e good afternoon and welcome to the town of Highland Beach Town Commission meeting today is Tuesday June 4th and it is 1 30 and I'd like to call the meeting to order may we have the roll call please commissioner Peters pres commissioner David present vice mayor Stern present mayor Moore present Town manager labid present thank you we could rise for the pledge I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all and I do have one change to the agenda and that is uh to move up item 5e resolution 20124 d014 to be the first presentation um any any other changes no if we could have a motion please I move we accept the agenda as amended second All In favor say I I anyone opposed okay motion carries unanimously um okay moving on to resolution number 202 24-14 and this is a resolution of the town of commission of the town of Highland Beach Florida ratifying the selection appointments and term of office of members of the board of adjustments and appeals and providing for an effective date and we have Jeffrey uh Gordon if you'd like to come up to the podium state your name where you live and just a few few things about yourself and then the Commissioners may ask you a question I work with Costco and estate time 20 years and there's nothing better than high Beach okay thank you great M Peters anything yeah yeah thank you for uh playing the next time I go to Costco I'll say hi to you I've been there quite a bit uh all right thank you well give me your service looks like you were one of the first people to move into Tuscana I was 2004 because yeah that's about when they were being finished and being uh inhabited your resume looks fine it's good you were recommended by a member of the committee and thank you for volunteering your service it's appreciated thank you everyone May well when I think I finished no terrif racing today so I gotta no terrific your resume looks great it's a great board I think you'll enjoy and one I've been on and uh you really make a good contribution by being on it so thank you for replying appreciate thanks Dave yes welcome and thank you for volunteering um we definitely need people to do this and uh we really appreciate it um especially having new people um get involved and uh yeah I'm excited for you to join and I am in favor so if we could have a motion please I move that we approve resolution number 20 24-14 I'll second that all in favor say I I motion carries unanimously thank you very much and congratulations welcome moving on to the next presentation item a Palm Beach County Commission on ethics presentation by Ronda Guyer general counsel hello everyone Ronda gager with the commission on ethics this is calling this a presentation is a little um dis misleading sorry about that really I'm just here to make sure you all remember that we're here make sure that you all remember that you have to take that local ethics training according to your um local policy um making sure we realize there's no uh no confusion between that and the state requirement you guys have to do both here um also just to remind everybody and thank thank the local people for coming um participation at the local level is so important that's what keeps uh democracies flowing and that's what keeps um communities working is involved citizenry so uh just as a reminder we are here to answer questions from anybody from citizens from you from employees um that's our our goal is to be a proactive agency not a reactive not a gotcha type agency we we definitely want to answer questions about things before they happen as opposed to after we'd much prefer to not be reactive if possible so um as we say uh ask First Act later um and we are here if anybody has any questions right I asked before the meeting if these notebooks you gave us are worth under $100 and I'll tell you the same thing I said then is I should pay you to take them and the paper May and the pens probably don't work I had literally exactly six pens when I got here and one of them broke and fell ground I had to pick it up so um yeah no you're good on those gifts no problem I can promise you that oh thank you yeah thank any I mean do you want any more I all right any other questions and thank you for the little These are nice and handy and brief so that's helpful I can leave more of those if you no that's okay no one is good but it I appreciate how brief and they are handy actually they are helpful anyway okay well thank you so much for having me I appreciate it thank you very much you okay next item Red Cross services presented by J uh Johan ryas oh sorry hello hello good afternoon thank you for having me my name is Joan Reyes I am with disaster program manager for the American Red Cross for the Palm Beach and Treasure Coast I'm just here to say hello and introduce myself I am the new uh program manager so I'm going around every every uh municipality and kind of introducing myself and just to give a fresh reminder about the Red Cross all the services that we do and one of the most uh common things we do is in disaster really we work very close with our fire departments our uh towns of police department and helping uh alleviate any disaster relief whether it's a home fire or a big disaster but more than that we prepare the community and so I am uh in in talks with the chief Glenn to see how we can bring some preparedness to your community to make sure your community is ready for the hurricane season and post hurricane season so I didn't know how big the panel was I only brought one but I'll give it to the mayor if you don't mind and then it's a couple of things to read um we know we do more than just this disaster we do preparedness and we also have a wonderful Branch for the uh service of the Armed Forces we here at the Red Cross we believe that we have to prepare a community when it happens before it happens when it happens and after so we have a a an entire Community behind us of volunteers that are here to serve your uh your your town or your