##VIDEO ID:NYJKOcdOeRo## e e e [Music] [Music] hey hey [Music] kind of an exciting evening Bittersweet um but it is nice to see everybody here Welcome to our friends from the Planning Commission um so if you would please remember to silence your electronic devices and please stand and join me in the invocation and the pledge Lord as we begin our meeting tonight we are reminded of all we have to be thankful for help us to always remember that you are the source of all that is good and to be thankful for our many blessings we thank you for the service of Meredith Abel for the past four years and ask you to bless her in her future endeavors we also ask your blessings upon our newest council member Eric Kravitz Grant him patience and wisdom as he embarks on a new chapter of public service we pray especially tonight for the family of Lieutenant Dave Burton and the members of our fire department family as they struggle through this difficult time Grant them the Comfort only you can provide and may they feel the love and support of their Temple terce family as they grieve his loss amen ALG to the flag of the United States of America and to theu stand one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right we do have a uh exciting evening plan with some outgoing council members or vice mayor and incoming swearing in ceremony but we do have a couple of items uh of business to do uh fairly quickly it shouldn't take too long but we we don't like to hold up work that City needs to get done so our first uh item of business is we have a presentation of awards we have our friends from the Planning Commission uh the executive director Melissa zorita is here you forgot the fact oh I'm sorry sorry I am completely untrainable because I do that about every other council meeting and we've been doing this for a year or more now so we do have a fairly new tradition here where we begin our meetings with a fun or interesting fact about the city of Temple Terrace or the region um we started doing that um council member Fernandez had that idea when she came into office it's a terrific idea it's been a lot of funs getting harder to do though as time goes on and so tonight uh that will be presented by council member Chambers thank you mayor appreciate it uh tonight I'm going to just uh give you a list of the female elected officials the city's had over the years and uh the first one really wasn't elected it was ma Fowler when the city was incorporated uh she was appointed vice mayor in 1925 um then the records are kind of tough I want to thank the clerk's office for doing a lot of This research and trying to find it a lot of the old records had council members they were called Commissioners in the early days all they had was a first initial and a last name so unless you do a lot of digging which I really didn't want to do uh we didn't know anything until 1960s so the first one listed was in uh was Audrey Turner 1974 Nancy sver also in 1974 in 1994 Fran barford and of course uh later on in 80 in '98 uh Miss barford becomes mayor of our city in 1996 it was Joe Jeter uh in 2002 Linda Shadows 2008 Mary Jane Neil and again I'm just giving you the first time they were elected some served only four years some uh two terms uh and in 2008 and again in 2022 Allison Fernandez as I can tell the only three you know three years three times 2014 Sher Donahue 2017 mayor Mel herado and in 2020 council member vice mayor Meredith Abel and uh to show you uh outgoing uh vice mayor uh Abel's uh work performance I've got a quick video watch that oh so uh her her credentials in karate she's a third degree black Bel in karate and competes all over the uh I guess United States I know the southeast so uh I appreciate her help uh with security up here on the D all these so thank you very much that's my fun fact than you that was good thank you council member really kind of underrepresented I'm hoping that all those decades that we only have first initials there were some women also I would hope to so yeah interesting now we will introduce our friends uh the executive director of the Tampa Hillsboro Planning Commission Melissa zorita and our friend yica Mills are both here to uh we've got these Awards recently but we wanted to bring them here for everybody in the city to see too so welcome thanks for being here well thank you for having us um Melissa Zorn exective director of the Planning Commission and Y Mills your Temple Terrace leison um so the city of Temple Terrace received two awards at our recent planning and Design Awards at the end of October um the first one was related to the Temple Terrace pedestrian master plan and that received an award in the category of Redevelopment and planning uh it uh recognized that The Pedestrian master plan creates a vibrant walkable space that enhances quality of life through improved outdoor areas recreational spaces and a sense of place the Temple Terrace pedestrian master plan is a thoughtful comprehensive approach to redeveloping this area of the CRA and fosters a stronger Community identity while prioritizing sustainability and accessibility we have judges from outside of Hillsboro County help us with these Awards and they praise the Project's potential to connect the community Through Redevelopment calling it a model for future projects so congratulations to the city for that one and then turn the page here the uh next award was uh presented by the chair of the Planning Commission Nigel Joseph he gets to select an award every year and his award went to the regional canine Memorial that