Community Economic Development Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Call the meeting to order. It's October 21, 10:30 for the City of Northport Community Economic Development Advisory Board. And we will start with a roll call. We'll start you over here with the young lady. Yourself, ma'am?

My name is Jacqueline Waterhouse.

Excellent.

I am the business and research analyst for economic development.

Excellent. Good morning. Michael Meerman, the economic development manager. James Jerome.

Terry Cheney.

Sean Burrows.

Joey Lecar.

Mike Genby. Hershel Eisenhower.

Excellent. And we will have the Pledge of Allegiance. Stay. 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. Alright.

Looking for any public comment. No public comment. Alrighty. And if you had a chance to review minutes from the July 28 meeting. If there are any corrections in this meeting, do we get to get motion to accept the minutes? Make a motion.

Second. All in favor?

Aye. Okay.

Over to new business. Discussion and possible action regarding changes to the remaining twenty twenty five million dates. Alright. So it looks like we would normally have one in November, but that would be the week of Thanksgiving.

Believe it's the week before, sir.

I think it's the week before. Is it? Good.

Weekdays. The

week of Christmas, I would assume that most people will start to thin out. But I don't think that prior week will be too lean. So I would Put meetings work on my calendar.

Yes.

Yeah. So I would think that would be good. Mr. Cheney? Sorry.

I was using my Barry White voice. So we would probably want to lock that in for the December 16 meeting to be able to vote on that?

Yes, sir. And or if you felt expeditious on November 18, if our presentation to you satisfied your desire for that annual report production, and we brought it and you adopted it at that meeting, the business matter would be done.

Fair enough. Normally, usually, generally, the chair normally presents unless somebody else has a wild hair and would like to take that up. I normally don't see that happening. Well, I've done it a couple of times. Last year, we didn't do it because it never made it into the schedule.

I think that's why the city clerk has prompted me, to make sure that it gets in the schedule.

Fair enough for me. So, yeah, that's fine. If we could if you have something to present at the next meeting for us to review, that'd be great. But definitely, if not, we'll definitely shoot for that December 16 as a hardcore stop date so we have something to present in a timely fashion. So fair enough?

Excellent. Okay. Next item is the discussion and possible action for regarding the twenty twenty six community economic advisory board schedule. Excellent. So in the was it that we have to have eight meetings? Or what was the feel free to share.

The Community Economic Development Advisory Board shall consist of 11 regular members. The board shall meet at least quarterly, but may hold additional meetings as needed.

So I know we ran into the challenge last year or this year with large gaps of meeting times, being able to meet for whatever no topic to be discussed or nothing was pressing for our need to meet. However, I don't think that's going to be the case coming up next year. Think there's gonna be plenty for us to chat about since all the activity happened this year. Now we have stuff to talk about for next year. Does anybody have a recommendation or a suggestion for outside of a quarterly meeting to remain to a monthly I think we excluded some of the summer months.

There was the August, I think it is, when the commission is out. And I think we're looking at July.

We did July and August.

July and August, we took off because

I think we did September too because of school activity. Everybody's starting up for the fall. And just don't it seems to me, over the last three years, we always eliminated four months in the summer, three months in the summer in September. But I could be wrong.

So the city clerk advised me back in the mid to late summer that we were potentially in violation of the bylaws of the group because of the summer break schedule that we had adopted as a group. And then when we didn't have forums to complete official business, we therefore then did not end up meeting on the mandatory quarterly basis.

Okay. So that was actually something I wanted to talk about as far as, well, I'll bring it up. If it's appropriate for this meeting, let me know. If not, then we'll table it for a sidebar. However, the agenda creation for this meeting is that not to be assisted with the help of the chair and what we're the items that we wanna discuss or talk about. Even as far as some of the items that we brought and said, we want to learn more about this and then help move that into an actual agenda item. Is that not this process? Or am I wrong?

You are correct.

Because I did that once before and in no certain terms, I was told I couldn't talk about it. I'm how is the chair supposed to help with the agenda? The chair can't talk about what's gonna be on the agenda.

Right. And I think It's

like, what?

Yes, sir. I believe what happened in that case, and it's not worth rehashing.

No, it isn't.

But I believe what happened, just to give you the synopsis, was that there were deadlines for agenda creation because of notice requirements. And by the time everybody began to chime in to create agenda items, the period of notice was either coming on quick or had already expired. And so it was just then too late.

