##VIDEO ID:BBV1eonCB8A## e hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey it's good to see so many of you here Chief how are you sir good so if you uh would please remember to silence your electronic device and please stand and join me in the invocation and pledge Lord we ask your blessings upon our country during this divisive election season help us all to remember that a government of the people and by the people inherently involves debate and disagreement help us also to recognize that hatred and violence has no place in American politics and that as Americans we should all be United in condemning it despite our differences let us all remember that we are Americans and despite our imperfections our nation is the greatest experiment and Democratic freedom in the history of the world amen amen to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all right so I think everybody's catching on to this but we uh have a little tradition in Temple Parish where we start every meeting with uh a fun or historical fact involving our city or the area and tonight that Duty falls on council member schisler thank thank you Mr Mayor um my historical fact for the week for this week I wanted to do a comparison of our current budget which we're working on now back to one in the past so I decided to go back to 1980 nice 45 years ago my daughter was born that year and all kinds of stuff anyway so looking in there I I went back and I found the Temple Terrace Beacon for September of 1980 and back at that point the mayor was JL Richards city council was comprised of Bill hammondre Frank Ferrari Fred wizen Hut Charles Hollis and Bob Owen a lot lot of us knew many of those individuals the city manager was Joel koford koford I don't remember him but uh regardless former County Commissioner huh he was a former County oh was he really okay okay okay um just some interesting numbers the 1980 general fund budget was 2.4 million 2.7 million our budget that we're working on now is $45 million Personnel cost within that budget was 1.8 million our Personnel costs are 29.7 million comparatively speaking and capital spending we spent $105,000 that year in the budget this year just in general fund is not kind of anything else 7 almost $7.8 million our total budget back then now this this this doesn't add up that way because you have utility funds and so forth was 4.4 million our total is over one almost 101 million um the tax rate for s for 1979 was 5.29 n the proposed and the finally approved rate was 7.10 that was a 34% increase year-over-year um now I'm I'm not sure exactly how it happened but there was a there was a a discussion that went back and forth with with the the where the citizens were going to have to approve something along those lines because it was such a big increase I guess I'm not sure what the details were but the city manager was quoted saying it's going to be the citizens who are going to feel the effects if they want a reduction in Services because they don't want to pay the tax money fine they exactly what they exactly what they ask for no more no less so it's pretty pretty it was pretty dicey I've gu during those meetings back then I'm glad I wasn't there so I decided I want to take a look at some of the other things that were going on in in in in September of 1980 uh in other news and I'm this is 1980 it's not now the housing shortage uh newly WS might have to move back home because before they can until they can afford a new house go back and live with Mom and Dad this is covering uh single family as well as multif family opportunities there just wasn't enough housing to go around for everybody and the new construction just comparatively speaking 1963 was $188,000 and 1976 it was 40 44,800 78 it was 55600 and 79 it was 60,000 last year is is 340,000 in our area for now inflation was running at a double digit pace and the interest rates were at 11 to 12% so things changed but they don't really change if if all up and down other things in the news Fatman's barbecue luptons had announced that they were expanding to a second location on 30th Street near fer Avenue um this would expand the Enterprise to two restaurant locations and a 50 acre location of PL City they had over 180 employees back then um fet and everybody here went I'm sure the the longers had gone to Cafe Don Jose one time and the Seabass alusa which is one of their favorite uh signature dishes was only $5.25 um another another uh uh uh critical fact that was going on was the rate of loss of prime Farmland in Florida was so bad that we could virtually lose all Florida Farmland by the year 2000 keep that in the back of your minds then we had some elections and the recent elections created a runoff for October 8th for the B CC board County Commissioners two people that were up for election were Fred Anderson experienced ability and integrity and Joe catus of people's choice as a as a noted to that for the people who are relatively new to the area these men were successful in getting elected to the bccc however a few years later they ended up going to prison on corruption charges uh due to resulting from zoning bribes along with two other Commissioners we used to have five County Commissioners and it was ended up with one and one FBI R so he made it to seven and then last but not least buried on page 20 between student achievements and the Florida land report which I already talked about was Beth a Taylor and James Chambers Jr were married on August 16th at Temple ter Presbyterian Church the bride is the daughter of Mr and Mrs spafford Taylor She's employed at Foster Elementary the bridegroom is a son of Mr Mrs James Chambers senior he has employed at the Temple Terrace Recreation Department and after honeymoon to the east coast a couple will resid in Temple tff and we're glad they did and that is me that's my report for today very good thank you thank you Gil that was really excellent so an interesting thing I was talking to somebody recently and they were talking about the land boom of the 1920s in Florida and how the the land boom in the 2020s in Florida is kind of there's a lot of parallels between the 1920s and the 2020s in the 2020s is when Davis Island was dredged up the causeway was built there was this huge expansion um people buying up Florida real estate and I I can't for the life of me figure out why with the mosquitoes and no air conditioning and but that was good job thank you so our next uh item is employee of the month for August and so um for those of you watching we have uh well Carlos you want to explain you've recently kind of made some changes to our employee recognition uh so thank you Mr Mayor members of council good evening um so this is actually largely the work of of our employees and and Genie Barlo and the and the employee team uh really trying to recognize the great work done by our general employees not to leave out our our our police and fire they're they're excellent but they have their own recognition programs so we wanted to make sure that the whole team had an opportunity to kind of shine here and be recognized before the council and the public so today will be the uh the first of hopefully a monthly tradition that we'll have before you where we uh we basically present uh to the community someone who's really stood out in that last 30-day period so uh today will be Cheryl's day and I'll leave the rest to you very good thank you Mr B so Mrs shingleton would you like to approach please got to walk the gauntlet here good to see you Cheryl how are you you too good doing good sir so over the past two years Commander Cheryl shingleton has led the charge on implementing the city's new Pro Phoenix CAD system that's CAD computer aided dispatch that's the program that used in the 911 Center to dispatch our police and fire uh which has been a real game changer for both the police and the fire department uh she's put in countless hours including late nights and weekends to make sure everything went smoothly and her dedication has paid off immensely thanks to Commander shingleton's hard work the police and fire departments are now running more efficiently saving both time and money the new system has really improved operations making it easier for our departments to serve the community effectively despite managing this huge project Commander shingleton continued to oversee the communications unit and the records division without missing a beat her work ethic and commitment are truly inspiring for all of us Commander shingleton has not only made a significant impact on police and fire operations but also has brought credit to the City by showcasing tring how committed we are to Innovation and efficiency her efforts have made a lasting difference in the city's ability to keep the community safe and well served we are very proud to recognize Commander shingleton as the August Employee of the Month Cheryl would you like to say a few words I'm short on words when it comes to this I'm not a public speaker um put me behind a desk tell me to do my job you got it 110% um I'm very much appreciative um it's it's it's an honor very much and I think it's a great program um I I hope it lasts I hope others continue to strive um my worst day I give 100% my best days is I try and give 110% and I think that's all that anybody can ask um other than that again it's very much appreciated and and I will