##VIDEO ID:0AtCQcrmwAE## all right get volume all right it's about that time all right I'm going to call this uh Workshop this is the finance director Monday September 23rd 2024 4M and so Kobe we will toss that to you sir okay mayor thank you um counc you'll see on the attachment um you will see the updated Matrix with the two new applicants we received since we last discussed this is more for information we see those um if you want to discuss we can do that but also to that is the job description that we presented the last meeting do know there's a lot in that there's a lot underlines marked through I figur we're here for to talk through that um there was also some some mention of the job description become an ordinance and ordinance job description so that's why I didn't take out the first section in there has a big bold heading it says section whatever ordinance of section this of the code because we do that and the whole thing becomes a job description so I'm just here to hear what the council wants would like me to do and I and I'll take Direction and edit whatever you would like to see comments you see that are we everybody reviewing yes [Music] for for [Music] what do you specifically need to hear thinkk everyone's revie again have y like to be proceed y like to proceed with just to be clear I'm not reviewing I'm just waiting to hear what the discussion is I think what my discussion was the last time started this the need for this [Music] Workshop Cy what was that again you said about ordinance possible so it was my understanding clay that the intention was for the for the job description to be the ordinance and ordinance to be the job description so that's why we left all this here particularly where it says city of code of ordinances chapter 2 I know we had discussions about just minimizing that saying refer to this but if you make one the other and the other one then the we have to show the whole thing so that that's so what I've done is should you come to agreement on the language here certainly I would not have been able to retype all of this between now and 505 so you have a document that would be the title of the ordinance standard language of it boiler plate only thing that matters right here is C attached exhibit a to be codified upon adoption thereafter to conform to the code of ordinances we could then adopt exactly what you have right here commity code would codify for us and so we can move forward with first reading and advertising on it we can actually start that this evening if that's what the council so desires so Kobe has prepared this in a way that allows me to incorporate into an ordinance and not have to come back for two three four more meetings from today oh yeah so as a member of the code Landry's Review Committee um my my input would be that I I fully support updating the ordinance to reflect the current city council's desires for qualifications and preferences but I don't I personally don't feel it's appropriate to then take the job description and all of the basically all the the wording that's under a central job functions and skills and abilities I'm I'm not entirely sold that that needs to be implemented in the ordinance to me a job description is distinct from an ordinance and ordinance is law it's how we're how we govern and I don't think it necessarily needs to be this exhausted I think that the job description should be a separate document that over time if the city manager and the council see fit they can amend uh but as far as putting it in ordinance I'm I'm not sold that it should necessarily be entirely incorporated into the per go ahead I I agree with what he's saying I don't think it should be I don't think the job description should be in the ordinance I think the two of them shouldn't conflict though so whatever standard language that should go in the ordinance can somebody put it up on the screen whatever clay was just holding up because I'm trying to find there's there's nothing on there other than it's just a an ordinance there's no language in there that has anything all it says is the title and council's determined in the best interest City to provide a more robust and detailed qualification of its Finance director and then the standard B ordained these ordinances are amended nothing in there says anything about the qualifications okay and that we discrepancy was was our qualifications in the job description versus the ordinance correct our ordinance so that's the main issue then it sounds like that we need to resolve yes absolutely you need to resolve two- 59 qualifications as written right now 2- 59 is your qualifications language and in that the qualifications [Music] are I won't say minimal but they're not they're certainly not well defined um and you really only have three subsections and that's where it's a BS degree in accounting Public Finance business administration or a closure related field from a four-year college or university comma or eight years experience in local government accounting Public Finance or business administration or similar work is what your hard requirement is okay then you have a CPA is preferred must possess knowledge of uniform accounting codes must have knowledge computer systems I mean you have a very while it gives some level of detail it's pretty Broad and what you're proposing is it needs to be more detailed than that the question is what do we want the actual minimum qualifications to be it's funny I pulled up today uh several cities that are looking for finance directors it's unbelievable how many cities around this state of Florida is now looking for finance directors and assistant Finance directors so our current ordinance it says either or I would like to see myself a combination of both a bachelor's degree at a minimum and X number of years of government accounting experience that's what I'd like to see uh in our ordinance and I think that gives us all you know when we get resumés or interest from Outsiders that you either meet those minimum you don't everything else I think it's a so actually our current one has the BS and then uh four eight years of experience of local government so we're GNA say and four instead of eight I wouldn't say four I mean if you look at every if you look at these other cities it's seven eight and 10 okay I thought you just said four I'm sorry no no I if I did I did I misspoke okay if I did uh but I'd like to see that because you need that you need that experience uh in order to produce this document right here that we're going to look at next at the regular meeting the audit so so based on the current one uh so do you want to so you're trying to tighten up the closely related field I'm okay with I'm okay with that language a bachelor's degree in accounting or related field I don't have a problem with that those other types of okay uh but that or I have a problem with I'd like to see an X number of years of experience okay in Florida government okay so do we want to now if we go poor in Florida it could get difficult uh we would definitely have to have Florida so I wouldn't want to go too long on the Florida part do we want eight years in Florida are we okay with a little less in Florida you know what there was one in here that said I think it said uh eight years uh three of which had to be a minimum of three I think it said let me find it I'm I'm certainly agreeable agreeable to that I I still would like to inquire as to are we going to leave the for eight years of experience in local government accounting Public Finance or business administration or similar related work may be substituted for a Bachelor of Science degree because the reality is this just like in my job and I've spoke about this before I have over 23 years of experience in init at some point I've heard eight years I've heard 10 years I've heard 12 years they generally regard my experience within the IT industry as the equivalent of having a a degree I've seen that at many many companies before so I as someone that doesn't possess a degree but has has grown up and thrived in an industry that was very heavily required you know required degrees I think it's important that we allow um the substitution of actual true experience because the reality is the the job market is Shifting away from these hard and fast requirements for science degree I I talked to a recruiter less than 18 months ago in which they said that they're seeing within the IT industry virtually all the major employers are removing the bachelor uh degree requirement and and looking more towards experience because what they realized is a an employee that has Real World Experience sometimes is far more productive than someone that's sat in a classroom so I I would make the argument that we leave the or eight years Etc in in the ordinance yeah go ahead so I think it's a good point your your field of study didn't exist 40 years ago uh it did in terms of some obscure you know computer programming but not as we know it today I think some of the first programs was at Georgia Tech like in the 90s late 90s mid90s was one of the first you know nationally recogniz programs um there is it's a statistic that I wanted to actually find and verify but I haven't I just I keep forgetting about it and it was that approximately 50% of our senior most government uh management positions currently wouldn't have the educational uh equivalent to qualify for the jobs that they have been doing for 40 years and that they've trained everyone underneath them um the truth is that we've always valued experience and actually doing rather than talking about doing and thinking about doing in the future um but I do think it's fair to have a base let's let's have a floor let's have a floor we don't go below um but let's make sure that we have a experience component that can uh through its longer period of experience it may have to be you know eight years to SA a four year or maybe had to be maybe we say 12 years to satisfy a four year whatever that floor might be but let's just be aware that the restrictions that have been happening especially in government are causing us to have the difficulty in finding these positions because we're exceeding the educational requirements of the people that have been doing it the experts that actually are in the field what about this or a degree or eight years of city or county government accounting experience as and three of which or four of which must be as a finance director or assistant Finance director see I would almost counter with that that I think that that needs to be included in the actual before the or wait in other words in other words I want the four-year degree and I want some experience or or and then we that's what I'm saying I would go with what y'all are suggesting the or portion leaving it in as long as we could narrow it down to something like this eight years I'm okay leaving it four eight years but four of those eight must be as an assistant Finance director or a finance director or a combination of both two as the Assistant two as the fin doesn't matter to me as long as you held that role that they've got to play because that's where you gain your experience you can't be the treasury function which is just taken in cash receipts because you've got to know how to put these Finance documents together you've got to know how to tell Kobe or the city manager or the council you need to tell us these problems that exist before we get this written document at the end after a one year evaluation from the Auditors how about Mr D point about having a required period of actual Finance dire assistant prior to the experience you know equivalent yeah like like let's set aside the substitution portion of of the statement for a moment and let's just talk about what the first part the first part which is to me the fair minimum requirements right fouryear degree and Council your point of being a four-year degree and there must be a minimum amount of government experience is what I'm what I'm going for whether it's whether it's four that doesn't have to be the eight years to me correct correct now then we can go into what we would what let's let's set that as a baseline whatever that ends up being as we talk this through right now and then whatever we feel like would be a good substitute for that you know can be after the or but I I'm I agree that that we should we should have a finance director that has local government experience this is something I brought up in the past we saw with a previous Finance director that was from another state and the phrase I got from that Finance director a lot in my tenor was well that's not how we did it in the previous state they didn't have the same rules at Florida exactly and and as a matter of fact they had totally different taxation standards and laws and all that stuff so absolutely I want local Florida experience I I value that over over you know hey I was a in Montana it's crucial when you read these notes to the financial state that document is the cities to produce the only part of this document that is not the cities to produce are the letters that peris gray put in there with their signatures on it which are maybe four pieces of paper out of this entire document the rest of it's ours to produce and that's what we give to them to say okay now gr us on how we did with what we're putting forth to the public so you know to me that is critical because that is all Florida rules every single thing in there or Gap so for me yeah it's crucial also that they have so we could say a degree and uh do we want to use four as the Baseline but not put a level of uh of experience in other words four years in city government but it's not an assistant or a director level or do we have we want to be more specific I think I want to be more specific that might be where we do need the either at that one of those two levels because if you've never been to that level you don't understand what it takes to do this and I think you know Danielle's done a great job with Kobe and getting us where it was but when you start reading the comments of what's being said we can see we didn't have that prior to um prior to this so assistant now again we're talking about one with a degree versus not having a degree so let's keep this one well this one right now is we're talking I understood separate the two languages with the degree this one's with the degree so with the degree what's the expectation four years City or you know Florida or preferred Municipal experience or to me it's city or county because if you've done either or you can do that book but I would I would concur that local government is the direction you're going you probably don't want it to be school district but see it could be just they have a little bit more that they have that's right yeah they're a little more intensive but if you want somebody that actually has apples and apples experience city and county is going to be there the forms that they're submitting to the state are very similar the audit compliance measures are very similar the budget process is the actual functional difference and if that's not something that we can walk the through when they get here frankly the countyy is more intensive than the city so it's not that much of a difference but it is definitely local governments where you want to focus city manager we've always talked about we actually did expand and allow that for local government to be considered there that's probably a bigger risk than the finance director in my opinion if somebody's run a finance director for a county they have definitely have experience with the audit and the compliance measures and the bookkeeping measures I would say the one thing you want to look for if you have a county that we may have to talk about elsewhere is experience with Utility Systems because not every County in fact many counties do not operate Utility Systems so what we call our Enterprise funds are not going to be out those Downs that's one thing you got to be mindful that's my only caution there and to me most governments don't have that big piece component in there anyway so I wasn't really so concerned on that Enterprise function as I am everything combined total and rolling it all up together although it does have its own it it's more distinct I guess is uh it's got more distinct and exacting rules than some of these other generally accepted things let me you want to get a minimum for okay let's just say minimum experience however many years that is minimum I don't know on asso degree but minimum on a bachelor's degree then a minimum as a CPA you want them to have at least two years of hands on in the field or you'd even consider a CPA I think that's kind of what we're work getting getting to right now to me I'd be okay we had his preferred language as long as we could solidify this minimum qualification if you for CPA license you already meet those Pro exactly you have to that be a whole lot okay Mr Mayor yeah go ahead clay help me remember here because we I know we've debated this this Nuance in the past when we talk about defining Within These job descriptions I know Dr mcnight loved to uh he kind of relished in in this discussion but I know we specified with the with the manager we specified local government that way it was a little bit of a catchall for County government city government you know kind of some of the differences there there there's also some I think some other exceptions to that that still exist within Florida districts that's right thank you um do we want to specify director because from an HR perspective you know titles change and everybody you know someone may be called a COO someone might be called a CIO someone might be called a CFO someone be called a chief you know treasury officer you know there's and and and let me add to it as well we've even seen that within I wanted to draw a distinction between what we've even seen in some of these job applications where somebody had Securities experience right managing the investment side of the house which is wholeheartedly different from the day-to-day Financial Accounting of the house and to me there there's got to be a distinction there so can you maybe aine on that for a moment sure so you know the title director Chief Financial Officer something of that nature what I would tell the council is we should pick the broadest term that we feel encompasses what this role is going to entain and so whatever the broadest role that that entails is let's just hypothetically say y'all all agree that it is the Chief Financial Officer or chief financial position of the entity what we would say is or equip and then where you need to be even more specific though is because we're talking about allowing use of a deputy position and so we need to be clear of what that entails if we're going to allow Deputy I have a lot less concern I think we can broadly style like we use the phrase administrator the idea administrator covers manager covers director CEO things like that so I have less concern about that top level position because we get can say Chief Financial Officer or equivalent position our title is Director of Finance somebody applying to be the Director of Finance who sees prior experience as a Chief Financial Officer is going to read the two to be tan I think you're covered