City Council - Regular Meeting

morning air February 24, 2026 to the council meeting to order. Remind everybody to silence your cell phones. Miss is going to lead us in an opening prayer followed by the pledge of allegiance.

Heavenly Father, we come to you right now with bowed heads and humble hearts, asking you, Father God, to lead us and guide us and surely protect us. Lord, be our eyes, ears, hands, and feet that we make the right decision for the city of Perry. Father God, Lord, keep your hand upon the sick and read and continue to this be in our lives, Father God. these blessings we ask your name. 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. Ro, please

dearly. Approval of items on the consent agenda. Approval to read by title only. Resolution 2025-08. Resolution 2020 I'm sorry. Resolution 2026-08. Resolution 2026-09 and resolution 2026-10. Have a second.

Sorry. What's that? Resolution for 2016 has been removed. I didn't remove. So we just have 89. Yes. Okay. All right. Going to amend. We're just going to do 2026-8 2026-9. So move. Have a second. Second. Council member Woodalt. Yes. Landry. Yes. May. Yes. Have anyone from the general public? You want to speak on anything that is not on the agenda?

Give your name and address for the record.

My name is Thomas Edward the second. I am still at 2847 Pisc. I just would like to say thank you for the attempt uh by John to show the agenda uh ahead of time. Uh couldn't pull it up on the phone because it's created in a word document. I was told that maybe if they did it in a PDF format, everybody could pull it up because you don't have word on your phone. Is my understanding you can't you can't see it. So, thanks for their effort. Uh, I would also like to thank uh council member Woodfall and John for showing up at the uh county meetings the other night and were able to see uh public uh comments and didn't take you see the actions taken from public input. It it was very encouraging to see. I'd like to see out here and I don't know if it's available here now like is the county uh the community being able to call in with y'all in session say they can't make it they got far sick or something like that but would like to participate if uh there's any way you can get that put in place if you don't have in place that'd be a help and maybe get a little more input uh still the four o'clock thing is very early for a lot of people and I talked to a lot of people they say yeah that's very early a lot of people aren't off work yet. So maybe y'all have to reconsider that

and uh take a look at that. I'm going leave with that. Thank you. Thanks. Anyone else like to speak on anything that's not on the agenda? And see if they want move on to business RFD. Do we have any any Senate? No, we don't have any. All right. General business agenda item 6A or Dura to address council and council take any action deemed necessary.

Thank you may and council members. Um so what you have in front of you is um the first task order that is the task for um planning uh for the water facilities. Uh so it's needed uh to start the process on the waterfire and then next meeting you'll get one for wastewater. Uh these planning documents are required as the first step for the two grants the city has one for 19 million one for 34 million. All these costs are in part of the grant. So it paid rule by grant. Uh so the first step would be to do the planning but we did not get all the money. So we have to prioritize these projects. So we'll do the prior priority bring it to you. You approve the planning document. Once it's approved it goes to DDP. Um then they authorize the engineering then we do engineering then we do construction um all have to be done to start the construction by November.

So the time is uh moving it'll be here before we know and then you'll start to see some of these contracts and works going on. Um so with that I think u if you have any question I'll be glad to answer it. It's the all the funds are in the planning document and the planning documents in the bank. So a massive overarching it is it will be we have a team. Uh

we actually already started it. We have a bi-weekly meeting how to pay for because if you take the amount of money the city got you divide that by every six months in construction is a massive amount. So we have to, you know, work through some of the leadership. So we'll be working through it. We've already started those. Anyone have any questions?

Thank you. Thank you. And I think probably you may have to make a motion for John to sign the task for

council. Yes. Landry. Yes. Yes. Agenda item 6B. council to discuss employee tuition reimbursement policy and council to take any action deemed necessary. We talked about this last meeting. I want to bring it back with a full council. Mayor went here last meeting and we don't have a full council. We can bring it back. I want to make a motion on it now. Move on it, but rather have the whole council discuss it. Wouldn't be you're okay with table to the next Oh, yeah.

meeting. We're stable to the next meeting. Agenda item 6 C, resolution number 2026-08, Christmas bonus amendment. The resolution of the city council amending the budget of the city of Perry, Florida for the fiscal year October 1st, 2025 through September 30th, 2026. Anybody have any questions on this? John, can you just kind of summarize it real quick?

