I call this meeting to order. Welcome to our council meeting for December 9, 2025. In the interest of time, efficiency, and ensuring that everyone who wishes to address the council is given opportunity to do so, the following will apply to all comments made by the public in person and virtually. Virtually virtual participation council in council meetings are now available on your computer or smartphone via Microsoft Teams or by telephone. You can learn how to participate virtually by visiting our website www.climma fl.gov and search for attend council meetings online. Each speaker will be permitted three minutes to address the council. In an effort to be respectful during the meeting, please make sure your cell phones are set to silence. Thank you for participating in your city government. Tonight's invocation will be given by Father Mark Wer of Blessed Sacramento Catholic Church. Please rise and remain standing for the pledge of

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allegiance. Loving God, we give you thanks for all who are gathered here today. We thank you for abundant blessings. We thank you for allowing us to be involved in the work of the council and the city of Claremont and for the honor of bearing appropriate responsibilities. We pray for all those involved in armed conflicts throughout the world and their families and friends. As we approach Christmas and winter, we ask that you keep all of our people safe, especially those who have no shelter from the cold and no food to eat. That the help of caring people, they will find rest and refreshment. You have said that citizens should obey the governing authorities since you have established those very authorities to promote peace and order and justice. So we pray for our mayor Tim Murray, for our city officials, and in particular for this assembled council. Oh God, in your hands are the hearts of the powerful. Bestow your wisdom upon government leaders. May they draw from the fountain of your counsel and please you in thought and deed. In your most blessed name we pray. Amen.

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Amen. 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.

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Please be seated. The next item on our agenda this afternoon is public comment. Beginning with this meeting, we will now allow virtual comments. Okay. In public comment, excuse me. If you wish to address the council in person, please come to the microphone and state your name and address. Once in-person comments have concluded, we will move on to virtual comments. If you are participating online on Microsoft Teams and wish to provide comments, please raise your hand and you will be called on to unmute your microphone when it is time for you to speak. If you're participating by phone, you will press star five on your phone to raise your hand. Then call once upon you will press star six to unmute your microphone. For all virtual participant, if you wish to comment on other items on the agenda, please stay on Microsoft Teams or on your phone and raise your hand when your items come up for the agenda. This portion of the meeting is only for items that are not on the agenda. In the interest of time, efficiency, and ensuring that everyone who wishes to address the council is given an opportunity to do so, each speaker will be permitted three minutes to address the council to avoid disruption of the meeting. Speakers should avoid inappropriate language, personal attack, derogatory statements, and direct comments to the city council. Everyone is requested to be respectful to each other even when we disagree. Are there any public comments? Yes. Hi there. Sean Brunick, 837 Summit Greens Boulevard. Uh I want to talk about item number 17 from the last meeting regarding the crosswalk at the intersection of old highway 50 Black Lake Road.

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Just a second sir. Uh so there's a couple of relevant statutes here. Just a second. You say item 17 from the last meeting. From the last number 17 from last meeting. Okay. Okay.

32:11 – 33:10•0

So there's a couple of relevant statutes. Uh number one is chapter 316 section 2065. A cyclist in a crosswalk is a pedestrian, not a vehicle. So vehicular laws don't apply to them. Uh the other um uh excuse me uh statute is chapter 316 section 130. Uh drivers with a yellow signal must yield to pedestrians and crosswalks. Simple as that. Okay. Minimum fine $160. Three points attitude driver's license for failure to yield to uh pedestrians and crosswalks. Okay. So the gentleman at the last meeting said a couple of things that I think need to be addressed. Uh he said, I'm quoting from the transcript, uh quote, "If you are heading, I guess it's Een Old50, they have what they call a passive yellow. It's a flashing yellow, which means hurry up and turn when you can." Unquote. Whoa. Uh a flashing yellow signal does not mean hurry up. It means uh proceed if it is safe to do so.

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Prepare to stop.

33:10 – 34:17•0

Uh continuing, quote, "I'm looking at oncoming traffic, looking for an opening. As I go to turn, here comes a cyclist. I almost ran someone over. If it wasn't for the other car pointing at me, I would have uh turned left." Um, that guy is uh simply a bad driver. Uh, I don't know why you gave him a platform, but please do not take any advice from that guy. Uh, let me see. On the other hand, I would suggest uh take advice on the best foot forward coalition, which is a special co organization here in Central Florida addressing uh pedestrian safety. Uh back in July, Lake County Board of Commissioners uh joined uh the Best Foot Forward Coalition and adopted their proposals uh which includes um let me see, educating drivers about uh crosswalk safety, monitoring uh intersections, and also finally enforcing the laws, ticketing drivers who do not yield to pedestrians. Uh let me see, I got a flyer for the best foot forward coalition if anyone wants to take the lead on this. If not,

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thank you, sir.

34:31•0

Hello. Afternoon.

34:33 – 36:33•0

Good afternoon. Uh, Anna Sinclair, 575 West Miniola. Uh last month I had the opportunity to attend the Florida Bicycle Summit which was just whole day full of uh different initiatives and um presentations about um bike safety uh safety for pedestrians like you know advocacy legislation education all sorts of things. It was inspiring. I hope that you will be able to attend next year because it is a yearly event. Uh but my mind keeps going back to the words of Mark Levi. He is a pediatric pediatric surgeon for Orlando Health. Um he has seen a drastic increase in the number of children who are suffering severe injuries including traumatic brain injuries. Uh this was also echoed by Mike Wilson, senior transportation planner for Metropolan Orlando and also by Cheryl Alderando who is the injury prevention coordinator for uh Orlando Health. Um and the reason for this is that we see now ebikes as you know uh e- scooters all these devices are becoming more and more uh prevalent and I am not surprised because I when I go downtown I see children riding without helmets on e- scooters, ebikes, e-otos and more. Now I love that these devices exist. I own one. I own a class one ebike that I use to shop for groceries that I use to go to appointments and that is you know one car less on the road traffic being the main concern for the Claremont resident that that is a good thing. Um however as a consumer it is the wild west right now when it comes to purchasing these devices because our laws haven't caught up with the technology and it's going to be a while until it is uh we're able to catch up. Um that said, legislation is not the only component that needs to be addressed here. There we have a big opportunity here in Claremont to start addressing the educational component.

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Like our children go to school, they take PE classes. I don't think that we are providing them with bike safety classes in the schools and perhaps this is an opportunity that we can uh go ahead and take. Um I called the Lake County schools and the Aurelia call to ask if a students are receiving in school bicycling education and it seems that the answer is no. So our children do not know for example how to fit a bike helmet which is crucial uh to bike safety. They don't know the rules of the road but then we give them ebikes that can go up to 20 out 8 miles an hour and then we expect them to be safe. Uh that is not going to happen. Um we have the ABA here in Claremont that can assist us in create in creating a good curriculum. But um there are also other organizations that already have these curriculums like for example the League of American Bicyclists. They have developed programs for students and adults. Um and there are also things that the city can do to encourage people to uh do uh take the right uh choices. Other cities, for example, offer rebates if people take courses online. Oh, I apologize. May I take just one more minute? No.

37:40 – 38:48•0

Oh, thank you. Um, so long story short, like there are things that we can do and that we should be doing and we should leverage the ABA to help us here, but also other uh local organizations. Now, Christmas is coming, so I suspect a lot of people will be buying um these uh devices. If you are one of them, uh, make sure that your ebike, if you're buying an ebike, make sure that it's EOL, uh, 2849 certified because a lot of these, uh, ebikes, the manufacturers do not, some manufacturers do not really care about the safety, the fire safety of some and we see ebikes catching fire. If you purchase an ebike that is UL2849 certified, that mitigates that risk. We don't want ebikes uh, catching fire. make sure that you understand what the different classes of ebikes one ha are that we have class one class two uh class three uh as of now I think only class one is um legal to uh use on the trails and again the legis uh laws are always changing so uh make sure you look into that um mon yeah that's it uh thank you very much

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thank you ma'am Farmer Banks Hellfrick, Clay Road District, South Lake County. Farm tip of the day. Now's the time where you can put lettuce in the ground. Uh actually with seeds. The great thing about lettuce is um it will give you three harvests with the same plant. Um so once it grows big enough, you can clip the leaves, use them in salads, sandwiches, um with ranch dressing. Um and then also every month they will produce so you can have lettuce or salads for the next three months. Um mayor, council, distinguished guests, um I'd like to congratulate um the honorary Brian Bane uh for being our newly elected council member. Um where has compassion gone in our country? We live in a society now where we are divided. We are entrenched in our own thoughts, our own ideologies. We are separated. We are siloed. We are put at different or into different teams. Our mothers, our fathers, our brothers, our sisters, our neighbors, our friends um are pitted against each other and our enemies delight in it because we're not fighting them, we're fighting each other. So what can we do as a society to change that? We need a unifier. We need someone who will listen and hear rather than yell and scream. We need someone who will reach across the aisle with an olive branch and offer peace, offer solace, offer calmness. Um, and the unifier is is not a politician or a policy maker. The unifier is not celebrity or an actor. The unifier is actually the person you see when you look in the mirror. So the next time you look in the mirror,

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look hard because you will see compassion and that's what this country needs the most. I am farmer banks. May you all be blessed. Thank you for allowing me to speak. Thank you sir. Anyone else? Before the clock starts, I would like to have these passed out to the council. And I only have an extra one, I think, for Rick and Tracy. This is what I got from your office today. So, you know what it is.

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Printer today. I'll wait till they're passed out. And where is this thing ready to go where I don't have to play games today? Okay. [snorts] I need

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Okay. In fact, Wayne, would you just hone in on right there? This spot right here. Yeah. That's got the dots. Okay. Charlene Harrison, 4th, DInnesota Street, Claremont. And I would hope if you extend just a minute or so because I'm trying to thank some people and then I want to tell you what happened down there and how I want this solved forever and I'm not going to put up with it happening again. Um first of all I would like to say thank you to Debbie that is his um Rick's [clears throat] assistant and to a guy named Piro that works for the crew. And I'm sorry that Debbiey's not here. I just called her and asked why was she not here. She's up to her eyeballs with something. And could you not get Piro to come?

42:32 – 43:11•0

Okay. So, um I really wish they were here because there's two heroes. And here's what's happened. I think all of you know and I've come in, especially Tim who's been here a long time. This has been going on for 10 years down at our street with trying to get barricades and whatever. I gave you the color photo because you can see all of the red stuff, but those heavy things are barricades. The other thing orange ble to the microphone. Thank you. I'm sorry. Speak into the microphone, please. I'm sorry. Speak into the mic. Oh, yeah. I know. And I'm the one that complains back there, [laughter] but it's hard to do that and that. Okay. This better for you, too. There you go.

43:08 – 45:07•0

Yeah. Okay. Perfect. There you go. So, um, all of those things that are orange on your thing, that's where we get all of those no parking by the CPD. Okay. I begged and begged and first of all, I've got to not let this person out. Our chief is sitting there in the back and I'm going to show you a picture that I gave him of something happening on the other end of Dodto that we saw at the fall festival weeks ago and it was something that could back up on Fifth Street out to 50. Told him we had a safety huge concern. He jumped on it and thank you chief from the bottom of my heart. He got it right and he stepped in and he made sure that we got this taken care of. But here's why I'm here. Thursday. I see some of the signs are not out and they're not on as you see this piece here of 10th Street that goes near me at Doddto over to 50. Those have been there since 2019 on the map. I then start calling Debbie. I made three co phone calls to Debbie on Thursday and five on Friday. And Debbie doesn't need to have phone calls from me. and she hung in there because she was the only one left to her device here because everybody was gone. Um, our city manager and assistant out sick, family sick, whatever. Couldn't find anybody. I even go I want to tell y'all to Orlando and I'm at an appointment with my doctors and I said, "Oh, and I got to get home and it's, you know, the Friday night light up." Oh, God. The Friday night light up. Even my doctors of 40 years know about this hell that happens down there. So now I've done everything I can. Spent two weeks prior to this and then we don't get the signs down on that part of Tentth Street and Debbie stayed on it all day. The sweetest words I heard from her was that I'm not going home early today. I'll be here till 5 and if you just extend this and I'm done and then I want to talk about Miss Alice

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who jumped in. I called a council member and we would have had a very bad night. Now, nobody's ever going to break my spirit and what I come in here, but you took my joy away again at this city. And I know who did it. And I'm going to talk to you later about this because when the one of the workers, they came up in the truck and said, I said, "Well, who said this? You're not going to get them." And they said, and I quote, "The chief said that we're going to hold off on that piece of Tenth Street." Well, I knew that wasn't true because I'd talked to the chief. He's not changed anything that was before that worked. And guys, it works. And I told the chief, it's funny for y'all to hear this. That's the most beautiful site I've ever seen when those things the the traffic just flows through there. Our cops can get through there. And the chief can vouch back here. They didn't get one call from me. I didn't get one call from all my neighbors where something's blocked up or anything. It worked. Now the last hour 4 o'lock on Friday before light up when all hell breaks loose. They are circling like ants at a picnic and Debbie gets it done because I have been on the phone checking with Miss Strange. She was not well a couple days. Thought I'd check in and I says, "Listen, I don't know if you're well enough." She makes a phone call. I tell her and bring her up to speed. So thank you so much for that. Our neighbors all thank you so much. But what I want y'all to know, it's not the workers. It's some people down there at the public works. And I've been in here two years ago. We got Stony Brudson making a good amount. We got three guys under them with total $400,000. And they can't get this right. Guys, this is shameful. It's shameful. And I'm sorry. I mean, I have to fight for my neighbors and I do it, but I would love to have just one night that I could go down there in one year. So, guess what?

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If this doesn't get fixed after this and we start on this in January, I make this promise tonight. And I Oh, and I do want to show you there's the one there's there's my little goofy one that I did for the chief down there at Dotto. He got all that done and the island and thank you so much. But if we got to run the dream team here and we have three people out here that and Tim, you're here. You know about this. So, I know you've always been a a very good advocate for us. This is shameful. We got people that do this and I don't get paid to do this. Take about 15 seconds. Right. No, I'm What I'm saying is we got people getting a nice salary. I've already talked to Dan and Rick over the phone and so we covered that yesterday. What happened? I've caught them in a lie. I know who they are.

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Okay. I know who they are. Okay. And it's not true. And I the workers were just in front of my house in a truck looking at me like, "I'm so sorry, Miss Forth. We want to help you." Yeah. But we don't know what to do. So, I wanted that to be put on the record here. Now, we're done. Now, you see it's there. It's on the record. It's there. Okay. We're not having this this year. Thank you, Miss Forth.

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Okay. And Rick, I'll be seeing y'all. Okay. Thank you. Um, good afternoon, mayor, members of the council. Paula Hoyington, 564 East Dninnesota Street. I want to bring to your attention a project that we've been working on in January will be six years. And I want to plant this seed with you today with the hopes that when we enter into 2026, we can resume the conversation of creating a community center in Claremont. Five years ago down at a Martin Luther King event, casual conversation on the need for a community center for Claremont. particularly the alliance was looking at putting something in Lincoln Park area. We've had numerous conversations with members of the council. We've had conversations with our surrounding cities. We've had conversations with our school board. We've had conversations with the board of county commissioners. The board of county commissioners have supported us. They even wrote a resolution in support. We've met at then our interim city manager and now that he is our city manager, we're hoping to resume that conversation with him. The need for a community center in Claremont. You go to every other city around here. Orlando, Orange County recognizes the need of community centers in their communities. They recognize what that brings to the people the opportunities to where they

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can teach children. They can teach seniors. They can give them a hand up, not a hand out. They invest in their future. And that's all we're asking the city of Claremont to do, to have vision of what a community center can do for the citizens, for our students, for our I mean, we can bring it. We've had conversations with other entities that want to come in and partner Central Florida Urban League. I have the pleasure of serving as the board chair for the Urban League where we touch all the surrounding counties. We have said that we will come in in some of the same programs that we're bringing into these other cities. We can bring these programs into Claremont, but we cannot do it without a structure. So, I'm asking you as we go through the holidays and we come into 2026 that this council, this council will recognize the importance and we can have a real conversation about the possibility. Not the possibility. I'm going to plant the seed that we can bring a community center to Claremont. Thank you.

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Thank you. Anyone else? This is public comment. Anyone in the public wish to address anything that's not on the agenda may come to the microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes. Anyone else? I close public comment in house. Uh Mr. Administrator, do we have anyone on virtual? No sir, not at this time. No one. Okay. In that case, I'll close. Go ahead and close public comment. And before we move on, I'm going ask Mr. Van Wagner, is there any changes to the agenda?

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Two things, Mr. Mayor. Item 20, the board appointments, consent agenda. There's a a request to approve board appointments except for Kelly Carter who's withdrawing her application for the police officer pension board. Okay. And then secondly is item 25 of variance. The applicant's requesting to table that item till January 13th of 2026. 25 to 2026. Yep. I'm sorry. Yes. Item 25. Yeah. I thought you meant the year. [laughter] Uh we have a date uh for January. Well, you know, we only have one council meeting in January. So,

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they're they're requesting January 13th to be table. Okay, that's their request. Okay. Entertain a motion on item 25. Move to table item number 25 to the January 13, 2026 meeting. Second. We have a motion and a second uh to table item number 25 till 13 January 2025. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor let it be known by saying I. I. All oppose. Chair vote I as well. Motion carries. 5. And that's it. Sir.

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Yes sir. Well, uh, if I if I may take the pleasure, uh, Chief, um, Gracie is in the back, and I had I had asked Chief Gracie to, uh, prepare a little brief synopsis on on fireworks for us because I know we got fireworks, the holiday season coming up, and I'm getting a lot of complaints about fireworks and everything. So, I had asked Chief Gracie uh when I talked to him there if he can prepare a little um something on fireworks, how how we need to handle that because it's beginning to be a bigger bigger problem in the community and I've already had five people come to me already about it. So,

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do we have fireworks scheduled for Christmas? Yes. uh fireworks behind Christmas. They'll be going at Christmas. They'll be going New Year's and that that's one of the Oh, you don't mean city fireworks. You mean citizens fireworks? Yes. [clears throat] Fireworks in the city. [laughter] I have four kids. I'm not up until midnight. No, I'm talking about Yeah. If you notice, I know the state changed the laws a couple years back and now you notice uh fireworks tents pops all up over the city where before the law changed a few years ago it was limited.

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So now you have fireworks all over the city and people complaining. I got people out there uh can't handle the noise. Uh fireworks going off all times day and night. And so I just want to get some clarity and understanding before you all start getting inundated with the cause know exactly what the what the laws are and what the rules are. Chief, please. Good evening, mayor and councel. John Gracie, chief of police. I'm actually going to turn the brief over to our PD attorney, Rob Corbett, and he'll give you the brief and he'll go over the exception exceptions for the dates and the city ordinance and those things.

55:02 – 56:30•0

Thank you, Chief. Good evening, everyone. My name is Rob Corbett. I'm general counsel for the Claremont Police Department. When it comes to fireworks laws, mainly state statute, okay, 79102, Florida statute, says that it is unlawful for any person, firm, company, etc. to offer for sale, expose for sale, sell at retail, or use or explode any fireworks. Fireworks, of course, is defined in the law. doesn't include minor things like sparklers or snappers and things like that. Uh the law does go on to provide an exception for fireworks displays that are given a permit by a city or county. And then there are other uh statutory sections that give certain exemptions and exceptions. 790 108 provides a statewide exemption on designated holidays. There are only three holidays uh during which people can use fireworks. That's December 31st, January 1st, and July 4th. Those are the only three exceptions. Notice that those designated holidays are exceptions for use, but not for sale. Sale is technically not allowed in Florida at all with one exception. 79107 says that purchase, sale and use of fireworks is allowed for the purpose of frightening birds from agricultural works and fish hatcheries

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which is governed by rules set out by the department of agriculture and consumer services. The rules that have been set up and the case law suggests that fireworks sellers can sell fireworks essentially to anyone who's willing to sign an affidavit stating that they understand the exception and that's how they intend to use the fireworks. And uh there is one city ordinance section 26-25A says it's unlawful to carry, fire or discharge any explosive uh or weapon or firework. Again, that is uh as defined in the Florida statute in any city park. The city park uh ban on fireworks includes the designated holidays. So people would not be allowed to use fireworks in the city's parks on any day. Of course, unless the city gave a permit for an event. That's the state of the law on fireworks.

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Okay. I think I think I heard you say that selling fireworks in the state of Florida is illegal. Well, the exception the the exception is to sell for the use for agricultural purposes to scare off birds from agricultural sites and and fish hatcheries. So, so let me ask this question then. When these tents start popping up here in a couple of weeks all over the city, uh, how do we authorize them if I know I've never given a permit. I had to do any permitting. So, how do we handle this, Mr. Wah? [laughter]

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I I don't know what the city's practice is, although um, certainly the law that's been represented to you is correct. Um, Rob and I have talked about it. There is potentially a little bit of quibbling. you know what would happen if it went up to an appellet court again today. But um what would you like to know exactly, Mayor?

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Well, well, the problem I have is the tents pop up and of course I'm being told they're illegal. I know they're not buying them for re uh agricultural purposes. Uh so how are we allowing them to sell all the fireworks in the city? And then I got fireworks being shot all over the city and neighborhoods all over the place. Uh, for example, across the street from my house, I mean, sometimes seven o'clock in the morning, I got fireworks going off, you know, and it's not even the holiday. Uh, weeks, days before the holiday, I know I got police force running all over the city chasing them because they getting calls all the time. Oh,

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the case that Rob found is is a good one, which you know, someone had the same concern you did and basically it went up to the court and what the court found is look, they're signing an affidavit where they swear under oath that they're going to use it for agricultural purpose. And if there's no other evidence, if there's no other evidence to say, well, no, they didn't. even though you have common sense and they're not using it for a fish hatchery, you know, um if that's all the evidence is, forcing the Claremont Police Department to go out and summon the other evidence is a really difficult task, especially when there's not a warrant involved. So, what we're left with is the affidavit process, and that's the state of the law. So,

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yeah, essentially the case is called State V. McKetta. Monroe County sent undercovers into a fireworks sellers uh place, a wholesaler, and the undercover said things like, "Uh, great. I can sign this and buy these and then go blow them off in my backyard." And they gave all the hints that they didn't really want to use them for agricultural purposes, but they signed the affidavit and the courts held that um the sellers are allowed under the law to rely on the affidavit. So when you go into those tents to buy, they have you sign the affidavit and so it's the state of the law. Mr. War, is there any way we can actually go into the tents and check and see if they actually uh having people sign these affidav?

1:00:21•0

Yes, I mean certainly Claremont can do that.

1:00:24 – 1:01:08•0

Okay. All right. because you like I say it's becoming a serious problem and I know my officers are tired of running all over the city trying to chase them down u for the these holidays and not not just um for the three holidays you said you know cuz I guarantee you in another week or so soon as these tents pop up they they'll start going off all over the city. Uh, and thing is I got some residents out complaining to me about, you know, they had brain brain surgery and they can't handle the noise and it it just shakes them uh up elderly people and things like this and uh had one really come to me and complained last Tuesday at my lunchon about it as well. So, I'm I'm they're starting to get really concerned about it. So,

1:01:06 – 1:01:18•0

how do how do we handle this? Do we continue to let our officers run around like crazy? Uh I I'd be happy to talk to Rob and the chief about proactive measures and addressing this.

1:01:16 – 1:01:56•0

Well, we would appreciate that because I guarantee uh the f phone calls going to be coming in and officers a lot of time like like even in my neighborhood while I don't call them. I know other people are calling and by the time they get out there you not shooting them off right then. So what can we do? Um I wake up I I walk out in my neighborhood I find residue in my driveway all over my cars and everything else. We know they being shot. So, um, but if we go in and, uh, to the tents and check and see if they doing the affidavit, they're not doing affidavit. What what's what's, uh, avenue and what actions can we take then?

1:01:54 – 1:02:07•0

That is punishable under under Claremont law as as a misdemeanor at the very least. And like I said, I mean, I'm I don't want to give away all the cards, but I I'd be happy to work with Rob and the chief about this.

1:02:05 – 1:02:50•0

Well, okay. In that case, I I'll let you work with Rob and everything, but uh I just want the people to understand that this this is the one of the problem we have out there. Um and I have people coming to me all the time, starting to come to me and already starting to complain about it because they know the holiday season come up and I I only keep tell them keep calling the police even though I don't want to have to stress our officers out like that, but that's all we can do at this point. Keep calling and um try until we can come up with some way we can control this, you know. So, and it's getting be beginning to be a bigger bigger problem every year as chief I guarantee you Chief Grace is going to tell you that. So, all right. Thank you. Thank you. Um,

1:02:48•0

mayor, can the can the public weigh in? I know y'all have a long night. Can I weigh in about what happened over at our house about this thing? One minute, ma'am.

1:02:56 – 1:03:52•0

Yeah. I don't I don't have a story. Listen, also and he can listen back here, you guys. Um they you know the two tents we know of is down at Windixie and down at Exlettech the old parking lot right till that goes away and I'm telling you two years ago and I had to call the chief they were launching mortars behind our house over near tent and at the back where exaltch is and they caught the tree on fire at my son's house and also hit his roof and damaged his new metal roof. So there's mortars out there and I believe those things are illegal and I know they're selling them at those tents. So all of y'all be I mean they are mortars and when they go kabang it's like an explosion and you can see it. I mean you know it's like being in in a warfield. [laughter] Well you but anyway it hit my son's house and caught the tree on fire.

1:03:49•0

Yeah. So FYI we need to check on that. Yeah.

1:03:53 – 1:04:53•0

And uh well we'll let Mr. W get with the chief and everybody work work that out. But I also thought there's u certain types of fireworks that was illegal to sell anyway. So, but like you say, you you want to give away all the secrets. So, we'll see what we come up with. Thank you. Um, next item on the agenda is the cons uh on the meeting agenda is a consent agenda which contains items that have been determined to be routine and non-controversial. Anyone in the audience wish wishes to address the particular item on the consent agenda now's opportunity for you to do so. Additionally, if staff or members of the city council wish to address uh speak to a consent item, they have the same opportunity. Consent items for tonight is items one through uh 20. I think 20 has already been dealt with. What? Okay. 1 through 20. Uh anybody interested in pulling anything from the consent agenda?

1:04:51 – 1:05:25•0

Yes, mayor. I would like item number two pulled please. Item number two. Anything else? Item 11 and 16. Item excuse me 11 and 16 and 16. Anyone else? Number nine. Number nine. Item number number nine is the request.

1:05:23 – 1:06:00•0

Item number nine. I'm I'mma pull anyone else. I'mma pull 17, 18, and 19 myself. Okay. Are there anything else? Any other? If not, I entertain a motion on item one, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15. Uh, and item 20 with the exception. So moved. Second.

1:05:58 – 1:06:18•0

Okay. I have a motion and a second for approval of so said uh consent items. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor, let it be known by saying I. I. All opposed. Chair vote I as well. All right. Item number two. Yes, sir.

1:06:17 – 1:08:15•0

Thank you, mayor. Uh, I asked for this to be pulled. Um, I'd like to submit to my fellow council members a a revised workshop and meeting agenda. And Wayne, if you wouldn't mind um putting that on the screen for us, too. Um the reason why I've submitted uh an additional meeting schedule and workshop uh sorry meeting and workshop calendar is that um you know I know I'm new to the council but I I've sat out in the audience for a few years and watching the council try to schedule meetings that um could have been uh scheduled upfront and then canceled if not needed is rather painful. Um, and I think that, um, if we talk about the necessary need to have conversations and more conversations about the bigger ticket items that we're addressing, um, having these workshops particularly scheduled ahead of time on that third Tuesday, uh, would allow for the public to plan for that, for us to plan for that, for staff to plan for that, so that we're not trying to scramble at the last minute and find times to have workshops. Um because all of us are employed, busy, and we have we have meetings outside of this. Um I I I would just like to try to plan ahead for um one to two regular council meetings a month. Um and then also a workshop meeting a month. We cannot do that in January because of code enforcement board. Uh the code enforcement board has already occupied the January 20th uh date because of MLK Junior Day being on Monday the 19th and that's their normal meeting day. Um so the the differences you'll see in this version versus what's in our packet is uh to to go ahead and

1:08:13 – 1:10:12•0

schedule those regular workshops. Um and you'll see them colorcoded in red. Um I left all of the the public uh budget hearings in blue in there. Uh those are already what staff had had indicated. Um and then for the council meetings, um I did put the ones on there for um for November and December. Um I'm open to that conversation. I do realize, however, um that it is close to the holidays. I will say though that our our work doesn't end just because it's that holiday week. And so I think you know if [snorts] if you all could see this is this is the agenda packet just for this meeting. Um and what happens when we when we go dece November December and January with only one meeting is we get packets like this or larger. And um I I think everyone can agree it's it's hefty. uh and getting that even on Wednesday or Thursday before a Tuesday meeting I is a lot to take in for the general public and for us and for staff to have five individual meetings with all of us to cover all of that uh for basically two meetings in one. And so um I'm just throwing that out there that I would like for us to plan ahead to have two business meetings every month to have a workshop on the books. If we don't need it, we can sk we can cancel it, but it would avoid us having to have those conversations and spend a half hour trying to find a time when everyone can plan in advance for that. I also put the fourth Tuesdays on here. Um, if we need them for something, we can have them. Um, but there are four uh months where we do have an additional Tuesday in the month um that is not already occupied by a city meeting. So, I'll open that up to um the rest of the council and the public, obviously. All right, Mr. Bang. Uh, prior prior to

1:10:09 – 1:11:53•0

council, uh, the previous council, um, it was always, um, understood that the third third Tuesday of the month was, uh, was open for workshops. We used to automatically have that scheduled for workshops if needed. Okay. So, I have no pro I have no problem with that. Of course, I'm looking at January up here on 27th. Of course, we know we've already cancelled January 27th due to the fact that we'll be in in Tallahassee on legislative days. Uh far as November and December, I uh I tend to enjoy having the uh just the one council meeting myself in November and December because things get a little hectic and people decided to go out for holidays and and all this. And so the second usually that second meeting in November and December is running right in in connection with the holiday either Thanksgiving or or Christmas and all. So uh most of the families are gone and people trying to get out here for the holidays. So um of course myself I [clears throat] have so many things going on during that time like this year for some reason it's it's really treacherous. I mean it's been running like crazy for me this week and all next week you know. So, it's great to have the the break with the council and everything and not have to prepare for council during that time uh in the mix. But, uh we can always for the agenda go, we can always scale back our agenda and look at it and and make sure when we store it back up in January that we we do it in a reasonable and sensible way. Um putting things on the agenda so we don't have to have such a large package. That's

1:11:50 – 1:13:49•0

I I would like to say um like you said the third uh Tuesday we already have for workshops and far as for November and December um our staff goes hard all year long and I know the American culture is work work work but my concern is is burnout and we have to have balance and that is partially why we have one meeting in November and one meeting in December. um we are not in the position to be able to give bonuses and extra pay to our city workers but we can give life better for them by having a work balance and so um it has been a standard to have one meeting in November and one meeting in December. We are not doing anything that is earthshattering that it has to be taken care of today or tomorrow. Um, part of taking care of yourself is resting as well as working. And I think, um, by having it slowed down, it gives people time to breathe. And they need that. I need that as well. Um, but my my concern really is for our staff because they work so hard. And as you know, July is a very heavy month. September is a very heavy month. I mean, it's just in addition to all the other things that they have to do. So, I am not for uh scheduling um for November or December because if it's scheduled then more than likely you will have something on there and um I use that time to slow down as well with my family. Thank you. Yeah, my opinion would be to I understand the you know the the need for workshop meetings, but my understanding is if we put it as a permanent thing then we have to do public notice and then if we cancel them we're canceling to the public and the public would then say well obviously you're not doing your job because we're cancelling as opposed to like the mayor said we could have these as tentative every month and then

1:13:48 – 1:15:26•0

the month before we could say okay we need a workshop meeting for this that or the other thing whatever might come up that's pressing that would require additional time as opposed to being in a council meeting. So I would say continue the way we were leaving them open for discussion so that let's say we in January we need something for February then we could say okay let's schedule the February council workshop meeting for the third week of that month. So I would be for that. Yes. Okay. Uh this is a public hearing. Anyone in the I'm sorry Miss [clears throat] Strange. Oh. Um, I would actually like to see some budget workshops done in May before staff start working so diligently on their budget. I think it's important they know what the vision is from this council, what policies we want to see in place, and what kind of budget we're looking at before they put pen to paper and start working on their budget. So, I would suggest that the May workshop rather than being a regular council workshop be a budget workshop. And I mean, I would be happy to revisit it again in June to touch base with them, answer any questions they have. I know this year I felt like when we got to the budget workshops, staff had already done so much work that there could be a feeling of, well, I don't want to ask them to do it again or send them in a different direction. So I think before they start really working on the budget, it would be good for them to know in what direction we want them to go. So that would be my input on the on the calendar as far as the workshops are concerned.

1:15:24 – 1:15:35•0

Okay, I'll come back and address that in a minute. But in the meantime, I'm going open up to the public. Anybody in the public wish to address this may come to the microphone, state your name and address and have three minutes.

1:15:33 – 1:16:34•0

Hi, Meredith Nagel, business owner at 121 West Highway 50. You know, for years and years and years, we had scheduled workshops, and it was a lot more government in the sunshine then, and I cannot count the number of times I've heard councilwoman Strange especially say, "I would like to workshop this. I would like to workshop that." And then when it came down to scheduling a workshop, lo and behold, there was no time available. So to my way of thinking, it's a better way to include the city, make the participants and voters feel like that they have a voice, that we know what's going on, and we have set opportunities that we can bring these big ideas, small ideas, everything that we all want to the city of Claremont for the city of Claremont. We can have a time to do it. We all [snorts] know when it's going to happen and then that will make it happen. I don't know about y'all, but if something's not scheduled, it's hard to make happen. So, I would like to see those workshops start at 6:30, just like I'd like to see the council meeting start at 6:30 so that we can have as much public involvement in government in the sunshine as possible. Thank you.

1:16:31•0

Thank you. Anyone else? [clears throat]

1:16:36 – 1:18:02•0

Valerie Shuitt, 931 West Montro Street. Um, I like what is proposed here. I think it's very smart to have a uh placeholder workshop, which is what I believe Mr. Bane was proposing uh every month. Um, I'll say as someone who has had multiple things on the agenda that I was a vendor or an applicant for, it is quite brutal when there's only one council meeting a month. And that does happen uh for three months in a row. Um, in terms of getting on the agenda, the time that it takes, um, and I just don't know, I see why that might have worked for us before. My question would be would be the size of our city now and the operations of our city now. Is that really feasible? It seems like we tend to kind of cancel meetings if we're within the vicinity of a holiday even, you know, like five days away from a holiday. We're like, "Oo, we shouldn't have a council meeting." Um, however, I do respect what Miss Meyer said. I understand that. My question would be for staff and maybe city manager or deputy city manager has a pulse on this. Is it helpful to have does it create more of a bottleneck for staff and decisions when we only have one meeting a month? Is it really lifting a lot off their load or is it kind of disproportionately spreading their workload out? That would be my question. I don't have the answer to that, but those are just a few things I think about.

1:17:59•0

Thank you.

1:18:03 – 1:20:02•0

Hello. Hoisington, 564 East Street. Um, I commend you, Councilman Bane, for having the foresight to come up with an agenda with the schedule. It says to be determined if needed. If you don't need it, then you can cancel. You don't have to worry about the public notice because it says to be determined. You will know in advance if the workshop is needed. If it's scheduled, then you know what your year looks like. We have been here Tuesday after Tuesday for council meeting when Councilwoman Stain was like, "I'd like to have a workshop." And then you all go, "Oh, I can't do it that day. Oh, we got this going on that day." But if you know that it's already scheduled on the agenda on your calendar, then if there's a need, you can schedule the workshop. I too believe in live, work, and play and make sure that you balance life. But when work dictates that the people's work needs to be done, then that's a choice that you made as being an elected official or a city employee. The people's work should come first. I'm not saying let's work everyone to death, but if you have a schedule for the year, then you can schedule your staff off because you know what's scheduled and they can build in that work life balance. But if you do it on a hodgepodge when everyone needs to come up and then you have everything else that's going on in your life and that Tuesday doesn't work because you've already scheduled this, then we run into that problem where those workshops that need to be done cannot be done because your daily life has already taken precedence over it. But if you have an agenda, you have a schedule for 2026, you know what days are tentative and as a council, you know when you need to schedule a workshop. I see nothing wrong with us moving forward with this. You

1:20:01 – 1:20:35•0

may need to tweak it a little, but having something set out for the public to see for 2026 if they need to come to a council member and say, "Can we schedule a workshop in February on this Tuesday?" They already know what days are available because the city's calendar is already posted. I just ask for you to be a little proactive as we go into 2026 and not continue doing things as they've always done because then we get the same results. Thanks. Thank you.

