City Council - Special Meeting

We stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right, will the clerk please call the roll?

Mayor Robertson?

Here.

Deputy Mayor Gilbert? Here. Council Member Paul? Here. Council Member Urban? Here. Council Member Fletcher?

Here. Okay. And first up, we have a presentation by the St. Cloud Chamber of Commerce.

Oh, we got it.

I think we were doing the invocation by Mr. Webb first and that's why it's facing that way. It's not written on the agenda, I'm so sorry.

But that is why it's facing forward. It took me a second to... I see.

And so we have the invocation by Mr. Dirk Webb, President of St. Cloud Chamber of Commerce.

Thank you.

Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we come before you this day. And what a day it is. Any day that you've made is great. And so tonight, as we gather as a community, we ask your blessings upon this meeting and going forward upon this council and upon this city. May it be blessed with resources. May it be blessed with protection. And may it be blessed with a spirit of joy throughout the community. We give you thanks for all those who contribute so much to the welfare of St. Cloud. And it's in your name we pray.

Amen.

And now we need to turn them up.

Dirk, I was hoping he wouldn't go too far. Can you come on up here for a second? I've got something I'd like to read off for everybody here. So we have a proclamation here for Mr. Dirk Webb, whereas the city of St. Cloud recognizes that the strength and prosperity of our community is built through the collective efforts of dedicated leaders, local businesses, civic organizations, and individuals who invest their time, talents, and resources in the betterment of our city. Whereas under the leadership of President Dirk Webb, the St. Cloud Greater Osceola Chamber of Commerce served as a valued business partner to the city of St. Cloud, helping to foster collaboration, communication, and meaningful relationships among the city's leadership, business community, civic organizations, and residents. And whereas President Webb... recognized that a community success is strengthened when government and the private sector work together with a shared commitment to economic development, opportunity, and quality of life. And whereas through his leadership, professionalism, and dedication, President Webb contributed to strengthening the relationship between the business community and the city of St. Cloud, while supporting an environment where local businesses can connect, collaborate, and prosper. And now, therefore, I, It says Council Member Paul. She asked me to read this today. Mayor Christian B. Robertson and the City of St. Cloud City Council hereby, of the City of St. Cloud, Florida, on September 17, 2026, do hereby proclaim and recognize and honor President Dirk Webb for outstanding leadership, service, and partnership, in grateful appreciation for his service as President of the St. Cloud Greater Osceola Chamber of Commerce. And now, anybody from the chamber would like to come up here and join us as well for the second picture.

It's great working with you. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Everybody move around here. You guys, let me get this person right now. Yeah, we'll do the council first, and then we'll get everybody. Council first, and then we will... Council first. Council first. Thank you. Yeah, now she'll be going. I was going to say, me staying next to you without her. Exactly. You stand up here.

You're in the board chair, right? Come on in.

We've got light, girls. Yes, I do.

Can I move these, gentlemen? It's connected underneath. It's going to be a problem.

Make it work. Stand on the chair.

Look down. One, two, and three. Hey, can we get one bonus round?

I got to do it.

And now Dirk's got to get back to work and give us the 2026 annual report from the St. Cloud Chamber of Commerce.

Well, first of all, I want to say thank you to my board of directors for coming out tonight and my staff as well. And very humbling surprise. I could read to you all sorts of things, but you already have those. I'd like to just talk to you, if I may. First, I want to let you know how grateful I am to have served this business community of St. Cloud. I also want to thank the City of St. Cloud for support, partnership, and investment in the Chamber over these past few years. First, we specialize in bringing the community together. We are a 501 association representing and supporting business, but we have the privilege of hosting some pretty spectacular events. Think about the scavenger hunt and the golf tournament. Our scavenger hunt and sold-out golf tournament continue to bring people together from both inside and outside St. Cloud. These events give people another opportunity to experience our community and to see why St. Cloud is such a great place to live, work, and play. We have our annual awards banquet that celebrates the very best of St. Cloud. It also provides community continuity, I beg your pardon, in chamber leadership while recognizing the businesses and individuals who contribute so much to our community. And if you didn't know, we had politics in the barn July 15th. That was a freewheeling, fun-filled evening that gave residents the opportunity to meet their candidates, to ask questions, and become more engaged in the community. And of course, couldn't speak to you without talking about the St. Cloud Parade. Our parade, 63 years old now, continues to be one of St. Cloud's signature traditions. In the room tonight, of course, Robert Bass, Betty Damke, and then Frannie McNutt handles the volunteers. and they do such a phenomenal job, and this year's theme is Peace on Earth, something that we can all wish for. Each year, it brings well over 10,000 people into our community to celebrate the season together. Don't forget, we also serve as the St. Cloud Visitor Center, One of the aspects of my job that I truly love has been welcoming visitors and guiding them through our downtown. My staff has always known that if somebody's in the building, especially a visitor, I'm to know about it. And if my schedule would allow, I lead a walking tour. Just recently, I led one and didn't realize the gentleman was a writer, and so I'm glad I behaved myself. We took them around, and next thing I knew, there was an article written about St. Cloud, and the article said we were on our way to Kissimmee, but we stopped here. And that's a pretty huge compliment, I think, to our community. It isn't simply about showing them the sites, though. It's about introducing them to our business owners and encouraging them to shop and dine locally, yes, but helping them to experience the true spirit of St. Cloud. Last year we conducted somewhere, and I'm forgetting to advance this, so there you go. We did about 26 ribbon cuttings. Now to me, ribbon cuttings represent something much larger than a ceremony. The deputy mayor was at just our last one. It is a visible sign that the entrepreneurial spirit in St. Cloud is vibrant and is thriving. We take particular pride in our ribbon cuttings because we try to do more than just cut a ribbon. We help our businesses tell their stories and introduce themselves to the community. And more often than not, we get the comment that we have over-delivered on what was expected. Finally, what I want to talk to you about now, I've forgotten to advance these and I apologize, is CoLab at the Chamber. In 2024, we introduced CoLab at the Chamber, creating a new way for the Chamber to support entrepreneurs, small businesses, and professionals. Positively, Osceola became our first coworking client, successfully moving its base of operations from Kissimmee to the St. Cloud Chamber. In this past year, we added four more clients, and I think a couple of them are in the room. So today, if you walk into the chamber on any given day, you're likely to see a lively mix of young and experienced professionals, new entrepreneurs, and established business people, and people just plain meeting, working, collaborating, and conducting business right at 1200 New York Avenue. And that's exactly what we hoped CoLab would become, a place where business and community come together. So, as I conclude my time with the chamber, I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity I've had to serve this community. I'm proud of what we've accomplished, but even more encouraged by the opportunities that lie ahead for the chamber, the city, and the St. Cloud business community. Thank you again for your partnership, your support, and your investment in the chamber over these past few years. I wish the city of St. Cloud and this entire community the greatest success in the years to come. Thank you.

Yes, sir. Thank you, Dirk. Let's go on down the row here. Jen, would you like to say goodbye to Dirk here?

Yes. Congratulations, Dirk, on your retirement. And it's been a pleasure sitting on the board with you. And moving forward, I hope to have that same working relationship with the next person. So thank you.

Yes, thank you so much, Mr. Webb. You're one of the first people that I spoke with and met with when I was just getting into this political job here. And it was amazing getting to know everything that you do for the chamber and for our city. I remember helping plan the first scavenger hunt that the chamber did with you, and it was a great opportunity to get to know you better. what you've done for this city is incredible, and I'm going to miss seeing you around on your walks with people who just stopped by our city. So I wish you the best in your future endeavors. Thank you. That's right.

John? You know, thank you so much for all the hard work that you have done put into our community. I think the work that you've put into our community will last for a generation. You really have put the chamber on the map and set the chamber up for success for the future. So thank you, sir.

Thank you for allowing me to serve you on your board, and your professionalism is awesome, and your friendship's even better. Congratulations, and God bless you, my brother. Thank you.

Dirk, amazing time here at the city. You served the city well with the St. Cloud Chamber of Commerce, really gave it a good, clear direction. I've gotten to know you quite well the past two years. You've always surrounded yourself and attracted some amazing talent on your board. Look at the room over here, aside from Brian's. But the rest of them are amazing. No, but seriously, you have done a top-notch job, and you've always represented our city well. You and I have met on a number of occasions, and your top focus is economic development, and we're going to make that, it's going to maintain a top priority here in our city. So thank you for everything you've done. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council. Thank you, City Manager. Yes, sir. And as Dirk said, Betty Demke, Robert Bass, that Christmas parade, how many years, 25 years y'all been doing that together? All right, here's to another 25. Now, thank you, Dirk, and the entire board. Y'all are all amazing over there. And Heather, of course, and the support staff. All right. Next up, we have a few items here. I've got a couple other folks I want to call up to the podium here. If I can get Aubrey Prescott Hazel Luter. Did I pronounce that right? What's that? Hayes. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, it's all one punch together. So sorry about that, Hayes. All right. Y'all have the microphone.

My name is Aubrey Prescott and this will be my fourth year in Osceola Anglers and I am now the newly elected president and last year I was the secretary. A little bit about Osceola Anglers is that we are a 14 year non-profit organization that gives any high school student in Osceola County the opportunity to compete in bass fishing tournaments. A little bit about Osceola Anglers is that we have a student-ran angler board. We have monthly meetings, tournaments, and events. A little bit about the board is that at the beginning of each season, the students elect who they think would be the best candidate for the position. We go up there and give speeches, and then they vote. Then the board comes together. We have our individual departments, but ultimately we come together and show leadership, drive the club in the correct direction, and give the anglers someone they can trust. Our events is where it really matters because we try to give back to the community that helps us and supports us in any way possible. One of the events that we do is we hang the banners for KVLS because they let us use their location for our meetings. So during fair time, we hang the banners for the Silver Spurs. We scan the tickets. We do trash pickup, parking. And one event that really resonates with me is that we help the younger generation and mentor them and take them on our boats and have a real tournament and let them see how it is. That matters to me because when I was in eighth grade, I did that. In the following year, I joined Osceola Anglers, and now I'm the one helping the younger generation. And that really means a lot to me. Osceola Anglers has helped me a lot. I've grown a lot of confidence. If I told myself freshman year, I would be on the board or even right here right now. And, President, I would have thought you were crazy, but now I'm very happy where I am and how much Osceola English has taught me. I'm very thankful for them, and on behalf of Osceola English, we're really thankful for everybody that supports us.

Amazing. Do you have a teleprompter down there? Amazing job speaking.

Now you know why she's president. I know. Wow.

My name is Hayes Luder. This is my third year in the club and my second year on the board. This year, I was elected our Rules and Regulations Student Angler Advisor. Our reason for being here today is we would like to fish out of 1402 East Lake Boulevard, or Lakeshore Boulevard, which is the main marina located at St. Cloud Lakefront. Right now, for our East Lake Tournament, we are utilizing the East Lake Toho Boggy Creek boat ramp, which currently costs each team $7 per boat to launch and the parents have to pay an additional $5 a car. My dad works, my mom's a stay-at-home mom. My mom drives her car and then my dad. That's $10 on top of the extra seven for me and my partner to go fish. We are proposing to the city council no fees for anglers to launch their boats or the fees for parents to park. Once our board We have to select all of our lakes for the year. But East Lake, for I don't know how many years, I can't tell you because I've only been in the club for three. But for the last three, it has been our first lake. I do have the date right now. I also have a picture of, can I show you guys? Absolutely. Yeah, you can put it up on the screen.

Yeah, go ahead and give it to the clerk over here. So you can put it up on the big screen so we can all see it.

I know it's really, really small, but the... We can zoom into it here. Just give her one second.

How many years y'all been in the club?

This is my third year and her fourth year.

Very cool. Catching a lot of fish?

Yes. So the two main, the middle spots in the... I have all the spots marked. So all the parking spots is what we like. It's 30 spots. We have 25 confirmed... boats in our club right now. We also like that right slot, and then the little spot you see in the grass, that's where we like to park our trailer. We have our trailer for every single one of our tournaments. What we do is we go up on stage with our fish, we talk about our day, and then we say thank you to all of our sponsors, and then we make sure our area is cleaned up, and then we leave.

Okay. So the boat ramp will still be available for all other fishing? Yes.

I believe I counted about 10 other spots.

Okay. And the ramp will still be clear? Yes, 100%. Okay. All right. And what is the date on that again?

October 18th. We launch at safe flight, which is usually anywhere from 630 to 645, and we will be out of there by no later than 4 p.m.

Okay. One question, city manager, we're going to have to check with Parks and Rec to see if that's...

Right. I'm not sure if there's any special events that are reserving the stage area or for the park.

So I think they're just using those parking spots. So you're going to set up your stage in the parking. I've seen that.

So right there in that grass, apparently this is our owner of the club. He said that we have parked our trailer over there before. Okay.

Mr. Hang on, sir. Mr. Yeah, Marzi, you want to come up here?

This is Marzi Chisholm, the owner of All Steel Anglers.

Thank you all for listening to these anglers. Yes, sir. Can I get your name for the record for everybody? Yeah, Lamar Chisholm. Yes, sir. In previous years, we used the grass area for the stage up our weigh-in station to keep the anglers coming from the water in that little horseshoe where the rocks is and keep them from coming across the parking lot with people driving through. If we set up in the parking lot, they're crossing with bags and traffic, people trying to load boats. It became a dangerous situation. So we ended up moving over to that grass area in previous years so we could keep the anglers, the students, out of the roadway.

