##VIDEO ID:hy3FV6RlvoI## e good evening everyone I'm going to call this meeting to order February 4th 2025 the city is Sebring city council meeting you all stand with me the mayor is going to lead us in a prayer and a pledge please B with me Lord thanks once again for the wonderful City that we live in we really appreciate the staff and all they do for the city and keep it running we ask you to watch over our First Responders and lay hands over them and watch them as they do their work and protect us from all tragedies and other events we ask that you watch over all of our citizens uh as we move through the year we uh pray for the individuals that are caught between fires and snow and wind and rain and tragic accidents that have happened here in the last several months we ask that you watch over all of them and guide them uh to where they can once again enjoy peace and Tranquility we ask that all we do we do in your name Jesus Christ amen amen Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all right thank you for that haly can you call the roll please here here here here here here all right if anyone from the audience has an item they would like to discuss that is not on the agenda you can fill out one of the forms on the front table here hand it in to clerk Haley and we will get to you later in the meeting mayor's report um if youall haven't heard our HGTV Premier is March 9th at 8:00 so it's kind of exciting it we thought we'd see it the end of April we're kind of hoping it would we've got a lot of plans that are in place that we had to change and and move out but it's going to be pretty exciting with all they done and it's if you've been downtown there's actually been a lot of foot traffic now where people from out of town um from all over really are coming and seeing What's happen but it's it's really exciting and got a good uh crew headed by Casey wall and Christy Vasquez and tanil and and actually are involving Lake plasa and naon park in the preparation for it so we can all work as one County and promote the county itself not just what HGTV did but all the other assets that we have so it's it's really exciting to to see that coming we had actually had an interview with a couple from Germany that have a travel magazine that came to Highland County and wanted to see what was going on they heard a lot of Buzz about it so they're doing a big article on it so it's really it's really uh it's it's being seen and it's really kind of neat to see um we want to uh just ask your uh your blessings for Carl Hogan chief hogland his mother passed away last week and just watch her her family and and give you peace and Solace as you continue on so and other than that the fair is here Friday so if you all want to ride the rides go there's half half price armband day on Monday Tuesday but uh so it'll be it'll be quite busy here coming up next week and then we also had the races coming up in March right around the HGTV reveal and then right after that is the race so it's going to be a pretty busy couple months here that we're going to see but uh last but not least and actually the most um we have been fortunate to be have Sebring that was started in 1912 we've got a lot of businesses and organization and institutions that have been here 100 years plus and tonight we get to pre-celebrate the temple is Israel of Highland County which is having a celebration this coming Saturday a week from Saturday I'm sorry a week from Saturday the 15th so I've got a proclamation here I'd like to read Maran or Lisa you Lisa Julie Julie is the president right I am I think forever never ends right that's okay oh good do appreciate your efforts here's our Proclamation where temp County isting anniversary Shabbat 17 Shabbat 5785 Tuesday February 4 praise and syue community of Israel and where were held in the C Masonic temple during September 1925 by December a l frame building was constructed on Pine Street in order to have a minion which is for community prayer 10 men necessary to hold Services members are drawn from many nearby community by efforts of Mr mik personally visited them and invited them to attend scroll was purchased from New York City at the cost of 11,000 it is the original synagogue structure lasted 30 years until it was destroyed by a hurricane in 1950 during World War II Passover seeders included as many as 200 servicemen from Hendrick field and Avon Park air base and whereas in 1987 Tommy and Margie wall donated land from from the former kber golf club and Ronnie Hanley was a builder of a brand new Temple Israel vience County building which is the building standing today sitting at the corner temp dve Florida and whereas the per artwork Windows of the 1987 structure dedication of the members of the congregation in 2003 the Holocaust Memorial window was commissioned by Dr the Jerusalem R was painted by the artistic members of the congregation including Mr on both sides of the alter was designed by parents and painted by her with the help of other and whereas after being restored in London in 1963 by the memorial scr trust 1980 1890 Holocaust scr was temp these Scrolls including the one at the temple County her permanent reminder the Marty whose synagogues they were removed and whereas our ancestors and those whoers here inog of God's presence in their midst we in our turn the sanctuary to affirm the sacredness of Our Lives whereas the Jewish congregation of Highland County has does and will spread light and loving inclusion of each other those in the broader Highland County community and the world asers of future peacing initiatives among the people on earth all members will bear witness to the glory and faithfulness of thy holy name and now therefore be it proclaimed I John Shu mayor of the city of C County Proclaim