1:20:39 – 1:21:52•0

Hello, Anna Sinclair 575 West Miniola. Um, I really like the idea of pre-scheduling dates for workshops. I understand that we have this uh floating date type of thing where the uh third or fourth Tuesday uh serves as a date for a workshop, but I have been here uh as a resident at 3 p.m. which is difficult because, you know, I have a a job that goes until 6 p.m. I have been here and then watch the council struggle to schedule a date for a workshop. I believe we if we have these pres-scheduled we would solve that problem. Um also I understand the need for rest uh during November and December. Rest is important. You have to take care of yourself and the staff. We have to take care of our staff as well. However, again I also second a question that was previously previously asked. Are we actually resting or are we just creating a bottleneck? Because these are all things that still have to be done. So are we just creating a bigger agenda on January because we're resting on November and December. So perhaps this is something that we should consider actually having two dates um even in November and December. Thank you.

1:21:49 – 1:22:10•0

Thank you. Anyone else? This is a public hear. Anyone in public wish to address this item may come to the microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes. Anyone else? Seeing no one else close public comment. Thank you, mayor. Um,

1:22:10 – 1:22:51•0

I I realize I I have a an error on here. The the yellow is actually fifth Tuesday, not fourth Tuesday. Uh, sorry about that. Um, we already meet on the fourth Tuesday. So, it's the four months that there's a fifth Tuesday. Um, and I didn't put that on there for us to actually schedule something there. I was just it was more of a I if we needed something in those months where a date didn't work and we wanted to try to keep a Tuesday, those would be um opportunities for that. Um I think there's someone on the Oh, I'm so sorry. It's okay. I'm going to put a posted note on here. We're all getting used to it. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I totally forgot about that, too.

1:22:49 – 1:23:04•0

Okay. Uh I'm sorry. Uh we do have a virtual. So, anyone who's on virtual, state your name and address, [clears throat] please and go ahead. You have one. I'm allowing the mic now.

1:23:02 – 1:24:29•0

Thank you. It's Jenny May 4062 Greystone Drive trying this out for the first time and I want to tell the council thank you very much for letting me do this, especially during um children's pickup day. Um, anyways, I wanted to uh I I wanted to uh basically I guess um follow up with everybody who has gone up there um who are speaking in favor of what uh Councilman Bain has put forth. I believe that structure is important. I think it makes it easier for uh the city manager to have a schedule uh in front of him that is set forth so that if any workshops are um scheduled those will be scheduled forward and he has those dates um for you all to put in. I know there's tweaks you know especially for the holidays you know especially November December but I do believe it's positive. The second thing is that I couldn't see very well on my phone about times. But if some of the workshops or some of the meets can be switched from, you know, sometimes at three, sometimes at six because, you know, like everyone has said, you know, we all do work. So, um, it would be nice to have uh some time switches from, you know, some at three and some at six. But that's all I need to say. And uh thank you again for allowing me to speak as a virtual public person. Thank you.

1:24:26•0

Okay. Thank you. Now I totally public comment and come on.

1:24:33 – 1:25:54•0

Sorry about that. Um we're all going to have to get used to that, I think. Um okay, so apologies. On the fourth Tuesday, it meant to say fifth Tuesday, and I did not put those on there to say that we need to schedule something. It was more of just a a a way of showing we have a fifth Tuesday if we want to keep things on Tuesdays four times a year. Um, but I I would like to make a motion at least to to start the process here. Um, and then we can continue continue to discuss and see where it goes. But I would like to make a motion to approve this calendar with the following corrections. to cancel January 27th to make Tuesday, May 19th a budget workshop as opposed to regular council workshop to make Tuesday, November 17th, a regular council meeting as opposed to a regular council workshop and then cancel Tuesday, November 24th. and to make Tuesday, November 15th, a regular council meeting and cancel Tuesday, December 22nd.

1:25:53•0

That's December 15th. 15th, did I say 15th?

1:25:56 – 1:27:32•0

And then so 15th would be a regular meeting. 22nd would be cancelled. So that this would allow us to have two meetings in November and two meetings in December. not the weeks of um holidays. Um this year we're kind of in a pickle with the January because of where code enforcement falls and and maybe next year planning ahead we can prioritize where the council meetings are on that. Um and and uh this would allow us to to move forward with that. The the biggest reason why I wanted to have a a meeting on that 24th of November was so that we could get our new council sworn in. And with the way that the 26th election is going to run, we won't working with the city clerk's office, we won't know until probably the 20th, I believe, uh having a certification of of of electorates. So, um, you know, pushing it back, I was just cognizant of trying to get our new council in because as a new person, I will tell you that, uh, you don't get city email and and and those types of things until you're official. And I know citizens out there who have asked me, did you get my email? And and no, I didn't because I I didn't have an email yet. And so I I'm just trying to be cognizant of the fact that we elect someone, the general public thinks that they're elected and you know they're not and they're not sworn in yet and they're not official. So that's the motion that I put forward and that's the rationale of why I was trying to do it and hopefully we can approve this modified version. Um

1:27:30 – 1:28:04•0

I'll second for discussion. Okay, you have a motion in a second before I call for the vote. Miss Miss uh Tracy uh going back to back uh with meeting there. Is there any problem with advertisement and notifications for advertisement? But as long as we know in advance, we'll be able to advertise. We know advance. So that mean we have to uh complete the agendas for the second meeting a week or so earlier doing the same time we doing the first one, right? Yes, sir. Okay. And that would be two months. Huh? It would just be two months that we'd have to do that.

1:28:02 – 1:28:40•0

Yeah. Well, we just have to remember that they when they doing the agendas during that time for that second month uh second meeting because you have to have so many days for advertisement and everything. Um that just put a little bit more stress on the on the staff to try to create two agendas at the same time. Okay. Well, I think a fair question was asked about, you know, what is I at least I'm sitting up here making presumptions. You know, from a staff perspective, Rick, what is it easier for you to have one massive agenda that you have to deal with or is it easier to deal with two smaller agendas?

1:28:38 – 1:29:04•0

From the staffing perspective, we don't mind doing an extra one or and letting it be full like this. I mean, this is a big agenda, but I know the staff enjoys having some extra time. So, that's my experience. I've only been here a year, but they appreciate having some time off. Well, as I say, I've been around we're here to serve you guys. Whatever you and the citizens want us to do, that's what we'll do.

1:29:02 – 1:30:10•0

I I've been involved with city council for almost 20 years now, and they've always done one in November and one in December. Uh but there's also the opportunity if we need, we can call a special meeting. Uh, for example, when I got elected, uh, back in 2020, um, we had to have outside the regular council meeting, we had to have a special, uh, election, um, meeting to swear me in and a couple other council members in because we were basically down to one council member and no mayor. So, they was afraid of the holidays being left without. So, we did a special uh, meeting and we we always have that opportunity. And as I said before, I have no problem with the workshops because prior to this last council, we've always used the second Tuesday at the third Tuesday for workshops anyway. Yeah, but it's just you're right. Every time we call for a workshop in the last last year or so, seem as though that third Tuesday didn't work for people, even though that was always there for us and we always going around. But um

1:30:08 – 1:30:51•0

well, and we can keep continue to do the third Tuesday. I have no problem with that. Okay. We now have with this technology the ability to to zoom in or or video in and you know right when it comes to the workshops I mean everything's recorded now. So if we just can't make it we can't make it. There's still four of us there. I mean that's something that I think the public's been pretty clear that they want to see more frequent meetings. I think the public's been pretty clear they want to see meetings at night. I mean, I I'm hearing the public say that and I I worry this is becoming a staff versus public issue and so I want you guys to talk me out of it.

1:30:48 – 1:32:02•0

No. Um, no. I'm I'm listening to the public as well and all but at the same time like for example, I heard a comment about the three months in a row with only one meeting. The only reason that's happening this year is because January legislative days in January is happening at the same time we're doing our council. And I think all the council members will be in Tallahassee. So we won't have a quorum here. Um now we can either cancel going to Tallahassee trying to uh advocate for fund funds to try to run the city with or we can sit in and do the council meeting. Uh um me I'm trying to go to Tallahassee and get some money. Okay. Uh and that's why we cancel the one in January, but the one in January isn't usually canceled. And the only reason we're having a problem this year is because um being election year, they moved up legislative days. Usually it's April, March, April or so. They usually do legislative days in Tallahassee, but because election, they always move them up January. It's a short legislative uh week, you know. So, um that's one. Um other thing I made a note on here was time. Somebody mentioned about time. Uh you didn't indicate what time. Well, we don't

1:31:59 – 1:32:41•0

I I I intentionally did not because I think that um being cognizant of the agenda, my goal to be transparent here was to bring back because we have that in in writing um our council procedures to bring back an amendment to the meeting in January to address the times. Well, most time when we read we we scheduled a well used to be at 6:30 with everything else, but in the past year when we did workshop, we always tried to sit here and come up with a time, but I still think it's uh behoove us to have a set time. Um like I said, they used to be at 6:30. Are we going to put them back at 6:30 or and so we know what we're doing, what we dealing with.

1:32:39 – 1:33:10•0

Yeah. And I I originally would prefer to do it that way. Again, I just I felt like that would be a whole could potentially be a whole another lengthy conversation and and debate. And so I wanted to because it's only one meeting this month, I wanted to try to stretch that out and not put all that into one one package. Okay. So, we have a motion. Any other comments?

1:33:05 – 1:33:48•0

We have a motion and a second to approve the set schedule with the exception of cancel uh with the one uh schedule uh in January cancelling that one and moving the fourth Tuesday of November and December to the third Tuesday and then the workshop in what was it? May May making that a budget workshop. Any further discussion? Hear none. And all in favor, let it be known by saying I. I. I. All oppose. Nay. Nay.

1:33:44 – 1:34:29•0

And the chair vote nay as well. Motion does not pass. Two to three. Is there another motion? I move to approve the budget as presented in the packet with the exception of making the May regular council workshop a budget workshop. You say new budget workshop and the as presented in the packet. Okay. With the change that the May [snorts] Sorry, I'm probably in the wrong place. We currently don't have workshops scheduled on this calendar.

1:34:26 – 1:35:03•0

Oh, sorry. Yeah. So, to have budget workshop added in May, May 19th. May 19th. and third Tuesday in May uh for a budget workshop already scheduled. We'll go ahead and schedule that. Um and the change in January uh January is already showing as canceled for legislative action. Okay. All right. May 19th. May 19. Is there a second? A second.

1:35:01 – 1:35:45•0

Okay. I have a motion and a second to accept the um meeting schedule as presented in the packet with the exception of uh adding the budget workshop on the third Thursday in um third Tuesday in May. Any further discussion? Yes, mayor. Um I guess I'll ask my fellow council members, are we are are you all that ers because I I will tell you your third Tuesday idea is just that an idea. It's not a policy if it's not in writing or it's not a schedule if it's not in writing. It's an idea.

1:35:43 – 1:36:02•0

I I have no problem putting that in writing. I can say it uh has it been I can say this but um I know since I've been mayor I've always we've always scheduled the use the third Tuesday for for workshops. Okay. Yes.

1:35:59 – 1:36:40•0

As has always been the policy for workshops is on the third Tuesday. Now even though they're sitting there and council members say they can't make the third Tuesday and that's when we get in this negotiation. Yes. You upset me to have to do that when I know the workshop is already scheduled. uh if we need a workshop, it's there on the third Tuesday with times and then we get in this thing and course um because I've already me myself I've already set my schedule according to what what we normally do and then I have to go back and start adjusting it. So I have no problem saying hey it's going to be the third Tuesday with what time we going to do them. Uh we can better schedule our times as well. Awesome.

1:36:38 – 1:37:09•0

Yes. My understanding we've always had the third Tuesday. It's the problem has been is when we've wanted an additional day for a workshop and that has been the challenge is because it was an additional day not because it was the third Tuesday of the month because most of us I from my understanding keep that open on their calendar. It was when we had additional because we had other council members that wanted it to be not just the third Tuesday but the next day and some other things and that's when the conflict arose.

1:37:06 – 1:37:51•0

Yeah. Well, would it would it work for everybody if we said workshops would be every other month scheduled? And if we look and we do February, the timing of that would be February, April, June, August, and October. And that could keep us out of the holidays, but give us set dates for workshops that we can publish. To Mr. Germaine's point. I I like having them the date being there every month because we don't know what's coming up and there was several times I mean I thank Miss Horington several times as for thing to be scheduled. We okay what we have on this workshop? What what what month can we put it in that we doesn't have something scheduled you know in the past. It makes it a little easier.

1:37:50 – 1:38:29•0

So it make it a little easier if we have them every month. If we don't need them we don't need we just don't have the meeting. Okay. So, it sounds like there's really not a a disagreement that that we'd be okay putting it on the calendar to say every third Tuesday is a workshop. Otherwise, we say different. Yeah. Unless we don't need it, we won't w. But it's for scheduling purposes to know that the third Tuesday of each month, we will have a workshop. We will have a workshop every third Tuesday. If we need additional workshop, we can always come back and look and schedule, reschedule. And does that also apply for November and December? Would we want to advertise those? We want to keep those off.

1:38:28 – 1:39:04•0

November, December. If we It's always been in the past if we need extra council meetings or workshop for November, December, we already did a special meeting. We had the one meeting scheduled. So, let me try an amendment to my motion and see if this works and tell me if you'd still second it. So, uh, a motion to accept the calendar is included in packet item number two with the addition of a third Tuesday workshop January through October with the May workshop specifically being a budget workshop.

1:39:02 – 1:39:45•0

I I think the problem that that we're hearing here is that not to have it fixed, but have it as a floating thing. So everyone sets aside the third Tuesday of the month but it's not published and then like just like you know we're going to say May so we say everybody agree yes we're all in on it. So let's say we come back in January and we say okay we need something in June the 3. Okay we do it as opposed to making it fixed and now it's published. You know what I'm saying? The difference as opposed to fix and flexible. Well, as I say, we can go ahead and publish third Tuesday, but if it's not needed on that Thursday, we can always make announcement. It's cancelled. Okay.

1:39:43 – 1:40:27•0

All right. And that's the way we've always operated. Um, since I've been the mayor anyway, it's always operated that way. Yes, we did run into a problem last year um because we were trying to squeeze so many things in on workshops and um we got away from the fact that we was doing on the third Tuesday because we was trying to just make special days and do all everything. So, and that's why I was having trouble scheduling things last uh during the last administration too because as I say like my Tuesday especially um I have other club meetings and things like this [cough] then you start asking me to rearrange and everything that's already set and so as well that was there and I knew about when I was elected mayor. [cough] Okay. So,

1:40:25 – 1:41:08•0

so I I proposed an amendment to my motion. Shandra, did you you had seconded the original Yeah. So, the amended would be to adopt the budget in tab number two with the exception of adding a workshop on the third Tuesday of each month, January through October, with the May workshop being a budget workshop. So, your second stance. Okay. So, that's the motion and the second right now. Okay. Basically, we we're taking Mr. Bane proposal schedule and just eliminate just going to one meeting in November, December and add the workshop. Another way of saying it. Yeah.

1:41:06 – 1:41:49•0

Yeah. It's what we're doing. Okay. Thank you. Is there any further discussion? have a sec motion and a second to accept the um the new work schedule with the exception of uh January meeting being cancelled and the bud add the budget workshop in the on the third Tuesday in May and eliminating is there no time no time changes right now? No, not yet. uh eliminate and just sticking with one council meeting in in uh November and December. Any further discussion? Hear none. All in favor? Let it be known by saying I.

1:41:48 – 1:42:10•0

I. All oppose. Chair vote I as well. Motion passes 5. Um no ma'am. We did not set on the time. I think we'll go back later and address times and Yeah. I I I in transparency I plan on bringing a motion forward on times at the January meeting.

1:42:06 – 1:42:38•0

Okay, that was item number two, right? Uh item number nine, interlocal agreement amendment. Uh Mr. FY, I think it was you right. I'm sorry. And for folks listening and watching, I believe well this was on the agenda last month and Mr. Fumasi needed time to talk to the county and and was going to come back to us.

1:42:35 – 1:44:35•0

Correct. Um I did apply an information request. I got bare minimum information. They never answered where the money was coming from to uh substitute this contract. I feel that this contract has not been sufficed or uh worthwhile because three things have happened in the wellness way. The consultant uses CDDs and MSTU taxes to support this and which is causing huge economics on the neighborhoods. So when these neighbors can't pay the fees anymore, what happens? foreclosures, sells, and then what happens to your tax base? It goes down. I don't think that's very effective. I I I really don't understand. So, builder fees were supposed to be paid up front. Then all of a sudden, the builders come up with the ideas to do the CDD. Has anybody seen the cost of my CDD? I told you my tax because of the CDD and the MSTU is almost $10,000. So if you call that good consulting that you raise the fees, you talk about controlling costs for Claremont. Is that controlling cost for Claremont? That is not. This person focuses on three things. Taxes, taxes, and more taxes. What do we have down there in Wellness Way? Bedroom community that people have to travel outside of Lake County to get those highwage jobs to afford those places. Where are those highwage jobs that were supposed to come here? You do not need rooftops to create high wage jobs. They depend on state and national supply chains and also to sell their items. So where are they? We were promised that this was going to materialize. Nothing has come down there. We're told, oh, the retail spaces to support the Lake

1:44:32 – 1:45:32•0

Heavenly Development, Dell Web. Oh, that's going to be retail jobs. Oh, I know it's not highway jobs, but it's still jobs. Well, any of the people working in the retail cannot afford those homes around there or even the town home. When you create a CDD, it's supposed to lower the cost of your home. In the beginning, that didn't happen. So, uh, they ended up charging higher for those homes. They're keeping that money and then they're offering that money as incentives when they can't sell their homes. So, how is that effective? I'm asking you to reconsider this. And here's a compromise. If they're going to reimburse you for people to uh create a uh to consult down there, why don't you spread all three of those that money out amongst the other two contractors that you've hired to help us? I think that would be a good compromise. I could let this go if that was a thing, not just one particular contractor. Thank you.

1:45:32 – 1:45:44•0

Thank you. This is a public hearing. Anyone in the public wish to address this item may come to the microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes.

1:45:41 – 1:46:32•0

Uh yes, Anna Sinclair 575 West Miniola. So uh Mr. Fumassi already illustrated the low efficacy of this particular interlocal agreement. So I'm not going to delve into that. I am just going to say that um to my understanding one of the reasons why we enter this is to manage the growth in wellness way to create a place where people could live, work and play. uh that has not materialized and also right now we just hired uh a director of economic development we have an urban planner we are consulting with DPC codeesign we have ABA so I'm wondering rather than continue this uh contract if we couldn't leverage those resources that we have and actually enact some real change in wellness way that's something that I would like to see thank you

1:46:29 – 1:47:02•0

thank you anyone This is a public hear. Anyone in the public wish to address this item may come to the microphone, state your name and address and have three minutes. Anyone else? Seeing no one else if we have any. Okay. Um person on the ver virtues, go ahead and state your name and address and um you have three minutes.

1:46:59 – 1:48:05•0

Yes. Jenny May, 4062 Greystone Drive. Thank you very much for letting me speak. Um, I agree uh with with Anna that just walked up. I I don't understand why uh we are extending a contract for a economic development consultant when we already hired an economic development consultant by the name of Nathan Morris for the city. I believe uh if the the funds were going to be used, I think it should be used for their department. I have not seen anything from this consultant. Um, as a planning and zoning commissioner, I've not seen a report of anything that's happening in Wellness by coming to in front of the planning and zoning commission. At the two and a half years that I've been going to the city council, I haven't seen any reports from this consultant. So, I really don't know what they've done. Um, but I think those funds should be used um with the economic development department that we have already and also with the and we also have the planners coming. So I think there is no need for extension of this particular consultant. Thank you.

1:48:00 – 1:48:44•0

Thank you. Anyone else? Anyone else? This is a public hearing. Anyone in the public wish to address it and come to the microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes. We have nobody else on virtual. Right. All righty. So I close down public comment. Mr. U Levy, I see you back there. Would you like to come forward, please, sir? Well, Mr. Mayor, as he's walking up, I I do want to remind the council and the public that this agreement actually isn't between us and Mr. Levy. This agreement is between us and the county and that the county is reimbursing us for

1:48:40 – 1:49:16•0

any funds that we spend on a consultant as it relates to wellness way area plan. So, as much as you're in the crosshair, sir, um I I just don't think Whatever we decide to do with Mr. Levy, this is an agreement with the county to get funds from the county for us to focus on the economic development in the wellness way area plan throughout the county and throughout Clement. I'm I'm just saying it. I'm happy to hear what you have to say. Uh but it really doesn't have to do with you. [laughter]

1:49:14 – 1:51:11•0

Mayor, if I might, uh I couldn't agree more with the commissioner. However, you know, there were some comments made that I'd be happy to address. Um um one of the things that you know people have said they don't see what gets done. I do produce monthly uh submitted to the manager's office a the list of ongoing activities and things that are get done. There's a lot of uh the early years in Wellness Way was focused on the city. um you're you're a partner with the county and I think as city activities have developed the action is really happening probably south of your utility service area and in the unincorporated area. We certainly have had discussions about long range objectives for the city. Um but to be clear, my contract is with the city and the county. Um I I I read some of the written um statements by the gentleman who got up uh to speak. I have a specific scope, specific tasks. They're managed by the city and county. [cough and clears throat] Excuse me. Uh nowhere does it say that I somehow have uh involvement in the MSTU or the CDDs. CDDs are privately managed uh financial vehicles. Um they're done by private developers. Um the city council before most of you were here approved that CDD. Um is some implication that I am directly involved in that. I have no involvement. I have no developer clients. Uh my privity is with the city and county. Um the there were references to some planning and zoning meeting I attended to completely taken out of context. I think that the I understand the

1:51:09 – 1:53:07•0

frustration about job creation. I really do. Um the expectation of Wellness Way being a mixeduse multiuse area with high value highwage jobs. um the comment that somehow neighborhood centers, each neighborhood has a center where retail services, professional services, those are designed to be smaller. They're not intended to be the high value highwage locations. That doesn't mean there aren't doctor's offices and lawyers offices and uh whatever services that uh may come about. That's the physical structure of the plan. The real gamecher is the um is the expressway and the interchange with county road 455. That's really where uh that area um as well as the project Olympus um which I know has been slow to evolve and develop. Those are the two areas where you can expect to have the high value highwage jobs, but the expressway is not in. Uh we had a meeting yesterday uh with Sunshine Utilities. Um there are no utilities in the unincorporated area except very close to um US 27. You can't have highv value highwage jobs without roads and utilities. And if that takes two to three to four years to emerge and and and get established, that's going to be the driver of high wage jobs. I agree rooftops don't create high wage jobs, but infrastructure does and creates the opportunity for those. And so I understand the frustration can only move as fast as the Central Florida Expressway will move to build that and Sunshine Utilities will move to expand utilities in the area. So I I get the frustration. Um but my role is an advisor to the city and county. I don't vote on any MSTUS. Uh that is a that has been a county initiative. there was some reference to, you know, my involvement

1:53:02 – 1:54:16•0

with a financial a CDD manager for uh the assessment methodology for an MSTU. Uh the county uh nobody's hired that person. So there's a lot of misinformation in emails that has that has been uh uh been sent to you. Um you know I I again I'll come back to this is about the interlocal agreement about the county and city cooperating. It's been a great level of cooperation I would say between the city county. This is in my career the first place where uh a county and a city have actually adopted an identical future land use plan and an identical code uh land development code and design guidelines. It's the first place I've seen. In fact, I think there's only one standard that's different between the city and county. And I think you guys wanted a bigger, this is before your time, but you wanted a bigger wetland buffer and so you got that put in the code. That is the only difference between the land uh the land use plan and and development code uh in wellness way between the city and county. That is a remarkable achievement for intergovernmental cooperation.

1:54:14•0

Um you're don't forget the landscape code. What's that? The landscape code is different, too.

1:54:18 – 1:56:09•0

Well, yeah. And you're head of the county and and uh you know, there's if there's some criticism of me for having some private sector background. My my firm I do about 50/50 public and private. I'm very much uh probably the source of your alternative landscape code from the Sunbridge project which we developed five or six years ago and it has because your staff came out to look at it, attended conferences and saw the benefit of that. Um you know so you get some of the benefit of my private sector involvement in in evolving um local policy. Um the and your code is probably I know you're headed in a direction of formbbased codes, but if you really look at the wellness way code, it's got a lot of formbbased stuff in it, more so than anything in your existing codes. And people often say, well, we haven't seen anything. We haven't seen anything unique. Unfortunately, the Lenar development was brought into the city under a development agreement prior to the adoption of the wellness way plan. So, it doesn't have the neighborhood design principles that you would see, but um you've got some great park standards and codes that have been written um and you're going to get some great neighborhood design. So, I've kind of gone well beyond the discussion to here. I don't get a chance to speak to you often. a contract does call for periodic updates to the council. I think your prior leadership and prior management wanted to do that themselves. Um the prior city manager was very active, took over the the monthly meetings with the the stakeholder group. I'm happy to come here anytime and give you updates because you need to hear what's going on in the unincorporated area

1:56:08 – 1:57:06•0

and oftentimes you don't get the benefit of that and the county doesn't necessarily hear some of the benefits that some of the things that you're doing. So I stand ready to um share with you whatever whenever um there's a lot going on and if you look at my monthly submitt um with my um to the manager's office you'll see enormous number of things that are going on. The creation of the wildlife corridor um isn't directly affect the city because it's not in the city, but it's a huge important um environmental policy that we were able to get um a dedication of large land holdings from developers to establish and protect the wildlife corridor through Wellness Way. You don't hear that stuff because you might not be directly involved, but it's stuff that's hot and active in the unincorporated area. So, I've gone on too long. I'm happy to answer any other questions you might have.

1:57:04 – 1:58:30•0

Thank you. Uh, Mr. Levy, uh, as council person strange stated before, this contract isn't between us and Mr. Levy. It's between the county and the city. Um, I I will add this though. Um, when I became mayor, uh, the wellness waiver was dropped in our lap. It was all approved and everything up in the county. Yeah. And prior administration, uh, approved pretty much everything that was in there. A couple things I did get chance to approve. Uh, and previous when I came in, we didn't have a clue what was going on, okay, with Wellness Way and we were trying to weed our way through through all that. Mr. Levy mentioned the fact that we used to have monthly meetings. the prior city uh previous city manager when he came in uh we all sit down and looked at all this and said okay what are we doing here we trying to figure out what was going on because we did not have too much say so in it so that's why we started having monthly meetings which I would love to see us get back to Mr. bandwagon. I think it was the second Friday of each month. We we met in the city center. All the stakeholder holders met over the city center and we was able to sit down and figure out what was going on and that's how we actually got things moving in in in wellness way. At that time it was at a a standstill and we didn't know what was what. Okay. Um

1:58:28 – 1:59:08•0

Mayor, if I might, the county has reinstituted a monthly meeting. Okay. Focused on economic development. I know your staff has been invited. Um it's about getting the land owners, developers, the all the um agencies together to talk about strategies for job creation, right? And so they have reconvened. In fact, I think the first time we just met was at your city center. So I think there there is momentum to do those monthly meetings. So So who initiated that? The county. The county did. Did you know that? Yeah. Okay. I did not know that. We we we had that last month and we

1:59:06 – 1:59:50•0

Commissioner Parks has asked us to start that forward. So the staff and I met with him and we had our first meeting last month and supposed to have another one in January. Well, I know I spoke with Commissioner Parks once a couple months back and we had said we would love to see it go again. and he thought that's where we were making the most productive production down in the wellness way area when we was having that meeting because we were bringing all the stakeholders together and 40 50 people in the room at one time trying to decide coordinating what's going on down there. Um well item number nine reverts back to October 1st 2025 and I would like us to get those funds from the county. So I'm going to move to approve item number nine. Mhm. Second. Okay.

1:59:48 – 2:00:00•0

Have a motion and a second to approve item item number nine. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? Let it be known by saying I. I. I.

1:59:58 – 2:01:04•0

All opposed. Chair vote eyes as well. Motion passes. 50. Thank you. Item number 11, request for proposal. I pulled this um simply because I would like to see a greater effort um from our staff on reaching out to local businesses. I've not been quiet about that [clears throat] and I would like to see more local businesses aware of what it is that we are putting out for bid uh aware of how to apply and I just don't think that however this proposal was done it pulled from our community local businesses who should be more than qualified to do commercial real estate brokerage. I'm mindful that as we look to surplus some of the real estate that we have, it's several million dollars worth of real estate, which is several million dollar or quite a bit of money uh in the form of commissions. And so I would like to just see this go back for bid and um our staff focus on making sure that we're educating the public on what it is that we're bidding out and not just relying on the the email system. So that's it. I just would like to see it go back out for bid.

2:01:01 – 2:01:26•0

Okay. Um, this is a public hearing. Anybody anyone in the public wish to address this item may come to the microphone, state your name and address and have three minutes. Anyone in the public wish to address this item may come to the microphone, state your name and address and have three minutes. See no one in the house. Uh, is there anyone online? Hold on.

2:01:26 – 2:01:52•0

Yes, ma'am. Not to belabor the point made by Councilwoman Strange, but I am curious as to how this list was was put together. I know that a lot of people didn't know about it and a lot of people are questioning how the list was put together considering it's very valuable city property that we're selling. Um, okay, ma'am. Thank you. Anyone else?

2:01:52 – 2:02:35•0

Anyone else? Seeing no one else, I bring it back to council. Uh, hold on. Uh before Freddy, [sighs and gasps] I know we have standard procedures how we do everything. Uh and of course I know Miss Strange, this is one of her big uh big concerns is making sure our local businesses uh bid on on these RFPs when we put them out there other than the fact that I mean we've always gone through this uh motion and everything. Um I don't think anything else we can do except of actually go to our local businesses personally pay them a personal visit and try to encourage them to uh submit. But we what else can we do?

2:02:32•0

Last month we conducted a uh webinar for local businesses how to do business with the city of Claremont.

2:02:38 – 2:04:34•0

It was online. We reached out to all the business businesses in the in I'm sorry I lost my in the local in chambers southwest chambers. uh uh and they in turn reach out to them let them know about our proposals our bids are going out right now and uh and also the um the webinar as well and every time we get an opportunity we reach out to try to dig up vendors in the local area to let them know hey with this business out there if you're interested please reply I'll send them a information how to raise online with a with a guide step-by-step guide how to do to do so online so we try our best to incorporate local business all the time for all our bids and proposals Okay. But so we are re reaching out and and I must admit for for many many years you've won the award for for your office of procurement office been one of the best procurement office in the nation. So I think we're doing all we can to reach them but if they don't submit I don't know what else we can do. Okay we can't make them submit. All right. And I I understand the need to try to and I I support that. That's why I'm very involved with the chamber and everything else. I support local businesses as much as I can and everything, but if they don't want to submit um a proposal, I just don't know what else we can do. Um, of course, one of the other things I have with things like this um which I keep voicing is the fact that we go out with RFP and I always thought RFP was to get to try to get the best of the best of the best out there. And when we go through the process and everything, evaluating everything, we still end up here uh in here like we doing again and saying we want to take two of them. Why do we need two? Uh last week, last month, uh we had one and I think we had one with five. We want all five. Why do we need five companies when we send our RFP out? I don't understand that.

2:04:32 – 2:05:17•0

The um evaluation committee has the option to once they finish evaluating who do who do I make award recommendation to, right? Um so sometimes they may choose three, four, one. I mean how many as they they think we should the city might need for those services. In this case they chose the top three top three right and all and of course we can we can my understanding we we trying to do a contract with all three. My thing is why do we need to do a contract with all three? If we send out an RFP with our scope of work and our requirements and everything, we should be narrowing it down to one one company and going with that one company is that's always been my process in all my years of doing these things.

2:05:14 – 2:05:53•0

So lately here we we we doing these RFPs and talking about hiring three and four of them. Yes. Why don't we just have one? Yeah. See, is that uncommon? For example, architectural firms, engineering firms usually hire up to five uh because we switch them around. We just Okay. you know, we always visit with different type of services, type of words that that's needed for the city. So, having multiple vendors is actually helpful for a staff. Okay. So, you're saying is for if one person is available, then you have another one that is approved. That's that's the thought process. Also, it also comes down to expertise as well. For example, one company may be an expert on the water utilities. Okay.

2:05:51 – 2:06:02•0

And another engineering firm maybe expert in something else landscaping. So, we try to like cover all that bases with multiple vendors. uh lots of different points. Thank you.

2:06:00 – 2:06:41•0

My concern with this one is this is commercial brokerage services and whoever is trying to sell this real estate is going to benefit from knowing about Claremont and having connections in Claremont. Being able to speak to what is Claremont and what is this piece of real estate and why it's important and what is the history and yes, a good broker can do that anywhere. They can look on the internet just as much as I can look on the internet. But Mr. Bane, I'm curious your thoughts here in the real estate business. I mean, I was just shocked. I thought every firm on here would be from Claremont because I think we have enough brokers here to be able to do the work that needs to be done.

2:06:39 – 2:08:37•0

I certainly I don't want to speak for the industry. Um, but I I I um I think that brokerages cover different specialties. And while our license allows my license as a real estate agent allows me to work in residential and commercial, I would not accept a commercial client. I would not accept a residential client in Miami. I would not accept a residential client in Panama City, but my license allows me to do that. And so I think when you look at scopes of projects like this, different brokerages are going to look at who do they have on staff, what are their specialties, what is their workload for the coming year, and would they then bid for that. That's at least what I would look at if I were the broker deciding whether or not to submit. I will say that um having conversations with colleagues in the in the field um it it is known at least in the circles uh of conversations that I've had that this is every two years the city puts this out. Uh we did this two years ago and and awarded I think to two if not three um real estate agencies, brokerages. Um and I you know I understand the the concern with multiple I think it sometimes doesn't make sense but where um uh where the context comes in of it there are specialties there are folks who um even in the real estate world we know or I'm sure in the legal world you know attorneys that if you have somebody who says I really have a specific situation is there someone specific that I could work with or that you would recommend end and so we try to I think bring in a couple more people. I I don't have a problem in this realm because it allows us to tap into those because of the uniqueness of property. Um

2:08:33 – 2:09:57•0

I hear what um Council Member Strange is saying with regard to process. My concern about uh holding this award up on process is we should establish the process moving forward. And so I think maybe we found our January workshop topic um is a if we want to create a different established policy or process by which we say to the procurement department, hey, it's the consensus of the council that we we would like you to do X, Y, and Z, A, B, and C on these bids for local vendors. Let's put that out there for them rather than to bring up the procurement staff and and say, "We're not happy with the the the uh responses or potential um solicitation of responses from local businesses. Let's give them the guidance that that they they can use to actually put that in place." And so, preference-wise for me today, I'd rather approve this and then schedule the workshop to create some parameters um for the staff. Well, I I hear what you're saying about bringing up staff, but that's one of the reason about what else besides and like I say, I know Freddy office has been doing a fantastic job year after year after year. They they're awarded for that and they're recognized for the work. So, I'm just curious what else this office can do.

2:09:55 – 2:10:38•0

Yeah. And I'm not saying that there is and by all means. What what I think though is is that it's always good to look at our practices to see if they align with best practices and if there are things that we can do that um I'm I'm sure that our staff would rather hear from the council if this is what you want tell us what you want so we can go implement it. And I'm just saying maybe we need to have that workshop to to set that for them rather than delay decisions without actually providing the guidance. You want to make a motion on that? I would make a motion to approve uh item number 11. A second.

