City Council Regular Meeting - Regular Meeting

What's up, buddy? How are you?

All right. Good evening, everyone, and thank you so much for being here to this uh meeting, regular meeting of the city council of the city of Fort Walton Beach. If you have a cell phone or electronic device, if you could please put it on silent or vibrate as to not distract from the proceedings this evening. If you will rise and stand for the invocation um from Pastor Kevin Cobberly from the Fort Walton Beach Nazarene and then continue standing for the pledge of allegiance. [Applause] Uh, Father God, we thank you so much for being here today uh in the presence uh to serve uh Lord to bring up a request uh to our city council, to our members. We thank you for each one of them who are serving here today. Uh we pray for unity in the midst of uh attempts of division. Uh Lord, we pray that you would just bless it. Um bless this time uh use it uh to uh not just better our community, but to uh further our community, get it closer, Lord, to where it could can be a beacon of light, Lord, uh uh in this in this state. Lord, we thank you so much for all that you're doing, what you're going what you plan to do. We love you. Be with this uh this uh council meeting. We love you. It's in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen.

Thank you, sir. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much for that. Council will need approval of tonight's agenda. Second. Got a motion made by Councilman Schmidt and seconded by Councilman Jeter to approve tonight's agenda as presented. Any comments from the board on the agenda? Please vote. Council [Applause]

All right. And it does pass unanimously. And that brings us to item number five, proclamations. And we have just one tonight, but a very important one. Is Miss Jean Grieve here? There you are. Oh, right in the front. I was looking at the missing.

I know. A beautiful pink shirt. Um, since 1993, the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, or MSABC campaign has brought communities together across the nation to raise awareness about breast cancer and support life-saving research, education, and screenings. What began as a simple walk of solidarity has grown into the largest network of breast cancer events in the country, uniting survivors, families, friends, and advocates in one powerful cause. In 2022, the local walk proudly expanded its reach by becoming Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of the Emerald Coast, now representing the cities of Crestview, Navar, Niceville, Dest, and Fort Walton Beach. This year's walk will take place in at the Northwest Florida State College in Niceville Saturday, October 18th, 2025, and promises to once again fill the path with pink and purpose. To celebrate and support this important mission, I proclaim October 12th through the 18th as think pink week in the city of Fort Walton Beach. And thank you very much for the ribbons that you provided. We will wear them proudly. We encourage everyone to wear pink, raise awareness, and join the walk to honor survivors, remember loved ones, and show that together we are stronger in the fight for a cure. The pinker the turnout, the brighter the message of courage, compassion, and community. Thank you very much. And we do have a copy of this proclamation as well if you'd like to hang on to that. I don't know. I guess I can come down and give it to you. Can we get somebody to pass it down? probably be even better. [Applause]

Do you have anything you'd like to add, Miss Grieve, at all? Is Is it all right if I just say a couple more? Yeah, absolutely. Please come on up. I was inviting you up before. I didn't make it formal enough. Oh, sorry about that. That's okay.

Uh for those who don't know me, my name is Jean Griev. I'm this year's event chair. Um I think we've had it in Niceville, the Northwest Florida State College probably five, six years running now. And so again, as the mayor said, it's this Saturday. Uh start time is 8:00 a.m. for programming, Zumba with Noatoya. We have a special guest speaker and then the walk starts at 9:00 and I think the rout's probably maybe a tad over a mile. We have three water stations, so nobody will die of thirst or anything like that. And then we invite our caregivers, survivors, and thors to come to our survivor tent. We'll have some special refreshments for you Saturday morning. And we encourage everybody on council to be there. I think the mayor might be there.

I will. And uh I believe the uh Niceville city mayor is going to be there. And this is actually I think the third year in a row we've gotten proclamations from every city. So that's a testament to how much the community is involved and and aware of breast cancer. So uh we appreciate you coming out on Saturday. And I left a couple extra cards here for Saturday and my card if you have any questions. Thank you, Miss Green. Thank you. And thanks for all that you do. Thank you. That moves us to item number six, employee recognitions. Mr. Davis, who I might add is wearing a pink shirt today. We don't have any. Mr. Buck Mcn was our soul. All right. Well, let's still give him a round of applause for Mr. Buck McN.

All right. Well, that brings us to item seven for presentations and the Battle of the Bridge. I believe the Fort Walton Beach Buccaneers football team is here and there's a lot of them. So, y'all might want to make way. These kids are tough. Oh, wow. Look at that thing. We haven't seen that in a couple years.

What's up, guys? [Music] Hey, great game two Saturdays ago. I was there. I watched it. You guys were awesome. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Leeits, we've returned from the battlefield and our warriors were victorious. That is our bridge once again. Let's go. Hey kids, I have a question for you. Whose bridge is that? Our bridge. Whose bridge? Our bridge. Whose bridge? Our bridge. 1 2 3 4 5 6.

Mr. Mayor, we have your trophy right here. Yeah. Freshly engraved as well. Look at that. [Applause] I think we might just sit this here all night. Not a better place for it. Fantastic job, sir.

Oh, that that's all we have. Your job is to bring that back next year. We're going to have to defend that bridge again next year, Mr. Mayor. And we will do it. We will have the juniors doing it next year. And half of these kids are going to be juniors next year. So, we will defend that next year. We'll see you then. That's great. Hey, I got a lot of confidence in you guys again next year. Keep working hard and keep kicking butt. We'll see you next year.

Nice job, guys. [Applause] And nice job, coaches. Thank you, sir. [Music]

I don't know. [Music] That is fantastic. All right, that moves us to our second presentation of the evening for One Hopeful Place, Miss Sher Jones, the community outreach director.

Hello. Is it working? Is it ready? So, good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Sheri Jones and I'm the communications and public relations director for One Hopeful Place. And joining me today in the audience is Larry McFarland from Bridgeway. Thank you for allowing me a few moments to speak tonight. This is our lady's place which provides a stable, supportive environment for 17 women as they work towards independence and stability. This is our men's place offering structure and accountability for 50 men who are employed and actively working towards permanent housing. Th this is a comforting place which provides 48 beds for emergency shelter during cold weather and community emergencies, ensuring no one in our city is left outside during unsafe conditions. And this is our healthy place where intake and coordination take place to connect residents with the resources they need to move forward. Okay. And finally, this is the resource place. This building sits on the same city-owned property as the rest of our campus, but is currently empty and unused. Tonight, I am respect respectfully requesting city council approval to renovate this existing building so it can finally serve as a valuable purpose. Once renovated, the resource place will become a professional office and intake center for participants who are already living on the property. It will also provide modest office space for our community partners including veterans affairs, social security, the treatment for individuals experiencing homelessness program, mental health providers and Bridgeway Center, allowing them to meet privately with clients in a safe, organized and setting and to expedite housing and supportive services. In addition, a dedicated workstation will

be offered and available for the Fort Walton Beach Police Department and code enforment enforcement to use as needed, furthering enhancing collaboration and a safe for our people we serve. Once the resource place is renovated, it will allow the healthy place to once again be used for essential health services such as teleaalth, primary care, and psychiatric and health screenings. This project will be completed at absolutely no cost to the city of Fort Walton Beach. We're not adding new housing. We're not expanding capacity. And we are not changing the property footprint. Only improving what is already there. Okay. So, finally, this renovation supports the same mission that guides the city council to enhance and protect the community by providing quality services. That's exactly what this project represents. An enhancement of city property, a responsible use of existing space, and a way to better serve those already on site while strengthening the partnership between One Hopeful Place and the city of Fort Walton Beach. Thank you for your time and considering our request to move forward with the renovation of the resource place.

Thank you, ma'am. Any questions from the board for Mr. Jones? Mr. Jeter, what amount of money do you all plan on spending on the facility? I'm sorry. How much money do you all plan on spending on that specific building? 400,000 to do that. We got the money through grants to do how many offices? Excuse me. How many offices are going to be How many's in there now? Uh right now the building is unused. There's nothing in it. So we'll have about three offices for our um our staff and then the rest of the offices will be divided out and used for our services or providers in the city. Nice. Any exterior improvements or all interior? It's all interior. All interior. Mhm. And it's $400,000 from grants. Yes. So no cost to the city taxpayer. Yes, sir.

Got it. Councilman Merrell, the offices and things you mentioned with the VA and with would you guys be helping people get connected to the VA if they had we already do with disability anything that they would and so that would this would streamline that so people would get out of homelessness. Yes. Faster. Exactly. Thank you. You're welcome. Anyone else with a question? Councilman Schmidt, is there a deadline to spend the grant money by? Um, I believe it's a year. I'd have to get back with you about that, but we as soon as if you had give us permission to do it, then we would start, you know, on the on the renovations

a year from y'all do get permission. We need to do an addendum to the lease or at least a supplemental uh some sort of agreement to the lease because the lease does require your permission to make renovations or tear down buildings out there. But uh I did from I understand your presentation you said you'd be allowing the city to actually utilize. So we'd want that in writing as well that protect both parties in the future. So uh if y'all do approve it tonight, I'd recommend you approve authorizing myself and Mr. Davis to go back to one open place and work out an agreement to not necessarily amend the entire lease, but at least a supplemental agreement to effectuate what they're asking for.

Thank you, sir. Anyone else? Councilman Walker. Right here is grant funding. What's the is there one grant or multiple grants involved that is supplying this $400? Right now it's it's one grant, but we have we have applied for other grants to, you know, finish out the furnishings and things like that that we need. Which grant is it that you're receiving? Um the appropriation grant from the state. From the state. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, sir. Councilman Jeter,

when they tore down the concrete structures out there and they got the um funding to do that, that was a state grant as well, and they tore down some of the concrete structures that were on there. They had to get approval from us as well, just because in the lease, it asked for approval on all alterations, modifications. So, we need a motion to approve any alterations or modifications to an existing building out there. But, we need a second one for you guys to supplement the lease for us to have an office out there. Is that what you're saying? One is to approve the current lease that we have saying yes, you can alter one of our buildings. Two is to say we want to update that lease with an additional paragraph saying we're gonna have an office out there. Just make sure I kind of heard all that correctly.

You could do it all as one motion just directing us to go work out the agreement. Uh it's implied that you've approved of it, but uh we'd have to bring it back before you. When when's your grant funding up again, ma'am? Like do you have to know at this meeting or could it be at the next meeting? Yeah. Up to you. Maybe you want to know the details of the grant, you mean? Or No, like it's your deadline this month. Yeah. I don't know that the the exact date. So, I probably be fine bringing the agreement back to y'all for your signatures or for your approval with the next meeting. So, you need a motion tonight just to bring that back. That's when it will actually be approved. Yeah. Got it. Anyone else with questions?

I have um just one one question. um in the the space that you're referring to um upgrading, are you you all going to be doing a therapeutic sessions? Are you going to do the therapeutic sessions there, too? Yes. All right. Thank you. Are the goal council? You wish to take any action on this item? Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to authorize our city attorney and city manager to work with one hopeful place to come up with an addendum to the lease allowing the alterations or improvements of one structure provided our police department has an office there.

I second it. Motion made by Councilman Jeter, seconded by Councilwoman Riley to uh change the lease to allow One Hopeful Place to uh update their building facilities out there and include an office for the sheriff's department. Any additional comments, Councilman Jeter?

Yes, sir. We've spoke a lot about this subject up here for many, many years. I certainly have my reserves and feelings about Bridgeway and One Hopeful Place and Vagrancy and Homeless. I think all of us have uh a feeling about that that we stand on and believe in. But I also I have seen you guys and uh Ted is not here tonight specifically try to help us improve our blight downtown and you guys have a facility out there that is really doing some things to help us do that. So to me this is a you guys have got some skin in the game and you've helped us over here. We would like to see that continue out there. And at the end of the day, it's someone else spending money on a building that we technically still own a lease on. And I look forward to bigger things out there happening, but

thank you for what you guys do and what you have to do every single day. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Anyone else? Um, I had the um privilege of being able to to tour um wonderful place and I've toured it in the past, but it was been quite a while. But I wanted to tell you all you're doing amazing job. Um the grounds look really really good. Um I I like the you know the structure of the program. Um everything you're doing. So you you have my 100% support and of course you know it's near and dear to my heart and when it's anything dealing with mental health issues is issues, homelessness and so um thank you all for the works that you're doing there. Appreciate it. Thank you Miss Riley. Councilman Schmidt.

Yeah. Councilman Ger brought up a good point uh about the efforts that y'all took as well as the chamber on improving the blindedness and the vagrancy downtown. Uh because of that, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a substitute motion uh to support the original motion just contingent on uh the city manager and the city attorney bringing us back an updated status on negotiating a land swap for the property at 205 Shell Avenue and the property that's currently located at at 104 Place. That's the substitute motion. Have a second to that.

Second. Have a motion by substitute motion uh from Councilman Schmidt as he stated, seconded by Councilman Walker. Any additional comments, Council Schmidt? That's it. Just uh while we have the negotiations going, Mr. Burns mentioned about probably needing to bring back an updated lease. Why the parties are talking? Let's give some formal action to see if our attorney and city manager and these fine people at one hopeful place in Bridgeway if we can continue to work on our downtown master plan being the economic driver and the these kind of services being out there in one open place.

Anyone else? Council B to clarify. Would uh would it be contingent the add agenda to the lease contingent on any negotiations on the land swap or do you want us to talk to the land swap at the same time we talk to them about the addendum to let's see if there's an appetite for making a contingent on the negotiations of the land swap. If the board doesn't want to do that then that may be that you need to put that in the motion that you're wanting it to be contingent. Yep. I thought I did, but if not, that's part of the motion. Okay. So, it is contingent. That's anyone else? Councilman G,

I think it's a great idea. I'm going to support the motion because again, it just continues communication and collaboration. So, it sounds like you have an appetite from the board up here to see that happen, but there's an appetite from the board up here to see something else happen. So, let's see if we can uh keep negotiating and collaborating, but it sounds like it will happen one way or another. Okay. All right. Anyone else comments on that? Please vote on a substitute motion from Councilman. That does pass 6 to one. All right. We don't need to vote on the other one. Correct, Mr. Burns. Correct.

All right. Is a substitute motion, so it supersedes. Gotcha. Well, thank you very much for being here tonight, Mr. Jones and thanks for all that you do. That moves us on to the consent agenda. Council, any action on this item? Mr. Mayor, um I'd like to um pull items um just for immediate discussion thereafter 8.7 and 8.10. [Music] Those were the exact ones I did. You're a good predictor. Feeling like a ghost. All right. So that's a motion to approve the cons. Motion to approve withdrawing of for secondary discussion 8.7 8.1. Yes.

8 8 8.10. Second to that motion. Anyone? Second.

Motion made by Councilman Walker, second by Councilman Schmidt to approve tonight's consent agenda minus uh 8.7 and 8.10 for further discussion. Any additional comments? very excited to see the presentation for the legislative funding request. That's going to be a big night I think October 30th at the U state delegation meeting. Uh my understanding is the design for the around the man fountain is only getting more expensive and I know we've recently put a lot of money into it as well as our friends from the county. So excited about this partnership hopefully growing with the U state legislative funding. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Anyone else comments? Council, please vote. That does pass unanimously. Brings us to item 8.7 for those not following along at home. Item 8.7 is the purchase of a fluid marine 23 ft patrol boat um for the police department or I'm sorry, city manager Davis. Any additional information on that presentation?

No. Uh, council directed us to put a vote in the budget. The budget was approved. The vote that's been selected is within budget. Thanks for being council. Uh, great. Thank you. Um, Mr. Davis, and I might have a chief bay here or you're going to be chief bay tonight. [Applause]

The chief is out. He's got some stuff together. Okay, great. So, my my primary question starts kind of with you and then it'll come over to you, but just in the clock building business that I need to understand how it works. Um, how did this get in the consent agenda as opposed to it being as the other spending items or accepting of grants? I'm h I you may have this it may have been explained to me before, but how does one make it into the consent agenda? and as opposed to being in the regular agenda, whether it's accepting money or spending money. I'm having trouble figuring out the differences. Council's direction was get a vote. We put it in the budget. Budget was approved. So, we had direction and approval. So, I didn't know what more to discuss there was. It was it was instruction from council. So, that was my call to put it on consent because following direction. anything anything that's budgeted that you guys approved in the budget can go on these next steps. Anything that hasn't you guys didn't approve in the budget um will go on the regular agenda items.

Okay, great. Thank you. That was very helpful. And then secondly, I know this is probably late in the game, but you know with the approval of the vote and the budget and no discussion of it as part of the budget other than the budget was approved or was there discussion in the budget talks about the boat specifically? I don't remember it. not the specific model that's been selected, but boat was in discussions I feel like way more frequently than I'm accustomed to.

Okay. Okay. Very good. And then as part of that, I just as I was looking over the agenda, I looked at the Okaloosa County budget for their marine patrol. And so I know that as we city taxpayers pay taxes up to the county, that lands in their general fund bucket up there. And then they fund um police marine resources, law enforcement resources with the general fund. Um you know, I'm looking at it from a taxpayers perspective. It sometimes feels like we're being double taxed here because we're paying for the county operation and um we receive their benefit, but the county doesn't pay towards our um benefit of law enforcement. So was there any are you aware of any discussion with the sheriff's department with partnering? Um uh I did see that um Destin in 2000 partnered with the sheriff's department and I don't know their their marine operation is much bigger and their needs are much bigger than Fort W city but are you aware of any on past or ongoing discussions with the sheriff's department of partnering good evening Mr. Mayor Council uh Major C Marlo with For Beach Police Department. To answer your question, sir, the we currently have a partnership with the dive team. Outside of that, as far as any kind of marine operations, I am unaware if there's any current talks or if there's any proposals, but right now, like I said, we currently do have a partnership as a dive team.

Okay. I can add to that as well. chief had reached out to the sheriff and they've been doing twice monthly patrols looking for the derelik vessels and the pontoon operations, the illegal pontoon operations in the I don't know the name of that little

Yes. So that's been a hot spot for that sort of activity. There was a lot of people showing up speaking under public comment asking for additional additional assistance on top of what's that in that I get a lot of calls from that group that the wake violations are rampant and it's destroying their seaw wall and their floating dock I've gone over there. It it beats pretty hard. So I I get it. Um, but the sheriff's resources seem to be dedicated towards the island thing, the crab islands stuttering through the the locations, but they have offered twice a month to come help when when when they can clear out. Also tried to get I don't know if it was Coast Guard or uh FWC involved, but little response. So this was just a response from public coming saying we need help with the pontoons and the der vessels and the wake violations. Probably the wrong terminology but you know you know what I'm saying.

Great. Thank you. Maybe a couple more questions. I saw the the actual physical cost of the boat. Um but I didn't see um in the background provided um personnel staffing training or additional cost. I I saw the 23. I went and looked it up and saw that it's typically is it going to be manned by one officer, two officers, and will that be a 24-hour shift or is it just a um single shift? So, it is my understanding, Councilman, that it would be manned by at least two officers and it would not be a 24-hour reoccurring shift. It would basically be as a as a basis. Okay. Okay. Mr. Mayor.

Yes, sir. Assuming the vote gets approved tonight, what type of training is needed for us to start executing this program? Or are we as far as time goes? How how much time do you think we'll need to get trained to run the lake programs and the the blooded or excuse me, the derink vessels and those kind of things? Rough estimate minimum. [Music] So, I can tell you that we've already begun the training portion of this and working with the Oakland County Sheriff's Office. Uh, we do have two designated members at the agency on the dive team and in turn they have been, excuse me, they have been going out um, conducting training with the sheriff's office, conducting familiarization. As far as an overall time period, I'm not exactly sure what that looks like,

but I can tell you that they have begun that.

Okay. If I can follow that, please. And where I'm backing into this is is trying to find my understanding is state statute. It gives a long time to to clean up their long process. And I'm not like I know the law or anything, but when we start the clock, roughly a year it could take to get derelch vessels out of Lake Earl or out of out of wherever. Trying to find when we can start the clock, you know what I mean? If the boat gets purchased, however long it takes the boat to get specked and and in in service, our guys trained. And when we can start that clock on going out there to to Lake Earl is kind of what I'm looking for. And if we don't have that tonight, completely understand it, completely get it, but some followup maybe to this is when we can start operations. Um, not just the training side out of it, uh, but getting the boat out there, our guys on it and cleaning up derelch vessels, starting the long process of cleaning up derelch vessels. That could that could take a year. So, just trying to look for feedback I can give to that community that's looking to get the boats out now that we got a boat. kind of check tomorrow. I don't know if it comes ready to assemble or if it takes some time to assemble, but uh to the specs that chief has picked, but the second we get it, my understanding is we're we're rock and roll immediately.

Nice. Okay, Mr. M. I'll get you the second one and then let everybody get Councilman. On the payroll side of things, I think uh some of the sheriff's office and some of our other jurisdictions actually receive funds from the TDC for public safety. Is that true? I'm not familiar with that, sir. Have you guys uh I know Chief Beige has reached out. So, on the payroll side of things uh and and funding some of the FTEEs, there is funding out there available through the TDC to where that will they will pay for up to 50 75 sometimes 100% of our personnel required on that boat throughout the tourist season. So, that would just be one offset to there.

Chief Paige is fully aware of this. if he was here tonight, he'd be able to elaborate, but there's funding out there for the FTEEs that are going to be operating this boat paid for by the TDC. So, that will help offset a lot of our costs going forward. Yes, sir. I'm sure if it's available, Chief Beige knows about it. Yes, sir. He does. Anyone else with a question? Council, Ju,

just curious, M. Councilman Schmidt brought up interesting thoughts. if if it weren't to be approved tonight. Uh, and I'm I'm assuming there are some derelict boot boats or vessels there in Lake Earl. But, you know, I'm picturing you guys out there riding with the sheriff's department already either doing this. I don't know where why the clock hasn't started already. What prevents the clock having started on those derelict vessels as it being a county law enforcement operation or Florida fish and wildlife? I think they're the other prevailing parties, right? I mean law enforcement. So are one the boat that we're getting here won't be used to physically pull the boat a derelic boat out of there. Is that correct?

