ofin Haven at this time we'll have the invocation and Pledge of Allegiance by Pastor Tim Chrisco of the Panama City Rescue Mission I invite you to pray with me Our Father who are in heaven Hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will will be done on Earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we have also forg given our debtors and lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from Evil thine is the kingdom the power and the glory father as we listen to your words let us hold them close to us we ask that you be with us today let let us be reminded that it is better to love and unify than to divide let us remember that it is better to serve than to be served and let us continue to remember uh that your love abides and your peace abides in everything father be with the councel today as they make decisions uh let us have discernment in what that looks like these things we pray in the name of Jesus Amen you Pastor Chrisco uh at this time we'll have public commentary please state your name and address for the record at this time we'll move on to the mayor's report uh I'll try to keep my report brief um and allow city manager to tell you about all the exciting things we have going on the rest of this month uh at the end of last month I did have an opportunity to go over for the legisl legislative action days with the Florida Li of cities um there in Tallahassee um for those who don't know uh City Lin Haven we have hired a lobbyist to help us um not just with legislation but also securing grants and other funding um in the city of Lin Haven and so uh as opposed to just hanging out with the Florida leag of cities actually our lobbyist did her job and set up a lot of appointments with me with uh the different legislators and just different leaders um there in Tallahassee and so I had a chance of course to meet with our state representative Griff Griffiths um he's also sponsoring a bill dealing with um short uh short-term vacation rentals um on the house side and so I had a chance to just have a good candid conversation extended conversation with him about our concerns um with the bill and things that we want to make sure that are staying in the bill um as much as possible one of the concerns I expressed to him was that uh with one of because there's a bill on the Senate side and a bill on the house side um and so just expressed the concern that hey as you all are negotiating the bill and the terms that are in it one of things to consider is that if they don't register with the city which is a fine of $150 or $300 depending on which bill they receive um that there will be some type of suspension um with their registration at the state level as well because I can avoid paying the $150 and still make my $33,000 that week and not care about your local registration and so um that if we're going to enact a local registration that it will carry some weight um with the uh with with the local um individuals uh that are running their um short-term rentals um he also informed me that he's actually have has talked to um those platforms that actually operate the short-term rentals so that you can have access to actually know who does have a short-term rental because right now all we can do is look up on dbpr um to see you know who's actually registered as a short-term rental to know that you know they have one um and so obviously some of the complaints we received about short-term rentals one of the things is they're not registered so we don't officially know they have a short-term rental until someone comes in with a complaint saying hey this is what's happening in my neighborhood and so he has uh again the Airbnb VRBO and other um online platforms he's coordinating with them to talk about releasing that information to the state um so there's still some things that are preemptive to the state but one thing we did fight for was our um ability to have registration but then have you know a little bite with the registration so it's something that just won't be um you know disregarded Ina you know if we decide to move forward and enact with that and also they had timelines on that that you know there has to be someone that's an emergency contact has to follow up by a certain time um and make these reports and then there's penalties if you receive complaints within so many um so many days or so many months that there's different levels of suspension so again um it was certainly a good um candid conversation with him in regards to the um the short-term rentals um I also followed up on the bill that uh commissioner War had been talking about um which you you know uh impacted me in regards to the uh the gun Carri for houses of worship so uh Miss Timmons um Miss Tim that's that's our our lobbyist um or our consultant if that's a better term to use that that might sound better um so miss miss Tim is our governmental consultant legislative consultant uh she did more research on that bill for us and said as she saw it at this point that Bill had died because it had not gone through to through to any committees because I also expressed to her some concerns about that bill as well um and then we also looked at the uh utilities Bill and so um it was great to see her in action while we were there in Tallahassee uh Lega City sent out some um action items for us to discuss uh city manager called myself called Miss Tims and said hey can you all talk to representative Griffiths about this