e all right good morning everyone it is now nine o'clock I would like to call to order the Barrier Islands government council meeting please stand for the pledge Nation indivisible with liy all right thank you we'll start with our uh roll call to my left and we'll go around the room an Marie Brooks mayor madira Beach Lisa Hendrickson mayor Readington Shores Tyler Payne mayor of Treasure Island okay up to you we'll go around the room thank you morning CJ commissioner good morning Eddie MC commissioner madir Beach Donovan Peters resident Don Peters penel County Schoolboard member and Readington Beach resident good morning Barry Rubin president Treasure Island Beach Chamber of Commerce this is the coolest little box Adriana NE town clerk town of Readington Beach good morning Mike Howard counselor with Indian Shores morning Clint Bel fire chief mad beach Sergeant sapire penel County Sheriff's Office good morning Michelle harget administrative assist to city manager Greg Mims Indian Rocks Beach Stanley excuse me a Stanley Silverstein interim director of uh GF beaches Library good morning Rich carelo uh vice mayor town of R to beach good morning cookie Kennedy good morning Larry Shear citizen of Indian Shores good morning Ray Kerr commissioner dear Beach good morning Tim Johnson Waterfront realy in the Tampa Bay beaches chamber board of directors hi really wanted the Box good morning Gina Johnson waterfront real Robin Miller Tampa Bay Beach's Chamber of Commerce I'll do both why not Alex Harsha Tampa Bay Beach's Chamber of Commerce I Sam Jenkins spc's Institute for strategic policy solution good morning Robin Gomez Madera Beach city manager welcome Bill Queen mayor North reg Beach Denise halberg mayor Indian Rocks Beach turn your mic on Diantha Shear mayor andan Shores good morning Bruce recor mayor of the City of Clear Water uh good morning uh mayor uh Steve Bloom Belair Shore good morning I'm Dave gtis mayor of beler Beach and I Am David will mayor of Readington Beach hey do we have any changes to the agenda or can we get an approval move to approve all in favor I agenda approved can we get an approval of the minutes from our last meeting approved all in favor I all right are approved moving on to the treasurer's report mayor gtis thank you Mr President uh for the uh month of May uh we began began with a balance of 663 And1 uh there was deposits uh in the amount of $600 and uh one dispersement of $61.25 giving us an ending balance of 12176 uh there was a report of um all that that paid their dues and uh to date there's only one left which is St Pete Beach thank you very much can we get an approval for the appr to approve second all in favor i i b thank you for filling in that uh brings us to our next topic which will be an appointment of a Treasurer so uh in the past we would form a committee and that committee would select a Treasurer so I'll volunteer I'll volunteer I'll volunteer right so we have our committee okay so you will uh meet and uh we suggest a new Treasurer and we'll have that for our next meeting thank you very much all right moving on to new business we have a presentation by sergeant sapanara of the penel county sheriff's office we're going to talk about service animals today and we're going to talk about the Americans with Disabilities Act so it's a did you know kind of forum today so thank you for being here and enlightening us thank you for having me appreciate it uh good morning all um so issues with dogs on the beach that we've run into over the years I've been a a supervisor out here of the various beaches on our bday shift for a little while now and it's constantly something that definitely comes up um so one of our main things is well initially there's two animals a mini horse which I have yet to see as a service animal I believe it exists we haven't run into that and dogs obviously are the the more obvious one um if it's something when we approach if it's something obvious um sight impairment physical disability and it's very clearly the dog providing a service we're not even going to ask the questions at that point it's it's kind of based on what the Ada says that's enough to see that's clearly providing a service for someone um if we get called out or make contact otherwise the two questions add the Ada uh allows us is is the animal required because of a disability if they say yes what task is it trained to perform um at that point they can explain to us what task is train to perform and there's not a lot beyond that unless there's something at face value that that strikes us um as different so um they're supposed to be in control of the animal The Only Exception the Ada provides if it's off leash is certain situations in where it's not practical for the person to have harness or leash on the dog which I think is more on the rare side uh but there would be situations where it would be permissible and at that point I think in most circumstances you're going to see that dog right with that person rather than than off the leash um the Ada is very St RCT um so with things like the visual thing like I I spoke about there's not a lot more once we see something that we're going to to dig into or we able to dig into um the more we do enforcement this is part of it uh is the more that people are going to know and potentially be able to circumvent what we're doing if we're out there and what the city's want to do with preventing dogs so that's something always to keep in mind and then also we have the tourism obviously on all of our beaches we have people from out of town that maybe not as familiar I think it was 2018 is when this law was uh enacted in Florida where we do have now there is a misdemeanor it's a second degree misdemeanor um for falsifying a service dog whether it's based on what you're saying what you're presenting something like that um ways that we can prove that it's uh and Captain liner was supposed to be here he's out of town so I apologize that's why he is not here him and I spoke before about this so I want to make sure uh that y'all knew he was not able to be here he apologizes um but for the gray area with that if we're asking the questions then we see the dog jumping around playing and things like that just like any other investigation that we would conduct we can see that and that can lead us to believe maybe there's something going on this isn't the dog and that's not a definite though um and the Ada