[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] what welcome everybody lots of faces in the audience today I love seeing that thank you all for being here we'll call our city commission work session um to order um and if you'll join me we will stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you Jennifer um okay our first item on our agenda is a presentation of our 2024 juneth Proclamation and I will turn that over to commissioner GA well thank you mayor very very much it is an exciting time uh I absolutely love love love uh this Proclamation uh and so i' like to call teres welcome Teresa welcome uh Teresa Smalling who is the director of of HR and risk management who uh puts together our our juneth event plural and uh so with that here is the juneth proclamation juneth 2024 whereas our nation was conceived on July 4th 1776 with a declaration of independence which includes the statement we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and and they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights then among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and whereas on January 1 1863 President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring that all persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state shall be then hence forward and forever free and whereas almost 2 and A2 years later on June 19th 1865 Major General Gordon Granger arrived in galvon Texas and announced the end of both the Civil War and slavery whereas beginning in 1866 Texans celebrated juneth with Community Centric events such as parades cookouts prayer Gatherings historical and cultural readings and musical performances whereas juneth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the day slavery officially ended in the United States and whereas the celebration of juneth reminds each of us of the precious promise of Freedom equality and opportunity for all which are at the core of the Declaration of Independence and whereas while we celebrate our successes towards achieving that ideal we also recognize that there is still work to do to ensure that our nation exemplifies that ideal and whereas today millions of Americans of all Races Creeds and religious and ethnic backgrounds commemorate juneth which not only celebrates freedom but also acknowledges the achievements and contributions of African-Americans and whereas juneth will be celebrated in the city of deden with various events and activities including an employee in service day and community events to provide dunen residents and city employees the opportunity to learn and celebrate like so many others throughout our nation now therefore I Jeff gal by The Virtue the authority vested in Me by the mayor of the city of Duneden and on behalf of this entire city commission to hereby declare Wednesday June 19th 2024 as juneth day in the city of deden and urge our citizens to become more aware of the significance of the celebration in African-American history and in the heritage of our nation and City [Applause] good morning mayor vice mayor commission Teresa Smalling director of HR and risk management for the city of denan it is always an an humbling experience for me to accept this Proclamation um it always reminds us that we always have work to do and uh at our employee in service Day we celebrate diversity we we understand that a lot of um Prejudice a lot of issues happen because we're afraid of each other because we don't know each other so we Endeavor through our inservice Day on juneth this year to help our employees get to know each other and get to know somebody who's different from them and so that's one of our Visions for this day so thank you very much for this and thank you all thank you Teresa mayor perfect thank you Jennifer yeah thank you very much mayor I was going to to uh comment on this during the city manager's update but I think it would be more appropriate to comment now um so Teresa had mentioned our inservice day tomorrow uh Teresa has a group of employees have been working on this for quite a while we're very grateful to all of them we're very proud of our inservice day the city hall will be closing other facilities to um to operations as the employees commit their efforts uh to the community um as far as as some of the things that we're going to be doing tomorrow I just want to talk a little bit about um denan cares we'll have a group at denan cares uh serving our community we're going to have cleanups for some pH City facilities we're going to do Harbor dish which is prep and cook for um Harbor dish to deliver to people in need uh honeymoon uh Beach cleanup and I hope they don't end up in the water in their swimsuits so I'll be watching them we have uh the library diversity mural painting we're going to be painting the wall um we are actually we have a dedication tomorrow of the artwork um outside the wastewater treatment plant and that's at 10:30 art recognition Leland Chase outdoor gallery so that's going to be very interesting we have a me life com companion fund day as well so we're going to me life to spend some time with some of our senior citizens um and we also have a noo blankets for foster kids as well so the employees will be out in the community throughout the morning working um with the community we'll join together for lunch and then we will have a speaker and I sent you the biography of this of the speaker very impressive uh we're great very grateful to the city commission that you have allowed us this time to be together to celebrate diversity uh in the community and and amongst each other as well and it goes without saying that essential services will remain in place water Wastewater solid waste will be working um and of course summer camp will be will be still um uh held uh we will allow our essential service employees who cannot get away from their workplace to come uh in shifts to lunch and they get lunch first so thank you very much mayor and commission and and thank you mayor for giving me this moment well and thank you also for and and the employees um for my colleagues and I for putting this together we started this last year right three years ago three years ago so pretty awesome apprciate it thank you okay now is time for citizen input it is time for if you want to come forward and talk to any talk about any item that is not already on the agenda if it's on the agenda you'll get a chance to talk to it at the time that we we discuss it individually here so is there anybody that has anything that's not on the agenda that they'd like to come forward and talk about yeah come on down give us your name and address for the record and you'll have the 3:00 thank you hi my name is Eric Graves uh 1413 Bay Shore Boulevard uh uh dun Eden um purpose of my comments is to provide an update from my last City commission input on the kayak paddle board small sailboat launch at Weaver Park um and also number two to provide citizen support for the Parks and Recreation ask for the 2025 budget for a study to improve we Weaver Park which will hopefully result in a launch at one of the great gems in the city's Park system as a quick reminder the summary of benefits I won't go through all of them but the supporting structure is already there at the park and uh having a launch is positive for convenience and safety economic impact environment parking and park Aesthetics um on the update first of all big thanks to Vince Gizzy and members of his team Joselyn and Joe for meeting me at Weaver Park to dis discuss the potential project I appreciated their encouragement but also their realism on process and timelines um they made no commitments which I understand is these efforts are complex with involvement from city state and federal agencies it is my intent to be part of the solution here so while keeping Vince and his team updated where needed um I've made various reach outs to potential Alliance groups funding groups or oversight groups um including um a group of volunteers that I'm putting together Florida Fish and Wildlife pelis County Water navigation pelis County boats and waterways West Coast Inland navigation District the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and then based on advice from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection I'm also planning Outreach to the Army Corps of Engineers Tampa office um again I want to make clear um that my intent is not to get ahead of the process but more to educate myself and other volunteers on options and the process to hopefully be a part of the solution that will result in a launch at Weaver Park While most outreaches have resulted in additional contacts um there's a lot of threads to pull with these kind of things as I think you all well know uh but the most actionable was the Florida Department of Environmental Protection where a pre-application meeting has been applied for with the intent to include city parks and Recreation which Vince also requested and then on the second point I'd just like to provide citizen input for support for their the Parks and Recreation ask for the 2025 budget for the study to improve Weaver Park which will hopefully result in a launch and a holistic view of again how to make this gem even uh greater at Weaver Park um Vince and his team have requested this to ensure that holistic look um in making the the the gem at the city park resources even greater so thank you very much thank you anyone else wish to come forward and talk to any item that's not already on the agenda okay thank you uh we'll move on to our consent agenda we have uh the approval of the minutes from May 14th board and committee appointments to our Housing Authority uh signal box wrap public art project a bid for Heather Bridge drainage improvements in the amount of 125,000 and change um the state division of historical resources matching Grant agreement Water and Wastewater utility revenue sufficiency study Charter Spectrum cost for Skinner Boulevard undergrounding um the award of bid for a 10,000 gallon diesel fuel storage tank in the amount of 337,000 um and change the award of bid to install uh granular activated carbon and in an estimated amount of 139,000 and change and after after the fact ratification of an emergency purchase order um for 10 inline tidal valves for Baywood Shores in the amount of 69,000 in change are there any items to be pulled uh 2C and 2J 2 C and 2J anyone else okay we will pull those items can I have a motion to approve everything but 2 C and 2J so moved second okay vice mayor frainy and commissioner Walker any public input on these items seeing or hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I any opposed motion passes unanimously thank you um all right so the first item would be the public art project did you just have a question um vice mayor or did you want to get a presentation um no I don't know that I need a presentation I just um I'm not I'm not the artist but recently I was in Nevada and the oldest town in Nevada Gena I think has done something similar with utility where they did a historic twist so it was just the the base color it wasn't color um and it looks great cuz it because you already have color in the utility Boxes Etc but anyway so my point is um I would prefer to see black and white on all the utility boxes I just think it's cleaner gives that historic punch to it and um and actually since I'm not the artist I have a feeling that our experts actually think that would be the better way to go too so I'm just kind of putting you on the spot that the black and white maybe is the way to go for all the utility boxes so I'd say that to Elizabeth and I say it to Robert because I think possibly you guys agree with that you are more than welcome to respond was there a question question the question is if if you know do you prefer black and white on all the utility boxes and I asked I'm asking Elizabeth and I'm asking Bob yep Bob ironson economic development director yeah I prefer black a wide a gr scale I think in the downtown setting which is more pedestrian oriented it's not vocular it's not fast speeds I think uh in t historical the impact of a grayscale black and white is is more impactful and more in keeping with our downtown especially with the various amenities that we have you know we've been doing blocking a lot of issues whether it's street lights whether it's pensions and things like that so I think U it would fit more historically into our downtown as opposed to just abstract type color aspect so yep that that is my thought Elizabeth when the project was first conceived the focus was to be archival photographs of dun Eden in its various stages between 70 and 110 to 120 years ago by adding by by having it be primarily black and white my opinion is that it sets off it allows for a focal point for that black and white signal box and with the color around it it even gives it more Focus to be black and white however what's been presented um uh I am not unhappy with I think a hand tinting allows for a slight bit of modernization and maybe pulls the eye a little bit but not any more color than what was presented that was well stated however my question really was if you were making the choice just you not all of us what would your preference be my original recommendation was black and white thank you and so I guess my point is relying on my experts I mean I love the project I love the projects I love the picture selections or for people that have don't know what this is about it's historical pictures in you know kind of very you know wellth thought out positions where the utility boxes traffic signal boxes are around the city and and so it it's just a cool project very to me it's very doneen the pictures are great but I really do agree with our experts that I think they should all be black and white but thank you but I love the project anyone else have feedback or comments hi yes ma' um yeah I I I love the project too and um I I will say that I thought the original concept was black and white but you know as I'm looking through this presentation I do see you know subtlety in a color contrast and uh you know I'm I'm certainly not the expert I'm just voicing my opinion um but I uh I I think first and foremost uh this project is really going to exemplify you know the public art that we do so well here in dened and uh anyway that's that's what I got thanks commissioner thank you mayor um love the project I think it's great um I love all the picture choices uh some of my questions are um um especially at the corner of Patricia and Union you actually haven't identified a single picture you've got options and I'm just wondering who is the group that's choosing those is there an idea of narrowing down which one you would choose what what is that process well the the point of having two there are two signal box intersections that have two choices for each of them one at the corner of beler uh sorry uh yes beler and uh State Road 580 and the other is as you point out at Patricia Avenue and Union streets um that is to allow the installer to have the option due to the sizes and configurations of those particular boxes whether there's one on one side and one on the other or whether there's one photograph utilized and then an inset of a photograph but I was giving that option for uh consideration by the installer okay um is an installer local the installer identified at this moment is indeed local okay okay my preference is the Middle School it just makes totally it makes total sense for the corner of Patricia and Union for the picture of the middle school band which that one that's option C I think option b and option A and option A and B for the for the public is those are pictures of the city band and uh but it just makes sense at that location given that's where it all started was on that corner that it makes sense that it would be the the middle school just for historical cultural relevance there right uh oh I just wanted to clarify something when I'm talking about black and white I'm talking about the downtown right yeah you're only talking about yeah we know you're only we know where you are no no okay okay well it's a different environment than veicular oriented as opposed to downtown which that's what I have some comments on well actually this particular photograph when you're put when it's in a display as it is now yes it's uh a photograph of a Scottish band right it was the uh dunen High School uh dunen Highland Junior High School uh pipe band correct with the concert band with the or the marching band when you put that on a signal box it it has the opportunity to be extremely tiny yep so therefore the other two were my first and second choices um one with uh that one I know almost everybody in it by the way right we went to school with them right Jeff here here here's the thing so uh thank you to the Dunning history museum for giving me access to the archival photographs uh as well as books and other items that was driving me back to the history museum to look at the archival photographs in selecting the photographs you can't use a postcard because they end up being highly cellular when you blow them up they just and I found some beautiful ones of orange groves and of just different and end of the um uh actually from my time wonderful postcard but it's they're not possible to be used so that's so you're saying give give the artist a choice is is what you're saying yeah that's what I'm hearing it's what I'm hearing for for for that corner for that giving the installer the option sorry I'll work with them all right but we do all but we do understand the significance of that Junior High photo yeah right as long as cuz to me there historical perspective and if that's what all these pictures are that is where it began and that is the picture to represent that so I just wanted put that out there and then and and given that and I oh I'm sorry it looks like you're well in truth I would go I was looking for a photograph of Matt foresight and it could go back further I get that where it began right yes ma'am thank you for that correction I appreciate that you're so welcome um and in that in that regard and I certainly understand and appreciate the conversation of black and white versus color but when it comes to the pipe band um it's important to have that cultural representation that Scottish culture that Heritage coming out in the color of the Kilt it represents that I think it just adds it adds to that picture um in either one but I do notice in either those option A and B those colors are different neither one of them really match the color of the Elliot Tartan which is what that tarton is so if we could that color if you're if you're choosing color if you go with black and white I certainly uh certainly step back to the the expertise in the room um but if you by chance this is my last comment and I'm sorry I apparently I'm focused on one signal box um um but if you if you do by chance go with that Junior High picture if you do or the installer does then I just think because of the significance of our Scottish culture and Heritage one of those pictures of the city ban needs to be on some other box somewhere in the city is well so after this particular presentation there are an additional three photos um that I was going to ask for your approval for future boxes we've got quite a a we have more boxes oh we have a lot of all over the City Commissioner um yes we do um but to so that we weren't coming back again and again to ask for other photographs to be approved okay and so that's it I guess those were both questions and comments but thank you may that's okay okay commissioner thank you mayor so arts and culture advisory committee yes have spent time on this a lot of time and what is what is their position on this uh they're in favor of the of the project in concept that was as it was presented to them and uh and I know I've been to a number of those meetings and i' and I've listened to the to the conversation back and forth and I and I appreciate appreciate the individuals that are in there that really really have a have a feeling of what this would really look like and from an art standpoint of which far is far superior to mine so um I was I was pleased with with the outcome and how this is going so I have uh at this point in time I have no recommendation for for any changes okay so I'm going to bring this forward at least for State Road 580 um and this is clearly about visibility for me it isn't about the art or the pictures I'm not going to pick any of that it's beautiful whichever way you do it but State Road 580 is a six Lane Road in most places four lanes um and at a speed of 40 to 45 miles an hour and I feel like black and white is not going to be able to be seen unless you're stopped at a light if you're going past something you're not going to be able to see it and I think that's what I think whatever we do needs to have color in it on 580 so that you can actually see it um I don't this isn't really about art preference for me it's about if we're going to put it together I want it to be visible and we do not have walkability on 580 yes people do walk and yes people might be sitting at a light um but I feel like with all of the visual noise going on on 580 and I'm not talking about Main Street here really I'm not I'm talking about 580 from Patricia East um it will be very very hard to catch that as you're driving by we have a lot of through traffic from people that don't live here and we want to catch their eye so whatever that means so I I mean I would like our traffic people I would like people to take that into consideration um if we're going to do public art on 580 and we have a very economical way to do it let to make it visible where you're seeing it on the road that's my concern may I comment sure of course signal boxes have the intersection they're at the intersections and they have lights so primarily if you're driving 40 m hour I don't think you're going to really see anything other than what you're really looking for where the gold comes in for me is that you're stopped at the light and that's when you have the opportunity to reflect on the signal box as opposed to the color by adding more color you're also adding to the noise of what is around it yeah um and I I totally get what you're saying I drive through clear water many times in a week and they have beautiful vibrant fully colored art on very busy on Signal boxes on very busy roads I see it as I drive by it catches my attention um and I'm just looking for what I've experienced in other places obviously I don't want to be clear water that's not what I'm looking for I think what you've chosen is completely different from them but we're going to be on a heavy heavily traveled Road I think I think we have to change the noise on 580 is what I'm trying to say and we've been trying to do that we're working with fdot on on doing that changing the zoning changing how parking happens changing the signage um landscape medians possibly we have lots of things in the works to change that noise on 580 so to me this is just one piece of changing that noise um so I just I'm fine with black and white everywhere else because the speed limits are low but this particular Road it's not and I just kind of feel like that there needs to be more color on 580 so that's that's my opinion and I mean I probably wouldn't have brought it up except I have somebody in an opposite opinion so um you know I just feel all all I'm saying is 580 I feel should be visible as people are driving by because of the amount of through traffic so could I make a motion um well I have Jennifer looking at me sorry you're looking to be like you want to say something I'm okay she wants to say nothing about this I'm sure mayor I was going to ask for a clear Direction but I'm going to wait for that motion and see if we get well I'm just trying to get my I'm just trying to get also my colleagues opinions on yeah and I don't I mean personally with 580 I get what you're saying but I also think you add color you add noise and and you know you don't always know it's aesthetically pleasing to the eye but when you have too much of everything you just know it's not aesthetically pleasing and so some of the boxes you think are nice and clear water I think like I think it looks too much it just it just adds the Clutter so but I respect what your opinion what