Can you maybe show, put your finger on the map where, just so staff can have a better idea of what we're... No, we're fine.

I can see it. This area right here. Okay.

Okay.

And this is the rock area, and I'm usually pretty loud. And that's pretty much the end of the ferry to the ramp parking where the paddle boat is now? Where the paddle boat is docked at. And I've talked to her as well, and we're probably going to, if this goes through, we're going to work something out with them as well to give it a little more parking area for us. We may have her take the anglers around and the parents around where the anglers are fishing or something, but anyhow. But like I said, this area, the anglers would move from here to here with their fish back and forth, and that's where they would go to return the fish back to the lake. If we set up here, they're coming across the parking lot, and people are trying to load boats, unload boats. And same thing, we were here one year, and it's the same thing. They started bringing it through that area. So just for safety reasons, we moved to the grass area, and we're dealing with water with the pump-out tank. We put water on the grass, which it's probably pretty wet right now in here. Yes, sir. Okay.

How many years have you been working with this program?

We started it 13 years ago this year. Lucky 13, hopefully. All right. We started with 16 anglers. We've had as many as 74, and we average between 50 and 60 every year. And they've got to be in the county to be part of the club.

Yeah, and I know there are many partners in the community. What do I see on there?

Mr. Mike Owens, St. Cloud Bail Bonds, Osceola County Sheriff's Department. We have Wolf's Irrigation Longstreet. That was one of my first bosses, Kevin. People were right here on the state streets, culprit. I don't know if any of you guys fish. I'm pretty sure Sailor Urban you're related to and Sean Brabant's mom. They both fished in the club.

I see Shamrock on there. Or is that Shamrock right there? Yeah, JHE. JHE.

IPC Plumbing. Okay.

Well, and that's it. You have the support, Kisselback Ford. You've got the businesses in our community that are supporting you, and I, for one, support you guys. And everything you've done, your family, obviously, you all have dedicated a lot of time. And the captains, right? Tell me about the captains. So they volunteer their time and their boats to haul them out into the lakes, right? Yeah.

Um, so my person, his name is, he actually lives on, um, California and second, um, he, uh, so to do it, you have to have a boat. Obviously it has to be, I don't know the exact specifications, but insured obviously. But, um, they basically, they give their time to the club. Basically, um, they do have to pay to get into the club. Um, but they're giving most of their time to the kids.

What about fuel? Who covers the cost of fuel?

The captains.

The captains. You've seen the price of fuel these days? Yes.

My captain, he uses ethanol-free, and I don't know if any of you guys have been to Wal-Mart and see ethanol-free.

It's even more expensive. We all did a great job explaining this to us, and I appreciate that. Council, I for one support this. This is very similar to what we did with Spring Fling this past year.

We also run the Spring Fling. I'm sorry.

That's right. You did that tournament that day. Yep. Where they parked at Chisholm Park this past year. And so I for one support this request. Obviously, they're going to have to work with Parks and Rec and figure out all the logistics on that.

We need to confirm that there's not already a special event. But if there's no conflicts, we can work with them with council direction.

Council Member Fletcher. I would absolutely support y'all's request. I believe we've, through some of the businesses that I have, have supported or sponsored teams in the past. One of my fondest memories at the lakefront is fishing with my mother down there when I was growing up. So I heavily support what you guys do, and your presentation was awesome. So you guys did a great job. Deputy Mayor Gilbert.

This is what St. Cloud's about. Thank you. Thank you all. Great job. Man, at your age, you're superstars. Congratulations to both.

What high schools do you all go to?

We both have Harmony High School.

Oh, yeah. One of his people. All right, city manager.

Thank you. I just want to confirm for the record so that we receive direction to work with them if there's not another event, also to waive the special event fee that would be required.

Yes.

And the parking fees. Thank you for the record. I got consensus. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. Well, we're going to do what we can. Obviously, if there's no scheduling conflicts, then you're good to go. Thank you. Appreciate you all coming up here. You did a great job. Thank you. All right. One last person I'd like to ask to come up here. We have Andres Rosario in the back here. Andres, you want to come on up here? He's from Blue Four. It's a veterans organization. Andres reached out to me probably about a month ago, and he gave a presentation to the Veterans Council, as you all know. We had the first meeting of the newly set board, and it was amazing. I think we have a very energetic bunch there. Andres, I'm going to go ahead and let you kick it off. Thanks.

I'm not as prepared as those young guys. I don't have slides or any of that stuff. But the Mayor can testify that I'm good at push-ups. I'll leave it at that. We've all seen the video. What's that?

We've all seen the video.

Oh, yeah. I guess it's public record. My shoulder's still hurting. So for those that don't know me, I'm Andres. I've been here in St. Cloud since 2004. Retired from the Army after almost 30 years. Found myself in a little deep, a little dark place, and I found a lot of healing through adaptive sports and remaining active and just working out. And that led me to form Team Blue Four after I took a young man that's in a wheelchair, got blown up in Afghanistan, and half his body's paralyzed. But he's all grit, no excuses, and we took him on a Spartan race, and that was my aha moment approximately three and a half years ago and started Team Blue Force. For those that don't know about military acronyms, Blue Force stands for Blue Forces. The six stars in our logo are for the six services, which tomorrow is the Air Force birthday. Who's running the 10K with me tomorrow morning?

The mayor. He's going to do push-ups first.

In spirit. In spirit. I love it. I love it. And so that's what we do. And one of the things that we partner with Spartan, for anybody who knows, they have something called Spartan DECA, similar to the very popular High Rocks and CrossFit games. And we're an affiliate with them, and we do anywhere from three to four events a year as a fundraising event. Unfortunately, we don't have a facility, but we operate out of the kindness of folks. And so our request is pretty simple. I asked Mayor that there's three locations that we'd like to use for, with the hopes of waiving fees. One of them being the Civic Center, the pad by the lakefront, and or Chisholm Park. And so depending on what event we're doing and how the weather is, we would use the facility. If it's raining, the Civic Center obviously is the best place to do it at. Chisholm Park will be, you know, probably on the third. But we would love to do events at the lakefront just because we want other folks to come and join us, other veterans and their families, and their recovery for, you know, our well-being, like it was said at the invocation. So I kindly request you guys support.

Yes, sir. Thank you, Andres. Amy Van Ryper, I think she was the first to put me in contact with you. She sits on the Veterans Council. As I said, Andres, he presented to the council. Now there's only – this is a – what are the dates of these events?

What are we looking at? So we're trying to do once a quarter. So next one we'd like to do – I sent an email, Mayor, asking for 13 and 14. We're going to reduce that to just the 14th just because some of the logistics with equipment. And then looking at 2027, again, once a quarter. to do these events. These fundraising events allow us to continue doing everything we do as all volunteers, to include myself, to buy the equipment, to provide transportation. Some of you guys might have seen a guy fly like a parachute-looking thing in the city. That's me. I take the veterans flying after they complete a challenge, and that's kind of the carrot we dangle in front of them. and so has been very successful in getting them off the couch and living an active lifestyle that has reduced symptoms of PTSD, depression, and some of them are getting off of medications and losing weight and stuff like that.

Yeah. And how long have you been doing Blue Forest?

So this December would be three years, no, four years, but officially under IRS rules, we just turned three.

I saw a video you just posted yesterday, I think it was. What event was that?

Oh, yeah. You're talking about me with a backpack?

There was a bunch of, it was an indoor facility.

Yeah, so I was in, how do I explain this? I got engaged on Saturday, too, by the way. Congratulations.

All right.

So the, how do I explain it? So deck of fit involves you do five rounds, which includes 10 zones, which this is what we're trying to introduce to the city of St. Cloud. But I did it with a 30-pound ruck, and then I did it six times, one for each of the services. So one for the Army, one for the Marines, one for the Air Force, one for the Navy, one for the Space Force, and one for the Coast Guard. You guys should be happy to know that nobody in the world has done that ever. So you have a city of St. Cloud citizen that's made history on Sunday.

That's pretty cool, man. Congratulations.

Oh, it hurt. My hair is still hurting. This is pretty tough.

Yeah. And, Council, you know, this is everything we've been hoping for is when we started this Veterans Council underneath the City Council, it's all about getting those resources out there and getting those resources to come to us to provide them out there to the citizens. And this is one of those. Deputy Mayor.

Yeah, I have heard of blue for my my son-in-law, my daughter participate in high rocks.

Okay.

Tough stuff.

It is. Yeah.

So this has counseling involved with it. This has physical activities to do that. We've we've been we're Soldier City. That's who we are. I saw High Rocks go from a 200-person participant, and we were in Miami in November, which I watched my kids. There's over 20,000 people at that event. If this is an event that we can bring to St. Cloud through this, I recommend that we do that. The thing that touches me most is you're bringing veterans and getting them off the couch and Counseling is my bailiwork. You're getting them to do stuff to get them to be participants when they come back from something that 99.9% of the world has never seen. Yes, sir. So I appreciate that. But I just want to mention you have my son-in-law and daughter do High Rocks.

You probably heard of some fun stories.

Oh, it's incredible. And there's a lot of veterans that do it. But it started in Europe, as you know, with the High Rocks. Yes, sir. When I grew up, soccer was not popular, and now it's huge in America. I think these kinds of sports are going to compete with MMA, compete with all the new sports that go on with this kind of stuff. So thank you for all you do. I don't know how we can help a mayor and council, but as a pleasure to the council, I think this is something that we should really look at and support it as we are a soldier city. I yield back to you, Mayor.

Yes, sir. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. The date again, you said the 14th. I thought it was a Saturday.

I Don't have my calendar with me, but 14 November.

Oh November. I'm sorry. I was looking at October Is it a Saturday that is a Saturday?

Yes, sir If I may add something for the deputy mayor I like to brag about Spartan take a little bit on like high rocks nothing wrong with him, but We have a capability that That is super unique. So it's barn decca we Let's say the mayor competes, and he does very well. He could go into the world championships, right? So we could have potentially athletes from St. Cloud or Central Florida that actually compete at the world championships every year, which is super cool. Hyrax does not technically have that, and their platform is a little bit different. So I don't know how, unless they... adjust something in the future? I'm not sure how something like that could be brought to St. Cloud, unlike we.

I don't think it would. Those venues are normally in convention centers and places that are indoor facilities, and there's a lot of cost involved with that specific sport. It's almost like a tennis sport that the participant pays for to do that. We support Soldier City, and we support our veterans. If this ties into that, Mayor, I'm going to yield back to you. But anything that we can bring into the city to recognize our veterans, I firmly support. So I'll yield back to you.

So, like, next Saturday at the Soldier City Market, we plan on training on-site, and so people will be able to see, and you guys are all invited to come see what we do with the veterans and the family.

Very cool. All right. I don't know about an indoor facility or what the scheduling is like with Parks and Rec on that. But November 14th, I'm okay with the pad out there. You're talking about the lakefront with the covered area?

Yes, sir.

All right. That would also have to be verified through Parks and Rec? Okay. And maybe let's start with November 14th out there at the pad.

Yes, sir. And like I said, our plan is to do this once a quarter. So naturally, as we end our 2026, I'll be able to present to the council, hey, these are the dates that we're looking at for 2027 and the locations, whether it's Chisholm Park, the Civic Center, or the PATH. Yes, sir. City Manager.

Can I recommend that we have a meeting with Parks and Rec staff before our October meeting so we can work through all of the potential requests that we need for November 14th so I can get approval from City Council? Because this may be a special event. I don't know if there's additional resources that we may need as part of it.

Okay. How soon for you to advertise? That's all I'm wondering about.

The minute we submit a ticket to Spartan,

No, I mean just for this one, say November 14th.

Right, right. That's what I'm getting at. It could take anywhere from one to two weeks before it's actually launched on the platform globally for people to register. So time is...

Okay, October 8th is our next meeting?

Yes. Okay.

So by October 8th, we can get you an answer. Okay. Is that good? Beggars can be choosers.

So we'll have staff meet with you as soon as possible. I mean, we can... We can move forward if there's no conflict reserving the dates and things like that. It's just if there's fees, he could advertise earlier if he's willing to pay the fees if council doesn't waive all of them. I just don't know what all the fees are going to be, which is why I'm uncomfortable just saying go ahead and advertise once we confirm the date.

How many people are we talking that will be working out on the pad?

So when we did it last year and twice this year, it averaged between 100 and 110. However, that number fluctuates. So when somebody completes their heat, which is when they compete, they will come, compete, and they go home. So I would venture to say that you wouldn't have a cap of about 50 people at a time because, again, they just flux. They come, compete, they're done, they want to hydrate, and they want to get out of there. So heat will be from 8 o'clock until, say, 1.30 p.m. They're typically 15-minute blocks, so once you do your block, typically people get out unless they just want to hang out and cheer other folks.

Okay. Deputy Mayor.

Yeah, and when we're talking about heats, it's almost like categories, what I understand. There's certain age categories, there's certain male, female, there's certain amateur status and things such as that. Is that what you're talking about? Yeah. I know it's different, but I remember it's an all-day event, but 200 folks come, 200 folks leave, and it continues on. Correct. Is that kind of what we're talking about? I just wanted to clarify that with you, Mayor, and thank you for that.

