##VIDEO ID:n-fiutDV5ts## Yes, but tonight it's going to be kind of cold this week. Finally. But. This is. I think, a lot. About. Are you ready? Fo. This. No. I now call. 24 commemorates the events of Greece in 1940, in which the brave Hellenic nation and its citizens boldly stood together for liberty and freedom at all costs, against their allies. And whereas the historic cry of Ohi, a reference to the defiant answer of no in the Greek language given in response to the demand for surrender, and whereas Ogidi is an inspiration to those who cherish democracy and freedom, a celebration of those who served and defended freedoms in war. And whereas the Greek people faithfully met their obligation with courage, sacrifice, determination and dedication, and whereas the city of Tarpon Springs celebrates Ohi Day in honor of the noble heroes, men and women who fought for a free Greek nation. Now, therefore, I, Panagiotis Kollias, by virtue of the authority vested in me as mayor of the City of Tarpon Springs, do hereby proclaim October 28th, 2024, as Ohi Day here you both go. Thank you. Thank you. The United States of America, Zito. To Ohi. God bless America and Greece. Thank you very, very much. Thank you. Thank you all for coming. And I'm looking forward to maybe next year having the proclamation over at the monument like we did last year. And so we'll get that going and, and just want to also put in good memory of Mr. Costas. He was very instrumental throughout the years with the national committee and the parades as Miss Basilio knows. And so he helped do a lot for the community as well as the Greek community, too. And so I just wanted to acknowledge him as well. And thank you both so much. Okay. Thank you sir. Thanks. Thank you. Our next proclamation is going to be. Planning and zoning. We get the whole planning and zoning staff. Are we missing anybody today? Nope. Good. And before I go on to read the proclamation for community planning Month, I just want to give this department a, you know, commend them so much. And a big round of applause even during Hurricane Milton, their their staff, most of them if not all of them are at the EOC center. They're taking in emergency and non-emergency calls. They were there for days straight helping out the community for all the different needs. So all the planning they do in this community to help set us up, you know, moving forward with strategic planning and things that you the residents, want to have implemented. They do much more than just that too. So I also wanted to recognize them for the hard work that they do in their department, but also when asked, when asked and called upon to do other things. So here we go. City of Tarpon Springs, Florida. Proclamation. Whereas planners work to improve the well-being of all people living in our communities by taking a comprehensive perspective, consistent with the vision of the strategic of the city, strategic plan. This approach leads to safer, resilient, more equitable, and more prosperous communities. And whereas we celebrate the many valuable contributions made by our Planning and Zoning department as nothing less than essential to our success role, that planning plays in creating great communities. Each October with National Community Planning Month. And Whereas Community planning provides an opportunity for all residents to be meaningful to be meaningfully involved in helping decide on choices that determine the future of their community. And Whereas American Planning Association endorses National Community Planning Month as an opportunity to highlight how planning is essential to recovery and how planners can lead communities to equitable, resilient and long lasting recovery. And Whereas, the Board of Commissioners commend the work by our planning and Zoning Director, Rene Vincent and staff Pat McNeice, Caroline Lanford, Ali Keane and Kim Creighton, we extend appreciation for the vital role our planning and zoning Department manages in the daily operations of our city. 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 the month of October 20th, 24 as Community Planning Month. Let's give them all a big round of applause. And a few words, Miss Vincent. Thank you. Mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, I do want to thank you all for your support. We can't do what we do without your support. I would be remiss if I also didn't call out our volunteer boards, the Planning and Zoning Board, Heritage Preservation Board, and the Board of Adjustments. So much of what we do relies upon their service as well. And so, you know, this is as much for them as it is for us. I obviously want to acknowledge our awesome staff. They're, you know, they're they work for us 24 over seven and they're they're great. I couldn't ask for a better staff. And shout out back there to Rodney Chapman. He happens to be in the audience tonight with his daughter. He was one of our planners here for many years. So he's he he he gets this as much as the rest of us do. So and I just want to thank the community for their support over the last year. Thank you very much. So do you want to say anything, anyone? Yes. Thank you. Mayor. Thank you for. The next proclamation will be National First Responders Day and I mean, what a time to present this proclamation. If we can have Police Chief Jeff Young and Fire Chief Scott Young. Also, I'd like I'd like to call up. And she doesn't know it yet. Miss Araya, miss Megan, can you please come on up? We surprised her with that, by the way. So. She loves the public attention. But she likes it. I'll tell you, she's been communicating a lot between the Pinellas EOC, the Tarpon Springs EOC this late. And I want to commend all staff. What's what's happened to this region. And you know, just locally in the southeast area with the these two hurricanes and the phenomenon in which they brought staff has answered the call every bit of the way. And so I want to acknowledge all first responders, but also miss Araya and Miss Megan, she she's awesome. She's constantly communicating with the Pinellas EOC. Other organizations within as they're getting information for our community. She not only relays the community information that we have to give them, but also takes it in constantly putting out situation reports during these extreme situations. And so I also wanted to bring her up so she could be acknowledged as well, because her hard work shouldn't go unnoticed. And so here we go with the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida proclamation. Whereas Congress designated October 28th as National First Responders Day in 2017, and Whereas the day honors first responders, both men and women. Career and volunteer from 911 dispatchers, law enforcement officers, firefighters, emergency medical services personnel, search and rescue teams, emergency management professionals, public works professionals, and members of other organizations in the public safety sector who stand on the front lines of communities coming together to protect and aid citizens in times of crisis. And Whereas Tarpon Springs first responders risked their life and safety every day in the performance of their duties to protect the safety and well-being of our citizens. And whereas, at a moment's notice, first responders are quick to respond to dangerous situations that threaten our community, whether in natural or man made disasters, fires, accidents, medical emergencies and other threats. And Whereas National First Responders Day is an opportunity for all levels of government to demonstrate appreciation, appreciation for all men and women who protect and serve our state as first responders in an opportunity for our residents to say thank you to the first responders who keep them safe. And Whereas the city of Tarpon Springs encourages all residents to join me in this worthy observance. Now, therefore, I, Panagiotis Kollia, by virtue of the authority vested in me as mayor of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, do hereby proclaim October 28th, 2024, as National First Responders Day. Here you go. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. On behalf of my brothers and sisters at the Tarpon Springs Police Department, I want to thank you, mayor, for the proclamation. And yes, I agree, 100% that all the first responders, city crews and everybody I actually have some words I'm going to say later on tonight reflecting on what has transpired over these last couple of weeks. But, you know, looking at the big picture, we always thank and for the support that the BOC gives the police department the community outpour always in support for us. But we're always here for you because we're part of Tarpon Springs. As well, and we love our community. So thank you very much. I'd just like to echo what the police chief said. Thank you, everybody for everything. The support to the fire department, support to our emergency management division. It's been a trying couple of weeks for all of us residents and workers of the city. So we just want to thank you for this. Thank you for the support. And we'll keep working until we get the job done. So thank you all. Appreciate it. Now we're going to go back and we're going to have public comments on all three proclamations. Are there any public comments on the three proclamations? Thank the Lord. We're all here alive. The proclamations. Thank you. But let's not forget the men and women across the street who work the streets, who work the water lines, who went out in the rain with their trucks, who made sure the sewer stayed where it should be and not in the water. In our yards and our streets so much. And thank God that three members of this board let the fire chief get the high water truck. Thank God, because it saved a lot in this city. And it was wise that you all supported it. And I'd like to see the community when all we get back settled down, do something community wide that we can help him get another truck. Maybe the one with the fire truck part of it because it did. Its job during these last two weeks. Thank you for allowing him to do it, and I congratulate you on bringing it before the city, because we didn't know we were going to need it like we did. And it was a wise move that three of y'all made on this board that they get it. And we need to start looking at our police and fire department for their needs, because I'm afraid, and that this may not be the last. Let's see what next year is going to bring us. Hopefully we won't. Our community was devastated, torn apart. The Sponge Docks is devastated. How many people do not have insurance? What beautiful furniture was laid out on the streets? I wish there was a way we could cure it and take it. I've never seen so much destruction in Tarpon Springs, and I guess this is what they see in Europe during wars. We're not used to it, but our city came through and our employees, the police and fire and the city employees came through and took care of all of their citizens of this town. And that you are the caretakers of all of us. And thank you for allowing the chief again to get that high water truck. Thank you, Mayor Pro, any other public comments on the three proclamations? Hi, I'm Haven Christakis, I'm a long term resident here in Tarpon Springs and I would like to talk about our contract with Crowder Gulf. If we're going to have I believe you can tie both of those comments into either the hurricane update or possibly just public comments that are overall or as well as to the state of emergency. There's a few different items, probably state of emergency. And so at 730, we're going to have the ordinances in which that separate. Yes. So do you want me to come back? We discouraged to try to talk about items that aren't related to the three proclamations right now. No problem. Thank you. Ma'am. Hi. Susan Swenson, 327 Manatee Lane, Tarpon Springs. 34689. I would like to thank the emergency workers, the city workers, the utility workers for the work performed during, before, during and after both Helene and Milton. You put your lives in dangers for the citizens of our city as well as others. And you sacrifice the time spent with your family and friends during the hurricane. I can not even fathom not being with my husband during, you know, the uncertainty of whether or not what we were going to be hit with. It's not an enviable position, and I wish that you guys were paid. You guys, being men and women, were paid much more than you are because you are a true heroes. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you ma'am. Any other public comments on the three proclamations? It. Are there any zoom comments online? If anyone online would like to make an. I would like to make a public comment. Please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. I do have a raised hand. I'll allow them in. And they have lowered their hand and we do not. Oh wait, we do have one. If you can unmute and state your name and address for the record. Giuliana de 413 East Oakwood Street. Can you hear me? Yes we can, yes. I would like to thank also the City of Tarpon Springs for they accurate punctuation and being on top of everything during the storm. And right now doing the cleanup. I know it's, it's going to take a while, but we thank you. Even in my community union academy family. Union academy community, we want to thank you all for also for the help that that that you all are giving us. Thank you. Thank you, Miss De. And we do have another race handle the next person in. Yes. Good evening. Can be heard. Yes we can sir. Good evening, mayor and commissioners and senior staff. Robert Rockline, 755 North Lake Boulevard in Tarpon Springs. Obviously, these proclamations were were well deserved, but the recognition really for a lot of the city staff and workers should, should really never end or require, you know, some sort of situation or emergency to acknowledge their, their importance and their contribution. The first responders, you know, police and fire. I served in that career for 20 years and then followed it up with 20 years as a first preventer, as a as a municipal building official. But for first responders, it's a reflex. It's not even a thought. They run toward problems and toward danger where other people are, you know, looking for remedies and ways out. So they're to be commended. I've been a part of, you know, a lot of operations over my life, but everything here seemed to work like clockwork. And everybody, you know, responded in a in a very professional and appropriate manner. Then the other, the other half of the proclamation that I heard anyway, was for the planning department. And basically they're they're a band of five professionals that are performing the work of an orchestra. And the sound is better than ever. So they're really dancing as fast as they can. I'm never disappointed by their their actions and their contribution. And on behalf of the Planning and Zoning Board, I think they deserve to be commended on a daily basis also because their workload is extreme. Like I said, it's like a five piece band, you know, for filling in for an orchestra. But the entire city staff and all the workers, I mean, I didn't see anybody not doing something active during the last couple of weeks. No one was even sitting down in their trucks. From what I could see, with the exception of driving. So really a big thanks on behalf of my wife and I and my neighbors to all, all the staff and all the workers in Tarpon Springs. Thank you, Mr. Roff. Thanks for the opportunity to say thank you. And we do not have any other raised hands at this time. Thank you. It we are now going to the special presentation which is item four, hurricane update with Fire Chief Scott Young. Good evening board mayor Scott