2:10:37 – 2:11:21•0

I have a motion and a second for approval of item number 11 as presented. Any further discussion? Thank you. All in favor? Let me be by saying I. I oppos. Chair vote I as well. Motion pass is 50. Um did you want to make a motion to put this on uh this on the workshop in January? I I don't know that I need a motion per se, but I think it it sounds like if any of the other side, if you agree that we'd like to have that conversation, maybe set some parameters, maybe that would help our staff be in a better position moving forward. Mr. Van Wagner, if you add for January workshop, add the uh procurement office to the workshop, please, sir.

2:11:19 – 2:12:04•0

Item number 16. I pulled this one. Same concerns. Um this bid did not this did not go out for bid. This is a piggyback. The company is based out of California. It's $185,000 of taxpayer dollars that we would be sending to California. And I would like to see this go out for a bid rather than a piggyback. All right. This is a public forum. Anyone in the public wish to address this item may come to the microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes. Anyone in the public wish to address this item may come to the microphone, state your name and address and have three minutes. Seeing no one in the house, do we have anyone online? Sir, there's no one on.

2:12:02•0

Okay. So, I'm going close public comment. Bring it back to council. What say council?

2:12:07 – 2:13:51•0

Uh, thank you, mayor. I guess my question for staff would be, uh, are we aware of anyone locally that could meet the qualifications and whomever would be most responsible to or informative to answer that? Hi, Wayne Fountain, IT director for the city of Claremont. Um, the project that you're looking at there, um, the first the the company that's doing the work, the deployment of that is not a California company. So, what we did is we looked at our phone system. It was end of life. We've had a existing vendor that's been supporting our phone system and doing a good job of it since 2009. uh our existing phone system is end of life. We can add no more user accounts to it. We can add no more um uh new items to it. It was it was truly end of life. So they proposed that we we upgrade to a pure VOIPE system that um that there are several vendors out there. The the California company that was referenced by uh Council Member Strange is um is a national company that provides the VoIP service itself. Um, so Ring Central is the company that we chose to do that uh to provide that service for us. They're one of about four or five services. They're all national or international companies. So, um the the contract was just an extension of the not contract, the uh the proposal was to bring forward the monies that was set aside last year for this upgrade and to uh to go ahead and move forward with the upgrade of the phone system and to replace the end of life products. Hopefully that

2:13:50 – 2:14:33•0

clears that up a little bit. Mr. Freddy, [laughter] I hate hate picking on you tonight, Freddy, but did uh did this go out for bid at all? No, it did not. It was up, you know. So, can we put it out for bid? We could. Yeah, it's possible. Um, we put it out for bid. How long How long would that process take? About the Well, the bid will have to be on the street for about 30 45 days, more or less. About 30 days. Okay. And then once we get the results back, I have to bring it to council for approval. And of course, we check the references and make sure the company can do the work before it comes back. Okay.

2:14:30 – 2:15:10•0

And once we we do the uh bid and come back approve a bid uh how long it I guess we can say have a system in place once we award the bid and everything that will determine depending upon the company. I know on the company they they'll provide us the timeline for completion. My my curiosity Mr. Uh Wayne, uh as our system so bad I I would say at least 60 days if we go out for bid right now probably. Right. Yeah. About Yes sir. If if I could just add one thing Wayne and I were talking about the group that we have right now is out of Ocala. Okay. And they know our system. Okay.

2:15:08 – 2:15:40•0

And that's very important than starting with a brand new vendor. Okay. Has to learn the system. So there's some consideration in that that I just want you all to be aware of. So, we can do that. But there's something to be said about somebody who understands your services when it comes to police and fire and public works and all these things. And I don't mean that anything other than information. So, we all know that that that Thank you for adding that because that one of my other question to Mr. Wayne is how long we've been working with this company. This is the one we've been had all al for the last how many years?

2:15:38 – 2:16:34•0

Yeah. 2009 was when the vendor started. So, so to expand a little bit on Thank you for that. Uh to expand on that just a little bit, the the phone system is is more than just a phone that we get from a phone vendor. The um the the call routing, the different groups, the the voicemails, all the setup that's there. That's what most of the local work is going to this vendor for. Um and to to get that to go out to bid, that new person would have to do to to get that information, they would have to do discovery. Uh, and when they bid that, if I was bidding it, which I I used to be in private practice, if if I uh if I were to bid it, I would have to allow time for that. So, that's why this this was a logical choice for us. Not to say that we can't do it, and certainly if if council wishes that to be done, we're here to serve. But that that was why the choice was made the way it was made.

2:16:32 – 2:17:05•0

But, uh, I'll go back to my other question prior to that was the inconvenience would it put on the staff if we were to try to send it out for bid and how long it take? What I how mean what's your estimate how long it probably would take if we went out for bid and how how much inconvenient and stress would that put on us and the system I know in this is also not just the phone but it's also a lot of the uh equipment we're using here as well. Well, as far as as far as the stress on on staff that I don't you know I don't think it brings a significant stress on staff. Okay.

2:17:02 – 2:17:47•0

The um the stress comes with knowing that we can't add any new people. We've we've hired new people here. We've we've robbed from one place to put in others. We've taken extensions from different places at the city in order to facilitate those new people. We don't have any ability to expand on this because they've dropped support for this system. Okay. So, if we were to engage in in this, we would put that off. What did you say, Freddy? 30 45 days. 30 45 days to initiate a contract, then they would they would need to do discovery as well. So, however much time that would take, let's say it would take 30 days, we would just be putting ourselves in that that zone of if this died today, where would we be? Right.

2:17:45 – 2:18:19•0

But I it it won't bring any extra stress on the staff. So, it it whatever you guys would like to do, we're ready to do it. Okay. Well, all right. That's okay. Anybody? Yes, sir. Okay. I mean it it says in this first statement that you would approve this vendor. So you just approve it as a sole vendor Freddy. Is that what you're saying? This one's yours. Yeah. It's it's a piggyback contract is already being bid out before another entity. So it was bid out prior to this.

2:18:17 – 2:19:02•0

Yeah. So we're doing is using the the the prices for for the city. I mean a lot of times the reason I piggyback a lot of those countries because we don't have the the the purchasing power that all the cities or counties have. So I take advantage of the bigger counties going out for bid getting the best price they can and we just use piggy back the contract to get the price here for clear. Okay. And we actually had this in budget last year and we just pushed it right. Okay. Okay. I'm okay with it. Uh is there I'll move to approve item number 16. Second. Okay. I have a motion and a second for approval of item number 16. Uh any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor let it be known by saying I. I I All oppose.

2:19:00 – 2:19:41•0

Nay. And chair vote I as well. Motion passes 4 to one. Okay. Item number 17. I think I I pulled that one. Um consider purchase an appro purchase approval on the Florida Sheriff Association cor cooperative purchasing program contract for bush truck for fire station number five. So, I pulled that because we're looking at $570,000 here for a bush truck and I'm not sure if we really need a bush truck in Clout. Okay. Most of the bushes, the bush area, wild area I see in Clout is mostly in the county.

2:19:39 – 2:20:08•0

It's the brush truck for Wellness Way region where the conservative abuts all of the neighborhoods when we've had fires. Our chief has talked about it before and he's here. He can answer. Rush fires. Yes. Yeah. Now we almost lost an entire street to a brush fire. Right. And I believe there was something in Wellness Way in the past that you almost lost homes over there because of the lack of water of the existing brush truck. Correct.

2:20:05 – 2:21:25•0

Good afternoon, Mayor Council. Uh that is correct. We have had uh we have had brush fires down in the Wellness Way area. Our biggest concern as we build out down there is the uh is the urban interface we have with the conserve. That's about 5,000 acres that will not be built out. Um, even though that's outside of the incorporated city limits, it borders up on our neighborhoods. It's very similar to what happened a couple years ago in Heritage Hills where the CMX plant caught fire. We had about 200 acres there that ended up burning. Uh, we came very close to losing at least 20 homes over there. Uh, one of the biggest deficiencies that we noted during that operation was that our current brush truck only carries 200 gallons of water. So, by the time they had exhausted, they they were able to make some headway with a fire with the 200 gallons they had, but then they had to go break off, go back and refuel, and they lost all that ground that they gained with having a limited water supply. The brush truck that we're looking at carries a thousand gallons of water. So, that's five times what our current brush truck carries. It's also more water than any other apparatus in our fleet carries. And it it actually falls into the category of being a tanker. It's something that's actually going to give us the ability to if we have a large fire like that that's going on a windy day, we'll actually be able to make a dent in it. And this truck is also or capable in getting into more areas than what our current brush truck is. And

2:21:23 – 2:22:11•0

Mr. Mayor, I share what I think are your concerns as you express them. I I do feel like this is the kind of thing that the county should be contributing towards. I think it's caused by the the county space. However, we know what challenges we're having with the county right now with emergency response and the I'm I'm very interested in what the Wellness Way representatives have to say that are out here because most of the impact fees where this is going to come from were paid by the residents down at Wellness Way. So, I'm in support of this because I feel like it's something we do need to do, but I would 100% support a letter going to the county to ask for a contribution um to help pay for it because I do think it's a result of that shared interface in the Wellness Way region.

2:22:08 – 2:22:32•0

Well, and and Chief mentioned the the brush fire over by the cement plants. That's actually in the county. We damaged our truck out there as well, didn't we? Yep. Yeah, we lost the truck. Who who had to pay for that? Yep, we did. the county reimburse us for any of that damage [clears throat] to our vehicle out there helping them with their fire. What do we get? $100 a call. Is it 500 for those calls? It's 500 for buyers.

2:22:29 – 2:23:11•0

So, but and that that's my concern uh Miss Strange is the fact that I'm not saying we probably don't need a BR, but we have one now. Do we need to spend this kind of money on one most of the brush in our in the city that we were actually responsible for? Not very much. Okay. Most of it is in the county. You're 100% right. You see, so why why are we and we do have a brush a brush truck right now that's well this a little I guess you're saying the tank is a little small but still we spend a lot of money uh for a brush truck to really help the county out and maybe we can go to ask maybe we need to go to the county and ask for okay so

2:23:09 – 2:23:54•0

well the fires may be in the county but they are threatening city of Claremont homes we have the agreement with the county as well that we have to respond is is when the call go out the first one there is responsible and everything which nine times out of 10 we going to be there first and everything simply because our location their locations are stations and all we going to usually be there be the first responding um just like I had the concern I'm still puzzled when we had to respond to a fire all the way on 33 in Groveland and we was the first unit to respond in Groveland miles [clears throat] away okay we're just that good sir huh we're just that good I I agree we're that good but it's costing us because we're not getting me reimbured for all these things. I agree.

2:23:52 – 2:25:51•0

You know, that's my concern. Okay. Uh but this is a public hearing. Uh anyone in the public wish to address this issue may come to the microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes. Joe from Wellness Way. Um I'm glad that you are sitting in your neighborhood and you're safe uh and surrounded by several fire departments. I live on the end of the city and I have none down there currently. So there was a huge brush fire that was on the county and the city line. So who responded? Claremont. That's who the one that we can depend on. And last time I remember I pay city taxes. Pretty high city taxes. What about the $2.1 million that PY contributed to get 149 houses for towards the fire department? Correct. For the wellness way area. So, I think we have the money. $16 million. Didn't a lot of those impact fees come from the Wellness Way area. I think we're owed something. Last time I went down and checked that fire out. Maybe you should go take a look at it. Right there on the five mile when we had a huge fire across the street from Southern Hill Farms. Oh, the county is responsible. Yeah. But guess who came? Claremont. First in, last out. And Orange County. They sent Orange County sent four fire trucks. Claremont sent four trucks. The farmhouse almost got devoured. The county sent one truck. Let's be honest here. Are you worried about the safety of the people of the city of Claremont? Because we are the city. So, I really think that you should think twice about that. And because of your bad design and your consultant was just here, we only have one water system that comes down to Wellness Way. If that water system breaks during a fire, we have no water access to the whole areas.

2:25:48 – 2:27:47•0

Olympus, Parkside, Wellness Ridge. We'll have no water if that line gets damaged during a fire. So, I think you should think twice about that. We need a truck to come down there. Where's the nearest water tanker? Well, the county showed me it's clear up almost to Mount Dora. We'd have to wait. So, I think that you owe us a little bit of safety this time. And I think that a lot of my residents are going to agree with this. So please give us this truck which is going to be better to help serve our area. We get lightning strikes up there all the time. Do you get lightning strikes in your neighborhood? You got plenty of response time. You're surrounded by a fire department. We're not. Thank you. Good afternoon city or I should say good evening city council. My name is Vincent Neimik Regency Hills very intelligent man. He took half of my speech but see he lives on the outskirts the south part of Claremont. Imagine this. He lives on the outside. I live on the inside of Claremont or I used to be the outside until we annexed in all those other homes. You know what's between us? Brush fire potential. Okay, let me refresh your memory for those that haven't been on the board, but your honor, you have been on the board and I'm a little appalled by that comment you made. Okay, and I'm not here to beat you up, sir. St. John's Lake, uh, John's Lake, the big fire we had three years ago. How many counties or how many cities came to help us? Okay, he's right. This fire chief deserves more than what he gets. First in, first out, but there's a lot of potential. Okay, Claremont is not, you know, there's a

2:27:45 – 2:28:23•0

woman that comes up here and all she talks about is the city of Claremont. There's over 50,000 residents in Claremont, okay? And it's growing not from the inside out, but from the outside in. And that's what we have to protect. I'm not here to beat you up, your honor, but there's a lot of people watching this that their jaws hit the floor by you saying we don't need a brush struck. Okay? Please reconsider your con your thoughts. Thank you and have a blessed day. Thank you. Anyone else?

2:28:25 – 2:29:34•0

Anna Sinclair 575 West Mola. I do not live in the Wellness Way area. However, I have heard time and time again that the response time for emergency services is wolffully low. And this is from the county. Um, our fire department wants to be in there. They want to provide EMT and fire services. However, they cannot because we currently do not have that uh station. They are now requesting that we provide them with the resources to provide the wellness way area with uh fire suppression and EMT services and that includes that brush truck. I understand that it is a lot of money and this tanker has a lot of capacity which is great because a brush fire doesn't care about the arbitrary lines that we draw on a map. If a brush fire starts there, it can spill over to the city very very easily. And also, let's be real, the county is not responding well to the crisis that the wellness way residents are facing. So, I think it is only fair that we provide um our citizens with the services that they need in order to stay alive during these types of situations. So, I hope that you consider purchasing that brush truck. Thank you.

2:29:32 – 2:29:52•0

Thank you. Anyone else? This is a public forum. Anyone in the public wish to address this item may come to the microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes. Anyone else? Mr. Wayne, we have anybody on? Nobody on. Okay. Well, then I'm going close down public comment.

2:29:57 – 2:30:42•0

Person uh ver person on the line, please state your name and address and have three minutes. This is Kevin Colway Way. Uh with the amount of construction uh going on at Wellness Way, thousands of homes being made, I think naturally the risk of a fire goes up exponentially. So please reconsider. We really need to expand our or at least support our fire station or at least have something um because we're as we expand there's there's always more risk. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else?

2:30:45•0

Person in the queue online. Go ahead and state your name and address now and have three minutes.

2:30:53 – 2:32:29•0

This is I live uh in Rich 779 Loop. I was actually the one that called in the fire at on the 28th on five mile road that was about to spill over was roughly about four acres. The first ones to respond within 10 minutes was the Claremont Fire Department. Uh that brush fire was starting to head towards the Wellness Ridge uh subdevelopment over there and ultimately would have carried on further. Also used to be a volunteer firefighter to remain. So I'm very well aware of what brush fires ultimately do based upon the amount of fuel uh heat and winds. So I would definitely uh reconsider the requirements essentially for you know having a brush truck and a backup. So actually having the ability to respond to two different areas uh because you will need to ultimately flank uh the fire on each side depending on where the fuel source is. there is uh the conversation with our subdivision on the 17th to potentially be annexed into the city but up against the Olympus project. So not only does this affect our current status as being uninccorporated, but it affects our ability at some point to become part of the city. So, we like the ability for the reconsideration of this fire truck to actually be put in place in the brush truck uh to be able to actually have capacity to address these things in the event that one goes down, the other one ultimately is the backup. Thank you.

2:32:25 – 2:32:42•0

Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing no one else, I close public comment. Bring it back to council. Move to approve item number 17, the brush truck for fire station number five. I second.

2:32:41 – 2:33:45•0

Have a motion in a second to approve item number 17 uh for the brush truck. Uh let me before I call the motion, let me say this. Um it's not, as I said before, it's not that I don't think we need a brush truck. I I'm just having problem trying to spend this money amount of money for a new brush truck when most of the most of the fires and areas of responsibilities fall on the county. And I guess I'll go back to uh Councilman Strange and everything. Maybe we need to be talking with the county and see what they what help. Uh because I'm a I'm here's what I feel. We have the equipment here and the county very seldom respond. We going to always be first and I know that. Okay. I've been around here too many too many years to know that usually when alarm fire go off, alarm go off, climola now, they move a fire truck uh station farther up on the north side. So what our responsibility in Minnola is picking up even as well. So what kind of reimbursement we getting from all this?

2:33:43 – 2:34:09•0

Would the council support a letter going to the county to request 50% match from the county? Yes. Yes, Mr. Wall. No problem. Great. All right. We can ask. We can Well, you know, I just I just know it's cheaper than the 2.6 million they're getting for our EMS. So maybe maybe we'll get something.

2:34:06 – 2:34:44•0

And I think this go I mean I don't I don't want to have a whole conversation that's different than this item, but I think this goes to the point of the conversation of services in general um related to public safety, police, fire, EMS, ambulance. Um, you know, I think I don't want to speak for all 52,000 plus people in Claremont, but the reality is is that I don't think really anyone cares whose name is on the side of the truck or car that responds that when you dial 911, you want lights, sirens, and personnel. Yeah.

2:34:40 – 2:35:13•0

And so, um, I get the frustration, but at the end of the day, and you and folks can unelect me, but I'm going to approve this to to protect our citizens even if the fire starts elsewhere. Um, because that is the responsibility that we have. Um, and I'm all for asking the county to partner with us and be be a player, be a team member. Um particularly in this area where we have such checkerboard

2:35:10 – 2:35:53•0

city county mapping um again if you asked most people in that area I think you half of them or more would say they're not sure whether they're city or county. Again it doesn't matter. We if we have a fire we need to respond and we need to protect. Um and so and and this was in the budget conversation and approved. I I did ask the chief about that. This isn't a a new item. This is an item that was discussed during the budget process. So, I think, you know, I I I commend the chief and I commend city staff for for talking to us in the middle of the year for when these things come up that we have some ability to know that these should be coming and I appreciate that. That's an excellent point.

2:35:52 – 2:36:31•0

Okay. I have a motion and second for approval item number 17. Was that part of the motion to go ahead and I I think so to to have the the the letter. Uh yeah. Yeah. And then at the end if they show up with the fire department and crowbars, right? And um well not contingent sarcasm needs to Yeah. But we No, but we would we would want it to be included in but we're still approving it. Yes. Exactly. Okay. My motion is not contingent upon the letter of the res. It's not contingent. Did I move? I understand that we

2:36:29 – 2:36:55•0

I would just have one recommendation. If we are going to talk to the county about a cost share, which I fully support, I would ask that we make sure that we maintain ownership and control of that resource. Yeah. I just want the money. That's right. Yeah, we will. Yeah. No strings, just the money. Any further discussions? All in favor, let it be known by saying I. I.

2:36:51 – 2:37:32•0

All oppose. chair vote I as well mo motion passes 50 [clears throat] uh 18 and 19 I'll pull these two basically and I'm I'mma talk about both of them together because there's some confusion not did I have it um in 18 we talking about $240,000 then in n and 19 we're talking two 620,000 um I guess I need some clarity on this one because it my understanding that the 69 19 and the funds for 619 also included the 440,000. So why we got both of them on the agenda?

2:37:28 – 2:38:12•0

Uh it's a purchasing process that I went through. Freddy and I went back and forth. I wanted everything in one council agenda item. But but because we're doing one as an emergency purchase, the other one is a piggyback. We uh Freddy said we had to have them spread out into two items. Um but I put all the financials into which I believe item item 19. That's the total amount of the entire project. So, okay. The total amount of the project is 621. So, so the 240,000 isn't part of it. The the the 240 is included in the 621. I guess that's my confusion. Why why we got the two of them on there? I I it's it's

2:38:10 – 2:38:32•0

So, what you're saying is item 18 is an emergency order so that we can get it here in time. Yes. And then 19 is a summary of all of it. So, we're approving 621,000. Correct. Not 850 or not. Yeah. Item 17, it's a unified discussion, but there's components to that discussion.

2:38:30 – 2:39:10•0

Yeah. Item 17 is just for the building for the crew to live in, and that is only for the purchase of the building. They basically show up and say, "Here it is. Do what you want with it." So item 18 is for the company to come in and do all the site work. Also build the uh the this the uh the building for this for the truck to go in and get the building for the crews installed. Get all the utilities hooked up, you know, get concrete port, all the other things that has to be done in order for us to have a turnkey station. So the total project price is that 621. 621. Correct. Okay. Not the nine or well close to nine that I was looking at. Okay. And that's what I was the main thing I was trying to get clear.

2:39:08 – 2:39:38•0

I apologize for the confusion. I I was I wasn't expecting we were going to have some of this. We tried to simplify it as best we could. Um it seemed a little bit awkward to have the the financial spread out. I mean I I can appreciate that you want the total project cost. Okay. All right. I have a just a clarification for the chief and I asked this in our meeting. Uh just for the general public, could you inform the timeline for for this if it's if approved tonight when it would be up and running?

2:39:36 – 2:40:27•0

Well, the site is not currently ready. Uh I'm having regular conversations with uh with Mike Carroll from Olympus. Uh we actually spoke this morning on this. So, our goal, and he's he's in agreement, is for the site to be ready in March. So, a few things have to happen. We got to get the county on board with getting some roadway improvements done. I'm going to be talking with Nathan to kind of get him plugged in on that. Uh there's some other players that Olympus wants to bring into the conversation as far as sharing the costs on it. U but that's that's everybody's aware that that is the goal. Um other things that are that are important to this conversation. Um I told Olympus that we needed to be able to have use of the site through the end of 2027. U they are currently working on the temporary agreement. They say we will have it before the end of December. I'll get that over to Mr. Wall. We'll have that back to council for the uh for the January meeting for your review and approval. [snorts]

2:40:26 – 2:41:54•0

Thank you. Thank you. This is a public hearing. Anyone in the public wish to address this item may come to the microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes. Joe from Wellness Way. Uh I support this because it'll bring emergency services closer. The response times will be cut in half. So if somebody in my community like the unfortunate incident that we had down there will be cut in half. If my friend's dad falls out again, at least it'll be 3 minutes for a paramedic to get there and not 12 minutes. So, I think this is the first half of the pie to accomplish to become more uh emergency services for us as a whole down there in the city. I think that this is a good step and I hope you'll support it. It's very important that we have some emergency protection down there. I know that. And not only that, it'll help keep the fire department in the south when they do the revamp station two, right? So, it's kind of closed to have them right around the corner instead of up the street. So, thank you.

2:41:52 – 2:42:35•0

Thank you. Yes, sir. I'll keep this short. Uh, Council Vincent Demick, Regency Hills. Uh just remember less than a year ago there was a councilman that set up there and you all saved the city $14 million. This is a drop in the bucket to ask for a temporary firehouse. All right. What are we asking for? A little bit less than three quarters of a I'm lost, Brian. I'm sorry. Thank you, sir. Compared to $14 million. All right. So, this should be an easy vote for all five of you. Thank you. Have a blessed day. Thank you. Anyone else?

2:42:41 – 2:43:20•0

Good evening, council. Mike Kramer, 208 nautical mile. I found out one thing coming to these meetings. When chief needs something, he has his he has his things in order. He has his budgets in order. He doesn't ask for anything more. attorney is extremely creative when it comes to figuring out how to get things done and we all know that there's problem at well in this way. You've heard the people speak tonight. You know what you've got to do. We've got to help support our fire department, support our police department. But when Chief asked for it, he doesn't mess around. He he gets the point and he brings a clean budget to you. So, thank you, Chief.

2:43:17 – 2:43:55•0

Thank you. Anyone else? Anyone else? This is a public. Anyone in public wish the address I make on the microphone state your name and address and have three minutes. Hannah Sinclair 575 West Minola just wanted to say really quick that I approve of this motion like the idea of having a temporary fire station so that we can provide fire services and EMD services faster to that area. That makes sense to me and the expense doesn't seem too high compared to the cost of building a brand new uh fire station. So thank you. Thank you. Anyone in the queue?

2:43:56 – 2:44:08•0

Okay, those uh first one on in the queue uh waiting. State your name and address and have three minutes.

2:44:05 – 2:44:55•0

Good evening everybody. This is Lan 2659 Runner Circle. I just said I couldn't have said it better than what Joe said. Uh, on top of my head, I can think of two huge accidents that we had on wellness way where we had to bring helicopters over. Um, and I don't see any downsides of having a fire station and EMT services available for the residents. Um, I can attest that most of my neighbors, including myself, we have children. Um, you know, elderly is going to be an active community, 55 plus, uh, on wellness weight as well. And just having that accessibility for fire station and EMT services. I mean, it's it's essential. That's pretty much what I'd have to say and I I hope you guys take that in consideration as well. Thank you very much.

2:44:53•0

Thank you. Next person in the queue, state your name and address and have three minutes.

2:45:05 – 2:45:34•0

Hi, good afternoon everybody. My name is Mateo um 6is Parkway. Um I am in support of this measure because this area will experience a lot of growth and emergency services will be needed to accommodate this. So I agree with um most of the neighbors in um that stated their previous statement. So thank you.

2:45:31 – 2:46:57•0

Thank you. And next person in the queue state your name and address and have three minutes. Hi, Bob 779 Loop. Um, as as most of the residents said and won't try to rehash essentially what's been explained about, but you know, as we look at significant residential expansion, single family communities, multi-units, uh, increased commercial activity. Uh, the goal ultimately is, you know, for the residents here to feel comfortable is, you know, the reducing response times both, you know, EMS, fire suppression really I look at as redundant coverage as I mentioned before the brush struck you know existing stations in Claremont and South Lake you know decreasing the strain on busy units so they improve outcomes for anybody in you know a cardiac event trauma and other structure fires uh and minimizing those delays overall um I have a a little one uh you know 11 months old he has certain you know debilitations that you know require you know immediate response to the event that there is an emergency event and unfortunately in the current situation that we are in right now with the county responding average response time typically sits around 26 minutes to 22 minutes at a minimum. So getting these response times down is certainly a matter of uh you know life saving activity. So I I hope you looked at this and approved this. Thank you.

2:46:53•0

Thank you. Anyone else? Wayne, that's it. See no one else in the

2:46:59 – 2:48:32•0

Mary Cisco. Hi Mary Cisco, resident 2946 Armstrong Avenue. I 100% ask and encourage your support for this as a healthc care provider and daughter to two aging parents in wellness way. Um these services and quicker response time is so needed as Joe and many of the other um residents have spoken. I've seen it firsthand. Um the slow response time has been um it's happened to our family and the delay in care of my father. So I I highly encourage and ask you to please consider this um and support this decision tonight for Wellness Way in our communities. Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing no one else, I'mma close uh public comment. Let me let me say this. I did not pull this in and not in support of it. My concern, as I stated before, was about the prices in involved here. Okay. Um in number 18, you were talking $240,000. And then in number 19, you're talking 621,000. Okay. That's almost $900,000. However, my what I was trying to get clarification because I was told that uh number 19 uh shouldn't be 621,000. And now you clarified with me that actually the 240 is included in the 6 621. So again, I still try to figure out why why the U 19 didn't read $380, 714.

2:48:30 – 2:48:52•0

That that's my fault, Mayor. See? Okay. And that that's my concern. Uh when you tell am I going to I'm being misled here saying uh 240 is in in the 620 because I'm looking at both of these and saying we almost spending 900,000 here. No, your total project cost is 621,000. And that that's all I was trying to get clarified here.

2:48:50 – 2:49:35•0

Yeah. And something else that may be good for the council as well as the public to understand is that uh these buildings that we're purchasing uh even though they're going to be semi-permanent uh they are re they can be reused. So we're looking at that uh with the training facility that we're developing uh you know other sites that we're looking at for uh potentially delivering services. I mean there'll be a cost to move them but it'll be considerably less expensive than going out and buying them again. So just because we're buying them for this location doesn't mean that we've lost that money. So, the only thing we're really going to be out is the site development, the concrete, uh, hook up to utilities, some other things like that. So, probably about 150, maybe 200,000 in this project, we'll we won't be able to recoup, but the rest of that we'll have a resource that we can reutilize.

2:49:34 – 2:50:08•0

Okay. I'd like to make a motion to approve item 18 and 19 or one at a time. Let's let's do 18. I second. Okay. We have a motion and approval. Um, second for approval of item 18. Uh any further discussion? No. None. All in favor let it be known by saying I. I. All oppose. Chair vote I as well. Motion pass 50 on 19. Um can we Mr. Watt? Can we change that 621 to 3807? I think if my math is right 387

2:50:06 – 2:50:51•0

I think you could move to say whatever the remaining amount is um under the you know from 621 and change. So now I'd like to make a motion to uh approve item 19 less the 240 from the six whatever second. There you go. Second. Shockingly I think that would hold up legally. [laughter] Um according to my mathematics that math works for me. Okay. 6218784. It's 300 380,714. I still second. Okay. All right. I have a motion and second for approval. Uh item number 19 uh in the total amount of $380 and $380,714. Any further discussion?

2:50:51 – 2:51:19•0

No. No. None. All in favor? Let it be known by saying I. I. All oppose. And chair vote I as well. I think number 20 we already take care. Number 21. Mayor, may I ask for a five to 10 minute recess? Yes, you may. [laughter] Uh five or 10. Let's do a 10-minute recess, please. Uh let's do let's compromise and do seven. Whatever works. We start. Huh?

2:51:14 – 2:52:32•0

5:30. Okay. We'll be back at 5:30. I knew it was [laughter] Hey. [music] [music] Hey. Hey. Hey, hey, hey, hey. [music] [music] [music]

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Heat. [music] [music] Heat. [music]

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All right. If I can have everyone find their way back to the seats, we'll go uh go ahead and get started.

3:01:21 – 3:01:33•0

All right, we we're going to call this uh meeting back to order. Yes, sir. Uh item number 21, amendment to resolution number 2023-023.

3:01:36 – 3:03:29•0

So good evening um Christian W city attorney. I think I'm handling this one mayor. Okay. Um I've had an opportunity to speak with some of y'all about it, but just to recap and for the public, um what's happened is we um there's a development that's been approved uh pursuant to a resolution for a conditional use permit back in 2023. Uh the development's come along. I I think that Meredith Nagel is an attorney representing the developer and they've made a lot of progress and an issue has arisen where the staff requires guidance from the city council. Essentially on the CUP, one of the terms in section two of the cup regarding land use indicates that the developer will generously dedicate about 1.963 acres um in the rear of the property to the city. Now, according to the terms of the cup itself, it doesn't say how the property will be restricted, if at all. It just says it'll be dedicated to the city. So, the city, myself in particular, has taken the position that when the property is deed to the city, it should come with no strings attached. However, it has come to light through Miss Nagel and others that there may have been prior discussions um that would influence the manner of that dedication. In other words, should there be a restriction? Should it be restricted to public use permanently? And should that be in the deed? Should it be restricted to parks use? Should it be restricted to a specific pickle ball court use? Staff, so you know, is agnostic on this um and just wants your guidance. And of course, with the input of Miss Nagel on how to take the property, um there's no argument that the property would be dedicated. No one's saying that it wouldn't be. The question is just how. And so this is now before you.

3:03:27•0

Okay. So basically what we're looking at is how basically we're looking at how how the uh property can be used in the future.

3:03:36 – 3:05:35•0

Yeah, that's right. Meredith Nagel on behalf of Gunther Motors. Just a couple a quick update. I don't know if you guys have been by there, but we are selling cars, employing people at very high wages. Uh our average salesperson makes north of $100,000. the sales man manager, finance manager almost $200,000. Technicians can make over $100,000 depending on experience. So these are very high wage jobs that we promised. We're already almost 50% full of employees. So things are going well there. Um we are operating right now under a temporary certificate of occupancy. The only issue remaining before the final CO is issued is this particular piece. Um, city staff and the city attorney and I have agreed on the other language in the deed dedicating the property. What we have asked for is a restriction on the use for parks and recreation use. Um, this was not part of the cup in 2023 because that council actually required the dedication for that purpose. So there was not any question and u you know Kirk can tell you there was never any question that this property was going to be dedicated for the city's use whether it would be for pickle ball courts which was very popular at the time. We did not yet have the expansion of the ark. Um there had been some talk about a city center as you heard from Miss Hoisington's but there was never a question it was going to be for public use under the 2024 administration. The issue became, was the property going to in fact be sold to the neighborhood developer or for some other income generating purpose? My client feels strongly that he wants to dedicate it for city use. He's um their family, he's the third generation uh in his family and they are big parts of the of the communities where they're involved and he felt it important that

3:05:31 – 3:07:11•0

it be maintained for public use. Now, I prefer it as a real estate lawyer in a deed restriction uh because I don't like ordinances that can go back and be redone. I also have some problems. I haven't had a chance to talk to Christian about it, but I don't know that I want to amend the ordinance and open all of that back up and some problems that that could give us uh that he could speak more to. But there is no, you know, idea that it it you know, my client wants it to be a pickle ball court or this that and the other thing. He just wants it to be for public use. Now, there had been some discussion of a skate park. We would be entirely opposed to that because we're going to have a whole bunch of cars sitting there. Nothing separating the skate park and the cars from a fence, but a fence. And I think that as you decide what you're going to put there, I would not, if I were on the council, I wouldn't vote for necessarily a pickle ball court right now because we don't know people are going to be playing pickle ball five or 10 years from now, right? So, that's not something we're trying to lock into. We just want you to be uh accept it for your use only. And whatever you put there, when you put it there, just be thoughtful to the fact that we've got a car dealership and a lot of um cars sitting there ready to be vandalized with nobody watching. Do you guys have any questions of me about the development as it's coming along or the dealership? We are already servicing um vehicles all over from Groveland, Claremont. Um, we have 12 Claremont employees there now and more coming. So, we're just really excited. You can tell I'm excited about that project.

3:07:09 – 3:07:38•0

Have any questions? I will ask I'll bring you back up again later. But first, let me open up to the public and see what anybody in the public has anything to say. Um, this is a public hearing. Anyone in the public wish to address this issue may come to the microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes. Anyone in the public wish to address this item may come to the microphone, state your name and address and have three minutes. Seeing no one, I close in house. Uh anyone online?

3:07:36 – 3:08:34•0

We have no one included. So I close public comment and bring it back to council. What say? Council Miss Nagger, let me uh ask you this. Uh I think the facility is fantastic. It's a great addition to the community. I'm glad to see see the facility there. I think it adds a lot of life to the facil uh to that area over there compared to what it used to be for years. Um I can still remember the old motel hotel that used to be there and with ISO for years. But uh my question is is that we'll pass there uh the back end that butts up to this piece of property that you all dedicating to giving to us and everything indeed to us. Um, you have no fencing or anything to protect anybody from coming over into your property. So, if the city were to put a fencing up there and everything, would it be any problem with with uh recreation use then?

