Commission - Special Meeting

All right, good evening, everyone. Welcome to Lynn Haven City Hall tonight for our special meeting. It's 5.30, so I'm going to go ahead and call this meeting to order. First thing on the agenda is an invocation, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. And Lynn Haven Police Department Chaplain Cameron Newman is going to lead us in prayer tonight.

Luke 16, verse 10 says that whoever is faithful with very little will also be faithful with much. Please bow your heads. Heavenly Father, we gather today grateful for the community we serve and the freedoms that we enjoy. We ask your divine wisdom, your guidance to rest upon this city commission. Grant these leaders clarity of mind, integrity of heart, and a spirit of cooperation. Above all, help them to listen intently, to deliberate justly, to make decisions that promote the common good, safety, and prosperity of all the citizens. Father, may our civic duties be handled with humility, fairness, and respect. Lord, we offer this meeting and our community into your hands, praying in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States,

God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Chaplain Newman, thank you very much for your prayer and thoughtful words tonight, sir. All right, this is a most unusual meeting, but this is a special meeting that I called for us to address the vacancy that is before us right now. Before I get started, I'd like to turn it over to the city attorney, Ms. Courtney Sangria, and allow her to explain and give some background here on the current legal situation as currently assessed by her and Eric Krebs, our other city attorney, and then we will go from there. So, city attorney.

Well, it's my first meeting. Don't even know how to work the mic. This is a unique situation. We wanted to, Mr. Krebs and I, handle it very carefully and appropriately. The city did reach out to the Florida Attorney General's office and ask for guidance. They declined to weigh in at this time. We also did reach out to the Bay County Elections Office, who explained that their function is more ministerial. uh mr krebs and i conducted our own extensive legal research into this matter and we did issue a written legal opinion to the city commission that has been made public on the city's facebook page for you all to read in full I am going to read, I'm not going to read it in full tonight. I don't want to take that long or put you all to sleep with our legalese, but I am going to read an excerpt very quickly. We have been asked to give our legal opinion as to whether Commissioner Judy Tender's resignation on Tuesday, September 8th was effective immediately, thereby creating a vacancy on the Lynn Haven City Commission to be filled pursuant to the Lynn Haven City Charter. For the reasons below, our answer is yes. It is our opinion that the resignation was effective upon announcement at the public meeting on September 8th, 2026, immediately creating a vacancy to be filled pursuant to the Lynn Haven City Charter. It is also our opinion that since Commissioner Tender's resignation was effective upon her announcement, there was not and is not a need for the commission to vote to accept the resignation. Article 10, Section 3 of the Florida State Constitution states in relevant part, vacancy in office shall occur upon the resignation of the incumbent. In Smith v. Brantley, the Florida Supreme Court was asked to interpret Florida law regarding the resignation of a public official. In that case, the public official's resignation was written and was stated to be effective immediately. The court looked to Article 10, Section 3 of the Florida Constitution and at Florida's Vacancy by Resignation Statute, which is now Florida Statute 114.01, which states that a vacancy occurs after the resignation has been accepted by the governor. some have pointed to that statute and noted that there was no formal acceptance of commissioner tender's resignation in the smith v brantley case the florida supreme court grappled with this exact issue ultimately the florida supreme court held that a public officer's resignation Stated to be effective immediately is effective upon submission to the proper authority and that acceptance is not necessary in order to create a vacancy in office. The proper authority has been defined as the entity that has the authority to fill the vacancy. It is our opinion that once Commissioner Tender communicated her resignation to the Commission last week, the resignation was immediately effective and a vacancy was created because the Commission has the authority to fill any said vacancy by appointment. We note the Florida Supreme Court takes precedent over Robert's Rules of Order and discuss the issue more fully in our written legal memo, which again has been made publicly available on the City of Lynn Haven's Facebook page. Because there is a vacancy, we recommend the commission appoint someone to fill the vacancy. We were further asked to research whether the chair of the commission may make and second motions while acting as the chair. Our answer is yes, the chair of the commission may make and second motions per the city charter and Robert's Rules of Order. We further note that a tied vote under Robert's Rules of Order results in a failed vote. Legal memos on these matters will also be made available to the public.

Thank you very much, Courtney. So now what's before us is the city attorney has advised us that Ms. Tender's resignation last Tuesday night was effective immediately. And they've provided Florida case law, Supreme Court decisions to state that. So at this point, we asked for a Florida Attorney General opinion. That office declined to give us one. So we are working with what we've got. NINA WARD, OUR SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS OFFICE WAS ALSO CONSULTED AS WELL. BUT HERE WE ARE TONIGHT. SO BEFORE WE GET STARTED, A COUPLE OF ADMINISTRATIVE THINGS AND WE'LL GO FROM HERE. I LOVE THIS CITY. I KNOW EVERY ONE OF YOU ALL DO. YOU WOULDN'T BE HERE IF YOU DID. SO BEFORE WE EVEN GET STARTED TONIGHT, I'M GOING TO ASK EVERYONE TO BE RESPECTFUL AND YOU DON'T ALWAYS HAVE TO AGREE, BUT WE CAN RESPECTFULLY DISAGREE. Everyone who wants to speak tonight on this particular subject, we're not having general commentary. However, what we do have is when a motion and a second is made before a vote is taken, the floor will be open for this specific topic. So everyone who wants to speak tonight about the filling of the position, seat four, Ms. Tender's prior or previous seat, will be allowed to say so. We're not here to talk about flock cameras or the animal shelter or the CRA, the budget or anything else. This is the specific topic and the related sub-issues of that that will be allowed to be spoken to tonight. If there are a lot of people, I'm just going to go ahead and do this. This is within the chair's purview. I'm going to go ahead and say, before we even get out of the gate, we'll do two minutes per speaker. We have a full house, and if even half of y'all want to come up and speak, better two minutes apiece than three, because we'll be here until midnight. And we've already been through a five-hour meeting earlier or last week. Those weren't fun. I don't want to put Ms. Tender or anybody else through another one of those if we can help it, okay? So here's where we're going tonight. You also heard a couple of other administrative notes. Now that we are down a commissioner at this moment, we are a four-member commission with one vacancy. Therefore, as the chair, I asked for a ruling on whether or not the chair could make a motion or a second. and was confirmed as you heard from our city attorney per Robert's Rules of Orders with boards of nine or less that is current and accurate and can be done. It also complies with our city charter. So there you go. So that may be a little unusual, but when you're down commissioners, the chair has to be able to make motions or second in order to participate with the rest of the limited commission. Also, it was clarified that a tie vote, should there be a 2-2 vote, that is not a passing vote. It's basically a hung jury, if you will, right, at deadlocks. So you move on from there. Those were the clarifications. I'm stating this all up front before we get started tonight. That being said, if the commission, if any other commissioner wants to say something up front, I will yield to you. Otherwise, I want to yield the floor to Ms. Tender. and let her say what she wants to say and talk about what she wants to talk about in regards to this situation. And then I'll open the floor and let our fellow commissioners ask any questions of Ms. Tender.

Mayor, Ms. Tender is also considered as a, in lieu of the resignation, she's considered as a potential appointee, correct?

Yes.

Are you gonna give all the other appointees time to talk?

Once we get, I want, yes.

I mean, this is unusual that you're giving her time to talk, but the other appointees, have they been?

Yes. So the intent here is, Commissioner Perno, is I want Commissioner Tender, for her dedicated service, if nothing else, I very much want her to have the opportunity to speak. We will move forward from there. And yes, anyone being considered, with a motion and a second, will certainly have equal opportunity to come up and speak tonight. I think that's fair.

I would add that if we do that, which I have no problem with Ms. Tender starting it off at all, but I would say just from a legal risk standpoint, we can let her talk as much as she wants, but if it takes 15 minutes, then every candidate should have 15 minutes.

Who is up for a motion, I absolutely agree.

Yes, correct. And maybe we should have on record who those people are.

Sure, so we can obviously go ahead and do that. As a matter of record, we have five volunteers, I believe, correct?

Which if you include Commissioner Tender, right? Six total.

Okay, so the six, we'll go ahead and just identify the six volunteers at this time. We have Commissioner Tender, We had Mr. Scray, Ryan Scray. We had Mr. George Hines. We had Mr. Johnny Beshear. We had Mr. Jeff Snyder. And we had Corey Langford. That's one, two, three, four, five, six. Did I leave anybody out?

Did anyone from the city receive any other names?

The only emails that I received were from Mr. Scray, Mr. Snyder, and then a phone call from Mr. Hines.

Okay.

Okay. Is there anybody else for the purposes of identification, is there anybody else here tonight wishing to be considered at any part of this process? If so, please stand up, raise your hand, and identify yourself. Ma'am, come on up to the podium real quick and identify yourself. Good evening.

Good evening.

What's your name, ma'am?

Gay Speights, a citizen of Lynnhaven.

Gay Speights?

S-P-E-I-G-H-T-S. Speights, all right. Pronounced Speights, yes.

Thank you, ma'am.

You're welcome.

All right, so we have seven contenders in total, our applicants slash volunteers. All right, so tonight we're going to kick this off. Ms. Tender, I want you to have an opportunity to say what you want to say in terms of the resignation last Tuesday night. At this point, your last official act as a commissioner after a very long five-hour meeting. You say what you want to say to us, ma'am, and to the citizens of Lynn Haven, and we will go from there.

Okay, thank you very much. Can everybody hear me okay?

Yes, ma'am.

Yes, it is absolutely true that at the last five-hour meeting, things got a little overheated and whatnot. I really intended that night for it to be my last night, and then After over 300 emails and three texts and whatnot, I can't tell you how much I've been on the phone in the last week. I felt that if the people wanted me back, I should attempt to make that happen. I can't. tell everyone that's here how much I appreciate their support. It means, it's just amazing to me. I've always tried to speak the truth. I've always tried to speak with transparency and keep the public informed of what's going on. Many don't know this, but back in the, and this is what life is all about to me. Back in the 90s I worked at Bay Medical and I taught customer service and I had a class on perception. Perception is everything in life. And I used to have this class where I would put a huge bowl of fruit in the middle of the table. had all kinds of fruit in it. And I'd ask everyone to write down what they saw from where they were sitting. And not one sheet matched anybody else's because they were all in their own place looking at what they could see. And yet we were all looking at the same thing. So when it comes to perception, I've received countless, countless emails on Florida law and all of this. Today I had lunch with Courtney. And by the way, it's her birthday coming up on Friday. Don't forget that. And we had lunch today and we talked about their rulings. who am I to argue with it? I'm not an attorney. You know? But I think we all have to keep in mind that it is everyone's perception. It's where they're at. It's where they're sitting, where they're looking at the same situation from. And everybody has their own thing. I have to say, I don't know if Zach is here tonight without turning around and looking, but... Detweiler? Yeah. He's here. He is? Yes. Anyway, Zach did a great meme of me. It's called Tindergate. It was on Facebook. So I went out and got my hair cut so I looked more like the meme he did. And I texted him and I told him, I said, hey, here I am. My haircut matches your meme. But I think whatever happens... should be the will of the people, but I also understand, I've been doing this since 2017, and I've visited many, many residents, been in their homes, taken countless calls, and it is what it is, and that's how I feel about it. Whatever takes place, whatever this commission wants, Pat eats at my restaurant, I eat at his, I mean, you know, the Dubliner, that's what it is. That's what's good at his place. Anyway, so it is what it is and you have to just vote and consider from your own perspective and what it does for you and how you see what I have done. I will have, I was telling her today at lunch, Even if you don't want me back in my seat, for whatever reason, whatever your perspective is, that's fine because I can come to the podium just like every other resident at every meeting. talk about whatever I want and I don't have to feel like there's a certain decorum or you know as a commissioner I don't want to say that that sounds rude whatever I come up here and give you all what for you know but anyway I appreciate everybody that's here supporting me and I appreciate everything and I've enjoyed my whatever it's been, eight years, whatever, on the commission. And that's really all I have to say.

