e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening everybody Welcome to the city of Palaca Commission meeting on March 28th 2024 I'm calling the meeting to order the invitation will be led by Chaplan malberry who is in Zoom land Chaplan malberry and then a pledge of allegiance led by commissioner Jones father again we thank you for how good you've been all day you bless us to come together once again and again we say thank you Father we pray for directions for instructions and for the wisdom to be able to lead this city further pray God for the dasis and those that are in leadership uh Place remind us of who we are and who we represent as it relates to your purpose we ask God that your spirit will be with us and go before us and help us decision makings for this purpose in Jesus name we pray thank God amen amen pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all roll call please miss France thank you so much Madame mayor commissioner Tammy mccal here commissioner Justin Campbell president commissioner will Jones president commissioner Rufus Borum mayor Robbie Korea pres all members of President accounted for and we a COR Madam mayor thank you Miss CR has everybody had an opportunity to review the minutes for March 14th 2024 motion to approve second we have a motion of second all in favor any opposition thank you we're going to move on to public recognition presentations Miss CR the first is final Womanhood month March 2024 request to cify Beta sority Inc I think I can see that Madam mayor I present to you and the members of the city commission a proclamation to proclaim the month of March 2024 as finer Womanhood month in the city of pla let this Proclamation stand as a testament to the enduring Legacy and the invaluable contributions of finer women and let us collectively honor and pay homage to their exemplary dedication to Excellence moral probity and the advancements of of all women thank you do we have a motion all in favor I any opposition thank you ladies would you like to come up and would any of you like to speak about a woman and we can have the ladies come in front of the Das and the speaker at Podium is that okay mayor sorry good afternoon we are the ladies of Zeta F Beta sorority Incorporated Zeta M Zeta chapter of Paca Florida and we are honored to be recognized as final Womanhood month our principles include scholarship service and finer Womanhood and we are excited to just continue to imp our putam County Community thank you thank you thank you [Music] thanks our next Proclamation is for National safe place month Miss Frant yes ma'am and we do have members of CDs behavioral with us here today I would like to present to you and to the commission a proclamation for na to to to Proclaim March 2024 as National safe month in the city of we call upon our citizens to promote the program and we encourage our neighboring communities to establish safe place locations thank you do we have a motion second all in favor I any opposition thank you few words good evening good evening my name is Angela Williams I'm the residential superviser at interface youth program in Palaca we are a Safe Place shelter in putting County and so there's several locations are um all R solution our public schools are approved for safe places and several Community um organizations are approved as well but we house those runaways for a 35 days stay into our shelter and we also provide um Counseling Services as well so we thank you for this Proclamation and we appreciate it thanks our next Proclamation is for water conservation month we do have representatives of the St John's River Water Management District as uh well as our uh City's waste water and water treatment plants Madam mayor this Proclamation that I present to you is for water conservation month and we ask that you endorse and proclaim the month of April 2024 as water conservation month in the city of Palaca and we call upon our citizens and businesses to help protect our precious resource by practicing water safety measures and becoming more aware of the need to save water thank you do we have a motion thank you all in favor I I any opposition thank you Mr White if you'd like to say a few words thank you madam mayor Madam mayor council this is the 26th year of the St John's riverwater management teaming up with local city and uh County officials to put out the word of water conservation this year's theme is irrigation seems kind of crazy I mean as this city manager knows replacing pipes sewage water treatment plants all of that septic toore extremely expensive so why irrigation because 50% of our fresh water that we drink is used for water in the grass is for our um local businesses watering the plants we can do better with this this is where we can we can really make a difference because the ultimate goal is the same we want to passed on to our kids and our grandkids clean water the beautiful resources that Florida has with its spring lakes and rivers and that's why we team up to do this thank you so much thank you she's already we do have another Proclamation for Natalie K Park retirement from HCA hospital for 34 years of service um but she has already received her Proclamation do we have a motion to approve all in favor I thank you and thank you for delivering it commissioner Jones say that again in the spotlight Employee of the Month Ms Jones Thank You Madame mayor and Commissioners and once again we just come to this point to where we get to recognize one of our employees on different aspects that we're observing um their performance one is Exemplar work professionalism and dedication to the quality of work they provide so for the month of March we would like to rec um recognize for this month Employee of the Month our street superintendent Mr Daniel Nicholson Hey sir good evening commission Madame mayor Mr Nicholson um I'll be brief uh I I was a little mean to Mr Nicholson and my reason for having him is actually the second to last item on the agenda so he was kind of anticipating being here a little longer but um the Public Works staff had had kind of collaborated to nominate Mr Nicholson as the employee of the month not not just because he's an Exemplar employee but because of his willingness to to step up and feel a void in a need when when we needed that help and to provide stability within our department um we've had a significant amount of turnover U within our department but Mr Nicholson has has been the Steady Hand there to shephered our new staff and and basically filling in areas where he probably really didn't anticipate being um he's done everything from being the facility superintendent standin to being the facilities laborer streets labor storm water um any position that we need uh Mr Nicholson is is there and willing to fill those roles uh without question and even tonight you know with the reasoning I gave him to be here he didn't bat an ey he just said I'll be there so you know for that we we thank you for everything we do and uh we hope that you bring much more and we hope to see more from you because we believe that you are a wonderful person and one of the best employees that I've seen so thank you thank you tricked into I don't have anything to say y'all got me this surprise thanks everybody all that gold in there you got a lot of gold thank you next in the spotlight Mike Felton retirement city of Paca 40 plus years of service good evening Commissioners hi Mike good to see you uh thank you for having me back it's an honor to to do this for you they wrote this just so you know in advance Mike Felton was employed at the water treatment plant with the city of Paca August 8th 1980 through October 29th 1982 Mike Felton was rehired on October 7th 1983 as a water treatment plant operator and has been and has since continued his career with the city in addition Mr Felton obtained his class C drinking water treatment plant operator license in 1981 Class B drinking water treatment plant operator license in 82 82 that was away from was away from here and class a drinking water treatment license in 1984 Mike entered the retirement drop plan on June 1st 2019 and continued his employment with the city training and mentoring new operator trainees while performing his duties as a Class A operator Mike has received certificates from Florida water and Pollution Control operators Association University of Florida Michigan State University National Ral Water Association and California State University in water and wastewater treatment water supply and wastewater treatment Water and Wastewater utility management lead notification corrosion water qualities blood leeching and Water Treatment Plant operation respectively Mike has also completed fous certifications for i42 incident command Executives in 2002 I 700 National incident Incident Management System NIMS in 2005 is100 in introduction to incident command systems in is-200 incident commands for single resource and initial action incidence both in 2009 his dedication to his career in this community has been one of exceptional endurance and uh perseverance please join me in celebrating the retirement of Michael L Felton after 40 plus years of employment with the city of palaka lots of treasure thank you you want pictures well I was told I had three hours oh okay I didn't realize I accomplished all that the whole family izg thank you oh thank you thank you for your thank you for your time and your service dedication commitment and really want to thank your family for um letting us you utilize your uh services to provide the needed services to our community so we thank you for everything you've done continue to do thank you how we going to replace the uh institutional knowledge yeah I don't think that's possible city manager and administrative reports update utility assistance program thank you Madame mayor M if I can and uh just to introduce go while you're coming to the mic yes um I wanted to point out that uh and even though a um email was sent out that uh there was an item that was originally on the agenda for the ladder truck and for the fire department and fortunately through the diligent work of the fire department we went ahead and leased a u a replacement um we thought we were going to have to come back before uh the commission because of a long-term lease but the repairs were able to be done and so we were able to remove that item um but I did want to compliment the fire department for pushing that issue and pushing it Forward um the other thing I wanted to point out is that uh you will see on the uh website some new additions uh but I want to come back to that after we finish the uh updates on this program so if you would start us off Miss cardi of course good evening mayor Commissioners everyone in attendant uh I'd like to give an update on our exciting program utility assistance that has helped uh our community uh we retained a consultant as carar Consulting started accepting clients on February 11th even though the program itself officially started March 1st uh as of March 28th she had served 37 customers but as of one week later March 28th the total assistance increased to 75 so we have been able to help 75 uh residents here in the city of Palaca three from Clay Electric 36 from FPL 38 from gas and Authority so as of March 28th uh the program has helped um 75 customers with 77,6 25 and that leaves us a remaining 60,000 that we will help the city of Palaca with utility assistance and we'd like to congratulate our consultant Crystal aakar because this is a pilot program and we are working out the Kinks and it's it's very good thank you thank you okay next um end of 2024 legislative session briefing Miss West I'll okay thanks good evening Commissioners uh as you know the legislative session has wrapped up and so I'm going to briefly cover some of the bills that we have been monitoring this entire session next slide please the first one that did pass is the alternate Mobility funding systems this bill prohibits local governments for charging for transportation impacts if they are not the local government that is issuing the building permit however um the portion that really does affect us concerns impact fees the bills that provide the local governments adopting and collecting impact fees by ordinance it must be based on localized data that was gathered within the last 12 months um so that means that we are coming up on that deadline um for us to update our localized data so we can continue to legally um charge for impact fees next slide please the uh there were several bills regarding um the Homestead Property Tax exemption and the first one failed next slide please however the next uh house joint resolutions did pass and so this you will see this um on the ballot this upcoming November uh it must be approved by over 60% of the electors and basically it will propose an amendment to the Constitution to authorize the legislature to require an annual adjustment to certain Homestead exemptions so um that will be on your ballot this upcoming election next slide please we were pleased to see this one fail this was a bill uh relating to land use and development regulations it amended a whole bunch of regulations relating to comprehensive plans as we work into our visioning process and updating our own comp plan we certainly didn't want to be bound by uh the state restricting us so we were happy to see this one fail next slide please another one is the land use and development regulations that failed this would have required the automatic rezoning of all AG land for single family housing in certain circumstances preempting your ability to regulate agricultural land not a huge issue for placa but certainly would affect putam County which of course affects the county seat so it was good that this one failed uh next slide please local business taxes this is one that we were really concerned about this did fail um this would have taken away our ability to Levy our local business tax um locally known as our btrs which is a big Revenue source for the city of faka so that did fail next slide please local government actions passed um so we are now going to have to file business impact statements which is something we've always had to do but now we're going to have to do it for all of our city initiated comp plan amendments which we're going to have to do and all of our Land devel Development regulations so um that we're going to have to basically get with an accountant to determine what all the business impacts are going to be as a result of our changes to our own comp plan so that's going to be a little bit of a burden that we're going to have to keep in mind um as we approach the budget next slide please Municipal Water and Sewer utility rates fees and charges this did fail and I'm sure that Paca gas Authority folks were happy to see this fail however this is one of those bills that comes back session after session and we can anticipate it coming back next year we'll keep an eye on it next slide sovereign immunity this did fail this would have bumped up by double um the the sovereign immunity liability for people that would sue local government so it would have a an impact uh negative fiscal impact on the city next slide please residential building permits did pass this is basically going to really FastTrack um the residential building permit process and that's going to put a little bit of a strain on our planning director um so just one to keep an eye out for local government impact fees failed um that was going to require to ensure that any impact fees collected must be relevant um to the property area service for which the city was assessed this is already kind of codified in statute so I viewed this as a duplicative bill because you still have to have a rational Nexus for those impact fees next slide please vacation rentals passed this was an attempt once again to try and undo um the state's preemption of the ability for local government to regulate um vacation rentals within their jurisdiction um it did Implement a limit on a $150 per unit for processing an individual registration um and some municipalities were charging a lot more than that which the state legislature felt was gouging so this put a cap on that next slide trees on residential property this was another attempt to undo a state preemption on our ability to regulate tree removal on residential property that failed so that state preemption is still in place next slide please and finally uh commissioner boram was was good to point out that this is an important bill that uh he's certainly been monitoring the unauthorized public camping and public sleeping Governor Dan santis signed this into law uh just very recently and it prohibits local governments from allowing public camping or sleeping on public property without certification of a designated um public property by the Department of Children and Family Services so we're going to have to take a look at this and go ahead and probably pass some ordinances to have that certification process in place yes sir with this particular one how fast or something like that house would we address something um within our city let me pull up the bill and see if there are any mandatory deadlines the bill doesn't go into effect until July 1 um so we'll probably have some phasing time periods but I don't know off the top of my head but I'll I'll report back thank you Madame Mary if I may I wanted to just bring to your attention that we have received an agenda request from the city's lobbyist to come and also provide a further legislative update in the May meeting okay is that it this that's it any questions thank you thank you that's certainly needed for the public to be able to understand and know a lot of times you know bills and other things they're doing things in Tallahassee or DC or whatever that may be you guys are being uh educated on what we're involved in and we would like for you guys to get more involved as well so you'll be impacted if some of these bills pass so I think want to thank you for bringing that before the community and we'll keep these type things rolling I do want to say thank you as well but I also want to see if this is something that we would be able to place on our website for sure our Web Master Pio can make that happen I I will note in Appropriations we did not get a line item funding for ride Solutions uh yeah that's all for other Recreation fail too it's not good thank you you um update Hank briyan pck Mr McMillan evening again commission Madam mayor um no major updates on the park itself although we've been endeavoring to try to find a a more I guess fiscally responsible solution to the design of the restroom um I think in the last meeting i' mentioned that the solicitation came in at 30 $99,500 for design uh from the open bid for the restroom we've gone to our continuing Services contracts as well um their prices are between 30 and $40,000 so at this state We're working directly with the County engineer um to hopefully have some inter agency uh function to actually create the design and bid specifications in house um it significantly reduced cost and potential benefit to both the city and the county um so we're working with them actively and uh we hope to have at least some preliminary um sketches that we can potentially get some direction on for location um and then we can you know create our documents for a bit thank you does anybody have any questions and Mr McMillan okay thank you update Jenkins Community Center um as as we are uh still waiting on Department of State approval um and the delivery of the air conditioning equipment there has been no major changes at the J is Community Center we're still set for the May 15th delivery time for the HVAC equipment um that contract is is ready to go and executed um but with the roof and the uh um fire suppression uh Department of State has still not returned uh response any questions yeah commissioner Jones I I know in the last Mee I mentioned the floors at gymnasium um and Mr cutri said that there would be other funding for have we identified where that fundings go to that funding source I have not Mr right yeah we allocated money in the building maintenance fund for the to operate the floor we got about 19,000 that's set aside for they use for different things in the build of Maintenance so more specifically um I was in it other week um and I see the need have you how much is going to cost us we have got three quotes for the floor once they finish the roof in the uh PR suppression uh the most the most quote was 17,000 and the smallest quote was 7500 and we got one in there for 125 yeah so the uh the 25 the 20 18 18,000 quote was a quote sight unseen the other two quotes they came in actually did looked at the looked at the floor purpose why I'm asking is we're going to do the other work on the roof and we get get that completed kind of like want to I guess you guys coordinate getting it done so that when you finish the roof work you have the floors finished shortly after that getting on schedule so that you guys start having those activities over there commiss the Jones hard to get to go ahead and start anything on the floor because it it it doesn't rain a little bit it rains a lot I started yeah right so once they finish the roof we'll have that schedule for them to come in right right after yeah once we uh once we get a timeline on when they going to finish the roof uh we already gonna make a make a decision on who we're gonna go with and we're gonna try to get them started right after they finish the don't go with the 18,000 oh well I