I am thrilled with the results you want to take really will oh ready good evening everybody uh first want to just start off by saying thank you if you think I'm nervous I am 100% nervous with this so please be patient we'll get through this and hopefully by midnight that's a joke all right this is the regular city council meeting for May 21st and The Time Is Now 6:01 Mr Right would you please call the roll call okay mayor Goodman I am here council president Cox here vice president Hines here council member Jones city manager Terry Bard he's online attorney Kiren Balo here city clerk Latricia Wright I am here and all other staff thank you at this time we have everybody stand for the opening prayer and the pledge of allegiance to the flag by mayor Goodman thank you join me if you will Lord we come to you tonight our city trying to do the work of our citizens to help our city to grow and to prosper and to be a good place for people to be and Lord tonight I ask you to be with my Police Department our Police Department Lord guard them in their daily duties help them to make the decisions necessary that saves their lives every day Lord we know that they go out and they risk their lives to keep our city safe and our fire department Lord they answer calls day or night when we're safe in the comfort of our homes they are still out there preserving our city and Lord I ask you to be with all the other staff especially the building department Lord where When Storms rage they Excel when water pours they are out there in it trying to protect our house and Lord I just thank you for each member of our staff that work to keep this city a good place to be I ask this in your name amen I pledge aliance to the flag of of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you very much okay item one additions deletions changes and approval of the agenda if there are no changes U from staff I would um make a motion that we approve the agenda as presented one second all right as for say those in favor say I I and those oppose eyes have it item two public participation this is your first of two opportunities to address the council at this time anyone in the audience can come to the podium and speak for five minutes on any topic other than what is on the agenda please state your name and residence for the record and just a reminder that the council does not have to comment my name is Elisha Brown and I'm here to ask the question about the Kus Park um wondering what happened to the grant that we supposed to receive put a fence around it and upgrade it okay so uh the question about the grant that was awarded um that is right now being submitted to Swift Mud uh we have been working on the storm water uh Walt from right Pierce is here and he can answer to the status of that and that is what's holding up the project thank you okay uh excuse me another thing we need some signs large enough for people to see driving back to enter into the park and the back street that you're supposed to put back uh entras in there you could answer that thank you okay Mr Nicholls yeah Walt Nichol with right Pier so your first question I can specifically answer we apply we've got the design for the initial Master planning has been done um and then we did all the storm water improvements that would be necessary for the parking and all the improvements and that was applied for the Swift Mud permit we applied for that as the permit was being approved approved we came up with a different approach and solution to the storm water needs and we called Swift Mud and said know we submitted something but we found something that could reduce your storm water costs by about 25% and so we resubmitted our permit and we are right now in the vinyl stages of getting that permit but we thought the delay was well worth the money to that we could save the city on so right now we're expecting that perm to come out any day and then for that initial phase of improvements which is the fencing and at least one of the parking lots we got to look at how much money we're going to have there's two proposed and then that will be happening but we're waiting on that final permit but we did intentionally kind of said pause to Swift button said you know if if you agree with this this can be a big savings and they are agreeing with it so it's just a matter of going through the process so that's that's the one item uh signs when we start with the roadway and access we'll we'll address signs and we'll work with City staff to make sure that that's done properly but uh we have not addressed that yet at this stage but that's where we're at on Cornelius Williams Park okay thank you sir anybody else all right we'll have another chance towards the end of the meeting okay item three cassen agenda this is for the council minutes from May 7th in the invested Ser minutes May 14th Mr President yes ma'am on the May 7th minutes I have a correction to item 7h it says motion to approve first reading by council member Hines second by vice president Hines that should say vice president Cox okay can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda with the changes made to May 7th I make a motion that we approve the consent agenda with changes made from May 7th second all right we have a first we have a second any other discussion all right so the motion has passed sorry all right we're going to do a vote vote on it and all in favor say I I opposed okay likewise all right motion passed item four updates city manager Bard he's advised that he has no updates other than what's on the agenda okay staff Mr President just briefly over here hi um the question was asked before the meeting and so I want to make sure that everyone's on the same page that as I'm sure everyone can see we only have three sitting council members unfortunately at this time um so the applicable law in this area is that a 2 one vote will pass you need at least two votes to pass um any motions okay thank you okay Council I just have comment that I see you've started on the old antique shop that's a good halfway down uh that's wonderful progress and I just wanted to make that comment yes ma yes ma'am we're working hard on that um with that being said we got it barricaded off real good and we're just asking the citizens to stay clear while we get it done okay anything else staff Mr Mayor yes Mr president I have a couple of things first of all last week we did not have a full council meeting we had an investigator but last week was National Police Officer Week and I want to make sure that everybody is aware of it I certainly was uh and our police officers are our last line of defense outside of our own personal home defense so they are an extremely valuable tool for our city and we happen to be blessed with an excellent police force and a First Rate chief of police and I just want everybody to think about it for a moment and reflect on just how fortunate we are to live in Williston Florida where we do have good officers and a good Chief of Police uh I had something else but I'll save it for the end because my mind doesn't work fast enough okay all righty item five new business a discussion with possible action with the city of Williston downtown master plan Katie eah aicp director of planning JB Pro I believe there's a presentation good evening board community members I'm excited um to be here this evening after about nine months of work from your community to present to you uh work the master plan for Wiston Main Street um you can keep moving please let me know when you want me to go to the next okay you can go ahead so what we're going to talk about is um a vision plan for Reinventing the heart of Willison um and as you know we did this through Community effort uh we started this back in the fall we have held four Community workshops um throughout this process we've also presented to the CRA board who was the responsible part party for this activity um and we have been at a couple of popups in the community as well to talk about the project and what the community members feel for it and here is what williston's big ideas for their main street is they want it to be a welcoming place that's interconnected they want it to to be an active Community Center and they really want it to be the heart of Wiston so rather than when we originally came to you um in October to present this idea we had been talking about just focusing in on the downtown which to be honest that area has been studied a number of times by other U planners and in looking at it as a whole along with staff we thought you know what maybe downtown alone isn't the best place for us to focus on um because because we just don't know that we can create enough Synergy for a welcoming active community space in just by just focusing on the downtown Center um so rather than do that we ended up um which is shown on this map that was a part of one of our community activities we ended up with a 2 and a half mile Corridor which we're calling uh Main Street Corridor it starts at the North with your field space and it ends in the South with your school and then it's connected in the center by the community heart um so this opportunity um is actually really unique and we're going to talk about why that there's some challenges that we're going to have to overcome but in the end what the question of the community is going to have to decide which um was made by one of your staff members in in one of our meetings he said does Williston want to become a destination Place I.E a uh a St Augustine or a mount door or does it want to be a through Community I.E a Chiefland or a Belleview um that's that's really what we're talking about here if we proceed with this master plan which is going to take a lot of commitment and some time um we believe we can create something that makes Williston a destination that people want want to come to not just a through place where people drive through or they stop at a one of the chain restaurants and threw their money because it's not going to stay here in willon it's going to be spent here but it's going to go somewhere else where the headquarters of those major companies are so we're really focused on achieving these big Ideas go on um some of the challenges that we have in this area is the unsafe roadway conditions especially on 2741 and 27 and that was part of the reason that we decided not to focus just on downtown because we knew by focusing just on the downtown area we were going to have a real hard time getting through those unsafe walk conditions even we as uh as your consultants and working with planning staff when we would do walking corridors and walking audits of the corridor we were nervous quite honestly uh Crossing 27 um in the center of town so we thought if we're nervous and we do this and we're we're advocates for walkable places then how would the general public how would somebody as a visitor feel comfortable Crossing that space um the other thing was the uninviting spaces they're um there just are a lot of places in your current downtown that are just not something that want people that people want to go to so it is in looking at those ideas and those challenges that we thought about extending this Corridor continue so the vision that we came up with and I'm going to read it um it's going to take a couple of slides so if you just follow as I read uh Foster a vibrant and Eng engaging community space where residents can come together as a as true neighbors of a small town the goal is I missed a page I think there we go the goal is to create a place where people can interact connect and build meaning meaningful relationships whether it's through local Gatherings festivals or everyday interactions Wilston Main Street will serve as a hub for Community engagement residents and visitors will have the opportunity to actively participate in various community activities and events from farmers markets to art exhib exhibitions Wilston Main Street will be a lively space where everyone can find something enjoyable Wilson's historic charm and natural surroundings will play a significant role in the shaping of Wilston Main Street Experience the vision aims to celebrate the town's Heritage while embracing its Scenic Beauty and developing a community four Williston Main Street will be more than just a physical location it will be the welcoming heart of the community reflecting the essence of Willison itself this um this vision for Williston Main Street has been presented to the community um it's also been presented to the CRA and both of them have um fully endorsed this idea and really see that this this opportunity um while it's something that the community is investing in long term is really investing in its future and investing in this place um which makes wellist in a place that people want to come to it's a place for your residents and it's a place for visitors in order to achieve that we've established a number of guiding principles the first one is to build multi-generational spaces so this isn't something that's just for the older community members it's not just something for the Youth or the Working Families it's for everybody there are things along this Corridor that will provide for business own owners there's something that we'll provide for young property owners who are just starting out and young families that are just starting out this is for something that there'll be spaces for seniors there'll be spaces for children all of these will come together um along Willison Main Street and that's actually why we chose this entire quarter because there's already a lot of bones in this area um from your Parks from your public spaces from your city activity centers from the businesses that are already here and from the schools a lot of the components are already there what what's lacking is the connectivity from one area to the next which is what we are looking to do by developing a cultural and Community Hub promoting local businesses again the businesses right now that predominate in Williston are um National change where the dollars come in they they're taking care of of workers but they're not taking care of the long-term investment of Wilson because those dollars leave the community um in the form of of major corporations that are located headquartered elsewhere we would look to create bike and bike bike and pedestrian connections through mixed use design and multimodal Comm Corridor and we would prioritize Main Street as the Hub the central location for this community of Wiston so how do we develop this planning and design strategy first of all we looked at this Coral and because it is 2 and