I'd like to call to order the regular City Commission meeting this the 22nd day of July 2024 at 6: p.m. can I have a roll call please yes sir um commissioner dollson here commissioner Mercer here commissioner danler here mayor ptim Yates here and mayor bson here we will be uh have an invocation by Pastor David Barry and we will be led in the Pledge of Allegiance by Vanessa Castillo city clerk stand if able thank you let us pray have father we thank you Lord I Thank you for each and every person represented tonight for every man and woman not just on the city commission but in every place of leadership in this city you have not only anointed them and you have appointed them to serve at such a time as this so I pray that every order of business that is conducted tonight will be done according to your wisdom your leading and your guidance and may everything that they do tonight be for the Ben for the betterment of this community and when they lay down their heads tonight to sleep let it be the peaceful sleep that they've ever experienced in their life let them lead well let them lead long and let them lead with a with an air of Excellence about them I thank you for each and every one of them I ask that you bless them tonight and bless this city commission meeting in your mighty name amen amen to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all would you join [Applause] me get Commissioners we have a uh Proclamation this evening for Florida water professionals month I understand that uh I believe David Nicholson is going to receive this and we have a whole FL of people here from our water plants Wastewater plants and utility services our Proclamation reads as follows whereas water industry Professionals in Florida dedicate themselves to the production and distribution of safe drinking water as well as the proper collection treatment reuse and disposal of waste water and storm water and whereas the professionals employed in this industry commit themselves to protecting the health of Florida's citizens and our state's natural resource and whereas Florida continues to take bold steps and lead the nation in water quality protection and conservation of our waterways and natural resources and whereas Senate Bill 712 the clean waterways Act passed with bipartisan support protecting water quality and minimizing nutrient pollution and whereas Section 43.86 5 of the Florida Statutes designates water professionals as essential First Responders and whereas FL will continue the fight to protect and conserve our waterways and natural resources for our children and for future generations and whereas it is fitting that the State of Florida recognizes all those who have played a significant part in operating and maintaining drinking water Wastewater and storm water systems in Florida by celebrating Florida water professionals month which applauds their constant efforts to protect our health and environment now therefore Nathaniel J Birdsong Jr mayor of the city of winter Haven Florida does hereby recognize the month of August 2024 as Florida water professionals month and asks our citizens to join us in thanking these Water and Wastewater Professionals for their dedication and hard work in providing safe drinking water and protecting Florida's environment and natural resources in witness whereof he has here and to set his hand and caused the Seal of the City of Winter Haven Florida to be a fixed this 22nd day of July 2024 signed Nathaniel J Birdsong Jr mayor a test Vanessa Castillo city clerk good evening mayor Commissioners city managers my name is David Nicholson and I'm the WW treatment plant manager for the city I'm proud to stand here this evening and speak on behalf of the team at Winter Haven water I represent an exceptional team many of whom are here this evening and I'd like to thank you for recognizing these water professionals with this Proclamation acknowledging the hard work they do in serving the residents businesses in the City of Winter Haven I could not do my job without this team backing me up these dedicated professionals come to work every day to ensure the city's residents visitors and businesses can operate safe in the knowledge that we are working 247 365 days a year to provide them with clean Safe Water the waste water team work incredibly hard to ensure that both treatment facilities produce Clean safe reclaimed water to keep our parks and green spaces watered as well as providing our residents with irrigation these are challenging times in the water industry however the team at Winter Haven is the Forefront of meeting these challenges headon water is a precious resource and the city's one water master plan will ensure the future generations of the city continue to have a clean safe water supply for the decades to come enhancing our environmental stewardship while taking care of the lakes and wetlands on behalf of the W SW team specifically I would like to thank the commission for their support of the design and build of the new water recycling facility which will be the crown jewel in the one water master plan and we are all excited to bring this to life in the months and years to come thank you again pull it together aent she's over here crushing on the waste waterer manager uhoh it's okay she can take care of that later what's the name of the Terry C y Terry car was long is that Vanessa okay smile a little bit all right all right count two there one more what a good look clean [Music] up