Saturday February 15 2025 as Temple Israel of County 100th anniversary day in ceding Highland County and Proclaim that the Temple Israel of Island County and its Jewish conations has made a difference to Highland County Community since 1925 Rec CATE andate app it so much and we love our community oh yes we have Friday night service on the 14th at 6:30 that everyone is always welcome to attend right but this is quite an H we love vience scy and yeah and we're going to keep it going another 100 to the next hund praise God thank you appreciate it thank you all you're very welcome that's all I that's it that's it any Oxygen that was well worth it let me tell you lot of history lot all right council members report Mr car yeah um you know we think about First Responders as the Police Department fire fire department but this past week we had there was an issue out at Highland's home no water so I would have to say our water department was their First Responders at that time and all of our city employees uh Steve and his crew they all show up when needed you know and not taking away from the police and fire but I think our city shows up a police fire water department uh Street sanitation we have a good community and I just want to thank everybody that works here for doing a great job even the city employees of this building do a great job Miss mle uh good evening everyone and so glad to have the uh members of our um Temple Israel congregation and I think it's been a hundred years and uh just so happy to be affiliated with the Israeli initiative and I look forward to coming to all of your celebrations on this weekend it's going to be wonderful so uh thank you for coming and I just wanted to say too as I look around the city and I see the um Headway we've made and the plans that we have tonight even for some expansion and uh the circle looking great and the restaurants there are uh booming and the people are out on the circle and we're just so glad to see Sebring prospering and growing and uh it's my hometown and I love it very much and I'm so appreciative of City Council too and the mayor and Scott nck has been a big part of looking ahead with plans for our city and so that we can celebrate in the future things like our Jewish community and all the different communities here so praise God for cing Florida and I'm so grateful to be here yes and have it peace and safety here in our hometown so thank you Lord that's all thank you I've got two quick things first one um shout out to to Steve Kramer Public Works and his crew for um the erection of a new canopy at Charlie Brown Park it's huge looks awesome um my son can't wait to to check it out it's going to be a big big difference to that playground um the next one is I wanted the rest of council's opinion on something I've been talking to um Chief hogland to to Scott um to Bob Swain to um Joe romanic and code enforcement about a Code Enforcement issue that I think the city should update its policy on and um the issue is we've got and I'm sure you guys have seen it some longterm code enforcement buildings that once they go through the process and they don't address it you know it gets a a a lean and fees continue to occur incur and nothing happens until that building basically changes hands and then the new owner will come to code enforcement and settle it up and and try and get it fixed um right now there's no real policy to update those people who are continuing to incur fees um and there's no policy about actually foreclosing on those leans at any point you know it has happened but it's a little more halfhazard um my thought in these uh conversations was to at least start um tracking and then updating the these the owners of these buildings who are incurring these fees on on at the very least a yearly basis to let them know your fees are still uh incurring this is what the balance is please call us and meet with us so we can get this resolved um and then have maybe at a certain deadline uh send another warning where if it's not resolved we'll uh pursue foreclosure and then the nuclear option would be to actually do that the goal that I have with this is not to actually foreclose on anyone but just to push some of um these owners who some of them might quite frankly forget um that there are still some code enforcement issues that need to be resolved I think we've all seen it with some of you know old buildings like the you know the Santa Rosa was a a good example of that that's now gone it incurred hundreds of thousands of dollars of fees um and I would like to just see a little bit more of a push on that to try and resolve these so is there there's no communication with the property owner at this time the way that I understand it now is once it gets to the lean phase that's it um Carl's gonna comment on it okay and and my ask was to ask staff to just help us craft a system to be a little more proactive with this yes sir good evening mayor council staff chief hman for the record um we do formal notification through the hearing process so they uh Property Owners or the legal owner of record gets mailed a certified letter for the notice of hearing once the code board enforces or imposes fines and leans we send them a notice of Lean by mail to notify them that they are now acre a daily fine or a one-time fine plus mitigation cost or whatever that might be um we we ask them in the letter to update us with the status of their property if they bring them to compliance so that they'll stop fines and leans but we do not do a annual reminder for property owners that you have leans currently um in talk with Josh we think it might be a good idea proactively to let them know the issue I think we're going to run into longterm though is we can't do anything with the fines and