City Council - Regular Meeting

I pledge of allegiance.

Amen. 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. The clerk call the role. Councilman Foley here. Councilman Gford here. Councilman Green here. Vice Mayor Gross here. Mayor Stilner here. Got a full band tonight. All right. Public comments on consent agenda items only. Any public comments strictly for consent agenda items? Which consent agenda item you talk about? Go ahead. Take a guess.

All right. All you. Uh, Chuck Helman, 823 Sugar House Boulevard. Um, number seven, we got awarded $3 million. Wait till we start. City manager is going to talk about it in his comments in just a little bit. Okay. Great. Comments. No. No. That's the 3 million we got previously. It's you're seeing the pace of government how it has to go. Yeah. Well, I mean, I read 3 million. That's like I got you. Can we start digging tomorrow? I mean come whenever it rains in sort of force people get nervous you know. Okay the city manager will be talking about some of that stuff here in a few minutes. Any other consent agenda items comments on consent agenda?

The council. Can I get a motion to approve consent agenda items 5 through nine this evening? Give a motion to approve uh agenda items 5 through nine. We have a motion and a second. Second. We have a motion and a second for consent agenda items 5 through 9. Will the clerk call the role? Councilman Foley. Yes. Council Gert, yes. Councilman Green, yes. Vice Mayor Grubs, yes. Mayor Stler, yes. 50. Things moved this quick when you were up here, Mr. Parker. Cuz you're up. Come on up. Item number 10, FCCMMA recognition for being council manager city for 55 years. Welcome, sir.

Good to be here, mayor, members of the council. For the record, my name is Ken Parker. I am a resident of Port Orange. Uh before I begin the formal presentation, I just like to make a uh to commend the Port Orange Police Department. On Friday, uh my wife received a call from a detective in the in the department. Okay. First, she thought it was a crank call. Uh because Robin Finwick's number came up on my telephone. I wonder why that's there. Uh that goes back when back a long time, Robin. Okay. but it was the main city number and that was how it was listed. Uh so uh she didn't answer the call and but then later the detective called back and uh there had been a individual in the going around the community stealing mail out of mailboxes and they had stolen mail out of our mailbox. The detective was very thorough, very good, very professional, and a police officer was dispatched to our house in order to make a a formal statement because the first question is, do you want to press charges? And the answer is yes, because apparently there was a check in that grouping of mail. So, I just wanted to let you know uh that I really appreciate the Port Orange Police Department and I've already expressed it to the chief, but I would like to be on the public record to say top-notch job. Very professional. They did a great job.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Tonight, uh but I'm here representing the Florida City County Management Association and the International City County Management Association. I think I have probably a unique uh understanding of the Port Orange City Charter. Uh, as a matter of fact, uh, not only am I familiar with the charter, I'm familiar with the people who drafted this charter. Okay, I had the privilege of meeting all of them uh, during my 28 plus years with the city of Port Orange. As a matter of fact, I can remember the chairman of the chairwoman of the charter commission. She used to sit right back there in that chair on the corner and when the council would start wondering a little bit, uh, Miss McGinness would get up and she said, "Have you read the city charter lately?" Um, and I know all of you have read the city charter, so I'm not going to say that, but we would like to commend this u this council and the councils in the past for the charter that you operate under. And so 55 years ago, uh, the Florida City County Management Association and ICMA recognized the city of Port Orange, uh, for its charter. Its charter operates under the council manager form, and it's been a very good charter. And, um, it's been amended a few times, but not substantially during that period. So, we would like to present this to the city uh, as a the recognition of 55 years of your city charter. Excellent. Thank you. Come on down there.

I've taken a picture or two with Mr. Parker. I guess one I got some Ken looks very. Always a pleasure. Always good to see you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. If the council doesn't mind, I'm going to go home and have have dinner. He's had to stay for many many of many a Tuesday. Yeah, we can excuse him. So, thank you, sir. All right. Item 11, water conservation month. We have some here for that. How are you? Come on down. Give me just a one moment. I'm going to read this proclamation if you've got some comments. Fabulous. Thank you.

We'd love to hear from you.

Whereas water is a basic and essential need of every living creature. And whereas the state of Florida water management districts in the city of Port Orange are working together to increase awareness about the importance of water conservation. And whereas the city of Port Orange and the state of Florida has designated April as Florida's water conservation month to educate citizens about how they can help save Florida's precious water resources. And whereas the city of Port Orange has has always encouraged and supported water conservation through various educational programs and special events. Whereas every business, industry, school, and citizen can make a difference when it comes to conserving water and thus promote a healthy economy and community. Whereas outdoor irrigation comprises a large portion of water use, the city of Port Orange will encourage citizens and businesses to focus on improving outdoor irrigation efficiency. Now, therefore, I, Scott Stonner, mayor of the city of Port Orange, do hereby proclaim the month of April as water conservation month.

Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. Tell us who you are. Um, my name is Gretchen Smith and I'm a water conservation coordinator for uh, St. John's River Water Management District. And tonight I brought a prop. This is like old school. That is

it's a rain gauge. So, um, I got grabbed this on the way out of my house tonight because I had an inch and a half of rain. I live in Flaggler County, not too far away, but an inch and a half of rain. So, an inch and a half means that you could shut off your sprinkler for probably over a week if you have outside irrigation. And outside irrigation is where we're wasting the most water. So, by shutting off your system for a week and one cycle, that's saving up to 9,000 gallons of water. That's like taking 8 and 1/2 an 8 and 1/2 hour shower. So that's the amount of money you or that's the amount of water you can save by just shutting off one cycle. And um you know it's pretty telling and it's a way to save money. It's a way to save our natural resources and you know we're lucky here um in this area that we're not under a water shortage. Um, you know, probably in a couple of weeks we may see, you know, people talking about flooding, but you can never count on mother nature, but water conservation is a community effort. There's something everyone in this room can do to save water. And if it's little things like shutting off the shutting off the faucet when you brush your teeth, shutting off the faucet when you're shaving for guys, there's lots of ways. And you know what? Kids get it. Kids understand what they need to do to conserve water. It's the parents who don't get it. So, I'm going to leave this here as a souvenir. And I probably should have gotten one, brought one for every everyone here, but this is really old school. Get a half an inch of water. You can shut off your irrigation for a week, get an inch, a little over a week, but there's things that we can do

that will all make a difference and will help save water as our natural resources for years to come. Thank you very much. Stand by one second. I'm going to come down and bring you this picture with you. signal. Thank you very much. Thank you. See you later.

Sure. Absolutely. All right, moving on to public participation. We've got a you here Adam Dory. I told you I told you, man. I'm trying to get you. I like it. That's I told you you've had a long day. You've been on kind of on tour all years, my friend.

I'm learning the hard way. Uh council, thank you for uh having me. Um my name is Adam Dovy. Um, I live at 270 West Country Circle Drive, which is over uh off of Tomoko Farms Road. Just want to voice my I'm learning the the rigomearroll of all this. Voice my opinion yet again of development and overdevelopment and specifically to keep it on the the forefront of everything. Um, headarters for Spruce Creek start behind my neighborhood. Uh, I've actually talked to a lot of people and realized that my next place after this as a Port Orange resident is to go to New Simra and go to their city council because their um, ignorance is a mean word, but irresponsibility of Venetian Bay and how they just dump it all in Spruce Creek shows up in my neighborhood at my new house, which I got my taxes. It's a big deal now. There's there's meat in the game. Um, but we still have a lot of stuff. Creek Crossing, all the developments and the the stuff that's going between the back of the flyin and quiet place. That's the watershed. That's what absorbs a lot of this stuff. I'm very concerned about everything from Smoke Farms Road all the way to Dan for the aquafer, but to be honest, I'm selfish about my backyard. I have retention pond in my backyard. I like it to stay where it is at the right levels. But if we keep changing the zoning, that's how a nice way that I'll put it. There's nothing against development. I'm in construction. I love it if it's done right. But to look the other way and to keep approving reszoning that allows for neighborhoods where you can pretty much hopscotch from rooftop to rooftop does nobody any good. It does nothing for the tax base except increase the burden which increases the firefighter responsibility which increases the cop with everything on top of itself. And then that old uh the uh the ugly uh devil in the room traffic. We haven't made anything better. We've ruined it for the people that have lived

here for decades. So that's my piece. Um I was at the county council this morning for five and a half hours. My wife gave me a very short time frame here. I'm actually been cut short, believe it or not. So, thank you for hearing from me. I'm going to see more of you guys in the future. I appreciate your time. Have a good day. Take care. Thank you, Adam. John Beldin.