Yeah, Carly had a baby before she was supposed to silence your phone. That's just to get the budget correct from we did in December. Okay. It would have been done in December, but not a little early. All right. Anybody want to entertain a motion? I'll entertain motion. motion. We have a second. Second.

Yes. Mayor Henry. Yes. Mayor, yes. Resolution or agenda item 6D resolution number 2026-09 DOT agreement Rash Street a resolution by the city council of the city of Perry Florida approving entry into an execution of a construction and maintenance agreement with state of Florida Department of Transportation. This is a sidewalk.

Yes. from Ash Street north to I think Green Farm Road. What I said, the county handles the grand and the management of all that. This is just we're going to take maintenance back over once the project's complete. City will maintain it. The section that's in the city. Gotcha. Is it going to be on the right side going north or do you know? I don't think. Or is it going to be on both sides? I don't think it's both sides. I'm not sure what side it is. I think is there I think there's one coming out Ash Street. I know it's from the schools and toward I guess whichever way you go. Yeah,

it's probably I'm guessing it's going to tie to that when it turn. I don't know there for a fact. It may cross the road and go. I don't know. I don't know either. I would think it be on the side with dark. That makes sense. On the right. Okay. I'll entertain a motion sheet. Second thought, yes. Breny, yes.

Yes. Agenda item 6E, council to discuss interlocal agreement for FDR sidewalk project and council being necessary. Assuming this is on the same piece of sidewalks today, we'll get you the new one. The county the county made a few minor changes to it. I want to go with their language. So, we're both approving the same thing. Okay. Basically, it's just a maintenance agreement. I'll entertain a motion. Second council. Yes. Vice Mayor Lry. Yes.

Yes. Agenda item 6F council to approve grant amend agreement MS034 for the CDBG-DR and council to take any action deemed necessary. I can't remember which one it is, but it's one of the three. We'll have two more to approve of this. This is the one they finalized the agreement on. Still working through the other two. That sure Good night. Yeah, this the $4.5 million ones number three water treatment plant.

Okay, I had any questions or discussion on this? I'll entertain a motion.

Second.

Yes. Yes. Mayor. Yes. 96G 31 minutes for the February 10th, 2026 regular session. Do we have any directions or anything on that one? On the next or the last page um department reports under uh item eight, city attorney report. It said Miss Unash had nothing for the report. So

I'll pick it. Thank you. I know. Maybe that's prophetic. My last name is Jamie.

Other than that, I move that they accepted the collection. You comfortable? Yes. Landry. Yes. Sir, yes, John Gayen. I'm sure y'all heard about the fire accident. He finally got the water to stop today. He had to melt down some some lead and punch it in there with a chisel to get it to stop. Uh they'll be starting on the repair tomorrow. Anderson, Columbia, that's going to be $35,000. get the road repaved.

They're starting on the road tomorrow. Okay. Well, Sam Boyer starting on the filling it all back in. Who's going to do the road? Anderson Columbia. I mean, is the state pay the better? No, we're going to hopefully get reimbursed through the insurance. The car insurance. Yes, sir. That's on our part of the road. Yeah. Just barely, but it's on our part. said probably by end by the end of the week. That's what we're hoping. They'll start. No, they'll start tomorrow. I believe by the end of the week. Wow.

I think they had a crew already here working at the airport. I think it's going to take off from there. I believe they've actually already laid equipment down this afternoon. So, Good deal. Head on in town. I sure for one appreciate the city workers and what all they did to get the water straightened out so quickly. Wonderful. Did you say they had to go some of them had to go underwater? For sure. Probably all of them. I can't imagine all that water blowing out trying to

Yeah, he he hasn't gotten much sleep worried about it and uh you know he he he did his best to get it fixed. I mean he didn't take it lightly. So he him and the water department they you know stayed up all night. That's why he's not here now. But he'd been up all night you know trying to get parts and you know do that. So get it done on a Sunday too. help us get everything back going. Man, there's a little leak still going on, but it wasn't that big. That was 12 in, was it? 12, right? Yeah. This one scheduled to be replaced.

Got to show you the photo. Everybody stand her effort. They did great. They all did really well. Daniel, I saw you were there, too. I made that one. What happened? There's a picture of you there. I know. You're welcome. Thanks to Jamie. I didn't take the picture. Why not? At the time. Somebody else sent it to me. Oh, everybody seen that one. That's what they were swimming in. Oh my goodness.

