City Council - Regular Meeting

La, la, la, la, la, la. You didn't answer me. Tent, space, do you need it?

I don't know. Okay. Actually, you know what?

I'll give it to the commander.

It's hot. I brought my jacket and I won't be needing it, I can tell.

Do we have 9 o'clock?

Good morning, everybody. Thank you for being here this morning. It is Wednesday, June 3rd, 9 a.m. We are in the beautiful Burnt Store Presbyterian Church. Thank you so much for opening up this house for us to have our meeting this morning. We're going to do roll call.

Julian.

Janice and Melissa Lockhart.

OK, and invitation, Carlo, please. And then right after that, we're going to do the Pledge of Allegiance.

How appropriate it is to open a city council meeting as we're here in the house of God. We thank the city council for allowing us to open in prayer before each meeting. And I think that that's a freedom that we should never take for granted. Let us pray. Lord, we come before you today and we have a confidence that you hear our prayer. Lord, we know in your word in John 15, 13, it says greater love has no one in this than when lays down his life for his friends. Our military, our first responders, our health care providers do that each and every day and night to keep the public and their community and our country safe. There are all kinds of life's mishaps that they risk their lives on behalf of us, on foreign soil and on our own. Lord, we pray that you put a hedge of protection around our military, our first responders and healthcare workers and their families. Lord, on this third day of June, We pray that our troops, our first responders, and health care providers know and feel the love and respect and gratitude that we have for them as they go about keeping us safe. Lord, bless this city council and the decisions they make here today. Lord, bless every family that was represented here today. Thank you, thank you, thank you. In the name that is above all names, in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

And with this large group of people, I'd like to recognize all our veterans who have served. Please stand. Thank you all for our freedom and your sacrifices. Do we have any announcements? Chaney?

Yes. Wait. OK, Greg, go ahead.

I just had one announcement. I want to thank both Team Punta Gorda, Betsy Spagnuolo, and the chamber. to provide letters of support for the $1 million that made it into the budget for our water meters. And I asked them to send letters of support requesting that Governor DeSantis continue to support that. So I thank you both.

I just wanted to make a comment, hopefully, to put some of your minds at ease. Thank you, first of all, We really appreciate it. It's a lovely facility and I thank you. My comment is the farmer's market is an important asset to our community and I want you all to know that I have always been a supporter of the market. I am working towards its continued success while protecting the city from potential legal and liability issues. to look into all issues in this regard, to make sure to protect the city and help facilitate the success of the farmer's market. This is not about not loving the farmer's market. We just want everything to work well for everyone. So just hopefully that helps you to relax.

Any other announcements?

Okay.

Our next meeting is June 17th. It will be our regular council meeting, 9 a.m. at Lashley Community Room. Everybody approve the agenda?

Yes.

Okay. Next we're going to do proclamations. The first one is America's 250 Year Celebration Day. Commander Lloyd and Janine, Vice Mayor, will be presenting. Frank, yeah, please.

I hope this is on. Is it on? Okay, great. It's with great honor that I'm here this morning to present this to you gentlemen. Whereas 250 years ago, the stars and stripes first rose above a hopeful new nation signaling to the world the birth of the United States of America, and igniting a spirit of freedom that has endured through generations. And whereas on June 14th, we celebrate Flag Day, a time to reflect on the meaning of our flag, its stripes telling the story of our beginnings, its stars representing unity, and its presence serving as a beacon of hope across our great nation. And whereas in a vibrant tribute to this historic occasion, the DM McQueen American Legion Post 103 family, along with our dedicated local business community, will present a spectacular drone light show over the harbor at Lashley Park at 9 o'clock p.m. a breathtaking display of red, white, and blue illuminating our Florida sky in celebration of 250 years of American independence. And whereas the celebration is made possible through the generosity and spirit of our local veteran organizations and businesses, whose service, commitment, and love of country reflect the very foundation upon which our nation was built. And whereas it is the goal of this community to establish Flag Day weekend as an annual tradition that promotes tourism, supports our local businesses during the summer season, and provides a meaningful and enjoyable family event for residents and visitors alike. Now, therefore, the City Council of the City of Punta Gorda, Florida, does hereby proclaim the 14th of June, 2026, as America's 250-year Celebration Day and calls upon all residents and visitors to come together in celebration, reflection, and pride, honoring the past, embracing the present, and looking boldly toward the future as we commemorate 250 years of freedom under one flag. God bless America passed and duly adopted this third day of June, 2026.

Thank you.

It is, it is an, it's an honor to be here and this thank you all for this. Uh, when this first started, it was slow getting off the ground and then it is snowball effected. It is grown and grown and grown. We're really excited that we're bringing this to the city of Punta Gorda. You know, so many people to thank, the Caquistadors, the Masonic Lodge, the Rotary, everybody has got on board, DAV, everybody has came on board to bring this great event to the city of Punta Gorda. And me, as Commander of the American Legion, could not be more proud of the support the community has given us and on this event. Thank you.

While they're getting their picture taken, I just wanted to say something here. I am so proud of this small group of people who have taken on an incredibly difficult and expensive task without seeking accolades, recognition, or attention for themselves. They are simply working hard to create a drone show that benefits our small businesses, promotes tourism, provides family friendly fun, and honors our veterans. In a world where many seek credit, this group quietly steps up and gets the job done because they care about our community. I couldn't be more proud of them with their dedication and selflessness. And I do want to say that we are also doing a time capsule with the city of Punta Gorda. So the city, thank you. And Mr. Leskovich, thank you for all that you do as well. Thank you. Okay, next is the Isles Yacht Club 50th Anniversary Day. If you'll go up to the podium with Miss Dutton.

Larry Stewart and members of the Isles Yacht Club, thank you for being here. You're such an important feature of our town. Boating is such an important feature of our town. So we really appreciate being able to celebrate the 50th with you. Proclamation of the City of Punta Gorda. Whereas the Isles Yacht Club, located in the heart of Punta Gorda, will celebrate its 50th anniversary on June 4, 2026, marking five decades of fellowship, service, and waterfront tradition in a distinguished center of social activity And whereas the club serves as a vital economic engine for the community, employing more than 50 local residents and supporting numerous vendors with members who contribute daily to the prosperity and character of Punta Gorda and Charlotte County, And whereas, through the steadfast volunteer spirit, members of the Isles Yacht Club have long held leadership roles in charitable, civic, cultural, and veterans organizations, strengthening the fabric of our region through generosity and hospitality. And whereas, for 50 years, the Isles Yacht Club has reflected the best traditions of Punta Gorda neighborliness, resilience, and civic pride, demonstrating Demonstrating why are my eyes not working? A lasting commitment to making our community a preeminent place to live, work, and visit, and go boating. Therefore, the City Council of the City of Punta Gorda, Florida, does hereby proclaim the 4th of June, 2026, Isles Yacht Club 50th Anniversary Day and encourage all citizens to join in recognizing and celebrating the Isles Yacht Club for 50 years of service, fellowship, economic contribution, and community support and may the Isles Yacht Club continue to serve as a beacon of civic leadership and waterfront tradition for the generations to come, passed and duly adopted this third day of June 2026. City of Punta Gorda. Thank you so much. So now somebody's going to take a picture. There we are. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Does anybody want to say anything? Yeah.

My name's Frank Lash and I'm a Commodore of the Isles Yacht Club. Mayor Lux, members of council, on behalf of the Isles Yacht Club, thank you for this tremendous honor. For 50 years, the club has been a part of Punta Gorda's story. A place where friendships are formed, traditions are carried forward, and service to the community has always been at the heart of who we are. This proclamation recognizes not only our history, but the spirit of volunteerism and fellowship that defines our members. We are grateful for the partnership we share with the city and look forward to continuing that relationship for many years. As a small token of our appreciation, I'd like to present each of you with a thank you card signed by the board of directors and the general manager. Thank you.

That's nice.

There you go. Thank you.

Do you want me to pass them up?

Yep. OK.

Thank you.

Thanks. Yep. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. I do have to say they are also having a drone show on June 4th for them, so if you want to get a little tickler of what the drone show is going to look like, the Ohio Child Club is also going to have one, so thank you. Okay, next is public input. This is actually gonna be for a board or committee first. So those wishing to introduce themselves as nominees for a board or committee may do so at this time. Those who choose to speak must state their name for the record. And this is for a board or committee. Anyone? One more time, board or committee. Okay, we're gonna move forward. Next is regular public input. Anyone wishing to address the council on any matter, they must state their name for the record. Each person will be allowed to speak up to a maximum of three minutes.

Good morning. Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the City Council. My name is Samuel Turpening. I have placed before you seven master compliance packets regarding temporary use permit TU01-2025. The reasons not to continue the status quo are now before you in those packets. I come before you today not to close the market, but to protect it. I support the legitimate vendors and genuine small businesses on Taylor Street. I am not here to shut anything down. I am only here as a voice for our community to help end the ongoing issues and provide a stable legal path for this 18-year community asset. The nine-page legal memorandum analyzes this matter through a narrow land use zoning lens. Respectfully, that analysis is constitutionally incomplete because it does not fully address the federal civil rights and First Amendment protections that apply to additional sidewalk form. The memorandum itself highlights the gap that leaves the city exposed to significant liability. The seven compliance pacts now before you document sidewalk suppression, the unlawful release of protected personal information, perhaps in violation of Florida statutes, resulting doxing and other serious compliance concerns. These records constitute actual notice to the council. I respectfully offer a constructive solution that belongs to our community, not to me. The municipal governance model I have proposed is a beautiful direct answer to constitutional law. It returns our protected ground back to the public today. Under this model, the city would issue its own permit, hire a professional market manager funded entirely by vendor fees, and form a balanced seven-member advisory committee with vendors, residents, businesses, and city appointees. This brings transparency, neutral enforcement, long-term stavability for legitimate vendors, and zero direct cost to taxpayers. This approach protects the city, protects genuine small businesses, reduces liability, and allows the market to become a true community asset enjoyed by all citizens of Punta Gorda, right where it belongs on Taylor Street, returning our public property back to the public today. The full proposal and compliance packets are in your hands. I stand ready to work cooperatively with the Council and all stakeholders towards a lawful and stable resolution. All voices matter. This has always been our plan as a community. And I remain committed to my oath to the Constitution, to the allegiance we all swore. In Divinity's name, be praised.

Good morning, council members, mayor. I didn't really understand all of that. My name is Louise and I'm a vendor. I make a healing salve made with medicinal flowers that I grow right here in Punta Gorda in the history garden. And I've been at the Ponegorda Market when I'm able. I've had some experience. I've vended about 12 different markets for the past couple decades. Vending really became a big thing. Markets became a big thing in Florida around 2008. And I think Jerry came in on the entrepreneurial side of this. It seems a few years after that, people came in because they saw that it was a good way to make money. I love the market people. I really do. I really enjoy the people who vend. And they're simple. What's important to the vendor people is that they know they can trust the person. They know who is leading the show, you know, who's in charge. So Jerry and Julie, we always... We know their name, they know all of our names, and I don't know, why do you wanna devise something that's working? I think it's working really well, and... That's really all I have to say. Other than that, I am the person who volunteered to replace the tree that died during Ann, but I kind of lost my, in front of City Hall, the tree in front of City Hall, so I lost my point person on that. Thank you.

Did he get a lesson?

Good morning.

My name is Diane Van Beek. I've lived in the city of Punta Gorda for 20 years. And over the past 17 years, I've seen the farmer's market grow and thrive. It's become a major part of our city's personality. I understand that things change over the years and sometimes structures need to be reevaluated. One of the council's recommendations is treating the annual renewal as a new permit, not an extension every year. And that would allow for some reevaluation. Certainly, I hope that the annual process would be more transparent than we encountered this year, that it would involve the market operator and a sampling of vendors rather than being just a top-down Two of the major changes that are recommended seem to be the fee structure and a reconsideration of the market location. As far as the fee structure, comparing it to other event spaces, it needs to be kept in mind that this is a recurring event that has stabilized our city in many ways. So I'm not sure a direct comparison can be made. Any changes to the fee structure probably would be passed on to the vendors and making the market unprofitable for the vendors will mean that we lose vendors. We need to keep in mind that the market operator is taking care of all expenses for this and I found the requirement a portable restroom frivolous we have eight stalls in the herald square public restroom which is way beyond the three that are recommended in the city event handbook and it's just another expense already the market is paying for its own full-time attendant in the restrooms as far as location review that is a major change it needs to have all the stakeholders involved to make a major decision like this we are in the city center which is zoned for farmers markets and um i think another thing that has to be kept in mind with location is parking which seems to be adequate at this time My suggestion is the farmers market remain unchanged for this year relatively and that any future decisions involve all the stakeholders. Thank you.

Hi, Jeff Lustig. It opens up a whole can of worms, us dealing with the farmer's market. You have constitutional issues, the Andrew Sheets lawsuits. It is a traditional public forum. They can't stop people from protesting. You get people like Jeff Gray, our YouTubers, who will come in The police have to set up procedures to allow people to solicit goodwill or whatever their political views are at that time. You also need to do competitive bidding if you're going to keep it the way it is, if they're going to bid out for the vendors. It's also not fair for the people who pay, small businesses who pay rent, maybe they should get a space for free because they're paying taxes. And I've heard many times that with the market it closes off certain businesses because they're inundated by the vendors. I'm all for the market, but it has to be a legal and a better way of dealing with this. Thank you.

Got a future speaker, huh?

Hi, my name is Samantha Bachelier. I've been a vendor at the market when I was younger. I work in downtown. There's a lot of issues in our city. Frankly, the lights are still out. I'm not sure why we're kicking a beehive that's pollinating all the flowers in our city. It's the only thing that's bringing people. Thank you. to downtown right now and frankly it's kind of the only reason anyone parks in that parking garage there are so many things that we could be doing and frankly it's cowardice that your comments are off on Facebook the the no fishing signs around the marina like you should let people know where they can fish because all the piers are closed we're a fishing community that's why people come here also like if there's a You guys have a calendar, and all you put on it is your city meetings. You give permits to every Gilchrist, to Lashley Park. We'd like to know when there's three events going on at the same time, when there's a hibiscus festival, the Taste of Punta Gorda, and a car thing. It's locked down. Half the streets are closed down. I don't even know how to get to work sometimes. It's very inconvenient. You want to know the biggest moneymaker right now in town? Tow trucks. tow trucks because half of the parking is towable and there's a rate if your car is on the truck you get a better deal than if they drive your truck to the lot and i hear about this because i listen to people talking about it they went to a city meeting and half of their toes got car like it's just there's so many other issues and granted like all of these are valid like All of them. Everyone's points are valid. But there's a time and a place, and can't we all just figure out what needs to be fixed, fix those things, and then move on from there? Thank you for your time.

A little spitfire. Good morning, everyone. For those who do not know me, my name is Gary Butler. After six years, I recently stepped down as the executive director of the Military Heritage Museum. I did so because I decided to look around for other ways I could continue to help our beloved city and have decided to leverage my 40 plus years of organizational design and leadership and run for the seat of District 4 City Council. I look forward to the conversations to come, what could be, and of course how we together can build a better Punta Gorda. Thank you for your time.

Good morning. I am one of the, my husband and I, Frank, my name is Long, and we are one of the longtime vendor at Pungta Gorda Farmer Market. We are here today to ask you please keep the market the way it is. Jerry Priscilla is the one who is starting this market 18 years ago from the seed. And with that little seed today, has been this seed and we grow into a bigger tree. This tree now has buried a lot of fruit and has fed so many family and has helped the local restaurant and business around Punta Gorda. And we are here today to ask you please honor his legacy and Jerry Priscilla should be credited and the market should be continue on with Jerry's legacy. And I'm asking you today to consider his hard work because we was out there rain or shine and we bring the business together and this business have fed so many family helping children go to be able to afford to go to college and my kid is one of them. So I am asking you today please be consider and we would like to have Jerry Purceller to continue this legacy that he has started. Thank you for your time.

Anybody else?

Good morning council members, city staff, and all council meeting attendees. I'm Kim Kitko speaking for HALO, Homeowners Against Landfill Odors. HALO is continuing to work to unify public officials and residents in support for the FDEP and the strongest possible consent order to end the odors from the SLD landfill off of Highway 41 and Zimmel Road. In March, Council reviewed a great deal of new information and quickly came up to speed on the decade-long problems and odors from the SLD landfill. Council immediately took decisive action and sent a powerful letter of support for a strong consent decree to the FDEP, and we thank you so much for that. Since then, at the end of March, the week FDEP and SLD consent order was executed. In April, six petitions for administrative hearing were filed on behalf of four communities with 3,500 homes and 7,500 residents. In May, the FDEP dismissed all six petitions on technicalities. In June, we will be filing amended petitions and those will be submitted this week. Meanwhile, the dump continues to operate and stink, affecting the 12,000 people that live around it and up to 100,000 drivers that pass by it each day, which in turn affects the reputation of the city. We need the landfills. We just need them to fix this odor problem with the basic operational and technical solutions that are available today. Hey, you know, let's call a spade a spade here, everyone. These guys have had a great run and have made money hand over fist with no oversight, fines, or penalties for over a decade. They just need to stop the odor. HALO's pulled everyone together. We have significant momentum, and the council's fully engaged, and we appreciate that so much. Let's keep the pressure on them. After 10 years, we can get this fixed. How can you help? Perhaps a follow-up letter to the FDEP, perhaps a request for a meeting with the FDEP South District team to discuss enforcement compliance and penalties. Why are they continuing to break the law with no consequences? Perhaps an actual meeting with SLD. There would be an interesting idea. We'll see what they have to say. Your city staff is amazing. Perhaps city staff could gather and brainstorm and come up with some additional ideas for how we can put pressure on these folks. Please let us know how we can help. Happy to take any questions if you have any. Thank you.

Good morning. I'm Jerry Parceller here. I'm the manager of the Kwanagawa Farmer's Market. I just want to thank the folks here supporting myself and my family. I'm humbled and extremely honored by your support. And hopefully we can go forward. So thank you all and have a wonderful day.

