City Council - Regular Meeting

is 6 o'clock and I'd like to call the February 3rd, 2026 meeting to order. And would you please stand with for the pledge and a moment of silence? I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all you be seated. Thank you.

All right. Welcome to tonight's meeting of the city council. Members of the public are welcome to speak on any topic whether it is on tonight's agenda or on any issue that is important to you. Each person that wishes to speak should complete a speaker card which are located by the glass doors and submitted ahead of time to the clerk who sits at the end of the dis. After you have been recognized to speak, please use the microphone at the podium and clearly state your name and address for the record. Please address all your comments to the city council rather than to individual members and direct all your questions to the chair. Speakers will be given up to three minutes. All members are present and no one is absent. And our Helen, did you

I said before [laughter] Thank you. Um our first item um Miss Alexander and then is the appointment to the youth advisory board.

Thank you, mayor. Um, it's my pleasure this evening to introduce what if you all agree to appoint him would be your seventh member to the youth advisory council. This, uh, board has been pretty active and working hard since last year. So, this gentleman who I'll have come up to the mic, his name is Sahil Raj Para. And once again, we have an incredibly accomplished young person, 15-year-old student of Malhigh. He's very well-rounded. He's interested in a career in finance and being an entrepreneur and I may be taking some of your thunder, so I apologize for that. He is currently the president of the future business leaders of America chapter at his school and the vice president of mind for youth which seems to be an amazing program that just kind of helps young people develop leadership skills and he's an accomplished author I understand. So that's very exciting as well. So if uh the council would like to ask him any questions, he's obviously standing in front of you. So

yes, please go ahead and tell us about yourself. So good evening. My name is So Raj Para. I'm 15 years old and a sophomore at Melbourne High School. I'd like to start by thanking the council for their consideration. Since moving to West Melbourne, the city has provided me countless ways to contribute and to grow and expand not only my knowledge, but also my self as a person, reflecting my character and values. In the future, I hope to pursue a degree in finance, and I'm interested in leadership and civic engagement. I believe it's important for the youth to have a voice and their own opinions. It's important that they are given the opportunity to speak freely about anything they feel necessary. And I also have founded a local chapter of mine for you to help empower the young people of our community.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Any u Mr. Bentley? Yeah, I was just gonna make gonna make a motion unless you want to ask questions first. Any questions? Miss uh Adams,

just a quick question for you. Very excited with your resume and your excitement to join the board. So, I think you'd be a great addition with that. Um looking at things from your perspective, um what would be one thing that you think the city could improve on or do better? I think uh one thing the city that like could bring is maybe like a financial literacy aspect of like teaching youth because I believe it's important to be financially like uh literate in a way that you know how to manage your finances because that's like one major thing that will help you the youth be prepared in like their career workforce and like anything buying a house buying a car anything. We do have um our next meeting is tomorrow. So, pending your approval for tonight. Um we I think as I speak as one person, we'd be thrilled to have you. Um so, I will second Mr. Bentley's motion on that. Um but just um do want I think thought he did. Did you make your motion?

Sort of. I said I was going to, but then she wanted to ask a question. Well, you had a question. Okay. Well, when he wants to uh make his motion, I will second that. Uh, but the board currently, the way it's set up, we do have uh some longer term goals stretched over multiple years and then shortterm goals for accomplishing this year. So, we'll get you caught up to speed. Thank you. Mr. Francis, did you uh I just have a statement. If you want to make the motion first, that's fine.

Would you like to make the motion that's already been seconded? Um, I would say first and then I'll make the motion that um, it was impressive that you've the author of a book that's on Amazon on teen finance. So, that was pretty cool. Um, I'd make a motion that we approve this young man for the advisory board. I'll second. All right. Thank you, Mr. Francis, your comment. And I just wanted to congratulate you also. I saw that your book came out in January. Um, I really think that students It's it's a underdisussed topic for teens and uh I think it was it's great that you did that and hopefully you have good luck on on getting your book out there.

Thank you. It means a lot. All right. Thank you. All right. We have a motion on the floor from Mr. Bentley, a second from Miss Adams. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say nay. Motion carries. Welcome. Thank you. you're by according to your resume, you're going to make a wonderful candidate, a wonderful person on board. All right. Um, Miss Alexander, you want to continue? Yes, ma'am. Uh, the planning and zoning board, uh, I have no idea exactly how long the planning and zoning board has been around, but they've been around for a long time. So,

more than a year. Yes, more than a year. There is currently two vacancies on the board. And in the audience right now is Lee Mazelle. if he'd like to come up to the microphone, I'd appreciate it. He has over 20 years of experience in the construction management construction and management field. He is a graduate of Virginia Tech and he has a multitude of certifications related to contracting and um I believe that director Fischer also reviewed his application and he is present before you to answer any questions you may have. But do you have a book? [laughter] Sorry. [laughter]

Have a book. All right. Thank you. Any questions? I don't have any lights on Mr. Rampus. I'll make a motion that we uh uh do you want to say anything first before we uh

other than I I participated in the citizens leadership academy and um the the citizens um the the other academy that the city provided and found it very interesting and I guess being a a big boy and an adult now um figured that um especially listening to the the in in the second academy the the ability to get on the board if the uh opportunity presented itself and this this would be more in line with something that I might be able to contribute to. So, I appreciate the opportunity. And I'm guessing your consulting company that you have is separate from your day job. Is that was that right? Or is it kind of go hand in hand or

they go hand in hand, but I I do have clients separately from I saw that. Uh yeah, I'll make a motion we appoint uh Mr. Miscell to the planning zoning board. All right. Thank you. Um, Miss Adams, I'll second that, but I did have a question for him. Please go ahead.

Just because I wasn't sure if you've attended previous PNZ meetings before. Um, but understanding from the classes how our planning and zoning currently works. Um, the city's seen a lot of development in the past few years just in terms of of growth. We have very limited spaces left to continue to grow and then we'll focus more on redevelopment. Do you have any thoughts on the current growth and redevelopment looking towards the future? being here almost seven years now, seen a lot of the growth just in this short period of time. Um, you know, seeing the state how it's really exploded and things are coming more north than south. Um, seeing this area, it's not surprising the growth that's in this area. Um, I'm just curious how how that does work. Um, especially with the limited, you know, land that we do have. So, I'm not sure that I can bring anything to the table other than kind of listen and then be able to to group in with that where where where folks are are looking to see the growth.

Thank you. All right. Thank you. All right. We have a motion on the floor from Mr. Frampus and a second from Miss Adams. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say nay.

Motion carries 70. Thank you and welcome. I'm looking forward to seeing you on the PNC board. Thank you. All right. Next item. Um there are no modifications to the agenda. We'll go to the public hearings. Miss Fischer. Thank you. Okay. For the record, I'm Christy Fischer, the city planning director, and I wanted to um ask you all for agenda item 5A, and that's one two three four. Uh the applicant has asked to table the public hearings until date specific February 17th for further legal review of the agreement. Remember this is the way that we let you know anybody who might come to the meeting today know that it's being postponed as how we used to say tabled and I'll try to answer any questions if you do have them. Um you know we will probably run another ad just to be on the safe side.

All right. Thank you Miss Fischer. M Miss Boltz, I just want to make a a motion to go ahead and um move to table. All right. Thank you. Um Mr. Bentley. Second. Oh, my lights went off. I guess no one had any questions. All right. All right. Thank you. We have a motion to table from Miss Voltz and a second from Mr. Bentley. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say nay. Motion carries 70. All right. Thank you. Next item, we'll go right to uh 5B, which is Stellar Town Homes. Miss Fischer, thank you.

Um I will present those items, too. And that's 5B 1, two, and three. And I'm going to load up the presentation here. U the applicant is here, uh just like they were at the last meeting, and they'll be able to answer some of the other questions that you might have. Okay. So, two weeks ago we were in front of you all and this item had come already through the planning and zoning board. Staff had given you the recommendation. So, I although I am going to go through some of the slides because again this is a public hearing. Um some of it is information you all have already heard. So, I'll try to be you know speedy about it. Um this slide I always you know defer to the city attorney to ask you all about quasi judicial disclosures. Thank you. This is a quasi judicial hearing. Um there are several requirements that come along with that. Um which is uh one of them is notice to the public and the notice includes any communications you've had um outside of this uh any communications with staff and outside of the materials that may inform your decision. Um so if you've been contacted [clears throat] by anybody other than the um staff about this, you should disclose it at this time. Thank you.

Right. Thank you, Miss Bolt. Yes, I spoke with Mindy. Thank you, Miss Adam. I had a virtual meeting on the 30th, January 30th, uh with both uh Miss Gibson and Mr. Oliver and Mr. Roadie was also on that call. All right. Thank you, Miss Magguire. Uh I also have had two phone calls since our last meeting with Mindy Gibson. Thank you, Mr. Bentley. I also spoke with Mindy Gibson. Thank you, Mr. Gaylord. Uh, I had a meeting about this on the 30th and then two phone calls with Mindy afterwards.

All right. Thank you. And I also spoke with uh Mindy uh Gibson earlier today and I also spoke with Jason Steel today and I also spoke with Cole Oliver today. So, we've all been pretty busy on the phone. Thank you,

Mr. Francis. No. Okay. You're the only light that wasn't on. So, all right. Thank you. Okay. Please continue. So the background again, staff just does this so that everyone's aware of it. Doesn't mean that we're, you know, necessarily a proponent for the project. It's just to give information. Um, so the applicant is Kelly Del Monaco representing Stellar Communities. The property owner is 1765 West New Haven LLC. The property size is a little bit over 17 acres. It is on the right hand side of the screen. It's the yellow lines. And I know it's a very odd shape, but that is the uh property. Um is it was sort of amassed over time. I don't think it started off as as that size. Um it's vacant. I think at one time many many years ago, it had a house on it. What they're proposing is 133 unit town h house subdivision. And remember that in order to achieve that, they have to have go from their existing FLU stands for future land use. 14 acres of commercial, 3.11 acres of low density residential to the medium density residential. So that's sort of the equation for the future land use. And then on the zoning side of things, it would have to go from the commercial New Haven and residential agriculture to the R2, which is a one two and multif family dwelling unit. Uh this project has a history in that this property um was you know in 1981 identified as a commercial land use and then in ' 83 there was a reszoning and then it went to the C1A which is a professional office 2017 administratively we gave it commercial New Haven zoning. U we typically will show this and this is to to answer the question about compatibility. Uh this table shows you that there's you know some commercial

obviously to the north along New Haven Avenue residential on all three sides. So that that's really the gist of that slide. So agenda item 5B1 is about both the development agreement and the conceptual master plan. So the conceptual master plan becomes an exhibit to that development agreement. Um and you know the third bullet down tells you the reason we do this is for several reasons. In this case, it's to identify the proposed use to lock down the density to lock down, you know, any request for waiverss, architectural, landscape, and enhancement. And in this case, it would be for regulating entrance to New Haven Avenue only, even though they have parcels that do touch on MLAN. Um, so this is a small version um of the conceptual plan. And with that conceptual master plan um that density even though it would be R2 is less than 10 dwelling units an acre. So 7.7 some of the waiverss they've asked for you know we itemize here but they're already itemized in the development agreement. Again, it's just to bring your attention and the audience uh to some of the changes that they would like. And in exchange, they tell us they're giving us enhanced architectural features, enhanced landscape perimeter buffering, their design layout, and that it's a 30-year duration for the agreement. This is the conceptual master plan, but remember, this is turned on its side. So, look at where I have New Haven Avenue. That's really north where that statement is, and you've got MLAN Drive, that's really on the east side. So, it's 22 buildings, 133 units, four storm water ponds, and you can see the buildings as sort of that light gray and a little bit darker gray are those driveways. Um, they have listen to the feedback, you know, we provided. So, I'll go through, you know, some of that. Um this was a a slide again just to list

from that development agreement um some of the categories that they've asked waiverss for and I underlined with and depth and it's very sort of minimal changes but it does change a little bit of the lot area. Um they are going to have a minimum living area slightly more than the 900 square feet we typically ask for. This is what the applicants submitted for what the architecture of the buildings are going to look like. Um they need to have, you know, two different sets of styles. So, we'll probably be working on them if you know tonight we go through and and things go um for approval. Um on January 14th, we had our PNC stands for planning and zoning board and we did have some citizen input. Some citizens spoke at the meeting. Um and then there was other things that the board talked about. So I'm not going to read through one through six. Um they did address you know what planning and zoning board had asked very good discussion at least over an hour of discussion. I know some of you all were not able to make that meeting but they had a lot of good discussion. Now fast forwarding to the 20th when this was heard from city council um there were several things brought up. So on this slide we just talk about the tree preservation how they added the language into the development agreement. Um so that's the the language you see in blue italics and then the second bullet the alternative transportation method again the the language that's in the blue italics. And then for the master concept plan you know we we told you that they did make changes. We verified we get a large copy of of the plan and we verify that they've made the other changes. um the residency prior to renting they did amend section 14. So again that's in blue italics um and that is already in

you know what you all have in front of you that's in the strike through and underline of the development agreement and just pointing out that the language addresses short-term rental concerns. It does not address owner occupancy concerns. And then I have put a kind of a standard definition of owner occupancy because we really don't have one in our code but and everybody understands this that the owner actually occupies that unit. Um so 5B2 I I'm trying to present all this together because I imagine you all may have questions of me and the applicant would like to talk. So I'm going to again try to go through this quickly. Remember, this is the item that would change that future land use to allow them to go from what they have now of the commercial and lowdensity residential to one consistent designation of medium density residential. We do our analysis as staff as per the statutes. We have to do this analysis. We look at you know sort of the before and after and those are the yellow boxes that you see on the screen of the commercial and low density residential versus when it goes to medium density residential. there is a reduction in some of the impacts and of course we have to you know make sure that there's enough water and sewer to serve whatever development might be coming along. We also sometimes identify the inconsistencies. There were a few areas that we thought were inconsistent. Again their applicant addressed that to you all as to you know what their opinion was. But as staff it's, you know, our duty to do the analysis and provide you with that. Um there are several goals, objectives, and policies that are consistent um with this concept plan and what they're proposing to do. So we've listed that again. And the property rights analysis is something that I talk about all the time because we're meant to that's what the state required many years ago that we have in our comprehensive plan. The next item on your agenda is

resoning. So we've done development agreement, future land use. Last thing is the resoning. So again on the left hand side you know subject property has the double zoning of commercial New Haven plus the residential agriculture on the right side of the screen. That would all be one zoning of R R2. We have to look at the consistency and we do think that you know the application is consistent with the intent of the R2 zoning. Um you know from our perspective as planners we would love to see more open space. So, in conclusion, 5B1, our recommended motion is approval of this revised agreement um with these three bullet conditions, which were a carryover from what the planning and zoning board had agreed to. And I don't believe the applicant has any um objections to these three bullets. For 5B2, um it would be the last time January 20th was considered to be the first reading. So this would be the second reading. So if you're so inclined to approve the ordinance, it would be the second reading of that future land use map amendment. And then 5B3 would be also a second reading, but this time of the reszoning ordinance, which is 2020 604. So that that's staff's analysis. I'll be happy to answer questions. Like I said, the developer is here to answer your questions.

