Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Today is Tuesday, January 6, 2026. Happy New Year. Time is 6:01 p.m. We're going to call this meeting to order. All cell phones are to be turned off when entering the council chambers. Once the audience has taken their seat and the meeting begins, there will be no talking between audience members during the course of the council meeting. If anyone continues to talk within the audience and is called down three times during the course of the meeting on the third time, that person will be escorted out of the council meeting. The audience must be recognized by the president before being allowed to address the council. The member of the audience that is recognized will proceed to the podium. state that state their name for the benefit of the city clerk prior to offering comments on a given matter. The audience member will be limited to not more than five minutes to speak based on a resolution 2020-28. There will be no personal attacks made by any member in the audience towards any sitting council member and no personal tax made by any council member towards a member of the audience. There will be no conversations between a member of the audience that has been recognized and any other member of the audience nor speaking while at the podium. If an audience member wants to speak more than the allotted 5 minutes allowed, then the person should make a request to the city so that the item can be placed on the agenda. We'll have roll call. Miss Wright,

Mayor Goodman, I'm here. Council President Hines here. Vice President Cox here. Council member Jones here. Council member Martin, she's absent. Council member Rikio here. City Manager Sue Bodette here. Attorney Kirsten Belaloo here. City Clerk Latricia Wright, I am here, and all other staff. Thank you. We'll now have the opening prayer and pledge of allegiance to the flag Mayor Charles Goodman.

Thank you, Madame President. Join me if you choose. Lord, we thank you for this day. Lord, we thank you for our country. Lord, we all have our issues. We all have our problems, but we are united in our love of this country and our hopes and dreams for the world. Lord, I just ask you to be with every person here tonight to give them clarity and understanding of the issues that they're going to discuss. I ask you to be with this council as they make decisions that affect each and every one of our deci our citizens. I ask you to be with the police department. Lord, you know what they face out there on a daily basis. And Lord, you know how my heart hurts for the things that they have to see. So I just ask you to place a hedge of protection around them, Lord. and all the city workers who work for the city and for the citizens. I just ask you to be with them as we go through this time that we're going through now in your name. Amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. Okay. At this time, we'll have additions, deletions, changes, and approvals of the agenda. Seeing none, I will um move to approve the agenda as presented. A second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I.

I. I. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes 4 to zero. Now we have a presentation of the city of lights winner. [clears throat] you. [laughter] He didn't say you, but you.

Yeah. Hello everybody. Uh Steve McMillan. I'm the chair of the of your CRA and Laura came up with this idea to have had a contest for the best lighting, different themes for the lighting. And people voted and we have these beautiful Christmas ornaments made for the winners. And it says Williston CRA City of Lights contest winner for 2025. So, can you read them? I don't want my phone on. Yeah, you are walk up. I think your name was what I saw anyway. [laughter] So, the winners are

best business flamingo freeze. You can READ THAT. [applause] BEST RESIDENTIAL, Greg Hamilton. He did let me know that he wouldn't be here tonight. Um, most creative, Josh Hars. [applause] Hi. No pictures. There's somebody going to take pictures.

And best theme, Sarah Griffin. [applause] So, we just want to thank everybody. We hope that we can do this bigger and better. I know that this used to be a tradition in Willist and people really enjoyed it and now we can do it without a pen and paper and driving around. We can do it with our phones and um we hope that next year will be even bigger and better. So, if you don't mind, can I get a picture? Is Sarah not here? No. Okay.

How do we get these? I am hot. She's covering me up, so that's good. [laughter]

Congratulations. [applause] CONGRATULATIONS.

[gasps]

ALL RIGHT. At this time, we'll have public participation. This will be one of two times you'll have an opportunity to speak for five minutes. Please go to the podium. State your name and where you're from. Yeah. Let me My name is Timmy Aker. Uh Northwest 225. Um, one of the some of the previous meetings I ask about the citizens charter initiative. So, they give me this piece of paper here about the statues or whatever, but this doesn't really help me fill something out to take to and get it legalized so I can take it and get 10% of the vu uh voters. Um, so, um, I read on some of the stuff on on on this. It said the the city, uh, manager is supposed to help or and or the lawyer is supposed to help me fill this out. Maybe I misread it or whatever, but yeah. Um, I'm just kind of curious. What should I do or say to get this?