had to get three quotes So I got but three quotes appreciate the update thank you so so the roof the roof how much was the roof again i' have to rever back to the bid um I believe it was $300 and something, right and and so we're waiting on the department Department State correct there to approve of the solicitation the procurement and the contract correct yes okay so we could not we could not do we could not use funding from another source until that get approved because we don't know if we use another contractor they would meet those requirements that's what I'm understanding well correct and the money that was allocated within that Grant wouldn't be applicable anymore if we used external funding that that money was specific within that grant for that item much like the air conditioners we were stuck with six air conditioners because that was specifically what was in the grant wow so was just being held up by the yes sir okay the big issue is us um accessing the grant if we go ahead and did the work now we might not get the grant funding later that's clear I me I'm I'm I'm clear on that my my point was that we're held up by the department of yes yes sir so is there any way that we maybe can make some additional calls to see if we can kind of help them help us uh almost every day weate any further questions thank you update on the pension motti or oh okay Miss okay okay I didn't see until she just stood up sorry Adat y good evening my name is Jill Kaiser I'm the financial services supervisor and pension administrator and I have two reasons for being here tonight the first reason is because we have two uh positions open on the pension board we have a position open on the firefighters pension board and we have a position open on the police officer pension board and the requirement are simply to be a resident of the city of Paca so we're uh we're anxious to get the positions filled um it's a five member board they have they meet every quarter so it's four times a year they meet during the day um so it'd be a commitment during daylight hours during working hours um and you will get educated about the pension there's there's a lot of good education there and there's decisions that need to be made which brings me to the second item on that I wanted to discuss and that is an update on the fact that the three each of the three um pension boards uh put out independent rfps so that um they can have a third-party administrator because I will be retiring in October um they decided to go uh to look at the RFP route they they had um several respondents but only one met all the criteria uh for the RFP um they had the um respondent uh come and discuss present their uh solution and each of the um the boards met together at a luncheon meeting and they decided to recommend to each of the boards to hire the the third party administrator who met the RFP um then each of the boards met independently and decided and voted to hire a third that third party uh administrator their name is the Resource Centers and they will be um during the next three months uh become the pension administrator for the s for each of the pensions um the cost to the uh pensions is a cost to the pension and not to the city the city is not going to be no longer contributing the pensions will no longer be contributing toward um a pension administrator they're financing the pension administrator themselves um so the any of the costs that the pension has been paying to the city uh the only remaining one will be for liability coverage and then they pay the city for that coverage thank you does anybody have any questions M Kaiser I just have one question what was the key factor uh that they had that the other applicants did not have what was the component it was um the city can clerk can speak to this but they um responded after the closing of the RFP so they weren't eligible as a respondent because they didn't meet the conditions all other respondents resped after that's correct I can confirm there was only one that met the deadline and it was proposed during the lunch and meeting whether the RFP should go back out or whether there should be accommodations but um the boards decided that if they couldn't meet the bolded red instructions that perhaps they weren't the right candidate for the uh handling million dooll Pension funds any additional questions Miss K thank you Mr B yes thank you Madame mayor um throughout the day I typically get uh a number of phone calls uh from residents who are passing through the community and see a property that um was affected by fire uh burn structures or burned out and and the question is uh number one are we aware of it why aren't we doing something about it and what is code enforcment doing and so as a result of that I've looked into it and I am uh constantly pressing and pushing staff to accomplish several things and I think it's important when they are able to accomplish it that we recognize it Miss CR if you could pull it up so one of the requests that I had was that we post to the website um a list of our structures that have been affected by fire so that our community could go to the website and see okay this is not a site that's new this isn't something that uh the city is not aware of and so we know that the uh code enforcement folks are aware of it and they're doing something about it I simply asked for us to put up a list and I was pressing for us to put up a list but due to the Ingenuity of um Mr cutright and the folks that he worked with they went beyond just putting up a list of where the bur burn structures were they actually put up uh were able to figure out how to put up a map so now if you go to our website um you will see a link on the main page that will take you to this and you can click on on um and if you wouldn't mind demonstrating just one of those uh it will take you and let you know that that property has been identified and it will let you know if there's a case ending on that so that our citizens will be aware of that in addition to that I asked that uh for our uh code enforcement folks to be able to put up the several code enforcements that they're doing because I get calls about various issues and the question is whether or not we are aware of it again and whether or not we're doing anything about it again and that is also something that they have pushed to our website I won't ask Miss CR to to pull it pull it up now in the interest of time but both of those pieces are now eligible are now available on our website for our community see to see and so what we ask if you do see things that that uh are not on the website please let us know we'd like to take advantage of uh the numerous members of our community being out there and about we only have uh three uh people that are working in Code Enforcement now so if we have a community that is working together with us to help identify things that we may not have known we can see more we can do more and so uh this is one step in that direction um I also want to point out with regard to Orange data which is another uh aspect that uh we were able to get uh pushed out to the website um the City attorney was instrumental in making that happen and that is a mapping of all of the vacant structures so very similar to to the same thing that I just mention and again I want to recognize staff when they figure out through Ingenuity how to make these things happen that I've been pushing for so thank you when you say vacant do you mean City owned vacant Properties or vacant property just vacant property can you add that element of City owned properties it it it is an element of that identif the city subjects itself to its own code there are numerous City uh properties that are currently have code violations on them and they're not exempt from property registration right but that my question was can we identify them of course yes IND that's so that's clearly identified as the city own property yeah absolutely so bringing that up what so bringing that up that we have the city have uh properties that are not in condition what are we doing to bring our up ourself up because it's hard for us to hold our citizens accountable when we are not accountable for our own properties that's a very good question we are focused on making sure that we like the City attorney said that we are accountable to the same code requirements and so once we identify them we're working to find the funds in order to address the code violations on property that we own I would be interested in having that list um so that we are aware um we may know of some but we may not be aware of everything and I think that's something that should be at the Forefront before we identify others we need to identify ourselves here at home and address than you for that Commissioners uh we actually are working on putting the sum together to show you the list of the properties that we have violation for the City properties where they started and where they at now uh Mr Dale and his staff has made a wonderful uh stride in getting some of the properties in condition some of the properties as you know are needing more attention than the others but we have that presentation for you probably the next commission meeting if not you'll get it received it in the next couple of weeks in the email could you put it in an order of what you think is I mean all of it is important just it be prioritized it'll be prioritized if I can get one alibot I want to take all the credit Mr Peter Peter Willer helped me with the map and everything matter of fact it was more of his in it and idea of how to put them out we just provided him with the information thank you any further questions yes ior some but yeah I want to um first commend you guys for putting the website together uh and um also communicating out to the community as the status so with the stat St being as such um are there any like next steps as it relates to the status of it and then the next steps does it also include that that for the information the the properties that you've identified as burn structures you you got a picture up there you got some uh some content do you have what the what the next steps are so we are pursuing the abatement process uh which includes identifying ing um the code violations and then working through the process of trying to Abate those uh violations uh when we have uh burn structures or structures that are affected by fire um that have code VI violations obviously we go through the process of trying to contact the owner um notifying them of the violations that are associated with it and those violations escalate and they continue and so we work with them to try to figure out ways to remove those violations and get the property in compliance if we run into a situation where with those structures we have uh exceeded uh the value of the property or it's beyond the ability of the individual to make the repairs to bring it in compliance and they're willing to engage in a sale of the property that's something that we bring back to the commission as a consideration for an option to be able to uh mitigate the situation and enter upon the property ourselves and remove the uh structure remove the code violation that was not the question that I asked I'm sorry I I asked specifically uh what would be I want like for the Community General Community to know if there's a if there's communication from the city what are the next steps what's the next steps here's where we are here's the next steps that's what I would like to see so in the uh the piece of the other app on the on the on the website that he didn't show it actually if you get the case number you click on that it'll give you the case where it's at now and it'll give you the next step of where it's at that's what that's what we need to know so on the click on if you go to that next website that we was talking about you can either type in the property address you can do the case number or you can do the paral number either one of those will bring that up and then to give you a case File it'll give you pictures and the violation that you see to thank you that's what that's what and and the last thing that I would like to request and I thank U commiss commissioner Campbell for bringing that up but the um I would like to see that we kind of pause on putting on any um code violations on other structures until we get our house in order so that would I would like to ask the commission if we can get that supported because we should not be finding other people if got properties that's out of uh compliance so that would be my my ask that was actually something that I was going to make the recommendation of I don't I'm not against the process of contacting them but I think it's hard for us to put um fees on others when we have outstanding stuff of ourselves so that's kind of like it's it's not good practice clarification so you're saying going forth right yes let's hold off on any everything that's in the queue we continue to work those but no new no new uh yeah but we want to we want to make sure that priority wise we get the city uh stuff okay yeah correct I that means when it comes up we have to really be willing to discuss how to pay for those issues or to address those issues or whether again we should put our properties on the market that don't do need to I'm just saying we need to discuss all of those options go ahead commission it ALS it almost sound like this is something that should be workshops so it's our sole focus of when we're coming in identifying knowing what we're looking at and coming up with a plan of action I know when we get into our commission meetings depending on the length of the agenda sometimes you know depending it can go hours but I think this is something especially um if we can Workshop it and possibly have Community Buy in as well with helping us formulate solutions to this and I think it's good that the Precedence has been set to you you all know what we expect for so are we saying we need to Workshop what we need to do with our structures our structures once we receive the structures the list of structures like Madame mayor stated having a conversation as to if we want something is if we want to put it on the market really kind of identifying what it is that we want to do and it's something that I don't want just to be skipped over for the sake of time I want it to be a main focus so that we're able to move forward with something of substance um so that we can properly execute so that we can get back to the business of the city and making sure that others follow suit of us question so uh do we need to do something as it relates to a Time certain to get those properties um identified I was thinking if we get the list by next commission meeting and then have it as an agenda item for us to discuss and give direction of moving forth son it's very good with giving us dates I'd like to expedite this as quickly as possible so that our code enforcement officers are moving in on additional new cases they keep doing their job we don't right thank you any additional questions comments one last thing that I neglected to mention our um public works department is working on putting together work orders uh so that we have something similar for all the work orders that they have completed on a map so that you can see that so um I want to note that they are actively working on that and uh hopefully we'll have that as well Jones you want to finish on this subject on that subject yes um and and and as it relates to that uh ask for in to End customer service when most people put in their requests they most people do not get any feedback so what I would like to see that some form of when Public Work requests or any other request that there's feedback and that they can go and to the website or whatever get an email or something as it relates to the status of the request and so if if we can make that happen that's what I think uh would uh help a number of our people from contacting the commission I don't mind people contacting but we get way more calls than the people who are actually doing the job so I would like for you and the staff to do be able to do your job I don't want to get in get in the way of you guys doing your job so uh that will help us out greatly and that very question was really the impetus for us moving in that direction how do we create that accountability and that closing the loop with the residents so they know and identified problem has actually been addressed and resolved thank you commissioner Jones it was along the lines of getting calls we got a lot of calls today I know I did in reference to the trash pickup holiday schedule we must find a better way to disseminate the information of when we're going to change the schedule um today Mr cartright actually resolved the issue we had with some residents that just they say they didn't know um so I just just we have a different way or additional ways to put it out there because the newspaper only come out three days four days or three three three days a week and so people may not get those notices we must do a better job at doing that and and you know it's got to be something simple and I know we did it I know we put it out but a lot of people call and that's I chle the calls back up here and they still call so understood got it commission B commission Camp commission Campbell sorry yeah I I think um that could be done in a in a couple different ways but um when we have various forms and other things there are information that the um public information officer has done a really good job with trying to get that information out um in terms of whenever there's a schedule change as it relates to pick CS uh I know I seen some things that Sunny has sent out as well as the P so but if we need to find other ways to do it in addition to the website um we we would like to also have the the residents who hit hit the website too as well so most people uh in this day and age have um technology some form of technology to be able to utilize the web everybody does not use it so again we just need to figure out way how we can get the word out faster thanks thank you for bringing it up commission Campell I think it kind of goes back to even in the workshop yesterday we were trying to identify a list of um items or a list of platforms that we could utilize to make sure that we disseminate the information um as possible and one of the ways again I'm going to ring the bell um is maybe we want to look at the school board and see if there is a system that we would be able to utilize a Joint Force to get certain information out to our citizens um I know we again we've used them in the past but they we might want to look at the hardware or the platforms that they use to see if it's something that we could possibly Implement they get stuff out at the drop of a dime it goes out via a call it goes out via a text message and it goes out via an email right um and so that may be something that we want to look at to see if it's something that's feasible for the city a whole very good any anybody else no okay thank you yes go ahead and speaking um on school board we would like to recognize School board chairman Miss Sandra Gard in the audience thank you thank you m thank you I'm going to open up the floor to public comment this is General non-agenda item for public comment limited to three minutes please give your name and address for the record you will not necessarily receive any action on this item and please be respectful of everybody Mr vicer asking ask you Vic reversed your name I'm so sorry I'm ask you Vickers I know 207 North 18 Street faaca Florida 32177 phone number 386 328 8691 the date of birth is not going to be I'm here for two things one the last meeting I said something and I want to correct it to the chief of police and the ones are here that the police officer had priors I found out later after reaching out to the person gave me the information that was not true he did not have priers I may up come and meet admit when I just something and did not know I gave the wrong information now the next thing I applaud you all for what you're doing is for clean up your house before you ask me to clean up your my house Court enforcement is NE necessary but you can't give me a fine and a date to do something and your Prophet is adjacent to mine and worse shape than mine your Prophet should be in shape first before before you tell me to clean my house your house should be clean the next thing is that Robert's Rule of Order is this a law or is this a opinion I I know I'm not going to answer right now for it but it's thing of it I checked that the other day and found out it's not what I thought it was because when you open a meeting you're actually using what you said as an opinion how it should be ran we go P that the next thing I want to bring up is that we have spent a lot of money on purchasing property and not using it properly you got a bridge under the bridge that's supposed to been for one thing it's not it's for the homeless people you spent $3 million for the highrise and sold for less than a million dollars you got people that places that I don't know who's get benefits from these things but there's something wrong we are the second po county in the state of Florida we didn't rise up somebody came up and fell down below us now we second Porche county in the state of Florida what are we doing to try to raise oursel up and get oursel above this at one time pman County was the most thriving business in the State of Florida and almost in the nation that was back uh I think 1780 