That is correct, sir. So the boat's not being used to remove them. It's going out to see them. Is that what it is will provide is the ability for city police officers on a boat to go out and see a boat that's derelictked and then start a clock. I'm not I'm He mentioned a clock. I just I don't know how those derelict boats get out of there. I know that's been a big um push is that this boat will somehow and law enforcement receiving it will help rid the area of derelic boats, but I'm I don't understand how and I'm trying to understand how. Can you help me there? If I may, you're asking how the boats are removed from the water.

Not necessarily. I'm asking how law enforcement has an operation where we've got the sheriff's department the that has a law enforcement marine patrol unit. Uh then we have Florida fish and wildlife which is the state operation of doing such things. We've got a state operation that does it. We've got a county operation that does it and now looks like there's an appetite for having an additional third law enforcement operation funded to do the same thing. I'm just trying to understand how uh having this boat will aid us in removing derelict boats as a law enforcement operation. [Music] So the city's jurisdiction actually runs 1/2 mile um off of the coast. Okay. So obviously if it was within that within those parameters, we would be able to take enforcement action. Outside of that, we would continue to do what we've done out of contact the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office or Fish and Wildlife Commission.

Does the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Department do they assist? I mean, do they can they remove Derlick boats from our jurisdiction? I can't speak for their operations, but they can assist us if we need assistance on the water. All right. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Might be able to help with some of that cuz I had der vessels all over the place down south. We had we get a complaint, you'd have to go out and inspect it to make sure somebody didn't live on it, that sort of thing. And that starts the clock. As Councilman Schmidt said, it takes about a year to navigate the FWC process and then we pay a junker of sorts that comes out and removes it. So, city staff doesn't do that. And then FWC finance, pay it back basically via some kind of a grant process. So it's yeah it's long and expensive but that's

Thank you. It just it it seem it seems to me still that it is an operation that the state and the county can perform and it looks like we'll be doing it as well. But thank you Mr. Mayor. Got it. Council you wish to take any action on this item. Mr. Mayor, I move to approve the purchase of the fluid marine 23 ft patrol boat. Second motion made by Councilman Jeter. Second by Councilman Browning to approve the purchase of the 23 ft fluid vessel for the Fort Wall Beach Police Department. Any additional comments?

Yes, sir. We've talked about this boat for years up here. I'd like to thank you all in Chief Age for getting a small operational boat that can get to docks. It's not some big huge expensive boat that you're going to, you know, go speeding with. It's a it's a small boat that can access derelic vessels and can get to dock safely. We have a bridge under construction and there is a inter coastal waterway out here that is very dangerous and just needs to be monitored. So it may take a year to remove der vessels but hopefully it only takes one summer to educate, encourage and enforce some voter safety and we need more of that right here in our intercostal. So I look forward to seeing that happen action.

Thanks sir. Anyone else wish to comment? Council, please vote. Item does pass 61. That moves us to item 8.10, the Okaloosa County Public Library Cooperative Agreement and the funding of $13,826,000. Um, anyone want to speak to that? [Music] Good evening, council. I'm Kier Damont, the library manager. So, Mr. Payne Walker, I am here to answer any questions you have.

Hopefully, I have answers. If not, I will figure them out. Thank you for that. It's part of the clock. So, um and the double taxation sometimes that I feel and this may be a clarifying point that it is indeed not. Um but the um Okales County Public Library Cooperative I went online to couldn't find much on their funding source. Do you know um the general is it a general fund operation that funds the co-op or is it from membership fees dues? I'm not sure.

So we do um the majority of our funding comes from state funding. Um, and so the money that we're receiving here is being part of the cooperative, they receive approximately $600,000 a year from the state to be distributed among the six libraries, which Fort Walton's been a member of since October 1st of 99. So the cooperative has been around about 28 years, and Fort Walton's been a part of it for 26 years. Um and so they take the funding that they receive from state aid and 50% of that gets divided equally among all six libraries in the county. So we have Mary Esester obviously for Walden, Destin, Valpryzo, Niceville and Crest View. Um and so it gets divided equally that first 50% and then the rest of the money is allocated based upon productivity of the library. So, the more items we circulate, the more people that walk through our doors, the more funding that we receive.

Thank you for that. And I guess since I have you here, because it's always been one question I had about uh it, and I know I asked some of the previous city managers, um what is your two things? What is your overall what is the overall budget for the library, Fort Long Beach Library? Right now I believe it is off Okay, I just asked Carol these numbers. I believe it's around 670,000. Great. Thank you. And this will be offsetting that this 100 and then and then the one that's curiosity and and uh hopefully it'll change in the future. But the last budget I looked at that line item it was about $8,800 a month for utility services there.

Are you having problems with your airond? What do you attribute that $8,800 a month to in electric bills too? So, yes, we have tremendous problems with our HVAC at the um in our building. We currently have three units that um that cool the entire building. At the present time, we're operating off one and a half um capacity. So, the units are 25 years old. They're the age of the building. Um they desperately need to be replaced. So it, you know, they're just not as energy efficient as a newer unit would be. In addition, you know, the the building itself, uh, when it was first designed was designed to have two levels

to it. Um, and so you'd have So since we don't have a second level, you have all the space that goes to the top. So interesting to consider a drop ceiling in there with insulation up above it. But that's all I have for now, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else with questions? No questions, but can I make a comment real quick after someone makes that? Anyone wish to make a motion? Mayor So moved the staff recommendation, the consent agenda. Motion made by Councilman uh Schmidt and seconded by Councilwoman Deary to approve the um Form Beach uh county public library cooperative program. Councilman,

just love seeing the collaboration with you in the library program and want to welcome our new park and rec director, Mr. Flare, and to see Miss Riggs and uh think Aaron Bradley just being a part of helping enhance the library and make the bathrooms look better. It's just a good team effort and just goes to show our our staff between the library and park and Rex do a lot of collaboration to make things better. It's a great team. Great team. Anyone else?

Yeah, Mr. I'd like to say good on that, but also being on uh Oklahoma County uh library co-op, I've enjoyed getting to know uh to know you and all the librarians in our area, and thank you. Thank you. Thank you for what you've done for our library. Yeah. And I and I I'm expecting big things from you from the county. It's my pleasure. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Anyone else? Council, please vote. And it does pass. Seven to nothing. That moves us to mayor and council comments. Uh we start tonight with Councilman Jeter. I'll say thank you, sir. Councilman Merrick, same.

Councilwoman Ryder. Same. Thank you, ma'am. Councilman Schmidt, I'm good, sir. Thank you. Councilman Waller, one quick one now, maybe some later. Um Mr. Davis, as I was walking in out there, I noticed the two signs that were faded for our combat veterans and wounded. Uh I know that I texted you and I believe Chief Beige. Um any updates on when those signs will be replaced? I will have to ask. I don't know, but we can get that done. Okay, great. That's an easy fix. Great. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Um Councilman Brown.

Uh yeah, so I have the discussion of compensation for the mayor's position. Just going over the um the charter stuff, the the previous meeting. on uh it it says in the charter the city council's pay. So I wanted to specifically put mayors in there and have a discussion on open it up for discussion on the mayor's pay. So I'm just kind of curious with having eight years of experience on council and then now being the mayor, you know, how do those two correlate like, you know, workrelated versus as the mayor versus being on council as far as time?

Yes, sir. Um I mean I I think the both jobs are very similar in in the sense that however much you want to participate is how much you participate. You know for example I think Mr. Barry probably leads everyone in the room as far as participation in many many things. She's at most events that I'm at certainly many others that I'm not able to attend. Um, but that said, I would say an average of 1 to five events a week, um, is probably what I'm averaging now. I've had as many as seven. I've had as few as zero, um, but those are pretty rare for the most part. So, it is a a much more taxing situation as far as just travel and and presence of being at things. Certainly, I would agree with that. Um, but that's not to diminish anything that anyone else does. Certainly cuz I know you guys are asked a lot of things as when I was on council for 8 years. It was a lot of then it's a lot of uh time commitment as well. It's certainly an admirable thing but in my opinion it it would be definitely more time consuming than a council.

Anybody I'd like to make a motion if nobody has anything else to say about it.

Well, I would like to say just a few things. Um and thank you um mayor for um enlightening me on the um the job task and the difference between sitting on the council and um holding the the role of the mayor and I thank you for what what you're doing. So um what I'm what I'm hearing and um basically what I'm thinking is um I'm with you on that Logan. you know um I think that should be open up for discussion for the mayor to be um you know um considered in terms of compensation and the reason why I say that is because given most ordinary situations when you are a mirror you are called upon you're called upon all the time and I think you know um given of your time and and seeing that you are also a working mayor so when you are a working mayor and then also setting aside the time to make the different events when you're called upon which is the duty of a mayor. I do believe that you know it is it's um it's a lot of work, a lot of energy and you know I know you have you know you have just a tireless commitment to the city. Obviously you do because you you know been on the council for 8 years and then as a mayor. So I'm in 100% supportive of compensation. So I'm I'm absolutely with you. Um Mr. Brown,

Mr. Mr. Mayor, it procedure-wise, I'm just making the assumption that the charter review committee made a recommendation to not include the mayor's pay. Is that why we're bringing it up? I'm not. It just doesn't specify. It doesn't specify. Gotcha. The ver the verbiage doesn't it just says or actually we got approved last meeting just says city council. It doesn't say a mayor and city council or the board. So the so the discussion is

Sorry. I was just yeah just trying to figure out obviously there's a reason why it got brought up and it wouldn't have gotten to this point if the city attorney thought that it was already included. I'm just trying to figure out procedural wise. Um I know we had a lot a lengthy conversation about this and just trying to better understand why why it's here but now I understand it wasn't clear in the recommended language. That's all I got.

Thank you sir. Councilman Walker. Um yeah, maybe procedurally as well. I'm not being familiar with the history of the mayorship and its um pay or compensation otherwise were previous mayors, you know, as I know the council was receiving insurance benefits and um per uh the

stipen did the previous mayors receive a stipen andor compensation. So Mr. Logan, is this just Mr. Browning, is this a clarification? Cuz I always thought of and it may be particular, but I always thought of the mayor as part of city council as the mayor of city council, but if it's distinct and separate and with it being haven't been included before, I would have assumed that the mayor was a part of the charter reviews thing. So, it's just to plug in the word. I mean, and aren't we aren't we having the charter review recommendations being prepared by you, brought back to us for a review for that language review? So, would that be I mean, not to say that it couldn't be done now, but it seems like it would have come about as a course of your wording of the language. I mean, cuz

uh I was not going to add any language like that unless y'all recommend because I wasn't doing what y'all approved the last meeting. Uh but if if I do either get majority headnons or a vote tonight to make certain verbage changes, what you will see at the next meeting on the proposed ordinance, the referendum for that particular amendment will include whatever y'all vote on tonight or give a consensus on I have a question. Yes, Mr.

Uh uh yes. Uh from what I understand, uh all of us on the council, including the mayor, we are we have um I'm not sure the verbiage, uh uh funding for our activities that the things that we attend such as the Florida City, Florida League of Cities that Miss Riley and I are attending. uh we're funded for that and I believe the mayor is included in that also not just Florida League of Cities but other events. Am I'm asking the question.

Yeah, I mean I think I can answer the best I can. I think that specific events like Florida League of Cities things where you have to travel out of town for instance when I had to accompany Chief Beige when he was named the police chief um for the Florida Police Chiefs Association president of that board. I think those are all separate things that are funded. I think what Mr. Browning is saying is if everyone is reviewing the charter amendment changes and making recommendations that he wanted to make certain that the mayor and the council were all included in that as the same. Correct.

Correct. Okay. So, we need what we're asked uh uh we need clarification that the mayor's position is included in that um uh those um potential changes to the charter. Yes. Yes, I think so.

Is that what we're I would pref I I believe that you are part of the council. I may be wrong. you were part of the council before and now that you're mayor and and and the reason I say that is that uh you are allowed to vote if there's a tie. So that that and then there's some uh cities, municipalities that the mayor doesn't even break a tie. So I'm in my thoughts you are part of the council. Sure. And you would follow under that uh referendum. I don't know why but I I thank you for saying I'm part of the council. Well, well well I just need clarification.

If you may the verbiage in the charter makes distinctions between the mayor and city council all throughout the charter and because actually there was was no amendment or there was no charter provision previously that just paid council and the mayor. It was done just as a course of action over many decades. uh when when now there's an amendment being added potentially to the charter, uh it needs to be clear it's the mayor and city council cuz mayor and city council are broken out throughout the entire charter. Otherwise, uh the mayor could run into some problems down the line and he'd be the only one not authorized under the charter to get paid. Mhm.

So that's that's the clarification that I'm asking. And and and the reason I say that too because whenever you went to uh uh uh with Chief B for $2,200, I thought and I'm looking at how much it cost for Miss M. Riley and I to go uh uh uh uh to Orlando um I don't know how how long you stayed there or whatever. Yeah, that was quite a bit more than what we spent. So are you going lar jet or you or staying at the White House kind of just Delta? Yeah. So it was the airfare is what you're saying. Council Brown.

Yeah. I'd like to make a motion that we add the mayor title in the verbiage and also for the for the amount of double of what city council gets paid. So the I think right now it's saying that we get a,000 second make 2001. Second motion made by Councilman Browning, seconded by Councilman Jeter to that bridge. Additional comments that's just limited to the mayor getting the mayor. I Mr. Mayor in my my own personal opinion double. I don't think so. I cannot

I say double because of the fact that that could I mean a thousand can change and it's just easier than going in and changing dollar signs every single time. So no longer

um yeah so I won't be supporting the motion for the same reason I didn't support it in the um charter review committees meeting recommendations to us. Once again I want to make sure I have it right. Um the the voting the the voters November of 2024 told this body we are not to be compensated not to be paid in overwhelming fashion. They told us that and the charter review committee uh recommended removing the voters um overwhelming approval from the charter. Um and now we've gone from um not only ignoring this potential motion would be not only ignoring it would be we were previously getting $400 a month uh for a stipen to now we're going as proposed anyway if it does pass to $1,000 a month which I think is 150% increase over what the voters told us they didn't want then. So I won't be supporting not you personally Mr. Mayor. I know you do a great job and I know we all do up here. It's a I think of it more of as a volunteer uh an act of love and compassion up here. I you know I think it's worth 50,000 a year but it's a volunteer position and uh the voters told us and I I'll honor that and I'll not be um supporting this motion. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Anyone else wish to comment?

Yeah, just a follow. We um I still believe that we I don't know if that's going to help the situation. I I'll support it because we can come down and we can iron out the details. You're just putting this together. If we come down and say it's not a,000, it's not 2,000. That can all be ironed out. But the main thing is we're adding the mayor to compensation if we're going to do that. Um, and the previous, if I'm not wrong, compensation to council and the mayor prior was about $250,000 a year. That's the number we got. Even at $9,000 a month, if if those numbers went, that's $108,000 a year. It's over a 50% decrease. And that's why I think a lot of people up here approved it to be written in still to be voted on because we're looking at over a 50% decrease to the compensation overall. And that's something that maybe the voters are a little bit more palatable with. And you know, I just want the numbers and the the facts of that to be out there that this would still be a decrease being that the insurance package is removed and not be included on that.

Thank you, sir. Councilman.

Yeah. The only concerns I have on it is, and I appreciate, Mr. Brown bringing it up because the intention is if the people pass the referendum or not to include the mayor and the council. So, I respect you bring it up. My concern is is that if the voters in March of 2026 don't support putting the 3% or repealing that 3% but do pass what was the math in public numbers? Roughly $150,000 a year. We just got a lot more operational cost and that budget cap 3% if it doesn't pass the November 2024 election the election the elected officials compensation was very close it was like 5248 so however it however it works out March 2026 there's a better chance of that passing if the 3% cap doesn't pass it's going to be really hard to go through a budget the process that we are compensating ourselves as a body $150,000 a year, but we're going to have to be conscious on those 3% operational cost uh thresholds. So, because of that, I won't be supporting Mr. Mayor. Thank you, sir. Anyone else comments? Councilman J.

Yeah, know we've all spoke how we personally feel about it. I'm with Councilman Walker. It's $50,000 a year compared to what some of our commissioners pay. There's people up here that work other jobs and come here and sacrifice a lot of time and this can be a full-time job if you make it. I'm going to support it. There's going to be a first reading. There's going to be a second reading. We can adjust this how it how we may see fit going forward. But I'm certainly going to support it tonight. I hope the voters support it when it comes to March cuz I can just tell every single one and I don't want to put a number on it because you can throw a number out there that a teacher or police officer not make and we should not make more than them. I certainly agree with that. But this certainly should not be a free job. And anyone who out there thinks it should be, I can't wait for you to raise your hand and run and vote for it because it's a very time consuming and you you are certainly put underneath the gun and have to make decisions against uh sometimes your friends, sometimes your family and deal with things just like you do in business. Secondly, outside of that, I would love to what council member Schmidt said, is it possible to put that wording in there and he kind of took and I wanted to ask this first or second reading. If it goes back out to a referendum, should it be in March, are there certain things like that compensation over at this board that can be separated just like we have a list of many many other items on the 3% cap. Can this be separated from that 3% cap just like TDC or half cent? Would that be allowed?

You would have to if that was in the language of the ballot in 85 words. If I get direction to insert that language into the proposed ordinance and bring it back to uh I will we have more readings coming up. Correct. Correct. Okay. So, I'll support where we're at tonight, but we may dive into this. I have a feeling this won't be the last conversation about this. All right. Looks like everybody's had their chance. Council, please. [Applause] [Music]

I don't think the motion does pass 5 to two. All right. Uh, further council comments. Councilwoman Diver.

Uh, yes. I I'd like to share with you uh uh this last um uh month uh at the rec center we had an ice cream social to and also uh Lubia cooking class to celebrate uh national senior center uh month. And I hope I think all of you know that I'm really pushing more senior activities at not just uh bingo and and and ma jang and things like that, but more activities. Socialization is so important as you guys grow older. I just had a birthday. I'm 79 years old now and and I'm still kicking really really well, but I need that social I see the need for the socialization. And we had a senior center here. Uh it's now the science center building. And whenever we bu uh uh remodeled the the recreation center that we are in now on Jet Drive, a lot of senior activities were left out. So, I'm really pushing this and I hope all of you will uh contact other council members and the the city uh manager and encourage more activities there, not just for September. And he's working with matter of fact, AARP has a safe driving class and I'm trying to get that going. and the uh the city manager is working with me on that. And you get a discount on your insurance. And I'm not pushing AP, but I found out that for 3 years you get a small discount on your uh um um uh car insurance. So, uh and I might have to teach the class because I can't find anyone to come down here to teach it. So, work on me. But this is what I'm I'm doing here uh to for our seniors here. And not just our seniors, but look at the pickle ball courts. And I hear jet dry pickle ball courts are more famous than very partner now you guys. So

that's debatable. So thank you. Thank you ma'am. Uh I did have her on here to wish Mr. Barry a happy belated birthday but you kind of already took my I know. I'm so proud to be here.

Uh want to congratulate uh Miss Ford who's not here tonight on her becoming a certified municipal clerk. Pretty big deal. It's a three-year process. So round of applause. lot of work on that. A lot of work. And then uh big thanks to the the police department for Long Beach PDSL. Um several officers out there this morning at Liza Jackson Preparatory Academy high-fiving the kids as they walked through the school. One of the coolest days of the year that you guys uh take your time and do that. Always a bunch of smiling kids and smiling parents and smiling teachers. That's a really cool thing that you guys do. So, thank you for doing that. That moves us to item number 10, which is public comment. Comments uh tonight on items that are not on the agenda. So, if it's not something that we're scheduled to talk about tonight and you want to talk about it, come on up and and talk about it. So, just step up to the microphone and please do tell us your name and your address, please. Uh good. Um first, my name is Con. I'm representative of this road club here. uh other than here in Port Walnut 319 rac um but uh got going on with the club. Uh first things first, we're a very diverse group of people. Uh we got people from ages 18 uh 18 all the way to 65 from various walks of life including active duty, veterans, retired military. also includes uh college students, some of the local uh business owners, and then uh pretty much everything in between. Um what brings us together is our shared love for this sport. I don't know if you guys know a lot about rugby, but it's really fun. I would recommend you try it out if you haven't, you know, or we'll teach you if you don't know. So, um but yeah, it it's it it really drills in us like a sense of community, resilience, discipline. Like you get a lot of activity out of it. Like like I said,

it's pretty much all age groups could be out there. It's one of the few sports where you can communicate communicate. Literally a 18-year-old and a seven-year-old can have a conversation together and be speaking the same thing. So, it's it's really good really really great sport. Um, so why rugby matters? Rugby fills a critical uh gap in this area, especially for young adults between high school and full adulthood. Uh, too old for youth leagues, too young for unc or unconnected for adult sports. They often uh fall into a no man's land for recreation. Rugby gives them a team, a purpose, and a healthy outlet. It also incredibly accessible as you need a sorry, all you need is a mouthguard and cleat. So, very simple, not like football. You got to buy a helmet, shoulder pads, all that good stuff. Just have some cleats, boot up, get a mouth guard in, we'll show you how to play. And um yeah, and we're uh more than just athletes. We're mentors, coaches, volunteers. Uh we've run free uh free flag rugby clinics and we already uh spoken with city officials about launching a lowcost rugby league. So it's for our young young kids out here who like to be active. Um it's all uh for young women especially rugby is a very empowering and fast growing opportunity. Uh it's becoming bigger and bigger, especially I don't know if you guys have seen uh USA's rugby team. It's their seventh team. Pretty good all fe the female team. They I think they got third. They got bronze this year or last year for the Olympics. So Yep. All right. Cool. Uh all right. So our use of city fields. Uh we understand the city has limited green space, but we also want to be clear. We are responsible stewards of spaces we use. We maintained and protected the outfield at Chester Puit Park, rotating use, repairing divots, and leaving the field in excellent condition. We even share the field sometimes with other sports during uh closures. Unlike some groups using four fields at once, we only need one field, one lit field, two evenings per week, October through March to accommodate working adults and military members. All right, community contributions. Okaloosa Rugby gives back. Uh we've

taught rugby at the Cresby Youth Detention Center, volunteered at beach cleanups and Paul's adoption events, placed wreaths on veterans graves, and supported local bars and restaurants after practice, especially during COVID when many businesses were struggling. We bring value not just in recreation, but in economic impact. Every game or social event means hundreds of dollars spent outside of peak tourist hours, boosting local businesses in the offseason. Consider the $6.5 million generated by the Kanam Rugby Tournament in 2024. Rugby is not just growing. It's proving to be a valuable sport tourism opportunity. All right, the problem. The proposed field lottery. We've We're here tonight because the proposed lottery system for field access threatens to leave us without a place to play. If we don't secure a lit field this season, we risk losing the entire club. There are no other rugby teams in this region. If we fold, rugby disappears from this area after nearly 50 years. We're not asking for special treatment. In fact, we're never even asked for free access. Despite hearing that some nonprofits are, we're simply asking for a fair and consistent opportunity to use a public field. We're proud to wear the name Okaloosa Rugby because over the years we've had to travel across the entire region just to keep the club alive from Shalomar to Freeport to Dest. But our heart is here in Fort Walton. We want to stay here, play here, and grow here. Council members, please consider what this club brings to your community in unity, in health, in service, and economic impact. help us secure a reliable space so that we continue to serve the city. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Just to let you know, you have that discussion later on um this evening on the agenda. You were giving a good and impassion speech, so I didn't want to interrupt you and stop you and tell you to wait. Um but I do appreciate what you said and we will certainly take it into consideration um during the debate later.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. Anyone else from the public wish to speak on something that is not on tonight's agenda? Yes, sir. My name is David Hancock. I'm the uh live 13 Brook Street, Fort W Beach. I'm a member of the board of directors of Indian Condos. I'm here to say thanks because we got news two weeks ago that uh I've been here several times to request doing something about the uh trash facility, trash compactor, whatever was going to be moved away from our building and y'all did that. So, I'm here to say thank you to all the city council, Mr. Davis, everybody. Mr. Davis has been especially cooperative. I want to thank you. But, uh like I said, I'm just here to say thank you.