sits outside of t uh Temple Terrace City Hall um and that Memorial was made possible through a partnership between the city of Temple Terrace and the n M nights Westside motorcycle club with the goal of creating a space for the community and law enforcement to come together to honor those Brave canine officers the Serene beautifully landscaped environment invites in visitors to reflect in a place of quiet contemplation and Remembrance it is not only a lasting symbol of gratitude but also a source of Solace for the handlers and the families ensuring that the legacy of those courageous canine officers is preserved generations to come so congratulations to the city of Temple Terrace on the Chairman's award for the regional law enforcement cani memorial as well thank you so I would like to note that the uh pedestrian master plan was originally an idea of the vice Mayors I believe so that's worth noting perfect time to do this [Applause] one two three thank you [Applause] okay council members has everybody had an opportunity to review the minutes from our November 19th meeting and if so is there a motion so Mo second is there any discussion or correction to the minutes not all those in favor say 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 is a three-minute time limit imposed on all comments from the public uh we ask that speakers come to the podium and state your name and city of residents uh we like to assure the public that during public comment uh your concerns are noted and staff does follow up on these uh and provides a quarterly report to the Council of the outcome of your concerns so there are forms in the back of the room I currently have one request to speak from Mr lobe uh Mr lobe good evening my name is Charles Lo from Terrace Park and I do want to talk about a couple of subjects tonight first of all I want to wish everybody a happy holiday and to keep warm and congratulations to the councilman elect congratulations to the vice mayor on her future endeavors and congratulations to the mayor for his being having a new term the first topic I want to talk to about tonight is the library sale uh the library sale did do pretty pretty well under the circumstances first of all it was a little bit cold a little warmer than it is now uh plus the fact didn't have this biggest election which wasn't just my opinion but also the opinion of one of the people that worked it anyway the thing is that it didn't that $200 and I do think the publicity helped it the other thing I wanted to talk about tonight at least under under this topic is uh about uh um uh a meeting that they're going to have Thursday night uh at the uh Glazer Jewish Community Center it has to do with uh future planning for hurricanes uh it's being organized by both the Tampa Bay Times and by too uh but they do want you to have tickets the parking both the parking and the mission is free but you got to get your tickets online anyway there are people that are going to get together who are going to talk like the head of the county according to my notes Here of the department head of the county on who does the planning and dealing with emergency uh emergencies uh there will also be someone from the regional planning Council and representatives to both uh too and Duke so if anybody is interested uh I do want to know it's going to be it's going to be at the glacier Center at 520 522 North Howard Avenue the doors will open at 5: and it'll be 600 to 7:30 in questions and there will be an audience and who can question now uh I was not too happy about that when I saw that for a couple reasons number one I thought the uh Fe Tampa Bay people should be there also but more importantly I thought that should have been dealt regionally like to all the regional community centers after all we were all in this together and will all be in this together and therefore it should go around and they should do meetings like this within light foot and other community centers within various neighborhoods I did call the Tampa Bay Times and did leave send my message about that because they are one of the sponsors and I did and if anybody does want to go I do want to let them know because it's just the day after tomorrow and um thank you I guess that's about it for now I do want to talk on a day so what I put on there thank you Mr Lu next item on the agenda is the second public Hearing in second reading of ordinance 1576 to adopt the 5-year Capital Improvement schedule of projects for fiscal year 2425 through fiscal year 2829 and incorporating 10-year long-term improvements for multimodal transportation district for fiscal year 2425 through 233 3334 uh into the schedule of projects I will open the public hearing and Erica Larson from the Planning Commission staff is here to explain good evening good evening this is Erica Larson Planning Commission staff this item is the planning commission's review of the city of Temple Terrace Capital Improvement section CIS schedule of projects update this is an action item chapter 163 requires that the schedule of projects or the list of projects addressing level of service and adopted in the comprehensive plan be updated on an annual basis the update would replace the existing CIS schedule in the comprehensive plan with the schedule listed in your packets Planning Commission staff identified projects in the CIS that affect the level of service these items make up the schedule projects per the comprehensive plan the list of 10-year Transportation projects is incorporated as part of the schedule of projects