e e e e e City commission meeting of the city of St Pete Beach today is Tuesday April 9th 2024 it is 6:00 p.m. let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I 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 city clerk if you'll please do a rooll call commissioner Marriott here commissioner Philz here commissioner res niiki here vice mayor Lorenzen here mayor patrilla here we have a quorum thank you have any amendments to the agenda mayor if I may just add a discussion item for some direction to staff and city attorney's office on the beach ordinance um so I'm proposing item 6B nothing substantive just a little direction to pick that back up any other changes can I please have a motion to approve the agenda as amended motion to approve the agenda as amended all Second City Clerk if you'll please do a roll call commissioner Philz yes commissioner as Nikki yes vice mayor Lorenzen yes commissioner Marriott yes mayor patrilla yes motion carries thank you city clerk do we have any audience comments please we do Mark Grill good evening nice to see everybody again um it's been a while um I have a few items in my three minutes so let me get going and I'll if you'll please state your name and address for the my name is Mark Grill second PM Point St Pete Beach um first point the potential selection this week of the new city manager this is one of the most important decisions the commission makes and I know you all want to be sure to hire the right person process however as been announced is unclear the announcement for Wednesday's public meet and greet at the community center says quote the meeting will take place Wednesday April 10th 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the community center ballroom and include a limited number of opportunities for members of the community to meet each candidate so the question is are residents participation being limited but then the commission has a meeting the next day on Thursday 4M the agenda States you'll conduct public interviews select the finalist and request the City attorney to negotiate a contract so when is the opportunity for the public to provide their views and the candidates and provide feedback to the commission maybe you can take a few minutes to explain this to the public how this process will work I'm sure you all agree that the city manager must be a well-rounded individual with experience in many areas uh including leadership being a CEO will versed in operations with a deep understanding of the workings of Florida municipal government proven track record of accomplishments in this environment as a city we have many complicated issues excuse me in front of us to be addressed and this selection should not be based on a single issue please do your own research don't r on what's being sent to you you're not obligated to select just because they were proposed by a head hunter this role is too critical to rush to conclusion second as you make your evaluations please take into account the findings from the city's investigation that was conducted last year the public hasn't seen the report I believe you received something last night but my public records request made today for a copy of the report was denied closed with the statement that the report is not final and it quoted several Florida Statutes a lot of time effort money and in some cases tears went into that review so let's put all of this to good use to move the city forward I hope you can look at the Lessons Learned whether it be process people organization structure Etc to assist with the hiring process it'd be a shame to repeat history but if the report you received is not final and the public has no access it's not clear how a fully informed decision can be made Thursday evening as the investigation concluded several months ago maybe the commission can also inform the public when the report will be available third City manager compensation please keep in mind what was offered to the previous city manager does not have to be repeated I've heard some candidates asking for more than $200,000 those numbers are being paid to senior leaders and mayors of much larger cities remember we're a Barrier Island in Florida we have a population if I round up of 9,000 we have a relatively small budget keep this in perspective please it's too easy for applicants to say I want what the last person got but more and finally please look at the condition of gulfwinds drive it continues to Det deteriorate and it's really to me a travesty many of you use this and City staff and many of you use it for your daily commute but we have a project coming it needs to come I'll be the first one to say don't throw good money after bad but we have got sand pits contining popping up I tried to get this fixed for years commissioner Philz maybe you can do better than me thank you thank you sir um I do think he brings up two very important points that we should probably address um because it's not the first question I've had today or this week about what the schedule is and what the process is so I'm not sure if Mr city manager you want to chime in on that or if Rene is here to address what the um public meeting is going to be like tomorrow uh and then what the um what the meeting is going to be on Thursday since it's a special commission meeting and not a workshop I imagine it's going to be open to public comments as well that's correct okay um I don't have the schedule in front of me but from what I recall uh tomorrow 6:30 p.m. is the meeting greet over at the uh Community Center uh all five candidates will be there they'll be given a time to introduce themselves and then it'll be uh they'll all be available for the public to walk around meet with them talk with them ask questions and uh for that I think 6:30 till 8:00 p.m. I believe is that scheduled um then as you stated mayor on Thursday the 4 pm meeting on Thursday is a public meeting open to the public uh you will be the commission will be uh interviewing each candidate uh individually here at the podium uh with a standard set of questions and then if you all have additional questions you'll be able to ask those that is open to the public and then that agenda that uh has been published shows there can be public comment uh you know for for the City commission and I'm sure that if someone wants to you know contact uh the Commissioners or by email or phone whatever you know sometime I'm sure yall would be willing to accept those emails so um that's the process for the public to be involved at this point and then of course you all have your one-on-one interviews tomorrow with each candidate thank you uh so to summarize um the next two days is going to be essentially done in three different sessions the first session is going to be each individual applicant is going to meet one-on-one with each individual commissioner so we're going to be doing um musical chairs type situation tomorrow where we have 45 minutes with each applicant and then tomorrow from 6:30 to 8:00 P.M at the community center we'll have um I would imagine sort of like an open house set up where we'll have the individual applicants and the residents will be able to meet with them and interact with them and ask them questions um and then at the commission meeting the special commission meeting on Thursday 4 p.m. um there's no time limit on that one past on normal 10 p.m. um but we'll be interviewing the five applicants individually one at a time for approximately 30 minutes um since it's a commission session we'll be having uh public comments available as well um Mr assistant City attorney if you would please clarify former commissioner Grill's