Town Council - Regular Meeting

Well, I had the great pleasure of being at the unveiling of the arches with yourself and the Vice Mayor. It was a really great event and wonderful to see something that's permanently going to be there that speaks to the history on Fort Myers Beach. So that's all I have for now, Mr. Mayor.

Yeah, I want to echo Council Member McLean's sentiments. It was great. I never had it on my bingo card that I'd be at a historic marker dedication, but it was really neat. And kudos to the team that put that all together. It takes a lot of patience, a lot of willpower, and special thanks go to Alex King's group. his foundation, because he donated a lot of the money for them. The guy that made those arches wanted people to know that when they arrived here, they came to some place really special. And this place is special. So even after the hurricane, we got to look even more toward our past to

Just briefly, it was nice to see the community turn out to honor and recognize Brian Thomas and support Don. Good man and he'll be missed.

This is the way it's supposed to work. Thank you.

Yeah, fantastic work. Thank you. John? Thanks, Beverly.

No, not at the moment. Thank you, though.

No, but thank you for volunteering. Scott?

No, I don't. But each and every one of the people that volunteered, we really appreciate it. Because we need to get all the best minds on the island together to make sure this school is viable and will be successful. So thank you. Sure.

John? Like everyone else, no questions, and I'll echo what they said. Thank you for, and everyone, for coming forward. Thank you. Thank you for being here this morning.

Can I ask a question? Certainly. Will this be something similar to the Charter Committee where we were able to have members that were either ‑‑ I can't remember the right word for them, but they weren't ‑‑ Alternates. The alternates. Thank you.

Yeah, no, I understand it. I think the reason I asked specifically is, you know, obviously a couple of them got a lot more interest than the community engagement and the educational were kind of oversubscribed, right? And my thought process would be that having a maybe not part of the core ad hoc committee, but giving an opportunity to participate in some way could be helpful. That's all.

I have a question, a follow-up. Would it be a problem if Let's say on the education, we had more than three choose it as their first. Would there be any reason that we wouldn't allow more? Would that be a conflict in any way?

I appreciate that point, Nancy. think that the having more members and therefore increasing the number required for a quorum has presented problems in the past. So I think we should keep an eye on that, too. Keep it limited. Okay. I'm good. Thank you. Scott? Sorry, Rebecca.

Are you okay with three on Rebecca? Yes, I am.

Yeah, that makes sense. I was thinking if people are willing to be on more than one, but That makes sense.

I have no issues, thank you. Well, at least with that.

So you're saying stay engaged with the committee?

Sorry, the three that were available were Paula McCarthy, Sherry Skipper, and Walter Cheatham, correct?

I move that we appoint those three members to the education portion of the project. I'll second.

Amy, wasn't that Deborah Grohl moved up there?

And I might also add that I spoke with Albert yesterday and he said it may be difficult for him to serve on two to consider that.

We've got three different documents up here. So we'll be doing Deborah and Denise on this one. Yeah. Or Deborah or Denise.

It won't matter to the town after talking to Nancy. I think we'll publicize it, but you might want to check with the library board attorney.

Madam Clerk, which two are we choosing between?

Ready? Yes. Okay. Um, this is the second vote for community engagement. Council member link, uh, Deborah girl.

David Zammett is already on a committee and he just said he only wants one. He only can do one.

I've signed my name differently every time, but each one has been legible.

No questions, but thanking Dawn again for notifying her neighbors and getting them all on board.

Yeah, I look forward to it. It was really great last year.

Yep, cool last year, so I'm looking forward to it again. Thank you.

The deductible then for automobile liability and worker's comp remain at zero, that's correct? That's correct. Thank you for your efforts on negotiating, I appreciate it.

No, good job negotiating. I've heard that rates have gone up pretty much across the board, around 13% nationwide. So kudos. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, sorry. Great job. I've heard nationwide that overall insurance rates have gone up about 13%. So to get it under 10 is fantastic. Thank you.

Yes, I would say the same thing to Lisa. Just like you did with the health insurance, thanks for negotiating. One would have never thought you could, but thanks for trying. Thank you. And there we are. I appreciate that.

I echo my fellow council members, and I believe you stated previously that if you go out for bid on too many of these in a row, that it can actually hurt you. So negotiating directly when it's an off cycle, great work. Thank you.

What roughly general percentage savings would you expect buying through this contract?

I'm good. No, thanks, Jeffrey, and welcome back.

Thank you. Vice Mayor Safford? Yes, welcome back. That was my question. Thank you. Councilor King?

Yeah, Jeffrey, welcome back, and thanks for doing this. It makes total sense to me. Thank you.

But it sounds like somebody wants to try out some new tools.

No, but I love this stuff. Thank you, both of you.

I'm sorry, the funding comes from where?

THE OTHER ONE. THE OTHER ONE, YEAH. THIS WOULD CONTINUE INTO 27 AS WELL.