do so until 30 years what I promise you Chief two more years I'm okay until Chief is gone then after that I can kind of cut loose and leave but otherwise thank you so much well you're welcome and you've been with us for a while and you've served a city in several capacities and you've always your reputation is Stellar in your performance that you you're regular always a high performer and and always has been so thank you I appreciate it Chiefs would you like to join me all right three two one thank you okay our next issue our next topic is a proclamation for missing children's day and I don't believe the person who is going to receive that is here but since it's on the agenda we'll go and read it into the record and we will send it to them uh whereas the second Monday of September is Florida missing children's day and this day is dedicated to raising awareness about missing children in Florida particularly those missing due to family abduction whereas family abductions impact numerous families Across the Nation causing significant emotional and psychological trauma to both the child and the Left Behind family September provides a crucial opportunity to support National efforts to reduce family abductions reunite missing children children with their families and honor those committed to this cause Temple Terrace is committed to remaining Vigilant and informed about the dangers facing children in our community recognizing that family abduction is a serious crime in all states I Andy Ross by virtue of the authority vested in me as mayor of the city of Temple terrce Florida do hereby set aside September 9th 2024 as Florida missing children's day so we will get that in the mail to them next is is appointment to our library board and I'm going to pass the gavel we're going to try to do something a little different here we're going to pass the gavel and let council member Chambers since this is one of his boards um handle this issue thank you mayor all right mayor vice mayor and councel um one regular member vacancy on the Temple Terrace library board the city received an application from Mrs Carol Mrs Dell's term will be expiring September 21st this year um I think she needs to speak if you wouldd like to speak Mrs Dell sure always thought so we need to set the timer well I do love the library and I think it's one of the best assets we have in our community and I've enjoyed being on the library board for I don't know a while I don't know if y'all know this but the library board has no uh limits to how many times you can run for the board that might be the only one that you can't term out of you can just go on and on and on until somebody decides to challenge you so evidently nobody's challenging me so I would be grateful for another term on the library board thank you hey thank you Al also miss Dell is our uh chairman of the library board so maybe she'll be revoted for that I don't know so if uh any questions or comments I could I get a motion to approve Mrs Dell to the library board move to appoint Carol Dell to the uh Library board uh effective 92224 till term expires in 27 second okay we have a motion and a second all those in favor say I I opposed okay motion carries thank you very much congratulations congratulations thank you thank you very much council member Chambers I'm taking mavl back so has everybody had an opportunity to review the September 3rd council meeting minutes and if so is there a motion to approve second any discussion or corrections to the minutes none all those in favor signify with i i i opposed no Nays minutes are adopted next are persons wishing to be heard on items not listed on the agenda or items on the consent agenda there are requests to speak forms in the back of the room and should be filled out and handed to the city clerk to my left um there is a 3-minute time limit in post on all comments from the public and we do ask that speakers come to the podium and begin by stating their name and city of residence we have two familiar people that are very familiar with the rules already but I have to read that so the first person signed up to speak is Mr lobe good evening Mr L good evening everybody my name is Charles Terrace Park tonight I want to talk strictly about announcements of things going on in Temple Terrace some that are on your buing board and some that are not first of course and most obviously is the one coming up on Friday which is the uh Senior Expo between 9 and 12 uh one thing that is not on the flyer on that I was talking to Chief about this is the brown bag with a badge program are you supposed to bring your own food and the board said that it's supposed to be from from 11:15 to 12:00 however the chief advisor you get there a little earlier and the idea is that if you want to talk to police about to the police about about police issues I guess or whatever that you would be have a chance to talk to them over at the Senior Expo now the Senior Expo itself you know has been going on now for 35 years and um I think I think it speaks for itself uh next week on Saturday September 28th there's going to be a collection of food at the library by the Women's Club I was trying to find out if it's the same thing uh that the police department going to the same place I have not been able to do that but if anybody has food and things to donate over at the library the Women's Club will be picking him up on SE on Saturday September 28th but it did not say when exactly I would assume the next meeting would be on October 1st Tuesday October 1st now on your thing it's National Night Out which is the Temple Terrace at the T Temple Terrace family Recreation Center at 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. and that is a very nice event too I've been to that before when it was over at the Mission Hills Church and it's really a lot of fun if you can get over there I even thought about the idea that maybe you might want to do something a little bit different but I'm not sure if you can do it technologically or not but hold the meeting over there so you all can participate and finally uh I saw something in the um uh TBT called The Temple Terrace Uptown chamber of Congress meeting it does say that you need a um uh a ticket but it's a free ticket and it's for a business expo and that's Tuesday October 8th at 4 P.M over University Mall this is as much as I know about it but if anybody is interested in that it's not on your bold and board and all that and it's actually outside the city limits but anyway it's supposed to be done by the Temple Terrace uptown Town Chamber of Commerce so if you're all interested in some things to give or anybody in the audiences too thank you all and good evening thank you Mr lobe um Ellen Snelling good evening Ellen good evening Ellen Snelling 521 Lantern Circle here to talk about politics um I did see also on the Bolton board that I think it's October 2nd that at the um oh now I'm drawing a blank but um there's going to be a a conference or where you can get to know all the candidates and um so I hope everybody goes to that so I just wanted to remind everybody to get out to vote um starting in October which is right around the corner we're going to get the mailin votes are going to be coming out ballots to our house as well as early voting so I specifically wanted to talk to you about Amendment Three um I personally am opposed to Amendment Three that is the amendment that would legalize recreational marijuana in the State of Florida and I just wanted to tell you there's several other actually important people who are opposed to it such as the governor uh Senator Danny Burgess Senator Rick Scott uh Congressman Matt Gates and attorney general Ashley Moody and also there's organizations such as the Florida Baptist convention the Florida Convention of Catholic Bishops the Florida sheriff's Association and many more so there must be something that gets you thinking like why are these all these groups um and people opposed to it um so these are some of my concerns number one the right to smoke marijuana should not be in our constitution um I think we have to be very careful with Constitutional Amendments and even voting anything into the Constitution you have to just educate yourself very carefully on uh marijuana is illegal at the federal level so our state would be taking a risk by legalizing it there's no time place or manner restrictions placed in here so actually public smoking is allowed in the Constitution and you'll hear the other side say oh well we'll pass a law and make it illegal once something's in the Constitution it's very hard to regulate it because first thing that happens lawsuits um Amendment Three allows three ounces of marijuana possession that's 85 grams that is the highest in the entire country California allows 1 ounce of personal possession in their legalized marijuana Amendment so do we want to be the state that allows the most in the whole country do we want to attract people to our state and be known as you know the pot capital of United States I I don't um the marijuana industry is granted criminal and civil immunity in the amendment language so if you read the summary it actually sounds not so bad you might say oh it doesn't sound too bad I'll vote for it but you need to read the entire four pages and then you'll find out some of these loopholes a big concern that I have is that