Young, fire chief, I just want to go through a few things. What's going on and where we started. And now we're at today. As you may be aware, we signed the emergency declaration two times for two different storms within two weeks. The first one was on September 24th and the second one we just signed on October 8th. One for Elaine, one for Milton. The state signed their emergency declarations on September 24th and October 6th for Milton. The federal government signed September 26th for Elaine and again on October fifth for Milton. This is important because all this emergency declarations set us up for all the FEMA reimbursements, state agency helps, etc. So that was important for us to make sure that those are done as we can continue to do our job. The city started preparing for the last storm, Milton, on Sunday the sixth, when we noticed that we were going to start having some issues and the tracks were starting to show that we could possibly be impacted quite severely by this storm coming. So we had to make sure we were ready. City crews started doing their jobs to make sure things were happening. The city's EOC went to full activation on Tuesday morning at 7:00. We did stand down Tuesday night and went to a partial activation because the storm had slowed down, and we were expecting that Wednesday morning, it slowed down. Instead, it came in on Wednesday evening, but we reactivated to full capacity on Wednesday morning. We really started seeing some of the effects from the storm Wednesday evening, which continued throughout the night. It's the first time that I believe in my long career here, that we actually brought all the first responders, public works crews, the police department, fire department, everybody in off the streets for multiple hours. I mean, we were just not running any calls due to the winds. It was just unsafe for our people to be out there. Meanwhile, the police chief and I sat there and watched the calls piling up. And it's a gut wrenching feeling when you can't get out to do your job and you just have to wait it out until it's safe for our people to make it safe for everybody else. Hope we never have to experience that again. We were lucky that this storm went south of us. If it had come in a little bit closer, we would have taken the brunt of the storm. As you may recall, the track at one point had changed a little bit and it looked like it was going to come in around Saint Pete a little bit north of that, which would have been pretty devastating for us. If you've seen if you've gone down the Saint Pete area and traveled around down there, they were in a lot of trouble down there. The winds were extremely high, over 100 miles an hour. We had some gusts here, maybe around 80 in town, but not sustained. They had sustained winds of over 100 at down there for a time period. Had the storm come and hit us directly, we would be talking. We probably wouldn't be here tonight talking because we still probably have to cancel the meeting. We probably still be doing stuff we didn't experience the flooding like we did for Elaine, due to the fact that the storm's rotation pushed the storm surge off the shore, which helped us tremendously. Although we did get about 18in of rain throughout the town, which caused some street flooding and the streets that we're used to and some streets we weren't used to. So. But we didn't get impact like we did with Elaine, which was lucky. We got the winds that knocked the branches and stuff like that, and some damages to some homes. Our cities, our plant and our wastewater plant, they both had to be shut down during the storm. One, the wastewater plant went down because they lost power and the generator lost power because of the water. That was getting into it. As soon as we were able to the crews for public works public, I mean, the public services departments worked diligently to get generators back up online and get those operations going. During the storm. We did lose 19 lift stations throughout the city, which is a big deal without the those lift stations, the water doesn't go where it needs to go. The crews diligently got out and started putting those back online. It took a couple of days, so all 19 except for four of those lift stations are back online right now. The other three, the other four are small lift stations that only serve small a few homes. So we're able to get our back truck out and take care of it that way for right now, until they can get those things, those panels and stuff back up online. So where are we at today? As you know, we had a comfort station set up at the community center which provided bathrooms, showers, laundry facilities. As a storm came, they came in and had those removed taken to a safe place across the state. The next morning after the storm, they reappeared. They brought them back and they're set up over the community center. Now, for those that are in need, we've been getting some donations from different agencies. Today, we found out that the Humane Society was out in the community delivering dog food, cat food, cat litter, what they have left, we have over at this fire station on Huey. We'll be able to hand that out as long as supplies last. There's not a lot left. So if you need something, come by tomorrow and we can help you out with that. We had heard we got a call yesterday afternoon, 330, 4:00 late in the afternoon, that the Red cross was coming to town with their mobile unit, and they were going to be handing out about 250 meals from Carrabba's in the hard packed, hard hit areas. We haven't been able to confirm whether that happened or not, but they said they were coming, so we're taking it at face value that they did come out and do that. We tried to reach out to them today, but we've got no answer back. But thank you for that. We do have water available. We've been handing out water in the areas that needed it. We still have pallets of water, emergency water from all the state and available at the Rec center. We have water available at the fire department on Huey. If you need, please come by. We can get you some. Our damage assessment teams is the biggest thing we're doing right now besides debris, and I'll get to that in a minute. Is going out assessing homes, businesses that's going to be a long, long process. So if you see these people out just know what they're doing. They're trying to assess the damage so we can help the citizens out with all the documentation that we have to do out there to get it back to the state and the government, so that that you'll see them out and about. We've posted a bunch of information throughout this event. Both events on our web pages, our social media platforms, and connect Tarpon. Connect Tarpon is a great source. We post everything on there. What's going on in the city, anything that we find out that we can pass along to you, you'll find it there. If we know about it, it's going out on that platform. So please take a look at that. Residents who need help cleaning up after the storm. They can go to the get request assistance through crisis cleanup at (844) 965-1386 or by visiting Crisis cleanup.org. They will bring a team in if you need help, and they will help you clean up your place. FEMA has opened up the individual assistance program again. They did that right after Helene and they did it again and opened it up for Milton right after the storm passed. They also are offering a small business, low interest loans to those that need it. You can go to disasterassistance.gov or use the FEMA app, or call 1-800-621-3362. FEMA assistance is also available in Pinellas County. Residents who experienced damage losses due to Hurricane Elena or Milton. This may include financial help, temporary lodging, basic home repairs, or disaster caused expenses. Again, go to those same website or that phone number to help you out. Housing. We have gotten some calls for people that are in need of housing. This is a big deal. The county and FEMA have set up hotels with contracts to help those people in need. So if you apply for the individual assistance online or call them, they will help you and get you to the right people to help you get to a place of need. You had roof damage and you need assistance. You can call and contact Operation Blue Roof. It's an organization that will come out and put blue tarps up on your roof for you, and help you out, and you can go to Blue roof.gov or call 88888 roof blue blue for that if you need assistance. The county has set up a place in Clearwater at 1501 Belcher Road North from 9 to 5. It's at the long center. It's Insurance Village is what they're calling it. All the major carriers and stuff will have agents there to assist you with filing your paperwork that you might have to do for your insurance claims. This way, you can help with the process, with the FEMA stuff and your insurance all in one spot. Ther. Today we were notified that FEMA will be here tomorrow to assist with people that need help with FEMA paperwork. There will be at the community center from 9 to 7 every day. I don't know how many people are actually sending in. It might be only a couple until they can bring more resources in. Again, that's at the community center from 9 to 7 starting tomorrow. You will see, as I mentioned, you'll see FEMA crews out and about. You will see housing inspectors out and about, and other officials will be working in the areas impacted by the storm. They should be carrying identification or be clearly marked. What they are. If you have questions, you're not sure who they are, you can always call the fire department, emergency management or the police department if you have issues. We will be receiving some clean up kits from the county tomorrow. We're not exactly sure how many they're going to give us. We asked for a pallet or two, and I believe those are going to be set up over at the rec center community center, if you need some of that stuff, we have put mission request again in for law enforcement to help with any of the unlicensed contractors that may be going around trying to take advantage of you. So if you have any issues, you can try to contact one of them if you see them out, or please contact the police department and they'll get involved. If you believe somebody is not being what they should be. We set up our mobile permitting truck today. It's actually the police department's command unit. We set up over at 116 South Pinellas Avenue in the city's parking lot. It's a mobile unit to help people with the permitting process to put their houses back together. We want to make sure we brought it out to the community so they could see it. It will be there. It was there today. Tomorrow will be back there to assist you. The city has waived the permitting and application fees for those persons that are affected by the storm. That way they can get their processes started and get rebuilt as soon as they can. All right. Now, the big one, the debris pickup. Debris pickup is a major issue for every community in the region. We have never seen debris like this in my career, and probably in anybody's career here. We had two, as the pastor said, we've had two horrific storms back to back with tons of debris. The last time I seen debris in this town, I'm 36 years I've been here is Irma, and that was just brush. We have never seen household products, people's lives sitting on the parking on the streets. It is going to take time and patience to get all this picked up. A lot of time. One thing people need to understand is the contractors that we hire. Any contractor that you hire cannot go into gated communities, okay, that is not allowed under the FEMA regulations. Mr. Function, our public works director, has filed paperwork to get a waiver for that to happen. We're hoping that will come back at any time or if the government or FEMA decides, yes, it's too much. Go ahead and do it. We will be in there to get it. Hoa's private communities with gates are required to provide pickup services of their own. That's probably not what some people want to hear, but that's the hard truth of it. We will do whatever we can to get this waiver done and processed, so we can get in there with our crews to get that picked up. None of us want to see it or anybody we are estimating about 150,000yd■T of debris out there. Okay. Right now, as of today, we believe it's about 20,000 picked up. So far. Those trucks, you see, with the big trailers and everything else, you're not going to find those trucks in many other communities. Most of the communities that we've seen are using large dump trucks, etc. We have some huge trucks. So those trucks with those big trailers are considered almost like two trucks because of the load they can carry. We had a meeting yesterday with the county as a group and the all the county municipalities, and as we they went through and they were talking about what their cities are going through, and we had to give an update of what our city has done as far as debris, I can tell you, when Mr. Funston gave his report to the county, they all were stunned by how much debris we have already picked up. None of the other cities have gotten that much. In fact, a couple cities just started today. Since the storm got past us. They just started. We were on the road back almost immediately. The next day, the crews had to leave to save their trucks and family members, and they were back immediately picking up. So we are doing pretty well. I know it may not feel that way. It's going to take time. They're telling us it could take over two months to get all this debris picked up. So what's going to happen? All those black bags that you see out there, those will be last. I know that's not what anybody wants to hear, but we cannot determine what's in those black bags without opening those black bags up. Because if there's chemicals in them or anything that shouldn't be in them, if they go into the main dump site, it can contaminate that main dump site. And now we have bigger problems, so those will be last. That way they can go in and open a couple bags at a time and see what's in there. And those will be picked up last. The main focus right now is to pick up the household goods. The mattresses, you see the refrigerators, you see the dressers and all that stuff. Drywall, that's all the first line stuff that'll be picked up. After that, they'll come through and they will get all the brush picked up. Okay. And then the plastic bags, it's just not one pass that this will happen. This is going to be multiple passes throughout all this time that they'll come through and pick up stuff. So just because they don't pick all your stuff up, please realize that sometime they'll be back through to get all this stuff. I think that's everything I had. Tom, is there anything else on that? Have you been by the landfill? You'll you'll see the big mounds of stuff. We did open up the landfill. At first, it was only open to the contractors because of safety reasons. But we have opened it up to everyone. And there are no fees over there for pickup. Correct. So we have not. We're not charging anybody affected by the storm with any fees for dumping. It's open 24 over seven to whoever wants to dump their stuff over there to expedite it. If you want to get your stuff and you have a means to get it, you can take it there and we're going to take it in, okay? Just because it's all sitting there, the process doesn't stop. We have to go through the Crowder Gulf has to go through and separate everything. So if you can separate your stuff at the corner that would be great. There's some pamphlets in the back back there that will tell you exactly how to do that. That's helped speed stuff up, but that can help. If you can do that. Some cancellations and closures. Sunset beach took another hit out there this time around. I think this is Tom Funchion said they had to take multiple multiple trees down. Power lines are down. We're expecting they have to bring sand in. We're hoping within two weeks the beach will be back and ready. Hopefully sooner, but we're estimating about two weeks for that. The splash park is closed right now. It took some damage. We're waiting for parts to come back in so that can be up and running again. And the cemetery is closed. The cemetery got a lot, a lot of flooding, a huge amount of flooding over there. We have pumps working over there all day, all night, trying to pump it down. There's a power line going through the pond, so Duke Energy can't even get in there to get their power line taken care of because they can't go close to it. So they can't get to that. The end of the month was supposed to be a citywide clean up day for all residents. That has been canceled due to the fact that we have so much debris out there. The trucks can't go and pick up the people that weren't affected, so that will be canceled and we'll try to reschedule that for another day. If you need more information, you can call the county's information citizen information line. At 72746443334333. And if you can't get Ahold of anybody there or get what you want, you can always call us at the fire department. 