City Commission - Regular Meeting

or no less than 50% of that real property. So if someone only owned one or two% of real property in the shores, they wouldn't qualify. Okay. Thank you. Um any discussion on any any discussion? Um Mr. Pard Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. Okay. Do I hear a motion? Becky, can you read that again, please? [clears throat] So that um I think uh Commissioner Deitzky has it. I'm going to make the motion if it's all right.

Oh, absolutely. I move to reaffirm Mr. Pard's regular membership on the planning and zoning board based on the following findings. It is in the best interest of the city of Daytona Beach Shores to wave the residency requirements and Mr. Pard is a real property owner of real property located within the city limits of the city of Daytona Beach Shores. Okay. Thank you. I'll second it.

Thank you. Um the only other discussion that I would like to say on this is when we heard that they don't interact with our community. Um I was a previous past president along um at one time too with commissioner card and worked hand inand with Mr. Pard several times a week that he interacted with every single person in uh Key Colony. We can ask him too, but I know that he is the uh um manager, the property manager for several several several um condominiums in Daytona Beach Shore. So, he absolutely interacts with the people in that condo. One other thing, too, um I'm not sure about Mr. Desai, but I know Mr. Pard also leases condos. Remember again, we want small businesses to succeed in the shores. That's a domino effect. we want our tourists to come into the shores to spend their money at the restaurants, at our gift shops. So, he has an integral part of bringing those tourists in at a long-term or short-term leasing. So, I just wanted to make sure we're aware of that, too. And um I'm sure they both absolutely interact with the residents and with the activities that we have in the forest. So, anyway, um any other discussion? I don't have any other speakers on file, but as always, I'm open up to anybody else that would like to speak or anyone else that would like to speak on this topic.

Madam Mayor, Mr. Jennings, did you wish to speak on this one? I'm sorry. I don't Thank you. Okay. Um I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Mr. Jennings. I don't have it written out. Do you have it here? Okay. Okay. It didn't come over to mine. Um would you wish to speak? No, thank you. Thank you. All right. So, Sherry, can you take a vote, please?

Uh, Sherry, before we begin, I just wanted to say, as people are probably aware in the shores, I am running for a Vera County office. I have gotten several several donations from, thank you so much, from several of my relative um my friends in the shores, my um just a lot of different people. One of them happens to be Mr. uh Pard. That would not affect my vote at all, but I think in the best interest of this commission, I am going to recuse myself from the vote. Thank you, Jerry. Go ahead. And uh that passed 40 and we did say that we needed four to pass. So congratulations Mr. Pard for being a permanent member. Next we are going to go on to the um this is petitions by citizen Lonnie Groot. Mr. Groot, are you here? Mr. Groot, he wanted to um submit petitions. Um not here. How do we proceed? We just go on to the next topic.

Um you you could ask if there's any public comment. The petitions are in the back or we had them online. Is there anyone that wishes to speak on any of the positions that were brought forward by Mr. Group? Okay. Um, and do I have a motion to um to proceed with the petitions that were brought forth by Mr. Root? Okay, seeing no motion, that has died. And so we will go on now to the discussion of the 2026 meeting dates. City manager, is that you or who is talking about those?

Um, we have the dates. [clears throat] The only uh dates that deviate from our normal schedule of the first Tuesday are September in which we are required to have two meetings due to the trim setting process. Um those dates cannot yet be set because we have to wait on the school board of the county because they'll also be having their hearings and we have to make sure that our citizens are able to attend all those meetings. Um the other one would be November 3rd. Um that is election day and um in the past it has not affected us because we used to have the two meetings and our first meeting was the second Tuesday of uh November. Election will be on the 3. Staff is recommending that uh you look at November 10th as a possible date for our meeting November. Does anyone know right now if November 10th would work? That would be a week later. We probably don't have to know right now, but let's tenatively schedule it for the 10th.

Great. Okay. Um any anything else on those dates? Again, you know, I'm hoping that since we have published these um pretty far in advance and that we only have one meeting a month, unless it's an emergency, that we all can make, you know, each one of these meetings. Thank you very much. Okay, next we're going to go on to the city. Is there any other discussion on the meetings before we move on? I'm sorry. Next, we're going to go on to our city attorney comments. You have anything for us?