And I completely apologize if I ever mispronounced names. No, you actually got it perfect. I used to get uh Mr. Belding my whole life, which I said, "No, I'm not him." So, uh,

good evening, council. John Beldin, born and raised, uh, 5825 Southport Drive. I'm one of the rare ones, I think, uh, born and raised in this area and proud of it. So, I'm I'm coming tonight uh, representing the Port Orange, South Dakota Chamber of Commerce. I'm on on their board. Just wanted to first off thank you guys for your support, your involvement. I really really appreciate what you guys bring and and seeing you guys at some of our events. So, just wanted to pop in real quick and let you know about some upcoming events that we're having. Love to have you out. The the first one out the gate people are dying to go to is the Port Iron Chamber after hours at Dignity Memorial. Uh you like what I did there with the dying to get Yeah. Okay. Quick, right? You like that? So since so this this Friday 8:00 a.m. and uh business after hours event, great great social event. So we'd love to have you out there. Um on April 16th at 4:00, Go Gut Cafe. If you haven't been there, I highly recommend that you check it out. The food is amazing. Check out the uh they got a pretzel that will rival Auntie Annie's all day long and it's got healthy ingredients in it which is wow. Okay, so check that out there on on Dunlton. An important one, there's a CPR class. I think they still have a few seats open. CPR class at the chamber, the Riverside Pavilion there from 4 to 6. Um it's $10 for members, $20 for non-members. That's coming up. I did not write down the date, so my apologies. But if you look that up, uh that is coming up within the next week or two. There's a job fair on April 22nd from 4:00 to 7:00. Maybe some people that are listening out there um at the rec center. It's a youth job fair. So, another great event for our community. Uh there's an after hours. I keep hearing about this one. Apparently, this is a great one. Um after hours at Daytona Toyota. I don't know what to do there, but a hell I'm I'm told it's a hell of a party, so we'll find out. That is April 23rd from 5:00 to 7:00. And the last one, a big one, uh, Tasteful Affair. I'm sure that you, many of you

have been to that before, our annual event, one of our big ones. It's from 5:00 to 8 on April 30th. Wide range of cuisines, plenty of local favorites, and some new ones that you may have been new to you guys. So, we'd love to have you out there. And, uh, once again, thank you for all that you guys do. Thanks, John. Good to see you. April 20th is that CPR class. I appreciate you, Adam Sari, I believe. Did I pronounce that last name correct? Yeah. Excellent. That's rare. Three for three. The first guy's name sounded a lot like mine.

All right. Uh yes. So again, thanks thanks for having me and giving me the moment to do this. Uh my name's Adam Sarwi. I'm a resident here lifetime pretty much in Port Orange and as an adult in ' 08 House in Willow Run. So uh the the short of it, this is a kind of a code enforcement thing. I had a code enforcement deal come up recently um uh regarding parking in my house. So the my house it's a single car garage, single car driveway and since 2008 I parked to just to the side of my driveway and it's in the grass. It's a whole grassy area but it's just it's not like making a mud hole or anything like that but it's just next to the driveway. And code enforcement recently came by and said you know there's city ordinance that says that you you can't park in the grass right there. you could have a driveway extension like mulch, gravel or whatever the case may be with landscape timbers um uh to set that apart or can and more immediately can park in the public rideway you know in the grassy area between the sidewalk and the road um and when asked about like well what's what's the reasoning for that it was you know it's a city ordinance which a city ordinance is an ordinance right those are the rules we play by I get that no issues but like the reasoning being was it was told to me it was more of like an aesthetic kind of thing and secondarily like a drainage sewage kind of issue. And um to me like honestly this the aesthetic thing just seems a little silly to me because if really what I'm what I hear is that if I I can park in the public rideway in the grassy area like I can kill the grass that I don't own that's closer to the road but I can't kill the grass in on my own property that I do own. And and so it just to me that just feels like a silly thing to have to deal with. And like I said I've been parking there for 18 years and it hasn't been an issue and suddenly it is. I'm not point pointing fingers. It's just to say this is a thing that if there's any kind of path moving forward to remedy that. That's just what I wanted to to look at and see. And even furthermore, I have my wife's car there and my son is 16. Just bought him a car. So, I have a third car to deal with and and where we're going

to put those put that car. And just more at the road just at from an aesthetic point. I mean, I don't want to kill the grass that's at the road. That's looks more, you know, of an eyesore than I think than it is next to my driveway. Okay. And I I sent an email and and pictures to to some of the council members today and just if you need to see that what it looks like, you know, a picture of the grass is without my truck there or with the truck there. It's I just personally don't think it it really is an an isore or anything like that. But so if there is any sort of path forward for some I don't know like a variance or grandfather type thing if if we could look into that. That's that's just my personal thing that I would would like to look into and just going forward just like I I said 18 years and now it's a problem and it hadn't been. So just I don't know if there was some sort of path just wanted to take take a an opportunity to see if there there was something like that. So thank you guys for listening. Appreciate it.

Appreciate it. Yeah. Clayton is it Clayton Crane? Crane. Welcome sir. Thank you. a lot to cover in three minutes, but so I'll just read my thoughts as my public speaking's gone downhill. Go ahead. That's all right. Go ahead.

Good evening. My name is Clayton Crane and I represent Lazy Acres USA, the highest bidder for your recent hunting lease. I'm here tonight because staff is preparing to recommend rejecting all the bids at your next meeting which I'm unable to attend. Respectfully, I believe that would be a mistake, one that still can be corrected. We've seen similar situations before where decisions were made without full transparency. And once public became involved, those decisions were reversed. I believe this one is one of those moments and hopefully doesn't need to go further. When the bid tabulation sheet was released, my bid was marked non-responsive. Yet, there was no supporting documents or explanation provided. I reached out multiple times asking for clarification and received no clear answer. I formally protested and attended a meeting with key city staff including attorneys, the city manager, uh department directors and purchasing agent. In that meeting, I again asked the simple question, why was I deemed non-responsive? And still no clear answer was given. The closest explanation referenced five issues with my bid packet, primarily related to my financial statement, but no specifics. I had dialogue with the purchaser all the way up till the day before the intent award, as well as my references being sent out the day before the weekend, which my references did respond. I took it upon myself to try to identify what the five could have been. One being the business tax receipt uh was obtained within 4 days after realizing it was required due to annexation change. I live in New Simra where my business was. I register another one uh was the E-Verified number. I registered E-Verify immediately upon learning it was expected even as a sole owner with no employees. Regarding the financial statement, while did not list a credit line, I provided proof of funds exceeding the required deposit and made it clear I would provide any additional documentation requested. These were minor correctable administrative issues. None of them impacted the integrity or value of my bid or affected anybody else's bid. Meanwhile, another bidder was not deemed

non-responsive and they had despite having a business they created for this bid was created two weeks before submission without any meaningful financial history. That raises serious questions about consistency and fairness and how responsive was determined if the financial statement was really the issue. Additionally, the bid process itself contained in inconsistencies. The ordinance and bid documents reference lowest bidder. While this situation clearly calls for the highest bidder and responsive and responsible bidder, which I am, let's not lose sight of the purpose here. This lease is intended to generate revenue, ensure responsible stewardship of the city and property, and is a wellfield. I'm standing here today offering $281,1 real revenue along with a structured ex experienced hunting club of 79 members will will actively maintain and respect this land. See, I got two seconds. So, first, I ask, can I continue the last two thoughts?