9383737. We'll try to get you the answers or find the answers for you. I want to give a shout out. Something I need to mention too, is shout out to our staff. This has been probably the most trying time for the city staff in years that I've known. It's just not the police and fire incident. Public works people are out there, public service people are out there. Planning department was out there. Our IT department was at the EOC, which may not even know about the IT department is during the storm city Hall went down, power was out. The generator was having issues. Just the storm of a storm. Suzanne's crew, the night crew had to be sit there at their computers and transfer all the information from the servers here to get the servers at our building online. So we didn't lose any information for the city. It was a monumental task throughout the night that they had to do that. Thank God they were there and it was flawless. So I thank her and her crew for that. We had departments there that were, you know, it's a we have 150 plus people at the EOC at that building crammed into that building. They're sleeping in corners, they're sleeping in closets. They're sleeping anywhere they can find. We're cooking. We're serving meals, three meals a day. It's quite the operation and not very comfortable. It's definitely not a Hilton. And I just want to commend the staff. They've been troopers through all this. Back to back storms. You know we've had storms come by and graze us and we take a little bit of wind and stuff. But two storms like this to come into the city that's close and do this much damage. Back to back. They need to be commended. It was my pleasure to run the EOC and make sure they just had stuff going for me. They gave me information and it was, it was I said it last time I was here, it was, it was made the job a lot easier. So I appreciate that we initiated the new city manager. So he learned a lot I believe, through this storm. So I just for that I just want to thank the staff. So with that I'll answer any questions I might have. You might have I think we're going to go first. We're going to go to public comments. But I encourage you, please get all your thoughts. You want out with public comments, but it's not going to be too much of a question and answer between staff and the residents. We're going to get all your information and be able to get back to you. So now we're going to go to public comments on the special presentation. Once again, Susan Swenson, 307 Manatee Lane. I just need a point of clarification. When you talked about the contractors that were picking up the debris, you had mentioned that they cannot go into gated communities, but then you also mentioned Hoa's. Did you just mean gated communities that have hoa's? Because my street is like 15 homes. It's not gated, but it's an HOA. As per FEMA, any open, private private residence like that with the open roadways so they can go and pick it up. Evening parallax 514 Ashland Avenue. Really don't have any questions because that was truly informative and I have to thank the staff for all the hard work that they've been through. We were very fortunate, thankfully, that we had a reverse storm surge because I was watching all through the night and thankfully it kept going east a little further. But they did come up 20 miles north. All that debris be in the bayous in the river, and we're seeing what's happening up with Lacoochee and Alafaya and all these rivers still flooding. But a couple of things that the chief mentioned that I would like to maybe expand on abroad, broaden some of the discussion. You first started off with FEMA, and we've heard a lot about FEMA, FEMA, FEMA, FEMA and complaints and all this stuff. And if you want to really look, a couple of our representatives from this area voted against the bill that would have provided additional funding. So if you don't believe me, you can look it up. But I noticed Catherine Peters from the Board of County Commissioners had a press conference, and she was asking for FEMA to combine the two storms. So there's two as one, because as FEMA people know, usually you have to get your reimbursements based on individual storms. So I would like to see if we can coordinate with that. I would also like to follow up with what the chief said about patients. It is insurmountable for a lot of these people. They've never had to go through any of these forms being familiar with FEMA. So I appreciate the fact that you've brought forward all these resources available to people. Because a lot of people are hurting, and some of us who didn't suffer as much are grateful. And I do want to expound one more time on something I've mentioned a couple of times before. And maybe with these storms, it will highlight the benefit. 16:10 a.m. It's our radio station. It's licensed as a safety public service type station. I think it's only five watts on a clear day. I can hear it at my house, which is about a mile and a half. Two miles by a crow flies. What do they tell you during a storm? To prepare for a radio? A radio, your power goes out. You don't have your internet. You turn on your radio, turn on 970 or any of these other big heavy broadcast stations that are doing 24 hours, seven days a week, broadcasting same thing we can do here. I notice they did update some of the messages. So that's good. But if we could have a little bit more real time notice through that. And again, if you're asking for waivers, I would suggest going to the Federal Communications Commission and see if we can't do anything to increase our broadcasting power. So we have coverage through our whole jurisdiction all the way out to East Lake Road, out to Chesapeake and Sea Breeze out there. So I would ask that that be considered at some point. And lastly, I will close a lot of what you've heard that's happened tonight is because of years and years and years of preparation and planning. And I have to I know I've said my issues with Ellen, but she put that EOC there. Mark has pushed through and he's set up contracts always over the years. So as soon as something happened, people were deployed. So we have to give credit to some of the people before this group that has prepared us. Thank you. Mark. Next speaker, please. Georgina Francis, 15, Athens Street. Welcome, Commissioner Banther. I'm glad that we all made it through the storms. I had something else prepared tonight, but after listening to Chief Young, I kind of changed my comments. So, you know, in my job, when my clients get upset, the last thing that they want to hear is that I have solved other problems of other clients. You know, even though that I know that that makes me feel better. And my team, my paralegals, and I caution them against that as well, because it's not what they want to hear. You know, it doesn't mean that we're not doing our jobs, but it's not what my client wants to hear. My client wants to hear sympathy. They want to hear that I'm listening, that I'm empathetic to their problem because it matters. So I just think that the fact that we're telling everybody that they need to understand something is just not the right message. They don't need to understand anything. It's your job to make sure that they understand that. And if they're not understanding it, then you're not doing your job right. So they have a right to be upset. They're going through the same things that the commissioners and your staff are going through. They are going through these hardships, too. It's not just affecting you. It's not just affecting the staff. I love and appreciate our staff. I think they're doing an amazing job, but that is not making anyone else feel better. And it's not your job to make people feel better, but it's not helping the situation to hear that. Well, we didn't pick up your trash. We picked up other people's. It's just not helping the situation. It's just not the right message to be sending. So I just think that this is unprecedented, not just for the staff. It's for all of us. We're all going through a lot and I think the staff are doing with it. But I want to thank our residents for handling themselves well, too. I mean, it's been tough for all of us. I've gotten into it with my own friends here, and we're at a heightened level. I've heard people have, you know, freak outs at stores and other places. People are getting arrested. I haven't heard that happen here, which I'm grateful for, you know. And I know that I can have my issues with my. So I stay home sometimes in these past few days because I don't think I'm ready to be around people because of the anxiety in the air right now. So I do appreciate the staff, but I think that our residents need to be appreciated as well, and they have the right to complain. Okay. They do. It doesn't mean that they're correct, but how do they know? I don't even know half the stuff with these contracts and things like that. But I just feel like the message back should be, I understand we're doing the best we can. I appreciate, you know, that you because when you tell people that they feel like they're being hurt other than just saying, we're doing it, we're doing the best we can and we're better than everybody else. Nobody cares about Dundee or Clearwater. I don't give a crap about how great they're doing. I care about people here. And as far as I know, Connect Tarpon is a great resource, but I think now is be the best time with Charles Rudd. You know, the I know that we've talked before about the path to yes and the road show, and I think right now would be a really good opportunity to start that. I know that the staff is busy, but there's places that one of my friends told me at the docks. It doesn't look like anyone's even touched the store. And I think that maybe they don't know what options are available to them. You know, not everybody comes to, especially at the sponge docks not watching these meetings. They don't know about Connect Tarpon or they're not getting emails from Karen Lemons. So as much as the internet is helpful to a lot of us, that roadshow, if any time is going to help, it's going to help now, like going and it's easy to spot them. It's the place that doesn't have anything ripped out and they haven't touched it and they might the fear is that they're not coming back. And you know, our mission statement, mayor, I don't know by heart, but I'm sure heritage, you know, to protect and preserve our heritage, culture and whatnot. And if that's not the docks, I don't know what is. And we're all hurting, but, you know, homeowners insurance, you know, those things we have citizens sends me a text every day about where I can meet. But I think they're proud people down there, just like the sponge divers. They never asked for any help when that ran out. So I think we need to offer anything that we can. Thank you. Thank you. Ma'am. Haven Christakis, 2006 Harbor Circle, Tarpon Springs. I actually live in an HOA like you spoke of, so I'm not actually here to help myself because I'm not sure I'm going to get any help. Debris is what has brought me here tonight. It is a big issue. I want to thank every one of you up there. I have called numerous people up there, had numerous long talks with them. I've talked to congressmen, I've talked. They've all actually called me. And because it takes a while to understand the procedures that are going on, and I do thank you all for your help. But what I want to make certain is that everyone knows, and I've tried to be transparent out there as I find stuff out, because my story has changed as I'm getting further down the line, what's going on with our disaster debris pickup contract company Crowder Gulf Joint Ventures? I did some digging and you guys were super awesome, getting me a lot of paperwork in a day and a half. And so I dug. We had a bunch of contractors they got they've had our contract for years. I'm not sure how many. I know. It's been a long time, but there were three qualifications that they used on the bid sheet to tabulate who got the contract. While two of the qualifications, background, qualifications and pricing. Everybody had about. There were people that had highest scores like theirs. However, their operational approach plan got the highest score, and that's what pushed them into getting our contract. So I went through their operational approach plan and I looked at things and they didn't do what they said in their plan. So that's what got him our contract. But they didn't fulfill it. So anyways, my whole thing here is they didn't show up after Helene. They had I checked the city. I got it today. Did the NP notice to proceed on September 28th to them. Have a copy of the email per their tab for operational plan within 48 hours of initial NP crews will be fully operational and hauling debris. Does anybody up here have proof that they were here by the 30th or the first hauling debris? First time we saw him in the streets was the 6th of October. Okay, there's other things too, if required, to meet the city's needs, they will operate 24 hours a day. Well, I thought it was a need since we had another storm coming that they should be operating 24 hours a day. They wasted 6 to 7 days of time. They could have been hauling 24 hours a day per their own operational plan. That got them our contrac. By not being here and not doing what they said they will and they seven days a week during light hours, unless the city requires that they need to do 24 hours. They said they do that. But the beauty of their contract with the city, and I don't know if anyone knows this yet, is it's not. Hold on. Let me find that. It's not scope of work work hours. It is non-exclusive. The city specifically reserves the right to concurrently contract with other companies for similar work, if it deems such action to be necessary in the city's best interest. I don't know if you have anyone else in mind, but if they're not doing their job, we have the right to get someone else. I don't personally think they're doing their job. They're coming from Alabama. They didn't get here like they said they were. They didn't start when they said they were. Why can't we look for someone? I'm saying this for future because now we know we've never had an event like this. I thank you all for your hard work. I think we seriously need to reconsider who we contract with for our debris pickup. And the first day they were out, I only saw them one