leans except under two circumstances the property owner can apply for a lean reduction once the property's in total Code Compliance and all taxes have been paid or the property owner or a prospective buyer can apply for an asole which pushes a pause on fines and leans that are acre a daily fine in order to bring it into compliance and pay uh outstanding fines leans within 90 days um but I think the the communication piece might certainly help either push them to turn a blind eye and and ignore us completely or maybe move toward bringing the property into compliance and resolving some of the outstanding code issues I think it will certainly um communicate their intention what's legal's opinion well you know I think it could help to move it along especially for those that either knew they had leans and forgot or perhaps say come and say they didn't know they had them at all it was a business perhaps and it's changed owners um so that might help to raise it to the attention of the property owner and there there are some that really have no desire to get around to fixing whatever the problem is and it is you know isore in the the area of where that property is and and an EXT extreme case the Foreclosure option what do that look like uh just for like foreclosing any other Lean Like foreclosing a mortgage they would lose title to it we cannot foreclose a code enforcement lean on Homestead real property but we can on non-homestead real property and code enforcement leans on a piece of property owned by someone act as a code enforcement lean on all real property owned by that same person or entity in the county so the lean can have pretty wide reaching effect got it okay and again so my intent is not to actually do that it's just to give it a little teeth for figured out correct it's going to be in there right I I sat on the code board for eight and a half years and there are people that just will not pay they don't have no attention to paying what we're finding with a lot of our Le recently is people don't take action to resolve them until there's a financial component to it uh as an example a property owner wants to get a loan against the property that's collateralized a title search reveals that there are fines leans in place now there's a sense of urgency to get that resolved um or they have a pending sale of the primary residence or business or a a property that has cross attaching Lans and now there's a sense of urgency to get it resolved because it the Sal's being held up again through titles um so they just need some motivation typically that motivation is financial um the one concern I have and and legal would certainly be able to clear this up is if we do end up in a position where we're going to pursue foreclosure and we're foreclosing properties with significant fines and leans in place code violations in place and quite frequently these are building zoning fines and leans and code fines and leans what responsibility are we going to have to rectify all that before we would liquidate or move the property off inventory what that looks like for a case by case basis sometimes we would be demolishing whatever structure there might be remaining on the property uh often times the the adjoining neighbor would might you know like to buy the the property with the idea that at least if you put it somebody else's hands maybe it'll be put to productive use or at least you know not be quite the I but I think the fines are reduced way too much I don't disagree well and I think that might be why some of these property owners don't care you know because they see well I can still sell it and the new owner will pay a fraction of that be result very fraction so that's why I I want to figure out something and I want you guys to tell us what that something should be but uh to push it along so that we don't have and I think for me it's predom predominantly commercial but it happens on you know residential rentals too where to your point they just don't care um and it's bad for the city to leave those those properties in you know a wck do we have an estimate of how many are outstanding right now under leans I would not Hazard a guess there we have millions of dollars worth of these that are outstanding um they expire after 20 years so you could have a property acre 10000 $500 a day for up to 20 years is this something that could be done retroactively so the the properties that already have leans on them oh sure okay the the lean reduction piece is a little bit tricky so if a prospective buyer approaches the city with a potential lean reduction we try to utilize the lean reduction to incentivize the transfer so that we get the property to somebody who's going to take care of it there's no prohibition however that the property owner themselves under the the idea that they're going to sell the property can approach the board and request a lean reduction as well um we try to treat everybody equally we don't want to be punitive in one one regard and offer an advantage in another and that's a difficult game to play sometimes clean reductions are extremely sub you'll see a quarter million dollars down to 56,000 have we had successful um cases where we've foreclosed and been able to clean up the property that way we have had uh two that I can recall it's very rare that we took that that step in both cases they were habitual offenders yeah and they weren't the homestead people um one was not Homestead and the most recent one they could not uh utilities not City I believe it was perhaps internet could not reconnect that block after a hurricane because it was such a treacherous backyard full of junk that they said not a chance are we going there until that gets clear clean up and the property owner wanted nothing to do with cleaning it