there it's the deputy director or equivalency language that we need to better Define in my position because if a deputy director literally did nothing but handled one aspect to that department they may not be sufficiently qualified so that's what you need need to be careful if you're given that but I'm going to give you the I am G to play Devil's Advocate though with you on that position if you have someone who comes in and as deputy director has effectively been operating a department that is larger so let's say you have the former deputy CFO or Finance director coming in from Jacksonville Duval which is a consolidated government and they've done it for 17 years I think you'd be hardpressed to say that person doesn't have more than enough qualification skill set and experience to come operate this system now does the deputy Finance director at Barto have enough experience that's where you start getting into the question so that's probably more where you need to focus in my opinion than just the chief title because the chief title we can easily address in a br ter where did you where did you come up with that clay the deputy director because we didn't put in an assistant Finance director because because you and I maybe I misunderstood you said director or assistant director or some combination of those years of experience and that's where I'm stressing that's part of your exper I didn't understand it's like where did he come off with no because you I don't have a problem with that at all I want to be clear again you have people who will come to be the finance director because they worked for a decade in a biger government and they're never going to get a chance but if you don't make it clear what the deputy equivalent is we don't have one and so to probably explicitly State that's the conern thank you what I might substitute instead of a director assistant director supervisory responsibilities so as long as they're F involved in the financial decision making and have supervisory control it again that goes to this point I I think Chief Financial Officer gets better because I'll give you an example we have a we have a finance supervisor title down in the city of Freeport and that person oversees utility billing and doesn't touch our books you wouldn't want that person to come be your Finance director and I would and they're not even our accountant by the way all we have an accountant that order chart wise is one step below that person that person actually would have a better chance doing our books than the supervisor based on the title and I would agree because to be the supervisor isn't putting this book together so what we I guess what I would like to see us do is figure out what that language is that would allow us to measure Somebody by you've done these tasks you've actually balanced these books and Records each one of these balance sheet accounts that have to be reconciled on a routine basis and the capital uh you know our Capital our equipment our long-term assets our depreciation schedules our debt schedules uh a supervisor doesn't do those roles and so he's exactly right we've got to figure out and I don't know we still have a finance direct I mean a finance we you know sand used to be one Cycles ago we got rid of the finance supervisor and did a utility bilding supervisor okay I guess my concern is we're crossing over from what I see as a resolution with a baseline which then we have to interpret in terms of resumés to something that we're getting so specific and so uh tied into technical terminology that changes from jurisdiction and from office to office that I'm afraid that it's getting I think we're get too complex I'd like to see it stay a little simpler we want four years we want a degree we want four years of experience of municipal or County government what let's just say you know local government experience now what's you know what's the next piece of that sentence what's the last part of that sentence to finish that first part out what oh sorry clay what what can we say that would represent or make us measure financial statement preparation because that's all I'm concerned with is you can put that book together then they that's the kind of person that we want so what would we what language could we use basically that doesn't have to get silver Boose that that that fin I guess I'm probably not the question anybody at the table is gonna love and that's your problem for asking your attorney this I think you start with the broadest line to start with that we want somebody with this this CPA education experience that's one thing this many years experience as a chap Financial Officer um or equivalent position within a local government in the State of Florida set that from there what councilman 's saying I think actually is a separate requirement that it is a mandatory requirement that the person has has prepared and issued financial statements for a Florida local government you know and I think I think I think you add that in because let me see this there are some large cities I've done a fair amount of looking at this as well their Finance director does not touch their Financial State that's my concern about somebody else is preparing them and it's accountant one or staff accountant two or whatever that highest level is is preparing them handing them in and the finance director signs them along with the city manager and turns them into the council for approval but that Finance director hasn't touched them so what I think we just need to be clear of is whether we say they have that experience or they're going to be required to do so I think you need to say they actually have done so because if you get somebody with 30 years experience but they haven't prepared a financial statement for the past 25 years they're G be a little rusty aren't they will you give me an example what you're saying because I've what you just said I've never you have you have certain you have plenty of local you have plenty of Special Districts and large governmental entities that have diverse Enterprise funds that have multiple things multiple CRA trust funds otherwise and they Farm the financial statements out to either an outside group entirely or it's an inside person that handles the preparation of financial statement and the finance that's not the the finance director such as who that's what I'm asking I'd have to go P them back up but I can do when I looked at them when you look at Finance departments with 50 to 100 employees that position is basically a deputy city manager type position where they're just overseeing employees and they're not actually doing the job that we're bringing someone in do so there could be somebody coming in say well I want to be your Finance director but I assumed I was just going to be a CEO type who manages the division that would be a disaster so I'm actually encouraging we put a little bit more of what's in your job description into the ordinance so that we don't have these issues that's the your reconciliation now I I sympathize because I'm the one who said this for many many years and argued with councilman Knight probably at the table with councilman beer bomb's point we create an ordinance that has 70 lines of requirements and 10 years from now three of those are obsolete we're going to be having the same discussion again and again we're torturing ourselves but I do think what Kobe had laid up here the way he's presented this I believe what you're going to ultimately do is have the minimum qualifications that's there at the top section is what's going to drop in the knowledge and experience we're not putting all that in it's the minimum qualifications but I do think we just need to be mindful that just because somebody's a finance director it's entirely possible they don't do what our finance director does so let's make sure we're clear if you want them to be able to prepare this this book what we're talking about right here this right here then let's make that a experience level requirement rather than just title so forance you can say Chief Financial Officer whose duties or equivalent whose duties entail preparation of financial statements it could be three or four things but then that makes it clear that you could then even expand that into the deputy position that you're using for experience if the deputy position did it great so I mean if a deputy did Financial by what you want so you're you're effectively proposing I think what councilman Valley has proposed which is bachelor's degree plus X number of years of Florida local government experience and then a whole separate sentence even paragraph of defining what we what we would consider as experience and then that we really talking about is cleaning up B which we already have cleaning up what uh Item B so uh 259 B under the qualifications Part B actually somebody put that on the screen talk to talk about the preferences a certified public account as preferred must possessed knowledge of State of Florida uniform accounting code and other areas concerning governmental accounting along with working know yeah it's right there go back up I know you were there what what he was just reading that second sentence can would you all be in agreement that to me where it says a certified public is preferred I'm okay with that must possess knowledge of State of Florida uniform accounting codes right there that entire manual by the way is issued by the state and it tells every Finance person in the state how you will do it because what happens is these get rolled up to the state's booklet and if we all use the same chart of accounts then everything gets rolled up together when it gets to the state level that's why we have to so to me I think that if it's not mandatory it needs to be because we are not set up that way right now I mean that was some of my comments to the auditor from actually it is actually it is in the ordinance at the moment that's the current ordinance language um I think what we need to add to that is preparation of the document that's the current ordinance that whole section uh so I would what I would suggest is we have part A which is the hard and fast degree and four years of loc uh local government experience we'll get to the second part of that which will be the or but then the second section is basically leaning up this paragraph where we agree on most of the language but we want to add a little bit more meat in terms of uh the prepar the actual preparation of documents because a lot of people can supervise based on that language but not necessarily ever put together the document so I think we can strengthen that and then we're just dealing with the other part okay uh would you all consider this you see that sentence that says knowledge in the areas of budget preparation blah blah blah could we would you all be in agreement that we say that whoever we hire within one year needs to get the certification from the Department of Revenue because they'll get they'll give the person the certification on how to do a city deal it's not very complicated it's not hard and if you've got all these other requirements then you'll know how to put the trim together you you'll know how to put the because I think Clay readed on that year for us or Kobe were you doing Danielle huh Danielle Danielle did okay my office has done the trim preparation for over 40 years for the city Danielle was requested to do it this year and we gladly let her do it but we will always we will always be glad to participate in assist as long as I'm there so well I think it's a finance function and I think the finance staff should be there doing it so instead of knowledge in the area of let's just require it within your first year of employment you must obtain the department of the Florida's Department of revenues budget certification and it's all online and you do the you do the little schooling that they give you and it teaches you how to do the trim how to do the budget how to comply with everything how to submit it assuming they don't already have it right yeah assuming that they don't already have why would we just go ahead and ask somebody have preferred but is required within one year of employment so that that would go to 2-50 we could get it like the bonding requirement but they don't have it let's do this because we're we're starting to to separate here um let's try to kind of keep it centered at the moment I would say my this is my request to fellow council members so we're all in agreement for a Bach in in the top line of a bachelor's degree in accounting Public Finance business administration or closely related fouryear college or university field from college everybody's everybody's good with that right yes okay I seen head nods okay all right um we wanted to add at basically the end of the word university and must possess how many years of local Florida government experience comfortable with four getting mentioned with four three to four is fine for me two is too little yeah I agree so are we so we can say you're saying University and X number of years two years L four years L sorry and four years minimum of local government experience Florida Florida Florida local government experience then we then we'll go to the or which would be the substitution language okay before we do that how is that gonna incorporate this though so sentence one sentence one still has to do this we will We we'll get to that in the next paragraph where we we're going to basically rewrite a certified public accountant and that that's that's what I'm trying to get us to is we can we can cover what you're requesting and what I think we're all in agreement on in the next paragraph there we can basically insert it at the beginning of a certified public account so we're taking care of the we're taking out this or eight years experience in local government accoun the first paragraph yet oh okay so what we're trying to do is the first paragraph Just identifies the the general the most broad terms and then additional section B will take care of the details like what we're talking about with actual preparation of documents okay but what we try to do first is take care of the first requirement now we'll deal with the or you know as a substitute you know someone's been a director for 15 years we're certainly not going to throw them out um because experience matters but they still have to follow the B the B will that part B that section second paragraph is still going to hold councilman Valle is adding an A and A B there even though they don't technically exist it's on the ordinance it's just not labeled there that way yeah so the first paragraph there is ordinance of paragraph a and then subb is the second part of that the second paragraph So is the is there an agreement in in that before we get to the aura in the first paragraph is there agreement that we say bachelor's degree leave all of that language alone and a minimum of four years Florida local government experience yes I am Mr Harrison yeah I'm not familiar with how much experience it takes to to do to do this job whether two would do it three would do it or whatever depends on the person I guess but um the experience is absolutely there so I would say three or four I'm I'm okay with either one okay so I I hear consensus there so then let's move to the just one second I'm sorry and four years but I need another word in there you're saying local government experience but I need at a at a at a certain ranking because somebody that like we're saying uh that just does accounts receivable for four years wouldn't work for me you know what I'm saying the next paragraph will take care of that no it has to be in the that top paragraph because the rest of it's going to be an or this is an and he's given an and statement and University and four years local government think of it this way we're the the first the first paragraph is establishing the the educational credentials the educational inexperience the second paragraph can clarify and expound on what we just did in section A and still be a requirement is is what I'm what I'm trying to okay well I'll wait until y'all create the language to do it because I don't want to be argumentative I just want it to be clear and I'm not clear and I would be the one that would you know let me give an example so in that part B what we might do is must possessed four years of knowledge of State uniform code we can we can add that same four years because I think we're going to keep the four on both you know the the and and the or in other words we're going to so we're reducing the eight years to four no man but we're just we're just trying to set some baselines on that description part so again we're going to hold we're going to hold the bachelor's degree with with four years of Florida a local government experience the part B is then going to say a certifi and this this applies to both you know so we can read it with or without the the or part up the top uh certified account is uh public account is preferred must possess we'll say four or must have four years of experience implementing the Florida uniform accounting code that's where we can actually put it in but that's going to apply to both whether we have it with experience only or with including degree I think we're going to hold that to both of them so that part B I think we're going to hold the both of them no matter what this is what the description of the work is this is what we expect you've already done so maybe imagine imagine what you're reading right now the paragraph that is technically B that says a certified public accountant is preferred imagine that getting Shi down to C so we're going to have our preferences in a brand new paragraph that we're g to basically edit hopefully here in the next 10 minutes they all be required yeah I mean I I'm go ahead and tell y'all at this point I think we're GNA be hard pressed to go for a first reading at the council meeting after this tonight just because of this I think you're going to want to see this in writing I will and I I would hate to gamble and then y'all come back at secondary to get change three lines and make me make you start all over exact so um we'll aggressively pursue through the next 10 minutes but let's don't expect that we get a first reading of this one tonight okay so the nice just to group them just give me the mandator what what what are we all in agreement here's the mandatory here's the preferences and then he can work on the language right so that's that's I think four years local experience and degree is number one yeah y just want to create a section defining local government F experience correct that I think that's where we're tracking yeah yeah the paragraph we're just G add detail that CFO that as long as they have and then in that second paragraph is where we we then specify real experience preparing financial statements you know with Conformity to accounting code Florida's Florida's uniform accounting codes and act and preparation of budgeting documents and audits um and then I think if we cover the the or language from the one above I think we can put a bow on it to some extent all right so if we go to the or language this is where we would allow a substitution so if we have and to be clear this isn't going to substitute the part B this