for these portions that were City projects within the first 5 years and specifically affected level of service those were included in the report analysis and Analysis uh in this presentation and sorry I forgot to hit the next slide know thank you okay uh there is a requirement for basa management action plan bmat projects to be included however per Temple terce staff there are no active Bap projects that meet this requirement the update is accomplished by ordance which is explicitly permitted under chapter 163 this is a routine annual update that that we come before you each year with this information to support the ordinance Additionally the plans of other agencies are Incorporated displayed is a summary of the CIS projects which are placed into six program areas the total funding amount for fiscal year 25 through fiscal year 29 is 50.4 five million for7 projects this next slide shows a breakdown of the of service project types identified in terms of level of service priorities outlined in capital Improvement section objective 1.1 a total of 77% of the projects address replacement of facilities and elimination of deficiencies staff also analyzed the CIS schedule with with respect to the funding sources requirements and the comprehensive plan uh Capital Improvements policy 1.5.5 states that general fund should not be used for those facilities with dedicated Revenue sources such as portable water waste water and solid waste after review of the general fund expenditures staff found that none of these types of projects relied on General funds uh Capital Improvement policy 1.5.10 and 1.51 state that all projects within the first 3 years of the city CIS be funded with committed uh Revenue sources these include advalorium taxes gas taxes and user charges staff reviewed the funding sources and timing and found that the CIS schedule of funding was in accordance with these requirements on November 18th Planning Commission found the city's fiscal year 25 through fiscal year 29 CIS schedule projects consistent with the goals objectives and policies of the Temple Terrace comprehensive plan and recommends adoption by ordinance this concludes my presentation I'm available for any questions thank you thank you m lson are the members of the public that wish to comment on this item Mr lobe uh Charles Lo again uh St Terrace Park and there are a few comments I want to make about it I was talking to the mayor after the meeting and he said there was a list of 307 projects and exactly zero of them had to do with public transit despite the fact that hard is in the um uh hard is in the is in the motion here in the ordinance um I was thinking maybe especially with the new councilman and certain changes and with hurricane season over all that maybe it's about time you should be thinking about Transit projects and should be within the master plan there's going to be certain changes within the future within this area by the time this period is over among those changes will be the stadium being open uh the fer Avenue Vision study with Moshi um uh going uh in that area West going along fallor Avenue with develop potential development on it according to fer Avenue Vision plan and also the possibility and hopeful that the bride line will be open and toward the idea of a Suburban Station over there uh I do remember when I was going downtown and all that uh that they were talking about a bus going down 56 Street and let's say there was a going to Brandon a premium Transit bus uh but nonetheless that uh if the state if there was a Suburban Station open that would make a double thing so people could get uh over to over to and from the rail rather than having to go downtown however the city's most immedate concern though would be the uh five months from today I would guess if not sooner for your events coming up for the Centennial year uh May 3rd is only 5 months from today and I was thinking in terms of Transit project like an idea I was throwing out uh to deal with sun Sunshine the sunshine bus network uh to try to pick up people who are shuttin for your May 3rd event and at the same maybe see if you could possibly work a deal with them and try to test this out test this out over the water because they won't have they won't have the buses running on the weekend not normally so the buses will be available and the drivers will be available and it would be possible to do that hopefully the goal would be to get more people to come to your major event for next year and at the same time have less traffic and parking problems than you would have rather than the other way around that you might have if you don't try to put uh a service along that line for for the public here in this community you also could uh put uh designated points for pickup such as City Hall the outside parking lot over so I do I do hope and with the new councilman that you all will start be thinking about your Transit a little bit on this I hope lady from the Planning Commission will also think so about it too for this area and I thank you and good evening are there other members of the public who wish to comment on this item council member questions I have a comment not a question um well are there any questions if not then council member Fernandez my only comment is just for the public that it seems like it might be difficult to be to stay true to a capital plan with this long of a duration timeline and I just I just want you all to know that this is a plan but we are able to adapt to changes if we need to do a project sooner or if we if a project