City Council - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everyone. So I'm going to call this meeting to order. And before we start with our traditional business, I'd like to take a moment of silence for the Agape family and the pilots that lost their lives. Madam Clerk, if you'll start with a roll call please.

Mr. Engelke. Here. Mrs. Frank? Here. Mr. Howard?

Here.

Mr. Smith?

Here.

Mr. Weed?

Here.

Vice Mayor Bolt is we're anticipating him to come into the meeting, but he isn't here yet. So maybe late. And mayor Pachota.

Of course here. Alright. We'll stand for the invocation and then the pledge today will be led by mister Howard.

Our father, we ask for comfort, strength, healing for those who are grieving today. We pray for your continued presence in our community as we all work together for the benefit of those who come to Venice to work, live, and play. Amen.

Okay. We have a fun morning full of some exciting recognitions. So we will start with our thirty five year service award for Kevin Barrett. If I can get the engineering and stormwater team to come up along with city manager, Clinch. So before we get started, I just want you to know James and I were seven years old when you started with the city.

Great. And

Brie wasn't even born yet. Well, good morning everyone. What an honor this morning to be here with Kevin Barrett celebrating what is a huge milestone, thirty five years of service for the city of Venice. Looking around the room here, Kevin, it's pretty incredible to see all of the different department that are represented here for you and it is for you. It's it's because you've had impacts far beyond your own department with your career here. You've impacted this entire city. So very incredible. Thirty five years time flies, isn't it?

Oh, yeah. Seems like it.

Yeah. Yeah. I remember it. I was in second grade at the time. I remember it was a great day when we hired you. We were doing fractions, I think.

Oh, nice.

Yep. But something you should know about Kevin is he is as local Venice as you can get. He was He grew up here on the island of Venice down by Deer Town Gully. He went to Venice Elementary School, Venice Middle School, and Venice High School. And his first career in public service was actually as a volunteer firefighter at the Nokomis Fire Department.

In 1991, Kevin came over and began work with the city of Venice. I believe driving trucks, truck driver laborer, and he worked his way up in Public Works to become a heavy equipment operator, and eventually the storm water crew leader over at Public Works. And then just in 2024, he was promoted to be the storm water engineering technician too in our engineering department. So Kevin continues to be a fantastic leader here at the city of Venice. I've had the privilege of working with Kevin for a lot of years directly during my time at Public Works, and he's somebody you could always count on.

When when Kevin was assigned a task, you knew it was gonna get done, it was gonna get done right. And when Kevin pulled you aside and said, we might have problem, you better listen because he's he's usually was right. Kevin's played a a significant role in many of our city projects over the years, especially when we reconstructed the old police station and and converted it into new public works facility. Kevin and his team did a lot of the storm water work and the work inside and outside the building in house to save us time and money. Kevin also is a a faithful committed servant to our t fit team, which is really significant.

This is our tactical tactical first in team that shelters in place throughout a hurricane, and then responds as soon as the winds drop. In public works, they're first responders because the fire trucks and the police cars aren't going anywhere until you get those roads cleared. And Kevin has has led on that team for many many years, even after he moved over to engineering. He continues to serve on the t fit team. Like I said, Kevin now is with the engineering department where his his role now is inspecting public and private projects, and keeping our citizens safe.

Making sure those projects are done to the city standards, to the high quality that that our residents expect, a very important role here at the city. Outside of work, you can find Kevin at his his summer home, which is Snake Island. And he enjoys spending time with his wife Kelly, his daughter Brianna, and his three soon to be four, congratulations, grandkids. So we just wanna say on behalf of the city Kevin, congratulations on an incredible career. We look forward to as many more years as you will grace us with here, and we just thank you for your commitment to this community. Congratulations.

Good morning. I had just a few notes to remind everyone what 1991 was like. So the the Gulf War ended, the Cold War ended and Kevin started at the City of Venice. That was the big news of the year. A gallon of gas was a dollar 14, the federal minimum wage was raised to $4.25.

Terminator two Judgment Day was the top movie. In Super Bowl twenty five, the New York Giants beat the Buffalo Bills and I'm told that Whitney Houston's performance of the national anthem was a big deal. The population in Venice at the 1990 census was 16,922. The mayor in 1991 was, anybody know?

Harry Harry

Case. Kevin knows his stuff. Mister Clinch was in second grade at Venice Elementary. Mister John Kramer was a freshman at Pineview. Ashley Castle was in first grade. Tim George was in eighth grade. I had to wait a few years to be born.

I love it.

And as was stressed to me, I have to mention that Kevin spent his first thirty three years in public works, not in the engineering department even though we get to claim him now. But Kevin, it's been a pleasure working with you and it's an honor to to stand here and be a part of this recognition. So congratulations.

God, I feel so old but I guess I'm pretty young. Okay. Next, I wanna call up. So twenty twenty five employee of the year, Matthew Tomer and if I can get the FHIR admin team to come up as well. And I know Corey is not here but Mike and Tony, if you guys can come up. If you guys are the selection committee, we'd like to acknowledge you guys. Alright, so I'm going to have Frank hold back. Can you hold back? Stand. Come on.

There we go. There we go. Be friends. Hold on. Let me get this out. Okay. Now you hold this. Got it? Don't drop it. It's glass. Yeah, no. Firefighter hands.

Alright. Wow. Two significant recognitions today. This is one we look forward to every year and if you know Matt, you know he is hating this right now because he is the most humble guy here at the City of Venice. So we're gonna have a lot of fun here this morning, right?

So good morning again. You know, as we recognize our twenty twenty five employee of the year, I wanna take a minute and just talk a little bit about what this award is and how the process works because I think that adds a lot to significance of this award every year. So this award was started by city manager Ed Lavalli about fourteen years ago and it is a fully staff driven award which is really cool. It has nothing to do with the city manager's office, has nothing to do with council, this is about your peers. This is your peers recognizing the significant work that you do and and letting you know that they see you, they appreciate you and they're here to recognize you.

So it's such a great process. So we take in nominations all over the city from any department about for any employee. And then after the nominations come in, we form a committee and the committee is made up. We have Mike and Tony Rosen here and Courtney Crane unfortunately is sick today so couldn't be here. The committee is made up of our past employee of the year recipients and they meet together privately, it's like a conclave where they go through these nominations and I don't No one knows who they select until we see the smoke come out of the clock tower.

And then we know they've made a selection. So it it is a great great process and and I just love the way Ed set it up and we're gonna continue to to to go go forward that way. So before we talk about Matt, I wanna let everybody know there were 15 different employee nominees this year and I wanna take a minute here to recognize them. So if you're here and I call your name, rise and we'll hold our applause till the end. So first from utilities, we have Darren Addy.

Patience Anastatio, utilities. Detective James Browning from the Venice Police Department. Ashley Castle from Public Works. Sergeant Sean Hammett from the Venice Police Department. I know he's retired so he's not here.

Don Hubbard from IT. Michael Little from Public Works. Brianne Lorenz from the City Manager's Office. Caroline Moriarty from Venice Police. Rebecca Paul from Planning and Zoning.

Robert Schink from the Building Department. Kelsey Shope from Planning and Zoning. And Chris Summers from Public Works. Give them all a big round of applause. So, just being nominated by your peers is a real honor and as you see these folks around the room, I think we can all agree these are high performers in our organization, hard workers.

Any one of them would have a great selection in my opinion for employee of the year. But there could only be one. And the committee has chosen as your twenty twenty five employee of the year division chief, Matt Tomer. Congratulations, Matt. So something pretty neat which I didn't realize until we did our research.

This is the first time the Venice Fire Department has an employee who's received this award. Which I think speaks to the significance of your role, Matt, not only in in the fire department, but in the entire city. I mean, you've made an impact in this in this entire organization. And I before we go further, I do wanna kind of address, you know, the elephant in the room here. You're you're probably asking yourself, how could Matt, being so youthful and energetic, be the employee of the year?

You know, he looks like he's a summer intern from the high school. But in reality, Matt has worked here for nineteen over nineteen years. And he's worked his way up through the ranks, starting, you know, as a as a fireman at the at the Venice Fire Department, getting increased responsibility and authority, and now he is a a important member of our fire leadership team. So congratulations, Matt, on that. I wanna say, Matt is somebody who I've gotten to work with directly on a lot of projects, especially on our Fire Station fifty two.

So Fire Station 52, if you're not familiar, it's our $20,000,000 fire station. One of the biggest capital projects we've done here in the city's history. And chief Giddens, when we were tackling this project, he said, hey, I have a guy. I got the guy for this project. And Matt approached this challenge in the perfect way. He didn't have a lot of experience with a capital project of this size. But he didn't go into this with with he didn't shy away, number one. But he didn't go into it thinking he had it all figured out either. He went in with great humility. He went in with with open ears.