I was going to suggest is our motion might be to approve the project in concept and let the artists and the experts decide for the different areas what's most appropriate that's my motion so you're saying don't bring it back for 580 or don't don't you're saying let them decide one way or another yeah what they think is most aesthetically fitting and artistic for the different areas yeah I mean I is there a second for that I mean I I would like to make a decision not just put it out in the air well I then I move to make it all black and white then then let me make a comment too so basically what they're doing is is actually doing that they're going to they're going to look at each place and and make some decisions and and secondly we have many more signal boxes on this so we'll get a lot more input and a lot more impression and uh and and I watched the process so I'm I'm I'm happy with that and that that certainly meets that requirement as well so we can just approve it so you kind of agree with what I said let them go forth and make the decisions about the most that's what they're doing yeah that's what they want to do and mayor uh I'm not sure what the motion is right now on on the day well there isn't one there isn't a second I think we're trying to talk about this before we go down that way cuz I was in I was in the middle between the both of you I I like the the splash of color where where where it is I think it adds something to it but I do appreciate where the vice mayor was trying to go and I am okay hearing my comments letting letting those who know best make make the decision it just well and I I guess maybe what I was trying to say I was looking at it more as a traffic related issue not traffic causing traffic but being visible by in the places where we we were coming I wasn't looking at it from an artistic perspective I'm looking at 30 years down the road and what we hope 580 is going to look like then you know so commissioner walker uh so I'm I'm inclined to support uh the vice mayor's position on this and let the committee and the artist make the determination I uh you know I think one of the things that we might be struggling with here is the fact that we're not we're not the experts as opposed to the people that have developed the art and want to place the art and uh so um I actually will second the vice mayor's motion if I can do that you may second now we have a motion on the table okay I think everybody has said what they want to say I'm very supportive of this I believe that this project is something I brought forward five or six years ago to do signal boxes so um I'm sad it took us so long to get here but I'm really happy that we are here and I just like everybody to consider when they're out there where we're going to be we'll probably have to replace those signal bar signal box wraps in 30 years but I do think it's important to understand the environment we're in I I love what Bob said about the um you know black and white in downtown because there's a lot of walkable totally makes sense to me um I'm just showing the complete off opposite with the high-speed vehicular traffic um so okay we make it black and white and then ask the cars to slow down yeah there we go have fun with that can I get a clarification on the motion please just so we make sure that that we have it correct in the so the motion is to let the artists do what to look at each area and let them do what they see fit that's correct okay to use their own expertise to run the city decide what's the best most appropriate and the Project's amazing and that's what pictures yeah yeah oh no I do too everybody okay all right all in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes unanimously thank you guys for all your hard work thank you all right and then the other item being pulled is the after the fact ratification for the Emergency purchase order for 69,000 and change for the title valves for Baywood Shores and I the only reason I pulled that which I have a feeling a couple people were going to pull it um was I just thought we might want to know the update on since it is an emergency it has to do with Baywood Shore were in hurricane season if you could just share with us the great latest and greatest update because I know it's changing every day good morning Sue Bartlett Public Works director um sure uh we received the um engineering report from panonia Associates um and actually the final report sealed on May 30th it's dated May 29th and um you see there's included in the packet a summary the executive summary of that report um that recommends inline check valves and it's very specific for each particular location we went out in the field with them um and thank you Nan for your help there too went out and evaluated every single situation so that we could get um the right type of valve for that application um in the meantime you know we had replaced some of the existing vves with the same in kind Valves and um had limited success in some of that work but with the recommendations of course we got a draft report and then it was being finalized but we started working with a vendor to uh procure and purchasing to procure those and so they were actually ordered in this memo the emergency memo was signed J uh June 5th so just a few de days later the PO was issued to the company wepro and we actually received um some valves yesterday and and two valves were installed yesterday and today we have a crew thank you Public Services um they have a crew that's staying late again today so that they can hit the low tide and uh to install another valve today and so as they come in um most of those have been shipped already they were local in Miami um but some of them do have to be manufactured which is um part of what we were waiting on in initially um the estimate right now is a 90-day manuf facturing um but they are um being very conservative in their estimate of how long it will take um so that we can be realistic uh but they do they they have already started manufacturing uh so that they will send them as soon as they're completed the the ones um that are right now on back order or being manufactured out of the 10 I think it's seven of them are being shipped three are being manufactured um in addition we have distributed uh 2400 sandbags to the citizens out there pre-storm um and we will be meeting tomorrow with a community meeting um from 6:00 till 8: at the community center and uh they have been noticed um multiple ways uh so that they can attend that and get the latest update there and um Peter nicolov from panonian Associates will be attending with with us there to answer any questions regarding those installations thank you Sue and thank you I know this been a challenging thing for you and you care about those people and you're working hard to get it on track so thank you you're welcome any other questions okay I I have I have a question I guess and and I'm going to make a comment at the end sure but uh for the question um I appreciate the fact of of how you followed through with everything and I know we' all been very very interested and so have you and and the people are aware of what's or some of the people that I've talked about are acutely aware of what what's going on for this I want to want to give a special I the low tide today is at 501 uh so they're staying late to to get what they have on that's correct as best they can so I guess there's that's a that's a a challenge so I appreciate that challenge and I appreciate that happening so that's just fantastic thank thank you I wanted to say thank you you're welcome anybody else uh comment um yeah so this this is to Echo uh commissioner torga because just to kind of put this into a a timeline perspective obviously there were some challenges um then you and the staff reacted and to get the right valves in place and it sounds like you're poised at 501 today to start that install that's correct we actually will start ahead of the low tide because there's some prep you actually have a little bit of time before that but yeah but anyway but as soon as they arrive that's our plan as soon as they're arriving we're scheduling as soon as possible after even if it's after hours um and it's daylight um to get them installed and get as many installed as quickly as possible yeah okay great thank you anybody else no yeah mayor just wanted to say thank you to Sue and your staff uh for working so hard uh meeting the residents where they are I know they're they're frustrated and uh Angry and all that sort of stuff and and rightfully so and this is this is their home uh but we are at least doing our best at this point to reach out to them to work as expediently as we can uh so thank you for that appreciate it commissioner Nan and Jorge have been very active in this whole effort as well all right go Nan go Jorge all right yes I would I really uh public service we appreciate so much the engineering side and the report that provides the expertise in this area to help us get it right love our team thank you guys okay uh anybody from the public wish to speak to this item um all right uh can I have a motion to approve second okay commissioner gal and vice mayor frainy all in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes unanimously thank you for your comments on that commission really appreciate it all right uh action item additional funding request for Skinner Boulevard um Corridor Improvement project Bob yes Mayor Bob iron Smith economic de development director for the city of dun Eden this is uh a request staff recommending additional 1.59 four million for the going to complete streets project uh do went out to bid uh this is the low bid unfortunately in this inflationary environment that we're in today the project came in higher uh do is bringing 925,000 additional to the table also uh I do have L tiway here Finance director and Danielle with do to answer any uh more detailed questions that they might have the funding sources for this as we discussed earlier at the C would come from the CRA it would come from arpa savings and also budget adjust to the it Broadband this project was initially started in 2017 with $100,000 Grant from Ford pelis we also got a million doll Grant from Ford uh pelis uh currently today between State uh uh and U uh state and federal funding we have over $6 million come to the project 53.7% it's a strong contribution D is very engaged in this project this is kind of a a a show project for them to take a street to a complete Street aspect uh we're very excited about it and uh we would recommend to go forward with the with the funding I certainly can answer any questions that you might have any questions you guys probably already went over it yeah I know we did do the Ser A3 excuse me right I I have some questions sure um we've uh talked about uh previously for example at the at the CRA and we've talked about this before but we have a a separate some other uh funding source for this not only sources but organizations and when we talk about the federal and we talk about the state what what do we know that is different from funding from fot as it relates to federal and state and and I'll expand on that so when we say the federal is involved in this is the federal involved in this by money that's are given to the state therefore then to fot which is a member of the state or and from the state as well can you explain that well I'm going to ask Danielle maybe to come up too I I don't know the breakdown but yeah my understanding is the federal money comes out the state to the Department of Transportation that's what utilized and of course the city got arpa funding you know which was Federal funding which we're also looking to go toward the project but I'll defer to Danielle on that one welcome Danielle thank you so I don't have a breakdown of the funding difference between state and federal but we do have Federal pots where we can use where we call Trip funding uh certain projects uh are eligible for that so we have a combination of State and federal funds because we have different sources we can pull from but Federal funding hasn't come directly to den Eden correct other than Thea correct right so yes I mean there are federal funds by the way I mean the money that we're getting from fdot for our environmental piece of this correct it's like what 1.5 or something correct and that was a federal program but it went to you correct so is the only Federal funding so I don't want to get this confused uh by for anyone so obviously we got our per money County got our per money state got our everybody got our per money so that's a SE that's sort of a separate uh function over here and and we applied our funding source for some of this included one of the three was was arpa was arpa funds the FED it doesn't matter where sort of where they got their money from well they get it from the taxpayers ETC and then they allocated money out to to the to the state Andor they give money out to specific projects and that determination is made by fot if fdot's working on it in conjunction with forward penelas correct and the work plan so so that money comes from that section and it really doesn't matter where it's just somebody's trying to it's just like it's just like searching for grant money you're trying to get you're trying to get in front of folks and you're trying to get support for that so that's F that was that was called 53% of the of the funding FDT funds is a combination of federal and state funds so it's not like fdot funds are always searching for Grants when it's federal funds we have a mix pot in different options yeah I guess what I'm trying to ask is what I'm trying to get out where we're going with the the question what do you what what's the answer you're looking for commissioner the question the question I didn't understand the question I that's what I'm trying to get you to clarify the question I asked the question we talk about this money comes from federal and state and so I just wanted to make that real clear where that came from right it doesn't matter whether it came from AR from their their sections from arpa or it doesn't matter because it's all it goes into a pot and we then we we apply for the monies M our arpa money is is our arpa money a source of funds correct we're giving that into a pot and we took some of that from from from our Pub we took it from other places as correct I would just say and Daniel correct me if I'm wrong we we're district 7 so do in district 7 will have a PT of money so we're actually competing with other projects so it was nice that they stepped up and said you know what we're going to Dun Eden as opposed to some other community in district 7 so from that perspect that we were you know fortunate but yes there's arpa money which the city got on its own Federal money and and then from our standpoint the monies that we're that we are spending on this project um it is is in in in in coordination with with those other sources of funds from fed and state and that money's from arpa Etc are are are really accountable we're accountable to our residents for all of that money regardless of what pot it came from because it it came generally from our residents in a couple cases in if CRA money it came from the count from the County residents as well a portion so I just wanted to just get that real clear because that was brought up just a few minutes ago um at at a at a previous meeting and then another another comment is that um I just want us to to really be be acutely aware of the fact that this is a this is a contract that's L to an organization a numerous organizations or one organization makes sure that others take care of what's needed um and so we don't do the work on it it's it's done it's done by a bid we all we know that up here but just so everybody's aware of that fact and it's a and it's a big big project for us it's a very significant project I know it started in 2017 I I know the first 100,000 we fought for when I was on forward pelis just to get the study done um but but there's a lot of effort that's gone into this by by the county as well and by forward pelis and and and F certainly fot so big project um I asked the question I'll leave it I'll leave it with that any other questions no F okay only because we want to at least acknowledge that we just had a CRA meeting at 8:30 that discussed this project in its entirety so I'm talked out okay um is there motion I move approval second okay vice mayor fry and commissioner GA you you don't have to stay there anybody from the public wish to speak to this item thank you okay final comments commissioner FR or vice mayor fry yeah we we discussed this at length between 11:30 and 9: a special meeting this morning before this meeting uh clearly uh nobody likes price increases but that's the world we live in right now with with some of the the construction costs that are coming in uh but you know we're getting $6.5 million from federal state contributions and even in the money that we're providing you know it's arpa some of it's from the county um this is a heavy heavily uh leveraged project where we're getting a lot of other people's money to make it happen to make our downtown better it's going to be and and really make a complete Street that's going to be a lot safer so I'm fully in support of it even though I wish it hadn't come in higher but I think at this point we've got a lot of money on the table to do a great project a lot of money that's not ours and and I thank Danielle again for being here and F do for being such a good partner commissioner go I think Blair is breaking our chairs uh uh no ma'am I Echo the vice mayor's comments um yes so just uh we we did discuss this from 8:30 9 and um just to summarize uh you know the the cost increase is you know we are an inflationary period and one of the principal components of that is experienced significant rise in price um I uh I I don't I mean I'm I would be interested to hear if there was an example of where there was such a commitment in Partnerships that would allow us to leverage to the point of 53.7% of other people's money that that that to me is amazing and the the concept uh is going to be a a safer concept it's going to draw the downtown it's going to draw a that part of uh downtown actually into the downtown core um it's it is going to benefit business and uh in terms of how this gets financed and in all the all the mechanisms that that went behind that I'm I'm very I'm very comfortable with uh with the plan going forward so thank you commissioner Tonga thank you mayor our action item was just on the additional funding of the 1.6 1.59 uh million dollars That Came Upon Us which is a huge number and it does require us to have conversations about that uh certainly certainly in some depbt because that is money that that is is directly our money and and uh so so is the rest of it uh Andor the 53% belongs to someone else that that's not the that's not the point here I guess so I just did want to bring that up and I wanted to make us aware of the fact that that this is a project that to be completed we have to either agree to the 1.5 million or the project goes away and so here we are so we we were basically going to be taking a motion here just to approve that $1.6 million um I think this will probably be the last time we talk about this project I hope so fingers crossed right I'm putting that Juju out in the air app so I think it's okay that we expand our comments a little bit and forward panel started working with communities um back in I think 2016 to try to do uh complete Street projects and help them navigate the process with fdot on their state roads and we were really lucky as a community I think we were the second approved um true and there was a lot of criteria that we had to meet um fast forward to and that was in 2017 so fast forward to today we we live in a different world today um where we have people all over the county fighting and arguing about the lane elimination issue um and I'm very proud that we haven't had that here I'm really proud of that and I'm really proud of the work we're doing here um on this road it is economic development it is traffic control we know that as the top three issues that are presidents complain about or you know are concerned about um and I'm really proud so thank you do for this I'm sure you all know but our traffic light at the trail has been approved and I really appreciate you all that was our only one major concern and so we appreciate you all working with us on that I appreciate secretary gwy and just and Brian and Jason and all the people from fdot that come to our forward panelist meetings that we willing to listen as I put our case so um I want to see the construction when does it start we're looking at the late fall of this year okay I'm looking at a two-year project ribbon cutting November one then right I'm sorry yes yes yes I got that commissioner I did no don't do it I'm allowing a week delay for rain yeah um okay anybody from the public wish to speak to this item if I hadn't already asked that okay um all in favor signify by saying I any opposed motion passes unanimously thank you all right probably the item everybody's here for um we're g to go to the dyen golf club food and Bev and banquet service limited facility lease I'll be happy to give an opening M yeah and I just have to go get a cup of coffee do you guys mind if I just go get a cup of coffee real quick I'll be right back miss my stellar opening yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] item is the uh uh denan golf club food and beverage and banquet Services uh uh limited facility lease agreement the uh uh as you know we put out something called an rfpa request for proposal uh last year actually and the due date was December 23rd for the RFP we received one response to that RFP and it was non-responsive and what that means is that the person who submitted a proposal was really not qualified uh to do um what was within that scope and within that proposal in working with the uh the City attorney we were then able since we had gone through the procurement process already uh and satisfied our requirements for procurement process we were then able to move about the cabin freely as I say and um and work with some local restaurant tours uh in the area and we were delighted to be able to do that and I have to say that that the quality of of the restaurant tours um in the hospitality industry in denan is second to none as you know the professionalism the commitment to the city the the commitment of the club and what we wanted to to do with the club um was was uh very gratifying actually for the city everybody's been looking at that project who's this project who's associated with the club the renovation is going very well I don't know if you saw the video of Blair yesterday on the fourth Fairway and the ninth green and the and all those sorts of things have a look at it it's it's a great video it really is so the renovation is going well knock on wood that's what I always do um and now it comes to the food and beverage um one of those restaurant tours one of those companies uh really stood out and it was because of the passion for the project uh when we first started negotiating uh with Zack Feinstein uh the f sign group the um the knowledge of the club itself the um knowledge of the city and the passion for the project um really stood out and so um in discussing with Vincent Blair and Laney sheets who is also involved where Laney go she here she some there she is uh they were the negotiating team uh with Zach uh and his attorney eventually the attorneys got involved and they always do um in a very nice way um uh we were we were able to to negotiate what I feels a very fair agreement moving forward both to our partner uh and the City of denan and that is the the taxpayers themselves in regards to a full renovation of this Clubhouse which is something that that members of the commission have been pursuing uh for a while so you know this is one of those situations where where uh fingers crossed storm season we get through storm season with the renovation the clubhouses is um is uh under renovation as well and then we open up in November hopefully with a fully renovated golf course and a fully renovated uh clubhouse and a new restaurant tour restaurant food service in place um Vince