City Commission - Regular Meeting

Recall this meeting to order, the city commission meeting for Monday, June 22nd, 2026.

Would you give a roll call, please? Yes. Commissioner Davis? Here. Commissioner Dollison? Here. Commissioner Birdsong?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Mercer? Here. And Mayor Yates, who is not present this evening.

We will have the invocation by Dr. Steve Harness from First Baptist Church and the Pledge of Allegiance led by the city clerk, Vanessa Castile.

Shall we pray? Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you in the name of our Lord Jesus to thank you for all the blessings that you've given us in this wonderful city. Lord, thank you for giving us such a fabulous place to rear our children and our grandchildren. And we thank you for the leaders of our city, Lord, who are men and women of faith and want to make decisions, Lord, that will bless and honor you and also bless our city. Right now, I pray for the safety and protection of all of our city employees and those that sacrifice so diligently to make it possible for us to live here safely. I pray that you'll bless them and meet their needs. Lord, help them to seek your guidance in all they do personally and professionally. Lord, we do pray for the future of our city. I ask that you will grant this city your favor and that this will be a place that provides not only a beautiful place for us to live, but also a place where our children can grow up and learn convictions and values and how to be good citizens and give back to the community the blessings they have received. Right now, Lord, we ask your wisdom and grace upon the men and women here. We pray the decisions discussed and made tonight will be a blessing to our town and bring glory and honor to your name. We pray that your truth will be more important, Lord, than human applause. We confidently bring these requests to you because we're asking them in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

There are no presentations tonight, and there are no developments of note. And there's only one set of minutes for approval.

Miss Mayor Pro Tem, I move approval of the minutes.

Second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor?

Aye.

All those opposed by like sign? Okay, the minutes have passed. Looking at the sheet, I guess we have comments from the audience at this time. And we have one person, and his name is Tim Steards. if you would come forward and state your name and address.

Good evening. Tim Storch, 208 East Lake Howard Drive, Winter Haven.

OK. And you would like to speak on what item on the agenda or?

I don't know if it's, I don't think it's on the agenda.

OK. You can go ahead, and you have five minutes.

Excuse me, I'm nervous. This is hard for me to do. Anyway, I'm here tonight to talk about our roadways, which are meant to be used for traveling to get from one place to another. But now there are so many speed bumps on several of the routes from my home that I can no longer leisurely and peacefully drive to pretty much anywhere on the west side of Winter Haven. There are numerous speed bumps on 17th Street Northwest and the streets that feed into it and out of it from north and south. So to get to Avondale Boulevard from my home, I can use US 17 and deal with the congestion at Northgate and the mess at 17, the 17 Avondale Boulevard intersection. The next option is to drive out Avenue G really all the way to 34th Street. Most of my life, I could use 17th Street and come out from Avondale on 16th, 17th, 18th, or 19th Street. Actually, when I was younger, we drove to my father's business on Avondale using 23rd Street and Lake Cannon Drive from Avenue G, which was a beautiful drive, but that is no longer the case thanks to numerous speed bumps. Even on 26th Street, which is a through street, forgive me, I just closed my... I had to write down what I want to say because I'm not good at ad-libbing. Even on 26th, which is a through street from Avenue G to Avondale, and comes out at a traffic light, there are numerous speed bumps hindering passage. There have been two on South Lake Howard Drive. In all fairness, I will say those are not too bad. They're like, but there's been two on South Lake Howard Drive, still hindering access to large areas over in that direction. Now the most horrendous speed bump anywhere, anywhere has just been installed in the southwest corner of Lake Howard Drive in a curve where you have to slow down anyway. Every one of these speed bumps causes wear and tear damage to many systems of a car. For every one of them, you have to brake, causing wear and tear on the brakes, and then reaccelerate, causing wear and tear on the engine. They all cause wear, damage to the entire suspension system, and going over them is harmful to transmissions. Is this my time here? Yes. I assume they were installed to slow down drivers who speed excessively and drive recklessly. Once again, as so often happens, the chosen solution is to punish interminably the vast majority of us who are not causing any problems. To justify installing these obnoxious obstacles in our roadways. There must have been numerous deaths or at least serious injuries in all of these areas in which they've been installed. I don't know why else such drastic measures would have been taken. As I wrote this, it came to me that bicyclists may have been part of the consideration. The solution for that is more bike paths. Bicycling brings up the issue of all the motorized vehicles masquerading as bicycles, but that is not why I'm here. I'm here to ask that no more speed bumps be installed by the City of Winter Haven and further that serious consideration be given to removing most of the existing ones so that we can once again enjoy more of the beautiful streets in this beautiful city. Thank you.

