good morning everyone and welcome to the Brad and city council meeting Wednesday February 28 at 8:30 a.m. at City Hall Chambers as we always do we'll start with a invocation and a pledge so if everyone would please stand and we'll ask councilwoman Jane Coker to give us our pledge please bow your heads Heavenly Father we come to you today asking for your guidance wisdom and support as we begin this meeting help us engage in meaningful discussion and allow us to nurture the bonds of community we seek blessings on the tasks before us bless our efforts with clear Insight Guided by understanding and wisdom we seek to serve and respect for all may our personal faiths give us strength to act honestly and well in all matters before us we ask this in your name amen amen please join all veterans in the audience to pledge to us I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you sorry the one all right I know um we're going to go ahead and call the meeting to order and I know there's there's one thing that we need to pull from the agenda before Mr Perry mayor we would be uh asking to withdraw the submission for approval of uh of the police um Union agreement that deals with the pension OB obligations as the council may know it was changed by the state legislature last year and it's the subject of a mandatory bargaining and so we need to do a little bit of spade work with our Union first all right so that is item 7B 7B all right so we will pull that all right thank you um moving forward Madame clerk we have a proclamation this morning which I'll read on behalf of the mayor Braden Castle Park 100th anniversary celebration day whereas Braden Castle Park will be celebrating their 100th anniversary and whereas Braden Castle Park was instrumental in the development of parks for seasonal visitors to Florida it provided a tourism mechanism for people to make extended visits to our area and whereas on March 7th 1924 the camping tourists of America secured the 34 acre Braden Castle property and began to repair the property as the permanent Campground for tenan tourists and whereas the park continues to be a refuge for seasonal tourists as well as a home for growing number of yearr round residents and whereas the ruins of the 1850 Plantation Home constructed by Joseph Braden referred to as Braden Castle is located near the North Center of the district in a park like setting available for public viewing and whereas raen Castle Park's man-made Lagoon provides a supportive feeding area for wood STS Brown Pelicans Ros at spoon bills egrets herens and ibises giving them a safe area to nest and feed without threat or harm and whereas in recognition of Braden Castle Park's many contributions to the history of Florida the United States Department of the inter interior National Park Service added the park to the National register of of historic places in 1983 and whereas Braden Castle Park continues to be an integral part of our community by helping to preserve the original character of the area and providing shelter for our citizens and our wild wildlife now therefore be resolved that IE Brown as mayor of the city of Brenson Florida do hereby Proclaim March 7th 2024 as Braden Castle Park 100th anniversary day in Bradenton and urge all citizens to congrat congratulate them for being a part of our friendly City signed Jean Brown mayor thank you you all want to come forward and anything you want to say and then we'll get a picture good morning and welcome good morning on behalf of the residents at Braden Castle Park we just want to thank you very much for recognizing uh this big accomplishment for us and we do believe an accomplishment for the city of Bradenton all right thank you do you have the Proclamation we'll get a picture I don't okay you've got it Mr Mayor if I please miss Barnaby um being that I grew up here was born here and grew up here I have to tell you that in the early 60s we would go to Braden castle and play on the castle so I'm not saying I'm the reason they put the fence up but I do remember it fondly and everyone there has always been so friendly and you are a significant part of our friendly city thank you thank you all right we want to go around and get a picture y CC members could come up front and the council could come here black50 you went to school here in 1950 wow okay Lisa oh Madame clerk we do not have any presentation scheduled today okay this time uh we'll have citizen comment and citizen comment will be accepted during the citizen comment portion of the meeting on any non-agenda item agenda item future agenda item or topic of relevance to the city comments will be accepted on the public hearings at the appropriate time so at this time I have two cards the first I have is Bill Sanders please come forward state your name and your city of residence and you'll have three minutes welcome uh here's my residence it's 2502 Riverside Drive you can see the um diesel pump in front of my house that's been there almost all year is there quite a bit last year it's spilled 500 gallons of raw sewage in front of my home just a few feet you can see the grassy area there and uh this spill occurred on February 6th just a couple days after Rodney Jones trial after I testified and in the report uh mayor after I I complained about this last meeting you attacked me and said that if things really occurred if things really happened if things really happened we would see pictures well sir here they are and I don't know why I have to prove to you that you can't believe this when you know you know you can drive down that City at and see it and we cut the trees down right after Rodney's uh trial here's one of them pretty healthy tree there was two these are Royal Palms those are one of the most expensive Palms you can get they weren't dead Miss Moore they weren't dead um and I can prove it if I have to but it seems like I have to prove everything but you guys have to prove nothing and I'm getting pretty fed up with that type of attitude toward our citizens that we have complaints you don't listen to them and you don't take care of it you know but you do take care of people that take care of you you said the EDC Mr Perry we didn't give him $300,000 no we didn't give him $300,000 we gave him $100,000 one year for another contract the next year and for another contract the next year of course they have to be approved any contract has to be approved you know if a contract is there uh one year and we approve it again for the next next year and they don't perform so what we we cancel it that's with that's the case with anything but to say that there wasn't there and you give it to uh the guy that ran against me and Mrs Moore for a job at EDC and he's also on the Planning Commission how do you explain that it was on a consent agenda this wasn't even discussed it wasn't in last year's budget and September September 30th the budget closes Mr Perry This you approved this couple week three weeks ago a month $100,000 went to EDC and he becomes the uh thank you sir next we have on the list Mike Mian please come forward you have three minutes and uh state your name and city of residence welcome thank you uh Mike me in uh Brandon Florida Manatee County um it was kind of a chance encounter I had with the mayor at the um Chamber of Commerce barbecue about six weeks ago and I was uh about to hand him or was trying to hand him some information about pollution in North Palm Sola Bay um he suggested rather that I U you know present it officially so that's why I'm here this morning is to prevent uh present this information officially on pollution in North palas Sola Bay I'll start with the bad news first um as you can see from the overhead other the results for February 19th um of inoi concentrations per 100 milliliters of water in North palas Sola Bay was 246 um the danger zone is 71 or higher so this is roughly four times the danger zone uh there was an article in The Islander maybe some of you saw it uh dated January 24th which uh showed um this same report for earlier time periods on January 