Yeah, you're quick. All right. First, that your staff on the record why I was deemed nonresponsive. And second, you reconsider rejecting all the bids instead and move forward with awarding the lease to the highest responsible bidder or give me a meeting to to explain myself further. It was allowed to cover in three minutes. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Was there any others? Amanda, that it okay.

So, on to council member comments. I'll go forth first to provide a little bit of insight and information on some of the stuff from uh some of our speakers. Um, regards to the hunt club, that you're right, that is going to be on the agenda item for the city council on the uh 21st of this month. And we have received, I'm sure all of us have a lot of emails and phone calls and that's what we have told them consistently is that will be the night for us to have those conversations and make any decisions. Also, uh, with regards to parking, um, having been involved with the city in different roles for many, many, many years, parking, we we try to do our best to be as consistent throughout the entire city and as consistent as we can with other cities around the state. Becomes very difficult and challenging um to create very unique situations and rules that maybe only apply in one neighborhood or one city or something like that. So, um I would I would encourage and I understand the the the challenges when you have multiple vehicles. I would encourage talk to our police department. They are very well verssed, especially our traffic officers on what all of the different legal parking options on and off of your property uh that can be utilized. And I will say in your particular neighborhood, there's actually quite a few of them. So, um some of the HOAs can be more strict um with that. and some areas do not allow parking on roads if the roads are private and things like that, but in in the Willow Run community, there should be quite a few. Um, also just a reminder that the youth job fair uh which is being hosted by the Port Orange uh South Carolina Chamber of Commerce as well as the city wreck, uh that is going to be Wednesday, April the 22nd um from 400 pm to 700 p.m. It's a great event. So, if you are a business looking to participate in that and you may have some job opportunities coming up for youth in the community, that's a great event. And likewise, if you are a

graduating, not even a graduating high school, but a high school student or even a young college student that's looking for part-time or even full-time employment. Um, I know several have been hired from in in local jobs right from just going to this job fair. Um, and one of the big ones that will be there, I'm just going to give it a shout out because I saw a news story yesterday that was a absolute tragedy down in Palm Beach County, um, on someone who who drowned out in the ocean u trying to save his family. And um but I bring that point up because one of the big hires for Valuchia County during the summer is the Valuchia County Beach Department and they will be at this event and they are looking and they have a lot of positions to fill in a really good opportunity, great pay, great environment to work at. They take care of all of the training and get the folks that want to do that where they need to be. So that'll be all for me. And how about it, Mr. Foley? What do you got? All right. Uh, got a couple of things. Oh, I'll turn my mic on. Uh, couple of things. Clayton, first off, thanks for taking the time to come down here since you won't be in attendance for the meeting. Um, I appreciate you doing that. I also will not be in attendance for next uh, council meeting on the 21st. So, I won't get to vote on this. Um, so I am just going to weigh in just a touch on it is that um, I've had a lot of questions since this first came up. I've received a lot of emails from a lot of people and um and I for me I I've yet to hear anything from staff that's really changed my mind that I I think this needs to go back out for bid again and I I would just consider that um if I was here that's probably the way I'd be trying to direct the conversation and to uh give everyone a chance to bring those bids uh and bring them into compliance. And that's just all I just want to touch on that because I won't be here. Um, I do want to tell you all about an event coming up that uh Easter Seals is

putting on. Um, they have an autism education and resources fair on April 11th. Um, there'll be free autism screenings. There'll be um staff there from behavior services, mental health, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech therapy. U, they'll have over 30 autism service providers and community partners that are going to be there. Um, lots of professionals. It's it's a great chance for parents and uh those alike to just, you know, connect with caregivers and um and there's tons of resources for the community. Um I've had the pleasure of of working with Easter Seals for several years uh on some of their events and my wife actually works for them now doing their scheduling and um you know, it's just a it's a great charity and they do a lot of really good work in the community. So, um, if anybody, if you know anyone who might be interested, it's April 11th. Um, it's going to be actually right here at City Center Circle. So, um, at 9:00 a.m. So, um, yeah, just want to make sure I talked about that. And then, um, one last thing is I've decided now is the right time, um, to let it be known publicly that I have decided not to seek reelection for my seat. Um, I've been serving now for one full term and and really about I had the better part of a previous term um after Marilyn uh left her seat. Um, I've thoroughly enjoyed serving. You know, when I first got on here, I was um I was actually just engaged to Rebecca and uh now I'm married. I have three wonderful kids at home and I also have a career that's taken more and more of my time. And um this although it is not a a full-time job, it requires a lot of full-time hours and it requires you to be available a lot and to um serve your community. And um I've had a great honor to do that. And I want to let it be

known that I'm going to make that opportunity available to others in the community who feel the same way that I do. That Port Orange is a wonderful place to live and to raise your kids and to just have a family. It's a great place to grow old. It's a great place to work. And um I want others to appreciate it, love it, and and try to make the best decisions for it going forward as I have done in my time here. And um obviously, there's a lot of meetings between now and December 1st. So, I don't want to get all sappy and act like I won't see y'all in, you know, four weeks, but nevertheless, I I do think it's only fair to let people know that um I have made that decision. So, and I will uh look forward to the next several months with you guys.

It took four years for us to get you to where you knew what was going on.

Well, I and we'll talk about it in December, but I think you know how much we appreciate the time and the dedication that you've put in on being on council and in the community. And like you said, we won't get all sappy tonight, but we appreciate you putting that information out there. And I would encourage folks who have an interest in serving the community in an incredibly unique way um to to give that some consideration and start coming to meetings and come to a lot of meetings and and get to to learn the process and and what's involved in municipal government because we as we have all found out, it's not as easy as it as it may seem. And sometimes good ideas are not ideas that can that can happen because of other uh of legislation and and other constraints that are among us. So um but but it's a good thing. It's a good way to serve the community. So Tracy, what you got?

Uh so starting out with uh Mr. Sorry. Uh, we talked on the phone and I appreciate coming in and and talking about the code enforcements and things of that nature that you're I don't want to say battling because it's not a battle. it it is unfortunately what it is and we talked about that and people I got to understand there's a lot of codes a lot of rules a lot of regulations and sometimes as they're driving around you may have had something going on at your household and I had the same thing a while back and uh code writes you up even write counsel up so I I went through something as easy as uh back side of my fence that's actually on my neighbor's side and uh me and the neighbor back to together to clean that fence up to make sure that it is beautified in the city. So, there are some beautififications that we we look at. Um, I think that uh something we need to look at as far as the code though is not saying go in and put timbers and rocking the whole area. Uh, but maybe putting pavers for where the tire trails are and leaving the grass in place so there's still grass and tire trail so it's hard paved in that section only. Um, I don't know if that is allowed or not allowed. So, I'm something that we need to find out. Um, come back and revisit if that's a possibility. Um, and then secondly, uh, Art House, uh, Art House finally got the cultural grant, uh, released by the county. Uh, some of the beautififications of that and, uh, what Cameron asked me to real quickly to y'all is this is a meaningful development for our house. In addition uh to earning revenues from uh mural projects, the two projects combined will start the second phase of the down under mural. So she's in collaboration right now with participating artists for the

second phase of the down uh under under the bridge area and they'll have new renderings coming back to us here shortly. Um they don't do the painting in the summertime just because of the heat. it doesn't cure and adhere properly as as it should. So, this is a good planning and fundraising phase for the down under. And then in the fall winter is when they go in there and stencil. And then this next phase because of the the height of it, uh scaffolding is involved to be able to paint under there. So, lots of things for the art house projects coming towards the city for us. And then lastly, um I got to do a ride along for Council of Aging. uh right before Easter. I would tell you that is one of the most under um how would you put it underspoken agency that doesn't get the credit due for what they do. Um council aging uh COA uh when I got done it it they should rename it. It should be caring for aging is what it should be. It's it's just heartbreaking. Uh going out riding with them and seeing the the care that they give to the elderly. Um I would tell everybody to go out on the website, look at what they do and the benefits they give, especially if you have loved ones that live in an area that you can't get to. It's the possibility of a person being checked on that they only get to see one time a day to guarantee that everything is good with that loved one. So, uh, huge benefits for that, uh, that organization. I I'll just comment on that organization real quick, JC, that our victim advocates office at the police department works with them quite a bit. And and also as you I would encourage you guys as you come across folks who

