##VIDEO ID:IA5MGyk5dmA## together father we just want to tell you we love you and thank you and praise you for the opportunity to be in this country and where we can openly debate any issue I pray Lord that you'd give everyone here a just a spirit of love and cooperation and and stay issue oriented and father we just want to ask you please almighty God to uh pour your spirit out upon us we pray for the Commissioners that you would dear God give them wisdom from heaven and and Lord allow them to see all the issues as they deliberate uh their business tonight and father thank you for your Mighty son the Lord Jesus Christ and thank you for him dying on the cross to pay for our sins and Lord we just want to tell you we love you and praise you and thank you for this opportunity to be together in Jesus name amen thank I pledge allegiance to of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stand One Nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all as we do normally we will begin with an Arts moment Miss Isabella Hajj will be singing Danny Boy hi I am Isabella Hodes and I go to Murray middle school and I will be singing Danny Boy [Music] Oh Danny Boy the pipes the pipes are call from cl to CL and down the mountain side the summer and all the Roose is falling it's you it's you must go and I must B come me back when in the M or is hushed and white with [Music] snow in sunshine or in [Music] Shadow oh tiny Bo oh tiny boy I love you so but when come and all the FL are dead as de I will baby come and find the place where I am lying and you [Music] and all Faith there for me when my grave I'll hear you tread above me and Jo My Grave will war and sweeter be for you will and tell me that you love me and I shall sleep in peace until you come to me [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] he's coming to bring down good job it's my sister's favorite song do we need to get out of the way okay thank thank you you [Applause] [Music] is Mr City attorney will you read the first Proclamation absolutely hunger action month September 2024 whereas hunger and poverty remain issues of grave concern in the United States the state of Florida and the Treasure Coast with 250,000 children adults seniors and Veterans experiencing food in Security on a weekly basis and whereas the city of Stewart is committed to taking steps to raise awareness about the need to in hunger in every part of our city and to provide additional resources that the citizens of Stewart need and whereas the city of Stewart is committed to working with the Treasure Coast food bank and mobilizing people about the role and importance of a food bank and other hunger relief organizations in addressing hunger and bringing attention to the need to devote more resources and attention to hunger issues and whereas food banks and hunger relief organizations across the country including the Treasure Coast Food Bank coordinated hunger action day on September 10th 2024 and will continue to host numerous events throughout the month of September to shed light on this important issue and encourage involvement and efforts to in hunger in their local community now therefore I Campbell Rich mayor of the city of Stewart do hereby proclaim the month of September 20124 as hunger action month thank you and accepting the proclamation are Audriana Massie from Treasure Coast Food Bank donor data and donor data specialist and and Angela Donovan regional manager of clinical operations at WellMed you are I'm Karen iello we actually had a change of of people but good afternoon and my name is Karen iello and on behalf of Treasure Coast food bank and our president and CEO Judy Cruz our dedicated staff and volunteers and our board of directors I would like to thank you for proclaiming September as hunger action month as a member of the feeding America Network of food banks Treasure Coast food bank is leading the fight against hunger in our community by securing millions of foods and pro food and providing them to people facing hunger we are proud to partner with more than 300 local Partners soup kitchens shelters and other emergency food providers throughout Indian River St Lucy Martin and okachobee counties throughout the month of September Treasure Coast food bank will be hosting many events including our fourth annual outrun hunger light up orange and more for more information you can um on these events you can visit our website at stop hunger. org thank you again for your continued support in making our neighbors have access to healthy meals and resources they need to thrive thank you you thanks we're not doing orange ties or anything she's an orange bag be where's our orange stuff no orange orange ties or scarves is an orange bag Oho we we don't take pictures we used to do that I don't know Mr City attorney will you read the this evening second Proclamation oh there they are we usually take a picture with it Treasure Coast Day of Prayer September 26 2024 whereas a National Day of Prayer has been part of our National Heritage since it was declared by the First Continental Congress in 1775 5 and the US Congress in 1952 approved as a joint resolution that the president shall set aside and proclaim a suitable day each year other than a Sunday as a National Day of Prayer on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches and other houses of worship in groups and as individuals and whereas the city whereas the Treasure Coast Christian Alliance is an organization of people from every Walk of Life from different denominations and cultures joining together in prayer for various Gatherings and dinners and whereas the Treasure Coast Christian Alliance seeks to unite business Civic and Ministry leaders together in one Accord to serve the people of the Treasure Coast and whereas the Treasure Coast Alliance Christian Alliance established the Treasure Coast Christian Alliance day of prayer to be held on the fourth Thursday in September every year leaders and residents of the Treasure Coast are invited to join in prayer if they so choose seeking Divine guidance strength protection and comfort from God now therefore I Campbell Rich mayor of the city of Stewart to hereby Proclaim September 26 2024 as the Treasure Coast day of prayer thank you and accepting this Proclamation on behalf of the Treasure Coast Christian Alliance I'm hopeful it is you are Sher way I am Sherry way thank you and I want to thank all of you for having me come and receive this Proclamation from you we are having a this is our third annual Treasure Coast Christian Alliance day of prayer is going to be held this year on September the 26th at 6 PM in the fen Center in Fort Pierce all are invited to come we're going to have praise worship prayer and some very special guests that are going to be there uh we do have tickets they are uh tax deductible because we're 501c3 and you can find out more on our website Treasure Coast it's TCC alliance.com or Treasure Coast Christian alliance.com thank you I hope to see some of you there thank you good job Sherry Service Awards our first service award unfortunately Daniel Duran could not be here but for 15 years of service with the police department congratulations Mr [Applause] Duran and for five years of service to the fire department Steven Vana come on down come on down you spech not so interested all these people came out just for you [Applause] and now we have the city's Zone Ben Hogarth is going to give us an update on water issues and specifically the very recently signed Loom agreement am I the only one here in that home looks like it's ready to take off testing okay um so good evening Commissioners Ben Hogarth Ben before you begin um I attended a meeting of uh the Florida Inland navigation district and met the new head and he you apparently you and he had worked together in an unusual Community called marine land could you tell us why marine land is such an unusual uh Marin in Florida used to be um well the original flipper um if you remember the original flipper of the dolphin uh it was similar to SeaWorld is today it was kind of like the in Florida the first um Marine T they actually hid hippopotamuses and of course Dolphins still today it's a marine research lab um they have wonderful phds and um and doctors there and stuff that work uh with the with the mammals and the animals um and at the time you worked there the population was it it was maybe a handful of people including myself um five five yeah it was we had more Dolphins um and yes I was one of the one of the Commissioners um for a short time while I was there as well yeah it was a great experience thank you um so uh tonight I'm going to be giv giving uh basically A Brief Review of the last five or six years um normally when I give a presentation I try to know my audience as best as I can I've I've sort of fail tonight um just just in effect uh but I I I hope um those of you especially who are local who live here will bear with me through this um it was about five or six years of my life um kind of dedicated for the city to uh Advocate on our behalf for the river um really in a way this is kind of a TED Talk for tonight but I'm going to try and keep that brief as brief as I can and um it's going to get a little technically involved just to show and hopefully get kind of an appreciation of what staff had to go through uh the immense effort uh that agencies like the Army Corps the south Florida Water Management District um so many people came together to make this a real thing so some of the slides in here are kind of my own some I've sort of stolen from the Army Corps because really I don't want to supplant anything I'd say for their work and and how they uh positioned everything for us so thank you again um so what we're talking about is is what is going to be the future of Lake regulation Lake schedule Lake flows from okobe and how much uh in the way of discharges we're going to get and we have the potential to see so for five to six years uh City staff Martin County staff Consultants from more than 50 jurisdictions in South Florida um in some cases uh you know U battled a little bit in who was going to win in priority and other cases really collaboration and and how to improve uh the lake okobi system and how to Advocate with to the Army Corps what that should look like so um what we're really talking about here is this whole area East and West these canals that some of you are very familiar with and of course the southern part of Lake okachobee in particular how do we manage the okachobee Waterway and we being really the Army Corps and their water managers with the district um so here are some of the structures that are used the most important for tonight's purposes to know where the s308 is that's where Port Myaka is you you might see that in the news a lot um whenever there's uh algae growing on the east side of the lake they always talk about Port Myaka at the S80 is the South Fork of the St Lucy River and that's where discharges come to us it's also where Basin flow from this part of Martin County the western part of Martin County and St Lucy some of that uh Basin discharge goes through the canal even if the lake is is closed the lake but this is just a reference point for the rest of the presentation the s308 and the S80 these are the two most important structures U that hold back water um from the lake for us and how those are managed are critical to whether or not we get discharges and what the quality of water is here um again nothing you have to Super pay attention to on the right side this is going to get a little technical but what was LS LS was a regulation schedule uh that was created after Congress mandated the Army Corps go back to the drawing board uh between 1998 and 2002 there were uh substantial uh drought conditions some of you may remember those years um others may not but there were substantial drought conditions uh in order to reduce the volume of releases to the estuaries they also felt like we need to go back to the drawing board in 2008 and change the plan and what we got here on the far right side of this um this slide and this uh uh lore schedule is what we're going to talk about later and that's how many discharges and and what the flow volume of discharges were allowed to be for years um at different elevations of the lake and how dramatically it has changed under new schedule that was just signed uh last month by the Brigadier General so what is Lum Lum is basically an update to LS it is a new schedule um it was designed uh to follow NEPA which is national uh Environmental Policy Act regulations it's an assessment process this has been around for decades but more importantly why loome why loome is the most important question and this is a picture just of what it looks like when the when the lake has a lot of green algae uh growing in it and what we've been used to for decades now um anyone who was around in 2016 will remember kind of the pictures from TCP and others of uh place like Central Marine where you just had these matted conditions anybody who was here who was at that location at that time also remembers the smell cuz you can't can't forget that um it is awful it is death on the river and this is what really started our advocacy efforts going into loome this was this was sort of the uh Pinnacle moment for the east coast of Florida in particular so worda or the Water Resources development act um Congressman mass and other Congress members um for Florida in particular really advocated at this time to update the lower schedule they realized that under the current schedule at the time that nothing would ever change we would continue to get disastrous discharges unless something happen so that's where worder came up the 2018 version required that a new schedule be built um or developed I should say and that was because it was going to coincide in 2022 estimated at the time when the Herbert Hoover Dyke was going to be completed and that completion on the southern part especially of the lake would potentially allow the Army Corp to hold uh more water back and and change the regulation schedule so we don't get as many discharges as as often as we do and I and I want to caveat this is to say as a staff member or somebody who didn't have the data the science the modeling that we have today I had no idea what we were going to go and walk into I had no idea what was possible because this new schedule had nothing to do with new structures coming online like the EAA Reservoir that's still years away um 2030 it wasn't going to contemplate any of that this was literally just under current conditions something we potentially could have been doing for years could we update that schedule and I was just shocked by the results I'm going to go through what those results were um so I'm going to skip this kind of stuff but this is just for the record if anybody wants to know these are some of the resources you can go to to find out about the herbit Hoover Dyke um the reason all this came into being and ultimately something uh people might be very familiar with from LS the major project purposes of Lum is flood control water supply navigation and Recreation and the preservation and enhancement of Fish and Wildlife Resources and really where we fall in most in our in our interests are in this last part in the preservation of Fish and Wildlife um and basically the protection of our River um and so the core and in in changing the way that they did business this time and this is what made such a difference at the time it was Colonel Kelly and I'd like to thank Colonel Kelly wherever he is for having the Trust In His civilian staff having the trust in the stakeholders to collaborate and not always be kind of working uh adversely to one another but to actually work in in um in in in that light so the project delivery team was basically 50 uh stakeholder agencies we got together through this five plus year process we had many scoping meetings we had uh over 22,000 comments from people like yourself uh during that process that that helped support kind of the things we were talking about um but this is where the real work began uh this was the process again this is just for the record uh the PDT mostly in the planning um aspect early on uh 2019 20 21 22 so those four years what were we looking at this the most important this entire area from the CMI chain from Orlando all the way down to the Everglades this entire natural water system the lake lake okobi being uh the second largest uh freshwater lake in the United States uh the largest obviously in Florida the amount of water that goes through this system affects basically um most of the communities in South Florida um certainly our community certainly most of the communities uh along the Kusa hatche on the west coast uh so it's a huge study area it's a lengthy process this was just the first five of 10 major steps that we took in the first couple of years um I'm going to explain and show you why it takes so long to go through this process so if you ever wonder why did it take four five six years to go through the Lum well you're about to find out um so lome again the plan formulation process this is just for record I'm not going to go through in detail tonight um but we had a evaluation initial array of plans that we had to assess and the amount of math that went into this this is why I want people to appreciate back in 2008 when we had models it would take computers few days to pump out a handful of models uh computer technology has come so far in such a short amount of time that what used to take modeling and simulation of a complex system like this uh days to pump out just a few runs the Army Corps and their modeling team which are just fantastic I couldn't I couldn't believe what they were able to accomplish in this par analysis they pumped out over 120,000 simulations in the matter of days and weeks uh from a science perspective the more data that you can get the more confident the higher the confidence level in the outputs that you get and that's so critical in other words if we were to flip a coin 5050 five times you might get heads four times you might think well I thought it was 50/50 well the answer is if we flip the coin 50,000 or 100,000 times our results would be much much closer to that 5050 and that's the idea of how how the science works so in this case we couldn't even compare to 2008 what we did in these last five or six years with loom simply because of this reason the amount of modeling that that the Army Corps was able to achieve the amount of data that we were able to assess um just completely dwarfed anything that was done previously so my point about that is if anyone has questions about lome the validity of it the the potential for it um the degree of confidence in this could not be higher um so I'm not going to go into all the details I just again have this for record in case anybody wants to go through later on the Army Corps has done all of this to show how par analysis works it shows and establishes how uh correlative relationships occur in this case minimize cost minimize risk of failure in XY axis how do you compare these two well in this case the lowest number is the best number that's the lowest cost the lowest risk of failure when we were doing correlation analysis things like these alternates uh 274 and one they would be thrown out immediately because they're not even anywhere in the ballpark what we looking for six and three would be really good uh for example three would be really good on minimizing cost but a little bit too high on failure six would be the opposite five would be in kind of l in that area and that's how the Army Corps set up their relationship and and the problem is it wasn't two relationships or two correlations we we were talking about dozens 50 60 um and how they and how that relationship works so this is sort of what it looks like you don't have to understand what this sheet I just want everyone to appreciate the technical process that goes into an analyzing this a green color on this sheet shows a strong positive correlation a red shows a strong negative correlation so the greener it is the more positive correlation easy example if the lake is a low level below what we would call a stage envelope where you would want it um water supply is feeling pretty good there's a strong correlation to the fact that it's um or I shouldn't say they're feeling pretty good they're feeling concerned because there's a strong correlation between the lake being so low and how much water supply cutbacks they're having um conversely when the lake is above the stage envelope when the lake is too high who's affected we are there's that green correlation down there the draft Al or the alal bloom risk metric is a lot higher when the lake is above the envelope so that's what we had to start doing understand the system from day one what correlates what has a relationship um rather than just assuming this was the data uh that the Army Corps was able to give us and show us what actually um worked hand inand or what worked against one another um same thing here we not going to go through this but we showed uh if we change something in the modeling what went what improved what what got worse and this is the key this was the key Point um in the modeling that changed everything for us when we had to break everything down and the Army Corps identified they went down again from 120,000 models and then they doubled that in a second analysis to 240,000 so over 360,000 simulations were done and we had to break it all down to just a handful of models to compare and that's what we did and in this comparison and what you'll see on the left side is all the objectives of low some that are important to all the communities in different ways whether it's water supply or for us the ecology and algol Bloom risk plan CC which is highlighted in R here plan CC continuously came up as the uh plan that improved um the conditions and met the objectives now it wasn't on every objective but it was most and that's why mainly we supported plan cc is because it helped us and it helped a lot of others that's what the Army Corps asked the graph on here is normally called like a spider graph radar graph um it's a a 11 sided graph in this case the the best answer is the one that takes up the whole graph around perfectly and the red right here cc is the one that's the closest to doing that um so some of the takeaways that we got was that both plan AA and we were the best uh AA and CC were the best for the East Coast um CC demonst broadspectrum benefit um all plans ultimately showed a net reduction to the the ecological health of the lake so that's important to remember is that while we improve conditions almost you know unanimously across the board for all the other stakeholders we still have concern about Lake health and what's going to happen in the future as a result of um sometimes just discharge is being withheld for a little bit too long so that's something that we're going to see in and your and the core and the district are going to have to figure out other ways to improve um and then the last thing we learned was that Alternatives proved to be uh to send more water South and you might remember that from 2016 and 18 send the water South and before then this low sum does improve that but all the plans um ultimately showed a benefit there no matter what we did um so we we we worked on plan CC we supported that this is one of the slides that I made really quick because I just wanted to show everybody how dramatic of a difference in discharges plan CC showed and plan A a historically compared to all the other plans the gray the gray bar at the top is called the existing condition Baseline that's what we were dealing with we were dealing with volume way out here to the right and a couple of the plans would have made it even worse the red was the what the existing conditions would have been like if we hadn't changed anything but the new infrastructure coming online would have made minor improvements anyway the blue and the yellow is where we were at what we were trying to get discharg is down to obviously as close to zero as possible and so we supported CC over AA because we knew CC improved across the board conditions for almost every other stakeholder we couldn't sell AA in the sense to the Army Corp and it wouldn't have been genuine for us to represent that because AA didn't do as well for other stakeholders as CC did but we knew CC other state agencies and other agencies could get behind um so the amount of acreage uh thousands of acre per per feet uh or per year I should say that was on here comparatively um is sometimes a third uh from what it could have been so it's at least half Less on here and a third but what was finalized is a little bit different than CC I just want everybody to understand why staff had advocated for that and even more important is this graph this is a graph that would show the amount of discharges over a period of record 30 40 years that we would get in the worst months of the year when alal blooms are occurring so so this is where all the blue greenen algae is occurring when it's coming down the river plan cc is way down here but where we were is way up here if blome hadn't happened and we just kept doing business the same way the red is where we would be instead of the blue um so I want people to understand that this process took a very long time to get through because we had to prove through data what was the best way forward for the most amount of stakeholders and what you get here essentially is zero on the right side of the graph and I'm going to do my best to explain this graph all the discharges to the east coast uh would represent on this graph depending on the elevation of the lake 19 ft down to 10 ft here on the left side so 0 0 0 0 all the way up basically to the yellow line that is what we advocated for with zero discharges everywhere we could get it and that's essentially what we got with the final loome plan I'm going to show you in a minute um what they the the core ended up end up doing is is merging B and C together these blue and yellow lines to put it in perspective um what L's was was a bar here this yellow bar move that down a foot a whole foot across the bar and we would have been getting discharges at 15 ft instead but even worse LS allowed the Army Corps to still discharge a foot below where that line would have been so we would have been getting discharges at 14 ft and so my point about that is when I show you uh in a moment the graph for low suum the new plan it is dramatically different from what we just looked at again this is just a reference of some of the benefits of Ls or low some over LS uh the the process involving more staff um a rigid release schedule is what L's was we we advocated for flexibility that is something um that is going to be critical in the future because too often we heard from the Army Corps and the excuse that was kind of used is I'm sorry it's what the regulation schedule says we don't have any flexibility it's what we have to do how many times have you heard that over the decades so the number one thing we said is no more excuses give them flexibility if these people are really the best and I believe they are but if they're the best to make these decisions give them that flexibility but at the same time we need to have hard limits and and I couldn't believe at the beginning of the process to to to how it ended how good those limits um in favor for us ended up and and it's not going to be the modeling that makes me as confident it's more of just the the end result schedule itself Ben excuse me considering the number of people we have here I'm going to wrap it up sir yes yes thank you I apologize about how long this is Tak important issue but so yeah it was kind of a bad night for this but um so what I'll say is this every this this graph from top down is the height of the lake from the highest point to the lowest it's the fastest way I can explain this graph every single place on here where there this is 2008 lures you can see discharges to the S80 every single place there's discharges to the S80 so we were getting discharges fulltime the the water managers before could discharge to us full time that has changed and I'm going to show you in a minute exactly how much here this entire Zone D this is how much simpler it is to see loome how much simpler it is for the average person to understand the the regulation schedule everything in blue everything up to the yellow is zero for us now zero so we're talking between just under 17 ft at the at the edges of the graph to the lowest point just over 16 ft the lake has to get that high in elevation in the way we measure elevation before we start getting discharges that's the difference that's the biggest difference in loome so and and again I can't I have to thank the commission I have to thankk and County staff um Consultants that we talk to from there thankfully the city we didn't have so many resources so we didn't go out for Consulting we didn't pay for Consulting we spent zero dollars and we still got zero up to 16 feet so I think it's important for you know the citizens of Stuart whether whether you're new um you've been in the area a long time to see what a difference it can make because of your advocacy and because of the process trusting this process um so that's where we're at uh we just had recently and why this is commemorating and why I'm while I'm even talking about it tonight is something called a record of decision was signed by the Army corps's Brigadier General that I talked about he's the commander of the South Atlantic division this just happened last month that's how new this is we we're like a month into it uh there was a biological opinion that was approved by the federal agencies that finally wrapped it up we were hoping this would be done a year ago um it took an extra year because of federal processes that have to play out and so my final thoughts on why this is critical it's important the top one right here and I truly believe this lome can be the beginning of the end of harmful discharges to the northern estuaries if we keep going down those process I really believe that loome is kind of a great plan um we just need the infrastructure to to add to it and one day we can get there um plan will the plan will undergo a second erative update when uh the EA Reservoir comes into play in 2030 2031 somewhere around there when that happens that EA Reservoir is going to be taken into account for withholding even more discharges to us so our hope is to reduce whatever we would get even further down and then uh collaboration with the Army Corps as I said before and Martin County was essential to this process so please thank them as well um and then the future advocacy goals uh once we get to the EA Reservoir something that really the East Coast needs to think about and you're going to hear from experts on the East Coast more more than myself but the mark Peres of the world and everybody here on the East uh we need to start thinking about removing Legacy uh pollution at some point now that we've got this other part kind of a little bit better under control we need to start thinking about um fixing some of the old the old mess so anyway thank you again I appreciate it tonight so thank you Ben thank you now we will have comments from our commissioners commissioner goobi do you have any comments this evening no I do not thank you commissioner Collins do you have any comments this evening I do I was just going to ask that we as a matter of courtesy kind of switch the agenda up a little bit and move 15 ahead of uh 10 and 11 you want to you want to save that till we get to the approval of the agenda we can do that no do we just don't it out there now and then just a couple housekeeping points so that just so that they don't have to wait for all the comments and then uh two also sort of housekeeping would be when it comes time pulling item seven out of the consent so we can talk about it and then yes okay and then my major com was going to be around sailfish ball field uh ball fields in talking to Residents I know there's a lot of concerns about what could happen there relative to Transit oriented development whether it's bright line right now or future development and I know that's not a part of exactly the deals we're discussing tonight but I do think it's adjacent it's an adjacent issue to a bright line there so what I wanted to do was propose a DN d a future agenda item where we could discuss potentially requiring the sailfish ball fields to go to a referendum if a future commission were to ever want to develop or sell that uh I don't think it's something that the commission should necessarily be doing I think that's an issue the public should have to decide on whether or not they want to go in that direction so if there was consensus I was going to see if you would be willing to uh bring that back I know you have some future conversations around Parks anyway so that might be appropriate I I will um just as a matter of course at our next meeting kind of update the board on the process for a charter Amendment or um the requirement of any type of referendum and I'll also provide the history on the parks I think there may be some language already that regarding parks that you need a referendum but I'll fill you in on that I'll get it thank you sir and with that I was done thank you commissioner Reed welcome to your second meeting do you have any comments this evening uh my only comments would be that I actually read all the emails from everybody that showed up tonight so thank you you kept me busy between uh 9 and 12:00 on the weekend thank you but I did read them all thank you commissioner Clark yes thank you so um are we going to pull item number 15 and put it up on the calendar or do we need to well we're going to fine we can talk about it we're going to pull item seven from consent correct I don't there's no objection and item 15 for the sake of these which is the first reading we will move in front of item 10 correct okay because I had a motion the agenda okay all right and then um I'd like to to pull item number nine just for staff to explain why the city of Steward is um doing this especially for the future even though people might think that this Jonathan Dickinson State Park thing has gone way we just want to just explain because it's in the consent people might not even know the reason and the purpose why we're trying to think ahead just in case something else comes up in the future so I'm I'm sure city manager can just tell us about that um it's just going to be very brief and then I wanted to um say that staff is working on in October to have a series of neighborhood meetings regarding uh commercial plan unit development for vocational training facility at 710 Southeast Martin Luther King Boulevard and there's going to be October 1st October 10th and October 14th and October 28th there are lots of Flyers there's going to be information on the city's website so that people don't say we didn't know about this and we didn't know that they were going to have it we're in September now this is in October and tell your friends and family and those who are watching please so that we don't have a 100 people coming here and say we didn't know the city had voted on this that or the other so this is going to be happening it's a neighborhood meeting um it is in the East Stewart area I speaking Mr read about the the emails I did receive a lot of emails and somebody said East Village and I was trying to figure out what they were talking about but I think they were talking about East Stewart but uh it's it's um it's the it's a prop that we purchased the old Gary Plaza and we're working on getting some things done there so just a note to let everybody um know that I too appreciate the um comments and I didn't probably didn't get to respond to everybody and some of them came in late at night and I didn't get to see everything but um I just appreciate the fact that people are paying attention and um you know hopefully things are not too early or too late it's always right on time and whatever is needed to be done I think will be done in good and proper order so I I think that I'd like to say that um our mayor who replaced our other mayor I was with this gentleman he had to go and do a proclamation at a funeral this past weekend uh somebody who has ties to Stewart and longstanding in the uh school system in Martin County but I don't know if superb Tony a ward whatever just people were so appreciative that somebody with the tone and demeanor of the mayor was there and they really really appreciated that and you could just feel it in the room and uh I just think that I just want to commend our mayor for just what you did and continue to be mayor and do what the people need to do because people need to have respect for our leaders and know that we're trying to do our best every time we're here making decisions thank you thank you commissioner Clark that's very nice of you and I'd like you to know I did that having to sit in those very uncomfortable stiff back chairs up on the that you look like a king I actually would like to comment on that because I was not I did not know this gentleman and what a contribution he made to our community and this was the most joyous and exuberant celebration of life I had ever been to and I did read a proclamation which I thought was very thoughtful and it was made by commissioner Clark he taught music at Murray middle and Hidden Oaks and was the band director and he impacted the lives of over 8,000 students he never had a sick day apparently which is remark he was but really he was those of us who know this era he was the first African African-American to graduate from Martin County high school and you can imagine what barriers he confronted and that was just recent as recent as 1966 yes when the schools the desegregation occurred that was Mr Alan Gilbert Mr Alan Gilbert Mar middle and Hidden Oaks band director and he created a remarkable Legacy I mean people literally came from all over the world that endures to this day in our city I'm glad commissioner Clark and I both gave him an additional mention and commissioner Joby was joobi was there as well so I want to speak generally about one of the most common ways local state and federal governments get things done how they work together to accomplish so much and that is public private Partnerships and if you read about them you'll often see them referred to as a capital P3 P3 right and there were two P3 items on the agenda this evening one of them is obviously the bright line the other one was pulled and there is this idea out there that how dare we work and give money to a private entity folks this happens all the time all over the world all over the United States the to varying degrees pun intended that train left the station a long time [Music] ago many of these projects typically they are large infrastructure projects and especially they are large rail projects just like this um the channel tunnel to go overseas between the UK and France that was a P3 project the newly renovated terminal thank God at LaGuardia for those of you who that was a public private partnership the Miami port tunnel you know that takes you to the cruise ships now that is a classic P3 project that was funded with city state Federal County monies and it was used to construct it and it is now operated by a private entity all of the other stations on bright Lin's tracks are P3 projects so in speaking with the head when I met the head of fine the other evening on Thursday the Florida Inland nav Florida Inland navigation District he reminded me that in working with the the county they had put a new Breakwater at Indian Riverside Park and that reminded me one of the best examples in Martin County of a P3 project located in the park is the US Sailing Center of Martin County the US Sailing Center of Martin County sits on public land for $1 a year the roads the water the sewer the lights the grass are all maintained by the county we built by the county but this private entity provides a worldclass recreational resource to the county and brings people from all over the world but we don't have to even go to