City Commission - Regular Meeting

meeting of the Steuart City Commission. Mary, would you call the role? Mayor Collins here. Vice Mayor Reed here. Commissioner Clark here. Commissioner Gio here. Commissioner Rich here. Chaplainkea, would you lead us in prayer and then the pledge of allegiance?

Mr. Mayor, city council, all the village, all the city staff. I I'm from Indian town, so I village comes to mind. [laughter] All the city staff, but most importantly, the citizens of Steuart, it's a great pre privilege and honor to bring the the the divine presence into these proceedings. We should do nothing without inviting God into it because without him, we're nothing. We're just dust in the wind to quote an old song. That's all we are. And let's keep that in mind. Let's go before the Lord. Our God and our father, great creator of the universe. You raise up leaders to help us muddle through this life because we can't do it on our own. You give us people that that hopefully get direction and guidance from you. I ask you to touch each one of our leaders hearts. Show them exactly what your will is for the city of Stewart. I thank you for our first responders that put their lives on the line every day to be sure that your people are safe and kept well. Father, come into these proceedings now. Send your Holy Spirit to be with us so that all the things we say and do are in accordance to your will. We ask you to bless this city, bless its citizens and its leadership. In Jesus precious name I pray. Amen.

Amen. Would you please join me now in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Please be seated. Thank you, chaplain. We'll have our arts moment uh from Craig Anderson. This the right time to come up. Yes, sir. Come on up.

So, my name is Craig Anderson and I'm a buster. Some of you may have actually seen me downtown in front of a great tradition of minstrals. And the song I'm going to do for you may recognize the uh melody, but I think the words are just for this sound.

Hey the road to the sand. I belong to Florida. taking home country. [music]

[music]

Take me home to [singing] the place I [music] belong at Florida. Take me home country. In the morning, [music] take me home to the

[singing] [music] I belong to Florida. [singing] Take me home. [applause] [laughter] All right, let's take a picture. Well done. And by the way, I do that all the time down. So if anybody wants to hear Thank you so much. How do you do this? Great. Thanks.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] Oh, for project for um to get projects and for proclamations, human trafficking awareness month. Glenn,

mayor, you want me to read the pro proclamation first? Yes, sir. Yeah. All right.

Absolutely. Thank you. Whereas human trafficking is a $150 billion global business and is a form of modern-day slavery in which human beings are controlled, abused, and exploited for profit through labor and sex. And whereas children have become the primary target of traffickers and predators as a result of online ch online online child exploitation as one of the fastest growing crime crimes in the world according to the United Nations Interpol and the national center for missing and exploited children. And whereas human trafficking and child sex exploitation online is happening in our own backyards with arrests documented in Stewart, Martin County, and the Treasure Coast this year. And Florida ranks number three in the nation for human trafficking hotline calls. And whereas local agencies, organizations, educators, business leaders, law enforcement, and faith leaders are connecting to bring an end to this horror of enslaving and abusing children and adults through awareness and equipping citizens to provide tips to local law enforcement. Florida Faith Alliance is working to alert steward commissioners to immediate to the immediate crisis and the need for all to become educated through support of an awareness presentation. Now therefore, I, Christopher Collins, mayor of the city of Stewart, do hereby proclaim January 2026 as human trafficking awareness month and and witness hereof here unto set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Steuart, Florida to be affixed this 9th day of February, 2026.

Thank you, Lee. Lynn,

thank you so much, Mayor Collins and commissioners. I am Lynn Barleta, founder and CEO of UACT, United Against Child Trafficking. We just changed our name from Florida Faith Alliance to You Act. I especially want to thank Councilman Woman Ula Clark because you've supported us well over the years. We look forward to working with the city of Stewart in a variety of ways, including redoing the mural on the AT&T building that I finished 10 years ago. Uh so we're here to speak about the fastest growing crime which is child trafficking fueled by online exploitation. We bring awareness of child trafficking in five counties with plans to go statewide and we work with local law enforcement. In two years now we have completed 21 proclamations and awareness is growing resulting in arrests and rescues. Pornography, sexing and sex tortion are the fastest growing gateway to child trafficking present in every school. We work directly with over 500 trafficked and abused children across three counties with our art restoration programs called the power of art. And our don't take the bait training programs have been accepted in Martin County and Indian River school districts. And I want to thank you for beginning and continuing a grassroots movement in our community.

Thank you. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Uh, I'm Mark Manning, chief operating officer for UAT. Um, previously I've run technology for NASCAR and Formula 1 teams. Um over the past 40 years, new AI technology means that predators and traffickers are bombarding children thousands of times per second on trending gaming flat platforms such as Roblox uh through apps such as Snapchat, Whiz, Discord, Yubo, Perp, and many many more. [clears throat] These have to be constantly monitored and updated as dayto-day it changes. And bots are programmed to seek children, draw them into disappearing chat rooms, form relationships with them, talk to them, into texting, sex tortion, and even suicide. Uh we must inform parents and engage our entire community to end this horrific crime. Thank you for becoming educated and leading the way to save our children.

Good afternoon. I'm James Bilig, chief compliance officer and law enforcement liaison. I lead the retired law enforcement team of the UAT Blue Task Force. Our mission is to train local agencies with a special emphasis on road patrol officers through a 90-minute training service block, followed by monthly realtime intel updates on the latest trends, online threats, case studies, and the rapidly growing reach of the 764 cult on children within our community and throughout the globe. Our intelligence is obtained through our nationwide partnerships with current and retired law enforcement professionals, homeland security, international strategic partners, and traffic survivors who serve as subject matter experts who provide invaluable life experience and intel to identify victims and predators. Tomorrow afternoon at 4:00, we will kick off our pilot program right here with Steuart Police Department, starting with the road patrol shifts through Wednesday and ending Thursday with the detective bureau and the administration. I welcome you all to attend Thursday, if that's okay with Chief. Our primary goal is to apply our training and technology program through the 19th Judicial and the rest of the nation to create a single silo of real-time information to take the fight directly to every predator's front door. UAT has documented over 60 arrests on the Treasure Coast over the past 18 months. With the implementation of our blue task force training for our local agencies, we look to increase that number 10fold and make the 19th Judicial the proactive standard for the United States. We are committed to ending this travesty and protecting the and protecting our children starting right here in our community where we have built our families and raised our own children. We thank you and Chief Senelvic. It's ironic that we are starting here in

Stewart as Chief and I started the academy together 32 years ago. We thank you for your commitment and your partnership to make the city of Stewart the tip of the spear in the fight against child trafficking and exploitation. Thank you. Somebody takes up the end. It's me. So, good afternoon. I'm Tony Barleta and I head the men's warrior task force. And some of you may be wondering why this gentleman standing over here is filming us. He's doing it for our own personal reasons. But Joel is a victim of human trafficking.

He is part of our team. We have hands-on results and we're going to ask everyone to be aligning with us and we thank you for your cooperation so far and what you've what you've honors us with with this proclamation. So, thank you everyone and uh we're going to do whatever it takes to unite against child trafficking. Thank you so much.

Thank you. So, our Martin County commissioners, our Port St. Lucy uh city commissioners, and our St. Lucy commissioners have all agreed to train their employees with the state approved. Uh it was the Ashley Moody 100% club. We've now trained a total of 2500 municipal and county employees. We would love for you to join that team and I've given you the information to do so. It's simple, it's easy, it's free, and uh we appreciate everything that you're doing. We have only one thing to say when it comes to child trafficking and child exploitation online, and that is not on our watch. Thank you.

Thank you. [applause] I just wanted to say I'm thankful that you guys are here. I really really appreciate your strategic partnership with our Steuart PD and I want everyone that could see to know that we are going to protect our children. So, I'm thankful you guys are watching and for all the work you're doing and spreading awareness. So, thank you. Thank you. Make sure you have

support Chris. [clears throat]

Thanks.

Thanks, Lynn. Continuing on with proclamations, 211 awareness month, Lee, would you? Whereas 211 Palm Beach and Treasure Coast have has res has responded to more than three million calls to the 211 helpline since its inception in 1971 and receives over 120,000 requests for help each year. 211's highly trained and accredited team continues to serve as frontline responders 24 hours a day, every day of the year, including times of disaster and great uncertainty. And whereas 211 provides free confidential and 247 access to lifesaving crisis intervention, suicide prevention, emotional support, and community navigation services year round. The mental health of many in our community is at risk due to challenges with health, addiction, and a lack of basic needs such as housing, utility payments, food, and transportation. 211's team handles every request with compassion and empathy, deescalating crisis situations and helping people navigate community resources to overcome everyday struggles in life's darkest moments. And whereas 211 also offers specialized advocacy and support programs to groups who face a higher risk of crisis, including seniors, veterans, and first responders and children with developmental delays and other special needs. 211 is also the regional responder for the national 988 suicide and crisis lifeline, the Florida Veterans Support Line, and other special

projects designed to help people facing unique crisis situations. Now, therefore, I, Christopher Collins, mayor of the city of Stewart, do hereby proclaim February 2026 as 211 awareness month.

Good afternoon. My name is Chad Adcock. I do the outreach for uh 211 here on the Treasure Coast and uh a long-term almost 20 years now a Steuart resident. Um and I want to thank you mayor and commission for continuing to bring awareness and working with us to uh let the public and the community know about the services that are available. Um everywhere I go I I still run into people who say, "Oh, what's 211? I've never heard of that." And that always breaks my heart because we've been doing this for more than 50 years. and I would love to work myself out of a job so that everyone knows about what we do. Um so thank you for your support. Um I'm not really going to read many numbers or anything uh apart from what was already read in the proclamation. Um I will say that annually we get more than 3,000 calls from city of Stewart residents or or uh you know help help they look for support from us about 3 more than 3,000 times. So, the need is there and it is growing. It will continue to grow and uh it's important to know that we're there. The program that I want to highlight today is a program called Sunshine or our Sunshine Calls program.

This is a a program for seniors. Anyone over the age of 60 can get a free daily check-in call just to make sure that you're doing okay, that you've had food, you've had medicine. We know that there are a lot of isolated seniors here. So, if you know anyone who uh would like to get that daily check-in call, please encourage them. All they got to do is call 211 and they can get signed up. I keep telling the leadership they need to lower that age down to like 45 so I can get on the list, but [laughter] they haven't done it yet. But anyway, it's a it's a great program and we are um always looking for to add more seniors to that list. And lastly, I just want to tell you um the numbers are one thing, but the stories of the clients that we serve are really what matter. And this is an actual client that called I'll change her name um recently. Her name was Amelia. It's a madeup name, but uh she called hysterically crying and distraught because uh she had recently had some financial difficulties and her and her 5-year-old autistic son were about to be evicted from their home. Um they had family in the area, but the family couldn't help them. So, she didn't know where to turn. She called us. Uh, of course, the first thing that our call center staff did was to listen compassionately and just to hear what she had to say and just to hear her story and to provide the emotional support for her. Um, and then after helping calm her down, they were able to refer her quickly, Amelia told the coordinator that she now feels encouraged and helpful that things will work out. So, those are the types of calls that we get every day. Um, and I just want everyone that can hear me now and everyone that can listen to this later to know that it's free, it's confidential, and it's available 247. And I encourage everyone to reach out anytime you need help. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. [applause] Thank you and engineering week. Whereas engineering is a dynamic and vital profession that enhanc enhances the quality of life, drives innovation and contributes to the health, safety and welfare of the public through infrastructure, technology, environmental systems and countless engineer engineered solutions. And whereas National Engineers Week observed February 22nd through 28th, 2026 recognizes and celebrates the contributions of engineers in shaping our modern world. inspires future generations to pursue engineering and STEM careers and raises awareness of the need for a diverse and well- educated engineering workforce. And whereas events and activities during engineers week provide opportunities for engineers, educators, parents, and community leaders to engage students in engineering, design, innovation, and problem solving, emphasizing the importance of math, science, technology, and creative thinking in everyday life. And whereas the Florida Treasure Coast chapter of the Florida Engineering Society plays a vital role in advancing the engineering profession locally by supporting professional engineers, promoting ethical standards, and engaging in community outreach and educational initiatives that inspire students throughout the Treasure Coast to pursue careers in engineering and

related STEM fields. Now therefore, I, Christopher Collins, mayor of the city of Stewart, do hereby proclaim February 22nd through the 28th, 2026 as Engineers Week.

Thank you very much. Uh, good afternoon everybody. My name is Christopher Smite. I am the treasurer of the Florida Engineering Society, FES, Treasure Coast chapter. I'm here to discuss uh, engineering week with you guys. Um, as engineers, I feel like we, uh, make things easier, uh, more advanced for the, um, everyday, you know, for your everyday lives. Um, we make sure that your guys are safe, that you guys don't have to really, you know, worry about being in any unsafe conditions, that we take care of your inspections. Uh, we take care of things and we guide you. Uh, we make sure that we explain to you these different things of why, uh, buildings need to be inspected. um you know why it's so important to you know promote engineering for the next generation for you know the uh kids the children um you know kids growing up in high school. I just hired a uh high school senior at Jensen Beach High School for some career affair and um he's brilliant very smart going to be an architect. So I found my new architect uh hopefully we'll see. Uh but basically engineering week is a week dedicated to promote engineering. uh we have a dinner on the 27th uh no I'm sorry the 26th on that Thursday uh which will be we'll be um crowning a young engineer of the year and an engineer of the year for their achievements in the engineering field uh for that year. Uh so you know just I don't I'm here to just discuss the importance of just engineering uh engineering week and promoting it. We have math counts actually next week not part of engineering week but just right before where we go to uh the you know this uh what was that um this campus ISRC Indian River State College. I'm sorry I'm a little nervous. I'm not the best public speaker. Um but but um yeah we have over there so we have uh high schools from like all over to compete

and uh math-based events uh just uh you know showcase themselves and most of them be end up becoming engineers. They're very interested in engineering. So looking forward to engineering week and we're just here to promote it and promote engineering in general. Thank you. Thank you. [applause]

[snorts]

He's not shy though. He wants a picture.

Thank you. Thank you. Interesting.

Moving on to service awards.

With five years of service, Vincent Taylor [applause] speech. No. [laughter] I have mine. I have mine. He as well. Thank you. Speech. Speech. Speech. [applause and cheering] Speech.

We tried. Oh, I see why the guys are here now. I got you. With five years of service, Thomas Dwayne [applause] Thomas, that's my neighbor. My neighbor. Yes. [laughter] Dwayne Thomas. Speech. Dwayne. [applause] speech. Wife is getting a picture.