doesn't do any substitution of we're A and B doesn't mean anything okay the second paragraph the the four years the or is going to be in exchange for the bachelor's degree what I understand yes okay so eight years is director assistant director at a do we want all eight years in Florida at that point or are we going to take less or do you do eight years total with four years in Florida what do you feel comfortable with that's really what we're talking about substituting education for experience how many years create a section that defines local government experience which you looking for then you would just say eight years of local government experience and then that defines it down there could just say they' have X number of years of so the way the way I'm I'm envisioning it Reed is or eight years of experience in local government accounting including two years in a Chief Financial Officer role or do we do four years i' I'd like to see more if you had more you're you're for subs for substitution sake are you we can do four I'm I'm fine with for because again we're we're substituting someone that has real OJT versus someone that has just been fresh you have less than four you're not really you're not really being able to be that's like saying I can be an architect and and I've never even gone to school and I've never really learned and you're learning on the just por okay yeah okay so are you good with four four director in addition to the other years I mean it's not four years toal years and we're saying but four of those eight must be at yes at the CFO yes I'm okay with that okay long somehow just as long as they're able to do this because if you can do this that is what that hold that function of that department is so right and then that that gets covered that stays in there in that other paragraph yes I'm okay with that so is it possible that somebody can be in a position in a larger City not necessarily have produced financial statements before but have overseen the production of U is that possible that's not a possibility I can't imagine that that would ever I think it would just on how big their finance division is and what the title Director of Finance ENT tains if they're more of concern more of a Deputy Administrator it's possible now could they have gotten there without producing that's what I'll say I think it's highly probable they would ever have gotten there without having done that's what I'm but it's possible they've been in a position and have not touched one for the past five or six years so so let's keep this in mind as as we work work through this we're setting we're setting the minimum for them to open the door right to get a seat at the table right so it's still incumbent upon the council to then ask the right question to then interview to have the job requirements Etc that would allow us to ascertain their true knowledge and experience and then eventually vote vote on them to hire so it it does I don't know that we we want to get too far off into specifying every little minute detail because to a certain extent I think that needs to be left to the hiring process itself that and the job description I just wanted the conflicting I just wanted the conflicting language out of that ordinance I don't I don't want all of those as that ordinance and I think if we make our questions appropriate work it will be disclosed just by the questions that we ask whether that person has this knowledge or not okay well again the ordinance makes it so that we're not dependent on the mood of a group it's that way it's clear it's written in it's it's it's ordinance at that point we're not keeping it vague so I again I I don't want don't let's go ahead and say what we mean we want going forward let's not leave it open to interpretation later council's changed yes yes well I know we all age on what we want Small Town PC but you know I know years ago had a finance director that uh who ended up having to get involved in doing a lot of the reconciliations and stuff uh they had a full-time job without overseeing the whole ganic of finances so you don't want to make them you don't want to put their hand on the on on every report and everything that they've got to do themselves because they're going to lose the whole reason we're hiring them and that's to make sure everything's done and done right not to do it yourself well and the thing of it is just so we're clear mayor every little thing in here staff has already done so if the if the individual positions are doing their jobs then e what the director does is take each one of those pieces and parts and puts this booklet together what you know and they do it every single month because this is an accumul an accumulation of 12 months after we've set that budget and then the director should be able to every month tell us hey here's where I see a problem potential Pitfall that you know is coming down the road if we don't turn the ship well they produce the right product whether she has somebody else can sist do it or she uh that should be your re anyway so are we do we feel like we've worked through the minimum qualifications of section 2- 59 sufficient that we can have Kobe bring something back and then do we want to just set up another workshop for this do we want to have him bring back because I think that I think that there still needs to be some discussion about the actual job description so we will be able to also kind of shorten this now y aren't going to incorporate the holy OB script and ordinance so we will be able to do what we previous talked about where anything that's in the words we can just take that out of this and say refer to you know that would be a one liner and the rest of it would be the separate job descriptions it would it would short up a still other discussed don't you think we could figure out actual posting uh get the ordinance written and have that discussion of the actual you know description posting U at the meeting as part of the resolution reading we can prepare that it' be nice if he would prepare that both of those separate documents at the same time in you know a day or two in advance so we can have a chance to read it so are we giving him the direction to incorporate all this that's here that's been presented tonight under the headings of essential job function and knowledge skills and abilities because I I that's the especially the knowledge skills and ability section I think it's far too exhaustive I think I think I think it's too exhaustive I think it should be I think it should be summarized much like what we're doing in the ordinance where we're saying agree if you you possess this minimum experience or certification obviously I do think that there's some things in here that need to be changed but again we go back to my comment originally which is everything under this knowledge skills and ability section who's going to test and make sure that they have this if they're agreeing to you know if they're going to become it are we going to give them some sort of standardized test I mean obviously if they're CPA they've gone through testing but if they're not right if they so that's where I think we need to have some discussion about the job description in those two headings the essential functions and the knowledge skills and abilities section yeah sure I I think the language I think the language that we just did where we're going to put uh mandatory for if they've done that role already in four years and we're requiring uh eight years uh four of which should be such and such they're going to have already demonstrated a lot of those thought so I don't think they I think we could summarize it because that they've already held four years somewhere else at that level they had to demonstrate that I I agree so I don't think I don't think it has to be so detailed because it gets too monotonous I was just putting those things in there because it wasn't anywhere and it was just kind of like it was too broad okay are you guys good I have one question may yes sir um on before we talk paragraph B in our qualifications where say a certified public account prefer the council will be willing to add in there a certified public accountant or gfoa credential is preferred that's that's a professional credential for government coun I don't like that language but I don't know what my fellow council members say what's the official What's That official title what's that Vue certified governmental finance officer it's not it's not to excl CPA is just another if you have it you get a preference it's a preference it it can clear the it increases the scoring someone's gone through the certification process I'm always want to support that I'm G to that if it's a preference if it's a preference they should be looked at closer but it is nothing it is nothing what a certified accountant is I mean they're not even equivalent yes what be requirement I'm okay with that yeah okay all right anything else let's call this Workshop J we'll have a couple minutes here just REM [Music] --------- ##VIDEO ID:Ul08gmpDAOA## [Music] [Music] [Music] okay than there what yeah Jos nobody m yeah I just want the service they're not the same as well I guess you got them in order here oh I gotta burn up time with play time get back here anyway okay um [Music] order to be at this meeting for about eight years second [Music] before we get started I was going to ask a question I know that the county fair are here we'll do a pick with this Proclamation what about the overdose is anybody looking to get a picture with that or with Constitution okay so we'll just get ready to do a pick with the Walton County Fair at that time so we'll get started in just a minute for we'll call this uh city council meeting to order on Monday September the 23rd 2024 and we'll begin with the invocation follow Pledge of Allegiance if you'll stand with me please Heavenly Father we thank you we love you Lord we're so grateful for your love toward us it's thank you for your love for the city for this community and all the people here we ask God for your wisdom and Direction Lord as we carry on this meeting we ask for your wisdom we ask for your order and God we just thank you Lord for everything being done according to your plan we ask this all in Jesus name amen amen I pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible Justice for okay I have um I have two um proclamations I just want to read for the sake of the council and then when we get to the uh County Fair we'll have some of you guys come up join us if you will so this this first one is is having to do with the overdose and this is whereas the city defc Springs does airm and acknowledge the harm and hardship caused by drug overdose and whereas we recognize the purpose of international overdose awareness day as remembering loved ones lost to overdose acknowledging the grief of families and friends left behind and ending the stigma of drug related deaths and the impact of Overdose and whereas in the year of 2022 the State of Florida reported overdose death claims the lives of 7,769 residents and with countless others affected forever and whereas we affirm that the people affected by overdose are our sons our daughters our mothers our fathers our brothers our sisters our friends and family members and all are deserving of our love and compassion and support now therefore I Bob C by virtue of the authority vested me as mayor of the city of fiac Springs Florida do hereby reclaim August 31 2024 as International overdose Awareness Day all right now for the Constitution whereas on September 17 2024 marks the 237th anniversary of drafting the Constitution of the United States of America by the Constitutional Convention and whereas it is of greatest importance that all citizens understand the provisions and principles contained in the constitution in order to effectively support preserve protect and defend it against all enemies and where as the independence guaranteed to American citizens whether by birth or naturalization is the basis for American America's greatest Heritage and the foundation for our way of life whereas it is fitting and proper to Accord official recognition to the Magnificent document and its Memorial anniversary and to the Patriotic celebrations which will commemorate the occasion and now therefore I Bob C by virtue of authority vested me as mayor of the city defunc Springs Florida do hereby proclaim the week of September 17 through September 23rd 2024 as Constitution week in the city of defunc Springs urge all citizens to study the Constitution and the historical events which led to the framing of the constitution in 1787 by vigilan protecting the freedoms guaranteed to us through the guardian of our liberties remembering that lost rights may never be regained and express our gratitude for the privilege of American citizenship now my friend from the Walt County Fair I see how many of you coming on side where we can get three of three of you well we can do that right back here y want to come around can y'all get [Music] back oh boy I better get Cindy's copy I don't know if I read that I got I got let me read it and then we'll quick all right here we go whereas County Fe are traditionally about celebrating agriculture displaying livestock promoting culture Family Values fostering Community Development and providing good old Fair fund and entertainment and whereas Walt County Fair Incorporated is a nonprofit organization founded in 1924 and run by the dedicated group of volunteers initially celebrated at Haron field in November on Armon day the fair day was later shifted to October to take advantage of a more favorable weather conditions and whereas in the Walt County Fair is unique because it is an independent nonprofit organization which serves Walton County and its continued tradition of livestock shows for youth exhibitors also showcasing local produce art and crafts quality entertainment activities which provide an enriching experience that highlights the important of farming and the rural life and ensuring fund for all ages and whereas Walton County Fair incorporat strives to enhance educational and entertainment experiences by integrating education programs and interactive cities and whereas Walt County Fair Fosters a Cooperative spirit with all city government governmental agencies businesses and organizations by collaborating with them to create a vibrant and inclusive event that reflects diverse interest and needs of the community and whereas Walton County has been a steadfast partner in Walt County Fair Incorporated businesses and other organizations in their Endeavors to promote and develop our local businesses business community and whereas Walt County Fair Incorporated celebrates 100 Years of serving Walton County is a perfect opportunity for a long time residents and newcomers alike to come together reminisce about pass and create new memories now therefore I Bob Campell by virtue already vested me as mayor of the city func spring Flor to do hereby and proclaim the celebration of 100th year of the Walt County Fair and the week of October 14th through the 19th 2024 is Walton County fairer week in the city of fank Springs and urge all residents of the city and the county to visit during the 100th year of Walt County fairer week and to take a moment to appreciate the legacy of the hardworking Farmers the laughter of and the unmistakable sin of funnel cakes ding to the [Applause] air all right okay thank you app very congratul thank you than we also we hope that all of you gentlemen have received your invitations and look forward to see I got M we got your response the rest of you please RVP thank you all right Mr Tony I think the Orin from C wton is running behind I think they were at the county meeting oh she there she is I'm allow uh Miss Le Moore to present this to okay the city all right aome thank you um assing I should be here correct all right I'm Lee Moore I'm the executive director of Scenic Walton we are a uh 501c3 and um nonprofit and we have been around since the mid90s in one form or another um but at the at this point we have evolved um into a countywide organization fairly recently um we expanded our Geographic reach to the entire County and we pursue uh beautification and safety Improvement projects and programs throughout the county and but we're newer to the to north of the bay we used to we started out we were just focused on the county designated Scenic Corridor of us 98 and 331 South of the bay and then in 2019 right at the end of the year right before Co hit we expanded our Geographic reach to the whole County and Co kind of slowed that process down but we're back on track now um so this is it's been a minute since you all did this but our board only meets quarterly um and so it took us a minute to get this in place but I want to present it to you all the the city council um it's a resolution commending the city of defenc springs for the enactment enactment of legislation prohibiting off- premises signs in certain areas of the city and um we one of the things that we focus on at Scenic Walton we are an affiliate of citizens for a Scenic Florida the Statewide organization and we are also a chapter of Scenic America the National Organization um and we focus on minimizing the negative impacts of billboards in our cities and counties around um and states around the country or state or us here in Walton County for our purposes so this is a long resolution I don't know that if you want me to read the entire okay um says whereas in the fall of 1965 Congress passed the highway beautification act which was later signed into law by the president of the United States and whereas the Highway beautification Act was the first legislation of its kind to control Outdoor Advertising including the removal of certain types of signs along the Nations growing interstate highway system and the existing federal aid primary highway system and whereas in January 1972 the State of Florida signed an agreement with the United States Department of Transportation acting by and through the Federal Highway Administration which established subsequent State control of the erection and maintenance of Outdoor Advertising Signs displays and establishing restrictions on the sides spacing and lighting of such Outdoor Advertising located along the interstate highway system and federal aid primary highways and whereas since the enactment of the highway beautification act numerous M municipalities throughout the State of Florida have enacted legislation to regulate or prohibit the construction of new off-premises signs and in many instances the removal of existing off-premises signs and whereas Article 2 Section 7 of the Florida Constitution states it shall be the policy of the state to conserve and protect its natural resources and Scenic Beauty and whereas on March 27th 2023 the city council of defenc Springs approved ordinance 949 which prohibited off- premise to signs within 500 ft of the boundary of the locally designated historic district and along us990 and US Highway 331 South now therefore be it resolved by the board of the for Citizens for AC Scenic Florida section one the board of directors of citizens for AIC Florida Inc hereby commends the defunc Springs City Council for protecting Scenic Beauty by enacting