does provide there are things within the statute saying if the dog's um causing a problem to the public safety and Welfare what a what an entity is allowed to ask and what they can do at that point so um I mean if the dog's growling barking and trying to bite people then you have a little bit of a saying like that doesn't really seem like that animal's providing much of the service if it's doing that being off leash in and of itself the dog goes into the water and then comes right back that's something where we're a little bit more difficult for us to say that that's absolutely not a service animal just because it did that they say well my dog wanted to cool off it was hot So you you're going to run into a little bit of wiggle room there with what we can get and what we can't um again that investigative tool that we have is is everything we say it is very specific in the idea that emotional support animal is not part of this so if someone straight away says it's an emotional support dog I'm sorry it can't be on the beach um the ada8 has things that are in I think what emotional things but it's disability is the fact American Disability acts disability is the definite part of that so if someone has a psychological disability mental disability something that they required medication or the dog can remind them for under the Ada that does qualify it's just they they specify the difference between what an emotional service dog is and what the Ada qualifies as a service dog um the documentation isn't something at this point we we're required to ask or certifications or or able to to ask for that most people don't present that anyways um I can't think of the last time somebody had paperwork but again just like anything else if someone wants to hand us paperwork and it seems that it's obviously not something's odd about it or it doesn't seem like something that could lead us into investigation again where we go down that whole of the criminal charge charge um and uh I was speaking earlier the the criminal charge uh the punishment uh per statute is doing community service I believe it was 30 hours uh with uh either uh locations that specify with disabilities and person with disabilities so it's kind of a an interesting way to look at a punishment as as preventing that they really wanted to stop that idea to prevent people from it takes away for those who really need a service dog if people are abusing it or lying about it and that's not right for the people who actually need those dogs um um I know we have um different definitions of of different beaches um if the beach doesn't outline it in the ordinance we use the state definition of what a beach is and I know there's the issue with private property personal prop public property and all of that um there was the other thing about being uh is off leash too I think a lot of the leash laws could be something that could be applicable as well if it's not a service dog or even if it say hey well the dog is not un it's Unleashed why is it Unleashed and again there's certain exceptions to that with the disability that the person may have if they're not able to to hold on to that dog um so that's a good roundabout gist of it uh about kind of where we're out where we we definitely want to do stuff we want to to help out we want to be able to prevent um dogs being on the beach when it's in abusive this but in the same sense we want to make sure that we're also U being fair and treating people Equitable uh under the American Disability and those who have disabilities and with us giving that information to us um and saying this is what we have there's not a lot further that we're going to press on them I I would that would lead us into trouble possibly I don't want to be that person who has the Sheriff's Office sued by the Ada because I made someone cry doubting their service dog ability and asking all these questions which on like I'm not a veterinarian I'm not a lawyer I don't want to go down that road to where there's something I don't know I can take what they give me but as cops we have feelings and if you have a hunch at something's not right maybe that's something you look into a little bit more without violating the Ada guidelines so anyone have any questions any questions for sergeant yes ma'am so if we're to educate people that do want to bring their service animals to the beach like what kind of language do we give them to say you know bring your legal paperwork or whatever if you want to justify bringing your dog to the beach um you could go based on the and they can look it up on the the language on the Adas is is the statute's pretty clear about what qualifies for that so if they're wanting to bring their service dog in the beach they have a service dog with it just be informed on on what it is so that if somebody asks them whether it be a business owner or someone in our position or or one of you guys that says hey uh is this animal provide a service yes what does it provide and the person says you know I have a bad hip sometimes I may fall over this dog provides that service I'm we're not required or able to really ask for that documentation paperwork but again if they bring that someone wants to volunteer that all the more easier to be like I got this so that way that if there is that dog on the beach someone sees it again and calls us or one of you guys again has a complaint well we spoke with that person in vetted then they actually even provided paperwork which goes beyond which puts everything to rest okay so that that would be my and it's never a a monetary fine it's always this community service now if it's a non-service animal I believe there it's a very long statute and I I read it before I got here I want to get the meat and potatoes of it I I don't know if outside of community service I didn't see that there was a fine associated with it I know the federal statute for service animals had something about fines but I don't want to tell you something I'm wrong about about the financial part of it okay it might be decided by individual City it could it could be something like that again if we're making the arrest at our level for a state uh for a Florida statute violation then that's obviously something that the judge if we bring that to the judge whether or not we make the physical arrest send a a recommendation to the state attorney they can handle it however they'd like to handle it