is no longer necessary it'll roll off so it's an adaptable plan so I just want to make that clear good thank you all right if there are no other questions I'll close the public hearing and ask the clerk to read the title of the ordinance an ordinance of the city of Temple terce Florida providing for the annual modification and updates to the capital Improvement section the 2040 comprehensive plan for the city of Temple terce pursuant to chapter 163 Florida Statutes by modifying and updating the 5-year Capital Improvement schedule of projects for fiscal year 2024 through 2025 through fiscal year 2028 through 2029 in incorporating the 10-year long-term improvements for the multimodal transportation district district for the 2025 through 2034 into the schedule of projects which incorporates by reference per the comprehensive plan cap policy 1.5.3 Hillsboro County Metropolitan planning organizations Transportation Improvement program Hillsboro Area Regional Transit Hearts trans Transit development plan and Hillsboro County Public Schools facilities work program providing severability and effective date and repealing all ordinances of parts of ordinances in Conflict here with thank you madam is there a motion move to approval second reading ordinance 1576 to adopt the 5-year Capital Improvement schedule products projects for the fiscal years mentioned second motion a second discussion of the motion if not all those in favor say I I I opposed no Nays ordinance is adopted on second reading thank you is there any other is there any carryover Council business from previous meetings I just I have three items counc council member Fernandez I don't know if they're carry they're not necessarily carry over but they're Council okay um so one is we just recently had a walk with the mayor unfortunately I wasn't able to be there but um we've done several walk with the Mayors where we walked through the community and looked at some of the historic homes with some um information are those are we able to broadcast those on our channel for people that aren't you know the the community it's not able to be there are you referring to the actual discussion about the homes is that what you're like the Snippets something yeah some something about what I mean obviously you don't need to broadcast the whole part of the walking from house to house but it would be nice for us to be able to broadcast the information and yep we can do that in fact I think we had a historical tour from several years ago that are so actually have um High marketing communication officer uh we have audio while she talks so we can probably take that audio and put Stills over it for now cuz we didn't really take shots for a walk through but we do have the audio so we can probably put something together to put put out there okay it would just be nice to be I know we're looking for Content too um so and then I'd like to I would like to ask about the USF connectability because I obviously those of us who've had USF tickets for a long time we're very excited about a stadium going there and I know the school is as well and we are very we're in very close proximity to the stadium what what can we do who can we talk to to work with to help give us some cohesive connection to USF bicycling pedestrians golf cards I don't I don't know what the possibilities are but I think we all know Crossing Fowler is a little bit dangerous so I don't I am not obviously not asking for a resolution I'm just saying if no that's a good question so we've been in talks with USF already ever since the stadium was announced city manager and I have had meetings with USF um the they we have another one coming up next week or week Friday um so we've been in touch with them about um noise about the potential for the impacts on Pleasant Terrace people might Park and leaving the stadium and coming walking through the neighborhoods to get to their cars that are parked on the streets that kind of impact we're very concerned about the noise not so much for football games because there's only six or seven home games and they're all over pretty early but the other events and concerts will be at the stadium um so we have had talks with USF at all levels I've talked to members of the trustees I've talked to the president we've talked to staff I don't remember Carol post's exact title but she seems to be in charge of like facilities and um so we've been plugged into this the whole time we've also talked about the opportunity for Trails um and we've been talking to dot for four years at least about um do is going to put a 12T wide paved asphalt Trail along on the north side of Fowler Avenue all the way out from River Hills area I'm not sure exactly where it would stop all the way down past USF actually past the mall and all the way down to to 275 so that's coming um I don't know I'm trying to get them to do the trail before they do the work on Fowler yeah I don't know if they're going to do that or not one one day they say that they they could and then the next you know I don't know so we're trying to get that trail accelerated we've also talked to USF about the particularly The Pedestrian alignment of Pathways because if our Trail doesn't align with the brakes in their perimeter fence then people you know you you've got this awkward and so we've had talks with USF about that so it's a fluid conversation I mean I'd love to tell you the outcome but I don't really know it um but we have have been in dialogue with them we you you will probably see at some point we do have some time