there's one medical marijuana company that has put this is hard to believe $90 million into the campaign and you may wonder why would one company put almost the entire amount of funding into passing this well first of all they help write it they're doing they got the um surveys and then now they're is that my time okay anyway so just ask questions educate yourself before you go to the polls thank you thank you Mrs sming all right uh is there a motion to approve the consent agenda I move to approve the consent agenda second motion and a second all those in favor say I I opposed no n consent agenda is approved next is a resolution approving a 5% increase in monthly rates for City Water Irrigation and Wastewater services and our finance director Jim Ingram who's been getting a lot of stage time these days is back up to explain thank you Mr Mayor City Council after a review of the city's ordinance and customer customer rates and fees the city staff recommends a rate increase of 5% in water irrigation and Wastewater re rates and fees effective October 1st 2024 effective with the billing cycle on or after October 1st 2024 the water irrigation and Wastewater rates would be as follows for water increase the base monthly water charge from $349 to $366 increase the per water meter monthly charge this is for the standard residential that's a 5/8 in meter um from $418 to4 439 per month increase the water consumption rate from $236 to $248 per th000 gallons up to 8,000 gallons that's actually um 8,000 gallons divided by 1 we we do it in increments of so if you're uh if you use 8,000 gallons it would be 8 times $248 just want to make sure that's that's clear um over 8,000 gallons which we call discretionary use it's um from $394 per thousand gallons to $414 per thousand gallons for irrigation we would increase the base monthly irrigation charge from a173 to a182 we would increase the per irrigation meter monthly charge from $418 to $4.39 per month for commercial only there will continue to be no charge for residential irrigation meters um I think we're that's very uncommon but we will continue to uh not charge separately for the irrigation meters increased the irrigation consumption rate from $238 to $2.50 per thousand gallons up to 8,000 gallons over 8,000 gallons would go from $397 per th000 gallons to $417 per Gall gallons on Wastewater we would increase the base monthly Wastewater charge from $418 to $4.39 uh there are no separate meters for Wastewater so there's no Wastewater meter charge increase the Wastewater consumption rate from $142 to $111.99 per th000 gallons and there's no jump in the rate over 8,000 gallons in the case of Wastewater usage a full list of the city of the proposed in City rates is included in exhibit one and uh if you want to get a full list and you do not have one you can call Utility Billing you can call the finance office we will be glad to provide that for you uh if passed and approved then the rates will certainly uh be on our website by October 1 an average water irrigation and Wastewater monthly bill for residential customers based on 6,000 gallons water and wastewater use per month and 3,000 gallons of irrigation use per month would be $13.34 currently with the new proposed rates it would be $18.52 so basically if your current bill is under $100 which I know a lot of people are under $1100 a month your increase would be less than $5 a month if um we could pull up the slide now I want to show some some uh differences in uh our comparisons in rates between uh some of our major players here Tampa and Plant City you can see there's uh it's it's kind of all over the board as far as the variations uh some have higher base fees some have lower usage fees I can tell you that Tampa um the base fee for water Wastewater those uh those are all going up a dollar or $12 annually a dollar each for each month of the year will be um it's a $12 annual rate it's not a percentage uh as you can see the on the water we are in the middle between Tampa and Plant City in Wastewater we are uh unfortunately the highest a lot of that is driven from what we Char are charged from Tampa as well as our um just in general Wastewater and water both are driven by our need to replace the infrastructure irrigation we are the lowest again we have no meter charge for irrigation and we are significantly lower on the monthly base fee uh a little bit higher than Tampa on the usage and uh less than Plant City these are based on proposed rates for 2025 the thing uh it is hard to put all these together and compare apples apples I I would encourage anyone to that's interested to look at the websites of the individual cities because there are each local government has a different way of doing their utility rates for instance just an example where we have a structure of a per for water a per usage cost based on 0 to 8,000 gallons and then 8,000 there's and over there's a different charge Tampa has about four at least four different tiers of increasingly higher rates the higher you go in the consumption so it's just something interesting to look at if especially if you're a higher use user of water or irrigation we do um we threw up the uh on the on the list thorm water assessments because that is a fee it's not a usage fee but it is something uh most I think Tampa does it bills it annually but it comes out to $14.30 a month uh it's a combination of a couple of storm water assessments plant city has one that is scheduled to go up to $9.52 so if you put them all together based on uh 5,000 gallons a month should have used 6,000 like in my early example but uh this is based on 5,000 gallons of uh water per month and 3,000 gallons of irrigation and as you can see Temple Terrace if you add in the storm water assessment charge we're actually lower uh than even Plant City if you take out the storm water assessment we're slightly still slightly lower than Tampa let's see me go to the next slide see if I can do this right there you go thank you oh back thanks and this just shows you some of the rate increases that have been proposed for Effective October 1st 2024 as you can see we're 5% across the board water Wastewater irrigation uh Tampa is 11% they have a a program currently in place because of their aging INF infrastructure which is driving up their their rates uh plant city is at 3% across the board again the base fees Tampa all of their base fees are going up $112 a year Wastewater which does affect us because we get Wastewater from Tampa is uh increasing by 3% all in all our 5% is is the rationale is not only we have to keep up with the city of Tampa's charges that we have no control over but we have aging infrastructure as well as most communities across the United States are are dealing with fortunately we don't foresee 11% or a double digit percent but 5% is what we propose to keep us at a 25% of our fund balance to operating expenditures that is a standard that the uh governmental Finance Officers Association recommends that is what we try to attain to so that we are covered for emergency expenditures which do happen unfortunately with these systems so I will end it there and I will stand for any questions you might have thank you Mr Ingram are there members of the public who wish to comment on this item if not council members are there questions for Mr Ingram council member Fernandez so I just want to uh make sure that we're very clear about this in years past the city did not uh keep up with the rising prices that we were being charged from the city of Tampa for wastewater treatment and so now we've tried to be consistent with the increases because in the past we did have a large increase is this 5% increase part of that basically that schedule of increase that we've been anticipating and is what's we plan the budget around yes it is and uh for where does Plant City have their Wastewater treated are they also with Tampa I do not know that I they own treat they're they have their own own system I just I just wondered if for our purposes the city of Tampa was our only choice with wastewater treatment I know it's cost prohibitive at this point to build our own but I'm talking about other other okay so um that's a Mr tinch Question so I just I mean and obviously I know this but it's more for the public to know that we have researched and we do our best to keep the costs where they are as reasonable as they can be this is an area that we don't have control over this because we have at this point no other option for treating our Wastewater um but I do want to make sure that this increase that we're that we are proposing is part of that schedule of increase that we talked about a few years ago to maintain some consistency and not um have people facing a very high increase at one time so that's it that's correct um if you read T city of Tampa's literature which you can go to their website and learn about their pipes program to improve their infrastructure they uh they say essentially the same thing that they went for years without raising and now they're they're playing catchup other questions from Mr Ingram thank you very much Mr Ingram is there a motion move to approve resolution of 5% increase in monthly rates for the city water irrigation and Wastewater Services effective October 1st 2024 second motion to Second discussion of motion I I do want to add just a real quick comment on this and um