8th um the concentration showed 364 cells um on December 26 it showed 379 cells and on December 18th it showed 1,112 cells of bacteria there was a little bit of a longer term study done in 2022 and U 2023 by Sun Coast water keep ERS and um it showed 63 uh samples collected during that time period um and the number of uh swimmable weeks was listed as 48 and uh it was assigned a grade of f in terms of the safety of the water to quote the report it said palmasola Causeway on the North End has more than one year of weekly samples recorded with results showing that half of the year it is not recommended to swim in the water when a water body is listed as poor swimmers and others planning to come in contact with the water must be cautious to prevent infections and F falling ill it is recommended that you stay informed about the condition of your favorite water access point and keep safe when you're on the Sun Coast all right thank you Mr Mian all right I have no other comments any Council comments anything all right thank you we'll move on Miss Madame clerk next is the consent agenda staff is asking for approval of items a through F chair will entertain a motion move to approve the consent agenda items a through F all right is there a second second all right I heard Miss Coker mayor I have had the opportunity to speak with all the counselors um we had a little bit with one of the counselors like um a little bit of a scheduling conflict come up but uh I have been able to cover um the consent agenda as you always do and there's a couple of issues that came up and we think we adequately addressed them and so I would profer it with approval from the city administrator thank you hearing no further discussion we'll start the vote in W five yes one yes two yes three yes and four yes carries 5 to zero thank you madam clerk the next item is item 7A ordinance 4033 second reading and public hearing an ordinance of the city of Bradenton Florida vacating a portion of a 16t east west alley as shown on the plat of go Gregory subdivision recorded in book one page 236 of the public records of Manatee County County Florida and more particularly described herein being generally located north of Manatee Avenue East and east of 22nd Street East providing for recordation in the official records providing for separability providing for repeal of ordinances and conflict and providing for an effective date okay and who do we have from the city this morning good morning good morning I'm not Gregory subdivision but I am Gregory Delong so um do a quick present a on this okay and thank you and good morning city council and thank you to Mrs Melton for reading the introduction this is a um ordinance 4033 it is to vacate a portion of an East West Alleyway that runs between 22nd Street East and 23rd Street East the purpose of this vacation is to accommodate the new Fire station number two so they can meet setbacks and Landscaping requirements here's just a quick case information about the area with the parcel ID number address um flood zone um currently that Alleyway is unimproved it's got a lot of gravel sand and grass um this is just vacating a southern portion of the 16t alley um so it's one half of it it's about 1,472 Square ft in size um as I mentioned is the purpose is to accommodate fire station number two and it's required setbacks um it is used as an East West Connector between 22nd Street and 23rd Street East um I mentioned the condition of the alleyway there is one property on the Alley that does have direct access onto the alley and that is 312 23rd Street East it does not appear that this vacation will affect um that access to their garage we did have a couple residents show up at Planning Commission that did mention um some qu or had some questions about this vacation but they are more accessing the North south portion of the alleyway not the E West portion um we never did hear from them after Planning Commission they were inquiring about maybe vacating their portion but we never heard back from them one of the things that they talked about was they didn't know what was going there yeah they just weren aware of fire unaware of the fire station was going there so that's something probably as soon as we can we want to get some sort of notification up on even driving by Future home of so that I think will help the neighborhood and everyone within 300 ft was notified so they understand why um here's a location map showing the portion of the alleyway to be vacated it is in the teal color the bluish color I did Circle where the house at 312 23rd Street East is and you can see um from the aerial there is an access um to the garage coming from the area that's not going to be vacated and here is a zoning map um the zoning is uccc and here's the future land news map which is also UCC here is the site survey map showing that it is just the southern portion of the the alleyway and here are some sight conditions that um from photos I took so basically the best way of looking at it is probably just go down to Center Line of this um grassy area and go to the right or to the South and that area will be the portion to be vacated so this is looking East from 22nd Street East again another photo kind of in that same general area um here is about halfway down the alleyway I was having a hard time trying to dep pick where what was going so um but the area to the West would be vacated the area to the East will be vacated the area to the North or will not be vacated the area to the north will not be vacated um here is looking West from 23rd Street East um there you can see where the car for the garage for 312 23rd Street East is at and as you can see they definitely drive on that a lot more than the other end um based on the condition and there being really no grass um remaining in that area and here's just another photo of that home and their access to their garage and here is the existing building UPS on the property at 2229 man Avenue East as part of the vacation process um it does refer to section 2.2.7 of the land use regulations there's some key points that need to be um um observed in that Pro process um is basically one of them is that the vacation will not be detrimental to public health safety Warfare or convenience um and that no public utilities will be affected uh City staff which did make the application for this did receive uh letters from all utility companies saying they have no utilities in the area and they did support the proposed alley vacation so staff did recommend approval of ordinance 4033 or case number RV 24-120 as submitted and then on February 21st um Planning Commission did meet that was a week ago today and they did recommend approval with a vote of 6 Z so do you have any questions for me okay no all right stff thank you very much we'll open the public hearing anyone wishing to speak anyone wishing to speak anyone wishing to speak hearing none we'll close the public hearing chair will entertain a motion I'll make a motion that we approve the ordinance 4033 as submitted today I'll second it okay Mr Moore second any further discussion or questions hearing none we'll start the vote and Ward one yes two yes three yes four yes five yes carries five to zero thank you very much Madame clerk we do not have anything listed under unfinished business on the agenda all right moving on to eight the administration Finance who's going to take that Mr Perry mayor before Council under item 8A is the request for uh budget adjustment approval ba 2407 um it is a kind of an omnimusic uh budget adjustment request and I want to explain a little bit about you a lot of times in budget adjustment requests we'll see increases in decreases and that was one of the questions that came up when I met with the council um this basically is taking funding out of the utility um water water reserves funds that we have and paying for some current needs that we have that I'll explain in just a minute but you'll see there's no no decrease because we are not taking it out of a already approved budget item basically