So, like, if you sign up for a raise at 815, you're done at 830, 845, most people just leave. And then another set of guys. They don't leave. They go downtown, and they have breakfast or lunch.

I was about to say, so these folks come from all over.

Yeah, so we have folks... top of my head, from Sebring, from Tampa, from Jacksonville, from Ocala, from everywhere. Again, I need to highlight, sir, that what is important here is that this is a world qualifier event, unlike any other event. And so, like, the last two years have been in Florida. Next year, Might be in Florida again. This year is in Texas. So that's a big deal. City Manager.

So I believe there's clearly consensus. If the facility is available for that day to waive the special event application fee, waive any facility fees that may get him able to advertise earlier, it's just if there's other staff, I don't know if public safety would need to be there.

Are you going to need a police officer?

That's where the other costs could come in.

I mean, we can go ahead and agree to that. Council Member Fletcher.

If I could just give my two cents on this. A couple hundred people. I would, if we could direct staff to, for them to basically hold a small DRC meeting on a Zoom call with staff or a team's meeting to go over the details real quick. And then if we can, you know, improve up to a certain amount, then they can go. Because I believe the ordinance doesn't allow advertising until they have a Permanent, right? So that's the reason why we're wanting to We can say up to this amount you're good to go and then they have to come back so we could control To a degree how many tickets are sold?

But naturally the mayor register and you know, you bring your whole family then I won't know that I won't have that data ahead at a time but I could tell you that say we're selling 60 tickets and That's 60 athletes plus who comes with them. Plus, again, the reason we want to do it at the lakefront or one of the places, we want people to engage us. We want people to get off the couch. So what a better place to showcase what we do where we have complete traffic. And with the law enforcement guys here, what I mean by traffic, I mean eyes looking at what we're doing. So we will not be using the roads. We will not... We're self-contained. We don't really need anything. We're just going to use the pad, the cover pad. And there's two types of, three types that we would do. One that involves no running. A second one involves no running. And the other one that does have a running part of it, it's 160 meters. So 250 feet and 252 feet back. We could do that pretty much anywhere without having to even be on the trail. All right.

Did we want to set an amount and give the green light to the city manager and staff if they reach anything under that? Is that what you were looking to?

For me, it was all about the timing to get it going. I don't know what that dollar amount would be. I'm going to say the same thing that Council Member Gilbert says all the time. I don't have all the answers. But, I mean, that would be the fastest way to get them rolling. All right.

We can say $1,500, and if it goes over that, the city manager can come back to us, but we'll go ahead and give her the green light if it's anything $1,500.

I was going to recommend $2,500. Okay.

If you think it would be safe. Thanks.

You push-up free. You don't have to do push-ups.

And I think why you're getting a positive response is because you are bringing people in from all over, right? And that is economic development, but it's also accomplishing the goal of getting the veteran resources out there to our public. Absolutely. Thank you very much for that, and I appreciate the phone calls you made to me regarding all this, and I'm glad you spoke to the council about it, the Veterans Committee. But did we give her the nod? We good?

I think there was clearly consensus. Yes, thank you. And I'll just for the record repeat it because we've come back to, we like coming to read it in the record again. So November 14th, if that date is available, the Spartan event, we're going to hold a special event DRC as soon as possible. And the council has waived up to $2,500 in special event fees.

Thank you. Thank you. One last note, sir. Because potentially we might have another event, but this one we would actually be partnering with Spartan, the global company, sometime in December to Chisholm Park, just kind of giving you guys a heads up. And law enforcement, we did it two years ago, and we had 300 athletes from around the world to come to St. Cloud, and that was... Next level. So elite athletes competing with Team Blue 4. So that's coming probably mid-December. Get us that information as soon as you can. Yeah.

That'll be another special event application?

It will be, but this one we're going to pay because it's a private event. It's not a nonprofit Team Blue 4 event. But they are asking us to host it for them because, again, they're athletes from around the world. So, yeah, it's going to be super, super epic. Okay.

If it happens. Fill out the application, and please come to the podium and talk about it to us in the future. All right.

Thank you, guys, for your support.

Appreciate you.

Good job.

All right.

All right. Since we're here, I'll go ahead and open it up for public comment. Anyone in the audience would like to speak during public comment here? Okay. We weren't going to have it in a special meeting, but somebody did fill out a form. Mario Agosta? Maria, I'm so sorry. What did I say, Mario?

My handwriting.

That's okay, Maria. First of all, thank you so much for- Okay, get your name and address for the record, please.

It's Maria Augusta, 1998, Sir Lancelot Circle. I'm the facility manager for Anthem Park in St. Cloud. And I wanted to speak to you specifically about the PUD approval for number 16.

I'm sorry, this is for anything not on the agenda.

Yeah, so you have to wait for that item to be held.

It's just public comment. So which item number is that? I'll write it on your form.

That's number 16. I don't have the agenda on me.

Item number five.

Yes, item five under public hearings. Public hearing number five? All right, thank you. All right, yes, ma'am. All right, anyone else in the audience like to speak? All right, next up, we have our consent agenda. And we only have one item on the consent agenda. Will the clerk please, I guess we don't have to read that, but can I get a motion on the consent agenda? Motion to approve. Second. Would anyone else, anyone in the audience like to speak on the consent agenda? We have a motion from Council Member Fletcher, second from Council Member Urban. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Irvin.

Aye.

Deputy Mayor Gilbert.

Aye.

Council Member Fletcher.

Aye.

Council Member Paul.

Aye.

Mayor Robertson. Aye. Motion carries 5-0.

All right. Next up we have public hearings. Will the clerk please read public hearing number three.

Final public hearing for resolution number 2026-061R. A resolution of the City Council of the City of St. Cloud, Florida establishing a final ad valorem tax millage for the City of St. Cloud for the fiscal year 2026-2027 with the same being adopted prior to the adoption of the final budget for said period.

Jeff Cooper, finance director. Before we get into this, I want to thank everyone beforehand. So that includes my fellow directors, the ones that are here, their staff, city manager, deputy city manager, my staff, and as well as you all. This has been a long, challenging process this particular year. We've met multiple times. This is the culmination of basically nine months of work to get to this point. So thank you, everyone, for your patience throughout this process. Okay.

So if we don't vote on this, we just go home now. Where does it leave it? Nine months of nothing?

You're going to need to vote on this, sir.

We need the money.

So as per Florida Statute 200.0652, public hearings are required in order to adopt a final ad valorem tax millage of 5.1128, which is 3.45% above the rollback rate of 4.9423. As a reminder, the rollback rate is the rate that generates the same tax dollars assessed as the previous tax year, not including new construction. So one mil equals $1 in tax per $1,000 of assessed taxable value, and property taxes are calculated by multiplying the assessed taxable property value by the millage rate and divided by 1,000. And here's an example of that. And this also notes that this is the 14th consecutive year that the City of St. Cloud has maintained their millage rate of 5.1128. So in this example, a home that has a taxable value of $250,000. would incur $1,278.20 of city ad valorem taxes. Also as a note, as of 2025 tax year, City of St. Cloud taxes were 28.65% of a city resident's ad valorem tax portion of their bill. So the county is the biggest portion followed by the school board and we're number three, just for some additional information. So the general fund budget highlights, we have 48 new firefighter positions and that is a safer grant. And 65% of that $5.15 million is funded by that grant for year one, 65% for year two, and 35% for year three. So we're in the first six months now. Public safety union contracts, 1.7 million. Basically, that's salary and benefits to keep our public safety workers competitive in the local area. For everyone else, there's a 1% market adjustment and 2% pay adjustment, which is in line with the CPI, actually a little bit less. That's $810,000. And there's five public safety and two legal new positions for $735,000. So here are those general fund funded positions. Four communications operators to support the new fire stations. A fire captain of training to get our 48 new firefighters trained up. And an assistant city attorney as well as a legal assistant. And staff recommendation is approval of Resolution 2026-061R, and we're requesting City Council approve Resolution 2026-061R.

All right. Thank you, Coop. Anyone in the audience like to speak on this item? Any counsel? Motion to approve. Motion to approve. Council Member Urban. Second. Second. Council Member Fletcher. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Deputy Mayor Gilbert. Aye. Council Member Fletcher. Aye. Council Member Paul. Aye. Council Member Urban. Aye. Mayor Robertson.

Aye.

Motion carries 5-0.

And will the clerk please read public hearing. I'm going to say labeled number four.

Final public hearing for resolution number 2026-062R. A resolution to the City Council, City of St. Cloud, Florida, establishing a final budget for the City of St. Cloud for the fiscal year 2026-2027, the same being adopted following the adoption of the final military for said period.

I didn't start talking too soon tonight, so I learned my lesson from the last week. Jeff Cooper, finance director again. This is the final fiscal year 26-27 budget resolution. And as per Florida statute 166.241, the city is required to adopt a budget each fiscal year by ordinance or resolution. The amount available from taxation and other sources including balances brought forward from prior fiscal years must equal the total appropriation for expenditures and reserves. In other words, the adopted budget must balance, which it does. A total citywide budget increase of 7.7% from the current fiscal year 25-26 original budget, the majority of which pertains to the 48 new firefighters, and again, 65% of that is funded by the SAFER grant, and to two significant road projects funded by mobility impact fees, including the LaSalle Avenue Extension and Massachusetts Avenue Extension. Except for fire, legal, and finance, all general fund operating budgets decreased from fiscal year 25-26. Original budgets, 9.6% total decrease over all departments. So as you can see, most departments are negative, which is in this case a decrease. Legal has a little bit of an increase. That's due to the new staff members and the training and memberships and so forth that go along with that. My department had a small increase that is related to our audit contract is up. So that will be rebid here. So we're expecting that to go up a little bit. And although fire had a modest increase, hats off to Chief Miller for the job he did on the budget because that includes 48 new firefighters, their bunker gear, everything that goes along with that. So to be able to only increase by that much and add 48 new positions is amazing. As you can see, 9.6% bottom line decrease. So you may ask yourself, how did we get to that point? How were we able to do that? So we designated seven non-public safety positions to be held vacant for salary savings. That's at least the first time in the seven years that I've been here that we've actually designated positions like that to be held vacant. We only approved five new public safety positions and two new legal department positions even though there were requests from departments for other positions. We just can't do it given the potential for revenue reduction. We reduced advertising and promotional items. We reduced travel and training. We reduced tuition reimbursement and sponsorships. We reduced chamber and other memberships. We reduced community grants. We eliminated food for council meetings, workshops, and other city events. As a note, I will be bringing you sandwiches to the council meetings that require budget amendments, because I don't want you to be hangry when you're considering my items. Purchase some needed capital items from the current fiscal year budget. So we use the current budget to its maximum extent possible Here's the thing That we're almost proud of and thank you to the city manager for deciding this was where we were going to go our original goal was to do this over the next two or three years and We use for $4.8 million in prior year fund balance. So for those in the audience, prior year fund balance is equivalent to your personal savings. So the city was using a significant amount of savings or carryover money from year to year. Well, just as it would do in your personal life, if you keep using your savings pretty soon, you're not going to have any savings. So given the potential challenges that November 3rd brings to us The city manager made the decision that we were no longer going to use Fund balance so we had several meetings as you were a part of to get us to that point That is the first time in 31 years that that hasn't happened that the city has not used zero so that was an amazing accomplishment and I would not have believed that it was possible, but we did it. You all did it. Okay, here's our breakdown of expenditures in millions, and this is, hold on. can't see that good okay so this shows that our general fund is our major part of our budget uh 94.5 million or 41 our special revenue funds are like our impact fees uh ouc interlocal fund toho interlocal fund gas tax utility tax one percent surcharge um our we have three enterprise funds which are 14% of our budget, that is sanitation, storm water, and our building fund, and debt service and capital projects are pretty much self-explanatory. And if you have any questions as we go, feel free to stop me. This is our general fund revenue breakdown, and this is significant given what lies ahead in November. Our ad valorem revenues are 39% of our general fund revenues. 39%. So it's $36.4 million. So that is by far our biggest funding source to support the operations of this city. We have intergovernmental revenues. That's grants and sales tax. In the green we have other financing sources. Those are the OUC interlocal. We share 9.75% of retail electric sales. That is the Toho interlocal, 12% of Toho water and sewer sales we share in that. Utility tax is also in there. General fund expenditures, this is also significant to note. So police and fire, police in the blue, fire in the red are 63% of our general fund budget. So by far our biggest portion is public safety. General government, that includes the departments that support public safety. Parks and Rec is 9%. Transportation is Public Works, 4%. And we keep 500,000 in reserves.

You said I can stop you? You can. Okay, so $59 million goes towards public safety?

That is correct, sir.

Okay. And what do we receive in ad valorem taxes?

Next slide. Next slide. Good intro, sir. I didn't even tell him.

I always make a point of this.

I didn't even tell him to do that, but we actually added this since the first meeting.

This city has worked very hard. Very hard. And we're about to be dealt a challenge that no city in this great state of Florida deserves to be in. But it's what, 36 million?

36.4 million, sir. And so as you can see on the left, that's our ad valorem revenues, and on the right is our police and fire budgeted expenditures.