and so while we were also so we probably met with representative Griffiths probably three times while I was there in Tallahassee over those two days to talk about different issues that we were having here um locally and so um and meeting with with him again we talked about the need for U municipalities for those AR that aren't familiar with that bill basically um if that bill is passed what it would do is it would take away our ability to charge um for nonresidential utility services so like right now we have a search charge of let's say 25% non residents would have to pay the same thing that residents pay um for utility services and so we do know that they're trying to Target other cities that misuse their funding when they do that they jack up utility rates and then sweep it all into General funds but I'm like you have our municipalities that don't do that that actually use our funds for what they're supposed to be used for um and so having that explanation with him getting some dialogue back and forth with him on what that bill represented but also giving him understanding of how that hurts um cities like ourselves when you um have to basically you know how do you fund all of this um if you're not getting some extra funding for those who aren't residents of your city because they're not paying any have alarm so if someone says well it is unfair to charge and they don't pay Borum Tex like our citizens do so This Is Us sort of you know balancing things out um and we received a a note from the league of cities that he went to bat for that um doing those committee meetings I don't know if you all saw that um that email about you know how he was outspoken about that particular Bill and stood up for um I guess you would say our our home rule um and so that was based on the conversations that we were we were able to have with him um in addition to him uh I also got a chance to uh attend a couple of um events with uh Senator Rick Scott so I had a chance to go to a couple events that he hosted um got a chance to meet with him he remembered Lin Haven ironically his middle name is Lyn um and so he could he can't forget about ly Haven um with a middle name like that so um he wished us the best and said hey you know if you need something please reach out and I will say the the past storms that we've had to come through his office has reached out um I remember we needed some sandbags and his office like what do you need I need sandbags you know that's that's what I need I need sandbags and so I think they you know called around and tried to see if they could find me some but I I don't think they thought of those kind of resources when they said hey tell us if you need something I was like well this is a very practical resource um so however had a chance to meet with him a couple of times get some FaceTime with him as well I also had a chance to meet with the um minority leader of the house also met the speaker of the house um met some other uh met Senator Corey Simon uh of course met with uh Senator J Trumble um met with uh I can't remember all I I probably had about 10 Representatives that I met with over that period of time um that to to build more relationship uh because we do have our state representatives that fight for us um but now building relationships with others then when they see our things come across the table they can fight for us as well um some may say well what is the power or what is the the difference in having a consultant I would say initially um the monies that we were that we had requested did not get budgeted um they they did not get put in the budget we made a request for those but they did not get put in the budget and so our consultant went to work um and worked with our Representatives on finding unique ways to get those included in the budget so I was able to go to the Senate uh Appropriations Committee meeting um to see that our right now uh we have $350,000 for roads in the budget although we requested a million um at one point we were getting zero and so um we our consultant did work for us along with our reps to get that put back into the budget um and so we're in the budget right now for 350 we're still fighting for head works and I mentioned that to Senator Trumble that hey I love Road money that's great but I need money for head works you know thank thank you for the road money I appreciate it um and I was also sitting at lunch with Bob Michael when he got the call that Bay County didn't get anything um and so we're going to be one of the few entities or organizations from Bay County that is getting anything in the budget this year because the budget is really tight um and so but he was a champ about it he said hey at least somebody's getting something you know because it all represents Bay County uh but I did Express to Senator Trumble the need for monies for head works because if we don't get head works then we can't expand our plant if we can't expand our plant then we can't continue to grow with development if we can't continue to grow development then you know we become a city that begins to die over time and so just expressed to him the need for that of course now the challenge with Senator um unlike with Griff representative Griffiths who only is representing Bay County uh Senator Trumble now represents I think it's like seven or eight counties you know as a senator and so we talked about that and so um talked about you know he was only able to get