Remarks by Chris Robertson
791 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 23 of 32
“All right. Ray, I'll be honest with you. None of this was on my radar until, and I love Trevor, I love Jim.”
“None of this was on my radar until Trevor brought it to me. That's I believe where all this stem from. I'm not blaming Trevor. I think there's been them. People have changed opinions on things and I'm glad everybody's getting along. Um, but what I've been told was that you didn't have a kitchen. You don't, you're not operating in accordance with the code.”
“It's my dream. Well, thank you. Right. And you know, we're going to move this to the next meeting. So we're going to get a lot more information over this next month. Tisha, can you please come up to the podium? Ray, this is about your, I mean, we're still talking about this topic. Tisha, you presented a whole list of items where these number of facilities or these establishments were not in accordance with the code.”
“What were the violations? Do you recall?”
“There's never been any conversation about a kitchen from staff?”
“Ray, I'll let you come up and speak on this since we're still talking about it. That's fine. Thank you, Tisha. And so everybody understands that we're being told that the code is this and our staff and our attorney is saying there's violations. I have a business owner downtown coming to me and saying there's violation after violation. They're being ignored for seven years. Our job is to call balls and strikes and make sure every citizen is treated the same. So if the code is the code, that's what it is.”
“I think over this next month, we'll clarify a lot of this. There's a lot of confusion with this now. And I do... There's nothing that I, I obviously want the business owners to get along. I know you're in Kissimmee and you've got staff here that, but between Jim or Trevor or everybody else, I want them all to get along and be on the same page and coexist and work together, as you said, through the CRA and that. But there's also staff and our attorney saying, here's what the code is. And I think that was the trade off. So we're not just pulling this out of thin air, right? Like I said, none of…”
“Why wouldn't you do that? You don't even need to get Jim's food. You can just order in your own food from Uber it in. That's my point. You don't even have to have a kitchen with this, but we have a kitchen.”
“Hold on, hold on. According to the City of St. Cloud Code and the City Attorney and the staff, they're telling us we're citizens up here, right? You know, I'm not going to say unfortunately. Fortunately, we get information from them and we have to make our determination based on that. So when business owners are saying this is not in accordance with the code, staff is saying it's not in accordance with the code, our own city attorney is saying it, our city manager, everybody is saying this is not in accordance. Who am I? I'm one of five people sitting up here to say am I going to be the only…”
“No, no, no, no, no. The code is about the kitchen on site. That's the code, the violation. The other things, those are the easy ones. That's the low-hanging fruit. We all know that. The elephant in the room is the kitchen in your establishment. That's what the other individual who owns another business came to me over and over again and said, here's the problem. They don't have to have a kitchen.”
“I think at the time, I think that was done back in the, I don't know how long, how old the, that code is. Dan, do we know how long that code's been in effect?”
“I'm not sure I could research it, but we've been blessed with having to clean up the messes of a very long time. And so we're trying to do our very best. I know staff is as well. So when they present a solution. Hell, I thought this was the best solution where everybody gets to still dance and karaoke and sit at high tops and play pool. And you still get to stay open and you don't have to build a kitchen. That's why 1159, and then I thought it makes Trevor happy. I mean, of all the code that staff has ever presented to me, I thought this one was an A plus of all of them, 100%. You may not…”
“Over the next 30 days, we're going to look at more information, and hopefully we can really flush out all the details on this some more. Is that good?”
“Yes, sir, Ray. Thank you. Council, any comments? Anybody want to say anything else on this? Are we good? Okay. Well, this is a fun night.”
“Thank you. Thank you, Jim. I'm just telling you. 100% it would work.”
“You got time, right? You don't have a job, right, Ken?”
“All right, anyone? Okay, we're moving on from that.”
“Next up, we have council action number two. City Clerk, will you please read Council Action number... Nope. Number one. Sorry, I got moved over to another page. Give me a moment here. What is in the Kool-Aid today here in the city?”
“Is that what... Okay, that was number... Are we all ready on that?”
“That's okay. Yes, will you please read council action number one?”
“All right, thank you, Jamie. Anyone from the audience like to speak on this item? All right, and council. Oh, sorry, Raelynn. I'm going to be nice. As long as you're going to smile. Okay. Well, after we approve it or deny it, then you can't talk about it. You sure you don't want to talk about it? At this point, she needs to talk about it. That's right. I've been forced up to the podium before. Great to see you in council.”
“Yes, ma'am. Council Member Fletcher first.”
“All right. So you're going to make the motion to approve, Deputy Mayor. Before that, anyone else in the audience like to speak on this item? All right. With that, we have a motion on the table from Deputy Mayor Gilbert. Second. Second from Council Member Fletcher. Will the clerk please call the roll?”
“Thank you. Will the clerk please read Council Action Number 2?”
“Jabari, what was EDAC's comments? Like, why would they want us to go for submitting a request?”