as council member Fernandez and Mr Ingram already alluded to much of these increases over the past couple of years have been driven by the increases that we have been have to pay the city of Tampa to treat our Wastewater and I've had several conversations with mayor Caster over this issue trying to plead with her as a dissatisfied customer so to speak but um and Mr Ingram alluded to their their infrastructure enhancements are really what's driving a lot of their increases a lot of their infrastructure is aging they are trying to get to um ways of um discharging less affluent into the bay U they're also concerned about on the other side of the bay over in pelis there's been several in recent years spills that have gone into the Bay of just RW sewage untreated um that's not happened here and they're working very hard to prevent that kind of thing from so um hopefully we can get to the point where our increases are maybe more predictable but we've made up lost ground so that they're smaller each year so that's what we're hoping to accomplish so okay all those in favor signify with i i i opposed no Nays resolution is adopted next is uh unpleasant also this one's a resolution approving a 5% increase in monthly rates for City collection and disposal of solid waste and recyclables our finance director Jim Ingram will explain thank you Mr Mayor after review of rising Solid Waste Disposal cost customer rates and fees in the city's ordinance staff City staff recommends a rate increase of 5% in the monthly rates for the city collection and dispos osal of solid waste and recyclable service effective October 1st 2024 this increase will allow the city to do the following keep services at the current level of twice weekly service for trash once weekly for yard waste and recycling and one free annual pickup replace aging sanitation vehicles that incur costly maintenance and repairs keep up with increasing tipping fees imposed by the county while exploring cost saving Alternatives effective with the billing cycle honor after October 1st 20124 the monthly the monthly rates for City collection and disposal of solid waste and recyclable service would be as follows increase the curbside collection rate from $33.66 to $35. 35 per month increase the qualifying senior exemption residential curbside collection rate from $21 48 a month to $22 55 per month increased the commercial dumpster service monthly charges to a range of $82 80 for a 2 cubic yard dumpster with one weekly collection to $1,427 for an 8 cubic yard dumpster with five collections per week so there's a big a big span there different options if you're a commercial entity of how big of a dumpster and the frequency that you would like it picked up they would continue to provide one free annual pickup as I mentioned for Hard to Handle items and materials certain restrictions do apply additional pickups for yard waste debris will increase from $92 to $96.60 per 15minute increments additional pickups for nyard waist debris will increase from $11.20 to $6 $16.80 per 15minute increments a full list of these proposed new rates is included in exhibit one uh again we are happy to provide anyone calling the finance department utility billing department and I believe in public works can provide this new rate proposed rate schedule uh to you and if we could go back to the slide just one slide for solid waste um we just simply put on here this is the proposed residential rates effective October one uh that goes on your monthly utility bill ours our increase will be $ 35.3 that's 5% again Tampa is uh their proposing a 99.5% increase uh going up to $38.25 uh they actually have a a schedule going out for years on this uh Plant City uh they're increasing everything by 3% and so theirs Remains the lowest at $298 and I will stand for any questions you might have thank you Mr Ingram other members of the public who wish to comment on this not council member questions for Mr Ingram council member Fernandez um I have the same question that I had for the water increases and that is that this is what our anticipated increase based on making sure that the fund stays uh healthy and solvent and will take care of covering the increase in tipping fees that we get every year yes I I will say that with the uh the uh added um part that the county is is continuing to uh hit us with big increases um Mr warfels our Public Works director has been trying to find some Alternatives that has helped so that we're not 100% dependent on the county if we were this increase unfortunately might be more this is a less lesser increase than last year um because our our sanitation fund has made a very good turnaround we're hoping we're projecting for the next few years that it will even be less than 5% of increases even keeping up with the county however it's a good question because that's always the Wild Card the county we are subject to the Tipping fees that the County charges us but again we we are looking at Alternatives we have done some cost-saving measures so we think we're we're in a good spot right now so just I just want to this is I know we talked about this when we did the budget um through that process but I just want to make sure people are aware do we have a schedule of anticipated increases from the county for tipping fees or is it just every year is a new is a surprise when it comes to tipping fees from the county and Jason you can correct me if I'm wrong but as far as my experience it's there's no schedule it's random they just decide this is what you're going to pay so we can't anticipate that that's that's all I have other questions council members thank you very much Mr Ingam is there a motion uh move to approve the resolution of a 5% increase in monthly rates for City collection and disposal of solid waste and recyclable services second motion second discussion of the motion again just a real quick comment Mr Ingam said it very well but I on this item I have also spoken many times with uh the County Administrator Bonnie wise about this I've also talked to their um Public Works director about it directly also um and told her that uh this unexpectedness of their um is is killing us and so um I have I don't know if it will have any impact I don't think they're I I do think they care about us but I I don't think they're doing it on purpose I think they've got a lot of squeezing of the balloon going on over there too and so um but I have asked them to try to you know they're they're raising money for infrastructure to do work on the incinerator and so um it seems like that should be a little more predictable than it is um so we'll see the other thing is is I do want the public to understand that for our Solid Waste bill as you know we gave everybody 995 gallon barrels a couple of years ago and we still pick those 95 gallon barrels up at your home twice a week and most cities that have gone to the barrel system of that size pick that up once a week and so I I hear from our residents at least the ones that I talk to that they don't want a reduction in service we could potentially pick those barrels up once a week and realize a savings and what it cost us to do this um but I don't think that's what people in this city want they want that picked up twice a week so that's something to remember and some of the cities or peer cities that we show as compar as comparators they pick those barrels up once a week so it's really not apples and apples they're paying what they're paying and they're getting once a week service our our residents are getting twice a week Service Plus yard waste plus recycling so they're getting touched four times a week so um as they said in 1980 if you want a reduction in service you know you but if you want the same service it's going to it cost in today's world it just costs so okay all those in favor say I I I opposed no Nays resolution unfortunately necessary but it passes so thank you next is a second public hearing and second reading for ordinance 1570 adopting the fiscal year 2025 tax levy I will open the public hearing and Mr Ingram who is getting his workout tonight is here to explain all right get to the right page in accordance with the applicable provisions of the city Charter and the Florida Statutes the city council scheduled two public hearings on the property tax millage Levy the first hearing was held on September 3rd 2024 to solicit public comments on the proposed property tax millage Levy prior to the adoption of the annual budget for the 25 2025 fiscal year the agenda has been structured to provide the council with the opportunity to comply with both City Charter and Florida statutory requirements on the budget and tax levy the council convened a public hearing on the proposed property tax millage Levy and made announcements at the public hearing prior to formal consideration of the attached ordinance the recommended city of Temple Terrace Florida property tax millage rate for fiscal year 2025 is 6455 per $11,000 of assessed value which is the identical Mill from the current fiscal year millage rate of 6.45 the recommended property tax millage rate of 6.45 is 3663 Ms or 6.02% higher than the roll back rate of 6.088 7 the main reasons for ADV valorum tax revenues increasing are a proposed 4% cost of living adjustment to General employees and a 2% Merit pay increase upon a successful performance evaluation funding for the