two water projects in so I do know we did stress the need to him um for uh for monies to help us match that head works and so again I had good meetings with him as well um so it was a good a good time in Talahassee of of building relationships meeting with different Representatives Senators um learning a lot from our consultant on how things operate so that as we come back to the city and we're doing our budgeting and our advocating and our preparation to have a better idea in mind um of what that looks like I know when uh we first met with her city manager and I um one of the things she she told us was how the the pots of money come about um and so we thought we were doing different projects because or making different requests because uh for us it's in different funds so you know storm water is different than sewage which is different than you know um utilities Etc but for the state requesting It's all under one pot of money um and so initially we might have had like five requests from one pot of money um and so just helping us understand how those requests you know go about and also a meeting with Senator Simon gave us uh some some insight or some leads on how to possibly obtain some monies for our football fields so Mr Ward might be happy to hear about that I told him I said man you know he was talking about Pop Warner football trying to Bring pop one football back I told him we did have pop one football in Lin Haven for about a year we got Tyler driveing the Crestview and Mariana and Fort Walton for every game and uh and I said but we need money for football fields you know that'd be great you know we need about $1.5 million for our football fields and we might consider Pop Warner um and so uh so he did talk about I think volunteer of Florida um was a reference that he made uh that they might have some money there so our consultant Miss Tim is going to follow up on that so uh it again it was a productive time a productive day um you know representing the city of Len Haven um during that time and think that our interactions you know have been productive and hopefully we'll see especially with some of the young representatives and Senators over the next few years um more support um for our local uh municipality so uh I'll end my report there so that's my uh time at the capital I do have a proclamation here to read whereas 211 Northwest Florida grew out of a first call for help and after Hurricane Ivan in 2004 gradually evolved in 211 Northwest Florida in 2010 and whereas as of October 2022 211 Northwest Florida at okalo and Walton counties now providing services to all 10 counties of Northwest Florida Bay Calon Escambia Gulf Holmes Jackson Okaloosa Santa Rosa Walton and Washington and whereas during the 2023 211 noest Florida answered 37,9 53 calls serving 69,3 3 um human beings in our community anywhere as from 2019 to 2023 211 northest Florida served over 330,000 um individuals in our community and whereas all collectively the 211 Network in the United States has responded to more than 18 million calls for help each year and whereas 211 northest Florida's caring and training staff continue to be that Beacon of Hope providing crisis support and resources when people are overwhelmed they do not know where to turn in 211 Northwest Florida is available with Live help any time of the day or night 7 days a week and whereas 211 Northwest Florida's my F vet or Florida veteran support lifelines provides peer-to-peer support and helps veterans to readjust providing linkage to services for veterans and their families by veteran and whereas 211 Northwest Florida joined the National Suicide Prevention lifeline and the Florida 988 Coalition in October 2022 to serve those experiencing a suicide or Mental Health crisis with confidential Anonymous free phone based access to brief crisis counseling with connections to emergency services and more comprehensive Community Based mental health and substantive abut and substance abuse services and whereas 2011 211 Northwest Florida has one of the highest 98 988 calls answered rate in the State of Florida at 97% greatly exceeding the state average now therefore uh by the virtue of me as the mayor of the city of Lin Haven along with the city commission do hereby urge all citizens to be aware uh that if they are overwhelmed and in crisis just need to talk 211 Northwest Florida is available anytime day or night and that 211 Northwest Florida staff can provide referrals for mental health counseling substance abuse Healthcare employment food ensus daycare support groups volunteering free income tax preparation and much more so I do by here Proclaim um February the 11th though is passed as 211 Awareness Day witness whereof I have set my seal and my signature to the city of Lin Haven to Bill fix this 13th day of 2024 this time we'll have commissioner pebles thank you mayor uh I also reached out to um the the league of cities sends out periodically different bills to look at and um who to talk to about if you have concerns or what have you and so I also reached out about House Bill 1537 which is the short-term rentals um just giving also showing you know some concerns we have with short-term rentals and how we can we need some help as far as getting some teeth in case you know there I pointed out you know most people are good people but you know there might be the ones here and there that that are causing chaos for Neighbors around them and just G just offered