are talking about things that'll come up with with aging parents or grandparents and maybe they live in a different part of the state of Florida. One of the things that I have found is most municipalities and most counties have those programs as well or similar programs. I was just involved in something not too long ago with somebody down in Martin County who had a similar thing and I'm like you got to look and see do they have a council on aging program or something, you know, similar type thing. But those programs are out there. You're right, they don't they don't really get spoken about a lot. But and then the other thing is is most local police departments that are really into the community oriented policing, they will have these victim advocate programs. There's probably other names for them and stuff like that, but they know they really know those resources tremendously. um that will help folks. So always always keep that in mind as well. Sean,

so uh with the Council of Aging, our parks department assists them at our adult community center and we get an opportunity to to work with them and they got their annual fundraiser dancing through the decades coming up in September. That's a great way to help uh fund uh what they do. So think about uh supporting that. I want to say a special thank you to our staff and finally finishing and and I know it's been done for a little while, but I had the opportunity to go down Jackson Street and Oak Street and that hole is finally done. I can't remember.

It's beautiful when there wasn't something there being dug up. So, thank you for that. The sidewalk's great. Looks real safe and uh I'm sure everybody down there appreciates it. And uh I'm looking forward to the next meeting with our discussion in reference to our lease agreement and the expiration of the current one and what we plan on doing with that. There's such a great opportunity out there. I got to spend the day out there yesterday. Drove through the camp, went out to our lake and uh what a great asset we have. Thank God we have that there and and and making sure that we as a council make the right decisions to protect that and and and allow access to it because it's a huge resource that I think we could take advantage of where we can get people out in nature and uh it's uh I'm really looking forward to our dialogue next week with the stakeholders that have uh been helping us with revenue and keeping the resources of the you the land management really animal management. We were out there turkeys walking by a bobcat within 10 minutes of being on that road. It's amazing what's out there. So, I'm really looking forward to us uh having that discussion next week. That's all I got.

Speaking of council members, Tracy was running the van. Go right ahead. Um I got a couple things. So, uh, and Wayne, um, consent agenda item six was, um, a couple of little miscellaneous change orders regarding the, u little path to the sea.

Is there going to be any more of those that we know of, or does this get us to the end of that path? There's another one on the next agenda because this was the there's a construction change order and then there's the oversight that so we have to get both companies that are working on it change orders because of the extension of the time and the review and changes that are part of that. Uh I'd like to say that is absolutely it it does fall within the contingency funding that we had in there exceeds my authority to spend it. That's why it's coming. Well, I know but again the cons the contingency is city money. the rest of it.

We believe we're going to get that all back. It's within the funding that the state has for it. So, we've already requested to have that paid as well because it's part of the reason for the changes because it being such a complicated federal project that when you finish a design in 2014 and you start constructing it and or 24, you start constructing in 26, you know, things have changed and that's where the issues came in is it's two years after the design. And so I think this the the state and the funding sources understand that that's part of

I just think that these little things were kind of nitpicky in the overall drawing and design and location of this entire path. But again I just want to you know just because we have contingency I don't want to use it doesn't mean we have to spend it. That's why I was asking but all right um so the next thing I want to know and again this goes back to uh Mr. Sorry is issue again. I went by your house. Um and first thing I would tell you is this. We have a new code enforcement officer, a new director, is that what I would call him? And and basically he is uh you know rebuffing the staff if you will. And um again, everybody's a little different and they look at things a little different. Codes are all about intent and interpretation. And so I think and and when I I like I said, I rode by your place. You had a nice home. Um, and I think things like this in the code was that you weren't parking your car in your front yard. You know, I get side the driveway kind of thing, but interpretationwise it was because people, we don't want people just parking their cars in the front yard. And the main goal of our entire code enforcement department, you know, obviously to keep your city looking nice, but also keep property values up so that your investment into this city remains an investment and doesn't sink because of somebody not doing what they need to do. But, uh, I I think there are going to be options for you. And again, I like I said, I think there's but currently it's closed as of right now as a as a code enforcement issue, right? So, but anyway, just on that note, um, I think that was the intent was so we're not parking in the front yard. You know, I get it. So, u, and then I just want to go on the record. I still think that we have a need for a non-emergency line.

That's all I got. You mentioned that. I can actually I was going to touch on that if I can just because you said it. Go right ahead.

Um I spoke with one of our county council members about that very conversation this week. Um and and I I just told him I saw what what you've been speaking about here um at our council meetings during council comments. Um I would probably say if you want to try to spearhead something like that uh you probably could find one or two of them with an appetite to have the conversation. Um, but it's definitely because that's currently managed by the county and it's not something I don't think that we really can get all excited about here until we have some um till we have some people at the county level who are willing to talk about that because that's their staff and that's their operations and that's my issue.

Okay. Well, I again I just want to let you know I because I do agree with you that we need better performance out of our non-emergency line. Um, I've had to use it a couple of times and and just my family's had to use it and the stories aren't exactly what you want to hear from a response time, you know, but you also don't want n you don't want to call 911 for something that's not truly an emergency. So, it's a it's a rock in a hard place, but um I did I did take that conversation up with one of our council members and things and so there may be some appetite. Thanks. All good. Yeah, Mr. City Attorney, nothing for you tonight. Mr. City Manager,

we got updates that we have on the agenda. I'm going to go over some notes. So, it's starting in the order. We've got them on there. So, Riverwalk, we have had, we talked about a little bit last time, there's a number of people who have called and expressed some interest in it now that it's back out there on the market. One of the companies that we talked about before out of Tampa has expressed enough to have even put together some conceptual ideas and talked to us about scale and scope. and they want to come by here, meet with us in person, and go see the site in person in a couple weeks. So, we're like likely to see that coming up soon. Uh, one of the things that we we think needs to happen, we're likely going to bring a code amendment through planning commission that would get to you guys in June. So, the way the zoning down there was structured, it's this planned community mixeduse riverwalk type zoning. Uh but it it's structured as a base zoning kind of like when you do the PCDs and PUDs where you do the negotiated master development agreements and so you have a sort of a core zoning and then you lay a master development agreement on the top. So when we went through with Bristol, Bristol came in, got selected, started the contract, and they had to come in and negotiate what was going to be allowed. And one of the challenges we run into is that they don't know at the time they negotiate the contract what exactly they're going to get. Uh, so what staff and I have been talking about is we can probably put some of the things that we had in the Bristol negotiated master development agreement, go ahead and put them in code by right. So it's council knows what it is. It's controlled. The applicants know, the council knows. So things like the parking dimensions, the height of the buildings. Uh there's there's most of the codes are built for suburban areas where you've got the Chili's next to a bank and and so you've got side setbacks and you've got cross access and parking aisles and that's really not how those mixeduse projects work. So the the setbacks and the landscaping buffers and those things don't work. So we're going to we're proposing to bring those things forward as Tim gets more meat put on them and brings them forward. I'll probably talk to you guys just to make sure there's

nothing in there that's an absolute. We may end up bringing like eight things to change and like the 10- foot wide parking space, you may pull one out and go, "We can't tolerate that." But but in in a in structured parking, you're going to have to go with nine. You don't build parking garages with 10 foot wide parking space. It's too expensive. So So we're going to we're going to that will be one of them is the more narrow parking spaces in a structured parking lot. Uh but those are the things like it'll just be here's a series of them. If for some reason there's something on the list, you don't have to deny the whole thing. and you can just say we're good with one through eight, but number nine we can't tolerate. We'll let them negotiate that when they come in. But we've heard from the brokers and the others that they think that puts us in a much better negotiated system where they know what they're going to get and you know what you're going to get. So that would that would probably come to you in June. Depending on what the the appetite, if these people are just rolling in to talk quick or not, we may want one or two of you to to to visit with them as well while they're here if that's if that's okay with you. Well, should we be in the fishing boat fishing off of there while we're doing this? Or

the Chamber of Commerce is going to have the dolphins out there, too. They've been really good every time we've had people. They They've been outstanding at creating a great environment for You still have my napkin? I do. It's actually We have scanned the napkin and we have a digital version of it. Wait, before you go on to the on going to the next um your next Oh, I'm sorry. First of all, did you have anything else under the block other that there's there are still positive conversations that the Dunkin Donuts people are interested in relocating from their corner spot and so that also is having some positive conversations potentially to the Dave's pest control site as part of something that looks like catfish comments. So that's moving along as well in the background.

