City Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, let's call this meeting to order. Jeremy, would you mind doing the pledge?

Sure, would you please stand and face the flag? 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.

Pastor Keith Capizzi with Club Zion will be filling in tonight for the invocation.

Motion and second. All in favor? Aye. Motion passes 5-0. We've got some public comments. Here we go. These are items that are not on the agenda. Janice, would you like to go first?

You said that was 10 o'clock? Yes. Okay, Saturday, 10 o'clock, the candidate forum at the library, thank you. Let's see, Rick Anderson.

Thank you, Rick. And we have been talking about CRA funds for beautifying and streetscaping Brevard. So we've been thinking that as well. And I agree with you on the lights. Orson.

Thank you, Joe. All right. All right. Any other public comments? All right. Public comments closed. Staff reports.

Brad, are we able to do, instead of a Monday-Tuesday pour, can we do a Saturday-Sunday pour so there's not as much conflict with the school traffic?

I mean, I think that sounds kind of more reasonable, considering how much people drive through that on Monday and Tuesday.

And this is just validating the same test that Surf Riders does?

So we're talking about specifically the E. coli testing or what all are we looking for?

And I may just not be following, but my understanding was the testing that we did was primarily looking at E. coli and established that the spots that would not have been affected by the spill were at the same high level that the spots that were of concern and that they were actually at essentially the same level.

So if we test that and find that it is consistent with the levels that we saw and probably the levels that Surfrider saw, Would that tell us that that was that effectively that is the standard level of the canal or do we have a basis for interpretation or I guess a Ecole model of the canals and the lagoon that we could use to interpret the data I

It doesn't seem like he's got the vote, so it doesn't matter. I didn't know. I'm concerned that it, well, my prediction is that it would come back positive. And similar, I think Surfrider's is.

Well, let's hear what Josh has to say, which way he's going to go with it. And then we can argue with it afterwards.

I have a question from Brad. From an experimentation perspective, you want to gather a body of data, make a prediction, test against your prediction, and try to nullify it. That's the process. I anticipate that that's going to come back with what Surfrider said, is that you're going to see high levels of E. coli consistent with what we've sampled.

I don't have a reason to argue with surf riders and the testing that they've done.

That's what you want to do when you're doing an experiment. You want to predict what the outcome is. You want to have a hypothesis and try to nullify the hypothesis. That's the learning model. But my point is I think we're going to find out that it is high, and the high is not going to tell us anything. Because we know it's high, and we don't have a sample basis from that area. So that would establish, from here forward, where we'd start to have data, but it doesn't tell us from before the spill. I agree with you, if we had that from before the spill and we're testing after, it would give us s

I agree with the way Josh has put it. I do think if we had a basis to go off of it beforehand, that would make more sense. in different locations.

I'm not, unfortunately. I mean, I appreciate that.

Brad, I have a question. So what is the threshold if we're going to have an action plan for the contractor to clean it up? What are they using for their results to say, yep, I need to do something to clean up the spill or not?

They haven't pulled that yet or that's the three that we've already pulled. They're going to use that data set.

There's no there's no action plan. They're not doing any other task to clean up that.

So it seems like you don't have the consensus to do that, but I do appreciate you going through and getting that sample. And I do agree with you. We do need to continue to be dredging that muck. It's definitely in there and it's thick. So thank you. Thank you, Skip.

Brad, would further, so when DEP gave us feedback on the samples we did, did they ask us to stop sampling or they just said no further samples needed for them?

Would there be any issue if we proceeded with a forced sample set?

I'm okay with a proper sample from different canals and different areas. I'm okay with that. Because now you have a control group. Not this because it's not controlled.

You have a control group where we took the first time, now we have the time element.

Let's do a proper sample. City manager, what are your thoughts?

I think it's important for the residents to see that we do care, and we do want to take proper continuing samples. Yep, I completely agree. So I'm okay with that, but not that one. But I'm not taking a drink of that.