All right, ma'am. Any questions for Ms. Tender from the rest of the commission? Yes.

Very quickly, I did time. That was four and a half minutes. So keep in mind.

Okay.

So any other candidate or volunteer that comes forward tonight as part of a motion, we'll also get four and a half minutes to address questions. the commission and the public. All right, any other questions among the commission for Ms. Stender? If not, I'll speak. I wanna thank you for your years and years of service up to this point. And I thought back, I thought a lot about last Tuesday night and kind of the, that came out of left field. I mean, we were all tired and frustrated and exhausted I actually remembered something you told me June 9th up here on this dais when Mr. Scray and I locked horns and I had pretty much the worst 10 or 15 seconds of my young mayorship. When it came time for your commissioners report You said at two hours, three minutes, and 52 seconds, you said, and I quote, Dave, you look like you feel bad, but you're a good man. We all have our breaking points, and we all have a limit where our temper will kick in. Mine does. I don't think I've really displayed it here, but I try to be good, and you smiled. And when you said that, you were the very first person to give me grace and understanding. We really were. And I wouldn't be a leader, I couldn't call myself a Christian, if I didn't give you and extend that same courtesy and grace back to you. You are right. We all have our breaking points. I do not know of a single perfect human on this planet. And the one that the Bible says ever existed, he got killed in his 30s. So the rest of us are pretty infallible humans. I wanted to call that out and say thank you for giving grace, and you certainly deserve that same amount of grace. My only question for you is, are you sure in your heart of hearts that you want to climb back up into this dais and take on the weight of the city with us? The people of this city gave you a four-year term that you were about a year and a half into. I just want to hear it from you. Because I think I know the answer, but I really want to hear it from you. I think all the people deserve to hear it from you. Is that in your heart of hearts, do you really want to get back up here and do this with us?

in my heart of hearts, I truly do, to the point where I'm scheduled for a heart ablation next Tuesday. And when I realized it was the same day as the budget meeting, I thought, well, that's not gonna fly. So I did call, I changed it so that it won't interfere if I should be here next Tuesday for the budget meeting. And yeah, I think my run is up April of 29, which seems a lifetime away to me, it might be. But yes, in my heart of hearts, I think I can still do a lot of good. But I know for sure, if it's truth and transparency, and that's all I want to be known for, is truth and transparency. If that's what the commission wants, or anyone else, then I'm your person. But if you're looking...

Just before we get started here, I'm just curious. Can I get a show of hands? If you're here to support Ms. Tender tonight, whether you plan to speak or not, would you raise your hand? City attorney, what would you call that? About 75, 80%?

Yes, about that, Mayor.

So three quarters are a little better of y'all. Thank y'all for that. All right. So... There's no script for what we're doing here. We're kind of flying blind, so y'all bear with us. At this point, Commissioner Tender has said what she wanted to relay to the commission. I was the only one that wanted to ask any questions. At this point, I will move to see if there is a motion to reappoint her to her seat. Can I get a motion? If not, I will motion. And the new designated clarification that the chair can, especially in a small commission or small board like this, I will do the motion. So the chair hereby makes a motion. I'm asking for a second. Can I get a second? Okay, guys, please do me the courtesy of we've got to be respectful with each other in congenial. I hear you completely. Let's give this process a chance to work out here. Applause is appropriate, but let's no catcalling or no jeering or anything like that. I'm so sorry, Ms. Day, I can hear you. I will speak more into the microphone. My apologies, ma'am. Y'all just work with us here for a minute. Do I have a second for my motion? Okay. So my motion fails. Ms. Tender, I have one more question for you, ma'am. In the military, they always taught me to hope for the best and plan for the worst. And my hope was to get you back in your seat to continue the term that the citizens gave you, at least till April and they would get another vote. So I'm a lone man out here at the moment, but I'm very curious because that seat and the time that is currently ongoing in that seat four, It was yours until you gave it up. I'm very much curious, who would you recommend we appoint to your seat?

Without a doubt, Corey Langford. Without a doubt. Corey has always spoke up. He's always spoke up for what's right. He has no problem. with honesty or anything else. And we've dealt with Corey for many, many issues out in Southport and everywhere else.

And stormwater in particular. Put him to work. All right. Well, thank you for that, ma'am. So my motion failed. We will now dispense with the way ahead from here. Are there any thoughts from the rest of the commission?

Mayor, if I may, I'd like to make a motion, and I'd like to make the motion that we fill the vacancy of the seat of the commissioner, seat four, with Mr. Jeff Snyder.

I'll second.

Okay, I have a motion and a second. Any discussion among the commission?

Mayor, I read all the people who were of the emails that we got, and I felt like Mr. Schneider snuck out. His years of service to the city already were longer than any other person that I saw. So with that being said, that was my choice. We are filling a vacancy. And I wish, Ms. Tender, God love you. I wish you the best. I respect you. I love you. And come April, you can beat the pants off of whoever we have. Because I know when you get out there and run, you got all these people supporting you. But the subject was the final when you made your resignation. I mean, words are words. You can't take them back. The law is the law. We've been advised. This is a In my way right now where I'm thinking, that's the way we need to go. But six months from now, seven months from now, I'll see your signs. I'll be in your place. And I hope you understand where I'm coming from. You and I will always be good, and you're always welcome at my place, and I know I'm always welcome at yours.

Okay, so any other discussion among the other commissioners with this motion?

Based on the candidates, I think they're all, the reality is is all six candidates, if they ran for an election, depending on the year that they ran, they have a legitimate chance of winning, all six of them. This makes the decision very difficult for me because it wasn't like we had one strong candidate and a bunch of weak ones that we've never heard of before. And so, actually we've got seven candidates. Ms. Spates is well respected in the community as well. Any one of these individuals, if they ran at the right time, would easily win an election. So that makes it extremely difficult. But in my opinion, with the state of our budget right now, And with the budget that we're going through, I would want someone that's on the finance review committee. So that's where my thoughts are at. Because we need help, as much help as we can get on the financial side. Because we're going to have the budget, yes. But then going into... going into the year after. We need to start day one working on the next budget. I think Mr. Snyder, he has a very strong resume. He's been the chairman of the Planning Commission twice. He's been on the financial review committee he Is very active in the community pushing information to everybody that he can he's a positive light in the community That's not to say anything bad about the others.

I'm just listening his resume because that's what we're talking about right now So that's where I'm at Okay, so I acknowledge your hand mr.. Scrae, but hang on drop your hand you'll you'll be the first one to get up for comments on this Mr. Snyder, where are you at? Sir, we afforded Ms. Tender four and a half minutes. You will also get four and a half minutes if you would like. Okay. All right. So I've been advised that not just the person before the motion, but everyone that threw their hat in the ring will go that way. So we will do that. I don't have any preference on how we call the rest of the folks up. We can do it in alphabetical order. We could also do ladies first, but that only helps with Ms. Bates and the rest of the guys. We'd still end up in alphabetical order, so why don't we do that? Is alphabetical order acceptable for everyone? All right, and we're talking how many minutes, four and a half? So each candidate that volunteered will get four and a half minutes. We're going to go in alphabetical order. So the first one is going to be Mr. Johnny Bashir. Come on up. Now, for anyone who, if you've got knee problems, back issues or anything like that and you don't want to stand for the whole time, you can certainly come sit here next to Ms. Tender and present at the table with that microphone.

Mr. Beshear.

Okay, before I start, I did want one clarification. Should you, and even though the motion didn't pass, should Mrs. Tender be reinstated to her seat, would it be to fulfill her entire term or just until April would she have to stand for election?

It would be until April, until she would have to stand for election, and that would be the case for any appointee.

Thank you. Okay. I'm going to read what I mailed you all and then we'll go from there. I said, in the event Judy Tender is not reinstated as Lynn Haven's seat four commissioner, I'm formally requesting your consideration to fill the vacancy. I can integrate seamlessly as I'm very aware of the needs, challenges and processes of the city. As a retired senior citizen, I can commit the necessary time to achieve the best results possible while serving in this capacity. Should you choose not to reinstate Judy Tender to seat four, the commission will lack a representative for our senior population once Mr. Pernois rolls off the commission. The main priority during this period will be first and foremost to address items brought before the commission with diligent research and timely decision making. As such, I will work with the department heads to gain an even more in-depth understanding of what can and cannot be done within the existing financial constraints. After this understanding is complete, I will come back with recommendations in an attempt to not only achieve the bare minimum required, but to further keep Lynn Haven as one of the best and most affordable family-oriented suburbs in Florida Panhandle and one of the safest cities in the state of Florida. Now, I have already met, since I wrote that letter, I've met with every department head with the exception of Mrs. Roman, which I've got an appointment set up with tomorrow today. to meet with her and discuss where we're at on everything. So the challenges ahead as I see them are continuing to maintain and improve the quality of life for our residents, giving the financial constraints both existing and projected. Regain city employee morale and job satisfaction, informing the public of the actual financial ramifications to the city should Amendment 3 pass in the November elections. Consideration of a path forward should it pass, and even if it doesn't pass, we need to address what we would do. We need to plan now, not in the future. Clearing the backlog of items from previous commission meetings that are unresolved, beginning a more formal approach to the projected expansion of our wastewater capacity, getting our commission meetings more efficient and shorter, and also very important, restoring the trust with our citizens, other municipalities, and with state officials. I said if you wanted my formal qualifications, I could give them to you. I currently own the finance committee. I've served on the infrastructure tax surtax committee. I've been very involved in the city for several years. I've lived here basically all my life. I've got a lot of industrial experience, not in the service which may be of help to up here for a different perspective. I know in the past I've had some people that were contentious with me. I would ask should I be considered that they would give me an opportunity to prove that I would be fair and diligent for all the citizens of Lynn Haven and not a select few. i would be that way and i would hope that they would give me the opportunity to prove that i could do that and to hold me accountable if i failed to do that that's the most important thing to me when you've got a commissioner up there they need to listen to the citizens and respond to the citizens and let them know they're heard that is one thing that judy tender was an excellent person at she let everybody realize they were heard and advocated for and i would hope i could fill that position just as that thank you

Thank you, Mr. Beshear. All right, number two, Mr. George Hines. Come on up, sir. Good evening.