maybe I mean it's possible to find could be in L of the community service and then do you normally get a lot of calls about dogs on the beach so um I am so today I'm filling in for St Pete Beach but most of the time I'm supervising our squads that include madira Beach Readington Beach North Readington Beach um Indian Rocks Beach and belir Beach I would say it's not it depends on the time of the year when it's nicer out it seems to be we get a decent amount of calls for that um it's not an overwhelming majority of our calls it kind of comes in waves I do know from here in though St Pete Beach does get quite a few calls about dogs on the beach well and what I found on Indian Rocks is like by the time they call the non-emergency line and you get there they're gone and that's another thing too and that's just like with anything if someone calls about some drunk folks on the beach sometimes I mean I I I'm very proud of our agency and our Squad we get there pretty quick we're really good with our response times and uh but sometimes somebody's gone or but someone gives different direction someone who's from out of town well they were behind this business when I saw them and then we get out there we're walking up and down the sand looking for a person with a dog and we haven't seen it the only exception was when ring to beach had horses on the beach a lot of people pointed me in that direction that was um okay that was that was an easy one but the dogs's not as much and there's a lot of people that are sympathetic towards dogs on the beach might not want to call us or tell us things that's right as as that as well thank you you're welcome yes ma'am you were asking for what uh what language or what you can say right from the American with Disabilities Act and that's why we're talking about this today is just here her are the facts and you can do with them what what you wish but whether the animal is required because of a disability and what work or task the animal has been trained to perform so that is something that if someone inquires to you can I bring my dog to the beach those are questions that you can ask and then also let them know if you are willingly misrepresenting yourself that's a second deegree misdemeanor with 30 hours of community service so I don't know how many people knew that but just to put that out there to try and limit some of the people who take advantage of this situation uh and are really minimizing the actual service animals who are helping actual people with disabilities and as the sergeant said the key word here is disability not Comfort companionship and all that others so just having th those facts that you can present and hopefully that would deter the people who are actually taking advantage of that situation thank you anybody else from the board have a question uh one more question regarding a type of dog or species is there any requirement for a there is not in the 88 does not have clear and I do apologize mayor Bloom I did Bell Shore is another area that we also are are on um but it does not have a specification for dog breed I know traditionally there were certain dogs that were looked at more service dogs German Shepherds golden retrievers and labs and such but um as the the language is written right now there's nothing to specify breed of dog thank you you're welcome sir also a service dog is one animal so it that appears I would say if they have a um a dog walking business and there's five or six dogs that lends a little less credibility to theity of shopping cart with three wiener dogs at Publix is not serviceing animal yeah and and that is for for publ and what they do and what they ask I know that's been I've seen new signs and stuff like that there so that is yeah it's it's an interesting case it's very you always want to treat something with the American with Disabilities Act and and federal law as delicately as possible but then you also want to be able to uphold the things that the state that that we have the ability to to work with that and I'm glad that the state gives us some some tooth to it and like you said informing our deputies and and folks that there is Criminal penalties associated with this rather than it being there's nothing that anybody can do I A lot of times telling somebody that might be even more of a deterrent than a a citation might be that's more of like a the average person doesn't really want the idea of getting a criminal record for having their lying about their dogs right this information will those people think twice and then if you were asking somebody these two questions and they don't have an answer and then they understand that there's there a penalty that goes along with that that might help for the deterrent I just would like to the whole reason for this is to to uphold what this act is is originally for and keep the people away who are trying to you know take advantage of that yes sir I I am very in favor of of ensuring that that anyone with a disability has every right to that dog and can bring it where they want I don't want it to be a trend where people are abusing a system of any kind to prevent someone with disabilities from utilizing that does anybody else on the board have a question for the sergeant nobody Robin you had a yeah I was just wondering if it be possible to get um something in layman terms not you know police terms to distribute to the business Community especially like the hotel so if they have an animal checkin you know room hotel room with animal we would be able to give them factual information like this if this is service dog blah blah blah and then the reverse um what you just presented is wonderful information if we could get that to give it to our all our businesses so that they clearly understand it businesses change hands managers change hands and it's always a conversation especially in tourism industry with restaurants and hotels so I would say both the the Florida statute and the federal statute that covers this um has all that information on there um obviously I see what you're saying more with pcso maybe from the Communications office or something I could inquire about something like that or and I think businesses individually I I would want to say it would be incumbent upon the business individually to author something reflecting that in their policies because there's some hotels that don't have a problem with dogs at all in in their their