the Lagoon if you were standing out there you could look out look out that back window and that's the city dock the city also in condu in conjunction with the Florida Inland navigation District built that dock maintains that dock docks are very expensive by the way operates that Dock and this is one of the cutest examples actually a private entity the tiki taxi we allow them to Dock and run their business off their there for nothing actually this this is the last example I want to give you because this one bugs me too but it happens is traditionally as you know M municipalities are the ones that are responsible for Education the city of Stewart doesn't do that but I obviously the county does and it's the largest single item on your tax bill we build the schools we operate the schools we maintain the schools we hire the staff to an enormous enormous expense but nothing's more important than the education of our children but now in Florida that per child allotment which is a lot of money is actually being paid to private entities in the form of charter schools 85 that is a public private partnership so the question is not whether we should enter enter into such an agreement that's not the question anymore here's the question we need to be asking are our interests sufficiently aligned in this case we're going to talk about tonight bright line the city and Martin County can we leverage our dollars okay if the city can put up $2 and spend 10 that's a deal I'm going to make all day long does it make sense to trans transfer the risk to an entity that has more experience in construction maintenance and operation and can this private entity do a better job than government with this particular project these are the questions we should be asking not rejecting it out of hand thank you so I would I would like to acknowledge the Pres presence of two former mayors Carol waxler is in the room this evening and Becky Bruner is also here with this evening can we move to the approval of the agenda I actually just had a couple of oh I'm sorry comments by city manager um I just wanted to uh comment about so the agenda goes forward when we do um approve the agenda I would ask that the board uh consider taking all three bright light items at once in other words have the City attorney read all three titles take do the presentation and public comment at once so that we don't do it three times and also take public comment in advance and then do not take public comment after the Motions at the end because it will have already been heard um I was going to ask to bring up the move move up the arapo or the 15 but you talked about that the other thing is the there are um two items now that commissioner Collins has talked about pulling number seven but I was also going to ask um we have a zoning in progress scheduled on the agenda and I believe it's number 4 13 and um I did get some emails last week regarding it and I know there's some people that wanted to speak publicly as it related to the zoning in progress as well and from a purely due process perspective um I was going to ask the commission if you would consider scheduling a special meeting maybe for next Monday because we need to have a public meeting the way zoning and progress works so that the people that want to speak about that don't have to sit here for all of the train stuff and literally take that up at 10 o'clock at night if we don't get to it until then it's the call of the board we can play it out and see if you want to but if there were 10 people that wanted to give public comment on the zoning in progress that could be another 30 or 40 minutes that we have to spend on that matter after this uh matter is over but in order to do it we would probably need to have a special meeting because it's not fair to postpone it another two weeks under the uh coordination of it now I will tell you it became effective upon publication last Wednesday so there's no downside to the delay other than it's not fair to the people opposing it that are entitled to a hearing and at least be heard before we move forward so you guys can consider that when you're doing your agenda item and then my thought was um because commissioner Collins wanted to address item number seven as it related to the FEMA appointment if in fact we were going to have a special meeting next Monday that number seven could also be just simply postpone until that time so that we wouldn't have to uh spend the time on it this evening to get moving forward um lastly I also wanted to um talk about our budget meeting and I know it's been advertised for 5:15 the State of Florida requires that the budgets be addressed after 5:00 pm so it will be heard it'll just take place at the end of this meeting and we won't interrupt this meeting for it this meeting started at 4: so this meeting goes until it's over and then the budget meeting will take place and then I also wanted to mention that on September 11th which is two days from now the uh steuart fire Union will be meeting um and uh walking the Roosevelt bridge in honor of the from the 911 in New York and I believe that uh all are encouraged to go to that at the foot of the Roosevelt bridge on Wednesday morning and that's all I've got so next agenda item I guess is the so let's have approval on the consent calendar first pulling number seven correct Mr you have to approve the entire agenda the entire agenda yeah um so so do move approval do you we're moving 15 in front of 10 correct yes and pulling seven9 are you are we pulling 13 how do you guys feel about a special meeting okay so may Mr Mayor I I um I cried you're in Danny Boy my sister's favorite song and I just anyhow my son is away as a pilot in the US Army and I've planned to be away in September in Germany so I will not be here for until September 20th I'll be back on September 20th I I'm going to see my son so um that's it I will I'm leaving tomorrow morning I'll get there on September 11th I'm leaving tomorrow evening actually it doesn't matter so um I I won't be here and it seems like a lot of items I know that we've had issues where Commissioners haven't been at a meeting and they asked to redo an item when they come back on the Das but um I I won't do that because I know that all of us can't be at every single meeting at times but I just want to let you know if there's no big reason to um have it within the next two weeks I'll be here for the next meeting just won't be here for a special meeting in between we could just hear it tonight commissioner jobi was the question posed as to whether I have no no do you have a comment you no with regard to having a special meeting I'm available and I think it's important I just wanted to ask um Mr mortell said that the zip was Bas technically in progress so they would not be accepting any applications was that yes ma'am that became effective on Wednesday last week yes but I think we should address it sooner rather than later that's the is the question really is are we going to do it tonight or are we going to do it next month Monday because we can't put it off for two meeting like till the next meeting I'm I'm okay with Monday special meeting that's the 16th it's going to be a long meeting and people feel very strongly on this zoning in progress for understandable reasons which is why I was recommending to have it be stand alone rather I I think they deserve the full attention and explanation a comprehensive explanation of what it means um do we need a motion to postpone it one week I'm very disappointed if there if you're inclined to move it one week it'd be a motion to postpone the zoning in progress to next Monday and um item number seven and direct me to schedule special meeting for Monday so I'd move that we have a special meeting next Monday that includes the zoning in progress take it off of tonight's agenda and have that number 13 at that meeting and include also item number seven at that meeting I second the motion all in favor a little public comment first there any public Sor seeing none all in favor I just know that I won't be there thank you in spirit vote you'll be there in spirit the um that settles item 15 and item s um and now if you guys want to address the I'm sorry 13 and seven and now if you guys want to address the agenda moving item 15 up to after did I say 13 i' ask you to talk about item nine city manager it was the Z yeah okay can we approve I don't we had a vote to approve the agenda including the consent calendar pulling item we're moving seven nine pulling nine so moved second all in favor okay okay so item nine comments on non aggenda item all right [Music] sorry comments from the public and this is on non-agenda items if you're here about the bright line and you're wearing a yellow t-shirt this is not the time for you to come up agenda Madam clerk do we have any green cards F out I have four for general public comment okay let's go Albert Brinkley and the next will be Carl Thrones like say good evening to each and everyone um my name is Alber brinkin I'm a resident and the actors in the East stward community and right now I'm before you all upset with the situation with the kids being moved from the 10 Street Recreation this is my granddaughter I'll take care of her I house her I feed her and my point in saying that is we the parents of the community did not have no say of this incident being happened with our kids moving from the 10th Street to the Boys and Girls Club we didn't have no say when we find out we found out that night at the meeting at the 10th Street recreation center that is not wrong this has been going on too long in the East Community when we know something it's at the last minute or we don't know at all this is not right to the kids cuz right now with the kids being moved it's kids on the streets right now you're hurting the kids you did not take the kids in consider consideration this should have been first priority here when you make decision for me when I'm taking care of her that is not fair not only to me to other parents when I'm in the store today employee from the Boys and Girls Club came out their mouth I'm passing them you know what they said oh we'll hire anybody this an employee of the Boys and Girls Club yeah it is wrong for you all this is a continued thing in the East Community you make decision for us without any knowledge from us it's time you stop over overlooking Us in this community real par to it stop overlooking Us in the community this hurts today I'm still in a community with parents upset telling me they upset with their child being moved over there without our knowledge take us in consideration real par to it get our opinion on things stop making decisions for us just like the meeting you said somebody may come in and say they don't know let us know about these meeting because that is in East that building is eood if anybody shouldn't know about anything that we should know when it come to the east Community treat us like somebody it's time to stop treating us like we don't exist we are a part of St and today I'm still upset cuz I take care of this young lady here don't make decisions for me without my consent without other parents say and that's what you all did and again I reiterate kids is going to be on the street and are on the street and that comment what I heard in the store today from a Boys and Girls Club employee or we'll hire anybody these kid had a relation relationship with those employes out there thank you they had a relationship with those employees out there to the and what you did was [Music] wrong Carl thones I'm sorry who was Carl Carl thones can you say that cler I didn't hear you Carl thones he must not be here okay is there anyone outside Travis deckers Travis Deckers oh here he comes uh good evening uh Commissioners and members of the public uh thank you city manager by the way for mentioning our 911 BridgeWalk that was very awesome of you thank you um for those of you who don't know me my name is Travis Deckers I'm the president of the steuart firefighters benevolent Association uh nonprofit charity organization the purpose of it is helping those in our community um came here a few months ago to discuss our inaugural pumper pole for our first respond mental health um that was extremely hot day I'm proud to report it was a success it was a lot of fun so that was awesome thank you to Fraser Creek for hosting us and thank you to them again for having us next year on May 10th um they're an amazing crew um but why I'm here tonight so I'm here tonight to discuss another event our second annual cornhole tournament this time it's going to be at Ocean Republic Brewing um this event is aimed to a specific goal our root meaning as a benevolent which is to create an environment for this amazing Community to come together and unite to help another member of this community in need out of respect for privacy I won't share this person's information but they are resident of the city and they have found themselves in hard times after the tent Street rec center lost their after school care program and had to find employment elsewhere while taking care of their family as a sole member of the household able to make an income they're working hard to provide for their family and coming home without a working AC unit so please in the interest of community solidarity and in the interest of carrying for another person join us on September 22nd at Ocean Republic brewing for our cornhole tournament at 10:00 a.m. uh if you want to register go to Stuart firefighters store.com or check us out on Stuart firefighters on Facebook we're more than happy to have you or just swing by for the cause thank you thank you thank you I believe there's one more Mary yes Bonnie Moser Bonnie I know Bonnie here she comes M Moser is this a non-agenda item okay good evening commiss my name is Bonnie Moser I live at 1121 Southeast 10th Street I will not talk to you about the bright line because you've all received my essay um I I want to introduce myself and my son um I'm a Seventh Generation Floridian and this is my son pel he's an eighth generation Floridian I work as an urban designer and I focus on multimodal transportation and for the past couple weeks pel says that's what he wants to do when he grows up too which makes me really proud because since he was a baby he's been coming to County and City commission meetings and workshops s and um last I guess it was two weeks ago at the last meeting we came we wanted to speak to you all um about an issue that we've been having um but the meeting rang long and we weren't able to stay we had to get to bedtime um but I wanted to ask you all um over the last year and a half we haven't been able to come to commission meetings anymore um because of the language that you're using because you're not getting along well because there's yelling um and so I want to ask you to to think about kids they see you as Leaders um you're their you're their first um the first leaders that they see before they know about presidents and Senators they know the Mayors and their Commissioners so I want to ask you to be a good example for for the children it's really important that their voices be heard um often times when I come to the meetings I notice that most of the people that do attend are are older and it's wonderful to have their input but but we don't get to hear his input or young family's input and so um that brings me to another item that I want to ask when you are trying to engage your community I ask that you do it outside of the echo CH chambers of social media it should be thorough um Community workshops and by workshops I don't mean like everyone gets a turn to stand up here and talk I want us to be around a table I want us to be working towards um consensus when we don't see eye to eye we shouldn't join tribes and say no it's this way or this way we should be finding the solutions that make everybody in our community feel good about their neighbors um sorry I made these points quickly outside see um I think that's it I appreciate your time and I also to the audience I hope you're listening today about being a good example for the children in the room thank you thank you thank you thank [Applause] you um Mr City attorney will you read resolution 93202 4 please wait are we ad no more public comment no I have no more public comment the adoption of the commission or the consent calendar oh yeah we have a motion for approval of the consent calendar pulling item nine and moving seven as well move approval second all in favor nope got a call roll call all right roll call please commissioner Collins yes commissioner goobi yes mayor Rich yes commissioner Clark yes commissioner Reid yes now Mr City attorney will you read item nine of course resolution number 93-220 a resolution of the city Commission of the city of Stewart Florida opposing any proposal brought forward by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to convert hundreds of Acres of conserved land within Jonathan Dickinson State Park into three public golf courses providing an effective date and for other purposes to keep it short I didn't have a presentation pres uh developed for this but uh originally when the first news came out that um the D or whoever it was was having the public meetings related to Jonathan Dickinson State Park because the city commission had never taken a formal position on it as city manager I was not able to send a letter or sign anything um against the meeting or against it so when the matter was resolved I put it on the agenda so the commission could make a pass a resolution Pro you know taking a position that they never want anything developed on the park so that as city manager because it was going to fall between two meetings so I wouldn't have been able to organiz organiz the Commission in time as a result it'll be the formal position of the city that you do not want any development in Jonathan Dickinson State Park and if in fact they want to expand the boy scout camp there sometime in the future you can always have a resolution to endorse whatever smaller project is there but this is just as a blanket authorizing the city to have a formal position against it thank you can um Mr Mayor we would need a motion in a second correct so let can have a motion first if we're going to have resolution number 90 3-22 for um Mo motion to approve second we have a motion by commissioner Clark and and second by commissioner Collins is there any discussion by the Commissioners no I can't go to the public comment on this you should is there any public comment on this issue the problem is uh a Sugg I'm [Music] sorry any comments Mr Collins no okay you want to take a roll call Madam clerk on this issue commissioner Clark yes commissioner goobe yes commissioner Reid yes commissioner Collins yes yes mayor Rich yes mayor may I interrupt one moment I'm sorry it was brought to our attention that there was another comment for general public comment it was um added to the wrong pile so we apologize we do have one more person I think we can accommodate them okay is she standing at the back of the room at the moment it's Barbara grass Miss grass will you come forward sorry about that I didn't want to miss the big crowd okay come on when are you going to get an audience for public speaking Yeah I'm Barbara grass I live in the excuse me city of Stewart I attended the first reading the second reading and the final reading with 192 rental units on Central Parkway that now has become Serenity this property did not have the qualifying number of parking spaces on their own land so exception was given to them for roadside side parking speed bump Road color change and a push button flashing to cross the road what I did not see or hear at any of these approving readings was an approval for a 10 mile per hour speed limit on Central Parkway just for this private for-profit company that owns and runs serenity now going east on Central Parkway the 10 m hour is at the canal Crossing and by law you cannot change your speed until you m meet the next miles per hour sign which is at raise way coming West on Central Parkway the 10 m hour sign at Serenity is at the dog park almost 1 half mile at 10 miles per hour this area has a speed bump Road painted a different color a flashing Crossing button why do they need more this could become a great speed trap for my city and maybe we could augment our budget with this with the tickets it's an idea if in fact 10 miles per hour is what is best for Central Parkway why don't we have one at our bus stop those children can only get 20 M hour are they not as important for safety reasons as the residents of Serenity and for a profit private Corporation to get a better entitlement than our schoolage children seems to be putting our concerns wrong so who put up the 10 m hour sign did my City Planning Department do it did my City chief do it make the decision or did a private company take it upon them themselves to buy and install a speed sign so tomorrow I need to call the city clerk and get my application to get that 10 m per hour along Central Parkway so the same entitlement we all get including my school AG children thank you thank you [Applause] so let's move on to commission actions and just to clarify for the purposes of presentation and public comment we are going to treat 10 11 and 12 as one item I will not ask for a motion on these because when we come to vote on them we will vote on them each separately and at that time we we will require a motion and a second so I believe the presentation from the city will be made by the City attorney Mr Morell mayor we missed 15 we oh we did yes when we uh changed the AGA you're right I'm sorry thank you I had a question on number seven was number seven covered in the approval of the consent no it was moved to the special meeting okay P okay that's what it was okay you're right thank you so let's first commission action will you read ordinance 2534 42024 Mr City attorney of course just merely reminding this is the uh first reading of the ordinance uh ordinance number 2534 d224 an ordinance of the city Commission of the city of Stewart Florida to provide for the abandonment of certain public RightWay within the city being that certain 50F foot RightWay as set forth on the plat of Eldorado Heights as recorded in plat book one page 5 of Martin County Florida public records as described in exhibit a attached here two and depicted in exhibit B attached here to and requesting the $9,000 $199,000 privilege fee for abandoning public property to be waved in its entirety providing for conflicts providing for severability providing an effective date and for other purposes thank you we have a presentation no no I was ask it just had to be read it's a two it's a two meeting process the law requires us to Simply read the title at one meeting I'm requesting that you guys move approval we can address the the privilege fee and all the other stuff at the second meeting just to expedite it for time purposes it will make no bearing on it because the adoption actually takes place at the next meeting anyway so there was no need other than a motion to move it to the next meeting to comply with state law mayor I'd like to move ordinance number 2534 2024 second do we need a roll or can we all in favor it's an it's an roll call please mayor Rich yes commissioner Clark yes commissioner goobi yes commissioner Collins commissioner Reed yes public comment now we can begin you want to read them first so items 10 11 12 Mr mortell we're going to ask the City attorney if he would please read title for the three okay before we get started Mr City attorney resolution number 90- 2024 a resolution of the city Commission of the city of Stewart Florida resending the interlocal agreement with Martin County dated December 12th 2023 authorizing the submission of a joint proposal to brightline trains LLC for the development of a train station in downtown Stewart providing for conflict providing for for an effective date and for other purposes resolution number 992-2244 resending the ground lease agreement with bright line trains Florida LLC uh dated August 12th 2024 providing for the long-term lease of property and construction of a train station in downtown Stewart on Flagler Avenue providing for conflict providing an effective date and for other purposes resolution ution number 991224 a resolution of the city Commission of the city of Stewart Florida resending the amended interlocal agreement with Martin County relating to the development of a train station in downtown Stewart providing for conflict providing an effective date and for other purposes that's it that's it that's all hear I'm sorry I have to unmute is it on now okay great um is it on I was asked to just simply put together a uh I think you need to I was hello I was asked to put together a history of uh how we ended up with the negotiations with bright line so I put this together and um it's not uh perfect and there's I only put it together last week so there's a lot of meetings I probably missed but I did my best to kind of go back and uh figure out the history of it uh one of the things that um we addressed was the uh the questions that were raised and the questions that were raised I have this but it doesn't matter we didn't do it the questions that were raised was there had been no public input and what was the financing and why is the city paying for a station so I started from the beginning September 23rd 1912 um believe it or not in September 23rd of 1912 a proposed new FEC Railroad Station was discussed at the commission meeting and then Stanley kitching Charles Chillingworth and Henry fough each contributed $350 to in order to guarantee erection of the new Depot and it was completed in 1913 so uh jumping forward to 1968 I'm sure there was lots of discussion between the two but in uh July of 1968 was the last time passenger rail actually happened uh in the FEC Corridor and um the 7s had Vietnam and then a bit of an economic turn turn down uh downturn for the city and in the 70s and 80s the downtown of uh city of Stewart had actually become somewhat blighted and had about 50% occupancy in 1988 the city held a charet related to the need for a new Roosevelt expansion bridge and during that charette they also uh had created great detail and added to the comprehensive plan the need to include passenger rail uh back into the corridor um it should be noted that that was roughly the exact same time that the jensa Beach Mall opened and that the city of Stewart had essentially gone vacant um another about 10 years later the city began negotiating with Amtrak to build a uh station which was in 1998 through uh the State of Florida as well as Federal they were trying to do an AMC track station from Miami to Jacksonville and then it would go on throughout the United States um then again uh there is a uh what they called the ear amendments or or Charter reviews um and there was public hearings in September of 2000 regarding the desire for the city to include a railway passenger station and then in 2003 the city of CRA adopted its CRA plan and identified Tiff or tax increment fin financing as the appropriate funding source for passenger rail um the language in the CRA plan actually said that Tiff was the appropriate funding source for rail but later the city adopted a comprehensive plan and identified Rail and said appropriate funding source and use that exact language then in 2006 there was a uh presentation and a um charet as well as public workshops on all of the transportation needed um to uh meet the future needs of the community and it was determined that there was $615 Million uh needed to build the roads necessary to anti to handle the anticipated traffic that would be coming here based upon the uh 2030 plan which was the next 25 years of growth in our Sur surrounding communities and in that plan they also included the need for uh a passenger rail system and that was that fell within the $615 Million number and then in 2008 there were ear amendments in which they discussed the passenger rail in 2010 um Amtrak actually moved so far as to have a uh inspection train that came here and actually stopped and the city um had a event outside and they actually drove several people from here to St Augustine to present and try to move forward with the uh idea of Amtrak but I should also mention that in 2009 there was what we call the Great Recession and then in 2010 during the Great Recession the uh County was moving the um tax collector out to Willoughby Boulevard and other government buildings and one of them was the property appraiser that was in the towers building and they were trying to identify a location for the property appraiser and the city had workshops and also had Consultants come and they told the city that as the county seat and as the economic Center that it needed to maintain its business status and that if it had a bleed of one building or two buildings every couple of years that left the downtown area that it would return to the blight that it had in the 80s over the long term because the slow decline in businesses and movement would essentially uh move people from downtown that was the consensus at the time and as a result the city commission directed public hearings regarding ear amendments as well as other matters and uh actually uh did an entire design for a Government Center Transit Center and uh train station on Flagler Avenue across the street from the courthouse and it offered to build a 48,000 ft government building that could house the uh Property Appraiser's office um and then again in 2010 it adopted that plan and I'll get to that later and then in 11 as well going to the next slide 12 and 13 were kind of quiet but in 2014 bright line popped up and there were hearings in February April May June and November of 2014 in 2014 the hearings consisted of mostly opposition uh it was a very strong consensus that nobody wanted 32 trains a day to go from Miami to Orlando and have no benefit other than trains going by here because at the time there was no plan for a stop and as a result the city did resolutions against it as well as uh the City attorney and the city manager participated and drafted an economic impact statement and uh the commission adopted it and sent it to the uh fed as well as the state opposing the matter um 2015 there was a January 15 there was a public hearing on the no reling All Aboard Florida the commission at the January meeting scheduled a retreat for February during that Retreat um all that roughly that time all board Florida had announced that it would consider a Treasure Coast station and the position of the city uh was that it was to seek at this February Retreat it said that it would want to seek the uh return of Passenger rail on the FEC right away and it started identifying and citing and coordinating with possible providers of Passenger rail in May of 2015 there was also another Workshop regarding All Aboard Florida in June of 15 there was a request by the city to participate in the federal process and we asked to be a section 106 Consulting party it's kind of an intervenor but not really it allowed us to participate at a higher level than just anybody and as a result we were able to write more and participate it and uh give more opinions I don't know that it made a significant difference at the end but it's still we spent a lot of time on it um and then in August of 15 there was yet another meeting regarding allo Florida 2016 there was multiple meetings multiple updates there was even a candidate Forum where we had the County Commissioners come on July 18th of 2016 and one of the five questions that was uh opposed to all the candidates was related to All Aboard Florida and then in July of uh July 23rd of 18 there was also a bridge Advisory Group that also included comments about the need for a um uh passenger rail station but at these uh Advisory Group meetings the mayor um wanted a survey to be done and you have to remember the timing on this I don't remember exactly when Martin County filed this lawsuit it had challenging the bright line but I think it was in 2016 and in 2018 that case was still pending but it looked like bright line or allo Florida at the time or virgin depending on what what it was called at the time was considering a Treasure Coast station so the city held two work shops and decided it would do a survey to see if in fact the city residents were in favor of a station and as a result this Workshop was held and a survey was performed and in the survey these little red dots are where the people that responded from the survey and you can see like the the larger dot if you look in this like I don't know if the button turning on but the the larger dots are actually um more where more people responded from than the smaller dots and uh the survey results were that 61% of the people responding were in favor of a station and 39% were against most of the responses were that they did not want bright line to run at all and that we should not support or endorse it and that way there would not be a train running from Miami to Orlando um but when limited the the question the first time we did a survey the uh there was a concern that people could answer more than once so second survey was done and it included um uh Geo fencing so it could only be the the pictures of the people that I showed on the map before like in the region of Martin County and it also had IP addresses so you could only vote once the first survey was actually 62% in favor the second survey was 61% um in that Workshop uh in August of 27th 2018 when it was saying it was exploring the feasibility of a treasure GO station what the question was was in the event that bright line did in effect did in effect have highspeed rail service on the FEC Corridor running through Stewart would the residents of Stewart want to have a station so it was a very limited question and bright line was seeking a response within 60 days which is why uh the city went forward with it at that time um moving on to the timeline in 2019 um there was again public hearings and discussions regarding passenger Rail and uh November of 19 was a resolution to seek funding for a new railroad bridge 2020 we get into the public hearings regarding a comprehensive plan and evaluation and appraisal report July 13th of 2020 there was a public hearing regarding the comp plan on the evaluation report October 26th of 20120 and December 14th during those evaluations and appraisals the uh oops I'm sorry the um comprehensive plan policy 2.81 point8 2. a10.3 2.8 10.2 and 2.81 17.1 were all um discussed and addressed um going back in time I mentioned the um issue of the 2010 when the Public Presentation was done uh or and the city actually designed right there it says um County building 48,000 Square ft three stories the city had done this design for Memorial Park which is almost uh fulfilled it then designed a track or a a um 500 foot uh train station on that location and then a 4,000 s ft building right there in the center of of that 2.3 acre parking lot this was across the street on the triangle field that's adjacent to the baseball fields this triangle parcel is not owned by the city it is in fact owned by the county as is this uh parking lot space the baseball fields are what's owned by the city and and obviously this is city property as well but the courthouse over here is also County property in any event um during the comprehensive reviews in both 2008 2010 2001 um there were references and mentions to encourage the development of passenger use of the FEC rideway coordinate with appropriate agencies develop passenger Rail stations and um in 2001 as a reference the city and several other Eastern Seaboard cities in Florida were designated by Amtrak to be stops on its Regional system and then in 2010 was when that initial uh Amtrak visit happened the Amtrak was moving forward and I don't know what governor Scott's issue was or what happened but I don't know if he was aware that the bright line matter was going to come forward or not but for one reason or another it kind of went to the background and then bright line came out publicly in 2012 um it should also be noted that in 2012 the State of Florida gave bright line the right of way from F from Orlando Airport to the FEC Corridor on Highway 52 in Orlando so in for 2014 when we were all challenging bright line and trying to stop it from running the state had already actually given it the right of way necessary to fulfill its desire to run and as a result if the state had wanted to stop it all they had to do was not give the right away um moving forward there's also a 1996 ear Amendment and I I included this just because when I was reading the stuff I found found it interesting that in 1996 this would be the same year that the Roosevelt Bridge opened it said with major Norths South traffic movement along the coastal area limited primarily to US1 there will be increased pressure to widen the facility Beyond presently committed plans as a recently adopted Martin County transportation plan was being developed it became obvious that US1 through Stewart was to be widened to possibly 10 lanes without a doubt allowing such an action would have a dramatic effect changing the character of the city and as everyone that's sitting here knows the city of Stewart did not allow it to get widen to 10 lanes but instead it made eight which um still is a dramatic change from what it was in the 80s and uh daily we hear about how crowded US1 is um October of 23 coming forward I just wanted those were some of the public hearings and like I said I didn't cover them all in October of 23 brightland sign announced that it was publishing a request for proposals the tab one said to include a letter of intent included with your proposal tab two provided the site criteria of not less than two acres must accommodate 200 parking spaces be contiguous to the FC RightWay such that a platform at least 500 ft and track of a th000 ft can be constructed and must be at least 100 ft away from any Crossing and then tab three uh instruct the applicants to include the financial terms December of 2013 was when the original inter local was entered between the county and the City of Stewart to respond to this request for uh production published by bright line the county in October had hired the Treasure Coast Regional planning Council for technical assistance and the city and the county worked together to develop a response to the proposal in doing that response the city ident ified with the county and the through the Treasure Coast Regional planning Council and the travel and tourism board that approximately 2.3 million people visited the Martin County area on an annual basis and one of the bigger surprises was that 1.6 million of that 2.3 million were local instate people they weren't from out of state they were actually from Florida and they identified the 1.6 million is coming from the Orlando Fort Lauderdale area or the Orlando area or the Miami Fort Lauderdale area and then the other 700,000 people came from outside of the State of Florida um in the submitt it was the intention that any cars that arrived here or any people that arrived here by train would in fact be a car that did not arrive here because the theory would be that people coming from whether they're flying into the airports or whether they're coming from within the state if they could take the train they may SEL choose to do so and then those cars would not be on our local roads as well on Friday night if they're staying at the marry out on the beach and they decide to come into town to go to dinner they would be taking an Uber or some other form of transportation and they would also have some alleviation to the parking there was no science to it there was no actual study done as to how much it would affect but it was taken into consideration and discussed uh quite a bit um as it had been over the years uh for the desire in fact uh one of the issues that came up back in 2010 was that the city was was quickly approaching maximum buildout and that is that under the ear amendments and comp plan it was literally built out that there wasn't going to be any land left and when the construction boom came to an end the city was going to need to