All right. Thank you. I have two lights on. Do you want to ask your questions of Miss Fischer now or do you want to wait until the applicant has had a chance to present? You want to ask your question now, Mr. Frampus?

Mr. Fischer, um understanding that uh what was agreed upon with the rental restrictions last meeting uh was not carried through and and uh isn't consistent with what we talked about last time. Is that correct? Um from our perspective you're right they they did they rather they tell you about sort of their uh reasoning for you know having the conclusion but you're absolutely correct it was something that you all identified on the dis they had a lot of discussion on it they gave us you know their opinion on it so we can certainly ask them to reiterate that in public

and um I guess what we asked for was restricted they kind of agreeed to 100%. I guess we were only asking for I think 10% or 20% like is standard, but um now now they said nothing. Right. Right. They agreed that a rental period should be no shorter than one year. But the owner occupancy part is where they did not agree. And like I said, they can give you the history of why they came to that conclusion. But yeah, they they spent almost two weeks to the day talking to us about it, which is specifically what we wanted and what the code uh board as I mean the uh

planning and zoning board had talked about it. They were not quite as uh they didn't put as much of an emphasis on it because they weren't quite sure of, you know, whether that's something they should make a recommendation on. All we wanted was it to put in the HOA documents that that was going to be enforced by the HOA after turnover or whatever or whoever enforced it at the time. So yeah, that's correct. That was our understanding, too. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Bentley, would you like to wait until the applicant presents or would you like to ask Miss Fischer? No. You wait till the All right. Thank you. Please continue.

Okay. I'm going to load the applicants presentation from last time because my understanding you wanted to have a slide that had the layout. Yeah. Just go back to the slide that you had that show the bas Oh, you don't have it in here. Okay. Let me go to here.

Thank you. Um, good evening. Nicole Oliver with lounge draws at Canderan Reed the lounge firm representing the applicant stellar development 20 years doing this and I still uh always mess up the microphone up here so apologies but again Cole Oliver with the Lounge Law Firm representing the applicant here and uh first I'd like to thank staff for their review we do agree with their analysis here and um most of you all were here for the prior presentation we did take the comments, the vast majority of the comments that the council raised and incorporated them where we could. And um you know, on top of that, we have in this design, as we spoke about last time, we've incorporated the comments we've received from our neighbors through a variety of community meetings and individual discussions with those um you know, the residential neighbors there. And this concept plan that we're coming forward tonight with you all on has the enhanced setbacks and landscaping, the reductions in heights, um, as well as well as designed to avoid dumping any of the traffic that would be generated off of this property onto the local neighborhood streets and keeping it focused onto 192. And as uh Miss Fischer stated, we did add in there the one-year restriction, you know, increasing that from what we had at the planning and zoning board from six months up to one year to um restrict Lisa so that they will be no shorter than one year. We added the requested ride shared language. We included included the tree preservation language. Um, and then we revised the site plan to increase the setbacks on the units that would be on the far south of the property, but they're the ones on the far left as you look at uh the drawing before you. Um, unfortunately to Council Member

Francis's point, we were not able to agree on the residential restriction of one year and that was driven by our financing and the banks and the lenders we were working with said that they would not finance this project with that restriction included. And, you know, additionally, we have concerns as to such um Yes, sir. You said one year. We we were only looking for uh rental restriction of a percentage of the total uh sales. We weren't looking for a

I'm not sure that was what was conveyed at that hearing, but no, owner occupied for a year, which I mean I was okay with six months, but the part that didn't get included was um the percentage of rentals in the community on on over the long haul

and that was what we talked about. I left the meeting that the request from the council as it related to this issue was twofold. One, a minimum leasing restriction of no less than one year which is in line with what was done on the coastal lane development town home development of similar scope and two a minimum of one year residency within the units prior to leasing those units out. Um that was the understanding that there was a 10 point 10% restriction on rep

no that conversation was we could potentially give them a 10 I think it was five and then we said they could be five or 10% focused on that length of time but then when they came back they said well we're agreeing to all of it meeting that one-year requirement. That was my understanding of how we finished that meeting. Mr. Fisher, I know we talked about how the HOAs are structured in some of the communities about the 20% rental restrictions as a whole. So, so most of them had to 80% had to be owners. Is that am I

Well, there there was quite a bit of discussion. So, I don't think that came out as a predominant I think that was a discussion point, but I'll I'll let Mody talk a little bit that. Yeah, I I think um the request was concerns over the corporate ownership or a bank coming in and buying it. One item that was discussed and and seemed to be the consensus and ultimately was the item that the applicant agreed to after they caucused was the one one year uh o one-year ownership and then they would be allowed to you know rent their unit out. Uh there was discussion during that time of what percentage of the number of units that should be but ultimately after the applicant caucused they came back and and agreed to that which essentially meant they agreed to 100% of it. 100% of the 100% of the units would have that provision that had to be owner occupied for a year before it could be rented. [clears throat]

What happened to the owner only 20% being being able to be rented restriction like we talked about with the I thought there was multiple discussions but the ultimate item that was requested was owner occupied for a year before it could be rented and they that's the item that they agreed to. Is that correct Mr. Oliver?

Yes sir. And I was trying to I I was you know moving into that and explaining you know why we agreed to that at that time and the subsequent consequent conversations we had with the lenders after that. And at the time that was a new request in order to get through the first reading and continue the discussion and check with our outside council and our financing team on if that was something that would be applicable. We agreed to it that night. But also that night, we had been told that that was a provision that the city had done previously in other developments, which, you know, I said I had worked with city council to go over that language to see if it worked for us. And um, you know, I think we had a misinterpretation on what had been applied on prior town home projects. But, you know, nonetheless, we're here before you tonight to say that if the development agreement proceeds, and it's a policy decision for this body to make on whether or not to include that one-year residency um requirement, but for my client and his ability and their ability to move forward on this project, they cannot get financing. We're concerned about the um private property rights element of the comp plan and this being, you know, taking away a certain private property right, which is that of an owner to lease their property if they, you know, so choose. And then the lenders also brought up concerns under the Fair Housing Act and the potentially disperate impact of such a provision as it relates to a protected classes of citizens and how it would hit those certain or potentially could hit those citizens um harder than other groups of citizens and they really just don't want to be involved [clears throat] in that

that morass. So if the council decides in your generations that you are going to require um that residency restriction, you know, this developer will have to bow out of the project. We would withdraw our application for the zoning and the future land use which would come after this item and the seller will proceed to do whatever they want to do with their property. And you know, as Miss Fischer pointed out a large portion of this property is zoned. I believe it's about 14 acres is zoned as commercial. The state has um I have to be a little delicate here how I I say this, but has decided to make certain decisions for local communities on how their commercial lands can be used. And one of the potential um uses for this land by someone other than my client would be a live local project which the owner of the land who we've been in contract with for approximately two years has said that he has received a lot of interest for that type of product. And if that product does come in, then you know the neighbors who we have been working with to try to um ameliorate some of the impacts of development in their backyards would not have the benefit of the increased setbacks, the height limitations, and the pulling the traffic off of the local roads because [clears throat] at 14 acres, I believe the city's maximum density is 15 units per acre. Though I hate to do math in public. over the 200 unit threshold which would require a second access to the property to be put in which would mean at least one of these other neighborhoods would be getting a second access for that a project of that nature to go in. So what we are doing is we are asking this council to you know approve the

development agreement as recommended by staff and as you know we've worked very hard with the local community to come together on and um you know kind of my perspective is you all may view a one-year residency um requirement as being kind of the perfect um antidote to corporate ownership of of residential properties within the city limits. But the perfect can oftentimes be the enemy of the good. You know, we really believe this is a good project. It's a good fit for this location and the neighbors. And if striving for perfection of policy causes this project to go away, the city may be getting exactly what it doesn't want, which is more housing owned by a corporation without the ability of it being sold off to individual um single family homeowners. as we're proposing to have the option to do under this agreement. So, um you know, unless you have any further questions for me on this, I think hopefully articulated our um rationale as to why we cannot agree to the one-year residential um policy and um just really hope I've emphasized the other things that we have done to try to enhance this project and bring it to the city.

All right. Thank you very much. This is a public hearing and I do have one speaker card on this. Ask him a question. Oh, let me get the public hearing done and then we'll come back. All the lights are on and you're right in there. Okay. Um, thank you very much. U Miss Gance, do you want to dance?

My name is Johanna Gant. I live at 207 Buffett Lane, West Melbourne, Florida. I have been there for 25 years. I love my house. I love my yard. love the neighbors. Uh there's nothing built there yet. Um I would prefer living there for as long as I have to have it medium density in R2. Um not that we ever want anything built there, but yeah, that's where it's going to be eventually there. It's a massive high-rise with a bunch of people that we don't know. A lot of uh people moving in and out and out and in and coming around. I like the fact that somebody's going to buy a home and live in it. And I really don't think that it's up to the homeowners or anybody else to say, "Oh, if you buy this house, you have to stay there for a certain amount of time." Usually the banks do that if you get like a FHA or I'm not sure if I'm saying that right, but they're the ones that would make those conditions, not city council, I don't believe. Um I just think that the one-year owner occupancy would really restrict the ability aerospace, the industrial and the military people to come and live in our community who are good neighbors and have good stewards to our community in general. I think that's it. So I want [clears throat] as opposed to the commercial high-rise, affordable homes, houses, apartments, whatever.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Gamp. All right. Thank you. Um Mr. Bentley.

Thank you, mayor. You know, my apologies to the applicant and that I was out of town last meeting and uh I did go back and watch the video so I am familiar with kind of what what took place in that meeting. Um I think that um you guys I thought made a good faith effort and tried to agree last meeting. Uh and then I as I understand it as your finance people came back and said that's never going to happen which by the way if I were them I would think that uh they would they would come up with that clause because it puts them at risk uh for for their loan. So uh I think this is a great project. I think you've agreed to pretty much everything you can even with a resident that I think was on a corner. uh you guys have got large uh spaces between the homes and and the out of your property. So, uh I certainly would not want this project to fail because we're asking for something in my mind that we've never asked for before on any project. And I think I did verify that with Mr. Roadie that that was a new ask from the city council. Is that true?

Yeah. So, um, and I apologize the name of the town home project because right now, uh, coastal crossing coastal crossings. A lot a lot of the, uh, projects in the city are changing names again. So, um, when the coastal, uh, project came forward, there was a discussion both the P&Z and in city council relative to to the corporate, you know, corporate ownership, if you will call it. And ultimately on that project um which was about 6 months ago the provision for the 12 months uh rental was established right

uh in order to try to mitigate that as best as possible. There was also discussion, you know, during that that meeting as well as after that meeting about um, you know, is is there another element that can help assist that? And so I think that was came together at the at the first public hearing for this project and um the project uh the other project, the LAR project two weeks ago. Yeah. My understanding is you you probably agreed to it because it was your assumption during that meeting that uh everybody had agreed to this previously and that turned out not to be the case. Is that true?

Well, it was that it had been represented to us that it had been done in the past and we needed to see the language to whether we could, you know, agree to it because I hadn't seen it at the time and, you know, that's my fault. But, um, you know, I've worked with Mr. carry at the city to try to iron through that. But that was, you know, one of the primary reasons. Yes.

Yeah. And I I don't know. I just see the alternative as putting these neighbors at risk of something that's much more dense and and much higher. And we've got a project that uh is it's not, you know, we didn't get everything we wanted, but rarely do we get everything that we want. Uh, but I think we've got a project that we can live with and that is a good fit in that space and is good for the surrounding community. So, uh, you know, I wouldn't want to push it off the stage so that you can't get financing and it goes away. I think that would be a mistake on our part. So, mayor, with that, I would make a motion that we approve the project as written with the three uh, conditions that were mentioned and listed on our papers.

All right. Thank you. Miss Magguire, do you have a question or do you want to second? I'll second with comment. Okay. Thank you.