so this isn't um at some point we'll need to have some Council discussion um about some type of parking ordinance changes that would allow us to get handle on the parking situation in Pleasant Terrace before it became a problem instead of after but um it's a little early for that but at some point we'll probably have to have some of those conversations so I don't know if that's helpful or responsible okay no yes just mainly just to make sure that we're part of the conversation we we are part of the conversation and then my my last item has to do with the tree canopy I know we we have done a lot of analysis about the number of trees we've lost Etc and we are a tree City and I I don't want an answer right now but I would like to for us to be thinking about how we can replace some of the trees lost with planting in the responsible locations and the correct tree and how we can help with through our tree program the the residents who might want to be replacing cuz I I know that a good number of the trees that we lost also were in proximity to power lines which took the power lines down and maybe they weren't the right tree for that location um anyway I just as part of our tree program if we can maybe have some some method of residents being able to find out what's the best tree for that location in conjunction with Tampa Electric and make sure that we're not encouraging people to put the wrong tree in the wrong place yep so may um also just as a reminder too we the council appropriated uh money in this year's budget for a tree study a canopy study um so we were thinking about this over the summer already the council was so uh we work with Community Development uh they're the ones that are putting out this the RFQ for the study uh we'll also I'm I'm sure there's already a plan in terms of the best place to plant the tree and what kind of trees and let of over headlines so we'll get that communicated well and then I do this question has come up about undergrounding the line so that we don't have power loss when the trees do when the limbs do break and and break the lines but um I do know that it's exceptionally expensive yes so Tio has a program that they're doing a a small section I say small relative to their footprint per year they have funding from the state to to accomplish this I believe that if I remember correctly 52 2% of their Total distribution network is underground now uh they are working uh in number of different communities including Temple terrorists are working on projects to underground but it's they're not doing dramatic swats at a time they're doing small small neighborhood sections okay and that's it okay any other Council business okay then we will go into new business and board reports before we get to the recognition of is there any other new business or board reports to cover before we do the changing of the council member Chambers thank you mayor I would like uh Council to consider uh granting uh Christmas Eve day off for the employees we have done that in the past the last couple years the uh Christmas Eve day has been on a weekend so it didn't really matter but we've done that before I've already spoken with the city manager um The Proposal would be to do it like it's been done the last couple times we've done it employees get that day off if they have to work it'd be no overtime they would get another day off sometime during the year so it wouldn't be an impact to the budget um yeah I don't know if you want to add anything that's that's pretty much it so that's my proposal I want to do it usually we do it the second meeting in December but this way if we do it earlier people can plan and maybe get their airline tickets a little sooner just as a uh matter of protocol city manager any any unforeseen impacts that might occur no sir we've looked at this I did have a conversation with council member Chambers as he stated and uh we found that the policy if you will the administrative policy that that tied into the council's uh Direction a coup years ago uh made sense to us we don't see much of an impact and I'm sure the employees would appreciate it so council members I'm going to ask council member Chambers if he wants to craft that into a motion but is there discussion before I have him go through the trouble okay would you like to make a motion yes I move that we Grant the uh city employees Christmas Eve day off uh following the procedure that's already in place with the city motion a second discussion anybody going to vote against this all those in favor say I I opposed nobody dares right okay motion passes and thank you all again for everything you do for us and and uh I hope that you know how much we appreciate the work you do so okay any other new business or board reports if not we'll move right into um outgoing vice mayor Meredith Abel and so uh Meredith I don't know what to say I'm not good with this I'm a little better at welcoming new people on but it's not it's not uh it's been a real pleasure to work with you it's been an honor you have really come up with some ideas um several times that I remember in CRA meetings and Council meetings sometimes you'd sit there quietly and all of a sudden you come up with an idea and the rest of us go it just seemed like it was right there and yet you came up with the idea so um it's been an honor um you have shown great courage at times here um you have always done your homework you've come prepared you are well spoken you you just are very thoughtful in your approach and and you will really be missed so council members