is going to talk to us a little bit about the terms of that agreement as I said I think that they're very fair um and uh I think they're fair to to as I said both our partner and the city and then I know that that um fste group has a proposal I would like to go over their proposal as well at the city commission uh during the course of our agenda briefings yesterday I know that you all have a number of questions uh in regards and they're mostly for Zach so be ready Zach I know you are and it seems like he's brought brought the house here too so it it so thank you mayor and I'll hand it over to Vince thank you Jennifer good morning mayor vice mayor City commissioners so let me just go ahead and make formal introductions our general manner of golf operations Blair Klein is with us this morning helping present also so Laney sheets our Parks and Recreation administrative superintendent is here um I also as Jennifer just said Zach Christina Feinstein with the Feinstein group and several friends family and staford with you this morning that's just great and also I did want to recognize at this time uh Jennifer Cowen for all the work our City attorney for all the work she put into this and she was available for us it was she was made a priority for her we could get her in the evenings weekends um any time to uh get here this morning with this agreement uh put in front of you so I just wanted to mention a couple of Milestones that we've been through first I want to talk about um the the conveyance of the golf course back in 2017 the Denine golf club was conveyed to the city from the Denine Country Club Inc in 2017 for the remaining balance of the mortgage at the time was approximately $300,000 and this gave us the um ownership of the property and the control of the total course and uh and it was put us in charge of our own uh Destiny the second U Milestone that I wanted to mention was the complete sustainability completing the sustainability study this study was completed by the National Golf foundation and presented to the city commission November of 21 by the lead consultant Richard singer I you all remember Mr Sing has been in front of the commission several times the National Golf Foundation gave us several operating options for the city to consider moving forward the city chose the hybrid option to Take Over Control of the property through an employed general manager which we've hired Flair Klein a contracted or employed golf professional John Falone a golf maintenance contract who we contracted with down to earth have been operating with us now for a little over a year and food and beverage and banqu which operator which is what we're going to be discussing today so a lot of Milestones I have a list here but I'm not going to read all through them have happened over the last three years to get us to uh March 1st uh 2024 where the the city and the contractor broke ground on a newly designed Donald Ross golf course which as Jennifer mentioned is well under construction and and doing doing great um another Milestone uh and or finally uh one last remaining Milestone uh and to complete our transition plan is in front of you this morning food beverage and banquet services so um with that uh just a little background Jennifer did mention that the city issued a request for proposal RFP for the dunan golf club food beverage and banquet Services The Proposal was accepted until December 21st 2023 the city received one submitt however the proposal was found to be non-responsive and after we had conversations with our City Attorney Jennifer Cowan staff began to negotiate with local restaurant tours we did something similar um with o Cafe on two occasions we put that RFP out for for bid and and we didn't get um the response that we were looking for and we were able to go back and negotiate directly with Walt Wickman uh to get him in business and it it's worked out really well for us so the Feinstein group um Zach and Christina has formed Nunan LLC and I'll let Zack talk about that when when he's talking about his business plan to be the Le C and the Nunan Group LLC was contracted with the feine street group to operate food beverage and banquet services and again Zach um Can clarify that during his presentation so I'm going to go through um highlevel terms and conditions and then Zach and Christina will present their their B business plan so um this is just basically a summary of some of the highlevel terms and conditions of the agreement we're at a 10 10-year agreement with five with one fiveyear option of course that 5-year option would have to be approved by our city commission rent shall be 4 % of the net sales net sales are calculated on gross sales minus sales tax discounts and service charges paid by the customer in Li of tips Capital Improvements initial capital investment by the Nunan group shall be a minimum of $450,000 the city shall provide a credit to Nunan for capital investment through rent abatement up to a maximum of 500,000 or 36 months whichever comes first the city will provide n with a $300,000 contribution towards the clubhouse improvements Nan will be responsible for coordinating Contracting and funding all initial Clubhouse improvements restrooms in the foyer area and locker rooms lighting flooring as needed wall treatments dining furniture and refurbishments and replacement of kitchen uh upgrades Insurance new un will maintain commercial liability and business auto policy insurance with a minimum limit of 1 million per occurrence and 2 million in the aggregate shall also maintain liquid liability insurance in the same amount and work as compensation coverage insurance policies except for workman's compensation shall name the city as an additional insured facility maintenance utility and property taxes City shall provide repair and maintenance services of the building exterior roof h AAC and plumbing City will provide water waste water 20% of solid waste collection fire alarm security fire alarm security 50% of electric cost Wi-Fi and basic cable Nuna will be responsible for 80% of solid waste collection mostly dumpster gas and for cooking 50% of el El cost which will be based on the prior year use Nuno will be responsible for pest control and custodial services for the least area City will be responsible for other areas nun will be responsible for premium internet and cable channel if desired nun will be responsible for all property taxes levied on least area as a result of food and beverage operation Nuna will be responsible for the routine maintenance and cleaning of all kitchen equipment banquet and Grill areas the city will also they will also be responsible for repairs of the exhaust hood grease traps up to 1,500 per repair not to exceed 10,000 combined annually City will be responsible for walk and cooler units exhaust Hood major repairs of replacement grease traps major repair or replacement Fire and Life Safety system maintenance exterior painting and Landscaping room usage and discounts Nuna will provide discounts on room rentals for nonprofit organizations nun shall provide the banquet facilities to the city up to four times per year with no room charges this is one is really important city shall be have the first rights of refusal for the weekend prior to Thanksgiving each November Friday or Saturday for the city's holiday party newon shall provide all activities at no charge to the city upon availability with uh advanced notice of the activity room City shall provide the meeting room at no charge to Nunan upon availability with advanced notice Nunan LLC and this the Zach um Feinstein group has proven to have excellent experience and credentials in providing quality dining extraordinary commitment to the city of dun Eden and community and first class vision for the denan golf club food beverage and operations so with that um I will ask now if Zach and Christina will present their their business plan sure hello can you hear me is it good that's good welcome hello hello everybody hello Commissioners hello hello mayor Bowski thank you for having us today um today we're going to go over this presentation we put together uh and it's going to basically have the highlights we we had a 30-page proposal to the city of theen staffers um and I wasn't going to read 30 pages of documentation here so this is going to be very high level um feel free to ask questions whenever whenever you'd like um but you know with that being said I'd like to introduce everyone here to to Highland House um you know we believe that this concept is going to marry the rich history of den Eden the the Donald Ross design of the country club the club history as well as tie back to our Scottish roots in Sterling um you know we're really excited about this project uh and for Christina and I it's been a pleasure to work with the city to to get to where we are so with that being said we'll we'll Jump Right In First we're going to talk a little bit about the F scene group and who we are what we stand for um we were founded in 2014 uh Christina and I bought the Black Pearl on June 30th of 2014 so it'll be a decade I think what is it 12 days from today which is pretty exciting uh we own and operate saund Social Club the Black Pearl and two living room uh locations one here in dun Eden and another one in Wesley Chapel uh for those of you that don't know I actually grew up here so I went to San Jose Elementary School denen Middle School thean High School uh my first job was working for for John at the Country Club cleaning cleaning golf carts and probably driving them too fast around the course um and I moved away after you know High School excuse me and met my wife in Miami we moved back and we actually bought our first house on whole five so well we've had the the course in our family's history uh and it's been in my life you know the whole time I've been here so um what we stand for at the Feinstein group you know what we train our managers and our employees is our priorities in which we operate our business and those priorities start with the number one which is our employees uh number two is our guests and then number three for us is the community and we believe that if we support and uphold the community the community will up excuse me uphold and support us um you know this project exemplifies that commitment to community Christine and I are excited to invest in our community and and where our employees live and play and we think that we could bring something you know really nice uh to the country club the golf club excuse me um another thing that we do at the Feinstein group that's a little unique is we really believe in unreasonable Hospitality making people feel welcome seen and heard at any one of our locations uh when you walk through the doors of any one of our restaurants we want you to feel like you're at home um so that's super important to us and and really one of the biggest goals for Christina and I is we want this to be something that people that live in 34698 that they're proud of right when people come to visit family that live here they say you got to go to the you know you got to go downtown you got to go to the beach and you got to go check out the golf club and we think that we could probably lend hand to make sure that that happens talk a little bit about the brand and branding so you know how Christina and I have run this company for the last 10 years um we're really really serious about how we brand things and when I say the word branding I mean the story of what we're trying to create and what we're doing and that any one of the locations that we have they all have a story um um and you know the golf club already has an amazing story and for us uh you know we we came up with Highland House the next slide here we we came up with Highland House with a couple reasons there's a ton of names that we threw out there but for us uh the first thing is you know the Scottish Highlands are about 100 miles from our sister city of Sterling uh and they're actually one of The Inspirations behind Donald Ross's design so uh the Rolling Green Hills and uh you know I guess the um difficulty that would put golf course on the on the highlands it's how how he designed his courses and so for us it was kind of a clear idea for for what we wanted to name and uh name the country club for us the uh uh the word house is super important for us I mean I'm sure you guys have been to the living room and seen welcome home plaster all over the the restaurant but for us we want people to feel at home when they're with us right and that doesn't matter if it's at a golf club at the Black Pearl at sa the living room um so we we really wanted to incorporate that and we think that the uh the logo lens itself to you know the Elegance of the club but also you know it's approachable enough for for everyday use uh and then the Palm frons in the logo uh kind of play to the tropical culture of den Eden because this is not Scotland so uh we want to make sure we put that in there and also kind of hides our address in the in the logo so you have the Palm frons there um highlighting the logo jump into the financials as Blair spoke about the fining group is prepared and N I kind of rewind the n and LLC is the operating in en of of the country club um but every one of our restaurants is set up this way so it's uh the operating entity and the finin group is contracted to to run it so just so we're all clear if I say finstein group it's synonymous with newon so um but we are prepared to invest a minimum of $450,000 uh into the country club combined with the city's already $300,000 that was voted through I believe in the beginning here uh that's three4 of a million dollars uh in a minimum spend to create something that's special here in deden um and like like uh Vince had gone over it's going to be a complete renovation of the Interior new bathrooms new entryway new bar a refreshed event space new kitchen equipment new bar equipment new furniture new chairs and we're also going to paint the exterior of the club as well and bring that up to up the code um Christina is going to go into design in a few minutes but that's kind of the hierarchy of what we're going to be accomplishing so we're not going to look like an old folks home anymore no more hold yeah we we don't we don't run old folks homes so sorry just had to say although it's probably a good business model but we'll into it um then the proposed rent we have we've negotiated 4% of net sales and the reason we chose that was we wanted to make sure that if we did well the city did well and if the city does well we do well so in all Essences we're Partners on this right so the the busier we can get this country or the golf club to be on the food and beverage side events the city will sharing that with us um we have you know negotiated a 36-month red abatement period That's to help recoup some of the investment however you know if you do the math it probably won't recoup it which we're fine with that but uh but you know it's a 36 months or up to 500,000 whichever one is first uh and then there's a 10-year lease with a five-year option any questions just keep going okay you'll get a lot of questions wait till the end sure I'm going to end it off to my my beautiful wife for the design portion of the the presentation hello guys thank you so much for your time today um I'm really excited I think you know out of all of our Concepts this is probably the one that I'm most excited about and I probably say that every time but I'm saying it this time and I really truly mean it um at the fining group we believe interior design is as important as many development and um it needs to tie into the concept and as Zach was talking about branding and why we chose Highland House the vibe will be intentional um and it'll tell the story of Highland house so the story of Highland House when we were designing and coming up with the concept um is the story of den Eden the Deep ties to the Scotland uh to Scotland located on the gulf you'll see and and tough leather some velvets and we'll be having some of Donald Ross's original drawings mixed in with vintage art to speak to Scotland but you'll also notice the warm Coastal Vibes and the creams and blues and greens and some uh light Oaks okay all right so the entryway uh First Impressions really start when you walk through the front door and previously the entryway of the country club golf club now uh was confusing and it didn't really draw attention to the restaurant you didn't really know where you were going going the large host stand you know do I stay here where do I go is there a restaurant is there a bar so that the goal for the entryway is to feel inviting and social while drawing attention to the bar in the main dining room um the the vision is to have a lounge area with comfortable couches and chairs um you know where guests can wait to start their round of golf or maybe wait before they're going to meet their their party for dinner or lunch um so we want it to be a very inviting space um so if you're deciding not to have a drink at the bar and you just want to be in a lounge area it'll be right there um the lighting will be traditional and classy but we don't want to take away from uh from the unique design and the playfulness of the place all right so the furniture and walls uh the vision is for it to feel like a 1920s Club Lounge Golf Club Lounge um we're going to be able to be really playful with the wall coverings instead of just having plastered plaint um we're going to be able to have some uh traditional Furniture throughout um with some tough Leathers some velvets to play with some textures um really make it and welcoming and and warm all right and lastly um the bar so the bar will be a key feature of the uh of Highland House uh we want everyone to come in for happy hour but we also want golfers to come in and relax after a round of golf and belly up to the bar and talk about their game we want it to be again inviting and warm um so we'll be making it feel very relaxed while you can enjoy the views of the golf course all right all right well I'm going to dive a little bit into the menu and some other things here with catering and and all sorts of other other topics but I know the menu has been a a Hot Topic if everyone that's talked to us about the club um just to start off talking about catering um you know we are going to be the premier event space in Duneden hands down without a without a you know shadow of a doubt that does not mean the most expensive uh event space in D it means the most well operated the best looking but the goal of us doing this is not to um you know Implement Black Pearl pricing uh at the Country Club it's supposed to be affordable and approachable for the general public so that's a big a big uh focus of ours so um we're going to spend a lot of time figuring out what that looks like from a financial standpoint towards our guests when it comes to events but the idea is for us to be able to have you know large large Gatherings um you know as well as nonprofit organizations uh coming through the door there so um we ALS are going to have a membership a social or dining membership available to um our you know the clientele the golf club uh members as well um you know but we will host community and member events so we'll have you know cocktail classes uh private dinners movie Nights wine tastings cocktail tastings beer tastings dance parties you name it we're going to do it some of those will be for the members only some of them will be for the general public but the way that we look at this opportunity is to create another amenity for the city of Duneden um and for us we think we can really accomplish that with the plan that we've set forth when it comes down to the menu as all of our restaurants it will be a scratch kitchen seasonal by natural as much local ingredients as we can find um but the one thing that I want to highlight and continue to talk about is that we want to offer good value okay so we're not trying to serve $45 hamburgers and you know super expensive cocktails the idea is to make this approachable for everybody um you know we want we want to have people coming in from Fairway States multiple times a week and really if you think about it the goal is to have you know people out the door with you know the service charge and tax and if they add gratuiti whatever for between $3 and $40 a person so that's uh much more affordable than our other Concepts but we think we could do that and and really provide a great um dining establishment for everyone that's approachable so we're excited about that just some sample menu items and again the menu is not completed yet um but we know just to give you guys some ideas of things we've talked about coming back to that sustainability Snappers a local fish here you can see like classic wedge salad con fritters you know doing crispy pentab bites crunchy calamari housemade potato chips chopped salad uh an II tuna dish um for handhelds we're big Pulp Fiction fans so I had to throw the Royale with cheese on the menu um you know Smash Burgers just really fun sandwiches you know we also wanted to be uh able to be eaten when you're out on the course that's a big part of what we're trying to accomplish as well CU I'm sure as a lot of you have gone to country clubs sometimes uh you order food and it's not really it doesn't translate to eating it on the course and then lastly you know we're going to we're going to own these Comfort Classics so a lot of people ask we have hot dogs and hamburgers absolutely they're just going to be the best dang hot dogs and hamburgers that money can buy so um we really are leaning into that uh we're also going to have housemade Parker House rolls for people that dine with us when they come in with like you know cinnamon butter um one of the biggest questions people have asked us is we are setting out to have the best fish and chips in the county and yes we will still do fish fry Friday so it's like I've got had so many questions about that but that is still the intention and then you we talk about doing maybe some short ribs or some other Comfort Classics as well um it's no secret that the fine scene group we take pride in our cocktail programs our cocktail bar Sounder Social Club has been voted the number one cocktail bar in uh Tampa Bay every year since it's been opened um so we're we're proud of that uh but with that being said we do want to offer you know an immense value great drink specials and daily specials for for the guests um you know we want to have one of the best uh ZIP codes in or zip Cod of the best happy hours in in in our ZIP code uh you know with with o winning drinks but at everyday prices and some of the ideas that we have if any of you had ever been to our barbecue restaurant that was closed during Co we had an award-winning slushie was made with honey and bourbon and and lemonade was delicious so we're going to bring that back Frozen espresso martinis yeah yeah there you go Frozen espresso martinis and then and the rest of the menu will be all around golf so like for instance the aelia is actually the official drink of the Masters it's named after the flowers that bloom during the week of the competition um you know John Daly we all know Mr Dy enjoys a cocktail every now and again uh so on and so forth uh the long-term Vision though for us when we talk about the opportunity at hand and and us you know doing this with the city we just want to make sure like I said that this is going to be an amenity um we want to make sure that we can offer best-in-class events uh one thing that is pretty evident in the clubhouse right now is technology is pretty lacking when it comes to events and being able to present and all that so we want bring that to the table as well um and and the goal as Blair has stated multiple times is to help Ben Eden make the golf club one of the best municipal courses in the State of Florida so um I just touch again on our commitment to community you I think someone or Blair had brought up the nonprofits I sit on the board for the ddma um you know we have the Rotary Club that that's there we're going to make sure that when we um begin operations or before we begin operations meeting with all the heads of these nonprofit organizations to make sure we can fulfill their their commitments that they had before so um at the