##VIDEO ID:_4XSO-K0mec## how are we misl it oh here it is I'm sorry for I'm sorry roll call please Madam clerk mayor Rich here commissioner Clark here commissioner Collins here commissioner giobi here commissioner Reed here and providing this evening's invocation is Pastor Daryl Orman from the First Baptist Church of Stewart and after that will you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance thank you Mr Mayor thank you commissioner father we just want to tell you we love you today and we thank you so much for this commission we ask you please almighty God to impart wisdom to them as they deliberate the business of the city and we pray Lord that your spirit would rest upon this chamber and father we thank you that in scripture you tell us that righteousness exalts a nation and sin is a reproach to any people and father I just want to thank you so much for uh the way you move in the life of our nation our country our city our County and father I just want to ask you please right now to put a hedge of protection around president-elect Donald Trump and thank you Lord for his courage and perseverance we ask you please to impart wisdom to him as he directs Us in the next four years and we just want to tell you we love you and praise you in Jesus name amen amen I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all proclamations bag that for us please of course [Music] so apprenticeship week November 17th through the 23rd 2024 whereas National apprenticeship week is celebrating its 10th anniversary of raising awareness of the vital role registered apprenticeships provide in creating opportunities by allowing apprentices to earn while they learn and preparing a pathway to good quality jobs and well-paying careers in Stuart and across the nation whereas registered apprenticeship programs enable employers to develop and train their future Workforce while offering career seek Seekers affordable paths to secure high-paying jobs and whereas the city of Stewart recognizes that registered appren ship a proven and industry-driven training model is a key strategy to improving job quality and creating access to good paying family sustaining jobs for all starting with Youth and Young adults while while addressing some of our nation's pressing Workforce challenges such as rebuilding our country's infrastructure addressing critical supply chain demands supporting a clean energy Workforce modernizing our cyber security response and responding to core economy issues now therefore I Campbell Rich the mayor of the city of Stewart do hereby Proclaim November 17th through the 23rd 2024 as apprentice ship week and accepting the Proclamation for apprenticeship Navigator is Colleen Gil would you like to say a few words sure sure thank you so much Commissioners for recognizing National apprenticeship week my name is Colleen Gil I'm the apprenticeship navigator for Career Source research Coast we serve Indian River St Lucy and Martin counties we're your loc local Workforce Development board and we connect employers and job Seekers we provide job fairs job listings recruitment on the job training grants and a whole lot more for No Charge um registered apprenticeship is a training model where employees learn on the job while they complete related education we actually can provide grant funding for registered apprenticeships to employers to help offset the cost and this amounts to 50% of wages reimbursed for a portion of the apprenticeship so this is a really great training model um any businesses who have employees who are aging out of the business getting ready to retire they have job positions that are coming open that they need to train for I encourage anyone to contact me for more information and I can provide that to you you can reach me at cgill at CareerSource rc.com or you can look on the Career Source research Coast website look under apprenticeship and you'll find me that way thank you so much I was going to say I recognize this gu Mr Mayor do you still have the program at the 10th Street rec center are you still Career Source is not there anymore no no Career Source right now is located at Garden City in Fort Pierce and we are getting ready to move into the Renaissance Center located at the old Orange Blossom Mall in Fort Pierce but we serve the three County area we we have Representatives all up and down you're welcome you make it official and all for the photo bombers behind you too okay okay all [Applause] right thank you Mr chlorophane thank youbody Mr baggot WRA the Miss please pleas whereas for 70 years s Optimist International of Stewart has been a Cornerstone of our community fostering fellowship and friendship among its members as they work collaboratively to enhance the quality of life for all residents and whereas s Optimist International of Stewart has a rich history of commitment to our community notably by establishing the House of Refuge historical society and steuart Christmas parade and dutifully uh supporting these activities for more than 40 years working with local sex trafficking and domestic violence organizations to get women the legal and economic resources they need to break free from their former lives offering free mammograms to Women in Need and hosting the women of Distinction celebration event to honor local women leaders and whereas sir Optimist International of Stewart has played a pivotal role in the advancement of higher education by awarding more than $1 half million in college scholarships to deserving girls and women in Martin County there thereby opening doors of opportunity and fostering the next generation of leaders innovators and change makers and empowering individuals through the gift of education and knowledge and whereas as we commemorate the 70th anniversary of this esteemed organization we honor its extraordinary achievements and contributions we extend our deepest gratitude to the members past and present of s Optimist International of Stewart whose unwavering commitment to service education and Community engagement continues to uplift and Inspire us all now therefore I Campbell Rich mayor of the city of Stewart to hereby congratulate and Proclaim November 2024 as Ser Optimus International of Stewart 70th anniversary and accepting this Proclamation on behalf of the stimus is the president of the stimus Miss Mary an surl is that correct that is correct Dr it's not a name a lot of people pronounce correctly first so congratulations on that it's Dr surl well that too uh commissioner CL Clark often refers to me as Dr sirl I don't usually use that title around here well we are excited to be here today and grateful that you all are willing to honor us on our 70th birthday as you just heard we've been involved in a lot of different initiatives over the years um and we're proud of our history here uh for 70 years um we hope to have many more years here and so you have several of our members here kind of showing support for the work that we're doing here in Martin County but what I think is interesting about Sir Optimus is the fact that we were started by a man although we're an international Women's Service organization so in 1921 uh gentleman in California said women can't be members of service or organizations so we need to create a service organization where women can be involved in community service so it became known as Ser Optimist and every person I meet says what does s Optimist mean and it actually translates to best for women and I think that's kind of a great um a great caption or um slogan for us because we are trying to do the best we can for women worldwide so we're a little tiny Club here you know with about 30 members but internationally we have 120 countries uh I think it's interesting that the fastest growing continent for Ser Optimist is Africa Who Would Imagine right um and right now worldwide we have something like SE over 70,000 members so we're an international group and so we're just kind of a a small piece in in a very big puzzle but what I found very compelling uh when I got involved a few years ago is our International Organization set a goal Vision to help 500,000 women and girls go to college or tech school in the next 10 years so worldwide we are committed to trying to help women and girls go to school Beyond high school and so we do our little part here um we are focused on barriers that impact women and girls who can't go to college um so we do education about poverty as you heard domestic vience violence sex trafficking these are organ these are barriers that our organization internationally has determined are major barriers for women to pursue education to become economically empowered to become self-sufficient and and raise their families so we do programs related to that with local partner organizations we also are part of that 500,000 goal of helping women and girls go to school so here we have three focused Awards WS um the first one is called Live Your Dream and this is targeted for um single parent women so of course we're looking at women that might have extra challenges going to college or tech school or up an apprenticeship program as we just heard um any kind of postsecondary education we also have a a program for women over 40 returning to school usually after maybe a divorce or some kind of you know difficult situation and then we have an award that honors young women graduating from high school who have been involved in community service to try to encourage them to continue to be involved in community service so uh we're always looking for awards applicants um from our different groups uh we raise money throughout the year to be able to do those um our next big fundraiser is next Thursday night where we do a holiday siping shop um the other thing we're going to resurrect this year we kind of had didn't able to do it the last few years with covid and whatnot is a program our International Organization has called dream it be it which is a program for middle school girls who might be girls at risk who might be uh in poverty to try to show them that they have a future Beyond high school so those are the kinds of things we're involved in and we're excited to be part of the community here in Martin County God bless you thank you thank you on Photo you want all of us up there or get one with you first I will they yeah will you allow my MERS to come up to certainly okay awesome awes you can see our colors are blue Mr bag at h hospice and paliative Care mon please whereas medicare's first proven Coordinated Care model hospice is a program that works offering person centered Compassionate Care ensuring dignity choice and quality of life and whereas the hospice the hospice model involves an interdisciplinary team oriented approach to treatment including Expert Medical Care Quality symptom control and comprehens of pain management as a foundation of care beyond providing physical treatment hospice attends to the patient's emotional spiritual and family needs and provides Family Services like Rite care and grief counseling and whereas hospice and paliative Care organizations are Advocates and Educators about Advanced Care planning that help individuals make decisions about the care they want founded in 1982 Treasure Coast Hospice is a nonprofit Community organization of skilled professionals and dedicated volunteers whose mission is to provide access to compassionate caring expert and professional hospice and grief support services to patients and families at the end of life and whereas today Treasure Coast Hospice serves more than 4,000 patients annually providing holistic patient centered care and comfort to fa patients and families in Martin St Lucy and okobe counties this year Treasure Coast Hospice celebrated the 10th anniversary of its specialized Pediatric Care Program Little Treasures which improves the quality of life of children and teens with a LIF limiting illness provide by providing support for the entire family now therefore I Campbell Rich mayor of the city of Stewart do hereby Proclaim November 2024 as H hospice and paliative Care month and accepting this Proclamation on behalf of who are you on behalf of M Cooper what Treasure Coast Hospice Treasure Coast Hospice Shannon Cooper is that correct it is correct yeah and that was a mouthful I don't really have a whole bunch to say after that about that's a good Proclamation yes I just wanted to thank you all for recognizing Treasure Coast Hospice during this hospice imp paliative care month um as as um Mr bagot said earlier we do serve more than 4,000 patients every year in our community we are the original nonprofit hospice that was actually created by Volunteers in our community for our community so we just celebrated 40 years we are in Martin St Lucy and okachobee counties um we serve more than 600 patients a day and that's just through our hospice program not for our paliative program so we have far-reaching um opportunities in our community to really care and and serve our community so thank you so much thank you thank you [Applause] in the center thank you thank you guys thank you [Applause] Mr baggot the last Proclamation please epilepsy Awareness Month November 2024 whereas epilepsy is a brain disorder characterized by recurrent and unprovoked seizures that can affect anyone at any age any time epilepsy is a spectrum disease comprised of many diagnosis experiences and includes a wide range of seizure types uh cor morbidities control severity and outcomes varying from person to person and epilepsy is the fourth most common neurological disorder approximately 3.4 million people in the United States live with active epilepsy people with epilepsy need to access need access to Affordable Care comprehensive physician directed and person centered Healthcare and whereas 426,000 Floridians live with epilepsy including 88,000 children in Florida and greater education and improved access to care is needed in schools with which can be accomplished by passing a seizure safe schools legislation Nationwide and whereas epilepsy awareness month is a nationwide effort in November of the Epilepsy Foundation and epilepsy Alliance Florida to raise awareness about and changes the conversation around epilepsy seizures and side effects as well as to improve and save lives through care advocacy research and new therapies and public health and education now therefore I Campbell Rich mayor of the city of Stewart do hereby Proclaim November 2024 as epilepsy awareness month and accepting this Proclamation is the community resource specialist Maria Fernandez would you like to say a few words good afternoon everyone thank you so much for having us here today I work with epilepsy Alliance Florida I used to be in pediatric neurology I work with a lot of children of affected by not only the diagnosis epilepsy but also seizure disorder this could affect anyone at any age at any time and we are a nonprofit and we're here to help everyone in our community it's great to work with the city of Stewart I Do train all the school members teachers nurses in your community so they will be able to recognize when a child is having a seizure many times it's not very clear diagnoses they have to go through many testing and a lot of different things to be able to know that the child or the adult in many cases as I said it could happen at any time I have a very close friend who's 70 years old and right now she has just been diagnosed with epilepsy and because it was left untreated for so long it's affected her heart and it's um you know it's not given her much more time to be able to do the things that she really should be able to do because it was left untreated my goal is to be able to help everybody in our community to be able to give them the care and treatment they need if there's someone in the community that does not have insurance or is not able to get into a neurologist that's where I play the role in your city to be able to help them get the proper care we will pay for their diagnosis their treatment plan if they can afford medication we are here to help them we are here to help all those affected because this does not only affect the person with a diagnosis affect us all as a whole and we're all here to help one another and that's why I thank you all today for allowing us to bring awareness into the community and again November is epilepsy awareness month and purple is our color so if any any of you want to wear purple you know for epilepsy we really appreciate it thank you so much again for the honor of being here and bringing awareness into the community thank you they [Applause] centered Service Awards wow we don't see too many of these do we 35 years in Public's work William rer [Applause] Recker got 50 more to go appar he wants to say something that's free internet listen I I really like the way you guys open the meeting today I wanted to say that and uh it's good to see the new faces up here uh it's been a blessing working with the city for 35 years and you know I'm on my way to retirement what he's happy uh I really don't want to talk in this I'm kind of sick but uh you know it's just a blessing being here working here I got the best boss of the world back here M and uh God bless you all you know thank you get the [Laughter] center after 35 years he's doing whatever he wants that's perfect take care congrats that's good that's fantastic well I say we don't see that too often but right behind him 30 years utilities and Engineering Jeremiah Walton unfortunately Jeremiah couldn't be with us mayor Mr Walton's not here he's working he got the night shift and never give up Mr noon but 5 years of service you'll get there and utilities and engineering is he here this evening Robert noon [Applause] no um no service Awards I mean we did those sorry um um sanitation Fleet overview good evening mayor rich and Commissioners for the record my name is Anne Hawkins I am in the utilities and engineering department and tonight we're just going to do a quick overview of the sanitation Fleet you may have noticed on your way in we do have a sanitation front loader parked in the parking lot it is a 2023 model it has the newest Graphics uh that we transition to so if you haven't had a chance um I do encourage you to take a take a peek at that the sanitation team um is a full service team they provide Sanitation and Recycling services to our residents currently there are 15 members that serve on three teams of broken down into residential service commercial service and our vegetation in 2008 we began to put graphics on the side of our vehicles that emphasized uh Samy sailfish and the recycling efforts to turn uh garbage collection into a resource and that resource was recycling so the the program Graphics um took a refresh and in 2023 we came up with an you'll remember this from a few uh months back Dawn macintosh's artwork was accepted and awarded to be the new graphics emphasis so we're looking at a collaborative effort with pitching in and keeping Stuart beautiful as a partnership with our collection teams and our residents all contributing and our visitors to keep our city clean and beautiful I wanted to show you not just the newest shiniest vehicles but what vehicles are in the field um on an everyday basis going through servicing the route so presently in service by vehicle type in the upper leftand corner you'll see this vehicle this automatic side loader that is used in servicing our residential routes the oldest vehicle is a 2016 it does have a twin and those both of those vehicles are scheduled to be replaced with this current budget year 2025 and then the no the latest vehicle the oldest vehic vehicle will then be a 2020 on the top right side of your screen you'll notice a rearload vehicle that is a 2009 and it is expected to be uh replaced any day now we expect the new vehicle to be coming in probably sometime this month that was budgeted in 2024 on the bottom left you will see a rolloff truck that was a repurposed cab back in 1986 that was refurbished and reg graphics and it is currently in service along with a uh mate that is a 2019 model and then in the bottom right side these trucks probably maybe second um highest uh should we say use and abuse as far as the materials that go into them and trying to keep them in good pristine condition these are grapple trucks and they're used in service for the vegetation routes so this is a 2016 model and it is scheduled to be replaced in fiscal year 26 in that budget cycle and the next um the next uh oldest model would be a 23 that was put into service just a year ago on this screen I wanted to show you our front loaders our front loaders are used predominantly in our commercial service and you'll notice from the side profile the forks are in the front so it's a it's it's a look that you don't often get a chance to see but the forks when they're lifting up the containers the containers