City Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, let's call this meeting to order. Um Josh, would you mind doing the pledge for us? Delighted. Please stand and face the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Right. Uh we have invocation by Troy Stanley, pastor of First Christ Lutheran Church.

Let's pray. Our father in heaven, we thank you so much for this day. Thank you for the blessing to live in such a beautiful place. Thank you for the the dry weather now that things can dry out. Father, we ask a blessing on our leaders here tonight that they can make decisions that honor you and bring safety and health and prosperity to this community. Guide and direct us always. Help us to love each other more every day and to love you with our heart, all of our heart, mind, body, and soul. And Father, may it be our uh honor to make a difference in this world for you. Forgive us where we fall short in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. City clerk roll call. Commissioner Jackson here. Commissioner Hutcherson here. Commissioner here. Vice Mayor Williams. Mayor Capzy

here. Can I get uh someone to make a motion for the agenda? Move to approve the agenda as published. Second. Motion in a second. All in favor? I I I.

All right. Motion passes. Um we have a special presentation for some very special ladies. Um for the Cocoa Beach Women's Club. The Cocoa Beach Women's Club was established on September 7th, 1965 and chartered by the General Federation of Women's Clubs Florida on September 24th, 1965. as a service organization addressing and enhancing the lives of others through volunteer service and whereas throughout the club's 60-year history has contributed not only to the Cocoa Beach and Cape Canau areas but also to all citizens of Bvard County through its support of education, arts and culture, our environment, civic duties, health and wellness. And whereas the club sponsored the first Cocoa Beach Senior Citizens Club, the forerunner for Freedom 7 uh senior center, was instrumental in pro procuring sidewalks on the north side of Minute Man Causeway, provided scholarships for police and fire training, contributed over half a million dollars towards the building and furnishings of the Cocoa Beach Country Club and Community Center, and hosted its grand opening in 1992. 2 hosted by the city of Cocoa Beach's 80th anniversary party. And whereas the Cocoa Beach Women's Club assisted in the development of Fiser Park, Jetty Park, and Bsentennial Park, lobbyed for the preservation of the hammock at Lorie Wilson Park, founded the right whale watch program, is a founding member of the Bowen Aquarium, supports the Drown Zero Project, and the Women's Center of Bard. And whereas the club has been official an official sponsor of the Space Coast Arts Festival since 1968,

supports the Cocoa Beach Art Festival since 1968, donated to the Cocoa Beach Library Building Program, and supports it annually, edited and published Out of This World Cookbook, one and two, selling over 30,000 copies worldwide, collected and sent teddy bears to refu refugee children in Kasovo collected and delivered 90 tons of supplies with the help of Patrick Air Force Base to the victims of Hurricane Betsy. supports the Cocoa Beach Police and Fire Departments, supports the Cocoa Beach Citizens Academy, and whereas over the past 60 years has given scholarships to Bvard County, high school students, and women re-entering the workforce. Contributes to the Koko Beach Junior and Senior High School band, chorus, orchestra, and project graduation. Sponsors students to attend the Hugh O'Brien Youth Leadership Program. supports Cocoa Beach Junior Senior High School teacher appreciation week. recognizes outstanding elementary students, volunteers and sponsors special Olympics, supports and volunteers at local events. And therefore, I, Keith Capezy, the mayor of Cocoa Beach, Florida, do hereby join the commissioners of Cocoa Beach, along with our community, in expressing appreciation to the Cocoa Beach Women's Club for their loyal and dedicated service and extending best wishes on their 60th anniversary proclaimed this 16th day of October, 2025. Thank you, Joseph. And if you'd like to come up and say something, you're welcome. And I've got some proclamations for you.

