Council - Regular Meeting

Whatever is reasonable, and I've said this to Mr. Penny several times, to include that meaning. It's reasonable for him to wait from the first person to put their record request in until they get down to him, his, absent a court order or a subpoena. And so we get those two things, that totally changes the deck. And so I don't... I'm not here to agree or disagree with Mr. Penny's thing. I'm just telling you those comments were never said by the city clerk.

Thank you. Anyone else?

I would just comment that the state statute says that word, reasonable. It doesn't have a definite deadline.

Thank you.

My name is Mark Tomlinson. I live at 313 Northeast 10th Terrace. Me and my wife has been here for 12 years now. And I don't know what the hell is going on with y'all's light bill and water bills, but it's gotten rather ridiculous. I don't know if we're paying for other people or y'all's infrastructure blowing off, breaking off, busting off everywhere or what. something this is this is just like she said it's criminal that y'all are charging us the city the city residents what y'all so many of us are being charged we're empty nesters it's me and my wife we work all week long and our bill went up three hundred dollars this month There is absolutely no reason it should have done that. I've done nothing different. She's done nothing different. So I want to know how many of y'all live in the city limits? And how many did y'all's bills go up to? I bet not. To be a council member, we have to live in the city limits. I just got a feeling. My neighbor is a Vietnam vet on oxygen 24-7. Every time the frickin' wind changes direction, we lose power. Might be for five seconds, might be for several hours. But I've got to go over there, get his generator going so he can keep oxygen going to him before I can even deal with my house. And I live right up there behind Homestead. I've heard of so many, that neighborhood, I've heard so many people in these city limits talk about $2,500 bills. My daughter lives over here in Woodfield's neighborhood. Y'all charged them 1,600 gallons of water for some ungodly reason. I know for a fact, last year, we called the city. The water was busted before the meters. I just happen to be a licensed plumber. I work for WWA. Lots of people around here work for WWA. Not asking for special attention, but once they finally did, five days later, as the water flowed through the ditches, through the culverts over there behind Homestead into that retention pond or swamp or whatever the hell y'all want to call it, they finally came out. And then they wanted to accuse me of running it over with my riding lawnmower that's a little 42-inch mower. I don't even have one of them fancy zero turnarounds. And it just, I don't know what the hell's going on here. I don't know what y'all are covering up or whatever y'all are trying to do. especially with all these new houses and neighborhoods and all this growth that's happened right here in these city limits, why our bills have gotten ridiculously doubled, more than doubled in a lot of cases. And I just, I'd love an answer. I'll get back with me. I told you my address. I'll tell you again. I would love an answer.

Have you been to City Hall and let them look at your bill?

Ma'am? Have you been to City Hall and let them review your bill? I've got pictures of my water meter and my electric meter. For one, I don't even see how anybody could read that meter when I pulled it today and took a picture of it. Then I uncovered, dug the dirt out of it,

Do you have an electronic meter? No, ma'am. Okay. Well, that's what you need to come and ask them. Get them your address and let them know.

Well, it might be more.

Joe might charge me more. I mean, I'm just saying.

Why can't you read numbers? The numbers are right there.

They do read numbers if you don't have an electronic bill.

If you have an electronic bill, they're reading it without... Well, then it would have been cleaned off where you could see the damn numbers.

Do you see the meter reader get out of his car and come to your meter? Never. Well, then he's using an electronic...

I'm always at work.

Then it's probably electronic.

Well, I didn't see no electronic devices, and like I say, I'm a licensed plumber. It's built into the meter. If you have an electronic meter. And we do have electronic meters here. I understand that. And I know, like my daughter over here in that one near Phil's neighborhood. Sir. I'm sorry, your time is up. It's got a long cover.

Okay. So come and bring your bill to City Hall. Or either give it to me, a copy of it, take a picture of it, send it to me. I'll be glad to look at it with them and let you know what we find out.

Yes, ma'am.

Matt Williams, 48 Northeast, my wife who spoke earlier. I just want to get an answer. Like he's saying, I'm back in a moment. I just want to answer.

Please don't talk from the seat.

Every time that I've heard you spoken here, I've lost credibility for this city. So Don't tell us to come in here and get a new bill and get our bills looked at. Every time I've heard you say something, I've just gotten angry. So please, any answer you've given us just doesn't make sense.

I can't help you if you don't bring me your bill so we can look at it.

I've brought my bills. I've called in. I've done everything that the city has asked me to do. I've gotten no responses. My wife said about the city utility, the city Wi-Fi, the water bill, our electric bill, all of it. So every time that that happens, I do exactly what the city tells me to do.

Who did you give your bill to?

Whoever I called in. Megan. I spoke with Megan. She spoke with her.

And she never got back with you?

She got back with us. They came out and switched all of our stuff over to electronic. But as he's saying, I'm nervous about that. Because, again, what are you guys covering up? What is the margin? I know, Ms. Martin, you spoke to my wife earlier this week. What is the margin that y'all are putting on top of all these utilities? Because I know it's a third party, and I know that's how the city makes money. But what is the reasonable margin? Did you ever find that out?

I'm working on getting some numbers for, yeah, absolutely.

And if you look at your bill, you'll see the flat rate for the amount. Everybody pays a flat rate. And then you have capacity. You're actually what you use. And what you use is what they bill by percentage, by the rate. They times the rate. All right, well, you want to know how your bill works, that's it. That is the only charge that you're getting. You're getting the flat rate and your consumption.

Ms. Shannon.

I just wanted to say thank you for coming up and explaining what's been going on. It's one of the reasons why I found my way here as well. My question was going to be, Terry, would you be able to set up an appointment with both of them just to come in, go over everything, look at everything? Exactly. And it is what she said, but to further elaborate, if I may, if you guys would be willing to, I know Mr. Terry would be more than willing to, and we can take a look at everything and just see what we can find. Thank you.

I appreciate it. Mr. Clark.

Mr. Gerald, could you explain with the outages of the internet that we've experienced in the last couple weeks and where they resonated, where it started from, and how it impacts us?

Certainly. Because we're in a rural community, The type of pipe that we need, what we call pipe, is the amount of bandwidth for Internet that we require to put everybody on fiber in the city. The largest pipe that was available for our needs at the time backhauls all the way into Orlando. I'm sorry. My apologies. Here we go. Is that better? Yes. There we go. Sorry. All right. So we have to have a large size, what we call a pipe, a big band of fiber that handles the bandwidth we require. And to purchase that access, at the time, what was available was a backhaul, as we call it, a source, which is in Orlando. And it has to travel through Ocala, through the villages, through Ocala, and all the way up here. So along that path, there's a lot of construction going on. So sometimes it's disrupted by construction equipment, backhoes, things like that. Some of it's aerial, or what we call above ground is aerial. And car accident, somebody hits a pole, it damages it. There's various other reasons. It traverses many, you know, not too far over here by the library is the central office for CenturyLink. Well, those are along that path as well. They go in and out of these central offices and other places along the way where there's electronic equipment that helps carry that signal all the way up here. And sometimes their equipment goes bad, and they have to send somebody out and go diagnose it and replace a piece of equipment along that path. So there's several factors that come into play on keeping that connection live all the way from Orlando to here and back. Thank you, sir.

Please don't talk out of turn. Thank you. Yes, ma'am.

Hi, my name is Marquisha Wright. My address is 403 Northeast 11th Avenue, Apartment 8. And I'm here just like everybody else about the light bills. I'm in a two-bedroom, one-bath apartment. And my recent bill is currently $2,000.58. How? I don't know. I keep coming up here. As you said, have I showed somebody? I've been trying to get in contact with Megan for five months via email. The only person that I've been talking to is Wendy. Wendy is the only person in this building that I've seen because when I come, nobody's here besides Ms. Latricia. And when I spoke with Ms. Latricia, I was advised if I could be put on a payment plan. A payment plan for a two-bedroom, one-bath for a $2,000 water bill. They keep saying that it's a leak. How is it a leak? My landlord done sent out five different plumbing companies. Everybody's saying the same thing. This usually is telling me that I used up $999 worth of electricity. How? And for the meter readers to even read everybody's apartment over there and to see their minds was this high to not say nothing or notice anything, to even put that in the request for this bill to be sent to me is outrageous. Not only that to mention, you have people stealing money out of the money box from hardworking people. I was advised to future references, don't put cash in the money box. Why? Because it's not wise. But still, nobody should be taking it. Am I correct? If they take it at the start, I'm going to take it. If I'm supposed to pay my bill, and cash is the only way I could pay it, and I have to put my bill in the drop box, and it's cash, and I was advised only two people had that key. I had to wait 24 hours for them to review the tape and for them to tell me that they're going to give me a courtesy credit to my bill. Where's the courtesy? Because the money was there. I paid it. So y'all got things. I have no idea. How can we trust y'all? Y'all stealing money from us.

May I ask a question? This $2,000 bill, is that for one month? It's not like late charges. It's not like you couldn't pay it last month and this is too.

Ms. Patricia was in the room with me and we was talking and we went over it. She could tell you that is the bill.

There is no way.

That's what I'm saying.

That you should have a $2,000 bill. That's what I'm saying. There's just no way. It wouldn't even submit it to City Hall.

That's my way. It wouldn't even be sent to me. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah, they should have caught it before it was sent out to you. So do you live at Arbor's or Rolls-Royce?

No, I live right there in the apartments behind Homestead apartment where everybody else having problems at.

Gotcha.

And can I ask, if I may, was the money that you put into the box was stolen? Is that my understanding? Yes, ma'am.

It was $104. Yes, ma'am. That's when I was getting assistance from LEHAP because I couldn't keep up paying this high bill that y'all was sending me.

Do we know if there was a police report written about that?

No, it wasn't.

No, okay.

I should have made one, but they wouldn't tell me who it was because it's only two people who has a key. And the only way it could be open is from the inside, not the outside.

I believe we have security footage here, if I'm not correct.

Yeah, the tape's a review, but they still never told me who took it. They just told me they was going to give me a courtesy credit.

Okay. I'm sure somebody here will look into that and make sure that, obviously, if we have video footage of it, we would know whether somebody went in there or not.

Can I get your address again, Ms. Wright?

403 Northeast 11th Avenue, Apartment 8.

Thank you, ma'am.

And yeah, that's all for me.

Thank you, ma'am.

I mean, even what she said, I'm Mark Tomlinson.

She'll get to come back again. No. Right down from her.

Mr. Tomlinson.

Yes, ma'am.

You do not get to return. But we will have, wait, wait, wait. We will have a second time later on. So you can come back at the second.

I just want to say one thing. They told my wife.

You can come back at the second. Thank you.

Hi. Many of you know me. I'm Ronnie Kerr. I live right back here, 226 Northwest 1st Street.

Since they're fussing about their bills, I have questioned the bills quite a bit.