Um yes. Um, I'd like to introduce Taylor Simons. Um, she has met all of you, she will be attending meetings in the future, sitting up here and, um, while she will be attending the meetings. I'll be on the phone with her, but um, uh, she's a wonderful attorney. You'll love her. She's extremely competent and, uh, I think she will only do good things for the city. Well, welcome, Taylor. We're very very anxious to have you. Thank you so much. Anything else? Attorneys. Okay. Thank you. City Manager, what do you have for us?

I have several items. Uh I'm happy to tell you that uh Susan Martin, our uh HR manager, has uh received her certification uh her SHERM certification. And a SHERM certification is a specialty credential that the Society for Human Resource Management offers. It recognizes an individual for their credibility and proficiency in human resources. Uh this takes extensive training followed by a 4hour exam which she passed. Madame mayor, if I am not mistaken, when you were an HR professional, you two were sherm certified. So you understand how big a deal this is.

If I could um um so I believe she is a senior professional. Were you the No, the PHR or the Okay. Um, so I was a PHR and um, I always prided myself on having a wonderful memory. So I would memorize what TIE tests were going to do and I was able to do fairly well on them. This was not a test like this at all. This was a situational if this happens, what would you do? It was by far the hardest hardest test I had ever taken in college or um, so I congratulate you for passing the first time. Um, admire you. So anyway, congratulations because that's quite an honor to have that. [applause]

Susan isn't the only one making progress. Um, I apologize for my accent or lack thereof, but our permit tech, Corales Rodriguez, has passed her testing and on December 30th, she was recognized by the International Code Council as a certified permit permit technician. Um, Director Cruz explained to me earlier uh what a big deal that is. So, we're very happy with that. I want to let you know that thanks to the software upgrade that the commission approved, uh, we've been fully online with our permitting for about a year now. However, uh, many of our contractors prefer to take the extra time to come into the office uh, specifically because of the customer service that Corey and Cheryl, our other permit uh, uh, technician provide to them. So, we're very uh happy for her. [applause] Also, Josh Hemerline, who happens to be here tonight. Josh, you want to wave so everybody knows who you are? Acquired both his electrical inspector and electrical plans examiner certifications. These certificates are in addition to his already existing building plans examiner license for buildings, mechanical, and plumbing. and he's also an inspector has his inspector licenses for building, mechanical, and plumbing. So, he added that in there. Um he is working towards um having all certifications and requirements to be a chief building official uh should that need ever arise for us. So, we're thrilled to have him. [applause] Also, I received uh an email that was sent to Karen Allen, the executive director of the Valuchia League of Cities by a commissioner in one of our neighboring cities complimenting our mayor and mayor Lois Paritzky uh for their mentorship, knowledge, and

encouragement through the Lucia League of Cities mentor program. Um I think that's a great example of how valuable the league is to us and and to our membership. And thank you, Mayor Miller, for such a positive light. Um, I have mixed emotions with this last one. As you can tell, I'm a little emotional tonight, but I have mixed emotions on this last one as I announced that one of our public safety officers, Anthony McCauley, has retired. Um, Anthony came to us after a lifetime of public service. He had previously retired from Daytona Beach Fire Department where he served as a lieutenant and paramedic firefighter. Anthony also served the community at Mainland High School and Evac. In his four and a half years with our department, Anthony not only served as a paramedic firefighter, but he also took on the responsibilities of being a field training officer. And he's been responsible for the training of uh most of our new firefighters over the last several years. Um and not just that, he took on the role as a mentor to many. Um he's been battling some health issues. Uh a battle that he is winning. um but he felt that he needed to step away to focus on his health and I just want to wish him the best in his retirement and compliment him on an exemplary career.

Thank him for your service. Thank you. [applause] Is there any questions for our city manager? City manager I have one and I don't know if it's for you for you or for director Cruz. Um, at driving up here today, I saw our lovely wraps around our utilities and I know we're doing that in two sections and it seems like it's almost time for the new section. Do you the remaining Do you know the answer or would director Cruz like Director Cruz? Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor. So, staff will be for phase three, I believe, of the project. We've finished phase one and phase two and uh so we'll be bringing phase three to the commission um within the next month or so.