building so as long as they're correctly reflecting what the Ada is and and what criminal things I don't see that we would write something up for them necessarily branded with ours just because that's that's something that if they're going to call us and enfor it's up to them if they even want to call like I you dealt with people that don't really are not as concerned as others about dogs on the beach and what is the dog doing this and that but then you have other people that and I think that if they're city ordinance or state or whatever they're going through this wanting to find a reason why that shouldn't be there they're the ones making those calls so um I I can always look into it it's something I can definitely ask about but I I can see that being more along the lines of something the businesses themselves would have to kind of interpret and write out and and issue or maybe through the municipalities yeah so ma' well I like that idea of a a simplified fact sheet referencing the Americans with Disabilities happs thank you Robin Richard yes you seem to be um talking about the Disability Act yes sir a person is walking their animal and they approach and they admit that they it is not a service animal that they just have an anal on the what action is being taken it at that point then it follows if the based on city ordinance they can be cited or or warned based on city ordinances and I uh I I think for a lot of our ordinance violations it's it's it's a case by case we have discretion obviously but if it's repeat offenders such as someone who's been warn before and it just doesn't care we we we'll site them um sometimes information is the key if somebody's unaware of that dog on the beach Ru I said with the the chis that we have that can happen but education's always a good thing but there would be penalties Associated based on ordinance violation for being in violation of that so how would you know if there's a record of repeat we keep track of that in our database anytime we issue a warning for whether it be a traffic warning or an ordinance violation warning we always document that for that exact purpose that if we have someone who's doing it on a repeat basis then the discretion might change a little bit to where we say we've already had this conversation clearly you're not concerned about it so now there's a penalty associated with so basically he's saying anytime a person is approached will be documented as to whether or not at your discretion you just ask them to to leave what there is a documentation on yeah sure yeah and each Deputy I'd give them a little bit of leeway obviously when the cities instruct Us in certain things they want us to focus on we're always happy to to help that and do certain things and we have no problem going out there and doing that uh a lot of the stuff that we do like you said you want to give somebody a benefit of the doubt maybe but it it depends on on what it is the attitude that you get if someone's going to be uh extremely rude about the same thing with the traffic stop I don't have to give someone that information available to each Sheriff as they approach could be one person one day another person another yeah yep we we all have all of our computer systems um relate to each other so anybody's name that you run any ID or identification that you run um is is linked up so it can be somebody that works somewhere only one day they issue that person the warning for an ordinance violation whatever ordinance it may be the person who comes the next day if they run into that person again that person can't say I've never been warned the deputy should go check that ensure that that's been run through you just got to warn for this yesterday we'll go from there thank you you're welcome sir um is this a new statute an update on a statute bringing it to we just bringing it to to attention it was something that was I believe requested to get more yes this is nothing new this is just a did you know this is an educational uh U opportunity follow if a child let's say with autism or whatever Ada and then in that situation that child will be family that allowed so I and I'm not gonna I'm not an expert on on what goes with that um but if a a child has an Autism uh disorder and it's diagnosed and that animal is for specific ask they to calm that child down then that wouldn't be that shouldn't fall under I wouldn't think based on Ada definition that wouldn't fall that's providing a specific task for that person so it wouldn't be if they said it's an emotional support they might be erroneous in what they're saying and not knowledgeable about what it is but I would say that there would be a decent uh assumption that that dog may be serving a purpose if not you that' be something they would want to look into to find out for sure STS not necessarily it's it's I mean I would obviously expect they probably would get a certain breed or a certain uh training to to affect that I would I would think but I'm not going to say I'm an expert on that but if they say it's just for emotional support um it would depend on on that we're not going to be asking for specific documents and paperwork for them to prove that so if they say it's emotional support and this is the only reason but then if they in the same breath they tell us well my child is non-verbal autistic it might be something we look at a little bit differently rather than threatening a criminal allegation we might be more informative because I would be very you know that would be something we want to be a little sympathetic to all right thank you Sergeant thank you very much all than night uh moving to discussion items does anybody have anything they would like to bring up to the board nobody Fourth of July Fourth of July yeah who's who's uh stopping Fourth of July fireworks on the beach everybody everybody we have uh placed signs throughout Town stating the County ordinance that prevents fire burs so we uh doing a little educational uh Outreach we also in Indian Shores passed an ordinance uh a curfew ordinance of 10 o'clock uh not to not to uh it's to give it our our police we have our own police to give them a tool to use for some you know if there's kids out there being uh disruptive or um having drugs or drinking and drunk to be able to do something uh a tool for that after 10 o'clock uh so that's a recently P curfew we had it excuse me we had it last year for for a finite