uh position itself that it didn't have to rely on those economics of the uh construction industry because during 2010 the city's uh budget had dropped to the floor and uh we had to close uh different facilities and you know the Great Recession was having a significant impact on the city and it was looking to get out of the glut of relying on Redevelopment like that and was hoping that at some point it would go to just a straight true tourism uh resource rather than development um when it uh did address those in 2010 in September of two 27 2010 uh in doing the uh comprehensive plan and ear amendments it adopted policy 2 a103 and said through one direct advocacy aimed at elected officials as well as federal state and local Transportation agencies active participation in Martin County Mo and acquisition of Grants and other appropriate funding sources the city shall actively support the reestablishment of Passenger rail service on the east Coast FEC Railway RightWay including the construction of a downtown rail station Transportation Depot preferably on Flagler Avenue between East Ocean Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr moreover the city shall actively support the introduction of commuter rail services to the FEC RightWay back then was right after the city had had the tax collector leave and the property appraiser leave and the city was trying to get the county to have the property appraiser be downtown and it recognized that trying wasn't going to be enough and that's why it actually put the language in the uh comp plan to identify the actual location of the plan to be right where that Transit Depot and Government Center plan that it had been building and that had presented to the county for the Property Appraiser's office so that in the future the station would be in Steward um there was some discussion and presentations that included um the concept of the bleed that if businesses leave your downtown you create other centers of business that become more popular and it competes with your downtown uh the presentations uh told the city that if in fact a railway passenger station opened in the future that 30 years from when it opened wherever it opened would be the new downtown so when there was some discussion about the fairgrounds and there was discussion about hob sound and there was discussion about Jensen Beach and other matters for where the train station could be the city back in 2010 was adamant about wanting to make sure it was in Stewart and in 2014 when bright line started announcing that it might do a Treasure Coast station the city again pushed for the location to be downtown also another policy in the comp plan said the city shall continue to encourage expansion of TR rail passenger rail service bus service and other multimodal forms of transportation with a particular emphasis on developing a downtown steart as a Transportation Hub I mentioned these comprehensive plan uh comments because every one of them were a result of multiple public hearings and multiple uh public input opport opportunities when you do those ear amendments you have to by law hold at least three public workshops on top of the two public hearings to adopt them and they all come from um residents comments Etc um the comp plan also had policy 2.a 1.8 it said the following strategy shall be implemented by the city in its effort to maintain and improve traffic conditions throughout the city and I didn't include all of them because it was a list of other uh traffic issues but downtown rail station and transportation Depot was included at that time um it also had objective 2. A7 I think it's a 1.7 that's a typo the city shall pursue and support transportation systems example High-Speed Rail Express buses High occupancy vehicles bikeways that reduce air quality deg degradation and help conser conserve energy um also uh we ultimately um entered and one of the questions that was asked is you know the review and what was going to happen in the project and and in the agreement paragraph 18.8 it said the city shall have the right to review the project designed and cost estimates to verify that the costs are related to the project and are within Market expenses for same under the original lease agreement it was going to be the city's intention to hire a company to participate and act as the city's agent as more of a contract manager construction manager to oversee the design and construction so that they would review from the beginning when the design was done to determine the cost estimates on construction and what was going to be paid for and what was not to the literal draws as the construction went forward to actually review every single Bill and make sure that what was being built was for services related to the station um paragraph 13.1 of the agreement also said if the tenant the city or the county determines at a future date that a parking garage should be constructed on the parcel such parties shall notify the others and the parties will work together to determine a plan to develop the garage again going back to the uh presentation before when I um had the design where they did it in 2010 if you look the design in 2010 had the station right here and then it had all of this as parking all of this as parking obviously this parking is an existence that was there and then it double parked stman all the way down here to provide all the the parking for it during the negotiations and discussions with bright line and the county all along as it related to moving forward with a uh joint station with the county it was always the county and City's intention to maintain the character of the community and to not try to design the 60,000 squ foot station that is in West Palm Beach uh more trying to be like the boa Raton station that's close to 10,000 square fet in our particular circumstance we were again it was never designed we didn't get there but we were looking at an 8 to 10,000 ft design the intention was for it to fit right here where this other building is right here have a drive-thru here and then literally have surface parking here and here and when um bright line took the position that it thought it could provide the 200 spaces on Surface parking um that seemed like it was more in tune with the uh way that the Martin County presented itself Much More lowkey Much More subtle and the idea was that the county and City could later Reserve this bottom onethird of the property and if it became necessary apply for a Chrissy Grant in the future go through the NEPA process and that can cause up to a threeyear delay during the environmental impact studies but if the station was open and we were using surface parking at the time it wasn't as much of an emergency because you'd have the station operating and business going the the benefits of the station would be taking place and waiting 5 years for a parking garage wouldn't matter if in fact you could get the 200 spaces on the site but the design hasn't happened and we didn't get there um like I said the comprehensive reviews we uh had that the irab I'm going back to where I was I have to jump back to where the thing was um so uh the next question was uh the funding of the station um the city was planning to fund the station with Tiff funds which is essentially everybody knows it more as the CRA money um CRA money has to be spent pursuant to a CRA plan the city's first CRA plan was adopted in 1989 and then the CRA trust fund was created in 1998 so it didn't start generating Tiff funds until the year after the trust fund was generated and in 2003 the CRA amended the CRA plan to identify Tiff funds as the appropriate funding source for passenger station it also um has uh direct the the comp plan for the city has directed the city to seek and fund a station since at least 2010 prior to 2010 the comprehensive plan did in fact include the return of Passenger rail it just didn't have the specific language as it related to the funding and the location of the station and uh as I mentioned under Tiff the Tiff money must be spent pursuant to the CRA plan and it cannot be used for general fund expenditures and it cannot be used for expenditures that were being spent prior to the CRA so it has to be for the Redevelopment purposes or furtherance of the community redevelopment plan it was the intention um that no uh tax increase would be uh implemented no adum assessment would be done against the residents to generate the funding for it um there was an article in the Stuart news that said the city was going to spend $882,000 on interest that was the furthest from the truth 82 million or I'm sorry 82 million what happened was the County Attorney reached out to the same lawyer that does the bond work for the city as and the county and simply said to them hey here's the project can you start looking into stuff to give us some idea of what bonding would look like the had never intended to borrow the entire uh obligation under the um project and in fact I told that to the Stuart news in advance of that article and um the city um actually had sufficient money in the CRA now to pay whatever its portion of the payment would have been for this year and next year no matter what and if it shifted other funds around it actually was in a position to over over the course of the next three years it could have not borrowed any money and deferred it and paid 100% of the money directly now it would have had to defer some other projects so the finance director and I did in fact pursue um some financing we were meeting with uh a local Bank regarding just direct financing we also participated with the county and discussions about the bonding and the theory was whatever was the most lucrative uh for the community however um we never talked about financing longer than 10 years and as you the city has very little debt it doesn't um like debt and historically has always paid off its debt early in fact the primary thing that was raised when we even talked about doing joint funding with the county was that there could be no prepayment penalties or nothing like that because the city would not want to carry the debt for 10 years or longer and in Prior times when we've had debt we've made double payments and things like that to make sure that the debt is paid off um as soon as possible so there was never going to be a time that the city uh funded it for a 30-year period or any of that stuff in fact the terms were that the city would pay 30 million and the county would pay 15 the 30 million in theory could have been 3 million a year times 10 years to equate to the $30 million obviously that that wouldn't include interest but the city was in a position to pay more than that up front if necessary the plan was to pay for uh design right now from now until roughly January and then when the design was done the county and the city were planning at that time to make a determination as to the actual cost one of the things that we had discussed was to wait until after the elections because historically interest rates fall after presidential elections regardless of the winter and as a result we didn't want to do any borrowing before November of this year because we wanted to wait to see what was going to happen to the interest rates the intention was to carry it in the beginning just by paying our proportionate shares directly and then address the borrowing or the funding of it next February or March and then as it goes forward in construction using that funding to pay it off and then from the city's perspective we were going to then turn around and use the CRA funding to pay it back as a as a note the CRA funding is generated from value of land in the CRA and if the value of that land goes up the CRA funding goes up proportionately and as a result it even with the train being announced the CRA had specific examples where it saw values of the land increase significantly surrounding the station and other areas of the uh steart just because of the announcement of it so the anticipation was that the money budgeted in the CRA right now based upon its current numbers and values was actually going to increase if in fact we started moving forward and would therefore put us in a position to pay the funding off sooner because we could continue to do the CRA operations that we've been doing in the past but use any excess funds that were generated to pay toward any Deb service to eliminate it as quickly as possible and as a result um we went in 201 uh December of 2013 the city and the county um entered a joint interlocal agreement to submit to the bright line the uh response to the request for proposal that interlocal agreement um had the city paying for the parking garage and the county paying for the station portion of it and the city was paying up to $30 million the county was paying up to 15 from December until March we um had been talking with the county about what it would be in March bright line sent a letter to um the city and county and in that letter bright line asked for some other items um I'm responding to that right now just because I want to be clear that they're not included one of the things that said in the letter was that that it was requesting three acres from the city at the landfill um that was on March 4th on March 5th I called bright line and told them that the city had not authorized me to give anything else and that there was no way the city could give any land from the landfill because it was a landfill and that it would be very difficult to even come up with clear title for that so that was out of the question um I also know that there was some question about that land directly across the street from the station which was owned by the county and the CRA said or the bright line asked for the uh what they called the to property which was this triangle right here which is owned by the county that is not in the agreement it was not um included uh so that did not take place either and then there was also in 2018 there was a settlement agreement that the county entered into with brightline the city was not a party to that settlement agreement it had nothing to do with the settlement agreement it didn't consult with anybody before the settlement agreement and in the settlement one of the things was that the county would pay a million dollars or more to build a pedestrian bridge and brightline would agree to give them an easement over the tracks like right right there and um as soon as the city was told about the pedestrian bridge first of all if anywhere we wanted it it would have been by The Lyric Theater but when looking at the pedestrian bridge as it related to the uh location with the bright Line Station it has to be ADA Compliant so it has to have elevators on both sides and then it has a glass tube that crosses the tracks that of course creates a an aquarium in the summertime and it gets very hot so that too has to be air conditioned the uh Palm Beach County has one from the at the Palm Beach County Courthouse that goes across the tracks from the parking lot I think it was 2015 but during one of the Hurricanes the barometric pressure uh increased and all the windows and it blew out and they all had to be replaced it was super expensive um the city was not interested in the The Pedestrian uh Bridge because one of the concerns we had was that if you happen to be on the this side of the uh tracks and you know I I see Eric Wickstrom here and I know that was a business right about here he might have cared but the rest of us felt like anybody going to this side of the tracks when you got here there was really nowhere to go you're either going to walk down to MLK Boulevard to go this way or you were going to walk down to East Ocean Boulevard to go this way and as a result the maintenance and operation of that pedestrian bridge serve no purpose because right there is the crossing so all you have to do is walk that like two businesses here and here and you're at the Crossing and it's the same on the other side so we were concerned that the operation and maintenance of that pedestrian bridge as well as the burden on the county to have to build it and the uh historically you have to you don't get to close it because people have to use it at all times and as a result you have to provide security 24-hour lighting and security on it it has um historically those types of bridges have had vagrants and other matters take place there and people put graffiti and pollution and other things and so it's it becomes a pretty expensive Endeavor to balance against the benefit of it so we actually had been saying to Bright line and the county not really interested in the pedestrian bridge so it didn't end up in the County's amended settlement agreement I know that there's been some conversation about it but I just want to be clear that it it wasn't a decision that was taken lightly we really you know evaluated it and went through it and just decided that the benefit of The Pedestrian VD Bridge against the cost of maintaining it just wasn't worth it to the city at the at this time especially at that location and as a result that uh Bridge was also removed from the um plan now I know that there's a lot of other stuff in that settlement oops in that settlement agreement that um was between uh bright line and the county but the city wasn't really a party to it and I really don't have much I can comment on those other issues as it related to fencing and other stuff they did down the corridor um and that's all I have if you have any other questions off the last I just said thank you [Applause] you got any questions from the board members thank you Mr bagot do you any questions before sit down what you guys have any questions before I sit down oh okay fine do you have any questions any Commissioners have any questions of Mr Mortel I don't have any question but I appreciate the presentation especially at a time like this where so many people I came to Martin County in 1985 when rule 9 J5 was um passed by the legislature to do comprehensive plans I worked at the Martin County Board of County Commissioners I was a transportation planner I also sat on the bridge and took counts when nobody wanted the road to change in downtown and a whole bunch of other things so this has a long history and I've been here on the commission and I'm glad that you are were able to put together something so comprehensive that kind of gives people the history that it's not just today or yesterday that we've made a decision about certain things but we just want to make sure that everybody knows that we have people always say what follow your comprehensive plan and this has been in the comprehensive plan I I do have to say I told this to commissioner Collins earlier but I haven't told anybody else because it just happened but when I was doing the research to try and find this older stuff I found a reference in either 1987 or 1988 that references the Stewart Beach property and it talks about a 50 foot wide piece of property owned by the city of Stewart on MacArthur Boulevard at at the beach and so I plan on having the legal department track that down this could be a big day for us because I don't know what happened to it have a little p actually I have a question there Collins Mike when we were looking at the original Ila the terms of it you mentioned that the county was going to pay 15 million towards that station the city would be on the hook for 30 million towards the garage who was responsible for the rest of the station beyond the 15 million that the county would be on the hook for was that bright line that was going to cover that I It was obviously to submit the RFP so I believe that the RFP had and again bright line was using or I mean sorry the county was referring regularly to their settlement agreement and that's referenced in our in our local agreement so I believe it was the county requesting that brightline pay a 50% of the Station cost but that wasn't in the county settlement agreement so that's where the conflict arose but that was the original understanding and expectation in thata yeah anybody uh any do you have an additional question or comment commissioner no I was going to ask if we wanted to make MO and then let the public speak or let the public speak still has one presentation short okay we have one more presentation Mr I have one quick question thank you mayor Mr Mayor mayor rich I have one question for Mike so I see um bright line was going to have 200 parking spaces they were going to accommodate the 200 parking spaces in the station on these three par right um the on the three Parcels the RFP required the the tab two or whatever bright line said you had to have at least two acres and be able to accommodate 200 parking spaces and that was on the three Parcels in the RFP that they responded to that we responded to that we responded to and I believe with the parking lot that's existing there's 169 spaces I believe that exist in today I don't I believe that's what it was in my research so I wasn't sure how they were going to to accommodate 200 plus the station then they weren't um The Proposal was that the county and the city they they submitted a publication and said if you want to bid on having a station you have to show us that the site that you are pre presenting to us can accommodate up to 200 spaces and can meet these things so when we filed our response to the proposal we said we could put it on that site and if we had to we could build a parking garage to do it but as we were moving forward and doing the negotiations and going through it it was looking like first of all one of the bigger things is the drop off and um pickup of passengers and so you have to do like that half circle and how much land is that going to carve up and how much land because there's a big like um drainage ditch in the middle of it so if that was moved and you did the storm water retention underneath you could build over it and you could build St uh parking spaces you'll see in the first inter local agreement the city agreed to do 54 parking spaces on stman Boulevard across the street to make up for some of that parking the reality is you could double Park on stepman across the street to come up with it but part of the design in that bright line was putting together looked like they might be able to get to 200 on site it never got to the point that the structure was absolutely removed from the deal that would still be determined in design there is no or right post it there is no design now so you're right I don't know where the parking spaces would be but the interlocal the city what we said is we didn't squeeze ourselves to anything we didn't say We'll build 336 parking spaces or 450 parking spaces we said we will build the parking necessary to meet the RFP so that would be the 200 but if it we saw fit it was benefit to the city we could build more if that was the case but we didn't want to put ourselves in a position that we built 400 parking spaces so that somebody could buy Ernest and produce and then use the parking as a credit toward whatever they wanted we wanted it to be limited to the parking we're building is the parking that's necessary to the operation of the train station and because they're limit or their request required 200 that's where the 200 came to quite frankly we might have said 100 if I mean I don't know how many parking spaces you need for a station I don't know I know that Boer atone built a parking garage and they were finding people parking in the library parking lot and that um the demographics of our community is such that people um believe that the vast majority people from this area would actually get dropped off at the station and then those people coming in would take an Uber to the hotel or whatever so the question of whether parking or how much parking was necessary necessary has never really been answered it hasn't been determined which is why I made that comment about reserving the bottom third of the of the lot for a future parking garage and applying for a Chrissy Grant which is a consolid Consolidated rail infrastructure and safety act um but that could be done even if you had to go through the three years of NEPA it wouldn't matter because you could wait because the train station could be open anyway if you had the surface parking all right thank you excuse commissioner jobi yes um I don't have a question for the city manager but I'm just wondering protocol will the Commissioners be making statements prior to um the whatever you guys want audience doing public comment or ask no no we will we will listen to the public and then we will make our comments you guys can deliberate or I mean the board can decide however you want to do it you guys we we'll listen to the public first and you have a comment for Mike because I no I didn't mayor had a oh you have question you have an additional question I do okay commission C so assuming Mike assuming that we do need future parking who would pay for that garage because if our 30 million is being rolled into the station of the amended Ila who would be on the hook for the garage so the if in fact presuming that the agreement that we're talking about right now went forward because if the agreement doesn't go forward then there's nothing hypothetically but like hypothetically under the current agreement the city was on the line for the maximum of 30 so anything over 30 was on bright line but for a future garage you said that there the potential once but under the agreement once we got to 30 even the future garage would not be on us because we're maxed out at 30 you're talking about the original Ila no I'm talking about the the the actual lease agreement the document the the land lease document so who would pay for the garage then you're saying we might if they needed a garage in the future we could the city and the County could apply for a Chrissy Grant and assist in grant money but we'd have no obligation to pay a dollar but ass if WEP the entire 30 had been spent already now if 15 of it had been spent then there might be 15 left that'd be an obligation for the garage that could still be there but so hypothetically speaking once the 30 got spent it was capped at 30 I understand that's all um Mr mortell perhaps you could explain to people because it it seems uh we're very well of it very well aware of it but I I'm not sure everybody understands what the CRA where the CRA is and what Tiff funding is and the point of my question is many people think that in order to finance this uh the city was going to have to possibly impose an additional tax but so if you could just say where the CRA is and how the revenue that's generated must remain in the CRA and whether we go forward or not with the station that tax that we we will continue to receive those monies and we'll have to find something to spend it on spend it on so we don't like to really give the details of the CRA because we don't want the county to catch on right but they're probably listening um but um I would think so the the CRA obviously the city has one CRA it is it goes north of the bridge you just say what the CRA means community redevelopment area is what it stands for it is a determination that had to include the county on the front side you identify it you have public meetings you have public hearings and the CRA gets a map and a border and the county has a response to it as well and the state designates it as a CRA and then the Tiff is the increment or the increase in value so if on the day that the CRA was develop identified if if a piece of land was worth $1 million on that day then under that the taxes for the million dollars go to the county at 6.7 Ms right now and go to the city at five Mills right now and that goes it's pays property taxes if over the next 10 years that property went to $2 million in value the 90% of the taxes or the increment increase the difference between the 1 million and the 2 million at 6.7% and 5% the city actually gets the couny ADV valorum dollars they actually go to the CRA and the city those money don't go to the county and the state mandates that those funds be spent in that geographic area the theory behind it is to say to the potential Property Owners or those people willing to invest in those areas and it says look if you invest in this area the money that's generated from this property must be spent back in this area and it must be spent to beautify the area and to you know redevelop the streets and the landscaping and and make it exactly pretty whatever you want to call it and so EX in this instance the train station is a Redevelopment project by having it in the CRA the Redevelopment of that causes the appreciation associated with the distance of a train station anywhere in the country obviously you get an appreciated value but it was also the intention because the city was already receiving the county money as part of the Tiff that it was equit and that's why when the city started participating with the county that it agreed to the ratio that it did because number one the city really wanted it in the city and number two in reality 57.2% of the CRA dollars are actually County dollars anyway so we were saying we'll use the CRA funds it will benefit the entire County it's a county benefit and and quite frankly you know we at the beginning of the meeting commissioner Collins mentioned the the baseball fields that are right next door the reality of it is is the kids that play baseball don't know if they live in the city of Stewart or not either they're part of our community and it's a park that's in the CRA and we maintain it and that's that and it's not a big deal but this was a way to use the CRA dollars instead of just putting pink sidewalks out or things like that to actually have a you know and a lot of times in the CRA board meetings the board says we want you to do some bricks and mortar we want you to build something not just do fluff and so that was what this was and back in 2010 when they proposed doing that 48,000 SQ foot government office or whatever that was it was crra doll identified as well thank you thank you Mr bagot what microphon podium in the talking from there what's that okay and again just to be clear Mr bagot you're going to be speaking regarding all three items correct that's correct attorney by Mr bagot is the City attorney good evening folks um feels weird being over here you're doing great um so anyway um Mr Mayor I would received questions from various uh Commissioners you know about procedures and legal issues associated with the vote tonight so I thought it would be best to put together a presentation um I'm not covering everything I'm covering as much as I can obviously it's and some of the stuff I'm discussing is potential liability I don't want to put too much out of my mental impression of our liability out there um let's go ahead and start so we're actually dealing with three prior resolutions Mike mortell the city manager went over them um I'm going to make more of an emphasis on them and each of these prior resolutions involved some sort of an an agreement and for the folks out here in the audience interlocal agreement just means an agreement with between local governments that's what uh we term it as so you'll see that the first one was um an interlocal agreement with Martin County via resolution number 120-220 you'll see that the year is uh at the end so that that resolution was adopted at the end of 2023 in December um shortly after the resolution the resolution authorized uh by the the board authorized the city to enter into to an interlocal agreement with the county as Mike went through uh earlier a joint proposal to Bright line in response to the RFP or request for a proposal so that was the first one the second um resolution and agreement is the ground lease agreement is what it's labeled with bright line in the city and that was via resolution number 52224 and uh that was last month um the ground lease is not only a lease for the land and and to back up even further M Mr mortell the city manager mentioned it um the county is going to convey those three Parcels where the parking lot was um that you saw on the uh the rendition of a train station there is three parking lots there now it's full of oak trees most the mostly uh on Monday when a bunch of people show up for jury duty that kind of the Overflow um that's the parking lot used a lot of times it's half empty uh some of the staff use it but the staff uses that triangle portion more uh the staff in the courthouse so anyway the ground lease was not only a lease for the land but it was also for bright line to construct a train station and also operate it there's two terms 40 years each so total of 80 um at the end of the ground at the end of the lease whether it was expired or terminated earlier City got a train station is how it reads basically um but there's other uh you know other uh verbiage and stuff in there uh about uh M maintaining they're they're required to pay taxes maintain it and uh ensure it during the time that they're uh during the time of the lease and that they're operating the train station uh the last agreement is an amended interlocal agreement with Martin County and that was via resolution 41224 again that was adopted by the board in August um and I'm going to talk more about it but I'm going to address each of these agreements individually um I'm going to turn my attention to the board and so in the last meeting you guys voted to bring back resolutions resending those prior resolutions and the uh and agreements associated with it so before you tonight which I read the title for each of the three our resolution numbers 90202 92224 and 91202 and those are on the agenda for you tonight and so those are resolutions that you requested to bring back resending uh these agreements and prior um actions taken by the board procedurally under section 2-54 of the city's code of ordinances um the city uh commission um in their ordinances shall follow the Roberts Rules of Order for the conduct of its meetings that's parliamentary uh rules as uh we have the mayor is the chair and he um you know uh introduces and and and he controls the order of things here in the meeting and we go along the agenda these are all uh parliamentary rules under Robert's Rules of Order each of the Commissioners as you've heard them ask for um the floor from the mayor to be able to speak uh and that that's that's those are uh Robert's Rules of orders so in this it says you shall so uh some of the questions I got from the Commissioners are what can we do in this situation under the Roberts Rules of Order so I've got some options for you the board tonight that I foresee that you're going to need to be aware of and um you'll see I've got four numbers up there the first one would be motion to approve resolution on resending prior action of the board um as you've seen and they've been posted on the agenda are each of the three resolutions uh and that would be resending the prior action of the board um the purpose on a motion to resend is to cancel the prior action altogether you're null and void you're getting rid of it and again these are Under the Robert's Rules of Order when some action has taken place that cannot be undone a motion to resend is not available um and that's that's one of the uh rules that I think is important for you in your decision tonight um another option I have on here is a motion to amend prior adoption and in this uh the original adoption of the resolution and um Affiliated agreement uh stays in place it remains valid but the board seeks to substitute a different version um one of the important things though if you do decide to do any type of motion to amend on any of these prior actions uh with their agreements you need to be specific about the um the Amendments you can't be broad with it so uh you need to provide specifics under the Roberts Rules of Order for this motion to be available um and I also want to point out that a motion um to amend can substitute a motion to resend as long as it involves the same subject matter and I I point that out because we obviously you all last we last meeting um you voted uh unanimously to bring back these resolutions resending um and so we put out notice that the issue was that we were resending each of these three agreements and I point that point that out because we under our state law we're required to provide notice to the public of the issues that's being addressed and even though a motion to amend was not on the agenda um it is available under the Roberts Rules of Order as long as you uh as long as it involves the same subject matter so obviously if you're in amending one of these agreements and in the resolution prior resolution it's involving the same issue uh which is res on resending it um again this is not available if some action has taken place that cannot be undone um the action that was approved in the original adoption by the board um so that would not be available in those two situations um a third option would be motion to lay the issue on the table so any of these three resolutions on the agenda you could lay it on the table and uh that just postpones it indefinitely and I also have on there you could do a motion to postpone it to a date certain if you choose to do that versus just tabling it and last but not least uh no motion or if someone does make a motion there would be no second and if uh either of those happens on any of the three agenda items um it's just going to die um and and it won't pass Lee quick question which would mean that in the situation with the amended Ila that would be voted on by the county tomorrow then if if it di yeah I'm going to get to that okay in a second here but um the the third amended inter local agreement just so that you guys were clear the the um the mayor signed the agreement last time that it was adopted and it was sent to the county the county was supposed to have the hearing on the matter the day after our hearing um but they were missing chair Jenkins that day and so they decided to postpone that issue to their meeting which is going to take place tomorrow I'll address that here in a minute as well so the original interlocal agreement it's dated December 12th 2023 uh so on December 11th the city approved and executed the interlocal agreement via resolution 12223 the very next day the county adopted it and executed so we were in a binding contract at that point in time with the county and then later in December the city and the county submitted a joint proposal to Bright line which Mr mortell the city manager went over some of those specifics um and so since what we have here is we have a binding contract and it's been several months the longer you go I think it's harder to do a motion to resend or a motion to amend and uh we're going on um uh 10 months at this point and not only has it been uh signed by both the county and the city but but the parties have acted on it the city uh and the county jointly filed uh a response to Bright line and negotiated and had further discussions with them so um it's my opinion that those two motions are not available on the original interlocal agreement um and and the obligation that lies out there by that um agreement still being there is U that the city agrees to pay the cost of a parking garage necessary to meet the criteria set forth in the Joint City County proposal to Bright line and as Mr mortell mentioned to you earlier U that criteria is 200 spaces so if bright line did mention that they think they could do um 200 spaces along with the station on the parcels currently without building a structure for parking um and if that's the case then we don't have this uh big parking garage and you know the parking lot they could probably save a lot of the oak trees and so forth there um that would be something but if we if there was talks they might not be able to get 200 on the surface they might have to have a small structure where there would be two level parking on one side uh and so we would be responsible for that under the original interlocal agreement um we're also required to negotiate a long-term lease and development agreement with bright line um under the original interlocal agreement which we have been doing and that's the next agreement that I'm going to discuss and in addition we're supposed