ordinance 949 restricting the placement of future off-premises signs in certain areas of the city and the prohibition on the removal of trees from the public right of way merely to make an off- premises sign more visible from that public right of way without proper enact replacement in section two the resolution shall become effective upon signature by the chairman and it's signed by chairman William John Johnson awesome so we appreciate it everything that you all are doing um to Bey even further beautify the city and um we support it and we really support y'all taking this action thank you we want to be a great partner absolutely we do too should I leave this with [Applause] yeah theer yeah that'll be good thank you awesome thank you so much all right okay at this time we would uh entertain a motion to accept or to approve the consent agenda or if you have something needs to come off please let me know at this time so moved second I have a motion second any question we'll start with seat one we'll again all right all in favor say say I I I I right I I Carri thank you very much and now we'll go to the regular agenda uh and do we have a motion to approve as written Mr can we've got quite a few uh citizens here for some of these items that are later on tonight I would ask that we move up the um under item 5B council member Harrison's uh second reading for the tobacco threee parks and item five 5c the um C1 yeah five 5 C1 the first raing for the code of ordinances chapter four animals and foul if my fellow council members will entertain it okay and so K where would we we want to put this uh under counc you want put you want to talk about that be the first yes sir if we can that's what everyone like to do mayor we can make that 4B one and two 4 B okay so we would make 4B one would be would become uh council member Glenn Harrison second reading to back free parks ordinance and then 4 B2 will become code review and land use committee first reading code ordinances chapter 4 anal file thank you sir can we get an approval of those two changes soov second I have a motion second sorry so we have I'd like to add um and we can do this under councilwoman heavin is a number two under her um based on her request I have presented and you have on your desk a copy of an amendment to 2-44 of the city code dealing with the city managers ordinance that would go along with that item so I request um City man's ordinance to be added as what would be 9 A2 I'm in my motion to include that second okay all right and you can handle that or I'll handle that under her depending on how her first item goes I guess that first item May dictate whether or not I need it but I would like to have that opportunity she's so willing all right all right all right okay good enough all right so we have uh a motion on the regular agenda with those three changes um all say I I I I I I I Carrie thank you very much all right then we will jump right into Mr Harrison I think it is first which is the um tobacco free parks is that correct uh I'd like to make a motion to now have the second reading of the proposed tobacco free parks ordinance second all right we have a motion in second any questions Das any questions from the public yes come on uh Carolyn zonia uh for the prevention Coalition and tobacco free Florida Mr mayor council members staff and guests um you've heard previous viously from students you've heard from citizens and uh I've addressed you before about the importance of this ordinance um I wanted to just share tonight some statistics from um the Department of Health in Walton County where I learned that one in 10 children have Asma so that's about 10% of all kids who have asthma and also as I stated previously about 10% of all adults smoke in America so for every adult that you might see smoking at the park there could also be a child with asthma who could suffer a health emergency from exposure to secondhand smoke so I would just ask you tonight please um to vote to approve this ordinance uh to make our public parks tobacco free thank you very much thank you yes sir good afternoon my name is Austin St I am a sophomore at Walton High School I support tobacc free parks because I want to speak out just sorry to speak up and speak out for those who cannot it is a fact that no amount of secondhand or thirdhand smoke is safe every year in the United States secondhand smoke is responsible for approximately 50,000 of deaths of non-smokers not including animals because of lung cancer and heart disease secondhand smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals including at least at least 69 of those chemicals that cause can cancer their hand smoke something that makes that most hum I'm sorry F that most people do not consider third hand smoke is poisonous residue that sticks to surfaces and objects after Smoke Clears my late friend KK was an English bulldog and Pitbull mix she was well loved by family and friends KK lived with my uncle a smoker that easily smoke two packs of cigarettes a day one day I noticed that there was a growth on her stomach my mom took her to the vet long story short KK was diagnosed with cancer and KK died I know that she did not smoke I know that she was exposed to secondhand smoke because she was breathing the air within the house of a smoker and thirdhand smoke she was a dog and she licked surfaces that held bois's residue was residue it was stated that parks in wide open areas I agree open areas to open areas to release 7,000 chemicals including at least 63 of those chemicals causing cancer a somewhat slow death comparison to Anthrax yet the results are the same tobacco free parks can help kids and pets stay safe safe is good let your choice be tobacco free part tobacco free thank you thank you thank you very any other comments all right we' go to the council all those in favor say I nay i i i i i Carrie thank you very much Mr Al if you would please the ordinance number yes sir that would be9 ordinance 975 at ordinance of the city of pH Springs Florida amending chapter 16 parks and regulations article two parks and regulations by creating a new section 16-2 to be entitled smoking and vaping prohibited in Parks providing for repeal of conflicting ordinances separability inclusion and code and an effective date thank you thank you all right this uh this next under the code review this is a first wait a minute is a first reading on the animals and F yes it is okay and uh and who is handling this believe that would either be we can present the first reading by the believe that you'll actually want the chief or Mr strong to talk about it so I'll make the motion to hold first reading second okay we have a motion in second thank You' all very much thank you uh but anyway so uh uh any any comments first one the Das any comments from the public on the uh animals and file ordinance no comments all right all in favor say I I I I I car all right you'll scroll to the top Jesse hope I got do this a little differently give me one moment this is an ordinance of the CF ex Springs hereby amending and replacing in full chapter four animals and file to create an Animal Control Ordinance consistent with the ball County ordinance to provide for penalties enforcement of effective date providing conflict of laws and codification go that ordinance will be to be numbered right thank you very much thank you very much all right um let me get back on track here for all right okay yeah this goes to Kobe with the fiscal year audit yes thank you mayor um I'll ask uh Megan and Ryan if they'll please come up Meg Ryan is purp gray they are Auditors they are who we have been dealing with for couple last couple months um and just a couple things before they begin it's been a great experience I know that I've had I think Danielle's had a very good experience with working with Ryan and Megan and um there are a number of things that they're going to talk about tonight that um we have already began looking at and creating processes for to address and so as you get through we get done if you have any questions about what those are we can answer those so Ryan you would thank you very much good evening Council my name is Ryan Tucker I'm a partner with Pur Grain Company out of our Tallahasse office this is Megan Camp she's the audit director on the engagement uh we brought a team of three to four uh individuals out here for several weeks and we've been going back and forth with your accounting staff for for several months and uh we are here to present the results of our audits the city's audit and the CRA audit if you've got the larger of the two bound documents we're going to hit a couple of the highlights um it may look like a lot but there was a lot of pro progress that was made this year we are five months ahead of where you the prior Year's audit was issued it was issued in February 2024 and so um a lot of progress has been made Danielle McDaniel has done an excellent job in our opinion of helping to pull all this together um we couldn't have we wouldn't be here without her um doing a lot of that leg work and uh last year did not you did not have a clean opinion which is kind of rare I don't know that you've had that situation in in a while and we don't see it that often but this year the good news is we were able to issue our opinion and that opinion was a clean opinion unmodified opinion on your financial statement so excellent job there will um I just wanted to touch on a couple of financial highlights and then we'll get into some of the the findings if you would turn to page 11 and we'll bounce back and forth between page 11 and 13 just briefly um one of the things we do as part of our audit is look at the financial health of the city and um compare it to you know benchmark averages and and and and see a lot of people will ask us well how are we doing in terms of our reserves and everything and so if you look at the general fund which is the the fund that you have the most control over um you have about 2.4 million in on page 11 at the bottom an unassigned fund balance so that is a number you want to continue to monitor if it were to go get get really low you'd have some concerns the gfoa recommends that you have at least a minimum of two months in reserve of operating expenditures and you're right about you're right at that Mark if you were to compare that to the on page 13 to 14.8 million now one thing to keep in mind is that this General fun includes the airport this year and we are considering uh next year and talking with management of separating out the airport into a util Enterprise fund next year so you would U be able to monitor that fund separately but in the past this is how it's been done uh and that those expenditures include about $4 million of of capital outlay items and so forth so that uh Reserve percentage is a little low if you were to extract that and put it to the side the general fund would have about 20% in reserve of what it needs um so that's a little better the other funds that you might be concerned with are on pages uh 16 and 17 utility funds and we've also been talking with management about separating these out next year into the water separate funds water sewer gas and sanitation and then there will be the airport which most cities do uh consider the the airport and Enterprise fund so um if you were to look at on page 17 at the bottom 5.1 million is your unrestricted net position or fund balance we like to call it and that is about 56% of annual expenses plus transfers out so you're in better shape there and in those two funds and next year you'll be able to see those details um of each fund individually um on page 61 flipping all the way back this page kind of summarizes the results of the audit and at the top there you can see we've issued an unmodified opinion on the financial statements that just means that these financial statements are fairly presented in accordance with gap we did have some material weaknesses uh that carried over we have to look at the prior year audit findings and there were four findings but within those findings there were about eight additional items so a total of 11 that we had to um investigate to see if it's been resolved and several of those have been resolved I'll talk about those and there were no significant deficiencies and no there was some non-compliance that was material which was a repeat from prior Year I'll talk about that and then on the you did have to have a state single audit and there were no material weaknesses or no significant deficiencies there and we have an unmodified opinion on the um the compliance for M major State projects which you did not have last year either um and then we had a couple of findings in the management letter which are kind of best practice type recommendations and recommendations to improve financial management but not quite as significant as some of these others there were two major State projects and it's really the the air airport Grant but within the airport Grant there are two separate um Grant agreements there so um there's a an issue we'll talk about there as well but continuing on with page 61 and 62 these are where the most significant issues are and at the top of page 62 those five bullets there we consider those to be resolved this year so a lot of improvement has been made in those areas getting books cleaned up and not having these journal entries to fix everything and um so Danielle's done an excellent job uh going going forward since she she's come in um to get that done now there were two issues here and and the next set of findings here is um other issues that are still out there that haven't been resolved yet and so one of those was on fixed assets and during the course of our audit you know it it it was a number of months after after fiscal year in until all this got reconciled but the previous Finance director had transferred fixed assets amongst the different funds and trying to clean them up but it ended up creating uh a problem inside your fixed asset accounting system that had to be uh fixed and so that took some extra time to to get that squared away and then we also noted that the construction and progress accounts were not being maintained by individual projects so those subsidiary records had to be recreated from from scratch so and and that spanned over several years um we did have some or at least one issue that uh came about is that there were a number of adjustments that Danielle had to post to fix things last year that number was about 300,000 this year the number was more like 55,000 so not near as significant so that was good news um just fixing old balance sheet items that need to be corrected essentially and then that next bullet on on top of page 63 the second one is about the U tracking of restricted revenues and so forth and making sure that those balances are are accurate the next three items were new this year one is in relation to the reconciling of the HRA account and then some due toos and due froms between funds have been out there for many years and getting those liquidated um essentially paid off between the funds and then um there was a budget issue with the original budget not reconciling to the accounting system the budget that got passed um by the by the by the city council was not reconciling to the original budget in the accounting system so that was encapsulates the first finding the second finding is just a repeat of the annual financial report and the timing of that you know this required to be submitted by June 30th that did didn't make that deadline which we plan to make next year if all goes well and then the next item was on the accounting for capacity fees they got the revenue side fixed but they haven't treed up those cash accounts yet um and then the next finding on page six is just about these two separate grants in the airport tracking those separately in the in the general ledger so just getting that and I don't think this is going to be a problem I we've talked to management of what their plans are to get these um taken care of going forward and we think most of them won't be too big of an issue but we will have to look at these next year of course and then on page 68 I'll let Megan kind of go through these she worked on a lot of utility uh area and uh these are more of like we said U best practice type recommendations in terms of and recommendations for management to consider going forward uh before we get too far down the entire list does anyone have questions on the first four items that we discussed good okay so uh all three of these issues that came up are are not uh findings in the traditional sense of the word uh they are but they are more along the lines of recommendations for financial management so the these are not issues that are indicative of those breakdowns in internal control um they are potentially items that you will want to investigate further so that they do not end up causing a material misstatement in the future so they have the potential to cause problems but these are simply recommendations for uh Stronger financial management within your accounting system as you move forward so the first thing we noticed uh was during the testing of the water fund we noted that based on the data provided uh now that's the important part of this one there's about a 75% line loss uh within the water now there could be uh multiple issues that run into this uh we are assuming that the data is is not completely accurate or in the same units so we may have an apples to Orange situation we simply uh recommend that management look into the data provided by those reports and if it is accurate then perhaps go into a line loss mitigation type program so the second finding we noted during the the testing of utility billing that the natural gas rates weren't being calculated in compliance uh with the related ordinance that covers how to calculate the natural gas fees uh that was just due to an error in calculation in a spreadsheet so we were able to get that updated while we were out on site for that audit and number 2023 007 while we were testing the sanitation fund and all the other utility funds we just noted that there is a bit of a a disconnect between the rates that are charged and the entirety of the costs of administration of the sanitation funds uh trash collection and pickup uh there are some items that aren't being taken into consideration when pricing those Services uh that has actually resulted in a fund balance deficit within the utility F or within the sanitation fund inside those bulk proprietary funds now this is not a problem we have seen fund balance deficits in proprietary funds it's not something that's going to cause a huge problem it's just something to keep in mind that when you break out those funds you're going to see a fund balance deficit you're going to see a negative where now you see one big B positive in that one fund there will be a negative uh we've already discussed with management multiple different Avenues of carrying that deficit all of which are appropriate and they'll just need to verify with the city attorney that there are no other ordinances that would preclude any of the different avenues that they're going to bring to you for your consideration okay any questions on any of those comment I just have comments okay I