##VIDEO ID:XX6bGspxOpo## You guys ready? For the week. W. I now call to order the regular session. Meeting of the Board of Commissioners of the City of Tarpon Springs on Tuesday, November 5th, 2024 at 6:30 p.m. City Clerk roll call, please. Mayor coleus here. Vice Mayor Kelly here. Commissioner Eisner here. Commissioner DiDonato her. Commissioner Banther here. Tonight's invocation will be given by Chaplain Brenda Nieves of Advent Health North Pinellas. Please stand and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. Please bow your heads with me. Holy God, we begin our meeting tonight recognizing that all we have is wealth that is entrusted to us. The air we breathe, the health we enjoy, the land and water we steward, the families and friendships and communities we build, the peace we live in. The source of these blessings is larger than we are, and we pause with bowed heads to acknowledge our dependance and express our gratitude throughout our land. Today, citizens have exercised the right to express their hopes and aspirations for government through the ballot box. So at this time, we pray for the leaders who are and those who will be. May they faithfully execute their duties as we remain faithful to pray for the. And now, as this body takes up the duties of governance and administration, tonight we ask for your wisdom. Our goal is the flourishing of all life entrusted to our care. And so we lean on you for guidance. Give us ears that hear and hearts that listen so that we may know the best way to conduct the business of this city. Finally, God, may we love justice, act with mercy, and walk humbly before you. This is our prayer. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag. If you ask the mayor and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Right now. Before we go into the proclamations, there are two items that will be deferred to a later date. The first item is a group of ordinances. Resolutions. That's item 28. Application for annexation, land use and zoning for property located at 249 and 251. Anclote Road. Application 24-51. And that will be deferred to November 9th, 2024. BoCC regular session. And that's 28 a ordinance 2024-08 annexation 28 B ordinance 2024 dash ten future Land Use Map amendment and item 28 C ordinance 2024-09 rezoning. Also, item 29 will be deferred to a future date, which is ordinance 2024-01 Land Development Code amendment amending article seven Heritage Preservation and providing for creation of neighborhood conservation Overlay districts. Application 20 2-112 Legislative and this will be deferred to a date certain of December 3rd, 2024. And now we will be going to the proclamations. First will be the Veterans Day proclamation. I'll be coming forward to present to three veterans we have here today. If we can, please have Miss Tiffany Ravine come up. She's U.S. Navy veteran. She's owner of leashes and layovers, pet care services here in Tarpon Springs, as well as a member of the Tarpon Springs Chamber of Commerce 2024. And she won the award for Small Business of the year for 2024. She served in the US Navy as an engineer on the USS Bridge, a Dash ten, a combat supply ship. Right after nine over 11, Miss Ravine service was during Desert Storm and includes Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. And we're going to call up the other two. And as you both come up, and then we'll read the proclamation. And if you'd like to say a few words, that would be great. Next we have. Mr. Jeremiah Mills, US Navy and Navy Reserves veteran, Senior Chief Petty Officer Jake Mills completed 20 years of service in the US Navy and the Navy Reserves in March of this year. His many duties include shipboard firefighter, emergency room manager in Sicily and medical coordinator for the DoD Wounded Warrior Games. He deployed overseas three times, most recently in 2020 as the top enlisted advisor in Afghanistan. Here you go, sir. And last but not least, we have Miss Haley Hovater Johnson, US Navy female veteran, former military police, served in the US Navy during the Gulf War, stationed in Sasebo, Japan. Military officer injured in the line of duty. Owner of the baking soda in Tarpon Springs. An exceptional business that reflects the courage and dedication of our armed forces. And we are proud to have in our community. And I also want to thank every veteran out there, especially, you know, here in Tarpon Springs. I want to thank you all for just your courageous efforts in serving our country and in all military branches and just having, you know, being fearless, representing our country. It's the ultimate sacrifice. And we can't thank you enough. We also have some veterans on our city staff. We have Police Chief Jeff Young as well as Fire Chief Scott Young and a few others. So I just want to thank you all so much and for doing the ultimate thing for our country. And so here we go. The City of Tarpon Springs proclamation. Whereas our veterans represent the very best of America, they have bravely answered the call to serve in the finest military force in the world. And they have earned the dignity that comes with wearing its uniform and defending our great flag. And whereas on Veterans Day, we honor all Americans who have served in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard, both in times of war and peace. And whereas Veterans Day gives us time to pay deep respect to our veteran, and whereas we humbly thank our veterans and their families as we remember and honor their service. And whereas on veterans Day, we remember these heroes for their valor, loyalty, dedication and encourage all Americans to recognize the fortitude and sacrifice of our veterans through public ceremonies and personal thoughts and prayers. Now, therefore, I, Panagiotis Kollias by virtue of the authority vested in me as mayor of the city of Tarpon Springs, Florida, do hereby proclaim November 11th, 2024 as Veterans Day. Please, let's give them all a round of applause. If you three would please just like to say a few brief words, we would appreciate it. Okay, okay. I just want to say thank you to the mayor and to the city of Tarpon Springs. I'm honored to call this place home. And also where I do business. I absolutely love it here and I'm so thankful to be here. Thank you so much. I would also like to say thank you to the chamber and the city and the mayor for giving me this opportunity. Thank you. Thank you, thank you so much. Next we have the proclamation for National Native, Native American Heritage Month, and we have to accept the award. Miss Rita King Gunther. Thank you so much for coming, man. We really appreciate it. And thank you, Miss Rita King Gunther is a member of the Pueblo Nation that are 19 tribes located throughout New Mexico and Arizona, southwest southwest US, around Four Corners. My biological or her biological parents tribes were the Hopi and the Zuni tribes. She was raised by foster parents who moved to New Port Richey in Florida. In 1954. She graduated from Gulf High was a week a Weeki Wachee mermaid five years after high school, and recently retired from the US Postal Service and presently works part time as a member of the Underwater Safety Team. Back at Weeki Wachee Springs. She's a mermaid. That's awesome. Okay, so city of Tarpon Springs, Florida proclamation whereas national native American Heritage Month is celebrated each year in November, it is a time to celebrate the tradition, languages, and stories of native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and affiliated island communities and ensure their rich histories and contributions continue to thrive with each passing generation. And Whereas this November and every month, we celebrate the culture and heritage of these remarkable Americans who deeply enrich the quality and character of our nation. And whereas the city of Tarpon Springs promotes diversity, inclusivity and respect for all individuals in our community, and whereas the city of Tarpon Springs joins others across the nation in celebrating and acknowledging National Native American Heritage Month. And Whereas this observance offers increased opportunity to better understand Native American heritage, past and present contributions to our communities and to honor the many indigenous people who have sacrificed their lives and customs for the growth of our nation. Now, therefore, I, Panagiotis Kolias, by virtue of the authority vested in me as mayor of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, do hereby proclaim the month of November 2024 as National Native American Heritage Month. Here you go, Miss Gunther. Please say a couple words. I just want to say I'm very honored to receive this proclamation for and in behalf of all native North American Indians. And I want to thank Mayor Pete and the Council and the city of Tarpon Springs for continually remembering and recognizing Indian nations. Thank you. We're going to go back to our seats and allow public comments for the proclamations. Are there any public comments on both proclamations? It are there any zoom comments online? If anyone online make a public comment on this item, raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Thank you. IT board. Are there any comments that you would like to give for the two proclamations? I'm good to go. Sure. Thank you. Yes. First off, for the veterans, Jeremiah or Jake as I know him, is a good friend of mine and he's a great example of a soldier and also a very, a very dedicated firefighter to our community. I think I think over in Clearwater. So thank you for that. And then for the two ladies, it's very impressive that you chose Tarpon Springs to have your businesses. So I do thank you for that and for your service. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Banther. No Commissioner. Comments. We are going to move now to the special presentation, which is item three, status update on hurricane recovery and presenting. This will be fire Chief Scott Young. Good evening. Good evening, Scott Young. Fire chief, I just have a real brief update of where we're at right now in the city as far as our storm recovery. So it's been 41 days since Hurricane Helene. 