All right. Where's the little girl? She's [clears throat] here. [laughter] Big speech. Thank you.

With five years of service but not in attendance is Olga Rockwell from utilities. [applause] with five years of service from fire rescue. Leroy Rodriguez [applause]

[applause]

And with 10 years of service but not in attendance is Martin Mihan Jr. from utility. [applause] Okay. Moving on to a presentation from Major Corey Bell from the Army Corps. You ready? Born ready. All right, come on up, man. Thankful you guys are here. Truly is going to introduce himself.

Commissioners, um I am not Major Corey Bell, but I wanted to tell you a couple of things about uh Major Bell. Um he's the deputy commander for the South Florida region of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. He is also a mechanical engineer, a University of Florida graduate, uh Florida resident, and he uh loves to fish and scuba dive. So he's been very instrumental um in all things that are lo and um uh addressing the issues of the region. Um I'm going to give him the clicker and let him go through his presentation. and he has a a lot of slides um that are probably intended to be a lot longer in in nature for the presentation than what we are prepared for. So, he's just going to pick out the relevant ones um that he wants to talk about today.

Awesome. Good afternoon. Thank you for having me, Mayor Collins and commissioners.

Thank you. So, I'm going to briefly go over through some of the stuff that I think that mostly um you're probably concerned about and want to talk the most time that we have together. But we do have a wide range of mission sets within the Army Corps of Engineers, specifically the South Florida or Jacksonville district and then here specifically in South Florida as well. So, at your time of leisure, if you have any, you can kind of look through other programs to include navigation, which is a huge impact for for us in Jacksonville district. And we'll talk about restoration projects, specifically CNSF. So, this is all this is what's Congress has mandated us to act on as a CNSF. And then it ties directly to the restoration of the Everglades. Um, which is very important for this community because it would stop flows from the east out of the S80 structure and move them south and send water south to the Everglades National Park. But this was originally u proposed in 1948. And you can see the five project purposes that Congress have mandated that we balance. Um but those those uh those uh congressional mandated um authorized project purposes also came with unintended consequences that hurt the Everglades National Park duct and we've are still under CMI uh river restoration project that's north of Lake Okachchobee. Um that was started by the state in 1976. The core of engineers got involved in 1978 and then we're still doing that today with updated water control plans. Um, and we'll talk sort of a little bit later of that as well. And and here's a lot of the studies we're doing and different phases that we have of those studies or uh construction projects underway. And you can see who owns those if those are stateled, co-led or um core engineers led in Jacksonville district. All right, just to highlight, so the integrated delivery schedule, this is how we manage the surfers south Florida ecosystem restoration under SER. um this we had a working group and showed how folks how to read that back in January and we're looking tentatively to release the the final version of the IDS in

March. So look forward to that. Will be a public meeting as well to show all the updates and changes as well as we move forward throughout the program. So I wanted to highlight the lake of chobee wershed restoration project. So there's two facets of this project. One portion which was the wetland restoration project that was terminated. Um, so tied to that is the ASR, that's the Aquafer Storage Recovery System that is still moving forward. And our engineering research development center, they're out in Huntsville. They're still working through those plans and specifications to looking at the ROE, the return on investment if it's feasible for the federal um entities to be involved. And that finalized report will be in 2027. So that's moving forward with no issues currently. Some of the studies that we have going on, Shingle Creek, just north of the lake. Um, and then we have the comprehensive study. This is basically the CNSF study. Uh and then we have the two the section 8215 which looks at just the northern um portion of that which these are all undergoing and then the two 16203 study. So this is along the the Palm Beach County, Broward, Miami Dade and portions of um um Martin County as well. But mainly this is looking at the storm risk management from a coastal perspective. So that's one of our other mission sets. Those are broken up in four reaches and how those are going to get done based on funding. Again, we have uh constraints at the federal level when we're looking at these. So, South Florida does have the lead on some of these projects to look at those impacts as well. IRL, which is very uh near and dear to everyone's heart here. So, we C2324 STA, we just hosted a visit out there recently that is approximately 96% complete and will be online later this summer and that will allow treatment of water into the north side of the North Fork for IRL. Um, so this is moving forward. You can see some of the other projects that are led by South Florida Water Management District as well. And then the North Reservoir C2324 knows she's currently we're moving forward on track on that and same with C25 as well. The package is moving forward through the system as well. Uh EAA. So there's a big landmark agreement between the

Department of the Army and the state of Florida. That was MAU MA. That's the memorandum of understanding memorandum agreement between the state of Florida and the department of the army. And that says expedite the EAA reservoir, the AT reservoir in blue there. Um and that is the mandate that we are moving forward. We are still working through the acquisition strategies on that with our prime contractor through the modification process. So we're working through that and then sub south is also going to be expedited and that's been moved under South Florida Water Management District. Um so with all this being done across the CNSF system, if the bathtub only has one single drain, it's not going to be much benefit to these programs that we're spending billions of dollars on getting conducted. So you need to have these other step south features in line with that as we get the EAA reservoir moving forward and completing in 2029. LoM we conducted lake recovery operations this past uh last year this time um and this really looked at the ecology of the lake. So the lake Okachchobee system operating manual loss was a current regulation schedule that we operate under lake O. Um and within that to get through the the the NEPA process there was a a trigger factor that looked at the ecology of the lake and the health of the lake. If you have a healthy lake then all all things connected to lake will be better in an environmental perspective as well. But these are the metrics that we used when we look at that and if we highlight these the commander can then move forward and say let's conduct these operations which impacted your community here last year. But we saw great benefits from that. So you can see the the the draw down on the lake and then the recovery envelope. So you need at least 90 days at 12 or 11 and a half or 60 which we exceeded both those standards and we've already seen a huge increase in SAV subaquatic vegetation on the lake. That's the seaggrasses and other organisms that live in the lake. We are conducting an AR for that. Um so you could take a QR code of this submit your information. uh we've received a lot of letters as well uh along with the digital um feedback so that um we can incorporate that data. I do have some

hesitations with this because this is an interim report. So this report will be finished later this year. But the purpose of why it's an interim report is because it's going to take multiple water years across the environment to see the positive or negative impacts across that. Specifically looking at the uh bass fisheries, those things take a little bit longer to see those response times. SAV is a high quality, high target, but that's it's a quick response to the system. As you draw the lake down, the light can penetrate the bottom of the the the lake to cause that instant growth. That's what we saw this past year. This is where we are today. So, we're actually at 12.565 ft on the lake. So, we're a little bit lower than we were this time when we submitted the slides, but we're moving forward. No seat, no changes there. And what I would like to highlight here, which is probably most important for the community here and the commissioners here, is that Loen 2.0 or 1.5 or the son of LoM they're still working through the name smithing of what the next version of LOSM's going to be. But when the EAA is completed in 2029, we have to have a water control plan which is LOUM has to be updated to reflect that storage capacity and treatment facility south of the lake. So, we're looking to roll that out hopefully later at the end of this fiscal year, September or October, depending on funds availability to move forward on that planning initiative for those operational plans. But, I'd like to highlight that as well for you. C44, this is currently still under operation. It is under OTMP, which is operational testing and maintenance phase. What this does takes um water basin off the C44 canal, pumps it into a large reservoir, then treats it through the STA system. uh this past water year, water year 25, we we saved approximately 25,000 acre feet um that did not have to go through the structure after lake recovery operation. So, it's another good highlight story that this this project's working. Yes, we cannot operate it to the full operational capacity of 15 ft, but we can still operate up to 10 feet uh and get benefits out of the system for the community. And we're currently roughly about 4 feet on the reservoir itself. And then the SDA manage about

foot and a half, but we have enough to get through the remainder of the dry season. So we don't have to worry about that vegetation drying out. And I'll I'll open up to questions. Uh Mayor Collins, just on that point, I I saw on slide 17 you had mentioned C44 in a timeline of uh March or May of 27 here.

Correct. Yes sir. So this is the seage um feature that is along the southwest corners of the reservoir. So again operationally we can bring it up to 10 ft but we need to have seepage wells because as we started to do our uh dam safety inspections as we were bringing it up to 15 ft we saw sloughing on the southwest seepage canal. So on the outside edge I don't know if we have a good photo. Well you can see here on the EAA that outer you have the perimeter canal which is right next to the embankment and the outer canal on that is what's called the seepage canal. It's an engineered feature to be able to take the hydraulic because it's naturally flowing through that photography there. It's to capture it and then resend it back into the reservoir. So when we were doing those initial study phases, as we do the infill procedures for that C44, we noticed there was an issue in the seepage canal. No issues to the embankment itself, but this requires us to not hand over a lemon to the South Florida Water Management District. We are holding on to that project working through that seepage well design which we're completing and we'll move out with construction in 27 at Target.

Got it. Thank you. Other questions for Major Bell?

Yes. Uh, thank you, Major Bell. And this question is meant to reveal to people how complicated these efforts are. And I learned this uh when the mayor and I attended the Rivers Coalition meeting the other day. So, there's so many con uh con competing interests. So, we want the lake level high because we don't want water. But I sit on some committees with members of uh Okachchobee and they want it low obviously and in fact we've seen the benefit of that in this dry period because as you say the SAV has begun to recover but I was surprised to learn that in fact we're reaching critical levels that are imperiling the long-term health of the Kousa Hatchee. Is that correct when the water gets this low? So under lo um the target flows can go up to 12,200 cfs to the west. Um so right now we're targeting 350 constant. Um which the the community in the west coast would like more than that. They would like at least 750 minimum. Um I talked daily with with folks from the west coast. I've had I had some folks from Santael Katie call this this morning about the challenges that we're having. Um, but we're working partnering with South Florida Water Management District specifically uh for the the schedule which is to hold that water for for later in the dry season because we don't know what it's going to look like. So, it's unclear when the the season will turn when we start to see those rains, but we're under, you know, I think South Florida has released a water restriction for most of their permites. So, it's it's a challenging time that we're in right now. Um, but I think that's that's the whole purpose of the AR is to take the feedback from the communities so that when we move forward under on the next version of LOSUM, we can account for this because it's not the the water year that you're doing the

operation in. It's the year that we're going to come into quarter year 26 and the following year that could have impacts that may have not been realized by our staff. So, it's or the community or agencies that are involved in this. Um, so it's it's challenging time for everyone. I can tell you that I I've been working with the managers and our commander on on trying to increase those flows to the west if we're not going to send them in south. But we're all concerned right now from a water supply perspective until we know what the season looks like. So we continue one quarter right now of what they want approximately. Is that correct? That's correct. Yeah. It's a tough job. [laughter] It's a tough job. [clears throat] Um thank you. Absolutely. Commissioner Clark.

Yes. Thanks. Thank you, Major Bell, for what you do. Um, this message, this question is mostly for uh, Attorney Holmes and Mr. Kroski because I can't remember if I know see this or not, but do we have a link on our city website now for LoM? If we don't, I'd suggest that we look into it. um we will so that people can look and read up and then also look at the update because I've gone out to to IRSC when we've you know we've talked about update and we presented and get the community involved. So,

and you would like to be able to see the lake levels at any given time. Is that primarily? Yes. Yes. Thank you. And thank you.

So, I just wanted to say I'm very thankful that you guys show up, you and Jeff. This is a very special relationship that we have right now with the core compared to in times past. your level of understanding and being able to articulate that to normal people is very much appreciated. And in terms of, you know, logistical concerns, I I worry that you're not going to be here forever. We did submit a letter to your superiors asking for an extension, which was successful, for one additional year. My ask for this commission, and I've not been prompted by you to do this, but would be to ask for one more extension of a year, which is very unorthodox, and I, you know, it may be a Hail Mary, but I know he's got one more year before that, you know, is not possible at all. So, if I could have him for that one more year with with a brand new environmental attorney and your knowledge base and and that is that relationship establishing more and more would be an absolute blessing.

Um, Commissioner Collins, Mayor Collins, the time to now is to act is now. If you guys want to do that, if that's something that the commission wants to do, that's the time to do it is now. I'll start interview process for my next position in October. Um, so I'll get locked in by February of this year. So by next year. So if you guys are going to act on that that you need to do that. Would there be any consensus from from the commissioners to do something like motion or we consensus? Consensus head none. Okay, that's three of us at least four. Okay, so we said the same thing about the last guy and then we got this guy. We love this guy. Uh this guy's way better than the last guy. [laughter]

I just two years with this guy will get us through two years. So Lee, if you if you would go tired of this commission telling other institutions how to run their business? A little less. Um well, [snorts] do we have a consensus? Yes, it looks like consensus is all. So, no, but you certainly have a majority, I'm sure. That's what Okay. So, Lee, if you would um go back and look at that previous letter and and craft that and get that over to the core. Hypothetically, who would we send that to the same individuals that we sent the last one to? Yes, Mayor. Fantastic. That'd be beneficial.

Yeah. Okay. I I did have a question outside of housekeeping. You had mentioned to me at the rivers coalition or or I heard it and we talked about it a little after. Is the success of lake restoration mode? None of us wanted to have any sort of discharges, but the tentative hope is that would potentially relieve us of discharges for a five-year period, God permitting and weather permitting. Would you mind speaking to that? Because I think that's a main concern any have.

Yes. U Mollin, so the the benefit of conducting those lake recovery operations is it does give us a reset. So anywhere from five to six years depending on the environment, right? So it's always a caveat if there's hurricanes, if there's other things that have life, health, safety on the dam itself around Herbert Huru Dikeke. Uh that all pending. Last year was supposed to be a very active hurricane season and the state of Florida received no hurricanes. So if we continue to be blessed in that aspect, it could be a foreseeable future uh without releases through the S80 structure. Now, we will have flows through the S308 structure, and that's mainly to to provide water supply and other municipal uses along the canal, but also for the C44 because you have to have a certain what's called minimum pool to keep the STA, which is a life organism of itself, hydrated throughout the the dry season. Um but yes, five to six years you should see no operations through the S80 and as ideally and then um environmentally conditions dependent and then with the the development and scoping of the new plan for the next version of LOSUM there could be an opportunity to even reduce that further. So with LOUM you're going to already see a larger reduction in the U SAD operations other than the lock itself by transporting recreation or commercial traffic through it but other than that you would have a huge reduction in in that. So as we bring these features online and send in more orders south, there'll be less opportunities to exercise the S80 structure for life, health, safety.