My bill was $791 last month. I have re-blown insulation in my roof four years ago when the rates changed and everything, when the bills started going up. When I had done my roof and re-blew that insulation, it didn't matter if it was July or December, heat or air. My bill stayed the same. It did not move, okay? So we're looking at that. I talked to the girls. They said, we'll have an electrician come down and check your meter. I live with the usual city electrician. He doesn't understand why it's doing like it did. I also know that there's a flat fee now on gas where I used to pay $5 to $9 for gas. I have a flat fee of $20 now for having a gas stove in my house. I also have a flooding issue. Bad. When the city redid the sidewalks out here and did not get an engineer to go down through the park, then they got somebody and they put this, I would call it like a little, not even a culvert in front of cookies and norms with the little blinking lights now. That's a joke. I have pictures I can show you. I showed the girls. You couldn't even get on my front porch this time. We also have a three-inch pipe in our driveway to divert the water. I also have a diverted driveway on the other side to take the water off the city street and send it back to the pit back there to take this water as a courtesy for the city. If not, it would have flooded the whole neighborhood. We would have been in a lake. Recently, I know it's a heavy storm, but we're still having the same issues. I am getting all the water off of this street. Even though you have a little retention pond on the end, it doesn't work. Now I'm getting what comes off of that street down on the end of what would that be? Third Avenue is coming now all the way back here from this, and it's all coming through my yard. I even have one of those, I call it a speed hump in my driveway to try to divert that The water is absolutely, my next door neighbor lives kind of up in the woods. When it rains, it leaves a pothole coming off the road about like that for her to go through. So, of course, that gets more water.

It goes through the back. Flooded carry shed out this time.

I literally have pictures where it came. up my house, to my welcome mat at the back door, off my side porch, down that side, across my front porch, I have pictures you could not see, it was ankle deep across the front of my house, down the sidewalk in front of my house, down, and then of course it went to the diverted driveway. This hasn't been right since they messed with it. It needs a culvert to divert that water down to that retention pond at the end or something. I'm getting flooded out. I'm scared for my foundation. It's that bad. It is that bad. It's beyond ankle deep just to let y'all know. And I've talked to everybody. I've talked to everybody. Their answer was that little bitty culvert in the front. It ain't working, folks. It's getting worse. Thank you. Thanks.

Is there anyone else?

My name is Janine Hartley. I live in the city limits here. And just like everybody else, we've got bad problems with the water, with the utility bills. But before I get into all that, I want to thank you, Mr. Goodman, for spurring me on to clean out my dryer vent. So that got done since last meeting. Anyway, much better now. And so now I think I'm going to get a lower electric bill because my dryer is a lot more efficient.

Can you please sit down? Ms. Kerr. Ms. Kerr, if you'll have a seat, please.

Okay. I'm sorry. I was supposed to show that the other day he wasn't in his office.

But anyway, show the water. It's, you know... So five times this year I've had problems with the water. So twice in the beginning of the year it was bad water, muddy water coming into my house. That never got, that didn't happen again after those two times. But then with all the low water pressure now we've had now, now it's August and we've had three water, boil water advisories. So it's, and it wasn't even two weeks ago when we had that second one. So my, It's terrible that this is happening, but why can't you, I just want to know, why can't you all send us a text and let us know that the advisory is resended? You know, we get, that's what I get. I don't know. Why do we have to constantly be checking the website to find out is this resended or not? You send out text to let us know about the Williston Fiber, you let us know how things are going, and then you let us know, okay, it's all fixed. With the water, you send us out the water advisory, and then we hear nothing from you until we keep checking the website. And then, finally, we find out. But if you can send a text out to let us know, why can't you send a text out to let us know that, you know, it's all good now?

Do you want to speak to that? I think they did do that.

Yeah, I can, if the Madam President will give me an opportunity. The last time you didn't receive a text from my GOV is because there was a small section inside the other Boil Water Notice area that had not been lifted. And there's no way to import a map into that area or even an attempt to explain how that is. So I chose not to send out the last text on lifting the Boil Water Notice because In certain areas, it was not lifted, and there was no way to identify that and text my gut. It's not like I can paste a little map or something like that. I can basically just send you a text information. So that's why you didn't get the last one. Other than that, I've been doing it. So I've been doing that.

Okay, and so the time before that, why didn't we get one?

I have no idea why I didn't get it. You say you're getting all the other ones.

I never, nobody on my whole street, nobody gets a text alert to say.

Let's start with, well, maybe not publicly, because I don't think you want your phone number out there, but after the meeting, if you're still here. If you will give me your name and number, I will certainly check the database and see why you're not getting it. Because I know you say you're signed up.

Oh, yeah, definitely. And my neighbors don't get the text to say it's been rescinded. I'll call them, hey, did you find anything out? No. And so, you know, we have to just keep checking.

Why don't we start with you? If you'll stay to the end of the meeting or write some note down and give it to Mr. Bishop, I'll be more than happy to check the data and see why you're not in. the section that I use.

Okay. You know, in the map that you all put out on the website to say this little circle of area, the map was so horrible you couldn't read it at all. So you just had to like go, well, maybe, I don't know where this is at, you know, because the picture of the map was just horrible. So I was just wondering, are you all going to fix the well problem? I mean, we keep having well issues in the city. Is anybody doing anything to fix the well issues?

Go ahead. So the city has four wells. Each well is how many years old, Jonathan?

The newest one is mixing in its...

So we're working with technology that basically are at least 2008, right? So the reason why a lot of people said, well, why don't we fix the problem first before or be faster responding to it first is because there's a system out there called SCADA that we simply cannot afford. I would suggest that anybody that wants to know what the city's budget's like, please come by here and ask for me, and I will happily sit down with you and go over our budget and our reserves, what we do have, and what we can spend money for. Fixing the wells today, I mean, you're talking eight, nine, ten million dollars, easily. Easily. But what are we supposed to do in the meantime? We keep asking, and actually Mr. Nichols is going to come up here in a little bit and talk about some of the things that we're doing, but we keep looking for grants, we keep applying for grants, and that's really the only way we go through... state revolving funds to help fix our infrastructure. These are things that we're currently working on that are in place. We're very close to getting it done. But it's really not, I don't have, it would take me an hour to sit down with you, explain the whole process, which I'm happy to do. I mean, I work for the citizens. along with this board. And so if you'll schedule some time with my executive assistant, I will most certainly be here and go through the whole process with you. I'm not shy from talking about what we got in place and what we're doing, how we're moving forward. But the reality is that the city's reserves are drastically low. We have just about a million dollars in the utilities fund reserve and about $500,000 in the general fund. And those reserves are things that we have to look for when hurricanes happen and things like that. We have to fix stuff and get – I can go on and on and on. But this is not the form, and I won't take up any more time. This is something I would be happy to sit down with you in my office and go over with you. I have no problem with that.

Okay. Well, in the meantime, we just have to do something to be able to get all these problems, you know, solved. I mean, we all live here in the county and, you know.

Well, I've given you an opportunity to come see me, and so I would take that step first, you know, and then maybe the next time you come up here, you may have a little more knowledge of how our system is working and understand some of the pitfalls that we're looking at. And I want to thank you for spending the time with me to do that. So you've been very polite, and I appreciate that.

Thank you. If I may, sir. Mr. Mayor.

Ma'am, I did not catch your name. You're welcome about the dryer vent, and thank you for actually doing something. But that's not what I wanted to ask you. My understanding is that you are receiving the boil water notice on an email. On a text. I hate text. So it's not a problem of the database. That's all I'm trying to make. If you're receiving one, if you're not receiving the other one, then there's some other mix-up other than needing your name in the database because you clearly have it if you receive the boiling water. Okay, thank you. That's true.

Ms. Meredith. I want to say that the text-my-go system is something that we have all discussed multiple times up here as a council, that it's been a bit of an imperfect system in the past, and it has not been used to its full capacity in the past. Terry has done a really commendable job of, when he has come on, of trying to get it more in use, because I think... I think all of us, for the most part, felt like we were not using it enough. But I do know that there are still some issues that Terry told me about the other week, just about cross-referencing and checking and making sure that, you know, the phone numbers match the addresses and if somebody had moved and then their phone number was linked to it and so forth and so on. So it's still a work in progress. So I definitely recommend that if you feel like you should have gotten a boil notice, and you didn't, just please tell people, just call up or email Terry is probably the best solution and let us know so that we can fix that database because that all has to be entered in by hand is my understanding at the initial part of it. And the second thing that I want to say also about the TextMyGov is that it's a tool. It's not ever going to be perfect. There are going to be situations, like Terry talked about, where they have to make an executive decision in the best interest of certain residents so that they don't think that, oh, it's, you know, the will notice has been lifted. And when that happens, we all just have to sort of say, you know what, this is done in the best interest of the few residents who lived, I believe it was near Hardee's last time, to make sure. And that does mean that you might have to check the Facebook page or call up here and ask. And I just want to ask the residents, please have a little grace in that moment and recognize we're trying to do our absolute best. We are by no means perfect. There are a lot of issues that have been brought up that we all need to work on. But that's one of those moments that, like, if you can just understand that we are trying to protect the people that can't have that boil notice lifted yet because of one reason or another, there's still one little piece of the puzzle that has to come together.

Thank you. Anyone else?

All right.

If not, we will move forward. Item number four, consent agenda. That will be on our next agenda. At this time, we will start with updates from staff and board and council. Interim city manager, Mr. Brevard.

Thank you, Madam President. I'm going to start, then I'm going to turn it over to Walt Nichols from Mike Pierce to finish up. I just want to give you a quick update on the fiber and where we're at. I've currently met with... a company called Royal Fiber, and had a long discussion with them about resolving some of the issues we have for installation and some of the issues that we're having with the communications between the field and Center Hub here and the way it talks to each other. There's also another company coming in tomorrow, which is Echo, that I'll be sitting down with them also and talking to them and see what their recommendations are as far as like, getting the system up and running further, quicker, faster. And so that is ongoing. And then at some point, I'm just going to tell you, I'm going to have a meeting with Performance Services, sit down with them and see where we're at with that, see where the issues were, you know, and try to resolve some of the issues we have with fiber. We are, as Gerald said, the idea would be to create a backhaul into the system from another place or another location and just expand on the thing. AT&T was the one that let Lumens go out, which let Cogent go out, which let us go out. So it was AT&T in Orlando. that did that. The other one was a fiber cut, a construction site, did the exact same thing. You know, if we do the backhaul system like we're talking about, you know, it'll be a way to feed the system, even though it may be from lumens, but it will come from another direction. And Royal Fiber is a company, I'm working with that to see where that could work, how it could work, and basically what it costs. As a current update, I've written down Every person spoken here tonight, I will assure you that I will be reaching out to them to talk to them. Thank you. Yes, ma'am.

Mr. Nichols.