Thank you. Thank you so much. I'd like to invite you all to our reception that we're having on the 25th from 2 to 4. Be pulling out our memorabilia and having it at the country club. And then in April, we're going to have a gall. Thank you. Appreciate you. Thank you. [Applause] [Music] Do you do you guys want to get a picture with the commission? Yeah. Okay. Should we go down there? Yeah. Thank you for your patience. Well, this is very special. Certainly is. We'll do another

I'll stand by. [Music] There it goes. [Music] You're welcome. [Music]

Thank you very much. [Music] Thank you. I saw that. That's nice. Would have heard a little more history. Oh my gosh. That would have been that would have been 20 minutes. We have been 20 minutes on that. I remember the first blood 60 years ago.

All right. Um let's see. See number two. Recognition of exceptional service presented by Chief Wes Mullen's assistant city manager. Good evening, commission, city attorney, city manager, city clerk. Uh can I have uh Chief Grimes up here and deputy chief cuin as well? First, um so we decided as a staff, as a public safety staff collectively to honor um a couple of our folks this evening for some over and above and beyond work that they did um to help a needy family. I'll just kind of start that way recently and we kind of feel like these collaborative efforts should be recognized. So, uh, with that said, if I could have Corporal Miranda, Officer Wera, and, uh, Officer Sherig up, please as well. Please come on up. So, I have something that I'm actually going to read and then, uh, Chief Grimes will speak for a bit and then I'll kind of close us out. So, just to kind of let everybody know what happened here. On September 14th, 2025, Corporal Javier Miranda, Officer Jacob Wera, and Officer Henry Sherig encountered a mother with an infant sitting at a bus stop after hours. Concerned for their safety, the officers initiated a consensual contact and learned that the woman had recently become homeless and lacked the means to care for herself and her child. During the interaction, they noted the mother and child had very limited food and supplies. Recognizing the urgency of the situation, Corporal Miranda, Officer Sherig, and Officer Wera compassionately paid for a night stay at a local motel for the mother and the child out of their own pockets to ensure that the family had a safe place to sleep for the night. They also purchased a small amount of groceries, specifically water and milk for the child as well. The following morning, the Cooka Beach Police Department patrol division

collaborated with Sher Mafy, the city's community paramedic, who then reached out to local businessman and volunteer Steve Hoskins to secure an extended stay of more than a week. This extended stay and generosity provided the mother time to connect with local nonprofit organizations for continued support. The actions of these officers and community partners exemplify the highest standards of compassion, teamwork, and community policing and serving the most vulnerable members of our community. Okay. So, please

Thank you, Chief. I I just want to let you guys know, too, Sher, she's such an asset. Um, and the officers work so good with her. They communicate whenever we have these issues because sometimes we don't know what to do. You know, we're we're we're right there at the very beginning with the initial contact and what do we do afterwards? Well, Sherry has um volunteers throughout the city. Steve Hoskins, who um Sherry and both Steve aren't here tonight, but he's been an integral part of helping um not only does he help with Sherry, but with some of the things he does, he does helps with some of the handyman stuff. He takes uh residents to their doctor's appointments, and he also uh we have one of our our uh residents that uses Sherry services that's blind, and he takes them out to lunch and things like that. So, um, it's just a it's just a really good to see the public safety along with our own residents all working together for the betterment of the community. So, I just wanted to add that. So,

thank you, Chief. So, to kind of close it out, this is kind of what we do here. This is what we're about. We don't get to put this out there very often and we should put it out more. Um, this is what Cocoa Beach is about. community partnerships, uh, public private partnerships, and, uh, collaboration between our public safety personnel. So, uh, we just appreciate these officers. We appreciate Sher very much, Justin Shop and his folks, and especially the local business owners here who, uh, very often reach out a helping hand for all of us. So, I just wanted to say thanks. So yeah,

thank you guys. Thank you for for making us look good, which makes me look good. Gee, thank you for making sure that that got highlighted and and to each one of our folks just incredible. All right. Any public comments about items that are not on the agenda?