first year of a new three-year fire unit Union contract funding for the second year of a three-year police Union contract 24% increase in general liability insurance 31% increase in property insurance 12% increase in auto insurance and a 12% increase in health insurance an additional $52,000 in comp client efficiency and organizational security improvements overall 4% increase in operational costs to maintain funding of current services and programs I will also add that there have been some cost reductions uh a six mainly a 6% decrease in building maintenance through consolidation and inhouse use through our public works department the maximum millage rate allowed to adopt the rate with a majority vote is 64351 the maximum millage rate allowed to adopt the rate with a 23 vote is 7.78 therefore a 2/3 affirmative vote of council is required to adopt the proposed millage rate of 6455 in our case that would be 4 out of five and uh I will stand for any questions you may have thank you Mr Ingram are there members of the public who wish to comment on this item seeing none Council are there any questions for Mr Ingram we talked about the budget so much this year it's hard be hard to have any lingering questions at at this point I suppose but uh if there are no questions then I will close the public hearing and ask the clerk to read the title of the ordinance an ordinance of the city of Temple Terrace Florida adopting a millage rate of 4 6.45 five Mills for fiscal year 2025 said millage rate being 3663 Ms or 6.02% more than the roll back rate of 6.08 77 Ms providing a cability clause in providing an effective date thank you madam clerk is there a motion I move to approve ordinance 1570 adopting the fiscal year 2025 tax levy upon second reading second motion second discussion of the motion all those in favor say I oh roll call oh I'm sorry thank you very much yes M Shon would you please call the rooll um council member Fernandez yes council member Chambers yes mayor Ross Yes council member schisler yes council member Abel yes thank you and the ordinance passes on second reading thank you next is second public hearing and second reading of ordinance 1571 adopting the fiscal year 2025 annual budget I'll open the public hearing and ask Mr Ingram to explain the proposed 2025 city of Temple Terrace budget reflects the following the millage rate of 6.45 has not changed from last year's millage rate a 5% increase in single family residential and Commercial sanitation rates beginning in October 1st 2024 that includes um $700,000 to replace two severely aging sanitation trucks five % increase in water sewer and irrigation rates beginning October 1st 2024 for reasons already stated as well as $ 4,855 500 in water and sewer infrastructure improvements including $2 million for phase one of the banic burn Downs Avenue water main construction 7 mil7 $166,200 in capital projects using unassigned general fund balance and other general fund reserves and that's an important point because because we're using reserves from savings that we built up this does not affect our millage rate it does not go into um otherwise the mill TR would probably have to be higher to pay for these among these projects are the Riverside Park construction $3 million with an additional $400,000 from Tiff reserves the city obligation for a new City Emergency Operations Center that's $1.5 million with a $4.5 million Grant from the state that was included in the fiscal year 24 budget a public safety complex conceptual design $200,000 family Recreation Center service road paving and curbing project for 750,000 and a new enterprise resource planning system for $2 million an additional 2, 36,27023 investment tax fund expenditures to include replacing Public Safety vehicles and Equipment improvements for fire stations 1 and two City Hall and build Public Works building Renovations and Community parks and recreation facility improvements another 1.5 million in structural resurfacing projects 725 ,000 in Street Improvement fund trucks $825,000 in arpa funded storm water construction projects which will be the last of the the arpa money along with the money we've already appropriated for the white way utility service center um $250,000 in non arpa funded storm water projects 100,000 for the Centennial Celebration uh 40,000 is from funds we have already restricted for that and 60,000 from the unassigned fund balance using again using our Reserves $187,700 building fees study software installation and network security 4% Cola salary increase for General employees and 2% Merit pay increase upon a successful performance evaluation and finally a Citywide increase of 2.75 FTE and I will stand for any questions questions thank you Mr Ingram other members of the public who wish to comment on this item seeing none council member questions for Mr Ingram concerning the budget okay very good a question sorry I have a comment not a question very good I'll get you first that's right okay I'll close the public hearing and ask the clerk to read the title of the ordinance an ordinance of the city of Temple terrorist Florida adopting the final operating budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1 2024 and ending September 30th 2025 and the capital Improvement budget given notice of the public hearings thereon authorizing the city manager to issue such instructions as are necessary to achieve and accomplish the service programs authorizing the city manager or the finance director to transfer monies among the Departments and programs within any fund authorizing the city manager or the finance director upon receipt of a donation or Grant to appropriate said funds in the expenditure line line item of the program as requested by the donor granter providing a severability clause effective date and repealing all ordinances or parts of ordinances in Conflict here with thank you madam clerk is there a motion yeah move to approve on second reading ordinance 1571 adopting the fiscal year 2025 annual budget second motion a second thank you comments on the discussion of the motion and council member chestler yes uh thank you thank you Mr Mayor um my only comment was this is my ninth sixth official budget that I've been associated with but nine years working with the finance department on on on previous budgets and and uh you know we rattle aw a lot of numbers that makes it sound awful simple but this is a process that is very very complex and there's a lot of plates in the air to you guys come up with a final number um and it's just it's just amazing that that uh you pull together and and the budgets work okay you know you can you can throw numbers around all day long but in the end when it's all said and done if the if the budgets can't be trusted it's all for not these budgets can be trusted and I have no problem in supporting this but comparatively speaking there was I was doing the research for the 1980 they were they they we're spending what a half a million dollars give or take on the Erp system there was a lot of nashing of teeth over $112,000 at this new fangled device that they were buying in finance called a computer they didn't have to use outside computer services so we've come a long way since then yes yes thank you other comments I just again I should probably shut up but I can't help it I I really want to thank the finance team and the city manager for all your work on this but I also want the public to understand that I'm equally proud of the council and and the previous councils going back at least to 2016 and since 2016 um in 2016 our debt was staggering we were um in the 20s at the high water mark we were close to $30 million in debt from the Redevelopment and in 2016 we had less than a million do in reserves and so since that time this is this is a big ship to turn this but in eight years um we now have a little over $10 million in debt uh and it's the remaining debts at 2.5 fix so the bank would love us to pay that off I'm sure but um we now have exceeded our Reserve goals to the point where we're funding some of our capital projects with cash um we've we've paid down the debt we've got cash on hand to do the capital projects we have in the same period of time lowered the millage rate twice right since 2016 um we lowered the millage rate during covid which I don't think anybody else did we are funding storm water projects all throughout the city some of it's with Federal money and some of it's with our money as you heard our Street Maintenance is outstanding I brag all the time about that um because we we simply we don't have potholes on city streets if we get a pothole we fix it and so um now we do have some State and County roads in our city that I can't always say they don't have potholes but but our roads don't have potholes um we have ued our pay um to be much more competitive in the market in this area uh our pay and benefits have improved and they continue to improve thanks to a lot of work from Carlos and and the new HR Director also um to our our turnover in employees is almost zero now I mean we get retirement once in a while but but we don't have the turnover like we used to have um in fact we're hiring people from other local governments are coming to work here now so you know our budget now as council member schisler alluded to is over $100 million now that's all included but this is not a sleepy little town