City Council - Regular Meeting

Please rise for an invocation by Reverend C.

Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Micah 6.8 says, He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Let us pray. Gracious God, as we gather tonight as neighbors and members of this community, we give you thanks for the opportunity to come together, to listen, to learn, and to work toward the good of Port Orange. As a new school year begins, we pray for the children and young people in our community, for curious minds, courage, good friends, and teachers who inspire. Bless the parents, teachers, and staff who care for them and remind us that their well-being belongs to all of us. We also gather a day after an election, whatever our choices may have been, remind us that we remain neighbors. Help us to resist division and to make room for one another's voices. Give us the humility to listen before we speak, the wisdom to disagree with respect, and the willingness to seek what is best for the whole community rather than our individual needs. Bless those who serve this town in our schools, our churches, our businesses, our public offices, and in the many quiet ways that often go unnoticed. Give our leaders wisdom, our citizens patience, and all of us a spirit of cooperation. May this meeting be marked by honesty, respect, and a genuine desire to make our community stronger. Guide the conversations tonight and remind us of all that we share. Help us to listen well, speak graciously, and appreciate the gift of being part of this great community. We ask this in your name. Amen. Amen.

Thank you very much. And now, Pledge of Allegiance by the Volusia Young Marines. Come on up.

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. And young Marines, if you guys could just hang tight for just one second. I'm going to have you come up here to the mic. Come on up here to the mic. Before you take off, introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about you. What school do you go to?

My name is Yomarine Private Caldwell, and I go to Creative Pathways in Edgewater, Florida.

How old are you?

16, sir.

Do you have any idea what you want to do after high school?

Go to the Marine Corps, sir.

Thank you very much for being here. Yes, sir. How about you, my friend?

My name is Jacques.

Where do you go to school?

I go to Covenant Christian Academy.

All right. What grade are you in?

Sixth.

Sixth grade. All right. You got a job yet?

No, sir. No? Okay.

You have any interest in what you might want to do once you get out of high school?

Go into the military.

Outstanding. Very well. Well, thank you for being here as well.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Let's give him a hand, guys. All right. the clerk called a role councilman foley councilman getford here councilman green here vice mayor here mayor still here thank you guys for being in attendance i always love it when we have uh young people here in our in our chambers especially those who like get a chance to get them to come up and have to do a little public speaking i think being able to speak in public is is a great gift and it can also be a skill set that can be learned early Speaking of public speakers who have no problem speaking in public, moves us to item number four, the elected officials roundtable subcommittee stormwater mitigation report by our Daytona Beach Shores Mayor, Nancy Miller.

Well, hello. Well, hello there. Thank you. I feel like I'm here pretty often. It's always great having you. Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council. Again, I am Nancy Miller, the Mayor of Daytona Beach Shores, as well as the co-chair of the Flooding Subcommittee. And my co-chair, that I think somebody you know pretty well, is not here this evening, but Jake Johansen. So we are co-chairing that and it is a subcommittee. It was a collaborative countywide initiative to address flooding that includes the county and all of our municipalities. So about 18 months ago, Jake and I realized from being at the roundtable of elected officials that everyone on the flooding issue was doing standalone. we thought if we brought everyone together and collaborated on that how much more could we do so um i am so happy to say that our assistant manager robert robin fenwick And your engineer, Juno Reed, have been an integral part of that. They've brought along the lessons that Port Orange has learned, talked a little bit. What I'm going to talk about here is some of the money that Port Orange received from Transform 386. One of the reasons that I want to do this is I still go around to different municipalities and they're saying, nothing's being done about the flooding. No one's doing anything. So I'm just trying to show that, yes, we are. And you are one of the prime examples of all the work that's being done. And when I talk about the Transform 386 grants that you got, you were one of the highest and you've done so much. So I want to make sure that your residents know how much work you're doing. So right now in Port Orange, major stormwater improvement projects are underway, including Sugar Forest. Sleepy Hollow drainage improvements with new stormwater ponds planned for Pontalna and Powers Avenue area. Together, these projects are designed to improve drainage, reduce localized flooding, and better protect homes, businesses, and other properties during significant rain events. Again, so these are things that are being done that maybe a lot of the residents don't see, aren't aware of, but I want to make sure that you guys get credit for everything that you're doing. you're also going to be conducting a b-19 canal flood study and developing the nova canal watershed management plan to better understand existing flood risk and identify and prioritize potential long-term improvements Again, what we're doing now, we're hoping long term. I think some of the things that maybe were ignored, not ignored, but we weren't as proactive as we now. I think all eyes are focused on this now and we're seeing some action. So all these efforts combined with the stormwater modeling, with on the ground infrastructure improvements, allowing Port Orange to known flooding concerns while also planning for the community's future needs. So I am so happy to say through Transform 386 alone, Port Orange received more than $22 million, and it's been allocated towards these projects in addition to funding provided through other sources. Transform 386 is just for flooding, stormwater, reservoirs, retention ponds, and all that money that has been given to each city, I've heard people say, well, is it going to be used for this? No, it's for flooding, and that is it. So thank you again for that. These projects represent the careful planning and engineering work that's helping identify long-term solutions to flooding challenges throughout the community. Now I want to talk a little bit about not only in Port Orange, but where else are we doing projects? So this is just an example of 28 infrastructure projects and 28 basin studies that are currently underway throughout the county. I also want to take the opportunity to highlight an exciting new resource that was launched last month through the collaborative efforts of Volusia County, our subcommittee and all 16 municipalities. And I'm sure Robin is familiar with this. We've talked about it for so many months and it took us a while to launch it, but it's an interactive tool. And I'll tell you a little bit more about it. So it's a stormwater resilience dashboard. It's going to give residents a single place to explore the work taking place across our region to reduce flood risks, improve drainage, and strengthen our stormwater infrastructure. You can view this at www.volusia.gov. and it whether it's a capital project maintenance or any projects that might be coming along when you go to this site and put in your address you can look out and see what maintenance is being done in that area what projects might be coming which ones are complete so again it's just informing our residents that yes we are doing that we're working on it I just want to let you know that from the beginning our subcommittee has recognized that flooding doesn't stop at city limits and neither should our efforts to address it. The dashboards, all of the studies done, and all of the projects are examples of what can be accomplished when local governments work together towards a common goal. So when we work together, we share information. And I'm sure Robin will attest to that. A part of this is, again, lessons learned. So we go around the table and say, how much money did you receive? What are you doing with it? And that helps other people, other cities say, that's maybe something that we can do again. So sharing ideas. So I want to give you a better look at how that partnership is making a difference. And I will close by sharing a short video highlighting the subcommittee's work and our collective approach we're taking to strengthen stormwater resiliency through Volusia County.