your Highlands Beach um whenever we are called so we are here we're you know a lot of people haven't seen us in a while so making my rounds and saying hello great thank you very much any any comments yeah yeah thank you for coming I really appreciate it excellent thank you nice to meet you good timing too as we swagway segue into the hurricane preparedness by our fire chief Glenn Joseph mayor vice mayor Commissioners uh it's hurricane season again and uh we are getting ready we are ready we are ready we are ready um it's my first hurricane season as your fire chief scary uh but uh I think we're we're we're there we're we're have our plans already laid out and um we're getting the troops ready and getting the paperwork and everything set so one of the things we did last year which we updated for this year was the hurricane preparedness annual guide which has all the details and everything it's on the website can be downloaded we have copies in the back if you want to take one with you but it has all the details of all so I'm not going to rehash everything that's in there because that's redundant but uh you could download it off the web if you do not at the meeting today and you could certainly pick one up or get me give me a call I'll get you more copies for your uh Community or for your building so one of the things we do in the public safety is we've kind of transition from the response to a risk based response risk-based meaning we want to assess the risk and see what the hazards are and then prepare for those hazards so one of the things for sure that is water is a a big issue with hurricanes and any storm most of our fatalities around the country including Florida are around water uh rainfall a lot of rainfall in a short period of time flooding you saw what happened in Fort Lao about two years ago bad things happen uh you know power lines get broken and people step in water with power lines in it so most of our fatalities around waterfall and water whether it's a hurricane or it's a storm tropical depression even during King Tides we have those issue with water rip currents storm Sur going think so we got to be cognizant of those things moving forward and be aware that that's where some of the risks occur again 90% of the people that die in storms die from water related incidents which means that um one of the hazards we have to deal with on the regular basis is that so it doesn't have to have to be name storm it doesn't have to be a category storm it doesn't have to have it's just a lot of water a lot rainfall or storm surge or rip current could be hundreds of miles away because we are in Atlantic phas ing Community uh walking the beach and you have a storm in the Bahamas or even in the middle of the Atlantic can cause rip currents and we kill one or two people every year on the beach just just from that so we gotta be cognizant of that when we walk our family walk our dogs be careful about getting in in the surface if it's too rough so now we have we know the risk is water we know we are on the water we're Barry Island we have to know that anytime there's a high risk of some an event happening we have to evacuate okay so uh we'll let you know when that is the count is going to direct us we're going to follow the directions but we highly encourage most of our residents uh is that you need to plan for an evacuation if there's a storm so Readiness is you can't be ready unless you have a plan okay so you need to have a plan some some of the things you should be thinking about now during our blue skies is where my insurance papers my medications do I have enough medication for two maybe three weeks do I have enough cash on hand that if something bad happens and internet's down the power lines are down can I function and get the things I need to stay alive and stay fun uh in so you need to have some cash on hand water fresh water on the average adult a minimum of a gallon day for an adult minimum so that means that if you're my size a little bit more reton than most you probably need more than that all right and children and pets and all that need need water so you need to plan ahead for those things uh another thing that we H we're hting heavy this year is EVS so if you're leaving or evacuating your facility and you have the ability to move your EVS off the island with you that's a good thing because we saw what happened last year when uh the electric vehicles are flooded when we went to move them they caught on fire so we really don't want that if you're living in the where you're parking is in the basement or in your building or you know you don't really don't want that to happen so unplug your EVS stick them with you take them off the island in case there's a stor more hurricane unplug any charge chargeable stuff like even your computer your uh scooters your bicycle electric bicycles if you're leaving your building either take them with you or unplug them and put them away because we don't want them being charged when the power goes off comes on goes off comes on is surch make C the fire so those are the things we want to think about um again your insurance docks your water shelters now again you have to have a plan because you we're going to be evacuating if we have a storm around two category two or more we will be requesting that you evacuate which means that what are you going to do do you want to go to storm shelter I have worked stor shelters for over the last 30 years you don't want to go to a storm shelter as safe as they are they're not the best living conditions that you are used to in your Paradise so make a plan which means hotels you don't have to leave Palm Beach County you just got to move a mile maybe even a quarter two miles offshore and you're good so hotels are good uh family friends up for a day or two is good your pets if you pet shelters are almost impossible to get a hold of because they fill up so quickly so if you have a pet that you love and you want to cherish and