development subote we have none Commissioners you have the uh July 8th minutes Mr Mayor yes motion to approve the minutes of July 8th city commission meeting thank you I will close the city commission meeting open the public hearing anyone wishing to speak in reference to these minutes may do so at this time seeing none close the public hearing reopen the city commission meeting is there any a discussion all those in favor of the motion let it be known by saying I I opposes by the same sign hearing none the are adopted we have no comments from the audience audiance second reading public hearing 02434 which you read by tyon City attorney thank you Mr Mayor ordinance number 0-2 24-34 an ordinance of the city Winter Haven Florida amending ordinance number 0- 23-54 regarding appropriation of funds for defraying expenses of the municipal government of the city Winter Haven for the fiscal year commencing October 1 202 3 providing for separability and providing for an effective date thank you thank you city manager is anything change mayor and Commissioners there have been no changes since first reading staff recommends City commission approve ordinance 02 2434 amending the city budget for outstanding encumbered purchase orders from fiscal year ended September 30th 2023 that would be carried forward into fiscal year ending September 30 2024 on second and final reading thank you thank you Commissioners Mr mayor yes motion to approve uh ordinance 02434 on second reading in public hearing thank you I will now close the city commission meeting open the public hearing anyone wishing to speak to 02434 may do so at this time seeing none close the public hearing reopen the city commission meeting is there any discussion all those in favor of the motion let it be known by saying I I I oppos this by the same sign hearing none 02434 [Applause] passes right consent agenda Commissioners Mr Mayor yes motion to approve the consent agenda and it in its entirety thank you I will now close the commission meeting open the public hearing anyone wishing to speak to the consent agenda may do so so at this time seeing none close the public hearing reopen the city commission meeting any a discussion all those in favor of the motion let it be known by saying I I oppose this by the same sign hearing none the consent agenda is adopted in its entirety resolution R 2432 would you read by title on the City attorney thank you Mr Mayor resolution number r- 24-32 a resolution of the city Commission of the city of win Haven Florida making findings approving and adopting the fiscal year 2025 through fiscal year 2029 strategic plan providing for severability the administrative correction of scous erors and providing for an effective date thank you thank you city manager I know there has been any changes there has not been any changes Mr Mayor um staff is recommending that the Strategic plan inclusive of the 25 goals and 116 related actions strategies be adopted uh to cover the next 5 years via resolution 24-32 um I will say that we have already established a schedule upon which we will be presenting to the city commission at your first Workshop meeting and every month beginning in October an update tied to one of the six strategic pillars uh that will come on that Workshop it'll talk about either things that are specifically within the plan or other significant actions tied to that particular pillar first one will be responsible government and that will be delivered in October of this year all right also uh if the commission is favorable upon this approval we will uh release a press release this evening and we will launch the production of the citizen version of the Strategic plan as well as the employee version uh and then also uh a certain number of bound copies of that document for use all right thank you thank you commissioner Mr Mayor motion to approve resolution R 2432 thank you I will now close the commission meeting open the public hearing anyone wishing to speak to R 2432 may do so at this time seeing none close the public hearing reopen the city commission meeting is there any discussion all those in favor of the motion let it be known by saying I I post this by the same sign hearing none passes thank you very much thank you R 2433 would you read by tyone City attorney thank you Mr Mayor resolution number r- 24-33 a resolution regarding a change in in the meeting date for the September 9th 2024 regular City commission meeting to September 10th 2024 proceeding to section 2-26 of the city's code of ordinances providing a conflict clause and providing an effective date thank you thank you city manager uh Mr am Commissioners this will align with a first reading ordinance or a new business item sorry that we'll be coming forward to you regarding our first public hearing on the budget we are not permitted to hold that hearing on the same date as a school board or County Commission meeting thus that first meeting in September will need to be moved from Monday to Tuesday so as to not conflict with the board of County Commissioners thank you Commissioners Mr Mayor yes um motion to approve resolution R2 433 thank you I will now close the city Commission meeting open the public hearing anyone wishing to speak to resolution r433 may do so at this time seeing none close the public hearing reopen the city commission meeting all those in favor of the motion let it be known by saying I I I opposes by the same sign hearing none resolution R 