He brought in people around him. He built this team, and he did what he needed to do to make this project successful. What a great example for all of us when we're met with a challenge or something we've never done before. I was so impressed and continue to be impressed with how you've handled that, Matt. And I look forward to future challenges ahead in your career.

So after nineteen years, Matt has really earned a high level of respect with all of our departments. He he works with every single department in the city. He's responded in many of our emergencies over the over the years here, especially with our hurricanes. He's he has a calm presence when there is an incident happening. And everyone knows he is there to bring a team together and to solve problems.

He has a positive attitude that lifts up everybody around him. We are so lucky, Matt, to have you on board. And we're so thankful that you rose to the top for this award. So lastly, just wanna say, and Matt, you know this, before you accept this mantle, you should know there are some responsibilities that come with being employee of the year, right? You've got some events you have to attend every year just like Miss America.

You'll have to be you'll get to be on the committee next year, selecting our employee of the year for next year. And probably most notable, you will now be the mayor's chauffeur whenever he needs to go anywhere in town. So just be right. So please join me in congratulating Matt Tomer as our employee of the year for 2025.

Good morning, mayor. Thank you, council, everyone in the audience. I have a mentor that I speak with quite often, and he's told me more than more than once or twice that you you reach a point in your career where watching your staff and their success and their accomplishments give you more gratification than anything. Today is one of those days for me. I've had the distinct pleasure of watching Matthew Tomer graduate as a rookie probationary firefighter to be promoted to first line lieutenant to the division chief now and of course today employee of the year.

That pleasure is all mine. So thank you for you. I wish you and your lovely wife Carissa the best of luck now and I'm so excited for what the future holds for you. So congratulations.

Wow. So I'm gonna do what I'm way more comfortable doing is turn the spotlight back on you all. The employees that actually do all the work and the unsung heroes, the late nights, mornings, the weekends, the stuff that none of us even know about, you are all really the foundation of this city and you are all the ones doing the serving of the community. Kevin, congratulations. I also didn't know it was gonna turn into a roast. I think I was first grade. Just a throw that in there. No, but congratulations, you're a pillar. You're someone I look up to that I wanna have stand up here to receive a 35 award as well. That's a major milestone and an honor.

So I just all the departments, you're you're amazing. Getting to work with you during the fire two build, I've gotten to work with every single department. Utilities, planning and zoning, public works, IT, you name it. I've worked with you during this build and you all are the glue that holds the city together. You're the ones that are truly the unsung heroes. Anything that goes wrong, no one ever hears about it because you fix it and solve it before it even comes to someone's attention And I am grateful for this project that you are all part of the team in building it. This station isn't a fire station. This is a community monument to just how amazing everyone is in this city, all the employees. So and hey, my fire family, I love you all. You guys make me wanna do better every day.

So thank you. Can we start driving tomorrow?

No. As soon as the council meeting is over, you need to be out front. I'm very prompt, I want my car out front, know. Matt, good job. Let's put that in here so you don't break it, okay?

Would be

hilarious if I dropped it though, wouldn't it?

Thank you.

I appreciate you. Okay. Let's just keep filling some big shoes here. We could get Roger Clark and I don't think he knows but if we could get Barry Snyder to come up. We tried to, you know, it's hard in public office to keep things a secret but we tried our best to surprise Barry after eighteen years on the planning commission.

Eighteen years. I was born but still probably in high school or something like that. Alright. So if you want to just let's scooch to the center, change and then if you want to hold back. Wow. That will slide out so just be careful not to turn it down.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm Roger Clark. I'm the Planning and Zoning Director for the City Of Venice and I'm happy to be here today. I'm actually not here, I'm off today. So I'm not really here and I'll be gone very soon but I could not miss the opportunity to be here for this special occasion today. So I'm really honored to be here with mister Snyder, the chairman of our planning commission. We have some of our planning commissioners in the back of the room too. They pretty much go wherever he goes. They're like his fan club. So they're always here to support him and we appreciate that.

I wanna tell you a few things about Barry. Barry began his distinguished career with the city of Venice as a planning commissioner in 2009 and except for a small pause in the action, he has been serving on the planning commission since since that time to today. From the very start, Barry demonstrated really strong commitment to the city of Venice and a keen understanding of governmental processes. He brought with him a wealth of experience from his time with the federal government and I can tell you a little story that there's been times when we've had board members that scared the bejesus out of staff. When we would have to get questioned by them but Barry, he relished those opportunities to answer questions and I guess I could use the term spar sometimes with board members.

But he he's he never it never worried him and never bothered him because if you've seen on TV those times when those congressional committees are there and somebody is sitting at a table by themselves and there's 30 photographers and cameras at him, that's the environment that Barry brought with him to the city. So he was never never scared or never bother by any of those opportunities. His fellow commissioners noticed the skills and the commitment that he had and they made him chairman in 2011. Over the course of Barry's tenure, he has led the review and determinations of over 700 land use applications. And in addition to that heavy workload, he led the planning commission in their rewrite of our comprehensive plan, which was a five year process.

And then after that, the rewrite of our land development regulations, which again was a five year process. Barry put in countless hours of his own time that he spent with staff and consultants to work to make sure that these foundational planning documents were consistent with the city's vision for the future. His dedication and steady leadership of the commission, he's led them through smooth periods and some really rough times. Barry and I and staff and board members, the commission have spent sometimes countless hours in this room on certain applications that may have been a

little bit

controversial. So Barry's been here through all those times. While his presence will be greatly missed, the legacy that Barry leaves with the city will endure long into the future and will benefit the city for many years to come. So with all that, Chairman Snyder, we extend our sincere appreciation for your unwavering commitment to the city and we wish you many stress free Tuesdays ahead. So congratulations.

Come on, you love the microphone.

Yeah, but I've got a presentation coming up here in a few minutes which I'm going to say a few things there. So I'll defer till I get How's that? Alright. Very good. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Okay. With that we will come back at 09:45. Okay, we are back and we are now to the audience participation portion of the agenda which will be limited to one hour. Madam Clerk, we have anybody signed up to speak?

We do.

Okay. Then with that, speakers are not to address council members individually. Any person making personal, impertinent or slanderous remarks who becomes disorderly may be barred from the meeting. This is an opportunity to provide the City Council with your comments. City Council will not respond to any questions or comments during this time per the City Code. A member of City staff will follow-up with you if it's appropriate. Any documents shown during audience participation or part of the meeting must be given to the City Clerk for the official record. Madam Clerk, who is our speaker?

Our first speaker is Louis Williams.

Louis Williams? Williams. Williams. Come on up sir. And you'll have five minutes Madam Clerk?

Yes.

Okay. You'll have five minutes.

My

name is Lewis Williams.

You can grab a seat if you want to. You want to.

Sit in the chair.

Okay. I bought my first house here in 1986. I don't buy any green bananas anymore but I'm an avid biker. And I used to love, I bought my first bike in 1988 for $88, that's the way I remember it. Those were the days.

I used to bike down the Waterway Park when it was just a dirt path. I was thrilled when they paved it. Then I had the Casper's And Loop, went by Service Club Park, went by Sharky's, went by Marie Barrett Park, love That Park, Paw Park, Brohart, up Cast Persons. And there's a dirt loop around there and then across the bridge and back on the Waterway Park And home. Beautiful ride.

Now that road is wiped out. Milton gave us some lemons and it's time to make some lemonade out of that. Forget about the road. Put a bicycle path in there the way you have on the Waterway Park. Rent rickshaws. I've seen this in Hawaii. They have rickshaws. They carry several people on it. You could also have electric dune buggies that carry people on it who wanna bring their cooler and their family and their chairs up along to basically an uninhabited wonderful beachfront on the Gulf. And they could pick them up, they can drop them off and have a couple of outhouses there.

And I don't mean just plastic box. Put them inside a wooden frame like the dog patch outhouses, you know, with a crescent moon. Make it different. Make it unique. Make it interesting. Memorable, make it something that people will go away thinking, boy, that was different, that was neat. You don't have another bicycle path that goes past the Gulf, the the parks, the waterway, and the airport. That's a wonderful trip and it has variety. It's not a railroad track that you go and you go, oh, Jesus, when does this end? No.

This is different. Make it different. Make it unique. Let these people rent rickshaws. Let them rent bikes. Let them ride on the dune buggies or whatever the golf carts, and they can pick them up and drop them off. You can get volunteers to do that and work for tips and take them for disabled people, you know, instead of parking your car there and trying to find a place. There's so much to see. The waterway park is is different and it's different from every everything else. And there's no other path that I've been on in my bike that has such a variety.