Um, I will, like I had said, I'll second this. But I do agree uh with Mr. Bentley on the fact that this property is one of the better ones that I've seen in terms of things that could go in this location. And I do appreciate the fact that you guys have worked with the neighbors that you guys do border up to to try to, you know, do the setbacks and try and work with them on that. Um, I know I personally am not a big fan of restricting, you know, a homeowner from, you know, buying this property and then not being able to do anything with it. I mean, even thinking about, you know, my family, I have I have younger sisters and, you know, younger siblings that I would love to, you know, in a sense buy a spot for them and be like, "Here, come stay here. Come rent this from me." But with this restriction, nobody would be able to do that. And this is one of the more perfect locations in our city. Um, so thank you guys for working with everybody involved.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Francis.

You said that they wouldn't agree to the one year. Is that meaning that they were okay with the six-month plan originally talked about? Again, I I I think we are conflating the two. uh we did agree to the one-year rental restriction which is what previously when we came to P&Z we had at six months and in order to address their concern we increased that to the one year other than the explain the two that we're talking about just so I'm clear in my head

if I could interrupt for a minute so the language that's in section 14 is what you know is in the blue that says the applicant shall provide a restriction of any rental periods less than one year within and the homeowners association documents and submit those documents to the city. So you're talking about leases. When somebody wants to rent, they have to rent for at least one year. Yes, sir. Exactly. And then the second one would be if you know I went in and bought a town home there, which is how we were trying to curtail the corporate uh ownership aspect of things. Sure. and and that's which we have done before in that other community

and um again that was the one that triggered our inability to and that's what I was asking you if they were okay with the six-month option as opposed to the one year. Now, they say that what happens is if you have a residential restriction of the nature we're talking about is it devalues the property because you take a full a pool of potential buyers out of the market who can't buy it. And then in the event that someone is buying it, you know, for example, you know, if my mom wanted to buy a property and have the one next to her as a rental to supplement her income because social security doesn't get her quite there, she would be unable to do that. Um, that's a good one.

Well, I mean, [laughter] you know, it is. You know, my mom's a widow and she lives by herself, so you know, there are things like that. But the position that, you know, the bank says is that takes out a pool of buyers. It could be seasonal home buyers that want to want to be down here in Florida for five months. They can't they had to live there for a full year or six months in order to meet that restriction. But it it limits that pool. So as we limit that pool, the financing gets to the impossible level from our lender's perspective. So the option that I talked about that I fully thought that we were discussing before about having in the declaration that only a percentage of them I don't want these communities to turn into just a big rental community. I I would like to see um I I think even Mr. Bentley's community has rental restrictions as far as how many houses can be rented at any particular uh things. I know some of the other homeowner associations do. Is that is that not true, Pat?

I don't think we currently have one. We're trying to put one in. We're we're amending our covenants. I was told you had two. Yeah, we're trying to put two in right now. Um, but I know a lot of them do 20%, no more than 20% of the rentals in their declaration, which would be managed by the homeowners association after after the turnover, but um, is that something that's uh, possible? We uh, I understand where you're coming from. was um I don't think my client can get behind that based off of the the language that they got back from their banks, but that that would allow grandom to be able to offset her social security.

If she's not, depending on the percentage, if she's the 51st percent or the 21st percent, it still limits the pool of potential buyers. So, and I and I really hate the fact that you guys keep throwing live lo live local at us because that's something we can't control. If it if it happens to do that, I can't control it. So, I'm not going to worry about live local. I mean, uh I really hate and we don't mean to throw it at you. We're just we're just saying that's the reality of this uniquely.

Yeah. It's kind of a it's kind of a threat that you know if if you guys don't agree to this, live local's coming and that's not necessarily true. So, but that's my only personal pet peeve. Um, you know, I I I think that we give a lot of waiverss and so you guys can stuff as many houses in as you can make it so it's affordable for you guys to do. And and I I don't think we're asking for much on these restrictions. So, thank you,

Miss Boltz. [clears throat] Yes. Um, I just don't think that there's any way that we as a city council can tell anybody, any developer that they can they should set aside 20% or 21.2% of their homes um to be a to be available um for rentals. And I don't even think the HOAs can do that. Um that's just my personal thoughts. I think it's a property rights issue is issue. Then if you own a home, you've been there for who knows how many years or months or whatever and something happens and you have to rent your house temporarily. Um I just I just think it's totally wrong for us to even think about asking them to do that. That is their property. It's the money that they are borrowing to do all this and the people that are going to move in are going to know exactly what they're able to do with their property. But if you tell them that, well, we have 144 units or whatever, but [clears throat] 20% of them can maybe only be rented out. Um, it's like, okay, is it my part of it? can't am I going to be in that or you know it's just going to be a nightmare for the homeowner. Um and I just don't think it's fair to the homeowner itself. So they're just just my thoughts and I will definitely support the motion.

Miss Adams.

Thank you, Mayor. In terms of this project, I've just made a couple notes I'd like to go over and then I do have a couple questions. I stated at the last meeting, I will state it again. I really appreciate your willingness to work with the neighbors. I think you heard feedback from the people that came to the meeting. You heard feedback from our planning and zoning. You heard feedback from this council. So, I definitely do appreciate that because you don't have to, but it does make it easier and nicer when neighbors come in and they're willing to work, you know, with you. For that same token, um I acknowledge these town homes would be better than potential apartments in that location. Although, you know, I I do think it should be noted. I don't know about the conversations other council members have had, but I I counted at least four times on our call where live local has mentioned and clarified that it wasn't a threat, but I feel like when it comes up so many times, it sort of echoes in that way. And I'm I think the neighbors kind of hear it in the same vein in terms of the feedback we've gotten in the emails that we've received stating, "We'd prefer the town home project over a live local project." However, there is no guarantee. We currently do not have Miss Fischer correct a live local project that has applied to go there. Is this correct?

No, that's correct. Okay. So that was my understanding and it feels and this is just my personal opinion about it but it feels like we are saying well this project is better than what it could be but in reality we could also have potentially a better project. We could have, you know, someone coming in and say, "Well, we'd like the way it's zoned. We have a good use for it." Granted, that has not happened in Miss Fischer, I forget the amount of years you gave me at the last meeting. Was it 15?

Um, yeah, I've been here since 2007. So, there we've had many people ask us about apartments on that property. No one has really asked us to do any commercial on it.

Right. And I think that's kind of what puts the city in a hard space being as I think the city would like it to be commercial. We haven't seen the interest for it. We're seeing interest now on what's coming forward knowing that we don't know what we could get next. It could be better. It could be worse. And that's the difficult decision that I think council has to, you know, we make these decisions moving forward hoping that they're the best ones for our community. The frustration that I do have is it's my understanding that these were presented to our staff and to the city and then to this council as fe simple town homes which then were it's understood that those are owner occupied and there was some discussion at the last meeting of are they owner occupied? Are we then looking at a rental? What does that look like? Um, so that just seemed to me, and it could just be miscommunication, but it seemed like it's coming forward as owner occupied, and then by the time it comes to this council, it's not owner occupied. I feel like if it was just presented at the beginning as these would be rental town homes, then everybody would be on the same page. And you know, council might discuss and may have different opinions about what goes into a development agreement, but then at least everyone's on the same page. To me, it just feels not great that it gets presented one way. And I understand financing, you know, ultimately tells you we can't move forward with it the way that it was agreed upon. Those are just my personal hang-ups between our last meeting and this meeting. So, I wanted to share those thoughts being as I shared them with you on our call. Um, and I do appreciate Mr. Roadie being there because those were kind of my understandings, but if I had misunderstood anything, I I appreciate him being able to say, well, is is this the way we understood it? Are we on the same page with that? Um, I think council should also note we are giving additional waiverss that they've asked

for that I know Christie, you know, reviewed in this document. So while we have been asking for other things, we are already giving them you know what they've asked for in terms of of waiverss that should be noted. Um, additionally, Mr. Roodie, was it your understanding on our on our call it was brought up we were discussing ownership and then the conversation kind of took a turn and the large focus was on a discussion of well they they previously have rented to first responders and other people. So to me that felt like they're already looking towards going in the rental direction. Is that your understanding as well?

It is like court. It is your honor.

Sorry. Well, not a court question. I'm just trying to make sure that I'm understanding. Again, if it was just being presented as we'd like these to be rental town homes, then we could have that discussion. Um it just wasn't and that doesn't sit great with me, but you know that this is where we are today. Um, my hang-up with asking for the one year at the last meeting was in regards to trying to address that corporate ownership, not trying to restrict private property rights, not trying to, you know, get rid of a project that from a neighbor perspective, if I was living in the community directly impacted by this project, I may like it because it may be better than my alternatives. We're still not seeing anything that addresses that corporate ownership piece from a city perspective. Is there any flexibility with that in terms of anything that we can better support?

And as we spoke on our call, unfortunately, we're getting no wiggle room from our financial institutions in that respect. So to the extent that I understand sitting in your chair when someone says live local, it can feel like a threat. But from, you know, my client's perspective, it's the reality he's dealing with with his seller because they've been under contract with this seller for two years. And this seller is being approached repeatedly by people that want to do that. So when when we say that's an option, I'm not saying it as a threat, but it is a reality that you all as policy makers, I think, owe to the neighborhood to, you know, to understand. And and you guys do, you guys see it all the time, Mr. Frankfurt. I promise you, we're not trying to threaten anyone. It is just a reality that could happen. And Mrs. Adams is 100% correct. There could be something better that comes down the road. But over the 20 plus years that it's been zoned commercial, none have. and how much longer does it sit there and you know the neighbors run that potential um unknown of what could come in as opposed to a project that we've collaboratively worked together with with the city staff and the neighbors and the PNZ board and you all on you know pretty much all aspects except for that that final residency requirement piece was a bridge too far for our institutions. So I hope that I was able to, you know, address those concerns to the council.

So essentially once it's done being built, a corporation can come in and purchase 80% of them. Correct.

Sure. Just like any other neighborhood, you know, someone could even in existing neighborhoods, corporations could come in and and buy individuals out one at a time and accumulate 80%. This is uh a platted single family, I mean, not single family, but town home project, a these simple lots, town homes that could be sold off at any point in time. Um, and you know, if my client will do what is in their what they can given they don't have a crystal ball as to what construction costs are and what interest rates will be and therefore what the, you know, the sell value of the house will be at the time they get there. Yeah,

we already have I from my understanding, you know, single family homes that are being bought up by corporations in neighborhoods and then we get we get feedback from our neighbors saying why is this allowed and what can we do about it? That's where the concern is coming.

Yeah, I understand the concern as we discussed on our call. Um it's a policy question. Corporations have rights in our country too, you know, and the Supreme Court has has done that just as if it was a individual that was coming in buying it. You know, it could be a billionaire who comes in. Is he still an individual if he's buying them all in his individual name? You know, is that a problem? Um, or are we going to require him to live in each individual house as he does it? You know, that's where I I know I think that is the policy balance that we've tried to strive with restricting those individuals from being able to come in and do short-term rentals and any leases under one year. So we've tried to in our view we've tried to address those concerns but I understand your view and you know respectfully as we did on Friday my client disagrees with

we don't agree and that's okay. We won't always agree. Um it I did bring it up the last meeting. I know staff brought it up in their presentation. We're still asking for more additional open space but I didn't see any changes from that from our first meeting to our second.

Yeah. Why? driven by what we discussed then the needs for the retention both wet and dry and the utilizing the large dry retention areas as open green field spaces because 95% plus of the year they're just big grass fields and um I think that they've done the best they can given the fiscal constraints and geographic ge um I guess geometric constraints of the site both on topography and um preserving the trees in some of the other areas.

Miss Fischer, if you were looking at this project without the additional waiverss and things that we are giving, where could you see just in your opinion, where would open space come from? Well, they they would have to give up some units. So, he's right on that. I mean, there's really no way to do that without giving up units with the current layout of two stories. um compact development where you sort of, you know, try to get the buildings more in the center usually means you go up or you lose units. It's one of the two.

Um so, you know, from staff's perspective because it's so oddly shaped, you know, I would have preferred more open space along the western property line. So, I'm going to use a cursor to kind of illustrate to you, you know, and I I know he's going to have an answer. you asked me a question. So, I'm giving you my perspective that that's where we saw, you know, the greatest buffer to the greatest amount of people. You know, that that's what I try to think of as a community. Okay? If we're only buffering one or two people, it's probably better to to buffer 15 20 houses than just the one or two. So, if you're going to give more open space, it would really be on that side in my opinion. But you guys gave the additional buffers because of feedback from the neighbors, correct? In the locations they are.

We did it initially before meeting the neighbors and then also, you know, because we knew that would be a concern. And some of those are um houses that have been in the area for a long time and fence lines kind of um you know, when you replace a fence sometimes it moves over a foot or so. So, in order to try to minimize disruption to where some of those were, we pulled our town homes. And again, I'm I'm having spatial problems because I see it as south, but Miss Fischer's correct. We pulled the units down on this, but that would be east on the map to provide the maximum buffer to the most and the number of single family houses that we could. Miss Fischer is correct on that one. And the ponds were located as they were based off of the rough takes of how the topography works and the ability to manage and move the water um under the St. John's permits. But I'm a really horrible engineer and that would be an engineering question as to why, you know, on the first level they have put them there. But that was what I was told. staff did a request to try to put the uh ponds along that that boundary and it didn't work on the engineering side. So that was where they are now or why they are where they are now.

Okay. Thank you. I I think I have the last question here. Um Miss Fischer, when this was first presented to us, I think it was back in August. Yes. First presented, it was presented as owner occupied. P simple owner occupied.