Good evening, Board. I'm here to say that I put my name in for Judy's position because Judy abandoned the position. I've sent you a letter. I read your phone call and I sent the mayor a letter. He was the only one who responded to me. It told you who I was and where I came from. I came from Bay County, Florida. I went to school in Glenwood.

Pull up just a little bit.

I went to school in Panama City. I went to the military at 18. I've been serving my country for 21 and a half years. Since I came out of service, I went to the law enforcement academy. I worked with the sheriff's department for four years. Then I drove school buses for 17 and a half years. I haven't done that much with Lynn Haven, but I've been in Lynn Haven meetings for over 30 years. I've been living in the neighborhood for 30 years. I have been busy. I'm on the budgeting committee, and I'm willing to do anything I need to do. I'm not here to waste your time or mine, so I don't have a whole lot to talk about. That's who I am, and that's why I applied for it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hines. Number three, Mr. Corey Langford. Good evening.

Good evening. I'm no stranger to this microphone. Ms. Tender, thank you so much, not only for your service to the City of Lynnhaven, but for what you said about me. I appreciate it. Look, I don't have this big, long speech drawn up. Y'all see me when I get up here and talk. I'm just honest, okay? And that's one thing that's been mentioned tonight, was integrity and transparency. One of the things that the City of Lynnhaven's got in front of us are a lot of complex problems. And I try to approach things with a very simplistic mindset. I feel like that we can come up with solutions. Specifically, I can come up with common sense solutions to complex problems. Look, what we've got going on in Lynnhaven, it's not hard, okay? We're spending too much money. We've got to continue cutting the budget. You're absolutely right. My plan would be to make the budget process a 12-month process. It needs to be continually reviewed every meeting to where we continue cutting. Look, I went to the finance review committee meeting And I was a little bit frustrated. I told them exactly what I told you all. I said, I believe the finance review committee is either being underutilized or you're underperforming. My ask of them was to provide you all with a millage rate and cuts to balance the budget. And they finally got to an answer. I'm thankful for that. So I hear what you're saying about the Finance Review Committee. When Ms. Tender ran against her opponent in the election, I think there was a reason that Ms. Tender won, and I'm not going to go into that. But I can tell you that Ms. Tender asks questions. She asked questions. Sometimes those questions were difficult. And I can tell you that a lot of times I get up here and I bring up some difficult issues and I ask difficult questions. Do I want to be Ms. Tender? No. Do I think the residents of Lynn Haven deserve an official sitting on this dais to ask difficult questions? Absolutely. The people that are sitting at this dais are the most, you all are the only thing standing between our pocketbooks as residents and the city. We need someone who is going to advocate for the residents of the city of Lynn Haven. And I'm telling you I'm here to do that. Look, there's some there's some votes on increases coming up one in which I didn't agree with the sanitation All right, I came up and I said my piece It's those types of things right there that we need to be Fully understand that every time we're asking the residents of Lynn Haven for one penny more of their out of their pocketbook There better be a dang good justification as to why we're doing it So look, I've got about a minute and a half left. I sent you all the email and Yes, I'm military too. Look, the military doesn't define me. It's part of who I am, all right? I served my country for 20 years. As soon as I got done with the military and retired, I decided to get involved with the city. I enjoy coming up here serving on the Charter Review Committee as chairman. I think there's some good work that's been done. All I want to do is serve, and if you guys want to appoint me to do that, I'll be more than happy to humbly accept that responsibility to not only represent but advocate for the citizens of Long Haven. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Mr. Scray.

Good evening first things first I always point out where you guys are falling short on policy And I want to point out that with your questions mayor you afford it miss tender five minutes and 58 seconds of time to speak And if you're not giving everybody else, including the gentleman before me, the same amount of time, you're affecting our rights. And we've been through this before. I think it's complete BS that we're not giving everybody the same amount of time to speak tonight. And I'm wasting my time to speak about that. Lynn Haven's a train wreck. It's an absolute train wreck. It's been a train wreck for the whole six years I've lived here. It's just time and time again, accepting late bids, kicking people out of meetings, not giving enough people time. It's just over and over. The city keeps making the same mistakes. It's like it's a curse of being a union city. That's what I tell people. This city was founded by union soldiers after the Civil War, and it just clashes just like the Civil War clashed. This city has had problems nonstop. How do you fix problems? You propose solutions. I've been up here numerous times to propose solutions. I can be an advocate for the seniors, Johnny. That's no problem. You know what I propose? I propose that we offer reductions in fees for seniors. If they come down to City Hall and they show that they're struggling financially, whether it's sanitation, stormwater, whatever, we just offer them and they have to renew it every year. You want to take care of seniors on fixed income, that's how you do it. They can come down and do that. What else do we need to cover? Oh, the animal shelter. Did you know that almost nobody registers their animals in the City of Lynnhaven? STATISTICALLY, WE COULD BRING IN ABOUT $40,000 A YEAR WITH THIS $10 FEE IF PEOPLE WOULD JUST DO THEIR JOB AND REGISTER THEIR ANIMALS. WHY ARE PEOPLE NOT REGISTERING THEIR ANIMALS? THAT'S A PROBLEM WE NEED TO FIND A SOLUTION FOR. I'VE ALREADY BEEN WORKING WITH CITY STAFF TO TRY TO FIND A SOLUTION. LET'S SEE, WHAT ELSE? TWO AND A HALF MINUTES LEFT. STORM WATER, YEP, I'VE SAID IT BEFORE, WE'RE NOT FUNDING IT, IT'S NOT GOING TO GET FIXED FOR 300 YEARS. WE HAVE $30 MILLION WORTH OF CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS AND WE BRING IN, IF WE'RE LUCKY, $100,000 EXTRA A YEAR. WHY? BECAUSE THIS COMMISSION AND EVERY COMMISSION BEFORE IT SINCE THE STORM WATER THING GOT SET UP REFUSED TO DO ONE THING, PROPERLY FUND IT. WE PAID STANTEC OVER $40,000 A YEAR TO COME UP WITH THAT PLAN, BUT WE CAN'T EVEN FOLLOW THE PLANS THAT WE PAY PEOPLE TO GIVE US? IT'S PATHETIC. My proposal is that we follow the plan that they issued out. As far as how we collect those fees, we can talk about that. We can put the residential stuff back on the bill. We can offer the seniors discounts, but we need to be funding stormwater or it's not gonna be fixed. 300 years, does anybody here expect to live another 300 years? No. What else? Oh yeah, the budget. Corey says we just cut it. It's easy to say cut everything, cut everything. No, it's not just cuts. It's called finding efficiency. There's a lot of efficiency. Do you know how much time that code enforcement spends looking up records? And they get a lot of public records requests. How much time do they spend up looking their paper records? in the year 2026. How much time is wasted doing that? There's a lot of inefficiency within the city, but everybody's too busy just trying to survive and make it to the next day to take care of it. And so whether you want to appoint me or not, I'm going to be up here and I'm going to be riding your asses to do a better job because that's what the citizens behind me deserve. Also, only one person out of everybody asking to be appointed proposed a citizen's bill of rights in the charter, and that's me.

Ms. Spates, come on down, ma'am. Good evening, Times 2.

Good evening, Times 2. Let me just say, for the record, I'm not seeking the seat. I'm seeking to speak. And I think that I withdraw from this because I would like to speak on the other issue.

What do you mean, ma'am?

I don't want to take up your time. There are lots of people here that can fill that seat. But I came to speak on the issue of what we were doing today. I'm not volunteering. I withdraw that. Okay.

So thank you for the clarification. Yes. There will be time when the motion is voted on. Thank you.

That's what I came for. Yes, ma'am. Appreciate you. Yes, ma'am.

Thank you. All right, well that leaves, last but certainly not least, Mr. Jeff Snyder.

Good evening. Good evening, how are you? Good. Get the paper out of here. Mayor?

You dropped something.

Did I? Oh, I'll get that in a second, thank you. Mayor, commissioners, thank you for considering me for this appointment. Thank you for the nomination in the second. Linn-Avon has been my home for most of my life. I grew up here and have spent 35 of my 44 years living in and around this community. And today, my wife and I are proud to be raising our four children here. I've also been an active participant in the affairs of the city since the spring of 2019 when I was first appointed to the planning board. Through those six years, I learned a lot. I had the opportunity to serve as vice chair, and then two terms as chairman. Most recently, I have had the opportunity to serve on the financial review committee for just over a year, and that's given me the opportunity to work through two budget seasons. And through that work, we've had to make some difficult financial decisions, certainly are more ahead, but I'm prepared to do that work. Those experiences have taught me something important about public service. Good government does not require us to agree on everything. Frankly, it doesn't require us to agree on anything. But it does require us to listen to one another, to treat one another with respect, to do our homework, and to be willing to make difficult decisions when necessary. And as a personal note, I will tell you that there will be many difficult decisions ahead of us. And I am prepared to make those decisions and stand by them. And as I said when I ran last spring, you may not agree with me, but I will always be able to tell you how I got there and why I feel the way I do. One of the principles that I try to live by is from 1 Peter 3.15. Most of you know me as a person of deep faith. And so it's only fitting that scripture informs my worldview. 1 Peter 3.15 tells us to conduct ourselves with gentleness and respect. And I believe that that principle belongs in government as much as anywhere else. If appointed tonight, I will bring that approach to the commission. I will work with each of you. I will listen to our residents and to our staff. I will ask questions no matter how difficult or uncomfortable. I will study the issues and I will make decisions based upon what I believe is best for Lynn Haven and based on collaboration with each of you. I understand the responsibility that comes with this seat and I am prepared to begin that work immediately. Thank you for your consideration and for the confidence represented by my nomination tonight. It would be an honor to serve alongside each of you and to serve the people of Lynn Haven. And on a personal note, Judy, we had a great time last year. We learned a lot about each other. You made me a better candidate and I thank you for that. Thank you.

All right. So we've had a motion and a second, and all six candidates have been afforded the same opportunity to speak. Now we go to commentary. I'll open the floor, Ms. Parker. I see your hand come up first. What we will do is, because we have so many, and I'm anticipating this, it's gonna take a while, y'all, so work with me here. We'll do two minutes each, otherwise we'll be here till midnight. When I see a hand raised, I'll try to work on this side, then this side, and we'll go back and forth. You just raise your hand. And I'll call upon you and we'll come up from there. And if I don't know you by name, I'll identify you by like your shirt or which side you're on and we'll do like that. But everyone who wants to come up and speak will be given an opportunity to speak. But realize it'll only be for two minutes so that we're not here all night, okay? So that's how we'll kick things off. So Ms. Parker, you're first up. Come on up, ma'am. Good evening.

