Town Council - Regular Meeting

[clears throat] Great.

That's true. Good morning everyone. We're going to call the meeting to order. Today is Monday, February 2nd, 2026. It is 9:01 a.m. All council members are present, including the town manager, deputy town manager, town attorney, and town clerk. If you please rise for the invocation followed by the pledge of allegiance.

[clears throat] We meet today to focus on the very best that can happen for our lives. Show us what we need to do this day. Give us strength physically, mentally, and emotionally. Help us to successfully meet every aspect of our lives. We ask to be inspired with creative and dynamic ideas and trust we are guided so that we can meet our lives with joy and confidence. Amen. Amen. Ice to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Next is the approval of the final agenda. We will be pulling uh administrative agenda item number F, resolution 26-019. Are there any other changes or amendments to the final agenda? No. Move to approve as amended. Motion by councelor King. Second. Second by Vice Mayor Safford. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Hearing none. That motion carries unanimously. Next is public comment. Madam clerk. Yep. I have sorry I have two signed up. Okay. Uh John Mlan and then after John will be Jim Bowen. Morning John.

Uh good morning everybody. John Mlan Egret Street. I'm also a hopeful candidate for the appointment to position 4 to join U town council. Uh I've spoken to each of you individually and uh really all I was hoping to do was to have an open invitation if anybody would like to speak with me to understand a little bit more about myself, my background, my positioning. Uh I will be on Beach Talk Radio in two weeks and hopefully it'll be a very candid conversation then. Uh, but if anybody would like to reach out to me, my phone number is 239-314996. My email is my name, John Hn Mlan McLean01gmail.com. And I look forward to a very open and frank discussion with anybody. Thank you.

Thank you, John. Jim Good morning, town council. Um, my name is Jim Bowen. I'm also uh a candidate for appointment, but this morning I wanted to address the last item on the administrative agenda. Um, I would suggest that uh it would be fairer if the standardized Q&As's were ask of the candidates in a rotating order. That way, each candidate would have the opportunity to the answer first, second, and third. I think there's a perceived advantage to hearing the response of an individual and given time before you have to articulate your own response. So, I'd ask you to consider that when your deliberations when it comes to that. And I, as John, I think I've reached out to each one of you. I'm uh readily available to answer any and all questions regarding uh my past, my experience, or uh what I think I can bring to the council. Thank you. Thank you. That's all you had?

That's all I have. Is there anyone else? Yes, sir. Come on up. We'll start on the left and then we'll go to the right or whomever wants to go first.

Hi, good morning. I'm Craig Loose, resident Cresciente, 7,000 block of Eterero. We have a couple dozen uh neighbors and beachgoers in the crowd with us today. Not only see the beautiful new building here, but to see how uh small government works. So, we're appreciative of your efforts to save the pilings uh back uh last year. It's an iconic landmark that we all enjoy and we're looking forward to Chad's presentation today to discuss uh additional sand and some of the low-lying areas out in front of our units for good for residents, visitors, and wildlife alike. Thank you very much. Thanks, Greg. Yep. Go ahead. [cough and clears throat]

I'm Marcy Cole and I see a lot of our neighbors are here from surrounding buildings and I feel the same way. We um lived through this hurricane together and then we heard all about the beach replenishment and we were thrilled and then we had all the equipment in front of us and we couldn't wait for our area to get done and that really didn't happen. They sort of moved on away and so we just don't understand why. Um you know we have the pilings which are amazing for everybody. It draws people. draws wildlife, but the beach never got the top that everybody else received, as well as the grading. And so, we have a lot of lowline dips and uneven sand. And I brought some pictures here that shows like our buildings next to us, our neighbors, and what we have. Can I show these to you?

Give them to Amy and she'll get them to us. So, the first Well, the first two is You got to hold on till you get back to the mic. So, we you got to be on record. Sorry. Happens to all of us.

So, the the first two uh pictures illustrate Cresciente right in front, but this does extend to our neighbors to the south as well. And then the last picture is Leonardo Arms that looks like a baby's behind. It's all this nice powdered sand. And it's really hard that we went through this and you know you have to go so many buildings down before you can enjoy that type of beach. So we are really hoping that you guys will finish us off nicely. Thank you. That's it. Thank you. [applause]

Anyone else? Is anyone else like to speak? All right. Seeing none, we'll close public comment. Next is local achievements and recognitions. Uh councelor councel link.

Yes. Thank you, mayor. Um I wanted to call out something that I'm sure many of you have noticed and that was that the best of the beach awards are back. First time since the hurricane. You can only have a best of the beach award if you've got things to celebrate. So I think it shows how far we've come. And I want to congratulate all the businesses, all the restaurants, the homeowners, um, everything that has brought us to a point where we can vote on what our favorite place is. So, kudos to all the people out there on the island. Thank you, Scott.

Yeah, I'd like to uh recognize Ellen Vaughn for the great event on Saturday. Um, the Friends of Mount House re really stepped up and uh, they had a murder mystery based in the 80s and it was a lot of fun. Brought the community together and I think we we they raised a lot of money for the mouth. So, kudos to her. John, I have nothing. I'll just reiterate what Scott had to say about the M house. It was pretty fun. Um, I will say for the record that thanks to the two people to my right on the far end, the smartest people [laughter] at the table were uh the the cheerleaders to making sure that we took first place in solving the the riddle. Um, could have been rigged. [laughter]

It could have been the costume, could have been a lot of things, but no, it was it was a great event. Congratulations to Ellen Vaughn. It was uh it was really fun. Some of the actors were really really good. So, uh we'll see what they come up with next year. All right. Next is our advisory committee items, reports, and appointments. Um, before we move on, I'd like to take a moment to update our community on the volunteer [clears throat] opportunities within the town committees. After today's appointments, we will still have openings on two important committees. One position on the audit committee and another on the public safety committee. These committees play a vital role in the well-being of our town. The audit committee helps ensure transparency, accountability, and fiscal responsibility, while the public safety committee focuses on keeping our residents and visitors safe through thoughtful planning and oversight. We appreciate the time, expertise, and dedication our committee members contribute, and we encourage anyone interested in serving to apply. To apply, you can download the advisory boards and committees application available on the town's website and email the signed completed form to our clerk at amyfmbbggov.com. Your involvement does make a difference in the quality of life here in Fort Myers Beach. So, we encourage anyone to apply for those two open positions. Our first one is for the appointment of members to the fiscal year 26 anchorage advisory committee. Um there is one person on the list. There are three according to this three open seats.

No. Is that is there just the one? Just one. Okay. So, it's just the sheet. I see it says vacant. So, we've got one applicant for the one position. Thomas Hedrickk. Is he here? No. Okay. Then we will make our selection. You take you picking these up, Nancy, or is it Amy picking them up? I'll get them. Okay. I'll get my steps.

There you go. I'm going to go out on a limb here and think you all voted for the same one. Uh Scott Safford, Thomas Hedrickk, Dan Allers, Thomas Hedrickk, John King, Thomas Hedrickk, and Rebecca Link, Thomas Hedrickk for four votes. Okay. Is there a motion to accept the um outcome of the open seat for Mr. Hedrickk? So move the Anchorage Advisory Committee. A motion by councelor Kaine. Second. Seconded by Vice Mayor Safford.

Any further discussion? None. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed.

Hearing none. That motion carries unanimously. Congratulations. Next is an appointment of a member to the fiscal year 26 public safety committee. There are three open seats and we have two applicants and I apologize in advance if I butcher your name. Karen DM Michelle and Frederick Canal. Are either one of you two in the audience today? Come on up, Frederick. Morning. My name is Fred Canal. I'm a [clears throat] resident of Royal Pelican Condo Association. I started coming down here as a snowbird in uh 2006 uh and walking the beach one day in 14. I thought I should be here longer than two months. So, I bought a place at Royal Pelican. Um the safety committee, yes. Uh safety is always in season. It's always in fashion. I look forward to uh meeting the other members of the board and and learning how that uh the group functions. Uh any questions? Anybody have any questions for Frederick Scott?

I actually met him uh yeah uh I I did a beach radio broadcast and I came up to you with a concern and he mentioned about the safety committee needing some people. So very good. Um always did a lot with the Elks and the Lions uh where I came from and the community. So um sound like something I should look into. So very good. Here I am. Yeah. I appreciate you stepping up. We had a good conversation afterwards and Yeah. So thank you. Thank you. All right. Go ahead and make your votes and we'll get the the high stepper. Yes. Mr. Mayor,

if you wouldn't mind while you are getting the votes. Um, we are going to bring the public safety committee to the March M&P in a uh joint like a mini joint session because there are one committee that doesn't really have a task um given to you or given to them by you. So, we're going to get them in front of uh the four of you, the five of you at that point in time and hopefully we can get them going down a path. Very good. And I'll just add on that. Thanks, Amy. That's right. I've had some good conversations with director Yazo and we'll have some recommendations for the council uh during that discussion and be willing to be looking forward to hearing any more that the council might have. Perfect.

All right. Thank you. All right. So, first up is Rebecca Link. Uh and she has voted for Frederick Canal. You only took one vote. Yes. Okay. Frederick Neil only. Um public or uh John King voted for Karen D. Michelle and Frederick Conneal, Dan Allers, Karen D. Michelle and Frederick Conneal, and Scott Safford, Karen D. Michelle and Frederick Conneal. So, with a vote of four four votes, uh, Frederick Frederick Canneal, and then three votes, Karen D. Michelle.

Is there a motion to accept the outcome of the two appointments for Karen D. Michelle and Frederick Conneal and the public safety committee. Pardon me. I'll move that. Mayor, I'll second it. Councelor King had made the motion seconded by Vice Mayor Safford. Any further discussion? None. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Hearing none. That motion carries unanimously. Thank you again. Next is the approval of the minutes from the town council meeting on January 20th, 2026. There any changes [clears throat] or modifications or motion? I've got a correction, mayor. Yes, sir. On page three on what I believe is the second paragraph, it states, "Mr. Link has been certified as an expert in his field." It should read, "Mr. Inc. I ink K." Very good.

And with that, I'll move uh approval of the minutes. All right. As corrected. Got a motion. Second, Councelor King for the amended uh approval of minutes as seconded by Vice Mayor Safford.

Any further [clears throat] any further discussion? Hearing none, that motion carries unanimously. Next is our consent agenda. There are three items all pertaining to emergency local states of emergency. First is resolution 26-023 through 26-026 for the extension of local emergency tropical storm Debbie. Resolution 26-027 through 26-30 extension of local emergency for tropical storm Helen. And last, resolution 26-031 through 26-34, extension of local emergency for tropical storm Milton. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved.

Motion by Vice Mayor Safford. I'll second. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed? Hearing? None. That motion carries unanimously. We have nothing removed from the consent agenda. We have no public hearings. And it brings us to our first administrative agenda item. See as I can get my computer to work. [laughter] The first item is a presentation proposed 2026 beach sand hall projects. This is a review of the beach recovery project since Hurricane Ian and seeking town council direction on proposed 2026 beach sand truck hall projects. Will Yep. I'll ask Chad.

I'll ask Chad to step up to the mic. Yeah, I know he's prepared for this discussion. Wow, look at that shirt. You like that? It's awesome. Hammer time. [laughter] Stop. Let's collaborate and listen. Yes. See what you did there. [laughter] Um so, uh Jason, if we can cue the presentation. Um Mr. Poff was supposed to be here and uh I don't know if we can delay and maybe um put the next agenda item if that's okay with y'all. Oh, you just walked in as if on Q. No worries. We didn't realize this is going to be such a short uh uh public hearing. So I think what you meant is efficient, right? We are ready. [laughter] All right. It's government life. Yeah.

Okay. So Chad shoots, town of Fort Myers Beach environmental staff. Uh we're going to be presenting about the beach nourishment and hurricane recovery summary. It's been a long three years. I think everybody can appreciate. Um we can see that picture up there where we had the dredge in front of uh Cresciente and Astero Beach and Tennis Club and as well as in the distance you can see the truck hall project that we had started to uh get ahead of the shorebird nesting season that was uh coming very quickly and uh did some tap dancing and fast work and made the project work. But we're going to go through all of this. Um if we can go ahead and cue this. How do I cue the slides? Jason,

I think you could just say next slide. Next slide, please. Or does he not? There you go. There we go. So, um, I will, uh, hand it off to Mr. Poff with this outline. So, we're going to talk about the beach recovery overview, uh, the reenourishment project, which was the big dredge project, um, as well as gracias, as well as our dune planting project that followed, and some final touches that we have coming.