City Manager, would you have any comments on that?

We will follow up with Mr. Stewart's and get his contact information. Follow up with him further.

Okay. There are no ordinance on it for second reading to review. And Commissioners, you have the consent agenda.

Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, I move approval of the consent agenda in its entirety.

Okay. Do we have anyone that would like to speak to any item within the consent agenda? Okay. If not, motion approved. for the consent agenda. Okay.

Madam Mayor, are you going to take a vote on that? Yes. Before you vote, I have a comment I'd like to make.

Okay.

I was not here for the agenda review. Unfortunately, I was out ill. But I did want to make a comment on item number 10I, the workforce housing agreement. I just want to thank Mr. Galt, he's here this evening, for bringing this project to us. This is a project we didn't go out seeking, but he brought it to us. It meets a need that we have greatly in this city for affordable housing. So I'm very pleased that we'll be voting on this tonight, and I also want to thank our staff for working with him on getting it to this point. So I look forward to voting for this.

Okay. I mean, should we take a vote? All those in favor?

Aye.

Okay. I guess now there's no new business. So now we would take the city commissioner's reports. And I'll start with Commissioner Davis.

All right. So it's been a little bit light for me. I actually am overcoming an illness that had me out for about nine days of the 14 since we last met. But during that time, I did manage to attend the CRA training that was put on here for the city. Really appreciate the efforts from our staff to do that. I learned quite a bit and just thought that was an excellent event. Had a good turnout from other cities in the area. And I also attended the grand opening for Publix down on Ruby Lake Drive. Third largest Publix in the company. That's pretty impressive. It's a beautiful facility. Yes. It has a nice upstairs dining area overlooking the entire store. You must check it out. I haven't had a chance to really shop there yet, but my parents did, and they said there were products there they'd never seen at any other Publix's, so very excited that we have that in our own backyard. And of course, it's always exciting to open another Publix in the hometown of Publix, where it all started. Then we also have, between now and our next meeting coming up, the Rockin' Freedom Fest. I'm looking forward to being there July 3rd to celebrate with our community. It's always fun every year, but this year should be extra special with and America's 250th anniversary. And finally, I just want to praise our staff. I've had a few constituent issues come up in the last few weeks, and our staff have been very responsive. I've gotten some good feedback from the constituents. So I just want to thank all of our staff for the hard work they do in serving our constituents. Thank you.

Commissioner Donaldson.

Good evening. It's good to be here tonight. I also had the opportunity to participate in the CRA board training as well. As stated by Commissioner Davis, it was, in fact, very informative. Had not had that kind of training before, so very helpful as an insight into just the do's and the don'ts and just the makeup of the CRAs. And hope to hopefully sit in again on something like that. Also had the opportunity to share with the Friendship Church. They had a community event and good crowd, a lot of information shared, opportunity to meet some of the people in the community. Pastor Salary is a dear friend. I've known him a long time. He's done a great job there at Friendship Church. Also attended the Governor's Press Conference here. I understand that it was the first that we've had at the PD. And I want to say to our police chief and staff, that's a good job. They're professional. In fact, I was impressed with, not that I haven't been before, but you did a great job. and certainly appreciate all the efforts. And it was, I think, a great opportunity for us to highlight what we can do here in Winter Haven when this new governor comes to town. Also, I was able to attend the Polk All States, excuse me, All Sports Hall of Fame banquet. And I'll tell you, it's a wonderful event. Just seeing a lot of people that I've known over the years, those who have just distinguished themselves. in the area of sports and just knowing those who have really poured into so many of our young people throughout our county, it's just wonderful to see that and see them celebrate it as well. Also attended the fifth annual Juneteenth celebration. And I will say to the committee, they did a great job, wonderful job in fact. It's the first time we have had it indoors. That was a blessing because it was hot outside. And so I think many people enjoy using the Recreational Cultural Center. The only thing is, I was thinking about us. I wish I had had my swim trunks when I went down there and dove in that swimming pool. That would have been a good end of a wonderful day. Happy belated Father's Day to any fathers in the house. We have a great celebration, and we thank God for all of the fathers. That's all I have.