my thoughts um as well and then next U you know obviously we had that Marina Island Workshop I thought it was great um learned a lot uh and I think it really I think that was probably the most shared video on Facebook since I've been here um a lot of people are interested uh in talking about it and learning about it and so that was fantastic hearing from uh all different people from all different walks of life and their thoughts on the project so uh that was great um thanks for everyone that came out and participated and everyone else that gave thoughts afterwards um definitely consider everything you have to say uh and with that that's really my report just want to say thanks to everyone again for all your hard work um I was off at Disney with my family so uh my One Vacation out of the year so I was not able to make the vulnerability uh Workshop we had but I heard great things uh I love vulnerability management it's one of my passion so I'm happy that the city's doing that uh and thanks for the staff and everyone that was involved with all the workshops I know you had to work extra hours to be here and so um that go that means a lot to me and uh with that that's my report thank you commissioner pebles in regards to the vulnerability Workshop we do have uh Miss Myers here with us today um so she's going to be um discussing that with us uh the vulnerability Workshop so if we have any questions and such please you know address those to her during her uh City attorney time and so uh just thank you for being here today and welcome to the city of Lin Haven perno thank you mayor um nice to have a good looking lady next to me besides Kevin obos sitting next to him for years actually actually Kevin's a really good guy and I um you know I've had a couple citizens come up to me with some issues I still have to get with uh um Miss Vicki about um I I uh had we had a little um we had to have a little review on the city manager and we we had a follow up on it yesterday but um the last two workshops that we had the vulnerability uh Workshop was interactive kind of we weren't sitting up here we were down there and there was key there was easel all around with with people from stantech to explain things I thought it was great but I thought it was poorly attended by the public but but we need to get that information and share it because I'm a big picture guy and I thought that wow look where our look where our our um our water facility is right in the middle of the lowest lying area along the bay and does it need to be there the next 50 years I don't I don't know I don't think so embarking on the growth that we have but just to get the head Works done is a lot of work can you imagine having to move the way water plant in Lind which which is makes sense to everybody here but it's not possible right now um and we need to look to the Future for that um the other thing is U the U Marina Island uh workshop and it was a great presentation again um it's I think it's the third time they came before us since I've been a commissioner I just hope things proceed um and there was a lot of uh people in the audience who had to leave uh because of the length of the length of the workshop so I just want to open it up to everybody if you have any any more if you have any comments about about the Marine Island project I know we got a email about 8:30 last night from a gentleman so just continue to contact us let us know how you feel about it you know it's it's an open it's an open book kind of thing for us and it it helps us up here the more we hear from our citizens so that's my urgent um plea to y'all um I uh I hope that everybody this time of year reflects on everybody else you know let's help people um we uh we tend to go through the motions I I was kind of taken back um a day or two ago somebody was in in my restaurant and you know they they had no means they weren't they weren't going to order anything but they just needed to get off the street for a little while and you know as as a a hardened person would have told them hey we don't you know you got to move along but we we we make sure we take care of people that's all you can you can see it in folks eyes when you look at them so just just try to help people the best you can and I appreciate every person in our city and I think for the most part every employee of our city has that mindset for our City I know those department heads back there do and y'all yall um you gave it everything you got and I can't thank yall enough so that's my report and just just trying to encourage folks so thank you commission Ward um by the time it gets to me everything's been pretty much talked about so but um yeah I've been paying attention to the bills I appreciate the mayor going up um for the legislative days I wanted to do that this year but unfortunately uh I was not able to so my goal next year is to go up there um hopefully learn some things up there and uh uh for the public workshops I appreciate everyone coming out especially the marina Island one uh as probably you most everyone knows I have some concerns with it especially the industrial park um but um appreciate everyone coming out giving their feedback uh continue to give us feedback like commissioner perel said uh we'd like to listen to what you have to say um I think this is the first time since I've been on the commission that I've been able to do this without anybody saying it but I would like to thank all our