Council - Regular Meeting

Today is Tuesday, May 19, 2026 at 6 p.m. We're going to call this meeting to order. Is that me? Can we have roll call? Yes, we can.

Mayor Charles Goodman.

I am here.

Council President Darkness Hines. Here. Vice President Deborah Jones. Here. Council Member Michael Cox.

Here.

Council Member Meredith Martin, she is absent and is excused. Council Member Shana Church, here. City Chief Manager Mike Rolls, here. Attorney Kirsten Ballou, here. City Clerk Latricia Wright is absent and excused. And Interim Police Chief Matt Fortney.

At this time, we have the opening prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag by Mayor Charles Goodman.

Join me.

Lord, we come to you today in a day of celebration. Lord, this city is so proud of the young ladies who have applied themselves so hard.

And as we're going through this celebration, Lord, I just ask that you help us all to remember.

The Bible says, no greater love has he that lays down his life for another.

Three men, Lord, laid down their life to save children in a school.

Lord, I ask you to be with their families and help us all to understand that it is a sacrifice that these men made. And I ask you to be with this council today. Give them the wisdom to make the best choices for our city. Give them the strength to deal with whatever problems may come up. And I thank you, Lord, for every person that has taken the time out of their life to come here tonight to join this celebration with us. In your name I pray. 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.

Item number one. additions, deletions, changes, and approval of the agenda.

Seeing none, may we approve the agenda as presented.

I second.

We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those opposed, nay. Motion passes 4-0. item number two presentation of awards to the williston high school girls basketball champions mayor charles goodman and chief city manager mike rolls and coach will

I hope that you struggled, you worked hard, you applied yourself, Check, check.

Miss Nana Brown. Could you come forward? Miss Jamelia Robinson. just stay with us here Dennis Smith he's trying to get away Willie Powers II.

Ms. Jabara Joyner.

Right here first.

Ms. Tiayla Duncan.

Thank you, Ms. Tiayla.

Ms. Dikaya Smith.

Ms. Kaylin Brown. Thank you, Ms. Kaylin. Ms. Kyla McCray. Miss Janiyah Spann.

I'm going to shake her hand. You don't need to go over there.

Okay.

Trinity Solomon. Miss Trinity, congratulations. Ms. Ashlyn Young. I could see it all over your face.

Congratulations.

Ms. Kearse Solomon. Congratulations.

Miss Delicia Dallas.

Congratulations.

Miss Nariah Dallas.

Congratulations.

Miss Bailey Cribs.

Cribs. Cribs. C-R-I-B-B-S. Miss Cribs. Congratulations.

So everybody knows I was warned.

that some of you ladies have names that I might not be able to pronounce being an old man, but after listening to them, I think I could have got every one of them. You haven't got a panoramic camera?

I'm going to get in close here. Come on over here. There you go.

I'm not the important one.

Thank you, ladies, and congratulations again.

here here here

All right, amazing, amazing. Item number three will have presentation of the John Land Award by Mayor Charles Goodman.

Thank you, Madam President.

Would it be possible for Vice President Deborah Jones to meet me up here?

Thank you. It's not easy to keep things from you, Vice President.

I would like to read this because I think it's important. This is a resolution of the Board of Directors of the Florida League of Cities honoring Deborah F. Jones, for 25 years of elected service. That deserves an applause. You don't hold back on my account. And presenting her with the John Land Years of Service Award in recognition of her selfless commitment to municipal leadership and governance. Whereas America's municipal governments have long relied upon the selfless leadership of their citizens for local self-government, and Florida's municipal governments share the time-honored role as the level of government closest to the people. Whereas the reliance places extraordinary responsibility upon citizens legislators municipal elected officials who make significant sacrifices of their time and energies on behalf of their citizenry making this commitment a true labor of love and whereas municipal leaders strive for excellence in the governance of their city their town or their village, and commit themselves to providing quality services, governing effectively and working to improve the quality of life. And whereas the League has named its years of service recognition in honor of John Land, the mayor of Apopka between the years of 1949 and 2014, a leader whose dedication is unsurpassed at the national and state level, and who modeled the way for decades of municipal leaders. And whereas several terms in office are a high compliment voters give to an official, and with these years of experience comes a strengthening of wisdom, discernment, and strong leadership. that brings tremendous value to municipal governments of Florida. And whereas Deborah F. Jones has held office in the city of Williston for 25 years and is recognized for this achievement, now therefore let it be resolved by the Board of Directors of the Florida League of Cities Incorporated that Deborah F. Jones is commended her dedication to the city of williston and is hereby recognized as an outstanding public servant in florida this is adopted by the board of directors who assembled this fourth day of december 2025 vice president jones congratulations

Thank you.

I just comment that I know Mr. Lamb, and it is a great honor to win any award that is named after him. And I'll also say that those 25 years, as you know, were not consecutive. I had a 10-year break in the middle. But I asked specifically if they all had to be consecutive, and we were told that they did not. So I am very proud to receive this award. Thank you.

Congratulations, congratulations. All right, so item number four, employee years of service award pin, HR Director Kim Troy.

Good evening.

for 15 years. Thank you for your dedication and contributing to the city of Williston's success over the last 15 years. Joseph Moos, who could not be here tonight. 10 years of service. They also could not be here tonight. Thank you for your dedication and contributing to the city of Williston's success over the last 10 years. Kurt Williams, Chad Williams, and Matthew Baton. Matthew Batten um thank you for your dedication and contributing to the cities of Williston success over the last five years Aaron Mills Camden Pogue Evan Miller Joseph Brooks Shane Batman Bateman there's a name missing my bed and Keegan Baker

Thanks for showing up, Erin. Couldn't do it without you.

Item number five is going to be our public participation. This is one of two times you'll have to speak at the podium. Please say your name and where you're from. Is this your public participation?

No, ma'am. This is something that I omitted that is too important to omit.

Okay.

Mr. Dan Jones, would you come up here, please, sir? No, but she's your wife. This is a lapel pin for your wife. Could you put it on her, please?

Thank you.

Thank you. I thought it was over now.

All right, we will resume with public participation. You have five minutes to speak. You come to the podium, say your name and where you're from.

Please. All right. Yes.

Okay. My name is Veronica Harmon gun. I reside at 21041 Northeast 40th Street. And I'm here in regards to several Letters that I got that were certified from the city one for myself one for my mom's address to 1024 Northeast 40th Street as well and my grandma both my mom and my grandmother is deceased my grandmother's address is to 1038 North East 40th Street as well and the letters were regarding Our properties in relation to Cornelius Park. I got a chance to look over on the agenda what is planned for Cornelius Park. And I just wanna say that presently, the way the park is, I'm not pleased with it because for it to be a park for the community, the kids in the community do not have access to it. There's no way for them to be able to walk freely within the park and take part in playing sports or whatever the park is supposed to be utilized for. And also after reading what came with the certified letter. There was information about the agenda that I was able to look up on the internet that stated that the park was granted a grant to further enhance the park. And it was supposed to be an African American cultural grant for that particular part. And after looking on the internet and seeing what was planned for it, which is a sports complex, I don't think that is relative what the grant is for. I think the grant should provide a facility for kids to play, maybe a pavilion for families to get together and intermingle. But a sports complex, I don't think that's representative of what Cornelius Park should be about. If it's representing him, he would be more involved with something for the community that he lives in. The house where he lived is right across from the park. And there's no way that he would be able to, if he was still alive, to be able to get to that park outside of going to Highway 27 and driving in. Now, if it's for the community, you shouldn't have to go via Highway 27 to get into the park when it's right there in the middle of the community where nobody has immediate access to.

Thank you.

Chief, isn't there a gate there? Is it closed during the day or is it open?