Thank you, Mr. There you go. I don't I'm firmly believe you don't say thank you enough in this world. Well, it's nice to hear from you. Thank you. Anyone else from the public wish to speak on any items not on tonight's agenda? Seeing none, we will move on to item 11.1, which is a resolution on first reading. Resolution 2025-22 supporting Chief Beige for International Association of Chiefs of Police. Major Marlo, [Applause] [Music]

appreciate you pinch hitting tonight on a short notice, sir.

Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor, members of council, Major Steve Marlo with For Beach Police Department. Since his appointment as chief of police of the city for Alton Beach in 2019, Chief Robert Beige has provided provided exceptional leadership to the police department and the community. His tenure has been marked by a steady commitment of strengthening to the public safety, building community trust, and enhancing the professional development of law enforcement personnel. Chief Beige is widely recognized for his ability to provide calm and effective leadership during times of uncertainty, whether addressing challenges at the local level or responding to broader national events that impact law enforcement and community relations. His measured steady approach has approached, excuse me, has served as a source of stability for residents, elected officials, and department personnel. Beyond his service to the city of Fort Walton Beach, Chief Ba has established himself as a respected voice in law enforcement locally, statewide, and nationally. He has served on several high level commissions and councils, including appointments by the Florida Governor Ronda Santis to the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission and by Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Petronis to the immigration council. Chief Beij's involvement extends to public safety initiatives, addressing some of Florida's most pressing issues. He had worked collaboratively with community partners to combat the opioid opioid crisis, improve affordable housing security, and strengthen infrastructure protection efforts across the state. His leadership within professional associations is equally notable. Since 2017, he has been a member in good standing of the International

Association of Chiefs of Police, the world's largest professional organization of police executives. In 2022, he was appointed to the IAP board of directors and continues to serve as the Florida representative to the state association of chiefs of police division of IAP. In 2025, Chief Beige was elected to serve as president of the Florida Police Chiefs Association, a role that further underscores his reputation as a trusted leader among his peers. His ability to represent the Form Beach and the state of Florida on such a platform reflects positively on the city and its law enforcement leadership. Most recently, Chief Beige has expressed his intention after consultation with city officials to declare his candidacy for the office of ICP fourth v fourth vice president. The position is part of the ICP executive board, an elected body whose members ascend through leadership ranks culminating in service as president. The election will take place at the IACP annual conference in October 26 in Orlando, Florida. Endorsing Chief Beij's candidacy for the IAP executive board represents an important opportunity for the city of Fort Walton Beach. His election would place the city on an international stage with direct influence on law enforcement policies, strategies, and initiatives impacting communities worldwide. The city's endorsement acknowledges not only Chief Beij's qualifications and accomplishments, but also the collective benefits of his service. The visibility and credibility associated with an IAP leadership

position will reflect positively on Fort Walton Beach, reinforcing the city's image as a forwardthinking, engaged community committed to public safety. Yes, sir. I appreciate it. Can could you uh skip down to item 4.1? Yes, sir. Staff respectfully recommends that the city council adopt resolution 2025-22 endorsing and authorizing Chief Beige to declare his candidacy campaign and if elected serve on the executive board of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Thank you, sir. Questions from the board for Major Marlo?

Seeing none. Anyone from the public wish to speak on this item? Council, do you wish to take any action? Second. Motion made by Councilman Schmid, seconded by Councilwoman De uh accept and adopt resolution 2025-22 endorsing and authorizing Chief Robert Bea to defend his candidacy campaign and if elected to serve on the executive board of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Any additional comments?

Uh, I I look forward to uh um Chief Beijing this um uh position, but I have concerns. He he's really he's president of the of the Florida chiefs and now this I hope he's going to stay with us longer. I hope he's not moving up. And so I'm I'm praying that he'll do well here and stay with us and work with us here to represent us there at the state. So Mr. Barry, I couldn't agree with you more, but I would also add that the the Florida Police Chiefs Association is a one-year position as president of that. So I think this would probably follow that. Okay. So maybe one year appointing. [Applause]

Yeah. just to add, you know, the letter of support that our local sheriff gave where he mentioned, you know, never worked as close not only with the chief of the city of Fort Wal Beach, but with any municipality in the county. And I just think that shows a lot of uh support for his leadership and um you know, whether he when he first came on and took action to to merge the SWAT resources to his persistency of of taking three years to get a vote uh and all the all in between. Um, yeah, this is an honor for Chief B and I look forward to supporting him.

Thank you, sir. Council, please vote. [Music] And that motion does pass unanimously. That moves us on to item 11.2, resolution 2025-24 to accept Florida Department of Transportation grant funding for distracted driver intervention. Once again, Major Mark,

Mr. Mayor, members of council, in fiscal year 202122, the city of Form Beach established a dedicated traffic safety unit within the police department. FDOT's fiscal year 2026 highway safety matrix ranked the city of Oral Beach 18 out of 105 cities of similar size and distracted driving with serious injury and fatal crashes. Okloo County is ranked number one out of 18 similar size counties. The ranking places the city well within the highest 40% or distracted driving crashes, making the city eligible for the grant assistance from FDOT. In 2022, 886 crashes were reported with inside the city limits. Distracted driving contributed to 378 of these crashes and 84 of them resulted in injuries. In 2023, 827 crashes were reported with inside the city limits. Distracted driving contributed to 304 of these crashes. One of the crashes was a fatal and 84 of the crashes resulted in injuries. In 2024, 692 crashes were reported with inside city limits. Distracted driving contributed to 265 of these crashes. One of the crashes again was fatal and 67 of the crashes resulted in injuries. The Form Beach Police Department strives to improve the quality of life for all individuals within the side the city limits and to provide a safer environment for safety prospers or excuse me safety fosters prosperity. The formal beach police department identified a grant opportunity from FDOT to assist with the financial costs of increased high visibility patrols to

detect and deter distracted drivers. The city applied for and was awarded a $20,000 FDOT grant from the state of Florida. The total grant amount is $20,000. The project is 100% funded. No matching funds are required. A budget amendment is included to record the grant revenue and expenses in the fiscal year 2526 general fund budget. [Applause] This item is not affected by the charter amendment ordinance 2145 due to the fact that is grant funded. staff respectfully recommends city council adoption of resolution 2025-24 to accept $20,000 from the Florida Department of Transportation for distracted driving prevention, authorization for the mayor to accept the grant, the city manager or police chief to execute the adequate documents, excuse me, acceptance documents, and authorization of a budget amendment to record the grant. Thank you, Major. Questions from the council on this for Major Marlo? Seeing none, does anyone from the public wish to speak on this item?

Seeing none, council, do you wish to take action? Mr. Mayor, so move to accept staff's recommendation.

Second. Motion by Councilman uh Merrill, seconded by Councilman Brownie to accept the $20,000 grant from the Florida Department of Tri Transportation for Distracted Driving Prevention. Any additional comments? Seeing none, council, please vote. And the motion does pass unanimously. That brings us to item 11.3. uh resolution 2025-25 to approve the USDHS ICE 287G service agreement and accept grant funding once again to start the Major Mar. Mr. Mayor, Members Council, Major Steve Marlo, Fort Beach has consistently upheld the rule of laws and maintained a strong stance on crime between fiscal years 2020 and 2024. US Customs and Border Protection, recorded over 10 million encounters along the US border at both the national and state levels. There is an increasing focus on identifying and removing individuals who have entered or remained in the United States unlawfully, particularly those posing risk to public safety. On February 13th, 2025, Governor Ronda Santis signed Senate Bill 2-C into law, strengthening immigration enforcement efforts at the state level to support local law enforcement agencies with immigration enforcement tools, excuse me, costs. The governor has introduced grant programs to provide financial assistance. The governor has also established the state immigration enforcement council consisting of four police chiefs and four sheriffs to advise on the administration of these grant programs in the statewide immigration

enforcement efforts. On February 25th of 2025, the city signed an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to have officers trained and to work with ICE as task force officers. This is otherwise known as a 287G program. On September 27, 2025, the department was notified it is eligible for an ICE incentive of $100,000 for transport costs and $7,500 per 287G certified officer for equipment costs for a total of $152,000 500. This is a one-time incentive grant for agencies that were fully operational with a 287G program prior to September 30th, 2025 and not a reimbursement grant. After October 1 of 2025, the city is eligible for reimbursement grant for personnel costs from 287G authorized operations. The lump sum incentive grant amount of $152,500. There is no match required by the city and this is not a reimbursement grant but a one-time payment to the city from ICE. After October 1, 2025, the city is eligible for reimbursement of personnel costs for authorized ICE task force operations. This item does not have a budgetary impact relating to the charter amendment ordinance 2145 due to the fact that it is a grant in a special revenue fund. staff respectfully recommends city council adoption of resolution 2025-25 accepting $152,500 from the Department of Immigration and Custom Enforcement and the future funds from the reimbursement of personnel

costs from authorized operations with ICE, authorizing the mayor to sign the acceptance documents, authorizing the city manager or police chief to execute all necessary documents to complete the grant and grant related purchases and authorizing a budget amendment to record the grants. All right. Thank you, Major Marlo. Before we get to questions from council, I just want to ask one question right off the top. Does this change the way that the Fort Walton Beach Police Department polices the city in any way? No, sir. Not at all. Thank you. Questions from council. Mr. Mayor,

major. Thank you. You um said this isn't a reimbursement grant. just so I can understand it. Um, this was more of an incentive grant to for for us for our city to take part in this program in which we train seven officers. We have seven trained officers. Is that correct? Is that what this is? Is if we were already a part of this program, if we've already been trained um or have certified officers in the 287G program, is that what that is? That that then this is available because of that cuz you you're saying it's not a reimbursement, man. And so I'm just trying to understand it's a grant that was given to pro to to departments that are already enrolled in this and have certified officers. Go ahead.

Good evening guys. I'm Sergeant with the special investigations unit. I'm the supervisor of our 287 program right now. So, basically the way this goes, uh, because we were fully operational before October 1, uh, we became eligible for this one-time, um, grant that is specifically for vehicles and equip equipment. At the time of our becoming eligible for this, we had seven officers who have been trained bullet with the 287g program and u we were uh we actually made an a 287g arrest before October 1. Um the we now are up to 11 officers who are trained in this uh program. And so my and so I wanted to know that because we were already enrolled because we're already trained in that we're we're ready to go. We're already active prior to that October 1st date. That's what I mean. This is free money at this point that they're saying. So it's not to incentivize us in the future for anything. This is just you've done it. Check the box,

right? And the grant changes after October one. the grant. So, this is a one time pre-occtober one that allows us to uh get money from the federal rent to assist with future operations. Vehicles is specifically a big part of it uh for transportation services and then equipment for each officer. um going forward past October 1, the post October one is just reimbursement for basically payroll and expenses in 287G operations for any other officers that get for certified 287G officers which at this point we have 11. Gotcha. So that would add four more like we would be looking at or would we get paid again for 11?

No. So so so there there will not be another one time grant. This the the the preocctober one one is the one time where you get $100,000 plus 77 7,500 per officer going forward that grant is is no longer available post October one. So we only are eligible for the reimbursement for uh time services and Gotcha. Okay. So, Councilman, can you confirm that it's it's Florida law that we cooperate with federal immigration agencies? Yes, sir.

All right. So, it's Florida law that we cooperate with them. And you can confirm that this funding gives us no new authority that we would be doing outside of what we have to do to cooperate with the state and federal law.

No, it Yes, sir. It it doesn't grant us any new authority other than it gives us a the training to know what to look for and and and how to verify somebody's uh residency if we were to come across somebody who was suspected to be here illegally. Um and it also gives us the ability to contact uh immigration and complete the the paperwork to have either a detainer or removal completed. So in sum in summary, we have to cooperate with state law and federal law. Our officers by law have to. Yes, sir. This is funding to compensate the cost for cooperating with federal and state law. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.

Council water, follow up on that a little bit. Um it I believe I saw a communication from Chief Bae regarding it's in conjunction with other law enforcement activities. So, um you you're investigating a crime, right? Then you could you you you're not going out looking for um immigration issues. If there's a crime that you come upon or become a part of, then as a part of that investigation, you can inquire as to the immigration status.

Essentially, yes, the the the training gives you the tools to look for and verify somebody's uh residency or or legal status. Um there you there's a misconception where we could just walk up to somebody and and ask them if they're here legally. That's not that's not how this works. The way this works is that we are if we come across somebody during our law enforcement duties where a call for service, a traffic stop or something like that and we are suspicious that they might be here illegally or their status might be in question. The training gives us the tools to a know what to look for, b call the immigration services to verify and see what's going on. Give you an example, the one that we made pre-occtober one, the arrest we made. The gentleman was had committed uh several traffic infractions during a traffic stop. We learned that he had a fake uh driver's license. um called the immigration services, ran his name and date of birth, found out he had been previously deported three times. He was convicted of 12 felonies in other parts of the state and been in six traffic crashes. Um that gentleman was eligible for uh a detainer to be placed and to be deported for the fourth time. So one other question and this is you know what so promising to me I believe is if if I understand it correctly uh your the training that's been received now by those 11 officers it also focuses on trafficked uh humans right

so uh I know recently I can't recall if it was just last week but I believe there was arrest made at a local establishment and and I there there was discussion and don't need to know it even if you knew it but there discussion that that person may have been involved in being trafficked, right? So, um you know, so the training you guys receive will help identify trafficked persons and take appropriate steps to protect them. Is that correct? Yes, sir. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Question. Sir, what my question would to you would be um it kind of saw it sound to me as if you know I know governor decides to you know put the 287g bill in in the place I know of know that part of it but in terms of the city in in a whole is there any type of sovereignty that that our our city would have is there you know in involving the u immigration and ICE issue in terms of having a local sovereignty is there any local sovereignty I'm not a lawyer maybe you Attorney Burns would be able to answer that, but I'm just curious to know is there any type of Are you referring to like a safe haven or or something here? I'm not understanding.

No, no. I'm asking is there local any type of local sovereignty? I understand that Governor Santis has put it into, you know, into play, right? I know he has the bill out there, but us as a city as a city and having the Long Beach Police Department, is there any sovereignty, local sovereignty, not I'm not talking state level cuz sometimes you you know you do have a little of wiggle room or whatever not where you may have a little bit of sovereignty. I'm that's the question I'm asking.

I think I can actually handle. So that decision was actually made back on February 25th this year uh when uh the city did execute an agreement with ICE staff officers trained and work with ICE as task force officers.

So at that point in time the city uh decided to work with ICE at that point. If you were a city that had your own police department and you didn't you would not enter into one of these programs then ICE would not be reimbursing and working with you but you still would be under state law in terms of you're supposed to be doing certain things but I don't think there would be too much of a oversight on those those municipal police departments but because the city made the voluntary decision to enter into this agreement back in February that decision kind has been made.

Okay. Thank you. One more question. Okay. Um I know um Councilman Moral um asked about the um incentizing you know for the police department and you said there were no incentives no re this is not a reimbursement on on the grant. So in other words just in my hearing you say that this grant is just you know was just given there's no right so we were eligible for it because we became active before October 1. and you became active before October 1, but is that due to the training? Does it have something to do with you all agreeing to train some of our officers?

So, in other words, um it kind of still sort of sound like it's an incentive. To me, it does. We were eligible for this grant. Um because we were the training was offered to us by the government and and and we took the training and made an arrest before October 1. So therefore we became uh eligible for for for the grant. So in return because of the training then you're eligible to get this money the 100,000 or so. Okay.

And so moving forward and futuristically looking um I'm I hope to just I'm I'm just kind of feeling a little leery in in a sense because I don't want our city to become torn apart. you know, I don't want, you know, innocent citizens, you know, to be run upon, you know, with a mask, ICE uniforms and tearing our city apart like that. So, we just we're seeing it happening all over the nation. So, I'm just, you know,

Yes, ma'am. That that's not how the program works. the the the the program is focused on um coming in contact with people who are doing our law enforcement duties and verifying that we can't it's not something that we would just target you know groups of of people or anything like like that. There has to be a reason why we are contacting them a lawful reason a traffic stop or a crime has been committed or something. We I can't just walk up to somebody and inquire about their their status. that that that is not legal. Okay. But realizing that this is transpiring over the nation and we are having incidents like that. So I just you know I would hope I would hope that Yeah. Yeah. Thank you sir. I appreciate it.

Yes ma'am. Anyone else on council questions for the mayor or the sergeant? Seeing none. Does anyone from the public wish to speak on this resolution? Yes ma'am. Just please come forward. State your name and address.

Good night. Uh my name is Sil Roa. I'm a pastor. I live in the city of Paul Waton for 26 years. I pastor a community church on be Parkway which have about 80 members, families, men's and women's with kids. And right now um I read about what's happening today. Like normally when somebody gets saw by the police I go as translated because most of them they don't speak English and before they told me that the the troopers were working with ICE. So if one individual who was driving with no driver license get stopped knowingly and the driver go to jail the passengers also are going to jail. things that I never seen since since I've been on this town. Like I said, 26 years. I had three kids here. I have my grandkids. Um I have a daughter who's 24 years old and she's married with a Salvadorian men and he got stopped two weeks ago. He got crashed into another car. Um he got taken to Crescue and now they moving him to Luciana now to Alcatras. My daughter put a lawyer. They moving them and they don't even giving information to the family. Um I really don't think the IC is working clear like um they working like they grab somebody and they just taking them. Right now to just be illegal is a crime. Things that were before went like that. you had to do something to be taken. Now, for you to be in a car is a crime, even if you're not driving. And I don't think that's really fair. Um, I love America. America is being a free country. You know, I I disagree with, you know, with the law right now. I

agree with people who like drinking, driving, that had done crime. Sure, send them back. I don't want them here either. I had kids. I had grandkids, too. I want to be it's safe but for people they just living here right now working with you know to feed the kids because this illegals too they have kids here they are born here so they leaving kids here without parents like taking the mothers or the fathers so what the community is going to do about that that's my question it is a problem it's not just like taking and deporting them we having kids leaving right now we having kids behind without parents And no all the illegals are criminals. There is good illegals here. They come just to work, to feed their kids, to feed the wives, to support the family, you know. Yes, we have good ones and we have bad ones. But we can say the old bad. Before when this started, they said we'll go just after the criminals. Right now, they're going for everybody. Everybody's in in problem right now. If you go stop, you're going to you're going to immigration. I mean they taking to to Cresby and then they sending to Alcatra all those these places the facilities of immigration right now they're terrible they said they they had to ts to sleep they sleep like 6 hours they had to get up and the other one sleep because my son-in-law is in there right now and he's telling me that um these old people they in jail they not getting medicines there they I mean right now it's just a cows and I think for us as a community to get involved in this. I don't think it's not doing any any help to the community. There is a place here behind Home Depot where they play soccer. A lot of immigrants play soccer there and a lot of they are going drinking. I had told the offices go there and if they're drinking there, yeah, take them because we don't want

them on the street driving. But right now, they going to they taking people who like working. They're not taking their bad one. They taking the good ones, you know, the bad ones is still here. So, I think we need to focus more in the criminals like the one who's selling drugs and the and the one that have DUI and the ones who like no good for the country, for the community. But I don't think that somebody they just come to work here to, you know, to feed the kids. It's a it's a it's a that we can be scared of that. I don't see that. I don't see that's the problem. I came here. I come legally here 26 years ago and I had work. I own a construction company. Now I'm a pastor. I've been a pastor for seven years. I'm not I'm an I'm an immigrant. I'm not I'm not like a problem for the community. So what I trying to say is like which is good people, there's bad people. But we need to focus in the bad people and we had to f think about these kids too. They all these families they have kids born in America and they they they taking the parents and the kids is staying here suffering because the parents are gone and who's doing something about that. Right now we just focusing you know like like and and it's terrible you know like my kids the old brown like me of course and they born here and they go was sometime you go to Walmart and you feel you can feel you know the people they're like the races it's it's like overwhelmed right now you know where you used to feel safe you know we don't feel safe anymore so that's why I want to tell you guys think about, consider the decision is um we need to have more, we have to like

pray more about the country, about what we need to do, you know, and you guys have the sign right here. We need to trust more God for our decisions. We just can go with the wink right now. The wind is is not going the right way. We need more praying. We need more thinking about families, think about kids, they could suffering here and let's consider this decision before we make it because like I said, they're not going for the bad ones. They're going for the good ones, too. Good night. That's the only thing I had to say. Thank you very much,

and thank you for staying so long to uh be able to get a chance to speak. I do appreciate it. I just do want to remind everyone as well that we're and I think the pastor said it very eloquently with her words, but we're not here tonight to have any sort of national debate about what's right or what's wrong or who should be here or who should not or how anyone should get picked up. We're simply focusing on our local police department. And I do want to just make that very clear before anyone else gets up to speak because I know this is an issue that a lot of people have a lot of opinions on that are very passionate and certainly um being a member of this city or being a member of the United States, you have every right in the world um to to speak and express those opinions. But here for the purposes of this meeting, we got about 5 minutes uh each and we want to hear what you have to say about the city on this particular issue. So, whoever would like to come up and speak next, uh, you're you're welcome to do so. Just please tell us your name and your address.