Good morning, city council. My name is John Wright, representing the downtown farmers market. We've been operating this for 17, maybe 18 years now. And I particularly, before I go into my comments, want to thank those council members that did reach out to me individually and say, can you please verify what is going on and what you are seeing from your side? And honestly, without your input, we wouldn't have known today was happening to be here supporting what the market is today. I'm surprised that we didn't get notification. Our understanding of today is to discuss the process of the market and the permits needed for that Saturday market. It has, however, been turned into a media, social media circus where people have been hurt on all sides. and shouldn't be. This should never need to be allowed. But I want to stand here today because I've stood with Jerry Priscilla for 17 years. And frankly, Jerry Priscilla should be given the keys to this city. Instead, he's been subjected to lies, deceit, that have all gone just undefined. Seventeen years ago, he had the idea to bring a model that was not just a place, a market, but it was for selling of produce. It was a gathering place for people after hurricanes to meet with their neighbors and family. And most importantly, he had the idea of bringing the EBT SNAP program to help those that are underprivileged in our community. Those are also going on today. But the last few years have seen a noticeable change. I just ask you individually, what would you do as a business owner if one of your vendors came to you and said they'd received a dead animal at their house? or a truckload of manure had been delivered into the driveway. Or a threatening note had been sent saying, we're gonna rape your daughter. What would you do? That's what he's dealing with on a daily basis, unfortunately behind the scenes. If a person was to come into your business dressed as a Nazi, or dressed in a burka, carrying probably a defamatory sign, and probably a bullhorn, What would you do? That happens weekly at that farmers market and shouldn't be allowed to the dismay of not just the vendors who are suffering the backlash but also public that go off to the information tent and say we're not coming back to this town because of the behaviour of a few. Gerry did what he should do. He went to seek and protect his businesses, 65 of them, all of which pay individual business tax receipts to the city of Ponagorda. What you probably don't know, and this is incredibly embarrassing for me, but Jerry was issued the last rights not long ago, and his daughter chose to come to the market and open it, be there for the vendors. Thank you for your time, and please consider this.

Good morning, everyone. Gene Murtha, president of Punta Gorta History Center. It's a great country, and you can have people like this with a position. However, the overwhelming number of people support the farmers market the way it is, the way it's been. For 17, 18 years, Jerry's built upon what the downtown merchants started. And I have to say, it's been a gem for this community to rock that boat. God help you. Thank you.

Morning. Joe Como, Punta Gorda. So a slightly different tact to all of this. First of all, let's look at this as an opportunity, a catalyst. As we examined the single... idea of the farmers market, the downtown farmers market. Let's expand that. Let's look at every farmers market we have in Punta Gorda. Let's look at the history park, which is also on city property. Let's look at the PGICA, the one at a key in Bell Harbor. Let's look at how do we define a farmers market versus a special event. Who are the vendors who are at these things? How do we control them? I'm looking at maybe the possibility of a single overarching document, an ordinance if necessary. But our attorney, I think, is headed down the right path in trying to define what we need to do. But we need to know the difference between these different things. And part of this may also include yard sales, garage sales, fleece sales. What exactly constitutes what? What do we regulate? What is a... a valid purpose for government and what is going overboard. So let's take this opportunity to look at everything in our city and see what we can do. The question of vendors or participants has been addressed. Do we allow political tables in these events? Do we allow voter registration? Do we allow the Girl Scouts? Who do we allow to set up a table in these things? What is right? What's wrong? How do we kind of control who's in there? Do we let nonprofits set up in there? Do we let blood drives? Do we let the CFC or anybody else? And so all I'm saying is let's take this as an opportunity to look at the bigger picture and not just stay focused on one single thing and try to, and maybe this is the military side of me, but standardize, get consistency from one event to another. The rules that apply to one ought to apply to all. And we ought to be able to standardize that so people know what the process is, how it works, and how or if it's going to be enforced. And so all I'm doing is saying, take this as a catalyst, as an opportunity, and maybe look at a little bit bigger picture. Thank you.

Anybody else wish to speak this morning?

Well, good morning, everybody. Tim Ritchie, Citizen Water Czar, founder and president of March Against Mosaic. What a great event we had last night at Leroy's Downtown Southern Kitchen with Matt the Welder as our speaker. He's gonna be our next Florida State Agricultural Commissioner, because Wilton Simpson, he's not gonna win. I want to remind everybody, I mean, it's wonderful for me to see everybody show up here today. And I'll tell you, I'll take a thousand of this man here, Gene, over one of yours. Now, I see you all here today. I know who deserves the key to this city. I know who's worked tirelessly. For some of you in this room who might not consider to be my friend, I don't get to pick and choose who I advocate for clean drinking and bathing water. This is my compass. Jesus sits right beside me every day. Our former city manager and our former mayor and a bunch of staff are responsible for misguiding this city. You think we have $191 million infrastructure needs because we had great leadership? Hell no. It is imperative that you all understand that Vice Mayor Polk And city council member Denton, they are leaders in this community. Yeah, you have, but let me tell you something, did you get charged money for water usage that you never used? Did you do anything to save the Peace River? You know what? You haven't done anything in this city except run your suck. You know, Do I wanna have the farmer's market disappear? Not really. But do I like giving my city for free, my street, closing streets, making traffic more of a problem? You know, we have Gilchrist Park, we have Lashley Park, we have all these places. And I gotta tell you, we've heard some good things here. One for everybody. Thank you.

Good morning, city council members. Hopefully we can clear that up. My name is Thomas Brown. My wife and I are vendors at one of the finest farmers markets ranking in the top five in all of southwest Florida. And it exists right here in historic downtown Punta Gorda. Is that kind of success by mistake or is it by design with hard work, commitment, and vision that Jerry Pressler had 18 years ago for the improvement of this cherished community? The continued success of many retail and restaurant establishments downtown are directly contributed from the 52 weeks of presence this market has and the volume of foot track it has developed. Why now is politics getting involved in someone's livelihood Jerry Pressler and his daughter Julie manage 60-plus vendors weekly, and because they are, and always will be, the few who choose not to abide by the rules set forward by the management, is this now why the council decides to get involved? Every vendor is required to read and sign the rules contract, but there's still those few to make their own rules. Every business has guidelines that must be abided by its workers, as does this business. and it has been since its inception. I greatly urge the council to allow this market to continue operating with the continued success under the current management. What Jerry Pressler has designed and developed will continue to benefit this community for years to come. There are many constituents in this room. I hope your decision is positive. Thank you.

Anyone else?

Hi, Kathleen Davis, Punta Gorda Isles. I had not intended to say anything because I'm not involved with... I'm involved in everything. I love the market. I go there almost every Saturday. I support the vendors heavily. But I'm seeing at this meeting a lack of logic and overabundance of emotionalism. I think I really respect that the Presslers were running the market all this time. They did a wonderful job. I love the vendors. I love what they're doing. But we do have to obey the law, and we have to be logical. So whatever you guys decide to do, I'd love the market to keep going the way it is, I love going there, everything's great, I really respect the history, I respect the personalities, but we have a lot of people coming in here that are appealing to raw emotionalism and politics. Basically, it's yes, let's keep the market going, let's keep the vendors happy, let's obey the law, let's obey the city charter. Those four things together, cool.

Good morning, everybody. My name is Nikki. Nice to see you here. Thank you for giving us this platform. We do appreciate it. I'm I'm here to advocate for the farmers market. I have a special relationship to the owner, and that is why I have a question. Am I allowed to ask a question in this platform? You can't answer. OK, that's OK. I just wonder how How do I say that? How is it that you can take something that somebody created, somebody evolved into this amazing thing where everybody's in support of except for a few, how are you able to take what he owns and steal it and give it to somebody. It is his idea. Are you answering? Are you answering? Oh, you look like you're answering. Oh, OK. Now, I didn't ask for you, though. But we do own the streets. You're right. And we do pay taxes. However, we also have the opportunity get a permit to rent space in the city in which you provide your taxes to and you willingly pay your taxes to this beautiful city. So I guess that I'm just kind of confused if there is rent being paid or a permit that is in place Um, just like the same, like I would have a birthday party for my kid in Gilchrist, which I'm so in, like, I definitely agree with the young lady that said, there's so many events going on in town. How are we supposed to know when is a good day to pick for our parties at Gilchrist? Um, okay. So if I had a birthday party at Gilchrist and I rented the pavilion and some people came to express their idea or their opinion or impress that upon my children, I think I'd be pretty upset and I think I'd want to protect those children. I think the same idea is happening at the farmer's market. There are people who want to go into the farmer's market solely for the reason that that's their public property and that's their right But the agenda, even if it's something I agree with, which I've seen it, I agree with some of the things that they're saying, but does that give them the right if there's been a permit paid and there is an agreement with the city, I don't think it gives them the right to be in that space with those agendas. And like I said no matter the agenda that is a rented place. It becomes private at the moment once the permit is paid. It is a private event and those people are allowed to be on the sides of the areas that have been cordoned off for the market and they're allowed to say their their peace. However guys I would never allow those people in my party. Thank you. Oh thank you very much. That happened fast. Appreciate it.

My name is Tammy Kalin and I'm here on behalf of Kalin's Farmers Market. The public deserves transparency and the facts instead of this ongoing misinformation and online drama surrounding the downtown market. We encourage the community to support small local businesses, artisans, et cetera, at all markets. And I want to make this very clear. We have always supported and loved the downtown market. When Hurricane Helene and Milton disrupted the downtown market, vendors approached us if we could provide a place temporarily while recovery efforts were underway. We agreed, happy to help, and were met with hostility, false accusations, and defamatory statements spread through social media and other communications by the Pressler. due to recent events including but not limited to the online drama flyers posted at the downtown market at vendors booth and statements made by certain city council members and the city attorney we had made a public records request in regards to the downtown market we are still awaiting many records the records we have received show that on december 14 2013 the city council discussed the chamber of commerce and the emerging downtown merchants association in regards to the downtown market. Among those concerns were limitations on event permits, permit structure, and issues related to the restriction or closure of public streets. The council enacted special exemptions for the downtown market. This was never about shutting down the market or any other false rumor, but equal treatment under the law or the city ordinances. Every business owner, nonprofit organization, or resident should have the same opportunities and be subject to the same rules. A government that grants special exemptions or privileges while denying the same opportunities to others is the key issue. All markets should be treated equally. Instead, this issue has escalated into unnecessary conflict, confusion, and an insane amount of social media drama. The public attacks have been relentless. The slander, the defamation, and full-out lies has been disgusting. It is sad and inexcusable what the downtown market vendors, the community, and us personally have endured through all of this. I respectfully request the members of city council and the city attorney to address the downtown market with full transparency, help end the misinformation and division that has overshadowed the downtown market. We fully support and love the downtown market and recognize the value as a positive community asset. And we wish to see its continued access. Thank you.

Anybody else wishing to speak?

My name is Mike Polk, Punta Gorda. I don't know where this whole narrative came up with that the city is trying to take away the farmer's market. Okay, I don't know who, you know, I don't stay on next door and I don't put out false information. My wife has been accused because she was on a platform when she ran with an individual that they're trying to put that individual in to take Jerry's place and take away his market. My wife used to babysit for Jerry Pressler. She's known Jerry Pressler longer than probably anybody in this room, except his daughter. The market's fine. It's about being on city council. It's about providing checks and balances. You're making sure that the city is covered. If someone gets injured going to the market, during the market, That's part of your function, checks and balances, and making sure that the choices or how they determine who operates the market is compliant with the law. And that's what this is about, okay? Quit trying to make it something that it's not. No one's trying to take the market, okay? We're just trying to make sure that will be indemnified if someone gets injured at the market. That's it. You have to do this every, you know, year, two years, five years, whatever the duration of the agreement is. This has to be done. Okay? It's no conspiracy. It's just part of government doing their duty. Thank you.

Oh, are you not coming up to speak? No, okay. Anybody else?

Good morning. My name is Patricia Herndon, a vendor and a local business owner. The thing that is happening with the market is it is not just affecting the Presslers or other markets. It is also affecting the vendors. Many of the vendors are small businesses and that's all they have is that market. They don't have a local business or a brick and mortar. And I can tell you from being there and being there specifically the last four weeks, it has been extremely slow at that market. And the people that are walking around the market are talking about all the negativity that is going on with the market. That hurts all of us. That hurts us as consumers. It hurts us as businesses. I think what we also need to pay attention to is every market is individually owned and operated. So if you say or if anybody says that a market cannot be at a specific location, the downtown area, then that means no other market can be at that downtown area. So if it is a choice of we cannot have it or we can have it, it has to go across for everybody. Thank you.

One last time. Anybody else? Well, I think the market needs to stay where it's at. Can you, sir, can you come up here and state your name?

My name's Carlton DePriest. And I think the market should stay as it is for the people of Porner Gorder. This is not a shiny nickel for y'all to spend. It's for the people to make money and have a livelihood. And y'all worried about this. There's not a dock in Porner Gorder fixed for commercial fishermen to fish. Y'all say they're going to be fixed, and there never are. Not one dock has been fixed. But I believe everybody in this place needs to grow up and be a man and a lady and let these farmers alone. Now y'all do whatever y'all gonna do because that's what y'all gonna do anyway.

Any last-minute stragglers? Please come on up if you want to. Are you coming up?

Okay.

How you doing? My name is John. I'm a local vendor, been there seven years. And this, the farmer's market isn't something that you just go to set up a tent. These people work. I work up at 2.30 in the morning. working till four. I support my family. It's what put a roof over my son's head. Food on the table, clothes, everything. It is not just going there to have fun. As I recall, you were there, correct? It's a great market. Jerry does a great job. Julie does a great job. We all work hard. And to take this away from us, and I know you can sit here and shake your head and roll your eyes, which is a shame, we work hard. Yeah, again, we all work hard at what we do. And to come up here and we have to fight for what we work for, like the lady who just spoke before me, I don't have a brick and mortar. This is my livelihood. And to take it away is a shame. We support Jerry and his family, and thank you very much.

Hi, my name is CJ Estelle. My wife and I own a market over in Port Charlotte. Some folks may say that what is over here, the other markets are competing. We have never felt that way. We believe a rising tide lifts all ships, and we believe that the more that our community can sell to our community, the better it is for everybody. We need to do what we can to help vendors be able to push their products locally and support their families. So as you review things, I have pulled permits in other cities, and I'm made aware when I pull those permits, there are legal things that I still have to comply by. And I think that's really what a lot of this comes down to. is if there are protesters, if there are other people there, you are renting a city spot and that city spot has restrictions that you have to follow. It is not private property even when you pay for a permit in my experiences in other cities. And I believe that that probably holds true here. So I really just want to encourage you to do whatever you can to support the vendors while protecting the city. And to me, it doesn't matter whether it's a new thing where the city takes it over, whether it's that. What matters to me is helping vendors support their family and support their community. And I would ask that you view things through that lens as you make any decisions.

Is it still morning?

Good morning. My name is Carol Turner. I'm a vendor and I also have a small business in town which a lot of people don't realize. We own a factory and we work at our factory every day. My husband gets up at 4 o'clock in the morning to go to the Saturday market. And what's happening here is a few people, not to mention any, they have forgotten the number one rule that I learned in kindergarten. If you can choose to be right or kind, choose kind. And that is not happening. So to address Jerry, we love him. We support the farmer's market. And my husband and I have often talked about what it takes to be a market manager. They have to be able to herd cats. A cat goes this way, a cat goes that way, cats over here are fighting, cats over here are arguing. And for 18 years, we've been there 14, we have watched Jerry make difficult decisions. Sometimes he has to move a vendor and stop the cats. Sometimes he has to ask a vendor to leave. but he's been doing it and doing a great job. So we ask you to please take that into consideration when you make your choice. Give us a year permit. Let us be able to buy our supplies. We're already planning for October. We don't even know if we're going to be here in September. Thank you very much.

My name is Lynn. I am a city of Punta Gorda resident for 37 years. I don't frequent the market, but I definitely go to the market. I think you need to leave it alone, let things be. These people work hard. I am not a vendor, but I love going to the market when I'm able to get there. And that's all I have to say.

Morning City Council, Sean McLaughlin, Executive Director for the Punta Gorda Chamber of Commerce. Thank you guys for having us here today. I wasn't going to speak, but there's a few words that just been kept thrown around continuously today. Responsibility, opportunity, and one I didn't hear often in these other ones was logic. In this house of the Lord, I pray that the farmer's market does not close. It's been a staple in the city for a while. My office is right downtown. I can see how thriving downtown is. And I believe a big part of that has to do with Jerry and what he's done on those Saturdays to get people there. When it comes to logic, I'm hoping that we can just sit here and say, okay, here's a permit, here's what needs to be fixed in order for you to successfully go on. Now, whether that means a new location or Permitting structure that has to change with fees. I don't think anything changes with Jerry or Julie having to run it. They've had a success for so long. So I just, I try to challenge you guys all the time, but I challenge you to go at this with that logic and the responsibility and opportunity that comes with the market. So thank you.

Are you coming up to talk?

Yes.

Hi, my name's Greg. I have a little air plant stand down at the farmer's market, and I'd just like to thank Jerry. He's done a great job. It hasn't been perfect. Nothing is, but he's done a great job for me and my family. We've thrived downtown. I'm thankful for him.

One last call. Okay, we're going to move on with the regular agenda. There's nothing in public hearing or ordinances and resolutions. So we have the consent agenda. Does anybody want to pull anything?

I'll move to approve consent agenda. Second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.

Mayor, I hate to ask, but may we have maybe 10 minutes going into our next conversation? Yes, that's fine.

We're going to go ahead and take a 10-minute break. I should go because I know I'm .

Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Yes, usually they're on the front, and it's online. Okay, I got it. On our website. Okay, that's the very exact. This is all in the slides. She doesn't know.

She doesn't.

We'll be right back.

I like that. Yes. That's the most important part.

These were just packets that Julie Pressseller gave me to hand out to the council. She said she didn't need them handed out during her public comment. She just wanted a chance to comment. So I'm just sending them out now. Did anybody get some masks?

