City Council - Regular Meeting

regular meeting wednesday september 9th 2026 at 6 30 p.m to order roll call please council member richardson yeah council member darms here council member knight here council member thompson here vice mayor grimm here council member stafford here mayor marks and we're all here here okay we have the invocation from mike carroll volusia county sheriff's office and the pledge allegiance please rise

Thank you so much. It's always a privilege to be here. Thank you, all of you. Lord, we're grateful for another day. We thank you for blessing us. We thank you for these men and women. Thank you for the role they play in this city. We ask you to guide them, to direct their steps, their thoughts, help them with the decisions that they face, give them insight, give them understanding, give them wisdom, give them creative solutions to the things that they have to deal with. be with our first responders in this city, cover them tonight, protect them, watch over them, and keep them safe. We pray peace over them and their families. Bless this city. Watch over this city. Protect this city and everyone that lives inside of it. Give this city favor in all of its dealings. Every person that's struggling tonight in this city, cover them, watch over them, and speak peace over them, we pray. In the name of Jesus, amen.

Amen.

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.

Thank you. Okay, number one public hearing adoption of military and budget for fiscal year 2026 2027. Opening statement, the city of Orange City intends to adopt a millage rate and budget for fiscal year 2026 2027. The rollback rate is 7.0523 mills. The proposed millage rate is 7.2387 mills, which represents a 2.64% increase over the rollback rate as certified by the property appraiser of Volusia County. The first motion for millage ordinance, ordinance number 701. Becky, would you read that for us, please?

Yes, Madam Mayor. This is ordinance number 701, an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Orange City, Florida, certifying the millage ordinance. rate for fiscal year 2026 2027 on all taxable property located within the city of Orange City volusia county florida repealing all ordinances or parts of ordinances and conflict here with providing for severability and providing for an effective date thank you so we're going to need a motion on we're going to do these separately yes okay so we'll need a motion on ordinance number 701

Madam Mayor, I'll make a motion to accept ordinance number 701.

I second. We have a motion. We have a second. Any public comment on this? Seeing none, we'll bring it back for the question. Is there no public comment on this?

So Devlin actually has a presentation for both ordinances. I'm sorry, I think it may be on the next page of your script. Okay, I got it.

It's at the end. Okay, so we have a staff presentation from Devlin Moore.

we generally will go ahead and read in the second ordinance as well and bring that to motion they they need to be voted on separately okay so

I think he's just saying to read it into the record, and then we'll do the motion separately.

Okay, I'll go ahead and read this. This is ordinance number 702, an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Orange City, Florida, adopting the annual budget for the 2026-2027 fiscal year beginning October 1. Excuse me. In ending September 30, 2027, providing for amendments to the annual budget, repealing all ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict herewith, providing for severability and providing for an effective date.

Thank you. This process can be a little wonky. all right good evening devlin moore finance director tonight is the first of two public hearings for the adoption of the city city's millage rate and budget for fiscal year 26-27 council will consider ordinance number 60701 which sets the millage rate and ordinance number 702 which adopts the annual budget on first reading Tonight's special hearing is being conducted in accordance with Florida statute section 200 and it was advertised on the trim notices that were mailed by the property appraiser's office. We'll begin with an overview of the proposed millage rate and ordinance number 701. Then I'll move on to the proposed budget and ordinance 702. Most of the information tonight will be familiar to council from previous presentations. I'm providing a lot of the same information again in order to provide a complete overview for the public hearing and for public record. Lastly, we'll conclude with me providing a summary of the supplemental materials that were prepared in response to the items that were raised during the August 17th budget workshop. After the presentation, I'll turn it over to the mayor for a public hearing and council discussion. So we'll start with looking at a recap of the budget process. So on May 12th, the city council held a budget input session. Then on July 14th, I provided a relatively comprehensive budget overview presentation ahead of council setting the proposed millage rate on July 28th. Council set that proposed maximum millage rate at 7.2387. You set it a little higher than what was in the proposed budget to provide you some flexibility during the workshop process. Then on August 17th, city council conducted the workshop and they reached consensus to present the lower rate of 7.0387 mils at tonight's public hearing. On September 23rd at 6 p.m., the CRA board will meet to adopt the CRA budget and then the city council will conclude the hearing process at the 6.30 council meeting on Wednesday the 23rd. The second hearing will be advertising and in the Daytona Beach News Journal on Friday, September 18th So we'll start with the millage overview, which is ordinance 701. This slide summarizes the millage rates considered during the budget process. On July 28th, council established the proposed maximum rate at the 7.2387. That rate is 2.64% above the rollback rate and would generate approximately $265,000 in additional revenue above and beyond what is in the proposed budget as currently drafted. The August workshop as I previously mentioned council reached consensus on the rate of seven point oh three eight seven mills This is the rate used in the balanced proposed budget as presented tonight the rollback rate is seven point oh five two three and that rate would generate approximately the same amount of revenue as the the current tax year excluding new construction and certain statutory adjustments. The proposed rate of 7.0387 mills is .19% below the rollback rate and would require four affirmative votes to pass. This slide illustrates the taxable values in Orange City over the last 10 years, and you can see that the taxable values have increased relatively significantly since 2017 when they were at 631 million. Tax year 2026, the projected taxable values is 1.5 billion. Over the last 10 years, the taxable values have increased on average by about 10% per year. However, for tax year 2026, that increase was more along the lines of 5%, which is an indication of slower construction and the slowing of the real estate market. This slide illustrates the new taxable values in the city over the last 10 years. The bars represent the taxable values that were added to the tax roll as part of new construction and the line represents the moving average. New construction for tax year 2026 was $26.7 million. That was a drop of about 54% compared to last year, but it's still not too bad when you compare it to tax years 2017 and 2018, where in that new taxable value range between $3 million and $7 million. This chart illustrates the city's final millage rates over the last 10 years. The millage rates have generally declined over that period, although there have been some individual years that may reflect changes in taxable values, service demands, and budgetary conditions. However, a rate of 7.0387 would be lower than the current rate of 7.2387, and it would represent more than a one mill reduction since 2017. This slide illustrates the effect of the proposed millage rate on the average taxable value of a single family residential unit. The figures reflect only the city's portion of the property tax bill. So for a property without a homestead exemption, that average taxable value increased by 2.91% to about 150,000. When you apply that proposed millage rate of 7.0387 mills, the estimated city taxes will increase by about a dollar a year. For a homesteaded property, the illustration applies the 2.7% Save Our Homes cap, which means that that average taxable value from the prior year only increased by 2.7%, so the tax year 2026 value, and this is really just as an example, a scenario. It's not... Going too much in the weeds. You're looking at about $150,000, so the estimated taxes to the city will decrease by about a dollar, so it would be a slight tax reduction for homesteaded properties. The lower millage rate is largely offset by the increase in taxable values in both examples. The actual results obviously will vary based on each property's taxable values, exemptions, and assessment limits. So for every dollar paid in ad valorem taxes Orange City receives about 37 cents of that dollar a little more than a third of the ad valorem collected which says a lot when you think about all the Really great services that the city provides whether it's public safety parks public works 37 cents of every dollar goes to the city conversely volusia county will receive about 29 cents for every dollar collected the school board will receive about 28 cents and then other entities will receive about six cents and just so that you know those other entities include the west volusia hospital authority the st john's river water management district and the florida inland navigation district I'll hop into the budget overview which is supported by ordinance number 702 and I'll start by talking about the projected fund balances after appropriation of the proposed budget so this means basically these once you apply the new budget this is what you would have in your reserve accounts the general government funds consist of general fund capital improvement fund and the facility construction fund those three funds are projected to total about 11.6 million dollars of which 5.1 million dollars is either assigned or committed for emergency purposes pursuant to your fund balance policy so we've set aside 5.1 million for that Then you have your various utility funds. Those total about $8 million, and again, pursuant to your fund balance policy, approximately $2 million has been set aside for emergencies. The stormwater funds fund balance will be about $420,000. Again, the fund balance policy does set aside some monies for that, and that's about $200,000. The fire department, police department, cultural recreation, and transportation impact fees all total about $1.6 million. The CRA fund will have about $356,000 available for new endeavors. And then your other funds total about $240,000. Those other funds include your tree bank fund, building safety fund, solid waste fund, street lighting fund, and forfeiture fund. This slide compares the general fund budget across the current and proposed fiscal years. The total budget includes inter-fund transfers which can vary significantly based on the capital projects and one-time appropriations of the prior year. So to provide an apples to apples comparison of the operating costs, I've backed out the inter-fund transfers from each year. The fiscal year 25-26 adopted general fund budget totals approximately $20.2 million. The proposed fiscal year 26-27 operating budget totals about $21.3 million. This represents an increase of about 1.1 million or 5.31% compared to the fiscal year 20-26 adopted budget. This slide provides you a snapshot of the various revenue sources in the general fund. Avaloram taxes account for about 42% of the revenues in the general fund for fiscal year 2027 at $9.3 million. The Berry Fire Services at 3.5 million in revenue. Other taxes at 3.6 million. Permits and fees and assessments at 2.4 million. Intergovernmental is at 1.6 million. The other funds, miscellaneous revenues, Interfunds transfers in, charges for services, and fines and forfeitures all total about $1.4 million. So as you can see, a significant portion of that revenue does come from your ad valorem taxes. This slide provides you a snapshot of the general fund expenditure by function. So the public safety, which would be the fire department and the police department, their budget totals $9.6 million. If you take the, if you back out the DeBerry Fire Services budget and the transfers out from the total expenditures, Public safety budget accounts for more than half of the general fund budget at 53 percent When you factor in to bury fire services that budget increases to about 59 percent for public safety so the non public safety expenditure totals about 41 percent of your general fund budget including those inter fund transfers and Looking at the same expenditures, but by category, you'll see that the personnel services makes up about 62% of your expenditure at $13.7 million. Again, I'm going to just, for illustration purposes, back out the DeBerry Fire Services, which makes up 15% of the general fund budget, and you'll see that your personnel budget is about 73%, and everything else is about 27%. Here are some highlights concerning your general fund budget as currently presented. It is again reduced at the millage rate of 7.0387. It is balanced with no use of fund balance. It maintains all existing service levels and programs. It includes one new position for development services.