or something like that no 80 like anyway it based on the wood sales it was going everywhere we felt from grace to waste thank you thank you Mr is there anybody else here for general public comment saying none close public comment commission and staff response if any I do go ahead Miss commission I wasn't here the last time when um that that was brought up by Mr Vickers regarding the incident that took place but I do have some questions if that's okay I want to ask the chief first because I heard about the incident initial initially from the city manager and he informed me about what happened and and and told me that he would let us let me know when we would hear more about the case so I was under uh the impression that he had not received the report and was waiting to hear an update in the meantime citizens were calling asking about the incident and felt that it was being swept under the rug so I was kind of appalled that the city manager had already received the report but had not given us an update on it and I'm wondering if it wouldn't have been brought up in the last meeting will we still be waiting for the response so Chief I want just a little timeline of when the accident happened and when you provided the report to the city city manager yes ma'am um forgive me if I'm a little bit off uh I know I don't look it but I'm aged a little bit my memory is slow uh I will say the incident occurred on the night of I believe it's February 21st uh around midnight or just after midnight um at that time um the officer was put on administrative leave he was notified when he was um at the jail we immediately started the IIA and the IIA was completed um just prior to the 5th of March because we brought the officer in on the 5th of March to notify him of what recommendation would be to uh the city manager in regards to termination understanding that in regards to what termination so and you said what about you informed that you informed the city manager that on March 5th no that's what we informed the officer because we have to provide that information to the officer now um I'm not exactly positive if it was the sixth or the seventh because we did have a meeting that morning in on both days and it was one of the mornings be right before the meeting that I provided the report to both HR and city manager as of the finding as the result of where we were with the IIA and the uh resignation of the office so you provided you provided a report to HR and the city manager yes ma'am okay for us it was complete at that time so at that time once it's complete and it's final we turn it over to um both the city manager as well for his review and HR for records and what was the date of our last meeting I can't recall 14 right 14 14 so you were that so thank you so much so to the city manager you were made aware when I I received the report uh I believe two days before the meeting it would have been the 12th I believe um yes because the meeting was on the 14th so it was two days before the meeting so I although you received the report and you didn't have time to read it which you said in the meeting right you hadn't had time well did you did you know that that individual was no longer with the force with the organization prior to reading the investigative report no I did not it is included in the investigative report that the individual resigned but I did not know that until I read the report and as and as of the last meeting you hadn't read the report yet so in other in essence you found out about the employee the same time we did when the question was asked it was about the same time um however there's some uh specific aspects of how you deal with and I'm sure you're aware of this an employee and the information that you provide uh regarding a staff member or an employee which is uh creates a level of sensitivity um that has to be addressed and dealt with and that's why didn't feel comfortable moving forward with making any statements until I was absolutely sure that we were within our rights and did not expose the city to any additional liability so is it safe to say you didn't feel comforable compfortable at least let us know as Commissioners that that person was no longer with the organization although you didn't have to provide us details that were in the report yeah I did not feel that uh at the time that the the gentleman came forward and uh made his comments to the commission that that was the appropriate time to inform uh Commissioners did you consult with Council and did you give us any further updates to let us know did you consult with Council whether or not you can inform us where we were with the status we didn't need the details but the status of the the fact that the individual was no longer with the organization I did not consult with our City attorney no thank you any further questions on that no because I I know we got that uh initial U text um from February 21st and I did not hear anything further until I sent an email um to Mr Bell on March 12th uh asking the status correct of that because again that's when I had heard things um from the community uh and not hearing it from uh the city manager and so that's what I have an issue with so that's I mean I just just looking at the timeline from the 21st when we initially got that I I applaud him for communicating that piece but from that point it went dead and the next uh communication I heard regarding that matter uh came from uh the community and U that's when I sent an email on the 12 and um Mr Bell communicated that he was reviewing something that had already been um final so DET termination well the resignation was already done so I just have a problem and that's why when I asked the question in the last meeting um um why are you what would you want to review why would you want to review something that's already final and I don't think you want to bring something back up as a a resignation but maybe a termination maybe yes but a resignation there's no further our action need to be taken so that's what's I was if this is appropriate moving forward is there anything that we can do as your Commissioners to help you get out information such as that more expeditiously so that this doesn't happen again no I I I appreciate that commissioner and um like I said some of the difficulty is when you're dealing with personnels I want to make sure that I move um expeditiously but at the same time that I don't expose the community to I mean the city to additional liability and so um in terms of things that that might be done uh in order to help that process only thing that I could say is that um making sure that we have that uh mechanism for communication established and open um so that when I do get the resolution I can go ahead and shoot that out there but I realize that there are aspects that people on Facebook might be able to talk about and speak about that don't have uh the potential of liability or legal ramifications that I uh cannot uh as a city manager there are things with regard to staff and employees that are a little bit um sensitive and so that's what I'm aware of but I will move more expeditiously on getting that hopefully we don't have uh issues related to that and I think I tried to address that most recently with the uh matter that came up the other day um so that you get that information much more quickly commission okay okay two things I'm sorry and I don't want to prolong it however you have Council here in house that you can consult with and you had the chief you have the chief that you can consult with if you have questions about information that you can at least let us know so that we can inform the community Michael yes ma'am okay another thing you just brought up the issue about something that just recently happened and you informed us about it and it was a change in community Norm normally we get text however I understand that an email went out last hour before our meeting when did you decide that you were going to change your type of communication and informing us about things I think that's important for us to know you know changing things without consulting with us or letting us know so we'll be aware and not hearing these things from the community or from others when normally we should hear them from you and and that's a very very good question uh I did switch to using a uh email process uh rather than a text message process it's really the discretion of the uh of the commission if you would prefer to have it one way or the other please let me know uh I can do both um but it's really at the discretion of the commission how you want to receive the message or the best uh mechanism for the way you would want to receive it it would be nice if you ask us prior to making those okay okay thank you commissioner Campbell and and basically you know the timeline for that uh that initial communication basically was 19 days so that's really not acceptable from um and and the only reason I got the communication back was because I initiated that after the just prior to the meeting two days before the meeting so uh that's just kind of what we need to do going forward time to communication again not to prolong this further but there seemed to be a discrepancy Chief Shaw said he got the report to you March 6th or 7th and then you said you didn't get it until when two days before the council uh the commission Mee so thank you for bringing that up there's a discrepancy and that that's bothersome to me I would I like accuracy and I would like some clarification I mean I know that we always we talk about the sake of time but I want clarification I'm sorry commissioner B I mean commission Campbell what are you sorry for I go ahead I would like clarification now because there are some discrepancies in the story as the communication process and I want that addressed tonight so that the community can know and we can move forward with transparency in this organization commissioner Campbell I think and I and I wasn't going to say anything I think there's a miscommunication with regards to the timeline for the commission versus the timeline for the community the timeline for the community was immediate I saw it when I woke up that morning on Facebook I had that was the night after it happened however the communication I and I want to be clear we're providing answers to us as a commission or are we looking to provide information to the citizens which I feel like that process should be a little bit different than the process of us receiving the information now if that's what we want to talk about I think that's the angle of what we should come from because I think we're trying to mix the two together and it's kind of the conversation is being just it's it's it's going everywhere because if we want to talk about communication yeah we should be able to receive communication before the community because we know the community is going to be put it was put out there almost immediately but again I think from I'm trying to get your perspective are you talking about communication to us directly as Commissioners we were informed directly which is good thank you for informing us however we were put on hold with the status of the situation I I didn't we I'm not I know that there are particulars that we can't know about but if you knew that the with informing us so that the community can know and there's no miscommunication informing us of certain statuses so that we are aware of what's going on and I think it's important for us to know because because the citizens are going to call us they are going to see us hold us accountable and we need to be able to provide those answers to them withholding that information I don't think it's good so I think it's pertinent that you let us know things when happen so that we can you know be able to inform the community properly inform the community thank you commission Just One Last this is a last question um regarding this because I want to I mean when we when we talked about when they when they did the I and the chief brought them in for uh determination but the officer chose to move to resignation now who's all involved in that I thought the city manager normally is involved with uh um is they are they involved that portion of the or no or how how soon does he get a notice so no sir uh in conclusion of the IIA we notify the officer in conclusion of the IIA that the I is closed and what the findings are and what the if it leads to disciplinary action to where uh up to termination termination is only made just like the permission to hire or fire is done by the city manager so we inform that the person or individual at that time what the recommendation will be and that we'll be moving forward um and that's when we include and bring the city manager into as well as HR into um the timeline I really want us to be mindful of our position here versus day-to-day operation and maybe we need to have it clear and I I'm almost I wouldn't want to put um attorney West on the platform tonight but I would like you to research that for us and see how much um of what information we can be provided without us tipping from our position as Commissioners legislators versus dibl and dabbing in the day-to-day operation um while there are things that I feel are pertinent that we should know however we have somebody who we hired um to facilitate the day-to-day operations um so again I want to make sure that we as legislators are acting within our scope of work and allowing the city manager to do what it is that he has to do um so again we know that sometimes we look back and we go based off what others have done um and what others have done may not always have been the proper way that things should be done but again so that we cover ourselves we want to make sure that we're operating as legislators and not as city managers commission Bor okay yes um so and um each of the Commissioners have a a duty um to understand now if if communication comes to me in the form of when it came and 19 days pass and I have not heard anything else in of the nature that it was and I'm sitting and waiting uh I don't think that's um proper so I don't think it's digging into day today operations to follow up and check on a status so going forward if I if I if there's a another incident that happens and the city manager reaches out to me and let me know the status of what has happened in the city and if there's another pause I'm going to reach out again I don't think I'm doing it on a daily basis I think 19 days is quite a long time so I had to reach out to ask what was the status and in fact it was done way back on the 6th that the incident was closed out so there's a big gap in there between the time that it was closed out and the time that I asked so I'm not going to sit and wait on anything I'm going to represent this community commissioner M I think you brought up a very valid point and that's why I wanted to I reminded him that just please if you have any questions consult with staff that we have on hand for those purposes absolutely that's what I want to make sure that as we move forth in this conversation that there is Clarity no one said that you could not follow up and ask questions however as a legislator versus a city manager who employs who handles day-to-day I want us to make sure that we have an understanding of what information we are privy to or the process so that's why I want to make sure as we go forth as a unified body that we move forth with clear Direction so that we know what's expected of us and the city manager knows what's expected from us to us again I did not ask for any specific we not I didn't ask for any specifics I ask for the status that's all I ask for and again that's not that's not that's part of what the communication piece was so that's where I'm at thank you commissioner Jones I think it can sum it up by saying we are the legislators here and we can actually go forth by saying a critical incident happen we want to be informed by so many days and that could kill that um and and therefore we have set the policy not the practice the practice is what you got I think that we are custom to but what policy are we following so we'll set a policy could we agree on that when we want to be notified after a critical incident and the chief will know the city manager know and we'll know what to expect and that I think that'll take care of it that's just a suggestion and I would like to for the board to like to maybe think about that so we can bring it forth and ratify that okay thank you is there any further discussion not with this particular issue okay um I want to address what um Mr Vick stated Mary West you I said it again attorney West I would like you to bring back before us the while we move forth with the um as a recommendation the Roberts Rules of Order um it doesn't have to be a long drawn out probably a three minute presentation as to why it's so important he did bring up um it we use it as a recommendation it's not something necessarily that has to be followed but I think it would be advantageous for us and the citizens to know why we utilize Rob of order sure um it's because it's in our code I understand that but yeah you don't have to adhere to Robert's Rules of Order except for the fact that it is in in your code so if you wanted to change that uh you could do so by um instructing staff to draft an ordinance provide some guidance and and vote on that but as it stands right now Robert's Rules of Order is the Parliamentary procedure that is codified in your code I'm fine with that I just wanted to make sure that it was out there for his addressing thank you moving on to the consent agenda are there any items that anybody wants to pull from the consent agenda commissioner Campbell no ma'am I make a motion that we accept consent agenda second wowow Motion in a second H oh second second second second all in favor any acquisition thank you yay on to regular business discussion Direction request from animal rescue Consortium AR for funding for lowc cost spay neua capability please give us your name and address and my legal name is Virginia Delgato Oakwood I go by Genie Oakwood 952 South Highway 17 in Cent City 32112 I am so honored to have this opportunity to to talk about Spain please microphone technique I'm sorry what would you educate the speaker on microphone technique please or allow me to okay when you're tagging into the microphone please do not touch the microphone please pull it back from you and make sure you're at least one foot away from the microphone that's a very hot mic it can actually pick up that front row behind you okay is that good thank you very much I apologize for that so we're here this evening and we're honored to uh able to present this information uh Arc Animal Rescue headquarters is at Crescent City kennel I am the President of Ark Animal Rescue we provide adoption um spay and neuter vouchers lowcost thank you I have a loud voice lowcost vaccine clinic as well as Emergency Veterinary um services for individuals who cannot pay for veterinary care as you can hear from the newspaper recently about the older lady that had 209 dogs you understand the urgency of having a spay and neuter inhouse in the County program uh we are very close to get a grant from USDA to purchase a spay and neuter um trailer that we can Moby um go around the entire County and provide lowcost uh spay and neuters the average cat if you go to a veterinarian is 150 to 200 and a dog depending on the size uh a Yorkie versus a Great Dane it could go up to $450 um our co-pays for spay and neuter are an average between 40 and 50 and are if of course when they have surgery they must be current under vaccinations we have a low cost like I mentioned rabies is only $10 we got a grant for distempers and fvrc PS for cats for free so we have really provided a a lot of needed Animal Care welfare in this community our proposal is to uh for us to get this grant Unfortunately they only provide a 75% uh we um are asking the community and of cities to help us with that buffer of 25% um one last statistic we did um 570 vaccines last year uh we do an average now of three per um month and our next one is this Saturday at Interlocking because we're going out there as well and those appointments are completely full we have Veterinary uh already in place we are talking to the University of Miami uh veterinary medicine school to provide us with more veterinary care and on my list of goals for Arc is uh I could be here to midnight um Miss Diane is going to is our grant um writer she volunteers her time and we're very thankful for her I know that she has emailed you the P the power presentation and she would like to have the opportunity to um give you most of the highlights in the um in the uh presentation and then of course if you have any uh questions or comments we'll be glad to answer those this evening thank you thank you thank you my name is Diane Kelly I live in Crescent City 123 Lakeside Lane Crescent City Florida and as Jenny mentioned I just do the volunteer grant writing for Ark and I did want to ask first of all do we have the presentation or would anybody like a hard copy of our presentation don't have it online would you like a hard copy um sure okay you want and I'm not going to go through the details it is not a very oh thank you you're so sweet um I'm not going to go through all of the details of the presentation uh but it is not very long so hopefully for reading pleasure will be helpful now many folks I know in this room are animal lovers not just in the audience but certainly with a commission