That makes sense. However, that wasn't the situation that created that pseudo angst in my head. It was because we received a message said, we're just not having a meeting. And I responded back. Like, we haven't even talked about anything. I mean, we haven't even put it out and said, hey, who's going to be there? It was just, we're canceling the meeting.

We had a lot of presentations

given to

us that maybe we needed some advance notice to know if we wanted to add something to it or whatever. And there was a lot of presentations this year.

So are

we going

to have the same thing coming up this?

I'll read from the bylaws of our group. As your staff liaison, I will attend the board meetings. And the liaison is responsible for preparing agenda items and backup material. The staff liaison is responsible for scheduling all meetings and should schedule a special meeting only after determining that a quorum of board members is available to attend. Neither the board nor any single member is authorized assign work to the staff liaison.

If the board desires that city staff provide information, reports, or research, the board must approve the request by a majority vote. Upon approval, the staff liaison will communicate the request to the charter officer, that being the city clerk in this case. If the request is time extensive or staffing is not available, the charter officer may request approval of the commission prior to proceeding. If the charter officer refuses the request, the charter officer must notify. So Okay. So that sort of

changes my literally, just here to oversee the meetings and occasionally come up with some potential talking points that we all vote on.

In my understanding, you can't put that on the agenda for vote on?

Well, I thought the last meeting we were at, we were asked we had a motion to have the staff liaison kind of run us through what are the things that are going on. And I know you'd said it was public knowledge, but not everybody would go on the website and stuff. So that was one of the things that we had a motion about. So I was surprised it wasn't on this agenda because we had second Oh, sorry. Sorry. It's not recording. It is. Okay.

It's really sensitive. So if I think we're all on the same page, if there is an item that you want to be tasking to myself and the city for completion, whether it's information or agenda, I think what we've read here is that you need to agree to do that, put that forth, and then it carries forward.

Okay.

It'd take a long time to get that done. Yeah.

So that sort of creates another talking point then, which goes back to the schedule of the year to being more quarterly versus monthly for the ability to prepare, gather information, to present however long it takes, but for all intents and purposes, giving you three months of pay. And sometimes things move a little bit faster, especially if there's items that we need to present to commission on, which from what I remember in previous years is that the board chair would say, hey, this is something we probably need to commit. It was more of a unified talking point to present versus a singular I don't know. But if we want to go back to the quarterly, I'm Okay with that too. Just trying to understand

the role.

If this board adopts a position for requesting information or the inclusion of new agenda items for the next upcoming upcoming meeting, whether it's quarterly or monthly, we will serve to provide that. And if for some reason that request becomes burdensome or undue, however they mentioned it here, we will let the charter officer know that that project is too extensive. But basic information, don't think would be problematic for us. It says here, if the request is time extensive or staffing is not available, the charter officer may request something different. But if you were to create, by majority vote a request of us, it would be so noted that we would then present that for you at the next scheduled meeting, whether it's a monthly or quarterly or after the summer break or whatever you guys decide.

And just to point out, sir, that we are also merging right now both the letter C, new business, and letter D, new business. So I didn't mind going into the roles and responsibilities because it fit right into the discussion.

If I may, though, I think we made a motion to do that last meeting. That's what I And it was approved.

Well, apologies on behalf of the city that you didn't get what you asked for. We've had no excuses. I personally don't recall that, but that's Okay. We should make note of and look at the minutes. We also have new staff assignments from the city clerk's office who maintains our record keeping for us.

Again,

no excuses.

It was just more like a general kind of broad of what you guys were working on, not really too specific.

Sure. It would just be a standing point on the agenda that we agreed on that guys would present us with what's going on just so we're kind of in the know, if I remember correctly from that last meeting.

Yeah. That's a terrific idea to make a standing item. I think we know to have it as inclusive every single time.

Yeah. Because it would be something that if we were to attend a commission meeting and something was discussed there that definitely needs to be talked about between that commission meeting and their next meeting, There's no way for us to communicate that to you. But it's a hot ticket item we need to talk about. Or something that we would need to bring up because it is something that's coming up. And if you're in that weird spot of time, we don't actually get it away or make a recommendation.

We can definitely do this.

So we'll have to put the motion out there then again. I'll motion that we put it out there to put on every agenda going forward, just like a brief synopsis.

Do we have a second? To

just have the staff liaison give us a little update of generally kind of what is new and up and coming?

Do we have a second? I'll second.

All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? Okay.

Thank you, Michael.