That would be a Missy slash Ashton question. I do. I believe in that. I have any requests for that. I mean, we can, I can certainly introduce that after. Yeah. Yeah, so that would actually, or Missy should be able to, or even Rachel or Boyd should be able to provide that. Oh, okay, great. Yeah, that should be fun. I think that absolutely was the big thing.

So yes, you know, we had ordered a pack of paper and it was like one of those things, you know, Amazon runs great 99.9% of the time and then every once in a while you get a delivery that just disappears into the email. So that's what happened with that particular thing. Okay, is that your stuff for the time? Yeah, if you just put your name on it. What's this? That was just stuff that Julie pressed up and said she just wanted the council members to look at. It wasn't something we necessarily needed to look at today or during her comments. She just asked me to pass those out.

So yeah, whenever you get that, you know, put your name on it so I know who it is, but I know who it is by the end of the meeting, right? I'll do it right now. Okay, perfect.

Just FYI, somebody turned in keys to me. If anybody's missing their car keys, looks like it has a Chicago police badge on it. We're sitting on a bench.

Let's go ahead and start getting everybody in place, please. Let's go ahead and get everybody in place, please. Do you want to have Steve say something? There he's coming.

Steve, you want to bellow out? Guys, can we get the meeting started, please? Can everybody take their seats?

Thank you.

Nope, I got you.

And again, if anybody's missing car keys, somebody turn them in to me. Looks like it's a Honda. I'll start the bidding at $2. $3.

It's good on gas.

I don't know if it's to look at now.

Jennifer Pressler. Okay we're going to be talking about the downtown farmers market, this is review the summary says this presentation provides an overview of the downtown farmers market, including its permitting history operational structure and fees. The presentation also outlines current city services involvement liability considerations and policy issues related to market operations and location.

planning director, and also with us is Rachel Berry from our department to provide the history of the market and some recommendations for the future. We have the market permitting history. Downtown market began as a temporary conditional use in 2008 with annual renewals until 2013. 2013, the council allowed the market to continue without the formal annual permits. 2019 the market requested exclusive use of the area temporary use permit application was submitted and That's how it's operated through the current year market Smith's an annual temporary use permit with the renewal application Market insurance and fees Punta Gorda downtown merchants association provides proof of insurance 1 million per occurrence 2 million aggregate the city is listed as certificate holder and In 2019, council adopted a $750 rental fee annual, and that's been 2020 to current, with $100 application fee, renewal fee. The most recent, this is FY, or I should say 2025, business tax receipts, $4,032. And that's based on the vendors that are within the market. Road closures the market sets up and removes road barricades and temporary signs City staff is not involved in the operations other than feedback or consulting with the market operators The trash the market provides their own trash collection and disposal City staff is not involved in the operations the restrooms the market has hired a restroom attendant who cleans and stocks as needed and The city staff is not involved in those operations currently. The city does provide the paper supplies for the restrooms. And risk management reported no injury claims or liability claims over the last five years. Liability coverage is currently adequate and is reviewed annually. In comparison, there was a recent marketplace, another farmer's market, Happy Hour Marketplace at Bailey Brothers Park. And this just gives some context and comparison. This was some years ago, four years ago. Council adopted a $75 a week rental fee in 2020 for Bailey Brothers Park and declined to provide sanitation services. Total annual rental was $3,900. City provided insurance certificates. 1 million provided city with insurance certificates, 1 million occurrence, 2 million aggregate, and city was listed as additionally insured. Applicant offered to split profits with Cooper Street, Lanchard House, and the churches, did not require any services. It closed after initial permit period due to expenses. And just some feedback on surrounding municipalities. Venice farmers market requires a special event permit no application fee applicant pays for city services that are needed Northport Requires a special event permit $50 application fee and again pays for city services that are needed As far as business tax receipts go Fort Myers has a $50 per stall or a hundred square foot of space so essentially the vendor spaces Naples no local business tax receipts instead requires a special event permit Sarasota no special rate for markets miscellaneous rate of seventy one eighty five per vendor and just to provide some takeaways a conclusion downtown farmers market has operated continuously since 2008 with an evolving permit structure and Current annual rental fee structure appears lower than comparable city event spaces. Market operations require minimal direct city services. Existing insurance is in place, but additional liability protection may be warranted into the future. And then some policy questions in terms of location, whether the current is the best overall location and whether rental fees need to be reviewed. And then we're here for any questions. Thank you.

Janine Polk for the record. So you said that there are no, there are no lawsuits currently? Is that what you said?

Yeah, at least in the last five years. Yep. Related to the farmer's market.

Okay. In terms of, we're talking about liability in terms of trip and falls, accidents, those types of things.

Yes, exactly. Sorry.

But there was one because I signed it just a few weeks ago. It could have been six weeks ago. the woman who tripped and fell. I just had our liability looked at.

Courtney?

Courtney Buckels, risk coordinator. We've had other matters served to the city that are not direct relation to the farmer's market, though in the vicinity. OK, thank you.

I commend our attorney Leskovich for his thorough review and the memorandums clarifying that we have been properly overseeing and permitting the market all along. I wish we had done this when this issue first came up instead of putting everybody through months of uncertainty and anguish. As far as the city taking over management of the market, that is a non-starter, especially under this period of fiscal strain on our budget. The expense to the city and cost in manpower is unacceptable. We're having to cut services and facing loss of property taxes, and we are not communist. Why are we singling out this event? There are many other events that take place on city streets. If we want to look at fees, then the staff should do that across the board, other events like Light Up the Night, Halloween, St. Patrick's, and everything else. As far as the staff recommendation for the operators to provide an additional port-a-pot trailer, I think we should look at actual data, ask the operators to collect data over a couple-month period, And then we can properly determine whether or not there's true need for additional capacity. As I understand now, many of the residents I've talked to don't even use the bathroom when they go to the market. They're there for half an hour, an hour max. And the operators have stated that there is no additional demand. There are no lines. And since they've had their monitor, the bathroom conditions have been maintained very well. I do agree with the attorney asking us to add a hold harmless agreement to make all of that clear. And I propose that we immediately extend the permit until the end of the year, get back into the regular cycle, and move on with this.

All right, sir.

I concur with what you're saying. I would like to have our attorney speak since there's been so many things circulating with legal, not legal, and I know you wrote a couple memos, so if you wouldn't mind just maybe giving a little background on where you see things and how to move forward.

You guys okay if I go up there since I don't have a microphone?

Please do.

Good morning. Add to everyone here. Thank you guys for coming. Thank you to the church for allowing us to be here. Good morning Council City City manager. Let me first. I thought it was necessary to write this memo. Two memos I had to write one initially with some recommendations and then a follow up one roughly 8 days later to help clarify a lot of the misinformation that was being spread over social media. I don't normally read Nextdoor or a lot of the social media sites, but I found myself doing it this time. Let me first start by saying this, that there is no constitutional issue that council needs to worry about. My primary purpose is to advise the five of you, as well as Dr. Reichert, in protecting the city from liability and moving forward when it comes to legal issues coming down. Now, looking at my first memo, May 18th, yes, I specifically addressed the Punta Gorda Downtown Merchants Association because that's kind of where the issue comes about. So let me first say this. I don't care who operates, from a legal perspective, I don't care who operates a farmer's market. And I can't think of who it was who said it earlier, but one of my recommendations, all my recommendations ended up saying any farmer's market. So whether we have one or 20 within the city, there should be certain guidelines for everybody. Now, I don't know if the guacamole vendors here, but you guys have fantastic guacamole. That's why I go there on Saturdays to get it. But let me start this way here. So currently, and I'm going to use the Downtown Merchants Association because they're kind of the topic of issue here on Taylor Street. So Article 16 of Chapter 26 is the land use areas of where we need to kind of look at. So we saw in the presentation here by Boyd that The market started in 2008 and between 2013, 2019, no permits were issued. That's just the way it was, but that's kind of what created the problem moving forward. So part of the reason why council needs to formulate some kind of protocol moving forward as well is Your code only allows for a temporary use permit for up to 60 days. Your event permit is for an individual event. Let me kind of give you an example here. An event permit would be if somebody wanted to have a birthday party at Gilchrist Park and wanted to rent the pavilion. You would submit your application, you pay your small little fee, you get the pavilion, your grandchild is happy, and it's a private event. A temporary use permit is good for 60 days. Well, now we have a problem because any farmer's market wants to have a specific date or a specific day over a specific period of time. So that's why in my first recommendation, I am suggesting, but the city should require, that any farmer's market, regardless of where it is in the city, should apply for both an event permit and a temporary use permit. The reason being is that an event permit can potentially give a market operator certain privileges that they may not otherwise get as a temporary use permit. There's a difference between a private event and a public event, even though it's on public property. I'm suggesting that any farmer's market, if it's extended for more than 60 days, a temporary use permit, enter into some kind of binding agreement with the city, understanding, for example, let's say you said that the downtown market on Taylor Street can operate for 12 months or 24 months or 36 months. I don't really care. That's up to you guys. That they should be required to carry liability insurance up to $2 million. That helps protect the city with insurance. Helps protect from liability from trips and fall and things like that. Require the farmers market to pay all application fees. That's up to you guys to determine what a fee is. Now, I saw in the presentation it said currently they paid $750 annually and that then the annual renewal fee was $100. That fee can be set at whatever price you guys want to have. Normally, a temporary use permit fee of the 750 is good for 60 days. Now, this is not about any particular market. This isn't about shutting down any market. This is about moving forward for consistency and stability. I also put in here establish some kind of bright line procedure, whether the city charges a weekly, a monthly, a quarterly, or an annual fee for an application, as well as a hold harmless and identification clause. That's important because if someone slips and falls at a market, on a public place. That's why currently the downtown market has a $2 million liability. That's what that's for, to help protect the city as well as protect any market as well. But it should be going forward for any market, not just the one on Taylor Street. So if there's five other markets, They should each have to have up to a $2 million liability insurance policy. Now, if they're doing it on private property, that's a whole different avenue. So it's what's going on on public property. this isn't about you know this has never been about nor has this ever been about shutting down the market you know telling vendors they can't operate it's just there's been inconsistencies over the last decade over how the city can move forward with a market because certain councils didn't do things or they did do things and it's just come up at this point to get everybody on the same page so everybody knows what's going on moving forward. I wrote the second memorandum to clear up a lot of the inconsistencies and a lot of the conspiracies that are going around. We don't need any kind of governance board because then that means the city's operating the market. The city's not here to tell any market how to operate their business. The city's not here to tell any private entity or 501C or 5014 or 5016 or whatever it may be who can and can't be at their market, who can be the vendors. What it is about is, so if there's a problem with any particular vendor operator, that's with the IRS or that's with, you know, the Department of Agriculture or that's somebody else's problem. That's not the city's problem. We're just trying to, hey, you want an event? You want a temporary use permit? Pay your fee, pay your application, go do your business. Now, if any market is operating or selling alcohol, well, then, yeah, they're going to have to have law enforcement involved. I don't know of any market within the city limits that are selling alcohol. So the second memo came about to clarify a lot of the AI artificial intelligence and the AI generative intelligence that was being presented out there on social media. You know, I don't use AI, I write my own stuff. but it's trying to help the city move forward on how do you operate when you have a code that says a temporary use permit is good for 60 days and you have an event permit that is good for one day. So you can extend a temporary use permit annually, multi-year, whatever it may be. I'm just suggesting to you guys that for all markets there is a clear guideline of how they move forward and how the city moves forward in protecting the city and protecting the market from liability as well as what the protocol is moving forward. Any questions? Maybe we can get like all the markets to have the guacamole people. And I can just go to each one of them. so are you recommending temporary use permit event permit or both i'm recommending both both because it gives it gives a market operator an event permit gives an event operator more protection a temporary use permit can give an event operator a lengthier period of time but both of them can protect both the vendor and this i'm sorry the operator and the city now whether an event operator uh or i'm sorry whether a market operator requires each vendor to carry liability insurance that's between the operator and their vendors we just need to require that the that the market operator has liability insurance which currently the downtown market has a $1 million, $2 million per event policy.

So, Mr. Leskovich, would it be wise for us to look at your recommendations that A through G and maybe checkmark along them so that we have consensus that this might be good, it might help us move this a little bit easier? Just to say, like your A says, require any farmer's market to apply for both an event permit and temporary permit. Do we all agree?

Yes. Yes. Sure.

Okay. The next one is require any farmer market to enter into a legally binding agreement with the city of Puente Gorda.

But I have a question. So if they do an event and a temporary use, I would like to say that you said we can extend that temporary use. I would like to do this temporary on an annual basis. I don't want them having to come back to us every 60 days. You know and I know there's been some discussion of thinking that you know this one or any market right would have exclusive rights to that location and my rebuttal to that is just like any permit or temporary use or event permit if there's another entity that would like that space whatever space that is within the city they're able to apply for that as well and then if I would assume let's say we had two competing entities and that wanted that permit at the same time in the same place that would probably then defer to council for council to come you know and decide what better would be a public you know use of that of giving that that permit is that correct that's correct yes yeah so it doesn't it doesn't say that this person or any of these markets have you know exclusive rights for the rest of their life it's just something that's on an annual basis if something else comes up then we'll address it when it comes up correct So I would, I'm sorry, I was just going to say, so I'm okay with the event, the temporary use, but I want it for a year.

So here's my suggestion is to make things easier. The Downtown Merchants Association downtown market has a permit, TP something, that's good until I think August 31st. My suggestion would be, if you guys were okay, to extend that at least until December 31st of this year while we are in the process of working with all the merchants or all the merchant operators of a market to draft a binding agreement between everybody that can help facilitate and work with everybody. We should well have that done within the next seven months, that if you're going to operate a market anywhere within the city that needs cities permitting, then you sign this agreement. And then that way, you have an annual permit going January 1 through December 1 of every year for every market that's going on.

I think that's what I was trying to say is we agree upon these and let's get into the details but let's just say yes this is what we're looking at and then we can get into the details we probably are going to need staff to to help us out with a lot of the answers with that so again the second one you said require any farmers market to enter into a legally binding agreement with the city of Punta Gorda

And it doesn't have to be, you know, a full-blown 40-page agreement. It could be a one-page agreement that just says you're going to carry liability. Here's your dates of operation. Here's what your fees are. And it can be, you know, you're going to, you know, and then it has the hold harmless and indemnify. So it can be very simple as well.

So is additionally insured a better way to say it, or is it the same thing?

Additionally insured?

The city is additionally insured on their policy.

Well... we would want the insurance policy to name the city as a receiver of it. Right. I mean, that's why, you know, currently the downtown market has liability insurance.

Another question. Does our charter allow a one-year permit, event permit? It's somewhere along the line of that they only are allowed to do 60 or 90 days.

It's only good for 60 days. However, council is permitted to extend that.

Another question, how much do other people, other events pay for a permit, like say your permit for?

A special, that's what he's saying, the special event is also, so we're doing two. Event permit. Speak into the microphone. Excuse me, yeah, I think that's what Mr. Liskovich was saying, is that it's both an event permit and a temporary, so that would cover that part.

So when you do your flag day celebration, are you paying the same price of, what is it, No. How much do you pay for your event?

So a special event permit is based on, like, if it's a nonprofit or if it is a for-profit and how many days. So I believe it's $100 a day. If you do a tent setup, like, on a Friday, even though the event is on Sunday and you're still taking down a Monday, you pay those four days because... $100 per day. Per day.

I'm just looking for consistency. So maybe this is the weeds that we get into later. But I think we need to be consistent for events throughout the city.

But Councilwoman Denton, keep in mind now that a drone show on June 14th is systemically different than a farmer's market. So although a typical event may pay $100 per day for the event, whether it's a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, for a $300 fee, It may not be conducive to charge a farmer's market $100 for set up on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. know or just friday saturday or just saturday over 52 weeks it made it's more conducive to have a one-time flat fee just just my recommendation a one-time flat fee for this event slash temporary use permit i would suggest to council that a farmer's market is separated from a birthday event or a drone event or whatever else it is because it is a whole different entity

so let's go ahead and continue since we're not getting the answer on b require farmers market to enter into legally binding agreement now we're not talking the specifics of it we just saying that we want to enter into a legally binding agreement is that correct correct and it would be you know abc market is operating on taylor street abc marking market is operating on west reda esplanade

here's your time period, here's your dates, here's your location.

And to be clear, what we're trying to accomplish today is to push that out to December 31st, I'm assuming, or 1st, whichever one you're saying, to allow time for staff to talk to all the farmers markets. But I know the farmers markets want a little more information What their life is gonna look like and I know we don't have all the answers, but I'm gonna just put on the record I'm not in favor of charging any more for that application or the rental fee than they're paying right now Because all it's gonna do is get passed on to the vendors and the vendors are already just trying to make a living So I would like to talk about those fees because per mr. Leskovich we can set that so why not set that right now?

because i'm just trying to establish what we're going to say yes and then we're going to talk about it so i'm asking for us to have a little order here and then we're going to get into the details so that's all i'm doing is saying yes or no and then we can get into details i don't feel comfortable saying yes to something unless i know okay we're going to go on to c require any farmer's market to fully hold harmless and full indemnify the city of punta gorda for any liability matter or situation that occurs during set up operation hours and take down at a farmer's market and this includes trip and falls i think that we should be protecting our city

Okay, so that's a yes.

That's exactly what we're trying to do. And then it says, require any farmer's market to obtain and maintain liability insurance with a minimum of $2 million per occurrence or event. Yes, that's a normal. Yes, thank you. I think that we have to make sure it's an annual liability, right, that it's not a month-to-month, you know, making sure that we always have it. Yes. Um, it says require any farmer's market to pay for all application fees, which is what they do. So that's a yes.

Yes.