Mr. Eker, I spoke with the city attorney and if you could meet us after the meeting, we would talk with you about that. Yes, ma'am. That's fine. Okay. Okay. And I got one other thing. Um, can I can I get a a records request for the CRA budget from last year itemized budget if possible? So, anyways, thank you Trish. Is that something you can help him with? Thank you. Yes, I'll help him with that as well.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Eert. Is there anybody else? Anyone else? All right, seeing none, consent agenda. Council minutes from December 16, 2025. A motion. I move we approve the consent agenda consist of the council minutes. [laughter] I have a first and a I mean a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none. All right. Move to vote. All those in favor say I.

I. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes four to zero. All right. At this time we'll have updates. We're going to start with the city manager subday.

Thank you, Madam President. All right. A couple of updates tonight for you. Um, wanted to let you know that I met with Angela Wit of Paso and Jeff Hendry of um, North Florida Economic Development Partnership last Wednesday um, regarding the EDA grant for the airport. Um, Jeff is very optimistic that we're going to receive the grant funding and uh, we reviewed the three different components that are associated with the grant. Uh, the most important that he's concerned about is the workforce assessment. That's the one that Career Source has agreed to help us with with the $80,000. Um, we have to have that funding completed by the end of May. So, there was a pretty long conversation about, you know, what we would need to do right away to get the RFP ready um for that workforce assessment. So, um we're, you know, obviously working on that, but we should hopefully hear something about the grant um pretty shortly. And of course, the benefit to the city is to provide new business opportunities at the airport. So, um, hopefully that will move forward. Uh, second, I wanted to give you guys an update on Edmonds because I know Edmonds has been a pretty big concern for both the council and for our residents. Um, I was tasked with, uh, basically reaching out to the CEO, which, uh, his name is Bob Edmonds. I did that last Tuesday on the 30th of December. Uh, he was very responsive. He actually responded to my email within the hour, which was impressive. and um he has agreed to send one member of the Edmond staff to city hall to train our employees and he's going to be sending another staff member to one of the council meetings. Um he couldn't make either of the meetings in January so it will be in February to answer any questions that you may have. In addition, uh we asked them to prepare a PowerPoint presentation so that Megan and I can do a workshop again. And we're planning on doing both a night workshop and a weekend workshop for the residents. And we'll put that online. We'll put it on our website so that people can have the training. Um, and of course this is just, you know, reading

your bill. Um, you know, logging into the portal, setting up a payments, all that sort of thing. Um, it was a productive meeting with them. We actually met with three different um, people from admins, somebody from implementation, somebody from customer success, and somebody from customer service. and we went over 10 different problems that we're having with the system. Um, so they are, you know, committed to resolving these issues with us. If the council, um, has any other issues that you guys, you know, are having problems with the system, please let us know cuz we're trying to make this list as comprehensive as possible. But, um, hopefully we're actually going to get somewhere with Edmonds now. We're we're hopeful, um, that we're going to get somewhere with them. And um did want to let you know that there was a comprehensive plan meeting with Levy County scheduled for this afternoon at 1:00 and I got there and the meeting had been rescheduled to next Tuesday without letting anybody know. So

Oh, you did? I didn't get it. So I went all the way there. But anyway, it's next Tuesday at 9:00 in the morning when I did. Wow. Maybe I missed it. So anyway, it's rescheduled. It's the third one. 9:00 in the morning. It's 9:00. Yes. So next Tuesday 9:00 if anybody's interested. And then um I wanted to um have Walt come up and discuss a few of our recent grant opportunities that we were awarded. Thank you, Walt.

Thank you all. Um I think last time I was here, we we knew one of these grants, but I do want to summarize. Uh the city has won three three grants here in the past couple weeks um total. Um we've uh got the septic sissure project. We have about 14 areas that we have a list on and plans, but what we call area one septic to sewer, which is in the northeast quadrant of the city. That area um you got a grant for the design and planning for the subject to sewer from FD on that. So that was in the uh total of $451,000. This is going to help um the big picture things. The all the communities that are in the the Rainbow Springs drainage area are under what's called a basin management action plan. And you are Williston, Levy County, all the other cities surrounding here have a mandate from D to reduce nitrogen to groundwater. And you have certain goals that you have to meet so many pounds per year that have to be reduced going into that. and your big milestone is coming up in the year 2028 where you have to hit that first milestone. Um, we do annual reporting to D on this. Well, one of the biggest ways to meet those requirements is septic to sewer. Getting people off septic system, get them on on the city sewer system. That is the biggest bang for your buck and that gets you a big chunk of what you need to do for 2028. So, we're asking money for to we can do that. And this year D came through understanding that we need to meet these goals and that they we got the the design uh uh grant for this. Prior year we asked and we asked for both design and construction. That was a big ask. So this they recommended we do it in chunks. So this year we've got the the design. Once the design is done then you'll be shovel ready. Then we ask for the the money for the construction and you're in a much better position to do that. So you've got the first step um of