3:08:31 – 3:09:12•0

No, we wouldn't have an objection to any particular recreational use obviously, but again, I'd ask you to think about what is the recreation, right? And I don't, you know, to me, I don't think getting a lot of teenagers at that location with the cars nearby would be a great idea um in terms of a skate park, but uh that would that would be something that we do have an objection to because we just don't think it's safe for the vehicles, right? But other than that, you know, honestly, I'd like to see it. I I I mean, I'm not a engineer and I don't know if two acres is enough, but it'd be nice to see a city center there. The main thing is that it just be dedicated for public use, not to be resold for

3:09:10 – 3:09:57•0

well well it's I don't think it's big enough for city center community center city center but uh I think when we first started this process and you all came to us uh pickle ball courts was mentioned uh you mentioned the skate park and that's because I I'm probably the only one up here on the diet that knew knew about this land being given to us and I I got a lot of requests uh from youth now we've been promising for five six years to give them a skate park and I thought that would be a good location for one along with pickle ball courts and I do understand your concern about damage to the cars and that's one of the things that jumped out to me is no protection between your property and this piece of property. So I right it would be my opinion that a a fence probably would not be enough. Um I I feel like it's a true attractive nuisance to have those vehicles there and

3:09:56 – 3:10:25•0

uh we would hate to see that and would vehemently oppose putting a skate park there. But let me see if I can help. What I also asked my council was not only a 10-ft fence uh and everything we put there if especially if we use recreation uh we can put a 10-ft fence there. Uh also uh additionally uh landscape buffering. Well, I don't think that that would be something I don't want to speak for the city attorney, but I don't think that particular use would be something you would have to decide now. Okay.

3:10:23 – 3:11:08•0

I think that the question before you is just the issue of dedicated for parks and recreation use. Um, and and again, I I think it's cleaner to go into the a deed restriction and then you guys decide what is right for the city when you're ready to do it. And who knows what the city might need then. Maybe maybe pickle ball courts will be even more. I don't know. Well, you know, we got a lot of requests for pickle ball. And I think that's the reason when we uh you first came to us, we mentioned pickle ball because that was our biggest request at the time was pickle ball. You know, I think there's a there's a piece in Mount Dora I think about all the time where the that they put in the ordinance that it had to be used for um handball and now nobody pays handball and it just sits there with this big concrete wall.

3:11:08 – 3:11:38•0

Right. Right. So I So that would be my opinion. We'd be better off just with the deed restriction and then the council can determine as as the years go by what the appropriate use is for it. Well, I understand that about pickle ball. Well, I say the same thing about pickle ball because in my days it was raetball, right? I play raetball. Now nobody I can't find a raetball court or can't play raetball anymore. Now it's pickle ball. So I some would agree with you down the road. Yes. But right now uh we have a lot of people want uh pickle ball. So

3:11:36 – 3:12:30•0

well and I think the request from the applicant is to just simply keep it vague in the deed which I support and I don't I don't have any issue with that. I think we should consider including in that arts. Um, I think something like that might be something if we're saying parks and wreck, we might get into the I don't know where we're going to go, which is kind of in the realm of what I'd like to point out to council and the public. Um, the very first project that I brought the American Bicycle Association in for was actually Mckenni Park, which is just north of this property. And the president of the American Bicycle Association is an urban designer. He's an architect by trade. and he saw the property to the north which you have referenced and said well what's going on here what's the master plan for all this now when we met I didn't know anything about these two acres but

3:12:28 – 3:13:13•0

I do know that his wheels have already been turning on that whole section of Lincoln Park and what can we do what can we do collectively so I would caution us from getting too far down the road on what specific use we might do because I think we're going to have the best designers in the world really looking at the parcels all around this and including this. So for tonight, do you have propo proposed language that you want us to look at? I think Christian and I were looking for direction from you all and we can work it out and get it, you know, because I'm hearing what you just you just want to make sure it's going to the public. You want to make sure parks, recreation, a community center. I'm going to say arts because that's not always in the realm of

3:13:10 – 3:13:44•0

That's fine. And you really don't we do not sell it. If I may make a stab at at a at a uh Can I just add one more thing real quick and then I'm going to go away. I see this isn't my job, but I see this two acres as a first part of looking at the acreage that goes beyond. You know, we had talked about town homes have been discussed there, but to me, if we could get keep this little foothold there, then we would have better opportunities and be more attractive to the uses to the further north. So,

3:13:42 – 3:14:35•0

yeah. And and I just want to make a a legal point here is I I really don't want the council to amend the resolution. I I I want the council to consider what Meredith has talked about, which is the deed restriction. What do we put in the deed? So, as to your point, Council Member Strange, language, you know, we'll come up with something, but it would probably sound like um dedicated to uh public recreational, parks, and arts uses, something like that that's general, vague, and flexible for you all to determine. And I think um Mayor and Council Member Bane, you mentioned a restriction on us being able to sell it. I mean, it we can't tie I mean, we're not going to be able to tie our own hands necessarily, but what we could do is put a reverter in the deed that if we do sell it, it goes back to VW.

3:14:34 – 3:15:12•0

Does that make sense? Should we add try to sell it, it has to go back, correct? So, point point of clarification here then, um, are the the item on the agenda is to amend the resolution. I'm hearing, I guess, for the first time that we're not actually looking to amend the resolution that we're wanting to actually place deed restriction language. And those are two different things. So, can I get some clarification as to what we're actually being asked to do tonight? It's the latter. Yeah, we were always asking for a deed restriction. Okay. That is that is not what's noticed on this agenda and that's not what's in our packet. Our packet says to amend the resolution. That didn't come from

3:15:10 – 3:16:03•0

Yeah, I know. I know. I'm just saying in terms of my my whole approach to this was very different in terms of what I was looking at doing um or suggesting to do. And so help me understand so that I'm more comfortable voting tonight on a deed restriction what kind of language or how specific of language because let me let me let me say this. My my proposal was going to be to amend in the packet page 342 at the bottom section two land use number eight. at the end of the first sentence that starts with as a condition prior to site plan as exhibited on exhibit A B for instead of ending the sentence for public arts parks and recreation use.

3:16:02 – 3:16:39•0

Right. So, okay. So that was going to be my my uh proposal um that my motion to amend this resolution to say that if our if our goal is to not amend the resolution but rather add that to the deed. Can you add that language that can I make the motion to say add that language to the deed? Yes, that's what Christian and I had had wanted but we're both real estate attorneys. That's where we wanted to go from the beginning with the reverter language that if you were going to sell it for profit, it would come back to us.

3:16:36 – 3:17:14•0

So, from the city's perspective, yes. To Absolutely. Okay. Then my motion will be to to add language to the deed that indicates that this 1.963 acres is being dedicated for public arts, parks, and recreation use. And shall the city sell, it reverts back to VW for right of first refusal. I guess essentially that that works for the city. All right. That's my per that's my uh motion.

3:17:11 – 3:17:54•0

Well, I I must advocate for this in a standard rever. The reverter we would ask for is if you're going to not use it for those purposes anymore, it needs to come back to us. And you would have the right of first refusal on that. No, we would ask for the property to come back to us because we're giving it to you as a matter of real estate law under the condition that you're going to use it for these purposes. So, let me play the devil on this. Let's say we're all dead and my great grandchild is sitting up here talking to your great grandchild. Um, what happens then? Like what if Gunther sold the property? Like there comes a point in time that nothing we talk about really matters anymore. So there's a piece of property

3:17:52 – 3:18:24•0

that reverter white would stay with the parent parcel. Yeah, it would still be in there. Yeah. Yeah. And see, I I that would be my concern is that I I I I'm I'm willing to give VW the option. But if this if we don't go to sell it for 50 years and VW is moved on and it's just vacant, I don't necessarily want to have to give it to somebody who's just sitting on a vacant property that may or may not have the best interest of what our plans are. The problem is

3:18:22 – 3:19:00•0

I think it sounds like your client VW is has the concern. I I want to work with VW and if that's the the the current person there, I'm okay with giving them the option to take it back. But if it's not them or that you all your clients don't want it, I'd want the city to have options at that point. What we don't want to do is have another moneyhungry council want to just sell the property and then tell us that we have to buy it back when we're giving it to you. The agreement with the 2023 council is that we would give you this very valuable property

3:18:56 – 3:19:34•0

for the use of that limited purpose for the city and to make us buy back our property if a council four or five years from now wants to sell it is completely against the agreement that we had with the council in 23. And I don't want to see you guys going back on agreements. I think we're on the same page then. I'm not I I would not be in favor of asking VW to buy it back. I'm saying that if we were to sell it, the option to give it back to you would be first. And if VW didn't want it on the same page, then we would sell it. I think we are on the same page. Maybe I just didn't communicate that clearly. So if that's the issue, then that

3:19:33 – 3:20:17•0

that's what I would like reflected in the motion. Well, and stay here because I'm thinking I'm still worried about the 50 years from now because we've all dealt with this Lake County real estate when you revers only last 21 years and then they're gone as a matter of law. Yeah. Oh, well, there you go. You see, it's good to have real estate lawyers. Problem solved. Okay. So, reverter for the duration allowed by law to VW at no charge unless VW doesn't want it and then we can sell it. And then after year 22, the reverter right goes away as a matter of law [clears throat] right go away. We don't have to revisit. Does that work for our city clerk in terms of records? [laughter]

3:20:14 – 3:20:58•0

Okay. And city attorney for legal. Okay. That's my motion. So what was your motion? Your motion was Okay. The motion is to instead of amending the resolution to put language in the deed that indicates that this 1.963 acres is for public arts, parks, and recreation use only only. And we would have the reverter language that if the city opted to want to pursue selling, we would offer it to VW free back to them. And if they say yes, it's theirs. If they say no, then we can proceed forward with our options to surplus if s Christian and I will make that language that can go in a deed. Yeah. Yes, we will. I'll second that motion. Okay.

3:20:57 – 3:21:36•0

Would that Well, once you do the language, would it come back to us, Christian? I'm sorry, mayor. Do we need to bring that back to us once once you do the language? You you want me to? Yeah. Okay. I mean, if that's a part of the I I don't want to get overly technical on this. Um I I think I think they need a co Yeah. I I mean I'm not opposed to trusting the the language attorney. I'll share it with y'all if you can forward it to us. Share it with me. I'll share it with you. Yeah. Thank you all for your consider. Thank you. Thank you for your donation. Yes.

3:21:34 – 3:21:57•0

I have a motion in a second for item number 21. I can't remember all the verbiage, but anyway, [laughter] the clerk has it. as approved but as presented. Is there any further question uh discussion? None. All in favor let it be known by saying I. I. All oppose.

3:21:54 – 3:22:43•0

Chair vote I as well. Motion carries 50. Item number 22 ordinance number 2025-039 introduction transmitt. An ordinance of the city council of the city of Claremont, Lake County, Florida, adopting the large-scale comprehensive plan amendment for the city of Claremont, Florida, pursuant to the local government comprehensive planning act, chapter 163, part two, Florida statutes, setting forth the authority for adoption of the large-scale comprehensive plan amendment, setting forth the purpose and intent of the large-scale comprehensive plan amendment, establishing the legal status of the comprehensive plan amendment, providing for conflict, severability, the administrative correct ction of scrier's error publication and an effective date.

3:22:39 – 3:22:52•0

Okay, I entertain a motion. Oh, I'm sorry. [laughter] Well, oh, I'm sorry. This is a transmittal. Yes, sir. I'm sorry.

3:22:50 – 3:24:30•0

Good evening, mayor, city council members, and guests, and merry Christmas to everyone. This item was tabled at the November 18th city council meeting. The city as the applicant is requesting a large-scale comprehensive plan amendment of the subject property as a follow-up to a staff initiated annexation request. The property is located southeast of Lake Louisa Road and Hammock Ridge Road intersection is approximately 57 acres and on your display it's outlined in yellow. The property was approved under PED ordinance 2020-03 in Lake County for up to 155 single family dwelling units. The property is currently moving forward and construction activity is starting. The property was annexed prior to building permit issuance to capture $1.8 million worth of impact fees for the city of Claremont. The current future land use within Lake County is urban low density. The compatible future land use designation within the city would be low density residential. The abuing future land use adjacent to the east within the city is low density residential which is compatible which is the established Fox Chase subdivision. The change in the future land use to the city's lowdensity residential does not propose a conflict between the existing uses and land uses within the area. The proposed future land use is consistent with the city's comprehensive plan due to the use being consistent with the remainder of the plan and its goals, objectives, and policies. The planning and zoning commission recommended approval 5 to zero. Staff recommends transmitt large scale comprehensive plan amendment ordinance 2025-039. That concludes staff's presentation.

3:24:27 – 3:25:11•0

Thank you, sir. This is a public form. Anyone in the public wish to address this item may come to the microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes. Anyone in the public wish to address this item may come to the microphone, state your name and address and have three minutes. Seeing no one, I close down. Anyone on? Okay. Well, I'll close uh public comment entirely. Uh bring it back to council. What say council? Um I'm going to move to approve ordinance number 2025-039. And then I have a couple comments. I second. This is intromitt. Yes. Thank you.

3:25:08 – 3:25:20•0

I have a motion and a second to approve item number 20. two. Any further discussion? Yes, sir.

3:25:17 – 3:26:22•0

Thank you, mayor. Um, I I I received some communications about this and I I think all of us have um from um residents about this project. And really what's before us right now is that the the city council in in June, I believe it was June or July, uh annexed this property in. And so what we have before us is this item and the next item whether or not we're going to give it city of Claremont future land use and city of Claremont zoning. And by doing so we then capture the impact fees that are associated with the project. If we don't it doesn't what it does is it stays county future land use. It stays county zoning and the county gets the impact fees, but the project proceeds forward because essentially we've agreed to do the utilities for the project.

3:26:20 – 3:26:54•0

That's my understanding by and large where we stand with this intro. I I seek any clarification if I'm wrong on that or if there's a piece of it that's wrong with that. Well, go ahead. Let me just clarify. Since it's annexed, we will get the impact fees. That's the only reason why we annexed it in J. So, we get the we get the we get the impact fees. So, everything else about that's the same. The project still moves forward if we don't change to our future land use and our zoning. Correct.

3:26:52 – 3:27:35•0

It just creates a potential problem down the road if using the same scenario that that council member Strange was talking about when the grandkids are sitting up here and dealing with this. If this project they want to do something different, it would have county zoning and county future land use but be annexed into the city. Um, correct. Um, if a resident came in and wanted to pull a, you know, a building permit through us, we would have to pull the county's PUD. Yeah. And reference the county's PUD. It's just more of the finishing the process and putting it in our format, packaging it all up with the annexation, the comp plan, and resoning all into cohesion.

3:27:33 – 3:28:06•0

And I just want to be clear because I know that this has caused a lot of concern for residents about this project and even our not us, but this council voted against this proposal initially and then they went to the county and and got approval. And so, um, I get where the frustration lies, but I certainly, um, I don't want to create more problems for our staff and more problems for our residents by not giving it our future land use and zoning.

3:28:04 – 3:28:49•0

So, uh, John, let me ask this question for the record. Um, what's the difference between Lake County urban low and the city of Claremont low density? So in Lake County there is four dwelling units per acre and in the city of Claremont it's actually three. So we are lowering it. Um they're actively out there doing construction now. Okay. But if they wanted to stop and go back to the county and say I want four units per acre, they would have the possibility of doing that because of the four dwelling units per acre under Lake County. So by reszone by going ahead and reszone it we basically we we're reducing the density of it

3:28:47 – 3:29:25•0

we're putting a cap on the future land use from four to three. So it behoove us if if that's what we we want to try to do to keep it go ahead. I just want to clarify. Okay. [clears throat] Any any other concern? So quick question. You're saying like right now they they're allowed to do four units per acre as opposed to three under the county. Why would they then come to us and I mean they're going to be this is a huge loss of money then correct? So if you look on display outlined in yellow is what's currently out there undergoing now right

3:29:23 – 3:30:07•0

they actually came to the city for a utility agreement for sewer services for from the city several years ago and as part of that utility agreement we have the ability to somewhat limit their density. Okay. And and that's my understanding what we did in this case. Um they started out with a lot higher number when they approached the city and we said no. Yes. No, no. And u then we ended up at I believe the 155 was the point where the county, the city, and the applicant agreed to. So again, it's under construction right now. We bring it in. Then it's capped at three units per acre

3:30:05 – 3:30:30•0

under our future land use. And then with the zoning, which is the next one, it's just introduction. We're taking the county's zoning ordinance is already approved that they're operating on and we're bringing it into our template and then if there's any references to the county code, we've changed it to city code, but we're keeping it as similar as possible,

3:30:28 – 3:30:55•0

which in this case, I don't think there was any major differences. I know one thing that was brought up at the planning and zoning was the landscaping, but it in the peed ordinance it talks about as amended. So, we felt we were fine with that. So, to answer your question, it just it it just it completes the puzzle if we do the future land use in the zoning and bring it into our jurisdiction completely.

3:30:53 – 3:31:29•0

And let let me add let me add this to for m Mr. Peterson. The thing is you have to look at one of the things I look at in in these situation is our infrastructure was only built built upon our codes at three units per acre not the four units. I think when it came to us I think they was a lot higher and that's why we refused it. Um I don't I guess I was the only one up here but we refused it before because they refused to go down to our codes and everything but they took it back to the county which they knew they can get it through and get a higher density. But see that by doing that they putting a lot of stress on our infrastructure.

3:31:26 – 3:32:08•0

Okay? So that's why it's behoove us to go ahead and change this and get it back down to our standard so we can have less stress hopefully in the future on our infrastructure. Okay. All right. Any any other? If not, I have a motion and a second for approval and transmitt of uh item number 22, ordinance number 2025- 039. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor, let it be known by saying I. I. All oppose. Vote I as well. Uh item number 23. I'm sorry. Motion carries 50.

3:32:06 – 3:32:48•0

No, actually 41. Oh, I'm sorry. 41. I didn't hear it. Um, item number 23, ordinance number 2025-04. Intro an ordinance under the code of ordinances of the city of Claremont, Lake County, Florida, amending the official zoning map of the city of Claremont, referred to in chapter 122 of ordinance number 289C, code of ordinances, reszoning the real properties described herein, as shown below, providing for conflict, severability, administrative correction of scrier's error, recording, publication, and an effective date.

3:32:46 – 3:33:53•0

Okay, this Yes, sir. Again, [laughter] th this is just the introduction. This item was tabled at November 18th city council meeting. Uh the city as the applicant is requesting reszoning as subject property. Again, as I briefly mentioned before, this is a transfer of Lake County's PUD into our PUD ordinance. Um the planning and zoning commission uh recommended approval um 5 to0 with the additional condition that the development builds to the city landscape code. But uh if you look at section six in the ordinance or proposed ordinance entitled landscape requirements is already captured and staff recommends introduction of the resoning ordinance 2025-040. And you will see both of these come back to you for the final adoption hearing since there it the previous agenda item was a large-scale comp plan amendment. We have to send it off for comments to state agencies and local agencies and normally it's a 60-day process till it comes back to you for final approval.

3:33:52 – 3:34:37•0

Okay. All right. Thank you, sir. This is a public form. Anyone in the public wish to address this item may come to the microphone, state your name and address and have three minutes. Anyone in the public wish to address this item may come to the microphone, state your name and address and have three minutes. Seeing no one in the house. Yes, sir. No one online. I close public comment. What's what say council? I'll move to approve uh ordinance number 2025-040 intro for the same reasons as before. Second. I have a motion and a second for approval of ordinance number 23, ordinance number 2025-040 for intro. Any further discussion?

3:34:36 – 3:35:11•0

All in favor? Let it be known by saying I. I. All oppose. Nay. And chair vote I as well. Motion passes 4 to one. New business. A variance item number 24. Yes sir. Mayor, council members, I just want to introduce the next staff member that's that will be presenting tonight. This is just day. Okay. She's a planner with our department that will be presenting from time to time. Okay. New way. [laughter] All right. Welcome, ma'am.

3:35:14 – 3:37:12•0

Good evening, mayor, city council members, and guests. um here to present agenda item 24, variance request of 462 West Ociola Street. The applicant, Michael Waitman, is requesting two variances to the land development code to replace a detached garage on his property located at 462 West Oyola Street. The property is designated within the R2 medium density residential zoning district and is adjacent to the community redevelopment area to the west. Currently, the property consists of an existing single family residence and a detached garage. The property owner would like to remove the existing garage and replace it with a new garage structure in the same location. In doing so, the need for the variances arises out of this replacement along with an increase to the garage structure. The first variance request is to allow for a sideyard setback to be less than the minimum 7 and 1/2 ft requirement. The second variance request is to allow for a rear yard setback to be less than the minimum 25 foot requirement. These requests would allow for a proposed detached garage to encroach into the sideyard setback at 0 feet from the west property line and encroach into the rear yard setback at 23 feet from the north property line. The rear encroachment request is to incorporate a 6 foot by 18 deck with the actual building being estimated at 29 ft from the north property line and the balcony 23 feet from the property line. In keeping the surrounding area in mind, the applicant is renovating the property in hopes of keeping the original architectural elevations. In doing so, the proposed detached garage would also be designed to complement the neighboring properties within the downtown and community re redevelopment areas. The applicant has indicated the detached garage is best

3:37:10 – 3:38:13•0

suited in this location due to the shape and size of the lot. If it was to be located within the backyard, the applicant would have complications when trying to back in and out of the garage. If approved, the applicant is willing to add gutters and address any storm water runoff the to the neighboring properties. Upon review of the applicant's request, staff is unable to support the reduction to the side setback of zero ft. The variance requested is not the minimum that would make reasonable use of the land due to the structure being able to be located elsewhere and meet the applicable land development codes. Section 101246 of the land development code requires a positive finding on the review criteria in order to grant a variance. Staff has reviewed the application as submitted and finds the application does not meet a positive finding on one of the five criteria. Therefore, staff recommends denial of the variance request. This concludes staff's presentation.

3:38:10 – 3:38:42•0

Okay. Thank you. And I'm assuming you're the applicant. Eh. Yeah. Okay. Please come. [laughter] Oh, I just don't have any information. Basically, again, it's because there is location for it to still be placed. You mean because there is enough room in the back? In the back. Yes.

3:38:39 – 3:40:37•0

Perfect. Yeah. Awesome. Hi, I'm Jacob Waitman. um 462 West Ociola Street um representing my mother and father, Jimmy and Michelle. Uh Michael Weightman. He goes by Jimmy. Uh that's his real name. Uh but yeah, basically with uh the uh the zero foot uh uh sideyard set back. That is the original location for this shed. And uh the shed and the home are 100 years old. Uh we're trying to keep the integrity of the home. Um, you know, we're doing with the windows, we're stripping [snorts] the paint, trying to keep the the all that original as well as the shed. If we do move that shed into the 7.5 ft setback, that goes into our backyard and it completely blocks the view from the lake that we have. So, now it's kind of messing with that as well as we wouldn't even be able to do much with the backyard. It's a small backyard. Um, and I I know we wanted to do some stuff with the garden stuff. not and whatnot. And uh I know it make it will make it that difficult. As well as the placement of it, if it's sideways, if our neighbors were to put a fence or anything like that, it would make the uh getting into it uh rather difficult with the that area. Um, as well as I know the uh the the 25 uh rear setback. I feel like that was only for the uh uh because we were adding a back porch and whatnot. And I feel like that's the less necessary one, but the the more necessary one is the 7.5 sideyard because that kind of blocks the view from the lake of why we got the house. It's a beautiful view. It's got a backyard. It's got garden. We can do some stuff with it. Um the uh I also have a letter from the uh neighbors the uh David and Autumn Min. I believe it

3:40:35 – 3:41:15•0

was provided to you. Um that is our neighbors with the seconds story uh house next door. It used to be a property uh combining the two and then it was split at one point and so that's why that is uh where it is. And they uh they do not mind if we keep it where it is uh with the zero foot setback. And uh yeah, if you'd like me to provide that for any of you, um I have it here. Um and thank you for your time and I appreciate it. Thank you. I have some questions before it goes to the public. It's for the property owner. Yeah, sorry. [clears throat]

3:41:11 – 3:41:56•0

With a zero lot line, is it the wall of the structure that will be on the zero line or is it the overhang of the roof that would be on the zero line? Um so I believe it was overhang. It was the the overhang for the side the rear. Uh yeah. So for the the the rear yard set back from 25 ft to 23 feet 23 23 feet. Um that was because of the uh so it's it's on a 25 and then the overhang is zero. So there's like potentially like less than a foot.

3:41:55 – 3:42:39•0

So you could squeeze through if you really wanted to. Yeah. Or if your neighbor asked to build a a 20 foot wall, it wouldn't hit your roof. It'd be possible. It'd be right up against it. Okay. With the overhang. That's what I'm trying to make sure we're not we're not doing this. Not overhanging into there. Um I get that. Uh oh gosh. I know that he was basically saying we can put gutters the proper dane is needed. Um the the sophets will be minimal overhang on the property if that's what you're referring to. Yes. Yes. Okay. Yeah. It basically we can make that not happen at all. So they wouldn't be crossing your It wouldn't be crossing at all. Yeah. Yeah.

3:42:38 – 3:43:23•0

That's what I wanted to know. Yeah. No, that's it. I'm sorry. I'm a little It's okay. It's nerve-wracking up there. I get it. The last time I did it was in high school. So I always talked really fast when I was up there. It was in LA. Sorry. No, you're fine. You're doing great. Okay, sir. If we have any more question, we will call you back at a later time. But in the meantime, we going to open this up to the public. Anyone in the public wish to address this item may come to microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes. Anyone in the public wish to address this item may come to microphone, state your name and address, and have three minutes. Seeing no one in, no one on the line. So, I'm going to close public comment and bring it back to council. Uh, Kirk. Yes, sir.

3:43:21 – 3:44:02•0

Do we find out where where where the present one is sitting? Get a verification. It's on the property line. Yes, it is on the property. If you look at the aerial on the Lake County GIS, it does appear that the property line's approximately four or five feet over, but it is in fact on the property line. The current the current shed is on the property line. Okay. All right. Well, I know uh looking at the pictures wasn't wasn't quite clear, so I'd ask Kurt to find out verify that for me. Um, quick question, Kurt. If if you were to build and keep that one wall, can you then can you get the grandfather ex grandfather exception to this?

3:44:00 – 3:44:45•0

In this particular case, no. If something happened to the shed and they were to rebuild, uh once it once more than 50% of it needs to be rebuilt, it has to conform to the new section of the code. If it's less than if they're just repairing a roof maybe or one wall, it's not an issue. They could stay there. They wouldn't be in front of us. And 7.5 ft is the is the setback that's required on the side. Correct. Yes. Yes, it So then the only reason you don't want to do that is because you don't want to obstruct the view from your house taking into our whole backyard, you know, and then obstruct the view of Wayne. Wayne, could you overhead? Yeah, Bill, this property, how wide is the property?

3:44:42 – 3:45:10•0

It's I believe it's 50 uh 50 by 100 if I'm not mistaken. The other one was 50 by 100. This one is a little larger. A little larger. Okay. Yeah. 60 by 140 is this one. So it's only it's only 60 wide. So once you start putting seven and a half feet into that, you're you're cutting into a big chunk of that percentage in the back. Well, let me I don't think I Let me say this. All the properties

3:45:06 – 3:46:07•0

in Climouth used to be 50 by 135 and had the 7 and 1/2 ft setback. Okay. They've always had seven and a half. I wish it was 10, but seven and a half. Um I have a problem with me. I have a problem putting things on the property line. I wouldn't have no problem if you go uh five feet do the five foot uh but putting things on the property line that that put a lot of responsibility and owners on your neighbor to maintain that side of the building and all these kind of things. Okay. So that's why I've always um I actually used to push to say hey we can't put anything no closer than 5T. So they have to maintain uh all the uh yard and everything on that side between the property owner and and the uh structure. Um and I ran into that when I we built the new post office up there. They made us put the fence 5t off the property line and next thing I know I was being cited for not maintaining the property on the other side.

3:46:06 – 3:46:50•0

Sure. Yeah. Okay. But the neighbors didn't want to have to deal with the fencing. This is part of historic Claremont. This is a 100-y old piece of property. This is how communities were built. This is a walkable town center. This is the residential that's going to be close to a walkable town center. There's nothing about this that I don't like. Um I think that our current code is designed for suburbs, not for walkable towns. And I'm going to move to approve item number 24. I second. Have I have a motion and a second for approval of item number what are we on? 23. Yeah. Uh 24. 24. 24. Any further discussion? No, sir. I have a I have a question.

3:46:50 – 3:47:32•0

Yeah. Is I I don't know if this is the applicant or or staff. So the current Thank you uh Mr. Mr. Henchel for the clarification on where the current structure is that it's it's actually on the zero lot line because the the overhead is deceiving in that way. There's language in here about the exist the new structure being wider and longer. Is that correct? If you look on the screen here, the smaller box here is the existing shed. The enlarged structure is what's around it here. Do we know how how much larger

3:47:30 – 3:48:06•0

that structure is compared to the current structure? Bear with me. I guess where I'm my question is is that you know would potentially the zero lot line be alleviated some if if it were not enlarged so dramatically or is it it not it's it's a indistinguishable number and it really is not something that is a concern. Well, I think the way I read this is it's the the wrap around. It's the porches that are causing the

3:48:04 – 3:48:20•0

our extending into this area is approximately this dimension around here is approximately four feet. If they were agreeing to that's four feet essentially on each side of that on the three sides

3:48:19 – 3:48:53•0

on the three sides. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. Three sides. Okay. That's what I was curious. How much is it how much more larger is it compared to the current structure? And I agree with uh Council Member Strange. Um given the the unique nature of and historic value in terms of the age and location of the property, I think we have to be uh cognizant of that and and willing to accommodate that. If this were in a newer section of of of Claremont where, you know, uh maybe the the the codes were different when it was developed,

3:48:52 – 3:49:21•0

um we would probably be having a different conversation. Um, but I I think we can work with them. I don't know if we need to, this is a question for the attorney or for city staff. Do we need to make sure that we include language that says no overhang on the neighbors property? Because I I I heard that and I certainly don't want the approval to insinuate that we're that you can that we gave you permission to do that and we don't have the authority to do that.

3:49:19 – 3:50:04•0

Thank you for bringing that up. That's what I was going to bring up. Okay. Um because I wasn't sure from the discussion whether part of the plans is to have part of the overhang actually over the property line or the sophet. No portion of the structure should and the city cannot and will not approve any kind of variance that allows a structural part to go over a property line. Yeah. So I just want to make sure we're clear on that to the applicants too and to the neighbors that we didn't approve something that allowed sophets or anything for that matter to go over the property. I thought I heard something about that. We did and that's why I wanted to ask. I was just saying it would be a minimal like we'll make it work in a sense. It won't happen like it won't happen. In other words, it would be a minimal [laughter] it would be a minimal change on your part to make that work.

3:50:02 – 3:50:40•0

I'm sorry. I I He wrote it down and I rewrote it and then it you're doing a great thing. The warning of course for an applicant is that like you know when you plant a tree and it goes over the prop, they have the right to trim that tree back to the property. Same way with the edge of a house, you know. So just Okay. Absolutely. All right. It should be the first thing again. Thank Thank you again for I don't have anything else here. You're fine. With the sopetic not going over that mean they have to the wall of the uh structure have to be a foot or so off of 18 well the sopet going to be about 18 inches anyway. Okay. So the walls have to be about 18 inches from the from the property line. So

3:50:41 – 3:51:26•0

right I think what you're saying is no portion of the house can cross the property line. So, you can't build it up to the property line and have the sophet extend past. You'll have to move the structure over. Also, you're building a two-level structure. Is this going to have utilities in there? No, water. No, it'd be more storage kind of just put stuff uh we don't have a lot of storage already in the other house that we uh have basically. So, that's what we're trying to keep to uh fit everything that we have basically. Well, I mean, it looks like it's, you know, it's going to have sliding doors on the top level. I think that was more for like say like we can put a chair or something up there to see the view from there. Uh but I I'm unsure. I know it's main it's not going to be a secondary dwell.

3:51:26 – 3:52:00•0

No. Yeah. Okay. Well, it' be okay with me if it was. I was going to say thank you for investing in your property and thank you for improving the property. I have a second a motion and a second for approval of item number 24 with no further discussion. All in favor let it be known by saying I. I. All oppose. Chair vote eye as well. Motion carries 50. Uh item number 25. Good luck, sir. Thank you, gentlemen. Parance request. Oh, I'm sorry. Item number 26. Number 25 was tabled earlier. Verance request 582 East Dotto Street.

3:52:01 – 3:53:58•0

Yes, sir. Good evening, mayor, city council members, and guests. Nickon, Development Services. This is agenda item number 26, variance request for 582 East Dotto Street. The applicant, Alex Nuome, is requesting two variances to the land development code. One to allow for a secondary residential driveway access within 100 linear feet and two to allow a driveway to encroach into the rear yard setback to be less than the minimum requirements of the special setback as required by the land development code. The property 582 East Dotto Street is a corner lot located at the intersection of Easto East Dotto Street and Scott Street in the R1 zoning district. It is developed as a single family home and currently has an existing driveway on the east side of the property that provides access to an attached garage. The applicant is proposing to construct a second driveway, also on the east side, to provide access to the backyard for the purpose of parking a boat. The property has an existing fence with two gate openings along the east side which currently allows access to the backyard. The applicant has aligned the proposed driveway with these existing gates which results in a five foot rear yard setback for the proposed concrete pad where the boat would would be parked less than a required 7 and 1/2 ft special setback according to section 125-520. While staff acknowledges that the property currently does not have a rear neighbor, the land development code is intended to apply consistently across all properties regarding regardless of current site conditions. The restriction on multiple driveway access within 100 ft is in place to limit unnecessary curb cuts, preserve the visual character of residential streets, and minimize potential traffic and safety concerns.

3:53:58 – 3:54:43•0

In this case, the proposed second driveway would be located in pro close proximity to the existing one, which is not consistent with the intent of the code. Section 101-246 of the land development code requires a positive finding on the review criteria in order to grant a variance. Staff has reviewed the application as submitted and finds that application does not meet a positive finding on two of the five criteria. Therefore, staff recommends denial of the variance request. This concludes staff's presentation. Thank you. Is the applicant present? Yes, sir. 1827. How you all doing? Okay. Questions for me?

3:54:40 – 3:55:19•0

Yes, sir. It's you you're you applying for this, right? Name and address, please, sir. I built my house in order to put my boat in my backyard. Mr. Alec, can I get your name and address, please? My name is Alex from 582 Eastnot Street. Okay. stage case. Yes. Uh [laughter] I I owned the property for many years and I came home to build my house to accommodate my toys and that's what I'm asking for. Simple. Simple. Okay. It's fine. I don't have a lot of room back there. That's the only place I got to to park the boat.

3:55:17 – 3:55:59•0

If we have any other questions, we will call you back at a later time. But right now, I'm open up to the public. Anyone in the public wish to address this may come to the microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes. Anyone in the public, [clears throat] this is a public hearing. Anyone in the public wish to address this item may come to the microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes. No one online. So, we going to call online. We going to call public comment all together. Bring it back to council. What say council? I didn't notice that. Was there a neighbor letter in this packet? Don't need a neighbor letter. I'm the neighbor. [laughter] You're the neighbor. Are you okay with that?

3:55:56 – 3:56:27•0

I'm Well, I I look at it this way. Basically, uh he can park the boat back there right now without asking for a variance. And the only variance he ask for is to uh uh cut the curve in the driveway, put another driveway in there, uh which he can jump the curb right now. Of course, if you damage the curve, you uh curve and he have to pay for that to be repaired. But well, it's already damaged and it's and most of the curb now you're just telling on yourself. No. Well, he didn't do it. He just built a house there. He didn't do it. All the curb I built my home.

3:56:25 – 3:57:08•0

Most of the curvings along them streets are all damaged off and everything anyway. So, it kind of be an improvement as far as I'm concerned. I don't see any other neighbors in here uh that has anything to say about it. So, I have no problem with it. Um at least it's in it's no restriction for parking the boat in the backyard right now. It's mainly the driveway. So, and there's no issue with the the surface area of the concrete? No. staff. Works. Well, we would have to consult with with public works, but that's usually uh why there isn't many curb cuts within that 100 ft. Um, but yeah, that would have to be a public works question.

3:57:12 – 3:57:57•0

And this is only a 10 foot wide drive, right? instead of a 20 15 the the driveway apron would be would be a total 18 ft. So it would be 18 ft. The uh the concrete pad would be which would be in his backyard be 12 ft. Well, he can but the apron will be a 18t apron. Like I say right now he can go back there and put a pad back there anyway. We he would have to meet the the seven and a half setback for uh for special setbacks, but he can he could put the boat back there right now. Yeah, right now. So now the would it solve your problem with the setbacks if you did um can you go back in the slide to where you have the over overview of the property

3:57:54 – 3:58:38•0

the aerial okay or this one. So the house one two three west. See how it has two driveways? The one on the right is a Hollywood driveway. It's called a Hollywood drive where it's got grass in the middle. That that's a duplex. Well, that may be, but that's a Hollywood drive. Where? Where? She's talking about this one right here. So, I'll play Dana White. This one. Yeah, she's talking about No, that's not a Hollywood uh cur. That's not a Hollywood drive. No. No. Now, if you go if you go west west I mean east on that street to the on another uh east side of uh Scott, that's Hollywood.