Take advantage of it. Milton gave us lemons. Let's put some lemonade in there. And it it can't cost that much. And the high school can build a nice little dog patch type shed to hide the big plastic outhouse. Make it different. That's all I have to say.

Thank you for your comments. Appreciate it.

Okay. No questions? No. I questions. Thank you for Thank

for your time.

Okay.

With that we are now on to the consent section. All matters listed under the consent section are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless an item is removed by a council member. There will be no separate discussion of these items. If discussion is desired by a council member, the item or items will be considered and voted upon at the end of the consent section. With that, do I have anybody that wants to pull anything from the consent section? Okay, seeing none, I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Baer. Mr. Engelke.

I move to approve the items in the consent section.

Second.

Seconded by Ms. Frank. All in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed?

Mr. Vice Mayor, you have an aye or an opposition? Aye. Aye. Okay. Aye. All right. Passes unanimously. Thank you, sir. Okay. We're now on to Council Action Discussion 20 six-four '94. If Chair Snyder would like to come forward, we're going to get the Planning Commission annual report and opportunity for council's feedback.

Yeah. Got it. Very good, thank you. Well, good afternoon. I guess it's morning still.

Still there.

I was very surprised. Thank you for the recognition there. That was unanticipated on my part today. This is likely, I say likely because one never knows, maybe I'll get excited again. My last presentation to the City Council as Chairman of the Planning Commission.

Six three year terms is probably enough, at least for a while. It has been a personally rewarding experience. I have learned an awful lot and I felt like I have contributed a good bit particularly with respect to the development of the comprehensive plan. I thought it was a three year development, Roger said it was five and the four year development or rewrite of the land development regulations. Again Roger said it was five, so he just felt that way I guess.

What we normally do every year is show you the statistics. As usual, we've had another productive year. The number of applications is a little more than last year. They are a little bit different in a couple of ways. The one thing that you guys probably want to know is that 43 out of the 70 applications that you see that we handled this year or about 61%, the Planning Commission is the final decision authority on those.

That includes conditional uses, design alternatives, preliminary plats, site development plans and variances. A couple of observations I made in looking at these statistics is one looking at design alternatives, we seem to be having an increase in those as we go along. One might say, well let's see, we're deviating from the LDRs that we established by doing all these, but the design alternative was essentially that, it was to say if you've got a better way of doing things than what's in the LDRs, let us know what you think that should be and we'll look at it. We did not allow those everywhere in the LDRs, only in selected areas could you do a design alternative. So it's not uncalled for them to be increasing, but I found that a bit surprising.

The other thing I found surprising is that our bread and butter, the site and development plans is actually decreasing over the last four years. And I have no explanation for that, maybe Roger does, but I have no explanation for that. Preliminary plats is going up, that's because we have gotten the authority to do those as final decision makers with the revision of the LDRs, it makes more sense that we do those, they're on the same plane as the site and development plan and therefore I see that trend going on. As far as the percentage of things that we're the final decision authority on, we're pretty consistent about 60% of the applications that come through. On the others, I think it's always been the, my view and those of the planning commission members, and I have, I wanna recognize four of them that are here today.

They always come to provide moral support. It's always been our view to go a little deeper into the weeds than maybe you need to do so that you don't have to. So things like annexations, comp plan amendments, rezonings, text amendment changes, we spend a good bit of time on those, hopefully highlighting issues for you all and then therefore you can focus on those things where you're down to making their decisions. We also had an update to the comp plan this year which is required every seven years. That update this year was basically to update to reflect changes in state law and to handle a few minor other things that staff was looking for to get put in there.

I'm proud that it's still a viable and productive document that is guiding the city. The change between the 2010 comp plan and the 2017 comp plan was dramatic. We did a lot of things differently, things that I think have served the city well and things that put myself out there is that I took a lot of painstaking efforts to try to get those in there. First and foremost was dividing the city into seven specific neighborhood to recognize that the island is not the same all the way through the city. Northeast Venice has a lot different issues.

The central part of the city has different issues and the island has different issues and goals. And separating those into different neighborhoods, I think allowed us to focus on those we went through. Highlighting mixed use areas, particularly so that we could promote some of John Nolan's urbanism principles in the downtown and seaboard areas are ones that I think will go a long way to serve the city well. Establishing corridors where we have planned commercial activities highlighting those, you're seeing them come to fruition now particularly out in the Northeast section of the city along Laurel Road and setting up those percentages which the staff hates as they have to update them every year, but the percentages of what we wanted for residential versus commercial allowed us to set goals of what we were trying to achieve there. One of the things we were concerned about is, oh they are mixed use but we will use them all for residential.

No, that's not what the intent was here, let's kind of think about what percentage we were trying to do in those areas. We spent a good bit of time on designing complete streets, yet to get them all done, yet to have them fully implemented but the concepts are there. We took a shot at establishing affordable housing initiatives, that's not where anybody wants it to be, don't think. And we spent a good bit of time recognizing the difference between conservation and recreation in the open space activities of the city. So those are some areas that I highlight that I had a good bit of time and effort put into in doing it.

For the upcoming year, the Planning Commission will continue to review land development petitions, will review and make recommendations on a new park's master plan. We kind of sat on the old one waiting for you all and the county to make a decision as to who is going to have what and now that you have come up with an agreement, I think it will be a little easier to develop that park's master plan, but I will caution setting the level of standard and right now we have that as so many acres per population that will come under pressure I'm pretty sure under the new parks master plan and it will be something that people will have to focus in on. We'll also monitor the progress on the seaboard area which we are very excited about and we'll perform the other duties as defined by the city's local planning area. While the report that we presented to you states that there are not any specific areas of concern for the Planning Commission as a whole, I thought I'd take this opportunity as my last presentation to you guys to personally share some challenges that I see on the horizon.

First and foremost is getting people on the planning commission and the right kind of people on the planning commission. This requires people to be willing to invest time beyond just attending meetings and reacting to what they see. People in the planning commission really need to want to learn and understand what's in the comp plan and the LDRs and I can't stress this enough, do their homework before they come to a meeting. It's not an overwhelming commitment of time, but it is some commitment of time. City staff do an excellent job in preparing their reports and briefings, but the Planning Commission members should know what the analysis entails and what it doesn't.

It should be remembered that staff do not make decisions nor do they make recommendations. So having that detailed analysis based upon what you hear, what you see, what has come forward to set up the record is very important and be willing to putting the time to ground yourself on the principles and then in the meetings themselves is very important. And so I can't stress enough that you all taking time in coming forth with members on the planning commission is important, particularly when 60% of those applications of the planning commission is the final decision authority. The other observation I've made is last year I believe you filled four planning, four out of the seven planning commission positions. I don't think it was originally designed that way.

I think it was designed to do two, two and three because everybody has a three year term and we would turn, potentially turn it over. I don't know what happened. I am sure it had something to do with unfilled terms and what have you or maybe it's dealing with the length of terms that people were set to fill, but I think going back and looking at that so that you are not faced with trying to find four applicants in any given year would be a good thing to do. So I think this needs to be reviewed and if necessary adjust terms of people that are out there. The duties and responsibilities of the planning commission, there you go, are articulated in the report that we presented to you.

And the first four or five are very important. This requires the planning commission to exercise some leadership in terms of where the city needs to go, emerging issues, things to bring out there. They need to be able to think strategically about the future needs of the city with respect to land use, transportation, housing, recreation, infrastructure, etcetera and start the process for change in that direction that will result in updates to the comp plan and the LDRs. Staff have their views and requirements, they are generally technical in nature that need to be done, but the citizen appointed planning commission brings different perspectives to this work and should be encouraged and whoever goes forward on the planning commission should take these first five or six areas here to heart in terms of understanding and preparing where the city needs to go. My fourth area is you are likely near the end, I think you talked about it at your strategic planning session, near the end of the joint planning agreement that you have with the county.

It's an interesting concept that evolved after Northport, I guess decided it would just take whatever land it wanted and the county said no and now we have joint planning agreements. But if you establish new boundaries and a new joint planning agreement then the city will continue to grow through annexations, comp plan amendments, rezoning, those kind of things. If not, then over time the types and number of the land use applications will change with the focus likely to be on infill and rezonings for changes in use and density, a different kind of perspective on things. There are a number of items that are in the current JPA that I don't think the city would ever want to annex. But there are other areas in the county nearby that you might want to.