No, there is a back entrance to Kennedy's William Park off of 318. And that's all part of the development of when they revitalized Kennedy's William Park. That entranceway will be redone because right now it's just a dirt road, grass dirt road. So part of the development of it is to improve that roadway. So there'll be two ways in and two ways out. One off 318 and one off Highway 27.

Okay. So the community, the immediate community that's there where the park is located, will be able to enter and exit during operational hours?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay. Yes, ma'am. And I also am hoping that you can include something that will benefit the kids of the community. Just having a sports complex there. I do. That's okay, but it's not enough for the kids of the community if that's what it's for.

Right. The plan is actually larger. than just the sports complex when we went to get the grant we were not able to get it for the reason that we initially went for and we ended up having to change it some in order to get a grant for that park to do the things that we wanted to do Okay.

The name of the grant is African American. I stand to be corrected. Cultural. It's for that purpose only. And I don't see how a sports center is representative of the community and is supposed to be representative of the kids in honor of Cornelius Park. What I'm saying is even if it's going to be something bigger, which would be great, I'm saying include the kids of the community.

There is a playground there now. And the Raiders practice there now. They practice there twice a week. And they have other games there as well. They do their exchange games are actually at Williston Youth Athletic, but they practice at Cornelius Williams. I will say originally his house was going to be moved into the park. And it's come to our attention that it's not in any shape to pick up. If we picked it up and moved it, it would fall apart. Understood, understood. So we're not able to move it. However, there is going to be, if you read the whole grant, not just look at the site plan that was in it. Yeah, I did. And it's the county packet that she's referring to because it was on the county planning and zoning agenda yesterday. Yesterday? The day before. Yesterday. Yesterday. And it was... Mostly just the site plan, but there are other, there's also a pavilion that's planned as well. Mr. Fuller made sure of that. I mean, he's been here the whole time trying to help us. Yes, I remember doing the earlier stages. And the Chief's right, it does have a separate entrance into the Lincoln Heights area on 318.

I just want to be adamant about having something for the kids, not just a big complex. that teams will be coming in to utilize. It's not.

It's for our local teams is what it's for.

Okay. Okay. I just want to make sure that the kids of the community are looked, you know, not forgotten. Right. I don't want them to be forgotten. I would like to see a facility where they would have access to, you know, maybe playing not just a playground, a bigger basketball court, you know, for the kids that like to play. The girls could have, on their off time, off season or whatever, could go to the park and play. If, you know, it had the amenities, you know, for that.

I do believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe there is some upgrades to the basketball courts that's out there now in the grant. I do believe there is a stipulation in there to upgrade those basketball courts.

Okay, okay, okay.

People are also playing soccer, too, but they're adults. There's an adult league that plays out there on Sundays.

Yeah, I'm just putting emphasis on the children, not teens and adults and all that. The younger generation is what I'm concerned about.

There are quite a few events out there that I go to throughout the year.

That includes the kids.

That includes the kids. Between Ms. Gussie and Ms. Jackie, they keep us moving out there.

Okay.

Thank you for your concern.

Okay. I just don't want it to be forgotten that I'm concerned about kids being able to freely, you know, enter the park, just like John Young. You got a nice park there. Kids can, you know, from their neighborhood, just walk in there and have at it.

Yes, ma'am.

We like the same thing for our community.

Absolutely.

And they will have that, you know, Canadians Williams Park is kind of in a unique location.

Yeah, that's another thing that I'm not pleased with. Yeah. You know, for the park to be there. and then for someone to allow a so-called towing company to come in adjacent to the park. And then, well, I don't think a junkyard should have been approved by zone in a residential area. And the park itself is surrounded by junk. That's another whole story. You know, the kids don't have access to it. You got junk. surrounding the park.

It's just totally unnecessary. Thank you. We appreciate your comment. If you're still here, we'll have another five minutes later in the agenda. Okay.

I don't have anything else to say. I just wanted to be heard that I don't want the younger kids to be left out of this plan.

We appreciate it. Thank you.

Anyone else?

I need to know Robert Langan, 500 Northwest 5th Avenue. I need to know who I need to talk to to figure out what is going on around our subdivision. I was working with Robert. I know he's not here now, but he had me draw up where we want to put lights on 7th Street. The agreement was that the city was going to put the lights, we were going to pay the bills. Now, I have since heard, been told, that the light poles that we were going to put lights on are being taken out to put the cable underground. Who knows? I need to talk to somebody that knows what is actually going on and what is planned. Because there's no use us putting lights on poles and you all take them down next month. And there's also holes shown on the drawing. They don't say light poles. They just say poles. Nobody knows anything about them. So are they going to be installed, not installed? Because the last thing we need to do is 7th Street to get darker.

Yes, sir. Can we meet out there tomorrow and take a look at them?

Let me know what time.

Let's go with 2 o'clock.

2 o'clock would be fine. Where do you want to meet? My house or down at 7th Street?

I can meet you at your house.

Okay. That'll work. Because there's just a lot of miscommunication. It seems like A doesn't know what B is doing and C is in a different county.

Alex, your man. All right. Thanks.

Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none, we will move on.

Item number six, consent agenda.

Council minutes from April 7th, 2026. Council minutes from April 20th, 2026. May 12th, 2026. Resolution 2026-31. A resolution of the City Council of the City of Wilson, Florida. to approve the disposal and sale of f-450 truck truck bed resolution 2026-32 a resolution of the city council of the city of williston florida authorizing the city manager to approve a pending employment dispute settlement in an amount up to fifteen thousand nine hundred sixty eight dollars and to execute a full settlement agreement on behalf of the city of Williston in a final form approval by Mark Gray, PA, and the city manager in providing an effective date. I'm over approval of the consideration.

I second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say nay. Motion passes 4-0. I have number seven updates. We'll start with city manager, Michael.

All right. Thank you. I just have a few things that I'd just like to bring you up to date on and go over just to let you know where we're at and what we're doing. Alex, myself, and Ms. Vicki, you know, it's been a lot of talk about the barn over across by the police department. and the condition of it. So we went over and took a tour. We identified items that could be sold or disposed of that are no longer serviceable or that are no longer needed. In that effort, we're trying to clean up the area to make it more professional and more of a safer workplace. We'll be presenting that list of items at a later date when we get some prices on some of the items that we feel that could be sold. We'll be presenting it to the council for you to all to review. And after your review, we will proceed with trying to dispose of that equipment to clean up that area. There's just a lot of stuff over there that's just not serviceable or not usable, not used anymore that we could dispose of that will really make the yard look professional. So we're working on that. I'll give you a quick FEMA update. We're in stage four of seven in our FEMA reimbursement process in reference to Hurricane Helene and Milton. Miss Vicky has taken the lead on that. There's a few more documents that we must provide to FEMA before we move to step five of number seven. But we're moving in the right direction, as you know, with FEMA, sometimes it takes a long time to to even get any reimbursement. So to see that we're at stage four and shortly away from stage five in this seven step process is a pretty good sign for us. So we'll stay on top of that and keep you updated on the progress of that. Today, Megan and I had a scheduled meeting with Edmunds to discuss identified issues and a plan on how to help us go green with our bills. We spend a lot of money, somewhere roughly around 20 to 28,000 on mail outs per year. My big push for Megan is to try to convert as many citizens as we can to do it online without receiving the mail outs. They will have the option to take that if they want. uh the purpose of that is to try to reduce the cost of what it cost us in postage um and as we know uh we're we're sticking envelopes inside of our bills uh that are costing us a substantial amount of money and when the bills come back we may get one or two envelopes back so uh the push would be to try to get everyone to go green we met with emma's today to talk about a a substantial reduction in the cost of citizens using credit cards to pay their bills. Currently right now it's at 2.95%, which to me is unacceptable. So we spoke about that today. I'm waiting on an update from Edmunds on how we can move forward with that or if they can assist us in reducing that price for our citizens. Tomorrow night, we have a meeting, the planning board meeting in reference to Kennedy's Williams Park, as the young lady spoke about. That's tomorrow at 545. If anybody would like to attend, please come. It's in Bronson.