amount of time we exp extended it this year because it does get out of hand with underage kids coming to Indian Shore specifically I don't know about your other Beach the other beaches um but that's a a proactive thing an agreement with the Sheriff's Office to take care of those kids that might be rounded up by our police force in an agreement with the Sheriff's Office to take care of them after the fact If the parents if the parents won't come and take care of their children which that happens actually we our police have had experience on other Fourth of July where uh the parents have been called theyve not there with their children and they get called and they say well I can't come well we have a we have a way to take care of that as well through the Sheriff's office thank you very much we're making a really big PR push to make people aware that we are going to be stepping up enforcement this year and we're utilizing three ordinances that we already had on the books which are um are leave no Trace ordinance because the fire the personal fireworks are just a huge source of litter the next day our beach cleanups are overwhelmed with picking up all the remnants of the um personal fireworks that don't get cleaned up and then our um Turtle lighting ordinance and then open flames on the beaches not allowed as well so we're not permitted As Cities I don't believe to pass any new ordinances that ban personal fireworks with the changes that have been made at the state level um so we're using those three as tools to um those three things combined kind of equal no personal fireworks on on the beach so we do have um we put up variable message boards coming into the city that are already up right now that say no personal fireworks on the beach and our um Beach cleanup crew are going to be out there passing out some information um we have our PI put together a flyer that that can pass out and goes through each one of those comes with a I think $85 um ordinance violation so could potentially be looking at almost $300 if you're violating it because we had it's been really bad the last couple years especially are you confiscating fireworks uming tickets I'm not sure how the are police is going to enforce it yeah thank you Tyler that's excellent information and just to be clear we all fall under the County's ban on fireworks so fireworks are not allowed through panel's County so but the state but the state made an exception for July 4th uh New Years the county you can you can have an ordinance that is stricter than the state which is what panel's county has done so the simple way to remember it is if it goes up or blows up it's not allowed moving on to the legislative update I saw representative Linda Cheney come in thank you for being here good morning everyone thank you Mr chair thank you all for having me um we've had quite an exciting legislative session but don't we always um I want to thank you all as the local representatives of District 61 and Beyond um you all I think are doing the hardest work uh seeing your constituents in the grocery stores and you know things that we don't necessarily deal with at the state level so I appreciate all the hard work that you do and all the hard decisions that you have to make on a regular basis so thank you um so this year the budget was just signed by the governor 116.5 billion this is a balanced budget the State of Florida has requirement to pass a balanced budget if we don't have the money we don't spend the money what a concept huh um we also paid down about 25% of our long-term debt which is what gives the State of Florida such a great um Bond rating for financing and we put a lot of money into reserves I think you all probably have heard the bad news that this is anticipated to be a really strong storm season uh Duke Energy says they have the best meteor meteorologists in the business and they say it's bad so um the State of Florida is prepared is all I can tell you um and we are helping our residents to be prepared we refunded the mysafe Florida home program for to help residents fund resiliency efforts in their homes like um hurricane windows doors waterproofing their roofs replacing their roofs strengthening their roofs so uh that fund opens July 1 and that money goes fast so if you know of residents who are considering this they can go online right now and they can start preparing to see what they're going to need to be able to qualify to get this money we also started a new program called my say Florida condo to do the same kind of resiliency efforts for our condominium buildings so again if you've got condos tell them to get online now see what they need to do if they need help call my office we'll help them um so some of the funding that I was able to get through on a local level there were lots of vetos lots of crying um the the locals really um had a tough tough go of it in this budget session I normally have between 20 and million 20 and $30 million in Appropriations for local projects this session I had just under eight million so that's how many vetos there were and that uh was across the board so the local communities that were fortunate enough to get into the budget and I can't tell you why I fought equally for all of you and for all of my projects and some made it and some did not and I cannot tell you rhyme a reason for that um madira beach seaw wall replacement 100,000 St Pete be storm water 625,000 lots of veterans programs 838 th000 um and I also got a lookback study funded so I believe you all know lookback is the time frame that a resident can do improvements to their property within the FEMA 50% Val uh cost of their depreciated value of their home so look back time periods are set by Community they're all different so the City of St Petersburg has a zero look back open a permit close it open a permit no no delay the city of St Pete Beach has a five-year look back um and it belir just Pat just reduced theirs from five to a year based on a study that was done because with the new flood 2.0 a lot of those benefits that were provided to community ities to reduce their flood insurance or you know improve their ratings um have disappeared with that flood 2.0 so um it's time to relook at that when some actual properties were uh reviewed with the new flood 2.0 the discount was $11 so not worth it to not be able to make the most resilient home that you possibly can ideally we'd all put our