Okay, thank you. Walt with Ray Pierce. Yeah, I just want to give you an update. Also, last week, Thursday, we submitted 3 grant applications on behalf of the city for you. We asked your permission about this 2, 2 minutes ago. FEMA had the brick and FMA flood mitigation. Grants open the deadline was Friday. We submitted on Thursday for North with 7th Street. The full we call the big fix for that for the design money. So that was submitted North with 5th place. We submitted a call an grant for that. The flooding is occurring there. And we also submitted a brick grant for Southeast Fifth. Probably about two years ago, you had Wright Pierce design some drainage improvements on Southeast Fifth Street. We designed it. There was never a budget for construction. So for this one, we asked for construction dollars. You're shovel ready. And that was on your list of projects. So those three went out last week. So we're waiting to hear. They don't have a set deadline, like when they're going to announce them. But what I'm hearing is most likely before the end of the year, a lot of the grant programs should be announced. So we'll be watching for that this fall and let you know. So those went out. We are currently working on DEP Springs grants. Now, if you recall, you've got what we call Area 1 Septic to Sewer. You received a grant for that. The engineering is in progress. Surveying activity is going. The geotechnical drilling has all been done. So the design is ramping up on that. Well, the new grant program is open again, and this is due September 9th, and you gave us permission to submit. We're asking what we call Area 2, which is the north portion of the city, Area 2 and Area 3. So we're applying for that, septic to sewer grants. These are 100% grants. There's no participation needed by the city. And again, we're asking... We're asking at this time the smaller ask for the design amount, and then that gets you shovel ready for the big dollars in construction. So we're doing that again. This time next year, we're hoping we're going to be asked for the construction dollars for Area 1. So this is a recurring annual project. So those we're working on, they're due September 1st. We're in progress working on that. no problem meeting that deadline and as part of that as we're asking again for two septic to sewer projects we are asking for a third grant to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant because we're bringing in more sewage to the plant and we're showing those numbers and those projections where we're asking for money they don't give grants out to wastewater treatment plants for your growth, they expect your growth to pay for that. But if you're converting septic to sewer because of the environmental issues, the BVAMP requirements, they do fund it under that circumstance. And so that's what we're asking for now. So that is also due September 1st and we're working on that. And I do want to remind, Council back in, I believe it was in April, we presented to you four ordinances for irrigation, landscaping, fertilizer, and pet waste. Those are part of your BMAP nitrogen removal mandates. If you adopt those, you get points and a reduction. And I believe at that time, you approved the irrigation and the pet waste. you had questions concerns about the landscaping and the fertilizer and you're going to look at that there's room where we can adjust that ordinance but we haven't had any you know feedback a lot has happened since then but i just want to remind that those ordinances you've looked at them, just what is the action? It could be a yes or a no, adoption, modify them, or don't adopt them at all. But those are still pending that we need. And I will be coming before your next meeting. We also applied for a grant in September of last year to SWFMUD to adopt the floodplain studies that were done in the past. And we've talked about that many times. And so we got a grant from SWFMUD for that. They said the money would be available in October of this year. They sent a draft agreement to Terry. We're reviewing that, looking at it, making sure it aligns with what we expected and the grant money we asked for. So we'll be coming to you at the next meeting To, you know, with that agreement for you to accept it, they're expecting a signed agreement should be back to you October 1st. So we have a little bit time, but we do need to return that. But I just want to give you an update that that's in process. The paperwork is flowing on that grant. So we're working on that and, you know, last meeting you adopted the. wastewater facilities plan with the FRS. You adopted that. You are making strides to improve your infrastructure, and that was a big study to look at your sanitary sewer. That was adopted, submitted to DEP, being wrapped up, and more to come on the actions. How do we implement this? And there'll be other SRF loans available to you to do that. And that focused on your sanitary sewer. We've also provided to you to prepare a water system facilities plan. It's a little bit less than the sanitary, but it's required and it's due next year to DEP, and that's going to look at your water system, your wells, and the distribution piping. We've submitted a proposal on that now. It's not due to next year, but I know you're doing your budgets. But that is a mandate that the city is going to have to do. Once that's done, it opens SRF loans, low interest loans, principal forgiveness loans to improve your water system. So that's been, I know you're in budget time. That proposal is submitted. Please take a look at that. And if there's a way to fund that, that's going to get you in line for some other grant money for your water system. So that's just updates of what we have going right now.

Thank you. Anything from city attorney, Billy? That's right. Chief Rose, Owen. No, Chief Stegall.

Good evening, Council. I just want to give a heads up that we're in the process of swapping out the ARF truck, the big green giant truck that we keep at the airport for plane crashes and stuff. Danny has worked extremely hard with the Division of Forestry. They're giving us an updated ARF truck that just came off the line at NASP Pensacola, meaning the Naval Air Station up there that's been in use up until the last few weeks there. They'll give it to us free of charge. It comes in, and all we do is give the old green one back to them. And Danny's done a good job of getting this for us.

Nice. Thank you. Benton? Good. Danny?

George?

Anyone else in staff? No? Jonathan?

So we attacked the water leak up at the old KFC, the quick care. It is back online. It is working like it's supposed to. We got lucky. There's two mains up there. They're 8-inch ductile. And it was the 6-foot, not the 12-foot deep. So we were able to keep it off the right-of-way. And so I just want to say I'm proud of the boys. That's it.

Thank you. Thank you. You guys did great. Anything from council? Meredith? Ms. Delper? Mr. Cox?

yeah hats off to the workers I went up there today and watching them and learning what they're doing and stuff it's hot and they're just out there just going doing what they got to do not complaining or anything like that so hats off to all the guys for doing that awesome thank you Shanna nothing at this time mr. mayor

no ma'am awesome thank you guys for everything you do all right we will move forward new business discussion with possible action flooding at john henry park resident joey penny yes my name is joel penny i live at 43 northwest 4th street uh i guess in the past they got a grant to try to fix the

I guess they got a grant to fix the flooding. We just had a 45-minute rain and did not fix it. In front of Deborah's house, it was like a river.

Y'all don't come to my house.

Is there anything that y'all are going to do to fix this? I mean, something's got to be done.

Do you want to chime in?

Yes.

Yes.

I'll just add it was a lot of rain.

We just talked about the problem and inlets were clogged. It wasn't the improvements of the pond. It wasn't the piping. We got a 36-inch pipe that goes to the quarry. We've got all new piping that goes into the pond and collect it, but there's inlets within the right-of-way that needed maintenance. And once that was cleared, the flooding in 45 minutes. If the pond was that full that it backed up, that would have taken days to flood. It was a localized area where there was maintenance that needed it. But we just talked about that before the meeting. There's nothing in the design of the pond and the major infrastructure that was done. And then it was clogged. Maintenance was needed. It needs maintenance. You showed me pictures of a sea of debris of trees and leaves and branches that had clogged that. That needs to be cleaned. We can't stop that debris. It's still going to happen.

And so we have...

There was no infrastructure problems. There's a maintenance issue that needs to be addressed. Inlets need to be cleaned. The tops need to be made sure that debris is not in there. And that was a problem. And we did have that discussion just before the meeting. Thank you.

Anything else?

So far as debris, it's an ongoing thing. Before the storms come up, my guys went out there and cleaned them all. The problem is John Henry is in a bowl. Unless you fill in John Henry and flush it off, it's a bowl. It's always going to fill. We've had these conversations a hundred times. You've seen my guys out there. You stopped me and talked to me for 20 minutes while we were trying to clean them out. No matter how many times you clean them out, they're going to get full of debris. So we went out before the storm. During the storm, you were there. You stopped me. I allowed you to talk for 20 minutes and told you I had to go. We've cleaned them up. Within 20 minutes of that time, the pond was at a quarter percent. It did its job. Yeah, tell people to stop cutting along. Cops up in their stuff and putting them alongside the road and they're getting picked up. No matter what you do, you're at the bottom of the bowl and when you get to 25-year storms, stuff floats down there and clogs them up. There's nothing you can do. With a 25-year storm.

I'm sorry. He put me... No, I'm not. No, I'm sorry. This was your discussion.

Oh, I thought we could... Okay.

No. This isn't public participation right now. Right, but this is... Right, but this is what you brought to the table. Are you done, Mr. Penny? Okay. Mr. Cox?

Our neighborhood that I live in, we've never flooded. Our retention ponds never held water. But in the last two weeks, our front yard's flooded, three-quarters up to our house. And same thing with our retention pond. When you get that much rain in that short amount of time, it's going to puddle up and then dissipate.

it was just a lot of rain bottom line that's why it's flooded and then it's dissipated so I'll just add that at in that neighborhood because I'm in it I'm at probably the midpoint you know where I live it comes down Mortgage Hill It flows down Second Avenue like it's a river. You can't even see the road. It's a river. JoJo sees it, too. It's just like, I call it... Well, it's still a river. That's what it is. And it used to be so much worse before we did the John Henry Project of doing the stormwater because now there are underground vaults. It is gathering it. It is taking the water to where it needs to go. The grates do get covered with all the debris that flows down that river. It's coming from three blocks, four blocks up, and it comes down. There's no way to prevent that. And it's not just debris sitting on the side of the road that's coming. It's all the things that are blowing out of the trees when the wind is so hard. Because it's the palm fronds in our area. There's palms. And they're not in my yard. I don't have a single palm. But they're in my neighbor's yard. And they're in the road. And that's pretty much what's blocking up the drainage system. And it does. I don't know if there's a way to block it so that the water goes in it, but the debris doesn't. If not, we're just going to have to assign somebody to clear the grates, even in the middle of the rain.

All I know, when you drive down the highway... And DOT or whatever, they have barriers that actually, when the water runs in, it slows down from getting clogged.

We have those. On my street, we do have those. If you go to where the drain is, it has little things that stop it as it goes. We don't have that in John Henry Park. On the way to John Henry Park, coming down the hill, it's there.

At my house and by the nursing home, there is none of that. And the pond in John Henry Park does not have that.

Your house was not in the John Henry Park project. And you used to have drainage ponds at your house, and you filled them in.

Right.

So that's why you're flooding.

I'm not flooding. I mean, my yard's not flooding. It's just the outside.

Maybe it's why the road's flooding, because you diverted the water.

No, it's not flooding that. but there's got to be a way that y'all can put concrete barriers or something around. There are concrete barriers on 2nd Ave. Not in John Henry Park, there's not.

They don't need to be in John Henry Park.

To catch the debris that goes into the...

All right, item B, discussion with possible action, renewing the lease at Williston Animal Shelter, Mayor Charles Goodman.

Thank you, Madam President. I received a request from Williston Animal Group, who has done, in my opinion, a great job at helping animals that are in distress we have leased them property near the airport and they are simply asking their leases ending and they are simply asking us to extend that lease so they can continue to do the good work that they're doing thank you mr cox i also got the same letter yes i'm sorry i think we all did right yeah we all got it

Is any representative from WAG here? No. The letter is asking us for permission. It was done by their treasurer. I was just curious why the president didn't do it. I'm sorry, was that question directed at me? No, it was just a general statement. Their treasurer sent this.

The treasurer sends their mail out?

So the president doesn't?

Correct.

Ms. Debra? I would just say it needs to be referred to Benton because he handles all the leases at the airport. That was just my only comment. And you haven't heard from them?

No, this is the first I'm hearing about anything with WAG. I mean, the agenda item says animal shelter. I'll take a look at both, but they are two separate items. It's not the shelter, it's WAG. If we're talking about WAG, I'll look into it tomorrow.

Could you let us know what they pay for rent and how long they've been paying for it?

Yes, sir. I will let you know that. Thank you.

And did we notify them it was going to be on the agenda? No, that's why they're not here.

They, I guess I'm the only one that responded to them, and I responded that I would see that it got on the agenda. That is why the clerk put my name on it. I got the same letter you did. I might just care a little more.

So I asked to have it on the agenda.

All right. Number C, discussion of possible action gas extension to equine resource at airport. Mayor Goodman.