When it comes to flooding in Volusia County, the problem goes beyond a single jurisdiction and the challenge isn't just water, it's coordination.

Stormwater systems cross city boundaries, funding programs overlap, and decisions made in one place often affect communities downstream.

That's why Volusia County and all 16 of our cities participate. in the elected officials roundtable flooding subcommittee.

This group exists to ensure elected officials and key staff are talking to each other, sharing information and making informed decisions with regional perspective, not in isolation.

It's all about aligning priorities, understanding constraints, and recognizing how individual actions fit into a larger system.

The subcommittee focuses on shared standards, coordinated planning, and consistent approaches to stormwater management.

Members review flooding hotspots, discuss regulatory frameworks, coordinate stormwater studies, and identify opportunities to pursue grants together.

That collaboration helps avoid duplication, improves competition for funding, and ensures resources are used where they can have the greatest impact.

That collaboration and coordinated approach is already producing results.

Through the federally funded Transform 386 initiative, local governments across Volusia County have secured funding for more than 25 stormwater infrastructure and mitigation projects as well as 30 stormwater studies totaling over a hundred and ten million dollars.

These investments reflect shared planning, data-driven decision-making, and regional cooperation.

While long-term planning is essential, day-to-day operations still matter and the flooding subcommittee also focuses on maintenance.

We work with our cities and Volusia County drains, managing ponds, and improving the flow, all to reduce flooding impacts whenever possible. This work is transparent, happens in the open, and is making a difference.

Subcommittee meetings are open to the public and updates are shared through news releases, social media, a dedicated webpage, and the flood and stormwater mitigation newsletter.

On behalf of Mayor Miller, I would like to thank the leadership and elected officials from each city for supporting and participating in the subcommittee. No single local government can solve flooding alone.

But when we work together, share responsibility and stay engaged, we're all better positioned to manage risk, build long-term resilience and serve the collective community. Thank you so much for having me there. I want to give an update. So far, it's been $400 million that has been granted to Volusia County for this project. And I hope you can see by the video all the work that's being done, not only in Port Orange, but all across our county. Thank you so much for having me here this evening.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Don't run off quite just yet. If you would, for just a moment, I'll give all these guys up here a chance to make some comments as well. I just want to start off with elected official for quite some time and i've gotten to know most all of our municipal and our county level elected officials from oak hill all the way to ormond beach much like you have and then even in the west side of the county there may be somebody who works as equally hard as you do but i can assure you there's nobody that outworks you thank you and and uh sometimes you know when i'm talking to to people and they're asking about what's it like being an elected official or know what all do you do and what all are you involved in a lot of times i talk about nancy miller and i'll say look here's the reality some elected officials they're they're going to do the bare minimums that they're required to do and other elected officials will certainly be involved in lots of other committees and lots of other uh components that can aid to not only what they do but for the greater good of the region and i just want to say that that that man you i don't know how you do it i i only get good lord has only given me 24 hours in a day clearly he is giving you more hours in a day i don't know how that happens but but um i just want to say that on behalf of the residents of port orange and all of volusia county that we want to say thank you and how much we appreciate your hard work ethic outside of Daytona Beach Shores as well as inside of Daytona Beach Shores. And it's a pleasure and honor to have you as a neighboring mayor. We've always had a great relationship with your city. You know, in terms of the flooding and stormwater mitigation, You know, not a week goes by, it seems like, that you don't turn the national news on and see a major flooding event going on in the United States. 56 years old and I've seen natural disasters. I've seen flooding events and I just don't ever remember seeing the frequency of that. And whether it's, you know, recently in Missouri, Texas, Indiana, Ohio, now in Hawaii. I mean, we are seeing a change in the planet conditions and atmospheric conditions and storms are stronger. They yield more rain than any of us have ever seen. It comes in a very short amount of time and a very high volume. And so, you know, it is definitely something that has to stay on the forefront and you have championed that. And the other thing is, is the speed of which things happen. And you're right. We would love to put shovels in the ground instantly.

Right.

But many times, as we have learned and we have seen all over the country, acting too quickly creates more problems and sometimes a bigger problem. And so there is a process to that. And the biggest process of that is the funding. We've got to raise the money. The money's got to come somewhere. And I appreciate you mentioning our staff because you're right. Our staff has worked diligently. They can tell you that we are constantly asking them, where else can we find money? Where else can we find money? Because the reality of it is, is cities like you know, Ormond Beach and Port Orange and New Smyrna and Dayton Beach Shores and Ponce Inlet, those funds are very limited. And these projects are massively expensive. I mean, some of these projects by themselves break $25 million. Well, there's not $25 million laying in any room in City Hall, I promise you. So those funds have to come and they have to come over time. They have to come consistently. you have done an amazing job of helping to put together the relationships in Tallahassee, as well as regionally, that it takes to stay the course, because you don't always get what you want. I had somebody say, you know, oh, Governor DeSantis said there's this massive surplus in Tallahassee. I said, well, We appreciate his support and the funding we got, but it is what we all need, you know? And so that's great if there's that huge surplus of funds, but it doesn't always just come as easy as you think. Oh, well, you need $60 million to do all the projects in Port Orange. You just go to Tallahassee and ask for $60 million.

It doesn't happen like that.

So all that to say that I truly appreciate the relationships, the time and the effort that you put in behind the scenes. And you're right. There is so much residents never see. And I totally appreciate the residents' concerns and interest and fears to have it done yesterday. We are all on the same sheet of music with that. The reality of it is things have got to be engineered. They've got to be funded. They've got to go through that process. And we are making them all happen as fast as possible throughout all of Volusia County. So I truly appreciate that. I just want to say thank you for all you've done. Thank you so much, Mayor. Stay in the course on that because there's a lot of work left to do.

