 paid back for a total of $126,000. and value given back to the citizens with just one share per citizen, $126,000 this year, one share per citizen. Every time I come to these meetings, it's going to be about the same thing. My mission statement, we the people must become the majority shareholders of the publicly traded corporations we are paying our bills to so we have access to shareholder value, collect dividends back, and cast shareholder votes. So we're not only talking about wealth equality, we're talking about power equality. I'm sure we all know that the vote is what this whole nation is based on. We have 100 billion missing shareholder votes that we the people aren't casting. I really hope that we talk about transparency. There's nothing more transparent than a stock, every number, is publicly available, what it's paying, what it costs, decrease in value, increase in value. I really hope that the leadership of this city, which, man, do I love living here. I live in three different states. I'm involved with three different mayors, three different police chiefs, three different councils, three different states, and I travel all nationwide talking about this, whether it's PP&L Energy out of Pennsylvania, AES Energy out of Ohio. I could go on and on. Duke Dominion. Walmart shares have taken a big crash lately. I guarantee you Walmart's not going anywhere. I've seen this over the last 20 years. Kroger has taken a big crash. Kroger isn't going anywhere. I really hope that the leadership makes some type of communicate to the people about investing in the corporations we're paying our bills to, especially FPL slash NextEra Energy. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. And welcome to Lynn Haven again. Mr. Finch, come on up. Good evening, sir.

How you doing, James Finch? I donated land over there for that, and I think I did it for safety. I damn sure didn't want to piss anybody off about it. But I can tell you, I've got the biggest problem at Mowat Junior High that there's ever been. I had 78 cars in my lot yesterday. And ain't nothing I can do about it. You know, they built a school right there, you know, and they line up every morning and every day. And I got with them. I said, if you can go down to the pedestrian bridge and let some of the kids off, they could walk across that bridge and be at school with no problem. And I got to looking at what I could do about it, and there's nothing I could do about it down there but live with it. I can't have the people towed or whatever. But the mothers and daddies will come out there, mothers mainly, bringing their kid to school. They'll get in line, and they'll go two mile an hour or two car lengths every minute and a half, you know, from – Three quarters of a mile. And then they will not let that kid get out and walk 100 feet. If you did, it would save everybody 20 minutes. You know, it's just one after another. In the basketball court, maybe after it's all over, they can take it down. But there's nothing I can do about that. And I can live with it and don't have to live with it. But I bought that over there because of the safety problem at Hawks Landing. And I live with this stuff about 20, 30 minutes a day in the morning and in the afternoon. At Hawks Landing, I don't believe it would be near that much because they have an opportunity to get some speed up and let them off and go around and leave. You can't leave and mow it. But the women will not let the kid out, walk from here across the street and save 10 minutes. They just go up there and let them off right at the door. Just line up and let them off. They will come, get in line. 45 minutes before school gets out, parts all over my property. But I'm not going to run them off or whatever. I'm not doing that. But I hope it works out over there for everybody. And if it doesn't, that's fine too. But my intention was to help. Yes, sir. And so maybe it can work out. And I had the same problem on the triangle piece at the bridge down here. I own that piece of property. So all of them at the boats come park their boats there. I didn't have any of them towed. I was going to give the city the property, and I says, where the city's been to me, hell, I'm not going to give them anything. So I give it to the... Ark of the Bay. Ark of the Bay. And I said, hopefully the Ark of the Bay could trade it for the city, and they'd get free water and sewer, and y'all can get a free parking lot up there. You over there at Ark of the Bay, and I brought that up to them. I said, you know, I'll give it to them. I said, maybe y'all can work it out with the city. They could overflow the parking lot with boats and trailer and all. Y'all can give them free water and sewer and garbage over there and trade it out. Hopefully y'all can do that.

Thank you, sir. Any other general commentary tonight? If not, y'all have been a real good crowd. I appreciate your efforts with that. We'll move on then with our reports. I don't have much in terms of a mayor's report other than thank y'all for working with us on the budget. We're still going through that. We will be tackling stormwater as well. If there's anything else that is on your minds, please reach out to the five of us and let us know. We're all here for you, and we're trying to do right by the city and the taxpayers with this annual budget and start knocking down this debt. The next six years are going to be pretty lean. I call it beanie weenies and ramen noodle kind of budget. That's really kind of where we're at right now. But we are going to do what we need to do. We're going to get this city debt free and hopefully be able to move forward from there. So y'all bear with us, and we'll do the very best we can with what we've got. With that, we're going to start off with the commissioner reports. I almost always start off with Commissioner Perno. So tonight I'm going to do something completely different and start with Commissioner Tender. And we'll work our way this way to the left. So ma'am, the floor is yours.