We're pretty far out Knights Trail and with the revision of Knights Trail and the connection of Lorraine Road and other items that are gonna occur out there, it's probably another area for the city to advance if it wants to. There are other places that it probably doesn't want to go. So and I can think of a couple of those. Lastly, I have always felt that there needs to be a better linkage between your strategic planning activities each year and the comprehensive plan. Some of your strategic planning activities leads to annual goals and objectives that you want to do for that year or maybe the next couple of years, but if you are really thinking about strategic direction for the city, it's called a comprehensive plan for a reason.

It's got just about all the elements that you might be thinking about in there from housing to transportation to infrastructure, your relationship with the school board, all those items are in there and I thought maybe a tighter connection between those two would be a good thing to do. That's all I came prepared to talk about. I would be happy to answer any of your questions.

Thank you for that presentation, Barry. Any council members have any questions for Chair Schneider? It was that comprehensive.

Wow. You did good. Yes, sir.

Eighteen years you'd think you know you have this down.

Well, I'm getting better at it.

That's great. Thank you again for the presentation and again thank you for your service. Really appreciate everything you've done. You know especially for me, I know I came into office in 'nineteen and you've always been available and I pull from your wisdom a lot. So thank you so much for that. Thank you guys for what you do in serving us on the Planning Commission and for supporting this guy as he continues doing what he does. Appreciate it. Thank you. Madam Clerk, you have anybody signed up to speak?

No.

Okay. Alright, then we will move on to public hearings and hit unfinished business. Madam attorney if you'd like to talk about ordinances twenty twenty five-thirty seven, thirty eight and thirty nine.

Yes, just wanted to point out if they look familiar to you it is because they are familiar. You did already have first reading on all three of these items previously but because after that it was identified that there was a notice error, it was published in a newspaper that's not within our area so that has to be strictly complied with so out of an abundance of caution we are going back and redoing the first hearing. So nothing new, it's the only reason you're hearing this again on first reading is because of that issue with the paper publishing our notice in the wrong county.

Okay. With that I'll open the public hearing. And Madam Clerk if you could go ahead and read this ordinance by title only please.

An ordinance of the City Of Venice, Florida annexing certain lands lying contiguous to the city limits pursuant to petition number 20Five-29AN by Abdelrahman Ayad and Sarah Ayad into the corporate limits of the City Of Venice, Florida and redefining the boundary lines of the city to include said addition, providing for repeal of all ordinances in conflict here with providing for severability and providing an effective date.

And do we have any written communication? Written communication, no? No. Okay. All right, then we'll hear a presentation by staff.

Yes. Should I do the full presentation again? Sorry.

That's up to counsel if they would like to hear it as part of the record.

Think we're okay with the abbreviated version, right? Does anybody need a full presentation? Okay. So you can abbreviate it as much as you feel appropriate and we'll ask questions to fill in the gaps.

All right. For the record, I'm Nicole Tremblay, Senior Planner for the City Of Venice. This is an annexation, comp plan and rezone. Just And to briefly remind you of the information, it's about five acres on Curry Lane. They're asking for medical office building projects.

So they're asking for the associated institutional professional and OPI districts for that. And there is just one update and that is previously we discussed the need for a stipulation if issues with the Southwest Florida Water Management District had not been resolved. Those have been resolved as of this past Friday, so there's no stipulation needed on any of these. So I really don't have anything else to update you with and I think you were all pretty clear on it last time. So if you have any questions for me, I'd be happy to answer them.

Thank you for bringing up the stipulations been resolved. That's a very important piece of the information. Anybody from Council have any questions? Looks like we're good. We'll move on to the applicant's presentation.

And again Mr. Black, if you need to be abbreviated you can, we'll fill in the gaps with any questions.

Again for the record, Marty Black, I'm going to cover all three items effectively. We're here to request your approval again on first reading as a result of the advertising error. I do have the letter from the Water Management District from last week Friday indicating that the issues along Currie Lane have been resolved to their satisfaction and they've modified the permit to reflect that. So we'd ask that the ordinances for the rezoning stipulation be removed at this time and bring that back up if needed. But thank you for your time.

Any questions for the applicant? Okay, Then we will move on to public comment. Madam Clerk, anybody signed up to speak? No. Okay. Public hearing is now closed. I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Mayor. Mr. Howard.

I move that Wardenates twenty twenty five dash 37 be approved on first reading and scheduled for final.

Second. Seconded by Mr. Weed. Any council discussion? Okay. Seeing no discussion, then we'll move on to an electronic vote. Madam Clerk, if you can make us ready for that electronic vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote. And then Mr. Vice Mayor, if you verbalize your vote.

Yes.

Alright. And Madam Clerk, you'll enter in his vote and then tally and display. Passes unanimously. Okay. We are on to Ordinance number twenty twenty five-thirty eight. And with that, I'll open the public hearing. And then Madam Clerk, you're ready, if you go ahead and read this ordinance by title only, please.

An ordinance of the City Of Venice, Florida amending the twenty seventeen to twenty twenty seven City of of of Directors Sarasota County, moderate density residential to City of Venice Institutional Professional providing for repeal of all ordinances in conflict here with providing for severability and providing an effective date.

And Madam Clerk, you have any written communication? No. Okay. Does anybody on council need a presentation by staff? No. How about the applicant, anybody need a presentation by the applicant? Okay. And if it's okay, we'll just go ahead and bypass that and we'll move to, public comment. Madam Clerk, you have anybody signed up to speak?

No.

Okay. Then I'll close the public hearing and I'll entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor. Mr. Howard. Move Warden's twenty twenty five-thirty eight be approved on first reading and scheduled for final reading.

I'll second.

Seconded by Mr. Engelke. Any council discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, if you can ready us for an electronic vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote. And then Mr. Vice Mayor, if you would verbalize your vote, please. Yes. And Madam Clerk, if you'll enter his vote, and then tally and display. Passes unanimously.

And now we're on to Ordinance number twenty twenty five-thirty nine, and this, is a quasi judicial procedure. With that I'll open the public hearing. Madam Clerk, can you read this ordinance by title only please?

An ordinance amending the official zoning atlas of the City Of NS, Florida pursuant to zoning map amendment petition number 25Dash31RZ to change the zoning designation for the property located at 2805 Curry Lane from Sarasota County Open Use Estate 1 to the City of Venice office professional and institutional providing for appeal of all ordinances in conflict here with providing for severability and providing an effective date.

And if anybody wishes to speak, go to the kiosk in the back left of the room from where I'm sitting and fill out a speaker card please at the kiosk. Madam Attorney, if you'd like to inquire as to complex of interest or ex parte communication.

Before I go there, since this is quasi judicial, we need to see Mr. Bolt's face, I don't see that.

Mr. Vice Mayor, we're going to need to see your face for the duration of the quasi judicial procedure.

He's on my screen and he needs to be pinned again.

Yeah. I'm on. I There he is. I don't know why it's not showing up there. There we go.

We got you now. We got you now kind of. Yep. There we had you.

Had him for a second.

It's not me, it's you.

It's okay, IT is working on it.

While we're fixing that, if you've had ex parte communications regarding this petition ever, not just since the last hearing, please place those in the record at this time if they're not already part of the record. Start with Mr. Engelke.

I view the Planning Commission meeting.

Mr. Vice Mayor, do you have anything you want to put on the record?

Planning Commission meeting.

Okay. I have none, Madam Attorney.

None. None.

None.

Are we able to have his Okay.

Do you need me to take a tech break? Two minutes. Yes, we'll go ahead and take a two minute recess and then we'll come back. Okay, we are back after a brief technical break. So now we've got Vice Mayor Bolt on the screen. Madam Attorney, are we good to proceed?

Yes, you are. Okay.

Then we'll move on to written communication. Madam Clerk, have you received any?

We don't have any.

Okay. And we'll get a staff presentation. Just for the record as brief as you want to be, however you want to present it.

Okay, I'm sorry I didn't hear the last thing you said.

So I was just saying you can abbreviate if you need to but just for the record so we had you the presentation.

Okay. So the record, Nicole Tremblay senior planner for the City of Venice. This is 2,531 RZ for flagship MOB. The request is to assign City of Venice office professional and institutional zoning to this property, again about five acres on Curry Lane. That zoning is consistent with the future land use map amendment that was just approved on first reading for institutional professional. This is in the Pineburg neighborhood of the comprehensive plan and will set the stage for them to apply in the future for a medical office building through the site plan process. Do you have any questions about this application for me?

Any questions from counsel? Thank you for Thank the you. We'll now have the applicant come up and provide us a brief presentation.