Good evening, everybody. I'm Aaron Rosentock of 268 Ventura in Fort Wallen. So, I'm here in opposition to this. I really missed the memo that I should have been here in February because it seems like we've gone a little too far in terms of the money is not so much a quid proquo, but it's some sort of reimbursement from what I'm understanding. But I think that accepting those funds and pursuing this partnership seems like a slippery slope that we want to maybe avoid. And I say that because it's taking away from our local resources, even if it's just within the confines of arrest warrants and things happening when they're on patrol. I feel like or I'd like to believe that for Long Beach Police Department is here to protect and serve all of us, right? And those it feels like if they have like what is that $152,000 going to buy? It sounded like equipment, maybe heavily armored cars. Like, I don't even know what to anticipate, but it sounds scarier and makes me nervous as a citizen as to like what that funds goes to for those officers and then what that then means to our community members. Um, second, everything that I've read about 287G is like we seed a lot of our power, the local authority to ICE and their um their protocols. And so that also gives me some concern that we already voted for that. But yeah, someone could clarify and tell me that I'm wrong about that later. Um, and then I'm also concerned about the hidden costs. Like what happens if the next administration swings and then it goes the other way and now our city council is held liable for things that went on under this uh

jurist prudence, right? That makes me nervous as a local citizen. I'm trying to be fast. Um, that was my fourth concern. And then I already said that, too. All right. And so that's basically it. I'm I'm just concerned that like taking this money then only holds us more accountable to the powers that be and I don't necessarily feel like those powers that be are the ones that we want to be on the right side of. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Rosento. Chief Beige, I know you just walked into the room. If you could kind of jump in here in between and speak to this briefly because I think you could probably give us better background than anybody else. Yes, sir. I mean, you can ask any question you'd like to ask or I can make a statement, whichever you prefer. Maybe a statement and then we'll continue to hear from.

So, I only got to hear bits and pre uh pieces of the comments that have been made in the last few minutes, but I can tell you that one, the $100,000 for the vehicle and the $52,000 $52,500 for equipment comes from the federal government for having an active program. And what they define as an active program, it's fine, Steve. I'm good. for an active program is that one and as the previous speaker talked about the city council back in February voted to participate in the 287G program. If you can remember Rhonda Santis called a special session of the legislature which requires local governments to cooperate with immigration enforcement. It doesn't mandate for us to sign a 287g. But if you also remember for meers, Key West, and a handful of other cities did not want to sign a 287g agreement, and they got a visit from the attorney general, and at their next council meetings, they did sign the 287g agreement. The 287g is the best route to show our cooperation with federal immigration. We don't really succeed authority to them. We have complete authority to decide whether we want to do an operation with immigration. We don't want to do an operation with immigration. And since February, we've only made one immigration arrest. So, I heard about the fields at Home Depot, behind Home Depot, work sites. We are doing none of that enforcement. The one immigration arrest we made was on a traffic stop where somebody presented a driver's license that did not appear to be a valid driver's license. And from working with our federal partners in INS, we determined that it was a fraudulent driver's license from Delaware. And that person had been previously deported three times. So he was a three-time previously deported alien. That was the only immigration arrest that we have made so far. Now, there may have been other people that had state charges and went to the jail

in Crest View and immigration decided to pick them up once they were in the jail, but we've made only one immigration arrest ourselves since we've been in the 287G program since February. The $100,000, like I said, is for a vehicle. It will not be an armored vehicle. It will be a regular police vehicle. So, it's just an incentive that since we had an active program, we signed the agreement, we trained seven officers, and we did at least one immigration activity that qualified us if we had done it before the end of the federal fiscal year for the $100,000 and then the $7,000 500 for each 287G officer for equipment. The equipment for this is very open-ended. We were probably thinking of some type of rapid ID system. We have an older rapid ID system. So if we come across somebody on the road that has no identification, we can take their fingerprints right then and there and give a proper identification. It could also possibly buy some additional radio equipment for us. We just went through a swap over with the county where the county gave us the majority of their radio equipment, but we do have a few needs still with radio equipment. So the equipment needs would be directly related to law enforcement activities. Unless you have anything else, mayor.

That's good. Thank you, sir. Anyone else from the public wish to speak on this? [Applause] Just please state your name and address.

Sandra Atinson, 608 Ottabban Drive, Fort Walton Beach. Um, I just wanted to speak in support of this. I hope y'all vote to pass it. I think it's a win-win for everybody. It uh helps our officers. It helps our It helps our community. And um like um Councilman Payne said right before I got here cuz I was watching on YouTube um human trafficking whether we like to realize it or not is an issue in this area. It's not a huge issue but you know one victim is one too many. And um like over on racetrack there was a massage place that got busted for prostitication or prostitution and she happened to be a massage therapist and I'm a massage therapist so I'm well aware of what's going on. Um, I was on the, um, was a governor appointee for the Florida State Board of Massage Therapy and there was a lot of human trafficking victims from Asian countries. And um, I'm not saying those are the only people that do it, but for some reason in this area, it's predominantly uh, from that culture. And I just think that we should be protecting these people uh, as well as the public, you know, from illegal activities. So, I hope that y'all uh, pass this. and it seems like it's just reimbursing our officers for something that they're already doing anyways. So, uh, please consider passing this. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Atinson. Anyone else from the public wish to speak? Yes, ma'am.

Hi, my name is Vivian Perez, 300 Brook Street, uh, for Walton Beach. Uh, thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. Um, I am requesting that you vote no on this resolution. Um, this resolution, we accept 152,000 in federal funds. 100,000 has not been spent yet. We may have spent some money on training. That 100,000 for vehicles has not been spent. This um at first glance might seem like a practical choice, but I think it comes at a high cost to our city, our values, and our community. Let's be honest, what does this program do? It is deputizing our local police to enforce federal immigration law. A responsibility that should remain with federal agents, not our local officers. Our police should be focused on our local safety, not federal mandates. That federal funding comes with strings attached. You know, it does. Those strings mean outside control. That is not small government. It's not local control. It's not local decisionmaking. Worse, the numbers tell a very tr troubling story. According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, okay, on your website, out of more than 6,000 individuals that have been detained in the state of Florida, in the last 9 months, only 0.5%, that's 25 people, have had confirmed gang affiliations. The vast majorities of the others, they are people, hardworking people, like the pastor said, with work permits, valid work permits, valid driver's license, valid social security numbers they've been given for their work permits. They are paying taxes. They are contributing to our community. We are detaining workers and families,

not criminals. And it's costing all of us because now also those children and those families are dependent on the community. The main bread winner of their family is now being detained at a cost to us as taxpayers. What is that costing us to detain them? Why not allow their legal process to continue and contribute to our society like they have been? I know we don't want criminals. I'm saying they're hardworking people with valid permits. This approach isn't just inefficient, it's inhumane. It's separating families. It's damaging livelihoods and add to the worker shortages already straining our local business and economy. We are hurting our own communities. And we are paying to do it. Make no mistake, this is optional. Florida law requires participation for county sheriffs, not cities. This is on the 287G website by ICE. County sheriffs, not cities. The legislature drew that line for a reason. We are no under no obligation to comply. This isn't about being for or against immigration. As you said, it's about protecting local control, preserving trust in our police, resisting government overreach, principles that transcend politics. Here in North Florida, we value independence. We believe in standing tall and not bowing to political pressure. Please stand with your community and do what's right. Vote no on this resolution. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Price. Would anyone else from the public like to speak on this? Oh, real quick, Mr. Davis. Clarification. The $100,000. Uh, we actually had one mangled in a DUI traffic stop. So, it's going to replace that. It's nothing addition. Just for clarification. Thanks, sir.

Bishop 309 Brierwood Circle. I'd like to speak up and supported this, you know. Um I go right with the with the PD and never seen them target any specific group of people and out there just looking for specific people. everything they do I see on a professional standard and I'd be in support of it. If you can't be here legally and you get involved in a traffic crash or um a crime um you should pay the penalty for it and so I would like to speak in support of it. Thank you. Thank you sir. Anyone else from the public wish to speak on this item?

I would like to speak.

Yes ma'am. I'm sorry. I'm going to tr here. Excuse me. Um, good evening. My name is Denise Dodto. My address is 2613 Winter Lane for Walton Beach. I'm sorry, I've been running. So, um I just would like to have clarification that moving forward in the future with this new um thing that we're trying to do locally in our city, it is really going to be focusing in what really is happening with the criminal part because we see all the time, oh, we're just going to get the worst of the worst. We're not going to go after families. I'm sorry. [Applause] In this area, I have seen families being torn apart. I have seen womens that are here fighting for a better life, running away from their countries. One woman specifically, she went to work one day and she was taken by the state troopers for driving without license, which is a offense. Her baby, 9 months old, was taken by DCF. This woman had no family, nobody here, and she was just trying to run away from danger in her country. Um, I agree with this as far as there is a commitment with the community that this is going to be solely for the criminal purpose and they're not going to be targeting our people because this is how it starts. They say we're not going to be targeting people and I myself am a US naturalized US citizen. I've been here almost 20 years in this county specifically and I work hard to be where I am. I'm highly involved in my in my county and I'm also part of St. Mary Catholic Church since I was very young. Um I have seen many things. I don't agree with a lot of them. I just want for people that is not able to communicate in the language in the best way to be able to not be profiled just by the way they looks. I myself often encounter that situation when I go to

places. In instance, I went one time to the ER when my baby was newborn and I was completely ignored and they look at my husband because he's AfroCaribbean. They thought he was black and he spoke English, but just because of my Hispanic indigenous looks, they assumed that I did not spoke English. I was raised in a private bilingual school back home where I was born, and I've been exposed to the language since I was very young. Unfortunately, for some people, it's not very easy to learn another language and communicate fluently in it. I just want my community of Fort Walton Beach, where I previously resided, now I live outside of the city limits, to still be united. We trust our police departments and I believe something of this level it's more like federal law. I think the city have major things and more important things to focus since this is not something that has really affected us often on a daily basis. Um for me city has great people. I love my police department. I love all they do to our community. And I think this is just going to take um it's going to scare people because they say we're not going to do nothing. we're not going to profile people. Unfortunately, they will be profiling people. I'm not saying that's something that is going to happen, but why did why was it mentioned that if you go to a situation, you going to be able to see the legal status of this person? So, for you just to arrive into a place where it was a a situation or an inconvenience, why will you have to start checking people's legal status? So, that goes completely on the opposite way of what they're being told that they're just going to go ahead with this training. And I believe um correct me if I'm wrong uh for Walton Beach that they don't have um many officers or maybe a few or just like technology to interpret because if you're not able to communicate with people, how are you going to know that this enforcement is going to be really transparent? So all I have to say is that our community, our

landscaping companies, our housekeepers, all the people that do those jobs that nobody wants to do, they're not here hurting people. We are here to just become better and many of them are in a legal immigration process that right now even though you're doing it right it took me like 10 years to become a citizen. So during that process maybe if I wasn't a US citizen now I could be profiled. There have been people here taken by the state troopers um that they were with a permit with a license with a social and even green cards taken to Alcatra where they were having the lights on all day. They were having a lot of sickness and fed every 8 n hours sometimes 10 hours. So I will really appreciate it if our city would just remain the way we are enforcing in things that really really need to be enforced. Thank you.

Thank you ma'am. Would anyone else from the public like to speak on this? Yes. Just please come forward and state your name and address.

June Scragging 187 Brook Street Southeast Beach. I'm going to make this very short. This is being taken or presented as being political. It is not political. Okay? It's not political. The police have presented their case, what they're about to do or want to do, what they're doing, their limits are, and they've clearly stated to the public, to our city council and to our entire public, what their intention is. That is on record. Okay? That's on record. So, they are going to be held to that responsibility. Be very careful about making this a political situation that's not supposed to be. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Anyone else wish to speak on this from the public? Chief Bea, you wish to add anything? And then

just so just for your question. Sorry. Well, um Sarah Ael, 327 Eldridge, Fort Walton Beach. Um I just had a question from way back in the beginning when we were talking about this program. Um and when the police department decided to be part of it and how it was working and the one quick thing that was said um we joined something about October 1st and because we made an arrest before October 1st then we've qualified for the funding. And so to me that makes it sound like okay if you do this then you can have this and I think that's some of our concerns about that.

I can comment I can comment on all that. So, Mayor, there was several points that I would like to clarify that have been made. The first one about the driver's license in the Florida Highway Patrol. That would happen regardless whether 287G, whether the highway patrol was 287G or not. If you drive without a license, you can be arrested and unfortunately families are separated. And as I talked about before, when the jail processes people, if they determine that you may have any detainer or other immigration hold on you, they contact ICE automatically, whether you're 287G agency or not. We entered this back in February. The item in front of you tonight is not whether we are a 287G agency or whether not a 287G agency or not. The item in front of you tonight is just merely do you want to accept the end ofear funding the federal government made available prior to September 27th and it's in your package. We were unaware of any incentives or anything else. We trained seven people because we thought that was the proper number to train. We made one immigration arrest because it was the proper thing to do because a person had been previously deported three times. We are not going to work sites. We are not running immigration checks. We do our enforcement incidental to law enforcement activities and it is an additional tool that aids us in making the community safer and getting people out of the community that want to intend to do harm in the community. So, I think that answered some of your question about the one arrest we made and why we're here tonight for the money. And I wanted to bring up the thing about the driver's license and the Florida Highway Patrol. And we cannot comment on how other agencies work, whether it's a Florida Highway Patrol or other state law enforcement agencies. But as I think June stated, we've put our intentions on the record. You have seen the course of conduct that we've had since February and how we've run our 287g program here in the city of Fort Walton Beach. And

this item in front of you only tonight is about the funding available prior to October 1st. And then after October 1st, if we chose to, and that's the key word, work a joint operation with immigration. If they were to come here and look for criminals, pedophiles, other criminal aliens, it would reimburse over time. The same way we have an agreement with the DEA for drug enforcement, the same way we have an agreement with the US Marshalss to look for wanted personnel, it's the exact same mechanism that would be used post October 1st. Thank you, sir. Would anyone else from the public like to speak on this before the council takes a vote? Seeing none, council, do you wish to take any action on the item?

Mayor, so move staff's recommendation. Second. A motion made by Councilman Schmidt and seconded by Councilman Walker to adopt resolution 2025-25 accepting $152,500 from the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the future funds from the reimbursement of personnel costs from authorized operations with ICE. Any additional comments, Council Walker?

Uh just, you know, I think it's all been said here. We I know it's being presented and looked at at different ways and I can appreciate that. But um this money is going to be received. It's going to be reimbursed for the car that was taken out in a DUI. It's not an armored vehicle for special forces or tactics or operations. and and I trust fully as as several have said that um you know the police chief and and the police department is on record stating how they have been working and how they will continue to work uh and that will be um as part of their police regular operations. So I trust that they will continue that way.

Is there anyone else wish to comment? I don't have a comment with me. Would it be okay if I asked Chief B a question? No, we're going to have either comments on the motion or comment. Okay. I was just wondering just um just wanted to to know comment. I'm trying to make a comment. Make a comment. Yeah, I'm trying. That's what I'm trying to do. You're trying to order to make a comment. Make a comment. That's what I'm saying.

Okay. My comment is this. You all have have seven officers or 11 officers that were trained. And my comment would be I would hope that through your training that you were trained on what to look for when approaching people of color, brownkinn communities or you were where you I also would hope that you were trained on somewhat of diversity and how to handle race and color when you when one of the officers you know when you are doing your ICE duties. So I don't know what ICE duties would require and what the training would require, but my comment would be again is I would hope that some type of diversity training was involved in that.

Thank you, mayor. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Comment, Mr. My comment to Chief Beige is thank you for showing up and clarifying some of this and you worded it best at the end. This is not going to change any way that we have policed since we adopted this in February. This is not going to change that tomorrow. It didn't change it last week. We will continue to serve our community and be as gentle and kind as you were three years ago when I got up here or 6 months ago when we approved this. This is not making our police department politically correct or incorrect. You're going to continue to police the way we've been policing. So, thank you for summarizing that.

Thank you, sir. Anyone else? Council, please vote. Motion does carry 6 to one to accept the funding. I [Applause] would just like to add as well that regardless of the way the vote went, whether you supported that or not, that I do have the utmost uh confidence in our police chief, our police leadership, that when they say they are going to do something, they will do it. So when Chief Bage says he's going to police that way, that's the way we're going to police. That moves us on to ordinance on second reading item 12.1 ordinance 2190.

Mr. Burns ordinance 2190 council city 44 ordinances section 11.04.03 title hearings for separating time for effective date. This is the second reading. We'll wait until everyone is able to clear out. If you do want to carry on the conversation, please step outside so we can carry on with our meeting.

Thank you everyone for your patience. Chief Steve Marlo is going to present to you. Oh, he's back. But I can present on this item. It's a second reading. There was no changes since the first reading. So unless there's any questions from the comment from the council. Any questions on this for Chief Bish or Major Marlo? Council Walker reading it here again. So we're taking what was previously a city law enforcement and and legal through the magistrate and we're turning that entire process. I mean, our officers will continue to write the tickets,

but instead of the city operation taking care taking it from there and prosecuting and finding and collecting, we're sending it to the county. The administrative portion of it is being sent to the county. The enforcement side still stays with the police department and and the judicial side, the judicial side of it. Um I mean law administrative yes but the judicial side of it we're taking it away from the magistrate sending it to the county uh legal judge. Yes. It's going to county state court judge. It's a state. Okay. Yeah. So the county does the same thing. Okay.

It goes to the state court system to the clerk before they handle it. The clerk court handles the processing of it. But any appeals would go to the county court judge whose county only named their state court judges. Gotcha. And we're doing this primarily to save taxpayers money, time, resources of of the of your department. It builds some efficiencies into it. And as we talked about at the first reading, there is some confusion in the process because the only ticket that is paid locally is a parking ticket. Traffic tickets are paid at the county clerk's office. Gotcha. Okay. Thank you, Mr. May. Thank you, sir. Anyone else questions? Would anyone from the public wish to speak on this item? Council, do you wish to take any action?

Mayor move staff's recommendation. Second. Motion made by Councilman Schmidt and seconded by Councilman Walker to approve ordinance 2190 on second reading. Any additional comments? Yes, sir. No, sir.

Council, please vote. And that does pass unanimously, which brings us to item 12.2, ordinance 2193. Mr. Burns. Ordinance 2193, an ordinance to the city council of the city of Oral Beach, Florida, amending the city of Formal Beach municipal firefighters pensioning trust fund amending section 2.06.03A definitions, repealing all ordinances in conflict here with and providing an effective date. And I believe Chief is here to present Chief Shipman, namely Mayor Council. Yeah, this is the second reading of the uh 2.6.03 of the firefighters pension trust. Um, it's an ordinance uh, let's see, where am I at? Uh, that staff recommends council adoption of 21 I'm sorry, number 2193 to amend section 2.06.03 subsection 8 code ordinance for the city of Fort Long Beach firefighters pens and trust fund to update the definition of salary.

Thanks sir. Questions for chief shipment on this? Seeing none, would anyone from the public wish to speak on this item? It's pretty basic. Council, do you wish to make a motion? Let's do it. Staff recommendation. So, a motion made by Council Schmidt, second by Council Jeter to approve ordinance 2193 on the second reading. Any additional comments? Yes, sir. Councilman Walker,

I just um and maybe it's in here, maybe I missed it. Um maybe it doesn't matter but um the proposed ordinance um amends section 2.06 code of ordinance by adding language to the definition of salary to clearly define the amount of unscheduled overtime. Is that in here? Do we see what the change looks like? Uh not on this particular sheet here, but uh the ordinance change it is in there. It is it where is it? Come on. The letter of no impact. Oh, and yours or the ordinance itself? The ordinance itself. Great. Thank you. Underline.

I see it. Yep. Yep. For service earned. Thank you, Council. Please vote. [Music] Yeah, it does pass. Thank you for being here. Um, brings us to item 13, 13.1, the LPA and its appointments. Miss Barnes.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, when we're filling vacancies for regular members of the local planning agency, the city's past practice has been that we um first offer the position to the most senior alternate member should they wish to serve in the regular role. And they typically do because they've uh put forth enough efforts to be at the meetings even though they aren't serving. They're there if they're needed. So, at the last city or at the city council meeting on September 23rd, I inadvertently presented Mr. Thomas Canon's application for appointment to a regular member position and it should have been presented for appointment as an alternate member because um we did have an alternate member that um once I called her, she did want to serve in the regular position. She was happy to do it. Mr. Canon has been serving. So he thought that he was just going to be he had served before. So he thought he would be appointed as the alternate member. So it's all good. Mr. Cannon's happy doing the alternate and Miss U. Wilson would like to serve in the regular position. So with that, staff respectfully recommend city council approval of Miss Janet Wilson as a regular member of the local planning agency for a 4-year term to expire September 30th, 2029 and to reclassify Mr. Thomas Canon's appointment as an alternate member with no term expiration.