other comment because I review the email that the City attorney sent us with the summary of the findings of the investigation of the prior that's a lot of qualifications of the prior City uh city manager and I did not see anything in his instructions that says do not circulate this and so I I'm concerned that we have a resident who put in a public records request and that request was denied yet the report that I can't speak for the other four commissions but the one that I received says here's a report use it but it didn't say you can't disseminate this which I'm not saying I have but somebody may have already disseminated it because there was that said you can't corre no thank thank you mayor um I don't know when that request came in but uh the clerk has the report so it's a public record okay I mean we we just sent it to you I think at 6 or 7 o'clock last night so not to you the clerk but the commission and mayor we sent it later last night it's a public record I sent it to the clerk um from another request from Tampa Bay Times roughly an hour ago okay so she has it so there's no limitations at this point on the report being distributed excellent okay um Mr girl I think you have my email feel free to send me an email I'll forward you a copy and if the city clerk is busy I have it now we didn't have it earlier in the day thank you um public comments John kurman if you please state your name and address for the record please yesman uh the H the way south and I'm speaking for myself even though I'm a beach Steward and um we have a hearing coming up and it's a serious hearing you know um conditional use is supposed to have public scrutiny a lot of it and I happened to watch a magistrate hearing recently and the reason hearings work is because you have judges and you have other people you have you have neutral sets of eyes that's the way our legal system works and in this upcoming hearing there's a lot of legal questions and um in in one of the magistrate hearings I happen to watch one about trees and everybody does a good job but you know the independent magistrate happened to say you know looking at the city and ordinances I notice something that you know the code enforcement officer didn't notice the prosecutor or whatever you want to call the person person didn't notice and it's okay but an independent person s the law differently laws are written and you know different people see the laws different ways so in the case of the application for instance when a person applies to the city the TRC looks at things and um legal provides advice to the TRC and it goes through a process and I for instance went through and I I had a lot of legal questions um and I see things different ly than I think the applicant did or maybe legal did but these are a lot of legal questions a lot of questions that come up not just from me but other people are saying well how come this how come that how come this other thing and I think it's important that an independent set of eyes gets to look at things um and and so um what I'm requesting is that you know I don't think it's fair that the same and and I think you always want to as Mr Dickman often says it's not just how you know whether people you know or I don't want to Mi I don't want to quote Mr D I just want to just say in general it's appearances matter uh when you look at ethical questions too and you also want to avoid someone later objecting and saying you know was this fair so you know we have attorneys we don't have an OnStaff attorney we pay an attorney firm to do this and and to do everything but what I'm suggesting is why not have a different attorney firm uh maybe even it's the magistrate or I don't know but maybe why not use a different firm than the same firm that was making the recommendations be the firm that helps guide you for at least the case of the hearing to decide you know and help you walk through this next hearing for the actual um case where you're actually hearing and you're doing your quadal hearing to have to have the the same people helping you with the quad judicial hearing that were the same people making decisions I think is sort of weird because if the decision might you know go against what they recommended earlier it just puts it puts a difficult light on it so why not just help make it neutral thank you thank you Mr kman Dana Richardson if you please state your name and address for the record hello Dana Richardson 5830 Bahama Way South I apologize I have zero put together to talk to you today about so I'm winging it but I do plan to get my thoughts together and emailing everyone and I would love to possibly meet with some of you this coming week um a little bit kind of Piggy backy on John uh a little bit is you know I'm new I moved to St Pete Beach in 2020 I've never been involved in local government and so this has been a steep learning curve for me but uh I'm trying to understand we have the the comp plan the LDC codes to help provide ground rules to protect and to have guidelines how do things get done in this city that goes against those codes who makes that decision I'm kind of wanting to know because just like John was saying things can be interpreted but there's some things that are in my opinion black and white and I don't understand how some items are coming with say couple applications to be in front of planning board or the Commissioners when they shouldn't even be out of tech review with some of the items that they're allowing so I'll get more specifics in my emails but and of course if I can meet I would really love to understand the process better on how some of our plans or codes are not followed and then again my lack of knowledge um I was under impression we had 94 applicants for the um city manager and I'm just wanting to know or understand the process of how we went from 94 to 5 who what how did that get taken care of how do we know those five represent the best out of 94 and I think that's it thank you so much thank you I'm happy to answer the second question because I'm sure a lot of other residents in fact that's not the first time I've heard this question this week either um so I think for for the public record is important that we address um these questions because I mean they are important um and so the way that the process worked is uh the first thing that we did a few months ago is we selected a search firm and we actually left that to the uh to the city staff uh in their experience to look at um different search firms and and find one that that was appropriate for for what we were looking for um then the city once we selected a search firm we then posted uh the job U all those applications went directly to the search firm now part of the response responsibility of the search firm is to go through those 95 applicants right look at the resume do some background checks you know look at some of the information that's out there and then from that you know bring us a selection of the best available candidates there was no brief that says you have to bring us five it could have been two it could have been 10 you know it turns out that they thought okay these five applicants are the ones that best fit what we heard from the city from the commission that you are looking for um but also to what commissioner Marriot said last commission meeting we're not limited to those five you know at on Thursday as I see it we have basically three options right we can narrow it down to a couple of applicants do more in-depth interviews do some more background checks follow up with references and so on we could say hey we like all five of them right that would be option too and then