Good evening. The charter requires a signature for a resignation. The mayor, you should inform the commission that they've neglected to vote on her resignation and the lawyer on her resignation as well. They did not speak on this as well. Based on Robert's rules, a motion in a second to concede that Tender is still a commissioner. Robert's rules of order, a resignation is treated as a request to be excused from a duty and does not take effect until the governing body votes to accept it. Because the board has yet not voted, no vacancy was legally created and the commission was free to withdraw her verbal statement. Even if someone attempts to challenge this using Florida case law, the state's legal precedent heavily favors her position. The commission should read the ordinance and Robert's rules as well as the home rule statute and follow the procedures which have been in place in Lynn Haven for decades. Otherwise, you're not following the rules, and that includes the lawyer as well. Judy should stand up and call for point of order. Under Florida law and standard municipal rules, a purely verbal or heat of the moment statement doesn't legally constitute a valid binding resignation for a city commissioner. The chair should say, state your order. Then Ms. Tender should withdraw her resignation from her commission seat. Chris. acting just like Vicki Gaynor. It took Vicki Gaynor six years to get out of here. I hope it takes you less. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am. So, Ms. McElroy, and then back over here, Ms. Marler, and then Mr. Prescott, in that order. Good evening.

Good evening, mayor. Thank you for this opportunity. Um, what I've noticed is over at least as long as I've been attending meetings, 2019, it's been consistent with how many times Judy tender has been bullied. If it's not by the current commissioner and city manager, it's been by the police chief and other city managers. I'm sick of seeing this. I would have a long time ago said I quit because of how vile some of the comments have been towards Judy Tender. Pat Perno has done nothing to defend his friend. I've put this in writing over the years. I've addressed it straight to Commissioner Pernot. I think there's a little collusion going on here between two commissioners. The motion and the second happened awful quick. You talk about respect, Mr. Snyder. Where were you when people were throwing Judy Tindor under the bus, sir? You lost to Judy Tindor. You have been on the finance committee, and we now know the city of Lynn Haven O's is in the hold by $18 million. Where were you, sir, to come before this dais and say how bad it was? And we've known for years it's terrible. You knew, Jamie. You knew. $21 million. Now $18 million. You should all be thrown out of office, with the exception of the mayor, because I do give him grace. You, Commissioner Pernault, need to be gone. Thank you very much.

Mayor? Commission, I just wanted to get up and talk about Robert's Rules of Order have been pointed out. My name is Sarah Marler. I've lived here my whole life. I'm 37 years old. So if we're going to go by Robert's Rules of Order, we need to go by blanket Robert's Rules of Order, not when it just benefits one party or the other. Whenever Ms. Vicki was terminated, the decision first was a motion was declined. And then again, it was turned around. That goes against Robert's Rules of Order. If we're going to talk about having to vote on a resignation, Mayor Nelson, it was not in the middle of a recall election. He gave his resignation without anything being in writing. Nothing was voted on it. So if we're going to do Robert's Rules of Order and the fact that Ms. Tinder resigned, why aren't we doing the same across the board? We can't just do it. We're not a washing machine. You can't just do it when one works and then turn and wash the other way. on an agitation cycle when it doesn't benefit you. We have to do it fair and across the board. That's the bottom line. I want what's best for the city, and if somebody in the heat of the moment, I agree, it's hard, I can't imagine being in the position, but I also work in a professional career, and if I walked into my job and said what I needed to say, and then turned around two days later, I wouldn't have a job either. I wouldn't. So Commissioner Tender, thank you for your service. I appreciate it, but I am glad we're going forward because I also appreciate your attorney that has gone to law school, that knows the laws, and knows what is best for our city. So thank you so much.

Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Prescott, city manager, one point of order. Did not Mayor Nelson submit an actual resignation letter He did not. He just made a verbal statement and resigned. Okay. Thank you for that. Mr. Prescott.

My name is Jack Prescott, 1502 Country Club Drive. I've lived here for 52 years and have enjoyed it up to the last eight. The last eight have been holy hell for the city of Lynn Haven. I saw two of my best friends go through holy hell over there in Tallahassee because of things that happened in this city. Shouldn't have happened. But I'm gonna tell you, if you go with what you're going through right now, you're gonna lose about 80% of the people back there because they disagree with where you're headed right now. I had hoped that you could make a motion to accept Judy, go to get it out of the way without having all this controversy. But all you're doing is just creating more situations that is not in the best interest of Lynn Haven. Thank you, sir.

Mr. The black shirt, come on up behind Mr. Hines. Sir, I'm sorry, I don't know your name, but come on up. Mitch? Okay, come on up, sir. I understood. I didn't say the other word. What I'm doing, y'all, is I'm alternating from one side to the next. So this speaker will come this side, next time it'll come from this side, okay? And we'll just back and forth until we get everybody a chance to speak.

Thank you. My name is Mitch Oakley, I live at 1208 Massachusetts Avenue. My wife and I and my little dog. I'm the same opinion the gentleman just came here. It's been a horrible experience the last few years. Some credible things have come out of this. I'm from business, I'm not from government. I've had to work to make my money. You know, government doesn't make money, government gives it back. That's what it does. Every time my attorney drove my business, we were heading toward bankruptcy somewhere. So be careful when you give the keys away so quick. We put you here to make decisions, just like the little guy that I met in my front yard last week putting in meters. We don't have anybody that can put a meter in. We're going to hire somebody on contract with a budget like ours? We're going to pay somebody to turn two bolts in a truck with our sticker on it? Wow. Judy, she's got too much character to follow my advice. I told her what she should have done. was to say she had a temporary medical event due to that five-hour thing. It helped the guy avoid an illegal arrest for drunken driving with damage. He got to hide for months on full pay. I think could have bought you a few days. And it was a genuine medical emergency, five hours. There's some corruption here among this group. I'm not intimate enough to know where it is, but I'm going to let you know I'm going to be looking. I'm coming for you. I'm coming for you. If you mess up, if you take too much lunch, I'm coming for you.

I was thinking the exact same thing.

Same thing. I'm going to say good evening to you again because officially I'm standing here to say what I want to say. I'm responding to this whole situation about the commissioner's resignation. I'm watching my time. I just want to say to all of the commissioners, the city staff, and neighbors, all of our neighbors, and I wrote down what I was going to say because I didn't want to go out on the deep end somewhere else. So my name is Gaye Spakes, and I've lived in Lynn Haven most of my life, aside from going to college and finishing a degree with a specialist in administration, so I'm duly qualify for a lot of things that go on up here. But tonight I came because I do not believe Commissioner Tender should be allowed to take back her resignation. When an elected official resigns, that is a serious decision. The city and the people who live here should be able to count on that decision I appreciate the time Commissioner Tender has given to this city. I also understand that people can say or do things in the heat of a moment and later regret them. But holding public office comes with a higher level of responsibility. A major decision like resigning has consequences, even when the person later wishes They had handled the moment differently. But even apart from the legal issue, I believe that the resignation should stand. As residents, we need steady and dependable representation. If an elected official can resign during a difficult moment and then simply say I made a mistake and undo it, that creates uncertainty and sets a bad example for the future.

Thank you, ma'am. Oh, I don't get my other minutes? No, ma'am. It's just two minutes. OK. I'll be back. Thank you, Ms. Speight. I appreciate you coming up, ma'am. All right. She was on this side, so this side. Ms. Garman, come on up. Good evening.

Hello. I have been researching people being agitated. And the reason that Miss Tender got agitated and resigned was because she's been probed and prodded and poked and said disrespectful things to her. And the most calm creature on earth is a sloth. These are slow tree dwellers that sleep up to 20 hours a day and they hardly ever get agitated. But sloths can get agitated themselves if they are poked and prodded at gouged to the limits of their exasperation. I've been attending Lynn Haven Commission meetings for many years. And before that, I would watch the meetings on YouTube. My family has roots in Lynn Havens for hundreds of years. So I love Lynn Haven and its citizens. I walked up and down the streets of Lynn Haven in the hot, boiling sun during the recall of Mayor Nelson. I have two knee replacements, two hip replacements, metal plates in my ankle, back, and neck, so I'm a bionic woman. But I tell you what, I'm going to walk these streets again, because I want every single one of you that did not vote to have Judy put back on that seat. I want you recalled, and I want him fired. Because he and Jamie are the two that have been the worst at poking and prodding at Judy, and made her lose her temper. Anybody, even a sloth, can lose their temper after being prodded so long.

Who here is with me and will walk the streets with me to get them recalled?

So you're out.

Thank you, ma'am. This side, lady in the back in the gray. Is that Ms. Day? Gina, can you grab a microphone, please, ma'am? Good evening, Ms. Day. Good evening.

To you, I don't like but we do have to take it in consideration. Sometimes things are just a prime example for us to learn by these hard ways of experience. So under the Florida law, a verbal heat of resonation is not legally final or binding. So since Ms. Judy did not sign a written resignation letter, she remains a lawful member of the Lynn Haven Commission. My understanding of this mostly is this meeting is a formal session, am I correct, to decide on her return. I challenge the city manager and I hold the combative officials like Jamie Warwick and Chris Lightfoot accountable. taking her back and forth like a bouncing ball upon the commission, and go back to September the 5th, 25, and you will see when that took place with Chris Lightfoot. She asked two questions. Just go look at the video yourself. One was about... I'm not going to tell you. You need to go look. Because you know what? It's very important. You commissioners have been very rude to Judy being the only woman sitting up on that dice. She's the only one for the people, to tell you the truth, except you, Mayor, I'm leaving you out. Okay. So under the Florida President's, a public official's resignation motion, and typically requires a written submission to the filing officer, and figure that one out, to have a true vacancy. So Ms. Judy rescinded her verbal statement before ever signing a resignation of any kind. So tonight, the voters of Lynn Haven demand transparency and honesty, and right now, we aren't getting it from the administration. So regarding seat four, Commissioner Tender, oh my goodness, my time's up.

Thank you, ma'am.

Well, thank you.

Zach Detweiler. Zach, as you're coming up, you had stepped out presumably to the bathroom. Ms. Tender asked about you earlier if you were here. I was. I didn't want to cough while she was speaking. Good evening.