a half miles um and a lot of it has a lot of good bones especially on the North side much of it has yet to be developed especially on the South Side um and then in the city center we have a lot of Redevelopment to go we decided to break it down into five areas starting with the north uh with your fields and public spaces then you would have and and on the south you'd have your school area so you start on the North and the South on kind of clustered areas around public facilities that are aimed at Youth and neighborhoods these are areas that we wouldn't necessarily expect to see a lot of business development in the future but these are where your residents are going to live and they're going to interact they're going to go to school they're going to go to the field space they're going to go watch a baseball they're going to go watch their kids place baseball and they're going to have a walkable Corridor that will take them to other areas um and then the next two areas the B on B and D on this map the two yellow kind of areas those are your transition areas those are where you would have both a variety of economic uses but you'd also have a variety of residential uses in live work opportunities much of the area is already developed in that pattern on the North side um where you have homes which people live in homes that are businesses those two work intercon interc connectedly you have the Heritage Park so a lot of on the North side that development pattern is already really well established um but on the South Side there's there's there's bits and pieces of it but there isn't a lot and then in the city center like we've talked about City Center now connecting this whole area and this is what Williston has an asset that every Community wishes they had they they um and it was really the driving force behind us deciding to go with this longer Corridor and that is the old rail Corridor city of willston owns a very long 2 and 1 half mile corridor of Green Space right now a lot of it is used in swes um but those swes can be piped and um we can find other properties uh which we've talked about with City staff that could be used and purchased for storm water they those properties also could be used for parking space um for the corridor as well as for playground space uh for children um and families so if we were to pipe the swes system and that provides us enough Lane width to have roads to have on street parking and to provide buildings whether those buildings and depending on which section of the corridor it would be located those those buildings could be in the the form of homes um they could also be in the form of businesses and because the city owns that land you have a lot of options at your disposal as to how you would want to manage that property you could sell it uh to a property owner and they could then become responsible for that you could also maintain the land and you could rent it to a property owner whether it's a resident or whether it's a business you could develop a business incubator um along that Corridor which would then provide small businesses an opportunity to develop in this area and then once they're big enough move to a larger space somewhere else on the corridor as hopefully in the city center area um you could also do some residential properties um and you could help provide for affordable housing which is going to be much needed as as workers come to the area because you again could maintain the ownership of the land and that way um you have more control of the cost of the living and the cost of the Residential Properties that are on that property so as we know Florida is experiencing more and more unaffordable housing as price as home prices go up this would be an opportunity that the city would have for at least a segment of your area be able to maintain some ownership of that because you own the land so again you could do everything from selling the properties to maintaining overi to doing some sort of Quasi you own the land and you sell the property um and do some sort of L banking there's a lot of opportunities for you and um we actually propose that that a mixture of those all of the above it's not a one or the other it's an all of the above um would be used um so as we look at this entire quarter and as we described um we have a lot of opportunities to expand our tax base to expand our local businesses to provide for residents residential areas um to provide for a walkable area to provide for a destination place for visitors who want to come um more and more Community people are looking for Unique places to go and spend their money they can buy their their everyday Goods off of Amazon they can buy their groceries and have it delivered to them they all of shopping can be done in a very different way but what people can't do online is they can't get that experience so as more and more big boxes are starting to close um and chain restaurants are explo are closing the what is increasing our opportunities for small businesses who provide an experience who provide a connection to the community those are the kinds of businesses right now that are really thriving and Willison has a unique position Lo in your location between Gainesville and Okala to capitalize on that Economic Development opportunity along this Corridor the biggest challenge that we're going to have to face is working with fot because fot um controls 27 they controls 27 and 41 but we have done traffic studies on this and we believe that we can do some rain Lane repurposing um that would allow for a mixture of uses now we discussed this with the CRA and the CRA to be honest was a little concerned about this idea because what we would do in the lane repurposing is we would look to dedicate two of the travel Lanes currently to to on street parking um and they were concerned about what would happen in an emergency situation well in an emergency situation the on street parking would go back to being used for Lanes so it's again not a have to dedicate for always to a lane repurposing it's allowing for Lane repurposing for the time for most of the time when there isn't the demand for the roadways to be used as four-lane roads and it contributes to the unsafe walking conditions and the reasons that people don't feel comfortable walking and biking along this Corridor um but a still allows for in those times when you have a hurricane or there's something on 75 and people are rerouting through Williston to allow for that increased traffic and increased use of the lanes so now you can move on um so as we look at this we we are evaluating initiatives and we are still continuing to do this with your staff but some of the initiatives that we would be looking at is evaluating your Capital Improvement plan to understand what capital projects we need which fund which projects we would need to go out for funding um I just met with your with your Public Works team this afternoon and we've T we're talking about different ways that we can provide the right investment to or make this Corridor happening uh as you know we are well you should know because you approved it we're about to start on your update of your comprehensive plan that will start next month um and that will establish the land use structure it is one of the biggest challenges besides your roadway system with fot the biggest internal challenge you have developing this is that the current land use policies and standards that are established for your comprehens plan and your Land Development regulations do not allow for this development pattern in fact they do the opposite um if you're the current development was happened you would have another 20 you'd have the same kind of development you're getting along 27 because those are the same standards for the most part that you have on this Corridor so we do need to update your Land Development code we do need to update your comprehensive plan we'll be starting that process next month um we also need to look at some issues that the community brought up in terms of lighting sidewalks uh we would have to identify strategic properties for purchase again we've already started talking to the staff and identifying those properties and those properties would be used for parking they'd be used for storm water retention because once we pipe the swells and we're going to need somewhere to put and retain the the water that's why we would be looking at some strategic purchases of property for doing that uh we could also use these facilities as many communities do they use them for V vent space parking is just big open land so if you have a big Festival that F that that space becomes available for you for a f for event space it also becomes available for um addition property for additional buildings you line the the exterior of the properties with with new businesses and new buildings it's just going to extend the corridor into the neighborhoods so there's a lot of opportunities and some of the properties that we're looking at we're looking at them very strategically as to which ones would be the best to go after and then determining where we would find the funds to do so you can move on um and then again like as I said there's some construction initiatives that we would have to do for extending this Trail um there is one small piece of the prop of the trail that is not owned uh by the city in the rail Corridor and that is the backside of the church to the north um the the there is property above it and there's property below it that's owned by the city but there's a small piece of it that we would have to do a RightWay designation from the church um to obtain in order to extend that trial through that section oh you would ask me ask me on that on to the it's on the back side of the Mormon church but back there by Dixie ly okay I was thinking Church of Christ as fast as I could go thank you so as I mentioned we we we um broke this down into specific sections and a lot of this you're going to hear the same ideas um that that have it uh that we've talked about on kind of the Main Street area but we did break it down by section because there are different priorities so while the issues are the same from the north to the South the the challenges do change and the priorities for those challenges change on the North side you're looking at safety you're looking at vehicular Landscaping you're looking at extending the trail to the field space you're looking at Community design and form the Big Challenge on the North side is that your land use standards and policies so those L use standards and policies are the exact same standards that you have that's building 27 so obviously 27 is more of that autoc Centric Suburban pass through kind of development pattern if any property along 20 along the section of 41 to 27 were to be built today they would be building to those same standards and once you start changing once a quarter starts changing to that standard it's awfully hard to bring it back to a more walkable standard so those are standards we're going to have to evaluate um through the update of your comprehensive plan and then subsequently Through Your Land Development code you can continue you can skip through this part you can skip through this part so then as you get into the north residential business section um the priority here is really on these live work neighborhoods and immortalizing the business the buildings pattern that's already there this is not changing the building pattern uh I was here to update your comprehensive plan two weeks ago and we talked about that the current maps that we're updating your future land use and your zoning map reflect as they are today what these now we would be looking at and I know Miss Jones that you were very concerned about this because you you have been an active member of part of this process as you as you have been miss Hines and you know what we're trying to accomplish and you knew that what you were looking at the map doesn't do that but when we were updating your future future Lan use and Zoning Maps we were just trying to reflect what was already happening we weren't trying to go to the next step of evaluating what should happen that's what we're going to start now now we'll start looking at the shoulds now we'll start looking at what what we have versus what we want and what the difference is there and how do we change that so we do know that we need to make significant changes especially on the North side in order to ensure that this development pattern can happen but we need more deep diving into it and that's process will be starting next month the big connection the big question in here is how do we connect how do we connect to the north how do we connect to the South and then how do we connect to the neighborhoods around it so that the neighborhoods can have access to these resources that are going to exist along the corridor and then how do we transition to the city center how do we make sure that the residential neighborhoods transition to the city center and it isn't done abruptly we want to protect our residential neighborhoods we want to provide for our residential neighborhoods we don't want to have them overtaken by a commercial Corridor so some of the ways we would do that is through Landscaping increased landscape design includes sidewalk connections we would look at treescaping it's really about the design in this component so that the residential areas feel like this is still a residential area even as we develop into a more Active Space Corridor and you can see um the graphic along the right hand side of this presentation is a graphic that was done by our Landscape Architects and they're showing you how much space you actually have and that there is enough space on the roadway to do some um what we what we call um a lane diet so that you can look at how we could use that space differently um using it for on street parking but then again on straight parking we allow for the removal of the cars in an emergency situation so that the transportation could be uh unimpeded and a chance in a time when it when that full roadway is necessary and then as we get to City Center this is an area that has been studied quite a bit as many of you know uh we've had about five studies in the last 15 years on this area um and so much so that when that there was a an article about this in the Florida Redevelopment Association the project we're taking on and they talked about this is another study of a study of a study that Williston has done many times and that's why we really looked at it in a different way we sought to not just redo the