for all right thank you we will call to order the February 22 regular Town council meeting having invation pled alleg ofing meeting let's move to item mayor Foley here vice mayor Carell here council member aler here council member Smith here let the record show all members of present with the exception of council member alary right we have a is there a motion I'm sorry any comments or requests to reorder the agenda Le from the agenda any emergency add to agenda there being none motion to approve so move second presentations and proclamations item 3A the older Americans nutrition we have some representatives are here you like to approach and just a introduction about work do than you for my name Isn adult and Senior Services at Senior Resource Association and with me I have Liz Bruner our VP of philanthropy and dearis Duo our Meals on Wheels manager and I have a speech um after the proclamation is read that's great thank you uh apologize we have to remember to turn on our buttons and turn them off so we have a proclamation of the town of Indian Rivers Shores proclaiming March 24 as a month celebrating older Americans act nutrition program um we have a a whole bunch of whereases so I'm going to uh summarize just the good stuff and the meat uh so going back to 1972 President Nixon signed into law a measure that amended the older Americans act to include a national nutrition program for individuals 60 years and older um I think that's applicable to all of us up here with the exception of maybe Pete so uh that's this is probably an issue that's near and dear to us um so for over 50 years the law has helped Community Fund fund community- based organizations such as yourself um I guess we know it as Meals on Wheels is that fair to say yes sir so uh personally from you know family friends and relatives I know how important this is for uh older Americans to uh to get proper nutrition and balance meals and it's also peace of mind for the family members to know that their their loved ones and neighbors and family members are being properly cared for um we um you know we have uh great respect for everything that your organization has done uh it certainly has an impact in every Community regardless of U um affluence or lack of affluence so it's it's really a uh a broad Community braas program that I think we can you know we can all get behind so the uh the therefore which is De me of the Proclamation States uh I Brian Foley is mayor of the town of Indian River Shores do hereby Proclaim March 24 March 2024 as a month celebrating the older Americans act nutrition program and urge every Community member to honor our Meals on Wheels program the seniors they serve serve and the volunteers who care for them our recognition of and involvement in the national celebration can enrich our entire community and help combat senior hunger and isolation in America so congratulations to you on your organization and uh we we greatly appreciate everything you do uh does anybody else on Council want to say anything on this Mr Mayor I have a uh very we Judy and I have very good friends uh Peter and Karen Pierce who have actively participated in the Meals on Wheels program for many many years now and um the times that we've been together with Peter and Karen I can tell you that the testimonies they've given about uh their experience with the program not only with regard to delivering the food but addressing one of the components of the Proclamation which is isolation uh that that comes out profoundly in their testimonial about their participation so thank you very much well thank you and behalf of our um CEO Karen deagle who's also a resident of town of the inding River Shores um I want to thank you for this Pro Proclamation this year we're celebrating our 50th Anniversary at Senior Resource Association and our Meals on Wheels program which is dedicated to promoting the health and well-being of seniors and in River County March has been an important time for Senior Resource as we join thousands of Meals on Wheels programs Across America raising awareness of senior hunger and isolation with one in four Americans aged 60 and over our senior population is growing rapidly now more than ever Meals on Wheels serves as a Lifeline to countless older adults in our community in 2023 s provided more than 106,000 meals to hungry and homebound seniors in Indian River County today in our community there are still about 350 seniors on the wait list waiting to receive meals our home delivery program helps alleviate hunger by providing a hot nutritious nutritious meal delivered by Sr staff and our dedicated volunteers to clients 5 days each week with two frozen meals provided for the weekend all menus are planned by a registered dietitian to ensure that they contain one third of their daily nutritional value but this program is more than just delivering a hot meal it is also a daily wellness check and it provides our seniors and their families with a sense of security that allows them to live a more healthy and independent lives in their own home sadly for too many seniors the visit is the only social interaction they experience until the volunteer arrives the next day providing more than 450 meals each day we could not accomplish this without the dedication and time and effort of more than 200 devoted volunteers we need to ensure this critical program can continue to address food insecurity and malnutrition combat social isol isolation enable Independence and improve health for years to come and you all can help on March 5th 6th and 7th we are hosting March for meals which is a wonderful opportunity for public leaders and members of our community like you to experience the gratification of delivering a nutritious meal to homebound seniors you could even join Karen Pierce on her route many of you have participated in the past and I'm hoping you will join us to visit a few of our seniors who would love to meet a special guests like you thank you again for the proclamation and for allowing us a few minutes to help raise awareness of the meals on Wills program and the needs for the ever growing senior community thank you very much [Applause] thank you you no no please I was going to ask if you want to for your newsletter come up and oh sure you're very welcome and just one question as you're leaving so for the March 5 six and seven let's call it a ride along for lack of a better word um is there a mechanism for us to uh learn and sign up for those of us who want to go okay terrific thank you Emily just one question your weight list question your weight list is that getting smaller or larger so on around indivual however we are very forunate now we are providing meals to individuals who are waiting for the public funds and at this point we're serving individual are 350 anding to Ser all thank you very much all right thank you again uh moving on to item 3B sector 4 update uh that's Town manager Haring again this has to do with the critical beach erosion designation uh for the uh sector 4 which is the sector that is predominantly the uh the town's sector of aot to beach so Mr harpring thank you Mr Mayor uh councel excuse me uh I'm going to run through a number of slides and information it's a fairly large slide deck I just want to note to everyone that we'll go ahead and email this uh a link to this out uh Friday on our uh regular newsletter but we'll also have a link to it on the on the on the town website again just in the interest of time because of the number of slides so hurricane Nicole made landfall on November 10th 2022 uh it was the first hurricane to strike the US and uh November in almost 40 years uh landfall was in Hutchinson Island uh note that due to the long duration wind and wave event and the scope of the impacts much of the worst damage uh happened across a scope of over 100 miles from landfall and you may recall uh some of the worst damage was actually in along Daytona Beach and and south of there um so any River Shores did sub sustained substantial damage in the form of significant uh and widespread dune erosion one of the biggest things uh that