anything I second that g yes thank you very much you've been um uh breath of fresh air on some some of these items and it's been a very it's been an honor and a pleasure to work with you thank you anything I agree thank you okay anything you'd like to that's risky now she's going to be out of office in a couple minutes and well for one thing just kidding um it's hard to know what to say um it's kind of saying goodbye um but I'm sort of having flashbacks to my first well my first council meeting when I got sworn in sitting over there somewhere and I had this like shaky feeling in my belly I was so nervous and I was sitting up there thinking what have I done what have I gotten myself into but it's actually been a wonderful experience um it was awful often fun sometimes it was hard um but it was it was a wonderful experience it was a pleasure working with all of you um and um all of the staff members the community it was great to be able to help people and um I wouldn't have spent the last four years doing anything else I'm so happy that I did this um four years ago my daughter Zora um swore me in and um she's here on my way out too so thank you all it's been my pleasure to serve on the city council and um yeah that's it thank you let's give her a [Applause] hand so we do have some gifts for you we I think we're supposed to walk down there oh I love I so this one is a little scrap book that the city court made up with u here's pictures throughout the four years of different events and little notes in here from us from most of us um it's actually been about a week and a half since I looked through it so I don't know exactly what's in there anymore and then this one I have no idea what that is yeah you might want to have one two three thank you youte me for that don't you one two three one more thank you all right Eric Kravitz are you ready would you please approach the podium so Eric I think on behalf of everybody here we'd like to congratulate you on on your election we look forward to serving with you um it is a big task I don't think a lot of I think you probably have a pretty good idea but I don't know that the public really understands how difficult difficult the wrong word how challenging this job can be um we're not a sleepy little golf town like we used to be uh we're a fairly large not large because we think of Tampa next door but if you go to throughout the state um we're not a small City we're considered a mediumsized city so a lot of moving Parts here like as a city manager says he I never thought about it like this but he says it's like we're running 12 different businesses at the same time um which is very true because every one of these departments is kind of its own thing and we're running 12 of them at the same time he's running them but we're um on the board of 12 different companies so um welome uh it's very nice to have you I think you are being sworn in now by the city clerk and then you will come up here and have an opportunity to make your remarks I got to get out of the way I I Eric citizen of the State of Florida citizen of the State of Florida and to the United States of America and the United States of America and being employed by and being employed by and an officer of and an officer of Temple terce City of Temple Terrace and a recipient of and a recipient of public funds public funds as such employee and officer as such employee and officer to hereby solemnly swear to hereby solemnly swear that I will support that I will support that I will support the Constitution the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the State of Florida and the State of Florida I further swear I further swear that I that I will in all respects that I will in all respects observe the provisions observe the provision of the charter of the charter and ordinances and ordinances of the city of ter of the city of Temple terce and Faithfully discharge and Faithfully discharge the office of the office of city council member city council member congratulations [Applause] council member here Kravitz you are recognized you have the floor Andy uh no one told me I was supposed to give a speech so I don't have anything prepared but uh I'm just very grateful to see so many people and so many friendly faces here um many of whom I met when I was campaigning and I'm really grateful that you took time out of your day to come out and have a look at this and uh I hope it's uh worth your time and I hope it was all worth the effort and I'll do my very best for you and for everyone and I also want to thank everyone up here for uh giving me a chance three years ago most of you voted for me to be on different committees and uh I certainly appreciate that because if you hadn't done that probably wouldn't have gone down this path and so if it goes wrong you have no one to blame but yourselves so uh and of course me and if anyone wants to hold me to account my campaign website is still up so just go and look at it and you can see if I'm doing what I'm telling you I'm doing or I'm not doing that so happy to be accountable to all of you and I'm always available I'm always available to speak to many of you uh have my email and my personal cell phone and you can reach me anytime and that's never never been different than it is now and I hope you don't see me differently now I'm the same person so thank you very much thank you very much council member welcome aboard so now I'd like to introduce some uh very special people special guests uh who were kind enough to be with us tonight and and uh sit