All right. Moving along. Staff reports. Mr. Mayor, commissioners, um, of course, uh, we're all well aware last week we had a flood event. Uh, we had 5 and a half inches of of rain. The Indian River Lagoon water level levels are high. The the rain occurred at high at king tide. We have high groundwater levels and we had localized flooding in the Woodland Cedar areas. 4th Street South, Country Club and the Cocoa Beach Country Club areas, the west side of South 11th Street, sections of Ocean Beach Boulevard in the north end uh Jack and Brightwaters, and around uh State Road 520 at the river, the Island Time um restaurant. The restaurants in that area, we had high water. [Music] uh we had infiltration into the into the the sewer lines from groundwater uh that resulted in uh the sewer plant being near capacity. Uh and we asked residents to cut back on water so that uh we'd have an opportunity to um uh have the plant uh reduce the amount of uh of water that it had in it. Um the the one thing that um I think we sometimes forget about is the storm water fund is an enterprise fund. It's paid for by uh the uh utility bill. It uh the funding for storm water issues comes from the storm water bill and not

from property taxes. Uh right now we have a citywide multi-deade v vulnerability assessment program going on. It's being conducted by geocintech engineers. The target uh for completion of this assessment which is required by the state is June of 2026 and we'll have an update for the commission at the December 4th meeting. Uh the the study is conducted uh through a grant from FD uh and also uh funds from the uh ARPA uh program. So um the the there are no quick fixes uh to the flooding. Uh it's going to take a while. We have um uh we have programs in place in localized areas uh Woodland and uh Bvard Avenue uh that area over there. We've got uh plans but uh the fixes which involve um bigger bigger pipes, more pipes, more outfalls and backflow preventers to prevent the river from backing up into the streets which is a part of the problem. Um but that that program uh is scheduled for completion in 2027. So we can hope that we don't have the type of rains that we had uh the uh last week. Uh if if any of you were here for Hurricane Fay, um that was um a uh a three or four day rain event and it was much worse than what we had u uh last week. on other items. Um uh the waste

management contract is coming up for renewal. Um it we're in the last coming in in 2026 will be the last year of the current contract. Uh it will expire on 123126 and um uh the the intent of the staff is to take it out to RFP unless we have we hear otherwise from the commission. uh we want to take it out to bid. U there are other companies that uh would be bidding on uh the waste management, the solid waste trash pickup. Uh so uh if there are concerns with uh going that route, then please give me a heads up. Uh other upcoming events in um uh in November, uh we have the art show. We're get gearing up for the art show. Uh we've been working with Commissioner Tumulty and Steve Romano and uh we also have um the our first movies in the park uh coming in December on the Grassy Green which ought to be a really nice kids type event. The Polar Express cartoon movie will be uh our first show. And then finally, project statuses. Um, Ramp Road Park. We're breaking ground on uh that project uh on October 27th. Uh that will close that park for for 3 to 6 months. Bicsentennial Park is scheduled for completion on December 31st and that's moving along well. Uh we have the downtown garage elevator project um which I know uh the public is anxious about. That is

starting November 10th and should take um probably into December uh before that's completed. We're replacing the whole cab uh on the elevator. uh the Cocoa Beach Country Club Golf Course, the the Dolphin 9 will be closed for six weeks starting November 7th to replace the irrigation system on that nine. The holiday H holiday lane boat ramp um is a project that we've started now. the survey. The survey has been done. Um, and now we need to wait for the water to go down a little bit uh so that the contractor can uh begin uh working on that. And then finally, uh the tennis court project. Um the the fencing has been taken down, the lights have been taken down, the contractor is milling the the four uh new tennis courts, and that's moving along. So, that's my report. Uh, any questions?

Uh, any word on the the sign on the building? Um, the the the Cocoa Beach sign. The photo that you showed me. Yeah. Well, we don't know how that happened, honestly. Is it is it fixed? Uh, I I believe it is. It's an It's an anomaly. We We do not know how that happened. Okay. What was What was the issue? the lighting on. I mean, you the light was out or it was a a couple of the lights were out. I'll show you a picture of the one you selective ones. Yeah. Yeah. It was a a little embarrassing for the city in my opinion. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

I had a question. City manager. So, on the CBN, great job to the staff. You know, it's an effective communication tool on the has, you know, the the do not flush and encouraging. I have a question. Do we could we ever get in a situation where like it's mandated we don't flush? And I asked that only because I had a couple neighbors that don't get CBNN and they were not even aware of the the the request to limit laundry, limit, you know, shower time, etc. So, I didn't know capacity wise, could we ever get into like a mandated and how would that be communicated out?

