City Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, at this time we're going to go ahead and get started with our regular commission meeting for Monday, June 1st, 2026. If I can please have the folks in the back, if you can please just lower down your volumes. Firefighters? Thank you. If I can please have the city clerk call the roll.

Commissioner Caldwell? Here. Commissioner Harriet?

Here.

Commissioner Howington? Here. Commissioner Novick?

Here.

Commissioner Santiago? Here. Vice Mayor Avila-Vasquez?

Excuse the absence.

And Mayor Avila?

Here.

Thank you.

This time we're going to go ahead and I'm going to have Commissioner of District 5 do the invocation and pledge to the flag, please. All right, at this time we're gonna go into additions and deletions. City Attorney?

Mr. Mayor, if I may, a deletion for 8A, ordinance number 052026. We're working with staff to review the language of the ordinance before we bring it to second reading, thank you.

7B?

No, 8A as in alpha. It's ordinance number 05-2026. Thank you.

Okay. Anything else? All right. We're going to go ahead and move over to presentations, awards, and reports. 5A, the city hired five new hires to be sworn in and pinned by Fire Chief Cousins. Chief, if you just click on the button, I'll make sure I turn on your microphone.

Can you hear me? All right, thank you. All right, good evening and welcome. Tonight we gather to celebrate a significant milestone in the careers of our newest firefighters. Earning the privilege to wear the badge requires dedication, hard work, sacrifice, and a commitment to serving others. The men and women being recognized tonight have successfully completed their training and demonstrated the character, professionalism, and determination necessary to serve the citizens of Deltona. As they join our department, they become part of a proud tradition of service and a family that is committed to protecting our community. I would also like to recognize the families and loved ones who have supported them throughout their journey. Your encouragement and sacrifice have helped make this achievement possible. As fire chief, I'm proud to welcome these individuals to the Deltona Fire Department. Tonight, the badge they receive symbolizes not only their accomplishment, but also their commitment to honor, integrity, and service. At this time, it's my privilege to introduce our newest firefighters. Please join me in congratulating them as they come forward to be sworn in and then pinned by their family and loved ones. I'd like to bring up Firefighter Goodman. Firefighter Truex, Firefighter Hoffman, Firefighter Kearns, and Firefighter Paramedic Trainee James. All right. So please raise your right hand. I, state your name, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America and the state of Florida against all enemies, both foreign and domestic, and I will faithfully and impartially discharge my duties as a firefighter of the city of Deltona Fire Department. Under the appointment of the department, according to the laws of the state of Florida and the ordinances of the city of Deltona, to the best of my skills and ability, So help me God. Congratulations.

Thank you. Straightening. Thank you. Thank you.

Would the commission indulge us in the picture altogether? Thank you. Sure, if the commission can please meet me down there.

Thank you.

Again, thank you everybody for allowing us to share this moment with everybody on the commission. We thank you again.

All right, do we have any comments for the consent agenda? Did you send no comments?

No public comments, sir. Okay.

Commissioner Herriot?

Give him a second to. Mayor, I apologize. I have one. Call it. Pet Blodgett, please.

Ms. Blodgett, we're just gonna give them a minute. That way we can hear you. Make sure you turn on the microphone so I can make sure it's on, please.

Okay, got it. Okay, I want to talk about the striping and line. On the agenda, I think it's E. I want to find out if we got quotes from other companies, and I want to make sure we weren't using the same company that did Howlin' by Pine Ridge that can't spell school. It was pretty embarrassing. Or the company that can't do a straight line. Catalina, it went like this for a little bit. So that's all I have.

Thank you. David Sosa, please.

David Sosa, just a couple quick questions that's been going around. For agenda item D, for the water treatment, Eastern Water Treatment Facility, that $4 million, people wanna know if we've got more than one request for that bid. It only looks like there was only bid, one bid that came out of that. And also, they wanna know why we're spending $4 million just to design and engineer it. and they wanna know how much the actual total project is going to cost. They also wanna know the two million, where is the money coming from? I know part of it's a grant money, it's a matching grant, two million, two million, but they wanna know where we're getting our two million from. Is it coming out of the enterprise fund or are we going to go ahead and do another loan for it? Thank you.