keep them through the storm then we need to make a plan ahead of time all right uh special needs shelters are also if you have a special need you need to register with the state Register with the county and then we will transport you to fire we transport you to the shelter when the S approaches which means that you have to register ahead of time so we know who you are and then we'll be able to make that arrangement for you because we're bring extra Personnel on board to make those transports happen and they don't happen overnight so we need to plan ahead with enough lead time to make sure that we're not out in the storm coming back to station during the storm happening so again Readiness means having a plan how do you connect with your family how do you connect with the kids if they're in school uh how do we connect with one another if you're say your grandmar is living in the building down hope if we have to evacuate how do we connect with one another so you got to have a plan for that as well so so planning is essential thinking about it if you have questions by all means give me a call give Chief Hartman a call um we have this beautiful brochure it's very colorful it's got all the nice emergency numbers that you may need to know and have uh for storms if they're in the back we have a lot of suggestions for food U medications you know those kind of things to make sure that you're prepared and then when the storm happens we will give you Direction either through code red Facebook the web Coastal star uh radio announcements we will stay in touch with you we'll give you a wans of staying in touch with us to make sure that you were safe and your family weathered the storm in a consistent safe manner do you have any questions yes I got one um most of us are on the board of our associations here can we when you do emergency um evacuation do they have to remove do we I tell some guy says I'm never going to move from my apartment he can stay there or do we have to force him out we do not have the authority to forcibly remove somebody from the D side okay so we strongly recommend that they do if you're in a high say well the water's not going to get to me I'm up 10 stories five stories all the Building Services are on the first second third floor which means that your power is going to go off elevator's going to go off no air conditioning water may go off depending if the pump's working or not and so you could be in a bad situation and when storm hits wind speeds of over 45 to 50 miles an hour sustained we stop all Emergency Operations which means that if you're calling for help we'll tell to hold on to the shower curtain which we get there after the storm passes so it's in everyone's best interest but we will not forcibly remove you now if the building is damaged to the point where we think it's a hazard to the public as well as to yourself and it's been damaged that effect then we'll have to have a special uh Authority given to us by the elected officials like yourself and the town manager to actually remove people if they don't want to leave but and that's going going through the building department and a whole bunch of process to get that done but we will not forcibly remove any okay I just comment the experience that we've had in our unit those people who felt they wanted to stay we emphasized what you just said plus the fact ask him to have a plan like you just talked about and in the final analysis everybody did leave but we did get resistance to that and you will and knew will um last year we had the storms people that died uh on the west coast they were all were in an evacuation Zone almost every to a person they were in evacuation Zone and they chose to stay so uh you could choose to stay it's I mean you have it's a free country you can do whatever you want to but we strongly recommend that you evacuate and if you choose to stay we will check on you first thing after the storm is over but during the storm is not a good place for us to be so if we're asking you to leave that means we're not gonna be out in the storm so that means that if they choose to stay they have to let you know that they're staying yes usually we would like them to let us know that we're staying and that's why we're going to roll out communic connect next couple of weeks because we want them to be able to say you know that who you are where you are and then we could check if you are unable to move or you think you're unable to move or you need assistance evacuating then we want to know that ahead of time so we can actually make arrangements with you to to move you even use a rescue or an ambulance to move you or if you choose to stay and that's your decision then the first people we're going to check on after stor is over with is the people that have stayed yeah because I found that in my building there's always at least one or two who stay and it's generally not a comfortable situation um if you stay they say you need to be in a room without windows usually that's a bathroom y or a closet most rooms have some windows in them and it's always the people on the top floors who decide they're the ones who are going to stay and they can't walk down 17 flights of stairs and that's kind of what we see is that the people on top floor say the storm's not going to get to me the water's not going to get to me but your services are all on the first second third floor so if your elevator goes out or your power goes out you're stuck and it has been known to happen where windows are broken yes so the you may not flood from rising Tide Water but you may have a lot of damage from wind driven rain yes absolutely yeah so again it's it's a safety issue and um I mean I have people that have I know people that have decided to ride out storm in a flood plane and they ended up holding onto a tree all night because the storm took their home away and they were this lady was 70 something years old she was naked in the tree cuz I mean the storm