So are we leaning on going quarterly with a with a month backup every quarter? Because if you don't have it once a quarter, you gotta have a backup month in case we don't have a forum Okay. On a scheduled date because then we're gonna be out of an advisory board board then.

So then next I

think quarterly is a little extreme. Mean, every month seems to me a little better because things do happen fast. And it depends on what's scheduled for this coming year. I would think that if you have a lot to present to us, we probably need to we continue to do monthly because quarterly just seems like a lot or maybe do every other month. I don't know. It just doesn't seem like enough to do it. Quarterly.

Quarterly is just a long time. It's may a be long like every time two months. People can't commit to monthly.

And if you need advice or questions from us, it's a long time for you to wait, too.

But we also have the ability to do a special meeting. If something were to pop up, staff says, hey, we

need And then is it going to always be on Tuesday when everybody's supposed to be available?

No guarantee.

That's what I mean. Because last month, with the change, I couldn't do it. Because I have other commitments like we all do.

So as your staff liaison, I'm not here to propose a calendar. I'm here to comply with the calendar that you vote on. And I think the nuances associated with calendar management from my experience in the 2025 calendar year have included attendance by board members. And I believe we do have the city clerk's office can verify. I believe we do have an attendance mandate that at some point, I think you can miss a pretty limited number of meetings

where you

can no longer serve.

And

we have had an attendance roll call matter come up a couple of occasions in 2025 where we didn't have quorums. And so we couldn't host a meeting. And so that's a consideration into your calendar component.

Well, isn't that one of the things you do when you apply to be on a board? You have to know what that schedule is and either you're committing to it or not. I mean, everybody has emergencies that come up, and that's what the two absentees are about. But I don't know about anybody else, but I put it on my calendar as you cannot miss. You know? That's it. Every every third third every third Tuesday, I'm gonna be here. No. As long as I'm healthy and can walk.

Well, I guess another consideration for the 2026 agenda is to note that because we do have to prepare the annual report so in one year from now, we'll have that same discussion. And there would need to be a quorum and a vote to approve the annual report that we would be presenting. And so if you're backing into the meetings of 2026 and you look at the dates, you probably want to be certain that in the late portion of 2026, we are available to meet and complete the annual report requirement.

Okay. So with that being said Do you have something? Oh, if we're looking at a every other month type of schedule, it would be January, March, May. And then if you take December off, June, July, and August, you're back in September, and then you have November. And then that would fill the quarterly number.

Being four per year would actually gives us one extra if need be. And it gives us enough time to be able to discuss and talk about the annual meeting presentation before the end of the year? Thoughts, concerns, hypothetical situations?

I like the monthly meeting. But I I see your point.

Giving them enough time to prepare Prepare. Some of the stuff that we need to Right. This is a baseline of meetings Yeah. If we need to have something in between.

Every other month might make sense that way. But

true.

Yeah. So we actually have something to talk about when we come here. I mean, I know you guys like looking at me, but dang. You can take that out. Just joking. Yeah. Just so we have more meaningful meetings when we do meet versus not. So we actually have some substance to kick around.

So that proposal puts two meetings in the first quarter, the calendar quarter, one meeting in the second, the third, and fourth quarters of next year for a total of

five. I can't make that motion.

I'll motion.

Yeah. I'll second it.

So we just got to speak the whole motion with the

Oh, motion that we meet the five times this calendar year.

Can you repeat that, please? Five times. Right.

The five calendar.

Would you like the dates?

Yes, please. They

are checkmarked in the right

Okay. I motion that we meet in 2016 and

'26.

'26. The '26. Excuse me. January 20, March 17, May 19, September 15, and November 17.

And do we have a second? Alright. I second that.

All in favor? Aye. Aye.

Any opposed? Okay. So that passes. You. So like herding cats, but we got it. We'll figure

it out.

And we talked about the responsibilities. Is there anything else that needs to be brought before the body at this time? Do we have the opportunity to talk about talking points for the deck or agenda items? Or since that's not technically on the schedule. Yeah.

Future agenda. Yeah. Okay. Good deal. Is there anything because I know we talked about stuff.

Just don't remember what it was. So we have coming up, we have Sumpter SMH project kicking off. There's also the discussion about affordable housing issues that comes with that process.

I'm so sorry. Did you skip over the last item? The goals and responsibilities.

And we kind of meshed it together into one. I think we're

under number seven on the agenda, which is future agenda items. I think you were proposing possible discussion points that you would like to see come forward for that meeting. You wanted to talk about the SMH project here at the corner of Sumter And I-seventy 5 That is correct. And affordable housing is what I've made notes of so far.