Yes, ma'am.

If you would like to come out and support the process, 545 and Bronson, we will be there. In our previous meetings, I've spoke several times about Employee of the Month Awards. Mr. Ben Stegall, who's here, created a challenge quorum, which Ms. Vicki will pass around for you all to take a look at. In addition to... Our Employee of the Month Award, Ms. Vicki also created an Employee of the Month nomination form, which will be used when somebody wants to recommend an employee for that status. And you have that form in front of you. So that form could be used by anybody. It could be used by council. It could be used by a citizen. It could be used by staff to nominate an employee for Employee of the Month. So we wanted to create that so we can have some type of documentation as to all of our employees that received this award. On that note, you also have a form in front of you that was created by Ms. Megan. and it is the city of williston irrigation meter install services it pretty much outlines if a citizen was to request a irrigation meter the responsibilities that the citizens have when that that meter is uh placed and their duties and their responsibility when that meter is installed at their homes this form was created like i said by megan because it's something that we do not currently have that we can use to track our meters when we put them in is that right megan am i saying that right Okay, it will help us keep track of all of our meters. So these are all forms that we're looking at. You have them in front of you. You can take your time, take a look at them, and let us know or let me know later if there's something that you approve of. Also, I'd like to give you a quick update on some things that's going on on the shelter. I won't take up much time, much more time. BJ is doing an excellent job out at our animal shelter. We have a shelter in this city that we can be very proud of. And we have employees that are working out there that we should be very proud of as well. The shelter now is fully functioning and running on their new software that they utilize for adopting out their pets. They adopted out their first dog last week using a new system. Thank you, BJ. So we're super excited about that. It will help BJ make her job a lot easier. when she's adopting our pets. Also at the shelter, Ms. BJ has took it upon herself, which is something that we did not do, but we should have, is she's creating policies and procedures to establish a clear standard operation procedure for shelter operations. I know she's reached out to multiple different places to get their policies and procedures so she can know design one that we can use at our shelter which you know would not only carry us now but it would carry us in the future when uh the shelter of this miss bj or myself are no longer here there'll still be some policies and procedures for our staff to follow uh she's also continuing her search for a veterinarian to partner with the shelter On the 21st, she will be meeting with the Williston Community Animal Advocate Services on May 21st to discuss the possibility of working together again and moving the shelter forward. I look forward to the feedback on that. And last, on the animal shelter, at this time, we are currently caring for two dogs, 11 cats. Five of the cats have been adopted and will be going to their forever home on Friday. So once again, congratulations, BJ. And to our shelter. Quick update on fiber. As of today, we have converted 33 CalLink customers to the Williston fiber. Currently, we have 40 customers on CalLink. So we're at 33. Three of those are in CLE area, but they're still being serviced by our wireless. We have a little bit more work to do in that area before they'll be 100%. So Aaron and his team have been doing a great job of getting this process started. I know this has been a long time coming, and I'm glad to report to you all and the citizens that the program is starting to roll out. So Aaron has also added five new commercial customers. I don't have the names of those, but there's five new commercial customers that have been added. One residential customer as well as internet feed to the Williston Crossings have been installed. So great work by Aaron and his team. The feed has been installed at their office, but it has not been dispersed out in the park yet. Right, Aaron?

Yeah, that was the agreed upon. For them allowing us in there with the contract, we gave them access for their use. So this is for their connection, for their offices or whatever they want to do with it.

So as you can see, we've been working hard to try to get some of these tasks that's been before us to accomplish those tasks. So quick update on the airport. Mr. Benton and I met with a possible leasee of 40 acres out at the airport. They should be getting a survey done sometime next week. And once that survey is done, hopefully we'll be moving into the lease agreement phase. I don't think they're wanting to put out what they're planning on doing. Okay. Uh, but, uh, that will be a great revenue source coming into the, to the city. Uh, if we can seal this deal on this 40 acre land lease, um, the bidding for airport lighting project on the photo runway, uh, has started opening.

Yeah, we, uh, we had the bid opening, um, I think it was a couple weeks ago we weren't able to report it because it was just past the last council meeting. Trinity Electric was, I believe, the low bidder, and Passero is actually finishing their due diligence on it to confirm that all the bids were appropriate before recommending an award.

Cool. Thank you, Benton. Yes, sir. I got an update from Wright Pierce. Let's see. When we met last week and the week before, we talked about the FMA BRIC Grant. The FMA had two programs in 2024 called BRIC, the BRIC Grant and the FMA Flood Medication Assistance Program. We applied for both of those grants. One was to fix Northwest 7th Street, and one was also for Northwest 5th Place. We did not receive those grants, but Walt wanted me to let you know that those grants have been reopened, and they're only taking applications from municipalities who had applied the year before. So we fit that category. Walt's going to give me some more information on those grants. I think the one on Northwest 7th Street was designed and permitted was 220K. Construction was 480K for a total of 700K. They may require up to a 25 cent cost of sharing from the city. Fifth place was 981K, and they may also require a 25% cost sharing on that. But as we move forward, I will get with Walt and get more information to provide to you all for the next meeting, and we can decide if we want to reapply for those grants. And that's all I have. Thank you.

Any questions for the Chief?

Just one. Great idea on the Employee of the Month. Is there going to be a deadline, like... by the 25th of the month that any ballots are going to be turned in.

Yeah, when we do it on a monthly basis, yeah, we will have a deadline. It has to be in before that month end in order for us to recognize that employee for that month. but you can recommend an employee at any time. But just get them in before the end of the month so we can actually give them the award. We're super excited about it. I think it's something, it's a morale builder for our employees. They do work hard, and they're out in the field, and you see them, but how many of us really take the time to say, hey, thank you? And I mean, I understand that Comments have been made that things are not moving fast enough or different things, but there's different reasons for those things, but it's not because of the lack of the work of our employees. So I'm super proud of the work they're doing. As you can see, as you move around the city, we're getting these tasks knocked down as quickly as we can. So I'm super proud, and I thank every employee for the citizens of Williston that go out there and work hard and do what our citizens expect them to do.

question so you don't have to answer right now but I would like to know how much it would cost to collect or pay for of the coin and is it a possibility you can instead of giving it out to everybody want someone every month give it when extraordinary things have been done um so that way i mean it just is really nice so um for them to or what am i trying to say um hold on for them to have but you know for like special like incentive type um for that particular piece. So yeah, how much would it cost for us to get it? I'm inventing, hold on.

I'm sure he does. Yeah, he knows the answer.

But I mean, I just didn't want to kind of like put it on the spot, but just like say, you know. And then also when we talk about going green with the bills and we thought about not placing the envelope in to the bill. That'll save costs there. Not everybody is able to pay online. So we have to think about those residents as well. And I know, not that we want to add costs to the residents, but I know if I choose to pay my bill through the mail, there is an administrative fee. that's something that we can kind of like look at as well when we're talking about going green, but we need to make sure that we're taking everybody into account when we talk about doing that. Mr. Benton, you can answer my question.

He can answer the first one and then I'll answer the rest.

Yes, ma'am. So the coins, we ordered 100 coins. Oh, you already ordered them? We have them in hand. Yes, ma'am. That's what Chief Rose was saying. Okay. So there is a line item budget for that in the HR budget for employee incentives. And our plan with rolling out the coins was not just to have this particular set of coins, but as we get a couple of years down the road, we order different coins for that exact purpose. So it's not just an employee of the month coin, but it can be an employee recognition award. If we have an attaboy from a citizen like we've had several in the past few months, we can hand a coin to that individual while recognizing them up here. So it's more than just an employee of the month. And then we were going to order different coins or other incentives possibly in the future to mix it up some.