First Responders and dispatchers for everything that they do normally commissioner perel beats me to the punch of that so I appreciate you and all the the staff and everything you do for the city there's definitely a lot of things that have to take place for the city to successfully run so I appreciate everyone that does that and the last thing I have is on 24th February I will have my time with the commissioner at Slim Chickens at 11:30 any residents want to come out speak to me about any concerns or just want to come out and talk uh I I encourage you to do that and hope to see you there that's all I have thanks commission work um I think commissioner perno is offended that you've never come to B bradies for your time with the commiss hello open up early and give you a pot of coffee I won't even be there permission to vend gr well I'd like to ditto everything that the other Commissioners have said about the workshops and I appreciate the citizens of ly Haven coming to those workshops for information um commissioner perno and I are members of the TPO committee which is the transportation planning uh for our region and so they had a regional meeting and they set the priorities for how they were going to spend the money in the next five years they do it in five year Cycles so I wanted to share with you uh some of their priorities number one was the um traffic management thank you so much because sometimes our traffic on 23rd Street in 77 is unbelievable um Safe Streets they are uh concentrating also on carbon reduction and fiber deployment so they want to do some underground uh fiber installations so it's been very informative for me to be on this committee not realizing how how far ahead they plan some of these plans we won't see I won't even see in my lifetime probably but they PR plan that far ahead how to spend the money so I I would like to thank the mayor and commission for allowing me to be part of that committee because it's very important I think for the city of Lin Haven to have at least the two Representatives that we have thanks that's all just want to say thank you to commissioner wart for uh saying his thing with the meeting with the commissioner on the 24th cuz I forgot to mention that I'm also going to be doing that on the 24th in the morning at 8:00 a.m. at uh wild rout so thanks for reminding me by not actually reminding me but appreciate it now are you guys paying for those that come I'm just trying to find breakfast and lunch that day so okay less than 25 bucks I mean you don't yeah it less cup of hot chocolate it's like $3.50 that's it it is it is um and and thank you to the city manager for stocking hot chocolate there in the breakroom I certainly appreciate it so got my first mug of hot chocolate today yep so thank you thank you very much so that's our reports uh city manager I'm first the warrant list everybody have any questions I do I someone asked me about um BGN contractors and uh what was the other one quill and pow so if you could just tell me um where that money is going just so that they know the BGN contractors was for phase one at the ball field p in that was for the uh Sports a complex the Civil part of it thank you appreciate it one of the things we did mention in um meeting on Friday is that though you see the completion um of our various City facilities there's still monies that are being paid um for the facilities you know that we're using so there's still monies that we owe contractors and such so uh when we ask city manager about it it's going to be extended to maybe the next two to five you know two to 5 years that we'll still be paying um various contractors and such as you know with feema funds and such as as that continues to come um so you will continue to see some payment to uh for example he mentioned phase one well we completed phase one a while ago but we're now just paying that bill so you'll continue to see some of those in our reports so um just wanted to mention that thank you mayor a lot of those reports of what's called close out and so some some of the times they will we will not pay a contractor until that architect or engineer says pay that person because of a close out uh documents that have to happen and that does take several months um even with the rebu uh we probably have another you know two years in terms of closing out FEMA our whole goal is when we do close out we will not have any money to be cloged back from us so you have to be very very careful to make sure um the money is spent correctly uh other things in my report this morning is um congratulations to Charles van and Gloria Thompson they've done something that has not happened in 31 years we have a a rating that was a class 88 um and now that Community rating system for our area is a class seven that has not happened in 31 years that translates into residents um actually saving money uh that means that they will probably have a probably a a 5% reduction in their flood insurance uh this is a lot of work that we work with FEMA um lots of documents lots of documentation but it's worth it and so you'll probably see that at some point a 5% reduction in um Insurance uh for flood insurance uh we are still open for adult volleyball we almost have we were very close and and very congratulations to the sports and W almost a thousand people students kids in our uh Spring ball Spring ball opening is March 9th at 900 a.m. it promises to be a large event uh I think before