Okay. I I would like to ask you to see touch base with the state. So, growing up here, and Lance can attest to this, uh, you know, there used to be legal parking on Ridgewood itself and and somewhere that went away. And I've noticed that as we travel around the state, it's coming back. And I'm not sure, you know, what what is FDOT looking for to be able to do that and have that. But you know I would like to at least look to see like what is their appetite and then you know council obviously have a better discussion from maybe like from I don't know like meer place to the north city limits designating that section of US1 and I don't know if they at some point they they like you can do it but you got to have this a slower speed zone or or what have you but you know at some point that's going to be uh the downtown area and you it's very rare that you travel around the state of Florida in those particular areas and not see parking on the street.

I think what they did they widen the median.

Yeah. Some are angle parking, some are whatever. So just a, you know, a 30,000 foot conversation with the right folks with DOT to find out like how does that happen? You know, what do you guys look for or whatever? You may even know. Way back when we were doing the Rididgewood corridor plan, one of the conversations was that's one of those planner things where planners love to like do road diets and shrink the roads in and and so you you can you can do that. One of the conversations was so they've got NOVA as a as a wider road and and then so they don't US1's not the only uh road possible. So that was one of the conversations we had is if we supported improvements to NOVA, would they let us do something off US1 like that to make it more of an urban feel? it didn't didn't there's going to be like it's a hard conversation because you got to go way up the ladders of DOT bureaucracy to get there but there are people that understand it and there are people who have done that so it's not impossible to do and so it's probably a conversation we'd start having with them one of the things that we've seen happen on Ridgewood is the traffic counts have actually gone down so from south of Dunlot one of the reasons nobody we we really have struggled to get businesses despite a lot of the incentives that we have in play uh the flexibility for redevelopment of existing structures. The traffic counts are lower. There's no there's only one traffic signal down there. You can drive 55 miles an hour past a bunch of tiny lots. Uh and so the traffic counts as they're lower and people businesses don't want to be there because they can't survive off of that market. So that helps with the argument of well then you don't need to have four lanes at a 50 mph speed, right? So you you might be able to do that. So I think there's there's a lot of things in our favor for having that conversation going forward if that's what council wants us to do.

Yeah. What else? The next one is the storm water project and and thankfully somebody's already touched on Jackson and Oak. So that project is is close to done. There's a couple striping that we have to do. It's a punch list, but for most part it's a completed project which is a big positive. I think same thing the safety factor of having that sidewalk in there is tremendous for that community. The Cambridge pump station. So that's one of the biggest of the storm water project. So the bids are now out. We had a mandatory pre-bid meeting yesterday and approximately 30 people showed up to it. Uh it is a critical project for us going forward. So the bids are due back May 1st. So you should be awarding that I think first meeting in June.

Uh and we start construction this summer. So that will be under construction. That's very critical. We've had some conversations about what that means because I think there's a lot of companies that are aware there are other storm water projects coming. So that people want to be here in in Port Orange to do business and help us with our drainage problems. Which then takes me to the next project which is the one in Sugar Forest. So that project is is near approaching the 60% design stage and at one point I was better at all the engineering technicalities, but you're basically moving from two-dimensional drawings to starting to get into the the more depths of it. At the same time we get to the 60% plans, that's when we can start applying to the various state agencies for the permits for it. So that'll help us start tightening up what that design is. So as that project moves forward, we're moving from lighter scale drawings to more complicated drawings and and able to use those for permits going forward. So that project is complete design end of the year.

Okay. Where are we with funding of that project though? What percentage of funding are we on that?

So the chart in front of we had we got the three million that we put in there. There's about a $3 million gap I think between all the money we already have and what it takes. So, well, you you'll get to this when you get to the audit, but one of the things in the audit is the uh the the funds that we talked about in in the fund balance. There's that that $10 million part of that would have been what covers this gap. And I and too it's important to remember too that in this particular project area, correct me if I'm wrong, we had some some pleasantly unexpected opportunities to purchase some properties which have changed the scope of the project which reduced we think reduced some of the costs and make s makes some of the design a little bit more effective. That's part of phase two, the other side. And then part of this one too, the the houses that we've acquired have helped because the the south side of the project that's down near Nixon, bro, that area, right? There's water that comes from that canal in the backyards that actually runs north across Meline towards the pond. And it had to weave through some areas. And so there's a couple of houses in there that are going to really help us design what collects the water and gets it over to the lake, the the big lake off Meline where the pump will be that'll then send it back. So th those definitely helped make that. One of the houses we just got had a sideyard pipe that we're going to it was a old corrugated metal pipe and we're going to be able to replace that. So th they're all helping us get this this project designed and we can start construction on it next year. Uh, but it sounds like we got a lot of volunteers who are ready to to help us out when we get going.

Plenty of shovels, but it's it's moving along. All the neighbors will bring out the shovel. I did see also where um you it just reminded me try to find the date. I I saw on the news where the city of Daytona does have a joint meeting upcoming with the county and the Army Corps of Engineers. Correct. Um, if there's an opportunity, I'd love for somebody from staff to attend that. I might even try to attend it myself if I can fit that in. But I just as we know whatever's happening to the north of us has relevance to what what's going to happen in I just want to make sure we're keeping ears to the ground. They couldn't the core guy definitely didn't want to get ahead of the council up there that's that's their partner. So he wouldn't say exactly what they were coming to talk about. But

it does sound like there the the last update we had. They're still consistent with that that some of the ideas that they have ruled out, but they're still looking at taking the outfalls off the canal. So, Reed Canal and and our outfall at the end of the canal and putting in some kind of holding area nearby with with various devices to to pump water from the holding area out against the tide. So, it's it's possible that we end up with some kind of benefit that when this happens, we may be part of the federal assistance in there. So, like you said, having our presence there and if that ends up where they're going, we'll definitely need to, in addition to talking to all of our state legislators, start talking to our people in Washington to make sure Port Orange gets to be a part of that. Okay.

About the C, the next one, Portona, u the Portona improvements. So, the county has, this is one of the transform 386 projects, so they take control over it, but they have begun uh the designs finalizing the design scope right now. They expect to start designing it this summer and they're out now starting to talk to people about acquiring the property in the area. So there's movement on the portono project as well and that one we may have some money coming out of the state depending on when they come up with the budget. Yeah.

Worried about the power the powers area too. They're they're also doing they're sort of in the same stage with powers as we are witha. Uh that's the one over there by the the power the FPL area and that one's also expected to start design in the summer and they're talking to the property owners there. So that one helps in in the area of Dunlot and it tends to flood over in that area. And then Tim had some updates on the the FEMA grant project. So from Ian the HMGP which there's a bunch of the alphabet stuff they have but there were 13 homes that were on that list for elevation and we've been given the notice that they have awarded those or the awards are coming the anticipation for those 13 elevations that they would be done in 2027. So everything helps even one house at a time so all of those become things that don't flood. So there's progress being made in a lot of the storm water areas going forward. Any other questions on storm water before I go to parks? from be. Yes.