Yes, Troy.

I'm sorry.

I was going to add on.

It's kind of like the idea behind it is like military coins. You know, if you do something great and you meet, like in Afghanistan, I met the Army Chief of Staff. I did something, I guess. They gave me a coin for it. And it's kind of like that's the kind of idea that we're trying to do.

Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, just looking at the coin, I mean, like I said, it's really, really nice. And if we look at giving it an achievement, that's great. Employee month is definitely great. But what if the same person is employed a month, three months in a row, or, you know, then you have another coin to give them?

I wanted to answer all your questions. Okay, go ahead. Number one, we don't know if we're going to have an employee of the month every month. We don't know. That's something that the department heads or citizens or somebody would have to decide. So to say we're going to give it out every month may not be the case. But if it is and the employee deserves it, I'm okay with it.

I understand.

So, so if... And that's fine, being okay with it.

What I'm saying is you're going to give... I'm just trying to finish. Oh, go ahead. Okay. So...

I mean, that's going to go over here. Just chill. Oh, I got to chill. You got to chill too. Yeah.

It's over here. So... Hold on, hold on, hold on. If their employees deserve it and the citizen or the department head determines that that employee deserves it, I'm okay with giving it out every month. It's a small token of appreciation to show our employees that we appreciate their dedication and their service to our citizens and to our community. Now, to go back, you asked me another question about going green. So, yes, the envelopes that I spoke about earlier that we were stuffing in there, we have this month, we've taken them out, okay? And it's cost us, saved us a substantial amount of money. We understand, I understand, the team understands that, you know, there's a lot of things that get passed on to the citizens, you know, and we're trying to take some of that burden off of them. by whatever means we can. So if going green is going to help and we can pass that process on without passing that burden back on to the citizen, then that's the whole purpose of trying to do this. And we just gotta get the citizens to buy. We gotta give them the education and the benefits of why we're going that direction. And the most important part is, because we've all sat in here as citizens and talked about our budgets and different things that's coming up. Well, my job as your current city manager is to identify ways that we can save money and we can take some of the burden off of our taxpayers.

Agree. That was the reason for asking about the envelope. And they're still getting mad. But also making sure that we don't forget about those people who do not have access to the Internet and things of that nature. By all means, let's go green, but we still have to think about all the citizens, not just going.

Madam President.

Just going green. Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Pardon me?

Who said that? I did. I did. I have this loud voice. My understanding from what I thought I heard was this going green was voluntary.

Yes, absolutely.

And so if somebody doesn't want to go green, they don't want to get it in the mail, I mean in the email or however you're going to do it. They don't have to. They can still stay with the old way. Yes, sir. So this is the city attempting to go green, and the citizens have got to accept it in order for it to happen because we're not forcing it on them, right? Absolutely correct. Thank you.

Thank you. But that was the reason for my question because I didn't hear that. So that's why we asked questions. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Any other questions from Chief?

I just had a general question regarding the Employee of the Month nomination. Actually, it's kind of Two different questions. One, what would be the preferred method for submitting these? And basically an understanding for everyone to understand the process of it. So do they have to be approved by their manager in order for it to be accepted? And then do you guys prefer this to be submitted via email, dropped off to a specific person? What's the plan as of right now for that?

Yes. If a department head wants to submit an employee for that nomination, They will complete the form, whether it be written or on email. They will send them to me. I will meet with that department head, review it, and if it's approved, then that employee will be Employee of the Month. Or vice versa. If a citizen wants to submit one, they can submit it to me, and I will review it and approve it for Employee of the Month.

Do you have a process in place for if you have multiple nominations within the month? Same process. What's that?

If the department has submitted the form, say the department has submitted two people in his department for Employee of the Month, Once again, like I said, if it's submitted by the department head or citizen or whoever submits that person, I don't have a problem with it. It's not a free-for-all. I get where you're trying to go, thinking it's a free-for-all. But that's what I'm saying.

What's your process? Because you just said if the department head approves it.

But if you get 10 and the employees deserve it, then to me it's no issue. If a department head or a citizen puts an employee in for employee of the month and they deserve it, I don't care if it's 20. You know, if they deserve it, they deserve it. And I'm not going to hold that back unless you tell me not to. But I think it's important that we value our employees. And if they are submitted, like we've seen here before where citizens have submitted employees for recognition, nobody questioned it. We accepted it. So I'm not quite understanding where the questions are coming from now because this is not something that's new for us. We've done this in this city for 50 years or however long.

So you're not going to do one to none?

If there's more than one, they could be more than one. They could be one from utilities. They could be one from the airport. They could be one from the police department. I mean, so it just depends on how many get submitted.

And then the follow-up question that I had is basically just because we do something very similar over at UF. When we have our monthly meetings, we not only recognize the people who won or had specific submissions, but we also recognize entries. So if someone may have received one, but another person received three, so they're in that one unit or department, got the coin, we also did a quick recognition saying these were the peaceful people also nominated and the reasons why. And we got very, very good feedback from it. So I thought that might be a good idea if we don't already have that plan in place.

And if we need to establish a committee to review them, we could do that as well. Yeah. Thank you.

And I'm thinking one a month, not one per person. It has more meaning when it's one a month.

Okay.

And I think they're going to submit people from other departments. I don't think they'll just do their own department. I mean, that's just me.

They could.

And I think it needs to be added on here. They need to be turned in to you. Okay. Or the city manager. Sure.

I'm sorry. You have not been approved to speak. No, we're not doing that yet. This is just updates right now.

Okay.

So what were we talking about?

I don't even know what we were talking about. We got off track somewhere. So council, can council participate? Absolutely. Yeah, I already said, yeah, council, anybody can participate. Yes.

I just think it needs to be a little bit more structured when you're looking at the employee of the month, whether it's coming from different departments, which is just fine and great as well. But yeah, if we have one person who got five nominations and someone else who got two and someone else who got three, then the person who potentially I mean, it just depends on what your guidelines should be.

Well, as you know, the city is unique because we have so many different departments. So if I'm hearing what you're saying, you just want one person out of the whole city, which I can understand if we all did the same job.

No, I said different departments. Yeah. Different departments.

So then that could be one from each department.

That's what I said. No, you didn't really say that. You just said if 10 people are nominated, you didn't specify. It was generalized. Okay, so if one person gets nominated from each department...

You're saying that I only need to have one.

I said that, she didn't.

Somebody said I only need to have one.

I thought it was an employee of the month for the city of Williston. It is. Not an employee of the month for each individual department.

But you can't, well you could if you want. You could break it down to just one award for the complete city. but somebody in utilities may do something that's deserving of it that the same guy, somebody in water may have done it as well.

So how do I... That's different if they do the same thing together.

No, I'm saying the water department, you may have somebody in the water department that may do something that's deserving of it, and you may have somebody in utilities that do something deserving of it. So you're going to get multiple recommendations at different times from different departments.

And you're going to take a ball?

Yes.

Yeah. Okay.

Yes. Unless y'all tell me something.

I just think it loses its value if you take a ball.

I would agree. Anybody else? That's just me. Yeah. All right. Ms. Vicki, you have anything?