I again would note was that this was such a longterm uh wind and wave duration event so some photos in November 2022 immediately after Hurricane Nicole uh that's the 500 building in John's Island um that's a residence just right across the street uh over here on the beach uh and some of these you've seen before but this is what happened um you know to our town and to the uh and to sector 4 uh in particular immediately after the storm uh many of the Dune Crossovers and structures along the dun line in the town were severely uh damaged or completely destroyed that's actually the Dune Crossover at um our public beach access said Beach comr um if nothing else it's a testament to the construction of that piece of it um and it's it's it's really incredible what you saw down there and I know many of you uh all of you were you know took opportunities to get down to the beach um so again here's just some some photos uh and this was immediately after uh Nicole in 2022 so there was a rush to repair the damage uh and it led to substantial amount of unpermitted work being conducted we talked about this at at Council meetings past um you see some of these uh photos you can see the the the newer uh some of the newer work again a lot of that was was unpermitted and um uh this was addressed uh in a team effort by Public Works uh code enforcement Public Safety and the building department uh and I know we have Sergeant Mike Rance our code enforcement officer uh Public Safety Sergeant here he spent a lot of time down on the beach um and we'll see uh some of the the product of his work as well um what we did was uh we went ahead and took the initiative and marked off uh structures that we determined to be unsafe uh this included inspections by um Sergeant Mike CR our building officials uh and uh and our Public Works uh director uh so we would go ahead and post them uh you know indicates an unsafe structure um and we even to this day just based on the you know weather systems we continue to excuse me we continue to monitor uh and document uh everything that's taking place um you know with we events that are likely to lead to erosion uh so critically eroded Shoreline I just want to note uh this very important because as uh as Council knows we've submitted our own application for uh this particular designation with d uh we have a uh we've had a number of meetings already we have another meeting next Friday uh the 29th uh with d personnel and our Personnel on this uh including our Coastal engineer this is going to be be very critical piece I I think in terms of a determination because the Florida Administrative Code um basically I'll try to sum it up says that an area of Shoreline can be determined to be critically eroded um if adjacent portions are critically eroded even though this particular portion has not been designated as such that's exactly what we have for sector for if there's a case where we have a an administrative rule which is directly on point I I think think this one is it and this is the you know the Gap portion of it um you know in terms of between identified critically ered areas um so that's that's one thing that we're pushing very hard on so sector 4 is the only Beach sector in the county not designated as critically eroded uh this again I know everyone has seen this before but that little highlighted area is is sector 4 along the coast um FD that's the Florida Department of Environmental Protection they're the agency was ISS with which issues this designation uh we're as I noted we're currently in the process of um uh having independent request uh County did submit a request independently of us but we followed up with that as well um we've retained independent consultants for the purpose of submitting that request and the importance of this designation uh is doesn't really have anything to do with the Dune restoration project project and I'll get to the Dune restoration project in a second which is which is ongoing and and and planned but this designation really allows us to look for um or I should put it this way really allows the town to encourage the county to look for additional funding areas because of the designation of critically eroded uh both within the state and within the federal government to include FEMA it's also um an important stepping stone if we were to look at um engineered beaches which I'll I'll touch on in just a second which would be a second a second step from just do Straight term Dune restoration so we talk about the long-term goal of an engineered Beach uh there are a variety of different things that that could entail and I don't want to go into the technical aspects of that uh but again it's both um uh an operational benefit in terms of what can be done with the beaches both uh both the hardpacked land and the Dune system as well as was opening up uh state and federal funding in that regard so uh again this will be attached but we had County update uh with the Dune uh project in sector 4 uh basically they're essentially good to go with permitting funding uh the issue now is timing associated with um uh the turtle nesting season so we do anticipate and I know that and council member said please chime in if you like but uh we anticipate a start date in 2024 but at the end of turtle nesting season at sometime after 111 so that's kind of what we anticipate for the Dune project uh in sector 4 uh again the permitting is ongoing but um there was an archaeological issue but I think this is probably um going to be overcome uh and I don't think it's going to be an issue but um Famous Last Words uh but I'll say don't hold me to it but I think we're in good shape based on all the represent ations that we've gotten uh from the county and the communications that they've had so I just don't think it's going to be an issue uh as I said ideally the Project's going to be ready to proceed at the close of turtl nesting season in November 2024 just for a highlight uh 2023 in December we had uh some long range long-term uh or excuse me some some long duration uh weather events uh so again this is Beach comr um keep in mind that at beach comr the town added uh our own sand at our beach access right here so we could continue to facilitate uh Public Works and Public Safety access uh to the beach and um this is some of the erosion you can see uh from when we you know placed the sand down so this is December 2023 uh just barely a couple of months ago and these were all taken on uh 1215 1217 and and as you know you can see you know some of the those cut offs it just again keeps progressing so this was December 19th um you know again we're seeing even substantial changes over a period of days uh given the nature of the storms and events and of course the beauty of our community belies the you know belies the underlying danger of the erosion the FP submissions to take account um yes not from a a engineering standpoint because we don't have that uh data in other words the county hasn't hasn't done that has hasn't issued their own however we continue to monitor that and document uh photographically and through our people on the beach so we're giving them everything that we have um I don't want to say most weekly because I don't want to bother them but every time we get down there we have an event and we take additional pictures as with these they go directly to the uh directly to the beach and Shore people at D through our um you know through our consultants and again I I you know offer of course to the council members we can you know take you on a run on the side by side along the beach at at your convenience I know that council member Smith has availed herself of that opportunity on a couple of occasions uh that's delmare there and one of the you know hazards that we see are just you know these older posts and things from different walkovers that are getting exposed uh so this again is after our sand replenishment on uh uh December 21st as you know we've been uh maintaining a reserve of sand in order to keep our beach access open so um after that erosion on the 21st we went ahead and um and and put that sand up