##VIDEO ID:Z94oWkR-s4Q## e good evening welcome to the Board of Commissioners regular meeting it is Wednesday December 11th 2024 and it is 558 p.m. City attorney would you please lead us in the invocation and Pledge of Allegiance our helping father we meet to serve our community to use our resources wisely and well to represent all members of our community fairly and to make decisions that promote the common good we recognize the responsibility to the past and the future as well as the rights needs of both the individual and our community as trusted servants we seek blessings on our deliberations this evening this we pray amen I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all city clerk would you call the role please Mayor Brooks here commissioner Kerr here commissioner McAn here commissioner gabay available vice mayor tagini would not be in attendance at the regular meeting before we approve the agenda I would like to add the jetty removal for discussion and vote and I would also like to add a capacity path Crisis Support presentation if there are no objections do we have an approval so moved second okay there are no proclamations and the presentation we have tonight is capacity path Crisis Support by the way as she's coming up that did not require a motion consensus was appropriate we didn't vote on that first and second so consensus is fine thank you yep wonderful thank you mayor thank you Commissioners for letting us be with you and thank you to all of the city staff and all of the residents we just really can I do this sideways a little bit so we can be with everyone for just a moment um I just really want to acknowledge how much you all are wrestling down the really hard part right now this place where you're processing what you've been going through and at the same time trying to solve very real hard problems and putting in the time and all of the talent and all of the skills of your life to make sense of something you've likely never been through before my name is Amy Lee I'm the Clinical Director for capacity path and that we provide the state Emergency Response Team for Community crisis stabilization in fact I'm I'm thrilled to share with you in the State of Florida we are the only state in the the country that has a community crisis stabilization team and that's because we have so many storms except in pelis right we don't have them here and that's why we're also based here so this is our 27th disaster I know you all feel like it's a pretty big rodeo to have two back to back and it really is but we lived in pelis because we aren't supposed to have storms that's why we're based here but now that we are I just really wanted to make as much contact with you all as we can directly to let you know you have a real resource in your community now that our period of doing the actual response is over we are still here we're still very much present and in fact if possible I'd like to appeal to see if maybe on Friday late morning we might be able to provide a workshop you know pro bono paid for by other funders who really continue to want to support the community to just do some community support and resilience and capacity building to get us one geared up and a little ready for the holidays because wow facing the holidays with these kind of tsunami stressors can get complex but also just to and this is the kicker enjoy your lives again you all are allowed to enjoy your lives and you're holding on so tightly to all the things you have to work on right now um that we just really want you to know that that's possible so we'd love to do that if that's possible I don't know if that's a vote or something at some point um we've been working actually with Chief Belk from the very beginning from when Helen was hitting and we were headed up to Tallahassee to go help Taylor and when we saw as soon as we got into the state Emergency Operations Center Madera Beach on all of the big screens and we were like wait wait turn this thing around what did what did we just we live here what did we do so um so you're the closest to our hearts we in the period of the what was it Carrie it was six weeks total that they had our resource deployed we did more than 30 30,000 Community Crisis Support sessions in 13 counties and so we did a lot of them right here at your cooling station thanks to your Chief um we brought in even massage therapists so sorry if some of you did not get to experience the Magnificent mental health support of getting a great massage while you're in the midst of a lot of crisis but we one thing we really advocate for is the care of your body at this moment because when you've gone through a Crisis crisis mental health is really just making sure you're getting a good night's rest getting some healthy food and getting the capability to make great decisions under stress so there's just one thing I'll kind of say is a little bit of a crisis opportunity to reflect on for y'all tonight not to overb the point that nobody really needs a whole lot more of but do you notice that it's kind of complex right now when your neighbors start to to tell you about the storm and you don't know if you're talking to someone who lost everything or a little bit or one of those people who's cringing and saying I feel guilty because I didn't lose everything and the people are on eggshells with each other right now and you don't know if you're dealing with someone who's really angry and you've got to deal with that or who's just feeling really sad and so how we navigate our words right now really can help set us up for a long-term