same price that was before we're not trying to make money off nonprofits so and then lastly um on the on the food side you know just to reiterate we really will stay on top of the current trends with with food and then one thing that we are are talking about doing because this is going to be in a public uh a public space is to really involve our guests and the public in in the ideas behind the menu and so on and so forth so we'll probably have some fun events at one of our other restaurants before we open to talk about menu and food and ideas so and then the last piece uh is the golf and dining Synergy so I don't I I I don't say that I like to golf I'm just good at like drinking in the sunlight but uh I when when we do go golfing there's so many times where you're waiting for the beverage card or you're trying to get food and you just can't do that so we're looking forward to being able to work with the country club to have some very Innovative technological solutions around that to make sure that people can get what they want when they want it we'll bring it directly to you on the course that's going to be good um and then you know like I said the goal is to be the number one Municipal Clubhouse in the State of Florida and that's it uh okay stacking the uh let's uh let's go to questions then any other thing from you guys no all right start with fece okay well first of all I believe you it's exciting I mean you you're you're so enthus I I just Zach and Christina I you know you feel your enthusiasm so I think for all of us up here that's a dream you want it to be denen and that you feel that you feel the love of denen and denen culture so questions U and you hit on a lot of them one of my concerns um was you know again that we'd overprice the people that go there and I think you hit on that so you know when you say between a $30 and $40 you're out the door so you mean like you got the sandwich you got a drink maybe the I think it's called the Highland Mary that would probably be my drink that's um and and uh you know tip and tax yep absolutely yeah that's that's the goal so it's um and I think it's pretty achievable for what we're going to do on the menu there we're not going to have you know 10 oz fillet minion on the menu or anything like that so uh you know the idea is to pass through um as much savings as we can to the guest and again the the way we set up our lease structure enables us to be a little bit more free with our pricing structure so um the goal again is to be approachable affordable we want to have multiple people visiting you know throughout the week so yeah absolutely you know as we kind of approach the whole investment into the course you know people would always say to me you know just remember it's all about Golf and uh of course I feel both sides from you it is all about golf but at the same time it can be more of a community you know place together um but explain to me a little bit about how that um people that are members there how that'll sync with your plan for them to be part of the restaurant yes we haven't worked out the the specifics of how the membership will flow but I'm sure we'll have some meetings with Blair to figure out how it currently works with the with the country club but the idea would be that we're going to have you know member only events uh things for the members probably you know maybe discounts on a daily basis or so on and so forth but the idea would be that you know what the club did before for its members um we'll be able to fulfill those obligations um but in a you know maybe a little bit different of a way but I don't know if that answers your question yeah no I I I I get I'm just trying I'm still trying to I know you I know you got details to work out but I've had that question come up with people that are I can't tell you so one of the competing um you know they are a country club but would be like clear uh Countryside Country Club and for their social mhood it's like $700 a month it's we're talking like maybe a 100 bucks a month for for our our basic membership so it's again going to be on the affordable side we want people to be able to you know join us often and as an event space I mean you think you'll like I think a lot of places do like drink and food minimums when they do weddings things like that is that kind of how you'd work it's not really like running the room it's like you've got minimums and if you meet those minimums you're probably yeah absolutely yeah well you know if the vote goes well today we're going to call every country club in penel county and say we're getting married so we'll figure out what the price point looks like currently but uh but no we're going to make sure it's very attractive and you know like you know we we would rather have a bus a busy event space and price it fairly then you know gouge people so um assuming you take over um have you thought about former employees of the former restaurant and how would they have any opportunities to yeah absolutely so it's it's in the 30 page proposal I didn't I didn't go yeah so we will give them the opportunity to apply for roles um you know we do uh we're very specific when it comes to our employees but absolutely everyone will have an opportunity to apply and and and come back be on board if they're you know they fit our culture that's great that's great and that was if I may vice mayor that was what we conveyed to them that they'd have an opportunity to apply but that no guarantees after that yeah and I mean I know that was my understanding but I kind of wanted to kind of I I think it's always you know I can remember back when we transitioned from the police department to the sheriff's department and I I was always happily pleased that one of the number one issues for denan residents was how we tried to handle those those employees that transitioned over didn't mean they were guaranteed but that they had real opportunity absolutely and vice mayor we also have um all the names and contact information on all the employees previous employees that worked in the restaurant business that's great um yeah I don't know if this is good or bad but I don't have a lot of other questions I think you covered a lot of bases um I even showed your designs to Barbara hubard you know who's she's very very good at this kind of stuff as well and and I and I just happen to see her and she's like oh man this is fantastic she thought the whole look was fantastic W oh thank you I I can take zero credit for the way things look you don't want me to design anything yeah yeah but anyway Christina yeah but anyway I I'll make comments in general but I I right now I don't actually have any more questions thank you very much commissioner thank you mayor um I have a question but just wait for it okay um before I begin uh with that question um I just wanted to point out that uh first of all I was liaison to uh the golf club from the commission um during this transition so I've been kept well up to speed also the city manager has kept me very well up to speed on all the all of the details I've asked many many details and they they've all been answered as it's gone along um I also want to say um that uh I certainly know Zach and Christina and and they are my neighbors and and and I know how they've been functioning here within the city and they've been here forever so my expectations are are High um but they're expected because that's what my experience is and that's how I would see them so um I'm very pleased about the fact that you're doing this um and I also wanted to uh say that uh this is this is of course an important thing for us and and I know that your service level is going to be very high especially towards the owners of the club which are all of our residents and and he's acutely aware of that and I know that um and he would know the kinds of questions that I would ask I'm sure and uh so but again most of them have been answered but the one one big question that I have and and of course I have to tell you this um I'm asking for a friend how much might might a familiar beer cost for asking for a friend what's familiar that would be that would be a national brand I and don't ask me for a brand I don't want to say it over the yeah yeah sure I don't know between it depends of draft or bottle but between four and $5 probably yeah that's off happy hour so be be probably you know maybe half that during happy hour thank you I'll tell my friend honestly that's that's all that I I've I've I think I've had everything thank you oh my God you good he's good commissioner gal thank you mayor uh thank you Zach thank you for being here appreciate it just add of curiosity of your staff how many of you all actually closed last night and you're here at 9:00 a.m. this morning very very impressive very very impressive CL wonderful and for any of yall to be here at 9 a.m. is impressive but to close last night and to be here is it says something uh real quickly I know that the rent is 4% of net sales I know behind that there's been some number crunching so we have an idea of what that is um so Vince Blair L if you're here does that cover what we were kind of anticipating expecting as far as rent goes yes okay that's all that's all I needed to hear and and that and that that rent is going right because the the golf club is an Enterprise fund and so that that rent money is going back into the Enterprise fund and so with that with that yes we are talking about we still feel good about that fund being sustainable yes and the you know the the real important thing here to me is that the amount of value that we're getting into one of our facilities um the the the look of of the the modernization of the uh the golf club the dining area um I think that there's a lot of value in the capital projects that we're going to be receiving over the next couple of years and that's really important okay and uh Zach it actually goes well for me that you were you were raised here in especially San Jose it's kind of you gohawks um uh y Falcons well I'm sorry that I'm that goes without saying yes yes I still want to forget about our elementary schools because that's where it all starts um questions that I have Zach I'm when I went through the presentation and I think you kind of heard it from some of us here um and I can't imagine the complexity of trying to figure out that price point on trying to right we we're anticipating you know green fees of hopefully somewhere around 250 or 300 I know we've talked some it it for High season and those people coming in but I know that we also have to match green fees for the residents here and making sure that the golf course is for everybody and I know within that framework of a golf course being for everybody trying to price that must be very challenging and so I do do have some concerns reading everything and then hearing the enthusiasm from you was wonderful but really making sure that you are serious about that price point and making sure that the golf club is for everybody because you are exactly right that that is a destination and it's a destination for everybody it's kind of that going to be that go-to place for nonprofits for civic organizations um New World Kelts and their Scotch tastings and and all that sort of thing and so just make sure that it is that place that a family can just stop in and have a meal as well as the golfers um uh and so I guess that'll just be cognizant of that as as you go through also I know that dedan is very very prideful of our small businesses and we take great pride in saying that especially in our downtown we don't have any corporations coming in we don't have any of brand name chains coming in and I always wonder what happens in a city that is prideful of not having chains but then when the the chains start in that community and not that you are a chain but but I think you understand where I'm going and so at what point do does any one small business that we take pride in all of a sudden goes well wait a minute it you know I'm sure that that first McDonald's everybody said yes we're proud of our McDonald's and now there's some people going oh I don't know why are we so prideful um and so I I have a concern for that I don't know where that line is I don't know what that makeup is and I know that you're not a chain but you're certainly Diversified right between Saunders and living room and and black pearl sure yeah you know there's no secret that Christina and I are ambitious and you know we're in our mid-30s now and want open more things but you know I'd push back a little bit you know we are not the largest food and beverage uh organization in town um in fact there's you know I'm not going to name organizational names but you know there's there's an organization in town that does over $ hundred million in Revenue so you know we're not even close to that um and also we don't want to open up 50 living rooms or 50 you know we want to do things sustainably and and we love projects like this where we get to pour our passion into something so um you know the day that it stops being a familyowned business uh the day that it is you know and all we we got out of corporate America because we were tired of that so um you know that's not the goal of what the fining group is about um so you know I think that I I don't see it being an issue but again you know I can't control other people's opinions but you know for us we take every single um opportunity and uh new brand that we open with the same fervor that as we always have and so um no matter what happens on the ver The Horizon here D will always be our home and this will always be our priority so uh that will not change okay and um thank you for that and I know also one of the things that really makes at least me proud of small chains is not are they small Mom and Pops and those are the those are the businesses that support our our baseball teams our soccer teams our basketball teams and really create Community wealth and when it comes to corporations especially those that are outside the city none of that money that is spent stays in our Community it all goes out and at least with with you all being in done that money stays here so it creates Community wealth but also the benefits that come from a small business is a diversified uh supply chain right so if if one um establishment can't get whatever Source there's other restaurants so kind of Supply chains stabilize that way also the more competition you have uh the more competition you have against inflation sure right if one if one small business starts to jack up their prices the competition kind of reels everybody back in and so there's that mindset again going back to a corporation standpoint that all of a sudden you've got if you want to talk about I don't know refrigerators right they're all made by one manufacturer but they all have different brand names so it gives the perception that there's competition out there but there really isn't right we're all it's it's all going back to the same Corporation and so it goes back to the whole small town small business concept and where are we going as a community and I and I certainly recognize your point that there are other establishments in town I get that and so and it goes so I'm kind of talking to you but I'm using the opportunity to talk to the residents sure to talk to because it helps identify who we are as a community uh so I I do have concerns over that on on cuz I'm going to guess but you use the same vendors for all your establishments as far as Supply goes no actually it depends on the brand so you know we do most I mean I don't list the people but we try to use like small local produce vendors um you know meat all those type of things we do through local local vendors dine does not really have any large um you know food and beverage distributors so but is from penel County mostly Seafood purveyor from St Petersburg but we do use Cisco food service and some of those other larger ones alcohol we have to buy from the big guys cuz Unfortunately they don't let little people distribute that but um you like I said we try to make sure that the money that our customers are paying us for goods and services stays in the community that we operate so it's best that that we can do that and and provide a quality product we will always do that okay okay um and and actually I probably wouldn't be surprised first I want to fully acknowledge my ignorance of the restaurant business and and I don't know it so a lot of these questions are coming from a a place of not knowing sure um and and I'd also uh frame to Guess that most of our restaurants order from the same suppliers anyway yeah yeah like like I said there's not a like a long list to choose from so you know we we we all pick the best ones for our businesses but I'm sure there's a lot of sharing going along downtown and and my my next comments are around your business model and it is not my place to tell any business how to run their business but when you partner with a city and there's a big thought that you will now at that this establishment of the clubhous be the face of the city to that extent that's where so I do apologize for these next questions it's um and I and from my understanding hopefully you are ready for for them um and they aren't and let me know if you think I'm being too intrusive but but I want to talk about your your your wage structure sure and whether or not you classify your staff as employees or contract employees and because I know that your pay structure is unique to D Eden sure and and I'm trying to stay away from the social media blow up we we don't need to go there that was ugly um but but I'm concerned about that and and whether that what reflection that has on dun has on on city government sure so you know I think as as I'm sure all you Commissioners can understand sometimes misinformation happens right and so unfortunately there was a little bit of a misinformation campaign about that but um the like I I talked about our whole company is is derived around the way that we operate and our in our priorities and our number one priority is our employees always in it will always be that no matter what happens and the reason why that is is Christina and I have worked in this industry and so many times the industry the industry marginalizes as employees and so for us we wanted to create a place where everyone can make a living wage and that everyone feels good you know um so as as far as our model no they are not uh 1099 employees actually illegal to have 1099 employees in a retail-based environment so they are W2 employees but they're commissioned employees so we're just talking about servers and bartenders but that would be the same as a real estate agent or a car salesman um so they make they make commission on every check that they sell and if you've never worked in a restaurant before the way that restaurants typically operate is if you give $20 of a tip on a $100 check the server doesn't leave with $20 they take $5 a hand to the Bender they take $2 a hand to the buser they take a dollar a hand to the host they end up leaving with $ 13 or $12 in our model they just get a flat commission that is more than they received beforehand um and it also includes what they uh you know any any changes that we would have that were based off tips it's all calculated into that so they already start off where they would have been on a 20% tip but the magic of the program is we don't limit it to that so if you have a great server which there are many great servers in bartender sitting in this room right now um if they do an excellent job at the table and you know you feel like on that $100 check example you want to give $5 extra uh now that server is leaving with 20% of the revenue which that doesn't happen in our industry I'm proud to say in our organization um the Black Pearl has not lost an employee in over two years I don't mean servers I mean the entire organization that the average turnover for a restaurant is 350% per year so if you have 10 people on staff you'll hire 35 people to keep that restaurant open uh the living room again has very low turnover same thing at at s Social Club um it is unique the way that we do things but it's the right way um I don't know if you know the history of tipping but is not a very good um not a very good history um has to do tie back with slavery and all sorts of unfun things uh so you know when we looked at the the financial landscape and the change of what's happening with wages and so on so forth we're all for higher wages we didn't want to have to charge $55 for a hamburger so we decided to change the model and you know it's people it's not for everybody but we know it's right for our employees um Christina and I do not make more money because of the way we pay people our people make more money because of the way that we pay people so that's the intention um it's something we're very passionate about and you know I speak about this all over uh basically for restaurant organizations to talk about it because it's something that needs to change in the in the industry you know tipping when in what other industry you know it's just Plumbing for example if a plumber comes to your house and fixes your leaky sink but it starts leaking afterward are you going to call the plumbing company to cut their pay because that's what happens in our industry you know our the the industry is you know whatever half of the industry is depended on the generosity of strangers and so unfortunately as prices continue to increase what's the one variable that you can control in a dining experience it's the tip and that's not something that we're okay with so um you know we want our people to get paid we want them to love where they work and and that's that's why we do what we do so um I actually did show Vince one of our profit and loss statements and how everything flows through and I'd be happy to sit down and show you as well we've always been open book with everything but that's basically it in a nutshell okay and so right for the the public that's listening right that you every every receipt has a gratuiti built into it not a gratuiti a service charge service charge corre grity is an optional thing it's not optional so when Christin and I die to the restaurant we pay the service charge okay and so I'm not a lawyer and so I've read enough not even to be dangerous but to remain ignorant um but from my understanding a service fee that money is owned by the company where a gratuity is owned by the employee or group of employees correct or group of employees and so when you say a service fee then that tells me that you own that money and it's only through your generosity that you pass it on to the to the staff well yeah I mean the the reason again why we do it is is to to get rid of the option to leave extra for for the staff you know in a tipping environment right and so yes it is the property of the business but 100% of those funds are distributed the same way they were with tips so and you know our our servers and bartenders get commission based off their sales uh and then our you know support positions so your busers hosts barbacks all get paid at an extremely high hourly rate for the for the industry uh on average we hire cooks barbacks and busers at $7 an hour higher than the restaurants surrounding us okay I think the rest are comments Z thank you sir sure absolutely for being open with that commissioner thank you and uh thank you for the presentation uh um most of my questions have actually been answered there's just a couple more um I uh you know I one of the biggest comments that I've gotten back from the community constituents is the concern for uh higher prices and I I think you've answered that um and I think that's exactly the right approach um the other question is really kind of dovetailing on commissioner gaw's question um and I I certainly appreciate your your candidness your transparency in terms of discussing the service fee Arrangement and all that um and it it sounds to me this is just more clarification but the service fee really kind of factors into the employees commission is what I'm understanding yeah it's where the it's the same thing if you go to a dealership and you pay the dealer fee that doesn't go to the dealer right that goes to the the commissioned employee so it's the same thing so