so we could get back on on track um and then uh this is January 12th again we're seeing some considerable um you know additional erosion if you note up you can't see the cursor but up in this area there have been some additional plantings and plantings and you can see in some areas where people have done some plantings and the erosions almost back up to the planting um area again just a representation and we're almost uh you know we'll we're almost to date here so here's February 7th um again additional large cuts and erosion uh and we know that there were no name storms or major events these were just you know two days of 25 mph winds uh out of the North with um you know with some big high tide hitting this is just to the south of beach comr so if you go down the beach comr access and that's actually our access um and we and and so this is our beach comr access here and you can see just from when we put down some of our Reserve sand until February 7th uh in that time frame um we've also seen a lot of the exposed uh exposed bladders um and then you again February 8th uh you can see just all the substantial damage we closed down our beach access uh we did our replenishment uh to reopen it on the 12th again uh so that was uh you know twice in the last two months we still have some res reserv and you know pending uh any additional issues and um and turtl nesting season of course uh public beach access sign that we're uh we're getting uh oops sorry about that uh so that's where we are on the sector 4 um uh update I'm happy to um uh answer any questions in in that regard uh again I should have some more information for Council individually after our meeting uh next week with uh with DP just one comment um I just want to make sure that the res and I know Mike's here is that you can see the the two times recently that we put the sand down and then everyone in sector 4 is expecting to have their Dunes restored and I'm just hoping that their expectations are not too much that they don't realize that within a day or two it could go back to this so um nobody should fool themselves that this is a permanent fix and that's why we want the critically eroded designation right okay question um if if an individual constituent who beachfront has an erosion event let's say an erosion event following Nicole files an emergency application uh and then files a claim for reimbursement um then this happens December and January storms happen AR storms it's just a normal wear and tear from Beach events do they have the standing to them then file a serum second application for permitting and reimbursement for particularly say sand re nourishment I don't have an accurate answer for you as we sit here but I'll I'll get one for you I I don't know what the internal process is for that reimbursement if they can do subsequent you know concurrent applications based on events uh thanks Jim uh I just want to say that we asked um for you to put together in one place a comprehensive overview of what we've done and what we're doing and uh this fits the bill perfectly and um I I don't want to speak for everyone else but uh I want to I just want to say that I think thanks to uh people on the stus and this Council we finally have gotten ourselves moving in the direction of really uh getting behind this uh and necessity obviously is the mother of invention but uh um thank you to the other Council people who have really made this an issue and I know uh I know the two sitting to the to the left of me and the two sitting to the right of me have been instrumental in that so uh the people of our town should be uh thankful that we're not just reacting to something we're now uh putting together a comprehensive way of proceeding for a critically eroded designation and I think this also lays the foundation for uh Remediation in the event that this does happen again because the council member Smith Point Point um we've uh we've seen this before and we can go through all of this and and um you know one bad event then the next thing you know we have it the the bladders I think are back from 2004 right and that was when we thought we had done a uh a really bang up job of preventing a very serious event from ever doing this so um you know what's that old commercial you know it never pays to fool Mother Nature well it never it never pays to fool ourselves about the the impact of Mother Nature uh the second point and maybe you can speak to this uh Jim is that I often get questions like well why can't we just have pickup trucks come and dump sand on the beaches and you know it doesn't seem like that big a deal to me um well we up here know that you can't just dump sand it's got to be a proof sand there's a u a limit to how much that is and uh you can't just always dump heavy machinery and equipment on the beach so would you like to just speak to that so we have a a definitive exp explanation of that uh yes Mr Mayor and councel thank you that's an excellent point because the the challenges don't have to do with willingness because the county is willing certainly we are willing um there are U on on your point there's a finite amount of time that this can happen in U because of turtl nesting season so we have a very limited number of months that anybody could perform any operations uh if they saw it um the issue with the sand itself and acquiring the sand excuse me is a great challenge because we've seen scenarios in the past uh recently where um the small number of sand mines that are approximate to the location that the sand has to go to have said um sorry private vendors or private people uh we're reserving this for the county we you know we don't we don't have any sand for you right now because we reserved it all for the county and there are really only two limited types of approved sand that you can get down onto the Beach so you have the type of sand that is very uh you know very monitored by DP then you have the availability of that um and then the secondary factors associated with this just simply have to do with the um operational piece one is just being able to get the dump trucks to get the sand and and get it to the beach and then secondly have the equipment uh that allows the the placement and the maintenance of that sand in the appropriate spot and Mr Mayor as you alluded to it's not Not Just Trucks running down the beach and dumping sand there are engineering plans for every foot of the Dune and where the sand goes uh so it is a it is a challenge and and and and I think a point well taken if if I could make make a quick comment as well and councilman Smith who goes to South Jersey Shore like uh I did when I lived in Philadelphia we were all used to having the offshore dredges pump and sand onto the beach that is very difficult to do down here because there is a reef offshore and DP is very cognizant of the marine life I don't of those of you were here when we had the red tide and when all the marine life came up on the beach I remember being absolutely astonished how many Snee sea snakes came up and other types of fish that they were all existing there offshore so it's you it's not like Jersey where you can just pump the thing in it' be a heck of a lot easier so I know that gets people frustrated and I felt that way when I first came here until you I was told about all these different additional regulations versus New Jersey hard to believe that Florida could be more difficult in some things in New Jersey but I guess that happens so now an excellent point and you don't even have to go that far south because off Fort Lauderdale uh there's you know there's the ability to dredge and pump uh but you know again different topography excellent point vice mayor Carol yeah uh I was just going to point out or ask in the last week or so I've had half a dozen people ask me about coincidentally offshore dredging and is the reef the reason that offshore dredging is is it against the law to to to to have that practice here I don't want to say it's a it's against the law per se but the regulatory pieces and the policy Decisions by um the county and the state relative to