homes up 15 feet into the air maybe we'd get off the shore but off of the water but that is not reality right so um if a home has been flipped and the previous owner put lipstick on the pig some beautiful granite countertops maybe some cheap windows and doors and it looks beautiful and they maximize the resale price the new owner comes in says I want hurricane windows and doors I'm going to take care of my take advantage of my safe Florida home if there's a five your look back like St Pete Beach the city will say I'm sorry you can't do that work so that Resident could sit there vulnerable through storms for five years thinking that it's best for the community because of the discount when in reality the discount may only be $111 not worth it so that's what my study is looking into um if you want any more information maybe have your communities take a look at the same thing happy to you know share any information I can with with you uh I don't know what I'm going to do with the study uh but I certainly want to do everything we can to make our residents as resilient as possible in the long run it's going to reduce insurance rates for everybody uh have a question on that yeah um so that study was is will it be conducted at the state level is it been conducted by a specific agency Statewide um and it is due December 1 okay so if we can take legislative action out of the study we'll have time um I am working very closely with oir office Insurance regulation to make sure that study is you know provides good information we we get lots of studies at the state that get shoved in a top drawer because they just really like okay nice study um so I'm working very carefully with very closely with them um reviewing all of the language Mak Mak sure that study is relevant and provides us with some actionable information um uh my door is always open if you've got some input you want to talk to me now is the time because we're working on it now um so for some of the communities who had their projects vetoed I would encourage you to look at the D website because there's still lots of Grants there that may help you I know some of the projects that were vetoed I believe would qualify for some of of these grants the categories are water quality improvement storm water and wastewater land and Recreation resiliency Park and open spaces so if you just go to the D website there's a millions of dollars you get a grand you get a okay so head on over there check it out apply I will write a support letter on your behalf to the DP I work very closely with D I have a great relationship with them I will do everything I can to advocate for you and for your needs to get a hold of that money and if you need help understanding that working through that um my office can help I also can leave with you Mr chair the um contacts for the different grants their names their emails their phone numbers so very specific information to apply for those grants I encourage you to do that I would love to see District 61 be like the lead in getting all the D grants um and Clear Water uh visit Florida got funded at 80 million 5 million of that is earmarked for nature-based tourism so if you have some of those programs you might want to reach out to visit Florida and see if you can get your programs mentioned in their advertising somehow get Incorporated with them FDLE got a new pass through grant for $2.5 million for the local law enforcement to uh execute online sting programs drug enforcement targeted at uh fent the fentanyl issues we've got uh hardening private schools that's new and their body armor needs funding that so a lot of the body armor is old or they just need they need more body armor so that's been done legislatively we typically uh have about 3,000 bills filed a lot of bills right there's 20 legislators 40 Senators everybody's got a great idea um so they there's about 3,000 that are filed so far 284 have been signed we try not to pass laws that we don't really need we try to keep government small but we also try to respond to the needs of our communities and a lot of the bills that I file come up from the community so I appreciate if any of you have provided me with information your residents provide me information that I act on um so the most recent bill that was signed for me that was a big battle right to the Finish Line I was working with the governor's office like right up to moments before it was signed the balloon release bill so it now in the intentional release of a balloon is now part of the litter statute subject to $150 fine previously um you could release up to nine balloons there was an allowance for biodegradable which there's no such thing um we know balloons are harmful to our Wildlife actually to livestock I know of a cow a pregnant cow she and the baby died from ingesting a balloon I went to the University of Florida visited with their veterinary school they do operations all the time on livestock that have balloon strings all tangled up um and it's bad for the environment I mean that's microplastics into our environment so there's really no good reason to release a balloon and a lot of bad reasons so it is now part of the litter Statute in talking with our Sheriff gter um it is not the intention of me nor of the Sheriff's Office to be handing out tickets like candy on Halloween what we're trying to do is change the culture for people to understand balloons are harmful they are litter you shouldn't be littering whether you're driving down the road thrown garbage out your car window or you're releasing a balloon it's litter it's bad don't do it so that's what that Bill's about um I uh sponsored and passed D's big uh Department package which focused on improving water quality standards and providing grants to the community for that we also established a whole new area in South East Florida on the coast there as an environmentally protected area the coral reef areas so we're protecting the reefs um there was some cruise ship issues over there and some boat ERS anchoring on the coral reefs and as we know those are so important to to our water quality and our community uh I also carried fwc's package this year which they requested that we further strengthen the derck vessel uh or um laws so they now can go out tag the boat notify the owner and within the a lotted time frame pull the boat before they would have to go out tag it come back notify go back so there was like