water moved so quickly and ripped all of her clothes off and she was just pulling up for dear life in the tree overnight while the stor was raging so uh why put yourself in that situation make a plan get out of the way and uh come back when it's over question anything else thank you very much thank you very much next item preferred tips check presentation by Christopher kson director with public risk Underwriters of Florida good afternoon nice to see everybody and thank you for having me I'm here today to uh present uh your new fire chief with the preferred tips check I'll just briefly explain the program first of all we're your Property and Casualty Insurance company so we insure the town workers comp Fleet Safety general liability so in this particular instance uh I was working with with your assistant chief bat and since you were buying uh and outfitting your fire department with new bunker gear we collectively thought that that would be a good item to consider for eligibility the program basically provides a reimbursement for safety related items in this particular case bunker gear is considered personal protective equipment and as your Chief will attest to it's very expensive good good it's very not very thank it's very expensive so what we did is it's 50% up to a maximum of 10,000 per policy period so you're get the maximum check today of $5,000 so we want to thank you for participating in the program and more importantly being a valued member of the trust and having us take care of your insurance needs so I'd like to present the chief with the check you've already had your ethics chaining Chief right and I have a large check if it's okay i' like take a picture with it yes long as you endorse itting give it to David yeah should we all stand can't see the camera then the camera we get thank you thank you very much thank you very much next item public comments on non-agenda items and public comments will be limited to five minutes per speaker do we have any public comments today okay hi everyone my name is red rose and I live at poah Highland just want to make a comment on you know we had that meeting with the county and it was suggested to me and I I sent a note to Marshall that uh we contact the Department of Public Safety of the state and let them know they the possible hazards that we might have with not only A1A but as I said at the meeting y model Rock uh and the other suggestion that was made by State Rep was contact the department of the environment and let them know what the possible damage can be to the environment by doing this it's just a suggestion and I think of enough people from the town contact the State States bigger than the county Count's bigger than us why not try it thank you okay thank you very much seeing no other public comments um moving on we have no ordinances today uh consent agenda there are two items in the consent agenda any discussion on those items no okay if we can have a motion I move I move we approve the consent agenda second all in favor say I I I motion carries unanimously unfinished business building department recertification program update well good afternoon commission uh well it's been a little while so we'll give you an update on the Milestone inspection uh which is both a local ordinance and a state statute we currently have five buildings that have been given very nice certificates in frames now uh and that's good news so about 10% of the eligible buildings uh have complied right now uh we are in the middle of reviewing 12 that have supplied everything to us and we're going through those meticulously to see who else or where we're at many of those will have to move on to phase two you know restoration uh permits which is when the phase two inspections will come in we have 22 that have submitted documents but we need additional information maybe some of the verbiage was incorrect they didn't do everything they were supposed to so we're working with those 22 sent out letters already to them we have four buildings that have uh basically missed the deadline and for those were starting uh code cases we did start one round of code cases on some of those buildings and it seems like as soon as we start the code case we immediately get um some compliance which is the purpose of Code Compliance and we have one building um that basically had and of those four three of them basically like submitted one item but not the other so they're just you know maybe they submitted electrical but not structural they submitted structural but not electrical and one of them we just have one that's so far been a uh a rebel alog together and hasn't submitted anything and that's eventon Bay uh down there we still have seven buildings that aren't even due yet of the 53 so we're in really good shape and have about six more buildings because their due dates so far in advance it it they don't even count this those other seven those are due by the end of the year so they're just not due yet but they're due by the end of this year uh so so far we're in a pretty decent shape except for those four and we have a lot of work on our end to go through um those 22 that we're looking at does anyone have any questions just curious so that Evon Bay they're just the fees are just accumulating that would well we don't have a code case we're gonna have a code case against them and then we'll we'll take it from there but we haven't nothing okay okay any questions no okay well sounds like you're making a very good progress that's great and we have no new business so moving on to town Commission comments commissioner Peters I just uh just want to wish happy everybody's Summers that's here there and I just want to thank everybody that came to the county meeting it was a a great event and everybody spoke very well I know we only had two minutes but uh thank you for everybody and and it was very passionate with some of the people what they said U and uh i' just like to thank him for all coming