day in between the storms, and it was a very important thing to pick up that debris. We got lucky, by the grace of God that we didn't get hit with the winds. But I did have a piece of debris put a hole in the side of my house, and then for Milton, I flood it. Your time is up, ma'am, but there's going to be we're going to have general public comments afterwards, and you may be able to tie into some of the extensions that are coming up at 730 up. Any other public comments on this item? Hello, my name is Krissy Clark is 301 Banana Street. And if I get emotional, I'm sorry. My sister and I ran over here just to be present for this meeting because I actually want to thank y'all for everything you're doing for us. This this double hurricane has wiped out our entire. My house is gone. My mom's house is gone. My sister's house and my brother's house. And it caught on fire. I want to give Chief Young all the credit for getting y'all. All the men were there right away. We had all the. We had the need and we. So the fire was contained. It wasn't that bad, you know. Thank God you know. You know. And then we have Chief Young for the police department. I'm in the Fruitvale district. We got hit the worst. Right. And then we had no power. Our entire lives were out there and we had looters. We had people going through, and. And the officers were just scouting the neighborhood, just making sure our properties were still safe. We called the mayor because we wanted the pickup. We got hit the worst, and we've had nothing but help. Every single way our contractors. I spoke with a contractor today. We have the best trucks in the city. If you go to the other cities, they have dump trucks. We actually have the boom trucks that have the arms. Right. And I went out and I talked to the man. I said, where are you from? He came all the way from Michigan, you know, and they're here and they're working nonstop. They're doing the best they can. The mayor opened up the yard waste for us to take the debris there. I mean, the city has done everything, and I just came to thank y'all because whatever memories and whatever we have left of our lives, it was saved. And so this is a disaster, okay? And I want to give credit to the World Central Kitchen and the funk. They're coming around. You know that is an amazing organization. They're cooking food and they're shipping it from Largo. And they're bringing it to us. When we don't have kitchens, we don't have power. We don't have light. And I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be emotional, but like my entire family lost everything, you know, and it's sad when you see your trophies out there and you see your family photos of your father that you lost and you know, and just someone being kind and bringing you something to eat or you just coming to say, you know, I'm sorry, and you bring your entire team coming to help us. So I just want to say thank you so much. And that's why my sister and I had to come here and say that, because I know you're going to unload, but we have professional contractors. You know, the funk is, you know, they have volunteers bringing us stuff, and there's a church. I'm not sure what it's called, but they brought volunteers to help me because where my house is on banana, because of the storm surge, I got all of the debris, like I got all the yard waste because the fence, the boat, right, right. The boats. Oh, and we had the boat rescue. They came down our street and our neighbors were coming with the dogs because they didn't realize the surge would come up so high. So thank you so much. I honestly just know that there are residents that appreciate y'all very much, and I'm one of them. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Adachi's. Next speaker, please. Katie Taylor, 1991 Douglas Lane, Tarpon Springs. I wanted to thank Chief Young and the police department because although we have a lot of devastation from this hurricane, we have a lot of gas shortages and some of these gas lines have been sitting. I sit in the gas line for almost 45 minutes of the day, right up here at the Spartan, and the lines was coming from two different ways, and I got such, such anxiety. Concerned about one of your officers because a car, one car jumped the line and it was like a beehive. Everybody got out their car and start swarming. This one car, and this one man almost got ran over and we called the 911. And they came and y'all organized those lines. So it was less stress for people. So thank you. And I pray to God that your officers be protected because we're in a scary state. People just carrying guns. When one guy got a gun pulled on him up in Pasco County. So I was thankful that your officer was safe, that he did bring bring control on that situation. And I thank you for them being that they're putting their life on the line just for us to get gas. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Taylor. Tired name Susan Swenson 327 Manatee. I just want to say a few things. I know that it's really important time to support our local businesses, our local shops, if you can. It's not. It's not been easy. When we are closed or no one is shopping. And I understand why it's difficult for businesses to survive. Statistically, hurricanes aside, according to 2024 data, 20% of small businesses fail in the first year, 50% fail in five years, and 65% in ten years. Given that. That being said, I want to give a big shout out to my friends Val, Valerie, Vincent and Michael Penta of The Funk. They started a grassroots effort to feed and supply. I get the shivers here. Crucial items to those affected and working with many others that have assisted. They have helped thousands and thousands of people. Some days serving 600 meals a day. They have Amazon delivering truckloads to them. They have people from all over. It is become mind boggling. I want you to thank them and everybody else who's who's helping the community. But let's give a big thank you. I don't know if you realize, but they just moved from my neighbor being on Lime Street out at 1208 Pinellas Avenue North. I know you know where that is across Pinellas Avenue from Captain Jack's and in the community of the Eagle's Nest. Please, please, if you can go to their Facebook site, share it, share it, share it, share it. And if you can shop at their store, visit their store. They are hurting like the rest of our small businesses. So let's give back to them. Thank you. Thank you Mister Swenson. Ma'am. Okay. Yeah, we had a shipper. Anita. Produce again. 901 Bayshore Drive. What about Craig Park? I know he lost one tree. Is that right? Maybe they're looking into it very hard. Okay. Did we lose any more? Because I couldn't get in there to see the other day, they had it taped off. Those. Those were old, old trees. What about Howard Park? I know it's county. Anything about that? The trees. And we haven't heard much from the county about Howard. Okay. I just know it's closed. I think they're still trying to assess all their parks and see what they have before they start opening them up. Remember a lot of the sand and stuff, just like we did at our park, washed away some areas of foundation that we have to replenish. So they may be trying to make sure everything's safe in that that aspect. As soon as we hear that, that's open, we'll definitely shoot that out to everybody to make sure they know it's open. Well, I'm just really concerned about Craig Park. I'm selfish. It's one of our iconic spots in Tarpon. But you know what's happened here? It's brought people together again. It's brought people together. They're helping each other. We haven't had that here in a long time. And maybe this is going to be our medicine to begin a community together. And friendships we used to have. Thank you. Thank you. Mayor. Produce any other public comments? I t are there any zoom comments? If anyone online would make public comment, please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do have a raise hand. Allow the first person in. Hi everyone, it's Maria Kavouklis. I wasn't able to come in person and I'm sorry I joined late. I just heard Miss Prado say that the recent events have brought the community together. I live on the corner of Banana and MLK and we did get a lot of flooding there, just like the fruit streets. As Christie said. And I just wanted to say that I do believe this community is the strongest I've ever seen. Have a lot of friends in Tampa and Oldsmar and Saint Pete, and they did not have all the help that we did from our community. So I do agree with everyone on the positive side of the hurricane impact, but I do also think that the debris pickup was very scary for me only because of Milton coming up behind us, so I did. I've been speaking with Haven as well, and we did look at, you know, the contract and all of that. She went through the details. There's no need for that. There's no, you know, pushing on anybody within the city officials or the community. I do think our town did an amazing job, and we have an amazing community. However, from a professional perspective, the debris pickup coming that late, especially with Milton coming behind us, it was a very scary event for some of us. I don't know if everybody felt like that, but I will tell you, I was freaking out. I was texting Panagioti, I was calling John Collins. It was a freaky event and we did luck out. So I think there's a lot of work to do going forward in case it happens again. We do live on the west coast of Florida. We are prone for hurricanes. More likely than not, we will have flooding again. So that's where it's important for us to have that contingency plan and to not allow that to happen again. Again. Will we have a double whammy? Nobody knows. But that double whammy was very scary for a lot of people. And sorry if Bobby was yelling in the background. So. Thank you, Mrs. Kavouklis. Next, do we have any other IT comments online? We do not have any other raised hands at this time. Thank you. Well, we're going to get back to the commission. I know we might have some questions, concerns and all I can say is we'll run just a little bit behind with our ordinances, hearings. But I know this is a very important topic that we're getting into. So, Commissioner Eisner, thank you, mayor. So when I'm sitting up here, I'm taking notes down of what people say and some of the ideas. So none of this, that what I want to speak about is any orchestrated order. So if I'm out of order, forgive me, but I also want to thank the funk. My wife and I stopped by there and they are doing a just unbelievable job doing giving people supplies, food, all kinds of things that I just cannot imagine. I also want to thank the staff. The staff has been amazing. I've not been able to get around very much with my foot in a cast, but I do when my wife allows me out and she drives me around, I do get to see it. The police have been just amazing. I know they've had to guard our town because we had a mandatory evacuation and I can't thank you enough. I didn't really hear anything out of the ordinary, so I do want to thank you for that. That was just amazing. The fire chief and all of the fire department, a lot of people don't realize saltwater and lithium batteries and electrical. They run out and don't shut their electric down. There's just a great deal for fires. I do want to do a warning to people in any time of national disaster, there is always the unscrupulous type of person who will try to scam you. So what I'd warn you about is be careful when you're at a disadvantage. Try to get another estimate. Try to see that you're getting a recommendation from somebody else before you agree to anything, and only agree to sign over your insurance paperwork if the person is willing to do the right job. I do want to thank our mayor, everybody that seemed to call me had called him, and I'm not so sure that he's is thrilled about being the mayor after these calls. He's had a really, really tough time as well as our city manager. Both of them walked into just a firestorm. It's like somebody threw a hornet's nest at both of them. And I just do want to commend both of you, because I know just how many calls you took. And I know almost who you called, who called you because they called me right after. So I did want to speak about that. I have a comment to make about how we're cleaning up, and I had spoken to Tom Funcheon about this. We evacuate by zones A, B, and C, but we don't clean up by A, B and C and A number of residents spoke to me about this and it would only make sense in the future that if we have these situations, A is the first place that when we have back to back storms, that they're going to get hit and, and the debris that's there in a is going to go into the water first. So I would look to see about trying to change that. There was a comment made, and I don't want to get too political about people not voting for the FEMA. There was reasons for that that were unrelated to what happened. But our leader of FEMA came out on immigration and said we were broke. That's not the brightest thing to start off, to making people feel calm and then rewarding people with $750 when they've lost between 20 and $50,000, or $100,000, was also not the brightest thing to be said. I've been through five of these storms before. I'm a professional restaurateur. I've been through this. I know many of you haven't. It is probably the most heart disheartening thing to throw out all your personal items. I was I had tears when I was listening to you speak just now. Saturday night I finally got to the point where we've been getting as a commission two emails a day from our rep. Kimberly Kipp, and I called her, had an hour conversation with her, and I asked her point blank, why are we not having any female? And so she explained to me that, and I want to share this. The problem that comes into play is and I had this conversation with, I think the chief with the chorus, what volunteer groups do is they come in and they bring you water and ammonia and bleach and clean up things that the fire chief spoke about. But they are volunteers and they get when they donate that to you. FEMA comes in and reimburses them. So if FEMA doesn't reimburse them, they don't come. So I know I heard a couple of things about dates. So I want to say that the storm hit us on the 26th and there wasn't a any sort of support until October 7th, which was when an emergency declaration was signed, an emergency declaration is different than a disaster declaration. So when I asked Miss Kipp why we haven't had any support, she said the declaration disaster wasn't signed until the 12th, which was this past Saturday. The day I was speaking to her on the phon. So I wanted you to know I don't want to dispute your dates, but I did look them all up. If I'm wrong, I will apologize. But these are the dates that I've researched and that is why we had a insufficient amount of help on the onset. I also do want to say that when all of this calms down somewhat, there is time for a breakdown. When you go through some of these types of things, it's like having a fire in your house. It's like having a flood in your house. You try to run through adrenaline as long as you possibly can, and then you get that PTSD where you just want to sit and on a on a stoop and cry and you're crying for yourself, for your family, for everybody else. I do believe that we as a city and a town should come together and try to work together and try to rebuild. I don't know what the outcome will be from this. I can only offer advice on if somebody wants to call me for, you know, giving you restoration advice. And that's that's all I can offer. I'm kind of laid up with a bad leg, so I could do nothing except take calls. So I appreciate