study that has already happened because in fact the studies before on the city center have all been absolutely accurate they've all called for the same things that we're asking for now what the difference is is that we're not just looking at the city center because we understood that that something must not have been working right in those previous plans um and that what we think is not working right is that by focusing only on the downtown area you're not going to provide enough impetus in terms of pedestrian and bicycle activity in the downtown to really redevelop downtown um because right now it's a Transportation Hub um and in order for us to change it to a people Hub we really need to provide the impetus and we think the impetus would come by developing uh the main street as a whole not just focusing on the city center and you do that through um downtown events you do that through downtown initiatives uh longterm we would recommend that the city look at the Main Street program The Main Street program is a national program out of the National Historic preservation for trust it's locally the state operation is done through uh the F the department of historic resources and through Main Street which I started my career many years ago um as a director of a main street in Baltimore it is a national program and it provides person and Hands-On resources in the form of a staff person a dedicated staff person whose job it is to make sure that Main Street is thriving that they organize events they work with the property owners um they they work with the city staff it is usually a nonprofit agency that is not necessarily attached to city government but it's some an agency that works with close ly with city government um it's an economic devel an economic development agency they work with small property owners and business owners to make sure they're able to sustain and they work with volunteers from the community around them so that it's very much a volunteer-based thing you have one person one de dedicated staff but the apparates and the operation of the Main Street program is really done through volunteers of the entire community and we would recommend that longterm that the Main Street uh model be brought to Williston to help long-term manage this project in this area and then again F do we're going to have to work with f dot long term as I said we've done the traffic studies we believe that this area is available for aane repurposing um and but it's going to take uh some initiative to bring F do to the table continue so now as we go down to South this is where we think there's a lot of opportunity and that's because unlike the north part which is vastly has either a thriving development pattern or a development pattern that has been established and can be redeveloped um thriving being the north part the north of downtown and the downtown being the part that needs to be redeveloped when you look at the South Side this is where the the Swale system the city's rail trail is mostly underutilized it's right now used mostly As swell system so there's a lot of opportunity um to build a new development pattern to the South and this also is not an area where the fot roads are as impacted we do have some traffic considerations especially during school times um but again we think that this this this new development pattern will help with that because we'll be able to provide more safe opportunities for children to walk and and Bike to School um has a former school planner myself I know that parents um will let their kids walk in by to school but they have to feel safe and right now that Corridor has some sidewalks that are okay but they're okay they're not the best and hopefully through this project we can make that even better for them um and then this is really about land use and form and deciding what you want to do with the corridor we would recommend that the north side of the corridor be more focused on economic resources so small businesses a small business incubator um and then the South Side as you get towards the schools would be more FOC focused on residential um and that you would do some forms of and opportunities for live and work in the same home you know one of the things that that Co did a lot of horrible things and gave us a lot of horrible things but one of the things that it did really well for us and I think it's a thing that we're going to keep is the idea of living and working in your home um you now can you don't have to be in an office and more and more businesses are going to flex time with their with their employees so you can have people who can be working here in willston and their office is you know in the middle in the midwest somewhere I know someone who lives in Florida and their office is in Ohio I know someone who's in who lives in Minneapolis and their office their office is here in Orlando so you don't have to live anymore where you work um so these kind of opportunities are real benefit for a small community like Williston that offers that affordable small town atmosphere that people want to live in um but still allow them to work somewhere else so so that pretty much wraps up um what wraps up the plan we are um we are asking tonight for you to approve this plan so that we can commit submit it to the state as per the grant funded if you recall this project was funded by a grant from the um then Department of Economic Opportunity today the Florida commerce uh and we need to submit our final report by next week so we are asking for approval of of this strategy um and then we will kick it off and make it when we do the compr update of your comprehensive plan um Miss Jones and I have talked about doing kind of four Focus areas one in Focus area being the main street so we would have a specific targeted component of the comprehensive plan that would focus on the implementation of the strategy so if there's any questions I'm happy to answer them yep otherwise we ask for approval of the strategy okay any questions I years ago and Mr Mayor might correct me on this but we used to have where it was just one lane in each Direction in street parking and they did away with that so not de so again Florida the Florida Department of Commerce has um a new model called the complete street it's complete streets model and you have to work with them um in order to do what is called a lan repurposing project um and we we would not suggest that that happen immediately we don't see that as an immediate phase of the project we really see the D the South part of the development of the South part of this project being the first thing where fot is not a concern but where fot will work with a local community is if you start getting enough um pedestrian traffic and they start recognizing that there is a need there's a need to provide for safe walk bike conditions um then you can then you move towards it so we see it as a later phase we first need to provide the reason for that evaluation um but we have done the traffic study counts and we've looked at your traffic study counts on this area um and and they fall within the area that a lane repurpose What's called the lane repurposing um would be allowed we also would not be looking at the laning repurposing would not be at the very heart of the intersection that intersection would stay forward Lanes at the very heart of it it would be outside of it there's and there are some other Alternatives that we're looking at for the crossing of 27 um there are some different ways we could many of them are much more expensive you you could do a bridge overpass um you can do a bridge underpass there are other options but right now when you're at that intersection there's actually only crosswalks on three sides there's one side of it that's doesn't even have a crosswalk um and it is not a very safe walking condition you can also put without doing a full Lan repurposing you could do some divided mediums at least that gives pedestrians a place to land as they're going across the road we would also be recommending even without a lan repurposing that we would look at additional Crossings uh along the corridor along 2741 um so that people from the neighborhoods can get to Heritage Park if you're when you're here um and we've we spent quite a bit of time not just here doing activities but here coming and visiting when there's parking when there's events happening so that we can see the kind of activity and how people are getting around and it's kind of scary Christmas your your Christmas event is at night it's dark and people were trying to cross and you still have a lot of vehicular traffic that's on the roadway so looking for additional cross wings that would make it safer with lighted crossings that are um time so that Vehicles know that they need to stop if in case a pedestrian is in the way there's or pedestrian is looking to cross there's a lot of different traffic calming bike ped efforts that we could do before we ask for repurposing and just to make things safer for people to walk and bike in this area okay thank you all right do Council I have any more questions or anything okay Miss Belo can this be done as a vote as a motion or a consensus which you'll you'll have a motion and a vote on this okay thank you all right nobody else has any uh comment I will entertain a motion I would move approval of the Williston downtown master plan plan for submission all right is there a second I'll second all right any other discussion all right we'll move to vote all in favor say I I I all right let the record show it's three to zero motion passed thank you very much all right Item B discussion with possible action General employee pension changes city manager Terry Bard and BJ Bishop General pension board member good evening Council so I'm now a member of our pension board here at the city and at our last meeting our two meetings ago it was brought up that they wanted to see about um doing maybe a 30 and out a 25 and out or possibly um also using the um the overtime as um part of compensation for the retirement so we asked our pension board to um do a study on this and they did a study and I think you each got a copy of that study for what it would cost to do those three things this would not replace the 62 an out this is just another option for the retirement um the pension board reviewed this at our last meeting and they voted and we voted for the number two the um 25 years of service with the option to get out um but we wanted to bring it to you guys to see what your opinions [Music] were all right Council have any questions Brook you got me on yes sir go ahead hello Brook yes you're on Terry go ahead anybody there hello hello sir yes Terry we have you I lost I lost the hearing now you got me yeah go ahead okay so can everybody hear me yes all right good thank you so sorry I couldn't be there tonight but you know I wanted to just kind of add a little bit of information to the presentation is being presented tonight so far if if you'll see in front of you and correct me if you if you can't hear me there are there are three options I will remind you that two of the options the 25 and year out and the 30 year and out will require some additional compensation on behalf of the city to make that happen now we'll also point out that there's $160,000 I think excess in the plan uh kind of a rainy day fund that could be used to to look at that and maybe to to help in uh easing up that additional cost and they're like item number two and number three and then during the um General employees pension fund I also brought up the fact that this could likely uh be something that we will have to go to the union about if the contract is proved tonight for the city employee and I'll add that I think gets premature until we pass the Union contract because we need to go there after we pass the contract not approve this before it's a good point which is why I I didn't bring it to you before now it's it deep in the product there's 127 pages in our packet and you've only got the agenda it's it's been online all week yes sir yes sir what part are you missing this entire explanation of the various one two and three is not available to the typical person it is only okay after you get into it and you go down to the number of the page but we don't put all of that out if you we do it's actually I can give you some highlights what was that Mr bravard I I can give you some highlights of of kind of how this whole thing got started and give you an idea of of where I got to my opinion on it if you'd like yes I would personally like to hear it okay thank you Mr Mayor so so anyway so as yall all know back when I was a deputy chief I uh I came in front of the city council and requested you know a uh the contract to be not the contract but pension be altered to a six-year vesting and I I did that because the council chairman uh Captain Fortney had asked me to do that on his behalf and and the councils so when I did that we knew we were already opening up the books and the actu was already looking into our books and we were trying to think of an Innovative way to attract retain and keep you know uh high level employees which we've been very successful at it over at the police department um by moving the 10e investing down to six years and uh and so the basically the same con concept was when I learned that the the city pension actuar were looking into the pension uh numbers and books you know that's when I said look if you're looking for a change the right time to do it is now because it'll cost you a fraction of the money to come in and take a look this and come back with some numbers and I think it was only like a couple thousand dollars to have it done and could give us some options if we wanted to change the pension um now I do know that our pension for the city employees are is currently I think uh 30-year vesting um and you cannot actually draw to your 62 you know so my only concern was for the employees is that you could literally be able to retire at 55 and unfortunately could not draw your retirement till 62 and uh so you basically have seven years that you're kind of in limbo land and not doing a whole lot um now I will say that they came back with these three options and these options do benefit different sections of the civilian employee staff differently like if you have 10 years here and basically um you want to include your your um overtime and and that's going to bump up your overall fiveyear best plan that's going to B benefit an employee that's older and has not been here that long obviously when you look at and I don't want to pick on Alex but