And before we go on, I do want to say, Mayor, you brought up a good point, too. This is not the end-all, be-all. This is just a giant first step. I mean, if I won't even say the H word, if another one, do I ensure that there'll be absolutely no more flooding? Absolutely not. But at least we're starting on the path where we need to be. But thank you. Agreed, agreed.

I think our mayor covered a lot of it, Nancy, and again, I do know who the second most busiest person behind you is, and it's the guy sitting behind you, your husband. You're working that poor man to death, you know. I see him everywhere, and I see you everywhere. Clearly, no is not in his book. No. Yesterday morning, it was dark and early. I see him taking the corner with the signs on the car, and I was like, man, Nancy's working that poor man to death. but appreciate everything you do. You are one busy lady for being retired. Thank you.

Thank you, Nancy. Thank you. Uh, the collaboration is so important as when we go to Tallahassee and they can see that we're working all together. I think that helps us a lot. I think, uh, in the education, I think the greatest thing we need to focus on is educating the public on, on how, why things flood and what we're doing. And the video and everything that this coalition is doing, we'll provide that. So we need that. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Tracy? Nancy, I have to give you credit where credit's due. Mayor Stillner has said it a lot, and I'm going to extend it even more. When I came on to council three and a half years ago, you're one of the first mayors that came up to me, extended your hand, said, hello, do you need anything? And I appreciate that. And knowledge is power. It is what allows us to do our jobs. And what you have done... with the coalition is letting that knowledge flow out. And that's what people need. Sean's right. You know, it's the informational side and the educational side to our citizens is so important that they know that we haven't forgotten them. It's things that move very slowly because the last thing we want to do is do a project and make another neighborhood worse. have our waters go transcending somewhere else.

Not our intent whatsoever.

Correct. So it's, uh, it's amazing how long it does take though, you know, and, uh, I was sitting in a different country this past week and flash flood hit and we are very blessed compared to other places. But then I see on the news while I'm in that country that Hawaii took 43 inches of rain in a 48 hour period.

So it's not just us. When we're going through it, it sounds like it's just us, but that's a perfect example.

That one perfect storm hit there. The smallest wake was 29 inches on the lower banks, but 43 inches in a 48 hour period. And that just terrifies me to hear those numbers. So thank you for what you're doing and the coalition and what they're doing. Staff, keep doing what you guys are doing, the brainstorming coming about and taking it to the other cities so that we can all collaborate to make the money that we do get works the best. So thank you.

And if I could just end it, and this started with a previous mayor, Don Burnett, that's probably not paying attention to me, but he talked a lot about building relationships. And when I started out, I learned how important that is, building the relationships. And I'm not saying this to brag, but last year I just came off of being president of Florida League of Mayors. So that's for all 67 mayors in Florida. The reason I did that was because, well, you'll never win because we've never had a president from Volusia County.

so watch me and that's what i wanted to do to get all the funding and the attention we could on volusia county so thank you all thank you mayor burnett thank you mayor i appreciate it thank you nancy you're welcome take a few days off would you all right agenda item number five public comments on consent agenda items only six through nine any comments on consent agenda item six through nine Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion and a second to approve consent agenda item 6-9.

Do you have a motion to approve consent agenda item 6-9? Second.

I have a motion and a second. Will the court call the roll?

Councilman Gafford? Yes. Councilman Green? Yes. Vice Mayor Grubbs? Yes. Mayor Stilton? Yes.

4-0. Mr. Robert Reinhegan, you would make your way to the front of the class, my friend, in your public participation. And I know you've got two topics you'd like to talk about, so go right ahead. The mic's yours. Welcome.

They said I couldn't have six minutes.

I know you're prepared. Three will do it. Go ahead.

Mayor, council members, Robert Reinhagen, Port Orange. What I want to talk about is the... The information that you had in the budget discussions with regard to vehicles and replacement. I asked the question of whether there were any of those were electric vehicles. And I got a very nice response from a fellow named Sean Maroney. a lot of reasons why they did not include any electric vehicles. And while it's all pretty true, I think the problem is that you're constrained to a perspective that's just short-term, to this budget cycle. And I think you have to have a long-term perspective. And to me, that means leading into the future. And so even if only a few of the vehicles were electric, that's a start. And I can easily see that they parked the vehicles up there by the library and you could put up solar panels and then collect the electricity during the day and charge the vehicles overnight. And I think you could be So anyway, so I can see them having you know solar panels there and I can see you having solar panels on on playgrounds and on sports fields and and you're going to build a new building over there for a community center. You could have solar panels there. I think you have to have that kind of a long-term perspective, that this is where we want to go, and we want to lead everybody into that. Now the second topic has to do with the county council and the data centers. And I watched that the other day and they put a ban on or are going to put a ban on these megawatt, the huge 50 megawatt things. But that's only part of the problem because most of them are all below 50 megawatts. And and I think you need to because the county actions don't affect the city actions the city has to do it also and what I would like to see happen is a moratorium on data centers for those under the 50,000 or 50 megawatts, whatever, that Senate Bill 484 gives you permission to ban them.

Go ahead and wrap up. I know you had a couple technical difficulties there.

But that's what I want to see you do is have a moratorium and collect data, find out what the impact of these small ones are. Thank you.

Thank you, Robert. Good to see you. Adam Dobie and then after Adam we'll have Gary Kelly Welcome, sir.