Thank you. And then it's established a bright line procedure for weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual fees. That's what we're going to have to discuss. And then any other conditions or provisions that the city of Punta Gorda deems just prior appropriate. That's also what we're going to discuss. So it sounds like we're on the same page. It's just, what do we need to do? We don't want the farmer's market to fail, but we want to be consistent and we want to be fair. with everyone now going on with it. I know that they were talking about Bailey's brothers. Um, and Greg, I don't disagree with you. You know, we have to look at, you know, do we really, do they really need all the restrooms or not? That is something that should be looked at. I know that I've heard from other restaurant owners in the area, two of them who have said that their restrooms are being used, you know, and they're paying for cleaning it up and they're paying for things. So to me, that question is, is the one that's there at Herald Court enough? Or is it that people don't realize that they're using other restrooms from the restaurants? I don't know that answer, I'm just.

Yeah, I think we need data. I think we need a couple months of data on every Saturday. The person that is already monitoring the bathroom can keep a record of the number of people that use the city bathroom.

I think Ron said a pre-agenda, there's not been a problem. I think he literally stated a pre-agenda that since the parking,

I think he was talking about the cleanliness. I don't think he was talking about other restaurant owners saying that they had an issue who might, he might not know.

And here's where you would have to think about is what's going on on Taylor Street. They may have access to Herald Court restrooms. If a farmer's market begins to operate at Gilchrist Park or West Retta or wherever, they may not have access to restrooms. So, you know, different areas and this is, you know, some of the things will have to get worked out.

Right, exactly. And when Sullivan Street Art Festival is happening at the same time, who knows whether those are market doors or art doors.

Maybe that's a time where both those two talk together and share responsibility or something.

Boyd Lawrence, planning director, and I noticed during My presentation, I went through the recommendations pages, not having the screen in front of me, but we covered the page eight in the conversation with Mr. Leskovich, but the operations recommendations, and this, of course, would be after the current permit period is supposed to be extended through the end of the year, but continue requiring the market operators to provide all the event-related operational services, including traffic control, trash removal, and restroom servicing. Public Works also had an additional request They should have a portable restroom brought in, like a trailer-type restroom, because the current Herald Court facility is not adequate to serve the number of guests that are there regularly. Public safety, there was no immediate changes recommended. Police officers are required only if the event serves alcohol or more than 1,000 persons are present at a given time, at least the cost being passed on to the operator. And then location review, if that's something that the council would like us to look at if the current location is works or if we should look at an alternative. That's all I wanted to add on those. Thank you.

I know when I've been at the farmers market there are occurrences not that it's the farmers market fault at all because most likely it's not. It's just that you are crossing a busy street Olympia and you do have A lot of people need to be pulled over and ticketed for doing the things that they're doing as well, but it is a safety issue for people to try to cross over Olympia. Most people will jet in and out in other areas, I've seen it. I've seen people on the street.

People that go to the market are managed by the existing traffic lights. Sullivan Street is a whole different deal because there are no lights on Sullivan Street.

No crosswalk.

Oh, yeah. Sullivan Street is a whole different place.

Does anybody have an appetite to move the market? I don't know.

I will say for liability's sake, it's just something we need to be aware of. When it first started, there was hardly any big traffic count. There are huge traffic counts right now. So do you have an appetite to move? So let me finish. Okay, sorry. So if I'm traveling south on 41, so many people whip around. they don't realize the farmer's market's there i've i've sat there holding signs i've watched and they come whipping around and then suddenly there's someone walking out and it there have been dangerous situations there is also a woman who tripped and fell that's what i signed a couple weeks ago um but it was it was us and fdot i think that were named on that lawsuit because she tripped and fell and she was crossing um to go to the farmer's market So there is liability to say we have zero cost to the citizens. That's not a true statement. Again, I would like to, I'm on MPO, the Metropolitan Planning Organization. It's all about safety and walkers, bikers, all of that. And so I am concerned about that.

And I don't think everybody uses a crosswalk. I've seen people, you know.

That's what the hold harmless indemnification is for.

And we didn't have hold harmless before. Is that what you're saying? Oh, we didn't have that before. Okay. Before when? Before ever. Before ever. So we never had a hold harmless statement.

So I'm going to use the downtown market as the example because they've carried a $2 million liability insurance. And the city has been named as a recipient of that policy. However, you know, that's why I was suggesting there needs to be a hold harmless as well, like we have with every vendor that operates with the city.

We need that immediately.

And that's part of why you guys are discussing this. It protects everybody. It protects the vendors. It protects a market operator. It protects the city. It protects the residents.

Absolutely. It all comes down to the residents. Any cost that the city pays in any way, it's the residents.

Well, I appreciate, Janine Pohl, for the record, that that came to light. I mean, if we weren't having this conversation, we wouldn't have known that. So, yeah, that's something we need to do right away.

So are we all okay with keeping the market where it's at?

they need to know I think if we're extending to the end of the year it gives us a little bit more time to see maybe looking at any accidents or any issues I mean I'm I don't care either way so it's kind of been a place that everybody's gone to it's a great place it's kind of fun to see but I also see that When I've been down there, I have seen people crossing the street in cars not paying attention and almost hitting people. I'm sorry, I physically saw it. So to tell me that I'm lying I think is really wrong. Or just shake your head. Greg, I respect everything that you're saying. Please don't shake your head and say that I'm wrong.

So what I'm hearing is that everybody has an appetite to keep it where it's at until the end of December, but no one is going to give a definitive except for myself and maybe Mr. Julian that I'm supporting the market where it's at.

It's not that we don't support the market. This is the decisions we're making today. Make it. If they move someplace else, you're still supporting the market. I think that's a false statement.

They want to know where their use permit and their event permit is going to be. They need that location. That's exactly what's on the event permit and the use permit. Where is the market going to be?

So I'm just going to suggest, Janine, hold for the record. You know, when they first did the Lashley Park, those overhangs, those beautiful empty ones, I think that the idea was, because I spoke to people who were on city council in the past, and they said those were actually made for the farmer's market. So, you know, I just... They're empty. There's also more places to park there. There's the Justice Center and you can safely walk. There's the splash pad there for children to play while their parents shop. I mean, it's not a bad idea and it's a much safer idea, I believe. I'm just worried that if we're going to go to court at some point, It's going to be an issue. Well, why did you close off these streets? You should have known or you should have been able to foresee that this is a dangerous area, which is precisely what we are dealing with right now with the trip and fall. So these are things, I mean, as city council, unfortunately, whether they, you know, don't make you politically look right, this is what I'm here for and hired for. I work for the people. We are being sued currently. And I'm not saying it's because of the location, but I'm saying that there are safer places for us to have this event happen week in, week out.

I'm kind of confused that if people will go to the place that they want to go to, it shouldn't harm them if they move to Lashley or Gilchrist Park, because it is a great place. The farmer's market is a great place to go to, and people will go. It's just like other businesses that move to a different location. People will follow whoever they like, and they love the farmer's market, which everybody loves.

The reason it was established where it is currently located is for the benefits, the economic benefits. Yeah.

I'm sorry, during public comments you can clap, but right now we're trying to have a discussion, please.

Oh, now we can't clap?

No, I'm just saying it's easier for us to have a discussion right now. And I've heard from people who are brick and mortar there that they're not open and they are not benefiting from it. I don't see them here today. But that's, it's okay, it's what we're looking at, it's what's benefiting our vendors. Please, you're not up here, you have to come up to the podium if you're trying to speak. Please, this is us, no, we're having a discussion right now amongst each other, please. All I'm saying is we want the vendors to succeed. I don't know what the issue is.

The vendors are saying they need to succeed at that location that they're at. And you're trying to reinvent the wheel. No, we're not. We're not reinventing any wheel. For traffic studies we don't have or things that you're saying are happening, I've been down there plenty of times, too. Cities, people walk. I don't care where you're at. I go to Fort Myers, I can get run over. If there's an event there, you cross the crosswalk. You have a whole harness, you have insurance, move on.

How many of the downtown merchants How many of the downtown merchants have you told you that it's a problem for them? How many?

Several, because I belong to a small business group. Several out of how many? Let them come. They're not here. They're working. They're working. They're working. You're working on weekends.

You're working on Saturdays. I've gotten zero emails. Anybody else get emails from anybody discussing that? I've got zero.

Okay, guys, please, we're having a discussion amongst each other. Please, Sam, we're having a discussion amongst each other. Thank you.

Janine Polk for the record. Well, at least we have it on the record. I think that the attorney has given us plenty of information. I think we need to just cover ourselves, you know, CYOA, whatever it is, and just know that We put it on the record that it is a dangerous area. in your opinion no it's not my opinion it's about traffic counts and it is about there's no crosswalk there which by the way i'm on mpo i'm going to make sure that sullivan has a crosswalk because i've watched people time and time again there's a nice big box truck that parks there and people kind of look around it they're in the road so it there needs to be a crosswalk there for sure i look forward but i am seeing people making bad choices in that area And we are held accountable for it in the end.

We are. Show me the information from MPO.

Well, maybe we need to, you know, in the time being, have MPO do a discussion about that area and take a look at if this is really the right area. It's not for us to decide today, but maybe that's... Yes, it is.

It is literally us to decide today. No, it's not for us. We are going to let these guys hang again. Here we go again. We're going to let these guys hang. Thank God.

Melissa, I was not done speaking. Please, you're talking over me. Please don't. Please finish, then I'll go ahead. Thank you. So we have actually, we talk about having studies to make sure everything's okay. We can take a look at police reports, how many times the police have been called there. We can take a look to see if there's any issues that maybe we need the you know crosswalk better so that people go people are never always going to 100 use it but if we're trying to make decisions on what we need to make decisions maybe we have to take a look at we're giving a little bit of time to say yes as soon as we find out this is safe and everything like that keep it there i don't care but if we're finding that it is a liability for the city for the taxpayers and that we have some issues then we do have to take another look at it. That's all I'm saying.

Chief Smith, could you talk about any issues you may have seen at that intersection?

That's what the hold harmless indemnification is for.

It doesn't mean you want to.

That takes care of them.

So if somebody injures themselves, you don't care that they're injured? Yep, you just have insurance. That's exactly what you're saying.

It's not that I don't care that somebody gets injured. It's not about caring. It's just about the liability, is what we were discussing.

Good morning, everybody. Chief Pam Smith, Punta Gorda Police Department. We really don't have a lot of issues with the farmer's market intersections. They generally use the Taylor Road crosswalk. The issues that we usually have are with the Sullivan Craft Fair, and that's why we have an officer out there to move people back and forth.

Thank you, Chief. That's real information. Thank you.

But you have some issues there, you know. That's all I'm saying.

so janine polk for the record so you are saying mr leskovich that if we have this hold harmless that the city will be indemnified completely from lawsuits well there's never completely so basically what i'm recommending has already been going on for a minimum since 2019

when the use permits were being issued or started to be issued again. I'm just asking you guys or suggesting to you, let's now put it in writing so everybody has copies. Now, you can never be fully indemnified. If somebody wants to sue the city or somebody wants to sue a market, they're going to do it. That gets worked out in the court system on who ends up becoming financially liable. The city has insurance. A market operator would be required to have insurance. So if there is an accident, someone's going to be compensated. It's just a matter of who's insurance. But the hold harmless protects everybody, more the city, because you're operating on city property or operating on public property.

as you said it's already been going on you're just putting everything in a nice clean you know everybody signed it everybody sees it yes everybody knows exactly where everybody stands it's been going on we're just trying to formalize it so everybody now has copies of it thank you so while he's looking at that you know talking about fees you know the bailey brothers park was just a little i think all of us have been to bailey's park it's just a little tiny area and they were doing 75 weekly rental fee on that and like you're saying you know special events have at least a hundred dollars a day you know you're not saying a hundred dollars a day for here but you know you pay a fee that is consistent with other events is what we should be looking at because even though you're still saying well farmers market is weekly these special events that's a lot of time and a lot of money for that too and a lot of effort it's just the same as a weekly farmers market but you still have to pay fees. And I think the people who pay the event fees are happy to do it because they're having an event, but we have to be consistent and fair how we're doing it. But remember, events charge.

Events charge. Farmer's market's free. A lot of events, I think even your event charges. $10. I understand. There's music also involved. But there is a charge. Please be quiet. It's a difference. There's a charge. So you can't put them together.

But I believe the vendors are paying the organizers. So there is money exchanging hands. What about, since a typical temporary use permit is 750 for 60 days, why don't we just do that? 750 for 60 days times six. What's wrong with that? It's not that much money, but it seems like if we're trying to level the playing field and make it equivalent, that's just common sense.

We'll bankrupt the market.

$3,500 is what you want to charge them for a year?

Well, it's $3,900 in somewhere else along here. Wow. I'm just trying to be consistent, Melissa. It's not consistent.

We make the rules. Again, this was brought as an economic driver. Not only do we get the benefit of the city of having people coming to our lovely downtown, we have vendors that are making a living, we have other people that are going to go to other restaurants and they're going to spend more time downtown. This is different than an event because they're not charging. So no, I'm absolutely against $4,500 for a year.

It's 30, it was 3,900 at Bailey. So I'm looking for consistency, then we shouldn't be charging. Bailey's wasn't. 750 for 60 days. Yes, Bailey's was charged. It was 3,900.

And they never, and I'm not even sure, why do we not have history park on here? Because Bailey's went under like the second week. I don't think they ever even got off the ground.

The money is kind of irrelevant, but what is relevant is consistency. Sorry.

The reason that Bailey Brothers Park was used, because that was decided in recent years by a city council for a farmer's market. The city does not get involved with us, and we don't set any fees besides the business tax receipt for the history park. So it was a similar situation that had council weigh in on what the fees would be, and that's why we used that example.

I think we're still looking at how it's established as a business. And I know nonprofits and stuff have a public purpose of where their revenue that they get from it, where it goes to and stuff. And so if they're being charged more, then they can't give as much to whatever organization that they want to help out. I think that's kind of where you're looking at with that. But I still think being consistent A special use permit charges $100 for a day. I don't know if that's any different for a nonprofit or if it's just $100, no matter whether you're using or not, but I still think we need to stay consistent with the special use.

So what do you want to charge them? What's the number? You say consistent, but all of the events and stuff are different depending on how many days they are, how many people they're going to have.

It's per day.

You want to charge them $100 a week?

Well, we're not talking about charging individual vendors that. The organizers. Well, the vendors are going to pay. The vendors get their... By my math, the organizers are doing pretty well with the income they bring in. How much do you pay for your... No, you know that. Wait, wait, wait. I'm just asking, how much is a booth?

Stop, guys out here.

I'm just asking the question. I have no idea.

so the let me give an example melissa you were asking about how many hours you know for something the actual event and i'm just going to throw it out that's coming up is only a seven hour event and it's paying one thousand fifty dollars for a seven hour event that's being charged for admission and has other vendors yeah i get it the vendors pay just the same as the vendors here the vendors but it's an event and it's a charge to get in ten dollars per person We could make it free, but it's going to a nonprofit, which the nonprofit is actually benefiting for nonprofits. It's not going into anybody's pocket. It's not being a payment to anybody getting paid a salary or anything like that. It is going to a nonprofit, which is benefiting the city and benefiting the small businesses. I'm not. And it's benefiting the local community. It's bringing tourism.

750 is Romance.

I think that's something that staff should be taking a look at and coming back with it.

It's our decision. Staff is going to defer, right? They're going to give recommendations. Dr. Rodkart just nodded her head. That is correct.

They're going to give recommendations, and I'm asking for recommendations from staff.

No, they're not. They're going to give you what they gave us in here. It's our decision. Yes, it is your decision. Thank you.

We did the research that we provided in the presentation and gave the example. We can do it, yeah. But ultimately, it is council's decision.

It needs to be as it is right now until the end of the year, and then we'll go from there.

I'm fine with that.

Let's move on. I agree, and I think we can ask the staff to take another look in the meantime.

And really, I mean, if you all who are vendors and organizers think you might like to consider another location, bring that to us. No. Okay. If you do come up with some other ideas that you like, talk to us. Instead of putting out all kinds of false information on Facebook or especially Nextdoor, I respond to emails. If someone has a concern, I would have said this is not an issue and it's becoming an issue just because of misinformation and lies. All we wanted, and Greg, this is to your point, you said, why are we even talking about this? It's because early on we said, let's look at every kind of permit, let's look at every lease, and make sure we're consistent. You said, why aren't we looking at every lease? That's why we're looking at this lease. It's part of the other leases, Herald Court, others. So we're just being consistent in evaluating and make sure it's working for the city, the taxpayers, and you all. And it sounds like you all are happy with the way it's going. I'm not against it. I want everybody to be happy. I want the market to succeed, which it is. So it doesn't matter whether the city gets a little bit more money. What matters is that we aren't sued and that we're protected. That's what matters. And the bathrooms, make sure we have the appropriate number of bathrooms according to what Public Works suggests. So I would like to state that in our agreement as well.

whatever that is i don't know so for the records we agreed to look at leases this is not a lease we're looking at everything we never agreed to that we agreed to look at leases with the city excuse me uh janine for the record i i just don't think it's ever appropriate to allow permit or anything else to go into perpetuity without looking at it that's part of our checks and balances. I'm not worried about the fee at all. I don't think it makes the hill look different. The hill means different. $750,000, $5,000, it doesn't really make a difference to the city. It's not going to do much to help us when there's a lawsuit. So to me, it's like the fee's really not... It's fine. I do I do feel like we should look at it every couple of years though And that should be part of the discussion every year every couple years and very much in agreement with that Just to make sure our eyes are dotted these are crossed So if you get is this working if you guys extend the current I

temporary use dash zero one dash two zero two five. That's currently the Punta Gorda Downtown Merchants Association permit until December. There would be no additional fee between now and December. It would just be what would be a fee when they submit their application.

But they need to know for the future.

But they would need to know.

Yeah, because as one speaker had talked, I think they're planning two or three months ahead, right? So they need to know their income. They need to know where they're at. So, so far what I've heard, which I'm happy with, is that we're not interested in moving them and we're not really interested in changing their permit fees.

True, and we never really have been. So I think it's really a shame that people have blown the set of proportion on next door, and I don't appreciate that. So please talk to me if you have questions in the future. Talk to any of us. We'd be happy to help set the record straight. There's a lot of unnecessary grief and turmoil, and I'm sorry for that, that it blew up.