Good evening. So I'm going to make two separate statements, one procedural and the second one more of an appeal. From a procedural standpoint, I believe that the city and the attorneys got it correct. And I know that's not a popular opinion, but here's the deal. Public record and when something becomes public record is the matter in which something becomes final. Because these meetings are video recorded, and those video recordings are a primary substance matter for public record, because they're on Civvy Plus, and they're on YouTube, so on and so forth, and they must be kept as a primary record, when she made the verbal statement, it became a public record. Because of that, that is an official action taken by somebody duly doing their activities, and therefore, it is final. I WOULD LIKE IT TO NOT BE TRUE, BUT IT IS. THERE IS CASE LAW FOR IT. BENDING V. REDDINGTON BEACH IS THE MOST RECENT ONE IN 2021. I ALSO WANT TO BRING UP THE FACT THAT THIS COMMISSION DOES NOT HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO DICTATE WHAT ANOTHER COMMISSIONER DOES. ALL FIVE ARE DUALLY ELECTED EQUALLY. THIS IS A WEAK MAYOR SYSTEM. THE FOUR OF YOU DO NOT HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO VOTE ON WHETHER OR Accept or deny because it could compel someone to not be able to resign if they wanted to and that would be illegal According to landis beheaton now The appeal that I want to make is the fact that the same statements that I made during the recall I am going to say here the voice of the people is what matters and Judy was the one who got elected to that seat, and we don't have an election until April 27. Therefore, it would be my opinion that she maintains until we have a vote. If not, then the secondary person who was in that election who is up for vote now would be my choice, but it would not be my first. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Sir, in the red shirt. George, a bulldog shirt. Good evening.

Good evening.

Mayor, first off, I want to say thank you for responding back to my correspondence earlier this week. Ms. Tender, thank you. I don't know you, I've never met you, but I can tell you that you have the people of Lynnhaven in your heart, so thank you. When all this started last week, I told my wife, You watch. They're going to get her out. When it came out that there was going to be a vote, I told her this afternoon, it's going to be three to one because somebody on this commission has got a friend that they want in that seat right over there. It's obvious. There's a little conglomeration going on here between you three commissioners. that they want to run things the way they want it run and not what's best for the city, but what they want to do. So I'm telling you right now, this may have been my first meeting. Come here. It won't be my last. So you better remember this face because you're going to be seeing a lot more and I'm going to be riding your earring about it. Thank you. Yes, sir.

Man, man.

Can you ask me a question, please?

Mr. George, your Bulldog shirt. Your name for the record, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Hamlin.

All right, we're on this side, sir. I recognize you in the Hawaiian shirt. I'm going to go over here, and you're next on this side, okay? Do I have anybody here on my left side? Gentleman in the back, one of our newer Lynn Haven citizens. Come on down.

Real quick, are we supposed to speak only about Judy or Judy plus the other candidates?

About this particular situation, filling the seat and the motion before us or Ms. Tender's resignation of that seat, that's all fair game, that particular topic.

THANK YOU. I AM ONE OF THE NEWEST RESIDENTS, WHICH GIVES ME A UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE. I DON'T KNOW WHO ANYBODY IS. I CAN ONLY JUDGE THE CHARACTER BY THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE COME TO THESE MEETINGS. I THINK YOU SHOULD RESIGN THIS POSITION, BUT I DO NOT THINK YOU SHOULD RESIGN YOUR INTELLECT, YOUR POWER, YOUR WISDOM, YOUR ABILITY TO to make this place better. I think you'll have more power and even more influence on this side of the room's equator. And in regard to the candidates that we have, you know what OODA loop is, obviously, and ORM and BAMSIS and all these leadership strategies that military personnel know that are totally applicable to every citizen. And I think if these leadership positions or these leadership strategies were implemented, I think we'd have a better time, whether it's fiscally, whether it's health and fitness, whatever. And there's one person, and again, I don't know who anybody is here. I just moved here. There's one person that really sticks out from these meetings I'm going to and I can't remember everybody's name, but it's, so where's this guy at?

This guy right here. What's your name? Yeah.

I see this Corey guy here and man, I mean, he's passionate, he's intelligent, he knows his stuff, and then you got another Army, you got an Army guy in the back, career bus driver, I mean, all these candidates are so good, but I think this Corey guy has that, the right balance, the right finesse, the right approach, and I just learned he's military, I think you understand how important And there's a huge gulf, of course, between the citizens and the vet, you know, Spartan versus Athenian, scholar versus soldier. We need to bridge that gap, and I think you, I think we're very lucky we have a Lieutenant Colonel. We have all these veteran applicants who want to step up and provide that type of leadership that I think only a veteran can do. And I love living here. I'm so glad I moved here. Thanks.

Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. Come on up. Good evening, sir.

John Hankey, 515 Missouri Avenue. Hey, John. I got to know Ms. Tender here a while back. I was working on a project. I got curious about where a big pile of taxpayer money went off to because I could not figure out what in the world was purchased with it. But anyway, I want to thank Ms. Tender. She's helped me a little. It's going to take somebody with more detective chops than I've got to figure out who got what out of our city. I just want to thank her because she stood up for the Constitution and our rights, particularly those enumerated in the Bill of Rights, the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. When you all put your hands up and you promised God you were going to protect and defend that Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic, Judy kept her promise. You aggravated her. She gave you a lever. Now you're pulling that lever to boost her out of here. That's fine. That's fine. Election day is coming. We got levers, too.

Thank you, sir. Anybody else on this side of the room? This gentleman in the cowboy hat, come on down.

Good evening.

Hey, guys.

Ladies. Hey, I wanted to ask you if you guys... I'm Paul Baggett, by the way, Florida Avenue. I'm curious if you guys would allow the attorney to address a couple of the citizens... I guess they were trying to convince or argue that a signature was needed for an official resignation. Would it be appropriate for the attorney to respond to those concerns and their validity or lack thereof?

Sure, sir. I have no problem with that. City Attorney, you had mentioned this up front, but I think another round of clarification there is a very good thing. And since Mr. Paul requested it, I have no problem with it. Would you mind touching on this again, please, ma'am?

No, I don't mind, Mayor. There is not a signature requirement in the charter or anywhere else for a resignation to be effective. I had given a summary of our legal memo. It is on the City of Glen Haven's Facebook page, and it walks through Florida Supreme Court case law and other precedent. I would just direct people there so as not to take up too much time in this meeting. But there is no signature requirement, and the resignation was effective upon pronouncement to this commission last week.

Thank you for that question, sir. The lady this side, kind of in the back, looks like a pink blouse. Come on down. Good evening, ma'am.

Hi.

My name is Eleanor Thompson. I live at 2018 Country Club Drive. You know, I worked hard my whole life. I retired here in Lynn Haven. I love Lynn Haven. I spend most of my time on the golf course. Don't want to be involved in politics, but I want to thank you guys for what you do. And Judy, I want to thank you personally because I've come to you several times and you've always helped me and I appreciate it. But there's one thing that Judy asked that I've never seen done, and now I hear we're 18 million in debt, and we're losing police, and we're losing firemen, and they can't do their jobs because we don't have any money, and our sewer systems are, I don't know what, if we ever have another storm, we'll never make it, okay? I want a forensic audit. I think that's what you asked for, and it's never been done. It needs to be done. Thank you.

Anyone else on this side? I see a hand, but I couldn't see who raised it. Is that you, Mr. Walker? Come on down, sir. Good evening, Mr. Walker.

Good evening.

This is hard. The gentleman just mentioned the past eight years have been bad. No, eight years have been hell in Lynn Haven.

Hell. You had a mayor that saved you.

You treated her like dirt. You kicked her to the side. You dragged her through court. She saved this city. I ran for office three times here because there was definite problems. My history is this. I am United States Foreign Service Officer, embassies overseas. I deal with governments. I sit with governments.

I see what they do when they don't want to run their countries the right way.

They don't have meetings like this. They cook you out on the beach, they strap you to a cross, and then they behead you. That's the countries I came from and been at. You have a tough decision. This is not right. What you're doing right now is bad. She should go back in her seat. She should. You don't have enough guts to second a motion. You don't have enough guts to do it. She had the guts. Believe me, I wanted my name mentioned as a candidate tonight. No, no. I can't solve the problems in seven months. The times I tried this before, I could not do it. Gentlemen, you've got more than $18 million. You started off with $50 million, and you're getting ready for the next $50 million when the sewer plant gets taken over. That's $100 million you're going to be in debt.

Thank you, Mr. Walker. I see two hands on this side, the lady in the green, and then I see Ms. Day's daughter back there too, ma'am. You're next on this side. Good evening, ma'am. I like your shawl.

Thank you. I'm Carrie Baker. I live on Kimberly Drive. I've been watching the commission for a while.

Ma'am, go ahead and pull you down so I can hear you.

Can you hear me now?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay. I've been coming, and one thing I need to say is the lady who talked about consistency and fairness and doing the same thing all the time. If it's good in one situation, it should be good in all situations. And that's that. But I stand tonight in support of George Hines. I originally met George as one of my students at Gulf Coast State College. And George has been consistent. No nonsense. He goes out of his way to learn what's what and doesn't mind speaking to it. And I think that his experience, his military experience, his background, his dealing with people is outstanding. And I stand just to say that, you know, I know everybody is here for a different person. I stand ten toes down for George Hines. He won't let you down. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Finch. Good evening, sir.

James Finch, 14 East 2nd Street. I come to the commission meeting tonight, but I wound up at a shit show. Excuse my language. You know, y'all started this to pick a successor to Judy's seat. Y'all went by her. You made sure she didn't get a second. She didn't get anything. We've not got any further down the road. I can go out there and flag some traffic down, get them to come up here, but we're not getting anywhere. You've got a second. You got a motion and a second. If you had a call for a vote, we'd have been out of here 30, 45 minutes ago. You still got to pick a successor to Judy tonight. That's what we're here for. That's what's been 45 minutes and all. And I've seen Mr. Day for 15 to 20 years coming up here, cussing the city manager, doing the whole deal. They used to come up here with a camera, a four-foot camera sticking in everybody's face. And they unplugged the camera. You know, unplugged the wiring in the wall there. They went crazy. The next meeting had extension cords, battery packs, everything. Still cussing the city manager. But here's the deal. You've got to make a decision. You've been two hours doing nothing. She come to put in here. It was evident that y'all wasn't going to put her back in the office. And y'all strung it out, and we've got no damn where. You got a motion and a second. You open it up to everybody. Pick this one. Pick that one. You want me to flag some traffic in here? You've got to make a decision. That's what you're here for. Let's make the decision. Thank you, sir.

Ms. Day's daughter. I'm sorry, ma'am. I don't know your last name. Come on up. Good evening, ma'am.

Hey, how are you doing? Good. Okay, are you ready? Okay.

Okay, I'm going to read this real fast. Okay.

Mayor, commissioners, my name is April and I am the resident of Lynn Haven. I respectfully am asking this commission to allow Judy Tender to be considered for the vacant seat four under section 15 on the city charter. Just as other eligible candidates are being considered, the city has stated that Ms. Tender is eligible to be considered for appointment to seat four. I'm therefore asking that her name be formally placed before the commission and that the commission consider her qualifications. and vote accordingly to the charter. I'm not asking the commission tonight to decide the separate legal question concerning whether her resignation was effective. I'm simply asking that the commission determine there is a vacancy. Judy Tenner be given the same opportunity to be considered for that vacancy. And that's the strong factual position because you're using the city's own statement against any suggestion that Judy is automatically disqualified. That is wrong. One important distinction, Judy cannot, of course, appoint herself, but she can ask to be considered, and the commission can choose her by a vote. Do the right thing because you're next to get out.