2433 is adopted all right we have new business item 13A city manager mayor and Commissioners each year the city is required to calculate and set an adval millage rate per chapter 200 of the Florida Statutes per trim the city is required to notify the County property appraiser of the city's proposed millage rate for the ensuing year and provide the date time and location of the first public hearing regarding the budget and millage rate the uh based upon the certification of taxable value provided by the Property Appraiser's office the city's 2024 gross taxable value is is $ 4.74 five billion the proposed 2425 budget was constructed using the millage the current millage rate of 6.59 Mills at a 96.5% collection rate the along with city funding of the community redevelopment areas the anticipated ADV valorum is$ 27,7 193,194 time of that first meeting prior to August 4th which is why we bring this for you this evening City's also required to to complete the tax incremental adjustment worksheet for the Winter Haven downtown and Florence Villa cras the maximum millage Levy calculation preliminary disclosure as well staff recommends sending back these forms within the required information by August 1st as far as the roll back rate the current uh roll back current year roll back millage rate is 6.29 one to Mills the proposed tenative millage rate is important because once set this rate cannot be increased unless each taxpayers is mailed a notice a revised notice of proposed property tax the millage rate can be reduced at either public hearing but cannot be increased this tenative millage rate of 6.59 Ms uh is what's recommended any millage rate that exceeds the roll back rate which in this case is 6.29 one2 Ms must be advertised as a tax increase staff recommends that the city commission one establish the 2024 tentative millage rate at 6.59 Ms and two set the first public hearing date on the fiscal year 2425 budget to be held September 10th 2024 at 6 p.m. in the John Fuller Auditorium of City Hall at 4513 Street Northwest I would like to take just a minute to follow up on a couple things from the budget proposal if I may all right so there was a handful of questions that came forward that evening uh eight and particular that we documented um commissioner dancer had asked about the city's turnover rates and and uh what that looked like on average uh our current vacancy rate is around 10.9% uh that's also what's reflected within that budget presentation on average rerun anywhere from 9 to 12% of vacant positions within the organization so we are on par with that uh hopefully the efforts that we are making in in the areas of that base starting pay willed reduce that vacancy um commissioner dancer and mayor protim Yates asked about working with outside parties uh in the retail industry regarding some of our vacant big boxes and storefronts on Thursday of last week I had opportunity to meet with Bruce lion the president and CEO of the Winter Haven Economic Development Council and had requested from him a scope of work uh for uh to come from his office that would involve an inventory and assessment of all such vacant properties throughout Winter Haven to include the ownership of said properties so that we can begin a process of coordinating with them for potential support in filling those spaces I look forward to bringing that back to you probably within the next 30 days as to what that scope will look like um commissioner Daner asked about assisting downtown retail uh our CRA and Economic Opportunity Community investment team is working with Main Street Winter Haven to uh create a somewhat of a summit meeting with our downtown businesses to better identify what some of their challenges needs uh limitations are and identify strategies that we may be able to pursue to help mitigate some of those challenges I know that uh Angie and seise from our CRA team have already begun that process uh in terms of meeting with Main Street they've spoken with a handful of the the merchants already just in in casual passing uh to gain some one-on-one insights but I expect that meeting to be scheduled probably within the next two to three weeks uh we will not necessarily be able to provide some direct Insight back to the CRA board at their August meeting or sorry the CRA downtown advisory committee supposed to have a meeting in August but given the people getting ready to go back to school finishing up end of summer vacations we want to make sure that we get as many people in those sessions as we can together input uh commissioner Daner asked about vacant properties in Florence Villa and if we can work to get those through the clouded titles and those probate situations um We are continuing pursuit of vacant properties through our agreement with Florida acquisition and Appraisal that is something that the Florence Villa CRA has brought forward and the CRA board has approved that is also something that is identified as a goal and a strategy in both of our CRA for the proposed fiscal year 25 budget so that continues to be an effort and we will be reporting back to you on that there was a question regarding should we be putting more money into t development uh this is something that we'll explore with Troy heidle and members of our airport advisory committee we do have an old building out there uh that has been a record storage building that we're trying to get through the what do we do with that space in terms of getting all those