Good morning. For the record, Michael Poff, Coastal Engineering. Sorry, Chad said 9:15 would be fine, so I'll blame him for for that. So there's a lot of information on this slide. We're happy to answer questions. The the bottom line is this is that over the last three years, we've placed 1.17 million cubic yards of sand back on the beach through emergency BMS, truck halls, scour projects, and of course the large scale hydraulic dredging project. The total cost of all of these projects, $40.54 million. the town share, including the seven years of monitoring, $1.17 million. So, we are indebted to our friends and our fellow uh Flityians for stepping up between Lee County and the TDC, yourselves, and of course the state of Florida through a variety of hurricane recovery grants uh in order to cover the significant majority as well as FEMA in terms of the emergency burm and the category G recovery projects. So again, a lot of information, three years in the running and uh so pat yourselves on the back and thank your legislators at the state level for all the work they did and please thank the board of county commissioners and the TDC for stepping up as well and fronting a lot of the monies to get us to where we are. So this is the large scale project. It went from of course the north end at the south line of the Bowage Point Park all the way to Lanarch Avenue and then we pick up and move down to around the Crescent Leonardo Arms um toward the south end. These are your designated critically eroding beaches and eligible for state cost sharing under the annual recovery plan and state plan. And then we also had the grant money from the state that was allowed to use for areas

outside of the critically eroded areas. The bar area sits offshore. It's the relic distal end of the Yshaw of the Matanis Pass complex. It was the bar area that was used for your original project as well in 2011. The contractor was Utna Marine. So just some example photographs of the asbuilts. The profile we're going to show you in the next slide is R1 178. It is north of the pier between the pier and Bage. So these cross-sections, the yaxis, the vertical axis is our elevations relative to the datam that we survey at. And then horizontally you're going offshore. The it is kind of the orang-ish line is your basically your design survey pre-Ean. The royal blue line is post Ian and that is the damage that was done. We lost, as you may recall, over 250,000 yards just from Ian alone. Um, and of course the project had been eroding since 2011. It was time for reourishment. We actually had started the design and permitting before Ian hit and then of course things ramped up. The black line is your design template. That's the beach that we want to maintain at all times. And we have a dash line. That's your advanced nourishment. We want to have additional sand placed so that over the next eight years as that sand erodess and moves and migrates, we still have our design template which is our protective beach and of course the dune as well. Then we have our pre-construction survey which is the green line. So there was recovery work done. We had Lee County and yourselves recovering overwash sand. We had the emergency berm constructed and of course then we have Debbie Helen and Milton all hit us during the construction project. So, we lost additional sand during all of that. And so, ATA rebuilt the dune. And so, here's

where we are today. Of course, with we just got done planting the dunes on this segment, and we still have a little bit of work to do, as we'll get to at the end. Moving into the central beach, you may recall we had a lot of no work zones. There were still a lot of folks who did not want to sign the easements for a variety of reasons. So, there were some areas that we were not able to get to with the hydraulic dredging process. this large volume of water and sand coming out. Can't possibly put sand between individual lots. So, there are some low-lying areas that were left behind after the dredging. And we try to do our best to fill in as much as we could. Uh, of course, we were running up against nesting season for sea turtles, so we had to pause the dredging project. Uh, we were over 90% complete with the volume. And so, we we took that as a win. And, uh, now we want to look at the final touches and fill in some of these lowlying areas. We've gone ahead and done the plantings in the area. Here's just another snapshot. Moving down Central Beach, here's the cross-section. Again, same colors. The orange was our design survey prean. Then we have our devastation of Ian. The green line represents when we when we filled the scour holes. We built the emergency burm and then it got overwashed by Helen and Milton. So, it kind of got a rounded shape to it and then it got blown away um by Helen and Milton. And so, then we came back and rebuilt the beach. And um in this case, they actually overpumped a little bit and and built more than the advanced nourishment in this one particular section. And in the south end, this is by Leonardo to Arms. Chad opened up with the picture. This was of course one of the worst areas. This was added to the project after we got started with the design and permitting. And of course over time that uh uh condominium put in their own seaw wall to protect the property from all the damage that was done and we've placed as the next cross-section will show. If you were to

measure that cross-section the seaw wall sits around uh 65 ft from the baseline and that beachville is at sitting around 360. So in this particular area that was 300 feet of beach that we built because there was no dry beach as we all know walking along there there was nothing at when we started. So we have put that beach back to its historic position and then some and again as time moves on. The goal is to have that 100 foot wide 125 foot wide beach at all times in front of these properties with our design template. I'm going turn it back over to Chad talked about the plantings.

All right. Thank you, Michael. Uh, so our dune planting project, uh, long awaited. Everybody was asking when are we going to have plants? When are we going to have plants over three years? And we got them in there. Uh, started from the nursery. You see up on the left and, uh, up on the top right the guys planting in over at, uh, Baldish Park up north. And you can see in front of, uh, Leonardo Arms kind of that initial 10-ft wide planting. uh s uh dune sunflower, bitter panacum grass, sea oat grass, and railroad vine. Um and uh some condos including Leonardo Arms uh planted additional width. So we went from a 10 foot wide to a 30 foot wide uh planting uh uh configuration where where they wanted additional plants. That'll be very beneficial for their uh resilience to uh any storms that may come. over 170,000 plants planted to date. Um again 10 to 30 feet wide and that is around 25,600 shoreline feet of plantings. [clears throat] Um this is that scheme that we planted. We did uh the uh a bit of a it's called a commodon or a bit of a offset so that our openings are towards Santael. Most of our weather comes from um the south. That's where we're wide open. So, uh, we put that opening kind of pointed where we have a little bit more protection just to, uh, give it a little bit added resilience. And you can see, uh, this nice little configuration with the, uh, gallon, uh, sea oats in the middle and the bitter panicum on the salt side and dune daisies, uh, and railroad vine kind of in the middle and in the back. Um, again, uh, Earth Earth Balance did a great job. We got great plants. Uh, you know, I was a little nervous. you know, they're kind of cutting back the railroad vines and everything before they're delivering them and said, "Chad, don't worry. You're buying the roots, not the not the stems." So, um, they

were right. Uh, they performed great. I'm very happy with, uh, our contractor, Earth Balance. So, this just shows you some of the, uh, different configurations of plantings. The beach along Fort Myers Beach is different everywhere. uh you know, different Upland property owners with different concerns as well as um and priorities. Uh and we were we we we did our best to try and listen and plant what they wanted. Uh the county, you can see, is a different color for most. It's red. They wanted a heavy seat uh planting. That was at uh scheme one where it's 75% or maybe 70% sea oats. uh whereas uh scheme 2 was a little bit in between and most people got scheme 3 which is what we saw before which was uh a little bit less on the seats I think around 15% and a little bit heavier on the bitter panicum uh dune sunflower and railroad vines over here that's a pink shell up on the left they still have their we're able to rebuild the burm on the north end um after Helena Milton using some overwash sand um so they still have it up there um Here is the uh uh central section. You're looking at Gulf View. Uh kind of that initial planting right there in front of Newton Park. And then on the right, you can still still see that pink building where those plants uh just taken last week have really uh thrived um over the last few months. And here we have the south end. Uh we on the south end here. Yes, South End. Um, this is just on the seawward side of the uh locally known runway where people can walk uh a bit of a raised area to have dry toes and uh uh walk their dogs as well uh along the beach and be outside of that CWA area. So, it was important for those folks on the 7,000 block to maintain that walkway. So, we planted just on the

seawward side. And again, uh we've had great um support from um all of these condos, uh you know, Sterile Beach and Tennis Club, uh Leonardo Arms, um Island's End, uh you know, a lot of these condos, not only did they participate, but they wanted additional plantings. And as we'll talk more uh to come there, we have more [clears throat] uh plantings that we're going to be doing um uh to add uh both uh species diversity, add some additional species in there as well as some tree canopy um to uh again increase our resiliency and just uh general enjoyment and aesthetics uh of the beach. So final touches, we want to can I tag tag you in? Sure.

All right.

Thanks, Shad. Mopoff again, Coastal Engineering. So, we [clears throat] had multiple BMS that were destroyed by Helen and Milton. Some we were able to rebuild with the dredging company, some we were not. So, we're recommending to go ahead and and get the rest of the BMS rebuilt. There's some of those low lowlying areas around the no work areas. We like to get those filled in. And then, as Chad mentioned, go ahead and do some additional plantings to help with the resiliency plan and bring back like your beach accesses and those kind of things. We've been doing all shore parallel, but we want to go and get all the accesses done and those kind of things. You have your D1502 grant from the state department of emergency management. So, you still have about three and a half $4 million remaining in that grant. And so, we're suggesting to go ahead and and um use those dollars. So, it' be 100% grant funded to do one more truck haul and do some additional plantings. The plantings can continue um but we want to get the the truck haul done before nesting season. So, we want to get in and get out. We have the plans and specs ready to go and and just need your blessing to go ahead and and put it out to bid.

Mike, will this solve you weren't here, so maybe you didn't hear what the they the residents were saying. Will this solve the issue that they raised during public comment? I see Chad's nodding his head. So, just to they're here to hear that answer. So, I'd like to [laughter] assuming the question was these low-lying ponding areas, are we going to fill them in? The answer is yes. Okay. Now, if there's a no work zone, [applause] if there is a no work zone and we have not had a signed easement, you don't have permission to go on that property. It will stop at that no work zone. So, we're not going to be able to fill in everything because we don't have permission to work on that piece of property. Is there still time for residents that maybe have changed their mind that want to be part of this project to do it or no?

That that's an answer we've given before is is the answer is yes. as long as we've not proceeded past them and it would cost more to bring them back. Uh you have always given us direction work with the residents to to make sure we take care as many as we can. So, and will are we reaching out to those residents just to one last try to I know after Helina Milton hit, we had an increase in people that decided maybe we do want this. So, I'm wondering if we've had another round of reaching out to the residents that are still going to be in this work area that maybe have changed their mind. I know Chad I know Chad regular Abigail regularly works with the residents down there. Chad, you wanna Yeah. Yeah, we can uh we can work with Abby and um

get another uh PSA out and it's never too late and sign up onto the program and get some plantings in and some additional sand where we need it. Yeah. And maybe everybody in the audience that's that's here, you can you can nudge your neighbors to uh to be part of the solution. I think we we've learned that it really does what it's supposed to do even on normal storm surges that we see that it really helps and you don't have to shovel your pool out.

And also doing vegetative plantings, there was a lot of concern over I'm going to be blocking my view and you're building this burm and it was like why are we building a burm? Um so here are the areas. So we have in in blue is where we planted in red is where we're proposing to add the burm. The yellows are the no work areas that we have on record. As we move down to Central Beach, see it's wide open. Showing these areas in front of

Yeah, I just we put these photos in here just to show how wide open it is. The beach is very flat and um you know there's not a whole lot of resistance to storm surge uh especially in the central section. Again, we were against the time clock uh with ADNA being late. So, we were not able to build rebuild the burm um in these areas. So, we're proposing to uh we're not going to put sand on top of the plantings, but put it just seawward of the plantings and that sand will drift. Um we're happy to stabilize that sand with additional plantings for um property owners that would want additional plantings to stabilize that that uh that sand burm. This isn't going to be I know there was a lot of you know the burm and you know why are you putting the Himalayas up in front of my house and whenever we were right after Ian and the entire beach was basically at sea level or even below sea level um that that burm did look like the Himalayas it was a six foot you know uh hill so um now our beach has been brought up it's around 34 plus uh NAVD so this sixoot burm is really only going to be you know two foot you know mohill so it's not going to a drastic uh change in the beach, per se. Um I definitely recommend uh any property owners that want to stabilize that uh sand with vegetation, please reach out. Um we're bu we're building our database and going down all the 300 properties to uh just note, you know, who wants what vegetation. Um uh and and try and get as much vegetation to stabilize that sand and protect our investment as possible. Um again, this is right in front of Junanu on the left. Um you can see it's just it's wide open straight onto Astera Boulevard. Critical infrastructure that we'd like to protect as much as possible. Uh on the right there is just by Gulf View just north of Gulf View. There was a little bit of a low-lying area that we need to fill in over there at that uh access. I think that's Bay View access. Um [clears throat] here we have uh down south in front of

Smugglers. And we kind of had a a bit of a scour that kind of extends from that 5,000 block um going south. And that's the uh the scour that Michael was referring to that we'll fill in. And up on the right is Aberdine access. You can see again it's a it's a straight shot without any uh uh vertical, you know, elevation to help uh mitigate any uh storm surge that would that might wash in. Back to the diagrams.