sense of safety and well-being for all of us even just the lovely gal you know over here trying to direct folks how to get code officials to help them put their case in how do we have those conversations well one of the things I want to encourage you to do for a moment is resist asking people how bad their home is do you notice when you have that conversation it Cascades down it's like oh yeah and I was getting a divorce and this happened with my dog and the car and the I mean that's how life is and so I promise you that that story will will still be there later but right now because people are having to share that story with FEMA over and over again and it's connected to getting money resources they have to tell the worst version of the story and I'm the former director of Public Health of the largest trauma institution in the world that had 35,000 therapists being trained in trauma informed care we know when you tell the story over and over you're actually embedding it into your memory rather than relieving it so we really advocate for doing other things that will change up the neurobiology okay so sorry you got stuck with a science class you had hours and hours of whether to do Phill and then some mulch but now you get a little tiny bit of brain science the little tiny bit of brain science says what that storm did that still probably lingering and you're starting to get a little bit of the emotional whirlwinds and Cascades just now it makes sense about two to three months afterwards you're like Oho here come the feels what is that um what the storm really did is it had this moment of no choice did you notice that like everything in life you've had Choice from the time you were born you were a tiny baby you came out of your mom and you had you were able to figure out within moments very resilient how to get fed y'all did it y'all figured it out no one gave you a resiliency class you got fed and you got held and you advocated for yourself right off the bat just with the tones of voice coming out you had choice but the storm what was so devastating about it and particularly because we really didn't see it comaling the way it did was it took away our sense of choice and that moment of helplessness can really stay you can be in these meetings feeling like oh I'm still helpless what can I do to get out of this feeling of helplessness you are legitimately victims of some of the worst storm impacts this state has ever seen so one I'm just going to really acknowledge that as true and as that has passed you're like how do I not be a victim to December 12th 201 24 how do I not be a victim how do I wake up each day a bit more courageous for my own life tiny little brain science hack celebrate every single choice you have every day by noticing you're making choices for example this is a very long meeting earlier it was great I'm so in awe of all the commitment of Public Service officials for it and you made a choice to be here and you made a choice to come up and speak at the microphones from the public and you made a choice to sit here and listen and you keep choosing it and if you remind yourself each day this is a complex choice and I'm making it you know we go to work in the morning like it feels like we have to go to work doesn't it feel like we have to go to work you know you never have to but if you say to yourself I I choose this there's something in my past and my present and my future that has me choose this then you get a little more power back in you and if we could put nodes on your brain when you're reminding yourself that you chose it it would show it lighting up all over the place when you make a choice and that sense of helplessness settling down a little bit so a little tiny exercise for a minute just right now while we're sitting here put your attention on a place in your body and and it's funny you could do this and no one's knowing it and I do this a lot in Long meetings um you can put your attention on somewhere in your body where you normally have some tension maybe there's a part of your neck or shoulders people kind of habitually carry a little tension put your attention there I'm not going to try and make that go away we're just internally I'm like looking at you and I can see you and you can you're moving your attention while you're doing that and then move your attention to a place where there's really nothing going on like I'm picking my left foot little toe move your attention there and then go back to the place of tension and back to the place of neutral back to the tension back to the neutral it's a very small internal thought exercise you might notice a little bit of softening in your belly settling in your spine you might have had a yawn or a little bit of a different kind of breath that was telling your body you are in control of your own thoughts you're in control of your attention there was a priest who was a Siberian um prison camp person what do I mean it prisoner that's the word I'm looking for for years and he noted that the one thing that he had to hold control over himself was the control over his own attention and that gave him the endurance for unbelievable amount of distress you guys are under really an extraordinary amount of pressure and stress and enjoy just for a minute enjoy if you want to think of your favorite song or your favorite food or something you personally dig that no one in this room knows about you could have a secret little moment of joy and you'll get a little dopamine and a little serotonin burst in your brain for a sec and it will give you a slightly