That was just charming, wasn't it? I mean just state of colon. We got plenty underneath us. That that's the offending van. So by the end of the week it's hoping it'll be back open. Good deal.

Anything else, John? I got a question for maybe Jamie or John. What been in the past? What's our success rate been on getting any kind of uh reimbursement from insurance companies on this type of stuff? I know we haven't had this specifically, but I know we've had other vehicle crashes damaged to any property. I wouldn't know what the reimbursement rate is. That's not something that we deal with directly. It usually is through finance or through the insurance claims through Stephan. definitely called our insurance and they said it wasn't covered by ours but that should be property damage. I don't think it' be covered under the auto insurance. They do have auto insurance. We did verify that. What do we know what level coverage?

I I have not heard anything other than Stephanie did send emails Sunday while we were out there. So they have been notified of the the I can check into and get back to you on that. Just let you know. Erin, I can say that insurance companies do call like even if they hit a stop sign, they call and that's one of the things they want to know is calls. So, usually the insurance company does contact the city. We get those calls frequently. So, in the past, have you got any kind of limit or have you been have you been made a whole?

Yeah. Yeah, but we've never that I know of something like this. So, we may not be on this one. We may go beyond their coverage on this suit. May have sued. That's why we have attorney. I'm I'm surprised it's only 35,000 for some reason. I was thinking, oh my god. Well, that's not inclusive of the overtime and the parts the cost to the city to repair that to get it drivable again. That's not anything that's been incurred to under underneath. Yeah,

it's probably gonna be at least that much or more for the rest of it. I'm guessing we'll have a total bill west through John was a 35 just Anderson Columbia part of that same

um just need to get the website updated with my phone number. I know several months ago I gave it in the meeting um and I did follow up a little bit and I guess there was different people who work on the website but um the attorney general's office um let me know that the number is still not changed on the website. I didn't realize but so it's 8502735932 Thank you. And who could I follow up with that? Is it Stephanie or Stephanie? That's all I know. Carly, welcome back.

Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Y anything for tonight or Okay. Just brought it back yesterday. Give you a couple weeks to Yes. All right. Very good. Jamie, I don't have anything. You got any land? He helped manage that police response to the disaster. So, um, he did all that. Got everything lined up for us to help. Daniel's help. Daniel, it was a team effort. Daniel. Oh, you're asking me? Yeah.

Well, we got our second new garbage truck today. So, good. The third one we should have hopefully by next week. And I would like to publicly say thank you to the police department because those police officers got out there and helped us put barricades up. Barricade we we had to get make sandbags to hold the barricades down. They helped shovel in sand to sandbags. They help they helped a lot. They helped and I appreciate it. Good. I know. Everybody worked really well together. Yes. We worked the county doing blocking streets.

We went to Tallahassee and got those Well, we didn't. A couple of my guys went to Tallahassee and got those barricades, but we worked seven hours trying to get the streets blocked and taped off. And all the sightseers, trying to keep them out of the way. And I was after church, they were Daniel, you might want to also add about DOT. I mean, they did respond and Yeah, DOT did. Oh, yeah. DOT did. They actually responded during the night and they offered a lot of our or they left a lot of their signs for us to use and they put up the um what do you call those?

The message board signs. But yes, do they were there that there was one of those guys was there from 2 o'clock in the morning till like 12 in the afternoon helping and Yes. It's good for a small town. Have plenty of help when you need it. It's good.

Thank you, ma'am. Sean, you got videos. Which one's um this is a 14 in reclaim water line at plant just plant.

Um can you go to the next picture John? That's the final product after we fixed it. Try the next one, please. Excuse me. Is this the water line? It's reclaimed water. It's It's water that we sewage we treat and it's supposedly clean water that goes to the spray field. That line blew out.

Well, that that valve you're seeing right there, um, it wasn't installed the best. There was a lot of pipe sticking in it and it started leaking. I mean, it' been held for years, but when we cut it loose, it just it just fell apart. Um,

yeah, video might not be compatible with Mac was taking on the Apple phone. Yeah. I don't know why. plan. But I have a I have a video of the guys like we we had we we had a very short window to cut it out, replace it just because it's not like clean water, you know, some sewage. So we had to contain it and um I had a six minute video and we we we cut it out in six minutes. It's in the cloud had downloaded or something.