Interim Chief.

we've had a few changes so we had a new guy that didn't make it through FTO and he's left the department and we've hired Mr. Jordan Woods and then we've also picked up a reserve that's got about 25 years of reserve experience and I'll introduce him to everybody thank you thank you Mr. Stegall

Yeah, back here on the back row. Just going to give you some update. There's a couple things going on. Last week I attended the Levy County Fire Chiefs meeting. They've decided to reevaluate how they distribute the funding. They're coming up with several new formulas. I actually submitted three formulas to them for evaluation the other day based off a population call load and how much... capital infrastructure you have in your zone. They're going to look at it a lot different than they have in the past. I fully understand. They're looking at reclassifying the response zones. For us, that really has no impact. For some of the others, it has some pretty significant impact. So there's going to be quite a few changes coming up there in the future. This morning, I attended the BOCC meeting because that was going to be discussed some they just one of the things they discussed there was a economic development they're looking at putting together a committee be prepared one of you is going to be asked to serve on it they were very high on our airport in that discussion today and they will be asking an airport employee to serve on it and so So everybody just needs to be prepared for that. And just a reminder that this next week, we've already started the upgrade on the radio communication switch to the required federal licensing now. And next week, the fire department will temporarily shift over to Levy County Dispatch for 90 to 120 days until we get our system up fully operational for the fire service.

Wow.

That's all I have, I think.

So, quick question. So, this redistricting. Thank you. Is it going to affect us positively or negatively or not at all or you're not sure?

There is nothing in this plan that will affect us negatively.

Okay.

I will tell you like this. In some of the evaluations, we evaluated response zones and how long it took to get X number of personnel on a scene. In our districts, we exceed what is expected. The Williston Fire, Levy County Station 11, Bronson zones, we can meet the standard faster than anybody else in the county. Um, we get more, we get more bodies now. We don't get enough bodies, but we get more on calls than any other. East side's the best side. How about that? Um, and, and we're, we're, we're doing what we need to do. So yeah, everything looking at it because a big part of it is critical infrastructure on the formulas in the future and based off the population, um, I think that they reported this morning that this quarter they've had 188 new permits for just housing in the county. Not anything in the city, just in the county. So putting that in perspective, you know, and the majority of the growth, and this is from the economic development, is coming on the east side of Levy County.

Awesome. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Yes, ma'am.

I meant to pass on earlier that Walt also mentioned, Lamar, I'm not sure if you're familiar with it, that there is a grant out there now that could be utilized to purchase you a fire truck.

There's also a grant out there utilized to hire new employees. There you go. I'll be bringing that back on the next agenda. All right. Uh-oh.

Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh.

alright mister she's still here she's still here thunder he did anyone else in staffing nothing from you okay anything from the council I know I know

Mrs. Latricia is not here, but I do a reminder. July 3rd is the 4th of July parade. So we would like to get as many of us on the float. That's council. July 3rd. July 4th in Bronson. And I'm sure Mrs. Latricia will give us the... And it's a night parade.

Uh-huh.

or afternoon at least, late afternoon. I don't know that we need lights.

I'm sure they'll be giving us more details.

I want to say theirs is at 5 o'clock.

Ours is at 4.

Ours is at 5 also. That's why I thought theirs was later. Maybe not.

then afterwards we go over to the horseman's part in that water moment on the third on the third yeah so you just do it for a couple hours and that's it sounds great anything else that's the day fireworks at 9 30. we just want to remind everybody that uh we're still under a burn ban the county issued on monday so we're still another seven days into a burn ban and It's not really looking good for us in the near future.

We have two months. Give or take. We're going to be positive. And if not, we can go and spray a lot of water.

I started to say we've shot fireworks in the burn band before because we have the best fire department that there is.

Please don't say that again. Well, we did. Well, we did.

Remember what we did? We watered everything down. Including the buildings.

That's funny.

So we'll make a decision when we get there is what I'm saying.

Okay. Do you see his face back there? No, I did. Okay.

He was here when we did it before. I would have forgotten her. I would never forget you. Oh, Mr. Mayor, you have anything? I don't.

Thank you, Madam President, I do.

Okay.

What do you guys think of your new city manager for now? Think he's good, right?

He's fine.

Okay, I just want to point out that I think he's good, and he's a good chief of police, too.

Yeah, we know.

And I would like to have him back sooner rather than later.

Sounds great.

And if this council, I don't know what you've done, because that's not my business, but if this council would like to have an emergent, we have a problem in the Sunshine Hall. You guys can't talk to each other. So the only way you can move forward with this, new city managers to have a meeting otherwise you're violating the sunshine law and I'm offering to call a special meeting if you would like it or any three of you you don't need me but if you want me to I'll be happy to cause a special meeting so you can discuss moving forward with your search for a city manager so that I can have that find chief of police back because I need him also. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We appreciate that. You beat me to the punch. I was going to say something about it later in the night, but we appreciate you. And guess what? He may want to stay, but thank you. Appreciate it.

And we can discuss it at a regular meeting. All right.

So, Ms. Ballou, do you have anything?

All right, we will move forward.

He is upset. You can, you gotta hurry back. Not right now. All right, so item number eight, new business. Resolution 2026-32, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Williston, Florida, approving and entering into a facility encroachment agreement between the City of Williston and CSX Transportation Incorporated, authorizing the city

Council president to execute the agreement and provide an effective date Alex Rodriguez interim utility director So this is for putting our three-phase power across the north side of the tracks for the grant we got for the look station I apologize for that. Can you hear me better?

I'm sorry say do what?

I'll start from the beginning. So this is to do the three-phase power across the north side of the train tracks going to the lift station we got the grant for about a year back. That's just what this agreement is for going onto their property. That's the encroaching part of it. There's really nothing else else to it.

So it's train tracks headed on 27 to Gainesville?

The train tracks heading east on the northeast side of town. Over there by Northeast 9th Street, there's train tracks right before it. On the north side of that, we're doing three-phase power across there. And we just have to have the encroachment agreement as we do that.

Okay. That's what I was thinking. I apologize. I forgot about the train tracks over on the north side.

And even though we're in the air, they're going to charge us to go over their property.

But there's something that goes down in the ground, isn't it?

I don't know. That's what I'm asking.

Yes, ma'am. Because of how close the poles are also. Okay.

Is there anything in the ground? Or that's where you have to put a pole?

That's where we have to put a pole in the ground to go across it.

Because I know I saw something that had ground there. Okay. I'm not good with specs.

But it says encroachment. So the poles are on their property?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay. All I saw was the wire going across their...

Yes, ma'am. On the far east side of it are poles right there on the property. Got it.

I make a motion we approve Resolution 2026-32. I have a motion.

Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion from the public? Any discussion from the council? Seeing none, I move to vote. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those opposed, say nay. Motion passes 4-0. Resolution 2026 dash 34, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Williston, Florida, approving an amendment to Section 32.02C of the City of Williston Human Resource Policy addressing entitlement to health insurance post-retirement, authorizing appropriate parties to sign any document required to effectuate such change on behalf of the City of Williston and providing an effective date. HR Director Kim Troy.

Hello. So, um, this actually was, uh, when I was working on it, it's in the, this was promised back in... It's in the 2024 audit book, which should be one of the attachments highlighted. This was actually promised back in, I think, 2004. And we never amended. It's current in the HR manual as it is right now that at age 62, which was the original retirement age, that we were going to pay for the three years of health care. for up until they were, is it Medicaid or Medicare?

Medicare.