That would be your planning technician.

It provides for the funding for your ongoing union negotiations, and it includes a one-time transfer of $100,000 to the facility construction fund, just to add to that pot for your new facilities. This slide provides you a snapshot of your various general government capital funds. You'll see that the proposed budget includes 1.4 million in the capital improvement fund for new capital outlay. We'll go into more detail here in a few slides, but I did want to point out that there are no funds being appropriated in the four impact fee funds, so any fees that are collected will simply go to reserves for future use. And then the $100,000 represented there is just showing that transfer in to the facility construction fund from the general fund. And then that goes into reserve as well. It's not appropriated to any projects at this time. It just adds to your bank account. Snapshot of your capital expenditure about 56% of the capital outlay is scheduled for street infrastructure improvements The balance is going to be for your fleet equipment non IT equipment IT equipment and facility improvements. I some projects to highlight include the harley strickland boulevard roadway improvements that's in the budget at 189 excuse me 489 000. then we have some road resurfacing projects totaling 302 000 those roads include courtney avenue from central avenue to megan court megan court from courtney avenue to the end of the street and then rhode island from south volusia avenue to south thorpe Then there's 283,000 appropriated for police and fire to cover fleet and equipment needs. There's 87,000 budgeted in parks and recreation for equipment and fleet needs. And then 83,000 is budgeted for a replacement core router and various citywide computer replacements. Here we have a snapshot of your enterprise funds and this is a good example of why we generally look at adopted to propose rather than amended to propose because you can see that your adopted budget increased significantly this fiscal year from about $12 million to $32 million. That is to account for all of your capital projects that are currently ongoing. A lot of that carried over from the prior fiscal year. Any ongoing projects at the end of this fiscal year, which is quickly approaching at the end of this month, will be carried forward into your fiscal year 27 budget. So with that said, the utilities revenue which is your primary utility fund, is balanced at 9.4 million. It represents a 3.7% increase to the fiscal year 26 adopted budget. And then the other four enterprise funds, which consist of renewal replacement, alternate water, water connection fees, and wastewater connection fees, those all total $877,000. The two numbers in green simply represent that those funds, there's no monies appropriated, so any connection fees collected will be put into that reserve for future use. Lastly, you have the Stormwater Enterprise Fund, and it is balanced at $1.5 million. That represents a 7.7% decrease compared to the current adopted budget, which is largely due to projects that were appropriated as part of the budget process last fiscal year. Some highlights concerning the utility fund. It is balanced with a $184,000 transfer in for prior earnings that's covering non-recurring capital outlay. There are no new positions, although there is a part-time GIS intern budgeted. There is a $640,000 transfer to the renewal replacement fund that is setting aside funds for those proactive repairs and maintenance of capital infrastructure as they come. And then it includes $443,000 in capital outlay. The stormwater fund is balanced with no use of fund balance. It is aligned with the 2025 adopted rate study. It does include two new positions, which were recommended in that stormwater rate study, a stormwater field specialist and an administrative position. The stormwater budget includes $335,000 in capital outlay, which includes $210,000 towards that Harley Strickland Boulevard improvement project to take care of stormwater infrastructure needs, which will help with that in conjunction with the general funds money put together with the Harley Strickland should bring that road up to good standards. Last, we'll look at the CRA budget. That one is balanced at about 1.4 million. The CRA budget provides for almost 900,000 to pave Thorpe Avenue, and then it sets aside an additional 356,000 for future project needs, and it includes the $20,000 facade grants. Unfortunately, not everything has been finalized in time for this first public hearing. Staff has several targeted revisions that will need to be made before the second public hearing, so finance is busy. One is there will likely be a need to adjust payroll to account for the ongoing union negotiations. We will likely need to reallocate property liabilities and workers' comp. That's currently budgeted in there because the premiums are coming in lower, which is good So we're going to reduce those and we'll put any savings into contingency and allow council to reappropriate that however you see fit and then in talking to IT the i.t world has been extremely volatile thanks to ai data centers and chips and everything so he started getting some preliminary prices in order to put his pos in october 1 and found out the computers are more expensive than they were a few months ago so we're looking at having to increase the i.t budget about by about five thousand dollars we're gonna be able to make all these changes within the current appropriations without having to adjust revenues or use any fund balance and again we're going to apply any resulting savings to the contingency while negotiations continue to be finalized Now I'm gonna go over some follow-up items from the August 17th budget workshop. The slides that I'll provide here are a summary of the reports that were attached to your agenda item and what I had sent out I believe yesterday.