anymore and this is it's not easy to keep all of these priorities in place and and we're actually moving forward we're not just keeping things going we are moving forward our infrastructure is better our we're our facilities are better our employees are better the I mean you guys ones that been here are good too but but I mean we've raised the bar on everything so I'm very proud of not just my colleagues up here but all the council members who have served in the past six to eight years uh some of them are gone now but um I think there's a lot of credit due to city manager to finance and and to my colleagues up here so um okay all those in favor the motion say I oh oh I'm sorry thank you uh would you please call a rooll council member Fernandez yes council member Chambers yes mayor Ross Yes council member schisler yes council member AEL yes thank you very good budget is adopted thank you next is a public hearing I bet you're glad to finally sit down next is a public hearing and second reading of ordinance 1572 amending chapter 18 of the city of Temple terce code of ordinances entitled parks recreation Leisure Services and cultural Affairs we had a good rhythm going and I'll open the public hearing and uh I gotta think now it's I'm used to calling Mr Ingram up here so Mr langfeld is here to explain good evening mayor members of city council I'm here tonight for the second reading of an ordinance amending chapter 18 of the code of ordinances uh this updates uh updates provide a clean up of park hours and add sections to to address camping drones golfing and animals uh this ordinance uh amending of this ordinance was passed in first reading on September 3rd city council meeting uh since then a minor change to 8 section 18- 41 to clarify uh prohibited uses of recreational vehicles and other vehicles intended for overnight camping was made to the uh to the ordinance um I will stand for any questions you may have thank you Mr langfield are there members of the public who wish to comment on this item and seeing none council member questions from Mr langfield no no okay good all right I will then close the public hearing and ask the clerk to read the title of the ordinance an ordinance of the city of Temple Terrace Florida amending chapter 18 of the city of Temple Terrace code of ordinances parks recreation Leisure Services and cultural Affairs under article two public conduct in parks by revising section 18-26 voting section 18-28 Games Etc section 18-33 times of closing except exceptions activity section 18-36 merchandising vending pedaling Etc section 18-39 alcoholic alcoholic beverages section 18- 41 camping creating section 1842 aircraft parachuting and drones creating section 18-43 golfing and creating section 18-44 animals providing for authority to codify providing for applicability and severability repealing all ordinances of parts of ordinances in Conflict here with and providing for an effective date thank you madam clerk is there a motion Mo to approve on second reading ordinance 1572 amending chapter 18 to City Temple terce code of ordinances entitled parks recreation Leisure Services and cultural Affairs second second uh discussion of the motion council member sh yeah I just wanted to make a a quick comment good job good job on this car but this is this is something that we've all looked at and campaigned on in the years past is looking at our ordinances fresh refreshing them bringing them up to current and we've seen an acceleration of this particularly since Carlos and and Pam working together and all the department heads and just want to say thank you this is this is the stuff that we wanted to get done and to to to bring some of these ordinance that haven't been touched in years so thank you very much it's a good job council members Chambers thank you uh this isn't a is kind of about this this is sorry this is not a historical fact but I had to say it Carl knows what I'm getting ready to say but we had a problem years ago about uh people hitting golf balls on the 113th soccer fields and in Bonnie Bray Park believe it or not and we had at that time the a dog issue a lot of people with their dogs running around so we had signs made and when the signs came back the signs that were put up the signs said uh no dogs hitting golf balls in the park so I just want to let you know those signs worked uh there were no dogs hitting golf balls in the park so this ordinance cleans up some of those things thank you very much Mr langfeld other comments other discussion of the motion if not all those in favor say I I I I opposed no Nays ordinance 1572 is adopted on second reading thank you Mr langfield next Council business we have one item scheduled for this and and that is the issue of Charter officer pay increases um as everybody should know um the employ the annual raises that apply to General employees do not necessarily apply to the three Charter employees who are all three under contract uh rather than just city employees and therefore we have to take uh specific action to vote whether to extend the same raises to the charter officers as the general employees or different raises or no raises um and we also need to discuss the timing of this because um the way we're giving the raises now is 4% on October 1st and then 2% upon a successful performance evaluation so last year we decided to do the apply that same rule for the three Charters um and give the 2% portion at upon their anniversary date I do want to point out and whichever way you want to do that we can do that same thing again um but one thing I would like to point out is we do treat the charter officer somewhat differently than the general employees because we do their performance evaluations all at the same time we don't do them on their anniversary dates we do them in August and so we do them in August in preparation for this discussion tonight because um we need to know how we feel about their performance before we discuss whether to give them raises or not so um there's one charter officer whose anniversary date is not until July and so that Charter officer gets 2% less for most of the year and I don't know if you want to do that or if you want to give them all so anyway we need two things done we need to decide what raises to give them and then how to structure it so I'll open that up for any motions or discussions or however you want to do it I want to talk about the structure okay and I know that I in the email we you alluded to the fact that I was probably on council at the time when we created this original structure of the timing of the 2% on the anniversary date and I honestly don't really remember the conversation around that but my thought is that the that 2% to me should be in alignment with the time that the that the evaluation is done versus so for um a traditional employee you should be doing their evaluation around their anniversary date therefore that uh Merit increase would coin inide with their anniversary so to me since we are not doing that because of the timing of when we do these evaluations I think that the if any Merit pay that would be awarded should be in alignment with when the evaluation is done and not the anniversary date of employment okay so I'm want to make sure I understand what you're saying though because two of the charter officers get these that would get the 2% they in October or November we wouldn't want to hold off giving that until August is that no I'm saying we just did the we did the evaluations right now okay so our so what to me what follows is then from that evaluation is when the any Merit pay if we were going to award it should be awarded based coming after that not waiting till the following August so it would take effect like October 1st is is would that that would be the structure that makes sense to me okay well let's see what others think council member Chambers I'm ready to make a motion is it okay with everybody were you ready for a motion I'm good with the motion a motion my motion is to U give the charter officers the same pay increase of 4% and 2% Merit increase um for this FIS coming fiscal year that's the first motion I'll second that motion second can so your motion you asked for two things I can make it all in one motion if you'd like would would you if would that be okay I mean you can make it however you want we have a motion in a second we need to talk the second I would prefer to keep them separate at this point for further discussions we have a motion of the amount four and two and we have a second is there discussion of this motion if not all those in favor say I I okay opposed no nay so we have the amount figured out no okay the second motion would be to award the 2% Merit increase uh when the valuations are done not on the anniversary date the evaluations are done now effective October 1 a second motion and a second is there discussion of this motion yes a discussion I have a well go ahead you made the motion you can go first okay well you know last year when we talked about this with the regular employees I voiced concern that some employees would get their rate 2% raises early in the year and some would wait till late later and that's what happened to our city clerk and I thought about this all week but I can support uh this for the city clerk since her evaluation or her anniversary dates later because we give it at their evaluation