So again on the y- axis, vertical axis is our elevations. And in so we've we've tried to plot this at more of a a regular scale in again to talk about these BMS. And so the most of the beach is between plus three to plus five NEVD. And we're proposing the plus six elevation for the burm. And so it's only going to be as Chad mentioned 2 to 3 ft thick. So we're not going to be blocking views. Uh the low the vegetation that has been selected is lowlying. And so [clears throat] and there's the dune management plan which allows property owners to adjust their dunes in the future. They enter into a written agreement with the town. It's something that was put in back for the 2011 project and we've carried it forward for this current permit. So there's a lot of opportunity to improve the dune and make dune changes over time as long as the property owner works with the town and come to that agreement.

And then another scour hole here at the end. This is the tape.

Yeah. So this is uh this slide addresses the concerns that we had um coming forward. We had a low-lying area. Uh uh the the upland property owners were adamant that they wanted to preserve these uh these pilings. So we worked with them. Unfortunately, that meant whenever you're doing a dredge project and you're you're you know spewing uh you know thousands of gallons, you know, sand, etc., you you can't really work a bulldozer and go in between these pilings. So we had to uh the the template is just north of of these pilings. So we had to skip about 100 ft of shoreline to uh go past these pilings which left the northern side of the south segment um undernourished I guess you would say. So it is it is lowlying um but we can address that with the truck haul. You can be a little bit more surgical with the truck haul. uh working with uh the Wendom owner who has been very gracious to let us use his property uh throughout these three years. And I think we have one more um one more favor that he might grant us to uh go ahead and come out of the Windom and fill uh in that area uh just uh just west of uh Cresciente Tramar and uh Eststerero Beach and Tennis Club. Uh it's not going to be a drastic amount of sand. you, some people may look at and say, "Hey, Chad, can you put more there?" Unfortunately, FWC limited the amount of sand that we could put in there. They had concerns about the uh sand overwashing into that lagoon area. Again, this is all kind of pre-Ean. Ian did wash sand into that lagoon area anyway. So there is a lot of these condos are more beachfront than lagoon front these days anyway. But um we have our design template and we can only build up to that elevation of that design template. But um we will fill that template and it will uh at least be not as lowlying as it is and uh remove that um

discoloration that you're seeing from the uh the the water table that's so close to the sand and sitting water. So, uh, more plantings. This is the more species diverse, uh, scheme 4, um, that we, uh, came up with. It wasn't in the original dune management plan, and I really didn't want to go back to FD to try and repermit, um, something we already had stamped with the dune management plan. So, uh, this scheme 4, uh, that we came up with adds, uh, you know, ink berry, uh, which is a little woody shrub. Um you see its cousin the scavola which is the bad uh invasive uh one ink berry is a native. Um so it's it's a little woody plant and uh uh try and add more of that. Sea pelane is a little succulent. Um you can actually eat it. I guess it's uh it's good for you. So it's a little salty so you may want to boil it first and uh make sure there's no dogs around whenever you know if you're going to eat it raw. Um, and we [clears throat] have uh a beach elder as well, which is a uh a great uh uh doom builder. You know, it helps collect that sand um as do all of these plants. So, this is the scheme that we're going to be um promoting. Uh especially uh we have some properties, crescent, uh maybe a sterile beach and tennis club, um and some of those that are in the CWA, we'd like to add these additional species. A lot of these species were there uh prior to Ian and they've just gotten washed and flattened out and are no more. So, we're looking forward to reveating and increasing the uh species diversity which is very important for resiliency whenever we're talking about our our ecosystem out here on the beach. Um and then we also uh beach access and restoration. Our our accesses are wide open. uh public works has done a great job at putting our our Moby mats and rope and ballards um to stop the cars

that we're coming out on the beach. Um so the next thing is to uh vegetate. So we'll have hedges like sea grapes [clears throat] and buttonwood, green buttonwood to try and block out some of that light and uh uh you know just kind of uh create a corridor ground cover. Um so uh towards the asphalt we'll use more color pop. So, uh, the red flowers, um, uh, uh, dune daisies and golden creeper. Um, so kind of beautify that. Um, and then more towards the beach, we'll again go with scheme 4. That'll be more of your typical uh, dune species. All of these will be native uh, salt tolerant dune vegetation that'll be resilient to overwashes and and come back. We're not going to be putting any kousias or anything like that that uh tend to uh wither and die whenever they get overwashed. Um canopy trees. Uh so we have seag and buttonwoods. Um Florida thatch palm, cabbage palms. All of these uh uh again the hedges, the ground cover and the canopy trees. They all serve to stabilize the dunes. Uh canopy trees. Again, you know, if you see what's survived, it's the sea grapes and the cabbage bombs that were out there. Maybe even some fish poison trees, Jamaican dogwood, just again add species diversity that we have along the rest of southwest Florida and um repopulated here on Fort Myers Beach. Uh again, working with uh our um uh condo owners and any other upland upland property owners to if they want to participate, have a native tree planting uh out on the beach. Um we're we're happy to work with them. uh all these you know in addition to um providing the aesthetics it's ground stabilization as well as whenever you have wave action coming in those those trees uh sea grapes uh cabbage palms

they all tend to break up those waves so the wave energy into the infrastructure isn't as great. So lots of thank yous uh you know first off the Fort Myers Beach community uh for all of their support. We could not have done it without y'all. Town council for all of your support for these long three years of projects. Um and uh your faith in us to get this job done as well as all the staff support that we've gotten. Um it takes it definitely takes a village to do all these projects. Uh you know is great being in the finance uh trailer when we're over at trailer hall. Uh uh Mr. Joe's uh uh staff always, you know, right there to help me with procurement and uh figuring out all these grants. Uh turned Michael into a bit of a pseudo accountant there for a little while trying to figure out how to get all these things funded and keep track of all the percentages. Uh Lee County Board of Commissioners and the Tourism Development Council uh for fronting us that money. Uh I think it was like $4.9 million that they fronted us so we could have the cash flow to uh get the project done. um uh the the marine operations staff, Steve Bell and Mike Campbell, especially uh for all their expertise that they gave us. Um couldn't have done it without them. Uh FD, uh again, a lot of funding came from them. uh Greg Garris's team uh working with us on the initial one and then John Irving with the hurricane recovery fund and FWC for having the faith in us to uh you know get this project done and do it right without uh negatively impacting the um the wildlife. Uh a big thank you to Michael Paw in that regard. You know they they trusted us. Michael got all the monitoring set up and you know we did it right and showed that we can get the project done and still uh you know be uh uh cognizant of the wildlife and their impacts and still let them do

their things. So, uh, Army Corps, our federal agencies, Nymphs, and, uh, US Fish and Wildlife Service for, uh, getting our our federal permit out the door. And, uh, FEMA, again, uh, the north portion, uh, Beach Bob was instrumental. You know, we were the first community that he visited. Beach Bob is like the guru over at FEMA. So, he does all the the beaches all over the US. And he was uh, with us right after Ian uh, within a month or so's time. and we were first in best dressed with the beach uh the emergency berm to get that up and and get protected. So uh thank you FEMA, our Florida legislator for Florida legislature and FDM for that uh that uh uh LAP lap grant. Um that $8 million went a long way. We definitely put it to great use and that's part of the reason why we have you know less than 3% of a match in a you know 40 plus million dollar uh beach sand projects uh tidal basin for all their help. Uh we've been through so many title basin people over the years and they've all been great people, great friends, still keep in touch with them. So thank you to all of them for all of their help with all the grant writing and uh and FEMA work. our shorebird and sea turtle monitors. Uh Michael did a great job at providing us with our uh shorebird monitors, uh turtle time with our sea turtle monitors, a lot of nest relocations and um it was uh you know just showing again that we could uh mitigate those impacts and uh do the right thing by the wildlife and still get these projects done. So we could not have done it without all of those monitors. Uh got a lot of sand uh from Steuart Materials. state did a great job at um making sure that it had a stockpile for us ready to go when we needed it. Um Grubs were built our our emergency BMC uh participated in several projects

including that initial emergency burm as well as some other trucking projects that we saw uh on the south end whenever we needed to hurry up and get some sand on the south end of the south segment to uh give us a bit of a buffer from that uh the shorebird nesting season. Earth Tech came in and filled in scour in the 8,000 block and 7,000 block and built that burm in some sensitive areas and did a great job. And last but not least, Atna Marine, who uh got the job done with the the big dredge project and uh got uh nearly a million cubic yards of great sand onto our beach uh car environmental and Earth Techch environmental um for all their monitoring and the fabulous and uh you know, great crew of uh coastal engineering consultants led by Michael Poff. Um, it's been a it's been a you know, I've learned a lot from him and I cannot thank him enough for everything that he's done. So, that's all I got. [applause]

A lot of work there. Rebecca, any questions for I do just a couple to clarify. You are right, Chad. It does take a village and then some. Um, so I just want to clarify. I think I heard the answer to most of my questions, but I just want to double check. Um, so where you're putting the sand placements, you're going to replant, correct? It it will be up to the upland property owner. So, um, so they may say no sand, but they'll take plants. Is it [clears throat] a combination of anything?

It could it could be it could be plants and no sand. Well, the no sand is tough. If we were going to I'd like some direction to go ahead. um you know you it's very difficult to try and parse out which which lots will get sand whenever we're doing a big project. So, if we're going to get, you know, direction from y'all to do these sand projects both down south and along Central Beach, we're going to put sand there. Um, at least in all the areas where they've signed their easement andor it's on state land seawward of the erosion control line.

The vegetation, um, we can work with property owners who wants vegetation, who doesn't. This is outside of the Dune Management Plan. So, I've always tried to keep my word and say, "Hey, um, you know, you signed on to the dune management plan. I'm not going to stack additional things on to you uh that you don't want." I don't think that that would be fair. So, um, if they don't want the additional plantings, I'm going to I'd like to be sensitive to that. Um, but if they do want the plantings, we have the the monies and the capability to uh do that. And I think it would be a fabulous uh uh way to protect our investment in that sand.

I agree. Um then the other thing I just wanted to make sure we're not adding any sand on top of any protected vegetation now mangroves anything like that right there we do cover plantings will replant sorry there will be sand placed on top of mangroves on that south side but that is allowed for in the mangrove trimming and preservation act. We are only putting sand in that design template which is um permitted by FD and there is a clause in the uh mangrove trimming and preservation act that allows for that clarifies that

um you know we you know I've I've thought about maybe trying to dig some of those mangroves up and save them um and keep them going but it's uh we got a lot a lot on our plate and um you know we we had a lot of uh this isn't the first time where we have mangroves growing out on the beach and everybody gets all excited and hey these mangroves you know what are you doing you know protect them and then you know about a month or two um those mangroves are going to be very very thirsty and uh they're they're probably going to wither and die if they if those red red mangroves don't have that tidal pulse to keep them hydrated uh that that dry beach is just not really suitable habitat for them

but I I you know we do want to save all the mangroves we can and if we can uh mitigate and maybe transfer some here in there to uh to try and save as much as we can. I'm all for I'm all for that. Thanks, Chad. We trust that you and your team know what they're doing. So, we put it in your capable hands. Thank you. Anything else? That's it. Scott, [clears throat] what's the time frame on this project if we give the go-ahhead? So, you want to go ahead?

We have all the plans and specs ready to go. So, we just need your blessing. it'll go out on the street for bidding and then come back to council once we get uh responsible bids and get to work. Uh the volume is is relatively low compared to what we've done these little spots. So we're talking about maybe a 30 to 45 day construction window. So the goal would be to start March 1st and be done by April 15th. We can go to April 30th without raising red flags with everybody else. uh the the turtle time would have to start monitoring on the 15th and clearing the beach in case there's any early nesting. So again, the goal will be start March 1st, be done and off the beach before nesting. That's great. Thank you. We'll have shorebird monitoring on a daily basis as well.

That's all I have. Thank you. Just one caveat on that. The the project that's down south, um we separated those two projects. So the central beach is going to be a separate project that we will go out to bid. The one on the south we need to get going right away because shorebird nesting season and we've already done the hard yards with procurement. So, um I think I have a Yeah, we got the three quotes. It ended up being under $75,000 for that south end. So, uh we're going to try and do that very soon. Great. John, you you mentioned central and south end. Do you have specifics for people to focus on or areas?

Uh yes, sir. We can post those uh plans up on up on the website and I can work with uh Miss Abigail and and get those up so everybody's clear on what's happening and if there's any issues, we can get those addressed. Okay. Thank you. Um you mentioned that with our blessing, do you need something beyond what we're going to approve today then or? No, I I think if we can have that resolution to to direction for staff to proceed with the sand. Um, we are, you know, this this grant is not going to last forever. So, this is kind of our last chance to take advantage of these funds and get as much sand as we need and uh revitate as much as possible.