you know Alex is a is a senior member of our team and I hope I get this right he's I think below 25 or very close to 25 so he he could do 30 years here and would literally have to go out and get another job until he could start collecting his pension at 62 um so I thought it was a worthwhile take a look but I also did caution them uh Mr Mayor that when we go to do this or look at this that we cannot discount the union the CBA into the decision making here because it is a benefit that's going to change on behalf of the employees that will benefit them um and I think it needs to be discussed with the Union that is if we approve the contract but that's how we got to where we are tonight I agree 100% And I will say um as a member of the pension board um we they did originally come to us about the overtime pay the compensation hours that we realized that the police department gets but the general employee was not getting so that was what we um initially asked the actuary to look at but as we looked at that and talked with the gentleman who represents us with the uh Florida League of cities he said well go ahead and tag on because at that same meeting we it wasn't actually on our agenda if I don't believe no Mr Terry right at the meeting it was brought up that the 25 and out might be a really good additional option and as he said while we were doing the Actuarial evaluation uh that they do that at the same time so it wouldn't we wouldn't have to do it again so it would cost less so that's why we did both of them at the same time and this is the the actuary's opinion on how much he believes that it will cost us um however I do believe as city manager has said it is a benefit that is a change and I believe that we need to first pass the Union contract and then go back and negotiate with the union for this benefit is this benefit going to be by itself or is it going to be in conjunction with something else another benefit it it'll be integrated into the plan and as Miss Bishop has said the 30 and out will still exist but the um well no the 30 and out won't that's what we have now but the 62 an out will still exist so if you get to 62 before your 30 years you can choose either one and any change that we make is going to have to be done by ordinance so we're going to have to change right an ordinance to codify this by law just like we did with the police pinion that's right we need an ordinance before you tonight in order to V on that um this was more my opinion op I'm sorry bam it's okay go ahead Terry no and so my opinion I think we do have time with this the the actual time to take effect will not be until October one um so we do have time to step back you know maybe get some guidance from the city council as to what they would like us to do because as you know the the pen boards both the police and the general employee pension boards are representatives of both the staff and the city and the retirees so any decision that we make is going to affect a broad spectrum of people it's not retroactive so unfortunately if somebody left next month um it's not going to come back and and pick them up it won't be effective till October one so that will have us that will give us enough time to look the three items you have here maybe have some further discussion about what we think is best for the city um to also be able to talk to the union after the contract is renewed tonight if yall move forward on it um and it will also give me the opportunity to take a look at the general pension and see how much money is extra in there like I said it's minor standard is about $116,000 that's extra in there that's kind of like a rainy day fund and I think the police pension has about 40 and and they are they have a significantly strong uh pension plan so the pension plan's doing real well and we may be able to offset some of this cost by dipping into that 160,000 yeah because if you see the two plan like number two it's going to cost the city 40,000 um in 2023 24 um and 20 for the other one 30 now is roughly 24,000 um until we make up the difference the sum that's owed um so I I I me as a city manager and the lead administrator there I have no problem with doing the 30 out but be honest with you U that's because where I come from it's a pretty standard thing that may not be what we want and we really need to seek some guidance from the city council as to which way to move forward and I'll yield I also believe that we need to consider we may not be able to afford both of these at the same time we may we may not be able to do 25 an hour or 30 an out whichever one we choose and the overtime hours because that's an additional 5% for us and them and they they pretty much have agreed to it you know they want to give uh the additional 5% of their overtime hours into the pension so they can build their nest EG faster we may not have the money to do both of these things I don't believe the city should be paying for overtime to be invested into retirement overtime is a privilege it's not regular hours yeah for me when I read um option two and three kind of reminds you like with the military yeah they spend so many years in they can retire then they have that option that they can go on to another job work 20 years or whatever right and get another pension with that so um and on two and three of course you would choose one of those right not both of them but number one is a totally separate issue and the dollars are pretty hefty so we would we I don't know that we could afford both of them at this in the same year at the same time and I guess the question is do are we going to table it until we discuss it with the union or are we going to go forward with the discussion Mr Mayor thank you Mr President one of the things that as I look at this is I was on the council during a period when Union negotiations did not go well and the rule at that time which I assumed the people in charge of the negotiations were accurate was if a negotiation fails everything Remains the Same that means the city continues on with what is currently in Force if negotiations fail what I don't understand is we have three things here if I can ask you miss PJ you're not your your board is not suggesting all three of them these are alternatives correct yes sir yes sir okay so you're saying you would like the city to either consider one or two or three well between the two the three one like Miss Deborah said is totally separate so we're more looking at two and three making one or the other either 25 and out or 30 and out not both so you could choose item one and two together or one and three together or just one two or three So currently if I understand this plan uh you can work for 30 years not be 62 years old retire on this plan but you can't receive any of your retirement pay exactly until you turn 62 exactly that is the the problem that I have yes if you have reached 30 years of employment at a place and say you started young then you have to as it was stated here you have to go out and find other employment to survive until you finally turn 62 yes sir uh I find that and and at least with 30 and out that means at 30 years you can get your your retirement yes sir and 25 and Out means at 25 years you can get your retirement yes sir that's what these are saying yes sir okay so my question is we can't Implement these as councelor Jones said without the union but if we don't have one of these as an opportunity to show the Union what we would like to do we can't negotiate with them yes sir that's the way I see it I agree Mr Bard if you're on is that the way you see this I I see Mr Mayor I hope everybody can hear me I see Mr Mayor no matter what we do we have to go back in to have a negotiation with the Union about this and and let me just say on this when it comes to the union negotiations you know we we may enter the room guarded uh but we leave as professional friends and we work out our differences and we don't always see you know AG grieve the same way but I do believe that we're all there to do the best we can for the employees of the city and it is not by any means of adversary even when we are somewhat adversary it's not uh and so negotiation with the Union has not been an issue we have obviously agreed on some things and disagreed on some things and I read the law a little differently sometimes they read a little differently but we both have labor attorneys that help guide us through the process uh I think you're correct and I I need to go back and whatever the city council does um I need to have that and have a discussion with the Union about it so because it is a big change if I may ask Mr Bard are you saying that if you're going to do negotiations if the council chooses to pass one of these they would be passed subject to Union negotiation and not Ironclad no matter what is that accurate well yes b s and I don't want to confuse you here if if the union if we do something that benefits the employee uh more above and beyond what we've already agreed to in the contract um the union really doesn't have an issue because the employee is benefiting from that change um uh and you know it's a good thing so U however I I do believe in this sense where if we pick number three um I can go back to the union and say look we're willing to do this and basically you know where are y'all at on this and of course the union president and the vice president which are employees to the city are there both of them would benefit from either two or three or maybe even one uh but I just think it needs to go back to the table so we can talk about it and then like I said we can get back trust me if y'all when y'all when y'all approve this contract tonight negotiations are going to start immediately um you know with them on other things they're going to they're going to want to come back to the table and talk to us and that's what y'all pay me to do [Music] so I know that was a long yes but yes I think we have the cart before the horse and we don't have a resolution in here at all yeah you you don't I think we're I think in my case what I'm looking for is a city manager some guidance how to move forward um from y'all I mean if if I go in there thinking I want to go for item number two and the board is absolutely against it then I've negotiated with the Union um I don't want to say not good faith but you know I've negotiated something I don't have the authority to deliver um and and that is one of the benefits of coming to you now and talking to you about it is that we can get some sort of guidance from you but guidance is all it is um they may come up with something else they may say well we want 20 an now and then where am I at then well I've already done the number for 25 and 30 so I'd have to go back the city pension would have to open the books back up pay the actuary $10,000 to figure out what 20 what 20 now looks like I'm not paying for it the city pension out's paying for it um and I would also like to know uh what what the union members if they if we can only choose one which one do they prefer it well I know from the meeting they all preferred options number two well they came to us initially with number one is what I'm saying I don't want to hear from a department H I really don't yeah uh they originally came to us with number one uh two and then the other two got added in the meeting uh so I don't know which one is their priority and it would be if we're if we're negotiating a Union contract to me it's go ask the members of the Union that's part of put it yeah if you put it in the in the contract right um and then basically the union members would have an opportunity to vote yes or no on that contract and they would have a a voice by that vote uh yes or no so but that would mean opening up the contract coming up for October and there could be other things that may want to negotiate which I suspect they will anyway Mr you have something oh he's the boss I just didn't want to hear you why I was talking I just wanted to correct the record um this went before Council when I was a union member I was a secretary of the Union option number one and it was presented inappropriately we didn't do it by ordinance but the council at the time actually consented to that so obviously there wasn't an actuary done we we recognized that the ordinance wasn't done properly uh when when Terry became the city manager he corrected the course on that but this was discussed and I also wanted to point out because the comment was made that the city shouldn't pay for overtime the city is paying for overtime with other staff members the police pension has this in their pension so the statement could be made we shouldn't do that for employees but it is being done for some employees there's a disparity between the two um the overtime is counted toward their pension so it was trying to equalize those uh because we thought that that was the fair thing to do so again this went before Council I believe almost two years ago now and it's been going back through the board and working out that as as uh as we were supposed to do legally if you may I would also comment that there are other things that are different about the 185 pension plan for the police department because of their um category is being shortterm like their their time out is 55 not 62 and their vesting is six years our vesting for the general employees is five so there are many things that are different they're not the same because they're not the same category of employee correct and and they're classified as so um and that's why they get a 3% multiplier however the city employees gets a 2.25 multiplier which is really good yes it is good everybody can't believe ours is 2.25 Miss first of all um it it just kind of makes me pause when every time we come before and talk about getting money for employees that we are um looking at what somebody else is getting to try to get what it is that you have that's not the issue um I may not have been around when that was voted on that was decided my opinion is still stands that I don't feel like the city should be play paying and investing in to a pension for overtime your base pay your salary absolutely but not for overtime so what the police department is getting and how they did their um negotiations was before me you want the opinion that is my opinion I don't agree with one I can look at two or three but I still don't agree with one and that's my opinion so is it my understanding that one is in there regardless and then we vote with oh no sir I I was is just like Miss Jones said I wasn't uh saying anything as far as a recommendation at all I was just giving