the regular session of the Board of Commissioners of the City of Tarpon Springs on Tuesday, July 16th, 2024 at 6:30 p.m, before we go to roll call, there's a couple of absences. We have to deal with, one is vice mayor. She's out of town. He's asked to be excused from this meeting. May I have a motion and a second to do that? So moved. Second. Roll call. Please Commissioner DiDonato. Yes. Commissioner Eisner. Yes. Mayor Vatikiotis. Yes. The other one is, Commissioner Koulianos is home ill, and I've asked to, excuse him as well. And the, we have a motion and a second to do so. So moved. Second. Roll call, please. Commissioner DiDonato. Yes. Commissioner Eisner. Yes. Mayor Vatikiotis. Yes. Okay. Irene, may we have roll call for the meeting now? Mayor Vatikiotis here. Vice Mayor Kulyash is absent and excused, Commissioner Eisner. Yes Commissioner. Kalina's absent and excused. Commissioner DiDonato. Here Okay, we have three, which is a quorum for tonight. Unfortunately, we have two out. As you see, I don't see our minister here, so I'm going to ask everybody to stand. I'll do the invocation, then we'll turn and do the Pledge of Allegiance. Almighty God, you have created all people and all of creation. We give you thanks for this gift. We've invited to engage with hope, joy, and love with your disciples. Open your hearts and our eyes to see our communities as you would have them. Us to see them. Help us to find courage, to sit and hear others, when so often we want to be heard first. You are good and you are gracious. Oh God, let us see all people as children of God. You created us all. It is in the name of God we pray. Amen, Amen, Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Cancer. A little bit of a rough start. Hopefully things will smooth out. Do we have any public comments this evening on anything that's not on the agenda? Hi. Good evening, David Ballard Geddis Jr I live on Georgia Avenue in Palm Harbor. Tonight I would like to talk about the zone. Pinellas County has placed the residents in what is known as a ready to serve zone. I now live in a reclaimed water ready to serve zone. So exactly what political ways and means brought this zone about? Originally I lived in a non deed restricted unincorporated area of Pinellas County. What does it mean to live in a ready to serve zone? Who is serving? What is serving? Who and what? If you reject the dictates of paying the reclaimed water availability fee? Is the county intending on foreclosing on our homes for not paying their contrived availability charges? The Reclaim Water contract is a variance application which extends a variance not just for public utilities. Between the sidewalk and the street, but this variance of such includes my entire parcel of property, allowing for development rights to a third party private facility as granted. What is meant by this transfer of development rights is the county utility allowing an ad hoc third party developer. The right to privatize infrastructure. On my property, invoking a third party levy against the equity of our homes to pay for such ad hoc infrastructure racketeering schemes. Whereas the county fallaciously thumbs the residence allowing for ad hoc bash was the right to tap into the equity of our homes, plundering us as based on Federalist Paper 23, tapping into the equity of our homes to pay for this third party facility contrived infrastructure as recognized in Pinellas County Ordinance 97 103, section one, 26 509, a. In effect, the county is allowing a third party to assess a poll tax using a third party direct tax system, directly taxing bashing the residents based on Florida statute. 150 303 the reclaimed water variance application is claiming eminent domain development rights against both our personal and our real property. All of our rights as residents are being taken in statute 170 .03 the reclaimed water variance application clearly states that I, the applicant, literally own my health, my safety, and my religious convictions. Imagine that taking our liberty, property, life and religion while berthing water jurisdictions under the 14th amendment. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Geddes, are there any other public comments from anybody, on anything that's not on the agenda? Please come forward, sir. You want to come here? Well my name having come to the podium and just state your name and address and then, please give us your thoughts. My name is Evan Murray, I came down from North Carolina. I originally from Tarpon Springs. This is the first time I've been in this building since 1966. I played basketball on that court right there in the eighth grade. Okay, so that's when I pull that microphone down closer to you. Okay? I see it's my first time in this building since 1966. I played basketball on that court right there. An eighth grade team. My number was number 13. Okay. I'm coming because, I own the property on Half Biscuit Street over there. I've been getting numbers and letters from investors wanting to buy the property, and it's supposed to be about the zoning. I want to