what's right offshore and then having a policy decision that says we choose not to do that because of these particular uh static items I.E you know the offshore reefs here so it's not that it couldn't um certainly um uh from an engineering standpoint could easily be done but but I think there is great reticence in the permitting piece because the county has already taken a stance that says that uh much like their position on um on groins seaw walls um uh you know other types of uh Coastal armoring they just say our policy is against it we just don't want to do it and one one other comment to that I think it also has to do with the distance of where the pipes come from I know that in Stone Harbor they had like seven miles of pipes in order to do the beach it was a pretty big deal the pipes will come apart but I think here it's even further up the coast if they were able to dredge is that right p is that what you're nodding your head mayor council the closest location that I can think of at offshore dredging uh occurs is the Fort Pierce Inlet um and I'm personally familiar with it and and but to your point and that's why I wanted to mention it the Army Corps of Engineers is the primary agency and they're doing it for navigability of the inlet and they're literally pulling it out of the inlet coming across the jetty and pumping it onto the beach U might be a 100 yards so there are many factors including back to as Mr har said Turtle nesting season you would be able to pump sand onto the beach between our Turtle nesting time period anyway which then defaults you into essentially the winter time which is as we know more difficult Seas offshore higher so you'd have to have dredges placed there's just a lot more components but to your point the distance yes that absolutely is a factor and and I know uh for Pierce also had to dredge the inter Coastal Channel by its Marina to South and to run pipes all the way back through the inter Coastal to come back to the inlet and essentially come there was several miles and it was millions of dollars in being able to do that for a onetime dredging um I don't know all the specifics but it is available but as a process it's far more arduous than what I've seen otherwise so thank you anything else on this um all right well uh the good news is you get an A+ on this report the bad news is uh um I think I think uh there's some sobering news in it in terms of uh managing expectations as council member Smith pointed out that's part of our our public Outreach uh job as a council and uh also uh explaining why this can't be done immediately we have to wait until um 2024 um 2025 to really really see the benefit of this and that's uh a couple of prayers you know to give us a break from the winds and the storms wouldn't wouldn't be ill placed either so thank you very much for that and uh um we'll look forward to updates on the report as as required and to councilman alter's Point um I think we need to continue documenting this with um uh video and and and photographic evidence you know just to I understand it's not part of the formal submissions but you know as anecdotal evidence of what's going on it's very helpful for us to to be able to uh present that at the appropriate point in time all right terrific so we'll move on to item four which is uh comments from the public regarding the agenda are there any comments regarding the agenda all right uh there being none we will move on to the consent agenda I see on under item G uh there is a resolution which is an item that requires a roll call vote so we will have a roll call vote for the entire consent agenda if there is a motion to approve and no discussion so move second all right roll call vote mayor Foley I vice mayor Caroll I council member aater I council member Smith I Council M artieri let the record show the motion passes unanimously all right thank you thank you very much uh moving on to item six which is the mayor's report uh I will keep it brief today um have only one item we we covered most of the items that I usually cover in this report um the one item I do want to highlight is that um I met with uh the new director of The Children's Services advisory committee uh for those of us on Council um who were uh participants in the request for a special tax ing District uh we learned an awful lot about seesac as it's known and uh I will say as a way of background that uh rounding up we're about 3% of the County population but we generate about 20% of the adum revenue for the county so it's 2.7% 18 something perc so if you round up you round up uh so I think we all have um an interest in knowing where our tax payers money is going uh there have been um some concerns I'm sure by members of this Council and by members of the public uh just where all this money goes and in particular uh if you remember you know back when we took up this issue in a formal vote uh some time ago um just the structure of this organization and and how accountable is it how transparent is it it is uh so in terms of following up on that uh I had what I would describe as a productive meeting and I was um happy to say here that I'm happy to say here rather that uh I had fairly low expectations for you know any results of the meetings but um uh I uh moderately encouraged that um new administrative attention from the county um has the potential for some change but we all have to have a role in that and the role we have to have in that is to voice our concerns U among which are uh and I'll speak for myself here um just just how how accountable are these recipients of Grant funds of substantial tax dollars that they get we always see A needs assessment that's their big thing A needs assessment we we need the money to solve this problem we need the money to solve that problem if only we have more money we can we can have a greater impact well that sounds too typically government to me give us more money we're not going to tell you what we did with it in the past and how effective it was but we're if we only have more money we can do more um the selection criteria you know how can you have selection criteria if you really don't have comprehensive uh review of what these Grant recipients have got and then that brings us to the question which I think is a real systemic flaw and that is it's self-reporting yes how many Grant recipients have you ever met who got money and said sorry we got to do a better job we wasted it but we'd like you to continue to fund us um everything is always hunky dory or uh if there is if there is a self assessment that um that's readable uh the self assessment tends to be um so General that you really can't tell what they did or what they didn't do no metrics so um I'm I'm pleased that seesac at least according to their own information says that 99.1% of the funds generated through the tax go towards the programs so only 0.9% is Administrative well that's that's pretty good that's effective but that's only really half of the equation the other half of the equation is you know what's the money being spent on U are we just making ourselves feel better by giving money to organizations that are hiring staff uh that have really very little impact in the community at large and and just to be clear in my opinion there are some wonderful aspirations and goals for what seesac does uh so um there is a new uh a new person in town I don't want to say Sheriff because the sheriff is actually on the seesac advisory committee but there is a uh a new administrator uh who I was pleased to find out is working very carefully with as I said heightened detention from uh County Administration that um that understands I think the structural challenges and the need to really have more accountability and U and and how important it is really to get not just elected officials who pay attention to this stuff but really the public at large behind it and to understand that the goal is really to to help um not the grant recipients but the people the grant recipients are supposed to help um so that's a very very brief explanation of um of the meeting um I was provided with a document