our service charges Go 100% to the front house employees okay yeah yeah great uh and the only other thing I just want to get uh you mentioned discounts for nonprofits you know obviously prior to the uh the closure due to the renovation and everything associated with it um there it was there it was really one of the few venues in town where the rotary clubs could meet and you know everything associated with that you'd mentioned the timeline of talking to the nonprofits uh when what do you what is your kind of General plan for that yeah so depending on the vote today you know number one concern right now is to make sure we can open on time with the club so we've really we've uh contracted with SG design the Batters over um off St Christopher but um you know it's get get the design finalized so we can start the building process but then after that we'll be outreaching to the community groups and so on and so forth yeah yeah good so I guess it's probably give you know a month and a half from from the vote probably something like that good yeah I I think U well having being being a member of a lot of nonprofit that that meet there um I think unequivocally they all they all want to come back and uh I think that's that's going to be an important part of uh of the opening when that occurs absolutely and we're excited to be a part of it so yeah yeah greatly appreciate it uh that's those are all the questions I have thank you okay um I'm trying to think of what my questions are versus comments too so um when do we get to see the layout ask Rich batters no I'm just kidding uh no we have probably in like two weeks or so so they came we actually contracted them before we even you know for the sake of expediency we're okay if that this didn't go through we you know whatever um but we uh have contracted with them they had to do a field measure because there is no active um current plans of the it was renovated in '96 but the plans don't actually reflect there so we had a field measure done and I believe we're meeting with them this upcoming week so uh we should have a four plan my My Hope Is by the end of June um and we will have full renderings and everything uh before we we commence construction so it is on the part of the uh lease agreement that you know we have to give with the city for approval as well before we move forward so okay um so if we can talk about Banquets a little bit uh a lot of people as you know growing up here in Den Eden maybe not in your generation it might have been just in mine sorry to say that but it may have been in your generation too the golf club and Bone appti were the place to have your wedding hands down sure anybody in dun Eden anyway um so wedding business at least over time had been a big thing for um the Golf Club will you be okay with shutting down the restaurant to do that oh absolutely yeah that's we we already do that in our current establishment so yeah that's that's we would prefer to do that if there's a big event going on well even in your current even in your current establishments I mean this is like you you could build a huge banquet business absolutely um so you don't feel that that's going to interrupt your your public restaurant business model no no cuz everything will be designed around you know the size of event and what has to happen to make sure the events can go off without a hitch what we're excited about is the modernization of the space as you I think you use the word old folks home but uh it it it's not a beautiful place currently so we're excited to bring it up to up to par and I think with that alone we'll probably see an upturn in events but actually one of the things that excites us the most is the events there I think my actually my mother's here she she got married there um my my father's celebration of life was there um you name it we've gone to events there so um again near and dear to our heart but absolutely want to have a nice healthy event business there okay and um the S loved your menu um the dinner menu samples you'll still have things like the traditional like steak and that type of thing right sure again all price permitting so yeah we we will have um you know those kind of things versus I mean I know the fish I know the significance of the fish for God forbid I've never I never knew fish and chips was so popular but we uh we do right um but yeah no we we you're still going to have those kinds of things know yeah absolutely and I you know we'll probably have the menu done in my in my opinion probably in early August or so but we'll be happy to share that once it's once it's prepared yeah CU in my mind dinner is just a different level than your sandwich in the afternoon yeah absolutely um I think those are only questions I have okay so I do have final comments and that type of thing all right um okay everybody here isn't coming up to speak to this item are they did you designate one person cuz I mean we could be here for two hours no that that was the intention we just told everyone we were doing this so I think that they're here for support So Okay anybody want to come forward and speak come on down I didn't know I was gon to speak hi I'm Megan crysto I'm Zach executive assistant and I worked for Zach and Christina since August of 2021 and I was not going to speak today I had no intention but just as we were talking and they were presenting and you had questions I just wanted to add to the value of their Community involvement because when I started um we got a lot of donation requests and I kind of handle that and over the past couple years I've noticed something they never say no to me so I just keep giving things away and it's awesome but there's no that just shows you the kind of people that they are and I think that's awesome and over the past three years um cuz yeah I kept track and I did a Google sheet so they have given over $23,000 to local I mean dun Eden cares keep pel's beautiful San Jose Elementary the VFW the Knights of Columbus Bay care nurses teachers um I just think that's awesome and if they get you know having this club I think they'll continue to do that and I'm proud of working for people that give back to their community so I just wanted to add that will not stop thank you thank you anyone else okay uh I need a motion so mve second okay vice mayor frainy and commissioner Walker vice mayor uh yeah so um well um I just a little history um as things kind started to change with the golf club you know it's tough for all of us to be up here representing taxpayers and to look at you know what should we do how how should we invest in this golf course you know certainly people say what the heck are you doing up there putting you know tax dollars into a golf course we got a lot of other needs of which we absolutely do but I think as you look at what the history of what this golf course is um as a you know a 1927 Donald Ross golf course and you think about well what else would you do with it first of all it's it's not even allowed to be uh developed but would we develop it we got plenty of development going on and people are over you know one of the comments we always get is about don't we don't want overdevelopment in Eden but uh but it's preserved land anyway so should we make it all Green Space where there's no Revenue at all Vince told me right up right up front too expensive to keep it as Green Space without any Revenue coming in and uh and it's the Hub of one of our biggest subdivisions and so and it's a jewel it's a jewel in our city historic jeel we we value history in denen and so you you you move to a place where okay you know we need to just we just need to help communicate to Citizens that this is important we need to invest in this we need to plant a seed and hope it takes off and and it can make it it can be self- sustaining and and make its own way and at the same time preserve our history so I guess my point in that as we did that and now we've come to a place where it is being renovated as the course and it is all about golf but a huge piece of that of course is the restaurant and the bar and um and people have accepted well that's got to wait and so you plant the seed you go to bid and that didn't work out and then you start talking to community members and as I have found in my 40 years in denen somebody steps up somebody who loves denen steps up and that's Zach and Christina this time they have stepped up because they love their community and it shows it shows in every part of this presentation your excitement little side my nephew is going to be excited because he love he lives in Atlanta but he loves sa Club so he'll think this is amazing to be able to get cocktails at the down and Ross course um so I am very excited about your comments about the menu and the pricing I'm very excited about your commitment to our nonprofits uh very important your comments to about you know giving that that fair opportunity to former employees um I I guess I want to thank you I know that first and foremost obviously I'm voting yes but I want to thank you because I know this is a business proposal but it looks and feels like so much more I can feel it um I feel your commitment your appren commodity which for all of us is we are so thankful to have somebody we know can really do it but then to have the denan passion built into it uh again your excitement shows your passion and love for denen shows it shows in the logo it shows in the plans it shows in the Plaid um so um and I think our residents can to be really excited about it too which makes me proud that we started a seed up here and we've gotten to where we've gotten and so I uh and I I hope uh I will say I will plant this seed in 2027 we have got to have the biggest and best 100-year birthday party for that club that anybody's ever seen so and you guys will be at the Hub of that so I I obviously I strongly support this and I'm just thrilled to where it's gotten to I certainly want to thank staff for all the hard work because I know Jennifer didn't sleep Vince didn't sleep you know none of you slept Blair didn't sleep a lot of days worrying about how is this all going to possibly come together and it still has to come together there's a lot of work to be done done right but um I just um I'm I'm very excited about this and I believe you can do it I've seen you do successful operations but to have the heart and soul that you bring to this is priceless thank you commissioner Walker yes thanks uh the golf course you know I I say this to a lot of people and I'm not the only one that says this um the golf course is just one of the jewels in the crown and I will say that uh when we embarked upon this plan to renovate the course and to bring in a food and beverage organization um you know I I totally applauded the effort I I applaud the effort um this checked a lot of blocks for me uh first and foremost it it was important to for not only me but the constituents that we represent that are Den need in small business be be part of this and I think that that that one block two you have definitely conveyed the enthusiasm and your enthusiasm is genuine in the fact that you have also provided proof of your commitment through your willingness to invest in the clubhouse which is absolutely needed and for me for constituents I will say that the um that proof of commitment shows what a great partnership this will be and uh I'm I'm excited by the uh by the concept of the of the clubhouse renovation and uh anyway I uh the other thing I would just mention is is that um I as a as a veteran and also as the city lison for Den need and cares um your uh your philanthropic um commitment it really preceded you and speaks for itself so I have absolutely no doubt that U your your involvement with the golf course course is going to significantly enhance that so just want to thank you for a great proposal and uh really looking forward to November thank you yeah sorry commissioner G I couldn't remember who already already spoke s right uh very very excited about this proposal and I certainly do support it um it's interesting that just when me when we started this whole thing Vince it was all about the course I was like almost said well we need to do do something with the clubhouse we thought oh okay let's just deal with bathrooms and we'll figure it out later and now look where we are you know and it's just it it's amazing because you can't just do bathrooms and leave it so it's just wonderful it's really important that um somebody from the community is is taking over that event space uh somebody who gets us as a community and understands and you might get somebody something different from somebody that's outside that doesn't understand us doesn't understand uh the passion we have for our nonprofits and our Civic organizations and so thank you thank you both for for at least understanding and getting us um I I I do have reservations I'll be honest with you and that's just um from the from the public and certainly since the pandemic and and it goes to uh the whole tipping concept and just as a nation I think there are a lot of people just exhausted over tipping and now it's who do I tip how not it's not how do you tip CU it's right there in front of you it's all electronic now um but people that we weren't tipping before are now asking for a tip and there is such a psychological mindset behind that and knowing that if you put it in front of the customer there's all this guilt if I don't tip so I think there's a lot of over tipping that that happens and with that is is basically tipping has a has a horrific history right that that you uh leaned on um and I am preaching a little bit and I'm and I'm sorry about that but it's an opportunity to talk about the subject um that basically tipping is subsidizing a restaurant so what is the real cost of that hamburger that meal in front of you and I don't know how many of you guys have ever watched what a restaurant impossible or whatever it was when Robert big muscle guy would come in and yell at the owner of the restaurant and what a crappy job he was doing and and had to redo his whole whole menu and it was important for at that point in that show to talk about price points and what's the value of that to make sure that that owner knows the cost of that meal and so be able to pass that on to be able to make a profit for the and and so there's a lot of passing things on to the customer and it's always up to the customer to be aware and make that decision we said that on the corporate level all the time that when it comes to the amount of plastic we use and it's like well we'll push it on to the customer and make them figure it out so nobody really wants to take responsibility for that as an owner of a business or or that so just please be sensitive to your staff because there's I know that it's like 13 states have done away with with tipping um so there is a wave I have no idea how big a wave that is it could be a ripple and those 13 states can go back I don't know but I do know that as a general the public is exhausted over tipping um uh there's a thing called partitioning right where you don't it's not the cost upfront in your face it's all those service levels uh Administration fees transaction fees right when you buy a concert ticket and you have all these add-ons that the customer doesn't know at least the first time doesn't know what the price of that ticket is and all a sudden you get to the end and that ticket price is now doubled and tripled because of all those Administration fees um and the fact that you charge an administration fee but then then but you leave room for oh but if you like that server you can also add add a gratuity and so now it's like now it's 25% or 30% of your overall it's like at what point do we need to just tell me the cost of your burger and I'll pay it um type of mindset but there's again it goes back to the psychology and the marketing right the instead of increasing the price of raisin brand they just skinny up the box so you're getting less ounces say price so the customer goes yay they did raise prices but they really did they just shortened it up um but that being said please protect your staff apparently they love you they wouldn't be here they closed last night they came here this morning and and that really does speak volumes to who you are as a business owner so thank you for that especially for a business in dun Eden um so just please continue to take care of them uh but I do support this project so thank you very much commissioner thank you mayor in uh 1991 my wife and I took a video of the den Eden golf course and that was put in a game called by by a company called micro pros and put into a game called greens and that was distributed throughout Europe particularly because of its his historical value as well as the Donald Ross course which is really well known to Golfers even in Europe um and having lived in Europe I I'm always cognizant of names so Feinstein so we have now we have a fine stone at the Highland House at the denen golf club so I think that's just the the fine stone at the Highland House is just really a cool thing for me to think about so and I like to name Highland uh house so I think that's just wonderful the really important thing to me and I want to State this and you've already covered this um as we all may know um approximately 70% of the revenue from the bar in the in in the grill or the bar in the restaurant previously was from non-members of the gulf club and so you're addressing that and we have a lot of that and those non-members are the owners uh of of the of the clubhouse and so I I appreciate you having an awareness of that having the awareness of of the of the price considerations for that um I would just like to make the comment that we have a surrounding group around the club in a in in a in in a uh a community that's expanded it it it even touches into other communities now that spend their time there and they and they love it and they've loved it in the past and you you're making access to that and I applaud that um you have been and I have been to a number of of showers people say What's it I'm talking about a baby shower and a wedding shower and I'm talking about a celebration of life and I've been to some most incredible celebrations of life in that facility and most all of those were from our residents so please be as as cognizant of what you can you're you're based on the service um and that's your quality of your service you and and you you really respect that and you talk about that so please just make sure that we give our local individuals a special nod if you can I'm not asking for any special thing for them but just to be cognizant of them I'm not talking about the the the golf course itself I'm talking just about just to you about this at this point in time but I know that you're going to appreciate that you're at Den need night so um I just wanted to make that comment I'm delighted in the presentation uh if I have any questions I I know that you'll answer them uh I'll probably be talking to the city manager about most of that so I won't come directly to you about that um but I'm very comfortable and uh and confident in and what this transaction is going to give us thank you and and whatever everybody else said so I don't have to say it again thank you thank you commissioner so when I think about um when we first started talking to the club about taking over and the process we wanted to go through and the whole thing and and all the steps we were taking to listen to the concerns of the board of DOR c s and over there and all of that and we talked about doing the Donald Ross course and updating it to the best of our ability I knew from the very beginning and I've been very consistent that if we were going to do a grand opening we needed to have both elements completed we needed to have a full Remodel and we need on both ends or we would lose the hype we would lose the passion um and I'm just very proud of our team who listened to that so thank you for that that that's just a personal statement on my part um one of the things I also said was that it would have to be somebody local that had multiple Brands I knew that because of the economies of scale there's so many this is not just opening up a restaurant yeah you're going to have to close your restaurant for a banquet most restaurants don't have that in their business model unless they have a banquet room right so you know it's not the same um there's slow times during the summer that you might have to move your employees around a little bit you know so you can still keep them working Golf Club doesn't have that option um there's just so many you're serving a hot dog and you're going to be serving a steak in a craft cocktail there are economies of scale you need multiple locations to be able to have diverse food types in order to be able to price point your things not that I hot dog was probably a bad thing because I don't think you have a hot dog anywhere but you know what I'm getting at so I I in my head when I was thinking about it I was I was already thinking about the local folks who have a a group brand a multiple brand um you all being one of them we all know the rest of them we've got the Frenchies group the CRA Krabby bills group we've got the Bay Star group you know um we've got any number of them and we're proud to have them all here um so I'm very excited uh that you took this on more excited that you're a falcon it's a big deal because there is a passion behind it like I just said while I have beating you considerably in age um there we have a lot of people that would here for a long time and understand the Traditions that are there and you have institutional knowledge of that and that's pretty important because we're we're putting you we're we're putting ourselves in your hands not just blares you know cuz it goes hand in hand so I'm very excited about that uh just looking at my notes cuz I didn't really have a lot of them um I can't wait to see the layout I'm like chomping at the bit for that um and I'm proud that your people showed up today really I am um cuz that say it makes a very large statement um and I have been to your Wesley Chapel location as you know cuz I texted you when I got there I like our location better but that's a prime location so you're getting experience in a lot of different facets you know being in a town center and then being in town right anyway I'm going to move on because I know everybody wants to get out of here but um I am very excited about this um this relationship I'm very excited for the two of you take us out of it cuz this is you you didn't just pick something different you picked something like polar opposite of what you do and I don't know that everybody mentions that you know understands that um but I think it's really important I think everybody the rotary and dco and everybody is going to be really relieved that they can come back and have their breakfast and that you're going to take care of them right okay cuz I mean that was such a big thing um welcome to the family okay let's do a roll call vote commissioner gal hi commissioner TGA hi commissioner Walker hi vice mayor FY I mayor bajowski I and that motion passes unanimously yay all right we're going to take a picture come on you guys can come up too come on up we're going to take a picture and then we're going to take a break come on you got to come up to the wall you got yep that's okay [Music] oh yeah yeah get them in I mean we might need to go down there tiptoes do you want us to come down there let's go down there cuz I think we're just we'd have to stand on a I stay right here all [Music] everybody here 3 two one everybody Che now I can [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] yeah are you I'm Z's mom I figured [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome back everybody um so we're at 20 till 12 our time ends at 12:30 um and we have any number of things on our agenda Jennifer is there anything on here that is not time sensitive library is our budget discussion time sensitive I'm just looking for things that you know I mean I think everybody's willing to stay but mayor we can do oh uh the line item budget for this can I don't know postpone that yes we can yes so that's a work workshop item so we can postpone that okay and that's related to the travel one though