Great. Good. Thank you very much. Any other questions for our city manager? Okay. If not, we're going to go on to commission comments. Um Commissioner Dinsky, what do you have for us this evening? Oh, I think I've said all I need to say about Mike, so I'm done.

Commissioner Card, what do you have for us? uh on um the economic development. Maddie, our PIO, our new PIO, and I spent a few hours on visits and tours on a couple of days before Christmas, 12:23. We stopped at the mattress store. There's a new mattress store on the north end of the city. They were closed, but they'll be opening up, so I'll be back in touch with them very soon. We went to the wine store at 101 Dunlton. It's kind of hidden, but it's beside the animal uh doctor there. Um we stopped into there, met her, we wished her well in her business. Um and what I understand from the city manager, she may open it up where she's going to have wine tasting. Um that may come in the future. So that's that's good that that happens. And the last place that we stopped at was these were the properties that I had stopped at the week or two before and we couldn't get into any of them. We stopped at the Palma House restaurant, 3100 A1A. Um, we met with the owner. Um, same thing, well wishes. What could we do for you? They had a few questions about could we put up signage. So, we've given them to over to Stuart. Um, and I think that we'll be able to help her out. Also, we just trying to do whatever we can to help these businesses grow and stay in these businesses. Um, so I want to say thank you, Maddie, for welcome them with me and uh hang along with me. That's all.

Thank you, Commissioner Cart. Thank you for uh taking care of our in economic development for us. Uh Commissioner Hanamos Oh, time to go. I just wanted to uh congratulate Mike Fowler on being the new city manager. Um I'm very excited about that. I know he's going to be a do a tremendous job and I just just very happy that you're here with us. Thank you. Thank you. And um Madame Mayor, don't forget I know vice mayor's next, but we have the citizen that wants to make a comment as well. Oh, I'm sorry. Um the gentleman that was came up earlier, too. There you go. Oh, that's under um audience comments. Okay, got I'll remember you. Okay,

vice mayor. Uh, I want to wish everyone happy and healthy new year wishes and I too echo uh commission's confidence and trust in Mike Feller as our new city manager. There are still quite a few vacant properties that are available for development and we as a city commission do our best to control it so that way we get a a quality product that benefits the citizens and and the city itself. But I I I gotta say, you know, we have a the right person for the right job. Um people from the maintenance department have told me how enthusiastic people from all the other different departments are so ecstatic about uh Mike coming aboard and a lot of the citizens that I speak to um have expressed uh that they they liked the idea of promoting from within it. Uh it allows, look at some of our staff are already bettering their skill set uh just to make uh their job better and and make city hall better. So uh kudos again to to Mike Fowler and I'm I'm looking forward to sitting next to him uh for a couple more years.

Great. Thank you.

Good. Uh mine's more a little more lengthy than I usually am, but I just wanted to say uh as I begin my last year in office as mayor of this wonderful city, and it's truly a wonderful city. I'm so honored. I've been reflecting and need to give a huge sincere shout out to our previous city attorney. Let me tell you the reasons why. The first um when I came became the mayor for the first time, I did not have any political background. I had not served on any um boards. So I was relative new to this. So one of the first questions that I asked was, "What type of mayor do you want to be? How involved do you want to be? What do you want to do for your city?" So he asked me if I just wanted to chair a meeting twice a month and that was it or what did I want to do? What value did I want to add to this city? I knew nothing about Florida League of Cities. I knew nothing about any of the legislative committees. So, I was told about the Florida League of Cities and the five legislative committees that they have. So, I want to let you know these legislative committees, they set the legislative platform for all of the Florida 411 municipalities. So, it's something there that you have direct um contact with the legislators. So, I'm proud to say I've been on that committee, legislative committee for seven years. We've witnessed policies that have been positively brought forward and that greatly impacts a lot of issues in Florida. As I was attending these committee meetings, I was introduced to the Florida League of Cities and all of the value that they certainly bring to each city and municipality in Florida. There are only two seats on the board of directors for the Florida League of Cities, and I was honored enough to obtain one of those seats. Um that was four years ago. Um along after that time I was elected to