It was. Yes. It was presented to staff at way too as owner occupied. So I I just want to clarify a few things. Um you know Cole Oliver is right in talking about single family that this is what we would call single family attached and what we call like the people on Lee Road those houses we call a single family detached. So to staff we hear you know fees simple and we think ownership but I did ask that question is it going to be owner occupied and the answer I got back was yes. So you're correct that was our understanding. So, originally it was presented as owner occupied and the one year was agreed to at our last January 20th meeting um after the caucus came back and I realized that things changed but it was agreed to then that it would be for 100% for the first 12 months and 12 month leases at that at our last meeting. So, we all left here with that mindset. Everybody did council and your side as well and now we're here today. So what what changed between August and now when it was originally owner occupied and now we can't do that.

Yeah, I was not engaged with this project in August. So I can't speak directly um to that question on it, but I can as to what happened between first reading two weeks ago and tonight. And I I've tried to lay that out as as best I'm able to as to we were hit with that when it was new to us. But in order to get through the first reading and try to work with city's attorney on the language to take it to our financing group to make sure it could work there, we had agreed to it to move forward because we have again we've been under contract for two years on this property. our seller is um running out of patience and if we would have tabled that at that hearing then come back and had first hearing you know here and then you know another hearing it it keeps kicking the can down the road and um our team does not have that time any longer unfortunately under their contractual obligations. So that's why we're here tonight with we're requesting the development agreement as recommended by staff. Okay, Miss Del Monaco, did you want to speak?

Good evening. Kelly Del Monaco, planning consultant and applicant. I just wanted to um clarify real quick, Mayor. Um you mentioned that we had presented back in August, and I'm not really sure what you're referencing. The first time we've been to council for this project was the last meeting. Didn't you come before us last summer um on this project? It was your project as well. Was Am I Am I confusing? plan that was a different wasn't it? Well, this particular project didn't come to you. I thought I guess you were referring to some of the discussions you had had with Mr. Roadie or myself, but

no, it was M this Del Monaco that presented and it was not this project. I think what I think about is um so the first time I've come with this this project um was the last council meeting that we were at but previously last year earlier last year I came in front to request a code amendment to the R2 zoning code in general citywide for this project that was in it was it was non-denominational it was R2 citywide and that was proposing to change some of the dimensional standards for lots by adding in requirements for like additional buffering and landscaping. All right. Thank you. Thank you. My mistake.

And Right. And so we didn't discuss anything owner occupied and the only conversations I've had about this property and specifically was discussing it as a fee simple attached single family subdivision. All right. Thank you. Miss Adams, your light. Did you That is definitely not my recollection. That's what I'm trying to get clarification on because we just got Miss Fischer saying something different. So, I'm a little confused. Yeah, we can get clarification.

When this project was first presented to myself uh along with uh planning director Christy Fiser, it was it was proposed as a owner occupied town traditional town home project. Not not anything different. Now, I would have to check my calendar, but I'm guessing six months ago, six months ago, we development agreements been in the works for at least that long. Six months, five months. That's probably about correct. We had sat down in in city hall and went over a plan, right? I mean,

yeah, it's been over a year probably. So we did since we've been discussing um but I would have only ever referred to it as a platted fee simple single single family attached townhouse project. So I'm not sure. So we did discuss this project. No we did not. I don't at city hallation.

Yeah. Ve very specifically when um this project was presented the ownership group has these types of project as rentals and these types of projects as uh owner occupied where they obviously the intent is to build and and sell to end users and then you know do the rinse and repeat. This was not presented as a corporateowned rental project. It was presented as a owner occupied project. And that's one recollection too.

But you know again as I guess I'll cut to the chase. What is what is the intent is are are is staff mis misinterpreted that and is this intended to be just rental you know corp uh the uh developer owned and just rent it out or is the intent to sell these units and and have it a community of owners?

I think I understand the question. Um, and you the intent is, as I thought I said earlier, which is to have the flexibility to do what is best at the time they bring the market, bring this product to market. If the pricing works, they're perfectly willing to sell into individual unit um, single family owners or whomever is going to buy a unit by unit. If the fiscal um the numbers to you know be blank or be fair don't work then they need that flexibility to rent units as they work towards selling them because they're going to have to pay their construction loan. They're going to have to uh move this forward. They're not bringing it in with an eye of a raw sell them all at a discount cost just because that's the day they finished. It's just would devalue the project. All right. Thank you.

All right. I have no more lights on. This is for the uh development agreement and we have a motion on the floor from Mr. Bentley and a second from Miss Maguire. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Those not in favor say nay. Nay. And we have a roll call vote, please. Miss Alexander. Council member Bentley. Hi. Deputy Mayor Maguire. Hi. Council member Frampus. Nay. Council member Adams. Hi. Council member Vultz. Hi. Council member Gaylord. I. Mayor Young. Nay.

The matter passes 52. Motion. Motion passes 52. All right. Thank you very much. Oh, that was easy. And then there's the uh the ordinances. So, if I could have the city attorney read the titles, Mr. Carrie, please.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. This is ordinance the first one. There are two to read, so I'm going to read them uh both in turn. Uh, the first one is ordinance number 2026-03, an ordinance of the city of West Melbourne, Bvard County, Florida, amending the future land use map of the comprehensive plan to change future land use on parcels of land totaling 17.12 plus or minus acres located south of West New Haven Avenue west of MLAN Drive and east of Lee Road as more fully described herein from commercial and lowdensity residential to medium density residential providing an effective date. The second ordinance is ordinance number 2026-04. An ordinance of the city of West Melbourne, Bvard County, Florida, reszoning parcels of land totaling 17 plus or minus.12 plus or minus acres and generally located south of West New Haven Avenue west of Mlan Drive and east of Lee Road and is more fully described here in from commercial New Haven and residential agricultural to R212 and multif family dwelling providing an effective date. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Do we need a looking for a motion for the development agreement approval? I'm sorry. Yep. My apologies, mayor. Um, you guys voted on the development agreement. The um two items that are left are the amendment future to the land use and the resoning. And the reasoning, right? And you want them separate, correct? We always do them separate. He read them both, but um they each need a separate vote. So 2026-03 needs to come first because that's the future land use. All right. Thank you. Um Miss Folz, Miss Fault.

Yes. Um move to approve uh ordinance number 2026-03. Mr. Bentley. Second. All right. We have a motion on the floor from Miss Folz and a second from Mr. Bentley. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say nay. Motion passes 61. All right. This is a looking for a motion for the resoning. Miss Boltz. Motion to approve uh ordinance number 2026-04. Thank you. Looking for a second. Mr. Gaylord. I'll second. Motion on the floor from Miss Volts, a second from Miss G Mr. Gaylord. All those in favor, please signify by saying I.

I. Those opposed say nay. Motion motion passes 61. All right. Thank you. All right. Next item. Um Oh, I'm sorry. We did not close the um public hearing. It's a little late for that. But we did not have any more speaker cards. Thank you very much. Public forum. Thank you. We do not have any speaker cards for public forum consent agenda. Sorry, mayor. you have um the ordinance concerning the alcohol consumption at the park. I'm sorry, I missed that ordinance concerning the concern. Oh, yes. 2026-02. Thank you.

02.

Just as a reminder, this is second reading. Um on the ordinance that you all requested to uh remove the exemption that would allow uh alcohol permit in the park where the general rule is alcohol can't be sold in parks. Um many years ago when promise was building their building uh we created this exemption to allow them to have a license to sell alcohol as part of their restaurant. They've abandoned that uh use or that intent to use it in that way and have promise has agreed uh that they no longer desire this pro this privilege. So this ordinance removes that from the statutes and the ordinance number is 2026-02. And if I may read it uh madame mayor

thank you. This is an ordinance of the city of West Melbourne, Florida, relating to businesses selling alcohol near institutions, amending chapter 10, section 10-5 of the city code of the city of West Melbourne, eliminating an exemption from the prohibition on businesses having a license to serve alcohol near an institution if the business has a lease, concession agreement or contract with the city, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, providing for cotification and scriveners errors, and providing an effective date. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Is there a motion? Miss Magguire. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I will make a motion that we approve ordinance number 2026-02 on second reading. All right. Thank you, Mr. Gaylord. Second.

All right. Thank you. We have a motion on the floor from Miss Magcguire, a second from Mr. Gaylord. All those in favor, please. Mayor, before you vote, um, we do need to open this up for a public hearing. This is a public hearing as well. I am so sorry. And I just want Nellis so to close it and we'll reopen it again. Are there is there anyone in the audience who would like to comment on this item? Seeing none, we will close the public hearing. All right, we still have a motion on the floor from Miss Magcguire and Mr. Gaylord. All those in favor, please signify by saying I.

I. Those oppose say nay. Motion carries 70. And for the our last public hearing item will be ordinance 2026-01, recovery residences. Uh, mayor staff is requesting that we postpone this to the next council meeting. Um, during our discussions uh during the first uh reading of this item, uh, we did not have a fee established. We we do have a a fee that we'd like to bring forward with this item, but we also have, as the council's aware, every year we uh update our fee schedule, and there's a couple other fees that we are going to be adjusting um, in a minor fashion. And so we want to do that fee ordinance uh just one time for simplicity and and ease. And so if we could postpone this uh for two weeks and then we can bring the fee schedule forward. Uh and this item uh will be a standalone item again in two weeks, but then later on in the agenda uh two weeks from now, we'll have the fee schedule as well to approve.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Gaylord. I'll make a motion that we table ordinance number 2026-01 uh until council meeting February 17, 2026. Thank you, Miss Adams. I'll second. Thank you. We have a motion on the floor from Mr. Gaylord, a second from Miss Adams. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say nay. Motion carries 70. And we'll close the public hearing once and for all. Public forum. Uh there are no speaker cards. We'll close the public forum and we'll open the consent agenda. We have either three items here. I'm sorry, two items here, A and B. Looking for a motion for the consent agenda.

Miss Boltz, move to approve the consent agenda. Thank you, Miss Adams. I'll second. All right, we have a motion on the floor from Miss Boltz, a second from Miss Adams. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Those opposed, say nay. Motion carries 70. All right. 8A action agenda item final plant for US 192 business center. Miss Fischer. Okay. I have a presentation for that to make it a little bit easier to understand what's being asked. Um this is a project that you all have seen under construction

and the the name of that area they're calling it US 192 Business Center. Um the property owner is West Melbourne Business Center. Their attorney Cliff Reperger is their agent. Um it's 16.44 acres. So the aerial shows you that it's on the east side of I95, west side of Coastal Lane. Um this is on the north side of US 192, not the coastal lane that's on the south side. So again, it's the north side uh north of that um the cruising gold and then there's also that wood bridge which is now extended stay. The applicant's request um we've shown in red outline the overall property. You all have seen the buildings under construction on the south half. Um, but because this property has already been split off, the way our code reads is that once you've already done a split, then the next step is to go into subdivision. So that's what they would like to do. They would like to sell off the north part of their property. Um, so that's how they would get the two industrial lots. They have three storm water ponds. And remember, you know, because of this being under the old way of doing this, they actually applied, I think it was three years ago for this. Um, it it's coming before you all went to planning and zoning board in December and now to you all. Um, the the history is that, you know, the developer was subject to development agreement restrictions. They have complied with that for the most part, but we made sure that that note was in the final plat. And you know, the the current request would allow them to, you know, either complete constructing the infrastructure and and when I say that, it's not that the infrastructure isn't there, the water, the sewer, all of that's there. It's really more like the the sidewalk and then with our city engineer determining what might be, you

know, left in terms of performance fond, whether it's a valve or some, you know, little piece of equipment that needs to be covered. But once this final plat is recorded, the vacant proposed lot 2 can be sold. So that's the owner's intent as we understand it. This is the same drawing that you all have in your packet, but we show it with colors so that sort of the the items pop out at you. Um the storm water tracks are shown in blue. Lot two is shown in green and the predominant lot of lot one is where you see the existing two buildings that have been built. Um on lot one there will be a total of four buildings. They've only built the first two. We have to make sure with our analysis that it is consistent with LDR stands for land development regulations. So we do that you know and obviously we've had you know enough time to be able to do that. We also have a a surveyor who has to by law take a look at what they propose as a plat to make sure that it meets uh FS stands for Florida statutes. um the city engineer, you know, takes a look at what's been done. And then, you know, St. John's River Water Management District and other agencies and that's that's what I list here, you know, FDP, St. John's River Water Management District, uh FDOT only from the perspective of whenever you build next to an F FDOT rideway, you've got to be aware of sort of their restrictions and Melbourne Tilman. So the previous action was that the planning and zoning board as your advisors recommended that you all approve this final plat with the following condition. That the developer finalize all infrastructure improvements and maintenance bonds in accordance with the approved construction drawings or alternatively post an acceptable performance bond prior to plat recordation. And I included a photo that we took last week. I'll try to answer

any questions and I believe the applicant the applicant in the audience. No, the applicant's not in the audience. They were told about this. All right. Thank you. Any I do not have any lights on. We have no questions on this item. Oh, yes, Miss Boltz. I'm just going to make a motion to approve. All right. We have a U Mr. Frampus. A second. Want a question? All right. Thank you. Your question. Does your motion include what the PNZ board asked for? Yes. Okay. Yes. And Miss Adams. I'm sorry. Was that your question? I'm sorry.

It was a question. I was just going to add to it. Okay. Go ahead. Before I I just wanted to say that looking at this project from the road or from 95, really nice looking project. Uh, I think it enhances that area, the business community over there, and uh, I look forward to seeing the other buildings going up. I'm not not exactly sure what the extra lot's going to be sold off to be. You know that yet, or

we do not. Um, we've had people, ironically, ask about converting it to commercial, converting it back to multif family, which is how this project started years ago. This property was zoned multif family for many years. So, I don't have a clue as to what direction it's going to go. This particular type of building, even though that sign says office/warehouse, is really what in the industry they call the flex office, you know, where they have like a small office up front. And a big portion of that unit ends up being sort of like warehouse. So, you can get carpenters or other people who might have to assemble, you know, paint, assemble, do whatever to uh things that would go in there. really great property. I I think uh it's what West Melbourne needs and I and uh look forward to seeing some more of these properties come along. So,

thanks. Thank you, Miss Adams. Quick comment and question. I do agree. I think from 95 it looks nice. However, I like the trees better, but I don't own the property, so it doesn't matter if I like the trees better. Mr. Roodie, correct me if I'm wrong. This will be the last plat that council sees because of the legal changes. Correct. It's the last one in the hopper.