enhanced increased endurance and resilience so this is not your mother's mental health I'm not saying let's come talk about feelings just saying you live in this body in this life and in your choices and you're going to continue to be in this one as we go down this road together I City attorneys finance and city managers I have worked with you in so many cities after disasters I I feel like I'm looking at you because my heart was called just to say keep doing the good fight you guys have some extraordinarily challenging things in front of you thank you for it you make the choice to bring some really Advanced skills to solve some really hard problems and to everybody in this room and you all know who you are what you've done to solve the problems little pat on the back just for yourself right now it doesn't matter I'm some stranger saying thank you but really say thank you to yourself because your choice was amazing you're phenomenal thank you for it hopefully we get to work with you Friday morning um sometime and I I guess I'll defer to the commission for it thanks for letting me spend a few moments with you I hope it gave you a tiny burst the name of our company is capacity path and you're not going to get rid of us yet we'll be around for a minute more thank you thank you so we will move on to public comment public participation is encouraged if you are addressing the commission step to the toad Podium and state your name and address for the record and the organization or group you represent please limit your comments to 5 minutes and do not include any topic on the agenda public comment on agenda items will be allowed when they come up if you would like someone at the city to follow up on a comment or question made at the meeting you may fill out a comment card with a contact information and give it to the city manager comment cards are available at the back table in the commission Chambers completing a comment card is not mandatory for anyal quasi judicial public hearings that might be on the agenda an affected person may become a party to a quasi judicial proceeding and can be entitled to present evidence at the hearing including the sworn testimony of witnesses and relevant exhibits and other documentary evidence and to cross-examine all Witnesses by filing a notice of intent to be a party with the community development director not less than 5 days prior to the hearing do we have any public comment for items that are not on the agenda with no public comment we will move on to the approval of the minutes if the commission has had the opportunity to remove or to review the minutes do we have a motion I'll make a motion to approve the minutes as written all three for all three meetings do we have a second second city clerk would you call the role please commissioner Kerr yes commissioner gabay yes commissioner mcgean yes Mayor Brooks yes the motion carried four to zero we have nothing on the consent agenda no public hearings no listed unfinished business no listed contracts and agreements the first item that I would like to call is the item we placed on the agenda which which is the approval of the removal of the jetty Ju Just for clarity sake I want to make sure that if if there's going to be a motion made that the motion would be based upon the discussion we had earlier and that was is it's really not removing the jetty it's really removing the concrete debris and rebar from the sidewalk that was uh disassembled by City staff yes okay and we do we just need to have someone make a motion to direct the city manager to have the concrete and rebar removed from the jetty okay yeah do would that in would that include all of it whether it was touched or not touched it looked like by the pictures that some it's all touched even the stuff that's down in the water so when walked down there and looked at it um the the concrete's there I mean did you walk or you haven't walked on I haven't walked so I walked from one end all the way out to the jetty and it's it's I mean Megan could she's been there she could speak to it also um but I don't think there's a um there's no question what's concrete from the sidewalk and what is the previous rock yeah well I think we all agree that um per uh Mr tra's notes if we remove the man-made Mater materials and leave the natural Coastline the Natural Stone I know it's man I know it's right man arranged or whatever and um but the idea is to remove that and to do to put up I don't know do do do we want to include any signage in the motion or just that's not necessary the city manager will determine what needs to go there um and I'll work in conjunction with the city manager relative to some um signage risk language okay Assumption of the risk so really the motion is to uh take the de out use so so the discussions will be after we second the motion because I like to ask some additional questions the motion I mean the discussion would be before the motion you can ask you can ask the questions ask it now then yeah all right so if we move the let's say broken up sidewalk we're going to leave the sand basically natural and it will be subject to erosion I I would like to we certainly need to replace the broken sidewalk with a sidewalk right is that is that the intent but that's not going to happen for m i mean they're Robin stated in the in our previous meeting that they they just have their first preliminary meeting scheduled with um the core tomorrow so they're just having a first meeting tomorrow if if that's the case I am I don't like to support removal of it I just want to state that