Old City Records out of there and properly inventoried and filed and where appropriate disposed of according to State Library statutes and and uh record disposal requirements um but that is an area that we're going to look on the very be the very south side of our EX in tea hangers to see what that opportunity might look like if we were to pursue that uh it's not something we would put into the 25 budget but certainly give consideration for the year Following also trying to identify what support the FAA and fdot might be able to lend towards that there was a question um about the uh about what our budget looks like in response to other budgets uh that was from mayor protm Yates I really can't give an apples to app comparison because every city is so different um we are going to pull some additional budgets just to kind of see what the um the total budget packages are for some of our adjoining uh municipalities if they're not really sure how they present their budgets I can pretty much bet that Barto presents their very there's very similar to how we do ours knowing who their city manager is and um that most of what we do is based off of what he taught us so I think we'll be able to get some comparisons there but we will try and gather some more detail um that in terms of the percent of capital that goes into our utilities that was a question that the mayor protim had uh we will be bringing to you on August 7th the utilities budget and be able to elaborate specifically on what the total Capital value is within their budget expenditures for the coming year and then finally um commissioner danard asked about uh the percent of uh debt for our citizens um and how that Maps out we've did this a couple different ways I'll tell you that the general fund the annual debt payment is around $5.2 million uh on a per capita basis that's about $874 um per resident the utilities uh annual debt payment is around $418 million so that's about $69 76 per resident uh combined those would be about $157 17 cents per resident if you looked at our total debt across all funds for the total amount of that we have about $157 million in debt that we carry that has spread out over 20 years so based upon our current population and we use an estimate of about $60,000 we've not gotten our or 60,000 people we've not gotten our newest Bieber uh reports yet and when we do um those lag behind but we're we estimate we're probably closer to to 60,000 then we would be to our current population of 55,78426 million would be about $2,627 um keep in mind that spans down over 20 years and that population is going to increase over 20 years so it's kind of a hard number to get our arm around but we certainly have a clear understanding of what is our debt um based to our population what does that look like in comparison so if there's additional questions on that uh CJ and I would be happy to sit down with any of you and go through that a little bit further and then finally just for Giggles since we had so much fun comparing days of old the other day I'll start with uh um well obviously the biggest Budget on starting day would belong to to commissioner uh dollson that'd be the one we have at $296 million um commissioner Yates yours is not far behind it's only probably around $250 million uh uh more recently um but if I go back to 2013 fiscal year 2013 that would have been commissioner dancer you had a millage of 5.79 Ms general fund was about 41 million total budget was about 116 okay that's what I remember go back 22 years when Commission mayor bird song joined the team the millage was 6.75 um so you had the highest millage of your Commissioners that are up here the the general fund was about 22.39% what 38 years ago no 28 years ago 28 years ago the millage was 6.4 um you had a population of 2,485 people the general fund was 14.52 Million the total budget for the city was 28 million in comparison the general funds adorm Revenue receipts are projected to be almost as much as the budget was in 1996 Grant we have more than a we've more than doubled the population in that time frame so just a little throwback data for you I keep telling we didn't have any money all right thank you sir so with that uh mayor and Commissioners we have two recommendations there to to set the millage at 6.59 and to declare that first meeting and and Mr Mayor I would do two motions one for each of those if you I entertain a motion first for the millage Mr Mayor yes motion to approve the millage at said rate thank you I will now close the commission meeting open the public hearing anyone wishing to speak to the military may do so at this time seeing none I'll close the uh public hearing reopen the city commission meeting is there any discussion on the millage rate and city clerk make sure that when you reflect the motion it will be to set the tended millage rate at 6.59 Mills and establish the rollback rate as set forth in the fact sheet any discussion all those in favor of the motion let it be known by saying I I oppose this by the same sign hearing done we've uh established the potential millage rate all right now I entertain a motion for the um September 9th meeting September 10th it'll be Mr Mayor oh two September the 10th I'm sorry Mr Mayor yes motion to approve the moving the city City commission meeting from September 9th to September 10th 2024 at 6 p.m. all right mayor Pro we've already accomplished that by adopting resolution R2 2434 so what we're asking for tonight