Yeah, to our chiefs in the room, we apologize. We're sorry this is happening to your departments. That is not us. That's the state of Florida. And then if the public decides that's the way they want to go, that's what's going to happen.

So we're spending, budgeted to spend $23 million more on public safety than we receive in ad valorem. So another related note, which we don't have a slide for, but I did look up in the last 10 years, our ad valorem has increased $28.5 million. Our public safety expenditures have increased by $38.8 million.

Yeah. And I believe, um, how many firefighters, uh, I believe we just sworn about 13 new firefighters and, uh, over the past five, six months, we're hired almost 48. Firefighter EMS. And we're about to do ribbon cuttings on two $12 million fire department fire stations. And we're about to break ground and emergency operations complex and dispatch. And in this budget, I'm sorry, Cooper, I'm just jumping in here. And in this budget, in order to even balance this budget, to truly balance this budget, we're already in a deficit of five police officers. I'm sorry, we were going to hire, but in order to balance this, we had to cut five police officers. But we have a deficit of about 25, right? Let's be honest.

At the rate our city's grown. If you're following sort of the national standard, you're at 20 to 25 police officers lower than you should be.

If it weren't for our amazing police chief and his officers and our fire chief and that department there, we wouldn't be as safe as we are even with the hits that we're taking.

Yeah, we are one of the safest cities in Florida and there's a reason for that because obviously you all prioritize public safety as evidenced by this slide right here.

Well, we truly care about the citizens and the safety.

Okay, this is a list of our 26, 27 funded capital projects. We have the LaSalle Avenue extension, that's 7.75 million. That is funded with mobility impact fees. We have the Massachusetts Avenue extension, 4.02 million, also mobility impact fees. We have the downtown development, which is gonna be the parking garage, 1.3 million in additional funding from the CRA. we have master plan paving which is a million dollars in gas tax and we have a new erp planning system which is the new system for finance and procurement and human resources because ours is like 30 years old another million dollars from the one percent surcharge fund and finally we have paving with franchise fees of 471 343 and that is general fund. You'll notice on this the general fund is only mentioned once. So tax dollars, ad valorem tax dollars, are not put towards capital projects. The only one that includes the general fund is specifically franchise fees which cannot be spent on anything else. So $471,343 is the amount of franchise fees we collected in the previous full fiscal year, which must be spent on road projects. We spend it on paving.

Can we say it out loud again that we are not spending on this downtown P3 project, the parking garage, general fund revenue?

The parking garage is funded by the CRA budget in full without the use of debt, sir. Okay.

And we've entered into many, not interlocal, we've entered into many tri-party agreements on many road projects that are also going to be under construction at the same time.

Okay. And the Hopkins Park Community Center, also that is not general revenue. That is not. Those are not tax dollars, those are impact fees.

That is correct. Hopkins Park is being repaid with parks impact fees, $1.5 million per year for the next 20 years, 19 years now.

Okay, thank you, sir.

So we have our key focus areas, everything in the budget falls under a key focus area in our strategic plan. So under diverse and magnetic economic development, we have our downtown development project, the aforementioned parking garage. We have Centennial Park improvements, including restrooms. Effective community safety. You'll see that this is by far the longest slide. As we spoke before, that community safety is paramount in this community. So five of the seven new positions are public safety, as we previously talked about. construction of our public safety complex is nearing the kickoff of that phase and that's already funded and that is being repaid with a combination of police impact fees and the one percent surcharge fund so also no ad valorem tax dollars are being used to pay for that Fire Station 35 and Fire Station 22, those were both funded with, again, a combination of the debt, which is getting repaid by the 1% surcharge fund, and fire impact fees. Again, no use of ad valorem tax dollars to fund these items. Purchase of a replacement fire engine, that is the 1% surcharge fund. Purchase of a replacement ambulance, 1% surcharge fund. Replacement of 16 public safety vehicles, also 1% surcharge fund. So general fund is not on there. Any questions so far? Now we're at the high-performing government key focus area. So this is incorporation of a new police department union contract, which is effective October 1. Citywide, 1% market adjustment and 2% pay adjustment for our non-public safety staff members. The ERP system that I had previously Citywide Watershed Master Plan, which was funded this fiscal year, and I believe the contract may have been awarded at the last meeting, so that is in process. And then finally, Effective Transportation Network. We have the Creekwood Drive Extension, 17th Street Extension, Rummel Road Roundabout, and the paving projects that I previously mentioned. So staff recommendation is approval of Resolution 2026-062R. City Council requested action is also approval of Resolution 2026-062R. And Mary Emma, our amazing Communications Director, has a QR code for you that you can access our budget. I also brought printed copies of our popular annual financial report, which is basically a Reader's Digest version of our large annual comprehensive financial report. It has a lot of helpful information in there, particularly information on how your tax bill is broken down, as I briefly covered. This is an amazing document and I give full Credit to my deputy finance director mark Camilla the second for putting this together and I will leave copies outside So feel free to pick one up on your way out.

All right. Thank you coop Deputy mayor, I'm going to replace reading Sports Illustrated with that report on the plane tomorrow Just one question What is, by Florida statute, our savings account need to be what percentage before catastrophes, hurricanes, and such as that, just so the public knows?

It's not covered in Florida statute. However, the Government Finance Officers Association recommends 16.67%, which is two months' worth of operations. That's going to equate to $13 to $14 million. And city code requires 12.5%, and that equates to about $10 million. Our expected ending unassigned fund balance for this fiscal year is somewhere in the neighborhood of $17 to $18 million. So we're above where we need to be, but not by much.

All right, so you're telling me this budget's pretty transparent?

This budget is transparent. I'm also going to leave my cards out there, so feel free. You're always welcome to call me, answer questions. I talk to citizens like a lot during tax time when they have questions on their tax bill about where numbers come from. The number next to the City of St. Cloud is my phone number and has been for seven years. So if you call the number on your tax bill for the City of St. Cloud, you'll get me.

Yes. All right. Thanks, Coop. City Manager.

I also want to add we have always kept our budget on the city website and past budgets on the city website with all of the glorious nighttime reading details for anybody interested.

It's a long flight for Ken. They'll make sure and read it all. Um, city manager, staff, everybody, thank you for everything you've done to, to put all this together. Um, as I said in last meeting, we've got the easy job just passing it. We know there's a lot of cuts in these departments. We know it's going to be harder to do your jobs. Um, but we're preparing, you know, we, we have to prepare and, and, um, City Manager, how many years have they been, this city, attempted to build that public safety complex?

I would say at least 15. Yeah.

Yeah, and I'll tell you, because of you, of course, and Dan and the police chief and everything they've done, and I know they've got a whole building task force, I think, former deputy chief Zilke, he's here, he's on that. They're taking that thing across the finish line, and we're going to break ground on that thing.

Next council meeting, it will be on the agenda.

All this doom and gloom and everybody throwing tomatoes at cities around our state is, You know, obviously because Amendment 3 gets brought up and so everybody at the local level is vilified and they just assume that we're mismanaging funds, we're actually doing some amazing things in looking out for our citizens 100%. And we're going to need the money to fill those seats at that complex when it's completed. Like I said, we can't take a stance one way or another, but if it does pass, we're going to have to beg for money. That's what it boils down to. They've got about $20 billion up there in surplus, and maybe we should just ask for our citizens' money back. Chop it up and start shipping it back home. Anyway, Coop, amazing job. Staff, amazing job. City Manager, thank you very much. Anyone in the audience like to speak on this item? No. Council, any other comments? Motion to approve. Motion approved. Second. Deputy, I'm sorry, Council Member Fletcher, second. Deputy Mayor Gilbert, will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Fletcher? Aye. Council Member Paul?

Aye.

Council Member Urban?

Aye.

Deputy Mayor Gilbert? Aye. Mayor Robertson? Aye. Motion carries 5-0.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Coop. Thank you.

All right, will the clerk please read item five?

Final public hearing for ordinance number 2026-34. An ordinance of the City Council of the City of St. Paul, Florida, amending a total acreage and developable acreage, number of units, net density, gross density, stormwater area, development program, housing types, architectural standards, and development conditions for PUD plan unit development, preliminary master plan identified as Avancia Project PUD 25-0004, formerly known as Neptune Village in ordinance number 2019-11. As amended, located north of Revolutionary Way, east of Betsy Ross Lane, south of Neptune Road, west of Old Canoe Creek Road, providing for approval of the amendment of the PUD Preliminary Master Plan and Final Master Plan, following Planning Commission's recommendations, proof of publications, availability conflicts, and effective date.

Good evening, Geoffrey Ball, Community Development Director. Before you is a PUD amendment for Avancia. This is PUD 25-0004, Ordinance 2026-34. The applicant has requested an amendment to an approved planned unit development, preliminary master plan, which was approved by ordinance 2019-11, formerly known as Neptune Village. The applicant applied for a final master plan on April 25th, 2025, which was withdrawn in September 25th, 2025. It was realized that it was the wrong application. The applicant submitted the application before you to amend the PUD slash PMP, which is the preliminary master plan on September 29th, 2025. The proposed amendment includes modifications to the acreage density development program, housing types, and development conditions. The future land use is commercial. The current zoning is PUD, which stands for planned unit development. It's approximately 101.73 acres in size. So this is the future land use map, which identifies all 101 acres as commercial. and then the companion zoning map, which is the purple color, which identifies this as a PUD. So this is the proposed phasing plan. So this is one of the changes that is being brought before you. This is a very detailed phasing plan that shows in the color. So this is the proposed development program from what was approved back in 2019 to what is being proposed today. I wanted to highlight a couple of things. So you will notice that the acreage has been reduced and that is because of the additional right of way that was required along Neptune Road and Old Canoe Creek Road. There was also reduction in the acreage for the commercial area, and that has been reduced approximately three acres in size. So I also want to highlight that the commercial area. So when this was approved back in 2019, there was no minimum square foot required for the commercial. Now there is the minimum required commercial is 130,000 square feet. There was a memo that was passed around that identified that they're required to build a 408,000 square feet. That was a maximum potential build out that they could build based on the FAR that is governed by the PUD. So just wanted to clarify that item. And you will notice part of the branding package and placemaking that there, and I'll get into that in a minute in the next slide, but there is a special condition about branding and placemaking that was identified in the economic development consultant review of this. So some of the permitted uses, and these are the residential uses, we have single family attached, which are town homes, multi-family housing, accessory dwelling units, recreation areas, parks and parkways, senior living centers, and live work units. Some of the non-residential uses that would be allowed are assisted living facilities, child daycare facilities, barber shops slash beauty shops, dance and music studios, food stores, medical offices, and retail. I just want to clarify that this is just a sample. This is not just the whole use allowed. So staff recommendation is approval with conditions of ordinance 26-34. There are four conditions that staff is recommending. I want to clarify that in the staff report we identified 31. Those are development related requirements that are not special conditions. Special condition number one, any ordinance regulations not specifically addressed in this ordinance shall comply with the applicable section of the City of St. Cloud Land Development Code. Number two, the developer shall provide the city a comprehensive branding, yeah, I can't say that, branding package and placemaking plan that includes wayfinding, which must be in place prior to the approval of any subdivision construction plans or site development plans for the project. The branding package, placemaking plan, and wayfinding shall work seamlessly together, focus on creating a cohesive identity for the area, enhancing its public spaces, and making it easily navigable. Number three is the developer shall install rectangular rapid flashing beacons, RRFBs, and all crossings inside the development where warrants are met. Bloomington Subdivision plans shall identify the locations of all RRFBs. And number four, the developer shall ensure the plans Include a proposed mast arm for northbound traffic at the sergeant Graham Drive intersection The developer shall also revise pavement markings for the westbound left turn lane along Neptune Road at this intersection as required So planning Commission was just the other day on 9 15 26 the recommendation was approval with the conditions staff record is asking instead of council approved with conditions of 2026-34 as stated by staff. Staff is available for any questions that you might have. Thank you.

All right.

Thank you, Jeff.

Would the applicant like to speak on the second?

Jo Thacker, 17 South Orlando Avenue, Kissimmee. Apologize for my voice tonight. This PUD is already in place. There is a PUD already in place. What we have done is we have reduced the number of units that will be available, residential units. We have set a minimum square footage for commercial. I do want to put on the record, as the city manager was saying, putting on the record, Phase six shows patio homes. But what we have done is we made that flexible. We're hoping that that is commercial instead of patio homes. So that is right next to the corners for the commercial. And I want to make sure that I don't have to come back and amend a PUD again. But those 84 patio homes may flex into commercial space. And so that's what I want to make sure.

Is that incorporated into the conditions?

The way it was presented is that that was flexible. And so that's why I want to make sure it's on the record. So when someone comes back and reads the minutes and listens to the tapes... that it's not a problem in the future. And that was something that we had talked to all the council members about. You all state over and over again, you want more commercial, you want more commercial. So what we've done is tried to say, okay, we know commercial will go here and here. If it takes off the way we hope, We can also add it here. It's a very walkable plan that's in front of you. There's been a lot of architectural renderings that have already been done to make sure that the residential and the commercial blend, that's part of the placemaking branding that has been proposed. The green is the V6.

All right.

City Attorney.

Yes. Obviously, Ms. Thacker is asking or suggesting that maybe the council would be okay with this, and if it is, it's the council's choice. We certainly can do it, but I would suggest that we try to incorporate some language into this approval as opposed to having to worry about who reads the minutes a couple years down the road when the flex issue might arise. That's fine.