to provide 54 spaces to the courthouse staff so that they can have they don't lose a lot of their parking and last but not least we're still required under the original interlocal agreement to cooperate with the county and seeking grants to help not only them recover some of the funds that they spend in addition to what the city does Lee I have a question what would it take could you seek the attention of the chair commissioner Collins Mayor Lee what would it take to resolve that original Ila with the county like a joint resolution where we I I I think the best solution my opinion is you can't do a res do a motion to resend or a motion to amend and my my suggestion would um uh instruct us to somehow go back and get an amended inter local agreement which is the third agreement that I'm going to talk about and I think the best solution is to um leave this as is and I I think we could do a motion to resend or a motion to amend the amended interlocal agreement which I'm going to get to in a minute ically though what I'm asking is how how would you resolve detention with that agreement with the county would there be a joint resolution or something where we're both saying that we're we would we would probably need to do a joint um you know agreement together that we're you know resending this prior interlocal agreement that's what I was asking and and release each other of it it would need to be an agreement among both the county and the city obviously in writing and then it could be adopted by both uh boards at their resp respective meetings thank you um now the second um resolution which approved a ground lease agreement with bright line so as I mentioned that happened uh last month the city commission uh via resolution number 52224 authorized the city to enter into a long-term lease and development agreement with brightline for the construction and operation of a train station um however in that resolution there is a condition precedent which which means something has to occur um before the city can act and in that the condition precedent for the mayor to execute the agreement was the adoption um of the amended interlocal agreement by by both the city and the county so the city approved the the um the amended interlocal agreement which I'll discuss next but the county has not yet so under our resolution um the mayor did not have authority to sign it although the mayor did sign it the ground lease um U on August 26 2024 the condition precedent had not yet occurred so um as a result um it's it's just not enforcable because uh the mayor did not have the authority on behalf of the city yet to sign the agreement it's not uncommon for us to have um agreements and and resolutions signed by the mayor when he or she is here on a day of a meeting because they're not here every day so it's not uncommon he was here that day at the meeting um and he signed it before uh the meeting on the 26th and it's not uncommon for him us to do that so he didn't have to come back but we at that point we it was under our impression that the county was voting on it the very next day so um anyway um mayor yes commissioner Collins so Lee I think that's a a huge point that I would like to reiterate is you're saying at this point the mayor was not authorized to sign the ground lease with brightline the city is technically not in a signed agreement with brightline for that ground lease is that yeah that currently yes that would be my opinion that um that in in my opinion this could be rescinded or a motion to amend all of the options the four options that I mentioned would be available so there would be no issue with resending no and we need to do it though by probably soon as this meeting's over because the county has it tomorrow morning on their agenda so um uh again U all of these options are available um liability I I want to discuss that you know um the agreement was sent to the county for their meeting that was supposed to happen on the 27th which I I mentioned that they um they continued it and postponed it to the meeting that's occurring tomorrow uh they wanted it on their agenda to bring it before their board along with the amended interlocal agreement and I apologize there's a lot of agreements and they intermingled it's kind of confusing I'm sure um anyway it was also sent to Bright line bright line um turned around and signed it and sent it back to us on the 27th so um it's a signed agreement but our mayor did not have the authorization to sign at that time I did communicate that with brightline um so it's my opinion that we could uh revoke and resend that that that agreement and his signature on it have we communicated that with the county as well yeah I communicated with the county attorney and brightline on Friday um so but there is still liability brightline could still argue that we we have a signed agreement and they could argue that we have a binding contract um I I I just don't think that it's a a strong case but I I they understand anybody can sue you and and and I can't tell you how many times I'm I'm prior litigator uh in private practice here in town but I can't tell you how many times I've been before a judge and he ruled he or she ruled in my favor when I didn't think I need deserved it and there were times where I lost where I was like what I I cannot believe you're ruling against me so you cannot predict what a judge Andor jury will do um I have to admit that to you so this is my opinion but obviously um I could be wrong and I've been wrong on many occasions um last but not least the amended inter local agreement with the county so also on August 12th the uh City commission approved the amended inter local agreement and the amended interlocal agreement um so the the original interlocal agreement said we're going to um propose um with the county in response send a proposal with the county in response to Bright Lin's request for production or request for proposals sorry and when we did that they responded and asked for changes and so since that point in time the county the city and bright line have had discussions and negotiations like the the pedestrian bridge like a parking garage um various things have been discussed um who does what when how and and so during those discussions we we tentatively came to up to new agreements and those new agreements were addressed in the amended interlocal agreement so our board passed by uh um on August 12th to approve the drafted amended interlocal agreement with the county that was sent to the county and as I mentioned earlier the county didn't have that on their agenda they postponed it till tomorrow so they have not adopted it or signed it so it's um it's in essence an offer we although we signed it it's an offer to the county to enter into an amended interlocal agreement with us so uh all options of those four different options are available under that I I just want to point out that if you table or no motion um it's going to go to the county tomorrow and um it could become effective upon their adoption and then that would trigger other things under the lease agreement um with bright line so um by tbling that you are putting it in the in the hands of the county um and and at this point we don't know what they're going to do or vote on tomorrow as well um liability and exposure again I I I want to be kind of brief I I don't want to um Spill the Beans per say to anybody who wants to sue the city um but primarily looking at a breach of cont contract claims by the county or bright line we are in an enforcing Force forcable binding contract with the county in the original interlocal agreement as I argued before bright line I think we've got a defense to that potential exposure would be litigation cost um injunctive relief Andor specific performance so injunctive relief is um you've probably heard the term restraining order prevent you from doing something well an injunction could prevent you from doing something or force you to do something so that could be a relief um and also specific performance is hey you you're in a contract you got to perform and pay the money and and enter a development agreement with bright line so that would be specific performance um I I want to mention because I I've seen people ask and inquire about attorney fees the ground leas agreement with bright line expressly states that in theol in the event of litigation uh each side spits their own attorney fees a lot of times these contracts says the prevailing party gets attorney fees so if we were in litig ation over this ground lease agreement with bright line um we would handle our own attorney's fees and they would be responsible for theirs so uh sometimes that that could cost a lot more than than the damages or the uh injective relief obviously um more of my other concern though I do have a concern about violation of the comp comprehensive plan so um this this is more of a concern to mine you know if someone has standing they could sue the city um and Alle LGE and a deck action is a declaratory action and it it's it's not necessarily doesn't have to be for damages it's just for a judge to declare that we violated our comprehensive plan and that could have some consequences um and and and one of the main consequences uh I put up there this uh under the Florida's growth management act chapter 163 of the Florida Statutes um it could affect if we have some sort of court order out there declaring a violation of a compain could have effect of um have us having issues with our grant funding with the state um and and not only with the grants related to the train station but all of our grants because we uh I look at Grants all the time here in my job we have grants for everything so uh that it could jeopardize some issues with the the grants and funding with the state mayor uh commissioner Collins so just to clarify Lee what you're saying is if somebody were to bring a claim against the city for violating their comp plan and that was found to be the case primarily what they would be doing is damaging the city's ability to get grants in the future yes it could right right it would not force I I I can't say that for certain but I I I would I I've I've honestly never had that would be the outcome that it's a potential outcome if you won City and someone withstanding might have other grounds to sue the city for other grounds you know related to this train station so as a followup that if the city was still pursuing a deal with bright line do you feel like there would really be a claim there that we were violating our comp plan assuming that these two that you've said could be rescinded were rescinded tonight and it gave the opportunity for a new deal to be new negotiation to be reached with bright line would that necessarily be a violation of our comp plan if we were still in talks I I think that would be you know an arguable defense to a violation of our comp plan um but if you are just resending these agreements and then you know um there are no discussions I would say that would be a stronger argument for the deck action on behalf of the individual or entity suing yes um and and um you know they they they could like I was mentioning I was trying to get out before they they could sue for other grounds that might have damages but under a deck action you're really just getting a judge saying to declare that you violated the comp plan right so um there could be some other issues um if if such a declaration was was made um that was the one that really stuck out my mind um because that could have wide ranging consequences Beyond even cost in in a case you know you could get taxable cost for the cost not necessarily attorney fees but taxable costs against the city uh whatever they incurred in in such an action um and I I I wanted to bring up Mr mortell brought up the comp plan some of the comp plans and and and these aren't listed in the comp plan in this order I just they're scattered throughout but um as a lawyer um I wanted to point out some stuff that you know I if you guys decide to just resend these agreements and and not negotiate with bright line um there could be some issues in in like under a deck action especially with the language in our comp plan um you'll see that um not only um will we assist but we will also pursue grant funding and other sources um particularly on developing a downtown Stewart as a Transportation Hub that's one um so it's not only entering into an agreement but also um trying to pursue and provide funding for it the city and you'll see um I underlined the second one city sh that's always important to a lawyer there's a big difference between May and shall um under the under the law and I I've I've argued that many times and and and you'll see in our comp plan that sha is repeated when it deals with a train station so the city shall continue to encourage expansion of the Tri Rail passenger rail so that's not an option that's it our comp plan mandates it um and and also Below in the next policy you'll see and Mr mortell went through these so I'm not going to read through it all together but um again the city shall actively support and you'll see acquisition of Grants and other appropriate funding sources like the CRA um and I I've you know obviously I go online I hear people uh also mentioning that the fairg grounds as an option but that's not in our CRA that's not even in the city I used to work for the county and that's associated it's uh I think it's under contract still with the fairgrounds so they can't use that land currently and I think there's more um I I I don't know that I don't know how long that lease agreement is with the fairg grounds that's still up uh but our comp plan says that it needs to be uh in Downtown Stuart exactly where the train station's being proposed I mean even in our comp plan it says on Flagler Avenue between East Ocean and Martin Luther King which is where it's at currently the proposed site um you can't get more specific so uh and again the last objective the city shall pursue and support Transportation Systems High-Speed Rail uh etc etc um and again these are not listed in these I just picked them out they were scattered throughout our comprehensive plan and I I wanted to point out some that might not have been apparent when uh Mr mortell brought these up um that concludes um my presentation on the Roberts Rules of Order and some legal I'm open to question to commissioner go I have a question in regards to the um the comp plan where it states that we should pursue and entertain getting grants I just want to state that in April Governor Dan santis after signing the transportation bill for the state made a statement that there would be no money for High-Speed Rail specifically the bright line so there's no State money out there for for any sort of grants that are going to be coming um I'm not I I I I confess I'm not a grant person I've worked for Martin County as an assistant County attorney in city of Port St Lucy as a deputy City attorney there and I've had to deal with grants and review contracts and all but I am by no means someone who's gone and gathered grants or um um or actively pursued them um and and successful in getting so I can't tell you that um um I I I I I've had conversations with people at the county over this uh and people in the city and most people feel pretty confident about getting grants whether it's federal grants or state grants I but again I I I I have to disclose I I have no idea uh about that process other than having to review contracts from time to time um but our comp plan does also mention other sources which I I read that as our CRA um you know if it's in the city and it has to be in our CRA that we the CRA money can be expensed to that if we entered into an interlocal agreement with the county let's say at the fairgrounds our crma money couldn't be used for that so that would have to come from some other source um so I I mentioned that and I I have to mention that because of a potential someone claiming that against the city of us violating I think you guys need to be aware of that um I mentioned it because there's a lot of talk out there about probably could get grant money it could be I don't know any business entity that then goes on to proceed to do expansion or a new project and goes on a maybe or it could be they usually if anything are projecting out a higher cost of what something might be just to cover that 10 or 20% in the future that might come out when might come up when they're building their project so I just want to make note that the probably and could bees that really doesn't carry any weight anywhere that's that's my opinion of what I've heard again I I disclose that I am not a grant writer and I I don't profess to be one on TV so I oh I wasn't specifically talking about you but I know out there in in social media and everywhere there's a lot of discussion about the fact that we probably could get you know grants for clarity we we know that they did not um pay out all of the funds in the Chrissy grants on the federal level they had less applications than money for the Consolidated rail infrastructure act and that being the case it doesn't matter I agree with you um in the December presentation we said we are not guaranteeing any grants the city needs to recognize this as an obligation of up to $30 million because I made no guarantees and I to this day stand behind that that I I agree with you that until somebody puts the check in your hand you don't have it so when we submitted the response and went forward on it it was under the pretext that we would apply for Grants and that we were going to seek other funds but that the city would be on the hook for the 30 no matter what if it didn't get those other funds I personally believe that we will get other funds from both the federal and state agencies as the process goes forward but I agree with you 100% that the decision had to be made based upon does the city have the financial resources to support this in the event no other outside funding comes our way because otherwise you're right it wouldn't be a fiscally responsible method to go at like gambling right I was just going on something I believe that the mayor Rich had said in the local newspaper where it most likely would cost only 13 million just as a point of clarification when Governor desanta said he was denying State funding for bright line expansion he was referring specifically to the Orlando Tampa extension and not to the commitments that had been made already to this so do we have a Le I had one more question for you okay unless you need something on my presentation I don't no so sorry I'm interrupting you are you sure but you know we had agreed that we would do public comment they've been very patient first and then we'll have our discussion so I have a few more questions for Lee okay um so Lee it it is your opinion then just just for clarification it's your opinion that um if hypothetically right we were to resend these two that negotiating a new deal with bright line that would open the door for that and negotiating that new deal with bright line would not put us in violation of our complain correct I would say that's definitely a good arguable defense that I could make if we get sued exactly like if if in the background we're asking them to pay their fair share something that looked more like that 2018 agreement they have with the county if that's if we're pursuing that in the background right a a new amended Ila a new Ila and in a new agreement with bright line we are not violating our complaint same response yes um I was wondering if you would if you felt comfortable talking about that outside legal opinion I know that just came in today but just kind of quickly reviewing that you had sent out that for that additional legal opinion and what their opinion was right so um last week I asked for an outside lawyer to provide us with a written opinion um and and and we received it today um and since it was two weeks ago we had the meeting it was very difficult to find someone to be able to give me something that quick anyway but I did receive it today uh and I did send it to you but I you have claimed it as a work product privilege and exempt from public records because we already received a request for that public records request for that letter so i' um but quite honestly issue characterizing quite honestly it wasn't much different than what I just went through with you I was surprised how we came to very similar conclusions so so if you can correct me if I'm wrong here so you're your um the outside legal council that you also sought to get some more you know context for understanding determined that there should be no issue with resending the amended inter local agreement with Martin County for a train station or resending the ground lease agreement with bright line trains correct yeah he agreed he and I are an agreement on that okay I would like to motion to resend the amended interlocal agreement with Martin County uh for the train station I would like to motion uh for approval of resolution number 91 2024 if I can have a second typically to have I'm sorry Mr Collins commissioner Collins there's no Collins the second fails the second even have a chance to second is there a second I'll second the motion so we have a second so typically whenever we go into now there'll be agenda item after we are in it then we have public discussion that's very typical we High had stated commissioner Colin you're welcome to state that but that's not our procedure of how we run our meetings there was no objection from the other Commissioners and we will proceed in that so we have a motion in a second forward so now we can have public comment mik call okay we will have public comment on this issue there still needs to be vote they understand that right they understand we've only made the motion need well I'm we will have public comment then we will have discussion among the Commissioners and then there will be a vote and your name is called please line up at the podium for your turn to speak Aaron is our first Speaker Rick Olen please get in line Glenn Kellis hi good evening um I didn't wear yellow but I wore my oyster dress for Loom so I just had to get uh my Yaz in for signing that agreement my name is Aaron I live in the potam area I live in a very modest two-bedroom home 20 years old and I PID $10,000 approximately $10,000 in City and County taxes um and it's the most I've ever paid for property taxes um I was elated when the city of Stewart um you know said they were getting the station and not not just because we would have access to three international airports two sea ports but as a retiree I've been retired 10 years now 10 years today actually conratulations um but we would have World Class Medical Care uh we have Cleveland Clinic here but the main Cleveland Clinic is in Weston um we would also have uh Jackson Memorial University of Miami um Miami Heart Institute Bas and Palmer um all of these great medical facilities which be available to retirees and I think that that is very important and quality of life up here um we um where am I and having bright line we would not have to get on 95 I drive down to Broward quite a bit my sister still lives down there and it's it's not healthy there is a section of Broward count of 95 in Broward County that has been deemed the deadliest highway in America this certain stretch of highway down there and I think that bright line would make so many people's lives better um we've been retired for a while and we had planned on Stuart being our forever home this was going to be the last stand for us and since I'm a retired government employee I think that I look at the function of government differently than the rest of the citizenry I look at at it as helping people and making lives better and it doesn't always mean the bottom line um and I I really think that we need to be brought into the 21st century here in Martin County with mass transportation and I was surprised to see policy a do 2. a102 about TR rail I have always wanted the county and the city to sum give us some link to the northern Terminus of TR Rail and we're taking TR rail next Saturday we're coming back into Port everl Everglades in October so if we had bright line it would be so much easier and better and we would stay off the road and that's it thank you Rick Olen is Rick Olsen okay and then please Glenn Kellis if you could go to the microphone okay my name is Richard Olen my family has owned some a place in Stewart for 40 years I have a bachelor's Masters and PhD in civil engineering for UC Berkeley I've spent seven years in Washington DC as the lead engineer in gch and also as a national policy adviser my job was to get engineering designs done fast quick and and under budget that was my job so I only have a few comments do you really want the Next Generation to say what were you thinking when you rejected the steuart station because that's what they will say we can't predict the future but excluding the steuart station is bad for the future it will decrease our cost for international and state travel because we can now if we have station we can now go to Orlando or Miami and get real good flights um we spent $6 million trying to stop bright Line This is really a good consolation prize I'm assuming that if we say no to this station then Fort Pierce will get the station and there will be zero potential in our future because we're too close to Fort Pierce so if we say no now there's no there's no if in the future um now the Stewart brightline station is unique in all the Stations of of bright line because we are within walking distance to a semi small town downtown Center all other stops require Uber or taxing so we can keep our small town because it's walking distance um this will allow visitors to come to our town and not have to be burdened with travel there are arguments that this station is too expensive for middle class or for families we know it's not really a commuter system but what's wrong with people having disposable money visiting Steward for a quick fund day of walking the board loock boardwalk and shopping and dining thank you for this opportunity after after Glenn Kellis can I have Albert Brinkley and Raj Patel I wanted to ask if you when you state your name clearly excuse me commissioner call if we could also make sure we include our address as per public comment Mary am I correct that that is how we're supposed to do this name and address it's typical to request the name and address why you got to come by and uh you know shoot my house up or what are you going to do no it's just to show that you in I live on Aran Avenue my name is Glenn Kellis okay my wife was the first speaker um everything's not about money there's some people on the on the board here seem to think that everything is about the bottom line everything is about money this is about quality of life okay austerity has been tried all around the world many times and it always fails it fails because it's the government's job to spend money it's the government's job to spend taxpayers money to make the town better to make the city better to improve infrastructure that's the purpose of government okay um Martin County is one of the wealthiest counties in Florida we're not short of the money C we have the money the CRA has the money it's not you're not going to have to to raise taxes and you know all these other scare things that I hear out there online no it's not about that okay that's just that's a that's a red herring that is being thrown out there uh we we need to come into the 21st century this is a this is a a blessing if you want to use that term it would be a wonderful thing for Stuart to have a train station it's the one thing that Stuart's missing is a train station all the other cities up and down the up and down you know Palm Beach Miami Fort Lauderdale they have train they have a train they can you can get there from other places here you you're stuck in you know you've got to drive out to 95 and then spend you know risk your life you know doing that um you know it would be so convenient to get to the airports not just the three south of us but to Orlando they're talking about going to Jacksonville and Tampa you could fly out of anywhere fly into anywhere and get to steuart it would be an enormous benefit to Stuart um the other thing is you shouldn't be voting on this tonight anyway because only half the population is here half the population of Stuart are snowbirds okay they're not getting a chance to to be here tonight and tell and tell you what they think about it okay they pay half the taxes in this town that's their money too and you're ignoring half the population of Stewart because they don't live here at this time of the year so this for if anything it shouldn't be voted on it should be tabled until the the winter when people are here okay and also um if you want to renegotiate with bright line fine you don't have to resend these orders to do that you can come to you can talk to them in a in a rational way uh negotiate in good faith and come up with a better agreement if you think you can get one nobody would blame you for that but to resend these these these uh things is ridiculous thank you thank [Applause] you once again my name is Albert Brinkley I'm from the city of Stewart pacifically I'm a resident of East Stewart see while everybody is talking about bright line nobody is looking at East Stewart e stood is in the middle of everything whether you want to admit it or not if you really look at the location that actually is part of East now who going to get the short end of this state eood because what's going what's going to happen we're going to get pushed out of there everybody know that I'm I'm at I'm I'm a I'm a actors in the community that's all I hear you all in East going to get pushed out bright line it's already slowly happening now you know what that's called gentrification we're getting the we're going to get the short end of the state that's right there I live around the corner from the ball Ballfield I heard y'all mention the ball field earlier there's history there there's not good History either there's some good history there's not so good history I live across the street there in the middle all of this is the historical home of the mered brothers in body familiar with Murray Middle School our was neighbors of Charles and Robert Murray that is sitting in the hard of Everything E stood is going to be destroyed with this bright line my neighbor already has been asked by bright line for a proper that's what's going to happen developers going to come in we'll be pushed out of there nobody is thinking about that we are a part of steward right line comes in residents of East Community pushed out with taxes developers coming in that's what's going to happen so we we we we looking to nearsighted you got to open your eyes and look bigger it's going to hurt the East Community I'm on the East historical board which you all created I'm looking at you all saying you want to preserve the history of eood this is going to destroy the history of eood to me this situation wasn't looked over thoroughly this was not looked over 30 thoroughly you all are in a position where y'all should have took time with this here cuz this actually need to be resend cuz we're in the middle it's stood it and you look at this all over the United States the black neighborhood is being pushed out and again I reiterate that's what's called gentle fication and that is slowly happening right now in the East Community you all want to continue to push us out of there something that belongs to us we live there we're proud of that and I'm asking myself why is I'm on a board that says you're going to preserve the history but at the same hand you're destroying the history of the easto community need to be [Applause] resented after after Raj Patel Lisa councilman and Bill Moore Lisa councilman after Raj Patel um good evening Commissioners and a war warm welcome to our new Commissioners thank you good evening mayor I'm Raj Patel commissioner Collins's best friend I love you Raj the opposite I love you Raj thank you in 2008 uh things were not too well in Steward businesses were closing down people were out of work we all remember that retirement accounts were imploding housing was collapsing and the out Outlook was foggy I wanted to buy the building next to The Lyric Theater it was for sale real cheap scared I passed wanted to buy land and Stor didn't have the guts these these type of times come and go within all our lifetimes more than just once we got to remember that I'm a developer we see that we worry about it we need to get all we can get to get us through I can tell you one thing if you fast rewind 2008 if bright line was here and there's a station here there's connectivity to the north and to south of us south of us things might have not been that bad we would have people come and go spend money businesses would have managed it wouldn't have been great it would have managed we cannot let this moment pass and I'll tell you why um I had nine points but City attorney seems to have covered eight of my nine points um so I've cancelled out all that um bright line is in a position of strength Market forces dictate who pays what Melbourne isn't wasting time Vero Beach is regretting their decision Jacksonville is gearing up Fort Pierce can't get their act together with the crime and the police force course um but I tell you one thing I build stuff and I I just don't see I know we're going to get grants an 8,000 foot building with with a platform on it I don't see it costing so much I I build things and my 50,000 foot Hilton that I'm building is going to cost 20 million all inclusive TurnKey land everything all of it 20 million um I don't get grants I pay taxes I've been paying taxes in the city for over 20 5 years 24 years um if you want to hire me for free I'll work the numbers for you guys and if I don't do it right fire me I don't care um I I had I had I had a lot of stuff on the mun code all that's out everything was covered um I just want to let you guys know that everything costs money nothing is for free to meet the objectives of the comp plan which we're all which we all trying to work with for so many years cost money whether it's New Roads new walkway ways trees streets it all costs money but really do they bring a stability to the taxpayer the taxpayer please don't take our way our future if you're worried about growth change the codes you guys are ready to do that change the density do the right thing don't let this be your legacy please don't let us lose the station I just had a few points here none of this matters anymore this is from the American public transportation Association every $1 invested in rail Transportation creates $4 in economic Deb benefits just one more please um US Department of Transportation Florida Transportation debts from 2018 to 23 this is FD F Department of Transportation thank you Mr Patel Railway 297 20,000 people dead 20,000 hi bour my name is Lisa councilman I live at 25 Southeast seol my business is at 23 Southwest Oola Street and it is called La martier at post office arcade you may have heard it called Cafe martier we did change our name during uh the past 12 months because people thought that our very Grand 6,000 ft restaurant was a coffee shop so I'm here to tell you a very personal story about what's happened with the perceived approval and passing of the of the rail station sorry I'm nervous and the action that we took in my restaurant because of the rail so we were in a situation where um other restaurant tours and entrepreneurs here know that this past season was not quite as good as past seasons have been and then with the p with the early Easter this year the snowbirds left and we were faced with um pretty impossible situation where we couldn't survive so we're looking at closing one of the most iconic landmar marks and Olive Stewart the biggest restaurant right in the center of the historic district of downtown and a place where we regularly host ghost tours and tours about bootleggers and rum runners and all kinds of entrepreneurs and we tie steuart history all the time to bigger things in American history which reminds me that we all know that the most wealthy people people in American history made their money on what railroads railroads so I want you to think about that because here's where I am exactly based upon the the news and the and uh the media reporting including reporting from here in Stewart we said you know what we don't want to lose our place that train is that just survive till the train gets here and then that will bring those customers without bringing their cars to our restaurant because the problem is and I'll try to make this quick is that sales have been very consistent over the past five years not withstanding the pandemic year the problem is that our cost of goods and services and utilities is soaring the minimum wage Rises every year and we can't stomach it without some additional traffic that the bright line will bring so you are please understand that thank you man my business will be bankrupted if you resend this decision sorry for the nerves after Bill Moore after Bill Moore I have step Vitali and Michelle Smith hi my name is Bill Moore I'm the owner of kwin's chocolates and ice cream here in downtown Stewart uh I'm also the president of the downtown Business Association of Stewart um the DBA as we call it represents over 40 businesses here in downtown Stewart and uh uh also has which uh equate to about 500 employees um it's it's interesting that this has all come about in the last couple three weeks because you know a few few months ago we were all celebrating in high-fiving getting a bright Line stop here and how things change so quickly and it really rest on five people sitting in front of me whether or not happens or not is just incredible after we kind of thought this was done and we celebrated it um we felt it was progress for Stuart and gave us some stability in the downtown area for our businesses and for our employees and uh families um tonight we're trying to keep the train stop that we were awarded and we're all asking that I think most of the people in this room are um so uh why do we need the train stop and Lisa kind of touched on a few of these things in order for Stuart to survive and our businesses to survive we have to grow the only way we're going to grow is for more people coming to town we'd love to get them to town without cars bright line offers that um cost are through the roof our building in downtown Stewart recently sold our insurance cost for our building and it's divided among six of us went from 23,000 to 66,000 the only way we pay that is for more customers walking through our door we can't pass all that cost on to our food cost um minimum wage we voted it several years ago to go to $15 an hour in Florida we're at 13 now going from $ 835 is what we were when we began to 15 is an 80% increase in our entry-level employee pay um it's significant the only way you're going to pay for that is putting more people in downtown Stewart without cars we don't have enough parking for more people bright line brings that um rents gone up other costs of goods and so on and so forth um right line brings customers with less Vehicles that's what we're looking forward to reduce the traffic we heard earlier potentially 1.6 million people come here a year from Orlando and Miami if we reduce 10% of that on the train that's 880,000 cars Less in our community um that doesn't even kind of you know talk about Statewide and how many more less cars would be on I95 traveling back and forth um you know one of the biggest fears is you know we can negotiate if we leave things in place and try to find better ways to build and such but um my biggest fear is we lose the station and it goes to Fort Pierce what happens if it goes to Fort Pierce no one really knows exact numbers but if we just lost 10% of our visitors to Martin County that's going to decimate Martin County it's going to send us backwards and it's not like in three years or five years it's 10 years it's 15 years it's 20 years I heard Mike earlier say something about 30 years out what that looks like where you put the stop is going to