Anyone else? Ms. Beshear. Come on up, ma'am.

You know who I'm supporting.

But can you all just have the people line up? This is taking too long, just like Mr. Finch said. We could shorten the time if the people would stand up and get up here and then go and go. Because you're going to have another round of this, I think. So before...

constructive inputs are well received ma'am thank you thank you all right are we about i have two more on this side do i have any more on this side hearing none these will be our last two speakers and we will move forward with a vote so ma'am in the lynn haven reddish pinkish shirt and then there was another lady in the very back in the gray t-shirt i see you back there ma'am if you want to come on up sit here on the front row we'll get you staged right after good evening ma'am kathleen tinder

She told me not to come tonight, but I've been sitting in my car. She also told me there wasn't going to be any public speaking.

Ma'am, Ms. Tender, pull your microphone.

Sorry, I'm a soft speaker. I was going to play a little bit of a Barry Manilow song, but I don't have enough time. So one of my favorite memories as a kid is of me and my mom. singing an old cheesy Barry Manilow song, One Voice. Cruising in her VW Bug through the Illinois country back roads, at the top of our lungs, just she and I taking on the world, not realizing that that one day she would become that one voice. That one voice not afraid to stand alone. That one voice not afraid to stand up for others. That one voice not afraid to stand on business. For almost 10 years, my mother has served her community not for any recognition, not for the title, and certainly not because it has been easy. What the public gets to see are the ridiculously long meetings. They hear the arguments and all the scuttlebutt, and they witness how the votes go. But what I witness as her daughter, day in and day out, is a woman committed to doing what she has been asked to do, ask the hard questions, ask for complete transparency, not vote a certain way because it's easy, speak up for the residents of Lynn Haven. I often joke that I have to schedule an appointment just to speak with her because if she's not meeting face-to-face with residents, she is on the phone with them or personally stopping by their homes. I am not here to beg you to keep my mom in her commissioner's seat. or hurl a bunch of legal jargon and statutes at you, but rather to take this opportunity to stand up for the one person I know without a shadow of a doubt would stand up for me. Mom, I have always loved you for the person that you are, and I will always be so incredibly proud of you for what you've done for Lynn Haven, whether you continue in C4 after tonight or not. Doesn't look that way. If a 76-year-old woman armed with nothing more than her voice, her questions, and insistence on the truth is somehow a threat, then we need to ask ourselves why. Because a government that fears the truth has a much bigger problem than the person brave enough to speak it. Thank you.

If that's not a tough act to follow, I don't know what is.

That's a terrible act to follow. I'm Sue Bynum. I've lived here for a little over 20 years now. I'm just going to tell you, Dave, you're the only one sitting up here right now that I can say I don't have a problem with at all. You have been absolutely terrific. The rest of you people have been a big disappointment. This lady here is the only person that, to me, was keeping all of you honest. And here, you don't want to appoint her back in here. You want her out of here because I feel there's certain ones of you that are threatened by her. You would be better off putting her back in than taking her out. That's all I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. All right. We are an hour and a half into this now. Ms. Arlene, you're going to be the very last caboose, ma'am. Come on up for this round. I'm sorry if you raised your hand before I didn't see you. Come on up. Good evening.

I'll make it short. There are several people up here, Pat Perno, Sam Peebles, and Jamie, that have been here through all this. have seen, have allowed this city to fall into such dire straits financially. But regardless of who you guys vote in tonight, I think something positive has happened here tonight. In 2008, the city threatened to close down Roberts Hall and demolish it. At that point, that's when I decided that I needed to start paying attention to the city commission and how my taxes are being paid, I mean spent. uh... and so i think one of the things that is positive about tonight is that i think a lot more citizens are going to start paying attention to the commission meetings and hopefully they will attend thank you yes ma'am if there are no others were going to close out uh... the commentary for this motion

And is there any further discussion amongst the commission before we vote?

This is what I was going to say is I fully respect Jeff Snyder. He knows that. I think you guys know that. In fact, last time Judy, Ms. Tender, stepped down to run for mayor, when we had to fill her seat back then, I was the one that actually made the motion for Jeff Snyder, and I couldn't even get a second for it. So I totally respect him. But my opinion, I think there's a better candidate out there. I talked about, When we originally talked about the city clerk putting on the referendum, I talked about leadership. Sticking your neck out, willing to take risks. And I feel that this person is that person to do that. I feel this person has a no-nonsense approach. He has the ability to simplify decisions on complicated issues. He's very effective at critical thinking. And the leadership, he consistently demonstrates are exactly what we need on this commission. No offense, Mr. Snider, when I don't vote for you, it's not because I don't think you're a great candidate, but I just think there's a better one out there, and I believe Corey Langford is that person. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, sir. If there are no further discussion, I'll ask the city manager to call the roll.

Commissioner Perno? Yes. Commissioner Peebles? Yes. Commissioner Wark? No. Mayor Lowry?

No. So the motion fails.

I'll make a motion to point Corey Langford to seat four.

And I will second. Therefore, we will now open another round. Any discussion among the commission at this point? Hearing none, We have a motion and a second. I will open the floor to comments on this. And Mr. Scray, I see your hand, sir. You come on down. No, sir. Try it again.

Thank you, Harold. Somebody at the tail end of that said that, you know, I think it was Arlene said, good thing to come from this is how many people we have showing up. You know, the only time you have people showing up like this is when there's a lot of circus acts going on, drama, bullshit, whatever you want to call it. Somebody online said I'm abrasive.

I am.

Get over it. The bottom line here is that we work very hard in this community, the people that are actively engaged, The four of you up here, Judy, while she was up there, I have publicly said that, I think it was Julie Finch that asked me, I said, I want somebody up here that's better than Judy. And she said, what do you mean by that? And I said, thank you for asking. I think Judy scrutinizes the hell out of this city and it's deserved. But I want somebody who reads every agenda thoroughly. She's admitted on record she hadn't. That's why you didn't get a second for your motion, Dave. And that's why, you know, all of these people have come out here to support her because of her grandma effect. Like, you're a sweetheart, Judy. No, no, I get my time to talk. Control it. That's your job. We've been through this before. Your job is to stop that. City Attorney, could you please chime in on the outbursts?

I'M GOING TO TAKE MY DIRECTION FROM OUR COMMISSION CHAIR.

WE'VE BEEN THROUGH THIS BEFORE. IF WE'RE NOT GOING TO FOLLOW THE RULES, NO PROBLEM. YOU'RE A SWEET LADY, JUDY. I REALLY DO APPRECIATE YOU, DESPITE WHAT EVERYBODY THINKS. WE'VE GOTTEN ALONG GREAT. WE'VE TALKED THROUGH STUFF. SURE, YOU MIGHT NOT EMAIL ME BACK WHEN I EMAIL YOU ABOUT CITY STUFF. THAT'S FINE. YOU'VE ABSOLUTELY... STOP INTERRUPTING. WHAT IS YOUR GUY'S PROBLEM? So ultimately, not wanting you is not about you. It's about what I think is best for the city of Lynnhaven. That's why I wanted to support Jeff. I think what we're going to see is another two-to-two vote, and we're going to go again and again and again, and it's going to be fun. Thank you.

Mayor, may I make a point of order? Yes. We have at length discussed Ms. Tender and our appreciation for her. The pending motion before this commission is the appointment of Corey Langford, and I believe discussion should be limited to that appointment.

That's a very good motion, and I thank you for it and your role as effectively our parliamentarian. So thank you for keeping us in between the navigational beacons, as Jimmy Buffett would say. All right, I see three hands right now. I'm going to go from Mr. Hines to Ms. McElroy to Mr. Beshear in that order. So if y'all want to come on up here, Ms. McElroy, and just stage on the front row, please, ma'am. The other two are up here. Hey, Mr. Hines.

Good evening. has never been ran for office in this district or this city. The other three of us has ran for office and gotten votes from the citizen. He has not been in front of the citizens yet. So that's the only problem I have with the selection that you made. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hines. All right, Ms. McElroy, come on up.

Well, I'm happy that we have someone else because it did, it looked very bad. It looked bad the way the two commissioners did a first and a second so quickly. And so I hope Mr. Langford will also understand that you're here to represent all people, not just the people that live in Lynn Haven, but you set an example for other commissions for how things go, how corruption goes over to other boundaries, just like your ex-city attorney, Adam Albritton, who came over to our neighborhood and plied his trade there. So corruption is not isolated to one county or one city. It's the entire panhandle. And we need everybody to be vigilant and care enough, not just about Lynn Haven, but the entire Panhandle. So, Mr. Langford, I'm happy for you because I think Ms. Tender is getting respect, finally.

Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Beshear, good evening.

Yes, I wanted to clarify one thing that I've heard several people say tonight, which is that we're $18 million in debt. We're $28 million in debt, not $18 million. Just wanted to clarify that because the $18 million is currently referenced a lot, but the actual number is just above $28 million. I do want to say that I'm on the Finance Committee and I think Corey or Mr Langford would tell you from the meetings that he's attended that I was in there that I am doing the work and the background and know that know the topics I know the financial Situation in the city and the tough decisions that we're going to have to make going forward I like to work with people not against people and not be divisive so I just want to say that I I One thing is we are 28 plus million in debt, not 18. And also, you know, still consider me. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Mr. Detweiler, anyone else on this side? Hearing, I don't see any hands. Okay, Mr. Detweiler, and we'll try to wrap this one up, this round.

Good evening times two. Evening times two and I hope it's not three. This city is amazing. I said it in my interview and I'll say it again. I love this city. It's going to be my home for the next 18 years and I want to see it thrive. I want to see it flourish. I want to see this community come together in a way that we haven't in a long time. I want it to be made of people that love being next to each other at events, in restaurants, as neighbors. I'm tired of the fights, of the arguments, of all the BS. And don't get me wrong, I mean, clearly I've been an instigator of some of it, so I have my own debts to pay there. whoever comes to this seat and whoever comes to these seats in April, they need consistency. They need a backbone. They need to do their research. They need to understand what makes this community, this community. It's not just people. It's not just money. It's not just budget lines. It's not just employees. It's not all of that. There is a soul to this community more than there are souls and other communities. Whoever you choose needs to have that soul. All of you need to find your souls again. I've been at plenty of commission meetings. You all know that. And I've watched some of you guys get heated and bicker and get angry. Not because you hate each other, because you're all just so dang stubborn. Whatever we do going forward, whoever you choose, choose it because you think you can work with them. Let's get past this budget year. Like I said at the last meeting, we've got five to six more years of really digging in deep. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Ms. Marler, good evening.