Anybody else have any?

And of course, you've already put a motion for a rolling agenda item that includes updates from us. We would include the SMH in that just by virtue of the scale of that project anyhow. But affordable housing is something that might not have made that rolling update. And if you're asking to include that for an open discussion on or I'm not sure what you want to talk about related to affordable housing.

I just know that I know it's I know that I can bring it up. But I can't talk about it because that's what the whole meeting is about. So yeah, we'll just have to

We include low income housing in that too because there's difference, right?

Yes, thank you. I do appreciate your acknowledgement. There's a difference between affordable housing and attainable housing.

Better term.

That's an economic development term. And so affordable typically signifies some sort of government qualifying housing. And the other signifies the plight of the real estate market relative to affordability. Correct. Right? And that's kind of other types of think

that discussion came up when we were talking about the new hospital and finding housing in Northport for the lower level jobs, the minimum wage jobs that will be needed at the hospital. And that came up. That was a big discussion.

Correct. But we can't further discuss this Oh, know. That's the tricky part, is I know.

Just trying to define why I brought that.

So with the next meeting, you are proposing for a future agenda item that we have. I'm not putting words in your mouth, but I think what I heard was open discussion on the subject of affordable. And then it's been now added that it's to include attainable housing. So both affordable and sustainable housing discussion. Yes. Okay. That's correct.

Second question. Why can't we talk about it? Because it's not on the agenda?

Correct. I got charged with that last time. Was like, dang it. We got

to

sort of pull it back so we make it something that we wanna talk about. We just can't talk about it at that time.

Mr. Cheney, and that goes to serve the the public at large who are put on notice that these meetings occur. But this the agenda that would be discussed. It's not because of anything you've done or anybody here has done. These meetings are noticeable meetings.

I'd like to consider another item. I'd like to talk more about have a discussion about commercial development, where it's going, and what we're doing to excuse me. I'd like to see a discussion about commercial development, where we are with that, and what we're doing to bring in diverse businesses.

So to review what I've heard, so that you may adopt this as a motion so that we can add this, right, to help along. Affordableattainable housing discussion, Sarasota Memorial update discussion, commercial development discussion. Specifically

Well, with not only all development, but also what are we doing for development of diverse businesses. Because we have several different kinds that I believe also about the I don't know where you classify home businesses. Is that commercial or is that another classification?

Correct. So the economic development team focuses on a variety of development initiatives, commercially oriented. So that diverse spectrum of what we focus on is something that we could talk about, yes. So it's light commercial, commercial, industrial, retail, hospitality, tourism, aviation, aerospace, technology. We can hit on all of those categories.

Yes. Okay.

And then kind of with those categories being as educational representative of this

That was my next one.

Knowing what's coming in that we need to train our workforce for because we're getting ready for the expansion that is hopefully gonna break ground in the 2026. So STC is going to be running into some deadlines for designing exactly what's in that. So I have some proposals of what we're definitely gonna put into that school expansion, but there's definitely some leeway for changing one or two pathways. Obviously, we're gonna be heavy on the medical side because we're gonna have hospitals opening up two of them in Northport. And then auto welding trades, electrical, those types of things, but there's room for potentially one or two programs.

So I need to know what the city has coming so we can be prepared to train those students in that workforce.

Perfect.

Okay. So motion and

So I can remember this one.

Can help refresh the discussion.

Yes, please.

For memory purposes, I had to write it down. Affordable housing, attainable housing, Sarasota Memorial Hospital, commercial development and the diversification of, and educational requirements for workforce.

We're just recapping what's going to be on the motion so somebody can make a motion. He cannot make a

motion. Someone

like to make that motion.

I thought you're writing it down so you can make the motion.

I can't make motions. I'm not

I'm not motion worthy. We'll review them. Alright. So I'll I'm happy to do this.

I I think we got it. Okay. So I I make the motion that our next meeting, we get a recap from our city liaison, our staff liaison to give us updates and information on affordable housing, obtainable housing, our commercial development and the diversity of it coming to Northport, and the educational needs of the workforce development that's coming in.

I'll second that.

And an update on the current standing of SMH and its progress.

I'll still second that. Perfect. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Okay. Excellent.

Is there any public comment at this time? Okay. Well, if there's nothing else that's to be brought forth, we will adjourn our meeting at 11:07. Thank you.