um we're taking it out of the reserve account which will be done through the accounting process and then we are putting it into uh I believe four different budget funds and that's the technical kind of background of what's before Council the substantive background of what's before Council and Miss clayback is here um from Public Works um engineering to to address it is a variety of different items and there was attached to the memo I believe an email that kind of spells out a little bit of the background on those items uh one of the the major items basically is for some projects we're doing and and I think it's two of them are at the Water Reclamation facility um one of the projects involves improvements to the water treatment capacity we have that comes in and there's a series of of of aged problems over there that deal with filtration and some obligations we have under uh D permits and water Keepers lawsuits and things like that nitrogen levels are slightly you know they're high over there and we're we're trying to examine exactly why and there's a series of uh uh different components of the water treatment that needs to be addressed there are things called wear Gates there's filters there's sludge at the bottom that has to be removed in the lake and it's a fairly significant undertaking to do do those to do those methanol feed system the filter system itself and what's called an oxident ditch wear gate that I spoke about and that's for a total of 480,000 um there's also under the budget adjustment request uh 700,000 for emergency sanitary sore improvements that's a series of sanitary sores that were aged related to Clay pipes and other problems one of them involve fairly sizable uh line gravity line out on 59 Street where there was a failure I've spoken with a few of you in advisement of that and uh so it's a series of both water of treatment collection improvements that have to be made that's what the reserve fund is for among other things and uh we need to kind of get on it pretty quick because of our obligations and the environmental challenges and uh service issues related to it I know Mr Perry you know we're talking specific here but maybe at some point even today if you could give us a little bit of an update on some other issues we're having around the city that are kind of from a deferred maintenance standpoint that we're working not let not only legislatively trying to get some funding while other ways we're doing things because I know sometimes people think that we just sit here and we don't care if there's a a pump somewhere right but we do care and we are trying to figure those out but a 100-year old pump you know we we didn't create the problem we're just having to deal with the problem now so I think that's something that I think the citizens would like to hear maybe not as much today but as we go forward we'll have some things well overall you're absolutely right and I think you know I give credit to Public Works and miss clayback and the technical team over there because um they're not bearing their head in the sand and and uh we had been planning on you know we recognized for a while that there's aged infrastructure clay pipes that are well over 50 years old um different types of collection systems and list stations that are aged and uh we use a variety of funding sources and attempt to strategically address that some of it is putting out fires as they come up some of it is proactively fixing what we know is defective and aged and so it's a fairly um uh broad strategic approach that we will continue and and when I say continue we can't fix in 20 weeks what took probably 50 plus years in some cases 100 to repair and it's not a novel problem to theity city of Bradenton but if you go up to the Villages they probably don't have this problem because all their infrastructure is new and and and other places in town ours has clay pipe ours has all kinds of different Age Technology um some of the adjustments on our water treatment you have to go out in the rain and adjust flows and and feeds that relate to reaching certain chemical levels in the water that's not an ideal situation and technology in and of itself could be used an electronic uh uh components and switch gear and things like that so Kim you know I mean she wears a lot of hats as many of you know and uh she's got a lot of responsibility an awful lot of responsibility in a lot of different technical areas of expertise and uh we are trying to deal with the bandwidth for that technical expertise to have Personnel that can handle it to try to find funding that can handle it and then try to find construction availability and best methods and and and and processes to to to do whether we do it or contractors and the like and we put that into priorities of course you know we go to our state legislature as well as other funding sources and we've done quite well I mean I think we're on order of about $12 million in the last couple of years um you know list stations we've received millions of dollars for list station improvements um uh sanitary sore relining um we dealt with srf as it relates to debt issuance a fairly cheap money to replace it and the good news is if you put take off the the work boot boots and you put your uh your accountant and and finance tie on so to speak um we're well postured we have funds to do a lot of this it's a very Monumental significant financial undertaking but we do have um resources available to continue to do this but you might have all the money in the world if you don't have the technical expertise and the bandwidth to do it if you don't have contractors that you know you have processes and procedures to utilize effectively efficiently and economically there a lot that goes into it but but I can tell you that I think everybody in the administration at Public Works and here in leadership realizes that we need to embark on this to continue to improve um our economical um reliable and resilient infrastructure of water source being pable and sanitary sore and storm water under and it's all heavily regulated and I think one of the important things for our citizens to know is we saw today where we're having a 100-year celebration of a neighborhood and it's a great thing to celebrate you know when Braden Castle started kind of came into it really brought in kind of that lead to a city that can do great things but you know if you go in other neighborhoods that are a little bit newer they may not be having the same problems as that neighborhood because of the age so I just think you know one of the things that was important to all of us up here is how we structurally and strategically do that and if you don't start working on a plan it's never going to happen and you know again some of the Deferred maintenance that was the past we don't didn't control but we now are trying to go forward and I think one of the biggest things is that's showing now is the lobbyist that we're taking care of that some criticized now has come back gosh 20-fold from what we've spent and you know again we're asking for more we're getting more um we're hoping that legislatively this season we'll get what's in there but you know how that goes sometimes it's the the legislative process and you don't get everything you want but you're going to get as much and then continue that process and then obviously if you've done any construction you know you can't say okay we got the money start tomorrow it takes some time and that's that's what we're dealing with now in some of these these issues God speed to Mr Braden um and out of A's point I imagine that he never contemplated uh some of these issues you know over well over 100 years ago uh that we have and some of the oldest infrastructure we have is out there by A's Point Miss Coker yeah didn't have my car but I did shake my pen um I had I had a little question um you mentioned about high nutrient loads where you talking about at the water treatment plant or somewhere else at the water treatment plant okay cuz I I just because of other stuff