First we'll talk about

cellular budget and inventory one of the first things that came up was the council requested some additional information information on the city's cellular costs device assignments and service provider the full analysis appears on pages one through four of your supplemental packet this slide shows details concerning ex just the general fund the proposed budget for cellular service in the general fund is just under $66,000 and it represents a 14% reduction compared to the current adopted budget so we had already gone through and tried to identify savings within the cellular budgets and came up with about a 14% reduction the the device counts are as follows the general fund has about 73 cell phones 66 tablets or laptops and 17 other devices so what are other devices those are going to be a fail-safe router in case the internet goes down matt has the ability to bring up the internet again using cellular service. We have park cameras, so at Mill Lake Park those cameras operate on cellular service, so we have those. And then the life pack equipment used by the fire department also has cellular information on those. So there's 17 of those for a total device count of 156. Approximately 62% of the devices and 77% of the budget is attributed to public safety and to Berry Fire Services. Continuing from the previous slide this slide provides the budget in detail for the other funds So building department utilities and stormwater all total the proposed budget total is $33,000 and there's a total of 89 devices 34 of which are other devices again. Those are actually cellular devices that are on the lift stations that communicate to our SCADA system for continuous monitoring of our lift station systems. The total cellular budget decreased across all funds by about 8.6% compared to the current year. And then the packet also included a write-up concerning the cellular provider and the importance of maintaining the public safety preemption capabilities offered through FirstNet. So AT&T provides those FirstNet services which essentially mean that the FirstNet devices get priority access to the tower should there be an emergency. I'll move on to the overtime budget now. So this information can be found on page five in more detail. The proposed citywide overtime budget totals 1.25 million. Orange City Police and Fire account for $765,000 of that, or 61% of the gross citywide total. The budget includes another three hundred eleven thousand four to bury fire services, which is reimbursed through the interlocal agreement with that city when the berry fire fire service is included approximately 1.1 million dollars of the cost or 86 percent of the city wide overtime budget is related to public safety this concentration I think reflects the round-the-clock nature of public safety operations and the minimum staffing requirements in public safety, leave coverage, emergency response, and the collective bargaining requirements. The proposed police and fire overtime budget is lower than the current year projection, and that's because we'd like to plan on lower vacancies. So there's assumptions that there'll be lower vacancies, however, any any overtime that is generally generated due to staffing shortages is eaten up with the savings and payroll so historically the large portion of that overtime is offset by the personnel budget hence why we're not asking for or trying to put in one point zero two million we're sticking with seven hundred sixty four thousand policing fire The next topic that came up during a workshop was an inquiry concerning the general fund contingency and that This chart shows the use of contingency over the last three years more information is available on page six including what that contingency had been used for and But for the most part, over the last three years, the council has utilized about 76% across the three fiscal years, that contingency. And again, we had already mentioned that there's about $5.1 million already set aside for emergencies. This is for anything else that comes up the council would like to use it for. Those funds can only be touched through a council approved budget amendment. And again, it is separate from the fund balance or reserves. The current proposed budget currently includes $75,000 in contingency. Excuse me. During the workshop, council briefly discussed council composition and pay. This slide summarizes pages seven and eight. The proposed council budget for fiscal year 26-27 is $301,000. Reducing the governing body from seven members to five members would result in a savings of about $63,000. The change of membership would require a charter amendment and approval by majority vote through referendum. Conversely, a change in council compensation would require an ordinance. However, under section 2.05 of the charter, the council may not adopt an ordinance changing salaries less than 90 days before the next election. So this would have to be something that would be considered after election if council wanted to do so. Lastly we were asked to provide additional information regarding the fleet costs and the full details on pages 10 and 11 of the packet the figures here do include standard city vehicles it does include patrol vehicles rescues and the fire apparatus which does drive up cost It does exclude the Berry Fire Services, though. Fleet repairs and maintenance supplies and equipment for fiscal year 26-27 is approximately $279,000. The proposed gasoline budget for next fiscal year is $354,000, bringing the total proposed fleet expenditure to $633,000. And I do want to note that the fuel budget does include gas purchased for city generators and field equipment. The fleet-related costs obviously can vary year after year, obviously for unplanned repairs, fuel prices, which I think everybody's well aware of that uh repair maintenance costs have unfortunately been lingering around 10 cpi since covid so repairing your vehicles has become more expensive since 2020 and in insurance related work so anything that might have been damaged in an accident it comes out of these funds as well and then the revenues that come in as part of the insurance proceeds get posted to a revenue account so that's not netted here An example of that influx is fiscal year 2024, 2025. You see the fleet repairs and maintenance services increased from 234,000 to 285,000. That was in part due to the vehicles that were damaged from Hurricane Milton. So we are still working on insurance proceeds and FEMA proceeds to recoup those costs, but that's an example of why that budget has an influx.

So that concludes my presentation.