What did you just say?

Why is he in charge of that?

Yeah, thank you. I'm totally baffled.

Yeah, I don't know. Ms. Latricia said you asked that it be placed on the agenda.

What is this? The gas extension to the equines. Oh, thank you. You may be aware of it. I have a hearing deficiency, and if you do not speak clearly, I do not hear you clearly. Yes, the Animal Resource Center, the actually Equine Resource Center to get the wording correct, has contacted me in a letter and they ask that when we allowed them to build there we told them that we would allow them to have gas and they have according to the letter and the information they called me at the conference by the way they have contacted number of people very similar to what our residents are saying they have contacted a number of people and nobody really knows what's going on they told me that they have gas on the property they would be what the if not the largest gas consumer in the city at least the second largest gas gas consumer that creates income for the city. And all they're asking, they say that they have gas on the premises, and they can't get somebody to hook it up. And so it's on the agenda to please instruct your utility department to hook up the gas to the equine resource center. so that we can make a profit on it. And by the way, anyone that doesn't know what a resource center is, it's a crematory.

Well, it is all right.

Mr. Bavaro, city manager. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Madam President. I'm going to need some help from Jonathan the Bishop on this also. So when Mike came in and talked to me about the gas that he had been told by part of the gas crew that basically he had gas running in front of his house and that he could simply be teed off and that this gas line is supposedly going back up towards Monterey to a manifold station. And basically the information that I went to Jonathan and said, I mean, is this possible? I mean, is it possible just to tee this thing off and give him some gas? And the explanation I got from Jonathan was that basically, no, it's got to go all the way to the manifold station. And for whatever reasons, I don't know, but I'm not a gas person. I do know this, that this has been an issue, an ongoing issue for a long, long time. And I know that Mike has been very, very patient with us. There was really no timeframe ever set that I'm aware of unless previous city manager spoke to you that said that this will be done under these certain conditions or timeframes or whatever. There was even a possibility when I was the city manager here that we would not extend that line because of money and resources. Now obviously from my time being here the previous city manager found the money, I guess, to do this project. And can you expand on any of this? Because that's kind of about where I'm limited at.

So basically, everything revolves down to money, right? Revolves what? Revolves back down to money. Money is always the root of all evil. So when the townhomes, we did the buyout for townhomes, we took that money, applied it to his project and Monterey's. There's a whole lot of that story that probably shouldn't be discussed here tonight. The short story is he was on the agenda for yesterday. That didn't work out. We tried to do it today. We had the top of the hill.

Okay, when you say on the agenda, what do you mean?

It was supposed to be hooked up yesterday. Okay. It was my agenda. Keep in mind, I took over gas three months ago, four months ago. I'm not a gas guy either, but I'm the one you pick. So with that being said, we've been trying to get to it. I can give you a thousand honest reasons why we didn't, but the short story is he was supposed to be done yesterday. It didn't work out, and today we did the top of the hill. So I spoke to him before the meeting, naively not knowing he was on the agenda, and promised him we'd be out there first thing in the morning.

Okay, I think one of his issues was also giving enough notice that he could change out his gas orifices.

Yes. That's a relatively simple process.

It is. That's part of the equation. We'll get it to him, then he'll use up whatever he's got in the tanks, and then they'll have to coordinate back and forth between him and the propane, us and us, and we'll get it converted.

So is the gas line completed to the manifold?

Close enough to call it yes. It should be completed tomorrow, if not Thursday. We'll get all hands on deck in the morning. Bottom of my heart, I didn't know he was on the agenda tonight or I wouldn't have spoke to him. Okay. It was on the agenda. We added it. Madam President. Yes, sir.

I can't hear a word Jonathan is saying. Would somebody please tell me what he just said?

He was saying that basically he was on the schedule to get hooked up yesterday. The only problem was, since yesterday, we've had some pretty serious crises in the city. The water leak on Noble and some other issues that took manpower to solve that problem. Thankfully, that turned out to be something very simple as opposed to something that was probably not going to be. But it stands now that you're telling me he is back on. Yes, sir. We'll be there at 8 o'clock, 8.30, 9 o'clock in the morning.

I just heard 8.30, 9 o'clock in the morning.

They'll be there 8.30, 9 o'clock in the morning to take care of it.

That's all I ask.

Thank you.

All right. All right, we're good.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay. All right. Discussion with possible action. Independent contractor agreement between Network Technologies Consultant Incorporated and the City of Williston, Terry Brevard, Interim City Manager.

Okay. So thank you very much, Madam President. I want to talk about this. However, after talking to the attorney, city attorney, sorry. And basically, you know, I think the more proper way to do this would be for me to include a resolution like we've done in the past.

That's just typically how you all receive these. You're not required by anything other than that's your standard practice and that's what you've requested in the past. So that's all I would flag.

So this is basically a contract with a previous employee, Aaron Mills, to come in as we need to help us with any problems that were occurring or happening here in the city at a $125 rate hour. And so I will tell you this. I mean, I've read through the contract. It's a pretty standard contract. If we decide to do this, if it's something City Council wants to do, I would ask that the only way we do this is that I have complete control over where he goes and what he does. And any work order that he does comes through me. So in this case, it would be if they're having an IT problem, and I'm not picking on the fire department, but it's easy. If they have an IT problem, they'll have to get a hold of me or Gerald. And then basically if it rises to the level involving Aaron, we will have to then all approve it, just like I do with Wright Pierce and all of their stuff. I will tell you this, that if we do approve this, my first project for him will be the service at the police department to get that done. And so the likelihood that we'll use him in the future is great. until we dig out of the IT director, manager position issue, and that person becomes very familiar with our system. But it wouldn't be bad to have this on hand to do it, although I think there needs somebody central that only approves them, because he'll charge every 15 minutes, which means if somebody forgets their password for their computer, which I hold the record four times in two hours... Yep. Maybe, yeah. I was going to say me, but... It was a long day, but, you know, so that person doesn't contact Aaron, and the next thing, it's $125 or $250 to reset the password when something is something Gerald can handle. I will tell you, Gerald has done a very good job since Aaron's left in solving, not solving, but dealing with issues that we have coming up IT-related. So I have to give credit where credit's due. And so it's just up to you. I can bring it back in a form of resolution if we'd like at the next city council meeting. It's no issue timeframe. You know, it will be obviously a couple of weeks out for the chief, you know, but I think he's, tell me if that works.

Yeah.

Okay. All right. Because I don't know what your time frame is for any of the other stuff you've got going on. I mean, the sooner the better.

I mean, I've talked to you about some issues. We've done a major.

Hopefully we can get by and if it doesn't happen again, we'll be good. Okay. So it's really up to the council that you want to do this without the form of resolution or do you want me to bring it back to you with a resolution for an agreement?

Madam President. since we're talking about the police department, may I speak to this? You can. Thank you. I want the council to know that I wholeheartedly, without question, say that this is a bad choice. Get somebody else. This person quit the city, and now he wants to come back at $125 an hour. And while I believe that the interim city manager will do everything he can to keep him corralled, I don't think you can corral the type of thing that he will be able to move. And chief. We can hire somebody else to get that thing going, right? So don't hire him back on the back of the police department. If you choose to do it, it's your choice. But I'm telling you as your mayor that I am against rehiring somebody that resigned and then wants to come back in an exorbitant rate. Thank you.

Ms. Jones?

I also have the same problem. That's why I'm glad it's here for discussion without the resolution. I cannot do $125 an hour, even building 15-minute increments. And the $75 travel from the time he leaves home to the time he gets here, not doing it. IRS rates, just like the rest of us maybe, but not $75 an hour travel time. I'll pay for his gas. If we can negotiate a different price, that's a different story. But $125, if anything, like the mayor said, go with the rate he had when he was here.

I also have the same concerns but I also have worked in the field so I'm very familiar with how this goes and the company that I worked for is also local and they offer the same services so I do appreciate it being brought up as an option because outsourcing is a great resource that might be able to help us financially and still be able to meet our goals. Now, is he the only option? I don't believe so. But it's nice that he's offering it. I have those same concerns. It's an image concern. We have a fiber issue. I mean, it's a lot of things to consider. but I do like that we are possibly looking at outsourcing as an option. So if there's an option that we can come up with some alternatives as well, so we can look at all the different options, then it might be worth looking into that as one of the options, but those concerns are still there for me.

Ms. Meredith.

I second what Ms. Jones and Ms. Church said as well, that I feel that my personal experience with Aaron, I appreciate that he has been with the city for a very long time. He has invested very heavily in the city and done a lot to promote the city. I would not say that he is the speediest of people in getting work done. In fact, I'm somewhat disappointed. aware of the server issue and I believe this was something that was on Aaron's to-do list when he was still an employee at the city and he just never got to it. So it is a little hard for me to stomach given our current budget situation that kind of rate. I agree with Shanna about outsourcing until we have a new IT director who can take care of this, but I would say that I do believe there may be some times where Aaron might have some intimate knowledge, maybe that's not the best word to use, but some intimate knowledge about the workings, the inner workings, and how things are set up here, and my question then becomes, is this the only, can we have this contract and then have a contract with another independent IT technologies consulting company where if we needed Aaron to come help us with something that he had set up that he had designed that really only he he is truly the fastest person to work through it in that situation can we have him there for that purpose and then we have somebody else who can maybe come in with some of the other stuff and provide us a little bit maybe faster service and or cheaper service or however it helps save the city money Mr. Cox.

Just a quick question. We wouldn't be tied in any specific length of time on the contract?

No. The basic way they've written is that we can get out of it or just not use the service. I mean, that's what it ties back to me. Right. I was not aware that there was another company that the mayor knew about that could put together those servers. So certainly after this meeting, myself and Chief Rolls will get together and see basically who they have lined up to do that.

Who does who have lined up?

What?

Who does who have lined up?

Who does who?

Yeah, why have anybody lined up?

Mayor said you had somebody.

No, he said we can find somebody.

Okay.

Thank you, Chief, for correcting my clearly stated language. Mr. Gerald.

Thank you. I think no matter who we ask, there might be some input we're going to need from Aaron on that specific project. But he doesn't necessarily have to be the one to do it. Also, that we should come up with a itemized game plan that the project be planned step by step, meticulously. Can't have any mistakes there. So whoever we choose, we want to make sure they're bringing that to the table.

And let me say this. Sometimes people have to make choices about their livelihood and they may have to branch off and go and start or branch out into a business for themselves for whatever reason. They shouldn't necessarily be shunned for that reason. We've had people leave this organization and go and work for somebody else and we still deal with them every day for different projects. So we shouldn't shun people just because they leave and they do something else and they come back and they want to provide us services. Now, for some of the other reasons that people have stated, I get it, I understand. Those should be the reasons that we may or may not want to deal with people, but not because they leave our organization. So that's all I want to say about that.

My total wish was with the dollars.

And that's fine. I'm just saying. I mean, I didn't say you said it. I'm just making statements about what was said.

Ms. Shannon. I just have a general question. Are any of the services that he would be providing something that our Gerald would not be able to handle or do with us? My experience with him so far has been fantastic, and I was the IT person for seven years.