um and I just wanted to kind of make a comment other that's kind of contrary to what some people are putting out there I know since I started on Council and just coming out of covid and you beginning that that the replacement and the addressing the Deferred maintenance has been Priority One almost for um all of the leaders up here and um uh I know it's it's not it took a hundred years to get us to here it's going to take us a little while to get it all repaired so I just wanted to kind of put that out there to kind of it's a good point you know it's funny if you look at The Debt Service of this city too I mean it has been challenge for literally a hundred years and and there were some big chunks of of of issuance even back to the 1940s to address a lot of this it's always a challenge in any local government and uh we put a lot of money into that we have a lot of bonds and and other um uh srf type funding for water treatment but but you're always trying to you know catch up and keep up that's the name of the game yeah we need that magic checkbook that they've been talking about in these visioning yeah vice mayor Barnaby thank you Mr Mayor it is interesting when we talk about this because I have a letter that my grandfather wrote to the citizen of Brenton when he was running for City Council in the 1940s and they talked about how difficult it was to be able to get tires for the two police cars and that sort of thing that everything was rationed and here we come out of the pandemic and I had a situation in my ward where we did have one of those pumps there for like 5 months because we could not get the part that was necessary to fix the lift station so it's it seems like the more things change the more they stay the same I also know that when we did some uh work the very first time we did some work on Old Main Street and we dug up the street we found wooden water pipes that's how old the the infrastructure was there and I know in my neighborhood we have cast iron pipes so there's times that that our water looks like a little funny color and we have to take care of that um but how are we doing have we kind of gotten to the point where now if if we need a part we can get it rather than are are we back logged still with some of these these items you know in today's Digital World um whether you're building cars or building water processing facilities what's called digital switch gear is is all backlog and that's part of a residual problem that deal with microprocessors and chips and things like that um and it's a international shortage um when we we build some of our major construction projects that have um complex switch gear we pre-advanced by that switch gear um and it's really important to try to get it because the back order on that is anywhere from 6 months to a year and a half uh but but so a fire trucks you know we we have one we're waiting on right now a platform that had a three-year build on it and you know I'm not an expert in any way on economics uh as it relates to uh uh available ability of Supply but those are well beyond our ability to influence or effect you know we're Market buyers and consumers councilman Moore um I just wanted to highlight that we know what we need we know that we need to uh reorganize our public works department and we know that we need to do some strategic planning after we have done that um so that's not new and that's not news but uh what we are doing um encourage enes me staff Administration has been very communicative and focusing a lot of time and attention on both of those things making them happen um I I think that the lobbyist has done a great job of State um acquiring State funds and I'm excited to see them being applied for those specific needs and I was going to wait until my public comment to introduce um Alana Todd who is um an environmental planner with uh the Tampa Bay Regional planning Council um she is our liaison with that organization and I want to encourage um Administration I'm going to introduce her to specific um staff after the meeting but um I want to encourage staff and administration to utilize her because that's a part of the benefit of being a member of that organization and she's working on coalitions to obtain Federal funding of which right now there is much for this exact issue um and so I just want to make sure that we're clear we're aware that there's funds outside of this Reserve we're using this Reserve because we have to uh and there the problem needs to be solved um we cannot let that particular uh situation go un you know unchecked at this time um but that there are more available funds on a state and federal level and we are actively pursuing them so can that be a motion to approve yes J Mrs Mo before we get to the formality of that you I'd be remiss if I didn't kind of highlight the folks that are literally um digging and pumping and uh doing all the work in the trenches when I go out there there's folks Nate Billy and his crew um in the various divisions of Public Works that you guys all don't see and they're out there after hours in Boots they're in very dirty conditions handling heavy equipment in difficult environments and uh it's somewhat inspiring for me to go out there as I did on 59th Street and see Laticia and her teams out there and Kim had just left and the the equipment's coming in and you know when there's a problem we they address it and and I think we all should be very proud and appreciative of the great work that they do out there in the field okay thank you Mr Perry so we have a a motion by Mrs Moore for Budget adjustment ba24 -07 and a second by Mrs Coker any other discussion all right hearing none we'll start the vote in ward two yes three yes four yes five yes one yes approved five to zero thank you Madame clerk there is nothing on the agenda under unfinished business so Council reports would be next all right we'll start Council W five I had a feeling well it seems like the topic of today is speaking of things that are old in the city of brington and just last evening um uh as a you know we attended the uh Vision um meeting at uh 13th half looking at that map of the city of Bradon and seeing where that old area is Mrs Moore and I probably get the most calls about things that have eroded or things that were done in a certain way in the past and wow how do we untwist or how we somehow smooth this out uh 30 years 40 years later it's hard and at some point almost impossible but government moves slowly but one thing the citizens can be reassured of is that this Council up here and the hundreds of employees of the city are working as hard as we possibly can to rectify these old problems and some are new uh and but we're really really working hard and that brings to what I was going to talk about during my Council comments uh there's some great things happening in war five I've had some people uh text me and call me and say they were happy that the potholes the little potholes that would be created all over the city because of rain they were happy that they have been uh filled I was happy to there was one right near my house and I'd hit it all the time um and then I even had some that we're uh excited about recently smoothing out Ninth Street you know I've even got uh comments about that but they do say the manholes are improperly placed that's being worked on as far of the project yeah that was on my list here yeah and and and they are absolutely right but again we're not ignorant of it we're cognizant of it and it's going to be rectified as soon as possible some of the other things that in my old part of the city uh we have some parks uh two parks that are the equipment is old it definitely needs uh some work and unfortunately because of the times there are homeless people that decide that the park is a perfect place to be and I've had some calls and even BPD has had to to feel some calls as as well but it will be done it will be done and uh it's not easy for people who live around the park and they smell the urine and they smell the smells uh or they sometimes get