28 days since Milton landed. And what's a lot been going on in the city as we go through the recovery mode? And it still continues? We're not done yet. Regarding wastewater treatment. We have all of our lift stations are back online, except for one that's at the River village mobile home park. It was destroyed by the storm, so they have a bypass pump there. While we wait for the new pumps and equipment to get there to be fully back up online, but it is working on the bypass. We're glad to hear that all city facilities are up and running at this time. Our city staff and crews have worked tirelessly to make sure everything can get back open. Sunset beach was a huge undertaking for the Public Works Department and Duke to get back up online, but it's on back open and is open at this time. Our debris pickup is moving along pretty well actually. We are. About 80% of the city is picked up right now, or about 90,000yd■!T. And we're still anticipating that we'll be out of the job of picking it up from the streets around Thanksgiving. That won't end the project. The project doesn't end until it's out of the landfill, and they're hoping to have all that done and removed from the landfill by Christmas. So that's our goal again, the yard waste facility is open to everyone still with no fees. As we move through this process, we'll have to see what happens once it's all picked up. Whether or not we're going to have to move in just for the trucks to move in and out with the other debris. We'll let you know what's going to happen with that. When might be a little chaotic at that point for the public coming in, but we'll let you know. Permit fees for doing repairs for those homes in the affected areas of the storm are still free. So please utilize that service to get your permits so we can get these homes back to back up and livable. I found out today that 60% of the businesses on the docks are now open, so that's moving along. I was told a little bit ago that Halas plans on hopefully opening in about two weeks. So it is coming back to life down there. So hopefully residents can come in and start giving their business back to those people that were shut down for so long to help them out. Over the next couple of weeks, you're going to see inspectors coming around checking homes for the substantial damage. You'll know them. We'll put information out for that. When they're going to be starting. They'll be wearing vests. I believe, and stuff like that. They'll be going around just to check to see what kind of damage to homes had and where we're at with that. That process is part of what we have to do. We're required to do for FEMA to make sure that we are aware of what we have in the city. The city wide cleanup day, that was scheduled earlier was canceled because we didn't want to get it mixed up with the regular debris out there that has been rescheduled. And that came out today for January 12th. The citywide cleanup hopefully will be out of the way for all that, and we can get back to some normalcy after the holidays. Again, I want to make sure everybody knows that the individual assistance and Small Business loan time period is still open. If you need to do that, please get there. I believe that time expires at the end of this month and the 1st of December. So if you need assistance, those are your cut off dates. If you need more information, give us a call and we'll try to help you out with that. Lastly, I just want to give a thanks to the residents. This has been a trying time for all of you. Lots of stress, but and I appreciate the help that we've heard from the community helping each other out. That has been tremendous. That's what it takes to get through this is helping each other out, making sure that we're in this together as a team. I know the times are trying right now, but we will come back and we're going to come back stronger than we were before. I believe that, so I thank you all for that. With that, I'll answer any questions you may have. Are there any public comments on this presentation? Zoom. Are there any or it are there any zoom comments? If anyone online would like to make a public comment on this item, please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Thank you, Vice Mayor Koulianos. First, chief, I want to give you a special thanks for all you've been doing and keeping us informed and helping guide us through this whole ordeal. On a personal note, you know, I definitely appreciate you so thank you more than you know. So let me ask you the overall cost that we had originally estimated for the pickup of the of the debris was $4 million. What do you know? It is now. That'd be a finance question. Do we have a number for that? Five. About 5 million are telling me five right now. Yes. We originally estimated about 150yd■!T. I thik that number may be down. So we might not have that number. We'll still make it into the 100,000 area. So the cost will be a little less maybe. And we're going to get it's going to go up. But it's good. And we're going to get 50% up front. And then the city has to front the 50 until we get reimbursed later down the road. Yes. So there's an expedited procedure that we the finance filed today through our consulting company to FEMA, to get 50% of that money back. They say it's soon. So hopefully with that they'd say two weeks. We'll see. So we should get about 50% of that back right away to help with the cost of moving and the other 50 were the other 50. We have to go through the whole process of FEMA paperwork, and that can take some time. That's it. Thank you. I just wanted to say to the emergency declarations are still in effect. You guys will be ratifying those tonight. Those will probably be going on at least until the debris contractor is out of town. Thank you, Chief Commissioner Eisner. Thank you, Mayor. So the payback that we get would be only for what the FEMA trucks picked up and put at the dump, not for what the homeowners brought to the dump. Correct. I believe it's 50% of what the homeowners I mean, the debris trucks picked up, is that correct? Yeah. Once again, we get Tom. He might be able to answer that question better. Tom function, public works director. No, the material that the residents are bringing into the yard waste is then measured and put into the pile. So we will be reimbursed for all that material they brought in. So that's going to be added to what the FEMA trucks have been bringing in. Yes, sir. I was curious on that. Okay, I have one more question. And this also, you may not you may have to refer. I did get a number of requests. I know that we're avoiding and comping the permits for people that have storm damage. What about people that wish to raise their home or wish to put an addition on top of their home? Will that be something that can be. It's not 100% related to the storm, but it is to prevent anything from, you know, the future. I don't know that we have looked into that process yet as far as fees or permits for that. That's an ongoing thing that we're working through, right now. So I don't really know where that's going to go yet. So it's a little early in the process for us. I just wanted you to know that was we had a couple of requests. We've had we've had multiple people calling us about doing such things, and we're waiting for answers ourselves before we tell them which way we can go. Yet based on the guidelines. Okay. Because, you know, whenever these things happen, you always have the PTSD of I don't want it to happen again. I can't live through this again. So people will do things that, you know, maybe they you know, I tell people this was a rarity. It could happen tomorrow. Who knows? But, you know, for the most part, it's not going to happen again like that. So we hope so. I think all of us, I think all of us, when we saw the storm in the Caribbean coming into the Gulf, had that little STD STD moment. Yes. So hopefully it's going the other way. But also, I wanted to thank you because yes, you've kept me informed as well as you did everybody else. And I think you guys did an amazing job. As I see my smiley face over there, you did an excellent job. Megan. Behind me is our M coordinator and floodplain administrator. She deserves a lot of this credit. She has kept us rolling. It's not a moment of every day since the storm. She hasn't been in 2 or 3 meetings trying to keep abreast of what's happening. And we're headed down this path. I mean, a lot of this is new to all of us, but she has been a champion through this whole thing. So. Thank you. Commissioner Banther. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Thank you, chief, very much. You guys are doing a great job. Thank you. I just want to make sure Charles, that we're putting on Facebook and everything appropriate about, like, the last sweep, so residents know to get everything out by a certain deadline. So if it's two, if it's three weeks from now, let's just call it two weeks. Leave a buffer. But I definitely want to make sure we can't be criticized for not saying, hey, this is this is this is the last sweep. And then from there, thank you. Thank you. I'm glad you brought that up. The trucks are still making swipes or sweeps through the city. I know it came up about a couple residents that the debris was too far up in their yard. When these trucks go, they have the long arms that they can grab. They can only grab so much so far away. So if you have that, you need to bring that out farther to the curb. What's ever left. So these trucks, when they come around for their next sweep or whatever, they can get that stuff picked up. Thank you for bringing that up. Thank you. Chief, I just want to say you staff Mr. Funk, and everybody has answered the call. The debris pickups going great. It's efficient. It's. The numbers are being posted. The deadline that you talk about is as we're coming close to approach that deadline or those those goals that would be great for that Thanksgiving market. Then the months they'll be there at the yard waste facility after I just can't thank you guys enough. And so and staff is also during this whole process with you know, substantial damage, you know, looking at houses and stuff. Staff is doing everything they can to look at ways that they're going to