hurricane Michael we were probably sitting at um well over a thousand and so as you can see with the rebuild rebuild of activities and um uh other things are rebuilding as well um we will have a TR we will have a tree giveaway on February the 17th we are trying very um diligently to replenish our trees and thank you residents for coming out um we see residents come out and they enjoy the fact that we are trying to replenish and put back what was lost during Hurricane Michael uh contractors started on um this morning on the sidewalk on East 26th Street it's near raer 12s of course you remember this was the money that was donated by an individual uh for B bicycle safety uh we have a couple of black history events going on one of them is tonight this year's theme is African-American and arts and so uh we will be showcasing several local artists that set up here in the chamber uh we'll have a pre-reception at 4:45 and then at 5:30 Willie Spears will be speaking uh and then more you know art that people will be able look at and also buy so please come out and support that uh we will also have our annual art contest of from our local schools and it will be set up in here and um thank God I'm not judging it'll be the Commissioners that will be judging the top uh three in in in several categories so you'll hear more about that very soon we will on Friday we will have our um annual strategic planning with leadership staff and yes I heard someone mention are we planning absolutely that is something that is very uh important to all of us is to plan for the future uh my goal is and we we talk about this all the time if something were to happen to you could someone come in and and pick up that strategic plan and carry out the things that needed to be carried out yes that is our goal to do that for City and so we are surely planning for the future two announcements RFQ 23241 professional utility Engineering Services wastewater treatment facility design the bid opening for that is March 4th um at 2 p.m. and then RFQ 242 23243 that's the tennessy Avenue sidewalk project design engineering services that bid opening will be determined once we receive back the review from fdot and mayor that is my report thank you very much City Manager for that report and thank you and the staff for uh all of what you do to uh continue to keep our our city safe and uh and running efficiently um certainly appreciate uh all of you all's hard work this time uh we to the city attorney's report I would just like to say that worked with Kevin for yet I worked with Kevin for about 20 years and I'm looking forward to working with you happy to be here today awesome thank you are there any questions for Miss Myers awesome this time moving on to our consent agenda approval of minutes for 12324 regular media minutes approval of the residential Inc program application 902 Louisiana Avenue contingent upon completion approval of proposed changes to the previously approved amendment number one agreement number 22pl n29 uh is there uh any concerns about the consent agenda if not is there a motion for it motion to approve the consent agenda second motion by commissioner perno second by commissioner Vandergriff city manager if you call the vote commissioner perno yes commissioner Griff yes commission Peebles yes commissioner War yes mayor Nelson yes motion passed uh discussion and possible approval of the Florida Department of Commerce Grant Amendment for the Florida and Ohio Avenue Improvement project um are there any questions additional questions for Mr jeni uh basically he told us on Friday that uh we needed to uh basically approve this new Amendment or approve the Amendments because it uh changed some of the uh some of the language in there uh adversely and so we just need needed to uh needed to bring it to the commission for approval um for those projects uh any additional questions for him not is there a motion a motion to approve second motion by commissioner peble second by commissioner perno any questions from the public see the manage if we call the vote commissioner pebles yes commissioner perno yes commissioner War yes commissioner Vander Griff yes yes mayor Nelson yes motion passed and discussion of possible approval of Florida and Ohio Avenue improvements project agreement with Florida architects in the amount of $373,500 I may mayor can Mr janky just give an overview real quick yes sure good good morning good morning um this contract is U for Engineering Services or or consultant services to prepare the construction plans for the improvements on Florida and Ohio Avenue so items number 11 and 12 kind of are tied together but we had to separate them because there two different entities that we're dealing with and that's part of our four4 and a half million do Grant right that is correct we received $4.3 million from the Department of Commerce to make some improvements to Florida and Ohio Avenue in our downtown area and this is basically the Legal Foundation the contractual Foundation to actually put um to make these improvements thank you any additional questions for Mr Yan motion to [Music] approve I second motion by commissioner perno second by commissioner pebles any comments from the public see the minut for call the vote commissioner perno yes commissioner pebles yes commissioner War yes commissioner vandagriff mayor Nelson yes motion passed we're going to adjourn this meeting and go right into our for uh cra meeia