Welcome. Thank you for having me. Council, Mayor, Adam Dovey from Port Orange County, Daytona, Ponce, all the cities. I know I liked you for a reason, Mayor. You hit the nail on the head. Nancy is phenomenal at what she does. Really something to strive for. I'm trying to keep up with her, watching her, let alone being involved in politics. But I do have to point out what she is doing here is to mitigate flooding. that is caused by, you guys know my old routine, overdevelopment. We're paving over everything. We're paving over our watershed. We're paving over what stops this from happening in the first place. And I tried to be at the last meeting, but I missed it. And I heard through the grapevine that we approved or are approving the lovely development out west of the pavilion. I wake up at 2 AM with the things on my mind all the time. Can I pay for my kid's college? global warming, are we going to run out of water? And you know what else pops in there? 40-foot lot lines from the presentation two months ago where they're trying to get a 50-foot wide lot down to 40 feet. I can't for the life of me realize why we would enter or the council or anybody would entertain 50 feet. Now, again, 25 years ago when they passed it through, they had a city council that got bamboozled and they had a really good lawyer and they pushed it through and it's been there for however long until now the market has come back to develop it. But it's terrible. And I wish Councilman Foley was here. He said something that, again, I'm never going to forget. Baldwin Park, Orlando, all these other places. neighborhoods that are mixed use, and everybody wants an apartment on top of a coffee shop. They don't. Go to New York if you want that. We are a old bedroom community. We're 150 plus years old. Taking advice and leadership from these Orlando developers that are 20, 25 years in the making, and by the way, are failing. You go to these cities, when you can't park a truck in the driveway and the ascent sticks out over the sidewalk and then kids have to play in the street, that's a failure. I mentioned before, these kids go outside. They don't have a front yard. They have a postage stamp or a pee pad for kids to play in. We're developing ourselves into oblivion. But the big thing I want to go over now in the middle of summer, and it ties into the severe weather, and I've got 30 seconds left, 114-degree weather. temperature, or felt like temperature, or what my app says. When it's 114 degrees outside in Port Orange, who runs to the middle of the Walmart parking lot? You don't. You look for a tree. You look for Mother Nature. And the fact that we're blindly just destroying this and allowing developers to come in and heavy-handed get their way with it is a little disheartening. I know everybody on here pretty well by now. I know we're all good guys. You guys are all good guys trying to make a good effort. The development that was rezoned a couple months ago is a good start. But I hope we just keep in the forefront of our mind because it's only going to get hotter and the storms are only getting stronger.

Thank you, guys. Thanks, Adam. Gary Kelly. And then we'll hear from Don Burnett, whoever that is. Welcome, sir.

Okay. I just want everybody to try and be aware of a wonderful person we have rolling around in the, well, he hit me up in New Smyrna is where I live, but he's mainly doing work in the Port Orange area and also in the Edgewater and Ormond Beach. His name is Carlos G. Lira from ACL Remodeling. My wife and I fell for his 4.8 and 4.9 reviews, some of these from people not even in our country. We gave him $15,000, went to the bank, he cashed the checks immediately, put them in his pocket, and then turned around to my wife. And asked for another $25,000 to hasten the renovation we were going to do in our garage for my daughter. And he did that saying that it was going to make it faster. So my wife obliged and gave me another $25,000. And then from there, he started a small repair up in our attic, some sheetrock work, and said it was going to take three to four days. And five weeks later, we're still not done. He came to our house to show us the actual main plans, and I basically fired him on the spot. I told him I couldn't imagine how long it's going to take to do a mother-daughter renovation in a garage if it took that long to do some sheetrock work. I was told by somebody it's one day's work for one person. So from there, he told us that he was going to have his office call us in the morning to give us the amount that we were going to get refunded. So I didn't really have anything else to do. So I waited for the phone call. That never came. Back and forth, back and forth. Not going to happen. And then for him, after that I started investigating him and found that he has over 30 plus court cases against him. And as far as we can tell, over $1.3 million that I've come up with that he's stolen from people over the last two years. That's not including mine. He has taken people's homes apart, asked for a second deposit, or a drawer they call that, and then just would leave after that, leave their houses gutted, unusable.

Let's see.

He has at least five other businesses in the area, not paying business licensing fees for the last six years on any of them. Recently evicted from his $2.6 million home, as was his previous home. Had his two Ferraris repossessed just within the last month or two. Has mainly worked in... Oh, boy. Done. Okay. Well, you got the idea. We understand. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you sir for coming out. Mr. Don Burnett. Welcome my friend.

Well, I'll tell you what, the number of times that you wish you had a timer on me when I was up there. Now you finally do. John, come on up. Don Burnell with the Port Orange South Daytona Chamber of Commerce, President and CEO, and this is John Belden of Belden Media Group. He's on our Board of Directors. First of all, I wanted to thank you for Item 7B. Appreciate the renewal. Understand the contract has to be one year instead of three. There's a lot of uncertainty out there over Amendment 3. One of the things that I'm working on with tax collector Will Roberts is that we're in October at some point in time, we're gonna put some sort of forum together to help educate people on the impacts. Then they can decide for themselves, but the chamber will be involved in that actively. Mainly I'm concerned about the, well we've got 99.9% of the businesses in this country are small businesses. In the state of Florida, that's three and a half million small businesses. Of that, 88% of them have one to 20 employees. We're talking very, very small businesses that may be adversely impacted on this. I don't know a business owner who is in business to lose money. And when you raise their cost, because that's what's gonna happen, this is going to be a tax shift to them, People are going to probably pay more or less, not less, but they're going to pay more or it's a matter of how much more because the money's got to come for somewhere when we're talking about police protection, fire protection. I know for you, I'm preaching to the choir. What I will ask for is, Scott, I'm going to reach out to you at some point and the other mayors in the area to ask if you want to participate in the panel. I just want to talk about facts. One thing when somebody gets a receipt at a business, they just see what they paid. There's nothing in there that says how much of that was additional tax they had to pay because I'm not. And I've got a homestead exemption. I like that homestead exemption. I also want our state legislators and we're continuing to advocate for insurance reform because it impacts our businesses and those costs also get passed on to our residents. So we're gonna continue to work on those things. I want to let you know that coming up in October. As soon as I have a date with that, I'll let you know. But there's other things going on. September 24th is member appreciation night. I think most of you all were able to make that last year. I'm going to extend that same invitation to you personally right now. And I hope to see you that night. It'll be another good night. You can't complain about pizza from Giuseppe's and Libations and Chamber Fun. Come mingle with the businesses and listen to what people like John have to say. Appreciate you all.

Thank you, John. Thank you, Don. Thank you. John, listen, you've got to give him a chance to talk.

I know. The whole time I was just taking it all up. Thank you guys for the golf tournament. Those of you who attended, it was a great event. And I'll just put it short. We have a cruise commotion on the ocean that the Chambers put together for February 26th through March 1st. I know we're out of time, but I would definitely suggest you guys check it out. It's going to be a good time mingling with the business community and having some fun at the same time. And as Don likes to point out, it's a write-off too. Perfect.