Yeah. It's kind of how that works. Two two to three years just to even get started in four before you do real work. Y

So the parks bond the the city center sports complex, the one back behind us, the the fields back there is uh bid release April 17. We expect to bring that project to you for a June award. So you'd see that approved there for construction. Same thing with the Willow Run Park. So, both of those are kind of on the same schedule. Willow Run and and City Center have been designed and getting ready to start construction once we award the bids this summer. Uh, White Place is the architect's currently working on design and permits, but we're going to put that in an echo cycle, too, so we can get some echo money to work off of that. Um, depot park. One of the challenges we have there, FEC owns, a lot of people may not be aware of, but they actually the land the FC owns gets pretty close to where the building is right now. You really can't even drive a car on the what is the west side of the train depot because that's in they're not nobody's out there arresting you. But but it's that's really FEC land. And so to make full use of it, we need a lease from them. We haven't had any indication that it's going to be a no or a problem, but it's it's it's more like dealing with a lot of agencies like that. It just takes time to get them to sign off and say it's okay. But that one's moving forward as well. Uh next agenda, the 21st, the architect award is on that agenda for WCK West. So the the version of the wreck out there by the middle school would be here for that design in the next meeting. Uh the trail stuff Tim's got through the TPO. There's a bunch of stuff being talked about at the TPO level as far as feasibility of which ones are feasible. We have property owners that so far have been willing to have those conversations. So the feasibility at least in the early stages is looking good on those. The the Karasi Park project the the expansion on the north side. So originally the the plan was the the the schools and us and the the Karasi family all had interest up in that area and the school system was they own land right now pretty close

to the park. They don't really want that spot for a school. They were looking to move it a little farther north because of the all that growth that's going on in the Daytona area. From what I understand from the most recent calls, it school may not really be interested in building another school out there due to declining enrollments. You're hearing this all across the state where they're closing schools and and that nature because of declining enrollment. So, it may be that we end up having to acquire our land partially from the school system and partially from the private land owner in order to make this work. So part of why that hasn't moved as fast as as you might be thinking it would be is I got to we got to figure out who to buy it from. Bring you here's the land we want to buy and this is what we should pay for it. Uh so we've had two or three different meetings. It is moving. It's just it's not moving rapidly. It's it's moving at a kind of a slower pace. So that's what I have on the park spot.

And I did find the date for that US uh that Army Corps of Engineers meeting is May 6th. It's a Wednesday, but they don't have a time set yet. So just keep an eye on that one. All right. Thanks. Appreciate it. On that comment, Wayne. So on that um if if the school's not going to go there, man, that's that's something that we need to keep our eye on and we need to do what we can do to to try and acquire all of that land if it's possible.

We have done extremely well working with the school. We've already done one land swap that got us the fields back behind us. Uh we have our former Mimi who used to work here is now the admin out there for their I think it's our operations manager who she works for now. So we we've done really well with them the preliminary conversation. So they're more than willing to have that conversation with us. It doesn't seem like it's going to be a there's no adversarial just a matter of working out of what's because that's right there where we need to be. I mean

and I think they that helps all of us. They're they're part of our community. Their schools make us a great community. So we work together real well with them. I think that'll end up being that may even be quicker than the other part because the other one's tied to the development and they're going to want something for related to the development project. Good deal. Thank you. All right. Item 15. We need to appoint a new Lucifia or TPO uh board member. What's the uh Reed? What's the um what are the meeting days on this again?

So, they typically meet on the fourth Wednesday of the month. Um, I served on their executive committee as well, which was the first Wednesday. Um, but that most likely, and I don't want to speak for the chairman, but I I have a feeling that whoever it is that comes on board will not be appointed to that as well. Um, so it would just be the one meeting a month. It's held up at LPGA. They are right across uh from the Bies or Caddy Corner to the Bies. And uh they meet 9:00 a.m. Wednesdays, usually the fourth uh Wednesday of the month. You can do that. And how long does the meeting last?

It varies. Um lately they've all been under an hour. Sometimes they'll they'll they'll be something a little more um you know heavy lifting and it'll go an hour and a half or so, but they're relatively quick. You also are available to attend virtually as long as there's a physical quorum. So you're able to log in on Zoom. Um so that also is another thing. Anybody available that wants to say Tracy has been serving as my alternate currently. Just so you know. Work better for you? Yeah. Okay. With that, somebody want to make a a a motion? I would say that we make a motion that Tracy takes over and at Lance becomes a backup. I like that.

I'll second that. Have a motion in a second. Any public discussion? Who wants to talk us out of Tracy Grubs having more responsibility to service community? Seeing none, back to council. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Like sign. 5. Congratulations. Thanks. I did serve on that one. And I will tell you, highly informative. Highly highly informative. Um, wow. Hang out with Bobby. Yeah, it's a it's it's a great group of folks. Um, lot of information there and uh it, you know, more so ties ties in geographically speaking to everything on the east side of county. So, thank you.

Appreciate you willing to do that and Reed, thank you very much for serving on that board for a long time. No, it's my pleasure. I enjoyed every bit of it and it's it's a it's a very important board. It really is, Tracy. So, I have no doubt you'll do a great job.

Thank you guys. Moving on to item 16, second reading of ordinance number 2026-4. It's an ordinance of the city of Porsche County, Florida, amending the land development code, chapter 2 definitions and interpretations and chapter 16 miscellaneous regulations relating to outside storage, establishing standards for outdoor donation bins, and establishing standards for temporary storage containers at non-residential properties associated with construction and renovation projects, providing for repeal of conflicting ordinances, seability, and an effective date. Can I get a motion and a second to approve on second reading ordinance number 2026-4? Get a motion for ordinance number 2026-4. Second.

Have a motion and a second on second reading. Any comments from councel? Anybody in the public wish to speak about this one? Back to the council. Click call the role. Councilman Foley. Yes. Council Gford. Yes. Councilman Green. Yes. Vice Mayor Ross. Yes. Mayor St. Yes. 50. Item 17, a second reading of ordinance number 2026-5.

Sure. It's an ordinance of the city of Porsche County, Florida, amending the land development code, chapter 2, definitions and interpretations. Chapter 14, architectural design and chapter 15 signs related to design criteria updating the method for determining whether a color qualifies as an earth tone or pastel to align with current paint industry standards. relating to permanent sign types, specifically murals, clarifying that murals are excluded from paint regulations, except that reflective and fluorescent paints remain prohibited. Provide for repeal of conflicting ordability and an effective date. Thank you. Uh I need a motion and a second for the second reading of ordinance number 2026-5. Motion for ordinance number 2026-5. Second.

Have a motion and a second to approve ordinance number 2026-5 on second reading. Any comments on the council? I would like to comment just because Zach's here and he's got a presentation to make. I'd like to go through all of these colors. All of the colors if it's at all possible. I think we got the color wheelchart. Yeah. So, so we might need to take a break. And no, no comments on council. Anybody in the public wish to speak to ordinance number 2026-5 on second reading? Seeing no one wishing to come talk about colors. Back to council. clerk. Call the role. Councilman Foley, yes. Councilman Gilford, yes. Councilman Green, yes. Vice Mayor Kubs, yes. Mayor,

yes. Ordinance passes 50. Moving on. Regular agenda item. Item 18. Did you guys want to take a break? I'm just kidding. Go look at that color deck again. Yeah. Item 18, fiscal year 2025, audit discussion with James Moore and Company. Welcome, sir.