Again, for the record, Marty Black and I signed a speaker card. We just ask that you take notice of the prior testimony under the hearing as part of this record. And if you could amend the motion to remove that stipulation since Water Management District has found everything is satisfactory in Currie Lane, we would appreciate it. Thank you.

Any questions from counsel? Okay. Madam Clerk, anybody signed up to speak?

Nope.

Okay. Any rebuttal or final comments from staff, applicant? Okay. Then with that I'll close the public hearing and entertain a motion. Mr. Mayor. Mr. Howard.

Based on the evidence and record, I move the ordinance twenty twenty five-thirty nine be approved on first reading schedule for final.

You want to include in your motion the removal of the stipulation?

Correct. If you could please do that. The stipulation was already put into the ordinance, which is now not needed. So if your motion could just include removal of the stipulation.

As stated. Seconded by Mr. Weed? Yes. Okay. Alright then, any council discussion? All right, then we will move on to the electronic vote. Madam Clerk, if you can make us ready for that, please. Mr. Vice Mayor, if you verbalize your vote, please.

Yes.

Madam Clerk, if you'll enter that tally and display the vote. Passes unanimously. Okay. We are on to Ordinance number twenty twenty six-one, which was continued from the January 13 council meeting. This is a quasi judicial procedure and I'll reopen the public hearing. Madam Clerk, if you could read the ordinance by title only please.

An ordinance amending the official zoning atlas of the City Of Venice, Florida pursuant to zoning map amendment petition number 25Dash48RZ to change the zoning designation of the property generally located at the Northeast Corner Of Auburn And Border Road South Of I 75 from Sarasota County open use rural to City Of Venice residential single family three providing for repeal of all ordinances in conflict herewith providing for severability and providing an effective date.

And then if anybody wishes to speak please go to the back of the room and complete your speaker's card at the kiosk in the back. Madam Attorney if you'd like to inquire as to conflicts of interest or ex parte communication.

We don't need to cover conflicts of interest again, if you've had any ex parte communications regarding this petition since January 13, place those on the record. I'll just go ahead Mr. Engelke.

Not since the original.

Nothing to report.

Vice Mayor? None. I have none. None.

None.

None.

Okay. Madam Clerk, have we received any written communication?

No, we haven't.

Okay. Then we'll go with a staff update.

Okay, so just a really quick brief overview of the project. I'm Britney Smith for the record planner, City of Venice. This is Zoning Map Amendment Petition 2548 RZ for Zucknick Border Road. The agent is Marty Black, the owner is TR Zucknick Inc. The location of this property is the Northeast Corner Of Auburn And Border Road, South Of I-seventy 5.

The parcel size is approximately 10.73 acres, and then the request is for rezoning from OUR to City of Venice Single Family III. There were some concerns initially on density, the application or the applicant has come forward with the stipulation to be attached that I have on the overhead here. That no more than 26 single family detached homes shall be constructed on the subject property. This is down from the potential at that five dwelling units per acre that was 54 units per acre. So this is again going from 54 units down to 26 single family detached homes.

Are there any questions for me?

Hold on one second, I just want to continue reading that if we can just get that back on the overhead. Okay. Mr. Smith.

Thank you, Mayor. First, I'm very happy with this stipulation. I think it's in the spirit of what we were hoping for. But my question for you is whether we it may be inconvenient, but is it better to have the zoning classification be one that would allow that number rather than have it the number be reduced by stipulation?

So there is a range that's allowable for RSF three, this would be within that range, it's just limiting it with the stipulation. It's my understanding that the applicant can't change the zoning district without going back through the process and going back to Planning Commission. So doing it with the stipulation is a way they can still be in the range without having to go through the whole process again.

What I am hearing is inconvenient versus smart planning and I am just asking that because it has an implication if the zoning is denser even though there's a stipulation for less, then doesn't it affect everything else? And I guess pretty much everything around that has been developed but doesn't it have a negative effect if you do it this way?

I don't personally see a negative effect with doing it through the stipulation. It's just another way that we can get the same density that it seems like that you all are trying to go for without making it more cumbersome on the property owner and the applicant. Okay, thank you.

So I'll just ask the question kind of in follow-up to what Mr. Smith was saying. So ultimately what we're doing is we're falling within the range of units allowable in RSF three, it's just that the buffering and different zoning requirements might be a little bit different in three versus two. Is that an accurate statement?

Yes.

Okay. But we're still within that range? The range falls what is the range just so we have that on the record? How many units per acre?

One to five One to five units Perfect. Per

All right. Thank you for that. Any other questions from counsel, Mr. Weed?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Can I say that stipulation one more time please? I just had a question. Look at the details of it.

Okay. I noticed that it's normally 26 single family detached homes shall be constructed on the subject property. I mean, just being the devil's advocate, would they still be allowed to build 52 homes if they made them patio homes or attached units?

They would be required to follow the stipulation. So it would be just for 26 single family detached is how I would read that.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Okay.

Thank you for the presentation. We'll move on to the applicant's update.

And for the record, Marty Black and I have filled out a speaker slip. First off, I want to thank you for allowing us the continuance from last month so that we could come back with revisions to attempt to address some of the comments from the dais. The property is 10.73 acres. It is designated for low density residential development, is one per five under your comprehensive plan. The RSF three actually matches some of the adjoining RSF three zoning, which is why we selected that district.

You actually have several other properties in this vicinity where you've placed stipulations for less than the five, so we are being consistent with prior actions by the mayor and council to impose a limitation to address some of the compatibility concerns. We went back and looked at your code, looked at the potential layouts, and the language we selected for no more than 26 single family detached homes to be constructed on the subject property was intentional. Detached means they can't be attached villas, they can't be townhouses, they've got to be on individual single family lots. And with this language, your code actually requires that the minimum lot size be 75 foot wide and 100 feet deep. Just to go into some little bit more detail for you to understand the basis for this.

So we believe this is consistent to address some of the concerns you have. It brings it down to some of the other adjoining densities that for example have a golf course and other pieces, but it is a substantial reduction from what would be allowed by your comprehensive plan. We do appreciate and understand your concerns for compatibility and would ask that you amend the ordinance to include the stipulation and move it forward on first reading and available for any questions. Any questions for the applicant?

Mr. Howard? Probably more so a statement than questions. We've seen this piece of property come before us three times and it slowly is a downhill in terms of density and I think it's pretty obvious over the months and years that density is one of the few levers that we can control as a board to help control growth, traffic, noise, all of those things fall into that. So from 72 to 54 to 26, I think it's the right thing to do. We all recognize that property is going to be something will eventually happen to it and 26 detached homes makes sense to me from a density perspective. Thank you.

Anyone else? Mister Smith?

Sir, I just thank you for your working with us and hearing, the council's sentiment and coming back with this stipulation. So thank you for that.

Thank you. Anyone else? Madam Clerk, do we have anybody signed up to speak?

No, we don't.

All right. Any staff rebuttal or final comments? Applicant final comments? Okay. Then with that we'll close the public hearing and I will entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Engelke.

Based on the evidence in the record, I move that ordinance number 202,601 be approved on the first reading and scheduled for final reading with the proposed stipulation provided by the applicant.

Second. Seconded by Mr. Howard. Any council discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk if you'll ready us for an electronic vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote. Mr. Vice Mayor, if you'd verbalize your vote, please.

Yes.

Madam Clerk, if you'll enter that in and tally and display please. Passes unanimously. Alright. And with that we will move on to ordinances final reading twenty twenty six-two. I'll open the public hearing and then Madam Clerk, when you're ready if you go ahead and read this ordinance by title only please.

An ordinance of the city Of Florida amending the code of ordinances Chapter 87, land development code by amending Table 2.3.11, Knights Trail Development Standards and Table 2.3.13, mixed use district's use table. Pursuant to text amendment petition number 20. M. By allowing single family detached single family attached and two family dwellingspaired villas as a permitted use in the Knights Trail mixed use district and adding associated standards to the Knights Trail development standards table providing for appeal of all ordinances in conflict therewith, providing for severability and providing an effective date.

And have you had any written communication since last hearing?

We have not.

Okay. Is there an update from staff since last hearing? And an update from the applicant? Madam Clerk, do you have anybody signed up to speak? No. Okay. And before I move on, were there any questions from counsel of either party? Okay. Then with that, we will go ahead and close the public hearing. And I'll entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor. Mr. Howard. I move ordinance number twenty twenty six-two be approved and adopted.

Any council discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to an electronic vote. Madam Clerk, if you can make us ready for that vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote. And Mr. Vice Mayor, if you would go ahead and verbalize your vote,

Yes.