are going to go overhead and get dumped into the top of the vehicle as you can imagine depending on where those vehicle those containers are located they can be restaurants they can be full of rainwater they can be full of torn bags so the front of these vehicles do take a lot of um I don't want to say abuse but I mean they can become soiled pretty quickly and just in the normal service route of the everyday containers so if you look on the bottom rightand side the oldest vehicle that we currently have in service right now regular service is a 29 uh model and these require a little bit more refurbishing and upkeep just because of the nature of the service so in 20 uh fiscal year 24 we did have money in the budget not just for regular maintenance and repair but for refurbishment so the tune of almost uh $200,000 we were able to refurbish six different models and older models that that that might include replacing the floors of these trucks it might be um addressing rust it might be uh other uh repairs or refurbishment that gets into the mechanical side but then we also have a systematic approach to replacing these vehicles based on age so anywhere from 8 to 10 years we they are now um they are now scheduled for replacement just on age and mileage but also we also look at CR criteria such as their General overall condition their maintenance cost and their operations cost when we service the using the side loaders our residential curb side we may have to employ a spare vehicle that might be eight older than the vehicles that I just showed you on a on a one-time basis that week while the regular truck is in for a routine maintenance or a repair we do not um ever skip service if we have a once a week collection we are going to be out that week collecting those carts depending on if it's a solid waste day a yard trash if it's bulk or recycle in the instance of a holiday our drivers are off they do um follow a holiday schedule as all employees do however the pickup schedule is delayed by the next day for example yesterday being Veterans Day that service um for solid waste would be would occur today today's normal schedule would occur tomorrow and so on so by the end of the week all of our containers are picked up and our schedule um has been met we don't leave anything for the following week when it comes to commercial sanitation those um schedules are based on an as needed basis depending some are every day some are twice a week three times a week we do have a couple of different kinds of containers the frontload trucks do service that top left model where the forks go in and dump we also employ a side load option in the downtown area on the side of this8 Y there's a window so the window is uh the door is slid to the side and then the bag's placed inside and the door closed this particular style works very well in the downtown enclosures because the Top Model the lids are not left open there are no Lids left open um on the side option so they're not visible to the public or as you're driving by or parking next to one of the dumpsters the commercial um recycling does use the carts but if they do have uh large generation of cardboard then we do give them a dedicated dumpster just for cardboard otherwise they do have a larger cart than our com our residential customers our residential customers are provided with a 65 gallon cart and then commercial and event recycling incorporates the 95g cart we have other options for our residents besides collecting um waste at their curbside off of Georgia Avenue we have a selfservice e-w collection point that is open dawn to dusk where our customers can drive up unload uh e-w electronic waste that is appliances or electronic items that are either broken or reach the end of their useful Life by recycling these items they do not go to the landfill they are Dem manufactured into their components and possibly resold as copper or um other things of value so that is at no charge to our residents and businesses and um it is not man so it is on the honor System for our residents and businesses to bring the the necessary muscle to load that into the Container itself another opportunity that we provide our residents is through a neighborhood cleanup and once a year every residential neighborhood has a chance to put out at their curb additional uh garbage that we would pick up and not charge them for that includes bulk items that includes any sort of household garbage and at the same time we do partner with the Martin County has mobile so the hous mobile and a city vehicle would be parked in a central location for that residential um neighborhood and we invite our residents between the hours of 8 and 11: to bring their ew and their house household hazardous was such as their paint cans batteries pesticides cleaners things like that they don't have to drive out to the landfill to dispose of the bottom leftand corner uh is a model of our home composting program that went into um play about 2 and 1 half years ago now so we we do partner with IUS which is the Martin County extension office with the University of Florida they provide a onehour how-to session and in exchange for that we will give our residential customers a backyard composter to be used um as long as they would like to do so in the middle program a middle slide is a uh replica of a sign that is posted for an area at least a block long where residents and businesses and community members can adopt a street four times a year they'll go out and clean up the the sailes and the uh sides of the roads Martin count keep Martin beautiful will give them the supplies of gloves and bags and the city will go through our streets and pick up that um trash that's been collected and dispose of it so it's a great way to be community-minded um and to get more members of your either your business or your neighborhood to participate and keeping your area beautiful and then in our downtown area we have garbage and recycling cans paired we like to say no can stands alone and we we want the community to be mindful that we all do need to pitch in and keep our community clean in the middle of the two cans you will notice a rectangular s cylinder um shaped that is for the collection of cigarette Ash we do partner with citizens for H2O so that cigarette butts stay out of even the baffle boxes but our River and we collect the cigarette Ash it gets um shipped free of charge to ter cycle who for every pound that is recycled of this Ash and waste contribute a dollar to the keep America beautiful campaign and then to the right we also offer the pet uh receptacle stations and we encourage again that all uh owners be responsible and clean up after their pets especially in the downtown areas nearby the river hopefully all areas of the city but we like to um keep them handy so you'll see those periodically placed throughout even our Park system and then lastly we like to spread the Goodwill about um our city and the beautification with Sammy sailfish Sammy sailfish was brought in in in 2008 with the recycling and the single use conversion from bins to recycling for the city so Sammy appears um It Go he goes to schools he goes to HOA so associations he participates in parades most recently uh ownership of Sammy has transferred to the parks and Rex Department um under Community Services because he really is more known as a community mascot now so he appears at all sorts of events so you may see Samy uh at just about anything but that's Sammy is very well known very well regarded is huge in photo ops especially at the uh parades I didn't see him at the Veterans Day Parade he was not at the Veterans Day Parade uh so that's just our sanitation program in a in a nutshell we do have a systematic we are conscientious uh about replacement we are conscientious about keeping our vehicles clean the drivers take great pride in the vehicle that they are assigned to the routes that they do the vehicles when they come out of service each day are washed um by the driver and we are employing um the driver names were usually stencl on the vehicles so as the drivers go through these neighborhoods and are collecting and even the businesses they know their routes they know the people on the routes they know their neighborhoods they are are really truly Community Partners and they are very proud about the vehicles that they drive so they take great pride in putting their names on the door so as we get the newer vehicles in uh we do have their names stencl so we're in the process of catching up with that um and getting the right name on the right door because it it matters a great deal to them and then lastly I will just say um we did have a comment regarding the condition you know of one of our vehicles but without seeing it I I believe our vehicle was misidentified um as belonging to the city of Stewart when it in fact was not one of our vehicles but we we welcome comments if it is one of our vehicles I would say it's nice to have a new system in place called uh it's an app called C click fix where a customer or resident or visitor could actually take a picture and and send it um via this app that is on a either an Apple or Google platform and send it to the city so we can see what they see and we can be responsive to yes yes it is one of our vehicles no it isn't one of our vehicles but address the situation a lot more quickly and and pro probably accurately uh with that system so if there's any questions about what I presented today I'll be happy to answer those otherwise I have provided the sanitation manager um contact information in my own do you have any followup the e-w program yes um I know that like a week prior to them showing up we'll put a sign you know in the lot where it's going to be right correct and do we provide any additional notification in the water bill or people complain to me often that they were not aware that that they don't aware um our best notification are the banners that go up at the entrance of the participating neighborhoods we have the city's email if they subscribe that also indicates which neighborhoods are going to be participating we also put it out on steuart life um okay I believe the we do the best we can it's a constant problem challeng I are also working on a with the email list a program to where we can sort it by street name or whatever so in the future we can send a specific email out to each neighborhood that's in participating as it's coming forward okay because I mean these are some of the most toxic materials any household possesses yes so the more effective we are we all benefit how do we measure the do we weigh all the material we get I'm just wondering are we doing better and better or less and less or so two different programs the household hazardous waste is measured and weighed um and as well as the e-waist we do measure that by in terms of boxes of Gaylords um every other month I would say we have a pickup of about 16 Gaylords a gaylord would be equivalent to maybe a six yard dumpster full of e-w that is being diverted from so you can imagine 16 to 20 of those every other month so our electronic system um the disposal if we can keep even a portion of that out of our landfill we're doing a good job do we provide e-w disposal for business for commercial yes our our businesses are welcome to participate with the drop off program so they have to go to the neighborhood no they will they would go to the ew container on Georgia Avenue okay commissioner Clark yes um so that's at the Georgia Avenue side as well as a weekend neighborhood things yes commissioner and plus the commercial with their eways that's what adds up to those six loads the this the every other uh month E-Waste pickup would just be what's coming out of the self-served container on Georgia Avenue we do have additional um collection with the neighborhood cleanup that the men will come back and put in those gay Lords okay can you tell us a little bit about neighborhood cleanup in terms of those Saturday mornings when various groups volunteer to do particular places as well as the adopter road cleanup too yes so the neighborhood cleanups um we sponsored that with the city sponsors that our trucks go Curbside To those neighborhoods and pick up the the adopted street cleanups that um we have participated with our individual groups that may join forces and do consecutive streets in a particular area and those volunteers will come in they'll pick up the area bag it and then bring it back to our dumpster where wherever the home base is sometimes it's at the East Stewart Community Center other times if it's just along a street they will notify us and we will go along and pick up those bags because they don't want to you know drag those big bagfuls back to a dumpster so they will put them next to the street and our trucks will go by and pick those up and dispose of them but there's plenty of opportunities for cleanups um and adopted Street programs if somebody is interested in actually adop in a street they would contact the keep Martin beautiful who administers the paperwork part of it for us and then Milton's team does once the street is adopted he goes out and puts their name up on the sign so he coordinates the sign postings for that thank you and are all the trucks they are all covered with artwork now or you still have some we currently have six so we just um took delivery of the one truck and that will be going for um Decap the next detail up is of confusion corner and Captain Adams so that will make the seventh truck we expect the other truck to come in this uh later this month that will be eight and then two more this fiscal year will bring our total up to 10 fiscal year 26 should be the last two we usually have 12 regularly active trucks in play so that we'll have all of them with the new graphics program then it would just be our spares that would have the old uh decals on them until they're no longer used as spares thank you you're welcome any other questions the art was provided by whom Mr Donald McIntosh he Prov just to give him credit he did a terrific job I'm sorry commissioner I was just going to say I think sanitation does a great job anytime I've ever had an issue whether it's personal or with the business anytime I've called they've always come out and taken care of it and I feel as if our vehicles are very clean as well thank you thank you commissioner thank you thank you comments by City commissioners commissioner Reed do you have any comments this evening sure I'll keep it simple um I did attend a Veterans Day Parade um I was on East Ocean with my constituents I did see you guys go by on the tram though while I was standing there um I also want to say for anyone that's never gone to the air show on a Friday night this is my third year in a row it was amazing whoever does the fireworks there I'd be curious uh who does the fireworks in downtown um because it was awesome um I also want to say Jim um for anyone that was there that night he really knows how to play some music um I know Ben was there I saw Lee there um but yes he really kept the party going uh during that um and that's all for now that's Jim trosi Community Affairs director yes Jim troski yes good evening everyone as you may or may not be aware my daughter had emergency surgery several weeks ago when I was in Connecticut during that time first I want to thank the staff for their concern and their assistance during my family emergency I also want to thank all of those in Stewart in the surrounding area who reached out to me for prayers and speedy recovery from my daughter um I want to address all of the negative items that Min miss one commission meeting due to a family emergency um were were said both on public um social media and right here in the chambers um I want to address first the negative statements that have been stated in the friends and neighbors recent opinion piece first I want to say I agree with Mr campenni one has the right to say whatever one wants about anyone but that doesn't make it the right thing to do and the wisdom to know the difference to date I've ignored Mr cen's opinions of me since I would have to Value his opinion which I do not for that that means nothing or anything to me but he recently skated the line a fine line of liable and slander and that I will not ignore while I was away I was signed on to one platform by the staff for initial zip meeting due to some technical diff difficulties in the staff asked me to switch to another platform which I did while staying on the initial platform in audio only due to technical difficulties that I had at my location I thought it best to sign off the initial platform and remain on the secondary platform for the remainder of the zip which I did I would suggest that Mr campenni update his contacts at City Hall so in the future he can have access to the full story I find it ironic that a past commissioner brought up making staff jump through hoops when he had to resign under issues involving a city employee and a current commissioner who went into a ranton rage about a commissioner demoralizing an employee when that current commissioner was demoted for disparaging remarks about our men in blue word of caution to all of us we all live in Glass Houses be not so quick to toss a stone thank you [Applause] commissioner Clark okay I didn't get to go to the Veteran's Day but I did go to the ear show and it was very good not just the idea of the how the fireworks went but they showed some images of Stuart uh during the time and it really made you feel that Community feel that Hometown feel and I think that that was um that was a good thing to um to to have and I I appreciate all the hard work Ben hogart very good work with you in the committee and all those who participated I know that the serup Miss women also participated in the in the air show uh every year they do help with the community events so it's it's it's a good thing um I wanted to after I listen especially to the woman talk about the career resources I'm not sure um as to the links on our website Mr city manager and maybe if the county has such a thing but if there's some way that we could look into doing um more uh um I guess a link to Community Services maybe some of the things that the United where other people may have a quick link um like to Hope and to other things like that I we can't cover everybody of course but if there's something to send some people to some Community Services I think that would be good because Al listen with the apprenticeship program I think that's that's a good thing um uh Christmas is coming up and um I know that usually we either plan too late or never do or sometimes do the Caroline with our um staff and I hope that we can show some interest in that it really helps with our community spirit and um I know the parade I I think is on the 6th or so of December but when we have our event um one evening I hope that we'll go around and do the nursing homes and some other places maybe the hospital and if we could do that and and really participate and use our staff um to help bring some cheer I think that would be good um typically I don't try to uh address and to be too combative but I know that you just said something and I'm sure that you were referring to myself I think what I was referring to was the evening of the 12th when we actually and everybody can see the report and I just thought that maybe probably all of our Decor maybe I wouldn't say just one person and that was about the Quorum and trying to make sure that we have good decorum at our meetings and um if there's any hurt feelings or anything um especially from for commissioner Collins um because I didn't refer to your name but I know that you know if if that's what you're referring to I'd like to say that um it's something that I still think that all of us still need to heed and um I I would um uh that that's it I I think that um I if that's what you're referring to I think that that was a reference and it wasn't directly disparaging um any particular um person but I know that I definitely and Mr Collins just nodded his head because he had a lot of comments on that day and I think that all of us felt like the discussion back and forth was something that probably could have been um done in a different manner for that type of discussion so um that's it thank you thank you commissioner clerk commissioner Collins yes so I had the opportunity to be at the Martin County Board of County Commissioners meeting today at least while they were talking about bright line because I was curious how that would go and I was disappointed but not surprised that the Board of County Commissioners would rush the bright line item through um before our newly elected Commissioners are seated on Tuesday uh as commissioner heatherington also mentioned she was unaware that it would even be on the agenda she didn't find