Well, you you both um been u very very uh stalwart in this and very busy and uh appreciate all your efforts as well. Thank you. You're welcome.

Yeah. Good job to both of you guys and all your entire team. you I know three five hurricanes in three years did definitely did not make your jobs very easy but and you know the community the patience I think you know we had a couple people that were not happy about some of the speeds of the trucks and things like that but for a project this size I was pretty pretty excited to see how few resistance we had when it came to getting that beach back. So I'm looking forward to getting this finished so maybe you guys could take a vacation or something. I don't know. He gives a thumbs up. Not you. You're never going to get a vacation. You're always going to be working. All right. Thanks, guys. Thank you. All right. Is there any more any more conversation or is there a motion to approve the beach recovery project as uh presented today? So moved.

Got a motion by councelor King. Second. Seconded by Vice Mayor Safford. No further discussion. U councelor King. I vice mayor Safford. I. Councelor Link. I. And I'm as well. That motion carries unanimously. Thanks, guys. [applause] Next is uh everybody kind of clear out for a second. Losing our fan base. You're assuming they were fans. [laughter]

Yeah, that just Yeah. All right. Next is uh item B. It's resolution 26-036 USC easement for Mantanza's past dredging project. This is a resolution of the town council of the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, granting a temporary work easements not to exceed 24 months to Lee County for use by the United States Army Corps of Engineers over portions of Hercules and Palm Avenues for the purpose of facilitating operation and maintenance work associated with the nearshore placement area for the Fort Myers operation operation and maintenance project Matanzas Pass, authorizing the mayor to sign the temporary work easements and directing the town clerk to provide a copy of the executed easements to Lee County for recording in the official records of Lee County, Florida and providing for an effective date.

Well, this is more Chad. More Chad. Okay. Yes. So, uh we have the Matanis Pass uh just for anybody uh just in case anybody's not aware of the project. So, every so often, uh Matanis pass is dredged. Is it Michael 200,000 cubic yards? 130

130 around 130,000 cubic yards. They dredge out of there. A lot of that material is beach compatible and we've been benefiting from that over the years uh maybe even over the decades um where you know our our central beach which is the nearshore placement um template they will fill that in that that area offshore and then that sand migrates which is why our central beach uh you know from like Lani Kai all the way to Junanu is so wide it's a little bit lowlying but it is very wide and that's part of that um nearshore placement migrating in and we are uh benefiting from that project. So, uh Lee County and Army Corps asked us for these easements. It's a uh asking for a 90-day window uh construction window over a two-year period. So, we're not saying that it's going to be a two-year project. It's just going to be a three-month project sometime in that two years whenever they uh press green for go.

Rebecca, any questions for Chad? None. Scott? John? Nothing. Thanks, Chad. Thank you. All right. There's no further discussion. Is there a motion for resolution 26-036 for USACE easement for Mantanza's pass project? I'll go ahead and move that. Mayor, I'll second. [clears throat] Motion by councelor King. Seconded by Vice Mayor Safford. Any further discussion? Councelor King. I. Vice Mayor Safford. I councelor Link. I. And I'm an I as well. That motion carries unanimously.

Next is item C. It is resolution 26-016 CDBD GR D CDBG DR pool engineering negotiation. This is a resolution of the town council, the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, accepting, rejecting, or modifying the ranking and determining opulent outlines LLC as the most responsive and qualified firm as recommended by the town manager and selection advisory committee based on the responses received to RFQ-26-02- for the Fort Myers Beach Engineering Architectural Services Bays Community Pool Rehabilitation Project, authorizing the town manager or designate to negotiate with the qualified firm and providing for an effective eight

excited after many months and much effort to finally get past the RFQ process and and Jeff if uh you want you have anything you want to add to this what we've got is we've got a uh the selection advisory committee has made a selection of u you know a firm for us to negotiate with to move forward with this project. So, uh, if I'm right, I think what we're asking for today is council approval for me to enter into negotiations with, uh, Opulent Outlines LLC to, uh, try and get us, uh, forward with the engineering process of this and and on to hopefully the project shortly after. Okay. Any questions you have? Jeff is ready to Jeff or Frankie can answer detailed questions. Yeah, go ahead, Jeff.

Yep. Oh, that's right. Hi. Yeah, I see the owners of uh are here from the company. Hi, Jeff Hogy, community services director. Um, I can answer any questions or we do have the uh the one that the the committee selected. So if you have any questions for them, they can I'm sure can answer whatever you you need as well. Rebecca, questions for um No, I have no questions. This is exciting. Uh very exciting. Uh I just do have one quick administrative thing. Amy, I'll give this to you. There were a few pages 202 and 212 that were hard to read in the packet. They kind of had wording on top of each other just to clean the record up. No, this is very exciting, Scott. Can't wait to work with you. Yeah, I'm I'm super excited, John. No questions,

Jeff. The only question I have is, you know, we've had a lot of discussions obviously staff over the last couple years on design and what's going to really happen there? Is there anything that we can share publicly that as far as design of is it going to be built back exactly the way it was? Are we going to enhance it? like we've had discussions over the last few years to come on up to make it more of a destination. We'll let the designers talk about that a little bit more. So, how you guys doing? I'm Jason with Opulent Outlines and got Good to see you again, Jason. Thank you.

Um, with the design with the design, um, the intent is that we to use the existing structure and then really bring it to life. um a lot of the existing um pools in the existing pool, the existing um kitty area, but bringing in new slides, new um completely new hardscape um kind of redefining the entire area and just really making it spectacular for everybody and you know, all guests, residents, everything. So, just try and take it to a whole another level, create a different experience. Yeah, it's exciting and looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with. I've seen some of your work and Thank and uh your design speaks for itself. So, I think the public will be really excited to see what you guys come up with.

Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah. All right. If there's no other discussion, is there a motion for resolution 26-016 for CDB GDR pool engineering negotiation? So, move. A motion by councelor King. Second. Seconded by Vice Mayor Safford. Any further discussion? Councelor King. I. Uh Vice Mayor Safford. I, Councelor Link, I and I'm an I as well. That motion carries unanimously.

Next is item D. This is resolution 26-017, North Tower CDBG DR engineering ranking. This is a resolution of the town council of the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, accepting, rejecting, or modifying the ranking and determining Tetrate Tech, Inc. as the most responsive and qualified firm is recommended by the town manager and selection advisory committee based on the responses received to RFQ-26-03- A for the Fort Myers Beach Engine and Architectural Services North Island Water Tower project authorizing the town manager would designate to negotiate with the qualified firm and providing for an effective date. Will

Yes, Mr. Mayor. As you stated, uh, the selection advisory committee on January 12th, uh, made their, uh, rankings of Tetrate Tech coming out first and Dunham Engineering, uh, coming out, um, second to be the most responsive and qualified to perform the required services. Um, I do have Jeff Frankie here to answer any questions specific about uh, about that, but uh, our recommendation is to move forward with Tetrate Tech for enter into negotiations with them for the North Tower project. Okay, John, any questions for staff? None. Scott, none. Rebecca, none.

Uh, the only question I have is is have we we haven't received the funding in any of these projects for the CVR funding, right? But they've been approved and the county has the money. It just hasn't come through to us at this point. Right. Good morning, Frankie Kapach, community development director. Um, to answer your question, sir, no. The county is in receipt of all those funds. They were guaranteed to these projects. It's not going to be taken away uh in any way, shape, or form. Um, so yes, we're proceeding as planned. I think it just was important to clear the record up. There's been some conversation out there that the county has not received the funding and we're still in the process of trying to get it approved and that is not the case. This is just the next step in getting those funds released to us through the design process. That is correct, sir. Yes. Okay. Thanks, Frankie.

Yes. If there's no other discussion, is there a motion for resolution 26-017 for the North Tower CDBGDR engineering ranking? So move. Second. Motion by Vice Mayor Safford, seconded by councelor King. Any further discussion? None. Scott. I. John. I. Rebecca. I. And I'm an I as well. That motion carries unanimously.

Next is uh resol is E resolution 26-021 RFP-26-04-FN financial auditing services. This is a resolution of the town council of the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, accepting, rejecting, or modifying the rankings and determining Malden and Jenkins as the most responsive and qualified firm as recommended by the town manager and selection advisory committee based on the responses received to RFP-26-04- FN for financial auditing services, authorizing the town manager or designate to negotiate with the top ranked firm Malden and Jenkins and providing for an effective date. Will.

So yes, uh Mr. Mayor, the selection advisory committee ranked the top three firms as Maldon and Jenkins, Citroen Coopermanman and Carr Rigs and Ingram LLC in that order. Um, and I think it was a good process, good selection. Finance director is here to answer any specific questions if the council has them. Rebecca, any questions for Joe? None. Scott, no. I was I was part of the selection committee and and it was fascinating that everyone on the on the selection committee had the same top three. Yeah. So, that was cool. Watch that. John, nothing. All right. Nice. Good job. Thanks. Easiest thing for you, Joe. [laughter]

If there's no other discussion, is there a motion for resolution 26-021 RFP-26-04- FN for the financial auditing services? So moved. A motion by Vice Mayor Safford. Second. Seconded by councelor King. No other discussion. Councelor Vice Mayor Safford. I. Councelor King. I. Councelor Link.

I. and nominizes. Well, that motion carries unanimously. Item F is resolution 26-019, which has been pulled. So, we'll move on to G, which is resolution 26-038, the second amendment to water meter replacement for geo geospatial positioning systems GPS data. This is a resolution of the town of council of the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, approving a second amendment to the agreement with National Metering Services to include the additional service of providing geospatial positioning system GPS data points and lead and copper service line identification inventory for all meters in the town's water distribution system in the amount of $96,900. Increasing the total amount of the agreement to $1,920,852. authorizing the town manager to sign the second amendment and provide for an effective date. Jeff

Jeff Hogi, community services director. Yeah, this again just enhances our ability um on the first part is about 64,600 for the uh for the GPS system. Um this will just help locate, you know, instead of having the water the storm water water department go out utilities department go out and actually dig and try to find meters after storms. Um, this will actually give us the exact location where we can go right away and do shut offs. Um, you know, so we don't have to shut off the main going in and then try to find out where the leak is. So, um, this cell cellular technology and these new meters is going to be great. It's going to be great for billing. This is just another enhancement that we can do um that we can just shut off the meters uh a a lot quicker. Um, the lead and copper is combines with uh FD and EPA. It's uh $32,300 for that uh that portion of it. So, uh just enhancing our our utilities and and water systems uh to comply with uh with some federal agencies.

I'll tell you, Jeeoff, I'm really excited to see this. I can I know personally and staff as well spent many days trying to track down water meters to shut off after the storms where you just see water shooting up in someone's property and trying to find through all the rubble where you shut that water off was a daunting task. So, this will definitely help expedite anything in the future. So, I'm looking forward to it. Becca, Jeff, I have a question. Um, will this help residents in any way understanding what's happening at their properties? Would you be able to do, you know, better testing or um administration without

This will help for the billing. We don't necessarily have to, you know, you see the utilities trucks going around and and doing billing. This will eliminate that with the cellular service. It's it's automatic, so they'll be able to see it on their phone, their water usage. Um, so yeah, that'll help tremendously. They'll actually be able to see it. So if they're if they're not home or they're they're up north or somewhere else, they'll be able to see their water usage from there. They don't have to call us and say, "Can you investigate?" So it's not only going to help the residents, it'll help our staff as well.

I've um Thank you for that. I've got a handful of complaints, but they're similar. Um, and I would love to see perhaps maybe if Abby would put something out when we get closer to this. This is a wonderful tool. We know so many of our residents are living somewhere else only to come back and see a big bill and and uh not know. But I encourage everyone to put these things on their app and monitor it. You're you're somewhat responsible for keeping an eye on your bills and things like that. So if that helps, that's going to be helpful to everyone.

Yeah. The utilities department we or the town only goes to where the meter is after that. it's, you know, unfortunately probably the is the responsibility of the residents. So, yeah, if they can see that it's on their end, too, um, or see that it's going up, we can check the meter and and, uh, then we can assess after that. Right. Perfect. Thanks. Is there anything on this app that will alert, you know, is there any algorithm that will detect what your normal usage is, say, as a resident, and then all of a sudden it spikes? You know, we all know leaky toilets. That's probably the number one thing that causes the water to go way up. Is there anything on there that will alert someone or send out a, you know, notice saying, "Hey, you know, I'm going to use a thousand gallons of water. Now you've used 5,000 gallons." Or you see that there's something that triggers that to alert you that there's a problem.