I mean, that's a good question. I, you know, how do you police um toilet? Yeah, I was I was honestly surprised because I think the CBN is a great tool. It it it's good updates for relevant stuff and it I mean it seemed like the cooperation was great and and uh we were able too the sign that you put out there I think thought Oh, that's right. It was on the marquees. Yeah. Yeah. I was just curious if it like I said I had a couple two different individuals that said I weren't aware of it. So I didn't know if we could get and that was not like you said nothing like Fay. I mean it was high but

that was not a FA event. Thank you. That's that's a that is a good question. But you know the whole concept is to to minimize the or lessen the amount of water coming in. And I think that that works. We we did had that situation um uh with hurricane uh Matthew in 2016 where our water treatment facility was down and um unfortunately the county allowed said, "Hey, the bridges are open. Everybody come back in." and we were not prepared for that. So we so we tried to get it out there. Hey, what's the first thing you're going to do coming home from a hurricane is take a shower.

You know, go to the bathroom, take a shower, right? So we're um fortunately we um you know, got it back up and running and now we have generators out there. But it also went CBN, but it also went on Facebook and other media sources. Folks put it out there. So that was it was uh it was a good um uh good move in getting that information like like like uh commissioner said. So thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you taking over for skip [Music] just uh city attorney. Nothing tonight. Thank you so at this point got my 7:30 tonight.

Hey. Yeah. Go ahead. City attorney. Sorry about that. Nothing. Nothing. Okay. Um, city commission. I'm good. All right. Anything? Oh, yeah. Of course. Of course I do. There we go. Okay. Um, yes. So, this rain we got was Friday, right in the middle or right at the beginning of National Kidney Foundation um surf contest. I'm surprised you didn't mention anything about that, mayor, because you won one of the divisions. I believe I

did. Yeah. Um and also out at the country club when we got all that rain, it was a little scary for everybody out there because um the roads started to to flood. The school had just was just being let out. Um I was at the school at 3:30 when all the rain, you know, was really coming down. It actually flooded the school. None of the rooms got damaged, but the water was actually filling up in the commons and going into the the hallways. Um, so they fortunately it receded there and but the but the roads were still flooded and the golf course looked, you know, I live on fairway. It looked like I had waterfront property all of a sudden.

Uh, it was water all the way across.

Um, and again, fortunately that went down over the next uh 12 to 24 hours. It dropped down to to really a high level. But um also want to mention the that the NKF was out at the at the beach, but also the silent auction um at the country club on Sunday. So they had to work through all that. Roy, Ed, Brent, Andy, uh did a fantastic job in in supporting NKF. Uh my wife's the chair of the silent auction, has been for about 10 10 years or so. Um not only that, there was a wedding going on for uh Saturday. uh the the uh there was a 50-year class reunion that had an event out there Saturday afternoon. Uh so there was a lot going on in the midst of all this chaos and rain and and whatnot. But uh Roy uh especially did a an amazing job out there. Uh he was pl he set himself up to potentially spend the night out there if he needed to because he knew he was going to be there late Saturday and have to be back in by 7:00 or so in the morning. I think he went home though, but uh for a short period of time, but uh just want to give him kudos for for uh doing a great job.

He's a great employee. He is. He is. And um and we really appreciate it. Yeah. Uh basically just mirror everything Tim said. I mean, we had it was such a cool Last week was a pretty cool week. We had so much stuff going on. We we had a concert um down here that was really cool uh for the for the ENKF uh party as well. But uh yeah, and the guys did an excellent job as always uh at the country club. So, thank you Roy and your and your team for that. All right, let's move on. Uh consent agenda.