Thank you. Mayor, let's close the public comments.

Okay, Commissioner Herriot, you're up first.

I'd like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda item as presented.

There's a motion by Commissioner Herriot. Is there a second? Commissioner Santiago?

Second.

There's a second. Is there any of the items that any commissioner wishes to pull? Commissioner Caldwell, can you please click on the microphone? Go ahead, do it again. I think Commissioner Howington, you're gonna have to push it. Go ahead. I'd like to pull D. All right, Commissioner Howington. And I'd like to pull E. All right, Commissioner Herriot, would you like to amend your motion Commissioner Santiago, do you wish to retract your second? Go ahead, Commissioner Harriet.

I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda A through G minus D, E. A through C minus D and E. A through G, sorry.

Got it.

Okay, there's a motion on the floor by Commissioner Harriet, second by Commissioner Santiago. Please vote. Motion passes five to one. All right, Commissioner Caldwell, you're up first.

Yeah, I have a few questions. One being, since Kimley Horn was the only qualified respondent, how does staff verify that the $3.8 million was a fair and reasonable price? What do we benchmark that against?

Commissioner, whenever this went out for RFQ, it also went out around the same time as the one for Fisher went out. Kimley Horn and Mead Hunt partnered on this project. and all of the the recent RFQ that we got for Fisher it was in line well it was in line with it they had some extra services that were on there which we had to go with them and remove those off of there because they weren't necessarily in the scope we do quite a bit of other engineering work with with Kim Lee horn So we were able to look at it and see that it was in line with what scope we had originally put out in the RFQ.

So we've used Kimley Horn and Deltona before? Yes, we have. Did we have some bids that weren't qualified and were those in line with the $3.8 million? And why were they discarded?

They were the only qualified respondent for the RFQ. There were no other qualifieds that even submitted for the project.

The $3.8 million is for things other than the project. What is the expected amount of the completed project?

The completed project has been estimated to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $34 million if it were to go to construction. This is simply for us to design it so that we can then begin to move forward and try to get funding for the project.

All right, thank you. I have no further questions.

Thank you, Commissioner Howington.

What platform was used for the RFQ process?

Platform, meaning?

Did you use DemandStar?

I believe it was, yes, DemandStar, I believe.

So how many unqualified candidates were there?

There was no one else that responded to the RFQ. So only Kimley Horn? Only Kimley Horn responded to the RFQ.

So I think that raises additional concerns. We've seen that with several RFQs, RFPs that we've put out with Demand Star where we're only getting one respondent.

Whenever this was put out, it was a concern of ours as well. We went to FDEP who's the one that had the grant for us to do that. FDEP looked at it with us and they said that they had no issue with there only being one qualified respondent because they were qualified and they had done this type of work. throughout the country.

I'm just more concerned about our process that we're using DemandStar and routinely only getting one applicant. That seems to be a concern because if we're not bringing in competitive bids, then we're kind of being pigeonholed into one option. So I don't know if there's a way that we can look into other possible options for advertisement or if DemandStar is the correct option. I just wanted to reiterate that we've seen this problem before.

All right, I understand.

And it is concerning. Thank you.

Commissioner Harriot.

Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Parrish, when we did the Fisher plant, when we went out to bid on the Fisher plant, did we receive multiple bids?

No, we received one qualified respondent for that one as well. Okay. Thank you.

Commissioner Caldwell. When we do the 90-day advertisement period, does staff reach out to other qualified engineers? Yes.

We, our engineering company that we work with, they reach out to people that may be interested in projects. Whenever we do, we reach out and we see what type of information other engineering firms may be interested in designing that as well. We give very general about what is going on with the project to let them know that it is gonna be coming up for an RFQ. But other than that, we don't go into total detail about it because it's an RFQ. We wanna see what type of work they've done in the past and we don't want to steer them towards it, towards what exactly the project is. We wanna see what type of work they've done whenever they respond to the RFQ.