Staff will incorporate any payroll changes, insurance, or computer replacement changes discussed earlier into the budget presented for final adoption. Tonight's actions do represent a tentative adoption. Council will consider both ordinances for final adoption at the second hearing on September 23rd at 6.30 p.m. And Madam Mayor, I will now turn it over to you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, now we're gonna open public hearing. Is there anybody in the public that would like to speak of this? Okay, see, and now we're gonna bring it back. We're gonna close the public hearing, and we're gonna open it up for city council discussion. Does anybody have anything they'd like to discuss?

As usual, Devlin, you do a great job of explaining it all. Thank you.

Thank you.

yes yes Devin when you said the Thorpe Avenue yes well that that would go from Rhode Island all the way back to Ohio I would to do the whole Thorpe

It is, I believe, the unpaved section of Thorpe Avenue where the public works site is located at. Historically, the city has not paved that because of the stormwater issues, but because of the stormwater improvements being made at Industrial Drive, staff feels that that road can be paved without negatively impacting the stormwater system.

Thank you.

Nobody else? Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, now we're gonna move into, we had a motion on the floor for 701, which was Vice Mayor. You still wanna hold that? Sure.

Madam Mayor, I'll make a motion to accept the ordinance number 701.

Second. We got a motion, we got a second. Can you call the question, please?

Councilmember Dorms? Yes. Councilmember Knight? Yes. Councilmember Thompson? Yes. Vice Mayor Grimm? Yes. Councilmember Stafford? Yes. Councilmember Richardson? Yes. Mayor Marks?

Yes. And ordinance number 701 is approved. Moving on to ordinance number 702. We need a motion for that. I'd like to make a motion to accept ordinance number 702.

I second.

We have a motion. We have a second. You can call the question for that.

Council Member Knight? Yes. Council Member T. Onsen? Yes. Vice Mayor Grimm? Yes. Council Member Stafford? Yes. Council Member Richardson? Yes. Council Member D'Armes? Yes. Mayor Marks?

And yes, ordinance number 702 is adopted for the annual budget. Okay, so we're going to do the closing statement now. The City of Orange City's tentative millage rate for fiscal year 2026-2027 is 7.0387 mills, which is 0.19% below the rollback rate of 7.0523 mills as certified by the property appraiser of Volusia County. The final budget hearing will be held on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2026 in the council chambers at 201 North Holly Avenue at 6.30 p.m. This now concludes and ends the public hearing and resumes regular meeting agenda.

Moving on.

Moving on to number one absences. We have none. Number two presentations and proclamations. We have none. And citizens comments. Stephen Sanders, and this one's regarding the city's future financial liabilities.

All right, council's been a while since I've been actually up here versus just yelling from the back. That being said, when it comes to the future liabilities of the city, I don't know if you guys know this, but just if the city wasn't already broke enough, this police department was a liability, but now the city's leadership has become a liability, not only for the employment, but for other council members, the way she or that person speaks to other council members about my city. Now, for the record, I took a lot of offense to that. I also probably missed the warning or the rules, but I also want to talk about the liability of how things are being manipulated here at the council meetings for personal matters. I don't know why we're bringing personal matters here from council to council member or council to city manager, but I love when the city attorney's telling you to stop, to stop, and you still continue to push, which then led me to the city interviews, which furthermore now leads to me to show that all of the city of Orange City should check into this. There's a reason there's a mass exodus from the city. PARTLY FROM THE MAYOR. NOW, I DON'T KNOW IF THE MAYOR WILL BE THE FIRST FEMALE MAYOR FOR THE CITY OF ORANGE CITY, BUT SHE MAY JUST BE THE LAST MAYOR BECAUSE THE CITY MAY NOT EXIST IN 2028. AT THIS RATE, WE MAY NOT HAVE A CITY, MAY JUST GET SWALLOWED UP BY THE COUNTY. That's a big liability. This speed bump that you guys create out here, massive liability. I don't know who did this when at one point it was $50,000 and now it was $303,000 when over the 10% contingency that you guys had planned and someone's gonna hit that vase or someone's gonna cause a crash and it's gonna be on you guys. We're so worried about all the personal matters, but you've got financial liability sitting out the wazoo. And if that wasn't even part of it, public records and you specifically are your custodian of your own record and city of orange city. I don't know if you know this, right? But the mayor of orange city is the custodian of her own record for her personal devices, which means she needs to respond, answer and reply, reply estimates and answer any inbound record to her in regards to her records, not THE CLERK OF THE CITY. THAT IS ON THE MAYOR. BUT FOR SOME REASON, 74 DAYS HAVE GONE BY, YOU HAVE NOT RESPONDED TO YOUR PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS. NOT PART A OR PART B. SO THERE'S ANOTHER LIABILITY FOR THE CITY. THEY DIDN'T LEARN THE LESSON, THE LAST 70 ONES THAT I HIT THEM WITH? NOW, THE BIGGEST COST AND LEGAL COST IS YOU. THE LAWYERS, YOU KEEP THEIR LIGHTS ON. YOU LITERALLY KEEP THEIR LIGHTS ON. THE AMOUNT OF COUNCIL THEY HAVE TO PROVIDE YOU AND THE BS THAT HAPPENS UP HERE ON THIS COUNCIL, NOTHING IN THIS CITY GETS DONE RIGHT. FURTHERMORE, VICE MAYOR, I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING, BUDDY, BUT FIND SOMETHING. LIKE FIX SOMETHING IN THE CITY. NOT SIT THERE.

Okay, you wanna stay there for the second one? The second one is public records and meeting minutes. Steven Sanders.