I've actually said Gerald's done a great job filling that void since Aaron's been gone. Now, whether or not he can set up and configure a server that the PD has, I have no idea. And this contract doesn't have to be all-inclusive like we're going with him. We can actually, as somebody said earlier, and I'm not promoting it or not either way. It really doesn't matter to me. We will get the job done no matter what. Of course. But if he's used as just only one vendor... you know that we may have to pull in and do whatever and I'm gonna be honest with if it's not the council's wish that they don't want to do that I'm fine right I'll solve the problem down my mind if you can negotiate the right I will I'll try to talk to him and negotiate the rate and see if we go from there if it's something that's the will the council yeah I mean that's my only issue is the right yeah the dollar amount

Yeah, I would have an issue with that. But we're looking to go bigger with the fiber. He knows everything that's going on here. And that's what happens sometimes when we lose people who've been here a long time. We don't know where the bodies are buried.

Well, I would say the city's done a very good job of succession planning on just about every position other than IT. And I'd be the first one to admit that. And because we've done so well in utilities and succession planning, you know, we've had these people leave that we've been able to stood up and still get the job done like it was no problem. Because we were three deep and licensed in every section. That's something I implemented when I got here. There was only one person that had a license for the longest time. You know, and that's, you see what happens when that happens. So, you know, succession planning in IT was never an option because of the money. You just didn't have the money to hire another IT person. We would, I mean, you got Gerald's great, but we hired, tried several times, and it's just not enough to keep them or to draw somebody with the right kind of talents to be a true IT person. deputy assistant or whatever. But like I said, I mean, I can do whatever the will of the council is. It really doesn't matter either which way.

Well, it sounds like you have a plan. I mean, I like the plan that you have that you have just told us about. I think it also would be great if you, like Ms. Meredith was saying, if you felt like you need to use him on specific things, then go for and do that. But also if you can find somebody else to do other things that you need done, then do that as well.

Yes, ma'am. In order for me to reach out for him, though, there's obviously, I mean, unless we're like shooting a breeze going to lunch, which is unlikely because I don't take lunch. So, you know, so the bottom line is that I don't think he's going to probably help unless there's some sort of form of compensation.

I know, but you said you were going to do what Deborah wanted, talk about money.

I will talk to him about that and bring it back to the council.

Yeah.

That's my only other final thought on that one. Well, kind of two of them. I know when I did IT, it was almost like going to a mechanic. There are regular hours and there are IT hours because there's a lot of times where you're on a computer for a second, you run a command, and you go away from it. So that was one of my first thoughts was is that incorporated in here? You know, when he says hours, does he mean clock hours? Does he mean hands-on materials hours? And if that's even going to play a role? And then on the other side of that, when you say – All the other departments have had a great experience when it comes to setting up contingencies or succession and this one doesn't and he's been here for a while so maybe this is our opportunity to be able to do that by moving forward and he's gone on and he's doing his other business which is great fantastic if we can utilize the services that helps us and helps him that's wonderful but we could also utilize this time to go ahead and create that succession that we're going to need there's just another way of looking at the opportunity i'm

Yes, I don't disagree. Like I said, y'all all know we've put out for an IT director position. The applications are coming in. Some of them look promising. It's just, you know, the amount of money that we're offering sometimes doesn't attract, you know, the people that. Right. Yeah, ma'am. I didn't hear you.

The right caliber. I was just saying.

Right, right. I mean, we're lucky to have Gerald. He's been a great, great help since Aaron's left. And, you know, but, you know, IT is growing forever. I mean, it's something you're never going to get away with. And he does, you know, know where everything's at. Yes. So it's like, I'm just no different than Jonathan. When Jonathan walks out of here on the 21st, there's a lot of institutional knowledge that's gonna leave with him that we won't have access to. So, same thing.

Can I ask a question? Sure.

Oh, Mr. Rolls. You want a mic? A mic? Mic, mic.

Mic, mic.

Mic, you need a mic.

Hello. I work with the city manager on trying to get another person or somebody to come in to do these servers. Our stuff is crashing, and we're losing vital information, and we can't keep kicking this can down the road. So if me and the city manager can work some way out of moving forward with somebody, whoever it may be, So we can get these servers on deck because this is critical stuff that is happening. And it's going to eventually bite us. So we just had a couple in the last couple weeks that has already bitten us. So I really would like to, if the council decides to allow the city manager to hire somebody to start that process, that we be able to move forward to do that so we can get these servers online. Right now we're just antiquated.

and definitely I mean if you can talk and work numbers out and maybe we do a special meeting you know even if we only have three to do a quorum or however then let's look at doing that as well or just any vendor I mean we have vendors all over the place that do different things

Oh, that don't have to have an actual contract? They really don't. I mean, if you could find a vendor that was under a certain amount, or do we need to put it out to bid?

Depending upon what the cost is would depend upon whether or not we need to put it out to bid. The answer to your first question of do we have to have a contract, do we not have to have a contract, a lot of... A lot of what I experience is that sometimes we say, oh, we don't need a contract. We just sign up on their website or we do whatever. The contract is whatever the standard provisions are of the terms of service or whatever it is. So there do end up being contracts. We just say there's no contract because it's not... like we typically look at, most of the time there is some kind of binding terms and conditions contract. In order to enter into those agreements, we still have to have And I know staff is exhausted of hearing this from me, but there are certain provisions, although they may be silly, like anti-human trafficking affidavits where everyone that we contract with has to certify with an affidavit that they don't human traffic people. We have to have it under Florida statute, along with a couple of other things like no boycotting Israel and all of those other kinds of fun things Florida requires us to have in every contract that we sign.

Okay. Ben.

Yes, ma'am. I know Terry is aware of this process, but just to kind of help you guys, one of the things that we do is we can put out for a request for qualifications, which is we put a blanket statement out there saying, hey, we are looking for this type of person for this type of work, for contract work. send us your packet. And these companies will send us a packet saying, hey, I'm company ABCD. This is the work that I've done with these municipalities or these municipalities. Whatever we have listed in that RFQ, they respond appropriately. And then in the past, we've set up either selection committees or the city manager has approved which one of those contractors we go with from that point. I mean, that's typically how we've worked this in the past. But I know that's not a right now solve, but moving forward, that could be something we do as well.

Gerald?

Yes, thank you. So there are some other aspects that aren't even being looked at yet, and that is one is These are virtual servers. The new server cluster, they're virtual. Someone needs to be highly experienced in the type and the type of software that they run as well as they have to be CJIS. They have to take the CJIS course.

They have to be CJIS certified because of the data that's stored on them.

I'm currently CEJA certified, but that's a project I'm going to be afraid of that there's going to be a gotcha in its configuration that, you know, I'll be happy to work side by side with anybody that you want to bring in, but to take it on by myself, it's too big.

Okay. Thank you. All right. Okay.

Yeah, we'll do some more work, come back to you, see what we got, kind of go from there.

Sounds good.

Thank you.

All right, discussion with possible action, approving the revised health care plan, Terry Brevard, interim city manager.

Thank you, Madam President. Me again. So I'm starting to feel like Benton. So I will tell you this, in the agenda packet, 15, 16, and 17 are the plans, 19, 20, and 21 are nothing but duplicates. the other two other three plans but after talking to Kim which was her last day here you know these are the actual three options that we will be offering to our employees and there are there are three options I mean so you don't just get one basically there we have several employees that on actually are on plan 14 or at least one and we'll have one employee that is on health care choice plan 19 which I suspect that they will continue that going into the next year and open enrollment. So these are just some numbers brought back to you. It shows you, you look at the first page on Choice Plus Plan 13, it'll show you the 2526 rate of 812.06, and then basically the new rate of 921.69, which Stephen should have and has already entered into the budget, which you have already seen. So basically, you know, we just need to approve these are going to be our health care coverages moving forward for open enrollment. If you have any questions, I'll try to answer them.

I have a question. Yeah. If I may, Darfiness, is it okay?

Yes, go ahead.

So can you refresh my memory and also for anybody listening? These rates jumped up like 27%. Mm-hmm. That's what they handed us. And then you negotiated down?

Yes.

And do we have an idea of what – I mean, we don't have a choice, really, at this point. We've negotiated with them as much as we can. But what percentage rate increase are we seeing with these?

Well, I'm not great at math, but as you can see from the first one, our first – choice plus plan three was 812.06 which rose to 921.69 so i i i probably couldn't do that math i was just curious now but

Yes, I'm here at 13.5%. Oh, where do you see that?

Where are you?

Okay, sorry. 13.5%. Oh, we're at the giant box that says percent change? Yes, ma'am. Excellent.

You got me afraid that I've got to do some math for you. Yeah, 13.5%. I only know because it says.

Okay, yeah, sorry. I missed that line. I did read this. Okay, so that's a substantial difference.

Decrease from what they initially came to us with it is I take how that happened if you want to discuss that so no, okay No, it's good.

You want to hear it?

I don't want to keep everybody here all night It involved Latricia and basically Kim really calling the FMIT and telling them to look this is kind of an outrageous increase and basically, you know, they went back to their underwriters, which is what they have to do and And we renegotiated a much lower rate. I don't think there's any topic or discussion about increases for next year. But I'll tell you, just like I'll tell anything else, what we did last time was we'll shop around, see what we come up with. That's what we did two years ago and three years ago when we got the really low rate. And maybe we'll get the plan lowered. I will tell you that they claim that there was basically some high payouts on our plan over last year, which didn't help with the increase. Now, that was probably the 27% they wanted. And now they're down to a little more manageable 13.5%, which is still a lot.

Still a lot.

Because I think, Stephen, really be honest with you, the average is about 12, 10 to 12. And we always come in at 7%. and 7% and basically that's a little bit of extra money left there. We can do something else, but unfortunately this year that didn't happen. question about that do they we offer all three and they choose the one they want yep so are they like an HMO a PPO that about what it amounts to I just I know that they're what they are if you select the one like you go to plan 14 you'll notice the cost of the single is lower yes so and but basically that and then you look at the price of the spouse you know is significantly higher Plan 1, I think Plan 13, the city pays $921. If that same person was to take Plan 14, the city would pay $859. The spouse cost would be $184811. And the spouse cost on 3 would be $198161. I'm sure they're picking 14 because there's lower coverage. And they're paying a little less money for their spouse. And I would suspect if you look at 19, you'll see the exact same thing. And actually, if the employee includes the spouse in the plan, the lower coverage, the cost of the city goes down. But I think there's only two people that do it. And I'm sure they're giving up some kind of coverage for it to do it.

So is this the cost to the city? All of this is the cost to the city?

Well, we pay single. Where you see single, right? So plan 14 single, like 859, 59, plan 3. which is on page 15, is 929.69. And then basically on page 15, 16, 17, it's going to be, if an employee was to select that one, the choice plan 19, our cost is 712.04. So it really depends on what the employee is. Now, we have it all set at 921. But if those two employees come in, oh, we're budgeting for 921. So if those two employees come in and ask for something lower, then basically that's what we'd pay. And then they're required to pick up the spouse and the children.

So we pay the full amount for?

Single.

The employee. For the employee.

Yes, the single.

I just want to say I appreciate the negotiation because it was a staggering, staggering number. And thank you for pointing out the percentage change, which somehow I missed. But yeah, that's a huge difference and still a lot of money. But that was a huge thank you for that.