What I'm asking for in phase six is that- Which one's phase six?

The green.

Okay, the blue and the red are the commercial and what we'd like to do is if the commercial takes off like we're hoping it will that the 84 patio homes that are Reflected in that are converted over to square footage for commercial.

I Definitely don't have a problem with that. I mean councilmember urban

Yeah, I was just going to recommend what Dan said to put a condition on this that any changes from residential to commercial can be approved without having to come back to the council.

Love that. So you wanted that? Is that what you're asking for?

That would be great.

I don't know how you do that. Well, we can follow on that. I would just point out that... Obviously, the council's intent with this project was to have as much commercial space as possibly get there. Ms. Thacker, would it be okay with your client if at least there was a period of time that the property would be dedicated for commercial, and after that period of time, it could be converted into residential and go either way? I think we've seen these before where developers have said, okay, we're going to put commercial in there, but then it doesn't become commercial for a period of time, and now they're moving it to residential. So I thought the council's intent was to get as much commercial as you could. Maybe a condition could be in place that for, I don't know, three years?

I think that's backwards, though, because the commercial is the blue and the red first. Those are four and five.

Okay.

And what we've done is left the green as phase six. And so hopefully market conditions will allow the commercial to go into that. What I don't want to do is say it's commercial and then converts to residential. Okay. So I'd like the ability to have that flexible area to expand the commercial if possible.

City Manager.

So we're basically, I just want to make sure I understand. Okay. So we're asking for the flexibility for the final master plan to show phase six could be commercial without having to come back for an amendment. The city council would see it when we bring back a revision to the PSP though.

Sure.

Yes. And then the minimum requirement of the commercial that Mr. Ball pointed out would still be in there.

That's right. So the engineers are here. If you have any technical questions that I can't answer, and I would ask to research some time after public comment.

Anyone in the audience? Actually, we do have a few. We may get part of these. We'll go ahead and start with Maria Agosta. She left. Oh, she left? Yeah. Okay. Linda Ellens.

Hi. Thank you.

Name and address for the record.

Linda Ellens, 1841 Remembrance Avenue. It's my understanding that this PUD is requiring access into Anthem Park, And I would like to raise some strong objections to that. This would be right near the area where the school is, where the school drop off and pick up is, which is going to cause a lot of safety. because you've got a lot of left turns going on. You've got children that are walking to school. You've got parents trying to drive into the school park. You have other parents trying to come out if they're leaving the Avencia community. So this would definitely be a cause for concern. Also, if it does have access into Anthem Park, it's going to have an extra backup and congestion at the Lexington entrance and exit. and it's already gets backlogged as it is. And so if you'd add even more traffic, it would become worse. We'd have more speeding on Lexington, which is also a problem already. We'd have more cars potentially to be doing the speeding. If they have access to our community, then they would also be able to see our green spaces, which would include things like the basketball court, the tennis court, the volleyball court, which would then mean that we could have potential upkeep and repair that we'd have to do, and our community is on a tight budget like you are. We don't have the money for spending extra things if we've got extra people coming into our community and using it. Our staff, as it is, the facility manager and our helper are overworked and overburdened, and we just do not have the money to handle that extra. If this PUD is approved as it is, and if there is an entrance into Anthem Park, that would be a negative impact on our neighborhood, which would become irreversible. So I'd appreciate it if you'd consider taking those things into consideration.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Council Member Fletcher.

I just wanted to respond to the citizen's comment. So I did see, I identified an issue. I believe you sent an email. Did you send an email or a letter in at one point, or was that another resident?

I did not, but I know who sent it.

Okay. So once that came through, I took that information and tracked it down with our city manager and looked at it. you know it's tough right so because you have your neighborhood and you want it to kind of be like locked in a box um we just don't want to be punished

because they need another exit entrance because that's going to impact us negatively.

One of the things that we have to look at is the totality of that whole area. So if it was, when I was looking at it, if you were to shut it off, then you would be going out, say you wanted to go to the commercial or somebody wanted to go to the commercial spot, they'd have to come out to the light, come all the way back around or then come back all the way around again, whereas this provides Ease of connectivity.

I totally understand that. I still don't want it.

That's the challenge. But I just wanted to let you know I did look into the concerns that you guys raised.

Also, in concerns to the light green color up there, that's right up to an Eagle sanctuary area. I think you need to think about that twice, too, if you've got a commercial or even houses right next to that.

All right, next up we have Harold Ellens.

Harold Ellens, 1841 Remembrance Avenue. Married to the good-looking woman who just stepped up before you. I share many of her concerns. We have recently built... into anthem park some additional condos taylor morrison did that right and we got approval we worked with them to get it done so we revised their plan and primarily because the roads were very narrow in our subdivision And nobody uses their garages, so they park on the street. And police and fire vehicles couldn't get through. So we said we need them to rethink how wide the roads are so that they can make sure that the public servants can make it through. So I would like to make sure that that's considered. In this plan, I haven't heard anything about this plan. So I thought that if you lived close, you guys or somebody would notify those who are impacted, especially if you're putting an egress or... I don't know what's the other side of the egress. But if you put one of those in, then it's going to affect the community. And because it's affecting the community, you'd think that they would notify the community so that they could... be aware of it and speak up. We were not notified, didn't know this was happening until just a couple days ago. But the point is that I wanted to get to is the school that's right there, right where the timer is, it has a snake serpentine that was to take away the flow of the backup flow for the school. Now that backup flow starts from Lexington and still goes through that serpentine. So if you put a connecting road through there, you're still at school drop off and pick up, you're still gonna be confronted with cross traffic and kids walking. The traffic light, even though the roads are not completely finished, the traffic light at Old Canoe Creek and Neptune Road gets backed up all the way to Lexington and beyond Lexington during busy hours of the morning and in the afternoon. So there are a couple things that I'd like you to consider if you could before, ideally before you make a decision, check those things out during those hours of operation and see what the impact is and if you add in another 84 units, that'll be a That'll add significantly to the traffic flow. I thank you for your time. Appreciate it. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Can we take the clock off really quick so I can see the full map? Is there any way of doing that? Can we move it? Drag it to another side? Or it doesn't?

You can see the snaking.

Yeah, it's just in a bad spot right there.

And the school is between those two roads, avenues.

Sir, sir, please don't talk out. Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. I wasn't even paying attention. I was looking at this. Joe, can you please come back up here? I'll just ask for it.

I can say a little bit about Betsy Ross. Betsy Ross is already a plat of road, and so this improves it, and it's already planned in the PUD. There was another road that's in Anthem Park that stubs out into this property, but the city allowed commercial building to go in that spot previously. So that is why there's not a second interconnectivity between the two projects. So Betsy Ross is already up a padded road and this just improves it. And when Taylor Morrison came in, I actually helped with that project. in the school district is when, that's when they put in the serpentine to help get the students and the parents off the Livingston area.

So Anthem Park already had access into this property.

Yes.

But that's been closed off.

Well, right now it ends at the school entrance.

When it was approved, it would have been.

Yeah, it's already in the PUD, yes.

Okay. In the Anthem Park one. It was in the Anthem Park one to allow access into that corner?

Is that where... Well, Betsy Ross, yes. At Betsy Ross. Because right now it looks just like a driveway for the school, but it's actually a platter road. So it will be improved as part of this development.

Okay. Is that only used by buses right now, or how do they...

It is only used by buses that goes out to Neptune Road, but it's also used to the parking area for the school.

Okay. And this development, it'll have, is that in that roundabout, is that a basketball court? Are those... In the roundabout? Yeah. What is that?

In the roundabout in the orange?

A clubhouse or a pool?

Oh, yeah, that's an amenity center right off of that roundabout, yes.

I know the concerns were that these folks would be going down and using their amenities.

We're hoping that the Anthem Park folks come in and use the commercial in this neighborhood. There will be plenty of amenities for the residential folks that live in Avancia.

So no matter what, Betsy Ross is going to be opened up for traffic? Yes. For anybody?

Anybody that developed it would be required to do that.

Okay.

The original plan already had that access point. This is not a new access point. That's correct. It's already there.

The access onto Betsy Ross? Yes. So we're not approving that tonight? They already have that access? No, that's all part of the approval.

It's already there.

Okay. So there's no, we can't take it back. I like the fact you're offering up more commercial. The possibility that.

And he also asked just now if some of the yellow could go to commercial, if it is going well. So if we'd like that flexibility, that Mr. Manzaris. said that if any of the residential can convert to commercial, we certainly want the opportunity to be able to do that.

Yes, ma'am. I got one more question. I'm sorry. Where Betsy Ross kind of, are they just curving it because of the bridge?

They're curving it up to make it a 90 degree angle onto Neptune and move it a little bit further from the bridge.

Thank you. Anyone else in the audience like to speak on this item? All right, council. Can we get a motion?

I think we already kind of talked about some of the elements in the motion, right? Right. Well, the staff has presented you with some initial conditions they want, so your motion would have to contain those. And then the applicant is asking, I guess, for, I'm trying to read, is it phase three? Is that the yellow? Three. It's little. Three and six. That's correct.

To have the flexibility. So the more we keep them talking, they're going to make the entire property commercial? I got another question.

Councilmember. I just want to say I do understand the residents concerns and similar to what councilmember Fletcher was saying I've seen neighborhoods that don't have the connectivity particularly and off of Canoe Creek Road where I live and And it creates a traffic nightmare on the main roads. And so our city code requires us to interconnectivity to be able to help the ease of access throughout our city and in these neighborhood centers. So I do understand the concern. And like was already mentioned, this is just a PD amendment. A lot of the connectivity was already approved previously. I would make a motion to approve with the staff's conditions and with the condition of allowing the flexibility of more commercial in Phase 6 and Phase 3.

That's it.

All right. We have a motion from Council Member Irvin.

Second. Sorry, go ahead. I was going to make a second. Was that a second over there?

Oh, but you wanted to add something to it?

Yeah. So a second from Irvin.

We have a second from Council Member Paul.

um but you wanted to make a comment yes um so i just want to say thank you actually to um the folks who put this together i did um meet with them on several um occasions trying to solve residents concerns um one of the things that i did like about this was the branding and the place making package that you guys have had i would hope that staff could work to add that to all of the all of the the larger developments especially if they do have a commercial aspect to it um so that was a big

All right. And we have a motion and a second on the table. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Paul? Aye. Council Member Urban?

Aye.

Deputy Mayor Gilbert? Aye. Council Member Fletcher? Aye. Mayor Robertson? Aye. Motion carries 5-0. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Let's go ahead and take a 10-minute break here. And will the clerk please read item number six?

First of two public hearings for ordinance number 2026-49, an ordinance of the City of St. Cloud, Florida, relating to ordinance number 2024-30, whose subject is mobility fees, and resolution number 2024-176R, whose subject is discount percentage, eliminating discount percentage for mobility fees, rates for all uses, providing for conflict and severability, administrative corrections, and effective date.

Good evening, Geoffrey Ball, Community Development Director. This is a mobility fee rate adjustment based on direction given by council. This is ordinance 2026-49, and this ordinance would remove the 15% discount for all mobility fee rates. Background on this is the new mobility fee rates were adopted with the joint mobility fee renewal study and demonstrated a new study on September 19 2024 a 15% Discount on all mobility fees was approved on September 19 2024 Resulting in the mobility fee rate of 85% of the base rate. That's per resolution 2024 dash 176

City Attorney. Well, I was waiting for after he was finished. Thank you, Mayor. Oh, I'm sorry.

So, August 20th, 2026, City Council requested staff to bring forward the removal of the 15% discount for all residential uses. September 10th, 2026, City Attorney advised that the discount apply to all uses and would need to be removed for all uses via ordinance. The proposed ordinance removes the 50% discount. for all uses and brings the mobility fee rates back to 100 of the base rate approved in 2024 staff recommendation is approval of ordinance 2026-49 staff is asking city council approval of 2026-49 all right city attorney thank you mary so i just want to clarify for the city council that this is actually the first of two hearings on it so you will not be taking final action on this tonight

It will be important at the next meeting for the council to adopt this ordinance with the appropriate findings that are contained. And essentially what you will be doing is readopting the mobility fee study that was adopted back in 2024 because to verify those numbers essentially so that you can go back up to the 100%. So we actually advertised this more than we had to because we knew this was a significant issue for the development community so that they would have plenty of opportunities. So it's actually been advertised twice, for tonight and then for October 8th. Thank you.

All right, Council Member Fletcher.

We all know the history with it. We just got another rundown. Like you said, this is the first of two public hearings. I don't want to affect the commercial development community. This is the problem with this, the way that we've had to go back and look at it. Is there a way that we can... Say we raised it all back up to the 100%, including commercial. Is there a way to put a mechanism in there where they pay the mobility fee, and then we give a refund as an economic development incentive?

We can certainly look at that. Remember what we talked about at the last meeting is this doesn't take effect until February, right? So the idea would be to work through whatever mechanism we can work out that accomplishes what the we believe the city council's intent is is to reduce the burden of the mobility fees on commercial projects right so that's what we intend to work on over the next couple of months um mr ball and i are working for to get a meeting set up with the with the city's uh consultant that did the mobility fee agreement study so that we can work through this but that is an option we certainly can look into it's a good option it's a good idea we'll see if we can figure out how to implement that

Okay, I appreciate that. City Manager.