I don't think you could ask for more than that. I mean, that's fantastic. Not not having discharges the next 5 years and even with loving having opportunity to it's there's hope for even a better situation than that. So Commissioner Joby, yes. I just want to say something for the record because something was just said here on the dis that um we are telling other departments and companies or corporations or whatever how to do their job. There's a huge difference between making a good and honest request and telling someone how to do their job. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other comments from commissioners for Major Bell? Questions? Okay. Hey, thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you. You guys are fantastic. Um, other than that, appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. So, yeah. Moving on to halfent sales tax spending guidelines, which is very important. Attorney Holmes.

Good afternoon, commissioners. Um I I believe that the uh Martin County referendum, the 2024 referendum is in your package um behind the item today. Uh just for background, um Martin County proposed and passed a half cent sales tax by referendum in 2024. The idea of the sales tax was for Martin County to fund acquisition of environmentally sensitive lands. The county's direction was limited to specific regions and the ways in which the land could be kept in conservation to benefit the St. Lucy River, the estuary, and the overall Indian River Lagoon South. The county's direction is limited and specific. I think it takes up almost a whole page in the referendum. Um, I call those directives from the referendum, uh, guardrails. Um, the county can't just go and spend the money on whatever it wants to. Um, therefore, the restrictions are in place. The guardrails on the side, you know, just stay in your lane type thing. And, uh, that's what they are. The municipalities within Martin County are also going to benefit, uh, from the halfsent sales tax. However, the guard rails for the cities within Martin County are a little bit different and that's what I just wanted to make sure that there's a clear understanding of today. Um, I'm going to read what those guardrails are for the municipalities so there's no mistaking. Um, this is in section two on page three of the referendum. Municipalities may only spend their share of the sir tax revenues to finance, plan and construct

infrastructure and to acquire land for public recreation, conservation or protection of natural resources in accordance with section 212.055 055 paragraph 2 of Florida statutes which is kind of a it's more or less just a uh a section of Florida statute that deals with procedures of taxation and how and who and can spend the money and how that's done. Um so with that um the the municipalities within the city of Stewart um in my opinion have broader guard rails than does the county. The county can acquire land. They can acquire land for conservation easements. They can acquire land for fe simple interest. Um but is specifically for conservation purposes. The cities can do a little bit more. The cities can acquire land. They can plan for purchase of land um for recreation purposes or protection of natural resources. They can finance land. In other words, if the city needs uh to um validate bonds for purchase of land, they can do that under this um under this referendum. Um so it can be a little bit broader. I also put uh in front of each of you this afternoon uh just some ideas about evaluation criteria. Um what I have what I have realized um kind of looking into this half cent sales tax um a lot of local governments specifically counties because they have more money coming into them. They have more land usually to acquire um than does a small city that's mainly been built out. But each and every one of them has evaluation criteria there. You know it all depends on the counties and all depends on the exact um dedication of funds. I just gave you some examples

uh that you may want to look at for uh in the future and the and and the point of it all is to make sure that the money that is spent is um is in you know it's money you receive is in the public trust and it's for a public purpose. And so you just want to make sure that whatever you spend the money on ultimately that it's um that you do it on objective criteria and that is defensible. So, you want to make sure that um that if somebody raises a claim down the road that you spent the money improperly that you have a basis to say um we did it objectively. We did it under the policy and objectives of our comprehensive plan, our land development code. Um and if you want to use criteria that would even help further that purpose. Uh so I left those for you. I I would also say on the second page of the packet that I left for you um is the Martin County the way the the evaluation criteria that they're going to use just you can kind of see it in action and how they do it. They weight each of those items, you know, 10 points this, five points for that. You know, um I would say in a in a small city like Stewart that's built out, one of the things that you may want to look at is land that's uh already under public ownership. That's and if you have projects in mind for that, that's a great starting place because you're only you're not going to get as much money from the sales tax as as the county will. So, you have to be really focused on what you spend your money on. So, I just gave you some examples and I'm happy to answer any questions or talk to you about it at some other time in the future.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Holmes. Yes. Would you like Can I ask you some questions? [laughter]

So, I know there's been a lot of thought given to this at the county level by many members of the county staff. Have you spoken with them, any of them, regarding what limitations they may see uh that apply to us? I have. And or not to them? I have. I mean, not not formally have I done that, but um I have and uh you know, I will say that the county staff that I have spoken to are focused on their acquisition process, right? And is there peril if we violate these guidelines or what what what risk do we face if we don't adhere to the

Yeah, that's strict requirements. That's an interesting question. I I I think that um in addition to um you know just claims being raised, you know, this this is a very engaged community here in Stewart, Martin County. Um but there could be a claim that you misappropriated the funds. Could it be a legal action? Um I think it probably could be. Uh it's it it's it's not likely. Um but it could be. There's always a risk that of getting sued. Okay. Thank you. Questions from other commissioners? No questions.

I was just going to say uh in light of you presenting this and then giving us this information. I think it would probably be good at our next meeting or the you know very soon to projects have a conversation now with new guard rails of what our new priorities might be. Maybe they're the same, maybe they're updated. But in light of this conversation and really information that you've given us, if it pleased the board, I would like to ask staff to bring back a DND where we can rep prioritize and discuss if our um previous priorities meet these requirements. [clears throat] Excuse me. Good idea. Yes, sir. Yes. Yes. My consensus.

Yes. All right. Consensus lives. All right. So, uh that was all. Thank you, Ruth. If there's nothing else for Ruth. Okay, moving on to comments. General comments by commissioners.

Commissioner Rich, one of the South's best small towns. Best small town for retirement. One of America's happiest seaside towns. Most beautiful city. Best coastal small town. South's best small town. Sigma healthy workforce gold employer. Bellweather City for one of the largest class action lawsuits in the history of the United States. And that primacy has allowed the city of Stewart to secure the resources to ensure that our water will be safe to drink for generations. That is quite a list of superlatives. Recognizing what this city has achieved. So what does this commission decide to do? Let's fire one of the employees primarily responsible for these achievements, the former city manager, Michael Mortell. But don't worry, we'll replace him with someone equally capable. And they were correct. Lewis Boglio Boglioli is remarkably wellqualified. Been with the city over 30 years, graduated from Lyola. He holds the CGFO, which is the certified government finance officer certification, a professional designation that signifies expertise in Florida specific government finance management. Not only that, as a member of the Florida GFOA, which is the statewide organization, he was chairman of the school of

government finance, chairman of the standing technology committee, and a member of the ad hoc committee that created the very first FGFOA website. His expertise is held in such high regard that he is a sought-after speaker both nationally and internationally. And his latest achievement was recognition by the government finance officers association for an exceptional se exceptional 2024 budget presentation. But one of the most important successes he is responsible for as well as Mr. Mortell is the city of Stewart's financial credit rating. This is determined by national independent rating agency and is the highest possible rating for cities of our size. This potentially saves the residents of Steuart millions of dollars if we needed to go to the credit markets. Not that we need to borrow thanks to their very conservative fiscal management policies. But remember, don't worry, we'll replace him with someone equally capable. Just to recap, on the 27th of October, Mr. Motel was fired, no reason given, and Mr. Boglioli became the interim city manager. At the next meeting, in recognition of Mr. Boglioli's hard work, he was given a raise by this commission. At the next meeting in January, apparently the demands of the job were too much and the budget cycle was just around the corner. And so, the commission decided to relieve Mr. Boglioli of his shortly held interim position and allow him to return to his full-time position as finance director. Please note Mr. Boglei stated from this dis

that he had not indicated that the workload was too much and had not asked to be removed from his position. Roz Johnson was asked by someone and somehow knew that the vacancy would occur and agreed to move into the role of interim city manager. Two days after that meeting, suddenly [clears throat] Mr. Boglio Mr. Boglei handed in his 90-day notice of resignation. The 90 days is way beyond the standard two weeks, but just a very few positions in city government require this extended period of notice because the positions are so vital and complicated, a longer transition is deemed necessary. Don't worry, we'll replace him with someone equally capable. I'm not quite sure of the timeline now, but very shortly after that, I heard that Mr. Boglioli was terminated with immediate effect. Again, obviously not his idea, and I can't imagine it was the new interim city manager's idea. The finance director is probably the last person you would fire. Then I heard that Mr. Boglioli was brought back for an indeterminate period in order that we would be able to submit the bridge grant in a timely manner. Apparently, someone was surprised to learn that the grant submission was right around the corner. I know Mr. Boglioli was very well aware of that timeline. That submission date was last Wednesday. Then last Thursday, I heard was Mr. Boglioli's last day. Apparently, the urgency of the imminent budget cycle had receded. This commission has now jettisoned over

60 years of municipal experience. No city can prosper with such disregard for historical knowledge and proven commitment. No business can survive that recklessness. And I use the word business deliberately. The city is a large business, a $100 million business with approximately 275 employees, its own water department, its own sewer system, its own police department, and its own fire department. And you know who the customers are? It's not just the five of us up here, but all the residents of the city of Stewart, the people who pay the bills. And the last people who should be running this business are the five of us up here. Having one boss can be challenging. But can you imagine having six bosses of varying experience and educational qualifications and every election cycle two or three of them can change. That is a nightmare especially for employees. This is the reason many governments are set up the way they are, including the city of Stewart. We have what is called the council manager form of government. It was first used in Virginia in 1908. And I'm quoting now from the Florida Municipal Official Manual updated for 1925. And I'm sorry, let me get that right. Time. The council members and other political leaders are expected to refrain from intruding on the manager's role as chief executive. The manager who is hired and fired by the council is subject to the authority of the council,

but council members are expected to abstain from seeking to individually interfere in administrative matters, including actions in personnel matters. And I just want to emphasize this last sentence for those of you who thinking I'm making too much of what's taken place. Some city charters provide that interference in administrative matters by an elected city official are grounds for removal of that of the elected official from office. This is where it gets complicated. So, I'm now going to read from our Stewart city commission code of conduct. And this is the commission conduct with city staff. This is item four. And in fact, it's underlined. It's highlighted. Except for the purposes of inquiries and investigations, city commissioners shall deal with city employees who are subject to the direction and supervision supervision of the city manager solely through the city manager and neither the city commission nor any of its member shall give orders to any such city employees either publicly or privately which depending on the individual circumstances could be deemed harassment. And in addition, it says that commissioners can make no promises on behalf of the city commission without a commission vote. And it is improper improper to overtly or implicitly promise commission action. I'm not going to do it tonight, but at the next meeting, in the interest of full transparency

and to restore order to the operation of city fairs, I'm going to make a motion that we authorize the city attorney to conduct an independent investigation of all the events and actions surrounding the hiring and firing of Mr. Boglioli and the ascendancy of Miss Johnson to her current position to determine if there were any violations of the code of conduct by any members of the commission or any employees of the city of Stewart. And these are just a few of the questions that need to be answered. Did any commissioner threaten or make promises to any staff members with regard with regard to proposed or current positions? Did any commissioner overtly or implicitly promise a specific commission action to any employee or group of employees? Did any commissioner order an employee to terminate any individual? Did any commissioner harass any employee as defined in the Stewart Commission Stewart city commission code of conduct? Is any current employee of the city of Stewart afraid to speak the truth out of fear of retribution from any city official? I hope that the commission will share my desire to get the truth of what has gone on here. This concludes my remarks. [clears throat] So I want to speak to that. Um [snorts] there was a lot of accusations that weren't exactly accusations. Um, removing people from office. Uh, a couple things. One, Roz, was Jolie terminated?

No. Mind saying that into the mic a little bit louder so that people on the end can hear? No. Lewis Boglioli was not terminated. Where did that come from? Did you make that up? Is that from your friend Tom Campenni? [laughter] He hands in his 90-day rec. I don't think it's appropriate in depth discussion of this after what you just said, you don't want to talk about it now. Transparency. If you're going to say something like that, where did you hear that he was terminated? He hands in his 90day notice and then one or two days later quits. So,

do you think he's that? Okay. And and for transparency since for transparency since you brought this all up and you want to stir the pot. Um Joel Lee, everybody was happy with his performance here as manager, but we had him working remotely. We had him uh here in finance from Alabama. We asked him to step in for that two or three month period and that was a lot. He was planning on retiring a year before. Mike asked him to stay on and do this work remote thing in finance. There's not some larger conspiracy here, which is is what it sounds like. Um I don't know what you're talking about. I tried to take notes while you were you were kind of really hammering accusations there. Promising action. I don't know what that would be. Ordering uh two employees directly or threatening them. I'd never if you were accusing me of that I

I'm not I'm asking that an inquiry be made. It was vague. I'm gonna deal with it directly to Okay, let's go with Mr. Boglioli. I brought this up when you first suggest when it was first suggested. I said, "Are you aware that he has been working for Alabama from Alabama?" I know. And that was not a problem. And then suddenly it became turns out that it was a lot. It was a lot. And and um it doesn't mean that there's some larger conspiracy that he's being threatened.

Um that I went to him directly. I did not I did not threaten him directly or anything of the sort. Um speculations on a grant application. I don't even know what's going on down the end over there. I'm just assuming the air is thin from your soap box. I don't know what you're talking about. What is happening? What is happening? You think he was fired? One of our most valued employees submitted as he was required to do a to give us 90 days notice. He retired. He retired. He's done. He was going to he didn't even

he was fully expecting to work those 90 days and then two days later he's he goes oh I didn't mean to give 90 days I really want to quit I think you need to be careful about the aspers in JB goes oh 90 days oh I didn't mean it I really meant to quit I'm not sure where even you were reading from Hold on hold on hold on I'm not sure exactly where you were even reading from about us being potential eventually removed. You were the one throwing accusations around like that that there needs to be some kind of investigation for something. So,

Mr. Mayor, point of order. I I know that the commissioner has made a comment and you seem to want to make comments. Uh I just want to deal with directly before it, you know, it seems like there's a lot of shade being thrown around about it. I [snorts] just think that we need to um either set a time to to discuss the succession plan or whatever happened during that time period, but I think that we shouldn't. Um and I hear you wanting to just address it right now,

but we just have to make sure that we're for the public at least we're uh you know carrying on business in an orderly manner. So, and and in fact, we are the city's doing quite well. I've had conversations with Roz who is looking at some new um a new individual particularly for finance. I don't appreciate this um sort of casting shade around and trying to throw instability in the mix like the city will never recover. The city's doing great

and I I wish that the commissioners would either have talked to the interim city manager or city attorney and just try to see what um information they could gather and confirm. Uh and I I just think and I would appreciate that too is instead of coming in here and trying to throw grenades, uh maybe talk to your staff about that if you have I don't talk I don't talk to Mr. Boglioli once he was no longer city manager that was not appropriate.