that's going to make it real tough and we could say you know what unfortunately it doesn't seem like any of these five are a good fit and we got to go back and select bring us two more three more five more bring us the next round I mean those all those things are options but I don't none of us really know where this is going to go until we start meeting with them interacting with them asking questions doing the interview process it's going to be 48 Hours of of just full steam ahead you know it's not I I'd hate to be them going through that 48 hours it's going to be a long 48 hours it's also going to be a lot of work for the for the commission for us to do you know our due diligence as as well but there's nothing to say that at the end of those two days we will pick one of those five we may we may narrow down to a couple we may Nar down to three we may say look unfortunately none of these are a good fit um but that's just to kind of give you an idea of of how the process worked and what the what the search firm's involvement was again they've got a lot one of the reasons again you're dealing with a you know part-time elected commission right and so you know in your normal you know if you own a company if you had a job you might be the person doing all that work but you know with the body that we have we have a search firm who does a lot of the heavy lifting and and brings us the best candidate and if they don't then we send them back to the drawing board and say okay these these five were seem like they were nice people but maybe not the best fit for our city we'll see so I hope that answers that question next audience comments please Deb shner you please state your name and address for the record yep shner basa Isle Drive in St P Beach some of you may know but some of you may not know it's going to be severe construction at 46 at the water tower I received a notification my friends didn't it to all the other construction we're going to have in the city it's going to be a mess but I think that uh when you take a look at the Tradewinds in the serata there setting a precedent we must consider those two properties as what construction is going on how much traffic it's going to bring how many feet in the sand at 75 units per acre which I think is too much if you have 2542 units two people per room that's 5,086 people and quite often it's three or four to a room we all know that our population is about 8,800 so if they put four people to the room we will always in general have more tourists than we have residents and I still question are we a residential Community with tourists or are we becoming a hotel Community with residents major impacts I think have not been considered even if the entire 65 acres of the resort district is 75 units per acre these two hotels are more than half of this major decision the island is about potentially as many people trying to use a beach and other essential services from that half mile or so than all the other residents in St P Beach it's going to be massive I don't think people look at these numbers in this way all the estimates that we've had for traffic water flow which we're in a drought level high can't even wash down your driveway don't do any of that um water flow for sewage flow it's not about averages or Matrix all of that P packed into that half mile or so and if you give them two conditional use applications that if three people per unit is almost equal to our entire population it's about 125th of our Island that's going to have as much population in that area as our entire city beach is four miles long approximately these two hotels will have um our entire resident population in 1/8 in the length of the beach .5 miles yet no estimate for Beach usage the residents will have 4 miles of beach equals 2.2 square miles but of course we can't go on their property of the beach as well uh we need to take a look at that whole close to construction line we need to take a look at the massive buildings and I also believe in our comprehensive plan or ldrs they we don't allow walls higher than a certain amount and these walls exceed that amount by probably triple and again go back to the water tower on 46 and all that construction and no thank you have a great those were all the general comments thank you next we have item three the consent agenda can I please have a motion a motion to approve the consent agenda a second clerk if you'll please do a roll call commissioner res Niki yes vice mayor Lorenzen yes commissioner Marriott yes commissioner filtz yes mayor patrilla yes motion carries thank you next we have action item 4A 2024 fireworks display who's up [Applause] Jennifer Jennifer McMahon Chief Operating Officer my favorite topic one of them uh fireworks um so this Year's fireworks um we put it out to bid um the alpha fireworks um was our sole bidder um so so that is who the um who is put before you to approve we have 35,000 budgeted to do our fireworks um you if we did them on a date other than the fourth like on the third we get a 10% discount so it would be 31,000 um 500 if we wanted to do it that way but that's um for you guys to give me direction on we're working on location with the current owner of the East End of Corey Avenue um and um working with the Fire Marshall to get the the safest location for us to do the fireworks I have a question sorry um what was the do you I I forgot to look it up earlier um but for the public to know what was it last year the the budget for firor same it was the same 30 35 or 31 30 plus a 5,000 um contingency okay and it was not July 4th correct right yeah that I remember because it wasn't it was not fourth um Fourth of July we did it on the second I think yeah I believe so and you said with contingency so is this 35,000 with contingency correct okay um what what day is Fourth of July do you know this th Thursday Thursday okay questions for Jennifer I've got a question Jennifer was it last year that it was put to like a community vote about a drone show yes and assuming that was a no cuz there was firor fireworks won over the Drone so I didn't even pursue the Drone show this year okay do you know what the cost was for that just out of curiosity um around the same okay um it's a and you could have we could have if you did the Drone show you're able to do two shows and you get the second show for 50% off so if we wanted to do at one part of the island and then move it to the beach and do one at heran that was a possibility but we never got that far okay I was just curious I thought it was a nice idea especially for people with pets I've heard a lot of feedback so I just was curious if that was considered this year but it wasn't okay thank you and the reason we're talking to uh Cory Avenue is because we don't have a barge or they're not doing it from a barge or they have to be done from a land or what's the situation we've done it from the beach before um the Fire Marshall isn't comfortable doing that last year we had some Miss um shoots that if we were on the beach it would have probably done some harm to the amount of people that are on the beach so talking with her today that is not her preferred location to do it um so we own part of the property on East End so we're just trying to figure out distance from the bridge into the buildings to what type of f we could do it off of our property at the East End of Corey it might change the size of shells okay what is the hour for do you know what the start time or the program would be on I'm just thinking it's it's Thursday just it's typically right when it's down which is 9:00 in July okay do you know Jennifer is the um the bid by Alpha fireworks