through this um please approach the podium this is uh yeah this is this is my wife Meg most of you know her um and this is my older daughter Becca and my younger daughter Delaney and uh they are going to swear me in so all right I'll be back different from the swearing at [Laughter] so I've done this a few times good this work for you Jo it's perfect okay ready I'm ready I state your name I Andrew Ross a citizen of the State of Florida a citizen of the State of Florida and of the United States of America and of the United States of America America and being employed by or an officer of and being employed by or an officer of the city of Temple terce Florida the city of Temple terce Florida and a recipient of public funds and a recipient of public funds as such employee or officer as such employee or officer do hereby solemnly swear or affirm do hereby solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and of the State of Florida and of the State of Florida I further swear airm I further swear or affirm that I will in all respect that I will in all respect observe the provisions of the charter and ordinances observe the provisions of the charter and ordinances of the city of Temple Terrace Florida of the city of Temple Terrace Florida and Faithfully discharge the duties and Faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Mayor of the office of Mayor congrats thank you [Applause] welcome back I look older now second term so I I don't want to start thanking individual people because I'd be here I don't I mean i' I'd be here all night so um there are some groups of people that I'd like to thank though first of all I'd like to thank the people of Temple Terrace for putting their trust in me uh I'd like to assure you that I don't take that trust lightly I feel the heavy weight of that trust every day um and I will do the best that I can to live up to your expectations uh I'd like to thank my colleagues on the deis um you guys really make this as easy as can be I mean you're the best counsil in the State of Florida I've said that all the time and I mean it so thank you the three Charter officers um thank you for putting up with me and uh making my job much easier the employees guys you know I've heard it said sometime I don't remember who said this but they said you know if you're not serving a customer you should be serving somebody who is and so that's truly how I feel about you um we we don't make and sell widgets here we're a government we we provide service we don't sell things the service provision takes place with you and your teams right we don't do that I don't do Finance I don't do c You' be happy with that um code enforcement police fire all those things the service Provisions or you guys and so I think I hope it's clear to you that all of us up here realize what you do and those touch points for our residents are you and your staff so thank you for that uh it's really easy to be mayor of a city where you have great employees because I mean I get complaints once in a while but it's nothing I mean it's minimal and then lastly I'd like to thank my family uh particularly my wife who has to put up with me and uh she doesn't make me go get a real job and make a living so that's good too um so I don't have to go earning any money which is really good so uh thank you uh she puts up with the frustrations and the you know the nasty emails that I get and the reaction and she gets to hear all that so uh thanks for putting up with that thanks for um supporting me so I can do this and and uh so anyway I do want to say that um for those of you who follow what's going on in the city I I know most people don't and I don't blame you but um we have accomplished more and you know this we have accomplished more in the past three or four years than I don't know how many years before um we are moving forward in this team uh we are getting better every day we are streamlining processes we are finding efficiencies in our budget to squeeze more out of a dollar we are um increasing our pay and benefits to attract the best talent anywhere some of these are folks that we've recruited in from other places our attrition rate here among our employees is almost zero now um people don't leave to go to other governments the fact we're hiring people away from other governments to come to work here we are on a path uh last end of last year beginning of this year we partnered with USF and we underwent a strategic planning process in the spring when we had our annual goal setting meeting we set forth annual goals that reflected those strategic priorities that came out of that process when we entered into the budget um cycle over the summer our funding priorities reflected the project priorities which went back to the Strategic priori next year we will further that agenda so we're not we're not just aimlessly coming to work every day and wondering what we're going to do uh we're on a path and we know what this path is we know what we want to look like in 6 months and a year and two years from now um and we're on a road of constant Improvement uh and as I like to say we're we're good and we're getting better all the time and and uh I truly believe that and I can I can support that with data I can show you that the uh the three Charter officers our directors our leadership team uh and this Council has done a tremendous job uh we're doing things with purpose um deliberation intentionality we don't just whack a mole um it's going to take a while there's a lot of ordinances to go through there's a lot of