that out until Thursday but nevertheless um our Martin County Board of County Commissioners voted 0 to completely change the 20 18 settlement agreement effectively letting bright line off the hook for paying 50% of the cost of their station and hamstringing our incoming Commissioners in their ability to negotiate a better deal for taxpayers so as it stands taxpayers will be funding 100% of the cost of the bright Line Station split up between the county uh paying 15 up to 15 million and uh the rest coming from taxpayers at large through grants but the bright side of this is if you are a city resident this commission saved worked hard argued broke much deorum but saved you $30 million that can be reinvested back into our community and if you are very much Pro bright line in a bright Line Station it appears that whatever the name of it Martin County or Stewart you will be looking at a downtown bright Line station so with that um I'm very much happy to see that we'll have that 30 million to invest into our community instead of going into bright Line's Pockets so with that those are my comments thank you um we've had a very in the meetings recently I've heard quite a few comments from our residents about this that Commissioners are getting up and down and leaving the meeting and taking Mr baggot out of the meeting and they've made some I'm I feel are unwarranted aspersions about the behavior and that conduct uh especially with regard to what role Mr bagot may be playing and I know that not to be the case at all so the simple solution to that is um if a commissioner feels the need to leave the meeting when people are speaking um they some people take offense that when they're up making a presentation a commissioner leaves they take it as an affront which it's not up to us to say whether that's warant or not but if you feel the need simply ask for my attention and we will adjourn the meeting for that time um so that all the residents and all those in attendance and all the applicants will have the attention of all the Commissioners which is only fair um and to be honest I don't really understand why you have to take Mr baggot out of the meeting we're here to speak to the public I I don't know what question you would be asking him that you couldn't ask in front of the public um but nonetheless if you feel the need to do that we certainly we we will adjourn now to accommodate this if you want to and I'm asking this question do you want to take a recess every two and a half hours or for do you think that would help or we could go faster I mean if you're asking me for input if you're asking me for input I think this is a bit ridiculous if uh one of us wants to grab our City attorney and ask him a question I don't think it should be a big deal to take him aside it happens at the county it happens you know Schoolboard this is not a big deal um and I I don't want to be too hard on you but it's to me a little bit totalitarian we should be able to do that at totalitarian from you that you would stop the meeting anytime we need to have an aside no no it's no it's accommodating your one of us needs to use the restroom or something you know it's it shouldn't be this big of a deal it's not to break the meeting every time it's not a big deal to adjourn the meeting temporarily for a few minutes sure do you have any feelings on that as mayor you have the right I guess to do that but I would like to ask the attorney a question I don't have to leave the room is it against or out of order with Robert's rules for a commissioner to ask the attorney to step into another room for a question um I can review Robert rules of ERS but I don't think that's even in there but I it would be more in our rules of decorum that have been adopted by prior commissions it's not so and it's not really addressed in there so it's your idea well it's because of the people I speak to have brought it up and said they don't quite understand what's going on there and you know they feel they certainly feel that Mr baget should be present to hear all matters under discussion by the public and that because who knows you know when he's out who knows what is said it may be very relevant to his area or not we don't know but that's why um would you like to take breaks more regularly on a periodic basis in order I just feel we're all adults and having to ask to go to the ladies room with the men not that it's just exactly I mean some of these meetings have gone six and seven hours now and I'm saying those meetings have gone that long there usually is a break so that we can go to the restroom but but having to ask ask for permission to go to the restroom no no you're not asking you're just asking for an adj a temporary adjournment okay we'll see how it goes that's my only comment comments by city manager Mr mortell uh very briefly um let me just pull up my notes um I actually uh wanted to comment first that we have a um uh a zoning in progress Workshop scheduled for next Thursday at 9:00 a.m. November 22nd which we will be going over chapter 3 which is the urban codes I want to mention that Friday November 15th is the Treasure Coast League of cities elected officials workshop at the Indian River uh State College campus um and I don't know if anybody's going but um it's I've heard it's pretty good uh and and lastly I was going to comment on the uh sanitation overview and wanted to thank you an for for doing the the presentation and it it arose from The Joint meeting in which a lady in Schooner Oaks had seen trucks she described as the city of Stewart trucks in scooner Oaks and said that they needed maintenance and um didn't look that great and she wanted us to uh update them so that they could reflect the quality of Waste Management trucks and it was clearly not the city trucks because we've never been in scooner Oaks um but uh it was also south of Port Sero so it would be outside of our jur dition but on top of that after that meeting I wanted to clarify with her but then it occurred to us that we actually take a lot of pride in our trucks because they're actually beautiful and they they they hold it to a higher standard and so I'm happy you're able to do the presentation and put the truck out here for all us to see thank you else Mr Mayor yes commission can I address the city manager you certainly may okay I just want to let you know Mike that I will be attending that conference on Friday oh good yes Mike did you say did you say the 22nd for the zoning in progress 19 sorry want to make sure look out for you y thank you I had the wrong day we all agreed and I think several of us have signed up for the IRS thing we have a motion for approval of the agenda Mo approval second we have a motion by commissioner Clark and a second by commissioner Collins any public comment regarding that if not all in favor hi hi hi do we have any comments from the public on non-agenda items Madame clerk do we have any green cards I do Max Stucky is this a nonat normally during D and we don't okay Mr Mayor Commissioners and staff this is I'm speaking as a member of the community right now I know there's an agenda item later but and that's sort of my topic but I've lived in Stewart since 1956 and I've been trying for over 10 years to get what's on the agenda as number 15 but I'm speaking from my heart here I know there's people um objecting to my idea for a full-time environmental attorney to work on saving and restoring the St Lucy River and basically they were saying it won't work well unfortunately you don't even know what it could be until we have someone working full-time to find the best way to succeed at cleaning up the river I have 100% proof of what will not work and that is everything we've done for the last 90 years the river is just as poison and dirty as it always been and getting worse every time and loome will not change that if you're taking advice from those who say we cannot succeed what else can they say they have failed the people of Stewart cannot afford to fail and we have to devote a full-time effort to restore steuart's greatest asset which has become its greatest health hazard and a threat to property values just saying just for this commission coming out and saying we're going to fix this no matter what it takes will stimulate the local economy I know many people over the last several years who have left Stewart because they've given up on on the river we cannot ever give up and this is a very small investment for a huge return this will not cost money this will return huge profits in property values tourism and quality of life we're not going to do this the best thing we could do is warn people not to come to Stewart I already told my own children not to come back here because I was afraid of the river if we do this and we succeed maybe some of my grandchildren can come back if we do the right thing thank you very much I wanted to introduce Mr Parsons who was sent to me by an environmental uh professor at Florida State I wanted to tell you that the type of attorney I I'm looking for really does exist and he'll be our first applicant Bobby Parson I wanted to um introduce myself formerly Bobby Parsons and welcome any kind of communications you guys or any questions you guys might have regarding what I Envision this position to be um I did come into contact through with Mac through our University I had reached out to one of my former professors looking for this type of job and honestly this would be a dream position for somebody like me and I do look forward to applying to it once uh you guys make a decision thank you thank you okay if there's no objection we don't normally during a d and allow public comment but I don't see any problem with allowing that to evening to you when we get to that it okay so if you want to speak regarding the position of environmental attorney we'll hold your public comment until we get to that item 15 thank you Mary any other Ellen McBride hel McBride from Flamingo Avenue as I've said many times I've been coming to these meetings over 40 some odd years and if we were the first one was over the firehouse out front but it was always a very friendly cordial meetings and what is going on now is ver wrong and at the last meeting the gentleman that got up at the end of the meeting and ramping in my opinion ramping and raging and carrying on and saying get rid of the three elected officials by the people for the people and I had dear friends that have lost elections and run for elections but whoever even in this last president election when the people speak we all back the candidate and what it was really hurtful when I came to the meet and saw a commissioner's chair emptied I made inquiries and I found out she had the most to me as a mother horrible phone call in her life when she got a phone call that her child needed emergency surgery and any mother and any father would immediately drop whatever they were doing and fly to wherever they had to fly to be with their child and for many years now and you you always let us know if you knew ahead like when you were going to Germany to visit that brave son who's fighting for our country one commissioner it was his 25th wedding anniversary so they were going and don't blame him if I was his wife he better take it off but um we have my opinion is when and I don't know Mr bagget I don't want to take your job but wouldn't it be best if when the city clerk did Baro call and she named each commissioner and when she came to commissioner Jones she could say absent with excuse absent or some some formal you don't have to give the life history of that but let's bring it back and instead of this a story we all speak we all go to the maybe we we all visit each other's churches we do things together this a great organization right here I was with the hospice when they first started those six wom who started a hospice I volunteered this is St we're a friendly and I know from experience there's a lot of people trying to tell you what to do and how to do it but don't listen to them listen to EV well no you should listen to them but listen to everyone and do what you think is best and as far as you know this freedom of the press I've been going I I my my back has got more knives in it than anybody I think in Sor but you just got to toughen up and do what best for the people thank you thank you Miss McBride thank you Helen Marie Kennedy Marie Kennedy sir Optimist I think Dr surl and the proclamation said it all very very well I just want to mention that by supporting s Optimist of Stewart and our mission to help women and girls overcome obstacles to education you are doing something that will enhance your community as people have said it often takes a village to accomplish very important things we all have to work together and we are here as women and any men that want to join us because we can't discriminate you know um and we would love to have their your perspective but we want you to know that we are here to serve the women and girls of our community and of Martin County as well we partner with other Ser Optimus clubs for St Lucy Palm Beach um there are 10 s Optimist clubs in the State of Florida alone and we do want to achieve that goal of helping a half million women and girls by 2031 overcome those obstacles we are part of something much bigger so don't think of a as just a little piece of this we are part of something very very large and one of the oldest women's organizations in the world thank you Robert Hamilton good evening Robert Hamilton the 1895 Church of Stewart Third Street you guys know why I'm here the cdbg program again and alen was put on our home I know you're aware of that and why was this lean put on the home the lean was put on the home because of Mr Martell's continual deliberate indifference against us he abused his power he could have made things right he did [Music] not is there an issue I don't how are we doing technical one I guess not that we're aware of I'm sorry Mr Hamilton it's okay but please don't refer to any individual up here by name you address what are we doing here my home we're listening to your concerns Mr my home I want you to take it seriously because he didn't that's why I'm here exploited us for what points Merit for our community and then oh we're going to get rid of the cdbg program because it wasn't done properly by the people entrusted to do it and then you put other people at risk that have jobs in the city you know he tells me one thing it's a two-tail deal I get one thing said to me another thing said to outside agencies so how am I even when it's in writing you know I guess it's coming to the point where he stood here in front of all of you and said we are not responsible for anything we just hand the money well that turned out not to be true now the State of Florida is looking over our church now again the lane has to be lifted no time will we allowed to sit down and have a discussion with anybody here so to me there is back room dealing going on I'm not privileged my wife to sit in there when he's doing his two-tail deal but be that as it may I guess what's it going to come down to a r mandamus a Manel CL you know what I'm talking about a 83 action it's taken a year of our life by the time this is done and for what due to mismanagement of a cdbg program instead of saying hey you know what we made a mistake here let's sit down and let's work this out I'm real serious about that I've been in here for months with my wife months supplied every bit of information that could be supplied for the city just turn around and do their job and say man man if we missed this we got to fix it why didn't he just fix it why this again and again the torture is what you do you're playing with our lives we lost Merit you know that the city's lost Merit now they're going to start losing points I'd like something done about it have a meeting do something thank you thank you sir oga Hamilton [Music] good afternoon Olga Hamilton 311 Southwest s Street sorry Stuart so you already went probably you received already letter from Mr Mortel regarding ouri right after that letter office Inspector General of Florida commerce called us to clarify this letter so now after all this mismanagement of the program denying us re inspections denying uh for whatever reason covering up for Patriot Response Group now Patriot Response Group sub uh uh fil it with Martin County forent Lan the Lan is fraudulent and I have all the evidence appropriate agency already have them as well all dates wrong I have emails when they will fired when they last work perform and how much of work they did but what happens now they city has to pay that lean fril lean off from non federal funds it means that money doesn't come from our grant whatever City funds but the Ste taxpayers and res residents they have a right to know what fund the city will use to pay that fraudulent lean off almost 50,000 and how the city is going to recover it while all other agencies do also their investigations and historic preservation office right now doing evaluation I received a letter from the Florida government notary section as well they do their investigation on certain documents notorized and submitted and filed by Patriot Response Group as well we complain it we put the city on notice since July 16 the city of Stuart CBG project management we have two managers one on the city behalf executive director of the Community Development agency and another company hired by the city Guardian Community Resource Management both of them ignored us when we complained talking about Community Resource Management they completely ignored our complaints we already complained in uh June that we afraid these people from Patriot Response Group their abuse their disrespect so you have remedy with with Guardian community Resource Management too it's in your contract they are responsible to the city of Stewart for any damages caused on the project as well thank you very much thank you Mrs Hamilton Gil Goldie yes I'll be on now El Goldie steuart resident first I'd like to say that um I'd like to uh address the elephant that's been in this room for many many months and that elephant is the bright line and I also attended today's meeting at the County Commission and um I have to say that I would like to thank the commission iers who rescinded the past agreement many of the residents here aren't aware probably of the cost that that would have cost each resident you have been double taxed had that gone through we should all be thanking these Commissioners for their astute paying attention and responsibility of saving us money many of us are on fixed incomes have been residents here for many years and it's very very important that taxes are not increased the amount of money that we were going to have to pay for we will have to pay as uh County residents but the city residents are very fortunate now that they won't be double taxed they will only have to pay taxes on the uh County part portion of that so um I again I want to thank the uh Commissioners for uh paying attention and listening to their constituents uh the tax saving was a bold move uh and uh the city residents will not be VI victims of double taxation again I said so um that's all I want to say but I do also want to um acknowledge that uh I have been coming to the meetings and uh I am hoping that uh the the the uh atmosphere in this chamber improves uh I hope that uh you know we're not being so petty that we have to have the Commissioners asking for permission to uh talk to uh the city manager during a meeting or the the uh City attorney uh often times something comes up and we should be thankful that these Commissioners want to ask a question and um possibly that that question is something that they need to get clarification on before they speak about it so I don't think we need to be uh asking for permission raising our hands to go to the restroom to get a drink of water or whatever so thank you so much and I look forward to the next meeting thank you you Frank mccristal I too would like to thank the commission for saving us a boatload of money that we can use somewhere else I also watched the county meeting today and uh I think we need to look down range and understand that Transit oriented development is is the end goal of the globalist scumbags bright line being a part of them on another tangent everyone up there needs to really research bright line in their parent company and if you go deep enough it's ugly the communities they have put the hose to before us um the county today proved that it's not you guys that are the little kids table but they are okay and uh so again look down range and and see what we can do to tie up all the if the county does end up doing this in that piece of land that they own how do we tie up everything around it especially the ball fields anything green uh maybe I don't know you can