up that that they were all precious items being stored forever more okay as this frequently the case I'll ironically this week I got a uh I get all kinds of advertisements and that stuff but it comes up with a goov code enforcement program it streamlines it tracks it sends letters on an automatic basis I don't know if that's something I don't you're I think you're more manual than anything right no we utilize bsna which is our current software provider for building department it has a code enforcement component to it um I admittedly I'm very familiar with the software and I'm not familiar with any automatic letter generation on an annual basis but the software ties into our financial piece very well and we may be able to uh to enter receivables that then generate letters um it's it's something we can accomplish we'll just have to figure out okay this is kind of funny that I just got this Google heard you talking about it check your it is and I don't have Alexis at the house or Alexa whatever her name is well I'd like to see that at least going out once a year at the that's a good idea more often I agree yeah I with Lenor I think they get excused way too easily well I mean I I would be open to hearing some solutions about that too again the whole point of this is I would like staff to figure out what is a way to give it a little more teeth so we can actually Force these properties into compliance so they're not eyes sourc to their neighbors you know for a decade all right or two or two okay so we'll just instruct staff and legal to give us some options see come up with something come up with something all right all right thank you thanks Harrison yeah um on the consent agenda we have a road management plan last week I was able to attend a hrtpo meeting just for the oh it was a lot of fun uh so the timing on this is really good and I know uh Steve doesn't like to give get any attention so I definitely do not want to recognize Steve for his work um same thing with J to put this management plan together uh I did not know this but Highlands County uh receives some a massive amount of funds for restructuring and repaving uh roadways so having this road management plan is really going to help us get some grants and get some funding um so again I do not want to say thank you to Steve uh thank you Jared for the work that you did very big good thing for the city and it's been a long time coming to update this so that was very good good work Jared and and the other fellow Steve that doesn't want to be who wants to rename nameless all right thank you all right moving on to the consent agenda any questions or comments on the consent agenda a motion we accept the consent agenda as second yes includ including AG it was added just added in y all right call the board please yes yes yes yes yes all right we have no old or new business no business from the audience so on to the attorney uh agenda item uh 12a is a proposed annexation escrow agreement uh as your agenda item summary States we have an existing agreement with this mobile home park uh they have asked for us to have a new annexation ethro agreement that extends out the time period for 2029 to give them additional time to work with their lender uh so staff's initial assessment is is is as excuse me staff does not believe it is would be appropriate to Annex that property uh in the near term so pushing it out to 2029 does not appear to have any concern for the city okay anybody have any questions on this anyone from the public I'll entertain a motion make a motion we uh accept the staff recommendation Council approve the escrow agreement as presented nice second s pull the board please pull the board please yes yes yes St yes yes then 12 B three years ago the city entered into an agreement with the entity that's developing the mobile home park on little Redwater uh they uh as part of their work with the county need to donate land for uh additional RightWay to serve that and the county when it receives the land does not want to have the development agreement uh shown in the title and so they're asking for a partial release of development agreement for the portion of the property that in that the developer is giving to Highland County we think it is appropriate to agree and approve the partial release as presented okay anybody have any questions on that anything in front of public a motion make a motion that we approve partial release as presented and authorized council president Bishop to execute the partial release and deliver it to the dev second the board yes yes yes yes yes all right cck you're up good evening Council agenda item 13A is the long contract for purchasing a parcel of land um that eventually will be a future compound for public works and utilities departments M I have here this requires a $10,000 uh deposit inspection period is 90day inspection period purchase price is $23,000 an acre so it's approximately $690,000 will come up with final figure based upon final survey there's the one of the pieces of the parcel this is the other piece and this is the third piece of parel as you can see it's founded by Sunnyland Martin Luther King bossy Watson and essentially grap food Mr mcbath is in the audience if you have any questions for him anybody have any questions on this comments anybody from the public entertain a motion make a motion we approve attach contractor presented and instruct the City attorney City staff to perform any necessary actions during the inspection I second it right P the board please yes yes yes yes yes all right next up item 13B is another contract for purchase of what everybody might know is uh former Sun Trust property here on West Center um some of some folks probably in the audience know it as Huntington bank and I think others