Yeah. I'm actually going to bring up Mark. Can you answer that one? Come on up. Yeah. Yeah. Come on up, Mark. Should I be just identify yourself for the record? I'm Mark Ashen, utilities manager. Um, yes, there is. You can It's a high usage notification. Okay. Okay. And there are limits that you said and that um the program will actually like you say sort of read what this account has normal usage and then if it gets over a certain percentage it will send out if they get an email um you have to sort of sign up for an email notification on it and then it will send an email to whatever email addresses that's on the account. That's great. I love it.

Thank you. Any other questions? Scott, questions for staff? No, the two two instances I spent two I knew where my cut off was. I couldn't find it. Um so this this is going to this is going to save I mean I spent hours trying to find where that was at the gypsy and it's a lot. So it's great and Mark thank you. Um it it's crazy they this system now they they can tell when at what time of day. So, I had a property that had excessive water amount and found out that the when they it was a new build, so they set the sprinkler on to run every day, four times a day. So, they they can see when that water is being used. So, it's it's fantastic.

That's a great point. And I think I would like to also for any of the public that is listening know that you can call in and you can get a report. I did because I wasn't sure if a neighbor was using my water or if I had a leak. And within 24 hours, I had a report that told me the water usage and when it was being used. And the advice I got was, you know, if it's at a certain time of day, you know someone's using your water. If it's consistent, which mine was, it had a leak. It really helps you get to the problem. But there are a lot of ways that these things can help as well as the staff. So that's all John. Great.

Uh, just a couple things. Mark, always a pleasure to see you. Um, your staff does a great job. I know I've worked with them um on issues of of leaks, especially around pools and condos. So, thank you for uh the good staff. Jeeoff, where's the funding coming for this? This is the water fund. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you. I just want to take a moment, Mark, to thank you. Anybody that doesn't know Mark, you see that's one of the hardest working guys I've ever seen. And when he's done working, you see him walking up and down the boulevard with his ankle weights on. and I don't know where you find the energy, but you are one of the hardest working people I've ever seen and I thank you for your efforts. Thanks, Dan. And just appreciate all your support. Just to clarify, that sweatshirt was brand new this morning. [laughter]

I have no doubts. Usually, you only get to see his feet sticking out of a hole cuz he's down in there digging. So, yeah, I don't doubt it. You probably just put that on at [laughter] 9:00. But, thanks everybody. We do appreciate customer. Yes. All right. Thanks, guys. If there's no further discussion, is there a motion for resolution 26-038 for the second amendment to the water meter replacement for geospatial positioning system GPS data? So moved. Got a motion by councelor King. Second. Second by Vice Mayor Safford. Uh councelor King. I vice mayor Safford. I councelor Link I.

And I'm an I as well. That motion carries unanimously. Next is item H. This is a resolution. This is resolution 25-022 for Angie Brewer Associates contract renewal. This is a resolution of the town council or the town of Fort Myers Beach approving an agreement between the town of Fort Myers Beach and Angie Brewer and Associates LC for loan and or grant acquisition and compliance services for a three-year term with a start date retroactive to December 9th, 2025 with the option to renew for two additional one-year terms. Approving supplemental task authorization number one in the amount of $359,990. Authorizing the town manager to sign the agreement and supplemental task authorization number one and to expand expand budgeted funds providing for severability and providing for an effective date. Will

thank you sir. Yeah, our partnership with Angie Brewer has been great and uh just continuing in that to help us manage our uh SRF loan and and and so forth. and I'll ask Joe uh to come up and and speak uh or just answer any direct questions council may have. Okay. John, do you have any questions for for Joe or Joe? Is there something you want to say before questions? Um no, I don't need to speak unless you would like me to explain further or answer questions. We'll start with questions and if there's anything left then feel free. John, just the usual. Where's the money coming from Joe?

Oh, for engineer. Okay. Um I'm Joanzik, finance director. Um this is funded through both the water and the storm water funds primarily storm water because most of their work um is involving um the storm water system and the repairs like tier one and those projects. So they do quite a bit of work behind the scenes for those. And so those are the funds that they would that would be drawing drawn from in order to pay their invoices. And then it's also reimburseable through their SRF loans. Thank you, Scott. That was my question as well. Rebecca,

I have a quick question, Joe, on the scope of their work. Um, are they applying for uh funding for us? Is that part of their scope of work and managing that whole process?

Yes, that that does include that. And they they have um found grants for us. like for there's recently like a $10 million grant that they found for us um that was been discussed and considered over the past year that may be a potential source of funding. It's gets complicated because it starts to interfere with FEMA and so if you know it's it's either one or the other is going to pay for something. So it's in the end it doesn't we find out that it's we're really not getting ahead because it's just one source of funding. But they are trying and and they do come to us with um grants that they are aware of and there there were um I think three or four that they came to us for over the last um contract period.

Perfect. Thank you for that. How's your I know you've spoke about it in the past, but how's your working relationship been with Angie Brewer? I know you've said in the past that they've been great to work with. Is that still the case? Oh, absolutely. They're very responsive. They they work very hard. there's it's quite complex what they do and um the one particular person that we work with has been very good in coordinating our meetings together with with FEMA with town staff with um the contractors that are involved and so it it's been very good they manage that those relationships for us along with of course our own staff. Very good. Thanks Joe.

Okay. Is there any further discussion or a motion for resolution 25-022 for Angie Brewer Associates contract renewal? So moved. Okay. Got a motion by councelor King. I'll second it. Any further discussion? None. Councelor King. I. I'm an I. Vice Mayor Safford. I. Rebecca. I.

Motion carries unanimously. Our last item is item I. This is resolution 26-035, the town council policies and procedures amendment appointments to the town council. This is a resolution of the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, amending the town council's policies and procedures manual to add section 13 for the interview selection process for appointment to a vacant town council seat in the event of a declaration of vacancy consistent with section 4.06 of the town of Fort Mary's Beach Charter and providing for an effective date. Will Tisa

Tisa while while you're coming up there Tisa and Nancy are going to help with this discussion Mr. Mayor but definitely we I agreed with their recommendations that we uh maybe come forward and discuss with you to add some structure and uniformity to the process uh that we're going to be going through. So go ahead.

So I'll start and then I'll lead right into Tisa. She did a lot of work on this and I do appreciate that very much. So, what you have in your packets, um, basically we find ourselves, um, on the 17th, uh, with a vacant seat on our council. And, um, the deadline, I checked with our our town clerk, today is 5:00. Um, to date, we have three, um, individuals who have come forward and expressed an interest in filling that seat. However, what's absent at this time is an actual process. And to keep it very orderly, transparent, and fair, um we felt we staff and I we all discussed that it might be uh beneficial to go ahead and um identify today a procedure that would be followed on the 17th. So there therefore there's really no surprises as to how we go about it. With that said, um Tisa and and I we worked on uh we looked in your procedurals manual and there you have a process for the selection of the town manager as well as the town attorney. Um and that's the starting point. So, in your packets on page uh 1,212 is an exhibit A which sets forth a um proposed starting point. Um you heard this morning some comments from um Jim Bowen regarding some suggested changes and um since the agenda was published, Will and I and Tisa, we've also um have a few things that we'd like to uh present to you to maybe modify that a bit. So with that said, I'll turn it over to Tisa and she can walk you through um a starting point of a process for the 17th.

Good morning. Hi, my name is Tis Olivera. I'm the human human resources director for the record. So essentially we wanted to um implement this process to help you build a framework so that we could keep the appointment interview process structured and transparent. Um what we what we have laid out for you um is that the each um each person applying for the seat would come up initially with an introductory statement of who they are, why they believe they're a good fit for the role, their background, their qualifications. Um we we see that as lasting about 3 minutes um each and um t the town clerk or the designate will they'll assist with the entire process making sure that each candidate is staying with the timelines and the questions as well. Um following the introduction we believe the town council should go through a structured interview process and that really is um dependent on how you would like to structure it. It could be as simple as we ask one question it or each uh town council member could ask one question each. Um that's up to you. Um and it's just important that every um every candidate is asked the same question. So uh following that process um there will be a deliberation a public deliberation of the um of the answers the candidates and then there will be a vote. So, for me, oh, I'm sorry. I did add a section in there that I wanted your um your perspective on if you think it would be uh helpful or not to after uh we conclude the interview process. And I do agree that having um kind of like a uh ask asking a question. The way I see it, I agree with um the gentleman who came up here earlier uh that it should be um you know, you ask one candidate and then

you ask the second and the third and then you go, you know, in that in that sequence so that there's not the unfair advantage that one person gets all the questions first and the other people have the time to to, you know, have more time to think than others essentially. Um, but I was thinking after the interview process to make sure we keep things structured and we stay on time, there could also be a third portion where if any of the town council members wanted clarification on one of the questions, they could ask the candidate individually on their answer if they wanted clarification. I don't know if you believe that would be necessary or not. I think it could be helpful uh to help think keep things structured. So maybe some direction on that and clarity on that would be helpful from you. Um but yes, then following the interview process, we have the deliberation. Um there is a vote and the majority vote would then um that that candidate would gain the seat. Uh following that we will have the oath of office publicly and then we um the town clerk and human resources plans to have an onboarding after.

And any questions?

I want to comment just on the vote. um you know the procedure rules that you have in place right now. They contemplate that um more than one attorney will apply for the um town attorney position and also more than one candidate would apply for the um town manager uh position. the process as you saw today. There could be a situation where there are multiple seats that are available where you would want to have some kind of ranking. Um because if the first person doesn't work out, and I'll use Will as an example, you know, he was number one. However, if there was no agreement on the on his contract, then we would have automatically gone to number two because they were ranked. If you only have one person applying for one category or one seat, um it might be more efficient just to have someone make a motion um because the maker of the motion is transparent and the vote would be transparent by a roll call vote as well. So, we've kind of gotten the uh the transparency issue um off the table and um we do have a situation where we have one member of council, John King, who's already expressed that he believes that he has a conflict of interest uh voting on one of the applicants. And that is my opinion as well. Again, it is an opinion. Um so if there were to be some type of um voice vote as far or not a voice vote, a motion made um at that point he would be able to declare a conflict whether uh whether he he believes that there is one

or not. um or if another uh individual is nominated through a motion um perhaps somebody else uh wants to declare but it's a little bit different and I think it might be more efficient. So I wanted to go ahead and put that on the table. Will and I talked about that and I think you were in agreement with kind of um simplifying it.

Yeah. Yeah, I was Nancy and if you could also I think we discussed that that might also address the concerns of um you know a three you know a 2 to1 majority or a 3 to four majority. It's still a majority if it's done in the manner that you're suggesting. Correct. that does somewhat um address some of the concerns that have been raised that I've heard and I think Will has as well that um you know not having all four of you vote on every candidate. Um but you know even if you did all four vote on one you still could have a 3 to one you know final result.

So is what you're saying is if if it ended up being a two to one that would still be considered a majority. Correct. Okay. That's one of the questions I had. But so if I can clarify this just for people who may be watching and as well as myself if I understood this correctly council would be are you speaking about if we would make a motion on a particular candidate and then we ran and then we do that for the next candidate and the next candidate. So it'd be a candidate by candidate motion as opposed to a motion to um but a candidate on the matter of

but a candidate by candidate motion would then um for instance I make a motion to appoint Amy. Amy gets a 40 vote. Is it really necessary to go ahead and make a a nomination or a motion for Tisa who would also perhaps get a four 40 four0 vote um or Joe who might only get a three vote? It it that's what I'm trying to clarify. Are you suggesting we move to that? I'm type or

I'm suggesting that because of the fact you only have one seat that's open. If you were to have two seats that were open, then I might go with, you know, the first um the top ranking of them, but you only have one at this point. So, it just seems that it would be more efficient, more transparent, perhaps even more equitable to um to just do it by motion. Would there then be a requirement for a second of the motion or would be just So, you would have It would be a typical vote. It would be a typical vote. So, if there was a motion for candidate whatever Yeah. If there was no second then that would

then it would die. Correct. And that's just in lie of having the ballots and then showing it on the screen because you only have one seat um to to make a decision about.

I guess I have a concern about that because we've just gone through that process with our committee and we had enough people in in in essence to fill it out. yet we went ahead and filled out a ballot, put it on a screen, and now for a council position, which in my mind is more important, we're not willing to do that. So, that kind of bothers me. We could have perhaps but your rules uh right now the where they written for your committees kind of requires that process. The um going to the overhead uh process the announcement of what each uh council member voted that was uh basically for concerns of transparency which I think we have addressed that that was raised by several um in the community. So, we changed that process to make it very very visible, very clear. Um, but realistically, if you have one person applying for multiple seats, it could just be a vote on that one person.