you can definitely do something for zoning but the ball fields and the parks maybe some sort of uh referendum to get anything changed there a real vote of the people so let's look down range and make sure we're ready for what's coming at us um anyone notice what happened last Tuesday it's called National populism populist nationalists have swept the nation okay and all politics is local and unfortunately the globalist scumbags have chosen Martin County as their home base they ran out of land down south where they ruined it and they can't build their golf courses out West because there's not enough water anymore so they've got big plans for the city of Stewart and Martin County and uh thank you for being the true leaders of Martin County and the big kids at the table thank [Applause] you thank you I have no more comments mayor thank you do we have a motion for approval of the consent calendar Mr Mayor which improved by the way just to point out includes both the minutes of our last meeting and the zip Workshop minutes yes I'm sorry can can I just would you like to pull an item from the consent well I just wanted to ask a question about it sure okay this would be number 12 the motor release that's part of that consent calendar right would you like to pull that item and then we can discuss it I I didn't know that's normally how that's how it proceeds I ask to please make a motion to move that item and we can discuss it later thank you commissioner Clark do you have a motion uh okay um move approval of the consent agenda pulling item number 12 okay do we have a second we have a motion by commissioner Clark and a second by commissioner Collins for approval of the consent calendar removing item 12 any public comment seeing none any comments but all in favor no I have roll call commissioner goobi yes commissioner Collins yes commissioner Clark yes mayor Rich yes commissioner Reed yes okay moving on to item 12 Mr baget will you read item 12 for our consideration please sure resolution number 11 18-202 a resolution of the city Commission of the city of Stewart Florida authorizing the execution of an equipment lease purchase agreement with Motorola Solutions Inc for a 10-year period term with cellular costs for 65 in70s Public Safety handheld Police radios providing for conflicts providing for severability providing an effective date and for other purposes do we have a motion for approval of item 12 were there any specific questions you had yes Mr Mayor I had a question regarding 12 okay okay so um the only thing and I I did do some research it's a 10e contract and Technology changes so quickly uh I'm wondering was there anything in that contract would if the um motor roll of radios that are given to our police if there's something that they'll be replaced during the contract okay so that was I couldn't find like twoyear it's like two year radios thatl every two years all right that was my concern technology changes so quickly basically what it is is that they we need to update the radios to keep up with the Sheriff's Office that's grading theirs and by going to this lease every time the Sheriff's Office upgrades theirs we'll be able to trade out and use what the sheriff's uses to remain consistent thank you I could find that in the thank you it's also Min understanding I know the chief's not here I don't know if Captain Z knows but uh they also have service available for their handheld radios through the county if I'm correct on that I don't for coordination yes there's some service through the county and Motorola also provides some service contract uh for the life of the radio or at least during that 10-year period so we work we have a good system worked out with the county and Motorola so they keep us up and running great thank you Mr chairman yes commissioner if there are no other questions with regard to resolution number 118 2024 move approval second we have a motion by commissioner Clark and a second by commissioner Collins for approval of resolution 118 d202 for is there any public comment on this item see none any comments or questions by Commissioners regarding this item no seeing none roll call please commissioner Clark yes mayor Rich yes commissioner Collins yes commissioner goobi yes commissioner Reed yes okay commission action Mr Baga will you read item 13 for our consideration please sure resolution number 11 17-22 a resolution of the city Commission of the city of Stewart Florida repealing resolution number 132220 and deauthorizing property assessed clean energy also known as Pace programs within the corporate limits of the city of Stewart terminating agreements with the Florida green Finance Authority the Florida resiliency and energy District the Florida Pace funding agency and the green Corridor Pace District uh pursuant to the provisions of chapter 20242 or 273 Florida Statutes providing for an effective date and for other purposes do we have a motion for approval or do you want to have a presentation there Mr hogar uh yes mayor uh Commissioners good evening Ben hoger for the record um just wanted to I know it was a rather lengthy uh staff summary um in the agenda just wanted to reiterate um what had kind of led to this moment um for staff to make this recommendation the city manager a few weeks back had asked the staff just to reassess kind of the PACE program U and our support of it The Four Agreements that we had in place since 2020 uh what I did was I ended up meeting with both Mr Mr mortell um and then later on with our uh building official to kind of discuss some of the uh terms that are in those agreements um some of the challenges that we might face and may have faced in the last few years um I I can't speak of any specific instance um that we're aware of where similar to in other parts of the state we've heard um some pretty pretty rough stories uh that occurred between especially 2010 and 2020 uh had that had led to a series of litigations in in different communities uh more or less Property Owners feeling like they had been somewhat deceived um had been confused didn't know the full um weight of what they were signing when they signed up for these property assessed clean energy program um lendingsuite.co I think pretty much every community in the state um was very supportive Florida Lea city is very supportive of those um those reforms however with that said when when I spoke to our building official there's still a couple of concerns that kind of remain um one is is feasibility for something like the city of Stewart we're such a small community um I don't want to say we're short staffed we just don't have enough staff on hand to really help look at these projects individually have someone out there with you know Pro PACE program administrators with actual contractors reviewing contractor licenses on site making sure that if a window was supposed to be placed in a in a certain window frame it's the right size it fits the contract that's a lot of work and uh and it also has a cost a real operational cost that we right now it just seems infeasible at least to have somebody out there for every project to do that um my understanding uh according to an email that Mr baggot received um from one of the administrator groups is that there have been I believe 26 uh give or take uh projects in the city uh since the Inception of pace that we're aware of when was the Inception uh 2010 I believe was one of the first um uh wasn't a pace legislation it was legislation that essentially led to Pace but it created the program um and statute so our agreement that to my knowledge I don't know if there was any in place before 2020 um so the 26 projects may or may not have originated from 2020 onto today so in the last four years so uh the staff's recommendation after after kind of assessing this is that to the city's satisfaction we can't guarantee that PACE program administrators will follow even the new um reforms the new consumer rights we we can't guarantee that the contractor on site is properly licensed um that hasn't been virtually approved somewhere without someone really you know seeing everything in in person so there's still some concerns that remain this isn't to say that we have specific evidence or proof that our community something um horrible has happened that we might uh have residents that are angry or upset at us for being a part of the program that's that's not what the recommendation was the recommendation was saying that we feel the reforms at this moment don't really for a small community like us it would be very difficult to confirm whether or not a contractor whether or not a project had gone through 100% um as as the law provides and with that stated if if a resident just like in other communities this has already occurred if a resident experiences is um an economic shortfall where they're going to lose their home you know a lot of times they're going into their local Commissioners they're going to their local communities and they're blaming people in front of them um for the for the situation um so with that stated uh it's it was a rather lengthy uh staff summary I just kind of want to restate uh why staff took this position um and and certainly uh request the commission to to provide that feedback and and that guidance thank you Mr hogard any questions of Mr hogard from Theiss okay yes yeah I've had personal experience with this with people talking to me and I wanted to talk to you and Mr bagot to see if someone who is in the city of Stewart which is Martin County and Martin County administers that program frequently and I think that this particular person had gotten help through the county so um even though we deauthorize Mr um bagot people in the city can still apply to the county and we we just won't be responsible or have anything to do with it as we do now um I don't know I haven't looked at the program that thoroughly and I I've not looked at the contracts for that issue um so I don't know the answer right now it's my understanding that the authorization or deauthorization or whatever it is is a matter of the local agency allowing the tax collector to add it to the tax roles mhm so if in fact Martin County has authorized uh the tax collector to accept these loans in Martin County and add them to the tax roles unless the city of Stewart took an action to pass an ordinance that prohibited it from being added to the tax roles I would believe as commissioner Clark's pointing out that it would in fact still fall within the jurisdiction of Martin County and they could do whatever they want yeah but thank you and I mean I know the statute is there but but the other side of it is if we don't if it would deauthorize it we're not problem does arise if somebody comes to us we can say we're not involved yeah yeah and for clarification the the need to authorize or deauthorized had not existed in in in law until that Reform Bill from this year because there is out um ongoing litigation with that as the legal question still many communities saying uh prior to this year that that um that there was still a requirement it just was an implicit requirement uh a Leon County judge um I believe in the last year or two had uh found against that position so a lot of communities are still kind of in this litigious um uh place but as a result of the 2024 um Reform Bill that's now in law it's now statute and and from that point on um there has to be either this authorization or or deauthorization and Mr Mayor and and also as some type of further distinction the type of um Home Improvement that the cdbg does is not the the PACE program is pushed as a as a energy type thing for the most part and people believe well if all their holes are patched up and the energy is going to be more efficient and that kind of thing um that everything is quote unquote I wouldn't say free but they think that it's free I think it they go up to like 20,000 or or something like that they have a limit but um and they think that it's free but they know that they do tell them that it's going to be paid for and it's going to be paid for I don't know if they think it's going to come out of their property taxes which is actually what they pay it's kind of like this whole idea with tariffs or no tariffs but they're actually paying the property taxes and the the thing about it and I know that I've talked to the prop the tax collector is that when the TA property taxes come at a of $6,000 or $88,000 and they hadn't been painted quarterly these people are going crazy because usually they're people who own their own homes and they didn't really have a large property tax in the first place and now they're paying for this loan that's a that's a good point commissioner I think just again for the public edification some some of what was happening was that um you know this this uh lending was being sold as kind of hey you don't have to pay anything upfront that comes out of your taxes people might have had you know typic or were used to maybe a $1,500 or $2,000 annual tax bill suddenly once Pace kicked into their next annual tax roll they were at5 six $7,000 tax bill they weren't expecting or anticipating um and and that was causing people to to have leans on placed on their homes uh with that said my understanding is in the recent you know few years one of the um mitigating Solutions in the interim has been to In Those leans have these stipulation agreements where they're effectively in lie of having a a bank loan are paying a monthly towards towards that pace okay can we get a motion for this as with what's agenda item 118 it's item number 137 2024 resolution regarding the um repealing and deauthorizing the PACE program move approval second we have a motion by commissioner Clark and a second by commissioner Reed um is there any public comment on this item I do have public comment okay Jennifer Rojo SZ good afternoon mayor members uh my name is Jennifer Rojo Suarez I am with renew Financial one of the pace providers operating in the the city of Stewart in the State of Florida through the Florida uh green Finance Authority fgfa um thank you for hearing my comments here and thank you to the gentleman for you know some of his comments regarding the the new law that did pass it's it sounds to me you know from from what we've reviewed from the resolution and the comments today there does it sounds to me like there's some U misunderstanding on what the obligation is of the City uh but it also sounds to me from the comment today that there's some concerns or of understanding in terms of if the city could operate if the constituents in the city could operate if you were deauthorized and the county does have an interlocal agreement currently what I believe what I'm asking for and and my colleagues and the industry really if we could defer the item to have further conversation and discussion regarding all these comments so that we could get clar ification before we before you all take this um big vote that would deauthorize this program uh and really leave a lot of consents that have used the program and others that would want to use the program won't be able to use it the 26 projects that you mentioned are from renew Financial that's just the loan from our Pace uh from our provider there's other companies that may have more uh pace assessments out there but as not only that with the new statute um currently with um the PACE program you could use it for not only resiliency but also for storb hardening and so for example from the 26 projects that we currently have here in the city more than half of those have been used for storm hardening and that means Roofing shutters and things like that so you can't use paast to get a new kitchen these are dedicated um this is a dedicated program for these types of uh improvements so now with the new law that just passed it has also expanded to also allow for septic to sewer conversion which is another big issue I believe not only in the city but in the in the state so again it sounds like there's a lot of um more discussion that we hope we can have uh instead of just deauthorizing the program we hope we can uh defer the item and we ask for it to be so we could have further communication and discussion on the item uh before it's terminated thank you thank you I have Mark sheff good evening Commissioners Mr Mayor Mark Shuffle with Y green energy fund uh 6303 Blue Lagoon Drive in Miami um thank you for your time this evening I hear him to as well to address item 13 in your proposed uh deauthorization of the PACE program um why green energy has operated in Florida since the enabling legislation was passed in Florida which was is 20 was was 2010 we've done over 85,000 projects throughout the state totaling uh Improvement investment of over two billion dollars actually didn't get a chance to meet with your staff um which I'd be happy to do um we actually show um over a 100 projects having uh funded in your in your community uh total close to $3 million vast majority of which are in the area of hurricane hardening roof tie downs high impact doors and windows uh high impact roofs um I too would encourage caution um pace is a very very specialized product for a very specialized group it's niche Niche financing that that that comes in um as a middle ground between complete unsecured at very very high interest rates and very favorable terms it's not for everybody and it's it's a specifically designed by the legislature when it was first enacted to Target specific improvements it's not broad financing tool people aren't buying you know ski boats with this or swimming pools it's a very very specialized product it's been pointed out um since its Inception uh in 2010 2024 was seminal uh legislation um that really took a deep dive it's a extremely dense statute running 39 pages long which is full of specific items to address the needs of pace that have accumulated over the years Chief among which is consumer protection I know there is a reference and I know part of the confusion here was concerning a reference to the requirement of of cities and counties to engage in uh contractor registration I can assure you as one of the folks and it was a broad uh stakeholder group that assembled in Tallahassee to work on this Florida Association of counties cities all of the industry participated folks that were in favor of CAS Pace folks that were against Pace we all came together to try to improve this program the specific item that calls for contractor registration has a very important coordinating uh conjunction in there an or it says that you are uh obligated to prepare a registration program or you can work with providers and administrators again why green enger we operate under the green Corridor we've worked with other cor uh other counties on this very issue we have a a pro fora um contractor registration that we're happy to work with you you know my time is short I would encourage you to just take a step back and workshop this industry is here all of the companies that work in this area are here and would love to work with you to get the right answer and build the best possible program for the city of Stewart thank you thank you sir thank you Lewis Roy yes good evening mayor Commissioners my name is Lewis Royer 18471 Southwest 123rd Place penberg Pines Florida I'm here on behalf of Home Run financing and fortify there are two additional Pace providers um it's clear after reading the resolution that there is some misunderstanding with regards to the the city's obligations versus the County's obligations uh on the with regards to the PACE program and I too would like to uh request to deferm so that we the city and the industry could get together and clarify any confusion or any issues that might occur or might have been brought up by staff during their review of the PACE program that's all I have for you thank you James Christie Mr Christie good evening he good evening I wasn't going to speak on this issue but I do want too from hearing this um I'm at 373 Southwest Eastport Circle in Port St Lucy but I do have a house in Stewart It's on n on that street I have someone that lives right close to me that used to have a tax bill of about $115 a year now they have a tax bill of $2,600 that they won't be able to pay that when we talk they cry and get upset never be able to pay that bill and if I'm not mistaken it's a result of this program when you do a thing like that I'm not saying it's a bad program but when you attach it to someone's taxes if they don't pay it if I'm not mistaken they lose the house if they have trouble paying it if I'm not mistaken it's very depressing some people have paid for their homes and own their homes like someone brought up today and they're just not used to it and they probably be better off plan a company a bill rather than have a two to $3,000 tax bill that they'll never be able to pay so if those workshops are