Yeah.

They definitely got their attention.

Yeah. Yeah.

And I think it's like everything else. My successor, whoever that may be, I will point this out to them, that everything in the city, it's a business and it's a negotiation, just like anything else. And so we're going to negotiate the best price, best coverage for anything we do. And so, you know, when Crystal was here, we had two other insurance companies come in on the hills of FMIT. We got quotes from all three of them. And the FMIT quote, you couldn't beat.

It's probably time to do that again.

Yeah, and like I said, disregard the 18th, 19th, and I think it's 20th, they're the same thing.

So are we looking for a motion, Darth and us?

Yeah, do you want us to pull? It's a motion. Okay.

I make a motion that we approve the adoption of the revised health care plan. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion from the public? Any discussion from council? Seeing none, I move to vote. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say nay. Motion passes 5-0. All right. Resolution 2026-49, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Williston, Florida, approving submittal of a formal complaint.

Madam President.

You skipped one. Did I?

Yes, ma'am.

What'd I skip? Oh, FAA. Sorry.

Madam President, may I ask the President's permission to speak to the clerk?

Yes, sir.

Is there something on the agenda for Mr. Peso who has patiently sat here and thinks he's on the agenda and I do not see him on the agenda anywhere? No, sir, there is not. There is nothing for Mr. Peso. No. So if Mr. Peso wishes to...

I started to say they were supposed to speak in the public participation portion, and they missed it.

If Mr. Peso wishes to speak, he will need to do it during the public participation. Yes, sir. Thank you.

All right. Discussion with possible action. FAA grant for Williston Regional Airport, Benton Stegall, airport manager. Sorry.

Yes, ma'am. No worries. So this is one of the fun things that we have to deal with just about every time we get a grant from the FAA. They like to digitally send it to you guys. I think Mr. Cox and Ms. Jones are familiar with this process as well as you. You'll get this little email that says, hey, please digitally sign this grant. And it's due in two weeks. And we don't have a lot of time to get it on the agenda. So this particular grant that's sitting in your inbox, Ms. Hines, is for our real lighting. It's part of the FAA lighting project and FDOT lighting project that's going to change our runway lights from halogens to LEDs. This specific grant component is for the real lights, R-E-I-L. It's the runway ending identification lights. So it's just the big flashing lights at the end of the runway. And I know it seems like a lot of money for four lights, but That's what this particular component is for. It's not a 100%. I just want to let everybody know and be clear about that. This is a 95% from the FAA. There is an FDOT component of it that is 4%. And then the city match will be 1%. The total grant is going to cost us somewhere around, I think it was $1.6 million in total grant. The city, or the airport rather, is paying about $17,000 out of pocket. for this whole project. So I think it's a pretty good deal. And we have it in our budget.

Questions?

I move approval of the FAA grant for the Wilson Regional Airport presented by the City Airport Manager.

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 five to zero.

Thank you very much. And if you could, just whenever you get a chance, sign the email.

I will do. I will do. All right. Resolution 2026-49, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Williston approving submittal of a formal complaint to the Southwest Florida Water Management District to pursue 610 Southwest First Avenue drainage deficiency. Formal complaint, Williston, Florida 32696 authorizing appropriate parties to submit such complaint on behalf of the City of Williston. And providing an effective date, Walt Nichols, Wright-Pierce.

Okay, thank you. Walt Nichols, Wright-Pierce. The city asked us to look into a drainage problem that was on 610 Southwest First Avenue. A new Mexican restaurant is moving in. It's just catty corner from Tractor Supply. has transpired, the Best Star investigations, talking with city staff, Jonathan, researching DOT drainage records, we found that the inlet that used to be connected to a storm sewer system that was part of the high school, when that tractor supply area is redeveloped, they didn't show that inlet in their plans, didn't show it in their permits, And they abandoned the piping that it connected to. They crushed it. They removed portions of it. I had testimony from Jonathan saying that this is what happened back then. They argued with them. No, it wasn't connected. It wasn't a problem. The city has since, last week Thursday, excavated that area, took photos showing all that. so you know what we suspected was the problem was in July we met with Southwest Florida Water Management District we show them what we knew at the time at first they didn't agree with us but before the meeting was over they did agree and then they instructed us to file a formal complaint and so we're doing that following their instructions so on behalf of the city we prepared the complaint We have it for Terry to sign and submit. And that's going to start the process of getting the situation rectified. Possible solution is tying that inlet into the retention pond that's a tractor supply. It should have always been there to begin with. There's engineering that's gonna be involved, there's construction that'd be involved. But by filing this complaint, we're looking to get that corrected by the people who caused the problem, and that would be the developer. We have not contacted the developer of that. We've been only working through SWFMUD, and they recommended that we do this process. So that's the next step. I know you've gotten emails from the restaurant that's trying to move in. I've spoke to them personally on the phone. You know, they were under the impression that this is going to be fixed, you know, by September. And I conveyed that to them. This is going to be a long, drawn-out process. It's going to cost money to fix. The city doesn't have that. We're looking to get it done by the people who caused the problem. But there's permits that need to be done. There's going to be engineering calculations that need to be done. And we want that to be done by the people that caused it. And it's going to take a while. There's no maintenance that can be done. rectify this there's a structural component that needs to be done new piping needs to be constructed and so that this complaint is the next step in the process so we'd like your permission to authorize submitting this complaint to this with move approval of resolution 2026 dash 49 a second have a motion a second any discussion by the public any discussion by the council

seeing none i moved vote all those in favor say aye aye all those opposed say nay motion passes five to zero okay thank you thank you resolution 2026-52 a resolution of the city council of the city of williston florida entering into a contract with construction for canadians williams parks park c williston Florida 32696 authorizing appropriate parties to execute such documents on behalf of the city of Williston and providing an effective date. Walt Nichols. Right, Pierce.

Thank you. I do want to apologize. A lot of activity went on last week regarding this resolution. Give you a little bit of history. The Cornelius Williams Park, you have a grant. You've had it for a number of years to do some improvements. Much of what we originally designed, the costs were more than the grant. We had to do a rezoning. That literally was close to two years to get rezoned with the county. It's city-owned property in Levy County. So anyway, that zoning got resolved in June of this year, which finally allowed us to move forward with at least a portion of the project. So we put the project out for bid. It's really just one of the major parking lots that we need to be in, or county required to be asphalt paved. So that inflated the cost. But anyway, we put that out for bid. We were under the gun with this grant money. It expires at the end of the year. We have to get construction moving in September. We're working with the grant agency. So once we got the rezoning, we were moving quickly. So we put the project out for bid. Public had to be out for 30 days. We had a bid opening on Tuesday, August 11th. We received three bids. Just to give you what happened, the low bid, and our engineer's estimate was $350,000 to $400,000 for this phase of the work. We had a low bid of $245,000. We had a second bid of $406,000, and change, I'm rounding these numbers, and a high bid of $635,000. So they were all over the place. We reviewed the low bidder. prepared the resolution like that day so we can get it on the deadline for council. We had some reservation that they were so far under the estimate, but we couldn't find anything in the bid to disqualify them, and that could be a problem. So we wrote a letter recommending that we accept the bid. Two days later, I got an email from the low bidder saying they were withdrawing their bid. So they saw the prices, and I think they saw they probably made a mistake. Now, when we put things out for public bid, we require a bid bond. So it's basically an insurance guarantee that you're putting in this bid, so you just can't lowball it. No, if I'm late, I'm under, you walk away from it. No, they have to post a bond for 5% of the bid. or in this case, $12,275. So by them walking away from this, the city has every right to claim that bid, and we recommend that we do that. I don't think that needs council of action. It's part of the contract. They owe the city $12,275. I will notify them officially of that as we move forward tomorrow. That did pose a problem. So the next bidder was Wilkes Construction. With their bid as it was, it was over the grant amount that you have. But we took a look at it. If we apply the $12,235 from the bid bond to that project, There was a line item between seeding and sodding. I talked with Wilkes if they could do an adjustment with that where we just sod the steep slopes and seed the rest. They said they could reduce their price by $20,000. And with the bid bond, their reduction, And all the other costs that we have, we should have an excess of $1,500 on the project. So we were basically at the grant amount. So our recommendation is that we award to Wilkes Instruction. Their price was right in where we estimated the job to be. They're willing to meet the schedule, and they submitted all the paperwork. The bid was in order. So we're asking, and again, this was all happening this week while Latricia was trying to put this agenda. That's why I think the resolution you have in front of you had blank, because we were pulling it. I think you have a clean resolution I gave you this evening with Wilkes Construction listed in there. But we're asking for approval to enter in the contract with Wilkes Construction. You have all the money. The grant will cover all the money. We had a meeting, Laura Jones and I, with the grant agency. We reviewed all these numbers. Everything is adding up appropriately. So we can award this with zero cost to the city, and we can finally get something moving at Cornelius Williams Park.

Long time coming. Can you explain the changes that you guys made?

The flat areas we're just going to seed. The whole area, everything disturbed, we're going to sod. So the construction of the parking lot, the area around it, we're going to sod it, and there's a retention basin we're putting in. We're going to sod the side slopes of the retention basin. That's where you get your erosion. We're still going to sod the retention basin, but the flat areas where we're not going to have erosion problems, we're just going to seed that, and that was a $20,000 savings. Okay. So what we do need to do, though, is approve the bid amount that Wilkes provided, and the exact amount was $406,099.85, and then we'll do the change order number one, which would reduce it by, I can give you that exact number that they provided me, was $20,696. So we'll do a change order and reduce that contract amount. So we're asking your approval to award the agreement to Wilkes Construction.

And then add the 12275.

Well, that's like a separate... Yeah, we're going to add that. That money comes in, should be allocated towards the construction of this project, yes. Okay.

I have a question. Yes, go ahead. My question is, since they're right at the very top of what the grant has been awarded, what is the likelihood of change orders in your favorite question? Do you have a crystal ball? Can you tell me, please?

That makes me nervous. But fortunately, where you're working, there's no utilities. That's the big unknown. Block 12 was a nightmare of utility. Nightmare. I haven't seen such a spaghetti of unknown in there. We don't have that. They're not working on a right-of-way against roadways. They don't have traffic to deal with. We have no utilities that are in that area. So this is about as simple of an excavation. And the excavations are all shallow. We're digging two to three feet down to construct the parking lot. The retention basin is large but shallow, two to three feet. We've got good geotech. So there should be very... This project has, you never want to say it, but the least amount of things. So I think we're in pretty good shape. And I do want to add... really shouldn't influence your this or that, but I got contacted by Laura Jones. There are some crape myrtle trees there that were planted, I think by Jackie's father, I believe, and he has passed away, and she was wondering, is there any way to save those things? And we were hoping if we had budget, to add that in to relocate those trees, because right now they're just going to be destroyed. Wilkes is looking into that. They had to talk with the owner, but they were looking to do that at the charge. But they're going to see what they can do about that. And if not, she would object to some type of community event that we can do. But Wilkes had indicated today that they're looking to do what they can do to just go do that.

It's like we had a community event when we planted them.

I mean, we all went out there and helped plant them. Yeah, and I volunteered to help too on that if we need to do that. But Wilkes had offered, they're looking into that. It's not part of this change order, but it was something that they would do.