Thank you. Medicare. Up until they were eligible for Medicare. So with this, what I have done is currently, because we have two eligible employees that are immediate. I broke it down into immediate, 10-year, and then 15 years of who is eligible. So the immediate, the two, we have one in Public Works and we have one police officer as well on the police side. So we have a current employee in Public Works who is not taking the healthcare and he is a full-time employee in, I believe, the gas department. We also have a police officer that is full-time employed that has not taken the health care. And it was budgeted that way. We can utilize that money to pay for the two immediates. And then next year, we can add in a budget line for these two. And then I broke down the cost on the spreadsheet. It's kind of projected as to... So every three years, I gave it inflation. Because that's generally what, looking through the audit book, that's kind of what they have budgeted as well for inflation. So we add in the budget line, but because we now have 25 and out, if they're not 62, they're not eligible for that part that we promised them at one point. because it's no longer 62. After 25 years, you can retire. It's 25 and out. So looking forward into this, we can also, in this year's budget, we can add $5 or $10 to every person that is. So let's just say FMIT comes back at 805 this year per person because the city picks up for their health care. long-term plan we can budget five to ten dollars and kind of build like a a reserve type thing you know like pre-paying it and that budget line is strictly for those individuals that are coming forward because we have one person in uh at the tenure mark and then we have two people the arm 15 year mark and now that we're 25 and out not everybody's going to stay those 25 years it's going to be you know small handful but it was it was a promise when we originally started these retirement plans so you you're saying you want us to pay someone who retires 25 years who is not age 62 you want us to pay for their insurance just for three years unless unless they are eligible if they go and get another job they are eligible for health care at that that job then it is voided because you take your your work job or your Oh, your work health insurance, because that would be your primary. If you are eligible for Medicare, thank you, I got to mix it up, then you are ineligible. For example, I'm retired military. I pay for TRICARE. If you're eligible for TRICARE, you... you're not eligible for the city. If you have an option to take other health care that is available to you through employment or another retirement, you are disqualified. Who's going to police that?

Who's going to? So if, let's just say Alex has 25 years and he goes to retire, he leaves, we're paying his health insurance for three years. He moves to Texas and it has another job. Now he has insurance there and we're paying his insurance here. Or he has the ability to have insurance there but we're paying it here so now he doesn't have to pay that out of his pocket even though he's working somewhere else. Who's going to police trying to figure out whether or not somebody has another job, has

the ability to have insurance so when you have to insurance you have to set up a call I have to do I had to do it yeah you have to tell the other one that Cole what is it a coordination of benefits if there's an acronym for but it's a coordination of benefits so like right now I have United for myself and I have Tricare United didn't pay for nothing until I called and let them know so how are you going to know the insurance company know how you want to know the insurance company The insurance companies do know and they do contact. Yes. Because TRICARE won't pick up anything until the coordination of benefits because they have to be my secondary right now because this is my job. So, I mean, not to dive too deep into my personal.

But it says who has the ability to get insurance from another entity. So what if they just choose not to get the insurance from the other company? Because you don't have to. and then they allow us to continue to pay for insurance, but yeah, they can get insurance over here. Who is going to police figuring out whether or not they have access to insurance somewhere else?

Do you have any thoughts, Ms. Cotter?

That's an issue. So... Yeah.

What happened? Nobody's doing it right now. Nobody's doing what? For the current employees that are done. So basically, we just had an employee eligible for... medicare and um the individual notified us because i don't think you can can you have them yes you can have to yeah well the employee notified me that the they are eligible for medicare and i had to fill out the paperwork to cancel it so it'd basically be on the hr department but they are of age to get medicare but we're talking about people who are retiring prior to being of that age to receive medicare

How do we keep the city from paying for something for somebody that they can get somewhere else? You understand what I'm saying?

If you don't like that part, we can take it out.

Yeah, because right now, there's nobody policing. I mean, I need to hear what her rationale is. Yeah, so right now, nobody's monitoring it, if you want the honest truth. Like, I don't even know who's on retirement right now, who's collecting retirement.

Well, Kim, you're doing a whole lot of things that weren't necessarily done prior to. We appreciate that, but we still have to answer some of those questions.

Yeah, the pension board can tell you, too. The pension board can tell her who's collecting benefits. Okay.

How long ago was this decided on?

Huh?

When was this decided on?

Oh, the 62 one was like back in 2000.

2004, October 1st to be exact. I'd like to make a statement. I think I can clear up a couple of things. Okay. What we currently, what we used to have, let me just say, we had two plans. Three of the Florida retirement for the fire department. What we had was a police, we had a general employee pension plan. That's all we had. And October 1st of 2004, we split out the police department. We created the 185 pension plan. That's also governed by the Florida League of Cities on our behalf. So they do the general employees and the police officers. At that time, we didn't think about this. We didn't think about the fact that we, and they say they can retire at 55. Our plan says 62. So when we did that, we didn't think about that. So we created this little issue way back in 2004, and it hasn't come up until now. So we're trying to kind of figure out what to do about it. We also created the same issue again once we did the 25 and out, which we did just a few months ago. Yep. Because now it doesn't state an age at all. It just says 25 years and out, as long as you're vested, which is five years. So what we did was we have two issues there that we're trying to correct with this. We do promise them it is a benefit that is currently listed in our HR policy that they will receive three years of insurance because they were all retiring at age 62. And if they had been here for 25 years and retired at 62, we were going to pay three more years until they got the Medicare. That's been a benefit in our plan probably before I got here, which is probably 40 years altogether in the time I was here and out back again. So that's the little niche that we've caused. We've caused those two issues and hadn't even thought about it until now we have two people that are in that situation. And neither one of them are 62. So we need to do something about it, is what it amounts to. So what the issue is, they could retire. Neither one said they are ready to. They could be here another four or five years for all we know, or another 10 years for all we know. But what it says is if they decided to retire today, it doesn't say that we could give them that three years of insurance until they're 62. So number one, it will cost more if they're 62 than if we do it now. When they're older, it'll cost more. And because it's going to go up every year, not because of their age, but because it's going to go up every year. And also it's going to cause, and that little add-on about, Unless they have other coverage, that was something that Kim and I actually thought about that would not make us liable for paying it because they had something else to take care of it. If you don't like that part, we'll take it out.

Well, it's not just that. It's who is going to mend the lines, is what I'm saying.

The age is easy. So when they get to 65, it's easy enough to know they're at 65 and we no longer have to pay it. But if they get it from another employer, that's the hard part. If they get it from another employer, it's whether they're eligible to get it from another employer. You're right. We won't know. If they get it, we will know because they'll notify us.

Right. And it says if they're eligible.

Yeah.

And typically if you're working at another facility, more than likely you're going to be eligible.

If you're full-time.

Yeah. So knowing that most people who retire at 25 and they're still young and able to work, they're not going to not go and work somewhere else. So then...

I agree with that. I mean, I agree with what you're saying.

So that just puts us in a predicament. Chief Fortney. Okay.

All I can say is my position. I've been through the whole pension boards, all this stuff. We've mentioned this multiple times over the years. It kind of gets shoved back and forth. The issue becomes the employee's been here 25 years. It's not entitlement. It was something that was promised. And either one way or the other, it's going to be paid at 62 to 65 or at 55 to 58, which is going to be cheaper. The thing is, whether they had it, they earned that time. They've been here and put in their time. I can think of maybe... five, six employees that have been here 25 years.

Right now there's only two.

But I'm talking about over the 29 years I've been here.

Out of the 29 years I've been here.

The thing is, all it says in the manual is as long as I keep the insurance, which is like for my position, I will, you'll have to pay between $62,000 and $65,000. It's going to be more expensive. For me, if it's 55 to 58, then I pay the rest because I'm going to stay on the city plan. All I can talk about is my situation. So when you start seeing that, it was something that we were given, and it was already in paperwork when I got here in 97. So it was changed in 2004 because we split the plans, but the three-year was already promised back 29 years ago. I think it's been here since the 80s.

You're welcome. You're welcome.

And we are currently doing it. Well, as of now, no. But we've currently been doing it.

Hmm.

For the 62 and over.

Right, right.

Is the retirement age still 25? I'm 25. Lord. I'm out. I'm out. 25. That's it. I mean, is the retirement still 65? I mean, or does it go up?

You mean Medicare or retirement?

I mean, yeah.

Yeah, Social Security retirement is something totally different than Medicare.

Medicare is still 65. That's what this is related to.

No, Social Security benefits have gone up, and they have nothing to do with Medicare. Medicare is still 65.

Oh, that's the question I'm asking. Ask a Medicare person. Okay, so it has not gone up.

No, it's still the same.

All right. Who had a question? Who else had a question? Nobody else?

Aaron had his hand up.

