Town Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you, Mayor. Vice Mayor Safford and I had the pleasure to attend the 26th annual Elaine McLaughlin Outstanding Hospitality Service Awards put on by the Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau. Six town employees were nominated for the awards. There are Aaron Adkins, Sandra Breitez, Skylar Henry, Lisa Hollywood, Seth Jacobs, and Barbara McDonald. Erin Adkins was also an honorable mention winner in the other services slash business category. And I just want to say congratulations to all these employees and thanks for all they do. Also on Friday, I had the pleasure of attending the Fort Mye

I'd like to echo both those sentiments. It was fantastic, the E Awards. I am so proud of our town. Out of all the towns, cities, and municipalities in Lee County, we had the most nominations, and that says a lot for our service. It's a great reflection on you, Will. I mean, great. It was an honor to be there and to represent Fort Myers Beach. I'd also like to thank the Chinovskys, and as well the peer committee. It started as Let's Go FMB, and the peer committee just took off and ran with it. And if you can see what unity can do, working together, and Alan and his wife are for sure the MVPs, b

I WANT TO ECHO THE SAME THING. ALLEN AND CINDY, WE MET EARLY ON IN THE LET'S GO FMB AND MOST OF THE PEOPLE ON THIS COUNCIL WERE A PART OF THAT ORGANIZATION WHEN IT FIRST STARTED. BUT NOT ONLY DID THEY SPEND A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF TIME, THEY DROVE ALL OVER THE STATE. They looked at peers. They took notes. They made presentations. This wasn't just a committee that you work on for a few hours. This was a lot of time, a lot of gasoline, and they also spent a lot of their own money. So I want to thank them as well. Thank you.

I really don't have much to add to what everybody said. It was amongst many of us part of the Let's Go FMB and to see Alan and Cindy really take off on the pier was just something to behold up and down the entire eastern seaboard. So I just want to echo everybody's comments and say that That type of citizen response immediately following the storm was something to behold. And it's something that we need to embrace because that's the best of this community. Thank you.

I would like to make that motion, Mayor. I appointed or sent the letter in for Don, and so I'm happy to do that.

I'd like to nominate Kevin and Joy Sullivan for the Heritage Award.

No, but thank you. I read John's email. It was very detailed, and that input's going to be great for us going forward. So thank you for all your hard work.

Yes, I want to thank you as well as the whole committee. This is a perfect example of what an advisory committee is there to do. You've spent hours, your team. analyzing, thinking about things we don't have the time to think about. So a perfect representation of an advisory committee. Thank you to all of you.

YEAH, NO, I AGREE. I THINK THAT THE EXPERIENCE AND PASSION THAT THE COMMITTEE SHOWS COMES THROUGH. AND, EXCUSE ME, I'VE HAD THE PLEASURE OF SPEAKING WITH JOHN QUITE LENGTHILY ABOUT HIS THOUGHTS AROUND THE POOL, AND I HOPE THAT WE TAKE ALL OF YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS UNDER ADVISEMENT. THANK YOU.

Elizabeth, may I ask a question? Elizabeth, is there any storage room in that building currently planned? One of the things that I'm thinking about is we have residents who will request Oh, what is it called? We have buggies for people who have trouble getting to the beach. So there are chairs, I think, with the big balloon tires. I'm thinking of some of the other ADA equipment that the town owns. I'm wondering if there is a storage place there. It might be a great opportunity to have them request them. We can give them to them. They return them there. Just a thought. Yes, I think we could acc

Elizabeth, when you spoke about the security, is that whether or not the restrooms lock in at dusk or something like that, or what sort of considerations?

Not really questions, I think feedback. I understand the historic nature of the building, but that doesn't remind me so much of what was there existing. I kind of echoed the mayor's comments about more of a natural roof line or something that is... I see the environmental vision... I think we can pay homage to the building that was there through signage and education material, but that's a personal opinion.

Okay. Elizabeth, something that I would ask that you consider as well as the town staff that is involved. I had a resident reach out to me a while back with absolutely wonderful ideas. There is a community of tourists who go to different places based on their availability of events for autistic children actually there's a there's a whole range of people and once you show the world that you are one of those places they flood to you in the summer time when they're on vacation because they know that we are thinking about their children they have some special needs she has given me wonderful examp

Scott? Thank you, Elizabeth. You've answered all my questions. Good work. Thank you.

Just to briefly, I think I heard you touch on it, and it's probably not fair for you to have to answer all of it, so maybe the town manager can weigh in. But I know in the past when that property was acquired, the state helped with that, and there are certain things that we need to meet, and I want to make sure that those are being met.