Thank you. We have a approved resolution that for economic development targeted uses, we can waive up to a certain percent of the prior year's mobility fee collections and consider it de minimis impact. And I believe it was usually around $50,000 or $60,000. I could find out before the next meeting, but we have that already approved. It's always been in our toolbox that we could do that.

Have we ever used it?

We haven't had someone come in that met the targeted uses for that. What are the targeted uses? They match the state's uses. It's typically a...

the aerospace it's um high tech i i don't remember what we haven't had anybody come in for a while so i'd have to verify again but yeah and that's tough for us and you know saint cloud it's hard to get people here we don't have the rail line i know deputy mary gilbert's trying to get us that in metro plan um you know we don't have a shipping port we don't have we're not over there by the cape you know that they try and keep a lot of that over there but um Yeah, I think we need to do what we can do here. That's a great tool.

But I'll still get the uses, and I'll pass them to you. And I'll get the exact amount from the prior year that we could use, and I'll send that to the city council before the next meeting.

And if we could definitely look at the – sorry. If we could definitely look at that as a mechanism with COOP, with – I mean, look at other cities to see if we can actually – because that's almost an – immediate right um thing they'll be able to look at that and say hey if we're going to get financing for this this is the estimated cost of mobility fees but i know i'm guaranteed if i'm like if i pay it i'm going to get this back so it's going to it's a just a different animal we're going to we'll look at that option but what i was going to point out is that what mrs miller just told you regarding the targeted economic development industries that the state recognizes

Because we've had no, the city has had no applicants in those areas, further supports the problem that the city has attracting commercial development and the impact, the negative impact that the history has on the city's mobility fee structure as a whole, right? We talked about it earlier. You can't say commercial. If you reduce commercial mobility fees by a substantial amount, it's going to have an impact on the city because right now you're only getting a minimal amount of mobility fees anyway.

Correct.

So we're working on that and we'll work on it. City Manager's got a list.

I got the list, thank you, Police Chief. Aerospace and aviation includes maintenance, repair and overhaul, pilot training, unmanned aerial systems, life sciences, medical technology, pharmaceuticals and biotech, information technology and semiconductors, which is software development, cybersecurity and energy secure microelectronics. clean energy and advanced manufacturing, hydrogen energy storage and transportation equipment manufacturing, financial services and corporate headquarters, high-end administrative and financial operations.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Council Member Fletcher, there wasn't anything you wanted to add to that? No, that was it. Okay. Anyone in the audience like to speak on this item? And any council comments? Any other? I thought the fire chief had something to say.

Okay.

Don't encourage him.

All right. Can I get a motion on this? Motion to approve. Motion approved. Council Member Fletcher. Second. Second. Council Member Urban. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Urban.

Aye.

Deputy Mayor Gilbert.

Aye.

Council Member Fletcher.

Aye.

Council Member Paul.

Aye.

Mayor Robertson.

Aye.

Motion carries 5-0.

And on to council action. Will the clerk please read? Council action number seven. Resolution number 2026-136.

Resolution number 2026-136 are a resolution of the City Council, City of St. Cloud, Florida, authorizing the director and the city manager to execute a public emergency medical transportation letter of agreement between the State of Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration and the City of St. Cloud, authorizing the payment not to exceed $432,000 by the city and providing an effective date.

For Jason Miller, Fire Chiefs. Excuse me, for clarity purposes, there is a typo on the slide. It is 432,000, not 423. St. Cloud Fire Rescue has participated in the PMT program since its inception back in 2016. This is basically an additional funding mechanism provided by the Agency of Healthcare Administration for those patients that we transport to the hospital. As it says up there, it's only for public EMS providers, provides supplemental payments. Cities are required to sign an agreement with ACCA, the Agency for Healthcare Administration. However, they have not been able to provide us with the exact dollar value, but they need the agreement signed by October 1st. This is not the first time we've run into this. So what we did is a not to exceed agreement. our current budgeted amount. We are waiting on the estimates to come in. This is the typical thing that we run into every year about this time. Staff recommends approval of 2026.136R. I request council approve it. If you have any questions, I'm here for you.

All right. Anyone in the audience like to speak on this item? And council? Motion to approve. Motion to approve. Council Member Urban. Second. Second. Council Member Paul. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Deputy Mayor Gilbert.

Aye.

Council Member Fletcher.

Aye.

Council Member Paul.

Aye.

Council Member Urban. Aye. Mayor Robertson.

Aye.

Motion carries 5-0.

Thank you. And will the clerk please read item number 8.

Presentation and resolution number 2026-142 are a resolution of the City Council of City of St. Cloud, Florida, approving a letter of agreement between the City of St. Cloud and St. Cloud Main Street, Inc., for one-time funding contribution in support of the St. Cloud Main Street program in the amount of $14,000, authorizing the mayor to execute the agreement and providing an effective date.

All right. And I guess we have a presentation first for the annual report.

Yes. Good evening. Paula Stark, Executive Director of St. Cloud Main Street, 903 Pennsylvania Avenue. And I'm assuming I'm clicking this, right? And I apologize, I've had eye surgery, so sometimes I can see with or without glasses, depends. So first of all, thank you all very much for your past support and your continued support of St. Cloud Main Street. Some of you, the city manager and a couple of staff members have seen this already, so it will be a little redundant. I'm going to try to go through it a little bit quickly, only because I'm starving to death, so we'll see how that goes. If you have questions though, I'll be happy to answer them for you. For those of you who don't know, we're now moving into our 27th year. We do have a mission statement and a vision statement, as you can see. above. I know you all have had the opportunity to have these reports in front of you and read them, so I'm not going to read them for the audience because that seems like it might be a little overkill. But we do have those, and Main Street encourages economic development with historic preservation as the driving force behind that. As you all know, Main Street programs are national and state level. It does come under the historic National Historic Bureau of Historic Preservation and also on the state level. So we have evaluations we do annually both on the state level and on the national level. We are graded and then it does depend on that grade whether or not we have an accreditation. So, so far, at least in the 15 years that I have been your executive director, we have had accreditation on both levels. So we just want to make sure that you know that there are standards that we have to meet besides the things that you hold us to here locally. St. Cloud Main Street, our footprint is above. It's 10th Street, east to Maryland Avenue, and west to Wisconsin Avenue. Massachusetts Avenue to New York Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue and Florida Avenue, South to 13th Street, North to Lakeshore Boulevard, and East to Virginia Avenue in Western Missouri. And it includes Veterans Park. So there's just a little bitty little tag right there, but Veterans Park is in the footprint. Some of our events and programs, many of you have participated in the majority of these at some time or another. Some of you have been our board liaison, so you've been intimately involved. So these are some of the things we do. Small Business Saturday, Redneck Gala. This year we did Stars and Stripes Summer Seafood Bowl because of the 250 America. Roots and Rhythm Festival, Breakfast with the Pros. holiday decorating contest, storybook adventures, historic preservation, a celebration of awards and plaques, the annual meeting, a taste of Main Street, witches and maniacs, which now also includes trick-or-treating, historic walking tours and ghost tours, and Soldier City's Veterans Tribute. These annual events break down. We do seven Breakfast with the Pros September through March, 169 participants, six local event sponsors. Storybook Adventures, eight events, 40 business partner hosts, 40 participating families, four local event sponsors. Historic Walking Tours, nine events September through March, local event sponsors. Historic Ghost Tours, nine events September through March, local event sponsors. I will take the opportunity on a couple of these to let you know that we are kind of reinventing a few of them. We do have a grant that we just located actually yesterday that we're going to apply for the ghost tours and see if we can get some additional assistance, but we're completely rewriting it and making it specifically more spooky, but with historic background in the tour itself. Also, we have Redneck Gala. anywhere from 200 to 250 event participants, 14 local event sponsors, 18 table sponsors, which is in maniacs, 15 contest entries, 2.6 thousand event participants, nine local event sponsors, a taste of Main Street, 21 business participants, 120 event participants, four local event sponsors, veterans dinner, over 100 honored veteran guests, which all get to have a steak dinner free, 13 local event sponsors and 21 table sponsors. I do also want to add on some of the events, the attendance is based on we max out the venues that we have. And a lot of times those are our city venues because we need a bigger venue. So just so you keep that in mind as we're going along the process. We've had those conversations in the past. Small business Saturday. 100 plus event participants, 41 business participants, historic plaques and awards, five awards, 65 total participants, six local event sponsors, Roots and Rhythm Festival, which this past year was the first time that we were a full-blown partner with, at the time, Grannies, which now we'll be taking that on. Although there is some discussion, we are talking about some changes on some things. We may be adding another rhythm to our roots and rhythm on that event. We had 30 event vendors, 800 total participants, 10 local event sponsors. Holiday decorating, 16 business participants, 878 online votes. Stars and Stripes, five local event sponsors, and that was our America 250 Florida initiative. The reason we did that, so that you know, across the state, all main streets did some kind of 250 events. America event on July 5th to follow up behind July 4th. So it was marketed across the state. It was a whole state initiative, so we added on to that with ours. Our annual meeting had 72 state awards to date, 77 total attendees this year, and several local event sponsors. The 72 events awards we'll talk about a little bit again later, but you all know that we do a state conference. We have quarterly conferences we have to attend. There are training and other activities that we have to do on the state level with other Main Street communities. And over the years, at least, that I have been able to account and adjust for, we have applied for awards on the state level. that 72 awards, this year we took four out of five, and that took us to 77 awards on behalf of our community. And that goes out in press releases across the state. These are some additional events and projects that we've done along the way. I do want to remind you, these things, some of them are ongoing, like you'll see the cloud cash picture, we do that annually. We do have the brochure that we recently got a $10,000 grant from Experience Kissimmee to help with that, but we also sell ads in it. We're expanding it, and it will be coming out again in the next month or two. It will be going to all the tourist areas. This time it will also be distributed along I-10, which is a new area that Visit Florida is assisting us in getting, so we're able to reach out to other markets to bring people into the community. And I can tell you, in the time that I've been here anyway, they do work. I've had people actually show up at the Main Street office with the brochure in hand and have questions and want to know where they should go and what about the tours. Because we have the mural tours and the marker tours in those as well. Our continued projects, I just told you about the brochures, cloud cash was 27,500 vouchers sold, 52 participating downtown merchants, 27,500 money spent in local downtown businesses, not including additional dollars above the cloud cash that gets spent because people get in there and they, you know, have something else or they buy another. It's like the grocery store, they capture you, you know, on the buy one, get one free aisle. It's kind of the same idea. So we do add to the buying power downtown of our businesses. Grants, this year we had a new grant, the AARP Community Challenge of 6,000. We're working on that currently. We're hoping in the next few months that this will be finished. We're working on the bike racks, and you will see here the designs that we, you might want to see it if I click the button. You'll see that we're trying to work on our Sandhill Crane because that is our city bird from a resolution that came out of St. Cloud Main Street and also our city flower, the Amaryllis, which was another resolution that came out of Main Street. So we're working on those now and we're hoping that one of our local fabricators will be the one who actually does the work on those. So we also are adding to the economic development of some of our businesses. In addition to that, we find other opportunities for not only grants for us, but grants for our businesses. And we have had people apply for several of them. Unfortunately, they haven't made it through. But this year, we sent out the American Express Backing Small Business Grant Program, and East Road Market won $10,000 in a grant to improve and help with their business. So, you know, we're always appreciative and glad when we can help our businesses do something bigger and better and improve their business. Other grants, historical resources, you've heard us talk about those forever. We apply for those almost every year, and almost every year we get them. We have just completed the last one, the $50,000, and now we just did the new one. They delayed it this year because the state delayed everything this year. They delayed the grants applications. So we have applied for the $50,000 grant again for continuing the historic preservation inventory of our historic buildings. They have not done the meetings for those yet, so they have not been categorized. We also get a county grant from Osceola County, and that is where we do business development and business retention programs out of those dollars. Other grants that are pending, the Wawa Foundation, Florida Humanities Book Festival Grant, Celebration Foundation, The Dr. Phillips Foundation and the Levitt Foundation are all grants that we've applied for, but we do not have answers on yet. The St. Cloud Main Street District promotion, this tells you about our social media, our websites, 5.1 thousand visitors monthly. The Bugler, which is the name of our newsletter, has 1,832 subscribers. Facebook and Instagram, those are the numbers there. We have 14,000 plus followers on Facebook. Florida Main Street also has an app that they came up with this past year. They launched it and it will be progressing and it is for all main streets across the state of Florida, but it gives us another avenue to put events on there that markets us across the state, not just locally. In addition, if we have tours, which some of the things that we want to do are marker tours again and those kinds of things we'll be able to put on that app. And people, you're on the state historic marker trail, you're on the state mural trail, all of those can be on there and people will know to come to St. Cloud. There are people, you know, the history buffs and the artist buffs and stuff will come to different communities to look at those kinds of things. So those are some of the items that will be happening on the app in addition to other things that they keep improving. These are some of the initiatives over the years that the Main Street program has done, most of them in conjunction with the city. I won't bore you with going through the list, but again, we are doing the additional grants that are upcoming. The one thing I did want to mention, because we talked about in a recent meeting, a lot of people were, you know, concerned that the message doesn't get out. Well, we tried to talk to all of the organizations so that everyone can, you know, coordinate together because there's a lot of people. We all do events and we don't want to be on top of each other. Sometimes we need to coordinate together or maybe join events. And so we worked with the chamber the year before last to put the community unity calendar together and they all have passwords and can go on there and they can put their information on there or look to see if someone else has an information, which is also good if Parks and Rec, and they were invited too, if they have some of the folks we had up here tonight that you heard that want to do events, if they can also put those on there, then that's other things that they know not to put on top of each other that helps everybody be able to have successful events. The St. Cloud Main Street State Historic Marker Designations, you'll see the list that have been approved in the past and are in, the future markers, the power plant and Osceola Engineering Building, and we have submitted this year The application for the st. Cloud twin, but the state has not had the committee meet yet So we're not sure where we are in the rank It's just a matter of you know somebody there has to say well you need to change this word or whatever because it makes them feel good But usually those go through but that when we're just waiting on the the meeting for it to happen Awards and recognitions some of you the city manager was at our annual meeting so she was able to see with some of the staff members and deputy city manager was there as well. We do our annual awards where we recognize people in our community and in downtown and in Main Street who actually do different things. And these were some of the award winners. And we did actually recognize Dirk as well at that event because he and I have collaborated on a lot of things since he came to town. You know, we're kind of like cohorts in crime, we just don't tell anybody about it. So those are some of the winners, but we give out Partner of the Year, Board Member of the Year, Supporter of the Year, Volunteer of the Year, Merchant of the Year, Business of the Year, Renovation of the Year, and then we do a Legend Award and we do a President's Award. So those were all given out that evening. And these are the ones for the state that I was telling you about when we go to state conference. We took four awards. One was, they named them all differently this year so it's kind of hard to tell exactly what they are because they got really creative with the 250th anniversary. So we got the 14th colony representative and so that was the St. Cloud Main Street Soldier City. Celebrating Main Street, it was the St. Cloud Main Street and Granny Southern Smokehouse for Roots and Rhythm Festival. The Minuteman Award, Rick, who is here tonight, who is our incoming president. And the Alexander Hamilton Business Owner of the Year, which was Bobby Beauchamp, and he was there. They both were there and got to receive their awards in person with us, so we were glad to have them along. This is the value statement that we try to provide for you every year. I won't go and bore you, but here are the numbers. In total, and here's where my glasses would come in handy, $517,296.48 is for the year, this past year, in value. In cumulative, since our inception, it's $7,129,000. $758.99, not to use round numbers or anything, but these will give you some of the ideas of what we have done in the past as it relates to projects and the value that is associated with those. That means in the 27 years of existence, Main Street with the city, you have given $1,210,000 in financial support that results in approximately 13.5% per year and 589% over the term. So we are very proud that we can say that we give you that kind of return. Most organizations don't have a return that they can give you on the dollar, and so we try to do that for you. Also underneath here is the board of directors and who is sitting on our current board. And with that, I'll answer any questions.