3:58:36 – 3:59:09•0

Okay. I can't see that one. Yeah. See on the corner there. The point is if you're if you're not going the full width of the driveway and you just do a Hollywood drive so that you could it's two rows of concrete instead of Okay. Like the duplex there. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So you'd be able to just drive up back up move on it and then you might not need to go the full width and so [snorts] that might help with the variance as well. I never looked at that. Yeah. Is that an option? [snorts]

3:59:08 – 3:59:53•0

Well, well, the way the way it's designed and the way everything in there now, he going to basically have to have another whole apron because the president driveway and if you look at the corner of the house and where he's trying to go, uh, if you go back and look at the fence, the gate is like right on the property line on the back property line. Mhm. So, I think it's about what 30 feet in between uh the present driveway and the other one will be about 10 15 feet in between between the driveways. Yeah, between the driveway. That's more than 10 feet. Is it more 20 25 ft? If you go back and look at the picture where he had the fence and the and the gate and you'll see that the gate is actually on the on the back side back end.

3:59:50 – 4:00:09•0

So, it's uh from if you were to p the concrete and go through to be able to utilize that that gate, it's about um I thought it about 15 feet maybe more between that one and another drive. So, so no, you can't cut across them. No.

4:00:09 – 4:00:39•0

Uh, and like I can say right now he can he can go back there. He can park his boat. There's no no restriction against other things. Main thing when you look in here is is the curving. It'll be an improvement as you can see in that picture right there with the fencing. The curve is already broken. And I guarantee he did not break it [laughter] because he doesn't even have his vote on the property yet. Uh but most of the curving in that area has already been destroyed and we've been getting the city to come through and try to try to uh address them, you know. So,

4:00:36 – 4:01:31•0

well, I know we've talked about encouraging backyard cottages and so you need to be able to access those. Um I'm generally not a I don't have a problem with somebody storing their their toys, as you called them, you know, in the backyard. I worry a little bit about having uh two driveways per house. That's why I tend to kind of go towards a Hollywood drive as like a secondary drive. That other couple that came in here who needed to park on the side, you know, it just kind of creates more of a green space look. Um, but I we don't have policy to my knowledge on how we handle a secondary driveway in a home and what we want to do. And I think this gets we're starting to establish a precedence. This is a part of the historic downtown. This is going to be part of the new comp plan with DPZ. So, I mean, what are what are our thoughts?

4:01:30 – 4:02:06•0

Well, well, like I said, I have no problem because then when I think sit down and think about it and I can recall, I know it's one right up the road from me where you have two two cuts in the curve for one driveway. And granted, they'd only see 20 feet, but you basically got one round driveway. And we got to him. So that's kind of like saying you got two driveways except the only problem we have here his present driveway is 20 feet which is the city limit or uh uh limit and need asking for a second one. Um so I don't have any problem with two driveways long as it's not interfering with neighbors and anything on that.

4:02:04 – 4:02:49•0

Yeah. And that's where it comes down for me. It's it's not the matter of and I asked about this in in my meeting. Um it's not a matter of the second driveway per se. it's that the first driveway is 20 ft and the second driveway would exceed. We currently would allow without any variance uh two driveways if they were 10 foot and 10 foot 10 foot right as long so it's it's not the two driveway piece it's the additional curb cut because the original curb cut is already 20 feet and we only allow 20 feet max one or two. So now we're looking at 40. So now we're potentially looking at 40 for two instead of 20 for two. No, I think you say 15 or 18. Well, 18. 18.

4:02:49 – 4:03:34•0

18. 38. 38. Yeah. For me, that's really what it boils down to is a matter. I mean, we we we would allow a second driveway if his without a variance. If his first one was only 10 feet. Yeah. Um and this one was only 10. What is the plan if any for the property immediately to the north? To the north to nothing. I've been trying to buy it. They won't We've all tried to buy it. [laughter] It's a vacant propert it's it's it's the owner has no uh Well, he keep telling me he may put a duplex out there. Okay. You know, um for he noticed of this request. He got noticed.

4:03:33 – 4:03:55•0

And like I say, none of the none of the neighbors I know of. Uh, I know I had a couple of the neighbors come and talk to me about it and they had no problem with it. Uh, and I can say I Everybody wanted to know what the yellow sign was. Yeah. What' you do? Yeah. Well, they've read it and then they come and ask me, "What's the yellow sign on?" You got so

4:03:52 – 4:04:36•0

um I have more of a problem, which I I think I've expressed to Kirk. If I go on the next street down, uh, I got a couple houses with they both parked in the front yard. I have a problem with that more so than anything. And it's no nothing against See, so [laughter] I mean you can't even hardly see the front door of the house because they got big boats parked in the front yard. That's more of a a nuisome to me and I don't know what we can do about our codes that doesn't address that. So uh I commend him for taking the step to try to you know do things I know what do things the right way and that's why we're here with the varants and everything. So uh if he wants to park it back there again again like I say we can disapprove it and he can still park the boat back there. He just has to go over the curb and nothing we can do about it.

4:04:41 – 4:05:26•0

[laughter] And I'm and I'm I'm should I say this? But I gave him more trouble about his fence like I said before because he got a fence on the other side next to my property and it's right on the fence line on the property line. So I feel like I have to maintain that pro that fence line just like my other neighbor got a fence on the other side. I'm constantly out there cutting down trees and branches on that my side of the fence. [laughter] So, but I that's why I've like I said in the previous thing, I would like to see where we don't allow people to put things right on the property line and everything. Okay. But in this case, that's not that's not what we're here for. We So, can I make a motion a motion for us to approve item number 26?

4:05:26 – 4:06:01•0

I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. I have a motion and second for approval of item number 26. Any further discussion? Hear none. All in favor, let it be known by saying I. I. All oppose. The chair vote I as well. Motion carries 50. Good luck with your vote. Good luck, sir. And we'll be going fishing, I guess. Uh, variance request item number 27. Good evening, mayor, council members. Kurt Henchel, development services director.

4:05:59 – 4:07:24•0

Um before you is a variance request for Walmart. Uh the applicant is requesting two variances from the land development code to support the imple implementation of a new drone delivery service at the existing Walmart Super Center located at 1450 Johns Lake Road. The variances requested are as follows. Uh, one is to allow for a fence to be more than the six feet 6 feet tall in a commercial district uh, under section 125521. And two, for fences and walls uh, I'm sorry, and to allow for a shipping container to be used for a drone delivery service uh, for a longer period of time allowed under a temporary structure permit which is under section 125-530. The subject property is currently zoned as a planned unit development is and is being operated as the Walmart Super Center. The applicant is proposing to expand the services at this location by introducing a dronebased delivery system which would be the first fully operational Walmart drone delivery hub in the state of Florida. The proposed drone delivery system will consist of two distinct operational areas on the property. Um let me go back one slide here just to demonstrate those. You see the two red boxes, one on each side of the uh store there, and I'll go over those. The autoloader station, which is at the northwest corner that's in the left side of your screen,

4:07:23•0

this here, right?

4:07:24 – 4:09:24•0

Uh will be where the drones pick up the packages prepared to deliver. It will be enclosed by an 8 foot high fence and will occupy approximately 525 square feet. The other location on the right side of your screen called the drone nest area again the southeast corner will be a hub where the drones will be stored, maintained and launched. The area will be enclosed by an 8 foot tall fence and will include a shipping container used to securely u store and manage the drone equipment. The total area of this uh zone is approximately 4,560 square ft. The applicant shall ensure all drone operations comply with applicable FAA regulations and local uh safety protocols. The two areas will result in uh the removal of of approximately 38 existing parking spaces. However, based on the overall site plan and the surplus of parking spaces beyond the minimum code requirement, this reduction does not present a concern for the site functionality of the uh or for customer service. Staff has reviewed the application and understands that the increased fence height is a necessity to ensure the security and safety of the drone equipment and oper and operations. The 8 foot 8 foot tall fencing will provide a physical barrier to unauthorized access and help mitigate potential safety risk associated with the drone technology. Also, the shipping container service serves as a secure and weather resistant weather resistant facility for the uh drone storage operations. The Yapkin is requesting relief from the temporary use time limits to allow the container to remain on site for an extended period potentially as a semi-permanent fixture due to the long-term nature of the drone program under section 101-246

4:09:22 – 4:10:04•0

of the land development code requires a positive finding on the review criteria in order to grant variance. Staff has reviewed the application estimated and finds the application does meet a positive finding on five of the five criteria. Therefore, staff does recommend approval of the variance request and that's staff's report. Okay. Applicant present. Hello. Um, hello council. Hello mayor. Um, Eric Vaughn with Wing and I have

4:10:02 – 4:10:43•0

Regina Reed with CPH, the engineering firm. Um, doing the doing the plans. Okay. No presentation. No pres no presentation. Um, we're just um super excited to get this um started here in Claremont. We are um underway um and want to really bring this innovative service and make it accessible to your residents. Um, we I been launching sites throughout um, in my short tenure with Wing, we've been launching sites throughout the Southeast region and really excited to get started here in Florida. Um, and we're yeah, we're if you have any questions for me about the service, about the accessibility, uh, please feel free to ask.

4:10:42 – 4:11:23•0

Thank you. Well, in that case, if we have any questions, we will call you back up at a later time. But in the meantime, this is a public form. Anyone in the public wish to address this item may come to the microphone to state your name and address and have three minutes. Anyone in the public wish to address this item, may come to the microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes. No one. Do we have any? No one. Okay. We going to close public comment. Bring it back to council. Is there like a any kind of noise situation for, you know, people if it's traveling over people's homes? Is there like a a 9-to-f5 delivery window or can deliveries be done anytime, 24 hours?

4:11:21 – 4:12:06•0

No. So currently we operate only in daylight uh hours and that is adjusted during daylight savings time. So it's typically 7 to 7 to 7, but right now probably a lot earlier as it's getting really dark pretty soon, right? Uh pretty earlier. So yeah, only daylight hours. It doesn't have doesn't have navigation. Um we're working on that. Um we're in the next few months we're hoping to do some tests with the FAA to be able to operate later on in in night night hours past 9:00. And you can only go up to 400 ft. Yes. Due to our FAA guidelines, we're only flying up to 400 feet. Typically with our drones, it's around 150 to around 200 feet. And is there like liability that you have to carry in the event of, you know, hitting somebody's house?

4:12:04 – 4:12:40•0

Yeah. So, we fortunately have not had any of those incidents yet, but we are we are um insured through our um ownership company as well as through uh the FAA. So, and you said you've already done these in other areas here. Um, not in Florida. This will this will hopefully be our first uh site. Um, we're in we have about 15 locations in the Dallas Fort Worth area. We just launched last weekend in Atlanta. Um, and we're in Charlotte as well. Okay. Um,

4:12:36 – 4:13:21•0

do you have any um recording capacity on these drones where you can record over the areas that they're flying? Um, so it does not it so we do have cameras and they're used as more as sensors than anything. They're not sending any live images to anyone, not even the pilots that are watch monitoring the plane. They're just a sensor so that the drone knows where to land. If there's like a car or something in the way where it's going to it will like move the drone will move over to deliver to a safe location. Do they record any images while they're flying that are stored for later review? They're Yeah. So it does get recorded but the recording just gets sent to our it's just stored later for later review for enhance in our drones for the future

4:13:20 – 4:14:04•0

and you're a private entity. Yes. Okay. Thank you. My my understanding recording is in case go back to Mr. Peterson increased their crash they have a record of of what happened. Okay. So they do have a recording and all data is for sale these days. Huh. All data is for sale these days. Yeah. Well, um I don't have it. And this is a different from the the drone program they had down there before. This is new. This is new. This is a different a different different company. So So uh one of the questions I had with staff when I met with them was um are you still restricted from flying across 27 and Highway 50? I believe so. You know the answer?

4:14:02 – 4:14:43•0

Um I can I can get that answer back to you, but I do believe so. Okay. Because I know the other drone program when I went down for that one and introd uh they did that one it was a uh restriction that you couldn't cross 27 and you couldn't cross 50. Yeah. And and a half I think we had a what was it Kirk? A half mile radius or whatever. I think it was three miles before three miles. Okay. So yeah, we can send that those those flight maps and those restricted zones typically change pretty pretty frequently. So, I can check into that the latest one, but I know as of when they chose the location, that was a no-fly zone for a three mile radius. Okay. And the these drones look a lot different than what they used to have down there. So, they look a lot bigger.

4:14:42 – 4:15:09•0

They're get they're getting better and better and they're a lot quicker, too. So, you can get your things a lot faster. Pictures of the drones. You can let us see what one looks like. Yeah. I thought there was some pictures in in the presentation, wasn't it? Yeah. And sir, did you say drone or I thought that was just Oh, no. No, [laughter] that is act that is the that is the actual drone. That's an airplane. No, no, no. That is the That is the actual location in Dallas. Dallas. Yeah. Now, do they make a lot of noise?

4:15:07 – 4:15:48•0

They do not actually. So, our drones are made to mimic um sounds like neighborhood sounds. So, at that nest where there's about 12 to 16 drones flying, it sounds like a lawn mower, the same decibel as a lawn mower going at 100%. Um when they're delivering to a home, um it will come down to about 25 ft. The drone will never come down completely. It will just come down to about 25 feet and the package will get lowered down. And that sound is about the sound of a car going at 40 miles per hour, the same decel. So we have worked over the last decade to make sure that the drones are as quiet as they can be. Okay. Thank you. Very exciting. So how much weight would these carry?

4:15:47 – 4:16:30•0

So these the ones that you're seeing right now, they're carrying a little bit over two a little under two and a half pounds. So it's not going to be a big delivery. It's going to be those last minute things. You go grocery shopping and you realize you forgot something to make to make a recipe or like me, I'm a single dad and I had a the other day I had a sick kid at home and I did not want to get him in the car. So, I could have just got on the drone service, ordered some Tylenol, got it sent to me. So, yeah. So, that's neat. Even though the size increase, the uh weight limit is still only two and a half pounds or something like that. For this drone, we're working on one that's going to be a little bit bigger and we're hoping to launch that midyear. Okay. Yeah. And I'll do double the size the double the package.

4:16:28 – 4:17:13•0

Is this fence an example of what you would we would expect to see? Is this image of a fence the type of fence we would expect to see? Yes, ma'am. Is there is there video recordings that the drone is doing? And is that invasion of of privacy invol? You know, a drone's flying over and somebody's sunbathing. [clears throat] So, our drones are the this this uh cameras on them. They're again they're treated more like sensors. They're super low resolution. Think of like that first camera phone. It's very grainy footage. Um, so we're not going to be capturing anybody's sunba. They won't even be able to make it out. It's just more like figures and static. Okay.

4:17:10 – 4:17:44•0

I have some questions, please. um with relation to um delivery zone. Um so we're not clear on what the actual delivery zone is for these. I'm sorry. The clear whether or not you can go over 27 or 50. We're not clear on that. You you don't know the delivery zone of check back to see exactly. So we don't we don't know that at this point. um how how once it it arrives at a property, how is the product delivered to the client?

4:17:41 – 4:18:32•0

So the a client, let's from start to finish, a client will get onto the wing app or to the Walmart app. They'll select their uh products that they want. Um they'll put in their address and just like uh Uber Eats or Door Dash, the drone will find it's autonomous or highly autonomous. So will find the quickest location to them typically in under 10 minutes to get to the location. It delivers within a um from the locations about a six mile radius from each uh Walmart location. It will then lower it down. You'll be able to select um using using on on the map um using your location. You'll be able to select where in your property you want it to be delivered. So we have people who get it delivered in their backyard, front yard, driveway. A lot of people order in their coffee in the morning, get it right next to their car, so they can just get in their car and go.

4:18:29 – 4:19:04•0

So, are are people able to select the middle of the street out front? No, no, no. It has to be on their property. So, how how does the how does the app know that that's their property that they're selecting? Um through LAR data. And then like we do our our um engineers do a lot of testing in the area. So once we are able to determine a location, they'll do the all the mapping out for the areas and and locations that are eligible for service. Okay. Um so it doesn't actually how how what is the size of the drone?

4:19:02 – 4:19:41•0

It is I I should have brought I should have brought mine. It's in my car. Um it's uh it's it's probably around this big. It's 11 pounds. It's not huge at all and it's very it's very lightweight compared to uh considering drones. Um, six feet, eight feet wide, about eight by eight, six. I'm so bad at about six feet. I understand that and I am too. But I think in in order for me to feel more comfortable with what what what you're asking here, um, we have we have some neighborhoods that are very small lots. Yeah. Um, and if this is a 10 foot by 10 foot

4:19:39 – 4:20:23•0

drone or an 8 foot by foot, I Well, I don't know. We don't we don't have that information available to us. Um, and so I think it's a little concerning about where this would actually go on the property. I I I thought that this would like a product would be lowered down and that's lower. The drone will never lower down. It lowers to about 25 ft in the in the drops down. So, it's not going to lower into that. I misunderstood what you said and maybe I'm the only one who misunderstood it, but I I thought you said it it lands. The the the client picks where it lands. So, it's the product that lands. Okay. Um,

4:20:20 – 4:20:47•0

and so the sound I I think you you know, you raised some uh maybe unintentional or inadvertent points there about the sound. So, if um if there if this is, let's call it a a lawn mower. Um well, we don't allow folks to mow their lawn at 2 in the morning. Yeah. A and so if if this is going to be operational at two in the morning at some point. Yeah.

4:20:44 – 4:21:29•0

Um uh well but this variance has no restrictions on time. So right now they're saying daylight hours, but you also are testing technology that would allow for additional things. My concern is is that uh and maybe for the city attorney or for for uh Mr. How do we address that through this process so that we don't have 14 or 10 whatever the number is lawnmowers running at at 2 in the morning at Walmart um loading deliveries that they would be subject to our noise ordinance. So if they were flying at night and we thought that they might exceed our ordinance, we'd be out there with a decibel meter. Okay. From 10 to 7.

4:21:27 – 4:21:47•0

Okay. Okay. But is that data available now since it's being operated in Dallas? Right. So somebody must have data on what the sound levels are, etc. If it's, you know, it's one makes a certain sound, two makes, what does six make? Is it is it a multiplier? Is it exponential or what?

4:21:45 – 4:23:02•0

Yeah. And and I guess that's where I I guess where I'm coming from it because I feel like it's a it's a it's a wow presentation that lacks specifics in all honesty um about some of these items. Um, and uh, that's concerning to me. The other question I have about the the shipping containers, so what are we talking about in in terms of shipping containers? Are we talking about uh, you know, just gray boxes? Are these painted boxes? Are these colorful boxes? What do they look like? Because if these are going to be out there, and typically shipping containers are semi are are temporary. These are going to be semi-permanent, meaning they could be out there for the duration of this program. what what are we going to be doing for our aesthetics? It may not matter in the grand scheme of things with Walmart specifically because of how it's configured and set up and surrounded, but I guarantee you we're going to be seeing this for other entities like uh other commercial entities uh Amazon's, Targets, Walgreens, CVS's that aren't uh Costos, BJ's. Yeah. That aren't as secluded as the property here. and and they're going to be looking at an 8ft fence and shipping containers and I I'm concerned about what that looks like overall for our community.

4:23:00 – 4:23:43•0

I'm worried about the beauty of this or the lack thereof as well. Right. I think I mean there's there's probably you know this is a a whole new thing where you know what is the legality? I mean is there rules, regulations, restrictions, you know where you drop things? You drop it on your neighbor's house, you know. As far as the shipping to answer your question, are we just like allowing something to happen without any regulations in place? Well, well, first of all, the flying regulation is is done by FA FAA. FA is over 500 ft. Yeah. Right. Lower than 400. And I know they had the restriction. You couldn't go across 50 and 27. I never Why wouldn't you have I don't understand why they would have

4:23:41 – 4:24:24•0

Well, I don't know why, but the drone program they had down there that was the restriction. They already Walmart used to have Are they still operating their drone down there now? Um the previous one. Yeah. No, that that one went away. This is a new company. This is a new company. Yeah. But one of the things I like about this one though, I I don't have no problem with the drone. But the good thing I like about this one, they took and moved their operation into a corner out of the way where the other operation right where everybody can see and you had to go by. And just also keep in mind that if they were in here with just a six foot tall fence and they did something other than a shipping container, the use could still happen, right?

4:24:22 – 4:25:03•0

So right now your your issue is the 8ft tall fence and the shipping container. And you're saying these are like 3 feet wide or 3 feet around the the So I I was able to text our engineers. The drones are about four feet by five feet wingspan. Yeah. Four feet by five feet. And the drones and the drones never never touches the none but touches the ground. They have a cable that they actually fly over the property wherever you tell them to drop it and they lower the prop uh the product down. There there'll be no interaction between uh non-wing employee and a drone. Hence the the need for that 8ft fence. Maybe maybe if if this get approved, maybe you need to set up a demonstration or something like that. Maybe. Uh so

4:25:01 – 4:25:36•0

yeah. Yeah, we can um we're actually hosting a demonstration soon. I'll send you an invitation in Florida. So, I'll let you know about that very soon. Yeah, please do. And I would feel just to to conclude my remarks, um I would I do have some question about why two locations and why why this isn't being proposed in one one location closer to the to the um store. Um in terms of the storage, it looks like, you know, there may be some space there by where the loading zone is, if for lack of a better word. Um

4:25:34 – 4:25:54•0

yeah, in the garden center. Why, you know, why why why aren't we taking out all of those spots and and putting this all in one location rather than having drones operate and fly out of two locations um and having um uh having it sparsed out throughout the property.

4:25:52 – 4:27:11•0

So, the idea here is to separate the interaction between um the customers and the drone themselves. That nest it isn't normally there's not people in that area. often that autoloader that is they accompany that area is put next to the online pickup delivery area that's already there. That merchandise is uh dispensed to that auto loader area uh by the same people who uh bring out your groceries for your pickup. So that is how the merchandise gets out. They they'll put it on there. Uh that autoloader has what we call like bunny ears that uh the uh merchandise is attached to. Uh the drive the drone flies from the desk which is where stored and charged. It'll take off from that desk, go to the auto loader, drop down its line, pick up that merchandise, and then fly off, right? So, there's no real interaction with uh that's the reason why they kind of keep it separate. That nest that does, you can see that does take about uh roughly 30 parking spots. And so, we like to put those in places where, you know, it's not frequently parked. There's there's no real use going in that area. We try to find a nice empty area that's not going to impact operation. And the nest is where the shipping containers would be, which is on this map where we're seeing here kind of over by the intersection of Cross Ridge and Citrus Tower. Okay. Yes, sir.

4:27:09 – 4:27:53•0

The loading area is is the area that's closer to Highway 27 and and the building correct in the upper left of the of the picture. And but that's also that's where the dr the drone is going to leave the nest and go to the loading. It's not going to land. It'll hover just about the same how as it would when it delivers to drop down and pick up and staff will come out attach it and it takes off. And they don't even have to so before the drone even comes the the merchandise is dropped down into the auto loader and then like the there doesn't have to be an employee in that area when that uh line is deployed. Okay. So automated loading of the drone. Correct. Okay. There you go. Okay. All right. [snorts] So I commend the creativity and and the industriousness of it. [clears throat]

4:27:52 – 4:29:14•0

It's an interesting world we're all living in. Um, my concern with the fence and the crate is, crazy as it might sound when we're talking about a Walmart is the beautifification of the space. And when I look at that picture, I just see industrial. I see I mean, frankly, it looks like an imprisonment camp is what it looks like when I look at it. And I have parked basically right immediately next to where that red that red box is on the far right that you're calling the nest. I think that if the what I would categorize as an industrial use was more where the indust industrial business was done where the trucks load, you know, not where the people are, but actually where the big trucks are, I would be less concerned. I'm not going to be able to support this with the presentation as requested, but I think you've got some opportunities actually up in the Walmart building that you could get meds on if if it even matters. I might be counting to three here, but I just feel like it's too much of an industrial use kind of out in the middle of I do think it's in the public space. I don't think it's in the the industrial section of I understand you're saying maybe people aren't normally parked there. In this picture, it doesn't look like people are parked there, but guarantee you next week there's going to be a lot of people parking out in those spots.

4:29:12 – 4:30:45•0

So, one thing I I do want you guys to consider is the fact that um there are certain restrictions on those um drones. We we want to limit uh anything that can restrict the movement of those zones, right? Or those those drones. So, if there's trees, if there's tall buildings, if there's light poles, those are things. um trucks that move, big semi-truck. We don't really want any of that around when those uh drones are coming in or taking off. So, we that's the whole point of trying to get it to a remote area within the footprint that you know um would seem to be less impactful, but I can understand your your point there. Yes. Well, as I said, I I I kind of in like the fact that they moved it off off into the corner where it used to be right in the uh all the drone program they had were right in the center. I mean, right in the center of the parking lot and everything. You couldn't miss it and everything. So, it's I very seldom see anybody on other than big trucks maybe once in a while park over there. Um I can understand why you don't uh back in your auto loader. That's because of the truck and being an ex- truck driver. I'd be happy to keep you away from me too with that drone. Uh especially when in that area where I'm trying to back and maneuver trucks and getting the loading docks. Uh less distraction for me the better. Uh as a ex truck driver anyway. Um so I have I have no problem with it. Uh but I still have concern with are we still have a restriction of going u being able to go across 27 and 50.

4:30:43 – 4:31:53•0

And I Yeah. And I I'm going to share in the sentiment of my my colleague uh to my left uh Council Member Strange. Um aesthetically um sound delivery zone. Uh I I I just don't I don't know that uh whomever at Walmart, I guess, worked with staff to prepare you all and provided us information. I don't I don't think they set you up for good success in in the in the um information because there's just too many unknowns for me at this point to support it. Um I used to work with a supervisor who used to say to the staff, "Be the example, not the example." And in this case, I don't I I would love to be the first. I would love to be the example, but I I'm I'm worried that we're going to be the example. And that's concerning to me. And this is a this is a situation where I'm comfortable Claremont not being the first. And until we have more information and I'm more comfortable with a lot of the the nuances and the aesthetics that are associated with this, I just I can't support the variance at this time. I'm sorry.

4:31:53 – 4:32:33•0

Did I Did I have a motion? I will move it to to vote it down. So I'll move for approval. Is there opportunity? I mean, we do have some like you can see it in operation. This is this isn't it's new to Florida, but it's not new right now. Yeah. So, I mean, if you would like to like I guess set up a time where we can go over some of the material, you can see how it operates, works, flows, what you know, um see how uh would that would that help? I think possibly. I mean, I I I don't we sit down with this.

4:32:31 – 4:33:15•0

I'm willing to I would be willing to table rather than uh approve this, but um I I can't guarantee you that I'm going to get to yes on that. So, I I I don't want to give a false sense of, you know, showing me something is going to get me to say yes. Um but um I guess council, do you feel like are there question am I am I alone in the questions that I have? And if I am and you you all are comfortable, then let's move forward. Well, I'm I'm comfortable with it. Uh like I said, I I've I've seen the operation the other not you all but the other operation there. I went down there and I witnessed it. They had a demonstration for us and and I was very impressed with it. U

4:33:13 – 4:33:46•0

Oh, you saw the demonstration? Not theirs, but Walmart used to have a uh drone drone uh program before. Walmart used to operate drones. Yeah, they used to they operated drones out of the parking lot down there before. And I went down at Kirkport what was it two three years ago we went down and had the demonstration and I was very impressed they that's one of the concerns uh like I said here your drone's a lot larger than what Walmart was using before but the weight limit of course that was always one of my concern about the weight you're carrying around 10 15 pounds they release and fall on somebody

4:33:44 – 4:34:26•0

they're about two 2.4 pounds. So we're we're we're not carrying the larger packages because we want to make sure that they're safe. We we we know that we possibly could carry larger packages, but right now we're really comfortable with that 2.4 pound weight limit. You stay and of course if FAA say you can go across 27 and 50, I I can't do anything about it. for right now. Last I know, FFA say you can't go across 27 and 50, which I FAA, these types of commercial drones under um part 135 of FAA regulations do allow them to cross highways if they obtain certain certifications. Okay.

4:34:23 – 4:35:03•0

From and I don't know if they have them, but actually um just according to my limited research here, Wing has done it before. Um yeah, so so it is possible. Okay. But but they have to go through FFA with certifications and all for safety. Okay. Yeah. It's not a right. It's not a right. That's my concern. We flying over the over. I think all we're really doing is a variance for for the for the height of the I'd like to make a motion to uh I lost it here. The variance request item number 27. I second the two various. Yes. Approval for both of them. Approval. Yes. there

4:35:00 – 4:35:34•0

uh which is a 6 foot fits and I forget the other shipping containers. Okay, I have a motion and a second for approval item number 27 Bar request. Any further discussion? No, sir. All in favor? I just I just want to state for the record that I I don't understand how staff recommended approval on items number two and five. This is not out of character with other properties in the same zoning category. This isn't even done in Florida. So, it's completely out of character with everything else that goes on in this city.

4:35:32 – 4:36:10•0

And the minimum minimum variance that would make reasonable use of the land, they could have put this somewhere else. We just had a property owner that was up here who wanted to build a restore 100-year-old garage and staff recommended denial because they could have moved their garage to another location. So, I just I'm going to be opposed to this, but I just wanted to state the reasons why. Okay. All right. Um, but we're we're only approving a height restriction on a fence fence. We're not approving drones. It's my understanding, Kirk. If I'm not right, if they can go out there and operate the drone without a parking lot without the fence, right?

4:36:09 – 4:36:30•0

And my objection has nothing to do with the drone operation. It's the the fence and the the the container, which both, like I said, they're industrial in nature. I mean, just the image of them is industrial. This is a a retail center. But I think that we're not even concerned with the container. This is only talking about the fence.

4:36:28 – 4:36:57•0

No, it's there's two items, Mr. Peterson. There's a second item that says to allow a shipping container to be used for a delivery drone service for longer period allowed under the temporary structure permit. So, we're actually giving two variances. One is for the fence to go from six to eight and then also to allow for shipping containers to be longer than temporary. So these shipping containers could be out there for 20 years, five years, 20 days.

4:36:55 – 4:37:39•0

There was there was a question asked about the beautifification of the f uh the shipping containers and how that would look if they're out there for longer. We have had uh cities in Dallas Fort Worth that have request requested or we've done like um screening around the fences and or did wraps to make it a little bit more beautiful, make it look look a little bit uh blend in with the community a little bit more. So we we're able to do that as well. So, can we include meaning you can apply conditions? Yeah. So, how about as conditions? We limit it. What's your company name? Uh, Wing Wing. Wing LLC. Wing. Wing LLC. Wing LLC. So, it's tied to the operator. And let's have them put a screen around it so that it doesn't look like, you know,

4:37:37 – 4:38:17•0

prison. Sorry. And so, if the container's inside, I don't really care. But if the container is visible, maybe an art installation. We've got a lot of art folks in Claremont who might be interested. And let me let me let me say this. You're talking about the container. Mr. U Bang, you wasn't here, but I think everybody else on this council, I think we approved um a project one time using containers in our downtown. We did. Yeah. But that was a retail face of a company, not a storage for Can we just have that added to the amendment? Can we just have that added to the amendment and take it to a vote because we have other people.

4:38:14 – 4:38:59•0

We have a I have a motion and a second on the floor for approval of item number 27. Any further discussion? Yeah. Would Bill consider amending the motion to limit the CU the the variance to this company specific period of time that you know and how it's going to be aesthetically pleasing to the wing LLC a wrap around the fence and if the storage container is visible to the public that it have an art installation on it. Would you would you consider a wrap or decorative feature on the storage container itself over the fence? As an engineer, I am a little bit concerned on limiting visibility around that, you know. Just this is the shed. Yeah, the shed stuff. She was saying screening the fence.

4:38:57 – 4:39:41•0

Oh, and so you can't see the container. Yeah. You can't see inside the fence. You can't see inside it. Yeah. I would I would ask that we could do something with the container and not screen in the fence itself to be able to see. So, you can still see inside. You can still see. Correct. Okay. Now, uh, can you can we run that by staff for approval before it happens? I can I can accomp I can compromise on that, but I'd like it to come by our staff before it goes out. Any further discussion? All that then to have that additional language put [snorts] in. Okay. All right. Okay. Strange. So, a wrap around the container that's approved by Claremont staff.

4:39:40 – 4:40:09•0

Okay. What does the second accept the amendment. Oh, I second. Yeah, I second. Did you agree? I agree with it. Yes. Okay. We have a motion and second uh on approval of Vance number request and item number 27 uh with the approved addiction um addressing the container. Any further discussion? No. Hearing none. All in favor? Let it be known by saying I. I. All oppose. Nay.

4:40:07 – 4:40:56•0

And the chair vote I as well. Motion carries 41. Uh, item number 28, ordinance number 2026-00001, intro accessory dwelling units. An ordinance of the city of Claremont, Lake County, Florida, amending the code of ordinances, chapter 2, administration, article 6, financial matters, division 2, impact fees, amending section 2, 264, impact fee schedule, providing for a new impact fee schedule, adjusting and reducing impact fees for accessory dwelling units, repealing all ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict with this ordinance to the extent of such conflict. providing for conflict severability, codification, the administrative correction of scrier's error, publication, and an effective date.

4:40:57 – 4:41:18•0

Okay, this is a public hearing. Anyone in the public wish to address this item may come to the microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes. Mr. Mayor, I'm I'm happy to give a little intro to this if you want. This is an introduction only to the ordinance, but if you want a small presentation, I'm happy to give one. Okay. No. Go

4:41:19 – 4:42:16•0

and see clear 571 575 West Minneapolis. I'm sorry it's it's getting late. Um so I am in full support of this. It doesn't make sense that we do not have a section in our code to address specifically accessory dwelling units when it comes to impact fees. Uh a reduction to 25% of the current impact fees um perhaps is not ideal as in perhaps not exact but it makes sense to me. Uh this is something that we should be encouraging especially downtown. We do need more gentle density and uh accessory dwelling units can serve as a way to provide um housing I'm sorry housing uh for lower cost. In fact I have one I converted my garage to an accessory dwelling unit and my uncle is living there for way below market rate. So so uh that is something that can help families like mine to you know um stay in a beautiful place like Kermon. Thank you. Thank you.

4:42:17 – 4:42:30•0

Valerie Shu at 931 West Montros. I know this is an intro, so like how much do I need to make a case for this right now? I mean, I'll keep it short either way because it's late.

4:42:28 – 4:43:29•0

Okay, I do like it. I know I kind of tripped the system on this one, um, as I seem to do, but uh, yeah, I support it. I hope you'll consider it. Uh, a couple like highle context. I can go into more detail another time, but um we'll still pay some impact fees to obviously the city. It's a reduction, but then there's also county impact fees. So, that's just big context when you're taking that into play. Um we're still uh paying a good amount there. Thank you so much also to the staff who have worked on this and brought this forth. I know it's a small thing, um but it's very much leaning in the direction that we're heading with a lot of good development and DPZ and the formbbased code in downtown. We need to incentivize housing like this. We need diversity of dwelling. Uh, you know, in the next 10 years on a macro point, we're going to have boomers downsizing and millennials and Gen Z that can't afford, nor do they want their independent spread out homes. So, we need to do everything we can, even these little things, to incentivize that. So, thank you.

4:43:29 – 4:44:14•0

Thank you. Anyone else? Anyone else? This is a public proceeding. Anyone in the public wish to address this item may come to the microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes. Seeing no one else, anyone online, Mr. Wayne? No. One online close public uh comment for sake staff. I say make I say I would like to make a mo motion for us to accept this. I have a motion and a second to for approval of ordinance number zero um 2026-00001 for intro intro any further discussion none all in favor let it be known by saying I

4:44:11•0

I all oppose chair vote I as well motion passes 50 okay reports Mr. Van Wagner.