you the history of how that started why one was even on there it was something that the union negotiated one year in a closed session uh and that was what was said and then the process wasn't followed through correctly at the time that was all I was stating was that was why one was on there clarification you did say that it was one or two or three and that if you do two one's not in there I think that's what the president was asking if you do two three is not in there if you do three two is not in there she said if you do one do two one's included do three one is included or totally or it could be one two or three please let her answer one is totally opposite that's so tonight if you guys decided to vote you could say okay we're going to give you number one and that's it yes so stand alone it's a stand alone okay or you can say we're going to give you number two and that's it and no number one no number one okay or number three that's what I thought you to say or you could choose to add number one if you want to not because you have to okay okay thank you for the clarification you're welcome do we have any more questions okay so you mentioned this should be tabled I would move that we table I would move that we table it until a further date uh after the Union contract is complete and we could negotiate with the union for the benefit and at that time you'll know which one they want because they'll tell you miss Bishop how does that sound I'm at your mercy I'm at the council's mercy okay as kind of if we would have put this at the end since the negotiation is tonight or the contract you still have to negotiate with the unit and I understand that but if we tell them what we would like to offer the negotiations will go smoother yeah can y still hear me yes sir okay so uh Mr President so what would happen is if we would go back and negotiate with the union and the representatives from the employees so it's not like you know we're just talking to the union representative I mean it's a group of three or four people plus you had HR myself you know so I don't want anybody think we're just negotiating with the Union the unions that to represent employees and employees are absolutely involved in this discussion they are the union if if they and yeah and and I you know um I I have no problem doing any of this um I like I said I'm the one that brought it up originally um I couldn't understand why you could do 30 years as Mr Mayor said and walk away insect to go get a job um if you had to and and maybe it's because of where I came from and the year spent over in law enforcement but it's just not the standard you know that I know of um so I'm at the mercy of the council whatever yall want us to do but keep in mind if come back to the table it'll be a short tripping back it will not be we we ain't coming back to you in October with this it'll be sooner than you think so right that was going to be next question is how soon might we be able to get this back on the agenda for us if if if I get a contract tonight um we I'm sure the the the union Representatives would have no problem meeting with me um at you know their convenience are my convenience I have obviously a slight medical issue to work out but um other than that it would be soon because it's it really doesn't take effect till October one regardless of what we do so we have plenty of time to meet with the Union discuss with employees talk about the negotiations develop an ordinance because remember it's got to be changed by ordinance and then for a first and second reading and only then will it be ready for October one I can assure you um that that it will be ready by October one through all that process okay thank you sir and I put a motion on the floor it either needs to have a second or die for lack of a second what's your motion again motion it again what was your motion my motion was to table it until after we completed the Union contract and could bring it back in form of an ordinance that's it that motion I agree all right so do you hear a second on the motion you have a second all right is there any other discussion seeing none we vote all in favor of table this to a later date I I I there's no the motion's passed thank you Council I think you got us all three yeah all right item C resolution [Music] 2024-the City Willis Williston city council president to sign an agreement for Project Specific professional consultant services for the city Engineering Services with r Pierce Inc in providing an effective date Public Works supervisor Mr Donald Barber uh thank you sir uh one of the many trouble areas for storm water retention found in previous studies is uh Southeast Fifth Street area near East Noble and Southeast First AV due to increased weather events uh for the past few seasons the area surrounding erson park has caused some level of damage to this area due to increased flow from storm water runoff uh residents and business owners near this area they've reached out to staff and the City of Williston Engineers to look at what can be done and the proposal that you have before you is the outcome um staff is recommending approval if uh you all don't mind uh Walt nickel is here from right Pierce he can go over specifically over the proposal and kind of uh talk to you about uh why we have a need for it Mr what if you would sir turn your microphone on thank you sir sorry Walt nickel with right Pierce thank you um if you don't mind I'll read the first paragraph of our proposal because I think it sums up the issue to the the best that we can assess um but the area has experienced frequent flooding during and I'm talking I'm sorry um this is the area as Donald had mentioned Southeast Fifth Street uh south of East Noble road across the street from the CVS so this area has experienced frequent flooding during moderate rain events our observations indicate that a storm Inlet on the east side of the road is set higher than the surrounding grade its discharge pipe is failed and the discharge pipe end is blacked with soil storm water runoff from the from that bypasses the storm water inlet down the driveway for the home at 15 Southeast 8 Street improper Road grades and cross slopes also cause pounding in the grass area along the west side of Southeast F Street and a discharge Swale that conveys water to a quy to the east functions poorly it is our opinion that improvements to the drainage inlets piping and swes and regrading of driveways and the adjacent roadway pavement can reduce flooding for more frequent and smaller storm events however discussions with the former owner of 15 Southeast Fifth Street indicate that severe flooding occurs at the property during Hurricane or tropical storm type events that causes extreme flooding Regional flooding Please be aware that the proposed design improvements contained in this scope of services cannot address the hurricane or tropical storm type events much more extensive and costly analysis design and construction efforts would be required to improve drainage during those types of events so what we're looking at is your more common typical rain events causes flooding it causes things there is also a big Regional problem that what we're going to look at and propose to do is not going to fix that that's a much bigger larger but your typical smaller you know we call a fiveyear storm event or something that that happens on a regular basis that there's ponding and flooding that's happening and we can do that we're proposing to you know construct a new Inlet regrade the piping regrade the ditch that goes to the Quarry change the paving grade right in that immediate area that causes ponding in the grass area and it's a it's a small area it can fix that problem and alleviate problem but not this big picture there's a widespread flooding and you have other areas within the city that would need a much bigger bigger solution so we would prepare the designs for that uh we'd get a topographical survey use McMillan surveying for for doing all that get survey that area that's in the the area with surveys in The Proposal uh we'll design the improvements kind of do a 50% design work with staff find that design we believe that we are exempt from uh storm water permitting for this because we're not altering we're just fixing the current drainage problems but we would have a meeting with the Water Management District and get their uh you know decision that no permit is is needed uh prepare the construction plans put it out for bid bid the project for you know public bidding like we do you know black 12 and John Henry Park um and it and get that ready for bid so that's what this proposal does yes sir you have used a single address how many houses will benefit from this work um there you know the the parking that is across the street along CBS who's parking there there is a hair nail salon next to that that would benefit the restaurant at the corner uh Mexican restaurant probably get some spill off and overflow um that that one house at 15 the water from the road just wipes comes down their driveway and affects that home also the park and yeah and it goes into the park the city park um we're talking abon Park yes yes it's where Heritage Salon is U and it's a two-story building and when the Hurricanes came it completely flooded that the downstairs the downstairs is strictly used for parking um there weren't any buildings down there unless Heritage has done something different when Mr McMillan there was there it was where he parked all his trucks yeah yeah um there is some parking be behind back yeah and and at that time the water actually overflowed the pond at Heritage Park yeah and came all the way up in there and it took weeks for it to go away now what we're proposing I won't do that yes wouldn't fix that cuz that is a regional problem that quarry fills up we've got some other things it does that's a and that's a big event like you said 100e storm yeah yeah I just wanted to make that clear we're looking at but that's the location he's talking about okay and I think it's maybe one house in that Salon yeah they're and I can't maybe back very close or very small setback between the two but that driveway because the catch base is in front of the house when it doesn't capture the water the pipes are clogged it's at a wrong elevation and a slope it it just blows out down that driveway yes all right does council have any other questions Mr Bishop so as we talk about this don't forget that it's going to help alleviate the erosion of the road that's in dire street thank you anyways and it's going to prevent the flooding of of the side of the road I'm going to hurt you it's going to prevent the flooding of the uh CVS side of the road also which is called what I was asking I was trying to understand why we would be investing this amount of money for one dwelling and you're telling me there are other factors that Mr Wright did not say yes and no yes so the house is a factor the park is a factor the road is a factor and the CVS side of the of the road is also a factor so when it rains it just floods everything and Mr Mayor to answer your question about to effect this is part of a plan that you all adopted in a study that was done on the house bill 53 if you remember the state mandated that we study out all the storm water needs of the city and it forced us to create a priority list that we could go to get grants and funding for there were very uh there were very many specific areas that were put on that list that was produced and presented to the council then and this is one of the top ones and it was because of the severity of it so it's it's not necessarily how many people are affected it's the Fallout from it overall that's prioritized and it also has a lot to do with what we could go and find further on to make the fix so this is a proposal to be built to fix it but as far as putting out the bid and actually getting the money grant funding would be part of that and that's why this one is one of the ones that were chosen thank you so GR funding is part of this uh that would be a Second Step Beyond that this is right now the design this does not include specific Grant a grant so the city will be paying for the design and then you will attempt to get grant funding before you come back and tell us you want a million dollars to fix it um we we are constantly looking for Grants we're in com discussions with staff regularly for sewers and and different things there's there is a an opportunity this summer called the uh brick grant that is for drainage uh there were some problems last year that um you know the city wasn't able to apply for we have the 7th Avenue Northwest 7th Avenue lined up for that this could also apply for that so we would have to make a decision come this summer what are your your priorities and you can submit for more than one or two but if you ask for too much it kind of waters down your request thank you but this this could be in that queue to ask for grant funding and I I do see that as an issue in this location I see Fourth Street and First Avenue actually becomes impassible I've never seen this section become impassible it does flood that one Business Without A Doubt so I think one of the reasons why this was on the priority list is because if we fix and we get to to Fourth Street and First AV on the Southeast side we're going to have to figure out some way to design it for where it's to go and I think part of that solution will be fixing this problem and routing it in this particular Direction together so I think it's kind of like working from the source of the problem back and addressing it as we go is kind of how staff looked at it so Mr President M Rose yes um so Ju Just a thought the the the one of the the reasons why we're looking at doing the engineering is because we keep seeing the term and y'all hear it uh a lot is being shovel ready now whether or not this is the project we want to be shovel ready on um that's totally up to the council but this does make a shovel ready for a project that we could do with the support of Grants only I I can tell you right now the city budget does not support um the idea of doing this project out of our own Revenue stream it's just too costly okay please Chief Rose thank you and my question is where's the money this 36,000 going to come from so we have a storm water budget that's been in the last two budgets so we would take a contingent out of there approximately half and then we have uh the miscellaneous fund that we service that also is approved by Council that is budgeted for um that 75,000 and so the other half would come out of