Janine Polk, for the record, and I think, you know, we could have really done a better job of having this discussion earlier. I think it gave an opportunity for some people to politically do some mudslinging. Absolutely. Unfortunately, I tried to talk to Julie Presseller. I know the girls don't remember who I am, but I babysat them a long, long time when they were little kids. We all lived in PGI together, and thank you for entrusting me to your kids. But, you know, it's hurtful when things are said like we're taking away their business. And I had to call her and say, we're not taking away your dad's business, just so you know. Nobody's taking away your father's business. business that he's built. It's a success, and I love it, and I loved you guys when you had Hojo's, so keep up the good work.

I think, too, this actually opened it up to realize that we do need additional liability protections. You know, the conclusion here said that current annual fee structure appears lower than comparable city event spaces. Okay, it is what it is. You know, you guys have been doing great. Like I said, nobody's trying to take a farmer's market away. So the ugliness and hatefulness, it's really sad. It should be open-minded and thinking and trying to work together. That's what we're all trying to do. So the hatefulness almost makes you want to go, fine, let's charge $10,000, you know, and we have to stop that kind of stuff because that's not healthy for anybody at all. So the only other recommendation was they require portable restrooms, but I think, like you were saying, we should have, you know, take a look and see if that's even necessary or not. Maybe during the busier seasons we might have to have something. During our slow seasons we don't. You know, the traffic volume in the city does change dramatically during that time. Maybe even during the busier season, when we have more people there, maybe need more restrooms, maybe come back and see if we need a police officer during the busier seasons, just because that's just the nature of our city. It's got a busy season, it has a slow season. So I think right now with the way we're staying is we're just gonna keep this on, take a closer look, seeing, evaluate things a little bit better to make sure that everything's fine.

The issue I have with the bathrooms is that I know mr. Everett said in our pre agenda that Unfortunately, it's a delivery system. They deliver it. It has to be somewhere and then it's gonna sit there to over the weekend So even when the farmers markets all buttoned up, we're gonna port-a-potty sitting so that's why he suggested trail the trailer takes the same thing I was told that they can't pick them up regardless of the trailer or not It's just the way that the rental companies work. Maybe you could find something and but I'd have a little bit of an issue with potties sitting there.

And the cost to bring in a portable trailer is prohibitive within their budget.

So the special use permit people are doing the same thing.

And when you say about... No, it's entirely different because as she stated, they're charging fees It's not comparable.

Well, I think we'll take a look at that. Let's just end this right now.

With your permission, in terms of the restrooms, we'll continue to monitor the situation. We have worked, the city staff has worked with the market organizers for, well, I've been here since 2018, and we've had small issues that have come up, such as the restrooms, and we've been able to work together and solve those issues and I don't see any reason that that wouldn't be the case moving forward and if it did come to the point where we were seeing an issue I would bring that back to you as City Council perfect

So let's make that clear, Janine Polk, for the record. So the six that were suggested in the pre, I mean, that seems like a lot of restrooms in the pre-agenda meeting, those are not going to be required? And how many are at Herald Court? Two?

No, no, let me say eight, which there's eight total, I guess. Where's Ron today?

Rachel do you have the exact number I I'm thinking that it's I know that there's four I believe in the women's restroom and Rachel Berry is only official for the record I I don't know the exact number I know that the six restrooms is in the event manual for a certain number of attendees on site at a time correct so we should we should be more than covered and Rachel is that some sort of a law or a stipulation like if you have so many people you have to have X amount of restrooms per person or what where does that number come from I can check with the the building department and the fire department to see if there's any health codes but as far as Florida statute I'm not aware of anything Some might be under the Department of Ag.

Just making sure we wouldn't want somebody to come after us because there weren't enough toilets. I mean, come on.

I think maybe that is the case, you know, where they talk about some of the restaurant owners are saying it. Maybe work with the restaurant owners to make sure that there's proper signage to say, hey, please use the restrooms on Herald Court. Maybe put something up, and that might actually resolve that issue that people are having, just to do something to help them out.

And Janine Polk, for the record, remember we did increase all of the water, you know, utilities. 12% and that's why you know it's going to go up 12% again that is why some of the businesses are very concerned that they'll have a hundred flushes more than they normally would so that's something that we do need to maybe discuss with them and like you said signage would be a great idea yeah they have them all around the cities like no no public bathroom so they could probably do that

So I'm just going to go on the record and say that whether it's today or whether it's December, I feel like we're still kind of leaving these guys hanging a little bit, and I'm really not happy about that. My stance won't change. I don't think anything should change except for what Mr. Leskovich required, which is everything you're already doing, he's just going to put it in a neat little package, and we move on.

Actually, he's adding the hold harmless. I think whatever that was. So that needs to be added. So it wasn't exactly the same. So thank you for bringing that up.

It's there. It's just indirectly because it already has insurance or they already have insurance. We're just formalizing it. I mean, I completely agree with you that We're just now putting into writing so everybody knows how to proceed forward to prevent that January or the 2013 through 2019 and no permits are issued anywhere.

Again, it's been done. You're just putting in a pretty package for everybody. Appreciate that.

Anything else you need from us?

I would need two things from you guys. is you would need to have a motion, based on what I'm hearing, a motion to extend the temporary use permit number TU-01-2025. That's the current permit that is due to expire August 31st. And you guys had talked about extending it till December 31st. That would give the downtown merchants, Punta Gorda Downtown Merchants Association, as well as the city and any other merchants to work on a written contract as well as give them an opportunity to file their permits so we can get this ball rolling. So one, I would need a motion to extend that permit and two, then a consensus for staff and myself to start working with the downtown merchants on getting a legally binding agreement together.

Motion to approve to extend TU 01-2025. Am I right about that number? Extend to December 31st of 2026. I'll second that.

Okay, we have a motion and a second to extend it to December 31st. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Next one. Consensus?

Then I would ask for a... It doesn't have to be a motion. It can be a consensus. For staff to begin working on and meeting with the downtown merchants, not just the downtown farmer's market, but potentially the restaurants or businesses down there to start drafting up and working on a documentation.

I actually had one more question. I think maybe it was in your opinion. If not, I apologize. But how is this going to look going forward? Is this going to be an automatic renewal where it doesn't have to come to council? Or would this end up being administratively going forward? How would this look going forward once we get all the ducks in a row?

And that's the interesting component. Normally the event permits or temporary use permits come before you guys anyways. Right. So it would have to come back for you as well. Correct. However, you could treat each operator separately, independently, or all the same, just an annual agreement and you reapply, you submit your new whatever fee it is, 500 bucks, 750,000, whatever, and then you get approved again.

I thought your memorandum said the DRC can approve it on an annual basis. I had that as well.

I did see that, yeah. I'd be more in favor of that.

I still think it needs to be reviewed annually. staff does it, DRC does it.

It would be reviewed by staff in the DRC, but at any time, you have the ability to put anything on the agenda that you want with consensus. So this council, any council can do that. So you're not limiting yourself to not be able to look at that agreement again in the future.

But I guess the good thing to know is that it is being done in the background. Just because it's not here doesn't mean staff isn't doing that, which is with a lot of projects in the city.

Right, I think that the concern is if somebody meets something and says, hey, there's a concern, we have social media making this whole thing, and then everybody's stressed out again when it might just be something that's, you know, being looked at.

Certainly, if it had to come before council again, we would get it on the agenda a lot sooner. This was an item that you requested quite a, I'd say at least 18 months ago, and circumstances just weren't that that we could put it on an agenda. We would certainly in the future, make sure that it hit the agenda very quickly.

Can you tell them why we had to wait so long? I think that's all right, isn't it? I mean, we've been waiting for a reason.

At this point, we'll just say that we weren't able to put it on the agenda.

We still need the consensus.

Consensus.

Yeah, I would ask for a consensus to allow legal and staff and Dr. Riker to start working with the downtown folks.

So consensus is yes for everybody, correct? Yes. Yes. I think we had to hear a yes.

Yes.

Okay, thank you. Good. Now we can move on? Perfect. Thank you for sitting here with us to go through all this. Like you see, I think that none of us want the farmer's market to go away, and I hope that eases some of you. I think it's just, again, the legalities and making sure we dot the I's and cross the T's and make sure that it's successful for all of you.

And we have more than one farmers market.

Yeah, I mean, we're looking at all of them. It's not just the downtown.

We're looking at open to more. I'd like to see one at Lashley Park. I think it's cool with the splash pad and it'd be a lot of fun.

So if Gilchrist Park wants to do that. Awesome.

Rising tide lifts all boats.

OK, are we ready to continue on? OKAY, NEXT ON THE AGENDA IS THE FISCAL YEAR 2027 BUDGET, CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM, GENERAL FUND, AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY. DO YOU WANT TO TAKE A BREAK SO EVERYBODY CAN LEAVE, AND WE'VE GOT A LITTLE BIT OF A BREAK WHILE EVERYBODY'S LEAVING? OKAY, LET'S JUST GO AHEAD AND TAKE A FIVE-MINUTE BREAK AGAIN. I WAS GETTING REALLY DRY IN HERE.

Don't cheat.

So can you be helpful to explain the difference between a market- I hate that text.

In the public property versus private?

It's not about whether it's a private company. even though it's Okay. We'll roll that in. Yeah. What's that? Okay.

All right.

. . . . .

Okay, so I just did a little bit of math.

Thank you. So Melissa.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. I will try to get it moved to there. Yeah, it shouldn't take too long.

We already did all this. Why do we have to do it again?

Is it because of the public that's not here?

Yes, as much as possible. I'll try and give high-level review.

Yes, so we'll go quick, quick, quick.

It's like pickleball.

Yeah, I know.

I was part of it.

Yeah, for the most part. There was someone out the other day.

I don't think so. I mean, yeah, we're planning on going pretty quick. If there's any questions, we'll bring it back, right? I think we're okay. I brought it. I printed it out so I have it just in case.

Correct. Thank you. I like that.

Thank you.

Anybody want to eat gum? Alyssa, you want to eat gum? Actually, yeah, I will take that. Come on, look tacky. Yeah, I will.

I will take one. Yeah, you're going to hear me in the microphone, though, probably, chomping like a cow.

So the triple fall was in the aftermath. You're saying that it was considered quite a sign. Yeah.

All right.

I got your attention. Oh, thank you. I know, I heard it.

I was like, what is this? It's hard to stop talking to people sometimes. But thank you, because they wouldn't, you know, they said, I'm like, I need to do this.

So I was actually helping her.

Thank you, yeah.

It was like, it's only a minute.

What a nice lady, though.

Who is it?

She's the kettle corn lady.

Oh, my gosh. Love their stuff.

Okay, are we ready to go ahead and get started again? Okay, gotcha. Mr. Leskovich. We need to stop this ugliness between each other, too. This is ridiculous.

Ready? We're ready. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Kristen Simeone for the record for finance, and we're going to start. This is the same information that we did on the Monday evening at the budget workshop. So we're going to try and go through very quickly all this information and just kind of touch on the points that we had consensus on for the budget. if we'll go to the next slide the first one is our cip plan and our general construction is um comes from general funds special revenue funds grants contributions and typically provides a city-wide benefit let's go to the next page we have our pro forma just showing again the revenues coming in at the total for the capital projects we do have approximately two hundred and twelve thousand in reserve for contingency I do want to let you know we did have an increase for our fire training center for the pad build it's approximately fifty two thousand that will come out of that contingency so that'll reduce it to about a hundred and sixty thousand Go to the next slide. This is the list of the projects. A lot of these you have seen before. The biggest one that we mentioned on Monday was the railroad cross rehabilitation. They have an increase. Those costs, and we have to do these projects. They're dictated by the railroad for our agreement. So we do have to be prepared when they're ready to move forward with those projects. So that had increases. and then you'll also see in fiscal year 2031 the apparatus for fire that needs to be replaced by 2033 but we have to budget in 2031 because of a two-year build on that so if we go on the next page we have our sales tax again um we're this this is only through the sales tax extension that ends december 31st um 2026 so if we go to the next page SO YOU SEE THERE ARE REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES AND THE AVAILABLE BALANCE THAT WE HAVE AT THE END OF FISCAL YEAR 27 THAT COULD STILL BE ALLOCATED FOR SOME OF THOSE PROJECTS THAT MAY HAVE HAD FUNDS UNFUNDED IN TIER TWO. AND WE GO TO THE NEXT PAGE. SO THERE YOU HAVE THE LIST OF PROJECTS. The biggest one to note on here is the US 41 Complete Street airport to Carmelita was canceled at our February meeting. Also the Virginia Avenue project Complete Street was all moved to unfunded tier two for the portion we did have funded. It was put on hold. So we can go to the next one. Then we have our unfunded projects. And in our unfunded projects, again, they're a lot of the same ones you've seen. Out of the four projects that are at the bottom that are being done by FDOT, the southbound bridge project is being canceled, so that one will not move forward. Let me go to the next one. And then these are the rest of the sales tax projects. And again, it was updated to include our requests that went for our sales tax extension moving forward. When you see the asterisks, we tried to group those together from our discussion from that time period. So they're broken out here on the sheet, but for the sales tax, it was lumped together. Kristen, can I? Sure.

I was trying to get a consensus on Monday night, and I'd like to see if we could get some sort of consensus. I really think that the Herald Court elevator replacement and permanent pump generator for flood protection of Herald Court really needs to be funded.

So that's for, that's being requested on the net for the sales tax extension. So we wouldn't know that till November. And then at November we could prioritize that to come from that funding.

I was just thinking if we had any leftover, like, you know, one project doesn't cost him as much. I really think that this needs to be more of a priority because you have your senior citizens and people who won't use Harold court parking lot because they can't use the elevator. So I personally would like to have a consensus if we can move this up a little bit.

I'll have to work with the attorney to make sure we can do, have to work with their attorney to make sure we can do that okay out of the current extension okay thank you if so then yes we could do that so okay thank you okay so if there's no more questions on the construction projects we're gonna move over to general fund So this will be general fund and information technology. And again, I'm gonna try and go through this very quickly. On the first page, we just gave you a population estimate so you can see where we were at and where we are now, percentage increase, our full-time equivalent employees. And it was compared to in fiscal year 27, just because we were using that was at our highest employee count prior to the economic downturn. The next page has our, we've always been using fiscal year 28, so I'm sorry there's a difference there, but we've just been using 28 over the past quite a few years, so that's why we just had it from 28. You can see the percentage increases for that 18-year time period, how much the average is per year. If we go to the next page, one before that, We just kind of talked about how we tried to mitigate some of those increases throughout that time period. And so during the economic downturn, we had no limited or no pay increases for a period of time. There were position eliminations, shift of benefit expenses to city employees, but then as things started coming back, some of those things did start coming back, positions were added, benefits have held steady or increased, and we've had updates to the pension plans. Again, to remain competitive within our market to try and attract qualified employees. Operating costs increased 70.3% in that time period, and again, using operational efficiencies, contract changes, and negotiations, we've tried to keep things reduced. Some things were taken in-house to help reduce costs. However, some things we see increases in during, especially over the last few years, especially in commodities, contracts, and insurance. personnel costs due to scarcity of resources. And again, all vendors and businesses have been seeing that increase in that area, so then they pass that along to the city. But most recently, we've had increased gas prices as our contributing factor in our current plan.

Going to the next page.