which I will uh leave with my materials that some council members may have gotten already some may not and I think you can see that there are some structural changes here that I as I said have me cautiously optimistic that we're going in the right direction but I think this isn't one of those things that you know we just put it on autopilot and say okay well you know some changes have been made we have to stay on top of it uh we owe it to our taxpayers uh we owe it as as residents of the community so uh uh with that being said I'm happy to answer any questions to the extent I can on this and as I said I will leave the um seesac um uh structural change document summary that that I was presented at the meeting uh I'm I'm personally going to continue to um well be a pain in the neck sometimes that's our job is to be a pain in the neck and uh uh and ask what's going on and I would say that uh any council person that wants to schedule a meeting I think that there's openness to that and um there are they're meeting more frequently so used to used to meet four times a year for two hours to and I'm looking at Bob because I know you know we had these comments in uh in a public setting as did uh Sam uh I mean two meet eight hours a year to decide who gets this amount of money um come on we're we're all on board and and Foundations and we know that uh I call them coffee and donuts meetings you know you go you have coffee Donuts you listen to a presentation then you leave so uh you know while while increased meetings that have no productive purpose or useless too uh I believe there's a really good chance that this this could be more beneficial so with that I see councilman aler wants to have a comment so your comments are are spoton I did attend uh recent seesac U meeting and what I what I found interesting I didn't comment during the meeting was they they talked about trying to check to see what those organizations were doing because they really didn't come and visit but they scheduled a visit with them I and I said to the uh director I believe her name is Cindy Emerson is that who you spoke with yes uh I I said what is the point of that you got to show off unannounced that doesn't make any any sense at all and they have a very odd organizational structure in that they have actually two committees they have the primary seesack committee then they have this other committee which actually I think has all the power and does all the work because they're the ones that listen to the presentations and they bring it out back for essentially I think is a essentially an up or down vote vote you know and I I said Miss Emerson I said if I was on seesac I'd want to be on the other committee where you can find out what's going on and ask hard pointed questions so I and she said she said well I don't want to put words in her about other than that she said well that's the way it's structured by the uh resolution or ordinance from County Commission if I was on County Commission I change that in a in an instant because you have these other people who are in that industry and I'm sure they're good people but you know it's like your comments regarding the self reporting you always give yourself a a good score so I I I I think the whole structure is fundamentally flawed thank you uh question do I recall correctly that as a result of of um the town of Indian River Shores and the and Orchid uh not going along with the proposal that the county did in fact increase the funding from an eighth of a mill to a quarter of a mill uh I believe that's that's correct I I'm not sure the uh the quarter Mill was immediate it may have been phased in but that's my recollection as well and uh uh vice mayor Carol makes an excellent point um you know rather than just sign off on a special taxing district um you know this Council took a deep dive into this and said wait a minute we're creating a special tax for 10 years that's going to generate I forget but it was 100 million well over 100 million I think by the time you that was it was 100 million not adjusted for increases in in property value since it's an ADV valarium tax and um there was again there was they were they were going to model after seesac um which you know was somewhat bizarre I think for us to swallow the fact that well we're going to create a special taxing district to generate more Revenue because the current system's broken and we're going to model it on the system that's broken um which was one of the reasons major reasons for my no vote so you're you're absolutely right um and I think it was our hope vice mayor Carol that uh by making the County Commissioners more responsible ible for uh the increased funding in this that there would be you know greater oversight and um um you know I I just don't think we've we've seen that up to this point uh as I said I am uh cautiously optimistic that the awareness of you know the the structural flaws in this have been um identified but you know staff people need support and they need political support and uh uh I tried to make the point that you know my being a pain in the neck and anybody else's being a pain in the neck really was intended to help you know those on the inside that wanted to make the structural changes and and Implement them so um I don't know if that makes it clearer or less clear but that's that's really uh the message here is you know let's let's individually take a look at this and um encourage the changes that need to be made structurally because that's the only way I think we're going to see some meaningful change here um and you know right down to the point of you know maybe maybe the County Commission should have uh thought about in the ordinance uh some implementing regulations or as part of the or part of the ordinance you know requiring an and budgeting for an independent uh audit and independent assessment of you know each of the grant recipients on an annual basis um so um you know I know that uh I know that creates more work and and um it also creates some other issues for U the recipients of these grants who've gotten used to just getting funded year after year after year but what are we doing here I mean are we are we really trying to have a positive outcome U for the less fortune in the community and you know particularly the children or are again are we just trying to make ourselves feel better by saying well we spent 10% more money this year than we did last year so don't say we're not doing anything all right so um yes council member Smith when we talked about the children's tax you know a few years ago there there were people that were pushing for that and those people were supposedly going to be more impactful on seesac and I missed the beginning of your talk I'm sorry but it it doesn't appear you didn't miss anything I promise you I it was just the intro yeah so what they were saying then they said they would do that now and it's not happened I I think that's in in my opinion that's a correct assessment but okay well then but I'm I'm cautiously optimistic that if empowered properly that the people that are uh at least given administrative charge of this now on the staff level um have identified some of the problems that that need to be addressed and there's um the outline I'll leave and you can obtain a copy of it uh I think it's a it's a really good first start um really good start but there has to be the political will to do this as well as we all we all know so okay thank you I have a conflict on the 21st um would love to do it on the 22nd Wednesday the 22nd my conflict is I'll be on a flight from England back to the United States um how about Wednesday the 22nd you you can't take the Concord to get here ear the Concord no longer flies and if it did it wouldn't fly to Orlando okay yeah and I changed what I had on one day to go for the the Tuesday so I'm going to have to check if you change that one again all right is the 24th better for everybody uh let's see that's a Friday I'm sorry it has to be before the 21st U so um all right well we have uh two more meetings before May so uh we can do this administratively