that so those are the two sources ultimately if Steven were on the line he could talk about it more okay then there you go please Chief rolls just to clarify I'm just try trying to understand this the 41,000 not to exceed is for the design that the city pays and then we hope that we get a grant to pay for the work is that what you're saying W yeah this would get us in line where we can apply bu grant money for construction but there's no guarantee on a grant there yeah there no guarantee and have we done design and construction on Northwest 7th Street no that one we just did some conceptual design we've done very preliminary under the miscellaneous Services where we put together some Concepts that one for the brick fund we think we did enough to get you the Grant and that that we did some of that was a marketing charge that we did uh we did that on our marketing effort there was a little bit of compensation uh done through the miscellaneous services for that too I remember that yeah so we s emergency situation Just Jump Right In yeah that application is lined up and ready to go once they open that Grant window which we think will probably be uh July of this year that would actually be my first priority because it's flooding those two houses yeah routinely so to answer the chief of police what you're say suggesting is that if we do this we will then have a trouble ready uh the shovel sh shovel ready trouble ready shovel yes uh ready to go and it it would it greatly enhance our possibilities of getting the gr you always you always have a better chance you get more points when you're show thank you yes okay okay all right anybody have any other comment all right um I will entertain a motion for resolution 20 24- 61 he entertainment motion for approval we're looking at each other you're it girl I would make resolution 202 24- 61 for discussion all right is there a second second have second to motion any other discussion I would just say as long as the money's there I mean that would like what three shovel ready projects then that we would have or just two shovel ready projects uh that would be two on storm water there's other ones on I me of course John Henry's underway there are a couple more but they're dealing with septic to sewer and some other things okay all right so any other discussion if none I move to vote all in favor say I I I all right let the record show there's three eyes uh motion is passed sorry thank you all right all right item D resolution 202462 a resolution of the city council of the city of Willison Florida approving the asme American Federation of state and County and Municipal Employees General employee Union contract city manager Terry Bard thank you Mr President so just to kind of uh give you a real brief quick hit on this so the the union and myself uh and then HR Director Crystal Patterson met and uh discussed the uh Union contract you know for the employees you know after she left there was further discussion uh with the CBA and the employees about the contract I I will tell you that the contract that you have in front of you um will give the employees no more than what they're already getting today um you know the the path we moved forward in October of last year was very very generous in the sense of pay raises and basically exceeded the initial discussion or requests from the uh Union and so so in this particular case you know um this thing has been hammered out over uh plenty of moments conversations discussions me meetings emails uh word smithing and I will tell you that on if you look at the contract on line 349 there is still a slight grammar issue where it says C and then commencement so we will if y'all choose to pass that tonight we will correct that um and uh my recommendation as we move forward that we we uh approve this contract all right does council have any questions I have some general questions okay um yes my first one is is it in here anywhere did I just miss it who is covered by this this Union contract and who is not covered by this Union contract if it's here I did not find it and I look twice well it's it says and I could go to it fulltime employees are covered by the Union contract um whether or not they're represented by the union um Council or representative uh by union representative uh is is not the same thing as as included in the contract so you have a majority of employees that voted for the contract the contract the union is here uh legally and basically because of that I mean the only thing that a non-doing employee would not be covered would be in benefits of the Union offers and their legal guidance you know when it comes to uh grievances or anything like that um anybody cment they like I will tell you that the same grievance process in the HR manual except for the arbitration um is included into all employees so did that answer your question not quite I don't think um so are I know that all employees are covered no matter whether they're in the union or not I know they're based by it but [Music] are exempt employees covered by it to my recall they're not and it doesn't say that in here in here anywhere so I don't know if that's still the case so in on line 48 9.1 it reads no permanent employee shall be removed discharged reduced in rank or pay suspended or otherwise disciplined except for Just Cause and in no event until the employee has been furnished with a written statement of the charges and the reasons for such actions the statement will notify the employer of their rights and grieve to grieve and to discipline pursuant to provisions of article six of this agreement right I I don't really I don't really have a question about the grievance procedure or the discharge or discipline um I like as you said it pretty much reads the way we we have it right now but my question is are all employees covered are are exempt employees hourly I think is am I right and only hourly employees are covered but salary employees are not it does not employees are not not covered well it doesn't say that anywhere in here that I could find correct and I think it should say that if that's the case it says all permanent employees M so I guess my question is again is it only hourly employees that are covered by the union and are exempt employees not covered by the union and if that's not the case our Charter employees covered that's another question I would have Charter officers definitely Charter employees are not covered um I mean I think I know the answers to my questions but nowhere does it say it in here when you say exempt are you speaking of supervisory Sal salaried employees I don't they're cover your supervisory employees are not covered why does it not say that in here great question because right now it says all all full all permanent employees so I really believe um and like I said I went back and looked again just to make sure I couldn't couldn't find it but I could not find it anywhere so we have to register through perk for the union and perk themselves has a description of who's eligible and who's not eligible and exempt employees are not eligible okay remember doing Union negotiations in years past and that was the case but as I said where is that in yes ma'am because it's all through perker ready stated it's a document they have to provide before we even apply for a union or even negotiate okay so we could we adopt some exhibit a or exhibit B I think we have an exhibit a already so I think it's would be exhibit B that actually says that yeah we could include that as a matter of fact the original one was submitted back when the original contract was signed and we went through and updated every position um and job description and as Alex said that was recorded with perk as our positions that are covered by the union if I may Mr President thank you um if you take a look at article one um pursuant to what we were just talking about it does mention um that this contract is regarding the employees in within the bargaining unit covered by perk Certification Number 1657 issued February 4th 2008 so if if our desire is to go is to attach that that that's fine but I think that it's it's sufficiently described in there I think that anyone yeah and I'm not disputing that I agree 100% I remember that that's why I looked for it um I think if if anybody picked this up they wouldn't know that absolutely attaching it can make it more clear absolutely I just wanted to point out that was referenced in there okay um else and I don't think the yeah I don't think the union would have any issue with us attaching no the most recent job listings and positions you know uh to this contract because we actually worked very hard at updating that it was way off from back in 2008 we do all I think guess the main thing just want to make sure our employees are taken care of I want to make sure our employees are taken care of and the city's taken care of yes that's our job our job is to protect both yeah think if Alex is still there I mean I would my question to him would be as the union president you know would he have any problem with us in fixing that uh as an exhibit you know of those positions and and they're going to change um but they drastically changed from 2008 till today when we redid them all yes sir we wouldn't have a problem with adding that as the exhibit yeah and I think actually it's a good idea to put it in there to be honest and that was the only question I had I marked a couple of other things but I had them answered by the HR Director before we started and I would feel much better if it was attached so that anybody who picked this up would know that [Music] okay so would we just add that to the resolution adding that exhibit yes you could just add that to the motion um and then that would be it would be approved subject to that being added and that yeah yeah and then we also need to UNH highlight lines 369 or 370 and if you read that that's because the communications officers have the potential to be covered uh under the union your the communications officers have the ability to join the union if they want um and they are part of the overall numbers um that basically they can do that so um you at p 36937 it just mentions the in all police department policies and procedures so if there's a question as far as like the HR manual for like uh the utility staff that's pretty simple the problem is is when you cross over um into the police department there's other policies and procedures that govern their activities that are sometimes more restrictive than um a director HR manual that the chief may take discipline action on you know based on his internal policies it's on page 75 lri yeah and all that talks about is the arbitrator if it goes to an arbitrator that basically the arbitrator would have the authority to review the HR manual and the all police department policies and procedures to help the arbitrator make a decision you got a question me go for it I make a motion that we approve resolution 202462 with the addition added exhibit of the perk guidelines exhibit B I second the motion any other discussion move to vote all in favor I have I have a question number three talks about the arbitrator and arbitrator uh May refer to the human resource manual and all police department policies and procedures oh sorry yeah number three I think yours is 75 this page 19 but as it says arbitrator May refer to the human resource and manual in all police department policies and procedures but nobody in the police department is part of the Union but but I can I can answer that so your Communications division is eligible to be a part of the Union based on their classification but they're not but that's on them they can choose to be a part of the union and take advantage of those benefits but if they're not does this still stand it still does because it still gives them the option that if they do become part of the Union that it covers that position okay so it's it say when they become part of the Union that this is available no it's just that position is part of the perk um classifications so it it covers that whole position does that does it me to say and all yeah all it's saying is that if if they became a union member and it something if the chief disciplined them and basically it went to an arbitration the AR trator has the authority to look into the chief's policies and procedures to see if the if what the person did uh is caused for you know the discipline and um and that's that's all really guaranteed it just uses it as so your your general orders are already attached through the HR manual yeah because your policies and procedures are different than ours yes so and that's just and it gives them a reference point that if you dis somebody in Communications based on your policies they can refer to those policies with any gri be be honest with you Chief yours yours are going to be much more stricter they're going to be the opportunity not that they ever would but there could be violations from you know FCC NCC um any of those kind of violations that you have specifically written stuff up on that would cause you concern if the employee did something wrong where you could end up disciplining them but if they were part of the Union Union the arbitrator would have the opportunity to go back again and look at your policies and procedures they're all public record anyway so should this possibly read the arbitrator May refer to the HR manual as well as all police department policies and procedures for communications officers so it's specific that it's not for the police offic but officers but it's just not dispatch it's Arizona's position is is that of in the same also so it just doesn't handle Communications it handles the administration so in the guidelines does it exempt sworn police officers yes I'm good yes okay long as it says that I'm good yeah I'm I agree as long as it that's part of the guidelines that they have that that will be good yeah do we have the per regulations with us I don't they weren't here that or I would have known the answer to my question that I knew the answer to it's reference in article one I don't have article one I apologize I'll get that for you okay all right so we've had a first and a second except article one doesn't tell you what the perk guidelines are it refers to it but it doesn't tell you what they are so I can tell you that all of all of the Union contracts are covered under Florida State statutes including perk um so you you can I go to the Florida State statues to find what I need yeah yeah it refers to them constantly all through this yeah and trust me they'll refer them right back