help residents with the most possible, with any way possible for mitigation for lifting. And at some point, we as a commission are going to have to look forward to see, maybe give direction for staff, but they're doing everything they can to look at all options for those who are affected the most by it all. And so much has happens in progress and good progress for this community, and we're being transparent on everything we're picking up and how we're going about it. And I just can't thank you all and the whole staff and the city manager for everything you guys all have done. So thank you. Hey, now we're going to go to public comments. Are there any public comments on the items that will not be discussed this evening? Good evening Anita protest, 91 Bayshore Drive at our last meeting, Commissioner Yanez gave an excellent report. Number wise, as how this storm is going to hit our community. And I'd like to ask him again to do it. Our city manager and our mayor, to give the residents a report how financially this storm hit our community. People are talking about it. They want to know more about it. Those that didn't hear it and I thank him for bringing those numbers forward, because we are going to be a little bit poor for a while. I'd like to know how it's going to hit our home taxes, property taxes, how it's going to hit everything that we pay for the community because they've had it on TV for the beaches south of us. And they have really, really financially gone under a lot. It's amazing. As small as their little beach communities are, what they're losing. So we appreciate you bringing that forward to us. And we're going to ask you to do it again and let us know how hard it's hit our community financially, because people think we have all this money and we don't. And money's not going to be coming in to us because of what's happened in Pinellas County. So when the time comes to our city manager, both of you and the mayor get together and give us a report, because I think that's very important for the citizens of Tarpon to know. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. Linda Eisner, 1515 Riverside Drive. I would like to ask what the rules are for BOC spouses to serve on City of Tarpon Springs boards. Previously, it was demanded that I resign from the Code Enforcement Board, which I did. I'm a graduate of the Citizens Academy. There were several empty slots open where I would like to help our community get back on its feet and move forward. So I would like to ask what the rules are. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Eisner. Just give us a day or so and we'll have one of the city attorneys, if not the city clerk, reach out to you with it all. Thank you. Ma'am. Next speaker, please. I see, are there any zoom comments online? If anyone online would like to make a public comment, please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Thank you. We are now going to the consent agenda items. Item four is satisfaction release of liens. Item five is attorney fees. Johnson Jackson, p, LLC. Invoices 13642 and 13643. Item six A is special events. Saint Nicholas vesper procession. Item six be Saint Nicholas epiphany. Litany. Procession. Item six C snow place like Tarpon Springs 2024. Item six D 3330 third Annual Thanksgiving Arts and Crafts Festival. Item six E Annual Christmas Parade. Item seven ratify RFP number 230012. Dash p Dash j l disaster debris removal Amendments one and two. Item eight approve authorization of File number 250043. Dash C dash p h for interlocal agreement between Pinellas County and local governments for the Cooperative Emergency Procurement of disaster debris collection and removal and disaster debris monitoring and management services. Item nine Award file number 250035. Dash c dash p h. Emergency response restoration services utilizing utilizing the School District of Hernando County. Contract number 24-91837. Item ten approve fire department interlocal agreement with Pinellas County for the collection and remittance of construction plan. Review fees for all projects in unincorporated Tarpon Springs. Item 11 Award file number 250030. Dash c dash a s liquid carbon dioxide utilizing city of Oviedo. Contract number ITB 24-21. Item 12 increase file number 230058. Dash C dash a s sodium bisulfite 40%. Aqueous solution utilizing Lee County. Contract number B220256 CMR. Item 13. Increase file number 240071. Dash n a s. Public safety health screenings. Item 14 Award file number 250021-C- as well maintenance, evaluation and testing services utilizing City of Clearwater. Contract number 901840 ITB 15-23. Item 15 increase file number 240122. Dash n dash a s single source purchase of SHS, CCTV truck upgrades and repairs. Item 16 renew file number 230110-C-AS body armor and ballistic vest utilizing the state of Florida alternate contract. Source number 46151500 Naspo dash two one Dash. Item 17 Hazard mitigation Grant program Subrecipient management costs Grant request for project ID 474734. Dash 013 city of Tarpon Springs Sponge docks. Flooding abatement. Item 18 renew file number 230037. Dash c dash j l utilizing School Board of Pinellas County. Contract 23-060-060. Motor vehicle parts. Common item 19 improve MoU for hurricane Helene and Milton for entering into an interlocal agreement with Pinellas County for the use of section 1206 building Code and Floodplain Management, administration and enforcement. Commissioners are there any agenda items that you would like to pull? Commissioner DiDonato? Yes, I'd like to pull 19. Thank you. Commissioners, any other items you would like to pull? 17. Any other items? Commissioners. Okay. Can we go to public comments on all consent agenda items? Four through 16 and 18? Are there any public comments on those consent agenda items? I t are there any zoom comments? If anyone online has any comments for these items, please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Thank you. The chair will entertain a motion to approve consent agenda items four through 16 and 18. So moved. Second. If there are no further comments, roll call, please. Commissioner Miller. Yes, Commissioner. Dunham. Yes, Commissioner. Eisner. Yes, vice mayor Giuliani's. Yes. Yes, yes. Next, we have item 17, which is hazard mitigation grant program Subrecipient management cost grant request for project ID 4734-013. City of Tarpon Springs. Sponge docks. Flooding abatement. Commissioner Eisner. Thank you. Mayor. I just wanted to question exactly what we're utilizing this for. These are just costs that come as, like an extra. They're administrative costs. They help pay for anything that we would use. The MGP money for, such as, like any time that I would spend administering that grant, we could submit that for reimbursement for my time spent managing that grant. That includes if we would happen to like, use a consultant for something for that grant, we can get reimbursed for those administrative costs. It's not part of our ask. With the grant itself, it's like a bonus pot of money that you're allowed to submit for. It doesn't cost the city anything. There's no match for it. It's just something that we can ask for on top of it. But we do require they require a signature from the mayor to even ask for that. That's why I brought it before the commission. So let me just say it this way. So this is not the mitigation of our King tides and our issues with the King tide floods. This is has to do with all mitigation as far as with the storms that hit. Correct. This is from Hurricane Ophelia. This is for MGP, for Hurricane Ophelia. We're currently under the engineer review for that application. We're in the final process of getting funds for that through. We ranked high enough through Pinellas County that Pinellas County submitted it to the state, to FEMA for last year's hurricane. And like I said, we were ranked high enough that they actually submitted our project for the sponge docks to the state. We're under final review as final review. We're looking at those management costs now as an added. So one last thing. So this would be utilized for damages that could have come about through the city on the city's property as well. To have somebody looking over and seeing the damage that we had, that would only for Vidalia, it would only be for managing this grant for Hurricane Vidalia, for the sponge docks. That is it. Okay. Yeah. Not for anything current. If that's the case, that would be for future grant applications. For those ones in particular, I just wanted you to be specific. No, that's okay because that gets very confusing because we have so many different storms and pots of money that are going to be coming available. I like pots of money. We all do. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Are there any public comments on item 17? It are there any zoom comments? If anyone online has public comment on this item, please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. The chair will entertain a motion to approve consent agenda item 17. So moved. Second. There are no further comments. Roll call please. Commissioner Banther. Yes. Mr. DiNardo? Yes. Mr. Eisner. Yes. Yes, mayor. Yes. Item 19 approve MoU for Hurricane Helene and Milton for entering into an interlocal agreement with Pinellas County for use of section 1206 building code and floodplain management, administration and enforcement. Commissioner DiDonato. Yes. I brought this forward because there were there was some citizens that have contacted me just for clarification. Some concern that maybe we were giving up some of our authority. But the way I read, that's not the case. But I'd like Chief Scott to please, you know, further explain that and. Sure. And Scott Young, fire chief. So what we brought forward, it's called a 12. Oh six. It's authorized through FEMA to provide communities assistance after events such as these storms. Most cities don't have the resources to do everything that we need to do, do the inspections. All the FEMA paperwork, etc. It's just it gets mind boggling and it's a lot to do. What this does is a free service through the county, through the state and FEMA. Most of all, the cities are saying the same agreement. It authorizes us to use this company. These companies, to help us with these paperwork and stuff. I just mentioned. We don't anticipate having to use it. We believe we're going to be okay, but we're using it as a safety net in case we need help, because we have 180 days to get certain things done. If we are getting up against the timeline of that 180 days, we'll enact and bring them in to assist us. But we don't at this point believe we're going to need to use it. We just brought it forward. It's a free service, but without without it being signed, we can't utilize it. So that's why it's here. We're not giving up anything. We're just looking for help if we need it. That was the part I just wanted to clarify that we aren't really giving up any any security for the city. No, they were just bringing this to help us. As I understand it, it brings people in to assist us and the things that we are required to do after the storm. That's all this is for. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any public comments on item 19? I. Comments public comments on this item? Please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Thank you. The chair will entertain a motion to approve. Second consent agenda item 19. Mister Panther. Yes. Mister Delano. Yes. Mister Eisner. Yes. Giuliani's. Yes. Mayor. Yes. Ye. All right. We are now going to the business items of the day, which formerly known as the Special Consent Agenda, item 20. We have discussion and direction of city compensation and rate study. City manager. Thank you. Mayor. This item is something I think was sort of queued up and discussed at the end of last fiscal year. And it's a go outside for professional rate compensation and benefit study to compare us to cities of similar size and population and budget and so forth. We've done a lot of in-house studies in recent years, but this will be one to take a broader view. They look across the state for similar communities and give us an idea of how we are paying for cities of our size. Thank you, City Manager. That sounds like a great idea. Are there any additional comments or anything else that Ron Finance Director or Janina Lewis may may want to add? Not. Okay. We're now going to public comments on item 20. Are there any public comments on this item? It are there any zoom comments online? Anyone online would like to make a public comment on this item? Please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. The chair will entertain a motion to approve item 20. Discussion and direction of city compensation and rate study. So moved. All right. We have a so moved a second. Are there any public comments or any commissioner comments? Roll call please. Commissioner. Panther. Yes. Commissioner DiNardo. Yes, Mister. Eisner. Yes. Vice mayor. Yes. Yes. Yes. Item 21 is approved. Employee hurricane assistance. And we have a city manager, Charles Rudd. Thank you. Mayor. This is item we were asked to bring back to you for consideration. In a previous storm, the commission had voted to approve a stipend for the for the staff. And this came up. And we provided in your packet what the stipend was previously, what it would be with inflation. And just asking for your direction. Okay. Thank you. Are there any public comments on this item? It. Are there any zoom comments online? Anyone online would like to make public comment on this item? Please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Okay. Well, there seems to be a few different options, so I'd like to have a discussion first. And Commissioner Eisner. Thank you. Mayor. My only thing is I just never heard of giving a bonus with a stipend for inflation. That's the only thing. I don't have an issue with the amount. And truthfully, I would rather it be written off as back in 2017, they dealt with one hurricane, and this one they dealt with two hurricanes. So I'm okay with the price. I just don't know. When you give somebody a bonus, do you do it according to Cost of Living? It's not an increase. It's a. So those words, the only words that I find a little bit difficult to digest. But as far as the amount I'm okay with doing the 2500. They worked very hard. They were in two storms and there was not even a break in between. So I would go with the higher amount. Thank you. Commissioner. Commissioner Banther. Yes. Thank you. Yes, I would support that. I would support the higher amount. I know that when I spoke with the city manager today, I'm not sure if this is brought, brought this up, but it was asked about, you know, maybe they said, well, in lieu of that, to give the Monday off, be a be for Christmas and I wouldn't support that by itself because our first responders don't get days off. But I certainly would would be in favor of both the staff worked two two significant hurricanes. And as we've heard from the fire chief, this work is going to be ongoing. I think we just settled the Irma debris. Debris pickup collection, and that was a spit in the bucket. That was just trees that wasn't flood water. So I'm definitely in support of the higher amount. And if possible, I think we should give employees that can take off that Monday as well. I'm not sure if that's on the agenda, you know, like docket tonight, but that was mentioned to me by the city manager and I would support that. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner. Vice Mayor Giuliani's. You know, I hate to be the Scrooge in the bunch, but I'm telling you, folks, we've got financial. We've got to tighten our belt. We've got financial issues coming up. I mean, this is the total of this is over $200,000. I mean, I they deserve it. But I think that if we can find a revenue neutral approach that gets them a decent benefit and takes them above and beyond the fact that they all received their overtime, and it says here that the overtime expenditures incurred were $819,000. So we've already paid them $819,000 in overtime pay, and now we're adding 200,000 to that. I think that we could use you know, there are some cities down south that went to cash to allow employees to cash out PTO. So to get a benefit up front, I think that if we use the I'm fine with multiple extra days of off for them, an extra day off for Christmas, an extra day off for possibly New Year, they could, you know, we still need to keep the city open so we can't have everybody gone. So we could also add an extra day for epiphany that, again, is revenue neutral because we're already whether we're paying them to be here or paying them not to be here, we're still going to be incurring that cost. So I would like to have an approach that was revenue neutral, because at some point we've got to tighten the belt and do something. Now, you know, I don't want to be put on the spot to say no to the employees, because I know that now that this cat's out of the bag, they you know, would be extremely disappointed if they didn't get something. But I would I would prefer a revenue neutral approach. So thank you. Thank you. Vice Mayor. Commissioner DiDonato. I've looked at it too and questioned and have talked with the city manager about it as well. I too am concerned about our upcoming issues with our budget and the cost that that have been added that no one could have guessed. I mean, while we planned for some of it, we didn't plan for two that close together. I too would prefer something neutral as for further cost, I want to commend all city employees. I just, I don't know yet how the amendment that Tarpon has, whether that passed or not. That's 5 million, 5.2 million or 2 5 million. There's just a lot to take on right now. And I prefer the revenue neutral approach. We're going to go back to. I would like to give them something or I mean, I understand that it's we have the neutral approach as well. I'd like to lean towards at least the minimum of the 400 for each employee. I know it's seems like we're going to have two two at the moment, so let's see how discussion goes here in the future. Here. But it seems like one way whether we do a neutral approach or give them some type of stipend, we are going to look out for city staff. So we're going to go back to Commissioner Eisner. Thank you. Mayor. Could I have Ron? Ron, could you come up here, please? Thank you. Ron. Commissioner, how are you doing? Always excellent. Thank you. This total $819,054. Are we responsible for all that, or is FEMA pay us back on any of it? That will be 100% FEMA reimbursed. So what was earlier said was not true? That it's money out of our pocket. We're going to be reimbursed for that. Yes. Okay. As long as it's within the first 90 days, we get 100% reimbursement. Okay. That's category B. That's all I needed to hear from you. Thank you. Thank Commissioner Banther. Yes. Thank you. And I've been meaning to ask this for several meetings. Well, that well, the two I've been here and Ron, you know, I was a big fan of the reserves ten years ago and preserving that. What's our current reserve balance? Our current reserve, as we ended up last year, fiscal year 2023 is about 8.7 million. Okay. Thank you. I don't want to be doom and gloom, but I think, you know with this we're going it's going to go down for 2024. September 32nd is going to go down. I was planning on going up 300,000, but with the 500,000 coming out for overtime and stuff out of the general fund, it's probably going to go down to about 8.5 million. We have this reserve fund for this very reason of hurricane. So thank you very much. Can I ask a question? Sure. Vice mayor. So even on the 5 million that we have to come up with for the debris pickup, correct. Okay. So we're going to ask for expedited on the 50%. Where are we? Where are we getting the other 50% from? Well, the plan is we've got about 1.4 million in the sanitation fund. We're going to use that money. The other thought was we was going to come tonight, but maybe the next meeting on the 19th to do an to try to carry us over. A little backup plan was to do an Interfund loan from the hospital fund. We have 3 million sitting there. That's not going to be touched for about 20 years that we would borrow from that until we got the reimbursements back from FEMA for that balance. That's not part of the expedited or the general fund. If we wanted to do that. But