septic vour. Uh we have two other areas that are really could go quickly. And in addition to that, if we were to get one more area, we we asked for it this time, but we would ask again the next time is to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant because once you bring in all these people, you're going to have capacity issues. And so we've already asked for that. And the the ask we did here was for a uh construction was like $25 million. um you're positioned for that, but that won't be this year. Maybe the following year where you would be able to to do that and you could do a substantial upgrade to your treatment plant as part of this BMAP mandate. So anyway, that was a big win for the city. That's going to help you meet your goals, meet your objectives that you need that you're mandated to do by D. So that was good news. Um we received the vulnerability assessment grant from uh DP. This is um a study that they require to to look at how vulnerable you are to to storms. It's really a storm water issue and and and to define what your issues are. Um once you do that, that's another one. It opens the door for the construction dollars. So, it's a small grant. You do the study, you get this uh submitted to D. Then, when that's done, you're going to be in a better opportunity to ask for additional money to improve your storm water system. Um so, that was a win. So, we got that $129,000 on that grant and we the city won the safe streets for all grant. This has been I would look back I think it's been two years since we applied for this uh this uh grant. It's a similar one. It's it's focused on transportation improvements. You do this safe streets for all and it looks in at traffic. It looks at multimodal, pedestrians, bike, things that where you have safety issues, things that you can improve where they need improvements on.

But once you do this this assessment, it then opens up avenues for money. You're not going to get grants. They're going to go to this safe streets for all study and see what projects are on there, and then you have a chance to get construction dollars for it. So again, you're on the ground floor for all these these things to get the bigger uh construction dollars coming. So anyway, you got all that. That one we just got the notice yesterday's Tuesday. Yesterday on that one that the city wanted it's it's been two years in the making. It's been on. It's been off. They put the program on hold. They had to rearrange all the agreements this past year. They did all that and so that has been approved. Um I'm we are reviewing all these agreements right now to make sure that everything looks there and then we're we're going to bring them to council in two weeks from now that you would have those to approve. So um they'll be you but I just want to give you a heads up that those came in and uh looking pretty good and we still have several other grants. We we submitted on nine or 10 this past September October. Um we're still waiting on some some we knew we didn't get. Um, one was called the riff grant for South Main Street drainage. Uh, that one we did not get. Uh, the competition was extreme. I think over 125 submitts and 11 awards. So, um, we didn't get a chance, but we still have another grant for Main Street also that is still pending. Um, but and then we're still waiting on the Swift Mud uh, flood plane mapping. uh they said we look favorable from what I could they they can't officially say that but that's what I've was able to get from some of the reviewers. So more on that as as as we hear more that's where we stand right now on grants.

Thank you for the update. Thank you. Anything else, Miss Sue? No, ma'am. Kirsten, you have anything? I just wanted to let you all know that we are uh as always continuing to uh pursue uh the CLLE issue. We have received some correspondence with CLLE. We have a meeting next week um to see what we can resolve. So, I just wanted to make sure that you all knew that we're we're still working on it, but we're we're making some progress.

Thank you, Miss Wright. Chief interim. Yes. Just to let you know, the new body cameras came in that we asked for there and they're in the at the police department and they're going to be distributed very, very soon. Okay. All right. Awesome. Thanks. Thank you, sir. Anyone in staff? Yes, Miss

I still need two um evaluations for Miss Latricia. I'll get right on that. [laughter] Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Anyone else? All right. Do I have anything from council? Miss Deborah, Mr. Cop

want to congratulate Chief Steagle on the really good report on how we did uh that was emailed out to us on how many um accidents there were what we had versus nationally came out and emailed this afternoon. So that I was hoping Edmunds we'd be a little farther along with them. Um cuz that's what I asked back beginning in December. We need to push them because if not, we need to look at something else. See what legal grounds we have. So because other than that, I'm going to start giving residents your phone number.

[laughter] Me, too. [clears throat] Miss Alexa, anything from you?