4:44:21 – 4:45:14•0

Just want to let make you aware that December 24th and December 25th and January 1st, the city offices will be closed and our next scheduled council meeting will be January 13th of 2026. Couple events that we're going to be having is the PD on December 10th has PD's Heroes and Helpers at Target beginning at 5:00 p. a.m. And then Friday, December 12th is Battle of the Badges. That's a basketball between CPD and the LSSO at Aurelia Cole Academy at 6:30. And everybody's encouraged to bring unwrapped toy for free admission. And then December 17th, uh, Pday's Holidays and Heroes will be at Walmart beginning at 6 p.m. That ends my report.

4:45:12 – 4:45:48•0

Thank you, sir. Uh, Mr. Wall. Uh, thank you, mayor. We are going to appeal the adverse decision of the code board from last month. Um, we're receiving the written order that we can appeal. So, that's a precondition to us doing it. Um, that regards the access from the Encompass Health property. Okay. Um, and um, other than that, I don't think I have a report except to say um, Die Hard is not a Christmas movie and I wish you all a happy holidays. live long and prosper.

4:45:46 – 4:46:06•0

I I I think I heard that comment earlier today, but u somebody somebody made the comment they was at home last night [clears throat] watching the Christmas movie Die Hard and I I've been complex trying to figure out wait which die hard are they talking about? [laughter] It didn't seem like a Christmas movie to me. Uh Council Member Strange

4:46:04 – 4:48:04•0

couple things that have come up at recent public hearings. One happened today. There was a reference by a member of the public that the wellness way fire money um in some way related to our general fund reserves and I just wanted to make sure that the public was aware that the funds for the fire department that we've been spending all relate actually to impact fees and that 100% of those were paid by the residents of wellness way that we have been spending. So, I just want anybody who even feels like it's a gift or any it's not. The folks down there actually made those payments and that's important to me. Um, just to make sure that that's clear. So, also another thing that came up tonight had to do with parking during events. Um, when I met with staff, one of the things that they said they would start doing is when they have events scheduled, whether it's their events or a member of the public, that they will include a parking plan with that specific event. so that each event has a clearly published parking plan, which I think is great resolution to that challenge and I commend staff for coming up with it. Um, on the tourism front, Lake County will be sending up its capital plan processes to the board of county commissioners in the January meeting. Uh, we meet again on January 6th to approve that and then it will go to the board of county commissioners. And I already met with staff on this, but I want to make sure you all are aware as well that we are expecting immediately to be able to apply for capital funds. So I don't yet know what that process will be. I just know that it will be very fast. So the application deadline might be as late as the end of January or sometime in February and then it won't open up again until 2027. So, I met with staff, um, asked them to get with the ABA to make sure that they're looking at, hey, what properties might we want to make capital improvements on. There's about $4 million in the capital

4:48:03 – 4:48:44•0

fund at the county right now for tourism. There's another about half a million to a million each year that'll hit that fund. So, we want to get in early on that. I'd like a five-year plan. Um, and then the last thing I have is merry Christmas, happy new year. Um, and if anybody wonders, Miss Myers is the nicest of all of us because she's the only one who gave a card. So, thank you for that. It's the second year in a row. I should have known better. So, my apologies, but I hope everyone has a happy holiday. And if you don't celebrate Christmas, whatever you do celebrate, I hope goes great for you and no family drama. Thank you, ma'am. Council member Bane.

4:48:40 – 4:50:40•0

Thank you, Mayor. Um, I am in agreement with our attorney. Die Hard is not a Christmas movie. Um, I, as I alluded to earlier, plan on bringing forward in January, um, a resolution or some discussion to our documents rel related to times of meetings. Um, and I obviously, as I said before, didn't want to do that tonight to add to that conversation and length of the meeting. So, um just to just to be in the in the spirit of transparency, letting folks know that that's coming forward and and obviously um welcome any feedback from from um the residents of of Claremont on that. In addition to that, I'd like to um also, you know, start having some conversations about consent agenda and how we create the consent agenda and do we want to have any um guidelines. I think all of us at some point have either heard from residents, well, is it a dollar amount? Is it a um not viewed controversial? And I think we've all kind of expressed some frustrations at some point either as council members or as as residents and residents have come forward certainly up here and I think it just behooves us to set city staff up for success if we provided that guideline for them or that feedback for them. Um, and so I don't know that that needs to be something that as an individual council member I would, you know, propose something that I would like to see and then we all vote on it. I think we can maybe try to come to some resolution on that. So I'd like to just put that out there that I'd like to have some conversation relative to that. And then finally, um just a question relative to our our appointments that we make to our external entities, um boards and commissions and and whatnot that that we uh represent when uh Mr. city manager, when will that

4:50:38 – 4:51:22•0

occur and and what is the process for that for council or or city clerk um on how do we do that when we make those conversations about because we have a new council member and we have uh boards and commissions and out there that are not being represented by the city. It will be on the January agenda along with the mayor prom. So that's J first meeting in January. Yes, sir. Thank you. Happy holidays everyone. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Please be safe. Let me let me verify um the question you just asked about the uh boards. What what was that? Um

4:51:18 – 4:51:58•0

well I I we all decide who we're who is going to represent the city at say the ch the chamber main street TDC all those entities and appointments we make well we yeah we so we have a new council. I just was asking when we were going to be doing that and what the process was for that. All right. Um I guess I was I was thinking about code boards and all these kind of things. Okay. But yeah, usually that's January. We make that determination in January. Uh along with other um where are we? Council member Peterson admires. I'm sorry.

4:51:55 – 4:52:29•0

Good evening. Um this is a question I Let me just say this. With sunshine laws, we're not allowed to talk to each other. So when we have questions, we have to do it up here. So my question is toward Miss Strange. I watched the video from last time because I was not there and um I w and I watched it again and again and I didn't get what you were seeing. So this is what I wanted to ask you. What is the gap that you're seeing in regards to hiring a branding consultant?

4:52:29 – 4:53:13•0

You mean for tonight? Mhm. Um I did not anticipate that we would be hiring a branding consultant. I don't think that we even know where we want to go yet and so branding wouldn't make sense. Um when we went through the workshop in the fall in the summer, we terminated one position. Strange. Hold on. Hold on a minute. Miss, I understand your form, but uh since we'll be talking about that on the next item. Can we can we hold that until we uh go to because they actually they going to be doing presentation so we can talk about that before the presentation and let's get finished with reports, please. Well, I just Well, see, my point was was do we even need that? That's my point. That's why I was bringing that up. Got it.

4:53:11 – 4:53:55•0

Because I don't see it as branding. I see it as public communication management. M so you wanted So your thought was we [snorts] needed someone else to do that instead of Melinda in addition to in addition to Melinda because we used to have two people in that role right we defunded one right and it was my understanding that the purpose of that was to put in someone to work with her another group a private group so she would have resources across multiple different disciplines so you don't have to hire four or five different people to do data analytics and graphic design. So you didn't think we needed to hire just a second person. You think we needed to have a whole consultant to do that? That's Oh, yeah. That Yeah.

4:53:54 – 4:54:24•0

To do what though? Well, anytime you deal with public communication, you and especially when you involve social media, you have the issue of what is the message we want to get out? What does that message look like? Who does it need to go to? And how do we get it to them? And then the evaluation of did they get it right? And typically, at least in my experience, those individuals are not the same person. So, a lot of times you might have one person on your team that's really good at graphics,

4:54:22 – 4:55:01•0

and then you might have another person on your team that's really good at the data, which can be both sides of the data, both getting the data out as well as getting it back and digesting it and figuring out what that means. Then you have the social media piece which is actually managing the the tech of all the different types of social media. So my question is is why not hire a person to do that instead of spending $40,000 plus a invoice that this company will send a nickel and dimes. Then why not just hire somebody to do that then? Because usually one person does not have all of

4:54:59 – 4:55:49•0

No, but I'm saying another person. So So she'll have two people. So to be a team of two people um and that way we can control the narrative and we can control the spending on that because right now what you're proposing in my opinion is giving an open checkbook to one of these people that come to present and I don't think that's being a good steward over our money because we don't still even know what our vision is. What what is it that we're going to have them do? I think we can hire an individual to help Melinda to do those things that you just said without necessarily having a company because that again I watched it again and again and I just wasn't getting like why do we need to spend this type of money on that when we can just hire a person who can assist Melinda in doing that

4:55:46 – 4:56:17•0

and and I'll repeat that that's what we'd agreed on at the workshops um and that I do think it's beyond the skill set of of two people. So, when I'm saying one person, I mean there's what Melinda does, which is public information. Um, and then some social media. Um, but then there's the other professional marketing and communications pieces of it. Um,

4:56:14 – 4:56:59•0

yeah. Okay. I see it different. Okay. Um, and then my other part of the of my uh report is I wanted to thank the staff for what a wonderful job they did with the light up and the Christmas parade. You did a wonderful job. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and I just wanted to extend my deep appreciation for all the city and staff employees. I want to wish everyone a happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate it as well as a happy Quanza to those who celebrate that. And last but not least, those that celebrate the birth of Christ, merry Christmas, and I pray that everyone has a healthy and prosperous new year. Thank you, ma'am. Council member Peterson,

4:56:58 – 4:57:10•0

second on the parade, I thought the parade was phenomenal that we were in. I couldn't believe the the amount of people that were there on such an overcast, cloudy day,

4:57:07 – 4:58:24•0

you know, possible rain and yet people, you know, I it was just amazing. It was a great time. People were saying, "Hi, you know, people I I didn't even know was saying hi, Bill." I didn't know who they were. Secondly, secondly, uh we went to the uh that Florida League of Cities that legislative conference. it, you know, as as a new member, you know, only a year. I'm still a fledgling here, but it was great to be able to meet other uh people that are in council in different cities to get information, share information with them, and it was one of the things that I that impressed me the most. I met somebody from Venice who in a similar situation that we're doing now, you know, trying to get out from under the county and go independent and he was able to do it and he's saying how much they're flourishing now, how how they're totally not in the red but green and he's saying how they have like a six to eight to 10 minute response time which is what we want to look forward to especially as we're growing larger and we really owe this to the people. That being said, merry Christmas, happy new year, happy Quanza, happy Hanukkah, and happy festivist to the rest of us.

4:58:22 – 4:59:03•0

Thank you, Mr. Matthysse. I'll keep it real short just because I know it's late and we've got more to come. So, just wanted to wish everybody a happy holidays. I too was in the parade, my first parade. I really enjoyed it. I'm very jealous that uh Council Member Bane got to throw little teddy bears out. So, he got all the For clarification, that was the driver's teddy bears, not mine. I did not provide those. Yeah, you're definitely the most popular car in the front. Yes, you were. Yes, you were. Although, you had to compete with Ronald McDonald. It was pretty close. [laughter] It was. But it was a great time and I appreciate it. Happy holidays, everybody.

4:58:59 – 5:00:56•0

Thank you. Um, now my report. Uh I too was at the legislative conference last week uh along with Mr. Peterson. Um a lot of good information in there and I I'm I'm going say this again people and please keep your eye out on what's coming out uh out of Tallahassee because uh this property tax issue isn't going to die. Okay. Uh basically we went over one of the things we went over all eight proposals. My understand just about understanding is just about every one of them have somewhat uh died except for one and I think it's if I'm not mistaken Mr. While you can check in this I think I heard it was 701 which is the main one which do away with property tax all together. The one thing I did not get from the conference which I was hoping I could could obtain if they get away with property taxes what they were going to replace it with. Is there a proposal to replace it with? There is nothing being said about what they going uh what we can do to replace property taxes. Um, but there's word talk about sales tax, increase in sales taxes and all this, but I think the governor has already said that if uh anything come to him with an increase in sales tax, he vetoing it. So, um, so that's one of the dilemas we going we going to have to worry about. Um, I still feel worried about Climat even though we have a large commercial commercial uh segment in in the city compared to other cities that just has residential depend upon residential. Some of these cities going to probably end up having to fold under or have to go under the state or however they going to handle them. uh because um well we only depend upon about what um just under 50% of our uh revenue for uh from Avalon tax. We may be okay but there if they get rid of it I still think there'll be a lot of cuts. So please uh one of the thing to ask us in

5:00:54 – 5:02:53•0

the conference was to contact your legislators and your uh senators and your representative and tell them to vote no uh and not to get this thing put on on the agenda. Okay. So that's one of the biggest things I got out of out of it. Uh Mr. Mr. Van Wagner spoke about battle of the badges. Um I will be there Friday night and I appreciate the come out police department and the uh Lake County Sheriff. This will be year 14. They've been doing this battle of the badges and basically you come in with unwrapped gear u unwrapped gift uh toys. Uh the toys actually come to my nonprofit organization which I I turn around on Christmas Eve and and distribute them to less fortunate kids in the community and everything. So uh this has been going on for about 14 years now and I look forward to this battle. But I need support out there this year for Climouth Police Department to encourage them and cheer them on to victory this year because last year we lost and we're behind in the count. Okay, they got a couple game up on us, you know. So there is a trophy that we present each year to the winning team. So we need we need some support out there this year. Um earlier uh we appointed new uh some members to the uh code enforcement board and I know I I spoke to Mr. Van Wagner and Mr. Matthysse about this. Mr. War, I would like for you to get to them and set up training as soon as possible. Okay. Um, I'm getting a lot of complaints about the code enforcement board and everything else. And I know we've offered training to them before, but I would like to see that done again, especially with the new members and everything so we we can uh hopefully get some of the comments and everything settled down from code enforcement. Uh, ebikes. It was brought up earlier about ebikes. Um, I would like for you to Mr. W get with

5:02:49 – 5:04:47•0

uh Mr. Van Wagner to get with the chief and see there. I know in Tallahassee there's a lot of uh legislation talking about uh ebikes coming out. Uh they talking about ebikes. I know it's a serious problem. Uh not just here in Climouth, but it's all over and I know Orlando is taking a lot of drastic steps. Orange County taking a lot of drastic steps and trying to control it because a lot of a lot of people are getting killed on the ebikes out here. Okay. They actually getting killed because they're not abiding by the laws and everything. So they putting in a lot of different steps, you know, and I know chief has mentioned to me, a couple of officers have mentioned to me, we we having a problem here in Claremont as well. Uh people not paying attention. So please, let's get with with them and uh and see what we can do. Golf carts. I'm getting uh complaints about golf carts on the south on the south side of 50. I know the ordinance we did only for the B for this coordinates uh from west 27 uh and north of 50 and quadrant but um people starting to call me and complain about they seen a lot of golf course on golf carts on the other side of 50 on the south side of 50. So so uh I don't know what we can do Mr. Vanwagen maybe get with the chief and see what we can do with that as well. Um I thank everybody for coming out to uh to my lunchon uh on Tuesday. Uh last Tuesday had about 20ome people attend the lunchon on Tuesday. So uh I appreciate them coming out and continue to look forward to doing those. Um Miss Ford talked about the parking early and I looked at the map. Okay. I guess the real issue was anything with towards Highway 50 from West Dotto. There has never been roadblocks put up there before. Okay. I mean, we went through the same issue a couple years ago with roadblocks. All the roadblocks have always been put from Dodto down to Montros and everything. Now, um I don't know if we got with Chief or anything,

5:04:45 – 5:05:16•0

but let's let's get with him and see what we can we can do to help solve that for sure. Um I don't think there's a problem uh up up in that area because most of the things up from Dotto back to 50 is mostly businesses and not not residents. Not too many residents up in there. Yeah, that's the area she was concerned with. But see, I think she was functioning about no roadblocks uh barriers up there blocking the road off. But where years past we never blocked off the street up there.

5:05:14 – 5:06:20•0

Yeah. Yeah. So, so but yeah, we've always had signs up there. But anyway, if we need to look at it again, if we need to put roadblocks up there, go ahead. But uh because it's always been for the residents. Uh again, I'll be looking at bringing the uh fouryear uh extending four-year term, Mr. Peterson. Hopefully, we can bring that forward sometime here in the first part of the year and everything else. But I think Mr. W, I need you to probably look at our ordinance and everything because I would like to uh I don't want to extend the I want the term limits to stay at eight years. I don't want to extend the term to make sure the limits there but I think one of the decision the council need to make uh when we start looking at it and uh and maybe come up with the language um once we go to the four years term uh fouryear terms that we extend the eightyear term limit do everybody if you're sitting on the council do your eightyear term start over with the next election so look at the language and maybe we may have to put that on the ballot let the people decide that as well okay

5:06:18 – 5:06:56•0

Mr. Mayor, I want you to know I would not support four-year terms. Okay. Well, that's fine. But, uh, it's a lot a lot of people requesting for four-year terms, and I know come council members, I mean, it's getting to be re very tre um times and stressful to do two-year terms. Uh, and the inconsistency uh on the council is is getting to be too much. And the cost of running elections, uh, I don't think we got the cost in yet, uh, for this last election. Did we get it? It was 68,000.

5:06:53 – 5:08:53•0

$68,000 for 5,800 people to vote in this off election. Uh, that was that was a low cost. That was low because uh we have spent a lot more than that on election on off years. Okay. Uh, and I just we go to the four-year terms and get everything set up right. uh the state end up uh on the we running with the state elections state pick up the cost and we eliminate that uh that kind of mean I think last two years ago uh what was it we did crazy it was almost 130 120 something thousand with the two elections we did that we had to cost us an election for for another 50 something thou 5800 people to vote so that's that's huh yeah they did for the primary and then the general u between the two you had 50 about 50 something people to vote and it was actually over 100,000 if I'm not mistaken at that time. Okay. So, I'll still be looking to bring that forward. Uh so, I want council to give that some consideration as well. All right. Mary Chris, I want to say Mary Crystal again. I was at light up. I want to if you uh it was very entertaining to see Mr. L Noah Law here. The kids went crazy and he was able to he flipped the switch for us at light up on on Friday night. um a lot of kids was able to come up and talk to him and get pictures taken and everything. It was it was very very nice uh for him to be out here and he's looking to do more in the community. So I asked the uh staff to probably um keep in touch with him and see if we can't set up some kind of uh autograph signing or something like this in the near future as well and all and again I was very impressed with the parade. Um again it was a another great parade. So hats off to the se uh staff and everybody uh for everything they did in the parade and setting up the light up and parade. Uh people were very impressed on both of them. So uh last thing I got I was hoping that either Mr. Mr. Wah or Mr.

5:08:50 – 5:09:46•0

Van Wagner would give me a rundown on this uh trip I heard about that went to Seaside. And basically, if I can get a report on that, uh who authorized the trip, who went on the trip, what was the purpose of the trip, how was the trip for, why wasn't the counselor, or at least I wasn't informed of the trip. Okay. If I can get it get a report on all that, I would appreciate it. Huh? Oh, you don't know either. [laughter] But my understanding there was the uh contingency that went to seaside here u last week or week before last. But uh I knew nothing about it. No council members attended the trip or was on the trip or anything. And I'm just curious how how how all that that happened without council even knowing about it and none of council members being present on the trip and everything. So if I can get a report on that appreciate it.

5:09:43 – 5:10:15•0

Thank you, sir. That's other than that, merry Christmas to everyone and uh stay safe out there, please. And uh hopefully we'll be seeing everybody over the upcoming holidays. Anything else that need to come before the council? Anything else that need to come before the council? Hearing none. I can't adjourn the meeting. Not [laughter] yet. Not journ yet. Let's take things up. Huh? Yeah. At least a five or 10 minute break.

5:10:14 – 5:10:31•0

We going to have to take a 10 minute. We're going to take a 10-minute break so we can set up for the presentations and everything. Okay. So, uh I got 7:42. So 752. Oh, 7:42. Yeah. Wow. 7:52. Thank you.

5:10:43 – 5:11:18•0

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front of the It's a It's a If I get there to take the seat, we will go ahead and uh into our second part of the agenda for the night.

5:21:26 – 5:22:08•0

Uh what I do with mic item number 29, presentation, the request for proposal award. Okay. Yes, this is the uh presentation for the public communication, social media and brand management services. This is a result of a request for proposals RFP. Uh the the evaluation committee selected three companies and tonight going to be hearing for all three uh uh presentations. So the first one up is is going to be Appleton Creative.

5:22:06 – 5:22:23•0

Hello. How is everyone? Thank you so much um for having us this evening. I am Diana Laru. I am CEO of Appleton Creative and this is and then I am Alexi Kim. I'm an account strategist at Appleton Creative.

5:22:20 – 5:24:17•0

Okay. Uh so we're here today to fill you in a little bit more uh fill you in further on our company and have uh open-ended answers and questions. So, Apple Creative has been in business for over 30 years back when there were faximile machines and uh pages before even web and um we've built to a full service agency. We have video in house. We have our own web programmers, SEO, social copywriting designers and so forth. Um there we're employee working towards employee owned. We have uh five partners in the company. We have 17 uh in total. Um we like to serve as an extension of your team and as a partner. So with that said, we work with a lot of our clients um in part. So you may have an internal team that you have already in place uh such as larger companies like Hilton or uh the universities for example. they have multiple agencies they work with who might come in and just do certain parts and pieces and then we have other clients where we do full service everything from branding or even brand management. They might already have a brand and a family but we can come in and help them organize, expand, update and so on and so forth. Um and then we would of course help with whatever areas they would need expansion on. Um, one of the things that our team does, we stay highly relevant. We're high learners. We are one of the few teams or companies that are uh, Gallup strengthbased. So, we work with everybody's strengths. And the duration of our team members is pretty long for an agency especially. Uh, it's like 10

5:24:14 – 5:24:40•0

to 12 years. We have people that have been with us for 17 years plus. and they're experts at the field who like staying tight and uh having the ability to branch out where needed with contractors or other support help uh as we go. I'm sorry, I'm going to look here if you don't mind because I just realized

5:24:36 – 5:26:35•0

I can't see as well as I thought. Um and then building uh of course helping our clients such as yourself uh in just the areas that you need help with um as we go along. And of course everything's um goal oriented. So, we always try to work with uh you to find out through discovery sessions and so on where you need the most help, help you create a plan, what your goal is, whether it's to grow in certain areas, have certain events, get more coverage, um you know, pull your SEO rankings up on your website, maybe update your website. we can do. We have all these great tools that do audits on the back end of uh all these different um channels that you're out there on. Um and then also uh proven public sector partnerships. So we do a lot of work for various um municipalities, you know, the airport. I know you all saw our RFP, so it's quite extensive. We'll go through some high point ones but and then of course staying strategic um everything start oh this is the core team that would be working with you we have um like I mentioned 17 this is the team that would be um with working with you specifically um that we have more team members that are um like video you wouldn't necessarily need the whole video department or anything of that nature Um we are of course um certified in a lot of areas. We're I'm proud to say we're best places to work running like seven years in a row I think. Uh we are WBE whether that matters I don't know. Um and then we belong to of course all the relevant um agencies.

5:26:32 – 5:28:06•0

We also like to win awards for our clients and such. So it's not just for the quality of work that we do, but of course for the different um industries. So if it's health care or sports or anything of that nature, we have select um industry agencies that we work with. Uh this is just some of our client base here. Um as far as Claremont goes, we Hilton Cru Central Florida. We were just here actually filming the fire department. Um, I know they were up earlier. We UCF, I know you have a campus here, uh, Orlando Health, many, um, different companies that of course range, um, cover the range of Central Florida. Look at this. And then branding, I have to say everything really stems from um, the core brand. So, whatever your core brand is, your messaging, your logo, your imagery, your brand voice, whether it's something that's you're completely happy with or you want you need help with maybe modifying or expanding it for different areas uh that you want to launch. Everything is brand centric. So we figure that out who your target audience is for maybe a particular event, maybe a particular uh area that you need to increase and those are um the avenues that we can take it to.

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Oh yeah.

5:28:09 – 5:29:44•0

Yeah. So to continue um walking you guys through our core services, our areas of expertise, digital and social marketing is a large part of what we do. everything ranging from digital campaigns uh finding the right target audience to address, figuring out the targeting parameters we need to use to reach them. Um that goes for organic social media as well and then um as you can see a wide range of other digital marketing services and we'll just continue through um traditional both public relations and media. So we have the full spectrum of those services. Everything from influencer influencer marketing. So reaching out to, you know, those local influencers that would resonate with the residents, businesses, potential visitors of Claremont and public relations. uh we are well connected to media outlets in the central Florida region and can use those relationships to help gain coverage for different events occurring in Claremont. And then continuing with our digital digital services, we Diana mentioned [clears throat] earlier that we are um can assist you guys with updating your website, refreshing it, optimizing it for search engines and even as we move into AI becoming much larger generative engines and then we also extend these services to um gaming, interactive touchcreens and even app development.

5:29:42 – 5:31:30•0

Yeah, I was just going to mention that. Um so for the um one of the new campuses of UCF uh they asked us to create a touchscreen for example. So we had a game created uh it was for the Dr. Phillips campus that they partnered. It's 5050 Valencia and then UCF. Uh to where someone can come in, find out if they're an entrepreneur, philanthropist or a philanthrop which is a word I didn't realize until the game happened. Uh but then it can connect to all their channels. Uh, so I know we visited, oh gosh, it seems like a year ago, I think our the recreational um your Claremont Arts and Wreck and uh we were you have all these amazing screens. We were talking about that and actually we're in the process now of uh creating a game for Hilton and possibly USF where it can be sent out to your residents and you can it's almost a questionnaire. It's like a fun interactive way to get information should you have online newsletters, things of that nature. That might be overkill, but it's very interesting to know. And oh, I forgot to mention too on the brand um page, uh we also do environmental branding. So that's something that's unique to our area um with some interior design experience coming into a space and helping brand it. So might be working with your design team with um maybe images or information that you already have and pulling it into a three-dimensional software package and working with the vendors to maybe fill a space whether it's projecting walls or um creating 3D. We I think we have some samples of that.

5:31:26 – 5:31:58•0

And so all of that to say oh and uh video and animation we have a full in-house video suite in our office. But I think that all of this goes to show that we really are full spectrum and it, you know, once we go through this discovery with your team and find out the key areas that you guys need support in and where we can help you, we can be a partner to your team and fill the gaps wherever those are. Yes.

5:31:55 – 5:33:03•0

Okay. Uh well from our understanding rapid growth strong community rising communication needs was the reason for this RFP and um we pulled some case studies for you as well. Uh the other and these were fine points that we pulled out gleaned from your information in terms of being uh which we know already about you family focused culture. Um you have a distinct civic character. I love the fact that the sports are here. You have so many sports outlets here and actually uh that's another exciting thing. We just um we've done work gratus over the years for the um Special Olympics Florida, but this next year 2026 we uh actually got the account to do some marketing videos and other outbound uh work. So that'll be exciting. Um, and then of course we resonate with community pride, growing diverse population, outdoor lifestyle of course is always key in almost every avenue we work with. And

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yes, and

5:33:04 – 5:34:16•0

yeah, the key key audiences that we, you know, defined as we were going through our initial RFP response process and reviewing more about you guys is obviously the residents, the businesses, the civic partners, but also marketing to those prospective audiences such as the visitors that may be coming or even people who are looking to move to Claremont or move move their business to Claremont, open a business here. So these are the uh three to five main our audience groups that we identified and would be speaking to throughout. So our goal for those audiences is to build a communication ecosystem that can scale and grow with you guys. um strengthen the city's connection to the community and meet the public's evolving expectations because as more people move here, more communication occurs and there's going to be a need for clear information coming from the city multiple channels. Um I'm thinking maybe pop over to some

5:34:13 – 5:34:50•0

methodology and approach and which um we have some case studies here we can show you after our process discovery research define target audience pretty much everything we just went over aligning your brand uh strategic planning implementation and launch and measurement. So any full spectrum, our full service we create for you. We always start off with the u discovery and then the research and then defining the goals so we can make sure we reach them for you. Yep.

5:34:47 – 5:36:04•0

And this is the process you'll see outlined for each of the different facets of the communication strategy. So, we're always going to start with the research and analysis, identify those goals, develop the plan, implement, and make sure we're using your brand voice, but customizing that to the different target audience segments. And the same would go for uh media relations, of course, researching, finding the relevant outlets, contacts, topic selection, writing, distributing, but also monitoring the coverage, making sure that um we're reporting that being transparent and providing that information to you. Um, similar processes for all of these. So, for social media, we definitely are sure to audit what currently exists, optimize those profiles as needed, and then make sure we're coming up with strategic plans aligned with anything that's happening in the city, any events. Um and then also being on top of any trends that we can engage with to further engage the residents and businesses and then always always monitoring and providing analytics so we can track the performance and optimize as needed.

5:36:04 – 5:37:31•0

And then brand management of course audit evaluation. I think we'll skip ahead to the case studies as we know where um these are all things. Oh, budget and costs. I believe we put that in the back of the handouts that we gave you. Uh if you wanted to review those in question and answer period, that might be beneficial. Um we of course we can work in any structure or fashion. We can work with retainer. We can work per project. We can work um you know across the board large scale. And we could do mix. We do mix for a lot of clients as well. And then some of the case studies that we pulled, three of them for you that um Bellina, which some of you may be familiar with right up the road. Yep. And so we did a full spectrum campaign for Bellacolina promoting to people to buy the homes and build their lives in this beautiful community. So with this full spectrum from uh conversion optimized landing pages to social media campaigns, digital marketing campaigns, traditional including billboards, um the website and then also video which have here.

5:38:00 – 5:38:18•0

And a lot of research and development went into that in terms of uh all the local nationally. We promoted digital marketing in certain sectors that they wanted to pull people in from uh for the real estate market.

5:38:14 – 5:38:57•0

Yep. So, this uh brought in a 284% increase in qualified leads, over 9 million impressions, but uh and 3.2% clickthrough rate, which is two to three times the industry average for these platforms of the campaign right now. Next, going into Pet Alliance. So, we um when they renamed from the SPCA of Greater Orlando to the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando, they came to us to launch that brand to the public. So, we did a full spectrum campaign for them as well, including traditional um social media.

5:38:55 – 5:40:12•0

Yeah. And in this case too, they're a nonprofit, so we did a lot of it as well, but they needed our help to launch the campaign across the board. So, we would set up uh maybe a I think it was like a threemonth uh social calendar suggested events. you know, we created the assets initially and then we kind of um set them on their way to go. We also worked with them quite a bit on their fundraising effort. So, we have pods in the park. We do everything from the flags to invites to all the different um public relations um events to kind of bring the folks in. We do direct mail. We have humane heroes lunchon was another very heart-wrenching one. Every year we do a video that will make you cry. So, [laughter] That's like one of our specialties. Um, and we won't go we won't show you this video because of time, but you could watch it afterwards. It's uh, yeah, everywhere from our little blind dog Lucy to um, Daisy who had a prosthetic leg, two sets of two legs. Um, and then the third uh, case study we were going to uh, show you was Orlando Realers.

5:40:10 – 5:40:54•0

This is a full spectrum campaign as well that we ran to um increase brand awareness but invite people and encourage people to see the value in realtors and use the aura services. So a key part of this campaign was the target audience segmentation. So we had various different segments similar to how we do for you guys, right? And um all of the creative you'll see is tailored to custom messaging that we crafted for each of those different segments. So we have downsizers, um firsttime home buyers and then upsizers,

5:40:54 – 5:41:32•0

upsizers here again. But this is just to demonstrate our ability to craft that messaging that resonates with the target audience segments while still making sure it resonates with a larger brand voice, right? And finding ways they can advertise. We'll pass on this commercial, too, but I think uh Oh, yeah. We're not going to make um and save on money we did in our house.

5:41:29 – 5:41:41•0

This is what happens when your realtor sells above the asking price. Find your realtor and start your happy dance today.

5:41:40 – 5:42:49•0

Yeah, that was just something uh fun we put together. Our house actually is an old historic um home right off the expressway and um we actually have an awareness gallery uh in our bottom floor and um so we will host a nonprofit. We'll create artwork for them and then um host a fundraiser for them. We also have a community garden in our backyard that we give to our Kenet tower uh next door which is elderly um and section 8 housing. Um, and then these were just uh quick little videos of we won't show either on this one, but um just to kind of give you an idea of career source and um yeah, some of the other ones. So, we will and again these are areas that I think you probably know many of these folks here too and we will leave that with you. And what you have there actually in the packet is uh just a little um a shorter overview and then a video book with that general. But we're open for questions if you have any in particular.

5:42:47 – 5:43:04•0

All right. Open for questions. Anyone have any questions? I have one. Yeah. Have you represented any other cities besides these the one you know I know you did Orlando Health is close to us.

5:43:01 – 5:43:51•0

Oh yeah. So, um, yeah, well, we've done a lot of, uh, municipalities. So, I mean, we've done work for, um, the city of Orlando, uh, OU. So, as far as municipalities go, um, the firefighters, you know, Orange County firefighters, and we just, actually, like I mentioned, we just shot a video shot, still shot um, uh, for career source for the Claremont um, firefighters. We Um yeah, we have a whole I think we have a a broader list in in the um in the proposal. Um so yeah in terms of uh covering kind of the spectrum

5:43:46 – 5:44:25•0

of everybody a lot of um poems the builders you know how it is when you're so old and you can't remember all your [laughter] um Taylor Morrison hello my son actually works there so [laughter] yeah their developments here um so yeah So quite a range of client uh clients that we've had that are right around the corner. Disney if that counts, but okay, everybody's done Disney right now.

5:44:22 – 5:44:44•0

Any other do you have? Okay. Um what makes Claremont unique? Oh my god. And how how how does that differentiate us or set apart your work with us from previous work?

5:44:41 – 5:46:32•0

Right. Well, I think you have such a unique ecosystem here and I feel like I've experienced your growth over the past 30 years. I think it's five times since the mid9s to now. Um, I think your reputation in the sports arena is definitely big. Very uh impressed. I think there's so much potential too with the uh Claremont Arts and Recreational Center in terms of having that as a venue. Well, is a venue, excuse me, but um expanding that that reach across the board. Uh your downtown district, love it. My favorite tea bob tea place is there now. Um there's a lot of unique qualities. You have a good balance of the historic and then of course the water uh the whole lifestyle waterfront you have um that I think plays a big part. So it's it's a really good balance of residential lifestyle. It's really lifestyle uh is a huge part. You're perfect. You're right off you all the major inner, you know, interstates. You can get anywhere quickly. Um you're peaceful. You're replication is really impeccable. I think um just there's so many different facets um that could be expanded upon in a campaign if you wanted to do a campaign outreach. But depending on what it was and the target market you wanted to reach. If I may, as a followup, how how would you how would what you just described as as unique factors at Claremont drive or um motivate the strategy that you would implement for our community?

5:46:30 – 5:47:41•0

Yeah. Well, I think one of the first things that we would do is really uncover the areas of growth that you want to to move in uh specifically. And then it's really about doing the u the research and building a direction and the channels that it would be most seen on. So you might do certain things really well now, but you want to uh expand in a certain area. So that's a matter of creating a a very interesting campaign. Maybe it's a funny campaign. Maybe it's a uh a draw new folks in campaign. Maybe it's sharing with the world what you have going on now campaign and really just figuring out which channels we would perceive u would be the best of course we present it to you and of course you know so much of what we do whether it's you know press releases or media coverage you know everything's in the digital world and so it's a matter of knowing where that outreach goes so I could say specifically until we knew what the parameters were.

5:47:39 – 5:47:54•0

As you were preparing for this application, were there any city initiatives, milestones, or success stories that you felt were particularly interesting that probably should be told to the world?

5:47:51 – 5:49:27•0

Yeah. Like, oh, well, of course, the I think the sports arena and the Special Olympics and everything. And I'm not I'm not the sports person in my company, the big one, but of course I have a um a real passion for that and what you do here. Um, and I think that's something that a lot of people don't really know that you're such a hub for so much of those um, activities. You have several things going on. And then again, your landscape, you know, your venues, your old town, there's so many things in terms of storytelling that can be you could be your own TED talk. I think it's about to storytelling really. That's one of the main drivers of any brand is really getting testimonials. It's getting, you know, people, you know, in town who have experienced it or who run things or that are advocates for certain your your strong areas and really getting those stories out to the different markets. So, it's a it's a broader reach. It's you all interviews with you. I mean it's everybody wants to know what's going on behind the scenes and why is everybody so interested in you know living here visiting here and I think um there's opportun opportunities for you to reach out to a wider audience so yeah

5:49:24 – 5:49:56•0

thank you think we're at time minutes. Two minutes. Well, I have a followup then since we're doing it. Um c your pro your proposal said that you would help build authentic two-way communication between the city and its diverse neighborhoods. In your preparation for this, can you name some of the diverse neighborhoods that you think we should work on our communications with? Oh, I'm sorry.