Council, can we get a motion to remedy this egregious mistake? Motion. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't hear you. Motion made by Mr. Barry, second by Councilman Schmidt to appoint Miss Janet Wilson to fill the regular member position of the local planning agency and reclassify Mr. Thomas Cannon's appointment as an alternate member. Any additional comments? Thanks for keeping us alive for us. Council, please pass unanimously, which brings us to a 10-minute recess. [Applause]

Then I leave by 9:00 and all that. I was in the the other a couple weeks ago. [Applause]

All right, welcome back everybody. Please take your seats as we reconvene this uh meeting of the city council of the city of Fort Balden Beach, Florida on this 14th day of October. And thank you so much for being here and staying with us this time. We now move on to item 14. Item 14.1, a request for code enforcement fine reduction at 338 Lake Drive. Who's leading this one? Chief B. This one I think is Mr. D. Oh yeah, I'll do it if you want me to, but I think you have more information on

Yeah, I'll start it. You can take it home. So, this was, I believe, the property that Mr. Councilman Walker helped address the once Troy was able to contact the police up there. They made contact with the individual. How it happened, I don't know, but we were sending the certified letters to the wrong address, so he never received any of the violations. He is, I think, 80-ish, if not more. uh has no friends or family down here. So, he has verbally committed to hiring somebody off Angie's list, I think he said, to maintain the property in hisstead. So, uh we just felt it was the right thing to do. I have up to x amount of somehow my computer shut down again, so I don't have the notes in front of me, but I have 10% I want to say. So, I brought it down to like 4,000ish and council has the authority to take it from there, but uh that was the recommendation to at least work with this gentleman up to my standard. And if you wanted to take it above and beyond, we would support that as well.

Thank you, sir. Uh questions on this before we get to Councilman Walker, this is the property you you were mowing the grass. It got mowed. It got It got We needed It got compliant. It became compliant. Yes. Questions for Mr. Davis or anyone else on this one? We have confirmed that they just they weren't getting notices. He's he got updated the notices. He got it in compliance and he's committing to maintaining. That's that's the it's a verbal commitment, but yes is the answer to all of that. Anybody initially did get it. So, it's cleaned up now. I believe Mr. Walker and Ed took care of took care of it, but it's it's good to go right now.

Okay. Yes. And I'd just like to add, thank you to Lieutenant Williams and Jason and and all the staff that's been involved with it. I mean, it was a it does appear it was simple. I mean, it was confusing at the county um tax collector, property appraiser. There was a mixup on addresses there. So, um, Lieutenant Williams took the extraordinary steps of actually calling the police department up there, um, and the suspected town that he was in and they drove out to do a wellness check, knocked on the door. The guy came to the door and responded and said, "Hadn't been getting it, but we'll take care of it." So, by that time, it had been cleaned up. So, I know that the the lean was already filed through the magistrate, so we couldn't just pull it back. So, you did what you could and tonight it's here to, you know, remove all of the fees, including the administrative fees. So, um, yeah. Anyone else with a question?

Anyone from the public wish to speak on this item? Seeing none, council, do you wish to make a motion? Mr. Mayor, I move to move forward with staff's recommendation to remove all acred fines and administrative fees. Second. Okay. Measure made by Councilman Walker and we'll give that tie to Councilwoman Deber to wave all remaining fees for a total of $4550 the $3,900 in fines and $650 in administrative fees. Councilman Walker, any additional comments?

Yeah, I just because it comes up on the next one as well. I know Jason, you and I spoke about a little bit. You were going to check with Mr. Bowman. I believe I was I didn't go look at the the minutes from it from that magic hearing, but this next one references this next case that's coming up here. It references a issue back from 2016 and order one and order two. And I know you mentioned that, but this one seemed 338 Lake seemed to happen rapidly to go from unknown daily fine up to $500 a day. Do you know did were you able to find out from Mr. Bowman what caused that?

So the verbiage that I received was um repeat offender if you will. It was just constant. Okay. That being said, I don't know that he was receiving the notifications. Right. Yeah.

So that's why we felt this was the best. So I mean the gaze take a step back between yourself, police and this this action. I mean you can see the the synergy there too. We're not here to beat people, right? We've identified an issue and we're trying to address it. That's kind of where it came about. But, you know, you did some extra homework and figured out we had two different addresses and so on and so forth. Maybe we should have caught it. Maybe don't know with you look at 40 million addresses a day. Sometimes you have overlook stuff like that. So, all around, but yeah, that was the the feedback was habitual offender.

And that reminds me of one other Mr. Burns. I know that couple of months ago it seems um there was discussion up here and and and I think even procedural changes either adopted or in preparation regarding uh personal service by a process server. Mhm. Um is that in place? Did it become effective? Are we is that going forward?

Right. Right now that's for any requests actually proceed to the foreclosure step because that basically is similar because order one and order two those are just terms that code staff came up with for the first two orders that the man enters. There's actually a third order he has to enter that we call it order three that takes it uh authorizes a foreclosure. Okay.

And uh you've received maybe one or two of those. maybe not one since y'all been counseledled, but uh if if there was a foreclosure request, actually y'all have received one. It was back in 23, but uh and then y'all actually denied the request and I think ultimately release the lean on the folks as well. But uh so before uh it even gets to the order three stage, that's when the first the process server starts. Okay. Uh the reason uh code staff at the time uh did not want it to be for the order twos is there are typically and Troy's not here and I'll use the number but I'd say they probably have in a given year upwards of 40 maybe order twos

and they just did not think it would be uh first off that would be fairly expensive that would be probably 40 times 100 bucks that'd be $4,000 of process server fees uh But a lot of times issues will will crop up like they'll they'll find out because co staff does look into things. They'll find out oh the person didn't move or the person will show up and uh and or they they'll show up and then ask for an extension then then another order two hearing happens. And so they they asked for it to be before the order 3s not the order two. So COAP did comply with the the process server ordinance that's currently

I got you. And but it was just for the preforeclosure or the authorization for foreclosure. Okay. Very good. Which would then still have to go to your office too and then that's okay. And then it goes to you.

Yeah. And and just and for what it's worth on the next one we'll look at cuz I look for order I guess you could call it. You know I really the next one that's coming up is very extensive going back to 16 by date by date by date. I don't see any of that on here. don't need it at this time. Miss Barnes, I might ask you to if if we can. I just want to I still want to figure out how did we get to $500 a day on this one? And the one I think that I see next or the one that's coming up next, I've scrolled down through it. I don't think it ever made it to $500, but it's been going on since 16.

And I don't think 338 has been although I don't know it. I don't think it's been as nearly as long of a term. maybe a year, maybe two or something, but Okay. Yeah.

So, just in generalities and these two cases kind of go together and you're asking about the difference of the $500 fine and the $100 fine is that at the time of the special magistrate, whatever the special magistrate sets for that case, that fine continues to run until that case is closed. So, for the next case where you see the $100 fine, even though that fine has been open since 2016, that was the fine set at that time in 2016. And that $100 runs until that case is closed out. On the case we're currently discussing, as Mr. Davis talked about, there was a repeat violation. And with the repeat violation, if you have a case open, then it closes and then you come back for a new violation is considered a repeat violation. and the special magistrate has discretion then whether he sets that fine at $100, $250, $500. And that fine then runs for the duration of that case. So even though the one from 2016 may be older, that was a fine that was set at that point in time. It continues to run until that case is closed. And that's why you may see different fine amounts for different cases.

And I can also add too because the special match is actually considered evidence for him. If someone doesn't show up at the hearing to defend themselves, he goes with the staff recommendation. The staff recommends a certain amount. So if they recommended 500, he will enter 500 because that's the testimony he's receiving. He uh the magistrates do typically buy some relief on that number if someone actually shows up. Yeah. A lot of times continue and give people months and months and months to fix up the properties. Okay, Greg. Yeah, I'm happy this one's here and it looks like the next one's going that way as well. I just Yeah, we got a motion to Oh, I I have a question. Sure.

Yeah, sure. I'm concerned. We had another case like this a couple of years ago uh uh where the mail was not being forwarded to the it was to the wrong there was no one there. U it was near Carson Drive. I think it was we're required to send notice to the address of record. The address of record is the address that the tax collector and the property appraiser has.

So if you don't update the address of record where your tax bill is going, we are still required by state statute to send that mailer to the wrong address. In essence, we have to send a certified letter by state statute to the record of address. If we become aware of another address, like we did in this case by Troy contacting the police department and everything else, then we can send a secondary letter to the new address. When we become aware of a new address, in addition, every code violation is posted at the property. So, if you're at the property, if you know somebody that goes by the property, they will see the notice physically posted at the property. And by state statute, we're required to send a certified letter to the record of address. Even if the record of address may not be the proper address. If we become aware of a third address through investigations, then we will send a third, fourth, fifth letter out as we become aware of them.

Also, just for good faith, uh I forget this individual's name, but he he offered to pay the the reduced fee and we said, "Wait till we have council meeting, too." So he's at least amendable to good faith in that direction as well. So very nice council jet comments. Back to the motion here. I know we got sidetracked. So the motion is to reduce this to zero. Well, it was to go with staff's recommendation and the property is now in compliance. I go back to Chief Asia. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Walker, for doing everything that you did to help get the property in compliance. Thank you. and and um to

sorry technically the motion needs to be I'm sorry interrupted needs to actually say the lean needs to be released also as well just don't mind adding then I then yes I'd modify it to accept the staff recommendation and to remove the lean

I apologize second just want to say thank you the whole purpose of the code is to get properties into compliance we have a property in compliance we're not trying to profit off of the lean is to get the property in compliance. So, I'll definitely be supporting the motion. Council, please vote. [Applause] Does pass unanimously, which brings us to item 14.2, request for code enforcement, fine reduction at 69 Lori Drive. I have this one, Chief Dave. So, um, this one, as we alluded to in the previous one, this case goes back to 2016. So, there was an order one. Order one, just for clarity for everybody, is a finding of a violation of city code. So, order one just means that there is a violation of city code. So, there was an order one that was issued for unlicensed or non-operable items, grass height, and litter at the property. In March of 2016, it came back in front of the special magistrate because the property was still not in compliance and a fine of a $100 a day was amassed on the property. That fine has run continuously. In addition, if the council may recall, this property was brought in front of the city council for authorization to expand city funds in the amount of $4,600 to bring the property in compliance. The city had brought the property in compliance. The property has, I believe, has also sold. If you check the property appraisers record in the back of this, the new agent had contacted the city and wanted to structure an agreement. The current outstanding lean fines on the property is $333,200

with administrative cost of $650 plus the $4,600 the city had put into it for a total cost of $338,450. The property agent had come forth and wanted to reduce that down to $25,512. If you read our ordinance for a fine amount greater of $40,000 is to be reduced by 20%. So when you take that calculation into account, the reduced fine amount should be $28,76.20. And how you get to that is the fine reduction to $22,826.20, which is the 20% amount. our hard acting cost of $650 plus the $4,600 that we had previously invested in the property to bring it into compliance. When you add that all together, you get the $28,7620. And that would be our recommendation of staff to mitigate the fine down to that amount.

Thank you, Chief. Questions from the board for Chief Bish. I think Walker.

Um I was looking for it here. Um, oh, I was just looking for to help me. I know we've got and you've your team has been working on, you know, improving knowledge, education of the homeowner when they receive a fine, what their options are and whatnot. So, um, my question is, I was going to see if I see it here. Um I see several times in its history it would be reinspect fail reinspect fail reinspect pass and then no violations found. So just pausing in time for a minute there 2017 181 19 whatever it was you know you had a your grass is too tall is what and litter and then Ed the department shows up and they say there's no violation here that doesn't end the daily find does it? if they found the property to be in compliance and you'd have to see what it was in compliance for. I have to go through the history on here. There could be other code cases which were open and closed during that time. So, you'd have to make sure that it is the reference code cases in here that were open and closed.

And that's really what I was scrolling down to. Invalid complaint is in 15 invalid. What does an invalid complaint mean? You would have to go back in 2015. So I don't know what I wasn't here in 2015. So I cannot comment what a invalid complaint in 2015 would be. New invalid complaint. Invalid complaint. I can tell you the property was not in compliance and that's why the city council opted to spend $4,600 to bring the property into compliance. Do you think that's a should have said invalid compliance? Cuz it says invalid complaint. So if you're looking at the 201

15 through 17 that whole first page. Yes. Inspection, new invalid complaint, not assigned. So in that call history, you got to find somebody that was here in 2015 and ask them what was invalid at that time when they went out there. Whether it was nothing out there, whether it was a clerical how they entered it, but there was something back on that date that they decided to entered is not valid.

Right. And then so yeah, the first appearance of no vi. The other thing you have to be careful with something from 2015 is that there's been data migration since 2015. There's been various code enforcement systems. So, you probably have to go get the hard records to determine if the summary print out is actually how it was mapped between the different systems. Mhm. So, those are work order IDs. That's not the case number. Is that correct?

So, which call are you looking at? I'm just looking I guess on page uh 494 of the packet, but it's um project project inspection history. It's titled up top right after the applicants uh application for relief, request for relief. But [Applause] so I would go to the second page of all that where there's actually comments in there that talks about that it failed case sent for the special magistrate and it has the list of the hearings. It has a list when the order was given. If you go to the second page of the history, it's much more detailed. Sure. In the complaints.

Yeah. And that's, you know, in one previous meeting, maybe a couple of them, um, Mr. Rhodess or someone was here from the code enforcement and they had they provided us, if memory serves me right, was, you know, pictures and copies of envelopes and certified mails. And that's where I kind of started inquiring about proper service. I don't as we saw in the previous case sometimes I think there was one case where the sister was there or a tenant was there somebody the owner wasn't being notified whoever was there and so there came a question of was was the homeowner notified and it's like well he gave it to his tenant and it's like well that homeowner doesn't know

so I believe that case was the one Mr. Burns talked about which led to the order three for the additional service. It was a foreclosure case and that's why they brought the proofs of certified letters and the other instrumentation that was used to notify the people. Sure. And and then when So I'm just up here looking at a judging body cuz we're about to judge here, you know, and we don't I don't have I don't know if this person's been served ever. There's no fine reduction. I'm sorry. You can vote against the fine reduction if you don't think it's properly displayed. Yeah. Right. But and and that's not my point really. I mean, I may vote for it. I mean, I was surprised that the

the owners apply for the current owners for a reduction here. That's they're asking for this,

right? They've been notified at some point. There's a fine upon their house. and and I was looking I I know that agent in particular, we've not spoken about any of this, but I was like, wonder why they didn't ask for hall waving if they hadn't been served or anything. So, yeah, just wanting to really make sure that all homeowners who are receiving I mean $332,000. It just blows my mind that a person of sane of healthy mind would allow a $332,000 fine add up if they knew about it. So the previous occupant in this was also had several criminal cases with the police department. This is a property that the city had to go and clean up because they were not willing to clean up the property for themselves. Mhm.

I don't I can't comment on the new sale of the property or the new owners of the property, but Mr. Burns can contact about how the leans transfer from owner to owner. So, the property has transferred. It has appears it was transferred to a daughter, it looks like. Okay. Cuz I was looking at the application. Wendy Thomas is the agent and Mr. Miss Fagan. I vaguely remember. Is that house in a curve? Do you know at 69? I believe it is. I I drove by it and saw it back then and I'm just like I I did see a sale. I didn't know it had closed, but just blows my mind. 333,000 and so it's been transferred to the daughter. Is that what you believe? Not a sale. Yeah, it was a quick claim deed to

quick claim deed. Okay. Maybe it's not the same one then. But anyway, I just wanted to make sure homeowners are notified by certified mail that they got it and andor personal service delivery. just bothers me when it's posted on a door and we don't know who's living there. That's all. So, thank you, sir. Anyone else with questions on this item? Chief, anyone from the public wish to speak on this item? Council, do you wish to make a motion? May move to accept recommendation to reduce the fines and release the less. Second. Have

a motion made by Councilman Merrill, seconded by Councilman Brown to um release the lean for the property at 69 Lori Drive Northeast within 10 days of the agent paying the recommended mitigation amount of $22,826.20 along with administrative fees of $650 as outlined in section 1.05.08 08 of the court of the code of ordinances as well as reimbursement of the cost of $4,600 for the nuisance abatement conducted by the city for a total payment of $28,7620. Any additional comments? Council, please vote. It does pass unanimously. Sorry for the long uh reading there, but I figured Mr. Burns wanted me to read that one.

No, it's good. One day, you know, we'll I'll be dead and someone will read those minutes and what will happen. So, what? We're dying. It's uh it's very morbid, but it is true. That brings us to item 13. Wait, I'm sorry. We're not going backwards. Item 14.3, the Paul's contract for October 1st, 2025 to September 30th, 2026. Mr. Davis.

Yes. Uh Tracy from PAS uh had to fly out for emergency, so she could not make it tonight. She did plan on attending tonight, but uh had to take an emergency flight. Anyway, uh we've worked through the numbers. We have a one-year contract in place. Mr. Burns and this cop I believe have both read it. Um their legal team has approved it. So basically it takes us from our previous contract of 550 per capita based on 22,000 residents and it just brings us up to $6 per capita and they were amendable to that. I believe the county was at 650. Does that sound right?

So that's where we kind of did our our math based on that and everybody was good with it. So outside of any question I mean if there's another game in town I can't find it. I tried every avenue I could. So this this at least gets us a working contract. Thank you, sir. Questions for Mr. Davis. Councilman Schmidt. So the county's cost is 650 per capita. Correct. Do our county adorum like does that qualify us as just getting services with the county? No. No. Dang it. I asked Okay. I asked I believe Mr. Walker had asked me to look into that. Yeah.

And the the way it was phrased to me is they do not charge enough to do all of the county. They do theirs there. The the way they build out their millillage accounts for their their population. Thank you, sir. I probably butchered that, but that was the intent of it. Makes sense. Just the incorporated areas is their call to Councilman Walker.

Thank you. Yeah. um citizen reached out to me and and generally was pleased and know I think you've been in touch with her as well. Uh just wanted to check with you on a potential change cuz I didn't know how it worked previously, but if a home on a previous contract, if a homeowner saw an animal that was of concern, they would contact the police department. the police department would advise them to contact Paul's or would the police reach out to Paul's dispatch to Paul? Um there was there was a question of dispatch from I've seen it done both ways but I'll defer.

Yeah, I I don't know how it was done previously. So it can be done either way. Generally, if you call the police department with a concern, we'll take care of it and we make the secondary phone call for you. But nothing stops somebody from calling pause direct. Part of the new pause contract is we're going to do a little bit more. We've had this discussion with council before about the investigative side, the enforcement side with the ordinances, dogs off leash in the county. They calls out for the dog off the leash and sometimes they don't get there in a timely enough manner. We've taken on some of that and that's I think why we got that 50 cent reduction versus the county.

Okay. Yeah. I mean, I guess my only concern, and I've had this conversation with her, is I have no way to QAQC their bills. Mhm. Uh, so we're going to look into that going forward. I just don't know how we would get there, but I've never had one call and we get I don't know what what the records show, but it's substantial. So, the residents are calling direct. Sure. And I have no way to QA if you see it.

Right. So, the QA of the invoices was one of her concerns. And then I know that at the county level she was concerned about the care and incineration I believe documentation. That's a very and apparently the records weren't being made available. I don't know that they weren't there but according to her and what communications I've seen with her and the county just the recordkeeping wasn't up to her standards. don't know what uh they have worked out with the county, but I did share my concern that I don't know how to Gotcha. I that's basic we trust right now. Gotcha. Okay. And just to clarify, they do submit reports to us. Yeah. But

they could do it for 20 or 24,000. I have no idea. You're right. Yeah. I mean, it's Yeah. It's hard to keep up with, no doubt. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else with questions on this? Anyone from the public wish to speak on this item? Council, do you wish to make a motion? So move staff recommendation. Second.