Mr. Bogle, I'm talking about Raz and Lee. If you have questions along that line, if there's some kind of issue, you should talk to staff about that, not come in here and throw a grenade to create the appearance of there being some larger conspiracy that the public has to worry about because there's not. And Mr. City Manager, Mr. Mayor.

Yes, ma'am. Um I think that probably I'm you know the concern may have been that how we do like I said how we did the succession with the suggestion coming from the mayor the mayor saying what uh had been uh done and [clears throat] then we would have a consensus regarding that and I think that's probably where the the question is coming from as to how we that suggestion should have come to us um from you and I think that because it happened although I'm hearing from listen it seems like we had two opportunities but I think most people see this at one time when the um when it was announced that you know we'd have somebody to take over from Mr. Bleoli and I think that that's seem that seem people have asked me is it one person who made that decision who came up with that decision or is it the entire commission that said we want to do this and we want to discuss it and then do that as a part of our succession plan.

At some point one of us has to bring up an idea and the rest of us agree or not

and that opportunity was given to us. Um, I have several things to say and I'm trying to contain my composure. Uh, number one, it's always presented from Commissioner Rich in a very negative way. This goes back to when we were doing the budget. Everything is everything that you project seems to be negative. We need to purport a positive attitude. Our city is doing well. We have great employees. Um, and you always have us at the near, you know, like the rest of the naysayers at near doom. We'll never get anyone to apply for the city manager job. We have 82 applicants. 81. It was 82. That was It's 82. 812.

81. Okay. Okay. So, Mr. Mayor, I would ask I'm not finished. I don't You may Don't say that you're not You are not commissioners are not to address insult by name. Point of order.

That's it. I am not finished. And if we're going to get into insulting, I thought you were quite accusatory and condescending to our new interim city manager at the last meeting, which you owe her an apology. That's number one. Number two, I'm so disappointed you went up to Tallahassee. We have so many uh House bills and Senate bills that are about to take away our management of water, clean water, home rule, anything that we could possibly do here at our local level. And what was your concern today was to bring up past items that really at this point we're moving forward and you wanted to put a positive you wanted to put a negative spin on it. So I have to address you're the person who said it and don't you ever dare say that you don't care what I have to say. It was my time to speak. Thank you.

Okay. Um is that your speak? That's it. I'm done. It would be your time for your commission. Well, I'm [laughter] I'm done. Okay, Commissioner Clark. Thank you. I didn't get to go to Artsfest, but I think downtown is is there. I think you're on the board for art.

I was going to do No, I was going to say Artfest was fabulous Friday. I was one of the volunteers logging in the the vendors and the community uh people who were putting up uh uh tables and whatnot. It was great. It was a great weekend. It was fabulous. It wasn't cold. It wasn't raining. It was just cool enough, not hot enough. And everybody came. It was a good eb and flow throughout the day and it was really nice to see. And uh I thank the whole community for coming. Hopefully next year everyone will come. And I was going to address all of the bills that are up in Tallahassee that currently are, you know, looking to take away any reason for commissioners to be here because nothing will come before us. So that that was all I was going to originally say before other items came more important.

Blood pressure went up. Yes. Commissioner Clark. Yes. Thanks. So like I said, Artsfest, one of the main things with that is just driving downtown and being downtown. And in that regard, we have a member of our community, Bonnie Moer, who's been working to see how she can use her skills to um help our community. And I'm going to be meeting with Bonnie and Milton. If it's not this week, it's next week. I think we've changed the time just to sit at Confusion Corner. And actually, when we had our arts moment, I thought he was going to sing specifically about Confusion Corner. But that's what I thought. But um anyway, we're going to be looking at that. Okay.

Vice Mayor. Yeah. Um I wanted to send condolences to uh the McBride family. Helen had passed away. Um, I spoke with Helen quite a bit. She kept me on my toes. She let me know when I was doing something wrong up here.

She also let me know when I was doing something right. Um, and as far as Campbell Rich's comments, um, I'm not going to light you up. Um, I'll let the public do that, but a lot of what you said was untrue. And what I will say for anyone that's okay with having a city manager here editing employees cell phones with uh text replacement, when you texted the word home, it would say porn studio. When you would say Kev, it would say my lover. So if you're okay with that, Commissioner Rich, maybe he was your guy, but I don't think that's appropriate from a city manager. I also don't think it's appropriate with an officer of the court driving on a suspended license for 12 months knowingly. So if you want to talk about criminal activity, maybe Sheriff Buddhen seek should search that criminal incident and bring charges to that. That's all I have to say.

So one more thing. Go ahead. Can I speak? Absolutely. I also on Friday there was a shooting down on Tarpon and I want to thank our police force. We did have a policeman there. I did

um and he he was pulled immediately because he's part of the um strike force or special forces. He was pulled and we felt safe because all of our police officers were down there taking care of that. So there were shootings uh close not too far from where we were and I appreciate the fact that we have a great police force and they were to protect they are to protect the citizens. Thank you. Uh my comments were to start bringing forward some of the issues that we discussed in our one-on-one meetings. One of them was the Bright Line uh parking situation. I wanted to ask staff to bring forward a DND, particularly Lee, where we could start to look at um as best as we can tell what the required parking for the courthouse was is at this point considering the um gazebo parcel and some trades that were made. roughly how many spaces uh should be at that site versus the zero that would be if Bright Line was given that entire parking lot for its project and the implications that that might have for pushing out all of the courthouse staff onto the on street parking considering that we've already allotted some amount of that on street parking for the Elizabeth uh some 60 spaces or whatever it was, but really a breakdown of what what the parking implications of Bright Line coming in might look like. So, that was one item. Two is um perfect timing. The the FEC um I actually had a conversation with Brian

Mast and he ended up putting a a video clip about it which I thought was very helpful, but There's a few moving pieces here with with our applications for grants for the bridge, which I don't think anybody would argue that we we need a new rail bridge. One of the conversations around that needs to be why if taxpayers are going to if the city is going to be the lead for acquiring $200 million of tax dollars for a new FEC bridge, why is the city of Stewart, if we're going to procure that money for you and be the point person, why is the city of Stewart now spending $174,000 per year leasing parking spaces and railroad crossings from FEC. That seems insane to me. And I think any reasonable person, most people have no idea that we lease utility easements, um, parking spaces all along the tracks there. Anytime you cross a road, and there's always fear that if for some reason we didn't renew that lease, they would put up orange cones in all those spaces and wouldn't let you cross the street, you know, where there's a railroad crossing. So, with this grant application, we've sent it in, but at some point, um, I guess what I would like to say is I'd like to see a DND where it would come back, staff could bring back sort of the next step in that grant process. I'm sure we're going to have to approve whatever comes back from the feds. and then at the same time looking at renegotiating that lease um arrangement that we have with FEC. I would like to take a look at all those moving parts and see if there's an opportunity to save taxpayers that buck 75 a year. And the reason it's especially important is that rate has gone up dramatically. We

were previously from what you sent me Roz we were we were spending something like $40,000 a year which isn't cheap to rent those spaces but now we're looking at 175. So you know my personal opinion is if we're getting you $200 million for your bridge I don't want to pay you a penny for parking spaces if anybody's watching. So I'd like to see if there's any consensus from you guys to talk about that at DND.

Absolutely. Cool. Yes. Yes. Okay. Perfect. Um, and finally, following the success of Commissioner Reid's town hall, I want to get in on this. This was really wellreceived. I I heard about how great it was secondhand from other people. So, what I I wanted to let you guys know is that I was going to work with staff to put together a slow growth town hall where we can talk about the updates that we made to code through our zoning in progress and um the fact that we were in a zoning in progress moratorum, you know, what we've done in the last four years or so to deliver on what residents voted for. So, I think that in some detail for anybody who might want to attend might be a nice thing. And um I just wanted to let you all know. Yeah, unfortunately you won't you guys won't be able to attend, but [laughter] I wanted to let you know I was going to start pursuing that with staff to help uh communicate to the public. With that, those were my comments. Interm manager,

I do. Would you like an update on the bridge grant? Fantastic. And the status of that? Okay,

that would be great. Okay. So, we were in a holding pattern for a little bit. Uh while we waited word on whether we could stack the grants, we didn't know if that was an acceptable uh protocol. We did get word that we could stack the grants. So, the mega grant we had already received which is 130.5 million. That's been awarded but not yet executed. Then the FSP which is the federal state partnership for intercity passenger rail federal funds. Uh we did make that deadline. The deadline to submit that was this past Friday. We submitted on Thursday. That's 78.9 million. We do expect notification on that award between now and approximately the spring or summer of next year, but it should be sooner than that. That's the hope. We do not expect any push back on that or any challenges. So, that should uh come through. uh FDOT had we do have a letter of commitment from FDOT uh for 26 million and these are plus minus numbers but 26.2 million from FDOT and 26.2 million from FEC and Bright Line and then of course the city of Stewart has an inind contribution for that little sliver of land that was unbuildable but it was needed to expand the tracks. So for the record, the city is not going to be handing over any money, but the land does have a a contribution

land. Yep. It's an in grants. Correct. And it's because the bridge would have a slightly different K to it that would require that property there.

That is correct. It's about a 5 acre 5 and a half acre spot and the city commands about three acres of it. So that was the inind contribution. All of that totaled is a 262 plus minus million uh dollar project. Um the anticipation is to start uh the NEPA would be the first thing that they would uh do in this project and they're expecting that to begin if all goes well October of 27 and then the project would conclude in 2032. Uh all things going well. So, I don't know if you wanted any more if the updates on what you know the bridge stats or what it's you want me to put that into I just want to say height and width and

I just really appreciate how hard you've been working. Thank you. I really do. I've met with you, you know, in in this time you've been intern manager and you've just really gone above and beyond. Thank you. And um I really mean that. I I've been really impressed with how hard you've been working and taking to this and even to have the stats for the bridge ready. I know it's just it's very impressive and thank you. I hope whoever ends up taking this spot has some amount of that in them. Thank you. Yes, you're welcome, mayor. Yes. I just have one question for the interim city manager. I just wanted to um clarify the monies that Bright Line and FEC are putting toward the bridge. That's really not secured money. It's my understanding until the grants come through. That is correct.

Okay. And then they would have to escrow that amount. Yes. As I understand it, um I believe FDOT has already put it aside. Please don't quote me on that, but I believe they may have put that aside. Uh Bright Line, I'm waiting on absolute confirmation that has been put aside. Um but I think they're waiting for the FSP to be awarded and then they would put that aside as I understand it. Thank you so much. And I want to echo what the mayor said. It's it's a pleasure. I mean, I worked with you when you with HR, but it's been a pleasure working with you in the interim uh city manager position. You have just been so informative, so helpful, and so on target. Thank you. Thank you. Here to serve. It's very refreshing. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Yeah, just for clarification, I did call uh interim city manager Raz as well, and I apologized on behalf of Commissioner Rich for what he said at the last meeting. And then for the public for clarification, taxpayers are paying 90% for the bridge and FEC pays 10%. Correct. 10% by FEC and Bright Line and 10% DOT. And then FEC gets to choose their contractor to top it off. Correct. The contractor has not been selected yet. If they have selected, it hasn't been advertised, but yes, Bright Line and they dictate the contract will work through the contractors. So they they win it all basically so the public's aware. And mayor, did you want me to add any more about the the dimensions what this bridge is doing for the public? That's probably a good idea.

Okay. I just thought it might be helpful. So, this project will replace the existing bridge with a new double track vascule structure designed for modern standards of reliability, resiliency, and navigation. Some of the key design elements are an increased horizontal clearance from 50 feet to approximately 90 feet, increased vertical clearance to mean high water from 6 and 1/2 ft to about 17 and 3/4t in the closed position. And what that does is that enables over 90% of vessels to pass with the leaf in the closed in the down position. So, it'll be uh hopefully a win-win for voters and drivers and everybody alike. Having a son and daughter-in-law who work in the yaching business, I can tell you that passage there on a regular basis is critical. So, um I know that those were helpful to the marine industry and find and and others involved.

Thank you. Um city attorney Bagot, any comments? I know you're not on the agenda, but just I've got nothing. All right. probably probably best to stay out of fire right now, right? Um, do I have a a motion to approve the agenda? Move approval of the agenda as published. Unless somebody wants to move any of the agenda items, and I don't. Is there a second? I second the motion. Thank you. All right. All in favor? I I Okay. Comments from the public on non-aggenda items. You have three minutes. Mary, do we have any green cards? We do. I have Kevin Hemple. Kevin, [clears throat]

I'm Kevin Hemple. I've spoke to you before and uh I wanted to come last meeting. I was a little under weather, but I wanted to uh follow up. Uh there was a minor communication breakdown that I mentioned and I wanted to thank the uh interim city manager at the time, but you can pass the word on. Uh the very next day I was contacted and our issue was um resolved or being resolved. I wanted to make the point that the communication breakdown was not with city staff or anybody paid directly by the city. It was more miscommunication. It does take two to miscommunicate uh with the [snorts] vendor that the city had hired to help us with the drainage project in the Stipman subdivision. So anyways, uh I don't want to just ever just come here and complain. And like I told you, I'm very happy living in Stewart. We've owned our current house for 40 years and have a 55 year connection with the city between with my wife and myself. And uh just wanted to give you some good news and I hope that uh you all feel good about what's going on because we do as uh citizens. That's it. I'm going to go home and watch the Olympics. Enjoy.

Thank you. Thank you, Jim. Thanks. Thank you. Take care. I have Robert McKeen. Marine Industrious. More good news. Good evening, city commission and staff. I'm Robert McKeen, executive director of the Marine Industries Association of the Treasure Coast and resident of the city of Stewart. Uh, I'll keep my comments brief, but I wanted to commend and compliment the city of Stewart as an organization. As you're aware, the MITC held its 52nd annual Steuart Boat Show last month.