trying to help you as much as I possibly can. I again, I want to thank our first responders, our staff, everybody. You guys just did an a stupendous job. And I do want to thank you. So that's all I want to say. Thank you Commissioner Eisner. Commissioner DiDonato. Well, I just if we want to commend staff, I didn't go through it with you. I didn't stay up 30 and 40 hours like some of you did. But I really appreciate that. I appreciate the people of tarpon that have come here tonight. It's a bad situation, but if we stay together, we'll get through it. If we help each other, we'll all survive. So I'm just grateful. It could have been a whole lot worse than it is. Not that it isn't bad, it is truly. But God has blessed us one more time. I feel, and I'm grateful. And I'm grateful for the people that took the time out of their evening. I know you're all busy. You took time out to come and say nice things. And when you go through what our staff has been through, not to mention the rest of the people that live here, it's very, very important. So again, I just thank you. Can can we get better? Yes, we can. And are we better today than we were ten, 15 years ago? Yes we are. And I see nothing but progress. And together we'll continue to do that. So just my hat's off, Scott. And Jeff, to you and your people to planning all staff, public works functions, group. Just very grateful. God bless. Commissioner Banther, first, I do want to thank our police and fire. I got to ride out Irma with with you all in 2017 and see your operation. Then of course, these two storms were were, you know, much more serious. And, you know, back when I was in office prior, I always touted the benefit of us being a full service city. And that comes to light in these situations because we maintain control and autonomy over everything we do. We're not having to wait on the county or the state for things as much as some of our neighbors here in Pinellas County. So thank you very much for that. I would put you guys up against anybody else in Tampa Bay. Mr. Rudd, could you you know, you don't have to say this now, but could you get us clarification? I know there was comments from the public and I'm curious as to that contract with the with the with the debris collection, as did they start on time. What are the parameters for and what are the parameters for working for working 24 over seven? I imagine that's not just us saying please work 24 over seven. I imagine there's some there's some parameters in place, but I think getting clarification on those two items would help. I do know I have friends down in Safety Harbor. We saw them Saturday night. I don't know if this is entirely true, but their their city did not adequately procure a contract prior to or not in the same fashion we did, and the governor took their was able to get their contractor and moved them to over to the beaches. So I am I am very thankful that we do have a contractor here, albeit I'm sure there's room for improvement that is actively helping to pick up all this waste because I was terrified if we'd gotten that storm surge, what the city would have looked like a second time. And by the grace of God, we just did not. Also, chief, did you did you want to respond to Commissioner Eisner's comments about the date on that declaration? Maybe that had to do with being two storms. And was there two different declarations? There are two declarations, different declarations. The declaration, I have it in front of me was signed by the President on October 5th for federal assistance and to activate FEMA and Homeland Security. So, so, so like, you know, when that sign is, is just outside of our control, right? He has to the president can't sign federal declarations until asked by the governor of the state. So he waits to the governor says we need help. Thank you. And a lot of the comments up here. I know the like the DACA says what you said is just it's just heart wrenching to go through town. You know, I was my house stayed dry by by by just two houses. That's how lucky I got. I have neighbors two homes down not not nearly as lucky. And it's just heart wrenching. But I think from both behind this dais and the public and, you know, we need to give each other grace in, in this situation. We have never faced this before. I've been born and raised here. We have the no name storm in the 90s. We had a lot of close calls. Irma was our scariest call in 2017 and now here we are. So there will be a postmortem on this for sure. And hopefully, well, I know we I know we will be we will be better prepared next time. Hopefully there is not a next time with two significant storms, but I think we need to give each other a lot of grace and validation and but I have no doubt that we, we, we, we will get through this and we will get through it better, I think, than most municipalities here and here and here in Pinellas County. So thank you. Thank you, Commissioner, vice mayor Giuliani's. Yeah. What what Miss Frances said is, is appropriate. Thanking the residents. I've seen an amazing amount of help between residents helping each other in this community. That makes me really proud. We have in even my neighborhood, everybody was going to everybody's house helping. I know our our amazing rotary guy knows about. It was out in in the Fruit Bowl district. We were working at, you know, helping people in their homes. Kathy Monahan, we went to her house and to get all of her stuff out, and it was decimated. Her house was completely decimated. She had things in there that I know go back many, many, many years. She was a historian for our city, and she had things. All of them were ruined. And her house was is just basically in studs. And then we went to another house and then she came to help at that house. Her house was ruined. Her her life is turned upside down. But then she still came to help. At another house, and it was amazing. I, I filled in for the mayor on one occasion and again, I want to I want to give the mayor kudos because I know a lot of people probably don't know it. He keeps his his personal travel things to himself, but I'll I'll let it out. Let that cat out of the bag. But he was out of town and he flew back in to come back to the storm. He could have stayed where he was. So let's. I like to commend him for that. The. But you know, when I had to fill in for him on one occasion and I was commenting about the things that I saw in the pile, and one of the piles had a rocking horse up on the top of the big pile. And that really hit me hard. I was with my wife and it was it was heart wrenching. I have a 18 month old granddaughter I can't imagine. Can you imagine that? And that house was flooded? Probably you know, at least four feet into that, that house. And you got to think there was a child in there, and that child is going to have a memory and their sense of security, their home, their sense of security has been, you know, damaged, right. And so we have to not only when you go through these traumas, you got to worry about the long term effects. You know, of what that does. And you know that I really concern me and that we have to hug those kids and really but and listen to them if you have children that and you went through that, you know, get a sense of where your child is mentally and, you know, take everything they do serious because they could be really affected and their long term development could be affected by something like this. But now I'm going to get to some more mathematical things when I, I started thinking about this from a budgetary standpoint and where we're what we're going to look forward to. I had sat with the finance director and our city manager, and we went through all the possibilities of things that are going to have some deep financial effects on us going into the 20 2425 cycle. And possibly into 20 2526 cycle. We know that we're going to have a reduction in tourism that we understand we've had business closings in town already. I know of you know, my favorite place to go have lunch at Yankee been they've closed up. They're they're probably not coming bac. I hope they change their mind. But so we have businesses that are closing up. So when you think of our sales tax revenue, we have we have our penny for Pinellas and our last year's budget. We had $6 million in Penny for Pinellas. We have our half cent sales tax. We get a half a cent from the standard sales tax that comes directly to the city. That's about $2 million. Then we have our state revenue sharing, which is about $1.3 million. So that's about $10 million that the city gets. I think if we have a 10% drop, that's $1 million. If we have a 20% drop, it's $2 million. And if you attended or listened to any of our budgetary meetings, you know, our budget has a small amount, really is very small out of our big budget. We always talk about it. How much do we really have to work with? This is going to eat into us deeply. The big one is our property tax. Right now, 42% of our of our general revenue funds come from property taxes. Does anybody believe our properties aren't going to be devalued, given what we just went through? We I don't know, at some point when they do their assessments, the chief and the city manager are going to have to give us some statistics on how many homes have been damaged and to the extent they're damaged. But imagine you live in a home that was assessed at $300,000. That house has been flooded out and it's uninhabitable. Right now. Those people are going to get relief. There's no way they're going to pay tax on 300,000. That's going to trickle down to us. Okay. Now it's going to be what is it going to be land value that's going to trickle down to us. So our we receive about. $15 million from directly from ad valorem taxes again a 10% a 20% reduction. We're talking about possibly up to another $3 million. This is money that is, we desperately need the again, a big our biggest sources of revenue, believe it or not, are our services. And those big and the biggest portion of our services are water and sewer fees. All these uninhabitable homes don't have aren't using water. Those fees are going to go down. And that represents a finance directors here. But I believe it represents about 45% of our total revenue. Again, that's going to hit us hard. And then when you look at okay, from the fee standpoint. So there we could hit easily hit six $7 million in in reduction in direct revenue. Now let's look at the expenditure side Helene costs us about $450,000 in overtime. It was not budgeted. We don't even have the amount for Milton yet. But Milton had a longer ramp up of time than did Helene. So that's going to exceed 500,000. There's a million another million dollars that we're going to have to come out of pocket. The debris removal. Now we're going to get assistance from FEMA. But the city has it's about $4 million that the city has to front 50% of that up front. We apply for the other 50%. I hope that they expedite that to us. But that creates cash flow issues. I was sitting with the finance director and talking about where that money is going to come from, and we have to juggle it between because we don't again, we don't want to go below our reserve requirements to keep our city healthy, our infrastructure repairs, look at our roads, potholes everywhere. That salt water ate through the asphalt. So we've got potholes all over town. Sunset Beach. We've got to restore that. That's going to be an expensive proposition. Again, we are going to apply for assistance. We're still waiting for some money that has been applied from hurricane from last year. So there's the immediate relief that we get that I appreciate from FEMA. But then there's all these add on things that we apply that takes lots of time to get, again, going to affect us. The city manager and again, I want to really thank him. He jumped in to a situation obviously nobody anticipated when they picked the date that he was going to get here, that this was going to happen, but he he's he's been a really calm, decisive leader. I got to spend a little bit of time in the EOC. They threw me out faster than they did you. But so they but I saw how he he handled himself and were really fortunate to have him. But he brought up to me today a concern about the budget with our stormwater, our stormwater capital budget is only 200, $250,000. That's nothing. We've got our we have our infrastructure is clogged and decimated. Okay. Again we can we're going to apply for whatever grants and things we have. But we've got to now kind of when we talk about our city getting together, we have to also be really prudent with where we spend money, how we spend money. And we all got up and praised our staff. We don't want to lose staff. So it's not they're going to be, you know, we have to take care. But with again without hurting any employment of any of our people, you know, going forward, we've got and again, this city manager and I had this conversation about the what the priorities need to be. We need the drainage for rain. Right. Right now we have the our we're flooding on just normal rains. Our water retention and our, you know, basic drainage systems aren't aren't functioning. Well. We need to we have to make a priority about getting taking care of rain. Then the effective control of tidal flooding. So we have we got just rain and then we got these really high tides. We're getting these these king tides. That's we're going to have to address. And we got to, you know, we got to do whatever efforts we have for erosion. And you know, we talk about and we don't discount this storm and say, well, it's just once in a hundred years, we got another hundred years to get one. No. All scientists tell us we're going to get more and more of these. The water is hot. It's, you know, the earth is hotter. It's just the way it is. I don't care how we got here. I don't want to get into politics. How we got here. It doesn't matter. We're here now. So it's so we've got to understand these things are going to keep coming. And. And then the last is mitigation of the storm damage. You know, you know, the city manager and I were talking about innovative ways. If you look over at Tampa General, they have that big blow up thing that they do to protect the hospital. Those they create almost a big I don't know, what do you call it, like a dam or aqua fence. What do you call it? Aqua fence. Aqua fence. This huge thing, that thing was $10 million. That's how much it cost. Tampa General. But obviously it's important to them. And you know, we've got to look at innovative things. So we you know all of our focus has to kind of change. Now that's what we have to focus on. We got to focus on protecting our city. We are going to have some challenging financial things. It's important that citizens know it's important, you know, because you got to make some decisions at the at at the voter booth. So understand where our money's got to go. And it's just where we are. So I apologize for having to give you the bad news, but you're we're we're adults and we need to know it. So thank you. Thank you. I want to just echo all the, all the thoughts and just thinking about all the residents as the other commissioners talked about. And I just want to make it clear, we all have been trying in our own way, to try to help out this community any way we can with this state of emergency. And these two natural phenomena that are, you know, 100 year records that we saw two weeks apart as far as the storm pay for the for the staff. I know there's different storm pays or whatever the situation we need to look at that a little bit better for some of these workers. Maybe we might have another, you know, a different type of pay call, state of emergency pay, you know, just