Madam Clerk, if you can enter that in tally and display, please. Passes unanimously. And we are on to Ordinance number twenty twenty six-three. Public hearing is now open. Madam Clerk, when you're ready, if you can go ahead and read this ordinance by title only please.

An ordinance of the City Of Venice, Florida annexing certain lands lying contiguous to the city's limits pursuant to Petition number 20 five-06AN six a n by Mary l Clark, trustee of the Clark Family Trust into the corporate limits of the city of Venice, Florida and redefining the boundary lines of the city to include said addition providing for repeal of all ordinances in conflict here with providing for severability and finding an effective date.

And Madam Clerk, do we have any written communication since last hearing?

No, we haven't.

Okay. Staff, any updates since last hearing? Applicants since last hearing? Counsel, any questions of either party? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, do you have anybody signed up to speak?

No, I don't.

Public hearing is now closed. I'll entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor. Mr. Howard. Move ordinance twenty twenty six dash zero three be approved and adopted.

Second. Seconded by Mr. Engelke. Any council discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, if you'll ready us for an electronic vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote. And then Mr. Vice Mayor, if you would verbalize your vote, please.

Yes.

Madam Clerk, if you would enter that in tally and display. Passes unanimously. On to Ordinance number twenty twenty six-four and the public hearing is now open. Madam clerk when you're ready if you'd read this ordinance by title only please.

An ordinance of the City Of Venice, Florida amending the twenty seventeen to twenty twenty seven City Of Venice comprehensive plan future land use map and associated pages pursuant to petition number 20Five-07CP to change the future land use designation of special real property located at 2327 Ewing Drive from Sarasota County rural to City Of Venice medium density residential providing for appeal of all ordinances in conflict here with, providing for severability and providing an effective date.

And do you have any written communication since last hearing?

No, I don't.

Okay. Let's see if there's an update from staff, update from the applicant. Any questions by counsel to either party? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, you have anybody signed up to speak?

No.

Public hearing is now closed and I'll entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor. Mr. Howard. Move Ordinance number twenty twenty six-four be approved and adopted.

Seconded by Mr. Inglekey. Any council discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, if you're ready, a small electronic vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote. And then Mr. Vice Mayor, if you verbalize your vote, please.

Yes.

Madam Clerk, if you can enter his vote and tally and display. Passes unanimously. And we are now on to ordinance number twenty twenty six-five. This is a quasi judicial procedure. Public hearing is now open. Madam Clerk, if you can read this, ordinance by title only please.

An ordinance amending the official zoning atlas of the City Of Venice, Florida pursuant to zoning map amendment petition number 25Dash08RZ to change the zoning designation for the property located at 2327 Ewing Drive from Sarasota County Open Use Estate 1 to City Of Venice Residential Multifamily 3 providing for repeal of all ordinances in conflict herewith providing for severability and providing an

And if anybody wishes to speak, please check-in at the kiosk in the back of the room and fill out a speaker's card so that we can acknowledge you and let you speak. Madam Attorney, if you could inquire us to conflicts of interest in ex parte communications since last hearing?

Donate to cover conflicts of interest but if you've had any ex parte communications regarding this petition since first reading please indicate those for the record.

Mr. Vice Mayor?

None.

None for me? None.

None. None.

Okay.

Then with that, we will move on to written communication since last hearing. Any?

We don't have any. Okay.

How about a staff update? Nothing? Any questions of staff by counsel? How about an applicant update? Nothing? Questions by counsel? Seeing none, we'll move into public comment. Madam Clerk, do have anybody signed up to speak?

No, I don't.

Okay. And any final comments from staff? Final comments from applicant? Public hearing now closed and I'll entertain a motion.

Mister mayor. Mister Howard. Based on the evidence in the record, I move that ordinance number twenty twenty six dash zero five, excuse me, be approved and adopted.

All second.

Seconded by mister Engelke. Any council discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, if you can ready us for an electronic vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote. Mr. Vice Mayor, if you'd verbalize your vote, please.

Yes.

Madam Clerk, if you'll enter his vote and then tally and display. Passes unanimously. All right. With that, we will come back at 11:00. Okay. We are back and we are on to resolutions. Resolution number twenty twenty six-four. Madam Clerk, if you can read the resolution by title only when you're ready.

A resolution of the City of Venice, Florida adopting a capital fixed asset policy. We're sending resolution 20 fourteen-sixteen and providing an effective date.

And do you have anybody signed up to speak?

I don't.

Okay. I'll entertain a motion.

Mayor, I would move that resolution number twenty twenty six-four be approved and adopted.

Second. Seconded by Mr. Howard. Any council discussion? Seeing none, then we will move on to the electronic vote. Madam Clerk, if you will make us ready for that electronic vote. Mr. Howard? And then Mr. Vice Mayor, if you'd verbalize your vote,

Yes.

Then Madam Clerk, if you can enter that then tally and display. Passes unanimously. On the resolution number twenty twenty six dash zero five. And Madam Clerk, when you're ready, if you could go ahead and read this ordinance, this resolution, sorry, by title only.

A resolution of the city of NS, Florida adopting a revised schedule of emergency medical aid fees consistent with section 30 dash 41 of the city code of ordinances, superseding resolution number twenty twenty five dash 13 and providing an effective date. Date.

Madam Clerk, do have anybody signed up to speak?

No, I don't.

All right. Then I'll understand the motion. Mr. Mayor. Mr. Howard.

Move a resolution twenty twenty six-five be approved and adopted.

Seconded by Mr. Ingleke. Any council discussion? Mr. Weed?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just a point of clarification. Is this something that is voted on traditionally every year by the council or is there a possibility of changing it towards an automatic CPI adjustment so it does not have to come in

for council approval? Madam Attorney?

Okay. It is set up that it's automatically adjusted. The only reason you're seeing it today is that there was a new fee added on. But otherwise it is automatically adjusted October 1 by the CPI.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate that. Any other discussion from counsel? Then Madam Clerk, if you'll make us ready for an electronic vote, Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote. And Mr. Vice Mayor, if you'd verbalize your vote, please.

Yes.

Okay. And Madam Clerk, if you'd enter his vote and then tally and display. Passes unanimously. On to Presentations, we will do 20 six-four 95 and that is the Finance Director, Linda Seni, quarterly financial update. If you want to come forward.

Good morning, Mayor and Counsel, Linda Senney, Finance Director. This is our quarterly financial report, which is the first quarter for fiscal year twenty twenty six. As in the past, I have the red colored number so that you can identify that goes along with my written memo for it. So for property taxes at this point in time after the first quarter, the majority of the property taxes are collected during the first quarter and to date we've collected 84% of the property taxes for fiscal year twenty six. Fire casualty and police casualty insurance, you can see that's zero because we generally collect that in the last quarter.

We generally get those dollars in August or September, so there's no dollars for that. Communication services tax is right now right on target at 25% of the projected budget. The franchise fees and utility services tax for electricity and propane, that is just slightly above the budget at 29%. Utility services tax, which is the number four for electricity and propane is 29, sorry, that's 29% and same with the franchise fees, they're both 29% at this point. And then licenses and permits are at they're low at this point in time at 21%.

The majority of that is zoning permits, which is at 22% at this point in time and the business tax licensing is at 12% and most of the business tax licensing there again comes in August or September for the business tax receipts. Then for the intergovernmental revenue, the biggest portion is the $1 the $0.05 sales tax is at 22% and the state revenue sharing is at 26%. And then for this year, I forgot to put the number seven on it but it's the second line of the if you can see my PowerPoint, it's the second line where it says the federal grants for 265,000. That is a grant that we've received from the United States immigration customs enforcement component from the ICE. That's from the Department of Homeland Security and that's an agreement that our police department has with them for training certified officers and functions of immigration under the election and supervision of ICE.

So we've got a grant for that and that went I mean, that's for the police department and we'll be coming forward with that in the next probably in February one of the council meetings, I'll have a budget amendment to actually put that in as a revenue budgeted item and then police will have certain expenses that we're going to use some of that money for. So that will be coming in as a budget amendment. But we did get the money already. We just didn't know we were going to get it or at what point in time we were going get that money or we didn't even know the dollar amount. But that money has come in, it came in December.

So it's the 2026 for the $265,000 Then our investment earnings are above our projected budget already at 43%. But I wanted to point out that you'll notice the difference from the actual of '24 to '25 that we received just within the general fund, 338,000 less of investment earnings from fiscal twenty five to fiscal twenty four. So it's more for the city as a whole but just within the general fund. But then we are right now at $380,000 for fiscal twenty six. Charges for services is right at 25% but the biggest one that we get in is the EMS transport fees, which is pretty much right on target, it's at 24% right now but that's the largest one under charges for services is the EMS transport fee and that's the one that your resolution was just before to add the lift assist as part of those fees now.