three different trips they were having to make it was extending the time that it would take to pull that boat which was probably releasing pollution through whatever was on the boat it's a hazard for other boers so we've now made it much more efficient use of fwc's time so they can actually be patrolling the waters for the things that they need and protecting our waterways our boers and clean water um my youth worker bill aligns our statute our Florida Statutes with the federal statutes so 16 17 and 18 year olds now can work Beyond 30 hours a week um with parental permission uh we still in the State of Florida have much more stringent uh safety laws within the workplace so we are still much more stringent than the feds and have helped our small businesses be able to hire we all know we have hiring issues still I'm a small business owner we struggle to get Staffing so hopefully this will help um I also sponsored the Jimmy Buffett license plate bill which Jimmy Buffett has a um nonprofit called Sing For Change and $1 of every concert ticket would go into that fund and and fund variety of things so because he's not touring anymore um we wanted to replace that money with proceeds from the license plate and it's going to go to Disaster Recovery within the State of Florida and if they pre-sell 3,000 plates which with the millions of parrot heads they have they anticipate that's going to happen in the first day so um that that um license plate is part of a larger package which I also carried and sponsored which was the license plate package for the entire State of Florida including nine license plates two revisions to some existing plates and one of the plates within that is renaming A1A Jimmy Buffett highway so the son of a s sailor our adopted um son is going to be honored in the State of Florida and then last but not least drum roll vacation rentals so um I voted down on vacation rentals I um and I've made it known to leadership and the governor that my district does not support vacation rental and have requested that it be vetoed he has to till July 15 the bill is on his desk he has till July 15th to sign it veto it or let it automatically become law on July 15 so the bill is in play and with that I thank you all for having me um like I said my door's always open please reach out if I can help in any way thank you very much Linda does anybody have any questions for our representative I've got a couple course oh well first of all thanks I know you're a former commissioner for St Pete Beach so thanks for your service there um the FWC derc vessle thing that kind of got my interest so who pays to tow that thing to wherever it's going to go um that comes out of an FWC fund uh they try to get the owner to pay it typically doesn't happen um a lot of times with these derc vessels it one of two situations one somebody buys a boat they think you know they move to Florida from a Northern State they think it's a great idea they find out it costs money to take care of a boat they're not capable of doing that and so they just abandon it the other situation is the person actually moves out of state and the FWC can barely locate them which was the reason that they wanted to accelerate this process because there's a lot of people like that so taxpayers ultimately taxpayers sadly um we do pursue the owners to try to get um recoup some of the funds but typically no okay my other qu thanks for that my other question was on the uh my safe or my safe floor home thing last time I logged on like two months ago it was closed down for any new entry so was you saying that's already open for new no it's it won't be available till July 1st okay the m is not available till July 1st Live applications July 1st but you can go online now and I recommend everyone go online now just to understand what the qualifications are what kind of documents you're going to need what process you're going to have to go through um there contact information is on there I'm told that they've been very helpful with residents who call with questions um if you find that's not the case call my office will help you thank you and I'd like to speak with you afterwards okay thank you all right anybody else thank you very much Linda thank you for being here would you like the D grant information yes Adriana can take that okay and she will distribute that to all the members okay thank you very much keep up the great work you too okay moving on to City events bill can you start us everything's quiet North Rodan Beach all is quiet in Indian Rocks Beach while we're planning we're planning a uh Beach cleanup after Fourth of July again along uh for the citizens along with our um Public Services people who have a Monumental job to do after Fourth of July so we have our citizens uh do a beach cleanup as well thank you well there've been plenty of amendments over the first three months of my term that I wish things have been quiet and Clear Water um but um good good in some some we've had to deal with some difficult issues but just want to mention three things we did uh hurricane preparedness Expo in in um collaboration with pelis County government um that I attended it was ex extremely well received by our community not just residents of clear water but we had residents from all over pelis County come out we passed out 3,000 sandbags at that morning event and when we had vendors there we had all kinds of education for folks and I was able to talk with some of the folks in the car line uh about you know you know what prompted them to come there and how they'd heard about it and it was interesting to me um that the turnout we had which is huge uh was partly because of what representative Chene just said that there's there's quite a bit of anxiety among our residents about the coming storm season and the forecast for a strong storm season but the other thing too that uh I think we all need to remember is that uh not all of us have been here for 10 20 30 years and so for for a lot of the folks I talked to they had relocated here within the last year or two and they've not been through a really hard storm and they are scared to death so um I was really uh thankful to our staff for working with pel County government to pull that together and uh and uh and I'm sure you even though we had residents from outside Clear Water attend that and participate I'm sure they're folks in in your communities too that are anxious and