We believe this is the last one. Although I I I hate to say this is the last one and then one from five years ago that we're not thinking about resurfaces and and we have to take the action. But you are correct with the action of the legislature this uh becomes an administrative task as opposed to uh one that would go to the council. But the applicant agreed that because of the time that they started this that it should go through the process at the going off the rules of when they started the process.

Thank you. All right. Thank you. All right. We have a motion on the floor from Miss Voltz, a second from Mr. Frampus. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say nay. Motion carries 70. All right. Item 8B, annual ulining cured in place piping. [snorts]

Mayor, deputy mayor, council members.

This is our uh annual ulining that we do every year. We've been doing it for quite some time. Um we're looking to do 400 890 ft in the Clemenswood neighborhood. Um we are going to be utilizing and citraform technologies which is going to be through the Omnia contract which Interform Technologies is a member and so are we. So we'll be using that piggyback pricing for this project. We um budgeted $240,000 this year for the U lining and the price is coming in at 200 3979270 for this lining for this year.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Frampus. Mark, uh, one thing confuses me about this is, uh, in under the fiscal impacts of the the thing, it says for fiscal year 2025 2026, the budgeted amount for this year's lining project for sanitary sewer gravity main pipe lining is $240,000. However, on HC, that request you're asking, it's saying the same thing. sanitary sewer gravity main pipe lining budgeted, but it says $170,000. Are there two different budget lines for the same thing?

No, there should be. Well, fiscal impact is is saying the same thing with different numbers. Yeah, I'm I'm scrolling to take a look at that, but the these are two different budget line items. sanitary sewer, gravity, main pipeline, both of them. So, I was confused on what number. Oh, okay. I see what you mean. Yeah. Is that an error? Yeah. On my part. Yes. Yes. So, the U lining is correct. That one is correct for ulining. The second one, the second one is for manhole lining.

Okay. That's I thought that was an easy explanation, but when I read through everything, I said, "Oh, something's wrong here." So, okay. I'll uh make a motion that we approve uh an authorized city manager to award the contract to install as written. Thank you, Mr. Frampus. Is there a second? Mr. Gaylord, I'll second with a comment that uh you you did a good job on the budgetary estimate because that's pretty close. Yes. All right. Thank you. We have a motion on the floor from Mr. Frampus, a second from Mr. Gaylord. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say nay. Motion carries 70.

All right. Thank you. 8C.

Okay. This is our our annual manhole lining that we do. Um this year we picked out Compass Point which is about a 25y year um development there that is starting to show some some indentations next to the manholes. So we are um going to work in that neighborhood and we have a few outside that we're going to be taking care of too. Um, again, we're going to be utilizing in citraform off the Omnia contract and piggybacking for the pricing. And we did budget 170 and the budget amount that we have right now is 9786736 um to do that. So, it's my recommendation that we have the city manager um go into contract within Citraform. so we could follow through with our annual manhole.

Thank you, Miss Adams. A quick question about the project because I know we have a a schedule in terms of reurfacing the roads within the city within a certain time frame. Do we have the same type of schedule for the manholes? Is it kind of as needed as people notice? How does that work?

Uh we do have a schedule. We do. We are working south through the city right now. So what we do is the older ones we try to do first in the older neighborhoods. So yes, we do have and Brian can let us know that too. But we do follow a schedule so we stay on track and we make sure we're getting, you know, the best ones we can for the area. Understood. I'd like to make a motion to authorize the city manager to award the contract for the annual manhole re rehabilitation as written. All right. Thank you, Miss Voltz.

And second. All right. Thank you very much for you have a motion on the floor from Miss Adams and a second from Miss Voltz. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say nay. Motion carries. 70. All right. Thank you. 8D. All right, you're on.

Rehabilitation of clarifier number two. If you recall, we did clarifier number one last year. Um, we budgeted to do clarifier number two this year. Unfortunately, because the BNR project has started, we need the same footprint to complete this process or the re the uh rehabilitation of clarifier number two. So, we figured let's go ahead this year and purchase the material we need and next fiscal year we'll end up um putting labor into to install it.

All right. So, um, we're just looking to approve the purchase of the C30HT drive through, um, Oivia USA, which is the manufacturer of the clarifier itself for 76,000. And we did budget 140 for the complete project, but unfortunately, we're not going to be able to get that done. So, all right. Thank you. And you couldn't find a better name than number two. Oh, thank [laughter] you. All right, Mr. Francis. Thank you, mayor. [laughter]

So, the 140,000 it was budgeted. Uh, are we just is that just going to roll over? So, we to pay for the labor next year? I mean, is or are we going to, as you said, we're just buying the parts, right? Or are we going to use up this money? That could be. Yes, a couple of things. Yeah, you know, if we're going to utilize the money somewhere else.

Ve, very good question. So, one reason is there is a very long lead time uh to get that to get this part manufactured and get to us. So, we we don't want to get caught in a situation where we order it and have a hard time getting it in uh when the BNR project is is uh further along and we're able to do that. It's future planning.

Just trying to get it ready because we've, you know, part of the curse of of buying these large uh replacement parts and pieces for a 50-y old plant is is they take time. The other element is we do have um we do have a couple of uh parts and pieces at the at the sewer plant that are giving us some trouble

for this year. This was budgeted for this year. Absolutely. And so that that's part of it. The the second part of it is we do have some parts and pieces at the plant that are uh under evaluation right now that we may have to um if if they need to be replaced immediately would we could use this money to to replace it because this is essentially the sewer plant maintenance budget. Okay. I'll make a motion that we approve the purchase of the new C30HT drive as written. All right. Thank you, Mr. Frampus. Is there a second? Mr. Gaylord. I'll second.

All right. Thank you. We have a motion on the floor from Mr. Frampus and a second from Mr. Gaylord. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say nay. Motion carries 70. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Patron. Next item is yours for the acquisition. I'm sorry for the the new C30HT. No, I'm sorry. It is. It's the acquisition 431 Park Hill. Okay. Good evening, mayor, deputy mayor, council members. Yeah, I'm here for the acquisition and purchase of 431 Park Hill

Boulevard. Um, the city has systematically been purchasing properties around Park Hill for the wastewater treatment plant. uh feature expansion uh public works and now the new water treatment facility with the most recent there's a map included. The most recent was the property directly adjacent to it to the north of 421. Um as I'm there quite a bit in that general vicinity lately, uh I'm in contact with a lot of the residents on Park Hill. uh obviously they know that we're trying to purchase and I was approached by the owners of 431 to explain the process and after that conversation I was authorized to go ahead and move forward with trying to get to this point. So we ordered an appraisal which is attached for you to see to this which is part of our process. Uh the owner is fully understandable uh and understands what the city is trying to do on long-term with acquiring properties on Park Hill. Uh we negotiated the price with the contract that they have signed. They are amicable to that price. Um from the fiscal side um this has been you know the acquisition of properties has all been part of the total plan with the new water treatment plant and as you can see with the utility um the current unrestricted cash balance in our utility enterprise account there really isn't anything negative about this whole purchase. So, based on all that, I'm here to authorize and uh have you authorize and approve the city manager to execute the contract that the sellers already signed for the acquisition and purchase of 431 Park Hill Boulevard. That will make a nice addition to the ones we already own.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Frampus. What's the city's position on the building itself? Well, as most of them we do, are you asking me what we're going to do with it or what the condition? Before when they were in half decent shape, we would utilize them for storage or whatever and until we deemed that they needed to be tore down. I know occasionally we've rented it, which I think we're getting out of the rental business. So, if we were using it for a storage facility, I'd be okay with that.

Yeah. The intent here would be to uh demo the property and uh allow this to be continued uh both storage and utilization for the public works which has been kind of squeezed out of many of their sites due to the water plant project and the and the BNR project. So short-term uh provides some really good space um for our day-to-day activities and our and our day-to-day storage, but long-term once once the projects are done um this will this will add an element to, you know, kind of completing the the the blue area from the map that we've acquired already.

Just want to make sure we weren't thinking about renting it. Oh, no. No, we're we want to stay away from that. I know we four and I just want to make sure that that's not going to be the case. Well, while the owners uh the the owners of 431 are present and it is a very nice home, um our our intent is land and not not to get into rental business at all. So, you're you're saying you're going to demo right away or you want to use it for storage?

We will demo when we need to. We will demo right away because we've right now we have a short-term you know next 18 months we have a a need for uh space for storage space piping u materials. Okay. Thank you. I'll make a motion we approve and authorize city manager to execute this contract as written. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Frampus. Miss Vultz second.

Mr. Bentley. Yeah, I wasn't gonna ask this question, but I kept going back and forth. Um, in the comparable, you guys didn't use Park Hill previous acquisitions as the comparisons. Is there any reason why the appraiser um did not because of the time frame? Typically, they just go back just having a real estate background myself, but typically you're only supposed to use six months. So, she wanted to try and go outside to try and get the highest and best price we possibly could. So, they did not use the sale right next door 421 if that's what you're asking. Yeah. All right. Thank you.

All right. Thank you very much. We have a motion on the floor from Mr. Frampus and a second by Miss Folz. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say nay. Motion carries 70. Thank you, Mr. Patron. Thank you. Celebrated entrances. Hello. Thank you. [snorts] Good evening. Good evening. Good evening, Mayor Council. Um, saving the best for last. Um, the police. Oh,

thought I had y'all. So, I've come back with um some different designs for celebrated entries, but based off of council and what you all had asked for. Um the first one we added the amenities to which was something that was brought up that you liked in the other designs, but this one had the amen did not have the amenities, so we added those. Um there was asked for a different color for the other option. Whoa. Um uh so and then the added colored logo for um the city of West Melbourne on the option B. Before it was a dark blue and now it is a teal with the colored um and then I have the ones that were the original designs as well so you could see the differences and if you did like the original designs we could go back to that as well. But that was the original blue. So now the teal with the colored city logo. Oh, am I going too fast? [snorts]

No, that's okay. And then there was asked for some pricing as well. So

that is fine. I I do that on occasion myself. Um the pricing does reflect the new options. So the option A was the one with the amenities added to it and then the option B was the teal with the colored logo Mr. Francis. So, I was kind of before in favor of the more modern looking sign, but I think after with the changes and all, I'm I'm kind of leaning towards the new option A. I guess that's that one there. However, do we know which size sign is going to be at each park? Because h how are we going to determine that? Because I think the quote just gave a quote on seven of the one size. Right. Right. I thought we were looking at maybe

we are going to do different sizes at at each park. Um I can come back with those options to which park was going to have which size sign to see if the council approved that because it would be different. Correct. Cost level would be different. I know some of the parks like uh Jan Gleason Park what really doesn't have any of the amenities that you would have those little right placards on. It might be better for the smaller signs for sure for the B option of that one. Yeah. And where is the C just kind of the C was really be an additional sign at some of the correct some of the community in like a inner park sign. Is that right?

Like for the community park where it's a larger park and there were more amenities. So we were thinking about having more wayfinding in there. Another option would be Hammock Lakes to possibly put one of those out there because that park is kind of hidden. So maybe to tell what's back in Hammock Lakes, some directional signage for that. So it'd be definite. And then um Westbrook, which is also a larger park. I was thinking more for the wayfinding signs. Are you not concerned about a white sign just getting filthy, nasty, dirty as opposed to It just seems like it would become a graffiti board, which is my concern with if you look at the backs of the big sign, it's just a big blank slate. Um, seems to me maybe we should put something there because it's just seem it's going to be a blackboard for somebody um to paint on or so I think it could be problematic depending on where it's at and whether you can see it or not. I I think we should consider something back there.

Double-sided. Well, if not double-sided, maybe just a bigger emblem of the West Melbourne sign. I don't I don't know, but some something. Um I know we have a problem all the time of kids drawing graffiti on stuff and not pleasant stuff either. So, we don't that's my thoughts, Miss Adams. I would like to put my rosecolored glasses on and believe that people will not graffiti the signs. There we go.

Justin, my my my thoughts on that, but I think if you did want to put something on the back, um I would try to keep cost down. I know that some I don't know if it's cities or if I'm thinking more of national park type of deals, but they will say something like, "Thank you for coming." Or some, "Yeah, have a great day. Enjoy your day." Something positive about, "Hey, you came to our park. We're really glad that you did." Something other than just here's our logo again or something like that. So, I would look for something a little more happy and welcoming or I guess exiting if you're not going to be coming in. Um, grow more trees. Grow more trees. I like it. They're right behind it. I'm okay with that.

Don't forget your trash. Please take your trash with you. All right. This is getting better as we go.