Thank you. I attended some of the same events. I actually chaired the TPO meeting for the transportation disadvantage in Bartow. Also attended the Polk TPO meeting. I got to do something that I had never done before. I actually rode in a seaplane at Jack Brown's Sea Basin and landed when my summer youth kids were doing the tour. So that was sort of very special, and a tour of the Winter Haven Airport. Thoroughly enjoyed the seaplane ride. It was a great experience. piloted by the general, and you all know who the general is, Jake. It was really nice. The June team really, as Commissioner Dollison said, was inside, but I just was so impressed and pleased with the staff that was on hand at the work, that facility. I mean... They were cleaning up as we go. They didn't allow anything to be on the floor. I'm saying, man, oh, man, this is really great. But, again, it was a great event. And according to the ticker, there were over 1,000 people that came through the door, which is a tremendous turnout. So it was really nice. Thoroughly enjoyed it. I also attended that Publix grand opening. And I actually went up on the mezzanine. That's what they call it. They say it's the only one in Polk County, one of the few in Florida. So I was able to go up and look out. And they gave us the goodie bags. And so it was really good. It is a huge public. Then I also attended the 100 Black Women's Salute to Women that they had at the Bartow Civic Center and recognizing several women from the Polk County area. In fact, one of the members of the Board of Trustees over at the Lakeland Regional Hospital. So it was a good event. Finally, the gentleman that came talking about speed bumps, I have to say that's the first time since I've been on this commission that I've ever heard anybody come in and talk about removing the speed bumps. And that's just, I'm just saying what I've seen and what I've heard. Most times that people are coming in here talking about, we need to put more speed bumps on places that you can't put speed bumps. But I know that the staff will work with you and give you some type of satisfaction. So that's all I have.

Okay, and I attended a lot of the same events, some different ones, like you said, in Polk County All-Sports Awards and Hall of Fame. We have some very distinguished athletes and some very distinguished in all of those sports, and some children or kids that are following in their footsteps, so... I attended the Juneteenth at the Reparation and Culture Center. Also, I attended Governor DeSantis' press conference in which our chief did a very nice speech that he had prepared and had given. Also, I attended the Ridge League in Davenport, and I think that was about it. I did not make it to the Publix. Now I'll have to go see it. Okay. City Attorney.

Thank you, Madam Mayor Pro Tem. Commission, I have nothing this evening. Thank you.

And Deputy City Manager.

Good evening, Mayor and City Commissioners, Mayor Pro Tem and City Commissioners. So I just wanted to mention, you may have noticed that we've started getting some rain again. So the county has repealed the burn ban heading into the 4th of July holiday, so that's just good to have on the radar. And then I also wanted to extend appreciation to our staff, but also to the committee who helped to put Juneteenth on. That is a group of residents who have met throughout the course of the last year to plan that event. It is the first time. There were a lot of changes from how we've done it in the past. And their engagement really was critical to how that event came together. And it was just so cool to see that space activated for the community in the way it was this weekend. So that's all I have this evening. Thank you. Yes, sir, they will do a debrief, and I know one of the committee members who wasn't able to attend today sent some notes along for that, and the team will get together with the committee and kind of debrief so we can learn, especially, like I said, this was the first time in that space, so there will be a lot of debriefing, and I think there are a lot of lessons, talking with Scott over the weekend, that this is our first big event hosted in that space, so there are lessons we learned this weekend that we will start applying to every event that we host there. So just a really great event overall.

It was a great event, yeah. City Clerk? Nothing this evening. Thank you. There are no emergency matters received for the agenda. And with a motion.

So moved.

We will adjourn. We are adjourned.