Thank you. All right, at this time I'll entertain a motion. Commissioner Herriot.

I'll make a motion to approve item 7D as presented.

There's a motion by Commissioner Herriot. Commissioner Santiago?

Second.

There's a second. Can we please vote? Motion passes five to one. This time we're going to go to section 7E, request for approval resolution number 2026-45 and purchase orders. Commissioner Howington.

Thank you. So Ms. Blodgett had some questions and I would like to see if we can get an answer for that since a member of the community is questioning if we're using the same contractor.

Oh, no, we are not. No, not the contractor that did Howland Boulevard, and I believe they couldn't spell school crossing correctly. That was not, no, we're not using that company. We are using the vendor that we are piggybacking off from Seminole County for the striping, which is Fausenite, and for, they are now Seed RW, which was P&S Paving, which is with Volusia County. Okay, thank you.

All right, at this time, I will entertain a motion. Commissioner Naubeck?

Motion to approve item E, resolution number 2026-45.

There's a motion by Commissioner Naubeck. Commissioner Santiago? Second. There's a second by Commissioner Santiago. Can we please go for a vote? Motion passes six to zero. This time we're gonna go ahead into ordinances and public hearings. If I can please have the city attorney read section B.

Thank you, Mayor. This is ordinance number 06-2026, an ordinance of the City of Deltona, Florida, establishing a new Article 3, small wireless facilities of Chapter 82, communication antennas and towers within the land development code of the City of Deltona's Code of Ordinances, in order to comply with Florida statutes and best practices. providing for conflicts, codification, severability, and an effective date. This is second and final reading.

Thank you. At this time, I'll entertain a motion to start conversations. Commissioner Howington?

I move to approve ordinance number 06-2026 at second and final reading.

There is a motion by Commissioner Howington. Commissioner Harriot?

I have a question on this item. Does this?

Can we do the motions first and then we can go into questions? Yeah. Is there a second? I'll second. Commissioner Caldwell? Commissioner Caldwell seconds. All right. Do we have any public comment on this item? All right. Commissioner Herriot, go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Smith, on this agenda item, the communications antennas, antennas, and towers, will this i know that it aligns with the state statutes but does this allow essentially a cell phone company to come and put a micro antenna in any right-of-way across the city yes this is what this ordinance is about yes even including the right-of-way in front of residential properties in the city yes okay yes sir and And I preface that knowing that we're being pushed into this by the state. This is not us seeking to change the ordinance because we want to.

Commissioner Caldwell? Jordan, is there any enhancements in this ordinance that do protect us from things? And could you elaborate on what those are?

Yes, certainly. So we do have some design standards. and lighting standards. We have some asking for co-location. They're not required to do co-location, but we encourage it. But basically, it's the design standards that we put some regulations to enhance what they look like.

With all the fiber optics that are running in the easements right now, how is that going to affect when they stick a pole in the ground? Six foot, I'm assuming?

I'm not sure how far they put it underground. That would be a question for the contractor.

So they can use the easement, the whole nine foot, let's say, either way? Anywhere in the right of way. Thank you. And this is state mandated, right?

Yes, it is. This should have been done back in 2018, 2017.

All right, we're going to go ahead and go for a vote. Motion passes four to two. I can please have the city attorney read section C. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor.

This is ordinance number 20-2025, an ordinance of the city of Deltona, Florida, amending section 110-814, additional regulations for certain permitted principal uses and structures. of Article 8, Supplementary Regulations of Chapter 110, Zoning, and Section 70-30, Definitions of Article 2, Land Development Code of Chapter 70, General Provisions of the Land Development Code of the City of Deltona to prohibit metal buildings within certain residential and commercial zoning districts, providing for conflicts, codification, severability, and an effective date. This is first reading.