if uh you can get a date potentially that works for our Clerk and you and everybody else in May that complies with the statutory thing we can Circle back to this and uh at the March meeting I'll ask uh I'll ask our town clerk who's much more qualified to handle this uh this juggling uh she'll coordinate the dates and we'll see what we can do administratively and get with everyone and uh be prepared at the March meeting to have a conclusion and a vote terrific all right great again real world we just all talk about this if we could but we can't so thank you for for accommodating that so we'll move on to any other council member items okay uh we will now move on to item eight which is discussion possible or probable action we have nothing under that I take it that's still the same since we had an approved agenda uh item 9A staff updates building official report statistics Mr H is out in the field I understand uh actually U Mr Mayor the uh building department today um uh and staff are uh doing joint training with the Indian River County building department um so they uh that was something we couldn't change because it was joint training if there's any questions on the reports just please let me know and if I can't answer them I'll get an answer for you from our building official Mr Mayor I I have a question on the building department report um if you look at the fees collected fiscal year to date uh we're running $179,000 approximately versus the same period uh last year I I know we move moved the fees up up previously can you refresh my memory as what is the state requirement we look at a trailing four years wor of fees and we can't have our Reserve be above that we look at the last we look at the current year in the last three years prior to that of the excess so we cannot have an excess of the expenditures oh you're right I'm sorry it is the expenditures yeah so the last four years on the average we cannot exceed that so we are we're okay were we getting close or we're not we had a loss last year or it was close to a loss last year so okay we are fine thank you and I guess that Sego right into my report um yes don't go anywhere item 9B yes um you've received my financial report um I did note that we were in excess of the the revenues and I did I am monitoring it I do not foresee needing to make any adjustments to the rates this fiscal year um I will be talking more with the building official for the next upcoming year we may have to decrease fees for next year it's a it's a balancing act it's a because with the new statute you can't exceed we don't we don't we want to be about 75% and that's kind of our Target goal um with the approval moving on with the approval of the Actuarial studies from this after this morning I will be able to finish the financial statements so we will be presenting that at either the March or the April meeting um does anyone have any questions for me any questions for our town Treasurer no um just one comment we need to uh be aware of and I'm sure you know Pete and Jim will be helpful with this the impact on Town finances with some of the bills that are pending at the end of this legislative session uh there may be some that we'll have not just unfunded mandates but also there are some bills that may may result in increased costs so um I don't know uh where exactly the increase of liability limits is going um it looks to me like it's lost some steam but if it if it does uh uh get going again then you know we may see a fairly substantial increase in Insurance costs um we may see some increases in Insurance costs for other items so we just need to be mindful of of that as we enter into the budget season fortunately because we have an early legislative session this year not toward the end we can have a couple of months to look at it assess and absorb before we go into budget time so I appreciate that Jim's been keeping me up to date so that we can get the budget all yeah and there's no good news in any of it so all right thank you very much um item 9 C the public safety Statics uh yes um uh Chief Stone um deputy chief sha in St Augustine the law enforcement portion of our Public Safety department has received um the law enforcement accreditation Association designation of excel here uh which is a very high uh designation for the law enforcement accreditation so they are uh at that meeting in St Augustine to receive that uh that very notable um you know acknowledgement of the excels here for uh for accreditation um other than that as always if there's any questions uh just just please please let me know as as you might have noted uh the traffic obviously has has ticked up I I don't want to jinx anything I'm sure I will immediately with the statement when we leave there'll be a backup to here but um as we get towards Easter we'll see what the the numbers continue to continue to look like but the the road backups do not seem to be at least at this stage as egregious um as they have been whether some of that's accounted for um the changing and the timing of the light at Village Beach Market or not um unsure but uh I I make that note for what it is no I think that the um the backups are getting like they were last year and I was wondering about the light at the beach market so maybe one of the officers can get down there at some point but I do think it's bad we'll we'll monitor it again last year we did send someone down to do timing at of the light at different times of days and um you know and when it happens the that's just a challenge I mean it's it's just a challenge and the reality of it is is one thing that we pushed out in our public safety personnel push out is that at some point in time there will simply be more cars on the road than the road is designed to easily handle the only uh bright spot may be the resolution of The Beachland and A1A intersection at some point in time in in the season but uh for what it's worth that's that's it yes I I think if we're going to do that uh wait until they're done with this project because that construction seems to have exacerbated the back up um you know long way so you had really you know two and a half Lanes uh down to two lanes for a month month and a half and um ironically at the busiest time of season they decide to do these projects so we had lovely summer months to do it so sir all good points uh item 9d public works department yeah I had Mr uh Brian in the field handling a complaint that we had um but I would note that he uh he and Sergeant M has been great being down on the beach you know getting all of our information uh for those things uh we've been uh pretty fortunate with some of the Cooperative work that we've gotten from fdot uh lately uh as I noted last council meeting uh the day after that we did a survey and uh uh you got the coordinates for each of the spots went met with do and went up and down our you know our Pathways and our our Bikeway here to make sure that they were aware of all the issues and concerns that we had for their you know for their ongoing repair projects uh and they're they're all along A1A it's a it's a matter of it's a matter of timing they're working um south of 17th Street on those sidewalks and you know all the way up to here so that's where we are with that sir thank you uh here's a hat you don't have to wear Jim 9e code enforcement report because Sergeant mikr is here good morning um as you received the month report for February I just have one update on item number two it's the piggyback off Mr haring's slideshow um there were five Dune crossovers that were deemed unsafe structurally um missing steps the bottom the braces missing um out of those five only one remains in violation after a written notice of violation was sent to the owners um so I'm pretty happy with that um other than that have no other updates any questions anything for sergeant mikr nothing thank you for your for your good work thank you all right uh item 10 Town attorney report uh thank you Mr mayor council I'll be brief this morning um the main thing I wanted to update is to follow up on what mayor said regarding the