into arguments with um the the in the inhabitants um we are working at it we are definitely working at it some of the other issues that I have been um has been brought back to my attention is some of the land uh the plots of land and how they were cut up and divied up back in the day and here now there are problems that citizens are facing and their problems that legally it's a mess it's an absolute mess but just letting the public know that we are working on that and after the meeting I hope that I um can meet with and I'm sure I can meet with Mr Perry and um our attorney and and the mayor and and help figure out how we can um what should I say review again a situation and see what hint of something we could possibly do but we'll meet about that afterwards um I I I I I don't want to just end on on the negative uh War five is definitely alive uh the city of brington is growing and with all the problems that bring that brings we're doing our best to make it better and make the friendly City truly the friendly City all 14 square miles of it thank you and just one one comment to the paving on Ninth if you know notice and the residents notice it went all the way pretty much close to the old mall and there's some areas that were fixed and that was I want to thank our staff for working with the county because we only go up to a certain area and one of the things that always frustrated me driving around town as you see a beautiful paved Road and all of a sudden it just stops and the rest of the road is still what it was and we did a great job working with the county in collaboration to get the whole road to where it's smooth all the way around we know of the the manholes and it's probably the most manholes I've ever seen in a short stretch that you know normally you have one and then another one but there's like seven or eight within 10 feet of each other it seems like it's a little factious but but that is something that that is being addressed and was addressed on Friday as soon as they got done and you know so it wasn't something that was missed it was just it's a the process and unfortunately do you want it open or do you want it closed and we need it open for our our traffic so thank you Mrs Coachman Mrs Coker yes thank you this is really I know the most wonderful time of the year is Christmas but this is a wonderful time of the year um having spring training here is always exciting um the weather's great the people that come in the fans are wonderful and I just want to give a shout out to the Pirates and thank them for all they do for the city of brington they're a great partner for us and uh and I've been enjoying uh I did enjoy a game the other day so go bucks um also wanted to um thank we've had a few opportunities several of the um homeowners associations are having their annual meetings and thank the mayor for coming and uh we've gone and met with the residents I mean it's all about hearing directly from them um so I'd like to thank uh give a shout out to the Point West neighborhood we just uh attended theirs and also we went to three or four Village Green different sections have different meetings so um I want to thank them for the opportunity and uh I'm I'm really looking forward to the results from our visioning meetings we've had two already I would encourage anybody that hasn't attended to please try to attend one of the meetings or at the very least go and take the service we have to hear from you um it's it's really been great hearing directly from them and I feel like this gives us um a great opportunity to kind of counteract some of the misinformation and misdirection that gets put out there in various ways um I last Friday attended the the uh saraset bay Estuary board meeting on y'all's behalf and uh I wanted to kind of and it kind of Falls in that's why I didn't comment during the the public section but but um there was um a report given that talked about um first off palas Sola Bay and Upper saseta Bay were not considered impaired for nutrients um in 2023 now not only is that considered not impaired but all of saseta bay is no longer impaired um there were they feel that um the the steps that we've been taking they're seeing increased sea grasses um and and uh you know it's all about not having the red tide the red tie was the big problem um they didn't have the results from Piney Point that they thought they would um but obviously all the steps that we as cities and it's not just us it's the city of Sarasota it's the county all of that it's all the work that we're doing with Advanced water treatment plants our storm water management all of that is having an effect and we're going in the right direction so um I realize that that we have other things that are being told to us but the EPA is telling us that that there it's not impaired for nutrients um so I just wanted to I can send the entire report to you um so you can review it but um I just wanted to pass it along from our meeting and that's it all right thank you vice mayor Barnaby well continuing on that um Miss koku do you think it'd be possible that we could get maybe Dr Tasco here on a quarterly basis basis to let us know how things are going so that we can get this the again different people may do different tests and come up with different criteria but if if the EPA and the saseta Estuary program are are pleased with what's happening I think that information needs to come out and if if he would consider coming up on a quarterly basis to share with us I would appreciate that I don't I don't mean to speak for the rest of the council but I I think think uh I think he would I mean I it's timing would be great to ask okay so uh anyhow yeah that that was one of the things that that I had uh also let me run through a bunch of things here um I enjoyed meeting at the 13th Avenue Community Center Dream Center last night with the residents that were there and then the next visioning meeting will happen at Trinity United Methodist Church 3,200 it Avenue West at 6: p.m. so on Thursday so we would love to have people there and I've just got a long list hang on just a moment let me something too well go ahead because this this way I can okay good okay uh sorry um I also wanted to mention the family Festival that Kanas is going to be doing it's going to be over there at the performing artart center in the parking lot out front and it's going to be uh family fun activities all day they're going to have raffle prizes they're going to be raffling off bicycles um medical free medical dental and eye exams for children uh good food all day so um it'll be a nice family fun event that the um it's actually the Kanas Club of bate river which is a new kind of um we're sponsoring the new club um so but The Branding quanus will be involved as well so I would encourage when is it it's uh March the 9th from 10: to 2 thank you busy time yes this is a busy time of the year uh also on Thursday evening there is going to be going there there we'll be having an additional retirement party for Adele Arosa she is actually retiring again for those of you that know her know that she was one of the driving forces with turning points and then she became uh the director of the bishop foundation so that will be happening at uh 5:00 at the manatee Community Foundation if if you would like to send her a card you can send it to the Community Foundation we appreciate all of her hard work lestock and children is having an event Friday night it is a murder mystery and it is uh 1920s costume murder mystery so if you're interested get with Tak stck and children uh also on uh and Mr may you may be talking about this the mo is doing an event at Motorworks on March the 2nd from 1 until 3 um you may have more information about that and I but I just wanted to make sure that we get that information out uh Lewis Park we're going to do the grand opening of our uh playground that is designated and set up for all children whatever their particular needs may be and that will be happening on March the 4th Noah's Ark day get it mhm Noah told