held I would like you guys to include some individuals who are actually got those Pace loans and did their feedback to thank you I have no further comment do we have any comments or questions by Commissioners regarding this item I made a motion to um deauthorize Second and I I don't know if if the board wants to discuss it and maybe listen and see if we need to have some a workshop or if we need to go forward commissioner Reed let me know and I'll so from my understanding with pace you're getting a loan and it's going on your tax bill so if you had a regular loan home line of credit Equity pulled it out that way you just have a lean against your property and you wouldn't potentially lose your house then unless you changed ownership and then that lean holder would be satisfied and I assuming with Pace it's a little if you went out and bought got a second mortgage on your house right now to get a new roof mhm the bank would amortize that loan over however many months you got that mortgage for and you would receive a monthly bill under the pace loan as Mr Christy was pointing out if there's somebody that doesn't have a mortgage and whose house was at a value that was so low that it it's homesteaded for so long that it only had a couple hundred dollars a year in taxes what happens to that person is come November they get their tax bill and it's $150 they scrape together the 150 bucks and they pay it and another year goes by but in the situation of the person he's describing November shows up and they get a tax bill for $2,600 they can't scrape it together so they don't pay it but there's no reminder that's sent there's no followup that's sent there's no T there's no uh credit person calling on the phone saying you need to make payments there's no foreclosure nothing happens three years pass they don't pay the taxes for three years it automatically the tax leans have already been sold every year it one of those leans exercises the right to seek a tax sale and if the owner of the property doesn't have the amount that the leans each sold for so now 2.5 2.5 2.5 plus interest you're looking at probably N9 or 10 grand they lose the house now for what it's worth if a person got a conventional loan and didn't pay for three years it's very likely that they would have already been foreclosed on because a conventional loan wouldn't let them get 90 days overdue without filing a foreclosure the question is historically and I don't know that I know that there's legislative changes and stuff but historically the descriptions were that the um the people selling the pace loan said just sign right here you don't have to pay anything it's just going to come out of your taxes and like the people's perception is that it's the government taxes not my money that I'm not going to have to pay it it's just going to be this I'm getting effectively a grant and they don't have to pay anything and then they're surprised by it sounds like that issue has been cleared up I'll also tell you there's lots of situations where the pace loans have been very helpful to someone someone needs a new roof and for whatever reason they had a car problem or a medical problem they don't have stolar credit but they own their house they sign up for the pace agreement they get the $30,000 new roof loan it goes up on their tax bill but because they already have a mortgage the bank escrows that the following year into 12 equal monthly payments and their mortgage payment just gets adjusted and they make those payments they got their roof fixed they make the payments everything goes smoothly it gets paid off in full and they got relief that they wouldn't have otherwise gotten because they wouldn't have qualified for that loan in a conventional Marketplace and they needed the roof so I'm sure for every example of one that broke bad there's probably a hundred that went well the real question is you know the expectations of the people that go out and get the money and get the benefits and get everything from it and then want to turn around and blame the city if it doesn't go well is it worth the aggravation of it makes sense thank you question for the city manager so it's my understanding Accord to commission that um City residents would be able if they wanted to oh I'm sorry it's my understanding according to commissioner Clark that City residents would be able to utilize this program as Martin County residents I me it seemed in theory as a Barton County resident unless the city excluded that unless we passed an ordin saying we wouldn't allow that but we're not that's not what's before you no the city then we it'll the Martin County um agreement that we have is only for unincorporated Martin County so that's the only area that would be able to use it at this point if you opt out of the program then nobody from the city of Stewart can use the program can I ask a could be the case commissioner do yes then can I ask a question you would change your um program to then involve the people that are in the Incorporated portion of Stewart I don't believe it's up to us I believe it's because of the charter if I'm not mistaken in terms of how if you involve all there's some areas or counties that would include unincorporated and Incorporated but I believe the way that Martin County is um is you can't do that but if we could absolutely I mean that would be but I don't I don't know that's why I'm saying I think the discussion needs to be had I wouldn't want to say the wrong thing and then you know the city of sort just doesn't have that option anymore by turn by opting out thank you is there um Ben or or Mr bagot is there any um deadline to comply with this statute if we want to change anything or if we decided to wait and maybe do this um commissioner it was my understanding um based on the legislation that there's this requirement for the local agency to basically reup any existing agreements with with a reauthorization um I don't know if there's a date certain I'll have to go back into the legislation if there's a date certain where if nothing is reauthorized it's like effectively deauthorized until that happens so new projects new programs so a lot of uh PA the four Pace administrator um agencies are kind of requesting every local agency with existing agreements to to sign those reauthorizations right now so um every day that we haven't signed my understanding is that it's not authorized even though we have existing agreements we have to you know comply with that um I do want to reiterate because of some of the discussion happening here um I don't think there is a misunderstanding um of staff on what the legislation States uh we understand that the state um legislature has put the onus on the four Pace administrators to um handle contractor compliance to manage these projects to uh follow the new consumer right protection laws we understand that um there's a whole thing about trust and verify and when it's all in the hands of pace administrator agency there is no verification on our part that there's contractor compliance this isn't to say that um Pace administrative agencies are acting um out of turn or acting illegally or immorally or whatever it's just we don't have the means to verify and that was the the still as we speak that is still Our concern with staff not to say um that it will break anything but that's that was our position when we in when we assessed this um any other may add to that Mr bagot um I don't I don't know I'm just throwing this out but it's seems to be it seems to be from the staff that it's a staffing issue Martin County obviously has a much bigger staff since I'm aware I used to work there um I don't know if we can work out some sort of interlocal agreement for them to main you know manage it and you're shaking your head no it's a taxx collector issue it's the county and the city don't manage it the question is where the blame comes is the commission when one of these people leaves their house loses their house and they come in and blame the city commission for setting them up is what happens I also like to say under the Roberts rules order if you want that's exactly what's happened if you wanted to do a motion to postpone to a date certain someone would have to bring a motion it had to be seconded and discussed okay I think what's the pleasure of the board there's ation motion on if there's a motion it if if you want me to I would like to comment so this came up I sit on a board of 70 other elected officials and this came up last year this is the most reviled program I have ever heard a description of we are so lucky that we our residents did not suffer the abuse that happened all over the state the chair finally said okay after two and a half hours of horror stories of people you know it just this program in this form is not working that is clearly the case and for the exact reasons you just described Mr Hogarth is we get the blame but we don't have the ability to control it to verify it it's the worst of Both Worlds as far as I'm concerned this was 70 other elected official it was unanimous they said we don't want anything to do with this program in this form um it's just I think we just need to wipe the Slate clean here and if we want to find a means of accomplishing what this I'm sure the goals were Noble initially but the execution has been terrible it's like the cdbg again here you know we're authorizing it but not controlling it but we get the blame and that's not a good way for the city to proceed so I have no interest in postponing this I would hope we could vote on this and if we want in the future find a way to implement this with greater control and greater oversight because we all are well aware of the downside when we fall short in that area Mr Mayor yes um one of the this is going to be backhanded one of the best um uh reasons for this program and I I heard this from a a tax collector um and because it is a sure way for the financing agency to get their money so as Mr Mortel was saying that if there was a morgage and somebody couldn't pay uh for the month or something happened there's going to be misses there this is a sure way because people pay their taxes and hopefully people are going to pay their taxes to keep their homes but it just so happens that it's most some of the people who use this program are ones who really need help and they don't have the money and then when they have this extra $2 to $4,000 a year that comes up right with their tax bill which has a window to be paid and so that the I was told by a tax collector by a tax collector that this is and maybe this the statute needs to be looked into the way these financing agencies work but that is a sure way for them to get their money and to collect their money through the property the tax collector's office and and people are misled you know it's that's the problem we have consumers are prayed upon and And to clarify as far as the authorization um uh deauthorization there is nothing that limits us in the future of reauthorizing at any point so sound good so I'd like to go ahead with my motion Clerk and we had the second by commissioner Reid okay any other comments are we ready to vote call the roll please we have a motion okay the motion was to approve resolution number 117 if you like we can Mr bagot would you reread the motion simply to approve the resolution so it was motion to approve resolution number 11722 a resolution of the city Commission of the city of Stewart Florida repealing resolution number 132220 and deauthorizing property assessed clean energy also known as Pace programs within the corporate limits of the city of Stewart terminating agreements with the Florida green Finance Authority the Florida resiliency and energy District the Florida Pace funding agency and the green Corridor Pace District pursuant to the provisions of chapter 20124 d2737 yes marriage yes motion is unanimous so we're going to have the second reading this is quasi judicial yellow card please item number 14 Mr Baga will you please read it for our consideration ordinance number 2532 d224 an ordinance of the city Commission of the city of Stewart Florida amending the city's official zoning map to rezone a 2.4 acre parcel located at 710 Southeast Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard being more described an exhibit a attached for a ma major Amendment to the existing commercial plan unit development also known as cpud zoning designation to allow a vocational training facility only providing directions to the city clerk providing for repeal of all ordinances and conflict providing for severability providing for codification providing for an effective date and for other purposes thank you hello Mr Mayor oh sorry do any of the Commissioners do the commission have any exp parte Communications to disclose in connection with this item I do I spoke with uh Mr zacho and uh Chris Krueger I've spoke with as well when I've ran into them okay commission you no I haven't I I speak with Mr Zakia but but on other I see him in town I haven't I haven't talked to any anybody about this item uh much since this uh last came up for the first reading and I'm here with an open mind commissioner Collins I have not I've spoken with Mr zako numerous times regarding this item and I've also spoken with uh Jimmy Smith regarding this item um two or three times so and I've spoken with the city attorney regarding this item as well uh Mr baggot could you put any any Witnesses under oath please sure will all potential Witnesses um for the applicant and City staff please stand raise your right hand and be sworn in do you affirm that the testimony that you are about to provide in this hearing will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God I do you may be seated will the development department please provide a brief summary of the agenda item including the location size of the property current zoning zoning requested unlist the applicant requests to deviate from the land use development regulations good evening mayor Commissioners uh for the record my name is Chris mccraine principal planner with the development department uh and tonight I'll be presenting agenda item number 14 for a major Amendment to the commercial plan unit development zoning designation which would allow for a vocational training facility within the cpud this is the second and final adoption hearing for ordinance number 2532 d224 pursuant to Land Development code uh public notice requirements on September 12th 2024 the applicant mailed notice to all adjacent Property Owners located within 300 ft of the subject parcel uh which provided details of the requested development and the date and time of tonight's public hearing uh Additionally the three p uh three public notice signs were posted on the property with the same information so for context the 2.4 acre parcel um is located at at 710 Southeast Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard uh it is bounded by Southeast Tarpon Avenue to the east Southeast uh Lake Street to the South and Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard to the north the site is located within the East Stewart neighborhood and the CRA or community redevelopment area now the subject partial is currently zon uh commercial plan unit development um the properties to the north south and west are zoned um General residential office the properties to the South are um some of the properties to the South are also Zone single family duplex and the properties to the East are designated by the business mixed use zoning designation the subject parcel and all the surrounding properties are designated by the East Stewart future land use which applies to areas within the CRA and is specific to the uh East St neighborhood um permitted uses include um commercial office Recreation mixed use low density and multif family residential projects so um project lift was um presented to the the boards back in August um uh it made it through the city commit or uh crb and the LPA with recommendations for approval um at that time it was a straight zoning petition uh to the business mixed use zoning District um once we got to the commission it was requested that that we bring back the um the application as a uh zoning to the cpud which is the existing zoning designation um so we brought back the the item to the crb on uh October 1st 2024 um we brought it to the city commission for the first reading on um October 14th 2024 and we just had the LPA meeting on November 7th 2024 um so we are here today um staff has reviewed the petition the major Amendment to the Pud uh in accordance with the the city of Stewart's Land Development code and comprehensive plan and the city uh the staff is recommending that the city commission Grant approval of ordinance number 2534 d224 and allow for vocational training facilities as a permitted use within the cpud um this concludes staff's presentation the uh applicant and staff are available to answer any questions okay is the applicant uh they wish to present their request to the city commission is that you panal yes project okay um we don't have any changes since it was last presented except we we zoned it to cpud consistent with with what the board wanted um we do have the site plan if the board would like to see the site plan or any renderings of the buildings uh we're still proposing a 12,500 foot building for a vocational School uh which will include um entrepreneurship training and incubators um should the need be uh in the community Bob zaku is also here um you've heard his presentations uh numerous times and what he has to offer uh we are partnering partnering with project Liv to provide the service at the new facility and we already have a memorandum of understanding with project lift of when this project gets approved we'll work on a lease agreement with with Bob zako to provide the service to the new facility do any of the Commissioners have any questions for staff panal or Mr zako Mayor rich I do commissioner Reed um this was sent out to everybody in the entire East Stewart Community I believe right for letters okay and then uh with the LPA were there any concerns raised on the 7th at the LPA board meeting at all um they asked about uh doing some weekend classing classes in the new facility uh maybe looking at doing adult programs um those were some of the comments uh we did recommend that uh we'll coordinate with um Jim charsky uh because Recreation Center is now available since we don't have the after CARE program to uh provide some sort of adult care adult classes and I know Jim has already Beed out to Mr Christie to to uh to find out what he's interested in what kind of classes we should do for adults okay so there was discussion I guess for weekend classes um what was Project lift stance on that for weekend classes when it was brought up the ability excuse me I'm not feeling so good today so I'm doing the best I can to you have Co Mr zako what's that you have Co no I think a little bit of allergies like here you go now vote on it right um no it's um we we've had some discussions but I can tell you you know uh when you put weekend components in place it can be it can be challenging there's a whole lot of other issues that can be raised that are related to that I'm open to the discussion about how that could look and what we could do to help facilitate some of those things but in terms of staffings related to project lift is that now you're talking about budgetary components that uh would be outside of the scope of what um of where we're at and what our mission and vision is always going to be I also remember that uh the best times to serve um serve adults is in that morning time you know when you take a look at that 9:00 am to the to 2:30 p.m we are serving up to 25 years old that's in our mission and vision and our our scope of services um but we are again open to um open to additional uh conversations related to how that could look like didn't even yeah I just didn't know if you had plans on the weekends currently no I mean like I said you you know running a company you know once you get to that 40 hour um area and we hit 40 hours with our staff right around Thursday at 6:30 P.M to be precise okay and then you and Mr chrisy were able to work things out Mr Christie and I have had some good conversation and you know um but you know I don't think it's about project lift we have to speak on it on his on his behalf um I don't from the conversations that we have and he be more than happy to correct me if I'm wrong I'm sure is that uh we've had some good conversations he came down uh he and his wife did a tour project lift I think that's very affirmative uh that that uh I don't think he has an issue with us but you can he can speak okay to that I think he has an issue that's totally separate that I think that needs to be separate that's all okay that'll be a thank you commissioner