is it similar in content to what the fireworks show was last year yeah actually it's a little longer than the one show we had before yeah I think this was 27 minutes and then last year's was 20 well shorter because of and it was nice I do remember last year it was it was pretty nice because I stood right on Corey right at the fence and saw the ones that didn't make it we'll combine what we did last year worked well with the vets of South us doing something in heran park at the same they'll they'll do like a concert prior to and have an event in the park to support our First Responders and our vets I think that worked well last year and then work with the Corey businesses on doing something on a was last year during the week as well do you remember we moved it to a Sunday because of where it fell I I think it was a Tuesday last year we ended up doing it on a Sunday on a Sunday okay I'm I'm thinking because it's on a Thursday which is so close to a Friday and I know a lot of people are going to probably take a day of work well not a lot of people some people going to take day of work on Friday off so I come personally I think Thursday might be a fine date for it but I'm open I kind of lean the same way I think it would be nice to do it on the fourth like commissioner philt said about people with pets and little kids and whatnot it would probably be nice for a lot of people to have all the fireworks happen just on the one day and not have it spread out over multiple nights yeah I'm I'm good with that I I think the schools are closed anyways on Friday on on the Friday is our holiday so it would be like a Friday for most families who have the kids at home yeah so yeah well I'll make a motion to authorize the city manager to enter into an agreement with Alpha fireworks in the amount of 35,000 I'll second city clerk if you please do a roll call vice mayor Lorenzen yes commissioner marott yes yes commissioner filz yes commissioner as Nikki yes mayor patrilla yes motion carries thank you next we have item 4B purchase agreement with allance Air Solutions mayor just I could ask just make sure that we want it on the fourth of July on that that was correct yes thank you sir um 4B is me again um so where our air conditioning over at the community center is at Adam last leg we are renting equipment to um cool down um the Raymond room which is a smaller room by the ballroom the ballroom is working at a small small percentage that's left into that um as well as the gymnasium um side of it as well so um we have went out and got three bids um we um have in front of you a Alliance Air Solutions um before we start hitting the summer what what we've experienced because of the air issues is um we've had to refund a lot of our rentals because I've had wedding cakes melt and things like that so we want to try to avoid that moving into our warmer months moving up and to get this going so that is what is before you right now the building was built in 20 2007 so this was the original Air Handlers and units that were installed when built so we're right at the edge of the effective life of it yep and I think uh Jennifer the city manager you can probably answer this that this was already in the budget to be replaced correct this year correct it is in this year's budget yeah and the the amount is uh actually lower than the budget that we have for the year right we had 500,000 budgeted for it okay and the um the the reason that we have the the three quotes versus having put it out to bid is the timing is that correct because we feel like we need to we need to get moving on it done quicker than it would happen if we had put it out to bid correct I'll just add to that that our procurement policy does allow the commission to approve it on quotes like this in this type of situation rather than the the formal P thank you any audience comments no thank you we have any for fireworks didn't ask were there any comments um for fireworks by any chance no okay all right any further discussion questions well I just want to make one point uh to the to the city manager's point the motion here if we could just I move to wave the requirements of of section 2- 286 and and authorize I would prefer that be in the motion thank you can we please have a motion to that effect uh I'll make a motion to uh wave the requirements of 2286 and to authorize the city manager to enter into a purchase agreement with Alliance Air Solutions in the amount of 33289 9 I second the motion city clerk if you please do a roll call commissioner Marriott yes commissioner Philz yes commissioner res Niki yes Comm uh vice mayor lorensen yes mayor patrilla yes motion carries thank you next we have resolutions 5A resolution 2024-25 d0 one Declaration of surplus vehicles and Equipment a resolution of the city Commission of the city of St Pete Beach Florida authorizing the disposal of surplus city-owned assets providing for scrier error and an effective date thank you uh from time to time the city has equipment or vehicles that U have outlived their useful life uh we are required to bring that list to the commission uh as a resolution uh to declare them plus and then we place them on one of the uh government auctions for disposal and that's what we're doing here today normally do that about once a year and the um the vehicles and items listed that's the total that's that's everything right yes we have the list there in front of you yes that's everything that's concluded questions comments any the audience comments not on this item I'll make a motion to approve resolution 2024 d01 Second City Clerk if you please through a roll call commissioner Philz yes commissioner res Nikki yes vice mayor lorensen yes commissioner Marriott yes mayor patrilla yes motion carries thank you next we have have items for discussion 6A an update on beach nourishment Mr Clark good evening good evening your honor Commissioners Mike Clark Public Works director uh could I get the overhead please we have a uh a beach nourishment project that is is something we have seen before if you've been a resident of passag grill for a long time it's called a beneficial dredge material project uh in the Grand Canal there's about 15,000 cubic yards of sand of similar size um uh and quality uh as what's on passag grill Beach so it's suitable for placement and so they're going to pull out of the canal pipe it over to the beach and then distribute it onto the beach uh just south of the Paradise Grill on on 8th Avenue in the configuration you see here shaded area that configuration is identical to previous Beach nourishment projects that the core of engineers has designed and approved and so it was a very easy uh it was a very easy design for the county who was the sponsor for the project to get the core to go ahead and approve the this use and uh so it's a win-win for everybody the tver gets their Channel back and we get a little bit of a beach okay and it looks like the end of this month or perhaps into the next month we'll see a start uh it is still not still still has not received its final permits uh so they're just working their way through that process and shouldn't take but a month or two uh Bay News Channel 9 came out with an article on that either today or yesterday uh with the a little bit of info on that also but it's all basically what I just uh said Thank you questions from Mike um my question you mentioned the gray area are you are you saying that the the gray shaded area is where the sand will be at or is it the whole grid that we're seeing on this on this screen the gray area represents just the graya 15,000 cubic yards of sand if I could before I move on to