Looks like we have public comment on the agenda.

I wanted to give you a chance to get your glasses on.

I think in addition to the staffing costs, we've heard about the operating costs, the increase in water, electricity. I shouldn't say water, but electricity bills, pumps, things that can break down. I don't know if you have that priced out separately that we can weigh that as an idea separately.

Perfect. And then one last thing is a question perhaps for Will. Will the grant, the CDBGDR grant, allow us to add these extra features that were not there and be a I should say an eligible expense. I think that is something we need to be very careful of.

Perfect. Thank you. That's my number one concern.

My questions are we need to have those in the front of our mind at every decision point, and then we can make those appropriately. Thank you.

I have one last question and then I'll let you continue. And this may be for town management as well as joy. We like to keep our community engaged. Um, we know that there are parameters. We are, you know, we're not going to give up the grant money. Nobody wants to do that. So we have parameters, but, um, have you worked with the board cab folks at all? Is this the first time, Joy, you're seeing some of these plans? How do we interact? And when, if it is appropriate, do we show some things to the community? And are there opportunities to get input or it's kind of locked down? Just thinking abou

And in addition to that, like we asked the folks at Newton Park, if you could consider work with us to look for things that the pool may have that speak specifically to children that are autistic. That could make one more place that we have a destination for those types of families. That would be wonderful.

Yeah, no, aesthetically I think it looks beautiful.

Sorry, aesthetically I think it looks absolutely beautiful, and it looks like it would be a real... not just an asset, but actually become a destination for visitors as opposed to the residents in the community, a much greater participation. One of the things that I absolutely agree with the community and board cab feedback loop and having an iteration that allows for great ideas to come in. And something I'm thinking about as well could be opportunity for the things that are unique about Fort Myers Beach around being a marine environment and whether there's opportunities for even an education

Joy, right behind you is your gal today.

I was just hoping that they wouldn't swivel all the way back to where the parents are sitting.

Jason, how about speakers for music or announcements? Is that built in?

Jason, when you said bigger, before you go on, when you said bigger, is that changing the footprint?

Is that allowable, Will? We need to know that before we continue. yeah so far we've received no pushback from county on that but we can i can verify that i'd almost like to have that in writing from them that they they are okay with that because that is changing the footprint okay

Would that be an added cost or a reduction? Is that completely separate?

But we are working with a set budget, are we not?

And that would be included in all that? Yes. Okay, perfect.

Thank you. I guess maybe a concern about when I'm hearing a reduction in the lanes, I think one of the things, the thought behind the competitive lanes was to bring in competitive swim tournaments or meets. I don't know if there's a minimum that they need. I'd hope we look at that because I think that would be a way to help monetize the pool and help some surrounding hotels bringing those teams and tournaments and things like that. So I'd hope you'd look at that if there's a minimum there. Also, just a thought off the top of my head, a couple weeks ago, having attended a Florida League of Citi

Scott? Yeah, I think he's correct about the blocks. It's got to be a little bit deeper. I'm going to take his word for it. Yeah, I've got my grandkids coming to town this week. I wish we could go there. Soon enough. From a timeline standpoint, if you guys can get together with BORCAB and make some refinements and then assuming everything's afloat, what's kind of your plan? target date for completion?

Okay. And then construction, permitting, construction, everything else, what would be a good target date to shoot for for opening?

Yes. Jason, what are the different milestones? So we're at the 30% review. What are the additional milestones?

Okay, so these milestones are within our contract. They are separate from Lee County milestones that we may have to meet. That's good to know. So we're closer to the 90. You'll get together with BORCAP. And then what would be the next one? You said engineering?

and then construction yeah perfect um my last question is um around um the waterfalls the structures and staffing do we know i'm not sure if you know this answer neil maybe you have some input or will I'm worried about, because kids can hide behind them, will we need additional staff to make sure they have eyes on every area of the pool? How will that change our staffing needs? Do we know that, or is that still something we need to discuss?

Because that's something that I'm not sure if it would need to get in the budget this year, but it's something we are going to have to ask the community if they are willing to allow us to add staff and the expensive staff because they see the value in this beautiful design. Neil, do you have any comments on that that you would want to add?

Well, that's something I want to keep us in front of mind because we are asking our residents every day, is this service worth it to you? And those are things we'll have to keep in mind. So I thank you, Neil. I'm sure you keep that in the front of your mind as well as we'll. That's it for me, Mayor.

No, I don't have any further questions. I think that feedback is going to be important, and keeping an eye on the operational issues is critical.

So given the timeline, we're talking eight months to a year, does that change our 27 budgets since our budget ends in September?