upfront because I think it will subject us to a few things erosion will be one of them and npds will be right there um you know National pollution discharge elimination system which is a EP regulation will be eroding the sand and um and also you know if if we have something there historically and I know we have pictures to prove obviously but if the rubble is there and then we just remove it when when when the approval is issued um we can remove the rubble then and then replace it with a sidewalk but but a permit won't be issued for and it's dangerous many many many months so so you're saying that npds or whoever I didn't get the total acronym they're going to they're they could potentially come back to us and and be upset that we removed rebar and concrete yeah creating erosion is certainly uh prohibited by the state we would be creating erosion how how would we be creating erosion if it's if it's a Stone the Sand by itself Jett we're not removing all of the stone I think that's no we're not removing the stone we're just removing the man-made concrete concrete P that's what I'm saying so you're going to have basically sand Stone exposed no there'll still be no there's still Stone if you look up at the image the stone will still remain the rocks that were underneath the the sidewalk will still remain there were rocks underneath the sidewalk and they when they broke up the sidewalk the side walk is broken up on top of those rocks so we're just removing the rebar and the rocks from the sidewalk and leaving the rocks that were originally there underneath that were already there thank you yeah I I I would be in in favor of removing any any of the man-made materials I I'll just put it that way the concrete and the rebar basically you have any comments Ed I'll second that is that the motion I got to have I'm going to do I was do we have any public comment okay now do we have a motion oh I I'd like to make a motion to um request the city manager to have the the uh rebar and the concrete removed from the jetty a second city clerk would you call the role please commissioner Kerr yes commissioner McAn yes commissioner gabay yes Mayor Brooks yes the motion carried forward to Zer next item on the agenda is resolution 2024-the I'm going to go ahead and read this resolution by title only resolution 202 4-08 a resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the city of Mader Beach Florida opting out of providing the 80 to 120% Ami missing middle property tax exemption to developments that would otherwise qualify pursuant to House Bill 7073 and providing for an effective date hereof that was reading resolution 20248 by title only I would remind you that this requires a two-thirds vote which means that all four of you need to vote in favor of this for it to pass the two-thirds vote is required by the state statute any comments I would I would be in favor of it yes any comment do we have any public comment with no public comment do we have a motion I'd like to make a motion to approve resolution 2024 d08 opt out of live local act do we have a sec city clerk would you call the role please commissioner Kerr yes commissioner gabay yes commissioner mcgean yes mayor Brook yes the motion carried four to zero thank you next item is agenda setting um Robin I would like to ask for agenda setting if I have the support of the commission that we get updates at each meeting on the court of honor the dredging of John's Pass and the status of the jetty or of of the walkway being rebuilt and that we get those with every meeting so that the community and the commission can stay up to date sure yep does everyone do you Madame mayor did we also have a um question or concern about boat dos at the Rock is that that did I hear um I think that that's something in the future but it's not the reason I'm asking for these three things is the court of honor has been on yes for a long time and it keeps getting set aside and the dredging is we haven't had an update on that recently and then I know that the community from the attendance we had here tonight will want to follow the progress of how the jetty is dealt with and what those meetings um what comes out of them so I think those three things if you have something else that you feel like would be important for us to be updated on I I just had that in my memory I just wanted to bring it up okay all right thank you Robin and the next thing on our agenda is reports and correspondence are we finished with agenda setting would you like to set something else I'm sorry yes please I moved right along um we had discussed earlier in in our meeting about communication um to the uh to the residents yes on any anything but specifically um when you're in a disaster like now so just want to have an opportunity to to present how when significant items uh need to be updated to the residents how that is happening it it'll give an opportunity um for City staff or a city manager to present this is how we this is how we get out our information and if there's any dialogue in um how we might want to improve upon it or or just get the word out this is how we communicate in uh in times of disaster or any anytime really this is this is our the way we get that done so you want to do that at the next Workshop sure I think that would be great yeah we as we discussed at the workshop to as we discussed that was the plan is to have it at the next Workshop um and we'll go over the calendar I guess at the next item could we also talk about schedule scheduling meetings we are that's the that's the next item that's the next item