is for you to set the first public hearing on the tenative budget I amend my motion all right I will close the commission meeting open the public hearing um anyone wishing to speak on this motion may do so at this time seeing none close the uh public hearing reopen the city Commission meeting all those in favor of the motion let it be known by saying I I I poses motion carries all right moving right on to um commission Leon report commissioner danler okay um attended to youth C uh youth Council graduation over at Garden Club event good to see all the young people graduating and the happiness that they were exuding as they were taking a award so congrats to the young youth Council and I hope we continue with that program because a lot of good comes from that also attended the forestry meeting right after that and we actually have a very good forestry committee um good discussion and uh I think you're going to be amazed at some of the stuff that comes out of that committee we we've gotten organized we have some money we have a motiv group we elected a new chairperson so I think you're going to see some good stuff coming out of this four Street meeting which excites me to see everything that's going on there so um just stay tuned for what's happening over there also is at the Girls Inc ribbon cutting mayor bird song made a very nice speech I could actually hear his speech or I couldn't hear anybody else's so he did a good job with his speech congrats to the boys club and Girls Club and also attended the Whistle Stop conat to Chad Davis for winning the the straw poll for the succession of Sam keru and also stopped by the ice cream social and that's it for me all right commissioner doson good evening uh I had privilege of U of course you know doing what I I lays on for the Planning Commission and a new member uh was appointed to the Planning Commission and they're moving along quite well well as well as the U attended the public safety youth graduation very inspiring uh to uh see uh that program as vibrant as it is and I had a chance to speak to some of the graduates and in fact I was encouraging others the young people and parents that I know to uh kind of guide their children toward this program I think is very worthy of of uh young people having that kind of uh experience also attended the uh the groundbreaking for the boys and girls club uh that also was uh exciting to to uh you know look at you know how long that uh uh program has you know I'm I'm a product of the uh boys club as a kid not of course here but in Indiana I think that most kids you know go through that experience and and uh so continuing that is I think a certainly that that's something needed in our in our community so it's just exciting to see what that's going to uh what it's going to look like all right that's all I ask thank you commissioner Mercer yeah um I attended the neighborhood service center Summer Festival they had a lot of vendors there for school supplies that were handing out school supplies uh they also had some really fun things like the cotton candy machine and the snow cones and all that but it was extremely warm outside um I also did the chamber Whistle Stop event it makes it very comfortable uh for candidates at least uh to meet the community and uh um I thought that was you know u a lot better than some of the other ways that you meet the community so um and also attended the public um safety youth leadership program um the council graduate graduation uh I think it was a real opportunity for some of um the uh young men and women uh to see behind the screen they don't always get to see the inside of the police department and some of that and a lot of them had um a lot of uh um comments and good comments about that um two of the graduates that I talked to they were considering it as a career it was something that they would look at as a career so you might have two all right thank you may I Pro him thank you yes uh just a few things that are going to be duplicated that we've already heard this evening but also attended the Whistle Stop uh the Boys and Girls Club groundbreaking uh the center Well Pharmacy at Bon Clinic that's their new Pharmacy you may call that uh zoning change requests that came before this commission a couple months ago that uh that we passed and now that their Pharmacy is now open at Bond Clinic uh as a result of that that change also attended the youth leadership graduation um and the Florence Villa CRA and the downtown CRA um you know one of the real amazing things to me is that Florence villea CRA and how much it has grown since the time that I I know at least I've come on the commission I think is close to double not that I'm taking any credit for that whatsoever but that's the amount of growth that's happened within the Florence Villa CRA large in part due to this commission's decisions and focus on the northeast area of Winter Haven so I think that's that's an incredible story to tell and um excited to see what the florenville CRA um continues to to put together and grow and um reinvest those funds into the community um The Ritz board liaison I am the Ritz board liaison so I attended their board meeting uh this uh this month they have decided obviously that they no longer need a a representative from the commission to serve as a liais on to the Ritz board so um we can remove my name from that list and um thank you for those numbers on the the debt that kind of summarizes that that