the Florida League of Cities board of directors. Um that experience led me to the Florida League of Mayors where I was elected to serve on the board of directors for them. In 2023 I along with several of my very qualified mayors ran for president of Florida League of Mayors. It was an honor that my peers chose me to be their president for the 2425 term. It was a wonderful experience where I and my board focus on small business. I think I told you that I feel like small business is the backbone of our communities and we focused on that and our title was mayors mean business. We had several positive impacts. We introduced a lot of our cities to the chamber which they never had before. We have a representative from chamber here. We tried to show them how to partner to move forward. Um we um so I currently serve on the state advocacy committee. What we do there is make sure that the relationships as I talked about before with our legislators, that's how bills are passed or opposed. So in that capacity, we bring forward through the Florida League of Cities and their lobbyists, this is a bill that's going to benefit this city and this county or this is a bill that stinks and we want you to oppose it. So, um, just this past year, I was appointed by the president of the Florida League of Cities. I'll now be on the executive committee of the board of directors. I currently serve as the president of Valuchia League of Cities. We represent the 16 cities in Valuchia County. We have seven elected officials on that board from different cities. So, with all the relationships that were formed, um, I was privileged to be able to go up to Tallahassee and speak in front of a select committee in the House of Representatives in the Senate. And not just through me, but a lot of action that went up there. We

were able to come up with a hurricane restoration bill that put a hundred million dollars into Felia County for restoration of the seaw walls. For those of you that live in condos, you probably know [clears throat] Seaw Walls are not insured. This was a grant that they would match up to a certain percent. So that was one of the things that we were able to do. I have to say Kurt was instrumental in us making sure that every condo in Daytona Beach Shores knew about this grant program. Happy to say out of Valuchia County, the money that was paid out to any municipality was Daytona Beach Shores because of everything that us on the commission did to make sure that people were aware of it. So there's a lot to just say, but I just want you to know this was not me doing this. That was the opportunities that were put in my path. I was not um anything except a person that was there that was able to do that. Um, I wanted to be a fully involved elected official. So again, I am thankful for the advice that I was given seven years ago. If this was what you wanted to do, be all in. And I was certainly all in. So again, I want to express my thanks to our previous city um attorney. Uh, next, one of the things I'd like to talk to about our commission is so we have uh the only board that we have right now is our PNZ uh board. They do a valuable service and I would like us to maybe give direction to our city manager to see um we tried to do a breakfast. Was that a year ago, Sherry?

A year ago. That didn't seem to work out. We want to do a really nice dinner for them. Do I have everyone's consensus that we would be able to participate in something like that or give our director direction to our city manager to go forward on that? Okay. Um again, they're our only board. They do a wonderful, wonderful job and I want to make sure that they know how much we value them. Okay, so next and um our director um always gives me these nice little events because I never remember. So uh coffee with the mayor tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. at the Shores Community Center up um at the uh second floor and we will have Will Roberts. He is our Valuchia County tax collector. So he's going to explain a little bit about hard taxes go along. But one of the things that I really want to talk him to talk to us about is um what's going on right now and the legislature with the um property tax. You know what what he sees coming on uh the 10th which is Saturday. We are going to have a better life expo and business expo and that is through our Port Orange South Daytona chamber. So that will be 10 to 2 this coming Saturday right here in this building. And then advanced notice, we'll have coffee with the mayor on um February 4th. We will have our Valuchia County Atlarge representative um Jake Johansson. Jake co-chairs the storm water committee with me. Um and then on uh the 7th and 8th of February, we will have um a Sun and Shores Art Festival. So this is something new that our director Nancy Maddox has come up with. There will be uh 75 artists, kids art selection, and five food trucks. And then we will have Battle of the Food Trucks 3 to 8:30 on um I'm sorry, what's the date on that?

I'll write that. Battle of the Food Trucks. I'm sorry, N. What is the date? 28th. February 28th. February 28th. February 28th. Okay. And that is all that I have for right now. So next we are going to move on to audience comments. And I think um we have two speakers. So the first speaker that was on the record is uh Emma Clark representing our Port Orange Chamber. Thank you Emma for being here with us today. Thank you for having me.