Despite some interesting weather just before and after the event, the show performed remarkably well. We saw record visitor attendance. Many boats were sold on the barrel head

with others contracted for sale immediately following the show. From visitors and exhibitors alike, the feedback was very positive. Although, we definitely got the message that everyone wants this soft serve of ice cream to come back next year. [laughter] We are aware of some traffic implications leading up to the show, particularly on the south side of the Roosevelt. As per the routine, we had a follow-up meeting with the city event staff last week and have agreed to post an additional five officers at intersections to help manage the drivers that thought hanging out in in the box was a good idea. I must say, working with the event staff, including Jim Truski, Dennis Rivera, and Jessica Tharp, makes a complicated production much easier. Their input is valuable. their guidance, Sage, and their experience helpful. Not only do we have two pre-productions meeting with staff, PD, fire, sanitation, and utilities, we make sure that the post-production meeting, such as what we had last week, is informative and has corrective actions for next year's planning. We know road closures aren't easy on anyone, but on behalf of the MIATC, we'd like to thank you and the entire city of Steuart for accommodating the 52nd annual Steuart Boat Show. It's amazing to think that a show that takes three weeks to set up allows for the road to be reopened within 24 hours after the show closes. It's a testament to the amount of labor and dedication in the all sports production staff and our commitment to the city of Stewart. The economic impact of this short duration event is tangible to local businesses, restaurants, and hotel years, and it highlights the amazing uh marine industry in our region. Mark your calendars for the 53rd Steuart Boat Show scheduled for January 15th, 16th, 17th of 2027. I think it would be great if we could have our city commissioners at an opening ceremony.

We have 11 months to plan. I love that. Thank you for all you do for the marine industry. Thank you. Thank you,

Karen [applause] Hall. Uh, good evening. Karen Hall, 1701 Southwest Palm City Road. Um, yes, I'm grateful to be here. I've been in Martin County voting since 1992. Thank you to my commissioner, mayor, vice mayor. I want to talk about the deliberation and discussion two weeks ago. I found it to be very sad. Um, please never ever do an update on city v. Rudge the property rights, homestead rights case in a DND. Okay. That to me it went badly. I feel really bad for the gal. But we had um seat five at if you watch the meeting 2 hours 56 minutes and 44 seconds. Seat five says, "I'm just going to run rampant." And trust me, seat five did run rampant for about 20 minutes. Saying things that were not very helpful helpful. saying things were like, "Oh, the city will give you anything you need." Okay, I can tell you about delayed discovery from the city. Um, the procedural posture. Seat five said this a couple of times. Oh, it's not with us. Okay, we're not the court. Okay, seat five needs to understand you may not be the court, but you are responsible for your attorney and what they say in court and what they give to the court. And if they defraud the court and they lie to the court, then the commission is responsible. Okay. Um I think what people don't understand is our case is open and we're defendants. We're not plaintiffs. We're defendants. And now the case is still open and we're getting ready to demand for a jury trial on our cross claims. But Judge Ruby, Judge Roy's rules say we have to reach out to the opposing uh attorney, which

is going to be Miss Yaguette. Okay. So, I'm going to do it in public and ask you, are you going to cooperate and show up for the trial? Are you going to ignore me? Because that's been the way it's gone. I mean, seat five was up there from 2019, 2024. I'm asking, can Mike Mortell just sit second chair? He doesn't have to be the main attorney. Just let him sit second chair. Seat five ignored that. All of that. Okay. And that's a lot of, you know, the timing of it was Willow was 12, Willow was 13, Willow was 14, Willow was 15, Willow was 16. My daughter had a lot of trouble, but she survived. So yes, all I want to know is because what I see from the meeting and I watch it and I watch the body language, but last week at that DND, our city attorney and seat five, all they did was just talk and talk and talk and talk. And I'm going to tell you, I'm not about 60 in June, but I know enough. When people talk and talk and talk, they're spinning. And I don't like the spin coming out of seat five and the spin from Mortell 2.0. Now, are you going to go to the trial?

No spin. Yes or no? There is no trial, ma'am. Okay. I You have a motion to withdraw. to ask you if you will object to it or will you agree? We're I'm not going to comment about litigation on public comment, but Oh, no. Only only when you're You're not set for trial, ma'am. You're not set for trial. I have to ask you first. But you're not set for trial. I'm going to file it after you say yes or no. Do you oppose it or not? It's a Toz Properties, Inc. You would ask for a hearing. Well, like I said, spinny spin spin. It's yes or no. Okay, I'm done. Yes. Of course not. Gail Goldie. Gail said no. [clears throat]

Gail Goalie, 1153 Northwest 12th Terrace in Stewart. And uh I first I'd like to say uh good evening to the city commissioners and of course Mayor Collins. And uh I also want to really express my gratitude for the great job that you're doing. Uh you commissioners have a hard job. You have a hard road to haul with uh opposition from some of the commissioners that sit up there. And um I believe that [clears throat] one commissioner in particular uh likes to cast dispersions on staff, fellow commissioners uh along with a self-proclaimed journalist who happens to be a great uh friend of his I'm I'm assuming because of uh things that I've read and that's Mr. Tom Camp Penney. We know his alternative motive is to unseat the current commissioners who will be up for reelection in August to put all of this negative stuff out there about the staff, the commissioners and uh people who really really look up to this commission and also the staff that work so diligently and hard for this city. Uh I hope that uh the public continues to see through uh a lot of the stuff that's written and see what it's what the actual intent is. The actual intent is not to try and uh make a cohesive group and work together. There's there's a constant uh pulling and trying to pull apart the commission and and the commission doing such a great job. So uh that's basically it. I I um also know that uh based on what I've read in

Friends and Enemies or what is that what is that publication friends and uh oh I guess it's supposed to be friends and neighbors but I think I renamed it friends and enemies because it's very obvious who the enemies are in that publication. So um they're directed at the commissioners. So uh that's that's about it. Um, I just hope that the the uh public is smarter than uh a certain commissioner and a certain private self-proclaimed journalist profess. Thank you, Bonnie Moser. [sighs]

Good evening, commissioners. Bonnie Moser, 1121 Southeast 10th Street. I um raced over here from um MO joint um BPAC and other committee meeting today um because I wanted to express concern for um the 714 FEC railroad crossing feasibility study that's happening right now. Um there's going to be a public meeting in March. I know I've emailed you all about this project before, but I just want to express deep deep concern for the first two alternatives. There are total of three, but the first two Stuart

are are going to be very damaging to uh the community that I live in. And um I hope you were there. Do you mind? Yeah, I don't know if I can I feel like I need a a visual, but essentially those two concepts would um once the traffic rises over the railroad, they would be pushing all the traffic that would want to turn left and right onto A1A onto um a residential street that would be taking out homes, taking out people's backyards. Um two different streets, 18th Street and the one north of it, I can't recall.

Um and then funneling it both ways. So, we're talking about our little residential Palm Beach Road, which gets about 7,000 cars a day. Really ramping that up. Minimum of four lanes wide. Um, it would be separating the YMCA soccer fields or sports fields from the YMCA and its parking lot. So, I don't know how we would be proposing to cross that, but we're talking about little children crossing a four-lane road. Um, we're talking about more pollution, more noise pollution, less safety in our neighborhood. Um, so I just wanted um to ask you all to not support those first two concepts. I'm okay with the third. Um, and you can take a look at them, but um I'm asking you all to get the word out to residents. I would love for East Stewart and then everybody east of Palm Beach Road to get something at their front door so that they know about this. But I'm also asking for you you all to get the word out and to um do whatever you can as a commission to make sure that these two first two alternatives don't happen.

Um Mr. Mayor, yeah, maybe maybe have put the link on maybe have Beth come in and give us a brief presentation at an upcoming meeting. Yeah, it was interesting. I was there for that. Yeah, we could put the link on our site too for information at the community center because a lot of people steward the community center. Yeah, we had people come out to the last if she could review the various options and the implications and and what the feedback was at the meeting. I have Gwendelin Hall Brinkley.

Good evening. My name is Brinkley, 8:14 Southeast Tarpon Avenue. I was not going to get up and say anything tonight until I heard the comment from Commissioner Goi that there was a shooting on Tapon on Friday. Did I say the wrong street? Yeah, you said the wrong street and that was I got up to correct that. You know, we get enough bad publicity in East Stewart. We don't need it coming from the dasis. Okay. Um, we have some good things going on over there. And when those things happen, I'd like to hear that come from the dasis, but don't give us anything extra. I even when I started looking and I see it was on Riverside Drive, not East Stewart.

Um, and hopefully we'll get the information that this lady's talking about too as well. Um, so that as a community we would be involved in that. Um, [snorts] but that was my whole reason for getting up was to make that correction. It was not. I live on top and when you said that my head church cuz I didn't hear a shooting on top. So let's not make everything that happens in Stewart happened in East Stewart. Make it a part of East Stewart. Yes. Was there a there was an update that was published relative to that I think a year ago maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Original but there was a recent update about that case which which may be the confusion. And then there was on Riverside,

right? Because it's the the article I had read and I just heard that the policeman took off for he didn't really say where he was going. He just left. But when I read it, it said Riverside, but that was a year ago on the River. This is This is why we got Chief. We got Chief here. We got Mr. Mayor, can we have an update from the chief? Because the shooting was not in fact a shooting, right? We got Chief. We don't want these. We're not going to speculate. Mayor, commissioners, thank you. Um, and for clarification, there was a shooting incident reported on Riverside Drive on Friday afternoon. Our patrols, our special response team, surrounded a house over there

and and determined that there was no shooting at the location in the 900 block of U Riverside. We're continuing an investigation into some activity that was going on in the area, but it was very isolated. No one was shot. The reports of anyone being shot at that house were unfounded completely. With regard to Tarpon Avenue, there was not a shooting on Tarpon Avenue. Um there was we investigated one about six weeks ago completely unrelated but there was not one this past week but if there was an update in the news potentially recently on the the older tarpon incident again those are isolated incidents the tarpon was very isolated between people who knew each other and yes it's dangerous because someone was shot but it wasn't a general public safety concern that someone's riding around on Tarpon Avenue shooting people at will is very uh closely related and very targeted between two Thank you for the update and I'm sorry.

Yep. Yeah. I I do apologize for having the wrong street. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. Yes. Thank you, sir. Thank you. I have no further public comment. Okay. So, moving on to approval of the consent calendar. Do I have a motion to approve it? I'll make a motion to approve the consent calendar. Second. Perfect. Uh, is there any public comment on [snorts] the motion to approve the consent calendar? Seeing none, Mary, would you call the role? Sure. Commissioner Clark, yes. Commissioner Rich, yes. Vice Mayor Reid, yes. Commissioner Gobi, yes. Mayor Collins,

yes. Moving on to commission action, item nine, city manager screening committee selection and meeting date. It's gonna be Roz. I'm ready to go. All right, Roz. All right. So, um, this item was to establish a screening committee to look at all the applications that we received. We did receive 82 applications. I did originally report 81. We did a recount and found a couple of duplicates. So, I know you're just getting warmed up here, but I just want to make a point, Roz. Yeah. People want to work at the city of Stewart. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great place to be. I would agree.

Thank God. Okay, moving on. Sorry. Forgive me. So we have 82 applicants. Um this item is to uh identify members of a screening committee. Traditionally a screening committee has assisted with looking at the volume of applications we receive, match them to the job description, make a determination on who might be uh best qualified at least at first run to uh be interviewed. We do have in those 82 we have four applicants who meet criteria for veterans preference. So they are because they meet the minimum qualifications they are required to be interviewed and then additionally anyone else on top of that. So the idea is to uh of the committee also historically this has been a member of the commission uh a member of the legal department traditionally it's been Ryan Cavo member of the human resources department and then two members of the community. We I preliminary scheduled this meeting for Friday the 13th of February to move this process along.

Yes. Thank you. um because the person who is selected may need to give 90 days notice. They might need to relocate which is very common for a position of this level. So anticipating that that could be the outcome. If this part moves along um then the wait to get that person on board doesn't sting as much because we've moved the process as best we can. But Ryan Cavo, our parillegal, who has traditionally uh been seated on these, would not be able to participate on the meeting on the 13th. She is out. However, she and I plan to get together on the 16th to uh talk about what she can do to assist in the administrative sphere.

She was really valuable when I was on those committees at going through all of the deep background. So really that spreadsheet that she provided was even more valuable than you know for anybody who might end up on that committee. Her homework was even more valuable than you know her being there. Yeah. Not that you're not valuable, Ryan, but No, she's she's done. Your homework is the real deal. So the other thing I did for you and the the clerk and attorney have a copy of this, but I put together a a calendar for you so that you can see this process.

Yeah. So, there's one. I brought pencils if if we needed to mark up and erase. Uh, there is three. And then here are two more. And pencils if needed. Thanks, sir.

But this calendar um hopefully will assist in exploring the actual timeline. And again, the reason why uh we just went ahead and put the 13th as the date because whichever um committee members you select, we would entertain with them that the meeting could be Friday the 13th at 10 a.m. If it's the will of the commission to change that date, we certainly can do that. It has been advertised properly uh to meet that 3-day window. Perfect. So, that's the opener. Mayor. Okay. Vice Mayor. Uh, I'll throw out some names so it's fair. Um,

I'll throw out Tom Campenny just to be fair to everyone. Um, take um I would say Robin Cartwright. I would say Roz. Um, Lee. Um, Dan Hudson maybe. Um, I can't be on it. Okay. So, two of them. Okay. Thank you for offering that though. I did uh mention if the commission wishes a member of HR which I would suggest Karen Chambers Cuffy is second in command if you will of HR and she'd available that date definitely. Okay. So, so Karen, yeah.

Um, Tom Campenny, Robin Cartwright, myself, um, Dan Hudson. Those are just some names that I'll throw out that also strike it up. Gail, would you be interested? No way. She's she's president. She doesn't live in um, I'd hope that the the committee would want me to serve on it. I'd like to serve on it. And I see Nita here. I'm not sure if you'd be interested, Miss Denton. Because you're still one of the clerks, right? Yeah. But I answer.