In terms of my initial feedback on the designs, I think option A fits better with our uh general signs of the city, which was our discussion that we had prior in regards to signage. I think when we have consistency there, people know, oh, that's a West Melbourne sign. And this does look different with the wayfinding and the slight color changes, which I think could still designate it as a city park. So that was my preference over option B. It also makes me happier that looking at the numbers, it looks like option A is less expensive. So that is also a win in my book. So I feel like when I like the design better and it's cheaper for the city, that's a win-win all the way around. Um, so that's my feedback on that. I don't necessarily have concerns about a white sign. I've seen white signage at other places in other cities and it doesn't seem to be a problem in terms of getting dirty. Can't speak for the graffiti part, but those are those are my thoughts on it. Um, in terms of what the total cost would be, I think deciding how many we need per park because we've talked about celebrated entry having a main entrance into your park. How does that work with a park as large as the community park? You know, that could be I don't know if that's a a one or two type deal with the way that we have that park, right? And we have another sign there, which was going to be my next question. If we [clears throat] are doing something like this, we still have signage out on Minton Road specifically for the community park. It does get information out to the community. Is it then excessive to have celebrated entry signage and signage that is already out by Mitten Road? Do we change it? Is it more cost-effective to just leave it the way it is? So, I thought I would ask.

Yeah. So, as you recall when we uh first brought this forward, you know, part of our plan to bring to the council is kind of a a layout of this of the celebrated entries for all of the parks. uh obviously anticipating uh the question that the council uh frequently asks which is how much will this cost? We needed to determine what the signs would look like in order to come up with the cost. So before you this evening are the designs that we would like uh that the the staff is really looking for some direction so that we can then put this together with the plan of where and how many signs will go where that'll ultimately come back to the council and then you'll be able to see wh where are the sign which signs are going where and how much will that all cost. And so, you know, in in the step of uh in the process that we are in, what we're looking for is uh consensus

or or all seven, but consensus of of what the new sign should look like and the materials that that make up. Understood. I will be patient. Thank you, Mr. Bentley. Yeah. Mr. Ro, in line with Steve's comment, what's been your experience at the signs at the borders currently? Do they get a lot of graffiti on the back?

Boy, um I am not aware. The the only issues uh in the five years that I've been here with the uh celebrated entry or or the community entry signs other than um electric power electric issues from time to time that we have to have a contractor go out there and you know usually get them working again. um has been just uh the need to power wash them. You know, we power wash them about once a year, knock all the stuff off of them, clean them all up. Um sometimes uh we did have one that sits in the sun a lot. Uh sits facing towards the sun and the and the the logo of the city got faded and uh we worked with the contractor to to put the new uh or to put a new logo on there to freshen it up. So, I haven't since I've been here, I'm I'm looking over at the PD. I'm not aware in the last 5 years of any of our uh community entrance signs being graffitied or damaged. Utility boxes seem to be the uh the item duour to to to tag.

There's a possibility of landscaping being behind it, too, right? I mean, we just don't know. and they're highly our entry signs are highly visible. Um, you know, you think of coming off the freeway, you think of coming up and down 192 at the at the at the gas station, you think of Palm Bay Road. I mean, those are some busy intersections. And so, that's probably um, you know, what leads to to those not being touched. Obviously, signs and parks are a little bit more excluded. So, we definitely run that risk, but I would have to check with the parks department. I'm also not aware of any of our park signs being graffitied or damaged in the last five years. I'm I'm looking towards the PD to see if they recall any any blott uh that's come across their way. So, does it doesn't appear to be an issue at this time.

And are you I'm not sure exactly how we're we're doing on this. The first option A that has brick on both sides and on the bottom And then the second page that has only brick on the bottom. Are we going with the first one? Does that make sense? Isn't that option A? Yes. Well, they're both option A, right? They're three. I think they're all the same. This depends on which sign goes where, Pat. There's Y three pictures. Yeah. My only comment is is if you don't have brick on the sides, I worry that someone could break those poles. Really?

Yeah. They're they're pl I guess they're using like a plastic I won't say plastic wood, but we've broken some in our neighborhood. We didn't break them, but teenagers broke some of them in our neighborhood that are of the recycled plastic. I guess that stuff is so I like the very first one and that you put brick around both sides. There's nothing to break. I thought they were 4x4 or four by They're four by We have 4x4s and solid. They are solid, but they're plastic wood. And if you hit near the bottom, they'll break off of the ground. I didn't know they were plastic. No, if they're metal, then then that's fine. I thought they were regular wood or metal.

Yeah, I thought I fig just figured plastic wood lasts forever. Yeah, we we can double check the material, but fair comment. Very fair comment. We did have, just as as an aside, we did have wood in our neighborhood previously and we ended up painting them every couple of years. What a nightmare. We went to the recycled plastic and we haven't touched them since and that's been 15 years. Thank you, Mayor. Like the metal idea, too. Miss Vultz. All right. Not Miss Vult. Miss Magguire.

Um, definitely leaning more towards a after seeing the changes with like the wayfinding being added on to it. Um, yeah, sorry, I was taking one more look at it, but I definitely think the A is going to be the better option to go with um with those changes. It be just I don't know. It doesn't feel like West Melbourne, if that makes sense. It just seems like it's too Yeah. And not that we're not modern, but [laughter] it's too modern. So, that's just my opinion on it.

All right, Mr. Gaylord. I would echo the concerns of the rest. Uh Miss Magcguire's comment, I'll say that it appears that uh option B is a little bit more avant guard. Um to Steve's to Steve's point though, the white sign in option A um if there's concerns about the white getting dirty. Uh it could be like a we could change the color of that sign to teal and then the text could be white as a potential option. So it does look kind of plain, too. Well, less is more signage. Miss McGuire, did you want to speak again? No. Okay, Mr. G, is that all you wanted to say, Mr. Gayler?

All right. So, were you looking for a vote on this or have we given you enough direction? We we are we are looking for a we are looking for a vote. Um, again, we know we know when when it involves art, it's hard for everybody to agree, but we just want to try to lock in a design so that we can get some pricing and get these going. All right. Then I with that in mind, I would like to make a motion that we move forward with option A designs for the celebrated entry and then it will come back before council for additional feedback in terms of placement and parks. That's this one, right? Correct. The new and improved option A. Correct. The new and improved option A and Mr. Frampus.

Yes. A second. [clears throat] All right. We have a motion on the floor from Miss Adams to go with option A. Seconded by Mr. Frampus. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Those opposed say nay. Motion carries 70. Was that A for Adams? Is that why you did that? Okay. Thank you. Okay. All right, next one which is our last one. This is go this is our um West Melbourne West Melbourne Police Department. This will be done by Chief Vesta and Commander Deorgio and Commander Romano. I don't know why we have city council reports first.

Oh, that's right. Do you want to do have us first or do you want to just do this? Why don't we have Yeah, go ahead and do this. Mr. [laughter] Isn't he always eating? Uh oh. Oh no. Oh no. Mayor, deputy mayor, members of he's going to get arrested.

Uh we're happy to be here tonight to present our ann. You know, we're very proud of the service that we provide and uh that's why we're happy to be here to kind of give a summary of our year. Uh we'll try and be respectful of your time, but as you know, uh police department eats up quite a bit of taxpayer dollars. And so we want to kind of give you a picture of what you're getting and what the residents are getting for that that money that uh uh that that they work hard for, too. So, um I'm joined tonight by Deputy Chief Cordell, Commander Deorgio, and Commander Romano, who are going to share uh they're going to share some uh some of their information of areas that are under their command. So, um I'll get us started. First of all, we always want to recognize our outstanding performers. And while we would argue that all of our people are outstanding performers, we have some that rise above uh you know throughout the year. So we always recognize our officers of the quarter that are uh presented before the Pal Bay uh the Greater Palm Bay Chamber of Commerce. Uh all these awards are v nominated and voted on by their peers. Um and then of course our officer of the year this year will be officer William McConnell. uh and he uh he will be recognized by the Bvard Chiefs of Police Association at a lunch in or a dinner in March. Um so they do great work um and happy to recognize them. Uh some of the things you know we're always trying to get a little bit better at what we do uh expand our initiatives some of the ones that we increased for 2025. Uh we had previously started the high visibility enforcement grant in the past. Uh but we were very successful in our first uh year with that. Uh and then we started our second year in 2025 and based on the results um the FDOT actually increased uh gave us another $15,000 in funding for that. Um and as you're aware that that's a three-part process. It starts with education first for bicyclists, uh motorists, and pedestrians. and it progresses to um as we go throughout the year into an more

heavier on enforcement as opposed to education once we've been out there educating. So that's been very successful. Uh we've expanded our participation with Space Coast TPO. Uh they were out uh as you know this past year for the stop on Red Week. Uh you'll see uh coming in March. We'll also have uh we're going to have a community education event out there uh regarding the new pedestrian hybrid beacons that they've put in. So, uh, you know, regardless of the opinion on those, [laughter]

uh, we want to make sure that, uh, our public is is, uh, educated about that. So, we'll do something on that coming up in March. And then, uh, we were able to get two, uh, car seat technicians certified. Uh, it's it's it's not a very common class that's easy to get. Uh, but we got two two of those people certified. And not only have we done some car seat installation events, uh we've also done uh they can sign up on the website for an appointment to come in and get it installed. You know, a good car seat installation takes a good uh you know, 20 to 40 minutes depending on the car and the seat and everything else. So, we want to make sure that it's done right so the little ones are protected. That's a new service that we're offering this year. Uh one other thing that that we've really prioritized in the last couple years is crisis intervention team training. And that's a 40-hour class uh that deals with a lot of uh a lot of the things our officers are dealing with on a daily basis beyond the normal calls, mental health crisis, uh those that are, you know, going through uh dependency issues, uh those that might need a little additional assistance, and it also teaches our officers how to deal with the difficulties of the position. Uh so we're up to 18 of our uh patrol officers now that are um have completed that in the last two to two and a half years. Our goal is 100% and uh the classes are are offered two to three times a year. Uh so it's something that does take some time to get all of our people through, but uh the feedback um I've been through it uh previous to here, but uh the feedback from our officers is it really does make a difference and I've firsthand seen the the the uh benefits of it and our officers are seeing that too. Uh we got some [clears throat] bad news at the end of last year that uh the funding is going away uh for that. Uh, so we, excuse [clears throat] me, we actually partnered with Melbourne and we No, I'm good. We partnered with with Melbourne [clears throat] and we are going to be uh co-hosting those classes starting in 2025. So, we

had a sergeant that stepped up and uh just recently took the class and saw the benefit of it and he uh he is one of the new coordinators along with Melbourne PD and our goal is to bring that Thank you. is to bring that to uh all the Bvard agencies. We encourage uh because you know we we deal with a lot of the same people throughout the county or in our region. Um, so we're happy that we can continue that and uh make sure that our people are getting the good uh the good training and being being able to use that on the street. Uh, last thing I'll talk about um as we uh show you the list of the ongoing initiatives that you know that we've been doing uh either added in the last couple years or have been doing for many more than a couple years. Um really happy to say that our recruiting success has uh continued this last year. We had almost 150 applications in 2025 which is about a 50% increase over the year before. Um we as of yesterday. Uh we are we have no uncommitted positions. Um you know we try and do a balance between uh officers that go to the academy and officers with previous sworn experience that might be interested in a career with us. Um and actually our last three hires have been people with previous experience that their training time is obviously shortened because they don't have to go to the academy for five and a half months. Uh but we are now at the lowest number of uh we we have all our vacancies filled and we've been close to that recently. Uh but we have the fewest number of people that um are between the academy andor infield training. Uh there's only five that aren't fully trained at this point. So that's a really good number to be at. Um, and that allows us to staff all other positions including like traffic that we're going to talk about in a little bit and everything else. So, recruiting uh and interest in our agency has been in a really good spot and uh we're pleased that that we are at fully staff. So, with that uh I'm going to turn it over to Commander Deorgio for uh

some of the patrol activities and things under her management. Thanks. Good evening. Good evening.

Pleasure to be here this evening with you all. the I have the great opportunity to highlight the patrol division. Didn't tell me how to work this thing button. Okay. All right. Here we go. So, in 2025, our patrol officers handled 44,469 calls for service. Despite the high level of activity, population increase, overall crime continues to trend downward. As you can see in this slide, part one crimes, serious and/or violent crimes to people or property decreased by 13.35% and part two crimes by 22.3%. I believe this reductions has been due to our proactive patrol strategies, targeted enforcement, and strong community partnerships by our officers. Um, we also have several specialty units. First one I'd like to highlight is our traffic unit. Our traffic unit is now fully staffed. Took us a little while to get there, but uh due to us now being there, our traffic stops, citations, warnings, and parking citations have all increased um drastically from previous years. As you can see, uh these efforts um also have us focusing on reducing crashes, improving roadway safety, addressing all resident concerns. Resident concerns come in through a variety of means um through our uh concerns through the portal, through one-on-one contact in the streets, sometimes by you all. Um and once that information is received, it's evaluated by a patrol lieutenant or myself. And then what we generally will do is put together um a two-week either a a localized enforcement of that area or just to monitor it to see if there's anything further that we need to do for

that. Can I ask a question? The parking citations, what would that be? A parking citation. So that would be like somebody who's parked in a handicap, somebody who's parked um double parked in the parking lot, anything that has to do with the parking of a vehicle or a bicycle where it's not supposed I I would I would assume that the handicap probably would be the the biggest. Um but I I just in my brain I couldn't think of any other parking citations. It would be people actually double park. or connect to a firewalk or any of that stuff.

Thank you.