um and and um and and I thanked many of them from coming out early now before storms are even on the forecast because we all know that when the Day of Reckoning comes when you really need it last thing we need is running out of sandbags and all those things that come with it so it helps our First Responders and our place in fire to have folks be prepared second thing I just wanted to mention because I think it's important to the entire uh County and region and those of us who are North on the Gulf Coast but uh we approved um um you know renovations to our Clearwater Marina Beach Marina uh cost of $43 million which uh it went from 18 to 40 actually 48 we value engineered it down to 43 so we're still trying to figure out how the price got up so high so quickly over two and a half years but uh we haven't done a lot of these re Renovations and upgrades since the 1950s and so we really needed to do that and so hopefully we'll start this fall and complete that the next year and a half and and hopefully that will be good for our entire County all of our residents throughout pelis County and the last thing is we do allow fireworks and and clear water on Fourth of July in fact we have a really big one that we uh we support and that's our Clearwater celebrates America which would be 4th of July so The Florida Orchestra will be playing again performing uh last year it was a ticketed event in the sound and this year we' worked with Ruth eord Hall will not be a ticketed event so folks can come inside enjoy it for free and then step outside to uh to watch our fireworks display so invite everyone here to attend our fourth of July celebration in Clearwater thank you all quiet on Beller Shore all 53 homes all quiet in Bard beach in Readington Beach on July 4th we are going to have um our annual uh golf cart Parade starting at 10:00 a.m. at Town Park so this has been a very fun amazing event our residents love to decorate their golf carts and drive around town so come on out for that in madira Beach Friday we have final Friday and we also have the madira beach Sunset 5K Final Friday starts at 6 the 5K starts at 6:30 and then we will be having our fireworks on July 3rd right here at Rock Park 7 PM starts the music 900 PM we'll start the fireworks show all peaceful in Readington Shores Nature's speach no fireworks um we will also be having fireworks hosted by the city on the beach not personal fireworks on 4th of Ju July at 900 p.m. um and then we're also doing a our Treasure Island adopta Beach is doing a beach cleanup um twice over the weekend so one the morning after Fourth of July to catch the litter that is going to inevitably be there even though we're stepping up enforcement so that'll be on the 5th at 8: a.m and then also on Sunday the 7th at the end of the weekend um at 6: pm. and then treasure iseland adopted Beach is also coordinating an effort to pass out um trash bags and Koozies um there'll be a trash bag stuck inside a little Koozie we have a thousand of them to distribute over the weekend so if anyone wants to go out there they have a post on Facebook you can reach out and you can really do it at your at your leisure just go out and pass out some some trash bags so that we can keep all the trash um in bags instead of on beach so and just to clarify we do allow um or fireworks are allowed on private property in Treasure Island um so if you want to set it off in your in your backyard on the fourth of July that's what the kind of the intention of the state law I think was um so just don't bring them out to the beach well good morning uh first of all my apologies for being late I decided to drive from passag Grill all the way to Indian Rock speech to find out that the meeting was actually here so my apologies um this is my last meeting so I appreciate getting the notes on me I wish I'd spent a little longer time but I was one of those guys that stepped into the breach when our four Commissioners uh resigned due to the we all know the financial disclosure for him fund so uh I'll be zooming on the road we're hooking up the camper here in a couple weeks and we're disappear in the Northeast Canada for a month actually several months but anyway I'll be zooming in my uh remaining meetings and uh it's been a pleasure wish I'd got to know a few of you a little bit more thank you thank you okay our um next meeting location will be in Belair Beach so I just want to say thank you to everybody for coming out today and I hope that you found this informative Oh Linda you have something legislative appreciation award is that okay Dave great sure sorry didn't me sorry I also had to take a drive down Golf Boulevard I got the wrong location as well um so I'll be very brief um my name is Sam Wagner good morning I'm with the Florida League of cities and every year the league of cities recognizes those legislators uh with legislative appreciation awards for those members who Advocate on behalf of our mission uh support the League's policy positions and offer amendments to help other fight back against other preemptions um and they rally support for local government as you heard that here and representative Linda Cheney is exactly one of those members so I looked up the big sea last night and I had to figure out what y''s mission was um it turns out it's a ulate communication between the Barrier Islands uh the barrier cities to discuss problems common to all and I think this venue couldn't be a more perfect opportunity to present that legislative award to a member who embodies that exact Mission this year representative tany had House Bill 49 this is her her young employment bill um in a curfew of minors and through that process she kept an Open Door she worked with the league of cities to amend the language to get the build a position where we could support it um and because of her commitment to stimulate the discussion and work with us it was my distinct honor to nominate you for legislative appreciation award so if you guys would please join me in a round of applause for representative Linda Cheney thank you thank you thank you this this me this means a lot to me um to be a local rep representative um means a whole lot to me and I appreciate all your support and Florida league and he's absolutely right I um I work with everyone when I'm working on a bill so if you hear of anything just call me up thank you thank you okay well now we are adjourned thank you everybody