be your next downtown well that's what Fort Pierce would look like in 30 years they would have that spot tourists love the beach um the hotels will be built in Fort Pierce our tax dollars will go there and jobs a little bit let's keep it here [Applause] [Music] guys good evening Commissioners my name is Steven Vitali and I am the owner of the old Colorado wi I would like to tell you the Tale of Two Cities once upon a time there was a small coastal city that had a struggling boarded up downtown local leaders worked hard to revive the downtown CRA and TF funds were used for streetscaping landscaping and marketing matching grants were used for painting murals and enhancing building facades Property Owners discovered that they could preserve and restore historic buildings with income derived from an enhanced tourist-based economy the town gradually became recognized as the best coastal town in America in an effort to further enhance its growing tourist based economy the city decided to mandate in its comprehensive plan that a train station should be constructed again in the heart of downtown the town was fortunate to be chosen among many cities as the site of one of the stations along the newly established Railway route the City commissioners recognized the amazing lifestyle benefits and economic benefits that would result from the station and they overwhelmingly approved it most of the cost was paid for through Grant CRA and Tif funding with minimal taxpayer impact jobs and salaries increased and the town's economy flourished more historic buildings were preserved and renovated property values increased and the city was able to use the additional taxes to to turn the Waterfront Park into a nationally recognized worldclass Park the town flourished for decades to come now let me tell you about the other city after hitting its peak in the 2020s a newly elected City commission voted to resin the agreement for the station with the railway company the railway company sued for breach of contract and the city incurred millions of dollars in fees that were borne by the taxpayers with no benefit at all tourism in the town suffered as visitors opted to travel via train to Fort Pierce and other cities that actually had train stations many property owners in the downtown were forced to sell their properties and Charming historic buildings were replaced with generic Condominiums many mom and popop businesses closed their doors and the employment rate decreased significantly businesses that had plans to invest in the town shows nearby cities instead due to the town's horrible reputation for breaching contracts the once celebrated historic downtown became mostly boarded up again Commissioners tonight you will make the most important decision ever to be made in this building I implore our new Commissioners not to blindly follow a political agenda please be the leaders that we need you to be by making your own decision on this important issue if you weigh the odds a vote to resem will likely cause taxpayers through inevitable litigation but if you vote not to resend the contract it is likely that CRA funds and grants will cover most of the cost please don't play Russian roulette with our town don't be so sure that bright Line's coming back to the the table having the negative effects of the trains go by without the benefit of a station would be a detriment to our community a real leader would take the sour lemons and make sweet lemonade please do the right thing by honoring both our comp plan and The Binding contract that is already in place with bright line Thank you thank you Mr after Michelle Smith I have Walter Lloyd and Brett n Nordman hi my name's Michelle Smith I live on South caner Highway in Stewart and I have been here for just two years and just recently bought my own house and I'm not renting so I'm really excited about being here um and I noticed that recently this T town has been named with the best place to retire I'm a retiree federal government for more years than I want to count and Marine Corp before that um and I find it interesting that you're advertising or being noted as the best place to retire yet what do retired people do I know I go to the beach I go to West Palm Beach I go to Fort Lauderdale I go wherever I can I want to see the state the state is huge and it's amazing and it's my home and I just paid for a brand new house that I live in um everybody else does that too um so one of the things I wanted to ask though is why this wasn't brought up on a ballot why can't every single person who lives in this town who is a voting a AG who makes informed decisions be told no we can't and as a United States Marine I say shame on you for that we get to have a say most of the businesses here most of the restaurants and I love restaurants I think I've been to every single one at least twice is most of them are owned privately it's not you know we have Olive garding we have stuff like that no we're talking about and we did a pup crawl for Halloween um a bunch of us and we were greeted so nicely we're felt welcome we want Stewart I would hope to be a place where everybody wants to live not that we really want everybody to come here but at least to visit can you imagine you know you're you're bored on a Saturday morning and you just go on bright line and you go to the theater in West Palm Beach or you go to the zoo or you just do things that you want to especially for retirees and especially for parents with children my dad worked for the railroad and my grandfather and they used to take us all the time on the train into New York City I'm from Jersey um and it was fun and it was exciting and we made Traditions at that I have started with other family members now so let us have the chance to enjoy our life and see where our tax dollars are going and see how we can continue to make this a place where everybody who lives here feels like they're valued I do have one question and I just want to ask the question um what happens when we get sued CU I'll tell you what I'll be the first person to lead a campaign to sue every member who voted for it thank [Applause] you good evening I'm Walter Lloyd nice to see you all I would say simpy to the Marine behind me but anyway um this community here you can see has a lot of passion about being heard and I think that's wonderful because I was in a position at one point uh reminds me of the days of Costco uh we came and we opposed a location not Costco the issue was never Costco the issue was the location that we put it in we presented our case we felt like we weren't heard now I feel like the same thing is reoccurring in this issue the train nobody's saying we don't want the train we're saying we want the train with the proper deal with the negotiations that work for your constituents I applaud I recognize that the uh elections brought about change and reflected the city's desires we have new commissions Commissioners and I applaud you because you're now here not against growth but for responsible growth and that's what I see going on here so I'm asking you to resend and reevaluate this deal make it good for the taxpayers and your constituents um yeah that's it thank you thank you after after Brett I have have Eric Wickstrom and Betty Brinkley hi Commissioners my name is Brett Nordman live in pal City for the past 11 years uh formerly out of Long Island retired moved down full-time uh this is the first meeting that I've attended been trying to do as much research on everything that's been going on and I had some questions Mr Martel had talked about 1.6 million people come to visit the area I think you gave that number number um how do we do with the cars we did pretty good why do we need a train we still got 1.6 million people that was 2018 that I believe that that survey was done why not take those three Parcels sir excuse me sir you may not address any one of us individually you must speak to the board as a whole and you may not make inquiry of any individual up here you may State a rhetorical question but I'm sorry you can expect that's okay I'm sorry um why not as a board take the three parcels and utilize them as parking lots provide transportation provide transportation into the town you wouldn't have to worry about the parking spots in downtown why not they were planning on using that for parking spaces anyway um my taxes when I first moved down were $4,000 a year they are almost $112,000 in 11 years the money coming out of um Martin County did they have a crra that their money is going to be allotted to pay for I don't know what are they going to do are they going to raise taxes uh I'm a retired guy just like a lot of people here living on a fixed income okay that was my choice I get it but I never envisioned taxes going from $4,000 to almost $122,000 in 11 years that's that's that's a tough one so if we do if we do the uh bright Line train we're going to get more people in what are they going to do how many trains um two trains in two trains out do we know what time those trains are going to run because I would hate for somebody to come from Miami to come to The Lyric Theater to see a show and only get the 4:00 train so they're in at 4:00 now they go to lunch or they go to dinner they have dinner in one of the restaurants the show starts at 7 8:00 what are they going to do well hopefully they're going to walk up and down Main Street and maybe go in and shop now they miss the train going back to uh Miami because what time is the train running we don't know do you does anybody on the board know what time the trains would be running thank you sir thank you sir I have Eric Wickstrom then Betty Brinkley is thank you is Betty Brinkley here thank you Mr Wickstrom um Madam Madam clerk M Brinkley has left the room unless she's outside okay next I have Christopher Vitali and then Deanna Peterson good evening commission for those of you who are new congratulations on being appointed my name is Christopher Vitali and I live in Stewart on Alamanda way with my wife Bella uh my family owns the old Colorado in here in downtown which is where I now work as a manager and my family has preserved dozens of notable historic structures in our town um and we have saved several of them from being demolished I want to offer a few points today um just a few days ago I personally visited 86 locally owned businesses here in downtown Stewart to pass out information about the bright line issue at those 86 businesses I spoke with owners managers employees and customers out of hundreds of people that I spoke with everybody everybody except one single person was overwhelmingly in favor and supportive of upholding the agreement for the bright Lin station I went to 86 businesses and spoke to hundreds of people and almost every single person was shocked to hear that the bright line agreement was at risk of being rescinded they had no idea and they will be upset when they find out if this happens tonight they were so excited that Stuart had been selected over many other locations and they had no idea that it would be in Jeopardy look the train is already here I know we were fighting a long time ago but it's here it comes through Stuart 32 times every single day with absolutely no benefit to our residents and visitors thankfully our community worked very hard for a long time to secure a highly coveted deal to have the Station built here without that station the train is nothing but an inconvenience to everyone in Stewart it would be asinine to not take advantage of this extremely rare opportunity to have a station in Stewart when the train already runs through Martin County 32 times a day Stewart exists as the beautiful place that we all know and love today because of the passenger rail service and the associated train stations that ran along the east coast of Florida over a hundred years ago knowing the benefits that Stuart would enjoy from renewed train renewed train service the city decided that it would actively pursue construction of a passenger train station in downtown Stewart as set forth in the comprehensive plan I urge you to honor the comprehensive plan the station will enhance our beloved downtown significantly steuart and historic downtown Stewart is The Treasure of our County our culture of quaint locally owned small businesses is one of the reasons why people love to live here our downtown has a tourist-based economy our Charming small businesses are struggling to survive with all the competition from large companies and national chain establishments the bright Line Station would give our local economy the Boost it needs to continue keeping Stewart a charming and beautiful place furthermore if you resin this agreement you may bring our city into a completely unnecessary lawsuit to the detriment of our citizens this horrible legal can be avoided tonight if you vote to uphold the agreement that our city worked so very hard to secure with bright line I implore you all to think about the big picture here this is about much more than just taxes this is a once- in a-lifetime opportunity to reestablish passenger train service to Stewart it will not happen again and we your constituents will remember your decision tonight thank [Applause] you after after Deanna Peterson Helen McBride and then Nikki vano hi this is Dena Peterson I live at 221 Southeast Hibiscus um I'm going to read because I'm not youall make me nervous um I am not against bright line stopping and Stewart it could be an economic help to the downtown businesses without bringing increased car traffic I would like to be able to take the train to Orlando airport or to Miami just not sure I'm willing to pay those steep ticket prices and parking fees I am against however the size the scope and the cost of this deal for the taxpayers of Stewart and Martin County bright line negotiated themselves a sweetheart deal they are a private company we should not be giving them land Building them a huge station and giving them all the revenue from both so let's talk about public private partnership and use the argument someone made that this is a lot like an airport or a tunnel okay let's take the airport example granted Delta or American choose your air line makes a ton of money off of an airport built with tax dollars this is true but the problem with this analogy is the airport is owned by the county or the city and Delta pays them big fees Delta pays huge fees and rents for every gate and every terminal they use the county or city also is the one who collects all the parking fees and revenues plus they collect rents for all the shops and restaurants within the airport so this is not a good example in unless that's what we're planning to do with bright line bright line is paying us nothing and we do not collect parking revenues or any real rents so what can we do instead if there is the political will to move forward let's build a small modest building or even a kiosk with just a ticket counter in a waiting room not thousands of square feet let's cap the amount we are committing to spend at something way more reasonable than 30 million and certainly not 90 million let's make them pay us a real rent to operate out of the terminal that we build let's have the city of steart collect the parking fees for bright line if there are any concessions or shops or vending let the city of Stewart collect that money as well not bright line let's write into our lease that if bright line goes bankrupt or out of business that we can engage another vendor like TR rail to provide services and let's cap the lease term to something reasonable like five or 10 years not 80 and while we're at it let's require bright line to give us a reasonable amount of stops per day this will result in bright line making money off of their train tickets and steuart making money from Bright line rents and collecting Park parking fees it's win-win a fair deal for all many will also argue that Tiff money will be used or grants but these this is not free money Tiff is also our money and if it is used for bright line it cannot be used for immeasurable other infrastructure and updates in the CRA thank you [Applause] M McBride hel McBride I live on Flamingo Avenue Now 51 years ago when Bob and I moved here this was a ghost town I mean you couldn't even in daytime daytime come downtown that's how bad it was but great we the people an McMillan Joan Jefferson I was just a volunteer we all rolled up our sleeves and we worked hard to make this town what it is today and I'm going to talk to you two new Commissioners because I have come and my first meeting in City Hall was out there was a little a brick a wood building fire station downstairs City Hall was upstairs that's one my first city meeting and I you haven't gotten rid of me I'm still coming and you know it because a lot of you is not and I go to all the the extra meetings the workshops I spoke for bright line when they first brought it up because the future when I'm talking I I talk to my grandchildren and the young people I love young people we have to think of the future like when I told my grandson Joseph when they live in Miami oh Grandma I can't wait for the bright line I can get on the train here and you can pick me up in St it and then I can help you I've got two grandsons at UCF they just came down this weekend and they had a drive down and I uh that just said boy Grandma can you get that uh bright Line station here we could take the train down and um one of the boys had some work to do um Angelo had work to do still had some work to do Saturday when I went to publ and I was buying he's a teenager I was buying the food and the young Bag Boy that brought me out helped me out to the car he said oh you have a party no I said I'm having a couple of college kids come down and he said oh what college I said Do You See F oh he said that's where my friends and I hope to go and I said oh what you in he said we're seniors oh I said well good luck but this is what I want you too you're just on the board and over some Bingo you want to destroy something that I have and a lot of people sitting in this audience we've been coming to all of these me meetings and listening and doing our homework don't destroy something that on we worked real hard to build and I know the merchants I'm from my mama and papa family so I know with the merchants but it's not just the merchants it's us and like the woman saying about the parking garage I hate to say Michael but how many years have we've been talking about a parking garage in the city is story it it'll be a mer to me this is the one great thing about bright line we'll get our parking garage and it's not just for bright line and it's not just for uh the County Commissioner said that and when the gentleman said that they land with the parking uh where we're going to build bright line that we can use it as a parking lot it is a parking lot I mean come on it's been a parking lot for years into my time uh but please the two of you take a two steps back don't rush into something because you just got elected Maybe some people said vot for oh I'm sorry I heard the boun okay after Nikki van vano I have Elizabeth Baker and Valerie Jones Okay um good evening everyone um I I wrote something for you and I'm G to read it to you and I just want to congratulate you on your election I also want to um applaud the staff for its wonderful uh presentations for you tonight as you wrestle with this issue um U some of you may recognize me I am the former growth Management Department director I have been through innumerable public hearings and administrative hearings over the course of my uh tenure in Martin County um I've lived here a long time in fact I have always lived besides rivers and railroad tracks my dad's family were and are rail Rail Road workers I'm also a history nerd Martin County will be celebrating its 100th birthday soon I know that the railroads can do pretty much anything they want to do because Abraham Lincoln was a railroad attorney and as we know he was a Visionary as well railroads helped sment the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific and because I have two left hands I'm not sure which is my right and which is my left today's meeting is about bright line people wanted to stop at Stewart all the data supports it people like visiting our Charming Seaside town and then branching out to visit all of our other Charming neighborhoods I know that other rout routes might have been better but that was a lawsuit that was settled years ago bright line is not accelerating in growth it is a recognition that other forms of transportation can work in car adal Florida for me bright line means I can go to Miami for the book fair and for the film festival when friends and family visit they will be able to ride the bright line to Stuart I know that Fort Pierce will gladly take the bright line stop I love Fort Pierce with its amazing cultural venues and cool small thank you businesses but if it goes to Fort Pierce I won't exit the highway park my car and wait for the train I'll stay on the highway thank you for listening thank you nck [Applause] we work together we started oh I'm sorry Elizabeth Baker then Valerie Jones good evening um I'm Elizabeth PS Baker I grew up on Souls point and now in Stuart uh just shy of 70 years I've been here uh one of my earliest memories was meeting my grandmother arriving at the train depot probably the late 50s um it was across from The Lyric Theater downtown then was the Hub had the post office of Bank drugstore greens and stur department store my mother bought yarn at the old Dyers I'd love to go in that old building we knew everyone in the mid 70s I worked in downtown Stewart it was a ghost town all the businesses were moving to the new construction on US1 then in the '90s things started to come back um that was the beginning of the return after 50 years downtown is back and it's thriving thanks to people such as Joan Jefferson and who visualized our potential tourism records as he said that most of our credit card sales come from dve Broward and orange counties so these automobiles are occupying our parking spots congesting traffic and attempt to survived confusion corner now bright line shall be able to remedy this we've had three National articles recently USA Today the New York Post and travel and Leisure naming us the best coastal town in America therefore therefore there should be more people coming all within walking distance we offer a variety of shops dining the Lyric Theater the old feed stor Museum four parks with playgrounds where children love to watch the trains and boats pass by we have the Riverwalk farmers market and the free music on Sundays we have the Elliot Museum House of Refuge and the oceanographic complex near the ocean people want to get away from Big citya chaos allow them to ride the train book a room shop dine and return home please it is important that we maintain our reputation as a friendly town for locals they can ride to the sporting events concerts airports hospitals Etc without traffic frustrations also people using the brout line for employment purposes could benefit them as well um either way we need parking uh whether it be a structure or ground for events such as art craft shows parades I'm amazed at how many people showed up for the parades okay um only other thing is somehow we could possibly help out the people of East Stewart we don't we can't destroy them just to benefit us thank you after Valerie Jones I have inz uh Valerie Jones longtime resident uh 45 years in steart now Vero Beach um regarding the comp plan uh Stewart was a much different place in 1980 90 2000 even 2010 but in the intervening years uh previous Commissioners and developers have jammed three quarts of growth into a two pint City it's full it's overflowing looking at the numbers of bright line ridership 0.4% of 9 million South Florida residents ride bright line in any given month that's about aund and about half our commuters uh that that's uh about 179,000 people a month travel from uh Miami to Orlando 02 0.4% of Martin and St Lucy County's 400,000 residents would be around 10 people per day the fairs for bright line are 50 to 96 from West Palm Beach to Orlando we can assume that it would be even higher uh for steuart to Orlando or from for Stewart to uh West Palm Beach the parking lot is not free that everybody's talking about the parking lot uh it's $15 a day and the since the uh rates went up for bright line the boka parking lot is empty uh ridership dropped by half when they're when their rates went up I was going to say a lot of other things but the lady in the green dress said it better than I ever could and um the station's great but not what not where it's proposed and that's not worth it for two trains a [Applause] day after inz I have David blamy and Nina Brody good evening and uh thank you for being commissioners of our beautiful city stewarding its care through previous generations and the Next Generation I here I'm here today as a longtime resident of Stewart I live in East Stewart my husband and I have a business in Stewart I um lived here for 25 years so I feel like a longtime resident until I hear the stories of the people behind me and I'm very grateful that they didn't close the doors behind their arrival here and I let me be a resident here of Stewart I love it it's it's it's my hometown by heart um my first job in Stuart was at The Lyric Theater and it was shortly after it recovered from the Great era that they call the boarded up city of Stewart when you could go downtown and there would be boards on the lyric there would be boards on the post offic arcade and a group of people led by Joan Jefferson and Helen McBride and Annie McMillan really steered the the economy of downtown Stewart to what we see today and I'm also here as a board member of Stuart Main Street Candace could not be with us this evening so I am speaking in herstead this beautiful thriving award-winning Little Village this little city we have uh that we live and enjoy today cannot be taken for granted or nor can we make assumptions that it is going to stay like this forever it is thriving and pro prosperous because of the people behind uh that have led the way and and the economic vitality and re revitalization of the city and they did so by leveraging the historic value and the historic Beauty and the historic structures in our city over the years and we can't take that for granted I'm greatly greatly appreciative of their work but there's only so much work to be done on that front so we have to continue to look for new opportunities to create that economic Vitality in our community and E and bright line is just one of those economic Vitality opportunities for for this city we've heard today from numerous people small businesses um that have struggled over the past few years to make ends meet and they see this as an opportunity to have their businesses grow and Thrive and continue to employ their staff which often are the kids our kids and our grandkids that work at Kilwins and they work at the restaurants downtown so it's important that they have this opportunity to grow their business because this is the next opportunity for this city it will help with sustainability it will also help us be more resilient against other things that hit our economy we talked about hurricanes we talked about pandemic the lady from Cafe martier said that this last year was very difficult so any incremental growth with people coming into our city is incredibly important I urge you to honor the decision from the previous commission the comp plan and the business owners in Stu in the city of Stewart to accept to not resend this offer from Bright line thank you Dave is it Dave Miss Dave Dave welcome Dave my name is David Bellamy probably some of y'all already know I work hard in this town a lot of y'all sitting up on that board because of my good sign I put on my bike every day but I want to tell you something when I came here in 1972 this town was a town this town had stage e it had the Caboose I even read out on the on the boardwalk when I came here the history of this town before they had that storm in 1938 you remember that same old train station that they had right there they used to transport people to go across that work at the plant they used to be have a packing house there many years ago this town was a town so I'm F the trained because it'll make a lot of business in this town I mean come on we got to wake up here now it's a new future here it'll make a lot of business in this town and the business associations will grow many visitors will come before they built that Walt Disney or the Disney World or whatever everybody was coming here this was the tourist time and then you got out seniors that cannot drive to Miami Hospital or West Palm Beach St Mary the train will get them there it was it's it's a lot that we have to look at and we have to look at the future where we at in the future what are we going to do if they they used to have a train here they used to have people working here they used to have people working in the packing house they used to have people going back and forth pay $2 a day to go back and forth from that boat that train over there to the packing house I don't know if some of y'all old as me but I you know you should remember that you should remember when they used to ride you in all these fancy restaurants or the charlie horses hook up the Charlie horse and just ride you to all these steak restaurant this town was a town when I came here I don't know what it is now I'm 64 years old and I came here when I was 17 I came from mot Beach South Carolina with a tourist area you really want to see the trains rolling there you can ride all the trains you want there I mean they got trains to take you to every restaurant there downtown that's where I came from and when I came here my mother retired from my dad from the military she got T to travel us at a military back I was 17 and then I went to Mar County High School graduated went M Marine call myself I know this country has got to get better this city has got to get better I live by steart I live right where they going to put that train if they put it there I'm right across the street from Earnest produce if that's where it's going to put it at the ball fields many years ago we us to play at the ball fields used to play with sticks and rocks before baseball we used to play back there many years a lot of people I know in this town a lot of people gone from this town they have left and moved on so I say to y'all when you go to sleep at night or you wake up in the morning pray about the train that'll keep on going thank you I have Nina broy and then Sher Lee I'm G to read mine as well so my name is Nina Brody I live at 41 Southwest seminal so I am speaking for um all of the residents that live at 41 seminal 30 units four offices for retail we hope um you're doing well tonight thanks for having us um but we do want to let you know how much we support the bright Line Station that was planned for downtown we urge you to maintain the decision to proceed with its development we can attest to the vital role that the bright Line station will play in revitalizing our downtown area we heard from Cafe marer we heard from Kilwins um we heard from Steven who talked to 86 different businesses we came here others come here because it's a Charming town I hear a lot about not wanting to um denigrate that Charming town but if that right line goes to Fort Pierce we have no Town anymore and we will degrade um the businesses they will close they will board up we already heard how they're struggling and people will sell and leave and more won't come in the one good thing that happen happened with covid is people could move here because you can have remote workers but everyone's starting to go back to the office we need more businesses here we need to bring more young people and employ them so our town can continue to grow the station promises to bring significant foot traffic and increased Revenue everyone's been talking about that tonight it's essential for the continued prosperity of our local businesses and the charm of our community if the local businesses go out we either get boarded up or the big box retailers come in and no one wants that either many of us including those who have invested in property and businesses in downtown Stewart have done so with the expectation of the bright line station's positive impact the potential influx of visitors and the Boost in economic activity are crucial for maintaining and enhancing the unique character of our downtown the station aligns with our vision for a vibrant thriving community and supports our long-term economic Health reversing this decision could undermine all of the progress we have made and the Investments that both the businesses and land owners have relied upon we urge you to consider the collective benefits that the station offers and to uphold the decision to deploy it your support in this matter of not revoking not resending not letting Fort Pierce get our station will ensure that downtown Stewart continues to flourish while preserving the charm that makes our city very special so that those are my comments that I had written but this is the second meeting I've come to and I continue to be amazed that things that I've heard that are true and have happened have been and have been approved then get delayed or thought about resending you might remember me from the conversation regarding the um utilities that are either going underground or BR in polls the seal Street I understood that it's connected but I am new to the city I was so excited to come and it is a little concerning and hard to understand that decisions that have been made get reversed it's the second time in four months next I have Max duer and then John eberst is there a Max D du H it looks like e RM okay then John eberst which one is it good evening Commissioners city manager council members of Stuart Community uh my name is Johnny burst um a lot of you may know me you may not know me I am a lifetime resident of Martin County um I grew up in Jensen Beach I now have my business multiple businesses within the city of Stewart um by address 117 seminal 320 MLK 101 MLK I am highly invested in the city um it is the best place on Earth to live look the train's coming it's coming through it's going to be here it's going to right on by us we cannot let that happen we're past the negotiation stage of dealing with bright line the deal is made we have to move forward with it look in business if you're not moving forward you're folding we have to move forward as a city we have to keep bettering the city a lot of us are not happy with all the apartments that have been built but guess what they're here we need to continue to move forward with our city we know this is a great deal that's why Fort Pierce wants it so bad they would love for us to roll over Bri Line's not going to come back to the table with us they're going to move right down the road and they're going to pick up with them we need to keep this here in Stewart we need to continue to grow look somebody said this to me earlier and I thought it was a great point we have the winning lotto ticket why would we throw away the winning lotto ticket if you res sing we're thrown away winning lot ticket you know I I think there is no better place than where it's proposed right on Flagler that's where it's meant to be that's part of the comprehensive plan it's already parking um that is usually not used the only people that park there go to the courthouse um I think the city has a lot of parking as is a lot of people don't know and they do not use the trolley system that we have U I've never had a problem parking you know there's right down 117 sem right down the road on Friday and Saturday night you can park anywhere around down there I that's where I just walked from to get here four hours ago um but I I I urge you not to resend um this is a good thing for the city uh you know I ask that you move forward with it um let's not let's not get in an issue where it goes four Pierce thank you I have Bill West and then Sherry Lee evening commissioner it's Bill West a 20y year resident of Martin County over 10 of those years were in Stewart proper I'm no longer a resident of Stewart but I'm just over the over the river in North River Shores um long been a proponent of of right line of um 10 years on on the Stuart Main Street board here I'm looking forward to this I uh want to give a couple of personal story so um a couple of weeks ago that's the Sunday before the meeting that was had here I was in Orlando at a conference coming home or about to come home checking out of the hotel get a text from a friend he's on bright line sends me an image of the map coming through Stuart Florida on his way to Orlando are you still there right no I'm not wish I had the bright line to take it home though get on the turnpike to go back I'm in you've been in a Florida afternoon thunderstorm on the on the turnpike with cars all around you you have your life literally in your hands wishing I was on bright line last week we had a family member go into hospice my son made an urgent trip from New York to Florida priced all around Florida for for tickets um ended up being $300 cheaper to fly into Fort Lauderdale and ride the bright line up to West Palm Beach where we went and picked him up this morning we did the reverse trip with him put him back on bright line he's on Fort Lauderdale $300 cheaper he was able to make that trip please um legally I'm listening to this and you guys know I know a little bit about law and business and your attorneys are trying to keep you straight they're trying hard to keep you straight they're giving you answers to questions that you're stepping in right here in front of people with standing tomorrow if this is rescinded I will find out if I have standing I may not have standing there is a very good attorney in this room you've already heard from I am absolutely positive has standing please please do the right thing for our community for the future for the kids [Applause] yes after Sherry Lee I have Walter Odin that's a hard act to follow um I'm Sherry Lee I have lived up here from Palm Beach since 2012 uh I'm invested in the city I own property and businesses in the city in the CRA I feel like I've been paying into this CRA for over 10 years and I'm I'm really excited about the train uh having a station here means something real and tangible that will help the businesses downtown the residents um I have a son I think about him and his future uh if he has kids uh I feel that it will connect all of us to people all around the state we all have people somewhere else in the State uh we have people in Miami and there's huge population centers down there we can just act like we're in this little tiny town and nothing's going to affect us but there are millions and millions of people that live south of us and I don't even know how many people live in Orlando but those people want to come here they're already coming here and they are clogging up our roadways I think this train will have the benefit of taking cars off the road I understand the concerns about money but it's already paid for the deal has already been written up these people you made a beautiful presentation by the way city manager City attorney great education so I hope the new Commissioners really learned I learned things and I've been involved in this for 10 years um I think a lot of us learned a lot tonight about the history and how long this has been planned I hope that you all the new Commissioners don't think that you know more than all of the businesses who are here and have been here all along all the residents who have lived lived here all along our our own City attorney our own city manager and and the Commissioners who have been here all along working working on this I don't think we should second guess it uh and by the way it is written and it's been signed um and I do intend to meet tomorrow morning at the county and push more for this uh whatever it takes we have to get this for our city it will not come back around again this is a gift uh the the parking is already there uh I think we can make this it is a blessing I keep hearing that word from