Our assumptions for revenue was using ad valorem at a rollback rate, so keeping it flat. Within that millage rate, we do transfer 459,000 for road resurfacing and rebricking program. Again, that is a reduction from prior years. We've been at 709,000. Based on the public work study that came back, we would only need about 459,000 at this time. Revenue estimates and utility taxes, state revenue sharing, and half cent sales tax are approximately anywhere from zero to 10% over the fiscal year 26 projections. State projections have not been provided yet. They come out in July or August, so therefore, and we do have to budget 95 to 100%, and we kind of talk about that later as one of our issues. Franchise fees are estimated increases of 1% to 2% due to increase in rates of 5%. But again, when we have that increase, people try to conserve a little more, so we do think there'll be some contraction of usage, so we wouldn't get the full 5%. We have the new revenue estimate of $400,000 annually for the school speed zone recently approved by council, so that was added to the pro forma. next page we have the updated school resource officer revenue for increase in officer pay plan and operating costs and that's based currently on the current contract one percent increase in administrative charges to other funds however we do allocate that that's an allocation we do but we have to have all our budgets finalized and then we do that reallocation We have the awarded cops grant for the police department. It was a $500,000 grant for four officers over a three-year period. Fiscal year 27 should be our final year. All of the revenues have just various small adjustments. We have transfers from impact fees. So again, we're going to use some of our impact fees that we've been collecting for the fire emergency response vehicle. That's a new program and we'll talk about that under the fire. reimbursed for police new position vehicles. So even though we got the grant for all the positions, this will help fund those new vehicles for those positions. So it's basically reimbursement. And then we'll also, for the facilities, they had a new position vehicle that will also come from the public facilities impact fees. On the expense side for personnel, we do estimate 4% salary increases based on merit, fire and police per the current bargaining contracts. Police bargaining of a new contract is not complete and so therefore not included in the pro forma. We have 8.5% estimated increase in health insurance at this time, and based on employees' current elections, and then we, if a position is vacant, we use full family coverage, so again, that we don't leave ourselves short for new hires. And then we do 6% per year there. 10% estimated increase on workers' comp, and it's spread over the estimated wages based on the workers' comp codes, because again, some positions have a higher workers' comp cost than other positions, and estimated wages. The fire and police are per the pension actuary report. The general pension is per the actuary report, but it's spread over all funds on active positions, estimated wages. The defined contribution per employee elections, we do have just a few people still in that plan. For our transfers, we did just talk about this one. We reduced 250,000 per year. On the general construction projects, it ranges from 735,000 to 1.4 million per year. And we talked about the two issues that were there. So if we go to the next slide. So we have our capital outlay plan. These are the divisions trying to, again, plan for the replacement of their vehicles or equipment that is reaching end-of-life, and they do try to plan it out over the five-year period. If they see that a piece of equipment can last a little longer, they may switch it around. Some things may move up. It just depends, but they do their best to try and, again, have a nice plan in place so that we budget for that over the five-year period. So if we go to the next page, you can see there at the end we were able to maintain the same $1.2 million per year for capital outlay as we had in the last budget cycle. The only year that we were not able to do that was in fiscal year 2027. And that was due, again, we'll talk about it, but the personnel protective equipment and fire and police vehicles there, so. Okay, so for department reviews, we have our personnel requests, and we'll talk about that. Non-personnel operating percentages were calculated on items within the department's control. We did not include their general liability insurance, which is estimated at a 5% increase, and computer overhead, which is remaining flat. And again, they each provided their own capital outlay requests, and we kind of talk about a little bit of the future when we're talking about some of the things. In non-departmental, we have professional services for lobbyists staying flat. Promotional activities for Fall Fest and other events were reduced by 10%. Personnel remained flat. Again, we budget a small amount in non-departmental to cover employee health insurance changes because, again, some departments just cannot handle a change. So if they were single but then have a child or a family coverage that is added at October 1, we want to be prepared for that. It also covers any career progression that might occur during the fiscal year. Lot mowing was decreased $185,000. We would reappropriate those funds from fiscal year 26. Again, we've had dry months this year, so we're not using all the funds budgeted for fiscal year 26, but we do need to use those funds that were set aside for lot mowing for lot mowing. Council contingency is remaining flat, and Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Partnership is flat. We're currently leaving the United Way in check in the budget at this time. if we go the next one so the City Council had increase in wages of 10% and again that's just an estimate because we have to use the state for the state numbers that are provided in October of the Commissioner rates and it's a percentage of that so we just don't again don't want to leave ourselves flat We did the 10% decrease, and we're also taking out the extra 3,000, so that will be reduced. That was determined on Monday. City clerk and city manager's office reached their 10%. Legal also was able to reduce 10%. We do just remind you that on legal, the legal services can fluctuate year to year based on any type of litigation we're in, new or changed ordinances, or requests from staff and council. Human Resources was able to achieve their 10%. They did have a request for recruitment services for hard to fill positions, which would be an add of 32,000. This was recommended to be included by the city manager and council did agree. On finance, we reduced 5.2%, and again, the biggest things causing us not to achieve that was we do have to keep our professional services for the other post-employment benefits and arbitrage services. We are going out to bid for audit services in the summer, so we're estimating a 3% increase there. The cell phone, again, for the finance director to be available during storms because City cell phones have a priority over personal phones for getting back online and equipment leases We are splitting with the clerk. So you see they had a decrease on theirs for procurement We have a decrease of eight point seven percent No major program changes and the only reason they weren't able to do the ten percent was again having a city cell phone available for the procurement manager during those emergency times and Public Works Administration was able to achieve their 10%. When we go to Public Works Engineering, they're operating, they achieved the 10%. However, they are asking to continue the part-time map, permit, and compliance tech employee. Again, this is a long-term employee with extensive knowledge and expertise, as well as historical data from the city. We do expect that to be reimbursed, mostly from FEMA projects or construction projects, canal maintenance, and or engineering. Move on to right-of-way. They reduced their 10% in operating, except for the pavement management program transfer, which we talked about already earlier. For capital outlay, they requested a replacement of a 2002 grader with a skid steer with a greater attachment and a replacement of a 1989 trailer. They've also requested replacement of an old mini excavator that was transferred from the water treatment plant two years ago, but it's just no longer reliable. And then throughout the five-year program, they have some additional items with the one larger one being the load of replacement in 2030. For parks and grounds, they are gonna transfer one authorized position from parks and grounds to facilities. So you'll see that on the facility slide also. And this is to add the second electrician in the facilities department. They were able to decrease their operating half a percent, but again, they have a lot of things that were increasing that were just really hard to hold steady. So you have things like contractual services, mangrove trimming, the communication services, utilities in that division. So water's 12%, like we talked about earlier, electric 5%. Fuel has increases, safety supplies, and we have holiday decorations. So again, maintaining that level of service for holiday decorations is still in the budget, and council agreed to leave that in at this time. Sorry. Yes.

I thought that Janine had a great idea, and I don't know if we have to have a consensus or even have maybe staff talk about it with considering having businesses decorating lights. I thought it was a brilliant idea. Yeah.

In terms of that, I would have to have a discussion with staff to see exactly which department would have the capacity to manage that program. That is something that I could also discuss with Sean at the Chamber of Commerce because in my previous role, that was something that the Chamber did. They worked with the businesses to sponsor light poles and do decorations, so they may be willing to take it on. I'll have that discussion with him.

Okay, so you don't need consensus from us to have that.

You guys all look pretty happy with it, yes? Good, thank you.

Perfect. Lashley Park maintenance is at $72,000 per year and again that particular one we continue to carry over any unused funds each year and that's because it's a large infrastructure and so if we don't always use that funds we carry it over because at some point there's going to be a larger project and so this way we're prepared. capital outlay they've requested a replacement of a 2014 pickup truck and a 2006 mini excavator track hoe in fiscal year 27 with additional replace additional vehicle replacements in 2028 and 2029. For facilities, again, here's where we're transferring in that one position from parks and grounds. They would also like to decrease the two janitorial workers at this time, again, putting this particular project on hold. When they were gonna bring it in-house, they had taken one existing maintenance worker, they were gonna make that a janitorial worker plus two janitorial workers, so that'd been a total of three. They're only asking to, again, reduce the two and still leave that existing employee in place as a maintenance worker. So having it as a contract will allow some flexibility for future if service levels are discussed or reviewed or altered. So it might be easier to actually make some of those reductions using a contract. And this will help allow the facilities with backlog of facility maintenance projects and be more proactive in servicing. On their operating, they were able to decrease 5.1%, excluding the janitorial, because, again, we were adding that back. Items with increases or remaining flat were the CAM for the city clerk and finance. We'll have to add the fire as well. Repair and maintenance for buildings, utilities, same thing for the percentage increases, and department materials and supplies. They also have the Herald Court Center maintenance, which is currently budgeted at $42,000 per year. And again, anything not used carries forward to continue to build a balance for larger projects. Their capital outlay requests are a 2,000 ton pickup and a new vehicle from the new position they had received in a prior year. The council did let us, or addressed that we could move this to fiscal year 26, so you'll see that on the next council meeting as a reappropriation request. And then 28, they just have one replacement pickup. Go on to the police department. So in the plan personnel and the five-year plan, they reduced their fiscal year 27 requests and their fiscal year 29 requests, leaving only one civilian position request for fiscal year 28 for an employee development coordinator. They decreased their operating 3.2%. And they just kind of listed some of the things that really had to kind of stay either at or increased in there. So professional services for accreditation, software, employee testing, veterinary services for the third canine, travel and training for additional two advanced trainings, communications from adding personnel in prior years, equipment leases, repair and maintenance for vehicles, volunteers for notary certifications, and pre-employment services. On their capital outlay, they had requested eight vehicles per year with a five-year replacement cycle. They are going to remain at a seven-year replacement cycle at this time, and we're going to do six per year for fiscal year 27 and 28, and then move it up to seven per year 29 through 31 to help with the number of vehicles that they have, even with a seven-year cycle, they need to start doing seven per year. But with some of there is an increase in the cost of the vehicles, they're moving to a larger vehicle to help during the times when there are emergencies and flooding so that they're higher up off the ground. And again, some of this is requested from the 1% sales tax funding, so if that were approved, we could reduce that capital in the general fund.

Chris, does that also include equipment, you know, on the inside and the outside, or is that just for the vehicle itself?

It's including the equipment. Fully equipped. Fully equipped.

Thank you.

Yes. So with the request for larger vehicles, I would think that would be certain types of officers would need those, not everyone. I mean, that's a pan question, I guess. Yeah. We don't really have to get in the weeds now, but.

I believe it's.

Chief Pam Smith so we do want to put some of the mountain patrol because those are the ones that we respond all all different hours so yeah.

Body and in-car camera replacement is approximately $188,000 per year. So when the contract's up, we just still have to renew for the next term. The taser replacement program is $45,000 per year. And we're in the last two years for the interview room and the drone equipment, but that one doesn't have to continue on. We'll just have to keep a little bit of maintenance on that one. Moving on to fire, personnel increases are based on the third year of the bargaining contract. So they also did see an increase in unscheduled overtime due to coverage for the fire battalion chiefs and lieutenants. And Chief Gibbs did talk to you about that on Monday. They are trying to work on their program so that they could, again, implement some more employees that would be qualifying for the write-up program. They decreased in their operating 5.3%. And again, some of the things that had increases that you knew didn't allow for the full 10% was employee testing and adding the required mask leak testing, communications for expected increases from providers, repair and maintenance of the high water trucks and apparatus. And again, Chief Gibbs talked about that. Yes, we were donated some trucks, but we still have to put some work into them. fuel increase based on the current pricing, and maintaining emergency operations funding at the current level. In their capital outlay program, they have a 2016 SUV replacement scheduled, and that's actually the chief's vehicle. Annual program amounts for the medical equipment and suppression equipment have stayed the same. And on the medical equipment, they have like an alternating amount depending on which type of equipment is purchased each year. And again, with those programs, if they don't spend all the funds, we do carry them over to move forward. The PPE had an increase to 237 in fiscal year 27, and then 46,000 per year thereafter due to the new requirements related to the PFAS, and Chief Gibbs did speak about that on Monday. On the apparatus scheduled for replacement in 2033 we talked about, it's budgeted in 2031 as a transfer. Again, it's on the sales tax extension request. So again, if that gets approved, we would be able to remove that from the general fund. Adding two firefighters EMTs in fiscal year 27 and fiscal year 2028 for a total of four altogether to allow for the new ALS emergency response vehicle program. This requires a total of six personnel to allow for staffing, 24 hours, seven days a week. And we had already hired two employees in fiscal year 26. The annual cost of personnel for the two in 27 is $293,200. Annual cost for uniforms, testing, and miscellaneous supplies, about $2,500. And one-time cost for pre-employment and bunker care to get started is approximately $12,280. For the capital outlay for this program, they are requesting the $178,000 for that vehicle and outfitting that vehicle in fiscal year 27 so that they would be available to start the program early in fiscal year 28. Planning and zoning, they both achieved their 10% reductions. So then we just showed you the five-year planning that was presented last year in 2026. The first slide was all the requests received by the divisions. So you can see the increases that were being asked for each year The second slide was what was approved through the city manager and through City Council at the time during fiscal year 26 and the third slide is the reduced changes made this year. So you see the negative one in facilities. So again, even though they're getting one from parks, we're reducing two. So they have negative one there. Parks and Grounds is giving up an employee to move over to facilities. Police reduced what they were requesting. In IT, they had a position request for fiscal year 27, which is moved out to fiscal year 28 while they determine their needs. So then you see our general fund pro forma. and where we're at. So we're doing a little bit better on this particular pro forma. You can see we're doing very well through fiscal year 29. We were short starting in 2030. And of course, we would have to address those issues as we move forward each year regardless. But at the very end, I'm gonna show you an updated pro forma with the proposed legislation, things we've talked about on Monday. So the next slide just kind of shows you where we were at a few months ago when we talked about the long-range plan, where we're at now, and even though revenues increased, expenditures increased, so we're about the same for the total use of operating reserves. And we just provided a comparison of our fiscal year 26 adopted budget with the proposed fiscal year 27 budget and what those estimate increases percentage-wise look like. And then we go to the considerations or things that are still kind of pending or, you know, we just want to be aware of. So the police bargaining unit negotiations are ongoing. There's a compensation and benefit study underway. Our preliminary valuation for June 1 and the final valuation is July 1. State estimates are not provided until July or August. And again, we're required to budget at least 95 to 100%. Even if sometimes our estimates are a little more realistic, we still have to follow what the state has. If the MAC Grant is approved, the revenue and expenditures will be added to the general fund budget. Legislative proposals, mandates, including possible property tax reform. And we'll talk about that one a little more. Hurricane recovery efforts are still ongoing, and then we also have to be prepared for future storms. So those are things we continue to look at. Uncertainty of economic forecasts and inflation. So over the past few years, we have seen a lot of inflation. Last year and this year, we still see inflation, but it's at a much more normal level. We continue to review for funding of priority CIP projects, information technology needs and changes, infrastructure repair and maintenance, uncertainty of federal funding programs and directive, the police department vehicle replacement program. So we did just want to bring this one up that if there is additional revenue from the school zone, school speed zones or 1% sales tax if approved, That might help us get a little bit ahead on some of those ones that are a little behind the seven years. Storm pipe replacement, 26 pipes they have to replace, so they might need some additional funding for some of them. Liability insurance, increased cap from $2 million to $3 million. Estimated increase was $80,000 to $100,000. At Monday's meeting, there was consensus that we just not move forward with that one. Marina subsidy until fully repaired. We're still reviewing this one. That'll come back to you when we actually talk about the budget and then any other proposals that might, of how that will operate. So that may or may not be needed. Herald Court Center subsidy might also be needed because, again, we have reduced units that we're leasing because the city is in those units. Non-advalorum assessments as allowed by law. So as we talk about this property tax reform, this might be one of the things that we're looking at to replace those revenues. So you can have fire service, roads, drainage, stormwater. This requires legal and consultants. And speaking with the city manager, we were talking about maybe possibly putting some funds into the fiscal year 27 budget. So we could get started on that. Um, even though the actual decrease might not happen till, um, 2028, that decrease wouldn't start till 2028 so that we can start getting ahead of that. And we were thinking about 300,000 for that. Cause again, there's multiple MSB use that would probably be needed to be considered. We can talk about this at the end. We're going to start reviewing all the rates that we currently have and adjust rates and fees as needed. Current rates plus possibly new rates. As we talked about, what are the priorities for the city? If things can't be funded with ad valorem, do we have to start charging fees for use of the parks or use of the parking garage, things like that. Working on developing the boat parking and or boat ramp usage fees, which that's underway. That's all I had there. Then we have lot mowing. So the proposed assessment is to remain flat $285. The number of lots in the programs again continues to decrease as building uses those lots. So we're currently at about 1,045 lots. Certain costs remain fixed despite the number of lots decreasing. So you still have to pay those fees. We did talk about that there was a reduced number of mows in 2026 due to the drier months. So again, that will provide us additional funds for the beginning balance of the lot mowing program. Personnel salaries are budgeted to increase 4% based on the pay plan changes. I should say, pay plan changes are not yet determined from the Pay and Classification Study. The program does project 16 mows per year with up to additional two mows during summer months and four edges and three trims. So again, if we don't do some of those mows or we miss a trim or an edge, that reduces the cost in that program for that year. Any questions so far?

Okay.

We'll keep moving on. Information technology. For fiscal year 26, the IT department does need some switch replacements. The estimated cost for the staggered used switches, so it's used switches, but they do have active hardware, software, and security support anywhere from one to four years is approximately $500,000. Council did previously reappropriate $123,000 for this need earlier in the fiscal year. So the remaining need is $377,000. 100,000 can come from savings in the current budget from personnel vacancies. And there's 277,000 left, which can come from prior year unspent funds that were turned back as an additional appropriation. And then beginning in fiscal year 27, the division would replace one network device per year. And council did agree that we could put that on, and so you'll see that also on the next agenda budget amendment. Their planned personnel request for fiscal year 27 is, again, going to be delayed at this time. They did request additional overtime to help complete projects that have been stalled. The operating cost increase was 4.4%, but that's mainly due to increase in subscription costs for projects started under capital that move to maintenance. And we've kind of discussed how that has been happening each year. And we always put the first year in capital just so that it's pointed out specifically as well as the citizens to know what those projects are. On the next slide are the projects proposed for fiscal year 27. Approximately our normal computer replacements, monitor replacements, and that one is the final year. GIS tools, enterprise security camera network, the automated vehicle locator for city vehicles, OSSI ordinance module, muni code, server licenses, Build customer APIs for GIS to ERP, and that's approximately 21,000. That's a one-time amount. Then you have networking monitoring software and services, e-procurement software, fiber connectivity for fire stations two and three. In that one, they are looking to hopefully reduce that one a little bit. And network devices, as we just mentioned on the previous page.

Kristen, the computer, laptop, tablet replacement, that's every four years, isn't it?

So the computer replacement is a four-year schedule, but they budget 25% of them to be replaced each year. So it's an annual cost. The revenues remain flat for fiscal year 27, so again, we're going to hold that line for 27. We estimate 3% increases in fiscal year 28 through 31. However, if we're not able to reduce other expenditures, larger increases would be needed beginning in fiscal year 29.

Go to the next page.

Okay. Here we go. Legislative reform. So there were some updates for what was passed to go on the ballot, but for everyone, in case they didn't hear on Monday, the homestead exemption is increased. What's going to go on the ballot is increase the homestead exemption for the first $150,000 in value beginning in tax year 2027, and that's from $50,000 exemption on the first and the third $25,000 of value. That's our fiscal year 28, so I just want to be clear. When they say 27, it's our fiscal year 28. Increase the homestead exemption to the first $250,000 value in 2028, which is our fiscal year 29. They would apply the same annual inflation adjustment to these increased homestead exemptions as currently applied. require the legislator to pass legislation establishing a schedule for the full elimination of homestead property taxes for counties, municipalities, and other respective levies. They did remove the school districts at this time. They do require a five-year waiting period for any person who establishes Florida residency after January 1, 2027, before becoming eligible for the increased homestead exemptions. On the non-homestead side, they're gonna reduce the cap on increases in non-homestead property values from 10% to 5%. And that includes any residential rental property, commercial property, or business property. I think they adjusted some of the limits So originally, the limits were going to be that it had to be public safety, law enforcement, fire services, infrastructure. The way they're wording it right now that I've seen, it says, allow property tax revenue to fund operations of county and municipal governments, including constitutional officers, county commissioners, city governments. city governments and expenditures approved by local elected officials unless a specific expenditure is prohibited by state law. So they may have expanded the uses that we're allowed to use. And we'll get more information as we look into that, but I just wanted you to be aware. That's the wording that I saw in the synopsis. And then, as far as the state trust fund that was originally proposed, I'm not sure if that's still in there or not. It wasn't included in the synopsis, so I will check on that and get back to you on that, but I just wanted you to be aware of what I've seen so far. You may have seen it on the news all last night, too. I know a lot of communities are very worried about this particular legislation. So then we go on to the pro forma, and what would the pro forma look like if that revenue is reduced? So as you see, we are through fiscal year 28, we're still okay even with the reduced revenue, so one year. In fiscal year 29, obviously we're a little too low. We wouldn't have our 16.7% minimum reserve requirement. And then obviously in 2030 and 2031, Because again, that reduction continues to happen. And I've put in $100,000 per year. We don't know what that plan is going to be. Because again, they don't have a set plan. It's just that they would have to continue to work on that plan. So anything 2030 and 2031 could look different if that were approved. But I just wanted you to be aware of where we're at and see if you have any questions. So again, just going back to the request for possibly adding some funds for the consultant, we could set it aside and wait till November till we heard what happened with the election and the referendum before spending it. But if we wanted to have those funds available in the budget, we were thinking approximately $300,000.