All right, so meeting minutes. This is for all the council. How do you guys know what happened last meeting without the meeting minutes? How are you guys able to make good decisions that affect our city without them? I don't have them. I have to make public records for them and I have to pay thousands of dollars to get them. They shouldn't be that way. Meeting minutes should be readily available for all citizens who aren't able to make it here on time, or who don't have the ability to have someone available to watch the meeting themselves. Now, YouTube's great for transcriptions, but not always for every little detail. You all deserve the meeting minutes, and so do the people. It shouldn't come at the cost of a lawsuit. And trust me, if you guys all haven't been informed, I'm not scared of filing them. I've gotten very good at it. I am over this. I don't know what we're spending all this money on these re-beautifications, all this BS. The city infrastructure is falling apart, including public records. There's a reason you guys have 1,900 public records is because people are seeing the city fall apart. If they saw the city actually working and actually doing what it was supposed to, there wouldn't be this much. You guys need to take a time and put it together and figure out how you guys come together as a council. Because what's up here is just a mockery. And honestly, it's ran by you, the court jester. I am so sick of seeing your face up here. I am so tired of it. Honestly, a recall won't work when it comes to public records. I've tried. Other than you filing, actually breaking the law when it comes to public records, the mayor isn't following it. It's going to cost you guys. There is a letter from your office that states she is the records custodian of her own records. That's part of the public records part of this comment. That needs to change. She should not be the gatekeeper of her devices if they are paid for by the taxpayers. It should be done by the city and not just, oh, I just don't want to give this one. I don't want to give that one. I don't want to give this text message. I want to just keep that one behind. I don't know the statutes to actually exempt them. I'm not giving proper estimates. You're not doing what you're supposed to by Sunshine Law. NOW, THAT DOESN'T SURPRISE ME HERE IN THIS LAST MINUTE. I'M GOING TO USE MY TIME TO PROBABLY BREAK A COUPLE RULES. JUST BECAUSE THE MAYOR DOES TOO. MAYOR OPERATES BUSINESSES IN THIS CITY WITHOUT PERMITS, WITHOUT PROPER PERMITS FOR SIGNAGE, WITHOUT ACTUALLY PULLING PERMITS AND THEN NOT GETTING THE INSPECTIONS FOR THE DOORS, THE GARAGE DOORS, AND THEN HOLDING SMALL LOCAL CITIZENS ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR BUSINESSES LIKE THE HERITAGE INN. who's been struggling to reopen since a car ran into their building, but been waylaid by permit after permit. We got the mayor just running her bargain business with these expired permits. Don't believe me? Go check them. There's a public permit or public records that was pulled on her expired permits, or just check the site. This isn't the first time. This isn't the second. This is the second building. You have to stop. You are not above the law. Somebody got to stop her. We either sit with her until 2028, or you guys find a way to get her out but it's not gonna be the city we can't organize together to get a recall thank you moving on to number four consent agenda just need a motion

go ahead i just wanted to comment on no we're not doing comments on citizens comments right now no on the consent agenda okay go ahead um i just wanted to talk about the first one that's the approval for me the amendment number one to work order 309-25 regarding the country village water treatment plant pilot program um i know we don't generally discuss things on the consent agenda but i just want to make it make a statement so that people understand what this money is for When we approved an amendment for five of before it was for five more weeks of continuous pumping at that well site.

Hold on a minute. If you want to discuss an item on the consent agenda, we should pull it and have a discussion and approve the consent agenda first. or not approve the consent agenda? Council?

What she did last meeting, she made a statement to say why she was voting on it, not pull it for discussion, but that's up to you all. I'm just, I know she had a statement she wanted to make where she asked some questions, but that's the difference is she doesn't wanna discuss it. She wants to let you all know what she did and what her findings were and then move on with it. But she did it last meeting as well.

Council, was that a proper procedure?

Usually you pull it off and then you talk about it. That's right. And that gives you full opportunity to talk for as long as you want.

Right. Okay. I'd like to have consent agenda item A pulled for comment.

Can we just do a head nod on that, right? Okay. Council, you okay with that?

Okay.

Okay. So we just need a motion for the consent agenda without 4A. Okay.

I'd like to make a motion to accept the consent agenda deleting 4A. Second. Is that right?

We have a motion, we have a second. Is there any public comment on this? Seeing none, we'll bring it back for the question.

Council Member Tiamson? Yes. Vice Mayor Grimm? Yes. Council Member Stafford? Yes. Council Member Richardson? Yes. Council Member Darms? Yes. Council Member Knight? Yes. Mayor Marks?

Yes. And a consent agenda passes, except for 4A, and we'll talk about 4A now. Discussion? Council Member Knight? Yes.

Okay, we got the floor, thank you. So a few weeks ago we approved an amendment for five more weeks of continuous pumping at the Country Village Water Treatment Plant pilot program well. They broke through to some brackish water and back plugged that well to where the brackish water was hit. um they've been pumping out the brackish water and have been seeing improvement in water quality and they need an additional 16 weeks of pumping to continue clearing the brackish water instead of having a third party on site staff is going to take over the pumping and monitoring of the water quality saving us money versus having the third party remain on site so i just wanted to make that statement regarding that so the public is aware of why we have this amendment thank you

Okay, we're moving on to five ordinances first reading we have none. Excuse me, we need to vote on that item. Oh, sorry. Okay. I need a motion on to accept item for a on the consent agenda.

Madam, I'd like to make a motion to accept on the consent agenda for a second.

We have a motion we have a second any public comment on this? Seeing none, we'll bring it back for the question.

Vice Mayor Grimm? Yes. Council Member Stafford? Yes. Council Member Richardson? Yes. Council Member Darmes? Yes. Council Member Knight? Yes. Council Member T. Onsen? Yes. Mayor Marks?

Yes. And 4A on the consent agenda passes. moving on to five ordinances first reading we have none six public hearing ordinances second and final reading we have none seven resolutions seven a resolution number four five three dash two six uh becky could you read that into the record please yes madam mayor this is resolution number four five three dash two six a resolution of the city council of the city of orange city florida

Relating to the provision of stormwater management services approving certain recitals providing for authority purpose and definitions reimposing stormwater service assessments against certain real property within the incorporated area of the City of Orange City for the fiscal year beginning October 1 2026 confirming the preliminary rate resolution approving the rate of assessment in the stormwater service assessment role and providing for collection of the assessments pursuant to the Uniform Assessment Collection Act, providing for application of assessment proceeds, providing for effect, repealing all resolutions or parts of resolutions in conflict herewith, providing for severability, and providing an effective date. Thank you. Devlin Moore, Finance Directors, presenting.

Good evening, Delamore Finance Director. Resolution number 453-26 will serve to reimpose the stormwater assessment for tax year 2026. The required notice of hearing was published in the Daytona Beach News Journal on August 19th, and it was also included on the trim notices mailed by the property appraiser in August. Council previously adopted preliminary rate resolution number 444-26 on July 28th. That resolution set the proposed annual stormwater assessment rate at $27 per EBU or equivalent benefit unit. This represents an increase from the current annual rate of $23 per EBU. The proposed rate is pursuant to the stormwater rate study that was adopted by council on June 24th, 2025. and so with that council recommends excuse me sorry a little under the weather uh staff recommends council adopt resolution number 453-26 thank you thank you okay any discussion on this council no okay we just need a motion madam mayor i'll make a motion to approve resolution 453-26 a second

We have a motion. We have a second. Any public comment on this? Okay. Seeing none, we'll bring it back for the question.