I don't see that as being more transparent and clear though than what we're what we've done uh already. Um, I guess I don't see it as more transparent what you're asking or offering. [clears throat] Okay, fair. Scott, looks like you're leaning in. I don't either. I I think the way we do it, you see all the candidates. You see who the council members vote for. It's super transparent. It's up on the screen. Um, so are you suggesting the ranking system similar to the No. Or just the way it's been done in the past? the way it's been done in the past. Yeah, I I'd be free to Yeah, I guess I don't It's just my opinion. I mean,

yeah, I don't I don't see an issue with it either way, quite honestly. I mean, they're both transparent. If you're making a motion for a candidate, it's the same as putting the name on the screen. But I understand what both you and Councelor King are coming from as far as putting it up there who voted for who, but I don't know. To me, it seems more efficient to do it in the way I think that the staff has recommended. But

you you also have um if we go the ranking uh route or option um you could have a situation where there's a tie vote and then you would have to have a second vote. Um, if you just go with one vote, um, and we can write your procedural rules either way because you don't have any right now. Um, it eliminates that second um, vote in the event of an tie.

So, you're you're saying the alternative would be a ranking method? No, the alternative would be simply for one of you to make a motion to um appoint Amy to serve on uh the town council. And if she got the majority vote, then the decision would be made. And if she did not, if it was a [snorts] 22, if John made the motion, say for Amy Baker and Rebecca seconded, and then you voted, but it ended up in a 22, then we go, the motion would die. The motion would die, and we wait for another counselor for an alternative motion. Make a motion for another candidate

and we keep we go until we get a majority on one of the candidates. It's still very transparent. Sorry, Mr. Mayor. Still No, that's okay. You know, the public is hearing the nominations, the seconds, uh, and then, you know, the way each would vote for the different candidates, you know, just

to me it seems like the same process, just one's verbal and one's on a piece of paper that gets read by the town clerk later, but to me it seems similar to the same process. And also would it be that that would help um when you have someone that has to recuse themsel they recuse themsel if there's a motion for someone that there's a conflict with but not the others is that that's I believe that that is also you know a benefit of this

here's what concerns me in that case although I understand where we're going in that case then only two if you've got four people now you only need two people to vote for someone in. And I tend to like more of the body to weigh in on that. I I think we're there's two ways to get to a result, but um that's what would be different. So if John can't if someone made a motion for someone that John had a conflict with or anyone I should say, then in that case you only have three voting in the body as opposed to four. So are you suggesting what both vice mayor and councelor Kang have suggested? I either way is fine for me. I think it gets us to the result we need to get to. But you know this is not something

one just may take us a couple rounds. One may not. Yeah. And that's how we've done. It sounds to me like you've got consensus or at least a majority consensus to do the paper like we do similar to

So we'll do it the same way that we do our committees and the same way that um the town manager and the town attorney are selected. That's another thing that I would I mean I know it was raised by Jim in the public comment as far as the equality of the questions and time to prepare. Is there a way that we can do it similar to that we we did with the town manager and the town attorneys where one candidate was in the room and was asked the questions and then went out while the other candidate came in and just to expedate you know to make it move a little bit faster so nobody got to hear what the other what the questions were. I think to me that shows consistency in the process of all three.

But That is true. However, I will tell you we've sat through lots of interviews u where you know we are live on on TV or on the internet. So just putting them out of the room did the same thing with the I mean that was that was really cool. We we all each of us asked one question. they they had a opportunity to to introduce themselves and then we asked all asked the same question

and I I think that that went really well because we I I gleaned when we were do doing I'm sorry I I [snorts] gleaned a lot of that. I mean I and and the public it was totally transparent. The public saw the questions. They were all the same questions. I I really like that process. I think if we could replicate that with this that that would be a win for everybody. Absolutely. And the candidates we um we had them in a room with our HR generalists. So there were no TVs on [laughter]

we were supervised supervised. We weren't on our phones. We were just so it was I I think I I agree. I think the process there was was very good and uh both also transparent but also you know it kept them from hearing the questions in advance. I do have another concern uh about asking the same question of everyone. This is going to be a unique u selection and not everybody uh I can't ask the same question of everyone because one individual uh I require some more information on specifically from them. So I can't buy into that u for that reason.

Is there a reason Mr. King that you couldn't ask that question of all the candidates. Uh it doesn't apply to all of them. Then their answer would be would be as such, wouldn't it? That's fine. Then I guess I can ask the same question of everybody and even though it doesn't apply. Yeah. Or, you know, we could, you know, I could work with you to see if there's a way we could ask the question in a more generalized way. Uh not a generalized. [laughter] Okay, understood. No, no, that's fine. I can I can do that. And then Tisa, will you in the past you've provided sample questions or HR has provided sample questions. Will you be doing that same thing and council members can choose to choose one of those or something?

Absolutely. If you would like I would I'm more than happy to help. I can provide samples and then we can have a discussion or if there's anything specific that you would like to ask, I can help with that as well. Well, I found it I don't think I used any of the questions you guys proposed, but it gave me an insight as to what you can ask and what you can't ask, you know, as far as there's certain things you can't ask questions about and there's certain things that you can. And even though I maybe didn't answer ask one of those questions specifically how it was written, it did give me some guidance. So, I I would like to see that recommendation from staff because for several reasons. one's it keeps us in the guard rails and [clears throat] two it gives us some insight as to maybe some of the concerns that staff has

for one of the people that will be giving direction to the staff. So I I think it would be beneficial but I'll listen to my fellow counselor to see if that is was it informative or was it helpful in your questions that you asked in the town manager and the town attorney in the past. John, I know you've been around the longest. [laughter] He's long in the tooth. Um yeah, no, I I agree. I found uh at least if nothing else it gave maybe a framework or uh generated different thoughts of of questions. So I think it's very good.

So I have a comment. I'd like to work with Tisa on some of those questions and the reason for that is you all have a very difficult job. um and just to be selected from the audience and to be asked to come and sit in a in a seat and make some very important decisions, especially since we will have some land use items.

Um we want to make sure that um the three or whoever applies before 5:00 today, um that they they understand and when they come and sit in the chair, they're ready to go. Um, and I believe that speaking with Amy, um, at the close of business early tomorrow that, uh, we would be reaching out to those that have applied, advising them of what the process would be so they have no surprises. um requesting that they do review the agenda for February 17th so that when they are selected they can um they can come and occupy the seat and we don't skip a beat in doing the town's business.

All right. Any other questions for Tisa or staff? I would just add uh to to NY's point too that we'll uh we'll make ourselves available to those applicants as well if they have questions of items that are on the agenda. Um just like we meet with all of you uh to answer those questions too. We'll make ourselves available for those discussions before the 17th.

That handles my trepidation. I I some great trepidation them just stepping up because it's there's a lot to digest. But if if you're willing to do that, I I'll feel a whole lot more comfortable. I mean, you I I trust you guys. I I think you you you and Mr. Brady, whomever it is, but it's it's a lot to digest. So, I I think you offering to do that gives me some relief and I I I'll be very h I'm really happy that you're willing to do that. Yeah, it's key. It's going to be key for sure. Yeah, this is a new process. Our goal is for it to be very transparent and so as long as Will approves, I'd be happy to answer any questions or help navigate.

And Telis, how many questions are you anticipating that we will ask? That is up to you. So for the town manager process, it was one question per council member. So in this scenario, there would be four four questions that we could ask each of them. Well, I think it's important to have a couple questions because one of the other council members may ask the same question that you're going to ask. I think I think would be fair as to each. I I I concur with that. I think if if there's maybe an administrative or or some other type of question, say one of the counselors wants to ask like we've discussed earlier, I think that's okay. Up to two maybe. Okay. Yeah. Two each. Yeah. Okay. You okay with that?

Yeah, I think that's fine. I think the more questions you can ask, the more it kind of narrows down the what the council would think would be the greatest fit. So, absolutely. And do you think the clarification session after the questions is helpful just in case there was anything that came up? Uh because we want to keep the the interview process pretty structured in the sense that you asked the question and they answer then following that if you had any clarification questions on their answer. Uh because we don't want because I think we did that then you your your issue would be addressed if I have a lot of issues Scott. I know [laughter] how you're wearing shorts is beyond me. But um

but it does say that you can't in what the scenario that you're laying out, it does say in the process that's here, you can't ask a new subject matter. You can expound on the one question that you asked or would that be any question? So say for instance, councelor King wanted to ask a follow-up question based on something that councelor Link said. Is that within the procedures that you see here or would it be specific to your question asked? That is up to you. My recommendation would be we keep it very structured where there you ask the question, they answer and then we leave it there and then you can create any follow-up questions you have and leave that until the next section. That way we don't get into too many back and forth deliberations and extend the process and then you might be asking new subject matter that the other candidate, you know, was not asked.

So keep it specific to the questions that you ask. Yes. If there if there is I like having the option if you need a follow-up question based on maybe there was just wasn't enough time or they didn't answer or you didn't get quite all the information that you wanted. I think having the option to ask that qualifying question is is is important but you don't necessarily have to use it if you don't feel that you need it. Right. Agree. So it would be similar to you know at the end of when you deliberate does anybody have any follow-up questions? We would just do that separately at the end. Um, and so yeah, I think it just gives you an opportunity to ask clarification questions, but not within the structured interview process, so you don't, you know, so there's there's not too much back and forth that happens and strays away from the process or the subject matter at hand. Okay.

So, would there be a time limit for the answers? Yes. Okay, perfect. I recommended three minutes. I know that's similar to what we do for public comment. Um, but I'm if you would like that to be shorter or longer, just let us know. Well, I think it's going to depend on the question, right? Yeah. It could be a very easy question or it could be a very long-winded question. So, right. I think having the flexibility to maneuver a little bit should you need to is important. Up to five minutes.

Yes, mayor. I wanted to mention that as well. Um, so your procedural rules, they are your procedural rules. They are your discretionary way of you want to uh conduct your business. This particular selection process is not mandated by state law or in your code of ordinances. So on the 17th if something comes up and we have to stray a bit from the adopted rules that's perfectly legal. Okay.

Um however today we find ourselves with absolutely no real guidance on how we're going to do it. Maybe based on past practice but memories might differ. Um, so I think we're I I appreciate your consideration of of adopting um you know a draft procedure that we can at least try to follow. I did go back and watch the video from two years almost two years ago when uh we went through this process previously and uh all we did was uh the folks got up, introduced themselves, talked and then the mayor asked if we had any questions of them and then we proceeded to a vote. So that's just sharing.

That would have been that first option I think that I tried to put on the table. But then the second option is to do it the way we did today when we had the one individual apply for the three seats that were open. So it it's discretionary in your in your part, whatever you guys would like to do. So, I think just to recap, have you got all the I think it sounds like we're going to go with the same format as far as selecting a candidate as the as you for as you do for your committees with a paper ballot and then the clerk will read it, announce it um and then you would take a vote to um to say that she announced it correctly. And and are we going to do just one selection versus ranking them like we did with Tom?

If we do the committee, it's going to be a rank. um you do have more than one applicant already. But in a committee, if there was three applicants for one seat, you would just select one name, not this one, not one, two, three in a committee. Whereas the town manager, it was Will and then it went down the list of the other four. So it's it it either way is fine. And I mean I if you think ranking it is better than just selecting one person. I don't personally I think just selecting one person would be better because of the fact that you eliminate a second tie vote. Yeah. Um okay. But it and that's fine. I just wanted clarification as to what

give us direction and Tisa will try to put it in writing and then uh we'll try to get that out to them tomorrow or shortly thereafter. So the candidates do know or the applicants, they know what the process is going to be. We'll all be familiar with it as well and it can manage the meeting very well on the 17th. So is everybody okay with that? You'll select one name if there's a majority in that first round and that would be the the person that takes the seat. If there's not, then you go to a second round and do the same thing all over. Amy's got the look on her face like, "Oh no." [laughter]

Yeah. I I don't care for that. I would rather the most people vote who can. That would take it down to two if we did it. Well, I think everybody I think all four council members can write down a name in this scenario. Whether or not it's all the same name is obviously up in the air, but it everybody still gets to vote. It just depends on I see where you're going with it and I understand. Well, the recusal I think is the sticky part. I I I mean I I can't that's up to councelor King and and and what they recuse or don't recuse themselves on. They have to make that decision. Not I agree. You know, it's not us.