A motion made by Councilman Browning and seconded by Councilman Jeter to accept uh and approve the contract with the Panhandle Animal Welfare Society Incorporated, otherwise known as Paul, for animal control services in the city of Fort Blum Beach. Any additional comments? Council, please. [Applause] Y'all love the contract unanimously. That moves us to item 14.4, 4 award of ITB25-011 recreation complex expansion. Mr. Payne, [Music] uh, mayor and council, uh, 9:00 p.m. biggest item of the night. U, I'll do my best to to go through it in detail, but also, um, you know, on the on the thorough and quick side of things. Um before you tonight, a award of ITB25011. It's a rec complex expansion. Uh just for those of those you don't know, so the existing site at 203 Hollywood was the old public works and field office complex uh site. Um we built a new new facility vacated off there partly because that area is is a is a brownfield. there is some um trash or uh debris situation underneath it. Uh enough to where we didn't want to rebuild uh our complex over there and we moved over to the to the old jet. Um during that uh time frame after we moved out and and built our facility um we did put the property uh up for as part of our surplus deal. We had gotten two

proposals. It was a big um charge deal and the the city council uh direction at the time was is for us to reject the two proposals and then staff move forward with developing an an expansion to the existing wreck complex uh that we have to the north of it. Um, [Applause] we did do some additional work, uh, the demo. We did some environmental work, uh, piggyback with some more environmental work to come back just to make sure what we were doing would would be, um, good and cleared and allowed. Um, we we did that. We brought forward in 2021 um a uh ITB similar to what we did after council direction and and we came back and um wounded up rejecting all bid. We wounded up awarding a bid. We had a protest. We rejected them afterwards um due to a discrepancy and some things like that. The direction after that was to hey clean the things up. We we reduced some of the scope on that end. Um we did have you know on the previous bid we had covered uh pickle ball courts. We had an additional uh twotory concession uh building. We eliminated those from this time around. We went back with the scope a little you know down to to bone bare bones and then kind of went up and eliminated some of the things that we had. So, we put this out in June of this year. Uh, the proposed scope was a almost a 2,000 square foot um ops building, replacing the ops building that the parks um staff has over there. a restroom, multi-purpose fields, uh five pickle ball courts, not the big covered thing that we had previously, and then of course uh the parking which would fix some of the parking issues that we have on um in uh off the jet

area in the northwest district that we have during uh tournaments and things like that. So, more of like a consolidated parking deal on there. Um we had a a mandatory pre-bid um and you know started that bid pro process going through we've issued three addendums uh hundreds of questions um 100 questions lots of staff time and um you know on August 28 we received eight bids eight um base sealed base bid packages and that was uh purchasing staff Nicole's purchase and staff and ours they sorted through and um in addition addition to those base bids, we also wanted some specific prices for the disposal in case we run into any class 3 hazardous waste material. Uh it's just trash and stuff that we've experienced before. We don't know exactly limits of anything, but we wanted to have pricing in there just because we didn't want to negotiate that um when you found it. We'd rather have a unit price up front. Um and then also an allowance for that uh as well as we wanted. Um, we did have an alternate bid item included in there instead of a, you know, a gravel road bases a crushed concrete just to try to look at some costs and things as well in there. Um, after review of all those bids, we found that um, Gumrete Farms, Inc. of Definiac Fiends, Florida was the lowest responsive bidder on that end. Um, in addition, we wanted to carry to what they provided to build the facility, we wanted to carry an allowance uh of 100K just for material disposal just in case. Um, it's it's just I think it was a responsible thing to do almost as a contingency. Um, and also in a $40,000 item for uh, you know, desk, furniture, stuff that you would need inside the parks ops building, as well as some of the things that weren't included, uh,

you know, basketball nets, goals, things like that. So, after going through the bids, you'll you'll see it before. Um, I I think, you know, it's a little over $7 million. Um, that's a lot of money. I don't think anybody here will say otherwise. uh we uh in conjunction with uh finance department look to see okay where where is this coming from how much is it is is it and um what is it package options on that end um Nicole can can expand a little bit on it but basically what we found is um you know through financing uh whether it's you know loan rate bond is you know anywhere from 700 00 to 750

up to 34 on a note on a note for I think it was for 30 20 or 30 20 was it 20 or 30 I thought it was 20 maybe it was it was a 20 sorry but yeah it was 20

so um also we have a TDC component we have some other components that go with it there was been some talks in there I think um with staff you know as it stands here the recommendation. I'm doing the ward on the construction side, you know, with the in-depth talk about the finance side because that's what we I was tasked to do to bring it back. Um, as far as the the financial options and things like that, you know, we can go through their questions, but the but the award is to um give city council authorization to award the invitation to bid 25001, a rec complex expansion to the lowest responsive bidder, Concrete Farms, Inc. of Dufiaak Springs and the amount is $7,59,312.75 [Music] including alternates and additional allowance for class 3 material. Uh there was another separate motion on there and that is um if it is approved staff also requests city council authorization for the city manager to approve project change orders up to 10% of the bid amount and then also authorization to receive financing regarding this project um with uh PF PFM financial advisors on that side. Uh with that being said, we have I'm here to answer questions. We have Nicole on the finance side and we also have uh representatives from Gumrete Farms who made the trip tonight to to answer any questions. So, I haven't said that. I know it's late, but I'll do my best to handle everybody's questions. Thank you, sir. Questions on this for Mr. Daniel Payne. Mr. Schmidt. More on the finance side. Roughly how long would it take if this has passed tonight to bring back to the board on squaring up with TDC or squaring up with our finance guy?

Um, so I spoke to the TDC today. Uh, Jason and I um spoke with Charlotte um what we found out with the TDC that that technically yes they are willing to help fund um the future debt payments for us. However, they will not fund 100% of them. uh we have to turn in documentation uh that shows how much um what what percentage allocation tourists actually use our our our fields and all of the stuff. Um and their legal team will tell us what allocation of percentage that they'll pay. So they won't spend that 100%. So the city will have to make up let's just say it was okay they can they can give us 400,000 a year for the next 20 years or whatever. Um we're going to have to still come up with that money. It sounds like it's already down the road a little bit and I guess what I was trying to back into was it it's not like there'll be a lot of time in between if it does pass tonight and bringing back the finance options.

No, no, it should the turnaround should not be awesome. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Questions on this from Mr. Mer. I was trying to keep up with Daniel. Um, no, you you just uh mentioned what that was going to bring and I got the 2,000 foot office building and I got the five pickle ball courts. They got the expanded to parking. Do you mind? It's It's probably a main thing, but I was just listening to I think I missed one or two things.

So, the the scope was Yes. the the roughly 2,000 ft² recreation ops building. There's an existing ops building there that's now that's on the property that you would see. Um um a restroom building, which was a a prefab. You go, you guys are familiar with those. Um multi-purpose fields. There's there's uh you know they're they're not baseball fields. They're just rectangular multi-purpose. That was the that was the the need. Um on that end soccer all that you know how many more were they adding? What were we adding? Do we

There's So there is I do believe that there is uh four. Yes, there a couple different sizes. Um there is pickle ball courts but there's just a five group of pickle ball courts exposed. Um, I think some of you remember the option with the lot that were covered that the county was supposed to give us money, but it just it never worked out on that end. Um, and then parking, uh, which was the big deal so we can try to fix some of the resident problems that we have on jet, right? Uh, and off of jet and down that way.

And this was all kind of in motion before I got elected. And I don't like to come in. It's it yeah I I would say it's been since 2021 we've had some direction on that end.

I like parks. I know that my kid moved up to U12 and the U12 there's one field there for U12 so I see a need for expansion and things but $7 million you mentioned everybody's going to talk about it being a lot of money. Is there like I just look at it and I don't know. So, these are true. Is there a reason we're replacing the 2,000 foot building? I mean, is there is there some give and take here? Is there something like we could say, well, we have the building. There's pickle ball courts right on Jet Drive. We need the fields. We definitely need the restroom building. I'm down there a lot. Uh, that's just I kind of like I don't know if that's something for the council, for the city manager. if we didn't have or if we didn't want to commit to this much money. If we looked at the budget and we said we don't want to get ourselves in trouble down the road, but we like the expansion, we like seeing some of these things. Is that

is there potential?

Yeah. So, just backing that up. So, so the ops building, believe it or not, was a part of the the field off field office complex project. It's it was we at that point in time we did the recreation ops building, too. and and um we made the decision kind of to stop at the at the you know the public works building um even though we had basically design documents and and some materials for the for the uh wreck building um the way it's laid out you know is accommodating the wreck building and the fields I think the footprint would obviously change if you if you try to keep it as well as the parking and the pickle ball there is field turf on these rectangular multi-purpose fields. Uh the last time we bid it out, we had it as an alternate, but it was overwhelming with with some of the parks uh staff and things like that is, you know, that's acres that you aren't mow is is one time cost versus operational cost versus irrigation. You know, you we try to weigh that on that side. And, you know, providing people what they want, you know, that's that's what we that's what we went for. Um, is there an option the value engineer stuff on on the the back end that there always is. We always have to evaluate the bids apples to apples. What any of those costs are down the road, we wouldn't know until we, you know, were awarded and and sat back down. But, um, you know, the bids are itemized pretty well. You can kind of see back in the math. Um, but, you know, that's that's where we ended up where we are today. Thank you.

Anyone else with questions on this? I have a question. Go ahead, M. I heard you mention Brownsville. So, is any of that the area that you mentioned, Brownsville, is that possible that you could probably get some uh some fundings seeing that you you mentioned that part of it was Brownsville area? Yeah, that's a very good question. And and for what we found out is if we're the entity that brown it. No. Oh, okay. Got it. If it was sold. Mhm. Probably. So, um and and that's that's my interpretation of it. It's I don't think it's so the city caused the

right. Okay. If it was trans if it was a transaction to another, you know, if it was sold, right? Yeah. If a buyer came in and buy they could take advantage of the Brownsfield fundings from what I understand they were the cause of the the contamination. Got it. Okay. Thank you Mr. Brown. Mr. Davis thinking about it in the future if we build this complex or this expansion how are we going to maintain the fields? I mean have you thought about that far with the 3% budget gap?

Uh yeah. I mean, I I voiced my concern on the uh CRA park that we're going to build. We're adding parks and you know, I'm still new still evaluating the the staff the efficiency if we're, you know, how efficient we are in that particular department. We have a new parks director. So, uh Wendy and David have been looking at the orb chart and diving through some things, but Gut says we're going to have to add staff. I think I'm more concerned about what potentially may come down from Tallahassee if they're going to change what they're going to do with our sales tax or property tax or whatever that is. I mean, I have concerns in that regard, but um so yes is the answer.

Um and so we are we having issues maintaining the fields that we currently have?

So again, I'm going to parrot what I was told. I I haven't done a deep dive myself, but for example, we got a request to mo something somewhere bay and whatever a little park that we owned. And the feedback I got was we haven't done it in 10 weeks because we're so busy taking care of the baseball fields for the baseball tournaments and the softball fields while they had all those kids here during the summer. Right. So that to me, I don't know if that's we don't have enough staff. I don't know if that's a efficiency issue. I mean, I I actually I wanted to look into buying some robots that will mow it and one person can mow an entire thing in instead of five people. We're just kind of handcuffed right now with that three 3% cap. So, I can't go that drought, but it's on the back burner. But, if that allows me to free up some staff and it's like $13,000 for the robot as opposed to so on and so forth. So, lots of things we're looking at. And do you think in your opinion that that property might be better used for developing a new city hall versus more fields that we can't take care of?

In my opinion, it it's a convenient cuz it's in that what I would call that government corridor, right? We have we have the parks, we have the public works, fire, police kind of all right there. So I would say it's convenient um in terms of maintenance. Yeah. Mr. P, you want to talk about that?

I I would just say so so backing up, originally the public works and field copas office was there and we did not feel like it was a good decision to build large vertical structures because of the soil conditions that we had through the soil borings. Um fields probably good, smaller structure, but we didn't want to stick the investment in there at that point in time. wasn't just it was based on soil evaluation and stuff like that. So remediation can be $10 million sometime. I mean I've done several that were

now the site was show charged for extended period of time with a lot of dirt um too but it's you know now gone. That was also based on the sight of anyone that went onto that property and viewed that parking lot of what the ground had how the ground had changed since that building had been built. Correct. And the cracks in the side of that building all over the place. So a structure on that property seemed without massive amounts of remediation pretty could feasible. Could be could Yes. Anyone else with questions? Councilman Walk.

Yeah, just thinking in light of Mr. Browning had mentioned the the 3% cap. Mr. Davis, you had mentioned concern with it. I know we just recently went through uh staff went through that process and uh one of the issues that apparently came was digging deep in reserves is what I heard uh was a solution to the 3% cap that was applied this past budget season. And obviously we've got that budget cap is still in place until such time that it may ever be overturned. So, you know, in light of those things, digging into reserves, um, you know, not knowing the status of what might have right now, we're operating as as if the 3% is it's there and it's going to stay there. Uh, and adding more staff. You bring up a good point, property tax, you know, I don't know how I was listening about the funding operations there that may happen and TDC money. One of the things I've heard out of Tallahassee from the governor's office was that TDC money might be redirected. So, you know, it's like, well, you you've already committed to us over here on this to fund it 400,000 a year, past the number or or not. But, you know, it just seems like a whole lot of moving parts and pieces. We apparently attacked our reserves, dug into them last year. So, you know, I'm just feeling cool about this whole expansion. I don't know how many. Do you know how many um pickle ball courts have been added to the Okaloosa County since we first began this in 21

in Okaloosa County? Now, how about the city? The city, uh, we've built 17 17 so the the private sector is providing what we've got a good portion of on this is a is a portion of built right yeah 17 the city is constructed or converted

okay so the se the city itself not not the private sector I was asking about private sector it seems like they're they're popping up all around the place wherever they can fit them so it seems like the private sector is servicing that and um so I just you Um, I love sports and I'm so glad we've got it over there. Of course, got a preference on private versus public kind of stuff operated, but that's neither here nor there. But just not feeling cool to spending seven committing to spending $7 million uh with the budget potential budget restraints of the tax sales tax and or TDC tax and the 3% cap which is in place. So, thank you. Council M question.

Yes. Um, Mr. Mayor, I don't know if this may be for Wendy or or Mr. uh Davis, but we had some TDC data or TDD data as far as just some of the impacts of the visitors that were coming to the park. Um, we all know and I know Mr. Barry really knows the parking and just the the amount of people that are coming. Do we have some ballpark, pun intended, just some numbers of the impact to our local economy from visitors and tourists that are coming to play at the current landscape of the field? Do we have some ball? I know you're nodding your head and I hate to put you on the spot. If you don't have them, that's great. We can get it later on before. But if we have some, I'd like to have a conversation about that.

Excuse me. Are you asking the number of people that are coming from out of uh town to play? We had some data, Mr. Barry, not too long ago that was presented to us maybe a year or so ago that that was the amount of visitors. So, Perfect Game provides the number of kids that come from out of town and the hotel nights that are assigned to it. When I was a part of Perfect Game, I had to go to that partner hotel and that's how they generated that TDC money. And and that's is that what you're speaking to? here. So whether we have it right now or not, but we can get it from perfect game if that's what you're asking.

That's exactly where I was going to trying to set up um you know there's a motion made and and advocating for the project, but the impacts to our local economy. I know we don't have EWF hos report, but do we know what kind of revenue or income that could be through sales tax or through other things that this this park if expanded what it could bring to our local economy? is the form of a question. Kind of tough to extrapolate cuz some of those fields are multi-purpose and how many soccer fields? I mean, so no. I mean, it would be a rough estimate, rough order of magnitude, but

Gotcha. All right. Thanks. Got it. Anyone else with questions? Anyone from the public wish to speak on this item? Seeing none, council, do you wish to make a motion?

Mr. May I make a motion to award imitation to bid number 25-011 recreation complex expansion to the lowest responsive bidder Gum Creek Farms Inc. Go to Phoenix Springs, Florida in the amount of 7 million uh 7,59312.75 including alternates and additional allowance for class 3 waste disposal. Second motion made by Councilman Jeter, seconded by Councilman Schmidt to award uh this bid to Gum Creek Farms Incorporated of Defunia Springs in the amount of 7,59,312.75. I stated it all for you that time that way you didn't have to reread it. Well, I just wanted to get the number. I've sat up here for 3 years and we've talked about this complex even 3 or four years prior to me sitting up here. We talked about what this property was going to be and Mr. Brownie got a good point. We do need a city hall, but I know through many years of research, we found out that this couldn't really put a city hall here due to the soil. Um, when this was awarded before it was reversed last year, I heard nothing but great positive things from the community. I was I've been at this park two or three times in the last couple weeks and people talk about parking, more fields, this and that. So, it is a need. Uh we don't have the data, but we know this brings in a lot of out of town revenue. I can tell you personally from short-term rentals, there are people that come stay in Fort Alton Beach because of the sports complex and uh enjoy our community and bring money and spend money. So, it's well needed. Uh it's well past the time that we should have already had it built, but that's no nothing to you. And I know that uh Nicole will work up some excellent options for funding going forward. And we can all sit here and say, uh, and I'm with you, Councilman Walker, may not have TDC funds, may not have sales tax, may not have property tax, may not may

not, but I don't think we can sit around and wait for the sky to fall. I think we should try to do things and make progress and go forward. And we'll cross certain bridges when we get there. But if we have a chance to do something great in our community, I think we do it, not worrying about the sky falling 5 or 10 years from now. So, thank you, Daniel, for bringing this back so many times and redrawing it. so many times, but I'm ready to see it get built. Is there anyone else wish to speak on this?

Yeah, I know we've gotten a lot of different input from the cost of artificial turf to, you know, the the overall dollar cost and some respectful push back on this, but I'm I'm fully supporting this because of some of the things that council Jeter was mentioning. I really do believe the sports tourism is a big business. What I mean by big business is folks are traveling to the city of Fort Walton Beach because of this recreation complex that never would have made it to the different short-term rentals that he was speaking about or other hotels or other environments. And seeing some of that feedback from people that are no longer wanting to drive from 3A or from Sand Destin to Fal Beach or wanting to stay in this area and spend their money in in here. Uh, and those are the I we're going to have tourism here whether we like it or not. But what kind of tourist is is the question. These regardless of what race, what religion, what background, I want people in our community that are going to travel with their family. I don't care if they're playing bad or baseball, but spending money in our restaurant, spending money in our city, spending money in our community, and hopefully attracting talent. not just baseball talent, but hopefully they come back here and want to move here or want to start their business here and and recruit their parents or grandparents to come move closer with their grandkids. So, it's bigger than just the artificial grass and the cost. I'm fully supporting this for those reasons.

Thank you, sir. Anyone else wish to speak? And Nicole, you want to say something? Yeah, I just wanted to ask uh Mr. Burns a question. um if this does get awarded tonight and I go back and I talk to PFM and we look at all of the funding options and we can't afford it, what happens? Because right now the general fund, we don't have the funds to fund it and it's based on TDC and uh a bunch of other different scenarios that I'm going to have to run. So if we award it and then we come back and we figure we can't afford it, what happens?

If you award it, it's been awarded uh at that point in time. Uh we'd have to get a a very uh conversation with the winning bidder at that point in time to try to claw the contract one time. It could it would be a breach at that point. So a bo and that's if the city can't pay if the city is saying they don't want to pay you know it's so uh I think also a point you brought earlier too though uh you pointed out that if TDC if it doesn't get funded through TDC funds and they decide that dries up like Mr. Walker had suggested might the governor has been suggesting then the city would still be on the hook for this for general fund rather than Yes.

All right. It's just a bit concerning. Sure. Thank you. Anyone else wish to speak on the motion Walker and Mel?

Well yeah thank you. I mean that you know hearing that. Thank you Nicole. Um hearing that and then from you know me not having asked the question can we afford it? Nobody asked the finance. Can we afford it? What happens if we can afford it? Uh Nicole asked it. I didn't ask it. We didn't ask it. And here we are putting I mean, we know the 3%. I was looking at it from a 3% cap issue coming up. Looked at the TDC money drying up and and I don't own any short-term rentals. I I won't benefit from people coming here in short term. I don't own any hotels. I don't own a restaurant. I know that people do, but um it's just concerning that we might go forward with something we can't I mean D Mr. Schmidt, you brought it up on those financing and I thought, okay, what was going to happen here was we would go out to Nicole, we would ask her to go out, put the cart, not put the cart before the horse, go out to Nicole, ask her to get those financing options, bring it back to us, and then let us look at it, see if we can afford it. Um because I how many how much reserves did we how much of the reserves and millions of dollars did we spend in this budget due to constraints of the 3% limit? How many million?

It it wasn't due to the constraints. It was just due to balancing the budget. We pulled 5.1 million out of the $5 million $5 million. Can I suggest an alternative uh that would not be a breach? Y'all could continue this uh because it does not have to be awarded today. Y'all could continue this discussion to maybe the November uh council meeting or however long Cole and Jason need to meet with the TDC and not either PFM consultants so they can come back and give you an actual better picture on what appears to be at least one big question that you'll do. Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir. We got a motion. We got a second.

We're in discussion. Is that right? Yeah. Okay. We're in discussion. Unless someone wants to amend the motion.

Council member. Yeah, I was just going to I'm kind of in the same boat. I I do I I can't support this. I don't not support it. I want to see it, but like any business, it has to be a good business decision. And I think we need to look and say it feels like we're saying right now there with no guarantee from the TDC we can't go forth and say we can 100% approve this. Is that fair? It was Yeah. Charlotte said tentatively yes. She said yes. But it has not been approved by commission nor has a percent allocation been approved. But it seems that we will be able to get TDC funding to help fund future debt payments.

That's some good information right there. Thank you. But I just we need to know that that it's going to be covered. Um and I'm with you. We don't have to live in a world that the sky is falling, but we do have these things that we know are right in front of us and just so much money. I just I can't still vote for supporting this in the current state. Um, if there's an amendment, if there's further discussion, if we can go and find or get the TDC to commit to something or if there's grant funding that we can find, but for the city to go and for us to come and say we're going to put the city on the hook for this, it's a great project. I want to see it, we have to go back.

Yeah. So, just a couple things back. So, so Gunk Creek will will mention they will hold their price in within, you know, 30 days on that end. All right. Um, so that's good cuz we're already I think they came in on the 28th. Uh, the next thing is we, you know, behind this we have another park getting ready to go out, uh, Flies Jackson, which the county had committed some funds to 1 million

on that end. I think at the time we did the preliminary uh PFM deal it was we talked about rolling those together but just so that's in everyone's mind too. I know a lot of times we make a decision on what's in front but that's that's all uh that's there as well and I think it's relative to mention that one too because that's about what 2 million 2 million on our side probably. Yeah. And it's not funded in the current budget.

Correct. Yeah. All right. Anyone else with comments on the current motion? [Applause] Maybe we can have a vote and then if it does not pass, someone else can make a separate motion. Sure. So, everyone's had a chance to speak. Council vote. [Applause] Motion does fail. Two to five. Mr. Make a motion.

All right. Um, I would like to have a further discussion with staff, with the TDC, and find out if there's some way that we can get some sort of commitment and revisit this issue in a way that it's budgeted that we know that we would be able to afford it or we'd feel more comfortable uh being able to afford it moving forward. I don't I don't know that they can commit to anything based on that conversation we had today. They said probably well Charlotte said she could email me the application and then I'd have to get probably recreation involved to be able to get their numbers on what they're projecting the tourism there. So

I mean I don't want to kill it. I would I would like to see it but not if there's a way forward for us to do it. I mean it we can do it. It's just not going to be tomorrow. It'll take a little bit for them to get their information. There's going to be some time and my concern is that we're going to circle back in a month and they're not going to be able to commit to something. That's the way I left that conversation today that Yeah. So, Charlotte will have to meet with Craig Coffee. I'm not sure. They meet maybe once a month or something like that and then if they decide to move forward then they bring it to commission. So, it wouldn't be technically approved by commission probably for 2 months maybe something like that. But I but I can confirm that with Charlotte. I'm not I'm not 100% sure on their timeline. I don't know Mr. TDC up there. Maybe he can help. Go ahead, Mr. TDC.

