City Commission - Regular Meeting

Go ahead and get started with this regular commission meeting for Wednesday, September 9th, 2026. I'm going to please ask the clerk to call the roll.

Here. Right. Here. At this time, we're going to go and do the invocation and the pledge. I'm going to ask Commissioner Howington, if she can please lead us in that, and also the honoring of the veterans.

I pledge allegiance 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. And if the commissioners can please join me on the floor. I'd like to call Jason Volz forward, please. So tonight I opted to honor three veterans, and unfortunately, just after 6 o'clock tonight, I found out that two of them would not be able to make it this evening. However, Commissioner Caldwell has been gracious enough to do the honors for those two at the next meeting. So we have Army Sergeant Jason M. Volz and Sergea

I'll let you keep that. And then I have this certificate of recognition that I'd like to present to Jason Volz, Combat Engineer 21B, U.S. Army, in recognition of dedicated service, sacrifice, and commitment. Deep gratitude is extended for your contributions in defending and protecting our nation. We thank you for your service. Signed, Mayor Santiago Avila, Jr., September 9th of 2026. Thank you for your service. Yes.

All right, this time we're going to go ahead and go into additions and deletions. And Deputy City Manager, and then we'll go to Commissioner Howington.

All right, hold on. Can you click on your microphone, please? Commissioner Howington?

I'd like to get a consent to add an action item to tonight's agenda for the ratification of the District 4 appointment to the Planning and Zoning Board. This action implements Article 3, Section 1 and 5 of the Planning and Zoning Board bylaws adopted by resolution number 2025-55. Those provisions authorize each commissioner to appoint a member subject to the commission ratification and require a vacancy to be filled within 60 days. The District 4 vacancy occurred on May 4th, 2026, and the application process was completed. And we are officially at, I believe, 128 days of a vacancy where the Di

All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? All right. This will be action item 9D as in David. City Attorney, is that good under action item? Yes, Mayor. Okay. Commissioner, I'm getting there. 9D isn't David. Commissioner Caldwell? Did you want to do an addition or deletion?

I want to do an addition. I was going to do it for this evening, but I think after discussing this with the attorney, I'd like to add it to the next agenda, which is Resolution 2025-26 to assure that that resolution has been rescinded. This is the agreement between Aloha Estates and Enrico.

So this would remove the accepted plot that was brought to the commission at that time in agreement with the bonds and all that and the conditions?

All those in favor to have this added to the next commission meeting, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? All right. Thank you. Vice Mayor Villavazquez?

Thank you, Mayor. I don't know if this falls on the, I don't see the NAACP proclamation request on item E, on item B for request for recognitions.

City Clerk, do you know if they send one in? They usually do.

All right. All those in favor, just adding it in Section B under the consent agenda. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Okay. That's it? Yes, thank you. All right. At this time, we're going to go to the consent agenda item. If I can... Please get a motion and then a second and we'll go to public comment. Commissioner Herriot.

I'll make a motion to approve the agenda or the consent agenda as presented.

There's a motion by Commissioner Herriot, second by Commissioner Naubeck. Is there any public comment on the consent agenda? No, sir. All right, there's a motion and a second. Can we please vote? motion passes five to one oh can we can we there's vice mayor villa vasquez is missing on that it didn't even pop up all right while they're fixing that can you do you mind doing a verbal Hold on, I'll get to you. Go ahead. No. So the motion passes five to two. Want us to do it again?

Let's see. Okay. Mine didn't, yeah, I had to hit mine again.

All right, the motion passes five to two. All right, at this time we're gonna go to action items. 9A is an alpha, request for approval resolution number 2026-79, adopted the tentative millage for fiscal year 2026-2027. Sorry. Well, it's all the way in the bottom next to the footer, so that's my fault. Eight, ordinances and public hearings. A is an alpha public hearing ordinance number 16-2026, amending section 7-30. City Attorney, can you please read that into the record? And then Jordan will do a presentation, and then we'll do public record.

Thank you. This time I'll entertain a motion before going to Jordan. Commissioner Novick, you're on here first.

I make a motion to approve ordinance number 16-10. 2026, amending section 7-30 definitions, section 110 through 321.

Commissioner Santiago, you're on next? Second. Okay. So we got a motion and a second. Jordan, please go ahead.

Before we go to public comment, this is a state requirement, a preemption from the state, correct?

Thank you. That was the only one. All right. Commissioner Caldwell, I see your.

Go ahead. Yeah. Question for Jordan. One is, I just want verification, you stated that it's always been administrative?

You and I were talking in the comprehensive plan coming up about including green certification. Could this be applied in this here also? Requiring green certification?

What this is, is for a certification, a green certification. Green certification. Meaning that they would up the standards of their building and be certified.

This is intended to be a workaround. It's intended to up the standards of the building in the area.

And the last question is to Tara's comment there on the height. Is that a state requirement?

So that would mean the Halifax Hospital would set the standards, and as long as they developed within a mile of each additional construction, they could go nine stories all across the city, basically?

Thank you, Mayor. So the DRC gets to review the plans, and they get to say if it's a go or not?

So the DRC can't even say this program or this project is not?

Okay. So actually, we have no saying in this. whether we approve, we say yes or no, it's still gonna go according to the state's regulation of how they want it.

All right, we're going to Commissioner Howington and then we're going to call for a vote.

In December of 2024, we had opted to require vertical construction with commercial on the bottom floor. How does this change that requirement?

So it would preempt that judgment that we made on that. Correct. Thank you.