that's going to reduce the reserves more in the general fund. Let me ask you, this is if we have employees, I don't know if you've done this. I think we talked about it looking at employees who made over a certain amount of money. Right. Because if and I know I don't want, I'm trying to save whatever we can save on this. But we have employees who make $60 an hour right? Correct. Okay. And they worked overtime during that time and they made $90 an hour. Correct? Yes. Okay. So you know, the five I think, you know, the stipends are most useful to those people who are the lower end employees that that really need the money. So we could look for at least have Ron do a calculation on employees at a certain level. We could we could do a hybrid of all this. We could offer a day off, which would be helpful to even a higher end employee, because they can always they always love days off. Everybody would. Then we could have a cut off on on certain level of employees and give the lower end guys 500 rather than 400, because they could use it. So maybe there's some kind of a compromise here, and even the 800,000 in overtime. It's going to take some time to get that reimbursed, right? Yeah. FEMA i. Yeah. Not that quick. We in fact, we just finally it takes about a year, okay. At least a year to get the money back. So you know the I'm not true stuff that came from the other commissioner. This money, this 800,000 will be a year before we get it correct because we are still getting money from a storm. One year ago. Correct. Okay. So this 800 is coming out of this budget and most likely won't be reimbursed in during this fiscal year, correct? It might not be reimbursed by the time I'm trying to close out the next fiscal year. There you go. Okay. You know, I did do a you did talk to me about a level of calculation just for I don't know if we want to hear it, but yeah, I, you asked me about something when we talked for people 65,000 and let's say we gave I can't remember if it was a 402. It came to about 90,000 bucks. So it saves $75,000 to take care of the people below that certain level that had. Right. Well, versus the 100. And what was 164 is, is paying everybody $400. It's 165,000, right? Correct. Okay. So if we did a cut off, we would save 70,000, $75,000, correct? Okay. And we could still offer them a day off and pay the lower end people that extra money. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Commissioner Eisner. So we have the reserves. I've heard we have other ways of borrowing the money. The fact is that we need to reimburse the people very soon after they've done their life risk and helped out the city. You can't be wanting to do this down the road. I would be okay with giving them the choice if they want to take it in a day off, but I don't care if you're making 30,000, 60,000 or 90,000. $100 isn't changing your life. It's a gesture. Well, $500. It's a gesture to say thank you for doing what you did. And I also want to ask the police chief, you do have a number of policemen that came in from Pasco County and didn't take care of their homes, and they came here to take care of ours. Is that correct? As did most city employees that came in. Ye. Correct. So I'm using that as an example. But you have to reward that or the next time we need somebody, they're going to sit there and say, what am I going to do, trade this off as a day. That's that's not that's not a reward. So all that to say Commissioner, your light was on. Yes. Real quick. Yes. Thank you. I do want to say obviously no one up here knows numbers better than like the vice mayor, at least from a professional standpoint. I have a lot of respect for him, and he's bringing up some very good points, not just about this item, but in the broad spectrum of the storm that, you know, it's not it's not just FEMA comes in and just takes care of us. We just got reimbursed from Irma. And that was what, eight years ago, maybe something like that seven years ago. Irma. Irma was 2017 and it took two years to get that debris money back. Yeah. Okay. Well, that that's that's a lot better than than what I thought. I just think, you know. Yes. The vice, the vice mayor brings up some very good points that we should not be up here, just spending store money like it, like it's a free credit card. It's not. However, I do think on this item I don't I personally would not factor into somebody's overtime pay like they made money. They made money by working, by working during two hurricanes, by not being with with their with their families. You know, the majority of our staff, especially those that are not first responders, don't make anywhere near near like, you know, $60 an hour. Personally, I don't care if you make $100 an hour. I think we should give the same to everybody, but I'm willing to concede on that. But I just don't think it's a good look for this commission. If we don't, if we, you know, shoot this down tonight, obviously we can make adjustments. We can give the lower amount whatever we have to do. But, you know, our city staff busted their backsides for, for basically two once in a century storms. And I don't think it's a big ask to give them what what was it? You know, a couple hundred dollars. Again, I'm open to discussion about that, but I just wanted us to be mindful of just the perception of that with that being said, I do want to give Commissioner DiDonato and the vice mayor's point that we cannot be spending store money like like it, like it's free. It's not. And we should be very careful and mindful of which funds we pull from. And knowing that they might tell us we're going to get reimbursed in six months. And that might be a year or two years. So I just want to give the other side, quote unquote, some credit. But I do think that this is important for our our city employees. They don't make that much money at the end of the day, especially ones that aren't, you know, certified. So I really think this is important for them. And I know during Irma or after Irma, it was it was very well received and it was a morale booster. So I do hope that the board considers that. Thank you. Thank you. If there are no further comments or discussions, the chair will entertain a motion to approve employee hurricane assistance so that the total cost would benefits to provide the her the employee hurricane assistance will be in the amounts of $400 for full time and then $200 for part time employees. So moved. The motion dies. The chair will entertain another motion. Motion to approve 250 and 500. Second. So that's 250 for the part time employees and 500 for the full time employees. Correct. If there vice mayor Giuliani's mayor. Where where are you? Where do you stand on this? I want to give them something in the form of a compensation. I mean, I went to those guys and I said, man, I'm going to fight for you when, you know, Commissioner Banther brought it up. And every time I see those guys, all those street, all those employees, I said, listen, we, you know, we got a stipend coming up. I'm going to fight for you to try to get the minimum. There's you know, the minimum is about 400. We saw some different variables. I can't promise you that, guys, because we do got some big uncertainties with the debris and with everything going on. But I looked a lot of them in their eyes. And I said, I'm going to try to get you that minimum that Mr. Herring brought up that 400. And so I just want to stick to it. And if, if we see we have two other commissioners that were willing to go to that, I mean, we're going to go for it. I this is our one time to make something for these employees. And I'd like to show them that we care. We know you know, we know we're always looking out for them. But these were two 100 year phenomenons. And so I would like to support compensation for them. Okay. Thank you. Sure. City attorney yes I'm sorry about this. Sorry to throw another angle on this. I don't handle your labor and employment issues, but I do know enough about this that I wanted to bring it to your attention. And it may be something that might cause you to want to bring this back up in two weeks. But there is a state statute that prohibits the compensation after to public employees or bonuses after the work has been done. And there is a state statute on that. I reached out to Attorney Salzman, but I think he's probably in a meeting. I didn't know if he had weighed in on this at any point in time. But if you'll recall, a couple months ago in Saint Pete, I think it was Mayor Walsh. They wanted to give bonuses to their employees for all the hard work on the ball field area, and they had to retract that money because of it. Violated the bonus, the bonus statute in the Florida statute, that's two one, 5.425 extra compensation claims prohibited. So I'm not trying to rain on a parade, but maybe it would be in the best interest to look in this into this a little deeper in the next two weeks. Just to make sure we're square with that. I mean, again, you know, I know Attorney Salzman's in deals with the labor issues, and you also have a labor attorney, but I would hate for you to be in a position where you give money and then legally, you have to take it back. Okay. But so, I mean, you're hearing that Commissioner DiDonato along that line. I definitely want to do something for the employees for sure. I there's been a few things thrown out tonight, and not all of that's really been looked into. Totally in the backup. Why don't why don't we take and table this to the next meeting and what I'd like to see from our city manager from from Ron and department heads, whatever. Maybe we could do some kind of survey and throw some options out. Such as what's already in front of us tonight versus a combination of, you know, the monetary bonuses, if that's indeed legal and the revenue neutral or and the third would be the revenue neutral and maybe see how the employees themselves feel. I know it's hard to do that in two weeks, but I think every department head could probably talk to most of their employees and come back with some kind of consensus. I'd like to propose something like that so that we do this the right way. That's I mean, I want to do my part for the employees. I'm