Oh, I'm sorry. TDC aside, when you if you meet with PFM financial advisors, you may have three or four other options of doing this. The debt is getting ready to fall off from the current building that we just built. Well, not just built, but 20 years ago. So, if the the rec center, you're talking about the current rec center debt service company. Uh yeah, it falls off in 2028 with a $3 million balloon payment that we don't have the money for in the general fund right now. What about the library and the police and fire stations? Didn't those just come off? They have not come off yet. The only thing that's coming off this year is the irrigation, which is like $200,000, I think, in the general fund. That's off the top of my head. And the $4 million from the from the fairgrounds has been eaten up by the balance in the budget, 5.1 overage

cuz we just awarded this project a year ago. We felt comfortable doing it then, just not now because of the dip in reserves that we just had to do. That's the only thing that worries me. But DDC alone aside, you're not going to find that in 30 days. But if the if if item 4.3 that motion were to pass separate from this and you to meet with PFM Financial Yeah. I can meet with him and get different options. It doesn't need to fall solely on TDC. This needs to fall solely on you and PFM financial advisors to give us five different options to build this complex. Yes. I mean, I can give you different options, but it's the funding that's the issue.

Mr. Mayor, was there a motion that was made? I was just about to say so I'm not talking to get too far off track here. So let's let's go back to Mr. Can back in a minute. So whether it's through the TDC or or any other way if we can find a way that can be brought to us that says hey this we feel more comfortable going forward with this in the budget. So whether it's TDC or something else that that that I can we can we can what you're what you're doing is looking for um finance and city staff to bring you back options to pay for this project at the next city council meeting

at the next meeting. Cuz if their bid is going to be good for 30 days only one meeting in November. How much time would you need? Uh I can I can contact Jeremy in the morning. So the next city guys meeting up. Can you make your motion to be you're continuing the consideration of awarding the bid until we get that information? So we get some additional financial questions at the making at the next. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion by council me. Second by councilman G. Any further discussion on this motion? Council I'm going to use an opportunity to just ask a question to Mr. Davis. I I was looking at the um the bid and um you know I've had a stick in my crawl. Is that what it's called?

I hope not.

Whatever it's called bothering me. It's maybe it's in my shoe or something. I'm not sure. But um you know the um the irrigation that's here in this bid for $174,000 and it was referencing uh the Northwest Florida Water Management District or you know those that we must go through and I know we're in a special water district. I found that out recently by looking into it and all. And so for years I've been I've been interested and concerned about the water budget at the um at the cemetery. Right. And so when I saw that we could drill a well here for the recreation, I'm like, well, why can't we use the well that the well that's over at the cemetery? So, uh, any explanation for that?

Yeah, call me out if I say something dumb, but we did look into this. So, there was concerns on staining the headstones. It would be twice as much to get the chemical cleaner.

I'm told the well was not to the quality that you were informed. So, it's I don't know if it's sandy. It's not deep enough. So, you're getting a lot of sand and it's just it just didn't work. And there's a lot of areas that are not covered by it. So, it was it was cost prohibitive. Okay. Well, and and I spoke with the horse's mouth, the one that installed it, and he said it's the deepest well in the county. Uh and it's the cleanest water in the county. So, I don't know what reports we have. Do you have a water quality report on it that you can provide us? We we don't have like individual testing, but it's a permitted well through the water management district. It it's not in the flurry or it's in the sand and gravel. It's the same one that

How deep is it? Cuz they had a five horse. Do you know off the top of your record as well? That's okay. I don't need Yeah. Again, I was I was looking for the question in that opportunity. So, everybody we got a motion. We got a second. We got statements about whether you're going to vote for it or not. Let's do it. Council, please vote.

Council Merrell's motion does pass 6 to one. Next. And that's next meeting. Next meeting. Okay. Just to bring back some additional financial options at the next coupons. No. I owe you watch. Hey guys, thank you for being here tonight and sitting through a very long meeting uh to stay and answer any questions that anybody apparently did not have for you, but we do appreciate it sincerely. And also our entire council today did receive a a letter of recommendation about the quality of work that you guys do from Mr. Taylor Hood. Um so that was very cool to see as well. So thank you guys.

And any help y'all need to get across the finish line, help with the budget or anything like We're vested in this and we want to see y'all succeed. Thank you, sir. Mr. Davis, you heard that? Oh, no. That was the same comment I had. I think I did the same. Gotcha. I'm not familiar with they spoke very.

All right. So, item 14.5, a followup on the discussion on field uses. Mr. D, let me switch agendas here. Sorry.

145. So, this is a revisit of the field space and what we're going to potentially charge and whatnot. So, probably on me that I did not understand what you wanted the last time. So, it was more a discussion. So, poor Wendy kind of took a a lashing there, if you will, but that was more on me. Uh, anyway, we reached out. You know, she did a lot of homework here before Mr. clarity started and did some comps, if you will. Destin kind of follows us, so they they weren't a good comp, but she checked several cities throughout the state of Florida and just, you know, we're ballpark kind of what most cities are doing. Some some charge a flat fee, some charge lights, some charge whatever. So, we basically came down to we can accommodate the school um Liza Jackson school. So, they're they're built into the schedule. The 850 programs, whatever, you know, they're they're called right now, they're they're all uh factored in. And those academy participants pay a monthly fee of $50 per child, but that's a year- round program. And then other entities that want to come in and use the fields, it was $30 an hour without lights, $50 an hour with lights. Um then the discussion went back and forth on some of the council members uh residents of the city versus people coming from god knows where to use the fields. So the approach here is uh if you're 70% within the city, you get the city rates. If you're 70% outside of that threshold, it's a it's a little higher fee. So, it's 50 with with without lights, sorry, and 70 with. And then we've we've tried to factor in

we're partnering with like, for example, the Rotary Club. They came out and did the the park across the street. Uh, boys and girls came out and did some cleanups. So what I'm accustomed to is once a year those those 501c3s that are 501c3s within the city limits if they want to do a fundraiser for you know we we would wave that field fee for them once a year right uh so we built that in and then everything else is open to I don't want to steal the way you phrased it Wendy but you kind of know when when RAD wants to use the fields and Emerald Coast Sports whatever they're called I I don't remember all the names So, we've kind of got that built in. Uh, basically though, there's ballpark 20 teams that want to use six fields. So, the schedule's built out. One field doesn't have light, so it's only available for a window of the year based on daylight savings time and whatnot. And then we have to shut the fields down for aation and maintenance. So, they're they're closed for I want to say December to Januaryish, February or something like that. So the rest of the year is built out and then the rugby team came. They've been asking, they've offered to take care of another space that's not a park yet. It's just not something that we can physically take on. Uh again, adding more parks. Uh it was nice of them to offer, but I mean there's there's a lot that goes into that. So there will be space, but it's these this is the rate structure we came up with rather than the lottery. It's kind of what we have left over. And if there's I've I've text the uh rugy group for a a weekend slot or an early in the afternoon slot cuz the kids are still in school but these guys work or a later slot said past my bedtime. So the slots are the slots. We we catered this towards the youth and the schools. That's kind of where I'm at.

Thank you, sir. Questions on this for Mr. Is there is there a consideration for a bulk rate. So, yes, we looked at that and my concern was let's just bulk it out at whatever our fee is. I've walked out of here on Friday nights, the lights are on and nobody's home, nobody's using the fields. So, the bulk rate doesn't allow us to say, "Hey, it it won't encourage you to use the field space as much as the hourly rate. If you use it, you've booked it, you're going to pay for it, you're going to go use it." The bulk rate be like, "It's my field. I'm going to take the night off and somebody else wants to use it, don't care. They don't have there's no process. I don't have park rangers to go enforce this. I had

But there's I mean, are they still paying for it at that point? Even Even though they got a 10 or 15% reduction, they did. So again, I want the fields used, right? So if I have a bulk, you follow now. Yeah. All right. It clicked. Thank you. Cuz they're so over booked as it is. Correct. So if somebody gets it cheap and they get it, that's taken away from somebody who would be using. And offense by defense, I had this a lot down south that they book the field and not use it, but it would block other teams from using it to practice and it was just kind of a jerk move, right? Does that make sense? Curve balls.

I mean, it comes and I'm going to be like that came a lot from James who we saw earlier present and I hope that's something that if if we're not doing it, obviously I want to defer to you guys. Well, we gave him two flavors. Okay. So, uh his president, I I forgot the gentleman's name. We sat down. I'm sorry. Walk. Uh yeah, maybe. I I don't remember. Um so, we sat down and we explained if you want to come in the 850 program, you pay $50 a dude for a year or you pay your your rate, but you get, you know, if you come in under the 85, you get discounts on this. We pay for the background checks, that sort of thing. So, they're weighing their business model. Okay. [Applause] That's a question.

Anyone else with questions on this for Mr. Davis? Anyone from the public wish to speak on this side? Mr. Leewoods.

Evening. Uh, James Le Canbury Circle Beach. The last meeting on this topic item agenda item 13.2. I did not understand the vote. Uh, and I spoke to a couple of you after the vote and I was getting different responses. What exactly did that vote mean? Was was we were we closed at that point. Uh, everything was settled at that point or was it to I believe if if we're if I'm thinking of the same thing you're thinking. It was actually to to bring back something a little more substantial for discussion.

It was a recommendation is what what council had asked for. I was under the impression that it was just going to be open discussion last time. You wanted a recommendation last time. So, I had not done the research and then Wendy took over and made something intelligent. So, here we are. [Applause] Thank you, sir. Anyone else from the public wish to speak on this item? Seeing none, council, do you wish to take any action? Uh mayor so move staff's recommendation to adopt the fee structure as presented.

Second motion made by Councilman Schmidt, seconded by Councilman Jeter to uh adopt the fee structure as it has been presented by city staff. Any additional comments? We appreciate the discussion last meeting that we haven't really had much of these discussions with a beautiful complex continuous improvements and core value. I'm sure a year from now we'll make some tweaks and continue to develop it, but thank you for getting it to this point. Anyone else council, please [Applause] unanimous bless.

Thank you. That brings us uh to item 14.6, a proposed referendum ordinance moving city elections to the November general election date. Council, I'm sorry. Attorney, Mr. Council, this is the proposed ordinance to which if you do approve of it will be brought back at the November meeting along with all the other referendum ordinances on that date. Uh, I think just to kind of give you some heads up, it's looking like we'll have six questions. In addition to this, we've been able to pair down all the votes that y'all made at the last meeting on the 28 or whatever changes into just six questions. Uh, I know there was a concern about too many questions on the ballot. So, uh, this would be the seventh question. Uh it might be six the sixth question because we're still kind of b Miss Copen will bat around like one particular issue and so we might reduce by one question but uh uh if y'all do approve of this tonight we'll go on the November vote for you to vote on then to send it to referendum. Um I do need to know tonight though if y'all want to one question if I want to put this on the same referendum date. I'm assuming y'all do want to have this on the march, but that's that one questions never been answered and uh I will read the ballot question to you and um hopefully y'all had a chance to actually look at it and actually proposed ordinance because this would be the time I I would ask that y'all let me know if you all want to word the ballot question a little bit differently. Uh maybe change some of the verbiage in the ordinance because when we bring back a first reading uh in November, we'll be really limited in what we can do at that time. And uh so you've actually seen the verbiage of the the ordinance already. That was actually on the uh the meeting when I was directed to bring this back. But the ballot question and I've been drafted at that time. And the ballot question reads, "Shall the city charter be amended to move the election dates for the mayor and city council to coincide

with the November statewide general election cycle, which occurs in years?" Uh you vote yes for approval, no for rejection. So that's the ballot question. Um, y'all seen the ordinance before and I'm just uh looking for a vote tonight to either uh approve it as is and I'll bring it back at the next meeting and then also get an indication on what the date of the referendum will be for this particular proposed amendment. Thank you, sir. Questions for Mr. Burns on this item. Mr. Burns, can you confirm that this does not extend anybody's term?

That's correct. that the elections will happen in November of even years and then the actual terms will begin the next April. And by doing it that way, uh none of your terms up here, if this didn't pass, would be extended at all. And can you confirm that this this change could be done by ordinance? It could be done by ordinance. Correct. And this proposed ref this proposal is to go to a referendum. Correct. Correct. Okay. Thank you, sir. Great questions. Councilman. Yeah, I'll follow up on that. If we can do it by ordinance, why are we going to a referendum?

That debate occurred at least a month ago. Y'all the debated pretty heavily and the vote was actually I think the actually sent it to referendum. I think Mr. Schmidy made the made that motion at that point. Okay, that's it. That's my answer. Walk change your mind. Y Mr. Brown, so Mr. Mr. Burns, if we swap this um to November, does it does it break anything with Paul's office like do with all the so if we have to do a special election for a budget a minute or to get more money for the budget because of the 3% cap the referendum to get more money or they do they have to help us?

He has to. So, there's one scenario he has laid out for some people, uh, which I I don't think he would ever say no to because he hasn't said no to Destin and anyone else has had to do a special election, uh, since they switched their election dates to November, but he will say he's no longer sexually required to handle special elections. Uh, and and that's partially true, partially not true. He still would be required to provide a lot of assistance to the city clerk. In in theory though, nightmare scenario, Paul did not want to help. Uh which I don't think he would do that. He's a very reasonable person. He's only charged the city obviously, but uh he would he would probably make the services available. If he didn't, Miss Miss Barnes would have to handle and her staff uh some of the work and she would have to be trained up by Mr. Lux on how to do that. But uh that's the one type of election he still would have to help out with the normal city elections. And if he picked a special election to occur on one of those special like a like a normal date like a March, August or November date still, then he would still be need to cover those.

Yeah. I'm thinking more about the special elections and the possibility of having to do a lot of referendum as you can see we're already doing. Miss Barnes, have y'all ever done an election? No, sir. I mean, let me rephrase that. years and years ago before the state law changed, the clerk's office did handle it. So, I don't remember the year that that changed, but I was not here. Okay. Thank you, sir. Any other questions here for Mr. Burns on the side? Would anyone from the public like to speak on this? Mr. Locker.

Yes. Kirby Locker, 13 Wes Lane, Fort Long Beach. Sometimes it's good to watch sausage being made than being up there w making it. Before I get started, I want to thank Councilman Schmidt for recommending to work on the citizens advisory board uh for the transportation committee. So, uh I'll be pushing the round amount as hard as I can from that end. So, thank you. Um, I remember when we first talked about this, I was actually on the city council and we had Paul Lots come in here when he talked about this particular issue. But first of all, I'm I'm neither for nor against. Yeah, I I see plus and minuses to to move it and I see some uh minuses if we do move move it. But one of the things he did say was that uh if it happens in November, and it could be one of those ballots where there's a lot of things going on on the ballot, our stuff is going to be at the end of that ballot. And he called it what uh voter fall off, where voters will get halfway through the ballot and say, "I'm done." and and and um but you could compensate that because there might be more people who turn out for that. So something to think about when you decide to uh to do this. Um, I'm so glad you asked that question because that was one of the the number the second question I was going to ask as far as extending the uh term limits because if in an example would have been if we had the election normally on March 27th and we slipped it to November the 28th that's almost well over a year and a half extension. would that fall in uh contrary to our charter of term limits where you extend beyond your eight years if you could do that? But I'm glad you asked that

question. [Applause] [Laughter] Well, anyway, that I just want to throw that out uh as you contemplate this issue, but uh like I said, I don't I see plus and minuses on on both, but uh there is an there is a real issue about voter turnoff. Thank you, sir. [Applause] Anyone else from the public wish to speak on this side?

Mr. Leelitz, James Leovich, Canterbury Circle for Walton Beach. I'm speaking as a citizen, not as a representative of anything. And having said that, that's a great looking trophy you have right there. Um, I'm I'm speaking in opposition to moving the election. By moving the election, you're choosing quantity over quality. Uh you're you're you're going to you're inviting people to vote that doesn't know a single person that don't know any of your names. You're denying your own name recognition. You're throwing a bit of your campaigning away cuz it won't matter. And these people that are going to vote show up to vote for president or senator won't even know a city council election is is happening. and you're asking those people to decide who sits where you're sitting. Um I'm I'm opposed to it. I have other reasons but I don't uh [Applause] one of the things I was reading on this they were trying to compare us to Destin and to Cresby. We were looking at those as the models since they've already done it and I I don't the reason we have beach in our name the word beach was added in 1953 and the reason given at that time was to distinguish ourselves from other places with Walton in our name. We are distinctly Fort Walton Beach. The city's founders wanted us to carve our own path. I don't want to look at Destin. I don't want to look at Crest View. I want to be uniquely Fort Walton Beach. And uh if we are going to move, if if I can't sway you and and the voters the referend, I would at least hope you guys would put the D's, the Rs, and the I's next to your name so that the ill-informed voter will at least have a general idea as to your your leanings. That's all I have.

Thank you, sir. Anyone else from the public wish to speak on this item? Seeing none, council, do you wish to take any action? Mr. Mayor so move to move forward with the proposed referendum that tonight doesn't move any election date, but the proposed referendum ordinance gives the people an opportunity to choose whether or not they want to move it on the March 2026 ballot to go along with whatever council approves from from the charter amendment recommendations to go along with that. Second

motion by Councilman Schmidt, seconded by Councilman Walker to make those changes and uh put it up to the people. Any additional comments?

Yeah. Um you know, the voter fatigue, we we've heard about that. Um, but that that data point on the bottom of that voter fatigue ballot is going to be about three times higher than the current structure that we're at. I think it's a very slippery slope to state that there's a faction of registered voters from the Fort Walton Beach that's quality, not quantity. Um, I think that's something that we have to be cautious on whenever we're candidates and we're going out to lobby for your mission of your campaign of why you're running. You got to get out there. Now, if if the voter if the election were to change in November, you got to go out there and really work even harder to get out to cover 30 to 40% of the voters. Right now, you got to get out to about 10% of the voters. So, I'm making the argument that the candidate in the future would have to work harder to advertise and to promote what they're running for. Also too, the voter while they're studying their county or their state or their national candidates also doing their homework for this city council election. I think a real voter fatigue is after they go through an exhausting nationwide campaign and turn around and they see a whole bunch more signs in January and February that have to do with another election that historically our record has been like 11% voter turnout and I'd like to see that that go that number go up.

Thank you sir. Anyone else wish to comment on the motion? I do. Um, very very well stated, Councilman Schmidt, and I kind of want to answer my own question here because I asked about the ordinance and the and then the charter amendment. And

prior to recent history, I would say that the reason we would want to go to the charter is because theoretically it's more difficult to ever change that if it's by ordinance. The next council come in and they change, they change it. Well, as we're experiencing here with the charter review committee, we see that a what should have been a very difficult thing to overcome. It it appears as though it's moving forward out of the charter review committee um with quite ease um that they've recommended the charter amendments that were passed by voters be overturned, repealed, and exceeded by 150% some odd number. Um, so I'm definitely in favor of a U charter amendment as opposed to an ordinance. It's uh uh and hopefully one day we can return to the period where it is very difficult uh to overturn the recently passed charter referendums. So thank you.

Thank you, sir. Anyone else wishing Mr. Brown? Yeah, I'm not going to support it for the same question that I had about Pock's office helping us. I mean, the voter fatigue, I understand. I I I actually agree with you with the the percentage of the falloff is going to be a lot more. We're still going to have a lot more people, but we still don't have the means or anything to do our own election if Paul Lux doesn't want to do it. I know it's if he doesn't want to do it, but he doesn't have to. So, you know, so for those reasons, I'm not going to support it. Thank you, sir. Anyone else wish to comment? Councilman Merrell,

I agree with Mr. Browning. I and Mr. Lieovitz, you said it. We um I would I would I would not use the term quality over quantity. I think when people go out to vote, it's a quality voter. Uh it's hard enough to get people out to vote, but I do think when you talk big government, you get into the big names, you get into the campaigns of on a national level, that name recognition that that overshadows and when you get 20 bullet points down and you're running, we talked about sovereignty. We talked about small government. I would say the word is engaged. If we have people that are watching what's going on with the city, if we there's a there's a reason the voter turnout's 11%. It's because government is boring and you know and it's it's hard to keep track of everything that's going on. And it takes effort to be engaged. And if you're engaged with your city, I think that it's important that we isolate that and separate that for those and everybody. The thing is 100% of every resident, they're welcome to come out and vote. They're invited to come out and vote. I hope they come out and vote, but to kind of drown out in that in those big national elections, I think that that hurts us as a city. So,

thank you, sir. Councilman Jeter, I'm going to support the motion. Uh, and it by supporting the motion, I feel like it puts everybody uh at the same table. Like Mr. Lachler said, I don't really don't have a dog in fight. And like Mr. Lewick said, you get better quality of people in March. I get all that. So, we've championed this for two or three years, too, and tried to get this across the finish line. We've had Paul Luck do a presentation. We've had other municipalities around us go forward with this. So putting it should it pass on a referendum on a ballot in March allowing our voters to vote if they want to move it or not. Let's let them decide. Thank you sir. Anyone else wish to call?

Councilman Mr. Barry I'm going to lobby towards you for a little bit. Pardon? I'm sorry. I'm going to lobby towards you for a little bit. Okay. I'm hoping to get your your fourth vote. How do you feel about this? Yeah. Uh, listen. I'm fascinating right now. At first, I I I I wanted it to be um to get the numbers in November, you know, and I remember the this last election. I didn't experience voter fatigue voting for the president and and all that. All but but this is me. This is this is I'm speaking about me. the red hat.