and certainly the mayor um in putam county putam county is as we all know very recessed and uh Animal Care is as well there are a lot of animals suffering in our County there are a lot of people suffering because they can't take care of their animals so what I'm going to do I'm going to share some highlights with you you may think that much of this is intuitive because many of us already know so much about animals in our community but there are some facts that I thought would be helpful to share so that we really do have a little bit more granular picture of what the landscape is right here not only patka but the rest of putham County and uh the highlights oh thank you Jenny uh few highlights one is and we did by the way do a lot of research regarding not only the demographics of our County but also um Animal Welfare many studies that were done data on animals in our County and just data on animals overall and their care uh particularly with the more recessed or the poor communities so a few highlights uh right now in putham County there are about 23 or excuse me 21,000 plus households who house about 32,000 dogs and cats and that's what we're focusing on dogs and cats today of which at least 6,000 owned animals owned dogs and cats are not spayed or neutered and you may think well what's 6,000 that's not a whole lot but 6,000 not cared for appropriately can cause a lot of challenges not only for the lifestyle of the animal itself because their life is typically shortened but also for the community and certainly their ability to uh procreate and this does not exclude the feral animals and I'll touch on a few highlights there as well in our County right now about 22% of dogs so almost one in four dogs do not see a vet every year and about 36% of cats don't and um almost 40% of the reason when folks were surveyed the reason given is because they just cannot afford it and so if they cannot afford to provide the basic care for their animals many of them are not getting spayed and neutered as they should be and nationally about 7 Ville and First Coast normal homeless pets but when you do introduce a lowcost steady lowcost span neuter capability it sharply reduces it takes about a year to do it to demonstrate the data it does sharply reduce the intake of animals to County uh like putam County Animal Control will benefit other Humane Societies will benefit Etc and youthanasia will go down and you probably have heard a lot of horror stories and challenges that putham County Animal Control is dealing with now they cannot take in the animals the demand that's coming to them and that's why we have situations unfortunately where we see dogs attacking people dogs attacking someone else feral cats all over the place uh people's birds are getting killed I mean the list goes on and on and on so putham county has a great deficit that really has to be addressed and it's not getting any better it's getting worse in seven years and these are just stats and this is by Florida animal friend and they're a large organization that has tremendous data regarding Florida animal statistics when you look at one altered one on excuse me one all unaltered female dog and her Offspring so one female dog and her puppies through the six plus years of fertility they have the physical ability to produce and you probably won't hardly believe it but it is true 67,000 puppies now they don't produce that many puppies but they have the physical ability to do that when you look at a female cat and her litter through their lifetime they can they have the ability to produce 370,000 cats that's insane I looked at the numbers and I thought there's got to be an extra digit or two in there and there was not now you'll probably think well yeah right Diane you're on drugs but that well I might be but that's not what we're talking about today but but but that aside there was another study done of 2,000 cats feral cats um in the nation it was 2000 looking at them over a period of many years and it and we have a lot of feral cats not just in Paca we have them all over the place but one feral cat on average when you look at what they produce you know because they're typically not as healthy as other cats home cats but they only produce less than two liters average per year 75% of those cats those kittens don't survive the mother might get killed or their uh their predators are around a hawk may get them so there's a lot of suffering too there's a lot of suffering but still there's going to be a lot of other animals that they're going to produce um in fact one typical feral cat based on that study in just the first year or Year from that cat and her Offspring produces about 29 live animals that survive all of the Terrors and the challenges that may face so it's a horrible situation and we don't always see what all the suffering is behind the scenes I'm so sorry okay all right so I'll just share in the presentation we do address a little bit later on what we're attempting to get funding for we do not yet have the grant approved from USDA but uh we believe it's looks very positive and if it's not USDA it'll be another organization whether it's going to be petmart or another but the point is we're very close to We Believe securing the grant we have a 25% what's that on agenda okay what I hear I'm sorry you want close close what we're asking CL close I didn't have my mic on so that's my we need to close up we get allocate five minutes and I'm so sorry okay here's what we're asking for we are asking for this organization this commission to provide a commitment not to write a check yet but to provide a commitment contingent Upon Our securing the grant we would like funding for between 5 and 7,000 to help contribute to the Gap that would not be funded by the grant tour because Paca is a great beneficiary of this capability thank you thank you Miss Denson we're going to now have a presentation um discussion J request rather the Jacksonville Black Chamber of Commerce for building space so good evening I'm Shannon Denon the current president of Jacksonville blight Chamber of Commerce I come before you just as a simple request to join for is of course with the regular Chamber of Commerce in Paca we asking to have a building that's maybe not utilized that we can use to come to Palaca to be able to offer resources in the urban community prefer the building to be in the urban community because that's our heartbeat and our voice and so the reason why I think is because we want to be that blight voice for her lack of business we also would like to bring health and wellness because we know that's important as well we are coming to Paca April 1st so to kick off our Initiative for health and wellness so I don't have anything other than to ask for that building if you have it an underutilized building that the chamber can have we do have a 501c3 and a community tax credit that we can offer to you as well as an offset and and just to clarify we did meet with Miss Jones um with the putham County Chamber and then don't have any room for any further occupancy so thus it came to this who met with I it was myself yes I'm Sorry Miss Denson contacted me we met with Miss Jones and she just wanted they wanted to introduce themselves and wanted to um discuss possibility of coming to this community and that's why it's coming to the board at large no promises were made it was just a discussion and an introduction to the chamber go ahead commiss Jones as as a discussion mayor um I know we contribute to the chamber which is for all all P County residents and I think that's a city owned build building is it yeah is that the chamber who said no it's not Miss Jones can come up and clarify if you want further clarification I would I mean I would need more of what we going substance to say what is it if giving or if there is a building what would it be utilized for of course you came just to ask for that but there's nothing that you say what would be transpiring out of the business outside of Health and Wellness that that that's so broad I mean and that may not be able to be answered now true um and I know I'm not comfortable saying yes to a request and we don't have full as to what so I I do have a presentation so I was only lot at 5 minutes so I can email you guys our outline because I do have an outline of what I like to see I think for palaka and what we're trying to do to help you make a better decision of what we would like to bring to palaka on the scale of a urban core so I do respect that because I don't have anything other than my quest request for a building but rest assure I do have a plan I can email to you guys to make a a better decision of what we're trying to bring to the table so thank you Miss Jones do you want to the building itself the chamber building certainly the building itself is owned by the chamber we rent the land from the city on a 99e lease okay so I yeah that's what my yeah Mr city property is certainly what we sit on all right we in the building so so with that being said uh do you see any opportunities to where you can partner with the the chamber that's coming to absolutely we had a great discussion um we both have similar missions you know our mission is to create Community wealth through job attraction retention profitable tourism and to help our businesses grow and prosper their mission and correct me if I'm wrong but it's been a while it's been a couple months is directly related to assisting minority businesses grow and prosper and aligning resources for them so in that together we want to be a part and helpful to all businesses it's definitely need but you know I just saying if there's if if we couldn't find a place right now would there be help for them to partner with you guys uh in some way the mayor just advis that you guys have already met but um quite sure we could find something may not be as399 but at a cost G be a cost so but we definitely would like to have you guys absolutely um that's my take on it and it was an introductory meeting and a lot more conversations to happen down the road much like I think their purpose tonight is to meet y'all yeah and I would like to see I would like for you guys to present so I would like for you to get on agenda and present I would like to see the presentation but I would also like for it to be taken in consideration to formulate a Paca Black Chamber of Commerce and I think one of the things that it's good to have outside come in and benefit from locals but we want to make sure that there's something sustainability that's here that could possibly be a branch up under the Chamber of Commerce that would possibly benefit um or partnership with the Jacksonville Black Chamber of Commerce if it was to come to fruition but um again I'm all for outside help but again we got to make sure that we help our own thank you let let me say this I'm I'm I'm not all outside I'm a I'm I'm originally from Hastings and traveled to and from froma from childhood to manhood and move to Jacksonville so I'm kind of well the reason I say that is a lot of times when we speak to Citizens or citizens are a little bit apprehensive of um moving forth with Outsiders because what when I say Outsiders don't take that out of context but when we talk about moving forward a lot of people come in they provide sources and then they're snatched away way we want something that has that is consistent we want something that our citizens know if we introduce them to it that we it's going to be something longterm we don't want anyone to come in reap the benefits and go back to their respective communities and it be that we want to make sure that if it's coming to us that it's something that's sustainable and it's something that's going to be for years to come and and that that is exactly what our intentions are and and for and foremost is to be able to engage with the residents in the business owners here in imp palaka that it that they would be the ones that actually managing the chamber uh in the process of things that's going on so it's nothing that we want to take away uh from Paka it's what we want to bring to Paka and our resources to Paka in the surrounding area okay okay that' be fine we love that and and that be a part of the presentation if I can't make it to Jacksonville just like you said I want to see the meat and potatoes of what you all do and what's behind it so is this an extension of what you currently have in Jacksonville that you would like to bring here yeah it is because when we was talking we realized that we want to do Grassroots so the community is is it so the voice of the community is definitely important to like you said with any Community you have to get the Buy in I don't care where you are you have to get to buy in from that community and order for that to work you have to have boots on the ground oldfashioned Grassroots to be able to talk about what's offered what's needed how can bring value and just making sure that it's not just the chamber is the community to to to grow right and participate and be productive citizens and I'm talking about a Pacific population I'm talking about Urban core sounds good thank you we look forward to a full presentation or getting your information emailed to us thank you so much thank you having excuse me m mayor yes go Mr B did you have any uh did the commission have any direction or discussion on the Consortium on that previous item the consortium's uh presentation yeah there's not a pres we would like to see we would like to engage in no I think he's talking about the talking about the the first presentation we had because it was on the agenda for discussion and direction I find it hard to make a commitment to funding um and we yeah I just okay I just wanted to make sure for staff purposes only come to us was it not a request for the county as well I think they've been to the county but they could answer that could one of you please come up quickly I think the county the county is responsible for you know all of animal control the city assists in that process now we do have we had 40,000 uh in a uh for a position to do animal control but not specifically for a particular program so and I do know that the the county is already working on trying to um I guess construct a building for those animals that that's that's something totally different we we are looking for funding to um Implement a spay and neuter program in this County okay the Commissioners BCC have committed to a $25,000 um support uh pomola park has also committed to 5,000 Waka we're waiting to hear next month their commitment and interlocking we we haven't done the presentation there so like Miss Diane says this is not writing a check right now we just need commitment of at least between five and 7,000 so we can Implement spay and neuter in this county that does not exist we do not have a Humane Society we only have animal control now can I ask for clarity you can ask go ahead the five to 7,000 is it from this entity or just in general from the city of Paka I just want to make sure that okay is there any further questions I think with that said we may take a brief recess now and we need to make a ruling on this because there's something that we did not do correct we can give direction I think we're looking to give direction I'm not sure a request for direction do that I like I just don't I mean I don't want to commit to something and so at this time we're taking no on it I have a question though the question would be how much funding do you need to actually start implementing the program because if we if we give funding now and you're not ready to implement your program then we just have funds that's committed that's just not being utilized on the back page okay so we just getting the funding proposals on the back page what we're asking for thank you three we just so I think that was why maybe I'm wrong but and commissioner Campbell can correct me but I think that's why we're not ready to make a commitment yet I think we have to discuss it further and if we think we are going to go forward what funding we would use so I think the whole discussion that needs to go on with that so can I make a motion to just uh post postpone to the next meeting you would like you to add it to the next agenda for discussion correct so that we can have time to and make a good conscious effort decision would you also let us would you also let us know if there's any additional information you need us to bring back yes absolutely and last just really minor comment uh BC putam County they were uh committing to 25,000 with the understanding that we would should be able to get or would be able to get support from the municipalities okay thank you I hope that helps a little bit have a good evening and thank you not more so a question I would just but there's discussion of got a for of discuss all in favor of motion for the second for the sake of discussion yes go ahead discussion discussion thank you I would be interested in seeing what the commitments of the other municipalities would be um as we go forth because I see the the the project amount but what happens if you supersede um and we commit what we can make I want to see it happen but again I don't want to put us in and we could have said one thing or I just don't want to cap Us in at 5,000 to 7,000 when we could have did something different um and still accomplished the same goal gotcha and just we'll put this in writing for you but just so oh I'm so sorry okay and that was my discussion toiss and two are you asking like like maybe for when when most people ask for budget for programs normally you'll have your items laid out as to how much your budget is and what each uh amount line item goes for um could you do something along absolutely thank you so we have a motion in a second to add this to the next meeting agenda for discussion all in favor I any opposition thank you thank you you with that said as I said a little bit ago we're going to take a brief as in brief as in five minutes recess and come right [Music] back e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e recess is over back to back to class it's the former teacher in go ahead mad mayor oh thank you okay we're going on to regular business 7c discussion Direction GPS devices vehicle policy review this was a carryover from the last meeting at the 11th hour I brought it up and it was move to this agenda item Mr Bell yes may I ask a question before we start you sure mad should there be something am I missing something out of my agenda that's not in here or it was was should there be something in here regarding that or is it excluded I just need to know usually we have like 7A we'll have something associated with it 7B but we don't have anything associated with 7 C is there and yes is there a reason for that I not sure there's a reason for that but um this we'll let Mr Bell talk first there wasn't any though to clarify there wasn't any supporting documents in the packet it the Sun have a answer because she puts the agenda together do you have an answer for that if I may Madam mayor at the time the agenda packet was created I didn't have any attachments for it um I do know that staff Mr Griffith put together an expell spreadsheet that was transmitted to the city manager and I believe it's a it's a working document I I don't know the status of it being we did all receive that today that was the vehicles with the GPS device them when do we receive we got that emailed to us today by Mr B what Happ come Mr B well that's fine let's Mr Bell talk first and maybe that will give some clarification to these questions sure so if you would go to the second part of the slide presentation there you go that's a second and part two what's the next slide yes so this was an item that was uh requested to be placed on the agenda uh and there was some specific requests that were made uh at the last um commission meeting for some uh updated information and so staff is uh attempting to be able to respond to those requests so in a review of the Fleet Management device um the question came up of what why we don't call it GPS okay GPS is is one of the aspects of what the devices the onboard uh Fleet Management device can do but it is not the only thing that it can do it can do so much more than just uh have a having a GPS device that tracks uh your Loc a and so that's why the the presentation that you have before you is a Fleet Management onboard device um and we're going to talk about uh what that what that means in Greater detail um so the next item how many area communities have a policy about GPS or Fleet Management onward devices so our staff did some research on that there aren't any other uh communities in the area that have uh a policy on GPS there's only one that we were able to find and their only policy is that we track that's it so it really doesn't go into details about uh Fleet Management on board um device so where where does the need for a policy come from um the way that I understand it that this came came about for the city of Paca was uh according to staff the pressure the the impetus was to get it up and running to get it installed and get it up and running not so much to to look at the various um uh aspects of what it can and cannot do but to get it installed and get it up and running now that we've got it installed and up and running there are so many things that it can be done we're realizing that you know really maybe we need to have a policy to address how we use it what it can do and what are the ramifications of that so therefore came the need of a policy now