the questions about the overall need of Beach uh re nourishment so Mike is this going to invol the usual arm Rec cor engineer the piping and all that stuff and the dredging or are they just going to bring around and Barge and dump it there as I understand it's going to be direct pipe we should not see any barges other than what's necessary to support the pipe and the equipment okay I have not yet been told of what the means and the methods are how the contractor is going to bring in the heavy equipment to distribute the sand or those kinds of things so we're still in dialogue about that and we'll be part of the um preconstruction meeting when that takes place okay and then on the bigger picture I know some residents had a lot of questions and I don't know if those got to you ahead of time I hope they did but the big picture of the whole Beach of St Pete Beach where are we at on that so um it's called Long Key and we're tied together with Treasure Island in a project that has a 50-year lifespan in that project I think we have about four or six years left and so that would equate to one additional nourishment in that 50-year Project Life Cycle uh that project has been held up along with many other projects around Florida and around the country because of a discussion regarding the uh use of or the need for uh easements and perpetuity by the core of engineers for uh beach access for public purposes uh the issue is if we're going to spend public money then we want the public to be able to access and use for the benefit uh of of those tax dollars and uh we are currently tied up and working through conversations uh with the county on easements and how that might work and so but I do not have a a general timeline or an update all I can tell you is that discussions are ongoing um and bureaucracy is going to take the time it's going to take I I can't I can't I can't modify that thank you for that so just to clarify who we embed with on the overall uh Long Boat or Long Key are we with the county on this other municipalities so the project sponsor is the county uh we are the city the recipient of the uh of the nourishment project but the county is the sponsor and so the conversation is uh with the core of engineers as Contracting agency and designer uh is with the county uh they are allowing the city to participate and take place Matthew and I are both uh in in in those conversations okay so there's no breakout possibility we we have to be in bed with the other partners to get this done we we can't go directly to the Army Corps of Engineers right it has to be the whole thing does that make sense who's paying for this one CU this this is broken up from the other one so is this the county doing this is the Army Corp saying we're going to do a piece of it the beneficial is uh I believe being paid for by the county okay so the Army Corps is not involved I think that's what you were getting at right is well yeah I was talking about the mo the whole St feet Beach thing the larger more n normal nourishments that we have seen in the past is the core of engineers with a county share the city does not have a portion of that cost okay so there's no way to break let me rephrase the question there's no way for us to break out on our own and and contract with the Army cor Engineers to just do St Pete Beach that's not a possibility it sounds like so if I may real quick because I think I understand your question so there's an overall project for all beach cities yeah if we get what we need to for St Pete Beach our our project moves forward even if Indian Rocks doesn't already so when you say break out and do it on our own if we get all the easements that we're required to get our project moves forward for just Long Key okay that's what I was looking for so we have I understand just because I know there's a lot of people listening to this in the room and at home we have a tie up within our city limits right of one or two occupants that are not agreeing to the easements I'm not looking for names but um like Mr Clark said I think conversations are ongoing personally I feel better today than I did last week about the progress we've made um and we are in constant conversation with I mean we can say it's it's Silver Sands condominium there's three easements that we're waiting on for them but um I actually just spoke to their attorney right before the meeting and I think once we meet with the county and the Army Corps there could be some decisions made that will accommodate an ex uted easement and allow our project to move forward okay so let's say hypothetically that were to happen in 60 days what would we expect timeline six months a year two years for the the big project to start I think it would be irresponsible of me to give anybody a timeline at this time based because of the challenges that we Face uh in the bureaucracy of sorting this all out all right let me make the question easier then would the residents should they rest assured that they're going to get some kind of protection on the beaches before hurricane season or is that very unlikely I would not uh I would not make that prediction now okay thank you this is something that's been ongoing for three or four years at this point that is correct and um just to bring a little bit more context to it so in the past the Army Corp of engineer has carved out sections that said okay well if you don't have eans here we'll still take care of everything else but we won't take care of the party easen and so in this scenario with the Silver Sands for example it's a small corner of their pool area and we offered the county offered look we'll pay for it right so that it's not public funds at least as the way that the federal government interprets it and every operate every instance where the county has made and this is not just our County we're talking about every County from here to New York City right so it's it's the entire Eastern Seaboard the western side of Florida all of Florida so every attempt has been rebutted and said nope unless we get Perpetual easements we are not getting anything so in the past we've had because we've never had the easements for Silver Sands and they've done renourishment in the past this is not a legislative but an administrative change of tune um so that's what it is it's as Mike said it's bureaucracy and that's really what it is to answer your other question I think the other question that commissioner Lorenzen had is if we were to get the green light from the Army Corp my understanding was that they did have the permits ready to go in place pending getting signatures right so if the issue were to be able to resolv which it doesn't look like there's any really any light at the end of the tunnel immediately once the issues were resolved they should be able to move in relatively again this is what they told us that they had permits in place just waiting on so they had the plans and permits just waiting on the signatures well or some other resolution or some other compromise I appreciate the background I have folks here and then a lot of folks listening pass a gillions that are very interested in the subject so as you can imagine no it's it's affecting all of I mean up and beaches you we were there just two nights ago watching the sunset and it's just you know the rocks are no longer on the beach the rocks are on an island in the water now you know and so Mike this project is a is a project that's dredged from the Grand Canal and pumped onto the onto our beach and this this doesn't have anything to do with the Army cor Engineers other than they give the permits correct um it does have it does uh connect with