Item number 10, council member comments. Lance, we'll start with you.

I don't have much tonight, but I do just want to go back on record saying I still feel we need a non-emergency line at the police department.

That's all you got?

That's it.

All right, Sean.

No, I just want to say I had a fantastic opportunity to attend the League of Cities convention down in Hollywood, Florida, and learned a lot and thought wow that's a great idea I'm gonna bring that back to Port Orange and to find out that we already do it and that's uh it was just amazing it really is you know and it was all around our budget because it's budget season and they were sharing how The cities were sharing how they share the budget and where the money's spent, and all in a simple four-page form, sometimes a single form. Some cities are smaller than others, but, you know, shot on our website, went through our budget, and there it is right there. I was like, man, I'm just, you know, we are really on the forefront of providing information. And information that sometimes gets shared with us on nights like tonight is... It's disheartening to know that people are saying things that just aren't true. So we didn't pass a 40-foot lot. We stayed firm on what was approved in 2002. And we're developing a property out west that we annexed in, and there's going to be more trees there than are there now. Those are facts. So we're adding trees. We're not taking them down. There's 50-something trees there now. Probably gonna be 480 when the developer's done. So I think that's an improvement to create cooler spaces and shade and it's not gonna be a Walmart parking lot. I think what we did with the zoning is more in tune with the markets going forward. So I thought that allowing that approval process to happen is gonna be more beneficial to our community in the long run. So outside of that, it's hot. You're right. And maybe one day we'll have some cool air conditioning in here. I know you guys are doing everything you can for your staff. So keep up the good work. And that's all I have.

only got one thing tonight uh this weekend coming up uh is spouses uh backing the blue golf tournament it's out at crane lakes so saturday august 22nd 8 a.m there's a few team spots left so if you got a team and you want to come out and play golf it's early morning so it won't be as hot and then get cooled off with libations afterwards that's it yeah that's one i just i feel like you just

I don't know if I knew about it previously or just forgot. It just came out of nowhere. It snuck up on us. And they sent us out that email. I'm like, it's in two weeks. Pretty close. But I hope they fare well with that. It's a great organization. They do some amazing stuff in our community.

They may not ask us back after we tear the greens off. I'm just saying. We're going to be out there.

No, it all works out pretty good. Just a few comments tonight. You know, we just went through a primary election cycle and exercise here in the state of Florida in Volusia County. And I just want to say thank you. to everybody that sticks their neck out there and puts their names out and qualifies and goes through that process. It's a learning experience for sure. Whether they win their seats that they're vying for or they don't, they see a side of campaigning that most people never ever see. I think inherently as human beings you want to be liked by everybody and you want to feel like your idea is a good idea. you know you get out there you start talking about certain things and you find out if you don't really know what you're talking about or maybe something you said isn't legal to do or maybe something you're you're campaigning for isn't within your authority if you get elected and you know it just goes on and on but at the end of the day it still takes people who are willing to step up and put their names in those rings and i appreciate and i'm thankful that for that i also want to say thank you to everybody that participated uh throughout volusia county but primarily in our city because they respected our city i saw very few i saw some crazy things going on elsewhere in volusia county and around the state but by and large i felt like our city was respected you know i talked to some poll workers and i talked to other people that were at Lakeside during the early voting, and they said flat out, they said, we all get along. We don't care if it's Republicans and Democrats or whoever. We all get along here. And we may see things a little bit differently, but we respect everybody. We get along. And I had several people say, oh, yeah, I don't mind doing this. It's hot. This is the only place I'm going to do it, though. I'm only going to come here to Port Orange. And that speaks a lot about our community and the character of our city and the folks here. So thank you to all of them. That being said, primary is over. Um, less than three out of every 10, uh, registered voter showed up to vote. It just, it just amazes me how low that turnout is. Um, so hopefully we'll, we'll see a higher turnouts, uh, for November. Don't blink because the, the, the ballots will be going out to kick off, uh, vote by mail here pretty soon. And there'll be another whole phase of early voting. And then of course, uh, general election day coming up in November. Um, Wayne, for a future council meeting, not too far off in the future, I would like you to bring to us just a general 30,000-foot view discussion on data centers and what does our city look like compared to a lot of concerns and stuff that we've all seen out there with respect to you know there's different sizes and you have to have spaces and resources and things like that and for the most part I don't think that fits us at all anyhow but if you would you know just a little presentation of hey This is what you could do. There's very limited space. The resources are not there or what have you. But just bring us back a little bit of something specifically to help educate us and make sure we all understand what kind of an impact that could or could never happen in a city like ours. So I'd appreciate that. All right. How about from the city attorney's office? What we got down there? Matt said you have a list.

Yeah, you say go ahead and say you got a whole big list.

Nothing. Okay.

Sorry.

All right. Well, welcome. We're glad to see you sitting up here with us tonight.

Mr. City Manager, all yours. So on Riverwalk, I have a couple of things related to that. So the Dunkin Donuts land transfer thing is shown back up on the table. If you remember, we went through that process back when we had Bristol under contract. And Being able to acquire that hard corner at signalized intersection could really help our part of the project, but it's a corporately owned piece of land leased and operated by a franchisee, and they just couldn't work through the complexities. Every now and then people pick on government for being ineffective, but good luck working with corporate, trying to work through a franchisee. This seems to be harder than anything we've done. I think they recognize that's not an ideal location. They have come back and it's now back on the table to some sort of a land swap to the old Dave's pest control site that's in the center of the parking lot for Tiki Ducks that we own to flip those properties and they would build something similar to the little Catfish Commons, Four Bay shopping center that's across the street on Dunlop, something similar to that. Put Duncan in there and probably a couple of the other Duncan type. They're a part of a company that owns lots of other things, so they would put things like that into that bay. It hadn't gone far enough to come to you with anything other than that's on the table to be talked about, but that's at least in the works. We have two letters of intent for the Riverwalk site with a third one pending. The reason we were planning to bring this to you in August, but the third one hadn't submitted yet. And with this still out there, we wanted to at least give the two that have already submitted a letter of intent and a chance to at least put some kind of an addendum in there as to how their intent would change if that Duncan swap swap happened. Does it get it? Do you up your price to us? Do you change anything about your concept? So what we will probably do is give this a little bit of time to get more done in the oven. and bring it to you either late September or early October. But I think we can probably do something in September. I'll let you know if that timing doesn't work out. But there's still stuff going on. We have had a chance to analyze the two letters of intent. I don't want to go into too much of that outside because it's part of a real estate transaction. But I think that as what we see coming in, you'll have a real choice as to something you want to do as we go forward.