which for regular employees coincides with their anniversary date this does not we evaluate all of them in the same time so I can certainly support that is why I made the motion vice mayor I have a question so we did evaluations two weeks ago or last month and are we talking about doing that 2% like retro to that time or are we talking about in the future um making that happen in August going forward the October 1st it would be starting on October 1 so that's the motion so the 2% and the 4% would occur at the same time correct so does that mean that future councils would discuss whether they're going to do both or just one meaning both the 4% and the 2% or maybe they'd say like okay well this this Charter officer is only going to get the 4% is that going to be something that could come up for a discussion because it it could we can't do anything about what future councils do that we can't shackle future councils with like Perpetual rules or ordinances that they can't change we can't do that well I understand but what I'm saying is I mean that sounds like a setup for kind of an awkward situation if we have it like like that as opposed to having a at actually at the evaluation time to do the raises that's just my concern that's what we're doing the evaluations take the evaluations cover basically the fiscal year okay so they're they're designed that way to align with the fiscal year they the reason we started doing I started doing this happened during my term as mayor the reason I started doing evaluations in in August was because this discussion came up one year and council member Donahue correctly brought up the fact that we're discussing raises and we haven't done performance evaluations and we're discussing raises it seems like we have the cart before the horse and um she was right in my opinion she was absolutely right and I said you know and I fairly knew as mayor I didn't realize okay so it's on me to try to figure out how to make this all work out so I started doing them in August so that they would be freshly done in preparation for this discussion to coincide with the August or the October 1 budget now we really need to make a decision tonight because there's people whose raises depend on on it but we can if if the council has better ideas about how to do this or want to do the evaluations differently or do I mean I'm I'm not King I mean I don't i' be happy to got James first um I'm almost done so well can I finish my thought yes so I I I don't think we should do something different I think with that context it makes sense that's all okay so thinking about what you said um if we do this tonight if this motion passes do we have to do this again next September yes so we' have to keep doing it this way so can uh do we could we have a third motion after this that sets that in stone until a future Council decides to change it well let's dispose of this issue and then that sounds like that's kind of a separate but related issue is that fair enough fair enough well uh to to to to councilman chambers's point my experience as HR director for a decade and Tony can correct me if I'm wrong if we don't do this on a regular basis we set up a discriminatory uh policy between General employees and the charter employees and uh I personally don't understand why we don't do that for all the employees you know you get you have employees who are who are sens of essentially start at the beginning of the year making the same by the end of the year you've got a disparity going forward okay um they're they're no longer making the same amount of money um and and I and I understand we got evaluations and there's aniversary periods and stuff like that but after the first or second year the the the the fact that their anniversary dates later in the year is is becomes difficult to explain sometimes so um that's just that's a philosophical thing and I'm not sure I don't think that's something that Council should set but I would just uh uh whatever HR Administration wants to do with that just so that they think about the the disparity that it tends to create um I agree that we need to uh establish that if we're going to be discrimin if we're going to be SE separate from the general employees I think it needs to be a vote every year um to uh to clarify that because so that it's it uh we're recognizing that we're doing that and doing that on purpose although I do agree with it I think everybody should get you know you get a merit increase you get a merit increase if your if your annivers if you start at the end of the year you miss out a whole year of potential uh increases do the do the evaluations at one time or split in half um to so it doesn't kill the managers and getting those done because some of the Departments are pretty big but some are pretty small so it's uh okay so if we can I'd like to dispose of the motion that's on the table now vot it up or down and then as far as the policy towards the general employees they don't work directly for us so I would suggest you take that issue offline to Mr be and Mr nerio and that's why I said you know it's it's really not our purview but it's something to think about yeah it is and so um the three Charter officers worked directly for us and they're under contract so the it's a different situation we have to do this every year there's no automatic escalator clause in their contract nor do I think there should be because let's face it you know I mean we haven't always been happy with the performance so um I don't think it's fair to put an automatic escalator we don't have that for our other employees other than the unions I don't think he's trying to do that I think it's just a better okay yeah okay so the motion is to give them the 6% on October 1st correct all those in favor say I I oppos no n motion passes now you had another it right so I move that we establish a schedule to evaluate the three Charter officers in August of every year uh and with successful well and give any raises that we discuss on o effect of October 1st of that year with the new budget year and that's all you know we don't know what the raises would be if any raises but establish a a timeline that we do this every August with evaluations and awarded October one can I respectfully ask you to postpone this um I I I let me tell you why um I'd like to have the opportunity to give this a little more thought it's the the form of whether we should incorporate this into the council rules as opposed to just a standalone motion made at a meeting I'm not opposed to the idea but I've also um truthfully am currently looking for a better evaluation system for the three Charters I've been talking to other mayors other cities and FLC and the county and other people cuz I'm truthfully I'm not real convinced that our current evaluation tool is the best I withdraw my motion um well thank you um I I will if it's your desire I will come back to you with a report or some suggestions about what we might be able to do that might be better um I I as I said I'm not real convinced that what we're doing is really but I don't have the answer yet in some of the cities that I've looked at what they're doing is worse than what we're doing it's just not it's not good at all so um there are some things out there with icma and um what's the other one um yeah yeah there are some things out there that core competencies most of them are involved with with the city manager I'm still having some troubles with the clerk and the attorney but is that okay with you if I come back with you you it is because if we don't do that tonight we still have to do something next year one way or the other so well as long as I'm still the mayor next year we'll do it in August whether whether we make a motion or not but um so the current plan then is goes back to the original motion which is the 6% October 1st correct okay yeah those we made we settled that with motion all right just make sure okay good okay any other carryover Council business I I have a question for the city manager but I could do it I could ask you when you're doing your city manager report or I could do it whichever you prefer okay so um I'd like to know if we can have a more robust calendar on our website with as many City activities as we can put on there and that they are that the links would be maybe live to whatever we have with you know whatever backup information we might have on it that if they clicked on the Fire Department open house on that on the calendar it might bring up a flyer of the fire Department open house or would that be yeah yes um so we yeah we we can do that I just for clarification you're just talking about City controlled events yes okay that's fine we we can definitely do that yeah I just I know people I mean I I my thought is including like the different city meetings that would that would happen and then if you if you click on the meeting then it tells you where it is and what time no actually it's a great observation because uh Joel and his team they're working through the new website right now so we're we're actually in sort of a beta mode asking all the department directors to find things that need to improve on so that we'll add this to the list okay perfect and then um along that note uh do we have a date for the Fire Department open house and is Temple Terrace reads occurring in conjunction with that event or are they