the people that live here the businesses that are here we've paid in I have paid into this fund this is what it's for it's in our comp plan and businesses have standing when I got the news in February that this station was happening I started investing thousands tens of thousands of dollars into my my properties and my businesses so that I could be ready and now you're going to try to take this away from us I don't think it's going to be a good choice for the city the city should be for the businesses and residents who are here thank you next is Walter Odin and then Ed lucante Walter Odin he might be outside speakers are on outside okay is Ed lucante here oh Ed asked me to speak for him he had to leave he had to catch a train sorry [Applause] okay I have Elizabeth ear Elizabeth Earl Mickey Dawn good evening Commissioners Mr mayor County attorney County uh city manager um I'm I'm here um my name is Mickey Don DN and um I am a resident of uh city of Stewart uh I've been here in in Martin County since 2000 and my wife and I built the home here in 2006 and we love living here um and I'm I'm not going to give you my prepared notes because it's been covered pretty much and I appreciate the reports that were done by staff Mr mortell Mr bagot excellent I learned a lot and it just reinforced what I believe was the best decision that could have happened from Bright line coming through here I certainly supported the city in the past when they fought bright line coming through um but it happened and now that it's here we have the benefit of of a station coming and and I think we need to to keep that station here uh I would say that um I have ridden on B bright line it was wonderful the worst part of riding bright line was driving 50 miles to get there I will only have to drive two miles now and I won't have to park my car there so I I implore you and and you know I'm really glad the city elections is over because every day my mailbox was full of of your promises that what you're going to do and everything and make it more wonderful and get rid of the old people and all this stuff but the one thing I did not see in any of that on your platform would that you're going to abolish this station coming to Stewart [Applause] that was not on your platforms and I would guarantee you you would not be sitting here if it was thank [Applause] you more cing outside next okay thank you let's try to we've done a very good job let's I have Terry kogal and then Marty bck bck he was the one oh that was martyy Marty came up already she filled in for Ed oh okay good evening my name is Terry kogal I live on Fairway East at Stewart okay don't get mad at me I'm I'm really for and against so okay bright line is an unnecessary financial burden on Mountain County residents why is the city and Martin County being forced to subsidize a wealthy foreign corporation the majority of bright line was acquired by Abu Dhabi Sovereign wealth company which is owned by Abu Dhabi government founded in 2018 Justified non oil portfol oil ranging from energy utilities food agriculture healthc care and Life Sciences real estate and touris tourism The Firm claims that it has contributed around 22% of adi's non oil in 2023 has a net worth of $157 billion so why are we subsidizing a 150 thou 157,000 billion foreign company are we out of our minds there is no economic benefit to Martin County taxpayers from the payment to a private foreign 157 billion doll Corporation when the funds are derived from the successful completion of the pro projections will only flow into the coffers of the 157 billion doll private Corporation it is illusionary in speculative claim that the shops and restaurants in downtown Stewart which are small will attract consumers to travel for miles away just to Avail themselves to the services at the cost of the Martin County taxpayers however despite the limited hypo I'm really doing well tonight you got it benefits to the downtown businesses I have no objection for the bright line building the steart train station and its parking garage as long as bright line pays for it let the 157 dollar million doll billion dollar owners of bright line pay for their own business needs heck they can build it out of gold with that amount of money we have to be completely out of our minds or maybe just plain stupid to even consider forcing the taxpayers to pay for this this bill it should be there responsibility next I have Joe harski and Patricia swi I'm sorry I can't read it Patricia s good evening Joe harski uh Stuart V Stuart Florida please save our station or you will be remembered as the commission that stranded Us in traffic but still filled to stop the growth thousands of units are slated for caner outside of your jurisdiction to stop when you take away our transportation options during the growth people will rightly blame you for the downsides of that Dr growth like the traffic and therefore the growth itself those downsides will be yours you will be the commission that added an hour to all of our trips to the airport you'll be the commission that cut us off from Medical Treatments my wife had to stop work and drive me to and from Tampa for my cancer treatments at maet because I was too sick to drive myself and hence the mask still sweatin but I'm doing better um but while the train will be too late to help our family I won't be the last and steart with cancer and those hard family choices that's what you're taking away from us or proposing to do so tonight most families that needed this including mine don't really have the time to be here for this 7-hour meeting understandably I saw lots of sad kids leaving in yellow shirts unable to have spoken those choices were taken away from them and those families so there are many more that could be talking to you tonight but you will be remembered as the commission that violated the comp plan we get millions of dollars in Grants to the city like the $130 million grant for the railroad bridge you're putting that at risk along with other risks that you're playing Russian roulette with not just the city but bankrupting the city and her children's future that's hundreds of millions of dollars that's not what we elected you to do even if the city does win that lawsuit we'll still end up having to raise taxes eventually on the people of Stewart to covered our very large infrastructure backlog that we're not addressing instead of getting it from tourists we can get that money from them instead of taxing us but you don't have to be that commission that choice is yours tonight this isn't a game to be won or lost you're having like this is real this is real lives real people stories like mine thousands more throughout our city many of which couldn't be here tonight but stories that are real like that like these are real needs um just one family one story but please save our quality of life please save our station thank you thank you next I have Patricia s and then Marty biki I know I'm saying it wrong I apologize no Patricia okay is Marty still here Mr Mayor Marty Bic oh oh he came back to speak for himself this time thank [Laughter] you yeah Ed lucente you may have seen his article in the storeart news Google it was printed uh few few people know that he was like third in line to IBM so he's a pretty smart dude uh before I begin to introduce myself uh I don't know if you've been to Porto Portugal but they have a training station there that over a million people millions of people have visited it's in blue tile it's it's a was a poor City for a long time and it's absolutely beautiful now I don't expect a Porto here but I just want a platform just a simple platform so get out the millions of dollars not needed just a simple platform my name is Marty biki I've been a resident since 1960 teacher coach Dean for 30 seven years and yes in the Hall of Fame so I remember remember my aunt getting off the train in about 1965 we had service here she got off the train in fact that train which was owned by of course Flagler for many many years a private entity and we used it to go back and forth in the State of Florida and down it was beautiful my wife and I would like to use that train today and um I was talking to you may know Peter Jones who owns the theater on caner and Peter said to me he says I went down to Palm Beach to get a train to go up to Orlando and I kind of just shook my head the train will bring a lot of opportunities uh I see a lot of opportunities yes there's going to be problems a lot of esoteric material tonight I think you guys will work that out I have trust in you I know it costs money anything that's good will cost money and um again I appreciate you being here just like me for the last five hours and uh keep on doing a good job thank you I have aah fry and Stephen no is that Ida fry Ida fry Maybe I don't see Ida then stepen no ID yes sorry on the board excuse me I mean if somebody reads it for whoever the guy is he can read it do we have a do we have a can she provide us with a copy of her letter then who's going to read the well I have I can make it up what I can make it upy sure she wants to thank you sir go ahead yes good evening uh my name is Stephen no I make my business uh address at 312 Southwest ocean over here in downtown uh if the name seems familiar uh and it might seem familiar to a lot of our friends here my dad and brother have served and had served very diligently and with great respect for our community as gastroenterologists with the Martin health system for almost 40 years now over 40 years actually I'm very proud of my family very proud of my family and in my family we speak multiple languages but tonight despite the fact that we speak multiple languages let me say this in plain English do not lose this deal we have a great opportunity one that's been supported for decades as Mr mortell has pointed out in his presentation tonight to finally access passenger rail service here in Stewart with unified strength real unified strength which is you the board we're positioned to achieve it with even better terms please deliver this deal our deliver this deal on behalf of our taxpayers our community and the future of this beloved City now I'm here also as the president of the Martin County Realtors of the Treasure Coast and I see a lot of my clients a lot of my customers here in this building as Realtors we're constantly engaging in negotiations we appreciate the Dynamics involved which hinge on the understanding of the stakes and working diligently and doggedly on behalf of your client in this situation the taxpayer is your client that includes of course your direct constituents the residents the property owners and business owners of Stewart less directly but importantly as well you're also working on behalf of stakeholders residents property owners and business owners across this County this great County of course they're also represented by your direct partner in this process which is Martin County certainly there are other countless people across the region who love and visit our beloved City they also have an interest in what occurs in downtown Stewart but the principal parties are your constituents the taxpayers and us with all due respect we encourage you to please continue on your current path of negotiating firmly on their behalf our behalf and get better terms but please do not let this opportunity slip away the process of teaming up with the county on the RFP to bring a bright Line Station to Stuart was transparent and it was publicly supported with only this will serve as a convenient means for travel for residents and stakeholders while in turn generating support for our local businesses who need our support for the future thank you thank you for your consideration thank [Applause] you Kevin shy then Ron Frankle and then Vernon Glennon Kevin shy I'm give is Mr Sharky about need to call out they say they can hear should who's next Madam clerk I have Ron Frankle Dr Frankle is this Mr Frankle Dr Frank Dr Frankle hello yes hi uh good evening um congratulations to the new Commissioners on getting elected I want to tell you why it would be wrong to resend the decision I was originally against the train coming here but now that it is here we need to take advantage of it I'm not speaking to you tonight as an opthalmologist who's been here for 35 years but I'm speaking to you from what I hear from many patients and more importantly what I think the average person in this Martin County feels first I would say to the Commissioners do not misinterpret the election results we are concerned with growth we regret some of the things that have happened but we are for this bright Line Station we do not want Stewart to become a fort waterdale I came here 35 years ago for the same reason I think that most of us did Stuart is clearly one of the best small cities in the country and one of its assets is that we have access to wonderful places Miami is a quickly growing place it's becoming a financial Capital it's becoming a major city to get down to Miami you got to you've heard you got to drive on 95 and the closer you get the more you put your life in your hands especially if there is rain so we can get to Miami with the station we can get to West Palm Beach people from all over the world go to Orlando to go to Disney World another advantage of Stewart is we not just have access to Miami we can get to the theme parks there it's a huge attraction and to hop on a train and get there is a huge benefit to the average car Martin County resident I used to take my kid there all the time and now he's going to be doing the same for his we don't want to violate the County's comprehensive plan I've been on bright line I was surprised it is clean it is safe and it is very easy to get around we want to have access to all these other areas and the traffic is only getting worse and worse this can get us to airports it can get us to Sea ports if you think you can amend the deal go ahead but do not resend it and do not try and amend it if there's any chance you're going to lose it [Applause] we would rather have the station as it is than take any chance that you're going to lose it every benefit every person and every business in this community will benefit from this train there is very very little downside to it you should go forward as we the residents thought was going to happen and as we were promised thank you I have Vernon Glennon Mark Miller then Peter Upton is Mark Mark yeah Vernon Glennon who is it Madam clerk Vernon Glennon Vernon Glennon are you out there if not I recognize Mr Miller welcome back thank you good evening good evening my name is Mark Miller I live over in Palm City on the other side of the bridge I ask each of you to support the bright Line train station plan that the city and county agreed to several months ago the train will benefit the city and county for decades and if the deal is now killed it will have negative repercussions for our community for just as long here are four reasons and I promise despite being an attorney that I will be quick uh here are four reasons why the city commission should continue forward with the deal that already struck with bright line for the train station one the train station will bring Untold future economic opportunities for the people of the Treasure Coast our young people who grow up here need good jobs jobs and good new jobs are sure to follow if we keep the train station plan in place the economic benefits of having both Florida residents and Florida tourists tourists be able to hop on the train in Miami Orlando Tampa and one day Jacksonville make their way to our beautiful community will'll be remarkable lives and new businesses will be built here on the Treasure Coast here in Stewart because of the train station If instead you vote today to resend or to kill the train station ultimately those lives will bloom somewhere else and those businesses will never exist to kill the train station is to kill future economic opportunities for our community and its residents the future belongs to the optimists and to kill the train station plan now in favor of preservation is to freeze our community in Amber and expect that somehow this would be a good thing the only thing freezing our community and Amber will do is turn the community into a fossil that tourists and residents observe from the windows of the passing bright line trains and we will wonder what might have been forever in a day to kill the plane would be the option the actions of people who fear the future and are pessimistic about the future that is exactly the wrong approach for our elected leaders the best leaders our country has known on both sides of the political Isle have been and are optimists and I believe all of you are optimistic about the Treasure Coast and Steward two as an attorney who works from home in Palm City I anticipate using the train to travel to Orlando Palm Beach Miami regularly on my business and for business travel as others have said I've already had to use it but I have to drive all the way to Palm Beach to get on it the train will keep my car and many other cars off the Florida roads relying upon mass transit is a categorical good thing for the environment and it is good for our community in the state a passenger train that covers the entire state which is where bright line is headed will be good for the environment and will red down to our benefit less cars on the road means less congestion on our road arteries Less Auto deaths less accidents on our roads three as a lawyer I will reiterate what others have said I don't want to put too much into this but I just want to make sure it's said if you stick to your word which you all are here on behalf of the city commission then you do not legally expose the city to litigation if you go back on your word the word the city commission gave our community in bright line then you will indeed expose the city taxpayers to potentially millions of dollars in attorney's fees because of that decision buying what is almost surely a financially draining lawsuit is not an auspicious start for your time as City commissioners thank you Mr very much Mr Upton I've only got three fifths of you what's the deal YULA come back uh my name is Peter Upton um can we take a ref can we take a you guys can call it if you want you know let's take a um it's 8:30 that's a good time to take a recess 4 and a half hours sorry Mr Upton I know how patient you are so we will reconvene at uh 20 of n 10 minutes 10 minutes e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e just abandon in there was sadest thing I know but but it allowed make well yeah so I can research and make notes and I quicker we come to order please Madame clerk M commissioner Clark has found her way back to the meeting room can I just ask you I don't think the audience understands that if you need to resend to renegotiate I think that's maybe we seek clarification from the city have a chance to come thank you are we ready Mr Upton good evening Commissioners my name is Peter Upton I recently live north of the bridge I now am a proud resident of the city of Stewart um I'm also uh vice president of the board of friends of the Everglades the only reason I I mentioned that and it's not doesn't have anything to do with that organization has nothing to do with this issue but I do want to point out the Commissioners that bright line is mass transit bright line is provides uh a a serious benefit toate the environment one car by one car by keeping them off the roads so whatever argument is made to potentially reject bright line don't tell us that it's an environmental argument because it is not now we don't need to be in the situation we're in because we seem to have two polar uh positions one is and I agree with this position we need to be very careful about slow growth and unnecessary development the other position is well if we have bright line bright line is going to bring direct and indirect development and my position is this is the best possible uh commission to address this issue because I know this commission will be very careful that there will not be direct unnecessary direct and indirect development around the area where the station is going to go in I think this is the best commission to address the needs that the gentleman from East Stewart pointed out you don't need unnecessary gentrification this is what we have here is is a needle that needs to be threaded but it really doesn't need to you have you're opposed to unnecessary development there are two many benefits of uh the bright line that everyone else has talked about so let's do this let's let's pretend it's a needle but that needle is bright line going forward but we don't want bright line just to continue going forward and never stopping we want brid line to stop so they can benefit the residents of Stuart and doing so by this board will be worthy not only of this community but of its character thank you very [Applause] [Music] much Casey Ingram Mullen then Lucy Maguire then Jeff dowty oh good morning or good afternoon or evening my goodness it's been a long time Casey Ingram Mullen uh from Palm City folks uh first of all I want to talk about a few things this is not a PPP deal bright line All Aboard Florida is what it started out with 100% started out saying we are a private company we are going to fund ourselves privately 100% then they tried to get a taxpayer backed riff loan railroad rehab rehabilitation infrastructure loan thankfully the powers to be realized the risk to the taxpayers they were denied that riff loan initially 1 .6 billion and folks today this is why they have private activity bonds to finance their project they just refinanced for 5.35 billion refinanced over5 billion with rates up to 12% that's the riskiest investment there is so folks I completely completely support that you resend the Ila and the lease agreement to renegotiate this we're not trying to stop a train station we're trying to make bright line have skin in the game and adhere to their original agreement before I get into that original agreement I want to say the candidates were on my show and they all said they do not support taxes to finance a private or fund a private or foreign owned entity so there's nothing new there also we started a petition up uh late Friday night on my uh website and we've got over 300 folks already and it's just organically spreading and growing by the minute so um no excuse me excuse me can we be courteous please all right I need a few seconds more now so anyways um I want to go back talking about bright line adhering to their agreement in 2018 they made an agreement with Martin County bright line did they agreed to pay for 50% of the station if it was built on the Treasure Coast the municipality or the county it was built in to pay the other 50% in December we sent an RFP that followed that 50% that's the last thing the public saw somehow then in March we said we're awarded the station we all thought it was a 50/50 deal like the RFP because there has not been transparency on this project whatsoever since December in fact earlier today with the um presentation that was given December was the last time this project was in front of the public in August is when we first discovered that this project was nothing like the RFP it had changed changed completely in fact it was 50% Martin County 50% bright line Stewart was supposed to be $30 million for a parking garage which is an insane price but that's what it was for and somehow that morphed into bright line gets nothing pays nothing the county and and Stuart are completely on the hook I also want to say that in 2018 we wanted to uh add something to the agreement however the attorney said bright line has been crystal clear this is it they made us am sign that agreement we had to stick to it so folks thank you Miss Ingram she needs I want I I did give me just one more point to make and that is when with that lease you guys talked over me give me and you lety talk to us to us you let the other ones go on 10 15 seconds plus they talk us I want you to in that lease they in your lease you agreed to give them a in the lease it says that they can have mortgage improvements they can mortgage the improvements on the train station that we're paying for 100% thank you Miss Ingram let your let your citizens know what's going to happen if they default to that mortgage after they paid for it Lucy Maguire who is it Lucy Maguire hello my name is Lucy Maguire and I am born and raised in Jensen Beach I went to Jensen Beach High School Stuart Middle School um Jensen Beach um Elementary And since you want to know I live in Port St lcy but that's because I can't afford to live here but that's a whole another topic so we won't talk about that um I do own a business and network here I founded a nonprofit organization that gives back to this community you are here to serve the people not yourselves look at the room look at the yellow that you see in this room that you have seen in this room and that was out in the hallway this station is important and public transportation is needed for our community and our community supports this I urge you not to resend the agreement I am honestly appalled at what you're trying to do it seems the parking garage may be optional but I believe that even if we built it there would be a huge benefit to our community and our downtown that has already had a parking overload issue but it would it should be free parking in my opinion like the rest of our local downtown we have already fought long and hard for this and it has come to our area as described today it is already here it is already going through our town we deserve a stop we deserve not to be passed over we deserve the additional value we'll bring to our area I urge you to stop fighting this as described in grave detail today by your attorneys this it seems that this will not cost the taxpayers money due to the CRA but even if it did it is still worth it based on the public polls you've already taken we want the bright line we need you to take action about what the majority wants public transportation is so important and I've traveled to over 27 countries so far and when I travel over the world I'm always so impressed with the public transportation in other countries even developing nations and that includes small towns that have preserved their charm it is a shame that we do not have more options here on top of that we can and should make sure that East Stewart and history is preserved in that process as many have mentioned here with specific examples this will reduce traffic congestion and boost local small businesses and tourism tourism and it will create more job opportunities that are needed for our young workers and all workers here we shouldn't have to drive 45 minutes to go to a train station that is already coming through our area we just won this um situation with d Dixon State Park thankfully because of the amazing support of our community and it's disheartening to see our local Comm local government that is is trying to move in a way to make decisions without truly Consulting the majority of the public we the people are supposed to have the final say we proved that with Jonathan Dickinson State Park and you need to allow us to do it again plus car companies in the United States have worked against public transportation so that they make more money we need public transportation options across our nation as a whole other than cars especially in small areas like ours where people don't always have a choice that own a car do not resend this I want my local Hometown to take a Vantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity and you should too thank [Music] [Applause] you Jeff Dy good evening my name is jef dy uh wanted to say hello and congratulate the new Commissioners um I currently live on Riverside Drive over near Palm Beach Road and in that area that was created by plat in Palm Beach County I said Paul be County it's that old and things changed it's now Martin County and I have an aerial photo of that in 1960s there's two houses and dirt roads but things change now there's paved roads and houses back around 2009 things changed we got rid of the septic and the city was able to put in a program where we could pay for sewer that's in there now it made the river better things change 15 years ago we didn't hear about bright line bright Line's coming through it's here things change everything I just said is here is fact exist all we're talking about today is that train that's currently going through here is it going to stop that's all we're talking about we're not talking about his train comping it's here now why am I here today uh because I love Stewart I love being part of steuart I love the community uh and I'm immersed myself in it I've uh renovated a couple saved a couple storic homes after Jean Francis and Wilma years ago in addition to that uh I've been on the board of Stuart Main Street I love the downtown I've volunteer coach little league baseball at sailfish uh baseball park as well as 10 Street this is back before Citrus Grove open when all the Little League Baseball was here I was on the board of the little big baseball organizing helping that after my son aged out I volunteered coach there so I love downtown I love the city what I don't love though is having to go to a Lander airport spend $45 in gas $25 in toll and $60 in parking that's $130 for a round trip of probably four and a half 5 hours of potentially White Knuckle driving I could take the train there cheaper without any concern of driving that's a huge issue and what else is bothers me that I don't love is the thought that I as a taxpayer as well as my other fellow taxpayers in the city are also taxpayers in the county we're not one or the other we're both and if this is resend it and God forbid we go into litigation potentially with the county I'm funding a lawsuit that I'm both the plaintiff and the defendant that's that's a fact there's no good outcome that's not being a good Steward of government money I ask you do not resend this if you want to renegotiate renegotiate while you're currently in the agreement but do not pay for both Sid don't make me pay for both sides of a law thank you I have Gail Goldie Bonnie Moser then Judith Farley good evening Commissioners Gail Goldie uh 12th terrce in Stewart first I want to address the lack of transparency uh regarding the agreement that was signed by the vice mayor on August 26 he did not have the authority to sign the mayor hastily signed the agreement who directed him to sign this agreement my question is why was this done before the new Commissioners took their seats and had an opportunity to vote on this before that was signed so that's a very major concern is the lack of transparency and I'd also like to address the new Commissioners coming to the Das now perhaps they have more insight than these residents give them credit for how many of you have spoken with each commissioner regarding their positions on this issue you all could have written to them you could have emailed them you could have called them this was done before they took office they shared the concerns you have I know they do because I've spoken to each of them perhaps this issue really needs to be reviewed and simply renegotiated um I'm very very surprised at the number of residents here tonight that just really don't understand I'm not against the train I am for the train but I am not for us to handle 100% of the payments for the train of what the train is going to cost does anyone know or has anyone sat down and reviewed all of the uh costs that are associated with this train that are going to fall on the taxpayers backs this is an opportunity that could possibly bankrupt this city oh that's correct bankrupt because they will be borrowing money we need to be courteous to each other yes they could be bankrupting the the city City and also the county because they will be borrowing money that will have huge huge interest rates that have to be paid back on that money over a 20 30 40e period so all I'm saying is you know if they do resend this that simply means that it would be renegotiated it is not the end of the train oh oh I think you need to speak with the lawyer on that because to um resend it does not kill the deal it does not kill the deal it does not kill the deal it is an opportunity to renegotiate with bright line thank you Bonnie Moser and then Judith Farley M Moser without the young child and time Bonnie Moser 11:21 Southeast 10th Street I am without my children during this meeting I took them home fed them baath them put them to bed and now I'm back to speak on their behalf I'm really tired so tired that I left my laptop with all my talking points so I'm going to be winging it up here for you all um but I've got a few points for you um the first thing I want to say is this is where I want my tax dollars to be spent I want them to be spent on connectivity for my children so they can access other places in our state without having to get into a car and I'll talk talk about why in a second I also want my children to have transportation options right now our DOT in Florida is funding roads overwhelmingly other alternative modes of transportation we have no options but to drive places why why do we want our kids to only have to go places by car when I was a kid I got to play I got to ride my bike I got to ride my bike to practices I got to go all these different places that's not a choice anymore we need to be thinking about Transportation options for our kids give them what we had as kids um let's see second point I want to talk about safety there's been a lot of talk over the years about safety of the bright line I work in transportation I'm really um knowledgeable about the numbers um a lot of folks are worried about the train hitting people um so I want to I want to clear something up um this is us dot statistics you can look it up from 2018 to 2023 there were 297 rail deaths in Florida there were 20,39 roadway deaths four of those people I went to high school or babysat with it's very personal to me to have alternative modes of transportation that are safer than our roadways from 2001 to 2009 there were 7.28 car deaths and 0.3 train deaths for every billion miles traveled within our country now I want to talk about tax dollars and I do hope after I'm done speaking um that the City attorney or the city manager can correct me if I'm interpreting this wrong I've combed through this agreement and what I'm see seeing is that paying for this station is a one-time thing we pay for this station and we build it there are no operations costs like we see on our roadways and our airports there are no maintenance costs those will be covered by the bright line please correct me if I'm wrong do you all know how much we spend in this County each year on our roadways $30 million annually that's our tax money $30 million for roads that are not safe roads that are M only overwhelmingly serving cars and for roads that are perpetually congested I know there are a lot of politicians who run on they're going to stop the con congestion they're going to fix it darn um this is how you can fix it thank you Miss [Applause] mother Judith Farley this hello good evening Commissioners um I'm Judith Farley I own radiant Outfitters a boutique downtown right here on Oola Street you've seen me before some of you um I've learned a lot tonight and I want to thank um staff for the awesome presentation that they did one of the major things I've learned is it seems that your constituency the majority really wants the station um I also learned that we have CRA funding enough for the station that was a really awesome fact to find out I'm very familiar with the CRA actually I'm in the zone my business is in the zone and I've seen over the years the funds get used very well and I can appreciate a commission board that wants to responsibly use the taxpayer money and get the best deal um out there but I strongly believe this isn't the time for that to sin tonight I would see as an irresponsible thing with our tax dollars because right now we have a sure thing we have a win we have the station to resend tonight is a risk it's a risk that brightline will not negotiate that's not a sure thing it's not a sure thing that they'll renegotiate the terms it really isn't we have four peers like waiting to grab this so so the constituent the constituents here the majority want the station we have the win we were so excited to resend tonight at the gamble of possibly being able to renegotiate I just I just don't see that as a good use a good responsible thing to do but I do appreciate the idea of wanting to use our you know I appreciate all of you and I think you're amazing um and I'm grateful but tonight I don't think this is that I don't think this is the time to do that I I really think the responsible thing to do is to lay it down and move forward um and I really think that maybe there is something we can do with eth Stewart I don't remember if they're in the CRA is East Stewart in the CRA and could we potentially use because I found out another fact tonight that the CRA fund even just since learning of bright line is growing and that when bright line comes it will grow exponentially can we potentially use CRA funding to help East Stewart moving forward to to lessen the impact to them anyway I just want to say please um make the responsible decision tonight and don't resend thank you [Applause] Joe Cooper Meritt mat then Marcela camper Mr Cooper good evening good evening everyone um Joe Cooper 9069 street I was born raised in Stewart come to support the um the tonight's meeting just talk about one of the things I talked about with bright line my dad is 93 in December um he took the TR I took him to a dolphin game and one the thing he was amazing about you know just going down the the railway to to the Dolphins game and he was able to visualize and see and slow motion at times but so part part of I come on behalf of him saying he supports the efforts to bring a train stop when you talk about East Stewart and his proximity with the designation of the historical designation there there there is some parallel there that could be utilized because it becomes a when people come to to with this bright line thought they're able to i' I've been talking to a couple of business owners they're trying to beef up their presence so that if you bring a stop here they can then benefit from that stock because people can visit and then we also talked about I think the young L mentioned about the CRA we're going to if we talk about the park um as we as we do the god Davis Park and we do the historical designation there's a whereas I know some people fear the Redevelopment of each store but there are folks that want to be a part of the Redevelopment stor They're Not Afraid um that a train station coming in proximity because they can benefit from so I'm trying to educate them on that um coming back and just being a more active person in the community and so I'm speaking to people they they want it um my dad wants it but he's on he's he says son my steps are getting short shorter um and he's been here forever and so um we we want this I understand the need to get a better deal and bus I'm a business owner so I understand that um but we have to find a way to get a better deal without jeopardizing the deal because there is a point where the deal collapses we don't have to I I think it's it's good that we want to make sure in construction we can figure it out um but we figured out on the flly I'm in construction so we figure out deals sometimes we get in we kind of cut some costs but we don't we don't stop the deal we do what we call Value engineering and we try to figure it out but we we still have a contract where we're going forward with and that's what I think we should do as a as a as a city go forward with the with this so that we can also as we talk about saying hey some folks have come up and said that they're concerned in E store but there are some folks that saying they want it my dad is one of them and I've got a couple business owners like I say that we need this um we can get a better deal without blowing up deal but we have to go forward with the deal and make sure that we're not putting