something to consider because I don't want to make sure these guys are getting paid well when they're putting their lives on the line. Chief, you had mentioned that there may be a potentially how many 100,000yd■!T? Tom told me today that they're estimating almost 150,000yd■!T, but that could alo go up. That's an estimate. So it could be more than that. Sure. So I mean, you know, right. That's a lot of debris that, you know. So from what I understand, you know, and we're definitely ahead of other cities and unincorporated areas. You know, I was going to post numbers about how we were ahead of some of these other cities starting up. And then obviously Milton came. So it didn't matter at that point. But this debris pickup, it's set up in seven different zones. We have, you know, as we talked about with the gated communities and the Hoa's fire chief and staff have already reached out to FEMA to wave the permits. That way they can go inside. So they're waiting to hear back. Is there anything that any of the HOA presidents need to do with the city? Do they need to contact the city in any way? No. They can contact us to get updated information and we'll give it to them as we get it. We'll let them know. Okay, so we got, you know, with with the seven zones we currently got five trucks. They are bringing in two more big trucks about the middle of next week, you know. And Mr. Funston's done a great job. He's taken, you know criticism his department's left and right. And the guy is really probably hasn't slept in you know, weeks with everything going on. So I commend you, sir. You know, he he's taken a lot of criticism criticism. But doing it the best as he can to look out for the city and the long term and immediate plans after this pickup to get the debris going. We also have so we got five big trucks, several of them carry 150yd■!T at a time. They can get filled up 4 or 5 times a day. That's almost 750yd■!T. I do wod like I would like to see the city potentially post some of those cubic yards that are being collected daily. I just I just think it's a nice thing that the residents will see what's being collected. We got the two other trucks that are coming midweek. You can't have all these big trucks operating right now with a lot of the smaller contractors coming in and out. So, you know, it's going to smooth out. We have they're bringing in a few more trucks that are lighter or smaller trucks. They help around some of the cul de sacs and some of the smaller roads that pick up debris that the big trucks can't really get to either. They have to back into to get to some of the spots, or really they just can't maneuver. So these smaller trucks are coming in right now they have two white good trucks that are going around collecting, collecting the white goods, which are fire chief like washers, dryers, fridges. That's the materials from inside the home, the mattresses, dressers, that type of stuff, the drywall, etc, not the branches, not the tree limbs. Those are that's green stuff. So that's the stuff they're picking up now is the white stuff. Yeah. The white the white goods are the separated fridges and stuff where you know, put that stuff to the side. They're coming to get them. They have two e-waste trucks that are constantly going around right now picking up e-waste materials, which is what computers, TVs, you know, anything with battery related items in there. You know, we're we're very thankful that, you know, our current contractor or any subcontractor isn't taken off the other coast for more money. You know, we have to appreciate that they're not. Then, you know, I would like to see I would like the residents to know at least, you know, they see the zoning maps and they understand we're going to get some more trucks coming. But when the first sweep goes through a zone, if we could publicly post to the community, hey, zone one has had its first sweep. It's coming around for its second sweep. Get your stuff out to the curb. I think it would help the residents be a little bit more proactive or reactive to the post about each neighborhood or each zone being swept through the first time and second time. And hey, this is the third and final sweep, so get your stuff out to the curb. And so I'd like to see that staff and the city manager, the city manager and staff are opened up the landfill. And they did a great job. It was just us as commissioners trying to encourage and we're in a state of emergency. Things are a little bit different. You know, just the organizational structure and the decision making changes because we're in the state of emergency. And so we can give policy direction, but we can't dictate it, you know. And so we talked about and then we have the city manager and staff have waved short term rental minimums. So you're not obligated to have a short term rental for I believe it was a minimum of 30 or 60 days. I if you know, you've been displaced and you can see a spot in town and run it for 2 or 3 days at a time or something shorter, you can. This is temporary, and I'm sure at some point we'll give a well advanced notice about when it's you know, when that temporary ends up going away. So I wanted to let you know, I would like to see. And I know it's a hard task, a hard task. What I'm about to ask, I would hopefully like to see a lot of the yard debris from the properties moved over to the yard. Waste facility. Hopefully by the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I know that's a very tight task. You know, it's just hopefully we can try to, you know, move that stuff out of the people's eyes and properties. And I don't care how many months they're at the yard waste facility, you know, sorting things out. So just something to consider, please. You know, I think as the governor, some of their press conferences talked about a full court press on this debris issue. I think with staff having, you know, we got contractors coming out working for the residents, you know, not charging them anything. Residents can come bring stuff to. We got our we're going to have two more bigger trucks coming through. So we're going to have seven big trucks, a couple smaller trucks handling the tighter roads. We got the two e-waste trucks, we got the two white goods trucks coming through. I think staff's going to do a great job in letting us know about the zones that are being swept through the phases. That way, they can get the residents out to get their stuff out to the curb. And so I would ask, I understand your frustration. You know, I can't even look at some of the people's houses, but we're going to get there. We're working pretty efficient. They've already collected anywhere between what, 15 to 20,000yd■!T. And so we're working for the residents and we're working for you. And you're right. You have a right to criticize us. You know, you have a right to criticize this board. But I do think I do feel for the city staff that they've tried hard to get things going. And we got the ball rolling now. So I want to thank staff for everything. And as we talked about, we're going to, you know, show some a little bit more numbers and thank you all. So thank you for the presentation everyone. Thank you Mr. Duncan. And thank you. Oh yes. Commissioner Banther. Yes. Sorry, I just recalled I know after Irma, we gave all of our employees a stipend. I forget what it was called. Mark remembers that I think I forget how much it was and what it was called, but I would like to see that on the next agenda. If that's possible to do that. And what that would look like. I know I spent several thousand dollars having to move my family around and my parents. It's not cheap. A lot of our employees don't make a lot of money. So if that's an option for us, maybe it's not. If it is, I would like to discuss that. Well, thank you for bringing it up. Commissioner Banther and the rest of the board. Absolutely. I'd definitely like to look at it all. We are done with the special presentation. We now have to go because we are behind on the ordinances, resolutions for public hearings that begin at 7:30 p.m. And right now we are on item 15, resolution 2024-43. Ratification of the appointment of John M Kolanos as Vice Mayor city clerk. Miss Jacobs, can you take it from here? Mr. Mayor, I'll go ahead and read. Oh, I'll go ahead and read it. In resolution 2024, Dash 43, a resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, ratifying the appointment of John M Koulianos as vice mayor of the city of Tarpon Springs, 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? Thank you. Online. I'd like to make a public comment. Raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Thank you. It hearing none. The chair will entertain a motion to approve resolution 202443. Ratification of the appointment of John M Kolanos as Vice Mayor. So moved. Second. Thank you. There are no commissioner comments. Miss Jacobs, roll call, please. Commissioner Banther. Yes, Commissioner DiDonato. Yes, Commissioner Eisner. Yes. Vice mayor Giuliani's. Yes. Mayor Giuliani. Yes. Item 16. Resolution 202444 designation of certain officials as authorized signatories on negotiable instruments of the city. Resolution of the Board of Commissioners, city of Tarpon Springs, Florida. Designating certain officials as authorized signatures of negotiable instruments of the City of Tarpon Springs, period. Thank you. Are there any public comments on this item? It are there any zoom comments? And 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. It hearing none. The chair will entertain a motion to approve resolution 20244 for designation of certain officials as authorized signatories of negotiable instruments of the city. So move motion to approve. Second. Thank you. There are no further comments or discussion. Roll call. Please. Commissioner Banther. Yes, Commissioner DiNardo. Yes, Commissioner. Eisner. Yes. Vice mayor. Yes, mayor. Cool. Yes, yes. Item 17. Resolution 2024-45 ratification of Executive Order 2024-04 and Executive Order 202406. Extending a state of emergency for Tarpon Springs due to Hurricane Helene. Mister mayor, a resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, ratifying Executive Order 2020 404, extending the declaration of local state of emergency to October 15th, 2024, and ratifying Executive Order 2020 406, extending the declaration of local state of emergency to October 20th 2nd to 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? 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. It hearing none. The chair will entertain a motion to approve resolution 202445. Ratification of Executive Order 202404 and Executive Order 202406, extending a state of emergency for Tarpon Springs due to Hurricane Helene so move second. There are no further commissioner comments. Roll call please. Commissioner. Panther. Yes. Yes, Commissioner. Ice. Yes. Vice mayor. Yes, mayor. Yes. Yes. Item 18. Resolution 202446. Ratification of declaration of state of Emergency. Executive order 2024-05 and Executive Order 202407. Extending a declaration of state of emergency for Tarpon Springs due to Hurricane Milton. A resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, ratifying an Executive Order 2020 405 and extending declaration of local state of emergency to October 15th, 2024. Ratifying Executive Order 2020 4-07 and extending the declaration of local State of Emergency to October 22nd, 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? And if anyone would like to talk on this item, please raise your hand and we'll allow you in. And we do not have any raised hands at this time. Thank you. Hearing none, the chair will entertain a motion to approve resolution 202446. Ratification of Declaration of State of Emergency. Executive order 202405 and Executive Order 2024-07, extending a declaration of state of emergency for Tarpon Springs due to Hurricane Milton. So move second. There are no further comments or discussion. Roll call please. Commissioner. Panther. Yes. Commissioner. De Donato. Yes, Commissioner. Yes. Vice mayor. Yes, mayor. Coolio's. Yes. Item 19. Resolution 202438. Electing to opt out of multifamily housing. Property tax exemptions allowed for units priced at 80% to 120% of area. Median income ami under section 196. 1978A Florida Statutes, commonly known as the Live Local Property Tax Exemption. And we have Miss Vincent Planning and Zoning Director, to present the item. And our city attorney will read the resolution. Resolution of the Board of Commissioners. The City of Tarpon Springs, Florida, pursuant to section Florida statute 196, 1970 830 electing not to exempt property under section 196 1978 3D1A Florida Statutes, commonly known as the Live Local Property Tax Exemption, providing for findings providing for scrivener's errors, and for an effective date. As you said, your Renee is here to do the heavy lifting. Thank you ma'am. Thank you sir. So I'll address this at a very high level. So in 2023, the legislature passed a bill called the Live Local Act. And it put in an extensive set of incentives for the production of affordable housing. One of those set of incentives was to provide for property tax exemptions for rental units that meet certain income limits, and they extended all the way up to units that included the 80 to 120% Ami, which is really market rate housing for this area. And then in 2023, there was another amendment to that, that act that allows local governments to opt out of that property tax exemption for those units that could be exempt, that are in that 80 to 120% area median income. So Pasco County kind of took the lead on this initially because it was really affecting them. So essentially, you know, apartment buildings, multifamily buildings were being built that meet that qualification. You know, they they're setting aside units that really are for our purposes, market rate for our area. And they're reducing the property tax taxes being paid by 75% on those units. So the recommendation here is, you know, our there's a certain set of parameters that the state put out that you would have to meet to declare the ability to opt out from those from those allowed exemptions. The city of Tarpon Springs, actually, the entire Tampa metropolitan statistical Area qualifies right now. In a nutshell, that statistic is that when you account for up to 120% of the area median income, the units that are available, it exceeds the number of rentals needed. Essentially. So there's a lot more detail in the memo. I don't want to go a whole lot deeper than that. We do recommend adopting this opt out because, you know, our data shows and our comprehensive plan analysis shows that we have sufficient land available to meet that market need, and that tax exemptions are really not necessary for a developer to provide that market rate housing. So I'll stop there and answer any questions I may have to lean on the attorney a little bit as well. Thank you, Miss Vincent. Are there any public comments on this item? 