somehow okay so the travel one is the city manager update the line out on budget for the city commission does include um travel so I mean I'm fine discussing it all I'm just saying we're going to be here for a while mhm and probably until 1:30 I don't know what everybody's schedule is I have a 1:00 interview with a yeah so I'm just saying what can we here it's here though so I can go right to one um we can do the line budget and the travel on Thursday because we have second readings and let's do that can we Mo can we is there anything else we can push off till Thursday just looking through here sorry that's the cfer but but our consultant is here we cannot push it back yes okay and that shouldn't take long um so if we do mayor in commission if we do the workshop item uh line item budget discussion and I had a city manager update and we maybe we do those together on Thursday would that be okay that would be fine okay is that okay with everybody all right so we'll shoot trying to get out of here at 1 yes for everybody everybody schedule's okay with that Okie do there we go um so welcome back I I do have something I wanted to just take a point of personal privilege to say that I didn't say in front of the whole group because I thought I might cry um cuz you know I have a tendency to do that and it's embarrassing and hopefully I won't do it now but you know Jennifer and I have a very close relationship and I know that I'm on the way out the door in November but to today for me was one of those handful of events that I reme I will remember for the rest of my life um you know everything has different importance to everybody but I want to just say a special thank you to Jennifer well she may not have been involved in in everything I mentioned she was involved in most and um nobody ever thought we could get the Jolly Trolley done including our business organizations and we did and she's working on making it better um no one thought that we would come up with the deal that we did for the Blue Jays and she brought it home for us no one thought we could try to solve the paid parking issue and she came in and did that and no one thought that we could do this project in the way we could do it along with several others that we're still waiting to vote on so um take care of this lady because foret GDP yeah the glattus Douglas project I'm sorry that was in my head mhm um no one thought we could preserve all of that ACD solely um and we did so I'm just saying to my colleagues take care of her CU she's a gem and she pulled today off too so thank you thank you mayor very kind of you all right we'll move on to uh I think this is the next thing consultant CCNA agreement service authorization with tool designed for Land Development code update project with an amount not to exceed $374 74 and5 really um go mayor vice mayor thank you this is it's going to be hard to follow that that that presentation and and uh those comments but we'll do our best be with an exciting topic I know to you all the Land Development code rewrite um so as the commission knows this has been in the business plan for some time now we took our time uh looking for a consultant that we thought would best provide uh the service that we think we need to get this Land Development code to to be more modern to be more user friendly um and we finally landed on uh the Consultants that I will let our project manager introduce in one second but I just want to remind the commission this is a multi-prong approach uh the first approach is uh the first part of the approach is to review and address immediate needs uh and then EST establish a plan to structurally organize the Land Development code uh the second piece of this is is the rewrite if you will and as the commission know there's a lot of good pieces in that Land Development code they just really need to be organized and coordinated to a certain extent but we do have a lot of great Concepts and cuttingedge uh uh language in there that talks about how this city should develop over time and and consistent with our comprehensive plan so the second part will really be uh bringing in some of the new Concepts but also um providing an emphasis on eliminating conflicting language reducing verbiage as you know it's a very long document at the moment uh we want to streamline it from a procedural standpoint uh and certainly Graphics we want to include graphics and we want to include to a certain extent some uh intelligence into this system and we think we've done that with this consultant they'll provide be providing us not only with the with the leg work to to uh work through the code Provisions but they're also providing us with a new platform to present it in the end it will be called encode plus and if you have questions about that our Consultants are here to talk about that a little bit but just a little bit on some of what we think this will bring to us at the end uh including what we're calling an archive manager uh which will be which will automatically archive and provide historic versions of code sections calculators so we'll have Landscaping uh and dimensional standard calculators for people to automatically plug into an electronic system to get that feedback on their property all those things they need what's required what's not required um they're also talking about about a Cloud Library uh an interactive easy to use tools to engage citizens and support enhanced Communications through constant feedback uh a definition Library uh a project website obviously uh and also a zoning Navigator so these are some things that we think will be kind of Cutting Edge um um but we'll kind of take our existing code uh and and bring it into something that's really extremely user friendly which is the goal for us so with that I'm going to turn it over to our project manager Kathy she's going to introduce the the Consulting team and then if you have any questions after that of course we're going to be happy to answer them thank you mayor vice mayor commissioner city manager Kathy gmer project manager for this project in the Community Development Department um we're hoping to have zoom up on the they're there thank you um we took our time and we found three great Consultants that we'll be working with um they're all experts in Land Development code updates as well as George was saying um on software on the software aspect side of it um Andrea asraa comes from Tool design company out of Orlando she's the office director there um Brett Kei from kending Kei collaborative um they're very first in Land Development code and they're um um also versed in the new enco plus that Jorge was speaking about uh Brett keis is also one of the owners of keny Kei collaborative and beside me is Stephanie McQueen and she is with HDR um she's more of our local local senior Planner on this project so um I'm here for any questions and we have the team online as well as Stephanie is here and George and I would be happy to answer any questions uh vice mayor um well I mean my biggest question is um um when you as consultants I don't know who wants to take this you know who who's going to be the lead how's that going to work and how do we have faith that you care about this project and you're going to bring it home with uh a certain amount of ownership and good expertise so uh right now we um Andrea from Tool design is the lead on the project she's our main consultant um we are all working together as a team and I will let Andrea and um Brett and Stephanie answer the remaining questions so actually I was hoping to hear Andrea answer that question if she's the lead I want to look you in the eye and know you're going to be working hard for dened and hear it in your own words of course can you hear me yes okay wonderful wonderful um hello members of the commission I'm Andrea ostroda with tool Design Group um we have a a long history of working throughout the State of Florida we love dun Eden we have been really passionate about this project and working with Kenda keist and HDR for a long time in collaboration with you this is truly a team effort we the Consultants have been working as a team with City staff um to really craft a scope and approach to this project that is customized to Dun Eden um based on your history based on you the opportunities and the challenges that you've identified and based on um a long series of months of conversation about this um we're going to be having regular internal meetings as well as coordination meetings with staff and we'll be reporting to you uh status updates as frequently as you would like um one one other question so when you look at this and you look at rewriting and making it um I call it the kindergarten word you know kindergarten is second grade language and making sense and and just being easier for people to read there's that piece of it how much how much of a piece do you see as rewriting or adding things that are important to community versus just rewriting yeah yeah I'll jump in on that um well as was mentioned it's it's a lengthy document today so we will be looking for every opportunity to try to be more concise without compromising uh the Integrity of the of the document um but we also write in plain English so we don't use legal ease uh we try to use a hierarchy so that we don't use a lot of long narrative we try to break things down into an outline type of format uh use a lot of Graphics to help illustrate the regulations that may be difficult to interpret just in the written word um so there will be Graphics that are integrated through this and then also what was mentioned was encode plus and this uh software platform was basically developed for that purpose was to make this an easy document to to use and interpret um we don't yet know how much um rewriting there will be as opposed to utilizing current text and maybe doing some reorganization and cleanup until we get into the real diagnostic phase um and at that point we'll have a report to you that U we will present that will lay out our strategy and um what the outline of the document will be okay great I mean I think um not a good terminology but it's not a sexy project but is a very critical project and as someone who likes to understand pictures kindergart Garden verbage things that people really know and can relate to uh is great so lot of pressure on you all but I'm have faith and now that I'm looking you both in the eye that you'll do a good job thank you I don't have any more questions right now commissioner thank you mayor um I'd like to just ask a couple just basic questions how many how many times have you done this either now I realized there's three different groups here but how many times have you done this for other municipalities and and and done it together in municipalities so maybe I can thank you I can start um I am here in the Tampa HDR office and Brett and I have actually worked together on projects in Texas so that's we met many many years ago I've have the local experience I've worked on several projects for the city of Denine here including the Denine Causeway form base code years ago um working with Bob iron Smith on a few smaller projects like besid walk Cafe regulations and some other things over the last 15 to 18 years or so um so I kind of bring the experience of the local jurisdiction here in Tampa Bay and Brett and I have the experience working together um in in Texas on Land Development codes and comprehensive plan updates and a series of um CommunityWide planning studies that in in involve Land Development codes Andrea's firm um and H y uh we worked a lot in the Orlando metro area on Mobility projects and a lot of um non LDC projects but that are all planning related so we've kind of all worked together individually but never as a as a group uh project if you will but I think this is a this is a really um great project for us to start with and see if we can kind of build a a team going because we all have a lot of strengths again I'm my role on the project and hdr's role is really going to be that local expert doing the Outreach Communications public involvement um and then working with the team and bringing in their experti as they need so um Brett maybe you can talk about your overall experience because he he's basically a national expert that we brought in here yeah Kendy key started in 1982 and we have been doing development codes across the country since that time um we we' done over 250 projects uh Land Development code projects for cities and counties in 42 States across the country so we ordinarily have anywhere from 12 to 15 of these projects that are underway at any at any one time so we are super excited to to team with ch Design Group and HDR uh to work in your community um there will be a lot of on the ground work um there'll be a lot of opportunities for us to uh meet and get to know each of the council members um and the planning agency folks as well as staff and then getting our fingers out into the community Through public involvement efforts to really ground ourselves uh to get an understanding of of uh what will work best for denen thank you uh which uh for each one of you what what is your expertise that we would consider strong for Den Eden and really in like just a sentence I I have 17 or 18 questions I'm only going to ask three more great yes um my my background is in land use planning but I have done more Transportation Planning and I have a really strong background in public engagement and Outreach and specific to the Tampa Bay area I focus in land use and transportation planning as well particularly with Coastal communities I've been riding zoning development ordinances for my 35y year career I worked in the city of OA Kansas when we went from 45 to 75,000 population over a 5year period uh so worked in uh many many uh different environments Coastal as well as buildout communities um and fast growing communities so done a lot of this work thank you so um I'm going to use the word AI but I'm not going to get hung up on that I am not hung up up on that I'm going to use it as a way to eliminate uh eliminate some of my questions is this something is is as simple as make having something be able to make this clear because it is it is for me it's difficult when I go when I go through some of it I have no idea how bad it is for other folks but I've heard I've heard some people have some issues with that is it is it as simple as cleaning some of this up let me let me strike the word AI is this as simple as is not simple but it is this the would the goal then just be satisfactory to clean all of this up and say what we mean and mean what we say and and understand what it is that we said is it that s is that that that will certainly be part of it um trying to trying to shorten it where we can um we want to streamline the process and sometimes in order to stre line it takes more words rather than fewer because we want to spell out clearly in black and white what's required so anybody that reads it knows uh what they need to submit to gain approval um so we try to be as uh clear as we possibly can and put things in in the code uh so there's you know not a lot of um extra discretion of not knowing what you know they may be in for when they come into the uh development process so um yeah I mean it's development codes can be very challenging um depending on how sophisticated they are but to the extent that we can grammatically simplify we can remove text that's really not uh necessary uh we canate process if we can consolidate um we can make it more readable so in the end in the end what we'll have isn't updated according to any any particular laws that might affect us um and we'll have a continuity within our own system that with with no with no defects and hopefully with no redundancy or or or conflicts principally that is correct yes principally thank you wow sorry about so many questions okay commissioner gal thank you mayor um George Kathy uh this was originally budgeted uh in 23 24 and 25 uh so we're maybe a year behind carry forward uh but so what is the anticipated start time and end time on this well so once you award uh this agreement we would anticipate starting pretty much immediately um we initially anticipated a three-year time frame to complete this project in the in the business plan initiative that was submitted in FY 23 uh our Consultants are telling us through this agreement that that might be condensed uh to maybe a two-year program um so um we you know like I said we anticipate starting immediately and count on in probably at least two years before we bring it to fruition so if it could be done by November 1 of 2026 that would be wonder I got you now yeah wonderful I was hoping 20 November 2024 there we go yes well yes but given it's a two-year project and we're in 24 just say I'm what happened to June 2026 it could have been but I'm trying to be pragmatic and realistic and so just I'm just shooting for the end of my term that that's all um how many how many times I know you've got a list of community touch points on when you're going to reach out to some groups and this how many times do you anticipate uh it coming before the commission for just an update on what's going on well I I can tell you we welcome any opportunity to to be with you that we can um it's our interest that we want to make sure that we are proceeding uh in accordance with the commission's um vision and goal so we have arranged for um meetings up front where we're meeting with uh stakeholders uh some of that could certainly be some of the commission members we do have a a midpoint briefing with you uh then we have also um public hearings at the end of the process um but we would love to have you know workshops when we are in town so that we can be um explaining where we are uh the topics we're struggling with or we're debating uh getting input and guidance from you as we are are drafting at the end of the day we want this to be a document that everybody agrees with it won't be perfect not everybody will agree with every piece of it um but we will work this through the process and get consensus from all the different all the different groups um so I would say at a minimum we'll probably be in front of the commission at least four times and more if we can thank you for that um certainly I think I I'll speak for myself but I think it's the entire commission the last thing we want to do is slow down the project but this is has potential to be a huge huge project and by that I'm talking about the impact it can have on our community so kind of the more times we have an opportunity to put eyes on it to make Minor Adjustments instead of waiting until the end and go oh let's start over type of thing uh that's all by the way I I very much agree with that statement um I do have comments but that's my my questions thank you commissioner Walker thank you mayor um yeah so my questions are are related to scope because the the first optic on this is this is the scope of this is huge and um to drill into a couple of things um one I know that uh basically the public meetings public hearings are to build consensus and the or at least provide informational uh awareness so that you can get the right feedback um the first bullet says stakeholder groups and I'd look at that I'm going that's that's that's a big group so can you just characterize briefly in on terms of how you're identifying a stakeholder and two an example of who stakeholders would be related to this well I can say that the Land Development code is a little bit different than many projects if it's a planning project it really applies to everybody across the community and everybody has a common interest in that Land Development codes tend to be uh you know more interest to those that are you know part of facilitating development many of the citizens may never have the opportunity or the need to ever crack open the LDC um so stakeholders tend to be those who have you know direct interests we will often work with all the land owners uh developers uh anybody that is a design professional Architects Engineers planners um site selectors um Realtors Brokers you know people that are in the industry certainly we don't want to leave anybody out so we have arranged for focus groups and that could bring in you know neighborhood associations or different interest groups uh folks in downtown and and other specific corridors and what have you so we try to provide opportunities for broad uh participation of anybody we're not uh locking out anybody everybody's uh open to participate in this process all the meetings will be open public meetings so we invite everybody to come the stakeholders we really want to drill down into a lot of the technical details and we'll work with them as we're drafting to vet some of these things to make sure that they're uh they're doable and to tap into their institutional knowledge um so it will be a CommunityWide effort but you will see that probably most of the people that are engaged in this will be um those who are involved with development okay uh and that that makes sense um and this one's for staff in terms of uh providing direction to the consultants and at least providing them a starting point Point um I'm assuming that we have a list of things that we want them to do I'm sure that was part of the RFP but uh can you Briefly summarize that yeah absolutely commissioner that is uh so for the last two years we have been keeping an internal list on our hard drive of some of the things that we've heard from the public from an inconsistency standpoint also some of the things that we've had trouble ourselves as a staff kind of reconciling so uh we do have that list which has been compiled over time uh we also have as you uh I don't know if you were here when the ordinance Review Committee presented its final uh presentation on the Land Development code but we also have a list that was generated out of that process uh for incorporation into this as well so we we have been keeping kind of multiple lists the Consultants already have those and are starting to pour through those uh they're obviously also pouring through some of our Corridor planning efforts uh to to kind of bring some of that together as well okay good good I yeah because obviously um you know in my my short time on the commission I will say that the comments I've gotten back um I I think you know it's important that that feedback get Incorporated in this process at the front end um Vice later in the process so it's good if you're collecting that data and and making sure that it provides a focus effort um and then the other question I have have is um just in terms of the the the project management um is there a a project schedule or detailed timeline of how the project will progress we will be putting together a a detailed project schedule as part of our kickoff meetings that will show uh the weeks of all the deliverables um we'll give ample time for staff to to review those it will also show all the proposed meeting dates um throughout the life of the project um so we'll have a very detailed schedule uh it will be updated periodically if we need to um adapt to any local events or any other uh you know additional time that may be needed for for review um so we'll be churning that out here probably within the next two or three weeks okay that great kick off uh your your your your your uh music to my ears um last question related to the project management um how is it that you identify assess and mitigate any risk associated with this well initially we'll be working very closely with staff um to identify you know any historical um issues that have risen uh particular Properties or particular regulations um we very closely manage all of our public input uh opportunities to make sure that they're structured properly so that they are uh effective and objective and we don't get um you know any sot boxing if if you will um make sure that we're reaching out to anybody who has had uh concerns or or problems with the regulations beforehand and just very closely managing this working with uh Stephanie and Andrea um to make sure that we're accounting for you know anything and everything I will say that I've been doing this for 35 years uh I've learned along the way uh there are some tricks to the trade in terms of how you structure meetings and uh really keeping your uh keeping a pulse