5:49:54 – 5:50:35•0

I didn't I'm sorry. That's okay. Can you repeat that? Can you identify any of the diverse neighborhoods of Claremont? Um, there you have us. We of course focus on the well, you have a diverse demographic. You have diverse pockets of, you know, communities. You have your or a fair areas. But um yeah, no, that's I can't really That's okay. I'm putting you on the spot

5:50:33 – 5:51:18•0

because of that. Yeah, I know. Actually, I'm not normally the presenter as you [clears throat] could tell. So my um but that's okay. I'll give you another one that might that might be easier. Um which social media platforms do you think that Claremont should have a presence on and why? Yeah. Well, you can speak to that too, but definitely the some of the main ones of course I think Facebook, YouTube is also one of the fastest growing ones. Instagram definitely I mean it's well it's meta so they're two in one right now but um and then LinkedIn I would say

5:51:14 – 5:51:42•0

LinkedIn for a city. Yeah, I think that um research shows that LinkedIn is the most trusted for information coming from authoritative um entities because it's viewed as a business um platform more than a social platform. And how would you evaluate our current strategy on those four platforms that you just identified?

5:51:40 – 5:52:30•0

So, we always conduct a very thorough audit of all of the platforms. uh not only your platforms but against comparable competitors. So we would take a look at your guys' platforms uh your followings, who you're following, your post structure, the times of days you guys are posting, what type of content mix you guys have, and then comparing that to other successful competitors or peers in the state or even outside of the state. Um because we're like we've said big researchers. We like to see what works for people and see if it will work for you know based on the other research that we have conducted. So we would conduct that audit for your platforms any competitors and then have our digital team would analyze and then come back to you with recommendations for optimizing them

5:52:28 – 5:53:44•0

and that's looking at it on the back end too. So I mean when we create reports for um you know to show you in terms of auditing it's a little different. So now I would say you know your Facebook you know the numbers are there but not necessarily it's all about engagement. Uh so that's an area that could um grow in most certainly. So you know when I say meds Facebook um and Instagram and then the other thing would be um you know YouTube is another channel that I think you could spread it would really reflect throughout because wherever you're posting whether it's a LinkedIn uh that's going to go to all the different reaches because LinkedIn is a is on the expensive side for digital media buys but it anything is uh free organic. It's just a matter of planning and seeing what areas you want to grow in and who you want to engage. So, for example, with the Facebook, uh there's definitely different types of posts you can grow to get um more engagement I believe. But yes, the exact numbers we'd have to do a little backand search, but we did look curs.

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Thank you. Thank you.

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Thank you all very much. Um, I think we need five. We going to take five minutes for you to set up for the next one with you. Thank you. What's that? Well, you know, we we we can have our own people do that.

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Yeah, we got people that do that. They

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even small things since I'm not paying for I don't have to go in the parking lot, you know. Yeah, it just the time. Yeah, I get it. Well, we'll see. You know, I'm not an arm twister. So, to me, it's like, are we ready? Okay. Yes, sir. You got you got a clock on me, Freddie. Okay. Thank you. Okay. What did she give me here?

6:03:03 – 6:05:02•0

Okay, I'll let him get in his seat. All right. So, this Hello. So, the city of Claremont was all set to throw a communitywide pep rally. I thought about it when I heard this evening about Noah Liles. That was kind of exactly what we were getting ready to do. We had the athletes lined up. We had little medals for the kids. They were going to get to take pictures, sign autographs. We had invited the media. And two days before the event, I was notified that a media organization reportedly associated with terrorist organization was planning to attend. What would you do? And I say, "What would you do?" Because um the PIO and whoever you might choose to be your communications consultant is really speaking on your behalf. You're the one that they catch in the Kings Pro Shop or the grocery store. they don't know me. So, it's really a matter of trust. In fact, if you look at most org charts, including the one here in Claremont, the attorney and the PIO are these dotted lines directly out because that's the level of trust that you really have to have. So, I hope to show you by the end of this uh why you should trust me. I certainly trust you or I wouldn't be here this evening. And uh we're going to go through this. I hope I cover everything. If not, you're welcome to ask me at the end. So my company is called Crosswords Communications. I am based here in Claremont, live here in Claremont. And my message is uh creating messages that connect. So introductions first. Uh I am the only president. This is the only name of the company. And next month I'll be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the company. It was founded originally in

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Orlando, although my family moved here when I was eight years old. My first dog was named Duchess of Claremont. Uh, and so, uh, I, my husband and I were high school sweethearts. We've been married over 50 years. We have two children. Uh, after serving in Vietnam, he finished at the University of Florida and his job was in Orlando. So, we raised our family there, but all of our other family members were here and we were here almost every weekend. So I have deep roots in the area and eventually once I did start the company uh we moved here to Claremont and I moved the Claremont uh the company here as well. You can see here is my experience and then I'll don't know why the education part isn't showing up but I have worked as a communications director here in Claremont. I was the first one when the position was created. I also was asked to be uh come back as a consultant during a time when there was a need for crisis communications and they did not have a communications person at that time. I led the marketing effort for the choice of champions brand and also help brand the performing arts center and um and I've written three books on the history of Claremont. So I know the city really well, know the culture and the people here. Learned to swim at J what we call JC Beach. Uh, Mayor Murray probably knows [laughter] back in the day when it was called that. Um, I have been I've also worked as a reporter and as an editor. U, you can't see my education, but I graduated with highest honors at the University of Florida with a major in journalism and a minor in English. So, there's just a recap. Um, I also spun off another company when I was still in Orlando. I spun off a satellite

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office here in Claremont and uh with three partners, our graphic designer and a young man who ended up being on the city council. As a matter of fact, Robert Thompson, he's the one that proposed the threeinut rule and uh that we called that company TWWs Squared. And we actually hired Lorie Shabban to help manage the business part. You'll get to meet Lori in the next session and she's great closer. So, you've got a treat in store for you. But again, 20 years old, same president, same name, same mission. And let me go back a moment. Uh, you know, names are important. That's why we're here. Uh, names and images are all a part of marketing. I named my company Crosswords as a as an homage to my mother. It was a small inheritance from her that I started it with. And also because I wanted it to remind me and others of crosswords as in Christlike that people would know that my business ethics were the same as my personal ethics. There is uh my team and one of the things I decided to do I work for small and large uh PR firms in Orlando and I just found things that I didn't agree with. Sometimes there was a lot of churn. There was uh the billing I I felt there was a better way to do billing. But all of these people are at the top of their game and I have what are called channel partnerships with them. So when you hire me, you're not paying for brick and mortar. You're not paying for a building and utilities. You're paying strictly for service. My um protocol is to offer flat fees, which means there's no surprises. It's all set out at the beginning. And these people um again all have connections. Not only are they at the top of their game, but they all have connections to Claremont. Here's how it would be organized. And each of these people, many of them, uh cover all the areas of PR,

6:08:52 – 6:10:51•0

communications, and strategic communications. I would be the person you'd be dealing with TW and I'm available 247. I think I said told you the story last time about how uh I got a call on a Sunday night because Dwayne is his name Johnson the Rock his mother was in a car accident here uh on a 4th of July when we had company by 9:00 a.m. there had been three major incidents in the city. That's just what you buy into when you are going to be in PR media. I'm not going to go over all of them, but I feel I'm a good fit for all of these reasons, things that uh the other two companies are certainly qualified, but these are ways that I feel like I am maybe uniquely qualified. There we go. So, I have a I feel like I have a great understanding of Claremont and the culture here. I've been here at the beginning of uh I was here when project Olympus was unveiled and so many other things here. Uh these are you could probably anyone could go online and check with AI and pull these up. I just happen to know them firsthand and these are the ways that people generally see Claremont which we're lucky that we have such a great reputation. Um you ask about growth and I've lived it. You know, I've been in the traffic care and I understand that and so I have highlighted some of the things that that are especially important to know about the growth. You've certainly heard a lot from the wellness way people and I think that you know why do you have I'm glad that you asked some of those questions. I was an investigative reporter so I'm a born skeptic so I I'm with you on that. Uh but things like the lumber yard district, if you don't get in front of those, you'll and and it's then it's reactive. But there are ways to deal with the businesses. You're already hearing from the local residents. So you want them to be excited and go along with it. Um

6:10:50 – 6:12:48•0

again, not going to go over each and every one of these. Growth causes tension and the horrible hundred which just took place. If you go online like Next Door, Facebook, you'll see there are people excited about it, but there were people that complained and that's something that has to be mitigated. A few years ago, people started putting tax out where the triathlons were and we almost lost it. The in the national triathlon organization was going to pull it. Think about what that would have done to the city's reputation. So, I worked with Fred and the city did as well to to again try and mitigate that. Um, here are some things that I see. I do not know your PIO. She seems very hardworking. But when I see it from a professional standpoint, knowing best practices across the board, it just doesn't seem like there is a strategic plan in place. Best practices are not being observed. And I I'm not trying to pick on anyone, but I will just use this as an example. You would be hard to find the city's logo on this. It's up here, teeny tiny with a dark background on newsprint, which usually you wouldn't do. And if you go to the intersection of Steve's Road and um Citrus Tower, you'll see the city sign, which is very hard to read, and you'll see real life sign, which which is very easy to read because in a car, you just have a few seconds. You don't have, you know, a lot of time to do that. And that's just, you know, one example. Um, there's a great book. It's called From Good to Great. And the enemy, I wonder if that's sometimes what's going on. The enemy of great, the reason people, organizations, cities don't become great sometimes, is not because they're bad. You know, when something's bad, you're uncomfortable. You'll want to change. It's because they're good. So good is good enough. And you're never really motivated to be

6:12:45 – 6:14:44•0

great. But there are principles in place that if you follow them that you can achieve even higher levels than we have here. Communication challenges. Again, you can't just take things for granted how they are. And if you I know of two other cities that want to claim to be the middle of the uh coast to coast trail and um I kept looking on the city's Facebook page because I follow all of the track athletes at the nationals in the world in recent months. Claremont athletes were cleaning up and I didn't see any of that on Facebook. But you know who did notice was Lake County. They sent their tourism director. They flew them to the nationals and they were posting banners with the athletes that train here in Claremont. Uh if when I look at the trail, their Christmas banners up now, but it has to be confusing to people. And we know from past studies there are at least 10,000 or more people that come on the trail from West Orange. And the downtown uh what is it called? Main Street. They chose two different logos which is confusing in itself. Neither one of them having anything to do with the city's choice of champion. And then I mean there's just opportunities all over like the garden and like the clock that's at the trail head at the 8th and Minnola. I don't know what happened to this because it worked perfectly at home. But this is one of the most important things if you don't think of anything else I hope you'll remember and that is I get who the audiences are here and it's everything the Claremont has some unique situations enviable. Most cities would love to have both elite athletes and wellness and then on the other hand one out of four people that live here are in the 55 plus retirement age. We have great uh retirement communities and they vote. So, we want to make sure that we are for sure keeping up with them. Um, but there's athletes, there's the 55 plus, there's

6:14:42 – 6:16:41•0

the business community, there's civic organizations like the South Lake Black Achievers. They have been honoring hometown heroes for years in the different, you know, the arts, sports, education. Uh, we have great churches. We should be hooking up with the faith community, families, tourism. Uh I mean when I was here sometimes it felt like council member Strange was having to beg and it should be the other way around. We should be proact this is millions of dollars in economic uh engine that that's being brought here and then our new community wellness wellness way those people our schools and our social influencers. One of the things I would do would be to cause for a media mashup and have one for the traditional media, one for social media because they are certainly out there. Uh if you don't control the message, they certainly will. I'm going to go through this part fast and and I just want to emphasize this was a full page out of a recent PR our national PR magazine that says your brand story is being written with or without you. And if you if you're not familiar with AI, where does it get its information? It literally scrapes the internet. So now, if you look at some of the the uh real estate YouTube videos, it's mentioning that you may want to think about moving to Claremont because the traffic is really bad. Well, where did it get that? Someone just used AI or just a search engine and now that's what's popping up. And so again, if you don't control the message, someone else will. Um, these are wonky, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time, but I have an eight-week course that I did in for in Groveland for their communications people, but there are theories, methods. I imagine the other two companies do something very similar. Research, planning, implementation, evaluation. For something like meet us in the middle, this could take months, but it can only take a few minutes. If I get a

6:16:38 – 6:18:36•0

call from the Claremont police and there is a hostage situation, I'm going to find out what information are we releasing to the public. Where is this? Where do you want the media to stage? I'll see you in a few minutes. But you always want to go through uh something like that. Also, the new model, people used to want to hire me to get them on the front page of the Sentinel. I had worked there and I think they thought I had a magic key or something. But the new model is peso. Peso. So for you business owners, you may be familiar with this. You can't just it's it's a small real estate anyway and not everyone reads the newspaper these days. It's very scattered. So paid, let's say if you want to reach the Kings Ridge community, you probably want to buy uh space in Royal Times earned. That's like traditional media social. I think you know that. And then there's owned. And owned is the one place that you can actually really control the message. And that would be like e- newswsletters. There again is like uh the strategy goals how how you reach goals. You set goals then you develop a strategy then you build the tactics that make those happen. So it's not just happen stance. Whoever you hire I hope they're a good storyteller because that's how we connect. If you think about those caves in France where some of the oldest communication was going on we can tell what story they were trying to tell. There's pictures of hunters and horses. And so this is just how we're wired. If you think about in the Bible when Jesus wanted to make a point, he they call him the parables. He would tell a story. So sto knowing how to tell a story is real important. So this is the bottom line. Keep it simple. Avoid jargon. Include compelling images. And you want to make people feel something. So here is if you have to just boil it all down. What is strategic communications? It's the right message

6:18:33 – 6:20:32•0

to the right audience using the right medium at the right time. Easy, right? [clears throat] Uh media relations. Uh why do we care about that? Because no one reads a newspaper anymore, right? Well, it adds to credibility, but I'll tell you who does care and that's Google. And that's the way they set up the algorithm and the which is another word for formula. And so good stories or bad stories, Google heavily weights those. So, uh, when someone searches for Claremont, one of the things that Google does is to see if you've had any stories in in traditional news, if you will. Um, a little bit about my media background. I was award-winning journalist, reporter, and editor. I worked at the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Orlando Sentinel. I was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. I've also I was editor of a national magazine for seniors called if you've ever watched on TV Growing Boulder. They also have a radio program. So there's just sort of a recap of all of that. I've also had advanced training in social media which is evolving all the time and that and communications is the one area that it's running faster than laws and ethics can really catch up to it. But there are ways that we should be this is something you can measure and we should be constantly auditing it. When I was here when I got up it was the first thing I did. What's out there being said about Claremont or our officials or our city manager uh community engagement I think it was Mr. Peterson who brought up when I was uh the city of Groveland also hired me for a while and one of the things I did while I was over there was not only set up a newsletter an e newswsletter but also the same company allowed us for a very small amount of money to add on reverse texting. So if there was boil

6:20:30 – 6:22:28•0

water alerts you could even segment it so that not everyone was thinking there was boil water but you could make it the area where it was really happening. hurricanes, all kind of ways you can use that budget. If you read my RFP, that was five months ago, a quarter of your term ago. [laughter] And so, at that time, there was not a full-time uh PIO, and I was having to factor that in. So, I said, I have flat rates. I think the role of the consultant should be to basically work themselves out of the role and that is to see what resources are here and what training might need to happen and then maybe stay on uh ongoing uh as a consultant still for the same reason that the police and fire have joint agreements with other law enforcement agencies. But it's difficult to say. I I know others might bring you a menu, but for me, I don't believe in guesswork where it comes to the taxpayer dollars and I would want to do the research, see what you wanted to do, and then then uh I'm happy to provide that roadmap. As for context, this is what the city of Groveland and city of Winter Garden think it's worth. And I can understand why it may seem. Why do we need marketing? It's a rather new concept for cities. We're used to providing police and fire and garbage pickup. Marketing is a new concept. So I get how the value of that may not seem uh apparent right now. Uh but ask Ferguson, Missouri, they did not have a PIO for their police department and they paid dearly. They they have one today because I've talked to him. He came to Orlando to he's uh sounding the alarm that everyone should have one. This is just kind of recap. You ask for local government experience and as I said I've worked here twice at the city of Claremont. also worked and I these awards are just some of the awards while I was here that we were able to bring to the city. I've also worked for the city of Groveland helped them as well get front page coverage and uh also

6:22:26 – 6:23:24•0

helped them with one of their state awards. I not only worked there once but went they asked me back as a consultant. I've also worked for some of the local nonprofits. Pig on the pond which is probably the city's largest signature event. the person that had done that for 20 years sadly had suddenly got a a di a terminal diagnosis and so all of the people on the board are have full-time jobs so they asked me to come on board and really kind of save that very worthwhile um charity. Uh I worked at the South Lake Chamber as their marketing director. These are logos that uh you know I had something to do with. I also there was a group of grlin businessmen and I helped them come up with some innovative things and we start with what is the problem and they needed workers particular kind of workers so I partnered with the Hispanics of Lake County. Is that my 20 or is that my

6:23:22 – 6:24:07•0

oh there okay all right well we'll stop there and if you have any questions I'm happy to do that if I can just have 10 more seconds and eat into your time. How did Timbo decide? He had always planned to go to Alabama and uh but he wasn't sure. He was being heavily recruited. And as he's walking up to the microphone, he says, "Dad, I can't decide between Florida and Alabama." And he said, "Well, what's important?" And he said, "The people." And he said, "Well, you have if you had to pick one, who would that be?" And he said, "Urban Meyer." The others are talking about what they hope to do. He's talking about a plan. So, I would say that with you is it's about the people. All right. I'm happy to answer any questions.

6:24:04 – 6:24:21•0

I would like to ask you one. How would you tell a story um about in telling the public of the importance of keeping property tax?

6:24:18 – 6:25:18•0

Well, I think you have want to do a couple of things. First is get the facts. I think most of us if I think that when people really know what it means that it's an easy, you know, you can't even believe that someone would come up with that. My former daughter-in-law was from Alabama and they relied on sales tax and you know that went up and down was very volatile. So I think get the facts and then make sure again look at the audience where do they get their information because where the Kings Rigger gets it and where my niece who's a single teacher gets hers are different. You want everyone to get it. Uh because of our utility bill we have a really inexpensive way to get to people. And then of course on social media bring in the media and do stories. I think the the Orlando Sentinel you know is some people would say is liberal. They're always going after their governor. So they would probably be very happy to do a story. [laughter]

6:25:14•0

It's a great perspective. More questions.

6:25:22 – 6:27:20•0

I [clears throat] think you um talked about some unique qualities of Claremont. I'm curious, how do you utilize those unique features and factors of Claremont to lead or drive your strategy in working with us? When I was here before, I worked really closely, not only with the city manager, obviously, but with the economic development director. He and I are the ones we kept talking about, you know, we're in the middle and we're in the middle. And I said, where where is the middle exactly? So, he went and measured it and it was the bridge that was just getting ready to be dedicated over where PCA haha comes into Lake Minnola. Now, it shifted probably because they keep changing where the trail is going to be. And I said, "Oh, that's cool." So if you know James Kinsler, he's a wise guy. And he said, "Oh, meet us meet us in the middle." And I said, "Hey, that really is a good marketing term. I got it trademarked." So I think I I'm thinking someday about writing a book called affinity marketing because I think you start with the people that will care about it, the people that care about wellness, for instance. And I brought the uh bike Florida state conference here. It happened to be the person that run it was a former editor of mine at the Gainesville Sun. So I think that's one way to do it is I think that there have been some talks here with the biking people. One of the people that's one of my channel partners uh she her c biggest customer is the central Florida expressway but she's also done bike safety campaigns. So I mean there's just that you know you're only limited by your imagination for how to do those kind of things. But I think you start with the people that care. In fact Facebook one of the you know I think Mr. Peterson said, "Why can't we just put it on Facebook?" And you all probably know this, but their algorithm so that they can make money is you may have 31,000 followers like the city does, but if you

6:27:16 – 6:27:48•0

just post it, only 1% see it. And so, um, but it does have the ability to go and pe boost it and you can even segment. Okay, who is this people with the interest of this or that? So, today's tools really allow us to be pretty sophisticated about how we market these things. What are some recent city initiatives, milestones, or success stories that you think should be told to the world?

6:27:45 – 6:29:27•0

Well, I I was thrilled to see uh the Christmas parade and something like that happen because we do have when the last Olympics happened, the DJ in Orlando said, "What is happening in Claremont?" Because it was being announced, but nothing was going on here. you know, we weren't utilizing that that ability. So, I think that we look for those kind of opportunities and as as I one of the things you have to be careful about as I looked and there were several news stories where like major Orlando outlets came over and probably spent several hours and then it would get 84 views on social media. And that usually happens when it's very siloed. And what you should do when when I build up to getting the the double spread in Florida trend was we built up to that and we had plans after that. When that broke we also planned a fam tour of investors from the Orlando area to come here. So not not one offing things but uh I would say you want to choose things you also want to be ready like wellness way you know when people are expecting oh boy you know project Olympus is getting ready to open it's going to be a while then you've set yourself up for some of the complaints I've seen happen but I I probably if I attended the director's meeting I could probably find a new story every every week and the local media is very eager for those you Um, I heard you you mention about the logos for Main Street downtown and not too good. What? They got two different log wheels for Main Street.

6:29:26•0

Yeah. So, what what would be the problem with that?

6:29:30 – 6:30:40•0

Well, the problem is one of them, for instance, gym of the Hills. I I kind of feel conflicted about that because, you know, I was here when the orange trees, the perfume in the air, all of that have sentimental feelings, but there was certainly a dedicated and there always is a dedicated old guard that did not want the choice of champions and they wanted to keep Gym of the Hills as the brand. So now you have the downtown people reinforcing that. But then they also chose Lure the Lakes. So I think you either have to, you know, if you can't let them join them, you either find a way to, you know, say, "Yes, this was a part of our sentimental past and give it some context, but here's where we are today." You know, the title of of my book, the way we solve that was from Gym of the Hills to Choice of Champions is is tie them together. But if you walk through downtown Claremont, I don't see a lot of our brand. And I think the most glaring part is the artwalk, the beautiful art walk. And it has all kind of art, but you don't see things that are reflective of the choice of champions.

6:30:38 – 6:31:30•0

Okay. Uh I think we have quite a bit of things downtown but and you know it's been some time since I took marketing class but one of the things uh about choice of champion I one of them didn't didn't particularly care for choice of champion at the time but uh I like gym of the hill but I was always under the impression that when you rebrand you got to keep some history there of of your past. You don't just get rid of everything. And that's one of the reason I kind of like Main Street trying to preserve some of the history of where we come from and not totally get whatever choice of champions. Um I look at that and I I constantly ask myself um choice of champion what's there in that in that logo and what we're doing now that reflect upon what we're where we used to be.

6:31:28 – 6:31:45•0

When we rebrand I was always taught in marketing when you rebrand you don't totally get rid of your history. You got to keep some parts of of your uh past in there. Well, uh Fred uh Fred Summer, who you might know, who was born here, raised here, right?

6:31:43 – 6:33:17•0

He's been doing the triathlons for 40 years. The night that the council approved it, he came to me and he said, "Can we put that on our t-shirts?" He went out the next day and put it on his t-shirt and put it on their their banner and so forth. I don't think you want to get rid of it. I mean, not only have I been written these books, been involved in this historical museum, I I started the Groveland historical museum. So, I love history, but it the reason that the city did it and the reason Ocal or any number of other cities do it is is can you market gym of the hills? We were no longer a citrus producing city. And that's what the logo was, a sideways orange. And uh and that re that had more to do with the days of when it was grow. So yeah, you know, just like we have a family photo album when our kids were little that we treasure and sentimental about, but but we're looking forward and I can tell you if I'm here, I don't want to be talking about the glory days in the past. I want to be like the Ever notice a jet plane doesn't have rearview mirrors going forward, right? One way. So that's that's how I think the city has to look. Well, you you're right. I was born I'm one of those that were born and raised here. I a matter of fact, I even graduated with Fred Summers. We was in the same graduating class. And uh but I I still remember them gym of the hills and I I still think we we can't totally forget about our history. I believe in history. So uh I I commend W uh Main Street for trying to keep some capture of it and keep some reminiscent of it. So um

6:33:15 – 6:33:59•0

Well, I did I don't think I said to get rid of it. I just said if you look at the benches that are downtown for instance and you look at artwalk do the one place see I do see it where it combines both of them is um west what is that called um right off of 8th street pla it's like a plaza so it has citrus tower it has the locomotive train but it also has the athletes um you know has logos for those don't get me I I love cho choice of champ has grown on me and everything and I I who agree with you and one of the other things to say the marketing I think we can do a better job of marketing is some areas where we can where we can uh beef up some of

6:33:57 – 6:34:41•0

just to show you that I mean if you look up there what did I put as the number these are just some ideas I mean I think one of the ones I didn't put on there is we have a couple of real opportunities that will only be next year and that is the 250th uh celebration and also falls for Citrus Tower's 70th anniversary so if You see, my first one is they're designating Lincoln Park as a historical community and working with the people there to see how we can really honor that. So, I gather my time is up. Yeah. Thank you all. I appreciate it. Have a good evening and merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Uh, another five minutes for change over. Okay. Thank you.

6:34:39 – 6:35:10•0

Wait. Oh, five minutes for I thought he No. No. All right. We got Let me know when you're ready. You can do this. You're pretty. Yeah. There you go. [music] [music] [music]

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6:41:36 – 6:42:16•0

Yeah, it's find your true north is kind of what your our little slogan is. So, well, Mayor Murray and council members, thank you so much for having us tonight. Um, we were really excited to be last about four hours ago and then we realized you all would be very fatigued. So, I'm just going to ask you for the next 30 minutes to, you know, bear with us and we're going to try to be uh a little animated and and enthuse some energy and uh really excitement into the room. So, um I'm Lori Shabban and I'm the president of True North Marketing and Public Relations. This is my colleague Lindsay.

6:42:14 – 6:44:13•0

Hello. And we have a lot that we want to cover tonight. So I will be speaking quickly, but it's not because of nerves. Um, Councilwoman Strange, it's more because there's so much to get through. Um, first I want to um tell you what we're going to do tonight. We're going to try to fit in everything. And if we don't get to some of it, that's okay. We can, you know, you can ask questions and we can always go back to a lot of it um if if we go too quickly. But we're going to tell you a little bit about ourselves. We're going to talk about our approach. And so that's kind of when where we're going to spend a lot of our time because it's really important that um that we share how we approach projects and clients like this. Um we're going to get down to some brass tax when it when it comes to estimates for you. Um show you some relatable projects to the extent that we have room or have time. Um and then we look forward to answering your questions. So we're going to start with a firm overview. Now, this is a list of um some of our clients, certainly not all, but um we have had the great fortune over the last 30 35 years or that's that's for me, that's not for Lindsay, um of working with some amazing companies [clears throat] and really some amazing teams within those companies because that is what we pride ourselves on. We don't work, you know, for you, we work with you. And that's a really important distinction that we bring to the table. Um we are not industry uh focused. We do do a lot of travel and tourism. You cannot be in Orlando without doing that. But we have been intentionally diverse in building our client portfolio because there's a lot of cross-pollination and great ideas that we can take from one industry and apply it to another industry. Um, we talk about our firm roots too and I'm I've got more than this um on on my resume but um I start with in 2000 my husband and I moved to uh we got married and then we moved to Claremont. So we've been here for about

6:44:10 – 6:46:08•0

25 years. Um lots of things in between here had had just great success along the way thanks to a lot of different people but um in 2023 my firm was acquired and so now we are part of a portfolio of companies. is we're all under single ownership and we're not just partners, we're under single ownership and we have companies all across the United States. And so in addition to us being here in Orlando, we have a partner firm here that builds theme park rides and builds museums and attractions and aquariums. We also have a marketeteering group which is a digital and web development firm up in Seattle that we I work with all the time. Um, and then we have a film and um, post-production facility out in Houston. What I think I want you to take away from this slide though is that there are a lot of different people that are part of of our sisterhood and brotherhood that um, that we can call to bear should priorities change and should we need something additional. Um, probably these two faces that you see are the ones that you're going to see almost all the time, but that doesn't mean that we're, you know, it's a two twooman band. Um, there's a lot of people that we are able to kind of tap into. These four I pulled out primarily because they've got some great I think they've got some uh relatability to what we're trying what we would be trying to do here. Um, including from a branding perspective if we decide to go down that route. Um, we've got an art direction and design folk. We've got people in video production. And then Jared is um the owner of all of our firms. You know, you also asked us in this section to talk about why we're a good fit. And we could tell you that, but we prefer to have other people tell you for us. Um, I'm just going to read a few of these things. Um, they just get how to tell a story. They think big and execute

6:46:05 – 6:48:03•0

flawlessly. They expertly guided us through a major crisis and they are collaborative and partnership driven and we're really glad that every single one of these folks are have been clients and that we still call them friends. [clears throat] Excuse me. [cough] I'm I wanted to say I wanted to say that with a with a big ta. Hang on just a second. All right. [clears throat] So cl here we go. Claremont, we get you because we are you. So, I am so proud to be part of this community and it is such a dynamic community. It is very vibrant. It has changed so much since my family got here in 2000. And I think a lot of those ways are for the better. You know, having 50,000 people, more than 50,000 people in our community now. Wow. That's a big big number. And um and so that means that other people think that this is a great place to work and to live as well. However, with growth comes challenges, right? And so we know from working with other governments and municipalities that traffic and congestion happen to be the thing that people have to interact with on a daily basis. And so that's what they see and that's what they complain about the most. What we will say is that we get it. You don't control the roads, right? And not a lot of people know that. So state, county, they control the roads, but you're the one that often gets blamed. And so it's a tight rope. We've got to walk, right? Um and it's important for us to kind of um in a way make sure that that folks really do understand that, but also that we're engaged in the solutions with our partners on the communications challenges. You know, we haven't had the benefit of of speaking um with any of you or with the uh communications team, but there's just a couple things I want to bring to your attention. The first one is how we how

6:48:01 – 6:49:59•0

much we've changed from demographics perspective. Um we've got new languages um that and growing languages here. Can you believe we have a a micro community, an Indian micro community which I happen to be part of um not because I'm Indian but because I've got friends that are part of that and they're just you know it's just so much fun um hanging out with this um with my with my friends and their families. But um and in two years 25% of us are going to be over 65. No one in this room of course, but others others will be over 65. And that is really incredibly important for us to to understand and and plan for because the way that we talk and communicate and and and you know and and interact and engage with people that are 65 and over is going to be very different with our alpha, right, and our Gen Z. So, so we do understand kind of that and we do make sure that we are we're really focused in on that. Um the other thing on the end of this slide is communications team bandwidth. We don't we understand that there's one um person that is on staff. Um talk about maybe adding a second person but even with and and forgive me but I have been doing this for a really long time with a second person that's going to double the capacity inhouse. At the same time though, I mean with a city of your size, anytime an issue happens that everything stops for that team and anytime a crisis happens, it stops for that team. And so and having all different departments asking for different things because all the different departments need communications vehicles. They need to be able to communicate about what they're doing that's impacting the residents and the businesses. And so the quite frankly I think that you are we are we are all seeing um the communications challenges

6:49:57 – 6:51:54•0

on that end. So I'm not going to spend too much time talking about audiences but I do want to share with you that a very big part of our process in fact potentially the biggest part of our process most important is our audience identification. And so there's a couple big buckets here right there's residents and there's businesses. However that's not where they start. They're not one sizefits-all. And so we make it a point of taking that resident bucket and start peeling back the layers because we want to know what are their age differences, what are their family makeup, what how long have they lived here? Because I can guarantee you somebody that has been here and been a resident of Claremont for 50 years is going to have a whole different set of priorities than someone who just moved here. And we live that every single day. So, so that's what we do with the residents and it's called audience profiling. Um, and I'll show you in just a minute, but it's exactly the same process with businesses. Um, and because they're they're very diverse, you know, and not just from a size perspective, but also are they headquartered here? What industries are they? What's happening in their industries? Are they on a growth? Are they declining? Um, and and are there are there synergies that they're just not getting yet? So, and then this is just an example real quickly of a an audience profile that we do. And we will do this for all of the ones that bubble up for Claremont. So this is an opportunity for us to kind of get on paper what it is that we feel and that this includes you all. This is not just us, but this includes all of us um coming together and having discussions around, you know, what types of residents do we have and also what are they what are they thinking about? What are they seeing when they drive down the road? What are they what are they feeling? What are they worried about? And what are they delighted about? Right? We don't always want to just focus on the negative. We want to know what they really love about working or about living here so that we can amplify

6:51:53 – 6:53:51•0

some of that those messages because a lot of times that doesn't get amplified. So I want to spend some time on approach um and and Lindsay will speak I promise. Um but we're trying to get through through 20 minutes. Um, we don't do cookie cutter plans, but we do have a very proven approach when it comes to starting with a new client and it's discovery, strategy, and activation. You'll probably see some form of that. You've probably heard some of that um earlier tonight from the other two firms. Um, I'm not going to go into too much detail here, but if you want me to break it down real simple, it's learn, plan, and do. and that that's exactly what we do and it is a full circle and it continues to build on itself. So, let me give you a little bit more information on discovery. We're going to read everything that you will give us and we're going to go out and we're going to look at not only your communications externally, but we're also going to look at other cities, you know, communications and their brands and their slogans and all of that stuff. The one thing I want to call your attention is stakeholder engagement. We learned early on that if we just go into a client and we have a big kickoff session and we spend three or four hours with them, we leave with only half the story. And so what we do is we do that that discovery piece internally, but we also bring in um for one-on-one conversations with us um business leaders and community leaders and you know, so so these are all going to be identified. it work in as a working group with you guys. Um but we feel like that gives us such a much stronger foundation for the work that's to come. And speaking of that, um that is the strategy piece. So this is how we build

6:53:47 – 6:55:44•0

our strategies and it is a lot of people probably do some of the same things but we do it in a little bit different way. We actually start with outcomes not objectives. Outcomes are what you want to accomplish. Now, if I'm sitting in front of a Fortune 500 company, I'm saying the same exact thing to them. I'm saying, "What are where's your business plan?" Because I don't want to start doing anything for you until I read and understand your business plan. And so, that's what those outcomes are. And so, what do you want? What's your vision for Claremont? What do you want the a the residents that are here? you know, what do you want them to think, feel, and know about Claremont? And and do you want them to become ambassadors for Claremont? I certainly would. But so, so we start there and we take it all the way through and each step builds upon one another. Um, the timeline is really interesting and Lindsay is going to talk a little bit more about that. Um, but the timeline is kind of our tool to tie all of this together because we've got social, we've got other content, we might have newsletters, we there's a lot of you've got presentations, all kinds of things that we're communicating out in the community, but we've got to make sure that it's all integrated and that it's all hitting at the same time because if we just hit, you know, we just if I throw a ball at that door over there, it's just a single ball hitting a single for one time. If I have a Nerf gun and I've got balls and I'm hitting them well over and over and over and over, I'm communicating, right? And I'm doing it in different ways. And I'm doing it maybe through different channels, but I've got to hit you several times in order for you to really get the message that that I'm that I'm trying to get you to.

6:55:41 – 6:56:23•0

This is such a boring slide. It is. It is so boring, but it is so much fun. I love messaging because when we do all of this, we come away with a messaging platform that will inform and feed every single piece of communication that we do from then on. It's that powerful. And so, I actually love this. It's very, it's part creative, it's part data driven, um, and it's all a whole bunch of fun. So, hopefully you all will join me in this lovely exercise at some point. I'm going to turn it over to Lindsay for uh social media and content.