Good evening. Zack Shallor, partner James Moore in company. I thought when I when Matt started going through the colors, I thought you were just having him, you know, rattle off all the Easter pastel colors. And all right, so we have the uh annual audit for the fiscal year ended September 30th, 2025. I did have the chance to take the deep dive with everybody individually, so I'll keep it uh pretty high level here this evening, hit the highlights. Uh but overall a very smooth process. A big thanks uh you know first to the council as always for the opportunity to work uh with the city. This is always a special one for me of you know about 45 municipalities that we audit. Port Orange is also home for me. So always a special one uh from that perspective and a big thanks as well to staff uh Sue and Linda and the rest of the finance team. A lot of hard work uh that goes into this process. uh six months since the end of the fiscal year, but that's really in the world of governmental financial statements and accounting, that is a pretty good turnaround time. Uh as I mentioned to you all, um pretty much the earliest this audit could ever conceivably be presented based on all the information that gets rolled into it would maybe be the second meeting in March. Uh that would be uh a very quick turnaround from the when the last few things come in. So this is pretty much uh about as good as you can do from the timeliness which I always say is a very just you know totally objective great measurement of your finance team. As in prior years the city does prepare what's called an annual comprehensive financial report. Uh what this has is a series of additional items beyond the minimum requirements to meet state statutes related to the audit and financial reporting requirement. Uh there's an introductory section that helps just kind of paint an overview of the city as a whole as well as the statistical section in the back which is 10 years uh of all sorts of great

financial and non-financial data. Every year this document is submitted to the GFOA, the Government Finance Officers Association for this award to basically have an independent uh verification of the the content of the document, the presentation to say did it meet those national standards. We would expect the current year financial statements to receive that award. Once again, uh the audit reports that we issue, these are management's financial statements. There's five reports that we issue summarizing the results of the audit. Uh the first is the audit opinion on the financial statements, which is the primary objective of this engagement to say, are these numbers reliable? Uh we did issue an unmodified opinion, effectively a clean opinion. That's the best that we can issue here saying that these numbers are what we consider to be fairly presented in all material respects. Uh the city was over the threshold for a federal and a state single audit this year. What that means is there's really a mini compliance focused audit over your major grant programs. Uh we had no items that rose to the attention or any compliance issues. So that was a clean report as well. Uh we issue a report on internal control and compliance. And while we don't audit internal controls, they're separate engagements that focus uh to get an opinion on internal controls. We do consider related to key financial processes. Perform a lot of testing as part of our testing of the financial statement balances. So a lot of focus there uh always on uh payroll, accounts payable, utility billing. took an extra look at purchasing card activity as well this year and we had no internal control uh findings in this report as well as any compliance matters related to debt covenants or otherwise that could potentially impact your financial statements. Uh the last two items are kind of the catchall of any other requirements set forth by the state of Florida and the auditor general. Uh most of those are just you know any potential

red flag triggers related to financial condition or other areas that the state would want to be notified about. Uh there were no modifications to those reports as we'll get into the city's in a very strong financial position. And then lastly uh we do as in prior years issue separate reports on each of the CRAAS uh a unmodified opinion on those as well. And those same numbers are also presented in the city's financial statements. Uh so every year I take a quick historical look at your total fund balance in the general fund. Uh as you can see here, you know, pretty steady kind of a just a very slight inflationary type increase in your total fund balance or assets minus liabilities. Uh the most notable change of those buckets is the assigned fund balance related to uh capital projects brought forth uh before the council in the fall. And what I always like to do is take those bottom two buckets, your assigned and unassigned, and compare that to what you spent in the current fiscal year. So about 27 million relative to 66 uh million in current year expenditures. As a percentage, you're at about 42% a slight decrease from the prior year. Uh this is one of the just general best practices or benchmarks out there from the government finance officers association who issues that certificate uh on the first slide and they recommend a bare minimum in this measurement of two months and then they give you a whole list of here's reasons to be higher. One of the big ones uh always being hurricanes, natural disasters to say you know that two months is hey you've got nothing to worry about, no contingencies, nothing bad. you you're basically, you know, in a bubble, let's say. Um, so you're about five months relative to that two months. So, a healthy level uh in a strong position above that minimum. Uh more notably, uh your internal policy, looking at your unassigned fund balance back in the fall, you all set a target range of 23

to 28% uh for that reserve, and you were right in line there at about 27% uh relative to to your policy, your proprietary funds. Uh here what we like to look at is just kind of the trend year-over-year. Say, hey, you know, are rates appropriate or otherwise? uh water and sewer and storm water here both had decreases really just due to the investment of the funds that you have into capital projects. So it's not like those funds were just you know losing money operationally it related to making those capital investments. Uh so I always like to say here what's under the ground uh is half the story versus just what the numbers look like. But this kind of shows, you know, what you have in available uh working capital and those funds for those projects aside from anything that of course there's any grant or other funding to help fund some of those projects. And then lastly, every year I always touch on your pension liabilities. Uh this year in total across the three plans, it's about a $24 million net pension liability. I like to acknowledge it because while that number shows up in your financial statements, it is really forformational purposes only. Uh the funding of those plans is done every year based on the actuarial valuations that continues uh to be done in terms of those valuations to help set those contribution requirements. Uh on the right side there, we do show the funded percentages at the point in time. So these are for financial statement purposes to say on this date these are where those plans were. Uh as you can see a steady trend the last four years in a positive direction. So all of the funded percentages when it comes to the actuarial funding of the plans are about 5 to 10% lower on average compared to at that point in time because while things have moved upwards, if you had those plans all valued as of today, there probably would be uh a decrease just

based on where the market has gone the last six or so months. So again, it's always about the long game with those plans, but that's just a quick snapshot at those dates where everything would have stood without that smoothing effect that is used from a funding standpoint and really the the overall kind of health and monitoring of those plans. Uh so those are the highlights. Uh but as always, more than glad to dive into any details, answer questions, and thanks as always for the chance to be here.

Well, Zack, thank you very much. It's always a pleasure to have you. I'm going to have you bring up that last slide there for just one second if you're able to hit the back button. I mean to throw you off there. Um just for for conversation, we talked a little bit about this today. For those uh up here on the council in the last couple years, this is a slide that when I first got on council would really give you an uneasy feeling in terms of the liabilities. And so I, you know, I don't want to pass an opportunity to not only say thank you to our our our city staff, thank you to the councils that all served uh over the at least the last 10 12 years. um and also our police, our fire, and our general employees um who manage these funds because it has taken a lot to get these funds back to a what we would consider a healthy state because I can tell you there there were numbers in the in the low 50s and and mid50s not all that long ago and and it um it becomes incredibly stressful and very very expensive for the taxpayers to to maintain the the uh the health of those plants. And so that's a those are good numbers to see. Um there's always work to be done like Zach said and I'm going to talk about it in a few minutes on on another item on the agenda tonight. But uh it's a long game, but sometimes recovery could take even longer than if you if you're careless and you make those mistakes that can fall really quick. So I appreciate appreciate Zach covering that. Can you go back one more slide? I think let's see here.

Um one more.

Yeah. So, um, just a comment, we talked a little bit about this today as well with Zach. Um, you know, the GFOA gives out a minimum, and this has been, uh, something, by the way, thank you to all of you for for recognizing that that perhaps our internal policy here was a little bit higher than it really needed to be. And we've got a lot of capital projects that we could fund and get moving a lot quicker uh, by by changing that policy a little bit within reason. And and one of the things we touched on today is, you know, GFOA puts out a set of recommendations. Is actually correct me if I'm wrong, but the reality of it is is that every city that's trying to utilize those are set up differently, right? So you're going to have cities that are coastally oriented, they might be responsible for the bridge that goes over the river. And if that thing falls into the river and it cost $80 million, they got to figure that out, right? We don't have a lot of those incredibly high dollar high value assets, knock on wood, that a lot of municipalities have. happen. So, one of the things I've learned since being on council is unfortunately because we've had a lot of, you know, natural disasters and storms, like how does that what what does that money really get used for when we have these events, what what are we likely to see and experience and stuff like that? And Wayne even touched on it today in our meeting, you know, 12 years ago, 15 years ago, the the the the process of getting the funds back that FEMA reimbures us has shortened. Uh it's become better. Um it used to be pretty bad. Um which is good for us because now apparently we can have these storms back toback years, but we're going to go for 20 years without any what I remember is the plan. But but um so so as we always were looking at this policy well after all of us. Uh I think we are in great shape in in terms of where we are. We're still conservative. we understand what are the assets, what are the things that that expenditures might need to be considered when we have those those emergencies. So, I appreciate all the work that everybody does on that. Zach,

it's always a pleasure to see you. Let's see if these guys have anything for you.