All right, at this time, I'll entertain a motion. Before going to public comment, Commissioner Herriot. Okay. Commissioner Nobick.

Motion to table.

Okay, there's a motion to table. Commissioner Herriot. Second. All right, there's a motion to table by Commissioner Novick. There's a second by Commissioner Harriot. Commissioner Caldwell, you're on the board as well. Okay. All right, can we go ahead and, since we're talking about tabling, go ahead and go for a vote?

That is correct.

All right, the motion passes.

All right.

We're gonna go ahead and go into action items. 9A, consideration of one appointment of a city representative to Team Volusia's Executive Committee and Board of Directors. We have Commissioner Herriot.

Thank you, Mayor. I would like to express my desire to be appointed to this position and make a motion to appoint myself to this position.

There's a motion by Commissioner Herriot to appoint himself as Commissioner Howington.

I wanted to move to appoint doc because all the other cities are using their city manager and I was actually the only city commissioner on the board and it does not seem appropriate that the city of Deltona is the only one to use a commissioner.

Okay. Commissioner Novick.

I'm going to second Commissioner Harriot's motion.

Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Harriot, second by Commissioner Novick. Is there any public comment on this? All right, can we please vote on the first motion? Motion passes four to two. Right. Is there any city attorney comments?

Yes, Mayor. Thank you. I'll be brief. Recently and independently, the Mayor and Commissioner Novick brought to the city attorney's attention that there's pending antitrust litigation involving several major fire apparatus manufacturers. There was a class action case, and we've been researching it, and there is an existing multi-district litigation lawsuit, which is going to be the operative case that moves forward at this time. Our office has communicated with counsel that's involved in leading the multi-district litigation and has conducted a preliminary review of the claims being asserted. In this lawsuit, it alleges that certain fire apparatus manufacturers conspired to unreasonably restrain trade and commerce through price fixing, production suppression, market manipulation, and the exchange of confidential information for the time period of 2016 to present. The suit names as defendants REV Group, Oshkosh Corporation, and Rosenbauer America. The multi-district litigation was approved on April 3rd, 2026 by a federal court in Wisconsin, and our office is currently gathering information regarding this case to assess the potential benefits, risks, and strategic considerations that are associated with participating. It is likely we're going to recommend that we get involved. The upside of the multi-district litigation versus the former class action case that was operative but is no longer is that there's the potential for triple damages if we prevail, and we'll be in a class of other departments who've been subject to this same antitrust action. So I wanted to bring this to your attention, and thank you both for bringing this to us. We're going to continue to run this down, and my expectation is within the next month we'll bring likely a formal request to join this case as one of the plaintiffs. Commissioner Herriot.

Thank you, Mayor. Do we know how many apparatus that we have that fall under this? Are all of our apparatus that we've purchased from 2016 to present, were they purchased from one of these manufacturers?

So we've been working with the fire department and the manager's office to gather the list of information. We've submitted it to the lead firm in a multi-district litigation, and we're working with them to determine what's eligible. It's not going to be everything, but it likely will be at least two or three of our larger purchases for expensive equipment. And so we're still working on exactly what...

we have that is eligible and what damages were likely to recover in this case thank you city manager thank you mayor uh just two things really quick I want to recognize Dana McCool recognized a whole lot of people for her bike safety helmet giveaway this weekend she didn't recognize herself She was the impetus for this entire program. We talked about putting it to the backpack giveaway summertime when a lot of people come through, and she said no, she wants to get the bike helmets in the kids' hands before summer so that they are safe all summer long and was pretty adamant about that. A number of people in the audience here were actually part of it, as you heard earlier, during public comment, and it was really a great thing for the community, and I believe we'll get bigger each year. So just a thank you to Dana for her support in that. And then this Wednesday, 9 a.m., Two days from now, groundbreaking at Harris-Saxon Park. We're going to be the pickleball courts for groundbreaking. Right after that is going to be the basketball courts coming in, then the walking trail and pavilions. And then a splash pad is on the next phase once we're getting these other things in place. So that is this Wednesday, 9 a.m. Everyone's invited to Harris-Saxon for a short ceremony. and a little bit of ground digging to get moving on the beginning of some great projects for the city to invest into the park system, which of course is investing into the residents. Thank you.