picture very nicely so appreciate that the only other thing I'll add is um as you're developing the contact for the open retail spaces and box stores and things like that it'd be nice to have on that that chart a contact individual or contact what and and maybe that's the EDC or maybe it's the realtor but just so that we have some dialogue so as as we're out in the community and we hear you know of someone that might need a large space or smaller space we can say Point them directly to this uh the right contact for that space and let the private Market take its course at that point yeah I hope to have a an ongoing uh inventory that's updated monthly at a minimum uh that Eric and I will will both have copies of and is those things change or properties change hands we can um certainly get make that contact uh through either us or through Bruce or if we have direct contact with the uh owner or realtor perfect that'd be great okay outside of that um T have a good vacation you've earned it thank you I just want to take a moment to uh say congratulations to uh our mayor um 54 years today uh married to the love of his life so so uh that's a big deal so congratulations to uh Nat and an on 54 years of marriage I give God him thank you and and with that I I'll start off now 54 years ago I had no idea I'd ever be an an elected official that was not on the radar and there are a lot of reasons for that which I won't get into so thank you Robin dollson and thank you all for uh giving me a a round of applause I really do appreciate it um a few things the first thing is I attended uh an event that was on the same scale as the DARE graduation at nor Hall there were 250 youth Coes cheerleader sponsors moms I mean they had their spring conference for the football [Music] league at nor Mayo Hall and oh my goodness I left there with my ears ringing but uh it was nice I I I really en enjoyed uh going in being around the young people I always do also attended the neighborhood service center uh event it was hot but uh it was good I'm really really really uh pleased with the uh efforts that have been made as it relates to the neighborhood service center the programming and the way the place looks and the way it's being kept uh I'm really really really pleased with that and uh attended the boys and girls club uh groundbreaking and uh really sort of enjoyed that I and I told the story that uh when I came along uh I couldn't go to the Boys and Girls Club you know because it was segregated but it really impacted my family because uh three of my four brothers really really and truly spent a lot of time at the boys club in Arendale and actually all three of them played college sports so boys and and Girls Club had an impact on my family so uh which impacts me and the final thing is the whistle stock uh I hadn't been to a whistle stock in several years and uh the way they did it this time was uh was good uh it was different when we used to have them at no mayor Hall we had barbecue and that sort of thing on the inside in the air condition well it was good I enjoyed it I vot it and uh that's pretty much it uh City attorney thank you Mr Mayor and also congratulations on your wonderful anniversary um that's that's a that's great thank you I don't have anything else to report this evening thank you all right city manager May commissioner just a couple things um I don't believe I've reported back since attending the Chamber of Commerce annual strategic planning retreat that was held two weeks ago um in Orlando and uh along with probably 20 25 members of that board convened for two days um really came up with some some key ideas on on how to advance the chamber going forward and some strategies for them uh so looking forward to to working uh continuing to work with them we'll say that they have uh selected a new president and CEO they have not made that official announcement yet I thought that might be in their more morning report this morning so I'll refrain from uh speaking to that but I I do expect that you'll see something coming out in the next uh several days concerning that appointment that they have made um as noted uh I will be out of the office beginning tomorrow U probably late morning and uh Deputy city manager carnavali will be Point person for all things concerning the city manager's office believe he was going to send to you all of his contact information so you can reach him I will be in communication with him probably daily while I'm away just on things that are of critical nature that I need to be aware of but he will run the show and can uh do for you anything that that I would be called upon to do and certainly has the full support of the team around him so I thank you for the time to get away for a little bit of time to spend some time with family uh and on my final note um you know we we do our YouTube presentation of this I can tell you that one of the people that um tuned in every time when this is going live is my mother so I want to wish my mom a happy 85th birthday today so all [Applause] right Deputy city manager well happy birthday to team Michael's mom happy anniversary to Mayor Birdsong and I'm here for youall as needed um excited to give time some much deserved time away all right thank you city clerk happy birthday to your mother T Michael thank you happy anniversary to you and and mayor brickson all right thank you emergency matter do not received for the agenda motion to adjo a motion to ajour some move