Yes, I do appreciate your um I think that you'd be a good um person. [clears throat and cough] Uh and Mr. Frederick James, that's the only other person. Oh, I second that one. Did you have a comment? Yeah, I would just like to put forward uh Peter Rupton. Peter lives in the city, obviously. He's an attorney. He sits on the board of the Friends of the Everglades. Uh he used to be president of the board of the Elephant Elliot and has a demonstrated commitment to the welfare of our community. Commissioner Gio,

I believe there's only two commissioners who could be on Oh, there's only one. Yeah, just one. I would like to see the mayor because you really would be directly interacting with the city manager and that's for me uh this more than even myself um Commissioner Clark or um Commissioner Rich the the two of you are going to be interacting with this person for the longest. Yeah, that's right. So, ideally we we very well may be gone soon. You never know. It's a city of Stewart. You can he can be voted out like that. So, you know, in my opinion, it would be either the vice mayor, right? [clears throat]

And since he's the vice mayor, if you're voted out, he would then be the mayor. So, it would make the most sense to me just even though I love this kind of thing. Yeah. I love this. I I you know, selfishly I love it, but I do think one of you. Yeah. Then I would certainly want to put Sean's name forward. You like how you got roped into that? I I don't mind being on it. [laughter] He loves that kind of thing too. I think you I think your skills of of um [snorts] research and dissecting it all would be quite valuable when you have 82 human beings to to work. So we have Sean and we have um Karen Cuffy for sure. U like I said I I

Karen Coffee HR HR yeah forgive me. And then um like I said I'm suggesting if Miss Denton can get back with us and Mr. Um, Frederick James. I think we need to have He's already a board member, though. That seems a little bit He's on the CR much. I think it'd be better just to have a person from the public. Yeah. Well, I could have Pearl Clark. Well, I could suggest she has served on the when it used to be the sir. As long as we She lives in the city. Dissolve the board tonight. Yeah. She's not on the she's not on the East Stewart board or anything. She's not on any board now. Okay. I thought she was [snorts] Yeah,

I believe she's on um Oh, she's on ESAC. That's true. But but she's not historical. Earl Clark, she is on there. Yes, but she's it's Well, that's It depends on what happens tonight. Yeah, we'll see tonight. Okay. So, Sean, Karen, Karen, I think you need to pick people that are confirmed available. Yeah, we we'll do it. If you're picking someone that's not here this Friday the 13th. Okay, there you go. That's the spirit. That's Thank you, Robin.

We need one more member of the public Hudson Dan or Peter Upton. And since we're help, but she wouldn't be there that day. Yeah, she wouldn't be able to be there that day. They meet a couple times, right? Or just once? Just once? Just once. But her influence would be there through her her homework that she did or you could have another what would we get from legal then she would be the person who would be helping with backgrounds got pulling the information and assisting with all of that. So we could have her on in that way or you could select another person to be the five and Robin would still be helping in the background anyway but maybe not participating. Right.

Did I Who did I say? Robin. Sorry, Ryan. Got a lot of names flying around. Sorry, that's Robin. Mr. Mayor, yes. Ask a question of Yes, sir. City manager. Um 80. What's the number? Two. 82. 82. And those who meet our the requirements of the job description, what is that number? Don't know. That's what the committee is going to be deciding. four of them meet the veterans preference criteria and the veterans preference it is in tab four of the book and it states that

if an individual meets the minimum qualifications of the position and meets the criteria for the Florida FD vets they have to be interviewed right I was just trying to save them a little work if possible they only meet once but so you're saying they will be required did somebody bring their book to go through all 82 or are any are they going to be required to go through all 82 of the applications? Yes, but but you're asking a good question. I see what you're getting at too. They wouldn't have to go through the 82 at that meeting as soon as we know that they can commit to that date. We're going to get the binders to them. They're prepared already. So, they'd have the week. No, no, they have quite a bit of homework to do before that meeting. Yes. Okay. Yes.

All right. I just wanted to know if we could save them. Real quick, the committee is going to be a recommendation. If any five of you want someone that they didn't select, you could ask to have that added as well. Correct. Yes. So, we're not married to whatever that committee comes up with, we can always ask or take. So, if we have one more person we needed on the committ on there now, right, we have four on there now. And then Ryan in the back, we're going to check with Mr. Upton to see what his Mr. Upton, he's available. Oh, great. He is available. Okay. Okay. If Peter is available, I'll support

if Sean's going to be on it and he feels comfortable with Dan and Robin. I I'm I'm more comfortable with that than reaching out to Peter. And then if we have Karen and then Ryan in the background, I think if you get too many voices, it can start to be too many cooks in the soup. Yeah, I agree.

Uh just from being on that committee, I would say that. And really, you guys are trying to narrow it down to maybe if we had to have an additional four uh because of the veterans preference, maybe if you're coming in with 10, assuming one or two of those people will not even um ultimately be available. That's what happened to us in the past is we had seven of them, two of them ended up backing out and you ended up with five. If you're somewhere in that range of like five to seven people for us all to interview, it's not overwhelming, you know, but taking into account the four veterans who must be seen. Correct. You might want to add at least four more. Make it 12. Yes.

Something in that range. Really, it ultimately comes down to who applied. If you have 10 great people, if you have nine, if you have 12, and that's the job of that committee is is to offer up who who's truly qualified, right, and preferred. Okay. So, are we are we seeking uh in this item a motion with all of those names? You said Denny Hudson was in there. Yes. Yes. Dan, Sean, HR, Robin, Ryan in the background is your committee. Can I confirm Peter Upton? Karen, Peter. No. No. I'm saying no on Peter for now

because we're doing two from the public. So it'd be Dan and Robin. If for some reason Dan or Robin wouldn't do it, maybe contact Peter. So you'd be an alternate. Yeah. If you called Dan tomorrow and he says, "I can't." Okay. I thought Miss Cartwright said she would make herself available, didn't she? Yes, she did. What time? Meetings at 10 a.m. 10 o'clock on the 13th. Okay. Uh so do we have a motion along those lines to have Vice Mayor be the uh representation on the committee from us HR Karen Robin Dan Hudson and Ryan in the background.

Was it at 10 or two? I'm sorry. What in the background? I don't understand. She's going to be she's on available there that day. She's going to be providing all of that that research as a function of that committee even though she won't be physically present that day. Okay. Gotcha. So the I Sorry, go finish your thing. I apologize. I was going to walk through the calendar. Oh, yes. I stepped in. Okay. Okay. We still need a motion. Maybe a mo maybe a motion. Yes. Is there a motion along those lines? I just want to make sure I have everyone. Vice Mayor Karen Cuffy from HR. Um Robin and in the background, but I counted her. And Dan. Yep.

Two from the public. I don't know Dan's last name. Sorry. I would also request that the motion include the date and time of the meeting because in our proposed resolution it's blank 13 a.m. I'd like to make a motion for the committee staff to review um the applications for city manager um the vice mayor Sean Reed Karen Cuffy from HR HR um Rayanne will be in the background so that would be additional person the two public people would be Robin Cartwright and Dan Hudson and this meeting would be held on February 13th at 10 a.m. Second.

Nailed it. Okay. Is there any public comment on that motion? Seeing none comments from commissioners. Yeah, just 82 applications. That That's a lot. Um I think it's fabulous. And uh hopefully the committee um we're making the right decision with the people that are on the committee. Um, I feel like we have a full board consensus. Um, I wish we could get some public comment though. It'd be nice to make sure we're making the right decision for the people involved, though. That's all I have to say.

Just to be clear, this committee will not be conducting any interviews. Correct. I'm sorry. This committee will not be conducting any interviews. Reviewing the applications. They're making a recommendation to you. We will be doing interviews when they We will the commission commission committee. No. Are just clear clearing it up. Thank you. Yeah. Mary, would you call the role? Yes, ma'am. Come on up, Dr. Grant. [snorts]

Um, Kim McCarti. Um, so just to be clear, there will there are 82 applicants, but you all will have information regarding all of them. So, whoever it actually and whoever the committee decides upon, I think I heard you say you all will be able to go back and adjust if Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yeah. Welcome. Mary. Okay. Commissioner Rich, yes. Vice Mayor Reid, yes. Mayor Collins, yes. Commissioner Clark, yes. Commissioner Gobi, yes. Okay. Moving on to item 10, the 2025 Martin County Local Mitigation Strategy. Is she doing the schedule? No. Oh, forgive me.

Oh, you were going to go over the schedule. Yes. Just to make Is that Is that acceptable to make sure that there's clarity?

So, the calendar outline that I provided for you shows our meeting tonight, which we just went over the names of the uh participants and the date of the special meeting, which we know is the 13th. And then what'll happen is the committee will meet at 10:00. We're thinking until about noon, a break for lunch, and then at 2 PM the commission would convene, receive the recommended list, and then decide who the final candidates for interview will be. That is at the will of the commission. The 16th and 17th, we would call those candidates. The idea is that we would have the interviews on the 25th and 26th. Um if that is acceptable to you, there would be a special another commission gathering uh might be oneish two-ish that day on the 26th to decide uh who that candidate, the selected candidate may be. Meaning you might have, let's say you have four candidates, you might interview four of them on the 25th and four of them on the 26th, convene at say 2:00. But if that's too soon, because it is a lot to digest, I put a a tickle on March 2, that Monday, if you flip the page over, a possible special meeting that day, maybe at 10:00 a.m. So that gives you the weekend to really review the people you interviewed.

Question, Ros. Yes. On. So is the 26th the same as the 2nd? Those are just two potential dates. The same? Yes. Okay. So I won't be a I won't be here on the 26th. I will not either. Oh, sorry. That's good we're doing this. That's real good we're doing this because a special meeting of course would need to be advertised accordingly and I think those are the only two. Correct. I'm available on the second. You are okay. So the interviews then might need to be the 24th and the 25th because the the candidates rotate to each commissioner one at a time. Is the commission available the 24th and the 25th? I am

24th. 25th is going to be tough, but 24th. Yes. Is this all day? It depends on the number of candidates. So, if we did it all, we could do them all day. If you have say eight is about the maximum, correct? Really? That's a lot. It is a lot. Yeah. So, if depends on the number that you select whether we need on your 25th, are you busy in the morning or afternoon or that whole day? That day. Well, you [clears throat] I'm available on the 24th and the 25th. My hope is that we can get them uh banged out in one day. [clears throat] Okay. If we're here all day versus stretching it out into two days, kind of just play it by year, I guess. Yeah. If you guys can weed that down to where we have the c the candidates,

seven or eight people that actually show up. Even if like in the past when we've done these interviews if you guys remember it's sometimes there's some there's some dead time like we can have faster what were they hour long or they're an hour if we did even shorter 45 minutes I think you'd be fine if we had to if we had to time it up a little bit. Okay. We have to have more rooms available. It really does. And when you think about it I mean when Lee and I did it the environmental attorney it went by very quick. Mhm. And if we start earlier and not 7 a.m., but if we start earlier, we can probably wrap it up. And we started at like what? 9.

I think we started at nine. So even if we if we were able to move that back for whoever the early riser is, the first candidate would be with that person, you know, and then rotate down. Mhm. So if we aim depending on the number of recommended candidates, whatever you land with, may I recommend then that the special meeting of the commission to decide the candidate might be best set for Monday the 2nd. Is everybody available? Yeah, because I'm available on the 2nd. Okay. I'm available on the second also. What about Tuesday the 3? I'm available then, too. It's available, too. That would be better. Yeah. Okay. What time is that? All day or the third? 2 p.m. all day. That's a better day.

That would that would be for the commission. The third is a better day. Um, okay. It's just Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I'm good with the third. What time is that to include? The public has to be known. That's for the commission to convene to decide among the candidates that were interviewed, who would you like to narrow it down to? Who would you like to select? So, that could be a meeting at 10:00 a.m. It could be 1:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m., whatever your pleasure is. I'm always for the morning getting it done. 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday of the 3. That work? 9 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday the 3 9 a.m.

Think we have nine as consensus. So 9:00 am on the 3. Okay. Okay. Then that would just shift the city attorney and candidate negotiate. No problem. Just shifts to the right by a day. And on the 24th and 25th, those would also start at 9:00. Those those can start anytime you'd like. I would just suggest earlier. Yes. So depending on the number. Yeah. It kind of depends on the number, but block out block out all day. Yeah. All day. 9 but starting at 9:00. I'll be here at 8 at whatever takes. [laughter]

All right. And that we said is going to be the 25th that you want to run the interviews, right? Or did you say the 24th? Got it. Okay. Thank you. Then that would set the meeting date for Monday uh Tuesday, March 3 at 9:00 a.m. And the idea would be if the uh attorney and candidate are able to negotiate that contract successfully, the employment agreement would come before you on the 9th, and I've already marked on the calendar for February to put a placeholder in the agenda. March.

Uh yeah. Did I say February? Yeah, sorry. February 11 is the agenda due date for February 23. I that one so sorry. Yes. So, uh, February 25 agenda items are due for March 9. So, we would put a placeholder on that for the employment agreement. Perfect. With the hopes that that could be ratified. And then I put on the calendar that the 12th anticipating that the person isn't employed, they could start pretty quickly because we can get through the background pretty quickly. Um, but if they need to give 90 days notice, at least we know where the clock starts. Awesome. It'd be hopefully the 9th. Roz, you rock. That works. Okay.

Okay. Before we move on, mayor, um, city clerk just notified me that we failed to u read out the resolution title. So for the pri prior agenda item. So resolution number 07-2026 a resolution of the city commission of the city of Steuart Florida establishing a city manager screening committee identifying participants and scheduling a date for the committee to meet providing for an effective date and for other purposes. Have we covered our bases? All right. Then we'll go on I'll need to read the next one. So moving on to ordinance second reading. Uh

yes ma'am. Sure. Carol Goldie, I just want to make a comment on the selection committee um that you're putting together. Um I'm hoping that you will have a guideline for the people that are going to be looking at this doing the selection committee. I know 82 sounds like an overwhelming amount, but I am on a board for uh solicit for uh doing uh scholarships.

We give scholarships and we have to sometimes we may have a hundred applicants for scholarships for further education and we have guidelines that we're told that you know the application must boom boom boom boom boom they have to fit this criteria. So I think that there would be a an elimination process for you to um have the 82 if you have minimum requirements that the selection committee is aware of you know and it could be something as simple as you know you know did they fill out the application properly you know just you know so I think that would just be a help if you put that together. Yeah, thank you, Miss Goldie. And you're right, there needs to be criteria. So, each member, uh, we train them, Miss Chambers, Cuffy, and I will make sure they're well trained. They use the job description as a guide to determine if the person meets minimum qualifications or has some parallel experience. Yes, we'll train each one.