I think that's a good idea to wait until we see what happens.

Right. But do you want to include it in the budget so that it's available, we just wouldn't spend it, or do you want us to come back and ask for an appropriation in November?

I'd rather leave it. I'd rather leave it.

Do we have a consensus to leave it?

Yes.

So not add it. Okay. We would just come back in November after the referendum if needed. Okay. Any other questions?

I have a comment. So I am really thankful for all the hard work that all of you have put into it. You all tried to find areas to reduce being proactive into what you see in the future. I know that apparently there were rumors out there about how much staff time was used in it, but I think it educated us. Dr. Missy, did we...

I really appreciate the fact that we had our managers there that a lot of council members hadn't met before. This was their first time speaking in front of city council, and I really think in terms of succession planning and long-term success of the city that it's important to have some of our staff resources attending city council meetings, participating in them. We do everything we can to not do that to excess. but there are certainly times when people present that we want them here also for learning opportunities when we bring on new staff it it really helps them grow in their career as they participate in meetings see how things run and understand how the decisions are made for the city i think it really educated us a lot more too so i appreciate it thank you

I did provide a list of the county. You had asked about the county personnel increases that they received. I don't know if everyone had received it, but it was $1.91 per hour for all employees and up to a 5% merit that they got for fiscal year 26.

And the $1.91 came to like a little over $3,700 per person.

That's good information for us to have, but the actual comparisons position by position will come to us in the form of that pain compensation study that we're having ongoing right now, and then decisions on how we adapt and adjust to our competition will be had at a later time.

Yes. Thank you. Okay. I appreciate all your time. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, next is council policies, review, governance, conduct, and leadership.

Good afternoon City Council Deputy City Clerk Jennifer Faulkner for the record. So we have just a few policies that we're going to go through as part of our policy review. These are generally related to governance conduct and leadership. So these first couple of slides are just reviewing the overall purpose of this policy review which is to modernize our policies remove anything obsolete or conflicting. and ultimately to strengthen the framework for public engagement. As I said, we previously reviewed the set of policies on rules of procedure and public access. Today, we're going to do the governance, conduct, and leadership. We'll move to the other categories at future council meetings. And then after we go through all of these, get everything cleaned up, we'll do an annual review going forward to make sure that all of the council policies remain consistent, updated and reflect current practices. Okay, so the first one that we're going to start with is policy 0302 city clerk and city manager reviews. HR requested that we take a look at this policy because historically evaluations for these positions have been done in October of each year and that is inconsistent with how all the other personnel reviews are done for city employees. It's usually done by the higher date. the employee so we are requesting in order to make it consistent with practices for the other employees that the city manager and city clerk forms be distributed to council for evaluation approximately 30 day based on the higher date of that position you'll have 30 days to complete your review and then once those evaluations are received the scoring as it has always been done will be presented at a city council meeting for discussion including any pay increases for those positions so essentially we're just asking to for Consensus of counsel to update the policy that the review for those two positions be done based on the higher date as opposed to on October in October of each year Do you have any questions about that? Okay, okay, so I have consensus of counsel to update that policy accordingly I Excellent.

Okay. When's the last time somebody looked at the review itself like to update it to make it a little bit easier?

You mean the form? Yeah. That I don't know. Typically those are reviewed by HR. They might be able to speak to when those, I don't know if Courtney or Jeff are still here. I can check with them and if obviously since the evaluation forms are done by council and at your discretion if you would like to see changes in those forms That's certainly something that we can discuss, but I'll get some information from HR on that and circulate that via email.

Maybe just send it to us so we can just take a look at it again. Thank you.

Let me just make a note of that before we move on. It's hard to do minutes and notes and present all at the same time. Okay, so sorry. This was just, I apologize. That was basically what we discussed. I just wanted to click through the bullet points on there. So the next policy that we're going to talk about is policy 0601 regarding censure. And this was a policy formalized by previous council. There is a provision for censure in the city charter under Article 3, Section 6, if you would like me to review the specific language from the charter for that. But essentially, we wanted to bring this policy forward to determine if council had any desire to change the censure procedure. So is Council familiar with that policy? Okay, let me go ahead and from the charter, I'll just review what the procedure is for that. So again, under Article Three, Section Six, Council is permitted in its discretion, uh to choose to reprimand or censure a council member instead of causing a forfeiture of office because there is a forfeiture of office procedure outlined there as well so essentially council would develop a a resolution for the censure the party affected by such resolution shall be given written notice thereof which shall be delivered to his or her personal place of abode within 24 hours after the resolution is adopted Within three days after the adoption of the resolution, the affected party may, in writing served upon the city clerk, demand a hearing upon the question of forfeiture at a public hearing to be fixed within 10 days of such demand. If written demand for a hearing is timely served upon the clerk, excuse me, if written demand is not timely served upon the city clerk or if following the public hearing council determines that the affected party has forfeited his or her office or if the party affected party has resigned prior to a vote sorry as I'm reading this through I think this part doesn't really count for the center procedure excuse me so basically what would happen is there would be a motion of Council to essentially adopt a resolution regarding censure and we just want to know if council and that's read aloud into the record during the council meeting we just want to know if council wishes to discuss whether that current read aloud procedure remains the most effective method or if you would prefer for us to propose a more detailed procedural due process type hearing requirement for adopting a resolution of censure So I'll open that up for council discussion.

My question with it is I think we really have to define censure. And I think that we have to look at our rules and our oath in office, what we've taken and what we consider is a censure. And I think, am I correct? I read First Amendment does not protect against censure.

That's correct, yes. However, your charter also reads, and I don't have the exact number on it, censor can come by way of a member's malfeasance, misfeasance, or non-feasance. Exactly. Oh, yes, it lists here. It tells out what needs to be, what needs to have occurred in order for counsel to censor.

Sarah Silver, I really think that it needs to include not only in Council meetings, but it needs to include everywhere, because it even says everywhere, you know criticize ideas not people, I think, in the conduct. Sarah Silver, I think we really need to extend that to include social media, especially since social media has not been around for a long time, this is something new and that's been pretty explosive.

Okay. So basically, and City Attorney Leskovich is correct, the essentially conditions for forfeiture of office or censure as detailed in the charter are malfeasance, neglect of duty, drunkenness, incompetence, permanent inability to perform official duties or commission of a felony. And this section of the charter, it does not restrict those actions to council meetings. It doesn't have a... What do I want to say? It doesn't have like a location or anything in terms of, so that's just general conduct during your tenure as a council member. So it would cover, behavior during council meetings outside of council meetings it doesn't at least the way I read it it doesn't limit or preclude social media but if that's something that council wants explicitly included in this section that is something that would have to go because it's in the charter and it would be a change to the charter that's something that would have to be proposed at the next charter review committee and go to referendum so the policy I don't necessarily think that we could include that in a change in the policy because it would be potentially in conflict with the charter mandate which i believe the charter is what would would be the ruling document so mr leskovich you can take a look at you know i mean we're just asking for more details of it so if you just take a look at that please and and keep in mind that you know the word incompetence or neglect

You may not have to amend the charter.

Maybe not.

Thank you. Okay, perfect.

You may not have to amend the charter because it is malfeasance, misfeasance, or non-feasance. Perfect.

Thank you Thank you, so what we could do is You know given that list in the Charter in the policy we could include some additional we could say you know examples of incompetence or Neglective duty would you know including but not limited to so you could put some of those things in the policy document if you wanted to but again that so that's a way that you could if you wanted to spell out some of those things you could do it in the policy it wouldn't be in conflict with the Charter because you're essentially just refining the terms already in the Charter as part of the policy document but that would also be done as part of any resolution of censure that would have to those that facts or those details would have to be spelled out in the resolution document so just depends if you want to put some of that stuff in the policy or not

Do we need to have a consensus to do to look at that to work on that?

I would think so because then that because that would be a change to the policy so I just need consensus on which direction you'd like to go if you would like to look at a draft of this policy that includes some definitions or examples of the the list of eligible actions in the Charter or you or if there are other details to that procedure that you would like to further refine in the policy I would just need consensus on what you want changed or added so that staff can prepare that and bring you back a draft I think the biggest thing I'm looking at is you know treating each other here and outside and social media that we need to really be a little bit more specific on that

Well, I think it also, Janine Polk, for the record, excuse me, it also fits into the next section, the council conduct. Yes. You know, I don't think we necessarily have to change the charter or look at the charter. That's just resolution. I feel like the council conduct should be enough to, you know, correlate.

Just doing a resolution to include it, yeah. Janine?

Okay. Okay.

then just to confirm um does council have any desire to change the process where you know the resolution would be brought to council it's read aloud into the record and adopted at a council meeting do you have any desire to change that process okay so we'll leave that process as described in the policy as is I don't believe so. The way it's worded is that council hears a resolution and you process it the same way you would any other resolution.

Yeah, that was our first meeting that we agreed, yeah.

Okay, let's take a look at the next slide. Okay, so we have two policies 9503 and 9601 the first one is council conduct and the other one is meeting conduct so they kind so right now they're in two separate policies they do kind of overlap in terms of So we just wanted to see if council had a desire to revise them as separate policies, if you would like to combine them and integrate them into the civility and deescalation training materials that are currently being developed. But basically, the council conduct policy that was adopted back in 95 was these three bullet points, commitment to work as a team, agreement to direct individual problems to the city manager, directive to act in a concerted effort to stop rumors or innuendos reflecting negatively on the city, and then the following year was the adoption of the the the plaque that we used to have in the council chambers that showed those um sort of seven rules for meeting conduct so i'll open it up for council discussion in terms of what you'd like to do with these two policies i like these policies the the the second one i think it decides meeting it should say meeting and outside of meeting that we you know keep these same provisions

But I think that this, like you do every year, you know, in November, when we read these with the resolutions, I think these should be included. Just so that we're re-looking at this, re-saying, yes, we affirm this, this is how we're doing. Especially, you know, with the concerted effort to stop rumors and innuendo reflecting negatively at the city. I mean, look what just happened with the farmer's market.

So then is there anything under either the council or meeting conduct policies that council would like to add as conduct provisions? That'll be my first question.

If we can just say meeting and outside of meeting.

So in that case, would you prefer to change policy 9601 to meeting and outside meeting conduct, or do you think it would be more beneficial to combine council conduct and meeting conduct into one policy? Because essentially, if you're doing outside conduct, you're talking about council conduct in general.

Yeah, you can combine these two together and include it. Council conduct and.

okay all in one and combined okay so we'll go ahead and combine that um and bring you um some suggestions again about how that will relate to the civility and de-escalation training materials if that's okay okay thank you and then let's see i think we have one more after oh okay so policy 9602 and i apologize in the um powerpoint um this policy is not On public input, I think that was just a copy paste error from when I was putting these slides together. Policy 9602 relates to appointment of officers. so because so all of the bullet points are correct it's just the title of the policy on the slide is incorrect so these two things are in the regarding in the event of a vacancy for the office of mayor the vice mayor serves as mayor for the remainder of the term and then the council must appoint a new vice mayor for the remainder of that term following a transition that is in the let me see that is in the those provisions are in the Charter under article 3 section 5 so is there let me see what the suggested so basically we just want you to see this policy and verify that it remains consistent with any charter revisions that may come up during the the charter hearing so for the charter review committee you guys want to leave this one as is yes recommend that they that they leave this one as is in that section of the charter okay perfect and now are we on the last one Yes. So removal of conduct sign. So they're, again, talking about that sign that used to be displayed at the front of council meetings. So there was... I guess a policy at one point in time. The physical sign was removed after newly elected members argued that it was offensive to citizens and implied a lack of trust. It was a one-time directive in this policy to remove the conduct sign. So essentially we just wanna know, do you all want that conduct sign displayed at meetings or not displayed at meetings? I don't care with displaying it yes okay so then essentially we would be abolishing this policy okay So that takes care of the policy review for this meeting. As I mentioned, our next set of policies will be related to boards and community engagement. As you're going through these, if you have any questions or suggested policy revisions, please feel free to send those over to city clerk staff and we can incorporate that before the next presentation. And I apologize, I know some of these policies seem a little bit Yes, that face. But, you know, they are policies. They do exist. And so we have to do something with them. So I appreciate your time and patience on that. Thank you.

Something I'd like to add, if you don't mind. Janine Polk, for the record. And I'm not sure if this would fit under boards and community engagement also, but government's conduct and leadership for sure. The city logo. I've noticed that in other cities that there has to be a consensus amongst the city council before that city logo is used. And I'm concerned that if we don't have that in place, which I don't believe we do, I think I asked about it, the city logo versus the emblem, will there be some confusion between messages coming out of the city and then messages coming out from just each council member?

There is policy regarding the seal. It has to be authorized by the city manager, I believe. There is not a formal policy surrounding the use of the logo and tagline, and we do not have that trademarked at this point, but Attorney Leskovich is going to look at working on that again for us. We had applied before for some reason with the font. It was not approved, but I have full confidence that Attorney Leskovich will be able to Yes, and we can work with the city manager's office on developing a draft policy to include when we do our annual review in November. Okay, thank you very much.

project updates.

We have the permanent software evaluation meeting to be held on the 9th of June. The procurement study is in the award process. I'm very excited about that. I can't wait to sign that award. The public safety needs assessment, the firms were ranked on 6-1 of 26. The Tiki Point was asked about the other day. That award agreement is being looked at by FDEP and the city, so we're reviewing that. So that's on to the next step. The FEMA grant manager, we had 10 responses to that. That's in process now. BOCA grant, we've got our consultant developing the updated probable cost, which is required for a grant agreement. The public safety fence is up to bid. The AMI, the bid draft is in review, and as Councilmember Julian spoke before, our million dollars is still in the state budget, and we are very hopeful that the governor goes ahead and signs that. We've got City Hall Chambers, they're coming along really nice. The paint is in, they're working on the flooring. All the final finishes are being, we still had a couple changes to make on some of the colors and things and got those done in the last week. Ord Alice in my office and Danielle over in Urban Design have been so helpful with us. Tommy Macy is managing that project, doing a fantastic job along with Carl from Urban Design. I cannot wait to open up in that space and welcome the public and welcome our city council in there. It's coming along nicely. The pedestrian crosswalk study proposal is under review. The public works fencing has been purchased. The veterans gazebo we should be able to do on our small construction, minor construction contract. The only piece that's missing on that is that contractor is looking for somebody to, that has the ability to straighten the columns. and that requires a specialized engineer, we need to see how much that subcontractor is going to come in at. If it comes in under 50, the total project under $50,000, can get started on it within the next month or really quickly actually weeks so we're getting close on that one just wanted to let everybody know that june 9th to the 12th the lashley boat ramp will be closed along with that parking lot for repaving and then we are reopening a number of slips at the marina starting this friday the sign up starts at seven o'clock in the morning first come first serve that's all i have for project

And just a note here, I know there were some people that were concerned about our peers, and if you look on the projects here, the peers are moving along. Obviously not as quick as everybody would like, but I'm looking through here, and I'm looking at lots of progress on our peers.

Right. They're moving through the process, and people have to understand that we had to deal with all the life safety and infrastructure pieces first, and then we get to the nice-to-have quality-of-place items.

Thank you for that. I think that's, you know, a good point that's brought up is, you know, people keep on thinking that we can make things move faster and they're going to come in here and they're going to make things move faster. And you know, we, with the like procurement and doing the AI and things like that, I think that from where we started, even since hurricane Colleen and Milton, we've come a long way and we have to thank staff and all the hard work that everybody's been doing to try to get us moving a lot faster than a lot of places have been. Okay, what's next? Sorry. We have boards and committees, the announcements and one nomination.

for the boards and there we go for the boards and committees we have one consumer advocate and one alternate vacancy on the building board a alternate seat open on the burnt store aisles canal advisory committee one regular and two alternate seats open on the code enforcement board and then we have one regular seat that we're going to do a nomination item for on the burnt store aisles canal advisory committee Before we proceed to that I do just want to put on the record and confirm with Council that at a previous Council meeting we have agreed to hold any building board nominations or appointments until we get some revised bylaw language that has been that was discussed at the previous Council meeting so I just wanted to put that on the record. So regarding the nomination item we have application from Brian Burke he is interested in serving and eligible to do so on the Burnt Star Isles Canal Advisory Committee this is a vacancy that's been announced for a while because the previous committee member has opted not to seek reappointment so at this point City Council can choose to nominate nominate and appoint or continue to announce the vacancy for this

Have we met him? Has he come in and introduced himself?

I can't recall off the top of my head. I don't recall hearing him come and make an introduction, but I'm not sure.

I'll nominate and appoint.

Second.