Vice Mayor Grimm. Yes. Council Member Stafford.

Yes.

Council Member Richardson. Yes. Council Member Darms. Yes. Council Member Knight. Yes. Council Member Thompson. Yes. Mayor Marks.

Yes, and resolution number 453-26 passes. Moving on to 7B, resolution number 454-26.

Becky, please. Yes, Madam Mayor. This is resolution number 454-26, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Orange City, Florida, relating to the collection and disposal of solid, wasted, and recovered materials in the City of Orange City, Florida. approving certain recitals, providing for authority, purpose, and definitions, reimposing solid waste service assessments against residential property located within the City of Orange City, Florida for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2026, confirming the preliminary rate resolution, approving the rate of assessment and the solid waste assessment role, providing for collection of the assessments pursuant to the Uniform Assessment Collection Act, providing for application of assessment proceeds, providing for effect, repealing all resolutions or parts of resolutions in conflict herewith, providing for severability, and providing an effective date. Thank you.

Devlin Morgan.

level more finance director resolution number four or five four dash two six will serve to reimpose the solid waste special assessment for tax year 2026 the required notice of hearing was published in the Daytona Beach News Journal on August 19th and it was also included on the trim notices that went to get out of the property appraisers office in August Council previously adopted preliminary rate resolution number 445-26 on July 28th. That resolution set the proposed annual solid waste assessment at $241.82 a parcel. The contract rate with WastePro will increase by 12.52% to $231.96 per parcel. However, the rate of $241.82 only represents an 8% increase over the current rate. And that is because staff is recommending the use of some fund balance to help absorb a portion of WastePro's contractual increase. So the proposed annual assessment is $241.82 per parcel. But that staff recommends council Adopt resolution number four or five four dash two six. Thank you.

Thank you council seen a motion I'd like to make a motion to approve resolution number four or five four dash two six adopting the annual rate resolution for the fiscal year 2627 tax year 2026 solid waste service assessment Second we have a motion we have a second any public comment on this I

Seeing none, we'll bring it back for the question.

Council Member Stafford?

Yes.

Council Member Richardson? Yes. Council Member Darms? Yes. Council Member Knight? Yes. Council Member Thompson?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Graham? Yes. Mayor Marks?

Yes. And resolution number 454-26 passes.

seven c resolution number four five five dash two six becky uh yes madam mayor this is resolution number four five five dash two six a resolution of the city council of the city of orange city florida relating to the provision of street lighting services facilities and programs in the shadow ridge street lighting assessment area providing certain findings authority purpose and definitions reimposing street lighting assessments for the fiscal year beginning october 1 2026 confirming the preliminary rate resolution approving the street lighting assessment role and providing for collection of the assessments pursuant to the Uniform Assessment Collection Act providing for the application of assessment proceeds providing for effect repealing all resolutions or parts of resolutions in conflict herewith providing for severability and providing an effective date thank you Devlin Moore

Devlin Ward, Finance Director. Resolution 455-26 will serve to reimpose the Shadow Ridge Street Lighting Assessment for Tax Year 2026. As before, the required notices were published in the Daytona Beach News Journal on August 19th and on the trim notices as mailed by the property appraiser. Council previously adopted preliminary rate resolution number 446-26 on July 28th. That resolution set the proposed annual assessment rate at $150 per lot. That represents an annual decrease of $5 a lot. The decrease is attributed to a reduction in the power bills and some use of fund balance. Staff recommends Council adopt resolution number 455-26. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, Council, looking for some action.

Madam Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve Resolution 455-26.

I'll second. We have a motion, we have a second. Any public comment on this? Seeing none, we'll bring it back for the question.

Council Member Richardson? Yes. Council Member Darms? Yes. Council Member Knight?

Yes.

Council Member Tiamson?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Grimm? Yes. Council Member Stafford? Yes. Mayor Mark?

Yes, and resolution number 455-26 passes. Moving on to 7D, resolution number 456-26.

All right, Madam Mayor, this is resolution number 456-26, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Orange City, Florida, relating to the provision of street lighting services, facilities, and programs in the Briarwood South Street Lighting Assessment Area. Providing certain findings, authority, purpose, and definitions. Reimposing street lighting assessments for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2026. Confirming the preliminary rate resolution approving the street lighting assessment role. And providing for collection of the assessments pursuant to the Uniform Assessment Collection Act. Providing for the application of assessment proceeds. Providing for effect or appealing all resolutions or parts of resolutions in conflict herewith. Providing for severability and providing an effective date.

Thank you. Do you have a little more?

I think we know why Paul called out tonight. Resolution number 456-26 was served to reimpose the Briarwood South street lighting special assessment for tax year 2026. The required notice was published in the newspaper on November, excuse me, August 19th and in the trim notice. Council previously adopted preliminary rate resolution number 447-26 on July 28th. That resolution set the proposed annual rate at $85 a lot. That represents an annual increase of $5 a lot. The increase is required to cover the various costs of the assessment. There's some differing, you know differences between Briarwood South and Shadow Ridge number of lights type of light fixtures and the maintenance agreement and Also, the Briarwood South has a very minimal fund balance So there is no use of fund balance in that proposed budget So with staff with that staff recommends council adopt resolution four five six dash two six Thank you.

Thank you I'd like to make a motion to approve resolution number 456 dash 26 adopting the annual rate resolution for the tax year of 2026 Briarwood South Street lighting assessment second we have a motion we have a second any public comment on this seeing none we'll bring it back for the question

Council Member Darmes?

Yes.

Council Member Knight? Yes. Council Member Tiamson? Yes. Vice Mayor Grimm? Yes. Council Member Stafford? Yes. Council Member Richardson? Yes. Mayor Marks?

Yes. And resolution number 456-26 passes. Moving on to 78. Resolution number 456-26.

That's one, Becky. You want me to read it for you?

This is resolution number 457-26 a resolution of the City Council of the City of Orange City Florida approving the fiscal year 2026-2027 non ad valorem assessment roll for the south Kentucky Avenue assessment area directing certification of the assessment role to the Volusia County tax collector repealing all resolutions or parts of resolutions in conflict herewith providing for severability and providing for an effective date Thank you Devlin Moore Thank you last one resolution number 457 to S26 will serve to reimpose a South Kentucky Avenue assessment for tax year 2026

This one's a little different than the others. The South Kentucky Avenue assessment area was first established in May 2023. At that time, council approved recurring assessment rates for each parcel that benefited from the capital road improvements along South Kentucky Avenue. Following that adoption, 58 parcels, including Country Village, chose to pre-pay their entire assessment in advance in fiscal year 2023. Those pre-paid parcels have since been removed from the assessment roll. The remaining parcels, along with the respective annual assessment rates, are detailed in Appendix A of the resolution. Because there were no changes to the assessment roll this year, neither a preliminary rate resolution nor the newspaper advertisement was required. And as such, staff recommends council adopt resolution number 457-26. Thank you.