appreciate thank you do any commissioner go I have no I just wanted to thank P for putting up with me thank you I amazingly hard I mean the amazing amount of work that she's put into this and her entire team you guys should be very proud of that team that and the staff thank you Mr jao does the petitioner wish to offer any additional information before concluding its presentation no penol says no no he's sick okay the presentation of evidence has ended and the hearing is closed does any member of the public wish to make a comment I do have a public comment who James Christ okay feel better Mr zacho welcome again Mr Christie it's nice to be here again cuz I've been here a lot I've been about eight meetings concerning this issue and every minute every meeting pulled the tape I am a PO to this project going to the Willie Gary property at 710 Southeast MLK you can pull the tape again I never said that was against the program program good I told but I kind of resent the fact that my name is being dropped regarding approval of the project when I I'm not in favor of this project going at this site let me make that clear let me make it clear also that were're others in the community that came forth not just me mostly me in my big mouth but it was other people came forth and said the same thing it's a few issues and the city commission the local planning agency the crb board and CRA board y'all got to be good with a few things first you got to be good about how this was done how was initiated I pull in a public information request asking for details about that because that's important you do things like that to make sure things are fair you give opportunity to other people and you can't say oh this my friend come on you want to put a building on Southeast 17 Martin Luther King bullet for I here get you in you make sure you do things properly so that doesn't happen also this project was pushed to the public my community that I'm representing ain't a total representor of it people have other opin that's fine but it was pushed as was going to be a business incubator business incubator business incubator it's going to solve economic Injustice economic Injustice economic Injustice to the newspaper within the city documents I got it it was put in the comprehensive plan the Bible and it go from that to oh we're going to do a vocational T is going to be in exclusive to only 16 to 26 year olds I wasn't even my negotiators that I talk with Bob about other people they were not in good faith cu no one ever told me that on that property you cannot have anybody else on there if you have that particular population I learned about that the other day I asked questions Bob I sent questions to the city by the way I got to pay $7,000 to get all the information I want but the the end this is Injustice for the community it's not going to solve our problem of economic inclusion economic stimulation it's not going to do that it's going to make it worse that's property is historic we want to see a business incubate on there and not quasi after the fact oh we got to do what we want to do and then we'll think about doing something for EAS thank you Mr Christie thank you and uh members of the board if I can uh just provide a little background on Mr Christie's comments he is accurate that originally when um David Dias first started pursuing the program a relationship was developed between the city and Indian River State College that they did in fact start to pursue a business incubator program and there was going to be adult training it was going to be through the college and the county at the almost identical time announced that they were doing the reach program at the airport which is a business incubator through the Indian River State College program and as a result Indian River State College ultimately said they didn't want to do the program in E Stewart and we had already applied for the grant under the the program that commissioner Chris or not that Mr Christie was describing however we had multiple meetings after that to try and find a a a suitable concept to provide benefit to the community and when we um were matched with project Lyft it really seemed like the most appropriate fit and the theory behind it was that you know if we can reach the kids in that neighborhood between the ages of 18 and 25 and train them that at the end of 10 years there won't be anybody in that neighborhood that that isn't trained and they'll all have jobs and everybody will be that doesn't that wants to be and all of a sudden it will provide that economic prosperity and with people working in fields and being trained with experience that they will actually have the ability to have some money in their pocket and maybe create their own businesses or or or effectively uh incubate new um Commerce now in in Mr uh christe's defense I agree that it isn't the J job incubator that started out but that was not a decision that the city of Stewart voted to cancel and go a different Ray it was literally taken away and it wasn't available anymore and the city still wanted to do something in the neighborhood and do something and we amended the the Grant and the commission obviously uh voted on it on multiple occasions to make the changes and to pursue it and and it's actually a very successful program right now so far and the relationships are good and it will in fact Prov provide significant benefit to the community do we have any other public comments Madam clerk I do not um does the applicant wish to make closing remarks steart um Mr would I haven't closed public comment would you like to make if you could tell us who you are ma'am Happ toce myself to you ladies and gentlemen Ella McBride from Mango Avenue I was sitting there listening to Mike I've been here saying that uh when it was Indian River Community College and that so you know I'm a little knowledgeable not as much as you all sitting up there but sitting here and I'm think it's not just for the East Stewart young people it's for all of the young people in the city of stor U and Mr chrisy lives in Port St Lucy if those kids wanted young men I shouldn't call kids young men so when we all see and I know where I live I go up and down 10 Street um well five days a week I'm up and down 10 Street maybe three or four times if not more uh there are young young men and you see them out there they'll buy with their trucks or they'll stop at the door to cut down trees and not trying to earn extra money and I know some of them personally because they went to JD Parker with my children in Stewart Middle School and Martin County high school so if we could give even them or their children a hand up I think that's what this really boils down to we're giving the youth not not say the young people a hand up now if this building goes up is that the only thing it can use be for used for say in 20 years or can it be changed well the Pud that the commission is passing is restricting the use of the property to this use the building itself can be retrofitted for lots of other uses but it would require a new public hearing to come before the city to authorize that use well that see you would still have that little door open that you can uh but it can be used for other purposes purposes if it if it trains everybody and you don't need the use anymore at all then you could do something else with it I think the grant requires five years right well yeah five years go by very fast let me tell you uh I mean we own it the city will yeah we own it the city owns it I that so that that's how I feel as a person that I I love kids and I've watched these kids since kindergarten grow up and that and now I'm watching their grandchildren uh I think it's it it's a it's for our future especially for people like me who are trying to find a a screen guide or do a screening and that it's kind of it's hard to find just little someone who's work want willing to work to do little things you know U repairs like refrigerator air conditioning thank you you thank you Mr Mayor you need to fill out a green card M MC Mr Mr Hamilton comment you metion you brought the cdbg again if you had read sir the paperwork and the contract you keep making the same echoing are you are you referring to this item we're considering right now and you brought up something with the cdbg and you didn't read the contract you made an erroneous statement but it was that was on the last well you shouldn't have brought it up on this one then I'm sorry for the okay um no other public comments Madam clerk may we have a motion Please Mr Mayor I have a question I okay I'll just make a motion so that we um I can ask my question okay correct with regard to ordinance number 2532 d224 move approval for the land use for the zoning change to um commercial plan unit development to allow for vocational training facility only second we have a motion by commissioner Clark and a second by commissioner Collins regarding it says here we have to I think that your description was sufficient to satisfy the need to um clarify the motion so is there a discussion by the Commissioners regarding this item yes commission I'm sorry commissioner Clark as the motion maker you may go okay all right thanks I probably have like two or three things um I don't think that Mr Morell knows the answer to this but with regard to Mr christe's um comments and other people who talk about Economic Development and the type of training program maybe Mr um Mr Mr zako I'm think I was going to say Dr zako M Mr zako um the vica program at the high school I don't know if they still have that but that provides evening program for people are used to with Electrical techn uh electrical and other things and I think also the Y not the YMC the Boys and Girls Club is going to be doing something with people I think up to age 25 with some of these other skill areas too to so there are some things there that will interface that's one thing the vica program the second thing Mr Mortel mentioned about the reach at the airport and I'm asking about the Innovation Hub that we set out as a land use along with the county in the Commerce Boulevard area to have a some kind of a joint uh Innovation Hub and to do some things and to work with the the business businesses in there as well as even the business development board when they bringing new businesses into Martin County I want Mr mortell if he has any information about that to just kind of explain how that also would could interface as a tool that maybe people need to learn more about to get those resources to probably through the business development board or through the chamber or the county as to how that whole Innovation Hub area can be use um as a benefit for both the city and the county and my third thing is with regard to economic development in our comprehensive plan I think somebody mentioned the comprehensive plan and if there's a major concern as to wanting to do something to actually stir um specific um Economic Development especially in the East Stewart area maybe that's something that stab and the community along with any funds that could be available from the CRA that we could actually work on doing something I think Mr um one of our um members has said that they've talked to to staff a lot and come to us but I don't know if any plan has been provided to say here's a plan that some other community has done and maybe we could try to implement that type of Economic Development program and if we do have that the the funding or if penal has an idea that maybe another year something can be provided that says this is how it will work whether it's some kind of a loan pool something with the banks in the area so people can get um funds for redevelopment there's a whole bunch of um Florida Statutes that talks about uh Community Loan pooling and things like that but if we need to do that maybe that's something that we need to work with and set that up as a a project to work as an economic development um tool inside the East Stewart area so Mr Mortel the E The Innovation Hub do do you have any information on that it's really not Rel to this subject matter yeah but but it's just but they mention having this um The Innovation the incubators and that kind of thing yeah the Innovation Hub isn't an incubator it's an Innovation Hub that the county and The Business development board identified a corridor where they wanted to make it kind of its own zoning where different businesses and Commercial activities were taking place in a described as a mixed use type development where people could live and work in a um community that is all new businesses that they're attracting to the to the area in that corridor from what basically the fairgrounds the um flea market and then all the way down through the industrial parks or Commerce area um but I don't think that there was any specific um do you wish to make it part of this motion no I don't no I just wanted that information to be out there that people knew about that information okay and then with regard to comprehensive planning that's something that can come up in the future and I think that we really need to look at if there's something that needs to happen and I'll meet with Mr um Christie and see if there's something that we can plan to do so that um Pinal can look at some future projects to help with some specific economic development but no my motion stands as to 2532 than commission clerk commissioner Reed any comments yeah I just wanted to State uh obviously I've spoke with Mr zacho and I've expressed my concerns and I've let him know that I've never been in 100% support of the program um I would have much rather have seen IRSC there um to bring trades because it was a broader age that they would serve and Mr zacho and I we have spok and I believe he was limited by his grants and his funding for what he can serve um and as a new elected official walking into this in August most of this stuff was already done in the works and a potential no vote would mean us the city I would imagine the property or repaying back a cdbg grant um to the tune of 5 million was it total 4 seven it's it's actually almost six a little more yeah so that would be us repaying it back and and I respect you Mr Christie for you coming in here with your comments um but potentially selling the property another applicant could purchase it and they could come in for something else that might not benefit the community at all um um who knows what would come there that would come before the board um but yes IRSC would have 100% support I would imagine for my fellow board members if they were still involved and I think the community would fully support it much more they project lift project lift you know is a a small Niche basically for what they're serving and I've I've express it to Mr zacho I I respect what you're doing for the community and the small part that you are doing um and that's really all I had to say just to let you know Mr Christie what a no vote would mean um for me walking into this thank you thank you commissioner commissioner job commissioner Collins [Music] um I appreciate Mr Christie's concerns and um this doesn't preclude to address comments by commissioner Clark this doesn't preclude us from continuing to push to provide those opportunities for business incubation I would urge anyone to go to one of his graduations Mr and I just attended one I mean I just missed one I'm sorry I went to the one last and I was so delighted I mean these kids these young kids and their families are there and their families are well aware of how you help them turn their lives around and they did create jobs they were saying oh I've started my own HVAC business I've started my own beauty parlor mean I mean these are businesses perhaps they're not what you have in mind but they are businesses and it is a terrific opportunity Mr zako Project L will now be a member of the East Stewart community Community I think he shares all our hopes and Ambitions uh as regards to what we can accomplish there and I look forward to his assistance there the CRA has a lot of money we have a lot of money coming in the CRA so Mr Christie if you have ideas we're more than happy to hear from them IRSC unfortunately we can't compel them to do anything I know Mr ains who sits on the LPA is working hard on trying to create opportunities in high-tech so uh this doesn't close the door this is really opening the door for so many opportunities and I hope we're able to take advantage of them are there any other comments nope see none uh will you take the role please Madam clerk yes commissioner Collins yes commissioner Clark yes mayor Rich yes commissioner Reid yes commissioner giobi yes thank you can we take a 10-minute break maybe excuse me can we take a break so I got to go to the bathroom sure certainly absolutely I violated my own let's take a 15minute break we'll quarter of seven Madam clerk I think we should all write now e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e in the spirit of commissioner J's comments I think we should start with I'm just kidding that wasn't so painful was it have to take a break I know I feel like I'm 12 some very unor comments were made about Mr baggot they said he was acting as an intermediary is not good for what well you didn't tell us he didn't tell us anything perspec is AER the persective he didn't tell me anything you have to talk to me more often you stay in the room we're reconvening our meeting thank you yes sir wasn't so bad was it we're on uh the D and D item 15 I don't think you need to read this Mr bagot do we have any comments from any of the Commissioners regarding this item I I should we start with public comment or why don't we you want me to to re I I drafted summarize the go ahead Mr uh I put together the agenda item and um one of the attachments to the agenda item so uh if you recall um at the regular City commission meeting held on October 14th um City commissioners received a presentation from a local attorney uh Max Stucky on the hiring of an additional lawyer uh to be an environmental lawyer specialist and also to amend our city Charter to add that particular uh attorney as a city officer or Charter officer um City commission had had some discussion uh about it and um uh we were told basically to hold off on the Amendment to the city Charter but let's move forward with the process of hiring um an environmental lawyer in in addition we had started by drafting the proposed job duties and um or job description of the job duties and responsibilities of said Environmental Lawyer um Mr uh Stucky in his presentation on October 14th he had some proposed powers and job duties in his presentation and I did attach that um and it is labeled proposed powers and job duties by Max ducky um I U after getting instruction from the the the board I went ahead and um drafted a job description for environmental uh attorney and I've also attached that to the agenda item that one is one two three four pages I had also sent it and fored it to our Human Resources Director she she went through it and um and from her end she she thought it was good and she can speak for herself on that if you have any questions for her uh obviously I wasn't here when you hired me so I don't know the process you went through I did speak to um um Miss Johnson our HR Director about that process um she could uh I guess there are some Commissioners that were not here when I got hired so they might uh learn something about that process she's here she could Enlighten us with that um as far as the job description uh it the one I drafted has it's more of in final form that we we could actually use I think Mr Stucky just had some uh proposed language to be included in a job description um but there's also some other legal issues that we got to deal with with Amic Disability Act and stuff like that uh which that's covered in uh the job description that I had drafted um I took some of his language um I made some amendments to several paragraphs um to what he had and I added a bunch of new paragraphs also in the examples of essential function um I don't know if you want me to I I doubt you want me to read through it all I hope you had a chance to review it before tonight I thought you did a good job all right commissioner Collins so again I thought you did a really good job Lee thank you in capturing this in talking to um city manager actually today kind of brainstorming with him he had a really good idea that I wanted to pitch you all on and you know we had discussed kind of immediately going to a charter Amendment you know referendum to have this be a third Charter position and then sort of okay maybe let's do full-time hire and then we can do referendum later and and Mike had brought up the charter says you have to have at least one City attorney but it doesn't say you can't have two so basically instantly we could