6:56:20 – 6:58:20•0

All right, my turn. So, Lori was explaining to you our strategy. What she's talking about is our holistic strategy, and we felt it really important to hone in on one piece of how that strategy comes to life today about social media. We know it's pretty critical and important um to what we're doing here. So from an ethos standpoint, there are three really important things um of how we approach social media. First is going from transactional to emotional. We need to make people feel something. You could scroll all day, but if people don't stop and actually feel something, even as niche or small as like, "Ooh, that looks cool." Like cool can be a feeling, that's okay. It doesn't have to be this big emotional thing, but it needs to make them stop and feel something. Secondly, we have to stop talking to people. This is a community. This is a city. We have to talk with them. We have to be part of the conversation and you can't just get after that by just speaking um to people. Social media when it began and still today is inherently social media. It's not a marketing channel. It's a place where people come together with the intention to connect. And it got lost a little bit, but if you know if you understand that concept, you can really create something powerful. And then lastly, no vanity metrics, no con no reporting on, oh, this post got 30 likes and 20 views. Full datadriven storytelling on how every component of what we're going to do with social media impacts those outcomes. So, you can see how the social media aspect of what we're doing fully comes back full circle to the topline goals, objectives, and of course, the outcomes of what we're doing here. And we found, you know, I have 20 years experience doing this, 20 years experience doing this. I found that when you do these three things and you approach social this way, you build loyalty and you can't buy it. We want to turn fans and residents and non-residents and future residents into advocates that turn into being able to champion our city and our cause. This is a semicircle that shows you a deep dive into how do we do that, right?

6:58:18 – 7:00:16•0

Of course, it starts with strategy, specifically around content, moves into content planning, and actually moves into content creation, where every piece of content that we create has a role and a purpose. There's no fluff. There's no filler. There's a reason for everything that we do. I want to talk about publishing for a brief moment and discuss publishing is often overlooked, but social media is part art and part science. This is the science part. You could have the most perfect video and it could be everything. It could be super tight. If it doesn't get published in the right specifications, with the right um tags, with the right sound, with the right music, if you just do it one thing wrong when you're publishing, the algorithms will not push it out for people to see. It's just not how it works. So, understanding those nuances is so critical. Moving into community management. So, once content is published, we start to listen. I do want to mention today that on the city's Instagram account, all the comments are turned off. So I couldn't even leave a comment if I wanted to. It is really important to be again part of that conversation, responding, answering questions, sometimes maybe not answering questions and knowing when to not answer them. And then once we've been a part of that conversation, we go even deeper and we mine that conversation. We listen to what people are saying, but also think about what are the insights behind what they're saying and how should that impact what we do next. Should it inspire some content or an event that we want to, you know, come together and create for the city? Or is there like a little bubble of a crisis that comes up that it starts super small at a single comment on Instagram, but your team and our collaborative collaboration is smart enough to get ahead of it at that juncture is really, really critical. And then lastly, when appropriate, we pour gasoline on the fire. We get our influencers involved. Right? Influencers can be a dirty word. Um, but I'm not talking about influencers that are like mega celebrities on Instagram. Maybe that's the case, but I'm talking about people that have influence. From

7:00:15 – 7:00:52•0

bloggers to business owners, those stakeholders, people that can truly champion what you're talking about, what you want them to talk about and your narrative. We get them behind our cause and not just one time, multiple times. So, we want to build these long-lasting relationships that are going to help spread our narrative even longer. And then the last thing I want to say here is that analytics and insights sits in the center because we don't measure just the content arm. We measure every single piece around the semicircle and we make sure we're doing it efficiently, effectively. You know, being great stewards of the budget and we come back and tell you this holistic story of how this all supported our outcomes.

7:00:50 – 7:01:01•0

Okay. And then this slide is really just to tell you that we understand exactly what tools to use. We're professionals at this. And so I'll kick it back over to

7:00:59 – 7:02:22•0

Yeah. All right. [laughter] I don't even know what to to where to go from here. We're great storytellers. There you go. On media relations. We've been doing this forever and we are really good at it. Um these are people I've trained in the media. Um but I don't just work with CEOs and celebrities. I work with a lot of folks. brand management because I have gotten the sense that from the RFP and also from um some comments that I've heard here and there that you're potentially [clears throat] unsure whether this brand still has legs and and if to be honest we're unsure too because we don't have any information yet about your brand awareness and we don't have any information yet about your brand equity. We do have a way though to find that out. We have we partner with a company called Flashvote. Some of you may already know them. Um and they're a research company and they develop they have a whole polling platform that with that we use um we do all the the questions in the front end. Um we post it and then everything is available within 48 hours and then we've got insights from them. So, so this is how we this is a tool we would use to measure that brand awareness and brand equity. And with all of that information, we'll be able to make some better recommendations to you on what the path forward is.

7:02:21 – 7:02:46•0

Think we're at time. All right, I think we're at time. So, okay. Any questions? Yeah, please ask lots of questions about things we didn't cover because there's so much to cover. I would like to ask you how would you tell the story to people about the importance of you needing property tax for the city?

7:02:45 – 7:03:21•0

You know that's an interesting one and every municipality faces that right. So the uh you know one of the other municipalities that we work with right now they have increased their water rates um and by a lot and and it's a it's a one time 40% increase and then in additional years it's 10 10 and 10. Um nobody likes that, right? And so that [snorts] the city did not get out ahead of it properly

7:03:18 – 7:04:25•0

by being able to talk about a why they were doing it. You know, we they raised the rates because their infrastructure was getting ready to crumble before their eyes. And so it was incredibly important that they they found it. Now, we did a pie chart and we said this is your residents are being asked to pay for 2% of this whole nut of $278 million. 2%. Now, we know it's a lot, but we also went out and we got grants and we got low interest loans and we got all this stuff. So, when whenever we can use visuals to tell that story, we're in a much better place because we are people understand visuals. Um, so, so I think when it comes to raising their taxes and why, we got to start early and we also have to understand and get a pulse on what people are really thinking about. So, we can use this tool as well for that because what this tool will allow us to do is give them some options.

7:04:23 – 7:04:46•0

I I want to follow up with that because you may not be aware, but there are legislators that want to do away with property tax. So that's why I was asking that like cuz we have some people who don't fully understand what property tax does for their city, right? You know, so I was just wanting to see how you would educate the people on that. How would you tell the story for them?

7:04:44 – 7:05:56•0

Yeah, I think again I think it starts with that that awareness of the situation through some, you know, some type of polling. Um, and then it is a very strategic, very narrowly [clears throat] targeted plan that takes into consideration where where the city is because I imagine you're going to have a place that you want to be and then where the residents are and where how many of them and what are they paying and how how over the last 20 years what's happened to property taxes and where have those property taxes gone? What have they funded? What are they using right now? What facilities are they using? What healthcare? You know, I I don't know where all of that has gone, but that's how we tell that story is the things that you are using daytoday have been paid for by property taxes. And so this is what you give up if you don't pay property taxes anymore. It's a great idea. Sure, no one wants to pay them, but this is this is the cost of not paying them. So, hope that answered that question. What recent city milestones, initiatives or successes do you think should be told to the world

7:05:53•0

for for Claremont? Recent

7:05:56 – 7:07:14•0

Well, I think that um the fact that we are still having Noah Wilds of the world and those Olympic athletes that are still coming down to train. They're not all coming down like they were 15 years ago, but they're still coming down to train. And so, there are definitely those stories there. And if we're going to continue with the choice of champions and we're going to continue our focus on sports and training here because it's well past sports, you know, we our niche is in training these really fabulous athletes into, you know, college level and beyond. Um, so I think that that's one of the most important things that we that if we're going to keep that brand and if we find out that the community knows about it and loves it, um, then we want to continue to tell that story. But we also may want to spread that out a little bit too. You know, um Lindsay and I were talking a little bit about some creative ways we could take the choice of champions and and make it more relatable to people because not everybody's an athlete and not everybody's raising an athlete. And so we were talking about, okay, what do we do at back to school? You know what? What if back to school, we we showcase a librarian who reads to her pupils and helps people after school and she's a champion for reading,

7:07:12 – 7:07:51•0

right? And what do we, you know, there all kinds of we [laughter] really could I mean we could sit here forever and talk about those ways. So that's the kind of creativity that we will bring. Um, but we do we do want to make sure that we understand kind of what the direction um the city wants to go in before we make any of those calls. Um, I also think it's funny that you had um Walmart here and they were talking about the drones. I actually think I thought that those drones were the size of 747s from that photo. I'm like, "Oh my god, those things are huge." And it turns out they weren't. Um, but I think that

7:07:47 – 7:09:45•0

I think that Wellness Way is is as a success and it can be positioned as a huge success for Claremont, right? So, it's it's it's our evolution. It's where we're expanding. A lot of interesting and and great economic development opportunities are going to happen there. A lot of workforce opportunities are going to happen there. And so, wellness way isn't the only story, but I think it is certainly a story that we should be embracing um when it makes sense for us. Um with other residents, it may not make a sense, right? We that's the whole point of okay, where where do you live? Because where you live in our community has an impact on what we're going to talk about to you. So, I do like the idea of maybe looking at different newsletters for different communities and all of that, but um but I think that there is some um very intrinsic uh and inherent value there too. And then I think downtown and downtown, up and down, up and down. But remember, I was here when the the only restaurant in town was Crispers. I'm telling you that dark days. Dark days indeed. And so the fact that we have this incredible vibrant downtown. That's something that I also think we want to be talking about because you you continue to invest in the downtown area. You know, I sat in a couple months ago. I sat in on a a workshop, a joint workshop you all did um with the planning and zoning and um I think there was somebody from county there and you were talking about you know meet me in the middle park and all of that stuff and there were there's I learned a lot that day and I really appreciated um being there but um but just the fact that you're you're investing more money into downtown to not only make it a resident and business point of pride and a place where they will go and gather and recreate Um, but it's also a place where, you know, other other folks will

7:09:44 – 7:10:29•0

come. So, I don't want to talk about tourism yet because we're not ready, right? We've got to get our our house in order on the residents and the businesses before we ever start to talk about tourism. That's just my opinion. Um, and I I could be persuaded, I guess, but that's that's where I'm coming from on this. Um but sometime in the future when all of this starts to coales together and we've got that great story to tell then yes we are gonna we're going to attract more right we're attracting some now but I think we're going to be in a position to attract many many more um and have even bigger and better events and um have better spending in the community. How do you feel about our different city departments having their own Facebook page?

7:10:26•0

I I I would you like to I do have an opinion. Would you like to answer that?

7:10:30 – 7:11:46•0

Yeah. So, with social media, you know, I I led Darden social Darden restaurants social media globally for all of their nine restaurant brands and everybody wants to have a social have their own page. You are less successful when there is no scale. There is an opportunity to tell unique stories without alienating other people. Social is big enough to have everybody kind of in one place contributing toward one big outcome. I've always found that when you start slicing and dicing and segmenting, you got 200 people over here, you got 20 people over there. One, not only does it explode the bandwidth that it takes to actually manage those accounts. So, just from an operation standpoint, doesn't work. Um, it makes sense to have everybody all together. And that's a hard conversation. I have spent years talking to franchisees, restaurant owners, restaurant general managers, explaining to them, you know, compassionately, I understand you want to have a part in this business. you want to contribute, but here's ways that you can do it that will be more successful. And then also showcasing the data and the insights with them so they can see how their successes are contributing to our bigger cause and and making them feel like they're a part of it. Um, and still giving them ownership but not having them off their own piece of the pie.

7:11:42 – 7:12:13•0

What else could we answer for you? Anyone else? We didn't get a chance to talk about budget. Does anybody have questions about budget? happy to go through it. Well, if no one else has questions, I'll do it. So, um, we are currently working with DPZ for our comprehensive plan and included in that is some sort of public relations. How do you envision your firm working in collaboration with DPZ's public relations firm?

7:12:09 – 7:12:56•0

Oh, we um we are very collaborative um and we work with different PR firms all the time. Um, some of our clients are really large and they already have folks that that are there and and they also have people that come in for different things. The most important part of that though is that we're all talking to one another and that we all know exactly what one group is doing and what we're doing so that we are, you know, we're working together because when you bring big minds together, everything that you do is going to get better honestly. So, we don't have any ego in that at all. Um, we we actually welcome working with folks, especially since I work out of my home and um I like other people. So, I would I would welcome the the chance to work with others.

7:12:53 – 7:13:36•0

Thanks. Time's up. Thank you, lady. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. Does the council want to take a break or you want to continue? Is that it? I mean, as far as I have to leave 5:30 tomorrow. So, do we, Mr. Freddy, do we make a decision tonight? We take any actions tonight? If we don't, we have to wait for another month. Um, you is is a council meeting so you can

7:13:36 – 7:14:09•0

Huh? It's a council meeting so you can make a decision tonight. Well, I don't have any none of the public is here to get feedback from the public on anything. But of course, they wasn't here to they there's two members of the public here. We we we may have two members of the public and you're welcome to give some feedback. Of course, nobody else from the public. I like you. So, you've been here for seven hours. I know.

7:14:07 – 7:14:52•0

Hello everyone. My name is Destiny Myers, 1040 Glenn Raven Lane. First, I wanted to say thank you all for serving the city of Claremont so well this last year. Everyone fire EMTs emergency services. I was really impressed with the presentations. However, I do believe the council should table this and enjoy the holiday. Merry Christmas. Okay. Thank you. [laughter] So, m Mr. Mayor, before just point of order, I think the deputy city manager [clears throat] has a point he'd like to make. Yeah. I before we open up to the public, we needed all the groups that were in here presenting so so they can all hear what the comments are. Oh, just to be fair to the rest of the presenters as well.

7:14:49 – 7:15:34•0

Well, I'm somewhat what I I'm thinking they're not here because a lot of the public isn't here either. So, I don't know if the public was here to hear the presentation, but the other um I don't see anybody else in Well, I'm saying the other two the other hallway. Yeah, they're still out there. So, if we can bring them in here so they can hear the comments. I don't know if we have any online commenters or [snorts] not. Oh, wow. Oh, okay. [laughter] Okay. Thank you. But that was when when you gave us direction last meeting to do the presentations. It was that you wanted to have public input also after the right presentation. So I would like to have the other groups in here that presented.

7:15:33 – 7:15:59•0

I don't think it was in public. There's no real public. We've had one public and we got a second public. [laughter] Can we can we is there is there anybody getting the other folks before we proceed? One's here. Okay. [snorts]

7:16:12 – 7:16:39•0

Can I screen? I don't think you're going to see that. Ah, there you go. Oh, wait. Yeah, sorry. My is everybody in here? Yes.

7:16:38 – 7:17:20•0

Okay. Valerie show at 931 West Montro Street. Um, just putting that up there as a resource. Um, credit due to Chem Meer from Chem and Co. for this resource. Um this is the conversation we're having tonight when we talk about um you know the city communications and the brand identity. What I've heard and this is very normal is everybody on this DAS has a different definition of what we're talking about in a lot of ways when it comes to communication. Some are more in the tactics or it's social media or it's a graphic or or it is our big picture vision or whatever. Um this is a broad scope. Um, hi Phil. What's [laughter] you guys granted him a variance for?

7:17:18 – 7:19:15•0

Yeah, you granted him a variance for his pool. Don't know if you remember that. Um, and so just to bring this into perspective, this is about how you connect with humans, your brand identity. Um, it's then comms is the planning. It's how you're going to focus attention. It's the shared talking points. It's the change management. And then there's the marketing. So this is making it sharable, your lead generation, your tailored campaigns, things like that. So that's just good context for you all to have. Um I will say uh the different from the three different companies I presented tonight, they have different strengths in each one of these areas. Um I don't know these people by the way. This is just me as a citizen. This is my professional background and I want to offer an objective perspective too. So, um I will say there seems to be some discussion about do I don't really know what how we're going coming at this problem to be honest. There seems to be some discussion still about do we need to hire outside help. Um and frankly I I do think the city communications needs help. I agree with a lot of what was shared by Doris um and True North about just some of the vulnerabilities and the weak points and that is not an attack on anybody. This is a huge job. It would be too much for any one person. It's too much for two people. Um it requires a wide range of skills to do. So just to share that frankly I do think it's important but there are many ways you could work it. You know it doesn't have to be you're not signing everything away to an outside company. It could be a a temporary kind of injection in with your internal team. Uh training and setting up an internal team. A good company is going to excavate your story and your vision. And I feel like I especially heard that today from uh both Crosswords and True North when it comes to brand story, knowing Claremont, knowing your audience. Um they're not going to take

7:19:14 – 7:21:13•0

control of the narrative and run off with it. It's their job to excavate it, to clarify it, to bring it forth. We often need an outside perspective. It's just like how we can go nose blind to the smells in our own house when it comes to communications. We can think we're communicating something, especially with communications, and we're actually we're not. We need that outside perspective and lens. We need that accountability. And that's why outside professional help can be so helpful. I'm just going to go a little longer because I've been here for seven hours. Hopefully, that's okay. Um, so, uh, I would just encourage you if you need to think creatively about how to hire, I do think you have to have an internal component. Um, and hopefully we can bring some training and things like that. Um, but I do think having a season of outside help, I think we the city needs help clarifying their story, their brand, their systems. I do see a lack of strategy. It's someone's right now is just trying to keep up with the tactics and the tasks and there's a lot and it's an immense thing to manage when you're also fielding things from all city departments. I have seen that over and over again. Um, and so hopefully the outside help would enable then our internal team to be freed up to run in their strengths because our internal team does have strengths. Um, there's a lot more I could say. I'm not going to say it all. Um, I do think I was really impressed with um, what Doris had to say. I feel like she understood our city and our brand and our story. Uh, it was a masterclass in public communications. I do have some concerns about um I think some of the visuals and aesthetics are a little bit dated uh and a little bit crowded. So, that would be one thing there. Um and then True North, I feel like that's also that's another master class. Um I think they show in that graphic I showed earlier, they have a very comprehensive they're going to hit

7:21:09 – 7:21:48•0

all those buckets, brand comms, marketing. Um there's a lot of decisions ahead of you. How you structure it, not just who you hire, how you structure it, how you set up your internal, there are many ways that it could go south even if you hire the right company. Are we giving them the right inputs? Do we have unity there? So this is a lot to communicate and I'm a little all over the place. I understand that it's really late. Um but I think this is a bit of a harrowing decision for you all, but that's the input I'll offer you right now. Thank you. Thank you.

7:21:53•0

All right. [laughter] What say what say council?

7:21:59 – 7:23:57•0

I think that our our staff needs help. I think that we need to consider hiring a firm to do an assessment and make recommendations for us as step one. Uh, I do think that the comments made by Valerie are are wise and that if we just go and hire somebody and say, "Okay, take the reigns." Um, it could end up being chaotic versus saying, "Okay, we want someone to come in and do that assessment and suggested strategies." I think it's worth spending the money to do it. Um, and I think I think we should do that, right? And I think we should do it now because it's December. What's today? the 9th and we don't meet again until January 13th. And so the soonest that we could engage anybody is going to be six weeks from now. And that's six weeks of nothing being done on this front. So I would ask that we hire a firm tonight to do an assessment, not necessarily taking on full-time project because we don't really know what the full-time looks like right now. I mean, I agree with you in a certain respect that we we need to get more help in our PIO department, but I think it's important that we we also focus on maybe getting people within. I don't think one person is sufficient to do everything we need to do. We need a videographer. We need somebody that can do Instagram. We need somebody that can go out there and get the stories. you know, it's so it's it's beyond my knowledge of what we need, but I know that we do need and I know like maybe our our department isn't big enough, but I think it would be good to get a consultant firm to do projects like when we have the jazz festival, things like that, so we can grab them and then we could actually then test the water, see let's how good really how good are they? Like the question you would ask, you know, a big thing right now is the governor is saying, you know,

7:23:55 – 7:24:20•0

property tax. You know, you buy a car once and you pay tax once. Why are you paying tax every year on a house? It's a great selling point. He's got a great firm that's working his point. So, we need to have a se a good firm that can work our point. Like you said, I mean, the opposite would be then you're absolutely right. Let's get rid of property tax, but do you like police? Do you like fire? Do you like water?

7:24:18 – 7:25:47•0

You like your You like your garbage picked up weekly? Okay. We're going to have to get another tax on you now to cover that, right? And people, whoa, what do you mean another text? Things like that. And you know, a visual almost like we saw, you know, in that first presentation with the video. That was a great video. I mean, that's what stirs people, but then we have like a broad base. We have the 55 and over. They still read magazines like the Royal Times. You know, I read the Royal Times, but I also look at Facebook. I look at Instagram, you know, you watch a little bit of TV, you know, so you watch the local news, maybe throw things in there. I think there's a lot of value, but we I I think, you know, I would love to have somebody in house so we can then direct them, too. Like I think it's important that we get our messages out on a consistent basis as things are happening. you know, you know, everything, you know, like with Instagram, it's everybody's looking at three seconds, poof, three seconds, poof, and that's what we should get the town in into that also. You know, there's a a fire over there. Somebody got hurt over here. This is a new project we're doing well this way. You know, let people people don't even know what's going on there with Olympic. So, this is stuff that we should have inhouse that we can we can direct instantly to cover something. Not not to say that a firm can't do it instantly, but I think I think we need both. That's what I really do.

7:25:45 – 7:26:21•0

I I like what you're saying. I think what we need I think Melinda needs a team. I think it's unfair and unrealistic to expect this to be on the shoulders of one person. I think we need a content creator. I think we need somebody to do video videos. We think I think we need somebody to do crisis management. We need the logos. We need all of those things. And I think we should have a team. um for her to do inhouse and when we have maybe a big event like you're saying possibly. Yeah. Like I mean like if we were trying to get the Olympics to come,

7:26:19 – 7:28:17•0

you know, you get a firm to do that to woo that committee to come here or whatnot. Um, I could see that, but I think we need to have people inhouse and I think she needs a team and not just one person, but several people to come to help with the components to help Melinda in this. I if I could maybe say what Miss Shuitt and and others have said, it's not just who, but it's what then how and understanding the why. Um, and I don't think it's a bad position to be in to say we have identified or we might be able to identify an organization to help us with that to inject what was the phrase that was used um I wrote it down temporary injection um in in figuring out the who and the what then the how and understanding the why so that we can bring those circles together in a cohesive way that perhaps when it then comes back to where we're we're ready to make some initial decisions. It may be that we can then decide do we fully contract out all of that and move forward with that or is it better are we better served internally and having all of that done internally or a combination thereof moving forward. I think if you look at cities our size across the country, it is not unheard of for our for our police andor fire departments to

7:28:14 – 7:30:13•0

have their own PIOS, full-time PIOS of of a city of our size. So, there's two folks right there that would be under this umbrella, this larger umbrella. And then you've got um the the folks that work typically in a city hall setting that are kind of under a city manager or a mayor's office that that do all of that. And that's more than one person for a city of our size. So this could be a larger department. And I'm not saying that we have to be that or that we need that, but I don't know. I'm not an expert. And I I feel like this is one area where I need expertise to really help us understand um the who, the what, and then the how with the why being all around that. Um so I I I'm I would be ready to to uh to make a motion to hire a firm. Um, and I'm willing to do that if we want to take a vote. um and proceed down that road for now to get that assessment, to get that process moving so that we can incorporate what Melinda's doing, but also grow that and help her grow that and help the city grow that so that we can have a better understanding of what we're trying to communicate, how we're trying to communicate it, who we are. uh the a I wrote down the other piece of followers becoming fans, fans becoming advocates who champion. It doesn't matter whether we have 50,000 followers on a on a social media or if we have 50,000 sub subscribers to a magazine. Um if they're not fans and they're not advocates, they're consuming but they're not doing anything with it. And I don't know how we get to that point. And I think everybody wants to get to that point. And it's okay to call

7:30:09 – 7:30:42•0

in some folks um uh to to get us to that point um or to help us get to that point. I I guess I I'm okay with that because I I did say to the last meeting I do think overall this is something that potentially should be completely in house. I I don't know that we're at a point where we can just go do that right now. And I don't even know what that would look like. And so, uh, I think we need some guidance and help getting to the next level. Um, and I'd be willing to make that decision tonight.

7:30:40 – 7:32:40•0

Well, first of all, let me let me I'm going to say this. I apologize just to Melinda. I know when we went out to hire someone a couple of years ago, uh because we saw this problem about two, three years ago and uh we was only had the one person, we set out to hire someone. Um and I know she took a big chance to come here with us and I'm going to be honest with you, I feel like she've done um since she took the lead position, I've seen a tremendous change in what we're doing and she've been doing a tremendous job and I would like to see her continue to do that. However, in respect with Miss Miss Mar is here, I do think she need a team. Okay. Uh just like we only had the one person before we hired Melinda. I felt like we needed a team. I actually felt like we needed at least three people to do the job. Uh and I actually went around and talked to a lot of different cities that was up and growing at the time. I even had guys uh some people come in um a couple of them come in and uh do a couple of things for us and offer their services and everything, but I just felt like we can do it better in-house for the cost that was cost uh what they were wanting to charge us. We can do it better in house and have it have it under our control. We just have to be able to hire the right people. I think with Melinda uh the experience she has and what I've seen from her right now um I think we can hire those people and do them in house. Um but I also agree that when we have big projects going on or big events going on we need to go on out we can go to the outside and hire a firm and come in and help us do that. But right now I'm in I'm in support of going ahead and keep it in house. We need to go ahead and um give Mr. Dan Wagner authority to hire could go out and look for a couple of other people to hire and help Melinda and increase their process and all. Um I guess you can say I'm a little biased

7:32:38 – 7:33:20•0

because I started this about two three years ago. That's why Melinda is here because I felt like I felt like then we needed to hire someone and I had to talk my city manager into hiring someone at the time. Um however uh Melinda had been now by herself for a year for the last few what since July I guess it is she been by herself and I don't think it's been fair to her. Okay. Uh so I think if we give her the opportunity to go ahead and do that uh with what I've seen from her and the knowledge I've seen from her I think I think we'll be able to accomplish that. Okay. What we need because I don't care even if we hire a firm guess what they got to go by our direction anyway. Mhm.

7:33:18 – 7:33:39•0

See, so why don't why don't we give the uh give that direction to Melinda what we need and let her try to accomplish it. If you can't, then we we go out and do somewhat. But I I prefer trying to give it to Melinda. Uh let her have it, hire the people to help her with it and and go from there. Okay.

7:33:34 – 7:34:56•0

And I I certainly maybe I didn't articulate clearly. I have zero intention or desire to want Melinda to go anywhere. um that is not that would never that's never been my intent in this process and looking at this and that's not how I viewed that in the presentations. I'm I view these presentations as an opportunity for us to capitalize what's happening and to build upon what's happening and to figure out how do we best create the team or the structure or the why we want to do all of these things. Um, I think I if we if we today said we're not going to do a a a an RFP and we're we're going to go hire new staff, um, the process will be months from now before we have anybody in place. Realistically, uh, I think it would take it's going to take probably a month to determine the funding for those because we just don't have that currently in the in the current budget for positions in those departments, right?

7:34:54 – 7:35:20•0

Well, we already have the posi position there. One of them is already What you're missing is I mean, we can, you know, you hire somebody and you almost like when we're talking about grant writers. If you can write a grant, you're going to prod. Okay. Then you say, well, if we hire somebody that's a videographer, let's say somebody that knows Instagram, whatever, then they could if they're not functioning, then you know, you I think though that that approach though is missing the bigger picture.

7:35:18 – 7:35:56•0

I'd like to do both. I'd like to hire like let's say the firm and maybe have the firm act as a as a a vehicle that could help us develop our own internal development. I think that's what I I maybe that's what I said um initially is to and I think Miss Strange, Council Member Strange started that conversation with awarding the RFP to the the the the a firm and having them help us do assessments, create the the plan and and we work towards uh the end result of what we want to have. Um

7:35:54 – 7:36:23•0

yeah, you're right. I'm not suggesting terminating the existing position. And if that's I don't see it as either or. I see it as and. Well, here here's the um I feel like hey, as I said before, let's go ahead and give it to Melinda. Let her do that. And if she feel like we need she need to hire a firm or uh um it's too big for her, um she come to us, we go out at that point and do it. right now. Um

7:36:19 – 7:37:37•0

what I've seen what her what she's done um since she had the lead uh and the changes that's been made since she took leave since the other person left and everything else. I've been kind of impressed and it was more or less what I was looking for when we went out and hired her uh to see some changes and I've seen some positive changes. Um that's why we went out and hired her a little over a year or so ago. um you know and and I think her hands was until she she got the lead physician a couple months ago. I think her hands was tied somewhat. Okay. And so that's why I say since and I was fighting against that as well under the under the previous administration. But however um she has some freedom and I've seen seen some changes. So my thing is hey let's go ahead and give Mr. Van Wagner authority. I I would say hire two more people to help her. I know one is already budgeted for. I think we always had two people in in in the position up there and everything. So, we just have to create a um budget for this third person if we need and and once she get them people in place and she feel like she she needs some guidance from some outside then we come back and we do it.

7:37:35 – 7:38:19•0

Okay. But let's let's her take us down the road like I say. So, in in I guess maybe in order to provide some closure, I'm going to make a motion to award the RFP to True North Marketing um for and how specific do we need to be with relation to uh going in line with what council member Strange was mentioning with the assessment and so forth. I guess I based on the wide ranging discussion um it's as specific as you'd want to be council member. I think what I heard you say I think was that at the very least you'd propose a firm being retained to do the assessment. Right.

7:38:15 – 7:38:58•0

Abs. Absolutely. Um absolutely. And and I'm confident that um in doing this it is it is in no way a reflection of current staff and current processes and current uh um work. Uh, and um I would I would be um I'd be really sad if that's how it was perceived because that is not at all the intent. So I think council member to answer your question it would be to award the RFP uh to a firm and to begin negotiations for the purposes of an assessment. That's my motion.

7:38:56 – 7:39:24•0

And then part of that assessment is for that firm then to develop our own internal PIO department. I I'm I'm willing to just put the motion out there for now and and get what we get and figure it out. We're going to be able to to address like a blank like do whatever you think should be done instead of, you know, giving specific targets, you know, do everything, you know, and make us really great. Okay. Can you do it? Well, I'm going to second the motion.

7:39:22 – 7:39:55•0

I think we need everybody needs some kind of direction as to which way you want to go. You know, what is what is your function to rebrand? to get take out the choice of champions and come up something like that or is it to do a new a new a new Facebook page that's more vibrant a new Instagram you know you got to give direction [clears throat] so that's why I think what the mayor had said is Melinda is the head of that department now so she should be like the the vehicle that that they can go through you know

7:39:54 – 7:40:23•0

and she would be the vehicle that they go through a consultant serves at the pleasure of the master. Um, and so I tend to agree when you hire the best of the best. Um, and I think that in this case we got three really great applicants. Um, I don't think I mean I studied marketing. I head up marketing for my own company. Uh, we had eight million views last year. So that's not nothing. But

7:40:22 – 7:41:34•0

I don't know what they're talking about. I I'm not qualified to give them direction beyond, you know, the scope of what we might say of we want to be what do we want to be? Do we want it familyfriendly? We want to know how we're reaching our citizens. We want to know how well our messaging is getting out. I mean, to say we want you to do it this way, what you're doing is you're taking a professional and you're handcuffing them. I would rather see what they see and what they bring back to us. As part of the the first phase is discovery, right? Did I get that one right? The first phase is discovery. So, what do they discover? They're going to discover things that we never thought or saw. And if I remember, you had four, not only you had four companies that you're brother and sister with that all have multiple people under them. I mean, they have access to way more people than Melinda's going to have access to because she's going to end up having access to one or two people at the most and their skills. They could send this out to their entire team and say, "Hey, we just got this contract. Here's the city. Give me your top three thoughts." And we would get the top three thoughts across 45 different people who are professionals in their field.

7:41:32 – 7:42:11•0

That we would be giving a gift to Melinda to do that versus saying, "Okay, now it's all on you. And if you don't hit a grand slam, my dear, it's on you." see that hiring the consultant is actually the kindest thing I think we can do for staff when we're venturing into something new because you can hire the best, see what they say, and if you choose to continue, you continue. And if you don't, you don't. That's like that's like saying um to me that's like saying, "Okay, you're the head of the department, but hey, um I don't want you to run the department. I'm going to get somebody else out here to give you directions on how to run the department." We we just

7:42:08 – 7:42:49•0

I still say go back go back to uh give it to Melinda let her let us come back to us and if she need what need help and not reaching what what we expect then I I think she she's bigger enough person to come back and tell us what what help she need and go but let her do the marketing if we gonna give it to her uh give her the department and let her run it and and expect her to maintain it and run it even if you just hire them as consultant you're gonna turn it over to her, let her have the input on where we're going with it first and and decide whether we need she need help from outside. I thought we were here because that was understood that staff wanted us to hire a consultant. Is that

7:42:47 – 7:43:40•0

Well, I never I never I never wanted to agree I never agreed to hire an outside consultant. I always felt like we can do it in-house and I've always stated that that that point. Um we can do it in-house. Um that's why when it came to me before you was on the council and it came to us uh we in went like I say went out and hired Melinda because I didn't want to turn it on over to outside agents. I felt like we can do it better in house especially at the prices that were being presented to us at the time. Now I I agree her hand when we she got hired with under circumstance and everything things she was a little what handicap and and handcuffed and everything and I used to have that argument quite a bit of um wasn't quite happy where things was going at the time either because it wasn't I wasn't seeing exactly what I thought we were going to be getting. But

7:43:39•0

thank with our in-house

7:43:40 – 7:44:39•0

team. She Oh. Oh, I've seen some changes and and a better job of marketing and and things she's doing. And I have a lot of belief and trust in the fact that she she can handle this job for right now. What we're looking for right now. Okay. And like I say, even when we hired a marketing firm, we they still have to go by what we they can come to you with all they suggested and everything else, but if it's not what you want, you going to still be given the direction. You can still go to Melinda and give her them direction on what your expectations are. And if like say if she feel like she can't meet them and she need help, then uh I'm quite sure we can go out and do it. And far as you're concerned about hiring someone, I think um when we hired Melinda, I think we had on on board within within 45 days or so. I think it was. It didn't take us no time to get her hired and I'm quite sure we can get somebody else hired just as soon if we go ahead and and put it out there. Okay.

7:44:36 – 7:45:21•0

Does our if it's okay with the city manager, does our procurement have a input here on this? I just want to give you another option. um you can choose to award it award the contract to a company and not and have them as a standby not use them at all in the meantime you're doing other things where you got to side um but however if you decide tonight to not award the RFP to anyone then it's it ends there the next time you want to hire a company another firm to do you know public media and stuff then you need to go through the whole RFP process again just wanted to let you know that's that's really helpful information So, thank you for being able to provide that. And there is a motion.

7:45:19 – 7:46:02•0

Yeah. So, let me let me let me rephrase my let me rephrase my motion so that we can vote. Um, I'm going to I'm going to move to approve or to uh to award the RFP to True North Marketing to assist and enable the city to launch its first comprehensive public communication, social media, and brand management initiative aimed at enhancing community engagement, increasing public awareness, and building consistent and recognizable brand identity. A second. And that's right from the staff agenda report. That's where I got that. Just in case the city clerk is like, I I didn't get all that.

7:45:59 – 7:46:44•0

I have a motion and a second to hire True True North with all the verbage that was said. Uh um I guess everybody's in agreement. Any further discussion? Of course, we had three three uh two other ones. I don't think it was any discussion about uh what you were looking for from either one of them and all. But anyway, that's the question. Uh, hired true north. Is there a motion? Yeah. With a second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Let it be known by saying I. I. I. All oppose. I I still on the fence. So, let me make sure I understand this.

7:46:43 – 7:47:12•0

Just an assessment. Assessment. This is not Okay. Yeah. Okay. I can do that then. Yes. What was it? She's saying I I can do that. Okay. So, we go go ahead and hire uh motion carries 4 to one. Okay. So, u go ahead and hire uh True North. Thank you everybody. Yes. Thank you. Thank you.

7:47:16 – 7:47:42•0

Uh anything else need to come before the council? Nothing else. Okay. In that case, meeting a journal. [music] [music] [music]

7:48:01 – 7:49:09•0

[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music]

7:49:24•0

Heat. Heat.

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[music]

This transcript was automatically generated from the official public meeting video and is presented unedited. It reflects remarks made on the public record by elected officials, staff, and public commenters. Transcript accuracy may vary; view the original recording for reference.