Councillor King, any questions? Could you explore or explain a little more about what you want from us as far as wasting away, what that would entail? Because that is paid parking that could be some money, income for the town during this time.

Yes. Um, so those, that would be 22 spaces for three days.

Do we have the financial impact of that? I think on the previous application I saw that there was none. I think there's a dollar figure we can say that we are waiving.

Again, we're asking our community to pay for this. That's all my questions for now, Nora. Thanks. Thank you so much.

It's hard to ask the community for more taxes. I just want them to know.

I don't think it's the event or give up three spaces, Mayor. I'm sorry, I don't. That's fine. It is. I mean, these people have funds. They have generously donated a lot of money to our organizations. That's wonderful. That's wonderful. I just want to know what it costs the taxpayers. That's all. Okay.

I'd just like to say I think the cost-benefit on this is an absolute no-brainer.

Yeah, this is the second reading of this. We reviewed it previously. Looking, the goal is to provide uniform guidance to all of the advisory committees. I want to recognize that this initiative started with Chris King as she was the chair of the Anchorage Committee. And still is, thank you. But as she assumed that role, she recognized that there were not clear directions for how the committee should be operated and the types of restrictions that they would have, et cetera. A lot of this information was absolutely included in our ordinances and code, but it wasn't in a consumable place that wou

It's not that there is changes in any of the regulations. It's really just a clarifying document to ensure that everyone understands how these boards should be operated, truly. So there aren't any

Yeah, I'll just say I think my wife did reach out and already has answered some questions from the local press. And I think she shared that information with RPIO and with our town attorney. Also, yeah, what Will has said, I think this is a great asset. I know somebody contacted me that recently got on a committee and they were just struggling to figure out what how they needed to prepare, how to prepare, what was expected of them, those kind of things. I think this will be a tremendous asset, so thank you.

I have a few. Yep, go ahead. So I, too, want to thank Chris and John and everyone who worked on this. I love when people know their roles, especially me. One thing I'm wondering if we could add to this, perhaps for the staff liaison role, is that when the committees are meeting and discussing things, they can understand what part of our strategic plan they are discussing. And then as a counselor liaison, we can come back and say this is misaligned or this should be reconsidered so that we don't start work going down a path that the whole community and everyone has already signed off on in our

It's good for the committees to know that they are working in alignment with everyone else. Thank you. That's it. Great work, too. Thank you, John.

No, I'm good. Thanks, Jason. Great job with the FROC program.

Yeah, I was wondering, how does this integrate with the FROC?

This is something you should all be proud of. I see we do training. Do you do tabletop training or scenario-based? This would probably be right up Whale's Alley.

Nice. Thank you, Jason. Good work. Thank you.

I think it's great work, obviously. It continues to improve our responsiveness and our ability to... rebound much quicker to these events so fantastic job and we don't want to have any of these have to be enacted but at least we know what to do when we're yeah it's one of those jokes that a lot of our planning we we hope that we don't actually have to use it but in that case at least we have it prepared so

I think for Talisa, actually. Have we benchmarked our, I understand that it's about retention and employee the very important part of the entire compensation package and how we can attract and maintain, retain our employees. Have we benchmarked our benefits packages against other towns and where do we sort of stand on that?

And when do you expect that you'll be able to run that?

I think it's really in this very challenging time, and I do want to say I very much appreciate consolidating the plans in order to unlock further savings that you wouldn't see otherwise. Believe me, I think that's fantastic. The typical benefits plan and the employee contribution of it, I would really be interested to understand what is typical in municipalities such as ours. Because I do know coming from the corporate world, the employee contribution part of it is much more significant than it is here. I was surprised by it when I learned about it. But I do understand that there are differenc

OKAY. THANK YOU. AND I'M SORRY, I FORGOT YOUR NAME. Athena, so you mentioned that you've seen some plans that are going up 30%, 40%, et cetera. The 11% increase, where does that stand in the other customers or areas that you're working? Where does it sort of fit in?

You had referenced the PwC report that said nine percent. And so we're.

Thank you. That's helpful. No further questions.

Yes. So, Talisa, I think it's fair to say that the insurance, I think maybe you answered it, the insurance renewal runs the same calendar year as our fiscal year or close to it. Are you speaking of how our claims run against our fiscal year? No, signing up for a new package. Are they 10-1 through 9-30?

Perfect. So then can I assume that these numbers that you shared with us are in the fiscal year 27, 26-27 budget?

Vice Mayor Stafford. John asked my question. That data would be fantastic to have.

I think she answered that for me when I asked her. Thank you, though.