that we see what it does now that we see that what its capabilities are there are certain considerations that we have to take into effect what are those considerations what can it do who should have access to that information what roles toine what they can see and what they can do in the application what are the uh Pro the processing records uh requests how do we process those requests and what are the exemptions to that request based on that information next please so the current stats um the city has 18 users for this uh Fleet Management site uh device um there are eight master accounts uh a master account where you can see all and you can do all uh one is a read systemwide and one is for billing and finance there are uh 76 vehicles that that were in the spreadsheet that was shared um 76 vehicles that were installed next so that is a snippet snapshot of the 76 vehicles that uh were installed with the device um you can go on to the next one so uh what is our staff recommendation the assistant city manager was kind enough to volunteer to convene a staff working group um the recommended me members of that staff working group are myself Mr Griffith uh Mr McMillan uh director of Public Works uh Chief Shaw uh Miss West Miss cardi and Miss Jones from uh Human Resources what is the charge that we're recommending that we address the capability of the devices and any policy uh with regard to the vendor and who may have access to the uh software um should we assess and consider the applicability of the software and any other communities so taking a look at the other communities um that have this in place and what they're doing to address it consider and include Sunshine implications consider and design functional uh roles uh that Define and control the information that you can access and align uh um those roles with what the the software is capable of doing so that was go on to the next one I believe that's um so in the interim um let me back up and say this that was pretty much what the staff recommendation was in response to some of the questions that were asked at the last meeting uh what vehicles are tracked uh evaluate the uh software and come back with a recommendation in order to do that we need to put together a working group um in the interim uh we're reducing the master accounts to myself Mr McMillan um Mr Griffith and uh Chief Shaw um we should flag the access to make sure that we're managing it properly and then uh schedule make sure that we move forward with scheduling the working group to meet so that is the breadth of where we are right now and I have some additional information to respond to any questions that uh the commission might have thank you and I don't disagree that we need to have more in-depth policy but the reason this came up was based on the fact that a GPS device was removed from a city vehicle and authorization I'm not sure who authorized it frankly I understand that it was just removed and it was your decision to do that on the vehicle that you have been allocated for personal use as well as work use and that is what how this whole topic came up yes maybe we need a more inject policy but the policy we have now does not say you can or can't remove and you did and that is my bigger concern and we can uh go to the first part of this presentation and I can provide you some information with regard to the situation with my vehicle in particular so uh uh the V when I say my vehicle the vehicle that I was assigned the Traverse uh the device became active on that Traverse on August 29th of 2023 okay and I pause on that because uh there was some misunderstandings about when the device actually went active the former city manager separated from the city on May 12th of 2023 so between May 12th of 2023 and August 29th the vehicle was very rarely used uh prior to the vehicle being uh I'm sorry prior to the uh former city manager separating on in May that vehicle was used but it was used without a tracking device okay the uh um staff installed the device on the daverse based on the perceived perception that they were receiving direction from the commission to install on all vehicles okay so in my conversations with the previous uh uh City attorney it was her understanding that it was never intended to be installed on the commission vehicle or on the city manager's vehicle um no document has been found yet uh yet as of yet directing staff to install a device on a commissioned vehicle or a city manager vehicle no City document or policy even references a GPS device to your point there is nothing that says that it can be or that it can't be but uh if you look at when the policy the vehicle policy was approved and what it was when it was reviewed it was reviewed in October October 13th of 2023 okay in that October 2023 review of the vehicle policy by the commission uh as part of the Personnel policy it specifically says exactly what you said Madame mayor that uh the city manager uh uh vehicle um is uh or I'm sorry is is controlled by the contract and that it supersedes the vehicle policy so when you go to the contract like you said like you alluded in the contract it says that the city manager will be assigned a vehicle for business and personal use there's nothing that defines what personal use is in any of the city documentation okay there one thing that does uh stipulate personal use is in the contract and in the contract it says uh that uh the city manager will be signed a vehicle for personal and for business use and shall be required to uh pay taxes um via the W2 sighting on the W2 can you go to the next slide please so we go to if we go to the IRS W2 um that is governed by uh or controlled under IRS document 15b which states that uh a personal vehicle a vehicle that is assigned for personal use um shall be considered uncompensated benefit and shall be treated as revenue and tax according to 104 rule op options so the fourth rule op option that was selected for this particular vehicle for my W2 reporting is the rule which says that you report it at 67 cents the federal rate per mile of personal use as taxable income so this speaks to the question that well this is free it's not free it is represented on the W2 as required by the contract as taxable income go to the next slide please the the vehicle was received by me on February 8th uh well that's when I was sworn in it was actually received on February 9th um it was full of dog hair when I got it um it I had to take it to the auto spa and have it cleaned out and that was done okay go ahead you can go to the next slide go ahead I'm a tad B confused at what we're being presented based on what we requested from our last meeting I believe the last meeting we requested an update as to the vehicles that we deem necessary to have with the you said not GPS whatever it's called um versus like I'm confused at this whole presentation I am I am as well I'm all over the place because I'm trying to get so give us some direction on where you want to go because Direction last I mean last the information to get with the vehicles that from the recommendation are vehicles that should and vehicles that should and so go I'm sorry commissioner I think I think uh assistant city manager Griffith actually was tasked with that because you how can you tell us he wasn't here so the interpretations and all that stuff probably should come from s Griffith I think that's what you got asking I just think that this whole presentation is I mean it it's not doing anything for me well you have you have 75 vehicles currently installed and you have 85 Vehicles Al together for the city what was the conversation that we had when we initially had the conversation surrounding GPS are you talking historically in the past because Mr rith could you possibly respond yes while he's coming can I ask he sure go ahead commissioner Masco this the assisted city manager was tested with this and he did provide a spreadsheet am I right why didn't we get it before now why was there when did you provide him the spreadsheet itail but it was way before today it was the day before yesterday so why did you just see here's the timing this is what I have an issue with why are we just now getting it right before the meeting because and why is it not before us right now it was unclear exactly what was wanted in terms of a response and that's why we put together this slidee Pres presentation it was unclear to you were you able to ask questions of the commission of the direction that they gave the last time when we got together staff and reviewed it we were not sure exactly what the requirement or the request was we go back to the minutes of the meeting and the minutes of the meeting indicated that you wanted specific information which I have addressed in some of the parts of the presentation as well as the spreadsheet that identifies the 76 vehicles that were installed that wasn't I don't believe that was go ahead I think that the the the original question was who authorized the removal who authorized the installations and and the commission gave authorization to apply to the vehicles so if they were on the vehicle and they when there was one removed who authorized the removal okay policy wise sure so it was removed by me who make policy there was no policy that said that you could or that you could we made the policy we did right and the policies because they were installed but it was mistakenly installed we mistakenly put it on no no no you didn't no no no no I think there's confusion because we never made we never said we never made that the the installation of it based on that was O August the policy and procedure came up in October so that was installed before we had the discussion that's why I made the qu request to say what was it that we discussed now if there was a misinterpretation it should have been October there and after not August right well I don't have a problem with the prior but what we did speak about during that time when Mr when when the former city manager was here Don Holmes that we talked about the installation of the track or the GPS onboarding devices for the vehicles that we had so if that was put in place prior then the then the device was removed we would just like to know who authorized the removal so I removed the device commissioner MCO that was placed on the vehicle council is that something that he was able to do without bringing it before us I need to know I mean he he reports the city manager reports to you you are his essentially his supervisors there is not a policy within the city that explicitly prevents it as he has stated but you you are his supervisor correct and I also I have to say that on February 27th when Mr Bell asked me about removal of it and I said I could not give permission it would have to come from the full commission plus I wanted more information then it was removed regardless that's the problem and and I addressed some of that in the remainder of the presentation but I want to make sure that I'm responsive to your questions if I may ask you came with experience as a city manager correct so you know protocol policy prop you said he came to you and asked you what you can do we were having a meeting not about this specifically but we were meeting and he asked about the removal of that tracking device whatever we were like to call it and I said I could not give authorization and had to go before the commission that I I couldn't do that and plus I would like more information about policies which I wasn't as familiar with as I should have been but I pulled them all up so I want to ask this in a diplomatic manner but I'm just going to ask what were your thoughts what were your thoughts when you went to the mayor to ask her to remove the device off the vehicle versus coming to the commission as a whole I did not what did you expect her to be able to do without us I did not ask the mayor uh to remove the device but what can she do about it versus coming to all of us it was my intention to make sure that in the sunshine that in every one of the one-on ones that I did that I had a conversation about the GPS device and the removal of the GPS device I indicated in my meeting with her that I intended to remove the GPS device and I wanted to make sure that in each of the one-on ones that I did that I had that conversation to state that I had intended to remove the device based on the information that I was given which was the contract and the policy document the conversation I don't know what conversation he had with you all but the conversation with me was the concern about the device but anyway let me ask my my questions what is your concern with the device being on the vehicle so I'm glad you asked that question because uh there's a public records request that was done for GPS information if I understand that what's your concern with the with the device made on the vehicle because of the fact that there are have been assertions made based on the whereabouts of the vehicle that suggested that I was doing something that was nefarious when I was not they were uh tracking it is tracking that I was in in St Augustine well yes I was in St Augustine because my very close friend was in a hospital and he was in critical care so I went to see him the very first week that I came here I didn't have any place to stay but I started work the next day and so I stayed in various hotels around the area in order to find a place to live fortunately I now have a place but all those places that I stayed were being tracked and there were assertions made on our city Facebook page at as to this idea that I lived in these places the other assertion that was made was that I was at a residential address in Daytona at 2 o'clock in the morning okay personal use I was visiting visiting my dad my dad's in the audience here he's 92 years old but the assertion was that I was doing something nefarious because I was at these residential addresses at 2 o'clock in the morning so you wanted just based on assertions there was no there were no other reasons that you wanted to device I was concerned about the Safety and Security of my family based on the fact that people were tracking where I was on my personal time and in my conversation with the afci afcl I always get that acronymic incorrect this is a question about uh religious uh Freedom it is a question associated with that because when people track where you are and they are looking at what you are where you're at on your personal time that is going to be a uh a Safety and Security issue I'm gonna stop did you share your concerns with the chief of police if you were that concerned did you at any point Reach Out inh house to the chief of police and I had conversations with the chief of police yes okay thank you go ahead commissioner Campbell I'm still confused me but I'm confused more so as to the discussion and direction we want as the commission if we want to be placed back on there I want it to be placed back on there or again it's based on contract so the desires of and I think again my recommendation that we made on the last meeting was to see bring back a recommendation of vehicles that we deem necessary for The Trackers to be on and those to take in consideration that did not and we as a commission would make the final determination as to if they are worthy of not having or having that was the recommendation that I made provided no recommendation and so that's why I'm getting to this I was when I said I was confused more so with the presentation because the presentation did not hit on the recommendation or the request that was made from the commission so this whole presentation I appreciate it but I think it just did more damage than good well I'm sorry go ahead no you can go ahead but again in order for us to take this thing back by the horn and steered in the right direction what do we desire as a commission because requires a policy change if I'm not mayor council we know who you're talking and just for the for the community I know a Mayor West so I apologize attorney West helped steer me in the right direction with regards to there was a contract that was signed versus policy which says we allowed we didn't allow so I just want to make sure that as we move forth as a commission that we are able to give clear Direction but we must take in consideration that a contract is already signed where does that put us with regards to the signed contract sure you do have a policy in place however the policy explicitly states that a city manager contract can supersede that policy when you look at the city manager's contract that you executed on February 8th there is no provision in there that speaks about GPS tracking removal orever it is silent on that provision so you are not bound contractually one way or the other in your decision-making process about the GPS on the vehicle thank you so as we move for what and mayor I'm not trying to take over your position but this will go on all night and we're not jewelry we're not he's not on trial we're trying to make sure that again as we move forth as an organization that we take in consideration all of the vehicles and the vehicles that we think deserves to have it versus not and allow us to make the determination as a whole instead of singling Out Mr Bell at this point he may he he's he's already told us he didn't ask for permission he did it so that's already been made clear but I think in order for us to move forward to op handle this as ano handle this approach as a whole I still make the recommendation that staff whatever that team that was Associated bring us back the vehicles that they think should have the tracking devices versus the vehicles that shouldn't and allow the commission to do what we have to do and then move forward thank you commiss Bor the only issue I have is that irregardless of whether the whether was stated or not um he he approached the the mayor and asked the mayor if it was okay to remove it and that she said that get she said that um she asked him to bring that before the commission so on his own he decided to remove the device that's my issue so going forward things that you de that you looking at whatever contract that you would go to whatever extent to do whatever not is is not um St specifically stated I I think that's dangerous well because there's a number of you got a lot of latitude and those are some of the things that came that preceded you that people were saying that you were saying that was not true in in in in the um um Internet space so let me that's my issue and concern let me respond respond to that well it does because this is what I'm talking about when we when we when we say the commission has the the the the final Authority you went against what the commission had already put in place and you asked the mayor and the mayor asked you to come before the commission the device that's what that's my problem so that's that's not entirely true because it wasn't V specifically however I think again to make alter a vehicle that's a city vehicle should have come before the commission but here we are cell and I'm gonna say this he went to Mayor if mayor thought it was appropriate for it to be brought to the commission it should have been brought to the commission prior to the commission meeting which means either it should have been initiated by Mr Bale and or the mayor and I cannot speak to you individually and I also didn't have time before it was removed from the time we discussed it it was removed prior well before the next meeting I did not have an opportunity to even get it on the agenda so with regards to your conversation that's that's I'm not you're not on I'm not doing that but anyway in order for us to steer this back in the right direction it's been done we as a commission have the authority to put it back on there or keep it off I'm giving the request to again have all vehicles which we have I'm asking for a recommendation of vehicles that we deemed necessary for the tracking devices to be on and those that don't as a result of that we will be able to make a decision as a whole and as a part of that decision if we deem it appropriate for the tracking devices to be on any and all vehicles we have that Authority commissioner MCO I feel that the device should be put back on the vehicle in the meantime while that is being done that's my recommendation for it to be placed back on the vehicle for that process to take place with identifying vehicles and come back with staff recommendation but I move for it to be put back on the vehicle immediately I second I second okay love but let commissioner Jones has something to say first we go to that so after that debate and me listening as the folk in the audience um and if we gonna put it back on Mr bills I would like to make a motion right now to put the tracking devices on All City owned Vehicles so it's only fair everybody if he had to have it everyone else should and if I was an employee and I have to have a tracking advice why not everyone else okay so we have a motion excuse me and second so it's now up for discussion or you can seek to amend the motion that is currently on the floor the mo there is no motion because it was not it was not acknowledged by the mayor yeah because I was letting discussion go on okay so we need let's do a DEC motion do we need a motion I moveed to have the device put back on device put back on the vehicle until we receive the requested information from the commission identifying the vehicles that they suggest second we have a motion to Second for reinstallation of the device all in favor I is there a discussion