the animals to oh come on work with me People March 4th March 4th and and I'm going to say is some of y'all need to read your Bible um let's not that's that's at 1:00 in the afternoon at uh Lewis Park and the manatee Garden Club is going to be opening their facility for us so that we can have some refreshments and and uh show off uh the Garden Club uh facility that is there I think that is everything except for I do want to extend my deepest sympathies to the family of Steve Cox with Cox Chevrolet he was a gentleman that was here in town quite a leader did a lot for our community and their family has been here for years and has done a lot for our community so I just wanted to express my deepest sympathies and condolences to the family of Steve Cox thank you Council MC Kramer thank you sir um I will scratch off the Speak Easy of events to talk about um as everyone's saying there's a lot to do this time of year from the Pirates um to other going to the beach spring breaks coming up um but there's also opportunities to help organizations uh for example Saturday March 2nd at the Braden Women's Club from 10:00 a.m. to 1 the wine women and wardrobes event is happening it's a annual fundraiser for them and Saturday March 2nd in the evening if you're not busy uh Rock the MAC at St Stevens it'll be a tribute concert by the tribute bands Amanda for Boston I know that's near and dear to Mr Perry's heart and uh Brigade who's a tribute ban for heart uh it's a family-friendly event uh tickets are available at Rock themac.com but familyfriendly no smoking no alcohol uh sort of festival type c out on the the field all are welcome that's it thank you councilman Moore um I'm going to circle back to councilwoman uh Coachman's note about history seeming to be a theme um starting with bra Castle's celebration um and the thing about history for me is that uh I always strive to learn more about it and to share it with others um some of it I think we can all agree is um to be celebrated and sometimes history is to be learned from um so I think that is uh you know I I like it when we see that we're you know celebrating some parts and learning from other parts and keeping it U for foremost in our minds um I'm trying to like make my comments kind of relate to each other the visioning meetings to date have been wonderful I've really enjoyed the the conversation and I think it speaks to um the willingness of residents to become involved in their city and in the management of it and I think that that is admirable I think it's admirable when someone takes the time to show up at meetings and express themselves and participate um and I think that that extends all the way to even running for city council um I think it shows dedication to contributing to your Society in the best way that you possibly can um on that note to Braden castle one of the residents of Braden Castle I just want to extend my appreciation he knows who he is for taking the initiative to help clean up and move the garbage uh working with Public Works to move the garbage that a homelessness Camp um adjacent to Braden Castle um it was extensive and it was a it was quite a bit of uh material that had to be bagged and put on the street and so I commend him but I also commend Brian Cho and his team because they worked very hard and they worked very um this gentleman uh braen Castle resident expressed to me how appreciative he was of the staff um I think about 75% has been collected already and uh I I understand that the the remainder of it is going to be collected now that it's in an appropriate spot for staff to be able to pick it up um so that it to me is just an example of uh residents taking initiative and working with staff and working with us to make um positive improvements to our community um looping back to the visioning I think that and I'll just end with this one of the things I found notable yesterday was and I think it it was actually in both meetings that when when folks are asked what do you like best about the city it's not a tangible thing that I think that we're hearing over and over again it's more of an identity um it's more of an ownership of our of our place um and I think that that's the important thing to focus on you know we are Bradenton and I'm excited to continue to encourage people to be engaged in the process and just generally with the management of their city and I'm looking forward to the next meeting I cannot make the Thursday one but I'll be there on Friday and the Friday one is at the manatee Performing Arts Center at 6 pm thank you good thank you um yeah and I think one of the things that's good to hear because if if they're already engaged in the visioning or they they do a little bit more in the city that you look at you know that so they kind of know things a little bit and and it you know everyone has a right to be here anytime they want they have a right to call us any time they want and and as we know when you look at overall most times citizens don't get involved until it directly relates to them somehow whether it's their business whether it's their house whether something's changing around them or whether something's broke so this gives an opportunity and and what's been exciting about those so far is is that people have actually said we need to know more we want to know more unfortunately with the way that the newspapers in this world have gone you know if if we had a 100,000 newspapers going out every day and they were putting stuff on it people would know social media hits more people but it doesn't hit them in the way that a top fold of a newspaper would hit them that's sitting anywhere you walk so I think if people would get the inform that we're doing and oh you're already doing that oh you're already doing that yeah we're doing some of that but now we're trying to get it out there so I think it's a great thing to to Contin continue that process and then we're going to come up with a plan and we're going to move forward and everybody you know what might not like exactly but they're going to know that we've put it out there um so obviously talked about the Pirates and the the thing is I just want to remind everybody that check your calendars when there's a pirates game if you're going home at 4:00 be patient especially downtown because with all the construction going on with different things you know it does delay things a little bit but but you know we're working on don't block the Box don't turn from the center lane the biggest complaint I've got lately is people coming down the center lane of Sixth Avenue and then turning on to ninth so they don't have to wait in the lane so you know that's being addressed and unfortunately if you do it there's a consequence you know because that's breaking the law um there there obviously the rata you know we talked a little bit about but um the rata was a great success with all the events going everywhere in Manatee Sarasota Hillsboro County there was events Galore that weekend but I just want to thank again our Public Works our sanitation police fire every person in Manatee County that because that takes a huge effort to do that all year long long and it's such a great staple for the the community um and I think and next year it's already been moved back to the week before because of the what what changed it this year was the Super Bowl was a week later so um you know we talked with the seafood Fest their numbers were down they had to cancel on Sunday because of the weather so that's kind of unrelated to to things I think it would have been a huge day for them on Sunday because I think a lot of the people that went to the Riata would have went but but talking with Karen Bell and that and there so it'll be the normal weekend for us next year so it's hopefully we're about the only thing there was even nighttime events we had to miss that we would have been at you know um that people just didn't realize so um that was obviously great um I'd like to ask Ross to come up if he can he's thinking oh crap what's going on here so so that was