So, also of importance is um in in 2025, we also got three new portable speed signs which um directs attention and awareness to the hotspot areas in West Melbourne. You'll probably you if you haven't seen them already, we move them around. And what what that sign is doing is collecting data. And once we collect that data, we go ahead and move it somewhere else. And sometimes, again, that's directed by complaints or concerns that are brought forth to us or just known from us from high visibility areas that we feel like we need to put um those speed signs. Another unit is our K9 unit. Our K9 unit continued to be a force multiplier in 2025. Our K9 um teams assisted in major violent crime arrest, narcotics investigations involving fentanyl, and joint operations with our federal partners, including DEA and the FBI. Not only do they um train, but they also have um a lot of enforcement. And you've seen some of the notable cases here in the packet that you received. Our K9 unit remained active also in community outreach through public demonstrations and school events. Um, this unit also conducts joint training with SWAT, our drone teams and neighboring agencies. Also during 2025, our K9 teams both were successfully um, FDLE certified annually. That's done. And also we added another K-9 sergeant to um our roster of state certified K9 instructors. So we now have two that can train other agencies um with their canines. Last but not least, I'd like to talk about our code enforcement. It's the second full year that they've been at the police department and the um

complaints for 2025 was 20 225. Um, of those 96% were resolved by January 1st, 2026. The most common violations for 2025 were trash, work without permit, and then the high grass or yard concerns or problems. Um, this year we also implemented starting at the end of 2025 started looking at how we can address these concerns other than just bringing things to the code enforcement board. So, we implemented a new citation process which started um January 1st. Um I'm pleased to say that as of today, we've implemented and started doing targeted enforcement for the citation um process. A lot of warnings. As of now, we haven't had to write a citation. So, I think the word is spreading through social media as well as one-on-one contact that we're going to take care of the city and the concerns with the code enforcement.

Well, now we have a question. Miss Adams. Yes, ma'am.

Thank you. Uh, just a quick question. Since it's a new citation process, what are we doing in terms of resident education so that you're not waiting until they have an issue to try to educate them about the process or is that potentially the best way in terms of being proactive about it? I'm just curious. So right now they're when they're going out they're educating through what we we call them door knockers. So they're letting them know hey this is what's going on and if you don't take care of it we have a new process that's in place and this is the outcome of it. Also I do believe that some information was pushed out um on social media and maybe even the newsletter. We we've utilized the the Friday roundup for uh most of uh November, December, and into early January. We did the um newsletter, we did the um Facebook post. And so we've, you know, first we was the education, you know, we want to try to get the word out. And then second is, you know, this citation process um to avoid just cluttering up Co code enforcement is a great mechanism, but it is a timely mechanism. And yard debris is about compliance. We we want compliance with the yard debris. We're we're not looking to make $15. We're looking to get the debris picked up. So,

and I think it's great. Hence why I I like the change in terms of the new process. I think that's going to be more efficient for reaching our residents. I've seen it in the newsletter and the things that have come out, but I wanted to make sure if we hear from a resident that says, "Well, I didn't know, you know, here are your ways that we've been trying to get it out there." Thank you. Can you bring a door knocker in to next meeting so we can see what it looks like? Door thingy. Leave a debris pile on your

I was going to say I could bring one to you and place it on your door, sir. As you can see um by the data presented today, the patrol division made measurable progress in 2025. Crime is down, traffic safety efforts are up, and police officers and specialized units are producing measurable um results for the city.

Deputy [clears throat] Chief Gordau, I apologize. I did not know you were presenting and did not name you. Okay. Chief asked me to keep mine to about two hours. So Okay.

Uh I'm going to touch on our support services division to begin with. Um in 2025, as chief mentioned, we um hired some some officers, a total of 10. Two of those are currently in the field training program and three are in the academy. I call those five positions unrecognized. Yes, they're on the books, but they're not recognized on the street serving the citizens yet. Um, I might mention too that one of those in the academy currently is our longtime PSA that you've probably seen around town. So, he's in that process of transitioning, which we intended for that position to to act in that manner. Uh, also in 2025, there was four civilian hires. Um, the annual certifications that take place for our agency occur in the support services division. A lot of those are uh officer state certifications through FDLE. Um if you're not aware that that's a four-year process where every police officer is required to get reertified. You have to take classes in uh topics such as domestic violence, juvenile sex offender, safe and legal traffic stops, and then 40 hours of other training outside of those topics. So every four years every officer has to do that and that takes place in our support services division along with the training coordinator who falls in support services that conducts the trainings that you see here. Um on the next slide it talks uh some more on the uh additional training that we did. Again, this focuses mostly the the most important topics that we that we focused on here are officer wellness along the lines of what chief mentioned in the CIT training, bloodborne pathogens, of course, that's very important, and then deescalation techniques for our officers to prevent some of the incidents that I'm going to talk to you about here in a minute. Um, and then as well as when we get new equipment, we have to put our officers through training. So in 2025, two of those examples would be the wrap,

which is a restraint device that we purchased. So in our DT training, defensive tactics, we all went through that. We were wrapped up in it. We wrapped other people up in it so that everybody has a clear understanding of what it can and cannot do. Uh and then life, you may have seen commercials on TV for that. Uh simple but effective for choking. So we purchase those and our officers go through that training as well. Our office of professional standards um manages a multitude of of assignments um but uh approximately um in the excuse me they manage our internal affairs uh selection of uh specialty units. So if we have a motor officer position or an FTO vacancy all of those are funneled into one division so that they're done consistently across the board for each selection. They coordinate the interviews, the selection process, and then the posting of who's filling those positions. All of that takes place under uh professional standards. Any of our response to resistance, vehicle pursuits, um the high liability type of incidents like that, the office of professional standards is is the uh place where all of those reports end up. So that again everything is collected in the same manner consistent with our our policies. You can see the numbers on here when it comes to the use of force or response to resistance. And one thing that I'd like to point out when you saw the calls for service approximately 45,000 encounters that our officer have each day or throughout the year. and to see that only 14 of those resulted in the officers having to use some type of force as a response to resistance. Same thing with vehicle pursuits. When you look at the number of traffic stops and the number the low number of

incidents that rise to that uh to to be considered a pursuit, very very low. Uh the 34 candidates that you see that were in the background process, those numbers don't add up to what we've actually hired. So, I would say that our vetting process is very effective in how we very thoroughly uh some of the books when they're done are are this thick when it looks at the the history of the officer, where they've worked, where they've lived, every aspect of their life. So, I would say we have a very effective vetting process because we had 34 people, but we didn't hire all 34 of those. Accreditation, we just, as you know, had a assessment. This will be our fourth assessment. Uh during that process, the assessors come in, it's a team of three, and they look at our policies. Do we say what we do? Do we do what we say? Sorry. Of the 213 standards that apply to our agency, we were found to be in compliance 100%. Um, and there are additional standards, but just one example of why it wouldn't apply to us, one of them could be dispatch communications. As you know, we farm that out to the sheriff's office. So, those standards would not apply to our agency. Um, I was told that the team lead for this accreditation cycle said that this is one of the smoothest assessments she's ever done. So, in a couple weeks, we'll be traveling to St. Augustine and will go before the full commission for accreditation and we expect to be reacredited for the fourth time.

Thank you. Not yet.

Uh [snorts] our records technicians, there's two at the front desk along with a police officer who works the front desk. Um, not only are they the the two ladies that are up there, not only are they a very smile smiling face and and always willing to go above and beyond for anybody that comes in, but they really do a lot of stuff. Anything our officers touch, whether it be a physical piece of paper or even an electronic record, they they have a hand in in every single one of those transactions. So, you can look at the numbers here. Um, they process 1385 accidents, uh, over 5,000 citations, warnings, and parking tickets that we just talked about. Those the 45,000 calls for service. They don't touch every single one of those, but they touch a lot of them. Um, and then in addition to all of those things, the phones ringing, people are walking in. Um, and they're receiving uh approximately 15,000 phone calls between the three of them up there. They rotate through that. And again, like I said, the the public coming in asking for help or needing to file reports. Um, and then a astronomical number of public records requests that come in and they do a really good job for us. Uh, a lot of people don't realize all the different things that they do. Um, and we just wanted to recognize the work that they do up there. I I finished it well within the two-hour limit, so I'll pass it on.

Yes, you did. Good job. All right, Commander Romano.

Good evening, everyone. I will keep this absolutely uh below, you know, minimum standards here, but I just want to brag about uh C and support services, obviously, and we'll talk about records. Not records, I'm sorry. Talk about records, but I want to talk about the SWAT team first. Uh in 2025, we served seven search warrants that you see here, and you'll see photos. Actually, these photos are from SWAT Roundup. So, uh our SWAT team has done SWAT Roundup for a number of years. If you don't know what that is, that is a uh international uh event for about a week. It happens in around November where our uh we only send about eight. That's what's allowed. And they'll go and compete in these uh real life scenarios there. And they're timed. I mean, they're under stress. They're running, you know, and then they have to shoot and be accurate. So, it's pretty realistic in that sense. Um, but during that week when they're not competing against other people from uh around the area here, different states, even out of different countries, um, they're taking classes and they're getting better and more advanced and experienced. So, this is great. You can see here they build a lot of camaraderie with each other and they network. So, we want to highlight that. Also, uh, our SWAT team helped out. You can see um, they they use a terodine. It's fully operational. Um, some of you may have seen it. Um, we take it to not just search warrants, but we take it to events with the community. Uh, we want children to to see it, you know, ask about it, talk about it, so when they see it coming down the street, they're not scared, right? They know that we're here to help and, uh, to assist. Um, we helped out with the attempted murder, some fenol cases with the DEA. U, I don't know if you saw in the news, um, we helped out the biker gang arrest. Over 30 Mongols were arrested in that. due to an incident in Daytona. Um and

also we help out with um gang operations that are local and uh with the FBI and other federal agencies. So our criminal investigations, uh we've had 307 cases investigated in 2025. Our clearance rate was 45%. You can see there that's pretty much typical. That's actually pretty high and in my opinion usually it's in the low 40s. Um so um you can see there most of our cases um that are suspended about 86 cases there at 307. Some of the cases we get unfortunately don't have a lot of leads. We do the best we can. They may not have physical evidence. They may not have video evidence, you know, any witnesses. So we do we do the best we can and sometimes we'll get a lead later on uh due to someone coming forward and then we'll reopen those suspended cases. May happen in 26. So hopefully

we have a question. Miss Adams, thank you mayor. Just a quick question on the pterodine usage from the last slide. It said there were seven of the search warrants that were served. So we used it for all seven. Uh I can't confirm all seven. Uh depends on what the search warrant entails. I'm just trying to estimate how much usage the Pterodine has gotten since we got it for the search warrants. So, but also for community events from what you're mentioning, do we use it from with other cities in terms of support? Is it just for things that are highlighted here?

Uh, so other cities will ask us for support. When that happens, we'll ask you need to tear it down. Sometimes they may need officers only or they may need armored trucks. If they're doing a vehicle takedown, you really need probably three SWAT trucks, three armored vehicles to do it correctly. A lot of people don't know that, but that's the usually the correct way to do it to be safe. Uh, they may need our our SWAT truck for that instance. Um, we like to use a SWAT truck obviously as much as we can um with these search warrants. Um, you don't know what's going to happen when there's guns, there's drugs, so you want to armor vehicle there. For the most part, we do use a SWAT truck for for those events. Okay, good. I was just curious because it was not cheap to purchase, but I want to make sure we're getting good usage out of it.

Absolutely not cheap. We did get a discounted rate. They got 100 grand off, which is pretty good. Uh, thanks to drug dealers. So, he's still selling [laughter] Whatever the next request is, we will consider at that time, not today. Thank you.

So, continue from criminal investigations and we'll talk about our SIU unit. Uh, in 25 we had 51 open cases and um, let me see here. Our clearance rate is about 92% with the SIU. There are open cases at 25. U which is pretty awesome. Um doesn't usually happen like that, but when we get an open case, sometimes it takes a long time with these narcotic cases. May take a year, may take a few months, could take a few days depending on uh what we have. Um so you see here 47 people were arrested and uh we still have about seven cases still active leading into 2026. Our SOU unit um two of them are part-time with the FBI task force and one is full-time with the FBI task force. Now, what does that mean? Um, usually, uh, back in the day, you won't see that person full-time on any task force. Um, but with since we joined the FBI task force, uh, that full-time really does a lot with us locally. And when that happens, the FBI task force comes over and helps us with our local cases, uh, which they have been doing. Um, so when that happens, it's really good to have, uh, the DA also help us, too. And when you charge federally, usually you get um you know more sentencing or bigger sentencing and that's good for those drug dealers that be arrested. Uh so I'll talk about uh the significant case with SIU. We'll go into um all their cases. Um but they did uh assist with the Mongols. Obviously I spoke about earlier. uh when you have a case like that with um that gang that big, you know, it's pretty high risk, right? Um so um we asked the FBI to help us out with that along the areas uh locally. Um I can't brag enough with their their experience and just over the years uh because

excuse me, I'm gonna need some water here. So um leading into the gang arrest also they assisted with the um which is incredible the Palisades fire suspect. Who would have thought he lived in West Melbourne. So the um federal agents assist asked us for assistance and of course our SIU three of them are SWAT members also. They put on their vest and they helped us out. Um, we'll talk about also other cases here. SIOU and Palm Bay PD executed a search warrant on Ben Hogan Court. Uh, result happened with uh murder charges and a seizure of large quantity of fentanyl. That's another example of SIU and FBI working together. Um, which is great. More SIU cases. Um, we'll go into everything because be here a bit longer, but I'm sure you got a chance to read it. If not, I would recommend it. I want to also mention here, you see the gambling machines here. You might have see them in different shops. If you do see more, let us know. [laughter] Uh we actually um or so also handles um gambling cases obviously prostitution and um we also do um shops that sell vape or or tobacco because we've been getting complaints not recently but months ago of parents complaining their children being caught with tobacco. So and they'll let us know where they're getting it. So um we'll have our go out there and um we'll do um investigations out there and we'll find out who's to teenagers. So, we've had a pretty successful hits and we spoke to John Kerry about it, our city attorney, and got him involved. Um, and it has not