because I think again okay discussion I'm we had discussion but go ahead so as the attorney was saying to kill it well I should say kill it to to make this complete and we don't have to commissioner Campbell also alluded to we can make that deter now we don't have to wait the staff tell us we know what the situation is if we want everyone to have it now we can but if we if we only going to address here I'm fine with that as well but uh we could kind of like nip it in the bud it's only 10 other vehicles that don't have I don't know if those Vehicles par or being actually used I think M Mr Griffith are you gonna speak to that orap Shore and here so it may be more prudent to wait on those Vehicles because there would be some budget implication that were not baked into the current fiscal Year's budget and most of those are Public Safety um vehicles that we deemed we didn't want the GPS tracking for obvious reasons um just for disclosure related to police enforcement activities thank you and we also have several folks for public comment on this particular topic so right there's a motion on the floor and a second all in favor any o i any opposition did you vote either way you got to vote sure so all in favor I I any opposition thank you okay I would like to clarify Madame mayor that I was not instructed to bring the matter before commission um I shared that I had intended to uh remove the device uh the mayor did say that she could not make a decision on her own uh she asked me if I was going to bring it to the rest of the Commissioners and I said yes that was my intent and the one-on-one to bring it to the attention of each of the Commissioners so I just want to clarify that I did not directly um go against a request or recommendation by the mayor so I'm going to open the floor to public comment Mr Bliss three minutes please name and address for the record yes my name is Gary Bliss I'm at 134 Cedar Creek blacka 32177 thank you very much Madame mayor your honor and The Honorable commission uh thank you very much for allowing me to speak now I read with interest like everybody else did the numerous job changes all the things were on the internet the numerous job changes either fired or left problems with other jobs that he had was he's a lecturer or not a lecturer questions about his education U you know mishandling of pay uh flashing badges when he shouldn't have been flashing badges imperson a police officer inappropriate contract signed by the city uh questions about the validity of the resume and he said in in a in a quote said not deliberately inaccurate so I read with all that stuff it was interesting to read all that but um you know everything was cleared up and and no outstanding charges were were pressed against him uh all the arrests that he had were all the charges were dropped so all that made him eligible to be the mayor and he's traveled from one end of the country to another car in with him a lot of baggage he's been picking up baggage along the way and now that baggage is getting up right here in Paca Florida and that's what bothers me the most so now while all charges were dismissed there was there's enough out there to show that this is a pattern of behavior so I'm open-minded though so I thought I'd give him a chance I thought I would give him a chance to show that he's really dedicated to patka and wants to see Paca move forward so I was really wanted to give him a chance but this pattern of behavior and the GPS situation has demonstrated that this pattern of behavior has not changed and tonight in the city commission has even pointed that out that the commission has pointed out that information is not coming to them uh the you know there's no information that's been presented back and forth so this is the pattern of behavior that's been going on every place he's been so every place he's been so this is a pattern of arrogance and huis and this huis has gone on tonight as well because he's been refusing to answer questions directly we saw this nice presentation up there where it was all just fluff there was nothing to it he basically avoiding what the the question was why did he take the GPS off because he felt like it was his right to do so and he said at one time he felt like it was uh a matter of public safety for himself because he was a police officer 26 years ago I'm sorry that's kind of a bogus excuse but now uh as we go forward though there's even a bigger issue that I want to concern myself with is that in the 2020 census we showed that the Paca and putam County itself has gone down in population because that and I say because I say because we're not hiring the right people to to move this commission forward move this County forward we're not hiring the right people and now we got this situation where we got a city manager who's thumbing his notes at you you the mayor and you the city commission and the people of patka to uh you know basically say I'm the city manager I'll do what I want and that's not what we need we need somebody with a vision who will take this community forward and and uh you know allow businesses to grow and prosper but how can we do that with the baggage that we have I had nine seconds left I yield my time Miss kitchens alra kitchens 1027 South 12th Street Paca Florida I agree with the move that the commission made and I agree with commissioner Jones I than you either have them on all vehicles with exception of police vehicles that's a different thing the control cars must not have GPS or Fleet Maintenance whatever you call those things they can't be tracked but I think every other employee in the city either has to have it or all of them don't have it you can't discriminate and let one have his not have the GPS and the others have GPS's with again the exception of the police department which are under a clear and present danger thank you thank you is there anybody else here for public comment on this particular agenda item saying n close public comment thank you on to discussion Direction swap the St John's river Environmental Center at 102 North 1 Street for 10102 Reed Street request to Blue Crab Development Group nor LLC Mr Bell Mr Griffith who's going to I'm sorry madam mayor uh this item was requested by um the blue crab LLC and so they are going to provide us with a presentation okay who is going to come up to the podium for the group thank you please give your name Charlie Douglas 117 North Second Street patka agreed upon 10 minute time allocation yeah um Madame mayor may I ask Mr Douglas if he wants the clicker or if he wants me to justn for Advance by next slide or is that the time frame that's allow uh allocated to all giving people five is what we've usually given folks so we should be I would advise that I I did give them 10 minutes um as per the direction of my Superior who Mr Bell a b i I suggested five 10 minutes okay because it's a very very very lengthy presentation and I I don't see how you would get it within well I don't want to here but we need to again in the interest of to the rest of folks that come up and we give them five we give some but okay in the interest of time I won't go through the PowerPoint slides I believe that is in your packet for reference and I will just stick to my prepared comments okay thank you Madame mayor Commissioners Mr manager Madame attorney and fellow citizens of patka I come before you tonight with a vision for the 100 block that will activate the River Center Bridge our City's past with our future unite all voices in our community and continue the positive economic revitalization of our downtown four years ago I became the newest caretaker for the historic brick building across the street my goal was to contribute a small part in the overall revitalization of our downtown it was important to me that we honored the architectural character of the original structure from 1886 and that we remodeled the interior to something that would make Paca proud but we must not rest on our laurels at the 100 block there is more to do and the time is now during the course of the last 10 years the River Center has not been able to reach its full potential activating the Entertainment District is an integral component of the revitalization efforts and overall Economic Development to support the efforts I have purchased from Mr ski offord our local amfm radio stations WI yd and wplk we just received the green light from the Federal Communications Commission for the license transfer and I'm excited to announce in public for the first time that our new brand will be called bass Capital Radio it gives me great pleasure to introduce the members of bass Capital Radio who are here tonight in support of this project if you would please stand this Mary Susan and George the radio station's Focus will be local local local we want to promote the good in our town the out of town TV stations who tell all the bad about us or the Washington Post who questions if we are a dying City should not have the last word about us bass Capital Radio would like to broadcast live from the banks of the St John's river in inside a portion of the River Center this will serve as a place for locals and visitors alike to come in and hear about local events participate in all the happenings and learn what is special about patka we are also excited to announce tonight the bass Capital Radio podcast trailer currently parked across the street the intent of this podcast trailer is to reach all quadrants of our community and capture the incredible stories of our citizens the lives they have lived and the legacies they will leave behind we want to listen to our elders before it's too late their history is our shared history and is worthy to be saved we want the river Ser the River Center to be a bridge to our past so we can all appreciate from whence we came but at the same time a bridge to the Future a bridge that is built with hard work determined Spirit persistent effort and an unwavering resolve to reach its fullest potential first we will accomplish activating the River Center by launching a summer Friday Night concert series we will simoc cast those performances on bass Capital Radio for all in our community to hear in case some of our fellow citizens are not able to enjoy in person jazz piano saxophones Ragtime quartets will all play and send the Melodies of Pat's rich music history down St John's Avenue and along the banks of the St John's river we want to feature and promote as much as possible our local upand cominging artists we have asked the bartrum trail society and they have agreed to stay inh housee with us so we can continue to Showcase that part of our history as well second we must activate the water charter boat rentals Sunset sailing tours jet ke paddle boards kayaks maybe even sea planes when people come across the bridge we want them to see our Riverfront hustling and bustling with activity and give them a reason to stop and explore our city at the same time a rising tide must lift all boats and all of our citizens we cannot focus just on one part of the city alone and leave behind any other segment of our community may I have permission to continue I'm sorry please may I have permission to continue um but try to make it as quickly as possible again to be fear everybody else we must work in concert to support the growth of the 11th Street commercial Corridor by bringing back the barber shops and the pool halls restaurants and implementing beautification projects honoring the belon house and completing the A Philip Randol Transportation Hub we must support higher density and third we must activate the hearts of our youth and this is the core of the presentation here is that we want to create a community where young people choose to live work and play Let's educate our future Generations about the rich history of our past generations and instill pride in our community in your packet there are additional talking points about Jenkin and using that as a venue for an incubator and for a shark tank style mentor mentee relationship to to bridge the gap between our young entrepreneurs and Seed capital and also the stem Pathways The Proposal is before you in your packet it it is a contract that we created and has been vetted by your attorney and uh the the price of the contract is to be determined transparently openly and by a third party neutral and uh the pendulum could swing either way so if the River Center is more on the appraisal side and the Port Consolidated property is less then I would make up the difference and vice versa as I conclude I ask you to imagine with Me a River Center that is fully alive from the inside from the rooftop and from the banks of the St John's imagine an Entertainment District with more programs people and events and imagine a day where we are able to keep here all of our best and brightest the city can only do so much the private sector must do its part and we are here tonight now we have the human capital to make this reality now we have the talent and the passion and the determination to see this through and now we need your help to fulfill this Vision finally the words of Tennison endure on this occasion that patka is strong in will to strive to seek to find and not to yield let's get to work thank you Mr Douglas do you have a question I I've seen the renderings I don't know if the people in the audience have seen them so could you guys you know show the audience and hopefully we can capture that with the video uh people that are watching from home so the nuts and bolts of the proposed land swap is this is before the land Swap and it's a current ownership structure where this the city owned City Hall here and then I own the the fmer for cons validated piece of this block and then on the other side of Reed Street I own this part in blue and the city owns this part and yellow The Proposal is to L swap so that the ownership the after theay swap look like this where the city would own all of this block and we would own the totality C and maybe flipping it so the folks and the audience can thank you thank you any other questions of Mr Douglas we do have several people who want to make a public comment well I think you mentioned also that um so you're you're are for profit so when if if if the if this deal Goes Forth then that property then becomes taxable yes sir at whatever the um set amount is so right now it's off the tax roll yes sir yeah so um that's just another thing that uh I think kind of adds to add to it as well as the um appraisal whatever the appraisal uh value is um you said that you would make up the difference up to mil almost a million right so the the pendulum could swing either way um we don't know what that that is the independent appraiser will determine the values there but it would be capped at a million okay so those are the things we need to consider you and also to remember that with that Port consolidator would come off the tax roles specifically right we didn't to see goes on Consolidated comes off it is currently right just so that's clear to everybody go ahead Comm and he does and you do say you have a a vested interest in invested in some other throughout this process some other properties in the city to help with housing or beautification of the revitalization of the city is something that we can consider so the presentation night is a culmination of probably over 100 hours that we've been fortunate enough to spend with many of the Commissioners and staff and stakeholders in our community and we've been grateful to hear the feedback and one of the things that we heard over and over again which has true and and we are committed to is that one part of the city cannot benefit while another part is ignored that a truly a rising tide must lift all boats and as we think about the north side and the 11th Street Corridor and what that heartbeat of commercial activity meant to the history of our city and in its current state we're especially excited about the opportunity to to invest in that area as well and bring it back to life with the the barber shops the restaurants the pool halls uh recreational activities maybe like swimming pools to serve the residents and and have a place where people can participate in the Transportation Hub also the commercial activity and then above the commercial infill with residential so that there's that critical mass with the residential side to support the commercial commissioner Bor and to um I think prior to the city manager coming on board we did a pass where uh we gave direction for to establish the CRA from The Hub down Madison as well as back towards um the uh other streets where it ends um the north Tiff ends fourth and a Half street so from fourth and a half north U we were looking at those areas to help create a c district and um we would we we approved that we approved the funding for the study absolutely we did see some of that activity was some on the residential side some of the new structures that have come in in the last 12 months in that particular area any additional questions from Mr Douglas well and that's what I was going to open up to public comment miss purtin good evening my name is Shan puron my husband and I now reside since December 29th 2023 at 8429 Fleet Landing Boulevard Atlantic Beach Florida 32233 first first I thank the Commissioners Madame mayor city manager staff for allowing me to speak for my about my support of this proposal as many of you know I grew up here and I've called it home for over 60 years so I'm only 61 okay Mike and I still think of Paca as home one of the many high points of living here has been my association with the St John's River Center I was asked to serve on the community advisory committee and was part of the initial planning phases after the Center opened in 2015 I coordinated the volunteers who helped the city to staff it for several years in fact the last time I was here at a city commission meeting was in December last year and you honored me with a plaque and a wonderful Proclamation and appreciation for my volunteer work at the River Center Waterworks and other local organizations tonight I am truly excited about the possibility of an expanded future for the River Center my understanding is that the proposal will maintain the essence of what the River Center was designed to be upgrade the facility and opportunities within the River Center and Elevate the experience that our visitors and guests have when they stop to visit our wonderful Community the bartrum trail Society has a rich history and it is currently headquartered at the River Center we look forward to raising the bar for the bartum Frolic in conjunction with the River Center more foot traffic and more programming will Elevate so many efforts in Palatka therefore I strongly support this proposal Charlie Douglas has demonstrated in many ways that he cares for our city and its people I am hopeful that this proposal will be approved and that the River Center can realize its full potential this in turn could have very positive economic Ripple effects for the whole community as an indicator The Continuous Care retirement community where Mike and I now live has already asked me to help organize the day trip to patka to see the murals and specifically to visit the River Center pakka definitely has incredible potential I truly believe this proposal is one more step toward realizing it again many thanks for your time and positive consideration thank you thank you Miss kitchens algra kitchens 1027 South 12th Street Paca Florida uh I would be remiss if I didn't uh mention something that Mr Douglas missed our roving reporter marshalene also works with radio stations and she's a great asset to our community and has been for many years it's her job at the uh Paca Daily News the putam County Courier Journal and many other news areas so I just want to make sure that she gets recogn ized as a member of the radio station uh you all somebody mentioned about well the property is coming off the tax roll that U that is next to your the property that Mr Douglas owns right now that he wants to swap with the River Center is coming off the tax roll well it's only assessed at 300 a little over $322,000 so that's no big deal coming off the tax R but the River Center and that property which is going on the tax roll is assessed over $1.2 million so that's going to be an asset asset to you and in my opinion this is a win-win situation first for the it's win-win for the city and it's win-win for the uh blue crab Development Group for the city you have the opportunity to square up the city hall property that way you have the opportunity to expand City Hall when you get ready big the biggest thing is based on the Property Appraiser's values and the appraiser is not going to come any lower than the property appra does I can tell you that right now based on the property appr values Douglas's property that he wants to swap you for is currently appraised at $322,400 your property at the River Center and on the second the 100 block is apprais at 1,184 n65 that's a difference of $862,500 $999 this is an $800,000 win for the city the River Center is up kept by a very good person he's got super good plans you can don't have to you can extend City Hall if you need to win win all the way around I support it fully thank you I just hear Miss K okay thank you was that Miss kitchens we believe so John Alexander since there are two Mr Alexanders in the room I'll give the first name thank you mayor [Music] ker uh city manager uh honorable Commissioners ladies and gentlemen I've known Charlie Douglas since he was