All right. Can we please go ahead for a vote? We have a motion by Commissioner Novick and a second by Commissioner Santiago. She got it. The motion passes five to two. All right. At this time, we're going to go ahead and move to action items 9A. And I made sure that I didn't skip another one. So we have a request for approval resolution number 2026-79, adopting the tentative millage rate for fiscal year 2026-27. Mr. McKinney, we'll go to you before we go to a motion.

Mr. McKinney, please do your reading, and then we'll go to a motion, and then we'll go afterwards to presentation and then public comment.

All right, this time I'll entertain a motion for section of the tentative millage rate 9A, then afterwards we'll do 9B, but right now we're concentrating on 9A. Commissioner Santiago, you're on here first. Thank you, Mayor.

So moved. Thank you. Commissioner Harriot, you're up next.

All right. We have a motion by Commissioner Santiago and a second by Commissioner Harriot. Is there any public comment? No, sir. All right. Do you want to go ahead and do your presentation, and then we'll go to the commission for comments.

Thank you, mayor. All right. So I have Commissioner Howington that's on here. A lot of that stuff really kind of belonged to the budget. Unfortunately, it's all mixed in together. So let's stick to the millage rate. And then when we do the motion and stuff on the budget, we can mix everything else in. So Commissioner Howington.

Thank you, Mayor. So given that we do have the potential for losing a lot of revenue through property taxes if this amendment passes, we need to be conservative. And I know that we always put the tentative millage rate before the budget because that's required by state statute. It's a little backwards because if you end up voting no on the budget but you vote yes on the tentative millage, you're still collecting those funds from the residents, whether it's being allocated to something in the budget or not. As part of the consent agenda, we just approved increasing stormwater fees by $20 or app

All right, we have a motion and a second on the floor. Can we please call the vote?

The motion passes five to two. All right, at this time we're gonna go into section nine B as in boy, which is a request for approval resolution number 2026-80 adopting tentative budget for fiscal year 2026. City attorney, can you please read that into the record and then we will give it to Mr. McKinney to do his legal required reading and then we'll do motions and then public comment.

Thank you. Commissioner Herriot, I see you're on first.

Thank you, Mayor. I would like to make a motion to approve Resolution 2026-80, adopting the tentative budget for FY26-27 as presented.

There's a motion by Commissioner Herriot. Commissioner Santiago, I see you're up next. Second. Second by Commissioner Santiago. Is there any public comment? Yes, sir. Pat Blodgett, please.

Yeah. I want to talk about, I was too in that meeting that Robin referred to in the beginning. In fact, they even went on to say that most likely the city of Lake Helen would cease to exist and Deltona would shortly follow. As a longtime residence here, I know that the surrounding cities depend largely on commercial taxes, whereas our unique city of Deltona and Lake Helen don't have that option. I'm very concerned about all the fluff that we have in here to include the events that we have budgeted in here for this next year. I can't see approving this myself at this point.

Alright, let's go ahead and go for a vote because there's nobody else on so. Motion passes 4 to 3. This time we're going to go to Section 9 D. 9D as in David, election of the District 4 PNZ rep. Commissioner Howington.

Thank you. I move to appoint Timothy Belagia as the District 4 member of the Planning and Zoning Board.

Commissioner Caldwell. Second. Commissioner Harriot. Got it. All right. Is there any... We do public comment on this as well, Gemma? Sorry, Ms. Torcivia.

If anybody in the public wants to make a comment, you're welcome to. No? All right. Can we please vote? Motion passes six to one. All right. City attorney comments?

All right. Commissioner Novick, we're going to go start with you with Commission comments as we went the other way last time.

yes as a result of attending the aac affordable housing convention this year i was able to sit on in on a presentation with in regards to ai expediting permitting process here in deltona i've since entered into conversation with the city manager and staff in regards to this where we've reached out to some of these companies what my request is is we get a presentation by one of these companies if not several at the next meeting Do we need to get consensus on that?

All those opposed? All right. Thank you. That's it. All right. Commissioner Howington?

I'd like to say thank you to the city manager for correcting the stanchion issue that we had and helping to prevent us from having ADA issues. I do appreciate that. For the fourth time, I'd like to request that we get an ADA presentation. If I can get consent for that, I would really appreciate it. Our residents have been asking for it.

I don't wanna speak. All those in favor for that consensus?

I've given clarity on the past three times I've asked.

What the city has implemented. Obviously, we just heard a complaint this evening that the ADA email is not working, the ADA phone number is not working, so we need to make sure that what we're doing in the community... is efficient based on what's required by federal and state requirements. And what have we done? Because I know that we have done things to help the ADA community, and it would be nice if we could tell the community what we've done. This is not supposed to be based on individual needs.

Our ADA program that we do here in the city. How it works, how people would reach out for assistance.

Just for clarification, the situation, the city clerk has said that has been fixed. So emails are not working, got it.

Thank you, Mayor. Really quick, there are a few events coming up this weekend. One is the amphitheater concert. I do know that Saturday the weather is not going to cooperate. So if we do decide, probably by tomorrow, to reschedule that event due to the weather. Right, Mark? Okay. And that's all I have. Thank you. Have a good night.

Commissioner Harriot. Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to get consensus from the dais to ask D Ranch and Conservation Florida to come and do a presentation on what they have planned and have asked for an echo grant for at the next commission meeting, if we could.

That'll be based on their availability, right?

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to, I hope I don't lose my voice right now. I just want to let everybody know that on Saturday, September 12, we have an event called Festival of Nations right here at the courtyard. And we currently have 11 groups from all over the world representing their dances, their music, and it's from 11 to 4. It's free admission, and everyone is invited to attend. It's right here at the courtyard, Festival of Nations, and I see that Albert left, but we do have the Native American Apache representing in this event today on Saturday, so please attend. It's going to be really

Everyone have a good night. Thank you for being here. Meeting is adjourned.