But if you were doing a committee selection, there still could be a conflict with one of the individuals who have applied and then you would declare the conflict and you just wouldn't vote on that particular appointment. But it's a different scenario because we only have one seat. That's right. I I prefer that we do it the way we have done it, but that's just me. Isn't that what we're doing though? No, that's what we are doing. Can you clarify? I'd like to know what you're I think we're doing it how we do the committees, but maybe you see it a little different.

Oh, okay. So, that the motion would not be a particular motion for a particular candidate that then everyone votes on. It would be we have the ballot and then we that's how we that's that's how we've done it. That's how we That's what we're saying we do it. That's the way you're saying and the ballot to pick one or to rank. I think I think to pick one. Yes. Yeah. So, we're saying the same thing. Okay. So, it would [clears throat] be a paper ballot. You would select one name from the list. If there's a majority on that, then that would be the council member or the new council member that would be seated. If there's not, then you go back and you do the same thing over again.

I agree. [clears throat] Okay. Thank you. Because I thought you were saying, Nancy, excuse me, newbie here, that you were saying someone would make a motion to say I would like to appoint so- and so candidate A to that seat and then No, I think that was that was the suggestion from staff, but the consensus of council was that that's not the way they want to and that's okay and it works. Um, and I think we'll have a very orderly, transparent um decision and then we will just to continue on again trying to wrap a bow around this. There's a lot of talk that was going on. From there, the candidates will then be separated to a room that they can't hear the questions. We will go member by member that applied, however many it is, at this case, it's three.

Uh, we'll be asked a round of will we do both questions at the same time like we do for the town manager. I think that makes sense. You go down the line and then you ask the second question, then you bring in the next candidate and then the next candidate. Yes. Is that how everybody sees this going? Yes. And then the other thing is with the three minutes, I think to broaden it a little bit, maybe have it three to five minutes. That way, if again, it's a long-winded question. I I'd hate for someone to say, "Hey, it says three minutes and they were they went three minutes and 8 seconds." You know what I mean? Open that a little bit to to allow some flexibility. Or if they're under three minutes, that's nor do they have to speak for three. If it's a quick answer, it's Yeah, we move on.

Absolutely. But not knowing what the questions are going to be from the the council members, it I'd like to have a little flexibility personally in there to be able to expand. So perhaps you don't put a time limit and then if they go on and on and on and on, you can kind of give them the hint. Yeah. It's Yeah. Time to bring the hook. Yeah. For the town manager process, it was I believe 15 minutes per candidate for the question. So, you could also do like a total minute block where it's not, you know, per question, but you could say 15 minutes per candidate. Um, or we could just say as, you know, as advised by the town council.

Yeah, I'm I mean, I'm okay with not having any time limit on this. I mean, not I don't think any of the candidates are going to sit up there and filibuster, so I'm not I'm not too worried about that, but I just would hate to have any kind of confusion out there. No matter who gets selected, you know, there be some animosity. This person spoke for 3 minutes and 8 seconds and this one spoke for 3 minutes and 15 seconds and you know just just to is everybody okay with that? Yeah, I think it's it'll be easy. You got it. Well, we will remove the time limit. And also um could do you guys comment on how you're going to handle public comment just for clarity. Sure. I mean I have it in the process that there's a public comment before the interview process starts

on top of the three minutes at the beginning of the meeting. So they would have I'm assuming this agenda item will come after the public initial open public comment, right? Or would it be this be before public comment as it's laid out on the agenda? We can do it either way. How if you want it part of the opening three minutes, we can or we can put a public comment in this. No, I'm okay with it having the public comment before this agenda item. Is that in addition to so if someone feels they need to speak for six minutes are they going to have the ability to speak in normal public comment on maybe something else and not be No we we didn't have public comment for the town manager I remember we did if we didn't I don't remember we probably did

but there was also a meet and greet before and all that kind of stuff so I mean most people know the three candidates that and they'll probably talk to them but I'm okay either way again if they want to limit it to just the public comment at the beginning and not for the specific agenda item, but I I would want you to make a decision as early in the uh meeting as possible. Okay. Um so maybe you even do it after the pledge of allegiance. Um and then there's public comment regarding that specific item and keep the public comment after. Yes. For any other

for other things that are on your agenda. And then I'm okay with that. The first um item would be the approval of the final agenda. So you'd have a person sitting here making that vote as their very first vote. Um, makes sense to me in the seat. Yeah. So you have two public comments. One one specific and then Yeah, that's abroad. Yeah. You okay with that, John? I am. All right, Rebecca. [snorts] Yes, I am. May I have a quick question though again about uh the questions? Okay.

And maybe a suggestion. I'm not sure how we'll do all these questions things, but could it be a possibility just to think through with a group here, uh, if we had a handful of questions? Let's say you gave us a sheet and there were 10 questions or however many. Um, and then each of us could rank which questions were most important to us. Like this is my first, second, third. And then if someone else takes that question, I would go to my second or you'd go to your third. That's how we did last time. We have 10 questions. We already know NY's looked at them. They're good. Tisa's looked at them, but we have a list of questions that we can pick and choose from. Would that require another public meeting? Uh, would it? I'm not sure how share that.

Yeah, I think we wouldn't share it, but they bring it to us. I think Well, I think it worked really well how it went with the the last few times we've had to go through this with the town manager, town attorneys. You get a list of 10 or 20 questions from staff. if you're going to choose to use any of those, but you you know there's going to be one question that maybe you think is most important that you're going to read. Doesn't mean that Scott's not going to have the same one, but if say you go first, Scott's going to know that you're already at and he's going to go to his next question, right? Yeah. You know what I mean? That's kind of how we did. We we I probably picked out four questions and I think one I I don't there's there's a duplicate. So, I just went to my my next question. I like that. So,

yes. So I can provide the questions before the process so you can take a look at them and then you'll have like your predetermined list when you get in and then if somebody asks your question then you would just go to your second question and ask the same question of all candidates. I think it works for me. Yeah. Anything else anybody wants to add or change or modify? [snorts] Thank you. Thanks for this work. Thank you. Yeah. I think the public will enjoy having this this system. Can we get a vote on the resolution? Um, as amended. Yep. That's I was working on just making sure nobody had any other questions. All right.

All right. Is there a motion for resolution 26-035 for the town council policies and procedures, amendments, appointments to the town council as discussed and laid out today? So moved. Second. Got a motion by Vice Mayor Safford, seconded by Councelor King. Any further discussion? Councelor Safford. Hi. Councelor King. Hi. Councelor Link. I. And I'm an I as well. That motion carries unanimously. Next is final public comment. Anyone? Yes, sir. N. All right. Final p. That's great. First time in couple months for the final public final public.

Good morning, Craig Loose. Again, we want to thank you for your attention to the uh uh sand project. Uh um staff had a good presentation. The 30 or so people that came out last minute appreciated it. We appreciate your unanimous vote. I look forward to going home and emailing the hundreds of residents on the 7,000 block and show how staff and council work together to uh create this uh good good result. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Craig. We appreciate you emailing them all. Yeah, we we we don't usually answer public comment, but I I just want to make a statement that it was great that the entire you had a lot of people out here, and it's it's great to see our local residents involved and concerned and and coming to our meetings. It was great. Thank you.

Thank you. either of you two gentlemen have anything you'd like to add at final No. Okay, we'll close final public comment. Town manager items. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I I would say to the the the applicants, it felt a lot longer than 15 minutes uh when I went through it. So, just a [laughter] warning. I'm glad you said it because I was going to say you talked a lot. Will No, I'm just kidding.

Maybe it's my own fault it felt longer, but uh um thank you, Mr. Mayor. A few things for the council and and uh and public today. We're going to be uh going, you know, we have some processes that we use to uh to look for different um companies and contractors purchasing cooperatives that allow us to to look across a broad network of uh of companies that have been vetted um you know for us. And we'd like to expand to another one called Texas Share, which is going to um and Amy can talk in more detail here in a few seconds, but it's going to allow us to expand a little bit more that uh breadth and uh and menu, if you will, of companies that have been uh vetted for municipal contracts, municipal uh work um by a cooperative uh um in another part of the country. Um so, just, you know, we're wanted to make the council and our and our residents aware that we're going to be using another source like that, a civic market kind of place. Amy, anything to add to that?

Um, no. What Will said is accurate. You know, the more we can expand the possibilities of where we can, um, purchase these commodities, um, I think it's better. They go out and they they solicit a lot of different goods, commodities, services. Um, go through the whole vetting process and then we just have to, you know, piggyback on that. It doesn't change our procurement process at all. you know, we I was going to add that your procurement code already provides for um for this uh cooperative purchasing and currently the town has an agreement with Sourcewell. So, expanding it to another co-op um is very consistent with your code.

Perfect.

Um next, an update uh a short update on um Fort Myers Beach Elementary School and stuff. I know uh the school district made the announcement uh right or over the weekend that uh made the public announcement that uh um attorney Kathy Debris Bruno has le is leaving is going to be leaving the the the school district for another position in another part of the state. Uh they made the announcement to of uh who they're nominating to replace her for the board to consider. Um and uh just I we I'm we're still in negotiations. this this um I I expressed my concerns with uh the deputy superintendent about this possibly extending our negotiations, how I I don't want that to happen. I'd like to be able to uh continue at the pace uh hopefully a better pace than what we've been on, but uh I do understand there will be impacts. Just wanted to make sure that the council was aware of that change. Um and I can pass any questions along um if you have them. uh we are moving forward with our uh advanced digital tools as I discussed before and and one uh polymorphic uh is one we've is going to help us with special events workflow the uh the application and permitting process for special events uh I really feel that that uh that digital tool will will allow that process to go more smoothly answer a lot of the questions that applicants will have before it even gets to you know the uh the permit text and so forth and then when they get to there really it's a more robust and complete application by the time it does get to our staff. Um, and we're also looking at virtual assistance for both the website and uh and telephone support. Uh, we've had some uh some modeling of that. Pass the information along to Polymorphic. They're building a model for us. Um, we're going to have the ask Danny tool on both of our things. Danny the Dolphin on uh both of our our website. And then uh um but then the the virtual assistant telephone one will be a similar thing a similar tool but just over the phone. um

strategic plan draft. I'm going to ask Tracy to talk about uh coming up next month's M&P. Uh but staff is still doing some work on the strategic plan with our partners and then uh but just give you all a heads up of what we we'll be asking the council for. Thank you, Will. Um we are again meeting with USF as a leadership team. We will take all the wording that you had for your vision, mission, core values. um taking a look at goals and then objectives to bring forth to you as a draft for consideration in conversation on March 5th um after the MNP meeting. So looking forward to your vision. Thanks Jason.

And then uh I sent uh we had some discussions with you all over the over the past week on our plan for the 30th anniversary celebration. Um we're planning on uh for March 6th uh celebrating the 30th anniversary of our great town. Um starting off at Bayside Veterans Park, um Veterans Memorial where we'll have some uh comments by some uh some leaders of the town and uh and we've got we're getting ready to send out some formal invit invitations to some uh elected leaders around uh the state and and for our local area to come and speak. We'll start there with those comments and then um Tracy's been working with uh our historical uh society as well as the arts uh groups around the town. We're going to have alongside old San Carlos historic photos progressive, you know, of the town and some artwork by local artists of the town and our area here where people can walk and mingle as we move up Bayside uh Veterans Memorial on the way up to Time Square where we'll eventually end up in Time Square to have some more uh leaders discussions uh comments by leaders and then a talk uh by myself and I'll I'll talk with you, Mr. mayor on kind of our vision, you know, visioning of the future of Times Square in that area of the park. That's our concept as of right now. And of course, I I wasn't done yet, but thanks for the reminder. Um, [laughter] we are going to recognize the long-standing tradition in the town by uh having cupcakes uh to be handed out at at the end of the ceremony. And we have spoken with the ladies who've been involved in that process before. As much as they are able, they're going to participate uh with us. But the town is also we're gonna make sure that we have uh enough cupcakes to share with the public and uh um we're entering into a partnership with a great town partner Tuna Skin to help us with a limited edition 30th anniversary shirt uh that will be available as well at the end of

the ceremony there. Um so um finally before I'll let you ask me questions at the end. M&P this week. Uh we have a couple of items on there I think are interesting. A discussion the donation policy that I've been working with uh staff and with Nancy on and then a discussion regarding uh flood panels which I know many of you have asked uh asked us to address. So we're planning on having a discussion at the M&P on that uh this Thursday. So depending your questions that's all I have for today. Rebecca, any questions for Will? Well, will the road be shut off when we are between Veterans Park and Time Square or will it be open for traffic to come? And

a portion of it will be the portion where we're going to be having that those displays. Um, but not the whole road. Okay. So, there will be a time we'll have direct people onto the sidewalks as we move up to the to Time Square. Uh, but our director of emergency services is working with Lee County uh sheriff's office and we'll have that all worked out and facilitated and safe. But uh we didn't we're trying to minimize the impact of the businesses. Sure. Uh down in that area as much as we can. Scott, any questions for Will? Uh I know we had spoken about this last month, but is there is there a date when we're going to have um Mr. Yazo's team down at that stoplight or is we just kind of play by ear?