ourselves in position to be litigated and we we know how that could end up really bad for the city thank [Applause] you Mr mat you know the tough meetings are going to come and the lawsuits are going to come no matter what you don't have to bring them upon yourself I'm Meritt mat I live off Palm City Road have a couple businesses in the city of Stewart and property within the CRA I had the honor of sitting up there for four years I was steuart's Point person negotiating Loom with the Army Corps of Engineers in South Florida Water Management District which was recently adopted I helped champion and bring term limits to the city of Stewart so all you got is 12 years up there at the most but that's part of the point the elected officials are meant to serve the taxpayers and make decisions in span of 20 or 50-year terms they're a blip in the timeline of a city I also helped negotiate the new rail bridge for bright line I sat in countless meetings with bright line negotiating is great but involves a few critical things you have to know who has the cards who has the upper hand steuart doesn't in this one but also involves reputation reputation is critical Stuart has a great reputation you all are up there you leaned on your reputation to get in that seat and in negotiating going into the future which I encourage you to do you're going to lean on the reputation of the city of Stewart and the work your predecessors did and the businesses did to build the city's reputation the best way to take a good reputation and to throw it in the dirt is to start resending deals business deals and agreements that have already been made and that's the easiest way to R ruin your negotiating power is to take the reputation and throw it in the dirt you're up there guaranteed for 4 years and I encourage you to negotiate the best deals for the taxpayer going forward do not go back and start resending deals and ruin Stewart's reputation and get us known as a place that reneges on our deals don't do it I've heard a lot of talk about financing I know a little bit about how the CRA works and who's paying for what if you take a county-owned property that's not paying any taxes and you build a $30 million station on it with a baseline of zero in the CRA and then you lease it to a company that's paying the taxes of a $30 million property starting at a zero Baseline in the CRA so all of that then comes back into the CRA they're paying the taxes on city-owned property that's money coming back thank you Mr M thank [Applause] you wow uh good evening Commissioners Marcela camblor sorry this is falling um I am over the past 30 years on and off a resident of the city of Stewart a business owner a property owner um my my office is just 20 steps away you know I think I I I want to thank staff because that presentation was amazing it just it just made me realize how much I have worked in the city I think I attended 9 90% of those meetings you talked about today I have dedicated hundreds of hours both paid and pro bono towards most of those projects in there I I remember some of you from most of those meetings a lot of you not some of you are newer in town I so I truly appreciate it um and I was going to come here to talk about as an architect and a planner the benefits of having the train this community has done amazing I don't want to repeat all of that I need to change what I was going to say because I'm truly in shock I am a mother of four my two oldest daughters 23 and 22 have seen us try to get the train and they're texting me tonight saying we got this far we can do it my 12-year-old twins are in tears past their bedtime they're saying mom we were going to go to um they're 12 and we were going to come home for dinner sometimes and it's not going to happen I have to go back tonight and tell them I don't know Mommy this time couldn't make it I am in shock that some of you run based on being the commission that listens many of us voted for you being the commission that listens and it seems to me that this is even more divisive than before in the first meeting we are spending over five hours by the way there's no air conditioning outside and we're all standing and I have big heels right and we've spent five hours discussing whether we're going to break our comprehensive plan not just the train this is the first meeting of the commission that run on not telling us you were going to undo the train but telling us you were going to respect our comprehensive plan so please I am hopeful we have for 30 years worked both sides of the aisle please let's negotiate this let's break rank this is not about you know the pack we formed this is about the entire Community let's this be the one commission that truly unites us all again it used to be like that in Stuart thank [Music] you I have dovet price doet DEET is it duet price and then Frank mccristal all right I thought I was going to come in and say good afternoon but I guess I'm going to say good night um guys members of the commission Ula Mr Mayor um you know I'm not going to repeat everything that everybody else has said in here today because because I feel that there's been a good mix and representation of folks talking about what I call ex sense now everyone will sit here and say oh there's money and financing and trying to figure out everything but this is a plan for the future and understand that to is a future of creating access to many places around the US right I travel around the US I serve on boards I've actually been in communities to help them figure out how to really look at proper development and how you grow and make sure you're dealing with all the constituents and taxpayers oh sorry I actually am business owner and property owner in the city of Stewart I've been here about 15 years um forgot to tell that in the beginning so now as I'm talking about this and I'm looking at the folks coming in here talking about the deal a part of this is everyone is saying taxes and economic viability and traffic access well everything that you guys are talking about having a to here helps that doesn't impact it as greatly as I'm hearing you know social media hey I can tell you I can be a lawyer on social media all day long and tell you how to make everything work that is not how I expect my commission and board to basically make decisions you need to listen to those who actually know what you're talking about to help help guide you whether it's the planner the city manager the attorney and the folks in the room that are actually professionals come in and speaking to you and saying your mind now as I'm listening and I'm watching this you know I have teenagers and I'm hoping like everybody else that when they grow up they will come back to visit or actually live here and if they live here they can go to the economic engines to actually work but still be able to come home every night that is something that I would tell tell you we will hope our kids are able to come back now as I'm listening with everything else I would tell you I believe that the intent I hope the intent of this motion that has been made is not disingenuous because based on how I've seen this meeting transpire tonight I am hoping that the real reason is really to go back and negotiate in good faith okay because not just as a way to get out of the comp plan violation you got to be going back in there to do it in in good faith because I will tell you one of the things that where I come from we have a proverb right A Bird in Hand is where two in the bush right now the Bird in Hand is a train station don't let it go away thank you [Applause] oh Frank mccristal to transport oriented development the globalist dream take our freedom away the evil car get it off the road get it off the road at any cost pack all the people in the small spaces where they won't need a car that's the room I'm sitting in right now the people that elected you are not in this room the common sense people that want you to work for them they elected you they're at home getting ready for work tomorrow they're not in this room and you know that you were you were told you're going to get a parking garage and a pedestrian walkover okay they take that away and the previous commission voted to approve it anyways hit me again even harder please the previous commission I hope they're having to come to Jesus moment and recognizing why they're not sitting up here tonight the common sense stuff without talking about the money and what a bad deal it is for taxpayers that we're going to fund this thing for a billion dollar multi-billion dollar company it's ridiculous all right the common sense stuff says you don't want to slow trains down any more than they're doing now you've got in the whole system the one Cog in the wheel is that bridge freight trains have to slow down to make room they got to maneuver that one spot the one Cog in the wheel and we're going to slow them down even more you talk about traffic all this for two stops in the morning and two stops at night again if you look at the big picture and I hope this people of East Stewart understand the big picture there are people that have Martin County and the City of Stewart on their radar they've ruined everything else down south they've run out of water out west for their golf courses and this is the apple of their eye Martin County city of Stewart and East Stewart this is step one the bright line to development is step one on all right you will be gone I've heard the name City Place banded about and so I would hope the people of East Stewart would come to realize one thing you need to look up at this commission and recognize who's working for you and who's working for the big boys thank you [Applause] I have Johan and then Susan Weaver waiver good evening how's everyone doing tonight my name is Yan born on October 10th 1998 you can figure out the math my family has been a part of this community for over 100 years tonight I urge you to make the best possible decision for the future of our city I stand with you in this process you're faced with a choice to either evolve or stay dead and lifeless to evolve I meant to either revoke or remain stagnant the cities the the city's need speak for themselves listen attentively please Choose Wisely wishing you all a blessed evening and get home safe I share Susan waiver Warner uh hello uh Susan Warner I am a city of St resident lifelong resident born at Martin Memorial Hospital I live off of Krueger Creek I wasn't going to speak tonight because I've already emailed you all and shared my great support for the station what I wanted to address uh were some things I've heard tonight about this theme of if we resend it's not really a recision we're just looking to renegotiate the deal so I'm an attorney I am a business attorney part of my job is negotiating deals and I have negotiated hundreds of them and what I can tell you is when you have a deal that is done and signed and fixed and then the other party backs out and resends and walk away I have never seen the other side come back to the table and renegotiate usually that is when everyone walks away and it is dead the thought that you resending means it's void that it exists no more and if you resend bright line now has no incentive to come back to the table because you've already shown that you're not going to honor the deal that you made and I will point out everyone keeps talking about this contract as if it came out of nowhere and not all but two of you on this panel had a deal in negotiating it I mean if you needed to negotiate a good deal then was your time to do it if you didn't get the deal that you wanted back then how are we supposed to believe you're going to get a better deal going forward once you've already shown bright line we're not going to honor our word so I I think it is a Fool's errand to assume and to take the risk that if you reject the deal that you've signed the bright Line's automatically going to come back to the table and not just pick up and say okay we're going to go to Fort Pierce I I think that's a huge gamble with the future of this city you have a signed deal it needs to be honored even if you can which I I think I didn't hear enough like from Mr bagot that resending is actually legally possible but even if you could I I I think it is a a big gamble of the city to think that bright lines is going to come back and negotiate please vote no on recision thank [Applause] you I have Andrew Walter Eric Wickstrom and Denise Chesley hello everyone my name is Andrew Walter and I've been resident of Martin County for over 5 years I'm going to keep this pretty short and sweet since I believe many of us already brought up the major points being from Miami I have a lot of roots down there I still have lots of friends from high school and college that I would love to see as well as being able to go down to see the many big name concerts and shows without having to make the two-hour Drive especially in the notorious South Florida traffic in addition I work in aviation and my future employer will be located at one of the South Florida airline BAS is I don't want to have to leave Stewart and would make my commute that much easier we can't afford to lose this stop it means too much to the community and to the people of Martin County Florida is growing and St is too whether you like it or not I strongly encourage you to keep this deal alive and allow the future Generations such as myself to enjoy the benefits of a project like bright line thank you [Applause] good evening good evening Mr Wickstrom um my name's Eric Wickstrom I'm a 25y year resident inside the city of Stuart Li City Limits I live at 835th Street I own Tera forada the bar and the property I pay about $144,000 a year in property tax I would like a little return on investment for something good something that's going to bring a little extra it's not going to make my business that much bigger but it's going to help a little and it's going to help I'm also a board director on the creek District of arts and entertainment which we just started kind of just south of confusion corner and it's um it's a revitalizing area that we're really trying to build something nice there and we've in we've really fixed up the Landscaping we're making it nice we're adding new places we're adding new entertainment new restaurants and the train is just something that's really could help that quite a bit it'd be foolish to take it away so in closing I've been sitting over here with a little paper and pad I got eight people spoke about resending 35 said don't resend boom that's over 80% it would be ridiculous to resend this thing thank you [Music] [Applause] our last speaker is Denise Chesley good evening Martin County Commissioners after my research on bright line please take the time to research how they are focusing on bringing tourists from Orlando to our area Fort Lauderdale and Miami Miami in June of 2024 commuter prices had a 21% increase from $399 to $1,400 for 40 tickets if you read articles through WPTV that does not benefit someone wanting to work and now having to drive with their price increase it's hard to imagine if I'm not a single mother who was trying to save money and now bright line being a private business is only looking out for themselves in their bottom line in which they can increase prices any time which we have seen compare the Tri Rail commuter train which is community owned and runs from Miami to West Palm why don't we get them to come up this way they are lowering their prices to help residents also bright line has not provided resources for their staff who has been traumatized by the deaths of people killed by their trains I was raised in Broward and went to Palm Beach Atlantic University university for a master's degree we do not want to become an area where more crime and have to hire more police and deputies since 2005 I have called Martin County home and the increase in traffic and crime is coming from counties south of us and those locating here from other states look at the crime rate in Riviera Beach West Palm in Miami do we want that in our County I personally don't what will happen if upstanding residents and families will move away I know about 10 families who have moved away this past year because of the traffic growth and taxes bright Line's agenda is to advertise to tourists I believe visiting Orlando to make a profit more than they can for our commuter prices they are I saw this week they are giving more discounts now for Orlando tickets if their agenda is for to go to Coco Beach then let them go somewhere else I have never been one to speak out about issues but this one keeps me up at night no grants have come through how much will taxpayers have to pay for a train that might not be a big economic benefit to our community have you taken the bright line yourself I me I'm just asking I have not and I have family in Miami and Fort Lauderdale I choose to drive so I can leave when I need to I am just hoping that you all will think about this and I know it's been a long night but the cost to build this would be 4500 square foot tax steart taxpayers 300 I'm sorry 30 okay thank you thank you thank you thank thank all of you for taking the making the time and staying so late and sharing your hopes and fears uh Madam clerk I believe we we received a great number of emails regarding this and do you have a tally of how many were in favor of keeping the station and those who are in favor of resending uh we had 246 yes and 36 no okay thank you so I am ruling the and I can do this up until the time the motion passes I'm ruling the prior motion out of order can't do it yes you can't do it tell we approve the agenda we're we have a motion in a second Campbell you can't do until the motion passes I can rule it out of order you can't we're in a mo we're in until it passes it can be ruled out of order by the chair that's what my Roberts R says that is Robert Rules of Order on already signed we approve the agenda I'm not saying we will not consider item 11 I am only saying in the motion and have a second it's time for a vote my concern is there was a motion in a second and it was stated in until the motion passes I can rule it out of order attorney can we have a vote now actually comments from our commissioners as per our procedur can you read me the what it says that my rule Robert's Rule says [Music] what that prior to the motion passing it can be ruled out of order agenda there's a reason we approve the agenda it's that's what he saying the third one got okay we took them all three what grounds are you ruling it out of order on we got to do it by we got to do the right thing though we have to do it the right way the chair May on his own initiative or after a point of order rule a motion out of order before it has been passed based on what grounds it's Robert's Rules of your attorney is telling you you're [Music] wrong it's really the discretion of the board the staff doesn't have the authority to tell the board no I mean he can give his opinion but then you guys have to follow whatever you want my concern is Robert sches of ERS there was a motion a second and then it was stated and it went out for public comment but um the board as Mr mortell said Can suspend the rules can change the rules but that should be by majority vote excuse me Mr Mayor agend Mr Mayor can I ask a question uh the commissioner do okay you made mention that it was a point of order what was the point of order no I said the motion is out of order the point of order was that we we called agenda items 10 11 and 12 and read them at the same time the mayor is saying that the motion is on number 12 and that we should hear them in the order in which the the board adopted the agenda but that's not how we presented we presented them all three at once so they should any one of them should be allowed to and then it was stated that we would consider each in order and vote on each individually and we had a motion in a second and we are in there's a motion on the table it is now time for comments from our commissioners and then we would have a vote that's our procedure I don't know how we you're going rogue as mayor yes commissioner Clark um attorney um bagot did we read all three our resolution titles and said we discuss all three together yeah and um we are I was under the impression that even with this discussion and getting the information from the public that we would take resolution number 90- 24 and and deal with that because it's original agreement from December the 12th and uh I think that's that's you to do one way or the other can we move forward no that's my ruling you no so so the chair is making a rul that's my ruling you don't have the authority to make that ruling I do but then it's out of order if that's the case then we're so now the FL is open to a new motion just go forward let go we're going to bring it up again anyway it's not going to be a new thing Mr bagot will you read resol resolution 90-20 24 for the consider our consideration hold on don't we have when you made your motion Mr um commissioner C Collins was your motion referred to to resolution number 90- 2024 no it was item 12 okay just 91 so I would like for us to go but in order I thought that I honestly thought that we were going in order and that's what we were doing that's the first item that's the first thing that um I know what you're saying are you saying that the other two items could possibly stay and you're all interested in trying to deal with the last Amendment to the to the interlocal agreement yes is that what but I think then we need to be clear where we stand on the other two motions and make sure that they're in place and if they're in place and you can talk about so can I speak can I speak to this you you have to deal with that amended Ila before you would really consider doing anything with number 10 the amended Ila needs to be disposed of before you start trying to do anything with the that doesn't make sense to go in the opposite order you wouldn't go after the initial Ila and then deal with the amended you should deal with the amended first then either deal with number 10 or 11 next okay so then thank you Mr Mayor mayor does that not make sense may I respond to that you certainly may commissioner so Mr Mayor I um I know that there's been a motion in second and I've made motions and seconded items and I've gone and I haven't voted for what I did but it came up as a discussion and support of the discussion so anybody whether somebody who has made the motion or seconded it they can vote hopefully in the best interest of listening to what has happened here um staff staff has done a good job doing a lot of explanations I want again I think we had somebody who came up and made a comment Mr Mortel as well as Mr baggot when we do anything with regard to the most recent Ila that was signed apparently by the vice mayor to be sent over to the county for consideration I am I do not want to vote on that um unless I'm going to vote against it which I know that I I probably will or under under the same because of this the the the thing that if we vote on that and then we go back and we do something else to to item 10 and 11 I I mean that's where then we should just say let's vote on item 10 if we're going to keep it that way we'll keep it we'll keep 11 then we're going to decide that um the most recent thing is something that we need to negotiate I'll just make my arguments because we're discussing this item 12 we've heard um the public come in front of us and this is not all of my arguments no commissioner clerk where are you going I just wanted to say is that I think that if we say that we're going to take a little teeny bite of the Apple that might be the bite that takes the crown off your teeth okay and breaks it forever so I think that I just don't think it's appropriate um to say that we're GNA pick this little piece and that's what we're going to work with there's no Assurance anyhow I I I really this procedural issue that you've brought up with regard to Robert's Rule and in my sitting here for 12 years on the city commission and with dealing with Robert's Rule I haven't heard that but if we can deal with it legally and it won't be a lawsuit personally or with the city or if we can hear from the the dis now if our um attorney can say that is appropriate that's how Robert rule has been used and that is something that can go with just it seems like it's some kind of a um I wouldn't say dictator thing but it because it's uh you know it it seems like that because it says the chairperson can do that maybe in a small close to heeld cooperation somebody I don't know but right now with our city council I want to hear a legal opinion as to whether or not at this point in the meeting after we've had discussion after we've had the um the motion in the motion in the second if it's appropriate to pull Robert's Rule of Order and say um that's not appropriate and we'll still come back to it apparently but I need to hear from our legal department and if not it's probably won't hurt to listen to all of our conversations and um make a make a a decision on it think he's ready to give you all right so normally we have an agenda and we have them numbered for a reason we do go in that chronological order and I guess when you guys uh pulled items from the consent calendar and move things around you didn't mention moving 10 11 and 12 in any fashion I think we uh the staff had recommended reading 10 11 and 12 together because me and Mr mortell we're going to be doing presentations where we wouldn't have to do it three times um however Mr uh commissioner Collins was recognized by the chair and had the floor right and he made a motion which was seconded by uh commissioner jobi and it was stated and then we went to public comment so uh my concern is that that those follow the Robert's Rules of Order on how the motion proceeded um however I guess what the mayor is saying is that we've gone out of order on the agenda and you guys did vote on the agenda uh the order of it if you recall we moved number 15 up but we didn't reverse 10 11 and 12 so I I think we probably have a a secondary type motion um on whether or not you want to keep items 10 11 and 12 in order or take up Mr Collins's uh motion as it was Lee should we vote on that then um I guess my recommendation is that the board vote on whether to stay in order or take Mr Collins's uh motion with the second from uh commissioner jobi on number 12 First Mr baget the chair has made a ruling there is only one course of action the board can take but you have no uh pretense to do that it's it's arbitrary it's capricious you have no rationale for why you do that I appreciate your complaint but that is not the required action by the board he just recommended that we vote it is not up to Mr baggot he's the attorney are you the king I am the chair of this meeting you are the king is that how I am not saying this item will not be considered it will simply be considered in the order we originally agreed to that is all you're out of order lawyer you're the lawyer I I've given my legal advice I can't dictate how you guys run Rec he's recommended as our attorney that we vote on this so I would like to motion that we go forward with what I just proposed with um item 12 that is that is that's what our lawyer just said that's not the action the board can take when the chair has made a motion that it is out of order your lawyer is telling you otherwise why is this so difficult commissioner Clerk no sorry Mr commissioner goob I'm sorry you okay so right now we have a motion on the floor which has been second okay can we move forward we need to go forward with that and then if you want you can re Rego back to the ones in order but the motion was made honestly and that was the time to shut it down let me finish what I have to say if you were going to pull if you were going to pull them and say they were out of order you would have had to do it before he made his motion and exactly that is true that's Robert's Rules of Order did ra the objection when you made the motion but not I did say it was out of order that is [Music] correct I mean not it doesn't it doesn't matter which order you guys could you guys could call them and vote them and anyway you want you have to vote on all three motions anyway why would you not let us just [Music] vote why can we not just vote [Music] hearing no proper motion to overrule the ruling of the chair I am asking Mr bagot to please read item 10 for our consideration resolution number 9-22 a resolution of the city Commission of the city of Stewart Florida resending the interlocal agreement with Martin County dated December 12th 2023 authorizing the submission of a joint proposal to Bright line trains LLC for the development of a train station in downtown Stewart providing for conflict providing an effective date and for other purposes is there a m is there a motion Mr Mayor before we begin discussion is there a motion I would we table this as per our attorney Mr Mayor was speaking yes I'm sorry commissioner Clark was speaking you Mr Mayor with regard to um item number 10 as published and as read by the City attorney item number 90- 20-24 on a interlocal agreement that was approved on December 12th 2023 I move that the city commission maintains this um agreement and all of the terms of the agreement as previously published and agreed to and that this um resolution that there be no re ision of this resolution is there a [Applause] second just to be clear if there is no vote on to resend this this interlocal agreement will remain in effect and we will be bound by those terms does everyone understand that right so I would motion that for 10 in particular we we have a motion the only subsequent action to that is to Second it or not okay your majesty so failing to hear a second the motion fails and the original interlocal agreement has not been rescinded and will remain in [Music] place don't celebrate yet don't Cate yet [Applause] it's not what you think hold on 11 Mr Mr bagot will you read item number 11 for our consideration please resolution number 992-2244 resending the ground lease agreement with bright line trains Florida LLC dated August 12th 2024 providing for the long-term lease of property and construction of a train station in downtown Stewart on Flagler Avenue providing for conflict providing an effective date and for other purposes mayor I would like to make a motion that we approve resolution number 92 2024 resolution of the city commission City Commission of the city of Stewart resending the ground lease agreement with bright line there's a motion to resend to approve to approve the recision it's kind of a negative 92202 4 a second I second the motion so there is a motion by commissioner Collins and a second by commissioner goob we have had public comment and they were told it would apply to all three so we don't need any further deliberation of the board yes but so the board may now deliberate on this item are there any questions or comments from any of the Commissioners regarding this item um I do have a comment not in direct to this but I just wanted to make a statement number one I did answer mostly 98% of the emails that I received and there were certainly many Pros many cons so I just want that to be out there so that you understand not everyone excuse me excuse me not everyone who's in this room and I understand your position there were other people in the city who voted who sent me emails who are also concerned about what this would bring to steuart and it's not about the train it's about that this public private partnership can be public private Partnerships can be very successful but this agreement morphed into a public public Financial agreement this was the city of Stewart the county and no bright line we have gone into an agreement where bright line is no skin in the game basically they have per one agreement they have the ability to mortgage leverage a mortgage against property that they do not own has anyone asked the question if they default on that mortgage what happens um commissioner go commiss commissioner okay and this is it's late let's not make it a lot I can't answer that question we did go through that in great detail with them the mortgage is a triple net non-sub land lease it does not allow them to put any type of lean on the land at all it only allows them to mortgage the structures above it and that happens all the time in office financing and things like that no matter what to maintain possession as a tenant they have to continue to perform the terms of the lease so if in fact they were to mortgage it with Bank of America and to default and Bank of America wanted to take over the building Bank of America would then be responsible to provide the train service between Miami in Orlando with those stops on a daily [Applause] basis but that but if Bank of America did not take it over there would still be the debt on the property related to it but we could then retake possession based upon the terms of the lease okay and but if they like because if they went bankrupt or went away right and they weren't providing the service obviously we would have a train station there with with no train service and the other statement I was going to make this is a company that posted $116 million loss in the first quarter of 2024 and we're entering into a long-term agreement with them uh Mr Mayor oh you commissioner clerk commission cler no you're Mr Reed was up before me commissioner re I do I have a bunch of comments that I wrote down um I wanted do mine too I think when it comes to the lease in particular there's pros and cons to the bright line deal obviously you know the room wouldn't be stacked with all these people here um I think Martin County had a very good opportunity to negotiate the parking rates at their board meeting uh commissioner herd brought it up and it was never really discussed so there was no revenue generated from parking um they mentioned it was $8 to $15 per day but nothing was set in stone just that they would use other stations as a comparable for what they were going to charge uh my questions would be were there any revenue or discussions from studies done or any business owners from other stations that were built around the state maybe to compare what the revenue was before bright line and what it was after because obviously there's business owners in this room that are looking for a revenue generator and I don't know if there was ever any discussions that were had um also someone mentioned bright line having a ticket price increase of 21% in May of this year that's astronomical from a small business owner perspective myself um as far as the Fort Pierce bright line deal and their RFP they capped it at 20 million for bright line for the actual train station our deal was 45 million from the city and the county and that's probably why they chose us um on page seven of the original RFP in December of 2023 it mentions there's 169 existing parking spaces on the three Parcels that the station will be built on my question was how will bright line or the city fit 200 minimum spaces without going vertical and having the 8,000 ft facility there's 's no site plan that's drawn up to determine any of thisen um also on page 47 of the original RFP that the city and the county sent it mentions that the city is responsible for 100% of the parking garage up to $30 million obviously we're not getting a parking garage anymore bright line then responded to the original RFP and on page one the verbiage did changed and they mentioned funds shall be used on the design and development of the parking garage to be developed on the land Andor train station so they changed the verbiage from the original RFP to their response earlier this year to the city um I know the lean has already been covered um I do believe a reconsideration would have been more appropriate or maybe even an amendment to the original discussion to where some of these issues could have been talked about more in detail um I think it'd be much easier to determine the cost of the station if you had a site plan nobody has mentioned the cost in detail because it's not drawn up um I did ask bright line particularly Ally she was supposed to get me numbers on what the actual Station cost in the city of bokeh I never received that so it was hard to do a comparable there I also looked up um on property appraiser for the city of boa rone station and there's zero tax coming in from that by the way um I have it pulled up on my laptop right now and there is zero tax that they receive at least according to the property appraiser for that location um so I didn't see the tax revenue there may not have any correct I I be a commercial building I didn't see it also it was 56 million in cost for the bokeh reton station and it was 17 million and improve Improvement for the actual building so they spent $56 million and you only got 17 million in Improvement and there's zero tax revenue to the city of bokeh for that station so at least according to the property appraiser um let's see and it mentions from 2020 2021 22 23 and 24 there was Zero tax revenue for that station and you can see the revenue or the um assessed value and taxable value go up and the land goes from 5.8 million to 19.5 million and the Improvement value went from 6.2 million to 17 million for a total market value of $36 million but zero taxes are generated for the city of boka thank you commissioner Clark oh you're up okay so um I know that I'm supposed to stay Salient to the uh to the terms of the of the lease uh the ground lease I was um a part of it I I don't I don't have any um I don't have any issue with it and I think it's just this third am agreement that um I think some of our commissioners weren't here and then we have new Commissioners that have come in so with regard to this I didn't get to talk much when I I when I did item number 10 so I'm just going to make um some statements if you don't mind and I hope that people don't think we have more than three minutes but I'm just want to say first I want to this has been said before but I want to thank staff they haven't done every single thing but I think they've opened up a lot of our community's eyes on both sides and all also just bringing the information maybe we could have had our finance person I know that bright line I think they said they would be here they could give information to us so that we can have some ideas but I just want to thank the the staff I had a note to assure the residents that their letters that they sent us that they were part of the record and I know somebody had asked for something to be read into the record but we didn't have them all printed out but their letters are there um I just want to say that I've came here as a transportation planner in Martin County in 1985 because we were going to become an urbanized metropolitan area and I must say I don't want to pick out anybody but I will pick it out I just want to say kudos to to to Bonnie Moser and her son and to Johan and to Mr um vitali's um son just the young people just their their Zeal to want to come and become be a part of our activities and our decision making I really appreciate that and of course everybody who's spoken on both sides of the issue I really appreciate that um passenger ra creates a uh connection connectivity is a is a key um Regional Transportation ease of movement safety saving gasoline all these other things that every everybody has talked about I think it's it's important and when we look at everything and we listen to everybody yes we have a few nitpicky things or maybe we have something which I think staff is very capable of discussing and dealing with if there are any changes to these plans that come up in the future that staff is more than capable and that's why we have them we make decisions up here but we are also aided a lot by what's staff does and how they help us but I I think that after listening to everything whatever we had on the next item which is coming up to me and to all of these three items it flies in the face of our comprehensive plan and the objectives that were put out here objective 2A um 10.02 and objective 2A 10.3 and all those policies I think it just flies in the face of our comprehensive plan in