what's that drum oh okay um one of the things that that I know Ross has a lot to do with it at the beginning of it and over the years and they're not here today but the river Walkers obviously they've done so much for us and uh we got a great report last night in the emails that came out um Two Gentlemen you know and they just have started doing it over the 12 years ago I think it was and you know they're in their 80s now and one goes away for the summer one's here and when they get back I think we want to do a little bit more for them but but one of the things that that he did say in his kind of year end before Sam goes to North Carolina is that that uh he's seen the difference and you know it's it's not only from their part from others parts from our staff's part from this Council and my office you know being a little bit more hard on you and I want to say it's not hard on you to in a bad way it's a way that that we have an image in our city and and a lot of us us don't see things but you know behind the scenes what's happening but we know it's happening and I just wanted to to thank you and I mean even with the homeless and you know the police department everybody's working as a team keeping it up and I just wanted to to thank you and I know there's a lot of things that you bounce around on and and we have to adjust every day and and but you know just through the whole crew you know and you're kind of the one here and obviously we know what Brian Cho does every day trying to keep things going and through that department but it's a Cooperative effort and it's uh job security I always tell my guys it'll be there tomorrow we're we'll never run out of work so we appreciate and I just want to to bring you up and thank you so you can pass on to them absolutely and I think that's one of the reasons you know we went to the the celebration of the 5 10 15 this year was a five and up next year will be the normal criteria anybody over probably I don't know 35 is going to get it every year because if you're here more than 35 years you should get a raw year I haven't been here for 35 I don't think I'm going to make 35 but it feels like 35 thank you very much I wanted to thank you on that and then I do have and so take off that hat and put on your arborist hat um because there's been a couple of areas that we have cut some trees down along Riverview Boulevard and Riverside Drive East right and I just want you to kind of explain why those trees have been cut down and at you know because when you look at them they do look healthier or they do look at points and I and I know there's something that that we have we're a tree City and we could probably go back and plant some trees but it might not be as prudent to do that for a couple of reasons you not only the landscape of what's there as well as some residents don't like to lose their view even though the trees aren't that blocking but you know it would have to be a collaborative effort if we did that right right so we've had we we we've had some Palm removal um I think part of the is issue was we you know we we were in a severe drought Southwest Florida was in a severe drought last summer is that better okay so there was stressors in the landscape throughout the landscape so that you know that's uh an outlying cause or it could be you know a factor in in losing trees um there's any number of fungal diseases uh and viruses that affect Palms so they're always floating around and then when the trees are stressed they're just that much more susceptible to uh those you know uh those diseases and those viruses and the goal is is to make sure that we don't have a tree fall at the wrong time exactly and palms palms are actually closely related to grasses so once you lose that that main spear or that Center bud it's it's gone the it may be a little bit green but as it's declining it's basically on its way out so in regards to replacement um typically we rent a stump grinder next month March and actually a couple days we call in utility locates we go out we grind all the stumps of the trees that we removed during the course of the year and then we do have tree fund money that we can use to go in and replant so and we've done that again when you're doing that there is no collaboration between one thing or the other it's just what's happening with the tree at that moment right and yeah and if it's a hazard we we take prioritize it right so Hazard speaking of Hazard Lewis Park we have two large dead slashpine trees on the western uh side of the park that I noticed um Monday while I was inspecting the park for the for the grand opening so I've got a contractor that's going to come in and take those out cuz they're definitely a hazard so good but it's just two two for now and you know some of the construction activities that take place on these sites can disturb the trees as well pine trees are very sensitive uh to that and there's been a lot of construction activity not just at the park but in the S you know particularly to the north right Lewis Park exactly exactly the Fogerty home was saved and has been re reconstructed refurbished lifted up so it's um hopefully will not be affected if there's a flooding issue and then there is a new home going in right that area too and and that can have an effect on the Tre they can you know hopefully there's enough distance between the park and those activities um but even the sidewalk uh activity that took place in Lewis Park could have had an effect um I'm working with a contractor actually uh we're set we're scheduling uh Royal Palm injection injections for Riverwalk they inject a Fungicide and insecticide and we do I do that on an annual basis so that's kind of a preventative because the Hurricanes the droughts all those things are stressors for those trees so all right I appreciate it thank you please pass along thank you to every I will thank you all right well that's that's all I have um Mr Perry anything further no sir just I wanted to comment a little bit on drasco and uh and the report I actually have the report and and I'd also like to um commend councilwoman coper for serving on the the SR board she's very active on it and she engages me at a high level when I'm not trying to do infrastructure rid of construction Personnel matters Finance or anything else um we talk about important things like this but but if you have a chance to review that report it really shows some excellent data on the um on the revitalization of the palmasola bay in particular and you can look at a lot of the curves as it relates to the nutrient loads and the uh the uh designations and the improvements that are made there I mean it's probably one of the most improved um bays in the entire Estuary when you look at it and everything and so we're and to councilwoman Barnaby's question I think we it'd be a good idea to get Dr Tomaso to come in and give more regular updates it's a good news story that's being told and it's not good news just because we're not doing anything it's good news because a lot is being done and there's a lot more to be done that we're going to continue to do um we are looking at probably increasing our participation with the Sarasota Estuary um in the future as well and that would be a budget item for next budget cycle and it's fairly minimal when compared to some of the other participants of the County Sarasota County city of Sarasota Swift Mud and everybody else but I'll be briefing you on that and I think you'll probably be hearing a little bit more about the good news as we move forward so some people come in and they provide certain data and and and say one story and you know other folks um that we rely on and have to rely on um as Authorities on the subject um I I I like their reports they're they're very empirical that's it all right M Moore did you want to ask her to come up just so we could say hi to her sure be great do you mind hello hello hello hi my name is Alana Todd I am the principal environmental planner at the Tampa Bay Regional planning Council you all brenon is a a