very grateful to them. But I, I would like to just explore all our avenues and then make a decision. May I make a suggestion before we go to both Commissioners Eisner and Banther? I would say that we bring this back in two weeks with the verbiage written that if we are not allowed to give them the stipend based off work previously done, then not only do we have that one day for the holiday, but possibly two. And I think that's you know, a way to go around it and give the employees that that time off needed. And so it's not as much as I think the stipend would be. But if we're bound to certain rules, then I think that's really our only option. Commissioner Eisner, thank you. Mayor, I have two questions. One, has any other city done this? And two, did we break any rules in 2017 when we gave this out? Mayor one, one thing I could suggest, and it's not really an answer to that question, but I know that of one city that set up a program where employees in under this emergency situation were permitted to cash out their PTO time to a certain limit, and also allow employees to donate PTO time to affected employees. I know I've been involved in that program before. I just wanted to offer that as another option to look into in the next two weeks. With regard to that. Commissioner Banther, yes, thank you. I'm obviously fine revisiting this, this, this in two weeks because I think right now this doesn't look very good for us. And I want us to be on one page and hopefully a page that does something for our for our employees. I'm honestly a little surprised we're having this conversation up here. I'm not an attorney. I don't pretend to know any kind of labor law. But we did this in 2017 with with with no problem. I will be floored if we can't legally give our employees assistance for though. For two major hurricanes. Again, I'm not an attorney. Maybe something changed since since since since since since 2017. But we get sued for like looking the wrong way. And we did this in 2017 with like with like no issue. So I would like clarity by that, by labor law attorney, not just a attorney. And I hope that when this comes back in two weeks, we can be on the same page. And this looks a lot better for staff. Thank you sir. And maybe there's a bonus or a holiday pay coming up or a holiday bonus. So there I think there could be some possible ways, but it looks like we need to defer this item to a future date. So the chair will entertain a motion to defer the to defer the approval of employee hurricane assistance, and two weeks at the next BoCC regular session meeting, I move. Second, there are no further comments. Roll call please. Mr. Banther yes, Mr. Donato yes, Mr. Eisner. Yes. Vice mayor. Kiwanis. Yes, yes, yes, we are now going to our ordinances and resolutions. That is public hearings begin at 7:30 p.m. First item is item 25, resolution 202447. Ratification of Executive Orders (202) 408-2024. Dash ten and 2024 Dash 12, extending a declaration of state of emergency for Tarpon Springs due to Hurricane Arlene, a city attorney resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, ratifying Executive Order 2020 4-08 extending declaration of local state of emergency to October 29th, 2024. Ratifying Executive Order 2024 ten. Extending the declaration of local state of emergency to November fifth, 2024 and ratifying Executive Order 2024 Dash 12 extending the declaration of Local state of emergency to November 12th, 2024, and providing for an effective date hereof. Thank you city Attorney. Are there any public comments on this item? It are there any zoom comments online? If anyone online can make a public comment on this item, please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Hearing none. The chair will entertain a motion to approve item 25, resolution 2024-47. So moved. Second, there are no further comments. Roll call please. Mr. Panther, Mr. Donato. Yes, Mr. Eisner? Yes. Vice mayor Giuliani's. Yes, yes, we are now going to item 26, which is resolution 202448, ratification of Executive. Orders 2024092024-11 and 2024-13, extending a declaration of state of emergency for Tarpon Springs due to Hurricane Milton. City Attorney. Resolution of the Board of County Commissioner or board. Sorry. Board of commissioners of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida. Ratifying executive Order 2020 4-09 extending declaration of local state of emergency to October 29th, 2024. Ratifying Executive Order 2024 Dash 11 extending declaration of local state of emergency to November 5th, 2024. Declaration ratifying Executive Order 2024 Dash 13 extending declaration of local state of emergency to November 12th, 2024 and providing for an effective date hereof. Thank you, City Attorney. Are there any public comments on this ite? I t are there any zoom comments online? Anyone online would like make a comment on this item. Please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Thank you. The chair will entertain a motion to approve item 26, resolution 2024-48. So move. There are no further comments. Roll call please. Mr. Panther. Yes, Mr. Donato? Yes, Mr. Eisner? Yes. Vice mayor. Yes, yes, yes, we are now on to item 27, which is resolution 2024. Dash 49, ratifying administrative actions of the City manager, authorized in association with state of emergency declarations for Hurricane Helene and Milton. And we have a planning director, Renea Vincent. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor and commissioners. This is just a resolution that ratifies administrative actions taken associated with the emergency declarations for certain permitting, you know, requirements or waiving certain fees. We have direction from the Heritage Preservation Board to allow some things that normally would go to them to be approved by staff. So this package is everything up and kind of after the fact, brings it to the board for your ratification. And these are tied to maintaining the declaration states of emergency or the declarations of emergency. When those expire, this will expire with them. Thank you. Miss Vincent, a city attorney. Can you please read the title? Absolutely. Resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, ratifying administrative actions of the City manager, authorized in association with the State of emergency declarations for Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and providing for an effective date hereof. Thank you. Are there any public comments on this item? It are there any zoom comments online? Anyone has a public comment on this item? Please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Thank you. The chair will entertain a motion to approve item 27, resolution 2024-49. So moved. Sir, there are no further comments or discussion. Roll call please. Commissioner. Panther. Yes. Mr. Donato? Yes. Mr. Eisner. Yes. Vice mayor Giuliani's. Yes. Mayor. Coleus. Yes. And we are now going back to business items. We item 22, appointment to Planning and Zoning Board. And miss. Miss Manousos, can you take it from here? Sure. So there is currently a vacant vacancy on the planning and zoning Board due to the then chairman, Merle Seaman, who has been termed out with service ten years on the board. There is a current alternate, Susan Swenso. And also we do have an alternat, an applicant also that is willing to serve on the planning and Zoning board so the board can move the current alternate as a regular member. That term would expire October 1st, 2027, and appoint the applicant. Lori Weaver. And that will she would be filling the unexpired term that would expire October 1st, 2025. And then she can be reappointed at that time. Or your other option is just to appoint the applicant, Miss Weaver, as a regular member. And if you do that option, it would leave the current alternate. Miss Swenson, in the alternate position. Thank you, Miss Manoussos. Are there any public comments on this item? I t are there any zoom comments online? If anyone online would like to make a public comment on this item, please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Okay. I'm sorry, Commissioner Banther, I know you can talk first if you want to. It's fine. I was just I was going to say the chair will entertain a motion, but I understand right now. If you want me to. I'm ready. I just wanted to ask first. In all seriousness, I am always sensitive and supportive of always moving alternates up. I assume that Miss Winston has been in attendance and actively involved. I don't I don't know her personally, so I can't. Is Renee here? She's in the green. In the green? I would assume you have been involved. Yes. Okay, then I would. I would definitely motion to move up the alternate member, Susan Swenson, and to the to the regular spot and then move up or, you know, appoint the applicant to the alternate position. And that would be Miss Weaver. Second. Okay. All right. We have Commissioner Banther made the motion. We have a second from Commissioner DiDonato. There are no further comments. I just want to say these two ladies are great. I'm happy to see them on the planning and zoning Board. Miss Swenson has been very active in the community, being vocal as a business owner as well as as and especially Miss Weaver being involved with. She has some great experience too. So I'm happy to see them both. On the Planning and Zoning Board. Ther. There are no further comments. Roll call please. Mr. Banther. Yes. Mr. DiDonato yes. Mr. Eisner yes. Vice mayor Gallienus. Yes, mayor. Yes, yes, we are now going to item 23, which is case number 2024. Dash. C-002002. City of Tarpon Spring, Florida versus Tina Hinton, city attorney. Thank you, mayor. This this is the only case litigation case. My firm's handling for the city. The and it is active litigation. But it just started. So normally we wouldn't talk about litigation like this in this open forum. However it's so early in the litigation I received a call from Miss Hinton, who is here. Yeah, there she is. And it's the underlying issue has to do with a code enforcement matter. And she contacted me and indicated that she's prepared to have a contractor demolish the structure that's on the property at 707 Chesapeake, Chesapeake Drive, which is my understandin, would