know if it's commercial or both residential or commercial, just in case. If I want to put a business or something on the property or, or maybe I might want to put a tiny home on there, something like that. I don't, you know, so that's what my concern is about the zoning. Okay I'm going to you don't have do you have something to write? Could you write this number dow, 727. Okay. (938) 273-7119. That's our switchboard number here at City Hall. What is it at nine three? And ask for the zoning department. Okay, so give me the number again. Nine. I got seven, two, seven. And that should be able to answer your I'm sorry, 93893837113711 okay. Because I got a thank you I think they're in their office. You want to get Pat's card. And he's going to go get a card with them and bring you a card. So you can dial direct into their office a business card okay. All right okay. Thank you. Thanks. Mark is there anyone else that's got a question that's not on the agenda? Mr. jump, any, remote access comments? We do not have anyone in attendance at this time. Okay Let's go to the consent agenda, any commissioner, actually, Commissioner, Eisner or commissioner DiDonato wish to pull anything. Okay, let me read the consent agenda. Item one is attorney's fees. One, a is person Cohen, Mooney Fernandez and Jackson. Invoice 51325214. Item one B is Dickman law firm. Invoices 3909230939495969798. Item one C is Eunice Salzman Jensen. Invoices 8239596979899 and 400. Item two is approved. Signing of addendum to the new port Richey Combined Mutual Aid Agreement and Intergovernmental Interchange of Public Employees. Item three is approved. Signing of addendum to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office Mutual Aid Agreement. Item four is special event 36th Annual Sponge Dock Seafood Festival. Item five is approved. Licensing agreement between the city and Eagle Creek Estates property owners Association. Item six is award file number 240109. Sidewalk Improvement Program utilizing the City of Temple Terrace. Bid 21009 continuing contract for miscellaneous concrete flat work. Item seven is approved. File number 240153 security system equipment services utilizing Sourcewell contracts 030421. Item eight is award file number 240125. Concrete mixed materials batch mix delivered utilizing the Pinellas County contract. Number 23-0285, any public comments on any of these eight items? Nine items? Eight items. Commissioners have any comments. Mr. Of course. The one thing I was going to ask about, did we work out the location of the seafood festival this year? Yes. If you, in fact, were going to get our dry run at the Hippie fest, if you look down there, we're already preparing the grounds, and we'll have a good trial run with the hippie fest. And then we'll be ready for the bigger, fest there. So that's some of the work you see going on the parking lot, getting set up for where the restrooms will go. And that work is going on now by Mr. Function and the crew. So we're getting ready for our first event down there, which will start in April. I mean, in August. I'm really happy to hear that. Congratulations, Merchants Association. We'll see how it goes, and, I guess that's one way of using that property down there. That's the way the 1.6, the 1.8 acres that the city bought, I think was it last year or. Yeah. Okay Anyway, if there's no further comments, roll call please. Well we have a motion and a second to approve, to approve consent agenda second. Okay. Roll call, please. Commissioner DiDonato. Yes Commissioner Eisner. Yes, mayor Vatikiotis. Yes, item nine is discussion the ballot language for referendum question on the November 5th, 2024? Meeting. This is a, this is for the sale of the, for the purchase of, what we refer to as the Stamos property, which is the, spoil site where we construct our pond and have utilized that twice now for dredging, once in the late 90s. And once we've just wrapped that up over the last seven years. So city Manager, of course, I'm going to ask you to. Or is it you that I want to take credit for? Irene's great writing of this thing? But what why was on the agenda tonight? Obviously, you're coming back for a vote on that special meeting we're having on the 30th before the budget meeting at 530. You'll be coming back to officially vote on the ballot language. But that's too late a time. If there's substantial changes that want to be made, that's too little time before we have to have it to the election office. So we want to put on this tonight with with the language on there, here, if there's anything, any changes that we can get within the 75 words and go so that when we come to vote that we don't have any controversy on the 30th, where we have no time to change before we have to submit it. So the language is there, Irene was a major part of, of constructing that language, we enclosed information on the last three ballot languages for property to show you, show you the form that we've used in the past. And present, presented through. Obviously, there's a lot more facts that are in the ordinance that will be