terms of this this idea of resending um this agreement and this lease agreement that was done on August the 12th so um I think we should follow that agreement and we should trust our staff and um we can always come forward if there are any amendments that need to happen we have competent staff and they um they can they can deal with these things I think that this kind of a meeting and the the issue issues that we're dealing with is a test to us having a steady stable commission and displaying thoughtful decision making for the greater good we're always never going to get everybody happy and it's just going to be one of those things everybody won't be happy but you have to look at the greater good okay and I know that uh people are saying well it's a greater good to say that maybe this the price is going to increase so we shouldn't be involved with it I'm not going to stray with regard to East Stewart um all of us represent East Stewart all of us represent Stewart all of us represent East Ocean Boulevard North close up to North River Shores in in that area um all of us represent the entire city of Stewart and East Stuart has we've worked on a um a East Stewart um code and Urban code we've got an East Stewart involved in the CRA there are people who say well if the prices go up on houses they can't pay their taxes they're going to have to move out growth and development and change causes all these things and learning information and using information and moving along with the tide is what makes a area vibrant and staying with it not just criticizing all the time but working with it and and I think that the years that I've been here have been working to push that and to help people to become more involved and I'm hoping I glad I'm glad for the people who came out whether they're from East Stewart or other areas of our city and I think that it's important to know what's there and to for people to take advantage of some of the things that are involved with the CRA so I think that's important um we we talked about the parking spaces and the the parking garage and I think that was one of the things that really spurred this this kind of um I don't know if you'd call it a change of heart but this is one of the things that got kind of spurted the last meeting I said If ever if we're going to consider this I'm going to do a one for all for one and one for all because I wanted to show some unity in our commission that if people thought that they needed to learn and understand and figure out something then let's get an opportunity to do that but but I I I tell you after listening to all the conversation and having all the information that we need and know what is on the line that we need to make sure that we know that we can't go back and change our minds and try to court bright line at some point okay um I talked about road safety and that kind of thing for it as far as I'm concerned in this agreement here resolution number 92 2024 and the land lease that's associated with it I want to find out what is so egregious about that land lease um and and what why why is it that we want to change it what is the egregious part of that land you land leas that needs to be changed I just want to know that from whether the commissioner who's who's proposed it or asked for it to be rescinded I want to know specifically what was so egregious with when the decision was made on August the 12th I don't think that that um uh one of our commissioners was absent from that meeting but I still want to know what is so egregious that we're willing to have this discussion and willing to put the city out to possibly have lawsuits and to spend lots of money on lots of things that it's my all fashion people would say it's it it ain't going to amount to a hill of beans anyhow but lawyers and some of people are going to get money out of it bright line is still going to go on and do their business if they're if they boom or bust they're still going to be there but we just need to know that what we have that bird in the hand we need to work with it um the benefits I think far outweigh the idea of letting um a few pennies save a few pennies to let Millions get squandered later on so I think that it is I am going to give a a few phrases I'm from a different background I was born in Jamaica came here when I was 18 but I'm going to give this there's a a little proverb that I know of it says sometimes you're cutting off your nose to spite your face okay we need to avoid litigation another thing that I'd like to say is that um public transportation such as bright line I've been in this business for 40 years and we here have um compact communities have Transit nodes have Regional Transportation save energy do this and when we try to do it and let something come to fruition we find one or two things to nitpick and say that we we don't want to do it I'm going to end in a little bit let me do this before I the little we're worried about take all the time you want commissioner I want to say something from a great um hero of mine Dr Martin Luther King Jr said faith faith faith we started having prayer in our at the beginning of our meetings so we have some micrum of faith in our lives take Faith take the first step in faith you don't have to see the whole staircase just take the first step okay if bright line Falls tomorrow if 50 people die on the the bright line track whatever it is let's stay steadfast in what little part that we can do and the decision that we can control and take care of to try to move to the Future another thing and if somebody wants to blame me or say I'm whatever I am I'm going to say this ain't nobody going to turn me around okay that's a little song It's a spiritual song and I believe that I made a decision in December 2023 I understood what was going on I sat and met with my staff I met with bright line people I talk to people I've listened to people on both side I was out there with Stacy Ingram know all aboard Florida I know a lot of us didn't want the train but when we know about the the semantics of the ownership of the land and the Fe and all the different things that are happening everybody has said a lot of things here that says why the benefit it's far outweigh and I said my last thing don't bite off more than you can chew okay who are who are we going to save that one penny for it's not a penny it's Millions but don't bite off it's just it just just don't don't bite off more than you can chew just like we're saying that we don't know about bright Lin's money and how their business is going to be run when we start this thing and if there's a lawsuit we're going to be going down that road and money is just going to be going down the river thank [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you I'll be quick it's uh it's a bad deal for taxpayers it it's difficult because it's it's an emotional issue and there's a lot of emotional energy behind it uh but it is a bad deal for taxpayers I did not actually vote on that previous agreement for whoever said that but um the bad deal I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm happy to I'm happy to speak specifically to it but that's inappropriate answer questions from can I talk the issue the issue is that with the original agreement with bright line in the county bright line was going to pay for its portion of that station the county was going to pay 15 million and the city was going to pay for a parking garage when that changed and bright line got off the hook and the city's 30 million got rolled into the remainer of that station that's an issue I know that there's a lot of you that want a station no matter what would give our firstborn kid for a station it seems like we want this station so bad but it's got to be a deal where bright line pays its fair share it's not a good deal not it's not a good deal please please let him speak please so though with that I'll end my comments any other comments so I get the last word on this issue so we're on the hook we have an agreement no we don't we did not resend the interlocal agreement which our legal council stated as stated above only one of the agreements appears to be validly adopted and in place the interlocal agreement we did not resend it so we're on the hook and that says we will pay 100% of the cost of a Park parking garage and bright line can enforce that so that was a deal the city was not originally happy with and as deal go and you have three parties they have been renegotiated to the so that the city it works best for the city and I do I share commissioner Clark confidence in our staff in that they accomplish that I'm sitting up here with two Commissioners who were not even born when my wife and I moved here in 1980 and the downtown Stewart was completely dead nobody went there it was and with great skill and dedication decisions were made to bring this downtown to where we are today and it took decades and we stood on each other's shoulders we created a comprehensive plan that allowed that to happen and the business people who put so much effort in and so much money in to turn our back on them when we have this opportunity it just breaks my heart because you if you haven't seen how bad it can be you don't understand the Peril we and it took decades to get here it took us decades to be the best coastal small time it took us decades to be what are we we we won three Awards recently and this group goes I'm not throwing the baby and the bathwater out I'm throwing the whole tub out yes because I am going to the comprehensive plan says quite specifically we shall restore train service to this exact location this is not [Applause] complicated developers take note throw a lot of money in the local commission race get people voted up here and just trash the comprehensive plan because we apparently we don't even respect it and that's a horrible message to be sending I'm going to tell you a little story I am the city of Stewart's representative to the Florida League of cities the Florida League of cities is a Statewide organization 411 municipalities across the state and it includes a very powerful lobbying arm that helps us accomplish in tallah the issues that are vital to our survival because as you all know the state wants to get get rid of cities I just attended for the first time their annual meeting down in Hollywood Florida there were about 600 people there elected mostly elected representatives but also city managers and City staff and and uh League staff and you wear this very large bad I was going to but it's very very large and it has your your name on it and tells you the subcommittees on it and it tells the city right steuart every single person who came up to me said dude you rocked it how did you accomplish that how did you get that train station that is fantastic what an opportunity for you and your city not one person goes boy you got screwed how soon are you going to go bankrupt these are people with Decades of experience sitting up here making the decisions that we have to make they were envious rightly so because they share the same goals we do to reduce traffic to support their local businesses that can provide jobs to keep their kids here cuz there didn't none of the kids used to be able to hang around here because there were no jobs and now there are and by the way those businesses allow us to ease the burden on you the individual taxpayer because somebody's got to pay those bills and if you injure business that bill is going to come due they know that the ability of are you know those of us who live in steart in live in Martin County as was said we can access South Florida we can access the cruise Hub we can access the airports we can ask access ex the crais center and that's a great thing it's that is just a great thing they know that being and this speaks to gee can bright line get some skin in the game they they are on the hook for $6 billion this is a$6 billion infrastructure project that will reduce pollution keep cars off of our roads reduce highway deaths and help reduce as was said if we don't get these cars off the road somehow the amount of money we pay for roads is just going to continue to Skyrocket and it's really expensive to build and maintain roads um and just to speak fin uh not but further expand on what they're on the hook for so worst case scenario bright line fails what happens we get our parking lot back and we get the building it's pretty much like it is right now be a cafe we are we are not giving the land to them we are leasing them the land and for the $20 million whatever it is we don't no they're agreeing to pay $2 million for 80 years $160 million to operate and maintain that station in the parking lot and it will go on the tax RS tax rolls some comments were made at the last meeting about bokeh so I called the mayor of bokeh and asked him about the costs he paid the reason the parking garage in boka Ron is not on the rolls is is because the city of bokeh owns it and operates it for their own benefit and as I said well what did it cost you he goes well it costs us you know he goes but we always wanted a parking garage anyway so in my mind it didn't cost us anything so you have to be very careful about comparing stations every station has a different agreement with bright line and to say they won't get tax you know we won't get tax free proceeds because they will is just that's apples and oranges you know to accomplish that this this is our job this is what we're supposed to do and without a doubt in this instance with this opportunity we have accomplished it and with that Madame clerk can you call the role I can commissioner Reed no commissioner giobi no commissioner Clark what is this to resend um this is a vote to resend number 92- 20 2024 there's confusion there's confusion about the motion there's confusion about the motion it's to approve resolution number 992-2244 yeah hold on commissioner Clark do you commissioner CS do you wish to be recognized there there's confusion about the motion so can you clarify how does it work we we have Mary re reread the uh the motion so either one of you two can one of you two read the motion there's a lot of talking there's confusion about the motion it's simply was um a motion made by hear the motion thank you can we hear the motion motion made by commissioner Collins seconded by Laura goobi and it was to approve resolution number 992-2244 I'm trying to you just said I could speak you just said I could speak do can Lee and I talk real quick oh on the you need to sit down commissioner re you need to sit down you don't need to B anybody else around let him speak him if you want it's not a meeting the City attorney is not a member of the board so it's not a violation of sunshine he's asking the City attorney a legal question and he has the right to do so so we have new Commissioners we have new Commissioners so uh commissioner Collins I'm I'm still trying to make my comments he's not in the room it's neither as a City attorney it's inapproiate you guys can adjourn the meeting or not but you can wait for him but you have them you have Quorum so you can proceed without them if you want there issue with I mean neither of them said they had any confusion you said said I heard she didn't understand the motion she seconded so the second didn't tell she has to say she's confused she has to bring It Forward can I finish my comment out you said your comment you've made your comment I didn't get a chance to finish my comment we're voting we're voting was there confusion on the motion mayor Rich so the for clarification excuse me the meeting the meeting is not over so any commissioner before the meeting is over can redo it we're in the process of voting it's not over it's not over yet it's not over yet can we mayor Rich no they don't understand I'm going to adjourn the meeting for five minutes we will reconvene at 10:30 you e e e e e e e e e e e e reconvening this meeting Mr Mayor commissioner goob first I want to apologize to everyone um I was confused and I can only fall on the fact that I am a new commissioner when the May when the mayor took off the motion that I had seconded I thought that they were voting on another item so I want to recast my vote well I'm asking the May to rec no it's not an offer excuse me m it's not an offer right up until time the res uh the results of the vote are spoken by the mayor any member may change their vote right so Madam clerk commissioner Collins will you please allow me to conduct the meeting absolutely Madame clerk apparently commissioner goobi wishes to change her vote shall I start over or just start with i for the record only commissioner job has requested to change your vote okay so just for the will you call her please as to her May Rich commissioner Reed I'd like if we uh did the roll call from beginning to end to start fresh okay apparently commissioner Reid would like to change his vote as well so Madame clerk will you poll the board again commissioner clerk as to um resolution number 92 2024 uh I do not wish to resend the ground lease with bright line trains Florida LLC so you are voting no I do not wish to I do not it's confusing yeah it's a it's a negative Motion in a way which is confusing the motion is to resend so you and I do not wish to resend I'm making it plain so you have to say yes or no she said no okay commissioner Collins yes Laura giobi yes commissioner Reed yes and I think it should have been better negotiated from the beginning mayor Rich mayor Rich mayor Rich no the motion passes 3 to two we have next agenda item Mr baget will you read the next item for our consideration resolution number a resolution of the city Commission of the city of Stewart Florida resending the amended interlocal agreement with Martin County relating to the development of a train station in downtown Stewart providing for conflict providing an effective date and for other purposes mayor is there a motion I would like to move approval on resolution number 91 2024 a resolution of the city commission to resend the amended interlocal agreement with Martin County for a train station if there's a second 91 2024 uh number 12 so 91 2024 resending the amended interlocal agreement with Martin County for the train station commissioner Collins please ask to be recognized I second the motion we have a motion by Comm commissioner Collins and a second by commissioner Joby on 91 2024 is there any discussion may I make one statement you certainly may just for clarification a yes vote on number 12 here would be to resend the amended interlocal agreement a no vote would be not to resent so just for a clear adults I said one the other I just both okay he is allowed he is allowed to make that comment no other comments from the Commissioners Mr mortell we failed to resend 10 we recent at 11 where the heck are we now from a legal standpoint well from a potential liability standpoint 10 is that we will submit a joint submitt to Bright line including the terms that were in the submitt and that occurred on March 4th bright line responded to that and we ultimately entered into the agreement that was rescinded tonight but based upon the resolution at last meeting the agreement was never ratified by the city so we never entered we don't have an agreement as it relates to what is before us it was never ratified by the county right well it it's not ratified it doesn't regardless at this moment in time we have a joint interlocal agreement with the county that we will sub that we will send an an offer to Bright line that that reads with verbatim whatever it says in the resolution dated December 12th 2023 or 11th 202 23 whatever that date was and I mean it's five pages long I'm not going to read every word of it so that's what we have there's also currently pending an amendment to that interlocal agreement that has been signed by the city on the 13th of August or 14th of August and sent to the county for them to consider which I believe they're taking up tomorrow right I assume that if it gets rescinded tonight there's no reason for them to take it up tomorrow because there's nothing for them to take up [Music] right um but M I may I just finish my question thank you sir thank you the original agreement does that require us to build a parking garage if bright line forces the issue well under if in fact I mean this they're all hypotheticals right so if hypothetically it was three years from now and bright line had sued us and we went to trial and the court found that we had entered into the agreement and that it was binding under the land lease the city was agreeing to be responsible to build the entire project because we were stepping in the shoes of Martin County they were not going to be the contractor we were we were handling the entire project so under the contract we would be responsible for the entire 45 million without any of the county money if in fact we rescinded with the county but that is assuming that that contract was found to be binding and that we had that contract and all of that going forward assuming the opposite of that and hypothetically again that the contract isn't binding in 3 years when the court hearing is over then the only thing that would be we would be responsible for is submitting The Proposal which we submitted so it wouldn't the the December interlocal agreement under the second hypothetical wouldn't there'd be no breach of it we didn't breach it we did it we did everything in it it's the the there's language in the contract that says what the city would do but that falls under the the second resolution that we've already addressed bright line agreement commissioner Clark okay I want to use this time to do what other Commissioners do which is say things out of turn or do whatever they feel like doing or saying anyhow um I just want to say with regard to resolution number 91 d224 and for my fellow Commissioners I don't want to create any tribe I don't want to have any um you know dissension among on our group but I don't like it when as adults and we've voted and we've sworn and taken an oath and then we come and say I didn't know I didn't understand I should have could have would have and I think that if we're going to study the matter and understand it and digest it and then still come to the meeting and hear other comments and hear other things and make the decisions you're up here we may not be paid a lot but you're up here to make the decision and it's not a decision on the Fly it's a decision that you have to stand Resolute and pull everything together and and and make a decision and I know that there might be some confusion and I understand that but again you can't just say because you've gone through this process to get to this position that you know I'm new I didn't know I didn't understand and yes we're not perfect it's going to happen but I just want to say that there's been so many displays of so many things I thought it was going to be the public that was going to give us some problems tonight I didn't know it was going to be us with different ways of figuring out how we're governing and how we are learning and respecting and being kind to each other so I just wanted to make that statement because I have an opportunity to to speak and um I will vote on the motion when the time comes but I just want to caution us that we don't want to have this kind of thing happen again it's all over the world it's probably we're probably the new Tik tock on um on whatever so I just think so you know I just I so I just think um I just I really if if our city if our and I I I trust staff but if if our city ATT a City attorney and our city manager will sit down with each individual person and try to bring them into the fold as to how things are whatever needs to happen but we don't need to have this kind of display on the Das and we need to be careful what we say careful what we do and just and how we do it because people are watching us Bonnie moser's child and other children and other people are watching us and they came up here with good intent today to say that they wanted to listen to us we can vote against things but it's the way in which we do it and approach it steuart is better than that we have the smartest richest persons in the community in the world here in Stuart we have poor people too but what we need is earnest steadfast people who have good hearts and good Minds who want to make sure that we're problem solving and we're staying the course and I think that people need to see that in our commission and have some faith in us and know that we're really um know what we're doing when we make a decision that's all I have to say thank you I just we're voting for worse traffic we're turning our backs on our business community we I mean we're rejecting rejecting the opportunities that are provided by a state-of-the-art modern public transportation system that impacts not just the city not just the county but all of South Florida you know it's so easy to be against stuff yeah the trick is find a way to accomplish something and move forward and make a deal and we have done that and the comments regarding the damage that will be done to our reputation are very real don't ignore that this is not how business people operate and [Music] I'm that's all I have to say 10 resed or not can we just finish our action on this one please Mr so on item 12 Madame clerk 91-2002 4 do you wish does any commissioner wish to have it re read again to them no will you call the role please I will commissioner Reed yes commissioner Collins yes commissioner Clark no mayor Rich no commissioner giobi yes wow [Music] uh so we moveing this meeting 15 we brought we already heard so we're going to adjourn we adjourn right this meeting is over so we can adjourn it this meeting is adjourned let's give them a minute e e I think it should be negotiated What's the title of this one Mike 100 you're very smart you're a smart guy okay I got it I have all my notes right here I'm calling to order the special commission meeting tentative millage and tentative budget of the steart city Comm my number you have my number that's right I forgot about officer Heidi yeah go away Roger that's call me thank you call me do I get to recall my my thoughts do I get to recall my thoughts and change what I just said this the budget one do I need my second monitor do anything you want you will you call the rooll mayor Rich president commissioner Clark president Commission Collins here commissioner goob yes here commissioner Reed yes here do we have any comments by City commissioners commissioner Reed you wish to make any comments regarding this special meeting yeah as far as this uh this is for Jolie is the link still the same for the budget then that you originally sent me or this is the this is the public version of the budget gotcha the one that I sent you had not for public all over it the public one so this this is the this is the good one and um I I I don't know boss do we have a do you have a presentation planned or well we we don't need to I mean it depends if we're going to make if we're going to ask questions of Jolie let's do it after his presentation so do you have comments regarding really non-agenda things is that's the point of the comments is I just I want to clarification there is there is a new link commissioner this is the public version and that's the one I should be looking at yes sir I sent everyone I'm just making sure yes sir thank you please do commissioner goob do you have any comments not related okay commissioner Clark no no I mean I I I don't I okay I hope that I have not offended any of my Commissioners in my previous comments but I just want to make sure that all of us I don't know it's if it's it's it's not a matter of preparation it's probably just the way the meeting has gone and I really understand I understand your frustration I do and I would take okay we're not we're not speaking with each other we're doing commissioner Collins do you have any comments should I bow um no I have none I have no comments comments by the city manager uh no I have none may I get an approval of the agenda motion for approval motion by commissioner Reid second second by commissioner Clark all in favor comment roll call public comment to oh public comment right is there any public comment none seeing none roll call please commissioner Clark uh here no yes yes yes for for the agenda yes for the agenda commissioner Reed yes commissioner goobi yes mayor Rich yes commissioner Collins yes do you have any cards from the public for comments regarding n agenda items I do not see none Mr bagot will you please read commission action one resolution number 66-2 2024 a resolution of the city Commission of the city of Stewart Florida adopting the tentative millage rate for the fiscal year 2025 providing an effective date and for other purposes Mr Mayor yes commissioner Collins If there if there's been no change from staff from the last presentation to the proposed millage rate can I make a motion to approve number 66224 you can I have to read a statement but you can do the motion we're looking for a second I'll read it afterwards we have a motion on resolution 66-20 24 is there a second I was just trying to bring it up we we need to adopt the tentative millage thank you there's a second by commissioner Collins okay by Florida law two public hearings must be held to ultimately adopt the final millage rates and annual budget for theity city of Stewart Florida the purpose of tonight's first of those two public hearings or tentative is to hear public comments regarding the proposed millage rate and budget amend the budget if necessary and to tentatively adopt the millage rate and City budget for fiscal year 2025 the first public hearing has been advertised via the notice of proposed property taxes mailed by the Property Appraiser's office I can go into the presentation and we can hear that or I will finish reading this and then you can decide if you want a presentation or not why don't you finish reading it um the city of Florida rollback rate for fiscal 2025 is 4.77 74 Ms the city is proposing a millage rate for fiscal year 25 which exceeds the roll back rate by 4.66% the city is proposing a millage rate of 5 Mills which is the same millage rate that it has had for several years the purpose of the increase is to fund current operations and accommodate normal increases in the costs of those operations to further explain the roll back rate because the assessed value of the entire city has gone up like for example we added the $60 million apartment building at the foot of the Indian Street bridge and we asked we added $75 million worth of condos on seminal Street and anything else that's gone onto the tax roles since the last budget meeting any increases in value Etc the totality of the value for the city of Stewart has gone up in value therefore to reach last year's budget we would have needed to pass an a millage rate of 4.77 S4 but our millage rate is five and we kept it the same this year that's what roll back is I'm just explaining it what we're asking on number one the motion is to adopt the millage rate at five as set by the commission previously as it relates to the actual budget at the last budget meeting the only direction that I was given from the uh board as it related to altering or amending the budget was to put a reserve for $300,000 in the budget for the hiring of an environmental attorney I asked the development or no the finance director to do that and he froze another position and and also we adjusted some um car Replacements and a couple other things but the fact is the um money is in the budget as a reserve it doesn't mean that passing the budget is hiring anybody it's just a reserve that authorizes the board to do so later so if you want to hear a presentation now on the budget we can go forward or you can vote on the millage rate any questions or comments from the Comm Commissioners I'd like to move approval you actually have a motion a second already on it's already we already have a question whether you want presentation commissioner comments uh I have some do you have a comment or a question for Mr mortell or Jolie so I'd just like to commend Jolie and Mr mortell and at that same meeting for the steuart league of cities I was very surprised that the great majority of communities of municipalities were raising their millage um most because they've all they've all enjoyed the same increase in the valuation of their property and I I really had some difficulty understanding you know why they felt the need to do that and our rate of five is low and uh that's because of a sound management a very good budget director really you deserve credit for that and uh I was very proud to say we're not raising our millage and we're only at 5% so despite the recent vote that seemed to imply some inability that's not the case at all and I just wanted to give credit where credit was due uh may I ask a question Mr mortell what does it mean to freeze a position it means that that position is not going to be filled this year it's not budgeted was somebody in that position I didn't fire anybody it's just that if there's a vacancy the person had that they were the vacancy was in place and the director would have been otherwise to otherwise go out and hire somebody to fill the shoes of it but because the position's vacant we've said we're not going to fill those shoes and you said one other thing you did in order to there was some car leases that could be you know extended and some other there was a couple of other things we can go through it but the reality of it is is that the 300 is in the reserves so who's driving an older Fleet the police or chief everybody Chief's car everybody is okay so that presents challenges but we will deal with them so um Madame clerk will [Music] you call the vote commissioner Collins yes commissioner Clark uh yes mayor Rich yes commissioner goob yes commissioner Reed yes next item number two Mr bagot will you read item number two resolution number 79-20 24 resolution of the city Commission of the city of Stewart Florida approving the fisical year 2024-25 non-ad assessment role for Fire Protection Services facilities and programs directing certification of the assessment role to the Martin County Tax Collector providing for severability providing an effective date and for other [Music] purposes I have something to add to that the um [Music] the uh resolution is to adopt the fire assessment which is the um special assessment adopted by the city of Stewart in 19 or 2014 and what happened in 2014 is we were recovering from the recession we noticed that increases in millage rate didn't affect 65% of the parcels in the city of Stewart because they assessed value was so low that they paid zero taxes so there was a huge burden of taxes being placed on the top 5% of the property owners and zero burden of taxes being placed on 65% of the property owners uh throughout the State of Florida these fire assessments have been spread to equalize the risk and the benefit and basically what it comes down to is it's roughly $123 in change per parcel and then the formula that was addressed was that the property appraisers assessed value of the actual building on the property from the year before would be used to determine the appraised or assessed value for the other half of the math formula on this fire assessment it comes out and I think we used to do like a a $300,000 house as an example but it came out to under2 $100 a year for each one and as a result it equalizes the ability to provide the fire services to the entire Community without raising the millage rate on the balance of the property P the people that do pay the property taxes so we have a fire assessment that we adopt as a non-ad valorum assessment for fire protection if you want a further explanation I'm happy to give you more jie can as well are there any questions or comments from any of the Commissioners regarding this [Music] item commissioner Clark no I won't say it I was going to say a bad word okay when this started people call people called it the fire tax yeah hell in last month well that's basically what it is yeah no and it has worked and we've been doing well right it's it's 193 $87 per parcel for Tier 1 and $2.34 per Ebu for tier 2 it it it it just single it is a remarkable statistic that 65% of the and I think that number has now gone down because obviously When people's properties go above $75,000 in assessed value however if somebody still a large number if a lot of people bought their houses in 2004 I bought my house in 2002 and so if somebody bought their house and I'm not even going to guess when Mrs McBride bought her house um but because of the save our homes law if somebody's house was assessed at $45,000 when they bought it it only can go up 3% per year so the value of that house would take you know 30 40 years to get over $775,000 even if that property is worth $300,000 today it doesn't matter because it's homesteaded and it's protected and as long as they don't sell it it doesn't get on the tax rols so anyway that's no other questions or comments will you take take the vote please there's no motion yet oh there's no with regard I thought sorry we'll move approval of the resolution number 79-20 24 non advoc Borum assessment for Fire Protection Services second we okay see no comments or questions no is it a roll call or is it a it's a it's a roll call all roll call Mayor Rich yes commissioner goobi yes commissioner Reed yes commissioner Clark yes commissioner Collins yes will you read item number three please Mr baget resolution number number 80224 a resolution of the city Commission of the city of Stewart Florida adopting the tentative budgets of the city of Stewart Florida for the fiscal year beginning October 1st 2024 and ending September 30th 2025 providing an effective date and for other purposes we have a motion um just so you know only I know it's late and everyone's ready to go but just so you know um the city manager made some very tough choices this year this meeting is just another indicative of how the year's gone so there have been positions that were cut as in removed and FTE were cut there's also been positions that were frozen where we're not allowing the we didn't budget any dollars for the position so it won't be filled we denied Capital request and uh as correct and as to the vehic stuff what we did was you know I always tell you we never match ongoing expenses with one-time revenues but to push this over the goal line we we dipped into some of the money that we've saved up from selling vehicles to fund some of the vehicles outright this year to try and lessen that burden on the budget so after the direction of the commission at the last budget to what the manager is referring what is different in this budget we did not dip in the fund balance we did not increase millage we found the money in other line items to cover the $300,000 um amount for the proposed position so that's what's different between the last budget you saw on this one do you have any questions of our budget director commissioner Reed none J no none no questions thank you with regard to resolution number 80- 2024 move approval second we have a motion by commissioner Clark and a second by commissioner Collins you call the rooll please Madam clerk commissioner Clark yes commissioner Reed yes mayor Rich yes commissioner Collins yes commissioner jby yes um finally I need to announce that the final public hearing to adopt the fiscal year 2025 millage rate and the final budget is scheduled for Monday September 23rd at 5:15 p.m. here at City Hall which is 121 Southwest Flagler Avenue in Florida we will do those exact same three items again just two gu two of them right just two um on the uh at that hearing because it was a process and I also want to remind the board that we also uh authorized the scheduling of a another meeting one week from today uh to address the item number seven in the agenda and the zoning progress you give us time yeah well it's going to be the standard time of 5:30 that the noral meeting start we do unless you guys want to do a different time no no 5:30 is good okay great and Mr Mayor please note that I will not be at that meeting on the 9th on the and commissioner Clark you will be missed thank you good