might know it as what First National that correct Home Federal Home Federal yeah um the earnest money deposit on this parcel is $115,000 uh the inspection period is 75 days purchase price is for $1.4 million uh and there's closing date of 30 days after the inspection period expires this property from our perspective may be uh ized for future administrative offices and uh along with it is a rather large parking lot that could ultimately be used for maybe way down the line sometime at some point maybe construction of a uh a parking garage that ever became necessary I really think this is the last big piece of property that's adjacent to our downtown and I think that's as we grow you know we kind of stay focused on what's happening now but I think you're going to see Central Florida not just us but all Central Florida it's attracting a lot of people are coming here that eventually and if we want our downtown to prosper people don't want to walk a mile to get downtown and to find a parking space farther out you know fireman's field or something like that that we could utilize I think this is probably good future purchase um also with the administrative offices we had looked at the bovia building a few years ago to moving in there this is structure is a much more workable structure as office space um it's wide open um it's more usable I think and I really think we've got to start really planning that's what we did with the MCB Beth property at some point in time you know we've and actually now there's issues that we have that we've got to have structures that protect equipment prot Tech inventory that we have so we got to do a little planning here and I think this is it's not going to get any cheaper stuff just keeps going up so but I uh I think it's a it's a needed purchase actually so yeah just you know and if we don't utilize the building at least we have the parking space and eventually I think I I really think you look at Winter Haven and Lakeland and those areas that you know they have parking GR garages um and there's not a lot of parking downtown at this point in time so that is true with every downtown exactly I think it's a very exciting investment in sebring's future I'm excited about it have you walked a building I have it l it was in much better shape than I anticipated I did I thought it's great it's in a lot better shape than the other yes and and it's priced at under $60 a square foot which is insane to me a new build is you know you're looking around 200 or more um that's just for residential yeah commercial commercial um so I think it's a slam dunk and we can offset the cost with you know the sale of this property and you know maybe even the utilities building in the future right so there's I think it's I don't see how we could say no and like you say the parking is going to be invaluable for the future right I think the whole everything is the building and the parking because eventually the Count's going to want this think it's great in especially with what the RO rotary is doing across the street with the public restrooms it's really good Hub yep y great idea I think it's a great idea any questions or comments from anyone else or the public no I'll entertain a motion I'll make a motion we approve the attach contract as presented and instruct the City attorney and City staff to perform any necessary actions during the inspection second right all the board please yes ay yes yes Stuart yes Bishop yes right couple of big items scratched off of the project report very exciting so do want to talk about a couple Echo Park so our inspection period or due diligence is up February 10th um I've have spoken to Luke Carter who's performing The Phase One environmental he's not seeing anything would give us concern about buying the property people are purchasing property um there's still a survey um that's in process um that still needs to be completed um I do expect to have hopefully a report from luk Carter by the end of the week the 10th is next Monday I believe Dar Swain's had some conversation Council has concerns about going ahead and acquiring the property um with Pete MCD who represents the seller potentially extending that due diligence period necessary we have not seen anything in the due diligence period that gives us pause but we haven't seen uh from a survey to show that we have the uh access in from 27 that was one thing that Council wanted when we initially looked at this we don't know about the access everywhere so it's a complex piece of property the description instead of saying uh it's this piece here it's sort of like describing the last piece of pie by describing all the other pieces that got cut out of the whole thing uh so it's taking them a while to go through that um the trustee of the fing trust has changed so it's it's a little more streamlined process if you all want to have a additional due diligence time we can ask for that if uh one of the other things we don't yet have is the appraisal value the grant requires the property to appraise at a sufficient value for the grant we don't know what that's going to come in like uh so if you want to know that we get the grant want to know that we have all the access that Council wanted when we first started this I'd recommend the extenstion if you know you want this property because it is invaluable for you know water retention purposes and don't care if we have the grant don't care you know we're going to need and want it anyhow we don't have to ask ask for the extension we can just move forward to closing so it's it's up to ccel I would be inclined to ask for an extension I don't think that people are lining up to buy this Wetland property you know and I would I'd like to be sure of of we're getting what we think we are yeah I mean it's