legislative agenda at our Capital uh today February 24th is one of the last days for any bills to be uh made and reconsidered most importantly um the 27th so next week on U Tuesday will be the last day for regularly scheduled committee meetings so anything any bill that still head is a committee meeting requirement before getting to the formal floor for a full vote either by the house or the Senate would be required to have a committee meeting finalized by next Tuesday and the final date of session is March 8th so we are in the home stretch and uh again mayor you reference the sovereign immunity Bill among several of them that one is still pending has at least two committee stops one of which is scheduled for next week um so as was mentioned all of this will be fast and furious ending they still have to finalize the budget um I already have in line with colleagues from Florida League of cities as well as the Florida count Association of counties a full debrief that will be available probably by the end of April so we have a little bit of trailing time to have a full comprehensive report on everything that was passed as well as things that died um so primarily that's where the focus has been as well as with Mr Haring on all of related things we've been talking about today so if there's any questions I'm happy to answer them uh so um I'm assuming representative bracket's utility bill is is dead at this point I you know great question um we've talked about it and followed up I the only information I have is it's uh it's still been placed on hold in the committee that he's Vice chair of uh there is some hope that uh the other bill which does have a senate companion uh May May draft some of the May Eng engraft some of the legislation from 777 onto that um as uh Pete said it's a fast and furious end to the session um I think uh uh the fact that you know the governor suspended his c campaign for president and came back kind of reorganized some of the legislative agenda U so they only have so much time to do things um but you know in in speaking with our town attorney and and and other advisers on this you know many times this legislation is a I hate to say shot across the bow but a warning so to speak that you know this is the third year in a row that there's been you know a bill pending addressing the same issues with um with utilities and um uh putting some parameters upon them short of uh you know Public Service Commission regulation and control so um we'll keep pushing to make sure that you know we get everything uh that we think we need in terms of legislative relief uh I was pretty pleased with the pending legislation as the first start it got out of committee what 13 132 or 123 something like that so uh I think there's the I think there's the legislative will to do it but whether there's the the timing to do it you know maybe you know what did they what did they say for our former uh Dodgers that used to be here there's always next year so if not this year we'll Circle back next year but um you know I think I think the recognition in the bill that I I hope still passes that there have to be some limits put on how much can be transferred from a Utility Fund to a general fund is a really good first start so um yeah if if I could just say for those who are don't have inside baseball on this that might be watching on YouTube uh representative Robbie bracket had put a bill in that had a number of Provisions one of which which was that if uh a municipal uh utility had customers both inside its own City that that owned the utility and had customers outside the city that they had to be charged the same uh rates right now there can be premiums placed on and there's certain cities like Tallahassee that can do it and what I always say to people who are against it think about a situation where a if you were getting electricity from Florida Power and Light and uh you were your neighbor who happened to live across a invisible City boundary a block away who was paying you know $10 a a megawatt hour and you just because you happen to live in a in in a different town two blocks that away was charging $12 an hour how would you like that I don't think you would well right now places like the city of ver Beach can potentially do that so just so people understand what we're talking about so yeah good good point and also the bill requires uh at least every seven years a rate study be done so that uh you can't do what the city did which is not raise rates for over a decade I believe and then use you know uh potentially use you know premiums tacked on to people outside the jurisdiction to kind of balance the books well more than balance the books um generate in increased Revenue to then put over to the general fund so uh we we've worked very hard to persuade members of the legislature that uh this is the right thing to do but we'll we'll keep plugging away um all right uh item 11 Town manager report thank you Mr Mayor uh Council the Land Development code review phase two uh is ongoing uh just give you a brief update on the schedule I know I've provided you with some information on it and we're we're talking about it individually uh we anticipate having an open house similar to the one for phase one on March 12th that's the same day as the planning zoning and variance uh board meeting we don't know if there'll be anything calendared on that day uh for pzv but we'll have the open house on that day uh nonetheless um subsequent to the open house uh will address whatever issues problems or concerns or uh items that uh that that Council desires and we'll schedule this for a a first reading uh in the April Town council meeting uh I would like to note that I have provided uh copies of everything that the uh Council has received to the planning zoning and variance board members uh and I've offered the opportunity to meet with them individually to discuss anything they'd like on uh on the phase two review so that's uh that's where we are with that hopefully uh by May we'll have second reading and uh we can turn on to um uh some reviews of some other areas of the of the ordinance that uh that are due uh also I'd like to note that uh the the procurement process for the solid waste and recyclable uh collection process is ongoing uh just yesterday we had the uh opening of the bids that uh were received and um uh much to our our pleasure I would note that there were five companies that put in bids uh for the procurement um that and those are Republic Services FCC Environmental Services of Florida Waste Management Waste Pro and Coastal waste and recycling uh our Deputy Town manager and finance director Heather Chrismas will be sitting uh on the uh Review Committee for those um I will have a role in the uh in the negotiating committee part of it and I would just like to note um uh sort of amplify what a great job Homan and the purchasing department and the team at the county did uh on this procurement uh it was very large piece uh very unwieldy to manage AG uh they had issued 10 addendums with answers to over 170 questions uh so the process itself is in a is in a great position now uh and we just have the time frames for the meetings and um and ultimately uh discussion recommendation with the B and and and this body so as we go along I'll keep you updated and that's all I have Mr Mayor thank you anything for our town manager no uh just thank you for the uh the binder with the updates to the Land Development code again this is not one of those glamorous projects that everybody stands up and cheers for but it's long overdo and um I think it'll result in a more readable Pro uh product for our uh for Our Town Council I I would love to see the face on municode when they get all of the revisions uh when they have to revamp them but um it it it is for those of us who've gone through and tried to figure out is there an ordinance or a uh some kind of rule of regulation on this um you've got to go hunting around from different sections and um I think I think it's terrific uh and I also think that you know what we' what we found is that you know by and large you