in the fourth grade participating in my music classes my talent shows my holiday programs square dancing learning all about and all learning how to appreciate various types of music uh this all took place at Kelly Smith previously known as Silver Lake Elementary School Charlie was an ideal student he was enthusiastic he was energetic and eager to learn did I say that he was eager to learn he was was extremely eager to learn more than eager because of Charlie and so many more like him I remained at Kelly Smith for almost 50 years I see that same eagerness and that fire and that passion in Charlie today that energy is catching it makes you want to join in and make things happen it makes you want to make things better his vision for St John's Avenue and the riverfront and combining properties to create a dynamic cultural entertainment complex for the whole Community utilizing local talent is nothing short of Genius it's the characteristics of someone who cares for his community is the characteristics of someone who loves his community by collaborating with our citizens and local government Charlie Douglas and the bluecrab Development Group in my opinion can be a shot in the arm for our little town called Pac Florida thank you Mr Alexandra thank you Mr Alexandra could you please give your address though I'm sorry that's okay it's uh 9919 car street Miss gilad I'm not going to bother the this the preacher in me would say without a vision of people perish the teacher in me would say you can become anything you desire to become and that's what I saw in this young man when I taught him many years ago at Kelly Smith Elementary School came in as Mr Alexander said John only had the uh Good Fortune of having Charlie for specials when he would go to music but I was uh treated with Charlie what about six and a half hours but it was it was just awesome he Charlie had a a passion for all of the students in the class he cared about those that uh lived on it didn't matter which side of town you lived on or which side of the railroad track it did not matter to him he just loved people and when uh my niece met Charlie she declared that he was going to become a preacher but instead he became an attorney and uh when I was at Price Middle School I I just had to allow those students to meet someone with the passion that this young man has and he came and he spoke to that graduating class from Price Middle School but the reason I stand here tonight uh yes I can say all those great things about Charlie and he's not paying me a scent it was just the fact that I love him and his passion and his commitment to education but the young man's Vision he is one of those that could have gone anywhere he could set up residence anywhere he is gone as far as Texas to defend a young man he didn't even know but he knew the young man had gotten a raw deal that's how I've been keeping up with him uh he let me down and not let me know about the children and the Twins when they were born but that's okay we we'll deal with that at another time but this young man has a a a vision for our young people here in Putman County to offer uh an opportunity for them to Blossom right here so that as he stated our best and our brightest won't leave won't think that I have to go for the bright lights it's happening right here in puton county and with that Vision he has for the uh place across the street and and setting up stem for our children that can let our young people get an early jump on on this educational uh Endeavor to become great at whatever it is they they choose to become uh I told him or somebody the story tonight uh when I was out at Aquilla we were doing our bugs dinner bringing up grades trying to encourage our kids to do the best they can to become the best that they could become and uh I wanted the Jacksonville Jaguars at least two of them to just show up they they could just be on the practice roster just show up and say something to motivate our children and they made they sent me some little trinkets or something and and they made the comment that uh the distance that they would have to travel to get to puton County was kind of out of their range and I'm thinking I'm not that bright but it's the same distance from interlockin as it was to Jacksonville uh let us get behind this young man and support him he's not one that's just going to grab it and run he is all about making everybody around him as he said rise I don't know that much about fishing and boats and all of that but if you said it's so it's so we all gonna rise together I thank you thank you please may she didn't Prov her address oh could you I'm sorry uh Sandra Gillard uh you want my 111 uh my post office box I live in saner God's country but my mailing address is 465 San M Florida 32187 uh physical address is 111 Live Oak Street right down from Brown and Pierce thank you Jeremy Alexander name and address please Jeremy Alexander 134 Timberlane Paca Florida thank you Madame mayor thank you Commissioners thank you City staff uh and Community leadership for coming here tonight and support of this project um I want to share a little bit about my history uh with the River Center and then I want to talk about all the good things that came out of the conversations we had as a community um I started my career when I came back to Baca with Georgia Pacific 24 years ago um I inherited a project no differently than Dr Shan inherited at one point um a project that included $200 million of environmental upgrades at the Georgia Pacific paper mill in patka believe M commissioner boram was at GP at that time uh there was an agreement reached between the epa's Blue Ribbon team FD St John's River Water Management District and Industry experts that said if you install the best of technology on the market at your facility and are still unable to meet the color and conductivity requirements in Rice Creek that we will allow you to relocate your discharge we also wanted you to in exchange for that we want you to construct an Environmental Education Center for your community unfortunately the tragedy of 911 hit our community just a couple of years later um as a result of that Georgia Pacific became a Marc regulated facility because they bring bunker sea fuel Fu oil in Via barge which made them a potential terrorist Target um some conversations transpired from there the city of Paca agreed with the other agencies to allow the River Center to be relocated from the banks of Rice Creek to the banks of the St John's river so it could be accessed by our community as a whole and that was the essence of the St John's River Center uh now it's naturally become the Welcome Center to Pat and Mr Douglas is here today proposing it's time to elevate that Center um when I went to work for Charlie in November I walked by that Center every day and I asked Charlie if uh there were plans for the St John's River Center he said there's an agreement in place as I understand it I said well would you mind if I call my former boss and see what the status of the agreement is she agreed uh that they had already been in conversations about ter ating that agreement in hopes of doing something for the greater good the city of patka uh met with representatives of GP the blue crab Development Group and we came up with what we think's a win-win win-win for this community patka and the blue crab Development Group uh what I'd like to touch on I know I'm about out of time but just some things that came out of the conversations um there was a plan that was good and how this commission and Community stakeholders made it great um things that weren't originally included that are now potentially a Welcome Center that invites passers by into our wonderful town uh that highlights the rich music history that we have uh daily features of our local artists continuing educations beyond the Environmental Education that's already part of the River Center inclusion of the original e essence of the River Center and while it remains home to the bartrum trail activation of the riverfront um capturing our oral history that cannot be found anywhere else in our community and I'm going to stick I'm going to comment on the last two that I think are extremely important one of one of our commissioners initiated this conversation then it resonated for the through the rest of the commission and that was let's not just focus on the River Center take a ride with me so we loaded up and honestly we headed to the north side and um we went to what is now uh well the previous home of the Belton family who happens to be on a very beautiful mural in the city of gladka um but now has been dilapidated and and I think we're having some conversations as to what we're going to do but next to that is a vacant lot that's owned by the city as you travel down 11th Street get closer to Olive there are three other city-owned vacant lots and I just want to commend this city for making sure that this group understands the other opportunities that exist in our community and I want this commission to understand that that group has already reached out to your city and staff and asked for how we can move this project forward on the north side of patka so there are three ideal locations for us to do something special we ran into a lady named Miss Sylvia on that drive who deserves better and uh we want to be part of that solution as well uh I would ask that that we think about that just as just as quickly as we can because the opportunity is now as well thank you for your time sorry for running is there anybody else have a public comment on this agenda item Mr Trana name and address for the record please Madame mayor um Jim trano 2000 Reed Street I'm an employee at beex loan properties um I represent an investor and that investor and I and our group we fully support empowering and changing the River Center and seeing Prosperity happen in addition to the things that Mr Douglas mentioned also about ecotours and and seeing growth and development happen in that area as you know that we're very active in the 200 block in the 300 block of St John's Avenue and so if I may I'd like to ask a point of clarification in the paperwork that was provided this uh sales agreement uh property agreement it lists only two properties that the city has that Mr Douglas and his group are asking to swap with the city however if you look at the actual map itself there is a third partial that's there and I'm wondering if that partiel is also going to be included in the swap itself I have uh a document here that I can provide as well as a larger map that I obtain from the property appraisers I also have a second question that I'd like to ask after finding um this out please if I may go ahead um well my second question would be will there be opportunity for others to um make a proposal to make an offer to the city uh to provide funding to do the same thing but to offer it as a competitive process and I'm wondering if that will happen tonight or will that happen at another time because if it won't happen I do have an offer to make the city on behalf of my investor for this property okay let's thank you Mr Triano um any discussion that are any questions for the questions that the commission has I know when not we don't answer on public comment so if there's anything further as long as I don't need to make a proposal now for something I won't have the opportunity later I just need clarification on that if so I'll make it but I'd rather not make it if there is going to be an opportunity for others to have an opportunity to provide a proposal to the city and this is discussion direction thank you for the public comment I don't know again we have to discuss first okay and see what direction this commission wants to go in okay thank you Madame mayor is anybody else here for public comments seeing none we'll close public comment discussion Direction questions commissioner Campbell you have any discuss questions okay commissioner Jones as I think that there was a lot of information was a lot provided uh you know talk to the group and um I think we should definitely consider consider what the public had to say but you know it's a lot to consider didn't you have another offer here so that's something that I think Le we could talk about legal ramifications as far as it was a proposal then almost like a cter proposal here in this meeting so I would like to have some direction later so I think we could table this some other time and come back and make a decision thank you how we going to proceed okay are you asking Miss West to give you more information no no I just took gave you m commissioner Borman um I guess at this point in time based on what what we're hearing is uh we will have to probably um table it until we um make table it until further further discussion commissioner m I agree with table in this but the fact that they've already I agree with table but I would like to say this they've done their presentation shared their amounts and then you have a counter proposal I mean that that right there just kind of sits sideways with me yeah I'm not but I don't have an issue with tabling this and moving I'm not friendly to the disclosure of the the information that they provided and account and there's a counter so that's my only issue with that go ahead commissioner K I will state that I'm in favor of tabling um and I did pose this question to Mr Alexander as to how did we get here um so I think that is very uh was it I'm just a tad bit confused as to when I say confused I'm more interested in knowing how did was this something that was put out stating that um it was open for conversation how did we get to this point and I think in order for our for me to be at ease I think that conversation should be had as to how did we get here with this respective organization um just for clarity purposes um I will admit that I am had several conversations um with Mr Douglas as well as Mr Alexander um and I'm optimistic about the future of the riverfront as a whole that 100 block but I think it's important for us to know how did we get to this point what conversations transpired was this something that went out to the public saying that we were interested or vice versa um I do believe that this side I'm a little thrown at the Spade that was just put on the table um I I it's that just thrown me but um I don't want us as a elected body to move off of emotions or a move off because we have something dangling in our face I believe that if anybody was interested in anything as that organization has come to us before with other opportunities that we have not seen come to fruition um but I would be interested in just knowing how did we get here and I'll be even more interested in knowing why you put that spade out tonight versus doing something a little different um you like me to respond first no he he was talking to you no no but his public comment is over no no I'm just saying I want I think it's if if given the opportunity I would allow but of course it's up to the mayor um but I think that information is prevalent but again I we I don't want us to be in the business just because we see something dangling in our face that might appear to be a little bit more um I mean we don't even know what the proposal is so you can be proposing to give us a dollar more than what they're giving us and here we are we've bitten the we've bitten the Apple um so I and is that even attorney West is that even something that we can do or even takeing consideration something that has come before us as as a form of public hearing I mean public comment well we're here for a specific item that has been put for direction yeah it and that is a a good point commissioner Campbell this is an item that has been put forth for direction um and simply seeking guidance from this commission you do not have to execute on a contract tonight you don't have in the form of this counter offer all offers all all issue contracts that have to pertain with real property have to be in writing this was simply a a a verbal that was made right here so you you don't have anything to base a decision on I think the the commissioner MCC casal's motion to table to gather more information is a it was a wise one I would not even put you on a spot to answer that um I think it's been the echoing resounding without hearing from mayor at this point that we're just G I would I would be friendly to tbling this um as well not tbling it because of what was dangled in our face but taking it in consideration of all the information that was presented to us tonight and I agree we should table that I think to be transparent and to do with things in an ethical manner we need to go that route um and table it for further discussion and information additional information table it to what time certain well that's what you all have to propose I mean I believe that they presented very much but I don't I think it's just giving us opportunity to soak into um the true direction of which we would like to see it go um and as far as the other oper the the other person the other entity if they got something that they want to give to us they got two weeks to give it to us so so alter post till the next meeting is and I'm not talking about just a figure I'm talking about a layout U the whole proposal what a yeah what real plan so if you could tee up a proper motion and have the mayor repeat it and get a second move forward I moved the tell up this item until the next commission meeting second the motion is second all in favor I I gave true Direction but that wasn't clear Direction it was to table it because or all in favor any opposition than I feel it's up to them how they present they we didn't give them Direction how they I would like to give some direction um what is the city's future plans to use the river C River Center that we have any what are we doing with our Cultural Arts uh cultural Affairs department and what I hear is Mr Douglas proposed to bring in entertainment bring in some cultural things for the community to enjoy what is the what is our vision for it if we don't have one I guess we can get rid of it but if we are we have a department and we haven't had any of the the movement or the expectations that the citizens of the city want and it's clearly I like the ideas and I talked to them I told them I love ideas I even like more that they're committing to not only just commit to the river other areas of the city that's been underserved so my pause is not for that we can talk and we could talk and say what we're going to do but I would like to see some progress on doing some of those projects that we talked about um and Mr Alexander said he asked for what what can he do what can they do as an organization we could entertain that also maybe lease it until we make decision and then we could see what they they could bring to the table and we could see it like you said see it touch it feel it and we'll know from the conversations to the product that's laid in front of us so the motion is out there I just want to add what I just said we no no no I'm not I'm not making a motion now it's a comment on that motion so I like about where the community fears recreation department wants to yeah well that's a direction for our right city manager and us as far as what we're with uh what our vision is I'm I'm saying while we are tbling it the wait period for us those are the things I feel that we should think about and what our plans are it's the it's the citizens building it's side constituents building it's just not ours to say we're going to do the five of us so I just want to bring that I want to make sure before we leave I put those sentiments out there okay any additional comments do know it okay thank you going on to public hearings ordinance 202 2403 parking and storage of vehicles first reading Miss Grant thank you for bearing with me still figuring out the new software ordinance number 20243 I'm presenting to you an ordinance of the city of Paka for first reading by creating section 94 263 of the municipal code of the city of Paca as it pertains to parking and storage of vehicles generally adding Provisions for the definitions of various Vehicles prohibiting overnight vehicle parking in the rideway prohibiting unlicensed vehicles for excess of 12 hours prohibiting major repair of vehicles on residential property prohibiting commercial vehicles in residential zones providing requirements for parking and storage or passenger vehicles and residential zones providing for recreational vehicle restrictions providing for scers errors and providing for an effective Mr Bill EXC I want talk go ahead that's not yeah I would have to wait okay oh I don't want you to Mr Griffith thank you mayor uh Commissioners the ordinance that you see before you uh was developed um out of our recurring blight to Bright meeting uh what we are trying to address here is uh providing some more clarity about where you can and cannot park uh throughout the city um so this was presented to your planning board uh for input and again this is first reading so this is another opportunity uh to get input from the commission and the public as we look to refine this document I'm going to do my best to give you just a general overview um but if there are specific questions pertaining to types of vehicles and where you can and cannot park uh feel free to ask me those so first is we are defining what a commercial vehicle is so generally it's anything with a carrying capacity of more than one ton uh and it also defines pickup trucks that may have a cargo bed um or an attachment on the back so