want to thank you and your team for working with our team um I was always under the impression and always stating that it would take us two complete Cycles to clean all of these books and Records up and Danielle has done an amazing job with with our staff Kobe and and her team that she has to work with so thank you so much for doing this I I I I personally as a council member am very excited to see I hate to see that you know hey we've got this this and this to work on but it's nice to see it accumulated allow us to work on it improve ourselves and move forward and get it behind us so thank you for everything you've done in here you're welcome uh the great thing as Ryan mentioned last year there was a modification of the opinion this year the books are clean you know there's always room for improvement within any entity um but Danielle has done a fantastic of the books themselves the numbers the financials in Ship Shape thank you I agreed I also have the CRA report um just to mention how that went it went fine there were three findings in there one was a repeat from the prior year um and then the other one was about or one was the annual financial report not being submitted within the the time frame required by Statute and then one was about the Tiff funding getting that money from the county they've already um rectified that going forward in 23 24 and then one was on the budget submission you have 10 days essentially to get that over to the uh County um anytime you do a budget amendment on the CRA there's it's in statute we have a lot of specific things that the auditor general makes us look at on the CRA report so so that went pretty well too y' you you did you did have an unmodified opinion on that financial statement as well so comment questions I've got a question just just to clear in my head because I don't I don't understand it it on page six uh 2022 2023 under governmental activities uh the deficits there I'm just curious is that and I think it probably is I don't know if we do we owe prop um a loan on The Old City Hall property could that account for the unrestricted uh deficit there $4.6 million I can explain that that deficit and we see this I'm just curious what it is commonly that primarily is when you have to put these uh long-term liabilities on your books for what we call pension costs and other post involment benefit costs that drives these numbers Okay negative for a lot of cities I won't say City but it drives this is only kind of a government wide when you look at the long-term help like of the financial statements uh there's two different reports in here one's like you would look at it for a a business so it brings all the fixed assets and your long-term debt part of that long-term debt is this long-term pension obligation um ATS even a portion of the of f FRS is gets pushed down to all the participants the entities that partip it so that that drives that number negative um a lot of times yeah I I'd read where it could be land buildings equipment and that's that's where my brain went immediately to maybe something that we had outstanding that would be soon paid off if that were the case yeah the total net pension liability Citywide is 9.2 million so that does and that's 8.1 million of that is in the governmental activities thank you good yes mayor I think we're looking for approval of the fisal Year 2023 audit and permission to submit to the state so moved second all right I have a motion and a second any other questions anyone all in favor to say I I I I all right I Carrie thank you so very much thank you Ryan thank you thank you thank you awesome okay all right Kobe we're going back to you on this RFP thank you mayor 4c2 um WT County Board of County Commissioners has issued an invitation to negotiate on management operation maintenance and expansion of a Wastewater franchise in Mad Florida this um this is primarily spurred off because of the um pending development at the Blackstone golf course in essence I'm requesting permission to submit a bid on this invitation negotiate um as we go through this and as W County County Commission staff puts out more information the financials of the operation the the lines infrastructure that's when myself and consultant of Staff will review it all and at that point determine if it's something that's even economically viable for us to do um if it is not we will not bid for it but if it is something that there's an opportunity for us to take advantage of that um we feel that I feel that I would I would be remiss not to submit on that again anything beyond that becomes official action has to come before the council anyways so the reason we're asking today is because the bid closes October 10th questions are due they close on October 20 or September 26th and so we would not have another council meeting prior to the bid date deadline motion to approve city manager to submit a response to RFP second I have a motion second any questions comments questions comments from anyone allv i i n all right I I Carri thank you very much all right well we'll go to back Kobe on thank you mayor contract I guess 4 C3 amendment number eight um everyone should have a copy of that and we did provide copies to the public so this is our annual Amendment for to the Jacobs contract um last year the total fee for their services was $884,000 um that was comprised of two separate fees an $839,000 base fee and $45,000 maintenance fee um there is a 5% increase in the contract amount due to CPI and language in amendment number seven we have removed the $45,000 maintenance fee so the 5% would be calculated into the 839 that would bring our fiscal year 2025 contract amount to $88,900 so that's roughly $3,050 less than last year um we do have adequate funding in the budget for the operations maintenance of our of our facilities and so um I'm asking for approval amendment number eight and one of the M bigger changes in this is that um I want to put some thresholds on their ability on J's ability to spend and operate for the city uh one is if there's an expenditure greater than $8,000 so we're going to get to the point where emergency pumps are needed of that you know and anything over 8,000 they be approval from me before they incur that cost on the city's behalf um and then secondly they they have a maximum amount they can spend in a month month which is $133,000 that roughly comes out to $156,000 in a single year that is not a problem for water we've been very consistently kind of low on water we maintain what time waste water that's not not uncommon we do have funds in budget for that and again before they can go a dollar or 13,000 they would need approval from the city before they incur that cost um the benefit of this is that on a monthly basis Jacobs will build a city for those cost we be able to see it track it and keep up with it and see what we're doing here this is something that Daniel and I strongly believe is a benefit to us in the financials STV of the city and so I ask for approval amendment number eight for fiscal year 2025 some move all right we have a motion second and a second any questions any comments all in favor say I I I I I I I car thank you very much may 4c4 this is a request to approve the purchase agreement for the 5 acre parcel located on hucka road uh this parcel is adjacent to Jee Hurley Park this would allow us to um reconfigure the way we do the infrastructure uh with our Runway Expansion Project instead of putting infrastructure on the west end of the runway running running west on je Hurley we're going south and coming back East this will allow us to go up Huck North and do a small turn to the East and tie back into gley road so the purchase agreement is for $90,000 and I'd ask for approval to Pur to approve that purchase agreement move to approve second okay we have a motion of second questions comments many want comments from the public all in favor say I I I I all right I I Carrie thank you very much all right you want to go to 4 C5 this is a request to solicit an invitation to bid for an indefinite delivery indefinite quantity for water and waste materials contract so we had briefly mentioned this a few meetings back um I think this is the Avenue the city we should look at and pursuit when it comes to materials for water and waste water to ensure that we have materials on hand we have them in a timely manner for me the biggest is emergency um if an fent line breaks or a main Force main breaks we do not have materials on hand which this allows to do these companies have committed they will commit part of that contract to respond to us immediately with the materials and so with the water and sewer being the city's Lifeline I believe it's it's important to have that in place so I would ask for approval of the invitation to bid 2024 pw1 um and those bids will be due October 22nd and we will bring those back November 11th for consideration some move I have a motion a second questions comments comments from the public all in favor say I I I I I I I Carrie thank you very much and now we go to TDC 4 C6 WT County tourist Development Council has asked that the city council appoint a member to to the TDC at the moment Council verer bomb serves in that position and so it's up to the council who they wish to reappoint Mr bebom or that's for discussion you stay on I'm happy to serve if there's other interests May here actually I you know I lived in South Balton for a long time and U you know I'm fairly well versed in the issues I am interested in U continue to expand our participation with you know our County and other entities um so if there's interest in Mr beon doesn't mind I I would love to participate I'm terbly willing to commit the the time to do it I nominate councilman Valley to serve on the TDC hang on okay all right we have a nomination second second we got a second all right Mr Robert go thank you Robert Raymond for the record I I don't want to mess uh anything up but I actually think everyone be would be very good on the council there is something happening with the TDC and the software initiative that's coming down to this sheriff's office so I would ask that everyone consider Josh as well Mr bebon you I think that there is ample reason with things at the sheriff's office that need to coordinate softly wise with the sheriff's department and the TDC you're both working on similar things and I would like to I think bringing them together now is the time thank you very much and than you anyone on the council would be great for but I wanted to put that out there thank you very much I appreciate you're gonna be working with that either way okay be down there on Tuesday morning I'm glad to help everybody I'll let you do that thank you very much okay all right uh all in favor say I I I I I I thank you Mr thank you thank you Tony we appreciate stepping up all right then now your authorization to transmit notice of non-renewal of certificates yes sir just asking for approval to transmit a notice of non-renewal to um FM FMI VT that's the investment portion of fmit and the Maris Bank to um non-renew the our CDs those Banks when they mature so that I can in that time when those do mature between then and now Danielle and I work on Pro bring something back for the city's Investments that we think the council would agree with um so we need to get that money back in hand put a process in place and we receive them we put those in those higher yielding accounts so move second got second go ahead currently um there is 22,9 $914 at a bank it's earning 2.25% and then there is 2.2 or 2, 29,620 771 th000 that's a trust Mark at the moment and that is a mutual money that's in a money market account earning roughly 5% all right um all right we got a motion second any other questions any comments from public all fav say I I all I I Carrie Mr is that take care of you that's it me mayor all right we'll go to our planning director Chris Wallace and looks like he's got alen spring subdivision sir good evening Council here to present the Alden Springs subdivision this is located on Walden Road it's on the west end of Walden Road it consists of 150 new homes U we have worked extensively with Walton County regarding the um access off of Walton Road making sure that the sidewalk gets uh installed along Walton Road if you've had a chance look at the plans you'll notice there are sidewalks within the subdivision um and the landscape and that's required by code um everything has been designed not only to the the city's technical specifications but also the specifications that D requires and the Florida Department of Transportation so when we come back for acceptance of those utilities they will have to pass all D inspections and they will have to provide core samples for the roadway to make sure that it is built to standards um so what I'm asking for tonight is a motion to approve the issuance of a development order which would authorize the construction of only the infrastructure which consists of water sewer storm water and roadways sidewalks and then at which at which point that is done and it has been signed off by our engineers then I'll come back and request the development order to allow them to start constructing homes so the technical motion will be a motion to approve the final plan and issue a development order conditioned for the infrastructure conditioned on the provision of a bond in the amount of 120% of the development cost so moved second all right I have a motion second questions I got one yeah what what what are the in we've got a lot of development going on along Walton Road um what are the impacts of all the future housing that that we know of that's coming down the pipe um specifically with the roadways are they looking at widening Walton Road is the infrastructure improvements three lanes two being traffic movement one being turned how how are they anticipating these impacts not as part of this development I like I mentioned before we do and we always work closely with Walton County's engineering department on anything that affects um a roadway that is under their jurisdiction um they were provided with the traffic analysis for the project and they had no objections um to that the only thing that we really worked on was limiting access to Walton Road so you'll see there are maybe 10 lots that front on Walton Road they will have no Drive way access off of Walton there actually be an Alleyway for lack of a better term um for their driveway access off the rear of those structures um we also worked with the fire department to ensure that there were two ways in and out of this subdivision in case of emergency um the developer was more than happy to accommodate that uh but as far as future development uh and what impact that's going to have on wal Road and what improvements they might want in the future at this point they did not um request any future improvements go ahead uh Chris can you I know some of this might not be in this time but can you speak to I see several common areas are designated but can you speak to sidewalks can you speak to uh lighting that would be required along those sidewalks um have they addressed that I know some of that stuff's probably not in our LDC I know we we've discussed that in the past with some other developments yeah but also um trees and green you know replacing green yes they did they are providing sidewalks along both sides of the all the internal roadways U and also along Walton Road they did provide a lighting plan showing these street lights uh Within development and they did provide a landscape plan that shows the required trees so this uh this roadway here are they expecting people to park alongside of it as part of parking for this development well it is a public street so if the city wishes to um prohibit parking along the street that would be something that the council will need to initiate in the future well what I'm what I'm what I'm getting at is if as part of the overall plan they're assuming that people are going to park on the street right you know can go to any of these other subdivisions that are fully populated and most the time you see people parking on the street whether it's visitors or whether it's additional residents like teenagers or or whatnot that are there are we do we have this road sufficiently wide enough to to accommodate that that we're not then squeezing everybody in um generally you would need two 12T travel lanes and uh an additional space for parking on the street um and looking at these plants I can't tell you how wide the roadway is from the edge of curb to edge of curb looks like 24t Corner SC here yeah so the the development order comes in Mr walls will the council have an opportunity to determine whether they whether there's adequate parking on site versus off site for the houses there would be and really the way that our um parking ordinance is set up now a single family home only requires one parking space which we all know is not adequate um so I think that's something to consider at the do stage is do they have enough room in driveways garages or otherwise for one or more cars if we're concerned to start going on that and City would need to look at whether they designate on street parking as a Prohibition on this road um we certainly have statutes that cover blocking of Transit lanes that could cover already I guess my concern is if we if we don't address it now by the time they get to the do stage it's already too late because they've already laid they've already lay the the curbing the asphalt Etc down I think in that situation our best bet would be to designated as no parking and then of course that would be up to law enforcement to um you know to manage but um at that point that is not shown in this plan but when it becomes turn over the city you could do that y yeah but I think by the time we get all the way down okay by the time we get all the way down to it being turned over the city the problem's already there yep right Mr um is here he like to speak on this m yeah with regards to the parking um this site is actually designed should have three spaces per lot so we all know that garages aren't always used for cars there is a garage space though but then there will be two spaces as well outside the garage so each each homeowner each residence could have three total spaces um without the need to park on the road no I'm not going to tell you that you know they have a party or something and people don't park on their Road sure but in terms of the actual homes it's been accountable yeah do you have in the I'm was just scanning through it real quick to see again I noticed that there's several common areas but do you have some designated like overflow parking areas we do not so a lot of those common areas that you see are storm water um and fortunately we have about a 100 foot gas power um couple of easements that run through the site as well I know we're in desperate need of affordable housing but would you consider a couple of these areas for designated like overflow parking if someone's having event because I mean obviously if we're going to pack this many homes into an area there's probably going to be some some need for parking at any given time yeah sorry Chris I'm using your paper here uh we could we um in particular along the large common area the biggest