been happening, thank goodness, lately. So, everybody's pretty cooperative and we haven't had complaints like that. So, that's just another bit of our SAU does dayto day. And I'll talk about crime scene and and property and evidence. our uh crime scene uh technician Joe Jones and we have a um evidence technician Missy Curry. Uh they processed 3,366 items you see there and released 11:42. Now um also during that time they have to, you know, manage crime scenes. When they get called out in the middle of the night or during the day, they have to drop what they're doing and go assist us. We have a stolen vehicle. We take it back to uh the Evans Garage and they have to process that. Uh Misty is crossraining and helping Joe out as much as she can, which is great. Um and they keep it beautiful back there, neat and organized, which also helped us during accreditation, right? So they did a great job. Really fortunate to have them. Um Joe Jones also processes the SBI THI crash cases. So when you see a bad crash on on the street, someone died or seriously injured, he's out there taking photos. Also, severe violently injury and traffic homicide investigation. I want to also um highlight the if I can the the drone over [laughter] it in there earlier. Um no no actually yes I do. Yes. Um kind of yes. So in 2025 with our new drone uh we've had about a hundred stamped calls. Now in that stamped calls it could mean uh training or we've used it with another agency or one of our units requested a drone unit for a case

they had. So that's great. Um and during that time we also have uh six operators. We just put our request off for two more operators to be uh to join the unit. Two came forward. We interviewed them, passed the um the the interview, and now they're uh an operator. They have not been uh tested yet for the uh part 107 test. That's going to be a little difficult, but uh they'll have about two months to study for that test. So, now there's six of us, which is great. So, uh the special news is uh we've did uh we're going to receive a grant for another drone. This is Yeah, this is not free for the city. And this drone we're going to looking for, we have our drone right now is for the outdoors and uh the drone we're looking for is smaller made for indoors. Uh so this is great. This will work for SWAT team. Um so this is great. Uh the drone we're looking at uh I can't confirm which one yet, but we're looking at a smaller one where the one we have now would more likely break propeller going through a door like like this here. So, it's smaller, little more versatile. Um, our drone unit right now works with our K9 unit and our SWAT team. They'll do real life scenarios with them out there outside, especially during night time. Um, because that's when it's most difficult to see the suspect in the woods. So,

thank you. Is that a motion? [laughter] Right. [snorts] So, with that, we're open to any questions. version of our 2025. I wanted to say congratulations to Commander Romano for finishing the FBI school. So, we now have three FBI graduates, right? It it's a big definitely a feather for West Melbourne Police Department. Absolutely. So, thank you. Okay. Excuse me, Mr. Gaylord.

Chief, I actually do have a question for you. So, with the grant for the CIT training ending, um, and it being head up by, uh, Melbourne and us, um, what do those costs look like? And, and, uh, you know, you said you're looking at expanding it out to the rest of Bvard.

Yeah. So, actually, that won't cost us any out of pocket. Um, our coordinator when he's there, that'll be his duty assignment for that week. Um, but the providers that come in, uh, they work under Central Florida Cares. So, we'll have, uh, someone that might come in, um, let's say the UCF chief. He teaches on officer wellness and mental resiliency. Uh, you might have, uh, some some local people that are have gone through mental health crisis. They'll come in and share what they've been going through. All that is no cost. So, it the literal cost of it is the electricity. Uh, we're hosting at Melbourne the first time. we're hoping to host here the second time, maybe a few snacks, and then the officer's time while he's there. But there is there is no cost to us. So, uh the grant funding for the coordinators is what ended. Um and that's where, you know, us in Melbourne saw that it was so beneficial that we wanted to step up and and host it ourselves. Um and what uh Bvard what they've been doing is opening it up to Bvard agencies. Uh I would say ours in Melbourne are the most the highest participation. Uh but I think most of the other agencies have at least dabbled a little bit in the water and so uh we're actually actively recruiting them to join us in our classes as we coordinate those classes. So really no cost.

You're welcome. Mr. Frampus. Um you guys said during the presentation that one of the um is it traffic control officers moved into the the ranks or what that you have to um Yeah. So we were able to uh staff the third uh traffic officer position. So So it was filled. Yes. Awesome. Yeah. And that was actually someone who had been a uh a reserve with us for a short period of time that then moved into a full-time position. Good. Thank you. I don't have any more lights on. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very very much. Thanks, Chief. Thanks, department. Okay. And I'm I'm sorry, Megan, if you can go back up to council reports now. I kind of messed you up. All right. Council reports. Miss Vultz, nothing. Thank you. Diana Adams.

Couple things to note. Um, recently there was a junior achievement event and I shared that um in piggybacking off of our newest addition to our youth advisory board who wanted to focus on financial literacy. Uh, Junior Achievement is continuing. I know I've brought it up probably about a year ago now u to look for volunteers in regards to uh reaching students in our schools for financial literacy. They do it all across the grade levels. U they have different types of activities whether you want to step inside of a classroom and teach students for a day particular skills whether you want to talk about your career experience in terms of the middle school and high school students to answer their questions or provide any guidance. Uh they also do different types of they're not necessarily events, they're more of challenges. Uh they have ones focused on the stock market and things like that. I share that because they are currently still in need of volunteers for the remainder of this school year and then they're going to start scheduling for next school year. So if you're looking for something to get involved in, that would be a great place to plug in.

Could I just say something on that? Go for it. Um, I used to teach Junior Achievement for years. Um, and then, uh, I guess I just retired, but I have talked to several people at the Palm Beach Chamber when they were there, told them I was interested, and I've never heard back from any of them. I can fix that for you.

I will take care of that. U, the second note is our West Melbourne Public Library. If you haven't been there recently, um, they are I know. I'm still trying to get you to get a library card, Mr. Bentley. I heard you laughing at me. Um, they have, if you haven't been in recently, the right hand side of the library when you walk in typically has their friends of the library kind of corner. They do their book sales and things like that in terms of a community engagement piece. That group of volunteers has seen a decline recently uh specifically in West Melbourne, not necessarily in the other uh libraries in Bvard County, but they are at the point now where the current volunteers no longer want to move forward for various reasons. And so that section is currently closed. Uh they can't accept any more book donations or other things. Uh but they also that group is responsible for programming within the library. not all of the programming because some of it falls under the county. Uh but they are responsible for part of the programming and so I bring that to your attention in case you know of people looking to get involved or volunteer. That's just going to be a gap in our community until we can get that filled. I have chief in regards to your update with the police department. I've referred multiple of our local foster families uh to our police department in terms of the car seat checks. So, I appreciate that being a resource for our community. And then I had just uh made a last note that looking back, it has now been multiple years. I know a couple of us up here were still involved in the selection process of our new chief and you've been here a little while now and I can tell you I think you continue to do an exemplary job for West Melbourne, for our department, and for our officers. So, thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. All right. Thank you, Mr. Bentley. No report. Mr. Gaylord.

Oh, yeah. So, um the mayor, deputy mayor, and I made our way up to Talia Tallahassee last week. Um we had a couple meetings uh scheduled um for the Brevar delegation for the Florida. So, we made our way up there uh with the Florida League of Cities um to talk to several members of the Bvard delegation in addition to having a meeting with our lobbyist. Um, so we ended up speaking to Senator Mayfield, uh, Representative Soy, and, uh, Representative Miller about property taxes, sovereign immunity, and business taxes. Um, and then we had a subsequent meeting with the city's lobbying representative concerning the status of the city's two action items. U, during that meeting, uh, he stated that there are no current updates because the legislature is behind. Um, so still kind of looking to see where that's going to go. Um the other thing I wanted to bring up um for ebikes um during the course of us meeting with the Bvard delegation uh it was commented several times that uh multiple lawmakers believe that the ebike regulations uh that are currently um going through the legislature both on Senate Bill 382 and House Bill 243 uh are more cons are more local issues. Um so while there is regulation with uh with those bills um multiple lawmakers have uh suggested and signaled that that they are uh interpreting that as more of a local issue. Um so I also went ahead and looked up some other regulations in Kolier County and they have more stringent laws than what's uh proposed in the bills. Um, so I was curious if it was the wishes of the council if this is uh something that we would like to discuss in the subsequent um uh meeting that we have later this week.

All right. Thank you. [snorts] Anyone want to comment on the ebikes? Miss Magguire, you're next. um having been in the same meetings when they were brought up and being in one way or another told that it is definitely more of a local issue than it is a state issue and that if it's affecting our community that we should do something on a local level. Um I do think it is something that we should discuss in terms of if we want to put something further in place beyond what's just state level.

That's what we talked about before to see what this state's going to do and then and then address it afterwards. So, I mean, we could start the talk conversation any anything else? No. All right. Mr. uh Mr. Frampus, that was just your comment. Miss I did say Miss McGuire. She just Are you finished? She commented on his report. [clears throat] Would you like to give your report, Miss McGuire? [laughter] Thank you. I'm sorry.

No, [snorts] you're fine. Um, but yes, have uh as was previously mentioned, went up to Tallahassee at the beginning of last week. Even though I've been going up to Tallahassee for I think about seven years at this point, I feel like every year I learned something new in terms of Tallahassee. So, it's always nice to still go up there and speak with our legislators. Um, I don't really have anything else to add because Mr. Gaylord kind of touched on a lot of the specific items that were discussed while we were up there. Um, so that is it. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Francis.

Uh, just the one thing I went to um the rec committee meeting and uh they continue to do a good job. Uh they up there, they're very interested and and I would like to see us utilize them more. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Um, as Mr. Gaylord said, the three of us went up to Tallahassee and he covered everything very well. Thank you very much. So did Miss um Maguire. Um, I can cover that it was cold. It was extremely cold. Note to self, do not go to Tallahassee in January. Cold here.

Um, yes, it was cold here, too. But oh my gosh, it was piercing there. And also, I'm coughing on you. I don't think I'm contagious. I'm like three weeks into this cold, so I'm sorry I'm coughing here. [snorts] Uh, yeah. Thank you. Um, so that's it. That's that is my my report and management reports are next.

So, real brief, uh, the city fared uh, as far as as city assets, we fared uh, very well with this recent cold snap. Uh, we did take uh, several precautionary measures. We did have some minor we had some minor lift station issues and some uh minor uh freezing of of some of uh some of the lines and we're able to get those resolved uh real quick. So uh that's good news as far as the city assets. I know um some residential properties probably didn't fare as well. um we're not used to the cold weather and so uh you know hopefully uh everybody gets gets those items resolved before the good weather. We are keeping an eye on the landscaping. If uh your landscaping at home looks like some of the landscaping uh that the city has as far as the parks and our facilities, it is looking very rough. Uh there are a lot of uh things that are looking uh bad bad today. they looked mediocre on Monday and today they don't look very good at all. And so we'll be uh continuing to keep an eye on that and um uh might need to seek some advice uh professionally as far as when when we get through this cold snap uh as to what we need to do in order to keep that landscaping going or whether it's uh if it doesn't make it uh replacing that. So we'll continue to track that. Uh big thank you to uh our city clerk. She sent out an email today. Uh February is a busy month, a lot of activities, a lot of different things. And so um appreciative that she put out an email to the council just kind of outlining all the uh activities. Again, none none of them are required per se. I got a couple questions, you know, you know, might not be able to make that. Just wanted to throw them out because there's

a lot of them. So we just we just put them out. uh um for your information. Uh please uh feel free to participate in the chili kickoff which is coming up uh in a couple days. What? Next week, Tuesday. Next week, Tuesday. So uh if you would like to eat chili or you'd like to make chili, uh we have that uh coming up. Uh and that is all for my reports. Thank you. Miss Volt has a question. I just Well, on the chili cookup, I have a question. Um, that happens to be my daughter-in-law's birthday, so I can't go. But could I make chili and bring it over there?

If you would like to make chili and drop it off, [snorts] I know a department that will I know a department that eats a lot of good home-cooked food. So, uh, we would appreciate that if if you would want, but certainly under no obligation. Okay. The other question is waste management is going to be very busy with dead shrubs and bushes and all that. Um, have we been in contact with them on anything because I mean everything is dead. Yeah.

Little little too Yeah, a little too early to coordinate any kind of special items for that, but we'll continue to track it. I think um you know just going off of you know personal and and uh our our trips through the park today uh I anticipate not all of our landscaping made it and I would assume that if our landscaping didn't make it a lot of private landscaping didn't make it. So um you know we'll continue to track that. I think it's a little early. It's kind of uh something we don't have all the answers to yet because we don't know the scope. Uh so, but we'll continue to keep everybody see the scope.

Yeah. [laughter] All right, Mr. Kerry.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just uh wanted to update you guys on in following up on with Mr. Gaylord's comments. Um the uh the ebikes I have done a little bit of preliminary research and as you probably all are aware the statewide uh uniform traffic code is a general preeemption um because the state wants uniform traffic rules throughout the state. However, there is a carveout um allowing municipalities to enact ordinances to permit, control or regulate the operation of vehicles, golf carts, mopeds, motorized scooters, and they added electric bikes um uh to sidewalks and sidewalk areas. So, we don't have any uh control over what goes over the road. That's part of the uniform traffic code. However, we can uh create an ordinance dealing with sidewalks if that's the will of the uh council. So, just wanted to kind of give you that background as you're thinking about how you might want to approach this leading into Thursday. Thank you.

Right. Thank you. All right. Anything else for the good of the council? I apologize. Uh we're going to have uh handouts of the workshop uh uh PowerPoint. We just wanted to get to you ahead of time. we will also bring them for the workshop. But uh we were waiting on you on the city council to pick a park sign design. Uh that's why Mr. Bradford uh so expeditiously walked out after that item as uh he printed them. And so please uh uh if we could uh have you grab one, we'll get them to you as the meeting ends.

All right. Thank you. Uh do we want to adjourn? We'll go ahead and do that as we're walking.