anything that is taller or larger than the cab would be defined as a commercial vehicle uh we are defining what a major repair is and that means the removal from the frame and the dis disassembly of the components of the powertrain of a motor vehicle to include either the engine transmission or rear axle assembly and recreational vehicle is also defined now I'd like to point out specific to recreational vehicles uh that you are permitted to park them within a residential district we're just providing some guidance as to where and where not more specifically so when it comes to the front yard or the driveway there's a limit how long it can be parked there so if you're preparing the vehicle or making a repair getting ready to take it on a trip it can be there for three consecutive days if you have a guest that that is staying with you it can be there for seven days now the other condition that applies in this scenario is that it cannot block a means of Ingress or egress to the structure so you can't block a window or a doorway and that's for obvious public health safety reasons now recreational vehicles can be stored in the side and rear yard that is permitted uh commercial vehicles so long as they don't exceed that tonnage requirement uh can be parked in a residential Zone they just have to meet the specific locations of parking so you can't park in what we generally call the parkway strip which is from the boundary line to the curb or the grass strip or on top of the sidewalk and if you're in the driveway you're not permitted to block the sidewalk with your vehicle are there any questions anybody have any questions Mr griffi just just a comment um in my request was uh the fact that when I asked for specific section um because looking at the imunity code um these appear appear to be like some new items as related to um the recreational vehicles but um I was told that that they were there was other areas within the munic Cod that these things uh sat so um if if there's a way that where we could um I guess reference making sure that we we cover all the all the bases if we're going to if we're going to going to uh enact something that is already in in play but it's not clear uh I think that's what we need to do from a standpoint of of cleaning things up because it brought on a lot of questions from a lot of people in the community as it related to um them not being able to um Park their recreational vehicles and if we got that spread all over the munico with the different sections there need to be uh a way which you when you when we do this that it references all of those locations so that you have a master one and you have the other one that point back so that's what I would recommend because it's not nothing new that is being put in from what I understand correct uh yes there is this section is new and it's meant to provide Clarity there's also an enforcement component here which I would prefer to defer to Chief Shaw uh do you mind sir so uh new section I mean I I was told that it would certain thing would be striked out so I would like to understand and know what what what what's the new section before I go before I turn Chief Shaw in regards to enforcement what Miss West do you mind addressing that this sure this is an entirely new section uh for the code that is being considered um so it's it's not a provision of the existing code that we're doing a strikeout delete um and modification of the existing code has a lot of confusion quite frankly in terms of definitions uh there's cross references all over the place so if you really wanted to know what the rules applied for recreational vehicles you're you're hunting all over the code so this uh seeks to make it easy for the public to know exactly where to go for the definition section and how those definitions are going to be applied to commercial and recreational vehicles and like Mr Griffith mentioned it does have an enforcement provision as well all right I just didn't get a chance to look at it in detail so that's just my I'm read for for that piece of it so just a reminder this is first reading and I can make myself available to all of the Commissioners to answer questions uh about any provision of this that you you may have before the next scen go ahead and chief sh sure Madame mayor and Commissioners as it stands currently the enforcement portion uh part of our city ordinance is not in place so as you remember in past we used to be able to write uh citations ordinance citations for those infractions that occurred on on uh ordinances within the uh current code that that part doesn't exist anymore simply because something that was done between the county and the city and it has dissolved is there's no more city ordinance uh citations that's being written so the enforcement part for now is based off being code uh enforcement and then going from uh leans if the property or the infraction is not corrected within a matter or period of time so that's the that's the difference so so actually you're gonna have to have more resources to get keep going back out there just to check and see if it's compliant so in in the policy I believe one of the things we discussed in the meeting was that um it's it's a lotted for a certain period but it also excludes that it can't happen after that time frame consistently so for instance you can't move it off and then once they come back it's it continues to start over and over again it's basically it you you have it it's a code enforcement option to remove it and then if it comes back and it continues to come back then it's a der option that they're going that they deal with in on another level I think Miss West can uh uh clear that up a little bit if she needs to yeah if they are a repeat violator there are different sections of the code that that would apply for repeat violations uh where you remove the vehicle for you know that three-day time period and then you come right back and do the same violation all over again that's going to be a repeat violator and there's a different section of the code that applies so the need for this is a couple different things and I'm sure you all have been receiving the complaints and where we started from and I just feel it's important to go back to uh when we talk about the recreation commercial commercial vehicles is the parking on the RightWay as well as the uh tractor trailers that we were finding in the neighborhood that we were tasked with being able to address those situations so the uh ordinance that we put together was basically to be able to address those those complaints that we've been constantly receiving um to have something in place that was clear and direct and wasn't in multiple different parts of the ordinance and uh that was the task that we we sought out to be able to um establish and then the enforcement fraction um what we don't have in place right now is what we uh myself and code enforcement have been asking for is some teeth to be able to put something uh basically penalty wise to associate with those different complaints when we come back constantly asking for a cooperation for things to fall in line any additional questionsa I'm going to open the floor to public comment Mr Wilkinson okay thank you Miss given good evening Madam mayor Commissioners um city manager attorney everybody good evening uh my name is Tara given my address is 130 West cracker far I'm sorry my address is in the city 225 still Avenue here in paca I have a couple of questions but first I want to start with this I've been coming to these meetings since March 23rd of 2023 of course in support of preserving and restoring historic Center Academy now I don't know if this is a form of retaliation or whatever you want to call it but I do own a recreational vehicle and it is part in my driveway I've own it since 2021 with covid and some of the other things that we've experienced in these recent years so my family and I we use it as a way of getting away and it's our it's on our personal property we haven't had any complaints in our neighborhood I do not live in a homeowners association so I do have an issue and a problem with anybody trying to tell me what I can and cannot park on my property so tonight I hope that we can get some clarification number one one IID like to know where this come from how did it get put on the agenda who requested this was there any complaints because as far as I know according to the code enforcement if there is a complaint that has to be made known and made public um I'm curious to know because I've roled throughout the city and I've seen several commercial vehicles recreational vehicles and I don't know if you're going to include boats and things of that nature as well but I would definitely like more clarification on this and I would like to know how this got on the agenda if this is a new item what what brought this out I'm very concerned about it because it affects me and it affects me and my family and there are other citizens that are very concerned about this as well and there are more people that are now you know owning recreational vehicles I know that we have a recreational uh Resort coming to the old cork bills area that way there's also RV storage uh facility that's supposed to be coming as well but like I said I don't live in the historic area of town I don't live in a homeowners association so I need to know in detail how this affects me moving forward thank you I can address um quite a few of those concerns first of all the if the commission so desires um first of all the the reason this came before us as uh Mr Griffith previously stated uh it was brought up during the blight to Bright meeting uh where there were numerous complaints to code enforcement of recreational vehicles being parked in front of doorways and windows um in front yards on sidewalks and it was causing an issue that constituted like in terms of the applicability of things like boats that's why we have a definition section recreational vehicle shall mean all non-commercial recreational vehicles including but not limited to motor homes travel trailers campers vessels boats boat trailers or similar Vehicles equipment or apparatus now they are not completely outright prohibited in residential areas there are exceptions you can have all of those recreational vehicles in your garage in a carport or in your driveway you just can't park right in the middle of the front yard so that that's what this was seeking to accomplish because it was starting to constitute blight because of where the vehicles were being parked in the yards and so that is what this particular ordinance seeks to address thank you um do there anybody else have a public comment on this particular item Miss Miss kitchen alra kitchens 1027 South 12th Street PAC of Florida kudos to missg this uh the way this is written particularly 994-2636 and unlawful overnight street parking is prohibited in Des is permitted in designated Mark spaces in the downtown districts and in certain areas of the north historic district and the South historic district upon approval by the city commission City pacas Historic preservation board and B Board of zoning appeals y y I don't live downtown I don't live in either historic district I do not have the opportunity at this point to park my car in my yard nor do my neighbors most of the lot the older Lots in patka are a lot of the lot are so close together you cannot park on the in the road I mean you have to park in the road the historic districts have an exception that if they can't get to their property the back of their property they can park on the road we need to have that same exception and you look at the new subdivisions that coming in and I just found out at the last meeting that now property lines houses only have to be 5 feet from the adjoining property line show me a car that's 5 feet wide and you can drive it between the house and the property line my car is at least 8 feet wide and I think a Cooper or something is even smaller than that so you we need to have the right to park on the public rideway on the public streets with our personal vehicles as long as we're not blocking traffic and if we don't have that right then we don't have a place to park our cars and again our personal property rights our private property rights are being restricted and I am 100% against this and again I'm referring specifically to 94 263 my neighbors do cannot get into their yard most of them can't at this point I'm now my street that I'm parking on it is a dead end street so there's no through traffic traff but right now I cannot get into my backyard so you have to make an exception you're doing it for the historic districts and the downtown district you have to make an exception for other residential districts if we have no access to to park in our backyard and I'm not about to build a $110,000 garage to park my car in the yard so please give us the same consideration that you're giving the historic districts let the residential people in other areas of the city be permitted to park on the street as long as they're not blocking traffic if they can't get to their backyard thing thank you thank you is there anybody else here for public comment on this particular item seeing close public comment we have a motion are they G answer you don't say answer I think attorney West did address mg questions go ahe ahead so U mayor Commissioners I I do believe attorney West did address Miss K's question so I I want to lay out some options for you again this was presented to you based upon issues that we are having that doesn't mean that um it is uh let's say complete so if you want to see some changes and you want to direct those changes this is an opportunity for that depending on the nature and extent of those changes you got a couple options the first is you make a motion um and you direct us specifically which sections you want us to work on between first and second reading if you believe those can be addressed between first and second reading um you could table um first and second reading and just move this out you know a meeting each time um or you could remand it back to the planning board and direct staff to work with the planning board on some modifications but again some direction would be helpful um based upon the input that you've gotten from the public and the presentation that you received tonight thank you I would um I would if you're entertaining a motion I have a motion to make okay we have a motion you might time now is nearing 10 so um I make the motion that we table this until next meeting simply because taking in consideration uh what has come forth not only from staff but from the citizens I know that I would have some stuff that I would like to come back with and I would like to just for it to be prepared and send it to staff versus me trying to lash it out tonight okay so is that your motion that's your Mo we have a motion a second all in favor I any opposition thank you y thank you you something say I just was going to ask that the motion include tabling both meetings uh just because that's necessary so if you don't mind just another motion second can we State the motion please do I can we amend the motion because I just to I'm friendly with what uh assistant city manager has provided and I second so the motion is to table first second question second readings yes that's the amended motion okay we have a motion and we have a second all in favor I any opposition thank you Madame may just for purposes of informing the public we've we've moved for the first and second readings on the 28th and 11th to be moved to 11th and 25th of April correct thank you just want to give those States cor thank you on 20241 all right I print in to you for second reading and for adoption ordinance number 20241 an ordinance of the city of Palanka Florida amending appendix a the fee schedule of the municipal code of the city of Pac as it pertains to fees and other charges relating to chapter 86 utilities providing for severability providing an effective date and providing for scri SS thank you is there anybody here for public comment on this item or anybody here to speak to this item seeing none closed public comment do we have a motion second all in favor I any opposition thank you ordinance 20242 thank you again presented to you from second for second reading and adoption ordinance number 20242 an ordinance of the city of Pac amending the tree protection ordinance to afford greater protection for trees and residential zonings prohibiting invasive trees to be used as a replacement trees providing for scri sers and providing for an effective date thank you is there anybody here a second reading to speak to this not I'm going to open the floor to public comments I'm going to open the floor to public comments Miss Duke I'm Vicky I live at 105 har haris Florida um I was here for half of that reading with our five and a half hour meeting the last time and so I didn't really get to finish it but I guess what I wanted to say was I felt like when I was hearing that reading that I do feel like whatever applies to churches and commercial property should they have to All by that it do what size right the C diameter of the tree and so anyway I was in favor that tree thank you m Miss kitchens did she leave us she's gone wow okay I'm closing public comment quickly do we have a motion moov second okay all in favor I I any opposition thank you on to resolution 20124 off 58 thank you Madame mayor I think we're nearing the end here let me pause the timer before goes off while I'm talking although y'all could time me if you wanted resolution number 2024 r58 a resolution of the city of Pac Florida authorizing acceptance of the final plat of iy Street and authorizing all required signatures on behalf of the city of black Florida and providing for scrips thank you Mr I'm sorry uh the item before you was continue for our last meeting um the last public hearing if you remember there was some concerns raised by by the citizen a neighbor to to the plat and just to remind you this is a plat for three for subdivision into three lots with intent to construct uh single family homes on each one of the Lots um you asked us to review uh and check uh whether what it was stated at the last public hearing was correct or that we went back and look at the at the minutes of both meetings the preliminary plat and the final plat we also look at the staff report we got in contact with the former planning director because uh to see whether there was any reference for the Swale in the plat and um we didn't find anything and the former planning director indicated uh that she re remembered talking with them however she was referring to uh the requirement of a swell for a drainage at the time was development of those slots uh since then we we reach out to Mrs kitchen and and she spoke here the the last meeting and also uh the neighbor that was affected or could be affected uh and we explain to her the situation she came and met with us and we explained to her that that requirement has to be met at the time of development she was satisfied and uh we gave her assurances that we will look after that so with that I would like to recommend approval of the final plat as shown in the resolution thank you do the applicants are here do you want to speak to anything about this yeah does anybody have any questions to the applicants okay um Miss Duke hopefully have to public comment I want to start taking this kitchen's Place Vicky Duke 105 Carriage Terrace Paca Florida um I did have some concerns about this lot um the lot and it having proper drainage so as to not affect the houses that are already there I know that that was low property and it was built up so I'm glad you talked with Jerry that was the other lady and um so as long as I was going be here I was going to stay for that but as long as your plan is to not I know you wouldn't intentionally build anything that's going to flood the neighbors but depending on how you route the water that used to stand there I don't want it to run on the neighbors property please okay thank you thank you okay anybody else here public comments seeing none close public comment do we have a motion to approve so Mo second all in favor I any opposition thank you with that said Commissioners do we have any commission comments commission C commissioner Jones commissioner bon no we just got um the uh Magic versus the Clippers tomorrow we got my list of students and chaperon we got about 46 47 thus far and uh so we'll be heading down to Orlando tomorrow it's our sixth anniversary of doing this four years with the magic and two years with the Jaguars so um we're going to go out enjoy uh the youth a opportunity to um experience something that they may have not been able to afford um previously so looking forward to that and I got my list um are you still on list I am okay so okay all right and um the offer still there if anybody else want I have a business that's open every day I'm sorry I'm telling 4 don't think about me after see don't take it just I have I have an obligation tomorrow night don't don't hit me in the gut like that all right but that's all I have okay commissioner mcal do you have anything no this time thank you thank you and it's also Bippity bity whatever that is tomorrow as well on Saturday Saturday boo I'm still on Cinderella um but anyway tell her to look because last year was at the river but it's now it's now the Jenkins Community Center in the backyard Community Center so if you have time folks please go do we have a motion to adjourn thank you