Thank you. Council? Madam Mayor, I'd like to stay so moved. Okay, we have a motion. Second. We have a second on the floor. Any public comment on this? Okay, seeing none, we'll bring it back for the question.

Council Member Knight? Yes. Council Member Thompson? Yes. Vice Mayor Graham?

Yes.

Council Member Stafford? Yes. Council Member Richardson? Yes. Council Member Darm? Yes. Mayor Marks?

Yes, and resolution number 457 dash 26 is approved. Moving on to eight discussions in action. We have Okay, nine reports city manager. Good evening.

Good evening and thank you.

This past two weeks, we attended a transformation three six meeting with Felicia County. At that meeting, we discussed our current application or grant award for the pipeline from Mill Lake Park out to the borough pit. It is substantially getting close to being 90 plus percent complete and the rubber is about to hit the road. We also discussed a grant application that will be opening up later this fall and the possibility of using that to augment what was recently brought to council with regard to the Rhode Island flooding and the pipeline that is going is proposed to be put in and then connected. So that was very positive and we're hopeful. We continued with union negotiations, and we are close to wrapping up the City Hall renovations with JL2. Upcoming, we have tomorrow, we have the State of the City with Mayor Marks at John Knox Village. We have a Volusia County elected officials roundtable on September 14th.

teams volusia meeting on september 18th and then the volusia league of cities dinner in holly hill on september 24th that completes my report any questions for the manager or comments okay i have a i have a comment so tomorrow is our state of the city at john knox and i got a message from the manager that we have three other council members attending is that still

Yes, we did work with the attorney based on that call. And we have posted the meeting. I did reach out to Janet, the CEO for the group and confirm that what we're doing is not only similar to what we did last year, but in conformity with what our other sister cities are doing as well, such as the land, Deltona, and to bury. So it's been publicly posted, then we have publicly posted it. Okay, good. Based on good.

Just want to make sure we're following the sunshine laws with that. because we will have a quorum there and I don't, you know. Oh yeah, with the four, sure. Right. So everybody's clear that we're not, you know, we're there. My thing is we're there, we're talking city business. We're gonna have constituents asking us questions. We're gonna be there talking about things that are gonna come up for a future vote. And that's what concerns me with us all being in the same room. So wanted to make sure that,

we're legal on this because i don't want to get fined i know you can get fined if we're not doing this correctly so becky could you touch on that the posting of that should take care of that because it will be posted so that everyone will know that um two or more of the elected officials will be at this meeting and it doesn't have a time period for being posted ahead of time okay okay thank you

all right we're going to move on to the city clerk um i have no report but just to add over to the conversation um so i did publish the event attendance notice on icompass um and i can also email out a copy of that to all council members that way you have it thank you okay um any questions or comments for the city clerk

okay it's come to my attention that you know we've been getting a lot of feedback from the minutes from different people and it's come to my attention that actually the council is held responsible if those minutes are not prompt And since we are a little bit far behind because of all the public records requests, I'm not really, you know, prompt has different definitions obviously, but I think, you know, a year behind is a bit long, so that's not prompt. But what my concern is is that the council could be put on the line for this because it's ultimately, our responsibility to make sure these minutes are done or turned into us and being on this council this long i never knew that until now and so that's pretty scary because you know we could get in some big trouble for that so um council

um i would not stay up all night worrying about that um i've been doing this a long time and that is not something that is typically tagged onto the council i think the council has encouraged the city clerk to get the minutes done and there's a reasonable reason why she hasn't been able to do that okay so as long as we're not on the hook for this because i just want to i would not stay up tonight worrying about that

Okay, thank you. Because I know she's been working hard to get it done. I know that the whole office has been behind because of all the requests that are coming in from the different places, I'll just say. But when I heard that it was, it was alarming to me because I just don't want to get in trouble for something that we're responsible for. So that's why I had to bring that up. Okay, thank you. Moving on to city attorney.

Nothing tonight. Thank you. Thank you. New business, anybody?

No? Okay. And we got approval of minutes.

Those were on the consent agenda.

Yep. And council and mayor's comments. Councilman Knight?

Um, I'd like to talk about us receiving the org chart on a weekly basis. Um, I don't think we need to continue to get that. That's micromanaging our city manager and staff. And that's not our job as a council. According to our charter, our it's it's up to her to manage that. So I'd like to see that stop. Council.

yeah speaking to the microphone you want to speak councilwoman darms i'd like to be in agreement with that i mean because i keep looking at it expecting to see something different but it's the same thing for the most part so i'm like what am i going to do with this you know so i i'm in agreement with maybe we could or maybe just once a month that sort of thing

I don't even think we need it once a month. Again, that's micromanaging our city manager and I don't think that's appropriate.

I think that it was brought to everybody's attention was because when we have turnovers in the city of major departments and we don't know and people look at us like we're running the city here, but actually the city manager's running the city, not us. We're making the decisions, but when it comes to running the city, couldn't tell you half the things that are going on the city right now because the city manager runs the city so I don't think it's micromanaging I think it's just keeping on top of what's going on when people in your constituents ask you if there's any you know who is your who's your department head do you know all your department heads do you know their names because that's that's one of the things that I don't so that chart helps me to realize who these people are that are on our staff that work for us and when they leave and we don't know you know what i mean then we might give misinformation so that was the whole point it's not about micromanaging it's about knowing what's going on with our staff as far as when people ask us questions so that's why it was brought up i can understand the department heads but anything below that i don't think we need to manage that that's the department head's responsibility for that not ours okay well ultimately we're responsible for the city manager the city clerk and this and the attorney so when it comes down to it we you know you kind of want to know what's going on underneath you it's not micromanaging it it's just watching what's going on because if a department crumbles and you don't know guess where your constituents are going right to you and me

I think that comes down to our city manager making sure she notifies us appropriately through her reports or through emails or text messages. Okay, that would be fine.