cure the violations. And I saw this as an opportunity. If she could do that, to not have the city incur my legal expenses on litigation and perhaps solve a problem for Miss Hinton and the neighborhood and the city, I believe this has been going on for a while. The commission did authorize this litigation, so it's proper for us to for us to come back and ask you for permission to stay the case short for a short period of time so that Miss Hinton would not have to hire a lawyer, would not have to answer the complaint. She was served with, and actually take care of the problem. And if that happens, then we can have the problem resolved and then go on to the next stage of dealing with the fines. And so forth. So hopefully that's enough of an explanation. It's me trying to do some problem solving here. Thank you. City attorney. We're now going to public comments on this item. Sure. Are there any public comments on this item? It are there any zoom comments online? If anyone online would like to make a public comment on this item, please, and then you'll be allowed in to talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Thank you, City Attorney. At this point, would the requester like to say a few words or is it more of it's really I mean, it's pretty straightforward. I mean, she's she's obviously allowed to speak here again. It is litigation. So it's a little awkward. I'd ask everybody to be a little bit aware of that. However, you know this is a really just a straightforward agreement. And she could maybe put on the record that she's she's confirming this agreement essentially that she's got a contractor. That contractor is going to go pull a demo permit and hopefully get this done by the end of November. And then the only other thing I would suggest is maybe as she goes along, that she gives us proof of the contract with the contractor and then when the contractor gets the demo permit that we get proof of that. So we see that this is actually happening. I think this should just so I don't know if Miss Hinton would like to say anything. It's up to you. You know, I would like to thank everyone for allowing me to speak and to take the time to handle this. So. And Mr. Dickman, thank you. And my goal is to resolve this as quickly as possible. Thank you ma'am. Commissioner Banther yes, I just because I'm still getting up to speed, I assume that by her doing this, this will halt the fines. Once it's complete. So the fines are running and we've got we've got our our code enforcement expert over there once the once. The problem is cured, then the fines stop running and then she'll have to deal with, you know, deal with the fines. I, I like to take one step at a time here. You know, cure the problem, then deal with the fines later. But yes, it will stop the though. And so the demo cures it. Correct. There. Yes. But they have to go before the code enforcement officer would have to go out there and inspect the property and then bring it before the code board to bring it into compliance. And we're giving her two months to get this done. I definitely want it time sensitive. Yes. No more than two months. I know that Miss Hinton has indicated to me that she had difficulty getting a demolition permit in the past. I'm not sure why. If that was a different issue, different time, but I would personally help in any way to shepherd this through the process because I know that, you know, again, this is being a problem solver, not wanting to run up litigation if it's not necessary, but two months should be plenty of time. She did indicate to me that she has a contractor that is willing to enable to do this in November, but let's at least give it into December in case there's some hiccups. I'm in support. Thank you, Commissioner Eisner. Thank you. Mayor. Was there anything said up here that you disagree with specifically when I just, you know, attorney Dickman? No, I appreciate the work and effort to try to help me get this resolved, because that's my goal is to get this resolved. Okay. So the time frame is good for you and all that. And I have an agreement is good and all that okay. Yeah. My agreement with the contractor actually is to demo it. I think it's November 15th a little bit a little bit of wiggle room through the 22nd. I think it is. But if I could get it done sooner, I sure would. It was another property affected by the by the flooding. Okay. No, no further questions. Thank you, Miss Hinton. I would just ask that, you know the let the city attorney know of your contract. You have save all of your receipts, work with the code enforcement officer to come and compliance verify all that and you know, I'm only one person up here, but I'm going to fight for you to make sure we get that reduced down to probably nothing. If you're going to spend tens of thousands demoing it all understand you're going to help comply with the neighborhood that it is an expensive piece. So I'm only one person, but I'm going to do my best to make sure we knock it down as much as possible. That way it helps the neighborhood as well. And we help you out too, ma'am. So that's that's what I wanted to say. If there's any other comments, city attorney, the motion will be to approve the case number, but with the recommendation to pursue to pursue the foreclosure proceedings. So the requested motion is to authorize the city attorney to stay the foreclosure action. So I will have to file something to give Miss Hinton the ability to not have to get a lawyer and respond and, and spend her time on something. So the motion is to stay the foreclosure action for no more than two months and allow the defendant time for her contractor to obtain a city demo permit, coordinate with the cit, and demolish the structure at 707 Chesapeake Drive to move. Second. No further comments or discussion. Roll call please. Mr. Banther. Yes, Mr. Donato? Yes. Mr. Eisner. Yes. Vice Mayor Giuliani's. Yes. Yes, yes. Thank you, thank you, ma'am, thank you all. And we are now going to the last item for the night, which is item 24, Discussion and Direction on excessive water bills, storm related. Commissioner Eisner, can you please present. Yes. Thank you. Mayor. So let me give you some background into what happened. I normally don't pay my water bill. That's something my wife does, but I just happen to have a glance at it this past month. And I noticed that we average about 3300 gallons a month. And this month I was at 11,800 or 900. So I was very concerned about that, that I might not be the only person that has that. So I had a discussion with Irene, and I believe Michelle was on that conversation as well. I also spoke with Shane, and we tried to come up with an idea on how we can try to see about helping the residents, because what has happened is anybody who's been flooded just under the FEMA has to have your house pressure washed outside and inside. Anybody who has a swimming pool, when the salt gets in, it has to drain it at a number of times. It's not something that you could just drain in one shot. Because I've seen I've heard of almost two pools that have popped out of the ground because they drained it down to nothing, and then they went into thousands of dollars of repair. So depending on the size of the pool that you have, you may have to dump 2000 or 3000 gallons at a time, fill it, dilute it, put in two 3000 gallons, and it just keeps going until you can dilute it down to where it's at. A at a good level. So what we had decided to do and I'm just looking for somewhat of a approval from the board as I spoke with Shane. He wants to do this on a piece by piece basis. So if somebody could come in and show that they were damaged from the storm, that they would consider at least minimum not having the return water be billed, but also to try to help out with some of the costs? This was not something that I wanted for myself. I'm speaking more so for the residents, but I know that a lot of the residents in town have been hit really hard financially, and I just didn't want this to be another burden upon them. So I was just looking to bounce it off of the board and see if this was something I wouldn't be making. The decision. You know, the billing department would accordingly, but people would have to bring in some sort of evidence that they were affected and what they were affected with. So that's pretty much it. Thank you, Commissioner Eisner. Are there any other commissioner comments? Commissioner Banther yes, that's a good point. I also believe even on a non storm day, I could be wrong. Michelle. Correct. But if you do fill your pool up and you call the city, you don't at least get charged for the drain. The though is that still correct? Yes, there is an adjustment, you know. So even if we can't I mean, I assume we can do something, but if we can't, then at least people should call in for that. If you had to refill your pool or some significant weather, body and water you have in your home, but that you need to call in because you don't get charged for the, you know, draining that water out. But yeah, I would be in favor to see what the city manager could come back with. As far as what's possible. I know when it comes to water billing, it's a little bit of a legality there, but I'm open to anything. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner. Any other commissioner? Comments? Vice mayor saving money here. I. Know I mean I, I wouldn't tell the water department how to do their job but one way they could is they could look back at the water usage from the same month last year and then establish that as a baseline. And if there's additional costs above that, then they could look at it and try to give relief on that. So I think there's a way to do it. Sure. Okay. Commissioner DiNardo, I feel much the same way I, I it's not a bad idea to look at. I know, for example, we have a policy with pools. If you have to repair a pool, you empty it and then you got a large water bill the next month. But you can at least get your sewer reduced. So we should look into it and see. But I would go to wait and see what staff recommends. Sure. Yeah. And we had brought this up as a group together a few meetings ago where, you know, we have residents excessive washing of clothes or other materials that have been saturated by salt water and other situations. So I think we somewhat collectively said, if you know, we can show that it's above what their previous average was for the last year or some or even these last few months to maybe credit them that difference. So I would be in favor of that. But I would also ask that it does be a case by case situation. We can't have staff go look into every single account and so I would ask that the residents who do have that situation in which it is above average to have to reach out to the city to request it, and maybe we can do a PR campaign to let the residents know about it. So is that a is that enough direction there to bring this item? Yes, we'll bring the future to you. Yes. Perfect. And so that is item 25 for the evening or item 24 for the evening. And. Thank you sir. We're now at two early. Yep. So last time that happened okay. This concludes the regular session agenda. We will now go to board and staff comments staff comments. Police Chief Jeff Young I just want to remind our residents that Monday, November 11th at 11 a.m. At Craig Park will be our Veterans Day ceremony. Please come out and join and just kind of piggyback on the mayor's proclamation from earlier and celebrate those that have served us. Thank you. City Attorney Mr. Dickman, nothing to report, sir. Thank you. City Clerk Miss Manoussos. Nothing tonight. No comments. Okay. City manager, Mr. Rudd. Yes. Thank you. Mayor. As I as I'm beginning to kind of listen or as I've been listening and formulating ideas, I do want to ask you all for a date for a CRA meeting distinct from this meeting, because I want to go over the adopted redevelopment plan and, and talk about how we move forward and what I'm calling revitalizing the revitalization. So I rather than add it to this agenda, which would lengthen this meeting, my recommendation would be to have a separate CRA meeting, perhaps next Tuesday if Tuesday night's work for you all, or we can go through that plan and I can get some direction from you. Okay. I would be open to any day. You all suggest we the 12th. I would be available and it's just the rest of the commission on what they would like to decide. So is that will you just follow up with us in an email and we'll pick a date, or would you like to tonight? I don't know how you usually do it. Do you just do both dates or sometimes we do both. So then we can let you know what the email. Okay. Yeah, we can let me know your availability. Perfect. And we'll work. Anything else? City manager. That's it. Thank you. Okay. We are now going to board comments. Commissioner Banther no comments. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner DiDonato. No comments. Commissioner Eisner always a comment. So I just wanted to remind everybody that we have a seafood festival coming up this weekend. The Sponge Docks needs all the help they can get. There was a Fox News that did a little bit of a stint on it. 60% of the businesses are open. We really need to be there and trying to support them. So I just hope that we can get as many people as we could out there. And once again, I do want to thank the police, the fire and all the staff for all the hard work that you did. Whether we get you full money or not, that's still thank you for what you did. It was it was a for a storm of this magnitude. I feel blessed in a way for the minimal amount of what what we could have had, you know what I mean? So I do want to thank you for that as well. That's it. Thank you, Commissioner Eisner. Vice Mayor Giuliani's. Yeah, let me on the employee thing. The again I am totally supportive of our employees. Again, I'm trying to look for some kind of revenue neutral approach, given that we do have whatever financial things we have coming around the bend, the Anglo property amendment passed. So, you know, the there's good and bad and the bad is we're going to have about about a $550,000 of debt service that will have to cover each year. And again, hitting us at a potentially vulnerable year. The good part is it's valuable property that I think will that the city can use and do some really good things with. So and in long term it's probably a good thing, definitely a good thing to own. You know I the city manager this goes along with what Mayor Pro was asking. Maybe I'll give her a little bit of that presentation right now, but I'll make it really short. The city manager at my request, organized a conference with a municipality down south that had been hit by Hurricane Ian. So we had a look back. I wanted to see. I wanted to talk to somebody there who could tell us how the effects of the hurricane. And I'm again with cash flow. And that's something I, you know, talked to the finance director, Mr. Herring, on a regular basis is, you know, again, getting us through this cash flow, because if we got to come up with the 2.5 million plus all these additional costs, we're going to have, and that five could creep up by the time we're done. You know, you had actually mentioned at one time even going as high as seven. So if we hit 7 million on the on the cleanup, then if we get expedited three and a half, we might have to wait a long time for that other three and a half. Again, that's going to dip into our reserves. I know that's why we have it, but we then we have to try to replenish the reserves because at at the $8 million level, we're very, very close to our, you know, state requirement. But we do have a few years to get it back up. But again, that's going to be a, you know, a financial lift for the city. But anyways I talked we talked to the finance director and the city manager of Fort Myers Beach. And just to give you some things and we'll go I'll go more into detail and I'll definitely fulfill your, your I'll fulfill your request to do a little bit better presentation. But anyways, they, you know, we went again like I did last the last meeting going through the three criteria, the three sources of our revenue sales tax, ad valorem tax services. They were hit harder in the second in the second year. So the first year, you know, we're getting our real estate taxes from the prior billings. So we're won't see much of that. We'll see. Definitely see an effect in water usage. And we'll definitely see an effect in sales tax. So they were hit that way. One of the they were in the third year and going forward now they've actually had somewhat of a renaissance. And that's a good and bad thing because what happens is let's say for example, we and we haven't talked about it, I assume we're going to talk about it at one of the our subsequent meetings about the 50% rule. Right. So if we have a piece of property that let's say was assessed at 200,000 and they have a, they have more than 50% damage, so it's 100 and let's say 120,000 to repair the property for them to go ahead and be able to rebuild that house, they have to meet code. And if they have to meet code, they got to go up and then they're going to be building a much more expensive home than the house that they originally had. Now, if that happens, we may have people who can't afford that. They may be in a pickle where, you know, they don't qualify for a mortgage to be able to do that. It's and what what can what's happened in their community down in Fort Myers Beach is they've had a demographic change. They're getting wealthier people moving into those neighborhoods, building the more expensive homes and displacing people who were, you know, especially the elderly who can't afford to go and spend more money. So we have to be careful. So that's something that, again, I'm not you know, I, I'm not trying to scare everybody. I just want to be sober and know that we have these these challenges. We're going to get through them. We're a strong community. We're going to find and there are a lot of places to go for money. There are, you know, different programs. And we may be completely whole, but it's like if you if the husband and the family has a, a gets a bonus every year and he gets told or he's seeing that sales aren't as good as they were last year and that and he tells, hey, honey, you know, the we may not be getting that same bonus we got last year. Don't be, you know, buying all new furniture for the house, okay? It's just what you do. You know, you maybe you don't go to Starbucks and buy your coffee five times a week. You make some at home and put it in a thermos. So if that's what we got to do, that's what we got to do. But anyways, those are the things that keep me up at night. So thanks. And by the way, you know, you didn't get any credit. You know our the mayor, we had that triathlon race out there for the Rotary Club and then we had this five K race and he made the podium. So, you know, he he doesn't look like he's fast, but he's fast. Now. He might be the second fastest guy on the board. But you know that's that's something we can talk about later. But anyways I want to thank him and he's he's running great meetings I mean we're getting out of here quick. So I'll shut up and thank you, vice mayor. Yeah. And I played basketball about two weeks ago and my body is still sore. So I just need to stick to the running. I just want to thank staff again during this whole cleanup that we have going on. They're doing everything they can to open up the city as fast, as fast as possible. We're getting a lot of media news coverage now recently, you know, and sometimes it takes a couple of local business owners to get some spotlight to the community. And there's nothing wrong with that. And so we're getting some exposure to the community. I did a report with Bay news nine this morning. So maybe tonight or sometime in the next few days they're going to they're going to air it. But we got the seafood Festival opening up. We're on the mend. And this commission we worked really great tonight. I don't know if it's everybody just wants to get home and watch the results, but it's just want to thank you all. We're we're we're working well. We're gelling together and appreciate everything that's being done together as a board. So this now concludes the regular session meeting A meeting adjourned at 8:15 p.m.