member and uh we just began a new government liaison program so I am your liaison as well as pelis and in the city of denan and so um you know we're here as a a service to you we provide technical assistance and convene all of our local loal governments you know for those big Regional issues like the environment and economic development resiliency and so um I'm looking forward to attending more of your meetings and if there's anything that you think I should I should be present at you know feel free to reach out to me and I just um want to commend uh councilwoman Moore and and her service on our Council and I look forward to getting to know all of you and and being of service to your city thank you welcome thank you may I would it would it be would it be appropriate for you to as an as by way of example the one that you're just working on now that is the the Coalition um the the really big one oh the the grant we justly yes just as an example of some of the things that they're doing when they when I when I say Coalition and getting Regional uh municipalities together to work on Grant and funding yeah so um actually just last week we put in a big Grant application to Noah for their Coastal Regional Coastal resilience challenge um we asked for 2 million to develop a uh Coastal master plan over four years and so Louisiana has a coastal master plan for their entire State and that we've used that as a model for something we want to develop here so essentially over the four years it would take a lot of stakeholder engagement and um we would be doing some comprehensive flood modeling for the entire region um and so that would be for the first time ever really comprehensive seeing how the different flood drivers interact like sea level rise and rainfall and Surge and and and so through that identifying where those flood risk areas are and then we'd be trying to identify um potential flood mitigation projects and so those would be structural and non-structural and and then also using nature-based um Concepts ideally and so um that would be something we replicate every you know five or six years and so we put in that Grant application and it'd be an entire Regional sort of plan and and we're looking at other funding sources is to support that so hopefully we we get that started and our resilience Coalition actually voted last week to um have us continue working on that and finding other other funding sources so it's going to happen regardless and and Bradington would absolutely be included in that so do you you do you work with the estuaries the Tampa Bay and the Sarasota because obviously that falls right into everything they're doing and the collaboration you know and how some of the outcomes because of all of that so has that been a process yet yes absolutely yeah we um are members of the Tampa Bay as program they're they're board and um we also one of our committees that we have is our agent samb Bay management and so that was it was the first management entity for Tampa Bay and actually um in a few weeks we're going to be voting to expand the boundaries of our agency I Bay management to include our entire region so that would go down to um include Manatee County as well and so hopefully we could get someone from Bradon to serve on on that as well but yes we work very closely with both Tamp the Tampa B program and the Sarasota B program especially during that red tide event because we're kind of stuck in between we got both both yeah yes we get both so all right well thank you nice meeting you and congratulations and good luck thank you thank you all right any other department heads Miss singer takes me a minute um thank you all for attending the visioning events and uh for promoting those and uh I really appreciate your support in that uh we're looking for input from people of all ages and all uh areas of the city to come and give some input and as you said there's two more meetings this week and that's going to be followed up with the online survey which is already available online uh if you go go to the city's website there is a link there to get to the the website for uh the survey and that survey may be modified some once we finish these public meetings because there may be more questions that they want to ask so uh please keep returning to that web page and and taking a look at what we uh have what we're putting out there uh also today I wanted to introduce Monaco fidell who is our newest uh planner member of our planning uh division um and she comes to us from California uh moved here to near family um so we're very happy to have her she's working really hard she made some presentations at planning uh commission last week and uh she's doing a great job so we're very happy to have her here so and then you may see some new faces also at our building counter um and everything seems to be working out well people seem to be happy to be here and as new employees of the city and uh so stop by and say hello whenever you feel inclined okay thank you thank you and I have the opportunity to look at watch Monica with Mary actually at the planning Council give some of those presentations and I meant to grab you off which to say I would have never known that you didn't like public speaking because you were pretty good yeah we appreciate it so we're trying to we're trying to Bone up in a lot of areas and Monica will help us over there in the planning department for sure as well as that counter staff appreciate you and your leadership team over there miss Karen could you come forward it can you just give us a little bit of an update on emails that might have came this weekend from me that weren't from me so just kind I don't want to go into too deep but just kind of remind everybody what to do and how to do please be very cautious when you look at an email it might look like it's from the mayor but if you look at the actual name attached to it not just mayor Jean Brown but the URL that's attached to his email it shows that it's not from him um there's nothing we can do to stop that you know that's out in the wild and and all we can do is is educate and please don't click on it if you'd like to report if you get them to us so that we can block them from other people internally but it's also you know people that are out there in the um in the in the city that might get them too so I just wanted to kind of say that you know look at the you know we obviously say look at all the whatever the lines are and if it's got funky letters or upside down different things it's it's not a corre thing so we just want to make sure that nobody does anything or sends any money and the big the big takeway is do not open it is that correct do not click that's how the malware could Mig don't F forward how do we let you know and who do we go to I took a screenshot of it that's the best way to do it and send it to Rob yeah that's I mean that's fine to do it if you want to just send us a subject line we can look it up that way internally but yeah that that works definitely for us and on the weekends is it do you have different people on call or should we just always go to you or should we always go to rob you can I mean whatever he prefers but yeah you can send it directly if you send it to the help desk we're looking at that all the time yeah we can send it to me I'd probably just forward a text to these guys and say take a look at their email yes okay we can also tag it as a fish alert correct that too yes depend if you're on your phone it might not work you know I don't know how you guys will check your mail everybody that's a little differental work we'll talk later I I'll have recommend it help you yeah and anybody that knows the mirror knows that he doesn't really send that's not happening come from any of you potentially I know he much prefers to talk to people face to face or on the phone all right thank you I appreciate that everybody else thinking are they G to call me up R Ross left ran off all right anything else any Department heads all right well we'll be adjourned I appreciate it