Yeah, just that's the same thing, only different, right? If she's going to notify us when people leave and come and go, it's a lot easier to put a chart on there than it is to go, you know, Mary left today and Mike came in tomorrow. And, you know, it's easier to go, okay, here's the chart. Check this one off. This one came in.

i have a question go ahead what harm does it do i don't understand what the problem is i don't understand why org chart's bad i mean we have it at sheriff's office everyone has one so i was just curious is it cumbersome or is it too much to handle or well no it's not too much to handle it's not cumbersome i just think that you know it comes a point where we have to let her manage the city and she's doing that she's doing that right okay um go ahead

city manager mayor i'm in agreement with uh we don't need the um charter reason being is like councilwoman said we're not micromanaging and according to our charter section 6.01 we as council i believe this is why they came up with the charter because we were having the problems before with everybody trying to manage everything and nothing was really getting accomplished so um According to that, the council is supposed to go through our city manager. The city manager, I mean, if we go meet with her and talk with her to find out what's going on, it's up to us to go with her. We are to manage the city manager. The city manager is to manage her staff. And if she feels like... even if it's right or wrong she should report back to city council we should not run interference and try to do anything to interfere with what she's doing with her staff the city manager is supposed to manage her staff we at city council we manage our city manager we selected her because we felt like she could do a good job in doing what she's doing and i do appreciate it but We need to back away with trying to stop trying to micromanage and let's allow them the opportunity. Our city staff, our city manager, our city attorney, and our city clerk. Allow them to do the job that we selected them to do. That's all I have to say.

Anybody else on the council? No? Okay. Thank you. Any other comments from the council? Councilman D'Armes.

I just wanted to make a comment further to the situation with Kaylee and me trying to catch up with the minutes. I go there when I need to go there to pick up something or if I need to ask something. And a couple of times, a couple of times I've been there and someone that we know has been there to make her life miserable. And she has to deal with that. And then who knows how long that takes to deal with. So it's not just that, but I'm sure there's a lot of people that come in during the course of the day. So that takes a lot of time out of your hands to do other things. So I don't, you know, I know it's a case of organizing, but she knows what she's doing as far as what she has to do.

Thank you. Vice Mayor, anything to say?

Not on that. Okay, go ahead. Okay, so I attended the EPTA TPO meeting, and a lot of talk on this one was US-195 and some of the things in motion. They're reconstructing modern loop ramps to enhance safety and operational efficiency. Extended and separated off-ramps from northbound I-95 and on-ramp to southbound I-95 to enhance traffic movements. New free-flow on-ramp from southbound US-1 to southbound I-95 to improve efficiency. One newly constructed bridge over FEC Railway, I guess that's happening, to extend the on-ramp to southbound I-95. Two new constructed bridges over US-1 to separate on and off movements between I-95 and US-1. An additional lane in each direction along one mile segment of US-1 to meet current and future traffic demands. new shared use path to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety and connectivity and of course landscaping and aesthetic uh features so that's what went on this month thank you thank you is that all on the east side of the county yeah there was nothing on our side even give us a little thing about okay well yeah thanks for the report thanks for going yeah no worries yeah thank you you're welcome um actually go ahead in uh relation to that i should say we should probably think about who's going to be selected or do we want to wait until november to do that i volunteered to go up to that point everybody's okay with that and then we can go from there perfect that's

Is that okay, city manager? Staff normally brings back an agenda item for you to select your individuals to serve on the extra boards, so that will come back after the election. After elections, right, yeah. Right.

Okay.

So you want me to continue to go?

So it's all you for now.

Okay.

Right? Thank you. Okay, with that being said, we're just looking for a motion to adjourn.

Oh, you got one? Yes, ma'am.

Sorry.

Yes, ma'am. I had to prepare this because I don't want to miss out on anything because I was deeply offended and really... Can you speak into the microphone, please? I was deeply offended and really upset. Over the times, I have observed a pattern of conduct from the mayor and other members here at the council that raise serious concern about respect, professionalism, and compliance with our city charter. This includes repeated instances of disrespect towards residents, city staff, and towards me personally during council meetings. I have been threatened with removal from the dais for expressing my views on March the 24th by the mayor. I was threatened to be removed from council. And I have been instructed on what I should say or I should not say while carrying out my elected responsibilities. last council meeting i i said my city i always say my city uh even after the mayor finished giving her clothes and she said my city and for anyone to piggyback on anything i said i think we all as council members here we all are each individual we can make our own individual individuals decision i don't need anybody to piggyback on my back i'm working for the residents and not the council here I'm working for our residents. I wasn't talking to any Pacific Council members. I was talking to our residents. I was letting them know how I feel and what should happen. Additionally, there have been communication involving racial charge statements and mimics circulated by the mayor conducted that falls far short of standards of respect and professionalism, except from anyone serving in public office. And once again, Mayor Kelly, when you sat there and you told me I can't say our, I mean, I can't say my, I should consider saying our. I'm gonna say my.

Let's not have a, we're not gonna have a conversation here. Just make your comments.

It's time for.

There's no direct attacks, point of order. Point of order, there's no direct attacks up here.

So in a comment, is it a point of order during comment, counsel?

She should be able to say her comments because they are her comments.

Against me? It's not just against you, it's other people here on the dial.

You said Mayor Kelly.

sorry yes it's it's her it's her statement okay and she should be permitted to up to do it My, I need to say our. Once again, and I'm going to say it until I'm blue in the face, it's my city. I've been here 75 years. You've been here 75 plus years. You've been here 11. My family has stocked in the city of Vernon City. stock we have several homes several businesses several everything here in the city of fernsville which you did not know so if i feel like taking it as something that i feel like i can own ownership on because i am infected i feel like i should be able to say that because you know what back in the 1920s 1930s 40s and stuff we were not allowed well they were not allowed to put hey i want you to know It's 2026. I will say what I feel like I need to say. If I wanna apologize to my residents or whatever, I'm gonna say my, because I'm taking personal responsibility for that. And I don't bow my head, I don't shuffle my feet, and I don't say yes ma'am and no ma'am to nobody 72 years down the road. And for you all to try to intimidate me, threaten to remove me from council, I think that's very unprofessional, very unprofessional. And please don't piggyback on me. Speak your mind and speak what you need to speak, not what I say, not what I say. And taking it together, these actions undermine the respect, environment our residents deserve, the professional working condition our staff rely on, like the young man said when he came up here, and the compliance with charter requirements that all government that our government is obligated to uphold. When we came to this office, we stated we would uphold our charter. Mayor Strong City, each and every last one of the council people here has a voice. And by golly, I will speak my voice. I don't care what anyone says.

Thank you. Anybody else from the council? All right, we just need a motion to adjourn.

I'll make a motion to adjourn. Second.

We got a motion, we got a second. All in favor say aye.

Aye.