without having to go to referendum have a second City attorney but whose job would be the Environ environmental P attorney that would be uh functioning as the Environmental Protection department so I I saw that actually as a a brilliant idea and if you know in the future we want to get that buttoned up and go to referendum and have that be a separate chartered uh position Beyond this chartered position we could but at least right away you would have uh an environmental attorney you know within an Environmental Protection Department that is working directly for Commissioners uh it's a chartered position it's not a full-time hire you know that Mike is hiring we would be able to interview and hire that person right off the bat without having to go to referendum which I thought was really cool but um within that referendum the problem with referendum yes is that you can never get rid of them so it's almost impossible to get so if you're successful you oh well we don't need you anymore H so that's the problem with Charter so okay I'm glad you appreciate second staff member if possible yeah makes more sense um they wouldn't be they would be still though chartered as a City attorney you would treat them as a charter employee not as an employee hired by the city manager your Charter allows you to hire a city manager and a City attorney you could read and again you probably require Lee to give it an opinion but there's nothing in it that prevents you from hiring two City attorneys under the current Charter because it it gives you the ability you were able to get rid of one of them you could yes because it only requires one right right okay um further discussions if we wanted to go in that direction abely but at least from day one we could be the ones to hire and you know we make that decision on who we want not that you wouldn't do a great job just I'd much rather have it be you guys um so I BEC what's also really nice about that is it's it could be very streamlined because Ros just did all of this so with Lee so she could basically lean on the same salary we just get to do it again the same process so um I I wanted to advocate for having a similar situation where you know given I think again Lee did a great job with this pushing that to Raz and saying you create that you know official listing and and and get that all buttoned up and as applications are coming in we can have a hiring committee like we did last time which I would really ask you all to let me be on because I didn't get to be on the last one but uh the similar sort of people that we had last time we had Ryan for those who weren't here we had Ryan who's the pargal for Lee um our at the time Pati who was the sitting you know acting City attorney in interim so it would be Ryan did you say you were not involved in H Mr be I was not allowed to be on the committee the hiring committee but you interviewed Troy Troy was on it but you interviewed Mr yes but the committee to sort of um finalize weed out not final no no no initially shortless committee there was like 15 applications that came in and then that committee kind of weeded out and gave us a a short list Final list but um Ryan Lee I know Mac definitely should be on that this is just my thoughts Mac would be on that committee also Al Ed killer who between his work with TC pal and history in the core of water um as an issue i' would like to see some kind of group like that assuming there was a lot of applications coming in we know of at least one that will be coming in so those are kind of my thoughts if you guys have yours can I can I just follow up on that clerk so just so Mr bagot and Mr Mortel having members of the public on the the the selection committee for a city employee position how does that work how does that work what did you say having members having a public uh we've had of applications before it gets to us because when we had the city manager we did have like a community we had community members who was it it was LE I have it t or somebody like that okay that's fine we I'm just wanted the public to hear that we had Selma Washington and Jerry Gore and others when we were doing the city manager position July 24th was commission Direction July 25th through August 15th we advertised the vacancy August 16th we paired paired a summary of candidates there were 12 received August 18th the summary of candidates and credentials were sent or delivered to the committee members which were Paul molleti Raz Shields mcmanis Scott kopka mayor McDon and Ryan okay so we have two public on that one August 21st the committee members advised HR of their ranking of their top four August 24th and 25th the committee interviews in which the um individuals had the numbers were shortlisted determined um needed today to interview and then they were shortlisted and the Commissioners had the 30 minute interviews each on those particular days with the shortlisted folks and then the commission did the ultimate um selection very similar here I mean it's City attorney it's the same position it's the same everything it would just be instead of July it would be November or December and if we could get one person from the rivers Coalition oh at least we would want Mark Perry I think we'd want Jim Moyer we'd want at least Gil or Eve isn't um is um is is Ed killer that person you're looking at I do agree with I think Mark would be a great choice here I think Mark would be a great choice to it if he wants to okay so I think Mark I've spoken with Mark he has a strong interest in seeing us providing and you know seeing if we can find a means of being successful and then accomplishing it but you know that's to be debated you know he runs every's conference which is the largest uh meeting I would love for Mark to be on it yeah okay he was here he wanted to speak but he had to leave so can I run through my other ones then you certainly make okay so um I wanted to to know if it was necessary and I guess this is a part of what Mr Stucky has looked at but with the the outline that Mr baggot has put for the um the the the knowledge abilities and skills and and the requirements um you know it says the St Lucy River um issue you but I was wondering especially Mr mortell if you know of it it it implies and especially if we're going to take it as a second attorney now it implies that there will be other environmental law issues that they would be dealing with not just that and I just wanted to know if we had an abundance of anything in the past that our legal staff has dealt with that we could say well at least it would be a third or a half or whatever for what it's worth I've I've intentionally tried to avoid having the Environmental Lawyer have anything to do with like development review or day-to-day operations what I wanted to find out because it's been my understanding that the intention of this position is to be kind of autonomous and not related to Applications getting caught up in The Daily Grind but rather to be a complete separate and distinct matter that I we could always lean on them well at least what I understand is that you guys are going to be looking to this person going be enough to create their description because I yeah I don't know at this point I don't know if they're going to be filing suit or if they're going to be researching or if they're going to be evaluating it's you know okay mrag I added a paragraph 12 under the essential uh examples of of essential of the function and you'll see it I have kind of a boiler plate performs such other related duties and functions as may be assigned by City commission City attorney or city manager okay that is sufficiently big kind of covers okay so kind attorney and city manager authority to assign other items yeah that would be the only thing I I think should come out is that you you two wouldn't be assigning them duties that would come I would just say as the City attorney um you know at times I'm very busy it would be very helpful to have someone to cover me for like an Advisory board meeting um you know because I have to be at them all and and um they're scattered throughout the month I'm I'm just saying there's just certain things that would be helpful if we're going to have another lawyer here well I think we should decide I think we should decide whether he has to get our approval before he files a suit of course of course okay of course and that sort of thing would happen informally but you wouldn't the Char positions wouldn't have authority over each other in the job description I don't not not do that but um I guess as may be assigned by the City WA maybe change a sign to as requested commission just a city commission and then if you guys agree on it he would do it right whether or she yeah I would want to make sure it just says assigned by the city Commission on that part all right can I continue any other comments Comm you certainly may okay so then I've talked to people about this whole reason for doing this and I know that we want to appear strong and we want to do certain things and we know that the Army Corps is a very tough nut to crack and we do need to have enforcement but um I've been hearing that you know law some is there the new policies are in um things are um okay for now you know we don't have um high levels of water in in the lake and that um hopefully this will be a continuing thing and we may not um need it so I'm thinking do we need to and I know this might not work well with Mr Cotler do we need to like wait and maybe the first thing this person does if they do come on do some kind of a feasibility thing or do we need another expert opinion to say do we really need to have one person and spend this money it's not just for the first year it's for other years coming forward but I think that I I don't know um anyhow that's that's one thing that has come up that that that if we should wait and see how lome works and see if we can get some progress through even the work that the county is doing with their legal department and their environmental staff how that is going that's one thing that that has been brought up to me and of course the charter Amendment thing we've we've kind of dealt with that and talked about it and um the other I've talked about future budgets so um if it's in then it's going to be a job that will be there for the for the future until we decide if they've either comp needed their job or and we don't need them anymore um I trying to think if there's anything else because that those are the big concerns about whether or not lome is enough for now and if what we need to do is to really and truly I know that we've sought Mr mck Mr Stu's opinion and he's provided that over the years he's come in here before and talk to us and he thinks that having one envir environmental um attorney is what will work with the city of steart but I'm really interested this is a regional issue and I'm really interested in knowing that we're working along with the county and using their information or why is it that we're not using the Count's information and maybe you know we have issues where I'm I'm pretty sure that I've seen Mr me and others coming here and they're very good with providing us with the environmental information and working with where they're going so maybe will be should we give them a direct task to say tell us if there's even a need need to file a suit and what if it it that's done and we don't need them anymore it's okay may Mr C so I think I think it can get a little bit scary you know when there's a lawyer involved we go right to lawsuit but I look at this position more as uh an Environmental Protection department so it's not just somebody that we're hiring to go suing everybody I agree with you right now we've made a lot of progress with bom uh I talk to Major Corey Bell I talk to Jeff Brad like I have no desire to damage those relationships at all but to have a person that is Versed and experienced legally that can be looking uh into all of the different Avenues by which water quality is being degraded locally it's you know good example is right now we're a basically a party with the core you know it's it's the goal is not to just start suing the Army Corps uh right now we're party with them against sugar in a way you know so we're we're uh we filed that brief to be alongside and really that that's the idea is whatever the issue that comes up you are doing the best thing for the St Lucy River uh potentially going after enfor of baps whatever we don't even know exactly and having that person here to be working fulltime to unpack this whole thing and give us some some directions of where we could have Headway where there could be um you know endangered species or whatever it is to have that asset that resource here would be such a blessing to do everything we can to make sure that we're going after our stated goals right Z discharges we want that muck taken out of this River and um so just to say if I can quelch anxieties about lawsuits that's not my my intent right away it's really to unpack this and and have somebody with this experience and um legal prowess to see really you know what we can do here thank you Mr Mayor I know that um commissioner jobby has something I just want to ask Mr bagot it's probably um goes without saying but maybe if we should include specifically that this person will work with Community organizations such as the rivers Coalition the South Flor to Water Management whatever it is I don't know if it's actually because I want to make sure that this person knows that they that it would be included in their scope of work to gather as much information as possible from these um organizations in the community and um I don't really probably like I said it might be general public news media um I think that's implied without research is maybe maybe okay maybe it's yeah the pro the problem is when you hire an attorney and I've been told this directly and I'm I'm trying to talk to Brian Mass about it they're going to back away from us no y okay who going to back away from us the core is going to back over the couny already said they're going to back if they feel that we are going to take this aggressive legal stance theying we're not taking any stance we're not taking a stance this is from people who have no greater concern than the water quality in this community so that's unfair of you to characterize that I have not heard this okay I have well then you need to talk to more people and this is the concerns of Mark Perry and this is the concerns of guilmart and I'm very disappointed he was unable to make his presentation to The Rivers coalition because there's hundreds of years of experience there and I'm sure they would have had good questions and provided good feedback to Mr Stucky and I hope you arrange to find sufficient time in an upcoming meeting to make a presentation um to to your point just not not to interrupt you but I went and met with the board of the rivers Coalition and had a very different encounter with them than what you're describing okay well then let's hear they were very much open to exploring and seeing what was there I agre the apprehension the apprehension was that maybe that there at the time wasn't enough support from the commission to make that happen which seems to be different now so I like commissioner Clark's idea of I mean if we're talking about potentially spending huge amounts of money I mean huge amounts of money if you're suing these government agencies nobody's talking about suing okay okay but that's what if his job depends on that the lawyer is going to find a way to sue probably um you know if we want to spend a 100 or two is there a group that is pursuing this already in the State of Florida that has experience that we can hire on and maybe our environmental attorney will be able to work with it maybe come from there no but why duplicate that effort why duplicate because I want these working for me I want one of these guys working well you would hire them to work for us it's got to be somebody that works for us directly okay well that's Mr May yes can I address that also the reality is is this would be a person dedicated to us to the to the St Lucy River doesn't mean they can't work and gain knowledge and pass on knowledge to the other entities doesn't mean we're going to court now may never get to court you know a statement when this person comes on board and people realize what they are trying to do and how to save the St Lucy River they're dedicated to that it's not um the river Coalition is a great entity I've been there except they have so many other areas that they're trying to save and they're trying to protect this would be just for the city of Stewart we're the ones that the St Lucy R we this is on our borders here you know this is where we would like to fish this is where our children would like to play okay so that is our main concern and that would be what our environmental attorney would do and I again fear Maring happens maybe there'd be a statement when this person is hired maybe there's a statement they make to bring those levels down I mean that's a possibility you know it's all about it's all about PR it's all about advertising and once we get to that point where they have the right person and they present themselves to what they are and who they what they plan to do for the city of Stewart yeah I would just you know there was a lawsuit against there was a lawsuit and they lost because and lake okachobee is not a point source of pollution I mean that's the first obstal that can be over has to be overcome this is going to be a much less accommodating uh political system as regards environmental complaints I got to believe that especially in the State of Florida you know okobi is very upset with the lake levels it's way too high for them they're thinking of suing because the uh the loral G just let me finish because because why we need an attorney because the loral grasses are not able to grow at 7 15 ft they need it down to 13 ft uh big sugar is suing um the Kusa Hatchi is very upset at their representatives because thanks to Brian Mast we got a much better deal in Lum and they're thinking so you know let's get in there and start suing it it could get pretty crowded pretty quickly I just I don't know why we're opposed to a feasibility study before we undertake this potentially enormous expense that would dwarf what we would have paid for bright line to say here's here's a Way Forward here's your opportunity here's a timeline I ju there's so many people with so much experience that we could gain and it doesn't preclude us from saying okay good idea let's do it that's all I think commissioner Clark and I are asking I think you're making a great case for for loome is going to be ironed out in the courts it is going to be continually ironed out and we need to make sure that our interests are able to be represented in those various cases you're you're going to see this going to court like you said and if we have are sitting on our hands and have nobody that's legally there to vouch for us Lo them very well we could lose ground in what we've gained in our our deal the goal is not to uh haul off and start suing everybody but we should make sure we can represent our interests in the St Lucy River going forward so you have no interest in getting a professional opinion on the value and direction of such a position I want my professional opinion to be from the environmental attorney that I hire that's whose opinion that I'm interested in I'd like to speak to G Herold I'd like to speak Rich may I what if we had like a workshop or something here's the downside you start losing grants that's a real downside these organizations well we're not going to give f is not going to if we find you know if we in weer an adversarial position we could potentially lose grants and I'd like an evaluation of that is that true could that happen how could you measure if Gail Harold is going to punish you with grants or not it's impossible mayor I know that I think commissioner Reed would like yeah I'm sorry commissioner Reed I think we could get a group I wouldn't be opposed to having a workshop and you're talking about all these professionals on what they've told you well let's get them down here and let's hear them publicly what they have to say instead of it having to be in communication outside of this chamber if that's what you're going for you can get all the professionals you're talking about down here during a workshop during the day we have Rivers Coalition meetings all the professionals are there why not extend the workshop and have a board meeting after and they can hang around I don't know and hear what they have to say um I I remember what it was like growing up on the river though and I can say uh there was grass Flats at House of Refuge and I used to cut my feet on oyster beds walking around