on the on the community to make sure that we're getting out in front of any issues that may arise and we're meeting with whoever we need to meet with to to resolve them if I could add really quickly commissioner to you know this is as you know a Land Development code is a highly Technical and legal document so we will be leaning I'm looking over here to our City attorney so we will be leaning heavily on on their advice and review as part of this process as well yeah good I appreciate that I this is more of a comment related to that line of questioning um yeah obviously when we get to the public hearing piece of it um the the the management of that is going to be you know as well we all know and you know just to make sure that we are receiving and acting upon any feedback in a in a realtime manner as it as it is relevant to what we're trying to achieve so anyway thank you that's all I've got thank you um so welcome thank you thank you guys for the hard work putting this together um I think I'm reiterating some things other people have already said but George are we just all we're doing is reorganizing this and making it more readable it it it's a little bit of both mayor so we're reorganizing the good content uh we're looking to uh minimize maybe some redundancies if they're there uh but we're also looking to incorporate some of the new legislation some of the things that came out of the ordinance Review Committee and and the like okay so couple of things then when you talk about the stakeholder meetings I'm afraid of something here I'm afraid if we go out and do these open houses and go out to the community and say we're redoing Our Land Development code the the they think we're changing our protections when really what we're doing is just completely reorganizing it and and they wouldn't understand just how complicated a document it is because it's not like when 10 years ago we added um trying to think of the name of that type of code form Bas yeah thank you when we add a form base because that's a completely different thing so I'm just worried about how we go about so I'm just expressing this I'm not asking you to try to micromanage it but all these stakeholder meetings from an organization perspective to me it's like okay people who have used our system to do a fence permit people who are actually building something people who are trying to get a permit on whatever that's the stakeholders I mean and I'm not saying don't include the community I just don't want people to think what we're doing here is something different than what it is Mayor can I tag to that yes sir because I I had the same it was when I asked that first question about how much is this reorganizing and rewriting versus doing new I that same fear of yeah are we going to open the door to all these things that people maybe don't like nuances of and all of a sudden we're Rel legislating everything and Ed so again I think it's about setting the boundaries of what it is and what it isn't so I appreciate you brought that up clearly so I was the first thing I thought when I read through this to be honest was that because ever since I've lived here and that has been 53 years and we see it as you know every year or other year or whatever with our um resident survey over development is a concern and so there's a a huge sensitivity to it and I think we have to you know I think we have to be extremely careful and how we go about this what our stakeholders are I'm not saying we don't want to hear from everybody but that's not the purpose of this project cuz if we were going to go out to the community and that was the purpose of a project it would certainly look a lot different than this this is a operation process if you will not a policy process that's very well said Mary I think uh so I I just want to be clear that that's I want to make sure we are all on the same page we're talking the same language we all have the understanding we are not on the same page right and that's why I'm bringing it up it's a huge concern to me um because you know whenever anybody says Land Development code update and I've been through many you've watched many and been through some yeah you know I just want to make sure because when we've done that of course when we've really look it's called visioning and we have bring everybody together and it is not sorry sorry no no I'm sorry it's not sorry bringing in you guys who do a rework and a reorganize and help us do what we don't have time to do right um it is visioning it is talking about what we like and don't like in our community and then we bring in someone like you to create the code to match what they said that's not what this is at least that's not what when I read through it correct right that's correct yeah and as the commission knows what drives density in pellis county is the land use and the countywide land use planning consistently with the countywide land use plan we are not touching that at all this is not part of that effort um this is akin to I think you said it very well this is not a policy operation this is more of an or organizational it's an operations operations it's an operation project versus a policy project right but but there are some things on the list for example during the course of the budget Workshop you talk about the sustainability Matrix and those types of things that that need to be updated moving forward so no and I do think but is that is that a reason to have your the entire Community Town Hall over it you know what I'm saying I just want to be clear because we know exactly how this can grow as a concern within the community because overdevelopment is an extremely large concern we're all concerned about it you know and I I just don't I don't want D I want to make sure I know what the expectations are and what this is really about um um now having said that when I look at the list there any number of things that were recommended in red when I went through the contract there was a lot of red by the way but you would see recommended so I tried to go to the the final list or had the cost by item I don't know what page that is but um and there's a couple of things that I wanted to ask about are we including the neighborhood Corridor and District evaluation actually it's not included yet that's why it's shown in red um but of course there's the opportunity for well there was a whole bunch of red then yeah so since this is a multi-year process what we suggested and you know as we were having conversations with the consultant the idea was we know we've got a number that we want to meet but if there is a way to make this document better um could you could you look at some options that we could consider if we move through another budget cycle and want to make that pitch and it's something that's acceptable to the commission so what you're seeing is options that could come but are not included in the original scope anything in red is not included in the scope that you're seeing before you well that's scary half the documents in red what I'm ere exaggerating I'm just messing with you um except I'd like to understand what what is that neighborhood Corridor and District evaluation and and I mean what is it and do we want it now I I don't know you know I'm trying to see what we didn't include it was a bunch of areas recommended and I just want to understand them I'm going to let Brett answer this if you could because I don't actually have the hard copy in front of me um on what is read or not so Brett could you go through that one in particular yeah um if I might when we were working was staff back and forth through the scope we had the same understanding that was presented um I think maybe the more appropriate time to consider these would be after we complete our work on the diagnostic uh at that point we will have spent uh time on the ground we will have gone through all of the uh City's planning documents and Corridor studies we will have met with stakeholders and focus groups and spent a lot of time with staff I think at that point we'll have a much better feel for are there certain corridors or certain uh districts neighborhoods in the community that could really uh stand some additional attention um where maybe the standards you know aren't really going to deliver what the expectations are whether that's infill development or Redevelopment or impacts on neighborhoods um whether it's rethinking how certain uh standards are written along corridors whether it's functional or aesthetic so we will have a good feel after we get through that diagnostic phase to to present that to you and say uh we think there is warrant for some of these additional tasks whether it's um sooner or later okay diagnostic phase how long does that take uh we'll probably be at the you know kick off and through the Diagnostics probably in the first uh three or four months okay um also just um something else to clarify your other point about the Outreach and engagement is one of the early tasks during the code Diagnostics process is establishing that Outreach plan so learning from you guys and learning from staff what that messaging to public should be and having those specific timelines of when we would reach out to the public and stakeholder groups and work through that very very early on in the process is the message messaging just this is an update or to kind of the form and um how it's presented or is this an update that's more substantial and we will work through that very very clearly as part of that Outreach plan um one of the first tasks that we'll do okay so what another recommended op option was meeting with Architectural Review Board of adjustment appeal committee on Environmental Quality historic preservation is that part of this so it it's an option so it's not part of it but what is part of it is uh the work with the local planning agency which we think uh and and which again are open public meetings and we would certainly have at least the chairs of each of those committees in attendance at any public meeting that they wanted to come to it's just not a deliberate presentation directly to that group but then you wouldn't get the the whole committee's feedback on it it so we um and I'm not sure how it works with Sunshine again they would be open public meetings we would be taking feedback as part of those group meetings I just not sure how that works as far as the logistics on Sunshine laws all all right I'm just a little concerned because I think I think that's something that would be pretty important and that that's certainly something they hear a lot of complaints from people is what I'm trying to say you know they're not looking to change the code they're looking to how do we make it more readable so I am quite sure that they these groups hear complaints and we can certainly C that out M if that's the direction um open house Rec I'm just looking at what recommended options there are and which ones you're doing the open [Applause] house yes ma if it's in red we it's not contemplated as part of this scope but certainly some things that we let me just keep going near-term amendments um I know that we were well commissioner G just said really um kind of and I agree you know when you redo your comprehensive plan when you redo your Land Development code it is extremely difficult to go through a document like that that you're not working with like you are that you're not in the weed with I'm looking at our staff um so why would we not do near-term amendments ahead so one of the things we thought there is as the Consultants kind of working through the diagnostic stage we're going to get a feel for the for how they're going to start to con to construct this document and craft it and those are things that we can probably bring to you individually through that you know as we you're saying yourselves exactly versus but we would know what kind of we would have a format to bring that to to you in that so you're saying you would bring us yourself the near term I think I think that you don't need the consultant to do that I and we actually in fact have already have a near-term amendment in the outdoor dining that was plucked out of here and okay for we have a few we've got okay another one answers my question there so mayor I do want to elaborate on that Redevelopment aspect because it it really is a conversation that commissioner GA and I had yesterday in terms of those areas that are are ready for redevelopment subject to Redevelopment and what it is we have in our Land Development code right now as it pertains to that Redevelopment in light of some of the the issues that the that the residents have regarding growth and that type of a thing 580 what does that look like and we've had had those discussions before I know for example the county is pushing um uh uh uh multif family housing on on 580 and you know that type of a thing so that's really what um moving forward what i' I'd like to see that concentration on as well with with the consultant so how does that fit into this is that part of it or it's part of that option right oh the rec in the neighborhood thing yeah I just wanted to elaborate because commissioner G and I had this conversation yesterday right and then when I look at the special area standards which relates to the neighborhood thing M it says you know they can do 3D modeling on these properties M to show what works and what doesn't work which I think for the neighborhood for the commission for LPA for you know I just think you know we talk a lot I mean you guys are certified planners we're not I don't begin to understand what 5 feet looks like I couldn't tell you I have no concept of that or 50 ft or you know so having that kind of thing I think would be you know and you could build a 3D virtual flythrough I mean Deborah's been asking for that for decades on you know to try to understand when we create a code what does that really mean it looks like and trying to say that and so so I like that piece too if you go down that road I'm just I'm just saying um yeah there's another openhouse uh recodification can you talk about that recodification it was a recommendation option producing a code comparative table hyperlink cross references upload the adoption ordinance build the ordinance Amendment reference table coordinate with City's codifier and then other bunch of optional stuff that looks I don't know kind of important to me but I I don't know that's why I'm asking there's not a page oh page 17 of their document if that helps let me defer to them on this one as I don't recall the conversation behind well I'm but I I'm asking are we going with it it's a recommended option mayor so it does not look like it would be included but we you know again these these are things we can talk about as part of moving forward as well I think everything that is listed as recommended in here is something that we believe would be of benefit but staff was really clear about wanting to make sure that um money was well spent and they understood how to prioritize the investment of resources so um so that's why that's why there are some things that are sort of held back until we can go through this process and understand um where where we would recommend that you would get the biggest bank for your book can I tag on M well so does that mean everything in red is another increased cost yes so I mean if we did all this looks like a lot of increased cost like yes like yeah I mean that's million I mean it looks so so and and don't forget you know once they get through the Diagnostics we'll know a lot more like they've indicated but we'll also then have an opportunity to come back to you at a later time once we've got a a newly working constructed document to kind of build on that over time as well um so you know we we don't see this as just stopping after the after the rewrite is done we look at this as an opportunity then to to continue to build on improving the document over over a long Peri a longer period of time but we wanted this scope reflects the original not to exceed BPI cost of the 375k yeah I got it I just I just want to understand what we're including and what we're not including and the um I'm guessing the recodification you're saying that you guys can do that yourself without paying somebody I think that what we're saying is that is that everything in Black here is part of the original scope and what we feel is necessary to bring our code up to date I think that the everything in red is the good to have um and it really depends upon where we are after we do the diagnostic of the code we might be able to throw some of this stuff in red in there or not it depends on on once we get through that that process so and we have some legal help here too the requ the request that we the request for the bid is 3 whatever and $5 and not a penny more we have 375,000 budgeted and we have 374,000 so we're staying within the [Applause] budget well I want to make sure that you're getting what we need versus following the budget that's what I'm trying to get at and you tell me I'm not trying to question everything you're doing and I know it sounds like that we're setting us ourselves offer but we you know not as much as we need in a big price tag later because yeah that's what I'm trying to get at do we need some of these things and if you want to come back if you guys want to talk about it and come back that's fine yeah I just want to make sure I don't want the number to drive the decision I want what do we need to drive the decision so I'm looking at you you're the number well I think from my perspective the um everything in in black is said is responsive to the the RFP to the scope that that that tool provided to us I think that that you know given that we have a budget and we have budgeted amount what I'd like to do is get through this to find out exactly what we have within the code and then if we need more to come back at that point but yeah that's what I was trying to avoid well you know the thing is though it's it's we've got a budget we got to stick within the budget and I understand what you're saying mayor and vice mayor and but you know I'm not sure if it's going to escalate later I'm not sure if we'll be able to save some some at this point and and do some of this stuff in red but I'd like to do is more more of a process than to immediately throw more at it it makes sense I'm just but I felt like I needed to ask because there was a lot of red yes okay um all right anybody from the public wish to speak to this item I think Friends of the Li Library I'm just kidding yeah all right so they slowly left I think we lost the friends of the library just about all right so can I have a motion then to approve so moved second okay commissioner torga and vice mayor fry final comments commissioner Tonga yes thank you mayor um I spent some good time with the city manager about this it was uh it's complicated um however this is only part of it this is not a uh there's many things I probably have questions about I said I had a lot of questions um that have not been answered but but I think we we need to get to the point what the city manager said city manager you why don't you just say what you just said to one minute ago what we're going to get the basics we're going to see where where we're lacking right uh and and and have a have a usable code that's what your perception was when we talked right correct of us usable code we need to do that and and I'm I'm supporting um up to this point in time that what the staff is asking for takes us to the level that we need to be at as quickly as possible and then anything else is is extra if we need that later at another time so um I'm I'm supporting what this request is although it I did question the hugeness in that in that dollar amount U but was was assured that that's what it would take to get this so that's my comment okay [Music] um Comm vice mayor yeah no I mean I understand we'll we'll go through the diagnostic phase obviously this is all about a more readable more understandable more user friendly code all for that and you know obviously if some you know new things pop up in that we can deal with them um but yeah I'm supportive commissioner I'm supportive thank you be um that was so my course of questioning was was exactly focused on the fact that there needs to be a clear definition of what we're doing at the onset and what I will term is scope creep and um I do see the very high potential for scope creep because of the fact that there are a lot of elements and I'm I'm not saying that there was anything any any gaps in the proposal or anything like that but I also know through our experience with regards to the hearing the public hearings the the identification of who the stakeholders are there's there's a lot of stuff that's going to come up and we need to be prepared for that keep the the f focus on and I guess the term I like that we're using is diagnostic so that's that's what we're we're talking about today um and I'm I'm in favor of that uh I also think that there probably is potential uh to address some some deeper seated issues um but obviously we will have to take those Case by case I don't really see another way to do that um but anyway those are my comments thank you okay um uh roll call vote commissioner Walker all right commissioner gal hi vice mayor frainy hi commissioner TGA hi mayor Bowski I and that motion passes unanimously thank you guys thank you okay we have the cafer let's go just tell how tell us how good we look and we'll move on hopefully right right afterno good afternoon mayor vice mayor Commissioners Les Ty the finance director and uh we we'll be brief as uh we promis that I just just briefly want to mention that today we're presenting our F fiscal year 23 annual conference financial report I'd like to recognize the finance team who put this document together and it is uh Tanya Duffy our County manager who who is me with me today she's done a great job she's been with the city about 11 months and been a great uh great team member and great asset and she's doing doing a really good job for the city also Vicki Pickel uh she's our senior accountant she also assisted with this document it's a very large Financial document with lots of financial information for our school year 23 year end I I'm very proud of what our team has done to uh put this document together we have representative from our audit firm who is Ms LPA with us today who to provide a recap of our 23 financial and audit statements I'll turn over to Jeff wolf a shareholder with the firm to go over the highlights of our document okay thank you um I'll be very brief your time but um I just I don't want to you know unell the the conf of the city um the city is in very good Financial condition and you know reforce kind of speak for itself but I'll be very brief you know feel free to stop me at anything um part of the your agenda hand out is required Communications um I won't go over that in detail it's really the same every year it goes over our responsibilities management responsibilities significant disclosures in the act for um um but um so with that I'll go right into the reports um first is our audit report that is on whether the financial statements are materially correct we had an unmodified opinion that is the highest level of assurance you can receive that um you had a clean audit report our next report is a report on internal control over financial reporting and and compliance now we don't in uh issue opinion on internal control um it's just required that the test as part of our audit but if we did not note anything significant or any material weakness we would note that um however it was a clean report no issues no findings noted um next is our single audit reports um you bet the threshold for both federal and state single single audit um on the federal side we tested the arpa grant um and on the state side the the grant related to the the uh spring training funds um both of those grants are no findings no issues noted and those are also clean reports uh next report is our independence accountant report on compliance with Florida Statutes is as relates to Investments um once again no findings no issues noted then lastly is the auditor general recorded management letter um this covers several things um first if there's any Financial condition concerns any Financial emergencies