Vice Mayor, yeah, for clarification, is it like when we did the environmental attorney where we had like a checklist and you had predetermined questions? So, so Gail, we had a bunch of information given, Gail, we had a we had a bunch of information given to us when we did the environmental attorney. There was like a ranking sheet. There was predetermined questions. And when you did those predetermined questions, they rolled into other questions where you could elaborate and other stuff. Um, HR did really, really good when we did the environmental attorney. Excellent. Very, very, very helpful. Yeah. [clears throat]

Yeah. Yes. For the record, Sherry White, I promise I will fill out a green card. Mary, um, just because I've been through this process at least a dozen times, make sure that when you're considering your candidate, you also have an alternate in the wing, only because that candidate might walk away. Actually, they've had two in the wing. most most of the time. Thank you. Thank you. Yep. Good point. All right. Ordinance second reading. Item 11, code amendment adding language related to reasonable accommodation. Oh, yeah. Uh, mayor, we've missed uh agenda item number 10. Number 10. Did I just resolution? Item number 10. Number 10.

Forgive me. Item 10ation 2025 Martin County Local Mitigation Strategy. Resolution number 13-2026. A resolution of the city commission of the city of Steuart, Florida, adopting the 2025 Martin County local mit mitigation strategy, providing an effective date and for other purposes. Is anybody presenting? Ah, yes. [laughter] You do it all, Chief. You do it all.

Um, thank you. Um, this was uh submitted through emergency management and it's a it's on a 5-year cycle. So, I took the resolution directly from our emergency uh management coordinator, Captain Ortado, and flipped it into this. It just gives us the cooperative agreement that if there's mitigation and issues through storms or through uh issues in the county or the city that we can uh coordinate apply for uh money recoveries, things of that nature. Uh Captain Ortado has said that we haven't done anything with this, but it's a a 5-year incremental study and then we sign the uh the agreement every 5 years. So, this is just a renewal of what's been in place for the last 5 years. I attached I think it's about a 255 page study which was

a long document. Yes, it was but um I so I don't have a lot of specific personal knowledge on the process other than what was presented to me as part of the emergency management process. I think there was just one update from the previous Yes. previous five years. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Are there any questions from commissioners? I Yeah. Who um who updates this? And I know it's every five years it says it, right? But is it like staff? Which staff? Is it like police that like who's involved? I guess. No, it's not the police. It's through the It's a state level. It's not through the the police department. We Captain Otto serves as the uh e part of emergency management for the city

as as that role, not as police captain, but it's through emergency management countywide and then throughout the state. Um and it's just an agreement that is at a level beyond ours. We're not involved in any of that planning, negotiating any of the the parts of that study. We just we take it as just because of the emergency management connection. If if Captain Ortado wasn't our guy for the city as emergency management and if it was in the utilities department, they would speak on it or coordinate it. So, we just coordinated from that standpoint. Awesome. Well, whoever formatted it, there's a ton of information. It's very clearly laid out. I hopefully the my fellow board members looked at it, but yes, I did. Yes. Very detailed. Yes,

it is. Yeah. Okay. I'll make a motion to accept resolution 13206. Resolution of the city commission and city of Stewart adopting the 2025 Martin County local mitigation strategy providing an effective date and for other purposes. Second. Okay. Is there any public comment on item 10? Seeing none comments from commissioners. Seeing none. Mary, would you call the role? Vice Mayor Reid? Yes. Commissioner Clark? Yes. Commissioner Gio? Yes. Commissioner Rich? Yes. Mayor Collins?

Yes. All right, moving on to second reading. Item 11, code amendment adding language related to reasonable accommodation.

Ordinance number 2547-2026, an ordinance of the city commission of the city of Steuart, Florida, amending section 8.07.07 07 of the city's land development code in compliance with recently enacted legislation Senate Bill 954 providing for conflict providing for codification providing for an effective date and for other purposes. This I want to remind you this is the second reading. So, we had a discussion last week. I mean, uh two weeks ago at the meeting, last meeting. Um in essence, um the city already had an ordinance that was uh the Florida Senate Bill 954 required that cities put in an ordinance on this issue. We already had one. Uh there were some requirements in the bill that we did not have in our ordinance. In addition, while we were in there and adding these additions required by this new Senate bill, there were other things I wanted to clean up. So, um and and so some of the proposed edits uh that we went over last meeting were uh were on my my my opinion and not necessarily required by Senate Bill 954. Uh per Commissioner Clark at the last meeting, she wanted to have language added to the third whereas clause to reflect that the LPA LPA voted unanimously to uh recommend for you to adopt the text amendments which we did that. We added that in the third whereas clause so we updated the ordinance to reflect that request. Um if you want me to go back through the section 8.0707 0707 going through the changes like I did last meeting or you want to

unnecessarily. I think we have good consent. That was the only thing new was at the request of commissioner uh Clark that I added in the third warehouse clause about the LPA. Thank you. Is there a motion? Motion regarding ordinance number 2547-2026 and the ordinance. The title has been read already. I'll second the motion. And the motion was for approval. Okay. Sorry. Including the addition. Is there any public comment on item 11? Seeing none, is there any comment from our commissioners? Seeing none, Mary. Oh. Oh. Sorry.

Oh, I missed your light. Forgive me. It was right behind my microphone. [laughter] Commissioner Rich. Um I would just like to say that this uh eliminating this board does not indicate a lack of interest in this community at all. You're on the wrong item. Wrong item. No, that's uh that's going to be 12. We're on 11. We're on 12, aren't we? 11. We're on 11. We're on 11. You're almost there. [laughter] Now you believe my my baduses. [laughter] I know. I'm not going to go there. I'm not going to go there. Um, seeing no other comments. All right, Mary, would you call the role? Commissioner Rich, yes. Commissioner Gobi, yes. Vice Mayor Reid, yes.

Commissioner Clark, yes. Mayor Collins, yes. All right, moving on to item 12. I'm ready. We're there. Dissolution of the East Stewart Historical Committee.

Ordinance number 2548-2026. An ordinance of the city commission. An ordinance of the city of Stewart, Florida, amending part two, chapter 2, administration, article three, boards, committees, and commissions. Division 1, section 2-28, and division 7, East Stewart Historical Advisory Committee, sections 2-118 through 2-121 of the City of Stewart's code of ordinances by removing certain provisions related to the East Stewart Historical Committee due to dissolution, providing for the repeal of prior ordinances and resolutions, providing for codification, providing for severability, providing for an effect effective date and for other purposes. is um a few meetings back the city commission wanted to move forward with dissolving the east stewart historical committee and um by doing such we needed to remove it from our our code of ordinances. So, in essence, this ordinance is removing all mentions of the East East Stewart Historical Committee. And um I don't know if there's much more of an explanation other than that that you need from me, but I'm happy to give you more explanation if you have any questions on it.

Yeah. Oh, I didn't flip my light yet. Ladies first. Yes.

Oh, yeah. So, this has been up and this is our second time and I know that I push hard to get this committee and I've heard from the members from East Stewart and some of the comments that were made here and about the idea of members having autonomy when they're not tied to a committee. Uh, I've heard all of that, but I also know that there's a part of cancel culture and erasia culture. And I wanted I'm sorry that Pinal isn't here. I was going to ask her what was the schedule for um when we're going to hopefully get that neighborhood um designation status. Um do you know that Roz for to where we're we're working with the national to get the whole um East Stewart um

local designation?

I do not know the status but I can get that tomorrow morning. And I really I was going to suggest that if we give this committee a chance to stay until we get that designation. I know that we have more work to do to put information together for just because they didn't meet last year. Um but they probably needed more direction. I'm committed to working and giving more direction to get some more photographs, get some more things done and to finalize that um link that gives a history of East Stewart on the um on the website. And I think that it does need the coordination of of some group that's has the ear of the city to do that. So um oh PL Okay, good. Pinal will help answer my question. So that's my only thing. That's my only thing. If we could try to keep it until we get that done, then we can say yes, we've achieved one or two things with regard to this panel.

Sorry, I just ran here. [laughter] Um, so we do have a neighborhood meeting scheduled in March. Um, so we're working on the postcards. We're going to be mailing out notices to all the uh residents and property owners in East Stewart. I don't have the date with me, but it's in March. And the state is actually coming here. Mr. Paul is coming. will be here also. How how would a board to your just just to her point, how would a how would having this board continue um benefit that process though? Have they finished their work panel with with the pictures before the board? So, we've been working on that process at some level.

But how what about the historic information that was collected? You think that it's it's complete? Right. It's all in the report that was prepared by Paul. Okay. I just want to be sure. I want to give every opportunity to make sure somebody doesn't say the board was erased and we still didn't get to provide information that we thought was important for East Stewart and to be a part of the record and chronicled for East Stewart. Plus, we created the master plan for Publix and Arts Places. So, we have that um that we can incorporate as part of the Guy Davis Park project and MLK Streetscape project. And we're still working on that. Yes,

Vice Mayor. Yeah, I and and I think part of it was um Commissioner Clark. Um the board's intention was for public art specifically to MLK Streetscape and the Guy Davis Community Park. Is that correct, Pel? Correct. Yeah. And I and I think for members in the community and even on the board, they might not have fully known when they got on the board. Maybe they thought they had a broader scope of being on the board and they might have not realized it was limited. No. Or they ordinance. The ordinance it was Yeah. It was known that we were just working on the master plan for arts. Yeah.

Okay. That's all I had to say because I didn't know if there was confusion on what the purpose of the board was for some of the board members. maybe community and I understand the concerns from both sides but the ordinance was clear they're not an ombbudsman they're not a group like the LPA or somebody uh it was very clear what their duties were based on the ordinance if somebody on the committee didn't understand but it was very clear but a very limited yes I I just question the word erase we're not erasing it I think we're offering the community so that there are people who have that view and they just want

and and I think we tried to explain that it really isn't about erasing this committee. It's actually giving them the opportunity giving that East Historical Society an opportunity to encompass more a larger scope um things that they cannot accomplish now. I mean the year has passed and we're now calling for a meeting in March. So there has been no

no no ability for them to speak to each other and all of that. We're actually making the committee better. And I had offered myself and I'm sure you've offered that we would help them set up a committee. It would be community committee which give them a larger scope for their community. They can encompass other things that may want to bring before the commissioners. It doesn't involve historical. There might be issues in the community. I think that that gives them a greater say in the community. Thanks. I know that Commissioner Rich wanted to say something, but that meeting in March is about the historic designation. That's something completely that we've been working on for like five years. We have special monies. We've had a consultant. There's been a lot of work that's gone on. None of that goes away.

No, that's all individuals can be at that meeting. They can do it. They can without violating sunshine. That's right. [laughter] That's a public hearing with regard to the designation and Mr. Paul Weaver has been active with that and it's been a long journey. I I probably spent two hours uh at with talking to Albert at his house on his couch about starting an NAC. So, I think there's a real desire within that neighborhood to get organized and to start to, you know, have a voice to to work with us and they can do that.

So, so I just hope that there's no sense that that we're losing something. E Stewart's losing a voice where in fact to your point I think it is an opportunity to to start a new kind of a voice that is central to the people who actually live in the neighborhood um without having the liability of people violating sunshine you know for talking to their neighbor when they don't meet all year or their brother or sister. Right. Right. Right. Which it's impossible not to violate. It's a small neighborhood you know so somebody's going to talk. It's gonna Yeah. Okay. So, thank you, panel. Um, thank you, panel. Do I have a motion?

I'd like to make a motion to accept ordinance 2548 2026, ordinance of the city of Stewart, amending part two, chapter 2, administration, article 3, boards and committees and commissions, division, sections 228, division 7. um in the city of Stewart code of ordinances by removing certain provisions related to the East Stewart historical committee due to dissolution providing for the re of prior ordinances and resolutions and providing for the cotification providing for severability and providing for an effective date and for other purposes. Do we need to state the date in this motion? No. Okay. Is there a second? It'll be today. That would be today. Okay.

I'll second it. But I think Commissioner Rich had a comment as well that he started. Oh, he took No, no, no. All my all all the all my comments were made by other commissioners. Um, do we have any comments from the public? Okay, seeing none comments from commissioners. You sure you saved it for this one? Okay. All right. Fair enough. So, dang. I was hoping to hear it. I know. We were there. Me, too. Well, because like what I'm concerned about is like if there's a comment that's going to come in, are you just waiting to say uh no to just play politics? I'm just curious like we've stated everything and I just I guess we'll wait for the roll call. Mary,

Vice Mayor Reid. Yeah, this is uh for dissolving it, correct? I guess would dissolve it. Yes, Commissioner Clark. Reluctantly. Yes. Commissioner Rich, yes. Commissioner Gobi, yes. Near Collins, yes. Moving on on to item 13, communication to the Florida DOT on the project development environment study for the Willoughby Boulevard extension.

All right. So, at the January 12th, 2026 regular commission meeting, the mayor asked to bring ask staff to bring forward an agenda item on the communicating with the uh Florida Department of Transportation. I'll just refer to them as FOT as well for this for the rest of the uh agenda. So, it's on the project development and environment study for the Willoughby Boulevard extension. So, um therefore, the project is currently in that study stage and the study started on June 25th, 2025 with a public kickoff meeting. The study is expected to be completed by August 2028. A project development and environment study is FDOT's process to evaluate the social, economic, and environmental impacts associated with a planned transportation improvement project. F FOT encourages the public to participate with questions and comments and they have on their website even for uh residents to email in and they can email directly to the uh project manager which her name is Venita Sei currently and I think she's new and replaced the the prior project manager. So the project currently is analyzing three alternatives. Corridor one extends Willoughby Boulevard north along southeast Alhhamra Avenue and across Southeast Central Parkway to connect with US one uh near State Road 5A. And then there's corridor 2 which realines Willoughby Boulevard to the east near the Martin County Sheriff's Office and continues north across Monterey Road along Southeast Rayway. It then follows southeast central Parkway um west to Pppleton Creek Park where it turns north to connect with US1 near State Road 5A. And then the third alternative is no build. The no build alternative will not

provide any improvements. It will remain a viable alternative throughout the project. Vice Mayor.

Yeah. So, I'm one of the board representatives in the city that sit on the Martin County MO and I've tried to wrap my head around I guess sometimes where the direction comes from and I remember um the NO administrator Beth Beltran saying that the direction came from the municipality that it was in. So, I'd like to get a consensus from my fellow board members here in the city to send a letter to Beth Beltrm and the MO to let them know that we'd prefer option three for a no build option that was never presented by prior city uh employees or even presented at the Martin County no board until the question was raised. Um, so it's hard for us to vote on agenda items when we're not given all the information or wrong information or inaccurate information. But I think that's the option the public would like to see, especially the ones that are directly affected by it. Um, the only comparison I could think is like Port St. Lucy Boulevard where that used to be residential and then it became a major commercial corridor. Um, but that's all I have to say and we'll see what the other board members have to say on it. But, you know, and it affects a lot of lives on that on Central Parkway because the prior board members that have been up here over the last 10 years approved a lot of commercial to multifamily zoning changes and so it affects everyone's livelihood more so at this point. I think if it stayed a commercial corridor predominantly, it might not have been as much of an issue, but now there's plenty of residents that live there on Central Parkway. And uh yeah, that's that's my opinion.