All right, anyone in the audience like to speak on this item? All right, I think the agenda item is about the $14,000 funding for the .

Yes, the city council previously gave direction. I just wanted to have a solid agreement so that we could attach to the payment.

Okay, and Rick, he's the incoming president?

Mm-hm.

Very good, okay. All right. Paula, obviously, you know, we've had a long relationship between you and I, you and the council. We respect you. Excuse me. I'm not opposed to the $14,000, so I'm going to start off by saying that. Okay. We've always supported this. If you remember last year, this council really stuck our necks out there for Main Street and kept it going. And I know you've done a tremendous job wearing both hats, representative and Main Street director. And I know in the Main Street side, I'm sorry, the executive, I'm sorry, your representative side, you've enjoyed this council supporting you on that side as well with like the BVL, the Memorial Day ceremony. I know you've had our police chief there, every council member. I know I've been there. They've had this, the great, even though Museum Military History is not a member of St. Cloud Main Street, they have always been out there and supported you and done everything they can to, because you've been out there and you've done great things in the community. Again, it's not about this funding because we're still on this year's funding. But you're aware there's some situation going on with at least one of your board members. You had his name up there on the screen there. And I'm not going to beat you up on this because it's not you saying this.

Well, that's probably a good idea. What's that? Not to beat me up over it. I can't control people. You're welcome to voice your opinion.

No, I will voice my opinion. And if it's really Rick's place, I don't know who. Because a nonprofit is made up of the board members. That's the nonprofit.

That's correct.

Right. So you're asking... This nonprofit is asking the city of St. Cloud, these board members, for financial support. Correct. And how much did you receive last year? $70,000, at which you continue to enjoy. But I know Council Member Paul resigned off that board from some behavior that went on over there.

Let me, may I stop you? Oh, absolutely.

Oh, yeah, we can talk.

Okay, that behavior did not go on over here. That behavior was separate from Main Street completely. And we're not saying one way or the other if anybody's right or wrong. First of all, I think social media is the bane of our existence. I just think it creates more problems and more, you know, I'm not even an AI person, so you can have that too. I don't think that the conversation should be about individuals.

There's not individuals. These are board members. When you're a board member, you're a board member, and you need to represent that nonprofit. And I do as such with all of the nonprofits that I represent. Council Member Paul.

And I do want to say, being on the board, I have enjoyed being on there. I have advocated for St. Cloud Main Street. But when we have a board member out there, How you act in public is how you represent the organization that you sit on. And to be disrespectful towards me and I'm advocating for the organization is not right. And if I was the director, yes, I would pull him to the side and say, hey, this is not appropriate. I sit on the same board with this gentleman. And to do that in public is not right. And so therefore, I did step down. Rick, he did reach out to me and asked me if I would reconsider and the day that we had August 20th, how that behavior acted towards the entire council gave me enough opportunity to reconsider because Jason was behind this mess that this guy did. So therefore, I'm not going to sit on the same board with someone that disrespects the council elected officials at all. So and that's just my take on there. I really enjoy being on there, but I disrespect myself when I allow someone else to disrespect me and I'm not going to have that.

Okay, man.

Yes, ma'am. Of course.

So, and I appreciate that position. And I know that you called me directly and at the time.

I even reached out to you beforehand.

Yes, we talked in advance and I talked to Rick. And I told you at the time, I had no idea. I didn't even know what you were talking about. I had to have you explain to me what is going on. And frankly, I really still, it's just like you all individually have an individual opinions and so forth. as elected officials, we can have the same thing and then not necessarily agree. And the other side of that coin is we haven't had a meeting. So as a board, we have not addressed anything. I've had some emails where I've addressed some things that said these are things you need to be aware of, but there is not any conversation that's been held, and that isn't something that we should do. No one, I will tell you this, per our bylaws, no one except for myself as executive director and are the president. In this case, it's Mel Welch who you all know has some certain scenarios that he's dealing with and so that means Rick being the incoming would be the step in. We are the only ones who can talk for this organization. The only ones. So if someone else is saying things, they're saying that on their own. And we can't address it before we know about it. I mean, I didn't know about it until you brought it to my attention. And then after that, I came here, you know, because we were addressing other things. And then I didn't know any of the other stuff was going on or what happened that night. Because if you recall, I had to speak right behind the gentleman who spoke, you know, to you all. I don't think as an organization we should be penalized necessarily.

I don't think you are.

I'm just saying that. You know, I don't think we understand now what's happening, but we didn't know any sooner than you did. Actually, you knew sooner than we did.

And now that you're aware, you are the spokesperson. You're the executive director, right? That's right. Unless Rick wants to be the spokesperson. No.

And he said no.

Again, this isn't about you, and believe it or not, I'm not going to beat you up about Amendment 3 and that whole mess either. But even though Joel... out there blamed us and said we were attacking or taking funding from St. Cloud Main Street because you wouldn't stop Amendment 3. Okay, I can't speak to any of that either. I know, I mean, but that's the thing is we've had great relationships with you. We do amazing things in this community. And over the past several months, I can tell you the image of Main Street when it comes to this group, it's not been good because of the member I mean, it's just it's coming off pretty bad when I'm going to finish because I got a lot here. So I'm going to do you believe I'm going to ask you this. Do you believe that this city council right now is effing over those? I'm going to say effing over effing. It's a four letter word. Do you believe this city council is doing that? Those are the words that were stated by your board member. F-ing over St. Cloud Main Street?

No.

Do you believe that?

I think you're not doing anything different to us than you've done to everybody else.

Amazing, yes. You are 100% right. Because of Amendment 3 and because we're trying to balance this budget here that in, what did we say, 31 years has not been properly balanced, we made cuts across the board. Everything. I mean, even the police chief is losing five new officers that we needed next year. So for those kind of comments from a board member of the year, that's disturbing.

He did some pretty amazing things as a new board member before any of this came about.

I get it. I get it. I'm not saying that he got it because he said those comments. I'm not saying that, and I'm not beating you up, but there is a level of accountability. That when, if anybody, I represent the Museum of Military History and Veterans Tribute Museum, and any of those board members go out there and act like that, if they say one derogatory word about any of our partners, Osceola County, I had to ask individuals to step down from that board because they would say bad things about members of the county commission. I own it. And I know you're not the chairman, you're the executive director, and maybe that's the chairman's role.

It has to be a vote of the board.

Yeah, and maybe that is. It's just disheartening because this council, these members, you personally know. You personally know. This person right here gave... the GAR building night to the Main Street. And I'm not a member of Main Street, but I gave it to you for that night, right? For the Historic Preservation Awards. I thought it was an amazing event.

I appreciate your thoughts, and Mr. Mayor, I am going to respect the position and say that, but I can sit here and say the same things back at you all or the military museum where it comes to myself, Joel, our businesses, whatever, supporting those. Those things happen. We do that individually. That still doesn't have anything to do with me asking somebody else to step down out of a position. It's a board thing.

Again, nobody asked you to ask him to step down.

Okay, so what is it you want to do?

Paula, I've got the floor.

Go right ahead.

Nobody's asked you to do anything. Hold on. You are the representative for St. Cloud Main Street. You are now coming before us asking for $14,000. Hold on. I haven't said a word. I can see you trying to cut me off time and time again. You're just going to hear me out. Nobody's attacking you. It's okay. You're enjoying the $70,000 that this city provided your organization this past year still. Still. And your board member is going out and saying these things. Is that appropriate? I'm just, that's a board member. You're not a board member, you're executive director. Is that appropriate?

Well, I think there has to be conversations. And I had a conversation with Mr. Weathington right after Council Member Paul, and I told her that I did. But at that time, the conversation was completely different. Now, additional things apparently have happened since then.

Yes, ma'am.

And I've not had that opportunity.

She didn't know until earlier today. I called Ms. Stark before the meeting to make sure she was aware.

And I'm not beating you up about it. We're having a conversation, but you keep making accusations that I'm asking.

Hold on.

Nobody's asking you to step down. Mr. Mayor, here's what I'd like to have. I've got the floor. I'm not asking you to ask anybody to step down. That's not your job as executive director anyway.

Okay, so what are you asking?

You're the representative. You're up here speaking on behalf of that organization. I'm not asking anything. I'm asking, well... Is that? You already asked. Is that appropriate? I didn't ask you to ask anybody to step down. No. Is it appropriate?

But you asked me if it was appropriate already and I answered it.

Is that a no? It's not. I mean, we all know that, right? Is it appropriate to have a kind of a racial overtone or make a statement and call Councilmember Paul Kamala Harris?

Well, I don't know that, so I can't answer that at all.

I think you should watch the video.

Well, I agree, but I haven't seen it. I didn't even know until today it was out there.

The things that can be said about me, I don't care. Anybody can say whatever they want about me. These people right here, I care deeply. I think they're amazing folks, and we're like brothers and sisters up here where we won't get along up here all the time. But if somebody is attacking him for malicious reasons, I'm going to stick up for him. I'll stick up for you, too. And I have in the past. So I've stuck up for, I think, probably everybody up here. Because that's what you do in life. That's what being a good neighbor is. That's a good citizen. This is a community. And for me to be attacked over the... And I'll just tell you, me... over the Museum of Military History. And since I have the microphone now, I'll go ahead and tell everybody. A, 2020, yes, I did save that business from closing down. And B, I did save that museum building by turning every single volunteer hour on that building. I just want that to be on the record. So when one of your board members says that this mayor stole a museum from veterans, you've been at that museum. You know it didn't happen that way. You know exactly what's happened. So, hold on.

I guess this isn't about you letting me talk about what Main Street does. This is about you wanting to talk about one board member. No, ma'am. Which most of the stuff I don't even know that has happened.

Paula, you've already spoken about what Main Street does, and I just wanted to get that on the record, that those are the accusations that are being made, the lies, and that is irrepresentative because that museum, with your other hat, has been there for you as well.

And we've been there for you.

Okay.

As you mentioned, you mentioned me, you mentioned Joel. We have spent money. So if we're going to have that conversation in both directions, let's have the conversation in both directions.