processes that still need to be streamlined there's a lot of land use things in in Community Development that's not an easy task um but this Council has remained focused on our strategic priorities I hope that we continue that Focus because I think we're on a very good path uh and I will tell you that when I no I don't want to say in 2016 the city still had um about $23 million of debt that it started at about 30 million and we were down to about $23 million in 2016 we had less than a million dollar in the bank and today we have a little over $10 million remaining of debt and that's been restructured to 2% fixed our CRA the downtown Redevelopment area is making tax revenue for the first time ever this year so we are not we're making Revenue instead of just paying debt um we are seeing dividends from that we now have I don't know what the latest number is after the hurricane but I think we're up in the 40s millions of dollars in reserves um remember we had less than a million dollars in reserves 8 years ago and in the past eight years we've lowered your property taxes twice so I'm very proud of what this city has been able to accomplish that I'm not talking about my accomplishments I'm talking about City management I'm talking about the charter officers I'm talking about the council members so we're on a good course there's plenty of work left to be done and I look forward um for the next four years of getting some of those things done so so thank you all uh and let's get to work C man thank you Mr Mayor congratulations um I just have one item I'd like to ask Mr langfeld to come up he'd like to uh talk to you and the community about several Leisure Service events happening over the next few weeks good evening Mr langfield good evening mayor members of city council uh Carl langfield Leisure Services director uh this weekend is a big weekend in the city and I just want to take an opportunity to update all of you and everybody in the audience and listening out there in TV Land on the things that are going on in the city over this weekend starting on Friday evening uh there will be the annual Angel of Hope Candlelight vigil at Riverside Park uh that will be from 6:30 p.m. till 7:30 p.m. uh for those of you who may not know the Angel of Hope Memorial is a very special monument and Memorial in the city that the city is very blessed to have it is a uh is very somber Place uh for reflection for parents who have lost children um due to accidents illness or other uh circumstances that's a very special event and it takes place at Angel monuments throughout the country on December 6 at 6:30 every year um so the city is very blessed to have that monument that event occurring this week on Saturday we'll start in the morning um the Hillsboro County Sheriff's Office ultimate run which used to be called The Ranch run will be held it will be based out of the Temple Terrace Elementary School and it'll be taking place from about 6:00 in the morning and be wrapped up by noon uh so those of you out and about on the roads Please be aware that there will be lots of Runners uh out on the streets early on Saturday morning uh moving on from there at the at Woodmont Park in the Woodmont Clubhouse from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. is the selfies with Santa event put on by the gfwc junior Women's Club uh 12:00 p.m. to 2 p.m. and that is a free event to the public so please go out have your picture taken with Santa uh at 10:00 a.m. at the family complex the Florida state senior game Swimming events will start um events will take place there throughout the day from 10:00 a.m. until about 3:00 p.m. and those events will take place on Sunday again this is the family complex is third year of hosting the Flor State senior game Swimming events uh we're very glad to have them back uh at 5:00 p.m. that evening uh staging for the Lighty golf parade uh golf cart parade starts and that will be at the family complex so staging at 5:00 p.m. uh the mandatory drivers meeting at 5:45 p.m. and then the parade at starting from the family complex at 6: p.m. Winter Wonderland at the Woodmont Park and on the first Fairway of the golf course takes place on Saturday night from 5:30 p.m. till 8:30 p.m. please come out enjoy a wide variet iety of activities this is free to the public the holiday tree lighting will take place at 700 p.m. so a wide variety of activities going on throughout the city this weekend everybody should come out and enjoy and and come participate and see what we've got going on have any questions I'm questions council members good thank you Mr langfield C manager City attorney I I don't have anything to report but I wanted to say for myself and take the liberty of speaking for my Deputy City attorney Ernest Mueller that we look forward to working with you mayor Ross in your second term it it's been a pleasure throughout these last four years and before that as council person and look forward to working with uh council member Kravitz as well and hoping to have a similar experience thank you now you're too kind cuz you and I both know it hasn't always been a place pleasure but thank you very much for your kind words thank you okay anything else to come before the council there is a reception in the lobby and everybody here is welcome to hang around and uh welcome our new council member uh really a special night for you I've done this before but it's a it's a very special night for Eric so thank you for being here and we will be adjourned [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]