I'm sorry, I want to interject for everybody on the council. So with regards to Riverwalk, we've had a pretty good vision and refined that vision over the last few years and launched staff to say, hey, this is the vision, this is the path we kind of want you guys to go down. As you guys travel around the state or the country or Texas or wherever, and you guys see things that you... You're like, man, that's kind of unique. We don't have that in Florida. And you feel like, hey, that might fit in. A business concept or whatever. Please share that with staff. Wayne loves to look at that stuff. He keeps... keeps that stuff on a file and a record and he reshares that with the realtors and interested parties to kind of let them know hey listen this is the kind of stuff that the council really likes and they think would fit in our community and here's the things over here they're not interested in and i bring that to your attention because last year i was in pittsburgh and um Never thought I would ever go to Pittsburgh. But anyway, they have done an amazing job reinvesting in their waterfront area in downtown Pittsburgh. It is absolutely amazing and impressive. There was one brand new small, relatively a small component And we went and enjoyed it and checked it out. And I was so kind of like, this is so cool. I sent Wayne pictures. Well, I'll be darned if this week, and that was over a year ago, he sends me an article on that very thing in Pittsburgh that won some national recognition. And it's very unique, but it's also very simplistic. And so to that, I would just say, as you guys see things, send it to them. Go, hey, we were on vacation here or traveling there or whatever. something in Fiji or wherever it is you go, Tracy, underwater, right? And you see things like that. I encourage you guys, share that with our staff. Share it through Wayne. He keeps records of it and have those conversations of, hey, what do you think about something like this? Could it work or how would it fit in? Because that whole thing, you know, the staff kind of lays that groundwork with these perspective developers to go, this is the kind of stuff they're looking for, right? This is what they want for their community and what they think their community is looking for. So anyway, just encouraging that for you guys. Go ahead.

On the stormwater item, So starting with the stuff that comes out of community development, the three homes that we recently acquired through the FEMA grant programs, the two in Sugar Forest on the one in Trailwood, they've all three been demolished. They've all been cleared and stabilized. And then the staff is now going to the EAB working on a program of how to get Florida friendly type landscaping in there so that we have to, it minimizes our landscaping costs. we're using grass and things like that that don't require augusta national level but it's still worthy of being in those neighborhoods so that we don't do have any negative impact on the neighborhoods and also looking for some grants so uh well if we if it comes down to it we need to pay for it we'll we'll deal with it in the budget but if we can get other funding to pay for it that would be great too so those projects have moved along if you go through those neighborhoods you will see clear blocks now okay so can can we take tree money out of the tree fund and

To put those on there? You can.

You can use tree fund money to an extent to landscape.

At least trees. Okay.

And some of them have like border landscaping still there. So I don't think they're all fully, completely cleared. Okay. So the Transform 386 project, to go over a little bit more of what Mayor Miller talked about, Fortona and Powers are the two most active of the Transform 386 projects. And so the county's people are out there on the sites, and they're doing due diligence work, doing geotech work. Unfortunately, I forgot to call one of the landowners before they started digging a hole in their backyard, which would be helpful if they did that ahead of time. But they are out there for both the Powers and Fortona projects and looking at the sites and trying to work on what it would take before they start moving forward. with property acquisition later this year, design next year. So those two are actively moving forward. So property acquisition in the fall of this year, design permitting by next summer, construction start about this time next year. One of the things that Mayor Miller mentioned, the county dashboard is on their website. It's very useful. I've got a benchmark because every now and then I forget details of things. It's pretty easy to get in there. One of the things that she did mention that doesn't get talked about as much are these regional watershed studies that are underway. both beat or not Nova B 19. And then the Spruce Creek Basin. They're all underway, they all should lead to more regional related options going forward. I know I've had conversations with a couple of council members and concerns about be 19 because of the growth on the north end of that. So we're trying to work on getting something related to where what exactly is the boundary of that watershed? What comes in from the new development? Where does it go and start working on some solutions from that one? at Nova as well. The county is getting ready to open the next phase, which may be unless there's another storm to last of the Transform 386 funding. So our staff who has done all the hard work going out and they're getting ready to go out there and talk to them about what we can do with those funds as well. I know the county had mentioned that there was some interest in Beecher that they held back some of that funding for regional projects like something that would actually help the Nova Canal situation. So I don't know that they will have 100% of that money available to the cities. there were a couple rules in the first phases that may impact what we can ask for we do have some other projects but we were trying not to put ourselves in a position where we keep like right now we have 60 million dollars worth of projects in our top five and we have 40 million dollars of other people's funds we've been trying to whittle away that 20 from other sources we'd like to be able to try to do that here right now the rules don't permit us to go back but we're going to at least take a shot at trying to do that because if we go out and do another project, then we have $70 million with the projects and $25 million that we have to find from other sources. We're trying to do the best we can wisely using the funds that are out there without putting the city in a position of having to come up with $20 million pending Amendment 3.

And I would just comment, my comment on that, Wayne, would be that I completely appreciate And I do support the conceptual idea that they want to take some of that three transform three, eight, six, same. Yeah. 365 and, and, and, and kind of earmark that for larger scale regional projects. Problem I think though, is a lot of times that money, because that came from the federal government, there are timelines on that. Correct. It's got to get used. And so what I don't want to do is not be putting in for more stuff that we know we can use that money for. I'd rather be putting it in for it and then just say, hey, listen, appreciate you putting in for it. But we've got these other projects. They're also ready to go. And so we're going to bump the project or whatever it is. That I'm okay with. What I don't want to see is there was a bunch of money to get sent back to Washington, D.C. because those regional projects weren't ready. They didn't exist. They weren't far enough along to get into those timelines. And we've seen that happen, not necessarily with the county, but we know that that has happened around the state. We see projects that come up through TPO and other organizations where Having something ready to go and us taking advantage of it has worked out. So I like what you're saying there. I agree with that. I would encourage us to continue to do that with the understanding that maybe there is a larger scale regional project that's being fast-tracked that they've already studied and engineered and modeled and what have you and things like that.