Hi everyone. My name is Emma Clark. I'm with the Port Orange South Daytona Chamber of Commerce. We need to change the name to include the shores in there because I feel like it's it needs to be all inclusive at all times. Um I wanted to update all of our events. So Mayor Miller already mentioned the event this Saturday, the Better Life um Expo uh from 10 to 2 and we have a develop from um it's on January 14th at 11:30. Uh it's focused on insurance and we have a great panel ready. Um it will be at the Riverside Pavilion. Um and our last major event uh that's for um all members to attend is our new member reception. Uh it's also located at the Riverside Pavilion on January 20th uh at 8:30. We have numerous other events throughout this month that are all listed on our chamber calendar. And I also wanted to welcome Stacy. She's our newest team member at the chamber. Uh she's the operations director, operations manager for the chamber. So she this is her second week on the job.

Thank you. [applause] Next. And mister was it? You can come back up now. And I'm sorry. Can you give me your last name again? Stephen.

So thank you mayor. Thank you, city council, for allowing me to come up another time here and discuss my problem with you folks. Um, my presence today is actually for it's 3221 and 3222. It's the shores the shores uh motel hotel. We live right next to it and we've been here. Thankfully, we've been here two years. And I would say in this two years prior that we've been here, I've had more problems than I've had in my whole life at this residence over here due to burglary, uh, drugs, prostitution. I know you're all looking at me like I'm nuts. I know things are quiet in your neighborhood, but they're not quiet in mine. And so, I I've asked several times. I've spoke with many different people, and I'm starting to feel like a Karen over here. uh well addressed with code enforcement, well endorsed with uh the police and I know they are busy ever, right? Um my question is is the hotel is it short-term? Is it long-term? Uh there's two holes in this building. Of course, I'm right next to it. We have a lot of feral cats running around in our neighborhood, especially from the neighbor that lives across the street. She holds about 20 cats in her house. And we're the gateway. There's another one right over there for where West Minister Church has their parking lot, the overflow.

So, all those cats, they live there. They're crawling on my roof, they're using our house as a gateway to get to the lady's house across the street. Um, it's it's been a big thing. Those cats, since there's holes in the property right next to ours, is it safe? Is it a home for feral cats? Is it a home for drug addicts? I don't know. I just I'm concerned whether or not the city is going to take care of this mess uh so that we feel a little bit more safer in our neighborhood. I believe that when we first started here, we were actually in Valooa. Valuchia County is what we were paying for as far as property taxes and we switched over to the shores. We're we're in the shores now. And we felt safer being in the shores. And after time went by, we asked ourselves, do we really feel safer in the shores? Even though we're in Valuchia County and then the street over is Port Orange. I'm I'm highly concerned of this matter. We tried to sell our house. I couldn't sell my house if I tried. We We're not leaving you. We couldn't go anywhere if we tried due to the fact that as soon as they clean up from code enforcement with having washing machines and mattresses and all kinds of debris, especially when debris is around hurricane time, are these not projectiles? Do they not fly in your homes? So, as I asked to have it cleaned up, code enforcement did a great job. They had it cleaned up. Two weeks later, the mess was back. And we're constantly living in this. So, if I was to have a drone fly over my house and do aerial shots of my house, you ask yourself, will I sell my house? I don't think so. So, to make this situation a little bit better and to feel better, you know what they say, happy wife, happy life?

Look at my gal over there. Do you not want to make that gal as happy as you can? Well, we thank you very much for coming in today. I'm gonna what I'm gonna Yeah, I truly I truly appreciate it. What I'm going to ask you to do is talk to our director Cruz as far as some of the um code enforcement issues and then also uh Lieutenant Mark Swanson. Swanson right over there. Those two. Okay. So, the one fellow on the uniform, he's easy to pick out. Okay. Okay. All right. So, I'm going to ask you to talk to both.

The other one, if I don't mind saying a couple more, is Brian from code enforcement. He's he's been helpful, but I know that there's only so much that he can do because it is a paper trail. Everything is a paper trail. And I'm more of a get or done type of guy. I'm like, "Let's do it now." He's like, "We have to wait." And so, this has been a complete waiting game for us. [clears throat] And the more we're waiting, the more impatient we're getting. Well, thank you for coming in today. We appreciate your comments. Um, I don't have anyone else on the agenda, but as always, I'm open up to hear anything that you have to [snorts] say. I want to hear from you. Is there anyone else that has any topic that they'd like to talk about? Miss Cook, if you'd like to come up.