Maybe we could just repot them until we need them and put them back afterwards.

Well, they could relocate them on the site, but we do have more master planning. There's other grant opportunities. Again, going back, we have the African American Heritage Grant for this. When we spoke to the grant project manager, she did say there's other money available. but they do what they call it member projects now, where the money is kind of directed to your state representatives, and then they divvy it out. So this is something, as we get more information, we may need staff or council to contact our state representatives to see if there's more money for future phases, according to those claims. But anyway, more of a little bit of a back story.

Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Madam President. I noticed as I was going through this that it says the attached resolution is a draft. I presume that's the map that we all received and that the original will be ready at the meeting with construction companies' names inserted. Has that happened, and do we have an original? Yes, sir. Only you?

Well, as he just stated, he has given me the corrected resolution with the construction company's name.

So am I correct that the council is being asked to vote on something that they have not had the opportunity to look at? The only thing that was missing was the company's name. The resolution stays the same. No other changes from the draft to the original?

Well, the initial that we sent on Tuesday before the little bit of reading. rescinded his bid, the price was lower.

That's because of that price difference is why I'm asking you. Is there any differences other than the company, as the clerk said, in the draft that we all had access to in the original or the final?

The only changes would be the price of the bidder. Low bidder was originally $265,000. I'll tell you exactly what it was, $245,502 even. But then they withdrew, so they were no longer a candidate. And then we went to the second bidder at $406,099.85. The name of the company and the bid price that they provided changed.

Okay, so I'm going to ask this one last time, then I'm just going to stop. Is there any difference in the drawings, sir?

The drawings, no.

Thank you.

We didn't get it. We didn't get a drawing in our packet. I got one on my desk. You may have, but there's not one in the packet that I saw.

We didn't provide drawings. We provided the resolution and the agreement, the bid.

Maybe they just gave it to you. Yeah, maybe I'm special. You must be.

You got the bid document. The submitted bid was provided to everybody. But yeah, unfortunately, we need to award so we don't lose the grant, and this all changed frantically between Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday of last week. So I sent her her deadline on Tuesday, sent her the low bid. The day we opened the bid, sent that information. We had the resolution already written, just going to plug in the name numbers, and then things did change drastically Thursday morning.

Oh, you ready for resolution? Oh, I'll do it. I make a motion. We approve resolution 2026-52. I second. Yeah, what he said.

Can we clarify, just because I want to make sure that we have it up there, can we clarify that it's for Wilkes, for Wilkes' bid price?

Yes. I make a resolution, sorry, I make a motion that we approve Resolution 2026-52 to approve the, enter into the contract with Wilkes construction for Cornelius Williams Park.

And I will second that again.

We have a motion and we have a second. With the changes, any questions from the audience? Any questions from the council? Seeing none, I move to vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes five to zero. Thank you. Item number seven. This is public participation. This is the second opportunity for you to speak on anything that has not been anything that you would like to. Please state your name and where you're from.

Dave Pesso from New York. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the city council, and everyone here tonight. My father was born in Greece. Raised in Brooklyn, New York. But if anyone ever asked him where he was from, he would answer without hesitation, Williston. Williston has always been his heart and soul. Honestly, for much of my life, I never completely understood it. I would ask myself, why did he stay here all these years? He could have gone anywhere. So the other day in the hospital, I asked him, Dad, why did you never want to leave Williston? His answer was simple, because this is my home. Over these past few weeks, I finally began to understand what he meant. The love and support my father and our family have received from this community have been overwhelming. Mayor Goodman, Mrs. Wright, and others have taken the time to visit him in the Veterans Hospital in Gainesville. Your Chief of Police honored my father right here in this room in a way that meant more to him and to our family than I can adequately express. People have stopped by while me and my brother have been cleaning up his place here down the road and asked, how's Mr. Mike doing and whether there's anything they could do to help him. And after seeing all of that, after all these years, I finally get it. My father didn't love Williston because of a building or a piece of property. He loved Williston because of its people. My father spent roughly a half a century here. He built businesses here. He owned property here. He made friends here. He built a life here. And today, at 80 years old, my brother and I are trying to preserve what remains of his life. That is why I'm standing before you tonight and why I flew in from New York. I understand the city has responsibilities. I understand there were problems with these properties. Expenses were incurred and the city had to take action. I'm not asking the taxpayers of Williston to pay my father's bills. I'm asking for something I believe is fair to both my father and the city. For the properties the city has not taken, I respectfully ask the council to waive the accumulated fines, penalties, and fees, and give our family the opportunity to bring those properties into compliance. And regarding the properties the city has already taken, I'm asking you to give our family the opportunity to get it back. We're prepared to reimburse the city for its legitimate, documented, out-of-pocket costs associated with the properties. We ask for compassion, but we're not asking the city to take a financial loss. We want to make the city whole. I'm not here to argue about the past or point fingers. That accomplishes nothing. My brother and I are here now. We are taking responsibility. Give us the opportunity to clean these properties up, maintain them properly, pay what legitimately needs to be paid, and make sure the problems that brought us here do not happen again. I believe there are moments when government has to enforce its rules. But I also believe there are moments when the government has the ability to look at the circumstances of an individual human being and show compassion. I believe this is one of those moments. I'm not asking you to erase the past. I'm asking you to help us preserve a piece of my father's future and a piece of the life he spent nearly 50 years building in Williston. A few weeks ago, I probably would have stood here and talked mostly about properties, fines, fees, and dollars. But after what I've witnessed recently, I realize this is about something much bigger. It's about home. It's about community. It's about taking care of the people who have spent their lives being part of that community. My father always told us Williston was his home. Now I finally understand why. On behalf of my father, my brother, and our entire family, thank you for the kindness you've already shown him. And tonight I respectfully ask you to give us the opportunity to make the city whole, bring these properties back into good standing, and keep this part of my father's life where it belongs, right here in Williston. Thank you so much.

Anyone want to say anything?

I will comment. If we could ask Kirsten on the two properties that we have taken, if you can gather the amounts that we have, the cost that we have incurred. They know we have incurred cost on the building that fell down that we demolished and some legal fees that went along with the taking, as well as the old pawn shop at the top of the hill.

I assume that's included in what you want back.

let's see we do have demolition costs there as well as some legal fees as well if you can let them that's the first really easy step is to let them know about those two properties the rest of it it coded I think code enforcement requires that you we could stop the are we still keeping light and fines they might know okay At the very least, we could stop the accumulation of fines and freeze them where they are. Of course, it would take all of us to decide that since we have no code enforcement board at the moment. I think it would, I understood at the last meeting that it may come back to us. If we chose to freeze it, there's no way to, there's really no way to waive it at the moment until it becomes compliant. So it would take, help me if I'm wrong.

So generally what you would do in circumstances like this, and obviously there's discretion that the board has. Typically what would occur is that you wouldn't stop the fines until the property is cleaned up. That's generally how that would operate. And then after the property is cleaned up, then you would have a discussion of waiving the fines of the whole amount, some amount, whatever it may be, and you have discretion there as to what that would look like. Did that answer your question?

Okay. If that's the proper way to do it, then we just let them keep accumulating.

So the idea behind it is the reason that that's the standard practice from the city's perspective is most protective is that the fines are incurred because the property is in X state. It's dangerous. I think most of them are under dangerous buildings code enforcement right now. And so there are legitimate dangers and there's a legitimate interest of the city to Not that you're not incentivized to get it cleaned up, but incentivize all property owners to clean up their properties as quickly as possible so they are no longer a danger to the public, no longer a nuisance, no longer a blight, etc. Sure. And so the concept is that once you have that compliance, then you can decide what actual costs were incurred by the city through any of the fines. I think at minimum we have a $250 administration fee that... would be incurred. I'm trying to think if there's anything else other than daily fines.

I think you've done some title searches.

There have been some title searches done on the properties prior to the foreclosures. There's been some work on pre-foreclosure work. So what we could, I mean, you can direct me. Absolutely. Hey, let's time out on the foreclosure actions. I'm happy to do that if that's what this council decides. Or we could sort of continue status quo. You have a lot of flexibility here, and I know we've talked about before that we don't love how much flexibility we have here. We wish that there were some structure and some standards, and we sort of, before budget season one year, were trying to get that and then got caught up in budget, and here we are again. But that's sort of where you sit is that there's discretion, but there are legitimate interests. Obviously, Mr. Peso has articulated Mr. Peso's legitimate interests, but the city also has legitimate interests as well. So you all have discretion sort of within those bounds. Does that make sense?

So what do you think we should do? Should we put it on the agenda for next time?

I can, if you want, what seems like An interim action to your point, if you're looking for a suggestion, this is by no means me telling you what to do. But you could instruct me to stop work on the foreclosures for now, redirect my efforts to gathering information. It will take the assistance of staff for me to figure out what our actual manpower costs have been for any cleanup, demolition, etc. and see if I can get that for all of the properties that we have already obtained, as well as the properties that are currently undergoing the foreclosure process. And then we can come back to the meeting with that information for you all. Really, I think that your options are limited on the current Not limited, but they are more limited on the foreclosing, the ones that are not in compliance currently that we do not own, because we still have the issue of we do have to get them into compliance. So there's sort of two categories, obviously, that we're talking about. I don't know if that was a clear suggestion then.

Could you also bring back to us, I know that it has not come from you to become an ordinance yet, the writing has not happened, but we did agree on as a council what we wanted to see in terms of our terms for reducing fines in the future. We had a very finite plan and it's just been in the hands of a lawyer waiting to come back as an ordinance, am I correct?

So I think that we have, so it wouldn't need to be an ordinance. We could have it just as a policy. And we, the last time that we discussed, we had two different options that you all were discussing. And I actually, as I was looking at this, I pulled it up. And the draft policy that we have sort of has two options for the reductions in fines specifically. It has a amount of time that the violation remained non-compliant and then a percentage reduction there, which we've left blanks for. And then there is a separate evaluation that evaluates gravity of the violation, time taken to bring the property into compliance, and previous code violations on the property. then their specific percentages inside those categories so we had not yet decided on one of the two but we just need a policy as far as what those will look like but we do have two very well fleshed out structures we just need to make a decision on which one we want have we given reductions in fines before previously previously yes we have a very significant so why are we considering again

You mean to him?

Oh, I mean, you mean here? Yeah. To Mr. Peso? No, I don't believe so.

Oh, no. To others, yes. No, no, no. Sorry. I misunderstood your question. Oh, we didn't understand that.

And if I'm not mistaken, when we had that discussion, I mean, it was coming down to where we do these fines and then people aren't going to take them seriously because... We reduce them. And that was, I think, a big discussion last time when we talked about that. How can you get something to enforce it if only in return we know, eh, don't worry about it. We're just going to reduce their fines later on. You know, I just don't, I don't know, I don't agree with doing that.

Can I say something?

No, I just thought we had been here before. Yeah.