And it is. But I have never said anything derogatory about St. Cloud Main Street, Paula Stark, Representative Stark, Joel Davis. I don't go out there and say those nasty things. That a board member of St. Cloud Main Street, I'm not saying you, St. Cloud Main Street, The veterans, the dinner, many times that museum has purchased dinners there. And because it's supposed to be community organizations, right? You got business organizations coming together. You go out there and you sell tables. And that's one of your fundraisers. And that's great. You're now asking the city for $14,000. And I'm looking at the overall picture saying, Those are events we're supposed to treat businesses and everybody come together and treat them with respect. And that's not happening right now. And those are just my concerns because it's coming from a board member, not you. I don't think you put a bad image out for St. Cloud Main Street. So that's where I want you to stop taking it personal because you keep, you know, it's not you. But you are the spokesperson. Right. So you're the one that's up the podium. That's the one I get to talk to.

And you are the council that I also get to talk to to let you know. Our board has not had the opportunity to address this as a board. That's how that works. I cannot take a position on that at all because we have not addressed it as a board. I can tell you how the things have translated. through the process that I did not know or did know and when. And that's the only thing I can tell you. Other than that, we can have a conversation from that point on. I mean, I think all of you probably are aware of how things work. I mean, you know how it works. You know how I work. You know what I do. You know what I don't do. And so tonight, we've talked about this. We've aired that. And it's at this point, you just have to make the decision whether or not you want to do the $14,000 or not. That's the only thing I can tell you. But I don't want to stand here and continue to have this kind of discussion, which I think is nonproductive, frankly.

Well, frankly, I don't care. Okay. This isn't your floor. I don't care. I said what I had to say. I've aired my... Concerns on how Main Street board members tree board member. Okay, so there is a board member So you acknowledge that so the Main Street board member is treating businesses in the community and council members. That's a concern That's a concern. Mr. Mayor, may I ask you this? Hold on one second. You don't have to come to the podium. I've just Rick's had an amazing business in the community for many years, right? Downtown. I look at this list. You got some stellar people on there.

Right.

Not one of those other ones have I ever heard that kind of language out of.

Okay. I agree with you.

To me, it's shocking. It's shocking. I've never seen that behavior out of a board member out of St. Cloud Main Street. I don't know what the qualifications are to be a board member. Obviously, Council Member Paul did not feel she met those qualifications, which is why she probably resigned from that. That's it. Anybody else from council want to speak? All right. Council Member Urban.

Yeah, I would just say I do agree that we all know when we're up here as city council members, whether we're on the dais or we're at Publix or at a football game, we represent the city. So we have to be careful with our actions and the things that we say. So I think that's the same on any nonprofit organization. I also want to say, you know, as the mayor mentioned, there's a lot of great people that are also on the board that do a lot for the community. And Main Street does do a lot with historic preservation and everything like that. So, you know, there is never an excuse to personally attack any council member up here. You can criticize us for the decisions we make. As a city, as a whole, I understand we're not gonna make everybody happy. There's no reason to personally attack Councilwoman Paul or anybody up here for personal reasons. So I do understand that, and that is a concern. But I just wanna say it shouldn't reflect on Main Street as an organization as a whole. Deputy Mayor.

When I met you, Paula, and you told me what Main Street did, I was so amazed of what your heart and body and soul bleed into this city. The plaques, the things you did, I was just totally amazed. I never knew that as a citizen. The only thing I can suggest with being a business owner and being on multiple boards is a code of conduct. for board members in the future Something that they may have to sign or something like that. And that's the only thing I have to suggest that but Personally, I was just an amazement of what you've done for the city We sat when I was running for council and you said well we do this and I was just it was a flower blossoming to see the love for the city, but As a chairman of a board of over 22 people, when I go and we do stuff for the public, as a spokesman, I am responsible for the code of conduct for that board. I would just, just as a friend, suggest that we may have put a code of conduct in for the future. And we all disagree, and we all agree. But that's the only thing I have to say. But I tell you, three and a half years ago or four years ago, when you told me what you did, I'd go, man, these guys are cool. They put on plaques. They do good stuff. They elevate us. The grant writing that you all have done for the city, the things that you do are great. But the tough thing is being on top, you're the one that has to bear the shoulders. And as a chairman of companies and as also a chairman of boards, I have to respect the code of conduct for all my employees and all my members. And that's all I have to say. Nothing, Paul, I think you're a wonderful person in what you do for the city. I've supported your veterans program. each year is 110 degrees out, and we're all sweating to death, and what you've done for that is amazing. But I don't know how to tell you how to run your business, but a code of conduct, Mayor and Council, I think that's something that we may have to look at before we support or when we support any boards looking at their code of conduct. Again... I have to bear a lot of things on my shoulders, and I know you do too, and I know that's not your opinion, and I know that's, but once we accept a board member, we have to do that, as the mayor said. And I yield back to you, Mayor, or whoever needs to comment.

Yeah, and I don't think we've ever experienced anything like this where somebody's actually getting money and they want support, and then a member's out there saying things. It's not you. We know it's not you. But, you know, it's shocking. Council Member Fletcher.

Paula, thank you for everything that you do in the community. You know I fully support Main Street and their mission and service to the city of St. Cloud. I know you've put your blood, sweat, and tears into Main Street, founded, what, 1999, right? It's been since 1999. I fully believe that any issues will be addressed at the next board meeting that you have, and I make a motion for approval.

Second.

All right. We have a motion from Councilmember Fletcher and a second from Councilmember Paul. I'm going to ask legal really quick. Dan? And Deputy Mayor brought up a good point. You know, we give funding to these organizations. Should not, should not, we not require a level of conduct where we're partners with them, we're financially giving taxpayer dollars, that they don't make derogatory comments, and if they do, that the funding could be on the hook. I mean, that's for any board members on those organizations.

Well, you are providing funding, so it's an ask of the city council, so the city council can put any reasonable requirements on that funding that they want. It's not unusual. for there to be, you know, restrictions on what can be said about the funder... Yeah. ...to the point of you probably all seeing sometimes funding of not-for-profits, they declare they want to be anonymous. Right. So those are all stipulations that are placed on the funding piece. So you could put something reasonable out there. The other thing is Deputy Mayor pointed out these organizations are not-for-profits, not-for-profits, and we do try to vet... that they are set up correctly, that they have the appropriate, whatever the not-for-profit status is. And you could require or ask about whether they do have some sort of code of conduct for their board members.

Okay. Is that something that you guys could put together, a code of conduct?

I can request it for them to discuss it. They have to vote on it. I can't make that decision.

Rick, can you come up to the podium real quick, please? Can I get your name and address? Rick, thank you for coming here tonight, obviously. And, you know, this is unique waters for all of us. And, yes, she's the executive director, but you were the chairman this year, correct? Is that how it is? Next year. Next year. You're the incumbent for this budget.

Mel can't physically be here tonight.

Okay. When you say next year, when does that start? A year from October. Oh, a year from October. Okay.

All right.

Is that something that, you know, we have it at the Military Museum. Obviously, that's how we hold people accountable for their reckless statements. Is that something that your organization, you can pitch to your organization to try and keep everybody?

I can certainly pitch it. I don't disagree with you. Yeah. Okay. I was at that last meeting and I was kind of aghast at what was being said. I didn't know the guy. Just thought it was... I went back and told my friend, there was a crazy guy there.

Yeah.

Okay. And... Sure, we can look at doing something as far as a code of conduct.

Yeah, there's a level of professionalism that, you know, obviously when we're dealing with taxpayer dollars and we're making hard decisions up here every time we're up here, and that kind of behavior just, it hurts our community.

Mm-hmm.

You know, it's especially the mouth that came out of not just the one at the meeting, but during the video. I don't know if you've seen the video yet. Rick, you'd probably throw up. It's disgusting. It is not appropriate for any either business owner who wants to do business with the city or a member of a nonprofit that wants funding from the city because a nonprofit is only the board members. That's really what makes up a nonprofit, right? Nobody owns it. but it's made up. They are the representative as a force. We, if deputy mayor over here starts, um, acting funny, weird, I don't know. Then all of a sudden we're on the news that city council, you know, we got some weird behavior going on up here. It, we, we have to, um, act with a level of professionalism and we, we represent the city of St. Cloud as a whole individually, um, As the mayor, of course, I get hit with everything, right? I get blamed for the traffic, for the housing. I've been here for a year and nine months and ten months, and I'm to blame for everything. But these folks, you know, this organization that he owns, or he's a member of that nonprofit organization, You know, we got blamed for hurting them, and that never even happened. I mean, it's not just the F-words or the lies. It's, you know, you go out there in the community, and when you represent a nonprofit, especially one that's supposed to be about uniting businesses and economic development, all that does is hurt our community. Like... I just know I would never have them representing any of the nonprofits I ever am part of. So, Rick, thank you for coming up here and speaking. I appreciate you.

May I just add, just so you know, we do have some forms, and Council Member Urban and Councilwoman Paul both know this because they've been the liaisons on the board. We do have confidentiality forms that they have filled out and board commitment forms. I don't think they specifically say anything about conduct per se. Also, the bylaws do say who can speak for the organization and who cannot. There's only two people who can speak. But just so you know, those things are in place just moving forward. And like we said, Rick has said it, I've said it, we haven't had a board meeting in that amount of time that these things have happened. We do have an executive committee meeting that is called for Monday. This item is on that agenda. But we have not had that meeting.

I know she loved being part of that organization.

And we appreciated her on the board as well. I thought we did.

It broke my heart.

The promotions committee was where you really stepped in. So, yes, it was like a doing.

And while legally you and the chairman are the authorized representative to speak, Every member up there represents the nonprofit. Speaking is one thing. That's the legal, you know.

I was just explaining to you what's in place.

Yeah, that's the legal side. But the representative side and the relationship side, that's what's hurting. That's where when you got a city council member stepping off because she felt like a member of that board is, you know, just being inappropriate. And I don't think you did anything. I don't know if you've... It was just shocking. I'm sorry. All the way around.

Well, I think there's been a lot of things that have been a little bit shocking in the past month or two. But, you know, we have to try to put on our big girl boys and pants and move on and try to do the right things. And that means, you know, address them as you can and as they come up.

Yeah, well, I just ask that you do your housekeeping over there because we've got some dust in the closets there. Thank you very much.

I do want to ask one more thing before you finalize that. Since Councilwoman Paul has stepped down, do we have to wait until January to put someone else in that position?

That would be Veronica or Dan, City Manager. You don't have to wait. There's an empty seat. I'm on so many myself. You know, I'm...

Since I was previously on the board, I'm happy to step in and term if that's the council's pleasure.

You don't want to do it for a month?

Love you, Paula. All right. So Councilmember Urban, he's volunteered himself, but I'll go ahead and make a motion for Councilmember Urban to be on St. Cloud Main Street board.

So before we take a motion on that, do we still have a motion on the floor?

You're right, we have a motion on the table. We have a motion from, I believe it was Council Member Fletcher, a second from Council Member Paul. This is on the funding for the St. Cloud Main Street. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Fletcher?

Aye.

Council Member Paul?

Aye.

Council Member Urban?

Aye.

Deputy Mayor Gilbert? Aye. Mayor Robertson?

Aye.

Motion carries 5-0.

All right, and so now I'll add that motion for Council Member Urban to be St. Cloud Main Street Board Member. Second. Second from Council Member Paul. Will the Clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Paul? Aye. Council Member Urban?

Aye.

Deputy Mayor Gilbert? Aye. Council Member Fletcher? Aye. Mayor Robertson? Aye. Motion carries 5-0.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for all you do.

All right, next up, first reading and introduction. Next items on the agenda are ordinances for the council for first reading and introduction for the sole purpose of council authorizing the publication of the ordinance for final hearing. The council will not take final action on this item tonight, on the items tonight. Full presentations and public input on the ordinances will occur at the final hearing at which the council will consider final action. Will the clerk please read? Get my glasses on. Looks like we have one. Label number nine.

First reading introduction for ordinance number 2026-55. An ordinance of the City Council of City of St. Cloud, Florida, amending the City Code of Ordinances, Chapter 10, Buildings and Building Regulations, Article 2, Technical Codes, by amending Section 10-33, International Property Maintenance Code, adopted by Subsection B, Amendments, Section 103.1, Creation of Agency, Providing for Conflicts of Availability, Administrative Correction, Codification, Publication, Effective Date.

Is the chief giving the presentation? No, it's just first reading. Oh, it's first reading? Yeah. Dan, I've already expressed my concerns about this. When it says creation of the agency, what is the agency that we're changing from and putting to?

So this all came out of the accreditation process that the Code Enforcement Department went through in April of this year. When the accreditation reviewer came, they reviewed how the organization was set up with regard to code enforcement At the time that the International Property Maintenance Code was last adopted, the code enforcement, as we understand it, was under the building department. So in the International Property Maintenance Code model ordinance that you adopt, you have to identify who the agency is within which code enforcement is. So that ordinance, when it was adopted, listed the building department as the agency. Since then, due to reorganization, code enforcement is now under community development. So the accreditation reviewer said, we need to change the code to reflect that the agency related to the enforcement of the International Property Maintenance Code is the Community Development Vision because that's where code enforcement sits now.

Okay, so the chief building official will never be using this code.

That's not true. The chief building official will address some parts of the international property maintenance code if he's asked to come in and determine mostly when a building is deemed to be unsafe for human habitation or unsafe in an unsafe structure.

Okay. We've spoken a couple of meetings ago. We spoke about this. We've been talking about it with other information. There's still many items. But I think the most basic is that appeal process. Have we figured that out yet? About 15 and 20 days.

Well, we're still, well.