Good evening. I'm Sandy Cook with Realy Pros. I have [clears throat] uh two comments. One, it's a lot from Mark Cart. I wanted to expand on the La Palma. Um, I went there because I try to support the businesses as they open up and they have a wide variety of a menu. I wanted everyone to know that they're open breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And the and another thing that really impressed me. Uh, the owners were there working the business themselves, and they have signed a 10-year lease. So, they have made a big investment in our city. So, I want to make sure that everybody supports them and stops in and uh tries them out and at least says hi. And then I have a question for our new uh city manager. Uh if you could give us an update on the RFP for the economic development director or whatever we're calling that.

Sure. Um, we had a meeting uh with a a nonprofit organization um just prior to the holidays and we think that uh we will probably be able to do the basic study without going to RFP which should be able to expedite things. We're very excited. Um the name of it uh escapes me. It's in my notes here.

Was it urban urban land institute? And uh we're we're especially excited because one of the folks that we met with uh from Tampa who uh this is his expertise is actually from Port Orange. He's very familiar with Daytona Beach Shores. He's familiar with the Dunlton corridor. He's a surfer here. So hopefully within the next month or two, we'll be able to come back and let you know what direction we're headed. But we're [clears throat] not going to stop. Don't worry.

I think our need is so urgent. So that's why I just keep asking for updates. Uh, in the department that I came from, there's another emergency coming all the time. So, I am all about getting things done expeditiously. I like to move things off my desk and staff is on board with me. I promise you, we will move this along as efficiently as we can. All right. Thank you. Mike's new comment is getting to yes. Okay. Yes.

Thank you. And you know, I do want to say to the audience and anyone listening online, I've said this over and over again. Um, you know, people ask for more restaurants to come here, usually not more gift shops, but a lot of variety of things. We cannot rely on the tourists to support these to make these a viable business. We have to support these small businesses. We, you know, and I know it gets expensive to eat out, but once a week, you know, um, vary where you go. I was very happy to see when I went to the Palma House um a couple weeks ago when they had the grand opening. Um Bill, it was from your condo, Oceans 8. I think there was 10 to 12 people that had gone out to eat together and there was a group from Cloverleaf. So that's nice. I was very very happy to see that. So that is my message all the time. Let's support these new businesses. Um I do not have any other comments. Anyone else that has any? Okay. If not, do we have any agenda agenda items for the next meeting?

I'd like to put something for the next meeting.

I'd like to find uh I want us to have a discussion, an avenue of advertising to the citizens uh interest about advisory boards and how we can get citizens more actively involved uh in in in different projects. Um, for instance, you know, to go out to maybe the the presidents of the condo associations. We have a lot of citizens that stay in their condo or stay in their home and if they have interest to participate in in city government or or advisory boards, I think we should uh tap those people and and that interest. Uh, but I just want to find a a nice way that we can uh advertise it and solicit it and see what interest we get. Well, I think what we need, Vice Mayor, then I think that's a bigger conversation than here. I think we need to set up a um workshop to see what board right now we currently only have one board. We had other ones previously um with our si last city managers um recommendation. You know, we changed some of those boards. We went from a board to a city um special magistrate. Unfortunately, our culture and entertainment had some issues with sunshine. So, let's have a workshop to see which boards because I do have people that have said to me, I want to I want to volunteer. I want to get involved. So, let's um city manager, can you put that on your agenda?

Let me let me not sound Please don't take it the wrong way. Before we have the workshop, I want the input from the citizens. So, that's what I said. I want to market solicit some of their suggestions. you know, whether we do it on the computer or whether they can drop a note off or call city hall and we'll make a list of the different interests and then we'll have a workshop because now we have some feedback and let's see what what we can do to accomplish that goal. So, first of all, you let me see if I can clarify. So, you want to know maybe a parks and wrecks. I I don't want to create the idea. I want the citizens to create the idea. Okay. All right. Okay. Very good. All right. Thanks. Thank you. Anything else you want added to the next agenda?

Okay. If not, then um again, Taylor, welcome. We're gonna it's going to be a pleasure to work with you next month. And if there's nothing else, thank you everyone for coming. City manager, congratulations. Looking forward to working with you. And the meeting is adjourned.