No, we were. And this was about a year ago. And Laura Jones did speak to us. And I think Ms. Ballou was involved too. And unfortunately, my father didn't have at that time. He was having a very rough time and didn't have the capacity. You know, he has Parkinson's. He has onset dementia. And what Ms. Laura Jones did agree upon with us, she says... The priority was to finally get, because my father was not able to come to see you guys and negotiate with you guys, have the ability to understand and comprehend what's going on with his buildings. And we did not have the power, the kids, to do anything, which Ms. Ballou, Ms. Jones says, before I could even really discuss anything with you guys, I could give you a kind of framework, but you guys must have power of attorney, which was a long road to finally get my father involved. to give us the power of attorney, which now we finally do have, and so does Ms. Ballou. But Ms. Jones did at that time let us know that, and again, if my father had the capacity and he was in the right frame of mind, the buildings would never have gotten that way. If anyone knows him before, he ran successful businesses here and helped many people here. It's not somebody that's saying... I waited out many years and give me a freebie. That's not what we're talking about now. We're looking to take responsibility. But she did kind of make us believe at that time, which was about a year ago, that the properties that are on, that need to be brought to code and fixed, that if we give a commitment to the city that we're going to do it, tell us what you're going to do with the properties, Give us a time frame what you will do it, and then they'll waive the fines and fees because you're going to commit to that. That's what we were told at that time. This is a year later. Unfortunately, I wish at that moment we had to get the power of attorney. You know, just to give you a quick update, Mr. Goodman, Mayor Goodman knows because he was with my father yesterday. They finally transferred him out of the VA hospital in Gainesville, and now he's now in a full-time Florida veteran state... long-term care in Pembroke Pines to live the rest of his life out. And hopefully, you know, it will be as long as possible. But this is why we're here and no one's trying to play games or avoid what was, what happened. It's a bad situation for my family from the beginning until now.

Darfiness, can I? Yes. So I just want to, I'm very sorry. And we have actually done a lot of homework as a council and come up with two plans, which unfortunately we have not yet decided between two. But this might be the great opportunity for us to choose one of those routes that we want to take which does actually provide for some reduction in the fines. It's not complete reduction because it's a graded scale. In the past, we did actually, I believe it was two years ago, we had somebody come with a very similar situation with a parent. It was complicated. They promised they were going to fix the property up. We reduced the liens by a huge amount. And then because we were told the property was under contract, it was going to sell, it was going to be fixed up, It never happened. And so we had to protect ourselves from that situation happening again where somebody says, hey, we're going to do all these things. We reduce the liens. And that's why we got to this point. So I think if we could maybe bring back the two items, decide which one we're going to go with, and then that would give Mr. Peso his answer. And there is room in there for some. Right. There is room for us.

Just on our end, we just got to weigh it out and say, okay.

Yep.

I mean, I don't know what the fines and fees are now. I mean, it's been a long time. I don't even know the time frame or what. He has no idea, unfortunately. But it's got to be like, okay, does it pay to what it is?

We can get you all of that information.

I mean, yes. The attorney can get that for you. That would be great. So we could, you know.

Yeah, I can.

Hopefully you're easy on us.

So if it would be helpful to you at the next meeting, I can bring back a couple of things. It sounds like as best we can, the cost incurred for the properties that we own, including legal fees and whatever other costs for cleanup, etc. And then the current fines on the properties that are being foreclosed as well as any other title search fees, fines, administrative costs that we've incurred on those properties. And then I will also bring back to you your two options for you to make a final decision on. And then we can do it like one, two. We'll do a resolution adopting your policy. I'll just have two different versions for you. You can pick the one that you like and fill in the blanks, and then we'll have the next item be a discussion on this matter. Does that sound okay? Sounds good.

All right. But I will say that we don't reduce the funds until the property is cleaned up. Yeah.

So you can start that any time you want to. Okay. Will somebody also be able to send me what exactly needs to be done to the properties?

They're in such bad shape, I don't know if they can be rehabbed. I was almost going to take an engineer.

I would say to work with our code enforcement officer should be able to get you the specific information that you need. Do we have, he's raising his hand over here, he'll give you the contact information for her.

I'll get with you and we can put you in the code enforcement officer and I'll work with you as well.

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.

And that way you'll have a clear list of everything that needs to be done.

Most of the roofs are gone. Some are collapsed, which means the interior are in bad shape. So you'll see when you go look.

How would I get help? They'll help you out. Thank you so much.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Anyone else? Mr. Penny?

Yes. My partner is at my house, at the house, and I've been cut off of YouTube. The whole video of us talking. Do what? My whole thing of me talking, him talking for me, has been cut off line. Is there a reason why?

I haven't looked at it, so I don't know.

I mean, it's my understanding how it works. I got it right here. I got it. It's my understanding how it works. It's live now, and then when we end the meeting, you should be able to go back and then see the full version. I just looked back, and he's been looking back. Mr. Penny, this meeting is live. When it's done, it will go to YouTube as a whole, and then you'll be able to see every second of the meeting. Okay. And if you can't, Come talk to me, okay?

Anyone else in the public like to speak?

Be nice. 500 Northwest Fifth Avenue. Mine's going to be, I think, fixable in the office. When you all had your first budget meeting, I tried to log on. I could see you, but I couldn't hear you. There was nothing I could do to hear you. I came to the commission meeting last week, or a week before last, addressed it after the meeting to one of the commissioners. You had your second one, same problem. Now, I went to YouTube, which I do not like, but wrong tone. I could see you, but I couldn't hear you. Nothing I could do to get a volume on it. I did get it on YouTube, though. So that's something that needs to be addressed. Because what's the use of having the thing if you can't hear it? You hear that, Gerald?

All right, that's all.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Anyone else? No one else in the public? All right. Any announcements from staff? Any announcements from city manager?

No, ma'am.

City clerk? Police chief? City attorney?

Council?

Yes, I'd like to say something.

Ms. Merida? I want to speak to the audience and the people who've come with concerns. I personally am on this council because I came up here with a concern. And I decided to get involved. And I really appreciate all of you guys coming and expressing your concerns. Every time somebody brings up a concern, for the most part, I learn something new. It is really hard. I wish money grew on trees. I wish we could fix things every single night. And I wish that we could discuss in depth a lot of the things that are brought up during public participation. But it's truly just not the right time because we only have five minutes. And as most of you know, It's not a five-minute conversation. It's not a five-minute explanation. And I would just really recommend, and I know we've had some issues with our emails. We're working on that so things get through to us. But if you would like to call and talk to a council member, we're only one person, so I can only give you my view and my thoughts and my understanding of things, or our city manager who's very willing to meet with us. residents and people from the public. But please reach out to us and keep talking to us because we do care. There are places we need to improve. There are places we're doing our absolute best with the money we have and the resources we have and the state statutes. Sometimes we're just stuck. We can't do things any differently. But I do appreciate all of you guys coming and speaking and call me.

I agree 100% with what Meredith has to say. Most of our cards are in a rack at the front desk, and I know my email and my cell phone number are on my card. So I'm not opposed to anybody picking up a card and calling me on the phone. And if y'all think we need to have a workshop about utility rates, or not so much rates, but utility bills, then maybe we need to do that. because we can't do it without calling an official meeting so that we're in the sunshine. And if we need to do that, open up conference room, community room, and go over there and just invite people to come in during a two-hour period or something and talk to them one-on-one, and maybe we need to do that. I don't know. And just please remember that we're having the same problems at our house with our families as well. We all live in the city limits. We have to in order to be on this council. And we are in the same boat y'all are. Our bills are up. Our rates are just as high as yours. When we look at taxes and assessment fees, we're talking about ourselves as well. And it's hard to do. And even a CPI on a rate increase, it's just something you don't want to do. I will say we have a workshop coming up that's with Florida Rural Water. They talk to us about our water rates and about our sewer rates. It's important that you come and that you hear it so that you know what's going on as much as we do. So when that gets announced, please try to come to it.

And please be patient with us, because I spoke with a resident on Friday, and she came and spoke in a lovely way tonight. And I did tell her I would look into the difference, you know, what we mark up and the difference in our rates versus, like, Central Florida Electric. And that was on Friday, and today's Tuesday, and I work a full-time job. We get paid before taxes $400 a month to do this. It's not much. It's definitely, like... thing we do basically because we really care and I have a full-time job everybody here has a full-time job we will work as fast and as hard as we can but we can't always make that happen like in 24 hours we can't get back to you always in 24 36 or 48 hours we're not I'm not trying to hide anything I'm not trying to you know blow anybody off I just truly there only so many hours in the day so and please know we're not putting money in our pocket we don't have any money to put in our pocket

like I said we're the same boat y'all are you know the other thing too is we're paying for our sins of our fathers for years there's been neglect with pipes and stuff like that it's this is not just something new that within the last couple years that's happened this has been going on for years but loop every bit we're trying to do our best just to get what we can get through grants and everything so we can get stuff fixed so you know it's it's stuff in my difference we have to pay utility bills we don't get discounts or anything like that so I hear from it from my wife she does the books at home so you know I understand

Shannon?

I actually had a comment and a request, if that's okay.

Okay.

Okay, so my comment is yes. We're residents, too. We've gone through the same things. When I first came up here, my water bill was over $800, and I just could not understand why I couldn't get the answer I was looking for. And I'm not saying that the answer doesn't exist or that the routes you've taken are not the right routes to take. Communication means a lot to all of us, and As Mr. Cox said, we did kind of come into this job from passion, but we are also inheriting a lot of issues that we're diligently trying to work through. And yes, we do have full-time jobs, but outside of that wheelhouse. It's city, city all the time with us. We're consistently trying to figure out how we can make things better for everybody and to also bridge that gap of communication, especially when there's frustration from our residents, not sure who to reach out to or how to reach out to us or even just trying to find our email. Which leads me to my question. I know we have our email link underneath our name on our website. Is there any way that we can actually spell out our emails just so we can show our residents, hey, this is our information. If you can't come into the office and grab our card, or if you don't feel comfortable clicking the link and doing it there, you want to send us a direct email? If that's something we can look into, I know for myself, that would make me feel a lot better.

I'm sorry. Joe is working on that. Joe, did you do it already?

Okay.

Right.

Of course, of course. Thank you so much. I really appreciate all the additional work that you're doing. And you're doing a fantastic job. I just wanted to let you guys know that we're trying to put our information out there. If you can't get a hold of one person, it may just be that we're at work or traveling or doing something else that we also have to do. So feel free to reach out to any of us. And if you're still having questions or concerns, let us know. Let us know. And we will do everything in our power to bridge that gap and find a solution together. Mr. Mayor?

I also want to add that our emails don't have the same pattern.

Oh, yeah, they're different.

They are all different, so don't think if you've got one, the rest of them are the same, because they're not. They're different. And it's because some of them are older than others. Some of them are newer than others. So, again, come get the card and look at the... Mr. Mayor?

Mr. Mayor?

Thank you, Madam President.

I just got a few things. Let me get here.

I think it's down here on page 45. Okay, we'll start from the top. Thank you all for coming. Have a good night. God bless you.

And I have nothing else. Amazing. All right, item nine, adjournment. Before we do that, if anybody wants election results, I have them up here.

I move we adjourn.

Oh, a motion. A motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed, nay. Motion passes 5-0. We're adjourned at 9.40 p.m.

Okay, Wesley Langston, 46%. Matt Lemery, 53%. Billy Hino, 32%. Tim Hodge, 46%.