All right, Mr. Mayor. I don't know how many of you are aware of the uh [clears throat] work that Habitat for Humanity does. And I won't go into the long thing of how they're structured, but I will tell you a couple of things. First of all, the person that gets a Habitat for Humanity house has to work for it. It's not a gift. And uh I have had a meeting with them and in Citrus County they have actually developed a low cost housing subdivision and I'm going over there Friday to look at it and they have a strong interest in coming to Levy County and they're focusing right now on Williston. they would like. Right now, they're not even in this county at all. And so, we are trying to work with them to see if there's some way because one of the longest things that I've heard for ever here is there's no affordable housing. And this what this group does is build affordable housing. And they do not give it to them for free. They have to work hard for it. and I think they're a very good group and they're getting my full support and we will let you know as it progresses how it goes. Thank you,

Attorney Belaloo. Let me apologize for not addressing [clears throat] you appropriately earlier. All right, so we'll move forward. Um, new business resolution 2026-01, a resolution of city council of the city of Willist, Florida, approving the attached lease amendment for property at the city hall annex as further described in the lease document authorizing the city council president to execute the lease amendment and providing an effective date. City manager Subday, thank you very much. All right, so we talked about this a few council meetings ago. Um, this is our official request um that I received from county manager uh Marie Ellen Harper um to vacate the city annex building effective uh March 1st. And this is just the resolution that um we need to pass to give back to the county so they can then pass theirs. And again, the Chamber of Commerce is interested in going into that building if we are interested in having them go into the building. I have not heard from anybody else, but that's the one person that I do know would like to go over there is Carolyn. um which will I think be Dina at that point, but um the chamber is interested in going back into that building as they were several years ago. So you tonight need a motion or anything need a motion

resolution. Okay, you want me to motion for discussion? I will move approval of resolution 20261. A second. Have a motion and a second. Any discussion? This is strictly to close it out as of March 1st to end it. Thank you. Correct. Any other discussion from the council? Any discussion from the citizens? All right. We have a motion and a second. Move to vote. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say nay.

Motion passes 4 to zero. public participation. This is our second opportunity to speak on anything um that you have at this moment. You have 5 minutes. Please state your name and where are you from? Yes, I'm a 225. Um earlier this past year, I had a meeting with Sue and she told me to if I have any issues to get with her, let her try to deal with it. And I did. And um and I know it wasn't her fault, but I made a complaint about Northeast 2nd Street 329, which has been a major issue for Willist and water leaks. Took Willist uh I had to go to the police department and file and get a public that then that way it was a public record. And um and then when I did a little Facebook video, which I shouldn't really have to do, it was fixed within like two days. But they just kept using the excuse. police department called me and told me that they were waiting for 811 8 days later after they were they were notified about the leak. So, it took him 13 days to fix this. I hope things get better for Willist cuz I'm not stopping. [snorts]

Thank you, sir. My name is Joel Penny. I live at 43 Northwest fourth Street. So, my question is to y'all about the CRA. uh with Mr. McMillan being the president on the CRA and him owning a business in town and surveying the the new parking lot and stuff. Wouldn't that be a conflict of interest? I'm just asking. I mean, no, I don't believe so. It would not. Miss Below, would you like to answer them? I'm just I've got a couple questions to ask. Okay. So, we'll let him ask all his questions and they won't answer. Yes. Continue. You have to ask all your question.

Ask all your questions, please. Oh, and another thing is uh Miss Jones with her being with another company and her being on CRA. Uh I'm not on the CRA. Not you. Oh, sorry. You have to be have to clarify that. Would that be a conflict of interest? If she has nothing to do with the city, if she's not a city employee, she doesn't live in the city. Don't answer. Don't answer that, Miss Jones. Okay, continue. I mean, wasn't that a conflict of interest? Somebody's going to answer. Is do you have any other questions? That's just Yeah, that's it. That's it. Yes.

Okay, Miss Bel. So, conflicts of interest are analyzed on a case-by case, voteby vote basis. Um, many members of our CRA own businesses in town. That's actually one of the ways that you qualify to be on the CRA is that you either own an an operating business in town or you're you um are a citizen of the city. Um so no, owning business is not a conflict of interest. Um to be a member of the CRA. Um if ever there are any issues regarding surveying on a case-byase basis, we do work those out with Mr. McMillan. That's not been an issue yet. I don't anticipate it will be an issue. Um, conflicts of interest only occur when the um I'm not going to say only occur because there are multiple different times that they could occur. Um, but we do analyze to make sure that there's no um pecuniary interest that's special to Mr. McMillan when he votes on on anything. So, it's not been an issue. I don't anticipate it being an issue, but we we do evaluate it case by case. Um, as to Miss Jones, um, no, that's not a conflict of interest. Miss Jones continues to assist us with our CRA.