Before we were not billing for lift assist so now that will be part of that resolution to add that onto their EMS transport fees. Miscellaneous revenue, the biggest one that we haven't received yet, which we generally receive in the second quarter is the money that we get from the Venice peer group. We generally receive that like in February or March. So that will be in the next quarter where you'll see that payment for that. So those are the revenues that we have as of the first quarter.

Then for the expenses, all the departments are within their operating budget. You'll see there's one department that is above the 25 target at this point in time and that's the parks department and that's because we did the $5,000,000 payment to the county for Wellfield Park. So right now they're at 70% but that's because of the $5,000,000 payment. But the rest of the departments are less tracking, less than where we want them to be at this point in time. So they're less than their 25% budget for the fiscal year.

So overall, I'll go back to the sheet which shows our estimated projection at this time for as you can see, at the end of fiscal twenty twenty five, our unassigned fund balance was $33,200,000 That's the unassigned fund balance. Because the ending is 35,300,000.0 but then there's $2,100,000 of encumbrances that's carried over to fiscal twenty twenty six. So then you see the $25,600,000 33,200,000.0 I'm sorry. And then when you go to the expected fiscal twenty twenty six column, the last column, we're expected to go down to $27,700,000 And basically that's because of $5,000,000 that we already had budgeted and planned to take out of reserves for Wellfield Park. And that's the expected at this point in time if all revenue comes in as expected come in as what we expect them to be.

But as usual, expenses are generally less and revenues are generally a little higher than what we anticipate. So that number once again will fluctuate and we update that each quarter as we go through the quarter. So any questions on the general fund at this point in time after the '26?

We'll start with Mr. Engelke.

You for report. A couple of questions or a statement, looks like our expenses are very much under control, other than the wealth of the park which is kind of expected and that's really a timing thing. We should all be around 25% and looks like it's 22%, 21% maybe 22%. So excellent job to you and to the city staff for controlling expenses. And then the question is, this looks pretty good right now.

Over the next nine months, do you see anything materially impacting our financial position forgetting about what may be happening in Tallahassee next year. But do you see any threats or anything that we should be prepared for?

Not at this point for '26, it would be more for '27 because another that the legislature generally talks about is also business tax license receipts is again one of the items that they're looking at cutting. And the other one is the communication services tax, which that in itself is about one point communication services tax, about 1,600,000.0 for City Of Venice as far as the revenue. So they always bring those two up during the legislative session. So there again we hope they don't cut any of those because the communication services tax is a big one for the City Of Venice for our size. It's about $1,600,000 that we get for that.

And that's significant. But again for '26, we look okay, that's a 20 That seven

would be a 27 problem.

All right, thank you. Anyone

else?

You. In this report I included all the funds plus the status of the capital projects. So if anybody has any questions, can just call me on any of those. Otherwise I'd be here for a long time if I went over all those funds.

Thank you very much for the presentation. Madam Clerk, do you have anybody signed up to speak?

Nope.

Okay. Then we will move on to council action and discussion continued. Twenty six-four ninety six and this is to approve pre annexation agreement between the City of Venice and iHeartMedia and Entertainment Inc. For Chalet's at Venice project. Do we have an applicant presentation? Okay. Staff presentation.

So Britney Smith, for the record planner, City of Venice. I can give you just kind of a brief overview. The pre annexation agreement is attached to the agenda. This is for Chalet's at Venice. The subject property is located at 282 North Auburn Road in Area 7 of the JPA.

The pre annexation agreement has been reviewed by the city attorney. An agreement has been signed by the property owner and that is in the agenda packet. There have been concurrent petitions for future land use map and the zoning map that have been filed with the Planning and Zoning Department consistent with Section 87 1.4.2. The pre annexation agreement is approved, the annexation petition and the future land use map and zoning petitions will move forward to planning commission for recommendation to City Council for final reading.

Any questions for staff? Okay. Then with that I guess we'll move to anybody signed up to speak? No. I'll entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor. Mr. Ingleke. I move to approve item number 26,496.

Anybody want to second that?

Second.

Mr. Howard, any counsel discussion? All right, then Madam Clerk if you'll make us ready for an electronic vote please. Mr. Vice Mayor, if you have verbalized your vote.

Yes.

Madam Clerk, if you'll enter that and then tally and display. Passes unanimously. All right, on to twenty six-four ninety seven and this is to appoint member to the Historic and Architectural Preservation Board, Hapbee, to serve a term from 02/10/2026 to 08/31/2028. Madam Clerk, do you have anybody signed up to speak? No. And then do I have a motion? Miss Frank.

Mr. Mayor, I move to appoint Helen Moore to the Historic and Architectural Preservation Board to serve a term from 02/10/2026 to 08/31/2028.

Seconded by Mr. Howard. Seconded the entire Board. But we'll use Mr. Howard for the purposes of record keeping. Any council discussion? I'll just say I think they made a great selection, Ms. Frank. Alright. So Madam Clerk, if you'll move us on to an electronic vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote. And then Mr. Vice Mayor, if you verbalize your vote, looks frozen.

Passing.

Okay. There it is. Madam Clerk, if you can enter that in tally and display. All right. It passes six to one.

Okay. On to 20 98. This is appoint two members of the Planning Commission to serve a term from 02/10/2026 to 01/31/2029. Madam Clerk, you have anybody signed up to speak? No. And then I'm going to move to direct staff to keep the application period open for both positions for one more cycle.

I will second.

Seconded by Mr. Engelke and counsel discussion. And I'll just kind of start off by saying as the motion maker that while I appreciate the applications we did receive, just think that one more round is a good practice when you only have two applicants for two seats. I want to make sure that we're being as responsible as we possibly can be with listening to Mr. Schneider's comments today. Just need to make sure that we give all the potential applicants an opportunity to get their names in the hat. Any other discussion? Okay. Then with that Madam Clerk, we'll move to an electronic vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote. Mr. Vice Mayor, if you'd verbalize your vote.

Yes.

And then Madam Clerk, if you'll enter that and then tally and display. Passes unanimously. Okay. Next and last item is something I put on the Agenda 20 six-four 99, Letter of Support for Lorain Road Extension Project. Basically, I'll do this in two forms but in discussing the appropriations with our state legislator, it was brought to my attention that the county has put in an appropriations request for I think it was 6,000,000 and then $7,000,000 for Lorain Road and they indicated that it would be really important to them to see a letter of support from surrounding communities and we've been working on the Laurel Road project but this Lorain Road extension is a big piece of what we're trying to do in providing transportation on the east side of the interstate, separate of the interstate.

So I think that this is a very important project and that we should write a letter of support for the county to get those appropriations. It's not our road, it's not our project, but again, it is a letter of support and I cannot do letters like this without the approval of the council. So that said, Madam Clerk, do have anybody signed up to speak? No. Okay. So then I would move to allow the mayor to write a letter support for the Lorain Road Extension Project to the state legislator on behalf of Sarasota County.

I'll second that.

Seconded by Mr. Ingleke. And now council discussion. Seeing none, then we'll move to an electronic vote. Madam Clerk, if you can ready us for that vote. Council members, you can indicate your vote when your lights are flashing. And then Mr. Vice Mayor, if you'd verbalize your vote, please. Yes. And then Madam Clerk, you'll enter that and then tally and display. Passes unanimously. Thank you for that. All right. Are at Charter Officer Reports and we will start with Madam Attorney.

Mr. Snyder mentioned during his comments he had indicated the terms looked a little bit off and so with planning commission it's something that the city clerk and I had already identified and there is a path forward to rectifying it when we have our next round of people we need to appoint. So it did get off kilter but we are fixing it. And I just wanted to welcome our new assistant city manager, Roger.

Forward Madam to working with Clerk?

Yes, I wanted to talk about the citizen advisory board recruitment. We've had six rounds and we need three three people. We have open seats. This if you have someone that you know wants to be involved but doesn't have a lot of time to put into it. This board is the perfect one for them. It meets rarely. For sure we have to meet once a year to talk about the penny tax and how we spend those funds. So if you can help with recruitment, it'd be much appreciated. This one is not getting a lot of takers.

And which board specifically are we talking about?

It's these

oversight. Oversight, correct.

It's in tax oversight board. I'm sorry. I might have called

That's okay because it was when

you said CAB, I was like, they need a

little bit more than that.

They're not handling that.