really only good for what we're trying to do right someone else wants to make it in Eco Park promise they're welcome to but the county never did pull the trigger on acquiring I can tell you that right okay now was the the um some of the access going to be right there by Lowe's or where was it going that's the question lots of cross access U agreements in that area they look like public roads um but they are not as it's not quite that easy the our contract provided for a 50 foot wide access eement across the southernly uh portion it has access from the East side through the neighborhood but I think everybody has some measure of concern about having significant additional traffic in from the the east side that we get the red light from the low side are you asking for an extension I'm not clear what you're asking are you asking for an extension for the yes okay yes ma'am council is asking me to do that okay I agree with Josh I don't think there's people running out there want to buy them but this L yeah all right okay second item I wanted to deal with was Lake be water sports agreement um both attorney Swain and I have been a communication with water sports um I think there's maybe some miscommunication that's happened because I think I don't think that they thought maybe they could come back with some negotiation possibility changing that leas so have say Council a I have no bring a proposal back to us for accept I don't I don't have a problem with that I'm just not be able to hear because I can't hear what he's asking Council to do I I don't hear what you're saying an extension we gave them a deadline of January 31st they have not responded because they were unaware of something so we're it appears that we're going to give them an extension I don't have a problem with that really change and just so Council knows we will likely see uh if if it comes back it'll be in a different form than what was presented so we don't know exactly where Scott has asked them to detail what it is they exactly they would like to to do there so just know it may not be in the exact same form that previously approved Bob what's a reasonable extension is that we looking first meeting next month do we need more time what what do you need to work that out with those two I would say a month okay if that's all right certainly Council can just pick whatever dat it would like to but we have not yet received what they described as the their revised business plan okay yeah I would say I mean I would like to see a month extension they go go from there so I hopefully we can get something on worked out and not drag it all one month for 30 days because we're on February so first meting next month every reason March yes it's March 4th right that's all I have okay thank you taking away at that thing so my idea whenever I set you know developed this idea with with Scott was that the president whoever that is at the time being that they aren't liaison to many if none that the president would develop this project report so I mean going forward whoever you know we're not far off from that process so that was just my idea all right um Miss Haley upill pleas move second all the board please yes yes yes yes yes next item is appointment ofing board members um there are two regular seats up and one alterate um Mr me has been serving as an alternate for two years so a staff recommendation um that Mr Le be appointed to fill the vacancy of Mrs kashad who has just um um steep down starting her term stepping down from Mr to Ser her term on city council starting April 1st so she went ahead and stepped down from this board so that position could go ahead and be filled so staff is suggesting that Mr me since he served as an alternate for two years be appointed to fill the full term of Mrs kashat which leaves one regular position open and that's to to fill the unexpired term of Mr walren Mike W which would expire December 31st 2025 and then there would be a alternate position open so um Council want to approve the appointment of Mr me has presented then we would need to vote on the other regular position and um the altern so guess the at this time we will uh seek a motion to approve Mr me okay does anyone want to put forth the motion I'll make a motion that we approve the appointment of Mr me as presented so then he becomes the alternate I mean he fills no he fills one of the open two openings Mr me would take one and then we vote on the the two remaining and then who is there an alternate at that point or we'll be selecting one of these as a as a full member and another so one will be the member and one will be the alter correct okay gotcha anyone have a second second hold the board please this is clear this the appointment of Mr me to regular position vacated by Mrs K yes ma'am carile yes Cy yes mindle yes Stewart yes Bishop yes all right and now we do the poll I just want to say too the just so everybody's aware I think we're in a great spot um that we really have two great candidates here so it's uh it's in my mind I just see this as a tossup either Mr Jenkins or Mr Lee uh taking this position it's going to be a benefit for for the city and for for pnz um so thank you for wanting to contribute and to to be a part of PNC absolutely okay now we'll read the names in alphabetical order um the person receiving the most votes will serve as a regular voting member the other person will um get the position as the alternate okay so Mr Jenkin name is first carile pass py pass mle pass Stewart yes Bishop pass so Mr Lee Garrett Lee car yes hver yes mindle yes yes so just to be clear again gett Lee will serve as the other regular member to serve Out Mr W's term until expire December 31st 2025 and Mr Aon Jenkins will serve as the AL very good all right thank you everyone