the Army cor Engineers they're allowing the county to use the existing design and they will permit to that structure right yes and so the County's initiative as a sponsor is moving forward Mike if they're using the design from the Army cor engineers in that area does the erosion control line change or it does not no it does not change they'll stay until they come in right and if they were to if the Army cor Engineers were to come in isn't that when the ecl line changes you might know this Matthew well once the beach is is renourished by the Army Corps Engineers doesn't have to be by the Army Corps it's just once once public funds are used to rur a beach it becomes public lands essentially so why is the if I'm seeing right the E the ecl line is still in the same spot from um before you know the current whenever it was a couple of months ago when we had renourishment it's still in the same spot it didn't change I believe the state controls the erosion control erion control line was put in place by the state correct not the county okay the project follows it okay and so lands that are nourished seaward of the erosion control line or public lands correct which is the whole hold up with the overall project is you can't use public funds to nourish private lands and this section of passag Grill that's being renourished is already all public land correct is all public land and it already has an easement that we have granted to the county for this purpose uh back in the 90s I believe and we've periodically done it every time they've asked thank you Mike you bet thank you I do have a public comment okay John kurman John kurman be hway sou speaking as a resident but I am a beach stward and the reason I'm speaking as a resident is because I can't represent the beach stewards we haven't discussed this particular matter but I am speaking because of a concern as a beach Steward um two of you up here uh Betty and Karen both of you were Beach stewards excuse me gentlemen if you'll please allow the gentlemen up front to speak thank you two of two of you were Beach stewards with me and of course you know and I'm sure all of you know that beach stewardship committee has only two things we're responsible for one is Beach nourishment and the other is uh uh preserv preservation and maintenance of the city's public beaches and in both cases is making recommendations to the city commission about those matters so certainly we don't want to stand in the way right or I can't again I can't even speak for the commission but the idea is that we don't want to stand in the way of you getting the information in a timely manner um but what I think is ideal is that at least the beach stewards get this information and we don't so we've been trying to come up with a means to get at least the same information that the city commit Mission gets that we get emails Communications that are about the matters such as these and also that the city commission turn to us the same way you might look at the planning board to run interference for you and look at matters before they come to you or the finance committee look at matters before they come to you I think that it would be very valuable to look at the beach stewardship committee and uh you know have us make recommendations or hold you know have let the public come to meetings and and make suggestions about what do they think would be ways to help address things beforeand you know what do they think about this beach nourishment or let it be a way that they could get more information about Beach nourishment or what would be ways to help address over crowding of the beach due to you know growth of any sort you know any of these kind of things could be discussed and so uh I'm just looking to you to help you know see can maybe you help along these lines because this was a great topic and I don't want to Sidetrack that topic and I don't want to stand track but you know just think about you just heard some great information we have a meeting May 15th you know how could we how could we you know leverage the beach stewardship committee to to follow on what you deserve thank thank you sir all right next we have item 6B Beach ordinance yes thank you mayor um so some of you may remember some of you were actually on the beach stewardship committee um we had about seven either workshops commission meetings or joint workshops with the beach stewardship on the beach ordinance the last one being July of 20123 the discussion really circles around Direction on moving forward um we kind of got to First reading but then there was that flurry of workshops and edits and what are office has been doing is rewatching these I guess the point I'm trying to make is we have a new deciding body there may be different suggestions made different comments made I don't want it to get forgotten because I do think legally it's an important ordinance for enforcement and controlling um the city's prize possession right the beach so I'm looking for direction and I think staff is as well on how to proceed from here whether we we do have dates of meetings um some of you can rewatch them some of you can kind of come up to speed on what was discussed um these are mere suggestions not requirements I'm just really looking for direction on on how to kind of get the momentum going again with the beach ordinance if if um and Karen and and um mayor you you both were around well we were around as Beach George but I do remember if I recall and you might remember this at the commission meeting um when it was coming for that reading that we were going to get a workshop stop with the beach stewardship or a meeting um because it was the business plan if I remember that's what we were calling it um cuz that's what delayed it from continuing because there was something new from legislation I don't think that and I don't know if Beach Geor ship has um if there's been a discussion and Matthew you might be able to help us with that with Beach stewardship about how that affected not moving forward because we were kind of like in a pause um but I think I remember that we were going to have that meeting so that we could all talk about that so that we can move forward so we can get to the first reading and then make changes if we needed to make changes I don't know if any of you remember that so where we left it at the commission meeting in August of last year is we were we provided well the commission at the time provided the City attorney and Jennifer um revisions um to what was proposed and this was again after multiple workshops with and without the um Beach through trip um public workshops and so we left it at at the here are the final revisions ready to draft first reading we were trying to get it in end of August early September so that we can get the second reading in before October because once the Florida legis lure um they introduced a new statute of requirement a Matthew what is it called it's a business impact statement yes so the the business impact statement is required for all well for for city ordinances after October of last year so we were trying to get it in before then we we did not we had other circumstances that kind of uh stole that process so that's that's where we left that I think what might be helpful is so you two were on the beach toip commit so you should be caught up um with where we left off last time for the most part um maybe city clerk would you be able to send out an email this week for a DAT to the commission um with links to the commission meetings the workshops and the beach stewardship meetings uh in Reverse chronological order I'm sorry to be so specific but um just