Thank you. I could not hear you. If you please that last Sorry, it's not a conflict of interest. Miss Jones continues to assist us with the CRA. Uh and she's not on the CRA. She's just a staff member. That is correct. Miss Jones just advises uh the CRA as part of her employment with JP Pro. Yeah. Correct. Sorry. Anyone else? Okay. Wonderful. How are you today? Hey honey, how you doing? Good. I just want to ask um uh I'm glad Laura's here right there. But on the parking lot over here when they get finished um [clears throat] before they started and Melany's restaurant was in business,

they would come in there with motor homes parked there. I'm not lying. And I'd go back there and ask them. They even leave them in the road. And I said, "Park them over there to by the stop sign or something on the grass." so people don't keep the road open. And they would come in there with them horse trailers, cow trailers, commercial trucks, all kind of ways and mess all that parking up over there just to go there, that restaurant. And that's not that's not I mean I I think y'all should put some signs up over there that says $150 fine for any commercial trucks, cow trailers, all that, motor homes that they're not allowed to park in there. And that's the way because they you don't have the space, you don't have the room and they're so long and when they pull in there, they just pull in any kind of way and park them. And I don't think they should be allowed in there.

Okay. Um I mean, I just want to ask y'all what do y'all think, interrum chief, you have any [laughter] to say related? Yeah. So, uh, I don't know the entire story of what's going on, what you're speaking of. I'm assuming you're talking about the parking lot they're doing now. Okay. I've been here for 5 years. I've never noticed any vehicles parked in the road. But I can tell you right now, if they park in the road, that's a violation of the law. We'll handle it case by case. And the parking lot was you have two empty. Yes, sir. Okay. And then big motor homes. I'm not I work. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

They pull in there. We got them old dirt road and go out and leave that motor home. Big motor home coach right there in the road. Can you use the microphone, please? And I had to go back there and ask them to move it further. Get it out of the road over there on the grass by the stop sign where they doing a retention area now. Yes, sir. And even them cattle trailers and all that. I mean, what we can do for you, sir, is is is call the police department when you see that if it occurs and we'll hand it on a case by case. That's what I'm saying. If you put signs up when they when they come in there the entrance. We'll have to look into that once the parking lot's done. We can look into all that.

Right. That's what I was asking. If the city just put a sign up to eliminate when they see that sign, they know they're not supposed to go in there and park with them big old trailers. Okay. They make a mess over there. All right. Yeah. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you so much. Is there anyone else?

Can I make a comment on that? Just a little little bit short one. Two seconds. [laughter] I I would just comment that there is a vacant lot behind Shogun, Domino's, and Taco Bell that they don't own. And all those big trucks that you're talking about are there every day. However, they are there to support the businesses. Um, and I can tell you that the church owns that lot. And the only problem we have is they run across the sidewalk and the sidewalk's own by the city. They crack the sidewalk up like crazy. Uh and I'm talking electric trucks, the big central Florida electric trucks and all those big trucks. But um we have no we the church have no problem with the parking in the parking lot. They do line up normally. They don't park crazy like you're saying. However, in those diagonal or those pull-in parking spaces in front of the church itself, they do park in the handicap. They'll take up three spots at a time. Um, but again, as long as there's nothing else there, we haven't called or had a problem with it at all. Um, as long as they're not in the road. And we did have a police officer stop one time. Somebody was taking up three handicap spots. So, and they did make them move. uh which I can understand that completely but and I'm I'm there with Mr. with officer O'Hara. I believe that once if we see there's a problem we can then act act on it.

You're welcome. No one else. [clears throat] Excuse me. Are we stop? Um it will [laughter] do we have any announcements from council? None. Any from staff? None. Okay. So I move for Oh well adjournment. Oh. Oh I missed you. [clears throat] [laughter]

Mr. Mayor. I don't know how I could forget you. Thank you, Erin. I want to wish all of you a new year and hope and from my heart that everybody has a wonderful year this year and that it is better than last year and that we all move forward together. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you, sir. I move we adjourn. Second. Got a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say nay.

Motion passes 4 to zero. You guys have a good night. It's 6:35 p.m. magnet back on. Do not put that magnet.