to you and like I said I wanted to make sure everybody understands we are not at odds with the CBA um or the representation of them with our employees matter of fact I I kind of enjoyed the negotiations we'll definitely keep that in mind yeah you're welcome all right any else all right so we've had a a motion we had a second all in favor I I I direct record show the AIDS have it motion passed all right thank you very much all right item e discussion was possible action approving the line of credit loan with SE Co Bank of Willison city manager Terry Bard Mr President just briefly before Terry jumps in the resolution wasn't included in your packet so the res there is a resolution that goes with this um you have the promisory note and the loan agreement which is authorized by the resolution so this is just one of the S of formal things this is resolution number 2024 63 so I'm going to hand this out to you all ma'am well I will tell you that that we had this discussion of whether or not this resolution was good enough um or do we need our own and apparently we do I'm glad we got that [Music] resolved resolution I can see it needs to be updated with the right name on it right the the names need to be updated so if I if I may the this is the resolution that is from the lender this is the standard resolution that they have it just wasn't included in the packet it just you had the loan agreement you had the promisory note the resolution just didn't get in there Mr President um the bank is working on correcting the name they say go ahead and sign this one and they will fix it when they receive it okay thank you okay so kirston you ready ready Mr President you ready yes sir um all right thank you sorry for giving me the floor again so um apparently I guess it's not the airport tonight maybe it's the city manager yeah so um this this loan as yall know we've been working on since November it was my goal to set up some sort of type of on uh a line of credit that one day we could if we had to pull from um that especially in time of emergency or you know hurricane came through or something like that that we could basically um draw from that and get the city back up and running and using that that line of credit um the current one you know is for uh 1.8 million which is the over project and basically you know obviously we won't pay that out of the loan is my intentions to Once if we get the approval of the loan tonight that basically it we use only we only use for the amounts of money they already have uh out uh to pay the bills so as an example right now we probably are owed back a couple hundred ,000 so our first draw for this bank loan will be I think 62,000 and some change so what will happen is that when we do that bank draw the uh we'll be able to pay the $62,000 bill to orid when the $200 something dollars comes back that immediately will go back to the bank um and we will start rolling and processing over those draws with payments and the work withdrawals payments work work work withdrawals payments so on and so forth to the Project's done I anticipate and I think we've looked at the numbers before um is that we will probably have no more than about $700,000 of this loan out at any given time so long as staff and I continue to stay up on top of the work right Pier stays on top of making sure that everything is done correctly you know and that we get the loans processed through we have a process in place um that does that um that involves myself right Pierce um Donald and I do believe the council president to make that all happen um so so I don't suspect that we'll have that money out long I will tell you uh on this loan it's it's not like an ATM machine it's not like we can walk into the counter and go give me $500,000 or 20,000 or anything like that it is literally a line of credit or line uh that's job specific like all so in this case we had to go to the bank and say look here's the job here is our our engineering here is our grant funding these are the monies we've been awarded this is the process we're going to use to get the money back and this is the timeline we believe we'll have the money out and this is the way we will pay it back that when we get the reimbursement back from um you know um the the grants that that money will immediately go back to pay uh for the line of credit that we have out um so so it's very structured in a sense of what we can use it for it cannot be used for a fiveyear loan payment a 10year loan payment nothing like that it's got to be a very shortterm kind of thing it's got to be job specific it has to be approved by both the bank and the city council um to move forward on a project and a draw from uh the SE Coast Bank that we have the loan with um I I don't really have anything else that's about all I got unless somebody else wants to add something or you have any questions of me this Council have any questions I know that this has been talked about out as Mr bravard said in the past there's no resolution number with this yes sir 2024 d63 63 63 got it I would move resolution 2024 to 63 older type for us older people yes sir a second I have a motion and I have a second any other discussion all in favor say I I this Vos no motion passed all right thank you uh MREs is not here she has requested that I give the presentation for this next oh I know she owes me all right I thought she was going to be here see if we can get this correct for you all right item e this will be an open public hearing so it me second reading of ordinance 20 24- 723 an ordinance to provide for the annexation of certain property in the city of Williston providing the description of an annexed property providing that the innex area be subject to all laws regulations and entitled to all benefits and privileges providing an effective date all right are there any council members who have had any expart conversation with the applicant this includes any site visits all right will there be any applicant staff uh or Witnesses speaking on the matter me I I'm not sure if anyone else so anyone else who intends to speak on this matter as a member of the public or applicant um you'll need to be sworn in yep stand anybody else who wants to speak to this needs to stand at this time I don't know if I if you're here for that reason but if you are please stand yeah sir the an annexation it's anex and in the property to from the county to the city yep that's all all that it is tonight stand up all right everybody wishes to speak stand up so you can be sworn in raise your right hand m lric m right would everybody please raise their right hand do you swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give tonight is the whole truth and nothing but the truth thank you if any exhibits d Grands photographs or similar physical evidence referred to during the testimony or which would like the council to consider must be marked and identify and kept by the clerk for 30 days until the appe appeal time has expired staff open the statement I'm essentially just going to give you the presentation that Laura would have given you um and rely on the rest of staff to assist me in this process as well as the applicant um so this is the second reading of this ordinance we've talked about this a couple of times this has come before you we've addressed this property several times this is the old middle school property so we received a petition from Allan B Investment Group for voluntary annexation into the city they've requested annexation of the property adjacent to City Limits it's known as the old Middle School um the tax parcel number the legal description um are included in your agenda material the address is 20550 Northeast 42nd Place For the record and the property is 20 acres it's currently zoned public on Levy County map obviously right now this is a parcel that is part of the county they're requesting entrance into the city the properties to the north south and east will remain unincorporated Levy County those are zoned residential the properties to the West are in the city limits and are also zoned residential if the property were annexed all development projects would be subject to the city's Land Development code and development standards which Control building design height floor area Etc um City Utilities available to this property include garbage internet sewer and water power is not yet available the county was informed of the petition formally in February 2024 letters to Property Owners within 300 ft were sent VI by certified mail as required by applicable law no inquiries were receed the petition was advertised according to Florida statute um the staff's recommendation is approval of ordinance 2024 4 723 annexing this property into s limits does do you have any Witnesses you would like to speak yes sir what his her Witnesses this would be mine Witnesses and I have no Witnesses so next would be the applicant okay all right does council have any question for the witness Noone okay applicant open statement can you hear me all right so I don't have an open statement um all I'm here for is to have the property annexed um that is it any questions for me what do you need from me that's it have a good day Don't Rock the vote y uh okay no Witnesses presentation of evidence by the public in support of and opposition to the applicant in questions for each would anyone in the public like to speak on this matter say your name and your residence very wi Florida uh my question is this property is going to be annexed uh in this property started to be Annex in about a corporation that wanted to uh be Annex in change the zoning on it uh to agriculture right and my question is what is it going to be annexed in at what is the current Zoning for it now public can anybody answer that it's currently Zone public okay public yes okay and that's and this is we're not considering zoning tonight so I guess yeah the zoning will come up at a later date okay all right that's uh that's what my concern is you know this public anization I have no problem with this public anization uh and I think some of the people here don't have a problem with that but you know it didn't start out that way that's where the problems at okay all right so um real quick um this did start out as a public indexation um we were going to do an indexation when the first buyers came because it's easier for the property um to get commercial zoning for whatever use may happen in the future whoever purchases the property so regardless of any zoning changes um regardless of anyone that that comes forward it has been known it has been mentioned to you guys you've known all along that we want the property annexed it is a lot easier for me to work with the city than it is for me to work with the county the county has stated that they want nothing to do with the property they don't care what it is what we want to do anything that we want to do will take two years that is why we're here that's why we're coming to the city we have not applied to the county for any zoning changes um despite you know whatever rumors may have gone around but I wanted to dispel those right now um and if you have any questions I'm here for you to answer thank you thank you yes sir state your name and residencies please Cameron Smith Willis Florida um I'm I'm going to be very brief it seems like the direction of the city is clear from my standpoint Mr President it seems like this is going to happen uh it's a Runway train all um my concern is right here this gentleman his property taxes if the proposal goes forward if the proposal goes forward his property taxes is going to take a hit these two young ladies right here their property taxes are going to take a hit my property tax is going to take a hit this young lady right here their property taxes is going to affect us if we go down this road if this train is allowed to come in the station it's going to affect me the value the value of my property is a whole lot more now than it was when I purchased it so I say Do no harm whatever annexation ordinance is allowed Do no harm I spoke with uh this gentleman here and there's actually interest in the property and it show well I'm going to assure you is not for cotton picking marijana uh operation I spoke with him about maybe bringing someone else in I didn't realize there was a cotton picking contract already in forc on this place so being behind the eightball and even if he's not allowed to move forward but it sure seems like it's steam rolling pretty good right now and I I I I have to challenge you Corey I was not notified I had no idea this was even going on because it had I known uh I would have done exactly what I did I reached out to him and I told him there could be possibly another alternative other than a marijuana plant oh are you allowed to interrupt me now while I'm I'm speaking he because you're off topic okay I'm off topic okay yes we're just strictly talking about inex and that proper all right okay I'm going I'm going to bring it get back in there okay thank you and I'm going to say again Do no harm Do no harm okay so if I may so let me understand we the last sale that he had this came in front of us for annexation am I correct so he has somebody that's interested and it's coming in front of us to Annex the property into the city if we don't do it this time the next time when he has somebody we're going to be right here at the same thing discussion about annexing the property into the city let me ask you this why now because a marijuana uh distributor wanted to uh well he's already been before the board I mean you're shaking your head Mr Mayor but because the owner has asked us for voluntary annexation okay that is why okay so again I I I I I just say what what what what caution I will just say with caution Do no harm yes ma'am go ahead M do you think the property taxes are going to go up or go down oh they're absolutely going down I don't believe it look look look what's happening in in Gainesville Race Track Road whatever he does whatever look what's happening out there can I finish my sentence absolutely I believe that whatever and and I will look at other areas uh not just in Williston but in other cities where they've developed um blighted areas it has done nothing but raised the property values if anything I would have been afraid that it would raise my property value so my property tax would go up I wouldn't be worried about my property tax going down in all honesty any any renovation of that property will do nothing but improve property values uh I have family out there on Racetrack roading again are you within three 300 ft of the of the