Okay, this is the consent agenda. Item one, approve the October 2, 2025 commission minute commission minutes. Staff representative, city clerk department recommendation approved. Item two, adopt resolution number 2025-31, a resolution of the city commission of the city of Cocoa Beach, Florida, amending garbage, waste, and trash fees providing for interpretation and for an effective date. Resolution number 2025-31 implements a 5.39% rate increase effective in January 2026 seen in the February 2026 utility bill. The current contract with waste management for solid waste services runs from 2021 to 2026 and has an escalation cos allowing rate adjustments linked to the consumer price index CPI. The last consumer rate customer rate increase was applied in January 2025 in the amount of 4.59%. Staff representative Brad Cowzo, public works, water recck director Hannah Juman, finance director recommendation approve.

Move to approve H consent agenda is read. Second. Motion in a second. All in favor? I. Motion passes. Um, mayor, can I just say something real quick about H2?

So, the city manager alluded to the contract. I I don't want Unfortunately, when we negotiated this contract, it was already built in. That would be this 5% raise. So, we're not voting. There's nothing we can not vote on tonight to prohibit that raise. So, I've committed to you guys that uh I talked to the city manager about negotiating. I'm definitely in favor of bidding this out to get extra options when it comes up. But built into their 5-year contract was this renewal rate. So we we're approving it, but there's nothing really we can do. It was already under contract. So hopefully we'll get better terms on the next, like I said, I've talked to the city manager. We can bid this out. I'm definitely in favor of that. Um shopping it around. So yeah, thanks, Mayor. We're all on the same page on that.

All right. Um new business. Okay. Okay. Item one, accept the engineers's recommendation of award for the bid submitted by R&M Service Solutions LLC in the amount of 702,42 for bid number CB25-00006, Port Canaveral Force Main Air Release Valve Replacement Project. Allow staff to enter into contract with R&M Service Solutions LLC. This is a budgeted capital project eligible for state revolving funds. Staff Representative Bragzo, water reclamation and public works director. Recommendation approved. Move to approve. J1 is read. Second.

Motion a second. Any public comment? Any commission comment? All in favor? I. I. Motion passes. Number two. Okay. Item two, approve task order number six with Kim Horn in Associates, Inc. to provide construction phase services for project CB25-00001 lift stations 36 and 15 rehabilitation in the amount of $104,390. This is a budgeted capital project. Staff representative Brad Calzo, public works and water reclamation director. Recommendation approved. J2 is read. Second.

Motion is second. Any public comment? Any commission comment? All in favor? I. Motion passes. Um three. Okay. Item three, approve the purchase of a new pool liner from Renault CIS in the amount of $181,965. This is a budgeted capital item. Staff representative Andy Sigara, Leisure Services Director. Recommendation approved. Move to approve J3 as read. Second. Motion second. Any public comment? Any commission comment? Yeah, just real quick, Andy, great job getting three quotes. You know, I'm a stickler for getting multiple bids, so kudos. Thank you for doing that. Thank you. Yep.

All in favor? I. Motion passes. 50 40. Um, number four.

Okay. Item four, requesting commission direction regarding which meeting should be conducted, rescheduled, or cancelled during the upcoming holiday period while ensuring compliance with the requirement to hold a minimum of one regular meeting per month. Current meeting dates, November 6th, November 20, city hall closure, Thanksgiving, November 27 and 28. December 4, December 18, city hall closure, Christmas holiday, December 24 and 25. January 1, New Year's Day, city hall closure. Staff Representative AJ Hudson, city manager, recommendation provide direction to staff regarding the city commission's preferred holiday meeting schedule.

I'll make a motion to cancel November 20th, December 18th, and January 1st. Second. I think we can get and my logic there is I think we've got a pretty good rhythm. We're getting good feedback. we can accomplish the month's worth of work in one meeting and I think that'll give staff some relief on holidays. Says I don't think we have anything real pressing or or controversial coming up. So I think that's feasible. Okay. You got a motion? Got a second. Got a second. You want to get public comment? Yeah. Any public comment on that? Any other commission comment? All in favor? I. Motion passes.