If we can ask about the muck sample, that'd be fine too. I'm OK with that.

In terms of the muck and things like that, are those things at DEP or the... the different organizations that are watching, testing, and maintaining the ecology of the lagoon, are they taking samples like that that we could reference from in terms of just starting to make sure that our residents are aware of what samples are already being taken, what is being monitored? And we could begin to provide that. And that would have a strong historical trend associated with it.

Are there groups that already sample that through FIT or any other organizations that we're aware of? that I'm not aware of that. That may be something. I mean, if somebody's already got the apparatus in place, as well as the body of data, then potentially just starting to leverage. And if we can find it, make that aware and make that available for our residents, I think that might be one of the best things we could do.

Please do not take sand from the beach. Great. All right. Any more from you, Brad? Are we good? I'm good. All right.

Oh, thank you. Happy birthday. Happy 25th. You want us to sing? 46. 46?

OK. And then I had given the city manager something to look at as well. So I think you're probably. OK. From me. OK. So I think you're good on that. All right. Commission reports or announcements.

I'll just say quick congrats to SpaceX and NASA for Cree 13. That never gets old, but it's so cool seeing the 13th mission of astronauts going back to the space station. So kudos to NASA and SpaceX and my wife.

I try to make it every year. I'll be surfing in it again this year.

Maybe. Hopefully. You never know. And same thing, Jill and Orson, I think our short-term rental ordinance largely was you know, directed by your concerns and comments. So, you know, without people like you guys coming forward and saying stuff, then we don't know what the residents typically want. So thank you for being outspoken and showing your concerns. uh last last week we or two weeks ago we did have a little bit of a debate back and forth about um you know how much debt that we've paid down and i did ask because i want to make sure that we are being responsible and that we are giving accu

I appreciate your rebuttal. I don't necessarily agree that any commission would have the same effect, obviously. The comments were the same. Yeah, but the debt's not the same. See, you have commission that doesn't mind going out for debt and doesn't mind going out for extra projects and extra loans. And that's what got us up to the position that we were in. And now we've got a commission that's very mindful of the resident's money and how much money we go out to debt for. And that helps pay down the debt and keep the millage low. So that's, you know, for me, I'm very appreciative of all you gu

Motion is second. All in favor? Aye. Motion passes 5-0. All right. New business.

Motion and a second. City Manager, would you mind if somebody explained to the residents what this is about?

So basically, like any other place you go these days, when you buy something, they charge you a 3% or 3.5% credit card processing fee? Correct. Okay. Thank you.

How would you differentiate or know at the time that you're charging what person gets charged what fee? It seems like a blanket fee would be much easier.

So it's instantaneous at the point of sale?

So our prices are staying exactly the same. We're just going to have an additional fee on top of that if you use a credit card.

But legally, we can't harvest those? We can only do the credit card?

Bottom line right now, our current budget has about $100,000 we would now have.

Effectively, at this point, if somebody's choosing to use a credit card, the residents are paying for the use of that credit card, which just shouldn't happen. And I think this corrects that.

Thank you very much. Good job. Any public comment on that? All right. Comments closed. Commission comment? I think we already took care of that. All in favor? Aye. Motion passes 5-0.

All right, any comment? Public comment? Any commission comment? I'll just say I think it's a great event. It's huge. It's family-friendly. It's one of the best events I think we've got in the city, so I think it deserves it.

We get a lot of folks. Last year, I think it had about 4,500. I mean, it's a huge event, Thanksgiving Day. All right.

It's amazing. My my wife does it every year. It's great. All right. My knees blown out. All in favor. All right, next.

Again, this is a great event. I love it. Any public comment on this?

of what has happened in and around surfing santas and we really appreciate the support of this city thank you george being great thank you i try to go every year um i love the event i'm glad that we get to keep it downtown too i love it here this is i think the residents just i think it's one of their favorite times of the year Any other commission comment? All in favor? Aye. All right, motion passes 5-0. That's it. We're adjourned.