storm water area in uh in the site on the North side we could easily get some spaces in there there's is already actually a pull off for lift station so there's no reason you know we we'd be happy to do that as a condition and add some additional spaces there um that's between 27 and 28 for example at the North End um I can look at some of the areas but we'd certainly be willing to do it there and then I I guess I know this is probably going to be an extremely large ask but what what are the possibilities of widening the road to accommodate at least one vehicle not not two vehicles on either side but one vehicle parking plus the travel Lanes is that in in the cards I don't think we could do it without eliminating sidewalks unfortunately what about shrinking Lots uh so your code actually has a lot minimum a lot size minimum so we are actually couldn't shink the lots too much without triggering that on on Lots okay goad I think an [Music] Ambert I guess my biggest concern is and and I know it's not not his problem to deal with but it's going to be all of our problems before long too we're we're addressing the infrastructure at this point and if anybody's taking a ride down Walton Road during school traffic times or when football games are going in or letting out um we've got Twin Lakes Drive that's already in dire and heat of repair and I know we're doing that soon but the traffic going to and fro from uh Piggly Wiggle we've got a lot of roadways that not only our citizens go up and down but all the transit traffic going to and from the schools Weare Park and everything else too and if we don't address that now and I know that that's the County's issue but if we don't take a look at that right now just being a County Road we're going to be in a mess because it's tight just trying to get down here today for this meeting from my work I'm looking for any way to dodge dip and dive to get back on the roadway quicker to get over here so it's a mess on W M that's something that Chris and I could engage W County and and start discuss because there is a nearly 300 Lots going to be put in along m road from Do's we've had in the last year and a half I I I can say and I think Mr ainson can speak to this as well with the new Mobility fee that was recently passed um I believe this will be subject to those Mobility fees which is basically designed to help improve infrastructure within Walton County that is impacted by this development and other developments that tie into it so we do now have a revenue Source uh or Walton County doesn't come directly to us Walton County will have that Revenue source to make those types of improvements that are impacted by this type of development will they have enough space though to to widen the roadways along there always problem is a challenge if do they have right way because the only other way to be to exercise imminent domain to take it at that point and that's impacts the existing owners we can have this conversation with the county yes thank you Mr go ahead I I I like what I've heard about the street the streets being built to code uh the sidewalks the trees the Landscaping all that um that's that's a big Improvement um you know in the right direction I know it's only going to get better but these are large subdivisions and and there are concerns I've spoke with two contact uh two people today that live on Twin Lakes uh drive and they have also brought up uh Council MC point about um twin lak Drive needing repaved or whatever extent of work it needs it needs some but these folks have noticed the increased traffic on Twin lak since um Pinehurst open so when we add you know another 150 homes here people are going to avoid the the school in of Walton Road and they're going to dive down twin late the traffic is going to increase exponentially I'm sure on that so that certainly has to be addressed but I do have a question about the sidewalks I I noticed um the uh it it says sidewalks will be installed by the building contractor at the time of construction of each lot now is that clearing of the Lots or is that not until actual construction of the homes begin because I asked that because the development schedule that you have on page CO3 sheet CO3 shows sidewalks at months four and five so at what point in construction are we talking about sidewalks will be is it going to be hodg Podge when a house is built they'll have a sidewalk and the next empty lot won't or yes sir so so typically that's how it works for a couple different reasons that the sidewalks you see in that schedule would actually be everything along the common area because obviously there's no Home homeowner there right with regards to lots to be perfectly honest what we find is if you install the sidewalks early once the building contractors get in there and drive their equipment and their trucks over it they're busted up they're terrible um and the only way to ensure that they're you up to code to begin with is is to unfortunately install them at that time okay so as time goes on and they don't sell out quickly we're two or three years down the road and we're still selling lots and building houses what's the guarantee that we have that those sidewalks can will be built at Point condition corre correct so when you put something as a condition of the co not the doo you have the absolute utmost strength and they're also providing this case infrastructure bonding so we're actually being double secured many places that do Co based improvements will not actually add the bond element in this developers do so so on this one that you're saying that the bond won't be satisfied until the homes are built until the improvements are are finished which means as a practical element they could satisfy the improvements prior to the homes being built they so wanted to they're choosing not to for the reasons he's describ so in that case they have a bond that is going to stay out there until all improvements are completed by that same token do that mean that um we take care of the we close the portion on and accept the ways in advance of the bond being finalized the bond remain open though for the co component so they would either have to have reissued bonds draw down bonds and the whole thing stays out there okay all right thank you we'll gladly accept any of those three solutions so is is the plan is this a buildout plan for the whole subdivision to build the homes and then sell them or sell them or build them after people have submitted plans and what have you I'm not I actually do not know that answer okay Council yeah I just didn't know if it would just build them and hope they all sell thing build when purchase bu purchase okay I would say based on the way Piner filled out probably pretty quickly it did that's what they're hoping yes that's right so yeah so that schedule is like seven months that's wow that's that's well that's infrastructure schedule that's infrastructure only not all the houses all we're doing the infrastructure yeah that that that's a typical you know five to eight month process so seven is about what we would expect to get Road utilities sidewalks um there's some off Street stuff in this um part of this is upgrading a city lift station for example um but one of the pumps um but then at that point you know the building permits would would start so and one more question if I can on the Lots one through 12 that are closest to Walton Road there's a barrier or I don't I forget what you call it buffer there there is trees trees correct but I was asked today please don't let it be a burm no it won't be a BM thing okay Dirt Pile it is it is outg grade good how about no fence or anything like that okay I can answer that question then to them thank you I had a question about the U the private RightWay so that one's going to be just a interl uh you know like a tile Geo are you talking about the the Ingress the secondary yeah the emergency one yeah so so the intent here is you always better off with with One Singular access point from a safety standpoint less turning movements um things of that nature you also he's looking for what substance is well mean air PVE system it'll be it'll be an air PVE system which typical in some airports it um you know substantially similar um could be with we don't typically like lime rock bases or things like that that'll wash away but it needs to be something that's traffic rated for a fire truck and so you're GNA so that's going to be permanently maintained by the Association then correct we will not assume that and I highly discourage us from assuming such things I would not do we have a is it a sidewalk along there I can't quite tell what's next to it it don't look it's not hatched I don't think it's a sidewalk I think it's just uh combin area it's just common area it might be the RightWay line it's the unimproved r looking at appear is that there's 24t of air PVE grassy pavers Etc and then on 50t of total R so you're going to have an additional 13 ft on either side is unimproved um the actually I'm pleased to see the layout compared to the ones we typically see I know you're working around a a wetland that's forcing it but um I I tell you it's to your benefit that you did have it because otherwise youd have a unrelenting miserable grid and you couldn't tell apart um I kind of question not using that exit um I think it's a makes it more walkable makes it easier to use um hopefully people just go ahead and use it anyway um but I just want to be clear the city city is not own or control Walton Road right Mr wal we do not it is County Road it is a County Road and um so we you know we we work to cooperate with the count County and encourage them to focus on facilities that we identify as having deficiencies or that need uh priorities in terms of upgrading we now have a mechanism because of our interlocal agreement that was recently redone to allow them to collect Mobility fee which is in uh in place for the entire County um to the best of my knowledge we do have a different rate up here than they do in Central and South Walton um but those funds you know it's our responsibility if we want to see these facilities improved and upgraded to handle the additional traffic uh it's our responsibility as a council and uh an executive uh body including the city manager and planning staff to push and request that those funds that are collected get used to implement improvements in those locations I would caution um we do have large events that will happen if we design our roadways to handle the worst case scenario which happens once a year we will end up with just basically speed zones where you have 12 and and 12 Lanes with Broad rideways and people are going to go fast there and they're going to go faster and faster and it's going to be like the parking lots that we build that are empty 99.9% of the time doing nothing but increasing the air temperature making us miserable and collecting and dumping storm water where we don't want it uh just to satisfy one Thanksgiving afternoon where you know the grocery store might be all the way full so I you know again I would caution uh about increase to the maximum capacity on everything I agree with that when it comes to water infrastructure I agree with that when it comes to sewer infrastructure and expanding our capacities but I I caution I would rather see additional routes and Alternatives than I would just turning these things into four-lane highways because today we're talking about it being busy a couple times a day in 15 20 years if we go to four lanes on that we could be talking about the number of fatalities of pedestrians that we're seeing in these areas so again there is ways to handle these things there are responsible ways to do it by caution and over overe expansion the equivalent is loosening your belt to deal with your you know weight increases you know we don't we just losing our belt every time we we go on a diet uh we actually fix the problem and so there's ways to fix the problem sidewalks are part of that solution um and again this isn't a facility that we control so I just want to caution on that I'm good with that I'm just thinking we need at least three lanes on Walton Road but in the area is especially where these side streets are turning off all I mean you got 19 you've got um Twin Lakes and we've got four housing developments and there on top of the school two schools that are pretty heavily packed and a and a park so in in this area alone I I can see a need for a three lane road one primarily being for turning and then the other one being for three traffic otherwise you're going to deal with congestion all the time and at our choke points at 331 and 83 as well backed up and waiting on school buses I I realize that's not our issue here because that is a county road but that is something we've got to look at especially in these infrastructure phases otherwise it won't get done that's a really good point and that's a great way to handle it diesel Lanes is a fantastic way to alleviate that congestion and also uh turn lands are a great way to do that and then you can focus those changes and impacts without without taking the RightWay for the entire length of Walton Road which could kill a project quite frankly there's lots of areas that we would have Road widening in Walton County if it wasn't for the fact we can't get the RightWay or the rightaway has gotten so expensive because the property values have gone so so high that it would it cost more to buy the RightWay than it does to to do the road work and the engineering which is already crazy expensive but if we're limiting it to these you know being smart about it being focused about it we can't do that now something we can talk about is turn L whether you know the county is going to require it or encourage required it um I don't see one here but also it's a complex curve situation where it's a little awkward um but again their engineering staff has reviewed that but again you know from our end Mr Wallis I would encourage if we do see opportunities for turn lanes and busy developments we certainly want to consider those for safety and and for you know ease of flow um but again I I just we can do it but we have to do it together all of us doing our part to put the pressure on requested of the County we should ask for the things that we see there's a study coming up that will help address with these issues and that's that's ss4a uh which I believe our grant department will be uh assisting with um but that team that that's going to be looking at that which is Citizens and and members uh of different uh you know planning uh council members whoever that's the that's the body that's going to be identifying these hotpots these trouble areas and this that's a really important time to have that conversation because that's going to open up state and federal uh funding for those projects because we have to do the study and then we'll be able to go after it to fix these problems but again there is a process by which we can address it we just want to be smart about how we address it all right so we have a motion second on this we do no all right so we getting closer to voting yes sir I would not the motion and second should be amended to add the requirement that at the time of the do for the homes the additional parking be reflected that will be their maintenance not ours I'll amend my motion it I'll my second okay all right all question Clays the parking requirement tied to the plat of this particular project or would that be subject to any changes in uh the the code Review Committee well now they've submitted certainly the project started you're not going to be able to amend the parking requirement after the fact for a project in process is parking part of their plat parking is part of our development order process the plat does not reflect number of parkings but it does reflect the lots that are applying but so if we had a change in the ordinance requiring additional parking for residential would not change it because it's platted no sir you cannot change once this project submitted you can't change the rules M something so actually just even beginning the process would have triggered that as well correct so even today yeah okay yeah yeah you can and you could not ALS furthermore you're not able to deny or table this until you get a chance to amend once they've made an application they're entitled to be to have their process heard under that now if we're in the midst of an ordinance Amendment between first and second reading there's a little bit more discretion you but not when one is not been change thank you so all in favor say I I I hi hi I Carrie thank you very much and I guess did you call com all right we we'll call public comment I did ask for questions but I didn't use the word comment but if you got a comment please come take it right now and we'll we'll hold our vote Lisa de act Springs I just have a couple questions one it was stated that the lift station had to be improved is that going to be on City cost or the development be at the developer cost okay and the second thing this is literally right at the end of twin BLS which everybody knows Walton Road I've got two kids one in high school one in the elementary school there can we before we do anything further on Walton Road if we approve this can we make that safety is our number one with no sidewalks on that road safety is a huge concern traffic has gotten more obviously since the develop ments we've got another one coming up so before we approve any more of these we need to make sure that those safety implements are in place thank you I think that sidewalks are in plans but it's going to take a few years to get them done AR we Todd we talk about finishing out that road yes sir so it just takes a long time because we have to get funding for that and that's with the county you know we we have work with County on the ones you have seen but uh and we'll probably work with them to finish it up but it just does take a lot of time okay you guys want to revote or you ready to go with what you just did I'm good with it that that's a county road is the kicker here and we we have no venue to dictate what they can do we'll express our opinions on it and work with thems and sure we can again anyway they did the motherload um and I'm not I'm just saying all right so I carry V okay and um did you you have to make any nope not on that one describe on that okay so you want to go ahead and let's move to the public hearings yes sir absolutely the mayor the small scale amendment is a quasi judicial hearing um so we will treat both because of the same project we will treat these under one hearing we will need two motions so I'll swear everyone on the resoning and small scale amendment that is on the agenda listed as we have 2024 SSA 08 and rz7 anyone wishing to speak ask questions or otherwise participate on the impr premis LLC project needs to be sworn this time please stand raise your right hand repeat after me I do hereby swear or affirm I do hear by swear or affirm that the testimony I present the testimony I present will be the truth will be the truth the whole truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth nothing but the truth just for the record staff and the app are sworn I saw no public okay this is our first