Yeah, we're we're we're it's case conditions based at this time, I would say. Uh uh councelor Safford definitely he's got his team ready and trained and as I mentioned uh previously he's got uh uh Commander Uler has and the the Lee County Sheriff's Office have also allocated some of their uh um auxiliaries to assist us as well to work with our rangers down there. So um yes, we're we're ready to respond as needed. Okay, thank you. Yeah, that's all I have. John,

no questions. Um, the only question I really have is, and I know we've talked about it, but there seems to be some growing concern with the time it's taking to get development orders, things like that through the process, and I know we've had a change with planners that have left. Can you give the public an update as to where we are as far as shortening some of that? You know, it seems to be increasing, which is not the course, I think, that we want to be on. Uh, and I know we're limited as far as getting staff in here, but is there any kind of update you could give any of the public as to how we're going to try to write that ship, I guess, for lack of better terminology?

Thank you uh for the opportunity, Mr. Mayor. I would say uh staff is working very hard and and I think the process is actually um better uh but understand that on a case-by case basis, it may feel sometimes that uh that certain things are taking longer or being more difficult. We are addressing that. Um, as I have told you and others is we're addressing it through a couple of different means. Um, trying to uh bring on some more staff which we have. We thanks to HR working with community development and the team they have we've brought on um another planner associate planner right uh to help with things and uh we're that allow that has allowed the community development director to uh um shift some of the focus of some of the planners to allow some of the bigger more difficult projects to go to those that are more qualified more experienced in those allowing others to work through some of the other other plans and then as a team as well just having more eyes on the projects um with great oversight from uh the the the supervisor and the director. Also, the tools that we're bringing on board. Um Govwell, we started with the Govwell system a couple of weeks ago. They first came in for onboarding of that, which thanks the council for approving that contract. And Govwell is going to allow more um integration across the different systems uh and allow uh faster access to some of the materials for our staff as well as for the folks on the outside when we get it fully on boarded. So, that's one thing that we're using, not quite up to speed yet, but I know it's going to address some of those concerns in the future. Um, I would add I I address that, you know, there are times when uh the staff does the review, sends back their their questions, insufficiencies, and we would prefer if all of those answers came back together in a packet as opposed to one at a time. one at a time tends to slow the process down because then the staff response goes back and they they wait they have to wait for an address to that specific question that specific directive. Can I

jump in there real quick just on that part of it? Is in the past before the storm it was,

you know, someone would send something in and environmental would reject it. It would go back and then it would come in and then instead of looking at the entire totality of the project and making comments from environmental from from uh you know all the different departments that have to review it instead of reviewing it as a project whole and then sending it back and saying here's all the list of things that we have found in your submitt. Are we still continuing to do it that way or have we gone back to environment? We'll just use environmental because that's the first one that popped in my head. But, you know, it goes through environmental, here's our rejections, they fix that, then flood reviews it, and then flood kicks it back. Or are we not we're not doing that path anymore. We're still doing the full review to go out to come back. And the reason I say that is is some of the complaints that I'm hearing from some of the developments that have been approved is that as we've transitioned, whether people have left for whatever reason, the reviewers, it doesn't seem like there's a lot of consistency, at least in their eyes, of know where the guard rails are and what how one planner interprets the code versus how another person interprets the code and it's in the middle of the process. And I think that's what where some of the frustration is coming more than the process itself is opposed to an opinion on how planner A versus planner B viewed the code.

I would like to echo that sentiment too because after the storm that was one of the biggest things that the town council fixed is it was like a it was like a pickle ball game is like here's the ball was going back and forth over the net. And one of the things I I wasn't on console then, but I think one of the one of the best things you guys did was made sure that these these reviews are done in full, not this piece, that piece, this piece, that piece. So, I I want to echo that sentiment that I want to continue to I would like to see that the entire thing's reviewed ABCD and then not, oh, hey, we forgot about F. So, I I hope we're we're continuing on that path. So, I'll let you Sure. I can address both of those things very simply. Again, Frankie Garpachic, development dire uh community development director. Um, basically what we've done is it really

had very little to do with staff and how we do staff. It was what staff was looking at what. Um, so when projects come in, they come in through the planning and zoning department and they get split up. They get split up based on the need for what needs to be reviewed and and addressing why one was kicked out for this, one kicked out for that. We do a insufficiency letter. We should be doing and we do about 99% of the time based on the packet. So what we see in the packet we're addressing all those things. What happens [snorts] nine times out of 10 is we'll get one response back from the person that's doing their traffic study. another week, we'll get another tr uh response back from somebody that's doing their their engineering. Um those need to be addressed at the same time only because we're looking at the totality of the project. We're not looking at just one little aspect. They all kind of tie together. Um the the absence in the projects as far as one being reviewed environmental here and then all of a sudden it gets kicked back and all of a sudden this we did have a little lapse where projects were coming in and not going right to Chad for the environmental. they were going to access and having their broad brush planners looking at the environmental as they apply to uh the town of Fort Myers Beaches codes and there we had a little discrepancy with about two projects going on with that.

Let me ask you a question on that Frankie the I guess I'm trying to understand how the process I sounds like we're doing exactly what has been efficient in the past and sending back any rejections all at once. Are we requiring the applicant then to respond to all of them or are we letting them do what is the direction we're giving to?

So, we're working with a current project right now and the current project that we're working with um for lack of a better term is just all over the place. Um you know, we'll get a response back to an email sent uh to one planner. Uh response back to oh, I left you a phone message uh to another planner. So, we had a meeting with this group uh about a month and a half ago and explained every developer on this island, big or small, we ask, we send you the insufficiency letter. We ask that those responses come back to us in that order, in that packet. We give you a packet, we want the packet back. We don't want hodge podge here and there because that's where things really get, you said about keeping in the guardrails. all of a sudden that same planner who's working on multiple projects is like, "Oh, I got a response back, but uh yeah, I'll get to that." It's not cohesive. We need to see that addressed in a packet. And that's how we keep our planners on on track. That's how we keep everybody in that process on track.

Okay. So, it sounds like you were encouraging the development, whatever they are, whatever the to come back with full responses to a full response from staff if there's a rejection or insufficient letter sent out. That that is correct. And to add to that, we also have like a rather large development that has changed the course of its path over the last year and a half. So, you know, when those changes come in, that takes time, too, because now you're looking at stuff where did you answer the question from a year and a half ago or is this a whole new thing because you're going in a different direction?

So, there's there's great pause put into that as well. And again, when you're talking a staff of 10 people for a town of our size, we're already a larger department than we ever were before. Um I I think and I expressed this to the town manager and deputy town manager um that we are far above where we should be as far as some of these things. It's just we have to um reply and adapt to what we're given and we give them out the packet, we expect that packet back and that that's kind of the the plain and simple part of it. Okay. Well, yeah. I mean, it takes two to tango, right? So, I understand there's always two sides to a story.

Glad Well, there's usually three, but yeah, I understand your point. Yeah. Okay. That's that's good clarification because I think the more we can let people know, it's just, you know, when we get and I'm sure my fellow counselors get it when when you get whether it's a homeowner or it's a commercial project and they're like, "It's been four months. We haven't gotten any communication from the planning staff. Can you help us get an answer?" That's where it becomes concerning, right? four months is a long time and I know that it's very difficult. I know we in the past we tried to do on residential 14-day things it's it's impossible I would think on on commercial projects but if we can figure out maybe better ways to to bring that down and what I've noticed in in you know when we have to sign off on things that come through whether we talk about here sometimes it'll be three four five months before I'll see something that we made a decision on and that stalls us it stalls the developer it stalls the resident and I it so there's a few things there I'm hoping we can figure out a way to to condense that. I know some of it's and I think NY's talked about it in the past is there's been issues between what our interpretation is based on the policy decisions [clears throat] and what theirs are and that's what kind of delays some of this. So, I think we've been trying to address that to narrow down what exactly we mean when we're saying our policy decisions so that the staff has a clear path forward to say resident A or developer A, this is what was said, this is what it means and if they go back and forth then that is on them. But hopefully we're we're getting closer to where you're getting the right direction from us to not create that confusion and the four-month lapse and signing resolutions or ordinances into

No, we've we've definitely helped that and and Nancy's been instrumental in getting that process really going and streamlining too. But to to Will's point earlier, our new software that uh nothing is a magic elixir, you know, but uh it'll take us from where we were in the stone ages with the current software we've been using before the storm and after the storm to basically in a fair field uh as far as other communities in our area. In fact, one step above because it'll be AI generated. it'll help us, but you'll be able to see each particular step, what each particular planner or reviewer is going through and what they're dealing with on our side, on the inside. Um, and we can relate that better in situations like this where

I only ask is that there's a way to rename the hyperlinks. It's driving it's driven me nuts for 5 years to be able to all that is going to be redone. We have words to figure out new words public interface on our on our web page between our uh the community development department and that's ongoing right now. So we're we're getting there. Good. I'm glad I wanted the public to know that we are discussing it because sometimes they send things in and they don't think things are happening but the wheels are moving and and progress is happening. Again, I'm always the person to you know I'm I'm I'm the one who takes uh the responsibility for that department. So they can always reach out to me as well. You got it. Thank you. Thank you. That's all I had. Anything else, Will? No, sir.

Thank you. You have anything you want to add? You sure? Okay. Town attorney items.

Okay. Two items very quickly. Um on Wednesday, Khloe Barman, uh who is an attorney with our firm, um she'll be joining me for an evidentary hearing before our code enforcement magistrate on the White Sand project or foreclosure. Um, so if you're around town hall, I'd like the opportunity to introduce her to you. I know she's had some interaction with some of our staff um on the procurement side. I think perhaps the land use side as well. Um, and she's just delightful. Um, the second thing is just I want to wish everyone a happy Groundhog's Day. Uh, John, any questions for Nancy? No.

Scott? Rebecca? Nope. All right, council member items and reports. John,

um, made the long journey to Tallahassee last week and it was cold journeys. Well, um, I did not wear long pants except when I wore my suit, so a suit. I guess I have more than one. I don't know why, but [snorts] um, it was an interesting uh, process. Um, I did get together socially with Representative Batana, uh, Senator Martin and former interim town manager Chris Holly. Um, and that was a a fun and good time and always enjoyed seeing Mr. Holly and and the other two gentlemen as well. um did get to meet one- on-one during the day Tuesday with Representative Batana and expressed uh our what we uh are asking for from the state uh which I don't think is a lot and honestly a lot of folks don't think is a lot uh with the phase two of the downtown storm water improvement and the uh road infrastructure improvement uh I think we know that Representative Batano will always be there for us u So, it it was good to spend time with him. I did not get to meet one-on-one with Senator Martin formally, uh, but I did express those needs and desires as well.

Very good. Thank you for the trip and hopefully uh you had some fun. There was a couple of nice restaurants downtown that uh Chris and I were able to enjoy. So, yeah, I could tell you a couple to avoid. Well, we can we can compare notes later.

There you go. I just wanted to add on to John's uh report. Um I got a red alert this morning from Becky Vos um asking me to let you all know about a bill that's going through. It's committee substitute for Senate Bill 948 um which is creating the Florida Starter Home um act. Um just very quickly, it is the preeemption of all preeemptions uh for your zoning and land use approvals. Shocker. Yeah, it's once again taking away home rule. Anything else, John? No. Scott,

John, I want to thank you uh personally for for representing us up at the state level. That's uh I know I know it's a lot of time and a lot of work, but thank you. Um, my only report is uh I've I've been officially um put on the TDC and my first meeting is next Thursday and I'm really looking forward to it. And as well, happy Groundhog's Day. It's not a fake holiday. It's actually the day between the solstice and the equinox just like Mayday and Halloween. So, it's been celebrated for for millennia. So, happy Groundhog Day. Rebecca, no items, mayor. I do not have anything either. They've all been covered. If there's nothing else, John,

in the mortal words of Don Mlan, February made me shiver. So, bye-bye Miss American Pie. If you know, you know. Move to adjourn. Any objection? We adjourned at 11:18.