And the red hat. Yeah. Uh I I I want the numbers, but look what we saw with March when those charter amendments, you know, I uh came out the we had and I remember myself, I I knocked on over like I I said before many many times over 4,000 doors and I talked to them and and and and discussed it, you know, and and and look how it turned out. So,

well, all I'm asking for you tonight is is to move forward with this so that the people can decide to check one box or the other. They either want to do it in March, they either want to do it in November. And what an opportunity that the people have an opportunity to choose. That's all we're asking for. That's all we're asking for. So I hope to get your support to just move forward with the referendum

opportunity for the people to vote in March 2026 with the other charter referendums that this board is going to also be pushing out for the opportunity for people to choose whether or not they want it. So again asking for your support to to move forward with this motion. Anyone from the other team want another to directly log in Mr. I was I'm impressed that you Mr. I'll say more people are in town in March which is what she pointed out last time. You're right Mr. Mr. making a very valid point last time

but those desert visitors that's a good way to remind Councilman W. Yeah, sure. I I'll lobby Miss Riley and Mr. Deary um in some serious points there. And it's interesting to see you guys go back and forth on it. And um Mr. Jeter brought up a good point of the way he presented it about it being on it's going to be on the ballot is is it cuz those that are opposed to this at this time they're saying that November is not going to be as good but of a turnout or quality. I've heard it said it several several different ways, but come March when this mo if this motion passes, it will be before those very smart voters in March that are limited, that are engaged, and they can tell us if they want it to be moved to November. They will tell us. We'll listen to the will of them. And so I I'll continue to lobby Miss Riley and Miss Deberry. uh that I think that's a great place to let it start and die or start and move forward. So, thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Although it got a little condescending at the end, I thought it was really good. Honestly, that was a very on my own. I thought it was a very good point, Miss R.

To expound on on uh what Mr. almost just I'm sad for for me uh honestly um I've always looked at the the November election as getting more voters coming to the poll and and I know it's the you know primaries and big elections and you know come out in November you tend to get more people to the polls um however I was in the um you know in the chamber when um Mr. Lux was talking about, you know, uh he did say a fallout, the the voter fallout, you know, at the end of the the ballot in November. But um my my thing is, you know, I would like to see more voters come to the poll because our our March election, we really don't have that many. I would love to see a significant increase and voter turnout in in March. But what I what I can tell you though, um I'm kind of twixed in between a little bit on it. But I'm okay because one thing that you did say and and and I firmly believe this and you know I've said it several times, democracy is for the people by the people of the people. And so if it if that is the the case and we truly believe that and we you know we truly have faith that that and democracy really work for us then I don't have a problem with it. Let the people vote. Let's hear the voices of the people if we if March is I can I can do that. Great. I'm comfortable with doing that.

All right. Okay. All right. Everyone's had a chance to speak. I got one more just just for Mr. Walker. I never question anybody's intelligence or any reasons to vote in November versus March or March versus November. I stated because we've never held an election and it's going to be on us to do it. That's that's the reason why I'm opposed to the motion.

Gotcha. 10. Thank you. All right. Council, please vote. Motion does carry 5 to two. That's a quality of discussion. That was a nice shot. Uh, all right. That moves us to mercifully city manager reports. All right.

Kind of a long report, but I'll burn through it fairly quickly. So, uh, we will be submitting a white paper to League of Cities and ICMA based on our experiences with this 3% cap. And here's some things, you know, we're what, 14 days in. Um, parks is struggling with it. May turn to be a blessing that we didn't partner with the little league because the concern is we're not going to be able to add uniforms if the if the we can't grow the program. So, we're kind of capped there on the the number of kids because if it grows, we we only budgeted x amount of dollars. So unless I line item things over. Uh some of the maintenance issues that we have, the prices are going up based on what we've historically paid. So we got to fix some locks and some lighting and some pumps and all those numbers are a little bit higher than they historically have been. Uh and we're our chef can't cook. So Jacob out at the golf course killing it, right? um concerned that we're going to run out of stuff for the pro shop and can't buy board to fill the pro shop. Our trackman killing it. The numbers are just outrageous. We're going to which sounds cool, right? But we're going to run with golf balls. You can't buy golf balls because if you golf like me, you're hitting golf balls that way. So, we're going to potentially run with golf balls before we can replenish the golf balls. um you know, he's getting creative with the revenues, but that doesn't allow us to buy more. So, we're actually working against what we're trying to do in terms of turn that into an enterprise fund. You know, I I anticipated a 3 to 5 year. It's probably going to bump that out to a four to six year now depending on if we where some of this goes or it just may never turn into an enterprise fund. It's always going to be supplemented if we keep going down this track.

uh police, you know, they had an issue with amendment three with uh the photo enforcement. The state's very specific on how the funds are have to be spent and it's basically been Mr. Burns and Nicole and and Chief Beige unfortunately putting a lot of time in trying to figure out what to do, which it sounds like we're trying to circumvent it, but we're just trying to figure out how we can get the work done and not have to send the money back to the state. Um, so some things that are going on there, the grants that we're getting, basically what I've had to ask all of the department heads to do is stop what you're doing, interrupt the the finance team, and make sure we're not going to put us in a a situation where we we violate that that contract. So, we're we're experiencing some inefficiencies there as well. So, just whatever stuff we're tracking. Um, moving on to the fun stuff now. New director, Mr. Flair is here. If you haven't met him, say hi. He's super cool. Uh we, you know, Mr. Payne, I or sorry, Mr. Walker,

I get it all the time.

Yeah. No, I when I send you emails, I got to double check every single time because it it automatically pops populates one of you. Anyway, uh we had briefly discussed a workshop on some of the code enforcement stuff and I I think we're going to do it anyway. You know, Chief's been putting some stuff together because we want to get input from the public and maybe our codes are too much. So, we'll bring back a recommendation of sorts at one point. So, we are working on that. Um, golf clap andor meats and cheeses are due to the CRA team for the winning the Carson project. They are actually that's why they're not here. They are at the conference accepting the first place prize for their Carson project museum. Devon's going to post it, but that uh should be opening up November 1st. Did that sound right? Yep. Yep. November 1st. So, uh, well ahead of schedule after Mr. Payne took over the construction project from the contractor that we had to let go. Um, got to take two seconds and virtually high five. If I had three thumbs, I'd give this dude all three thumbs. John Griffo, he is the GM of JVC Broadcasting. Uh, Chief and I met with him um at his property after there was some, you know, one of our code sweeps and we found adult beverages and clothes and food containers up under some trees and he trimmed those trees up and was super great to work with and he had shared some of the concern because he has staff that comes neither really early or stays way late. So it's it's just a much more safer it's principles uh League of Cities. So we will be hosting League of Cities in January. Uh probably going to be at the golf course so we can demonstrate the Trackman assuming there's golf balls left. this Saturday coming. I think we already spoke about it uh with the cancer Julie in our billing section is kind of championing that. So, we'll be out there at the cancer walk and then next week

chief and I will be going to pick up the accreditation. Where is that? I already forgot for my be in Tampa for ICMA for my required CUS. That's all I got. Thanks, sir. Any questions? Yeah, I do. I just just continue to get clarity on how you guys are applying the 3% um personnel um was one charter amendment the special assessments was the other one and I know that uh excluded was the um capital are golf balls where are golf balls following falling operations correct that's not a capital's anything above $5,000 and above I'm sorry capital's anything $5,000

so you buy them $6,000 dollar worth of balls, right? No, I know it's per ball. It's per item. That's how I know they made some real expensive balls. Yeah. Just wanted to get clarity on where that's coming from. And so and so when something does come up short and and you know, real concern. Um there is a method in the charter amendment that describes how we get more money, right? I mean, isn't it through a referendum? It's not how we get more money. So, for example, just a generic, I'm going to do what's called a lineto line transfer. So, I'm going to steal money out of his gasoline budget to pay for his golf ball budget. Mhm. Potentially. Sure.

I don't know what the answer is yet. We're just navigating it right now, but we're 14 days in or starting to feel the effects, so to speak. We knew it was going to happen, but now we're starting to capture objective data so we can educate people on what actually happens on paper. Sounds awesome, right? But we're we're really handcuffed and we got wizards and we're not letting them do their thing based on Mhm. It is what it is. We'll navigate it. Sure. Great. Okay. Thank you. All right. Um Mr.

U. The only thing I have to report tonight is I did get a request to uh throw this out there and and put it on the proposed ordinance I bring back at the next meeting on the uh compensation amendment. uh there was a request to add insurance in addition to the uh supplemental or uh salary that that the council members will receive. And so um I'm throwing that out there because I'd rather add that now and come in uh with the finished product for you than running the issue became the first reading and decided to add it at that point. You would run into a deadline issue. So, um, I'm not for or against adding insurance to the proposed compensation charter amendment. I was just asked to bring the issue up. And before anyone asks, it was absolutely 100% me that asked about this. I wasn't at the last meeting uh that took place. I didn't get to offer any input or ask any questions or guide any kind of discussions. So I simply when Miss Barnes was recapping the highlights of the prior meeting that Councilman Schmidt as Mayor Perim ran I said was there any discussion regarding insurance being something that was considered again for voters to vote. She said no. So I said would that be something that was possible um that the council would discuss? That was simply where it came from. So rather than adding an actual agenda item and putting all of that together, it was left uh for you guys to discuss and whether you'd want that as an option at the next meeting or not. So if you don't don't do anything, that's fine. If you have any questions, obviously they're probably not for me, but for uh Mr. Burns, Mr.

Davis, or others, Mr. G. I would certainly support it. Um, but I would also support it because again we're going to have multiple readings of this so we can change it. You're just needing to know now before we get to that point on the compensation one though. How on on all of the ballots, you know, I know you can't have multiple choice, but what is the best option to have is it possible or what is the closest way we can get to a multiple choice? Yes or no.

Okay. Not. So there's not even an option of a of a if of a if it's a and here's what I mean by that. I I note that answer. I just if it is a yes. I just hate that it has to be that we decided it on that ballot. And I really do mean that. I'll say with the red light on. I'll say at one of the polling booths. We should get paid. We should get insurance. This is not a free job. I've said that one for three years. But I don't think we should. Is there a way to get around any possible way for us not to decide what that is? Like you decide the council. Uh you mean

I'm just thinking out loud here like is it a I wish it was almost like a flowchart. Do you think council could get compensated? Yes. Okay. Then you go here. Do you think they should get a million dollars? Absolutely not. Then you go here. Do you think they should get a Does that make sense? I just don't like putting it out there. Like I would rather just discuss and it it besides being questionably illegal, you you would result in an issue of the possibility of you know getting conflicting amendments passed that don't make sense when compared to each other.

Okay. So then the flip side of that coin is is do you ask for 1,000 or 2,000 or that and compensation and there is a tipping point between yeah that's too much. Everybody has that but obviously it's not zero. So I guess it's going to be up to us over the next two readings. It's going to be up to us to listen to the people and decide what that is. Whether it's 1,000, 2,000 insurance, this or that. We've got to decide that. If you're looking for a creative solution to insurance, you could just have a separate charter amendment provision that says council also gets insurance. There you go. That's a yes or no question.

So, we got two. There we go. Now, it's kind of like multiple choice. You can have insurance as one. You can have compensation with a number being the other. So, it's either no compensation or this, no insurance or this. You might get both, you might not get none. You've asked two questions. Correct. That that'd be the only solution really to do what you're asking. I would support that. So, Mr. Burns, do you want it just like a an show of hands or actual motion to say y'all y'all can show hands and I'll feel confident that I didn't make the decision myself to put it on there? Just just as again just as an option that you can add in there for a potential language for voters to for minutes purposes. Miss Barnes prefers a motion. So,

wasn't she just as spoils? I just said I could put in a motion. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, to Mr. Jeter's question, sorry. Yeah. Go ahead. To Mr. Jeter's question, I mean, another option cuz I heard the charter committee brought it up was compensation as a paycheck or insurance. Could that be one where the where the uh council member could choose between receiving a check or having the insurance package? They could. Yeah. you know that that could work too

cuz in good faith, you know, I know where we stand. I still think there was I believe that vote and I'm going to stand by what I said. There was no there's no option to say, "Hey, maybe maybe something that there's a reduction." So, I I wouldn't support going from going to a raise from where it previously was based on how that vote went. I think something more palatable would be where there was a reduction But still, I agree with you. There's just something. But I don't know. I don't think in good faith I could go we're getting $1,000 and insurance when previously voted against it was $400. So maybe I don't fall away where you're at. But I would say in good faith I'd like us to see stay somewhere where we're meeting the voters

that and or that also would not conflict if y'all decided y'all wanted to be either money or insurance. Anyone else with a question? I I have a question. Historically speaking, how has the council handled that? Has it been an option? Either the insurance or do you want you know uh compensation

historically? I mean I can answer I can certainly answer that question myself as well. So in the past the council did have the option to uh accept insurance through the city of Fort Long Beach or not. Many council members or and mayors over the past had had Triricare, for example, and didn't need city insurance or had insurance to their own private employer or on a spouse's insurance. So, that was up to the council member. every council member did receive a stipen or paycheck of roughly $400 per month um from the city whether you wanted it or not as others have tried in the past to donate that or have the city donate that. It presented all sorts of legal issues with the city donating the money and all those other things. But you know many people have gotten the money and given it to charity or many people have used it and kept it for their living expenses as being compensated for doing a job that is very thankless and takes many many hours. So um it's certainly been everyone's option to choose what they wanted in the past. Now obviously it's it's not and that's what the discussion is to that I'm

yeah I was just you know you throw out you know about do you want health insurance do you want compensation but I I guess in all astrality I was just looking at it as an option on the you know on the council at any rate you know even with your job they you know they're going to off you know they offer you your health you know insurance your compensation obviously

but you And most people look at the fringe benefit of things. So, you know, and they really, you know, really will take a and most times will take a a pay cut to get the fringe benefits. So, you know, I just was wondering and you know, how has it not been not in the past, you know, and regardless, you know, I guess a person would have the option to say yay or nay whether they want insurance, don't want insurance. If you got it, you probably wouldn't want it, right? compensation, you know, but most I don't Most councils do compensate though, right? Am I wrong on that? I mean, I don't know. It'd be hard to say if Well, they don't compensate. Some do, some don't. Dustin doesn't. Okay.

Some do, some don't. Councilman Schmid, you wanted to Yeah. So, if this were to pass, would it take effect in March 2026 or October? Well, I uh It'll take effect immediately. Immediately. Got.

All right. The I I I still have concerns about this, especially if this was very uh very close from passing in the November ballot. Uh you know, if it if it passes, however it chooses it to go, I have concerns if the cap of the 3% doesn't pass. And we're increasing more and more and more to that operational side of the house. And that's going to put staff in on top of other concerns that Mr. Davis just recently brought up, whether it's possibly the property tax deal or the unknown about the TDC or the tourism tax and then this operational cost of you know getting stipens and now insurance. So that's that's where I'm at.

You could uh no matter if y'all come down the night on an or solution or doing two separate amendments like Mr. Jer suggested y'all could put something in both of those amendments that says and also a exception will be added to the chart the budget charter amendment if it's still in existence and you could have that work you know the council member's salary or insurance whatever it is would be a exception to the that's a tough sale that's just a suggestion yeah I appreciate the suggestion but man that's tough to tell our staff that man we're We're carved out. We're exceptions to the to the law, but right, but you're not. That operational side is a tough sale. Anyhow,

Mr. Brown, thanks for the advice. Mr. Burns, just for clarification, similar to moving the election, we're not actually changing anything. We're putting this into the hands of the people to make that decision. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Of which they've already made. November. Is there a motion though? We're just miss and just as a reminder too, I don't know even if some of the council member knows the mayor's salary in the past has been when they did have a salary. It was slightly higher than the council members.

Right. What do you remember the good old days before? We haven't talked about prom stip retroactive 5 years. That's it. Mayor America says that more. That's right. We don't want to cut out. We just signed him up for a prayer breakfast. That's it. That's it. Well, I see the mayor getting a little bit higher compensation than council. All right. All right. So,

before we close this topic and gladly go home, would anyone like to make a motion to ask the city of Turan to include an option like this? Motion to include an option. Second. A motion by the or a or Okay. Councilman Jeter, second by Councilman Merrill to bring us back an additional option including an or option of insurance or compensation. Any additional comments? Uh, Councilman.

Yeah. So, um, as Councilman Merrill mentioned there, and I'd seen it written in an article recently, I think the $250,000 was the amount Miss Neighbors had mentioned that previously compensation and insurance was running taxpayers. And then with the charter reviews recommendation to only do $1,000, it was pitched or sold whatever as $84,000 expense. And now we're talking about insurance either or. So just who made the motion was council Jeter? Would would that be a a a would that be limited to $84,000 um as would you know the $1,000 if that number is right? And I don't know if it is um by just reducing I mean are you limiting the uh the expense to taxpayers with your motion or is it unlimited? because obviously insurance is more than a th000 a month. So

the plain meaning of the words if I just add insurance for the salary it'll be uh it won't be limited to $1,000 of insurance. Right. So, it's kind of along those lines and I didn't know if you know that was your intent or not is because I mean if a a future if it does go before voters and if it does pass and a future council um you they're like do you want $1,000 or do you want $3,000 a month insurance is like I'll take the insurance you know and then that's back on taxpayers at as opposed to the th000 that is being you know pitched or savings. Um I think $84,000 was the number. So anyway, just wanted to hear from the motioner if that was limiting or non-limiting.

Non-limiting. Okay, gotcha. Anyone else with a comment? I do. And said more and not limit. You made the motion. I think you know. You know how I feel about that motion. You asked me to limit it. No, I would not. Mr. All right, let's [Applause]

Can we add a ballot question to limit meeting length 52? It does. All right. Uh, God bless America. Let's go. Final comments here for the council. We start tonight with Councilman. Yes, sir. Councilman Harold,

really quick, I did a I got to do a ride along my first department ride along with growth management and got to kind of get a look inside. If anybody remembers what I ran on, I was uh you know, I started kind of frustrated with growth management. Um but getting to see it from another side, uh I see what a great job they do. I run along with Josh Stevens. Got to see um you know, some improvements that have been made with Mr. Davis already that has taken some things off uh their plate. Uh there's a new director there with Tim and yeah just seeing what they do and seeing it from that side of it instead of as a citizen like butting heads trying to get something done. I understood where he come where he was coming from and you we had a nice discussion about all that and uh and yeah, I think they do a great job. So kudos to what they're doing. I look forward to I've already started to talk to some of the other departments. Look forward to riding along and learning more about how the whole system works for our city. Thank you, sir. Miss Riley,

I just want to um thank all of the department heads that are um here and um ones that are not here. Um just to tell you all that, you know, I often time do think about your jobs and how hard it is really sometimes, you know, you get boggled down in and a lot and it's sometimes it can be overwhelming, but I just wanted to to thank all of you for the work that you do. Um, I see it, you know, I mean, I see you, you know, every day, but I I but I I I see it. And I just want to tell you all that u I wholeheartedly appreciate everything that you all do, all of you, all of the department heads and including our city manager. Thank you. Very nicely said, Mr. Riley, Councilman Schmidt.

Yeah, I'm going to continue to compliment the clinic city minimal coast initiative. Um, you know, again, back to continuous improvement. We heard Mr. today was talk about a possible workshop in the future to discuss some some code. But, you know, just shout out to uh police and and Troy and I know y'all are out there probably getting a lot of push back and a lot of compliments too. But, right, it's leadership, you know, but to change a culture, to change the environment of a city, especially where we've been to where we want to go is going to take a lot of growing pains. And again, thank you, Mr. Davis, for the vision of this program and executing it and our team executing it. Um, whether it's on the social media or in person, the amount of disrespect I'm sure our team gets through doing some of these is is a challenge. So, thank you. I know thank yous don't cash checks or do anything like that but just keep working towards changing the culture of the city of Falton Beach that so many residents have been quiet on the sidelines just assuming that it was never going to change and there's a lot of residents that are waking up and saying thank you to us for doing this kind of stuff. So thank you. That's all I got. Mr. Mayor,

thank you Councilman Wilson. Mr. Walker. Yeah, I I meant to say it in my earlier and I'm sad that I didn't, but it's now my chance. Today is a special day that um we uh the nation has and Trump just I was just reading here, Trump has awarded Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Uh Mr. Kirk has inspired me um not only to continue in boldness, but in to increase in faith and know that the Lord's got a plan for um all of the things that are going on in our world. And it's it's local. it it's between us. It's it's in the community and I know the Lord is at work and I know that Charlie would uh um speak uh that. So, I'd like to just take a moment of silence if we could and recognize Charlie and the impact he's had on um the nation.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, sir. Uh Mr. Brown. Okay. Miss Barnes, I'd like to add an agenda item for the next meeting, and it's to to discuss uh the city's future plans for the child care services that we provide for our citizens, kind of what's going on with that. That's all that. Thank you, sir.

Mr. Um, yes. Uh, I'd like to uh commend uh uh you u uh city manager Jason with the uh citizens academy. I've gotten a lot of feedback. Uh we've only had one meeting, but I've been getting a lot of feedback. And the police academy, I I enjoyed that uh earlier this year and uh and people that are in there now, they want more and and they says, "When do when do we sign up? When do we sign up more?" And and I'm here I I'll pay you a compliment on this also. Uh and I I don't know if you got the idea from Jared from uh Mary Esester, but having them uh meet with people and having coffee at the library uh one morning a month, you know, that means a lot to them. I'm getting a lot of feedback on that and that means a lot to them. So, thank you for that.

Thank you, ma'am. Very well said. Uh, and finally, I would just add the something we mentioned earlier, the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, the Emerald Coast event is this Saturday at Northwest Florida State College. It starts at 8:00 a.m. Even if you are not participating in it, you can come by and just show your support. Um, a round of applause or two for everyone that's out there walking around and uh raising money for an incredible cause is great. And this week here in the city of Fort Walden Beach, think pink week. So, if you whether you have a ribbon uh like some of our council members or members of the audience or if you have a beautiful pink shirt like our city manager, wear it and show your support for uh breast cancer awareness during this month of October. Thanks to everybody who stayed along. We're adjourned.