item is 2024 dz-7 Mr mcor's request on behalf of impris LLC to amend the zoning M for property located southwest corner corner of Walton Road in Highway 83 North the property is currently zoned R2 multifam residential and he is uh wishing to amend that to a C2 commercial designation parcel itself is 1.67 Acres um planning board reviewed it approved it unanimously and the council had the first reading at their last meeting and voted four to one to approve the first reading so I would request permission to hold the second reading of the resoning ordinance so moved second I have a motion second any questions any public comment no there's nobody there um I didn't see it was blocked well Mr McCormick's here but he's he's he's good all right uh all have favor say I I I I Carrie go ahead Mr Wallace okay this is ordinance number 976 yes sir an ordinance adopted in zoning map Amendment of the city def func Springs Land Development code changing the zoning designation repealing all ordinance and conflict here with providing for severability and conflicts providing for codification and providing for an effective date thank you very much and takes care of zoning now to A2 for the land use yes this is the corresponding small scale map Amendment um again from Mr McCormack on behalf of the impr premis LLC the property currently maintains a medium density residential designation and the request is to assign a commercial designation to the 1.67 acre parcel of land motion to approve and hold second reading second motion second any question comment from the public which is only one able okay all in favor say I I I I I was Carri okay this is ordinance number 977 it's an ordinance adopting a small scale land use map Amendment of the city of defc Springs Conference of plan changing the land use classifications repealing all ordinances and conflict here with providing for severability and conflicts providing for codification and providing for an effective date thank you very much okay thank you thank you Mr mccor all right uh we have jump over these next two we've taken care of request be on the agenda is Kyle from Jacobs good evening Council all right for July and August um the following pairs and upgrades are ongoing lift station three pumps are down um right after we talked about it last Council it went out I think that Sunday um we currently got the rebuild motor back in put it in it's up and going um so it's back going um list station one has both of the pumps installed now it took a little bit a while for the manufacturer to get them a little bit longer than what we expected but they're both in and working um list station two um we Ed pumps for them too they're still waiting on the manufacturer to build them um they keep delaying it month after month the latest I heard it'll be here in about mid October um liation 35's Force M we got an issue over there um trying to figure it out I'm working with Mike hardgrove now um the station over there with the hospital that's where the hospital's at it's pumping down really slow um what Mike suggested is we go to the furthest this Lo station I believe is 42 um and we've been filling it for about a week now and it seems to be helping um thinking there's some air trapped in that line because it's not used very much so it's helping and we'll go from there um L station 7 was hit by lightning on July 4th um working with a contractor try to get it resolved um waiting on a quote back from him so we can take it to yall's City's insurance and they can replace it um BL station 26 unfortunately we bought a new pump for it um came from the manufacturer wired wrong it was supposed to be a singlephase pump ended up from the manufacturer wired for three phase it was a singlephase panel so as soon as we hooked it up it burned it up um they've warrantied it and it was supposed to be here last week um I called them first thing this morning and they're checking with the manufacturer and hopefully by the end of this week they'll they'll have it to me and get that one resolved um liation 13 I had a contractor come out a couple months back to kind of do some preventative maintenance on one of the bypasses that is stationed at that station contractor ended up breaking off um a spark plug in the head so Jacobs removed the head um I just need to put it back on and uh get it back up and going yeah working on ksb's uh quote for the wind dick seeds um lid it should I would expect it should be here in the next couple of weeks um let's see so for as far as lift station repaired and worked on installed new pumps at lift station one like I said lift station three um that one's complete all stations have been cleaned and checked for deficiencies all stations were checked for infrared to maintain electrical components we do that on an annual basis and then for the Wastewater Plant uh in the months uh maintained all the grounds U the belt press is still working the way it should be both effluent plumps are back in operation pressure was the we and concrete around the plants on a weekly basis on the wears keep all the algae growth out of effluent um clean the influent Basin um check the uh check valves clean them Mike actually helped with the influent cleaning so thank you Mike and the city um we did have a plant exceedence on a feal uh due to Illegal dumping I believe some chemicals got into the Wastewater Plant and within a couple hours it it died um and just so happened I had to take cvods and feals the next day so um we're allowed to an exceedance of over over 800 per month by the D standards um we were well over that but I did everything necessary on D standpoint to try to mitigate it um for spills and defenc licitation three approximating 9600 gallons was reported to the state due to the starter on the bypass failed um list Station 2 around 500 gallons um we were actually there on site when the belt on the bypass broke and it's the belt that's actually inside of the not the motor but the compressor part and in order to replace that belt you got to take it all the way apart poor design um we're working on trying to get it fixed and resolved now um L station 9 had a sewer spill about 7,800 gallons due to a power surge and not resetting on the pumps on the mechanical side um for the water treatment plant uh we installed new chlorine Leak Detection equipment for the sanitary survey uh well 10's motor was replaced we're still ongoing got some issues that I'm trying to figure out there um we bought an identical pump or not a pump but a motor for that well same data plate same everything as the old one the new one won't run it'll run for about 30 seconds and it blows the power jacks off the power poles I'm trying to figure it out um I've had our electricians uh come in Clyde Hall he's been with us for about 40 years um try to diagnose it at first we were thinking it was a soft start but that that well is pretty new um I don't believe it's a soft start so I'm still digging into that a little bit before we go spend money that we don't need to spend um to get it up and going uh repaired the chlorine line and Vac systems at well 10 one and three Well's uh well one's transfer switch uh is up and going at well one and three um right now currently that's the only generator that's up and running for the water plant six uh generator wires connecting to the main control board got eight by wires or not got eight by rats my bad and uh so we're working on trying to get it repaired as well uh here recently with the hurricane that came through not too long ago tropical storm that came through not too long ago um well five I believe got hit by lightning I think last Friday um so the unfortunately the pump inside there is uh gonna have to be replaced um I got a quote sent it over to coobie he has it um I believe plan is g to go off for RPS for that I know that that one was recently pulled and inspected not too long ago so hopefully it's just the motor and we can just get by we're just replacing the motor and then for well 10 I think we have on the agenda for sometime next year to have well 10 pulled and inspected we have a new bowl um at well five that was pulled from well five that should be able to fit at well 10 to go in to kind of save the city some money there um it's been rebuilt it's good to go and it should be compatible with well 10 and uh I put the flow graph in so hopefully y'all saw that um y'all have any questions on the graph is there anything else y'all want to see on the graph going forward I think the gra look good but I have some other comments goad Mr Kyle um yes sir you guys are responsible for our liist stations correct correct so when we have almost 18,000 gallons of spills at our list station I guess my first question is where were the skate alerts for these for these bills I can pull you receive them for the three that are on the report so for lift station three that one we did get the alerts for but that it is a very very shallow wet well you have about 10 to 15 minutes to get there before it starts overflowing okay um list station 9 we at that particular time that morning we got 30 four skada calls and they are all communication laws every single one of them so we never got a power fail we never got a high level forlift station and all we got was 34 of all the city's lift stations all at one time Mass inflow about I don't know 7:30 8 o'clock that morning all at the same time um it is a cellular based program so it is based off of cellular um we've been trying to work out the bugs in it um we thought we had it down pretty good I'm not a tech guy by any means um that's not my forte um but I do have a guy on my staff zanen he's really really good with it and he's he's been he had it up and going really really well the only thing that I don't like about the system is that the person that installed it which is Jason still has control of it so he can still access the city's VT skada anytime he wants who's Jason he was the installer of VT SK the owner of VT skada the one that sold the system I believe you rais those concerns with the city manager yes you mentioned that so we talked about this at our last monthly meeting that comes with Jacob and duberry um the the mass influx communication we talked about that's something they're investigating and report back to me next me meeting which is the 1 of October um that's part of it and then also the access to the system those are things they're all working on the bring back to we've come a long way with the skat system it's plug and play as I said previously on some other Council meetings that you know there was some issues when I first got here but it was just it was just installed and we've from February to now it's a huge Improvement we're we're getting there so here here's my concern is we we continue to see spills occur at these lications that are managed by sure by Jacobs who we just approved almost a $900,000 payment to for the year um I I think for $900,000 we should have East bills well I mean you got to ask that things are going to happen I mean it's but but my understanding of the way that these lift stations are designed because we've discussed this in previous meetings there's there should be redundant pump there should be bypass pumps there should be all of the these layers of protection that keep us from having these spills because my concern is this is this is deja vu this is a repeat of the last two or three years where it was a spill here spill there oh sorry you know Shu lightning hit us you know whoops this happened over here that happened over there and then next thing you know D looking at not just this one effluent line break but they're then going back and looking at the to ality of the last two or three years and saying hey City def Phenix Springs by the way You' had a total X number total of spills here's your consent order and we're right back in the same place we were right and we're paying you guys almost a million dollars a year right yeah I mean I totally what point we do we get some of that back in in terms of we either aren't gonna pay you guys or you guys are going to keep keep the spills to to zero I mean if you want spills to go to zero I can have somebody on step 24 7 wow I mean but we don't we don't have anybody 247 we have people on call and we do respond to the calls I can't help force a nature it's out of my control that's what that's what we keep hearing I mean council members at some point we've got to consider putting them on thatti as a breach a contract because we're gonna find ourselves right back in a consent order if we allow this to continue I I'm I'm not I'm not happy with this question that seven minute response time Kyle on that you I missed what you said you said something Li station 3's wet well is only about maybe eight feet deep so okay when it when it craps out you have literally 10 15 minutes to get there should be redund so how many but there hasn't been then we've authorized y'all to buy that before my time brother we always here I'm not trying to the the we sent off Lift Station 3 pump for repair right um is currently on just a bypass that's why we did that was to get that one needs two pumps in it right um we came to determination to replace the control panel put in one pump that was good yep and had a bypasses redundancy until we worked something out we we're we're going to be in Communications with the owners of Village Springs because lift station in repairs and updates are going to be needed because it's so shallow so we wanted to get the first one in and then come back and get the second one um for for station three so so that's where it was headed I didn't get to finish um places like that can be remedied am I correct can it be done deeper than so it takes a little longer to get to that point so that bypass can kick in nobody get there in seven minutes right you know right I mean that seems like a designed issue that we over time are going to have to address it has been a design issue for it can be addressed that's one of the things that either City's going to have to address it and pay for it ourselves right we're going to work something out with those developers of Village Springs they're going to have to put it in that's some of the what we're going back and forth now right um but that cost is found it's going to be substantial to put a new liist station in rehabit then decrease it um so either the city foots the bill or they foot the bill um so yeah the biggest thing I see is getting all these bypasses like Council bom saying you got to have backups on all these things whatever that takes and I think the process where we just approved or just discussed earlier about being able to you know get these things ordered in a timely manner and get them get them replaced um all that has to be that has to be done it it from what I have learned so far it's it's way behind and long overlooked in a lot of these things so we do our part you know to get to get there and you know and hopefully it all it all works right um we just need good information constantly and currently I think uh councilwoman heavin asked was it you that asked for a monthly the rebata report instead of a bonly or something in there them I don't remember if it was CPR provis to me a monthly report I'll I can circulate that out so with that you know we can stay on top but I know Kobe stayed on top of this it's just going to be a matter of getting this moved along um and if I can say one more thing I just got a question about the design capacity on the wastewater treatment plant yes just curious more than anything else 1.2 in September on design capacity is 1.5 it's I love graphs by the way yeah and the way that came up so much in September what what do you suppose is the reason for that I'm just curious that was before my time um I was here I got here in February and this is September of so this is last year yeah I'm sorry I should I should have put a date that's okay that's okay I can improve that yeah that's no no problem I was just curious so I don't know the numbers fasc me that's all thank you K yes ma'am believe uh Kyle what station is it on Lakeside Drive that's in the uh front yard of somebody's home I'd have to go be honest with you I'd have to go look at my map but I believe it's uh 20 and that's not on this report anywhere Kobe what apologize for that I go off station numbers what Li station is in their front yard on Lakeside dri oh within Pine chores yes so I did call okay so that's not on here I got call two days ago can we go to that for a minute Jesse please scroll to page two of the item was that one of the yes ma'am you if you look under projects improvements update you'll see the was be about the six bullet point L station 26 was that one of the raw sewage reports that you turned in because they two days ago I got a phone call from the residents and they've had enough they they just have exceeded their and I agree I mean it's been a longgo issue unfortunately my hands are tied with a manufacturer um we ordered we ordered a new this is where I need some assistance from our legal council then so okay um could you just up give us like an executive summary so that we can figure out if we need to do anything before it accelerates to what happened we ordered a pump when the one pump burn up I installed the pump from the manufacturer that's a singlephase panel from the manufacturer I asked for a single phase pump they wired it internally for three phase we hook it up to the panel at single phase it as soon as we turned Power on it burned it it wasn't nothing on our end and now I'm just waiting for Ashlin pumps who the manufacturer to warrantee it out and it was supposed to be here last week they acknowledged that that's their fault and their yes yes and how long does that be about two weeks ago I believe but yet this has been like going on fre months this byass pump has been in their front yard and they hadous amount of raw sewage in their front yard to include the paper that was used and um other things that have bubbled up into their yard you aware of that I'm not aware of that as of two days ago now that they have not spoke to me about that at all believe back to the first Contact I had with him KY went back out cleaned up oh okay and that was Prior I'm disc what I'm explaining happen prior then to your all's arrival I want you know my apologies I thought you were talking about two days ago we did have an in no I've got a phone call that enough's enough we need to take action because this is three months now that this is going on in their front yard right I spoke to miss is it maryan yeah her today and gave her oh thank you I did not know that yeah stay if we I I believe me I call them every Monday yeah with Kobe and let uh that is not what I want for the res if we need to because this is we don't have it fixed by next council meeting let us know for next Council Mee hopefully it'll be by the end of this week that's what they told me it should be in by the end of this week hopefully and it should be resolved okay yes one more just one more quick question so I don't discount what they said so if they said they had raw sewage that came on into their yard but I am concerned that you're unaware of how much or if it's been reported the state statutes I only have to report anything over a th gallons if it's less