also coming, and of course, before the election, a fact sheet meeting the requirements of the law. We'll explain a lot more about the properties and the give the objective facts for the voters to make a decision on. So all that, there's a lot more in the process to go to. But again, we just want to do this tonight to make sure we are on track and we didn't have any issues on the 30th. When you vote for this, finally to finalize it. Okay, I just want to confirm. And Miss Jacobs, we're this is consistent with everything that we've done in the past for purchasing property. That's correct. And that will be placed into the referendum that will call for the election. And have the ballot language in it that will be coming back on the 30th. And, the one thing I know you mentioned to me was that the ballot is limited to 75 words. And we also have to be careful because it it's translated into, Spanish, Hispanic, as well. Is that correct? That is correct. And that has to be, within 75 words as well. The because we're piggybacking with the elections office, they will be, translating the ballot. Okay. It won't be up to the city, but we're we just have to be concerned ourselves for 75 wards. That is correct. Okay and then, city manager mentioned a couple of the, accompanying documents. The ordinance, which has more information, and then the fact sheet, which explains a little more, not just the spoil site, but, prospective uses, other prospective uses for the and I did I put something together based on past discussions. It's just a working document. I handed it to, city manager. Just for the point of getting us started. And I think once he gets done with what he's doing, he's going to you're going to route it to the commissioners as well. Okay Yes. All right. Let me go to public comments and then we'll come back to commissioners, public comments. Parallax 514 Ashland Avenue. With regards to the subject of the actual ballot language, it's very clear from what I recall, you've come in under the word requirements for both the title and the referendum. I did see the previous ones. They kind of mirror that with just a few things changed out. So I applaud Irene and her staff for putting this together and shouldn't really be any big changes that I can see you needing to do, but I would again reiterate the fact that, you'll need to, as you mentioned, put out some kind of factual information sheet, I know you want it to go through, but you should still put pros and cons on there. So people have an idea of both sides of what it would mean to either purchase it or not purchase it, that way it'll be more fair as compared to you all just putting out your line to purchase it without, you know, maybe showing anything of what your concerns might be, as it's been mentioned about a couple of concerns, predominantly the price. Thank you. Yeah. I should also say, though, that fact sheet ought to have, the financing approach as well. Is that correct? Yes. Yeah. So not only what it would be used for, but how it's going to be paid for as well, let me anybody else, any other commissioner, any other people in the public want to make a comment? Mr. Jump Anybody? Remote access. If anyone would like to talk on this item, please raise your hand to be allowed in. We do not have any raised hands at this time. Okay Is that Mark? Jump up there. No. Okay. All right. I don't know who it is talking up there in our booth, but I don't believe it's Mr. Jump. But just excuse me for, referring to you as Mr. Jump, so. Makes it easy for me, let me go to commissioner comments. Commissioner Eisner. Well, I usually get to speak. I'm going to forego and let Frank speak. If he has something he would like to say, I just want to bring out to the public that because there is some conception out there, it appears that we've had this five, 5.5 million sitting around with nothing to do for it. I want to make it clear we're working out a financial plan or have worked it out, for that property. And we decided to give the, the, the rights to, to you to make that decision on the purchase. And it is something that the city has talked about for 30, maybe 40 years, a long time, and that's really all I want to add. But I want to make it clear that we don't have money that we're just sitting on for that project. It is it will be worked out financially through budgeting the budget process. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Eisner, well, I want to thank Commissioner DiDonato. It has been sitting for 30 years, and it should have been bought because it's been needed every 20 years for, for use for the dredging of the Anclote. And personally, I don't understand why we've rented it and not purchased it, but it's taking this board to move with sense and pushing. And now to have to purchase it at an above price, but with conditions that we don't have many choices. So, it's going to be what it's going to be. I just hope that the residents see the need as much as we do. I'm not happy with the price, but I'm going to accept it because the need is greater than the price. And I was glad that, Commissioner Koulianos brought out a way of, you know, divvying this up over ten years so that it doesn't. It's not a burden on the city and the purchase as well. So all in all, I'm in favor of it. Yeah. The, the purchase price, actually, the value of the property was a lot less, I want to say many years ago, at least seven years ago, when that whole item, idea was brought up to purchase it. At that time and even back in 1995, we used that site as well, and we leased it at that time, of course, there was plenty of land on the north side of the river, 25 years ago. Now, that's not the case. And, and then the other part of that, of course, is land values gone up. So it's not that we're, that there's going to be a waste of money, that it's just going to be spent on something. That land will have value and it will increase in value. And obviously there are some reason we see it. That and I'm hoping the city manager will lay this out in the in the fact sheet that, you know, it was pointed out that the appraised value was $3.75 million, the owner won that 5.25. And so it was pointed out, the value of the land is what the owner believes, that it's a value to him and not just the appraised value, which was 5.25. And, you know, we can also look at it ourselves that the obviously for us to still want to buy it, the value of that land is even more to more important to the city than $5.25 million. So I'm hoping, not hoping I know that the information that the city staff will put together will demonstrate that and also, be able to finance the purchase of that property so it doesn't have a significant effect on other projects that are in the pipeline, programing and fundin, pipeline. So, do you have any, Mr. Dickman, do you have anything the city manager? Of course. You want to finish this up or. No. Again, we'll we'll bring it back for the final vote on the 30th. Yeah, when that's going to be in about a month. No, two, two weeks. So the July that's our budget work session we're doing we're doing 530, okay. July 3rd, we're doing a 530 meeting before the second budget hearing to do all the three elections. We'll have three items for the all three election items we've done there. I know it seems like a short time, but because of the timing with the office, we want to do it. Then instead of the second to give the extra few days. And so we had a work session anyway. It was easy to put it on there. Mayor, could I add one? Commissioner Eisner you know, I did want to also make one other comment because I do follow a lot of the comments that are being made. On social media, this purchase is being done for the dredge and the dredge only, I've seen there's so many other reasons of why we're buying it. None of those reasons are true. If we do find a secondary use for it to be at a later date, that could be. But I just want everybody to know that the real main purpose for purchasing this is for the dredge. And the dredge only, because like I sai, everything goes onto conspiracy theories out there. And, you know, I'm not building a second. There's always conspiracy theories out there. So I will not be building a second home on something else, tuned in to what you just said. So crazy stuff out there. My point is, the residents are beginning. They're going to be given the facts. The city attorney's putting the facts together. Our city attorney isn't going to let it loose unless it's factual. You know, and so the people can read it and make a decision of whether they feel it's something that the city needs to, to buy the city. And correct me if I'm wrong. Commission by law can't take a stand for or against a referendum. So all we can do is share the information that is available. Is that correct, Mr. Dickman? Absolutely correct. You just have to be factual with the public. Okay. So that's it. I don't you don't have anything else. Okay. So let's go ahead and move on to, no votes needed. So we're going to move on to item ten rules. And procedures annual review. Before we get started, I, I, you know, the city manager asked me, since we've got two people out this evening, whether this was something that, we might consider the three of us deferring for two weeks and, and by by, is it by our rules? We have to have the review. This month. Is that correct? It was, supposed to be in April, but we were waiting April on the city attorney, so. All righty. So, what we'll do is we scheduled it for tonight rather than taking it off before tonight, I wanted to hear from you to make sure it's okay. So let's have a motion and a second to defer, to the meeting of August 6th. I have a question first. Yes, there are two members, as you've stated, not here. And I. You know, they should have input. I, I by approving it, we're just approving what's existing. But if anytime we want to discuss it, if those two commissioners would like items, talked about we could bring it up at another time. Is that in other words, I don't want to push this through tonight without two more people here. You're. I'm not seeing the motion. You're wanting to be able