separate ask the fire chief to come up I know it's usually pretty early in October um I can look at my calendar real quick we do have a date and we are not teaming up with um Temple terce reads this year okay yeah but it isn't October um I want to say it's the first weekend but I'll double check okay we can provide that to you in your Council update this week okay that was it any other carryover Council business okay new business and board reports any new business board reports I have one quick quick thing for you the discussion of the merged TPO Transportation Planning organization continues um we have a meeting Friday um as as you know from the past I'm one of the three members of the Hillsboro TPO who have been designated um as I don't know negotiators are not probably the right word but I guess that's the best word that describes it so we meet periodically with the pelis and we all meet to discuss um certain issues related to the proposed merger this one this meeting on Friday is of particular interest to us because it is to discuss the role of the small cities and the proposed merger and so I um I asked the Hillsboro TPO to approach it a certain way to give us a little latitude in the discussion and they did um because particularly pelis this is really kind of a bigger issue for penis than it is it's important to us too but it's a thorny problem in pelis because they have what 25 cities or whatever they have and so um the Hillsboro tpo's position that they have sent the three of us in to present on Friday is that um out of the apportionment if we do it by population Hillsboro County would get 11 seats out of the 25 we want just to be left to make our own decisions about how to fill those 11 seats and then Hillsboro would decide how to do that we think there would probably be ample room for Temple Terrace in Plant City to retain their seats and continue to be on the TPO even if it merged um and then let penelas figure out what they want to do and pass go figure out what they want to do so um that's what we'll be presenting to them on Friday so just to give you a heads up on that um that's it any other new business or board reports okay Mr be thank you Mr Mayor members of council um for a couple of things I wanted to uh Echo the comments that were made by the council about the budgeting process um it it's I sound like a nerd when I say this but it actually was pretty exciting uh it was it was a great process when you have good people working with you I think it makes everything go really well we had a lot of creativity and that's largely due to all the department directors sitting here in the room I particularly want to recognize uh Mr Ingram and and Miss Newman uh because they they drove the ship um and we couldn't have done it without that that that great cooperation collaboration so thank you very much for for them and all the department directors um I also wanted to uh thank the Council on my on my behalf as well as I'm sure the other Charter officers uh for your consideration this evening with the the raises and the evaluations thank you for your continued support uh to for us and for the work that we're trying to do here and accomplish I think we're all trying to get this organization to be as as the mayor said you know it's good it's getting better and living up to the motto of being an amazing city so we appreciate that thank you and then the final thing I have this evening I'd like to invite Carl up uh Mr langfeld to talk about our Senior Expo on Friday even evening mayor MERS of city council Carl langfield Leisure Services director uh this Friday at the Omar K light foot Recreation Center uh we will be holding our 35th annual Senior Expo it will be taking place from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and the presenting sponsor is the family Hearing Center I will be hosting uh the 35 Plus vendors uh everything from Medical Services Insurance uh legal services county and city services and pretty much any other uh service that could be geared towards senior needs um so come join us the multi-purpose room uh for presentations explaining their products and services uh additionally they will have screening such as hearing tests that will be offered during the event um also Florida gulf course Alzheimer's Association will be bringing out their brain bus where they also do uh evaluations uh again this is the title sponsor of the Florida the family Hearing Center also sponsored by uh glidewell advisers the Spinx Law Firm CLA Meda Primary Care Aston health and MC Ice uh so we hope to see all of you this Friday at the Omar Lightfoot Center between 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. for the annual Senior Expo thank you lanfield and just I will be in penis County talking about the proposed TPO murder so hopefully somebody uh some other some of my colleagues can make it but I won't be able to be there yes um I I wanted to say too uh the Senior Expo is not just for seniors uh it is for uh everybody don't don't laugh at because I qualify now but uh when my parents were aging I went not only as a Rec Center there but I went there as a a person to find out what's out there for senior citizens and it's a very good tool if you've got elderly uh parents coming up and and stuff so it's not just for seniors to go there there's a lot of information just to clarify I was going as the mayor not as a senior okay Mr VI that's all I have that's all you have good just City attorney Mr shes report thank you um I have some uh lean reductions uh that were settled um uh the first one uh involved 13105 North 52nd Street this was an unscreened RV um the property owner then died the uh property then went into foreclosure which took quite some time during the Foreclosure uh no one actually had legal responsibility so the RV stayed there and the lean amount Rose to 9800 $ unfortunately when you have a foreclosure um because the mortgage occurred before our leans attached we end up being foreclosed out of our leans so to speak and so we generally can't uh collect anything however um our city costs were $250 and the new owner who was the one who foreclosed on his mortgage um he uh is paying those City costs of $250 that applied to the RV that was from the prior owner so it was not the RV was not his fault but the property is now his there was a second case that involved a um tree removal without a permit um that ended up being a $4,000 lean and uh our city costs were $250 and the current owner is also paying the $250 so uh from that we at least got our city costs paid and the r new owner also the tree case is that a new owner also the the tree case was the prior one who passed away oh so oh same property yeah same property um same owners um but now it's in the hands of the person who had given the mortgage um we did I did have a second one um this involved 418 d Circle uh this was also an an unscreened RV on residential property in that particular case um it was a couple living there the husband passed away in 2021 it took time for um the elderly property owner to uh sell the RV and get that off the property the city's costs were $250 the lean was $5,850 and um the property owner it um we settled that for $500 so we got $250 cost back plus $250 um so that's been paid um we um we've been involved in um two lawsuits concerning a case that started as a code case um that involved the clear cutting of of over 20 trees on an undeveloped lot this went in front of the code enforcement board uh who found the property owners involved violation and imposed a hefty fine which turned into a lar a rather large lean the property owners uh sued the city in federal court alleging that the city had no right to prosecute them for what they did under uh the the tree cutting the State's tree cutting statute um that we've now settled um we've now settled that lawsuit and uh the property owners will be paying the city $8,000 under the agreement so that one's done that's it questions council member schisler yeah thank you Mr Shan I was skeptical of the settlement pro pro process that you guys wanted to do but uh you took a big a very uh difficult job over and have done remarkable with it and thank you because a lot of that was really agonizing to go through some of those and uh with the uh side not as some of the C the code cases that you've taken to the county court that's been successful also in getting these things rectified I have to say that um that our my Deputy City attorney Ernie Mueller handles a great deal of this so good other questions but I'd also like to give kudos to our code board I know that they've they uh have wrestled for for a long time with some of these cases and and they do a a really good job for us and that that is uh we have a couple of Quasi judicial boards but I don't think any of them have as many cases on a regular basis as the code board and so um we really want to thank our uh our code board members and volunteers who do that so anything else that's it Council anything other business to come before the council tonight directors we're all good yes fire chief c m fire I apologize I said a wrong date it's October 19th is when octob when our uh open house is and everybody's invited especially our seniors so like to see everybody there oh was a relatively pointed comment oh very good thank you Chief we'll be adjourned going to miss this one yeah for