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 have a raised hand. I'll allow the first person in. If you can state your name and address for the record. That's 514 Ashland Avenue. I would totally agree with Renee's assessment that we don't need to have this exemption. Put upon us as Commissioner Koulianos indicated in his previous discussion about the fiscal costs that this storms are going to cost. The last thing we need to do is lower any of our property tax revenues that are due us. So I would heartily ask the board to accept this resolution and pass it wholeheartedly for our city. Thank you. Thank you sir, and we do not have any other raised hands at this time. Okay, back to the Commission. For any questions for staff. All right. Seeing none, the chair will entertain a motion to approve resolution 2024-38, electing to opt out of multifamily housing. Property tax exemptions allowed for units priced at 80% to 120% of the area. That area median income. Am I under section 196197818 Florida Statutes, commonly known as the Live Local property tax exemption, so moved second second. There are no further comments or discussion. Roll call. Please. Commissioner Banther. Yes, Commissioner DiDonato. Yes. Commissioner Eisner. Yes. Vice mayor. Yes. Mayor. Coleus. Yes. Now we are going back to public comments. So. Will now go to public comments on the items that will not be discussed. This evening. Are there any public comments? Katie Taylor, 1991 Douglas Lane, Tarpon Springs, Florida. Galatians six nine. And let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap. If we faint not. I wanted to start my presentation here with that because I belong to Mount Hermon Missionary Baptist Church, and I know for decades it's been 20, 30 years as far as I can. As far as I know that that church has been trying. It's the oldest African American church in Tarpon Springs. It's 141 years old. It was established in 1883 on the corner of Eagles and Athens, which is Greektown, the I was baptized in that church when I was 11 years old, and Pastor Smith was one of the first responders here. He pastored as associate pastor and pastor at that church for over 40 years. For many years, many years they was trying to get a historical marker, and it was always shot down. It never came to fruition. So finally, this year, in April of this year, I spoke with Mark, former City manager Mark Lucas. I look forward to working with you on City Manager in the future. But Mark was very inspiring. He gave me guidance on how to start the project, to pick it up from where others have left off, so I did, and then he guided me to Karen Lemons, which is the economic development Director. So I want to commend these people. Karen Lemons, economic developer, economic Development director Phyllis Koulianos with the Historical Society, Nicole Kerr with the Historical Society Society and Vice Mayor John Koulianos. Those people touched our heart on on last Sunday when we were finally got the marker. We got it approved and we had our unveiling at our church. Matter of fact, it's such a small world because Nicole Kerr, I never knew her. I seen her coming to our choir practice, but I never knew who she was. And here she sits on the board at the Historical Society, and she come and sing in our church choir. At times. So this is a small world. She sung with us on that day, too, matter of fact. But I want to thank the City of Tarpon. Took us a while, took us decades plus five months to get that marker. But I thank you all for those people for working with our community to get that marker done, because it is a historical and we're looking forward to other projects to move forward with our community that the city show that they do care about our community. So I thank you. I thank every one of these people who dedicated their time. Phyllis dug deep in the historical records with this city. She know what she's doing. I don't care what stone you turn over. Nothing will be said about that marker because she did her homework. And I learned a lot from talking to these people. So I sincerely appreciate everybod. And Vice Mayor Koulianos, we sincerely appreciate you for the presentation that you gave. It was heartfelt and it was touching. Many members talked about your speech when you left our church that day. So I thank you and I thank all of y'all. God bless. Next speaker, please. I t 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. It we will now be going to the consent agenda items. Item five is attorney fees five eight Dickman Law firm in is 5191 through 520 for item five B Eunice salesman Jensen PA invoices 83362 and 8336 for item six Award file number 250027. Dash c dash p h. Civic plus archive social and web software platform. Item seven Award file number 250015. Dash C Dash p h. Power DMs Neogov applicant tracking Software item eight Pinellas County Community Block Development Grant sub Award Agreement Number C, d two for T s p a r k and item nine. Pinellas County Community Block Development Grant Sub Award Agreement number c, d two for t SCC and item ten ratify single source Purchase File number 250029. Dash n j l rental of bypass pumps. Commissioners are there any agenda items that you would like to pull? Thank you. Are there any public comments on agenda items on consent agenda items five, five, eight through ten? I t 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. Hearing none, the chair will entertain a motion to approve consent agenda items five eight through ten. So moved. Second. There are no comments or discussion from the Commission. City clerk, roll call, please. Mister Panther. Yes, Mister DiNardo. Yes, Commissioner. Eisner. Yes, vice mayor. Yes, mayor. Kolya. Yes. And now we're going to take a nine minute break. We will resume back at 840. Thank you. I now I need ten minutes. I know we have. We are now on to special consent agenda item 11. Fine reduction request code case number 08-20000027. And we have Police Chief Jeff Young that will be presenting the item. Thank you, Mayor Jeff Young police department. I'm bringing before you a fine reduction request for 434 Athens Street. The property owner did make an offer of $1,000 to settle this case. However, the fine reduction request was made outside the 60 day window for code board consideration. Therefore, it's being brought to you tonight. This complaint came in back in 2008. It was presented to the code board. They did find a violation for not having a permit to have a structure put up. In the back of the establishment, there was a shed, the back, the deadline for compliance was one seven of oh nine. It was reinspected in one eight of oh nine, still found in non compliance. The noncompliance was retroactive from that date. Daily fines of $50 per day with a $10 satisfaction fee at the time that I wrote the memo for you all, it was up to $247,160 in fines over this period of time. The minimal expenses were put into this with for the city at the time. The family went through some tragic times during this period. The gentleman that owned the house was sick and unfortunately passed away. His wife took over the property and didn't realize those fines were just accumulating. So the daughter of the mother that still lives there brought forward this $1,000 fine request. It was brought into compliance back in seven, 21, 2022. Like I said, there was minimal expense to the city bringing it forward to the code board. No attorney fees were ever established with it. There was no public safety issues with this property, which is usually a big factor that we'll look at in this. The thousand dollar offer to settle. Staff, we have no objections to those or any other thing that you might consider, but whatever dollar amount it is, I would just ask you that you provide a date certain. Thank you. Are there any public comments on this item? It are there any zoom comments on this item? If anyone online would like to make public comment on this item, please raise your hand and you'll be allowed into talk. I do not have any raised hands at this time. And City clerk, we do have one email that's been sent in. That is correct. Thank you. Can you please read it? Yes. This email is from Debbie McKenney, 1021 Rose Tree Lane. I'm afraid that if we allow such a low payment for this violation, it will show others that they can ignore code violations. And when ready to sell, just ask for a reduction in fees. In this case, has went on for 14 years without any action taken by the owners. I read the reasons given and I am sorry for their loss and hardship. It states minimal expense to the city, yet there are more than 70 actions taken on this case. Regardless of how minimal. I also see the property was granted to the new owner, George Colonies, on seven 1822 for $100. Yet the property didn't come into compliance until 721 of 22. After George Colonies obtained ownership. Since he accepted the property with a code violation, shouldn't he be the one requesting the fine reduction? I don't think the full fine amount would be fair to anyone, and we need to show compassion when we can, but I don't think $1,000 for 14 years of noncompliance is fair either. That comes to about $70 a year versus the $50 a day fin. Thank you, City Clerk. Now we're going to go to commissioner comments. Commissioner Brantner, you had your light on first. Yes. Thank you. Do we know and again, I know these things can be challenging because not there's not one size fits all and not every violation is equal. There's willful violation. There's violations by developers that don't live here. And there are situations like this where I think that there's some compassion that is needed, especially in this time. I certainly support the $1,000 offer. Absolutely. I'd be willing to go lower or zero, depending upon how this board felt. If this home was damaged in the hurricanes, I think there's a time to show any kind of compassion. It's now. Full disclosure I have no clue who this person is. I have no knowledge of them, but in reading the background and speaking with chief, this is not a situation where I feel in, at least in my experience, that it was, you know, at least in the current state, willful. And it was something that that was harming or harming the community. And it's coming to compliance. So I fully support the $1,000, and if the board saw fit, I would even go lower. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner. Commissioner Eisner. Well, I need to second what the commissioner just said. What was the minimal amount that was spent? Do you have an idea? I don't have the exact dollar amounts, but we're only talking about the staff, which would have been the code enforcement officer. And then our clerk doing paperwork and stuff, because it was never presented to the city attorney at that time for any legal actions. Because I will go on record. I don't know the people either. I did pass by. I've gone through all of Athens. They've all flooded. I actually did stop for one minute to, you know, just ask this. These people, if they were okay, they were just taking stuff out of the house. And this is not the time that we should be punishing them with another $1,000 fine on top of what they already have. So I agree with Commissioner Banther and I would be willing to forego it as well if the rest of the commission decides on $1,000. I'm okay with that also, but I'd like to see it be just reduced if we didn't have any expenses. You know, things happen and there is extenuating circumstances. As commissioner has said, and I agree. Thank you, Commissioner Eisner, Vice Mayor Koulianos. So first let me say, George, I've known George for a long, long time, but we're actually not related. As it's a common Greek name. So I think, weren't we speaking about this on the phone? You were giving me a little bit more background. I don't yes, sir. Okay. And this the elderly person who owned the home at the time, these were piling up. You said he wasn't. You don't even believe he was aware. Well, I don't know that the intakes of that I do. I do believe his daughter is here. Okay. I can answer to any questions for the family. I would hate to answer on behalf of a family of. Yeah, I don't want to, I don't need we don't need to put her on the spot. Bu. That was my understanding that and this is a long time resident that owned the property. We're not talking about you know, and it's like like Commissioner Banther said, you know, there's circumstances that that become relevant, right? You know, we've had cases where people who are, you know, bought a piece of property here in Tarpon and they live in Orlando. They have fines, they ignore them, and then they want to sell, and they want us to knock all the fines down. That's completely different than this case here. This I it was a long term resident, an older person where these these penalties and it wasn't an egregious thing. I, I'm fine with nothing letting this go again given the circumstances of what's going on and showing some compassion on this. So I'm good with with zero sorry. Okay. If there are no further commissioner comments, the chair will entertain a motion to approve to approve a fine reduction, to waive off fines, and fees with the fine reduction request code for case number zero eight. Dash 0000027. So moved. Second, there are no further comments. $0 though. What are we saying? The wave it waiving waive it okay. Yeah absolutely. Yes. Make sure I did state that right right okay. Wanted to make sure that we didn't do it wrong. Sure. There are no further comments or discussion. City clerk roll call please. Mr. Banther. Yes, Mr. Donato? Yes, Commissioner Eisner. Yes. Vice mayor Giuliani's. Yes, mayor. Yes, ye, we are now going to item 12 award file number 240115-P-JL for request for proposals RFP planning support services and to present this item and go over it. We have planning and zoning director Rene Vincent and procurement services director Janina Lewis. Thank you. Renee Vincent, Planning Director. This item is completing a process for request for proposals to allow the planning Department to pre-qualify, if you will, a list of planning consultants such that we can go for specific tasks, work orders, things we can go directly to them for specific tasks we'd like to do as much as we can in-house, but there are certain specialties that we sometimes we just don't have, or we need additional manpower for things. So this was a little different way of doing a request for proposals. In the past, we had one planning consultant that we could go to that was pre-qualified. And when we decided that that was expiring back in the summer. So when I was at the county, this was the approach that they used where they would pre-qualify a list of consultants across specific sub areas. And so that's how we structured the RF. So it's a little a little bit out of the box, but it allows us flexibility when we have a very specific type of need. For example, you know one of the things that's in one of the sub areas is post-disaster redevelopment planning. That might be something that we want to look into. So we have specific consultants that are qualified across those sub areas. So it's more than just 1 or 2. It's a there's a matrix there that lays out the consultants that were qualified through the selection process. And what sub fields are qualified for. So with that I'll answer any questions that I can or Janina can help as well. Thank you Miss Vincent. Are there any public comments on this item? It are there any zoom comments online? If anyone online would like to make 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. Back to the Commission for any questions for staff. Hearing none. The chair will entertain a motion to approve award file number 240115-PJL for request for proposals RFP planning support services. So move. Second, there are no further comments or discussion. Roll call please. Mr. Yes. Commissioner DiDonato. Yes. Commissioner Eisner. Yes. Vice mayor kuleana. Yes. Mayor. Coolio's. Yes. Item 13 ratify selection of pre-qualified respondents for request for qualifications. RFQ number 240145. Dash s Dash s dash j l. Construction of new fire station 70. And we have procurement director Miss Janina Lewis here. Good evening, honorable mayor, board of commissioners Janina Lewis, procurement services director. What you have before you is the ratifying of the selection of the three firms that the city has evaluated as pre-qualified to be able to bid on the construction of the new fire station 70. This item was programed with the Arpa funds, I