Their staff is very professional and very pragmatic, and I think that that is a solid argument. They're sort of in the same boat we are, though. Their staff's not charged. Ultimately, they've got to make a recommendation to county council and have them support that. So you see, we do pretty well with our relationships with the county. So at some point, if we get to that level, it may be that we need to say, hey, this is a good idea. You're absolutely correct. There will be a time when the federal government says, if you haven't spent it, we get to take it back. And that is the last thing we want to do here is not do it. We have projects that are moving along that we can put it in there if we can get there. So So that was our approach was not to add a new one with a match, but to try to get more added to the ones we have to help with those match gaps.

And I think that concept even applies with some of the state funds. I know a different topic, but the state's the same way. A lot of times when they're releasing funds, you better be ready to go and use those within those timelines or the state is going to want them back too.

And I don't see any note from Gino or Robin saying I did something terribly wrong explaining that, so I should be good to move on to the next one.

So Wayne, do we know for a fact that the Spruce Creek Basin Study has started?

It has started, yes. If you go on the dashboard, it breaks it down what it is and where it is and what status it is. where they're collecting data and how long before they think to get it done. I think that was the first one.

Well, cause last year it got delayed. It got delayed a little bit.

That one's farther ahead than B19 or NOVA.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you. That one's end of 26, beginning 27. The others are all 27s.

Okay, good.

So on the parks bond, the only one I ever have an update on is the Willow Run Park. So we did get our ECHO site visit last week and then we're supposed to hear, I know that the committee will make a recommendation to the county council and then we should hear in the fall so I think it's October so whether we got that and then we'll be moving forward so what we should have happening here soon they're not necessarily all parts bond but the project over here behind us on the extra ball fields being built on the former Silver Sands property would be starting construction here in the next month And then the Willow Run project, which will have the bike place in it and the extra improvements to the park, that would start around the end of the year. And then the other one, the repair of the landfill project, starts at the beginning of next year. So there's going to be a lot of activity on parks in this side of town coming up in the next three to five months as those projects all get underway.

Speaking of parks, our Causeway Park boat ramp project is near completion, and man, I really appreciate everybody staying on top of that. Looks like, knock on wood, that's going to come in just a little bit ahead of schedule. I didn't say that. Amanda, delete that from the record.

Here for a couple seconds, I don't see anything from any of them.

We look forward to that, and I know we're going to have a a bit of a ribbon cutting and a celebration at some point uh my my and i'm gonna touch base i think with uh her staff later this week my my my preference would be let's not let a ribbon cutting or a ceremonial thing hold up getting it open so when it can be open i want to get it open i think we all agree with that and but we'll still get down there to have a ribbon cutting and and Talk to our construction workers down there and let them know how much we love and appreciate the job they've done. Looks pretty neat. Went down there last week, took a look. A couple of things still getting buttoned up, but, man, what a change. What a change. All right. Anything else, Wayne? Just left some time for Bobby. All right. Well, Bobby wanted to come up and talk 25, 30 minutes, so let's bring up Citizens Advisory Committee for the TPO, Mr. Bobby Paul.

That would be out in a long time.

bobby before you before you get started you know i we thank you a lot and uh we appreciate you and we really do appreciate and want to thank you for everything you do and the way you serve our community in so many ways because you've also got a family it turns out uh and you have a son who's a pretty hell of an accomplished golfer yeah i gotta brag on for just a moment if that's okay, but Bobby, for those of you guys that don't know, Bobby Sutton, Ian, qualified for the U.S. Amateur Tournament, and Dad got to carry the bag. How cool is that, right? Can you tell us anything about that, man, before you get started on TPO?

I'd be glad to. You got enough time? Yeah, it's all you, man. This is great stuff.

You didn't fall down in the bunker, did you?

No, I carried it well. It was incredible. The USCM used to be a major, one of the four majors back in the day. So it's a premier golf event. It's really the greatest amateur golf tournament a young man can play in. And overall, man, there's several older guys. But 95% of the field is college golfers, mostly D1 schools. You're playing with truly the best in the world. They were probably a third of the field was from out of the country. So he finished halfway in the field. He beat half the guys and the other half beat him. So he did well there. It was a good learning opportunity, and hopefully he'll go back and do well. The top 64 is who makes the match play, and that's a pretty small field out of 312 players. So he did really well. He handled the moment. They didn't do anything halfway. They had a thousand volunteers. You had ropes around the fairways. The greens were like the countertop. It was truly special. It was pretty dang cool.

Well, please pass along from us how proud we are of him. It's very special whenever the young people in Port Orange end up on a stage like that. We know they're homegrown and they're from here and they beat up on all the courses in Port Orange. And so that's pretty awesome. So congratulations on that.

I was watching online and, you know, I had a scoreboard up there and it says Port Orange.

I know, right? Hey, listen, one of the most proud moments I had was when I saw that and I'm like, oh, He said Port Orange. He didn't do the whole, I'm from Daytona Beach. I'm from Port Orange, right? And he did. He represented, man. I love it.

It was awesome. A lot of proud dad moments for sure.

Good family moment.

Yeah. Great job.

What about TPO?

Well, we had another exciting week, not quite as exciting as last week, but pretty standard stuff. Updated the two-year plan, the five-year plan. Honestly, we really didn't have any presentations, so it was a very short meeting and we really didn't have anything. So I hate to burst your bubble with something boring, but there was really nothing there to talk about.

There will be soon, I'm sure. Yeah. No doubt. Thank you, Bobby.

Appreciate it. Bobby, are they going to pay Williamson from Madeline North anytime soon? I thought they were doing that.

From Madeline North, it's under design right now.

Still under design? Yes.