so that the Commissioners that were not part of the process last year um have an opportunity to to rewatch those and and get caught up and then maybe we can come back for more meaningful conversation once everybody's up to speed um with the list of revisions that we provided last time correct and Matthew I think it would would be helpful also if maybe you could um do a quick recap and and I think an email to us is probably adequate with just like a little bit of a a a a basic reminder of like this is this this was originally the goal of redoing the beach the beach ordinance you know here here's what we were trying to do and then you know and and so then between that and the and rewatching the meetings I think everybody would be able to get a pretty good grasp on where we're going from here yep yeah that's that's not a problem and the business impact um statement or estimate it doesn't have to be prepared until it's adopted which would be second reading so essentially we could get through a first reading I will tell you this is going to be the most and I've said it before the most involved rigorous business impact statement that we do especially if there's significant changes to the amount of chairs and setbacks and the area that they can actually use to to make money um but I can gladly send an email kind of summarizing why it started the purpose where we left off most of those changes at the end were were I wouldn't say they weren't substantive but they were kind of minor in nature where it was like consistency and capitals and grammar it really comes down to how are we going to regulate the chairs on the beach and the setbacks um and then the resident canopies um or Cabanas is what I remember correct thank you Matthew no problem are we good with that plan yes maybe we can pick a um slow meeting somewhere in June July August because as I remember those meetings all took a little bit of time mayor would you think or all of you would you all think it's a good idea to share that same email that you're requesting to be drafted to the beach stship committee because there are some new people on that committee as well yeah that would be to Mr kman point that would be prudent yes y thank you Jim and then if the beach doward trip commission sends her meeting at least once before we have this discussion if they have any further considerations that may have come up in the last year we should certainly be open into receiving those just to clarify commissioner Riki did you mean the email from Jenny with the videos correct with like kind of like the summary of everything or anything El so that you might be sending us if it's separate from yeah yeah we can work in conjunction and and corre kind of send it to not from thank you thank you all right next we have reports city clerk so we have advertised for the qualifying period for the special election that will be held August 20th um that'll be for districts 2 and four the qualifying period is going to be from noon on Monday May 6th through noon on Monday May 13th and the term for this um these two for district 2 and four the term for these seats will be from August until March of 2025 when the rather regular election is held so if anybody is interested in um picking up a qualifying book you can do so after April 22nd and it's $10 to pick up a book and um if you want to make an appointment after that and the qualifying Peri is June 6th through qualifying period is from May 6th through May 13th thank you CL I asked okay city manager uh just one item I know we we talked about the uh schedule for the next couple of days at the beginning of the meeting but just wanted to make sure that um I know there was the first notice that went out for y'all's one-on-one meetings uh the original notice said 12 we really need for you to be here at 11:30 we're going to start at 11:30 and if you could be here maybe 10 minutes early that way we can get you into the rooms you need to be in and uh that way we'll we'll be able to start on time at 11:30 but other than that I don't have anything else mayor thank you thank you sir Matthew yes mayor I have a few things um number one Andrew sent an email yesterday um with the current cases current litigation essentially um I I didn't know if there was any questions I was just going to go briefly through I don't want to get into the merits of each case or anything but just kind of briefly because we have a received five lawsuits uh this year we have 17 total um that the city's currently a party to and just to kind of give an overview of where we are um quickly and I can always answer questions as well um so I'm going to go off the list and I'm just going to kind of tell the difference between an appeal and a declaratory judgment which it's two different things right appeal you're appealing based on the record which is why creating the record due process is so important through these quasa judicial proceedings um declaratory judgment is is almost like the court is reviewing it from the beginning you have it's essentially a trial you have a deposition um you have evidentiary evidence submitted things of that nature so they're not looking at anything that you've done prior it's kind of starting from scratch and you're filing a bunch of things and it's briefing and so on and so forth um so the most recent one was filed April 3rd it is um the C Mark Ken Barnes and protect St P Beach against the city of St P Beach and CP s p Beach LLC it's regarding the appeal of the serata conditional use permit um again that's an appeal so it's based on the underlying record um that we will update you as that continues another one this year was uh Charles Alman or the shop right down the road again St P Beach Holdings in the city of St P Beach this is a de declaratory judgment um alleging that essentially asking the court to determine that the property on Cory Avenue is his because the city allegedly vacated the right of way and I will leave it at that um the next one is Lake Merit Partners versus city of s p Beach this was filed in March it stem from a code enforcement action in which a property owner was found was found to be doing work without a permit required to do a permit and uh a notice of appeal was um was filed once the special magistrate ruled in our favor found them in violation and imposed a f um next was Thomas Ras versus the city of St P Beach this was filed in February this is related to public record Sunshine Law alleged violations and alleged violations of uh calling executive sessions um the first one this year was protect St P Beach versus the city of St P Beach and this is a deck action challenging The Filling of the commission vacancies um late last year we we had one filed by red white and booze versus the city of St Pete Beach this is not an appeal based on the underlying record for the cup this is a federal claim claiming that some of the conditions in the cup violate his first amendment rights and also challenging our sign ordinance as unconstitutional then we have Row versus city of St P Beach which is a negliger slip and fall um someone while jug jogging tripped on a sidewalk and I will say for all of these right now it is our standard practice to to get the city's insurance carrier involved uh through PRM who usually asss assigns councel however Andrew and myself Andrew specifically a City attorney Remains lead counsel no nothing's filed without our review none of these hearings are attended without our presence so we're consistently in the case so that we can be able to provide updates like I'm doing now um the next one is St P Beach versus the repair guy one this was a bankruptcy that we