than a th gallons I don't have to report it but who but if you're unaware that it was any gallons I thought you were talking two days ago oh I'm sorry okay I I know what you're talking about now yes ma' yeah hose blue good enough thank so much yeah I know what you're talking about now anyone else is that on our legal council to assist with that or is it on Jacob's legal council do assist with those issues with what issues with when you got warranty or manufacturer issues warant quity work both have to but since they're the ones responsible the system we work through them first right okay ultimately we are in privity with the entity that's provides it but the warrant is likely issued to them as the direct purchaser who work with them and gave them an it's like so think of it like this when you have a Contractor Building house you don't like what the roofer dead you probably have to start your contractor doesn't mean you don't independently have rights as an owner but you have to go through the direct lines of that's what I was thinking I was just want to make sure doesn't mean we can't spur it along get Mo faster though anyone else thank you very much thank you all right we're goingon to open the floor up for citizen comments if you want to uh make a comment you'll give you up to three minutes please state your name the representing organization name as well very much Mr Mayor all members of the council my name is Mark ham I'm a res pres of this great City and also president of the friends of the library and I'd like to thank you very much for your response to a a letter which we sent to you on September 7th which outlined our our deep concerns over the current condition of our library building um most of these concerns the two most important ones related to the roof and the foundation which when there's heavy rains periodically floods the place not seriously but enough we're concerned that the thousands of dollars in books and Equipment which we provide every year may at one point be damaged so we we hope this these matters will be resolved now some of you I think probably when you read this thought we sound a bit like Chicken Little perbal sky is falling as we did describe these the condition of these is dire but frankly I assure you we were not I think the the proof of that was on Thursday again on Friday from those little short little spurts of rain we had very heavy though they were biblical in tone um the library flooded the basement flooded that's one half the space the library didn't flood very much but enough you had we had to have people down spend several hours taking books out uh cleaning up the mess and because the rains on Friday uh precipitated the closure of that space both Friday and Saturday while they tried to to clean and get ready for people to use we meet regularly in that space when we have our our our annual meetings um I know the library advisory Council from old libraries come to that Library they meet down there too um it's a very busy place and we can't afford to have have that space incapacitated in that way it's not fair to our Librarians as well they have to go down and spend their time when they should be dealing with customers down doing a maintenance work like that but the other problem which we of course had is with bat remediation uh the bat problem is quite serious in that building as it is in many of our buildings around this city um but I'm very pleased that uh that Kobe has been working very closely with was uh with a very capable County librarian um uh s uh K ktie ser and I think that's on the way to being resolved Le we'll try and have it resolved from my own personal experience until the roof is completely removed those bats will find a way to to stay um finally um I'd like to note that I I want to thank the many different uh proposals have been made as to trying to find ways to to uh to pay for the maintenance of this building it's going to be in tens of thousands of dollars not the $10,000 which proposed in this budget I think we're all aware of that we to find money with the the problems we have with the pumps we know money is scarce but I'm very grateful to many of you for coming up with all sorts of different Financial ways which might be able to get money to try and solve this problem in the future not just for this year but in the future as well for these city-owned buildings which all of us are very proud of and make this city give its identity as it were um there is a broader problem as well the the problem of of our longstanding effort trying to have a have a library Annex um this has been styed not for any Katie Ser that made a wonderful propos triumph which is has not accepted it I'm afraid uh the county has us down for 2019 and their capital budg that is not acceptable this we're growing very fast already we have over 40,000 48,000 people a year visit this small Library fidget 700 uh patrons our library card holders they are most of them certain all literate the old vote so let's try and work together in the in the the common Spirit which we've all shown I again very grateful to Kobe's efforts and to many of your own efforts let's try and find a way we can solve and save these buildings for our for our future Generations thank you thank you very much Mr Mayor respond to that Mr Mark thank you for your your time and coming here and speaking to us um on behalf of the library um I'm still working with uh the city manager to come up with some funding options that aren't aren't quite ready to be presented just yet he's still doing some some verification on his side to where we can try to try to figure out the funding that would need need to be allocated to address not only the roof but the foundational issues yeah it's my understanding that we're looking at around $230,000 to address both the roof and the foundation so um like I said I'm I'm letting him do his job and and I appreciate that dig into the finances and then once we we have something that we can offer to to the public as well as the council I to to bring that back soon thank you I'm sorry for bringing us something that's of a very long meeting but I'll away the next council meeting I want to make sure that this you know this is a great concern to some of our members are also here joining us meting tonight thank you very much for coming thank you thank you thank you very much um quick comment mayor um we are working with the county to address the B problem county is going to facilitate that kind of expedite that Pro that problem to address it um we are looking at creative ways to fix our problem um I can get very creative so we won see what we can find to do that um and so we are working on it I do have a meeting tomorrow with the County Administrator he's very passionate about this so we keep pushing forward excellent excellent thank okay anyone else public comment good evening Council cliff and hour for duberry engineers uh just wanted to give you guys a brief update on the airport terminal you guys are requested at your last meeting that I give you kind of an update at today's meeting um the Friday following your last council meeting our LG representative showed up and they fired off the air conditioner um 68 degrees inside the building okay so things have been going along pretty well um they're delivering cabinets tomorrow morning base cabinets and the cabinet c will be there tomorrow and then on Friday they're delivering all the countertops that they have already prepped and ready to go and so um following the base cabinets and the countertops the floor Crews coming to grind and polish all the floors all right once we get the floors ground and Polished um then it's a matter of just installing small items in the bathrooms toiletries and all that kind of stuff so it's coming along pretty good um if I if I made a guess I would say sometime around the end of October we should be wrapped up so it's coming along good and they're hitting it pretty hard so that's kind of where we're at I have asked the contractor to send me a uh official request for contract extension that needs to come from them to us and so along with that will be an updated schedule and I'll pass that along to Kobe and uh Zach and we'll move forward from there EXC questions anyone yes ma'am thank you thank you guys anyone else yes sir Rob Le plant I just have a quick comment on the uh the library uh it's a negle Ed Jewel the longer you uh let the luster uh come off that Jewel the more it's going to take to repair and it's been neglected long enough and now is the time to spend some money on it thank you anyone else all right we'll shut the floor for public comments and we will go to Miss Amy Clay did you have anything no sir okay's under save all right go ahead um I brought this forward I've been observing Kobe since uh he's been appointed interim he's uh demonstrated exceptional leadership strategic vision and a deep commitment to the well-being of our city and the community and um under his guidance I've seen significant Improvement um and he has successfully shown his ability to handle complex challenges deliver outstand you know and deliver outstanding results and in my opinion he possesses a unique blend of skills uh that makes him an ideal candidate for the full-time city manager so I'd like to make a motion that we offer the position of city manager to Kobe second may we have a motion second questions comments so we will bring back a contract for the council at your first meeting in October to memorialize that at this motion passes point of clarification this CL this vote will need to be unanimous per the Char correct as will yeah okay so any comments from the public well just just speaking as a member of the public I think that's an excellent propos Kobe has been brother fresh air the tone of these meetings I me coming to mooved to the city changed completely the day he took over his interm city manager I I think it's very good proposal it saves a lot of time and effort we hope that as long as he stays awake from taking care of his baby at night that long and prosperous time for us but I I hope all of you can support that motion thank you very much Kim winterberg I I wanted to Echo uh what the gentleman just said I've had nothing but fantastic experience with Kobe I've shared that with him um I agree that the tone of the meetings has changed entirely uh as the the beautification and tree board chair I've been very happy with his level of communication he's been proactive um to to get things done and called meetings together with between parties to help get get things done so I just want to make sure that he hears that publicly and not just privately and that you do as well thank you thank you very much thank you very much I want to make a comment that U you know something I personally and I imagine most of us do but I personally uh really respect anyone in leadership who reaches out to their peers sometimes through their competition and and learn from them and uh and I have can't tell you how many times I've talked to him yeah I just got off the phone with so and so or got off the phone or I just met with so and so and it's usually another city manager or a County administrator or someone along those levels and I don't care how long you have been a supervisor a manager or a director you need to be doing that until the day you leave and I just greatly greatly appreciate his willingness to get help uh uh and so and you know just really get kind of a uh second opinion sort of speak from people that have been there and done that type of thing so uh everything about Kobe I have greatly appreciated his communication has been great uh he's uh he bends over backwards to to take care of this count these council members and um uh and he's very smart by the way and so uh that's that's always a great point but but anyway so uh I could go on all night you know this guy has just been phenomenal in my opinion so that's my two bits anyone else here comes one good evening everyone H my name is Katie S I am here as a citizen um but there is some overlap I am the library director for Walton County um not to disparage any former employees but I worked with four of your previous city managers and I cannot speak um more highly of Kobe and the work that he has done he is responsive he makes time for important issues to obviously his citizens um and to um the other County departments that he works with it has been a breath of fresh air to be have have someone who shows up for meetings who answers your emails who follows up with uh deliverables that they say they're going to so I just wanted to stand up um as a private citizen I'm not speaking onal of the county but it is important that you all to me that you all hear uh the positive experiences that I've experienced with Kobe in this position so I commend you for um offering him this interim position and uh hopeful to have a long uh working relationship with Cody as well thank you thank you very much anyone else all right we'll go to the floor for a vote all in favor say I I I i i [Applause] i and and thank you Amy for bringing this up so I am just uh I told him from the beginning he would be the one to heal City so I thank you from the bottom of my heart thank you even though I didn't support the interim at the time I I so impressed thank you yeah thank you all right well well go ahead so Mr cler if you will pursuant to article 11 section 11.01 reflect that that was five affirmative votes of the city council as required yes sir secondly in an abundance caution and speaking Council woman heaving about this we discussed when we could actually do this I want to be very clear you could hire Mr Townson at the end of his current contract with very minimal overlap because he does meet the minimum qualifications for this job so everything I say after this I don't want there to be a question that I'm suggesting he does not because at the end of his interim contract he will absolutely meet your minimum qualifications to be a city manager there is no question about this we've reviewed it we've looked through it what happened in J councilwoman Evelyn asked he's the guy there are five votes is there a reason we have to wait till January said only because that's when his official time sets in and so I'm going to call back something that I believe no one on this Council other than the mayor was here for 2018 we revised the city manager qualifications mayor you call to address the qualifications being a local government administrator as opposed to just a city manager the time a suggestion was made to the council in 2018 that they review subsection e of qualifications because it is effectively a nonsecular within your ordinance and what I mean by that is we all know college degree is not a requirement to be city manager we've talked about this ad nauseum and councilman beerbom will certainly recall and councilman Valley you may have been on the board at the time with councilman mcnight when we talked about it back then as well if a college degree is not required why do we have a section D that says we can have experience as an administrator which is a requirement may be substituted for a bachelor's degree why do you need to substitute experience for something that's not required again that was put into effect in 1984 I can't speak to why that's been there but to me it's always read backwards the intent has always been somebody had sufficient educational experience you could substitute some perhaps not all but some of the total work experience we've talked about this in other areas so what I spoke to councilman EV about is that I believe one way we can go ahead and just resolve this once aw to make it consistent with what we talked about in 2018 and I believe the mayor spoke in favor of that so if you're not going to make a degree or requirement how about giving a degree the ability to gain some preference over experience especially if you have certifications or a masters and Mr towns of course have all those things and has worked very hard to get them so what I have proposed is an ordinance that would eliminate subsection e and replace it with and you all have a copy passed out and I did this in Redline and blue underline to make it as clear as possible that at the sole discretion of the council higher education degrees and certificates may be substituted for a portion of but not all of the local government work experience in subsection B which is the three years U the council's not required to exercise this discretion and the fair to do so does not give anybody right to sue you but I believe if you did that um if you passed this ordinance and I would be asking for first reasing and permission to advertise that tonight on October 14th this ordinance will be adopted and Mr Townson contract can be signed immediately thereafter unless even go shs too hard of a bargain and y'all decide y'all don't want him anymore but until that point in time you'd be fine U I can't speak strongly enough that I'm going to say the same thing I said when we debated this Council Mite Council beerbom will certainly recall this during the charter discussions when we talked about including some of these in the charter or not if you don't have a degree as a requirement don't talk about substitute and if you want to make it a requirement it shouldn't substitute for the work experience unless it runs mutually so as it is right now unless you're going to make the degree of requirement at this point you should allow someone with sufficient educational experience to not sub out all three years and but let it be in your discretion this allow someone like Mr Townson who's worked in the city and you know what he's capable of you know what he's doing to acknowledge that there's no reason to hold to rigid time frames especially when they meet and exceed the minimum qualifications so I'll be asking for first reading to amend this section of the ordinance and permission to advertise your second reading public hearing and adoption so moved second I have a motion second are there any questions any comments from the public all in favor say I I I I I I I Carrie did not require 5 but we got it so this will be an ordinance to be numbered an ordinance providing for the amendment of ordinances 506 and 892 chapter 2 Administration Article 2 officers and employees division 3 city manager section 2-44 qualification of providing for effective date that will be advertised and will be brought back October 14th for adoption thank you mayor thank you very thank you for allowing me to put that on you CC good timing yeah yeah we can do that we're gonna let me let run through the council real quick final comments Mr beerbom um none Sir Mr SC just happy am yes I would like to say Danielle thank you so much us where we needed to be and put got more to do I'm happy too Daniel thank you Kobe proba for all right congratulations Kobe thank you Danielle uh and uh very excited to finally had the ribbon cutting and have the bench out at the park today yeah so that was a good fun hopefully uh everyone enjoy it and uh and we can continue to make improvements on it thank you very much all right I'm going College meeting Jour and then we'll get together for a pick okay you just tell us what how you want it got it I just want you to not have something to look at