One was tried that went back on the spray field. You said it it goes to Sprayfield. That's where the the treated effluent goes right from from that line 14. It basically goes out of the plant. It goes through Lidge Park goes down 98 turns down Hampton Springs. That that bottom one's working. That's going to be a little bit. Well, this one that was right. This one go.

You don't mind to see this another day, sir? You might have to watch it another day. Okay, James.

Still downloading about half download mess. It's going to be a minute. Yeah, it was a screen share. Simply cast cast it from your phone to the computer screen. They could not usually pretty pretty fast.

Do you want to wait on it? Y they don't want to. We we can save it for another one and then maybe next meeting I'll have some more cuz uh we keep getting delayed on Glenn Street. We've got a bypass up. We're taking it apart. Um I got some more parts coming in this this week and so I'll have some more pictures on it probably next time once we get everything in. We should be able to do a week. It just we've had a lot of services to replace them. Right. That's it. Appreciate it.

You have anything? You know that I want to get with get with you Sean about one day. Well, I know this week you busy. One day next week we talk about some stuff. Only thing I've got, have we done any looking at all as to what kind of effect the property tax issue may have on us? I have. If we have not, we may want to stick on that and just get some numbers together.

I have. What I can do is also forward you on the Florida League of Cities um description as well as um a a PDF book if you would a short book that talks about the consequences of property tax FL LCD does not support the perspective legislation regarding doing away with taxes or city taxes. Um and also in the guide it encourages where cities also feel that way um to potentially have you know even make it a part of the agenda and invite people who may have questions to talk about it as well. Um but I can and it's also probably in emails you've received from league and I know they usually have 14 items so I can isolate it and send just that one dealing with the property taxes.

Yeah. Not not against it. I'm talking about the tax reform. I'm not against it at all. It's just people have to understand that we're not the federal government. What I mean by that, I'm going to explain myself. Federal government seems to have unlimited amounts of money. We don't. So, if we lose money, we're going to lose services. And it's just going to be that simple. I don't know what it's going to be made up with. anything. I mean, there's a lot of questions that haven't been answered yet. Not at least not um we haven't got any silent answers yet that I know of. So, um and it very well may pass this year. I don't know if it will or won't. I got a feeling it will. I could be wrong. I just don't know yet. But it should it pass, we need to be prepared in my opinion. Oh,

and the resource is the resource guide um that you may also want to look up I could try to send it before the meeting is over is understanding municipal property taxes. Um it also includes the educational toolkit featuring city example sections regarding if you wanted to hold some type of town hall about information education. Um that could be helpful. And then it has a great FAQ section about communicating about property taxes. I was just letting you know what FLC stood. But as you you're correct, I mean, we don't as a council, you don't have to even have a statement as to how you stand if you if you're interested in just educating and hearing from people.

I guess what I was looking for more than anything is what what I was trying to get an answer for more than anything is what kind of just a number of what is the effect it's going to have. I guess that would be maybe something we get from the property raers's office. Actually, we we've got an article going in probably Friday's paper that sort of legislator's already done that for you. Okay.

If the one that passed the house were to pass the Senate and were to pass on the ballot, the total impact Taylor County be $3.1 million of which the cities would be a large percentage because the number of homesteaded properties you have, right? But you can do some math and do that. But they've got that the legislators have that in that bill actually breaks it out show by county what it's going to cost. Did what pass take homestead to zero or it just give you more value? I believe one that has passed one not the Senate is bringing homestead to zero.

I think it's a nonpaced in approach. But you've got three steps before you need start. If it goes to zero, there's no sense in really trying to project now because until the Senate passes something and the governor sign and the voters approve it, you're wasting a lot of time trying to figure out how much you're going to lose because you don't know which which version is going to pass. I understand what you're saying, but I also don't stick ahead to sand either until it happens. I'm just saying you can't ask somebody to project what you're going to need to make up if you really don't know which one's going to pass. Right. If it goes to zero, I'm getting divorced on paper having too long.

But is that part usually always more expensive than what they did? This wish people understood that it could affect services. You know, it sounds great. Oh, I don't have to pay property taxes. It sounds great on the service. But when you realize that you're going to lose services, it doesn't sound so great. So I think there's a lot of educating the public that needs to be. It's just my opinion because we have to live within our means. I mean

we have no choice but to live within our means. Anyway, that's all I had. Anybody else have anything? Anybody else have anything? No, she can't. All right. Thank you.