were authorized to file based on a barge contract in which we were to receive it um we will continue to update you there next one is danani versus city of St P Beach this was May of last year this again is a Code Enforcement appeal based on a violation of our transient or vacation Ral Trent lodging short-term rental ordinance um this one there's two for danani one of them is an appeal of the underlying record another one that was filed in April is a declaratory judgment asking the court to declare the use of the property a legal non-conforming use so essentially arguing that they've been using it for so long that predates our ordinance they should be be able to continue that use next we have Mina Investments versus city of St P beach again stem from a short-term code enforcement it's another deck action alleging the same things that I just said legal non-conforming use then we have Walton versus the city of St Pete Beach which is a another slip and fall over a um alleged Public Works pipe then we have two David green versus the city of St Pete Beach um he filed two they were both appeals of the record from the underlying code enforcement these two I actually last week had a uh the court the plaintiff asked for an oral argument the court granted so me and co-counsel uh went to clear water and had oral argument in front of a panel of three judges um so I am expecting a resolution to those two cases sometime soon once they issue an opinion next we have Warren Mack versus the city of St P Beach this was filed in 2021 this has to do with um the closure of The Secret Sidewalk then we have 36078 which is um versus the city of s beach again filed in 2020 this is a de declaratory judgment which stem from a code enforcement essentially having the trying to get the Court to declare our ordinance from 2004 invalid and then we have green versus the city of St P Beach May of 2019 again uh stemming from code enforcement a de action this one's interesting there was four counts one of them alleged that our 2004 ordinance wasn't properly adopted and um some other things and we actually motioned for summary judgment on that one count and we did win so now we just have to deal with the other three counts but the court did agree um with our arguments so the validity of our ordinance in in this specific is not um up for question for the judge so that's just a quick update of our cases um and then I had one more thing unless there's questions just more in in general do you think it'd be um be all right if we get um some kind of notification when we receive lawsuits absolutely yeah I think it it' be important for the commission to be notified I get them because I get served so I am us the first to find out agree um but since you know Sunshine desperate you know I think it be better coming from your office then absolutely I appreciate that and the clerk does a good job of giving us what you get immediately so we can circulate that some like the appeal you weren't served so we you but we did circulate that um and then I have one more thing I want to request an executive session and I'm going to go through this disclosure real quick I'm going to initial sign it and I want the clerk to add it into the record um so Florida statute 28611 sub paragraph 8 a municipal Corporation may meet in with the municipal attorney to discuss pending litigation to which the municipality is presently a party before a court of administrative agency or circuit court so on and so forth I desire or me and Andrew desire advice concerning litigation in the protect St P Beach at Al versus city of St P Beach case number 24- c-41 the subject matter shall be confined to settlement negotiations the entire session shall be recorded by a certified court reporter the reporter shall record the times of commencement and termination of the session all discussion and proceedings the names of all persons present at any time and the names of all persons speaking no portion of the session shall be off the Record the court reporter's note shall be fully transcribed and filed with the entity's clerk with a reasonable time after the meeting the time and date we were suggesting April 23rd which is the next commission meeting at 5 clock if that works for everyone I'm good with that is that a yeah that works for everyone's available perfect um the persons attending may include Andrew Dickman myself Matthew McConnell Sam salario from Lawson hook Gonzalez OD Dickman from our firm Dickman Law Firm um all of you as City commissioners the city manager and we may attend in person or virtually the transcript shall be made part of the public record upon conclusion of the litigation now this session shall commence at an open meeting at which the person's chairing the meeting shall announce the commencement estimated length of the attorney client session and the names of the person attending at the conclusion of the attorney client session the meeting shall be reopened and the person chairing the meeting the mayor shall announce the termination of the session and I want to just double down and say the transcript shall be made part of the public record upon conclusion of the litigation so again I am reading from it it's a public record I will sign it I will put it into the record with the city clerk thank you thank you Matthew District Four thank just one quick thing uh look forward uh City Clerk and uh setting a date for that boat ramp Town Hall not sure where we're at but look forward to hearing that date thank you District three um just and this is really for a reminder for my district um District because there's so much going on this week and I do get email lots of emails um and some calls and I know some people are requesting to have time to meet with me um but please real iiz just so you all know the schedules because I know we're kind of talking about it Wednesday um I mean we're we're in meetings from 11: all the way till the evening um this is for the one-on-one interviews and the meet and greet Thursday um the public interviews um you know and for me that's you know pretty much three and on because I I do have a job that I have to make up a lot of time with prior to this and then so my open would be Friday just so you all know and um possibly sometimes on the weekend um so I know there's a lot of things coming um in the in the next couple of meetings so just so you all know that um um that I will try to accommodate as much as possible thank you District Two yeah um just wanted to report uh I attended Three Palms Point block party on Saturday I wanted to thank everyone that participated in that was did a really nice job job um there will be a garage sale for Three Palms point this Saturday between 8:00 a.m. and 2: p.m. that's all I've got thank you district one um nothing really to report I hope to see uh as many people as can possibly come uh to the meet and greet with our city manager candidates and uh um as always I encourage you anyone to reach out to me email phone um I'm happy to talk to anybody about any of the things facing us so thanks thank you yeah just so a quick reminder on the we've got quite a few um big meetings coming up here in the next uh in the next less than a week uh so tomorrow 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the community center meet and greet with the five um candidates for a city manager and then again from 4:00 on here in Chambers um the uh commission uh interviews with the uh applicants as well and then on Monday at at 4 P.M again here in Chambers is the conditional use application hearing for the trade WIS so that starts at 4 P.M and unless there's anything else we are adjourned e