Okay, we have a nominate and appoint. Brian Burke, all in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? I just would like to meet him. That's the only reason, otherwise I say aye. I just think it would have been nice to have a nomination have meet him and then appoint him okay that's my only otherwise I'd say I I just wanted to meet and have them come up here okay and I can change it to an eye too it's just I would have preferred to meet him that's fine and then in terms of is it okay if I proceed to the announcements okay

I just wanted to remind everybody that the qualifying period for the 2027 election is 12 PM on June 8th through 12 PM on June 12th. If you have any questions about the petition packets or getting other people to help you with your petitions, please contact the city clerk's office before the qualifying period so that we can provide you that information. They do need to be submitted in person. They require a notarized signature. wanted to make everyone aware of that requirement we do have most of the city clerk staff are public notaries so you can bring them to the clerk's office to have that signature notarized but if you're not going to do that just make sure that you have the notary done properly before you turn in your petitions and that's all i have thank you so much thank you dr missy okay

We reached out to Tripp Barlow with Sevier, Barlow, Watson, Hawley. This is in regards to the reverter clause you'll remember at the last city council meeting. you authorized us to look into how expensive it would be or what the value could be in having an additional attorney look at the reverter clause and help represent the city in that. We were quoted 570 an hour with others in his firm being 250 to 575. He's offered us the 10% discount being a government. Attorney Leskovich is estimating that we would need him for about 20 to 25 hours. So I'm looking for a discussion and possible consensus on moving forward.

I'm still just not sure why we're having outside counsel. I just, I'm not, I'm just not sure. I think Mr. Lester, which could handle this, but he doesn't feel like he can and that's fine, but I just, I'm not sure why we're spending that money.

Um, Janine pulled for the record. So we had the property valued. You all know that right at $3.6 million and that's what's at stake here. And I felt like, personally, I feel like we need someone who has had experience in commercial litigation. So that's kind of why we're spending that money. I think it's a piece of property that's very valuable to the citizens, and I don't want to miss any opportunities. If it means taking it back, fine. If it means selling it, fine. All we're doing is making sure that if there is a new purchaser, that we're prepared for not getting, you know, not giving back the property by accident.

Yeah, I think that in the eyes and crossing the T's is very important, especially for something that we will have revenue on, especially as significant as that. I think it's important to spend a little to save a lot.

I just feel like that's why we have an attorney. And again, correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Leskowitz, do you feel like you couldn't handle this?

It's not that I don't think that I can, nor is it not that I think that the city is equipped to handle it moving forward. To me, it's more of a second opinion that can help you guys moving forward. It's not retaining them to go full-blown litigation mode it's more of is there something we're missing behind it they've they've been provided uh some documents already uh for their initial review i don't think i mean 25 hours may be on a high end with it you know and we'll try to use their associates as much as possible but it's a matter of are we missing something i don't think we are based on our conversations with the buyers the receivers the trustees but it's to help facilitate language that has been presented to the city that someone may try to mitigate something against us and i think it's just as we have all the other attorneys not that you couldn't do some of the other jobs of other people it's just that's their expertise um and so i think again you know making sure that you know we're just checking and balancing

that's a lot of money it is a lot of money i mean if i'm doing my math right roughly 12 500. i'm thinking for that we'd lose if there was something that we just by chance missed we'd it'd be a lot of money we'd lose three million dollars exactly yeah yeah i think we'd be we'd be best to be safe doing that okay so is there a consensus to move forward with this yes not with me but you have consensus Yes, thank you. Okay, thank you.

Let's see, we had the HALO representative here earlier, and she requests an additional letter to be sent. Is that okay? Do I have council consensus to weigh in again? Okay, I will do that. We had had a couple of concerns raised about speeding in the canals, and I looked back at my email, and it must be the time of the year, because every year at this time, we hear about speeding in the canals. And I just wanted to remind everyone and remind council that we have our marine officer that's on the water, usually five days a week, sometimes six. We have volunteers in the canals all the time, just about every single day. And there was actually a social media post that showed a boat that was on plane. Turns out that there was a storm that day. And when there's a storm, you are allowed to have wake coming into the canals per Florida statutes. So that's what happened that day. Our Marine officer happened to be caught in that storm as well and had to come in quickly. Just remind everybody that most of our canals are this slow speed minimum wake and that a couple of the inlets are where there actually is that no wake zone. So it gets confusing for people and it rears its head every June it seems. So that's all I have for today. Thank you.

I got a couple of things, a few things. In case none of you have had the luxury of getting your speed zone ticket in the mail, I have my version of it for you guys to look at so you can see what they look like when you get your school zone speeding ticket. I wasn't driving. It is my wife's vehicle, but it happens to be in my bag. So I did pay the ticket, but it clearly spells out what the procedures are. It's very detailed. And they do send the photo here. And I can give you copies of it so you can see what they look like. But it's very detailed with what can be expected if you're not the driver on how you can file an affidavit and all that stuff. So they do work. My wife was adamant she was not speeding, and I just had to smile and giggle and be done with it.

And throw her under the bus.

But I don't, I mean, I think they're going to be coming on here pretty quickly, Chief, on when our Okay, secondly, I did not say earlier when we were talking about the market, but the biggest reason why it is important to have a contract with a market is every other vendor in the city has a contract with the city. I'm sorry, every other vendor has a contract with the city. And the market or a market should be no exception. June 17th, I will not be here, but I'm not seeing any major agenda items at this time, but I'll have somebody here. I'll be at the pre-agenda meeting just to make sure everything's okay. RJ Gorman, we are still finalizing the non-binding arbitration for that. As I mentioned on Monday, we're still looking. as well and then following last night's or yesterday's my last thing following actually no two more things code compliance we're getting to a point now when seeing you know these speed zone tickets come through we had presented to you guys earlier about the possibility of a special magistrate code board does have a code board attorney outside of what i do And I think their fees, I see them on these agenda items, range between like 400 to 750 a month, roughly somewhere in there. We're at that point where you guys are going to have to, you know, figure out who's going to be hearing these speeding tickets or other types of tickets that may be coming through, whether it's going to be code compliance or whether it's going to be a special magistrate.

It was a magistrate that they could have the person who violated have to pay? Correct. That's what I was thinking. That would be one thing.

When we did the presentation, I believe that the chief spoke as well, that you can have, you know, whether it's $10, $25, $50, they pay for the magistrate. And all the code boards are code board hearings that I go to, except for this past one because it have been about an hour to two hours long i'd say more on the hour side i think if a special magistrate was involved with the speed tickets i mean i got this and i laughed and giggled i knew it was my wife and but i paid it anyways i don't think many people are going to be challenging that but you'll get your handful and it's a due process protection is what it is magistrate handling these due process issues, do you keep the code board altogether or just have a magistrate who handles all the code compliance matters? So that'll be for a different discussion coming down the road. Because if there's no code compliance board, there's no code compliance board attorney, so that money could really be shifted towards the magistrate. It's not something I can do because I prosecute the code violations. It would have to be someone else who does them. And lastly, following yesterday's legislative vote on the property tax reforms, is Kristen still here? Yep. They did get rid of the trust fund. So there is no fund that will be available for the cities or counties to apply to. So they did get rid of that. I decided not to qualify for candidacy for attorney general. So I have made the decision with my wife last night that I have more work to do here, especially when I saw that come through yesterday, aggravated me.

being as a result of any election.

And then lastly, keep up the great work. She's still here. Oh, she's back. She does a lot of the filtering for me. And that's all I have for you guys.

Are you going to put on the agenda the golf cart stuff that we had the consensus with? Will that just get put on the agenda?

It could, yeah. Or do you need to? Yeah, because we had discussed it last week. It's still by resolution. You could use the golf cart between that small area from West Reda to Fishville, which if it's not being utilized, there's really no need for it to still be there.

Exactly. So that'll come up. Yeah. Okay. Melissa? No, nothing today. Great.

Yes. When I was absent from the last council meeting, I was invited to Washington by the American Flood Coalition for a local elected leader summit, and I found it very, very beneficial. They're a nonpartisan, member-driven coalition committed to driving transformational adaptation that protects communities. They work with local, state, and federal levels of government to scale solutions and tackle the country's toughest flood challenges. One of the first things that they told us about was this funding finder. They've identified 900 sources of funding for flooding resilience and recovery across 26 agencies. It's very complex. system to navigate through and they created this free tool that we already have access to and I shared it with Dr. Reichert to share with the staff that you put in here the specifics that you're trying to fix and then it will identify the most relevant funding sources and eliminate a lot of that difficult navigation. So I'm very excited about that. They also were very strong participants in the commission that was set up to review FEMA. and streamline it. Their key recommendations were adopted by the Commission, and the first is to deliver faster recoveries and more protective resilience by overhauling the FEMA public assistance program to provide communities with upfront funding for long-term recovery projects and imposing a 120-day shot clock on FEMA to review and release program dollars for short-term emergency work. Secondly, to reduce complexity and cut red tape by creating a universal application process to replace the current maze of different federal agencies and programs that disaster survivors must navigate. And thirdly, to unlock innovation by expanding FEMA's use of innovative technologies such as drones to expedite damage assessments. I'm gonna provide these to Missy to make copies for the rest of you to read. And the third thing was, on Wednesday, they had set up legislative visits for us on the hill to meet our local representatives. Now, none of the representatives were actually there. We met with their staffers, and I met with Representative Stubbe's legislative assistant, who happens to be his hurricane expert. And I talked to him about all the public assistance projects that we still have unresolved with FEMA from Ian to present. He said, send me your list. I will get with the FEMA liaison and we'll try to expedite these things. And I know Kristen's working on that in her spare time. And I'm looking forward to getting some assistance from him. That's all I have.

Janine. So I have just a couple of things. I want to remind people that we're still in the water restrictions. Even though it's raining, it seems like things are starting to green up. We are still in a phase three water restriction, so make sure you're not watering out of turn. I won't be here at the next meeting, June 15th. You got a ticket, I got a summons to... to be at, you know, at court. And I'm juror number 63, so I'm thinking I might not be here, I don't know. So a few comments from District 1. Basically, the Gilchrist Park Fishing Pier, they're just a little concerned that that hasn't been completed yet. And they're wondering how long. They're very concerned about, again, the parking lot at, right there when you turn on Reddit Esplanade. It's the old hotel is what I like to call it. Very concerned that a lot of people are still parking there and there's not much lighting. They're there late at night. There are also some buildings in District 1 that have tarps on them. I can direct you to where they are exactly. And they're just concerned that, you know, code violations they feel are found on smaller things. and we have right there on at a red esplanade a very large home that's been sitting for years i know that that it's complicated i understand that i try to explain that but at the same time people live right next door to it and we're talking about a swimming pool that's been there for years it's a swamp basically and so everyone's concerned about here it comes storm season and that house is still very much i don't know not doable for our neighborhood The other thing, it was a construction site, and I can tell you exactly where it is too, that things have been left like big blocks. And again, storm season's coming up and that is not, it's a site that's not getting cleaned up, doesn't seem to be moving. And neighbors are very concerned that if there is a storm, you know, how's that going to be handled? Let's see, what else did I have? Thank you today, everyone, for that whole thing. I'm glad we finally got to the bottom of everything that has been going on and being talked about. It's very tempting to write things or talk about things that we're not supposed to be talking about until we can all sit here and talk together, because the truth comes out when we're here together. The truth does not ever come out, just forewarning, on the internet. It doesn't. And so I think if there are any examples, it was what happened with the farmer's market of what the internet can do. And I'm also concerned that when we have discussion with our constituents that we need to be careful about what we're talking about and what we're putting on as items to discuss because I don't know what any of you are thinking. And some people were planted, that seed was planted. Well, other city council members, well, that's not true either. So I just want to put that out there. Thank you.

I have a, I know one time I asked a long time ago about vinyl seawalls and I know it was someplace but I don't think I've ever heard anything. I know going to Sarasota they were saying how great they were to use, they're more lightweight, they might be more cost effective and I don't know what's happened with that. I apologize.

So what'll have to happen to move forward with that would be that the BSI committee and PGI committees would have to decide that they want to do a seawall method study. So we've asked them, I believe it was about a year ago that that question was put to them. We certainly could add that to an agenda and see if they're interested in that because ultimately those districts are what would pay for that feasibility study.

You know, the toughest thing about it is that it would be nice for, like, Public Works, who I spoke with about the vinyl seawalls, was like, yes, they're wonderful, and I think that we need people to hear that. I'll say here is studying and spending more money on a study, and I think that they really need to hear some of the benefits that might occur from it.

It's really hard to do the number of seawalls that we do and the processes that we have in place without having an engineering study done. We can't just change materials because something sounds good, but we do need to be looking at what

other cities municipalities are doing yeah absolutely exactly I mean sometimes we're just saying no but I think sometimes we have to be more open-minded I know I spoke to you we have a lot of our our veterans and and groups that are willing to volunteer to help with fishing piers and gazebos and things like that and I don't know if it's feasible or not but you know you've got a lot of wonderful people out here who are still, you know, our team Punta Gorda, who want to step up to the plate. I don't know if it's feasible to do, but I know

I appreciate that comment and I heard you when you made it to me and I had some preliminary discussions with Ron Everts. Some of those things require specialized engineers. They require the fishing piers permitting is the first step. So that's where a lot of these fishing piers are at. They're in the permitting process. So it's going to be a long time before construction actually begins. He is now being very cognizant as well as are there actual things within the city that volunteers can do? And we do work a lot through Team Punta Gorda and they do a lot of great work for the city and Betsy's got more ideas and now Michael's gonna be working closely with Betsy to help move some of her ideas forward and use the volunteer power that team and other organizations have.

I'd still like him to paint the inside of the elevator and the stairwell. I think that would be awesome. My last.

The elevator car actually will be renovated. I believe next week we'll be putting on a press release that the elevator is going to be shut down for a couple of days. New flooring, new lighting. We'll see if we have to do what we can do with the walls, but that's in process too.

awesome thank you and my last thing is i know um with the proclamation this morning there is going to be a drone show on june 14th sunday 3 to 10 p.m 9 p.m there's going to be 150 drones it's really going to be remarkable it's bringing something to do for our residents it's helping small businesses it's bringing tourism in here so hopefully it's going to help flourish our city and and thank you mr leskovich for helping us out and and the city again for all the things that you're doing i mean i really think this community really wants to help each other out and i think that's the point i'm trying to make is everybody is but tickets are only ten dollars a piece and the tickets don't go for salaries it actually goes back into doing another drone show in the future because we want to make this annual so that it helps everyone family friendly working on doing something during slow season and helping our small businesses so with that we will um have public input please state your name first good afternoon

Thank you. My name is Samuel Turpany, and we've heard a lot of things today. And I'm going to let you know that David Hudson is a world-renowned constitutional scholar. I've emailed you guys to say please read the book and read the first two chapters. To hear today that I use AI, after you guys were in a pre-meeting just a couple weeks ago discussing utilizing AI, And then to bring it up today and accuse someone, which would be me, of using AI, I'm going to let you know that I've read 30 books so far this year. I normally read 200 books a year, so I'm very knowledgeable. I don't need AI in order to be able to speak here today. First of all, so let's be clear. Second of all, if you read the book and you read the first two chapters, you'll find out that in constitutional law, what's been supplied to you today is that my constitutional rights were violated on that property. It is there. It is omitted through your police department by Jerry Pressler that indeed he says that I want to get rid of you and to get off my property. He admitted it to the police officer. It is on the report on your desk. Andrew Sheets, in your federal lawsuit, it's because of the same issue and the same players. The same reason that Andrew Sheets has his lawsuit wasn't because I wanted to be an Andrew Sheets. I wanted to save the farmers market for all of our constituents. I was always honest from the very beginning saying what my intention was. There's information in there where Jerry Pressler has been reached out to by me saying, here are the petitions, this is what I'm going to be doing, I will be on the public property on this day, so there's no excuse for him to say that I wasn't there. Today, because this has moved forward, when your own permit, the hypocrisy to say that your permit says that it's a final permit and that no other further extensions can happen, and then today say that it can be, is where that misinformation that you guys say comes from. It's not from online. It is from your own permits to say this is a final extension and no more permits will be issued. Furthermore, to say that other illegalities within the city of Florida, there's no invoices, there are no receipts to the vendors. So for anyone to say that the market makes this amount of money, no one knows because there's no documentation. This is public property. This is all in the information. This property belongs to each and every one of you. I do apologize, and I'm not able to speak in terms that other folks that were here today that may be of lower IQ couldn't understand what my purpose was, but this is constitutional law, and please read what I've supplied to you. Thank you.

Well, good afternoon, everybody. What a day. One, who is the city's lobbyist? What is their first and last name? What is their company name? And how long have they been the city lobbyist? I want to talk about the five minutes I requested for public comment. So we can either do it at the beginning or we can do it in the end. Or we could split it up four minutes and four minutes. I really would like, I think that would be fair to the residents. I've identified a few more potential detention ponds for my plan, my idea for, to help mitigate the downtown flooding. We have a bunch of lots across the street from the 20th Circuit Court on US, right there off of Marion. We also have another big lot right there, right where my restaurant used to be, Loopy's Tacos, right there across from the Old Bank of America. These are real, this is a real solution. And I want you to know that I have been told that we can dig four to five feet deep. So the 12 inches to 18 inches depth is not correct. Another thing I want to address is the Policen's Benevolent Association. I was so disgusted when I saw that, and I see Tampa Bay Billboard Company. I mean, Chief, that does not instill any one of us to want to give a raise to anybody in the police department. And that's a shame. because I support the police department and the fire department, but I will not have the city bankrupt using emergency funds for anything other than that. Now, I have to share this with all of you right now. Yeah, we're in a serious drought. For years, I've been talking to the commissioners, our previous city council, death ears. When I was at an agricultural environmental committee meeting two weeks ago, chaired by Lindsey Harrington, and I'm hearing that our farmers are now having to dig detention ponds so they can collect the rainwater to feed the crops. And the reason why? They said the salinity off of Shell Creek is so bad. I said, well, what about all the heavy metals? They said, those are bad too. I have to tell you, our number one asset is the two rivers in our harbor. Thank you, everybody.

Thank you.

Anybody else wishing to say anything? If not, meeting's adjourned. Thank you.

Thank you.