Jensen Beach um those times are long gone um I don't think anyone in this room will probably eat a fish from the river I haven't caught a snook in 10 years let alone eat one I understand there's people that will I have friends that are in the Marine industry that have lost their business um through the Summers and the discharges that hurts yeah you want to talk about businesses being lost to a zoning in progress or something well we're built on the Marine industry as well and I have multiple friends that have been exposed to the horrible health conditions we have to wait until high tide to go enjoy the water at The Sandbar it's uncalled for my mom used to barefoot water ski back in the pocket when she was a child I don't think I'd want to water ski or jet ski or do any of that stuff in the water I try to make it out on high tide just to go out to The Sandbar to enjoy what little we have or we'll take our boat and run to the Bahamas or have to go to the Keys clean water correct for clean water or or we'll go to the West Coast and Run 100 miles offshore to the middle grounds is that what we have to do as residents in the city of Stewart to enjoy our local water I pay $7,000 a year for a two-bedroom house to get this kind of quality of water it's disgusting that's all I have to say yeah and nobody wants this town to be a ghost town because of you know a river bad River but I just think that I think the idea of having this is for discussion and deliberation tonight so um if we could get some of our experts in here along with Mr Stucky who has been sticking with this thing over the years um I think it might be helpful to us to know that we have a good ground swell and what the charge is going to be for this person who's going to be working on the river I I appreciate where you're coming from but it it's more wasted time it's been 100 years this is nobody's going to save us Gail Harold's not going to save us Toby's not going to save save us John's not going to save us we have to save ourselves we have a really special opportunity right now to do this and I appreciate the rivers Coalition I appreciate Gil I appreciate all these guys they're they're awesome they're huge resources I love John M and the county like yes we have to do it and we have to be the leaders here we have to take this by the the Reigns and nobody else is going to give us permission we don't I don't need Gil to tell me it's a good idea I know that this is a great idea and that we should have done this a long time ago I want to move forward with this I would motion that we have if we need to an agenda item if it's not a consensus thing that put it item put an agenda item on the next meeting well the next meeting had to go out today okay so the next meetings the next agenda item will be December 9th and then if you know the groups want to come and speak while we're going through the process let's be going through the process though and be working on it and if we want to tweak it as we go instead of waiting and waiting and getting permission from whoever that it's a good idea what would be the next step Mike to um have Raz take this and formalize this as a job and start put together a resolution at the December 9th um meeting to adopt that job description and post it for however long is appropriate WE Post posted just like we did in July um so that you could get applicants and it could post from December 9th to January 9th or something like that and is that something you need consensus from us or that something you want put it on if you're requesting a consensus put on the December 19 is that a motion to do we need to do a motion I'd like to make a motion to put that onto the December 9th meeting so that we can then approve that and thank you very much for getting that ready for that meeting second by commissioner J and a second by commissioner May Rich may I is there just sorry is there any public comment with regard public comment for McBride ma in the back the room I know he he remembers excuse me when we first moved here in 73 every Wednesday afternoon the merchants would put a sign in the window going fishing and there was fish fries every Wednesday night I can remember when B bought the first boat we went out clamming and oysters finding you know and I'm not a boat person but I did go out and I did not enjoy with my beer free trying to find them but they were delicious eating but everyone of you up there how many people in the city isor about getting clams and oysters in our rivers or do they eat the fish do you still zero zero yeah I thought you were saying you got going to say I don't think you're knowing you're a mother I don't think she' let you do that young man well she went to school with my Robin that's why I know his mother um it uh so you know and when you say Martin of course you're the wrong person to say Martin County because when I first started going to those meetings I used to get so upset and that's when I started saying this is Helen McBride from the city Stewart which is in Martin County because Martin County no no digs on your former boys but they're nice to me but uh as far as the city goes no so let's this is a city of Stewart right we're our own people let's do its's best for we the people thank you thank you thank you can Mr Mayor can I just get clarification so it's the job description that I drafted with the edits to paragraph number 12 under the essential functions removing City attorney and city manager yes all right Mr BR Bill uh anything else hold on commissioner Clark had mentioned some other things about communicating with uh like the rivers Coalition and other organizations do you guys part as part of the job description I think it's implied enough would be my opinion we have to add that I don't need to specifically add that okay okay all right um Mark breil 208 Southeast Oola Street for another three weeks and then it's finny but anyway uh yeah so um I just want to I want to just make a couple points I think we're thinking too small I think this is a fantastic thing but we're thinking too small we're thinking litigation this is going to be multi-prong and it's going to be multilocational PR like for example when I was talking to Negron years back when we were talking about how we could sue his point was well we couldn't bring suit because we weren't specifically harmed because it was happening at the discharge out of the lake and and so it was one of those so there's situations that are going to occur where we're going to need to use lobbyists the lobbying is going to be the answer the political answer is going to be the answer there's going to be situations where litigation is the answer there's going to be a number of different types of situations the person who's going to manage that doesn't have to be an attorney is what I'm saying if we could get Mark Perry for example to come and manage all of that if we could get Eve samples to come and M manage all of that right it they know what attorneys to hire when to hire them what they need the other thing that I'm I'm saying is as a CPA I know it works in my office I know it works with all the attorneys as well the more you're paying the attorney the more people they're going to need to support themselves the guy the person that's experienced doesn't do the paperwork they're not the paralal and it's going to take a separate pargal to do some of this work both litigation from the other from some of the other stuff that's being done from a regulatory standpoint so I'm just saying think think this is it needs somebody for the city to be constantly in their face but it doesn't necessarily have to be an attorney it could be someone who has maybe lobbying background or like Negron bring let's bring Negron in here and let him you know I mean I'm just saying there are multiple people I don't think we should limit it I think the idea is what we should focus on I don't think we should limit it to the job itself I I think it you know and and then we can be successful and and then we have money to go on to other lawsuits because in some cases we may need to go on lawsuits outside of this area completely in other states to pursue an answer that we want to be able to use it in our district and and that money that we're not going to send our attorney to do that we're going to send our money to do that we're going to jump on those lawsuits so anyway that's just my comments I'll shut up and take my son my grandson fishing on the river that's a very good announc I hope at the very least we get a realistic before we spend the taxpayers money that we get a very realistic budget of how much staff is required I see in there there's regular testing how much does how frequent is that testing the testing is very expensive now to go to these Labs is the and just out of curiosity is the City attorney going to be doing that testing are you talking about that no he's going to have to hire scientists to evaluate that so be great role with Mark Perry you know you could with Mark Perry but you know we don't have those numbers i' I'd like to see more what is the budget you know what is there's no way you can anticipate how things could evolve you don't what path you're going to go you don't know if there's going to be testing if it's going to be more legor to figure that out but that's the point of having a due diligence before we start down this road because their organizations have been doing this for decades and law firms they've been doing this for decades and they at least can give us some idea I mean if you just want to go okay we're going to spend the money and bu me but it just makes me uncomfortable to not have a clearer idea of the size of the staff the size of the department the requirements as far as I see it it's going to be an attorney it's going to be Ben Hogarth and Ryan that's how I see it can Ben's role be expanded to do something I'm sure he'd much rather be doing this and maybe some of the other things he ends up doing I don't know how much free time Ben feels he has but it's certainly worth asking him okay it just you know it's a lot of money and I just hope we have as much knowledge with regard to it certainly with regard to cost it's going to be worth everything so just for clarification to just to the record straight I I think it will be likely not I mean it' be some it might be Ben if Ben like if this position is designed and you guys created as an autonomous office it may be that you want directly autonomous staff members working for and again that can evolve later but I my understanding of the job description is that it wouldn't be better Ben and Ryan because they would also be working on other matters right that would be um City related but that again would come from the Environmental Lawyer because once that person is hired he or she would have to come before you and say look I need a budget for X Y and Z and that wouldn't be the city manager's budget to decide that would be kind of its own sub budget within the budget that they would present to the board and you guys would approve yeah I just I think we should just be specific I mean I appreciate your enthusiasm commissioner couns at your age I had it too when I sued the federal government and spent years and years doing it and spent so much money it was not public money it was my own money and then you know got squashed like a bug and the case where they took to the district court in Atlanta they spent years and millions of dollars and the judge said no sorry the O Lake okobe is non-point source of pollution and the core doesn't have to provide anybody with ask for permits or provide any information regarding their discharges and that's where it currently stands so that's the first hurtle we're going to have to overcome Mr Mayor I'm sorry that's okay I thought you finished but I'm I everybody wants clean water everybody wants clean water we just want to find the most effective way forward forward we want to save the citizens of the city of Stewart as much money as we can and yes it is an investment uh that is essential but let's just make sure we're making the best decision with regard to that commissioner go yes I I just want to say and again we've we've been talking everyone's been saying things but we keep bringing up lawsuit which isn't where we're starting so already the op are when this gets out that we're looking to sue people the minute we hire an environmental attorney which is not the case so I think that it's very important that we do even from this point forward the Optics of how we present it are so important right I agree well then maybe we do hire a lobbyist if you're not going to sue the other thing the other thing I was to mention is is that um if if we go if we go forward you know when we go forward this we also want to look where we can fund it the best this actually should come out of the CRA cuz we got money in the C yeah there's no reason why CRA can have staff the CRA can't do a general fund matter it can't the river if if they only if the lawyer can only address water in the CRA then we can do it in the CRA but Fraser creek poppleton creek Krueger Creek and the river are not in the CRA but as long as they're available to do that that you can justify them doing that research they may have to do other work I think we could we should look at that you're not going to threaten that funding no we we actually couldn't hire we right we funded the portion of the station that was in the CRA but we couldn't pay for personnel that um went outside of it and you also under the CRA can't pay for services you were already providing that this wouldn't qualify under but the what I'm reading in the job description is that it's actually extra jurisdictional rather than interjurisdictional because it sounds like they're going to be identifying points of pollution the only exposure the city of Stewart has to the river is from Palm City Bridge to Snug Harbor I mean the rest of the river is outside of the city limits so this person's position is likely going to be addressing issues that have outside of the city not within the city but I like where your head's at I like where your head's at yeah I do too find the money find the money okay well I'm glad we're taking our time to a degree that it's not such a extreme position we're asking this potential hire to take Mr it provides the Commissioners with opportunity to talk to all these people and perhaps bring them before us um I don't think that's not a bad idea commissioner Reed and again was no no I know but I was referring to your you know I really I don't know why Matt got pulled from the rivers Coalition but I really like you to go before them Mac if you can find the time I realize that's a ask well I you f you felt you were time constrained so perhaps if we talk to them we can give be a sufficient time you can come back up you just want to talk we've been talking for 90 fraking years and we've gotten nowhere the cost of litigation the main cost of a litigation is a lawyer and lots of lawyers and law firms if we have our only own law fir lawyer talking for the city on a city salary that's our only expense he will be involved in all the lome decisions the first thing he will do is learn everything that's happened to the river and he will find and research the best strategy to stop it I went to law school to write wrongs the biggest wrong I have ever seen in my community is this poison River you are willing to go out and spend 9 million dollar to bury a few power lines $300,000 a year is a pance to clean up this River and I think it's irresponsible this commission for the last 10 years I've been talking to it and now we have a chance to move forward and have an advocate for the city and the city's interests and we need to hire this fellow any fellow that's got the credentials and we need to move on you can talk for another hundred years if you want to but we're going to be thank you very much thank you Mr Mr Mayor commissioner goob could I just remind everyone there is a motion on the floor yes and we're discussing okay and Mr Reed commissioner commissioner Reed do you have additional comments regarding motion I saw his light turn his sign upside down I don't really have any comments right now um besides a a workshop I wouldn't be opposed to that getting these people down here let's let's really hear what they have to say if they're telling knew this is not the way to go get them down here publicly then so I can hear it for myself um I'd love to hear it um on who you spoke to um because the only negatives that I really heard was um political repercussions um you set that aside and it's like you got to do something um but yeah all these quote unquote professionals that I know represent Martin County as a whole and go to Tallahassee for us get them down here let's see what they have to say and I'm not opposed to a workshop as well but I'd love to see a workshop I don't want to hold up what we're trying to do I think I want to make sure we're moving forward in this process and if we happen to want to schedule some kind of Workshop or whatever or if some of these people come to our next hearing where we'll be discussing this anyway we can hear from them but I want to make sure we're moving forward and we're not holding off on this is there a Rivers Coalition meeting this month or is it not because of Thanksgiving or it's already happened second or third did it happen o THS so was o so there's probably not one in November December I'm not sure December I'd have to check I'm searching right now cuz I mean I think that'd be great just to have a special meeting right after it um even before it during or even during it I have been to the meetings they say this is the primary topic and it's a controversial issue right so there's some people that are part of these organizations that fully support it and apparently there's some naysayers that are part of the organiz and if they're the naysayers we get them down here and let's hear it I I it's incorrect to characterize them as naysayer they're just saying we're not sure of the best way forward at this point you know with the new loome and they're aware of the other communities that are very un because within your River to our advantage you're going to have a lot of different interests there you're going to have people who are Fus yeah no I would I would actually say our job is to defend our interests I'm not as concerned you know like the Everglades Foundation or if they're concerned with the mikas they have their own representation I'm worried about representing us in our interest I don't need to hear about how the a feels about I I understand we are all very aware of everybody feels about we know there you go 21st of no so they do have one they're they're probably set though probably a little late but I'll talk to mark the board but I'm sure we'll all be talking to the so can we take December 9th not yet no we're waiting for a second we're waiting for the disc we had a second we had a second that's why we're discussing it cler Madam clerk we had a second yes we did oh okay so do you mind clarify clarifying the motion one more time I have that that um you're bringing back a resolution for a job description on December everybody understand correct all right and Mr bagot you feel you have a specific yeah with with the edits that you guys have discussed and okay and I confirmed on can I add something sir can I talk to Personnel you may talk to anyone you wish hey Ross did you R Johnson strong for the record did you find uh um like a Department of Labor qualification thing I mean the job range for Environmental Lawyer in the list of you know how you do your survey thing we did a survey when we were recruiting for Lee baggett's position and that data is still relevant we also had a paypoint study recently witha we'll gather that information for the agenda item okay so you're good sure okay thank you okay all right and and you heard the question about Staffing I I know that's probably a a mic issue but it that would be like almost like a department with additional staff yes and I think the city manager articulated that pretty well that if this attorney needs additional staff he would need he or she would need to come before the commission to seek that because that would be a position reporting to the commission not the city manager yes yeah all right thank you you're welcome that would come before us they expanding there work for you well I guess well they wouldn't be our direct employee would they any additional sta Ryan's not our direct employe the budgeting of it would be because be your budet right um okay roll call please commissioner giobi yes mayor Rich yes commissioner Clark yes commissioner Reid yes commissioner Collins yes thank you guys thank seen I can sorry seeing no other items for our consideration the meeting is adjourned