Oh, wow. Because that's not just repave, that's widening. That's widening. Yeah, it's going to four lanes. Okay. And in fact, the county is, they are advertising RFQ to do the, from Madeline South. And I actually believe the presentations were today to the committee. So the county is going through that process as well. So the design of that section will follow the design of this current section to the north.

Nice. Thanks. Thanks, Bobby.

Thank you, Bobby. Brings us to the public hearing portion of the meeting. Second reading ordinance, item 14, second reading ordinance number 2026-7.

An ordinance of the City of Port Orange, Volusia County, Florida, repealing and replacing Chapter 82, Article 2 of the City of Port Orange Code of Ordinances related to the use, operation, and mooring of watercraft and city waterways, providing for definitions, providing for regulation of the anchorage of vessels, live aboard vessels, floating structures, and commercial vessels, including exceptions thereto, providing for procedures for the removal of vessels and impoundment along with the collection of costs associated therewith, prohibiting live aboard vessels, floating structures, and commercial vessels in certain areas, providing for enforcement and penalties, providing for codification, providing for severability, providing for an effective date.

I'll entertain a motion and a second on second reading to approve ordinance number 2026-7.

Motion to approve ordinance number 2026-7. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Council, any other discussion here on this one?

I don't have any.

Second reading. I would just comment that, you know, the amount of of residents and people who reach out uh that are just absolutely sick and tired of seeing these derelict vessels because they abandoned the sunk they destroy property they're hazard they're navigational hazard and and man i really hope that this is a of us being able to keep our waterways looking nice, cleaned up, and well-respected. And for those that want to come and anchor and moor, there's a way to do that. And keep your vessels ship-shaped and able to move them out of hazards and storms and do it appropriately, and you're more than welcome to do that in Port Orange. Anybody in the public want to speak to it? Seeing none, back to council, last chance.

Yeah, it's just you got people, you talk about property taxes and tax values, and here you think you might have a nice place on the river, and you're looking at a derelict boat in the backyard for years.

And it's crazy where these things end up washed up, and people walk away from them. They scrape bin numbers off.

And in most cases, it becomes a residence problem just to haul away.

Yep, absolutely. All right, court call the roll.

Councilman Kephart? Yes. Councilman Green? Yes. Vice Mayor Probst? Yes. Mayor Stoner? Yes, 4-0.

move on to item 15 second reading of ordinance number 2026-12 an ordinance of the city of court orange volusia county florida amending chapter 2 article 3 section 2-118 code of ordinances to reduce the number of members on the environmental advisory board amending section 2-119 Code of Ordinances to provide for updated appointment terms, amending Section 2-121 Code of Ordinances to reduce the number of board members necessary to form a quorum, providing for codification, providing for repeal of conflicting ordinances, providing for severability, and providing an effective date.

I'll entertain a motion and a second on second reading for Ordinance No. 2026-12.

And motion to approve ordinance number 2026-12. Second. We have a motion and a second.

Council, any discussion? No. Public, any discussion? Robert, no? Nothing, okay. All right, back to council. Nothing here. Clerk, call the roll.

Councilman Hepburn? Yes. Councilman Green? Yes. Vice Mayor Groves? Yes. Mayor Stelman?

Yes, for nothing. All right, that brings us to Council Committee Reports Item 16, First Step Shelter.

Yes, we had our meeting with our new Executive Director last month, and she is, obviously it was her first week, but she has already sent out an email highlighting some things. I've shared that with you all, not to discuss with me, but just for your records. I'll have to look through there, just a couple key items. Since the shelter has actually been open, 2,591 people have been sheltered. 415,588 meals have been served. They have housed 1,331 residents, 51%, 91% of those housed at least two years ago are still in housing. So First Step Shelter is serving its purpose and working for our community. I also wanted to state that the Department of Transportation put a light out there at their intersection. There have been two fatalities. of people there leaving or coming. Um, so hopefully that'll help with the safety issue there. So I noticed that's operating. That's all I've got for first step shelter. Any questions?

No, I'm going, you're on a roll.

All right. Um, I had a great report from our chamber executive director tonight. They're doing a fantastic job. Just had their annual fundraiser, probably their largest fundraiser, their golf tournament. I hope to see that back in the city next year as they were at Venetian Bay, which they did a good job and had a good turnout. And tomorrow night they have their business after hours. Help me out with the Jewelers. Masterpiece Jewelers has been a long-standing member. They do a lot for us, for businesses to come together and network. That's tomorrow night. And then they have something open to the public the final Thursday of every month. They have a morning mix and mingle at Port Orange's Copper Line where anyone can show up. talk about their business. Coffee Connections. What did I say? Morning Mix and Mingle. That's the first Friday of every month. We have so many things going on at the Chamber and they're so supportive of our businesses. They're doing a fantastic job. Membership's increasing and that's it.

That's all I got. Lance, tell us about the Police Pension Board.

Alright, so last meeting I told you guys we had missed a quarterly meeting back in March, but As of Monday, the pension fund was at $85,971,900. It was up just under 2 million from the last quarter. Again, everything seems to be very healthy in that. We discussed a couple of, you know, about their trends and how investing into AI companies is kind of a trend. and less real estate kind of thing, but these money managers that they have are doing a great job. And then, you know, one other thing that I guess we discussed is, you know, some ongoing, you know, the new disability that's coming up, and there's an experience study coming up that's going to happen. It hadn't been done in about 10 years, and then there's going to be some workshops and things on PTSD disability in the police department. It's becoming a big thing, so... We'll all know a little bit more about that on the next meeting.

Sounds good. All right. Anything else coming before us tonight? Yes.

Go right ahead. I just opened up an email, and someone had just sent this to all of us, actually, to recognize Scott in code enforcement. Apparently, Scott is doing an absolute fantastic job. They're recommending that we recognize Scott as a fabulous employee of the City of Port Orange since our initial complaint about the ducks next door. Scott has communicated and has been a total professional with his knowledge and assistance. Scott is someone the City of Port Orange should be proud of, and Scott has proven his knowledge of city code and other factors with our complaint. He was a pleasure to deal with. And he should be acknowledged. So I just want to publicly acknowledge Scott. And whoever is in charge of Scott, just say, hey, thank you for that good work. That's what it's about.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, man.

Thank you, guys. Have a good night.