I want to say that there's not many times that I can agree with Zach Dettweiler, but I agree with Zach Dettweiler. We have got to move forward together. There was a certain time when there was a certain group of people that are in the room that also bullied the former city manager, and she was a female just like Ms. Tender is. And they also, there was a whole debacle. Everybody, it called for bullying, and that's what is being said happened now. But y'all absolutely praised commissioner warwick then and now he's the enemy y'all loved city manager lightfoot and now he's the enemy if whoever you appoint to this position it can't be back and forth just like i already said we have to look at our city going forward what is best for our citizens put yourself to the side put your pride to the side And think about your citizens. Because like me and my husband, we're raising a three-year-old little boy in this town. I've lived here my whole life, and I want to see him live here his whole life and also flourish and do well. So stop the bickering. Stop the bantering. Stop the pointing fingers at each other. Stop calling names. Have the best interest of our city at heart. and a lot of this will work itself out because then you're going to have a level of respect for each other where y'all can work through problems everybody can agree to disagree and i've even talked to commissioner work this past week and said there's been a lot of times too that i haven't quote unquote agreed with you or liked you but i'm always going to treat you with respect because that's the way i was raised it's the right thing to do so let's call a spade a spade and all have respect for each other and whoever you decide to put in this position has the same level of respect as well and will always love our city no matter what.

Thank you, Ms. Marler. Mr. Schweitzer, come on down. As he's coming down, do we have anybody on this side in the queue? Come on down, young man. in the back.

I'd like to throw my weight behind Corey, but not today. Today is not the day to look at options. We see, you know, I come here a lot and, you know, I had a issue that was very near and dear to my heart and I never got a turnout like this for something that meant something to me. Each of these people represents probably a hundred other people who want Judy back in her seat. She was elected. Yeah, she resigned. So what? A lot of people resign and come back. So yes, I can support Corey when it's his time. But for now, I support Judy.

While he's coming up, do we have anybody here on this side that wants to speak? If so, come on up here in the front row on deck. Sir.

Good evening again. Seth Howard, Cali Court. The gentleman that's leaning against the bulkhead back there, he just spoke a couple of times ago. He said something about how we're really going to have to tighten up our bootstraps for the next few years. Sounds like an enlistment where you need the mentality that it's an all day, every day, 52 weeks a year, year after year, just... We're talking about these strategies again. And when I think about Corey, we're talking about a force multiplier here. People don't know what they don't know in regard to what a veteran has to offer. We can put one person in that chair, it'd be like putting 10 people up there in regard to the energy. I don't even know this guy. I just know him from seeing him at these meetings. I don't know the rings I'm supposed to kiss here. But if there's one person, that just seems to edge out all these other veterans and all these other awesome people that I've seen at these meetings. It's definitely this Corey guy. We talk about whose time is it to step up. Judy, don't resonate, don't resign your influence and your range and your depth. You got an army behind you, Judy, that's not going anywhere. And I know that you're not going anywhere. But this gentleman has put in how many years of service? It's his time now. It's still her time. It's not civil war here. I think we should put a force multiplier up there that only you on this council is really going to understand what he has to offer. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Anybody else? Okay. Hearing none. Is there any discussion, further discussion among the commission before we vote on this one?

Yeah, I'll say, similar to what Commissioner Wark said, I think if Corey runs for office in April, he will win, depending on whatever seat he decides to go for. He is a very qualified candidate, but my position is still, I think, for the next six months, we need someone that's on the Finance Review Committee.

Okay. Mr. Perno, you got any thoughts, sir?

Ready to vote.

Okay, you ready to vote? So I will say this. I motioned to allow Ms. Tender to get back into the seat that the people of this city voted her to twice, three times if you count the runoff. We did not move forward with that. I didn't get a second. When I turned around and asked her who was her handpicked successor, if she couldn't be in the seat, who did she want in that seat? She said very unequivocally, Corey Langford. Everyone here that was here heard it. That man's a retired Air Force senior master sergeant with not one, but two bronze stars for combat service in Iraq and Syria from Joint Special Operations Command. You want to talk about the real deal? That's him. He has lit my behind up since the day I took office here about we need to fix stormwater. And if you watched last Tuesday night's meeting, he really slayed into me. You've been here seven months, Mayor. Where's it at? So my challenge is be careful what you ask for. Because if you get a majority vote up here, I'm going to put your butt to work. And you're going to help us fix stormwater. And that's what I will ask of my fellow commissioners here. You consider, if you didn't want Ms. Tender to retake her seat, we damn sure have an opportunity to pick her hand-picked successor and put him to work for the next six to seven months. With that, City Manager, will you call the roll?

Commissioner Wark? Yes. Mayor Lowry? Yes. Commissioner Peebles? No. Commissioner Pernaut? No.

So. I'd like to make a motion to appoint Johnny Beshears. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Are there any, is there any further discussion amongst the commission? Hearing none, Mr. Scray, come on down.

Amen. You're going to get a vacancy and the governor can pick. He didn't even pick somebody when we had a mayoral vacancy. Because it's an experiment. I want to see how this experiment goes. Can four gentlemen who rarely compromise on this dais come to compromise needed to make some of the most difficult and challenging decisions we have ahead of us from now till April? That's the experiment Lynn Haven's about to participate in. Unless one of you two compromise with these two and appoint Mr. Beshear. If you don't, then we'll go to the next person and the next person and it ends up vacant. Is that what you want? Do you want a commission of four people up there? If you do, then vote no. If you don't, then put Johnny in. He's certainly qualified. Is he everybody's number one choice? No, I think he's first, second, third. Sorry, Johnny, you're the fourth choice. But you know what? I DON'T ALWAYS AGREE WITH MR. BESHEAR, BUT HE CERTAINLY CAN DO THE JOB. CORY COULD HAVE DONE THE JOB, BUT I DON'T LIKE THE WAY THIS SHOOK OUT. THAT'S MY OPINION. ONE OF 20,000 PLUS OPINIONS HERE. BUT MR. BESHEAR CAN DO THE JOB JUST LIKE ANYBODY WHO PUT THEIR NAME IN CAN. I LOOK FORWARD TO MR. LANGFORD STILL BEING ON THE CHARTER REVIEW COMMITTEE SO WE CAN FINISH THE JOB WE ALL SIGNED UP FOR ON THAT. THANK YOU.

Mr. Beshear, come on up.

I just want to make a statement to those people that booed or whatever that do not want me up here. I understand your position completely. I represented a position you did not like during the elections, and you didn't vote for me, and that's great. We have a unique opportunity here tonight to trial run whoever you select for six months until the next election. If you don't like me, if I've not done what you want me to do in the next six months, vote me out and I will gladly walk out the door. But I will do the work and do the best I can to serve all the citizens of Lynn Haven through the crises that we're going to face in the next six months. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Miss McElroy, then Mr. Schweitzer, anybody else? And then Seth, y'all come on up. Basically prime on the front row here, if you will. You'll be on deck. Hey, Miss McElroy.

I just want y'all to know that while I was sitting back there, Mr. Beshear was talking to another ex-candidate who ran for office, and he said, I hope this is over soon. Meaning tonight. So there you have it. You know, let's just silence everyone and move forward. I hope you two will vote no. And I would rather see the four of y'all than see something that wants to get out of the room early.

Mr. Schweitzer.

I'm associated with Johnny, and I know him enough to know he's never met a tax increase that he didn't love, so I can't support that. Thank you. Mr. Seth.

Seth Howard. I did not know that Corey was the individual that Judy Wood has handpicked. Again, I don't know what I don't know. It's a great... filter for having a more pure opinion, not that anybody else's is less. And I didn't know the things you just said about him being a Bronze Star recipient.

Two.

Times two. I don't think most people here know what that means. And I didn't know that about him until you said something. Another example of ethos, character establishment. If we can't vote, if we can't recognize that this woman's influence will not lessen whatsoever, and we put up a two-time Bronze Star recipient up here, now we got a Lieutenant Colonel, Bronze Star, with all these veterans pushing, with all these people pushing forward. THAT SOUNDS LIKE THE EASIEST VOTE YOU COULD HAVE IN YOUR CAREERS. IT'S WHO SHE WANTS. IF YOU DON'T VOTE FOR HER, WHY WOULDN'T YOU VOTE FOR CORY? AT THAT LAST MEETING, SOMEBODY SAID SOMETHING AND HE RAISED HIS HAND AND SAID, NO, THAT'S NOT CORRECT. Man, that guy should be up there. He's sitting over here, and he raised his hand, and he knew what the answer was. I don't remember what the context was. I remember he raised his hand, and he knew what the answer was, and he just put it down. He was just being playful. This guy deserves that seat. He's not my friend. He's not my drinking buddy. He doesn't even know me. I'm speaking because of the character we've all witnessed here. This guy deserves to be in that seat almost more than anybody else. There is. I totally support this Corey guy being in that chair. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. All right. Is there anybody else? If so, I want to put you on deck and have you come on up here to the front row. If not, Ms. Parker, you'll be our caboose on this round. Thank you.

Simple. Very simple. The charter requires a signature for a resignation. Period. End of subject. Judy needs to come back on. This is what is happening. Why are y'all acting like this? This is crazy. This is absolutely crazy. Put Judy back on and be done. That's what needs to be done. Not everybody else. This is nuts.

quick question uh I don't know if Chris you can answer City Attorney if you can answer I know Kiki's not here today um can you guys vote for the full 4.35 millage with only four people if there's a vacancy

So if we have a, the question is, if we only have a four-seat commission, can the 4.35 millage be voted on? The answer is yes, if the seat is vacant. If the seat is not vacant and we have five active commissioners, then they all five have to be here for a unanimous vote.

Okay. Just wanted to make sure everyone knew.

Ms. Gina, or Ms. Day? Okay. Sorry, ma'am, I couldn't see your hand.

I'm just an old grandma, okay? I just want to say that, Judy, thank you so much. You have been a lifesaver. You're the only reason that I returned back to this city. I've lived here for many years. I've gone through a lot of stuff at the beginning with commissioners and tried to protect the citizens. But, Judy, I appreciate you. You're trying to keep the taxes down, and the people in this room just don't know the half. Wait till it hits. When you see what the city manager and the finance director has rolled out for this city, you're going to be shocked. So let me tell you, I'm proud to be a grandmother who made fun of Judy being one. I want to tell you, they're wonderful to have. And you know what, Mayor? I appreciate you. You're very, you're down to earth. You allow us respect. And Judy allowed us respect. But some of those other commissioners out there, and you know, I got to go back to Mr. Sam. He also will allow us respect. I remember when he was the chair of the committee, for the board when we didn't have no city manager, I mean, no mayor. So, Sam, you were respectful to all of us then. I did not attend, but I watched you. Okay, so now we need to go back and do the job right. Somebody might can tell you there needs to be no signature, but I will stand and argue them down. You have to sign a paper to release yourself from this commission meeting. board member now there's no facts about it so someone needs to head to Tallahassee and get the facts straight okay thank you thank you ma'am all right anyone else mr. Marla come on up that's a wild shirt by the way sir appreciate that yes sir so first of all I love the passion in this room

But I see a lot of misguided passion. So the circus continues. We've had how many qualified candidates come up here? We get voted down. What are we doing? Where are we going with this? I understand the passion, you know, for Ms. Judy. I get it. But there's legalities to things. We haven't followed them before. We keep, you know, stating precedent. robert's law and everything else it's a guide it's not the bible that we have to follow okay but i do understand the passion but i believe a lot of it's misguided we have a qualified candidate up right now voting man let's get this done and get the show on the road enough is enough that's all i got to say good evening sir come on up

Hey, Ms. Weaver, are you coming up to speak too, ma'am? Come on up and get on deck, please, ma'am. We're first row. Ladies first, then. Thank you, sir. Good evening, Ms. Weaver.