school I could I could take a rock and and probably break a window from my house okay and I'm old now but you you know I know there was a time I definitely could have done that but you know I'm just speaking in general a speed picture H yeah yes yes yes yes so but but again you you you have the residents here we're going to be affected by this and and I I I'm praying that there is nothing wrong with you allowing cour and his father-in-law and their Foundation of company or whatever it is to no no problem with annexing I mean they stepped out there and I'm certain they got finances that need to be accounted for and all of this no problem be careful with your annexation because even I'm talking about the residence but guess what guess what if the chief is out there running around trying to keep people from uh jumping the fence breaking in every day and he's trying to uh mitigate something like that because the security is going to be enormous you're you're going to need enormous security for something like that okay what is it you're talking about we're talking about annexing a property and you're talking all I said Mr President was be careful be be be careful what you bring to to the annexation that's all I'm saying thank you I'm sorry y'all so I'm back again I didn't plan on coming back so um I'm G to be clear here and I'm not speaking on behalf of anyone is person the property I'm the owner of the property but I'm going to I want I want to share my opinion here when you take a piece of property regardless of what happens and you invest money into it it's going to increase property taxes I agree 100% if you allow the property to fall down and become the old one dixie it's going to decrease property taxes so what we have done with this property over the last four to five years that we've owned it has done we've done nothing but giving it to the kids we've allowed the kids to use this this facility it has been known since the time that we purchased the property that the property was for sale we listed the property two years or two and a half almost three years after we owned it paying everything out of pocket well you didn't know because you don't live across from the school you have property there but you don't live so here we are listen let me ask one thing do you live in the county or the city uh I voluntary Annex into the city I believe it was in 1999 a promise are you in the city limits absolutely yes okay so so again back to what I was saying sorry so I've been presented with options of and and and I have not been contacted as far as by an investor or someone else with resources to do whatever they want to do but I can tell you that a facility that is coming here to bring jobs as far as whatever the production may be is going to be a lot less lethal and I'm not speaking specifically on the marijuana company but if you take and you put a Convention Center in a hotel in that location that is what you call gentrification that is what happens you go and you look at the porters in downtown Gainesville you go you look at University Avenue in uh in uh 441 when you bring something like that they must bring people in to fill that building so now you have higher taxes now we buy the land up around you and we're going to start to push you out of your neighborhood I don't know if you've realized it but all of the land that's behind um the the community garden is for sale and something's going to happen with it that means more than likely there's going to be houses that are going to go there so you know what's going to happen you're going to go you're going to put in a hotel and you're going to put in a community Cent or um a Convention Center you're going to develop all the land around it and you know what happens to the home the homes that are around it now they get pushed out where do they go we don't know who cares that's the view of the city not specifically this city but you can look at it happening right now in Gainesville Florida definitely the view of the deel of the developer that is what happens so regardless of what happens in the situation I have 20 acres of commercial property that I am looking to Annex into the city of Willison that was all that is specifically here I chose to remove myself from being presented with the potential buyer who has had a contract for over a year on this property and they've been doing their due diligence that is all I here for is annexation but I wanted clarification any question thank you all right Clos in statement by the applicant which pretty much just gave closing statement by staff hear none no re discussion by Council of evidence presented as it applies to the requirements of the ordinances I would say that I have had one other person who lives down that road down the middle school Road who has contacted me as well who who does not believe that it's contiguous um I tried to tell them that I believe that it was there's absolutely nothing that makes it not contiguous it's directly across the street and the road makes it contiguous um but I told that I would bring that up tonight I just to express the fact that um like I said a resident down the same Middle School Road uh I can't remember 345 what's the name of that road can't remember the name of it County Road that's in front of the Middle School uh that he believed that it was not contiguous I I believe that it is um I also have think that he had that Mr lamb and his Corporation have brought a legitimate annexation petition um and I have no objection to it strictly speaking to the annexation right and I agree rather we do it this time or next time at some point it's will be brought could be brought in to the city Mr Mayor I have for some time been suggesting that the only way the city can increase is to Annex and every time I talked about it I have been told we only do voluntary annexation we do not go out and try to Annex areas that do not want to be annexed what we do is if it's a voluntary if we are asked then we consider it that is what I see is going on here now we have someone that owns land that is an applicant for annexation that has applied for that annexation it will enlarg in the footprint of the city which is absolutely necessary for the city to grow is to Annex and we will not do non-voluntary annexation so we only have one choice if we want want to grow as a city we have to do voluntary annexation that's all I have thank you miss you have anything I don't all right all right at this time I will entertain a motion for approval of the ordinance I'll make a motion for the second reading for approval of second reading of ordinance 2024 723 a second we have a first and a second all those in favor I all right motion passes all right all right item G second reading ordinance of 2024 d733 an ordinance of the city of Williston Florida amending the city of williston's code of ordinances as amended providing an amended Charter TW Charter chapter 20 section 20-5 regarding qualification dates changing qualification dates in regular elections to reflect the period of 71 to 67 days before the election in amending the charter 20 section 20-3 regarding vacancies and the office during the term providing the city of Williston with the authority to appoint an interm council member if no individuals qualify for a special election or or in the event of a vacancy due to defined types of vacancies providing serab ility providing for incorporation in the city code of ordinances and providing an effective date city manager Terry Bard or count City attorney chrisen beloo all right I will I'll go Terry and then you tell me if you uh want to add anything this is the second reading of the ordinance that we saw at our last meeting or rather our last regular meeting um the there were a couple of questions that were presented to me between um last reading and this reading that I think that I can give some clarification on um but just as a reminder this is the ordinance um change that allows you to in the event of vacancies like we've had both during term of office and after no one qualifies for a special election um to appoint someone to the vacant positions to give you a full counsel um under certain circumstances as we talked about before and as it's outlined in the ordinance so couple of questions that I was presented with one was regarding section 20-8 regarding absentee ballots we have not changed anything regarding that section I do the question was presented to me of the specifically regarding the last line no challenge protest or contest of any type regarding any absentee ballot shall be accepted after the ballot has been removed from the absentee envelope that is um taken from Florida statute 101 6104 it's explicitly required by the election code um so so that's where that provision comes from and we are not required we are not permitted to adopt an ordinance which is in conflict with that um the other question that was presented to me is regarding section 20-12 um subsection a it's on page six of the ordinance itself if you take a look at that so that's page 118 of your packet um it says uh election for that specific office shall take place not less than 45 days no more than 60 days thereafter it was pointed out um that that seems to be in conflict with the edit that we made to section 20-5 regarding qualification dates ini I thought that that had been um maybe a typo on my part uh it is not if you look down to section B um because section A is setting a a special election section B in that same section refers to a different qualifying period which is in accordance with Florida law um so that that's why you see those two different time periods um I'm happy to answer any other questions that anyone has um but those were the only ones that were posited to me between last reading and this one you have any questions I have a question but I think my numbers are wrong okay um I'm not looking I can pull it up on my agenda packet if I want to but what I've got is a printed copy and the section seems to be different but it see it's the vacancy of candidacy of office due to death withdrawal or removal I have 20-2 but I think it's really something else is that the right one no it's 202 section A two candidates you have to do it again so just to clarify for for this ordinance and all ordinances if there if there is language in there that's not a strikethrough and there's language in there that's not underlined that's how your code currently reads so that is currently in your um ordinances it's not what we're doing that is currently how your ordinance and and and if I can this is specifically this is a very very Niche provision of your ordinances and it was confusing to me at first the only instance in which and I've never seen any other City have it but we didn't remove it those strict provision only in the instance in which the vacancy in candidacy for office is due to the death withdrawal or removal from the ballot so if someone who's qualified dies or if someone qualified is removed or if someone qualified withdraws then section 20-12 is in place any other vacancy so vacancy during term where there hasn't been a qualifier that provides for less than two candidates right do it really say that now sure does idea the said that Scouts Honor I mean really I mean really did you did you know it today I had no idea crazy well that's that's really the only question I have craziness I to get one or two people on all right that's it or removed or withdraw so that means two people have to apply for us to consider it in those instances in those specific instances that's just crazy I honestly did not know that get a Health Report they go back because I am crazy have to go back read the charter a little better well it's not it's only 12 pages long so it's really not all that many and just to clarify this is in your ordin es this isn't referenced in the charter it's not in the charter correct okay I knew I hadn't read that I haven't read the election ordinance in ever I knew it wasn't in the charter that way okay that makes me feel a little better thank you I'm not saying anything anybody wants to hear I was thinking we were talking ordinances too not char so I stand corrected if you thought it was Charter I I did not see it in the charter it is not in the charter I know it's not the I've read the charter for 30 years I know it's not there Scout honor all right does council have any other question for Mr Belo all right if not I will entertain a motion for the second reading of Ord it's 20 24- 733 I'll make her do it real it's going to be a wrestler your turn oh go I make a motion that we approve second reading ordinance 2024 d733 second any other discussion move to move to vote all in favor say I I all right motion passes or sorry ordinates all right all right section 8 we have now closed the public hearing at this time item six public participation this is your second opportunity to address the council at this time anyone in the audience can come forward to the podium speak for 5 minutes on any topic other than what was on the agenda please state name your place of residency and just a reminder that the council does not have to comment no takers all right what's that yeah they all want to go home anybody online all right all right item seven announcements staff questions Mr Mayor is this one yes I'm so proud last week during the investors I massacred my chief and council person Jones rescued me but I want I told him then that I was going to do it on a regular council meeting yes I'm going to do it you can just quit all that our police chief went on an FBI class and there were like 5050 candidates and 50 people from all around the country that went to this FBI class and he so and I'm going to use my words because he has impressed me many times he so impressed his class that our little Williston chief of police big Williston little big Williston chief of police Big Chief of Police was elected the class president of that FBI school and I am as proud of him as I can be proud that's all I have thank you m Jones Miss Belo uh the only announcement that I have is to say that there's a memorial day service at the cemetery on Sunday at 2 p.m uh if anybody'd like to join us what time 2 o'clock uh Orange Hill Cemetery sorry it's like the cemetery we have two or three more yeah but that's the cemetery it's true it's the one the American Legion chose you have any questions Miss Stacy all right I a meet it's our favorite time of the meeting can I get a motion to adjourn second get a second I will second the motion golly we have a first we have a second the time is now 8:31 the meeting is ended holy C