No, I again I met with Zag and again everything uh on their end looks great and I appreciate that. Um, a couple of discussions we had was, you know, again, you know, having a new finance director. I think it's important to, uh, you know, to to give her the tools that that they need to to get the job done right. So these that so that these unbiased clean audits come back over and over and over. Uh, switching over to the new uh to the new software is is being is a benefit now and and again hopefully going to integrate uh everything a little bit easier. So when it comes down to this time that you know we're not months and months behind on these audits we're we're on top of them and uh and in our discussion Zach agree with that and uh once again thank you very much I appreciate it.

No Zach I don't have anything to say but I think your company ought to join the court South Daytona Chamber of Commerce. It's a great company and might need your assistance on their board. Thank you for all you do. The second year around's a lot easier. So thank you. You make it really well, easy to understand.

Zach, thank you again. Um, you and Sue today being able to go through the financials and then what we've talked about in internal controls. It's it's good to see um what is in place and what has been in place for the years and uh how it comes out. You know, having a an outside auditor is always a a good thing. I've been with other corporations that it's it's nightmares. So, it's uh nice to see that it's uh cleaned up. Um and and Wayne, thanks for allowing the Tyler system to come in. I know it's been painful, but now that uh everything's integrated in, it it shows how fast um things can be done with the system. Uh, I think that's one of the big things that you looked at when you first started talking was talking about how current and how strong we were getting this done. I think having a single system helps with that. Um, so thank you,

Reed.

Yeah, I don't think I have any questions. You know, obviously we met earlier today and went through what everyone else is talking about. It's always good when you have an unm modified opinion and and when there's not really a lot of notations and you know I I've seen um through other boards I've served on where there have been things that needed worked on. So you know um I think even here we've had in the past there were a couple of notes. So um especially with you know a couple people wearing multiple hats and and people wearing different hats, new new people in in different positions um to get it done in a timely manner is awesome. Um I I agree with Scott's remarks as well. You know, um you know, GFOA is was pointed out today that that uh recommendation has been considered bloated by some people at the federal level. So, um I think we've done a good job getting within that target and I I uh I feel good about the progress all the pensions have been making. I know that it's been a challenging year so far, which I'm sure Scott's about to touch on here in a minute. Um, but nevertheless, it's still it shows a lot of it's it's kind of a receipt or or I would say um it's the symptom of a lot of really good decisions along the way. And that goes uh to both staff that goes to the pension boards and everyone serving on them. It goes to the money managers and actuators inside of those. Um it's it's really um it's quite encouraging. So, thank you for uh doing this and taking the time. Absolutely.

Appreciate it, my friend. See you later. Thanks, Scott. Go home and see the family. All right, back to council now. Uh on to council committee reports. Let's start with uh Mr. Foley. That's Tracy now. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Tracy.

No. Um I I had what I told him uh this is going to be my last meeting um just because of my schedule and obviously Tracy's going to take over, but um they were going over the long range transportation plan. It's it's pretty much business as usual. Um, we were doing the the executive board was doing our uh evaluation of the of um my goodness, Colleen, I can't think of her title right now off the top of my head, but uh executive director there. She does a great job. Really has has writed a lot of wrong since she got into that position and um you know has really really worked well with FDOT and everyone else. Um, so I was heaping praises on her during the evaluation, but um, otherwise it was just business as usual and so, um, I'm sure they can't wait to have their new recruit.

I'm sure. No doubt. All right, that brings it to me with some comments about the general employee pension board. Um, as you guys heard, uh, part of what James Moore does for us is is audit those things. Um, the so reminder that the general employee pension board now meets quarterly. Um, as in terms of the money factor of it, um, the ending numbers for, uh, the end of 20 uh, 2025, the pitch was at 41.4 million, uh, up about 2.9% during the month of December. Um, couple of things that I I think is very interesting I just wanted to mention to you guys. So, uh, one of the things in the in the minutes and the in the information at the last meeting, uh, they show a annual realized rate of return over a five-year period of time. Like Zach talked about, you know, the pension plan, this that's a long thing. You can't can't get too excited when you're doing great. You can't panic too much when you have some rough times. But over the past five years, the uh annual realized rate of return has averaged 7.89% over the 5year period of time. Now, that included a high of one year at 21.5%. Which is great. Too bad they're not all like that. But it also included a low that was a negative 9.4.

So, you you you've averaged out over that five years, which is, you know, that's what we're hoping for. That's really what we want to see. Um, the other thing I wanted to mention uh to keep in mind anytime we're talking about the general employee pension board is of the three pension plans we have in the city, this is the only one that is a closed p plan. Um, so if you go back and you look 10 years ago, for example, I was looking at some of the numbers. Um, 10 10 years ago, you had 126 active persons in the plan and 85 persons retired. Today, we only have 48 active participants in the plan and 118 persons that are retired. So when you when you start looking at that, what you're going to see as the years are going to go by, there are fewer and fewer employees left still earning years of service in the plan and contributing in the plan and more and more people uh retiring out. And so and you start looking at some of those numbers and our finance director at some point, we won't put her on the on the uh on the hot seat tonight, but at some point can show you why some of those numbers in that plan are going to stay flat. And then there is going to come a time perhaps where you know the city as we get closer and closer to completely closing that plan out well past all of our times by the way um you know there may be some adjustments along that way the good news is is that that plan has performed really really well over the last many many years and it is one of the highest funded plans in the city of Port Orange so it is highly protected we have to be conservative with it I think you know our the so the actuaries number uh in terms of the funding status of the plan and Zach's numbers will always be a little bit different because I think they look at it two different ways. Zach touched on that a little bit, but it's right around the 92 92 and a half% funded currently, which is which is really good shape. One

of the things I asked Wayne if we could do, this is something I think we need to do periodically, is I've asked him to uh in one of the the upcoming meetings. It doesn't necessarily have to be the next one or maybe the one after that, but uh I'd like our finance director to just take a look at the um investment returns for the three plans uh comparatively over like maybe the last six, eight quarters. One of the things we want to keep an eye on as an elected body is make sure we don't have a plan that's underperforming. And I know we all come up here on a different night, right? So, and we talk about, hey, this is what the numbers were today and so forth and so on, but we don't always get a chance to look at those collectively. And so, from time to time, we need to do that because we have seen in the past where two of the plans significantly were outperforming another. And so when we see that, which we don't want to see, but if we do see that, we want to make sure that we're reaching out as a collective body to let that pension board know, hey, we see this, we're concerned about this, and we're encouraging you to address it. Either hire new investment managers or or whatever, change your policies and your investment strategies, whatever those things are, because you just can't, you know, just think, ah, the returns are whatever they are. Well, they're not always. You will see that certain plans do really, really well, and others, you know, may may not reaching this benchmark. So, we just want to keep an eye on it. So, I've asked Wayne to to bring that back with the director.

Okay, let's take a look at that. Other than that, that's all I've got for this evening on the general employee pension. Give the city manager a chance to weigh in. No, I just got one more thing. I got to correct something I said earlier. So, no, you had me supposed to correct you guys if you say something. I have to correct myself when I say something wrong. Okay.

So, the staff's here to help. So, when I get things wrong. So on the item with the change order, one thing I did not clearly state and that was that I can see where where the frustration would come from the the sidewalk section is in a city rightway and I think it was the biggest part of the change order cost. So by doing this as a staff could have just left that out of there and let it stay, but if by doing it as a change order, the state is now paying to pay to fix that sidewalk. So instead of the city of Port Orange paying for it ourselves, they put it in the change order so that the state would fund it for us. So otherwise we'd have had our crews out there eventually short while doing so that one that actually helps us out by putting the cost into the project and keeping the city from paying for it. So I did not clearly clearly state that early.

Do you want to tell us which one of the staff members pointed out you were wrong? No, I'm just kidding. Three of them. They're not going to do that. They got they got signals like like third base coaches over there. Yeah. Okay. Anything else come before us tonight, folks? I know. Right. All right. Good to see everybody. Y'all have a good night.