out thank you just want to wish everyone a good summer and stay safe good summer and stay safe I totally agree no hurricanes that's right please no landfall hurricanes let them all stay in the ocean uh Town manager yes thank you uh a few items um David did pass out our uh completed annual comprehensive Financial reports basically we call Loosely is our audit uh for the last fiscal year everything checked out clean bill of health financially no managerial comments no Financial comments no accounting irregularities 100% clean David thank you to you and Susie outstanding uh two months ahead when we got this no problems it doesn't get much better or I can't see how gets much better than that so impressive right because everything is cleared up so I mean and it's super early yep super I mean it's kind of like surprising I I was wondering if it was last year right lot towns say that like what year is this oh 2019 no so we're you know thank you following the schedule and doing well uh kind of piggybacking on that and kind of uh foreshadowing what's what's to come here in the budget season I know we get worried about hurricanes I get worried about budget so um David and I are feverishly working on that I've given him a little bit of hard time this morning just to get things the way I like it but everything is going well um as I informed you uh the property appraiser put out their estimate of values we're at 8.79% one of the stronger growth communities outside of say like a Westlake which is a outof the ground Community uh in the west side of the the county uh but for a pre-existing Community uh that was really good so um we will get into the budget and we will start in a very strong as we have each year of the last six years I've been here we're starting from a place of strength financially as we move forward and plan uh David and I are spending a lot of time tackling the capital issues as you would imagine uh Sergio's in the room he's updating our Capital program what does that look like for all of our capital projects and how we um you know block and tackle our way through next fiso year um we should know some more from the governor on the appro the two appropriation requests that are sitting on his desk I haven't heard anything more time is always better that means that we're still in the the horse race um so as we move through that uh we are uh in great great shape balance there's a couple new projects that we'll be talking about a little bit as I look over at the police chief he knows what I'm talking about so um and I think we might have opportunities to tackle some projects that I may have to have advised to wait longer um and you know our ability potentially to strengthen our relationship with the foundation too so um seeing the foundation president here wink wink so we can work on some things moving forward so it all comes together um at our next meeting David and I will give you a preliminary uh presentation what that means is our first blush you know here's the revenues against expenses David will go through as you know all of his various assumptions and things of that uh but we're in marvelous financial position moving forward we'll be able to maintain that 5year forecast and uh again be able to hit some of those larger Capital needs that we may have had to push out in latter years and ability to strengthen our our syncing fund for Public Safety and other operations because again as you've noticed we climbed up and we're slowly stepping down so we've just gotten more time that step down to uh uh to plan for the future so that looks good and then the last item that we're going to have to probably talk about a little bit quicker um relates to Code Compliance and uh moving to a special magistrate um I have a special magistrate for us on contract um usually I would have brought it to you you know just a little bit more formal but I I'm anticipating we might have a trouble getting quorums um we have one uh I think coming off and then four that are not can't get renewed terms so we're going to have a shortage of code sooner than I thought or expected so we may need to move into a special magistrate format fast or a little more quickly than a long planned how do we want to what kind of cases maybe stay with the code board what kind of cases go to a special magistrate we may find ourselves with a special magistrate for a period of time while we uh get folks on board for code enforcement and have that discussion more thoroughly as to what we want to do so we're okay we'll be able to maintain Code Compliance the process you won't notice the difference instead of seeing seven community members you will see an attorney that will be the Arbiter between two sides render an opinion finding a fact very similar it's a public meeting nothing different just that you have a lawyer um versus the board but I've got somebody in place one that does bokeh Palm Beach Gardens Jupiter so well established well respected um to keep us have a back stop should uh you know some of those folks drop off we can't find placements and it doesn't look like we will in the the period of time so we will have a board that doesn't have all the folks at needs so um we'll have to start looking at that over the next couple meetings me our attorney uh attends each of those meetings will that person still attend along with the Arbiter so basically um in a more formalized way so Adam and Jeff or just Adam and Mr Ruben or one of the other attorneys from that firm will represent our case um um and then the uh defendant will basically have their attorney and be able to present their case and findings of fact will will we'll move through it'll be a little bit quicker uh it's less risky for us and I hate to say it like that but you know we've seen some points of risk when you go to a community group and um personally and professionally I generally don't like residents judging residents it's kind of a slippery slope um it has some value but