know we have we've done a pretty good job historically uh in the town for making our our ordinances match the character nature and um aesthetic of the community so uh uh it's always a good self self- awareness check uh it's always good to you know to see whether or not you're just duding yourself into thinking things are good as opposed to thinking what alternatives there are out there and and seeing that there there really aren't any and we're not we're not that you know we're not that inconsistent with communities of a similar nature and quality to us so um my belief is that you know these kinds of codifications are important to keeping our community the way it is and uh it's not it's not enough just to have one HOA that has you know a terrific set of rules and then next door you have cars on blocks and um uh not not to disparage anybody who works on their own car still but um there's a certain certain quality to our community that I think extends Beyond just individual HOAs so thank you very much for all the hard work that's going into that um all right item 12 Council committee reports and non-action items we can start from right to left council member Smith uh the beach and Shores meeting was pushed back um it should have been last Monday but it's not told this coming Monday so I don't have anything to report from that other than the um so far the we're waiting for the Army Corps to let us exact to know exactly what kind of archaeological survey we have we have to do for those um items on the beach they don't think it'll be a full-blown survey which is good news so we just uh as soon as we get that but we still need that before they're going to proceed on the Dune Restorations but they're working on it and I'll know more Monday great thank you and thank you for your work on that issue uh council member alter uh I will defer most of the items uh that I've already uh touched upon are the same kind of legislative items and topics that uh were handled by my committees TCC LG and Regional League of cities so I'll pass it to vice mayor Carol thank you Mr Mayor um I attended the economic development council meeting on January the 30th uh the main item on the agenda was a involved a new uh company a new business u in Sebastian called project mod um and project mod uh the owners of the company have applied for tax abatement um um submitted their tax abatement application uh project mod is a uh I think it's a fascinating case study there it's a it's a new company formed in August of last year they manufacture steel enforced ready-made modular units that are used primarily as components in the construction of affordable multif family housing units uh the company has invested $4 million uh to retrofit an existing building in Sebastian and they anticipate hiring 24 new employees annual salaries ranging from $55,000 to $100,000 and based on the positive economic impact generated by this new business uh the C the committee the council uh unanimously approved uh granting the company an 8-year tax abatement uh based on the my limited history with the Economic Development Council this is the first meeting that I recall attending where such an application came before the council um and I was extraordinarily impressed uh with a thorough analysis done by the Indian River County Chamber of Commerce uh in um uh with regard to Fielding the application and doing the economic impact analysis that they did and um um so hopefully it's a sign of more uh new businesses to come in Indian River County I'll leave the material uh you might want to take a look at it with uh with Janice and secondly um Treasure Coast Regional planning Council Tom Lanahan who is the executive director well known to councilman alwat invited me to a one-on-one orientation in Stewart on February the 1st um it was an hour well spent certainly on on my part my inaugural meeting of the council was last Friday the 16th in Stuart there were a few profun items uh on U the the agenda for that meeting followed by uh an extraordinarily uh thorough uh review uh and description of the council's uh work program and an uh an excellent presentation by a noted architect from West Palm Beach uh describing the planning principles uh for civic public buildings uh and the placement uh their placement in and priority uh the meeting was really more educational in nature no specific items were uh uh approved um next meeting is March 15th in West Palm Beach and that will be a joint meeting uh between the Treasure Coast Regional planning Council and the south Florida Regional planning Council excellent great thank you uh councilman aler uh there was a meeting of the Metropol planning organization which is the transportation planning uh decisionmaking body for uh Indian River uh County there they they went through all the projects and the priority list we really hasn't changed in the previous year one thing though of interest that was discussed as a separate item was the uh revamp reconstruction expansion of Route 510 from A1A uh all the way up to uh 512 specifically what was discussed is the first section of the uh project which is going to essentially be from just east of the uh 7-Eleven gas station in the intersection of Route One and 510 to uh just west of the Florida East Coast bright Line train tracks and uh what they decided upon well let me step back one of0 items that was under consideration was to do an actual overpass that would go over US1 and would go over railroad tracks and land West uh and based on a scoring system and I think a lot of revolved around cost they decided not to do that and have a more traditional intersection so that's just something I want to uh make aware of you it will speed things through there but until the entire project is done all the way out to uh 5 512 it's going to take some time ultimately what they're going to do on 510 which will be taken over by the state it's currently a County uh route it'll be taken over by the state which will at the margin give us a little bit of a break uh on taxpayer expenditures here is they will have two lanes in each Direction they will have on either side they will have a uh both East and West they'll have a s foot uh what they call a buffer bike lane uh it won't be separated but give you a little more space and then they will also have a shared use path uh similar to what we have here at the tanel on the west side of A1A it will be on the north side of 510 but it'll be my understanding it'll be a fair amount wider than we have it'll be a really nice project they've done and then what they will also do at 66th Avenue there just uh west of B so they will have a roundabout and I think what the advantage that will be particularly if we're in a situation where there's an evacuation from a hurricane you won't have to worry about lights being out and things like that it will keep the traffic flowing and there's been study after study done which have shown that on a high volume intersection like that one is a roundabout it's much safer than having a situation where you have a light because speeds are slower if there is an accident it it's going to be less damaging so it'll be a good project when it get done but I think we're looking at five six years overall so that's it for me thank you very much okay we'll move on to call to the audience are there any members of the audience that would like to um have a comment make a statement none okay there being none uh we are going to adjourn and with the adjournment we're going to take a what does everybody need five minutes 10 minutes Mr Mayor if we could just if we could if we could have 10 just for our setup and to move everything around for the meeting we'd appreciate it all right so we will reconvene at 10:28 and 8 seconds um we we need to um uh make sure that uh the room is secure because this is a shade meeting so we need to make sure that we're also not streaming live and uh although I'm sure members of the public would be interested in this topic because of the nature of it it's uh uh it's Exempted from the public record yeah exactly um so we will all reconvene about