I agree, Vice Mayor, to to your point. Um I would also I would encourage a letter I would hope we can have a letter sent to the NTO letting them know that we would recommend no build as well. Really, I would like to ask them to remove this project from their list entirely to stop moving forward at all. uh whatever was the consensus in the past no long I don't believe any longer exists on this board from the city. I do not see the value in extending Willoughby um erasing a lowincome Hispanic neighborhood. Um cutting in the city. What's that?

That's not in the city. It's enlaved though. Well, yeah, I know. I hear you. That little part is in the county. I know. But more broadly, the nature of the project,

I don't see the benefit in erasing that low-inccome neighborhood. And um you know, to to your point, some of this is because of decisions we have made. We have developed with adding hundreds of apartments to Central Parkway, that area already. Um, moving north from there, we would be erasing part of that Pleton Creek Park. You know, you have the playground there. You would be really cutting that. You'd still have the dog park, but that entire part of that green space there would become an extension of that highway. And then cutting the watershed for Pableton Creek. Um, not in half, but maybe a third of it out there as it come. I don't see the benefit really in in that extension for how much damage it caused. It seems like a pirick victory to achieve this. Um, you know, for me personally, so for those reasons, if if anybody's listening, that's what you know, some of what I'd like to see in a letter.

Okay. I had my light on. Also, Commissioner Gio. Okay. I I want to agree and that's with all of that it going through neighborhoods. It's now overbuilt because of decisions that were made previously. But we've also invested time and effort into that watershed and that park and that and now we want to just run a road through it to alleviate traffic. I think it's really unacceptable and I do like the idea that we asked the FDOT to remove it from any future um any future you know thoughts to having um kind of destroy that neighborhood. Thank you.

Thanks. Um, with regard to the vice mayor talked about the past and [clears throat] I was wondering I I can't remember because I've served on the no too. Uh, if Kimley Horn had done any reports to us or if we have any recent report from Kimley Horn to the MO on it and what what was it behind it? So, um, that's something. And then I wanted to find out this is just discussion, but if [clears throat] we decide to, um, send something to the to the MO, were we just were we going to just do that or are we still asking Beth to come and tell us some background? What was you mentioned something, Commissioner Re?

Um, I mean, I'm not opposed to that. What I will I I forgot one comment. Um, some of the people that are directly affected there pay for waterfront views currently, which I thought was comical because now you're going to see a major artillery road running in your backyard, but you're paying an extra $200 a month to see traffic come through your backyard. I thought that was very comical. Um, but yes, they do charge a premium, by the way, for those apartments there. Um, and I I Yeah, blew my mind, but Okay, Commissioner Rich. I don't know. me. Okay, Commissioner Rich. So, option one, yeah.

Is that is that destroying homes in a neighborhood going down Alhhamra, which is an existing street? That's option two, I believe. No, that's option one because someone said neighborhoods are being destroyed. I'm just wondering. Yeah, if you go north there, that's that's that neighborhood is that one. So homes will be required to be torn down. Yeah, that you to widen that road. Yeah, you would have to basically clear make a road eminent domain. Yes. No, no, I'm just I mean, I'm relying on you and the vice mayor because you're you you sit on the MO. So

certainly that neighborhood would not exist in its current form. Okay. And is that true of It seems like option two actually that's not an existing road. It is raised way is raise way is but below that is that an existing road? No. So they would have to I don't see any homes there but Okay. So that was the the complex that we approved Commissioner Rich like the I think it was like 200 some thousand square foot. I think that was a Jeremiah Baron commercial [clears throat] development. You're talking about where it would come through Willoughby and connect to

well below seven between Willoughby and 714 that seems Yeah. So I I would imagine they would add a signalized light at Ray's way then and they would come through Willoughby, right? Let me pull it up. And it goes up to Okay. Um, like it wouldn't affect residential per se coming through Rayway like that, but I think it would affect people's quality of life that live on Central Parkway still, but I don't think you'd be losing residential homes. But I don't think anyone wants a major corridor coming through their backyard. I think that's the big question. Have either of you done public workshops in that area to try to gauge?

No, but we've had plenty of emails from residents. Yeah. So you're so so you're just relying on the emails we've received which is which is not an sorry which is not an inconsiderable number just trying to a public workshop before we actually have another one in March I believe um are you suggesting a public workshop with regard to this they're on the no one in March another one I would it It would be up to them to decide whether in order to gauge public sentiment they wanted to have a workshop. I'm certainly not telling them what to do from the city versus MO.

Commissioner Jibby.

Yes, actually I spoke to Venita today. Um she had been she replaced Maria Formosa who I did have some dialogue with over the last year and um um Venita had stated that uh and I think I sent it on to Luke is here from the community representing the community. there is a website that and she gave me a direct line for um residents to go to where they could voice whether they want to accept option one, two or three and they'll be tallying those. And she did plan to have another workshop in sometime in the two first two weeks of March. But I like the mayor's suggestion to send them a letter because we have had a lot of feedback uh from the community. Um the community themselves have had meetings and actually FDOT attended one of those meetings and that was what six months ago Luke October.

Yeah. Yeah. So 40 local you got to come to the mic Luke. Sorry if you don't say it on a mic it doesn't exist.

Understood. the circa uh October of 2025, FDOT had a um meeting at our community, the Seaside um town homes. There were 40 uh residents that showed up, mostly from Seaside, also some um leadership from Villa Bella and also a city commissioner. And uh the overwhelming majority are in favor of a no build, but I feel we're kind of paying 50 first dates on this at this point. Um, and I believe a couple of the commissioners were able to speak to citizens at the dog park and can can verify their shock when people that live right adjacent to this property at the Serenity homes we build pay $200 a month for that park view and don't even know about it. That's seems wrong. They don't they're not owners, but they're still your citizens. They're still residents. They're still still have rights. Why have they not been informed by FDOT? I've luckily received a mailer in in addition um I believe another uh city commissioner saw someone from town park condominiums which they state fought states that they g send out mailers to everyone within 300 ft. So we can go walk it but if they choose corridor 2 go way that's right next to town park's uh west entrance and there's multiple uh buildings within 300 feet of that. Um, and I also I believe I shared the text in one of my emails to you. The Town Park HOA was very displeased to learn of this information. As your residents in um Seaside are, as your residents in Filibella are, as your residents in the estates of Steuart are, and the apartment dwellers that have learned about it aren't too thrilled about it either, as you can imagine. Well, the uh I did speak to Vienna regarding a notification to the residents who rent and she said they only reach out to the owners. They have a vested interest in the property. And before you leave the podium, you'll just have to say your

name and address. Luke Laam, 369 Southeast uh Central or Southeast Sea on Way. Uh Casside uh town home owner and resident and Paper Creek Park Protector. Okay. And then you'll just need to fill out a green form. Thank you, Luke.

No, that that was it. I just wanted to have him speak. Okay. So, do we have uh some consensus? The vice mayor and I are in the uh opinion of a no build letter to the no. I'm in consensus with that. I agree. Okay. I would just ask that it be put on a subsequent agenda that so that I have an opportunity to talk to FDOT and talk to the residents um because I haven't undertaken that because I I've relied on the fact that you two are there. Um I'm fairly certain I'm going to defer to you do not like the outcome. So you'd like

I just want to have a little better information on it. Again, I still I'm relying on the fact that you two are on the MO. So, they wouldn't have their meeting in then do there's no urgency here. The study concludes in 28. Is that correct? August 2028. Yeah. So, the the nature of these things is the the further they go, the more momentum they build and harder they are to stop. So, I would after hearing from residents like to stop this movement now. I want it to be from my perspective the city's position that it's no longer interested in this project and it's seeking uh the no build option three alternative. Vice Mayor.

Yeah. I think another big thing to this too as well, Commissioner Rich, is Pleton Creek being affected and we're trying to clean Pleton Creek up. We're trying to clean Frasier Creek up and it's counting. Yeah. It's, you know, we're throwing taxpayer money at another taxpayer problem.

It does seem strange that anybody would be for bisecting that watershed in half to extend that road another however many feet to get to US1. It doesn't make sense. And and I also believe like I want to say with the traffic hotspot map that I saw, it really didn't even alleviate it because the real problem is Caner and Monterey, not will it be in Monterey. Um, but that's my opinion. So, do we have a motion? Can we can make a motion? Okay. I thought we just doing deliberation. I'd like a make to the other day. No, I would like to make

Okay, hold on. Uh I I guess um I'd prefer a motion, but I would like clarification because Commissioner Joby talked about sending a letter to FDOT and Commissioner Reed talked about sending a letter to NO. So I don't Yeah, it'd be the NO. Okay. Would that be the entity? Okay, then I would certainly But the the FOT has and sought input from it. I think it does say from uh elected officials to residents to everybody on the on the website. That's why what I attached. So then to your point, it would be to both. we would send the same correspondence to NO and FDOT. That's all. I just wanted a clarification for Oh, okay. Okay.

So, then I'd like to make a motion um for the city to send a letter to both the MO and uh FDOT regarding the Willoughby extension uh that a majority of the um residents in the area would like a no build option three and the city is also requesting that. And if we could send that, I would appreciate it. And could I have a second on that motion? I'll second it. Is there public comment on this item? Yes, I have a public comment. Mark Bisimo. Yes, sir.

Seide where where Luke lives. Um but it's our second home. So, um I I think what'll happen here is they're going to build something. It'll get used, but not to the extent that they think it will. I think it'll create a number of traffic on Central Parkway. I mean, just the idea whether they go raise, stop sign, make a left, another stop sign, make a right, or if they come through Alahhamra, they're still going to have to put another stop sign in, you're still not going to prevent people from going left or right as compared to that. And I don't And at the end of the day, all the traffic's still going to end up where Caner and Federal Highway meet. Um it will will alleviate some on caner sure but you're going to increase willough probably Indian um whoever you know from coming south to north however they're going to you know jump on there but it's not like it's an expressway but at least you hope it's not. I I've seen people drive in Florida they drive tend to drive a little fast. The other thing I think someone mentioned about taxpayer dollars, and I've seen this in Pennsylvania where 62 million, that's nothing compared to what they're spending to build extensions to the turnpike and they're great. There's no one because there's no one on it. I get on there to take the short, you know, periodically and I look at my wife and I say there's no one on here and they spent who knows how many millions that they spent on that. And I think somewhere along the line, just because we have taxpayer dollars doesn't mean we have to spend them.

Amen. And maybe we can spend them somewhere else. But I think you guys had a good discussion. So congratulations. Thank you. And for clarification, they're they're probably all moving down here where we live where people vacation. So they're not using the roads no more. I just have one comment where you mentioned about Okay. taxes. Um, as far as I know, it's not even fully funded, which means if they did go to build the road now, the taxpayers would be hit with the cost to build the road and the breakthrough and all of that. Thank you. I have no further public comment, Luke. Luke, yeah, you can. Do you have three minutes? Yeah, [laughter]

you can tell you've been an intervenor. You got the ready to go.

Good evening, commission. Much like John Cougar Melon Camp, I was born in a small town and I grew up in a small town. Small town charm isn't putting a tree in a center medium for every 50 you chop down. Uh but this one battle after another that's been taking place on Central Park since 2021. Uh reminds me of a song by country music superstar Tim McGra where the green grass grows. And it goes as follows. There's concrete growing in the city park. I don't know who my neighbors are. And there's bars on the corner and bars on my heart. There was a ridiculous attempt to commandeer a public gazebo to make that into a for-profit bar. Thank you. Thank you guys for shutting that down. Uh I won't know who my neighbors are because if corridor one is chosen, there will be 17 families along Angler in Seaside that'll be moving out and it'll take our home values, but I care more about the park myself. Uh yes on Alhhamra it states clearly on the NO meeting from 9:15 that right ofway/eminent domain will be pulled if corridor one is chosen. Yes, corridor 2 is a less bad option but we we shouldn't always have to settle for less bad on central Parkway. Um the FDOT claims no impact on the park. I find that extremely disingenuous. Yes, it might just a bridge right next to it, but that can canal they're paving over u Miss Marys has some pictures that I gave to Miss Mary Kimble contains five federally threatened woodstos. I don't think we need a that's not small town Sharf paving over their their home. Um it's going to be noise. It's going to be uh ruin our views. It it's not part of small town Stewart that was we were talking about those accolades from the past couple decades. Uh, some people might call me a nimi. Not in my backyard, but I would consider myself a nuke. Not on our public park. We don't want it. And yes, there are 62.3 million reasons why this project is a bad idea. The construction phase for this project is not funded. And the

members of the MO can attest we're already in a financial shortfall of that. Look at the presentation from 9:15 of 2025. Um, and in addition, the one of the most busy busy areas my neighbor talked about, go try making a left turn from Central Parkway onto Caner. But first, buckle your seat belt and say your prayers. And that's only going to be exacerbated if that road gets pushed through. Um, it's already been said, but yeah, seaside town homes don't want it. Villa Bella don't want it. Estates of Stewart doesn't want it. Now that they finally know about it, town park condos don't want it. and Serenity Stewart aka the old Central Parkway lofts don't want it. So, please listen to your citizens and recommend a no build to uh FDOT and the MO. Thank you for your time.

I have no further public comment. Any other public comment? Comment from commissioners. I would just say it's my honor to actually deliver to the public what they want. I feel like for so many years I watched the opposite happen. So it is my absolute honor. Do you need any clarification from us? I have the letter um to MO and FBOT um alternative the Willoughby extension that the majority of residents in the area would like the no build option three and to remove will

and then drawing from some of our public comments that it would be the city's position that we we um are choosing option three position of the city commission. Okay. Commissioner Rich, yes. Commissioner Clark, yes. Mayor Collins, yes. Vice Mayor Reid, yes. Commissioner Gobi, yes. Okay, seeing no other business, seeing no other business, this meeting is adjourned. That's how you do it. Thank you, Jesus.