to talk about it tonight or just defer it. August 6th. For what? We're deferring this item until August 6th. Okay. All right. Okay. I just want to make sure and clarify that what we're doing. Yeah. No no, no, it was to have hopefully all five of us here, all five of the commissioners that that's the and that way, because we're only needing to review it once annually and it might be best to have all five of us here when we do that. So, and just as, Irene said, we're supposed to do in April, but we didn't have a city attorney, so we deferred it to July, so why? Ginger's just taken off the meeting. We want to put it on the agenda in July like we deferred it to, and then defer it again when we have a full board. So that's probably some of the confusion. We just want to stay with, with the pattern of we we've been going through to get it correct. So okay. Thank you. And I misspoke. It's in June of every year I said April but it's in June. That's all right, may I have a motion and a second to defer. So moved to second. August 6th, 2024. There's no further comments. Roll call please. Commissioner DiDonato. Yes, Commissioner Eisner. Yes, mayor Vatikiotis. Yes All right. Item 11 is authorized. City manager to execute form DR-4 20, form DR4 20 t I f and form Dr. 420 dash m m dash p. City Manager. Of course. Yes. For however many years it's been in the row, I. I present Ron Herring to give this item, good evening mayor. Commissioners, Florida statute 200.065 sets the procedures for the adoption of the millage rate. The Dr. 420 document establishes the maximum millage rate for fiscal year 2025. We're recommending to authorize a city manager to sign form Dr. 420 at the maximum millage rate of 5.37, and if I'm here for any questions. Okay. Let's go to public comments. Are there any public comments, basically this form, we let the property appraiser tax collector know that the, we're going to hold our millage rate to 5.37. That's the maximum. So are there any that's the existing millage rate that we're at right now. Correct, is there any public comments concerning this item? Mr. Jump, are there any remote access comments? We do not have any raised hands at this time. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Are there any commission comments? I have a motion and a second to authorize the city manager to sign the forms. So moved. Second roll call, please. Commissioner DiDonato. Yes, Commissioner Eisner. Yes, mayor. Vatikiotis. Yes. Okay Item, 12, which is the last item on the special consent library board appointments, Miss Jacobs, do you want to just briefly go over this? Yes Bear with me one second. So the term for Eileen Scott and Sheila Haydar, both had expired, and they were termed out, the library board did liaison did get with the two alternates. And one is would like to stay as an alternate and alternate two, which was Katie Kelly expressed that she would like to be moved into a regular position with that said, you would either a, you could either do what you would appoint a, which would be moving the unexpired moving, Katie Taylor to a regular member and then, or selecting from the list below. And if you do a moving the alternate up, you would also have to appoint an alternate to, to fill her position and then there also is, number two, which is an appointment of another, regular member. So you would have to do 1 or 1 a and two, commissioners, do you have any, I do okay. Go ahead. Commissioners, do you want this as a motion? Just go ahead and make the motion. Yeah. I do I'm going to have a motion for Katie Kelly to be appointed, to a regular position. And. Trish. Trish Gregory to a regular position and Pat Kimmel to a alternate second. Okay. Miss Jacobs, you got all that? Okay. Thank you, Commissioner, public comments. I should go to public comments or not. Any public comments on that? Mr. jump, any remote access comment? We do not have any raised hands at this time. All right. Thank you. Roll call. Please Commissioner DiDonato. Yes, Commissioner Eisner. Yes, mayor. Vatikiotis. Yes. Yes Okay, let's go to resolutions and ordinances. I think we got a break. We want a break. I think we have to. Oh my gosh, that hasn't happened in a long time. Let me just explain our rules of procedure, our rules of procedure require us to require us to begin the resolutions and ordinances at 730. This is one of those rare meetings where we've gotten the consent special consent agenda out of the way prior to that. So we've got actually have to wait 29 minutes. For that to happen to, to for it to be 730 and, the, the reason why, you know, you could always ask for waiving the rules, but the reason why is everybody knows that it begins at 730. And if there's somebody that wants to make a comment that they know they don't have to be here before 730, then it wouldn't be a good thing to waive the, the, rules of procedure and begin talking about those now. So, what I'm going to do is, recess the meeting at 702, and then we'll reconvene at 730. And, Peter, you can talk to whoever you wanted to about whatever you were going to say.