Okay. Item five, approve ordinance 1706 on first reading. An ordinance of the city of Koka Beach, Florida, amendment article 3, civil citations of chapter 30, code enforcement special magistrict code enforcement board civil citations of the code of ordinances. Providing for updates to civil citation provisions, making findings providing for adoption of revisions by reference. providing for codification conflict severability scriveners errors and an effective date staff representative David Dicki development services director recommendation approved I move to adopt ordinance 1706 on first reading

second motion a second any public comment any commission comment

I think it might be worth just for the public to understand a little bit of this uh city manager would you be able to just give a a brief summary on what this does we we have a process um in place or had had a process in place whereby uh when a civil citation was issued um the recipient of the citation uh the the remedy for protesting or appealing that that citation was to go before the circuit court. Um, so, um, what we found is the the circuit court, uh, kind of puts civil citations at the bottom of the list.

We're not on the list.

Uh, and we've had in in some cases, we've had the the city attorney sit there for eight hours and not have the case heard. uh and and it it turned into um a costly waste of time. So what we what we did or what Dave Dave shop did uh was we revised the citation form. So on the citation form it says the remedy to appeal the citation is to bring bring it before the special magistrate uh rather than the circuit court. A special magistrate is a um a local judge who comes and hears cases in city hall here and renders a decision without having to go through the circuit court in Vieiraa and all that. So, um that's essentially what what this uh ordinance change does. It it substitutes the special magistrate for the circuit court process. If if I could just say it's it's the county court, not the circuit court.

Yes. But that is true. Um we showed up there was a notice for a hearing at 8:00 a.m. and we had um a code enforcement officer. We had two police officers and myself. We sat there all day until 4:30 and the judge looked out at us and said, "You might want to try tomorrow morning. See if I see if I'll have time for you." So that just doesn't work. I just wanted to highlight I think this is smart by the city, them doing a good job. And then also, is there is there a financial difference between the two?

Well, I don't know that we could ever be successful in getting a hearing before the county court. So, as a result, when people would be appealing these things, the um the cases were dismissed, which was an unfortunate situation. Now, we'll be able to um either collect the money on the citations or if they do appeal it, then it will go to the special magistrate. It cuts down on a lot of labor and just Oh, absolutely. It just it just makes more sense. And and when I went through here, I tweaked well for one thing, there were a lot of references to the code enforcement board, which we do not use anymore. So, I removed that

and um just basically cleaned up the ordinance. Okay. Do we pay a fee for the magistrate? Yes. Yes, we do. We pay they set a set fee or is it on time or

It is a It is I'm trying to remember the amount. It's a dollar amount per um per time he shows up. So, we could have 15 items in front of him or one. Um but it's very difficult to get someone to do a special magistrate job if they think that if they drive all the way over here, they might just have a 15minute hearing. And I don't think we've ever had that, frankly. Um, but this is something that works and it's used pretty uniformly in cities. Some cities do pay it hourly, but then it's hard to find really talented people who want to come out and do that.

So, we're paying for the event when he comes out. We might as well load up his agenda with Absolutely. Absolutely. And and the and the trade-off is we're avoiding a whole bunch of staff time sitting in here over time just doing nothing and not and and not ever getting heard. Right. Right. And the fees for the for the fines should pay for the magistrate as well. Should Yeah. Okay. staff time.

Speaking of avoiding staff time, maybe um and this is sorry I'm getting in the off subject, but maybe we can move our meetings up a little bit so that the folks that start their day at 7:00 in the morning aren't here till 10:00 in the evening some for some meetings and 8:00 on a on a normal meeting if we get out. So, just a thought. Um and also some of the the the county um commission has a meeting once a month I think during the day. Mhm. Just throwing out there. We'll talk about it another time, but that's another subject. We'll stay on this. I'll go back to it. Sorry.

We did a we did a first and a second public comment and commission comment. Um so ready to vote. All in favor? I I All right. Motion passes. All right. We are adjourned.