Good evening. Good evening. Let's stop all the drama. I didn't like you, but I voted for you because you showed grace. This woman needs to be here. I have been at work since 4 a.m. this morning. Stop the drama. Let her be here for the next six months and go from there. She has... been there for the employees, for our community. She actually answers when you reach out to her. I got out of my bed. I'm in my pajamas. Stop. Vote the right way. Vote the right way. Stop all this drama. We have the most beautiful city in the world. The rest of the world has drama, racism, everything. But we have the most amazing city. I am done. We need to stop it now. Keep moving. She was in her emotions like we all do. We all fall short. But you, I stood behind you. Do what's right. She was in her feelings because she always listens to the community. So do what's right. I got out of my bed. I'm in my jamas because I am done. Stop all this. We have the most amazing town. Beautiful. The rest of the world is going to hell in a handbasket, but we... Have a beautiful city. I'm getting ready to leave, but stop all this damn drama. Put her back in her seat and move on. We have so many more things to do. Stop it. Do what's right. Do what's right. I have stood behind you too. Stop. Do what's right. She's an amazing woman. Do what's right, let's end this drama today and move on. We have so many more things to focus on.

Thank you, Ms. Weber.

Thank you.

All right, anyone else? Sir, thank you for yielding to the lady.

All right, good evening. My name is Dana Patterson. I'm a Lynn Haven resident, obviously. A couple of things that I'm not clear on is you've all agreed that her verbal resignation seems to have accomplished whatever legalese is required. So there's no process, there's no procedure to actually resign other than to say, I resign. All right, so why is it that we're having all this difficulty for her to say, okay, I don't resign and come right back to her seat. There's nothing legal to be accepted if she says I resign. Nothing, there's no procedures, nothing. If she says I don't resign, why isn't it the same thing? We need that answer tonight.

Yes, once she resigned, when she said, I resign, once she said, I resign, that was effective. Her resignation was effective at that time. She could not then un-resign. There's nothing that says... And I'm going to make a point of order that the motion before us is... Come on, guys, point of order.

Moving on, moving on. Then before this body was the responsibility to pick someone. I've heard two nominations, two seconds, and two votes. Where's the third nomination? Where's the third second?

Mr. Beshear, that's who we're discussing now, sir.

All right, good. So you're going to go to that vote. But you're going to pick somebody tonight, right? That is my hope. There can't be no hope. I get the impression that there's something else going on here. Yeah. And there was a gentleman that brought it out with him. You have a stacked deck. There's the wild card. So let's get it filled. Thank you.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Anyone else? Ms. Garman? Good evening.

I have always tried my best to show integrity wherever I go. I will not lie. And what breaks my heart tonight is I remember sitting at Judy's restaurant and her telling everybody that came in to vote for you, Jamie. To vote for you and to vote for you. She stood behind you guys when other people were wanting other people in there. And it hurts me dearly that you could turn your backs on her like this. How do we know that somebody's not going to turn their back on you and get you out of there? And as far as the resignation, have you read the city charter? It says there must be a signed resignation on this city charter. It doesn't say that. Yes, it does.

Point of order, Mr. Scray, you're not at the podium, sir.

Anyway, somebody could say, oh, let's have the lights turned out. Are we going to just do that? Or are y'all going to say, no, we're not going to have our lights turned off? And as far as Chris goes, Chris, you're behind all this. You're behind all of this. And you sit there and smile and smirk, do whatever you want to. But I have people that have said, Chris is behind this. He doesn't like the way Judy votes. Let's get her out. You two, and I would say Jamie, should say, absolutely not. We're not doing this to Judy. She stood behind us, and we're going to stand behind her.

That's Marla.

Hey, I want to point out that there was already a call to order that if it wasn't pertaining to the person that was being nominated, that we didn't talk about that. And so the fact of the matter is now we're on to Mr. Beshear. I think he's a wonderful candidate. He's very intelligent. He is available to the city. He is retired. He is available to be at meetings. He's already on different boards. And I think that he would bring so much to the city. I know that Johnny personally may not agree with everybody, but he does respect everybody. And I also want to point out that I think it's funny that we're talking about offering grace. Well, where was grace with Miss Vicky? And if you think that it's the city managers that behind all of this, that is actually very comical because he really doesn't have any weight in this. He is sitting there. He doesn't have a vote. He doesn't get a say. But when I hear somebody has repeatedly violated sunshine laws and they blatantly pointed it out in commission meetings, that raises a concern for me. So again, I want you to make sure that you're voting for somebody that has got the best interest of Lynn Haven at the top of their priorities, put all the drama aside, and let's get this done so we can move on and keep our city the best it is.

Thank you, Ms. Marler. All right, is there anyone else? If not, any further discussion among the commission for the nomination of Mr. Beshear? Hearing none. I'm sorry. Is that Ms. Day's daughter? Okay, ma'am. No, no, come on up. What is your last name, ma'am?

Day.

Okay, it's David, too?

It's like April Fool's Day. Okay. So even if, you know, I know people are thinking that Judy with her statement, you know, and everything, being that she said what she said. And I can understand that, but, you know, I think we should have a heart because you can't replace a heart. She has a pacemaker. So let me tell you, when you have something like that done, and you know something about medical, you know a thing or two, Chris, you know a thing or two, every one of y'all here. She should not have been sitting there for five hours like that almost. We should have been having a break. Someone should have taken consideration and not been unconditional love, okay? Because we should be showing love to everybody. We shouldn't be treating people disrespect, okay? Just saying. So at this point, I know there's a vacancy. I definitely would like to make sure that she is eligible to be considered for that appointment. Listen, we got a lot to run here in this city. There's no reason to let all your citizens down. If we can all get back on board and do the right thing, then I think she's the one to make it happen. If you get called out on certain things, don't take it wrong. Don't take it personal. Seriously, life is too short. I've been dealt my cards, okay?

And I've walked the walk and I've talked it, and I can prove it.

So I have a heart, Judy, and everybody else does here for you. And all the other candidates that are running, it's nothing against anybody, but I do believe that the Charter 15 does allow her to be appointed.

It does allow her to be appointed. A motion was made to that effect. It did not receive a second.

I couldn't hear you. I'm sorry.

The charter allows for her to be reappointed. The motion was made for that to happen. It did not receive a second, and therefore that motion failed.

Can we reappoint her again? Is there a way to do that? I mean, because, you know, under the Robert rules and order, going back in the older days, I mean, none of this stuff has actually been passed. Seriously. It hasn't been voted on coming around November the 3rd. So these are just things being put in the charter, and I think you know where I'm going with that, so that's definitely an issue.

Thank you, Ms. Day. All right, are we good? Come on up. After this procedural, I guess, quasi point of order, we will vote. Yes, sir.

All right, real quick. You guys basically have three options. One, choose Mr. Brashear. You have a fifth person. Choose one of the other candidates. Probably not going to happen. Number two, your next motion can be to just leave the seat vacant. You are allowed to do that. It will end the meeting. The third option, you can call a second public hearing because you are already in a public hearing. You can end this one, open a new one, and all motions are back on the table if we are going to decide to actually start following Robert's rules since it is never followed in this commission meeting. Anyways, procedural, thank you.

Yes, thank you. Thank you. All right, any other discussion among the commission? If not, we will vote. Mr., or excuse me, city manager, call the roll, please.

Commissioner Peebles? Yes. Commissioner Pernod? Yes. Commissioner Ward? No. Mayor Lowry? No.

I want to make a motion. People say I don't compromise. I will compromise. I will make a motion to appoint Jeff Snyder.

I will second.

Just a quick point of order.

Let me explain.

Hold on. Point of order.

Yes, we would need to, we've already, that motion has already failed. The commission would need to vote to suspend Robert's Rules for this particular issue by majority, and then we can bring up the motion.

So who needs to make the motion for that?

Any of you could make a motion to suspend Robert's Rules for the purpose of this issue.

I can't hear it.

Hey guys, some grace here, okay? We're trying to do this right procedurally. Give us a moment. A little grace, please. So one more time, city attorney.

Yes, this is from our legal memo that was circulated on a tied vote. Under Robert's Rules of Order, if a vote is tied, then that vote fails and it cannot be brought back. You guys can suspend, you can vote right now to suspend Robert's Rules of Order for this issue that will allow Commissioner Warwick's motion to move forward.

Y'all, I don't think that's the right way forward. What we need to do is among the four of us, among the four of us, let's just be straight, let's be frank, and let's be men here. Let's be Lynn Haven residents, let's be men, talk straight, shoot straight, not back. Is there a consensus candidate? I motion to reappoint Judy to her seat. It failed with not a second. Then we've deadlocked on multiple candidates. Is there any candidate that clearly has a majority vote at this point we've we've gone through three of them already other than her so we have three others that have not been turned down we have so we have mr scray we have mr heinz uh mr beshear was not voted in mr snyder wasn't voted in mr langford was and mrs spites was not actually a candidate so we have two left we have mr scray and we have mr heinz If there's a candidate there, fine, let's discuss it.

That's correct. That is right.

You got to get order, man. You got to get order. You got to get order. This is not the way to do it. You got to get order. Get order. No, I'm compromising. I'm compromising here. I already put my nominee out there.

So how about this? We can do exactly how Mr. Detweiler just said. If he's compromising and we need to get out of this hearing into another hearing, we can make the motion go.

Are you making that motion?

Can we do a five-minute and then come back and do it, or you've got to do it all another day?

We would have to notice up another meeting.

If we have a consensus candidate, let's have a consensus candidate. If we don't, I plan to just adjourn this meeting. We are in an effort of futility right now. You know, again, I'm going to ask. This is not a rhetorical question. Among us four remaining commissioners, is there any consensus person that we can come to?

I think the only one we can come to is Mr. Snyder. But the only way I think it's going to happen. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Point. Get order, please.

Would you please stop telling me how to do my job?

Well, this has happened multiple times.

It's the quorum, sir. You have to get order, Mayor.

But I can't talk while they're talking at the same time. GO AHEAD. I THINK THAT IS THE ONLY ONE THAT WE HAVE ANY CONSENSUS ON, MR. SNYDER. THAT IS THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION, BUT WE CAN'T DO IT UNLESS WE SUSPEND ROBERT'S RULES OF ORDER. I DON'T KNOW.

I DON'T THINK THAT IS APPROPRIATE.

I AM NOT PUSHING FOR THAT.

AT THIS POINT, I AM ADJOURNING THE MEETING.