okay in the on the agenda thank you so any other input on the agenda setting so we will move to reports and correspondence Board of Commissioners 2025 boc meeting schedule you have any changes for the schedule the next Workshop is not until Wednesday January the 22nd we have a regular meeting on Wednesday January the 8th my uh my only concern is if we meet early on in the afternoon we are not giving our residents time to go home and finish their work and have a little bite um there these meetings are scheduled for 6 o' the next one's coming up yeah if you look at the entire calendar yeah typically we we don't do a 4:00 meeting or or a 2:00 meeting I mean I think the only reason I don't recall exactly why we moved up to two these I think requested by vice mayor or one you that's what I thought I recall and so typically yeah it's six o'clock yeah all of our meetings all the way through July with the one well we will start to have budget workshops beginning at 4 P.M we will likely have the first one right now it's scheduled for Wednesday April the 23rd we may have one as early as March those are at 4M before the regular workshops that begin at 6: pm. and again the regular meetings also begin at 6: PM we don't really begin to modifi we do not modify the schedule unless one of you would like a schedule modification um however since I've been here we have modified the schedule for November and December yeah here's the December is that a regular thing I don't recall it prior to this year but having one meeting all on the same day that's what we have done for a few year for at least the last three years it makes sense you don't one towards the end of the year close to Christmas people travel I'm fine with that yeah but if you have any suggested changes please at this point we can discuss review if not we can make them at any meeting okay great looks good good yes thank you next on the agenda is the City attorney um Merry Christmas everyone I don't have anything else thank you Merry Christmas Merry Christmas everyone yes next on the agenda is the city clerk report for December 2024 yes I just want to say again that the laser fish project is moving along pretty good um three of the um Rec per um employees are helping out few hours a week and that's been helpful and in January I'll be looking to to hire someone back for that position and which is budgeted and everything so we're we're looking forward to full-time use of it we are working hard to get all the documents that we've already scanned over the year in there which will include all the meeting types from 1947 which was planning board then zoning board then Planning and Zoning Board of course Planning Commission and then ad hoc uh committees like for John pass the library archal and then there's another one and the packets what we have and the minutes and all in the Board of Commissioners from back that time that's a lot of information and that's a lot of research because a lot of that talks about how John's past got started and all and some of the research that the mayor would like me to look into so we're we'll have a lot of information in there and we're trying to get all the minutes packets and studies and things in there for the commission to look at and at the same time when we open it up before Christmas we we're going to continually be putting documents in there and hopefully when we get all the documents in there from offsite storage and what we have perhaps looking into putting updated material in there to keep it going the main thing is to centralize the city's um information and documents makes it easier for the public to find especially in a time like the devastation that we had because back then we have a lot of uh you know where they got baranes and for the different addresses and when the CVS was built when the when Dixie you know a lot of that's in there and you can just sit back and um just it's like Google so I'm excited to use it you know it's not the most perfect program but at least it'll have all the information in it that we're hoping so I'm excited about it we work real hard toward it and soon everybody will be using it and i' like your feedback feedback is what make things better and successful and I thank you for your patience through it all next is city manager thank you again to all our city staff been doing a wonderful wonderful job certainly the last two months and thank you to all of you on the mayor and commission for your continued support and certainly of our city staff we definitely appreciate it and thank you to all residents and businesses I know this is not what or this is these are obviously very difficult times we are working to get everybody back up and running as quickly as we can um we appreciate your patience I know we're running out of it but we are we will get everybody back and up and running as quickly as we can we need people to start back and visiting our city we are still shining as visit St Pete Clearwater continues to say and we rely our economy very tourism based but our priority continues to be our residents and businesses so please rest assured that is what we do every day day uh we live it we breathe it that's what we do every day so appreciate everybody being patient but let us know if what we need um people stop me on the street on the sand please let us know what else we can do and hope everybody does have a wonderful merry Christmas happy holidays Happy New Year and we're looking forward to a much better 2025 it can only get better so thank you if we have nothing further it is 6:30 1 and we are adjourned