Commissioner Novick, any commissioner comments?

Thank you, Mayor. Before the next meeting, can we have maintenance or staff or somebody get those top windows covered back there? It is extremely annoying and difficult looking out at the audience and then trying to look down at paperwork and stuff here if we can get those covered or tinted or something. The second thing that I have is I would like to get consensus from the commission to get a proposed budget for budget discussion that reflects a rollback rate. So we have something to compare rollback rate to to what staff is is recommending. Can I get consensus for that?

Can we get a simple majority yes? All in favor?

Yes.

Yes. All opposed? Okay.

Thank you, Mayor. That's all I have tonight.

Thank you. Commissioner Caldwell? Commissioner Howington?

Thank you. The former District 4 Commissioner Gardner has reached out to me and he expressed a concern similar to what we've heard from other residents tonight in that he said that he's seen a lot of fireworks communications go out, but it did not list the location. And his statement was that he's lived here for 40 years and obviously knows where it's at, but other people may not. And so he was asking if the city could do a better job of communicating where those fireworks will be located this year, specifically to help new residents. And then I've also had Mr. French reach out to me regarding his planning and zoning. board membership, he said that he's having some difficulty with the state regarding his filing of his forms. He says that he was not made aware. And I know that I brought this up at the May 4th meeting and we were told that it was not a new requirement. However, he says that he was never made aware of that. So if somebody could please reach out to him and assist him, he says the state will start charging him $25 a day if this is not rectified immediately. Thank you.

Commissioner Santiago.

Mayor. I want to start with a big shout out to Deltona Strong and Dana McCool, of course, in the city of Deltona, and those that helped out, all the volunteers and sponsors for actually making Ride Into Summer Bike Safety Affair a great event at the Dewey Boster. Really was an amazing event, and I know next year will be bigger and better, like Doc said, so appreciate that. This today, we actually kicked off the Life Skills Summer Boot Camp. It's a program designed for young adults with tools, knowledge, and confidence. We were honored to have our sheriff at the event this morning, and just want to give out another shout out to the Volusia County Hispanic Association for helping support the cause, for bringing this important program to the city. So it's a partnership and it really makes a difference in the lives of these young adults. And lastly, I attended the fraud prevention initiative event at the library last week. It was a great collaborative effort between getting community education and awareness regarding fraud prevention throughout Volusia County. One of the important things about that is of course education is one of the best effective tools. in order to protect residents from scams and financial crimes. So I'll be speaking to the city manager. I know there's some information that can go out to our residents to help them for that. So that's all I have tonight. Thank you very much. Have a good night. Commissioner Herriot.

Thank you, Mayor. I echo the same sentiments to Ms. McCool, the Blodgetts, Kathy Bryan. It was a phenomenal event. I heard from everybody. There were multiple people that stopped and said that they loved this. that this is what they look forward to, and they want more events like that in our city. So thank you, big shout out to everybody that volunteered, TPO for helping supply helmets, fitting helmets, planning staff for helping set it all up. So a phenomenal event. And then I just wanted to make sure that everybody knows about Harris-Saxon on Wednesday, like Doc said, and look forward to seeing everybody out there at 9 a.m.

I only have two things. Doc, can I get a report, possibly obviously for the whole dais, on how much we've spent on resurfacing roads and putting in sidewalks for the last four years, categorized per year, please? Awesome, and then the last thing, I wanna give a big shout out to all of our graduates. This Saturday was graduation for Delton High School, Pine Ridge High School, and University High. They are about to enter a completely new world that they're gonna learn very quickly. They're gonna have to kind of maneuver that, so we have high hopes for you. We're very proud of you as a commission, as your mayor. Congratulations, and meeting's adjourned.