believe, starting back in 23. And it's for fiscal year 24. So now we're trying to get this in into place and awarded in time that we meet all the qualifying deadlines for the Arpa funds. With that, the evaluation committee met and we determined that out of the respondents, the top three all faced general contractors Erickson and Lindstrom Construction Company and Kingdom Construction Services had the most experience and the most qualified response to the qualification selections. And with that, I'll turn that over for any questions you may have. Thank you, Miss Lewis. Are there any public comments on this item? I t are there any zoom comments online? If anyone online would like to 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. It back to the Commission for questions for staff and Commissioner Eisner, you have your light on. I do thank you. Mayor. Why do we put a propose a pre bid out there wasn't that. I'm sorry. Am I on the next one already. This is we did a pre bid for the fire station. A pre bid as in a meeting or. I'm not sure I understand. I saw something about a pre bid being something around $6 million. Was I incorrect. Well the estimated construction value is $6 million. So that's why I was asking why do we do that. Oh okay. For this particular in the past we've had a couple construction projects that the vendors looked good up front. We awarded and we've had some complications in this situation. A fire station, we wanted a little bit more experience. So we made the determination to do a pre-qualification of the vendors. And then these vendors that we select will be the only ones allowed to bid on the construction project. My question let me better suit it. When we do a pre bid, are we not giving away what we're willing to spend? Is my question. I mean on a pre bid, couldn't we put a range rather than a number. We do and that that pretty much the estimate we do put out there is our budgeted estimate. The vendors just have an idea. Some will come in at that mark, some will come in lower, some will come in higher. It it's it is technically a range but it's our budget. Like that's pretty much what we've budgeted for. If we need to find more money, maybe nothing comes in at that range. And that's just not feasible. Maybe we need to find more money to do the project or not do it at all. Okay, I just wanted to get an explanation because there are times, you know, it's showing your cards as they say. Correct. And I don't play that game. So but thank you for the explanation. I appreciate it. Thank you. Are there any other commissioner comments for staff? Hearing none. The chair will entertain a motion to approve ratify selection of pre-qualified respondents for request for qualifications. RFQ. Number 240145-S-JL construction of new fire station 70. So move. Second, there are no further comments or discussion. Roll call please. Commissioner Banther. Yes, Commissioner. Donato. Yes, Mr. Eisner? Yes. Vice mayor. Yes. Mayor Giuliani yes. And our final item of the night, which is item 14, designation of Acting City manager. And we have City Manager. Mr. Charles Rudd, who will go over the item. Thank you. Mayor. This item is just a continuation of the established acting and alternate city managers fill in my position. I've been they've been a pleasure working with them, and I have complete confidence in just signing reassigning them to that role. Thank you. Thank you, city Manager. Are there any public comments on this item? It are there any zoom comments? 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. Okay. Hearing none, the chair will entertain a motion to approve designation of Acting City Manager. So moved. Second, there are no further comments or discussion. City clerk roll cal, please. Commissioner. Banther. Yes, Commissioner DiDonato. Yes. Commissioner. Eisner. Yes. Vice mayor Kalina. Yes. Mayor. Juliu. Yes, that concludes the regular session agenda. We will now go to board and staff comments. Staff comments. Police Chief Jeff young. Yes, sir. I would like to read this earlier, but I didn't get it in right after. Scott in public comments. But over the past few weeks, we've faced incredible challenges, witnessing firsthand the devastation caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, both on television and right here in our own community of Tarpon Springs. The destruction has been heartbreaking. While I feel fortunate that the impact of Hurricane Milton wasn't as severe as initially forecasted for our city, I'm deeply, deeply grateful to all the city staff who worked tirelessly at the EOC to our police, fire, public works, public services, planning, building I.T. And all the departments for their unwavering dedication before, during and after both storms. Your commitment and service has been invaluable. I also want to thank Senator Scott for his calls. He's called before and after the storm to check on the status of our city and what we needed. Senator Rubio's office called as well, Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna and her staff for their ongoing support. But one person that really stepped up and shined for me was State Representative Adam Anderson. I was getting calls from him, as well as from Ryan Quattlebaum up at the hospital. The power was out. Representative Anderson worked through the state EOC up there tirelessly to make sure that power was restored to the hospital. So Ryan and his people could get back to serving the community as quickly as possible. So I really wanted to thank him for that and also for bringing the fuel up to SPC. That was an effort that he worked directly with the governor on, making sure that that asset was up here for the residents to help ease the anxiety, just like Miss Taylor was talking about at the fuel pumps that everybody in the community was seeing and stuff. So I'm really appreciative of that as well. I want to just say, you know, thank you to the governor for getting resources down to our area quickly, as well as the state EOC, Pinellas County OC, to this Board of Commissioners and to our city Manager. Thank you for your support through all of this, because it doesn't go unnoticed by the staff that's in the EOC. When you have the support of everybody here as well as the community, our people inside the EOC and our especially for our troops out on the on the roads, public works crews and public services crews. Their homes were also flooded and they're devastated, but they're here serving. And that's a tough thing, as I heard some talking about when your family goes away but you're here, your mind might be someplace else, but your heart is here. And putting in the work. So it's very much appreciated by all of the directors and the departments. And I really appreciate hearing the citizens talk about that, because we're citizens, too, and people's hearts are broken because their own homes and seeing your homes and businesses devastated hurts. I really want to thank all those that stepped up after the storm to help. And that list is long. You hear about the funk and also world food challenge and stuff and others ones like that. But one thing that I didn't hear anybody talk about was the linemen from Duke Energy and all over the country that came down to Florida to get our power back on quickly, because without power, it's no fun being there, right? And especially in Florida. So to all those linemen and power companies that were coming down here from everywhere, thank you. And to all those crews and debris companies, even though it will never be quick enough for any of us, we appreciate the efforts that you all are doing for us to get our city, our county and our state back back up to where it needs to be, most importantly to the residents and business owners affected by these storms in Tarpon Springs, Pinellas County across Florida and beyond. Our thoughts and prayers are with you all. Thank you to those who heeded our evacuation warnings. Scott and I put something out ahead of Milton because we were very fearful what the impact of that storm was going to bring to us and what we were going to be looking at the next day. And I think that we didn't get as many calls for help during Milton as Scott and I were expecting, because people listened and evacuated. And I want you to pay attention when that comes out the next time, because they're getting a lot better at predicting where these storms are going to be going, even though it may not have hit us directly, it came pretty darn close to devastating our city. So please pay attention to those in the future, because remember, property can be rebuilt, but lives cannot. And thank you for your patience as we begin the long road to recovery. Together, we'll get through this. Together we are better and together we are. Tarpon Springs strong. And thank you very much. Thank you Chief. City Attorney Mr. Dickma, I have nothing to report, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, si. City clerk. Miss Jacobs, I have no comments. Thank you. Thank you ma'am. City manager, Mr. Rudd, just a couple things I want to mention. The taste of tarpon. They they just it feels important to put that event on. It'll help the restaurants that they have moved it to the 26th. Restaurants that are able are going to participate. Some of them are going to only be participating remotely in the downtown. But that doesn't affect city services. There's no road closures and so forth. So just changing the date. And I just want to mention it, was it was a privilege. And to work in the EOC with the staff. They did a fabulous job, very well trained and it was a great experience for me. And it wasn't what I was anticipating to be one of my first experiences in Tarpon Springs. But it was great. I was very, very impressed with the staff. Thank you. City Manager. Now we're going to go to commissioner comments. Commissioner Banther. Yes. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here tonight. Thank you for selecting me to be your, you know, substitute, if you will. You all have your hands full up here for sure. I look forward to helping you over the next five months. So thank you. Thank you, Commissioner DiDonato. I think I said most of mine earlier. I just am grateful that even though with what we've been through that we're all here and we're all encouraged to go forward. I hope that all of us do. I realize there may be some that do not, but let's reach out and help one another. And just my hat's off to staff. I can't express enough to you guys. And of course we got to talk about the linemen. They they did a heck of a job, actually. They were out there when the storm was still kind of roaring at us. I mean, it passed, but it was still roaring and they were there as well as our crews from the city also. So I'm just grateful and ask us to continue to all work together. Thank you. Commissioner. Commissioner Eisner, thank you mayor. So most of what I spoke about earlier is I'll second what I said, but I also want to just let the residents know that the board, the staff, the police, the fire, everybody is here to try to help you reach out, make a call. If you don't get one of us, you can get another one of us, and we'll try to see if we can guide you through this maze of a mess. My house was affected as well. I had 20in. My house is a mess and so I know what you're going through. I've been through this quite before, quite many times before. It's a sad time and sometimes you just have to sit down, take a breath, do a little meditating. Better days are ahead. Tarpon will recuperate, and if you need anything from this board or from the staff, please feel free to give us a call. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Eisner. Vice Mayor Koulianos. Yes, I want to thank just the same, the staff, you know, the residents and welcome Commissioner Banter. I'm I'm excited to be able to work with you having this experienced team up here. I feel good about the hands the that the city is in and our new city manager, you know, you you came in at the worst time, but you also saw the best of tarpon because you saw us at our at our toughest. Everyone working together, you know, again, it's hard to, you know, tell people to have patience. But I think the majority of our residents do and they understand and, you know, we'll get through this. But then, you know, it's exhausting. These three weeks have been, you know, emotional things exhaust you more than physical things. So it has been exhausting. I'm sure every one of us are just tired, but we're going to, you know, get our sleep in and get back to work. But we have to be resolute on attacking these issues, these really important issues, to make sure our city has viability going into the future, like the chief Fire Chief Young said. You know, that hurricane 50 miles over this way and we are in. We're not talking like we are right now. It we would be decimated. So God was with us. Whether it's the prayers of our Saint Nicholas or whatever, whatever it is we've been, we were extremely, extremely fortunate. But we can't count on that fortune forever. We have to prepare. And but that's going to be our job and our our real challenge. So thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I just want to thank the state and Pinellas EOC as well as the Tarpon EOC. They're like they're like their own little army and platoon the way the way they got you know, the way they operate, the way they look out for people. They they don't sleep for days straight. So I just commend them and all their hard work. City manager, welcome to the fray. Yeah. You've done a great job coming in, sir. He's out and about and I just appreciate his hard work. I'm interested in potentially talking about a storm pay increase or as well as bringing up a stipend pay as commissioner Banther brought up. I want to look out after these emergency personnel or storm pay workers. I think there's areas to improve with their compensation as well as we're doing everything we can to try to get all the resources to the residents in every different facet from how to process insurance claims to helping expedite your FEMA applications, as well as reaching out to other organizations within Pinellas County that can help you at a at a discounted rate, if not free for, you know, some things ranging from trees falling or to some other work and so we're doing our best to try to share all the information as well as just being consistent and sharing the information. We talked heavily about the debris issue where there's, you know, we're ahead of the schedule, we're ahead of we're ahead of it. But we understand that stuff's going to take time. We you know, we've challenged the staff, you know, and so they've responded every bit of the way you know we have our concerns but they're minor compared to other nearby cities. And you know other organizations. And I'll tell you, the Pinellas EOC has our back. We need to reach out to them. They will provide for us. And so it's a it's a great thing to see that as far as events opening up, I'm, I'm excited to see we're going to have that first Friday here coming up this Friday as well as with the city manager. City manager talks about October 26. We got open in the city, back up. We got to have some normalcy in what we are as a community. And you know, at some point I'm looking to have some events down at the sponge docks too. I know not, you know, not right away, but as stores, hopefully do open up or some type of way for the winter and busy part of the season for them, we can help maybe, you know, bring an event or two to let them know businesses open in the sponge docks, you know. So something to consider. So thank you all. There are no further comments. This concludes the regular session meeting. Meeting adjourned at 911.