Well, I made a few notes. I've gotten a number of calls on people with their ideas on how the city should save on the budget. Some of them are so unique. So I just have to share. Yesterday was my first time, since I've been here, to go across the hall. Never been across the hall. Have no need to go over there. So we're walking down these hallways in and out, and I'm looking, and there's not a soul to be seen. They're empty offices. And one of the people I was with said, by God, they should lease these offices out. And I go, you know what? There are no people in them. You're right. We could make some serious money. Anyway, that was one of the ideas. And I thought, well, that's pretty ingenious that you could do. Then I got an email and somebody said, take that $400,000 kitchen upstairs, turn it into a restaurant, and feed the people that work there. That's a good idea, too. I mean, there's just all kinds of ways to make money off the Taj Mahal. And I think we really need to Again, I'm like Ms. Smith. I look at the pennies first and then go from there. But I really think, I mean, I'm serious about leasing out the office space here. There's tons of it. And I just barely went in there. So I would love to, well, no, I'm not going to say I'd love to walk the whole thing. But there are ways that we could make some money and, you know, I just like the idea. And then I just need Kiki. I'm waiting for her report because I have a couple things on hers. And by the way, when I was suggesting have the bidding here and all of that, You all realize, and I've been very open about this, I'm not a panhandle engineering fan, but I don't understand why we pay him thousands of dollars to get our bids, and he opens the envelopes. Go ahead.

So just like today, we had a pre-bid for the Wyoming Avenue Drainage Project. Dewberry Engineers was the designer on that. They will open those bids. If it's designed by Panhandle, they'll open it. The Ford Ohio Avenue project was by Ford Architects. They opened the bids. and Mr. Bracey's in there, but that's typically what happens. I mean, you go to any municipality and that's how it operates. The design engineer is paid for the bid services, they handle the pre-bid meetings, and they handle the bid opening and the bid advertisements.

Wow. Well, I know that years ago they didn't, they were not here. Lightfoot was, or Lightfoot, Mr. Foreham was not here opening bids. We did it, our city managers, the ones that sat there and opened the bids. Anyway, that's me there, and I'll have my question for you when you're up. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

Commissioner Ward.

I don't have anything. I just appreciate everyone coming out, providing your inputs. Thank you.

Commissioner Peebles. I just want to say thanks to everyone that's brought their ideas for the budget. Special shout out to staff and the Finance Review Committee for all the time and effort they've put into this. All the input from the citizens, the Finance Review Committee staff has been invaluable. It's been a really tough budget season, so I just wanted to personally say thank you for the emails from citizens, from the board meetings, from the Finance Review Committee and staff working on it. uh commissioner perno and i have a tpo meeting tomorrow so hopefully we have some updates from that at our next meeting and um just want to say thanks like commissioner warwick said thanks for everyone that came out it's great to see all your faces and hope to see you next time thanks thank you sir and last but certainly not least commissioner perno

Thank you, Mayor. Just a thank you and appreciation to everybody who took the time to be here tonight and all of our employees that come to the meetings and all of our employees in general and our first responders. TPO meeting tomorrow, as Commissioner Peebles said. I also will be chairing the St. Andrews Bay, St. Joe Bay Estuary Program Policy Board meeting at 1 o'clock tomorrow at the Dean's Conference Room at Florida State University. The only thing that I've got that I did not, well, there's one thing I'll mention, the city manager, there was an employee issue, but there was a gentleman named Mark Bailey, who I know personally, and he's he's kin to the people that the Bailey Bridge is named after. And he says that there used to be a sign at the Bailey Bridge, and the walking bridge is still the Bailey Bridge, and he said there used to be a sign right there. And I've asked about it once before at a previous meeting, previous city manager. So he was wondering, where is the sign that says Bailey Bridge over there? Wasn't there a sign? I'm not sure.

Is it just like a regular street sign that says Bailey Bridge, like on the gate?

I don't know the particulars. I'd love to put you all together. He's a great guy, very jovial fellow, good to talk to. Thank you, ma'am. And then I just... And that's just no big deal, but I had met with a gentleman, and I said...

I'm going to mention that in my report, buddy.

So I did. And lastly, and not lastly at all, but I see Mr. Thompson back there. And I just didn't know if you were late for public commentary. If you wanted to say anything, I would yield a minute or two if you wanted to come to the mic. You're on my time now.

I'm just kidding, man.

Good evening, Mr. Thompson.

I'll save a couple of questions afterward. I want to congratulate the new council. Thank you, Mayor, for leading the charge. Great to see you, sir. I look forward to talking with you, and I appreciate the email. I was going to ask you about YouTube and if these meetings are still on YouTube. That was going to be one of my other questions, and then I can follow up individually later. But thank you, Pat.