Okay. So Citizen Tax Oversight Board

Yes.

And we're looking for them because they they do the penny tax and and they meet once a year typically.

They do. We're looking for people who, you know, are good with numbers. Okay. And don't need to commit much time. So if you could help us recruit, we'd appreciate that.

Okay. Anything else?

That was it.

Okay. Then, Mr. City Manager.

Thank you, Mayor. As Kelly alluded to, my biggest news of the day is we have our Assistant City Manager, Roger Omenheiser on board now after six months of searching. So we are very thankful to have him on board. He is recently retired after twenty four years with the US Coast Guard, brings a diverse set of experience running a small city over in Miami. He ran base Miami as his last station. We're just excited to welcome him to Venice. So if you haven't had a chance to meet him, he'll be hanging around after the meeting and you'll see him tagging along, learning a lot from all of our staff over the next few weeks. Thank you.

Now, is the city manager going to create nicknames for everybody so that we have and there's a number of Rogers now, we've got a few Kellys, didn't know if we were

It's a work in progress, yeah, we haven't landed but we are working on that, so.

Welcome aboard, Roger. Thank you.

Anything else, City Manager?

No sir. Okay, then we will move on to Councilmember Frank.

Welcome Roger. The City of Venice is very fortunate to have you on board and we're glad you're here. The Venice High School School Advisory Council that I serve on met yesterday afternoon and things are going well over at the high school. Record projected graduation rates which is very positive. They talked a little bit in that meeting about the changes that will impact the high school here based on Welland Park opening in August. And so the reduction in students projection is obviously a constant moving target but also that directly impacts their staffing at the high school and the reduction in teachers that they will inevitably see over there. So we had some of those updates And that concludes my report. Thank you.

Councilmember Weed. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd just like to report that myself along with some of my colleagues had attended at DeVenis High School the reading, a celebrity reading program and it was very enjoyable, very insightful. I really appreciated the time and appreciated the ability to be involved with these students which are very bright and our future is very hopeful. I really enjoyed the time and I encourage you to participate in the future.

Mr. Smith? No report, Mayor.

Mr. Engelke? Thank you. Roger, welcome, R3. Maybe.

But anyway, couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to go up to Tallahassee to meet our representatives, McFarlane, Buchanan and Senator Recruiters. I went up with City Manager, Clinch and Mayor Pashoda. And not only did we get to talk about some of the things that were very important to us, for example what may be happening with revenues and revenue sources next year but we're also able to, bring a proposal for some state funds for our water department. So we're waiting on that. I think it's been, it will be very successful and probably the personal takeaway on that was specific lesson.

I had the opportunity to go to a couple of committee meetings and a little bit different than what we experienced here because they're not subject to the sunshine rules and it was fascinating concentrated on the ones that had to do with municipalities and counties. So I was a little biased there, I wasn't really there for other opportunities. But very, very important, very, very fruitful and I recommend that we as a council all attempt to do that. And also had the opportunity to participate in two fun events over the last couple weeks. Councilman Wee talked about the high school reading, I did, participated with that too.

What a great time. And then yesterday, our new logo, I I painted a square on our new logo over here on City Hall so it was a good couple weeks. Thanks.

Councilmember Howard.

Just to echo my colleagues welcome Roger looking forward to working with you, Nothing to report further.

Mayor Bolt.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. Welcome to Roger. Haven't had a chance to meet you yet. Look forward to it when I get back. And a little unsung hero thing here. I really appreciate IT and the work that they do to allow us to be able to be in a meeting like this. So IT, Roger, thank you very much, you and your group. That's it. Thank you. Thank

you, Vice Mayor. So I'll just real quick say in my welcome to you, Roger, is that the only reason that the city manager announced Tomer as my new chauffeur is so that I couldn't make you my new chauffeur. So I just wanted to put that out there so you understand the politics involved in this morning. As mister Ingleke said, we had a great trip to Tallahassee, it was very fruitful. I also mentioned in that request that I had to counsel some of the things that are being worked on, on a regional level.

So very exciting things, I know that there's been a lot of looming tax discussions and all of these other things but above the noise, I think that the city had good representation. It was great to have another council member up there with us. In previous years, we've had a council member here and there, but it is nice so that we can kind of get the perspective and then also they see that we have the interest. Some councils bring up their council, their council manager and attorney and stuff. I don't think that's entirely necessary but at least having one or two representatives so they can get multiple sides of the story, I think is always important.

Also had a Minnesota League of Cities meeting, it's kind of dues collection season, there's some things that we're trying to regionalize with that, but I think that the Minnesota is back on the right track, They've got a new Executive Director and leadership is changing, so I think things are going to be very positive moving forward with our membership to Minnesota League of Cities. Attended the Holocaust Education Week event, always always a very impressive presentation, usually a Holocaust survivor, in this case, Sora, she spoke on on her experience and it was very very touching, very exciting to see the students from Venice High School participate so that that legacy is carried on so that people never forget and the city traditionally does a proclamation and I was able to present that to her. So again, you know, if you can attend next year, it's a very good event to attend on behalf of Chabad, puts that on Chabad of North Port in Venice and it is at the community center. This year drew almost a thousand people which is impressive to see that space full. And then also attended the Citizens Police Academy opening day, so to speak.

Out of all of our remaining members in the audience, I will just point out again, just because I like to embarrass her as much as possible, Marty Dover is on her second round. She's giving us her perspective of of the ten year gap from the last time she took the Citizens Police Academy. Again, a full classroom, a lot of very interested citizens, very good program, very excited that we do that kind of stuff. And then from there, I've just got a few updates of events around town. So next up for the city centennial is the John Nolan statue bench unveiling and dedication at 9AM Wednesday, February 18 in Centennial Park.

Renowned city planner, Nolan, was commissioned in 1925 to design Venice. More than a century later, residents and visitors continue to enjoy Nolan's original urban design, which is widely recognized for its thoughtful parks, landscaped streets and traditional neighborhood planning that still define the character of Venice today. At the statue unveiling on the eighteenth, hear from guest speakers and enjoy light refreshments and music by the Venice High School marching band. Several members of the Nolan family will travel from across The United States and Canada to attend this special event. The next City of Venice monthly bicycle ride is this Thursday, February 12.

Rides are held at 10AM, the second Thursday of the month, October through April. The ride will start at Venice City Hall with an approximate route of almost seven miles that includes a section of the Venetian Waterway Park Trail. The bike rides are led by city special events and mobility coordinator Darlene Culpepper, who will hold a pre ride safety briefing. All are invited, bring your bicycle and helmet and meet at the West Parking Lot of City Hall at ten a. M.

This Thursday. A reminder that City Hall and other city facilities will be closed on Monday, February 16 for Presidents' Day holiday. And then there will be an Italian takeover, February with the thirty seventh annual Italian feast and carnival at the Airport Festival Grounds along with the one thousand milia race of exotic classic cars starting at 9AM Saturday, February 21 downtown supported by the Venice Antique Automobile Club of America, and the Italian Feast starts at 4PM that Thursday and Friday, and then noon Saturday and Sunday at the festival grounds. The next family friendly movie in the park presented by Venice Main Street, Gulf Coast Community Foundation and the Venice Institute for Performing Arts is 06:30PM Friday, February 20 in Centennial Park featuring the live action animated film If. Free and open to the public brings snacks, chairs and blankets.

And then one of my favorite events every year, celebrate, Florida Bike Month with the annual bike ride with the mayor at 9AM, Thursday, March 5. Take a leisurely six mile ride with yours truly, as well as special events, and mobility coordinator, Darlene Culpepper and members of the Venice Police and Fire Rescue and city staff. Starting and ending at Sharkey's on the Pier, 1600 South Harbour Drive, bring your bike and helmet. Following the ride, there will be refreshments and discussion session with me and you can RSVP to DarleneColepeppervenicefl dot gov. You do need to RSVP for that one because there is limited availability and I know those slots fill up pretty quickly.

The city invites residents and visitors to attend Venice Airport Day from 9AM to 3PM Saturday, March 7 at Skyport Aviation at Venice Municipal Airport, 400 Airport Avenue East. This free family friendly event offers the public an opportunity to experience the airport firsthand and learn more about aviation in the Venice community. Venice airport day will feature aircraft, drone and remote control aircraft displays, aviation education activities, local vendors and food options. Lot going on this wonderful season, beautiful weather to enjoy all the events. With that, we will move on to our last and final audience participation of this meeting. Madam Clerk, is there anybody signed up to speak?

No, there isn't.

Nobody? Okay. Bob? Nothing? No? Well, I got excited. I thought you were Okay. With that, we are adjourned.