I guess so I'm clear then the 90,000 that we're asking is retroactive to August and then we'll continue through 27.

I guess I thought I heard that was something through next year as well. So we're 90,000 for two months then, basically.

No, you said through the end of the fiscal year. Oh, fiscal year.

Thank you. Which ends? September 30th. September 30th. Thank you. A couple weeks. That's clear. Thank you.

NOT A QUESTION SO MUCH AS A STATEMENT, I GUESS, GETTING BACK TO THE FPL FIASCO, ESPECIALLY WHEN I SEE WHAT WAS REPORTED AS THEIR ALLEGED LOSSES ARE CONSIDERABLY LESS THAN WHAT THEY WANT TO CHARGE US FOR AND NOW THEY HAVE TO DISCUSS WITH THEIR ATTORNEYS WHETHER THEY'LL GO FORWARD INTO THEIR ORIGINAL CONTRACT IS JUST BEYOND MY COMPREHENSION AT THIS POINT, I GUESS.

Yes, I have a quick question, Town Manager. The CRA discussion, will there be any opportunity for additional discussions with the public, with the community, so that they understand how their tax dollars may be used? This is not something that's understood by a lot of folks.

Yes, I'd ask you as well how we're doing with Kia Stero.

Great. Thank you for the update, both of you.

Last Friday I attended the Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization board meeting. Lee Tran had a report, and I'll share it with you, that hurricane damage repairs remain underway at the Fort Myers Beach Park and Ride. Repairs are expected to be completed by fall of this year and are funded by the FTA Emergency Repair Grant. Leetran is promoting the use of the beach park and ride while repairs occur at locations along the beach. The park and ride on Summerlin Square Drive is a great option and offers more than 125 free parking spaces with bus service to the beach every 30 minutes at half

Yes, I attended the Governor's Conference on Tourism last Friday. Great event. Got some great takeaways. And then Wednesday I'm attending the pre-budget, the legislative luncheon. Very good. Councilor Link?

Yes, I would like to ask the deputy town manager, Tracy, if you could please speak to the ad hoc committees for the charter school and let everyone know that this is a part of the feasibility study and determining how to go forward while we also ‑‑ I'm sorry, Scott, did you have something? While we also ‑‑ march towards an application we're running in parallel we are not leaving the community out or council out of making decisions but if you could speak to that I think it would be helpful for the community.

Thank you. I do appreciate all the work you've done, and I'm sure you'll bring it up at budget hearing, but you've also held aside a little bit of money should they need some support that we hadn't planned or thought of that there would be a budget, a small budget for them.

Right. Thank you. Thank you for all this work.

I was going to put this under advisory committee reports, but since we were selecting all those appointees, we had an audit committee meeting last week.

But we had attendees, and one of the asks was that we, on our next M&P meeting, have talked about the audit committee, their function, their roles, what we'd like to see out of them more than just selecting the audit committee. I mean, the auditor. So I asked Will if we could put that on the M&P for next month. Just want to say they're willing and they want to get to work and help out. There's some good talent there.

Town Clerk, could you kindly tell us what committees we could use some help and we'll try to recruit?

Can, are you still accepting applications?

I've got one other question. This question has been brought up several times. Is voting registration a requirement for the LPA and audit committee?

No, no. That is one of the qualifications. I thought it was always you've got to be a property owner or a resident. word out there that you also have to be a registered voter. I don't think that has anything to do with whether you're a resident with property.

Thank you, because I had one... person come up to me and said he'd consider being on the LPA or putting his name in the hat. But he had heard that, so he didn't apply. So if we can find out, that'd be great.

So the two where I know for a fact we require that you're a resident is audit and LPA. OK.

So something that's actually connected to all the discussion that we've been having about the ad hoc committees, I spoke to Will about it and I wanted to see if potentially it's something we'd want to talk about during the M&P as well, which be Removing or reducing the requirement for these committees to be staffed by seven people to maybe five. The challenges that the audit committee and others have had in establishing a quorum has been with a seven person committee, you require four to be available, right? And if it was, if the requirement was four or five, then a quorum would be three. I'm

That's what I thought. Just put it out there and see if it solves maybe some of the problems that we've been facing.

Yeah. Maybe just add that to it's all related. Yeah. It's all related. It's all related.

Uh, well just on a personal note, um, uh, as you all know, I've decided to withdraw my candidacy for council for next year. But I did want to take this opportunity to really thank council for the opportunities to serve the community over the last almost four years now on the LPA as well as on town council. I greatly appreciate that. It's been very fulfilling and rewarding. And I look forward to continuing to be engaged with the town. Just the level of commitment that I know it takes from all of us sitting up here wasn't something that I felt I could honestly feel strong about my ability to be

If there's nothing else, John? In the word of words sung by Hoyt Axton in the country song Wild Bull Rider, Aloha A, Aloha A, Aloha A, Aloha A. With that, I'll move to adjourn.