it's also dangerous if you're walking down the street and somebody says you're the one that gave me the $110,000 fine that could that could get a little hairy but um you know we'll be prepared to to handle the cases and decide how do you guys want it'll direct me how you want to move forward if you want to you know keep more technical more difficult and challenging cases with a a magistrate to to protect that exposure to risk maybe some of the simpler cases we still keep with the uh code enforcement board and kind of have that that kind of a bifurcated process I know Del R does that they've had some success with certain levels like class one violations goes to the code board but twos and threes go to the special magistrate um especially stuff with fire some of the the higher stuff with building certification and more technical um items you may want to someone to look at it that way so I will be bringing that to you I just want to give you a little fores sheding but we do have somebody in place so if you get win that oh my God the code board's not going to have anybody we have a process ready to go our code allows us to use either or so our process won't stop as we have our discussion because I didn't know that so many folks were coming off that quickly so uh we're working on that now other than that um hurricane when that happens um uh Len Rubin and I are updating all of our resolutions to get everything in place from the Declaration when we declared an emergency it's for 72 hours so then there has to be an extension for 72-hour periods thereafter so we will get samples in place to to move all that forward uh similar similar to how we have in the past um if we do have a hurricane um I will be your uh Shepherd through the process to keep you each informed because as you come back we all leave we all come back as you come back you'll you know as an elected official you'll get most of the questions so we'll have our process to keep you informed every step of the way through either a zoom or a conference call to give updates to you all when you're out there can also be our spokespersons to your areas of the community to to get the message out and know what's going on um so we will have that process in place and be ready to go this this question may be for David uh but do we have an update on how we're doing on the water usage versus the plan and the come well what he showed me is we're uh you know David you come up I'll just you know kind of foreshadow it uh water and sewer fund's in great shape um and BAS Bas on our assumed rate increases in the the last year and we're dropping some debt off um you know the debt service millage has it will be falling or can we can do some other supplemental things but we'll have some options which are great it's great to have options on the table but um we're in a good good position yeah and uh to Echo what what the manager said yeah absolutely um you know so that'll be part of the budget presentation you know uh we do have some debt millage uh some debt actually you know coming coming off again uh if you recall this year there was like $375,000 drops off and then another tranch uh drops off um you know but but you know like anything else uh that the town owns there's maintenance with it and when you're talking Water and Sewer it's like owning a boat it's just constant maintenance you know and so uh but yeah so we'll we'll walk through all of that we had made some fiveyear assumptions uh you know uh we'll look at really what inflation is doing you know because we're still kind of high I say the I say that the the the old 3% the new 5% you know uh you know things like that so we'll we'll look at all that uh we'll we'll look at what we actually have the other thing too that we're doing thanks to Sergio and his team is you know we're replacing those older meters those older meters are your cash register for lack of a better term and meters water meters don't speed up like us they slow down and so uh and so that being said but we want accurate meters and there's new meter technology out there and so we're we're uh we're replacing them based on age and accuracy and things like that uh and so it's it's it's all good things but we have some we have some exciting things happening and and again I I'm toing around to my people at my various conferences how we built the fire station and and so this is this is phenomenal I mean you guys really did a great job with that and and we'll start to see the the fruits of our labor right uh come from that and um yeah it's it's exciting it'll be good and we'll see it in this budget so that's why I'm saying we're going to be able to handle some capital a little bit quicker awesome because we're seeing those savings and the ability control those costs uh it kind of the first set of numbers I was like oh my God what's going on here so um fantas so we're in good shape well I look forward to the budget season that all sounds very good um water and sewer I bet right yes actually yes you know me very well yes I am looking forward to the seeing the numbers actually um so we still have a vacancy on the board of adjustment yes even after this okay I think we have one more Fred we have no we're good f it so board of appeals adjustment but I think we have like three as of August for code or something like that oh well okay okay so the announcements according to this um and it sounds like it still will be true in the foreseeable future one vacancy for the board of um adjustment and appeals and then a vacancy for the natural resources preservation Advisory Board upcoming meetings and events June 11th at 1:00 in the afternoon code enforcement board regular meeting June 14th at 9:30 in the morning we have the planning board regular meeting and then we have our next town commission meeting on June 18th at 1:30 there are no board action reports and if that's it to1 we can adjourn thank you very much everyone it's got to be a record I know right 10 but