City Council - Regular Meeting

but if you're looking more in terms of what the fiscal impact will be on the city of conagorda in terms of do we have the mic yes we do good morning we will call the pre-agenda meeting to order please let the record reflect that all council members are present this morning the first item on the agenda we have america's 250th year celebration day who would like to present that i'll do that and the Isles Yacht Club 50th Anniversary Day.

And then we have public input. Anyone wishing to make public comment, please come up to the podium and you'll have 30 seconds.

Please introduce yourself.

good morning city council my name is wendy young i live in punta gorda and have for almost 30 years and have tried to keep up with the city council and commend you and when i support you and tell you when I don't. So today I'm here to tell you that I commend you for taking a second look at the downtown Saturday farmer's market, and I strongly recommend, based not only on our council's attorney's extensive, does that mean I'm done? That we maintain an annual. Thank you, we only have 30 second public comment.

Okay, thank you. At our regular meeting, you will have three minutes at the beginning of the meeting and three minutes at the end.

Good morning. My name is Diane Van Beek. I've lived here for 20 years in the city. I'm here today to express my disappointment in the handling of a farmers market issue that's to be discussed on Wednesday. In my eyes, this should never have been an issue, and because of scant information provided to the public, the whole story's gotten totally out of hand. Rumors are flying the communities upset Vendors aren't certain about their future and it just seems that the entire issue has been mishandled Why was the annual permitting process stalled a few months ago with zero explanation? Maybe there are reasons and I'm willing to listen but one of the city's biggest assets in terms of community spirit is being held hostage and

thank you your 30 seconds is up again you will have three minutes at the meeting on wednesday at the beginning and three minutes at the end is there anything on consent agenda that anyone has questions about the downtown farmers market

questions or concerns you want to address today sure i certainly do um rachel i'm interested in this recommendation about having the portable trailer bathrooms and whether is there is there data that shows that we need additional capacity

Morning Ron Evers public works director. I know I'm not Rachel Berry and that's who you called up But Rachel and I have been discussing this matter so currently under the current operator, there was quite a bit of bathroom issues. We had, the city had to bring on extra cleaning services in the midday, so there was three times a day that that was taking place, and that was still not enough. We provided the equipment for them, and they promised to do it every hour, and that still wasn't enough. People were clogging them up and continued using, and it was a terrible mess. And so the current... Operator hired a full-time person to monitor that on a more frequent basis. I'm not exactly sure if he's there all the time, every half hour, every quarter hour, but since that person has been brought on staff, all of those problems have disappeared. That bathroom just is not big enough to handle the volume of people that come and go through that market. So when the discussion came up, I made the comment to Rachel that if another operator or whoever operates that area, that market, should be required just like any other event to provide portable restrooms because the number of people exceeds what the facilities will handle. The conversation was regarding porta-potties. If the porta-potties were brought in, they would need to be brought in either Saturday morning or Friday night, and then they'd have to remain there until Monday morning, so they'd sit there Sunday through that time period. So I talked about a portable trailer, much like you see set up for any other event, where it could be pulled out that same day. Wouldn't have to rely on someone coming to pick it up and empty a facility. So that's why that conversation came up. And then I'll let Rachel add anything she'd like to in regards to that.

So I was looking yesterday in the application to hold an event. It used to be very long, 90 pages or something, and it's down to six. I was very surprised, but it used to contain information about how many bathroom facilities needed to be available based on the number of people. I couldn't find that anywhere.

Rachel Berry, zoning official for the record. That most likely is in the event manual. Let me pull that up. I believe the last time we did the math, it worked out to, I believe three total porta potties would be required with one being ADA accessible. The number of portable toilets required for special events is based on peak attendance and the length of the event. So if we average... Let me just go down the line here. if there is approximately 1,000 people on site, peak attendance, for a total of four hours, six portable restrooms would be required.

Thank you. And where would we put those?

That is a great question. We would need to look at the, if the area is to remain where it is, we'd need to assess the area and see where the best spot is to be placed so that it's not a nuisance and that it can easily be pulled in and taken out.

Is that number, is that an addition to what we already have in the Herald Court Center?

No, that would be total. So this typically applies to areas that don't have any restroom facilities.

Do you know how many stalls we have in the restroom facility downtown?

I've never used them.

I believe there are three. Three on each side?

Not only in the women's, but in the men's there are three.

Okay, thank you. That's helpful. Other questions? Thank you. The fiscal year 2027 budget update.

Oh, okay, if we're moving on, I do have a comment. Okay, go ahead. I would like it if people would introduce themselves, of course, and state where they're from. and I do care about all the people involved in the market, but I would like to know which ones live in the city, because those are our residents, and they're the ones that are most affected.

Attorney Leskovich, is that allowed? I believe we had a previous city attorney that had told us that we could not require people to say where they're from.

That's correct, yes. I withdraw my comment.

Okay, the city budget for 2027? No?

Oh, go ahead.

No, okay. And just a reminder, we do have that budget workshop tonight at five o'clock here in this room. You will be hearing from the department heads, from the managers. We have a couple that aren't able to make it tonight, so Kristen will be covering that. And then when we present the item to you on Wednesday, you'll just be hearing it from Kristen just for continuity and flow and to keep things moving that day. So you will have the opportunity to ask questions of the individual department heads and managers tonight.

we have the council policies review governance conduct and leadership questions on that project updates boards and committees i i do have one i think that the bernster and aisles canal advisory committee says six seats i thought we were going down to five i don't know if that's just a typo error it's 70. I'm sorry, Mayor Lutz, where were you seeing that? It was 7D. It was page 398. And in the overview, it just says size six seats.

And I thought we were going to. Follow me. Sorry.

So you're referring to the attachment that is the summary of the board and all of that that's attached to it. So it says six seats because the way that the Granicus Boards and Committees module is set up, we're not able in that summary block to distinguish between alternate and regular, so it's six total, five regular, one alternate.

Got it, thank you.

Okay, do we have any comments, Jennifer? No. Okay. I have nothing today. Attorney Leskovich?

I have nothing today.

Okay.

Vice Mayor? No, no, thank you. Council Member?

No, thank you. Mayor?

Nope. Nothing, nothing. All right, we're adjourned. Thank you.