I was just going to try to clarify that basically you're just trying to give the same promise of three years of insurance to every retiree, regardless of how old they are.

I understand that. But based on the wording is the concern. We can take that bottom part off if you want to. I get what you're saying.

But, you know, the A and B are currently as it exists now because we have promised it to them. However, we threw in that police department can now retire at 55 if they're vested. And the 25 and out doesn't have an age at all. So it needs a revision.

Microphone, please.

That's kind of what we're asking. Sorry, I thought I had it on. Could we revise that and have it come back? If we know how we want to revise it, that's what we're kind of asking. How do you want us to do it?

We need direction. That way we're not shooting...

arrows at a blank target also on our pension board we do have a early retirement of 55 we do with a much much I understand that but just remember that is an option as well that is true and and and that's why that's where my questions are coming from that's why the age to come out of other other

Things like early retirement.

The age needs to come out of it. Instead of getting full retirement, you can retire at 55, but you get much reduced benefit.

Correct.

Much reduced benefit. Considerable.

And I think that's what we need to look at. Yes.

Also, you still have to hit the 25. Yes. So it doesn't make a difference now with the early retirement because they're 25 and out. So for us, it's 52 and 25. Or 55, but if you have the 25, it would still be the 52. Yeah, still 25 years of service.

Yeah, we're not looking for somebody who's fully vested at five years, you know, and they're 62. That's, we're not, you have to do the 25. That's right. And you have to carry the health insurance, what was it, for five years? The past five years.

Yes.

And you can't change your plan. So if you were at UHC3 for the last five years, you can't, I don't know why you would, but UH19 I think is a lower plan. You can't switch that and vice versa. If you chose UH19, which is a cheaper plan, you can't, at the five-year mark, you can't, when you retire, you can't go to the UHC3 plan.

You can't get the better plan if you've been on the lower plan.

Yes, and you have to have had that same plan for five years. So if you switch in between those five years' plans, you...

So why not have a different plan for 25 and out?

because it says the current insurance plan that you have. We can't just tell them they have to take a 25 and out plan. What is in everything is the current plan that they have covered. So, like, if I, let's just say I'm a 25-year employee, right, and the last 10 years I've had UHC3, and you create another plan for retirees, you're violating your own policy by making me take that.

And I don't think we're going to get into plans here. No. No, it is the plan that you have for five years. For the last five years is all it says.

Just curious. What are other municipalities doing?

So the only one that does this is Pinellas County, but they cover a lot more than three years. And I called like six or seven. I didn't call all of them. You know, I just picked six or seven, and the only one that came back was...

But it really doesn't matter who else has it, because we do. And it's something we've promised them for 25 years.

Yeah.

And that's the way I feel about it. And that's why I feel like we need to accommodate the fact that we changed the plans on them. It's nothing that they did. It's something that we did. We created separate plans and didn't think about the difference.

What do you mean we changed plans?

We had one plan. We had the general employee pension plan. That's all we had. And in 2004, we carved out the police department and said 55 is now your new age, not 62. And then we did the 25 and out and we didn't put an age in it at all. Just 25 years. So we did that. And we can't take away something we promised them because we created kind of a little enclave there.

We still entitled them to come back and get it at 62. Even if they leave at 25 years, they could come back at 62 because the pension plan says that.

Yeah, so that's the problem is it would cost twice as much when they came back.

Right, because you're just literally rolling them out of them. You're just keeping them in the plan that's currently there.

The way it reads now, if they left at 55, They could come back at 62 and ask us for three years of interest. I'd rather give it to them now at a lower rate than I would.

But if it's in the plan, you're talking about the pension plan, right? If it's in the pension plan that's not the same way as it is in our HR manual, then they can get it for three years and then turn around at 62 and come back and get it again?

No. No.

No.

Not because we're going to change the HR manual. Oh, I thought that's what you just said. That's why we're trying to change the HR manual.

No, I'm saying that if they don't get it at the 25 and out, once they've been gone for 10 years, five years, whatever, they can come back and say at 62 that the city owes them three years worth of insurance.

I now want you to pay for three years of insurance for me because the policy says so.

And that's like 3% times 10 years is what you're looking at.

Yeah, 30% increase instead of doing it now.

Oh, yes, sir.

As long as they carry it the five years prior. So you're going to have to carry it from the time you leave to the time you're 62 to get the three years. Because it says you must carry the insurance for five years. So that's the only way you can get it. So when I leave, I'm going to continue paying for my city insurance myself, privately. Well, at age 62, because I have to. I don't plan to work again. I've got a job. And at 62, then I would then ask for the three years. But I'm going to carry it through the city for the next eight or nine years, if that's the case. Because I'm going to have to have insurance. The policy does say that. And we do have a current employee or older employee that retired nine or 10 or 12 years ago, Larry Haynes, that actually still today comes in to pay for his yearly insurance. because he pays for the health insurance.

I know somebody who's paying for their life insurance still. So I think it's Larry Haynes. I think he still pays now for that. Terry Summers is still paying for the life insurance.

Okay, I'm just going to stop because you're just making me even more confused. You just are. Okay. We want to vote. Do we want to have a vote?

So you want us to try to tweak it a little better? Yeah. And bring it back next time?

Did you say but say what? Do what now? What would you like it to say?

If we want to tweak, tell me what we want it to say.

I would like it to say, if you hit this age, you can carry it to this. If you do this, you can do this. Do something, because they're up here talking all different. Matt was just doing it as far as...

It's three years after you leave.

Your interim over there will be $50,000. 47 46 46 by the time his 25 hit you know and so you want and then you pay it to 49 we just we just need to have i don't know if you don't know i definitely don't know i just very simple you live the age out of it and you say three years after after you yeah yeah yeah you we can get rid of c completely and just remove a and b and delete the uh

Nope, leave me with the age, but A, delete the age out of it.

We need to state each pension plan separately.

Right now it's kind of lumped all together. We need to do this for the 185 and this for the general employees.

Okay, this will come back.

No more questions or comments, sir.

Go ahead, G. The issue is it needs to say three years after you make the 25 and you retire. Simple, straight to the point. And again, it doesn't make a difference what pension you're in, what it is, as long as you hit 25 years and then you leave here and you retire in the three years.

You made retirement eligibility requirements. Right.

It just makes it more complicated if you start this in Japan. It's three years after you leave. It's going to be cheaper for the city for the employees that are going to continue carrying the insurance. Because at 55, I'm a lot cheaper to insure than I am at 65.

I think that's why you confused me. You said carrying the insurance after you retire.

Correct. So if I leave here, I can pay.

That's what I was thinking about, Cobra.

Yeah, but we have it in our policy, I think, Ms. Troy, that it says we can continue the insurance. Yes. I know Larry comes and pays his insurance yearly for his 12 months of insurance. So I can do that when I leave also.

Yes, that is in B. If you retire.

If I retire and make 25 years. or whatever time, I don't know if there's even a time limit on that. But I continue paying it, and I'm going to, throughout that time.

Basically what they do is they come in, they pay the front desk, and then once the front desk, I give it to Megan, but it shows up, that employee shows up on the bill, but since they paid cash for it, that's pretty much what he's trying to do.

How does that work with us paying the three years?

Once we're done paying the three years, if he wants to, he will continue to pay out of his pocket the same premium that the city plan offers. But they pay cash, and then when we reconcile the bill, we figure that in.

Got you. All right. I'm with you now. That took a lot, didn't it?

The important thing is that we created the problem, and we promised it to them. Okay.

Well, we can leave everything as it is. Just that, you know, if they, yeah, anyway.

I think we need to take the ages out and say 25 years, because that's what it is in both plans.

Just so A and B remove the ages? No. No. We'll look at it. We'll bring it back to them.

As they are and then just add this. Okay.