um obviously no issues noted there you know like as I mentioned the city is in very strong financial condition and if we had any other recommendations um or findings um we would note that in this report but again um this is a clean report no findings no issues noted um real real quick just some financial highlights this is a Citywide analysis basically if the city was a business meaning long-term assets long-term liabilities I'll just go to the unrestricted net position as a as a part of total expenses um that's really your ability to meet any unexpected uh things that could pop up so very strong 50% up up from I believe 40 40% last year on the governmental type and then on the business type um it's 124% compared to 115% so again very strong numbers you know strong financial condition um general fund um pretty uh comparable the last year um I I'll take you to a similar ratio that unassigned unassigned fund balance um last year was about 32% this year it's almost 34% so once again very very strong fund balance where allows you to um deal with any emergencies that could potentially occur um overall in the budget you had a favorable variance of 8.3 million um across the board revenues came in slightly higher uh in all areas and then you were slightly under expense by about 3.6 million um I have some additional slides on the proprietary funds but based on timing yeah I don't think we have to go through all of those I'll just say the takeaway I'll open for questions once again you know very clean audit great job by the finance department I'll answer any questions okay any questions from anybody uh just a quick question I know we're not going to talk about the proprietary funds but why does the slide stay significant on the top because um you you have five uh in your in your act where you have with the golf club now you had the Marina those aren't technically major funds but they've always been shown as major these three are your more larger dollar Ms it's not it's okay I got it thanks anybody else questions anybody from the public okay um can I have a motion to uh accept the caffer second okay commissioner gal and commissioner Toro any final comments commissioner gal Mion torka I have n m mayor no Mion Walker thank you very much for being our accountant um all in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes unanimously we have the thank you we have the proposed agenda for July 9th any changes or additions none for me no no okay um can I have a motion to approve I'll move second commissioner torga and commissioner Walker all in favor signify by saying I any opposed motion passes unanimously now we're going to go to the library strategic Plan F 18 minutes sorry here we go sorry fyis all right well thank you um philis Gori Library director um I am just going to share our um let's get this up um and I will give you an overview and you guys all have um all of these documents on there um first I want to thank our library advisory members that um joined us today they did a lot of work on this project um so I appreciate them all being here and I think they learned a lot about um our city today um so our library strategic plan um our current plan is 2020 through 23 so we had to update that plan um we're required to have an annual plan of service um per the State library to receive state aid monies um our library management team reviewed our um 2023 20 or 2020 23 um strategic plan and created a report card of all of our goals and objectives um so that was um submitted to our library advisory uh committee and obviously a lot of those goals were not able to be um met um due to the pandemic closure um and then obviously our cyber incident um let's see here um we met with our um Library advisory committee on um many um many of these items um so I just kind of wanted to go over um assessment of the um current plan that we have um our goals and objectives um our CIP projects um we still need to complete our interior painting um roof replacement um those will most likely be pushed um to the next fiscal year um evaluation of the branch library and the community center that's been ongoing um and that was one we couldn't meet in our current plan um but we hope to do that um going forward evaluation of our online resources and um staff on boarding and training are all goals um that were in the 2020 uh 23 plan and also in our new one um some projects that we have coming up um we are finally going to have our new playground um that um is in this current fiscal year our mural um so that is starting tomorrow and I will give you a sneak peek of that as well our reading Garden um we have had drainage issues um since actually it was installed in 2009 so we have um some structural um and drainage issues in the reading Garden um that have been there um that we're hoping to get fixed our self checkout machines um our library Foundation just approved uh the purchase of those um the current ones we have are from 2015 so they are definitely ready to be updated um we have our youth Department um shelving um rearranging and same within our reference area um I just wanted to show you our playground um the installation um you all approved this in January of 24 our Parks Department's going to be doing the demolition of it installation will be the week of uh September 16th um and we love the book um topper that's in there that's our actual playground that we'll be getting in the picture um that is with 50,000 in arpa funding um we had a library bequest of $100,000 and then um a blue jays donation of $4,000 um they had used our parking um during the 2020 um season um so that was a very nice donation um our survey for the Strategic plan input so to update our plan we did a customer feedback survey um our library advisory committee helped us with all of the questions um the survey was held from October through November 2023 we had paper and online um 698 submissions uh the staff went through that all the results were giv to our library management team Library staff and the library advisory committee um this is just an update of our strategic plan process and I think it was uh imperative our library advisory committee um were given basically homework assignments to go through everything um and Barbara's still here right yeah there she is um she redlined it for us and worked really hard what a rockar yeah I love people that will do that if you need someone to go through your stuff she will um I need a volunteer saying um so it it went to our staff um just lots of input from everyone on the team so we really wanted to make it um a holistic approach to it I'm just sharing with you some of the comments from it um programming which this really helped us kind of decide um where we're looking at our programming going in the future um these are just quotes from um page and what they wrote in there um I thought which one of them we've already implemented um they wanted a book club during the day they don't drive at night so um we've already um fixed that up um more fun programs for the teenage group um and then for Littles um they want to have some coffee and Meetup so um we're looking at different ideas I thought this next slide um there was a lot of input about Transportation um and I I know that's something that we're always looking at in the city so um there's a lot about um accessib accessibility and transportation um I I didn't realize um we have a bus stop right out front of the library on Douglas Avenue but um I guess it's a little difficult for some of our residents depending on where they're catching the um bus on 580 except that they just cancelled the route that's on Pinehurst so right okay right no yes the one that the one that was on well it was on County Road one but it went to Pinehurst remember went in front of the high school is that the one they canceled no no no yeah when you went by um Pinehurst Village yeah Pinehurst Village is next to the high school I'm sorry not pineur Village um Palm Lake Village or thinking Palm Lake yeah yeah that's the one that also went by the high school there's been no routes cancelled by the high school are you sure yeah all right we should that's fine her we'll we'll look at just so you can of those right Rob I'm on it cuz we pitched a fit about that and this one went to bat for it and it got asked anyway we also had lots of questions about our homebound delivery program a lot of people want to help volunteer with that um that is done by a library staff and of course we have to have the insurance to do that so um that's why it's done by staff but um we continue to promote our homebound delivery and that's just for dened in residents um it's an exceptional program um so we really want to encourage people um to use that um comments about our staff um we are um just we have an amazing staff and I loved all the comments that we had one that I wanted to share cuz they they did name drop on a lot of staff memb MERS um but they um in one of the comments they mentioned Karen and she's always so helpful and cheerful and Karen just celebrated her 54th work anniversary last week with the city of den so I always say she was like 10 years old when she started yeah so she amazing she's our only she was five yeah she's our only staff member that worked at the library when it was uh The Old City Hall Library oh my God y that's where I went to the library so she knows lots of secrets about everyone um so our updated strategic plan the 2024 through 27 um that's an attachment with this Workshop document um it I have to be give a big thanks to anarie nernberg she's one of our library managers um she did the framework for it it's been to the staff it's been to the library advisory committee it's been to Barbara fairy from our advisory committee who um made lots of updates it looks amazing so when you get a moment to go through that fully um I'm just going to give you some highlights on our goals um goal one includes evaluation of our Branch library and the community center um that one our Branch library has been there since the building opened in 2007 um we continue to monitor um the usage of it um we you know would love to see obviously uh being closed during um definitely affected our evaluation of it so uh we really want to figure out uh the best Avenue for it we keep all of our statistics on usage and our library advisory committee has been um evaluating it and uh will'll continue to do that um increased promotion of our special special services um we started as a passport acceptance facility in April of um 23 and it's just um an amazing program it's a great Revenue source for us um and as we get more and more staff involved with it we can look at hopefully expanding our hours uh for appointments uh notary we also offer that uh homebound delivery Museum passes and then all of our online resources uh go two um focuses on our collection and um allocation of our budget um you know a lot of stuff is online we have amazing online resources so um our job is to kind of keep that um great balance between print and online um we offer technology assistance workshops and tutorials on uh kind of bridging that digital divide um and then our budget allocations so our library materials budget um it's gone up incrementally about 5% um each year um but those on online resources are um very expensive uh this uh fiscal year we're spending about 79,000 um in online resources but the usage we've seen just increase so um it's a great resource um to offer free to our patrons um goal three um is a lot on our facility um you may not believe this but our library um will be um 30 years in 2026 um we do need to have a facility assessment um our last one was done um prior to our renovation in 2005 um our circulation Services we need to kind of streamline those and then also just maintaining and imp improving our facility um our roof replacement um is going on its third um fiscal year so hopefully we can get that completed um along with interior painting of the library um so we have a couple CIP projects that we need to get completed soon um uh another part of our goal uh the highlights of goal number four include um Staffing onboarding and orientation ongoing uh Learning and Development for our staff and then um succession planning and growth uh so our next steps um uh the main things that we're focusing on we've got a a nice long list um Branch Library evalu a facility assessment our windows and front sliding doors again you're looking at a building that's going to be 30 years those are original Windows sliding doors um everything needs to be uh updated um Staffing um just looking at our organization um uh the charging station so we are working with um Natalie gas and uh with sustainability on updating our charging stations out front we did have a lot of comments in our um Patron survey people love being able to access that and also having a golf cart charging station at the library um so that'll be a wonderful addition when the new um stations are installed our passport acceptance facility again um just such a successful program um and continuing to have staff um it it is a lengthy training and we have to keep up on our training um so we want to continue um just excelling at that program roof replacement and of course looking at a solar component um we're really fortunate with our library foundation and our friends of the library they're assisting us with some of these um kind of enhancements that are some big ticket ones like our self checkout machines um we definitely need to be looking at RFID for our collection and checking out uh online resources um and then a big one that we're working on right now uh is the digitization upgrade to the dened and times um so we can have that um updated um and accessible uh to everyone and then um programming ideas from the survey um right now we have our summer reading program going on and we're seeing our attendance increase uh we want to offer programs that our citizens want to attend and then finally um just to kind of let you know we were very excited to um update our vision statement and so we're really focusing on igniting the community with knowledge and experiences so I like that a lot I like that a lot thank you um so I'll take any questions but I do want to just um thank our library advisory committee for sticking around here today um but they did a great job on um our you know they had so much purpose and so much input on the Strategic plan and we we thank them for for being um so thorough on that well we're really sorry that we had to that it turned out this way that they couldn't stick around so our apologies um okay so any I'm going to go with questions and comments to try to succinct because we're already running late I'll go with you vice mayor first okay um staff vacancies how are we doing with that um so right now we just had um we we had no changes uh for about 2 years so it was uh a staggered when we had a lot of staff that have moved out of the area right now we just have um we just had someone had their last day part-time uh 20-hour position and that's all we have open okay so you feel like the pay increases have helped and to get people or are we just lucky or um I I one of the things is we have longevity on our side we have a lot of staff that have been here you know 15 years 54 years it's got to be a record by the way of any ever we're kind of um our with the class and comp study we're about we're similar to the surrounding uh libraries around us so if I mayce I have to give Phyllis Kudos because we did lose our youth services super and she has she was doing two jobs for a while so she did a super job thank you Phyllis the um the term other under the question what would you what would make you use the branch library more and under other was the biggest area do you know what other was I mean what um so on the branch library they um it was the hours um was the biggest thing having more hours there is is is the biggest thing yeah and I know that's a well you're going to evaluate that so um and I don't know how much freebie can play into transportation to Hil Center and to the library if we're going to be doing that so I mean it doesn't solve the key areas we're talking about but just thought um um homebound delivery how many people do we actually serve do you know the numbers so we have about 20 that are on that list um that are on the homebound delivery um and we do work um we've done a lot of Outreach lately to a lot of the alss or me life and um they'll go there they just did a Outreach there and helped people get set up with their online um so they could download books and things like that so that's what my mom does that's cool um okay and then um so I guess my commentary would be um you know obviously as we look at freebie we should make sure we're including I think Hil center and library as kind of key areas um and then my other thing as it relates to online and your budget I guess this is just my overall comment is you know we are a society where we we always have have to remember how critical Public Library is how critical educating and providing books of all types to everybody and and so I just say to myself and the whole commission that commitment to making sure that you have the money that you need to keep a well stocked online and printed materials so that we have you know we only have one Library we want to make sure it's really kept up and I count on you Phyllis to be honest and say you know we're not getting the kind of money that's keeping us you know in line with where we need to be so and then uh finally I'll just say since Jim and Ross are gone thanks to them for being here and Barbara's here so that's great so thank you but the whole Board of course thank you mayor I have no questions but a very serious comment I'm not going to form it in a question um we have our library has a wonderful respect in our community our main branch is wonderfully presented and well seen well observed and well known and and the location is well known and so so is a signage for that Library I would like to see a sign at our other location a prominent location a prominent display we've been there since it opened yeah and I think we need to prominently display a sign that says that is our library as well I only make that presentation cuz I know that's important to some of you um it's not something you wanted to belabor but I think I would like to see that um and if it doesn't go in the budget then I will I'll you know full disclosure many of us are I'm I'm a lifetime Friends of the library but I I'll I I will assist or I'm sure we'll all assist with any any organization that would provide support for that signage but otherwise let's put it in the budget or let's have it in the budget it meets with meets with what your vision statement is and it just expands us and it's really important to the we have so many people that like to read so many people like to use access to the library and our kids are so important to us as we all know so I would like to see some significant signage at the community center can we do that so it's a question too okay thank you oh I I'll I'll follow up then at the Comm and we'll talk to to Vince as well thank you commissioner gal uh no questions uh well done I I guess just make sure you're asking for everything that you you need uh but between you friends of the library advisory committees I I think our library system is in good hands so thank you thank you commissioner walker uh no questions uh our library is amazing every time I've gone in there staff has just been incredibly attentive and uh I'll Echo the comment of my colleagues uh resources you know I I don't think the library could be it more resources are better than yeah thank you that was that was good you good so I was I was just going to say um I know you talked about uh I don't know if Ed the words I just shut down my computer remodeling plan or whatever it is um I'll just I don't know I'm sure maybe behind the scenes you all have talked about it and that's what you're going to try to figure that out um it's probably pretty important that in the next Penny there is something significant as one of our signature projects for the library I mean I remember several 20s ago that there was going to be a second story added to your building yeah you remember that've we've been unfunded in in the yeah and I I mean and it it looks pretty old yeah it definitely I mean it's a library I'm not sure that everybody really the materials and the functions that you have are I think more important to everybody than what do you have mauve countertops right I I it I I absolutely absolutely agree with that but I was here when I first got here that Second Story mhm was in the you know for space purposes was in in our Penny Plan I believe it was something several million and at that time that was a big amount we look at several million now and it was nothing yeah I mean it is but comparatively speaking so I do think you know we'll know in 27 2027 whether the penny gets approved so you have plenty of time to do the planning to when the funding comes in you know for 2030 but I just whatever it needs to be whether it's expanded space going up or just a complete remodel MH it's definitely time yeah we've had that unfunded yeah it's definitely time on that so that's my comment there um the branch library pitiful I say that with all due respect and appreciate the people that work it and I appreciate what you guys put into it but yeah that's definitely got to be reworked and make a plan and it always cost money whether it's signage or you know I take the vision of what it should be versus what it is is probably important we're certainly not the size of a community that might require two libraries but whatever we do need to be for convenience for a convenience factor we should make that the best it is and I'm not sure we're there yet so we should if that requires funding we should do that and um I'm still going to make a play I know that Largo is the gene Tey capital of the world but I consider that South County and we're North County that doesn't mean we can't have two does Largo have a Historical Museum they have the pelis genealogy Society is is hosted there but they don't have a museum so I still think there's a reason to have a connection to genealogy when you have a history museum and I think we can be maybe the north county hub for that just saying okay okay did you get everything you need from us yes and then thank you for all the hard work I really I mean I definitely think it's time every Rec every Recreation Center every Municipal almost every Municipal Building not everyone but almost everyone every Park everybody's gotten a facelift except you yes oh your bathroom's got it a couple years ago can't forget that yeah and I think we I think I think it's time to get you in the mix yes thank you and up is the mural this is the rendering um we're actually going to be starting uh the muralist is letting us all do some painting tomorrow so um but I just kind of wanted to give you a little um this has gone to the advisory the friends um the staff so the wording that's on there is from staff um but I just wanted to point out it's um a nod to our denan history um the book titles on there are yesterday year I lived in Paradise my nature Nook so very focused on denan we even have some poetry of Robert Burns on there with a Tartan um and then obviously our friends of the library are um sponsoring this so uh their name will be on it we've got a library cat we've got denit and oranges um and then we just know everyone's going to want to take their picture by the open book so um it's going to be a great addition that's great thank you very much and thanks for all the hard work and thanks for sticking around thank you all right good job um anything else you want to add cuz we're going to adjourn I just have one thing M and um that is that I received um an email from Vinnie lisy and apparently the Historic Museum um has applied for funding agreement from visit St Pete Clearwater for the um Historic Museum clock towers and he needs a letter written saying that the city supports that and I just didn't want to write it without you all being aware and understanding and then um yeah fine as the property owner that's why they want the letter from us okay thank you mhm okay all right nothing else we are ad jour [Music]