Councillor Kane. I guess my question is more along the process. When I'm going out and getting bids on my car insurance or my house insurance, do that every six months to a year, I get so many and then I whittle it down. Is that what we've done here, or did we just start with two and negotiate it from there?

Okay, I guess I kind of understand that because the sad part of going out as a person to get a bunch of quotes is you do that, it dings your credit. But I know in the past we had, through the Florida League of Cities, the FMIT, we had to move away from them because they were too expensive. I don't know if that would still be the case or not.

Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve resolution 26-175.

Yeah, Mayor. Not a discussion as much as a thank you. I know this isn't easy every year. It's very time-consuming, but I appreciate, Lisa, how you have always handled this, looking out for the taxpayers and trying to get the best not only for our employees but at the lowest cost for our taxpayers. So thank you.

Yes, I do have a couple, so I'm glad that screening was done at their charge. About the value, who values the donation? Was that the donor as we require in our policy that they assign the value?

Perfect. Okay. And did we also follow our donor policy or perhaps this one was even before we had our donor policy in place? No, the donor policy. Isn't donations over 10,000 come to council?

But I think that was prior to us coming up with that donation policy. So that is... No, that donation policy has been in place.

I thought that donation policy was new that had been in place.

No questions. Just thank you for the donation.

Once again, since this is for sandbags, I hope we don't have to use it. From your lips to God's ears. Amen.

Councilor King. Yeah, I guess this is almost kind of embarrassing. I think we need to do a better job of getting handles on things before they come to light, I guess. This is something that we should have known before it was brought to us. So I'm sorry, but I'm disappointed in that.

Yeah, I want to echo that, too, because I was the one that asked the direct question. If we had a budget, it kind of doesn't look good. So I hope that if we are going to walk something on, that we've got all our facts straight from the get-go.

Yeah, same. I think sometimes walking on is a good thing, but it may mean we skip a few steps because we're anxious to do something, so... That's my comments as well.

I accio my fellow council members. I do have a question. Was there any cancellation fees or anything from the provider? No. Thank you.

So just to recap, we don't actually get the funding. The funding is reserved for us, and we get paid as we have invoices submitted to the county. Is that correct?

So that leads to my question, Carolyn. Thank you for the way you've laid that all out. It's beautiful. So this, I'm sure, is in the 26-27 budget or will be considered. I believe it will be, yes. Okay. My next question to you would be cash flow. So we would assume that we have enough cash flow coming in so that these expenditures could go out, but do we need to know that we have it all right now? Or do we look at it like there are different times in the year? We get ad valorem taxes more during certain quarters of the year. We may have more expenses. Is that making sense? That does make sense.

PERFECT. THAT'S EVEN CLEANER. THANK YOU.

The exclusions for the kayak launch and the observation deck at the mound house, I'm just interested why those are called out specifically?

And the types of maintenance activities that this would entail?

Just the type of high level. High level, it's not beach and shoreline. But the one great thing is the TDC, we had a budget meeting back in April, I believe, and I think we're just $1,000 short from that $800. So there was a lot of cities that asked for money and didn't get it, and we pretty much got $99. percent of what we asked for. Thank you for your work on the TDC Scott. You're going to try to get the money back, right? So for sure. Um, but no, that, that the main reason is, is the mountain house was not beach and shoreline.

Yeah, just for the record, the budget for the TDC for beach and shoreline was 12.9, almost 13 million, and we got almost a million of that back. And we were... We're able to do the budget without tapping into the TDC's reserves, which is huge. So I think the entire TDC did a great job recommending the beach and shoreline projects that we did have countywide, and we were a great benefactor of it. Well, obviously the pier is something that... Well, that's where the reserves... That's why we don't touch our reserves because... A lot of that money from the TDC came from the reserve fund. And a lot

Mr. Mayor? Yes? Just to echo on what you said, I think it's very important in lieu of what's been happening this month that folks be reassured. Carolyn, I think you did a great job today. Thank you for that. And working and talking with Will over the past few weeks, I have no doubt that changes and processes are in place to ensure that things are done accurately and on time. So thank you.

I just want to say this, that I think it's a misnomer by some, not everybody, that it's a paid vacation that we have two individuals on, and having known these individuals and seen how they busted their butts for this town, that's not accurate. But I understand the concern about employees being on a paid administrative leave, and Mr. Town Manager, it's your town to run, but I don't know if there's anything that these individuals can do as far as working from home that could still make a contribution to this town, and I'll just leave it at that. Thank you.

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road. Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go. So make the best of this test and don't ask why. It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time. It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right. I hope you have the time of your life. With that, I'll move to adjourn.