We'll look at it and bring them back. Well, the next, I won't be here the next meeting. I'll be in the Caribbean. So it'll be the meeting after that.

And then we'll get Kirsten to approve it too. We're going to table. Yep. Table it till we bring it back.

I move we table item 8B. I second.

We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion from the council? None. We're going to vote even though. So all those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion passed 3-0. To table.

And we won't let it die. We'll bring it back soon as Kim's back.

We definitely will bring it back. And I cannot think anymore.

I'm sorry, you're doing really good.

You're doing really good. All right, so Resolution 2026-35, Resolution of the City Council of the City of Williston, Florida, approving the Passero-Associate Supplemental Agreement 26-31 regarding the Taxiway F Extension and Runway 5 decoupling project at the Williston Regional Airport, authorizing appropriate parties to sign any document required to execute SAME. On behalf of the City of Williston, I provide any faith to the airport manager, Benton Steele.

Yes, ma'am. So this one was really, this one will be really easy for you guys. You've already approved the grant agreement. Basically, this is Passero's work order, and Ms. Angela Witt is here with Passero, you know, just to make sure that, you know, we can put a face to who we're actually working with, and you guys can kind of see that. But this is their work order for us to hire them for the project. which is part of every grant agreement that we have. It's just a document that was my mistake and kind of slipped through the cracks when we were bringing all the other things to you. So here it is. I'll do my best.

Can I get a motion?

I move approval of Resolution 2026-35. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion from the public? Any discussion from the council? Seeing none, I move to vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes 4-0.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome. Resolution 2026-36, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Williston, Florida, approving the removal and disposal of the Williston Sewer Treatment Water, Wastewater, Plant West Clarifier Settlement, Settled Solids, and approval for the services of American Pipe, and Tank Incorporated. Authorize the appropriate parties to sign any documents required to effectuate the same on behalf of the City of Williston and provide an ineffective date. Josh Fordham? Did I say that correctly? Okay. Wastewater Plant Operator Training.

Alright, how you guys doing? Wonderful, how are you tonight? Alright, so we've got a A secondary clarifier plant that needs service. Our secondary clarifiers are a critical component for the wastewater treatment. They're designed to separate our biological solids from our effluent for further treatment. And over time, you get an excessive accumulation of those solids, and it can reduce the treatment efficiency. It can impair our hydraulic performance, and it can contribute to equipment wear and operational failure. So the removal of these solids is necessary to maintain proper treatment capacity, ensure compliance with state and federal environmental regulations, preserve water quality standards, and protect public health and infrastructure. Accordingly, we're recommending the removal and disposal of the settled solids necessary for safe, effective, and compliant operation of a wastewater plant.

Can I get a motion?

Move Resolution 2026-36. This is so loud.

Can I get a second?

I second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion from the public?

I just want to make sure the money is in the budget.

I don't want to give you inaccurate information. I'm not sure.

You might know where the money is coming from.

Any discussion from the council?

$12,000 in the budget? Anybody know?

They'll be coming out of our wastewater budget. Yes, ma'am.

You think it's there?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Who said just say yes?

Alex.

He said just say yes? Huh? No. It sounds like I heard somebody say just say yes.

No.

We have it in our wastewater budget.

Okay.

We have it.

Yes, ma'am.

We have it. Any further discussion from the council?

Seeing none, move to vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes four to zero.

I just want to comment you did a great job with the resolution.

Thank you.

It's all that you wrote it. You did a good job.

All right, item number nine, public participation. This is the second time that you have to speak for five minutes on anything that was presented at the agenda. Please state your name and where you're from.

Dan Kaufman. I live at 32 Northwest 4th Street. I'm not going to say a whole lot. It's just one of the things that I wanted to ask. Back about two months ago, I guess it was, Mr. Goodman asked about the fiber and the squirrel, possibilities of squirrel eating overhead lines and was it made of soy. And he had requested them to give him the data on that line to make sure that it was appropriate for the uses that they intended to use it for. So I haven't heard anything else about that, so I thought it would be nice if we could go back to that one and see if we could go back and actually get that data and know that it's, you know, it's not that particular wiring because they use that solid coating on wires in automobiles, and it's destroying people's, between the rats and the squirrels, are literally eating the cables out of people's cars. That's all I'm going to say on that issue. And the second thing, you probably spent way more time than I will, without asking to table it, but you're talking about the employees and a special award. The thing of it is, is maybe it would have been simpler instead of calling it a monthly, is turn it into a special performance award, and then it can be voted on by everybody, and it can be used at any time, anywhere that is appropriate. And to me, that looks like a simplified way of trying to fix a big problem. Thank you.

Great idea. Thank you. I think you're right because employee of the month implies to me that there's one for the month.

Well, I would like to see to where we do an employee of the year.

But you're right. On the meter sheet?

I would like to see added on there, we do give the customer the option, or we did in the past, where they could pay for a year, over a year's time, pay a monthly charge to help pay for the cost of the... $2,500 is a lot of money.

Yeah. One year.

One year or 18 months. Something to make it affordable for...

I would ask Alex, what's the cost of the meter? Not the labor and all that that goes into it, but the meter itself. We need to get that up front, I think. The rest of it, I can see paying over time.

I can get you the price of that exact meter if you'd like me to.

I mean, you know what I'm saying? If we're going to put a $1,200 meter in the ground, I think we should have $1,200 and then pay the rest over time. You know what I'm saying? Cost of materials, and then you pay for the labor over time. That's kind of the way I feel about it, too.

Yes, ma'am. Okay, can I talk after?

I'm Kelly Bishop. I'm 15430 Northeast 4th Lane. I'm not in the city of Williston. But in regards to the recognition, there is a program called Kudos. that you can use to recognize at any point in time. We use it at our company. Supervisors get a larger amount of kudos. Every employee gets a certain amount of kudos every month at our business. And they can give it to each other socially, you know, peer to peer. They can use those kudo points to go into the store. You can get swag. You can get Wilson swag. You can get gift cards. And you guys would decide how much those points are worth, whether one point is worth a dime, a penny, however. And they add up over time. They never go away. But it's just a nice reward. And everybody can see because once those, if somebody puts in there a kudos for somebody, unless they make it private, it comes across everybody's email. Everybody is notified that so-and-so did this and they were awarded. And you recognize for what strength. whether it's collaboration or you know whatever the case may be and there's a blurb that you write with it we also have quarterly but this is something that can be done at any point in time by anybody that's an employee And if you wanted the citizens to be involved, maybe make some type of citizen portal on the City of Williston's website so that they could access that. There is a fee. I don't know how much the fee is. I can just tell you that I pay the bill for so many employees that are registered, and it's so much per employee. And then the city would have to pay for those points, but only at the time that somebody cashed them in. So they just kind of sit out there until they go into the rewards area and cash in their points. Just wanted to throw that out there.

Thank you. Anyone else? Joby, did you have something from earlier? Anyone else?

All right.

We'll move forward.

Item 10.

Announcement.

Ms. Vickie. I just want to remind everyone that we are having, or the Chamber of Commerce is having their mixer on Thursday night, the 21st. It's going to kick off the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. So we'd love to have you all there at 530.

Thank you. A sponsor by the way.

Sponsored by the chamber and the CRA and the chamber, right, are sponsors.

Okay. Yeah, I think it's the CRA.

At the heritage park. At the pavilion. Microphone, please. Yeah. He's cooking hot dogs.

Hot dogs and hamburgers.

Hamburglars.

Hamburglars.

Hamburglars. I can't talk. Okay. All right.

Item 11.

Move for adjourn.

Got a motion.

Second.

Got a second. Any discussion, Mr. Mayor?

I would like to have a meeting with the council president after this is over, please.

Yes, sir. Any other discussion? Seeing none. Motion to vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes 40-0. We are adjourned at 7.55.