Sure, sure.

Yeah, so YouTube, when we converted to the new Civic Plus.

I got you, Mayor. They're on Civic Plus. It's on the city website. There's a new button on there that says New Meeting Agendas, and that's where the video is. And it's to get into the ADA compliance, so we've converted over probably four or five meetings ago.

So, Bernie, if you go to the normal City of Lynn Haven web page and you go look up in the top right-hand corner, you're going to see two links there. The old link that would normally take you to the city YouTube page, and then this new Civics Plus, which is an ADA-compliant system we've had to go to to comply with disability accessibility type stuff. You can still get the links, but there's two links there, like the city manager said. So they're both still there. It's just two separate links now, sir. but you still get the same YouTube quality links and all that. They're just broken down by meetings now in a slightly different format, but they're there.

That's my report. Thank you, sir. All right, well, city manager, you're up.

Yes, sir. We had the pre-con today for the Florida Ohio Avenue streetscape project. Construction will begin on that very soon. They've turned in all their submittals, and they will start moving forward with that. We'll see some action out there in the coming weeks. We had our pre-bid for the Wyoming Avenue HMGP project today. The bids are due September 16th at 2 p.m. If anybody would like to come, they'll be right here. Our fall basketball league registration is open until September 18th. We do still need some more coaches for all divisions. So if anybody's wanting to see how high they can jump and teach some kids how to play basketball, we are definitely looking for coaches out there. Commissioner Perno, just keep that in mind. And the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign is going now through Labor Day, so of course there will be an increased presence on the road, but as always, our police officers are out there making their rounds and checking for any of that. And Ms. Roman, any questions for her for the checklist?

This is so crazy, but I think I public requested this from you in any way you send it to me. Panhandle Engineering charged us $1,000 to draw an 11 by 17 map before we ever even approved the project, unless I'm wrong, and it's for that park.

For James Rogers Park, is that what you're referring to? Mm-hmm. Go ahead. The commission instructed us to have drawings done for James Rogers Park. That was six months ago.

So are you talking about James Rogers or the drawing that I presented to you for Kinsaw Park?

No, James Rogers.

So they were paid. The commission approved them to design that project.

Okay. What meeting was that? Because I'm going to go back and watch that one.

It was a couple years ago.

Didn't we just rip it down since the?

It's been quite a while.

If you recall, the project was approved. probably two years ago for design. It was designed. It was put on hold. It was never bid out. Then back in August, we discussed the proper design for it. You all chose the design that Panhandle did back in August, and then we bid it out, and then the bids came in, and we rejected all the bids.

Because we couldn't afford it. We didn't have the money.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay. Thank you. I'll go back and watch it.

And all drawings, though they may be printed in 11 by 17, they come in the full size. That's just how we print them here in-house.

Okay, thank you. Any other questions?

Appreciate your continued due diligence and numbers crunching, you and your team. My pleasure. We're in the throes of budget. I was shocked to realize this was our sixth. City Manager, is this our fifth or sixth budget today?

Fifth.

We're about to do our sixth.

Yes, sir.

So mandatory fun, I suppose. But at least we're going into this eyes wide open and we're all trying to figure out how to do this the best we can as a team and no surprises.

It's absolutely a team effort and it has been a challenge this year.

Indeed. But thank you for your efforts. And last but certainly not least, our new city attorney. Sir, the floor is yours.

I know not to speak if I don't need to, so I'm going to make this short. I appreciate, and Courtney Sinagra, my cohort in this, I appreciate the city's acceptance of us as city attorneys. We look forward to representing the city and doing the best thing for us. I've been able to meet with a few of you. uh personally one-on-one this week and it's been nice i look forward to meeting with commissioner perno commissioner warwick here soon and we just hope everything goes well and if you ever have any questions please let us know we're we're here for the city and our goal is to help and as a resident of the city my goal is to make sure the city i live in is doing the best that it can

Thank you, sir. And just for my fellow commissioners, city manager and I talked about this yesterday, giving the second floor spaces or some of the administrative spaces in the old city hall in front of us. allowing the city attorneys to use that for meeting area when they need to meet with folks. They'll have a space here on the campus, but also completely separate from the main city hall. So they can go talk and do what they need to do there. So we will start using those facilities for them and we're going to figure out the other piece because there's a historic piece to that too. So there's a couple of administrative office potentials over there and then figure out what we're going to do in terms of a long-term history, display, kind of a nod to Lynn Haven's past and how we capture that respectfully and effectively over there. So that's to come, but in the short term, our attorneys will be able to start using those facilities. Just wanted to make y'all aware of that. If you see folks over there, it's probably them. Yeah. Other than that, everybody, thank you for being here tonight. Y'all have a great evening.